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Mystic Software - Hosted Sites => Dark Age Games => Topic started by: Xorlak on March 21, 2004, 10:53:54 AM
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(Note: Not all posts are expected to be this long; this is just an intro... heh. If you want to join, post on the sign up topic.)
Silence. Dead silence.
The soldiers stared at the large wooden gate in front of them. Really, it was a poor defense. It was rotting and nearly off of its hinges. Much the same for the rest of the old stone wall that surrounded the town. If only they had more time?
Seeing that it was clearly a waste of time to defend such a wall, Iduran and his troops would meet them just as they came over it. The town was likely to be severely damaged, but the people themselves, crammed into the much sturdier castle would at least be safe.
Iduran glanced back at the castle far behind. The huge door was open-- just slightly. In case the troops could not repel the invaders, they were ordered to retreat back into the castle. Iduran knew this was dangerous, since the invaders could take advantage of the slow shutting door, but he knew better than to question the orders of the benevolent king.
The last rays of the setting sun disappeared and dusk began to fade into darkness. In the light of the touches that lined the streets, the soldiers leaned on their spears.
The only break in the silence was the monotonous crackling of the torches. Iduran thought he could hear the sea behind him. That and? something else? something repetitive? slowly growing louder and louder? like a stampede, only well ordered?
?It?s THEM!!!!? an archer exclaimed, standing on the wall. ?Dear god! They moved in without any light! I couldn?t even see them!?
?Get down from there!? Iduran barked. If he had enough archers, he would position them on the wall. But with only a dozen, they would quickly be overrun. It was best to position them on the two buildings on each side of the gate where the invaders would inevitably break through.
Iduran did not have to give the order for the men to prepare themselves, but he did anyway. A monotonous sound of scraping metal was heard as hundreds of swords were unsheathed at once. In response, a similar sound was heard on the other side of the wall.
Two of Iduran?s three personal guards, huge men in full armor, removed their huge broadswords from their backs and stepped in front of the aging knight, as if to protect him. They were ready to die for their mentor. Iduran would have none of it. Moving in-between, he pushed them aside slightly and stood even with them.
?Don?t insult me.?
Nick and Alfred bit their tongue. The old knight was a tough one, but it had been 10 years since his last real battle. Santos, the third guard, approached from behind.
?Sir, I don?t think--?
?I said SHUT UP!?
From the other side of the wall, someone began yelling, although the words were unclear. An officer, no doubt. Suddenly, the gate quaked with a huge SMASH. It was a battering ram.
Iduran drew his blade. It was a little smaller and thinner than his guards? but much more beautifully decorated. It almost seemed to glow in the light of the torches.
In just the second strike the door collapsed, revealing the somewhat grotesque skull of a dragon that was stuck on the end of the ram. Clever.
Suddenly, soldier upon soldier rushed though the opening like madmen. Their armor was pitch black, and they brandished long thin swords. The archers unleashed their fury, but the result largely ineffective, saving a few lucky shots on some of the invaders? necks, the only poorly armored area. Iduran and his forces met them aggressively. They were well matched, but the Rommes outnumbered this first wave and the invaders were driven back slightly.
But after only a brief pause, more dark warriors poured though the opening. This time they were ordered in two single file lines, one following each edge of the door. In between the two lines, a menacing figure appeared, walking rather calmly. His cape flickered in the cool night breeze?
After passing the doorway, Draven calmly looked up at the night sky. His face wore a sinister smile.
?I say, it?s a little chilly tonight...? he remarked, casually. This pompous remark of course could not be heard among the din of battle.
One of the archers atop a building next to the busted door saw this excellent opportunity, and took aim for the madman?s head. He released and the arrow whirred though the air... but it stopped, suspended in mid air a few inches away from Draven?s temple. Draven, who had been pretending not to be paying any attention, looked at the arrow without moving his head.
?Tch! How rude...?
The arrow harmlessly fell to the ground. Draven extended his left palm, and angled it in the archer?s direction. An orb of red energy appeared before his hand. First the size of a baseball, it swelled to a foot in diameter. He winked at the archer, who at this sight clumsily dropped his bow. The other archers finally noticed what was happening. Only one was wise enough to jump off of the building. Like a cannon, the orb fired from Draven?s palm, the recoil pushing him back several inches, although his stance remained unchanged. The explosion from the inpact with the side of the building rocked the battlefield and lit up the night sky. Tiny fireballs flew in all directions, many igniting nearby buildings. When the smoke cleared, the entire second floor had been destroyed and three of the six archers were no where to be seen. Draven folded his arms and let out a billowing laugh.
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Scorch moved in shadows of the night. He expected to get to Romme castle by midnight, using the mountain path as a shortcut - and he found it under siege.
"Looks like my former kingdom made some progress after all." - he said to himself, standing on the hills overlooking Romme. And after a short demonic laugh, he casted haste spell on himself. The world seemed to move much slower now. As his senses and movements were enhanced, he began getting down from the hills, to meet dark legion face to face.
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Sigilus remained hidden in the shadows, watching as the battle unfolded. His fingers kept rubbing against his escrima sticks, which he took everwhere.
"Dammit! Why didn't my client tell me this Draven guy was so unreal?"
Sigilus stood up, and lunged at Draven from behind, Escrima Sticks at the ready. As Sigilus went to strike the back of Draven's head, Draven turned and grabbed Sigilus by the throat.
"Stupid boy. I thought after witnessing the archers' deaths, you would have known to stay back!"
Draven dropped Sigilus to the ground, and forged a sword out of Fire Energy. Sigilus watched in fear as Draven raised his sword.
As Draven began to strike, Sigilus came to his senses and rolled out of the way, unharmed, and performed a sweep kick in an attempt to get Draven to the ground. There was a loud cracking noise, and Sigilus's leg was broken. Admitting his defeat, Sigilus limped away, doing his best to dodge fireballs hurled by Draven.
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...as suddenly, perhaps for Sigilius' and defenders' advantage, a huge storm raged all across the battlefield.
"Could it be the traitor's returned?" - whispered commanders of Dark Empire, as they witnesses their own soldiers struck by thunders, heavily wounded, stunned, or dead. This was propably appreciated by defending city (altough the fire from sparks burned a few houses, too). An overall wave of confusion struck the fighting.
"Stop the panic! You're soldiers, after all! A minor storm is nothing!" - cries were heard, among the next, sudden wave of arrows - "We'll find the one responsible for this later!"
Proud of his work, Scorch returned back to the hills using the acceleration of his haste spell to watch. "Propably I'll have to contact Romme when this hell ends up for a while." - he said to himself.
///////////
As Sigilus went to strike the back of Draven's head, Draven turned and grabbed Sigilus by the throat.
Not controlling other characters, huh?
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Zeros',Qeni, and Zev were watching the battle from on top of te mountain. Qeni and Zev clenched to Zeros' leg. Zeros looked down at the two orphaned children, and sighed. He drew his two pistols and loaded air bullets (he carries a pouch full of elemental bullet, instead of using magic).
He aimed at the crowd of fighters. Qeni pledded "Pwease downt firwe!!," Zev silenced Qeni. "Don't worry Qeni, he wouldnt hurt them" Zeros' sighed. "Qeni, I would not kill them intentionally, this will break up the fight, and will not hurt anyone." He fired.
The bullet flew into the crowd and a miniture hurricane appeared, breaking up the army. "Now you two stay here" he ordered. He pried the two of his leg and put them in a cave beside him. He spread his wings and glided down to the now confused army. Draven looked at Zeros', Zeros' stared back. They circled each other. Draven created another fireball, then it turned into a sword and Zeros clasped his blade sword. Both army stood back and watched the two circle each other.
<span style='color:gray'><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>SWOOSH</span></span>
Both men did a suicide slash, Zeros' swords bandages could be heard and the wind howled. Both men went to there knees. Draven called back his army and they disappeared. Zeros' would not move. Qeni and Zev ran as fast as they could, crying, there voices could be heard throughout the country side, echoing throughout the mountains.
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//Oops...heh. Sorry, forgot about that rule. But if you look at how I controlled Draven, it should be overlooked, heh.//
After dragging himself away from the battlefield, Sigilus forced himself to a nearby stream. There, he began mending his injury, and forcing his leg back where it belongs. After recovering, Sigilus washed his uniform, and took a Wilde Lake Karate uniform out of his bag to serve it's purpose while the adidas uniform was drying.
Shortly after he put his uniform back on, one of the Dark Soldiers emerged out of nowhere, sword drawn. Sigilus spin-kicked him in the chest, killing him instantly. Upon the soldier's death, Sigilus noticed the strangest thing. The soldier's soul rose out of his lifeless body, and a violent flash erupted. The entire dark army was alerted to his position.
Sigilus put away his Escrima Sticks, and instead took a Bokken out of his bag to prepare himself for an attack.
"I should NOT have taken this job..."
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Qeni and Zev finally reached Zeros' position, nudging him and "Get up! Cmon!" could be heard through there sobs. Zeros' shimmered out and so did Qeni and Zev. They appeared right beside Sigilus and Zeros' finally got up, using his sword for support. Qeni and Zev quivered behind Zeros', afraid that Sigilus might hurt them. Sigilus had his Bokken still drawn and looked at him and the orphans. He noticed the wing and yelled at him. "Are you with the dark army!?" Qeni started forward but Zeros stopped her with his extended hand. "No...were not...I saved Iduran's amy...and he colapsed. Qeni and Zev started crying, but Sigilus readied for the attack. "Damn this is going to suck..."
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//no one said anything about Kail being a dragon rider...so i guess it's ok//
//and why are you guys controlling where the Dark Army goes? Isnt that supposed to be ONLY Xorlak's power?//
A loud raging roar echoed over the vast land. An errie red glow broadend over the horizon as another noise let out. Suddenly! With a bust of fire, the Dark Army Wyvern of Dragons flew over the rolling hills! With Kail, wearing the Darkly colored armor stained with blood from past battles, at lead, they came in for an explosive assault against Romme ground froces to allow the Dark Army to pass.
"Heh heh heh....show us your "might", king of Romme," he snarled, "Wyverns! Move out!"
With that, the dragonic force sped towards to gates of the town of Romme, where a large group of soldiers were standing in battle.
"Kill them... Exilis." he spoke to his dragon.
The beast swept forward, and opened its jaw. Fangs hung out like daggers, sharp as swords. The dragon swung down and flew right into the soldiers, Kail holding onto the reigns tightly. The dragon hit one of the Rommeians, piecering him on one of the teeth! He flew up quickly, and when a few hundred feet up, twisted back down, releasing the man from his mouth.
The soldier fell downwards screaming, and hit the ground with a bang!
By this time, the rest of the dragons had engaged in battle, flame spraying from the venom glands in their mouth, mixing with the small fire produced by with a chemical mixture in the stomach. It spayed out, ignating anything it could! Men, explosive matererial alike!
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// Sorry to make a 3d post, but it'll be just an appointment. Dear Kail, did you forget there is a giantic lightning storm conjured by the master air mage in the air? And that you're air-force is the closest thing to be struck with the fist of my heaven? //
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I know, I read that part on the posts. I wouldnt have if I didnt have a reason not to...or yeah..
The chemicals (at least acording to the Pern Series) mixed together inside the dragons contain and some weird stuff that negates electricity which is why they were so comonly used, because there was not much danger from storms or winds, when flying them (unless your in a battle with arrows and stuff).
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(The rules do state that you can't control other people characters-- that includes both what they say and their actions such as responding to your attack. If you want to attack someone, end your post with your attack and the person who controls the other character will respond. I'll let [most of] what has happend be.)
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Iduran paused from the fighting to look around. Was someone helping them? The lightning strikes were too accurate to be by chance... maybe they had a chance after all.
The dark solder Iduran just knocked down struggled to get up. Iduran finished him off with a quick stab to the neck.
-----
Draven was increadibly vexed, having been attacked by two different warriors who immediately escaped him. He looked up as Kail's dragons burst onto the scene: wave 3.
Draven ran quickly though the streets, his speed enhanced with his magical aura. He approuched Kail's dragon and looked up at the dark warrior. Draven clenched his teeth, an irate vien was clearly throbbing on his forehead.
"KAIL! Finish the job here! I've some... business to attend to... And kill whoever cast that thunder rage!"
He turned in the other direction. A demi-human with a huge sword and a boy with some sort of strange foreign uniform. They shouldn't be too hard to find...
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Sigilus grabbed his Adidas Uniform, bagged it, and escaped before anyone else could find him. After running for about 3 hours, Sigilus came across a Martial Arts Temple, resembling the old Shaolin Temple in many ways, except the burn marks and slowly rotting corpses hinted that the temple was attacked recently.
The stairs to the interior crumbled under Sigilus's feet as he approached the Sanctuary/Training Grounds. Upon entry, the torches on each of the four corners lit themselves, and many of the corpses came to life. It wasn't long before Sigilus was surrounded. Sigilus sat in the traditional Martial Arts style, and the corpses relaxed. One corpse, garbed in a Shaolin Priest's uniform, approached Sigilus and asked why he has come to the "Cursed Temple of the Lost Shaolin"
"I was escaping possible onslaught by my enemies," Sigilus replied.
The corpse went into his fighting stance, and eventually formed a new layer of flesh, taking on a perfect human form.
"You have dishonored yourself by running from your enemies. Now we must fight."
Sigilus nodded, and went into his own fighting stance. What erupted was a battle between Shaolin Fist and Taekwondo. Every time the Priest landed a hit, a flash of thunder struck the ground outside the temple. Every time Sigilus landed a hit, the ground shook, and sometimes even cracked.
It was deep into the fight that Sigilus landed a well-timed front-kick under the Shaolin Priest's chin, and sent his head flying back...breaking his neck. Sigilus changed back into his Adidas Uniform, picked up his gear, and left the temple, only stopping to pick up a mysterious medallion worn by the now DEAD Shaolin Priest.
Sigilus returned to the castle, ready to challenge Draven again.
Upon arrival, Sigilus drew out his pair of Sai, and lunged. Dodging lightning on his way, he leapt toward Draven from behind, ready to jam his sai in the back of his neck...
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"Seems I've done pretty nice fireworks..." - Scorch said to himself and under influence of his haste spell, he began swiftly moving through the living and the dead on the battlefield.
Before him, the broken gates of Romme painted on the background of dark sea of stars - he got where he wanted.
"Iduran!" - he said, with his voice echoing like thunder, as the soldiers around him were busy fighting each other. - "I've heard your name before... Now I come to this country with a proposition for you!"
The storm around the fighters calmed for a while, yet still, some dark, howling sound called from the mountains on the ocean side - a possible sign of an oncoming hurricane...
---
First Adidas... Now Shao Lin? Mark...
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//Shaolin has been around for a LONG time...ignore it. Besides, chances are Xorlak won't have a problem with a temple that has existed for a few centuries//
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Sensing the attack, Draven kneeled slightly and arched his head to the side. The young warrior's blade passed a mere half inch from the man's chin. Draven smirked as the martial artist skillfully landed several feet in front of him.
"You've returned. How kind..."
Draven extended both arms to his side, both palms outstretched. A wind could be fealt circling him-- he was forcing his energy outward and downward, and he began to hover several inches above the ground. Three orbs appeared around his body-- dim red at first, then a blazing crimson. The balls of energy rotated around him, forming a type a shield.
He snapped his left arm upward, and the first orb screamed straight up into the air. Almost instantly, he pointed two fingers of his right hand toward the youth and the second orb blazed in Sigilus' direction.
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Sigilus, not wanting to be hit by the orb, leapt 10 feet into the air, dodging the orb completely. From here, Sigilus reached into his inner pockets and started throwing some shuriken stars in Draven's direction: 3 to the face, 2 to the chest, and one aimed straight for the groin.
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(The temple's fine, you're free to create your own places)
Iduran looked up to the sky the with weary eyes.
"Has... someone called my name...?"
Alfred rushed over to the old soldier, who had received a wound to the arm.
"What is it, sir?"
Iduran looked in the direction he though he heard the voice, but instead, there he saw three huge dark knights slowly advancing on him-- two brandishing huge maces and the other a halberd, at least 6 feet long... Alfred and Iduran assumed battle stances.
"Great..."
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Draven made an evasive leap backward, using his energy to fly through the air at a very unnatural 30 degree angle.
"Ha!"
He threw his left arm down, and the orb that flew upward changed direction, now decending upon Sigilus from above. Still flying backward, he thrusted his right hand forward, launching the third orb straight at the martial artist, who he was nearly even with.
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A lightning suddenly struck just before the advancing dark knights before Iduran, with the impact forcing them on their knees, thunder sound defening and flash blinding, as the voice was heard again.
"Defenders of Romme! Your salvation has come! I will aid you in destruction of enemy forces if only you could aid me in getting my revenge on the Empire who exiled me!"
And as he spoke, from the side of mountains, a soft breeze of wind turned into a giantic cyclone a few meters above the ground levels, effectively striking the air forces of Dark Empire.
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Kail and his dragon were not but a few meters away from the cyclone. The dragon lost most control and began to spin around in the wind's torment! All of a sudden a giant bolt of lightning flew down from the sky right at Exilis! The bolt flew into the dragon's throat and entered the stomach where the chemicals lay dorment!
They ignighted, blowing apart the inner core of the dragon, severing the beast in half! The massive explosion blew Kail off to the side and he plumetted from a hundred meters to the ground!
A Romme soldier who was standing underneath him in battle looked up at him. Kail drew his balde, and right as he hit him, he thew the blade down into the man's throat, and used the collision as a mounce to direct the impacted blow down the man, completely killing him! Kail sailed through the air and landed on the floor.
"Bastards.....I will kill....every one of you....Exilis...you will be returned....again.."
-
Iduran faced the mysterious man who was single handily responsible for at least a good third of the destruction of the enemy army. He moaned and clutched the side of his armor with his left hand. Strangely this man looked a lot like the enemy generals... could he be trusted?
He had no choice...
"Stranger! We thank you for your help! We will do whatever we can to repay your fine offer!"
Alfred shuffled his stance. Not liking the situation, he looked around for his fellow elites. They were no where to be seen. Most of the fighting had stopped in this section of town, which was mostly a pile of smoking rubble.
Suddenly voices were heard from above...
"T R A I T O R . . ."
"S C O R C H . . ."
"H I S S S S . . ."
Three black robed apparations appeared above them, each carrying a scythe. They hissed in a low snake-ish voice,
"We finally found you... Lord Draven will be pleased..."
"Pleased... yes..."
"Pleased... indeed..."
An orb of earth colored energy appeared around them-- a barrier to lightning attacks, and they began to circle the trio.
"Why... why did you leave us... Scorch...?"
"Yes... why...?"
"Why... indeed..."
Alfred stepped in front of the wounded Iduran, arms outstretched and broadsword in the air. One of the apparations flew too close to Alfred and his lord. Alfred instictively retaliated with a downward thrust of the sword, but it could not break the apparation's barrier. During the recoil from the failed attack, the apparation responded with a quick slash from its scythe, which cut through the elite knight's armor like paper. He fell backwards-- dead.
Iduran lept backwards, fearing a second swipe.
"NOOO!!!"
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Zeros', Qeni, and Zev stood by and watches the battle. Qenia dn Zev suggested that Zeros' to help on of the side. "No, its none of my business, this is between the Dark army and the army of Romme. A Demi human like myself does not need to get involved."
One of the stray lightning bolts struck right near the group, scaring Qeni out of her witts. SHe crounched and put her hands on her head, "Pwease downt wet me diwe! Pwease...I wanna hewp Zewos and Zevy!" Zeros' shook her about, trying to calm her down. "Qeni! Qeni! Please stop! I wouldn't let any of those damn bastards hurt you."
Zeros' yelled at the top of his voice.
"WHO IS CREATING THIS THUNDERSTORM! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT KNOW!"
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Sigilus rolls out of the way of Draven's orbs, save one that singed his arm. In retaliation, Sigilus rushes toward Draven, and attempted to kick him in the face with a flying side-kick.
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While Zeros' yell was rumbling through the mountains, he flew over to the Romme army, with Qeni and Zev in his arms. He told one of the soliders to put them safely away in the city.
Zeros' glided over toward where Draven was, with his sword unsheathed. WHen he was flying over to him, he grew two wings and they changed to angel wings. Feathers floated down to the ground. Qeni and Zev started to cry and yelled out toward Zeros'. The men pushed them in the city and told them to rush to castle and said that Zeros' would be fine.
While his wings were flapping, he noticed the three dark figures circling around the three shadowy figures . He looked over toward the figure between them. He saw Iduran avoiding one of the figures.
He stopped flying and flew over toward where Iduran was avoiding the scythe. He stopped flying and lept infront of the figures scythe, blocking it from slashing Iduran. "Who the hell are you...and who the hell is that guy!" He pointed toward Scorch and saw the dirt fluttering around him. The figure responded...
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The missed orbs spiraled out of control into a building, causing two massive explosions that shook the battlefield.
Not having readied another attack yet, Draven blocked the kick with his arm. But the martial artist retaliated with blow after blow. Draven managed to block these, but not being trained in physical combat, the speed of his opponent got the better of him for a split second and the young warrior managed a kick square into Draven's mouth.
Draven lept back a good five feet and studied the warrior eye to eye. Clearly toying with the boy wasn't going to work. Perhaps this one was serious... an opportunity...
Draven wiped the blood from his mouth with his finger and folded his arms. He began the well rehersed and well used set of questions he reserved for the few warriors that did not die 30 seconds upon meeting him... the set of questions that either appointed a new officer of the Dark Empire... or resulted in a rather gruesome end...
"Well met, warrior... but why is it that you fight?"
----
Iduran was quite in awe of this second warrior, especially because of the fact that he had angel wings... He tried to gain his composure... but found it hard to do so when being protected by two mysterious figures. The circling wraiths did not help.
"My thanks... but who might you be?"
His question was ingnored, as the winged one was clearly focused on the apparations and the other mysterious figure. Iduran turned his attention to the apparations and, ignoring his wound on his left arm, swung his sword in a skillfull figure-8 motion.
"No matter, we've business to attend to..."
The wraiths, vexed by the newcomer, attacked at once, each heading for a warrior...
-
"Your Dark Empire has no more power over ME!" - said Scorch and turned his steps toward Iduran, now clearly showing himself in the chaos of battle, yet constantly gazing upon the three figures in the air.
"Fight like a man, Draven!" - he said - I've settled things with one of your lieutenants once, as far as I remember... and now I want to settle things with you! Unsummon your guard dogs, I want to meet you personaly and let the fate of Romme be decided!"
-
"I fight because I was well paid by my client" Sigilus said through gritted teeth. "I was paid to kill you, and that I will accomplish, just to collect my fee."
Sigilus didn't wait for Draven to reply. Sigilus leapt toward Draven, and before Draven could retaliate, Sigilus brought himself over and behind Draven, and performed another sweep kick, this time targeting Draven's ankles directly instead of a few millimeters above.
-
Kail looked into the sky, and said to his fellow Wyverns, "Go in, attack the castle, destroy any blockades they produce!"
The dragons immediately lept forward, plunging at the castle. The venom glands glowed as they did before fire was emitted, and sprayed out as the fire lept out of their stocmachs. Screaming souded from inside as massive explosions rocked the castle. Several dragons where hit down by archers inside the town.
Kail ran towards Draven and spoke, "...Exilis is dead.... .....Do you need any help with this guy?"
-
Zeros' readied for the attack coming his way, while Iduran battled his own foe. Zeros' swung the sword around like it was a twig, skillfully slashing the apparition in half. (hope thats ok...)
He quickly looked over and saw Kali's dragon forces attacking Romme. He quickly loaded his pistols with air bullets and fired at them. The air disappeated and blew back the dragon forces. Zeros' qickly flapped his wings and rushed towards the dragons, sword extended. He came face to face with every dragon, skillfully blocking there attacks but not killing them, only wounding. "They are living creatures...I cannot kill them...but if you keep firing you weapons after Romme you will all DIE I SWEAR IT!"
Everyone heard the yell. It shook the mountains with great force. He glided there, flapping his wings, feathrs falling from his wings. It started to snow a gold snow, all the people were wondering if there savior had appeared..or if it was just an illusion, the battle would soon tell.
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"The life emerged from the storm of chaos, and shall return to it... Zeros!" - said Scorch, in between of awaiting Draven's answer, then emitted a beam of lightning travelling fast from his hand toward about half of wyverns, before he began regathering his powers, condemning them to shocking death.
"If I were in your place..." - he countinued - "I would rather leave Romme alone and preppare your forces in your kingdom for my vengeance!"
-
*growing sick of waiting for Xorlak to reply*
-
Draven lept into the air, avoiding the kick, his body burst into a glow of red energy. He flipped in the air and landed on the roof of a house several yards away, arms still crossed and his cape flying to the side.
He was about to reply when Kail appeared on the scene and a burst of lightning hit the dragons near the castle. Glancing in the castle's direction he noticed another warrior was fighting the dragons as well-- the other one who attacked Draven.
So, there are three instigators here... he thought to himself. His eyes returned to Sigilus and calmly stared at him for a moment, as if deciciding the easiest course of action. Whoever was casting lightning spells was getting on his nerves in a bad way... but he should finish what he started here first...
"Kail, your help is not required..." he said, still looking down at Sigilus, a sinister red aura still emanating from his body... he motioned his head toward the castle, "Go kill the flying golden one..."
Returning to the other, "For money, you say?"
Perfect. It was one of the two best reasons, the other was his own-- power.
"My dear boy, it pains me deeply to see such a young talent go to waste... snuffed out before it has the chance to fully show its potential..."
His aura intensified. The shingles of the roof he was standing on began to sizzel and burn. His hair and cape waved in unison.
"But it does not have to happen that way... if you think what pocket change you receive now is money, hear this: Soon we will control everything. Anything in the world you could possibly want, any of your desires can be fulfilled if you join us. Young talent is what we seek and young talent is what you have. Answer me quickly, for I have other matters to attend to. Will you join us?"
----
One of the remaing two apparitions circled Scorch's head.
"Lord Draven will see you soon enough. He has little time for scum like you..."
With that, it swung its scythe in a huge arc-- straight for the traitor's head.
----
Iduran, with renewed strength repeatedly slashed at the second wraith, who blocked each blow with the blade of its scythe. It retaliated with its own flury of slashes, which Iduran blocked as well.
-
Sigilus looked up at Draven, thought for a moment, sighed, and then nodded his head.
"Very well...if the money involved is worth the metal that shaped it. However, I will not disclose the name of the client who hired me. I will tell you this: the pay was over 3 billion silver pieces...WAY more than I am used to taking for a job...normally it's 2000 pieces of silver. Will my joining you be worth it?"
Before Draven could answer, Sigilus leaped away, went into his bag, and drew out his sai. From there, he leapt in the air and landed behind Iduran, where he attempted to plunge his sais into the old knight's heart.
-
"Too bad I will have lots of time for HIM!" - responded Scorch, but his words marked his doom as he didn't notice the power of his haste spell worn off and trying to evade the hit, he recieved a powerful blow - not in the neck, but rather in straight into his forehead. The bleeding wound propelled him backward, as he conjured an orb of wind energy and casted it toward the wraith, coiling him in middle sized tornado.
And as the battle progressed, he felt unconsious from the pain of his bleeding wound.
-
Kail responded to Draven with a quick nod and was off. He ran as fast as he could towards the fire embeded castle. Few dragons were left after the several attacks were made against them. As he drew near, he yelled, "Retreat back to the Empire's base! Regroup there!"
The Wyverns flew back, speeding away from their attackers.
--
Kail looked towards Zeros'. "I will finish you later!"
Kail again ran, but this time away from all the battles. He was fleeding to join the other Wyverns as they regrouped. As he was reaching the tip of a hill, he heared large, repeditive poundings, like marching or thunder. He ran to the top and looked over.
His eyes widened in shock. Another wave of seven thousand strong, armed in the Dark Empire's black armor, marched towards Romme.
"Heh heh heh heh heh.....this is what we really need... the time for total annihalation has come...prepare yourself, Romme..."
-
Draven stroked his chin as he watched his former adversary run to the other side of the battlefield to prepare to attack what looked like one of Romme's leaders.
"Hmmm... easier than I thought..."
He wasn't surprised that there was a bounty on him, although he was somewhat flattered by the steep price. He wouldn't disappoint the new recruit, however-- the empire pays in gold.
Now what to do with this energy he had stored... he looked around the ruined town. He returned his glance to Sigilus, who was quickly decending on Iduran from behind. There was another warrior there as well... this one looked familiar...
"Scorch... that blasted traitor..."
He should have known, really... with the lighning bolts and all...
"Well now, things just got interesting..."
His aura of fire even brighter than before, he lept from rooftop to rooftop, then to the ground, and ran towards the traitor with blazing speed.
----
In the middle of blocking the wraith's latest attack, Iduran gasped and fell backwards-- moving just enough so one of Sigilus' sais struck the metal part of his armor. The apparition, not knowing what to make of the situation, lowered its scythe and floated upwards a few feet, giving as confused a look as possible for something without a face. Iduran stuggled to sit up and coughed,
"God! Not another! Will this madness never end?!"
----
The other apparition, protected by a lighting barrier-- not a wind barrier, let out a hissing sound as it spun wildly out of control from the traitor's tornado attack.
As Scorch stammered from his wound, the area around him lit up in crimson light. He heard a callous voice from behind,
"Tch! It's been awhile, Scorch..."
-
"What?" mumbled the half-consious, wounded sorceror. "What are you and who do you... serve?"
-
Standing behind Scorch, Draven folded his arms again (it was his favorite pose).
"It's a shame you don't recognize your own commander's voice. Must be that wound you have on your head... Tell me, did you get hit in the head before killing a legion of your fellow soldiers as well? How about before coming here, and trying to mess up my attack?"
He now held up a clenched fist.
"Before I erase you from existance for your dissidence, tell me... Why? Why turn your back on your emperor? Why turn your back on the future of this world?"
-
Zeros' looked back towards where Kali was and looked towards where he was looking. "Damn...the Dark Empire is coming back..." He floated down and sheathed his sword, retracted his wings and ran towards Qeni and Zev. They started crying, while hugging Zeros'. "Daddy..I was swo wowred." Zeros' was shocked, she called him daddy. "It's ok Qeni...I won't leave either of you, but I have a debt to repay." Zeros' spread his wings and pointed to a soldier to come get the kids. He quickly flapped his wings and flew to where Scorch, Iduran and Sigilus were fighting.
"Draven! I have a score to settle with you!"
-
Seeing Zeros coming from the sky, Scorch mourned in his last moments of true consiousness... "Angels... Coming... To destroy... your hypocritic rule..."
"Draven, you... Fool... Your Empire will fall... Your forces will be slaughtered... No one shall mess with the prophercied betrayer... of the evil of your kind... The fury of the storm that destroyed your own forces have opened my eyes... By an ancient... prophercy... Of the storm... Your empire... will fall..."
-
As Sigilus's sai struck the old knight's armor, it flew out of his hand. Sigilus quickly brought himself back into position and aimed to plant 3 consectutive side-kicks toward Iduran's chest.
-
The large legion come up to Kail, and haulted. Thier leader came forth, and bowed, for Kail was a Commander and the leader was a Lieutenant.
"Do you wish to take Command, Kail?"
"Yes, I believe I shall... Those who killed Exilis shall pay for their doings with their lives!" he murmered, "Ok! Commence attack upon the castle, if you meet Draven, follow his command! Let no man live!
"To war!"
The soldier flew forward, charging with armor and weapons readied. They filtered around Kail as he slowly walk towards the castle as well. He drew his sword from its sheath, "Prepare to die....Romme"
The entire legion had passed him, and he began to run forward. BY the time he reached the town, the rest had already begun the attack. "Move forward! Attack the castle! Destroy anyone who gets in the way!"
-
Scorch felt his death is coming soon. He never studied white magic personally, but he was absolutely sure there are spells to cure him of death. But he also knew those who want his true destruction can not only tear apart his soul, but also his body, making it impossible for his spirit to be raised.
He concetrated and he realised a fact that might change his fate...
"Knowing the pro-... pher... cy..." - he mumbled, trying to turn his head to look at Draven - "I am the only one... who can... pre-... ven... fall... of... fff... Dar... k... k... E... m... p... p..."
-
Draven reared his foot back, about to deliver a huge kick to the dying man, when he heared him mumble.
"Prophecy? What nonsense is this?"
He restrained himself out of curiosity, but his smirk soon returned and he held out his palm, conjuring a fireball at the man.
"Trying to delay your death with lies? Very well, I've nothing to lose by letting you live a few more minutes. Humor me."
But then, Draven suddenly heard another voice challenging him, this one from the sky. Without moving the aim of his palm from Scorch, he glanced up at the winged warrior.
"You again..."
----
As Iduran struggled to get back on his feet, the young warrior planted the first kick square into his chest. As the old knight reared backward, he regained balance and blocked the second with a downward slashing motion of his sword, sending Sigilus back just a bit, but buying him enough time to conjure one of the few spells he knew. Touching his blade to the ground, Iduran slashed it in an upward arch, sending a small tornado towards the martial artist.
-
Duilin battles along with the other Dark Warriors. Smashing the Romme soilders with his mace. He trips and falls on the ground and cuts himself on the leg on a droped sword. He limps over and goes and sits on a rock...
"What am I doing?" He says to himself. He looks at the cut on his leg. "Ow...."
He looks at the fighting going on. "Why is it that I feal that what is happening is wrong if I'm with the DARK Empire. I'm evil...Or am I....."
He countinues to sit on the rock hopeing that none of the Commanders Of The Dark Empire will notice him and start yelling at him for not fighting.
-
Wounded Scorch turned as his enemy was looking at his opponent coming from the sky, began to gather energy, but with his terrible headache due to his wound he burned his own body with electric energy...
... which awakened some more consioussness in him thanks to a shock.
"The heck with prophercy!" - he screamed in pain, seeing he now has power and concentration to cast spells properly. - "Die, DRAVEN!" - and released a stream of chaotic lightning energy, which (like an uncontrollable concetrated shower stream of water) began to strike air all around, then Scorch put his last effort and concentrated the furious lightning on Draven, releasing it at full power.
Not waiting in his haste to see result of his desperation attack, Scorch turned and began to crawl to the protection of local forest.
-
// Which on of you is with the Romme ane which on is Dark Empire? Cause I want to fight someone. It very confuseing because everybody says that there not with any team at the start//
-
// I'm with no one, used to be with Dark Empire, but I want to help Romme //
-
Sigilus, having been pushed back by Iduran's block, regained his footing just in time to see Iduran's tornado rushing towards him. Before it hit, Sigilus flipped to the side, took a needle out of a wristband on his arm, and aimed to plant it in the center of Iduran's neck ("The Kiss of the Dragon").
//This technique causes all the blood from the body to go to the head, and it never comes down. After a few seconds, it comes out of the victim's nose, ears, and their eyes. And then they die, painfully//
-
Duilin sit on the rock but then a soilder say he better start fighting before he gets in trouble.
"Yeah your right" He get's up and takes out his mace. "I better go start fighting"
He runs of smashing away a few Romme Soilders with his Mace.
-
Draven quickly turned back to Scorch, his eyes widening in surprise to see a furious stream of lighting in his face. He dispersed his fireball in favor of putting up an energy shield, but the explosion of energy was so fast, so unexpected, that he was hit by the full force of the attack. Cursing, Draven was blasted backwards a good 25 feet through the wall of a wooden hut, which was one of the few structures still standing, but this immediately collapsed on top of him, billowing clouds of dust...
----
Iduran attacked again-- a quick stab towards the torso, but this was evaded. Sigilus was in a perfect position for his death move, but as he jammed the needle toward the old man throat, a bolt of lighting from Scorch's unaimed attack hit the nearby ground, causing Iduran to jump backwards and the needle to miss its mark, landing instead in his collar bone near his lower neck, on his left shoulder.
"Ah!"
He reared backward in pain, but managed a sloppy outward slash in the martial artists' direction.
----
(Dude Man, the current allegiances are:
Romme - Iduran
Neutral, aiding Romme - Scorch, Zeros'
Neutral, aiding Dark Empire - Sigilus
Dark Empire - Draven, Kail )
-
woah....i thought there more with the Dark Empire than that.....heh heh heh B) , the more to kill myself :ph34r:
-
//Correction. Dark Empire: Draven, Kail and Duilin!//
*Duilin runs across the battle feild and finds Iduran and Sigilus fighting*
"Hmm...Think I'll leave them alone and fight the Romme dude if he wins"
*Looks around. He then swings his mace around watching the 2 of them fight. He closes his eyes for awile*
<span style='color:blue'>*FLASH BACK*</span>
*The Dark Empire runs threw a village killing people. Darion head into this house and kills a bunch of people. Duilin fights backs with him. Darion makes a deal to let him live if he joins the Dark Empire*
*Duilin wakes up with a scared look on his face. He looks around makeing sure that no enemies are heading toward him or none of his Commander notice he is slacking off. Xorlax maybe you can decide if I got caught or not*
-
//Umm, Xorlak, where the needle struck...that paralyzes his entire left arm...there's no sharp pain//
As Iduran made to slash Sigilus, the martial artist seemed to vanish into thin air. Before anyone knew what was happening, Sigilus was 50 feet up, and throwing Shurikens left and right, creating a thick circle around Iduran's feet so he couldn't run, and he hurled 3 straight for the aged knight.
//Oh, and Xorlak, I emailed you a while back asking for input on some music for one of my projects...why haven't you replied?//
-
In the meandtime, Scorch lied in silence in the middle of a forest, trying to use leaves and moss as some sort of bandages.
"White magic is good at times, isn't it?" - he said to himself, much weakened, but at least he stopped his wound from bleeding.
// I get that as a "good" kingdom, Romme has a few skilled white mages on their side? //
As suddenly, as ia few of Romme archers ran through the woods, along with some "field magic medic", and noticed him.
-"Hey, you!" - one of archers said, seeing Scorch. - "You're with the Dark Empire!"
-"Fools!" - Scorch responded. - "I just escaped that cursed Draven's attack! Damn him! And you? Fleeing from battle?"
-"Prepparing a suprise attack."
-"Very well then. If you help me cure my wounds and restore energy, as a master of suprise I might consider helping you get to your master Iduran, which, as far as I see, got some enemies on his back."
The white mage concentrated, but the healing spell failed.
- "I'm out of energy. I was helping the regiment for last hours." - he said.
- "We still have this." - one of archers added, giving Scorch two flaks, one containing opaque blood-red liquid, second some gas-like ethereal substance. - "Our last."
Suddenly, the air-mage thrown away bandages as he witnessed his wounds binding themselves, and energy returning.
- "Excellent, soldiers." - he said. - "Follow me and shield me while I'll try to balance scales of justice using shocking methods..."
-
(MoD: I replied two days ago. I'll resend it.)
The rubble under which Draven lie began to smolder... suddenly a violent explosion emitated from underneath, the shards of wood and stone incinerated and flew in all directions. Where the structure once stood, Draven hovered in mid air, his eyes burning with rage, his cape tattered, his fists clenched... The aura of fire around him-- the energy he had gathered while talking with Sigilus, burned bright, barely containable thourgh his rage.
"SCORCH! You miserable wretch!!! How DARE YOU!!!!!"
His eyes widened yet again as he realized Scorch had escaped during the moment he was down.
"Blast!!!"
But how far could a wounded man go? He quickly looked around. There was no where to hide... except the forest in the distance...
"You think you can run, huh?"
Already a few feet off of the ground, Draven began to levitate higher. He rose both hands to the sky; pulling the aura of fire above him, it formed into a ball-- a bright crimson sphere. First three feet in diameter, then five, seven, it swelled to ten... The sky lit up in red, as if the sun had risen...
----
Out of breath, Iduran had nowhere to run... He held up his sword, blocking one of the stars. The second stuck into his metal chest plate, which prevented most of its entry, but a small point bore through, digging into his chest slightly. But the third... it found a soft leather portion of his armor on his right side, and digging half way in, the old knight let out a scream and fell to his knees...
----
One of the few remaining knights of Romme still capable of fighting, a brash young man clad in white armor, finished off his tenth dark soldier in a row. His eyes were full of fury at what had become of his town, and he set his eyes on another dark warrior who was seemingly not paying attention...
His weapon was a halberd, a long spear with huge intricately detailed tip. He shouted his challenge, running in full stride:
"You there! Prepare yourself for the beyond!"
With that, he swung his weapon at Duilin's head.
-
- "Oh shoot." - said Scorch, gazing upon the sky. - "You fools better run! Find your master and save him from his doom!"
The soldiers ran away through the woods.
- "How am I pleased to see my enemy so aggravated. The sky is roaring with fury of his fire!" - Scorch told himself, and suddenly conjured a pillar of air underneath himself, rising into the air. - "I knew hard air magic training would pay off one day." - he said to himself and began to fly out of the forest with his hair waving in the wind as he moved, to see what his enemy has preppared...
-
Sigilus landed softly on his feet. From here, he slowly approached the aged knight. Less than 6 inches away, Sigilus grabbed the old knight by his hair, and picked him up, holding him 3 inches above the ground.
-
Kail ran forward with his legion, slicing and cutting at any enemy that got in his way. A soft humming noise souded in his ear, a low pitched ringed. He turned his heard to the left wher the norther watch tower of the outer town lay. A small line was moving fast across the distance between him and the tower! But before Kail could react, an arrow slammed into his head, blood dripped out and the arrow flew out the other side, peircing into another man's stomach! Kail fell the the ground and lay there, twiching. Blood flowed from him freely, as his body went cold. Life left his body, and he died...
//i love killing off my people Very Happy //
-
*Duilin turns around and sees the spear heading toward his head. He jumps out of the way and the spear falls to the ground*
"<span style='color:red'>NOBODY</span> sneaks up on me like that!"
*Duilin smiles at his enemy he swings his mace around in a circle and runs toward him. He swings his mace right at his face!*
-
Both hands in the air, a furious 10 foot globe of fiery hate above his head, Draven spoted his enemy rise above the forest.
"Got you!"
With that, he arched his back and, with great effort, hurled the humongous mass of burning energy straight at the warrior, who was several hundred yards away. The gigantic unstoppable mass thundered through the sky like a freight train. Even if it missed his opponent, the resulting explosion would surely take him out, along with most of the forest... Both hands forward, Draven slowly descended from the air, laughing like a mad man...
"AH HA HA HA HA!!!!!"
----
Iduran gasped for air. He was loosing blood and becoming dizzy... Raised off of the ground, his arms and legs were limp, but he still clutched his sword tightly... with one last burst of energy, he tried to stab his opponent in the stomach.
----
The white knight brought his halberd up just in time to catch his opponent's mace and it wrapped around the shaft of his weapon, initiating a brief pulling match between the two. Pulling his weapon free, the white knight lept backwards. Spinning around, he slashed his halberd diagonally downward, blasting out a sharp crest of ice that flew through the air towards Dulin.
----
The reinforcements of the Dark Empire were overwhelming. A large group made its way to the castle. Screams could be heard as the thick door was rammed down and several attack forces forced their way in...
-
Sigilus saw the blade coming, but his side-step only prevented it from taking him in the heart. Instead, it impaled him in the side. His blood was free-flowing, and Sigilus struggled to breathe. He took the sword from the aged knight, and sliced toward his neck.
Regardless of whether or not it hit, Sigilus collapsed to the ground, now unconscious.
-
- "Good lightning!" - Scorch said, while in the air, seeing the fiery storm coming. As he felt the scorching heat coming to him with the wave, he managed to re-cast haste on himself and began to fly high above the forest toward the sea south of here (propably where the Dark Empire landed)...
But he have seen his fate coming closer and closer, even with his accelerated speed of mobility. He turned himself, and as the wave of coming, he conjured remains of his energy into a huge static wall of air of extreme pressure.
"This would either add more fuel to the fire, or stop this maniac's attack..." - thought Scorch, turned around another time and began to hover as fast as he could, heading further and higher... "Propably it would even be possible, if the good old air wall fails, to get myself above this blaze?".
-
The crest of Ice shoots hits Duilin but most of the attack was consumed by his thick black armor. He falls to the ground...he looks up and sees the wight knight above him. He get ready to take his last breath and die. However a huge man, twice Duilin's size, who is of the commanders of the Dark Empire sneaks up behind the wight knight. He takes his two buster swords and put one to his trought and one to his back. The commander is Darion.
"One false move...." Darion looks at the knight's face "And I'll kill you! Just drop your weapons and run away and don't come back!"
-
As the gargantuan ball of fiery death (heh...) followed Scorch through the sky, it grazed the tips of the trees below, igniting them in flame. The mass was unstable, however, and the shock of slamming into the wall of air was enough to set it off...
The darkness of night was replaced by a blinding white light... which receded into bright orange. The explosion was deafening. All the trees within a hundred yards were immediately vaporized, the surrounding ones were incinerated in flame...
Now standing on the ground, arms folded, Draven watched his work from the distance of the ruined town. His laughing receded into an evil grin. The blast of wind from the explosion whipped his hair and cape. The light slowly lessened to a pale glow emitted from a few burning trees.
"Well, that was fun..."
Fully confident that Scorch had been obliterated, Draven turned around and walked slowly towards the castle...
----
Iduran made a forceful jerk downward, freeing himself from his opponent's grip and his attack, but slamming him towards the ground. Both fell at the same time. The clang of a sword was heard. Breathing heavily, Iduran struggled to sit up, but couldn't. Rolling over, he attempted to reach for his blade...
"Must... not... let... them..."
----
The white knight looked around. None of his allies could be seen... the castle was falling... the town was smoldering... Letting his weapon fall to the ground, he turned to the huge man, eyes full of rage.
"You haven't heard the last of me..."
With that, he took off in a sprint in the direction of the castle.
-
Darion looks down at Duilin and glares.
"You stupid worm! Your lucky I didn't decied to let him kill you." Darion yells
Darion helps Duilin up and then smaks him in the face. Duilin got a look at his hand....6 fingers....he looks at the other hand....6 fingers....
"Oh my god....It's him" Duilin says to himself. He picks his mace up and follows Darion "You killed my family...." He says to him
"Hahaha! Yes I did good job. I'm not surpized you remember me. It was only what? 5 years ago....Your just as week as you were before!" Darion Replied
"I'd kill you if I had the strengh!" Duilin yells
Darion picks up Duilin and glares at him. "You are under my power now. I am your master!" Darion yells at him. He then drops him on the ground. "I wonder who that Knight was?" Darion asks
"Me too." Duilin say. He wipes the tears from his face and countinues to follow Darion. They walk across the battle feild.
-
Scorch awakened, wounded, realising he's lying in some military tent. In the background, sounds of sea are heard.
"He looks like one of us." - says one of two soldiers in the end.
"It must be this traitor lord Draven spoke about. Scroch or someone."
"Hey! He woke up!" - turning to Scorch. - "You're under temporary imprisonment of Dark Empire sea forces. You'll be put before military court tommorow. Preppare yourself for execution..."
"I have time for this!" - said Scorch, stood up, electrocuted both soldiers with grasp of thingers and ran from the tent.
He suddenly realised he's in the middle of military camp of Dark Empire invasion forces in Romme.
"Good lightning." - he said. - "Guess there be some other way around..."
-
As Draven approached the castle, he was greeted by a small group of soldiers. The leader clasped his fist over his chest armor in military salute and bowed his head.
?My lord, the castle is yours.?
?Excellent,? Draven replied. ?A little more trouble than it was worth??
Draven walked though the gates with authority, the soldiers following meekly behind. The first rays of the morning sun began to appear over the horizon. The battle had lasted all night.
The halls were only moderately majestic-- Draven had seen better. He followed the red carpet as if he knew where he was going. There were only minor signs of resistance-- a broken stain glass window, some overturned candle holders, some soldiers removing some bodies... Romme had made the mistake of placing all of the soldiers on the outside. They didn?t have a chance once the Dark Empire broke in?
?Prisoners?? Draven inquired.
?Yes, quite a bit. We?ve locked them within this castle?s dungeon.?
It was always convenient for the enemy to have a dungeon when you took them over.
?Who was in charge of this worthless excuse for a nation? A king? I wish to see him??
The group came to two large wooden doors, which Draven smacked open with one hand. Inside was the throne room. Sunlight filtered in through the windows. The ceiling contained ornate chandeliers. The red carpet lead to a golden throne with rather comfortable looking red pillows. This room was untouched by battle.
?I?m afraid the king is dead??
?Oh??
?He fell upon his dagger when we approached him-- suicide??
?Tch! Sloppy? No matter.?
Draven sat in the throne. A few more soldiers gathered. Draven looked at the lieutenant again.
?Where is the sword??
?We just started searching...?
?That?s all that matters? Get more men on it? NOW!?
The soldiers hurried off. Draven turned his gaze to the window, stoking his chin.
----
Iduran woke up in a daze, still lying in the now calm battlefield? He attempted to reach for his blade, which shimmered brilliantly in the rising sun. Succeeding this time, he tried to craw a few inches, but collapsed.
?Must? not? let them? have? it??
-
A knight. A soilder of Romme a survivor or the battle was hideing underneath some corpces. His Name Patrick
"Eck!" Patrick say shoveing of a body "That was a handfull!"
Patrick walks across the battle feild. He sees Iduran. He head toward them but then Darion and Duilin head toward him.
"A surivior!" Darion shouts! "Duilin attack him! I'll head toward the castle to speak to Draven! I must speak to him! About...something!"
Duilin runs at Patrick and swings his mace at him. Patrick Blocks the hit with hsi sword. Patrick then swings back a stike and hit Duilin in the torso. Duilin then falls to the ground in pain. Patrick readies to finish him off but Duilin swings his mace at his gut knocking him down. Duilin then gets up and starts smashing his mace at Patrick. Patrick lies there is a pool of blood almost dead. Duilin stares at him. About to kill him off but then stops
"I can't do it...I can't kill someone. I don't know why...I just can't...." Duilin sits down and starts crying. Wile Patrick screams for help! Duilin then looks at Patrick and then takes out a blanket and places it on him. He takes out a potion.
"Drink it!" He orders
Patrick drinks the potion. Expecting it to be posion but he's rather die then stay in this pain. But he's not posioned it's a healing potion. He is almost better but he needs rest. Duilin then walks over to Iduran. He's standing over him. He then neals down and starts pokeing at him with a stick to see if he's alive
=====================================================
Meanwile Darion runs over to the castle. And head into the throne room and see Draven. He salutes him and then speaks
"Sir I have important news. Do you wish to hear this?"
-
Scorch suddenly came up with an idea. He returned to the tent, then suddenly came out in Dark Empire soldier's uniform. He done this in right time, as suddenly some higher rank officer approached him.
"We've took over the castle, soldier. Where is the prisoner?"
"Um..." - Scorch began thinking. - "I am just patroling here. What prisoner?"
"Oh, well. I guess there should be 2 more soldiers guarding him. The poor wretch could not run! I'll find the ones reponsible for his guarding and charge them with-"
"Wait a second! What's that?" - an officer pointed at two slightly ashed soldiers lying on the ground. He kicked one of them to see if he's alive. Soldier made a growling noise. - "Hey, you! Why didn't you inform me..."- he said to Scorch, or better, tried to say, but Scorch was already running away through the camp, holding his staff and old clothes in hand.
"Follow him!" - officer screamed at nearby soldiers, and they began chasing the wizard, which suddenly leaped into the air and began riding the wind, literally, into the forest.
"Dammit! They took over Romme. I'd better check." - Scorch mumbled to himself.
-
Sitting in the throne, Draven crossed his arms and yawned.
"Ah, Darion... What have you?"
----
Realizing he was being poked, Iduran conjured a bust of energy. He flipped over on his back, bringing his sword above him with two hands to point at Dulin's face.
"Back!"
But that last bust of energy took its toll. He struggled to keep his sword upright, trembling out of fatigue and pain...
-
The medallion that Sigilus had taken from the temple began to glow, and at the same time, his wounds healed instantly. Standing up, Sigilus began to focus his chi into his fists. From here, any blow to any part of the target would be fatal.
As his fist began to glow, Sigilus used his other hand to turn Iduran facing him, and aimed a direct blow to Iduran's forehead.
-
"Sir" Darion began "I have news that there is posibley two surivors they may be dead now tough. Also I have word that I belive that one of our Soilder is a spy. Duilin I belive his name is. I subjest he capture him and take him in for questioning."
Note: Darion is lying a Duilin being a spy, because he knows that Duilin will turn agaisnt him. However no onw would know he is lieing
-------
Duilin looks at Iduran holding his sword at him.
"It's okay...I want to make you a deal. Now listen here." Duilin begins "Help me kill Darion and I'll join the Romme Empire and I'll give you some potions I have to help you heal yourself" Duilin looks at Iduran with an honest face. Meanwile Patrick falls asleep. And mumbles something in his sleep about Duilin being a nice person and all. And also mubles something else about fealing guilty for telling Darion were he can find a village to attack.
-
Flying through the forest gave Scorch great advantage over Dark Empire soldiers chasing him on feet. He hasted and soon passed the woods, getting into the open field...
What he saw was terrible. Almost all soldiers were slaughtered, the castle was conquered, few survivors battled.
- "Not good." - commented Scorch and in short time began to conjure his trademark attack... With a moment a powerful lightning beam struck from the sky between Iduran and Sigilius. The sound of thunder was deafening and the flash blinding. The lightning didn't hit anyone directly, but the shockwave was enough to push both opponent about 5 meters (that's about 15 feet) backward.
- "Good lightning." - said Scorch, as he noticed he must have captured the attention of Dark Empire once again.
-
"Dulin? Hmmm..."
Draven struggled to remember the name. Draven knew all his commanders well enough, but remembering all their subordinates was nearly impossible.
?A common soldier you say? He?s expendable. Better to kill an innocent than risk a spy running around? Do as you will.?
The lieutenant Draven was discoursing with earlier returned and approached Draven from the right, followed by several solders, all bowing their heads meekly.
?My Lord? the sword? it?s??
Draven turned his head.
?What??
?It?s not here??
?NOT HERE??
?? not? h-here??
?Did you find the altar, like the other castles??
?Yes? but it was apparently removed??
?Then FIND IT!?
?Y-yes sir!?
The soldiers scrambled in a panic, running in all directions. Draven stood up an pointed to a group of soldiers who were standing behind Darion, guarding the door.
?YOU! Get outside and search the dead! They must have tried to use it against us. Bring me back any type of ornate blade, especially any one with a red jewel in the handle??
Draven turned back to the lieutenant.
?And where in god?s name is Kail, anyway??
?Kail?s dead, sir??
?Huh? ? Tch! The nerve, dying before his service is up??
----
Iduran looked back at the dark soldier, unable to believe that someone in the enemy army would actually help him. But before he could reply, Sigilus, who was lying next to him the whole time, sprang back to life and grabbed him. Iduran was too weak to react and watched in terror as the martial artist?s fist began to glow with energy. But before his deadly punch could connect, a lightning bolt from the sky blasted all three warriors apart. Iduran flew into the air and hit the ground hard, losing consciousness. His ornate blade clanged next to him, its red jewel dimly glimmering in the sun ?
-
Scorch focused his energy and summoned a chain lightning from his hands. Stream of electricity jumped through the soldiers as Scorch flew into the air and begin to head in direction of Iduran and Sigilius.
-
Darion bowed at Draven and then left
"All right...I pulled it off" He said quititly to himself
------
Duilin then got up from the blast and then took his mace out a started swinging it around he walked up toward Silgus. Darion however exited the castle and was heading toward them. He swiped a cross bow from and dead body and fired it at Duilin but the arrow was hit by the mace.
"I got bigger fish to fry!" Duilin ran toward Darion and swung his mace and hit him in the gut. Darion then grabed his belly in pain and looked surpizeingly at Duilin he took his buster sword and slashed at him and Duilin fell to the ground. Meanwile Patrick ran toward Silgus and prepared to stab him in the back with his sword.
-
Draven paced back and forth. What a fine mess this was... He certainly wasn't going to be charged with losing the last piece of the puzzle... He clenched his fist and teeth as he thought of what they would say... he thought of their mocking laughter... He turned around in a split second. If you want something done right, do it yourself... He looked at the doorway behind the throne, trying to make a decision. Should he search the castle's basement or the battlefield...?
----
Lying in the dirt, Iduran lightly moaned. He opened his eyes slighly. Though his vision was blurred, he could see something in the sky coming toward him... could it be the air mage that saved him earlier?
"Him... yes... he's the one..." he thought to himself. "Our last hope..."
He stuggled to yell, to attract his attention, but he couldn't. Succumbing to wearyness, he closed his eyes once more...
-
Darion then kicked the bloody body of Duilin and then ran and grabed Patrick who was trying to stab Sigilus. He then started slaming him on the ground over and over. Patrick was in great pain, but he was able to swing his sword at Darion cuting him across his chest. Darion fell to the ground holding his cut, he yelled out in pain. Patrick then fell to the ground, he looked over at Duilin and blinked a few times. He got up and then headed toward the castle. He limped closer and closer. He then stoped to take a look at Duilin's body and the Duilin's eyes opend and then he got back up.
"You should probally go kill Darion now." Patrick said
"No, I'll leave him in his pain...He's had enough..." Duilin replied
"No you idot he might follow us inside!"
*Duilin smaks Patrick* "Don't you dare talk to me like that! I killed the last person who said that to me...But your right. I'll go kill him." Duilin looked back and saw the Darion was gone! "Well let's just go find Draven. We stop him we stop the empire!"
"We also should find the King. See if he's okay!"
Patrick and Duilin ran inside the castle and headed to the throne room. They then were right in front of the door and then they opened it.
-
Draven turned around at the sound of the door opening, raising an eyebrow at the two curious figures that stood in the doorway. One was a dark soldier from his division, the other apparently a soldier of Romme. Both were in somewhat bad shape, thier armor battle worn and their faces dirty.
"What's this?" Draven said, looking at Duilin from the other side of the room.
-
Duilin looked at Draven and frowned
"I don't know what Darion told you about me but I don't care. Darion killed my family and forced me to join the Dark Empire and I never wanted to. I hate the Dark Empire. I hate working for the forces of evil. I hate Darion. I hate you, Draven!" Duilin ran toward Draven spining his mace around and around yelling. Patrick then took out his cross bow and fired it at Draven. Duilin swiped his mace at Draven.
-
Sigilus, having been thrown by the lightning, left the battlefield, and entered the castle just in time to see Duilin attempt an attack on Draven. Sigilus didn't even stop to consider the boy's chance of success. Sigilus practically teleported between them and plunged his hand where Duilin's heart would be...and ripped it out with a forceful jerk.
-
Duilin looks at Silgus as his hand aims for were is hart whould be. However his armor was thick enough to block his hand. Duilin kicks at Silgus to fend him off.
The arrow that Patrick shot at Draven moves closer to his head
//Please don't kill of Duilin he's my primay charactor. However I chould chare less what happens to Patrick. But envenually I want Duilin to kill Darion or vice-versa//
-
The arrow sped through the air, stopping a foot in front of Draven's face and falling limply to the floor. Draven folded his arms and laughed. Turning to Duilin, who was busy fighting his new adversary,
"You ungrateful wretch! Have you forgotten all we've given you? Money! Power! What was taken from you was worthless. But no matter, taste the reward for dissidence..."
Seeing Sigilus had the situation under control, Draven turned to Patrick with an evil grin. With fire in his eyes, he began to slowly walk toward the soldier.
"You, O warrior of Romme, however, may be of some use..."
-
"Sure I'll be some use. I'll be some you to help kick you butt, you ugly freak!" Patrick yelled. He fires another arrow at him
-
Seeing the action focused on castle, Scorch entered it.
"Good lightning, what a mess." - he said. - "Oh, sir Draven. Pleased to see you in such good humor. Having fun stopping arrows in the air?" - Scorch laughed. - "Try to stop this."
With a sudden blow of the wind through the castle's halls, a chandelier broke from the roof and began flying in direction of Draven's face.
-
Sigilus, furious that he had forgotten about the armor, sent a powerful side-kick to Duilin's chest, sending him flying. Looking toward Patrick, Sigilus formed a ball of energy in his hand, and aimed it straight for his head.
-
Patricks eyes lit up as he saw the energy ball heading toward him. He was scared stiff and then the ball of energy blew his head clean off. Patrick fell to the ground dead. Duilin look angrely at Silgus.
"You know....I'm alot stronger then you would think!" Duilin smiles evily and then charges a huge fire ball in his arm.
The Fire Ball was tossed at Silgus and it so big that Draven and Scorch whould probally have to dodge this too.
"Sorry if this hits you Scorch. I know were on the same side...I think..." Duilin says
-
"Huh?"
As the shadow of the chandelier above engulfed him, Draven sidestepped backwards, landing a good ten feet away. The chandelier hit the ground with a tremendous crash, sending shards of crystal and gold in all directions. When he was finished shielding his face from the debris, Draven shook his right fist menacingly at Scorch.
"You blasting--!! Why are YOU still alive?!"
Regaining his composure, Draven lowered his arms to his side, extending his clenched fists outward. His aura of flame returned, much dimmer now, but slowly building in intensity. The crimson energy swirled upwards around him...
"That's it. I've had quite enough of you, traitor... Why you insist on delaying me I do not care. But I will extract a certain amount of pleasure in killing you..."
-
Scorch jumps back from the exploding ball, still laughing. He sort of entered a maniacal state now...
"Fear the storm!" - he shouted, and suddenly the air in the room began to circle around, faster and faster, chandeliers, candelabrums and decorations as well as people began to slowly shake, as the air circulations began to gather before the throne in a beam of whirling air (which also took some dust from the floor and Patrick's blood)...
"I dedicate this to you, sir!" - said Scorch and the whirlwind slowly began to head in Draven's direction, while he still gathered his aura energy.
"Fire might be powerful... But the storm and air are lightning faster!"
And suddenly, electrical charges began to appear within the whirlwind coil...
-
Duilin looks at Scorch
"I really hope you know what your doing!" Duilin yells. He then deciceds it's time to make a run for it because he sees that Scorch has it taken care of he takes out a rope and climbs down threw the window and ends back up on the battle feild.
"Well,let's hope everything will turn out for the best"Duilin thinks to himeself
He then walks around the remains of the battle feild. He then kneals down over Iduran and looks at him. He then taps at him
"Hey...You alive?" He calls.
Suddenly out of the fog appears Darion, all bloodly, standing behind Duilin. Duilin then sences his presence and then turns around to see who it is. Darion picks up Duilin and thorws him about 10 yards. Darion laughs and then takes out two Buster Swords and and runs at Darion and swings one at him but Duilin wraps his mace around it and swings it out of Darions hand and the swords falls infront of Iduran. Duilin then swoops his mace at Darions face and blood then spalters over the place. Surpizenly Darion was able to survive that, but half of his face was all screwed up and he looked like a zombie, he then takes his Buster Sword and slashes half of Duilin's left arm clean off. Duilin cries out in pain and falls to the ground. Darion then prepares to finish off Duilin by shoveing his sword into his neck...(Note: He hasn't done this yet)
-
Sigilus dodged the attack, just in time to notice that Duilin opted to exit stage left. Looking at Scorch, Sigilus decided it would be in his best interest to take him out (maybe his payment would double for eliminating the traitor, heh). Sigilus didn't lunge straight away, no. Instead, he snuck to the Romme Armory, praying that they would have some martial arts weapons. They did. A full inventory. Sigilus picked up a pair of escrima sticks, made of pure rattan (yay!), and returned. He lunged at Scorch, despite the electrical charges and powerful winds, and aimed to strike at his neck.
-
"Tch! Nothing but hot air."
Bringing his aura to a blazing red, it formed a protective shield around him that deflected flying debris and stray lighting alike. Now floating a foot above the ground, Draven extended both palms to the side. At once, waves of flame emenated from his body into the impending cyclone. Rather than direct the flame in the opposite direction of the tornado, nutralizing it, he turned it in the same direction, effectively merging the two attacks and creating a 30 foot high spinning firestorm. Immediately every object in the room that could burst into flame did... the carpets, the furniture, the drapery... The ceiling cracked and the stone walls began to crumble.
As Sigilus approached Scorch, suddenly everything froze, his surroundings lost thier color, taking on a pale bluish hue... Sigilus could hear Draven's deep voice, as if he were speaking into his ear:
"You're tactics are flawless, young one. Attacking from the rear will get you far in this world... But the prize you seek is mine. I reserve the pleasure of eliminating this one for myself only... If you aim to gain my favor, find the other traitor, the soldier... bring me his head..."
As instantly as it stopped, the mayhem resumed. Draven lept into the center of the firestorm and it began to barrel towards Scorch. But seconds later, he emerged from the other side, several feet above Scorch and decending upon him, his cape spread out like the wings of a dragon... In his right hand was a blade of crimson fire four feet in length. When he was almost upon him, Draven aimed a horizontal slash at the traitor's neck, aiming to decapitate him right there.
----
Alas, Iduran did not hear Duilin. Breating shallowly, he was quite unconscious...
-
Having heard Draven's voice, Sigilus landed on the ground and leapt back, flipping in midair. He then jumped out of the window, following Duilin. As he sees Duilin and Darion in combat, Sigilus gets behind Duilin and aims his escrima for the back of his neck, while at the same time removing a knife from the inside of his uniform.
-
Darion shoves Silgus out of the way.
"I'll take care of this!" He shouts. But as he is looking at Silgus Duilin swung his mace at his head and it flew off and hit Silgus.
"DIE!!!!!" Duilin yells as he defated his rival "No I have avenged my families death. Now I shall avenge Patricks!" Duilin grabs Darions Buster Sword and swings the sword and the mace at Silgus
-
"Focus, idiot, focus!" - Scorch told himself as in desperation, he tried to think about the formula of a spell as ancient as the world, who could spare him from the wrath of Draven... Time almost ceased to flow for him... As the finishing blow was about to land in the scorching heat of his master's fury, Scorch whispered final words...
And suddenly, as Draven already began to sank his blade, he was gone. The firestorms was still roaring in the room, but most likely to Draven's dissapointment, Scorch was no longer there.
"Amazing I still remember this trick." - said Scorch to himself as he realised he was actually somewhere in the sky, among the clouds, just above Romme, falling down. - "Stop!" - he said and stopped in the air, noticing blood dripping down below, from his neck. - "He must have already struck me." - Scorch said to himself.
"So far I've used the offensive spells of air school... Propably it's time to make use of those less lethal." - and chanting some ancient formula, he was gone again, but this time he didn't teleport - he turned himself invisible."
"Now..." - spoke the voice of no one visible - "Let's find some white mage or medic to cure me of my wound... I'd best avoid Draven for some time."
-
Draven sliced through thin air as Scorch disappeared. Still barreling downwards, his feet hit the ground with such intensity that the tiles of the floor cracked and sunk a few inches. He remained with his arm holding the blade outwards after the slash for several seconds, trying to make sense of what happened. The aura of the traitor was no where to be sensed... He slowly stood upright, letting the blade of fire dissipate to nothing.
"Coward..."
The firestorm gradually dissipated as well, revealing a room that looked nothing like it was five minutes ago. Draven folded his arms and stepped to a broken window (they all were broken), looking into the sky,
"The oldest trick... I'll be prepared next time... "
After a moment, Draven turned his head to see a few dozen dark soldiers peering into the room through the doorway (which was extended, due to a missing piece of wall), nervously in awe of the destruction and whispering among themselves.
"WELL? Did you find it?"
"Uh... no sir..."
"Then GET BACK TO WORK!"
They scattered once more in a panic.
-
With the invisibility spell active, Scorch slowly headed toward where Duiling and Sigilus fight...
"Propably that old weakling Iduran might still prove of some use... He'll need some healing quick, so he should as well know - as the soldier of Romme - where the heck are any living white mages..."
-
(Note: A wile ago Duilin gave Iduran a potion but he did not drink it. May be more of a use to Scorch)
Duilin continues to swing his mace and slashing his sword at Silgus
-
Sigilus is blocking and dodging Duilin's attacks with ease.
"Fool"
Sigilus then rolled in Duilin's direction, took his sword from his hand without any trouble, then cut down around Duilin's left shoulder.
"This should make a more difficult fight for you, huh?"
-
Duilin then starts to suffer masive blood loss from his cuts and then he starts to feal woozy...He takes out a potion quickly gulps it down and then recovers (slightly) and then rips off Darion's dead body's arm and smaks Silgus in the face with it and then he takes out this firey red potion gulps it down and then blows a huge amont of flame at Silgus burning him like so...
-
As suddenly, something in the air above the fighting pair began to move.
Then, almost unpredictably, a sky was teared opened as a deafening lightning of catastrophic proportions suddenly grounded to earth passing through Sigilus' body. Earth began to shake and air was released in a shockwave where the raging beam touched it's target.
"Now that's impressive even for myself." - a soft voice was heard from some transparent character in the air, which suddenly begin to fade again from transparency to invisibility. - "Lightning damn it! It seems casting spells renders me visible for a while. I never perfectioned stealth..."
And as Scorch was once again totally invisible, only the air vibrations betrayed his location as he landed to see results of his effort...
-
Duilin looked at Scorch and then Silgus and then Darions dead body.
"This is turning out to be one hell of a day!" He said
-
Draven turned his head to the window as he heard what sounded like thunder in the distance. His smirk returned.
"So, you didn't go very far after all now, did you?"
He began to run through the empty castle halls, not really knowing where he was going. If he could perhaps make his way to the top of one of the towers, he could get a clear view of the battlefield and perhaps of the traitor-- especially if he decided to use any more of his lighting spells...
Draven finally came to a room with an upwards winding staircase. Pushing two of his soldiers out of the way, he began his ascent...
-
//ACK! So much reading. I can't take it. Can someone give me the jist of it?
-
(Draven and his evil army have taken over the once peaceful Romme castle, totally destroying the surrounding town. The only surviving warrior of Romme seems to be Iduran (although barely), who's unconscious lying in the battlefield. Draven's goal seems to be finding some sort of sword, though right now he's preoccupied with tracking down and eliminating the elusive traitor Scorch. Sigilus, the ninja mercenary hired by Draven, is fighting Duilin, the more recent traitor.)
----
Upon reaching the top of the long staircase, Draven slammed the door open and walked out onto the balcony of the tower. Although he wasn't on the highest tower, this one was closer to the edge of the castle, so he could probably get a better view of (what was) the town from here. Leaning on the edge of the stone blocks, he scanned below for signs of movement, but his vision was impeded a bit from a thin fog that was developing on the ground in the cool morning air. He could identify in the distance perhaps three or four small groups still engaged in combat, however. But he was too far away to see distinguishing characteristics.
"Blast... no matter. One flash of lightning is all I need..."
-
(What is this? Has everyone flaked out on me already? Heh...)
Iduran stirred in response to the clamor around him. The throwing star in his side was hurting badly... but this was a good sign, since he was numb a while ago... With great effort he removed the jagged metal and pressed down on the open wound. Rolling to his side, he noticed an unconsumed healing potion inches from his face. What luck! He immediately drank it. It was too weak to heal his wounds, but it at least gave him a little strength.
He managed to rise to his knees, then to his feet. With one hand on his wound and the other carrying his sword, dragging on the ground, he began to stumble away from the castle, towards the southern gate of the town...
-
The flame consumed the top part of his uniform, exposing his bare chest. He glared at Duilin and shouted, "That was my favorite uniform! Now you pay!" It was barely in the blink of an eye that Sigilus leapt toward his enemy and began unloading every kick he knew. In short, repeat of a Jet Li fight scene.
-
"Seems this weakling Iduran has some strength in himself, after all..."
"But I'd best settle my score with some martial artist."
Suddenly, a few feet before Sigilius, air began to reveal a posture of Scorch as he walked from under his invisibility spell, coming at Sigilius with open hands (one holding his staff), chanting some spell formulas.
He was no longer invisible, as it was impossible to keep two powerful self-enchantments at once, but streams of electricity coursed around his body. The spell knowsn as lightning shield. Any movement other than of caster in the general vicinity of him would cause electric stream to head toward the source of it.
Scorch then stood in battle stance, one foot in the back, one in the front, crouched a bit, held the staff with both hands and pointed it directly at Sigilius, looking at him with his eyes from underneath his hair. Streams of electricity coursed through him.
"Enough." - he said, and a stream of electricity "accelerated" on his staff, faster and faster, then split into about 6-7 little streams which evaded Duilin and struck Sigilius in different parts of bare his chest, usually focusing on his heart.
-
(Cesque, remember that you can't actually hit other players with your attacks. Just throw them and the other player will decide whether to get hit or not.)
Draven's eyes were beginning to grow heavy. He?d barely slept since the day before yesterday, after all. He uninterestingly watched the battlefield from atop the tower, but his wait was not long? Suddenly he spotted streams of electricity sparking in the distance.
?Got ya??
He squinted to see Scorch?s invisibility wearing off, and streams of electricity emanating from his body.
?So you ditch me to go fight someone else, huh?? He said in a low voice. ?Well now, that?s rather rude? I?ll just have to teach you some manners??
He began to cackle manically and leapt off the side of the tower with no regard to the height. His cape unfurled in the few seconds of free fall, but his decent slowed as he gathered the energy to levitate himself. In another second, he was flying over the castle walls, then the battlefield, heading straight at the traitor with immense speed. His body erupted in flame as he conjured the energy for his attack.
----
Iduran turned around to see the source of the lightning. Suddenly a man appeared out of nowhere, seeming with electricity. Iduran knew he had to get out of there, but he couldn?t help but watch what he was going to do?
?That?s him? the wizard??
-
Duilin then jump out of the way evadeing Silgus's kick and then rolls off in the dirt, he then crawls over to Darions corps and swipes his cross-bow and get back up and fires an arrow at Silgus!
-
Sigilus focuses and the lightning and arrow both stop 3 centimeters from Sigilus's body. His eyes begin to glow, and although there is no breeze, his hair and clothes begin to wave. He, instead of lunging toward Duilin, heads straight for Scorch, ready to land a fatal strike to his Adam's Apple.
-
(okay, Xorlak, sorry Wink )
"Dammit!" - said Scorch, seeing how Siligius stopped his attack. - "Propably you won't stop THIS!"
Scorch began practicing staff strikes in the air, moving backward. As he moved, the electricity around him crackled. When he got enough distance, he focused and with extreme speed burst toward his opponent, waving staff in the air then he jumped at his foe, grabbed staff in both hands and froze in mid-air, just before Siglius' head, attempting to strike him in his head at full force accelerated by his energy aura.
-
Duilin then sees that Scorch and Silgus are now fighting so he decieded to attack Draven he runs toward Draven fireing an arrow and swinging his mace around.
-
As Draven approached Scorch from the air, he slowed down as Sigilus launched an attack of his own.
"Hmmm, may be interesting..."
He stopped a good fifty feet away from the two warriors, folded his arms and watched them battle, still hovering several feet from the ground. It might be good to see what this Sigilus has to offer, after all. Suddenly, an arrow flew though his waving cape, leaving a small hole as it came out the other end. Draven's smirk left him as he looked down to see that other traitor charging at him, mace in full swing.
"You wretch!"
He extended his left fist, pointing two fingers at the charging soldier. Immediately a narrow beam of crimson energy eminated from the tips. The beam struck the ground a few feet infront of Duilin, causing a small explosion and much dust and smoke to engulf the charging soldier.
-
Duilin then choughs from the dust and then skakes his head from side to side and then starts to feal woozy and then sits down on the ground. He sneezes and then looks around abit "What the f--k is going on?!!?" He yells....Duilin then starts to feal tired and then falls asleep.....
-
Draven watched as the smoke cleared to see his target lying on the ground. Chuckling, he let himself fall, landing next to the soldier. With an evil grin, he extened his right palm in the direction of Duilin's head. Surges of flame rotated around his hand as he powered up the finishing blow.
"Goodnight."
But before he released the deadly fireball, he happened to glance upwards. On the other side of the battlefield, past the dueling Scorch and Sigilus, a wounded knight stood, clutching his side, sword in the other hand. Draven recognized the blade immediately.
"The sword... YOU have it!"
Iduran gasped as he realized the most sinister of the warriors was looking straight at him...
Ignoring Duilin, Draven began to charge at Iduran with blazing speed...
-
Duilin's eyes then opened up and then he got up and saw that Draven was chargeing at Iduran so they were going to fight and then he saw Silgus and Scorch were fighting....Then he saw that he had nobody to fight anymore so he then lied back down and went to sleep....
-
Draven stopped in front of the wounded old knight, who managed to raise his sword.
"I belive you have something I want."
"... Oh?"
Draven grinned. "What a splendid blade. May I see it?"
"... You... filth! You destroyed it all! You took it all away! And that's what you have to say to me!?"
Iduran knew he couldn't. He didn't have the strength left. But he did anyway. He lunged at Draven, attempting a diagonal downward slash. Draven calmly sidestepped this and retorted by slapping Iduran in the chin with the back of his hand. Iduran reared backwards, but managed to stay on his feet.
"You don't even know what you have, do you?"
Iduran scowled.
"Heh... perhaps you can test it for me..."
Draven folded his hands, then slowly pulled them apart. A narrow beam of fire appeared in between, which took the shape of a blade as it grew longer. Grabbing the fire sword with his right hand, Draven slashed it through the air, eyes fixed on Iduran.
-
Duilin's right eye opened as he saw the two pairs of people fighting. He then looked at Darions corpes and then got up and walked up to it.
"You know....I've been trieing to kill you my entire life....and now that I have...I don't know what to do in my life....." Duilin sits there for awile and then deicedes to go into the castle and have some fun with the Dark Warriors. He runs inside the castle and then looks for the other dark warriors and then yells "There's are huge army of strange blue armored soilders! They have killed Draven and Silgus and everyone else! There after the rest of us! Quick! Block the doors! Block the doors!" He starts to put on his best acting skills and then starts painicing and runing back and forth. "Oh dear my what will we ever do!!!"
-
Draven opened with a flurry of hard downward slashes, first from the right, then the left, then the right... Iduran blocked each with his sword, the force from each blow nearly knocking him over. Sparks of flame flew from Draven's weapon as it struck Iduran's. A flurry of this sort would brake any normal weapon that was used as a shield within five or six blows. But the weapon Draven was looking for was said to be unbreakable. An excellent chance to see if the old man was holding the real deal...
----
About twelve soldiers stood around the panicking Duilin, staring blankly. His armor was certainly in bad enough shape. Half began to wisper to one another, the rest began to run around in a panic. Shouts of "Can it be true?", "Nonsense!", and "Shut up and bar the doors!" could be heard. Within a few minutes, Duilin had managed to plunge an entire castle wing in utter chaos.
A large officer, wearing black spikey armor and a red cape burst into the room in response to the noise.
"WHAT IS GOING ON?!"
-
// MotD? MOTD? //
-
(New rule: If no response to your attack in three days or so, assume your opponent got hit and was knocked unconscious. Heh...)
After blocking several strikes, Iduran managed a weak stab with his sword. But Draven extended his free hand and grabbed the blade on the flat sides. Iduran was unable to pull the weapon from his adversary's grip.
"Why, thank you..."
Draven's blade of fire, in his other hand, began to loose its shape, turning into a bright red ball of flame about six inches in diameter.
"I think it's about time you died, huh?"
He then jammed the burning ball into the old man's chest plate. Iduran screamed as the heat of his metal armor grew to an intolerable temperature. Laughing, still holding the blade of Iduran's sword with one hand, Draven added more energy to the fireball as he prepared to launch it through the old knight's chest...
(Will someone save poor Iduran? Or will he perish at the hands of the evil Draven? Find out next time on DAL!)
-
Duilin looks at the Officer and speaks
"Sir! Many soilders in blue armor are attack! Thosands of Millions of them! We must hide inside the castle or else they will kill us! I barely survived! We need to do something. Maybe we can exit out of the back exit and run off!"
-
As Scorch landed on his knockd enemy, he turned around to watch Draven and Iduran fighting (he must have flied sort of long at his opponent).
He levitated into the air and headed toward Iduran.
"I'm coming, Draven! Spare this looser and fight some REAL enemies!"
Seeing the situation is dramatic, Scorch suddenly "warped in" while flying in the air, and reappeared flying just before Iduran, but he really haven't got enough time to stop - so he simply fell at Iduran.
-
Scorch's collision with Iduran knocked the knight free of Draven's grip, along with his sword, which spun though the air, sticking in the ground right next to Scorch. Draven also lost balance, causing him to release the fireball, which flew though the air, exploding some distance away. Draven took a few steps backwards to avoid falling over, then looked at the two warriors who were on the ground in front of him.
"YOU again! Very well, I'll be rid of you both!"
He extened his right palm in the direction of the two, but this time curled his fingers in a bit. He clasped his left hand on his right arm for support, and began collecting large amounts of crimson energy.
Iduran turned his head to Scorch.
"The sword... take it away... don't let him... have it! Get it... out... of... here..."
Totally exhasted, the old man fell unconscious once more...
----
The officer blinked as he tried to comprehend 'thousands of millions'.
"Huh? What? No way!" He turned to the soldiers who were watching them. "You heard the man! Bar the doors!" Then turning back to Duilin. "I gotta see this for myself!"
He then sped off in the direction of a stairway that lead to one of the towers, where he could get a good look at the surrounding battlefield.
-
He then ran up toward the officer before he chould go see that he was lieing and siad "STOP! They have archers they will kill you! You must not go up and see please! If you die? Who will lead us? Draven is dead because they killed him!"
-
Scorch stood up from the crash.
"It's not that it looks better than my staff, but - all right." - he said and grabbed the sword in one hand, while holding staff in the second one.
"It feels like some real power..." - he said to Draven. - "Well, if you want it..." - suddenly he realised Draven was about to kill them. He abandoned his staff and grabbed Iduran in another hand and whispered yet-another-teleportation spell...
Poof.
(technical info: the staff was in general vicinity of teleport, so it was gone along with Scorch)
"Look good." - Scorch said to himself, as he realised he was actually standing with blade in one hand and unconsious Iduran in second, in the middle of stairs, where Duilin and officer were speaking.
Exahusted and having a headache from 2 teleports in short time, Scorch decided not to say anything and siomply sat at the stairway waiting for others' reaction.
-
"HAAAA!!!!"
Draven let loose his wave of concentrated flame, which from his view looked like a direct hit on the two warriors. The explosion rocked the battlefield, and was so close Draven nearly lost his balace. When the smoke cleared, a small crater stood in front of him. From casting so many destructive spells thoughout the night and morning, Draven was begining to become out of breath.
"Heh... vaporized them... Huh? Where's the blade?!"
It coudn't have flown too far... As Draven looked around, he realized there were no bodily remains either...
"BLAST! ... TWICE! How dare YOU!!!"
He threw both fists into the air and shouted at a cloud.
----
The officer looked at Duilin with increasing suspicion.
"Ya know, there's someting funny about this."
He turned to take a step up the stairwell, but a bright white flash suddenly blinded him along with a sudden gust of wind. Before him stood Scorch with the swooned Iduran.
"Huh? What...?"
This one he recognized: Scorch the traitor. He looked back at Duilin and suddenly remembered hearing of a traitor soldier in the ranks as well...
"No way! GUARDS!"
-
Duilin then swung his mace at the guards head hopping to kill him or knock him out...
-
*Was hit by scorch*
Sigilus flew back and hit the nearest flat surface, and then collapsed to the ground, unconscious, and bleeding in the mouth. The medallion from the cursed temple was shattered, so he can't be healed by it this time.
His subconscious began seeing visions of Draven being stabbed by Iduran's sword, and with it, the whole Dark Army retreating. And last, Sigilus saw his former master nodding toward him. Sigilus only awaited his strength and consciousness to return...
-
"Ah, good, some ally." - said Scorch, sitting on stairway, seeing Duilin striking guard's head - "Next time I'll try to be more precise with my teleports... Whatever-your-name is, is the castle barred and safe? Of course exluding fact there's a bit of black army soldiers here..."
"Ah, yes, I would help you to fight, but I'm too tired. Do they have any bedrooms here? We also need to take care of Iduran."
-
Draven knew the treacherous mage could not have gone far. But which way to look? He could have gone two ways... northward, which would have put him back into the castle... but that would be suicide, so Daven immediately dismissed that idea. The other option would have been southward into the forest or fields, in which case he would have the entire rest of the island to hide in and at least one method of escaping the island...
"BLAST!"
Draven knew he needed to persue immediately, but it was clear that one person alone had little chance of finding him, as mighty as he was...
Draven looked around the battlefield, finally spotting Sigilus lying on the ground some distance away. He lifted the martial artist up from the ground by the shoulder, and with the other hand poured a blue liquid from a vial into his mouth.
"Come boy, we have work to do..."
He sat the warrior down with his back leaning against a partially destroyed brick wall to wait for the elixir to take effect. Feeling rather worn out himself, he removed a second elixir from his belt-- his last one, and drank it. Soon his full strength was back, which was exactly what he needed considering the damage he was planning to do in the next couple of moments...
The group of soldiers he sent out earlier to find the sword approched him, lead by the lieutenant.
"My lord... we... could not find the blade..."
"I know THAT!"
"!"
"The lightning mage has it. Quickly, go to the forest just south of here and FIND HIM!" Draven then added as a second thought, "If you find him, don't attempt to fight him, he'll kill you too easily. Send someone back to get me and I'll handle it."
The solidiers scurried off, execept for the lieutenant, who paused for a moment.
"Yes, my lord. Also... why have the doors to the castle been barred?"
"Huh?"
----
About twenty soldiers flooded the hallway, all heading in the direction of the stairwell. Duilin mace smacked one, who fell immediately.
Drawing his broadsword, the officer dove at Scorch.
"Bedroom? I'll put ya ta sleep! ARRRRGHHHH!!!"
-
Sigilus slowly began to regain consciousness. As his eyes opened, he let out a groan.
"Never before has a job been THIS difficult..."
It took a while for Sigilus's full strength to return, but when it did happen, Sigilus was able to leap back to his feet. Before he went anywhere, though, he decided to stretch. After 10 minutes of stretching and warming up, Sigilus was ready to fight.
"Alright, you want me to track down Scorch, right? No problem...I'm itchin' for revenge now. Just let me pay a visit to the armory first...they have some pretty decent Martial Arts weapons...let me just make sure the Mythril Nunchuku and the Mythril Daito are still there..."
-
While still sitting at the floor, Scorch looked at the officer like a fool and with a tip of his staff he touched the edge of his sword, inducing electricity to flow through his blade, into the arm and rest of organism.
"The stairway up the castle might serve as some escape route, Duilin." - he said. - "I might land on the grounds below and find some escape route. But, it's dangerous. Draven's propably still outside. Plus, I can't carry Iduran around... And I'm really tired."
-
Duilin nods at Scorch and then takes looks to take out a couple of potions he has to heal himeself and Scorch. He then sees he only has one so he tosses it to Scorch. "Take it! You need this more then I do!" Duilin says
He then picked up the soilder he hit and then tossed it at the other soilders.
"Let's see if you enjoy this!" Duilin yelled
-
"Nah, I have one that needs it more here", says Scorch, still sitting, keeping attackers at bay by waving his staff in the air with one hand, leaving streams of electric sparks, while pouring healing liquid into Iduran's mouth with second.
// Well, I'll leave controlling Iduran to Xorlak Very Happy //
-
"Hmmm... why would the castle doors be closed..."
Draven turned to the newly restored Sigilus.
"Excellent. Come quickly, I suddenly get the feeling our traitor isn't so far after all..."
He then darted in the direction of the castle. Arriving at the huge front doors, and realizing they actually were sealed, he began to pound on them angrily.
"Idiots! Let me in... NOW!"
----
(Wait a second... Didn't Scorch leave his staff behind when he teleported? Heh...)
The electrified officer flew backward, nearly hitting Duilin, and landed into three of the oncoming soldiers, who in turn knocked down a good five or six more. As they stumbled on top of eachother, trying to get up, they were hit by the second soldier who Duilin tossed at them, causing a body trafic jam in the middle of the hallway.
Iduran coughed a bit and slowly opened his eyes.
"Where... am I?"
-
Duilin then closes his eyes and focuses his energy.....He clears his mind and then charges up another one of those huge fire balls and blasts it at the soilder wile they were blocked by the dead dude!
-
// Xorlak, didn't I mention my teleportation spell was locational, so everything in general vicinity was teleported as well? Laughing To clarify this, I've added some info to the post where I teleported. B) //
Scorch thrown empty potion flask at the soldiers, grabbing Iduran's sword, putting it before his eyes.
"Looks like Draven was here because of THIS. And I guess you're now supposed to tell me, Iduran, why would he ride a village for this? What is the POWER of this weapon?"
As Scorch talked, he suddenly realised the staff he was waving with the other hand fell out and after electrocuting one of soldiers, it fell beneath the feet of attacking crowds.
"Oh lightning! Speak, sire, while I'll get down there to recover it..."
Wizard stood up seeing that without any sort of telekinezis he won't be able to recover his weapon.
"Duilin, wait up with your fireballs, I don't want to get burned!"
-
"Curses!"
Draven raised his right hand into the air. Concentrating energy into his fingertips, a blade of fire eventually extened from his hand. He then jammed his hand into the thick wooden door, piercing through to the other side.
----
Duilin's fire attack slammed into the group of oncomming soldiers, the ones that were hit giving off a synchronized "UHHHNNH!!!" sound as they fell.
Iduran looked Scorch in the eye.
"The power... I don't know. It is a family heirloom which was rumored to posses great strength... but how to unseal it or even if it is true, I don't know..."
He struggled to stand up, clutching his side, still in pain, he recognized his own castle.
"There might be a way, though... But first, we need to escape..."
-
It seems powerful even when unsealed. - said Scorch, chopping off few body parts of soldiers who survived Duilin's attack. Suddenly, he noticed place where his staff fell. Seeing it was still surrounded by enemies, he pointed a thinger and released a small bolt of lightning, which struck the closest foe and exploded into a blinding nova of sparks. Using the time, Scorch grabbed the staff by it's orb side (still hot from released energy), then realised the wooden handle was broken in half.
"Ah, all storms!" - he cursed and in fury cut a first oncoming enemy with a cleaving strike with Iduran's sword - "Now it looks more of a scepter!"
He made a few steps back, seeing a pile of unconsious and dead enemies in his front, sat on the stairs near Iduran, polishing the broken tip of staff with the sword.
"Escape, you say? How? By air? I doubt it'll work. Unless you and Duilin know how to fly, levitate and other magic of this sort. And it might aggravate Draven... I wonder where is he now. Also, I bet whole island now serves as a base for Dark Empire."
-
"Well we probally shouldn't go threw the main entrance because I got it blocked up so Draven and Silgus can't get in....hope it will hold...I wish I could fly but the only thing I do is blast fireballs as big as I can handle....I don't quiet remember how I learned how to do that...It's odd really....Well anyway maybe you can do your teleportanion thingy and get us out of here, you can teleport other people...right?"
-
Draven removed his hand from the small hole in the door, and seeing that he had managed to create a vertical crack as well, pressed the palm of his left hand against the weak spot. His arm began to glow crimson, seeming with energy. After a few seconds, he dispersed the blast into the door, causing a sudden violent explosion to shake the quiet. The huge doors fell backward with a crash.
----
Iduran flinched as he heard an explosion-- too close... definiately from within the castle.
"The island... I doubt they have it completely under their control. This castle is the only point of interest. I doubt they stopped at all the southern villages, considering how fast they got here..."
Still clutching his side, Iduran began to make his way up the stairs.
"If we can't fly or teleport, we might be able to climb out of here..."
Cautiously coming to the top of the stairwell, he opened a door to what lead to some type of servant quarters. There was one window in the room. The trio were in the northern wing of the castle, which was opposite of the battlefield/town where all the action had been taking place. However, this northern end faced the ocean. Looking down from the window, one could only see a few yards of black jagged rocks separating the castle wall from the raging waters 50 feet below.
-
"Wow...well will you check out this crazy joint!" Duilin said wile walking around with his mace over his sholder he walks up to a window "Great view..." He looks a Iduran "So what do we do now?"
-
Scorch, hearing the explosion, stood up again and followed Iduran, practicing basic combat moves with his new scepter-esque staff.
He came up to window, looking below.
"Not good. What do we do? I won't risk flying with such wind, and I am totally drained and can't teleport. Maybe let's first get some alive soldier and throw him there to see what's the propability of getting crashed on a rock?"
Scorch thinked for a while.
"There is another way. Dark Empired used wyverns, right? We might be able to get one. Altrough there is risk it'll rather devour us alive than allow us to fly it."
"Hey, just kidding! Who jumps first? Duilin?"
-
Duilin glares at Scorch at that jumping remark and then his glare fades back into a normal face "Acually that Wyvern isn't such a bad idea! I'm a Dark Warrior of the Dark Empire, remember? I can probally fly one, I've done it before. It's quite fun!"
//Xorlak I think you should sticky this topic!//
-
(I'll sticky it the next time the board becomes filled with meaningful posts, heh...)
Draven walked through the hallway with authority to a large group of soldiers at the other end, who with their weapons brandished, were surprised to see their general rather than an enemy army.
"Lord... Draven?"
"Who barred the door?"
Silence.
"WHO BARRED THE DOOR?"
The group backed away slowly, except for one soldier, whose armor clanged as his knees shook. He dropped his weapon as soon as he realized he was alone and Draven was staring directly at him.
"I... I-I d-did... sir..."
"And why is that?"
"A... a-a soldier said--"
"A soldier? NOT your officer?"
"Well..."
Draven extened his right hand. The unfortunate soldier immediately erupted in flame. Three crimson orbs appeared, circling around him, lifting him off of the ground. The onlooking soldiers watched in horror as the orbs closed in on their target, and with another violent explosion the dark warrior was gone, with several of the onlookers slightly wounded by metal shards of the warrior's armor...
----
Iduran shuddered at the memory of hearing the wyvern screams for the first time...
"Hmmm... a wyvern might be too risky..."
Iduran leaned out the window and pointed to the rocks.
"It looks bad from here, but there's actually a narrow strip of beach between the rocks and ocean that we can't see from up here. It runs across the entire nothern tip of this island and down the east end for perhaps a half mile. What I'm saying is if we can get down there, no one in the castle will be able to see us..."
He then looked around the room. Being a servant's quarters, the opposite end had a bed, which Iduran approached and removed the top sheet.
"Perhaps we could make a rope..."
-
Sigilus was down in the armory, exploring the various Martial Arts Weapons, all made of the finest metals, and all in unused condition. Sigilus's eyes were fixed on a silver set of nunchuku with a red dragon etched into the poles, as well as a set of samurai swords with blue dragon patterns etched into the hilt, and last but not least, 12 ninja stars with pre-poisoned tips. Sigilus was surely happy. But what made things even better, they had a nice selection of Martial Arts Uniforms hanging up in the back; even one made by Adidas. Sigilus ripped off his now filthy uniform, grabbed one of the hanging uniforms, and put it on. He felt something inside the uniform...a red bandana. He put it on. After putting all the weapons where they belong, Sigilus returned to the throne room and approached Draven.
"Awaiting orders, sir!"
-
Out of the shadows jumps out Lodour, a dark Knight skilled in the art of the darksword "not evil".
let me ask you a question, what side do you fight for, and what are you fighting for.
What causes you to intrude this castle, and what do you fight for, the likes of good... or evil?
Tell me your name. Will you attack me, befriend me... or will you run away like a coward.
Those are the questions I ask you. Attack me and feel real pain, or befriend me and have my darkswords' aid in battle. The choice is yours.
(I'm new at this, so gimmie a break)
-
//////////////////////
Ok, Monty, ekhm, Montai.
I am Scorch, the air mage. I worked for Dark Empire, I got angered by one of it's officers and betrayed it, now I seek revange upon Draven (he propably wants the same), but as you might have read from posts - we're locked in castle, currently. With a sword of unknown power, Iduran and Duilin.
Befriend you? You're a knight of Dark Empire, I guess. So I'll whack my way through your corpse, most likely, altrough it depends.
//////////////////////
Scorch looked at Iduran. "Come on, for lightning's sake... A powerful bunch of heroes using a rope made from bedding?"
He thinked for a while, looking through the window.
"The floor we're on seems a bit high. We don't have much time, I guess Draven returned. That actually means he most likely is making audience to his soldiers, which won't last too long, but will give us some time, at least... Hmm. You guys should try to make that rope, there also should be some clothes in wardrobe here... And I'll check the height."
He came to the open window, looked down once again, left the mysterious sword Draven searched for, grabbed staff with both arms for good balance and jumped.
"Remember to take the sword!"
As Scorch flied, he tried to direct himself as close as possible to the castle wall. He somehow succeeded - with remains of magical energy he generated a small field of wind which slowed his fall a bit. After some time of falling, he fell at the small beach area, plunging into the sand.
"Ouch."
"Wasn't bad, guys."
Standing up, with his legs hurting a lot, he realised the beach wasn't too big. And the sand wasn't perfectly dry. Any greater tidal wave could smash him against the castle wall, or take him into the sea and smash on the rocks.
"Silence!" - screamed Scorch in fury, and there was silence.
As the wind slowly stopped and the waves reduced in size, he crossed his legs, sat on the ground and began to meditate to renew some energy.
-
///
I'm with Scorch so I'll chosse whatever he dose, I guess
///
Duilin looked down at Scorch "Wizards..." He then walked over the wardrobe, took some cloths out and then tossed them to Iduran and took some others out for himself "Let's get started on makeing that rope!" He said wile tieing a few cloths together "Soo..." He siad trieng to start convorsation
-
(Montai, which group are you approaching? I'm assuming Draven and Sigilus, since you're following MotD's post. Please specify next time!)
Draven folded his arms, eyeing the newcomer.
"Lodour, huh? You look like one of us, but I never heard of you. Why are we here? Because I claim this castle in the name of the Dark Emperor, that's why. If you have some sort of problem with that, do tell, although I can't guarantee you won't end up looking like him when we're done..."
He motioned his head, indicating the stain of blood on the floor.
"But, if you're looking for a job... then you've come to the right place."
Remebering the urgency of time, he turned to Sigilus.
"Scour the castle. Scorch is here, I'm sure of it. Subduing him would be nice, but the true priority is the sword he has-- the one the old knight was using. I'll explain why later. If you find him, use this."
Draven tossed him a small dark blue stone, about an inch in diameter. He held an identical one in his hand.
"When you find him, strike that upon a hard surface and break it. Doing so will cause it to glow, mine as well. After that, I will be there within seconds. Now go!"
He then turned back to Lodour.
"So, what will it be? Fame or death? Will you join us, or die? Hurry and decide, for I've other matters to attend to..."
----
Iduran returned his sword back to his sheath on his back. Ripping some ornamental cloths off of the wall, he began to tie them to the end opposite of Duilin's. In a few minutes they had a fairly long makeshift rope. He tied one end to the sturdy table near the window and threw the other end out. The two watched as it unwined to the bottom, although it stopped a good 10 feet or so above the rocks.
"Blast... I guess that'll have to do..."
Making sure the rope was steady first, he lifted himself out the window and began to slowly climb down.
"Coming, Duilin?"
-
"You bet I am!" Duilin said as he started walked down the rope. Duilin hoped of then looked up at the rope scrached his chin and shook his head
"I belive they will find this rope and then climb down it and follow us...I subject we destory this rope as soon as posible, probally burning it would be a good idea....Scorch?"
-
I guess I'll choose fame, thoght it would ruin my cover... Laughing I'll join you.
And whats with the black Mage guy... He seems to be a few mp short of his max mp :blink:
Threats won't help you to earn my trust, neither would it make me want to help you...
Just admit it! You need my darkpower to pass through the shadows don't cha? <_<
-
// Montai, I simply cast spells fo monumentaly powerful they usually drain my energy, heh... //
Scorch, still sitting in his meditating position, feeling somehow better with his head, looked above, seeing a rope.
"Destroy the rope?" - Scorch screamed to be heard well. - "Of course! But first, I guess I should wait before you two down here?"
Scorch returned to his meditation, gathering more energy, feeling the escape from the castle, even with Iduranleading through his most safe of paths will need his magic...
-
Draven smirked.
"I personally don't require your trust, though you would be wise to obtain mine..."
Then, looking more serious.
"I'm looking for the traitor, Scorch, a poor soul who thinks he has a chance at dismantling our empire. Tch! There is another traitor as well, a common soldier, Duilin I belive his name is. I have reason to belive they are working together. And there is a third, an old knight of this castle, though he may not still be alive... What I want is his sword, an ornate blade with a red gem... Scorch was seen with it last."
"So you see, you have four ways of pleasing me. Find them, and I shall reward you well. They may be in this very castle, though any more delay may allow them to escape..."
He turned around, seeing the group of dark soldiers were still nevously watching.
"That goes for you too! GO! FIND THEM! Notify everyone you see!"
The soldiers scattered once more, a bit more confident now that a reward was involved. Not wanting to waste any more time, Draven ran into the nearest hallway, although totally unsure of where to start looking...
----
Iduran made the leap from the end of the rope to the top of the rocks, falling over on impact, but his armor protected him from a jagged edge.
"I'm too old for this..."
He began to climb down the rocky ledge to the sandy beach where Scorch was located.
"Burning it isn't a bad idea, but I hope your spell doesn't attract any attention..."
-
Duilin hops of the rocks and goes and sits a few feet away from Scorch, he looks up in the sky and blinks a few times. He then starts thinking about his past...
-
Sigilus bowed toward Draven, then exited the throne room. Upon searching the upper levels, he noticed a rope of bedding hanging out of the tower. Sigilus grabbed on and lowered himself as fast as possible. When he got to the beach area, he saw Scorch not too far from him, in deep meditation, and Iduran climbind over some nearby rocks to get to Scorch.
Grinning to himself, Sigilus approached them both.
"I mean not to attack you right now. I had a vision in my state of total unconsciousness...why serve the Dark Empire for gold when my honor will be at stake? My master wanted me to see this, and I've decided to go back to my old ways. Prepare to fight, as I will summon Draven. When he appears, we will all strike."
Before either Iduran and Scorch could reply, Sigilus bashed the blue stone on the castle wall, then readied his nunchuku.
-
"Ropes are bad!" Duilin said "What's up with that blue rock he killed?!?"
-
"You're FAST," - Scorch said, opening eyes which now have glown with sparks of light and standing up, seeing Siligus. - "Hold on guys! I have some martial artist to take care of."
Scorch concentrated deeply, whispering words of conjuration. The world slowed down for him as he casted his best friend, "haste" spell. In the slow motion, he raised his staff held in both hands high the air, closing eyes and screaming another spell as the wind behind him got stronger, gathering behind him... The columns of water began to gather, clashing against an air barrier wizard created, rising into water wall several feet high...
Scorch remained in silence and concentration for a while. The area was now seperated like by a dam, the beach was absolutely dry and clean while huge amounts of water water were gathered and blocked by air barrier...
Then, air wizard spoke one single word with soft voice and the air barrier was dissolved, releasing fury of the tides rushing to clash all four against the castle wall.
Scorch began to ran toward Iduran and Duilin trying to whisper one more spell, seeing the tsunami heading toward them, with waves high enought to block the sight of sun...
-
"Oh no...what's next..."Duilin cried as he closed his eyes
-
Sigilus saw the tsunami approaching, and reacting quickly, he leapt up the castle wall, and jumped all the way to the rocky ledge, grabbing for Iduran's sword.
"(Editor: Censored) this sucker method; I'm doin' it my way!"
And then he thought to himself, "Where the hell is Draven!?"
-
Duilin swung his mace at Silguses arm hope to force him to drop the sword
"You want some of this!?!"
-
Sigilus had already anticipated the attack and drew his katana to slice the mace and it's weilder into two pieces in the blink of an eye.
-
Draven stopped running in mid stride. He removed from his pocket the blue stone that was glowing dimly.
"That was fast..."
He chuckled, throwing the stone into the air and catching it. He could feel the location of the other one, some 500 feet to his left and perhaps 100 downward.
"Perfect."
He dashed through the hallways, gathering energy as he ran. His crimson flame engulfed him once more, growing brighter with each stride. Outside he could hear some sort of activity. Waves? A storm? It was most certainly Scorch. After a moment of running he ran into a dead end. Well, it wasn't really a dead end but it was the closest point to his target location he could get to from within the castle. Not willing to find a way around the wall, Draven thrusted both hands forward, forcing a huge wave of concentrated fire into the stone blocks before him.
The chaos on the beachfront was augmented by a section of the overlooking castle wall exploding. Huge stone blocks were thrown outward into the sea. Arms crossed, cape and fire aura blowing in the intense wind, Draven stood at the center of the hole.
"Heh... ready for round four?"
----
Steping away from Sigilus and Duilin, Iduran gasped at the huge wave corsing for him. He couldn't do anything but brace himself in anticipation of impact...
-
Duilin then swung out the Buster sword that he swiped from Darion's copres awile ago but instead of attack Silgus he jumped and behind a large rock waiting for the large wave and waiting for Silgus to come...
-
"Whoa, whoa! Easy, gentlemen!" - said Scorch, conjuring a whirlwind of air beneath his feet, rising into the sky, rotating around, propelled by wind like insane. Riding the stream of whirling wind, he headed toward the wave and few moments before impact "sucked" Iduran, the sword and a few hectoliters of water into the whirlwind, as the tidal waves passed through it.
"Not good." - said Scorch, somehow managing to stop rotating in the wind, looking upon the castle. - "Here comes Draven, once more. Guess our escape will be."
Then he realised Draven was of course prepparing his next mega-super-uber fire attack.
"Silence!" - screamed Scorch and the whirlwind was dissolved... dropping him, Iduran and the sword into the water, which was prodigously calm compared to the smashing wave which passed them and was about to strike the castle now.
"Wander water were wis wess wopability waven's fire wattack will wurt wus..." - said Scorch, plunging into the depths before the pressure pushed him up once more.
// Okay, let's assume I took a bit "control" over Iduran but the situation was so pathetic for him he wouldn't be propably able to do anything himself, heh... //
-
I can hear swords clashing from a distance away. Could it be that Someone got to him before i did. I sure as won't waste anymore time here!!! *Will following *Draken* Stop in the name of Our lor.... Says two soldiers.
Hmp.. I don't have time to deal with this. Lodour snaps his fingers, and a small protal of darkness appers as the two soldiers are running to him, and it sucked them in.
Fools *Lodour wispered*
How fast does the Draken guy run, even I have difficulties trying to catch up with him.
-
// Enter the new character: Cheetah! Check the characters' section - he's gepardi shapeshifter using spear and being able to capture defeated enemies' essence to change into them, sort of Erik from DA1 //
As Scorch plunged into depths, he suddenly noticed a barracude swimming in his direction.
"Lightning! I thought we'll be safe here!"
Without thinking much, he pulled his staff, pointed toward fish and wanted to create a stream of electricity to get rid of it.
-----
As Cheetah swam in his barracuda form, he noticed some mad sorceror who propably forgot laws of physics and tried to use electricity in salt water, effectively burning himself all over the hands as the uncontrolled field of energy exploded in all directions... Breaking his scepter-esque staff.
Seeing the dangerous situation, Cheetah transformed to his human form and swam toward the wizard... "What's going on man?"
"You owe me a staff!" - Scorch said. - "What in the storm are you, anyway?"
"Pleased to meet you, I'm Cheetah. And pleased to meet your... friend?" - Cheetah was unsure what to say about Iduran. - "I see he's not in best condition."
"He'll be fine. I hope. Unlike my staff..." - Scorch noticed parts of wooden and metal elements swimming in the sea below him.. - "Seems I've just polluted ocean with dangerous materials. That'll anger earth-mages, they're terrible ecologists. Anyway, we have greater problem here. The sword. It has unknown power and we'll propably have to defend it from that mad guy - Draven - which just blasted apart castle's wall with his precious fireworks."
Cheetah suddenly leaped out of water, transforming into a wyvern, flapping his wings to get rid of water, flying a bit higher to see what's happening.
-----
"Hmm... With the wyvern form, this guy might be able to grab the sword - and maybe us - to safety... Iduran, what are you thinking on this?"
-
Duilin jump out from under the rock and swam over to Scorch and Iduran....
"Who's he?" Duilin asked
-
Iduran coughed as he struggled to keep afloat in the water. His armor was weighing him down. He managed to grab his sword before it sunk with his right hand, but that wasn't helping him stay up either.
"*Cough* Sure-*choke* That'll work! *cough* Get me outta here!"
----
Draven lept out of the hole in the wall, hovering in mid air some 20 feet over the oncoming wave as it slammed into the side of the castle. Mist flew backwards, but it turned to steam as it drew close to his aura of flame.
"Maniac... He'll kill himself before I get the chance..."
He conjured his energy in preparation for an attack, looking for his adversary to surface somewhere. Suddenly he spotted the scaly wings of a wyvern raising from the sea and taking flight. Below it, there were three figures floating in the ocean. It clearly wasn't one of the Dark Empire's.
"Huh? Where did they get that? Tch! No matter..."
Lowering his altitude a bit, Draven extened his right palm and supported his arm with his left hand. He began by firing a flury of low energy, yet high speed fireballs angled downwards in the direction the flying beast and the three suspended in the water...
-
"This guy is a maniac! What does he want?" - said Cheetah as he saw fireballs flying in his direction, instantly leaping into water, switching to his human form again. - "I'm getting mad from these all transformations. What were you talking about?"
"You see..." - began Scorch.
"Cheetah."
"Okay. You see, Cheetah, this guy over here..." - wizard noticed Iduran must have sunk a bit deeper. - "Anyway, somewhere beaneath here is a Romme soldier with sword which will need aid. Get him - and the sword - to safety. Most prefrably, some southern villages, if they're uninvaded."
"Of course."
Cheetah turned into a grey shark, located Iduran, instantly transformed into wyvern, grabbed him and his sword with claws, than with great effort leapt out of water and avoiding Draven's fireballs, flew directly at the castle, hoping the roof of it will allow him for some rest before further flight. And propably he'll be able to persuade Iduran to remove his heavy armor which slowed him down a bit.
After all - unless Draven's know how to fly, it'll take him lots of time to get to the castle roof... Wink
-
"Okay then....What the hell do we do now....Kill Silgus?" Duilin said swiming around treing to find Silgus "Ever since I killed Darion...I've craved to kill some more!!"
Oh no! Duilin's turned in to a psycopath! Surprised Laughing
-
The fireballs dissapated as they hit the water, but not without causing waves and steam to rise. Draven turned his attention to the wyvern as it lifted Iduran above and to the castle walls.
"Not so fast!"
With a flash of his aura of flame, he instantly gathered the energy to propel himself some 50 feet higher. He arched himself towards the top of the castle wall, landing with his arms folded right in front of the wyvern just as he rose over the edge. Draven's eyes turned immediately to the sword in Iduran's hand.
"Didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"
The half drowned Iduran choked in the wyvern's talons.
"I'm getting too old for this..."
-
Duilin then thinks for awile and then notices that he is a stupid idiot and he should have done this way earlier. He then takes out his CROSS BOW THAT HE HAD THE WHOLE TIME! and fries it a Draven
He he...This should get him mad! Duilin thinks to himself
-
// Duilin, surely you're gonna beat Wilhelm Tell. Firing crossbow while swimming in the middle of ocean Laughing //
Cheetah suddenly proppeled itself higher, turned back, dropped Iduran, catched the sword alone coiling tail around it, then dived, grabbed Iduran itself with claws again (hoping poor old knight doesn't have locomotion sickness), rapidly moved forward and over Draven, throwing Iduran at sentry tower of the castle, crushing one terrified Dark Empire soldier who was sent there my some not-too-high-in-rank officer to scout the area.
-----
"Take care, Duilin."
Scorch saw unclearly from below what was happening and tried to focus. Without his staff, it was a bit harder. He concentrated and teleported - landing at outer wall of the castle, behind Draven, in a pool of water which teleported along with him.
"Guess we won't be able to get away from here unless we'll deal with Draven first" - he said, as usually, with post-teleportational headache.
-
Wile Duilin was fireing his crossbow he obviously sank underwater. He the arrows he shot at him were vary clumsy but distracting to his foe. He then decieded that he should find a rock or something like that to stand one he then sees that boulder he was hinding under and then steps onto it. The rock was slighty under water but it only made the water knee deep for him. He then noticed that he dosen't have alot of arrows so he then decieded to use them carefully. He looked around for something to kill!
-
Draven looked to his left as a poorly aimed arrow flew past him. It wasn't the fact that the arror itself was distracting, but that it came from someone suspened in the water below, wearing armor (heh...) Before he could foward one of his clever remarks, the wyvern was nearly upon him. Draven lept backwards in anticipation of attack, but watched him as he flew past and flung Iduran to the (relative) safety of a nearby tower. He turned once more as Scorch appeared behind him.
"New pet, huh? ... Hey, Scorch, you're all wet..."
He thew his head up in obnoxious laughter. Clearly he was the only one who found that amusing. He then gave Scorch one of his slanted grins.
"That cut on your neck doesn't look too good. Maybe I should finish it for you..."
Widening his stance, he slowly waved his hands in a sort of figure-eight type pattern. Vermillion points of light gathered from his surroundings and followed his movement...
----
Iduran rolled off of the dark soldier, who began to groan. Realising he wasn't unconcious, Iduran gave the man a punch to the face with his metal gauntlet. That solved the problem.
He then warily peered over the short wall around the edge of the tower to see what was unfolding at the top of the castle wall below...
-
Scorch lifted, hovering into the air. Water was dropping from him.
"Seems you like to glow like a christmas tree, Draven. No need to finish my wounds, I'll make sure yours will be better."
Scorch, in the air, put his arms in all possible length to the sides, rised his head and formed a cross-like shape with whole his levitating body. From beneath his long, waving hair eyes shined like sparks as the clouds gathered above the castle, led by some unnatural wind.
Then Scorched closed his eyes, whispering "Ira fulgorum" and lightning strikes were unleashed from the darkened sky at great speed, striking highest points of the castle.
-----
"Oh great, these mad wizards are gonna kill us all..." - said Cheetah, landing near Iduran. He grabbed him, still holding sword with the tail, and thrown, along with the sword, at the outer walls as suddenly a lightning struck the tower they were previously on.
---- (back to Scorch)
And as Scorch began to focus even more, switching his position into more "combat-like" (still in the air), he - to test his new method - "magnetised" one of lightning striking, which struck him, then, passing through his body, gone our where his right hand was pointing - at one of tower, effectively breaking about half of it into bricks.
-
Duilin then looked around and noticed something...
"I think Silgus is dead now...Meh"
He then saw that Scorch and Draven were fighting and then saw that he was stuck in here in the water, standing on a rock.
"Well.....*ahem*....I guess I'll just....Umm....." Duilin then staped his cross bow back and took out the empty potion vails he has and started filling them up with water. He drank on of them wile he was filling up the rest...
-
(Does Duilin know that's salt water? Heh...)
"Tch! Fireworks, huh? Fine..."
Finishing his hand motion, Draven clenched his fists and snaped his arms to his side. An explosion of bright crimson energy suddenly emenated from his body, shaking the very foundation of the castle. The force was so violent, the stones that made up the floor he was standing on crumbled, leaving him floating over a hole in the castle roof over 15 feet in diameter. Deep cracks ran down the side of the outer wall. Draven's aura of flame-- rather the huge fireball that engulfed him, pierced through the dark shade of the clouds, illuminating the area in an unholy red light. The band that neatly tied Draven's long hair back had flown off, leaving his black hair flowing wildly within the infernal engulfing him.
"You first..."
-
(In the middle ages they had very little knowledge of how bad sea water was)
Duilin continued to scoup up water and then finaly filled up all his vails. Duilin was very sore and had rashes and cuts all over him from all the fightning and the rust from his armor from being underwater. Suddenly he notices a little strange odd looking critter swimming up to him *check charactor sign ups for more info* It's a Anphibidog and he hoped up to Duilin and squaked at him
"My, my aren't you a cute little critter!" Duilin says pating him on the head "I'm going to name you after my dog that Darion killed awile ago, Gedi!"
Gedi smiled and then rubed his head on Duilins. He then picked up a stick and then gave it to Duilin
"Umm...Play...well I don't think it's the best time really..." Duilin said
-
"Let's add some fuel to your heat!" - said Scorch, as he concentrated and from the sky, a lightning beam struck him, stopped for a while inside his organism as Scorch closed his eyes, then as he opened them the stream of energy flew out of tips of his thingers directed directly in source of the red light, into Draven's feiry aura.
Just after he done that, he began to slowly step out of Draven's way (still in the air), awaiting what hell he might have preppared for him.
-----
"Not good." - Cheetah said to Iduran. - "Whatever your name is and however tired are you, I propose you tell me the escape route from here. Maybe using the fact these two fight, we'll be able to sneak out into some villages this air wizard spoke about."
-
Duilin then looks at Gedi and then sees if he can understand him. He thoches him with both of his hands and says Gedi. He then points to himself and says Duilin and then points to Scorch and says his name and then Iduran and Chetah. He then points to Draven and says, Draven, bad, very bad man, attack. Wile saying attack he makes an agery face and swings his fist and bites the air. Gedi then swims closer to Draven and starts squaking at him Duilin then dives after Gedi
"No Gedi, Bad dog no! Don't! Get back here!" He yells
Gedi continues to squak and and growl at Draven
-
Draven trusted both hands forward, effectively creating a shield of energy in front of him. The surge of lighting thundered into it and the two spells neutrillized each other, sending sparks and flame in random directions. Draven separated his hands in the impact, which pushed him backwards a few inches. He then repeated the motion, bringing both arms in front, but this time a large orb of flame gathered at his palms.
"Ha!"
The surrounding energy condensed and a continous beam of fire, perfectly cylindrical in shape, eminated from his outstreched arms, barreling at Scorch...
----
Iduran looked up at the wyvern.
"You can... talk? Er... yeah that's right, a Gepardi... If you can fly us a little ways southeast of here we might make it to one of our strongholds... But stay near the ground. If you fly below the level of the walls, I doubt he'll be able to see us... And where's that young one... Duilin? We better pick him up as well."
-
"I dislike the idea of being invited by my ex-commander into a barbacue."- said Scorch as he propelled himself up on a stream of rapid wind, trying to evade the circular beam, again summoning a lightning from the sky and pointing it below, to cross with the stream while hovering up and toward Draven.
-----
"Duilin?" - Cheetah thinked for a while and turned himself into cheetah, leaving Iduran, running through the crumbling walls and over destroyed tower, jumping into the ocean where Duilin and Gedi were, in the air changing back into human and diving into the water.
"Duilin," - he said. - "That old knight calls for you. We must get out of here quickly, before we'll catch Draven's attrention."
"And what's that?" - said Cheetah, noticing Gedi. - "A new, strange beast for me to slay and recieve the part of it's energy! Preppare yourself!"
And in few seconds, Cheetah turned himself into a grey shark, prepparing to hunt down the new spotted beast.
-
The pillar of fire raged forward, cutting the corner of a wall behind Scorch's previous location. The lightning strike altered the trajectory of the beam a bit, grazing and knocking off some lose stones on the floor below, and flames and sparks danced around the castle roof.
Releasing the stream of energy, Draven turned his attention upward to his airborne opponent. He pressed his palms together as in prayer, and in bringing them apart, another crimson orb appeared in between. He continued pulling his hands away from each other until the orb was over two feet in diameter. He then threw the ball of flame straight upward, and when it was nearly half way to the traitor Draven clenched his right fist, causing the orb to explode into twenty or so smaller balls of flame, which flew in all directions.
But when the balls had covered a good spread of the sky, Draven thrust his right hand forward. The orbs immediately changed their trajectories, all heading directly at Scorch at varying speeds...
----
Iduran dodged a falling statue from the roof above, leaning his back against a wall.
"What madness!"
-
Duilin then swings jumps in front of Cheetah and then points his sword at his head
"This one...stays with me...Let's just go to Iduran I can carry this little guy myself...Okay?" Duilin says lowering his sword away from Cheetah abit
-
Seeing his chances of evasion are little, Scorch conjured a whirlwind of air, which sucked most of the small fireballs and sent them whirlwing to release in the sky.
"Huh... Looks like it wasn't hard." - said wizard, as still he noticed 2 separate fireballs flying in his direction, which most likely still "remembered" what their target was supposed to be, even after being sent through waves of wirling air. Scorch divded in the air few feet below, as one fireball following him changed it's trajectory, flew above his head and exploded at the castle walls, yet the second one was persistant and tracked him as he tried to dodge it by flying - this time - higher. Seeing the not-too-good situation, Scorch put his leg before the flying ball, as if he wanted to kick it, making it explode on it.
As his leg stood on fire, he put it out with a breeze of conjured wind.
"You're going to pay for this, Draven!"
Scorch gathered energy, electric impulses began to fly through his body (the thunder rage he conjured previously was slowly fading, only from time to time a lightning struck some point of castle or killed some soldier of Dark Empire foolish enough to get outdoors). Then, flashing from energy, Scorch assumed "superman position", with his both arms straight forward, and began to dive in the air, heading to Draven. A trail of lightning energy was left past him as he flew.
-----
"All right, all right!" - said Cheetah. - "Will you get out of this water yourself..." - (laugh) - "Or do I need to wyvern-transport you outta here? Make decision quickly, I don't that old guy to end up his life in the middle of two wizards battle."
-
Wrapped in fire, Draven took off for his opponent in much the same way, leaving a blazing trail behind him as he flew higher and higher. When they were halfway to each other (which only took a few seconds due to both of their incredible speed) Draven positioned both hands above his head, sprouting a stream of fire, which quickly formed into his crimson blade. He aimed to split the traitor in two...
----
Iduran resheathed his sword, which the Gepardi apparently dropped while transforming. Peeing from behind a wall, he gasped at the site of what looked like two huge balls of energy about to collide above him, one yellow, one red...
-
Wyvern up now! GO, GO, GO! Iduran's in trouble!" Duilin says grabing on to Gedi
-
Cheetah quickly turned into wyvern, grabbing Dulin, which held Gedi, and flew toward Iduran.
"Not good." - he THOUGHT, seeing Draven with his crimson blade and Scorch about to collide.
-----
Scorch suddenly slowed down, stayed in one place, then after moment of concentration he unleashing the energy within himself into a nova of light (or, rather, a ring of electrical waves) which emanated from himself and extended to all sides.
Feeling like it won't be enough to stop Draven, Scorch whispered another spell, and as the ring of light still betrayed his position, he slowly began to turn transparent, less and less visible in the air.
-
//Hey just to let you know, it thought not thinked//
Gedi started squiming and squakeing trying to get free from Duilin
"Trust me Gedi...This is for your own good!" Duilin yelled
-
//Guys, where are we now? I've been off for too long...help me catch up...where does Sigilus stand?//
During all this, Mark of the Dragon is at home, writing to his super-cute korean penpal Smile
-
// Sigilius is propably either sinking in the middle of ocean, or was thrown into the air or through the castle window as the tidal wave struck against the walls //
-
Sigilus sank to the bottom of the ocean, never to be heard from again.
-
(Same setting. Basically Draven and Scorch are engaged in mortal combat above the castle, Cheetah is the new (good guy) shapeshifter, and Duilin found some type of aquatic dog animal (heh...))
Expecting the coward to teleport once more, Draven braced his arms, ready to strike.
"Not this time!"
He slammed into the waves of energy, which nearly halved his speed, but his aura of flame protected him. Rearing his whole body back, he violently slashed his blade diagonally downward at the translucent Scorch.
-
"Lightning damn it, I'm out of luck today!" - said Scorch as he tried to blink backward a few meters, which actually causes two results: Draven managed to slice his head with his crimson blade, leaving another huge scar (on his skull, this time) and putting his hair on fire, plus Scorch re-appeared straight at the waves of nova energy he created himself (altrough that was minor pain, as over time sorcerors learn how to avoid most damage from their own spells).
Seeing the blood dripping down his head before his eyes, blurring his vision and feeling his whole head burning from the flame, Scorch decided to act fast. He quickly uses his haste spell, flied toward Draven (which was pretty close, now), trying to put out fire using air friction (obviously air was full of ozone after his "thunder rage" spell and it didn't work that well), gathering more energy as he flied, creating a very unstable blade-like stream of lightning force in his left hand.
-----
As he flied over the castle walls, where Iduran was currently staying, Cheetah dropped Duilin with Gedi from few feet above, dived and turned back to human form to say a few words.
"Duilin and Gedi, you'll take care of you, I guess? This old man, Iduran, as you called him, seems a bit weaker. I'll carry him. Guide me to safety, knight, as we'll fly, all right?"
Cheetah turned to wyvern again, grabbed Iduran in his claws and began to fly out of the castle area, waiting for Duilin and Gedi to do something similar.
-
Duilin and Gedi then followed behind then as well as they chould...
*If we are still in water then Gedi is swiming and Duilin is holding on to him because Gedi is THE best swimmer!*
-
Seeing he had grazed his adversary's head, Draven rotated the blade in front of him in a circle, pointing it straight foward, angled to his right side.
"Goodnight!"
With both hands, he thrusted the blade in the direction of his oncoming opponent's abdomen...
----
Iduran shouted up at the wyvern.
"Lower! He'll see us! Fly lower! Gah!"
He cringed as some debris falling from a castle tower flew past, nearly hitting them.
"Follow the beach front eastward, then southward as it curves around. Hopefully it's still there..."
-
In all his pain, Scorch managed to get close enough. He now held his thunder blade with both hands, focusing, adding some "physicality" to it (making it more stabile shape) and slowed down before getting to Iduran, striking to clash his blade against his.
-----
"What it?" - thought Cheetah, as he listened to Iduran's words. He headed toward the beach and, following the advice, dvided to lower his position.
// Duilin, you two can follow us in sea by the beach //
-
Duilin and Gedi swim along the water in the beach because it's more faster then running *for Gedi*
"Man, I hope Scorch is alright" Duilin says
-
(" ... before getting to 'Draven' ..." I'm sure you meant)
The two blades of elemental energy slammed into each other, sending both warriors backwards a few feet. Regaining his balance in the air and now holding his blade with his right hand, Draven spun in a complete circle, waving his left hand outward and creating a cresent shaped wave of fire some three feet long hurdling in the direction of the air mage...
----
Iduran looked backward as he flew to safety, back at the castle-- his ruined home, the two lights battling in the sky above it, Duilin riding the sea creature. After several moments the castle was no longer visible, as it was obstructed by the high wall of natural rocks along the seafront. They were safe, at last...
"Many thanks for the ride. But if you're tired, I believe I can walk the rest of the way. I think we're losing Duilin, anyway."
It was the most polite way he could think of to tell the shapeshifter his talons were unconfortably digging into his arms.
-
"Hey Gedi you think you could speed up a little were falling behind" Duilin said to Gedi.
"Gegegege gorrwee beega looka moochey mako" Gedi said
"Ummm.....Okay"
Gedi then stops and starts to drink the water. He starts panting and looks very tired
"Well I supose it's my turn now..." Duilin says. He picks up Gedi and then slowy moves over to the beach he then starts runing to catch up. He seems surpized that he can carry Gedi and he can use Gedi to help him swim. He also seems surpized that he has mad friends with a sea creature so easily. He then starts to think back to see if he once knew this little guy
-
(" ... before getting to 'Draven' ..." I'm sure you meant)
Yeah, why would I strike poor Iduran with thunder blade? Wink
Scorch wasn't in best situation now. Seeing things are to get even worse, as the crescent-shaped wave of fire flew toward him through the air, he ceased to sustain energy for his flight spell and fell, avoiding the projectile, landing at destroyed the castle wall, then rolled and fell through the hole into soldiers' waurters room, with the window, one he was previously visiting with Iduran and Duilin.
"Sounds... familiar..." - spoke the wizard, realising he can hardly move, lying on the floor, with some pieces of stone and wood on his back (which fell along with him as he moved on desolated castle exterior).
-----
Wyvern landed, putting Iduran to the ground, then quickly turned it's shape into cheetah - far more comfortable way to travel both for Cheetah and Iduran, perhaps. Not speeing forward, he gently marched following knight's steps.
-
//Acually Cesque we are behind you. A wyvern would be alot faster then Gedi anyday//
"There you guys are!" Duilin says wile catching up with them, he puts Gedi down and then he starts happily jumping around Duilin.
"Okay Gedi, your safe now...Go home....Go on...."
Gedi just stares at him blankly and then lies down on the ground and goes to sleep...
"Uhhh.....Okay...." Duilin then places Gedi over by a rock "You stay there now"
Duilin turns back around to Cheetah and Iduran "Hey...What exacally are we doing...I'm a bit confused here..."
-
"Dunno" - Cheetah wanted to say, but he only managed to give out a growl.
-
"Iduran, were do we need to go?" Duilin asks. He then turns around and looks at Scroch and Draven fighting from a distance "Well at least there is only him left. Probally because I killed Darion, and then Scorch killed Silgus this will be easier..."
He turns back around to Iduran "So what do we do? For all I knew we had to kill Draven and save the castle...Now that's down the drian...Well let's hope Scroch can beat Draven..."
-
Seeing that everyone else was taking a break, Iduran leaned on a nearby boulder, crossing his arms. His side still ached from the wound, but he was feeling better than before.
"Yes, I'm worried about that mage too..."
He turned in the direction they were walking and looked down the seafront.
"Some ways from here there is a cave in the rocks... at least I hope its still there... Long ago, we stored a few supplies in there in case of an event like this. If there are any survivors from the castle, that's where they'll be..."
----
Draven's attack missed and he watched his opponent fall downwards. Seeing him duck into a window, Draven dispersed his fire sword, reforming the energy into a sphere over a foot in diameter. Pointing his arm straight downward, he fired the orb like a cannon ball towards the crumbling castle roof...
-
As Cesque was trying to stand up from his yet another painful experience, suddenly after short tremor as if some raging orb of flame just exploded above him, he felt more bricks and dust falling on his back.
"Argh..." - he said (what a memorable quote!). - "I'd best get out of here... As an air mage, I wouldn't like to die from lack of air."
Not able to lift what lied on him with physical strange, wizard freed himself after blasting the burden over him with energy charge. He came upon a scimitar hanging on the wall, tested blade's speed and power practicing strikes in the air for a short while, then enchanted it with lightning power and looked up, through the hole in the roof.
"Let I be known, Draven! I am NOT DONE YET!" - said Scorch, rising the blade, creating a pillar of air, coursing with electric energy, from his pointed blade to the skies.
Very proud of his way of aggravating enemy, Scorch decided it would be best for him to run. He knocked the quarter doors with shock spell and began running down the stairs.
-----
"Cave?" - said Cheetah, reverting to human form, after resting. - "Sounds interesting. But what are we going to do, then? I suppose we should either destroy that fire mage or get out of the island as quick as possible."
-
"Hmmm...Cave eh....Maybe Gedi would be safer there" Duilin says. He then goes over and sits by the bolder Iduran is leaning on and takes a sip of the water from the bottles he has "Ak! This shit's disgusting!" He yells as he throws the bottle into the sea "Let's just go!" Duilin then gets up and taps Gedi with his foot and wakes him up. Gedi then stands up and starts looking around and then stairs at Iduran
-
Draven prepared to evade an attack from the hole below him, but he quickly realised his opponent was fleeing.
"Coward!"
He let himself fall from the sky, his cape fluttering above his head as he decended. He fell though the opening and landed in the middle of the room in a crouching position, immediatly standing up with a crimson ball of fire in his right palm outstreatched in the direction he expected the traitor to be. Instead there was only an open doorway.
----
Iduran nodded and began walking again.
"At the very least we'll find some curative potions and a new change of armor. If we are going to attack that fire mage, we'd best be prepared... *cough*" He clutched his side again. "I don't know about you two, but I'm in no fighting condition at the moment..."
With his other hand he clutched his blade. It was obvious they would have to figure out a way to release its power as well... if it existed, of course...
-
Scorch ran down the stairs desperately, got to the throne room, and realised he's it's full of Dark Empire soldiers. He hid behind the corner, chanted invisibility spell and slowly began to move toward the crowd, listening to what soldiers and officers say...
"What is this Draven doing? Someone sure had to anger him!" -
"Propably the three that escaped the castle when he entered along with this martial artist and dealt with the officer fooled by some soldier..."
"I guess we should all get out of here before he destroys it completely. There is no resistance, no one can take this fortress from us, why not move along-"
"Shut up."
Scorch took cover behind the throne, looking at the doors. Draven devastated them as he entered. Propably he would be able to get away from this cursed place. On the other hand, he might capture attention of Draven or the soldiers, and put himself into trouble. It would be best to find Iduran, Cheetah and Duilin without being detected...
Wizard moved out from the vicinity of throne.
"Hey! Something's behind!" - one soldier patrolling the area (with the other one close) said. They both turned.
"Fool, there's no one here!"
"I heard footsteps!"
Not thinking too much, Scorch sneaked to the back of the soldier, put his blade before his throat and done a cut. His partner was terrified as he noticed soldier falling on the floor with bleeding throat and wizard with lightning-enchanted blade appearing out of nowhere.
"You too." - said Scorch, piering second soldier with the scimitar.
Several feet further, a larger group of soldiers turned at him.
"Officer! That's one of the escapers!"
As usually, to enter battle in good style, Scorch manifested few fast cuts with his blade in the air as soldiers were running at him.
"DRAVEN!" - he screamed, to make sure he is heard up the stairs. - "COME HERE RIGHT NOW, WHEN YOUR BELOVED ARMY NEEDS YOU!"
-
"Yeah that would be a good idea" Duilin replied as he got up and began walking beside Iduran "My armor is getting really rusty and I'm starting to hate this Dark Empire Armor, even tough black is really my colour." Duilin paused for a moment and staired at Idurans sword "That's the on Draven is trying to get. Right?"
Meanwile Gedi is squaking and barking at Cheetah. But not in a mean why, more of a nice way.
-
Draven rushed down the stairs, still holding a charged orb of fire, he entered a hallway with multiple passages. He stopped and listened for a moment. Nothing.
"Blast!"
But he turned as he heard some commotion in the direction of the throne room. He took a step, listening intently. Suddenly Scorch's challenge echoed though the hallway.
"Heh... if you insist..." He grinned.
Draven rushed though the hall, stopping in the doorway of the burned out throne room. This was the same room Draven had fought Scorch in earlier, and it showed the signs. The walls and ceiling were cracked, carpets burnt, all windows busted...
Scorch stood in the center, around him were several dark soldiers lying on the ground. In a larger circle around him were the soldiers he hadn't gotten to yet, weapons brandished, trembling nervously.
Draven took a few steps foward, tossing his fireball up a few inches and catching it like a softball.
"My dear Scorch... why even bother? You have no chance..."
----
Iduran continued walking.
"Draven's his name, huh? Yeah, he seemed to want it..."
That worried him even more. Perhaps they knew how to unlock its power... But then again, it reinforced the thought that the blade has some sort of power to begin with.
-
"Not even I know why he wanted it exaclly. But he seemed pretty demanding to get it. Yes Draven is his name. I used to obey him but I no longer do! He's really only about 25 not even as old as I am! But he's still very powerfull and stronger and smarter then me. I'm not ashamed of it! I've spent half my life in a broken down house with a poor family" Duilin continued to walk. There was a bit of a silence. "So....how old are you? 40? 50?" Duilin asked just to start up conversation
-
"I was always wondering how can someone obbey someone like this fool, guys." - said Scorch, pointing at Draven.
Then, to distract his opponent which have no yet attacked, Scorch conjured a fist of air which grabbed first Dark Army soldier to his left, accelerated in the air and sent him flying directly at Draven.
-----
Cheetah looked at Gedi below his feet, turned into his cheetah form, done a loud agressive roar which ensured Gedi will leave him alone, then turned back to human, laughing.
"Strange island, I must say. Looks like I've ran into the middle of conflict. Not that I know what this fire mage wants, but it doesn't seem to wise to deliver it to him! I guess it has some conncetion with this mysterious... sword?"
-
Gedi tilts his head at Cheetah, he seems to want him to continue talking *This is one smart little creature*
-
Draven tossed and cought the ball of flame a second time. Upon contact with his hand, he threw it violently at the unfortunate soldier who was flying in his direction. Upon impact the dark warrior exploded with a scream, shards of his metal armor flying in all directions... Draven walked slowly towards Scorch, his cape blowing from the gust created by the explosion. The rest of the soldiers instictively inched away.
"You wonder because you do not understand... You've obtained too much power and, alas, it has gone to your head... You think you can change the system. You think you can stop us. Too bad, perhaps you could have been a gerneral... But your choice... you've chosen a corpse!"
Without transition, Draven immediately broke into a dash, flying inches above the ground. His left hand forward, he raised his right above his head. Pulling his blade of fire out of thin air, he slashed downward...
----
"58..." Iduran responded to Duilin. "But I still got it!"
He banged his metal gauntlet on his chest plate, producing a clanging noise. But he immediately cluched his side again in pain.
"Ooooh..."
The four continued walking for what seemed like a long time. As they pressed on, the beachfront and the rocks all looked the same... Iduran began to wear down, but he stuggled not to let this be noticed. His side was hurting more and more, and he was begining to slightly nauseous. Eventually, a small opening in the rocks could be spotted in the distance...
"I think that's it!"
-
"Allright! Now I can fianly ditch this Dark Empire armor!" Duilin cheered as he ran towards the cave. He stoped infront of it and turned around "Maybe I can get a new mace" He said and then turned back around "Stupid Silgus, I'm gald he's dead, I wish I was the one who got him. I really liked that mace"
//Just to let you know Xorlak, I decieded to join your message board on your site. And also this RP would make a great RPG game!//
-
"What us?" - asked Scorch, jumping back as Draven's blade was about to decapitate him. - "I'm tired of getting my head struck with this thing!"
Using the element of confusion of the rest of soldiers, Scorch called forth a great wind from the broken doorway which entered the halls, breaking chandeliers and standing candelabrums, putting out the light of fire sources, then smashed the unpreppared troops against the wall and formed a small barricade of their bodies as they were lying one atop another between him and Draven.
"I'm tired of this, really. Can't you just leave me alone? I haven't slept for 2 days, not to mention I haven't ate anything for 4!" - said Scorch, and after realising what he said, he laughed in prepparation for Draven's next attack.
-----
Cheetah turned again into cheetah form and ran after Iduran and Duilin toward the cavern.
-
Gedi ran and followed behind barking as he ran
-
(Ack, no time today...)
Draven ran through the wind, using the pile of armored bodies a springboard to jump off of, flying at Scorch once again, arms outstreatched, blade in hand...
----
Iduran slowed down as he approached, stroking his chin as if he didn't recognize the place after all... Cheetah and Gedi passed him, appoaching Duilin who was already near the mouth of the cave. From within, a distinct rumbling, then a hissing sound could be heard...
-
"Ah dang!" Duilin swung out Darion's old Buster Sword *may I refer to it as Duilin's now"* and took a few steps backward. "Hey Iduran you sure this is the place?"
-
Iduran looked around.
"Uhhh... now that you mention it..."
The bolders on the sides of the cave began to shake loose as a large aqua-marine serpent slithered out of the hole, complete with two gleaming black horns on its head. A guess at its body length was impossible, as most of it was still inside the cavern, but its large head reared over ten feet above Duilin as it began to hiss at him...
-
"HOLY CRAP!" Duilin yelled. He then took out his cross-bow and fired an arrow at the monster's head.
-
Seeing Iduran jumping at him, Scorch coul only rise both hands above, conjuring stream of energy between them as Draven was about to get to him.
-----
Cheetah ran toward the serpent, leaped at it's face and scratched it a few good times with claws, then fell back, turning to human and escaping now the creature's attention was pointed at him.
"You used to store supplies here, uh?"
-
Draven slashed downward, cutting through the streams of electricity before him. He landed in front of Scorch, waves of fire swirling around him.
"'What us?', you say? That's right, you never rose high enough in my ranks to see them. The Emperor's other two head gernerals of course... each with a separate army like myself... you didn't give much thought to the size of your opposition when you traded now, did you?"
Lowering his blade, he extened his left arm and let lose an orb of fire, barreling straight for Scorch's head...
----
"Gah! Wrong cave!"
Iduran drew his sword and began to step sideways.
Duilin's arrow wedged into the creature's neck, although no blood appeared to flow. Vexed by Cheetah's attack, it opened its mouth and spewed a cold icy substance accross the nearby sand, which instantly turned to hard ice...
-
"Huh? That's werid" Duilin said as the arrow hit "I then going to have to kill with this sword then!" Duilin then slashed his Buster Sword at the monster's neck
-
"But you will all lose in the end." - said Scorch, as the ball of fire exploded straight at his face. The pain of fire burning his hair and skin now was unspeakable. Screaming, wizard stood up, throwing bolts of energy at all directions like at random. As the fire was taking him over and he felt his end might have finally come, he headed toward Draven.
"Who plays with fire get's burned!" - screamed in agony the living man-torch, overtaken by the fire almost completely, running with all his torment at the one he hated so much, with his hands glowing from storm magic, jumping in the air toward Draven, desperate to grab his opponent by the neck and electrocute him to death or incinerate before fire ends his existence...
-----
"Not good." - said Cheetah. - "Iduran... Your sword is said to have some unspeakable powers... Maybe with it, the hide of this vicious creature will be harmed!"
He preppared his spear, too, and began to follow Iduran slowly toward the beast.
-
Draven lept backwards, avoiding sparks of lightning on the way. Many of the soldiers who had not yet escaped the room fell victim to the random blasts. Draven stopped in the middle of the room, hovering about five feet above the ground.
"Ha ha ha! It hurts doesn't it? Taste the reward of teachery!"
Extending his left palm downwards in the same fashion, he let loose two more balls of flame.
----
The serpent moved itself out of the cave completely, revealing it to be over 25 feet long. It reared it head upwards and outwards, so Duilin's blow struck it mid-body. Rearing in pain, it flicked it's long tail in Duilin's direction.
After inching closer, Iduran let out a yell and dove and slashed at the beast. His blade only grazed the monster's side. Hissing, it opened it's mouth and spewed its icy mist at Iduran. Unable to dodge completely, Iduran found his legs frozen to the ground...
"Ergh! Blast!"
-
The tail hit Duilin causeing him to fly back 5 yards. He then gets back up and then pants a bit and then closes his eyes and starts to focus his energy
//You guys probally allready know what he's gona do now heh//
-
Scorch landed at the floor, as he tried to stood up he noticed he just got blasted by 2 more fireballs. Knocked backward, he was now on the floor, lying at his back, flames consuming his body. Altrough the knock put out the most fire on his back, his head and few parts of torso were still on fire and he couldn't nearly think. As he tried to open his eyes, he noticed he can't see nothing. "Propably some brain damage from the heat" - he thought, altrough thinking came hard to him as he was now slowly passing away. The pain was only motivation to do something about it.
Screaming, first grabbing his head with hands to do something with the flames (which wasn't too effective), he stood up, directied his open hand straight forward (obviously not even knowing where is Draven in his blindness), creating a wave of air charging forward, high from the floor to the room's roof.
"I hope one day you'll taste reward for... tyranny!" - screamed out Scorch despite his heatstroke headache.
Thinking about some escape route, Scorch desperately ran along the wall edge knowing there were stair doors there. He headed toward them, hoping no remaining soldiers nor Draven will stand in his way at least now.
-----
"Ack, not too good, sire!" - said Cheetah, striking the hard ice with tip of his weapon. - "Take this, freakish monstroisity!" - throwing his alabaster spear pointed at the eyes of the creature.
-
Duilin then raised his hands above him and charged up his good o' freakishly huge fire ball and tossed it at the monster and then fell down in exhaughtion.
"Uhhh...This is tireing doing this...I abuseing my powers...nighty night..." Duilin said as he passes out and falls asleep
-
Draven folded his arms and continued his billowing laugh. He shielded his face from the on-coming wind attack. When uncovering it, he noticed his opponent had made it off the floor and was now on the other side of the room, staggering in the direction of a doorway.
"What's the matter? Don't want to play anymore?"
He floated downward until his feet hit the ground. He then began to slowly advice upon the traitor, smirking. No rush-- he was savoring the moment. Scorch obviously wasn't going anywhere fast...
By the time Scorch had found his way to the hallway which lead out of the room, Draven was halfway upon him. But he stopped in mid stride, hearing a very unsettling creaking sound... The stones of the room itself seemed to ache...
"What...?"
A large slab of stone fell from the ceiling and landed before Draven, separating the two. The stone room could not bear the force of two powerful sorcerers battling and was beginning to fall apart? that last wind spell was the clincher. The floor split in three. Draven leapt in the air and began to hover, surrounding himself with a shield of flame.
?BLAST!?
Immediately, boulders the size of small automobiles began to rain from above. The walls followed, three of them caving inward upon the maniacal wizard. The last wall, the one with the doorway Scorch was heading through, began to crack?
----
The serpent hissed at Cheetah, opening its mouth to spray its icy blast once again. But the Gepardi?s spear hit it?s mark perfectly-- straight in the left eye. As it reared its head back in pain, Duilin?s fireball stuck it in the mouth, causing the upper portions of its body to explode. The rest of the tail fell limp.
Iduran, still stuck in the ice, shielded himself from the debris.
?*Cough*! I?m getting too old for this??
-
Duilin woke up and coughed "Hell....I'M geting to old for this" He says as he gets up
He then looks at the serpent's dead body and cracks his knukless together
"Well, the great Duilin saves the day agian!" He says with his arms up in pride "Now what are we gona do about Iduran...Hmmm..."
-
Feeling the quakes and the stones falling, Scorch jumped forward, ducking on the stairs through the open doorway as the huge block fell just behind him. Floor was breaking apart behind him. He quickly stood up, ran still touching the wall to his left until he got to the room he knew so well.
Not thinking much, feeling the castle could crumble apart, hearing cries of soldiers from somewhere far behind him, he jumped out the broken window (the ain of few pieces of glass stuck in his legs and arms was a mere sting compared to the fire) and after flying through the air, he sank deep into the sea, putting out the flames, vomiting from the pain and feeling some relief altrough he didn't knew how long will it last.
At some point, he bounced on some corpse of drowned dead between the waters, which he quickly identified as Sigilius'.
"Lightning damn it, the poor freak still here!"
Now the pressure was taking him up. He was tired, drained of energy, everything was hurting him and he knew he has absolutely no chances of doing something now.
The wizard fell unconsious from the lack of air and tiredeness (a nice mix, isn't it?), only hoping the waves will wash him on the small beach next to castle left after the tides returned to the sea (taking Sigilius) after he conjured them, which might give him a small chance of actually waking up again.
-----
"Yes!" - said Cheetah, taking the alabaster spear out of beast's eye, as it's body fell.
The Gepardi raised his arms as if he wanted to greet someone. He closed eyes and concentrated. He felt the stream of powerful spiritual energy entering him.
"Yes!" - Gepardi said, finally opening eyes. - "Another transformation added to my disposal, whatever this enemy was! My village chief would be proud of me if he saw me."
"Now, who's gonna separate Iduran from the floor?"
-
The upper levels of the castle began to collapse, the roof on the west side began to sink in over the missing floors. One of the towers leaned over the mess, only to collapse upon it with tremendous force. A huge cloud of dust rose into the air...
When it was all over, about one third of the castle was rubble. Although the rest stood, it showed deep cracks and other signs of extensive damage.
----
Iduran chopped at the ice with his blade.
"Arrgh!!"
After a few moments he managed to free his right foot, but his left was much more deeply rooted.
"Blast it! Doesn't any one know a fire spell?"
-
"Heh I do, but I got exaughted from the one I just did and if I used it on you then it would kill you" Duilin says. He then realizes the the dead serpent was killed by flame and so it's burning body could be usefull, he took out his broken mace and set the wood on fire and then ran back to Iduran and then started melting the ice.
"Okay, say when to stop..."
-
Scorch is unconsious for a while, dreaming about egyptian pharaoh dancing salsa, thinking it is perfectly obvious he dances salsa and not samba, but why, remained unknown for him.
-----
"Fire?" - not really. - "But I can always try to help smash the ice..."
Cheetah began transforming into beast they just slew. The effect wasn't as powerful as he suspected - he was a bit smaller than the prototype. "Guess the essence of creature transforms you into creature of the age you are in, and this poor monstroisity was few years, ages or millenias older than me!" - he thought with his strange logic. "Or I'm just not so powerful yet." Nonetheless, he practiced moving his tail to smash object in the air, seeing it might be somehow powerful force.
"I'd best spare the old knight from the mighty blow from my tail, continue with the fire, Duilin." - he said, after turning back to human form. The transformation into the beast somehow exhausted him, too.
-
The flame melted the ice around Iduran's foot just enough for him to loosen it. He finished the job with a smash from his sword.
"My thanks, young knight. Now, I suppose we should be on our way... There must be more caves around here than I thought, but I'm sure I'll know it when I see it..."
----
Silence existed among the ruins of the castle. A few disallusioned dark soldiers gathered around outside.
"What in blazes happened?"
"I don't know!"
-
"Yeah," - Cheetah said. - "more caverns, more freezing snakesque monsters wanting to destroy us! Let's get scout the area."
Leaving the cave, Cheetah noticed few hills and small mountains on one side, perhaps holding more caves. On the other side, somewhere near the horizon, there should be a castle...
"Now I wonder who won the battle of wizards... Argh, it would be better to keep out anyway. Of course at least before we'll check the cave with supplies."
// Xorlak, just wandering... how is time cycle doing? Laughing Is it day, dusk, night? //
-
"Good Idea Cheetah...Just a secon guys....I'm going to go look for Gedi...." Duilin walks of over to a cave near by. He hears a squak and scream and yell and a WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?so he freaks out but of corse him being Duilin he walks inside. He then sees a ghostly figure of a knight, a fimiluar knight, a knight that is named....Patrick! Duilin is looking right at the ghost of Patrick and near by him is Gedi squaking at him. The ghost looks just like Patrick but...he is holding his bloodly messed up head
"Uhhh....." Began the ghost "Why....why did you leave me...to die...Wow did I die? Duilin....I am here...liveing in pain...because....I don't know what happend?"
Duilin just stairs at Patrick and screams at the top of his lungs and runs out of the cave yelling his ass of. Gedi then runs after Duilin following him. Duilin then runs back over to near by were Iduran is and he falls to the ground shivering in terror and his skin is pale...uhh...more so then it was...heh...
-
(Hmmm, we should be at least in mid-afternoon by now).
Iduran knelt down next to Duilin.
"Duilin? What's the matter?"
(Actually DM, if you would like to lead us on a side quest, go right ahead, as my posts will probably be shorter than normal for a few days, due to some work back up...)
----
The wind blew over the jagged heap of boulders that once formed the walls of Romme Castle...
Suddenly... they began to stir...
*Cue heavy electric guitar chord*
-
Scorch - yep, this poor wreckage of a man - actually woke up. Woke up after striking his head struck one of larger rocks near the ocean.
"Healthy... ain't I?" he thought as he had no power to speak right now.
Still, he somehow felt his sight was nowhere to be seen and he could hardly think in his headache. With full force he vomited into the water, coughed with blood and not being able to move by himself, waiting for the waves to either leave him on the beach or smash him at the rocks again...
As suddenly, he heard a strange sound as ruins of the castle began to stir...
* Cue another heavy electric guitar chord *
-----
"Yeah... What's going on, guys?" - asked Cheetah, following Duilin and Iduran toward the cave.
-
//Sub-Quest? Really? Sure!//
"You know that Patrick guy? The knight who helped you? Well hey guess what? We had a little talk in that cave over there? Yeah, it's the same Patrick that got his (Editor: Censored)ing head blown off by Silgus!" Duilin says totaly freaked out and stressed from the experence "He said he's here because he dosen't know why he is here...I think he means he dosen't know how he died...."
Duilin takes a bottle of water and poors in on his face, Gedi licks Duilins face so he gently smaks Gedi away. Gedi squaks at him and then walks over to the cave
"Follow him...You'll see..." Duilin says "I...need...a...rest....Just tell him how he died...then he will leave us alone..."
-
The upper blocks and debris flew appart, flying through the air. Several nearly hit a group of nearly soldiers who were gathering around... From the pile of debris rose a ball of flame... teeth clenched, eyes wide, armor battered, cape tattered, Draven hovered twenty feet above the wreakage.
"Scorch... YOU MAGGOT!!!!!"
He reared his head back as he screamed; his long hair now stood on end in spikes as if electricuted. Clearly, he was not in a good mood.
Regaining his composure for a few seconds, he looked to his right and identifed the closest group of soldiers, which were several hundred yards away. He pointed at them inquisitively, yelling to make himself heard:
"You there! Did you see anyone else escape this mess?"
----
Iduran followed the sea-dog suspiciously, fearing that perhaps Duilin was losing it...
The sun began to fall in the western horizon.
-
// Is it just me, or did I never saw sun falling in the horizon other than western? B) //
Scorch heard strange sound, followed by a well known (and well hated) voice. It wasn't sounding good. The waves left him at the shore. He could hardly crouch up from his lying position as he suddenly heard footsteps among rubble which suddenly hasted up, somewhere far.
"There!"
"Ssssssh. It's dangerous, fool!"
"He will help us, I tell you."
"He doesn't look to well."
"Nevermind, if he won't help us, nobody will."
"Pleased to see him like that, I must say. Last time he wasn't too kind to us."
"You know he can be trusted, if after our tale even our leader agreed we will need this man. In fact, he sent us here to check if he's alive."
Now, the voice aimed directly at Scorch.
"Hey, sir! Over here!"
"We must get you to safety."
Scorch turned in direction of the voice and began to crawl on the sand, unable to stand up. A pathetic sight. All around were broken wall pieces, glass, some remaining pillars and logs...
(check the character's section... heh, you didn't suppose I'll leave poor blindman to die?)
-----
"Patrick... Sigilius..." - Cheetah said. - "Now it seems I skipped a few events! Who is the man you've seen dead and why doesn't he even know how he died?!"
-
Duilin sat up and looked at Cheetah
"Silgus was a matial artist, assasin who knew a few magical like techniques, he was hired by the leader of the Dark Empire, Draven, to kill us. When I decieded to turn against Draven, me and Patrick went to fight him. Silgus was also there but Patrick didn't notice at the time, Silgus shot an energy beam at Patrick's head, blowing it clean of...*sigh* poor guy, well he dosen't know how or why he died, so he's a ghost!"
-
//Ooops forgot to post this//
Gedi enters the cave, hopefully followed by Iduran. The ghost looks at then, he waits for them to say somthing
-
(Could be an alternate universe, in which the sun sets in the southeast... heh.)
The soldiers shuddered at their commander's booming voice.
"Uhh... no, sir!"
Draven rose higher into the air, looking at the rubble below. He was sure Scorch couldn't have escaped the collapse... but he may still be alive... Best to make sure.
Breathing heavily, Draven brought both hands above his head, forming yet another bright red orb of flame...
----
Iduran slowed down as he listened to Duilin's story, trying to remember a soldier named 'Patrick' in his ranks...
-
(Bah! No posting while I'm typing!)
Iduran turned back to the direction of the cave, seeing the dismembered, bloody anomoly in its enterance. He lept backwards, drawing his sword.
"Gah! What in blazes?!"
-
// Laughing LOL. Sorry Xorlak, please don't go mad with power and ban me!//
The Ghost looks at Iduran
"Iduran.....Is it you? I am....Patrick....I died....but I don't know why...or how?" He says
-
The two archers sent for Scorch noticed Draven in the air, ran toward the destroyed piece of wall and crouched behind it not to be seen.
Scorch still was crawling in their direction, several feet from them. In the background, the forest near the beach was propably last safe place...
-----
"Strange story, Duilin... I see the source of all trouble is that Draven... "
-
Duilin nods in agreement "That's why I left the Dark Empire. They forced me to join, or they would kill me, I saved my streghth for a good time to turn on them. When I finally did, I had no clue that this all would happen." Duilin pauses for a moment "You know that Gedi, he seems to be learning to quick....I think I remember him...."
-
The orb began to swell to gigantic proportions above Draven's head. Knowing their leader all too well, the surrounding soldiers cleared the vicinity of the remains of the castle in a panic. Draven floated higher and higher above the rubble.
"What's the matter, Scorch, buried alive? Here, let me help you!"
----
Iduran lowered his blade, recognizing the face of the dead soldier. Unfortunately, he was not there when the soldier died, so he munstered a vague answer.
"Brave warrior, you gave your life defending the people of Romme..."
-
Scorch carried on toward the two archers. "Quickly!" one of them said, helped him stood up, grabbed him and began to run toward the forest, as second one suddenly leaped out from his cover.
"For Romme!" - he screamed, shooting an arrow aimed toward Draven.
-----
Cheetah sat on the dirt, singing some tune of his people, having no better things to do. He never enjoyed an idea of visiting a ghost of some unknown soldier...
-
The miserable little arrow spun off its trajectory upon reaching the proximity of the turbulance caused by Draven's aura of flame. Draven was so fixated on his spell that he didn't even notice. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead, but quickly evaporated in the heat. At last the ball of flame swelled to over ten feet in diameter...
"GOODNIGHT!!!!"
First straining his arms backwards, he heaved the huge sphere straight downward. Like a comet, the orb streaked accross the sky, plummeting towards the remnants of the castle...
-
Duilin then got up and walked over to the cave and saw the ghost, Iduran and Gedi
"How?" The ghost says
"Silgus blew your head off, he would have been mine or Scorch's but it was yours. You made a great sacrifice and we will miss you, Good bye" Duilin says
The ghost smiles and then a big shine of light comes and he disappears, all that is left of him is an old piece of paper
"Well, that was educational" Duilin says "Well...Hey what's this!?" Duilin picks up the paper "It appears to be a map, hey, a map to that storage cave!"
-
The first archer with Scorch managed to get to the forest.
"Looks like you don't have your magnificent power anymore?" - said soldier.
"Just shut up..." - answered Scorch.
"What's the matter? You're almost dead and still you-"
"Silence." - suddenly said a weird voice as they were running through the woods. A tribal-looking earth mage with dreadlocks and wooden staff was looking at them. Nagash. "Some foolish soldiers just run toward the woods as if they were looking for someone." - he continued. - "Found our outpost and destroyed it. Few people survived. Can't say you look better... Scorch."
"How do you know me?"
"I track steps of my former enemies..."
Earth mage first bandaged most severe of Scorch's wounds, put a blindfold round his head, covering wizard's eyes, then lifted both hands in the air as his hair waved, he chanted healing spells. Scorch's head was suddenly relieved from pain, as was almost the rest of his body.
"What about my sight?" - asked Scorch.
"There are better ways of seeing." - answered Nagash, chanting another spell.
Suddenly, Scorch's vision was blurred, altrough he looked through the blindfold. He noticed archer and the earth mage shine in the bright light, shaping like he supposed they would look. He could feel the power emanating from them, as well as spell energy released as the mage casted his last spell.
"You can now SENSE your enemies, their look and their strength, as with the multielemental spell, Scorch. Now... we have to do something about that Draven, don't we?"
...
"It surely isn't best day for Romme." - said second soldier as the giant fireball blasted apart ruins and set them on fire. Slowly heading toward them, he incinerated next arrow with flame and again, shot it toward Draven. He was almost sure it won't have an effect but he done this anyway...
-----
"Good." - said Cheetah hearing Duilin's call. - "Now come out here and let's follow this map to the cave."
-
The comet of fire slammed into the ruins of the castle, spreading flame in all directions. The sky turned red, and a yellow mushroom cloud emenated upward. The pile of debris unsettled and flew into the air, only to rain down across the ruins of the town. Several of the remaining walls of the castle cracked and fell over. Although Draven aimed to vaporize the castle completely, he was satisfied with the level of destruction. Even if Scorch had survived the colapse, there was no way he could have survived that...
Somewhat exhasted, Draven flew diagonally downwards towards a nearby group of dark soldiers, who had absolutely no idea what was going on and certainly knew better than to ask. Although he was fatigued, Draven at least had accomplished one of the checks on his 'to-do list'.
However he frowed as he landed, thinking about what his real priority was...
"Blast, the sword..."
Scorch was clearly distracting him so the wyvern man and the washed up knight could escape with his prize. He debated whether to pursue them immediately, but he was running out of energy...
"No matter, I'll find those weaklings soon enough..."
A lieutenant approached Draven, wringing his hands.
"My Lord, what are your orders?"
"Have you set up my tent yet? Bring me to it."
The soldiers panicked as they realized the gust from the explosion knocked all the tents they had been setting up down.
"Uhh, yes my lord..."
The lieutenant slowly lead Draven while the other twenty soldiers ran ahead at full speed to attempt to reassemble the tent before Draven arived.
----
(Heh, that's so RPG-ish)
Iduran glanced at the map.
"Yes, I remember now! Quickly, we can make it before nightfall."
He hurried out of the cave.
-
"Hey, Iduran wait up!" Duilin says wile running out of the cave after him
*LotR music starts playing, heh*
"Come, boy, let's go!" Duilin says to Gedi
Duilin and Gedi start following Iduran, they look for the cave....
-
Scorch, Nagash and the archer were suddenly knocked by some giantic explosion.
"Nice weather, it seems to be shining castle parts..." - said Scorch and after short concentration, felt a moving object incinerated from magical flame somewhere near.
"Look out!" - screamed Nagash as a blazing piece of furniture fell into the nearby bushes, setting them on fire. It was spreading, consuming more and more parts of forests near the wood.
"Looks like we're in dreadlock, ekhm, deadlock." - said Nagash. - "We'll either have to burn here or jump into the maw of the lion, running toward the castle ruins where"
"I prefer second choice." - said Scorch, who somehow didn't like anything connected with fire now. Putting both hands before himself, feeling the power of fire all around and trying to evade it, along with Nagash and the acher the wizard managed to get out of forest.
"Draven will pay for desacration of mother nature..." - commented earth mage while they were running.
As the approached the former battlefield, a cloud of smoke was rising from the ashes. Somewhere in the distance, shapes of soldiers could be seen.
"I'm becoming sick of this war..." - said Scorch, trying to fend off the smoke with wind breeze he summoned.
-----
Cheetah followed Iduran, Duilin and Gedi.
-
Duilin then continued walking and then looks up at Iduran in front of him "Are we there yet?"
-
Unable to set their leader's tent back up, the group of soldiers panickly moved Draven's materials into a nearby house that was only partially burned out, covering the holes in the wall with red cloths bearing the insignia of the Dark Empire. The lieutenant approched the door just as the soldiers finished, running out and saluting as Draven approched.
"R... right this way, sir..."
Draven entered the house and sat at an empty kitchen table.
"Quickly! Bring me my meal. I want a change of armor as well. And get me a more comfortable chair for god's sake!"
The soldiers scurried about as Draven unfurled a battle map that was placed at his side.
----
Iduran lead the group thorough as small ravine, populated with much plant life. He hacked vegetation with his blade as he went along. After a few moments, the group came apon another cave in the rocks...
-
"Is that it?" Duilin asked "Because I REALLY want to change my Armor, it rusting on my skin, it's soaking wet and there is a broken peice on it and it is scratching at my leg..."
-
Draven removed his tattered armor and cape, replacing them with identical fresh ones that were brought to him. Neatly tieing his hair back once again, he sat down to dine on exquisite rosted meat and fine wines. The onlooking soldiers stared blankly at the meal that was reserved only for their general, comparing it with the unknown mushy substance they were forced to eat.
----
A soldier came out of the cave brandishing a spear.
"Who goes there...? My lord? Is that really you?!"
Iduran smiled.
"Yes... I've brought some friends who helped me escape. We are in need of rest..."
"Right this way!"
The soldier extended his hand in the direction of the cave mouth. Iduran slowly walked in.
-
Scorch with Nagash still only observed the ruins, searching for some sign of Draven...
-----
Cheetah followed Iduran.
-
Duilin followed Cheetah and Iduran, Gedi walked closely behind
"It's okay," He said the the soilder "I'm with you guys, now!" Duilin taps his armor.
-
(Cesque, that is most certainly the lamest update ever, heh...)
A group of ten soldiers patroling the area caught sight of the air mage and dreadlocked warrior and began to head in their direction.
"You there! Halt in the name of the Dark Empire! What business do you have here?"
----
As Iduran walked through the narrow corridor, the soldier leading him caught sight of the deep wound on his side.
"My lord, you are injured!"
"It's nothing..."
"Nonsense! We must take care of that."
The soldier took a left and pushed Iduran into a small room formed in the cave. Inside was another soldier with a heavily bandaged arm, a few healing potions on a natual leadge formed from the uneven rock wall, and a cot. The leading soldier turned to the rest of Iduran's party.
"Please, make yourselves at home here while I take care of our lord's wounds. Go ahead and explore the cavern and take any supplies you may need."
-
(lame? I prefer term "laconic simple")
"And what the thunder do YOU want?" - asked Scorch, creating a chain lightning in direction of the soldiers he felt.
"Stop it, fool, you have no idea about partisan combat!" - said Nagash.
"Whatever." - said Scorch as the lightning bolt already flew through few soldiers. They were noticed, obviously. The sound of thunder called more. The remaining ones preppared for combat.
"First you call me your last hope, now fool?"
"I see the archers who spoke about you were somehow right."
"Go to hell! No one will tell me what am I to do!"
Scorch suddenly turned at Nagash, creating an energy bolt pointed at him. Earth mage tried to stop it in the air, but he was struck anyway, and knocked back.
Standing up, as Scorch formed a lightning blade and began rotating around trying to kill all attacking soldiers, coming in more and more numbers (what was somehow hard with his astral sight), Nagash rised his staff into the air. A quake opened the ground and from the crack, a giant hand of stone has risen and grabbed Scorch, immobilising and crushing him.
"I am in charge here, wizard." - said Nagash. - "I have returned you power to aid us, but I will not allow you to use it against us."
Noticing still some smoking burned ruins, Nagash rised his staff into the air again, making a cracking sound with his vine-like whip, then the grasp of stone hand was left and the earth closed. Scorch was exhausted and had few bones broken. The dreadlocked earth mage dissappear in the smoke and propably in the forest, the soldiers didn't really care.
The air wizard was lying on the ground as the soldiers, crushed by Nagash and beaten up by more soldiers, returning to the state of mortal pain he so wanted to get rid off.
Soldiers were talking between each other as they finally noticed Scorch has enough, leaving him on the ground, making few steps backward.
"Inform Draven we've found a traitor."
"Where is he?"
"In that house."
"Yes, sir."
"All right, you two! Lock him up!"
-----
Cheetah entered and looked around.
"You have any other equipment here?"
-
Draven looked at the ripples in his half full glass of wine as the ground shook slightly.
"*Sigh*... What is it now...?"
----
The soldier turned around as Iduran sat down in the cot, suddenly clutching his side as if hit by a sharp pain.
"Yes, you should be able find a few unused sets of armor and a few basic weapons further on in. Sorry, it's not very organized... Also, there's an opening on the right where there's a few more cots if you want to take a rest."
-
Duilin walks over to the armory place and looks around. He finds a new mace, some cross bow arrows and a set of Romme armor.
"Yeeess!" Duilin equips him self with the weapons and changes his armor. He heads out and then walks over to Cheetah
"Well, how do I look?" Duilin says taping his new shinely Romme Armor
-
"Curses! I can't leave him to die there." - said Nagash, coming back to his senses after anger.
"Leave him, sir, we have to go before Draven comes!" - said the archer who was with him.
"But-"
"Quickly!" - said soldier, grabbed the earth mage and they both hided behind some huge collapsed pillar. In the distance, fires of the forest were brightening the darkening sky.
A soldier entered Draven's house, looking tired as he ran as fast as he could.
"Message, sire! The traitor, the wizard, was found!"
-----
"Nice!" - said Cheetah, then thrown his old alabaster spear on the ground, grabbing a harpoon-like one, nicely ornamented. - "Now pardon me, I'm tired. We'll think about the whole Draven case laaaaater..."
He said, positioned himself on a cot and fell asleep, putting the new weapon nearby, against the wall.
-
Draven spat out his wine as the soldier informed him.
"What? How in blazes did he..."
Wiping off his mouth, he stepped out the door to see Scorch in heavy chains being brought before him.
"I say," Draven slowly walked towards the traitor, "you do have a way of surviving things..."
He turned to the leader of the group of soldiers, pointing to a brick building that was half collapsed.
"Chain him up in there. Keep him under constant surveilence. I want at least four guards staring at him at all times, and keep several others in the area as well."
"Yes, my lord."
Draven then turned to Scorch, poking his forhead with his finger and drawing his mouth close to traitor's ear.
"You're very lucky... I'm letting you live. You see, I will gain much more satisfaction though torture and mutilation than by killing you... heh..."
With that, he flipped his cape and walked away.
The soldier dragged the traitor into the crumbling building, which consisted of one dark room with a wooden table in the middle. Scorch was thrown upon the table face up and chained to it. A guard stood in each corner of the room, and several more wandered about outside...
Night fell on the first full day of the Dark Empire's invasion.
To be continued...
- End of Chapter 1 -
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 2</span>
The door flew open to the crumbling building and Draven stepped out, inhaling the cool morning breeze as the first rays of the sun peeked through the distant trees. Clearly something was still on fire somewhere, as a burning smell hung in the air, but Draven resisted the urge to say that one familiar line all military commanders say at some point in their careers when they smell something burning in the morning? He wasn?t in the most pleasant mood, anyway.
As he had ordered, the entirety of his battle-ready soldiers (who he had not sent out on scout missions) were assembled in long lines on both sides of his encampment, ready for his inspection. The dark soldiers stood row by row, completely motionless. Every tenth or fifteenth warrior stood out as a guard captain, identifiable by a small silver medal on the left side of his chest plate. And every five or ten guard captains had their lieutenant, identifiable by their gold medal.
Before he started, the lieutenant he had sent out scouting approached him from the right, saluting.
?Sir! Reporting, sir!?
?What have you??
?? N-nothing? sir? no sign of the knight, or the sword??
Still looking forward, Draven shifted his eyes to the right in irritation. Before the officer could react, Draven slapped him in the back of the helmet with a loud clang, dropping the officer to his knees.
?Idiot! Only report when you have something useful!?
Draven stormed through the center of the lines, shifting his glance left and right, inspecting the motionless troops. Another lieutenant approached him from behind, this one the one who organized the inspection.
?How many??
?4,117 my lord??
Draven stopped and folded his arms. That was the number of able-bodied men he had at his disposal, quite a bit lower than what he had started out with. But he had run into unexpected resistance? and he probably wiped out a few more himself when he blasted the castle? Still most of the work was done with; it should be enough to finish the job.
Draven placed his arms behind his back and continued a few more paces, lost in thought.
But he stopped short, in mid-stride? the sky had grown dark without him noticing, and a stronger wind was in the air? Draven?s eyes dashed to the left and right. The multitude of soldiers suddenly lowered their heads all at once and knelt to the ground on one knee. Draven?s heart sank. There was only one person in the entire empire who demanded that sort of bow?
All in one motion, Draven bowed his head as well, turning completely around and kneeling in the same fashion as his soldiers to look at the feet of the one who stood behind him? A few feet away stood a massive figure engulfed in total shadow. The black aura burned about him like fire, absorbing all light around it. His deep voice cut through the most fearless of warriors:
?Draven, have you obtained the sword??
Draven panicked inside, but he did not dare show it. Still gazing upon the ground, he replied in the only acceptable way.
?Yes my Emperor, the blade is yours??
?Excellent. I will be arriving soon to collect it. Until then, guard it with your life??
?Yes, my lord??
The shadow grew dim and faded away, and the sky regained its normal morning hue. Draven clutched his fist into the sand. Lying is treason? but there was no way he would allow himself to be show less effective than them?
Draven stood up at once, with such ferocity in his heart that a wave a flame burst from his body, scorching the grass around him and knocking the lieutenant beside him who had just gotten back up down again. But he managed to control his power once again, and the aura of flame reduced to nothing. Clearly, action had to be taken immediately.
Draven lifted the lieutenant up by the collar of his armor like a rag doll, eyes buring with rage, he barked orders into the terrified man?s face in a deep, almost irate voice:
?Listen up and listen well!?
He pointed to the burned-out building in which the mage Scorch was imprisoned.
?I want one thousand men guarding Scorch RIGHT NOW!?
Draven tossed the man in the direction of the building, who landed hard in front of him.
?I don?t care if you have them sit and stare at that building, JUST DO IT!?
He then turned his head to the legion behind him, clenching his fist.
?As for the rest of you, I want this entire island combed! The island is narrow here. Form a single file line from the eastern shore to the western, and move southwards. Stay within shouting distance of each other. Leave no valley unchecked, no cavern unexplored, and no house unburned! I WANT THAT SWORD!?
The individual soldiers of the legion scattered in a panic in the usual fashion as when Draven finishes his orders. Fully confident that his troops would fail him, Draven darted off in the direction of the southern forest by himself.
?If you want something done right??
But as if forming another plan, he slowed, yelling back to his legion behind him.
?Are there no competent commanders left??
----
The air inside the cavern was cool and uncomfortable. Lying on his back, Iduran clutched his side in pain.
?Blast it! There?s no way I?m staying. Let me go NOW!?
The Romme soldier standing by pushed Iduran down as he tried to get up.
?But? I? must?!?
Another soldier rushed in, this one with a broken arm in a sling, and helped hold the old knight down with his good arm. An elderly man in a white robe walked toward the downed knight, speaking softly:
?My lord, you mustn?t ??
?Like Hades I will!?
?My lord, you wound has become infected. My herbs may heal you, but if there is any chance of you surviving, you must not move!?
Iduran relaxed himself, letting the fever get the best of him. After a moment?s thought:
?I must speak to the two men that came with me. Bring them to me??
His other hand clutched his sword in its sheath lying next to him, it?s red gem glowing dimly in the light of the torches on the cavern walls.
-
A Wyverin flew about a hundered feet about Draven made a turn and landed about 15 feet away from him. A well known commander of the Dark Empire steped of and walked over to Draven.
"My little friend here..." The commander said wile scacthing the Wyverin behind the ear "Says, he say 3 men, and a dog, go running to some caves, might be some help..." The commander said
------
Duilin woke up from were he was sleeping, because Gedi started barking when a Romme soilder came to him to tell him he has to speak to Iduran.
"Uh yeah, just a second." Duilin gets up and grabs his new weapons and heads over to were Iduran is, but first he decieds to see if Cheetah is awake.
-
Haraldur drank a horn of mead in one in his father´s hall. He then approached his father.
"Do I have my unit?"
"Yes, you do Haraldur. Act with relative caution. Despite our spies we still know very little of what is happening in Romme. Hopefully this will be profitable."
"Yes. Is the regular army ready to leave at short notice? Is the citizen army ready to mobilise?"
"Yes, and yes."
"Good, hopefully we will acquire a few boatfuls then. And maybe som land."
"Try not to require the services of the citizen army. I want us to remain well defended."
"I doubt I will need them. They will only be needed if there is substantial fighting and sourcery."
"Good."
Haraldur stepped out of the hall, went accross the street and entered the hall of the berserkers.
"Get into the boats," he said calmly.
His unit left the hall and converged on the beach, and boarded their longships.
"Head towards Romme. When I need you I will go to where you are. You know what to do then."
The boats left in the direction of Romme.
The surroundings melted around him, becoming the air 100 metres above Romme. He hovered and looked around to find out what, if anything, was happening.
-
Shin Yong floated to the shores of the island, unconscious. He had just been defeated in a battle on a continent far north of here, but he managed to survive. The location in which he had floated to was about 200 paces from Draven's position.
Shin Yong's ice aura reacted to Draven's flame energy violently, restoring Shin Yong to full strength, and reaching out toward Draven. Whether Draven would feel the chill of the aura or not it didn't matter. Shin had regained consciousness, and knew Draven's exact location; he could feel him. He took a few steps forward, then stopped.
"There was evil here far worse than Draven...could it have been...him?"
Deciding it would be better not to think about it, Shin Yong continued his stride.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the port town of "Redrumm", Gyulim had just reserved a room at the most inexpensive inn within miles. Prefering not to be there unless absolutely necessary, she decided to explore the town.
The commercial district was the least shady district in Redrumm, and thankfully the inn is located there. After browsing some of the weapon and artifact stores, a young pickpocket ran past, and lifted what little money Gyulim had left.
"Hey! Come back here!"
As she chased the pickpocket down a dark alley, she was confronted by a whole game of thugs, who were taking orders directly from the pickpocket. At his command, they began to attack...
-
Seth stood on the Bow of his stolen Cargo ship which glowed with his trademark blue aura.
He sensed Fire, Destruction, and Evil.
He had been heading to Jinbur, a port city, but he didn't really have anything to do there but sit in a bar and get drunk.
His plantium hair glistened in the moonlight, as he set sail towards the Evil.
The breeze blowed through his tunic easily, and he felt a chill.
It was a beautiful night, which contrasted horribly with the feeling in the air.
Though Seth pilots a ship, he is no where near a good sailor.
He crashes upon a sandbar 2 miles off the coast of the island.
He pilots a small cargo ship, and the hull cracked near the stern.
Water gushes in and Seth doesn't really notice, until It breaks through the stairs from the cargo room to the deck.
The water flows through the stairs at a rapid speed and Seth jumps out of the ship, and onto the sandbar. He removes his leather straps and tunic and stuffs them into his pants.
He slowly swims through the water, makes it onto shore, and passes out near the burnt forest from fatique.
-
(huh... I thought it'll be on a new topic)
-
Haraldur scans the ground for villages, piles of dead bodies, armies and buildings. He notes what he sees. He notes also the position of beaches.
He teleports to one of his ships. He tells them where to land and where to go after that. He tells them to take everything from dead bodies. He tells them to sack villages, loot and pillage etc.. He tells them to stay away from other armies until told otherwise.
He casts a haste spell on his unit and the boats zoom to Romme. They land on a beach. At his command, Haraldur's unit turns invisible, and so do the ships, and they all hover in the air, ships included. They look accross the land.
-
Draven folded his arms and looked up at the wyvern rider.
"Commander Nex, lead the way. If what you say is true, we must capture and interrogate these insects..."
Draven stopped short, shifting his eyes to the left. Something... different was approaching...
"Go on ahead... I'll catch up."
----
As he waited, Iduran ran his fingers over the jewel on his blade, trying to formulate what he was going to say. Time was running out...
-
Shin Yong Tsing approched Draven, totally unarmed.
"Are you the the vile demon known as Draven?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gyulim moved like the legendary mercenary, Sigilus. Within the blink of an eye, all of the thugs were unconscious. She glared at the pickpocket.
He grew scared, and set her money on the ground at her feet, then ran off. Gyulim picked up the cash, and proceeded to check on the status of the vessel that was to travel to Romme.
-
"Very well" Nex replies. He hops onto the Wyverien and then takes of and starts to fly high in the sky but slowly so Draven could keep up.
------------
Duilin grows impationt and then walks over to were Iduran is.
"Iduran, you wanted to speak to me? Cheetah overselpt..." He says
-
"What the...?" - asked Scorch as he heard footsteps. Hundreds of footsteps. Somewhere in the distance, echoes of speech could have been heard.
"Sir Draven's orders. More guards."
"Do we really need...?"
"Obviously, not. But these are sir Draven's orders."
"Oh, great." - Scorch thought.
-----
Shivers ran down Nagash' spine.
"Did you notice that?" - he asked one of the surviving archers, as they sat in the remains of the burned forest..
"Of course. It was hard not to notice that. Surely, there's some forcer stronger than Draven. Which will propably, one time or another, get mad at him and this might-"
"Ssshhh. Silence."
Footsteps. Sounds of swords cutting through the woods.
"They are... looking for something. Propably for this sword... Run."
Archers stood up and began running. Nagash still crouched, hardly visible, among ash and leaves. Soldiers heard the sound and hasted up - following the archers. Lots of soldiers in dark armors ran past Nagash. As Nagash stood up, suddenly he noticed one more soldier running after the searching army, who stopped seeing him.
Without much thinking, Nagash pointed his staff at the lone soldier, and with a silent crack, a whip-like vine entangled him and brang before face of Nagash.
"What are you looking for?"
"The... blade..." Vine was choking the soldier's neck.
"Where's Scorch?"
"In... the... city... guarded... by most... of the army..."
"Shoot. I'll have to abandon thought about his rescue for a while. Turn back and don't return here, all right?"
"Yee...ss..." The soldier was running short of air.
Suddenly, the grip of vine was released. Nagash looked angered at the lone knight, who instantly turned back and began running back toward battlefield.
-----
"Huh..." - Cheetah said as someone tried to wake him. - "Leave me alone here... I want to get some sleep!"
-
Haraldur's unit of berserkers cast haste spells on themselves and gathered all the belongings from the nearest corpses. They brought so much that the ships were full.
"Stop," said Haraldur. "The ships are full. I will remain ere while you bring back the ships to our country, with the loot obviously. When I need you, you will know."
The ships left.
Haraldur hovered there in thought for a moment. He came to the conclusion that it would be beneficial to spread chaos.
He went to the village furthest away from the armies. He cast fireballs on the houses. The people panicked. Balls of fire were dropping onto their village with no visible source. Pleased with that, Haraldur did this to every untouched village in the land.
After this he went 500 metres up in the air to see what would happen next.
-
Arms still folded, Draven smirked at the man in the center of the blue aura.
"Dear, now. A bit harsh, aren't we? Yes, I'm Draven. Who might you be and what business do you have here? Make it quick, for I'm rather busy right now..."
Draven sighed inwardly. Though somewhat amusing when he had nothing better to do, the amount of people trying to kill him in the past few days was starting to become annoying...
----
Iduran handed his sheathed blade to Duilin.
"Listen... I have no idea how to release this blade's power... or even if it exists... I thought the wizard we met awhile back might have known something, but apparently not... There's only one more I can think of to consult..."
He sighed, as if trying to decide whether what he was saying was a good idea or not. After a long pause,
"As you may have noticed, there's a mountain in the center of this island. Climb any tree and you will see it. Deep inside sleeps... a fire dragon... he's an intelligent creature, I know, and he's lived for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. If there's anyone who would know about the enchantment of a blade, it would be him...
"But you must know... he's not exactly friendly... When I was I child, he awoke and destroyed much of the southern half of this island... Still, he must be asked about this blade... Can you do it? I would go if I had the strength, but it is a two days' journey from here..."
At that moment, another soldier burst into the cave room.
"The Dark soldiers are everywhere! They've redoubled their efforts! Also, I can see smoke rising from nearby villages..."
-
Shin Yong forged his ice sword from his aura, and sent a chill wave that brought everything within a 200 mile radius down by 40 degrees. Several Dark Soldiers died instantly. Shin looked at Draven and pointed his sword.
"Draven, head general of the Dark Empire, your time is up, for I, Shin Yong Tsing, head General of the Holy Kingdom of Aritan, have come for your life. Draw your sword."
The heat was on...(lol, heat, heh)
----------------------------------------
Gyulim felt a small drop in temperature that was unnatural.
"Oh god...he's in battle. Why does he always do that?"
Deciding that it would be better if she didn't think about it, Gyulim approached the docks, and inquired about the status about the vessel to Romme.
"I'm sorry, Miss Lee...but the vessel you seek is still not ready. I highly suggest you get indoors, though; this drop in temperature might lead to a heavy storm soon, and you don't want to catch cold."
"Very well. I shall head back to the inn."
-
"I'll take care of this!" Duilin says heroicly. He runs out side with his mace in one hand and his buster sword in the other. "Man, this stuff is heavy" He says as he drops his Buster Sword, he picks it back up and then puts his mace away and then runs over to the enemies.
Nex flies over the dark soilders, on his Wyverin. He laughs as he swoops down and then the wyverin picks up a romme soilder and tosses him high in air and then swoops over to him, Nex swings out his blades and cuts the soilder as he is in the air. "Now were the bloody heck is Draven? He's missing out on all the fun!" He says to himself "I'll go back for him in awile, but first I'm gonna go kill me some rommeis!"
Nex jumps off the Wyverin. The Wyverin flys around wile Nex fights some soilders. Duilin then charges at him and swings his buster sword at him. Nex blocks it with his blades, one in front on in the back, have Duilin in a lock, he then kicks Duilin in the gut 3 times, on the third kick he relased him cause Duilin to fly back a few meters. Duilin recovers from the fall and then takes out his chain mace and runs at Nex swinging it at his torso, Nex falls to the ground but then jumps up on his feet kicking Duilin in the prosess. Duilin then stumbles to the ground, he gets up shakes his head, and sees the Nex is gone.
-
Encouraged by the effects of burning the villages, Haraldur decided to cause more chaos. He scanned the ground for where the most soldiers were in a small area. For some reason about 1000 were sitting around a burnt out house... Ignoring the strangeness of this, he caused a large black burning cloud to appear above them, it rained down burning oil.
He smiled. He made sure he was still invisible and floating. He was. He smiled again.
-
Zeros', Qeni and Zev were sitting on a hill beside where the burning village was.
"Whats that Zeros'?" asked Zev, he pointed toward the sight of the burning the village.
"No idea." shrugged Zeros'.
Qeni was fast asleep inbetween Zeros' and Zev.
"Good thing Qeni doesnt now about this..." he thought to himself.
He looked once agian at the site, the burning village.
He thought to himself agian, "Who could of done this..."
-
The tide came in. Waves of cold water licked at Seths body.
Seth awoke quickly and surveyed his surroundings.
He saw a burning forest not far from him, he saw the cold ocean, the full moon, and his wrecked boat far out into the sea.
He pulled his tunic and leather straps out of his pants and put them back on his body.
He shook like a dog, trying to get some of the water off of him.
He combed his hair back into place with his hand, and walked along the coast.
He walked for miles, until he came up to a burning village. It was a grotesque sight. Burnt human being lay across the streets and most houses were collapsed and ashes were piled everywhere. Seth grimaced.
He saw no sign of life in the village, and continued walking. He saw a trail of blood and foot prints. Seeing as it was the only lead he had, he followed the trail. He was brought to a cavern after walking for a few hours. He heard voices inside.
He walked into the wet, dank cavern and saw a wounded, fairly old soldier in gray armor..
-
(My avatar is my character...heh...)
Zeros' saw Seth walk into the cavern. He picked up Qeni and Zev and glided over towards the cavern.
The saw Seth and walked up to him.
"What are you doing here..."
-
"Oh, great." - said Scorch as he noticed something is not as right as it was. Soldiers around him seemed to get somehow scared by the situation, seeing burning oil raining from above.
"Propably Draven changed order and wants now to burry me in a feiry grave?"
-----
"So the hell broke free." - Nagash thought. - "An international invasion on Romme? What the...?"
-----
"Huh..." - Cheetah woke up again, hearing the sounds. - "Leave me alone!"
-
Haraldur started a scan of the island to work out what natural resources it had.
Marble, iron, gold, wood and fertile land. Perfect. Many sheep grazing, good for fleece and meat. Good sustainable fish stocks. Good strategic position. Perfect for occupation.
Maybe he should not have been so harsh on the viallagers... Meh, too late now anyway. Some will have survived, thankfully.
It would be imperitive to weaken the opposing armies, and spread chaos, so the village burning did have a silver lining all of its own.
Those Dark Empire soldiers look to be panicking, he thought. That was successful.
Hmmmm... seems that uch of the forest has been decimated. Draven has been playing with fire again. What is the point in invading a country if you are going to destroy its natural resources at the same time? You would definitely not be popular, and so it would be more difficult to keep control of the area. Stupid, stupid.
Maybe it would be beneficial to stop this destruction to save people and forest? Indeed, that would be a good idea.
A large black cloud appeared over the whole island, and started to rain, water this time.
-
"Aritan? Boy did you take a wrong turn... Don't you imbeciles know when to quit? And stop that, you're screwing up the ecosystem!"
Draven threw his arms to his sides, and a burst of flame erupted from his body, incinerating the nearby plant life and raising the nearby temperature considerably.
"Very well, I suppose I can spare five minutes."
But suddenly a cloud appeared out of nowhere and it began to rain...
"What is this?! Bah!"
Another burst of fire erupted from him like an explosion, shaking the ground. He had doubled the intensity of his aura, so that the falling drops of water evaporated in mid-air before getting too close to him. Wrapped in fire, his glance shifted to Scorch's prison in the distance, around which many soldiers were rolling around on the ground partially on fire. Thinking to himself,
'Is this storm Scorch's doing? I better kill this one quickly...'
----
The Romme soldier guarding Iduran stepped in front of the newcomer.
"Who might you be?"
-
Bored, Haraldur scans the area where he rained on burning oil for any important or interesting people. There was a prisoner there. A prisoner? A prisoner?! Draven taking a prisoner? That is very rare indeed. Must be a special reason for doing that.
Maybe we can stir things up a bit? A bit more. Indeed.
The iron shackles around Scorch begin to slowly crack, and fall off even kore slowly.
Haraldur teleports 500 metres backwards, and remain invisible.
-
Shin lunged at Draven, and plunged his sword where Draven's heart would be.
-------------------------------------------
//No entry for Gyulim at this time//
-
Wile next hoped back on his Wyverin he thought for a moment. I wonder who is leading this attack... Nex and his Wyverin swooped away from the battle and headed back to were Draven was. He saw Draven and the other guy fighting, so he decieded to swing out his to blades jumped of his Wyverin, told it to wait, and slowly walked to the fight...
---------
Duilin then shook his head in confusion
"Sheesh, that was the thoughest fight I've had since I battled Draven, that guy was just as good as him....hope he dosen't know any freaky magic like Draven dose....that would make him even stronger then...."
Duilin looks around and then notices that he let somebody go into the cave.
"OH NO!" Duilin yells and then runs back into the cave and stops as he sees the man and the guard. "HEY!" He yells.
* He yells hey after he answers the guard question: "Who might you be?" *
-
Zeros' shrugged and walked away from Seth. Qeni and Zev not far behind.
Zeros' could sense an evil around, but there was no one in sight.
"Stay here.." he said in a low voice.
He glided over to where the village was and started scouting out the land scape.
Its all burnt...no survivors..., he thought
He kept walking around making sure not to be attacked by anyone.
-
Oh yeah I forgot about Gedi!
Gedi was hiding in Duilin's room when suddenly he decieded to go outside. He sneaked out side, when suddenly a Dark Warrior attack him. Gedi jumped at the soilders face a dug his claws into his neck and tore them out, makeing a messy mess! The then ran back inside and then kicked open Cheetah's door and jumped on Cheetah's bed and barked loudly hopeing to wake him up.
-
Haraldur hovered there wonderig why the prisoner had not moved. Surely he would want to go free? Or wreak vengance upon Draven? This is very strange indeed.
-
He saw Shin lunge at Draven and started to use his wing to hover above the ground.
Why is this all happening...Will Qeni and Zev be safe here...
-
Draven sidestepped to the left, just barely avoiding his opponent's dashing attack. While in mid air, he twisted his body around so that his firery left palm pierced through Shin's aura of coldness and landed mere inches from his adversary's head as he dashed past. He then began to conjure a fireball at the end of his palm as he normally did, but because of his proximity, the energy would gather inside his opponent's head, effectively causing it to explode...
(Total elapsed time: 1 second)
-
It rained harder. Then it began to snow and hail.
-
Seth stayed silent and did not answer the guards question, and the shout did not faze him.
His eyes went blank as if he were intranced.
He attempted to walk past the guard, the guard grabbed him by his Tunic and lifted him, then Seth grabbed the guards hand and Seths steel claws dug into the guards hand.
The guard screeched and let go of Seth.
Seth dashed into the Cavern until he met Iduran and he stopped and stared at him awkwardly.
Seth turned his head back to a forward position and continued walking into the Cavern, his eyes still just two shiney, white pearls in his skull.
He was out of Idurans sight, and a loud, inhuman shriek could be heard all through the cavern..
-
Duilin ran after Seth with his weapon ready. He went to were Iduran was to see if everything was okay.
=======
Nex aproached the two men fighting. He looked at Draven, and Shin, he then walked towards Shin swinging his blades around.
-
"Hah! It'll take more than that to defeat me!"
Shin suddenly rulled under Draven's arm, grabbed it, and rotated behind Draven, bending him over.
-
Nex then grinded his blades together and jump kicked at Shin!
-
Shin felt Nex's movements through his aura, and proceeded to send a rain of huge icicles through Nex's body. There is no way to dodge (sorry man, but Shin's attacks are very precise)
-
Zeros' looked over at the cavern where Qeni and Zev were.
He cast a protective barrier around them so they wouldnt get hurt.
Zeros' unsheathed his sword (look at avatar) and flew over towards Nex, and then he held the sword above his limp body and plunged his sword into his body (according to MotD's post he has ice shards in his body so Im assuming he cant move.), spraying blood everywhere.
"One down..." he whispered.
He could feel another evil around but all he saw was Draven and Shin fighting.
-
//Thank god my charactors are allways wearing the right armor, when ever you try to cheat like this//
The icecles hit Nex but his robes and metall vest consumed most of the attack. He fell to the ground, he was hurt, but okay, he then deceieded to lie there for abit and think of some stradegy wile he plays dead, Draven could take care of him for awile, he's just as strong as he is....heh....Nex is surpizeing.
-
(Remember: The recipient of the attack handles the end result!)
Using the torque gernerated by Shin bending him to turn the bend into a flip, Draven landed on his feet. Continuing to turn, Draven threw the half generated fireball straight at the ground, not so much intending to catch Shin in the blast but, to distract him, as a cloud of dust arose from the explosion in the already poor visibility of the weather. Additionally, he used the blast as spring board to rocket himself skyward. As he rose, the snow and hail clearly impeded him.
"How vexing!"
Reaching an altitude of 50 feet or so, Draven cupped both hands straight above his head. The aura of flame around him lifted, surging into a massive ball of crimson energy straight above him. Still looking skyward, draven fired the orb straight into the air like a cannon. The ball soared higher and higher into the clouds above until Draven finally motioned his arms to his sides, causing a massive red explosion high above the battlefield. The darkness of the storm was replaced by an eerie crimson glow as the clouds immediately above disintigrated into nothing. Draven had blasted a huge hole in the storm, the effect being a large area of calmness around the current location and storms all around in the distance.
Draven clenched his right fist.
"Whoeverso dares to interupt my battle with petty weather tricks should know I will have his head when I am finished here..."
Still floating above (aura-less) and quite irritated he had to use the energy he had stored to stop a storm, Draven folded his arms and surveyed the situation below. Shin stood almost directly below him. Nearby was Nex on the ground and another unfamilar figure stood by...
----
Iduran whispered to the guard with the broken arm, who was leaning on the cave wall next to him.
"Did you hear that?"
(Perhaps Haraldur should come down and interact with some other characters, rather than trying to play god, heh...)
-
//I was just following MotD's post...heh...Ignore everything below (plunged the sword into the body...)\\
Zeros' stopped his stab in mid air and looks back towards Qeni and Zev, they were huddled over in a feddle position.
Zeros' sheathed his sword and glided up to the alltitude of Draven.
"Whats your purpose here..." he said in a low, mencing voice.
He could still sense another presense...other then himself, Draven, Shin and Nex
-
//But I like playing God! Razz //
Haraldur materialised behind Draven and said "And what will you do with the head after you have done with it? We cannot have you littering. The country is a mess as it is." He dematerialised.
He materialised again right in front of Draven. He smiled. He then very fast surged towards the ground. The common rock troll is a creature prone to grudge-bearing, he thought. No need to get one's own troops into action when there are expendable recruits nearby. He dematerialised before hitting the ground.
-
Shin smiled to himself as he cupped his hands and summoned all the ice energy he could. As the orb of energy grew and grew, plant life froze to death and was encased in a sheet of ice. After a time, the orb of ice had reached huge proportions, with the origin still being between Shin's hands. As the orb hit a 15 foot radius, Shin blasted it upward in Draven's direction, knowing that Draven had very few options left.
-
A blast of lightning hit the orb of ice causing it to explode into many fast moving shards or ice flying in all directions.
Haraldur smiled, then started towards the city of the rock trolls.
-
Upon realizing that his orb had been shattered, Shin focused his mind and all of the ice shards gathered around him and began circling at a godlike speed.
"Well, since that didn't work...I guess I'll have to try this instead..."
Shin then raised his hand, and several shards joined together to make a ring of ice. Shin hurled the ring in Draven's direction, hoping that Draven would be hit by it, and cut in half.
-
Nex then relaised that somebody else was here, so then he jumped back up swung out one of his blade knives and one of his sickles and then looked around.
"Haradular perhaps...." He thought to himself
He then deceied to something to get rid of shin. He charged up a huge fire ball (just like Duilin's) and then formed it into an arrow shape (he's more skilled with it) and aimed it at Shin
"DIE!" He yells as he tosses it at Shin.
========
Duilin then looks around abit
"Ummm...Iduran, do you see what made that sound? And were did it go? I'll get it for you...kill it...hurt it...talk to it...whatever..."
-
Haraldur arrived at the city of the rock trolls. He saw the squalor of their environment, and thought: perfect. He approached the gates and said, "Do you have a death wish? Simple yes or no question."
One of the trolls laughed out loud. Haraldur looked pissed off, and noted the troll was made of marble. Acid flew out of his fingers and splashed on the troll. The troll writhed in agony as his body reacted with the acid around him. Haraldur then went through the gates.
-
Seths eyes returned to normal, and he gasped in horror.
He stood before a Scourge. It had the body of a beautiful nude woman from the waist up, and from the waist down she was a serpant. Her serpant tail was curled, but it quickly unfolded and became a 20 foot long deadly weapon. She had lured Seth to her using her beautiful siren song that was so high pitched, only Seths elven ears could pick it up.
She let loose another massive shriek. Seths ears twinged in pain.
He got into his loose form battle stance, one shoulder going up and down at a time, knees bent. This stance allows Seth to move at great speed.
The giant tail swung at Seth; He jumped up and came down claws first. They impaled the tail through the green scales easily, but he was stuck!
The Scourge flailed her Tail, and Seth, around in a tantrum of pain.
Seths claws finally released, and Seth was slammed into the cavern wall on his back. He slumped down to the floor and was stunned from the impact for a moment.
"If only I could distract her long enough to summon a fire elemental strike.." Seth thought to himself.
-
Zeros' quickly dove down, unsheathed his sword and blocked the fireball heading towards Shin.
"You take care of the other...Ill get this one..." he told Shin.
Zeros' then unsheathed his other sword (its a small sword that is covered by his coat going across his back, its about 1-2 feet in lengh, it looked like Zeros' main sword, but much much smaller) and took a battle pose.
"Come on..." he said.
He glided towards Nex's position and when he reached it, he did a X slash and then Nex...
-
Nex then did his own cross slash blocking Zeros'
"What the hell do you think your doing? I practally invented that move!" Nex laughed. He then pushed back Zeros' with his weapons and by kicking him away, he then jumped back and got in to some scary look fighters stance.
//Just to let you know, Nex is as though as Draven is, because of his with his master fighing skills//
-
Zeros' quickly regained his balance.
He sighed.
"It'll take more then that to stop me..." he started to laugh.
He sheathed his smaller sword and then held out his long katana infront of him horizontally. He then grabbed the blade and blood started dripping from the blade onto the ground.
He then slashed in a downward slash motion and a blade of blood flew towards Nex. With Zeros' unsheathing his other sword and rushing at Nex at the same time.
-
The screams of the marble troll alerted the population of the city, but Haraldur just walked past and into the hall of the troll king.
"Good morning," he said. "I can see that you live your lives in a state of squalor. That can be fixed. Remember who caused you squalor? The Dark Empire when they betrayed you after years of you serving them.
"Right now the Dark Empire has invaded the natrion of Romme, directly above you. They have faced some resistance, and are not as strong here as they might have been. This is the perfect time for you to strike if you are to have your vengence soon."
Vague calls and shouts arose around him, and some trolls started cheering. The troll king stared at him for a while, and then stood up and picked up a spear, and led his men out of the gates.
Haraldur smiled, and dematerialised.
-
"Me? What are YOU doing here? This island is the property of the Dark Empire now."
Draven shook his fist at Zeros' as he flew away, but he quickly turned his attention to the bearded warrior who materialized in front of him.
"Wonderful... the barbarians have arrived..."
But much to his surprise, Draven glanced downward and realized Shin had readied his next attack while he was distracted. The ball of ice exploded below and the razor sharp ring of ice sped dangerously close to him.
Draven flew backwards, facing the ring as it followed him. Extending his right palm and supporting his right arm with his left, Draven fired off a small fireball at the ring, which shattered one of the blade-like shards, but the rest remained intact. Repeating this strategy, he fired off five more blasts which shattered the rest.
Draven turned sharply and landed on the ground some 50 feet in front of Shin. The ice that had formed on the ground began to melt under his feet as a dim aura of flame began to appear around him.
"General, huh? Were those your troops? Really now, you should tell them to mind their own business... Now where were we?"
Draven pressed his palms together as if praying. A stream of fire formed in between as he slowly brought them appart. When he was satisfied with the length, Draven grabbed one end of the fire with his right hand and the rest of the burning energy thinned in to a sharp sword shape.
Draven twirled his blade in front of him in a sideways figure-8 pattern, then widened his stance and pointed it towards Shin, all without breaking his stare into his opponent's eyes.
-
Iduran looked at Duilin with a worried expression.
"Yes, perhaps you should check it out... Is that some sort of struggle I hear? Blasted wound... I can't stand staying in bed!"
-
Nex droped his blade knive and grabed Zeros' sword as if it was not even sharp at all. Nex's eyes started glowing red, he made an inhumen sound and then swung Zeros' sword away with great force and then with his other hand he slashed at him with his sickle. His other hand was all bloodly yet, he didn't seem to react to it.
----
Duilin noded as he went deeper into the cave to look around. Gedi then ran out of Cheetahs room and then looked around and look at Iduran, and gave him some sort of confused look, like a, What's going on here? , look.
-
Ranks of trolls scurried out of openings in the ground, attacking Dark Empire soldiers on sight. The Dark Empire soldiers were terrified because their swords had very little effect on the stone bodies of the trolls.
A troop of trolls, on seeing Draven, screamed and charged at him and his opponent, wishing to maim and kill.
-
Duilin had walked into the large Cavern "room" and the scourge automatically started attacking Duilin.
//Don't worry Dude Man, Duilin isn't getting hurt unless you want him to, sorry if I end up controlling Duilin somewhere in here, but Duilin has to combat the Scourge at least a little bit, it's attacking him..//
Duilin evaded the Scourges swings and even managed a few gashes into the monsters tail.
Seth saw Duilin battling the Scourge and thought, "What a perfect distraction.."
Seth kneels down and stares at the ground while mumbling an incantation. Then he raises his right arm out to his side and points at the target with his left hand. An aura of red and orange surrounds his right hand, then after a few moments a ball of flames about 2 feet in diameter appears on his left hand and flys out of his palm, onto the Scourge.
The ball of fire striked the Scourge in the chest and it wailed in pain.
The Scourge was obviously weakened, but not dead.
The Scourges tail wasn't moving much because of the pain it was experiencing from the 3rd degree burns it had on her weakest spot, the human half of her body.
Seth was able to run up and get a good couple of slashes on the Scourges human half of her body and she bled badly from this.
She crumpled down, but wasn't dead.. yet.
-
"Whoa!" Duilin yelled as he saw the scourge, after the small battle, Duilin then punch the Scorge in the gut. Wile she was recovering from the pain Duilin ran about 10 yards away from the monster.
"Okay, hunny, EAT FLAME OF DEATH!!!" Duilin raised his hands over his head and charged up the large fire ball and tossed it at the Scourge
//That would most likely kill the thing!//
-
Zeros' quickly tried to dodge, but barely got away. He suffered a slash starting at the top right corner of his face and going down to the bottom left corner.
"Humph..." he sighed.
Even though Zeros' was serverly hurt, he ran back at Nex, agian with full force. Blades forward, charging directly towards Nex.
//Dude Man we need to get hurt some...we can't be invincible...\\
----
He looked to the right for a second and saw Qeni and Zev pounding on the barrier.
"Zewos! Wet us out!" cried Qeni.
Zeros'...Please dont die...for my sisters sake... Zev thought to himself.
//Soon Qeni and Zev will play a bigger role...but you gotta wait...\\
-
Zeros' blade stabed Nex, but the armor protected him from it going threw and killing him. He shed abit of blood, yet he didn't cry out in any pain at all. He then pushed Zeros' away,wile his head was turned, when he was looking at the kids. Nex then swung out both of his blades and swung one but thrusted the other, at the same time *it may not seem like much but it's accually kinda though to do, wile your fighting, because wile your fighting you need to think fast*
(Meanwile Nex's Wyverin is harmlessly sleeping)
-
Zeros' quickly regained his senses towards the battle and blocked both attacks. Using his large katana to block the slice and his small dagger like sword to block the thrust.
The blade that was thrust quickly sparked and slipped off of Zeros' smaller sword, slashing his right side open.
Zeros' stood holding there holding his side, blood dripping onto the ground.
----
Qeni and Zev were watching the battle. Qeni started to cry becasue Zeros' was hurt. Zev also started sobbing, but not as much as Qeni.
A goblin appeared behind the two children.
Zeros' sensed it and sheathed his smaller sword and threw the sheath at the barrier. At this moment the barrier open letting the sword through, then closing immediatly after.
Zev stood there hold a sword and a sheath. He knew what he had to do, fight the monster.
Zev stepped infront of Qeni and pushed her into a small cubbyhole. He whispered something to her, "Stay here...Be safe...Don't worry...I'll protect you..." he kissed her forehead and put a large rock infront of the hole.
Qeni started to cry agian. "Zewvy...Zewos'..."
Zev tied the robe attached to the sheath around his waste and unsheathed the sword Zeros' gave him.
The dim torches flikered and gave off little light, making the goblin look even more menacing. The reflections bounced off the sword.
The goblin charged at the child, Zev stumbled around, but manged to block it.
-
//If your "goblin" is supposed to be a troll, remember they wanted to attack the Dark Empire mostly.//
-
Shin glared towards Draven as his aura re-built itself.
"No. I'm alone. Those fools wouldn't even be worthy of Aritan's army."
The aura of ice compacted itself so much that it would be impossible for the flames to so much as dent it, and then it compressed itself into a sword. Shin took a leather strip from his robes and tied it around where the hilt would be.
"Lets throw the magic aside and try pure combat. What say you, vile demon?"
-------------------------------------------------------------
Gyulim returned to the inn, only to find that a mass of drunk sailors were all gathered at the tables closest to the door and to the stairs. Sighing to herself, Gyulim headed to the stairs so she could get to the safety of her room.
But it seemed as though the sailors weren't going to make that easy...
"Hey baby...don't leave us hangin' now"
"You wanna...sail da seven seas..."
"I'll buy ya a drink; could pound all night long, hehehe..."
Gyulim did her best to ignore all of the sailors' rude comments, but when one of them smacked her from behind, she couldn't take it anymore. She grabbed that sailor by his hair, and threw him in the direction of the others.
"Now, I'm going to go to my room. If I see any of you lurking outside my door, you'll see the sea again...but you won't be sailing it."
With that, Gyulim continued to her room, and locked the door. Right there on her nightstand...was a letter from her father; one of Aritan's high lords.
"Great...now they know where I am. Can't they let me find Shin before they track me down?"
She picked up the envelope, and opened it.
Dear Gyulim,
Your running away has indeed angered our ruler, but seeing as how you have a noble cause, you will not be punished. I managed to convince him to send out some troops to help you locate Shin. They are all at the inn now, disguised as sailors so as not to draw attention. I wouldn't be surprised if they had all gotten drunk already, but if so, don't let them get to you. However, if they show any serious disrespect, make it clear to them that you will not tolerate it at all.
Included with this envelope is 10,000 units of that port town's currency. I figured you would be low on money at this point, and I knew that you would need help sooner or later.
Now be a good girl, and good luck on finding your love.
-Father
-
Draven raised an eye at his opponent, but soon shifted his glance to his left... For some reason, some twenty or thirty small trollish creatures were charging at him and his opponent brandishing short swords and axes.
"Oh, for the love of..."
Lowering his crimson blade, Draven extended his left palm. A surge of crimson energy gathered, forming into an orb. He let the fireball charge until the trolls were some 100 feet away, then fired. The orb rocketed through the air, slamming into the lead group and exploding on impact. The frontmost creatures immediately liquidated into nothing, the rest flew backwards hundreds of yards engulfed in flame... Draven had a knack of finding ways to burn things that could not be burned...
Draven turned back to Shin with a mocking smile, placing his left hand on his waist, and chopping his flaming sword in the air.
"Oh, I'm sorry, what was that? I wasn't paying attention..."
-
"Hahahahaha! You pitiful fool! You rid yourself of your one of you swords, you think you can beat me with now? You never could anyways!"
Wile Zeros' was sitting there in pain, Nex swung his two blades down at Zeros' aiming to eiter cut off his arms or slice him into three peices!
-
//Ok...its a troll then, and the cave Qeni and Zev are in is the troll's cave.\\
"Think so? Well just see about that...Qeni and Zev are more important then my pitiful life..." he said to Nex.
He grabbed his katana and block horizontally, stopping the assult.
"You think I wouldn't carry more then just two swords? Haha...!" he started laughing
He used his left hand and reached behind him, and pulled out a shuriken. The rain was making his wound hurt more, everytime a drop touched it.
He switched hands on his sword and now held the shuriken in his right hand. He then stabbed himself with it where the wound from Nex's sword was.
He gasped. Then he regained his senses. He mumbled something and then the shurkien started glowing the color of dark red blood.
He then threw it at Nex, right where is lungs were supposed to be.
----
Zev was now tangled in combat, this was the first time he ever handled a weapon, other then a stick to keep away snakes.
Zev backed up alittle and regained his balance. He was the one to charge this time. The troll held out his hand hoping to block it, but instead his hand was cut in half.
The troll screamed out in pain. Hold his arm where his hand was supposed to be. Zev took this moment. He charged agian at the troll, this time aiming for his head.
Contact was made between steel and flesh.
The cave troll's head was taken clean off. Blood gushed out from his neck, staining the walls and roof of the cave.
Zev stood in the middle of the cave, the sword bloody, his clothes stained. He now has his hands stained with blood.
He went over to where the small cubby hole was and moved the rocks. Qeni was there, eyes closed, still sobbing. She cried herself to sleep.
Zev picked up his sister and put her over his back (like a piggy back ride). He put the sword back in its sheath. He then found another cubby hole, big enough for the both of them.
He took the sword, and budged a boulder infront of it. The pressure was too much, and it broke the sword in half. He fell asleep right there on the rocky cold ground, his sister beside him.
His last thought before he went to sleep, Zeros'...please.
-
//Er... Zeros': these trolls are made of rock. No blood, and you could not cut into them with a sword.//
A troop of about 1500 trolls approached a building surrounded by bruning, dead and wounded soldiers, all wearing the uniforms of the Dark Empire. They charged, and the troops of the Dark Empire were massacred. They found a man dozing among a heap of broken chains, and ignored him.
__________________________________________________
Haraldur teleported to be above the island. He saw some people fighting far below, and saw that one was Draven and another was some martial artist. He went down at huge speed: flames burned around him and he seemed to cause a bow wave of flame in the air. A strange field seemed to surround him ,engulfed by flame. Winds swept all around him. Above him a tornado started forming, caused by his movement. He hit the ground. The ground exploded around him and the people fighting. The rocks underneath crumbled and magma came to the surface. The winds swpt around and caused a fire storm, which soon swept into to nearby forest.
Haraldur appeared again above the island, and saw that the forests were burning again. Annoyed, he caused rain to fall, but on the forests only. He also caused a small cloud to be 500 metres above Draven and rain on him and follow him everywhere.
He teleported so that he was in front of Draven and said, "Some people claim there is nothing better than a cold shower. And you look as if you have a hangover, so I have taken things into my own hands for your well being." Droplets of water started to drop towards Draven. Haraldur dematerialised.
-
//Oh and Haradular, Nex and Zeros' are fighting close by aswell, just thought I'd let you know//
The shuriken then stabed Nex right in the lung. He gasped for air, and stumbled abit, he didn't seem to be okay at the moment.
"I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS!" Nex yelled in extreme rage, "Might aswell make this place have an even bigger fire problom now" he charged up a huge fire ball, and I mean huge for the size of these things and tried to toss it at Zeros' but it took to much energy for him, so then he fell to the ground and the fireball evaporated, he started gasping for air. Nex's Wyverin wakes up, because of the sound of flame, notices what is going on and flys over screeches at Zeros' and pics up Nex and flys away...
-
//Yes, I do know, and they would also be affected by the huge ball of wind, fire and flying rocks. And by the magma spurting out from the ground.//
-
//Theres a twist...\\
Zeros' gasped, he held his side and he fainted.
----
The troll got up off the ground. He went over to where his fake head was and smashed it agianst the wall.
The troll popped his head out and started to walk off in the back depths of the cave.
-
The Fire Ball Duilin made killed the scourge and Seth confronted Duilin.
Seth spoke for the first time, saying, "What are you doing in this cavern? Hiding? If so, you're doing a piss-poor job. You left foot prints all the way to your cave."
"Now, where is this evil I sense?" Seth said, as his nostrils flared, and his hair a mess from being slung around by the Scourge.
//By the Way Dude Man, Nex has hit by a shuriken, not a sword if I read correctly and if a shuriken is what I'm thinking it is. a Shuriken is a 5 pointed throwing star ninjas use. They're pretty small, but it was stained with demon blood, so it might have more illing properties.\\
-
//Heh, illing properties, that's what you think...*smiles evily*//
Duilin blinks for a moment and then speaks "An evil you sence, well I say it's either, Draven, an evil fire mage, who leads the Dark Empire, or, I belive his name is Nex...yeah....I remember, this guy attacked, well he looked like Nex...Well it was either Nex or Draven, but maybe somebody else...." Duilin then thought for a momet "Who are you, and what are you trying to do, and who do you work for?"
------
The Wyverin landed on a moutain and placed Nex down. It taps Nex abit to wake him up. Nex then gets up and brushes the dirt off his robes. He then plucks the shuriken out of him and looks at it. He then examins the blood, it's mixed with his blood, yet there both simular.
"Deamon blood....heh....fool..." Nex laughs as he tosses the star away, he pats his Wyverin on the head "I'm going to go get relaxed and heal up abit" Nex starts limping around, he finds a large rock and goes over and sits on it. He takes off one of his metall boots and turns it around and shakes it abit, some small rocks tumble out, then he puts it back on. He streches abit, yawns, and sits down. He looks around abit and examins what is around him, and looks to see if anyone is near.
//Hey, if any of you can guess what Nex's race is I'll change iton his profile, from Unknown, to whatever it is Very Happy //
-
Seth said, "I'm but a wondering ex-monk. I tend to destroy evils I come across in an attempt to become a Saint and become a God when I die.. Uhm.. is this all of your force? I think we're on the same side here. Want my aid?"
//I'm guessing Nex is a demon or half demon? By the Way, Where's Cessy? o.o\\
-
"I guess that would be good then. I'm Duilin Tanlonscar, I used to serve the Dark Empire, but it was agaisnt my own will, and I wasn't allowed to get out of this one commander's sight" Duilin pauses for a moment "But I killed him, good!" Duilin then puts his weapons away. "So you want me to tell you want's going on, or do you allready know?"
//Yes he is a deamon, good job!//
-
"Seth Faowind, pleased to meet you I guess..." Seth said as he shaked Duilins hand.
"Please do explain what's going on in this hell hole. I've seen destroyed cilliages, countless slain innocents, burning greenery everywhere... Is it the work of 'Darveen' or who ever you said?"
~Over an 11 minute period Duilin explains to Seth what's going on~
"Ah, and they want your friends sword? I guess I could help you men out. We're going to ask a dragon about the sword to learn of it's abilities? Lead on. But first, who will look after your wounded comrad?"
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Nevina had sensed the evil on 'her' island, as she calls it, for sometime now, but had thought it best to ignore it.
She looked out to the East and saw destruction, smelt smoke, and felt she must do something.
Nevina equipped herself with her weapons, put on her tunic and necklace and headed off to the East, following the evil in the rain.
-
"Let's stop the foolish games and be true fighters."
Before Draven could even react, Shin's sword was poised to strike, and Shin lunged forward. He slashed swiftly for Draven's neck, ready for in case he either blocked or countered...
-
"Well I have a few people to do that, Cheetah, and my little dog friend Gedi, and some crippled soilder, I hope that will be enough, let's just hope Nex or Draven dosne't bump into him, maybe we should try and resuce Scorch, or find somebody else, I'm not exacly strong..the most I can do is fire spells, but those are dangerous, and make me tired abit....I learned them form...sombody....Well anyways, let's get going now!"
-----
Nex deciedes to move over to a cliff edge. He looks around and sees a village, and then he looks aroud abit more and sees a burnig village and a series of caves.
"Yes...that's were they are..." Nex says to himself "But I still need to heal up abit...then I can fly down there on my Wyverin..."
-
Nex quicly spins around and sees a large man of straw welding a flame thrower
"hello my name is Raven and I will be your Burnerer today"He said
"Bite me"
"was that not the plan?"
"You are one sick puppy... I'm gonna put you to sleep" Nex draws his blade and runs him through
poke poke "Eee. it's like poking through merang" poke poke
"Hmm I like my food well done anyway" He blasts his flame thower at Nex.
(Dudman is kool with me controleing his guy)
-
//Another reason it had an effect on him was casue Zeros' is a Demi-Human (half human, half deamon) so...\\
Zeros' got up and examined the wound.
"Damnit...I was too careless..." he shrugged off the feeling and got up, his wing drooping.
He reached the cave and dropped down the barrier.
"Qeni and Zev are here somewhere..." he mumbled.
He walked into the back of the cave, one hand holding his right side, one hand grasping his sword.
A troll appeared infront of him. He smelled the air. Blood.
He grasped his sword harder and put up his dukes.
"Cmon..."
-
Haraldur appeared in front of Nevina. He said, "Good morning, what is your name? I am Haraldur Gunnar Hilmarsson, prince of the people of Víkingagarð. You probably do not know a lot about us, but our traditional enemy has long been the Dark Empire. We are prepared to do anything to stop them, not stopping short of anything in our aims. If we need to kill innocent civilians in order to make things worse for the Dark Empire, we do so. If we need to destroy an island to kill Dark Empire soldiers, we do so. If we have to commit the foulest of crimes, genocide, to help destroy the Dark Empire, we force ourselves to do so. If we have to steal, pillage, destroy, kill and maim in order to stop the Dark Empire, we do so. This is no moral crusade, it is hatred that drives us. Complete loathing that drives us.
"You should see that rock trolls are chasing Dark Empire soldiers, causing havoc. I believe they have halved Draven's already reduced force.
"We intend to take over this island. We intend to use it as an outpost, due to its strategic position, to launch attacks on the Dark Empire.
"You, yourself, will have to come to a decision, who do you hate, or hate more, them or us? If you hate them, or hate them more than us, I suggest you help us. I will leave you now. If you wish to speak to me, just hover about 500 metres into the air, above wherever Draven is. Bye."
He dematerialised to be above Draven.
-
The flame hits Nex, but he aborbs it and makes a large fireball. He prepares to toss it at him, but then thinks.
"You know...maybe you could be of some use....Would you consider joining me? Because it looks like Draven, might die or something...and I sence that there is something else around here....Anyways...we need another strong warrior...you seem to be strong...how would you like to join the Dark Empire?"
-
//Scarecrow...Were off to see the wizard! The wonderful Wizard of Oz! They say he is the wonderful Wizard of Oz...\\
The troll charged at Zeros', he tried to evade, but becasue of his wound he couldn't. He stood in the direct line of the troll and parried it, then with all his remaining strenght, he tossed the troll against the wall.
While the troll was stuned, Zeros' dunk his hand inside where the wound was, he gasped at the pain, he stumbled alittle, but then quickly regained his balance.
He held his outstreached bloody hand. He made a slashing motion in the air, and then blades made out of blood, flew towards the direction the troll was at, paralyzing it even more.
He sheathed his sword, he then started charging up a ball of fire, ice and thunder (the thunder ball was made by his wing, and the fire and ice by his hands). Then he combined them, this was a stranious task. When he finally managed, a phoenix appeared.
The phoenix was a brilliant red.
At that moment, the cave shook, and all evil vanished from the cave.
Zeros' held his side, he sensed where Qeni and Zev were, he pushed the rock aside with the last of his strenght.
He woke up Qeni and Zev and then collapsed.
Zev shook Zeros' "Cmon man...wake up!" he started. Qeni started to cry. "Zewos..."
-
(It seems Haraldur wants Draven's full attention...)
Draven lept backwards, slashing at his opponent's blade with his own. After Haraldur's taunt and feeling a few raindrops, Draven doubled his aura once more.
"You blasted wretch! Can you not see that I'M BUSY!"
Draven exploded in a fury, the fireball wrapped around him digging into the ground. Draven flew backwards at highspeed, unsettling much earth, untill he was several hundred feet from Shin. Without looking, he threw his left hand upwards, tossing a fireball straight up into the rain cloud above him, which exploded and dispersed the cloud as before, but this time a shimmering beacon of red light remained in place in the sky, warming the air and creating a high pressure zone that repelled clouds (heh...)
Draven then position his left hand in front of him, making a fist except for two fingers that pointed upward. Three small dark shadows appeared on the outskrits of his burning aura, rotating around him slowly.
"Go... find the teleporting one and bring me his head... or at least make it known that he must wait his turn..."
The apparitions dissapeared into nothing. Wrapped in flame, cape fluttering wildly, and hovering several inches above the ground, Draven began to slowly move toward Shin.
"How convienient, Aritan, that three independent people who wish to kill me all appear independenly within two days... Games you say? Well, well, if you don't like the method of combat, you shouldn't have come... You could have kept your life... but it's your choice... DIE!"
Draven dashed forward, slashing his blade downwards and emitting a cresent moon shaped wave of flame, which headed straight for the warrior.
----
As Haraldur appeared above Draven, three dark apparitions materialized, rotating around him, each wrapped in black and carring a huge scythe. They spoke in whispering voices...
"You anger our lord..."
"Anger... yesss..."
"Anger... indeed...
"You must die..."
"Die... yesss...
"Die... indeed..."
The first appeared right in front of Haraldur, slashing at his face in a huge arc...
-
//Heh, forgot about Duilin//
Duilin and Seth walked over to the cave enterance, they pass by Gedi.
"Okay boy, you wait here!" Duilin tells Gedi, Gedi then starts to look sad "Oh fine you can come with us, just be careful!" He then looks over to Iduran "Hey, this is Seth, he's going to help me with The Dragon, then we do what needs to be done...I supose Cheetah, can just guard you, we are also going to find that wind mage, Scorch, he could be usefull."
-
Seth walked out of the Cavern with Duilin but said, "Do we really need a fire mage? I Can summon all the elements of this realm, though it takes a while, and isn't as powerful as a mages magic spell, but it usually gets the job done.. And you, you have that "Flaming Ball of Death" thing, we got all the fire magic we could want.. but if you still want to get this Scorch guy.. lead the way.."
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Nevina though to herself, "The hell? I can't hover, and who's Draven?... Wierdo..."
Nevina continued on her way towards the evil.. she was getting closer, she could taste it...
-
Haraldur blasts backwards to avoid the slash. Three tornados sprang out of his fingertips, looking to catch the shades in strong winds. //Xorlak, I am assuming that you only can control them, or are they NPCs for anyone to control?// He created a defensive barrier around himself. Winds swept everywhere at huge speeds, spiralling all around the island. Before long a hurricane was brewing, with lightining strikes setting the forests alight once again and incinerating the odd squirrel. Some trees were being uprooted.
"Good morning gentlemen, I hope you like light breezes."
Thinking to himself that the elf would probably be able to innately sense evil, he teleported himself and the shades right in front of her. This might be a good chance to show her who the real evil here was...
-
Duilin laughs "I don't recall me telling you he was a fire mage, he is a wind mage. Draven is a fire mage, he's abad guy, and even so, me must save him. Well anyways...We should stop by this near by town and pick up suplys, it's on the way. What do you say?"
-
"fine I will joine Voyutl"? He looks down at Duiln and Seth and Gede from the moutin, "Hey what is that over there?"
//Dudman told me the moutin waz near them//
-
Nevina was shocked at what appeared before her. The Haraldur guy was being faught by 3 demonic looking creatures. Seeing as how the man was out numbered, and the man seemed to mean her no harm, she decided to try to help him.
Nevina unsheathed her scimitar and pointed it at one of the shades. "Surrender or die vile heathen!" Nevina shouted as she charged at one of shades, aiming to take off its neck in one slash.
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"Ah, well with a name like "Scorch" I just assumed he had something to do with fire.. and everything I see is burnt.. meh, anyways, sure let's go look in that village. I would've gotten supplies from that village on the way here, but the dead bodies repeled me."
"Wha.. who's that up on that mountain..?"
-
//Yeah so we are outside now, I supose//
Duilin looks up and then sees a small figure flying towards them, it grows biiger, it is Nex and Raven rideing on a Wyverin.
"Holy crap!" Duilin shouts. The Wyverin grabs Gedi and countiues flying and bites off Gedi's head "NOOOOO!!!! GEDI!!!!"
Duilin was in great rage and then took out his cross bow and fired it at The Wyverin. It shreaked in pain and then sumbled in the air abit, The Wyverin flew off and landed on top of the moutain.
"Okay new goal....avenge Gedi....somehow...." Duilin said, oddly he didn't seem to look any sadder then he usealy dose all the time (he allways looks sad) he just sighed and countiued to walk over to the burt village.
When they arrived, they saw a few Dark Warriors run off and some off those Rock Trolls kill them, and then the trolls ran away.
"Okay let's see what we can find..." Duilin says, in a tone as if he had allready forgotten about Gedi. Duilin seemed to be abit hartless all of the sudden, I guess it shows you that he has abit of evil inside of him, yet, don't we all?
-
Haraldur cast a spell giving Nevina extra strength and health, and cast a spell to slow down and weaken the shades. Then he made two small firestorms go towards two of the shades to try and incinerate them.
-
Zeros' was dying by the second. Qeni and Zev knew they had to do something.
"Qeni...We can't help them...Im sorry Zeros'..." Zev started to cry.
"Zewos...Dwont die...Wew need you...*sniff *sniff*" she started to cry louder.
Tears streamed down from Qeni's face, landing on Zeros' wound.
Zev looked over towards Qeni, he gasped.
Qeni had grown white angel wings, streaching outside the cave. She touched Zeros', then at that moment, his wound started to close and stop bleeding.
Zeros' eyes slowly opened. Zev got up and hugged Zeros'
"Zeros'! I thought you were dead! Man..." he started to cry agian, but this time they were tears of happiness.
Zeros' turned his attention to Qeni. She had wings coming out of her back.
"Qeni...I knew it..." he went towards Qeni and picked her up. The wings started to disappear and she fainted.
"Qen.." Zeros' hit Zev in the back of the head with the blunt of his sword. He sheathed his sword back.
The carried Qeni and Zev out of the cave. He then searched the area. He sensed many good presences, he sensed a girl.
He materialized infront of Nevina. He grabbed the sword and stopped her assualt.
He unsheathed his sword with his free hand, slashed in the air and then the shade disappeared.
"Please...take care of this kids...and get as far away as possible. This will get dangerous soon..." he told her.
-
Shin stepped backwards, but that did not help him avoid the slash; all it did was prevent it from being fatal. As the slash connected, Shin thrust his sword in the direction of Draven's heart...(counter-attack, heh)
----------------------------------------
Disgusted that Aritan troops would even dare get drunk, Gyulim headed back to the lower level of the inn. What luck; one of them had passed out. She took his beer bottle, and smashed it on a table. All of the sailors looked at her in silence.
"Alright, you were sent to help me find Shin, were you not?"
All of them nodded.
"Then why the hell are u getting boozed like this!? AND WHERE DID THE MONEY MY FATHER SENT ME GO TO?"
The soldiers looked at each other, scared out of their wits...then one of them spoke up...
"umm...we bought a lot of beer and ale..."
Gyulim became especially pissed off, and threw that soldier out of the inn. The rest of them stood at attention out of fear...
-
"Good morning, and who might you be, and your little children?" A defensive wall appeared between him and the shades. "Are you wishing to kill me or aid me? Or do you just not care? Pray, tell. I find it helps in the long run." He sent a third firestorm towards the third shade.
-
Zeros' turned his attention towards Haraldur.
"I have no alliance with anyone. If it helps I despise the Dark Empire too. For now we can be commrades. I suppose it helps to say you also hate the Dark Empire too."
He put Qeni and Zev down on the ground and cast a protective barrier around them and Nevina.
He whispered something to Nevina "Please, protect them. Thet can be the saviors or the destruction of this world."
He unsheathed his sword and looked back towards Haraldur.
"How shall we handle this...friend?" he said it with sarcasim.
//That was the slot twist about Qeni and Zev...heh.\\
-
"Well, first of all, I do despise the Dark Empire. My entire country does. My country intends to take over this island so that we can launch attacks on the Dark Empire from here. This island is very close to other lands beonging to the Dark Empire. We will take over them all. After the Dark Empire is destroyed, then we will give those lands back to the inhabitants, if there are any left. Also, I suggest destroying these creatures who are bing burned."
A huge blast of sand went from Haraldur's fingertips towards the shades, looking to pulverise them.
-
(Draven actually threw some energy from his sword at a distance, but I'll work with this.)
Draven's fire cresent missed. Still surging at his opponent at high speed, Draven went in for a downward slash. The clash of the two opposing auras in close proximity was violent. Surges of energy unsettled the ground all around, throwing bits of earth into the air as the two elements neutralized each other. Draven felt his blade hit his mark, although just barely. Repositioning himself to thrust it in further with both arms, he left himself open to Shin's counter attack, and realizing this an instant to late, leaned to the right and felt the icy coldness cut through the armor on his left side and grazing his skin. Draven lept backwards a few feet, now holding his crimson blade in his left hand and covering his wound with his right.
"Not bad, Aritan..."
Draven thrust his blade into the ground with one hand, causing the ground to split in the direction of Shin. A widening crack ran between his opponent's feet, which began to spew searing lava...
-----
(Phew... You're all leaving me behind!)
The wraith, in the middle of a slashing attack, was hit by the firestorm's full force and disintigrated into nothing.
The remaining two apparitions backed up a bit and began to circle the whole group at high speed. Dim red translucent orbs appeared around them-- a protective spell against fire attacks.
The first charged at Haraldur at full speed, but it dissapeared in front of his face, reappearing behind him and attempting a horizotal slash across his back.
The second could not resist the children. It dive-bombed the barrier, throwing down a small black orb of energy that neaturalized it on contact. It then materialized behind the two petrified children, aiming to place a horizontal slash across their necks...
(Permission granted to kill the two wraiths, as long as it is done in good taste and by two different characters.)
-
"Well thats what Im trying..." he heard Qeni and Zev scream.
"Will finish this talk later..." he phased out, and then reappeared infront of the shade.
He blocked the scythe with his sword, he pushed up, that made his weapon go off balance. When he was off-balance, Zeros' cut a few inches below where the scythe was attached to the wood, sending it flying off in the direction of the shade.
It went through his chest, and landed on the ground behind him, killing him instantly.
"Shh...dont cry now Qeni..." he cast another barrier over the two children and Nevina.
He phased out then phased back in next to Haraldur.
"Where were we..."
-
Haraldur ducked and materialised quickly behind the shade, and made a huge aura of flame surround him. When the aura subsided, there was nothing there but a scythe with a hand attached to it.
"I think I was stating my position... Anyway, are you willing to help me take over the island so as to attack the Dark Empire?"
He looked accross the landscape. The Aritan guy still lived, he must be strong...
"Anyway, what do we do and where do we go now, do you think?"
-
"Haha...Sure...why not?" he started to laugh.
He looked around as did Haraldur and he saw Duilin and Seth.
"Be right back..." he phased out and then phased back infront of Seth and Duilin.
"How are you gentleman? What is your purpose here?"
-
Haraldur teleported himself to be where Zeros' was.
"Hallo. An adventurer and what appears to be a deserter from the Dark Empire... Hmmm... interesting..."
-
"Oh, well I'm Duilin Tanlon Scar, this is my friend Seth. I'm with the Romme as you can see, I WAS with Dark Empire, and now I left them, it's a long story, anyways, we are off to see this great Dragon that lives in some moutain/cave thing, he supost to know all about this magic sword, that our friend has. Draven, who I assume you may allready know, if trying to get this sword, for some unknown reason, I know about Draven's plans, and skills because I used to work for him" Duilin paused for a moment
"Who are you two people?" Duilin asks
-
"I am prince Haraldur Gunnar Hilmarsson of Víkingagarð. I intend to take over Romme so as to attack the Dark Empire from it."
-
Nevina looked at Zeros' in an odd, slightly annoyed way.
"How many baby sitters have you seen carrying a scimitar?" Nevina said sarcastically.
"I have no experience looking after anyones lives besides my own.. gah.. the last of the Jin Knights, reduced to a baby sitter.. wouldn't the elders be proud? But if you feel fighting is more important than your little friends here, I guess I'll have to look after them. Now if you'll excuse me..
*Nevina slashes her scimitar at the barrier and breaks it open with ease.*
I don't think the safest place for these two is in the middle of a battle zone."
Nevina puts Qeni on her back, holds Zevs hand, and escorts them to her palace.
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Seth just stares at everyone awkwardly and shuffles.
"Are we getting Scorch out or not? These distractions are getting on my nerves.."
Seth starts walking off in the wrong direction.
"Uhmm.. which way?" Seth asks in an embarassed tone.
-
"Yeah, just a moment" Duilin says to Seth, he then looks a Haradular "Uhhh, Exuce me? But you are against the Dark Empire, but you are going to TAKE over Romme? So, are you against us aswell, or do you wish to lead it? Just, don't get in our way because, we are on an important mission and all."
-
Zeros' sends a message to Nevina through ESP
"Thank you."
He returned his attention to Seth and Duilin. "The dragon...I have heard of him, but...not a magical sword..."
He phased out and back near where Shin and Draven were fighting.
He told Haraldur a message through ESP.
"Do whatever you want, I can handle things here. Find the sword, kill them. I don't care...as long as Qeni and Zev stay safe."
He turned towards the warriors battle.
"I know how this will end..."
-
"I will give Romme back to the inhabitants after the Dark Empire is destroyed. It will be safe then anyway. It is not intended to be a permanent occupation in any way. If there are any Romme generals left I would like to meet with them. Is the one called Iduran still alive?"
-
Shin stepped to one side of the crack, and did his best to avoid being hit by the lava being ejected from the core. When his chance came, he cast his most powerful ice spell towards the crack, freezing all of the lava that got 2 feet from the surface, and sealing the crack. From here, he looked at Draven.
"Childish..."
The proud general of Aritan felt that this battle had played out long enough, and his ice sword returned into his hand, sending a refreshing chill through his body. The wound on his side began to heal with the resulting energy...
"No wonder my soldiers have had trouble with you in the past. Now, where is your emperor...I felt his presence here before. Tell me. Now."
-
"Yes I belive he is, over at that set of caves over there, near by you will see a secert enterance, tell them I said it was okay for you to speak to Iduran. I don't know to much about the other gernerals. Now perhaps you chould help us with something, we are trying to find this Wind Mage, his name is Scorch, do you know anything about him, or were we could find him, or anybody who may know? Probally some Dark Warriors know...."
-
(DM: I hope Duilin remembered to actually take Iduran's sword with him, heh...)
Wonderful. Draven's opponent could detect elemental energy auras. That would explain how he found Draven so easily.
"Dear, dear... demanding now, are we?"
Draven straightened up, hovering a few inches higher above the ground and tapped the crimson blade in his left hand on the top of his left shoulder plate.
"If you wish to consult our lord, Aritan, you're going to have to stay alive until then... He happens to be on his way here right now. Weather he'll arrive in a few days or a few weeks, I don't know..."
Draven grinned menacingly, as if holding back one vital bit of information...
"I don't suggest you stick around to find out, though..."
He tossed his blade to the side, catching it with his right hand. Three orbs of vermillion energy appeared around him, rotating quickly.
"However, that's none of your concern. I'll grant your death wish myself..."
-
// Laughing Umm....Yes Yes he did....//
Duilin has the sword hiddin in his pack, so NOBODY can get it..
-
"There is definately a wind mage amongst a pile of broken chains (I broke them) in a burned out building surrounded by trolls (I ordered them) and dead Dark Empire soldiers (I killed them). He was asleep the last time I saw him. He is probably the one you speak of.
"Also, If you wish I could teleport you to the cave of the dragon. It seems to be a reasonably long climb, and if I can teleport you, it is unnecessary."
-
Zeros' phased out and back to were Haraldur, Duilin and Seth were.
"So...a secret passage eh? Hmm..." he spoke in a mumble.
He phased back out then back in near the secret passage. He spoke to one of the people, "A man named Duilin told me it was OK to see Iduran."
The guards led him to where Iduran was.
"Hello there..Mr. Iduran."
-
A door appeared beside Haraldur.
"Through this door is the entrance to the dragon's cave. I will be leaving you now."
Haraldur materialised beside Zeros'.
"Good morning General Iduran."
-
Shin glared at Draven.
"This fight is over. I can see that you are truly skilled, and that it was very unwise for me to challenge you in my current state. As for your emperor, I merely wish to speak to him. That is all."
-
Nevina finally arrived at the palace with Qeni fast asleep on her shoulders, and Zev tired, still frasping her hand.
She took the brother and sister to the Kings bedroom and laid them onto the luxurious bed.
She turned around and stepped onto the balcony and a shadowy figure appeared before her..
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Seth walked through the door to the Dragons Cave and waited on the other side for Duilin to join him.
-
"Whoa, how nice of him!" He says as he steps into the portal...
"A guy with such powers as him may be usefull..." Duilin says to Seth "Now let's get looking for that Dragon.
//Hey X, perhaps you could discribe the area to us?//
-------------
Meanwile, Nex and Raven ride the Wyverin, but head down over to the area of caves.
"Now were would that secert passage be..." Nex says "You wait here wile I go look for it." Nex says as he walks around.
Nex then sees the passage and sneaks inside, he sees the cripled soilder, Zeros' and Iduran
"Damnit, what is that half deamon doing here doing here!" Nex thinks "I'll teach him a lesson once and for all...but I don't like the looks on that other guy....wait...could that be...no....if so....I'm out of here...but I'll be waiting for them on there way outside..."
------------------
Now far, far, away.
Kathrine is abored ing a ship, headed to the Romme islands. She abords the ship. She is going there, for a well earned vaction, but is well unaware that it was attacked by the Dark Empire and is a total place of danger and chaos!
She sits at a pub in the ship.
//This might be a good time to add some charactors and have them appear. If not then I'll just have her arive at some harbor in a few days//
-
While Zeros' was waiting for a reply from Iduran, he sniffed the air.
Daemon blood.
He kept sniffing around untill he found out where the scent was coming from.
"Its that man agian. The one I fought with before."
He phases out and then phases back in right infront of Nex.
"Hello there...we meet agian."
Zeros' unsheaths his sword.
"I can see your still wounded from last time. This time I won't make the mistake of letting you go...AND I can use my full power."
He slashes at Nex and then he...
----
Qeni and Zev were lying on the kings bed. Qeni was asleep, but Zev was still awake.
He looked toward where Nevina was he also saw the shadowy figure. He decided to keep quiet till he can figure out whats going on.
-
"Excuse my associate, Iduran, he has some unfinished business. Just one second."
Haraldur materialised near Zeros' and cast a strength spell on him, then materialised near Iduran again.
-
He jumps backwards and then looks at Zeros' and laughs
"I'd like you to meet my new friend, Raven, and his flame thrower" He says
He then jumps on his Wyverin wile Raven aproces him.
"I'm not in the mood to get hurt at the moment" His Wyverin flys high above them and circles around the two.
-
"tell me Zeros' are demi humans flamable?" Raven said
*no answer*
"then I will find out myself"
He rains fire upon him with his flame thrower
-
Haraldur materialised. A huge storm appeared, winds flying everywhere. The flamethrower's flames were doused, and went out. The winds blew the Wyvyrn about. Lightning started to strike the ground.
Haraldur materialised in front of Iduran again.
//Dude Man: A hint, get Nex back on the ground. In the air in a storm?//
-
The Wyverin did a barrel roll motion in the air and flew off, and crashed into the ground, knocking it out cold, Nex was grabing on to the thing for dear life wile this was happening. He is about 25ft away from Zeros' and Raven
He looked over a Raven and sighed "Stupid, humen-flames, not as good as our deamon flames, Muahahahaa! Anyways....Who is doing this...it can't be natural...it must be that...guy...that...Hara-guy...I must find Draven...But first kill that stupid demi deamon! The Dark Empire will NOT loose, we will NOT fail! It's time to get back to killing mode!" Nex, focues his energy, his wounds heal, flame circles around him, then it stops and he charges at Zeros' with his blades in front of him ready to stab Zeros' to death
-
An inter-dimensional imbalance suddenly engulfs the island, making teleporting a distance more than 50 feet or so extremely dangerous...
(New rules in effect now, please see sign-up topic
My apologies for disrupting the flow, but I'm nullifying Duilin and co's teleportation to the Dragon's Cave. Everyone else who teleported can remain in their position. Haruldur is standing in front of Iduran.)
----
Iduran was growing weaker from fever. He looked up from bed to see an unfamiliar face.
"Who are you?"
----
Draven dispatched the crimson blade and folded his arms.
"Hmmm, a wise Aritan... what a treat."
Really, Draven should kill him now... but he was pressed for time and clearly this guy could take hours...
"Merely talk, huh? Tell me. I'll convey the message, if it is worthy..."
He didn't dispatch the rotating orbs, but they rotated slower and lower than before.
-
//Thank you Xorlak, because that teleportation was really biteing my nevres, even the dragons den one, I had to make a new intro to my other charactor, now time to edit some posts!//
Duilin looks over at Seth "We should probally scout the area, and look for suplies"
-
"Me? Prince Haraldur Gunnar Hilmarsson of Víkingagarð."
-
Zeros' did a quick side step to the left to avoid the stab.
"This agian?" he sighed.
He then did a full 90 degree turn to the left (he was facing > so hes facing ^ now), and slashed outward to the right, then upwards, blocking the thrust.
He phased out with his body slowly disappearing into nothing, and re-materalized behind him, facing back to back. (The teleport wasnt more then 10 feet probably.)
He held his sword outward, then turned it around (with the hilt facing away from him and the point of the sword point towards Nex. Hes still facing ^ and Nex is facing opposite of Zeros')
"Say hello to my little friend" he mumbled to Nex.
He then thrust his sword backwards, aiming for Nex's back, hoping to cripple him.
//Is that better?\\
-
Shin moved not a muscle for a moment, then stated clearly.
"I merely wish to know exactly why the Dark Empire sent their soldiers to Aritan ten years ago, and if possible, to forge a treaty so I may spend my time with my love rather than chasing your soldiers from dawn till dusk. What say you?"
-
//P.S, My phase out is more like speed...not teleportation.\\
-
//Hmm...need to make another abiliaty for my charactor, everyone else's are really though, time to have one of those super charactors like EVERYBODY else has//
The sword hit Nex, however his armor proteced him from to much damage, no crippling, just injured him, some. Nex then demonstrated a little deamon magic move that he has, he exploded into a small ball of flame, that would only cause a 2nd degree burn and faded back about 5 feet away from Zeros', now faceing him *or was he already, you spun around to much*
"Say hello to MY little friend!" He said as he quickly charged up a small fire ball of death and then shot it at him, and again, and again *he fired 3 fire balls at you*
//Yeah, so here is the advantage the small ones have, there fast then the huge ones, and don't take as much time to charge, but do less damage. The huge ones, that Duilin only dose, are more dogeable *if you can teleport, but EVERYONE can do that, but do WAY more damage//
//Xorlak, can you limit one Demi God like charactor to everyone? Because this is getting a little insane//
-
The figure stepped into the light and it was a man, but not an ordinary man.
He hovered and was dressed in a black robe. He had a cleanly shaven face, and long black hair shrowding his face. He had a scar going down from his left eye to his chin and he wielded a bastard sword. //This is an NPC, feel free to control him//
He stared at Nevina strangly, almost as though he was looking through her. He held up his unarmed hand and beaconed to her. She became intranced.
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Seth looked around for a few moments then he started walking towards a village North of his current position, then stopped, waiting for Duilin to join him.
-
Zeros' managed to block 2 of the fireballs, but the other one hit Zeros' left arm, disabling it momentarly.
"Hmph.."
He phased out (phasing out is speed, not teleportation...) and reappeared infront of Nex.
He quickly started slashing in X shapped patterns to keep Nex from retaliating too fast from his attacks he fired at Zeros'.
----
Zev started to shake. He was sitting there starring at Nevina and a shadowy figure...he looked menacing, and the lady who helped him and Qeni seemed to be in a trance.
Qeni was still fast asleep. He hoped she didnt wake up.
----
The shadow figure only said 4 words, "Give me the children." He started to walk over to Qeni and Zev, Qeni snoring and Zev shaking.
-
"Ah! Ack!" Nex cried as the slash(s) hit him in the torso, he fell to the ground from the attack, unable to attack back for a second.
------------
Duilin looked over at Seth and say him heading somewere, he shrugs, asuming Seth know's what he is doing and starts walking with him
"So...were are going?" He asks
-
Now far, far, away.
Kathrine is abored ing a ship, headed to the Romme islands. She abords the ship. She is going there, for a well earned vaction, but is well unaware that it was attacked by the Dark Empire and is a total place of danger and chaos!
She sits at a pub in the ship.
//This might be a good time to add some charactors and have them appear. If not then I'll just have her arive at some harbor in a few days//
Just to infourm you, I'm makeing a new intro to her.
//Sorry about the doulbe post, just I had to quote the other one because of page things and all....//
-
xorlak, delete some Pm's (i see your about to post...) i have something else (sorry Sad )
-
(Short bursts of speed are perfectly acceptable. Just so long as you don't teleport 2 miles away, smack Draven in the face, then return to the present battle in the same post (heh...))
(DM: A bit of insanity is good... heh...)
----
Draven's aura of flame dissapeared, along with the crimson orbs. His feet set down of the now rocky, mangled ground.
"Interesting that you should attack me, and then request a peace treaty..."
A soft breeze blew his cape, the distortions in the weather returning to normal.
"Unfortunately the main war against Aritan is out of my hands. I command the legions to the east of the empire. True I've encoutered your legions once or twice, but my main concern is the eastern front. I've conquered the nations of Tsar and Litany, and now our purpose is here."
Draven's tone turned darker...
"The assults on your country are lead by the western general... Jayce... but you'd have better luck speaking to the Emperor himself than that brute..."
"As for the reason. Our lord probably wanted something of yours. We tend to do that... you see. Now if you don't mind, I have business to attend to. If you don't bother us here, we won't bother you... for now, at least."
Draven fliped his cape as he turned around, walking in the opposite direction.
(If you wish to play along to make the story deeper, Shin could remember an ornately decorated spear with a spakling blue gem incrested in the handle that was stolen in the initial attack...)
----
Iduran didn't recognize the prince's country's name. But he felt somewhat relieved as the man spoke with authority.
"Prince? Welcome, welcome. How can I help you? *cough* *cough*"
-
Zeros' was there standing near a weak Nex. He was about to do another flurry of slashes when he remembered.
He sheathed his sword, turned around and walked away from Nex. He mumbled something while he was walking, "It wouldn't make Qeni happy if I killed anyone...even someone who is trying to kill me.(Human of course...heh.)"
He phased back out and the back beside Haraldur.
"You handle him if you like, I cannot kill any living person. Qeni would hate me if I did."
He then turned his attention to Iduran.
"Iduran...we meet agian."
//If you remember my breif posts in Chapter 1. My internet went down and it was far to long into the story to come back.\\
----
The man kept getting closer mumbling "Give me the children"
Zev was frightened, but he knew that he had to save his sister. "S..s..sstay ba..ack.." he was holding out his hand in a stopping motion.
-
"It seems that your country cannot easily rive the Dark Empire out of your land. We can help. The Dark Empire is a great enemy of my country, and we want to use yor country as a place to launch attacks on the Dark Empire from. We would find it much easier to attack the Dark Empire if we can work together."
-
Nex then looks up and sees that Zeros' left.
"What? He didn't kill me....That's odd....he must not know about what I am then...I think....Or maybe he dose" Nex pondered abit then got up. He then looks at Raven, who did nothing the whole time
"You worthless lump of hay! You do nothing! You did nothing at all! You fired on unseccesfull shot! And you let him get away!" Nex grows even angyer "For now on, I'm a lonewolf, or you can be, just you keep away from me, your no good!"
He then walks over to his half dead Wyverin and punches it to wake it up. But the stupid thing just flys away with out him.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!" He yells as he rasies his arms in rage and kneals down on his knees. He pounds his hands on the ground "Ack...I must find Draven...we must....kill...Romme...we must kill these ones who rebel on us! We will prevail!" He starts his way over to were Draven was at the begining
"What ever happend to him, he said he would be right with me" Nex says as he starts walking over there
---------------------------------------------
Suddenly the Wyverin flew above Duilin and Seth and then sharged down for a kill!
"Ah ha! Revenge!" Duilin yells, he swipes out his Buster Sword and swings it at the Wyverin as is charges at him, but he misses as it flys by him.
(Remember he is an NPC so I'd like it if sombody else would like to control him for me)
-
The Wyvern swooped back down at Duilin, aiming to slash a talon into Duilins neck.
Seth Jumped (He's a monk, very agile) up onto the Wyvern and slashed his claws on the Wyverns neck and head.
The Wyvern started doing barrel rolls and Seth fell off.
The Wyvern was bleeding immensly, but certainly not dead.
"I need more effective weapons..." Seth mumbled.
The Wyvern swooped down at Seth.....
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The cloaked figure commanded Nevina to bring him the children.
Nevina walked towards Zev; she had no pupils in her eyes and looked frightening.
Zev spoke to Nevina, and pleaded for her to wake up.
She continued advancing towards the Children; she grabbed them and walked to the man.
The man out stretched his hands for the Children; Nevina drew her Scimitar and chopped off one of the mans hands. (It's an NPC, I can do that.. heh) ~total time=2.1 seconds~
The man screamed in pain and Nevina grinned.
-
Duilin then tosses his Buster Sword as well as he could before it could attack Seth. The sword sliced it's head clean off and it crashed down right infront of Seth.
"Take that you stupid, aquadog eating son of a bitch!" Duilin says as it dies, he then looks over at Seth "Sooo....."
------------
Nex then finally arives at his destinaton, he starts walking over to Draven.
Nex then sees Draven, he is extermely tired out "Draven!" He says, as he stubles a bit "What happend to the ice ninja, and who was he with?" He asks
-
//Qeni and Zev are my characters...but don't control them...you can ALITTLE, if it won't affect whats happening, like what CW did.\\
Zev closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears to keep from seeing the blood and hearing the man.
----
Zeros' sighed, "I think I pissed that man off..."
He turned around and saw the scarecrow. He out streached his hand and formed a gun with his thumb and pointer finger (like on Yuyu Hakuso), he siad one word "Bang." At that instant, a fireball flew out of his finger and towards Raven.
-
He phased back out and the back beside Haraldur.
(*Ahem* Zeros' found the cave, WALKED in, and returned to Haraldur's side...)
----
Iduran replied to Haraldur,
"How gratious of you. We apperciate any help you could give us, but I'm afraid our forces are so depleted that we cannot fight back at all... Our soldiers are reduced to the perhaps a dozen or so in this cave, many of them wounded... Our castle and town are destroyed, although I'm hoping the sounthern villages are unharmed... But please, help yourself to any weapons or armor you may find in this cavern. *cough*"
Iduran recognized the winged Zeros' as he walked in from the very first assult of the Dark Empire.
"Yes, I remember you. Welcome!"
But as he said this, Iduran saw a shadow approach from behind. Iduran gasped as Zeros' launched his attack toward the enemy in the dark.
(I thought Raven was a character, not an NPC.)
----
Draven moved his head to the side, cracking his neck as he approached Nex.
"Some Aritan with some issues... don't mess with him unless he attacks you. We have more important concerns..."
Draven turned to the forest to the east of their present location.
"So there's a cave out there, huh? Let's have ourselves a look..."
Draven ignighted in flame and took off towards the forest on foot at perhaps 30 MPH, the crimson energy enhancing his speed.
-
//No..Zeros' and Nex were fighting in the cave near Iduran...about 30 feet away, and yes Raven is a character, Dippy's.\\
-
"EEEeeerrrg!" Nex squealed "I wish I had my Wyverin or my wings back...." Nex then thinks for a moment, he then charges a large fire in his hands, the flame starts to grow *heh, useing more discription now*, aims it below him, he checks the angleing a bit, windspeed, then fires the attack, and the impact blows him away, and yes it would hurt alot, but him being a deamon *in cass you haven't noticed yet, heh* blows him in to the direction on were the cave was, and he lands about 50 ft away from it, and lands on the ground and is in great pain, but at least he didn't have to walk there agian!
"Just...wait...a little...bit...." He looks up abit, his vision is a little blury, he then spots Raven and Zeros' fighting "Meh.....I supose...I won't....do that....thingy....anymore.....neeeare....." He passes out for abit...
-
Seth simply said, "To a village, for supplies. You said we needed to do that right? Maybe I can find a better weapon.."
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Nevina spoke to the man, "What are you here for? Why do you want these children?"
The Man said, "My name is Bane Glasno, I feast upon children, now out of my way!"
Bane flew quickly by Nevina, slashing her side on the way to the Children.
Nevina bowed down and Bane thought she was doubling over in pain, but really she was quietly whispering a prayer in an ancient tongue. Her hand glowed with a white aura and she applied her hand to the wound.
In a few seconds, it dissappeared, and while Bane was turned, licking his lips, hands out streched to the children, Nevina thrusted her Scimitar into Banes back.
It went straight through and came about 6 inches from Zevs forehead.
Bane screeched in agony. But, Bane was an un-dead creature...
Nevina pulled the Scimitar out of Banes back, thinking he was dead.
Bane turned quickly, stabbed Nevina in the torso and took her Scimitar.
Bane pushed her into the wall.
She crumpled down and while Bane thought she was done for, Bane turned around.
Nevina pulled her Holy Dirk from under her skirt and stabbed Bane with it in the area where his heart should be.
His flesh steamed and Bane cried inhumanly.
Bane exploded into a dazzling cloud of black dust.
Nevina was crippled from her stab wound, and did not have the strength to heal herself.
She passed out on the floor, a foot from the bed, bleeding.
-
//Hmm...should I let a character die off? And Dude Man, control Raven...lol...since he's your brother character.\\
Qeni finally woke up from all the racket and saw Nevina bleeding. They both ran towards her.
Zev shook her gently, "Hey...hey...HEY!? Wake up.." Qeni was bent over where Nevina's wound was, crying. When her tear hit Nevina's wound, the hole started to close and stopped the bleeding.
(If you didnt notice, thats her special power...Zev's will come in later...when the time is right...heh.)
Qeni stopped crying. She tried to pick up Nevina, but she was way too heavy. Zev also tried to help, but for a grown women, it was far too much of a task.
-
Draven slowed down as he heard an explosion and saw Nex rocket above over the treetops.
"Sometimes I just don't know about him..."
The bushes to his left shuffled and three Dark Soldiers and their guard captain appeared, brandishing their weapons, one injured. They lowered their arms as soon as they recognized their general.
"My lord! It is awful..."
"What?"
"This forest is infested with violent little trollish things with rock-hard skin... It takes much effort to even injure them with our weapons... We've lost most of our company already..."
Draven saw the bushes rustle behind the guard captain as he spoke, and one of the brutish trolls emerged from them, preparing to chop the man in the back with his axe. Draven extended his arm and two fingers from his fist, which glowed crimson red for a second before emitting a small blast of flame, which shattered the troll on impact. Keeping his pose, Draven shifted his eyes towards the captain.
"Miserable... So, you've been spending your time running instead of searching..."
The guard captain stuttered, but could not respond in time.
"Come with me. Keep your eyes pealed for some sort of cave."
Draven walked on, the four soldiers timidly following their gerneral, half afraid of him, half relieved that they found him before another group of trolls...
Up ahead was a deep entangleation of vines and other shrubbery. Draven extened his palm in order to blast it away, but thought it better to approach the cave quietly, wherever it was. So he ordered the soldiers to hack away at the foliage as they continued on.
-
Zeros' could sense something coming. He also heard Nex land near by, "Not him agian...". It wasn't Nex, but he could feel someone else coming. He put one hand on his sword and let one hand to his side.
One of the guards started to step forward, but Zeros' motioned him to stop.
"But sir..."
"No...its nothing...don't worry about it."
He knew there was something coming, but who...
-
//Okay Raven has been knocked out now, because I don't think he's going to be posting, even when he dose go online *and he barely dose* and even when I told him this, he did not post, so to bad for him//
Nex then recoverd and got up. He shifted his eyes around. He then sneaked around a little bit, and saw Zeros' and then sneaked back to were he landed.
"Okay....so I'll kill him, and then me and Draven will wipe out who ever is inside the cave!" Nex thought to himself. He then looks around for Draven to see of he is here yet.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Okay, then, let's get going then" Duilin replies. He then follows Seth to the village...
-
Draven looked up through the dense treetops to see if he could get a handle of the direction he was going by the position of the sun, but the dense cloud cover and the fact that it was high noon made this difficult. Frustrated with not seeing anything after a half hour, Draven levitated himself, folding his arms as he floated skyward to the level of the leafy canopy, then a bit higher. The forest surronded him in all directions. A bit further on in front, he could see the sea, so he must be heading in the right general direction (east). He then looked southward, at what appeared to be a clearing. Rising a bit higher, he could make out what looked like small huts and houses.
"Hmmm..."
Draven fell back downward through the trees, landing on his feet in the middle of the four soldiers looking up at him.
"This way, boys. Change of plans..."
Abandoning the cave idea for the moment, he lead the soldiers in the direction of the village.
(Draven actually strayed a bit south of the cave, and may be closer to Duilin and Seth...)
-
Duilin then paused for a moment....He felt abit un safe
"Hmmm...." He then turned around "Oh no.......Draven..." He then cluched Iduran's sword he had with him "Seth, we should either run, or get ready to fight..."
============
"What the devil is takeing him so long!?" Nex says impatiently "Ack, I'll just wipe out the cave myself...I bet that sword is in there to!" Nex walks over to were he remembers were the cave was, and spots Zeros' outside of it (He is outside right?)
he then swings out his two blades and prepares to kill everybody who he can.
-
//Yeah, but hes near the enterence.\\
Zeros' turned around with his hand still on the hilt of his sword.
"..." he unsheathes his sword and blocks Nex's blade attack (He is attacking right?), he then turns around to the guards, still blcoking the attack.
"You two! Go inform Iduran and Haraldur! Now!" he yells to the two guards stationed outside the cave.
"Yes sir!" the guards run off towards where Iduran and Haraldur are.
"Hmph...you agian...why don't you just give up and leave."
----
The guards arive at Iduran and Haraldur's location.
The guards salute Iduran.
"Sir! The enemy is appreared! That mysterious man is locked in combat with one of there generals!"
-
//No..he didn't attack, but let's just say he did, just not to mess up the story. :angry://
Nex then relases the attack //that he did not make :angry: //
"I'm sorry, I don't know the meaing of the term, "Give Up And Leave" but I do know the meaing of the term "Gut You Like A Fish" and that's what I'm going to do to you!"
He swings one blade at his torso and one and one swinging at the legs.
-
Seth got into his loose battle stance, arms sloping down one at a time in rythm, knees bent, swaying back and forth; he was ready. A glint in his eye, his face expressionless, ready to strike at the first sight of enemy at a staggering speed.
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Nevina began to stur, and she slowly got back onto her feet, her blue hair scrambled all over her head.
She combed her hair back in place with her hand.
She asks Qeni how she revived her. Qeni does not respond. Nevina thanks Qeni.
She saw the bastard sword and a back sheath laying in the ashes.
She picked them up, and walked into a room in the palace made completely of gold, and containing only a golden tub studded with precious gems. A tub full of Holy Water.
She carefully dunks the bastard sword into the tub and does an elaberate hand gesture involving her hand going in an "okay" gesture and pulling it back, above the sword.
She pulled the sword out of the water and it glowed with a holy white aura for a few seconds.
She puts the back sheath on her back, puts the bastard sword into the sheath and walks back to the Kings Bedroom and picks up her scimitar.
"Isn't as safe here as Zeros' probably though eh?" Nevina asks the children.
~Nevina has aquired a Holy Bastard Sword~
-
//Well he said "swings his blades out"...so...\\
He blocks the top blade with his sword, then he grabs the lower blade with his left hand.
He meances in pain, blood started to flow from his hand.
"Hmph..." he put his hand up to his mouth and licked it.
"Blood Blades." he slashes his hand downward and to the left (Like this ----> / ), then downward and to the right. (Like this ----> \ ).
Crecent blades formed from his left hand, and flew towards his opponent.
He smirked.
----
Zev nodded and Qeni said nothing. Zev pointed towards Qeni.
"She never talks to anyone, but me or Zeros'"
-
(Since Duilin isn't wearing his Dark Empire armor anymore and Draven never saw Seth, he probably won't recognize the two. Just don't let him see the sword!)
Draven arrived at the open gates of the village, passing two suspicious characters who he payed no mind, his attention fixed on one thing. One of the soldiers following him happened to glance at the two, standing some distance away at the edge of the forest half hidden behind a bush. The soldier paused for a second, studying Duilin's face curiously, but then carried on, following his general.
The town was one of those quaint, picturesque villages that Draven absolutely could not stand. The urge to utterly destroy it with his gigantic-fireball-of-death attack was nearly overwelming, but he restrained himself, realizing the potential use he could make out of it. The streets were rather populous for a small village, filled with people whispering rumors of the "attack on Romme castle" and the "explosions heard yesterday". Many became frightened by the sight of Draven and his entourage as they walked down the unpaved road and avoided them.
Draven stopped in front of a larger wooden building, plainly marked "INN" and stroked his chin for a moment.
"Wait here."
He entered the door alone.
----
(Uh oh, I think Haraldur is on vacation...)
Iduran sat up in bed.
"What!? I must..."
He attempted to rise, but the old cloaked man held him down.
"No, you must not!"
"Blast it! Somebody must help him!"
Two more guards, hearing the conversation, joined the one sent inside and grabbed their arms. After a moment, three fully armed Romme soldiers appeared at the mouth of the cave. Two wielded broadswords and a heavy shield, while the third carried a long spear.
-
He saw the soldiers appear. They start to come near him, but he stopped them.
"No you musn't!" he yelled out to the soldiers.
"But...but sir..." they started to come forward some more.
"No! This is a battle between daemons...I have more honor then to accept help...it is agianst my code!"
He took his left hand, still bleeding, and he drew a spell in the air, and released a barrier spell.
They started slashing at it, but only to be blew back.
"What is he thinking..." one of the soldiers whispered.
"Cmon...lets report back to Iduran." the started to go back to where Iduran was.
-
The slash to right was blocked. Nex blocked the other, but it wasn't as succesful, he hit his blade but it still scaped along and hit him, not causeing more then a long cut. He kicked Zeros' away, not enough to hurt him but to push him away (he likes doing that) and then raised his hands over his head and aborbed heat and made a fire ball and blasted it at Zeros'.
//Heh, FYI, deamons are almost imune to fire, but since Zeros' is only half deamon it would still do some damage//
-----------
"Hey...I thought I say somebody look at me...but Draven dosen't seem to notices us. I don't know about you, but I'm going to take advantage of that!" Duilin says. He sneaks over to the bush, and then he rose his hands over his head and aborbed heat and made a fire ball and then tossed the good ol' fire ball of death at Draven's thugs, causeing them flying in the air and land wile burning to a crisp!
-
"Bah! Why'd you do that? Now they know of our presence. Do not have a single stealthy bone in your body? Now we must make a head on attack on Draven, who obviously knows we're here." Seth scowled.
"Oh well, we can still wail on him." Seth said with a smurk and a wink.
Seth charged as fast as he could, reaching Draven when he was half turned around and Seth slashed with his steel claws with deadly force.
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"Well that's rather pecuilar." Nevina said with interest.
"Well, your sister has magical abilities, do you Zev?"
"If Qeni would, I could teach her some curative magic, she seems to have potential.." Nevina said, her voice trailing off at the end.
-
"Bah! YOU FOOL! HE didn't know we were here, he was in the inn, and now you just have.....grrr you! Hypocryte!!!! I....don't know what to do now..." Duilin then calapses on the floor from exhaution and from confusion, for some reason.
-
Scorch looked around. Silence. Something must have happened to his mind. He moved his arms and legs.
"Free?" - he asked himself. - "Oh well. Now I guess I must settle down things with few people..."
-----
Cheetah woke up finaly. - "Huh. Outsiders." - he came toward the arrived soldiers. - "(yawn) Oh well, greetings."
(now, can anyone draw me a basic sum-up of what's going on, who's fighting who? thanks for Cyber for brief explanation so far Wink)
-
(Welcome back! Scorch should wake up to find himself unguarded, surrounded by dead and wounded Dark Soldiers. Outside the cave Cheetah is in, Zeros' and Nex are fighting. Haraldur is inside with Iduran (but he's on vacation at the moment). Draven is at a village south of the cave with Duilin and Seth.)
----
(You guys are so violent, heh...)
Hearing an explosion and screams just outside, Draven returned through the door he just entered to find three of the soldiers sprawled out on the ground and one just standing there, dumbfounded. A quick glance to his left revealed someone quickly descending upon him. Draven did a leap forward and to his right, landing some ten feet away from the unknown warrior as his claws sliced through the wooden frame of the door like paper.
Turning around, Draven folded his arms and let out a deep sigh.
"What is this now... number five? Really..."
Draven squinted at the unknown warrior angrily. Immediately a burst of flame exploded from his body. Fire surged in all directions, igniting the inn and the buildings on the opposite side of the street. Many surrounding villagers were knocked off of their feet, while the rest ran for their lives, screaming. A dim aura of flame remained wrapped around Draven.
"So tell me, what business do you have with High General Draven of the Dark Empire?"
-
Zev shurged, "I dunno if I have any...but, I think her magic activates when someones near death..She would agree to it if Zeros' was here.."
----
The three guards arrived, and reported back to Iduran, knowing that he wouldn't be happy.
"Sir...he said not to help him so...we came back...he also cast a protective barrier around the outside of the cave, so theres no way we can help him anyways."
----
Zeros' stood there. "Hmm...now now, what should I do? AH! I know..."
Zeros' spun his sword around him a couple times and then sheathed his sword. He held out his two hands and started to gather ice energy in both of his hands.
Once he had enough energy, he brought his two hands together and combined the two powers, making a ball of ice energy.
He threw this at the fireball. When the two energy's hit, they both canceled out each other, but not without making a huge explosion and sending energy back to each of them.
Zeros' unsheathed his sword agian and spun it around, he then held it out and tried to block the energy, but the energy was great, he was struggling.
-
(Zeros... Isn't "Zev" hebrew for "Wolf"? Wink )
"Hmm..." - Scorch said to himself. - "Before I'll draw my vengeance - which propably will cause me trouble again - I'll have to somehow find the rest of the group... And this foreigner who freed me... Weren't they heading to some southern village?"
Scorch's sight slowly returned - apparently the inside head damage after burn healed a bit even without Nagash' magic. - But still, he saw blurred images.
-----
"What to do? What to do? Greater conflict seems to come to our land." - Nagash thought, as suddenly a pack of frenzied wild boars ran out of the woods as if something scared them, and charged at Nagash, noticing him. Ensured about his attunity to earth due to being an earth mage, as he tried to calm the animals down, he was attack and thorn into pieces.
This was the end of him. B)
("oh my God, they killed Nagash!" now I'll have to control only 2 characters, yippie)
-----
Cheetah wandered around near the cave. "What the...?" - he asked. - "Protective barrier? Fights? What is this all about...? I sense trouble again."
-
(Yeah, Zev is Hebrew for wolf, I named a character in a game I was making once that because he was a Wolf-Man thing, lol. I thought Draven was outside.. gah.. XD must pay attention.)
Seth looked around and noticed Duilin wasn't with him.
"Uhmm.. uh oh?" Seth mumbled, embarrassed.
"Ah, but may I ask what bussiness the Dark Empire has here? Why do you want to take over Romme?" Seth asked.
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Nevina just stands there doing nothing. She has nothing to do. =/
-
Nex raises his hand at the energy comeing toward him, and aborbs it forming another fire ball, he fires it at Zeros' wile he is fighting off the other energy.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Duilin then gets up and looks at Draven.
"Hey, Draven, remember me? Duilin? Anyways, what the hell are you doing here? Just leave, were busy with some harmless mission..."He says to Draven.
-
Zeros' deflects his ball of energy, and flings it at the fireball, going right through it, and going towards Nex.
"Hmph..." he also put more energy in it, making it alot stronger then the one Nex absorbed.
//Make it more fun...heh.\\
-
The energy ball headed toward him, he swung his blades infront of him the block the energy, but the energy hit him in the torso before he could block it, and he fell to the ground, but quickly recoverd. No standing he ran at Zeros', jumped kicked at him and tossed one of his blades at him!
-
Scorch was still unsure what to do. He tried to focus and notice something in the kaleidoscopic view he had before his eyes. As the vision began to reveal some things, he noticed the shore in the distance. Knowing he should follow this way, he began heading south, toward the caves and the village...
"The sword... the sword is the key to power to destroy the Dark Empire... Now, where the thunderclap is that sword? I hope Iduran still has it!"
-----
"Lovely fireworks."- commented Cheetah, with one of his totally-lacking-any-sense comments.
-
Draven smirked at Seth.
"We're merely collecting something we require... and you didn't answer my question..."
Draven extended his right palm. Surges of crimson energy surged before it, forming into an orb that slowly grew in size... clearly he was putting more energy into this attack than the normal fireball. Even if Seth dodged it, the already burning inn behind him would surely be destroyed...
Before launching the attack, Draven turned his eye towards Duilin.
"You... yes... Leave huh? Why don't you wait your turn..."
Draven remembered Duilin traveled with the man with the sword. Perhaps he could lead him to it...
Still charging the fireball with his right, Draven thrusted his left hand in the direction of Duilin, forcing a blast of heated air towards him in an attempt to push him back...
----
Iduran turned in his cot.
"Blast it! ... Maybe he has a chance by himself... Better guard the cave entrance, though, just in case..."
-
Seth cocked his head at an angle and stared at the Crimson ball of energy surging in Dravens hand with curiousity.
"How is it these people summon elements so quickly, and with seemingly no Verbal or Somatic components..?" Seth thought to himself.
"Ah, and you require.. Idurans sword? For what purpose? Who commands you, Draven?" Seth asked, trying to buy some time, while he tried to preform a move he had never attempted before, his hands flailing behind him on odd motions, odd verbal incantations racing through his mind..
-
Draven raised an eyebrow at his unknown adversary, the ball of energy in his palm still pointed at him.
"You are correct. Our Emperor requires it. That is all I know and all I care. If you could lead me to it, though, I can make it worth your while..."
Well, it wasn't all he knew, but all he needed to tell his enemies...
-
Zeros' smirked.
He blocked the blade, sending it flying off behind him, and straight into the top of the cave (like the roof of the cave).
The kick hit him in the chest and sent him flying off into the barrier, sending a loud shock through the cave. The guards that arrived to protect the front of the cave, incase the barrier breaks, arrived right when Zeros' hit the barrier.
Zeros' pushed back agianst the barrier and stood upright agian.
He spun his sword around agian and then sheathed it.
He concentrated his energy and another wing grew out of his right side.
He flew up into the sky.
When he arrived, he contrated all his energy into a fire, water, and thunder elements (the thunder were coming out of his wings).
He combined them and formed a glowing red phoenix being.
Zeros' started to laugh.
"Haha....how will you candle this?"
-
"Just because your master requires the sword does not serve as good enough purpose for me to join you. Duilin here has saved my life a few times, but you here, are threating mine. I think I'll stick with Duilin if it's all the same to you, sir." Seth said, a bit cocky, as his spell was near completion..
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Nevina walks off into the armory without so much as a word to Zev or Qeni.
She looks through the weapons she has, and finds a small dagger and a rapier about the same length as a short sword.
She heads back to the Kings Bedroom and hands a weapon to each child; dagger for Qeni, rapier for Zev.
"I hope niether of you end up having to use these, but after that attack.. who knows what will happen, eh? I nearly died.."
//What am I gonna do with these kids? Nevina is just playing baby sitter =/, nothing interesting for Nevina, Qeni, or Zev.. I'll try to think up something, heh.//
-
Duilin started to get a bit scared for a moment. He thought for a moment. If he told Draven he had the sword then he would be in big trouble, if he lied that it was at another place, that may cause susption, because why would he tell him were it was. He didn't know what to do really. He just turned his head at Seth and shook it. He looked back at Draven.
"We will never tell you, ever!" He yelled at Draven
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Nex looks at the Pheonix with a semi-frightend look. He then charges the fireball of death, but he explodes it and it causes a sheild of fire around him.
"I hope this helps...." Nex thinks
-
(where are Nevina, Zev and Queni? at the Romme castle?)
Scorch marched onward, passing through the beach and past the caves. He passed through enough to stop now. Somewhere in the distance lied a village.
"Iduran, Duilin and Cheetah must be there. If they got away... No. They couldn't get away. I only hope Draven will not be tracking me... Where in the world is this guy anyway?"
-----
Cheetah stood there, with folded arms, throwing comments about the battle taking place, ensured of his safety.
"Now, why must everyone fly around here?"
"Who the hell this guys thinks he is?"
"Hey! A phoenix. Nice. I wish I could do that."
-
//Bring em back my way...heh...or take them with you and ill control em, just think of something and we'll go with the flow.\\
"The phoenix...reborn from the ashes!"
Zeros' floats down and lands on the roof of the cave.
He folds his arms and settles his wings down.
"Now phoenix...lets have some fun."
(if you read above, the phoenix abbliterates all evil, or people with evil intentions within an area. Check one of my posts where I was resucing Qeni and Zev.)
The phoenix flies upwards into the sky, above the clouds and then stops.
The wind is brisk, sending flames from the phoenix everywhere.
It squalls, then the sun comes into place near where Nex is standing.
Beams of light shoot down by the thousands, hitting where Nex is, then....
----
"Ive already had to use a sword...but, Zeros' has always protected Qeni, so she has never needed to..."
He reaches over to Qeni and she hands him the dagger Nevina gave her.
"Now its my turn..." he straps the sword to his waist and the dagger in his belt.
-
//Cesque, Nevina, Qeni and Zev are in the Jin Palace. (a place of my own invention; Nevina lives there. Read her bio on the DA RP Chapter 2 sign up to find out more about it). I got something for our little group here.. heh//
After Zev took the dagger, a group of 30 villianous creatures flew through the window. They looked identical to the previous enemy, with a few acceptions in their faces and hair styles. One of them spoke out, "You have killed our comrad. That results in a captital punishment;..death."
Nevina paid the words no mind; She drew her Holy bastard sword quickly and slashed through 3 of them, who died instantly because of the swords holy element, before they could even draw their weapons.
But the 3 were out numbered. Nevina swooped up Qeni and Zev, then put them on her shoulders. She ran and Qeni and Zev held on for dear life.
The 27 remaining antagonists drew their weapons; some bastard swords, some rapiers, some battle scythes, a few Tridents even.
They chased Nevina as she tried to flee the palace.
Nevina ran into a beautiful corridor that led to the front gate. The corridor had beautiful silk rugs which the creatures hovered over while chasing Nevina. There was a 1 foot distance between each torch, which was the lighting of the corridor.
Nevina began to mumble an incantation; it sounded as though she was speaking in tongues. She moved her hands in a 'blessing' motion, raised one hand to the sky and yelled "Puratorians Element!" and a large, beautiful ball of white light appeared in her hand.
Nevina turned around and threw the ball of energy. It lit the corridor with a blinding white light, that out-shined the torches light thousand-fold. The Creatures screamed in agony. Nevina knew the attack was only strong enough to kill about 5 of the creatures, so she continued running threw the corridor, then reached the door.
The creatures were un-blinded and the surviving creatures continued the pursuit.
-
Scorch, tired of his travel (he obviously forgot to cast a haste spell on himself until half of the way), entered the village. Some shapes were there, standing before the inn...
Some unknown man, someone who looked like Duilin (altough it was hard to tell as the vision was still a bit blurred and shadows and lights were playing before his eyes) and...
"To all storms!" - the wizard only said, seeing Draven with some fireball preppared to strike at Duilin. - "Not YOU!"
-----
"Phoenix... eeeh... I wonder if I'll ever get a chance to get soul of such a holy beast added to my transformations' arsenal." - said Cheetah, watching the battle.
-
Zev unsheathed his sword and dagger and started slashing ones who got too close.
His struggling caused his to slip out of Nevina's grasp.
He hit the ground, but then quickly flipped back up on his feet.
"Keep going! Protect my sister! Dont let them get her! If they do..." he sentence was cut short, he was almost struck down by a sword, but he managed to slip back and slay the one that almost killed him.
"So...3 agianst 1..." he smirked.
The other 19 or so were still chasing after Nevina.
-
Nevina started talking in tongues again; attempting a divine protection type spell for Zev.
Her hands flailed in odd motions, many beaconing to the sky. Energy came out of her hands in a cone shape and stuck Zev, and suddenly he felt as though he had great strength, and his skin became rough like a leather hide. (This is a temperary spell. He isn't gonna be cow hide boy forever, heh) He was now able to swing his rapier with incredible ease.
Nevina drew her Holy dirk and her scimitar, inabling her to fight with 2 weapons (It's incredibly hard to swing a bastard sword 1 handed you know.. specially when you've hardly ever used one in your life..)
She realized it's going to be hard to fight these creatures with Qeni on her back, especially if Qeni was not to be harmed.
Nevina found a nook in a great tree. She put Qeni in the nook and prayed to the tree. The tree was now holy ground and the creatures could not get near Qeni without burning.
Nevina smirked and Charged head on into the group of creatures, a white aura glowing around her. (a protection spell that is triggered automatically when she reaches extreme anger) The aura provided her with a holy barrier between her and the creatures.
She slew creature after creature; decapitating them with scimitar (They must be decapitated or stuck my a holy force to die), gutting them with her Holy Dirk, and one or two of the shadowy figures died from their own stupidity, touching the Holy Aura.
The aura faded after she slaughted 10 creatures, for the barrier can't last long (wouldn't be fun if she could slaughter them all that easy, eh?).
Nevina then slashed her Scimitar at one of the creatures. The creature had long white hair with black streaks and a sunken in face. Nevina aimed her slash to take off his head, but he guarded with his Trident, then stabbed her in the stomach after the clang on steel against steel.
Nevina started bleeding perfusly, and she ran the best she could, to get away from the creature while she tried to cast heal.
Nevina said the incantation, apllied her hand to her wound, and it shrunk, but not completey. She did not have enough strength to cast a spell strong enough to cure the wound completely, so it still pained her.
She charged at the creature that dealt the blow, this time aiming to gut and decapitate at the same time. He blocked the scimitar, but he did not see the dirk coming, and he was stabbed, dying instantly, though it felt like an infinity to the creature.
The remaining 8 that had been chasing her now seemed to coware when she looked at them.
-
Qeni started to cry, "Whehre Zevy..."
Her tears started to hit the ground. When they did, a bright light flashed, all the people and creatures around her were blinded instantly.
When the light cleared, all that was left was one of the apparitions, but the left half of its body was gone.
"Zevy..." she started to fall out of the tree from exhaustion.
----
Zev could sense something happened near Qeni, but he couldn't focus on that right now.
The three charged at him, weapons raised, meaning to kill him.
He swung his rapier at his head, slaying him instantly.
The other two came upon him instantly, he was not able to react.
One hit his right arm, but he was sloppy, it made a long cut from his shoulders, all the way down to his fingers.
The other aimed at his head, but Zev was able to jerk his head back just in time, only suffering a scar across his left eye, down to his chin.
Zev almost fainted by the pain (they were life threating, just deep enough to cause alot of pain and scars), but he regained his senses and cut the two down.
He sheathed his weapons back and ran as fast as he could to where Qeni was.
"Qeni...dont worry, Im coming."
He held his right arm and closed his left eye, trying to deal with the pain.
----
Qeni was falling off where she was pearched.
She was about to fall and hit the ground, when two huge wings sprouted from her back.
They were glowing a white holy aura. The seemed to pass through solid objects (they were huge...about 100 feet...)
They let her down gentlely.
The apparition saw the wings and started hoping towards Qeni, mumbling a few words, "The....holllllllly.....childdddd...."
-
Draven's smirk grew larger, if that was even possible.
"Very well."
Like a cannon, the crimson orb blasted outward from his outstreatched hand. The recoil from the firing was so great that it shook the very foundations of the town, though Draven did not move an inch. A ring of fire escaped from the tip of his hand as the orb shot out with such great speed that its perfect sphere shape became distorted and stretched. Within a mere fraction of a second it would reach its target of Seth...
But also at that instant, Draven thought he heard a voice... the voice of an old enemy from behind...
-
Still in the slow-motion of haste spell, Scorch was able to blow a stream of air which blew toward an orb to alter it's direction as he was slightly knocked back by the recoil. But the orb was faster than Scorch thought, and the changing of it's course was not really that significant. Propably now orb would explode at left side of it's target instead of directly in the front.
"I am hoping it is worth saving your sorry life, whoever you are?" - Scorch said to Seth while doing so.
///
"The....holllllllly.....childdddd...."
Sounds like a Christmas carol to me.
-
The beam of light then shot down at Nex, the fire shield was able to protect him form the beams, but it faded off after the beams stoped. Nex looks at the Phoneix and then looks at Zeros'
"I've had enough of you! And I'm going to rid you from this world if it kills me!!!" He yells. He then raises him arms over him and then aborbs heat around him, and there was alot because of the Pheonix's attack. He formed a fire ball of death with a 20km radius. He then tossed it at the roof of the cave were Zeros' was standing. Once it hits *if Zeros' flys away to dodge it or not* it exploded at created a huge hole in the cave. Fortunatly the people inside were protected because of Zeros' sheild. But the people outside, not so much...There are most likely dead or really hurt. The impact of the explotion caused Nex to fly off in the air and land over in the forest....
-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-
Duilin looks at Scorch with a surpized look.
"Scorch! Your here!" Duilin says. "You think you take all three of us? Your out numbered and out powerd!" He says to Draven. "You gonna run, now?"
-
He didn't run. He took the full force of the blast.
"Hmph...Hold a grudge eh?"
He stood there holding his sword, holding back some of the balls force.
He quickly deflected it and aimed it towards the Phoenix, he absorbed it, adding to his already great power.
"Phoenix, return."
The phoenix turned into a beam of light and shot into a gem imbeded in the hilt of his sword.
He slowly floated down and landed near Iduran.
"Hmph...now what?"
----
Zev slowly arrived at Qeni's position and saw the apparition almost reaching Qeni.
Zev pulled out his rapier and slowly trudged toward him.
He swung with the last of his force and cut down the last of the apparitions.
He went over towards Qeni and fell to the ground next to her.
"Soon...it will be over...soon..." he mumbled.
-
"Who's this guy?" - asked Scorch, pointing at Seth.
-----
(hmm... can someone explain how does that barrier work? It is passable by foot, is it transparent...? I thought it was somethink like globe, protecting everything inside, but I see now it's some sort of passage barrier on the enterance of cave...)
-
//Read my now edited post above//
Nex passes out
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Duilin looks over at Scorch. "It's my new friend Seth, he's a good guy." he looks back over at Draven.
-
(A fireball with a radius of 20km is a tad much, don't you think? Heh...)
The orb of energy, slightly blown off of its track by the gust of wind, flew right past Seth, almost grazing the left side of his face. It rocketed right through the wooden wall of the inn behind him, exploding once inside. Fireballs billowed from all the windows of the two-story building as it shattered to pieces in a gigantic cloud of flame. A black mushroom shaped cloud rose from the burning rubble as flaming debris rained down upon the village.
Hand still outstretched, Draven looked left and behind him.
"Scorch... you left your room... I don't appreciate that...
He lowered his hand and shifted his eyes to Duilin.
"Out numbered and out powered? Well, at least you got one right..."
Draven clenched his fists and crossed his arms in front of him like a X shape. He then brought both arms to his sides. The dim aura of flame around him exploded furiously, wrapping him in a bright fireball.
-
(20 km? Shouldn't that devastate the whole village where Draven, Scorch, Duilin and Seth are? Wink)
"I should have left my room, just I should have stopped at this tournament of magic near the caves rather than go further and enp up here." - said Scorch, knowing the presence of Draven will mean trouble. - "Duilin and Seth, what the storm are you doing here?!"
Finishing speaking, Scorch also crossed his arms like Draven, chanted some spell and streams of electricity began to spirally circulate around his body, starting from legs, getting to the top of his head. Wizard's eyes began to suddenly glow with white light...
-
//No, I stopped it with my sword and then my phoenix absorbed its power.\\
Zeros' tapped his foot.
"Well Iduran?"
//And the barrier, its transparent, but it protects everyone as long as it does get devastated by a very strong blast or I dont get killed.\\
-
"We'll talk later Scorch!" Duilin says. He then takes out his Cross Bow and looks at Draven "If I'm right about one thing then I supose you must have a bunch of 'invisible' friends around you. Eat arrow, kid!" he aims the cross bow at Draven's head and fires it.
//Oh and if your wondering why Duilin would call Draven kid, it because Duilin is older then him, and I supose he calls some people that//
-
Seth had finished his counter spell, but did not trigger it since the Wizard had saved him and he no longer needed it. He did however, store it and kept it readied for he knew it would come in Handy
Seth ran as fast as he could to dravens side and slashed at him, hoping it would give Duilins arrow the split second it needed for it to Hit Draven before he could evade it.
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Zev had slain the last of the apparitions so Nevina just sheathed her weapons and stared at Qeni, waiting for her to do something.
-
Scorch raised above the ground several centimeters, still in his self-enchanted position, with eyes glowing and hands crossed. He looked a bit out-of-existence now, with his mind wandering somewhere out of this world. For sure, he didn't look like a nervous, enraged wizard anymore...
-----
What to say about Cheetah? He still watched the combat hoping it will end soon... And Zeros will win.
-
"Fools!"
Draven spun on his heel, leaping up into the air to avoid Seth's slash. While turning, he extended his right hand in the direction of the arrow, ignighting it in flame, and motioned his hand toward Seth, changing the now flaming arrow's trajectory slightly to its new target. At the same time, he extended his left hand and fired off a low energy fireball in Scorch's direction.
----
Iduran woke up with a start and realized Zeros' was talking to him.
"Huh? Oh yes, you've defeated him? Maybe we have a chance after all... I wonder if you should aid Duilin in his quest, or perhaps find some way to distract the Dark Empire..."
(Iduran's not geting out of bed anytime soon and he's pretty much run out of helpful advice, heh...)
-
Seeing yet another the fireball approaching his direction, Scorch chanted another spell and suddenly a section of air began to move in it's direction like a barrier, smashing Draven's projectile on itself.
Scorch then whispered yet another spell, which gathered masses of air to circulate around himself, which mixed with lightning shield already enchanting him, engulfed wizard in a hurricane of air, buzzing with electric energy within.
Unfolding his arms, with his eyes glowing somewhere in the depths of furious masses of air now shielding Scorch from the outside world, air wizard preppared for yet another unavoidable struggle with Draven.
-----
"Oh well!" - Cheetah hurried to Zeros. - "Congratulations on destroying of this pathetic creature!"
"Now, can someone tell me what are we supposed to do now?"
-
"Hmph...why not?"
He phashed in then back out (phased is speed, about 30 feet in any direction) above ground, hoving with his wings.
"Ill go try anyways." he started to fly away and then stopped.
He pointed towards Cheetah, "And you. Protect this cave if that Dark Empire general comes back, Im counting on you." he started to fly off towards where Seth, Duiliun, Scorch, and Draven were.
----
While in mid flight, the phoenix spoke to him.
"You know what will happen if someone captures Qeni and Zev right?"
He nodded, "Of course...thats why I protect them...they still haven't tapped into there power."
-
"Ah, crap!" - said Cheetah to himself. - "As usually, I have to keep out of action."
-
Zeros' finally arrived at the village where the 4 were fighting. (Elapsed time...2 posts)
The villagers were running around in terror, and the local in was burnt.
"Hmph...Look what hes done..."
He landed on the ground and looked around. Some people were hurt, other were killed.
He phased out then back in right behind Draven. He patted him on the shoulder.
"Hello there friend!" he started to hug Draven.
-
(isn't Draven now looking like a blazing fireball thanks to his extra-powered immolation aura enhancement? Good look on hugging him.)
-
After many hours of being alone, Shin headed for a vacant beach. Upon arrival, he sat, just a few feet from where the waves crashed upon the sandy shores. He stared at the waves, hoping to get his thoughts together.
-----------------------------------------
The shock of Gyulim's attitude scared everyone at the inn. None of them could so much as move after her terrible outburst of anger.
"...Well, aren't you guys going to get me to Romme?"
Since everyone was still a bit on the scared side, she decided to just have a drink and wait...
-
(isn't Draven now looking like a blazing fireball thanks to his extra-powered immolation aura enhancement? Good look on hugging him.)
//Deamons are pratically immune to fire, he would still be hurt from it since he is only half deamon, but he wouldn't get to hurt really//
"What the HELL??" Duillin says as he spots Zeros'. "Who hugs a guy when he's on fire!?" He then shrugs and then aims his cross bow back at Draven but waits to fire it
*he did NOT fire the cross bow in this post*
-
He sees Duilin and Seth.
He then stops hugging Draven and walks over to Seth and Duilin are and pats Duilin on the shoulder.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! I know who you guys are...wait...who are you two agian? And whos mister windy/lightning man over there?" he points towards Scorch.
//We needed alittle humor. Laughing \\
-
Duilin blankly stares at Zeros' ands says nothing...
-
Draven landed from his attack, turning to the left to see a half-demon with outstreatched arms.
"What the...?"
Draven thrust both hands toward the demi-human and fired an attack into his chest, so that he would be hugging a fireball instead (heh...). Draven also used the force of firing the attack to propel him backwards 15 feet or so, where he assumed more of a martial arts stance, still wrapped in fire.
Draven's eyes darted around. Behind him was a fully powered up Scorch, with Duilin nearby with his crossbow aimed. Directly in front was the demi human Zeros', and some feet to the left of him was Seth, who tried to strike him earlier.
Draven knew well that he could take any one of the warriors by himself easily. Two without much trouble. Three perhaps, with some time... but four? Could he defeat all four?
Clearly the best course of action would be to take one out very quickly, to display his superior strength and strike fear into the hearts of the remainders. But which one... The winged one in front probably wouldn't go down in one blow...that one played a part in sabotaging his troops' assault, Draven recalled. The one to the left, although he's only used simple claw attacks, Draven knew too little about. Scorch, behind, he knew well though, and he knew he could take hours... And then there was Duilin. Yes, Duilin was nothing more than a simple soldier turned traitor... Draven knew how to punish his own soldiers well...
Draven spun around, outstretching two fingers from his clenched fist. At once, the huge aura of flame around him condensed into a fine, brilliant point of light at the tip of his fingers.
"DIE!"
A very narrow armor-piercing beam of crimson light shot towards Duilin's chest like a laser at lightning speed...
-
(Bah! It happened again! No posting while I'm typing! Heh...)
-
As soon as Duilin say Draven look at him, he knew he was going to attack. He swung his sword out and as soon as the laser was about to hit him, it hit the sword instead, but it sliced threw the sword, weaking the laser knocking it of corse and the laser hit his leg instead. He fell to the ground, and drop his broken sword and his backpak, that then opened up, revealing Iduran's Sword. Duilin gasps at the sight, and grabs the sword, gets up, stumbels because of damage on his leg and falls back down, but keeps a good grip on Iduran's sword. He blinks at Draven abit with a semi-scared look.
-
- "Mister windy lightning man is the one you shouldn't make fun of." - said Scorch with voice distorted by the rotating particles of air to the new-comer.
Turning his sight from Draven, Scorch conjured a beam of lightning from undeaneath his tornado coil shield to fly directly at the winged demihuman, in addition to Draven's fireball.
-
"Well well..."
Zeros' quickly unsheathed his sword and spun it around a bit, and absorbed Draven's fire ball into his hilt where his phoenix was, in addition, he spun his sword around and sheathed it.
"Hmph..." he then held both his arms up in a cross infront of him, guarding himself from the lightning.
He quickly phased in then back out infront of Duilin, he held an out-streached arm to Duilin.
"Give me the sword, unless you want to die..." he looks at Duilin and smiles. His expresion quickly turns to anger and then he turns to Draven.
"So thats what your after is it? Then if I have it you'll come after me right? Fun fun...I like a good challange, and you seem like you would give me some ammount of trouble..."
-
//uhmm.. I had a repelled arrow flying at me, right?\\
About 10 posts ago>> Seth raised his hands and yelled "Kah!" Then a large translucent red barrier appeared and it surged with power. The arrow hit is and desingrated easily.(That would've stopped Dravens super fireball if Scorch hadn't saved Seth first.)
The Barrier disarmed, and disapeared. Seth smirked at Draven and maked a "nanabooboo" face. (Seth isn't exactly right in the head.. He thinks he can become a god, lol, but what if he can..? o.o)<<
//err currently..//
Seth saw that Zeros' and Draven both wanted the sword and Duilin was in no shape to mame either of them.
"since no one's payin' attention to me, maybe I try another little trick.. heheh" Seth thought to himself.
Seth kneeled down, outstrecthed one hand from his side, and the other pointing at Draven. He bowed his head and began to mumble an incantation. A beautiful Aura of white, spakly light surrounded his hand streched from his side. Light began to glow in a ball on his hand pointed at Draven. He then made a throwing gesture and lanuched the Holy Ball of energy at Draven.
>>Note: It's of Holy Element, if that would account for anything. That would mean it'd cripple Zeros' if it hit him because he's half deamon, but I assulted Draven, not Zeros', lol.
-
Duilin ignored Zeros' and kept a good grip on the sword. He looked over Zeros' and back at Draven. He started thinking a bit, he didn't seem to scared really. But not the he wasn't Wink .
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Nex lifts his head abit and then gets up. He's pretty dizzy but he manages to walk abit, not really knowing exacttly were he is going however. He walks over to this near by creek and removes his helmet (But I'm not telling you what his face looks like Razz ) and splashed some water on his face and puts his helmet back on.
"I just have to quit at this...I'm going nowere....stupid Rommes, I hate them, I hate that stupid winged deamon guy....I need to get my wings back....somehow....he's more powerfull then me, that's that....I need to become more powerful...somehow!" He then walks over into the forest and then takes out his blades...."Hey wait a minute....Were is my other blade...oh yeah...I threw at the guy...to late to pick it up now I supose..." Well he then starts cuting down a small tree with his blade, it falls down, soem time later the tree is then cut into firewood. He then grabs some stones and such and makes a small circle, puts the wood into the middle of them, raises his hand and abores heat and creates a fire ball and tosses it at the wood. He then removes his robe (and no he is not nude now because he is wearing metall armor and cloths under it) and flaps it up and down over the flame, make alot of smoke, therefor signaling at he is here, well not that HE is here, but that somebody is here.
(If your wondering why he is doing this it's because he need help, because he is hurt and exhausted and has no items but his what he is wearing and his sword knife and sickle, and those won't help)
-
"Hmph...whatever...get killed for all I care..." he put his hand behind his back (which means under his coat also) and he pulled out a potion.
"Here..." he threw the potion in the direction of Duilin, "This will fix your leg, but it won't stop the pain, deal with it."
He stood upright and faced Draven with a smirk on his face.
"Well shall we begin?" he unsheathed his blade and spun it around, flames exploded from it every time it completed a circle.
"Looks like my phoenix is getting restless..." he held his sword with the blade facing away from Draven and the hilt facing towards him.
//you know...like im holding the blade like this <---facing Draven (Zeros)-|-------(Duilin) ----> sword facing away from Draven, towords Duilin (behind him)\\
My helpful diagram!
-
(But I'm not telling you what his face looks like Razz )
Bob Marley?
He thinks he can become a god, lol, but what if he can..?
He will go against Xorlak rules for being god-like character. Razz
---
Somewhere in the distance, Scorch noticed a signal smoke.
"Iduran..." - he spoke to himself. - "Iduran somewhere near the caves..."
But then, he turned to look at Draven, Zeros, Duilin and holy ball thrown by Seth. Not thinking too much, he rushed directly at Draven, a trail of lightning a wind following him, he put both hands in front of him (superman style) and after chanting short spell, created a bolt of lightning in each, aimed at Draven, the stopped and turned to move in another direction, escaping too direct combat.
-
Duilin drank the potion and then stood up. He takes out his chain mace a puts Iduran's in his left hand. He still of course feals the pain but he can easily fight threw it (he's accualy a though dude, just weak compared to all these semi-demi-gods).
I can't let him get the sword.......Or can I.......
I have to do something.....But what.....
Duilin closes his eys, takes a deep breath and then re opens his eyes.
-
//Well Im a half-daemon...\\
"No spells, your fire is useless agianst me (wells semi-useless), sword to sword, how about it?"
-
Draven recognized the sword immediately, and his smirk returned.
"Perfect."
He began to slowly walk towards Duilin and Zeros', his aura of flame (that he expended) slowly returning. But he wasn't paying attention to Seth, and was suddendly hit by an explosion of white light in his right arm, which knocked him off balance and nearly caused him to fall over. Regaining his balance, Draven shot a glare to his right.
"What?! How dare you!"
But before he could react, lightning bolts hit directly in front of him, causing him to leap backwards several feet. But before he hit the ground, Draven outsteatched his arms and remained floating two feet in the air, his cape blowing wildly. Draven had managed to get all four opponents more or less in front of him. He replied to the winged one:
"Useless, huh? We'll see..."
There were a few seconds of tense silence... Draven floated there, eyes darting to each one of his adversaries. Which way would be best...? Hmmm... yes... heh...
Draven cupped his hands in front of his chest. A fireball began to form in between, though more slowly than normal... He shaped this one more delicately, eyes still moving from one warrior to the next...
-
Scorch kept falling back. He began to move toward Duilin, his cyclone armor still protecting him...
"Give me the sword, Duilin." - he said. - "Your death here as a martyr for that blade will not help. I'll take it where it should go..."
-
Zeros' wings extend and he quickly raises to Draven's height, dust blowing furiously and his cloak blowing about to all sides.
It was a tense moment. Zeros' gripped the hilt tighter and the blade was still facing away from Draven, and the hilt towards him.
"I'll take you on."
Flames slowly jumped from the hilt to the blade of his sword as he advanced.
"Your move." he said with a fierce look on his face.
He used telepath.
"Quickly get that sword out of here, I don't know why everyone wants it, but just get it away from here while I handle him. If I die...tell Qeni and Zev I died protecting them..." the voiced started to sound sad.
-
Duilin then looks at Scorch, for abit, and thinks about giveing him the sword. And if it would help much if Draven knew Scorch had it.
"Hmmm....Well I supose so...but what if Draven sees the transfer...wait a minute, I got and idea." Duilin wispers to Zeros'
"Hey, Whateveryernameis, distract Draven so that I'm not in his sight. It's very imortant..."
-
"Hmph...it doesn't matter, he'll find out anyways. Look at his face. He'll keep on eye on me and then another on you, and he won't change." he said in telepath.
He advanced slower.
"But whatever...don't blame me if you get killed, makes no difference to me."
He started to flap his wings faster and faster, more dust kicked up, blind whoever was behind him, he quickly took this chance and charged at Draven, the sword still in the same postion.
"Prepare yourself!" Zeros' cried out as he flew towards Draven as fast as he could.
"Kaw!" Zeros' pheonix screeched out from his sword and the image of a phoenix could be seen in his battle aura.
-
"Then I wish long life to you, Duilin, and protect this blade." - said Scorch and he began to slowly move himself out of village (levitating), looking at the smoke above the horizon...
-
"Petty tricks!"
Zeros' attack preparation had acquired Draven's attention. It would be best to do the confident one in first. Draven raised the completed fireball in his right hand into the air and threw it downward into the ground in front of him as he dashed forward. The ball exploded upon hitting the ground, causing a great cloud of black smoke to engulf the vicinity, which Draven dove into. Additionally, the concentrated orb shattered into 16 smaller balls of crimson light, which shot out in all directions from the center of the cloud, some headed straight at his nearby opponents.
Almost immediately after Draven dove into the black cloud, he emerged on the opposite side-- right in Zeros' face. Draven flew out in a horizontal position, both arms to the side, but his right brandished his four foot long blade of pure flame... Draven plunged the blade forward, aiming for Zeros' heart.
-
"It is no trick, fool!" he said as Draven was in his face, ready to stab him.
He put up a barrier around the other and himself, blocking the rays of light.
Zeros' quick reflexes made Zeros' able to parry Draven's blow.
"Hmph...so this is your power?" as there blades connected, flames shot out from both there weapons.
He quickly reached behind with his left hand and pulled out a small sword and aimed it at his foe's chest.
-
Duilin glares Zeros' after he says "But whatever...don't blame me if you get killed, makes no difference to me."
"Insenitivecarelessonofabitch...." Duilin mutters, not careing who herd or understood what he said
"Hey, Seth!" Duilin calls over to him "What should we do?"
-
Scorch escaped the vicinity of Draven's cloud, and the crimson ball of light was caught in whirls of his cyclone shield, then after some time strangely flew out from the other side and exploded.
"Good." - Scorch told himself. - "Let them fight themselves. I never intended to come here to fight anyway..."
As he finished his verbal note to self, he chanted another spell and the air around him got "off" him, leaving him only in protection of his ragged cape and forming a separate tornado from itself, which then began to fly toward where Draven and Zeros where, through the air.
Scorch made his superman-style-flight-pose and left the village toward the caves and the strange smoke near them...
-
"This is war, it doesn't make any difference...just leave before you get killed, I might not even survive this battle, if I don't you need to find Qeni and Zev and protect them..." he telepaths to Duilin
He continued attacking Draven, ignoring Scorch's tornado.
----
It was raining.
Zev finally woke up, he noticed that Qeni was still asleep even after a long rest.
He found a puddle and washed himself off of dirt and dried blood, he also noticed Nevina nearby.
The attack left a long scar down from the top right side of his head down to the bottom left and a scar al the way from his shoulder down his right arm.
He sighed, "Why does this all happen to me..."
He slowly walked over to Qeni and picked her up and put her on his back.
He called out to Nevina, "Don't follow us, Im going to look for Zeros', that is unless you want to come." He adjusted Qeni on his back and started off back towards the castle they were at earlier.
-
The wind picked up considerably around the two warriors as they clashed, causing Draven's cape and aura to fly wildly. Draven veered to the right, using the force from the contact of the two blades as a push off, barely evading his opponent's stab. He turned in the air as he moved away from Zero's so that he was flying backwards and slashed his sword diagonally downwards, causing a crescent-shaped blast of fire to leave the tip of his blade and travel toward his adversary.
At the same time Draven caught the sight of Scorch leaving from the corner of his eye.
"Hmmm, the traitor is making a break for it," he thought to himself. "No matter, as long as the one with the blade doesn't escape..."
-
Zeros' flew backwards as well, he quickly regained his balance and turn his sword backwards and stabbed himself through the side, causing blood to drip down his side and on the sword. He also slashed diagonally downwards, causing a crescent-shaped blast filled with blood and fire from his Phoenix.
When the energy's hit, it caused a big explosion, devistating nearby houses and people (except for Duilin and Seth, since I cast a barrier around them and Scorch is away from the town), burning them to a crisp.
Zeros' regained his balance from the blast and started slashing more, causing crescent-shaped blades to come out of his sword, heading straight for his foe.
He followed closely behind the blades, awaiting the right to at when to attack Draven.
----
Zev sighed.
"Geez Qeni...when did you get so heavy..." he fell down face forwards from exhaustion. He got up and crossed his legs while rubbing his head, "Oww...geez..." he looked around, its was still raining and most of the trees drooped from the rain.
He saw a tree that had a cave like structure in its trunk. Zev dragged Qeni over towards the cave-like structure and stopped under the tree.
"Guess we can camp here for now..."
-
"Hey you think you could be more carfull, with your ''war''?" Duilin calls over to Seth, not expecting or wishing him to answer. Duilin just continues looking at Draven and Zeros' fight. "This guy's really powerfull, I'm not even worried if he losses, because if he leaves then I supose Draven might be weakend enough for us to wipe him out...But it would be best if Zeros' won, and Draven is very strong...Hmmm....Seth, perhaps we should help fight...He would never suspect it at all, you think we should Seth?"
"Now I wonder who and were Queni and Zev are...And who or what this guy is..."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Five dark empire soilders that noticed the smoke signal and headed to were Nex was. Nex say the soilders and stoped the signal.
"Uh, Sir, is everything allright?" A soilder asked
"I...need...potions....ethiers....resores...NOW!!!" Nex orders
The soilders obeyed him, and pitched in 3 potions, 2 eithers and 5 restores. He drank them all down in about 1 minute.
"So, sir, is that all?" A another soilder asked
"Hmm, no, We must go to this near by cave and kill a bunch of people and steal there gear and hunt down the sword!" He said "But first, back to the Town around the Romme Castle! And get more soilder, we must have....about...50 more soilders, you five will come with! And then we do that, let's go...NOW!"
Nex and the soilders arive at the town around The Romme Castle. Nex being a General (not a high general like Draven) he was aloud to get the 50 soilders, so 55 soilder along with Nex marched over to the the caves and suronded the cave.
Da Da Da Daaa!
-
"What the..." - Scorch suddenly noticed bunch o' soldiers with some unknown Dark Empire soldier near the caves as he arrived there.
"Fast guys, getting to and from Romme castle in 1 post..." - he thought.
---
Cheetah felt something evil might happen.
"Hold on, sir." - he said to Iduran. - "I heard something outside..."
-
"Okay guys, our speed, one post! A new record!" Nex says. He then points his blade to the castle "ATTACK!"
The soilders then charge in to the cave and prepare to kill everything that insinte with the Dark Empire.
"Wrong cave morons!" Nex yells at them. They run out and then head toward to correct cave. They surond the enterance. And then aproach to head inside and fight!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Okay guy's this will kinda be like a little Mini Game. There are 55 soilders, that we will all keep track off. They are all NPCs, and there is Cheetah, Scorch and Iduran I belive in the cave. And let's say you can only defeat up to 5 soilders per post, and I can control them to.
//So Xorlak is that cool, with me makeing a little game type thing?//
-
"Nah" Seth whispered to Duilin. "we'd only complicate things, and probably get blown up. I'm not strong enough to slay Draven. That Holy Ball of Energy would've killed a normal person, but it didn't even knock him down.. I got a better idea. Do you still have the sword, Duilin? The smoke clouded by vision and I can't tell if you passed it to Scorch or not. Anyways, our job is to locate the dragon, not kill Draven; Zeros' can do that since he's so eager.."
"We'll sneak away, get some supplies, and look for the Dragon. Here's how.."
Seth began to speak to Draven in tongues through telepath, though you could still see his lips move. He flooded Dravens mind with an incantation, and if the spell were to work, it would cloud his mind to the point where he couldn't see Seth or Duilin; only Zeros' and the location around him, but Seth and Duilin would appear to be gone.
Seth slashed open the barrier Zeros' had cast on him, and decided to sneak into the abandoned weapon shop to see if Draven noticed, while he still flooded Dravens mind.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Nevina had been secretly following the two children, though that had not noticed. She saw that they stopped in a tree, so she looked into the tree, and casted some blessings onto them. 3 of the night stars seemed to dissapear from the sky and come into her hands. She swirled her hands around in a paicular fashion, and the two children began to glow. This blessing would grant them superior strength and a supernatural 6th sense to detect evil forces, these spells would last 3 days; 1 day per a star Nevina stole from the sky.
Nevina then walked off to look for that Haraldur-guy. He had seemed to dissapear..
-
"No, I still have it. And uhhh....what are doing?" Duilin asked looking at Seth as he dose his odd spell.
-
to head inside and fight!
Listen to Xorlak when he says about weird descriptions. Fight what? Fight how? Describe more precisely, really...
Also... how many soldiers are there?
---
Scorch landed behind the attackers and followed them into the cave.
"So... they're after Iduran... This new general shall fall easier than Draven."
---
"Crap!" - screamed Cheetah. - "Iduran, stand up, grab your sword and fight! Someone's here! The rest of Romme survivors, do the same!"
Cheetah himself turned self into a frost serpent that he once defeated with Duilin and Iduran and consumeds essence of.
-
// :angry: I've said how many soilders there were 3 times!!!!!!! Oh and I've changed my mind about the minigame thing. We will keep track of soilders however.//
The soilders dash around and start breaking things breaking things. Three soilders aproached Cheetah.
"What the hell?" One yelled. He then swung his sword in a downward motion in the middle of the serpent. The other two aimed stabs at the head.
-
Zev opened one eye, he saw Nevina leave, he only muttered one word "Thanks" and went back to sleep.
-
Cheetah then simply breathed his icy breath and frozen 4 soldiers closest to him to the floor.
---
From the other side, Scorch's chain lightning struck one of soldiers, then leaped through 4 next, electrifying them effectively. Smell of burned flesh began to fill cave.
"Who the hell are you, servant of Dark Empire?"
(46 soldiers active, 5 dead, 4 frozen)
-
Draven felt something. Like someone was trying to attack his mind. He was sure the spell came from Zeros', paying no mind to those behind him.
"What a miserable attempt..."
Draven darted from left to right, dodging crescent waves of energy as he moved closer and closer to his adversary. At the distance of five feet or so, Draven's feet hit the ground and he lept high into the air, right over his opponent's head. With his crimson blade in his right, Draven's left hand pointed straight down, glowing bright red. He aimed to pummel his adversary into the ground with a flurry of fireballs...
----
Iduran sat up in bed hearing the rukus and several Dark Soldiers bursting into his cave-room. A Romme soldier rushed to meet them but was knocked back. The robed man held Iduran down once more.
"No! You musn't!"
"Shut up! I can't take it anymore!"
With his right hand, Iduran punched the robed doctor square in the mouth, sending him flying into a chair on the other side of the room, which broke on contact. With the other hand, he grabbed the broadsword out of the sheath of the other Romme soldier, who was standing next to him, petrfied at the sight of the dark warriors. Iduran then lifted the blade above his head with both hands and stood up on the cot, the bed sheets flying off of him to reveal that he is wearing full body armor. As the cot began to collapse beneath his feet, Iduran lept toward the fist dark soldier apporaching, preforming a horizontal slash in the air.
"Gaaaaahhhhh!!!!"
The slash severed the man's head from his body, which fell backwards as Iduran landed in a crouching position, sword extended to the side.
"One."
(45 left: 5 electrocuted, 4 frozen, 1 decapitated)
-
//Wouldnt that be 40 left?\\
"Miserable atempt huh? Well it worked on you!" he spun his sword around, making flames fly from it, it also expanded the aura of his phoenix, making his fire stronger with each spin.
The blades also did a 360 and turned around heading for Draven, Zeros' phased in and then back out, right behind Draven. He murmered something to Draven.
"The enemy inside of me."
He held his sword directly above Draven's head, ready to stab it right through his skull.
"You will not get Qeni or Zev!" he thrust his sword down as hard as he could, the wind blew his cloak aside as he prepared to thrust through Draven's skull.
He used telepath and told Seth and Duilin something, "Get out of here...NOW! Unless you want to get killed! Go find Iduran, quick! There getting attacked by Dark Empire soldiers, I don't know how long they can hold out, that man was heading there, you should to. They don't have many able bodied men there. If Draven starts following you, just ignore him, Ill take care of him."
----
Zev could feel something happening, "Why...the war has begun." Qeni finally woke up. She was sitting behind him with he legs crossed yawning.
Zev turned around and smiled a gentle smile, "Welcome back Sleepy head."
Qeni just smiled back.
"Cmon..." he said while getting up "We gotta get moving now..." Zev just picked up Qeni and started running through the forest as fast as he could, which was fast thanks to Nevina's spell.
//Just one question, whats wrong with Iduran and whats with the sword? I wasnt around for the first chapter but a few pages.\\
-
(There were 55 soldiers, Zeros)
The blade is what Draven seeks and purpose of destruction of Romme castle... It most likely has some supreme power.
-
Duilin then nods at Zeros' and then runs as fast as he possible could.
"Comeing, Seth?" He says as he runs off. "I'm going wheter you are or not."
"Draven dosen'y have to worry about me, there are a bunch of soilders over at the cave. THEY WILL KILL ME! Not....heh..."
Duilin then stoped running once he saw the cave. He sneaks in and see a bunch of soilders killing stuff. Duilin then spots the serpent, and get abit scared for a seoned but realizes that it's Cheetah. An enemy soilder runs infront of him and kicked him down on the ground. The soilder prepares to stab him in the chest with his halebird(sp?) but Duilin tosses his mace right as his face, smashing his skull in, makeing a bloody mess. Duilin gets up and picks up with chain mace with the bloody ball, and then spots another one geting ready to slice him in half with is axe. Duilin then tosses his knive at the guys chest, causeing him to fall down sreaming in pain. He then jumps onto the soilder rips the knive out and then uses it to cut a hole in his head, makeing another bloody mess. He kicks the dead body away makeing a trail of blood for about 1/2 ft.
"Okay who elese want's some!?"
43 left: 5 electrocuted, 4 frozen, 1 decapitated, 2 brutaly slain
//I bet that post won't help a few of you sleep at night Wink //
-
Seth watched Duilin run off.
"Damn, that guy can run.." Seth thought to himself.
Seth walked into the weapon shop and said, "Ugh.. look at the curves on her, regular man slayer there.."
Seth was, of course, talking about the Falchon hanging on a rack upon the half-chared wall.
Seth picked it up, swung it around a bit and said, "Yep. Nice".
Seth took off his steel claws and put them in his pocket. He then stuck the Falchon between gis shirt and his torso straps forming a make-shift belt.
He then ran as fast as he could (which wasn't too fast since the falchon weighed him down a bit, but he still ran faster than the average man) in the direction Duilin had went.
He walked into the cavern and saw the grotesque damage Duilin had done. He continued running through the Cavern and saw many things; frozen men, electrofied, and it was quite a stench.
through one of the hallways 3 dark empirian soldiers charged at him.
Seth dunked to miss the initial slash the frontial one made, then Seth grabbed the mans leg and used him as a projectile to knock the other two down. His assault was successful and he then drew his Falchon and Pounced sword-first onto the pile of men, impaling them all.
40 left: 5 elctrocuted, 4 frozen,3 impaled, 2 brutally slain, 1 decapitated
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Nevina had left the children about an hour ago and had been following the evil she sensed. She had now come upon a burning village and she knew the vile one was present here. (She was walking and the palace is quite a distance from the town so 1 hour isn't bad time)
So here She stood, at the entrance of the town.
-
Duilin walks more into the cave and then spots Seth and the impailed soilders.
"Seth!" He yells to get his attention, but then almost right after he said that, 2 soilder near by noticed the two and ran towars them. One welding a double axe (a pole arm with small axe blades on the end of each side) and one with an claymore and a wood sheild. The one with the claymore and sheild went to attack Duilin and the other went to attack Seth.
Duilin swing his mace in a downward derection, but the soilder blocked it with his sheild. And then swung his claymore at Duilin, cuting his armor causeing not very much damage. Dulin re swung his mace but more fericely at the soilder and this time in a sideways positon, and again the soilder blocked it with his sheild, however the ferice attack was able to smash threwthe sheild and caused some serious pain to the badie's left hand that was holding it. Duilin then went in for another downward swing at the soilder's head, and then it smashed down at his skull, crushing it, causeing a quick, painless but messy death...
"I'm not going to be able to sleep anymore..." Duilin spots the claymore and picks it up "Say hello to your new daddy!!"
39 Soilders remaining
-
Seth, blood spattered from Duilins messy kill, charged at his advicary, who swung his Axe, aiming to send it directly into Seths chest, but the axeman was slow and gave Seth the chance to dunk down and slash diagonally in a downwards motion with his Falchon, severing the axe-wielding mans right leg.
The Axeman moaned in pain and began to cry.
Seth decided to put him out of his misery quickly instead of making him suffer and Seth swung his sword at the mans neck, decapitating and killing him instantly.
"damn, this sure does beat those claws." Seth said.
38 left: 5 electrocuted, 4 frozen, 3 impaled, 3 brutally killed, 2 decapitated
-
"Hmm...Let's see what this sword can do. Maces and swords, that's my skill....Hey nice Flachon, Seth! So wanna re join up now. We need to find Iduran, here is not safe for him, we need a new hide out and we need to get the guys there!" Duilin says "So, we go look for Iduran now? Or should we just fight off these guys and hope for the best? I'm kidding about the seconed option....we can do that on the way:D !"
//Duilin's been kind of a physcopath ever since he killed Darion...I've noticed that he hasn't killed much people since Darion, but now he has/going to!//
-
Qeni was tired out and was getting a piggy back ride by her brother.
They reached the town Nevina was at, but kept going towards the cave where all the soilders are.
They arrived there to see Duilin, Seth and the others fighting the 38 left.
One dark soldier saw the kids and he charged at them, he wielded a dual swords.
Zev instantly froze, Qeni was still tired out and couldn't move. Zev screached out loud, "Kyaaaaa!". He held Qeni with both arms so he couldn't wield either his sword or dagger.
Zev dodged from side to side, waiting for someone to help him, but he managed to kick him, with the super strenght, making his ankle twist around, snapping the bone in his foot and started bleeding on the floor.
He still managed to walk around, slashing at Zev.
38 left: 5 electrocuted, 4 frozen, 3 impaled, 3 brutally killed, 2 decapitated
//The one Zev kicked isn't dead yet, his ankle just hurts ALOT\\
-
// What's happening to Nex? He should be somewhere inside and answer to Scorch as he called him B) //
Scorch suddenly noticed some serpent inside the cave.
"Cheetah!" - he cried, as more soldiers gathered to fight him. Conjuring a small tornado, he let is free to knock few soldiers like bowls. It didn't kill any of these, but it kept them more distant from Scorch, giving him some time to chant spell and fire an orb of slightning toward them, exploding into electric blast, frying 7 soldiers in nearest row.
Having some time, he began to look for that demonic Dark Empire general who ordered this attack ending in slaughter of his own troops.
---
Cheetah, noticing old ally, smashed the frozen soldiers with his tail and reverted to human form, grabbed his spear and thrusted directly into heart of closest soldier. Not being too powerful, he began to move back as a pack of enemies headed toward him.
"Ha! Finally, some action! Gee... What a mess!"
30 left: 12 electrocuted, 4 frozen & smashed, 4 impaled, 3 brutally killed, 2 decapitated
-
Haraldur's musings were disturbed by fighting around him.
He cast a spell to attempt to pull Iduran back and onto the bed without hurting him. He then caused the nearest 8 soldiers the spontaneously burst into flame, and they screamed in pain and died.
He then attempted to teleport himself and Iduran out of the cave and to the nearest safe one. It failed. They ended up 800 metres above the sea somewhere they did not know. They were falling rapidly.
"Shit."
Haraldur stopped his fall with a levitation spell and managed to catch Iduran.
"Where the hell are we?"
22 left: 12 electrocuted, 4 frozen & smashed, 4 impaled, 3 brutally killed, 2 decapitated, 8 burning corpses
-
(Haraldur... I understand you're weird but... what the hell are you doing?!)
8 burning corpses
It's know as "spontaneously combusted".
-
(Haraldur... I understand you're weird but... what the hell are you doing?!)
8 burning corpses
It's know as "spontaneously combusted".
//I know that, but "8 burning corpses" I think sounds a little different to "decapitated" and "electrocuted."
And what do you mean by "What the hell are you doing?" What do you think I am doing?//
-
You rush out - from nowhere - then in one post teleport along with Iduran - how the hell did you get to his cave? - above the sea Surprised
-
//I was already in Iduran's room. There new rules making teleports above 50 metres very dangerous and unpredictable because of a disturbance in the field around the world. I teleported to be above the sea by mistake.//
-
Draven moved his head to the left slightly. Zeros' sword came down fast and hard, slicing into the metal shoulder guard just to the right of his chin, barely missing his skin underneath.
"How DARE you!"
Draven grabbed the man's arm and tossed him over his shoulder judo-style straight down at the ground below. At the same time, Draven propelled himself upwards, raising both hands above his head.
"DIE!"
His crimson blade reformed and condensed into a fireball one foot in diameter in between his hands. But in a flash of red light, the orb had grown to three feet. Draven wrenched his arms back and threw it straight downwards.
----
"What in blazes did you do?!"
Iduran slashed the air with the broadsword.
"Unhand me! And take me back! I must help them!"
He began to kick the air until he looked downward and saw water far below.
"Gah!"
----
(Zeros': Iduran suffered an injury at the hands of Sigilus, which nearly killed him until he recieved some treatment. However he wasn't cured competely and the wound eventually became infected, making him bedridden.
As for the blade Duilin now has. Draven wants it, and he's the only one who knows why... heh...)
-
"It appears a great force has disturbed the field around the world. There is no telling where we would go to if I teleported us again. Also, you are at least safe here.
"Hmmm... despite the lack of visible land, I recognise this bit of sea. We are quite close to my home. I can sense the ways of the currents. Let us go there."
Haraldur chucked Iduran gently away from him and Iduran just floated in mid air. The sunlight shined off an almost imperceptable field around him
"Come with me, please, sir."
-
//It's a surpize were Nex is, let's say he going to be a boss, a very though one indeed!//
-
Zev managed to dodge the person slashing at him, since he got his swords stuck in the cave wall. While he was trying to pull them out, Zev pulled out a sword and decapitate him.
21 left: 12 electrocuted, 4 frozen & smashed, 4 impaled, 3 brutally killed, 3 decapitated, 8 burning corpses
He managed to reach Iduran's room without getting hurt.
"Geez...what up with all that..." he noticed the Doctor sprawled out on the floor ontop of the broken chair, he decided not to wake him up.
Zev looked around for a place to set down Qeni. He started to walk over to a bookcase and started to chip away a hole in the back with his sword. He managed to make a small hole, at least big enough for Qeni to be comfortable.
He put a finger over his mouth, "Shh...stay quiet and don't say a thing Qeni..." he moved the bookcase alittle over the hole, but left enough room for air to go into the hole.
----
A Dark Empire soldier noticed this and decided to keep quiet and stay in the shadows.
----
Zeros' quickly flapped his wings to make himself float just a few inches above the ground. "Whew...that was close..." he looked back up at Draven and noticed the fireball, 3 feet in diameter.
He spun his sword around and sheathed it. He held out one hand, while the fireball headed directly towards it. The fireball hit his hand, but he managed to stop it.
He genetally put his feet on the ground and stood there holding Draven's fireball.
"Is that all you got?" he closed his eyes and you could see his lips move, but no words came out. The fire ball started to grow bigger and bigger, and also...change in color, from a bright red, to a darker, more deep colors red.
He chuncked it back at Draven, heading staright for his arm.
----
The Dark Empire soldier saw the little kid leave, he decided, it was as good as time as any to steal the little girl, he figured Nex would want to see this.
He stoop infront of the bookcase and pulled it away from the hole Qeni was in.
Qeni started to crawl out, thinking it was Zev. She poked her head out and started to talk. "Ze..." the guard quickly pulled a towel out and put it over her nose and mouth, making her unconcious.
He slipped out and over towards where Nex was (wherever he was), he held out the girl in his two hands.
"Look what I found sir."
-
the guard quickly pulled a towel out and put it over her nose and mouth, making her unconcious.
Isn't chloroform an invention a bit too modern for fantasy game? Laughing
---
Cheetah, as 3 soldiers came toward him, concentrated. He suddenly leaped at one of soldiers, transforming himself into barracuda and biting throat of middle soldier, leaving him bleeding and suffocating to fall on the floor.
"Damn, wrong transform. I wanted a cheetah..."
Quickly, he reverted back to human form and with a spear quickly pierces two other opponents, then as they stood up, dying, he knocked them to the ground with fist.
---
Scorch grabbed one of enemies, electrocuted him with electric grasp of his hands, then finished him with strike from his bold head (he lacked any hair since last encounter between his head and Draven's fireball).
(heh... this RPG turned into "find a new unique way to slay a human being, you have 55 soldiers to try this on")
17 left: 13 electrocuted, 4 frozen & smashed, 6 impaled, 3 brutally killed, 3 decapitated, 8 burning corpses, 1 throat-bitten by a barracuda
-
Duilin then headed off, hopefully followed by Seth, to were he saw Cheetah. However as Cheetah got in Duilin's sight, 2 soilders ran at Duilin, one armed with a two deriks and one armed with two hand axes. The one with the deriks slashed one at and angle and one at an angle but faceing towards the target, Duilin swung his Claymore at the deriks and then kicks his openet in the gut causes him to fall backwards, the other soilder swung his hand axes down at him, be Duilin slashed his Claymore right at the soilder's gut, sliceing him like knive on pork ribs! The other soilder got back up and threw one of his deriks at him, but Duilin hit the derik away, cause it to hit the cave wall and then fall on the ground stabing only dirt. The soilder then cautiously slid at him aiming for Duilin's leg, but he jumped and then slashed in a downwards position at the soilder, causesing a fatal cut on the spine.
"Yeah! Eat that!" He said after he defeated his two openents. He then walks over to Cheetah...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Oh what do we have here!" Nex says as he takes the child "Good work, um, take this sheild I found." Nex gives the soilder an iron sheild (now somebody has to fight a soilder armed with any type of one handed weapon and an iron sheild) "Now leave and kill stuff!"
Nex takes away the towel and then tosses it away. He has the child held like you would hold a cat or a baby. He then pokes the kid in the forehead
"Wake up, humen child!" He says, in a kinda freaky voice.
(Heh prehaps a change of plans of what I'm going to do now, little hostage thing perhaps?)
-
Haraldur starts walking away northward.
-
(Duilin... clarify the list for us... how much did you kill? I get that 2, thus...)
15 left: 13 electrocuted, 4 frozen & smashed, 6 impaled, 5 brutally killed, 3 decapitated, 8 burning corpses, 1 throat-bitten by a barracuda
(assuming you killed them brutally)
-
the guard quickly pulled a towel out and put it over her nose and mouth, making her unconcious.
Isn't chloroform an invention a bit too modern for fantasy game? Laughing
I didnt specifically say chloroform...but actaully doing that makes a person unconcious...trust me...
----
"Oww...Zevy..stop..." she opens her, but she doesn't see Zev, but Nex staring at her. She sigh then takes in a deep breath, "KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"she screams with all her might. She starts shaking around, trying to get loose.
"ZEVY....ZEWOS!!!"
----
Zev hears the scream and starts walking towards the echo. A few Dark soldier appeared infront of him trying to stop him.
"Out of my way!" he unsheathes his sword and starts slashing around, chopping off the ankles of 2 soliders, bleeding them to death and 3 other were killed through a slash to the heart.
10 left: 13 electrocuted, 4 frozen & smashed, 6 impaled, 8 brutally killed, 3 decapitated, 8 burning corpses, 1 throat-bitten by a barracuda, 2 bleed to death
"Qeni Im coming!" wings started to grow from his body, this time demon type bat wings. They grew to 100 feet in lenght, not even seeming possible, going through solid objects.
He started to glide right towards Nex.
----
When Qeni sensed this power, her own wings grew, this time bright glowing, white angel wings, also about 100 feet in lenght and passed through solid objects.
----
Zeros' head twitched. He looked behind him. He saw the two pairs of wings, one pair white angel wings, other black bat like wings.
"Its too early...
-
(isn't Zev 6 year old? quite a good warrior for that age... and all right, I've never tried such method of getting someone unconsious, maybe you're right Wink)
"What the..." - Scorch and Cheetah noticed a screaming child.
"Must be that Dark Empire general." - said Scorch as the rest of soldiers came to block their passage. Noticing 45 dead bodies around them, surely they morale wasn't best.
"All right, gentlemen, you're here most likely by your will so we don't take 'surrender' option." - said Scorch and knocked them to the ground with a wave of air, then with chain lightning finished first 7.
Cheetah instantly transformed into cheetah (he picked right form now, at least) and ripped first with claws, then ripped throat of second one and left him to bleed to death
"One left." - said Scorch and began to fade in the air, prepparing a close-range teleport...
...then, the last soldier, filled with fear, felt as something happens inside his organism. He felt as if someone was about to appear in his place. He couldn't run as instantly Scorch teleported ON himself, forcing the soldier's body to explode into a bloody mess to make place for teleporting wizard, who now appearing in his place, with whole body painted in blood from the soldier in whose place he appeared.
None left! 13 electrocuted, 4 frozen & smashed, 6 impaled, 8 brutally killed, 3 decapitated, 8 burning corpses, 1 throat-bitten by a barracuda, 3 bleed to death, 1 eviscerated, 1 telefragged Wink
The cave was filled with dead corpses now and painted red with blood.
"That's death with style... Now, dark thunder-damn empire general... stop where you are! You have seen the slaughter... Learn to think logicaly and respect our power."
-
Draven lowered his arms and stood straight up, as if he were on solid ground, though he was some 40 feet above Zeros'. He squinted at the fireball raging toward him from below and his smirk returned...
"Of course not..."
Leaning downwards, Draven brought both hands to his right, cupping them. They instantly became filled with crimson energy. His aura of flame exploded once more, reddening the surrounding land.
"HAAAHHH!!!"
Draven thrust both hands downward, emitting a brilliant flash of red light. What followed was not another fireball, but a crimson pillar of flame that continuously flew from his hands. The fire beam slammed into the oncoming fireball, halving its speed as it ascended. Draven's aura exploded once more, and the beam grew wider, sending shockwaves across the surrounding town, which decimated any building still standing. The fireball changed direction, pushed by the beam of fire, now falling backwards upon Zeros'
"Down! Down! To Hades you go!"
----
Iduran flapped his arms, looking downwards at the water below nervously.
"H... how?"
But he soon realized his feet felt like they were on solid ground, even though he was suspended several hundred feet above the sea. He cautiously stepped forward, following the mysterious man through thin air.
-
After a while of walking, Haraldur arrived above a beach of black sand and sat down on the air. He waited for Iduran.
-
//Yes he is 6, but Nevina cast some spell on him to make him super strong and fast\\
Zeros' was still facing towards the cave, his back to Draven. His eyes turned dark. Two more wings grew out from where the other ones were (he had 2 already, so now he has 4), he flinched involuntary. He held out his hand, and caught the oncoming fireball. He just closed his hand and the fireball exploded.
He turned around and faced Draven, his eyes looking even darker, almost pitch black. He involuntarily flinched and disappeared from sight and then in not even a second, appeared behind Draven, his back facing Draven's.
His movements seemed robotic, as if someone was controlling him. His phoenix aura was now pitch black. He grasped his sword harder. He twisted his arm around backwards and thrust his weapon upwards, aiming at Draven's head/neck.
-
Seth had followed Duilin and now stood with Cheetah and Duilin.
"uhmm.. what now?" Seth said, now covered in blood, as was the rest of the Cavern.
Seth put his Falchon back under his leather straps.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Nevina felt the heat of the flame pillar as it burned on her face.
She turned around and ran about 10 feet from the Town entrance.
"I can't take heat like that.." Nevina said to herself.
"If Haraldur was there I think he'd be dead about now.. Then again, he can float, maybe he eats fire too..?" Nevina muttered to herself.
Nevina smelled blood; a massive amount close by.
She ran to the cavern but on the way, incountered a Dark Empire Soldier armed with a Katar and an Iron Shield.
Nevina said, "I have no time for you!" and tried to run him through with her Holy Bastard Sword, but failed and the Soldier knocked her in the head with his iron shield.
The blow knocked Nevina to the ground and the soldier attempted to thrust his Katar into her spine, her Nevina jumped onto her hands and bucked with both legs, catching the Soldier square on the jaw.
During Nevinas kick, she landed onto her feet, knees bent, one hand on the ground, behind the soldier. She then Thrust her Bastard Sword into the mans back, severing his spine; impaling his intestines and coming out his front side.
Nevina Pulled her sword out of the man swiftly, took the mans shirt off and cleaned her blade with it.
Nevina now stands in the Cavern entrance, gawking at the corpses.
-
Zev's wings disappeared and he feel to the ground. He feel straight down and he saw Nevina then. He hit the ground with a thud and his body turned around and he was facing Nevina.
He gets up, blood splashing out from beneth his feet. He reached Nevina and looked up to her, his eyes started to fill with tears. He started to hug her, but then feel to his knees and put his head on his knees.
"I couldn't protect her...*sniff sniff*...I couldn't protect my sister...I wish I were stronger...*sniff sniff*"
-
"I guess we need to find Iduran and make sure he's safe!" Duilin says to Seth "Cheetah do you know were he went to?"
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Nex then grabs the child mouth "Zewos.....Zeros'....yes! "Shush! No body can help you now. But don't worry, I won't hurt you TO much, I just need something from you..." Nex says. Nex then made a slight strach on the kid's arm, by pokeing her with his sickle, only enough to make a small drop of blood, and then took the blood on his finger and then sucked it off. He then wraped around a cloth on Queni's arm. (She's probally crying right now). Nex then started to grow deamon wings! They were 100ft just like Zeros' but looked as though as they were made of rock with fire colored water flowing over them.
"Wahahahahahahaha!" Nex laughed evily "Now, nothing can stop me. And I have you to thank for it, my little one" Nex then then wrote a note down on a sroll of paper he had and tossed it outside on the enterance of the cave and then flue off with the baby and then went off and faded into the distance...
The Note said....
Zeros' I belive I have on of you childern. If you want to get her back ever, then met me on top on the moutain to the south and and give me the sword. Come alone!
-
(Duilin, I understand you like FAST action but slow down a bit, Nex can move faster than Scorch can teleport!)
"I have no idea." - said Cheetah. - "But I can look for them."
He instantly turned into a wyvern and flew out of cave, wacefully watching nearby surroundings, keeping out of Nex...
-----
"Hey, YOU!" - Scorch ran out of cave screaming. - "You think just because you hold some stupid crying child you're untouchable?! Take THIS!"
And with a short spell cried in rage and a fierce move of his hand, Scorch tossed a long, fast flashing lightning bolt after flying demon.
-
Zeros' saw the note flying around and he instally reverted back to his normal self. He read the piece of paper.
Zeros' I belive I have on of you childern. If you want to get her back ever, then met me on top on the moutain to the south and and give me the sword. Come alone!
Zeros' set the piece of paper aflame.
"Damn that bastard..." he looked towards Draven.
"Well finish this later! I have more important matters to attend to!" with that Zeros' phased out and back in on the ground, he ran as fast as he could towards the cave.
----
Zev saw Zeros' running towards the cave, he wiped the tears on his shirt and stood up, waving at Zeros'.
----
Zeros' arrived at the cave and saw Zev waving. He stopped and wiped up a tear that was left. He patted him on the head, "Hey. Whats up?"
Zev started to cry agian. "Qeni..." Zeros' smiled. "Don't worry, I know. Im going to get her back, so don't you worry..." Zev wiped his face agian and smiled back. " 'k..."
He saw Scorch throw a lightning bolt at Nex, but he jumped up in the air and blocked it. He then floated down and grabbed Scorch, he had an angry expression on his face. He grabbed Scorch by his shirt and lifted him up off the ground.
"What the hell do you think your doing!? You actually think he'll play fair!? He would of just used Qeni as a human shield!" he let go of Scorch. "Think next time."
He phased out then back infront of Duilin. "Pull the sword out, I need to see something."
-
(Bah you posted wile I did! Then I had to delete my post, but thanks anyway!)
Nex smiles and then fades away and then appears about ten feet away and then flys off...
-=-=-=-=-=-
"Uhh.....I'm not sure Zeros'. You have helped me and all, but I don't know if I can trust you enough..." Duilin said "Oh screw it just take the damn sword, it's proabally just some priceless artifact that Draven wants to sell or something" He drops the sword on the ground, he has that I give up look on his face.
-
A thought ful expression appeared on Haraldur's face. He stuck his left hand up in the air. Above him a person slowly materialised.
"You were waiting for me, weren't you?"
The person, younger than Haraldur, was thrown down to the ground by an invisible source, but stopped himself in mid air. He floated up to be next to Haraldur.
"Hi, Hilmarsson."
"Hi, Olafsson."
"Who's the old man?"
"An important general. Keep him here, in safety. After that, go to Romme. You will know what to do. I will sort the rest out, understand?"
"Perfectly."
"Good."
Prince Haraldur spread out his arms and rose up. Light shone out of him and when the light faded he was nowhere to be seen.
Such a show off, thought the younger Haraldur, he knows full well that the lights are all for show. Can't that old man hurry up?
-
(Phew, slow it down a bit for me, folks, will ya? And how did Zeros' get the note that was dropped in front of the cave, miles away, anyway...?)
"I think not!"
Draven started after Zeros' like a rocket, but slowed down a bit, looking around. It then hit him that Duilin had escaped with the sword...
"Blast it! Not again!"
Draven floated downward, gritting his teeth, trying to control his rage. The only thing left was to follow the demi human; he must be going somewhere...
He then remembered somthing... Draven relaxed, his intense aura of flame disappeared as he studied the man in the distance, his feet touching the ground. Going to meet his friends, perhaps? Some of these people can detect energy auras... If he followed on foot, they shouldn't be able to pick him up.
Draven ran out of the crater that was the village and into the charred outskirts of the forest, his cape flowing behind.
----
The man walked much faster than Iduran, who wasn't doing so well on air. Sword still in his right hand (he hadn't equipped his sheath), Iduran approached Haraldur from behind as he disappeared from sight. He looked at the other floating man as if to say 'Who are you...?' or 'What is going on...?' but remained speechless...
-
Haraldur the younger nodded at Iduran.
"Hallo. I am Haraldur Gunnar Olafsson. I am the second in command of the Prince's unit. Follow me and we will go to the halls of the king. There you can receive healing, and the king wishes to speak to you. Just lower yourself onto the sand. I hear that in your country the sand is not black. What colour is it?"
Haraldur the younger gently lowered himself down and stood on the ground.
"It is easy! If it makes you feel more comfortable, act as if you are climbing down a cliff, in the same way as you walked on the air."
_________________________________________________________________
Haraldur the elder flew very fast towards the home of the Dark Empire. The seas and lands flew past beneath him.
-
Zeros... HOW the hell did you stop a lightning bolt Scorch fired BEFORE you ended fighting with Draven, while in the meantime you managed to run all the way between village and caves and read a note THEN stop the lightning bolt?
STOP IT, please, all right? SLOW DOWN and some realism!
---
Scorch looked in fury at Zeros.
"Stop telling me what I have to do, fool!" - he screamed, prepparing some lightning magic in his hands in case the demon would want to grab him by some part of clothing again.
"Who the storm cares about your stupid child! Dark Empire has to pay and I using some rascal as meat shield means nothing to me! And shut this second kid up, I am absolutely SICK of it's crying!"
---
Cheetah flew around, but suddenly a person running in dark cape through the forest caught his attention.
"Draven..." - he thought. It was obvious. - "Heading to the cave..."
-
Eventually Haraldur came to the heart of the Dark Empire, where it all began.
He looked around.
//Xorlak, could you please describe where I am, since this is a power controlled by you, really.//
-
(what?! heart of Dark Empire?! How the... nah, this RPG is slowly getting too weird for me...)
-
(what?! heart of Dark Empire?! How the... nah, this RPG is slowly getting too weird for me...)
Yesh, I'm getting a tad confused myself, what with the people running at uber speed and what not. o.o Gets kind of odd.
"I can't sense Iduran. He's either no longer on this island or he's dead." Seth said, with a small twinge of fear in his voice.
"I'm not sure giving Zeros' the sword is such a good idea, Duilin. You know he's gonna rush right up there to that wierdo who's got Qeni. Isn't he a Dark Empirian? If he kills Zeros' the sword is going to fall into Dark hands." Seth said.
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"Who the hell is that, Zev?" Nevina asked.
"I can't fly.., and he's a demon isn't he? Gah.. If only I could reach him..."
-
(Yeah Haradular your story is odd unfair and your charactors movement and powers are confusing and unfair and Cesque I'll slow down it's just that I'm trying to keep up with everyone else if you know what I mean. And Zeros' your teleporting is getting to confusing, I think teleporting should be banned overall, Xorlak, what so you say to that?)
"Seth, Zeros' is porbally got some plan, and really I think I'd know if it had magical powers and I think you could sence them to, it's probally just worth millions of gold peices.....Oh god! What did I do!? We need to do something....what do we do what do we do!!"
"Nevermind I know what to do! Okay this is what we...okay....umm.....Okay...Uhh...." Duilin starts shudder abit for some reason and starts thinking for a bit "Okay this is gonna be gross but umm....we take....the dark soilder's armor....and go to the Romme Castle....and find Wyverns.....and fly them to were they might be..." Duilin grinds his teeth abit...
-
//The phasing im doing ISNT teleporting, its basically VERY fast speed...and I thought the town was like a couple hundred yards away, not a couple miles, sheeze...most of the time I read this IM tired becuase I can usually only post at night now, but my Mom and dad are gone today, so I can only be on for a couple minutes then get off.\\
"Whatever...you don't care, but I DO!" he yelled back at Scorch. He walked over towards where Duilin was. He picked the sword up with his left hand. "I have no idea what this does either, but it has to be important." He stuffed the sword behind his cloak and extended his wings.
He looked back towards Duilin. "If that man comes here, tell him I have the sword." He then looked to Scorch. "Its because there children..why wouldn't they cry? When you come up with an anwser I'd like to know."
He flew up in the air and started gliding off towards where Nex said to meet him.
-
(Twas a moutain, I'll describe the setting, oh and I'd would aperiate it if nobody would interifere with this this scean, I'd just like it to be Nex and Zeros')
The top of the moutain was so high that the clouds covered it, makeing foggy all around, you could here wind blowing threw caverns, and hawks screaching. On top of on peek on the moutain stood Nex with crying Qunei under one arm and the other arm empty and prepared to be given something.
"Give me the sword...." Is all that Nex said
-
Zeros, whatever the distance is... you can't abandon fighting, make all the way to caves, read a note and stop lightning bolt I fired before you done with first thing among these
Another thing, if you begin talk, please wait for peoples' response, all right? You took the sword from Duilin without asking what he has to say/do about this, you threw some words at Scorch before he could answer... and flew away.
Scorch looked at departing Nex, amazed people act faster nowadays than he does under influence of haste spell.
"To hell with your child!" - he cried after him and begin to analyze the sky, looking for Cheetah and his news about Iduran.
-----
Suddenly, a wyvern landed behind Scorch, turning to human form Cheetah. He noticed Duilin and Seth around.
"Not good, not good. Draven is coming."
-
(I'll have some minor rule adjustments up after this post.)
(Actually Zeros' taking the sword is fine since Duilin dropped it.)
----
Draven peered through the forest, seeing an opening ahead and several people standing around. He came closer, sneaking behind a large tree at the edge of the clearing. The forested ground he was on was a little higher than the clearing, so he had a good view of the people and what they were standing in front of-- the cave. Several bodies of Dark Soldiers were strewn about.
Draven recognized most. He squinted at the sight of Scorch, but smirked when he saw Duilin. There was also the man who attacked him with claws earlier, the shape-shifting Gepardi, some woman he didn't recognize, and a small child... The winged one who attacked him earlier was nowhere to be seen...
What are they doing? Planning something? Does Duilin still have the sword? Draven wanted to eradicate them all... but it would be better to watch for a bit...
----
"Err... it's yellow..."
Climb down?! Is there an invisible cliff after the invisible floor?! Iduran squatted, petrified of the height, and began to tip-toe forward. Amazingly, the very first step was a bit lower than the first, as he somehow expected. He turned around, feeling downward with his left hand, hoping to find something to grab on to-- and somehow he did. He continued this way for a good 10 minutes, slowly descending the invisible ledge until he touched the black sand of the beach. Upon contact, he collapsed on the ground, sticking his sword into the sand.
"I'm getting too old for this..."
----
(Haraldur, you don't want to go here just yet... heh...)
The elder Haraldur saw the edge of the sea before him-- sharp black mountains jutted up out of the ocean. Among the mist of the mountains, dark spiked towers jutted up at regular intervals along the coastline. He had come to the edge of what was called the mainland of the Dark Empire, a sprawling continent 1,000 miles across through the middle. This had once been the most beautiful land in the world. But abuses of nature had turned the entirety of it into a desolate wasteland. It was no matter-- this is how they like it...
As soon as the towers came into view, a flood of winged creatures poured from the towers. Haraludur soon found some 50 black wyverns spread out in front of him. But there was another... A man in armor lead the way, flying through the air under his own power, completely covered by bleak gray and blood red plates. Only a slit in his pointy helmet allowed him to see. On his back was a sword-- the width of a normal broadsword, but its length was twice his size.
The warrior floated in front of the legion of winged creatures.
"WHOSO DARES TRESSPASS WITHIN THE REIGN OF THE DARK EMPIRE?"
-
Hmmm..., thought Haraldur, maybe this was a little premature...
"Thin air." said Haraldur.
Haraldur then disappeared from sight and flew upwards. Unsure whether he was being chased or not, he accelerated. Clouds flew past.
"Nearly there..." he gasped.
The sonic boom was deafening, but he still flew upward. In the thinning air far above, a hole appeared before him. He went through. All his belongings, and his big breakfast, fell down from the emptry sky.
He appeared in a black space, empty of everything but air, and food and water from his last visits. The hole would not open up for hours, he would just have to stay here and hope his namesake does not get hurt. Dammit! Why had he foolishly believed that the largest power in the world would keep its borders unguarded. He hopre he would not have to pay a high price.
//Haraldur the elder is now out of action for the rest of this chapter.//
_____________________________________________________
"Really? You are still alive despite everything, I doubt you will be too old for anything for quite a while.
"I will take to our doctors, in case you have any serious injuries. Do you want a hand up?"
-
"Draven is comeing....No worry, because of me, if he comes and kills us all, then it would acompish nothing, but I say we destory him instead. He was the one who ordered the attack on my village, and ordered Darion to kill people, includeing my family, so I'd like to see him dead! Preferably by my doing!" Duilin swung out his claymore and his mace. He kinda stumbled abit because of the weight of them both in only one hand. "Dangit, how come I can't even hold two weapons at once and Zeros' or something can hold like, two giant busterbroadsword is one hand and a cannon in the other....wait I don't think he can...but you know what I mean!"
He holsters his mace, and now just has the claymore. "I'll be ready when he comes...."
How come NOW I'm starting to regreat giveing Zeros' the sword
"Seth, do you accualy just want to run for it and try my plan or just kill Draven and get this overwith?"
-
Scorch folded his arms and began to look for any smallest movements from the forest... A sight was a beautiful thing to have.
"The lack of blade has it's good sides, you see. If you'll die Duilin, which is somehow highly possible due to your lack of power and experience in combat, Draven still won't get the blade."
"It has it's bad sides, though - now blade belongs to that winged demon creature who cares about some two..." - Scorch throws a look at Nevina and Zev - "Two kids... And who knows that this irresponsible creature might do. And where Iduran is..."
-
"Hmmm.....a confusing thing to say there Scorch. But I understand the me dieing part, the battle against the Rommes we fought was my first battle...first with the Dark Empire anyway....Meh whatever!"
He then lowers his voice so only Seth can here "Seth I say we leave and look for Zeros' he should go back to the Romme Castle. What do you say? But we should get some Dark Empire armor first."
-
"Whatever. I'd prefer to not die though, please." Said Seth, sticking his tongue out in a childish manner.
"Zeros' is up there fighting Nex, what makes you think he's gonna rush off to the Romme Castle? I say we attack Draven, If nothing else we have more numbers than him. Plus I got this sweet Falchon here and I'm much more of a threat now, meheee."
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Nevina stared at everyone and said, "Who are you people..? Why are you here?"
-
"Hmmm....I supose your right then. We will defeat Draven first or something...just....I need to think of a plan to get the sword and defeat the enemy....."Duilin then turn his head over to Nevina, and starts talking before she sees her. "Who are YOU?Why are you he-...." He then stops as he spot Nevina....."Uh......well hello there, i'm Duilin, how may I help you?" :rolleyes:
-
"Oh I don't think I want YOUR help, sir." Nevina said, giving Duilin a perverted look.
"I'm Nevina Seev, last of the Jin Knights. I'm here investigating the evil force I sense and to discover why my Island is in such bad shape.. and because I kind of got ran out of my Palace by some evil apparitions.." Nevina explained.
"So, returning to my initial question, who are YOU guys, and what are YOU doing here?"
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Seth simply said, "Alright." and pulled out his Falchon, wielding it with his right hand, and put a steel claw onto his left hand. Seth then got into a battle stance, pointing his Falchon out towards the mouth of the cavern and his shoulder went up and down on his left arm; the one holding the steel claws.
-
"Oh I'm Duilin....This is Seth, this elf like man, and the wizard dude, Scorch, and that other guy is Cheetah, he's gepardi, a shapeshifting person. Wellcome, and is that kid you have there Zeros'?" Duilin says. He then looks at Seth "What ARE you doing?"
-
He arrived at the mountain, he saw Nex holding Qeni under his arm and his other arm out-streached, waiting for something. He glided down slowly and stop infront of Nex, hovering a foot or two above the top of the mountain.
"So...its you," he pulled the sword out, "You want this? Give me back Qeni first, then I'll give you this. I don't trust Dark Empire soldiers, let alone generals." he put the sword behind his back and stabbed it through his chest, absorbing it into his body (basically, when he stabbed it into his body, he was able to absorb it and now its sitting next to his spine, behind his cloak). He conjured an exact copy of the sword with his demonic powers.
"Im waiting..." he pulled the sword back from his cloak. "The swords here. Put Qeni on the ground and when she walks over to me, you can have it."
He thought to himself, "Don't worry Qeni, hopefully I can protect you this time." his thought wandered off.
----
Zev held Nevina's leg from behind, scared of the other people, especially Scorch.
He just barely peeped out from behind her to look at the four.
-
Nex tilted his head abit, and then thought for a moment. Nex then smiled *even though you can't even se his dang face* and then said
"You know, I don't recall that being part of the deal. I remember saying, If you ever wanted to see you kid again then met me here to give me the sword. I see how you got the idea, but you see my young friend, that dosen't mean I'm going to give you the baby...no it dosen't.....but since I'm in a good mood, I think I'll give you the child, JUST, TO, BE, NICE!" Nex then had the the baby in both hands and then slowly started to give it to Zeros' but then "Ooops!" He threw the child, down and she started to fall down to the ground, Zeros' better hurry up and catch her! "Wahahahahahahahaha! Go get her...hero!" He then jumped up and started flapping his wings hovering in the air...
-
"(Editor: Censored)er" he muttered under his breath.
He did a 180 and was now facing the ground, he flapped his wings as fast as he could and chased after the falling Qeni. He reached out his hand and Qeni reached out her's.
"Almost there..." he grabbed her hand and slowly turned upright, making him face upwards, looking towards Nex. He held Qeni with both hands.
He slowly glided back upwards, towards where Nex was hovering.
"So thats how you want it." he slowly accended. "You want to kill the Seraph's daughter?
He reached the height of Nex. He glared at him. He unsheathed his sword in his right hand, and held Qeni in his left. He looked around, he saw a mountain peek and slowly descended towards it.
He gently put Qeni down on the peek. "Don't worry." He hugged her. "I won't let you die." He cast a barrier around her, which would prevent her from falling if the mountain was destroyed, and also if any attacks went towards her.
He accended fast. He phased out, then reappared infront of Nex.
He spun his sword around and his phoenix aura's strengh increased.
"Now where were we?" He charged at Nex, sword forwards, and his left hand behind his back, reaching for something. He pulled out the fake sword and set it aflame, making it ashes.
"Now the swords gone. What say you know Nex!" he continued his charge.
----
Zev tugged on Nevina's shirt. He had a worried expersion on his face. "Who are they...?"
-
Nex then grew angry "Not that I wan't going to kill you in the first place, but you just gave me a better reason to kill you! Prepare for the most painfull battle of your life!" He yells. He then takes his blade and one of his sickles out. And then as Zeros' charges at him he then flys at him, puts a lock on Zeros' sword with his sickle and then takes his sword and swings it in and upward angle aiming to stab him in the stomoch!
-
The shadows of the forest revealed a smile. Draven was now leaning on the tree with his arms folded. The warriors were talking, but he was just out of hearing range... he thought he could make out the word "Draven" from time to time, though.
"Are they expecting me?" he thought to himself. They do seem rather edgy, flipping swords around, practicing battle poses, and whatnot. Draven's eyes kept returning to the child, timidly clinging to the woman's leg. Is that his mother? Aww... he's got a tiny rapier and sheath... how cute... Heh heh heh...
Draven's mind flipped through a range of diabolical schemes, finally settling on one...
"They're so expectant, hmmm, I wonder..."
Draven now leaned his back against the tree and cupped his hands in front of his chest. Within, he slowly conjured a small ball of flame, its light hidden by his gloves...
----
Iduran stood up and pulled his sword out of the sand, realizing the youth had thought he had collapsed because he was old, rather than his intense fear of heights.
"*Ahem* No thank you. I'm quite all right, yes... quite all right..."
Iduran fingered the small hole in his armor. Although the skin was still quite tender, he was feeling better. Perhaps the old doctor's herbs were worth something after all.
"Where... are we?"
-
The young Haraldur said:
"You are in the realm of Víkingagarð. If you wish, we can go and see some doctors. After that, I will arrange temporary accomodation for you. No doubt the king will want to speak to you at some point. But, ultimately, what happens is up to you."
-
Seth got out of position and Spoke to Nevina.
"That guy there is Cheetah, he changes his shape, That's Scorch, a wind mage, don't ask about the name, heh. I see you've already met Duilin, and I'm Seth. The two Demons on top of the mountain are Zeros' and Nex. Don't worry about Qeni, Zeros' seems to have saved her. You might want to ready yourself for combat. Draven is coming.."
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Nevina nodded her head then drew her Holy Bastard Sword and grasped it tightly in both hands, facing out towards the forest.
Nevina whispered to Zev, "Hide.."
-
"You there having fun, lovebirds?" - Scorch said with ignorant voice after Nevina and Seth. - "I have bad feeling about this all. We're standing here as in open terrain and it's very likely Draven will ambush us or attack from air while we will least expect this."
Cheetah only looked around nervously, waiting for the inevitable. he practiced few combat moves with his spear.
-
After a long rest period, Shin's strength was fully restored. He stood, and used his aura to sense everything around him. After feeling a ripple of energy similar to that emmitted from someone with a thick head, Shin raised his hand, and summoned an eagle. He climbed onto the eagle's back, and took off. After following the energy for a short time, he found the source of the yell. He jumped off the eagle and sent it away. He landed a good 15 feet from Nevina's party.
He walked in their general direction, following their energy signal. He moved slowly, so as not to alert them to his presence; he didn't want any Dark Empire soldiers to attack him. When he got close enough to see, he decided it would be better if he made himself known. He formed an ice ball with a small bit of energy, threw it above them, and it began snowing...
---------------------
Gyulim returned to the bar, where the soldiers of Aritan were in uniform, and standing at attention.
"Ma'am!", they all yelled on arrival. She bowed to them.
"Let's go; Shin was just in combat, and since I didn't feel the aura of his ice sword, I have a feeling that he's either still in combat, or dead. Let us not leave him out there."
With that, the soldiers led her out to their vessel, where a tall, tan-skinned captain stood. He grinned, bowed, and led her on board.
"It's a 1 hour ride to Romme from here if we go full-speed, ma'am", he said.
Gyulim nodded; she wanted to see her love as soon as possible...
-
Zev looked up at Nevina. Then he looked up at the snow falling around them. He held out his hand and it just melted. He looked around and saw Shin. He decided it was better the hide then to stay here.
He looked around for some place to hide. He saw Iduran's room unoccupided, he ran towards it and hid right behind the doorway, but he was still able to see outside.
He thought to himself. "I hope my sisters ok..."
----
Zeros' thought to himself, "Draven should be around there by now..." He dodge Nex's stab. He grabbed the blade and it cut through his hand, making blood run down his arm.
"You forgot one thing...I am the master of the blood arts!" He tore his hand from the blade, blood dripped from his hand and down towards the mountain.
He cracked his fingers, he held his fingers outstreached and did an uppercut motion, making blood fly from his hand and form 5 (for the number of fingers he has) crescent blades, flying right towards Nex. Zeros' didn't brake off from the weapon lock, but kept on it, holding Nex in a close proximity.
-
Shin grinned and said out loud "You didn't have to hide. I just wanted to see if you people were friendly or not. I serve not the Dark Empire, but the Holy Realm of Aritan. My name is Shin."
He glanced at Nevina. "My, what is this lovely young lady doing around here? It's unfitting for a lady to be in a dangerous place like this and to be armed...no women in Aritan serve the army. Sure, we have martial artists, but they never serve." After giving a wink, he approached Scorch.
"And you were the one who's energy I sensed...hah! You're stronger than I thought you'd be...but then again, my readings can be inaccurate from a distance."
Shin paced a bit, then asked, "Who are you people, anyways?"
---------------------------------
Gyulim decided to explore the vessel a bit. After leaving her room, she headed to the lower level, and entered the galley, where one of the soldiers was hard at work preparing some food...chicken and rice. Gyulim sighed, and grabbed an apple out of a sack and ate; she hadn't eaten in the longest time.
Feeling refreshed, she asked the soldier how long it would take. He said to give it ten more minutes, so she decided to go on deck...
-
Zev walked out and waved to Shin. "No...its cause they said..said someone name Draven or something was coming..." He walked back into Iduran's room and hid behind the door and looked back out.
"They told me to hide.."
-
Nevina decided it best to ignore Shins slightly sexist comment, but mumbled under her breath, "I've been fighting since before your great great grandfather could wipe his own ass.."
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Seth got out of the cavern a ways and made a snow ball out of the falling flakes Shin had conjured. Seth then stuck it in his pocket and headed back to the cave.
Seth began to snicker.
-
Zev saw Seth get the snowball and he just shook his head. "I should be doing that.."
-
"Love birds?" He says to Scorch. "If you think that's language of love then, you people have to get out more...." Duilin then made a snowball and then tossed it at Seth hitting him right in the head. And laughed abit, he then pointed to Cheetah "He did it!" He then laughed abit and then stoped as if he was senceing or hereing something. "I think I herd a tree burning or something...."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Nex then slashed at blood blades that came at him and then glared at Zeros'. Let's see you do bloods arts when I slice your (Editor: Censored)ing off!!!" He yells as he dives down at him and then aims a sideways speedy slice right at Zeros' neck!
-
He simply held up his left hand and blocked the blade.
"Is that the best you've got?" He sighed. "I was expecting more of a challange from a demon who just regained his wings...guess I was wrong." He smirked. he thought to himself, "That should piss him off enough..."
He broke off the attack and sparks flew. He extended his aura, cause the area to heat up. He sheathed his sword.
"Tell you what." he started "I wont even use my Masamune." He shruged. "Use whatever weapon you like."
He held out both his arms and extended his pointer finger on his right hand, and braced himself with his left hand. Sparks extended from his out-streached finger, energy from his aura gained in his hand and soon enough, a large fireball had formed infront of him, the middle where his finger was.
"Bang." An explosion sound could be heard as his finger recoiled, and the large fireball (Lets say...about...3 yards in diameter) flew towards his opponent.
----
Zev just sat there and watched as Duilin acted like a child.
-
Nex then raised his hand at the flame and then it formed one big fireball hovering in his hand.
"Yawn, is what I say to your fireworks show, I want my money back!" Nex then prepared to toss it at him but he just decieded to do something else. He evaporated the fireball. And then he charged up, an electric based attack. It was a large energy ball of electrisity(is that with an S or a C?) and flug it at Zeros' "Boing!" it moved at farely fast speed. "Hoo Hah!" He yells!
-
//And its spelled "electricity"
"Sorry. I said no money back gaurntees." He just snapped his fingers and a barrier appeared infront of him, blocking the electricity attack.
"Well, Well." He phased out and then back in right behind Nex. "Demons now adays..." He twisted his arm around backwards and shot, point-blank, right at his head with his spirit energy.
-
"Another stranger..." - mumbled Scorch to himself, noticing Shin, the shook his head noticing people with their snowballs. - "Like children... We already have one crying 6 year old here, and that's enough for me..."
He thinked for a while then, hearing what Duilin said.
"Tree burning? What the hell are you talking about? Anyway, I can't hear as those weirdos have fun with snow all around..."
This all was getting Scorch a little angry... He never liked to be in a huge group of people he couldn't understand.
---
"Snow!" - Cheetah said with childish hapiness on face. - "We've never had Scorch in my homeland! Yippie!"
-
"Blast it! That Aritan..."
Draven's eyes twitched with irritation as he watched several of the warriors begin to play in the snow like children... He soon realized that his vexation had heated up his surroundings, and he tried to calm down so his presence would not be detected.
Draven put his back to the tree once more and looked down at the fireball he had created. It was only two inches in diameter and he had built it slowly, so as to avoid detection (which was even more difficult now that the Aritan was here...), but it will do the job.
Draven un-cupped his hands and the ball slowly floated upwards, stopping in front of his face. A motion of his left index finger caused it slowly to float to his left, silently moving between the trees, slowly advancing around the edge of the circular clearing to the opposite side of where he was at. In a moment, it will be in the perfect place for a distraction...
----
Iduran leaned on the sword as he stuck it back into the black sand.
"I thank you for your hospitality. But you see, my country is in grave danger at the moment and I'm anxious to get back... you wouldn't be able to provide some transportation, would you? ... Uh, how far away are we from Romme, anyway?"
-
"Your country is no longer completely overrun. There are some Dark Empire soldiers left, but thousands were killed by some rock trolls persuaded by the prince, who also killed many. There were a lot of them gathered around a burnt out house with the wizard Scorch as a prisoner, almost all of them are dead.
"Basically, you have few soldiers left, the Dark Empire have few soldiers left and the trolls have returned to their home.
"If you wish, our elite unit, which I am currently in command of since the prince is away, can go to your country with you, and maybe the regualar army too, but that might not be immediatley necessary. Although Draven might get reenforcements, he is loth to do so. We have sources that report that there is great rivalry between Draven and other powers in the Dark Empire, and between those other powers, but we are not completely sure. However, why else has he not sought reenforcements other than not wanting to decrease his standing among his rivals?
"So, you may go if you wish, with our forces or not, but I wish to come with you. We are quite far north and slightly west of your country, but we have ways of increasing the speed of the journey if you desire speed.
"What is your decision?"
-
(perhaps next time, instead of "post your character" we should have "post your army" or "post your country", so that it will be fait to paly with Haraldur Razz )
-
(perhaps next time, instead of "post your character" we should have "post your army" or "post your country", so that it will be fait to paly with Haraldur Razz )
//Fait?//
-
//Fait to paly, didn't you read?//
-
//Fait to paly, didn't you read?//
//What does fait to paly mean? I though paly was a typo of play. What did you mean?//
-
"Well isn't that dandy!" Nex says as the blasts hits him in the head blowing it off....Nex's body then falls down to the ground a fades under the fog.....
*I love killing off charactors!* Very Happy
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"No it's.....It's something else...." Duilin replys "I think Draven is close..." He then thought for a moment, and then went inside the cave to talk to Seth.
"Hey Seth, tell me, you can, SENCE stuff can't you? Can you sence Draven?" He asks Seth.
-
"Yes.. normally. I can't sense him now though.. Strange.."
Seth Made another snow ball, keeping the other in his pocket (He has a more serious purpose for the one in his pocket..).
With the new snow ball, he came up behind Duilin and Smeared the snow all in his hair.
"I didn't do it!" Seth yelled playfully.
-
Duilin then looked angrly at Seth, and then smiled *for once* and then made two snowballs and blasted one right at Seth's face and then. Looked at Scorch, and then tosses it right his chest!
"Hahahahaha....Okay seriously guy...I know Draven is here....so..." He then spoke in a louder voice "Well....I guess Draven is comeing guys, we might as well go into the cave, or have a HUGE snowball fight!" Duilin said, he then shook his head at the others, to asure him the he wasn't serious
"Hmmm...I don't think that really acomplised much but....meh..." Duilin said
-
//And its spelled "electricity"
//And it's spelt "it's".
//You really need to play my tic-tac-toe game, heh.
-
"Hmm..." - said Scorch, overhearing conversation. - "Normally I should be able to sense him... But my sight returned, and I lost my magical abilities, I guess. And STOP WITH THE SNOW! We're having Draven somewhere here, ready to strike us, I guess..."
---
"Whee!" - said Cheetah and threw a snowball at Seth.
-
Zeros' grabbed Nex's limp body, he decided, even though he was evil, he needed to be buried. "He's still one of my own kind, no matter how evil he is..." he thought to himself.
Zeros' slowly floated down back towards Qeni, holding Nex's limp body in his left hand, which was still bleeding alot (Zeros' hand). He made the barrier disappear. He flung Nex's body over his shoulder and grabbed Qeni with both hands. Qeni started to cry when she saw Zeros' hand.
"Shh...don't worry...its just a scratch..."
He slowly glided up and flew back towards the cave, as fast as he could, he knew Draven would be near by.
----
Zev walked out of his hiding spot and rolled a snowball and tossed it at Seth.
-
"I see you have more reason that I thought." - said Scorch seeing Nex. - "You didn't deliver blade to the enemy."
"Now, could you please be so kind and check from the air whenever Draven is anywhere around? I have strange feeling that with his speed, he should be here long ago... So he propably plans some ambush."
-
Seth rolled 4 new snow balls and hid behind a stalagmite in the cave.
"So it's War is it?" Seth Said in a silly tone.
-
"Holy shit.....Nex?" Duilin say running over to Nex's dead body
"He was the only person in the Dark Empire who was accually nice to me....." Duilin then got abit sad "I remember fighting him awile ago to....odd...."
Nex's body was heavly bleeding with the head all messed up and bloody *I'll accually just have his head just messed up now, I allready did the head blwoing off with Patrick*
"Hey Zeros' you mind if I help you burry the guy, I kinda like him, he was okay to me....He gave me something that enabled me to start flame and stuff....He said it was black deamon magic." Duilin sat down beside Nex's body. He tried to remove the helmet but it was caved in to his face and was very bloody and tight. "Yuck! No way are we removeing that, just let the damn helmet stay!"
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
FLASH BACK
At a training barracks at a Dark Empire out post. Duilin is fighting a captive Gel monster, Duilin swings his mace at the Gel but misses and then Gel starts to grab at Duilin, Darion then swings his Buster Sword at the Gel, cutting it in half.
"You stupid fool! Your weak and useless! You won't be ANY help when we make our first strike on Romme!" Darion yelled at Duilin, he smacks at Duilin and he falls back and hit's the ground. Darion then turned around and bumped into Nex. "Umm....I'm....sorry, sir..." Nex then pushes Darion out of the way and then walks over to Duilin.
"You seem to lack fighting experence" Nex says to Duilin
"I was forced to join when I was 18 years old..." Duilin replies
"That's not very nice now is it. I don't usealy capture childeren, I never hurt them, unless abosoultley nessicary...What's your name soilder?"
"Duilin, Duilin Talonscar."
"Talonscar? What an odd last name...Anyways drink this...and I'll teach you something." He takes out a potion vale full of blood red liquid. And gives it to Duilin, Duilin then drinks the potion, it tastes like blood, but it's warm, and has abit more kick to it! Nex and Duilin talk abit more and Nex teaches him how to use the Fire Ball Of Death.
"Why are you so nice?" Duilin asks Nex
"Well....I'm not sure, but I think it's abit odd why I am so nice....I'm a....Deamon..." Nex replys
"You are?"
"Yes, but tell no one or I'll destroy you!"
"Ummm....Okay...."
Nex then pats him on the head and then gives him a backpak full of potions "Take these, now I must leave!" Nex then walks away
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"I wish I could have talked to him abit....oh well, he proabally would have been alot meaner and would have killed me when when we fought, if he knew it was me..." Duilin then cracked his knukless "Okay, so..."
-
"...Sure." he handed Nex's body over to Duilin. He put Qeni down and she immediately ran over to Zev. "Zevy!" Qeni hugged Zev. Zeros' went over to Qeni and Zev, and smilied. He patted Zev on the head. "Take your sister and go hide..." He grabbed the sheath and sword that Zev had strapped to his back.
He walked in the middle of the cave. "And don't worry guys, Draven won't get the sword, its in a place he'll never look, and only I know where the location is."
He pulled out the small rapier and looked around. He saw the fireball floating. He went over to the side of the cave where it was and leaned on the wall. He held the blade up and aimed. He threw it at the tree.
"Draven huh...I would of thought he already attacked by now." He thought to himself. He picked up some snow and threw it at Seth.
"Im gonna...go somewhere, I'll be right back." He walked in the direction where Draven was hiding.
"Well Draven, you can stop hiding now. I know your around here..." he said in a low-tone, as not to alarm his comrades. "We have some unfinished business."
----
Qeni and Zev ignored Zeros' instructions and played in the snow.
-
Duilin then walked around inside the cave holding Nex's dead body. He then found a shovel and then he put Nex down on the ground. He started diging a hole in the ground. He then took Nex's weapons "Hey, these were the same weapons he hade a wile back. That kinda sad considering ym arsenel has changed about twice...or not..."
He then wraped Nex in his own torn robes and then put him in the gave, and buryed it, he then took out his mace and then swung it at a part of the cave wall a few time, smashing off a large peice of rock, He buryed 25% of the rock at the postion his head was at. He then took out his combat knive and sketched some words on to the rock, the rock was to be his tomestone.
Here lays, probally one of the most evil people
He may has struck fear and hate into most
But to some he was a hero, a friend
Even the ones with the darkest minds have the lightest harts
"Meh, that kinda sucks, but I guess it's okay...for him anyways." Duilin then took an empty potion bottle out of his backpak and then placed it by the tomestone.
"There ya go pal, you can have one back, I used it, but the bottle's yours man!" Duilin then walked out of the cave and back to the others.
"Were did Zeros' go off to?" He asks
-
Zev had Qeni down on the ground and talked over to Duilin. "He said something about going somewhere, whatever that mean." He went back to playing in the snow with his sister.
-
"Thanks Zev, your a sport!" He says and then sits down "Well I guess Zeros' is probally gonna fight Draven now....I'm not in the mood for fighting at the moment...Hey maybe we can sneak over to the village and grab some gear, what do you say guys, I'll go, one more person come with!"
-
Qeni sat in the snow exhausted, Zev sat by her, exhausted also.
"Sheesh..tired.." Zev looked over towards Qeni, she was already asleep. Zev walked over to her and tried to pick her up.
He fell backwards, he was too exhaused to help Qeni into Iduran's room to sleep.
-
"Nex was actually a total bastard, as far as I understand." - Scorch said to himself, then whispered. - "All demons are. And can't be trusted."
"The problem is," - he said now with loud voice to Zeros, looking around for Draven. - "We don't have where the sword is either, and we have no insurance that you can be trusted. The only one who might have slightest idea about the sword around here is Iduran. When we deal with Draven, I suggest you return HIM the sword."
"Where are you Draven... I'm tired of waiting..."
-
"Oh yes that why I was looking for him, I want the sword back, he's caused enough trouble with it..." Duilin says
"And yeah I don't dought at all that he was a total bastard. He killed alot of inocent people but none of them women or childern, but still, he probally was an ass hole, but he never did anything wrong to me. I don't really like him, or hate him...He was just doing his job for the Dark Empire, like we used to work for them, Scorch, so I'm sure you would understand."
-
"Women and children? Why should women and children be elevated? They're people just like adult men, and they have same right to die... Work for them? Oh yes. I remember several years ago I worked for them, but then I became officer and most soldiers were working for me instead."
-
"My god Scorch, you seem even worres Nex at times. But, Nex mersilly salatured people and impaled them usealy....But that's not the point! He cared sometimes! He felt remorse. But you with, your wind magic and your super powers, you think that everyone is even but your better then everyone else! And there not elevated, there just lest expenable because there are so few of them! You just don't care about anything do you, except winning the war. You just think your so though and can say whatever and have it be true, don't you!" Duilin says abit angrly. "Now if you exuce me, I'm going to village for suplies, we seem to be running low on them, and I'm sure we are all very hungry...Well I am, and the kids are exhaughted so they could use some food to." Duilin then walks off and heads over toward were the near by village is...
-
Zev managed to get Qeni into the room. He picked her up slowly onto the bed and she feel asleep. Zev got in on the other side and feel asleep too.
----
Zeros' laughed at the argument Scorch and Duilin were having.
-
Moments later Duilin arives at the village. He safely made it there by takeing some detours to avoid Draven. He walks around at the village, he sees a few burning buildings, some villagers repairing them.
"Heh, seems like the people are starting settle back inside. Duilin then opens up his back back and sees how much money he has.
"Wow, I didn't know I'd have this much allready, he has, 1113 GP *or whatever we want to call it right now*
He then enters a shop.
"Supplies are running abit low because of that attack we had abit eariler" The Shop Keeper said
"Okay, I just need a few potions and ethers and maybe some food, can I get some of that?" Duilin asks
"Sure..."
A few moments later he heads his way back to the cave, he got about 8 potions and eithers, and a large bag full of fruits and vegis! He takes his detour to avoid trouble!
-
Draven watched curiously as the winged one returned with the dead body of his subordinate.
"What in blazes...?"
Yes, it was the same one he had fought at the village. Wonderful. First the Aritan shows up, and now HIM. But he thought he heard him say something:
"Draven won't get the sword, it's in a place he'll never look, and only I know where the location is."
Duilin doesn't have the sword? Blast it... what to do now... Scratch the old plan... The winged one was walking in Draven's direction now, and he gave his challenge in his calm voice. Draven remained hidden for a moment. His surprise was ruined. Could he take them ALL on? Should he fall back for now?
Fall back! Preposterious! A High General of the Dark Empire NEVER loses!
"Hmph."
Draven snapped his fingers. The fireball that he had so carefuly manuvered to the opposite side of the clearing exploded, ignighting a tree in flames directly behind Scorch. That distraction should give him at least a moment's time alone with the winged one...
Draven turned so that he was now leaning against the tree with his arms folded and his clever smirk, facing Zeros'.
"I must say, I'm quite impressed, demon. The commander you just offed was a wild one... I don't believe I've caught your name..."
A soft breeze blew as the coldness of Shin's spell began to lose its effect.
"Tell me, why is it that you fight?"
----
(Good observations, Haraldur)
Iduran stroked his chin in thought.
"You mean, those thousands of soldiers that attacked us are gone? This is wonderful news! Well, if you don't think an army is neccessary, then we won't bring one. I don't want to get your people involved... although I would appreciate returning home as quickly as possible and I welcome you as a guide. What is your name, young man?"
-
Duilin then arived outside of the cave with the others
"Now that's defentily the smell of a tree burning!" Duilin says, wile smileing at Scorch "Well we should probally do SOMETHING about that now!"
-
"My name is Haraldur Gunnar Olafsson, I am named after the prince, Haraldur Gunnar Hilmarsson.
"Let us go to the ships now. They are just in our capital city, Haraldsvík (named in honour of its founder: our first king, Haraldur Ragnar Steinsson), which is also our principal port. Come with me."
He started walking away, and gestured Iduran to follow him.
//How he knew all this: in this world blood brotherhood means that a telepathic link is maintained between the blood brothers. This means that the two Haraldurs always know what the other one is thinking and doing, except when the elder one is out of this world.//
-
(didn't Dude Man's last post go against the new rules?)
(blood brotherhood grants telepathy? whoah! *grabs knife*)
-----
"I am no worse than Dark Emp-...!" - Scorch began as suddenly something exploded behind him. He leaped back, turned in direction of blazing trees and
"Draven, huh...?"
Scorch began to gather energy for his lightning spell, but he noticed Draven wasn't where he was supposed to be. He propably escaped after the attack... Scorch looked carefully for slightest movement within the forest... But there was nothing.
"Hold on, comrades! Draven can be here any minute... Where is that demon when we need him? Cheetah! We'll make an ambush on our own. You see this tree? Get us there." - wizard pointed a high tree a bit deeper in the forest.
After listening to Scorch words, Gepardi changed into a wyvern, grabbed Scorch in claws and they flew silently over the forest, then landed and freed Scorch, who situated himself in not-too-comfortable position on a tree. Cheetah in wyvern form, green, was almost invisible among the leaves...
If Draven will come (and propably slay Duilin who was supposed to finally die since a long time, as Scorch thought, this all action and people made him somehow more aggresive), he will find no sword... He will look for it... And they'll have follow him, entering action to take sword when time comes... or before this happens, if a need arises.
(I won't be here propably for next 2 days, so I had to get Scorch and Cheetah somehow out of direct action Laughing)
-
//No it went with them, I went to a from in 3 posts! Nothing wrong about that!//
"Cowardly bastard!" Duilin says about Scorch "Okay, so, Asian fighter dude and Hot elf girl, who are you two?" Duilin asks
-
Nevina blushes a bit at being called 'hot' and says, "I do believe I already introduced myself, as has Shin.."
"Anyways, why are we sitting around here? That tree is going to ignite the whole forest.."
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Seth came out from behind the stalagmite and kneeled down onto the cavern floor. He stared at the ground and stuck his left hand out from his side, and pointed his other at the burning tree. A blue aura swirled around his left hand and on his right hand a ball of water formed, as though gravity did not exist. Seth commanded the ball and sent it hurtling at the tree, dosing the fire for the most part.
-
//Isn't the other guy Shin? Your charactor is Nevina!//
"Right...I must have missed that." Duilin says. He smiles abit when she blushes. He then looks over to Seth.
"Whoa, cool move dude!" He says "That was awsome....have an apple!" He tosses an apple form his backpak to Seth.
He then empties out the food onto a flat rock. "Eat, we might as well have some food since Zeros' and Draven are probally killing each other as we speak, frankly all I'm interested in is getting back the sword and finding the cave, we really should get back to that....If Zeros' dies then we will just have to find it ourself...maybe we can do that now?" Duilin says wile muching on a carrot
*the types of food he got were apples, carrots, peaches and turnips*
-
//Yes, but you asked about Shin and he had already introduced himself to everyone, then Nevina said that he's introduced himself already, and so has she//
Seth caught the apple Duilin threw and ate it in 2 parts, core and all.
"Blah.. what is this? It's good, but half of it tastes like a twig.." //Seth has never eaten anything but Rice, Potatoes and different forms of meat and soup, so Apples and most other fruits are new to him.//
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Nevina got a carrot from the pile and munched happily.
After she had swallowed she said, "Thanks Duilin." and continued eating.
-
"Your wellcome..." Duilin says.
He looks over at Seth "Ha ha! You don't eat entire thing, you eat it untill you get to the twigy stuff and then toss it away!" Duilin says finishing his carrot. "Now these things" He says picking up a peach "Are very juicey! A very good, you eat them hole, but not the big wooden thing inside" He tosses one to Seth and then grabs one for himself and then starts eating it. He then takes two more and then walks into the cave to were Quei and Zev are, he sees them sleeping.
//I accually eat apples whole but Duilin dosen't. Heck, I only like the green ones//
"Cute..." He then places the peaches beside them and walks over to were his old room was. He sits down on his bed and then takes of his backpak and then opens it up. He takes out an ether and then drinks it down and then places the vale on his small drawer. He then takes out a peice of folded paper, he didn't remember putting this inside, it must have been in there for ages.
Pophin found out were we hid the Talonscar's bronzed skull again, this time he took the damn thing away. He probally gave it to Veronika but I got no clue, let's just forget the damn thing, Nex. And yeah I'll make sure Draven that will think that Duilin is against us, but I really think you should do it since you bull shited him about thinking you liked him. But if this plan dosen't work, make sure you kill the kid allright. Pophin probally knows the whole plan because he's such a sneaky bastard, we should probally kill him to, even though Veronika would be pissed, we would just have to make sure Draven wouldn't find out that's all
General, Darion
"Holy crap! Nex wanted me dead this whole time...that bastard!" Duilin then ran over to Nex's grave and took out his mace and then smashed the grave stone.
"He then looks back at the note, Bronzed Skull.....that's right...my grandfather's bronze skull....I wouldn't mind finding that...But who the hell are Pophin and Veronkia? I hope there not super demi gods like Nex and Draven!" He then goes back to his bed and lies down and starts to think
//I'd add a flash back but I think I'll save space for the rest of you people Wink //
//Add you will find out about Pophin and Veronika in chapter 3//
-
Zeros' leaned back agianst a tree also, he folded his arms. He closed his eyes for a second and then his head turned and faced Draven.
"My name? Why do you ask? If you shall know, it is Zeros'. And the reason I fight, is so the two children I have sworn to protect can live in a place without war and fighting. They have already been through alot, I want them to grow up with a better childhood then mine...500 years ago, yes. I remember it, it is but a memory of my past locked away within the depth's of my mind."
He closed his eyes agian. He spoke, without opening his eyes. "I told you why I fight, now tell me why you fight." He paused for a moment. "Tell my why you and your soldiers want to control this conntinent, Draven."
-
Money and power were the two easiest lures of enlisting a new warrior. This one would be a bit more difficult... but not impossible.
"For protection... Hmm, yes... you would give your life for them, would you not?"
He shot a glance through the trees at the two children playing in the melting snow.
"But what if you didn't have to? What we seek here is the simple blade you've hidden... The Dark Empire ultimately seeks a united world of peace. Fighting is merely an unnecessary transitional phase... Those that resist must be exterminated. A shame, really... But it doesn't have to happen to you. You've proven yourself a competent warrior. It would be shameful to snuff out such skill, if not by me, then by others... What I'm saying is, join my side, Zeros'. I'm in need of competent commanders. Join us and the children will come to no harm, I swear it."
----
Iduran blinked in confusion at all the Haraldurs, but then nodded and followed the young man, studying his surroundings with interest.
-
After walking for a while, Haraldur stops at a pool. He kneels down and sips at water from his hands.
"Care to join me?"
-
Zeros' laughed. "A world of peace eh?" He put one of his hands on his sword. "A world of peace with mear humans as slaves I presume.." He stopped leaning agianst the tree. He put his hands to his side. "Well Draven." he started "Lets see if you are worthy of getting this land of 'peace.' I will be your next obsticle. There once was peace, a time when the Dark Empire ruled, it was a time of dispair, but when Romme came, the people saw hope."
He stood there, with his arms down, waiting for Draven to attack.
-
"How disappointing..."
Draven's posture remained unchanged.
"I'll cut you a shorter deal, then. Give me the blade and we won't kill you or the children. A simple exchange. Really, is all this violence worth it?"
----
Iduran stooped down and looked at his reflection in the water.
"Well, I suppose..."
He cupped his hands and dipped them into the cool water, but realizing he was quite durty from the previous day's battle, he began to wash them instead, afterwards splashing water on his face.
-
After Iduran had finished, Haraldur carried on walking, they were half way there now.
-
He reached behind his cloak with his right hand, he started to conjour another one of the fake blades behind his back. He pulled it out and stabbed it into the ground.
"There." He turned around and started to walk off, leaving the "blade" with Draven.
-
"What the hell are they doing?" - thought Scorch, who with his imperfect sight couldn't actually tell what people before the cave were doing, especially that smoke rising from burning forest began to blur his vision.
"Standing there, chatting..."
Draven must be somewhere else, he thought, as he began to scan area with eyes. Ah, crap, he has time, after all. It's better to use element of stealth than rush into yet another unwon battle...
-
Draven eyed Zeros' as he walked away. He stepped to the sword and pulled it out of the ground with his right hand, examining it. He had only seen the sword once before, and this one did indeed have a red gem in the handle, although it didn't shimmer quite as brilliantly as he remembered... but perhaps it was just the shadows of the forest.
"My thanks, o winged one..." He said, not looking backwards as Zeros' walked away.
An aura of flame appeared around Draven as he held the blade in front of his face, laughing to himself. It was much more trouble than expected, but it should be worth it... Draven shot up into the air above the tree line, in full view of those assembled in front of the cave, though his back was turned to them. After a second, he shot southward at full speed wrapped in fire, the assembled party, the cave, and Romme castle behind him.
----
(Just because it takes a number of posts to get somewhere doesn't have to mean it has to be boring. Heh...)
Iduran followed the boy down the path as thicker and thicker vegetation appeared on the sides of the road. The plants were foreign to Iduran and he looked from side to side with interest at long tentacle-like vines and spade-shaped leaves as he walked. As the two progressed, the vegetation grew higher over their heads as well, almost blocking out the sun. The boy continued on, obviously comfortable in this area he knew well. But Iduran slowed his pace a little as his interest turned to unease... His eyes shifted back and forth. Were... the plants... moving...?
-
A huge tentacle whipped out and nearly hit Haraldur, who then ducked.
"Get down! Do not let them touch you!"
He sliced off the tentacle with his sword. He muttered something and the plant which attacked him and some others in the area started to glow.
"Oh, shit!"
He crawled forward and to the left, where he saw the stem of a glowing plant. The plants could only sense things at about head height, so he was quite safe. He brought his sword around and the stem was severed, and the plant let out a wail as it died.
He did the same to the 6 other plants nearest to him.
21 left: 7 stems severed.
-
//Heh, looks like a started a new NPC Battleing System! I bet alot more of these will be going on...Hmm...//
Duilin then exited the cave and then looked around abit "So, is Zeros' and/or Draven back yet?" He asks.
-
"To all storms!" - Scorch loudly said to himself. - "That demon gave Draven the blade. I knew it. Traitor. I knew it! He couldn't be trusted! Just to save life of some pathetic children... nooo..."
For a while, he considered going after Draven...
"No." - Scorch got back to his senses. - "He has the blade. He is too powerful. Propably he knows the power of this weapon... yes, Cheetah, we'll have to get it by means other than combat."
He looked around the forest, sure no one notices him.
"But now, let's just sit here and watch the action, shall we?"
-
Seth strode over to the pile of food and picked up a peach.
"..Fuzzy.. I think it's growing a 'stache, heh.." Seth thought to himself.
Nevertheless, He took a bite and apparently liked it, as he continued to devour it.
Seth got tired after eating and slumped down on a wall, ignoring the fact that it was drenched in blood.
Seth got into meditation position and went into trance. (Elves trance for 4 hours, instead of sleeping for 8 hours like humans)
~Seth CAN be awakened, but it'll take a good deal of noise to do so~
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Nevina remembered how tired she was after seeing Seth go into trance.
Nevina headed outside to trance, seeing as the cavern was full of men, some of them perverted, and the fact that the place was drenched in blood didn't exactly make her want to sleep in there to begin with.
Nevina found a tree outside and climbed up it.
About 6 feet from the ground She found a nice, stable branch to sit on. She layed her back against the tree for support, and went into trance as well.
~Nevina also can be awakened, but it won't take too much noise because she's a light sleeper. She could also be awakened by shaking her tree and making her fall out but, doing so would most likely anger her~
-
He sensed Scorch's anger. He knew he was close by. He said something to Scorch through telekensis (he picks up there mental frequency waves and transfers them into sound, thus allowing his feelings into words). "You really think I would give him the blade? That was one of my fakes. Draven will find out soon enough. I want you to get everyone else out of here, even my children."
He continuted to walk back to the cave.
-
"Hmmm...." Duilin then, just looked around inside the cave. "Damn, this place is a mess..." Duilin then walked into Iduran's room. He sees the man in the robe, he was awake now, rubbing his head.
"Hey, were did Iduran go?" Duilin asks
"Not sure, he hit me and then, he was gone...I hope he's okay..." He replies
Duilin then just turns around allready bored with the man. This one man with one tooth and an eye patch looks at him
"MY NAME'S SKIPPY!!" The man says in a booming voice
"Umm....Hi..." Duilin continues walking
"Will you be my friend?" The man asks
"Ummm....no..." He replys and continues walking.
He spots the main with the broken arm, he nods at him and the man nods back.
Duilin just continues to walk around the cave, thinking of things, thinking of his past...
-=-=-=-=FLASHBACK=-=-=-=-
"You stupid, ugly, worthless, magget!" Darion yells at him, Duilin is doing push ups and Darion is standing beside him yelling at him, there is a bunch of crates being carried from a boat, Duilin droped one and it broke open smashing the suplies inside makeing Darion very angry.
"You think your strong? You think your though? Well your wrong! Your weak! Your weak as silk! Silk that comes from the butts of chineese worms!" Darion yells
"I'm sorry, Darion, It won't happen again, it was just WAY to heavy, maybe I could just carry the small boxes..." Duilin says
"The next boxes you will be carrining is a box full of pecies with your own ass in it!"
"What's is that supost mean?"
"It's means....YAARRG!" Darion then wacks Duilin and he falls down, Darion starts kicking him repeatedly, untill Duilin starts bleeding. Darion then picks up the poor guy and then carries him over to a small bunker and then tosses him in and closes the door and locks it. "YOU SUCK!" Darion then leaves
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"I still feal like my revenge is incomplete..." Duilin says to himself "I still hate that Darion freak.....He should die 5 more times, each time for one of my family members he killed! No, 5 hundered times, each time for how many people he killed!"
Duilin then shook his head rapidly and then blink a few times
"Neech...I'm going insane here..."
-
// Zeros, it's telepathy, not telekinezis. Telekinezis, as name implies, is moving objects from distance (like word kinetics in physics, it's from greek I believe) //
"What the...?" - Scorch suddenly heard Zeros' voice. - "Get out of my head! Fakes, all right..."
Then with whisper, he added:
"This demon is getting me really aggravated. I hate those telepathic freaks with their weird plans. We'll be in trouble when Draven identifies the blade as fake, he can't be that stupid."
Then, he noticed on some other tree trancing Nevina.
"Ah, did I mention I also hate elves and their inhuman behavior?"
Scorch didn't even notice as Cheetah behind him changed into human form and now hanged on a branch held with both hands. It seemed to be a very comfortable position for him.
"Almost everyone went into the cave. Shouldn't we follow them?"
"Shhh, you have no idea about stealth actions, spying, observation and how those things are important during war."
"You're right. I have no idea, but I guess sitting on a tree and looking at Draven flying in the sky, with the rest of people hidden in the cave, is not a brilliant tactic."
"We'll see what Draven will do..."
-
The point of red light that was Draven faded into the southern horizon as the sun began to set. Draven looked at the trees pass below as he sped across the sky. It was a tiring way of travel, but he should be able to make it to his small armada of ships shortly after nightfall. Of course, with most of his force annihilated they would be mostly empty, but that didn't matter. His mission was accomplished, or so he thought...
----
"What in blazes are they?!"
Iduran fell backwards as a vine went for his neck, instinctively slashing his broadsword sideways and cutting the tentacle at half length, which immediately shrunk back in pain. The severed piece fell to Iduran's right as he hit the ground himself, the green leaves turning to a dark brown and a pale yellow gas emanating from the vine as it decayed.
Iduran looked to his left and saw Haraldur taking down the vines from a crawling position and decided to try the same method on the other side of the path. The vines flipped overhead wildly as he crawled to the edge of the path and began hacking wildly at the shrubbery, slicing through both glowing malicious vines and innocent plants alike. After a minute, he managed to hack through 5 more tentacles.
(14 left, 13 severed)
-
"In the first war we had against the Dark Empire, they threw onto us a plague of these creatures. Most were destroyed, but, looking like plants, they easily hide. There are few left."
Crawling sideways over to another he snapped it's stem with his hands. He then severed the stems of four others.
9 left, 17 severed, one snapped stem
-
//Yeah...whatever it is...\\
He looked around the cave. He saw Nevina in the tree, Seth lying in the cave, Duilin eating and he saw Qeni and Zev sleeping in Iduran's abandoned bed.
He jumped up and started gliding beside Nevina.
He tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey there sleepy-head. Just thought you'd like to know I gave Draven a replica of Idurans blade...well and he'll be here soon. Just tell everyone else for me ok?" He paused. "Could you take Qeni and Zev with you? I want them to live, so they can see a peaceful world...like it was a few centuries ago."
He landed on the ground and leaned agianst the cave, he started to meditate.
-
"Everything is getting peaceful and quiet. Too quiet." - Scorch said. - "Cheetah, aren't you tired of hanging on that branch?"
"You bet I am."
"How about following Draven "
"How? You will fly with me and spy on him?"
"No, I'll fly ON you. I'm tired of traveling by air."
"No way!"
"Forget it. You're too weak. Head into the cave while I'll follow Draven."
---
Cheetah instantly turned into wyvern and flew toward the cave. He landed on the ground, ignored meditating Nevina and Zeros, turned into human form and got inside.
---
Scorch began to chant spells again. First it was haste, then a weak form of invisibility that made him look transparent. He couldn't cast full invisibility on himself while hasted, after years of mastering haste the spell was powerful enough to block most influence of further self-enchantments. The way magic worked and thousands of theories about this were confusing him, so he abandoned thinking on this subject.
He leaped into the air, elevated his position to be among tips of trees not to be so visible then began to fly after the small dot on the horizon... Draven's speed was unmatched, though, but propably he would be able to get where Draven wants to get.
Scorch had time to think for a while, "on the fly", literaly...
"What's south? A port. I visited it once already. Which gives me chance to get away from all this conflict, or to head after Draven... Or find some hideout and get some rest and think over my own plan for a while, 'what to do if Zeros' plan with fake blade screws everything up'..."
-
Shin sensed Draven leaving Romme and smiled to himself.
"Idiot."
He then approached the tree that Nevina was sleeping in, and leapt straight up to the branch right above hers, which coincidentally gave a pretty clear view of some of her...assets, heh. Without disturbing Nevina, Shin stared long and hard for a few moments, before his branch suddenly snapped, and he landed right on top of Nevina, feeling quite awkward...
Gyulim better not see this he thought...
------------------------
After a short trip across the seas, Gyulim arrived at Romme. After disembarking from the boat, she ran ahead of the soldiers and followed Shin's energy...but she was many miles away...
-
Zeros' herd the branch snap and was awakened from his meditation. "Idiot." he murmered under his breath. He walked outside the cave and found where Shin was on-top of Nevina. He simply jumped up and started floating. "Need a lift?"
-------------------------
(If he accepted help..)
-------------------------
He grabbed Shin by the back of his shirt and set him down on the ground.
Zeros' sat down on the ground with his leg crossed, leaning agianst the tree, going back into a state of light meditation.
-------------------------------
(If he did not accept help..)
-------------------------------
"Whatever..." he simply landed on the ground, sat down with his legs crossed, leaned agianst the tree and went back into a state of light meditation.
-
Draven glanced at the setting sun and deep red sky to his right. What a pain this whole ordeal was... He had never had this much trouble with any mission before... Luckily it was all over...
(Yeah, right...)
Now what to do when he arrives at the ships? Draven brought his army in three humongous warships, leaving 100 soldiers and crew in each and attacking with the rest. Probably would be best to wait for him there. Luckily he wouldn't have to explain the loss of his force, since he'll be so elated at acquiring the final weapon...
"Ugh... I hope he doesn't bring them along for the ride..."
----
"Blast it!"
Seeing that the number of vines was diminishing, Iduran stood up and slashed the two in front of him. But this motion caused the remaining seven to go straight for him. Two entangled his right leg and the rest his torso and arms, lifting him up off of the ground.
"Gah!!!"
He stuggled violently, but to no avail, until he conjured the only bit of magic he knew. Iduran's broadsword began to glow a pale blue, charged with ice energy. In his restricted motion, he managed to barely graze the vines grabbing his right arm, causing them to wince back in pain. With his right arm free, he began to spin the sword around wildly, freezing and severing the remaining tentacles after a few seconds. Iduran fell to the ground, out of breath.
-
Haraldur quickly shimmied accross the ground and killed the rest, and then went over to Iduran.
"You have been poisoned. It seems you will need to stay here for a little longer than you anticipated.
"I will not allow you to walk, as excercise will increase your heart rate and so speed up the distribution of the poison around the body. I am afraid I am going to carry you."
Haraldur got a grip on Iduran and stood up, holding Iduran.
"Be as still as possible," he said. He then started to walk the rest of the way to the city. He nodded to the guard as he entered the gate.
-
Shin grunted..."No...I don't need help. I like it here, for some reasons more than others, hehehe"
-----------------
Gyulim continued following Shin's energy signal. His signal was a little less pure than she remembered...
-
Zeros' stood up and walked over to Qeni and Zev. He picked them up and started gliding into the air. He waved. "Ill see you all later..I'll come back when the Dark Empire sturs things up agian." And with that, he flew off into the sunset, never to be seen agian. (Well...at least untill Chapter 3!)
-
(into the sunset, this should be direction Scorch and Draven are heading, again your super-fast speed allows you to avoid them)
(strange Sun rises south in Romme Wink)
-
Zeros' then remembered that towards the sunset was the way Draven and Scorch were heading. He stopped in mid-air and turned around and flew that way.
"Damn sense of direction..." he muttered under his breath.
-
Zeros' words sturred Nevina and caused her to go into a lighter trance. She was able to comprehend what Zeros' said.. to some extent. She heard "Draven... Sword replica... tell."
Because of the lighter trance she was in, Shins fall woke her up (she didn't open her eyes very quickly, It was enough time for Zeros' to talk to Shin.) Nevina opened her eyes about the time Shin said, "No...I don't need help. I like it here, for some reasons more than others, hehehe"
Nevina saw Shin was on top of her and said, "You climbed this tree just to get on top of me? Wow, I feel special." Nevina tried to suppress a slightly excited look on her face.
Nevina then attempted to slide out from under Shin.
-
"Howdy, folks." - said Cheetah, noticing the overall aura of doing-nothing, as if no one cared that propably Draven will get mad soon noiticing the sword is false and get's back to kill them all.
Seeing no one cares, Cheetah found his old place of rest and went to sleep.
-----
Scorch silently hovered among the trees (imagine him flying like these levitating motor-like speeders from "Empire strikes back", something like this), hoping to get to the get to the base and imperial fleet as fast as possible... without Draven knowing he's been followed.
(Xorlak, if you'll be ending chapter 2 with Draven arriving at the ships, you can assume Scorch got there and is hiding somewhere spying (behind some crates or something), so that he won't start chapter 2 flying above the forest Wink)
-
(Details, Cesque, details... Draven, who is heading south, looked to his right to see the setting sun, which would be west. Heh...)
(Chapter 2 ends around this time tomarrow.)
----
As the last rays of the sun left the WESTERN sky, Draven could see the lights of his warships docked just off of the shore straight ahead. This southern shore of Romme was rocky, so the ships were anchored a few hundred yards from the land. He passed over the many small landing boats that were on the shore (along with a few dark soldiers in a small camp) and landed on the deck of the middle ship, which was illuminated by torches like the rest. A lieutenant appeared and saluted him.
"L... lord Draven! Are you... alone?"
"The deed is done. Prepare for the Emperor's arrival."
"Y-yes sir! And what about Commanders Kail, Darion, and Nex?"
"They won't be joining us."
Draven flipped his cape and turned to walk towards the door that lead below deck, still brandishing his prize in his right hand, but paused for a moment.
"If you wish to send a party northwards to tell any remaining soldiers to return to the ships, you may. But I doubt you will have much luck..."
----
Iduran began to sit up.
"Are you sure? Actually I... feel... quite... all... riiiighhht......"
With that, the old soldier became dizzy and fell unconscious, becoming limp in Haruldur's arms.
-
Haraldur strode quickly to a large turf building and lay Iduran on a bed near the entrance. He then walked over to a man in a white tunic and told him what had happened. The man then went over to Iduran and put a cup next to him. The man then layed his hands on Iduran and closed his eyes. The cup very slowly started to fill with a purple liquid.
Haraldur sat down on a chair next to the bed and went to sleep, knowing that this procedure would take hours to complete.
//I am now done with Chapter 2, and so is Iduran//
-
Scorch left the forest and landed on the beach. Hiding behind one of rocks, he noticed completely preppared fleet of Dark Empire.
"Maw of the beast." - he thought, then he noticed Draven talking to some lieutenant. He couldn't exactly hear what they spoke about, though. But it wasn't looking good.
"Oh great. Guess I'll stay here and wait to see what happens..."
(all right... end for Scorch and Cheetah)
-
Zeros' set down on a small island away from everyone elses going-on's. He looked around and found the island had plenty of trees, so there was alot of shade around.
He say under a tree and set Qeni and Zev down beside him. He leaned agianst the tree and put Qeni and Zev under a sleep spell. He closed his eyes and went into a deep, meditative sleep.
//End Zeros', Qeni and Zev.\\
-
Duilin got abit tired and then headed into his room.
"It's abit messy, but, I'll manage"
He pushes a dead body off of his bed and then lies down on it, he tosses his weapon's aside and then goes to sleep
//Duilin has sleept in alot worrse places him being an ex dark empire servent/soilder//
(End for Duilin of Chapter 2)
-
Nevina got out from under Shin and jumped from branch to branch, higher into her tree.
She looked at Shin with a silly 'don't follow me' expression. She then sat on her new found branch and went back into her trance, now 14 feet from the ground.
(Nevinas chapter 2 stopping place)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Seth did not stur, though he began to levitate about a foot from the ground while still in a deep trance. (He may only levitate during trance, and during then it really doesn't benefit him. This is just another way I go about making Seth a balanced character.)
(Seths chapter 2 stopping place)
-
Draven pushed the door open to his cabin, which was completely void of light. With a wave of the hand, all the candles in the room ignited, revealing candle holders of gold and an ornate bed. He walked over to the table and laid the sword across it, sitting in the chair next to it and folding his arms. The gem glimmered in the orange light of the flames, but still, it seemed dull and cloudy... What could this mean...?
----
Meanwhile...
In a darkened room...
Two shadows stood before a third...
The first was a woman's voice, stern and authoritive.
"My lord, they say we will arrive tomarrow morning."
The second was a man's, somehow both brutish and refined, with almost a British accent.
"I'll bet he screwed it up..."
The third was also a man's, though much deeper, and the very sound of it cut through the soul...
"He has said he has obtained it. That is all that is necessary to believe."
The woman again, to the second.
"Must you be so critical of our comrade?"
"He is not one of us. Humans inherently are failures..."
A flip of the cape, and the sound of heavy armor leaving the room.
Thus ended the second day of the Dark Empire's assault on Romme.
To be continued...
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 3</span>
Draven leaned on the sword stuck in to the floor planks of the deck of his ship. The rising sun painted the eastern sky a crimson red, but Draven?s gaze was fixed to the northwest. The air was heavy. The time had come?
Draven?s feet lifted above the deck and he floated over the edge, slowly advancing over the water toward the shore as he held the blade pointing downward in his right hand. After a moment, he set foot on the rocky southern shore of Romme once again. It was a short stroll up the sandy hill before him. Once he got to the top, he saw exactly what he expected to see? dark clouds circling a black object just above the sea in the northwestern horizon (Since he docked his ships in the southwestern ?corner? of the island, where the southern and western shores meet, the sea to the west was visible at this hill). He was nearly here?
The Emperor?s ship was a massive, unholy vessel, some 10 times larger than one of Draven?s warships. Rather than float in the water, it actually hovered some hundred feet above, surrounded by a thick gray mist like a ghost ship, although it could not travel over land. The dark sides were covered with alternating rows of cannons and grotesque statues of demons by the hundreds. The gray sails that were attached to the pointy shafts that shot up seemed too small to propel the ship. But the most defining characteristic was the touches. Hundreds of them lined the sides, the deck, the poles? giving the ship a fait red glow in the fog from a distance.
Due to its vastness and slow speed, the ship looked closer than it actually was, and it would still be awhile before it arrived at the island?
But Draven?s attention was immediately caught by something much closer in the sea before him? A small transport boat approached with two figures plainly visible? one as dark as a shadow and the other?s armor shimmering a bright blue?
?Wonderful? he brought them along for the ride??
Draven leapt off the dune to the rocky beach below. The boat landed in front of him and the two figures leapt off in the same fashion, standing side-by-side before Draven, crossing their arms. Draven gave the woman on the left a faint nod, almost respectfully.
Draven: ?Neptra??
He didn?t do the same for the tall man on the right, instead merely glancing at him without moving his head.
Draven: ?? Jayce? what brings you two here???
A faint breeze blew, and Neptra moved a strand of hair away from her face.
Neptra: ?Our Lord wishes to know if you have the sword??
Smirking, Draven flipped the blade up, slashing the air inches away from the two new arrivals? chests, yet they did not flinch.
Draven: ?Right here.?
The tall general in black armor raised an eyebrow at the sword in front of him.
Jayce: ?Let me see it.?
Draven rested the blade on his right shoulder.
Draven: ?I think not! I?ll be presenting the sword to our emperor personally??
Jayce: ?I don?t think you want to do that??
Draven: ?What?s that supposed to mean??
Jayce responded only by extending his right hand expectantly. Draven studied the man?s face for a moment, but then handed over the sword-- blade first. Jayce grabbed the blade and swung the sword around, catching the handle with his left hand before inspecting it.
Jayce: ?Hmph??
With that, he struck the large rock to his left with the sword, shattering it to pieces, before throwing the broken handle down at Draven?s feet.
Draven: ?Wha-- ? You IDIOT! What in blazes did you do that for?!?
Jayce: ?The real sword is unbreakable. You?ve been tricked, you pathetic little man??
Neptra, who had thought for a second the real sword had been destroyed, covered her mouth and began to giggle. After a second, Jayce joined in with his insidious laugh. Draven stood there speechless, eyes wide, looking at the shattered bits of metal on the ground, while the laugher of the two generals rang in his ears.
Jayce: ?I?ve managed to obtain three of the weapons, Neptra has obtained two. Yet you? you have yet to retrieve just one??
Draven clenched his fists; he could take no more. The uncontrollable rage of fire within him burst through.
Draven: ?ENOUGH!?
Dropping his fists to his sides, a blast of fire surged from his body in all directions, catching his two rival generals in the full fury of the blast due to their proximity. Neptra took a step backwards, covering her face, but Jayce did not flinch. After the initial explosion, Draven, wrapped in an aura of flame, pointed his finger up at the tall Jayce?s face.
Draven: ?You know very well it took me weeks to find this wretched little island! And you stay out of this! I will retrieve the blade soon enough!?
Jayce emitted an aura of his own-- a force rather-- yet it was invisible to the eye. It was so quick and so violent that both Draven and Neptra lost their balance, taking steps backwards to regain it. After that, it was gone. Arms crossed, Jayce glanced at the dark ship approaching behind him.
Jayce: ?Don?t you have a job to do??
Draven traded his pointed finger for a clenched fist, beginning to levitate off of the ground until his head was even with the taller man, about to hurl a spew of insults. But remembering his time was almost up, he turned around, rocketing towards the northern horizon like a red comet. Images of the group gathered in front of the cave flashed through his mind? laughing, joking, making snowballs? but most of all, Zeros? confident smile as he gave him the fake sword?
Draven: ?You wretched little INSECTS! I?m gonna KILL YOU ALL!?
His voice boomed across the island as he sped northward, flames from his aura licking the treetops.
Jayce and Neptra watched the red star fade into the distance.
Neptra: ?Really, you two must learn to converse less violently??
Jayce ignored her, now levitating a few inches above the ground himself.
Neptra: ?Now what are you doing??
His eyes remained fixed on Draven in the distance.
Jayce: ?Retrieving the sword. Notify my father of? our friend?s failure??
With that, he sped off though the air in pursuit, his black cape outstretched. He disappeared into the horizon quickly, since he gave out no light as he flew.
Neptra returned to the boat. With a motion of her slender right hand, the waves changed direction, propelling her towards the humongous black ship out at sea?
-
"Damn." - Scorch told himself. - "The false blade has been detected, and yet instead of Draven getting into trouble, we have only more forces here in Romme including the Emperor himself, propably..."
Suddenly, he noticed Jayce heading away from the shore, levitating.
"Damn... not him, too!"
-----
Cheetah was sleeping.
-
Shin jerked awake suddenly, sensing the emporer's aura. This was his time.
He jumped to the branch where Nevina was resting and uttered "be safe" under his breath, then jumped down to the base of the tree. He then walked through a few yards of tall grass, then entering the forest while exiting a commoner's plain view...
-----------------------
Sigilus washed up on shore to the exact spot where Gyulim had decided to rest the night before. Gyulim stood up, and tended to the poor boy's injuries. He awoke...
Sigilus: "*groan* Where am I?"
Gyulim: "Somewhere called "Romme""
Sigilus: "Is...Draven still here?"
Gyulim: "Who? I'm sorry, but I'm unfamiliar with that name."
Sigilus: "Wait...who are you?"
Gyulim: "My name is Gyulim; I came to Romme to find my love, Shin Yong Tsing. He and I are from Aritan."
Sigilus: "Great....hey, could you help me out?"
He then gestured toward his clothes.
Gyulim: "Yeah, I guess. The ship isn't too far. Let's get you on board and check the supplies."
Gyulim and Sigilus stood, and walked along the sandy shores of Aritan, stopping once behind a rock when Sigilus took a bad pinch from a crab.
-
Duilin eyes open and then he jerks up and swings his combat knive out wile he sits up in bed.
"Oh...." Duilin closes his eyes and then puts his knive away and then steps off the bed. He grabs his gear and then heads outside of the cave humming some gloomy tune
-=-=-=-=-=-
Meanwile on the emporer's ship, two high ranked officers were inside one of the cabbins of the boat, one a short, skinny man, and another an evil but atracive looking women.
"Veronika, are we there yet? I'm getting bored...." Says the man to the women
"Almost, Pophin, almost..." Replys to women.
"Okay, it's just it's been takeing such a dreadfull long time." Says Pophin, looking at his reflection in his clean scimitar.
"Well just be patient, you have asked me that 4 times! And I don't even know if we are there or not, I've just been saying "almost" all this time. So just go to the damn front of the boat and figure out yourself!!" Veronika says annoyed
Pophin just gets up with out saying a word and leaves the room.
Veronika sighs and leans her head back, going into deep thought about battle plans and such.
-
Tsunan Nami was taking backward steps, gazing toward a tall tree in his... yard, one could say. He wanted to run up it. He took off sprinting toward the tree, and vertically turned his body so that his back faced the ground as he ran up the tree, getting 1... 2... 3... 4... 4 steps before falling back down, onto his back. He would get back up, and try again.
--- --- ---
Zion Ultima stood in front of the ruins of Romme. "Okay... I'm lost here."
--- --- ---
Xenai Omega sat in a high up tree, watching over Zion. Just waiting for the time to strike.
EDIT: Changed some wording.
EDIT 2: ...And fixed Zion and Xenai's intros.
-
/// EoN... Romme is destroyed, capital city lies in ashes, castle is destroyed and the soldiers are - mostly - dead. There are some southern villages, but they also aren't in best condition after last battle. ///
-
A hovering Figure holding a quarter staff as though it was supporting him, felt Dravens anger.
"What hissy fit is that silly mortal in now..?" The paleish blue man said with a tone of annoyance in his voice.
He began to glow and fazed out of his room and onto the ships deck, from which he began hovering over the ocean towards Romme, following his General.
________________________________________________________________________
Nevina and Seth are still tranced. Wake them up if you want them to join yeh.
-
Zeros' sensed Draven's aura flared up; he smirked. "Now I will have a fight on my hand." He nodded to himself. Zev awoke right before Zeros' came out of his trance. He rubbed his hand on Zev's head, ruffing up his hair. Zev was about to say something, but Zeros' simply put a finger on his lip.
"No Zev. Stay here; protect Qeni." He reached behind his cloak and started rummiging around. He pulled out a necklace with a blue gem attached to it; a sapphire, and handed it to him along with a small sword.
"Don't leave this spot unless you have to. Got it?" Zev gave a small nod, he knew it was best to listen to Zeros'.
He stood up and looked back towards Zev; he gave him a gentle smile before he took off and headed off towards the direction he sensed Draven's aura in.
----
(Decided to change Genma's clothing. He instead wore a white gi; basically a karate outfit and he had a white cloth over his right hand instead of a purple one. He still has his wooden staff though. He also has short white hair in the back of his head instead of being blad. His long beard still stays.)
Genma supported himself on the bow of the emperor's ship with his staff in his right hand and his left in a fist behind his back, looking out towards the island Draven was on.
"Why can't the two of them just calm down..Heh heh." Genma turned away and walked towards the cabin where Veronika and Pophin were. He opened the door right when Pophin was walking out.
"Well now Pophin, you should calm down and lose that temper of yours boy. It will get you in trouble someday. Heh heh..." He walked in and sits down besides Veronika.
"Another fight I see. What was it about this time? He should really calm down with that temper of his. Heh heh.." He asks the young female officer.
-
//Mkay... I really should read all of DAL one day. *Tweak, tweak on intros.*//
-
//I am back!//
Haraldur saw that Iduran was now fully healed. He shook him. "Wake up!"
-
Still blazing northward, Draven passed over the eastern side of the mountain in the center of the island. Just a ways north of here... or was it? The trees and valleys below all seemed to look the same.
"Blast it!"
----
Arms folded, the dark Jayce tailed the red star northward, his expression bored and uninterested.
"Best to watch him from a distance for a bit, I suppose..."
-
(Okay, Neptra, who headed back to the ship, is on the inactive character list. I'll bring ol' Iduran back...)
Iduran slowly opened his eyes. When the blurriness faded, he saw the concerned face of the young man who helped him yesterday.
"Huh? Oh yes..."
He sat up, running his hand through his hair.
"Hmmm... so, you have a ride back to Romme?"
-
"He just being a pest, all he has said was, "Are we almost there?". So I get mad at him and then tell him to see for himself. I don't worry to much about him, he's very sneaky so probally danger never finds him, so what brings you here?"
-=-=-=-=-
Pophin goes to the edge of the ship he stands there in silence for a few minutes and then he goes over to a near by table and takes out a sheats of paper and reads it over. It's a list showing the commanders and lutenauts of Draven's army.
"Probally half of these buggers are dead allready..." He scans more untill he notices a fimular name "Duilin Talonscar? So that's were the bastard ended up. That jerk allways bullied me! I hope he's still alive so I can kill the fool!"
-=-=-=-=-=-
"Hmmm...." Duilin thinks for abit wile looking at Seth, he then jumps right in front of him and yells "HOO HAH!!!"
-
"I have my own ship, and my own crew at my command. We can leave whenever you wish to."
//Xorlak, I am sure, for the interest of the plot, that the Dungeon Master (you) should be able to control as many characters as deemed necessary.//
-
((well,gotta start sometime,so here goes lol))
Lia waited as her boat drifted through the water,takeing her up to a small Isle with a little boy and a sleeping girl.(lol)Lia got out of the her tiny boat and took a looked around.She saw the boy and watched him for a minute,waiting for him to move.
((lol lets adopt children!!! LOL j/k...))
-
Seth jumped up from Duilins loud cry and drew his Falchon in a split second, his eyes still closed. He opened his eyes and saw he had his Falchon point 2 milimeters from Duilins chin.
Seth drooped his arm down, still clutching the Falchon, to his side. He apologized to Duilin, then asked, "Where we goin'?"
_________________________________________________________________________
Tsar picked up speed (which is quite fast consitering he was hovering foward at about 24 mph), as to catch up with Draven.
".......Sir......?" He asked Draven in a slightly sarcastic tone, despised that he must address Draven as such.
_________________________________________________________________________
Nevina is still tranced in her tree.
-
"Oh nothing much really..The emperor wanted me to handle some 'things'. Poor Draven...heh heh." He started to chuckle and then calmed down a bit. He stood up and waved back to Veronika. "Well I best be going, no telling what Pophin will do now...heh heh." He was laughing as he went out the door.
He walked behind Pophin and tapped him on the shoulder. "Howdy youngster. Why did the emperor call on you? I think we have enough generals here as it is...heh heh."
----
Zeros' started laughing in the air while he sensed that Draven was confused. He started flying agian towards Draven; he felt a farmiliar aura in the air, he couldn't put his finger on it though...
Meanwhile...
Zev looked over towards where Lia was and waved; he had a feeling that she wasn't evil like those men.
-
Pophin looked up Genma and blinked abit a few seconds later he spoke "I'm, a spy, I sneak around behind enemy lines and eavesdrop on there conversation and gather info and steal usefull items. The Emporer says I move like a ghost. I supose he means I make no sound when I walk. So Genma, why did the emporer want YOU here?!"
-=-=-=-
"No problom, buddy. It's just you should probally get up now because we need to protect the cave and make sure Nevina and the others don't get hurt. I also I have to tell you about the strange dream I had!" Duilin says to Seth
-
"Who me? No reason really, Im just here to watch over you youngsters to make sure you all don't mess anything up, heh heh." Genma started laughing agian.
-
Pophin sighed and shook his head at Genma and then continued looking at the list of Draven's army. He noticed two more fimiluar ones, Nex and Darion.
"Hmm....Genma, did you that Nex went to work for Draven? Wasn't he one the emporer's elite guard?" He asked him, showing him the list.
-
Shin Yong Tsing hiked tirelessly through the woods still, sensing out Draven's aura. He was a pretty long distance away, so Shin decied to enjoy his little walk while he could. As the sun continued to beam down through the greenish gold treetops, Shin began to sweat and grow nervous. He wasn't the only person in the woods, as he had just heard a twig crack behind him. Sure enough, when he looked, there was a Kobold glaring straight at him. This slimy lizard-man was green in color; a slight variation from the blue kobolds native to Aritan. Shin groaned something about it being a waste of his time, and he forged his ice sword.
"Let's turn down the heat!"
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;
Sigilus and Gyulim finally arrived at the Aritan vessel after Sigilus's little crab incident. After a minute of whining, Sigilus was able to treat his own wound.
Gyulim took Sigilus to her cabin on the vessel, despite rude looks from the crew, as if they suspected him to pull something. The Aritan girl dug through her spare outfit reserves. Thankfully there was a perfect silk combat tunic that fit Sigilus perfectly. The best part was that it wasn't girly. The only problem was that it didn't match his hair...
Gyulim didn't wait for Sigilus's permission; she created blue hair dye with some of her supplies, and forced Sigilus's head into the bowl so as to get all of his hair fully covered by the metallic blue liquid.
-
Genma took the list from Pophin and looked at it, sure enough Nex and Darion's names were there in black ink. "Ahh Nex...I remember that imprudent young daemon..." He searched around for his aura, knowing he should be around the island, but he couldn't find him.
"Hmm thats strange...Nex's aura is gone from this region..." He remembered it was here yesterday. Genma handed the list back to Pophin and turned around. He let out a heavy sigh. He looked over his shoulder to Pophin. "You know...Nex is dead now? His aura disappeared from this region yesterday all the sudden. Didn't you feel it?" He said with a look on his face.
-
Seth said, "Tell me about the dream in a minute, that girl should wake up now. I sense a disturbance not far from here..."
Seth got a running start, bounded down, and lunged upwards landing 1 branch above Nevinas in one bound. He shook her, and she sturred.
"Wake up, it's been 6 hours.. over trancing isn't good for yeh."
Nevina picked up her head and looked about. She then Jumped down from her tree and wondered off to a stream near by.
Seth jumped down and came to Duilin. "What were you wanting to tell me?"
-
Lia smiled and came over,stumbleing a bit from hunger."Hi!"She said as she leaned over to take a better look at him."Your a handsome one! What are you doing out here?"Lia asked as she gave another smile.
-
(errr... so much posts... maybe Xorlak should return rule "2 posts per day" to avoid overall confusion now so many folks joined the RP...)
Scorch sat before the rock and went to sleep Razz (he didn't sleep for long, oh well)
Propably sleeping near enemy terroritory (the fleet) wasn't a best idea, but he was damn tired.
---
Cheetah was already sleeping, and he usually sleeps hard as rock. (wake him up if something happens)
-
Draven stopped, moving to an upright position in the air, looking over his right shoulder. Tsar, the commander he left in charge of the ships, had caught up with him and was approaching from below. He was about to shoo him away in his irritation and rage, but calmed down a bit and realized some backup might be useful.
Still on fire, Draven folded his arms.
"There's winged man with a sword I want."
He held a clenched fist in front of his face, which glowed a bit brighter than the aura surrounding the rest of his body.
"We're going to find the blade, then kill him and his six or so companions. Sound good?"
Another explosion of the aura, and he continued flying northward.
----
Jayce watched as another joined the one he was pursuing. One of Draven's officers, no doubt. He sighed and looked at the trees pass below him. If Draven didn't find whatever he was looking for soon...
----
As Haruldur spoke Iduran stood up, adjusting his metal gauntlet and affixing the broadsword to his back (since all RPG warriors who know what they're doing sleep in full body armor).
"Excellent. Lead the way."
-
"He's dead? Interesting..." Pophin didn't seem to worried that his enemies were able to defeat such a warrior "Well, I'm probally sure there is an honest explanation why you can't sence him, or maybe he could be dead, but who or what could possibly kill him?"
Veronika then got abit bored and then went out side to wear Pophin Genma were.
"Pophin are you still reading that stupid list! Nobody in Draven's army knows you!" She swipes the list away from him and crumples it up into a ball and then throws it on the floor
"I found three who I knew, Duilin, Nex and Darion." Pophin says to her
"Okay WHO is Duilin? Why would Nex be in Draven's army. And...I understand why Darion would go with him, he was allways a suck up."
"Duilin was Darion's slave, who accually became a Lutenaut because of his skill."
"Oh yes now I remember him...Nex was going to kill him wasn't he?"
"Yes...." Pophin then got up to the edge of the boat and looked at the island
//Xorlak is the boat allmost there??//
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Well, in my dream, there was this HUGE hovering boat comeing toward here, with extremely though warriors, they came and killed us all. But the thing was I was with the Dark Empire fighting against you guys, and nobody seemed to notice...I hope it dosen't mean anything...." Duilin says to Seth
-
Haraldur led Iduran out and to the docks. They entered a ship with crew. Haraldur cast a haste spell so that the journey would be as fast as possible.
-
"Hmm.. Perhaps there is some truth to that dream.. I'm getting an odd malphoria.. something is approaching. As far as you fighting with the Empire.. nah.. I think thay's merely an illusion.. At least.. I hope.." Seth spoke.
_________________________________________________________________________
"Hmm.. That's a poorly formed plan Draven.. but Killing sounds fun.. My blood thirst needs quenching.. ... Purple Skies, Black Mists.. yes, yesssss..... Ascend.." Tsar said, his eyes going blank near the end.
_________________________________________________________________________
Nevina reached a calm little brook and looked at her reflection. She fixed her hair a bit, as it was quite askew after the previous day. She splashed water onto her face to help bring herself around, as she was still quite groggy. She then got down on her knees and brought her pink lips to the crystal clear water and took a drink.
-
Genma sighed and turned around to face his two companions. "You MAY be right, but you may be wrong." He said stroking his beard. "I know of a few people who could kill them, Dulin isn't one of them." He remembered back yesterday when he felt Nex's aura flaring with another one he could vaugley recognize...
"But trust me...Nex is either near death, or he is dead. You two may not be martial arts master's like me, but you can still sense hints of strong powers in the area, Draven being one of them."
----
Zev didn't know what to say. He knew she wasn't evil, but she didn't want to tell her about Zeros'. He thought for awhile, then finally spoke. "Well...my friend had to go take care of some things, so he left us here because he didn't want us to get hurt."
----
Zeros' sneezed right after Genma's comment. He looked around, but no one was there. "Man..is someone talking about me behind my back..." He decided it was better to get to Draven faster and get as much distance between Draven and his kids.
He layed down on his stomach in the air, spread his wings out as far as they could go, then pushed forwards with all his might, making him go much faster.
"Hes almost here..." He mumbled to himself.
-
Draven raised an eybrow at the officer behind him. Well, he always was an odd one...
A black object appeared on the horizon ahead. Draven slowed, moving to an upright position in the air. The approaching figure was definitely winged.
"Well, what do you know. Here comes our boy now..."
----
The misty air passed through Iduran's hair as the ship sped through the seas. He wasn't quite sure what to expect when he arrived back home... Did the warriors that helped him hold their ground? Could the fighting really be nearly over? Or was it just begining...
----
Neptra walked through the hallway in between the officers' cabins inside the Emperor's ship, announcing in a loud voice:
"All officers and warriors with business on the island of Romme as ordered by the Emperor may disembark via the transport ships. All others will remain on board until notified otherwise."
She turned the corner, heading towards the Emperor's chamber...
-
Haraldur sensed that there was a huge power in the area.
"I think we should proceed with extreme caution," he said.
The boats slowed down and stopped, and started drifting silently towards the shore.
-
//Bah... I have to re-post.//
Tsu plopped down onto the ground, taking a rest from his tree-running. He looked around, and noticed Xenai sitting in the tree. "Who's..." He then looked over to Zion. "...he?"
--- --- ---
Zion sat down in front of the destroyed city, wondering what to do next. He started to concentrate, and a huge, evil power caught his attention, causing him to jump up and spin around to face its direction. "Oh, man..."
--- --- ---
Xenai watched Zion's recent action, and looked in the direction he was facing. He felt around for someone, and what he felt nearly knocked him off of the tree. "I must meet this person..."
-
The Kobold lunged at Shin, his rusted sword slicing through the air. There wasn't even time to blink...Shin's sword had impaled the foul beast's heart. Slowly, the ice energy from the sword spread, and crystallized over the wretched being. Shin removed his sword, and dismissed it. Shin took a few steps, and then realized how bored he was. He looked at the Kobold and grinned. He spun and planted a perfect hook-kick at the crystal; it shattered. It's shards flew all over the place, several of which left engravings on the surrounding trees.
"Now that that's over with, I shall continue..."
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Sigilus allowed his hair to be dyed so that it matched his outfit better. After emerging with blue-ish hair, Gyulim began to chuckle.
"Oh, you're so cute" she teased.
Sigilus burst out laughing; something he hadn't done in the longest time. They gazed into each others' eyes, a look of longing within both of them. All of a sudden, Shin didn't matter to her anymore...only Sigilus. Sure, he was a little young, but it didn't matter. He was exactly the type of person her father wanted her to be with...she now saw why.
Still, Sigilus didn't distract her from her mission...she had to find Shin. He wasn't just her former lover, but he was the highest ranking general of Aritan. Her father would never forgive her if he was lost because she gave up hope. She looked at Sigilus.
"Forgive me, but we can't let things get out of hand...I'm searching for Shin Yong Tsing of Aritan. Will you help me?"
Sigilus nodded. The name Shin sounded familiar...
-
Zeros' spead as fast as he could. He stopped; he sensed Draven and another one, likely another Dark Empire officer. He flew forwards alittle then stopped agian and folded his arms.
"Well well Draven...we meet agian." He said with a seriousness in his voice, one no one has heard.
-
Lia smiled gain as her stomic growled."oh....you wouldn't happen to have any food with you...would you?"Lia said and sat under the tree,putting her staff and spellbook right next to her.
-
Zev shook his head. "Nope"
-
Lia sighed,"I guess I'll have to make some."she said as she picked up her book and started flipping through the pages...."I konw its here somewhere.... aha! here it is!"She said as she claped her hands and said something wierd as a table and a meal good enough for a king appierd."Want some?"Lia asked.
-
Tsar merely hissed at Zeros' (He is no longer in his stable mind set, as you may have noticed in the past post) then closed his eyes a began to gather Psi energy from his own being. The Psi was in a visible form, and gave the illusion of steel plates layering on top of each other, in an orb, surrounding Tsar.
_________________________________________________________________________
Seth headed for the same Stream Nevina had walked off to, as he was covered in dry blood from pervious days battles.
Nevina had Since left the stream and wondered back to the Cave, taking a different route than she had going there, so Seth never encountered her.
Seth came upon the stream and got some of the blood off of him, and cleaned his Falchon, then headed back to the cave.
-
"So..." He studied the outsider. "You live not from this place of existance, but from another. I know all about you Outsiders. You are summoned by a person who needs you." He put his hands to his sides and then balls of energy flew from his body, looking as if they appeared from nowhere (He used speed, which made them APPEAR as if they came out of thin air) towards the outsider.
He turned his attention back to Draven. He knew Draven wanted to kill him by himself and he wouldn't let the Outsider interfear.
"So Draven...just you and me. No help from him?" He pointed towards Tsar. "I know that isn't your style." He grinned.
----
Zev nodded. He went over to Qeni and started to shake her. She didn't wake up. He shook her harder still, but agian she didn't wake up. He shooker her harder yet agian and started yelling. "Qeni..Qeni...QENI! Wake up!"
-
"Who's Quni?"Lia asked as she turned to look at them both...."Are you....brother and sister?"Lia asked as she got up and walked over to them both,laying her hand on Quni as she assesed her.
-
Duilin then decieds to go back to the cave
"Damn this place is a mess, a bloody mess, litererately" Duilin says looking at the cave walls.
There was a small stream of water inside the cave, so he took his claymore and washed off the blood, followed by his mace and combat knive and the messy parts of his armor. He then washes his hands and face. "Now I'm all clean! Ready to bath in blood again!" He says with smirk. A near by soilder looks at him
"You want to bath in blood? That's not heathly my friend!" He says
Duilin then spits at the soilder's foot and then walks out of the cave.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Well that's us." Veronika says after Neptra leaves "Comeing dareling?" She says to Pophin. They walks off the ship along with the other warriors. A soilder near by them, carrieing a tent, is noticed by Veronika. "You!" She says pointing to him
"Yes? Me?" He says
"Yes you, and the person next to you come with me and we shall set up that tent! NOW!" She orders
The other soilders looks at the one with tent and smiles "Dhat's gotta be one of da first times a gal's asked me ta followa her!"
The four start to set up the tent near by a tree stump...
-
The balls of Zeros' energy merely fizzled as they touched Tsars Psi barrier, and the humanoid swished his red hair out of his eyes and glared harshly at Zeros' with his un-human eyes.
Tsar bounded down, as though he were trying to jump, even though he was floating, and he lunged into the sky at an alarming speed.
Once at his destination, about 110 feet above Draven and Zeros', and well out of their sight, Tsar began absorbing Psi from the Moon.
-
Genma sighed. He walked to the edge of the ship and jumped off, landing skillfully by where Veronika and her crew are setting up camp. "So...whats the plan now?" He asked Veronika.
While Genma was talking to Veronika, he was sending telepathy to someone. "So emperor...what do you wish me to do with these young ones?"
----
Zev looked at Lia and just nodded. "Yes...our friend Zeros'...he saved us from out burning village." He hoped she didn't know Zeros'. He is a demi-human/god.
-
Tsu started to run toward Zion, because he was the one who looked less threatening. But before he could reach him...
--- --- ---
Zion's expression became hard and serious, and he took off flying in the direction of Draven's energy.
--- --- ---
Xenai glared at his childhood friend. "You're not going anywhere, buddy." And he took off toward him.
-
Lia got a confused look on her face but it quickly went away as she looked at Quni."Does she always do this?"Lia asked as she kept her hand on Quni,looking at her with worried face.
-
Zev shook his head. "No...I don't know whats wrong..." Zev turned his expression back to Qeni.
-
Cheetah, woke up by sounds of someone washing blade in the cave, woke up and rushed toward Duilin.
"What is going on? Some new trouble, comrade?"
-
Duilin looks up at Cheetah and says "Well I did have this dream of a Giant boat comeing toward this area, and Seth thinks it might accually be true, it wouldn't be the first time one of my dreams have had a true meaning to it. Think we should go scout the area?"
-=-=-=-=-=-
"Well, Genma, I'm sending Pophin to scout the area himself and see what he can find. You do know how good of a spy he is? He's never bean caught..." Veronika says
Pophin not knowing that he was going to be sent out alone is abit surpized by what Veronika says, he says nothing about it however and just deciedes to go with it.
"I want him to go ALONE, he'll be much safer." She turns to Pophin "I want you gather as much information as possible, find something that will be usefull. Go now."
Pophin says nothing and then turns and walks off, his feat not makeing a sound as they touch the ground.
"So Genma, are you going to hang around here, or do something of your own?" She says
-
"Dreams often have great importance. I guess that's a good idea... ship? That would be we should head to the shores... Scorch and Draven previously were heading there or somewhere around, I guess... which means we might face some trouble, but what the hell, I'm in. Let's go." - answered Cheetah.
-
Tsu plopped down onto his butt and blinked. "Who were they?"
--- --- ---
After a moment of flying, Zion saw who had that power. The closer he got to him, the stronger it felt. Zion had no clue about any of this which was happening, but the guy seemed evil. And thus, it seemed as if he should at least make an effort to take him out. He flew in closer.
--- --- ---
Xenai looked over at the guy that Zion was flying toward, shook his head, and took off in the opposite direction. "One less maggot I'll have a problem with... Zion, my friend, you are an idiot."
-
//I see the dashey underline under your name, Xorlak... How slow do you type?!//
//EDIT: And then you decide NOT to reply... ¬_¬//
-
Lia nodded."I wish I knew how to help her..."She said as she sat there watching Quni.
-
Draven folded his arms, smirking as Tsar soared above the two.
"You are correct, half-demon, or whatever... Normally, I would prefer to tear you apart personally. However, considering the fast one you tried to pull on me last night, I'm not in the mood for fair games..."
He outstretched his arms, a crimson orb materializing in each hand...
"You know what I want. Give me the sword... the REAL one... You should do so quickly, since once my friend up there gets in one of his moods, he's quite uncontrollable... If you refuse, then we'll simply disembowel you... and move on to those two brats of yours..."
At that moment, another shadow arrived on the scene, appearing behind Draven. Draven kept his gaze upon Zeros', but spoke to the one behind him in a much darker tone...
"I thought I told you to stay out of this..."
Jayce assumed the floating crossed-arm position that Draven had a second ago.
"Heh heh heh... Do I make you nervous, Draven? Really, I'm just watching..."
Jayce's attention shifted to Zeros'.
"Hmmm... what is he? His face resembles a human's, yet he has wings like a demon..."
----
Iduran stood up, looking at the faint shadow of his island in the distance. Something was not quite right, as an eerie mist hung about the air...
"Hmmm... we're approaching from the west... If we follow the shore north a bit, we should find a small port town where we can dock the boat. We should be prepared, though, because there's a chance it might be occupied by the Dark Empire. I have no idea if it is though, since I haven't been there since the initial attack..."
----
The surroundings around Genma lost their color, and time seemed to stop as he received his reply:
"Their mission differs from yours. If you can accomplish yours by accompanying them, then so be it. If not, do not. Remember, I want you to assess Draven's loyalty to me... Do whatever you deem necessary... if need be, join his ranks as a commander, talk to his officers... just do it subtly..."
The effect faded and everything returned to normal.
-
//EDIT: And then you decide NOT to reply... ¬_¬//
(*Ahem* I'm on a modem, with call waiting... tend to get interrupted and cut off for long periods of time...)
-
The boats turned northwards.
"Something major seems to have changed since the last report we have had from here..."
-
Tsar began to slowly ascend higher, twirling, as he absorbed more Psi. His body began to surge from all the Psi, and he converted it into an outside form, a sphere, of a yellowish transparent color.
The ball swelled, getting larger by the moment. It as now 4 feet in diameter, and Tsar let go of the ball with his hands, though continuing to channel the Moons Psi from his being, into the sphere.
_________________________________________________________________________
Seth and Nevina were both outside the cave, and heard Duilin and Cheetah talking.
"Well.. let's go to the shore then." Nevina said.
Seth and Nevina both headed in that direction.
-
(*Ahem* I'm on a modem, with call waiting... tend to get interrupted and cut off for long periods of time...)
//Oh, okay. I get it. No issues, then.//
Tsu has nothing to do...
--- --- ---
Zion came up fast upon Draven's location. He noticed the energy he was charging up, and he began to charge up his own energy ball. "Hey, you!"
--- --- ---
Xenai was stuck between going off to help Draven kill Zion and just leaving him to do it himself. So he decided to watch from a distance.
-
Zeros' smirked. "So. 2 on 1 eh? Sounds fun." He pointed at Jayce "Unless he wants to join in."
Zeros' drew his favorite long katana, which was also his trademark.
He stood in a loose stance, waiting for them to attack. He used an attack called "Soul of Ice", this helped him keep calm in the most distressing of situations. It also had the added effect of keeping people from reading his movements.
He saw Zion and called out down to him. "No. Don't interfear. This is my battle."
----
Genma nodded as the effect of the emperor's telepathy wore off and he was released back into normal space.
"Sorry Veronika. I have to go do something. Been fun though. Hehehe."
He proceeded and pulled out a small cloak, which he liked to call "Cloak of Shadows". He wrapped it around himself and used the "Umi-Sen-Ken". A technique that uses a cloak to make the user disappear from normal space. This allows him to sneak around in the shadows without being detected, unless someone has very high martial arts training.
He speed through the forest, going towards Draven's location.
----
Qeni and Zev's body's started twisting as memories of the past few years rushed through there heads.
There mother and father dying, Zeros; resucing them. The destruction of Romme. The discovery of there powers by use of Nex. A memeory they will never forget is the kind smile of there savior.
The sounds of bones twisting and cracking filled the air around them. The ripping and tearing sensation also filled the air...A bright light filled the air around them and the childs bodies lay limp on the ground. Two figures towered over the childrens bodies.
//And so the plot thickens!\\
-
//Oh...I also forgot to mention that while using the "Soul of Ice", they have no facial emotions or any sound of emotions in there voice.\\
-
Lia covered her ears as she heard the bone crackleing and twisting was heard,she looked up intime to see the two figures(description?)."Whats Happening?!?!?"She asked as she tooked a few kicks backwards to her staff and grabed it.
//ow I hate that sound....and a desp of the figures please? or do they look like Quni and Zev like I think..//
-
Duilin looks at Nevina and Seth and says "So your comeing along to? Okay then...let's a go!"
==================
Veronika says just motions her hand as Genma leaves. "All the better, maybe now I can get some rest..." She looks over at the two soilders who have now finished seting up the tent. And then walks inside the tent. "I'm going to sleep watch guard and wake me when Pophin comes.
The soilders noded and then took there weapons out, both armed with those scarey dark empire spear like weapons.
==================
Pophin was sneaking around threw the tall, tall grass. He kept hikeing threw untill he say 4 warriors exiting a cave, two drows, two who appeared to be humen, one he reconized.
It is Duilin! He thought
He then turned away and continued looking around
-
//There wasn't a description there for a purpose...\\
Genma ran past where Pophin was and continued on, getting closer and closer to Draven with each passing moment...
----
The figures that stood over the two children were there real forms, reincarnated to seal away there powers.
The reincarnation of Qeni was glowing with a holy aura, angel wings sticking out of her back. Light pink hair covered her head and down to right above her butt. She was dressed in a white robe, from her shoulder, drapped down to her feet (a traditional robe, nothing special. Like a mage robe.)
The reincarnation of Zev was much different. He was also glowing white, but he was a wolf. He was about up to Qeni's waist, Qeni was about 5'4. All his hair was flowing, as if the wind was blowing gently and he was going agianst him, have the effect of his hair being blown the opposite direction he was facing.
-
"Hmmm...I think I saw something, I'll be right back..." Duilin say to the others as he walks off
======
Pophin then heard somebody near by, he sneak around and then saw Duilin wandering around.
He's here...What should I do? Run? No....this time, I have the upper hand, I can finally get my revenge! This is it....
Pophin then aimed his spear right at Duilin and tossed it right at him, the spear hit Duilin right on his side!
"AHHH!!! Guy's get over here now....help!" Duilin yells in pain, he gasps, he's hurt, bad. Pophin then walked over to Duilin, smileing
"Do you remember me?" He asked
Duilin noded at him and then yelled "GET OVER HERE GUYS! HELP ME!"
Pophin then got scared "More people?!" He picks up his spear and then runs off extremely quickly......
"Help.....me........" Duilin is lieing on the floor, a large cut is on him. "It dosen't look....to....fatal....I.....realy hope...it...isn't......" Duilin then pases out
//Okay guys, he's not dead, just put him in his room inside the cave because I might not be active for awile, Thanks//
-
Zion now floated directly behind Draven, with his palms pointed at him, his energy ball floating in front of them. I'm going to regret this, thought Zion. But he did it anyways. He fired the energy ball at Draven.
--- --- ---
Xenai cackled at Zion. "Ha ha ha... You're dead," he said quietly to himself. He floated from a distance and watched.
-
Seth ran, following the malphony of Duilins screams, Nevina not far behind him.
Seth stopped suddenly, and Nevina ran into his back.
"shhhh..." Seth said at Nevina.
Seth wasn't sure what was there, as he heard and saw nothing, but he could sense Duilin, though his signal was much weaker now.. he also sensed something even fainter, but he could not tell what it was. Seth pulled out his Falchon and standed guard.
Nevina copied Seths action, pulling out her Bastard Sword.
______________________________________________________________
Tsar cotinued his twirling ascention, not noticing anyone below him. The Moons energy continued to course through his viens and into his sphere.
The sphere became a darker yellow, and it lit up the sky a bit, making it nearly seem like a tiny sun.
The ball was getting much larger, now 21 feet in diameter, and still growing.
Tsar shrieked, and began channeling Psi faster, twirling faster. The ball continued to grow, this time at nearly double the speed..
-
"Zev..." The angelic figure said.
I know Qeni...we were finally released... The wolf said through telepathy.
The new Qeni bowed to Lia and the new Zev bowed his head. Qeni lifted herself up off the ground and Zev followed. They flew off towards the direction of Zeros'. The bodies of the young children now disappeared, there was no trace of them being there.
Zev we have to help Zeros'...or at least watch his back Qeni noted in her mind. (They have a telepathic link)
The wolf nodded. Yes...but were not strong enough to do anything to help him. Zev added.
Qeni already knew this. If anyone interuppted the fight, they could fend them off, but not be able to do any damage.
----
Genma stopped in place, still in Umi-Sen-Ken mode. He looked up and say the 4 warriors standing still. Tsar charging up Psi energy from the moon and Draven charging a fireball. Jayce say back and watched. Zeros' stood there with his katana at his side, wating for the to attack.
He leaned agianst a tree and waited for anyone of them to strike.
-
Lia watched for a second as there bodies dissapiered,she grabed her stuff and nearly jumped on her boat,useing the staff to push the boat as fast as she could to catch up with them."Wait!!! I have so many questions!!!!"Lia yelled as teh boat followed them...
//how fast are they moveing?//
-
Cheetah followed Seth and Nevina, unsure what's on Duilin's mind.
(slow down you folks with your humongous amounts of post Wink)
-
(Yes, please try and keep it to one or two posts per day. Thanks.)
----
Draven smirked.
"Calm and confident, huh? So be it."
He wrenched his hand back and threw the ball of fire straight at Zeros' head like a baseball. At that moment there was a flash of light directly behind him. Draven spun around, chopping his now free right hand downwards, sending Zion's energy ball hurdling downwards into a group of trees below where it exploded. Vexed, Draven held the second fireball in his left hand about at the level of his head, studying the teal-haired newcomer.
"Who in blazes are you?"
----
Jayce, who saw Draven about to be attacked from behind yet said nothing, began to chuckle.
"How positively entertaining!"
----
A pier emerged from the mist in the distance as the boat moved on.
"Reports?"
Iduran turned his attention forward.
"This should be it..."
-
"My name is Zion Ultima. I felt your energy from the destroyed Romme, and I figured you mighta had something to do with it. And here I saw you with a couple of fireballs, apparently about to assault these people, so I figured I'd step in."
--- --- ---
"You are such an idiotic goodie-two shoes." Xenai still watched from a distance.
-
The ship apporached the pier, and was tied to it. Haraldur led Iduran up onto the pier, and then the ship was untied and left. It seemed quiet enough.
"Would you care to lead the way?"
-
//Not that fast, they were just released so they don't have all there strenght back, but even then, they still couldn't fly that fast\\
Qeni sighed. She sensed that the battle had started already. Zev...
The wolf nodded to his companion. I know, but we still cant fly that fast. We should be there in about 30 minutes if were lucky.
Qeni nodded.
----
Genma started to chuckle to himself. It was amusing to see someone else attack Draven.
----
Zeros' sighed. "You Zion or whatever...I said stay out of my battles!"
Draven's ball of energy came flying right at Zeros', he knew Draven knows this won't kill him. Zeros' slashed his blade while he yelled "Yama-Sen-Ken!". A vacum blade appeared where he slashed, cutting Draven's fireball in half. He aimed it to where it would be cut in half and the pieces would fly at Tsar above him, and Zion below him.
//Also, if your familiar with Ranma 1/2, you may recognize some of the techniques I use, like the "Soul of Ice", "Yama-Sen-Ken" and the "Umi-Sen-Ken".\\
-
//How far away are you guys anyway?//
Zion dodged the piece that flew toward him. "Now hold on a second, I didn't get this piece of information. I didn't come all this way to be told to get lost."
--- --- ---
Xenai was rolling on the air laughing. "This is great..."
-
The fire ball, having traveled upwards 175 feet, had weakened profoundly. Once it reached Tsar, it went through his robes without even bothering the material, and it burned Tsars skin instead. But tsar took no notice of this, as he was transfixed on his current task.
The ball was now 96 feet in diameter, and Tsar, now being satisfie with the size, came to a sudden halt, though continued to ascend a bit before stopping completely.
He made a gesture with his hands, one similar to someone flatting dough. The sphere then began to flatten a bit. It was now 20 feet thick and about 162 feet in diameter. Tsar then raised his hands in the air made a slamming down motion. The very center of the psi figure was aimed at Zeros'.
Tsar didn't even think about the fact that there were others around Zeros' that he could harm. His soul intent was to kill zeros'.
-
//he I guess we were posting a little fast,I'll slowdown...//
Lia tried with her might to keep up,This boat was ready to flip over but for somereason it didn't,Lia was powering it with a continues fireball spell from the end of her staff,staying just behind the two kids...
//lol....//
-
//Sorry to break the post limit, but I gotta move my charrie!//
"Ack!" Zion looked up at the huge thingie being hurled down toward Zeros', and tried to get as far away as possible, as fast as he could.
-
Draven, who was only some 20 feet from Zeros', looked up at the humongous disk shaped mass of energy decending upon him.
"Maniac..."
He began to fly backwards to evade the impeding explosion, his red aura streaking in front of him. (He's flying in Zion's gerneral direction.)
"It's too slow; bird-man will surely dodge it..."
He had forgotten about the fireball in his left hand, and he now grapsed it with both hands in front of his chest, begining to pour more energy into it.
"Perfect distraction, though..."
----
Jayce, who wasn't too far off himself, began to float backwards slowly as well.
"That's gonna leave a mark..."
----
Iduran drew his sword-- just in case-- and began to walk down the the empty pier. The mist was beginning to lift, and the town buildings were more clear now. He looked around after stepping off of the dock. The town was undamaged.
"Good. They haven't been here... yet. There's no boats and the town seems deserted. It looks like the people fled, probably heard what happened to Romme Castle... I'm relieved."
He turned to Haraldur.
"We should see if we can find a store. Probably won't be anyone there, but we should pick up some things none-the-less. Some healing potions, perhaps..."
He turned around again. Something cought his eye in the eastern sky, some miles away... It was a bright white flattened sphere shaped object slowly decending towards the earth...
"My god... what are they up to now...?"
-
Zion was completely oblivious to the fact that Draven was charging up his fireball while he watched the disk thingie from a safe distance.
--- --- ---
Xenai, however, was not. "Ooh... Look out, buddy." He was still far away enough to where Zion couldn't hear him.
-
"Ha ha ha! This is great!" He stood his ground and waited for the ball to hit him, or so it appeared that way. Zeros' phased out and reappeared right below the ball, his sword glowing with his ki energy. He held out his blade and blocked the ball of psi energy with the flat of his blade.
His ki charged sword allowed him to block it, he used just enough to stop it. He charged more energy into his blade then grabbed it with his left hand. The massive amount of psi energy started to burn his hand, and it did. The flesh on his left hand started to peel off, but he managed to force it back to his attacker before it burned his hand to the bone.
Zeros' sheathed his sword then pulled his hands back and started charging up energy. He shot his hands out infront of him and swirled them around and shot out a ki blast at the ball, making it go faster.
Zeros' then turned to Draven, some 20ish feet away. He unsheathed his sword agian then phased out agian then back in, right infront of Draven.
"Know...shall we get this little show on the road?" He said, a smirk attached to his face.
----
Even from as far away as Qeni and Zev were, they could see the massive energy.
Dont worry Qeni, he'll do something... As if right on que, the ball flew back towards Tsar.
Qeni nodded. She was very relieved.
----
Genma sighed from his place. He knew Zeros' sensed him, but apparently he wasn't going to say anything about it.
"Well my old student, you have improved greatly...even after some 700 years." Genma started to laugh to himself.
-
Lia was just able to keep the staff where it was as she saw the masseve attack."Whoa..."She said as she watched it instead of Quni and Zev.
Lia went past them just a little...
-
"What is Draven normally up to? Let them have their fun, for now.
"You know the area, don't you? If you do, where is the commerical area? We might as well start looking where it is most obvious."
-
Tsar shrieked a bit at Zeros' move, but then ascended higher at a speed nearly equaling the Psi balls. He absorbed the energy back as he ascended, but he could hold but so much energy at once. After his body had taken in all i could, He released a mini psi ball, about 2-4 feet in diameter.
After a few minutes, he had refined nearly half the psi ball. He had around 10 spheres now. He warped back about 20 feet, then fled backwards, his spheres following him.
The disk missed him, but he could feel the heat on his face, as it only missed by a few feet.
Tsar grinned with Glee, as he spun his spheres around his body.
______________________________________________________________
What am I gonna do about Seth and Nevina? I need Dude Man to control Phophin..
-
Shin Yong Tsing continued exploring the forest in hopes of crossing paths with Draven. It seemed as though the Kobold he killed had dulled his senses. It didn't surprise him, however...monster fights are the worse in his opinion. After only 5 minutes of walking, he stepped into a snare trap. The worst part was that the one who set the trap sat nearby and was laughing his head off at Shin's stupidity.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Gyulim and Sigilus left the vessel and began exploring the island. While Gyulim was busy trying to sense Shin's signal, Sigilus was in the process of figuring out who this Shin was. It popped in just as Sigilus saw an ice shard lying on the ground; he was the one who hired Sigilus to kill Draven in the first place. Since Sigilus knew his senses were much more keen than Gyulim's, he began scoping the island for Shin's energy signal. He got a lock. It felt like Shin needed a little bit of help. But first...
Sigilus focused his mind, and Gyulim's top began to rip...
-
Its DM's mom...he can't get on Mondays-Thursdays
-
"Certainly."
Zeros' had carelessly phased right in front of Draven. With both hands, he thrust his fully charged fireball right into his opponent's chest and blasted it outward like a cannon.
Three more smaller crimson orbs materialized around Draven's body and began to rotate in a clockwise fasion.
----
Jayce scowled at the poor result of Tsar's attack.
"I'll give them five more minutes..."
----
Iduran began to walk down the empty street, but kept looking eastward. Whatever that light was, it was now heading upward.
He stopped at a shop with the familiar sign of a medicine bottle and began to knock at the door, which was locked.
"Anyone here?"
Nothing.
"I hate to do this..."
He jammed his sword into the lock, and the door creaked open. Stepping inside, he found the shelves to be mostly bare.
"Blast it."
After a closer inspection, he managed to find four small bottles of liquid in the back corner of a shelf behind the counter. Feeling guilty, he reached into his pouch and laid several gold coins down on the empty counter before emerging outside with the bottles.
"Better hang on to these." He handed Haraldur two of the bottles, one being a normal healing potion and the other a higher concentrated M-Potion. The other two, being the same two types, he placed into the small leather bag tied to his belt.
He looked east again.
"Hmmm... I suppose the best place to start would be that cave where your older friend teleported me away from... although it looks like we'll have to pass by whatever's going on over there..."
-
Haraldur deposited the potions into a small pack on his back.
Haraldur smiled a grim smile, and began to float gently upwards.
"Come up, you have the ability. We might as well see what we are trying to get past."
-
Gyulim noticed her top beginning to rip, and she glared at Sigilus, who had a dirty look in his eye. Her spurred feelings back on the vessel were gone, and Sigilus knew it...he took a mighty kick to the jewels for his actions...and was in tears.
-
Tsar began to laugh insanely, as he pulled his 10 psi balls to form a barrier covering his head, and he began to fly downwards, head first, heading towards Zeros'. He was going down at 74 mph, then, about 14 feet from Zeros', he warped 10 feet behind Zeros', knowing Zeros' would block a head on assult with ease.
Tsar continued to speed, going the 10 feet in mere seconds, but jumping away from the barrier a split second before it would supposedly hit Zeros'. He landed about 7 feet back, facing Zeros' back.
-
Zeros' took the blast full force, heading straight towards Tsar. Draven certianly knew this wouldn't kill him, then he saw Draven spinning 3 orbs.
He held his katana out infront of him waiting for the right moment...He flew towards Tsar position in a mear 2 seconds.
He made it look like he was still winded by the blast. Zeros' smirked. He was now about a few inches infront of Tsar, he thrust his katana behind him, waiting for him to lose his concentration or dodge the blow.
----
Genma smirked to himself. "That's m'boy...I taught him well." Genma looked over towards Jayce's position and noticed his scowl. "Well..." Genma floated up alittle then rushed towards Jayce's position, still in Umi-Sen-Ken. He reached Jayce's postion and settled there.
"Hello there Jayce...long time no talk eh?" Genma said still watching there battle. He removed alittle bit of the cloak, but just enough so Jayce could see his face.
----
Qeni and Zev stopped about a 100 feet from the battle. They decided to just watch, they both knew they wouldn't like them for interupting Zeros' battles, even if it was 2v1.
-
Zeros' thrust stabbed Tsar in the shoulder, and the bluish colored man began to bleed, though once again, his outfit made it look as though nothing happened. No entry point, no stain from blood. Zeros' wouldn't be able to tell Tsar was bleeding just by looking at him. Tsar showed no signs of pain, and took the hit with a smile. He knew he was hurt however, and better keep a distance, he shouldn't let Zeros' near him close enough to use his sword.
Tsar phased again, up ten feet, to insure that Zeros' didn't follow his thrust up with another blow. He then ascended upwards at a 70 degree angle, going away from Zeros'. He then thought t himself, 'How well can that Deamon fight without a blade..? Perhaps we'll see soon..'
-
Lia Tried to make a short as the two kids stoped by doing a 180 on her staff.But,she messed upHer staff landed in the up postition at the other side of the boat.The boat flipped as Lia let go of her staff,makeing the fire ball go away.Sending her twords the battle in the air....
-
The three orbs changed trajectories, now circling Draven in independent paths as electrons circle an atom. Moving towards Zeros', Draven extended both arms to his sides. A wall of flame began to form 100 feet to the left and right of him. Looking from above, the flames began to rotate in a counter-clockwise fashion, soon completely encircling the three fighters on the sides. The flame then began to move above and below them. In a few seconds, Draven, Tsar, and Zeros' would be locked in a hollow sphere of flame 100 feet in radius-- a death cage of sorts...
----
3 minutes...
Jayce lowered himself from the sky, landing on the branch of a large oak in the forest below, still keeping his gaze on the battle above.
"Genma? Yes. With all the noise you're making down there, I was wondering if you were trying to distract the fighters above..."
He glanced downward and smirked at the floating face, hoping to get some type of frown at his sarcasm.
"So why are you here. Business or... entertainment?"
He motioned his head towards the flashes in the sky.
----
Iduran looked up at Haraldur.
"Gah! NO! Not that again--"
He jumped back, expecting to be thrown up into the air, placing his hand on his head.
"Hah... er... I mean... if they're fighting in the air, perhaps it would be better to observe from the ground, you know..."
He began to fidget with his right gauntlet.
"It's not like I'm... er... afraid of heights or anything... no sir... not me... hah... because I would fly if I could, you know? But seeing that I don't know any levitation spells, we'll just have to walk... on the ground. Yes, on the nice solid ground... just like normal people... normal people... uh huh..."
-
"As you wish," said Haraldur, grinning in an almost sardonic fashoin for a moment, before realising his rudeness. "Do you wish us to merely avoid all that happens over there, or do you wish us to interfere?"
Haraldur lowered himself gently to the ground, and walked in the direction that Iduran had indicated earlier.
-
Tsar was simply baffled at Dravens move.
"heh.. and I'm the 'maniac'... Tsar said with spite.
He then consentrated on his new task-seperating Zeros' from his sword.
Tsar consentrated his entire mind on Zeros' sword. Seeing and comprehending every aspect of it. He became one with the sword. He then began to make the weapon move just as easily as he would his arm.. but Zeros' still had firm grasp of it..
-
Pophin has ran away and Duilin is hurt
Duilin opened his eyes and looked around, he thought he herd people comeing
"I'm hurt! Help...." Duilin groaned
-=-=-=-=-=-
Pophin stoped running. And went back to the camp. The two soilders looked at him and then one opened the tent to wake up Veronika. A slaping sound was herd and then the soilder walked out blushing. A few minutes later Veronika came out of the tent and looked at Pophin.
"I found something...." He said to her
"What!? Were!?" Veronika replied
"Come with me, it would be best you if you brought a weapon."
Veronika went in the tent and picked up her weapons and followed Pophin back to were Duilin was
-
Genma had a sort of smirk on his face. "Business my friend. Well at least YOUR smart enough to notice me. Draven is too concedied to notice anyone thats hidden...heh heh." He started to laugh.
----
Zeros' notice that Tsar was trying to remove his sword from his hand. He looked up towards the Outsider, knowing that blow wouldn't do near enough to do anyone in, maybe a small child, but otherwise no.
He turned his back and sheathed his sword, but still keeping his hand on it. He phased out then back in about 10 feet from Tsar, hand still on his sword. He spead towards the bluish outsider. He phased out about 10 feet from Tsar's positon then back in right behind them.
"Stay out of this."
He held his hand at the back of the outsider and forced a powerful blast of ki energy into his body, knowing he couldn't take much more because he knew sucking in all that Psi energy almost broke him to his limits.
----
Qeni and Zev sensed something off towards the direction of the cave.
We can't help Zeros' now, we might as well help Duilin and the others who are still there. Qeni nodded at her wolf companion. Zev noticed that Lia was flying was about to fly right into the flame wall that Draven just made.
//I hope this is ok...Im not TECHNICALLY controlling her.\\
Zev spead towards Lia, making it just before she hit the barrier and caught her between his teeth. He thrust his head back and threw Lia onto his back with a thump.
Hold on. You don''t want to fall off, also don't worry about your staff, Qeni got it. Qeni appeared infront of Zev, holding Lia's staff. They spead towards the cave where Duilin and the others were.
-
Duilins not in a cave.. He's in the woods, wounded. Seth and Nevina only a few feet away
Zeros' blast hit Tsar easily, and wounded him quite severely, knocking him back several yards. This blast brought Tsar back to logical thinking. Almost as though Tsar had switched personas. He returned to his former state.
Tsar was in critical condition now, though he still didn't show any signs of injury other than shortness of breath.
He could not escape because of Dravens Flame cage, so Tsar decided he'd make do.
He flew up, about 20 feet from the top of flames.
He no longer had enough Psi in his own being, and the flaming barrier greatly slowed his ability to channel Psi from the Earth or Moon, So he decided to draw from Zeros'.
Tsar was not taking much energy at a time, so Zeros' couldnt really tell energy was being taken from him.
Tsar then focused the Psi on his wounds, and little by little, he began to repair himself.
______________________________________________________________
Seth put down his Falchion, figuring he was merely being fooled by his own senses. Nevina did the same. They then ran through the bushes and discovered Duilin, clinging to life.
Nevina kneeled down next to the fallen comrad, and began a healing spell, while Seth tried to comfort him.
-
Zeros' noticed Tsar was trying to do something, but what? He didn't give himself time to think, he could deal with Draven later, Tsar was becoming a pest.
"Don't think so!" Zeros' phased out then back in about 30 feet up and started to fly the rest of the way, but when he reached about 10 feet away, he stopped and unsheathed his katana.
"YAMA-SEN-KEN!" He yelled out as he slashed the air and several vaccum blades flew right towards there target, the now severally wounded Tsar.
----
Qeni's sensed jumped. She was about to connect a link, but she noticed Zev had a worried look on his face also. She nearly turned back around and continued flying, they both gained speed, knowing Duilin was barely clinging to life.
-
Pophin and Veronika arived were Duilin was. They looked at Nevina and Seth.
"Who are you to?! Get away from that man, he is comeing with us!" Veronika says, Veronika had her Auto Shotgun ready, but not aimed at them, Pophin was standing about 5 feet away from Veronika stareing at Nevina and Seth, his hand was cluching on his Rapier, and he was trembling.
-
(WHO THE HELL hurt Duilin, could someone please explain this to me? someone from Draven/Tsar/Zeros battle?)
"What the...?" - Cheetah suddenly paniced a bit. - "What is happening?! Someone attacking us?"
He readied his spear in case someone is going to attack them.
-
(Cesque, did you not read any of my posts? Okay here is what happened, Pophin was sneaking around, Duilin thought he saw something so he went to go find out what it was so Pophin ran off abit and then threw a spear, He was going to kill him but then he herd more people comeing so he ran away, Nevina and Seth went to Duilin, and now Pophin returned with Veronika and they want to take Duilin with them)
-
(all right... I got confused Wink)
-
"I've got to do something," thought Zion.
He pulled his arms to his side, and started to charge up a spell. An aura of all colors started to appear around his body.
--- --- ---
Xenai looked over at Zion, and started to seriously consider stepping in. "He's not gonna do it. Or is he?"
-
They looked down and they say Duilin, Nevina, Seth, Pophin and Veronika. Zev nodded to Qeni as they touched down near the 5 warriors.
Zev went alittle farther and sat Lia down on the ground, while Qeni landed behind everyone. She looked at Duilin and saw Nevina was doing the best she could, he could last out for awhile, as long as Nevina doesn't get distracted.
Zev came and stood by Qeni's side, Qeni started to pet her companion as she read his thoughts.
Don't worry, its ok. Duilin won't die just yet...we have to take care of these two Dark Empire generals.
Zev nodded and started to growl at Veronika, his teeth showing.
"Well, Well...more Dark Empire generals...What do you want here!?" Qeni said to the two generals.
-
Tsar, his senses hieghted further than normal from his injures, grabbed his Quarterstaff and twirled it like a baton, spinning and spinning..
Eventually it formed a small cyclone and it swallowed Zeros' vaccum blades.
He thought a bit, and realized Zeros' wasn't going to let him gather any more Psi.. He must try to defeat Zeros' in melee combat. Tsar was well aware of how poor his strength was, but he figured he had zerod' beat in agility.
Tsar headed downwards, then headed back up at Zeros', traveling at 94 mph, his quarterstaff aimed to hit Zeros' in the gut.
______________________________________________________________
Seth drew his Falchion and jumped upwards, then came down, blade first, aiming for Veronikas head.
_______________________________________________________________
Nevina started to get up to fight the Soldiers, but then saw the two new figures appear and thought it best to continue trying to heal Duilin.
-
After understanding the situation, Cheetah (who was still a bit sleepy but the attack on Duilin was one big system shock for him) turned himself into the ice serpent form and with full force breathed freezing cold air toward Veronika.
-
Qeni wasn't much of a fighter herself...and Zev was a wolf, but he in terms was a fighter, they still needed as much help as they could get. Veronika looked like she was being handled, so Qeni and Zev decided to go after the assiassian.
Qeni and Zev both regained there speed, but thats about all they could do. They both phased out then back in near Pophin, Qeni behind him and Zev infront of him.
"Go home and we will not harm you...we do not like to fight." Qeni said in a stern voice.
----
Zeros' noted at Tsar's powers, he was powerful at long range with spells, but not melee combat.
Apparently he's exhausted all his energy reserves....
Zeros' grabbed his staff and held it there. He unsheathed his katana (if you wanted to know his katana and sheath are at his right side) and phased out then back in right in Tsar's face, still holding his staff.
"So...you obey him even though you don't like Draven..." Zeros' thrust the katana at Tsar's side, not trying to kill him but mortally wound him.
-
Veronika swung her wip at Seth's Falchion and it wraped around it she forced it to land infront of her, she also spun herself dodgeing Cheetah's icy blast
How the hell did she do that? Duilin thought, still awake but to frail and weak to fight Who is that anyway Duilin's view was bad, she chould tell it was a female, mostly by her voice.
Veronika laughed "You weaklings think you can defeat me? Well I'd just love to see you try!" She blasted her auto shotgun at auto fire at Seth and Cheetah, for they seemed to be the largest threat.
Pophin swung his is Rapier and shifted back and fouth looking at the two. What were they? He was looked at the Angel for awile. He then smiled and and bowed down as a good bye and sneaked away, like nothing was odd about it.
-
A flash of red.
Draven slashed his crimson blade downwards, smacking Zeros' katana out of range of Tsar's side, his aura of flame exploding, pushing the weakened Tsar out of the way.
"You've done well, old boy. You've bought me more than enough time to gather the energy to kill this worm..."
The orbs ceased to circle Draven, and shot outwards from him. Upon striking the burning walls of the encircling burning cage of death, they began to bounce around wildly. True chaos erupted inside the sphere...
"AH HA HA HA HAAAH!!!!!"
Draven barreled towards Zeros', slashing huge arcs with his 4 foot blade of pure flame...
----
1 minute...
"Hmmm... that wall of flame makes it impossible to see what is going on inside..."
Jayce gave a bored sigh.
----
"Never enter a battle without observing your opponent first..."
The two continued down a beaten path in the forest. Now there was a red sphere in the sky...
"Although I think I know the one we're dealing with..."
He continued on, slashing some weeds out of the way.
"If it's someone we know, we might have to jump in..."
He looked down at the broadsword he was carrying.
"I wonder how Duilin and the others are doing with my sword..."
-
"Fine then Draven..." He said as he side stepped and made Draven burn Tsar's staff. "Lets fight then."
While Draven kept slashing at Zeros', trying to cut him down, he used his excellent speed to avoid all his attacks. Slowly...ever so slowly, Zeros' lead Draven into a spiral, in a few moments they reached the middle of the spiral, which was near the middle of the flame wall.
Zeros' charged his left hand with ki energy and grabbed Draven's blade. He put more power into it then I thought...
"Goodbye Draven!" He clenched his right fist and threw it into an upward corkscrew.
"HIRYU SHOTEN HA! (Heaven's Blast of the Dragon)" An icy tornado appeared where Draven was floating. This had the added effect of weaking the barrier slightly.
----
Genma started to laugh as Zeros' Heaven's Blast appeared. "Hahaha! That's m'boy!"
----
Qeni and Zev were puzzled why he just left. (Duilin there not children anymore...there spirits were released from Qeni and Zev's bodies) Qeni made a ball of water appear out of mid air and dropped it to the ground. In there reflection, it appeared as if they were just children still to the non-trained eye.
I guess the effects of us spliting bodies still made us appear to be children... Zev nodded to Qeni's thoughts. As if on que, there reflections disappeared and it showed there true forms in the water.
Zev sweat-dropped. Thats not good...
-
Tsar was startled by Dravens sudden assault, and Tsar nearly fell when Zeros' let go of his staff. He barely had the energy to fly when Zeros' let go, and he had been staying up mainly by holding on to his staff which zeros' was supporting.
Tsar was slightly angered that Draven had bee using him as a decoy the whole time, "I could've died, Draven. Though death and returning to my plane would be better than serving you.. I'll remember this next time..."
Tsar then noticed his Staff had been ignited and he calmly blew it out like a candle.
Then he noticed the pattern in the flame balls path. He got in a place where they don't travel and began drawing Psi from the Flame barrier itself, consentrating the energy on his wounds.
______________________________________________________________
Seth dodged the bullets and pulled out his Steel claws. He then charged at Vironika again and slashed at her gun hand and her neck.
-
Veronika saw Seth running at her, she chould tell were she was aiming, so she quickly flug he weapon infront of her neck and head, cause both to hit her weapon. The gun was strong but it was hit with great force so she droped it, she then swung her wip at Seth's legs.
------
Duilin then tried to get back up, that women's weapon was extremley powerfull and could do alot damage to his friends. He really wanted to help, but he was in so much pain that he decieded not to. He looked up and saw somebody "Nevina? You gonna help?"
------
Once Pophin got out of site he ran as fast as he chould, he moved like a strong breeze in the wind. He then returned to the camp nearby the ship. The two soilders looked at him. "Were is Veronika?!" One asked. Pophin ignored him and then went over by the ocean. He went to the beach part, and splashed water on his face and smacked himself a few times and shook his head
------
"Could that have been real!?" He says to himself...."Uhh....Oh no! I forgot about Veronika!!" He ran back to the soilders "Follow me now!!" He then ran back to were Veronika was.
(Just for futre refferance, these guys are ELITE soilders)
-
"I would guess that most people of note remaining in this country are people you are aquainted with, at least at the last report anyway."
He stopped and smiled. The wind was changing.
The sound of rain hitting earth filled the air.
"Wait for it..."
A large white ball, about the size of a man's fist, smashed onto a rock near them. Haraldur dragged Iduran under a mildly singed tree.
-
Xenai frowned, trying to watch from outside the ball of flame. "This is what you get for ignoring him..."
Zion was now done charging up his spell.
//Can't tell if Zion's in or out of the ball. So if he's in...//
He looked over to Draven, pointing both his hands at him.
//And if he's out...//
He tried to feel for Draven's aura, and locked onto it as best as he could, pointing both his hands at it.
"Consume all, flash of death!!!" With those words, A bright flash of light came from Zion's body. As the light dimmed, it seemed to turn to darkness, and envelop itself around Draven, engulfing him into a transparent ball of darkness. Inside the ball, the gravity started to increase, and at an alarming rate. Soon enough, inside the ball, would be 100x the planet's gravity, pushing from all sides.
//Mkay... This is my first time posting a major attack... If anything's wrong with it, that is against the rules, let me know, and I will make changes.//
-
((aww rats I hate being grounded,I'm sneaking on to post this and with that 3 day hit rule,I'll apply it to this k?))
Edit:Opps I forgot the other page...
Lia found a tree and dosed off quickly,almost like she was to tierd to do anything.
-
Cheetah, still in his serpent form, turned to his side so that the bullets hit his scales, not doing any greater damage.
"Is there nothing in this land but war?" - he thought.
Noticing Seth attacking Veronika and how she lose the shotgun, Cheetah thought the monk will be able to take care of the situation. He instantly turned himself into a cheetah and headed in direction where Pophin ran.
-
Now the hail was really falling down. There were sounds of forest creatures squealing from direct hits from hail stones the size of their heads.
"I wonder when they will notice."
-
(Eon: You decide whether Zion got trapped in the sphere or not. It could go either way.)
"Ergh!"
Draven jerked the blade from Zeros' grasp crossing his arms in front of his face and taking a full hit from the icy spiral. Draven's aura of flame protected him from damage, but it disintegrated with the attack, leaving him exposed. The spiral also hit the top and bottom of the sphere, weakening those points slightly. Draven pointed the blade at Zeros'.
"Not bad..."
He moved his blade up for another attack, but he was immediately attacked by something else...
The gravity attack hit him totally off guard, since he had yet to rebuild his aura of flame.
"Ahhh... What magic is this?!"
His voice echoed from inside the black bubble. An immense pressure came upon him from all sides, which he attempted to counter by pushing his energy outward like in one of his aura-explosions.
Outside the sphere of fire, the hail was taking its toll on the top portion...
(Hits left to destroy the sphere:
Top: 1
Sides: 3
Bottom: 2)
----
The falling chunks of ice bounced off of an invisible barrier around Jayce, who took no note of them.
"Time's up..."
Standing on the tree limb he moved his arms to his side, turning his fists upwards and clenching them. Something began to emanate from him... or did it? The black armor somehow became darker... the very light around the man seemed to dim, a shadowy translucency formed around him, distorting the look of objects seen on the other side... the aura of darkness...
----
Iduran huddled under the tree as the hail intensified.
"Your people can control the weather, can't they?"
-
Tsu, being as bored as heck, decided to wander away from his house, and found himself walking into a nearby forest.
--- --- ---
Zion concentrated as much as he could, trying to keep the Omni spell intact, but Draven was just too strong, and the effort was too exhausting. He let the spell fade away, and just floated there, catching his breath, and trying to get his energy back. "Should have charged up more..."
--- --- ---
Xenai was very impressed by Draven. "Woo, this guy's awesome! That Omni spell cripples me every time!"
-
Genma sighed. "Oh come on Jayce. Lets leave the kids alone. Let them have there fun. If Draven get's killed its his fault, not ours." Genma said with a smirk on his face.
----
Zeros' saw the spell diminsh and immediately charged at Draven, he swung his sword around in the air and did multiple vaccum blades.
"YAMA-SEN-KEN!" He slashed hundreds of times at Amaguriken (basically means very very fast), hundreds of vaccum blades appeared and headed for the now stunned Draven.
----
Qeni and Zev nodded to each other. They phased out then back in above the forest and started flying after Cheetah.
-
Seth jumped and dodged Veronikas whip, then, on the wa down, slashed at her face.
He then jumped back, about 5 feet in front of Veronika.
________________________________________________________________
Nevina thought Duilin was in condition well enough that he didn't need her to be next to him constantly, so She lept up and charged at Veronkia from the Left side, aiming to slash her in the rib-area.
________________________________________________________________
Tsar continued to channel energy from the Flame sphere and consentrated it on his wounds. He had halfway restored himself already.
-
Veronika moved her head back barely dodgeing the attack, then Nevina's attack hit her.
"Ahh!" She fell to the ground next to her Auto Shotgun, she was bleeding, but she could take it. She grabed her weapon and fired it, blasting 10 shells, at Nevina.
-------------
Pophin then pointed to were Veronika and the others were
"You go there yourself, I won't be much help. Your Elite soilders you can take care of yourselfs." Pophin says turning back to the camp
The two soilders glared at Pophin
"Wimp" One said "But we should just go, Veronika may or may not be in trouble."
The two soilders ran over to were the guys were
(Okay feal free to control them, just I don't have much time left and all, but please don't kill them off in one posts, there ELITE soilders, there more skilled then Duilin and such)
-
Seth saw the shells fly and jumped in front of Nevina. He took 2 hits and the other shells missed.
He fell down and began to bleed.
Nevina started to run to his side and aid him, but he told her he would be fine and to go take out Vironika.
Nevina chanted as she ran at Veronika, "Oheh Mur Ken ki, Oheh Mur Ken Ki,.." she stepped forward and twirled with her blade sticking outwards, and she began to develop an aura.
-
Veronika fliped back out of the way of Nevina's attack. Then then ran over to were Duilin was, she pointed her shotgun at his head, and stood him up, he used him as a sheild, and had the gun pointed at his head.
"He is comeing with me now! If you even think of following me or attacking, your friend here is going to have his head all over the place!" Veronika slowy backed away and headed back out of the way, she was going to take the route she took before but she new that the Gepardi went that way so she took a detour."
The two elite soilders saw Veronika
"Mahm, are you okay?" One asked
"I'm fine, make an exsample of the two infedals!" She ordered them
The two soilders took out there weapons, and got ready to kick ass!
//Okay well you have fun. I know my posts may have been abit quick, but hey I can only posts a few times a week, so I think it's fair really. Oh yeah and could you please not follow Veronika and Duilin, I kinda want to do something.//
-
// Dude Man, Dude Man, damn, slow down! Cheetah is running half distance between Pophin and Veronika in cheetah form - about 5 times faster than an average man can run - and suddenly soldiers got to Veronika in 1 post without meeting him, damn it... //
// I guess Xorlak's action-limit per post is sometimes not even enough... //
// Anyway, playing 2 days in week sort of sucks as you can't really interact... //
Noticing the elite soldiers running past him, Cheetah turned and... hmm, sorry, I have no idea what can he do in the current situation (because basicaly all connected with Veronika/Seth/Nevina was done by Duilin in 1 post). Let's say he turned into wyvern and went to sleep at some local tree.
-
A wave of fire erupted from the bubble as Draven broke. But he had no time to vent his anger at whoever cast the spell as he was immediately under attack by a barrage of wind blades thrown by Zeros'.
He had to vent his anger at someone, though... He slashed his blade of flame in front of him in a figure-8 pattern. Though he did not quite match the speed of his adversary, each consecutive swing knocked several vacuum blades off trajectory at once, effectively blocking the attack. Continuing in this fashion, he slowly inched toward Zeros through the barrage of blades...
The sphere surrounding them had weakened considerably. Draven was paying less attention to keeping it up than rebuilding an aura of flame around himself as he swung his sword.
----
The tree Jayce was standing on began to wither and die, eventually turning black itself. The same affliction krept down the roots and into the immediately surrounding grass and weeds.
"Normally I would not care. But I've better things to do than see him toy with this nobody for hours..."
A black streak shot up into the sky. He was gone, barreling towards the giant fireball above. As he sprang from the tree, the branch he was standing on broke off and fell, crumpling and turning to dust upon impact with the ground...
-
"Control the weather? Yes, we can do that. The average person can only change the weather in a very small radius. What I have just done has only ever been done by 4,000 different people in recorded history. A few hundred can do it now. I am judged to be scond best.
"We find all this very useful for sailing, because we can choose local wind direction at will. Why else do you think there have been no successful attacks on my country? All enemy ships and flying creatures have always been sunk, killed or driven away by violent winds."
He stood still for a moment, as if in thought. "This seems to be the largest military operation of the Dark Empire for quite a while. Whether that is a sign of your allies' success here we can think of as a possible reason, but it cannot be the only one. Something important is going to happen, and relatively soon. It seems that this time things might go all the way..."
To the north there were loud sounds of strong trunks of wood bein crushed by ice. The temperature seemed to be dropping at an enormous rate. And the hail increased in amount and size.
Haraldur handed Iduran a fur cloak. "You might want to have this," he said.
The hail was then accompanied by a blinding blizzard of snow.
-
Qeni and Zev saw the soldiers whip past him and turned around and started flying towards them, hoping there not too late.
----
Genma sort of shruged and looked at the tree. "Alas...poor tree." He resumed full Umi-Sen-Ken and followed Jayce slowly, not wanting to give off too much aura to be detected, but he knew Jayce knew becuase of his training.
----
Zeros' continued his barrage of Yama-Sen-Ken blades and also moved towards Draven slowly, hoping to destroy the barrier in the next few minutes.
-
Tsu wandered around the forest, and bumped into Shin. "Hello... Who are you?"
--- --- ---
Zion noticed Jayce, and figured that he was going to interfere with the fight. Zion charged up a large amount of energy into his hands, pointed them at Jayce, and unleashed a large energy wave at him.
--- --- ---
Xenai watched Zeros from afar. "I may want to toy with this goon..."
-
Jayce shot upwards like a rocket through the snow and hail, a large wave of energy barely missing him.
----
Draven continued blocking the blades, inching closer... closer... until... perfect.
"DIE!"
He twirled in a circle, about to hit a horizontal slash on Zeros' right side, but the mark would not be hit...
Suddenly, there was a huge disturbance directly behind Zeros'-- a large hole had been punched in the side of the encircling orb of flame, which had kept the three fighters inside oblivious to the hailstorm outside until now. A black figure sped through the hole, stopping directly behind Draven's winged foe...
The already weakened orb faltered. With the continued hail and snow outside, it finally gave way and fizzed to nothing, exposing the warriors to the elements.
Draven flared his aura to fight off the cold and hail, although he was clearly distracted by it.
"Jayce! What in blazes do you think you're doing?!"
It was too late. Jayce grabbed the base of each of Zeros' wings with each hand and jammed his right knee into Zeros' back for leverage. He began to pull... leaning forward and speaking calmly into the winged warrior's left ear:
"The sword."
----
"Thanks."
He wrapped the cloak around the outside of his armor, pulling the hood over his head. The tree was proving to be lousy protection, and chunks of ice occasionally clanged off of his armor.
"So... what's your plan? This storm is good cover for us... but it seems like it would hurt both sides of the battle..."
He chanced a look up in the sky, but could not see the giant red orb that was once there.
Hmmm, something important is going to happen... but what...?
-
The snow on the ground was already freezing into a white, hard, powdery mass, and then a sort of white rock.
"Yes, it will hurt our side, but it should not hurt them anywhere near as much as Draven. He will be expending energy keep his body temperature. Besides, your friends should know where the caves are, and they could find refuge there. I expect what remains of your population has already fled to such places anyway."
Haraldur stared up to where the orb once was. A tornado of ice and snow formed there in a matter of seconds, but did not reach to the ground. It went towards the only fire currently visible where the orb had once been, Draven.
"Now that, my friend, is technically impossible. But why should we let such things as that hold us down? Oh, what a great combination," he added, as lightning started to appear in the spinning clouds.
He handed a small bag over to Iduran. It looked like a waterskin of some type.
"Want some magically hot carrot and potato soup? It will probably make you feel a bit better."
-
Zeros' didn't flinch. He had to endure more pain then this with his master training him.
"So another one of the emperor's lacky's." Zeros' said with a dijested look on his face. "Now now...2v1 isn't that far is it?"
He grabbed hold of both his wings where Jayce had them and tore them out of his back, blood gushed out of Zeros' back and right towards Jayce's face, but he did not wince.
He used his ki to keep himself propelled in the air and phased out then back in behind Jayce, his sword point right at his neck, a trickle of blood could be seen where Zeros' sword point is.
He chanted a spell quietly to himself and his wings started to grow back, very slowly at first, but then they burst out, spitting out more blood, Zeros' long coat kept him warm during all the hail and snow.
"Well now...I can tell your much more powerful then Draven. And you can also tell I am not putting out 100% of my power hmm?"
Another figure slowly appeared beside Draven and stuffed a cloak in his pouch. He turned his head towards Draven and shook his head.
"Poor Draven. You know how Jayce is...he is very impatient." Genma was also using his ki to keep himself afloat.
Genma turned his head towards Zeros' and Jayce. "Well well Zeros'...you have grown strong."
Zeros' looked at Genma and smirked. "Yes it has master. How long now? 700 years since I last saw you?"
Genma gave him a slight nod. "Ahh yes. Those were the good ol' days."
-
//Lol.. I thought Genma was Seths Master or something.. seeing as how they're both Monks. But Seth hated everyone back at the Monastry anyways so. XD//
Seth lay immobile from being shot in the chest and leg, and tried to crawl away under a tre in the bushes, a few feet from Nevina and the Elite Soldiers.
He then tried to think a strategy of how to help Nevina without actually fighting himself. as he couldn't walk.
______________________________________________________________
Nevina charged, at the new foes with her Scimitar, aiming to slash the first ones arm off.
The soldier brought his arm up, grabbed Nevinas blade, as he had steel gauntlets, and slung it, forcing Nevina to release it.
______________________________________________________________
Tsar had just finished healing himself when the Flame Barrier dissapated. He then acsended, once again, this time absorbing energy from the sun to form an attack.
-
(Tsar, of course, flew above the clouds of the blizzard in order to absorb energy from the sun, correct? Heh...)
----
A bit of blood splashed on Jayce's face. He only smirked and tasted it with his tounge before wiping his mouth with his gauntlet. Draven raised his eyebrows in disgust.
Jayce dropped the detached wings and watched as they grew back, folding his arms.
"Heh heh heh... The old 'withholding most of my power' claim, huh? I've heard that one a thousand times... I've yet to be impressed."
Lightning began to strike all around, and the freezing winds picked up. Draven doubled his aura, fighting to stay in one place in the air. He looked over to Genma:
"What? Are you telling me this punk is 700 years old?"
Another gust of freezing wind. His aura exploded once again.
"Blast it!! Where in blazes did this storm come from?!"
Jayce, who was totally unaffected by the winds, shouted over Zeros' shoulder.
"This is the center of the storm, which means the caster is nearby."
He nodded towards the ground. Draven looked down, but the visibility was so bad, that he could only see dark grayness below.
How convenient...
If he stopped what he was doing to try and stop the storm, Jayce would surely get the sword from Zeros' and Draven would be out of luck... On the other hand, Draven was hindered by the storm and probably couldn't compete with Jayce while he was wasting energy fighting off the cold... He struggled in decision for a moment before shaking his fist at Zeros'.
"I'll be back in a moment... play nice."
He began to fall downwards into the darkness.
Jayce smirked, not expecting to get rid of Draven that easily. He then shifted his gaze to Genma.
"Master, huh?"
----
Iduran smiled at Haruldur.
"You planned this all from the beginning, didn't you?"
He grabbed the bag and sipped the warm liquid from the nozzel.
But suddenly, there was an explosion of sorts behind them, and Iduran immediately handed the bag back and drew his sword. Something had crashed into the frozen bushes behind them. What ever it was, he couldn't see it anymore...
"Did you hear that?"
He peered out from behind the tree, but the blinding snow stung his face, and he had to look downwards. He remained in that position for a few minutes. Nothing.
"I wonder... if that was someone fighting above?"
His curiosity got the best of him, and he began to tip-toe in the direction of the crash.
-
//I would like to remind everyone, whatever you are doing is going to be affected by the sudden winter. Flying is going to be impossible unless you are magically flying, and even so you might be blown about.//
"Planned? No, I did not plan it, just helped in it. And not everything is going according to plan anyway. For a start, I should not be here yet, but the situation has changed. We now have to make things up as we go along."
Haraldur noticed that due to the tree, they were now in a large hole in the middle of a large snowdrift, at least 5 metres (15 feet) high. Probably higher. The hole forest was totally covered, in all likelyhood.
Haraldur turned around. The branches and bushes behind him were packed solid with snow. It must be very cold in there. He noticed some had fallen out, as if the bushes were a cake and a book is dropped in and stuff falls out the sides. Also, he noticed some of the snow seemed to be melting...
He brought his arms out in front of him, with his palms facing forward. Out of them a blue and white swirling light came, and the nearest snow froze solid.
"Lets get out of here, the storm will hold for hours, if not days, yet. We should go to the caves. If you know where they are, please lead the way."
With that he brought one hand out in front of him, turned his back on the frozen snow, and created a hole in the unfrozen snow. He then crawled up it and waited for Iduran. There was no tree in sight. They were all covered.
-
(Uhmm.. yeah.. Tsar is above the hail clouds.. XD)
Tsar, still slightly effected by the cold and winds, was knocked around slightly, but not nearly enough to break his concentrating.
Unlike last time when he was channeling Moon energy, He was standing still, stabilized by holding his Staff out in front of him. Acting sort of like a wire-walker in a circus.
He began to glow with the intensity of a fire, solar energy warming the air around his 8 foot radius.
His robe appeared to be a flaming orange now, because of the Psi, and he now began to transfer solar energy into his staff.
______________________________________________________________
It then came to Seth. He should mind attack his enemies.
He then flooded the soldiers minds with thoughts of hate and vengance against each other. Remembering every slight mis-treatment they had recieved from their fellow soldier, and Seth added a few that weren't real, just for taste.
The soldiers then stepped away from each other, and glared at each other with extreme coldness.
______________________________________________________________
Nevina had lost her Scimitar to her enemy, and she then drew her Holy Bastard Sword.
Holding it with both hands, she began to slash in Arcs at the soldier who took her Scimitar.
The soldier managed to block most of them, but then his fellow Dark Empirian struck him with his blade.
-
After a long pause, Shin looked into the eyes of the little man who trapped him. He was clad in snakeskin and weilded a small hunting knife. His green hair was shoulder-length, and seemed to blend in with the leafy surroundings.
"My my my...seems I caught me a mighty one" said the strange man. "I wonder how he tastes."
Shin grunted; cannabalism was forbidden in his religion. He glared into the stranger's eyes. As the stranger approached slowly, knife at the ready, a twig cracked. Both men looked in the direction of the twig to see a baby red dragon emerge from the woods. The strange snake-skin clad man looked at Shin, then freed him from the trap.
"One of dem things is enough food ta last for days" said the stranger with a sly grin on his face. Since Shin hadn't eaten in a while, he agreed to help the stranger in killing the small creature.
"Tell me, is the mother going to appear?" Shin asked the stranger. He shook his head.
"Nah, them things dont care about their young...they tend to eat the first two that hatch, as well as the eggs that don't hatch after 4 days." Without another word, the stranger leapt toward the dragon, and plunged the knife into it's little heart.
The dragon roared, and kicked the stranger in the gut using his tiny feet. He fell. Shin took this opportunity to forge his ice sword and slash downward. The dragon saw this coming and struck Shin with his tail. The sword still cut down on the beast, killing it, but Shin had a pretty bad gash running down his right arm. The stranger looked at him.
"You better let me have a good look at that...gashes from a red dragon's tail can be fatal. Their tails are poisonous, ya know?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After being kicked in the groin, Sigilus was a little reluctant on helping Gyulim, but her beautiful smile and her well-shaped body kept him going anyways. After walking through multiple forest trails, they heard the roar of a baby dragon in the middle of combat. Gyulim, who never heard such a sound, grew curious. Sigilus tried to take advantage of this...
"Ya know, I could tell you a bit more about the creature that made that sound...for a...small fee," he said, and snickered. Gyulim caught it.
"Don't expect anything just yet...unless Shin is dead, you're out in the cold...speaking of which, it's too damn hot around here! Sigilus, do you have a knife or anything?"
Sigilus nodded and handed over a well-made knife with a dragon design on the hilt, and a silver blade with a gold lining on the blunt end. Gyulim took the knife, and cut off a portion of her robes so that half of her thigh was showing. At once, she began to feel cool. She stowed away the scrap fabric in a pocket inside her robes; she might need it later.
"Don't you get any ideas, Sigilus" she stated immediately. Sigilus laughed, and winked at her. He then focused his mind, and she suddenly had the urge the cut off part of the torso of her robe, revealing her belly.
She sighed.
-
Tsu wasn't expecting to see a dragon when he walked into the forest... "Good lord..." He unsheathed Kuon Yaiba and slid into a ready stance, glaring at the dragon. "There's no way I can take that thing," thought Tsu. "But I've got to try."
He leaped forward at the dragon, kicking off its head into the air, turning a flip, and pointing Kuon Yaiba down as he came down towards its head.
--- --- ---
Zion flew forward toward Jayce, unsheathing his Eternity Weapon, and slashing downwards at him as he came up to him.
--- --- ---
Xenai was still waiting for the right time to jump in.
-
Shin removed the top part of his black robe and let the stranger examine his wound. After glancing at the gash on his right shoulder for a few seconds, the stranger walked over to a strange plant on the side of the trail that Shin overlooked...it had several roots appearing above-ground that were 3 inches away from each other, and they came together to form a bush with blue and red flowers at the top.
The stranger cut one of the blue flowers off and drained a fluid out of it. He returned to Shin's side and applied the fluid to his shoulder. The sting was almost unbearable, but a green fluid coming out of the wound showed that the stranger's medicine was doing its job. After thirty seconds, the sting stopped, and the dragon's venom was out of Shin's system. The stranger then crumpled the petals of the blue flower and laid them on the wound; the bleeding stopped, and the skin began to pull back together.
"Laznebush...a native plant to this forest. It has tremendous healing power in its blue blossoms, but also, has the potential to kill with its red. There are only three of these plants in existance now, thanks to those armor-clad men who appeared here two days ago to attack the castle of Romme."
"The Dark Empire!?"
"Whoever they are, they killed many of my comrades, and left me to fend for myself. I knew many things about wilderness survival thanks to my training, and I began hunting to make a new wardrobe for myself; the Romme Armor would have stood out too much."
"I see...who are you?"
"I was always called 'Nameless' because I was orphaned at birth. Nobody wanted to name me because it would have dishonored my parents. I am fine with Nameless. Now, what do you say we eat already?"
Nameless took to his knife and cut off the dragon's tail and cast it aside.
-------------------------------------------------------
Gyulim decided it was best to reveal the truth to Sigilus...any marriage to Shin if their rulers discovered the truth would have meant death to both of them.
"Alright, I guess I should tell you...I can't be with Shin. He, along with everyone except my father, thinks that I am 25; within the legal age to be wed with him. However, the truth is...I am only 18. If my rulers discovered this, Shin and I would be put to death."
Sigilus wasn't in the least surprised. "You didn't look 25 anyway. I had a feeling you were between 17 and 19."
There was a small hiss, and Sigilus had suddenly leapt in the air using his lightning reflexes. He then skewered the snake...a Romme Cobra...using a branch that he ripped off of a tall tree while in the air.
-
Jayce turned from Zeros' and held his right arm in the air, its metal gauntlet blocking the impending sword slash with a spark. The winds of the blizzard swirled all around. In front of Jayce floated a teal-haired warrior.
"Go away. I'm busy."
He pointed his left finger at Zion. A dozen surges of dark energy appeared around his aura, taking an arrow-like shape. They immediately began to speed towards their target...
----
Iduran continued trudging through the snow.
"Hah, I meant plan on summoning this storm. Yes, we should be able to find the cave, if you didn't bury it of course... Just let me check on whatever crashed up here."
He realized as he climbed up the snow drift that what he was approaching was a tree top, rather than a bush. He looked through the branches, but there was nothing to be found. He turned around and started back towards Haraldur...
Suddenly there was a flash of red over to Iduran's right and he was thrown upon the ground.
"Errgh!!"
He suddenly felt warm, very warm... He spun around on his back and held his sword to the air...
Draven floated an inch above the ground before him, arms crossed and burning like a fireball. His aura streaked in the same direction as the wind.
"Hmmm, yes... I remember you, old man. We never got to finish our talk the other day... where is your wizard friend, anyway?"
Draven's eyes darted back and forth, expecting to be attacked with a lightning spell. No, it couldn't be Scorch. He could conjure a wind storm, maybe. But not a blizzard like this. That left either the Aritan, or that bearded guy from yesterday...
Draven saw Iduran's normal broadsword as the old knight scrambled to his feet.
"What did you do with your sword?"
Iduran pointed the blade at Draven in full battle stance, but the wind was very distracting.
"I gave it away."
"Yes, real smart. Giving it to a winged demon with an attitude..."
"Huh?"
Draven grinned.
"Hmmm, yes, you may still be useful..."
Without warning, Draven threw a quick fireball at the old knight. Iduran slashed it with his sword, sending it spiraling into the air, until the wind forced it into the snow with a muffled explosion. The recoil from knocking the fireball back almost caused Iduran to fall down backwards, but he regained his balance and resumed his stance.
-
Nameless began cooking the baby dragon. Shin was busy sensing a familiar aura close by...two of them, actually. He just couldn't remember where he felt them before...
"Yo, come here and help me cut this thing," commanded Nameless, sick of Shin's staring off.
Shin sighed, and began cutting the dragon in order to ration it for a few days.
A few minutes later, Gyulim appeared from the woods, followed by the mercenary that he hired to take out Draven. However, when he looked at Gyulim's attire, he became a tad suspicious.
"Gyulim! What are you doing here!?"
"I originally came here to look for you, but after I met Sigilus here, I felt that I'd be better off with him...I'm not really 25. I'm only 18, so it wouldn't have worked anyways."
"I see...so, you lied to me?"
"I'm sorry."
Shin grew angry, but a look of warning from Sigilus made him keep his cool.
"Now, Shin, about our deal, the silver didn't cut it...Draven sort of hired me to help him before and offered to pay me in gold. He never paid me...I don't supposed you could reimburse me for it."
Gyulim nudged him with her elbow.
"I mean, forget our deal."
Shin nodded.
"Oh, I wasn't going to pay you anyways, since you took my woman from me. But then again, since she's in your age group anyways...what the hell? Just don't mistreat her."
Sigilus laughed and put his arm around Gyulim.
"No worries, pal. No worries."
Shin looked at Nameless and asked, "Yo, can we spare them some dragon meat as well?"
Nameless nodded.
Shin went back to his sensing the area...this time searching for Nevina...he found her aura, but couldn't track it. He instead reached out to her with his mind...
Nevina...where are you..?
-
//Just a little reminder, this is winter! there are snow drifts all over higher than trees! The sea is frozen! There are huge winds! It is hailing and snowing!//
Just below Draven, some of the snow had melted. The water and snow there lowered while Draven was making his speech. Then, it rose up from just underneath Draven, on course to soak him from below.
Behind Draven, shards of ice and of rock were rushing towards him from Haraldur's hands, but were not going directly at him. Rather, they were forming a cone shape in which everything would be hit.
Additionally, the snow below Iduran's feet started to gently but not too slowly move towards Haraldur.
-
Tsars solar barrier shined brighter, and he turned all hail and snow 20 feet around him to rain.
He took his staff, now pulsing with Psi, and threw it down at Zeros', like Zeus and his lightning bolts.
After the staff hit it's target (Each Zeros', or it'll stop in the space Zeros' was occupying) Tsar pointed at it and the Psi within it double, causing it to explode, sending wooden shrapnels all around at 503 mph. (Now, if this were to hit you.. it would certainly pierce your armor. This force is great enough to send straw through telephone poles.)
______________________________________________________________
The enemy soldiers blow cut armor off the other soldiers shoulder.
The two soldier engaged in battle, their swords clanging against each other every step.
Nevina recieved Shins message and as she didn't know telepathy, she merely increased her aura so Shin could sense her.
Nevina, now glowing white, Charged at the soldier on the Left, Jumped, and came down with an Arc of her blade, hit the soldiers head with her palm, knocking herself back from the soldiers 5 feet, and knocking the soldier down.
Her slash landed, one soldier not had a large chip on his shoulder.
-
Pieces of wood hit Zeros', but not enough to hurt him serverally, because he was sort of behind Jayce.
Genma teleported around the shards then stopped and looked at Jayce and started to laugh. "Yes yes. It was along time ago, right after his village was destroyed, but anyways, does that matter now?"
Zeros' sighed. "You still haven't changed master." He phased in then back out infront of Jayce.
"Shall we get started?" He fired hundreds of Yama-Sen-Ken blades as he slashed his sword.
----
Qeni and Zev finally reached the location where Zeros' was and looked at him. They stood beside Genma. He only slightly nodded to them.
----
-
Veronika and Duilin arive at the camp. Pophin was waiting there he looked at them and smiled. He was holding both his praticeing his moves with his sword but stoped when they came.
Duilin was in alot of pain still, his wome was deep and wide, it stung alot to. Veronika let Duilin go and sat him down on the tree stump near by. Duilin was in to much pain to escape, but Veronika still had his weapon pointed at him.
"Romove his weapon's Pophin." Veronika ordered him, still looking at Duilin. Pophin did as he was told and put the weapons beside the tent.
"So, Duilin is it? Why is that you betrayed the Dark Empire?" She asked
Duilin just sat there, his vision was better now, he just stared at Veronika, she was very beutifull, but he looked into his eyes, and could almost see a fires of hell just explodeing inside of her. But he still just sat there, stareing at her.
"SPEAK!" She yelled
Duilin hestaided for awile. He thought about it. "Darion, said I did....just to get Draven to want to kill me, so, I hid with the Romme Empire....to...be safe...because Draven wouldn't belive me over Darion...I never....really.....did....I just went with it, I later descovered that, Romme real didn't deserve this, and the Dark Empire were sick bastards....So I didn't want to be with the Dark Empire anymore, so...I guess that's it..."
Why did I tell her the truth!? He thought. He could think clear...he chouldn't think of any lies.
"Really....Is that so...so you never really chose untill you spened more time with them...so....What are you trying to do now?"
"I'm looking for.....Zeros'....one of friends..."
"Why?"
"He has...." He stoped, he chouldn't tell her, if she found out who knows what could happen, he might send an enitire army of soilders to kill him or something, who knows
"He has?" Veronika asked "It's okay...you can tell me." She smiled at him
"Uhhh.....I can't tell you...."
"Why not!"
"Could you just, give me some time to think about this?"
Veronika thought for a moment "Put him in the tent Pophin"
Pophin grabed Duilin and tossed him inside the tent and then took out his spear and guarded him.
-
Tsu ended up piercing the ground before he knew it when the dragon was killed, and was now watching Shin and his... comrades? ...eating his target. "I need lots of work." He turned and started to leave the forest.
--- --- ---
Zion freaked out as the arrow came toward him. It pierced his shoulder and sent him flying back toward Xenai.
"Woo, yeah! Time for some action!" Xenai was hyped up about finally getting to hit someone. His Zero Weapon appeared, and he used the huge sword to hit Zion over Jayce's head like a baseball. He would bat a few hail balls toward Zion too, and hit him right in the head.
Zion righted himself in the air, and turned to face his opposite. "Xenai..."
-
"If you prefer."
Jayce extended his left hand, forming a dark barrier before him, throwing the blades in wild directions as they struck it. Most flew off to the sides, though some were sent straight back at Zeros'.
He continued this pose for a few seconds, allowing Zeros' to use up his energy in his wasted attack. When he was satisfied, he placed his right hand on the handle of the sword strapped on his back and drew it. The curved scimitar was nearly 5 feet long, though he wielded it with one hand as if it weighed nothing. In a fluid motion, he slashed downward, sending a huge arc of crescent shaped energy slicing right through his own barrier and through all the impending blades-- straight through to Zeros'...
----
Draven turned to Haraldur.
"So you did this, huh? Not bad..."
He redoubled his aura, the water and snow below him began to evaporate. He extended his right hand and threw a wave of fire that disintegrated the bits of ice thrown at him.
"... for a kid..."
"You see, weather effects are nice... If you face an enemy who can't take a low powered spell... That's all this is, just a low powered ice spell spread out over a large area. Real magic is concentrated at a single point... allow me to demonstrate."
Draven dashed straight at the young Haraldur, raising his right hand in the air, a blade of concentrated flame formed.
Iduran struggled to keep his footing in the unstable snow.
"Noooo!!!"
In heroic slow motion movie-esque fashion, sword raised high, Iduran did a giant leap of faith towards the point directly in front of Haraldur. He collided with the burning Draven. What happened next happened too quickly for the old knight to perceive, but he found himself lying face up in a mixture of slush and snow.
Iduran looked at his sword, which felt lighter... A good eight or ten inches were missing from the tip-- sliced clean off. The steel on very end of the severed sword was glowing red...
Iduran was suddenly thrown into the air. He was staring into the mad eyes of Draven, who picked him up by the collar with one hand. Iduran thrust his broken blade into Draven's chest... but it did nothing.
Draven spun Iduran around, so that he was facing away from him and put the old knight in a headlock with his left arm. Iduran could see the blurry figure of Haraldur in front of him. Draven pressed two fingers from his right hand against Iduran's skull. He spoke to Haruldur:
"Let's try it the easy way, first. Show me some sunshine. Really, it's a tad difficult to fly in this type of weather, and I'm sure your mother wouldn't want you to catch a cold..."
Draven grinned as the fingers against Iduran's head began to glow a bright red.
-
Haraldur saw all this, and noted the blade was still inside Draven.
"Easy way? What would that be?"
Very quickly, without moving his arms, Haraldur caused Iduran to be teleported (somewhere) away.//Xorlak, you choose where to put him, and Zeros, I notice you are still teleporting quite a lot.// At the same time, the blade was made very cold, and then exploded inside Draven.//To be quite honest, I do not see how Draven can escape this... sorry...// Also, a small but powerful tornado was created by the explosion, and was inside Draven //and probably helping the explosion to rip him apart, unless he survives//. At the same time as all this //sorry, but the younger Haraldur is *very* mad// a *very* localised storm cloud appeared over Draven, by just a metre (three feet) and hailed and there was lighting going towards Draven. 7 different lightning rays. (This all happened in about 1/1000 of a second).
____________________________________________
The elder Haraldur started to realise that quite soon he would be able to leave this small parallel dimension he had sought refuge in. It could be mere minutes, it could be hours, but either way, he would be out. He wondered how his namesake was doing. He hoped he would not get too hot tempered.
-
// Enter the Gelu Smile Check the signu-up section... I decided to have some active, third, character in the end //
// Haraldur, Haraldur... not too many things in 1 post? you're FAR over-powered... //
"That's enough, lad." - a clear, growly voice slightly muffled by scarf wrapping around face of an albino in white robes echoes behind Haraldur, coming from direction of caves, hardly visible in the blizzard.
"Altough I appreciate your aid to the Romme, I don't really thinking you stand any chance against Dark Empire. Let the things happen they way they're intended to."
During the talk, Gelu already preppared his spell, then after ending it, snow falling before him suddenly gathered into one cone of ice, hard as iron, which then with a cough-like sound he directed toward Haraldur's head at extreme speed.
-
//Draven had just insulted him, and younger Haraldur is hot-tempered. I am playing to the role. He is furious. Oh, and the stuff in my post has happened, I just do not want people to think what you have done would affect it, it would make things to complicated.//
Haraldur turned around. A cone of fire and burning oil rushed out of his fingers. The ice coming towards him was obliterated. The fire continued forward, going towards Gelu.
"Who are you? And why did you do that?"
Gelu's robes caught fire a little at the bottom. A fierce wind then came, looking to blow Gelu back a bit.
"Leave me alone. I will not allow the Dark Empire to gain a foothold in this region, nor will I allow it to subjugate another nation."
____________________________________________________________
The elder Haraldur started to eat the salted meat he had stored in this place, along with water. He practised a few spells in this black space. He caused it to rain burning oil. He caused volcanoes to form and then disappear. Satisfied, he waited for the portal to open.
-
Zion and Xenai glared at each other, in a standoff.
"You know that if we fight each other, it will only be a tie," said Zion.
"I know that," came Xenai's response.
A few more seconds of standoff-ing, and they both started to charge up Omni again, glaring hatefully at each other.
-
///
Gelu's robes caught fire a little at the bottom. A fierce wind then came, looking to blow Gelu back a bit.
We should check some midrash and determine whenever controlling of character's clothing is against the rules or not...
You're far overpowered anyway... You're like one character who marches in with thousands of rock trolls, telepathy, ability to kill whoever he likes etc... There's some sort of fun associated with combat, while you prefer kill-in-2-posts technique.
///
With mere look, Gelu instantly put off fire on his robes before snow could do it for him. He raised his head and looked at Haraldur with his red eyes shining among the snow storm. He seemed unaffected by the wind.
"The Dark Empire shall soon control most of the known world anyway. The Emperor has arrived and his will shall soon be done. Fighting is futile, the only way to survive is to unite with the strongest force of this world."
"I guess." - he added, after a short pause, as if he weren't sure about what he was saying. With the signs done with his hands, he began to gather freezing cold air before him.
-
"I do not have time for this."
With that, the younger Haraldur rose up in the air. He cast a stasis spell on Gelu, in hope of causing him to stay still for long enough for him to find Iduran. He then started flying, against the wind, and then with the wind (because the wind spins) towards the northern point.
Where could Iduran be?
_____________________________________________________________
The status of the opening was becoming such that the elder Haraldur could now look on a general view of the map, and see large objects. Soon he would be able to see closer.
Hmmmm... a large ship near Romme, larger than normal in that region, a lot larger than normal. Probably a Dark Empire ship. He cursed his hastiness at getting to the Dark Empire's heart too early.
He hoped his namesake was OK.
-
// DAMMIT, Haraldur! you're truly going too far - spell/far escape/leaving Draven without answer to your attack... ehh teenagers these day with their viking temperament //
Gelu didn't even look at Haraldur, he raised his hand in the air and the spell was blocked.
"When I served Dark Empire, I was a master of counterspells..." - he said calmly then turned to see what happened to Draven.
Yes, he recognised Draven, and he couldn't say he liked him - but with Draven on his side, he might have been able to return to the ranks and be elevated in his position. Unless Draven screwed something up what Dark Empire wanted to achieve...
-
Having got to the Northern point of the island, the younger Haraldur stopped. Iduran could be anywhere. He did not know where to start looking. Iduran could be in the forest, the port, or a thousand miles away.
He should probably help those resisting that Dark Empire, especially since it seems a large contingent of high up people from there have been gathering here, which is strange.
But, he did not know where to look for them either. He should just wait until the elder namesake returns.
______________________________________________________]
The elder Haraldur looked at the portal. It was now completely open. With it, he appeared miles above the surface, and not very far south of Romme.
He descended slowly to a height of 100 metres. Then he started going north.
-
Duilin just sat in the tent, he saw a bunch of locked crates, he also a small unlocked box, it had a lock but it was open, so he limped over to it, and opened it up, it was full of papers, mostly lists of names. He also say some Journal papers, writen by Pophin, they were about suical thought, Veronika, things he found on scouts and past days. He fliped threw them, he noticed the name Nex and Darion come up in a few of them.
Pophin herd the fliping of papers so he jumped into the tent and swung his spear right infront of Duilin, he looks at him in rage!
"What in the hell do you think your doing!" Pophin yells
"I...was...just..." Duilin's mind went blank
"I outta KILL you, for reading my personal notes!"
"Well...what do you THINK would happen if you left somebody in here alone with an unlocked box?" Duilin blerted
"Hmph, I supose you have a point...I'm going to stay in here with you untill you have an answer for your question...I don't even know why Veronika is keeping you alive however."
"Umm....I remember now....I wanted to find Zeros' because he knew were....my magic scroll was." Duilin lied
"Magic Scroll? What kind of Magic Scroll??" Pophin asked
"Umm....It has the directions for useing the Explotion spell...."
"Well, that wouldn't be to good if you got it back, because if you learned how to use that then we would all be in trouble." Pophin then turned away to go get Veronika but turned back "Wait a minute! Nex taught you Flame Of Death, and that basically dose the same thing, so why the bloody hell would you want to know EXPLODTION! You are lieing my friend!!" Pophin pointed his spear at Duilins neck
"What dose Zeros' have!?"
"Ummm......I'm not telling....Kill me...go ahead. Death would only be a blessing for me! Come on do it...." He smiled at Pophin "DO IT!"
Pophin swung his spear back to stab Duilin in his neck but then Veronika grabed the edge of his spear.
"NO! Don't kill him...." Veronika ordered Pophin
Pophin noded and then sat down beside his box of notes
"Duilin my dear," Veronika said "it's okay to tell us, you see...If you do then everything will be better, you can come back with us, we will heal you up, and you can come back and join the Dark Empire, we'll even make you a Commander, what do you say?"
Duilin though for a moment. He used the Dark Empire so he could train up to defeat them, so why not try again, but he would have to tell her that Zeros' had the Iduran's Sword and that would be bad....
"Uhhh......give me some time to think about it...." Duilin said
"Very well, come out side, it's getting dark, we'll have a fire, Hmm?" Veronika smiled at him
Why was she being so nice to her all of the sudden? Did she like him or was she useing him so he would join the Dark Empire...
-
The two opposites continued to charge, all their hate for each other going into their magic. The spells were completely equal, and were completely synchronized.
"I guess we should see which of our allies are stronger..," said Xenai.
"Indeed," came Zion's response.
Xenai phased out, then back in behind Zeros', yanking him away from Jayce, and flinging him a few feet away.
Xenai aimed for Zeros', and Zion aimed for Jayce. The two opposites were synchronous in the launching of their spells.
"Consume all, flash of death!"
The black bubbles appeared around their targets, and the gravity increased again, this time, shooting higher than before.
Xenai was very confident now... He knew for a fact, that Zion would be severely fatigued, as neither of them could cast Omni more than twice.
-
(Oops, I meant by "doing nothing", that the blade did not even pierce Draven's armor. Sorry.)
(Rules: Maximum of 2 posts per day, 2 actions per character per post. Thanks.)
----
Much to Draven's surprise, rather than stop the raging storm at the threat of his friend?s life, the boy opened up in a rage of attacks. But the first move Draven recognized-- a short range teleportation spell cast on Iduran. Iduran began to fade and disappear in Draven's hands, but so did Draven. The spell caused both of them to disappear and reappear right behind Haraldur, a few hundred feet back, for a teleportation spell will carry all people that touch the castee with it. From this view Draven could see the boy follow with an intense ice spell right where he was previously standing, which kicked up such a cloud of mist that it was impossible to tell that Draven no longer stood there.
The boy was a talented no doubt, but obviously inexperienced. Draven could hold his laughter back no longer.
"AH HA HA HA-- oooggh!!!"
Draven suddenly felt a sharp pain in his side, and he dropped Iduran, who fell on his knees in the snow. Haraldur had somehow managed to charge Iduran's broken sword with ice energy as well, and the old knight gave him a good stab in the right side. If the sword were not broken, it might have been fatal.
"You miserable old wretch!"
Draven stepped on Iduran's back, forcing his face into the snow.
"Gah!"
The blue aura of the broken blade faded. Draven extended his right palm and angled it downward at the old knight's head.
"Well, he didn't listen. I guess you die..."
But he paused for a moment, looking up to the sky.
"Hmmm... I have another idea..."
He scooped Iduran off of the ground, placing him in the same head-lock position as before. Iduran struggled.
"Unhand me, you blasted--"
"Silence!"
He applied some pressure to the old man's neck, and he became limp... The two began to float into the air.
During this, Haraldur was being attacked by a warrior Draven did not recognize. Haraldur left at once, apparently he was unsure where the teleportation spell was meant to go. Draven shouted down to the frost mage, assuming him to be an officer of one of the other generals' divisions.
"Many thanks for the distraction. I'll see to it that you are rewarded once our goal is complete..."
The force of the blizzard began to wane, turning more into a heavy snow. It was clear that the boy had his mind on other things, rather than focusing on keeping the storm at full strength...
----
"What the--?!"
Jayce suddenly found himself under the force of a gravity attack. Unlike Draven, Jayce had seen this type of spell before, and instead of fighting the force from all sides, he put his energy into a single thrust of the sword, effectively "popping" the bubble encasing him. It was that green haired guy again.
Jayce held his sword horizontally in front of him, the long curved blade resting on his left hand.
"You've made it clear that you want to fight. Hmmm... perhaps you can tell me where the sword is..."
His blade began to emanate darkness, rather it was the effect of rays of light not being capable of escaping from it...
-
Zeros' was about to block the energy when Xenai pulled him away and incased him in a gravity ball. The gravity was increasing and he could feel it.
Zeros' managed to move and thrust his katana through the barrier and make a small hole in it, which he managed to slip out of.
"Nice try..."
Genma, Zev and Qeni looked at the battle in silence. Genma was the first to break the silence.
"Zeros' and Jayce are far more powerful then they both preceive...and Draven also."
Zev looked at Qeni and spoke to her mind. You think this old martial arts master is telling the truth?
Qeni only nodded to Zev's question, they also noticed Draven and Iduran float off behind them.
Lets go Zev... Qeni said to her compainion. Zev nodded and they started floating off slowly towards the direction of Draven and Iduran.
"Good luck. The wheel of time is turning, and now we might not be able to stop it." Genma said to the two figures.
-
A few mintues past. Pophin, Duilin, and Veronika were sitting around a camp fire.
Duilin has had no treating on his womd but a small bandage, that won't help much, so he is still in pain, and the spear went very deep in him anyways. So if he tried to run away, he would move to slow and he would be shot down to death by Veronika if he tried.
Pophin just stared into the fire. Veronika was lieing back, leaned against a rock, with her shot gun in her right hand, and her left hand inbetween her head and the rock. Duilin was sitting across from Veronika and a few feet away from Pophin, he was holding his cut, it had stoped bleeding, but if he had pressure on it, it wouldn't hurt as much. Duilin wasn't sure why, but she had her eyes on Veronika.
Then he started thinking
I wonder if I should re join the Dark Empire. Like, there evil and all but, what if there my only hope to a good life? But if so, wouldn't it make lives bad for others? Like, they go from place to place, wipeing them out, stealing there stuff, getting magical weapons for some reason only god knows, and kill people, and the lucky ones get forced to join, like me.....and...Pophin? Why is he so loyal to the Dark Empire? He could sneak away! There had to be a reason....
"Pophin?" Duilin says
"What!?" He say sounding annoyed, not even looking at him
"Why do you want to stay with the Dark Empire?"
Pophin turned to him "Because! They helped me, they made me feal good about my gift of sneaking, they gave me a purpose in life. You my friend, could easily have been made a purpose in life to, but you see, joining Romme was a poor idea, because we are going to kill every last one them! The Kingdom is nomore" He smiled "You see, if you choose to stay with Romme, you shall die my friend! You shall die on the battle feild, by getting killed by some soilder. But you see, if you join the Dark Empire, you may die, but you will have a far better chance of survival, you shall have the greatest victory. Veronika even said you will become a low rank Commander. That's better then me, and only one step lower then Veronika."
Duilin thought for awile, he was abit scared to hear that he accually had a point. He wanted to find out more however.
"Who are you people? Like you and Veronika? What divison are you?"
Veronika then decieded to answer that "We a small group of people hired by The Emporer himself, to make or enemies join us, and work seperately from the others. It was originally, me Darion and next, but those two decieded to join Draven, because they knew he needed help finding the sword. So Darion brought you. You see, Darion was accually under my command this entire time! You just failed to notice."
"But why did Darion tell Draven to turn agaisnt me?"
"Darion is a fool, I'm glad you killed him. Nex however was alot better then him, he wanted to kill you because he knew that you would turn against us someday, so he told Darion. That's why."
Duilin had made his choice, now, he didn't want to re join, not after what happened the first time, he may die, but at least he'll die proud, he'll die fighting for the good guys. It is better to die happy then to live sad...
"Do you know were we can find Nex?" Veronika asked
Duilin smiled "Yeah...And I've made my choice, I'll re join you guys, I only wanted to get back at Darion, now let's get back at Romme!"
"Excellent! Excellent! Now first I want you to go find Nex, Pophin you go with him!"
Veronika passed Duilin a potion. He drank it and his cut started to heal! He and Pophin headed over to the cave....
-
Tsar was angered by the ineffectiveness of his attack.
"I wasted a perfectly good staff.." he said, with kind of a sad tone.
He then took some Psi from his body and focused it into his hands.
Slowly, a stick formed, about 2 feet long, but Tsar was not finished.
He added more Psi to the object, and slowly, he formed chain link, 15 feet long.
He continued, and added a sphere to it, around 2 feet in diamater.
He then focused closely on the sphere, and spikes popped out of it.
He had formed a Morning Star, entirely out of his own Psi.
It was bluish in color and it phased a bit, slowing it was not a true solid.
Tsar smiled a bit.
______________________________________________________________
Seth was starting to bleed pretty bad from his gun shots, and had a hard time staying concious.
He got to the point where he couldn't distinguish reality from his hallucinations, and began babbling something along the lines of, "Where is he? Help him!"
______________________________________________________________
Nevina continued her onslaught against the soldiers.
She cloed her eyes and prayed, removed her necklace and wrapped it around her blade. It then glowed with the intensity of a star and she screamed as she slashed at the soldiers.
-
The younger Haraldur suddenly noticed something: his namesake was somewhere to the south of him. He flew directly south.
The elder Haraldur saw him. He flew to him.
"How are things?" said the elder one. "I seem to have lost Iduran," said the younger one.
"Hopefully he is OK. However, it seems that the Emporer has his ship here. Hopefully we can destroy it. Do this with me."
Haraldur the younger caused burning oil to rain onto the ship, and the elder one brought forth a hurricane centred very powerfully on the ship, and only affecting the area immediately around the ship. This resulted in there being a swirling wind of hot burning oil, which destroyed all the trees it touched, making them disappear completely. The trees were on the outside however, the ship was suffering the full force of the nightmare. Surely it could not survive this?
//I think you should decide the ship's fate Xorlak.//
-
Shin left the camp, following Nevina's intensified aura. It was a fair distance from his current location, so he figured that he had better leave now. He nodded toward Sigilus as if to say 'You better take good care of her' as he was leaving, and he entered the maze of green leaves and newly arrived white snow. He intensified his ice aura so as to allow him to fly a short distance unaffected by the snow. As he rose, Shin saw Nevina locked in combat. He didn't stop to watch; he zoomed in and landed behind the soldiers. As he landed, he formed his ice sword and slashed through one of the soldiers, cutting his head clean off.
Sigilus and Gyulim were busy enjoying their dragon meat with Nameless...even if Dragon's meat isn't very tasty.
-
Zeros' saw that the effect of Jayce's opposer.
"Gravity magic...nice try girl. Out of my way." Zeros' flapped his wings and flew past Xenai and towards Jayce, his sword at his side, slashing downwards, hoping to hurt him or catch him off guard.
-
// hmm... I got a bit confused - when was Haraldur when Draven/Iduran got teleported? was he escaping already toward the northern point or what? and did Gelu got teleported as well? //
"Very well." - answered Gelu. - "The Romme knight has been taken care of. I guess I should look for this ... foreign warrior, an enthusiast of weather amnipulation..."
-
(Since long range teleportation is illegal, Draven and Iduran simply teleported a few feet behind Haraldur and Gelu. Heh...)
----
"Hyah!"
Before Zion could answer, Jayce raised his sword to meet Zeros'. The swords met hard and Jayce flew downwards a few feet. He held his sword loosely to his side.
"What fun... HA!"
He waved the blackened blade over his head, emitting three large pulses of dark energy. Two headed straight for Zeros', the third for Zion.
----
Draven rose higher and higher with his hostage. Soon he was in full view above the four locked in battle-- Zeros', Jayce, Zion, and Xenai, and the three onlookers-- Genma, Qeni, and Zev (yet still below Tsar).
He voice boomed as he shouted his threat to Zeros':
"Listen up, flyboy! Hand over the sword or the geezer gets it!"
He pressed his fingers to Iduran's temple as he did before, his hand becoming red hot with flame. He then spoke softly into Iduran's ear:
"Let's hope this one's more cooperative. I really don't want to get blood all over my cape... heh..."
Iduran regained consciousness. The blurriness faded from his eyes to revealed a great battle in the sky... it was the winged man that appeared before him while he was sick in the cave. Apparently he had the sword...
Iduran struggled with all his might:
"Zeros'! Don't do it!"
Through the flight upwards he had still managed to clutch onto the broken broadsword. He began to frantically jam the blade into Draven's armor once again, but to no avail. After the third attempt, Draven raised his knee and caught it between his elbow (for he had no free hands), snapping the flimsy metal in half, where it fell harmlessly to the ground. He tightened his grip on the old knight.
"Any quick moves and he's through! You hear?"
----
A great wave covered the entire ship... the collossal vessel seemed to entirely dissappear... for a moment... But the sea of water fell off of it as if it were encased in a massive glass bubble... The mist surrounding the ship circled violently, in the opposite direction of the hurricane force winds, making the ship's surrounding air calm.
However, the conditions just a few yards from the ship were extremely violent. Although protected, the ship was immobile and landing troops would be impossible as long as the storm raged on.
Deep within, in a dark room...
"What is this?"
Neptra bowed low.
"It appears we are under attack."
"They attack us with water... how ironic."
"They seem to be using some type of flame attack as well..."
"Does that matter?"
Neptra smiled.
"Not at all."
"Deal with it."
"As you wish..."
She stood up, moving a strand of hair from her face, and strided out the door...
-
//Heh... Omni doesn't work that way, but oh well.
"The sword? I don't know what you're talking about." Zion unsheathed his Eternity Weapon, flowing with light, and whacked the incoming darkness attack away, barely able to from his great fatigue. He looked up at Draven, who had Iduran hostage. "Oh, crap..."
"Idiot... You're mine." Xenai glared at Zion, then flew away to the nearest landform, landing and shoving his Zero Weapon into the ground. He started to chant.
Zion looked over at him. "What the...?"
Soon, the sword's already flowing darkness started to flow more.
"Damn you, not today!" Zion started to fly toward Xenai, but he was doubting his ability to stop him. He had used far too much energy already.
-
Zeros' smirked at Draven's treat. Zeros' deflected the two pulses of dark energy coming towards his with a swift slash of his sword.
Before Zeros' could proceed to rescue Iduran, Genma then also phased in then back out (phasing is basically great speed, but Genma can't move as fast as Zeros', so he doesn't go as far) a few feet below Draven.
He floated up the last few feet and put both hands behind is back in fists (he is still holding his cane in his left hand).
"Now now Draven...Did the emperor tell you to kill Iduran?"
-
Two of Nevinas wild slashes landed on the only livinbg soldier, cutting him into three sections.
Nevina then reclaimed her Scimitar from the soldier, then casually said, "Hi" to Shin.
________________________________________________________________
Seth slipped into unconciousness.
_________________________________________________________________
Tsar took his newly created morning star and desended back to the battle field.
Tsar, now standing 10 feet from Zeros', swung his morning star, aiming to wrap Zeros' up in the chain of psi.
-
The elder Haraldur caused great boulders to appear far above the ship and fall down onto it. He also caused lighting to appear in the clouds of burning oil and strike the ship.
The younger Haraldur caused many rocks the size of a head to appear horisonally next to the ship, on all sides, and move to and smash into the ship. He also caused spikes of rock to crash into the ship from underneath, out from the water.
-
Zeros' held up his sword and let the chain wrap around his sword. The morning star wrapped around his sword, but it did not break.
He tugged at the morning star and pulled Zeros' forwards. While Tsar was flying towards him, he held back his left hand and formed a fist.
When Tsar reached him, he proceeded to punch at Tsar hundreds and hundreds of times at 100 punches every 0.3 seconds for 5 seconds.
-
Pophin and Duilin arived near the area were Nevina, Seth and Shin were, they hid behind a near by tree.
"Who was that asain?" Pophin wispers to Duilin
"That, was Shin, some Artain guy, or something." Duilin wispered back
"How do we get by them?"
"Like this!" Duilin says breaking his wisper and pounding Duilin in the face, knocking him out. He picked him up, Pophin was about a foot smaller then him, and very light, he had him over his sholder. And he walked over to the others.
"Hey everyone I'm back!" Duilin says, smileing for once
-
//The psi chain is under Tsars command. He can make it translucent if he wants, anything. It's Psi. He can maniplate everything about it.//
Tsar merely laughed at Zeros' attempt. Before he got within reach of Zeros' fists, he had the Psi become a liquid for a moment, freeing Tsar from Zeros' pull. It then rehardened and Tsar had it turn to liquid once again.
It lapped around in the air as if gravity did not exist and the chain and ball became a mace. He then swung at Zeros' head.
/elapsed time: 5 seconds, 4.955 of the seconds being the time where the psi was changing/
_______________________________________________________________
Nevina smiled as Duilin arrived, glad to see he was alright.
Seth then came to and rasped, "ugh.. a little help.. here..?".
Nevina then rushed to Seths side.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on his wounds. She then moved her hands back and the bullet followed, coming out of Seths flesh.
Nevina then praid and the wounds began to close up.
"AhhhHhh.. Seth said, half in pain and half in relief. "Thank You.." He said, with a kinda grim smile on his face.
-
"Well, I captured this here guy who attacked me...I'm abit tired accually. Potion's make me drousy, I'm gonna go back to the cave and sleep, I'll tell you the story later, See ya." Duilin walks off, he nods at Shin as he walks by him and enters the cave.
A few minutes later he ties Pophin up, beside Nex's grave stone and he heads into his messy room and removes his armor and goes into bed and quickly falls to sleep....
//Well, se you guy's next week! Wink //
-
Shin smiled at Nevina.
"Tracking your aura wasn't exactly easy; you should learn telepathy," Shin said with a wink.
-
"Hmph...nice trick." Zeros' mearly sidestepped away from the mace then phased in then back out behind Tsar. He twisted his free arm behind his back and point the sword right at Tsar's neck.
//Since Tsar is physically weak, I dont see how he could break free without much struggle form Zeros', unless he has some other tricks up his sleeves.\\
-
"Hmm." - Gelu thought. - "The young one ran too far."
He looked around for some better task to do and noticed Zeros and Tsar fighting in the distance. Tsar was obviously on the side of Dark Empire, and Zeros was a demon - which could make him a bit tough ally - noticing how Tsar was in the range of Zeros' sword, the frost mage decided it might be good to aid him while during the same time, still being in general vicinity under where Draven was flying, in case he'll need back-up with the hostage.
He concentrated, closed his eyes, lower his scarf and took a deep breath, capturing remains of snow and cold air around within himself. Then, with a powerful force, he breathed out a spectral-looking ice elemental (sort of looking like flying genie or something, made from pure cold).
He opened his eyes and blowed his breath at the creature, which then fully awakened and began to head toward Tsar and Zeros.
-
Draven glanced downward at Genma.
"I can kill whoever I please. What kind of a question is that, anyway?"
Draven looked up. Zeros' and Tsar resumed fighting, and now that frost mage was entering the fray from below. His threat was being ignored...
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
Draven ignited in flame. The aura served as an energy source as well as a protective shield for Draven, but proves to be extremely uncomfortable for anyone else to get caught up in...
Iduran screamed at the intense increase in heat, now struggling violently.
"Ahhhh!!"
A fireball appeared in Draven's right hand, and he held it right next to the old knight's head.
"Either produce the sword, Zeros', or just outright tell me you don't value his life. I'm not going to wait!"
Jayce lowered his sword. Both of his adversaries were stolen away from him and were now fighting someone else, and he flashed Draven an irritated look. Blizzards, street brawls in the sky, and now a hostage situation... what next?
Jayce lifted his blade and rested it on his right shoulder, watching Iduran struggle. Bah, all's fair in love and war, I suppose... He's going to kill the old man too...
----
Neptra stood on the deck of the mighty black vessel. The torment just outside the barrier of mist was unbelievable... Lightning, boulders, fire, stuck at the sides... the clamor was deafening. The deck was empty, for all the soldiers had hidden for fear of their lives...
"Weather mages... probably more than one..."
She ran to the edge and leapt off, cutting through the mist below the ship and diving into the water... This is where she is most comfortable, the water elemental has no trouble breathing under water...
As she descended into the depths, great jagged boulders arose off of the sea floor, aiming to pierce the bottom of the ship. She allowed them to pass, then raised her hand. The water below the vessel congealed and froze rock solid, stopping the assault from below.
The water itself was very rough, due to the storm above, but she molded a steady jet stream to push her outward, away from the ship. It was obvious that the attackers were some distance away-- it would be foolish to create a storm like this and throw it upon yourself. She rose closer to the surface, yet remained under water, scanning the air above for anything suspicious...
-
The elder Haraldur clicked his fingers, and all the attacks on the ship stopped instantly: rocks disappeared etc..
"This does not appear to be working. This ship must be for those of high rank. We must try to find more subtle ways to destroy the ship, or find other ways to prevent their escape."
"What you say is true," said the younger Haraldur,"but maybe we are simply not hitting it hard enough?"
"That is a possibility, but, this being the Dark Empire, I expect that they have other means of escape anyway."
They noticed a small disturbance in the now still waters.
"Let us go," said the elder one.
"Indeed."
The younger Haraldur quickly muttered something. The water below them and all around the island caught fire. It was actual water burning.
Then they both flew north, with schemes of entrapment being sent to eachother's minds.
The elder said, "What two cannot do, 20000 have a better chance of doing."
"Indeed."
-
The weather was changing. First cold, then immense heat as some aura nearby was activated - Cheetah got enough of this! He woke up in his wyvern form, brushing off snow from his wings, then turned to human being and quickly leapt down from a tree, effectively falling on his back.
As he stood up and tried to resist the spine ache, he noticed some quite visible flame-like object in the sky.
"Draven!" - that seemed obvious to him, altough he was still yawning after being woken up by thermal shock.
-
Tsar, struggled against Zeros' hold, but to no avail.
He then dropped his mace and concentrated on it.. it then went to the liquidish state and latched onto Zeros' Chest. It then hardened and began to tighten.
"haha.. release me and I won't break you're ribs!" Tsar said, quite gleefully consitering he had a sword pointed at his neck.
________________________________________________________________
Nevina said, "Sorry it was so much trouble, Shin." She then helped Seth up and he began to stagger about.
"ahhh.. feels good to move.. I'm lucky you were around.. Nevina." He said with a grin. He then picked up his Falchion.
"What should we do now..? Quite a rumble going on over there.. But we still need to seek the Dragon. I'm with you either way.."
-
Zion came up fast upon Xenai, watching Draven's aura ignite. He was going to kill Iduran if someone didn't do something. It was obvious to him that Iduran was the good guy in this conflict.
Zion tightly gripped his Eternity Weapon, letting some of its light flow into his body, and giving him enough energy to attack Xenai. "Eat steel, Omega!" came the battle cry as Zion came up on him.
"Wha...?" Xenai turned around just in time to feel the force of an upward slash cut into the body armor on his torso, underneath his clothes, and sending him back for far distances, crashing through the ice as he flies over it, but not going into the ocean, like Sonic the Hedgehog running on water at high speed. When he runs out of momentum, he finds himself laying down on the ice.
"Gotta do something...!" Zion thought to himself as he absorbed all the light from his Eternity Weapon, dropped it beside him, and gripped the Zero Weapon shoved into the ground. He tried his best to absorb the energy, and sure enough, as light swallows darkness in real life, the darkness converts to light and starts to flow into Zion's body.
Xenai gets to his feet. "You're dead, bastard!" He flew toward Zion at high speed, with intense rage flowing through him.
Zion freaked out. "Crap, crap...!" His eyes then narrowed as he picked his Eternity Weapon back up, and forced all the light he absorbed into it. The Eternity Weapon was now gold, overflowing with that much light. He slashed downwards at Xenai as he came up to him, and sent him into the icy water.
"Your turn," said Zion quietly to himself as he turned around to face the distant Draven, tightly gripping his Eternity Weapon. He was ready for one more go at him.
-
"Now now Draven...you really should control that temper." Genma floated towards Draven a few more feet then phased out then back in behind Draven.
He grapped the hand that held his fireball and held it towards his own head. Genma also held his other hand right under the small of his back.
"Unless you want to be forever scolded by even the smallest heat source, release Iduran." He then looked over Draven's shoulder and yelled out something to Jayce.
"Oh come on now Jayce...you know I won't die that easily...heh." Genma started to do his trademarked laugh.
Zeros' looked at the water and sighed.
"Go ahead and try. Ive broken every bone in my body more then 3 times over my hundreds of years as a warrior."
Zeros' lowered his sword down about an inch and reached the base of his spine. He charged his sword with ki energy //Ki is the opposite of Psi, Ki is from the body, Psi is from the spirits\\ and thrust it as hard as he could into the man's body.
Qeni and Zev were watching Gelu summon the ice spirit and decided they should do something. They both hovered over and intercepted the spirit.
"Leave now." Spoke Qeni, she didn't like fighting one bit.
-
//Actually from what I understand Ki and Psi are the same. Psi comes from bodies too, as Tsar was summoned energy from himself before. Everything has psi in it. the Moon does not have a spirit, yet Tsar draws psi from it. ah well. A Stabs a stab//
Zeros' jab hit Tsar in the base of the neck, severing his spine.
Tsar had lost all control over everything from his neck down.
But this was no concern to Tsar. He could kill Zeros' without his body..
The Psi around Zeros' tightened, with enough force to burst Zeros' heart. Tsar then took the ki energy that was thrust into him, along with psi left from the flame barrier, and used it to create a new being.
It had no face, and lacked detail, looked like a blue puppet, and thus is exactly what it was.
Tsar had full control of the Psi figure, and had it form a rapier sword, 3 feet in length.
It then slashed wildly at Zeros'.
-
Shin dispatched his sword and his ice aura, then looked around. He sensed Jayce's aura on the island...
"Nevina, tell me, have you seen any generals of the Dark Empire around here?"
Jayce...Shin would never forgive him for killing his family, and for leaving a permanent scar on his back in the shape of a crescent moon. But more importantly...his family's treasured spear was taken. It was time for revenge...
Revenge is a dish best served cold
-
Cheetah turned into cheetah formed and hurried with all his speed toward the source of fire in the sky...
-----
"Children should not teach master mages how to deal with magic." - Gelu looked in direction of Queni and Zev. They must have surely been of some aid to that demon. - "Do not try to come in my way!"
He moved few stepped toward the children, prepparing an orb of frost with his hands, then released it to fly like a fireball at extreme speed, leaving trail of cold fog.
-
(Eh? Genma has the fireball pointed at his own head?)
"What do you think you're doing, you senile old fool?!"
Draven flashed the ancient warrior a cold look of irritated rage. If looks could kill... he was about to...
Jayce had seen it all now... Sword supported on his shoulder, he began to slowly float towards Draven, Genma, and Iduran. Now why would Genma try to save that worthless old man...?
Draven held Iduran up tightly with his remaining arm.
"Unhand me, you worthless scum!"
Draven let loose the crimson orb into Genma's face. It was enough force to blow a normal man's head clean off...
----
(Hmmm... set the water around the entire island on fire... lame...
Heh, I suppose Draven, who is an actual fire mage, can snap his fingers and incinerate the island itself in an instant? Let's tone done the catastrophic spells a bit. If you want to do an attack of that magnitude, at least have your character take a few posts to gather the energy. And be descriptive!)
Neptra stopped. There appeared to be a burning wall of flame directly above her. She raised both hands to the water's surface, causing a spout of water to shoot up, breaking through the flames. As the water rained back down, the rest of the flame disappeared. She rose to the surface. As her feet were even with the top of the water, a perfect circle of water froze underneath her, giving her a spot to stand on in the middle of the ocean.
Two black specs were flying away northward. The assault on the ship had apparently stopped. Had they simply given up or had her presence scared them off? Jayce or Draven would probably pursue them, but Neptra was different... She had accomplished what she had been ordered to do. Nothing more was necessary. She folded her arms and the disc of ice began to float back towards the great black ship...
-
//The two Haraldurs have now passed away from the northern point of Romme.//
-
Zev stepped infront of Qeni and grabbed the orb in his teeth. He burst the cold orb with his white fangs; the cold air disappatied...
"We warned you..." Qeni pointed a finger forwards and Zev charged at Gelu's head, teeth glaring. Qeni also charged a ball of something...it had no definate shape or color.
She also threw this at Gelu.
----
Zeros' was amused at Tsar assult. Some of his ribs were crushed, but not enough to disable him. The puppet slashed at his back, but Zeros' was able to grab the blade before it hit him.
Zeros' charged his sword with ki energy and broke Tsar's chain with his sword. He phased out then back in behind the puppet and thrust the sword through his chest.
----
Genma was an old martial arts master, a fireball, even aimed at his head, did almost nothing.
"Draven, Draven...You still understand nothing." Genma reached around Draven's chest and thrust a finger at a point about 2 inches blow his neck on the right side of his chest.
"This is the full body cat-tounge. It effectively weak VS heat. Even luke warm water will scold you."
Genma started to laugh. "If you want it to be released, give me Iduran. Or you will forever be scalded by heat, your forte."
-
The Puppets sword melted in Zeros' hand, then turned into a spear in a milisecond, with the point in the space that middle of Zeros' skull is/was occupying.
As for the thrust, the puppet was uneffected. Its body hardened around the sword, making it difficult, if not impossible to pull it out.
//The Psi puppet is invinsible in a way. You cannot kill it through normal means, as it is not a living thing. Shooting a puppet will not stop it, you must go for the puppet master. Tsar must be weakened to the point he has to draw the psi from the puppet into his body to survive for the puppet to die, or you must destroy the psi itself by some means//
______________________________________________________________
Nevina said, "No.. not a high ranking general anyways. Some woman with a.. projectile weapon of some sort.. came by and took Duilin and wounded Seth, but their both fine now.. Why do you ask?"
______________________________________________________________
Seth swung his Falchion a bit, then decided to test a new move..
He kneeled down on the ground, one hand pointed to his left, the other, the one with the sword in it, pointed forward. He muttered an incantation and the sword began to glow with a warming, yellow aura. "Moon Sabre..." Seth muttered in awe.
-
"You under estimate my abilities, Outsider." Zeros' cracked his fingers on his left hand for a second then thrust his hand where he saw his sword stuck, in a literal 0.1 seconds, he had jabbed over 100 times, effectively releasing his sword.
"I will not lose this sword...It is my only rememberance of my mother and father.
Zeros' phased out then back in right behind Tsar.
"Puppet master...what does your future hold?" Zeros' sheathed his sword and slowly flew away.
"Try to find another purpose. Your soul is hurting, you don't even want to be here, or even under Draven's command. Find me agian when you find a purpose." He said as he looked at Tsar.
He flew down and floated to Qeni's height.
"Hey there girl..." He patted her on her head then hugged her. She looked up at him and smiled.
FLASHBACK
-----------------------
Several hundred years ago...a small village near the future Romme.
A village was burning. The thached rooms and wooden walls were turning to embers. Many villagers slay slain in cold blood as steel connected to flesh.
A father viciously faught with a sword longer then his own body, he was a very tall man, reaching heights of 6'3. The bandits surrounded the man, but one by one they were slain till only there leader was left.
The leader was a very tall man, but his eyes held a sad look. He deftly slain the fighting father. This child looked on as his father was slain in cold blood.
The leader walked to the child and patted him on the head.
"Sorry 'bout this kid..." He handed him his fathers katana. The bandit leader walked away and then collapsed on the ground; dead. Everyone involved in the raid was slain. His father, mother, sister and brother.
An old man (Genma) appeared to the child. "You have much untapped power..." Genma took the crying child and the sword away from the village, even more so, his sister and brothers bodies disappeared from his sight and seemed to be dragged to heaven.
END FLASHBACK
---------------------
"Brother..." She hugged his as well and started to cry on his shoulder.
-
Gelu closed his eyes, rised his hand, and stopped the spell flying toward him in mid-air few meters before it reached it's target, causing it to explode instantly, missing target.
"Magic... magic is no match for me."
He opened his eyes and looking at Zev running toward him, he pointed a thinger and began to shoot small icicles, solid as steel, at the kid, one after another, like a machine gun.
-----
Cheetah finaly reached the area. Many folks were there - but in the air, he noticed Draven holding someone... Iduran. Around him, some woman was phasing around, looking a bit weird.
Cheetah didn't even bother trying to speak in this situation, he turned himself into a wyvern, flew to Draven's high (but kept distance, it was hard to resist the heat at close range), then spat a bolt of acid at him. Not really sure if it would work, but at least he might be distracted. Altough this was also not too possible. Oh well.
-
//The two Haraldur's are nearing Víkingagarð.//
-
(Haraldur, perhaps you should describe their travels rather than mention them as side comments. Heh...)
----
Draven stared Genma straight in the face.
"Heh heh heh..."
He smirked, and then bellowed out in uncontrollable laughter.
"AH HA HA HA HAAAH!!"
He tossed Iduran towards the ground like a rag doll, and the now unconscious old knight began to plumet hundreds of yards, spiraling towards the ground.
"Are you serious? I suppose being hundreds of years old does make one senile. Never have I heard of such a ridiculous claim!"
His smile instantly disappeared, and he assumed a cold posture of hate. His right hand moved like lightning, grabbing the old master by the throat. His fire aura blew his hair as he spoke.
"You must understand your place, old man. Your pathetic little spells, kung fu magic, or whatnot will not work on a High General of the Dark Empire, your superior. I don't care if you are a personal arm of the Emperor, you just attacked a superior officer. That, my friend, is treachery. And that, you will die for."
At that point he exploded, quite literally. The dim aura he had a second ago burst forth ten fold, emitting intense crimson light. The gray sky (just recovering from the blizzard) turned blood red. The snow below disappeared layer by layer...
----
Jayce watched the scene, half confused, half amused. Genma a traitor? Unlikely. He probably just has some beef with Draven. Who doesn't hate him? Jayce smirked at a thought that occurred to him an hour ago...
Bah, whatever. Genma would probably make a better general, anyway. Better than a miserable human...
He turned his gaze to the south, ignoring the multiple battles, the onlookers... Something was there... a cold presence... something vaguely familiar...
An evil grin overcame the dark man's face.
"... Aritan..."
-
//Describe? OK.//
The sea and air were still, and that is because that is how the two Haraldur's wanted it.
-
Wyvern-form Cheetah hurried toward Iduran, grabbed with him with claws, and with some effort managed to land several feet away on the ground, under the burning sky, further from the fight or it's spectators.
-----
Gelu wondered what made Draven lose control over hostage, but he didn't really have much time - suddenly, a light burst out from Draven. A bit panicaly, Gelu tried to cover his whole face with the scar, then with a sign of hand, surrounded himself with a shield of ice, separating him from the rest of world like a window. The ice was dark and didn't let too much light in.
(as an albino, light was naturally dangerous to Gelu)
-
Jayce's voice was caught by the cold winds, and was carried far enough to be heard by the Aritan General, Shin Yong Tsing. Upon hearing Jayce's cold and cruel voice, Shin shuddered with fear...the very fear that he never showed before.
"He's...to the north...oh my god..."
Shin locked on to Jayce's aura and forged two daggers from his ice energy; power alone wasn't going to do anything...he needed speed, and the daggers could offer him just that. His showdown was to begin soon. He let them float in midair...he had something he needed to do first.
He looked at Nevina, his fear evident in his eyes. He waited only a few seconds before he threw himself upon her...
-
"Oh, crap!" A lot of energy shot out of Zion's feet, launching him toward Iduran at the speed he needed to go to save him. He caught the old knight, and gently laid him on the ground.
He looked up at Draven, phasing out, then in behind him, with his light-enhanced sword already coming down toward the general. The overflowing light left somewhat of a trail in the air as the blade came down toward Draven.
Meanwhile, Zion had another problem. A shivering arm shot out of the ice near the island where the Zero Weapon was, then another arm near the other, and Xenai pulled himself out, just barely alive. "D-d-d-d-d-damn y-y-y-you, y-you b-b-b-b-bastard!"
-
//Zev is a wolf, by the way and Qeni is an angel. Read back some posts to find out what happened\\
"Death would be welcomed by me, but I am not ready to die yet." Genma move his right hand (holding his staff) forwards and touched a spot near Draven's heart, giving him a one-second muscle spasm; that was all he needed to get away.
He phased out then back in a few feet away. He saw Cheetah fly away with Iduran, he'd have to get Iduran back another time. He recorded his ki signature and then refocused on Draven.
"Treason? No. Were you ever ordered to kill Iduran?" At the same time, he sent a message to the emperor.
Sorry about this...Draven was about to kill Iduran. We still need him right? Becasue if we do need him and he's dead, well then were screwed.
Genma simply erased all of his ki signature and disappeared from sight, not even the most skilled masters could find him now. This is the advanced version of the Umi-Sen-Ken, now he could only be seen when he wanted to be.
----
Zeros' looked up amused at his master.
"Haha..good one."
The light did nothing to Zeros', but he held his sister tight to make sure she didn't get damaged by it, or blinded.
Zev closed his eyes and then snarled...When the light disappeared, he saw everyone agian, including the ice shield Gelu put up.
He simply landed on the ground then jumped back up to Zeros' and Qeni's height, waiting to see what will happen.
-
The two landed on the ground and arrived at the royal drinking hall. They entered.
"Hi, dad. I would like ships for 20000 men and the men themselves. Things are getting interesting."
The king nodded. Some officials left.
-
(EoN: Cheetah the wyvern caught Iduran two posts before you. Heh...)
(Haraldur: I meant something more like:
"The two Haraldurs sped northward over the seas like the wind, a look of determination and resolve in their eyes. There was only one way to take the colossal ship down... Soon Víkingagarð would be on the horizon."
Not bad, eh?)
----
Draven released Genma, bending over and clutching his chest for a second, before pointing a glowing hand at the old master.
"Iduran? Is that his name? What does it matter if he dies or not?"
He fired off two crimson orbs, about a foot in diameter and a bit stronger than the last, but Genma vanished and the fireballs sped towards the ground, exploding upon impact and shaking the very ground itself.
"Coward! Where did you go?!"
He thrust both hands forward and downward-- another larger orb of crimson light appeared before them, swelling to two feet in diameter.
He turned his head, looking for his target, but instead saw Zion coming in fast.
"Insects! I will destroy you all!!"
Taking the larger fireball in his left hand, he heaved it straight towards the charging Zion.
----
Genma received a reply:
"Who is this... Iduran?"
(The Dark Empire doesn't really know the details. They just want the sword. That doesn't neccessarily mean you're not on to something...)
----
Jayce ignored the explosions, Draven's yelling, the chaos behind him... The sword is Draven's problem, not his.
This, however, could be more... interesting...
He re-sheathed the massive sword on his back and took off flying southward, leaving the aerial brawl behind. His black cape spread out behind him as he sped through the winds, like the dark wings of a dragon...
-
The leader of the Romme empire. Do you want him alive? Genma said to the emperor.
-
Cheetah turned to human form and wandered a bit off from the battlefield. Which didn't mean Draven wasn't able to launch some epic fireball at them any minute.
"What is happening? Who are all these... newcomers?" - he asked Iduran.
-----
Gelu didn't really care much about what was happening, as long as Draven was playing with his fire/light effects. But he knew something went wrong.
-
//Heh... Whoops. Need to read these posts more thoroughly.//
Tsu was shivering in the cold. "Man... How'd it g-get like this?" He climbed onto his cabin, then jumped from its roof onto a tree, then jumped to another tree, then another, and another. He got up as high as he could, and looked around, seeing the conflict as little dot people with swords and fireballs. "What the...?" Tsu jumped off the tree. Dumb. He crashed into the ground and rolled forward several times, and would be seen now with swirly eyes if he were in an anime.
As Zion swung the sword down, he noticed the fireball coming in. It was too late. The fireball scorched his body, and he was sent flying.
"I got it!" Xenai jumped high up into the air, grabbing Zion. Zion turned his head to look at him. "...You."
"Yeah, me." Xenai spun around, and threw Zion straight down towards the ice. Zion sucked much of the overflowing energy from his Eternity Weapon, giving himself enough energy to land on his feet and do a backflip away from the now crumbling ice underneath him. He looked up at Xenai. "You're not my problem right now!" With that, he took back off toward Draven.
-
Now that Zeros' had left him, Tsar decided he should use the time to repair his severec spine.
He focused on the back of his neck, and his eyes flipped back in his skull.
His body shined with a red aura, and a gold band circled his neck.
It then tightened around, then absorbed into his skin.
It acted as if it were a welders flame and his spine were steel bars.
The pain was unbareable, but Tsars neck was now repaired.
"Ha.. I only you understood my predicament, Deamon.." He said.
Then to himself he whispered, "But he's.. right...."
______________________________________________________________
Nevina was knocked down by Shin, and he now lay on top of her.
"YaaH! wha.. huh..?..." She said, her voice getting lighter every syllabol.
She laughed and tried to played it off a bit.
She then looked looked intently into Shins eyes, and wanted to hug him in a way.
______________________________________________________________
Seth looked over at Shin and Nevina and sighed.
God I hate human nature.. he said, as he slashed at a few bushes, incenerating the leaves with the aura.
"Whatcha say we go kick some Dark Empirian ass, eh Duilin?"
-
Draven brought both arms to his side, glowing brightly, as he watched Zion begin another charge from below.
He pressed both hands together in front of his chest and began to pull them apart slowly, a stream of fire flowing in between. When he was satisfied with the length. he grabbed one end of the pillar of flame with his right hand and released it with the other, the flame molding into his familiar crimson blade.
Raising the blade of flame above his head, he dove diagonally downwards, spiraling straight for Zion, crimson flames streaking behind him...
"Nyaaaaahhhh!!!!"
----
Perfect.
Jayce had come to the foothills of the mountains in the center of the island. He landed on a large plateau with a drop-off on all sides. The terrain was relatively rocky, yet flat, only a few shrubs struggled through the stone ground. An idea battlefield...
He folded his arms and closed his eyes, his black cape and black hair flowing in the wind, 'watching' the aura not far from him... He'll come...
----
"Do whatever is necessary to obtain the sword..." was the reply to Genma.
----
Iduran opened his eyes, seeing the familiar face of Cheetah. What a relief...
"I have... no idea..."
He struggled to sit up.
"Ooohhh..."
He reached into the pouch he was carrying with him, and drank the M-Potion he had stored a while back. Now he can stand, and he did so, facing Cheetah. Blast, no weapon...
"Hmmm, you wouldn't have seen a young man around here, about 16 or so years of age, would you?"
Blast it. Now, where was Haraldur?
-
While Iduran was wondering about the younger Haraldur's position, both of them were on ships. There were hundreds of ships around them. Most of them were going in the direction of Romme. Those going to Romme had over 20000 men on board. Streaks of energy could be seen passing from ship to ship, and the ships travelled in an almost synchronised way, but there was no obvious communication. The commanders used telepathy to talk with eachother. And the winds were totally favouring them.
The ship with the two Haraldurs on was not going to Romme however, but was going to go to the other kingdoms around Romme, and to places further afield on a diplomatic mission. Their first destination was to be Tjed, a nation which, although it was at was at war with Romme ten years ago, is now on very good terms with the island.
The elder Haraldur hoped the local kingdoms and the more powerful outside ones would take them seriously. After all, they had not had serious war with the Dark Empire before...
//Xorlak, I will make up places as I go along, unless you create them (which would probably be better, since things would probably get less muddled, or at least, less muddled than if I just create places to try to persuade.
Oh, and, what happened to Iduran's ability to use wind spells? (See the Bio of him in the first sign-up.)//
-
Duilin awoke and then exited the cave. He then looked over at Shin and Nevina. He started to feal a little bit jeaouls, not because of he liked Nevina, but because it appeared they loved each other, or something, when, has had no true love, sure there was those hot Dark Empire maid's he's been with, but he never seemed to have love. He then smiled and cuckleded at the two, and then turned around over to Seth.
"Yeah sure, I guess so, let's go. I'll show you were Veronika's camp is!" Duilin says
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Huuhhh?" Pophin groans, opening his eyes. He has a spiting head ache, and he seems to have been tied up very tightly. He then notices what has happend. "Ack!! I knew we should have trusted that traitor...Now were's Nex...He then looks around, and spot's what appear's to be a broken, badly named Grave stone, however, the name Nex was still readable. He then say a small note
Okay, Pophin, here is Nex.
I told ya we would find him!
Have a great day!
Your friend
~Duilin Talonscar
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Pophin yelled in rage. The sound could be herd from in and abit out side the cave.
-
"I have no idea." - Cheetah answered Iduran. - "I guess he moves form place to place, messing up with weather, but when I arrived, he already left, I guess."
What was really going on? The surroundings changed into one big battle, with people Cheetah never saw before. Something bad must be going on.
-----
From behind the ice barrier, Gelu could notice more streams of flames. Draven must have been fighting someone. He raised his hands and suddenly the barrier of ice melted into water which then dropped on the ground.
Some newcomer was fighting Draven... And the general lost control over Iduran. Basicaly, not good. But for a short while, Gelu decided just to watch how it all unfolds.
-
Genma nodded to himself in his invisible aura cloak. He focused his mind and found where Cheetah landed. He landed on the ground then speed towards there, reaching the location in a few seconds.
Genma released his invisible aura cloak and waved to the two, he kept his ki at a very low level, not trying to aurouse anyone.
"Iduran...you have to come with me." He touched down his staff on the ground and put his other hand behind his back.
----
Zeros' pushed Qeni away gently then unsheathed his sword and twirled it, looking at Gelu.
He looked to Zev and then closed his eyes.
"Zev...protect your sister." He just nodded. He also wanted to protect her.
Zeros' landed and reached right infront of Gelu.
"A former agent of the dark empire..."
-
"And who are you?!" - Cheetah asked.
---
"A winged demon protecting some two kids and opposing Dark Empire..."
Gelu did not waste time for longer conversation - he raised both hands and in each, he began to form cones of ice.
-
Draven continued the mad spiral towards Zion, raising the blade just before impact...
----
(Yes, Iduran can do a few spells, but he needs a sword to channel them... Feel free to make up your own countries, just don't overdo it.)
Iduran assumed a psudo-martial arts stance, for the poor old knight had no weapon and was totally defenseless. This man did save him from Draven, but for what reason? He didn't exactly look like he was on the good side...
("Blast it! Where did Zeros' hide my blade?")
"For what purpose?" he replied after Cheetah asked his question.
-
"Think fast, Zion!" Zion thought to himself as Draven approached. There it was. That was the time to strike, as Draven raised his sword up. He was so open right there.
Draven seemed to use fire a lot. So ice would be most appropriate for this. Within the short window of time, he mixed some ice magic with the remaining light in his Eternity Weapon. The blade now overflowed with a swirl of gold and ice blue.
"Haaaa!!!" came the battle cry as Zion thrusted the sword forward toward Draven's chest with all of his might, and the light energy inside his body put behind it.
Xenai only watched from where he was.
-
"The emperor wishes to speak to you about your blade, Iduran."
Genma didn't move from his position. He was more then enough for these two. He seemed to disappear as he sped towards Cheetah.
He stood behind Cheetah with a smirk on his face. He tapped a spot on the back of Cheetah's neck and made him drop to the ground, paralyzed.
"Now if you don't want that to happen to you Iduran, come with me. I promise no harm will come to you."
-
He stood behind Cheetah with a smirk on his face. He tapped a spot on the back of Cheetah's neck and made him drop to the ground, paralyzed.
Against rules, but let say you succesfuly done it Razz
-
Tsar felt like stabbing himself with his own psi to end his life on this plane, but the hold the Dark Empire had on him prevented him from such an action.
"I have to be set free..."
Tsar flew to where Draven was.
"Draven! I demand you release me at once!.. I can't continue this.. I hate you. I hate the Empire, I hate the Master! I refuse to continue the assault on Romme." Tsar demanded.
______________________________________________________________
Seth smiled. "Lead the way!" He said, as he swished his Moon Sabre-ed Falchion.
_____________________________________________________________
Nevina waited for Shin to react, as she reached her arms around his body.
-
As Seth, Nevina, Duilin and Shin were gathered and Seth agreed to follow Duilin to go to Veronika's camp, a tired, wounded, wet wizard headed toward them, mumbling some words under nose.
"Damn it... Dark Empire fleet... Someone messing up with the tides... All the pleasure of being waken up washed away into the middle of ocean - which then begins to burn suddenly... Wandering in shadows trying not to be detected by the new-arrived bastards searching for someone known..."
He headed closer to the group.
"...but I am NOT DEAD YET!"
Obviously, in the mentally and physicaly exhausted mage still something from Scorchy could be seen. He gathered all his strength, made a solemn looking posture, as if nothing happen to him and looked around, noticing that - to his strange dissappointment - Duilin was still alive.
"Going somewhere, you guys? A hunt for some Dark Empire freaks? Need some help?"
-
"Oh hey Scorch, were have you been? Ah nevermind, were goign over to a camp ground were I was taken. Want to come along?" Duilin says. He's a bit pleased he is here, but he is pleased that he has Scorchs magic on his side, not him.
-----------
"HEAY, DERE dood! Howz it goin?" Slurs a Drunk soilder at Pophin how was tied up.
Pophin then looks at him, noticeing the man is indeed drunk. "I don't supose you could help me out friend?" He says
"Shure! Eye CAN! I'll jist, tak owt me nife and cut dem ropes off ove ya!" The drunk then started to cut the rope at the position of his arm, he cut the rope off and he cut Pophin's arm.
"OOOOWWW!" He yelled in pain, grabing his arm, it was bleeding. "You idiot!" He swung his Scitmar right at the drunk's face, killing him. He then looked around, nobody was there. He then went into a near by room (Duilin's) he then removed the drunk's armor and put it on himself. He then, smacked some dirt on his face, and dabed some blood, from his hand onto his face, he tore abit off of his cape and wraped it around the cut on his arm, he removed his cape, and stuffed it in his shirt, makeing him look abit fat. It would take a smart eye, and somebody who has know him for awile to tell that he was Pophin. He draged the dead body and put it over by a different one.
"Well, Pophin, I say you ARE a smart one." He then cracked his knuckles, and then wander over to near out side of the cave. He spoted Nevina and Shin.
"Hmmm....I best not go to far or they might find me out...I'll just make small talk with the other soilders..." He walks around over to wear a few of the other soilders are.
"Hey what was all that yellin' about?" One soilder asked him.
"Ooo, that was me, I got a bad cut on my arm cause I feal on a broken sword. I'm okay now..." Pophin then walked away from them, he was abit worried about being caught. He went back into the room he was in before and started thinking for awile.
-
//I can always change it, but oh well\\
Zeros' looked up at Tsar and saw him, he smiled. He phased in and then back out.
"Looks like you've made your choice."
Zeros' grasped his katana in his hand then then stabbed it to where Tsar's heart would be.
-
The ship was going at a moderate speed: they did not want to appear threatening to anyone. The wind was in their favour.
Then suddenly a long large blue scaly lizard thing burst out from the water. (Posidon, anyone? Razz ).
Immediately some one hundred Berserkers who had been sailing/rowing the ship cast spells almost simultaneously.
A very localised storm cloud appeared directly over the beast, and it was hit by several lightning strikes. A tornado appeared above it, creating a waterspout which it was trapped in. Large lumps of rock appeared to the sides of the waterspout, and rushed inwards from all sides. The initial impact would be bad, and then there would be secondary damage because of the rocks spinning around in the water spout. The same was done again but with sharp bits of metal, which were then often hit by lightning, causing the whole waterspout to glow, increase it temperature, and electrocute a few passing birds. Then the water inside then started to burn, causing the beast to writhe in agony once again, while still being cut and bruised by electrified metal and rock.
Blood could be seen mixing with some of the burning water, and quite a lot of it.
The two Haraldurs created a large rocky spike which stuck out of the water from the sea bed, and then the elder one shouted an order to his men. The beast was propelled very fast and at angle upwards by the waterspout, and then was impaled on the spike. It was dead.
Another order was made, and waves of blue surrounded the spike. More colour went into it: it was now permanent.
The elder Haraldur said, "May that serve as a warning for Tjed not to try to attack us again while we are in its territory." He then cast a spell of a green colour on the bloody corpse of the beast, making it so it would last forever until the spell was uncast, so the gruesome sight could be seen forever.
The ship then started to come in to land, and there were troops on the beach.
-
"Sure, I'll go along." - answered Scorch. - "Pleased to see you're still alive, Duilin, hehe... Someone tried to take you hostage or what? Anyway, let's teach these imperial fools some respect... Show us the way."
-----
Noticing how Zeros suddenly phased to attack Tsar, Gelu launched both cones of cold at the winged demon.
-
Draven saw the blade swing at his vulnerable side, but it was too late to move his crimson blade to block it, and he took the full force of the stab. His aura of flame was built up enough so as to absorb much of the ice energy, but the attack also served to weaken the aura as he flew to Zion's right, out of control.
He stopped some twenty feet from Zion, clutching his chest with his left hand and losely holding his blade with his right. Although his skin was not pierced, his aura was, and he still fealt the shock of it.
He looked at Tsar, then to Zeros' who had just returned to attack, then back at Zion.
"Another traitor... Insects... All of you... I will destroy you all!"
"ALL!!!!"
He threw his arms back, his aura of flame regenerating and increasing as he yelled. His crimson blade increased in length as well... the end he was holding onto as the handle began to grow outward from his hand until it was the same length as and shape as the blade on the opposite side. He had forged a new weapon, like two swords with their handles stuck together, except his was made of condensed flame.
He spun his new weapon around wildly.
"Die... DIE! You will ALL DIE!!!"
He had lost it completely...
----
(Rule: The result of one character's attack is determined by the recipient of the attack. But if that's okay with you, Cesque...)
Iduran turned around, gasping as Cheetah fell unconsious, his only line of defense...
"Emperor...?"
His heart sunk...
"My blade... what are you talking about?"
Okay, bad lie, but it was worth a shot.
"And... how do you know my name?"
-
"Don't worry about how I know it. I need you so we can figure out how it works and the emperor wishes to see you. No harm will come to you if you come with me....unforcably."
Genma looked up at the sky and sighed, waiting for Iduran's response.
----
Zeros' looked at Gelu. He glared at him and held out one of his hands and formed a gun with his pointer finger and thumb and shot out ki energy, just enough to ver it off course.
-
"This general seems to have problems with controlling his emotions." - Gelu said to himself, noticing Draven's spontanous reaction.
Noticing Zeros' move, he instantly focused and tried to counter the energy... but he suddenly got knocked on the ground with it's force.
"Of course..." - he said, standing up, almost unharmed. - "Ki is energy of body. It cannot be countered so easily with counterspell magic... I will not make such mistakes again."
Instead of wasting his efforts on some other spell, frost mage decided to wait for his opoonent's move this time.
-
Tsar Grabbed Zeros' sword as it was thrust at him, putting deep cuts in his palm.
He winced a bit, (as there are lots of nerves in your palm) and said, "No Zeros'.. I can't die yet.. Justice must be served. The only way I'll allow myself to die is at the hands of the Empire, after slaughtering many.. Just have to break this hold.."
As he finished his sentence, a wild swing from Draven pierced his skin.
".... The blood of the summoned drawn from the summoner...." He whispered.
He ascended up, a flash of black, white and gray appeared, ingulfing Tsars body. The Black started as dominant, It was then eaten by the white, which was then engulfed by the gray.
The blob of gray light decended, and disapated, leaving only Tsar there.
He smiled, "Thank you, you pitiful little mortal..".
Tsar then rebuilt his aura, and his eyes shined like oil.
______________________________________________________________
"Uhmm.. Hi Scorch.." Seth said kind of awkwardly, trying to hold back his snickering as he looked at him.
"Well Duilin... Scorch pffttt... urmm.. let's go!"
______________________________________________________________
Nevina waits on Shins response
-
Ragnar thought: hopefully there will be some fun here. He was slowly flying towards Romme.
-
Zeros' landed on the ground a few feet from Gelu.
"A former servent of the empire..." Zeros' tried to read his thoughts. He had a very blackened soul; he has no emotions at all.
"An emotionless being..." Zeros' took up a stance no one had seen before. He spread his feet and raised his blade to his head, the pointed edge pointed outwards to the right and the flat edge could be seen reflecting his eyes; he has ice blue eyes that held no emotion in them, the Soul of Ice technique.
Zeros' speed increased even more, this time he actually appeared to disappear, no after image, any dust or smoke.
He appeared a few inches from Gelu and charged his blade and used the Yama-Sen-Ken, charged with ki and air. His force of the air made his jacket blow away, a brief indentation of something was on his back was shown, but quickly his attack stopped and his jacket returned to its original postion at his feet.
-
Gelu knew what was coming. As Zeros began his trademark attack, Gelu's red eyes suddenly appeared to have been put out. Moments after this, as Zeros launched his devastating strike, Gelu liquised himself in fractions of a second: he turned into pure, cold water.
As the attack landed, it's force blasted the water few meters from Zeros, then it suddenly began to rise in the air and almost instantly turned back into Gelu, who stood up looking at his demon opponent. He fixed position of his skull cap who was fell slightly more to the left side of his head after the teleportation.
Not thinking much (as usually) Gelu lowered his scarf and put a fist before his open mouth. He blew air from his lungs, which - striking his fist - began to surrounding it, creating a cloud of freezing cold air. With a rapid move, frost mage made a throwing-like move with the fist and all the air surrounding it instantly turned into another ball of ice - this time, a tracking/homing one directed at Zeros.
Gelu was master of finesse when it came to spellcasting...
-
//Yay, I hit him! Thank you, 3 years of chatroom RP experience!//
Tsu watched the scene as best as he could, but he was really far away.
Zion watched Draven swing his blade around madly. "Good god!" He tightly gripped the hilt of his Eternity Weapon. He's gone crazy... His mind is blinded with anger. He won't be able to think rationally. If I had enough magic force, I'd cast Omni on him... But I used it all...
Zion watched Draven very closely. What can I do? I have to use something that would require him to think rationally to block it. Aha! Having to think fast, Zion used the best idea he came up with, and created a ki ball packed with as much energy that would fit in it, floating in front of him. It was relatively small, and it would explode upon hitting anything. It was flung at Draven using a gesture to him.
Xenai watched the ongoing conflict. A blind man cannot shoot an arrow..., he thought to himself as he watched Draven.
-
Zeros' agian made a gun out of his finger, but this time it was more concentrated into a single beam of ki energy, almost not being able to be seen by the human eye.
-
Off-topic
Everyone does know where the sword is though right?
-
//No. But I don't think my charries are supposed to.//
-
Shin got back up and left...following Jayce's energy signal through the forest labyrinth.
-
// The sword? I have no idea. //
Gelu noticed his opponents wants to attack with the ki force again, and commited no mistake this time: he enlenghtened his hand in direction of the energy ray and formed a shield of ice, against which the energy smashed.
-
//Sword? I think Zeros' has it, but I am not sure.//
The army of 20000 was halfway on its speeded up journey to Romme.
______________________________________
The two Haraldurs and their men landed on the beach. They walked up to within metres of the terrified army.
The elder one shouted: "Go away!"
The army fled, so much was their terror at seeing their holy guardian killed.
The two Haraldurs started walking towards the nearby capital city.
____________________________________________________
Ragnar decided to create chaos to attract attention to his arrival. The ice turned black and toxic. And all the trees started burning, causing some ice to melt and then evaporate, releasing a toxic hase around the island.
-
Off-topic
Its jammed of Zeros' back, through his skin and near his spine, thats what "his jacket blow away, a brief indentation of something was on his back was shown" is. The indentation is the sword jammed in the back of his skin.
-
Draven held the crimson-dual-blade in front of him horizontally as he took off raging towards Zion. He met the ball of energy with the right blade, swinging diagonally downwards and directing the resulting bigger-than-expected explosion leftward, away from him. In the same motion he began to spin in the air, spiraling nearly 360 degrees and thrusting the left side of the blade downwards into Zion...
----
The birds were singing, the wind was calm...
What a perfect setting... to slay...
Jayce remained unmoving, eyes still closed, forming a mental image of the cold aura approaching...
----
"Figure out how it works... So you can kill more people? Haven't you done enough to us?!"
He paused. Obviously his answer gave way that he knew about the blade. Ooops...
"If I knew anything about how to use it, we wouldn't be in the predicament would we?"
He chopped the air in a hero-esque fashion.
"I'll have no part in helping you figure it out!"
-
Nevina thought Shins sudden withdrawl rather rude, but decided to follow him anyways.
_______________________________________________________________
Tsar, now reformed to an "Ally of anyone against the Empire" charged up Psi, drawing from the ice around him.
He then formed a large lance, and had it bond with his arm.
-
"Iduran...you still understand nothing." Genma disappeared from view and disappeared behind Iduran.
"Sorry about this...old friend." Genma raised his staff and aimed at the back of his neck; right where he hit Cheetah.
----
Zeros' didn't give Gelu any moments to do anything. He used his emense speed and disappeared from sight and behind Gelu.
"The ki of the body...the magic of the soul...psi of the earth..." He muttered to himself, speaking to no one in particular.
He sheathed his sword and backed up about 16 inches and focused some of his ki into his fist.
"Hooo...." He punched towards Gelu, ki releasing from his hand and hoping to hit Gelu.
-
Shoot! For a crazy guy, he's still very intelligent! Zion saw what was coming, and dropped a few feet from the air, sheathing his Eternity Weapon, and used both of his hands to fire a large ki wave at Draven.
-
Suddenly struck from behind, Gelu was knocked on the ground. His skull cap with turban-like cover of back of the head fell on the ground, revealing his spiky white hair. He could feel the pain in his back. He coughed and noticed drops of blood falling from his mouth on the ground below.
"Blood?"
He instantly stood up, raised both heads and with a loud scream spiraling energy began to gather, circulating around him, fusing him with power. His eyes began to glow as never before... ("enchant" spell)
"Don't get me aggravated, damn demon spawn..."
-
Ragnar noticed there was fire in the distance to the north. He flew towards there./
________________________________________________________
The two Haraldur's came up to the castle gate, unimpeded. Except by the gate itself. It was magically shut, and done very powerfully too.
They sttod side by side, raised their hands towards the gate, and the gate smashed into many small pieces, about the side of knives.
-
Draven's blade hit thin air as Zion fell below Draven. Seeing his opponent free his hands to ready a ki attack, Draven released his right hand from the weapon, charging crimson energy in the fist and aiming downward. He released a wave of fire that met his enemy's blast halfway. The two opposing energy beams slammed together, emitting bright flashes of crimson and white light as the winds tried to separate the two warriors. Zion had the advantage at first, as his attack was released a split second before Draven's, but Draven corrected the momentum imbalance with an increase in power...
"Ha!!"
Further tensing his arm, he sent a bulge of increased energy down the column of the fire wave, slowly forcing Zion's blast back on him...
----
Iduran didn't have time to contemplate that remark; he instantly fell limp as the heavy staff connected with the back of his neck. He fell face first, unconscious...
(You can grab him and take him wherever you want.)
-
He's too powerful! Think! Employing a split-second desicion before getting fried by the ki beam, he flew to the side, aborting his own ki wave, Draven's wave barely scorching his arm. He cringed as he flew up to Draven and slashed downward at him directly from the sheath, in Battou Jutsu fashion.
-
Ragnar came up so that he was quite near to the fight, only 100 metres (300 feet) above it.
A, sort of, hollow globe of small rocks (the size of a head) appeared around Zion and Draven, and then all the rocks went inwards, at varying, but fast, speeds.
____________________________________________________
The two Haraldurs walked through to the throne room, unimpeded, smashed the door into the throne room, and entered. Then the elder Haraldur said, to the king who was there, "What the hell do you think you have been doing?!"
-
//Today is an early dissmisal day, so I get to go on comp for a little bit//
"Allright then let's get going....Umm..." Duilin started to try and think back were it was, Pophin lead most of the way back to the cave when he left, and he realizes that he can't fully remember were it was. He dosen't want to look like a fool so he deciedes to "pretend" he knows were it is "...let's get going" he starts leading the way to a decertion he "thinks" the camp is.
-
Genma sighed and looked at Iduran.
"Sorry about that..." Genma picked up the limp Iduran and hiked him over his shoulder and started to levatate towards the Dark Empire's ship.
----
Zeros' looked at Gelu with a smile.
"Demon spawn? No. You have it wrong." Zeros' sheathed his sword; now it was time to get serious.
Zeros' spread his feet and made his left hand out infront of him into a karate chop postion and his right hand a fist; he also grew his other wing. (When Jayce pulled them out, he only regenrated one wing)
----
Qeni and Zev weren't any help here, so they decided to float off towards the direction of Duilin's group.
-
Duilin turned his head as spoted something
"What the? Those are those, things, that were scareing Pophin? What are they?" Duilin says pointing to Qeni and Zev.
//Duilin did not witness the trasformation and dose not know that they are them//
-
"I have no idea." - Scorch said. - "What do you propose? Kill them just in case they can be dangerous? Altough I doubt a wolf has any chances against us, so we can as well live them alone - this 'Pophin' doesn't sound like some courageous brave warrior to me."
Scorch looked at Queni and Zev strangely...
"They don't look too natural to me either..."
---
"What an idiot..."
Gelu conjured a snowstorm all around himself, filling the surroundings - but not really an especially large area - with snow. His flesh seemed to solidify, and his skin became reflective. He looked now like a creature formed from ice itself...
"...to mess with Dark Empire was a mistake, but to mess with me is suicide."
-
"I have no fears. No one can scare me. No matter who faces me...I will prevail. I haven't lived over almost a millennium to be killed by an ice sorcerer."
He looked down to the ground and a tear formed in his eye. It trickled down his face and splashed to the ground.
"I still have great respect for you and for everyone I face" He hesitated for a moment. "...and kill."
He slowly flared up his aura melting all the snow that came near him.
"Now. You shall not stop me for reaching my goal." He released his stance and walked forwards slowly and disappeared; now he was behind Gelu.
He cracked his fingers and quickly jabbed, concentrating his ki energy into heat, punching 500 times at second. Punching his hurt his hands, but he mearly shifted his pain somewhere else; another technique taught to him by Genma.
----
Qeni and Zev saw the cave. They were all still there; thats good. They had much to inform them on.
----
Genma flew higher as he noticed to cave off to the side; he didn't want to get caught pulled Iduran away.
I hope this goes like I want it too...Maybe they can come to a compromise. He thought to himself.
-
(What is with you and interupting my one-on-one duels? Heh...)
Draven swung the blade in his left hand upward, meeting Zion's in a flash of red. The force from the impact sent the two warriors in opposite directions for a brief moment.
Before he had the chance to counterattack, Draven saw the earth attack coming in from all sides. Thinking the attack was from Zion, he outstreatched his arms, blasting his aura outward to his left and right, disintegrating the boulders barreling towards him on impact (and inevitibly destroying many heading towards Zion as well).
-
Zion watched Draven destroy the part of the Earth attack coming toward him. Zion created an energy shield around him, strong enough to vaporize the stones that got near it. "Thanks for taking care of some of those for me." With that, he flared his aura of light and charged at Draven.
-
Tsar analyzed the situation and came to the conclusion that, there was really nothing he could do about Draven. All these others were attacking him.
Tsar then remembered; "The Armada!". The thought struck Tsar dumb.
Neptra would be coming.. That could pose a problem.
Tsar warped about 20 feet, still carrying his Psi-Lance, then flew towards Neptra's ship.
______________________________________________________________
Seth followed Duilin.
-
Qeni and Zev landed near the cave; they hoped they weren't too late and no one did anything foolish.
Qeni looked around and saw everyone that was there the previous day. She simply sighed and then smiled.
-
Shin continued following Jayce's energy signal, totally oblivious to the fact that Nevina was following him.
-
"Respect?" - Gelu made an impression as if he was laughing, but he wasn't actually.
Respect, ethics, morality, emotions, beliefs - all were things which tried to prevent people from achieving real power. The ice mage paid no respect to them - the experiments with cold and water magic and magical jewels permamently influenced his mind and soul. Some part of humanity was replaced with cold energy itself.
He could feel it - same as he could feel Zeros' moves.
"Be the water."
He said to himself, after liquisiding his form again, but this time the water almost instantly evaporised before it could fall on the ground and not too long after that, in place left to where Zeros was trying to use his super-fast attack, a giant blizzard broke and from the falling snowflakes, Gelu was formed.
"Finesse is the key."
He could barely be seen in the whole blizzard area that formed, in the white mist of constantly falling snowflakes only his red eyes glittered.
"Stop you from reaching your goal? What is your goal, demon?"
-
//Well, in this case, Draven is fighting in the air, and, with Draven being quite a pyromaniac, when he fights in the air he is very easily visible, even obvious. Anyway, Ragnar is not going to be taking sides here in all likelihood.//
Ragnar rushed towards the two fighters, went supersonic, causing a large sonic boom. Zion, who was nearest, was the one most likely to be hit first, and if Draven did not move and Zion was hit, then Zion would be bashed into Draven.
_________________________________________________________
The stunned king of Tjed failed to asnwer, just sitting there with a shocked expression.
Frustrated, the two Haraldurs dragged a table from the side of the hall to a position in front of the king, placed a map there, and stared at the king.
The elder one said: "We have some information of which you should pay attention."
-
"My goal...is to become to strongest. I wish to unite the world under one power."
He steps forwards, his true aura was unleashed; the aura of the phoenix. The jewel on Zeros' sword was now eminating a bright red glow.
"You and the Dark Empire wish to stop me...and I shall not die till my goal is realized. I made a promise to someone long ago."
----
Genma continued flying with Iduran slugged over his shoulder.
-
Draven dashed up and to his right, just slightly out of Zion's tradjectory, raising the dual bladed weapon and aiming to thrust it downwards into his opponent's head as he passed, but as he looked up he was distracted... Another warrior was barreling in like a madman... someone unfamiliar.
"Another one?"
-
Zeros' looked up to where Ragnar, Draven and Zion were fighting.
Wait...Ive seen him before. Zeros' kept thinking something while looking up at him.
A voice popped into his mind.
Zeros' his name is Ragnar. He is a dangerous man. Said Genma through telepathy.
"Ragnar...now I remember. I've heard about you..." He said to the viking warrior.
-
Zion had missed Draven, and luckily, before Draven could stab him in the head, was sent flying by Ragnar's sonic boom. While Draven was distracted, he could strike! He righted himself and fired a large ki wave at Draven.
-
Tsar, having flown nearly half a mile, could see the Armada in the distance.
He sped towards it, as it seemed to enlarge.
He arrived, 10 feet from the ship.
He then decended, his robes nearly touching the waves.
He raised his arms to the heavens, and blue sparkles rose from the sea.
They swirled, endlessly around his being.
As he summoned fromthe waves, he intensified his aura to an extreme.
It was detectable from a 22 mile radius. (basically every known character can sense this)
He then phased out, dissappearing for about 20 seconds.
He faded back to visiblilty on the ships deck.
He then phased all over deck in madness, waiting for Neptera to appear.
He phased from bow to sturn, left to right, appearing as though there were 4 of him.
He then suddenly stopped, and his image remained in all 4 places.
Tsar swung his lance down, touching the deck, and all the 'copies' did the same.
Four Tsars smiled upon the ship.
_____________________________________________________________
Nevina continued silently following Shin.
"Something big must be going on for him to act in such a way.."
"...I can't let him hurt himself.." She thought.
______________________________________________________________
Seth continues following Duilin to the 'camp'.
-
A freezing sensation passed through Shin's chest...he was getting close to Jayce. He emerged from the labyrinth of a forest to arrive on a cliff overlooking a huge chunk of Romme...and there was Jayce. It was only a leap away...why bother flying? He powered up his energy, forged his sword, and called out to Jayce.
"Foul beast, you and I have unfinished business! I shall send you to the abyss!"
-
Genma finally arrived at the ship to see Tsar had already arrived. He floated down, still carrying the uncoucious Iduran over his shoulder (left shoulder) and his staff in his right hand.
He landed on the very tip of the bow and looked at Tsar.
"Well, well Tsar...what brings you here?" He asked.
-
"Another Vikinggard madman." - Gelu told himself, noticing the newly arrived Ragnar.
He wasn't paying much attention to him, propably later he will mean so trouble, but right now, it would be better to get rid fot ehd disracted demon using phoenix aura.
From the middle of Gelu-created blizzard zone, suddenly 4 shadowy version of Gelu got out, looking a bit icy, but they were really spectral. As Gelu closed his eyes, concentrating on their control, they began to head toward Zeros.
-
Zeros' turned his head back towards Gelu and noticed the figures.
"Heh. Using mear illusions?"
-
Gelu concentrated a bit more...
Suddenly, lances began to form in each of spectre's hands and they began to run toward Zeros.
When they got close enough, they suddenly stopped, simultanously throwing their lances at the demon.
-
Zeros' speed allowed him to grab each lance and throw it in the direction of the spectar, combined with his ki energy.
----
Cheetah's paralysis has worn off now.
-
The king of Tjed, recovered slightly, and said "What do I think I have been doing?"
The younger one said: "Attacking us, while not being provoked, with us on a diplomatic mission."
"Diplomatic mission?"
"Do you know about the Dark Empire's invasion of Romme?" siad the elder one.
"What invasion?"
The two Haraldurs told them all they knew of found out about the events in Romme.
_____________________________________________________
Ragnar noticed there were a couple of people below him, some demon type thing (oh, how many demons had he seen) and what seemed to be a very pale man, using much magic, mostly of the ice persuasion. Good. More fun.
Ragnar lowered a bit so as to be right in between Draven, Zion, Zeros' and Gelu, and then spread his arms out, arched his back backwards, and spread his legs out. Pure energy blasted out from him, causing a few nearby trees to disintegrate, and was going to envelop all of other people around him.
_______________________________________________________
The 20000 strong fleet is nearing Romme.
-
Cheetah's paralysis has worn off now.
Dammit, against rules again Smile If you put this crap on me against rules, let ME decide when it wears out at least, all right? Altough again, I am going to listen.
Hehehe.
Also... can anyone tell me how ENERGY looks outside in the battlefield, dammit? "Waves of energy" - is this some mechanical wave spreading through the air or electricity or pure magic or what?
---
Cheetah stood up. Where the hell was Iduran? Who the hell is this new viking freak? Whatever it meant, Cheetah prefered to change to cheetah form and flee in direction of the forest, maybe he will find some safer place and other more friendly people...
---
The specters instantly vanished into thin air, before the spear could fly through them, then they materialised at same place.
"You can not kill what you did not create."
Through their eyes, Gelu could feel Ragnar began to spread destruction and the waves of energy who could soon.
The specters instantly began to phase through the air toward the part of waves heading toward Gelu. As the drawn close, they imploded - they exploded into themselves, with a gravitic field sucking also nearby air and energy into themselves, then exploded releasing harmless remains of captured substances into the air. Sacrificing themselves in the process.
Gelu opened his eyes.
"The demon is not a problem anymore. The viking madman is."
"So... why not get rid of the demon as long as he is not a problem?"
-
Geez...I just thought youd like to have Cheetah active agian...*cries* Not really...but yeah you get it.
----
Zeros' dodged the waves with his speed and created a barrier of ki incase any of them were to hit him.
"..." He looked up at Ragnar then down to Gelu; looks like he had the same idea.
Zeros' spread his wings and started flying off towards the direction of Genma, maybe there was something there he could find.
-
"Scorch what is it with you and your, Kill this! Kill that! Destroy him! Destroy her! Destroy that! Nye, it's to late now, let's just get going..." Duilin says. He continues to lead the way to were he thinks the camp is.
He now complety forgot, he has no clue, he stops and starts to look embarest.
"Uhhh...hey guys umm....you'll never belive this but...." He stops, and chages his mind about telling them but relaizes it's to late "I...don't were it is...I forgot....I'm sorry....."
---------
Pophin then looked around outside. Duilin and Seth had left, and Shin and Nevina were no gone. He removed his armor, and then started wandering around, in his catiously normal way
---------
Veronika decieded to pack a few things and leave, and head her way back to the ship.
"Those two are most likey dead now, but I'll leave a note. She went into the tent and opened a bag, she srumaged around it untill she found a peice of paper, a feather pen, and a sealed bottle of ink. She wrote down a note and then pined it on the stump, with a sharpened stick.
Dear Pophin and Duilin
I have gone back to the ship,
Go there if you want to find me.
~Veronika
-
// Actually, Duilin, the moment you post it, Queni and Zev are already far from the team //
-
//Ohh....I edit then!//
-
"So, as you can see, we now think that the remainder of the world that is still free should all ally against the Dark Empire, otherwise it will be crushed,"said the elder one.
The king agreed to prepare to aid Romme, militarily, eventually, after some preparation, and agreed to have Tjed ready to war with the Dark Empire directly once enough allies had been brought together.
The younger one said, "Okay, we will now go to Aritan, as they are a major power."
The two Haraldurs left towards the beach and their ship.
_________________________________________________________
After the more than orgasmic sensation of the energy travelling through him, Ragnar was elated.
Something similar happened when he created two spectre like creatures, which then started going towards Draven and Zion.
__________________________________________________________
The 200 ships holding 20000 men reached Romme, and promptly surrounded it, and blockaded the whole island. 20000 streams of light went upwards from all the soldier sailors on the ships. The streams of light curved over the island, reaching over the the opposite sides of the circle, from all directions, creating a wireframe of a dome over the whole area of the island and the sea around it.
This dome protected against objects coming in or going out. Anything touching the dome would be instantly detected by each and every ship commander. It would also block the escape of an object, and would attack it for good measure. It was not fool proof however, it was possible to escape, but very hard, and you would be detected.
Inside the dome, Romme's sky was criss-crossed with lines of light, of each and every colour. Each line seemed to be a rainbow. There 20000 of them.
-
The four Tsars turned to face Genma and in unisun said, "I am here to bring destruction to the pitiful alliance that is the Empire. Shall you stop me.... (one Tsar read Genmas mind and discovered the Martial Arts masters name) ...Genma?"
________________________________________________________________
Seth turned to Duilin and sighed.
"Well that's just wonderful.. lost in the wilderness.. Dunno the way to our destination.. BUT I've been in worse situations.."
"Scorch, would you please fly upwards and see where the hell we are.. you know.. seeing as how you're the only one here who can stay in the air for more than 4 seconds.."
________________________________________________________________
Nevina heard Shin shout and hid in the bushes.
"Damnit.. why can't I fly..?" Nevina asked herself.
-
"I can't let you destroy the Emprire yet Tsar. I still have much to do." He got Iduran off his shoulder and holstered him under his left arm and supported himself with his staff in his right hand.
"Outsider...if you wish to leave the realm, just tell me. I can grant you wish. I have seen too much suffering and I wish to stop this, Zeros' has the key to the next world of piece, but he wishes not to give it up."
He put down his defenses and waited for Tsar to attack.
-
"Ah, but.. 'we' cannot let the Empire last any longer. I refuse to leave this plane until Revenge has been recieved.. Much Dark Empirian blood must stain my lance before I will allow myself to exit your world."
The Tsars Fired up their auras to the point that liquid could not penatrate it. They then flew under the ship and each jabbed the Ships hull 5 times, piercing the ship.
They then flew back upon the Deck, loosened their auras and floated about 9 in. above the floor boards.
-
Scorch, not too happy about the idea, lifted himself in the air and looked around.
- "You're right. We're in the wilderness. Camp... Camp... How does this camp look like? I can only see caves and sea somewhere in the distance."
---
Gelu noticed some lights in the sky.
"And now, what is this? Guessing from the amount of ships, these must be more Vikingard madmen."
"Why didn't I bring along the mighty armies of Zemestan, my homeland, controlled by Dark Empire?"
As usually, before acting, he decided to look a bit how the situation unfolds.
-
The two Haraldurs reached the beach, entered their ship, and have now cast off and are heading to Aritan.
______________________________________________________
Ragnar noticed the rainbow lines in the air. He realised it would be very difficult to escape. He would have to kill everyone else before he could try to leave.
The first spectre slashed at Draven with its poisoned sword, and the other did the same to Zion.
_____________________________________________________
A few unlucky birds crashed into the barrier, and were incinerated.
-
"Well, you see, it's a camp, with, a browinsh green tent, and a stump, and, uh...stuff....." Duilin says scratching his head "Oh yeah, and there's a stump! Wait...I said that allready..."
Duilin starts passing around for awile, he then remembers that it was to not to far from the ocean.
"Look near the ocean! There should be a large boat, and then less then a mile away, there should be the camp."
-
(Phew! Miss a day and I'm a page behind!)
Draven got slammed by Zion's energy wave, for his attention was diverted to the new adversary. He spiraled downwards for a while, before regaining control-- just in time to create a barrier to repel another energy blast, this time from Ragnar...
He was pushed downwards again, and he set foot on the ground below, bending his legs to keep from losing his balance from the recoil. The terrain was ravaged from the hours of battling overhead. He stood amongst a sea of split trees, fallen trunks, burned and frozen foliage alike...
"Madness... What in blazes is going on...?"
Some streaks of light far overhead.
What IS going on? It is understandable that the Dark Empire would meet resistance... but now there are some who are attacking both sides... and then there's all the traitors that have turned up in the past few days...
Draven dissolved his weapon, the blades now becoming part of his aura, thus restoring it. Now something else was coming at him from above...
He leapt backwards, dodging the swing from the specter. At the same time he thrust his right palm forward, meeting the apparition with a intense blast of flame...
----
(Jayce is standing on a large flat plateau, not in the air.)
The dark man didn't move. He posture remained unchanged-- eyes closed, arms folded. The wind gently blew his long black hair and cape in unison...
After seconds of intense silence, he finally made a sound...
"Heh, heh, heh..."
... which grew to a billowing laugh...
When he was finished, he opened his eyes, grinning at the battle ready Aritan.
"I missed one on that day, long ago... yet it wasn't worth coming back for... I should thank you... for coming to me..."
----
The ship Genma and Tsar occupied began to creak and tilt, sinking from the damage...
(They're on one of Draven's ships right, not the big black one?)
----
What is this?
"*Sigh* Another attack..."
"What profit do they seek in using that spell?"
"They're trying to trap us. Thousands of weak ones join to create a stronger effect..."
"Then there are more on the way."
"Probably."
"They must know, then... Others have joined on the island."
"Your command?"
"Eliminate those that surround the island. Use the troops aboard this ship as you see fit. Then set up a defense to prevent any other... disturbances."
Neptra bowed and left the dark room.
-
There on Neptra's ship, according to one of Cyber Wolf's earlier posts.
----
Genma stared straight ahead and the four Tsars.
"War is not the anwser." Said Genma with venom in his voice; no one had ever heard him like this.
"Now I must stop you. The Dark empire must not fail; your technique is imperfect. You have not learned how to use it to its full extent and make exact copies of flesh and bone."
Genma made four exact copies of himself, all had his sameness. Same face, clothes, expression and staff. Only one had a copy of Iduran under his arm, and this was the real Genma.
Each headed for an opponent and used a flurry of punches, kicks and ki blasts.
----
Zeros' reached where the armada was in the distance and saw Tsar and Genma fighting.
What do I do now...
He hovered in the air for a few minutes, trying to think about what to do.
----
-
Running through the woods, suddenly, above him, Cheetah noticed Scorch hovering above. Quickly running in this direction, he soon met the others and turned into his human form.
"Oh well. Oh well." - he said in haste. - "Not good. Quite a big battle is taking place. Draven, that demon Zeros and some newcomers are involved."
---
"Brownish tent? Hmmm..." - Scorched moved around, looked around. - "Yeah, there is something near the sea, I guess. Let's go kick some imperial ass!"
He began to fly above the forest in direction of the tent, hoping for others to follow.
-
The two Haraldurs are halfway to Aritan.
_______________________________________
The spectre attacking Draven lost its left arm, but its blade was in its right hand. It slashed at Draven again.
_______________________________________
The barrier scanned the island to find out who was in there. Alarms were sent to the commanders.
Ragnar was there.
The chief commander of the fleet telepathically told the elder Haraldur of this. The elder Haraldur then told him that just for Ragnar's death, they should sacrifice the whole island if they had to.
The air pressure inside the dome increased to many times atmospheric pressure, enough that, if the dome were breached, everyone inside would explode if they did nothing about it.
Also, the middle of the island started to rise up into a hill...
-
The Four Tsars (These guys always move exactly the same, In Unison, they're really just copies of Tsar that mimic him perfectly, like a reflect, except that they are actually solid beings.)Flew and met each other in the middle of the deck, Turned so that One faced East, One West, One North, One South, all with their backs to each other.
They then Hovered above Genmas current Reach, pointed their lanced arms to the ground, and a golden energy surrounded the bottom of them.
It then Expanded and surrounded the foursome entirely.
"Tsk.. Genma.. If war is not the answer, then why do you fight us? Why do you join the Empire?... humph.... Hypocrite."
"Now leave us. This fight is not meant for you.. unless you wish to make it yours.." The Tsars scowled.
-
Duilin turns to Cheetah. "Is that so?" He replys "Hey Scorch..." He saw him fly in a derection
"Oh he must have found the Veronika's tent, Cheetah, want to help us bag a babe first or should we ignore him?" He asks Cheetah "Oh and what do you think Seth?"
-
Zion phased out then back in, many feet above Draven. He pointed his sword down, and dropped. He was going to try to shove the sword into Draven's head.
-
"The depth's of my words are something you cannot understand."
Genma's spectars disappeared and now there was only the one Genma standing outside the light.
-
(Xorlak, I was fully aware that Jayce was not in the air; all I said was that Shin saw him.)
Shin powered his ice aura to its maximum and leapt to the plateau where Jayce was waiting. Using the ice energy as his backing, he hurled his fist in the direction of Jayce's heart, unleashing a wave of pure ice (as in, a wave of Absolute Zero temperature, or -273 degrees celsius, or 0 degrees kelvin) If this hits, it would take a miracle for Jayce to survive. If not, Shin would be drained severely...and would need the aid of a healer.
"TAKE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
-
//MotD... the wave of pure ice at absolute zero can NOT move, because the particles cease moving at -273 temperature. If they would move, their interior energy would rise and they would increase their temperature. Just letting you know some physics Wink //
Cheetah thought for a while.
"Babe? Hmm... I guess someone on our side or even that black bearded viking maniac can deal with Draven... Let's head to the camp."
-
//Eternal Eon: do you realise that Zion is being attacked by a spectre?//
-
"Alright then let's move!" Duilin leads the way to Scorches derection
"SCORCH, WAIT UP!" He calls as he starts running
------------------
Pophin has found himself at the village away from cave, he see's dead people and it is totaly abandon. He walks around in silince, makeing no sound, almost scareing himself. He takes a deap breath and continues walking
"Hello?" He says in a normal tone. He only found the need to speak normaly beause one could hear a pin drop half a mile away in this volume. He thought he could hear some faint noise however.
-----------------
Veronika is now at the Giant Ship.
//It's still there right?//
-
Draven made another leap backwards, enticing the spectre to move into the spot where he stood, the spot where Zion was about to hit with his blade...
----
(Sorry MotD, I meant Cyber Wolf, who mentioned that his character couldn't fly)
"Ha!"
Jayce thrust both hands forward. Although he appeared calm and unmoving for the last several minutes, he was actually storing vast amounts of dark energy within-- which he tapped into...
Instantly the area around him became black as night. The darkness met the impending blast of intense cold halfway. The bright blue light of the spell was absorbed into the blackness past this halfway point, the end effect being a large wall of solid ice several feet thick in between the two warriors.
Jayce lowered his arms, surprised at the amount of energy he had to put in blocking the attack. This was no ordinary human...
From behind the wall of ice, the Aritan could hear the scraping sound of a large sword being drawn...
----
(Gah, sorry. Then obviously the holes in the ship would not sink it, since it floats in the air above the water, heh...)
"What insolence! Is someone fighting atop our Emperor's vessel?"
"Yes... it seems Master Genma is taking care of him, madam..."
The front of the great black vessel opened, slowly, leaving a mouth gaping several hundreds of feet wide and over a thousand tall... The 'door' swung down, becoming a colossal ramp which lead downwards to the beach below.
*Cue slow-paced imperial theme music*
Neptra was first, followed by a meek lieutenant.
"Who?"
"He resembles one of Draven's commanders, one called from the other side, madam..."
"Draven has much trouble with traitors... it's not our concern, our orders are different."
Hundreds upon hundreds of warriors began to march out of the gargantuan vessel...
Neptra and the lieutenant continued in front, the meek subordinate looking up to the sky.
"What is that, madam?"
"Those surrounding us... they're trying to cast a spell on the entire island."
"... Can they?"
"The island spans 50 or 60 miles north to south. They'll need several thousand mages, which I belive they have. However, unless they are all high wizards, which is impossible, the spell will take many hours."
"What are your orders, madam?"
"Wait here and ready the troops while I create a hole."
"Alone?"
"Of course. You forget they surround us by sea-- my terrain. Also, they are preoccupied with their spells. If they wish to repel an attack, they have to stop casting. The more who stop casting, the weaker the spell... Finally, look at the origins of the beams of light. Many are coming from one point, some space, then another, and so on. There are several on a boat, and the boats are spaced far apart to surround the island. I simply need to take out a few boats."
She continued,
"That's where you come in. When you see a hole in the barrier formed. Assemble a force and break though to the outside with our small ships. They should be extremely easy to destroy since they are spread so far apart. Not many will be able to come to each other?s aid, especially the ones situated clear on the other side of the island. Once they are annihilated, we will decide whether we need to send for reinforcements to prevent further annoyances..."
"Genius, madam..."
"It's my job."
She smiled and dove into the waves, heading westward under the water...
The forces endlessly poured out of the ship, marching row by row. Eventually the southern tip of the island was covered by the mass of warriors...
The troops of the great black vessel are as follows:
5,000 SOLDIERS
The soldiers are the basic infantry unit, equipped with a light sword and light armor. Their training is not that great, so they are not much of a threat to experienced warriors. However, they can be a problem in large numbers...
1,000 DARK KNIGHTS
The dark knights are much more heavily equipped than the common soldier. Most carry a large axe or halberd. All are wrapped in thick black armor. They are more skilled than a common soldier, yet their speed lacks.
2,000 WYVERN RIDERS (and their wyverns)
The basic aerial unit. The rider is lightly equipped. The wyverns vary in elemental properties. In addition to their razor sharp claws, most can unleash an acid attack, while others breathe flame or even ice. Unfortunately, the wyverns are weak against lighting and wind while flying.
500 DARK WYVERN RIDERS
The elites of the sky. The riders are the same, but the wyverns are of a stronger variation. They can repel most elemental attacks, their only real effective weakness being piercing their underbelly with a sharp weapon.
1,000 MAGES
The mages attack with low power elemental attacks. Individually more dangerous than the soldier, they can be very deadly in large numbers. Their armor is usally very light however, so a physical weapon can be very damaging, if the enemy can get close, that is.
500 DEFENDER MAGES
Mages that specialize in creating barriers and repelling attacks. This is the Dark Empire replacement for the white mage, since the impurity of most of their souls prevent them from performing effective healing spells. Regardless, a few hundred defenders can protect an entire army from the elements rather effectively. The only drawback, obviously is that the other soldiers cannot attack while the barriers are up.
TOTAL: 10,000 warriors
-
Shin was completely drained...and having heard the scratch of the sword being drawn, Shin knew that he was screwed. He thought to himself..."dammit, why didn't I bring Nevina along?"
-
The two Haraldurs are appraoching Aritan...
_______________________________________________
The one armed spectre went around the side of Draven, and attempts to run him through with the poisoned sword.
The other spectre attempts something similar on Zion.
Ragnar causes the earth below him to slowly crack open, revealing very hot magma.
_______________________________________________
//Just to clarify, the vikings are outside the dome, which is actually a sphere.//
There was a loud bang from the middle of the island, as rock snapped and the ground cracked. Magma started to seep out of the openings. At the same time, white magic rose up out of the ground to envelop the island, strengthening good people, and trying to weaken bad people.
_______________________________________________
Ragnar felt a slight stabbing pain, all over his body. He coughed a bit.
-
//Dang... I'm sorry, Haraldur... I'm just skimming through these posts, because my main concern is with Xorlak.//
Zion ended up thrusting his blade into the ground, having missed Draven, and got hit in the back by the spectre, being sent down with his face to the ground.
Zion jumped to his feet. "What the crap is this?!" He looked at all the chaos. "Is this some sort of Free-For-All now?"
-
Nevina ananlyzed the situation. She wasn't sure if she could make the jump with all of her weapons holding her down.
"But I have to try.." She thought.
Leaving all her weapons on her, she ran, then lept, one foot extended down, one with the knee bent to prevent shock, and her hands down to catch herself.
She reached the edge, and had cleared the gap, but she only grabbed the edge of the plateau.
She dangled off the edge for a few moments, then gathered the courage to reach one hand under her skirt, and she drew her Holy Dirk. She used it as piton and crawled onto the flat of the plateau.
She pulled the dagger out of the hearth, returned it to her strap under her skirt, and ran to Shins side.
She drew energy from herself and attempted to channel it into Shin, as she mumbled incanation after incanation, motion after gesture.
Shin slowly regained strength, but not much, and this method was beginning to weaken Nevina.
"Should I attempt the 'other' method?" she thought.
______________________________________________________________
Seth sprinted, following Scorch, effectively passing Duilin, with his superior dexterity.
______________________________________________________________
"You do not understand our level of comprehention." The Tsars said with a tone of boredom.
"Our fight is not with you Genma! We've explained this already. But, if you get in our way of justifying our mistreatment, you too will bare the burden of the Empire, which is Tsaaaaarrr" The foursome said, hissing near the end.
-
Genma smirked.
"So..." Genma stepped forward, slowly. "If I don't stop...I face your wraith..."
Genma stepped forward again. "It is not my place to control anybody." Genma looked down to the ground. A shadow now glazed over his face.
"I cannot let your impudence go along any further. My job is to guard the emperor and carry out his whim whenever he says."
Genma took a karate pose, which was hard with Iduran under his left arm, but he had to keep him safe. He had his left side facing outwards, away from the Tsars; he had his right hand outwards, looking like he was ready for a karate chop.
----
Qeni and Zev didn't have anything to do, so they went off in a random direction (which happened to be the way Pophin went).
----
Zeros' saw the army, he didn't want to get involved with them yet. This infernal light around the island was disgustable. It wished to destroy his home...and...QENI AND ZEV!
He flapped his wings and quickly sped towards the leader of the group, Neptra.
Damnit Haraldur. He thought to himself. Does he want to get rid of Draven and that other man (Jayce of course, but he didn't know) that he would destroy a whole island. He didn't like it, but he kept thinking about what would happen
I've got to stop them...even if it means siding with the Dark empire, even for a moment.
//Note that Zeros' isn't that far away, so it won't take long to reach there\\
-
//Just for clarity, it is Ragnar that the vikings are mostly trying to destroy.//
-
//Yeah, true, but there still trying to kill everyone else, and thats whats pissing him off.\\
Zeros' reached where Neptra and her army were, he hovered a few inches off the ground and infront of her.
He bowed to her, he may be a demon, but his father always told him to treat women and girls with respect.
"Hello madam. If you wish, I can help you with those sorcerers. They are also causing me problems." He pointed towards where he could sense the power coming from.
"As you may have already figured out, I am indeed sided with Iduran. But we seem to work towards a common goal."
He held out his hand and smirked. "So what do you say?"
He had also know Genma was fighting Tsar, but he knew that Genma could handle himself.
-
The two Haraldurs could see Aritan...
________________________________________________
Ragnar noticed that Zion was hit, but he would surely have been strengthened by the white magic that rose up from the ground, and which damaged him. Haraldur the elder's men must know he is here...
So he went up to Draven,despite his pain, on the opposite side to where the spectre was, and attacked him by making water rush from his hands.
The other spectre attacked Zion by stabbing his sword towards him.
________________________________________________
The crack rose up to form a volcano. Tremors brought down already damaged buildings, and felled trees. The top of the volcano seemed to be swelling...
-
//Did Zion just get healed?//
Zion felt himself being strengthened by some white magic coming from somewhere...
Before he could think about this, a spectre was thrusting toward him. Zion took his Eternity Weapon into his right hand, using it to push the thrust aside, and used his free hand to fire a ki wave at the spectre.
//If I know my Metaphysics, that's going to work. And I'm sure I know my Metaphysics. Ki is astral energy, and spectres are astral entities. They will take the damage, I'm sure.//
-
Duilin then continued running, he ran threw a floor of stones. He triped and fell in them, his head hit the ground, he passed out...
VISION
You can't escape me...
You can't run...
I see you...
*Deamonish roars are herd, a large burning figure grab's Duilin and throw's him 100 feet away*
He can't kill me...
I see-Can't escape-Can't run-see you...
VISON OVER
Duilin turns himself over and thinks for awile, he has totally forgoten about what he was doing....
======================
Veronika watches the enormouis army march away. She smiles, she walks over to the ship
//Could she enter the ship?//
//If so....//
She walks abord the ship and walks over to the cabin she was in before. She rubs her face, and looks around
//If not...//
She looks at ship soundlessly...
//Yeah sorry, I don't know much right now, I'm abit behind//
=======================
Pophin continues walking around the town, he walks over to a near by shop and enters it, nobody is in there.
He looks around, he spots a large selection of weapon's and armor, he smiles.
"Good...."
-
Scorch looked down at noticed Duilin passed out.
"Ah, great, so predictable. Hopefully he will kill himself by accident before Dark Empire will be able to get to him."
---
Gelu began to follow Zeros through the ground, and the blizzard he was engulfed within was moving along with him.
Apparently, the demon headed toward the fleet of Dark Empire ships - but for what reason? He surely wouldn't have chance to stand a chance against mighty imperial armies...
-
//If you like, Zion did just get healed.//
The two Haraldurs got their ship to anchor, and flew to the beach. They landed, and started walking to the capital city. They got there, and there was a guard there.
"Hallo," said the elder one.
//MOTD: OK, this is your cue.//
____________________________________________________
The spectre attacking Zion was completley destroyed by the white magic strengthened ki wave.
____________________________________________________
The swelled up volcano exploded, Mount St. Helens style, throwing huge rocks in the air, and releasing more white magic.
Several large rocks hit the dome, puncturing it. Immediately the 20000 stopped powering the dome. The air pressure dropped hugely fast to normal atmospheric pressure. Around the remaining forests wild animals exploded.
____________________________________________________
Ragnar experienced intense pain. It seemed his head was swelling. Before he exploded, he managed to create a force field around himself to slowly decrease the pressure around him.
He was bleeding at the ears, and temporarily deafened. When he regained his hearing, he decided to head to Romme Castle, what was left of it, for a place to lie low for a while... The intense white magic around him seemed to be tearing him apart...
-
Qeni and Zev were unaffected by the pressure, they were heavenly beings anyways. They just kept walking in the direction Pophin went. (But they didn't know that...)
-
(NPC! Die!)
Draven's aura expanded suddenly, not by his doing this time... It seemed the surrounding air had slowly become pressurized, and when it suddenly returned to normal, the weight upon his aura was lifted.
Feeling lighter, Draven dodged the blade with a leap to the right.
"Away with you!!"
His right fist burning, he plunged it into the chest of the apparition. The dark tattered cloths of the demon burst into flames as it squealed.
Draven opened his fist inside of the spectre, releasing a fireball and causing the thing to explode into nothing... Bits of flame fell from the sky.
He lowered his fist, studying it. He also relaxed his aura a bit; nothing but constant fighting since this morning... he was becoming tired...
And what in blazes is the ground emanating?
"Distractions... nothing but distractions..."
He looked around; Zion, who had just finished off his spectre, stood a few dozen feet away.
"My fight isn't with you. You do have a bit of potential, however... Your homeland is ruined, there's nothing left for you here... You don't have to disappear as well, though... Come with me. I can make it worth your while..."
----
The wall of ice split through the middle cleanly, the two sides falling in opposite directions...
An icy mist rose and the dark figure of Jayce moved though the cold debris, sword scraping against the ground as he advanced upon Shin and Nevina.
His gaze was maniacal, almost as if possessed...
"... Aritan..."
----
Neptra was on her way towards the enemy line in the middle of the ocean, skimming across the waves, when she noticed the winged demon approach.
"Hmmm, interesting. So you wish to help slay the Vikingard? A truce then. Very well. Go and kill them as you please, neither I or my army will attack you. If I like your style, I might offer you an officer position."
"Be warned though, that this truce exists only between us. The other generals may still attack you, especially if they think you know something about that sword or whatever they're looking for..."
She turned, floating on a shard of ice, and continued to jet out towards the line of boats.
----
The troops ordered into phalanxes. The sphere around the island seemed to have disappeared-- which meant time to attack, although it was much sooner than expected.
Focus drawn away from atmospheric pressure, the defender mages now had their hands full repelling some sort of white magic emanating from the ground-- best to wait until Neptra took care of that to advance...
One of Draven's three warships was commandeered, and readied for attack. Smaller landing cruisers began to be readied.
Finally, some sort of small boat-like devices were being unloaded from the black vessel, yet there was something different about these...
----
(DM: The black ship is unloading on land, so you can get back in.)
-
Zeros' winced at Neptra offering an officer position. He KNEW he wouldn't do that, even if is life depened on it.
"Agreed." He flied over to Neptra's side then sped faster and called outwards back towards her.
"But I think I can handle myself." The only one that had ever gave him even the slightest chill was that man; the one with the dark eyes and no soul. (Guess who? And no its not Draven)
He flapped even faster, he didn't know when this attack would start agian and easily flew past Neptra's small army, heading towards the viking army. He wouldn't underestimate the mages; he had sensed what they did to the land and didn't doubt there powers. They may be mages, but vikings are also know for there exceptional close range skills; they could also be proficent in this.
-
Gelu, without trying to make his existence known too much, slowly followed Zeros. So he made a pact with that dark empire female general - truly, he must not be loyal to anyone. It could be either a sign of madness, weakness - or strength and self-confidence.
Losing track of Zeros, Gelu turned moved the closest beach area, for a while observing the viking ships.
"They do not belong here."
Not even coming too close to the closest ship to him, the wizard forced a huge mass of water to rise, then fly up to the air, gather into a sphere and freeze into a garguantuan block of ice.
Then, concentrating, he casted the block directly at one of enemy ships, breaking it in two halfs, forcing to sink slowly. The ball of ice then exploded into tiny, solid nail-like shards finishing most of the survivals, who may attempt to escape the ship and attack Gelu.
He didn't even care about the viking soldiers suddenly discovering his existence. From now on, destroying every single Vikingard ship was an inevitable procedure, a process, perofmred by Dark Empire, him, and propably that demon who also didn't seem to like Viking existence too much.
-
Ragnar reached the ruins of Romme castle, and entered.
________________________________________________
Noticeing this attack, all the remaining vikings, including those not attacked, rose up, levitating, and flew to a point a little south of the island. They hovered there as a horde of 19947 warrior mages. They then started flying northward, hoping to catch Ragnar in a weakened state.
Some of them flung a few fireballs at Gelu.
-
Noticing some gathering of weird levitating Vikings, going toward one point and trying to smite him with fireballs, Gelu raised his right hand and detonated the fireballs while still in the air.
He did not really care to stop the warriors - if they were after something in such number, this something propably was powerful, which would mean it propably would decrease the number of Vikings itself, without his aid.
-
The vikings were now above the land, and were passing accross the island northwards. They sensed Ragnar's presence more and more strongly.
_________________________________________________________
Ragnar went down to the castle dungeons. There, he was surprised to find civilians, who had been there, trapped, for days.
There were several hundred of them. He vaporised a few. This would be fun...
//Thanks to Xorlak's first post in the Chapter Two sign-ups for this.//
-
Zeros' reached the vikings and saw them hovering, he didn't want to do this to Haraldur, but the peoples safety was greater then killing one criminal.
SHING. (The sound of a sword being unsheathed) SHING. (The sound of a sword being resheathed) The whole process took about 1 second, but he was able to fire off about 200 Yama-Sen-Ken blades at the group.
-
Shin saw the ice wall get cut down like butter. Realizing that he had very little hope for survival, the least he could do would be to have Nevina leave...
"Nevina........run......."
----------------------------
The guard looked at the two newcomers. After studying them for a moment, he asked the same question he asks of all suspicious newcomers.
"What business brings you to Aritan?"
-
Duilin was awake, he saw Scorch look at him and continue, flying not careing about him
"Bastard..." He got back up and started running, he look at Scorch and glared at him and then turned away.
//It's funny haveing good guy's hate each other isn't Cesque? Very Happy //
----------------
Veronika got settled down in her cabin on the ship, she lied down on her bed and went to sleep.
(Veronika is now at un active status)
----------------
I will get my revenge...
I will kill the disloyal...
You can't kill me...
I will get my revenge...
----------------
Pophin now had a large suit of metal armor on and a huge buster sword, he ran out of the shop in his new gear.
He fell down because he was not strong enough to use this equipment...
"Okay....let's see what else we have...." Pophin says as he crawls back into the shop...
-
Qeni and Zev reached the town and looked in the window of the shop where Pophin is. They sweat-dropped when he feel down becuase the equipment was too heavy.
They decided to remain hidden, not wanting any trouble.
-
The elder one said, "For very important diplomacy. We wish to meet with your priestly council, they are your rulers, right?"
_________________________________________________
Ragnar stabbed another villager through the chest with a sword he conjured up.
He noticed the white magic receding: the vikings must be distracted.
He lost all his pain, his wounds healed by themselves.
He screamed something not understandable, and the room, and the people, around him exploded. Blocks of stone from the remains of the castle. Burst out and flew away in the air, to land hundreds of metres away.
He levitated up, and hurled a few fireballs at the assembled vikings.
__________________________________________________
"Why, exactly, are you attacking us?"
It was a commander, whos hair was greying. He glared at Zeros'.
Then he was hit by a fireball and exploded. Ragnar laughed in the distance. Many other vikings were also killed by fireballs, since they were not prepared.
-
"Everything okay?" - Cheetah asked Duilin, following him. - "Your head allright?"
---
Then, Scorch turned back at Duilin.
"You know what, seems to me the camp might be deserted. You're sure they're there? Or should we spread around and look for your 'kidnappers', or maybe do you propose burning whole area near camp just in case?"
---
Gelu noticed the castle situation from some distance, as he tried to - stealthy, as usually - follow Zeros and the vikings. He was moving quite fast, though, actually.
"This must be this dark, powerful madman who appeared during that fight this Dark Empire general was involved." - he told himself. - "Idiot. I can't understand people seeing joy in spreading mayhem."
-
"Damn You, Genma. Our goal was to engage Neptra in combat. Now she has escaped the ship, along with a good number of men. I suppose you will not be letting us go to chase her down? Then we must face you. We've given fair warning."
The Tsars had been gathering energy, blocked from all site because of the Tsars bodies standing in the way.
Behind their backs was a small, but extremely dense ball of psi they had been conjouring from the Vikingards creating the dome around the island.
The Tsars then each absorbed some of the ball, until it was all within them, then they Released about 8 shots, each going about the speed of light.
After that one 'round' had been fired, they continued, and they fired all around them, blasting holes all over the ship, some shots going straight into space, others bouncing off glass, but most were being hurled at Genma.
The Tsars laughed in madness.
______________________________________________________________
Nevina refused to run (in part because she really had no where to run..)
So she charged up a white aura, shouted very quickly a charm and fired a white beam of light at Jayce's face. The beam should freeze him for a minute or so if it makes contact.
She then continued glowing, stabbed Shin in the Stomach with her holy dagger (Which was glowing at the moment)
It then went dim, though Nevina continued to glow. She kissed Shin and his body began to glow as hers did, though now her aura ceased to burn.
Now that Shin was glowing, she stabbed him once again, drawing blood.
She then removed the dagger and the blood that spilt covered Shins body.
The corpse rose from the ground, hovering, and the blood hardened into a caccoon. Moments later it bursted open and now stood a rejuvinated Shin.
"You've just gone to hell and back Shin, how do you feel?" Nevina said slyly.
Nevina drew her Bastard Sword and fired her aura up (though now a bit dimmer from the energy she lost from the ritual). She stared Jayce down and gave him a dirty look.
______________________________________________________________
Seth continued following Scorch, increasing his speed a bit.
-
Zion glared at Draven.
"You reek of evil. I will not join you. I am not from Romme, I went there to fight the likes of you. I've just happened to take the express lane through this process, directly to you, and I am pretty sure you're the head of this... If what I know is correct."
Xenai watched from afar... He was tired of waiting. He wanted to obliterate Zion once and for all. He started to charge up Omni. After all... He had one more left. And Zion had none.
-
Genma ki charged himself and proceeded to block or catch all the energy directed at him. He smirked; he was looking for a fight.
Genma phased out then back in behind the Tsars and delivered thousands of punches at Kenshin Tenshin Amaguri-ken (Really really really really fast speed) at the Tsars, charged with ki.
----
Zeros' remained emotionless.
"You are trying to kill ONE man by sacrificing tens of thousands. You little..." He slashed his arm with his sword and chanted in an incohearnt language. Soon, 4 blood copies appeared of Zeros' and started launching hundreds of ki charged Yama-Sen-Ken blades.
-
The guard nodded towards the two Haraldurs and led them into the marble city. He pointed certain things out and explained them.
"Do you see those purple tiles? Those are link points; they will take you to certain locations in Aritan. There are 3 that lead to the isle of the council. Unlike the others, they are green tiles. These don't teleport you, though. They rely on a special underground tunnel system that we developed that harnesses the energy from the core of the earth."
The guard led them into a building surrounded by many guards, and they entered. They stepped onto one of the green tiles, and they began their journey towards the council.
----------------------------------
Shin felt ready to take on Jayce without his weapons or powers, but his instincts told him it wouldn't be a good idea. A little bit of backup would've been necessary. Thankfully, Sigilus and Gyulim appeared during Nevina's ritual, and they were both looking for a bit of action. All of their aura's charged up, and Gyulim made the first move, aiming a perfect 360 back kick toward Jayce's kneecap, with the intention of performing a dragon claw attack (it's a hand technique) on his neck.
-
Draven shrugged nonchalantly.
"Whatever..."
Draven pointed two fingers at Zion, which began to glow with intense heat...
But at that moment, a vast number of shadows passed overhead. He looked straight up. Thousands of men were flying above...
"What the--?!"
----
Jayce took the energy beam in the face and his head flew back, but he slowly turned it forward again, unaffected, now smirking at Nevina.
Sensing the sudden attack of a new adversary, he brought the huge blade above his head and leapt some 10 feet into the air, dodging the kick, aiming to bring the sword down right in the middle of the warriors, which would in all likelyhood blast them all in opposite directions in the resulting shockwave...
----
"Huh?"
Floating on the chunk of ice, Neptra stroked her chin as the men in the boats jumped out and flew into the air, away from her...
"That was... unexpected..."
She shrugged.
"Oh well..."
She lifted both arms. Two columns of water immediately shot up on both sides of her, rising several hundred feet into the air. With a motion of the left hand, the columns shot forward, merging in front of her and becoming a massive tidal wave. The tsunami raged forward, parallel with the island, destroying nearly a hundred of the empty Vikingard boats in a few seconds...
----
The time had come. After observing the enemy's hasty movement to the north, the officers quickly put together a battle plan.
All of the enemy was assembled at the north of the island. The wyvern units were split into two units of 1,000 riders each. Unit 1 would approach and attack from the southwest, unit 2 from the southeast. Although they were outnumbered nearly 10 to 1, each wyvern should be a match for several of the mages...
At that point, the fearsome dark wyvern group of 500, Unit 3, would break though the middle, blitzing from the south. This would most likely cause the enemy to retreat northward, over the ocean. That's when the ship they readied would come in. Draven's ship was loaded with 500 mages, 200 defender mages, and 1000 soldiers equipped with flaming arrows. Hopefully it could make the trip from the souther tip all the way to the north, where it could block a northerly retreat.
The remaining soldiers would stay in camp, since there was no way they could make it to the other side of the island in time by foot.
The plan was set in motion, wyverns clouded the sky, and the warship set to sea...
-
The elder one said, "So, do you think there is anything we should know before meeting the priests?"
They were wizzing through some strange tunnels.
_________________________________________________________
About 19000 fireballs went straight towards Ragnar from the assembled vikings.
Ragnar laughed with scorn. He brushed away all the fireballs. They scattered everywhere, several going directly towards Draven, Zion and Zeros'
A huge tornado, with blackened substances inside, appeared amongst the still shaken and disorganised vikings, killing several thousand before dissipating.
The vikings then did the equivalent of a charge in mid-air, they rushed at Ragnar, with swords, spears and axes drawn.
There are 14572 vikings remaining.
-
The guard grinned and chuckled.
"Just be polite towards them, and do not mention our AWOL general, Shin. They aren't too thrilled with him, especially since he has been more focused on that empire than his own duties toward Aritan as a whole. I know he's a head general and all, but the council is still above him."
--------------------------------
Shin, Gyulim, and Sigilus all formed a barrier at the same time, but the varying elements didn't match too well, and Shin and Gyulim's barriers went down, leaving only Sigilus's active. As the sword plunged downward, Sigilus's barrier shattered in a violent storm of silver and red light.
Sigilus flew back and landed a good 20 feet away. Along his right side there was a fresh gash that was bleeding a strange black color instead of the crimson of blood he's used to seeing. Apparently there was something very powerful behind this demon's attack.
Shin took no time in regaining his own footing, and lunged toward Jayce while forging his sword at the last second, and aiming to slash at Jayce's left side.
Gyulim was out of breath, and had lost her balance and landed right next to where Nevina stood.
-
Zion spun his Eternity weapon around in front of him fast enough to deflect all of the fireballs. After that, he took one hand off the Eternity Weapon, using it to fling a ki ball up at Ragnar.
Xenai was charging extra this time. He silently powered up, so he could cast the spell more powerfully.
-
The elder one said: "Who is Shin?"
-
//Zeros'.. The balls were moving at the speed of light and are about the size of a musket ball. Genma can't catch them with his hands, they'd just shoot through them, and they'd be wicked hard to dodge. He of course, can escape, but merely dodging and catching as they come his way isn't enough.//
//Bah.. everyone can make copies of themselves now.. I was hoping it wouldn't be such a common ability. Ah well.. I still have one move planned for Tsar.. And I'm sure no other character could do it.. >D (and no, it's not one I'm doing this round..)//
Genma's punches merely were absorbed by the Tsars yellow barrier, though it had to redistrubute psi from other parts of the psi to keep the barrier up, over all weakening it.
"Fool Genma. Do you not think I, someone with little physical ability, would not find away to help give me an advantage over those with great physical power..? Use your talents to make up for your imperfections.. HAAAH!"
With that cry, the Tsar facing Genma (No matter how you approach them one Tsar is gonna be facing you basically) channeled energy from his Clones and fired a beam at Genma, 15x15 feet. As it hit or passed Genma, the sails behind him shattered into oblivion from the beam, rendering their ship sail-less.
______________________________________________________________
Nevina dug her Bastard Sword into the Dirt of the plateau and put her hands on the hilt, supporting her body straight upwards.
After the wind blast from the sword swing died down, Nevina Did a front flip, pulling the Sword out of the hearth and hurling herself towards Jayce, flipping, turning herself into a human throwing blade.
-
//Actually, Zeros' is a necromancer sort of character, so he can make copies, but only by using his own blood. So its not really a tactic he liked to use; I didn't say Genma caught them all. He only caught a few, while the others bounced of his ki shield he put up.\\
Genma saw the beam coming, he could deflect it, but it would take too much of his ki. Genma phased out then back in right as the beam passed and hit the sail.
"Heh. So you think that was the last of my tricks?" Genma faced the unconcious Iduran away from himself and snapped his fingers, causing the energy everyone of the Tsars absorbed to explode and then implode.
----
"Impudence..." The Zeros' blood copies remerged with Zeros' and he flew right into the middle of them all. The heat of there magic was still lingering around the vikings. Zeros' managed to use his "Soul of Ice" technique and calm his soul.
Zeros' sheathed his sword and pulled back his fist and threw a corkscrew punch right into the middle of the viking hord.
"REVERSE HIRYU SHOTEN HA! HORIZONTAL STRIKE!" An icy tornado now appeared on a horizontal plane, instead of a vertical (basically shooting outwards instead of upwards).
-
"Yeah I'm okay Cheetah, thanks for asking." Duilin says rubbing his forehead. He looked up at Cheetah "Yeah, that burning idea sounds fun accually." Duilin smiles "For once you have a good destructive idea." Duilin laughs
"Hey Seth. You can stop running now!" He calls over to him. He looks back at Cheetah. "Accually to be honest I just had a strange vision..." He looks at Seth "Hey Seth your some 'magical monk guy' could you find out the meaning to this vision?"
=======
Pophin has been trying to find some suiable equipment for the past hour and still hasn't found a thing!
=======
Meanwile at Nex's grave...
The ground rumble's at wear Nex was buried, then a large blast of fire explodes the area around it, a few soilder circle around trying to find out what's going on.
Then the ground has made a rectangle. and there lies Nex's rotting body.
*Rock Organ music is played*
"Whhoooooo...." Nex says riseing from his grave "Sheesh, it's DAMN hot down there, hey you." Point's to a soilder with a water cantine "Gimme that for a sec" The soilder's trembles and gives him the cantine "Thank's man." He pores the water on his forehead and drinks abit and then tosses it away
"Oooo that's better...Well hello everyone, I'm Nex! And well, I guess I'm going to have to kill you all now..." Nex makes an explodtion around himself, buring all mortals to a crisp. He laugh's evily and then crack's his knukles and then spins his neck, cracking it. He then does a bit of exersizes and then goes and snoops around in Duilin's room...
-
Zeros' senses a surge of power.
"Damn. I know he'd be back sooner or later; hes probably going to come looking for me anyways..." Zeros' sheathed his sword and then phased out then back in and headed towards Duilin's cave.
"Take care of these guys...I have 'unfinished' business to take care of." He yelled out towards Neptra and her army. He held a invisible smirk under his face.
Well Nex...looks like we are gonna have another rumble. This time I won't make the mistake of leaving your body in tact.
-
Seth said, "Well I just sense auras and energy signals.. not dechipher dreams. Tell me what was in it though. Maybe I can figure it out.."
::Assuming Duilin tells Seth now::
"ah.. well I would think you were either 'in' hell, or around someone who has risen from the fiery pit. Demon perhaps. Know any dead demons?" Seth said with a smirk.
________________________________________________________________
//
"Genma ki charged himself and proceeded to block or catch all the energy directed at him. He smirked; he was looking for a fight."
It's cool. As long as he wasn't touching them bare handed..
What do you mean? He can't channel psi forces from around him or it'll explode on him?... okay.. =/
//
The Tsars realized Genmas spell and then seperated.. eah taking a bit of the barrier with them, now it was fitted upon each of them like a second skin, and caused the Tsars be look like they were incased in a yellow latex glove.
The barrier was obviously weaker than when they were together, so they'd get hurt more from a hit, but it had the same effect of low-grade bronze armor.
The Tsars, now seperated, and charged their Lanced arms with their OWN psi (No channeling required to draw from themselves... Razz)
The Tsars warped to be around Genma, close enough to jab Genma through, but far enough appart that if they were to run Genma through, the lance couldn't stab the Tsar on the Other Side.
They all Stabbed at Genma with incredible speed, and they stabbed slightly upwards, expecting Genma to try to jump out of their block.
-
Draven used the energy gathered at the tip of his fingers to create a shield. Seconds later, several hundred fireballs began to rained down upon him, tearing the already mangled remains of the forest to shreds.
"... Vexing..."
When the firestorm passed, Draven looked at the floating army in the distance curiously.
"I wonder..."
He set off jogging northward. What could they possibly be after...?
Seconds later, several hundred dark wyverns flew overhead...
----
Jayce immediately flipped the sword up, striking against Shin's blade. He held it there, pushing his sword back.
He shifted his weight into Shin. Nevina's blade slashed Jayce's back dead on, but it failed to pierce his armor, only slicing through his cape...
"NYAAAAHHH!!!"
His deep voice echoed through the mountains. The air surrounding the maniacal warrior blackened like night as he released a tremendous amount of energy. A shockwave burst forth from around him. The rock ground he was standing on shattered and disintegrated outward in a circle, leaving Shin and himself, weapons locked, standing on top of a small raised portion of ground.
----
Neptra rode the tidal wave northward, taking out more boats on the way. Time to see what all the ruckus is over there...
----
The chaos was destined to multiply by another factor...
The wyvern rider units of the dark empire arrived on the scene, assaulting the flying army from the south. The beasts had the advantage of speed and strength, but the Vikingard still far outnumbered them. They began by breathing acid, fire and ice upon the group from the sides and above, before coming in close to strike with the razor sharp claws...
(I've got too much going on... These dark empire units are now free to be controlled by anyone!)
Unit 1 (Wyvern riders): 1,000
Unit 2 (Wyvern riders): 1,000
Unit 3 (Dark Wyverns): 500
----
(Zeros': Don't you think Genma should set poor ol' Iduran down while fighting? Heh...)
-
Scorch called a lightning from above, which incinerated the grass area near the camp from some distance.
"Well, the fire should spread, and if they survived, they will-..."
He suddenly turned, hearing strange sounds, noticing a large fleet of wyverns flying through the sky toward one point.
"Dark Empire! The newly arrived forces...! I'm out of here."
He suddenly sinked down in the air, landing on the ground, trying not to be detected.
"Not good. Not good."
-
The charging vikings reached Ragnar. They rushed around him, he was surrounded. Hundreds of them tried to slash at Ragnar from all sides, and all mysteriously missed.
Ragnar laughed to himself: perfect... let me show them what I have gained in power, at least a sample...
Ragnar ascended a couple of thousand metres, to ensure his own safety.
He swung his arms around himself. A blue haze seemed to surround the vikings for a split second. Their bodies became completely ionised: every electron in the atoms making them up was lost. The electrons all appeared in a sphere around the group. Due to the intense charges involved, these electrons, forming an electic blue haze around the vikings, rushed in to the vikings. Upon hitting the vikings, huge energies were released. They were literally incinerated within less than a second.
There was a hugely bright light. All around, trees, houses, the earth itself which was not rock, simply disappeared, burned up totally by the intense temperatures.
A bubble of air appeared around where the vikings had been. It expanded, blasting at everything (not a lot) that was in its path, and cracking the crust of the planet. Then a huge bang could be heard.
Nearly 1000 wyvyrns were severely burned or burned to death, or were smashed into pieces by the blast.
Ragnar received bad burns. He cursed himself for not having flown high enough.
This all happened in less than a second.
-
// Rule reminder: No godlike characters. 1000 wyverns per attack? //
-
//Damn Zeros' that some crazy god sences your charactor has. I supose I'll have to fight fire, with fire!//
"Hmmm....I think I better find that Zeros' charactor now, and kill him. And this time I won't be doing the mistake by leaveing him to win!"
Nex exit's the cave, he looks around for awile and then spots a bunch of rocks with a scarecrow lieing on it. "Raven! You died! I remember that, Hmmm...let's see....Ah yes, your weapon, that may be usefull...Hmmm...You might be to..." Nex then grab's Raven's Flamerthrower and straps it on his back for the time being. Then he carges a large serge of electricity and then and blast's it at Raven, suddenly he comes back to life, but is a mindless NPC zombie. He then charges another blast of electricity at a few corpes of Romme and Dark Soilder's and turns them into mindless NPC zombies.
"Ahhh yes! 10 Mindless NPC zombies, and a Raven!" Nex says for some reason "Now come and get me my half deamon child friend!"
Mindless NPC Zombies = 10
Mindless NPC Ravens = 1
------------
"Oh my god. That Nex guy! He looked just like him, now I've had visions before and I know once I've had one, We should head back to the cave, now!"
He runs off to the cave, hopeing the others follow him.
//Oh and could you guy's not kill of the NPC Raven in 1 post, and not kill all the NPC Zombies in one post, like, 1 per char, per post how about? Were gonna have a little rumble here!//
-
//No no...Zeros' went through martial arts training when he was a kid and he is able to sense sudden surges of power, which, when Nex was revived, caused his senses to jump.\\
//Xorlak: No or else the Tsars will try to kill him. And yes Cyber, he was using ki energy to catch or block them.\\
Genma looked at the spears. There speed was incrediable, the motion was perfect and the distance was also perfect; there was one fatal flaw though...they forgot to cover the ground.
Genma dropped to the ground and nearly avoided getting torn to shreads; pieces of his robe flew off and he could feel the wind of the spears pass by his head.
"Geez...getting alittle violent arent we?" Genma raised up some as the spears passed upwards. He put alittle ki into his fist and managed to knock the spears away so he could escape.
Genma sighed. This wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.
----
Zeros' continued flying towards the cave...
----
Qeni and Zev kept watching through the shop window. They wondered how long it would take Pophin to find something.
-
Scorch suddenly raised back at the sky, as thought came to his mind.
Wyverns.
Black wyverns.
An air wizard on a black wyvern - what can stop such a power?
With great skill, he might be able to kill a raider of such a beast and gain control over one. Taming wyvern would also be a hard part, but what's challenging is interesting.
He noticed Duilin heading toward the caves, suddenly, but he didn't really care. He said his moves toward where the Dark Empire army was fighting, and where Ragnar was (and castle used to be).
---
Cheetah suddenly noticed Duilin changing direction, heading to find Nex.
"Nex?" - he thought. - "Isn't he... dead, sort of? Ah well, that's what you get if you burry demons with respect."
He didn't yet decide where to go - he was confused by all the possibilities. And Iduran could propably need his help... on the other hand, he won't have chances alone...
---
Gelu looked at the slaughter from safe distance... he didn't really decide to join it.
-
Duilin continued running towards the cave...
If Nex isn't there then...uhhh...I supose I'll just un burry the guy and toss him into the ocean or something...And if he is..I hope Zeros' is there.
-------
Pophin then finaly deciedes to keep his old armor
"This stuff has really been helpful, I'll keep it on. But I do think I'll take that Katana, those Buster Swords are too clumbsy, and to heavy, and uhh.....I guess that's all that is wrong with them." He took the Katana, and swiped it around, the craftmen ship was very good, it swiped threw the air very quickly, and was quit light. He then also decieded that he should replace his old spear, his current one was messy and old. He wnet outside with his new weapons. He then tunred around and spoted Qeni and Zev, the angeal and the wolf.
"Wha!!! Those things, that were there....What do you want with me!?" He cries.
-
Zion started off toward Draven, but before he could even take one step, Xenai pointed his hands at him. "It's over, Ultima!"
Zion turned around to face Xenai. He'd forgotten all about him. "Oh, no!"
"Consume all, flash of death!"
This one was extra powerful. The darkness came to surround Zion. But the pressure, this time, was crippling to anyone, coming down at a massive 2100x the planet's gravity. Xenai was straining his very hardest to cast this. He was sweating like a dog outside at 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Zion screamed in inconcievable pain, coming down on all fours. "Xenai... Curse you!" He continued to scream, unable to even move. What was he going to do?
-
Qeni looked at Pophin and sweat-dropped.
"Uhh...nothing really. Swear." She waved her hands back and forth. Zev also had a big sweatdrop behind his head.
----
Zeros' could see the cave now; he could also see Nex and his zombie army.
-
The Tsars brought down their spears and sighed.
"We warned you. One final chance. You are not our enemy, and we do not wish to kill you. But if you continue to fight us we'll just have to kill you or force you to retreat. We will not allows ourselves to die yet..
Think how we feel.. fighting for years for people we despise.. Killing innocents in the name of our capter.. We deserve justice before we leave.. Would you not want the same, ... Genma?"
The Tsars almost looked like they were going to cry, but quickly gathered themselves.
______________________________________________________________
Seth quickly followed Duilin, who had a big head start on him
______________________________________________________________
Nevina landed behind Jayce and jumped a bit as the ground tumbled. She Then re-plenished her Aura and Jabbed her sword at Jayces back, near the spine.
-
"I do understand..." Genma started to cry himself.
"Trust me...I know." He wipped the tears from his eyes with the sleeve of his robe.
"But I am bound by a contract I signed long before the event of this war happened. And only one person knows of it." Genma was now physically shaking.
"I cannot betray him now. My hands are stained with the blood of too many innocents..." He looked down at Iduran and then quickly turned his eyes upwards.
"Tsar...I will now end your pain. One of the empires is doomed to fail...and when they do, I will be there to destory it." He phased out then back in at the beginning of the bow and turned to face the Tsars.
----
Zeros' stopped above the cave and looked down at Nex.
"So...you are back then." Zeros' slowly floated down and landed near Nex.
"Hello Nex." He said to his now zombie opponent.
-
Draven covered his face with his arm. A bright flash of light burst from up ahead, followed by the intense heat of an explosion. When the effect faded, it seemed the flying army was gone.
"Just who is that guy? I like his style..."
The whole ordeal was too suspicious... time to sort things out.
Draven ignited in flame and shot up through the few remaining flying warriors, as several wyverns swooped around in confusion after the blast. He rocketed straight up to Ragnar, stopping some ten feet in front of the man. Burning in air, he folded his arms and smirked.
"You seem a little... charred. Inexperienced with the flame, are we?"
Draven didn't recognize perhaps the most notorious of traitors... yet.
----
Jayce sidestepped to his right, breaking away from Shin and dodging Nevina's stab. He spun around on his heal, now bringing the massive blade down upon her...
----
Neptra stopped, watching the explosion. It seemed the army had been destroyed before she could even enter the fray... Probably someone ticked off Draven or Jayce.
She shrugged.
"Oh well..."
The army was eliminated. That was all that was required. She turned around, and began to speed back towards the ship, skimming across the ocean's surface. (Heh...)
-
Zion had to get out of the Omni cloud before it completely disabled him. But how was he going to go about it? He had little time to think. A thought came into his head... Could he weaken the Omni cloud by absorbing some of its magic? He held his hand out, and willed as much of the cloud as possible to flow through his body. The gravity inside the cloud lowered to 1400x gravity... It still hurt a lot, but he could break out of it. He got to his feet wearily, and with a burst of will, jumped out of the cloud.
Xenai was shocked. "No!"
Zion cast a healing spell upon himself using some of the magic he absorbed, and charged toward Xenai, successfully putting his elbow into his face. Xenai was sent back for long distances.
Zion turned to face Draven. "I'm not done with you."
-
Scorch hurried to see only the devastated remains of aerial fleet.
"Ah, to storm with it. To dangerous to come close." - he thought. - "At least there's some force here more powerful than Dark Empire..."
---
Cheetah hurried after Duilin and Seth, too - in human form.
"I know Duilin, that this Nex is angering you, but don't you all think we should do something about Iduran? If not him, we would all be propably dead right now, and honestly I think we owe the old knight something."
-
"Hmm....You do have point there...We should help the old guy your right, I did save him before, and I should do it again. He acepted me and knew I wasn't just some Dark Empire grunt. Seth, what are you gonna do?" Duilin says
--------
"I was hopeing you would show up." Nex says, he smiles "I have gained new powers now, here are my mindless NPC zombies, they work for me now! But I want to deal with you myself!" He looks at Raven, "You stay here, the rest of you go find Duilin and bring him to me, alive!"
The zombies lerch off in the forest, and Nex turns and looks at Zeros' smileing again, he takes out his sickle, and holds it with boths hands and points it at Zeros'
"ATTACK!" He swings it back and slashes it at Zeros'
Raven swung a punch at Zeros'
---------
"Okay...then....uhh...Who the hell are you?!" Pophin studders
-
The few vikings who had somehow survived died from their mortal injuries.
_____________________________________________________________
In his mind, the elder Haraldur screamed with rage. Oh, well. Hopefully, by the time Ragnar could get anywhere near his home, an alliance could be forged against the Dark Empire, and then against him, if necessary.
Bastard.
_____________________________________________________________
"Inexperienced with the flame? No. And that was not flame. I am merely inexperienced with myself.
"Why exactly are you talking to me?"
He idly shot at some falling bodies with beams of light from his fingers, causing them to explode over the little that was below.
He thought to himself: I think I have seen this guy before, when I worked for the Dark Empire, those moralising sissies that they are. Hopefully I can bring about more opportunities for death, ... of others...
His serious wounds visibly healed, and were then completely gone: no hint of a scar, no trace.
-
Nevina quickly dodged Jayces swing, but nearly fell off the cliff, but she dug her sword into the ground as she leaned back, stabilizing herself.
She then jumped clear over Jayce's head and charged at him, sword first.
________________________________________________________________
Tsar looked at Genma and said, ".. Why should I fight someone who feels as I do..? You are the closest to me on this plane, Genma.. We share the same burden. Join me, Genma. Redeem yourself in the eyes of those innocents slayen. Repent for your short comings. Free yourself from the Empires grip. Rebel. Join me. I could use a companion like you. If you join me, I will be loyal to you until my departure from this plane...
Join me."
_____________________________________________________________
Seth said, "Well following you has got me this far, Duilin. I suppose I'll continue following you."
-
Genma wanted to destroy both empires; but he had made that promise to the Dark Empires emperor all those hundreds of years ago.
"Tsar. I cannot betray the Dark Empire...just leave and you will not be harmed and I will sever your connection to this world as soon as possible..." He had sadness in his eyes...
----
Zeros' unsheathed his sword and blocked Nex's scythe; Zeros' blocked Raven's punch with his own. Zeros' landed a round house kick to Raven's left temple and proceeded to parry and start slashing at Nex with ki charged Yama-Sen-Ken blades.
----
Qeni pondered for a moment.
"Well I'm a holy angel and Zev there is a guardian spirit." She pointed to Zev.
-
The slash hit's Nex in the chest, and he falls back abit but recovers himself with his famous backflip recoveing technique. He then raises his left hand and electricity starts to charge in his hand, he then flings his hand in Zeros' derection.
Raven flops to the ground and gets back up he picks up a rock that is about 1.5 square feet and pluges it at Zeros'
====================
"Okay. Lead the way Cheetah. We may not have much time!" Duilin says.
Suddenly and bunch of Mindless NPC Zombie's emerge from the mist...
"Uh oh, RUN!"
===================
"Okay...Well I am, Pophin, I work for the Dark Empire a messenger. So what do you want!?" Pophin asks
-
// Now instant healing, cool, I absolutely insist on elimination of Ragnar character in a bloody and painful way for breaking the godlike characters rule by the Grand Game Master Xorlak //
"Run, well said!" - Cheetah commented in his speed. - "Now what the hell are those? I am ensured Iduran must have been taken somewhere near where Dark Empire fleet was, perhaps he's near the ships."
He transformed into cheetah form and began to run south.
-
Draven tilted forward, meeting Ragnar's gaze with a squinted eye.
"Well, you did take a shot at me awhile back, and quite frankly, I don't appreciate that..."
He straightened up, assuming more of a mocking tone.
"But seeing as I have more pressing matters to attend to, if you apologise politely, I'll consider letting you go..."
----
Nevina was quick... Jayce lost sight of the elf as she leapt, just finding her behind him at the last instant. He spun around, meeting his blade with her's as he performed a backwards leap himself, gaining some distance between the two.
The huge man shook the earth as he landed, the rock ground cracking beneath.
"Nyahh!!"
With both hands, he slashed his scimitar diagonally upwards from right to left, sending a shockwave of shadow energy racing towards the girl. He immediately followed with the opposite motion, downwards from left to right, sending a second wave...
----
"What is the meaning of this?!"
Neptra appeared at the very end of the deck of the great black vessel. The upper level was in shambles... posts splintered, sails smashed... In the middle of the wide deck stood Genma with an unconscious knight under his arm, facing off against four enemies...
"If our lord sees what you did to his ship..."
----
(Ragnar healed from his own attack, and he didn't do any other real actions in that post. We'll see if he's godlike soon anyway, heh...)
(Location update:
Imagine the island as elongated, i.e. much longer north-south than east-west. Near the shore in the southwest corner is the Dark Empire's black vessel, where Genma, Induran, Tsar, and Neptra are. East of that, on the island, the rest of the Dark Empire troops are amassed. South of that and off of the shore are Draven's two remaining ships.
Up north, in the mountainous center of the island, Jayce is fighting Nevina and MotD's characters. Some distance northeast of there is "the cave", where Nex and Zeros are doing battle. At the very northern tip of the island are the Romme Castle ruins, where Draven and Ragnar are. Zion and Xenai are a bit south of there.)
-
Zeros' caught the now speeding rock that was directed at him and deftly flung it back with double the force.
I remember this scarecrow. He was the one with those ancient machines that make fire. //It is around the early to mid AD era anyways\\
Zeros' speed forwards and disappeared from sight, the lightning jumping out from Nex's hand mearly passed by from where he was standing to where he was; holding Nex's wrist.
"You shouldn't of come back Nex." Zeros' increased the presure ten fold (Zeros' is strong. I'd say he could lift about 200 pounds without any strain, and by focusing his ki, he could lift about 4000-5000 pounds.) and putting about 1000 pounds of preasure on the zombie daemon's wrist. //He wasn't focusing his ki\\
----
Qeni shrugged. "No idea really...and we aren't allied with anyone but my brother." (if you listen earlier, they were reincarnated after they were slaughted by bandits, and they were released from the child prisons.)
-
//Zeros': Yeah, but the flamethrower is a weapon in Dark Age, and this is the Dark Age RP, so it makes complete sence!
Cesque: What fleet? The Dark Empire fleet?//
The rock hits Raven with a satisfing 'thud' sound, the rock pinns the scarcrow, down knocking the life from the zombie
The presure hitS Nex's hand and it blasts off, the blood explods out.
"Ha ha! I'm not left handed!" Was his only reaction (Remeber how he has no reaction to pain?)
"He then ement's electricty with his right hand, wile holding his sickle casuseing it to have more effect and swung the electriy at extreme speed!
// Razz You better get hit because I could have used that hand!//
-------------------
Duilin procedes in the running phase. "I have no clue, but they look fimular, I remember killing that guy, that guy looks like Skippy and that guy, is.....random." He notices Cheetah is far away from me. "Uhh...I was talking you, not Cheetah, RIGHT!?" He says to Seth.
-
Zeros' manages to dodge the strike, but the lightning jumping from his hand and weapon hit him near his right arm, making him knock back about a foot.
"Eh...good joke..." Zeros' sweat-dropped. Zeros' flipped his left hand as the blood dripped from his palm. He increased the preasure more; the cracking of bones and the sound of flesh being smashed sounded. He released the grip and the parts of Nex's hand feel from his hand and rested at his feet.
Zeros' raised his left hand and formed a gun. Focusing his ki energy, he fired a small beam of energy at the zombified Nex.
-
"I'm sorry to hear that, Genma.. But I refuse to leave now. I will not attempt to harm you.. but I will slay 2,000 Dark Empirian soldiers. No more, no less. That's not even close to worth the torment I've endured.. but I will be somewhat reasonable..
Once the blood of 2,000 soldiers has been drunk in by the earth, I will return to you.. and you may kill me. What say you to that?"
________________________________________________________________
Nevina blowed bright white, spun around, snapped her fingers and put her arms in front of herself, making an X.
A holy white light burst from her arms in the shape of an X and ran through Jayce's shadowy bursts, destroying them easily, and continued flying towards Jayce..
______________________________________________________________
"Uhmm.. Sure I guess. Should we run or fight, Duilin? A nice kill in the morning is always fun.."
-
// Duilin: Yeah, Dark Empire fleet //
// Xorlak: As you wish... I just think killing 1000 wyverns in one attack is enough to call one godlike... //
Cheetah did not pay attention.
"Heartless men of war." - he thought, while running through the grasslands and remains of forests. - "Nice kill in the morning, huh... The wars in the world will never end as long as people will see pleasure in killing."
-
Ragnar was still panting slightly from the vast expenses fo energy.
"Apologise? To you? Why should I do that?
If you are not a person in the Dark Empire, this will go very hard for you. You are hindering my Emporer's mission."
He reached into his clothing, untl he got to his bottom layer of clothing, his undershirt, and tore it off. It was all tattered. It was also very dirty. He held it out in front of Draven, and just visible, there was the emblem of the Dark Empire.
-
"Seth, we don't have time for that. Ignore them okay, if you want to fight them go ahead but Iduran needs our help!" Duilin says running faster trying to keep up with Cheetah
----------
Nex then rose his brutalized left arm, a serge of electricy emeited around it and then he pointed it at the Ki blast and fired a ball of dark redish matter, the two hit each other and made a small expoltion
"Hah!" Nex laughs "I've learned many new tricks now, Half Breed. Let's see if you learned anything!" He makes another evil laugh. And then blasts a serge of electricity, into the cave. And then a few zombie soilders walked out heading toward Zeros. Nex laughed again.
-
Draven looked at the insignia. Sure enough, it was the red winged dragon symbol of the Dark Empire. The same as on the back of his cape.
"Huh? Who are you and where did you get that? I am Lord Draven, one of the three elite high generals of the Dark Empire, and supreme commander of the Imperial Western Division Army. My command is second only to the emperor himself. If you're one of us, why is it that you don't know me and I don't know you...?"
Could he be another one of the emperor's personal elites like Genma? Why must he always employ these dogs outside of his generals' command?
----
Jayce crossed his arms in a similar fashion, taking the full force of the blast. He was knocked backwards three feet, heels digging into the ground, leaving a trail in front of him. The surrounding blackness began to absorb inward to him...
"Die! The lot of you!"
Holding his blade with his right hand, he thrust his left forward. Immediately, a dozen bolts of lightning began to strike the strike the area around the four opposing warriors randomly from an unseen source. While normal lightning gives off light, these deadly bolts absorbed it, giving each a distorted black appearance...
(Dark Thunder!)
----
"I think not!"
Neptra stood directly behind the Tsar images.
"A renegade outsider? I thought that was impossible. It must have been a mistake by the necromancers that summoned you... worthless reject... I'll be removing you from this plane now. Next time we call you, we'll insure the incantations are more precise..."
She pointed to her left. A wave arose from the sea, speeding towards the ship. At about half distance Neptra waved her hand to the right as the water broke up in mid air, congealing into hundreds of thousands of fine shards of ice, mostly the size and shape of large needles. The blast of ice needles engulfed the Tsars from the south, raging in at over a hundred miles per hour. She was trying to blast him off of the ship...
-
Genma looked back and saw Neptra attacking Tsar; he couldn't do anything for him now.
Genma looked around and found the emperors' ship, he projected his ki and quickly hovered off towards the emperors' ship; he might as well get this business with Iduran over with.
----
Zeros' looked at the soldiers, then looked at Nex.
"The ability to command souls of the dead is nothing special. Neither is your ability to come back. I didn't destroy your physical body so you only need to absorb enough life energy to recreate yourself; such is one of the many abilities of daemons, even I can do this."
Zeros' started chanting incohearnt words as his left hand started to glow with an eerie red light. Zeros' threw the ball at one of the soldiers, it connected and made an explosion of blood and bones; decimating one of them.
-
//Yeah, you can kill more then one now//
Nex frowned and then spoke "You are nothing to special either, Half Breed, there are many things I can do that you can't, I'm PURE deamon! That's all! Nothing more! I'm more powerfull face it, your humen part is just weaking you down." He then smiles "Let's make you total deamon now! I'll just cut you half!" He jumps up 100 feet into the air (basically flys up) at extreme speed and dives down, haveing his sickle ready to slice him in half!
-
Ragnar looked sceptical.
"Western division? I am sure when I left to go on my mission that the Emporer's son, Jayce, was the High General of the western division. Some water mage, or something, was in charge of the south, and some human guy, who liked all things pyrotechnic, had just recently got the command of the Eastern Divisions. I never met him, though. I left before his full initiation.
"As a member of the Dark Empire, you should know that the Emporer himself does command the North himself. But do you think he does that on his own? Just like you, he has leutenants.
"I am not one of them, I am something... else. I answer only to the Emporer. It is probably best you do not enquire further, whomever you may be."
-
"Sure you are Nex..." Zeros' said the first part with alot of sarcasm. Zeros' looked up at Nex and waited for him...and waited...and waited...
And...now! Zeros' raised his sword to meet Nex's right before he drove the sicle him in half.
"You were never a full daemon before! Face it! Your not stronger then me! My human half gives me more strenght then a full daemon could realize!"
Zeros' knew which buttons to push to get Nex fighting in an angry rage.
-
//Zeros' he was flying up and diveing down at extreme speed//
"Oh, you peice of shit!" Nex is angry "If you think rage can weaking my moves, your sadly mistakeing half breed! Your just some stupid ass weakling! Your gonna die!"
Nex blasts a huge blast of shock waves, (abit like The Emporer's electricity in Star Wars, but much more extreme) it was the largest blast of electiriciy he had ever done!
-
Zion locked onto Draven's aura. He was contemplating whether or not to take back off after him. After a few seconds of thinking, he decided not to continue. He turned to Xenai's direction. "Draven can wait. You're my first order of business." Zion had read about Draven before... That's how he knew his name.
Xenai took his hands off of his bleeding face, and looked up at Zion. "I'm tired of you as well."
--- --- ---
Tsu sat down in front of his little log cabin in the forest near the remains of Romme. (Is that near where Jayce is fighting MotD's charries?) He tightly gripped the hilt of his katana, and listened to everything around him that he could hear.
-
Cheetah arrived near the Emperor's ship, passing castle from safe distance. He noticed Genma rushing toward the ship.
"Iduran!" - he tried to scream out loud, but only a loud roar came from his cheetah form's mouth as he was running prepparing for his hostage-liberation action.
---
Scorch was a bit overcame by the situation.
"Simply excellent. If Draven and this strange black weirdo will ally, the island, Romme and everything else will be doomed. And I'll be doomed as well."
---
"He's negotiating..." - Gelu thought. - "What is this Vikingard madman fool up to?"
-
Duilin finally caught up with Cheetah. "That's one hell of a ship." He says. He then notices them entering the ship "Iduran!!!" He cries
----
Pophin grew impatient for the angeal and wolf's reponce. "Well I'm going back to my camp now, if you kids want to follow me be my guest, just don't start annoying me!" Pophin started to head off toward the area were the camp was
-
//Oh, Xorlak, just in case, I found this out from the Chapter three sign-ups, just to prevent any confusion:
Here are mine:
Name: Draven
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Age: 25
Job: High General, Eastern Division
Weapon: none
Alliance: Dark Empire
Description:
Standing just under six feet tall, Draven has long black hair tied back at the shoulder and a piercing glance. His armor, black with red trim, is light and flexible. His gloves and boots are dark brown. His cape, dark red on the inside and black on the outside, sports a four-winged dragon insignia shaped out of red lines on the back-- the insignia of the Dark Empire.
Bio:
The overly pompous Draven lead the menacing army that destroyed Romme. He knows basic spells in other elements and some black magic, but his true passion, his obsession rather, is fire magic. He commands the fire element with devastating ease. He does not use a physical weapon, but sometimes likes to form a blade of fire to use as a sword.
In chapter 1:
Draven displays his absolute will to command at several points. He had several battles with the traitor Scorch, who quickly became his rival. In addition to his crimson blade attack, we see a massively destructive gargantuan fireball he conjures when angry, he trademark aura of flame that surrounds him as he gathers more energy, and the ability to levitate himself.
In chapter 2:
Draven receives a message from his emperor and time is running out to find the sword he seeks, but he manages to keep his cool (well, not really?). He has an encounter with a general from the rival nation of Aritan and later meets a new obstacle in his quest for the sword, namely the demi-human Zeros?. After a battle, Draven obtains a fake sword from Zeros? and returns to his ships to await the arrival of the Dark Emperor, totally oblivious to the fact that the real one is still out of his reach.
Name: Iduran
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Age: 58
Job: Knight Captain
Weapon: A normal broadsword.
(Zeros? is now in possession of the mysterious sword Iduran held for the past two chapters.)
Alliance: Romme
Description:
Iduran is a tall man, standing at 6'4". His short, once brown hair is graying with age, although he still has his cold, steely glance. His metalic gray armor is heavy, but he moves in it with ease. His cape is a light blue.
Bio:
The aging Iduran is King Romme's most trusted knight. But he is no longer the invincible warrior he once was. Still, his swordsmanship is unmatched throughout the kingdom. He also has great experience on his side, having credit for successfully ending the war with the nearby Kingdom of Tjed 10 years earlier. He has been put in charge of defending the castle against the impending attack of the Dark Empire. In battle, he relies mostly on his sword, although he does know a few basic spells.
In chapter 1:
We find out that the sword Iduran holds is why Draven attacked. Iduran feels it contains some sort of power, but he does not know how to utilize it. Near the beginning Iduran suffers a wound that plagues him for the rest of the chapter.
In chapter 2:
Poor old Iduran is bedridden for a while and gives his mystic blade to Duilin along with a quest to find out how to unlock its power. By the time he recovers from his wound, he gets transported to Haraldur?s homeland due to a misguided spell. Here, he is poisoned in a venomous carnivorous plant attack and, alas, must rest in bed again?
Note: Due to his poisoning, Iduran will be an inactive character for a while (meaning he can?t do much more than respond to questions). Which gives me room for two more characters?
Name: Jayce
Gender: Male
Race: Human (?)
Age: 28
Job: High General, Western Division
Weapon: An oversized scimitar, worn across the back. The blade is extremely heavy and barely liftable by most, yet he flips it around single handedly as if it were plastic.
Alliance: Dark Empire
Description:
The tall man exudes just one color: black. At 6? 6?, he is completely coved from his neck down in heavy black onix-like armor. His gauntlets are black, his boots are black, his cape is black? His hair (also black) is comparable in length to Draven?s, yet rather than tying it back, it falls wildly across his face and back in spikes. His face is the only contrast to his silhouette of a figure, his skin being somewhat paler than most.
Bio:
Son of the Dark Emperor and heir to the throne, Jayce commands the western division of the empire?s army. Taking after his father, he is master of the black arts, or the shadow element. The violent man loves destruction and hates just about everything else. His voice is somehow refined and brutish at the same time, resembling a British accent.
Name: Neptra
Gender: Female
Race: Human (?)
Age: 27
Job: High General, Southern Division
Weapons: Long thin daggers, usually two at a time, though she keeps several more affixed to her belt and behind her back.
Alliance: Dark Empire
Description:
About five feet tall, her armor is a deep blue, and is lighter than most, leaving her arms and knees bare. Her short cape is a deceptively pleasant cyan and her long flowing hair a dark blue.
Bio:
Leader of the Dark Empire?s southern division, Neptra commands the water element. The flow of any nearby water source can be controlled by her, with devastating results. Probably the most level-headed and least reckless of the three Dark Generals, her diabolical tactical mind is unmatched. She is the only one in the world who can calm the brutish Jayce.
In case you are wondering, the northern forces are commanded by the emperor himself, so there is no northern general.
Note: Any new Dark Empire officers/soldiers should state which of the three generals they follow. Yes it does matter, because they don?t always get along very well (heh?)
Chapter 3 begins in a week or so!
//
-
(Blast it Haraldur! You know I meant eastern. Been really... preoccupied lately... heh...)
(EoN: Actually that would place Tsu near Draven and co. and probably Zion and Xenai. Jayce and co. are further south.)
(Zeros': Actually Genma was already on the emperor's ship, the 'great black vessel'. Neptra and Jayce came on the same ship has him, which was what I was assuming by "Neptra's ship" referred to earlier. Heh...)
----
Draven stroked his chin. He knew his stuff... Blast those cocky emperor assistants who thought they were above the law!
"Very well. I am the commander of the east. The fact that you know who is supposed to be in charge of what saves your skin... Do as you are assigned. Do take care to remember my face and name, though, for if you take another pass at me, I will not hesitate to impale you on a pillar of flame, before reporting your insurrection..."
He sped off towards the south, towards the remaining group of wyvern riders.
Forgot to ask his name... Bah, details, details... probably not important...
He approached the captain of the large unit, flying high above the others.
"You! Who is your officer and what is your mission?"
"L... Lord Draven...?
"Answer!"
"We... we are under the orders of General Neptra to purge the flying army..."
"What flying army? The one that man took out?"
He motioned behind him.
"Y... yes..."
"So your objective is no complete?"
"Well... I guess so..."
"Then I'm taking command."
"But... we're General Neptra's--"
"Silence! You are finished with her orders and now you will be given mine! Is that clear?"
"Y, yes sir..."
-
The ice blasts failed to injure Tsar, but effectivly caused him to go over board (and did a nice number on the ship I'd imagine).
Tsar plunged into the ocean depts, then realized he couldn't swim.
Tsar began to panic, then frantically pulled all his copies together, forming the one, powerful Tsar.
He then warped frantically, but each attempt stuck him back in the ocean, until finally one faithful warp brought him about 10 feet above sea level, near the coast.
He then flew over to the shoreside, as he stood there, gathering psi from the calming, yet dangerous ocean that had nearly costed him his chance at
revenge.
______________________________________________________________
Nevina dodged most of the Dark Lightning Strikes, but one finally landed upon her back, her Scimatar acting as a lightning rod.
She screamed as megavolts coursed through her body, and calapsed.
______________________________________________________________
Seth keeps going with Duilin.
-
Ragnar bowed in an almost sarcastic may, and smiled to himself as he watched the High General go.
Hmmm... I wonder what they are here for...
Indeed... there must something here, wouldn't you agree?
Yes, yes... but it would have to be powerful to warrant such use of force...
We shall probably find out more soon...
Yes...
Lets go kill some trolls...
In an almost Haraldur-like manner, he rushed towards the ground, aflame, and disapeared without a trace.
Hahaha... in the underworld... the great caverns...
The trolls do not know it was I who caused the Dark Empire to betray them... hahaha...
-
Tsu looked up at Zion and Xenai, who had already started fighting. Their swords clashed fiercely, with the rapid strikes of the Eternity Weapon, and the powerful slashes of the Zero Weapon. His attention then went to Draven and those he conflicted with. He looked over to a small isle a mile or so away from the mainland. Darkness seemed to be radiating from the little island.
"Huh?"
Tsu strapped his katana to his waist, and ran through the woods toward the coast. He looked at the darkness in awe. (Is it still all wintery here?)
//Still wintery://
He dropkicked onto the slippery ice, and slid toward the island.
//Not wintery://
He jumped into the water and swam over to the island.
Upon reaching the coast, he examined what the darkness was radiating from. There seemed to be a hole in the ground it was coming from. It looked like it was made by a sword... A sword like Xenai's...
Zion looked over at the island where Tsu was, and gasped, noticing the darkness. Xenai bursted out laughing. "You, my friend, and all of you Romme aligned scum are dead!"
Tsu thought he could hear a roar come from the hole... What was this?
-
Genma mentally cursed himself as he just realized he was too busy thinking about Iduran before noticing he was on the ship; he wasn't very far from the ship, so it was good for him. He noticed Tsar get washed overboard and then he landed back on the ship and looked around, only Neptra was around.
He opened a door and sat Iduran down in a chair, he then poked the same shiatsu point he used to make him unconcious, to make him concious agian.
"Iduran. Just stay calm and don't move for a few minutes." Genma concentrated and formed a mental link with the Emperor.
I have brought Iduran. Do you wish me to question him? Or shall you? He could be holding some very valuable information and might be useful for ransoming off for that sword you want. He waited for the usually effect to signify and anwser.
----
Zeros' braced himself as the shockwave hit him, knocking him back about 20 feet and sending him into a tree and on the ground; he was
also brimming with electricty. Zeros' staggered to get up.
"So...you learned some new tricks...that good. I didn't want a repeat of last time." Zeros' sped towards him and jumpped straight up, way above Nex.
"KATCHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN REVISED! YAMA-SEN-KEN!" Zeros' sword charged up with immense ki energy as he released thousands of ki blades all around Nex.
----
Qeni and Zev just sighed and decided to do some more exploring...//There gonna be out for awhile..\\
-
Nex's eyes grew wide open as the Ki blades dove down at him. He formed a bat made of electiricty and fire, and started wacking as many as possible. The ocasionaly few hit him, causeing 'dents' on him, or so it seemed, but he didn't react to much to them.
"That's some fancy pig latin you learned there. Here's mine! Oompa Loompa, Ruba Dub, Dub, KA-BLUIE!" He rose his good hand at him and blasted a 15 fire balls at him that were moveing at great speed!
(Oh, that, Stuff he was saying was him makeing fun of Zeros' Ki chant. Nex is of course, the evil guy with the sence of humor, heh.)
-
Cheetah made a high leap into the sky in his cheetah form, rushing into the Black Vessel, then he stood still in combat position for a while, looking around... Where is Iduran?
He made a loud roar, to be ensured he is heard by anyone who is nearby.
---
The strongest bad guy was gone. Excellent moment.
Scorch, levitating in the air, rised his eyes up as they began glowing with white light. He teared opened the sky and brang a lightning strike directly upon his body - there needs to be some spectacularity, for storm's sake.
"Nice private army, you have there, Draven." - he said, drawing closer and closer to the general, his voice sounding sounding like a thunderclap. - "Haven't seen you in a long time, oh well. I always thought of how it is possible that your soldiers never rebelled against your tyrannic reign."
All right, he should have caught Draven's attention. Now what? Yet another long and destructive battle, which would propably at least serve as some good distraction allowing others to do something. Of course, the question was, what others - as most of the island was now overrun with Dark Empire or it's allies.
"And by the way, what did you do to that old knight, Iduran?"
-
"Come on Seth, let's get into that ship!" Duilin then did a jumping and running technique simular to Cheetah's but less, high in the sky, landing into the Vessel.
"Hoo-Hah!" He says as he arives inside "Okay, Cheetah...uhh....." He realized he was in his Cheetah form "Nevermind, let's just find Iduran. Were do you think he is." He looked back down at the Cheetah "Nevermind..."
Sheesh, I'm accually talking to a Cheetah. Duilin thinks
-
Ragnar arrived at the gate to the troll's realm, just like Haraldur did. The troll that Haraldur had coverd in acid was still here.
"Hello," said Ragnar.
"Who are you?" said the whole troll.
"Quite possibly your worst nightmare..."
With that, he covered both the trolls with very concentrated acid, and they reacted to it, ending up as mere heaps of fizz.
I love it when people fear me, thought Ragnar, as he went through the gate and started spewing acid at every troll he met.
-
"Sheesh, I guess this weird dude thinks I can't hear him." - Cheetah thought waiting for some sign or response to his roar which might give off location of Iduran's holding place, sparing him effort of breaking into every single room in the giant ship.
-
"Hmph...Looks like there finally here..." Genma said as he heard Cheetah and Duilin on the top of the ship. He glared back at Iduran; he would be fine here.
Genma walked over and opened the door. He jumped above Cheetah and Duilin for a minute before landing infront of them.
"Keep it down will you? Your loud enough." Genma sealed the door shut with the ki energy to keep Iduran in the room.
----
Zeros' looked at the fireballs. He let them hit him and absorbed the energy from the attacks, recharging the ki he used in his last attack.
"You should know fireballs don't work on daemons." Zeros' used some of the energy he couldn't absorb and formed it to pure ki. He reached behind him and pulled out four yellow bandana's and started spinning them.
"Try this." Zeros' threw the four bandana's at Nex and Raven. Three headed towards Nex and one towards the defenseless Raven.
//These bandana's are charged with ki, which makes the ends as strong as titanium\\
-
(I think it's safe to say that most of the snow and ice has melted by now.)
----
Draven glanced to his left...
"You..."
Gah, forgot about him...
"Scorch, you indignant fool... You could have run away and I never would have known..."
He turned to face the air mage, beginning to burn more intensely. The wyverns swarmed around the two anxiously. Draven spoke to the captain behind him.
"Take your men and search the island from the skies. Find the winged demi-human who's hiding the sword. His name is Zeros'. When you find him return to me. I'll deal with him once I'm done here..."
They wyvern riders scattered, flying in all directions with their new orders.
Draven began to descend from the sky, approaching the battle ravaged wasteland that was once a forest, eyes fixed on Scorch.
"You and I have unfinished business..."
----
Jayce rested the gargantuan blade on his right shoulder and began to slowly walk towards the fallen foursome.
(Sorry MotD, but it's been over 3 days!)
"A bit stronger than normal, but mediocre none-the-less..."
He stood in the center, surrounded by the unconscious warriors. His voice was sinisterly calm...
"Now, who dies first...?"
----
Suddenly, a pillar of water raged upward mere yards away from Tsar. Neptra emerged from the center.
"Outsider... I hereby release you..."
Quick as lightning, she whipped a long, thin dagger from behind her back and launched it spiraling towards Tsar's heart. As it flew through the air, the surrounding water vapor crystallized around it, charging it intensely with ice energy.
----
Genma received his reply:
?Excellent. I will send my men up to collect him.?
Two men in dark robes, looking rather evil and monkish, strided down the long main hallway of the ship, heading toward the room Iduran was located in?
Iduran slowly opened his eyes after Genma left.
?? Huh?? Where? am I??
-
Genma nodded and turned his attention back towards the two.
-
As Jayce said his bit, a Phoenix Rider from Aritan flew in and attacked, giving a secondary rider time to collect the fallen warriors.
-
Tsar dodged the dagger with grace, then sped behind Neptra and put her into a head lock with his Spear arm close around her throat, making breathing a tad difficult.
Tsar whispered into her ear, "You no longer own me.. Fool Draven already released me. But I shall linger until I receive my compensation.."
With those words he released her.
"Leave me, and maybe you won't be destroyed along with my mortal vessel."
:::(Tsar is gonna die soon enough, but I need him to be left alone for a few posts for him to finish creating his final blow at the empire):::
______________________________________________________________
Nevina is lifted by the Artian without her notice, as she continues her state of unconciousness.
_______________________________________________________________
Seth runs and leaps, leaving his current standing point, about 20 feet from the ship, and lands gracefully onto the Ships deck, his hand going down, touching the wood when he lands, barely making a sound.
"Who's Iduran again? The old knight fellow with a wounded arm I saw back iin the cave?"
-
Genma lookes around at the three warriors.
"A shapeshifter, An old Dark Empire soldier and a Monk. If your all looking for Iduran, your too late."
//He could tell Cheetah was a shapeshifter, because he saw him with Iduran before; he also knew Duilin was a Dark Empire soldier because he heard he had betrayed the empire. And he could tell Seth was a monk by the claws and the way he carried himself.\\
-
//I hope I'm allowed to summon really big demonic monsters.//
The roar came again, and it was a lot louder.
Zion was shaking. "No... Please don't come out!"
Xenai cackled, phasing out then back in directly above the hole he made. He dropped down with his huge sword pointed downwards, fitting it perfectly into the hole. The shockwave that came sent Tsu into the water. Xenai jumped back, away from the island, and floated there.
"Rise, Zero Weapon!!!"
The ground shook violently around the little island. The expression on Zion's face turned to indescribable horror.
//Stop me if I'm not allowed to do this. If I'm allowed to do this, things will go from bad to worse for the Romme guys, because I'ma let all the Dark Empire aligned charries use this thing.//
-
// You can tell Cheetah is shapeshifter merely because he's still in his cheetah animal form //
// As long as Haraldur is allowed to use 10000 Viking army, I bet you're allowed big demonic monsters, Eon //
"Too late?" - Cheetah thought. "It can't be. IT CAN'T BE! Why does evil always has to win in the end? It is not true, dammit! Iduran would not let himself be killed just like that!"
With a loud roar, Cheetah jumped past Genma toward the door, wanting to shread it apart, but he was blasted away with ki energy.
He stood up, growling, then slowly reverted to human form.
"Dispel the barrer. NOW!" - he said angry like he was never before, really.
---
"Unfinished business?" - Scorch asked. - "I don't really care, but our fight will make a good party talk when people will light victory pyres around the world when it will be freed from Dark Empire."
He didn't really care much about the consquences this time - Draven had to be stopped. For too long has Scorch fought to give up now. His enemy was Draven and the Dark Empire, and there was nothing now - not even his own power, security or life - which could be more important for him than his goal.
The ruins of the castle in the background reminded him about the previous grand fight that took place among them here - now, he guessed, is time for another one.
His clenched fists began to pulse with electricity and his eyes began to glow with white light.
---
Gelu seemed to have turned off his consiousness for a bit long time. His thoughts were cleared, he entered a state of deep meditation and the world ceased to exist for him - as if the planet liquided all around him and went down the drain, leaving him in the center of an empty universe.
Fate will tell what will happen. Once it will happen - and will happen the inevitable, victory of Dark Empire - it will be time for Gelu to return to his days of glory.
But now, all was in chaos on the island - and chaos was the enemy of reason which guided Gelu.
At least it seemed like this for him, though he hardly understood self.
-
//Er... MotD: whayt about the two Haraldurs, who are being led by you?//
Ragnar entered the main troll hall, where all the troll were taking refuge: the ones outside were turned to nothing much by acid.
Ragnar smiled a strange smile, and the hall became covered in acid, with the screams of trolls mixing with the fizzing of the neutralisation reactions.
He exited the hall, the result of the devastation before him.
Above and below him, the rock began to crack.
-
// Neutralisation reaction? This suggest trolls were built from some alkaline substances... or did you mean coagulation? //
-
Nex swung out his sith at one bandana, jumped up into the air the dodge the second landed and then the third hit him as soon as he landed. The fourth one sliced Raven in half and his zombieness ended (He's dead, again)
"ACK!" He bandana was stuck right into him "Oh, you....I shouldn't of used that fire, you sertainly are a true deamon, half breed. I'm proud of you. You have won THIS battle, but we shall meet again..." Nex starts buring in fire and then starts sinking into the ground...He has gone back into the underworld, but in still alive.
I hope this isn't against the rules. It's kinda like Silgus' "death" in Chapter One.
The only thing left is a burn mark and his sith. A token to Zeros' for a good fight.
------------
Duilin grew an inraged face at Genma aswell, He armed out his mace and took a few steps toward him, he was circleing it in the air. "Do what he said or your gonna be wearing your teath as a necklace!" He threatend
-
//Yep, the trolls are all made of marble.//
-
Seth armed himself with his Claws.
He then got into his loose, free movement stance, braced for an attack.
-
"I'd like to see you try. Iduran has not been harmed yet." Genma landed near the door and stood infront of it.
"I am not the weak old man you might think I am. Attack me from any direction you like." Genma took his loose stance, legs spread part a little and arms at his sides.
//Genma's martial arts style is based on counter attacks mostly.\\
----
Zeros' looked at the burn and sith and sighed. He went around and picked up his bandana's, which were now limp pieces of cloth. He looked back at the sith. He picked it up and pocketed it. He then started to looked around for someone...he found everyones auras, but no one he really wanted to fight.
Zeros' took to the sky and went to face the most dangerous one first; Jayce.
-
(Folks, as long as something isn't a huge breach of the rules, it's okay. If it's not listed, go ahead and try it. If I don't like it, I'll just add a new rule (heh...). Huge demonic monsters: okay! (NPCs). Sending your character to the underworld: okay! (making a character inactive).)
----
Draven landed on a fallen tree and folded his arms. There was no sign of the green leaves that once covered the now dismal area.
Blast it... fighting all day... tiring...
No! I'm trained for this... One more makes no difference!
"I'll see to it that you remain dead this time..."
Aura flaring, he cupped both hands in front of his chest. A small ball of crimson energy appeared within, which he began to pour vast amounts of energy into...
----
"Ladies first..."
Jayce held the blade to Nevina's neck, raising it in preparation for the chop...
Suddenly, he was smashed in the back with the long lance of the phoenix rider, sending him flying forward some 25 feet and tumbling on the rocky ground. He immediately leapt back to his feet as the jouster swooped past.
"You son of a..."
The rider turned for a second swoop, but his jousting lance had been destroyed by striking the barbaric man. Tossing it aside, he drew his sword as the pheonix dove at full force.
Jayce turned and began to fly backwards, in the opposite direction of the giant bird (and the unconscious warriors), parrying the humongous talons with his blade. When the time was right, he aimed horizontal slash across the bird's neck...
----
(Awww... no fun. Okay, I'll work with ya.)
Neptra thrust both hands outward, aiming to meet the outsider with an intense blast of presurised water to separate him from her.
"Draven released you? That's not like him... Whatever. If you touch my boat or my troops, I'm gonna kill you..."
She turned around and began to skid across the water back to the ship, keeping an eye out to ensure the rebel outsider didn't head for the army she had just a few hundred yards off of the shoreline...
"Draven's problem... not mine."
----
Iduran rubbed his neck.
"Ohhh, my head..."
He stood up, removing his last potion he had from his pouch and drinking it. It only made him feel a little better.
There were two doors in the room. The one on the left wall was glowing dimly, as if there were some sort of aura protecting it. The other, the one on the right wall (that lead to the main hallway of the ship), was firmly locked. He sat down, contemplating weather he should try to kick it down. But then, the handle turned...
-
(VERONIKA ACTIVATED)
Duilin started to speed walk towards Genma, swinging his mace around in circles.
THEN SUDDENLY!
The sound of two pairs of iron shoes hitting wooden floors could be herd and then the voice of a russain women was herd "Well, Genma I see you have my new friends. Let's see, Duilin, you never should have been trusted, But I was rather hopeing this would happen."
Duilin saw Veronika, beside her was an elite dark empire soilder and then looked around abit. "Okay, looks like we got ourselfs a three on three battle here, I'll take Veronika, Seth, I guess you can take Eliteo guy or something, and Cheetah can take old man ki!"
Duilin runs and jumps at Veronika "Hoo-Hah!"
//Note: I may not be able to post for awile, so it's good thing I'm fight my own chara//
-
:::(Thanks Xorlak. ^.^):::
Tsar turned, facing the forest. He then manipulated his psi lance, turning it into a razor sharp dirk.
With the Dirk, He cut his left arm, causing him to bleed.
He chanted, and Psi released from his body, forming what appeared to be a puppet like he created earlier, but it was different this time..
The figure was much more defined. It had a face, what appeared to be eyes, It was even clothed, with the psi showing what element it had taken.
He was a soldier, all blue, complete with a helmet and cloak. He carried a sword and a dagger.
But he had no ability to think.. to move on his own.. Until Tsars blood flowed into him. It formed a red core, visible from the outside, though it was located in the center of his chest.
He suddenly jumped to life, and saluted Tsar.
Tsar began the same ritual, repeating it 3 more times, creating an archer with long blonde hair and a bow of yew. A nearly nude one, having no weapons, a monk. And finally, a mage, with a flowing robe, a beard, and a silly steepled hat.
These new Psi Forms began copying the same ritual Tsar had done to create them..
-
//Awesome.//
The huge demonic hand came down onto whatever land it could touch, under the water. Another hand shot out, doing the same. The arms pulled a huge demonic being from the ground, pulling itself out from under the island. This thing was at least 20 yards tall... Maybe even a half-mile... The earth around Xenai's sword shattered, revealing it to have been thrusted into the top of the demon's head.
"Haaaa ha ha ha!!!" Xenai flew over to his creation. "Zero Weapon, engage!" He pushed his sword down, and twisted it clockwise, using it as a key. The Zero Weapon's eyes glowed a bright red. It pulled its arms to its chest, and flung them out to the side. A huge shockwave emitted from the demon's body, while Xenai stood on top of its head, safe from the shockwave. It threw Zion back quite a bit, and sent Tsu back to the shore of the mainland.
The Zero Weapon seemed much like a machine. The internal parts under its black armor, somewhat visible on parts of its body, glowed a bright red. It was engaged now.
"This great demon is not for you Romme scum... It is for the great Dark Empire to use! It's not gonna listen to you anyways! It'll only crush you! Hahahaha!!!" Xenai laughed a very maniacal laugh before pulling his sword out of the Zero Weapon's head, and flying high into the air to watch the carnage.
//The Zero Weapon is free for all Dark Empire aligned charries to control, if you haven't already figured it out. If you're the "Romme scum" and you don't like it there, there's 2 ways to get rid of it. 1: Destroy it, or 2: Turn it off.//
-
Zeros' felt a huge surge of power and then looked towards the direction of the power and he saw the weapon.
"Shit..." He muttered under his breath. He didn't know what it was, but he had a good feeling it wasn't friendly; at least to him.
He started flying towards it...maybe this was the battle he's been looking for.
-
// Where actually is Xenai and his Zero Weapon? //
"Great. More enemies..." - Cheetah thought, noticing Veronika and the elite soldier. But he was more calm now, hearing Iduran is unharmed. Yet, still... The presence of Genma filled his blood with anger.
Obviously, the old one's lure into attacking him must have been a trap. But the anger was too strong. Gepardi turned into his cheetah form and made a rapid jump-like move, but his back legs were still on the ground - and with the claws of the front legs, wanted to shred the face of his enemy.
---
Scorch gathered enemy as well, prepparing for some sort of counter-attack in case Draven preppares something spectacular.
-
Genma looked at Cheetah; he could see the anger towards him.
Genma side stepped out of the attack and quickly ran forwards and delivered several punches to Cheetah's right side, they didn't have much power behind them, but he kept hitting the same spot the same time over and over, which made it hurt.
-
//I'm pretty sure they're near the remains of Romme.//
-
// Romme castle, you mean? //
Cheetah landed on the floor after missing, and with his cat reflexes ran a circle around Genma, avoiding Genma's fast attack, and as he was striking the air, Cheetah turned once against and jumped with open jaws in attempt to bite off man's arm.
-
Ragnar spread his arms out to his sides, and looked upwards. He hovered up a little. The crack beneath his feet and the crack above him widened, until he could see the sky above and could hear magma running in rivers from below him. He looked down, and saw the vast lakes of magma. And the islands.
The holes created above and below him were only about the size of a manhole, which suited perfectly. He levitated upwards.
He left the hole, after a quite long journey upwards, and found himself in a small inaccessable place in the mountains. There were sheer cliffs on all sides, and trees blocking view from above. He hovered higher, and the cliffs themselves were just forming a small hole in a mountain with sheer drops on all sides. Perfect.
He smiled, faintly, and started to slowly descend...
-
//Cyber Wolf, if you want to control the Elite Soilder, go ahead, he's an NPC, but I guess I'll make the first attack!//
The Elite soilder armed out two katanas, he ran towards Seth, and slided at him with his Katanas pointing at him, ready to cut him!
Veronika fired her a single shot with her Auto Shotgun. Duilin quickly reacted before she fired and jumped out of the way, the shell hit the wall of the vessel. Duilin ran then did a jump with him mace ready the slam down at her. Veronika quickly slid out of the way, Duilin made a huge smash into the floor! Veronika then fired, half blindly at Duilin, the shell skining his waist. Duilin cried out in pain as it hit him, but he wasn't going to let it stop him.
"Don't think I'm going to go easy on you because your a women!" Duilin yelled as he ran at her ready to smash her with his mace.
"I don't think your the one who needs to take it easy my dear!" She said back, she fired her weapon again at Duilin, this time hiting his leg. Duilin then fell foward on Veronika causesing them to both fall down. The ball of Duilin's mace slamed down right beside Veronika's head.
Veronika looked at Duilin and glared, Duilin looked back. There was the odd silience, but Veronika broke it by pushing him off. She got up, and aimed her weapon at Duilin, who was lieing on the floor, and prepared to fire...
-
Genma held out his staff, went downwards, right below his jaw and sent Cheetah flying off above him. Genma took chase and delivered a series of very powerful strikes while in mid-air, hoping Cheetah wouldn't dodge them.
"Shed this transformation Gepardi!" Genma yelled as he continued to attack Cheetah in mid-air, his form of combat specialty.
----
Zeros' looked at the Zero weapon; it was indeed huge. Zeros' unsheathed his sword and held it at eyelevel. He charged his sword with powerful ki and readied his favorite attack.
"YAMA-SEN-KEN!" He combined this with the Katchu Tenshin Amaguiken technique, allowing him to fire off a thousand ki charged Yama-Sen-Ken air blades.
//Note that the Yama-Sen-Ken technique is basically air, but Zeros' is charging them with ki, which makes them hard as steel.\\
-
//I guess the Romme Castle. Time for the Zero Weapon to display its power.//
The Zero Weapon was not ready for the Yama-Kan-Sen attack. The attack felt like getting multiple shots (as in like you get at the doctor's office) in the back rapidly. He roared very loudly and turned around, facing Zeros'.
It roared, and got into a position that looked like it was about to sprint or something. It aligned its mouth with Zeros', and opened it. The inside started to glow the same red that was in its body and its eyes. After a moment of charging, a tremendous, yet highly concentrated energy wave was unleashed upon Zeros'.
Xenai laughed, watching the spectacle in joy. Zion then kicked him back in the head, and the endless clash was back on again.
-
Seth, twirled and jumped upwards, narrowly missing the Elite Soldiers attack.
He landed behind the Soldier faster than he could recover from the attack he made.
Seth swung the BACK of his hand at the soldiers head, knocking him down easily, and leaving welts of the side of the soldiers face where the blunt of Seths claws hit home.
He looked down viciously at the Elite Soldier, who then slung a katana at Seth as though it were a javelin. Though Katanas are not very accurate, at such close range, it managed to catch one of Seths arms in his attempt to dodge, impailing his forearm.
Seth screamed, mostly in anger, and Jumped upwards, coming down on the Soldiers Chest with his right foot with great force ~elapsed time: 0.5 seconds.
The blow broke a few Ribs, but the soldier brought himself back onto his feet regardless.
______________________________________________________________
There were now 10 of every psi soldier Tsar had created, and the new ones began making copies as well, speeding production.
"An army created completely with psi.. The Empire will have quite a struggle fighting such." Tsar said, almost happily.
-
Zeros' winced at the power; it was indeed tremendous. He managed to fly up and then phase out then back in right as the beem passed below him.
Close one...
Zeros' now glowed with a blue aura (Battle aura, blue is confidence) and cupped his hands behind him. A blue ball started forming in his hands, it started growing rapidly.
When it reached a certain size, he thrust his hands forwards and yelled at him.
"MOKO TAKABISHA!" A blue ball sped fastily towards the Zero Weapon.
-
Draven took a quick glance behind him. Something huge rose from the waters near the fallen castle...
"Heh... Xenai's Zero Weapon... finally someone else shows some competence..."
Draven looked up at the still flying Scorch.
"Guess I'll start us off..."
He thrust his right arm forward, firing the energy he had gathered towards the air mage like a cannon ball. The crimson orb raged upward, but exploded some three quarters of the way to its target, sending twelve equal sized spheres of light traveling in all directions. At the same time, Draven took off towards Scorch like a rocket, a blade of crimson flame forming in his right hand...
----
Iduran stood up as the door opened. Two men draped entirely in black robes, faces covered, entered the room.
"Who... who are you?"
"..."
The left one reached for him, revealing a hand of bone...
"Back off!"
Iduran gave the man a good punch to the face with his heavy metal gauntlet. Much to his surprise, the head came clean off, bouncing off of the wall and landing on the floor to reveal it was nothing more than a skull...
The decapitated skeleton collapsed before frantically feeling the ground in search of its head.
The second robed skeleton calmly watched the scene for a few seconds, before deciding it might be a good idea to do something about it. It reached into it's cloak, pulling out a jagged rapier and began to stab at the old knight. Iduran dodged the attack, picking up a nearby wooden chair and slamming it into the fiend's chest, the impact sending the lightweight skeleton smashing into the opposite wall.
The skeleton quickly recovered, it's "face" now visible since the hood of its cloak was knocked off. It retorted with another lunging stab, which Iduran attempted to counter with the wooden table in the center of the room. The table split in half with the fiend's slash, and the old knight was found with his back to the wall.
The skeleton stabbed towards Iduran's chest, but missed, the blade sticking deep into the wall. As it tried to break its weapon free, Iduran saw his chance. He bolted to the other side of the room and through the open door, closing and locking it behind him.
-
// Hmm... Iduran escaped through some back enterance or through the sealed exit? //
Scorch ducked down, as spheres of light passed above him, thought about 3 of them managed to hit the air mage. But burning pain was not significant to Scorch him. As was the newly arrived Zero Weapon.
Seeing Draven prepparing his magical blade, air wizard made weapon on his own - a scepter built from electrical energy. He also hurried toward Draven prepparing for some closer range combat in the air.
---
Suddenly, a loud roar of beam of energy woke Gelu up. Something powerful was nearby...
He looked around, and noticed a powerful - was it a creature, or the machine? - which got out of waters. Whatever it was, it planned to expugne Zeros, so it's goal was a good one - Gelu liquidised himself and travelling through the sand like a stream of water, materialised himself closer to the Weapon and laughing Xenai.
It was obviously a generaly good idea to help Zero Weapon and it's master to get rid of that annoying demon.
-
Before he got low enough for the cliffs to obscure his vision, Ragnar noticed a huge metal machine attacking Zeros'. He stopped descending.
He looked at the machine with interest. It had an hint of familiarity.
Haraldur made a boulder materialise above the small hole, covering it up.
This might be fun...
He started slowly flying towards the machine.
-
Zeros' noticed Ragnar and Gelu coming to join the battle. He was now smirking; this would be fun.
----
Qeni and Zev now noticed the monster and started flying towards it; they knew Zeros' would be there.
-
Ragnar stopped, and turned invisible. Then he started approaching the machine.
If his memory served him well, and they had not changed the design, then there should be a hatch to the inside...
He landed on the machine, and found a ladder, which led to a locked hatch. He managed to hang onto the handles as the machine suddenly jerked, as it made another stride forwards.
-
Cheetah recieved few good hits from attacking Genma before he managed to land on the ground. He turned, his eyes burned with rage.
His form began to change, as soon he returned into full-scale wyvern, having a bit trouble moving in the small area.
He roared and spat a ball of acid toward Genma. It was time to destroy this pathetic, old fool!
---
Something seemed not right for Gelu, who awaited Zeros' next move.
He placed both hands in front of himself, and closed his eyes. He could see the world now, blurry, as if in aquarium, through some glass. In this alternate reality which could present him things otherwise invisible, he noticed a powerful force messing up with Zero Weapon device.
That Vikingard madman.
He opened his eyes as the world returned to normal shape for him, and focused. Tidal waves rised high from the see, and collapsed against the Zero Weapon, but as they engulfed it, they instantly froze, forming a glacier immobilizing the monstrous device.
"Sooner or later it will break free..."
Gelu looked up at Xenai now. - "There's a powerful, frantic Vikingard warrior trying to control your creation!" - his voice was loud, but still lacked any sign of emotions. - "It has to be destroyed, along with the one inside it!"
-
Ragnar smashed the lock on the hatch, and entered. The controls were moving by themselves.
Yay... fun...
Then the controls stuck. He looked out of one of the windows, and saw it covered in ice. He saw a button on the control panel labelled: Flame Surround Thrower. He pressed it. The ice around the monstrosity quckly melted away as hole somehow (magically) opened all around the machine, and spurted out fire. The machine started walking around again. It attacked the strange demon in front of it, all by itself.
Hmmm... it would be in our best interests to pretend we never left the Dark Empire...
Yes... indeed... that is true...
Haraldur controlled one of the arms of the machine, trying to get it to catch Zeros' in its hand...
-
Zeros' ducked under the arm of the machine as it passed over his head. He looked at all the people now...fun fun.
Zeros' went directly under the machine and looked at it. He looked up towards the gears and started slashing away at the botom of the machine, hoping to destroy it.
----
Genma looked at the Gepardi and smirked. He sidestepped the ball of acid and rushed forwards at Cheetah, breaking the sound barrier. The occuring shock rushed past all the warriors at Mach 1.
-
//I will leave it to Eternal Eon to control damage etc. which happens to the machine. It is, after all, his, sort of. I am just borrowing it.//
-
Draven raised his blade as if he were going to strike Scorch on the head, but instead spiraled right past him. Turning around in the air, he pushed his left hand toward the ground.
"Ha!"
The 9 remaining crimson orbs immediately reversed directions, now raging towards Scorch from all sides...
----
(The sealed door leads outside to the deck. The other door leads to an interior hallway of the ship.)
Iduran found himself in the middle of a long dark hallway. His surroundings resembled that of a ship, yet there was no rocking. Dead silence in all directions...
Iduran cautiously began to walk down the long corridor, trying to be as quiet as possible in his clanging armor.
"How do I get into these messes..."
-
Scorch turned away and noticed orbs returning.
"Ha, ha. Very funny."
With one hand position in front of the oncoming orbs, he created a powerful air barrier on which the orbs smashed, with second he formed a stream of electricity directed at Draven.
He then waved his left hand in the air, to put it out from fire the orbs exploding in the air set it on.
---
Cheetah, seeing his opponent accelerate, rised higher into the air and from his open mouth, rained a stream of acid at rushing Genma.
-
Genma saw Cheetah rise and stopped on a dime (he used his ki and focused it into his feet so he could stop instantly) and dodged back to the left. He then concentrated his ki and focused it throughout his body.
"Splitting Cat Hairs!" Genma abbruptly split into 5 different forms (This technique makes mirror images of himself, not full flesh and bones. Like illusions) and jumped into the air after Cheetah...
-
Duilin quickly reacted by swinging his mace at Veronika's weapon. it swung 100 degres to left, causesing the shotgun shell to fly threw the doorway were Veronika entered and she droped her weapon. She knows that she is almost harmeless without her Auto Shotgun so she dives for it. Duilin grabs her by her leg causesing Veronika to fall down, he keeps her pined down as he crawls over to swipe the shotgun. He got it! He then aimed the weapon point blank at Veronika's cheak as he had her in a lock. He looked at her for awile.
Just pull the trigger, and then it's all over, I can die happy, it's all her fault I was put in this mess. Darion and Nex are dead, with her gone, my revenge can be complete. He prepared to fire the weapon, Veronika just looked at him sadly, a tear could even be seen. She dosen't want to die, she's scared. She's women and I'm treating her like this His mind went blank and he let go of her. Veronika then looked at him a wiped her face with her hand. She just got up and looked down at him
"What the hell just happend!?" Duilin said with a confused, dumb look on his face
"I, uh, don't know...." Veronika replied
-
//Blarg... Got behind quite a bit. Heh... You CAN get inside the Zero Weapon to control it, but that's the hard way, and doing it that way only causes it to get ticked off at you. Razz Rather, it detects the will of its controller, and carries it out. In other words, control it like it's your own NPC. I don't want to hog this awesome demon... It's nice to share. So if you guys would, assign damage to it if you're currently controlling it.//
The Zero Weapon had a slight brain freeze there... Before it knew it, Zeros' had scorched part of its body armor with the energy wave, and it had been frozen then unfrozen. The Zero Weapon detected Ragnar's presence inside it, and threw a fit, kinda. It employed its own eject function, applying energy through the floor where Ragnar stood to attempt to shoot him out the hatch he came in from. It sent a telepathic message to Ragnar: "Don't do it that way... I will automatically follow your will... That is, unless you're not on our side."
//And please... PLEASE... don't cheat and use him if you're not in the Dark Empire or aligned with it.//
Zion was too busy with Xenai to make an atttempt to turn off the Zero Weapon. He could only hope that Zeros' could...
-
"Nyah!"
Draven slashed downwards hard, splitting the oncoming electrical stream in two directions, away from himself. Holding the burning blade with both hands, he then brought the sword up as if he were going to attempt a second slash. This time, however, he let go of the blade, sending it spiraling toward Scorch like a giant burning, bladed boomerang...
----
Iduran continued down the dark corridor... but after a few moments of random wandering, he could hear footsteps before him.
In a desperate but, alas, lame attempt to hide, Iduran dashed to the wall to his left and pressed his back to it. The solider began to jog towards him.
"Hey! Who are you?"
Iduran eyed the man's sword in the scabbard left of his waist.
"The weapons inspector."
"Huh?"
The old knight lunged at the soldier, jamming his left shoulder into him and grasping the man's sword with both hands. A short wrestling match ensued for the blade, but Iduran eventually pulled it out and, in the same motion, spun around and slashed the soldier's bare neck, killing him instantly.
The thin katana wasn't what the old knight was used to, but any weapon was better than no weapon... He placed the blade in his empty broadsword scabbard strapped across his back. A poor fit, but it will do.
Noticing an open doorway, Iduran dragged the body into what looked like an empty soldier's cabin to avoid drawing attention. Wherever he was, it looked like most of the soldiers were out... for now...
-
"Why did you let me go?" Veronika asks
"I, uh, guess it was just the look on your face..." Duilin replys
"I was scared...."
"Why aren't we fighting?"
"I don't know..." Veronika just stared at Duilin they looked at each other for awile. Veronika took a step foward to Duilin, but imedeantly turned around and left.
"Uh, you forgot your, shotgun....thing" Duilin says, but was to late "That, was werid..." You looks around "Okay who else wants some!!?"
-
Genma noticed Duilin. He formed his left hand into a gun and pointed at Duilin's foot. He charged up alittle bit of ki energy (nothing to hurt him seriously, just enough to knock him down) and shot it at Duilin's foot.
----
Zeros' stopped when he noticed his sword didn't have any effect on the machine. He flew out infront of the machine and glared at it.
"KATCHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN REVISED! HIRYU SHOTEN HA!" He sheathed his sword and started firing litterly hundreds of little ki blasts that created mini-tornadoes as they struck.
//Basically its like his Heave Blast of the Dragon earlier in the chapter, but since the machine gives of heat, he didn't need to lure it into a spiral.\\
-
Cheetah noticed the illusions jumping after him, not really able to tell which of them is real, he broadened his strong wings to both sides to smash the attackers on them.
---
Scorch ducked down as the blazing boomerang flew inches above him. He obviously realised the obvious: knowing Draven, the blade can return, so he chanted haste spell in haste and accelerated a bit, lowered himself even more in the air, then passed under Draven and flew higher - the returning boomerang would propably have to head through Draven now before it strikes him...
...if Draven won't use yet another cheat magic trick, which he obviously will.
-
Ragnar thought: Damn.
He managed to stop himself being pushed out of the machine.
Ragnar attempted to control the machine telepathically, hoping that it would not detect that he had the left the Dark Empire.
//Again, your call Eternal Eon.//
-
"Ha ha ha!! Run! Run!"
The spinning blade changed directions, now heading straight for Draven, spinning so fast now it looked like a red disk. He threw his right hand up, and the blade angled upwards, passing mere feet over his head at nearly 100 miles per hour...
He spun around to see where Scorch was. Using his hand to direct the angle of the crimson blade, he angled it upwards more, so that it raged towards Scorch from below.
Seeing the opportunity to play a fun game with this new attack, at the same time he extended his left hand and a second blade of flame began to take shape...
----
Iduran continued deeper and deeper into the bowels of the great black vessel, not exactly sure where he was or where he was going...
He came across another guard at an intersection to the hallway, but wisely hid in the many shadows as he walked passed. After the old knight was sure it was safe, he took the right path, the one the guard came from. The torches lining the hallway set a ominous mood...
After several minutes of walking, he came to a pair of large doors, a large dragon incrested on each. The right one was slightly open. Perhaps a peek wouldn't hurt...
-
Duilin was totally distracted by what happened, and didn't notice the blast, it hit his foot and then he fell to the ground, droping his weapons. Veronika came back and grabed the shotgun, and pointed at him.
"Haha! I can't belive you fell for that! You are so pithetic!" Veronika laughed. She looks up at Genma "Hey Genma, thanks!"
"You wench!" Duilin says angrly "Seth, Cheetah help!"
"Shut up! Don't make me kill you!"
---------
Pophin arived nearby the ship (he left quite a few posts ago) "Hmmm...I hear fighting going on in there, probally that double crossing bastard Duilin is in there, along with that drow friend of his!" He swung his Katana around in the air "Well, I bet there no match for me and my new friend! I'm a new man!" He unintentionally let's go of his katana wile swinging it in the air and goes flying off "Ooops!"
He goes over to find it, it hit a tree and was stuck into it, he plucked it out and then turned around. "Damnit. I can't go in there, they'll kill me! What ever shall I do...No, I can do this...I CAN do this...."
Pophin then starts paceing around trying to find out what to do.
-
The illusions of Genma quickly disapated as he quickly dodged behind the wing smash. He just waved on hand and turned his attention back to Cheetah.
He quickly ran under Cheetah and jumped up, reaching his underside in mere seconds. He let himself fall alittle bit before cupping his hands behind him and letting a ball form...he thrust his hands forwards, but not saying anything.
The ball was a mixed color of green and red, depression and anger.
----
Zeros' looked at the spinning tornadoes and started breathing alittle heavily; that attack always took alot out of him.
-
Scorch flew a bit above and began to circulate around Draven, running from the boomerang, leaving trail of fast spinning air, then rised high and from the spinning air around Draven, a tornado has formed which began to slowly compress, in attempt to crush Draven inside with the masses of air.
"This should at least distract him while he forms the second weapon..."
Scorch was now directly above the general, forming some sort of staff from air in his hand.
"If he would like more chase-Scorchy-with-boomerang play... I will attack him directly."
---
Cheetah noticed the strange orb and rised higher to avoid it.
"What sort of magic is this? Is the orb edible?"
-
//If you quit the Dark Empire, but are still evil, or on its side, you may control the Zero Weapon.//
The Zero Weapon was pushed back a bit by the tornado things. They scratched up its skin a bunch, but it was gonna take a lot more than many little hits to crack the armor.
The Zero Weapon walked up to Zeros, while brushing the tornadoes off of its armor. It brought its arms up above its head, and came down toward Zeros' with a doublefist.
-
Ragnar managed to disable the traps inside so that noone could be cast out of the machine.
-
Zeros' unsheathed his sword and quickly blocked the attack, but he wasn't strong enough from the constant ki attacks. He flew down straight towards the ground and landed with a crash, his sword landing in the ground right next to him.
Zeros' trudgly got up and stood to his feet and then looked at his sword and then back to his jacket, it was shreaded in many places, including a long rip going across his back.
"Shit..." The red indention of a sword clearly showed on his back, the exact same shape and size of Iduran's sword (which is where the sword is). He cursed to himself and then looked back at the Zero Weapon.
He tore part of his undershirt off and burned the lenght of the shirt into his back (he basically used fire magic to burn it to his skin so it wouldn't come off); under his shirt showed his not rippling muscles, but a well-built chest. (Well I had do explain it...)
He picked up his sword and looked at a long hair-line crack going across the blade. He still knew the swords real power was hidden from him (coughinuyashacoughnotreally,butithoughtitwasjusttohintanticipation)
He waited for the machine to make his attack.
-
Hoping that Zeros' would still be a little dazed, Haraldur caused the machine to try to pick Zeros' up and hold him, securely.
-
Zeros', still dazed, but not totally out of it, managed to dodge to one side and barely avoided being picked up. He supported himself loosely with his sword and looked up at the machine. He couldn't be defeated; not yet.
Zeros' then noticed Qeni and Zev running to him.
"Get out of here you two! This thing is far too powerful...if I died, I want you two to live at least!" He motioned with one hand to try and get them away.
Qeni and Zev shook there heads and tried to help Zeros'.
-
Ragnar noticed that there were several people now, Zeros' and two others.
Hmmmm... a way to weaken the Dark Empire, slightly, without it seeming to have been anything but necessary to them. After all, that is what the Self Destruct button is for...
The machine walked up to near where Zeros', Qeni and Zev were. Ragnar caused the traps to become active again, and pushed the self destruct button just before he was thrown out of the machine.
He flew for a while, then stopped, and then stood on the air. He saw the machine explode. As an afterthought, he made himself invisible again.
-
Gelu suddenly was blinded by the light of explosion of Zero Weapon in the distance.
"I told you to destroy the damn machine!" - he screamed at Xenai. - "This idiot is a threat to us all!"
-
Ragnar ascended, and started flying towards the mountains again.
-
Around and around, Draven controlled the spinning blade as it followed Scorch. The second was ready, and he tossed it up at the air mage. But now Draven found himself caught in the center of a cyclone.
"Blast..."
He shot straight down and landed on solid ground, where he could weather the winds a bit better, and flared his aura of flame outward, attempting to ward off the intense wind. Down here in the mayhem he was unable to see his enemy, and therefore unable to follow Scorch with the spinning blades, which now spun wildly out of control far above...
----
"What a pest..."
Rather than dispatch the Artian phoenix rider quickly. The menacing Jayce had spent the past several minutes making sure he had suffered for interrupting his battle... But, upon returning to the spot he left the four warriors he was about to slay, he found them gone...
He smiled to himself, replacing the huge scimitar in its scabbard across his back. Really, he should have saw that coming...
"Oh well. They weren't worth my time, anyway..."
He folded his arms. What to do next...
----
The room was completely dark and silent... should be safe... better than the hallway, I guess...
Iduran snuck into the darkened room, and began to tip-toe forward. After his eyes adjusted he could faintly see something before him. It looked like a table...
Upon closer inspection, it was a table. Circular in shape, it reminded him of the one in the stories he had heard as child about a king named Arthur. Mere myths about a different world...
This one was a bit different. Instead of thirteen places, this one was split into six. Each section was a different color and had a different engraving of what looked like animals, although it was too dark to make out what each was.
There also seemed to be something glowing dimly in the center of each partition... gems perhaps? The gems were affixed in the handles of six different weapons lying on the table... no wait-- five weapons. One's missing...
-
The nearby explosion of the Zero Weapon caused Zeros', Qeni and Zev all to be blown about a hundred feet through the forest; the explosion made them go through trees, rocks and such.
Zeros' trudgly got up till he noticed Qeni and Zev started to recover.
"Im sorry..." Zeros' punched both Qeni and Zev, but just enough to knock them out. He then chanted some words and soon Qeni and Zev were gone. He sheathed his sword and flew up high.
He sensed a strong force and flew in that direction.
-
//
Zeros' punched both Qeni and Zev, but just enough to knock them out. He then chanted some words and soon Qeni and Zev were gone. He sheathed his sword and flew up high.
He sensed a strong force and flew in that direction.
Er... Zeros'... what happened to the nearby explosion of the machine?//
-
A strange wave of energy hit, and Shin, Sigilus, Gyulim, and the whole Aritan army just DIED!
//Yes, that means that I'm pulling out of the Role-Play; I don't have a lot of time anymore...sorry guys//
-
Uhh...I'll edit it...
-
//
A strange wave of energy hit, and Shin, Sigilus, Gyulim, and the whole Aritan army just DIED!
//Yes, that means that I'm pulling out of the Role-Play; I don't have a lot of time anymore...sorry guys//
//Ah well... approprite measures need to be taken.//
In the emergency of the green tunnel collpasing around them, the two Haraldurs went to the dimension the elder one had been in before. They wondered what causedall this.
__________________________________________
Ragnar has stopped, and is looking around at the island.
-
Zeros' looked around in the air; He saw no one. He sensed Draven, Jayce and a few others. He raced towards Jayce hoping he didn't have a chance to do anything else.
-
Jayce folded his arms and closed his eyes once more. Now someone else was approaching... Wasn't Draven supposed to be taking care of him? Miserable failure... looks like I'll be handling it after all...
----
"Welcome..."
The room glowed red as the torches instantly ignited, revealing a throne room fit for... an emperor...
Startled, Iduran's eyes darted up. On the opposite side of the room, standing atop a short flight of stairs, in front of a golden throne, stood a man draped in black... His face was invisible behind the horned helmet... His deep voice cut through the soul...
"You must be Iduran. My sources tell me you lead this island nation. How quaint..."
Trying not to be intimidated, Iduran defiantly approached the emperor...
"Lead? I am a mere knight captain... a loyal servant of the king... you killed."
"Servant only? It seems you are capable of making intelligent choices, a valued quality of a leader... We shall see..."
Iduran tensely fingered the sword strapped to his back, as the robed man took a step forward, revealing a smile in the shadows and spikes upon his dark mantle...
-
Zeros' didn't want to face Jayce, especially not as battered up as he was, but he felt the three Artian warriors aura's vanish all of the sudden, while everyone else was locked in combat.
"That Jayce...he has been the first one to scare me; Ever." The shrugged off the thought as he continued to fly forwards, very slowly, he wanted to heal himself as much as possible.
-
//O_O!!!!
Who said there was a self-destruct button!?//
When the smoke cleared, the Zero Weapon stood there, laughing. But half of its energy reserves had been depleted. Now it was REALLY ticked off. It turned around toward Ragnar, spawning an enormous ki ball in its left hand. The ki ball was flung toward Ragnar.
//...Guess I gave people too much control.//
-
// Guess you lack predictability, it was obvious Haraldur would do something like that when allowed //
-
//O_O!!!!
Who said there was a self-destruct button!?//
//What would a giant menacing strange fantastical machine be if it did not have a self destruct button?!//
By now, Ragnar was so far away from where the ki ball was aimed, that it went away and hit some trees.
//After all, I said Ragnar flew away!//
Hmmm... thought Ragnar, They must have changed the designs. Damn progress!
Hmmm... I sense something... it seems that something I have not been near to in 2 years is to the south, in that great black ship... Could it possibly be the one who I once served? This might be interesting.
He turned south and flew in that direction, remaining invisible to ordinary sight.
-
//The only think thing that dosen't stink about MotD's chara's dieing is that Duilin might get to hook up with Nevina, but I reallyy don't care if he dose or not. It stinks...//
Duilin then glared at Veronika. She laughed evily. Duilin then slowly moved toward his slip were his knife was and then quickly swung it out flinging it right by Veronika, she turns her head as it flings by and Duilin dives at Veronika, knocking her down. He punches her right in the forehead, knocking her out. He swipe's her Auto Shotgun and then recovers. He then aims the shotgun, and fires it at Genma.
He only fires a few bullets because he has never used one of these before and only knows how because he's watched Veronika fire it at him and his friends.
--------
"That's it! I'm going into the ship! FOR THE EMPORER!" Pophin yells running into the ship holding his Katana in the air. "YAAAA!!!" He arives at the enterance and spots what is going on, he sees Duilin, the drow and the Gepardi.
-
// Oh great. Now Ragnar arrived at black vessel to spoil the last remains of fun we had Wink what will he do? blast apart vessel in 1 post? find a self-destruction button and blow emperor up? stay tuned for "Ragnar Madness 2004" //
Scorch manouvered himself in the air, evading the rotating blades - which wasn't too easy since their flight path was pretty much unpredictable - and lowered his position, looking for Draven.
"Is the old fool running out of strength... or what?"
---
Gepardi ducked as the corloful ball (which he finaly determined as unedible) flew past him. He noticed Pophin rushing in with his katana.
"Another servant of Dark Empire... Not good. Altought this one looks more funny than dangerous." - he thought, then turned back to Genma, and performed a diving strike breathing acidic breath into the air as he came closer to his enemy.
---
Gelu noticed Ragnar leaving.
"This madman offers threat to everything. He should be taken care of..." - Gelu told Xenai. - "Is this device incapable of flying?"
-
Ragnar suddenly stopped. He then sped towards the hole. He passed right through the mountain and the rock covering the hole. While in, he slowed down to a slow descent.
This was going to take ages... Damn absent-mindedness.
//OK, all my characters are now inactive. I am going on holiday to France on Thursday, so I thought I should do this before any of my characters get involved with any complicated things, like battles or conversations etc..//
-
Genma quickly jumped back from the diving opponent and looked towards Cheetah. He looked at the wyvern form and frowned; he relized this was going to take longer then he though.
----
Zeros' flew higher, the wind pushing his silver hair through the air while his sweat covered shirt stuck to his chest and he looked down: Jayce.
Zeros' slowly lowered himself down towards Jayce.
-
(Just wait until MotD's inevitable dramatic comeback in chapter 4, heh...)
----
With a powerful blast, Draven finally jumped out of the tornado, landing and falling to his knees, out of breath... There was only so much fighting that can be done in a day... (low MP!)
"No! I shall destroy you!"
He stood up straight. Scorch was descending down upon him. The two spinning blades had passed far behind. Better to try to conserve energy by keeping them in the game... Draven clenched his fist, causing them to reverse directions once again. Trying not to give away that he resummoned them, they sped toward their target from above and behind...
----
Jayce didn't look up, open his eyes, or even move...
"Did you kill Draven yet? Took you long enough... I'm not going to toy with you. Last chance. The sword..."
----
"You... why... WHY?! Why did you attack us?!"
Iduran unsheathed the sword he had found and pointed it at the Dark Emperor.
"Simple... You have something I desire..."
"What? That sword? You slaughtered all those people for a blasted sword!?"
"Ha ha haahhh... It's much, much more than a sword, my friend..."
"You!! I'll end this here! ARRRRRGHHH!!!"
Iduran made a mad dash for the robed man. A well timed leap, and a slice at the neck... but an inch away from the target the sword hit a solid barrier. A flash of deep violet and black overtook the old knight and his weapon. The flimsy blade disintegrated into a dozen small shards of jagged metal as Iduran flew backwards some 10 feet, landing on his back, bouncing and flipping in the air, before plummeting face first into the floor.
Iduran lied still for a few seconds, before beginning to struggle to his feet. He instantly felt a cold hand grasp the back of his neck. Emperor Retan was directly behind him... Iduran was surrounded by a black mist and lifted into the air, the cold grip clutching his neck...
-
(Zeros' you are aware of the fact that Duilin just fired a combat shotgun at Zeros'. That I'll teach ya not to read my posts. Just kidding, just make your responce about it)
In slow motion the shotgun shells spin at Genma...
Pophin then notices that he is not noticed. So he yells "YAAAAAA!!!!!!!!?"
-
//Uhh..oops?\\
Genma winced at the sound of the shotgun being fired he dodged to avoid, he put his arms to his sides and sidestepped to one direction, but two of the bullets connected with his shoulders, grazing him lightly.
Genma turned to Duilin, his eyes held deep compassion for the man and also a sadness. Genma said nothing to him. He turned back towards Cheetah and prepared for another attack.\
----
Zeros' floated downwards and across from Jayce, his azure blue eyes cold and emotionless. Zeros' brushed a few wisps of his hair from his face and looked towards Jayce.
"No." Zeros' held no emotion in his voice, he gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, turning his knucles white.
-
//Sorry for the long time no post. Kinda busy lately//
Seth attacks the Elite Soldier feriously, with a barrage of Steel Claw slashes, but only a few hit, and they shredd the adversary's armor.
Elite Soldier slashes at Seth, and Seth does a 180 degree spin to dodge, but the soldier follows up with an upward slash to Seths back, catching his Left shoulder blade.
Seth was infuriated, and Drew His Falchon, Jumped in the Air, and fell upon the Soldier, blade first, the Sword piercing the poor being from skull top, going straight between his legs.
"Bastard.." Seth mumbled, feeling no remorce for the soldier.
_________________________________________________________________________
Nevina was still unconcious, lying in a forest she had been dropped into by the Phoniex.
_________________________________________________________________________
//It's been 5 days.. the Clones should be done by now.//
There were now 500 of each type of Psi Warrior.
They assempled themselves into a 2,000 strong legion, Warriors in front, Monks close behind, Archers behind them, and Mages in the back, Tsar in the middle of all.
They Flew rapidly to a group of Dark Empire Wyverns, and the Archers fired their first round, the mages casting fire magics to the arrow tips.
2 Dozen wyverns and riders fall in the strike, and 30 were injured.
-
"Heh..."
Jayce shot from the ground in a forceful leap, causing deep cracks to split the ground as he bounded upward. In a fluid motion lasting less than a second, he had the giant blade drawn and raging towards Zeros' head from above...
----
The wyvern riders were taken completely by surprise by the psi army. Attempting to scramble into battle positions, they began to swoop down upon the enemy head on from above, spewing acid, fire, and ice.
----
"The sword... where is the final piece to the puzzle?"
Iduran struggled in the air, but could not fight the dark mist and the Emperor's grip.
"I'll... never tell!"
"You don't have to..."
Retan brought the old knight closer to him, placing his gloved left hand on Iduran's skull...
"Unhand me!"
"Hmmm.... yes... the sword... your family heirloom... you always trusted it in battle... but you knew we wanted it... you knew it had some sort of power... so you... gave it away? His name is... Duilin..."
Iduran gasped as the Dark Emperor read his mind... He continued...
"Duilin, traitor of the Dark Empire... my, how trusting... Hmmm... You were separated... You made it back... but someone else now has the sword... who... who is it...?"
Iduran panicked... Don't think of anyone!
Iduran remembered a time long ago... When he was young, he once lost the sword after a long battle. His father was furious at him... he remembered the confusion, the anxiety, the uncertainty he fealt while the blade was missing...
"Confusion... fear...? Who? WHO? ............ Hmmm... you don't have a clue do you?"
Retan dropped the old knight, who fell to the floor gasping. He turned away.
"How... unfortunate of you to lose your most prized possession..."
Iduran struggled to his knees. To his right was the table bearing the five collected weapons...
"Faces... I saw faces when I looked into you mind. Perhaps these people know where your sword is..."
Out of breath, Iduran stumbled for the table. He collapsed just before it, outstreatching his right hand which fell upon the top. Grab something--- anything! His hand found the handle of one of the shinning weapons...
"NEVER!!!!"
With all his might, he threw himself in the opposite direction, towards the Dark Emperor. The weapon his hand found was a long spear, beautifully ornate just like his sword, only this one's gem was a deep blue, which was glowing brightly...
"Huh?"
"NYAAHH!!!"
The old knight jammed the blade into the emperor's side, cutting straight through his armor and magical defenses... Retan stooped in pain...
"Gyah--!! You... insolent...!!!"
The Dark Emperor grabbed the shaft of the spear with both hands and angled it up, striking Iduran in the chin and knocking him down. He removed the blade. Crimson blood dripped on the ground...
"You shall suffer dearly for that!!"
Iduran leapt up, ready for a second charge. But a cold black wind blew around Retan... Thusting both hands forward, the Dark Emperor threw bolt after bolt of dark thunder at the old knight, who was totally defenseless...
Screaming in pain, Iduran was thrown against the opposite wall, some 50 feet away... Pinned by the dark power, he mutter under his breath as the Dark Emperor slowly advanced.
"Zeros'... Scorch... Duilin... Haraldur... it's... up... to you..."
An orb of darkness formed in the emperor's right hand as he advanced... Halfway to Iduran, he tossed it at the old knight. The wall was engulfed in black flame, the explosion, punching a humongous hole in the wall, killed the last hero of Romme instantly...
Alas, it is too late for the nation of Romme... but what fate awaits those who fight for the rest of the world...?
-
Genma felt a shot of pain go up his spine and froze instantly, his cloak slowly settling at his feet. Genma silently glanced over towards the door that he had sealed and threw it open, shattering the wooden door instantly, splinters erupting from the smash.
He walked through the next door into the long hallway, his cloak flowing behind him. He glanced at the hole in the wall and started walking again, he put on an emotionless face and stood 20 feet from the emperor.
"Retan." His gold eyes stared in the eyes of the emperor, waiting for something.
----
Qeni and Zev looked on from Heaven; wide-eyed. They couldn't let him do it. Qeni turned abruptly and stared coldly at the Seraph.
"Im going Seraph." The Seraph shot a cold glare at Qeni, but then saw into her soul and simply nodded. Qeni went to Zev's side and patted him down, her eyes paralyzing him while he wept.
"I won't be gone long. We'll be reunited soon enough."
----
Zeros' felt a cold shiver run up his spine, as if a part of him had been sliced away. He looked at Jayce and gripped the hilt of his sword tighter, but he couldn't move his hand; Qeni had her hand on his.
She smiled reassuringly at Zeros' as tears rolled down his cheeks, she wiped them away with the back of her hand and released her hand, but Zeros' did not move. Qeni was struck down by Jayce's sword, quick and swift and layed at a bloodied heap at his feet.
Something deep within the depths of his mind snapped and door unlocked his emotion he held away since that day over 900 years ago; anger.
He drew his sword suddenly, faster then Jayce did and the sword was at his throat, glowing red with anger.
"Lower your sword."
-
Zion had felt it. A life force had passed away. He knew, this one was important too, to his cause... He had to take care of Xenai now, so that he could help out his allies' cause...
"I know you felt that too, Xenai."
"Another win for my side... Ha ha ha..."
Tsu woke up on the shore, looking up at Zion and Xenai, then looking over at the idle Zero Weapon.
"I'm done fighting you." Xenai looked over to the Zero Weapon. The Zero Weapon semed to respond just to looking at it. Xenai flew off, and the Zero Weapon's eyes glowed a bright red, like when it activated. Tsu jumped to his feet, and tightly gripped Kuon Yaiba. Zion was also ready to fight. But was it possible for them to win this battle?
-
Scorch looked up and strafed in the air as suddenly a burning blade struck him directly in his back, putting his robe on fire yet again.
The wizard began to move around rapidly, trying to do something to stop the flames, then finaly decided it would be best to use simplest method - he quickly took off his cape (or the rags which looked like it), then tossed it at the Draven below.
He had no shirt beneath (only trousers and a stash), so his scarred back and chest were now suspectible to any further damage.
"You will pay for this all, Draven. You will."
Scorch preppared yet another spell as the energy began to course through his body, making it almost glow.
---
// Xorlak should be disqualiffied for breaking the 2 actions per post rule Smile //
Cheetah, who noticed Genma switching directions, changed to cheetah form and qucikly followed him. He looked around, noticed some dark, terrifying human-looking being he never saw before and hole in the wall... He heards some strange sounds... He froze in fear as he slowly began to realise what have happened.
He began to slowly fall back, away from the emperor.
---
Gelu could feel it. The dark emperor has won yet another victory...
-
Genma knew Cheetah was there, he didn't even look back.
"Gepardi. Go. This is one battle you should not see."
-
Duilin then decieded to follow Genma and Cheetah.
"Seth stay here." He told him as he ran by. He ran to the area they were Cheetah was. "Cheetah, what's going on? Were is Iduran?"
----------
"Veronika, has been defeated!" Iduran says as he looks at the out cold women lieing down. "So, you are that friend of Duilin. Seth is it? Well Seth, I hope you know, that I am with the Dark Empire! I am a master spy and I know everything! I've been watching everyones very move for along time. So, why do you choose to aid the fallen Romme Empire?"
-
Genma shot a quick, cold glare at Duilin.
"Get out. This is between me and him."
-
"No! I'm staying here! I'm Duilin Talonscar, remember me? And who the hell, is that!?" Duilin yells pointing at the black figure.
-
"Duilin I do not wish you to die here." Genma leaned on his staff and silently turned his head forwards. "This is Emperor Retan. The leader of the Dark Empire. His son is Jayce, while Draven and Neptra are his most trusted officers..."
He hesistated for a moment. "I am Retan's personal guard. He shall die by my hands and no one elses."
-
"Emperor Retan?" He says looking at the him "I'm sorry, I didn't reconize you. But yes, I am Duilin Talonscar, the traitor! Darion's ex slave! You know Darion on of you old guards? Along with Nex? There BOTH dead!" He takes a few steps, He looks around and realzizes Iduran's dead corps. "Oh my god..." He looks at Cheetah and wispers to him "We've gota get outa here..."
--------
Veronika remains uncontious, but has a mental dream like thing.
"Hello" Says a fimiluar voice "This is the voice of.....god!"
"Who the hell is this!?" Veronika snaps
"I told you, it's GOD! Duh!"
"Nex?"
"Yes?" The voice was Nex
"What do you want?"
"Uhh...I'm just giveing you a mental episode!"
"Do you remember my name"
"How could I forget..." Nex wispers
"What is it?"
"Pophin!" He yells happily
"No, Veronika! Now what do you want!?"
"I want to tell you, that I'm okay, and daddy is comeing home soon okay?" He says as if Veronika was her daughter
"I thought you were alive, you can not be killed!"
"Retan and Genma wish kill the ones who have been attacking you. But we won't let him kill Duilin, right?"
"I supose so, why not?"
"Because, we need him."
"Why?"
"Let me tell you our core plan. The reason I wanted him to be kidnaped and join is because, he is part deamon, he dosen't know it, but he is. I want him to join us, and defeat the Romme!"
"But Romme is dead! Nobody from Romme is left at all! There all dead! Just kill him and get it over with!"
"Okay, fine, not Romme, umm....Retan!"
"Why? He our leader!"
"No! I shall be leader, but first, I must get the perfect group. Darion is dead, but we can replace him, we must get Duilin back, and find a replacement for Darion and together we can destroy Retan and rule the world!!"
The voice in Veronika's head stops...
-
From the attack from the wyverns, several acid shots landed, and removed psi soldiers limbs, but did not kill them, as only striking the red sphere ithin them could kill them. However, several acids hit and killed around 8 Warriors, 10 Monks.
The Warriors Charged at the Wyverns, while Monks Praid, restoring a few limbs here and there to mutalated soldiers.
The Archers fired several rounds, while the mages conjured Poisons and flames and death curses to the arrows.
40 Wyverns die by the warriors, 60 by the archers/mages.
______________________________________________________________
"Beacuse.. Romme is there home. Their Haven. You're invading them, forcing, pushing them out of their own home. Persecuting.. I know how Percecution feels.. I've lived with it for decades. And perhaps the Gods will favor me for my deeds done." Seth said, with a proud, but saddened tone.
"Why do you work for the Empire? Knowing they do this to people. They may provide for you, but having them do so shows your weakness.. So why? Why not just live in peace? There is nothing better than to live in a forest, training your physical prowess and caring for yourself. No greater feeling of Pride and Peace."
-
Draven floated up slowly, assuming a battle stance in mid air. Too weak... that blade should have cut through his flesh like butter...
None-the-less, he managed his familiar smirk.
"Scorch, what's the matter? Is it too... hot?"
He clenched his right fist and opened it, conjuring a small fireball.
----
Jayce leapt backwards before the blade neared his throat. Perfect execution. Not who he was aiming for, but a kill is a kill... where did she come from anyway?
Jayce ran the pointer finger of his left hand over the blood on his sword.
"Was she... important? How delightful..."
He licked the blood off of his finger as if he were tasting icing on a cake...
"That's right... show me your hatred... Make things... interesting for me..."
----
The Dark Emperor turned his back to Genma, slowly striding to his throne. The bleeding stopped and his wound began to heal.
"Genma. That one was worthless. He knew nothing. Do not waste my time by bringing me worthless peasants. I am growing tired of waiting..."
The four weapons on the table and the shinning spear on the ground began to levitate, slowly floating to and rotating around Retan.
"One hour... One hour is as long as I will wait. Then it is the end..."
Voices behind him. He turned, the five weapons circling him like spectres. Duilin and Cheetah were behind Genma.
"Ah, you've brought guests... perhaps one of you can lead us to the sword..."
----
(Edit: Can't forget about the wyverns!)
The wyvern riders were totally outclassed by the psi army, mostly because the riders were too spread out from their search mission.
"Flank them! FLANK THEM!!"
The captain yelled hysterically as the well organized legion smashed his ranks. Seconds later an arrow of flame pierced his torso, killing him instantly. Chaos unfolded as the flying warriors were left to fight independently. In a few moments, over 300 wyvern riders were slain...
But then on the horizon, a shadow developed... The 500 dark wyverns, the elites of the sky, organized and fresh, were rapidly approaching the fray...
-
"Ha ha ha! It's because they gave me a reason to exist!" He then starts paceing back and fourth wile looking at him and talking "Before I was some homless, friendless, mindless, nobody with nowere to go. Untill the Dark Empire found my gift, my gift is to be unnoticed untill I appear myself! Now let me tell you something. This Dark Empire, we are trying to find these weapons for our Emperor Retan, and he has two personal guards, Genma and Nex. Nex also has a divison of warriors that he has gathered from around, nobodys like how I was, but you see, Nex is not a person Retan should have trusted. You see, Nex wishes to defeat him as soon as the time is right, he wishes to take over the position of him, by killing him, he must have several soilders, with him to know about this and help him. He has collected people with special gifts, one was 12 fingers and extreme strenght and size, one with the abbility to understand alot of weaponary and view things in a birds eye view, one with the walking voloume of a ghost, that's me, and finaly, one who has deamon powers. However, we need a replacement for the loss of poor, poor Darion. We need somebody with great flexiblilty and pysic powers of some sort." Pophin stops and turns his head slightly at him and gives him the 'you know I'm saying?' look
-
Scorch, not saying anything, put both arms before him and conjured two separate lightning streams, aimed at Draven, obviously.
---
Cheetah turned to human form.
"I don't think Iduran is alive anymore." - said Cheetah to Duilin, pointing at the hole, through which Iduran broke through as he was killed. The situation was desperate: only Genma separated them from the mastermind of all Dark Empire, which played with levitating weapons and when he would propably realise they don't know where the sword is, he might kill them.
"Not good." - Cheetah only told himself, then added aloud: "I don't know where the sword is, but I know who can know."
That was a stupid plan, but he could not think any better at time, and if they begind searching for him, the demon might have the power to battle Dark Emperor, which might propably assure safety of him and Duilin... or something like that.
---
Gelu turned directions. It might be a good idea to pay Emperor a visit. He should at least be informed about that Vikingard madman, in case he returns.
-
Genma looked silently at the many weapons.
"I do indeed know who has the weapon you are searching for." Genma turned to Duilin and Cheetah and shot them a mental note.
Find Zeros' tell him to get away from this place as fast as possible. Zeros' doesn't know what the sword can do, but you MUST get to him. He might be the only one able to stop Retan. Tell him his old master is sorry.
Genma held up a finger in front of himself.
"You can find out yourself Retan. You should be able to tell easily."
----
Zeros' looked at the limp body of Qeni at his feet, he didn't know what to do now...
Zeros' sword started shifting from the red color of anger to a blue, then to a white. The sword started repairing itself, the cracks visibly disappearing.
The sword also started to transform. It turned to the rotted color of black flesh, spikes pertruding out every 5 cm. The swords length also increased from 7 feet, to a visible 12 feet. The swords width also increased, from being a thin 3 inches, to a bigger 2 feet in width.
The sword was now twice as wide as Zeros' (instead of being thin like a katana, it was now very thick like say, Cloud's sword) and almost three times as tall as Zeros'.
"The true power of the demon sword Masamune..." Zeros' put his other hand on the hilt and the sword split into two swords that looked exactly the same, but only 7 feet long and a foot wide.
Zeros' held both swords at his sides and waited for Jayce to attack.
-
Cheetah was now absolutely confused - the man because of which Iduran has died now giving his orders as if he wanted to stop Dark Emperor? What new hypocrisy was that?!
That was enough for him! The only truly good and kind knight in the land has been delivered to his death by this old bastard - and now he wants them to find Zeros and tell him about the fact that he must get away from his and that he's SORRY?
Cheetah exploded in anger, not really caring about Retan nearby having deadly weapons at his disposal, he ran toward Genma and made an attempt of delivering a strong blow of his right fist straight in the unpreppared old guy's face.
-
Genma ducked under the attack and then glared at Cheetah.
"I told you to run; I was offering you a plan of escape. Zeros' has the sword and he must...!" Genma quickly put a hand over his mouth and then siged.
"Shit.."
-
"Nyah!"
Draven thrust the half formed fireball forward, attempting to blast through the electric streams, but he hadn't the time to gather enough energy. He threw both of his hands forward, meeting the lightning with a shield of fire. The force drove him backward and downward, closer and closer to the ocean...
"Arggh!!"
Draven was truly exhausted and becoming drowsier by the minute, barely able to keep his eyes open...
----
"Sword tricks, huh? Are you sure you can handle them?"
Jayce brought his own sword above his head, slashing it straight into the ground. The strike emitted an intense wave of shadow energy the split the rock the two stood upon in half as it traveled to it's target. A fraction of a second later he took off after the energy wave, bringing the sword to his right side, intending to follow up the attack with a horizontal slash...
----
"Heh heh heh..."
Retan threw his head back in laughter.
"Ah hah hah hah haaa!! Alas, Genma, even as a traitor you serve me well... It is a shame, but it seems my son's prejudices are correct. Even our most trusted allies will turn on us when given the slightest incentive above their current position."
He turned to walk to his left, his hands behind his back under his cloak.
"Yes, it seems you humans, demons, elves, outsiders, and whatever else... are most ungrateful. You forget that your very existence is meaningless to me. If you choose to walk beside me, then out of my own generosity I will allow you to continue to exist. It is not out of necessity that I employ my armies, but out of compassion. But if you choose to walk against me, then I will erase you from existence. Simple really..."
He turned back to Genma.
"But you Genma, you seem to be wiser than most of the hundreds of traitors I've sent to death. I hope that you are not ignorant enough to believe that you can defeat or replace me. So why is it that you turn?"
-
Zion could feel dark energies, very strong ones at that. The Zero Weapon had to be destroyed. But it could wait. Zion took off in the direction of where the strongest dark energy was sensed (toward Retan).
The Zero Weapon glared down at Tsu. The human man backed up slowly with indescribable fear in his eyes. "H... Help!!!" He had to turn off the Zero Weapon somehow... That hole in the top of his head? Crud... It wasn't his problem anymore. He turned around and took off in the opposite direction. The Zero Weapon stood straight up and relaxed. It cracked its knuckles out of boredom. (It's not completely a machine. But it's very much like one.)
//Anyone who can use light, if you want to turn off the Zero Weapon, come up with something to do to the sword-shaped hole in the top of its head.//
-
"I was blinded by arrogance once before. Before you or the Dark Empire were formed. That arrogance cost me my family, friends and others dear to me...it cost me my own soul."
"I will not make the same mistake. I would welcome death at this point in my life. Alittle over a 1000 years of memories is jogged within my head. (Genma is 1089 years old, while Zeros' is bringing up the rear at 998)"
"Retan you know the extent of my power, or else you should not have hired me as your personal guard." Genma leaned on his staff and turned away from the emperor. "If you ever have the courage to fight me, I would like to know."
----
Zeros' stood still.
Not moving.
The energy connected with Zeros', effectivly blowing his jacket behind him, but Zeros' not faltering.
Zeros' did not move, but Jayce's attack was deflected by his speed, making him look as if he didn't move. Zeros' dodged to the left and spun, delivering an uppercut like attack from his right sword, followed through by his left sword that sent two beams of energy towards Jayce.
One Black. One white.
-
"He's getting weak." - Scorch told himself. - "But it will still cost me lots of effort to destroy him... This time I will have to accomplish my task, thought, no matter the cost..."
Scorch drew back the lightning bolts into his hands from which he casted them, and became infused with electric energy. His body was glowing extremely with light and he looked more like a white spirit through which electric energy was circulating than a living being. He entered a super-man like stance with both his arms forward and began flying toward Draven to achieve as close range as possible.
"This is the time for the tyrant to pay..."
---
"What a solemn speech, pleased to hear you like to die but some folks here don't... So... perhaps we should go looking for the one who has the sword, eh?" - said Cheetah, who calmed down a bit, trying to find any way to get out of this ship.
---
Gelu continued his foot journey searching for the Black Vessel near the north point of island. The ship and it's cargo were a great source of magic energy he could feel, so it wasn't too hard to find directions. As a water mage, he never learned how to fly, and he was conserving energy by not travelling in his liquidised form.
-
"Scorch!!! BLAST YOU!!!"
Draven brought both hands to his side before thrusting them forward, sending his last ounce of burning strength at the incoming air mage. But the fully charged Scorch blasted through his wave of fire, splitting it in two. The impact was colossal, sending a circular shockwave of fire and electricity outward for a quarter mile.
"Gaaahhhh!!!!!!"
Draven flew straight backwards at over 100 miles per hour, his body surrounded by hundreds of bolts of electricity. He slammed into the water below, extinguishing whatever aura of flame he had left, and skipped off of the water surface for several hundred yards before disappearing under the waves...
----
"GYAHH!!!"
The attack was too quick for the slower moving Jayce and there was no way he could see it coming... he found himself thrown into the air, spinning, receiving the full force of both energy waves. He smashed down some 50 feet from Zeros'-- hard.
He stood up after a second, but instantly felt a searing pain across his right shoulder and chest, that caused him to fall to his knee.
"Ahh..."
His thick black armor had been sliced through. Crimson blood dripped though the crack...
He looked up at his opponent through the strands of black hair that had fallen in his face... and smiled...
"Heh heh heh... it's about time... no... this body won't do... it won't do at all..."
He struggled to stand up, jamming his sword into the ground in front of him and leaving it.
"It's very rare that we get a chance to show who we really are..."
He brought both arms to his side. An eerie wind began to blow... The man emanated darkness... stronger and stronger his aura became, forcing surrounding rocks and boulders to become airborne and blast away from him. He widened his stance and opened his fists like claws... his eyes began to glow a bright red as the earth itself shook...
----
"Alas. But are you sure you were blinded then, or are you now? A most unfortunate decision..."
He turned. A shadow appeared in the doorway behind the throne. The weapons circled Retan silently...
"Very well. If it is death that you seek, then that is what you shall be granted. Yes, I know the extent of your power... truly worthless, just like all the others... you are not even worth my time..."
He slowly walked up the stairs. Neptra emerged from the doorway, arms folded and smirking. She was clearly enjoying the show. The Dark Emperor spoke to her as he ascended:
"Kill them all. And be quick about it."
Neptra strode forward, an inhuman glint in her eyes...
"I'm afraid I'm going to make a mess. This ship won't be able to handle it..."
"The ship is expendable. In a few short hours, we won't even require such petty transportation... I shall save you the trouble and remove it..."
Retan extended his right palm. The walls, the floors of the ship-- everything began to burn in an intense black and deep violet flame. The material ship became translucent, water visible below. Streaks of darkness ran from the surroundings into Retan's hand. In a few seconds, the entire ship simply disappeared, and the Emperor, Neptra and their opposition were suspended several hundred feet above the open ocean, farther from land then when they entered the ship...
-
Genma hovered from where the planks of the ship were, as if he didn't even move. He turned and faced Emperor Retan and Neptra.
"Its a shame I have to kill both of you." Genma took one step and crossed the distance between Neptra and Retan instantly, standing only 10 feet from them both, his robe blowing behind him, his beard hairs blowing back behind his chin.
"It's a shame I have to kill you though Neptra. You are one of the few people I respected. Draven was an over-pompous pyro maniac, while his son Jayce had an ego the size of Romme." Genma made his staff disappear, a sign he was getting ready for a serious fight.
----
Zeros' glared at Jayce intently.
"Nice trick." The ground around Zeros' seemed to flare up, dirt, grass and rocks flew from his position on the ground and soon a crater was where Zeros' now stood.
"Whenever your ready."
-
"The Dark Empire will fall!" - Scorch screamed, still following Draven at extreme speed before he (not really thinking much) plunged into the sea after him.
The sound of thunderclap could be heard from miles as the air wizard - engulfed totally in his powerful storm aura with lightning energy flowing through his whole body - was blasted into tiny pieces when all the electricity touched the salty water. The masses of energy discharged instantly, sending a powerful lightning shock through all the nearby waters.
A lightning flashed in the distance as the wizard's soul departed to where the roaring of thunders never stops.
---
Confused by the whole unexpected situation, Cheetah stood and watched as Zeros preppared himself for battle.
---
Gelu arrived at the place, as suddenly the Black Vessel vanished into thin air.
"Dark Emperor's powerful magic..." - he said to himself. - "Something is happening on the ship."
-
//Hehehehe... I know what Jayce is...//
Zion watched the distant ship vanish before his eyes. He took off even faster toward the people that were now hovering in the air. He could feel Draven's life force vanish... Everything seems to be happening at once...
Tsu ran for his life, but did not know that he was endangering himself even more... He was running towards Jayce...
-
Iduran....dead......this his the worst thing ever!
Duilin thought, it was like a nightmare, to bad to be true...
FLASH BACK
Duilin runs at Patrick and swings his mace at him. Patrick blocks the hit with his sword. Patrick then swings back a stike and hit Duilin in the torso. Duilin then falls to the ground in pain. Patrick readies to finish him off but Duilin swings his mace at his gut knocking him down. Duilin then gets up and starts smashing his mace at Patrick. Patrick lies there is a pool of blood almost dead. Duilin stares at him. About to kill him off but then stops....
"I can't do it...I can't kill someone. I don't know why...I just can't...." Duilin sits down and starts crying. Wile Patrick screams for help! Duilin then looks at Patrick and then takes out a blanket and places it on him. He takes out a potion.
"Drink it!" He orders
Patrick drinks the potion. Expecting it to be posion but he'd rather die then stay in this pain. But he's not posioned it's a healing potion. He is almost better but he needs rest. Duilin then walks over to Iduran. He's standing over him. He then neals down and starts pokeing at him with a stick to see if he's alive...
Realizing he was being poked, Iduran conjured a bust of energy. He flipped over on his back, bringing his sword above him with two hands to point at Dulin's face.
"Back!"
But that last bust of energy took its toll. He struggled to keep his sword upright, trembling out of fatigue and pain...
Duilin looks at Iduran holding his sword at him.
"It's okay...I want to make you a deal. Now listen here." Duilin begins "Help me kill Darion and I'll join the Romme Empire and I'll give you some potions I have to help you heal yourself" Duilin looks at Iduran with an honest face. Meanwile Patrick falls asleep. And mumbles something in his sleep about Duilin being a nice person and all. And also mubles something else about fealing guilty for telling Darion were he can find a village to attack.
Iduran looked back at the dark soldier, surprized that someone in the enemy army would actually help him.
FLASH BACK OVER
My potions aren't enough to save him now... He takes out the empty potion bottle, the very one that help the chemicals he used to help Iduran, and he looks at it for a few seconds. A tear drops from his eye.
Damnit, I'm crying again, I'm a 30 year old man, and I'm crying! I'm older the Draven for god sake! Draven wouldn't cry! He then looks at Cheetah
"We've gotta get out of here some how..." He says quietly to him.
-
//Uhh...Cesque and DM, the ship disappeared by the way...\\
-
// I know it - that's what I meant by "unexpected situation" Cheetah was confused by, Dude Man propably doesn't //
-
// :blink: :wacko: Oh, so then were the hell are we?//
-
(You're floating 100 feet in the air over the ocean!)
----
It happened very quickly, one Jayce had gathered the desired energy... He began to float a few inches above the ground, crossing his arms in front of him. His muscles bulged, his arms, legs, and neck grew longer. Two horns grew out of his black hair, which began to take on a goldish color. His black armor changed with the shape of his body, becoming the scales of his skin. Two wings and a tail appeared, growing longer than his body. He touched the ground, his two feet now massive claws, the same for his hands. His form was now a black and gold dragon, towering over Zeros' at 25 feet tall... a shadow elemental draken...
The true Jayce spread his wings outward, spanning some 40 feet.
"TONIGHT I DINE WELL..."
----
Retan folded his arms, the weapons circling him slowly.
"Farewell, Genma..."
A translucent sphere of dark energy appeared around the Dark Emperor and he bolted off throught the sky in the opposite direction, heading back towards the island.
"What in god's name is my son doing...?"
Neptra floated in front of Genma's line of sight of the emperor.
"True Genma, you always seemed to be one of the nobler of us. It's a shame our lord has such a narrow attitude. However, I owe my life to Emperor Retan. Though I know nothing of your treachery, an order is an order, and I will gladly follow it... Prepare yourself!"
She extended both arms outwards, bringing them up to the sky. The water below churned violently, before jetting up skyward. In a few seconds, Neptra and her three targets were surrounded by a circular wall of water that pierced several hundred feet into the sky...
-
/*
You should write a book after this all unfolds, Xorlak Razz
*/
-
Veronika woke up and spoted that she was floating, she looked at Pophin and Seth.
She got back up and rubed her forehead
"What is going on?!" She yelled, she held her forehead again, her yell just gave herslef a headache "Somebody tell me...please?"
"Well, well, The ship has become....invisable...this is rather frightning. I belive we should remain were we are untill, things clear up, shall we?" Pophin says to Seth and Veronika
"Very well, I'm not going to attack, you, Drow, I might just fall down, to my death."
She says to Seth, she turns to Pophin "I had a vision of Nex, he's back."
Pophin smiles, he then looks at Seth. "Shall we talk?" He asks
(Veronika is back to NPC)
-----
"But how can we get out of here, were floating over 100 feet in the air, and I don't think Retan wants us to leave so soon." Duilin adds to what he said earlier
Hey, what's Zeros' doing here? Wait, didn't I give him the sword? Duilin thinks
Damnit, I wonder were the hell he was. Wait, I had a vison of Nex, I wonder if he returned and Zeros fought him.
------
Meanwile, the area were Nex was defeated, opened up and Nex rose up from it again, the flame surronding him was gone, he had it temperalt disabled
"Well, Zeros is obiously, not one to waste my time with, I'll kill him later." Nex says to himself. "Now, were to go..."
(Um, I'm abit lost, did Scorch just kill himself to defeat Draven?)
-
//Hahahaha... I knew Jayce was a draken.//
As Zion came closer to the floating people, he watched the water walls shoot up into the sky. He stopped for a moment. He was really exhausted. He gulped down a spare Elixir, then took off toward the watery fortress again, at full speed. He closed his eyes, and burst into the wall of water. Apparently, another Dark Empire general was here. More fun for Zion.
Meanwhile, Tsu would discover something that could possibly be more frightening than the Zero Weapon... A draken. Tsu emerged into the area where Jayce was fighting, and promptly fell to his butt upon seeing the dragon. Come on, Tsu! You're not going to get any better if you just run away from everything! Well, at least this dude's shorter than the Zero Weapon... I'm sure that doesn't matter. He sucked it up and unsheathed Kuon Yaiba. He may die, but he was ready to go.
-
//I actaully started working on that before, but I couldn't get the structure right, so I stopped on it.\\
Genma agian looked at Neptra and hopped back, putting more distance between them.
"I'm sorry it does have to end this way." Genma got into his loose stance, both arms hanging at his sides and then promptly disappeared from sight.
Genma reappeared right behind Neptra and thrust forwards with his hand, spreading ki energy outwards from his palm, forming a huge blue ball, that headed right towards Neptra's back.
----
Zeros' held both swords to his sides and floated upwards to Jayce's height.
"Haha. I've been itching for a good fight for awhile now." Zeros' held both swords out infront of him, touched them together (with the flats of the blades) and slashed downwards, making an ark of white and black energy coming downwards, which was 100 feet in height and 25 feet across, heading straight for Jayce.
-
// Dude Man: Yeah... sort of... //
Cheetah tried to move different body parts and stepping at different places to see how this new in-the-air spectral ship works.
"I don't think Retan would like us to leave at all." - he said. - "If not LIVE at all. So I hope you enjoyed your vacations on this island."
"Unless this old weirdo has something planned..." - he added, seeing Genma attack.
// As far as I get, we're in the ship, but it's just floating and invisible, it has walls and floors and all? //
---
Gelu noticed how suddenly a blast of water rised the space where the ship previously was high above. With his sight bad at larger distances, he couldn't actually tell who was on the ship.
"Dark Empire has some powerful water mage on it's side..." - he said, telling himself what was obvious.
-
//It stll has floors and walls, I guess, but there invisible.\\
-
(Heh, I actually meant for the ship to completely disappear. But I guess we can say the floor is disappearing gradually. Neptra wants to lure your characters into the water, where she fights best. I realize the impending aerial/sea battle might be unfair for non-flying characters, so I won't say it's impossible to escape through the surrounding walls of water.)
----
The black dragon opened his mouth, sending a searing blast of shadow energy straight through the impending arc, disintegrating it. As a counter attack, he lunged at Zeros' rearing his mighty right claw back and slashing downwards at the little man...
----
Neptra spun around, delivering a well timed spin kick to the blue orb, sending it flying out of control into the wall of rushing water to her left, where it exploded, spraying them both with a deluge of water.
She expended two fingers of her right hand, pointing them upwards in front of her face as two orbs of water emerged from the water wall on both sides of Genma. A light blue aura formed about them as they took the shapes of large sharp icicles, blasting at the old master at breakneck speed...
-
Genma cursed himself and put up a barrier just before they hit, getting rid of the blunt of the damage. Genma let his ki flow out from beneith him, dropping him into the impending water; a smirk on his face.
He activated his ki right before he hit the water and sped forwards at Neptra, appearing under her. He extended both of his palms upwards and delivered punches towards her lower area's.
----
Zeros' quickly clashed his swords together, forming the 12 foot, 2 foot thick sword and fended off Jayce with his strength, him gradually losing leverage agianst the much stronger Jayce.
"A darken eh.." Zeros' broke of his attack and jumped backwards. He stood about 10 feet away from Jayce and pointed forwards, the sharp edge of the blade pointing upwards (basically the edge thats sharp is facing towards the sky.), his elbows bent slightly holding the hilt of the sword, his hands gripping the sword tightly.
"Come on..."
-
It was time for Zion to help out. The Eternity Weapon was unsheathed, and he flew towards Neptra, thrusting his sword towards her head, trying to be careful not to hit Genma.
--- --- ---
Suck it down, Tsunan! Fight the freaking thing!!! With that thought, he shouted a great yell, that echoed from the inside of his soul, and jumped toward Jayce. That yell that came from his soul... Seemed to empower him... His entire body glowed a white light. His attack then became about 10 times stronger. He slashed downwards at Jayce. There was energy flowing around the blade, and the energy gave the sword an edge... Kuon Yaiba could now cut. //Remember, Tsu's just a puny human...//
-
//Whoo.. Just haven't had the interest to post.. Sorry guys.//
Seth, kinda funny sounding, as he was kinda scared of his inablity to see what he's standing on, said to Pophin, "But that just proves you were weak. You could not take care of yourself. Do you have any idea how long I have lived alone, fendiong entirely for myself? But you, you give into the Empire, and thousands die by your hand, your hand who only fights because it alone could not feed you.."
Seth the cautiously stepped around, making sure there was something under his feet, as he headed towards the Bow of the boat, hoping to swim to land after jumping over-board.
________________________________________________________________________
Tsars Army lost a few soldiers, but nothing major. Tsar spotted the other legion trying to flank them, and he commanded half of his warriors and Half of his Monks to the back of the group, so the enemy couldn't destroy the mages in hand to hand combat. The Warriors in the front, along with the monks, attacked the remainder of the first DA legion.
________________________________________________________________________
Nevina finally awoke, feeling quite groggy, and once she sobered up and brushed herself off, She came to the realization that she couldn't sense Shin or the others energy signals.
Nevina sobbed quietly, as she wandered into the forest, paying no attention to where she was going.
-
Sensing another attacker from behind, Jayce flicked his massive tail to his right, striking the ground in front of Tsu, which shook the ground, splitting it open. At the same time he flapped both wings downwards and shot up into the air twice his body length. Darkness engulfed the beast as he reared his head back and opened his mouth... He fired two spheres of shadow energy downward, the first hit in between the two men, disintegrating the ground in a massive explosion and creating a deep crater, the second flew straight for Zeros'...
----
Neptra simultaneously blocked a punch from Genma with her right knee and threw her head back, so the newcomer?s sword flew right over her face. Knowing she was in a bad spot, she continued the spin until she was completely upside-down, and dove straight into the water below. No use continuing to fight in the air...
As she dove, the walls of water began to follow her, hundreds of pounds of water coursing upon the warriors from above...
-
Pophin looks down as he falls "Crazy bastards gonna get himself killed someday..." Veronika then walks over beside Pophin. He turned his face to her and they looked at each other.
"Wanna play 20 quuestions?" Pophin asks her smileing
"No..." Veronika says glareing back at him
---------
(Um, I'm abit lost at what's happening on the boat could somebody tell me?)
---------
Nex wanders off into the forset because he has nothing to do. He spots somebody, some women of some species.
He walks over toward her
"Well hello, who do we have here now. Whats your name women?" Nex says to her
-
Genma floated back a few feet, dodging the water. He looked down towards where Neptra submurged and sighed. He flew up into the air and held his right arm forwards, palm open. A green aura started flowing on his arm, slowly gaining energy till it crackled with power.
A ball of green energy-30x30 feet-quickly flew downwards towards Neptra's general area.
----
Zeros' was abit shaken by the the attack as those attack shook the ground abruptly. Zeros' split his sword into two and quickly charged his right one with holy energy and quickly did a downward arc slash, slicing through the shadow energy and heading in a downward arc towards Jayce.
-
Zion had become really, really wet. A quick flare of his aura would efficiently dry him. Not like it really mattered, because he was going down into the water. He dropped down, face first, toward the ocean, sucking in a good amount of air... And with a good splash, he was underwater.
--- --- ---
Tsu didn't seem to get hit, but there was still a problem with falling into a split in the ground. It was just small enough for him to hold his katana horizontally, and it would catch on the ground. He pulled himself out of the split in the ground, jumped to his feet, and glared at Jayce.
-
(DM: The boat's gone, man! Disappeared into thin air, like an illusion. Heh, I shouldn't have done that, it's confusing too many people... sorry!)
----
The huge green orb slammed into the water, passing inches from the submerged Neptra. She watched it disappear into the depths below.
Ugh. She didn't like to, but she might have to transform to take the two of them down... Zion suddenly appeared in the depths some 20 feet away... Hmmm, maybe not...
She sped through the water toward the unsuspecting fool with fish-like agility, taking care to stay behind him to avoid detection. With her right hand she removed a dagger from her belt, with her left she reached out to grab the man, aiming to put him in a headlock...
----
The dragon reared his neck back, so that the slash missed his head. Flapping his wings once more to maintain his elevation, he spun around, bringing his massive tail upwards and then raging downwards, aiming to knock Zeros' out of the sky straight into the ground...
-
Genma saw his ball had no effect. He used his ability to sense where Neptra was and made a gun with his index finger and thumb. He slowly concentrated his energy into the tip of his finger. He readgusted his aim and quickly fired a condensed beam straight at Neptra.
----
Zeros' quickly brought up his swords and managed to block the inital 'umph' of the the attack, but not before flying down to the ground some 10 feet back. He slowly brought himself up as he worked some kinks out of his neck, smirking.
Zeros' qucikly looked around and noticed something. There were many different colored energies swirling wildly in the area around where him and Jayce had been fighting.
Heat? From the battle? He then got an idea. He quickly combined his sword and sheathed it, going back into its untransformed state, and used the Soul of Ice technique, then using his speed quickly made a spiral around Jayce, trying not ot get too close to Tsu.
The spiral was quickly formed and Zeros' prepared for the punch, and let loose with his cold aura.
"Dragon Ascension Blast!" The impeneding tornado seemed to be alot stronger then the one used agianst Draven, but he couldn't be sure. He slowly rode the current of the cold aura upwards and into the air, before slowly coming back down.
I hope this works! Zeros' quickly reared back for another punch, aiming straight for Jayce agian, but this time sending a punch downwards instead.
"Dragon Ascenson Blast Revised! Dragon's Desending Crashing Wave!" A huge ball quickly formed from where his fist was and speed towards Jayce.
-
(so... Xorlak... are we standing or something or should we all fall into the water?)
-
Zion could detect people's ki signals, and apparently, Neptra didn't know that. Good for him. Zion spun around, quickly spawning a Ki ball and flinging it at Neptra.
--- --- ---
Meanwhile, Tsu was running away from the twister, trying to keep it from pulling him in. The force of which Tsu ran and the force of the tornado's pull canceled each other out, which resulted in Tsu not getting anywhere, which was good enough.
-
(Heh, I would imagine that you would fall into the water... but whichever you want!)
----
"Ooof!!"
Neptra took Zion's unexpected ki ball right in the stomach. At the same time, a laser like blast of energy pierced the waves and grazed her shoulder, causing a small amount of blood to stain the water...
That's it!
She thrust her left hand forward. The water above and around Zion began to condense and freeze, closing inward around him...
----
The dragon dove straight for Zeros', the fearsome tornado not affecting him. But inches from his target, the ball of energy caught him off guard, hitting him head on. He spiraled up and up, out of control, before extending his wings completely outward and stabilizing some 200 feet above the ground. He folded his arms and floated there for a moment, studying the tiny spec below. How could such a small man wield so much power...?
Enough.
A dark aura began to form around the dragon Jayce. The very light of the sky began to dim as it was absorbed by the mighty draken... The blue haze of day seemed to fade into night...
-
Zeros' could sense the great power coming from Jayce.
"So the Heaven Dragon Blast did have an effect on you." Zeros' unsheathed his sword, causing it to transform once agian. He grabbed the hilt and split it into the swords. He quickly used his speed and flew up towards Jayce, quickly reaching his level. He turned around and faced Jayce, standing in a neutral pose, his arms at the side.
----
Genma cursed himself. He couldn't let Zion die yet. Genma quickly disengaged his ki, landing and stood on the ice directly above Neptra. He summoned his staff quickly and focused his senses. He raised his staff above his head and quickly thrust the staff onto the ice.
"Bakusai Tenketsu." The ice exploded outwards form where Genma was standing. He quickly engaged his ki and hovered mere inches from the waters surface. His staff disappeared agian and thrust his right palm forwards, causing a pure white ki ball appear from his hands and heading straight towards his opponent.
He silently breathed in and out, trying to catch his breath. These attacks were taking alot out of him.
-
(now... where did the Emperor go?)
Cheetah transformed himself into a wyvern form and levitated in the air above the fighting Neptra, Genma and Zeros.
---
Gelu directed his head at the waters whose calmity was broken by the fight, and parts of water began to freeze, creating an ice-floe, on which he jumped with extreme agility (at least as for him) and surged toward the battling group.
-
Neptra folded her arms and moved out of the energy ball's path with ease. Even ki met with water resistance, and thus moved noticeably slower underwater.
"That's right, stay nice and close..." she thought to herself.
She weaved through the large chunks of ice scattered through the water, going a bit deeper. Obscured by the icy boulders floating about, she began to gather the energy... The sea became violent, the waves circling around her above, and a vortex began to form...
----
Up close, fierce winds circled the dragon as the darkness throbbed around him. The sky was now completely black-- an effect that could be seen for miles around..
"YOU ARE UNWISE TO KILL YOUR FEAR, DEMI-HUMAN..."
He threw his arms, legs and wings outward. An intense blast of wind met Zeros' head on. His eyes burned red. A small orb, blacker than the darkness of space, began to form above his head, growing at the rate of an inch in diameter per second...
"...FOR IT IS FEAR THAT IS THE VERY ESSANCE OF YOUR SURVIVAL..."
----
The Dark Emperor Retan arrived above the center of the island, not more than a mile south of the battle between Jayce and Zeros'. He gazed upon the rugged mountains below. The sun was just beginning to set to the west, but its light was being marred by his son's attack... His five prizes, the weapons, still circled him like specters...
"They said they will handle it... but my patience grows thin..."
He slowly began to rise through the air, higher and higher...
"Ten more minutes..."
-
Duilin looked up at Cheetah. He noticed that there was nobody here who would stop him from leaveing.
"Cheetah, let me get on your back so we can fly out of here, Seth has left, we have to get out of here!" Duilin asked
-
Zeros' took the blast head on and stumbled a bit in the air, the wind blowing him back some feet. He held stead fast as he watch the orb grow.
"Fear? I have no fear. I don't fear you or anyone else for that matter." Zeros' combined his swords agian and sheathed them. He thrust his right hand out foward, thumb and pinky bent inwards towards his palm. His left hand was loosely at his side. His right hand begun to glow with an intense bright white aura, blinding to anyone and everyone.
The aura grew wider and wider with every passing moment.
----
"Gah!" Genma made his staff disappeared agian and promptly jumped back from the vortex forming near Neptra.
"Don't do it Neptra..." Genma then extended his left palm forwards, thumb and pinky bent towards the middle and started gathering up ki. This wasn't the same attack Zeros' was using, but this allowed his to gather the maximum amount of ki.
-
//Eh... Did Genma just save Zion from the ice attack?
Zion was tired of fighting these tied battles. With a great scream, his aura flared intensely. His internal energy flowed faster within him, and it was stronger, and in more quantity. The aura around him seemed to solidify, and it pushed the water and anything else around him out and away from him, making a sphere of air around him. His body seemed to have a bright white outline now. He took off toward Neptra, unsheathing his Eternity Weapon, and pulling it back. The water seemed to make way for him as he flew toward her.
--- --- ---
Tsu held his own as best as he could, talking to himself in his head to make sure he doesn't take off like a coward. He looked up, and noticed Retan floating in the air. Tsu located two tall trees located close to each other, and ran over to them. He jumped up, and kicked back and forth off of them, getting higher and higher. He stopped and stood on the highest branch of the highest tree, and looked up at Retan.
-
Seth Swam violently towards shore, hoping Neptra wouldn't send an attack towards him.
About 1 post from shore now..
________________________________________________________________________
Nevina smelled Nex' offensive zombish odor annd stepped back.
"*cough* who are you, ugh?" Nevina said, as she flipped her head back, revealing her holy symbol on her necklace accidentally.
//That should hurt Nex a little//
_________________________________________________________________________
The army continued the assualt, and about half of the mages sent lightning bolts at the second legion of Dark Empirians.
-
YIKES Nex thought, he got splitting head ach for a few seconds. He was better awile, the shock is only temperary.
"Sorry about the smell.." Nex casts an electric blast on himself, killing the bad smell, maeking him smell more like, electricity
"My name is, Nex...amus, Nexamus." Said Nex "I am a goblin mage, ever herd of one of those? Well I'm abit lost here, could you tell me were I am?"
-
//
Yeah. Genma cracked the ice with a special technique that senses a certain point in a solid object, all similar to rock, and procedes to shatter it with the lightest tap of his pointer finger or staff to the hardest of impacts.
//
-
Cheetah nodded, but instead of letting Duilin jump on his back he grabbed him in his claws and began to fly toward the shore.
---
On his way toward the battle, Gelu noticed Seth swimming toward the shore. Wasn't he the one who fought with that female water mage?
He speeded toward him, still surfing on an ice floe, and as he headed toward the drowish monk, he conjured a ball of freezing ice which he casted at him from near vicinity.
-
The water spun, faster and faster... a pillar of water shot up from the center of the vortex, from which emerged Neptra's true form...
A blue scaled dragon shot up from the water, this one more serpentine than Jayce, she was some 20 feet long from head to tail. Her wings were much smaller, more suited for swimming, and her tail and neck proportionally longer.
With a scream, she dove upwards in an arc, right over Zion, and plunged downward upon Genma...
----
The intense light from Zeros' fist seemed to bend... the dark orb absorbing it like a black hole... When the orb reached 15 feet in diameter, the black dragon shot up some 50 feet above his adversary.
"DEATH WELCOMES YOU!!"
The clouds in the darkened sky surrounding the dragon disintegrated as he emitted a circular wave of energy. He spiked the surging sphere of darkness straight downward upon the winged demi-human, pushing it down and down at raging speeds with a surging pillar of shadow energy...
----
Retan calmly floated higher and higher, catching a glimpse of the action in the distance. He sighed under his helmet.
"5 more minutes..."
----
The clash of the elite wyvern group and the remaining psi forces was intense. Lighting was only partially effective against the stronger wyverns, so only a fraction fell to the attack. They engaged the fighters and monks head on in the air, both side initially suffering heavy casualties. But the psi's had the advantage in numbers... and even the elites began to wane...
-
Zeros' saw the ball coming and quickly pushed the light energy out of his arm and upwards, clashing with the ball of dark energy. The two balls clashed, emense energy crackling and rippling through the sky before an explosion then implosion of light and dark disentagrated the balls into nothingness, but Zeros' was already gone from the spot he was in.
"Death welcomes you." He was right behind Jayce, with his single sword drawn, eminating with light energy before he slashed in a downward arc, sending light energy towards Jayce's undefended backside.
----
Genma dodged the the dive. He looked towards Neptra and gathered the energy into his palm. A green ball of ki energy formed in his palm-1 inch by 1 inch, which still had the power of a large ball-and threw it upwards, before kicking it at immense speeds towards the dragon Neptra.
-
"Uh yeah, this works to.." Duilin says as Cheetah's claws grab on to him. "I guess I less of a cance of loseing my balance..."
"Think we should see if the others at the cave are allright?" Duilin asks him after a few minutes
-
Zion was astounded at Neptra's transformation. Oh my god... A draken?! I didn't know they were real... He sucked it up and tightly gripped his Eternity Weapon. All the fighting he had done, and all the hits he had taken had built up within him for a long time. //Breaker attack... Heh.// Zion shot out of the water, going into the air about 100 feet above the water and locking onto Neptra's intense energy.
"By light, you shall fall!"
He held the Eternity Weapon high above him, pointing it straight upwards, and it seemed to gather energy from the stars out in space, especially the sun. The energy went right through any obstacle that might block its path, without even weakening it. Also, Zion was powered up, so this would pack a major punch.
"Hyperion!!!"
Zion first unleashed a million of small energy balls toward Neptra that homed in on her, and were created in such a way that they could only hurt her. Then, Zion slashed down in her general direction about 5 times, sending some larger energy balls down at her, created in the same way as the last. Then, with the last bit of energy that had come from his whomping, along with a large volume of his own, he dropped down toward Neptra like a comet, shooting into the ocean, and unleashing a monumental slash upon her as he passed her by.
//Crap, that may have been too much.//
--- --- ---
Tsu continued looking at Retan. He knew he would regret this.
"Hey! Who are you?!"
-
Cheetah landed at the beach, dropping Duilin and transforming into human form. He looked behind to see Neptra in her true form, attacked by Zion - those damn drakens... They might be able to transform into dragons, but they lack great arsenal of different forms that gepardis have.
Anyway, it was good for him that he got out of her range.
"The cave? Is there anyone still there?"
-
Ragnar reached the bottom. He lay down on a large flat rock, among many other rocks in this place.
Strange pale grey energy seemed to move into him in chunks: he was receiving all the (cumulative) powers of dead souls.
He lay there, screaming as if being tortured.
-
Zeros' slash hit the dragon's back dead on, severing his backside...
Or did he? The form he hit was nothing more than smoke...
The sky was still blacker than night. The dragon's voice eminated from everywhere...
"Mweh heh heh heh hehhh..."
----
Genma's energy ball hit the dragon Neptra in the side, exploding with no apparent effect... She changed her trajectory in mid air, descending downward and downward upon the old master...
But at once, she was immediately slammed by hundreds of thousands of tiny energy balls from her left. Zion's final slash knocked the beast out of the sky, slamming rather unmajesticly into the ocean and disappeared underneath, sending a great wave towards Zion and Genma...
----
Retan continued to rise. He hadn't seen the man in Iduran's thoughts, so he couldn't be the one he was looking for. He replied calmly:
"Your end."
Time was up. If you want something done right, do it yourself...
He opened his arms. Three wraiths appeared around the Dark Emperor, circling in the opposite direction as his weapons...
"Make sure I am left in peace..."
They nodded, and moved away from him to begin their guard.
"It is pointless to fight opponents one-by-one looking for the sword. I will simply eradicate the entire island and all life within... The sword is indestructible, it is the only thing that will survive the blast..."
He raised both hands to the black sky.
(Dark Emperor Retan's Mega-Death Annihilation Attack!! -- Don't let him finish casting the spell!
If completely unopposed, Retan will use his two actions per post to charge his attack, at 10% per charge (meaning 20% per post). Don't let him reach 100%! Mess up his charging by attacking him!
But Retan cannot be attacked if there are any guards on watch, meaning if someone is going to attack him, someone else has to be keeping the guards busy...)
-
Zion let the water splash upon him, it was some cool relief for his hot, sweating body. He rested there in the air. He looked over to notice Retan, starting to charge up a spell. "Holy hell..."
--- --- ---
"My end? I think not!"
Tsu ripped off one of the branches near the one he stood on, and flung it at one of the wraiths. "Come get me, you smelly beasts!"
-
The two Haraldurs were lying down in the parallel dimension. The hole opened up.
The elder one said: "You go out, if I leave, you will be trapped here and die... Get out above Romme. I can feel great power there through the hole. And that is where Ragnar was last seen."
The younger one nodded, and passed through the hole, which closed after him.
The elder one lay back and waited.
______________________________________________________
The younger Haraldur fell fast towards Romme.
Directly below him, some old man covered in darkness was casting some large time consuming spell.
It seemed to be a time for an "act now, ask questions later" approach.
He accelerated downwards, and threw a bit of ball lightning at the old man.
______________________________________________________
Ragnar screamed. He then rose hugely fast.
He accelerated up the tunnel, and left it with exploding rock around him.
He stopped, and hovered above the now colossal hole. He had an immense feeling of having new power.
Only a kilometre away he could see his old master, and recognised the Mega-Death Annihilation Attack - he had seen it used before... and used it before... once. It is such a cumbersome spell, and when you come down to it, boring.
Maybe now would be the time... Yes, now must be the time...
He threw a large fireball at the emporer, to attract his attention.
-
Zeros' smirked to himself. Now this will be fun. Zeros' sheathed his sword and raised his index and middle fingers on his left hand up, with all his other fingers bent inwards. Zero's did the same with his right hand, but laid them across horizontally and near the middle of his other fingers. He had made a cross with his fingers in the air.
"Art of the Doppleganger!" Hundreds of puffs of smoke appeared, then reappeared showing hundreds of Zeros', each looked exactly alike. They all proceded to unsheath there swords and split them into two.
Half of the Zeros' (thats about 300) charged at Retan, while the other Half charged at Jayce. The real Zeros' was in the ground going after Retan.
The half that went at Jayce surrounded him and started slashing voilently with ki charged air blades.
The half that went with the real Zeros', started distracting Retan's guards by slashing at them, while Zeros' examined the situation.
----
Genma blocked the water from hitting him with a swipe of his hand. He knew Neptra wouldn't go down that easy. He couldn't be distracted by water. Genma thrust his open palm forwards and started to charge.
A huge ball of energy, 100 feet x 100 feet, was there in an instant before Genma realeased it towards the directed Neptra had landed.
-
"Maybe not, those Zombies that chased us eariler, they looked like the soilders from the cave...That means that somebody killed them, and turned them into Zombies.It must have been Nex! The vision I had, and he being a powerfull deamon." Duilin says
"I'm not sure what to do anymore....We should either find Zeros', or Nex, or Seth, or help that guy out." He points to Zion
-
"Nex... crap." - Cheetah wondered as suddenly he noticed Dark Emperor's spell being preppared.
"Oh, great. Guess the problem of Nex' existence will be no more once this weirdo finishes his magic. I suggest... with all my honesty... get the hell out of here!"
---
Gelu was unfortunately bound by rule saying he has to wait for Seth to do some action before doing anything else, but he could notice Retan prepparing a spell to destroy the island.
"Smart." - he told himself. - "Sacrifice everything for the sword." - he then noticed Ragnar trying to interrupt Dark Emperor. - "This pathetic fool again... Once I deal with this elf, I will have to stop him. The will of Dark Emperor has to be done, however destructive it is."
-
(Zeros': I meant by his voice coming from everywhere that he had disappeared. Heh...)
The black dragon appeared directly above the clone army, spreading his wings and hurling dozens of dark thunder bolts into the mass. About 200 disintegrated instantly. About 50 reeled back stunned, but the rest broke through an began to stab at the dragon's scales.
Jayce flew upward to dodge the strikes.
"PETTY TRICKS! SHOW YOUR TRUE SELF, COWARD!!"
----
The blue dragon regained her senses after descending into the deep for a few seconds... Genma's giant energy ball broke the surface and was nearly upon her-- obviously intended as a finishing blow. She flipped upright, in the process parting the ocean around her, sending two waves flying in opposite directions. Above water, she opened her mouth and let forth a bright blue beam of ice to meet the attack head on, freezing the surrounding water and aforementioned waves to solid ice instantly...
----
Wraith #1 stopped his rotation, vexed by Tsu's taunt. It sped downwards, a razor sharp scythe appearing in it's skeleton hands. About 10 feet from Tsu it seemed to disappear, moving lighting fast to his right side, where it hooked the blade upwards, aiming for his victim's stomach...
Wraith #2 appeared directly in front of Haraldur's ball of lightning, batting it away with its scythe. Letting it's arms hang, it slowly began to float towards the intruder...
Wraith #3 deflected Ragnar's fireball in the same way, but this one followed up with a wild dive at his opponent, aiming to slice his head clean off...
Before beginning his spell, Retan noticed an army of identical looking winged men flying towards him. He lowered his right hand, outstretching his right palm towards them. A black wind blew-- then blasted... The front 150 clones disintegrated instantly, the rest flew backwards out of control...
Above his still raised left hand, a tiny spec of darkness appeared... Though it was no bigger than a grain of sand, it emanated an evil aura far greater than any attack used before...
(Mega-Death Annihilation Attack (MDAA): 10%
Retan's guardians:
Wraith #1: Occupied
Wraith #2: Occupied
Wraith #3: Occupied
Jayce: Occupied
Neptra: Occupied (and far away)
Gelu: Free!
The NPC wraiths will fall with 2 well formed attacks.)
-
(Gelu free? He's occupied with Seth... unless 3 days passed and he lost counsiousness Wink)
-
Ragnar dodged the wraith's blade. He then passed into the wraith and tried to assimilate its soul into himself, with lots of bright green light and loud bangs. He started screaming.
_____________________________________________
Haraldur conjured up two balls of blue energy. He threw one of them at the slowly moving wraith, which would home in on it, and follow it.
The other he threw at the Emporer, with the same intent.
-
"Sounds like a good idea Cheetah, so, were the hell do we go then?" Duilin asked
-----
Veronika and Pophin noticed the army of idental things flying towards Retan.
"We must protect!" Veronika yelled, she noticed her weapon lieing on the ground, she hops over to her Auto Shotgun and grabs it, loads it up, and runs over near Retan. She aims her Auto Shotgun at one of them and fires a few blasts at it, killing the thing!
Pophin looks over to were Veronika is. He has no weapon other then a katana and he knows no magic so he deciedes to jump into the water.
"Farewell Veronika!"
He glides down, his cape gave him some floating ness, by the way he was holding it. He splashes down into the water. He then starts swimming over towards the shore...
-
"Well, there ought to be some remote islands around, beside this one. I pity I ever laid my foot HERE..."
---
// Last CyberWolf's post on october 29... 3 days passed Razz //
After unleashing an attack against Seth, Gelu turned to see how situation of the emperor looks.
Ragnar was the greatest threat to Emperor's plan, perhaps - but he was also too strong to be messed up with... at least the frost mage thought so at time. raised the wave beneath his ice floe, rising higher to reach closer to the Emperor, then enhancing his both hands to sides, slowed down both energy balls fired by Haraldur to about 1/20 speed, giving both wraith and emperor lots of more time to react.
-
(I grow bored of Cyber Wolfs wait)
Nex, glares at Nevina and then speaks "I grow bored of your hesitation! Farewell!" He creates a pit in the ground and then sinks into it and then the pit goes away...
----------
"We need to take out Retan. That's all, we need to do..." Duilin says "Or maybe...I thought I saw Pophin jump down into the water..."
-
The clones of Zeros' started charging agian at Retan, trying to occupy him, while the real Zeros' kills him.
(I'll be switching control to the real Zeros' now)
Zeros' used his speed and got behind the emperor. Zeros' unsheathed his sword and let it hang at his sides, gripping the hilt loosely with his right hand.
"I suspect you already know I am the real one." His sword starts glowing with a white, holy aura. Zeros' raised his 12 foot sword directly above his head, the aura growing stronger.
----
Genma ignored the ice and increased the energy. He closed his right palm (which had the energy ball in it) and quickly formed into a beam as wide as the ice attack. Genma took his left arm and gripped near his elbow, infusing the beam with more power.
Shockwaves radiated from the two beams colliding, shattering some of the ice into pieces.
I have to stop Neptra and Retan...
-
Jayce swiped a group of clones with his tail, finishing off the remaining ones with low powered shadow spells. The black dragon looked around, suddenly realizing the real enemy had ditched him to go for his father.
"BLAST!!"
He shot through the sky, wings outstreatched like a jet, speeding towards the Dark Emperor.
"What is Father doing, anyway...? This is MY battle!"
----
The energy surged back, now inching towards the blue dragon...
She redoubled her ice beam, pushing Genma's attack back to the even center of the two. The stalemate reaked havoc on the surrounding ocean, sending shards of ice and waves outwards in all directions... Surely the old man could not keep this up...
----
Wraith #2 flew up and over the incoming blue orb. But before it could return an attack, the ball changed direction and exploded upon slamming into its back. Blue flame engulfed the specter, slowly fizzling out as its eyes burned bright red in silent rage from under its cowl. It quickly phased out into mist and reappeared between his Master and the second orb, slashing it with its scythe, which sent it flying directly back at Haraldur.
Wraith #3 covered its head with its hands, quickly materializing some 10 feet away from Ragnar. Its soul was not real, artificially created with shadow magic, so it could not be assimilated. However, the attempt still took it's toll on the specter, and it reeled in pain.
In an angry retort, it spun around in the air and slashed its scythe downward, casting the Shade spell on Ragnar. Dark orbs appeared around the traitor, spiraling inward toward him...
Retan waved his right hand once more, sending a dozen surges of Dark Thunder through the remaining 149 clones, dispatching them all. He turned to Zeros'. This one was in Iduran's memory all right...
"Warrior, what is your... name?"
A flash of lightning. The speck of darkness above his still raised left hand grew to a black orb 1 foot in diameter in an instant...
(MDAA: 20%
Retan's guardians:
Wraith #1: Occupied (100% HP)
Wraith #2: Occupied (50% HP)
Wraith #3: Occupied (50% HP)
Jayce: Free (In transit)
Neptra: Occupied (and far away)
I'll let other Dark Empire members keep track of themselves (heh...) )
-
"You do not need my name." Zeros' mentally recorded the direction Jayce was flying at him, he still had some time. He turned his attention back to the orb, glowing with a dark black light, slowly growing by the second.
His own holy aura got even stronger, reached upwards into the sky and towards the heavens, now reaching over 50 feet. Zeros' slashed directly downwards, coming straight down towards Retan.
He quickly split it swords right before the attack hit Retan, splitting the aura into thousands of holy energy balls. Some going towards Retan and some towards the wraiths. Even a few directed themselves towards Jayce, who till wasn't in view.
The sky was now abright with the holy energy, the balls covered the entire area of the battle, flying towards opponents at remarkable speeds.
----
Genma released one last surge of energy, pushing back the beam. His beam now took on a red fire color. He threw his arms outwards and quickly came back down, his palms forwards. He burst agian with energy, sending even more ki into this attack and combining with his other attack, widening and increasing the energy even more.
Genma was now physically sweating. All this exsertion of ki was readily exhausting him and his reserves.
----
(I still have Zev though!)
Zev looked into the orbs and snarled. Qeni stood over him, steadily petting him. Zev shrugged off Qeni's hand and threw his head back, letting out a howl. He disappeared and Qeni looked into the orb. Zeros' was still the same, but Zev was behind Genma.
----
Genma noticed the sudden surge of power behind him, but he noticed it did not have evil intentions.
Zev let out another howl and merged with Genma. A bright light enveloped Genma, swirling energy's colliding, sending a loud boom, rippling the water.
Genma felt a sudden power increase in his ki reserves and pushed harder, infusing more ki energy into his attack, pushing back Neptra's beam even more, coming feet from hitting her.
Genma also didn't notice he had grown fangs in the top corner in his mouth. Genma's hair glowed a white light and extending, reaching down his back and to his waist. It was a bright white color, spiked, like Zev's own fur. He also now had two glowing wolf ear on the top of his head.
-
Zion phased in directly next to Genma, pointing his hands at Neptra and unleashing his strongest energy wave upon her, merging his with Genma's.
--- --- ---
Tsu had to act fast. That white outline came again. He stopped the scythe with his sword, grabbing the wraith's head and flinging it to the ground. He jumped down toward the Wraith with his sword pointed down. Kuon Yaiba could cut again, and if he succeeded, there would be a sword through the wraith's chest.
-
Nex arived at The Romme Castle. He looked around and saw a bunch of dead bodies.
"Hmmm...all ripe for the picking, but I only need one....one strong one...." Nex spoted a huge body of a dead giant. He walked over to it
"Darion, Darion, Darion....You always were a loser..." Nex then blasted a huge beam of electricity at the body, Darion then started to come to life.
"Good, now come with me!" Nex order and walked away
//Oh, and if you want to know what Nex's voice should sound like, if you have no idea, I might aswell share this, he should sound something like the Joker from the Batman cartoon, or The Hob Goblin from the Spider Man cartoon, [same voice]//
-
"Duilin..." - Cheetah said slowly. - "I do not want to chill your burning desire to fight for what is right, but... come on, it's Dark Emperor. Prepparing a powerful thing which would propably leave nothing here after he finishes. I can understand you have some unfinished business here, but I'd personaly prefer to live a bit longer rather than die a hero."
---
Gelu covered himself as suddenly the sky began to shine with holy light.
Standing on the rised wave, he turned toward Zeros - the one which causes this whole unfamiliar situation. He pointed his both hands at him, closed eyes, and fired a glacial ray from each, directed at the demon.
"A demon... using holy aura?"
-
Haraldur regained control of the energy ball which went hurtling towards the emporer again.
He then lifted his arm towards the sky, and clouds formed very fast. They swirled around, and their friction caused lightning. 20 lightning bolts hit his arm, went through him and he aimed his other hand towards the wraith, which was the closest object towards him, and it would hit the Emporer afterwards if it succeeded in hitting the wraith, and then hit the ground.
___________________________________________________________
Ragnar caused a blast of green energy, which pushed the balls of shade straight towards the spectre, and the Emporer, with the energy causing the air go faster than the speed of sound, and so have great impact on things it hit.
He then conjured up a magical detonator, which he threw at the the orb of the Emporer, and which would home in on it. The detonator would cause the unfinished spell to detonate immediately, and carry out its diminished affect.
-
//Sorry about screwing you guys over like that.. Just.. fell behind.. lost interest.. etc.//
Seth was knocked unconcious, and caught into a rip tide, which drifted him out to sea.
He did not die, but instead started drifting to a remote island.. Miles from Romme.
______________________
Nevina chased after Nex, unsheathing her Holy Dirk, and Praying over it..
_______________________
//How many DA's has Tsar killed? Wanna just be quick about it say 500? He has to kill 2,000...//
The assault continued, as the Mage's kicked it up a notch, and casted Death spells onto the Archers arrows.
The Monks healed a few Warriors, while both Monks and Warriors assualted the enemies with new fiericity, as Tsar Charged Psi from the Dying bodies of the the Dark Empirians.
-
"Listen Cheetah, with Iduran and Seth gone, your my best friend, and with Iduran and Scorch gone, I supose I'd have to be your best friend. But, to be honest, we can't just leave them now! If Retan gets the sword, we're all deep up shit creek! So, we have to do something!" Duilin says
----
Nex and Darion march toward back to the sea shore.
"Hold it..." Nex raises his hand signaling Darion to stop "I sence something, stay here and protect yourself if need, better yet, hide in that big hole in the moutain over there...I'll be back, I promise...No matter...What!"
Nex runs out to were Nevina is he charges up a fireball.
"Okay, toots, I'm Nex! Your doom! Eat FLAME!" Nex tosses the fire ball at Nevina
Darion dose as he his told...
----
Veronika continues to shoot away at the Dark Shouls.
----
Pophin continues to swim toward shore, still being his sneaky self.
//Please don't notice him Sad //
-
Impossible!! Where did that power come from?!
The combined force of Zion and the fused Genma/Zev was overwhelming, pushing the mighty blue Dragon's ice beam back and back. She put all her might into a final thrust, but this only served to slow the energy which was she now struggled to hold inches in front of her face with all her might...
----
Suddenly there was a massive black explosion in front of Retan, destroying the surge of light elemental balls in front of him. The black dragon Jayce, who had fired the beam, arrived next to his father, several other holy spheres striking his aura as he protected himself with his wings.
"Father! What are you doing?! I have the situation under control! This is MY BATTLE!!"
Retan didn't look at his son.
"Silence. Keep this gnat away from me."
"But that much power will--"
"You disobey?"
The dragon caught his tongue, then snarled at Zeros'...
----
Wraith #1 was quickly impaled by Tsu's blade. After squealing in pain, it became translucent for a second and floated straight through Tsu and emerged directly behind him, before becoming solid again and slashing its scythe at his back in a huge arc....
Wraith #2 was slammed from the front by the tremendous surge of electricity. At the same time a stray holy sphere from Zeros' attack stuck it from the other side. A huge explosion rocked the skies and the wraith was no more...
Wraith #3 blocked the its repelled spell with its weapon, zipping in closer to Ragnar to attempt a strike to his left side...
Haraldur's blue ball sped closer and closer to Retan, but at the last second it angled up to the black orb, where it disappeared into the void, the black orb absorbing the spell... (+ 2%!) The same happened to the half of the shade spell sent Retan's way (+ 1%), and Ragnar's detonator spell... (+ 2%, told you folks you couldn't attack him while you were fighting one of his guards... heh.)
Retan returned his right hand to the sky, fully concentrating on the spell. A flash of lightning, the sphere quickly swelled to 10 feet in diameter...
(MDAA: 45%
Retan's guardians:
Wraith #1: Occupied (50% HP)
Wraith #3: Occupied (50% HP)
Jayce: Occupied
Neptra: Occupied (and far away))
----
The aerial battle swung completely for the tsi army in the past half hour... The dozen or so remaining Dark Wyverns scattered, fleeing for their lives...
(I'll give you your 2,000 deaths. Or you can say 1,988 and hunt down the remaining ones like animals, heh...)
----
(Dude Man: Ha! Classic shows. That's one of the top ten coolest voices of all time. (Heh...))
-
Zeros' noticed the power surge. He wasn't sure what those mages were doing, but they sure weren't helping any. Zeros' could transform and gain power beyond anything imaginable, but he lost control of himself and would attack anything on site, he wanted to save that unless he needed it. //Actually, its more like go into a berserk state.\\
Zeros' could match the power of Retan's dark orb within seconds, but that would leave him totally open to attacks, he'd rather not do that.
Zeros' got in a qucik stance, right sword on his right shoulder and left sword pointed towards Jayce, holding it right below his shoulders. His right sword slowly charged with holy aura as he waited to use it at the right time...
----
Genma held steady and slowly pumped more and more ki into his attack while Zion's power fused with his. He hoped they could at least take her out. She would either die, be knocked unconcious, or couldn't use her powers for the next couple months.
He would also be exhausted after this attack, but something kept him going, barely sweating. //Still hasn't noticed Zev murged with him.\\
-
"HAAAA!!!!" One last surge of will would pump up the ki wave, hopefully enough to make it hit Neptra.
--- --- ---
Tsu quickly dropped Kuon Yaiba beside him. He ducked, dodging the attack, and brought his legs up, then over and down, pinning the wyvern down to the ground hard, so that he would be sitting on him. He grabbed Kuon Yaiba and thrusted it down through the wyvern's head.
-
"Duilin. I don't want to share fate of Iduran or Seth." - as he finished talking, he turned into a wyvern form and began to slowly get up higher...
Remaining on the island was sure doom. Duilin should understand it. He is simply too blindly heroic to understand that life is the only true value and with it's loss, everything else ceases to matter for you.
---
Noticing that Tsu temporarily left the combat with wraith, without much thinking Gelu launched a powerful cone of ice straight at Emperor's dark orb, hoping for it to absorb spell's energy.
"Fighting with enemies is futile. The only way it will end is by finishing Emperor's spell... and this moment should come sooner."
-
Haraldur shot shards of light magic at the wraith attacking Tsu, hoping it would annihilate it.
He also caused many rocks to appear in a sphere around Jayce and Retan, which then rushed in towards the centre, in which was Retan.
____________________________________________________
Ragnar noticed what effect his attacks were having, and smiled a strange smile to himself.
He dodged the wraith, conjured up his dark blade and slashed at it, with red energy enveloping the blade.
He then pointed his left arm downwards, and his right arm towards the black orb. Huge amounts of energy left the earth below him, making the magma itself below the island cool and harden, causing great cracks on the surface. This energy he aimed as a very wide stream of hugely hot and burning light, turning the air itself to plasma, towards the orb of the Emporer, and the Emporer himself.
-
The blue dragon slid backwards faster and faster until it was too much?
?NOOOOOO!!!!?
The combined energy wave finally made contact. A blinding flash of red and white engulfed the seas, followed seconds later by a deafening explosion. The blast sent a 100 foot tall tidal wave in all directions-- to Genma and Zion, and raging towards the shore, as a mushroom cloud rose to the sky?
----
?NYAAAHHHH!!!?
The black dragon exploded with energy as he defended several large stones from an earth attack.
?INSECT!! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!!?
Jayce took off towards Zeros? like a jet, thrusting a mighty right claw outward to catch his chest as he rocketed past?
----
(EoN: You meant 'wraith', right?)
Tsu?s blade bore deep into the darkness of the open cowl of the wraith. Bright light burst from its body disintegrating it within a few seconds.
Ragnar?s blade pierced his wraith, enveloping it in a crimson aura. It exploded with a loud bang, pieces of its tattered robe floating down afterwards?
Gelu?s ice spell slammed into the black orb with a flash of blue light (+ 4%). Ragnar?s beam the same, it bending in the air and narrowing a bit before disappearing into the darkness (+ 4%).
Seeing the impending rocks from the earth spell, Retan lowered his right hand to his front, clenching his fist then opening it. A translucent black spherical shockwave emitted from his palm, expanding and colliding with the stones, destroying them.
A flash of lighting. The orb above his left hand swelled further, now a gargantuan 25 feet in diameter? Black bolts of electricity danced around the surface while a fait crimson aura surrounded the dark sphere?
(MDAA: 63%
Retan's guardians:
Jayce: Occupied)
-
Zeros' lashed out with his left sword, deflecting the large claw. He kept his right sword holstered on his shoulder, slowly gathering aura. Zeros' combined his swords agian, keeping his right hand on the huge sword as it holstered across his shoulder.
Zeros' charged his ki energy and fired multiple blasts of blue, yellow, green, all representing a different emotion. To one trained, Zeros' sword would look like a huge threat. Jayce was blinded by rage to even pay attention to this.
----
Genma cut through the wave with a swipe of his hand, using ki to project a blade of energy and cut through the waves, passing over both Genma and Zion.
Genma concentrated and extended his ki senses. He sensed a barely alive Neptra, on the vurge of dying. He may have fought as hard as he could, but he held honor over his 1000 or more years of living; he would never let a woman die, no matter how wicked.
Genma located the barely surviving Neptra and sped forwards, straight into the area where she was fighting them. He dived in, his wolf hair bobbing in the water when he saw Neptra bobbing to and fro under the water.
He projected his ki and reached Neptra in seconds. He quickly created a barrier with his ki and covered both him and Neptra, who was serverally hurt. He put his hand over her right breast (near where her heart was) and transfered his ki into her, hoping to keep her alive.
Genma slowly surfaced, cradling Neptra in his arms. He knew Zion would be pissed at him, but he silently floated next to Zion and looked down at the water, not showing his face to him.
-
//Yeah, wraith. Heh.
The tidal wave was refreshing to his tired body. He could feel Retan's power growing in the distance. "Now, what should we do about him?" He looked in Retan's direction. "Not like we can do much." He checked all over himself for any spare elixirs... He didn't seem to have any at all. But he could see something coming... Oh no.
Tsu sprung to his feet and looked at Retan. "Now it's your...- AAAH!!!" Tsu had seen the same thing Zion had. Xenai was floating toward Retan, with the Zero Weapon walking along behind him.
"Emperor, I have a gift for you." Xenai pointed to Retan, and looked to the Zero Weapon. "You now belong to him." The Zero Weapon obediantly walked over to Retan. "Emperor, I'm sure this will be a much better guardian than those wraiths."
//This will be fun. Xorlak, the Zero Weapon is now your NPC.
-
Duilin waves goodbye to Cheetah as he flys off, yes, he dose understand.
I've have nothing to loose, life, death, is all the same. I must fight for cause, I must fight for the people, to make sure there life, isn't mine...
Suddenly a rageing fimiluar yell is herd, Duilin gets tackled to ground, he turns his head to see his attacker, Pophin. He punches Duilin in the face, Duilin lifts himself up, with Pophin on his back, and swings him off, Pophin tumbles off on the ground. Duilin takes out his Claymore and readys to swing at it, but Pophin swings his katana hiting the claymore, but the katana falls out off his hand, only knocking the claymore off course hitting the ground. Pophin then kicks him in the chest, knocking him back a few feet. It apears this is going to be a fist fight. This is most likely going to be no contest, because, Duilin is stronger and a better fighter, yet Pophin is abit faster and leaner then he is.
Duilin then runs at Pophin and swings his fist at Pophins face, but Pophin quickly moves out of the way, Pophin then aims another kick at Duilin's chest, this one hurting more...
----
As the expoltion went in front of Retan, this scared the liveing day lights out of Veronika, causesing her to fall off the ship, down into the sea, splashing into deap water falling on sharp rocks, a got ripped apart by sharks
(I love killing off charactors!)
//So that makes....Patrick, Darion, Nex, Gedi and now Veronika!
But I supose minus Nex and Darion since there back. *Oh goody!*//
* = In Nex's voice
-
Cheetah suddenly heard a raging yell and turned around.
"Not again... this guy always has to get himself into trouble. On the other hand... I don't have much time."
In wyvern form, Cheetah divded toward Pophin and as he flew, air began to accelerate before him sending a wave of pressure at Pophin (physical harmless, but it can obviously knock someone down with it's force), then he spit another bolt of acid at Duilin's enemy before he suddenly turned his direction and began to rise above Pophin.
---
"Yes..." - Gelu told himself.
He closed his eyes and directed both hands at the Emperor. In between the hands, he formed an orb of cold energy, from which a ray was directed at Retan's dark orb. Each "turn" (Retan's action) it should add a bit to the power of his MDAA.
-
Pophin fell down and tumbled to the ground. As the acid blasted at him and swung out of the way.
"Please...I'm sorry...You win...I surender!" Pophin cries lookin up at Cheetah and then back at Duilin
"You surender eh?" Duilin says with a smerk "Heh...he surenders. Cheetah, what do you say? Shall he live?"
-
Cheetah turned into human form once more and turned to face Duilin.
He had a thought about not saying anything, turning into cheetah form and putting his jaws on Darion's aorte before he leaves this soon-to-be-destroted-island, but he again thought it might not be THAT good idea.
"Do what you will. It's your battle." - he said, looked at Emperor's growing orb pulsing with some dark, lightning energy, and mentally preppared to change to wyvern form again and get the hell out of here (these all transformations were giving him headache already).
(by "mentally preppared" I meant he took a deep breath before turning to wyvern, so he's still in human form now)
-
Alas, Genma's healing efforts were in vain. The now reverted draken expired in his arms...
----
Jayce felt the pang of the sword on his claw as he sped past Zeros'. The black dragon spun around, now charging his left claw with shadow energy. But he stopped, as if something suddenly caught his attention...
Ignoring his adversary, he floated there for several seconds, only flapping his wings occasionally to maintain altitude. His gaze fixed on the southwestern horizon, the direction where Neptra was fighting... His eyes grew narrower and he let out a snarl... something had happened...
----
(Gah ha ha ha!!)
Retan nodded to Xenai.
"Competence and loyalty are always rewarded. In fact, I may require a new general when all this is over..."
He turned his head, acknowledging Gelu as well.
The 60+ foot tall Mecha-Demon's eyes glowed a crimson red. Its right hand opened, a massive jagged 40 foot long, 15+ ton sword materializing in it, which burned with black fire. The Zero Weapon threw its head back, letting out a half mechanical, half beastly roar which shook the ground violently, sending out deep cracks in the earth around it...
Gelu's "ice orb" began to transfer energy to Retan's spell (+ 4%)
Retan returned his right hand to the sky, giving his full attention to the spell. A flash of lightning. The orb was becoming ridiculously huge, now over 50 feet in diameter...
(MDAA: 87%
Warning! Attack completion immanent!!
Retan's guardians:
Jayce: Occupied
Zero Weapon: Free)
-
Genma looked at Neptra's dead, limp body in his hands.
"I'll be back." Genma glided downwards and submerged into the water. Genma's wolf hair bobbing to and fro in the gentle underwater waves while cratling Neptra's dead body in his arms.
He silently reached the bottom of the sea. He freed one of his hands as his arm pulsed with green energy (Green is depression if anyone was wondering). He fired off a ball of ki and blew apart the sea floor. He set Neptra's body into the hole and anchored her body to the ground with a very small amount of ki.
He waved his hand and the dirt reappeared and he silently rised up to the surface.
This happens I guess... Genma breached the surface and looked towards Zion.
"Cmon we have to get out of here." Genma said with sadness in his voice and started flying in the opposite direct of the island, he didn't want to get caught in the MDAA. He knew he wouldn't be able to reach Retan in time to help them.
//Genma was sad if anyone was wondering. He had never tried to kill a woman before, as his honor code would not allow him. Before he usually knocked them out before they had gotten killed, but now he had failed his code. Zeros' also follows the same code.\\
----
Zeros' took the momentary distraction and inreased his the ki he was gaining into his sword. He flew higher and floated directly above Retan. He grabbed his gaint sword with both hands and lifted it too the heavens.
The sword's holy aura increased ten fold and he looked down at Retan's ball, not paying attention to the Zero Weapon. He gripped his swords hilt tighter and put the last of the energy into it, the aura now reaching out 200 feet high and wide. He kept increasing his aura slowly, increasing the power every second.
Everyone keep them off of me. This attack may be able to buy us some time! He sent this mental link out to everyone that was fighting on his side. The aura now reached out 250 feet, still increasing slowly...
-
With the 2,000 destroyed, Tsar tossed his head upwards and screamed.
All the Psi Warriors turned in a circle to him, and in one blast, they all shattered Tsars being. Then, starting from the middle, the Psi soldiers dissapeared.
Then Tsar returned to his home plane, a land of purple mists and black skies, flaming rainbows and stars made of gold.
_________________________________________________________________________
Nevina pulled out her dagger and held it pointing down. She prayed over it, her eyes closed, her ears turning red.
The Dagger emitted a quick, bright light that died fast. Nevina then licked her blade, and it glowed with the intensity of a star.
She Charged at Nex, moving literally at the speed of sound, and jabbed the blade where Nex' heart should be.
-
"ACK!" Nex gasp as the dagger went in his 'hart'.
*the effect of whatever is supost to happen to him, happens to him*
"You'll live to regreat this...." Nex then burns up in a shiny red flamey thing and then sinks back into the ground.....
------
About 5-10 minutes after the death of Nex...
------
"So, Cheetah...You leaveing again?" Duilin asks
"No...dead....dead.....all dead...." Pophin mudders
"What? What the hell is his problom?" Duilin turns to Pophin
"He's dead....but....he's.....stronger.....he's comeing back.....No! Don't! I don't want to die!" Pophin curls up into a ball and starts trembling.
-----
Darion is gone from were he was hideing....Were could he be?
*Random Kid's Show Theme song plays*
-
The black dragon roared inhumanly, unfurling his wings and blasting towards the southwest at speeds of over 100 miles per hour. Someone's going to pay...
Retan noticed his son's sudden departure.
"Jayce! Return here!"
The black dragon sped on, ignoring him.
"Miserable child. You should know she doesn't matter in the end..."
Retan glanced at the massive Zero Weapon below. It nodded obediently, receiving its mental order. Two compartments opened on its back, from which two jets of intense blue flame shot out. The gargantuan mecha-demon began to fly...
Its jets propelled it upward; it flew higher and higher, reaching Retan's level, then above. The Zero Weapon stopped directly inbetween Zeros' and its master, where it began to charge energy into its sword...
(I'm posting earlier than normal, so it wouldn't be fair for Retan to charge his attack at this time.)
-
// crap, I mistaked Pophin and Darion Wink //
"Well, yeah." - said Cheetah. - "I wish you happy afterlife after remains of this whole place sinks beneath the ocean surface." - after finished the sentence, he quickly turned into a wyvern and flew away to the north, keeping as far distance from Retan and the battle around him as possible.
Somewhere in the distance, there ought to be lands that he has not yet seen... preferably, safe and calm after all the hell Cheetah met in Romme.
---
Gelu continued to focus on the orb and sending energy to Retan's spell.
-
The aura in Zeros' sword now extended outwards some 400 feet, enveloping the battle grounds and everywhere around it in a blinding white light. Zeros' hopped back and looked at the Zero weapon. He let down his sword and pointed it right at the Zero weapon where Retan stood behind him, light energy surging around his sword.
He held the sword so the bladed end pointed towards the sky, gripping the hilt with both hands. He spun it around, light aura crackling and jumping off the blade. He slashed directly downwards, causing an aura slash 400 feet wide and long headed straight for Retan and the Zero Weapon...
----
Genma knew Jayce was coming here. He knew Jayce was mad. Genma stopped flying and looked back and noticed the small black dot heading straight for him.
"If only you knew Jayce."
-
"Farewell my friend..." Duilin says simpathectically, he then turns back to Pophin and walks over to him...
"What the HELL is your problom!?" Duilin yells
"Why did I join....why..." Pophin cried
"What!?" Duilin yells again
<span style='color:red'>Because you were weak and pointless, we made you strong...</span>
"Nex!? Your alive! Now tell me! Do you really plan to become leader of the Dark Empire?"
"Nex is dead! Get over it!"
<span style='color:red'>Yes, but I need more power...my boddy....is weak....but my power is strong....even the weakest boddy would make me even more powerfull...</span>
"What are you implying?"
"I'm IMPLYING he's dead!"
<span style='color:red'>Traitor! You shall be the boddy! You shall be sacrificed! I shall rule!</span>
Pophin's body suddenly turns all dark, pitch black, dark red, dark purple, alternating between colours untill, he grows deamon wings, his eyes turn to be like Nex's and his face turns more evil looking, his skin pales....
"Oh! Finally!" Says...Pophin(?), it sounds like Pophin, but it seems to have Nexs voice takeing over...
"Who are you?" Duilin asks
"Oh you should know, Duilin!" His voice sounds more and more like Nex's every time he speaks
"Nex? Is that you?" Duilin asks
"I've been waiting for this moment for along time...But you can call me Phoenix! I am Nex I am Pophin you are meat! Hehahahahaha!"
Duilin slowly backs up, but the bumps into something as he walks back.
"DARION!"
"That's right" Pheonix began "I broght back your big buddy for play time!"
Duilin swung his claymore right at Darion's chest, and kicked him back. Darion tumbled to the ground but recovered back up. Phoenix then raises on hand and then electricity circles around in his hand. He then tosses it at Duilin but, he ducks and it his Darion instead...
Ah man... Duilin thought I'm dead...that's all there is too it...
Duilin could just feal the energy of Phoenix crawl all over him as if they were tics...
-
Genma happened to be a few hundred yards from where Duilin was fighting when he noticed Pophin's signature disappeared and a new one appeared in its place, stronger, but not by much.
Genma formed his finger into a gun and aimed at the new signature. A green beam of pure ki fired off and headed towards Phoenix at the speed of sound, making a loud sonic boom as it passed through the sound barrier.
-
Haraldur realised he would not be able to survive the MDAA, he simply was not strong enough yet. He sped Northwards, hoping to escape the destruction.
______________________________________________________
Ragnar grinned at Haraldur's departure.
He conjured up two MDAAs of his own, each at 10%, and threw them both at the Emporer's MDAA, which they homed in on. He was deliberately trying to set off the destruction of Romme.
He grinned. Now for the fireworks, he thought. He then created a powerful dark aura to protect himself from the now inevitable blast...
-
The light aura from Zeros' sword destroyed Ragnar's MDAA, causing them to fall short of Retan's MDAA. The sword's aura continued on towards the Zero weapon and Retan...
-
Xenai snickered, watching Retan masterfully manipulate the Zero Weapon.
Zion looked to Xenai, then to Genma. "I can't go yet."
Then back over to Xenai. "You'll regret giving away that Zero Weapon!"
Xenai turned around, and laughed evilly. "If it's not my old friend Zion!"
Zion took off toward Xenai. He noticed Gelu helping Retan charge his attack. He flung a ki ball at him, which should hopefully stop him for a bit. Xenai took off toward Zion.
Tsu looked up at Retan and the Zero Weapon. This is bad... Oh so bad... He tightly gripped his katana, and waited for some kinda inspiration to come to him.
-
Ragnar's MDAAs completely negated Zeros' light aura. It would not pose further problems.
________________________________________________________
Ragnar now sent two other MDAAs, now that the light aura was not there. They sped towards the large MDAA.
Ragnar's protective aura grew.
________________________________________________________
Haraldur was now out of Romme, and rushing north to his homeland.
-
Yeah, sure. And Gelu suddenly conjured 55 and half MDAAs and tossed them all at Ragnar and they went BANG and everything was destroyed except Gelu who was protected by uber-super-protective aura.
The end.
[/sarcasm]
-
Yeah, sure. And Gelu suddenly conjured 55 and half MDAAs and tossed them all at Ragnar and they went BANG and everything was destroyed except Gelu who was protected by uber-super-protective aura.
The end.
[/sarcasm]
If the Emporer can put 1 MDAA at 20% in one turn, why cannot Ragnar do two 10% ones?
-
And why can't Gelu put 55 and 1/2 (at 115.5%) in one turn?
Now, seriously, man - MDAA is a catastrophic, epic spell which Xorlak* uses to finish the chapter... I don't think it's normal to rip his idea - soon everyone will fly around firing MDAAs.
No godlike characters, as Xorlak said. Retan could be exception, but still MDAA is not instant, also... ah, I'll leave this for Xorlak to decide. We already know we will side with you again Wink
* In case you wonder why I said Xorlak, not Retan, it's because it's Xorlak who finishes the chapter, not Retan, technicaly.
-
"Oh, Duilin my young friend, I'll make you a deal. Join me, and we can defeat everyone, and YOU can live." Nex says
"No! Why should I join you? Your an evil deamon! Your even trying to defeat your own team!" Duilin yells
"Oh, but, us deamons should stick together!" Nex smiles
"US deamons? What are you talking about?!"
"I mean, your daddy, was a deamon, so therefore you are part deamon!"
"Don't bullshit me!"
"I'm not! I knew your father, we were old pals! He even wanted you to join!"
"My....father...."
I barely remember my father, I remember talking to him when I was young...He was never around...He just left...It was 12 years ago since I've seen him...I remember he just left, when the Dark Empire attacked.....
"Never! I'll still never join! I'd rather die!" Duilin yells, and then runs at Nex swinging his claymore. Phoenix grabs the blade and imports heat into the sword, burning Duilin's hand makeing him toss the sword away...
Darion then recovers back up. And then picks up Duilin. Phoenix then starts punching Duilin wile Darion had him pined.
"And punch, punch, here..." Phoenix sings in the toon of Old McDonald "And punch, punch there..."
His punches hurt alot, 15 times more then Pophin's punches
"Here a punch, there a punch, every were a punch, punch!" Phonix then stops and then forms a fire blade, much like Draven's but much stronger
(Hope that's okay Xorlak, heh)
"Time to finish what I've been wanting to do for along time!" Pheonix says
He then readies to stab Duilin with fire blade...
-
(I'm loving Dude Man's characters!)
(There is no 10% MDAA attack. It's a woven spell that needs to be completed to get its effect. Just say he threw shadow orbs or something.)
----
The black dragon continued to speed along.
"I told you to return. You dare disobey me? I'm warning you..."
"Neptra was not a warrior. They must be punished..."
"Punished they shall be... You are not the one to decide the method."
The black dragon slowed.
"But they are escaping..."
"No one can escape. Though you have great power, you directly in line of my attack. I will not hesitate to use it on a dissident, even if he is my own son... Return immediately..."
The dragon stopped, flapping his wings in thought. He turned and began to head back to his father, back towards the colossal black orb...
----
The Zero Weapon raised its sword. But its colossal size made it slow to react and the intense blast of light slammed into it, knocking it out of the sky, it smashed into the ground with the intensity of an explosion, jarring the ground with such tremendous force, small jagged mountains rose out of the ground.
It lied still for several seconds under the rubble, before it sat up, the boulders falling off of its massive body. The energy in its sword, gathered, it yelled a monstrous roar and slashed the air with its blade. The crimson and black energy flew upwards, forming a crescent shape, which flew directly at Zeros'
----
A flash of lighting. The globe above Retan's head was over 100 feet in diameter. He began laughing a deep, insane cackle...
"AH HA HA HA HA!!!"
(MDAA: 100%!!
Warning: All characters that don't want to be vaporized get as far away from Romme as possible within the next 2-3 posts! Remember: Since this attack took 7+ posts to form, the only reasonable way to block/return it would be to gather energy for a comparable amount of time, which obviously no one has be doing (heh...). I can think of one other way, though...)
-
Zeros' dodged the crescent wave and looked at Retan.
"Damnit." Zeros' opened his senses and looked for anyone in trouble.
First he sent out a link to Tsu and Zion.
Get out of here! This place if about to blow! He sensed Duilin was in more trouble then he needed. He found where Duilin was and quickly sped towards the location. He fired off quick beams of energy towards the two attackers of Duilin.
Zeros' stopped midflight and looked back at the MDAA.
Wait a second. Zeros' sheathed his swords and cupped his palms in front of him and charged up energy. He released the ball of energy and it headed straight for Retan's MDAA.
----
Genma stopped flying and quickly headed towards Duilin. He could use all the help he could get.
//Actually, that light aura would of brought the MDAA down abit, but the Zero Weapon took the damage.\\
-
Haraldur reached his homeland.
_________________________________________________________
Ragnar rushed towards the mountain, and went down the colossal hole very fast. The mountain exploded around him, blocking up the hole. He reached his slab.
He lay down, and again souls rushed into him, and again he screamed.
-
Cheetah was already far away as he heard sounds of Retan's spell preppared to be unleashed.
"Good night, Duilin." - he thought and began to accelerate toward a small solitary archipelago of islands he noticed at the line of horizon.
---
Gelu stood where he was. He wasn't too fast so it was pointless for him to run. He did not fear anything that could come - as the air around him was shaking from the orb's energy, he looked at the expanding orb like hyponotized, with his red, shining eyes.
-
Genma reached where Duilin was and looked at the two attackers. He dropped down and waved to Phoenix.
"Hello there Nex." He turned and waved to Darion. "Hello there Darion." Genma kicks the sword so it missed Duilin, then grabs Duilin by his shirt (or armor, whichever he has) and fires a ki blast at Darion and jumps into the air holding Duilin in his right hand.
He extended his left hand and absorbed wild, untamed energy, creating a ball well over 25 feet and fired it at Phoenix and Darion.
"Lets get going!" Genma flys with Duilin his hand, hoping to make it away to some islands about 2 miles away from Romme.
-
Both Zion and Tsu recieved Zeros' message. "As loyal as you are to the emperor," said Zion to Xenai, "his attack will still annihilate you if you stay here." Xenai thought for a moment, then looked in Retan's direction. "I will return when you are done with this attack!"
Zion flew over to Tsu, snatched him off of the ground, put him on his back, and flew off. Xenai was far ahead, but Zion would be able to make it out alive. Zion used all of his magic and all of his energy to dramatically increase his speed and shoot past Xenai, with Tsu barely hanging on. Xenai made the same dramatic increase in speed.
-
Zeros' saw everyone fleeing. Good. Zeros' pulled both his hands back after releasing his energy and powered up for his next attack.
"HIRYU SHOTEN HA REVISED! KATCHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN HIRYU SHOTEN HA!" (Translation: Heaven's Dragon Ascension Blast Revised! Cheastnuts Roasting on an Open fire Heaven's Dragon Ascention Blast) Hundreds of ki blasts erupted from Zeros' blurring fists and headed towards the MDAA, creating hundreds of mini Dragon Ascension Blasts on impact.
//If anyone wanted to know, Zeros' plan was to overpower the MDAA in hopes for it to be too much for Retan to handle and end up destorying himself.\\
Zeros' turned around towards the direction Genma was heading and used ki to enhance his demon wings and flew as fast as he could.
----
Genma saw everyone else following him and increases his grip on Duilin's armor and sped forwards faster.
-
The energy blast that Genma fired didn't hit Phoenix, but it did hit Darion, he slumped to the ground, and went back his regular dead self...
"No! Genma! Let me go! He has to be stoped! I need to do this! Just let me..." Duilin cries, but then relizes his revenge is starting to become pointless, but then he remembers somebody "NEVINA! She's still on the island."
Pheonix then looks at everyone fleeing
"Hmm...looks like this party's over!" Phoenix says "But I'm not going to let Duilin get away!!"
Phoenix then starts to hover over into the air and then points his hands at Genma and Duilin then flame forms into a 25 feet radius ball and then it flue at them
Duilin then looks at Genma holding onto his armor and then back at Phoenix's big blast
"Genma let me handle this....I know what to do...." He remeberd what Phoenix said about him being a deamon, he had to trust it...
Duilin then focused his strenght and energy and then raises his hands out and then he stuggled away from Genma, he floated away....
Wings spread out from him, they looked like Zeros' his eyes glowed green and then he flue at the fire ball. He then trusted his hands at the flame, he had it held in his hands, then uses the heat from the fire and his power to create fire to make it even bigger.
"One thing you forgot Pheonix! That your in Phophin's body! And he's NO deamon!"
He blasts the fire ball straight at Pheonix and then it rockets at him...
Phoenix's eyes brows raise "Oh, dear...."
It hits him and a big engulfment of flame burns down a 60 feet radius....
"Die, you son of a bitch!" Duilin yelled, He then flue over to were Nevina was, his flying was kinda bad and he almost hit a few trees and such...
(So will the entire island dies after everyone has posted 3 times?)
-
Nevina spat as Nex went into the ground, and sheathed her sword, as she felt the Earth shutter.
"Wha..?!" She cried out.
She then sees Duilin come at her and screams, "What's going on?!"
-
"I'll explain latter, the island is going to explode. Come with me if you want to live!"
Duilin grabs hold of Nevina and starts carring her, he then jumps up in the air and then starts flying. He swoops over the pool of fire he made...skeletons of Phoenix and Darion could be seen...
"I had to come back and get you...I couldn't leave you here to die...." Duilin says simpathecitly. He then spots Genma and nods at him, he gains more speed trying to keep up with the crowd....
-
Genma simply smiles at the two and increases speed while yelling back to them.
"Try and find your other party of people after this is over. Zeros' fired multiple blasts at the MDAA attack Retan made in hopes of it taking Retan with it and anyone else still stupid enough to be there."
----
Zeros' continues speed an flies past Genma's postion. He wanted to make sure everyone who could get themselves off the island had.
He and Genma would take care of Jayce if they needed to, but it appears that he wants to stay with his over pompous father.
-
Zion, Tsu, and Xenai had flew to a safe distance.
-
Duilin double checked to see if anyone was left behind Let's see, Scorch, most likely dead, don't care if he is or not, Seth...most likely dead. Shin, dead, Gedi dead, Iduran...dead...And the others are here.
Duilin gained more speed. He looked at Nevina for a few seconds and then looked back at were he was going...
----
(Here is what happend the dirt on my other charactor's deaths)
Nex's spirt wasn't able to find a new host, and it died within 20 minutes. The long lasting terror of the deamon Nex, was finished, and was never to be able to hurt anyone again...
Darion's zombified body was burnt to a crisp, by Duilin Flame of Death officalizeing his redeath, after Genma caused it to him...
Wile Veronika was falling off the boat, she relized she was causeing pain and suffering to others, enspecialy Duilin, she felt bad for doing this, and she aimed herself to hit the rock and die...
Pophin sadly never relized what Seth told him was true untill it was to late, his spirt and body, gone, and his exisetance was remaining in limbo...
-
Nevina managed a shook up, "T-Thank You, Duilin." And then somehow smiled at him, in the pit of all this destruction. She then awkwardly hugged him, and then verted her eyes downwards for sometime, not looking at him.
________________________________________________________________
Seth started to flinch, as he groggily got up and wandered around drunkishly, not quite sure where he was, and not that clear on who he was either.
He examined his surroundings, and saw an island, about 50 feet long, 60 feet wide, with the whole island being a Palm Tree forest, surrounded by a coastline.
"Jamiaca Mon'...?" He mumbled.
-
Duilin looked down at Nevina as she looked away, she looked at her for awile. Then he looked back at were he was going...Thinking...deeply...
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever
-
Zeros' looked down at the ground as it passed under him. The water broke into ripples everytime he flapped his wings. He still had the sword Iduran had given Duilin and that Duilin has given to him. The indentation still fresh on his back, barely covered by the pieces of his shirt burnt into his flesh.
Genma was also silent, but slowed down and flew at the speed Duilin was. He and Zeros' were the greatest boon to this ground of theres. He would have to push Zeros' more and more to be able to face Retan.
-
Just before the barrage of energy slammed into the catastrophically huge globe of dark matter, the resilient Zero Weapon rose again... It blocked the attack with its mighty chest, which became ruptured, bits of jagged metal jutting out and electric sparks jumping from the holes. It paid no mind to the damage, now an eerie aura surrounding the mecha-demon. It waved its left hand, sending a dozen orbs of shadow towards its adversary...
----
"The end is nigh..."
With great focus, The Dark Emperor Retan began to lower the 100 foot orb, positioning it in front of him. Total concentration was required to manipulate the energy correctly... The surrounding wind was chaotic, and the dark clouds and lightning swirled above...
The black dragon Jayce flew returned to his father, shrinking and becoming human-like. His black scales became his armor once again. And in a few seconds he was his former self, his black hair blowing wildly in the wind.
"Father! Why!? It's not like her to pick a fight she cannot win..."
"Silence! She's dead; get over it!"
"You didn't..."
"Order her to fight? So what? Don't you see she doesn't matter?"
The orb suddenly became very unstable... Retan returned his attention to his work and corrected the imbalance.
"Idiot! Don't distract me!"
"How... how could you?!"
Jayce clenched his fists in confusion and frustration...
Ignoring his son, Retan raised his arms to the sky then dropped them in front of him. The colossal orb began to fall, downwards and downwards to the center of the island, the Dark Emperor's hand guiding it...
(Leave these two alone, please, if you want to see my ending, heh...)
-
Zeros' turned around and saw the dark orbs.
"Shit..." Zeros' sped that way, past Genma and Duilin, breaking the sound barrier. Zeros' unsheathed his sword with his right hand and held out his arms to his side.
His blade charged with energy as the balls came faster towards him. He sent a slash forwards, detonating the balls instantly on impact. He sheathed his sword back and looked to the island.
Zeros' turned his tail and started flying with the others, not even going 30 miles an hour.
-
//The end is nigh... Heh.
Zion could feel the power being launched, even from as far away as he was. He trembled in intense fear.
Xenai chuckled insanely upon feeling this power.
Tsu almost fell off of Zion due to the trembling.
-
"Good work, Zeros'..." Duilin says to him as he flys beside him. He looks at Zeros' then Iduran's sword.
"You know...when I first saw Iduran I could have just took the sword from him...I never regreated not takeing it..." He says half to himself. "I miss the old guy..."
-
"Never regret the actions of one to save the lives of many Duilin. My reincarnated older sister sacrificed herself to save me, I never regret her actions. Iduran sacrificed himself so we could live. I have been alive for more then 900 years and I have seen more war and death then I ever want to..."
Zeros' slowed down more and stayed behind everyone else flying forwards. The sword pulsed within his blood, as sensing the impending battle.
-
Ragnar continued to scream and assimilate souls.
________________________________________________
The younger Haraldur rose, so high that he could see Romme, hundreds of kilometres away.
________________________________________________
The elder Haraldur twitched. Even here, he could sense the use of an MDAA.
-
Duilin turned his head back and looked at Zeros' as he slowed down...He then looked down at Nevina and smiled and then looked back infront of him and went back to his old, sad, deprest face...
He started thinking back, to when he first met all his new friends here...and how he lost many of them. He even missed Scorch and Pophin and Veronika. He could have been friends with all of them, but they were either on the other side, or just they didn't see things the same ways. He never liked Scorch much, even when they both served the Dark Empire, he didn't like him much, He allways bullied Pophin, he never knew why. The not to long ago time when he stared in to Veronika's eyes and senced that she wan't all evil, seemed to get into Duilin thoughts from time to time...
-
"Not all people who join an evil side have evil intentions, take Genma for example." He pointed to his old master. "He had to join the Dark Empire to save the lives of countless villages...and even myself."
Zeros' fell behind more, making sure no more attacks came.
-
Nevina thought a moment.
"Who is Iduran..?" She asked.
"Why did he die?"
"Is his corpse still intact? I might could revive him.."
-
"Iduran, he was the one who owned the sword the Dark Empire wanted..." Duilin explains, he takes a deep breath and then exhales "His body wasn't intact enough for revival, besides...even if it was...it's to late..."
-
"I know own the sword the emperor is looking for."
Zero's pointed to a point into his back, ripped the burnt shirt off his back and showed her the large indentation, the perfect form of a sword, along with flesh, or what looked like flesh. His body was basically covered in scars, the biggest piece of NON scared flesh was around 1/8 of an inch. No part of his body wasn't scarred.
//Basically, everywhere you looked that was exposed had scars, except for his face, which only had the one long scar.\\
"That is my price for living over 900 years. And no before you ask, I don't want anyone to heal me. They are my memories." Zeros' pulled his trench coat and shirt up, revealing his torso, which only had scars, no part of his flesh wasn't scarred. Many of the scars went down to his bone and have not healed. All the flesh looked like it was fleshly scarred.
He pulled his trench coat and shirt down and looked forwards.
-
Duilin squinted when he saw Zeros' scares...
"I guess, I'm not the only one liveing a life of pain...I feal sorry for you...900 years..." Duilin sighed again "After the island explodes, I'm going to go back to my old village..see if it's been rebuild yet...maybe I might find something..."
-
The Zero Weapon's mission was complete. It took off towards the shore, landing and slowly walking into the ocean. It would submerge itself below the seas, slowly repairing itself, waiting for its next calling...
----
A dark aura formed around Jayce, the rage building within him...
"She was to be my bride... my Queen! We were going to rule this world together-- after you died, you miserable old man!!"
Retan stopped.
He looked up, without warning, delivering a quick backhand to his son's chin. Jayce flew downwards 10 feet before catching himself.
"How dare you! You insolent cur!"
Jayce shot back up to his father's height, cupping his hands to his side, a dark sphere forming in between.
Retan's descending mass of shadow energy became unstable, now shifting to various oval shapes...
"You lived long enough, you senile old fool. The Dark Empire belongs to me now. I'm claiming it!!"
Jayce thrust his hands forward, firing a mighty shadow beam, which hit his father, trying to drive the Emperor into his own destructive sphere of energy...
The mass was becoming even more unstable...
"Unngh!! I give you everything... and THIS is the thanks I receive!"
He shot his right hand out from under his cloak, returning a blast of his own. The two beams met halfway, intense winds blasting at father and son from both sides...
Retan's unchecked mass of energy began to spin...
Jayce began to laugh,
"And to think you fell for it all... I even managed to get you to doubt Draven and your closest guard..."
He doubled the energy of the beam, pushing Retan's back...
"Very well! You shall be purged as well! An heir to the throne is meaningless if the Emperor is immortal!"
Retan's beam tripled in size, now sending the shocked Jayce's back...
A flash of lightning. The Dark Emperor's mass of energy finally touched down on the mountaintops below... but it was not the 100 foot orb that it should have been... It had become more of a disk shape and was spinning rapidly, streaks of crimson moving towards the center... in addition to huge gusts of wind...
Both stopped their attacks, looking at the spectacle below.
"Idiot! Look what you have done!!"
"Me? It's your spell, you old fool!"
Rather than explode as the spell normally went, it began to implode... A tremendous vacuum commenced. The dark energy had effectively become a black hole... First the trees... then massive boulders... then colossal chunks of earth broke from the ground, flying through the air and disappearing into the dark vortex... The black hole was sucking up the entire island...
"NOOOOOOO~!!!!!!"
Being the closest, Jayce and Retan fought with all their might to escape from the vortex, but the black hole pulled them backwards, and the two mighty drakens disappeared into the void...
Chunk by chunk, the island fell into the darkness...
(Chapter 3 ends in two days!)
-
Zion could feel the energy of both Retan and Jayce vanish. "Is it... over?"
Tsu was puzzled. He gave Zion one of his spare elixirs, because he could see that he was real tired. "What happened?"
Zion gulped down the elixir, then sighed. "Retan and Jayce... Their energies are gone..."
Xenai had felt it too. "No... no, no, no... This can't be happening...! This is your fault!" He pointed his finger at Zion, who floated down to a nearby, tiny island, and put Tsu down there. Zion looked back up at his nemesis. "My fault? All I did was destroy Neptra."
"I'm going to tear you to shreds!!!"
"I'm feeling quite a bit of animosity towards you as well right now."
Both warriors brought out their weapons, going into their ready stances, and glaring at each other, powering up to their fullest potential. Their auras pushed and pulled against each other.
Tsu watched from the little island. Looking up at Xenai, he noticed something on the back of his neck, that Zion did not have. Upon noticing this, Tsu fell to one knee, with his hand on the ground. Something had invaded his head...
<span style='color:blue'>Remove it.</span>
What? Remove it?
<span style='color:blue'>The three of you have a very important role to play.</span>
What does that thing on his neck have to do with it?
<span style='color:blue'>It makes him evil.</span>
Are you saying he's not normally evil?
<span style='color:blue'>He was supposed to develop ideas that were different from Zion's, but not so much to the extreme that he has now.</span>
What role do the three of us have together?
<span style='color:blue'>In time, you'll know.</span>
Whatever was in Tsu's head, it had finally left. Tsu got to his feet, stumbled a bit, then looked to Xenai. He unsheathed Kuon Yaiba, and as he looked at the symbol on the back of Xenai's neck, the white light came again. "HAAAAA!!!" He jumped up at Xenai, which was quite a ways up, shooting past him with Kuon Yaiba out at his side. The symbol on Xenai's neck split in two, and fell off.
Xenai's eyes went blank. He powered down, and dropped, going unconscious. The white light around Tsu's body faded.
"What the...?" Zion flew over, grabbing Tsu from the air, and just letting Xenai hit the tiny island with a thud. Zion took Tsu back to the island, set him down, and looked at Xenai. "What did you do to him?"
(And that's the end of the chapter for these guys.)
-
Cheetah landed. The breeze was soft and the waters were calm. The islands he met were an oasis of peace. He did not plan to remain here - he planned to travel a lot more in his expecting-to-last-a-bit-long life, but right know...
He could use few weeks of peace.
---
Gelu slowly began to follow toward the center of island, knowing what was happening there.
He has served his purpose. He aided Retan in his attempts. Understanding that he can recieve no reward for this due to nature of the Dark Emperor, it had to be enough for him.
"There is no death, there is the Force." - he only said as he approached the giant black hole, devouring everything on it's way. He casted one last spell to liquidise himself and, turned into water, he was sucked into deepest form of oblivion with tremendous force.
(end of chapter for me)
-
"Its over guys." Zeros' pointed back towards Romme, which was now being enveloped in a black hole. Zeros' kept following Duilin, along with Genma.
"Maybe I can finally have some peace..." Both of the said at the same time. Zeros' looked at Genma and gave him a thumbs up. Genma did the same.
"Where this village Duilin? I could help you rebuilt it. Im sure Genma would help too." Zeros' pointed over to Genma, who just nodded.
-
Amid his screaming, laughter could be heard coming from Ragnar. He jumped off the slab.
And rushed through solid rock northwards to a point to the north. for no immediately apparent reason.
He appeared at a point in front of the younger Haraldur. And laughed an insane laugh.
Haraldur drew his sword, and shot from it bolts of lightning, enough to destroy whole cities, which had no effect on Ragnar.
Ragnar laughed, and threw a fireball at him, a very large one.
Haraldur dodged it. He threw metal shards at Ragnar. But Ragnar anticipated this, seeing how Haraldur became covered in silver light beforehand, just for a split second. He caused lightning to flow from him through all the metal shards towards Haraldur, who got hit very forcefully. Ragnar dodged the now liquid shards.
With Haraldur stunned, Ragnar walked on the air towards him. And sucked out his soul, and screamed. Haraldur screamed in pain. And then exploded. Birds for miles around fell out of the air as they were hit by the blast.
Ragnar laughed a cold, chilling laugh.
__________________________________________________
The elder Haraldur screamed in grief and fury.
It now seemed it must be the time...
__________________________________________________
The younger Haraldur: deceased.
-
Duilin smiled "I'll show you guys. It's not to far away..
Duilin turned turned his head back and looked at Romme implode "Yeah, it is over..." He smiled again, and looked at everyone and then back at Nevina "I guess were going to my old place.."
Duilin gained speed and started to lead the way...
//Duilin's old village will be near by were ever the next chapter is takeing place. It's gonna be slightly run down, not much people botherd to fix it after 10 years and most people just moved out after the attack//
-
Zeros' gained speed and followed Duilin, along with Genma.
-
The island continued to break apart, until it was no more... the mountains, the castle ruins, the villages, the forests, all was lost... the black hole swirled, shrinking to a small orb above the open sea, where the island once stood...
For a brief second, it was calm.
Then with a blinding flash, the ball of energy exploded, sending a burning mass of shadow to the sky.
At that time, five points of light shot outward, speeding ahead of the explosion at hundreds of miles per hour-- the five mystic weapons Retan had collected. They flew in five directions, to be scattered across the world...
-
Zeros' looked and saw the five weapons Retan had collected shoot out from where Romme island once stood.
"Now it seems I have another mission." Zeros' stopped and looked down. There was a moderate size island below him, about 5 miles by 7 miles. "I'll stop here, you guys continue on." Zeros' dropped himself on the island and decided he would look around later. Now it was time to rest.
"I'll depart also." Genma stopped and landed near where Zeros' was. "Going after those weapons?" Zeros' nodded. "I'll come with to. If you become corrupted by the power, you need to be executed." Genma said. Zeros' smiled at the old master.
//End\\
-
The elder Haraldur noticed a hole had now appeared in his dimension, and went through it to his homeland.
He arrived, just in front of Ragnar. They stared at each other for several seconds. Except for Ragnars torn dark clothes, and his blackened formerly blond hair, they looked absolutely identical.
The two of them walked slowly towards eachother. And then embraced.
There was a bright, white flash. The two of them had disappeared.
A few metres above them, a man looking the same as both of them had looked before the leaving of Ragnar was floating on the air. He had no name. He chose to call himself Haraldur. He blinked in the sunlight.
He was twice as bitter about everything as Haraldur and Ragnar combined.
He wanted vengeance.
//End of chapter 3 for my person. He will be gathering all his power until the chapter ends.//
Elder Haraldur and Ragnar: merged.
-
Duilin turned around and spoted the island explode...the weapons fly away...
He hovered in the air for awile. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.." He sort of breathed out the words, not loud or clear enough for somebody to hear.
Duilin then noded at Zeros' and Genma "I wish you to the best of luck, on finding the weapons. I've had enough adventure for my life....for a humen...I'm getting old."
//30 was old in those days//
"Okay Nevina, let's go..." Duilin smiled one last time at her...
Duilin flew off into the distance...
//Spider Man 2 Music plays, heh//
(I guess that's the end for me to)
-
The explosion eventually subsided, the smoke rising into the atmosphere above the empty ocean...
Thus ended the third and final day of the fabled Dark Empire's assault on Romme. It was the end of the Kingdom of Romme, the end of the Dark Empire... as it was then known at least...
To be continued...
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 4</span>
Cold? so cold? can?t breathe?
Why?? Is this death??
No? impossible?
You miserable insects are going to pay? all of you?
----
One month later?
The streets of Laus were in an uproar. Petty thieves, low class warriors, pirates, merchants selling supplies and weapons? They were trekking northward, across the border to the north to try and join in the pillaging of the villages and fortresses of what used to be the Dark Empire, now a land without laws?
A dark figure strode through the crowds, unintimidated by the mobs, his face hidden under his hood and his black cloak blowing in the wind. A smoke hung over the lands to the north. So, the rumors are true?
The shrouded man entered a tavern, which was just as bustling, and proceeded to an empty table in the corner. Here he stroked his chin, lost in thought, while eyeing the odd passerbyers?
-
Duilin was siting in the tavern, he noticed the robed man in there, he looked at him and then turned away.
Duilin was wereing all black, he didn't have his armor on, he still had his back pak, yet it showed the showed up tears on it, and it seemed to have something alive in it, but it never moved much, and nobody ever asked about it. His eyes werem't glowing anymore, he seemed to look almost normal again, yet he still had that Gothic look to him.
He glaced back at the man, and decieded to go talk to him. He got up and started to walk over to him, but suddenly he was intercepted by somebody.
"Duilin! I've got to tell you something! I think, that your story is totall crap!" He was drunk, the man was somebody Duilin had met a few days ago, and he told him the story of fall of Romme.
"That's great!" He pushed him away and then sat down at the table with the robed man.
"Hello, there I'm Duilin, who are you?" He asked
--------
Meanwile, up in the cold freezeing moutains...
"Frost...wake up!"
"Huh? Oh. Why?"
"Were going down to Laus to pick up some suplies."
They were two men, looked very simular,one wore icy blue armor and seemed to be more, gnashy looking, the other seemed to look smarter.
"Okay Bite just a second." Frost, was the smarter one, and Bite, was his crazy twin brother, the both were part of a clan called the Ice Warriors.
Frost got up and put on his armor, looked just like Bite's but had the colours in different order. He grabed his Ice Sword and Pick Axe.
"Let's go." Frost said
"Allright, let's go to the stables..." Bite replied
They headed toward the stables...
-
A cloak figure slowly entered the tavern in Laus at where Duilin resided. He stalked through the shadows, seeming to be enveloped by them. He shifted out of the shadows and looked up at Duilin. He had his hood down, as not to show his face.
"Duilin I presume?" Said the figure as he pointed at Duilin with his left hand.
----
About 200 miles near Laus on a small remote island...
Zeros' looked down at the rock in disgust. He reached behind his back and slowly traced the place where Iduran's sword stood. A couple days ago he had sensed the risidual energy coming from this place.
He knew what it was.
Zeros' slowly reached out from where he stood and touched the rock, but quickly pulled back his hand. Black sparks erupted from where the boulder stood, as if not wanting to be touched.
"Too much dark taint." He growled under his breath. He slowly reached to his swords hilt and gripped it tightly. He didn't even know if this would work. He unsheathed his sword and cut the rock in half, faster then anyone could see.
He walked slowly into the enterance to the cave where the rock once stood, carefully treading.
-
Ellenna said her last good byes to her adoptive father, and left the Temple of Kala.
She had set herself a mission, to help liberate the formerly oppressed peoples north of Laus.
She entered the Green Dragon tavern, in search of warriors who might help her in her cause. She entered the room with Duilin and the and robes and cloaked fugures were.
She knew people would pay attention, for she was wearing the colour of the goddess Kala.
She stood up on top of the bar and said: "I come here to look for warriors to assist in spreading freedom in the lands north of our city!" And, because she knew the mentality of the average person in the crowd, she said: "You can take all the loot you can find within ethical limits!"
___________________________________________________________
Haraldur was a little south of Laus harbour. The wind blew through his hair.
A lot had happened in the last month. He had had a lot of fun causing complete chaos and fear on the east coast of Tjed, near the place where two of his previous parts had destroyed a Posidon. The carcass was still there. The place became boring after a while though, so he destroyed it. There is only a barren wasteland left, and the rest is under the sea.
He felt bitterness and anger well up inside him, from some ancient grievance which he could no longer remember. He would make anyone he met pay... For what, he did not know.
Fear first, it is much more fun to play with the emotions of your victims.
He screamed a terrifying scream that could be heard in the farthest part of Laus. many people were scared for no apparent reason, knowing not what and where caused the noise.
-
Crap, I'm late!
Aw well...
-
Back at the stables...
"Frost! there he is!" Bite said pointing at a large two headed hairy creature (not dudman)
"Here Gungun!" frost says.
the beast comes closer...
"AAAAARRRRGGGG!!!!"
"AAAHHHHHHHH!" Frost & Bite scream
"HA HA scared you! nananana nana!" says Gungun
"don't do that!" Bite wines "Okay lets go to laus and get supplies"
so they hook Gungun up to the carrage and hed down the mountain.
-
Tsu slowly opened his eyes. He sat up, and looked around, to see Zion standing over Xenai, who was still asleep. Tsu got to his feet and walked over. "How long has he been like this?"
"Since I woke up," came Zion's response.
"When was...?"
"2 hours ago. I never noticed the mark you destroyed until now." Zion turned Xenai's head to look away from him, and looked at the white area where the black mark was.
-
//Dippy: I'm not hairy!!!
DMM: Stop spamming the RP//
"Yes, I am, Duilin, who might you be?" Duilin replys to the other robed man, he ignores the women in the coloured cloths, assumeing she is drunk.
---
(It's cool that me and Dippy control each other's charas aslong as there not actions?)
Frost, Bite and Gungun, arive down near by Laus.
"Okay, we'll leave Gungen hear" Frost said "I don't think people will aprove of a 2 headed 13 foot Yettie stomping threw the city, with two Ice Warriors."
"Yeah, I supose so." Frost replied "We have been raiding this town every now and then. But not as much, since the past month."
"Bite, why did you tell me that?"
"I wasn't telling YOU that, I was telling THEM that." *Bite points to you*
They enter the town, and then spot a girl wearing the colour of the goddess Kala (Ellenna) entering a tavern.
"Hey, let's go in the Tavern!" Bite sugested
"Okay, somethings fishy about that women, let's go!"
Frost and Bite enter the tavern, and hear what Ellenna says, the then turn around to talk.
"Okay, you think the Ice Warrior Commanders would mind if we joined her?" Bite asked
"I guess they would be cool with it." Frost replyed they then turned around and looked at Ellenna
"Were with ya!" They both said at the same time
-
"My master wishes to see you again. He says something about his past catching up to him." Kami-ryu reached up with his left hand and pulled back his hood, revealing his face.
"He had mentioned something along the lines of "weapons of destruction". He wanted to see if any of his old comrades were still alive. He is afraid the Dark Empire might rise once more." He said shaking his head.
----
Zeros' carefully shifted his gaze back and forth. He didn't want to fall pray to any of the magical traps that might have lingered in this cave. He made a ball of ki and carefully held it in his palm.
He casually walked forwards, his one wing folded behind him. The cave was damp and musky. She had to keep her senses sharp, or he might be surprised.
-
The tavern was a busy place. The Kismet was drinking water (his religious conduct forbode him alcohol, altough he didn't care too much about it, anyway) as suddenly some priestess of Kala entered and screamed her propagandous texts about starting a campaign somewhere in the north.
"Chill out, sister!" - said Kismet, smiling and standing up. - "Freedom? North offers nothing but death for those who seek loots there!"
---
Cheetah, tired and weak, reached the shores of Laus. As he jumped from beneath water and landed on land after turning into human form, he quickly hurried from the docks to the tavern, folling some strange stranger in strange robe...
But as he entered, he could not believe his eyes - there, speaking with some ninja-esque stranger, was Duilin.
"High heavens! Duilin! Lucky son of a wyvern!" - he screamed aloud, realising he might have drawn some attention to himself - but who cares? He didn't.
-
Kami-ryu turned and saw the strange Gepardi. He raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't give it much as a second thought. His master told him about his comrades in the war.
His master said there was a human named Duilin, who was a former Dark Empire soldier; a Gepardi named Cheetah; A sorcerer named Scorch, although he had been informed he had been deceased, and also various other people such as: Qeni, Zev, Genma, Iduran, Zion, Tsu and a few others.
He had been informed that at least half of them were deceased. He master had seemed depreased, so he didn't push the subject much.
Kami thought for a moment. He could ask the Gepardi if he was Cheetah, but he didn't want to preasure him much, if he was wrong, he might be thought of as crazy. He turned his attention back to Duilin.
"So would you know anything about these weapons? My master said he wasn't sure about what they did, only that the form Dark Empire emperor needed them to take over the land." He looked back to Cheetah and though for another moment.
Since this man he is speaking to has been confirmed as Duilin, then the Gepardi might be Cheetah. Only if his luck could be that good...
----
Zeros' dashed through the cave and lost his ki orb, but as of right know, he didn't care much. He was more involved in dodging the balls of magical energy that rushed past him. He didn't want to destroy them, as not to set off the power of the weapon that might be sealed.
He brought up another ki orb and quickly dashed to the right, going onto a smaller fork. He watched as the orbs passed harmlessly by and let out a sigh of relief. He walked at a more casual pace as he continued down the cave.
-
Zion stood up and felt for anything unusual. There seemed to be dischord in the main city of the Dark Empire. He turned to face Tsu.
"You might want to learn to fly."
"Fly? No way, I'm just a human!"
"You saw all the other humans do it. You can too, somehow."
"Uh uh, no way. It would take me years."
"I'll have to take you to see someone, then." Zion looked up into the sky. "That cloud should be passing overhead any minute now..."
-
Duilin turned to the shrouded man "I'm sorry, I have somebody I need to speak to."
He smiled as he spoted Cheetah "Well, Cheetah, you son of a gun! What has it been a month? Yeah, it has. Geez, well I'm just talking to this guy here, I think he's a friend of Zeros' or Genma" He then turned to Kami-ryu "So lost weapons..." He smile then quickly fades "Listen, I'm not sure if I want a part of this anymore.." He strokes his hair abit and turns away but then looks back at him "Okay, I'll just have to talk to Zeors'."
-----
Frost and Bite then look at Kismet and then they turn around again and start talking "Okay, what do you think we should do?" Frost asks
"Well, we came here to get suplies is all!" Bite replies
"Yeah, but an adventure really dose sound fun!"
"Yeah, but these people seem abit werid, I don't think we should go off traveling with strangers, I say we should go and, buy drinks for people, and then get them drunk, take them outside and beat the loot outside of them!" Bite says abit to loudly, a few people turn and glare at him. Bite then lifts up his Ice Thrower and points it around and makes a animal like growl at them and then the people turn away.
"Dude, that's a pretty crazy idea!"
"Well, then let's just buy some food then!"
"Okay." Frost says and then turns around"Were, just gonna buy food, we mean NO harm!"
They both then walk over to the bar and order some food...
(FYI: The Ice Warriors are well known bandits, but they have started to be more peacefull now)
-
Kami-ryu bowed politely to Duilin. Some people may think of it as strange, but learning the ways of a ninja tended to inflict proper manners to anyone. Even his master didn't like him bowing and calling him 'master' or calling everyone 'sir' or 'ma'am'.
"I'm sorry to say, but Master Genma has been deceased for about two weeks. I can understand your reluctance to join in this journey. I have heard what you have seen in the past times." He closed his eye for a moment before bowing again.
"I am deeply sorry if I have bothered you Sir Duilin. My master just wanted me to ask if you wished it." He bowed and went to a table near the far corner and sat down.
He noticed to two ice warriors outburst at the threat and sighed to himself. He pushed his chair out behind himself and walked to where the two Ice warriors were sitting.
"Sir, I'm afraid your outburst has angered many of the residents of this tavern. I must ask you refrain from further outbursts." He said politely.
----
Zeros' crouched down and unsheathed his sword, cutting a magical barrier down in an instant. He strolled forwards again before smiling at the sight. A spear lay imbedded in a rock covered with wards, residual magical energy jumping off the spear.
He walked over and stopped near the spear. He reached out with his right hand and gripped the spear. He focused his ki into his hand and concentrated. The ornate decorated spear started to remove itself from its prison, the magic growing stronger every minute.
He put his other hand on the spear and concentrated one last time and pulled with all his might. The tip of the spear came out of the rock and the dark tainted aura burst free, throwing Zeros' back into the wall. He gripped the spear in his left hand and unsheahted his sword, transforming it.
He charged his ki again and slashed upwards, creating a cut just long enough for him to fly through. He sprouted his other wing, which gave him the effect of being a black angel, sent to punish all who oppose him. He concentrated his ki in his wings and blasted forwards with a powerful gust, breaking the sound barrier.
He appeared above the island seconds later before blasting in the direction of Laus, a huge tidal wave behind him and at his sides as he wanted to reach there as fast as he could.
Seconds later, the islands Zeros' was on collapsed into the sea, never to be seen again.
-
Bite then turns and looks at Kami-ryu and then looks at Frost, they both burst out laughing.
"Well I didn't know the circus was in town!" Bite laughs
"What are you suppose to be, volunteer street watch!?" Frost laughs
"So, Kung-Pow" Bite begean "How, bout, you refrain from bothering us? Huh?" He pokes him in the chest and then gives him a mean look. Frost then stands slighthy to the left side of Bite, but still behind him.
"Yeah, listen, Mr. Poltie Ninja Boy, we are the Ice Warriors, NOBODY tells US what to do!"
Bite cracks his knuckless and then and then smiles evily at Kamu-ryu "So, you gonna stop bothering us?!"
Duilin then spoted the two 'bulling' Kami-Ryu. He then walks over toward them
"Hey, the guy told you to SHUT up, I subjest you do so!" Duilin ordered
"Who, the hell are you, tellin' us what to do?" Frost snaped, walking up to Duilin
"I'm somebody, who melt your frozen ass out of existence, Icer Boy!"
"Nobody talks to us like that!" Frost and Bite take out there weapons...
Frost swings his Ice Sword at Duilin, but he slides out of the way, barely makeing any expression on his face. Duilin then lifts his pointer and ring finger upwards in front of his mouth and the blows, that causes a light blast of fire and smokes Frost right in the sword welding arm, and it catches fire
"Help! Get it out! Get it out!" Frost cries.
"Here this I'll help!" He grabs a near by ale glass and poors the remains on his arm, makeing the flame bigger. Frost yells in pain, his sword starts melting. Duilin then, blows out the fire with a single blow of his breath. Fortunatly for Frost the flame didn't get past the armor, so all he has it black burnt blotch on his arm. His Sword, didn't fully melt, and is still useable.
"What are you man..." Bite asks, in fear...
"What's life without mysteries?" Duilin says and then walks away and leaves the tavern...
Frost and Bite then sit down back at bar with extremely shocked faces, they then look at Kami-ryu. "We're sorry...."
-
"Don't worry about it. Life is indeed full of mysteries, some better left unanwsered." He bowed to them again and proceeded to follow Duilin outside the tavern. He spots him moving through the crowds and tries to catch up.
"Thank you Sir Duilin." He said shouting amongist the hustle of the crowds. He walks back into the tarvern and finds a spot.
----
Zeros' sped forwards even faster. He gripped the handle of the spear tighter and started to exceed speeds of Mach 3. He could see the city of Laus in the distance and smiled. Kami-ryu should have the right equipment to seal the power of this evil attrocity away for good.
-
Ellenna sagged, people had taken very little notice. He watched ad listened to the conversation between a group, and saw others leave.
She jumped off the bar, and sat down beside Kami-ryu.
"I could not help but overhear your conversation. May I be of any assistance?"
________________________________________________________
Haraldur decided that this time, it might help to be a little more subtle. He made his aura disappear.
He landed on the docks, near a tavern, and went towards it. There he saw Duilin ad Cheetah, seemingly remembering at least one of them from one of his previous lives.
He stopped a little way away from them and stared. He was fully visible.
-
"Duh..." - Cheetah only said, casting a look at Frost and Bite. - "Zeros is alive?" - he turned back to Duilin. - "That's good news. Do you know where he is, or maybe this ninja knows?"
---
Kismet refused to leave Ellenna alone. He followed her, looked at Duilin, Kami and Cheetah and thought for a while.
"Watch out, you guys. Never trust a priestess of Kala. Sure, now she talks big about battles, loots and conquest, but I wonder what was she doing when the Dark Empire occupied the northern land?"
The tavern has surely became a crowded place now.
-
Kami-ryu glanced at Ellenna for a moment and sighed. He knew there was nothing anyone could do.
"No Ma'am. I don't believe there is anything you could help with." Kami-ryu raised from his seat and walked over towards Cheetah. He weaved in and out of the crowds with a grace only a few could carry.
"As to anwser your question Sir Cheetah, yes Master Zeros' is still among the living. His master is among the deceased, as much as I hate to admit." He gave a bow to Cheetah, causing a pouch to fall out of his pocket. He reached down with his right arm, revealing his metal limb.
He quickly withdraws his hand into his sleeve as collective gasps come from many of the lesser warriors of the bars.
----
Zeros' slowed down and soon the town of Laus came into view. He grasped the spear tighter as he used his ki to hold down the dark aura that threatened to leap out from it. He flapped his wings and slowly glided down to the land, barely managing to land. This spear is managing to sap away his ki.
He reached out with his senses, trying to get a lock on Kami-ryu. He located him a couple miles away and quickly hurried. He would not die from this ordeal, but he would be serverally drained. He also noticed three farmiliar auras: Duilin, Cheetah and one that felt like a mix between Ragnar and Haraldur.
He hoped that Kami would be able to help him recruit those two. If not, he would hold no grudge.
-
Kahn burst into the cavern and went straight for Ellenna.
"If I correctly heard someone say loot, may I be of any assistance?"
-
Ellenna said to Khan: "Yes, you may be of assistance. Who are you?"
________________________________________________________________
Haraldur walked up to Duilin and Cheetah.
"I see that you have also been drawn here, by some strange fate. Do you have any purpose here?
"Don't you recognise me?"
Laughing, Haraldur slowly walked away, and faded from view.
-
(Gah... knew this would happen, heh...)
"You may call me... Lars."
The shrouded man replied just before Duilin left. He silently watched as the aforementioned scenes unfolded, listening intently on the conversation between Duilin and Kami and watching Duilin fend off the two troublemakers. After the scuffle, Lars left his seat and followed Duilin out of the door paying Kami no mind as he nearly bumped into him.
The shrouded man moved through the crowds like a ghost, catching up with Duilin after a few minutes. He walked right behind the man, speaking softly:
"These weapons... none of them have the slightest clue what they really are..."
He stopped walking, folding his arms under his cloak.
"There are but two paths to destruction... the two bringers of disaster are on their way here at this very moment... they may already have arrived. Their paths may conflict, or they may coincide... Either way spells certain doom. And you, my friend, are going to help one of them. I have seen it..."
-
Duilin stops, not even turning to look at Lars.
"Me, help one the bringers of disasters?" Duilin then looks at him "I thought the weapons were just some thing the Dark Empire wanted to use to control the world some how? I also thought, that the weapons were destrioed, but I supose there still around." Duilin then strokes his chin "Okay, Lars, who exatatly are you? And how do you know this information?"
----
"Dude...That guy...." Frost says "He blasted fire at me! Did you see that!?"
"Uh, no, I just thought I imagine it!!" Bite snaped sarcasticly
"Man, I think there's something going on here. Wait a minute, do you know about the story of the ?"
"No..."
"Well, about a month ago the Dark Empire died, trying to get this one last weapon, the was owned by some Knight dude, but he was help out by some people, and one of them, was said to be..." he takes a deap breath "liveing in this town, he knew fire magic and I think it was that guy....that guy...is a deamon!"
"A...deamon?" Bite said "Are you sure?"
"Maybe....we, have to like, flash a cross at him or something and if he gets scared away from it, then we know he's a deamon!"
"Then, we should try and send him back to the underworld!"
"Yeah!"
Frost and Bite look around and then pick up a chair, they give the bartender some money, then brake the chair and put a few peices back together to make a cross and then sneak outside, they hide behind a building near by Duilin and Lars, listening in to there conversation.
-
"This all doesn't look good to me..." - Cheetah thought, looking at the ninja guy with metal limb.
"And who are YOU?"
---
Kismet knew trying to converse with Ellena was pointless, so he instead kept an eye on the two troublemakers - Frost and Bite. He didn't like them from start. And what were they planning to do by following the two strangers with a cross formed from chair pieces?
"What are you two up to? Espionage?" - he asked them as he followed them out of the tavern.
-
Frost and Bite turn around startled and spot Kismet.
"Hey, uh, We're not spying on anyone." Frost says
They walk by Kismet, but still face him
"What are YOU up to?" Bite snaps at Kismet, he cracks his knuckless.
Frost then hides the cross. "Bite, how about we ask this guy for help." He then speaks to Kismet "So, you appear to be a priest. Well, he have abit of a problom, with." He then jumps up in front of him "A DEAMON!" he says is a scary voice
"And, maybe YOU could get rid of it, with your, holyness-nes!" Bite chips in
-
"Demon, huh?" - Kismet surely didn't like the two guys. - "Give me a single reason why should I trust you!"
-
kahn looked around and then back at Ellenna.
"My apologies you may call me kahn. I'm willing to do any job if I get something good in return and from what I heard this one sounds promising.
-
Zion continued to stare, until... There it was, a cloud shaped like a sword. "Tsu, prepare to meet Seijin Mugen." He grabbed Tsu and took off, straight up, at exactly 77 mph. He burst into the cloud, exactly at the center of the sword's hand guard, and looked around. He had gotten the attention of a blue-haired man sitting in a chair. Zion put Tsu down and looked at him. "'Lo, Seijin."
"Hello, Zion. How is Xenai?"
"Unconscious."
"That's too bad..."
Tsu recognized the voice. That was the guy who kept coming into his head! Tsu pointed at him, and before he could really say anything, Seijin spoke out. "Yes, I am the man who was speaking into your mind. I have a very important task for you, Zion, and Xenai."
-
Zeros' walked down the streets calmly, his wing out, people parting in his wake. Zeros' pushed the door to the tavern where everyone else is and looks around. He folded his wing behind him and kept his grip on the spear.
Kami-ryu walked over to Zeros' and bowed.
"Hello master. I see you found what you wished?" Zeros' nodded and held out the spear. Zeros' walked over to the ice bandits and looked them straight in the eye.
"You have a problem with DEAMONS? So are NOT that bad you know." He asked in an icy tone. He knew who the ice warriors were by there reputation, which wasn't very good. Kami-ryu walked over and stepped to the right side of his master.
-
Ellenna said: "We will be travelling towards the north, in an effort to ensure an good outcome in the now unstable areas formerly of the Dark Empire. Hopefully we will be able to aquire a guide."
__________________________________________________________
From a little way away, Haraldur saw the entrance of Zeros' into the tavern. Interesting. What has he been doing this past month? Giant-killing? Searching for the lost weapons? Trying to bring peace to the region?
It might be interesting to find out. Or not. Whatever.
He entered the tavern. His aura reappeared.
"Ah, how are you in Laus this fine day, Zeros', adversary of Jayce and Retan, Lords of the Dark Empire?"
-
Zeros' turned and looked at Haraldur.
"Hello Haraldur. Not TOO bad actually. I am sad to say that my master passed away a few weeks ago." He said in a sad tone. I hadn't really liked talking about it at all. "So anyways, why are you here?" Kami-ryu shuffled his feet. Zeros' noticed this and handed him the spear he had.
The second it left Zeros' hand, the dark aura burst forth, threatening to consume all. Kami-ryu quickly focused himself as his cape lashed out, reething with dark power as it quickly enveloped the spear and held down the dark taint the emperor consumed it with during his stay with the weapons.
The special cape had a special power to lock down dark taint. The cape itself wasn't very strong, but prevented most major injuries that threatened to kill him instantly, unless he receives imediate medical attention. The dark cape also had the power to shift into any form he desired. The cape retracted back, placing the spear on Kami-ryu's back.
-
Bite then decieded to talk to Kismet and Frost chose to talk to Zeros'
"Well, if you don't" Bite said to Kismet "Then, we might just be killed off by this guy, and you wouldn't want that to happen, would you?" He says this wile pointing to his Ice Thrower.
"Well, this deamon, could very well, defeat us." Frost was about to ask why he was aiding deamons but then he spoted his wing "So...your a deamon to?" He turned to Kami-ryu "How could you trust a deamon, they're things, from HELL, that's were evil stuff in made and the reason why there is pain and suffering, and the reason why there is evil in the world. I know about you guys trying to find these dark weapons of evil, your trying to wipe out the world, but this world belongs to the Ice Warriors, and you can't take it from us!"
//Oh, and could you not bug, Duilin, because he need to talk to Lars//
-
Kami-ryu was starting to grow impatient at this man. He was insulting his master, who has saved his life countless times.
"There is something called sterotyping. That is what you are doing. People believe all that originates out of evil must be evil. I swore my life towards my master till his or my death." Kami-ryu sighed and turned back to his master, who didn't look too mad.
"I would give my life for his. He has saved my life countless times. You want proof?" Kami-ryu held out his right arm, which was metallic. He also pushed his left leg forwards, which was also metallic. "There is your proof! The Ice Warriors are only a bunch of egotistical bastards who believe they can rule everything with power! Go back to your mountain guild and wither and die. The ways of the Ice Warriors are outdated." He spat in Frost's face.
Zeros' turned and placed a firm hand on Kami-ryu's shoulder. He calmed slightly, but was still slightly mad at them.
-
Frost, then glared, he wiped his face and then took out his pick axe.
"Bite, looks like we got a couple of people who want to bath in there own blood!"
Bite then looked at Kismet "Stay outta this!" He took out his Ice Thrower and fired a blast of ice crystals out of his weapon, at Zeros', it would cause some serious frost-bite if you got hit. Frost then swung his pick axe in a side ways motion, at Kami-Ryu.
-
Zeros' blurred from sight, the only indication of him standing there was his after image. He already had his sword out, transformed, as 12 feet of steel was pointed directly at Bite's throat.
"Do you yeild?" He said with ice in his voice. Kami-ryu was already ready. He lashed out with his cape, transforming it into dozens of spikes, as they headed directly towards Frost's vital parts.
He materialized several kunai in his right hands and held them inbetween his right hand's fingers as he blocked the pick axe with his arm, causing a slight dent.
-
Frost spots all the spikes and then croches down and turns away extremly quickly they stick into his back but mostly consumed by his armor. He then spins around wile swing his pick axe at Kami-Ryu's legs.
Bite eye's are wide open, he's in total shock, he's never seen anything like this before.
"Yes, I yeild, I yeild!" Bite cries, he then makes a high pitched wistling sound...
-
Zeros' pulled his sword from Bite's throat and sheaths it. Kami-ryu meanwhile pivots on his foot as he deflects the blow with his metal leg. He saw he didn't have time for fooling around. He nodded to Zeros', who disappeared. Zeros' quickly came back and stepped on the pick axe near the handle. Zeros' made a gun with his thumb and index finger and gathers his ki, forming a small ball in front of him.
"I don't like needless killing. Do you yield?" He said. He folded his wing back down, which revealed Kami-ryu gone. Kami materializes behind Frost and points a kunai at the backl of his neck.
-
"Stay outta this?!" - Kismet said with a nervous tone. - "Outta this?! I HATE stereotypes!"
He put his arms each in direction of one of ice warriors while others care more about engaging them in closer battle, and two streams of flames headed toward Frost and Bite (one stream at one ice warrior).
He did not really care much about incinerating the tavern...
---
Cheetah threw a look at the small battle taking place with ice warriors, then turned toward barman, ordered a beer, drank it, and returning to his senses, realised he had no money.
"Well, yeah..." - he said. - "I'll pay the debt one day."
The situation in tavern wasn't looking good. Cheetah never liked crowds too much - whenever too many people gathered at one place, usually argues and battles happened.
-
Ellenna quietly slipped out of the tavern, and waited for Kahn.
_________________________________________________________
"Why am I here? Oh, so many reasons. One of them is the chance for revenge against the Dark Empire. Another is a general bitterness agaist the human race, such as it is. Those weapons are also of great interest to me. I see you have one. You are going to destroy it? I hope you destroy them all. Yours best not to reason why. That is why you are here, is it not?"
He then heard the words of the two Ice Warriors, and saw the resulting violence. Then he threw two fireballs at them saying, "You best be careful about who listens in on your conversations. I am not well pleased."
-
"I yeild!" Frost cried, and then the fire blast hit him "AHH! Not again! Owch! Geez!"
Frost had some serious burns that needed aiding
Bite, just kept makeing high pitched wistling, over and over. He luckly still had his gun out and he shot the fire blast and the flame melted it instead of hitting him, he then droped his gun.
(Kami-Ryu, dosen't really seem like a level 1)
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>"GUNGUN NO LIKE!! MAKE GO AWAY!! :angry: "</span>
Gungun says as he runs thrugh the street armed with a shotgun cannon arm and a large ice hammer.
First he runs over to Kami-Ryu and rips him off of Bite and fires his shotgun cannon at Zeros' Surprised
(first boss of chapter 4)
-
Lars looked over his shoulder, noting the entrance of Zeros' and Haraldur into the tavern behind him. A grin appeared on his face, hidden under his hood.
"They're here... quickly, we mustn?t let them see us..."
He grabbed Duilin by the arm, moving him into the shadows of a nearby building as sounds of a fight began to emanate from the tavern. He spoke softly:
"I am but a simple prophet... I have studied them from afar... yes... and I have looked into their souls... The winged one. He claims to fight for justice, but his true desire is power... He is centuries old, a half-demon. He has all the time in the world, and he is waiting for the right moment... He will stop at nothing to obtain the weapons... He very well may be the strongest fighter in the world...
"The other one, the prince of Víkingagarð... He is truly mad... He has spent the past month destroying an innocent country by himself... He has acquired some new sort of power, I am not sure what or how... He seems angry and confused. He is more dangerous. At least the other has focus. This one could go ballistic at any moment...
"I am looking for some men to help me stop them... before it is too late. Let us pray they do not decide to join forces at this moment... Before you answer, I beg you not to be fooled by their guise... What say you?"
-
Ellenna saw two men moving quickly and heard mentions of two strange people, and of violence.
"What is going on?"
________________________________________________________
Haraldur caused the massive shotgun pellets from Gungun's shotgun cannon going towards Zeros' to reverse direction and to glow with red flame, so that firey balls of metal went hugely fast towards the sasquatch.
At the same time, his aura starts to glow a tint of red, rasing the temperature of the room to close to 40 degress Celsius. And then flame went outwards in all directions from him, with the sasquatch and the two ice warriors in the full force of the blast, which went outwards just 3 metres: it was being kept in check, and most of it only went towards the troublesome three.
Haraldur screamed in anger: "Why must I be interrupted?!"
-
(Like I said before, he is a ninja which lets him melt into the shadows, but it takes time. That's why Zeros' wing was in the way. Kami-ryu may have alot of special abilites, but he is also physically very weak.)
Kami-ryu redirects his body so he pivots and lands on his feet. He looks over towards Haraldur and then his master. He bows to them and leaves to find Duilin.
Zeros' sighs. He quickly pivots on his foot, turning towards the monster and fires of the ki, in a shallow, concentrated beam. He unsheaths his swords and splits it into the two 7 feet long, 1 foot thick swords.
He charges the aura with both light and dark auras, using the powers of love for all and the hate he has for his enemies.
"Hey Haraldur. You might want to get away after this." Zeros' has a grin on his face. He first thrusts the swords outwards, holding them at a ready position. He spins them around backwards and then slashes forwards with both in a upwards arc. Both of the slashes of dark and light energy head straight towards the monster.
----
Kami-ryu, meanwhile, looks throughout the crowd for the people that escaped.
He hears the prophet talking about his master and the prince. He slips near where he saw them and quitely listens, hiding in the shadows near them.
-
Haraldur teleported himself 2 metres behind Zeros', and a little to the side, and breathed flame from his mouth, dragon like, towards the two ice warriors and their "pet".
-
Tsu was put down on the cloudy floor of the... whatever it was. Seijin walked up to him. "You need to learn how to fly, don't you?"
"Uh... Uh-huh..."
"See that door?" Seijin pointed to a white door that was inserted among the cloudy walls. "Walk in there, and go all the way to the tip of this cloud. There's an item there for you. Get it, and you'll be able to fly."
"Uh... Okay." Tsu opened the door and walked in.
"Now you, Zion..." Seijin turned to face him. "Go to Laus."
"Why?"
"Because Zeros' has one of the weapons. Actually, he might have two."
"The... weapons?"
"Weapons of great magical power... Blah dee blah dee blah... All you need to know is that no one person can have more than one of these! It throws off the balance of power! The worst thing to happen is for one person to have ALL of them! If that happens, they can obtain inconcievable power, and only one thing would be able to stop them, if anything CAN stop them!"
"What would that be?"
"A spell that involves you, Tsu, and Xenai. Light and Dark work together, and using a neutral medium, perform a nearly unstoppable spell. All 3 of you would have to take some time to charge up, and then you and Xenai would give your charged energy to Tsu... Then he would use the energy the best way he sees possible, using his own to make it stronger."
"Whoa..."
"Now go down to Laus, and get those weapons from Zeros'!"
-
Kami-ryu notices something strange. He felt powers shifting. He felt the evil shifting the balance and the good was losing. The imending conflict would worry many. He couldn't let this happen. He listened to the prophet speak about his master being evil. He shook his head. He knew it wasn't true.
Kami-ryu knew he had the spear; he would be a target. He knew his master had another one of the weapons of legend. He saw it ocassionally when his master took a bath after a workout. He had asked him about it, but he only said that he melted it with his body in order to kept it with him.
He never understood it now, but now he knew what it means.
-
//Sheesh guys, slow down at least a little... It's barely started and I'm behind already! XD//
Nevina had been sleeping through the night, tired from her levitation training. After the past month, and being so helpless due to being landbound, she had been trying to learn to defy the laws of gravity in order to make herself a greater warrior.
Suddenly, she awoke, sensing disturbances in the peace. Not the normal disturbance, like a hoodlum raiding an old ladies house, but a fight. One of a magical caliber. She hadn't sensed anything like this in a month.
She threw back her covers and flew out of her bed, snatching her clothes and tossing them on hastily. She lit a candle so she wouldn't dress herself poorly, and the light revealed her small cottage. A modest 1 bedroom house with a living area/kitchen. The walls were of wood and brick, a wire hung from her bedroom, allowing a pull down ladder to a loft.
Nevina went out the only door leading out, and stepped into the cold Laus, night air.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jakk rode his ship, continuing towards Laus' Port.
"Arr, fowards ye go ole' ship! Go, Go!" He bellowed in his silly pirate dialect, lowering his sails and going entirely on his water power.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armic awoke, hungry.
He headed out into the night, searching for prey to feed himself.
Qor taught him that young souls pleased the body better than old, so he set off to an orphanage he hit occassionally. Qor allowed him to lure a young girl out f her bed and into the night, and she followed Armic a' Kahrr all the way to his abandoned Crypt in the Laus Grave Yard. The Tomb door shut, and a muffled scream could be hear through out the court.
-
Kahn left the tavern after Ellenna
"What's wrong?"
-
"Nothing is wrong," said Ellenna, "It just seems it will be impossible to find a guide in a tavern where people are throwing fire at eachother."
-
Kismet was suddenly struck by some sort of strange shock. It was as if something evil was going to happen. At his times at the headquarters of his sect, he learned the ways of determining evil.
Leaving Frost and Bite, he sped out of tavern at great speed.
The graveyard...
---
Cheetah turned around and noticied Kahn leaving. Wasn't he, with that girl, who wanted to organise some sort of " joy trip" north?
He thought for a while about joining them...
But, nah. With their forms of organisation, they shouldn't be able to get far anyway. And the tavern was far nicer place for him know, beside the fact that some people tried to attack and burn one another.
-
//I can't keep up with 3 characters. Let's just say Jakk wrecked on a sandbar and washed up on an island far from Laus//
Nevina gathered herself, took a good wiff of the cold air, and headed down the streets.
She briskly headed towards the pub, in a fast walking manner. No reason to run when she wasn't sure it was that important anyways.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armic breathed deeply as he devoured the young girls soul.
He did not do this often, only once a week on average, but Armic had been in an unconcious state for decades. The arousal of possible end to humanity awakened him, and he must do Qor's bidding.
Armic's formerly tired being had been revived, and he now was at the peak of his power.
{//|| Armic a' Kahrr increases [1] Level!||\\}
He threw the girls souless body into a Coffin in his Crypt.
Armic's Crypt was a stone building, in the very back of the Graveyard. Outside of it several Minataur Statues stood, near the only entrance to the Crypt. A few feet from from the structure a Fountain sat. It had a winged demon spewing dirty water from its mouth.
The interior of the Crypt was filthy, covered in grime. The only light came from two bon fires in the back, and the flames were green, giving the Crypt a pukish tint. In the center of the Crypt sat several Coffins, some empty, some full of Skeletons, and one had the young girl's remains.
-
Duilin thought for a moment and then spoke"So you mean, Hardular and Zeros' are both evil? Zeros' is my friend, and he fought greatly and he saved many lifves inculeding mine. Now, I never got to know Haradular so much, and maybe your right about him being crazy, but I'm sure he's a good person."
He then gave him a good look
"I think your just lieing to me, I think you don't even know, who or what I am, am I right?"
His backpak starts moveing...
----
(I may have not made this clear, but Frost and Bite are on the reverse sides from Gungun, faceing each other and are several feet away, and couldn't possilble to hit Gungun as well as Frost & Bite)
As the flame blasts at Frost and Bite. Frost quickly tosses his sword down and it sticks into the ground, Bite then blasts his Ice Thrower at the blade, this causes the Ice Sword to create a wall of ice, that just melts down as the fire hits him.
"God, people! We give! Gungun is trying to get ya! Learn to stop fighting guys...geez..." Frost says extremley annoyed "Bite lower your weapon..."
(Frost and Bite, can't call off Gungun, because Gungun is CRAZY [so Dippy says]
-
"AAARRRGGGG!!!"
Gungun falls to the ground and passes out Wink
"No!" Frost & Bite cry
aproximitly 3 seconds later....
"I am up I am up" Gungun says as he rises to his feet
"Now I really mad!"
Gungun gives Zeros' a good smack in the face with his hammer (note the hammer is half the size of Zeros' :wacko: ) then he opens his mouth and readys a bite...
-
Zeros' shrugs off the blow and sidesteps his bite. He recombines his sword and sweeps down at Amaguriken speed, sending hundreds of Yamasen-ken ki blades in a radius all around Gungun.
Many of the pedestrians dodge to the side to not be hit by the blades as they tear through the tavern and into the street.
-
Cheetah turned around once again as he heard sounds of combat and decided to step in.
"People!" - he shouted as he left his seat in the peaceful tavern and approached Frost and Bite. - "Could you please NOT begin hostilities when regular people and Gepardis try to get some rest after long travel?!"
---
Kismet lost all his zealousness when he finaly reached the graveyard. The statues and darkness all around weren't making him feel too comfortable. He raised both his hands forward and a dim light began to emanate from him, guiding his way toward the dark, stone crypt.
"Must be here." - he thought.
Knowing he has little chances of getting in unpreppared, he stopped several meters before the crypt doors and began to chant a spell, gathering energy.
-
"Okay...." Frost say "Bite, let's get outa here..I'm really hurt man! We'll come back and get Gungun later on..."
"Fine, I'll drop you off at the Infermetary, but I'm comeing back here!" Bite says back, and He helps up his brother, picks up his Ice Sword and they walk over to the Infermetary.
-
//Dude Man: I hope you realise who the current Haraldur is (as in, you read the end of Chapter 3, and his bio. I think I might have confused a lot of people). However, if it is just you character who is (possibly) confused, then that is fine, and makes a lot of sense.//
Ellenna said: "Come, let us go."
She waled for a few seconds and then saw Nevina.
"Hello," she said. "Who are you?"
________________________________________________________
Haraldur says to Frost and Bite: "You give in, now you must apologise."
Then he sidestepped behing Gungun, who was attacking Zeros'. He conjured a long, dark venomous poisoned sword in his hands, the poion was literally dripping off, and he attempted to stab Gungun in the side below the rib cage. (This is where you decide Dippy, just in case you think it means he fails automatically).
At the same time, he attempted to kick Gungun behind his right knee, in order to get him to fall on to his knees.
-
Kahn follows behind Ellenna, and glances at Nevina.
"looks like some kind of elf"
-
Kami-ryu silently stepped out of the shadows and walked towards Lars position and stood behind him.
"Phophet as well you know, my master means no harm. You sense the taint in his soul. As well as you should know, well have all been tainted by darkness." He said and sighed. "There is no absolute good or absolute evil."
-
Gungun blocks the swords with his gun arm leaving only a sharp *PING* Razz
and reterns with a blast from his gun (unless you can run 850 meters per second or have a bulletproof head this should hurt).
Dut due to Hardalers attack he begins to fall on to him, all 450lbs of pure two headed sasquatch to would cause serius damage to him.
He is now poisoned.
FOOP Razz
-
Zeros' wasn't fast enough to dodge the bullets, but he erected a ki shield in front of him to deflect the projectitles away from the innocents and harmless back into the air.
He sheathed his sword and started charging his ki. A blue aura enveloped the whole room. He cupped his hands and a blue ki ball formed inbetween them. He pushed the ball forwards towards Gungun.
"MOKO TAKABISHA!" (Translation: Arrogant Tigerblast) A huge ball of blue ki speed towards the lumbering form of Gungun. Not as fast as the bullets, but still faster then the human eye.
-
"Heh..."
The shrouded Lars replied to Kami-ryu without looking behind,
"So you may think... You shouldn't be so quick to equate darkness with evil and light with good. You don't have any idea what actually is going to happen when all the weapons come together, do you?"
He took a few steps forward, approaching Duilin's side.
"And you, Duilin, shouldn't be so quick to judge. You're basing you're alliance with this man on a single event or two. As I said, he seeks power. And if the opposition has it, and his goal is to take it from them, then why not help the other side while doing it? That is, until they get in the way...
"But if you still insist that I am a liar, so be it. The truth will become clear soon enough..."
-
Kami-ryu narrowed his eyes under his hood.
"Don't worry, that won't happen. My master has saved the world more then once. If it was not for him and a few others this world would belong to the Dark Empire as we speak." Kami-ryu reached up with his right hand and ran it through his hair under the hood.
-
Cheetah stopped before Gungun.
"A sasquatch." - he thought. - "A sasquatch. A creature... possibly I should be able to learn to transform into one if I manage to..."
As he understood that Gungun is pretty much surrounded by opponents, he also joined them in the fight by quickly turning into cheetah and leaping at Gungun's throath.
-
Haraldur sidestepped away so as not to be squashed by the enormous sasquatch, but his arm was caught, so he fell to the ground. Unharmed, he stood up. He then stepped out of the way of a Gepardi in cheetah form rushing at the throat of the prone sasquatch, and decided to leave him and Zeros' to it for the moment.
He stood back, and watched.
-
"I just find it hard to belive that such a person as Zeros' would have such an evil goal. He just wishes to find the weapons to keep them away from evil, and I don't wish to belive he wants to use them for evil, unless you have prove, I'm sticking with the fact that your a liar." Duilin stares at him "And why should I trust a person who won't even show his face?"
------
Frost and Bite arive at the infermitary, Frost stays there to get his burns aided and then Bite hurries back to get Gungun....
------
-
"Right... To Laus!" Zion took off through the hilt of the sword cloud, and full-speed toward Laus.
--- --- ---
Tsu stared down the long hilt. It seemed like it was just a hallway. He could see what was at the end... A bright light orb... He knew that he couldn't just run. That would be stupid. Something was obviously gonna happen, so he took a coin out of his pocket and flung it down the hallway. His task then became evident as the floor before him shattered the instant the coin touched the floor. There were just cloud-like platforms in a difficult arrangement.
-
Nevina stopped in her tracks and replied, "I am Nevina, last of the Jin Elves, so the SeaDog is correct. Who might you two be? Quite an odd couple, to be sure."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armic sensed a good energy in 'his' Graveyard, as he often called it, but did not fret. Qor's presence saturated the area. Anyone apposing him would be at quite a disadvantage.
Armic laid almost against the grimey wall, next to the door, as his enchanted Crypt door moved back, allowing access to his lair.
-
*Sigh...*
Lars bit his tongue, trying to hide his irritation...
"As you wish... If you change your mind, I'm heading north, to the border..."
He flipped his cloak and set off down the street, disappearing into the crowds.
Blast, where did that metal-limbed punk come from anyway? No matter. That mere soldier would have been useless... A good man is so hard to come by...
-
Kami-ryu melted back into the shadows to do some recon. He watched Duilin and Nevina in particular. Ellenna a Kahn were also interesting, but Zeros' made it clear the other two had survived during the war.
-
Ellenna said, "I am a mage, who has lived and been taught in the temple of Kala and my name is Ellenna, and this is my hireling. We intend to got north to do good there."
-
Duilin then watched Kami-Ryu disappear.
Apparently, Zeors' is either in big trouble or is the big trouble. I belive it's the first thing, but I'm not 100% on that, I haven't even known anyone for very long.
He then walks choose to walk over to wer Zeors' is....He notices him fighting, He see's Cheetah there
"They can him on his own, I'll step out of this one." Duilin waits
//I'll get Dippy to post soon, k. And also, You guys need to start getting hit by him, you haven't even taken a hit, and he's the same level as you, and you guys have to, stop trying to kick Dippy out.If I know Dippy (and I do) He'll quit the RP soon enough, also knowing Dippy, he probally won't read this note that I'm giveing you! Laughing //
-
"Ha Ga! YOU DIE!!"
he smashes Cheatah with his hammer into the Ki blast at the right presure so that both Cheatah and the Ki, blast at Zeros'.
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'> "BOOM!!!"</span>
-
//Er... Dippy... Gungun is either on the floor or still falling to the floor, remember? He is also still poisoned. How would he be able to do what he did while falling/prone and poisoned?//
-
//Dippy loged out now but he said: The posion takes awile to take effect and also he forgot to say he got back up and also because it's fair because everyone's playing god. He says things he useally wouldn't type!//
-
Zion arrived at Laus, arriving where the commotion with Gungun is.
"Well, what do we have here?"
He unsheathed his Eternity Weapon, and started gathering energy from the stars.
--- --- ---
Tsu started jumping the platforms. (4 posts, and he will be done.)
-
"Oww..." Said Zeros' as he went crashing when the ki blast and Cheetah crashed into him. He was slightly dazed as he got up, his trench coat was blasted in the front, only leaving the sleeves and the back intact and his undershirt was disentergrated, showing his scared body.
As said before, Zeros' could heal the scars he has, but he doesn't. Scars covers 99% of his body, save one across his face and on his groin area. Everywhere you look, if he has his clothing off, there is some kind of scar.
Zeros' looked at Gungun and scowled.
"No more mister nice guy." Zeros' sheathed his sword and invoked his Umisen-ken.
The Umisen-ken is a pure stealth and speed technique. This technique allows the user to disappear from sight, erasing his physical presence and ki presence, leaving no trace he was even there.
Zeros' immediately appeared behind Gungun in a matter of 0.82 seconds and rained thousands of ki enhanced punches on the two headed yetti.
-
The punches hit him but he still stands.
He turns around and throws a punch at Zeros' but it misses by 2 feet and he saggers forward "Gungun feel dizzy whooo i tired tiereereredidjnfjkv" The poison takes effect and he passes out in front of a near by general store.
-
//Yeah Dippy kinda broke the rules there a little bit, but hey, Cesque, Cheetah will be okay, Nevina could heal him or something. Just not to mess up the story let's just leave it be.//
Duilin appears from the shawdows.
"Good job my friends." He looks at Cheetah "You okay? That thing's had some nasty hammer." He looks at Haradular "Good to see you again."
He then looks up, and scans his eye's at Zeors', he could feal the energy around him, he was clearly more powerfull then he was last time.
"Zeros', I was haveing an interesting conversation with somebody. The name Lars mean anything to you?" Duilin asked
-----
Frost has recovered finally and he and Bite are now near by the area outside. There hideing from the others.
"Oh no...." Frost cried "That deamon beat Gungun."
"Who is that Viking mage like guy? And is that a giant cat?" Bite asked
"I don't know..." He then scans the area and spots a fimiliar person, in robes, totally shrouded "Hey, I saw that guy talking to the younger deamon."
"Wanna see what he's all about?" Bite asked
"What about Gungun?" Frost replyed
"He's done for man, listen, we just have to accept the loss, we'll get our revenge, someday." They noded at each other and started to sneak around buildings, eventually they found there were and spoted Lars....
-
Away from the bustle of the market and central district, the northern part of the town was a bit quieter. Lars walked through the city's north gate and followed the path into the forest. He stopped a few hundred yards in and took a look around, as if to make sure no one was looking... someone was there, though. Apparently he was being tailed by two... interesting looking characters. He folded his arms and leaned against a tree.
"Off to pillage the northern lands, I presume?"
-
Zeros' shook his head and then glared at the body of Gungun.
"Damn yetti's. And I have no idea who Lars is. I'm guessing that he was that hooded guy." Kami-ryu suddenly appeared 1 foot behind Zeros' left ear.
"Yes that would be him master." Zeros' sighed. Great another problem to deal with.
-
"Huh? Anyone got number of that truck?" Cheetah asked, standing up, dizzy, after being struck with a hammer and threw at Zeros. The shock on his mind caused him to intuitionally revert back to human form.
He spat out some blood and realised that
"Bastard..." - he said, and began to slowly move toward fainted sasquatch in attempt to finish him with his bare hands, altough he was still moving in waving manner due to damage he took.
---
Kismet made a deep breath and entered the crypt. Darkness. What foul evil could lurk here?
-
Haraldur stared a short while at Dulin, then remembrered him from one of his previous incarnations.
"Good to see you... Duilin."
-
"Uh, well accually." Bite began "We were just wondering, I overherd something that your an enemy to that big ki blasting deamon, and well, we're just wondering if we could help each other out on defeating him."
"And his friends" Frost chiped in "They have made us very angry, and we need aid on over throwing them!"
-----
Duilin ran over to Cheetah's aid. He help him with his ballance. "Just leave him be, we should lock up the dang thing and leave it to live in missery. That would be better for it." He then looked over at Zeros' "You appear to have somebody after you, my friend, He said something about the weapons have the power to unlock some disaterfull spirts of some sort. He said you are trying to summon them, I have a difficult time beliveing that, it's not true by any chance, is it?"
-
Cheetah looked at Duilin.
"Ah, you." - he began, slowly returning to his senses, as suddenly a maniacal grin appeared on his face. - "Why not finish damn creature, and consume it's essence to gain ability of turning into a sasquatch?"
---
(Kismet, walking through the crypt, left the first move to the dark priest of Qor Wink)
-
//Dippy will be home soon, Cesuque, I'll ask him if it's okay, it probally will be Wink //
-
Zion looked at Zeros', astounded by the expertise with which he dispatched Gungun. He sheathed his Eternity Weapon, leaving the energy he had gathered inside it.
"How many of the weapons do you have?" inquired Zion to Zeros'.
--- --- ---
(3 posts left)
-
Armic stood very close the Kismet, but hidden in the darkness. So close he could smell Kismet's horrible pure essence. Armic refrained from spitting at the priest's Holiness.
Armic Stepped up, and quickly rammed his forearm into the back of Kismet's neck, and put his leg out in front of the Priest, in hopes of tripping the man over.
//Wether or not Kismet falls, the following happens//
Armic runs back into the security of the shadows of his dwelling.
"Who are youuu...?" He rasps, trying to sound worse than he really does.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ah, a Holy Missionary, I presume? Anyways, I felt something happening... a bit further down this road. Do you have any idea what is going on? " Said Nevina.
-
Zeros' looked over towards Zion and then back towards Kami-ryu.
"2." He pointed towards Kami-ryu's back, which held a spear inveloped in the darkness of his cloak. He tore off his trench coat, revealing his well-defined muscles. If there were any horny females around, they would of gotten a nosebleed or fainted from his muscles.
"There's Iduran's sword." Zeros' pointed over his back towards the sword shaped indentation. It was hard to tell where it was because every inch of his body was covered in scars. There was also part of his back where his wing extended from it, revealing that his dark angel wing on his left side was indeed real. Why he chose a dark angel wing, nobody knew.
He actually had six dark angel wings, but he only kept one out because it was much easier to manage. There were two other spots below his wing on his right side that were indented and three parts on his left side that were indented, indicating that he could pull out the wings anytime he desired.
"And no Duilin, I'm not trying to summon some evil spirit shit. I'm trying to destroy them." Zeros' sighed. Now he didn't have his trench coat anymore.
-
//What did I tell ya, Dippy chose to leave the RP. And you all doughted me! Razz //
"Well, Cheetah, I supose your right. The animal would get very dangreous if left alive." Duilin steped away from Cheetah, and allowed him to do his job.
Duilin then turned over to Zeros'. "So, your trying to find the weapons. And you came to this town just to see me? You fought a two headed sasquatch, and made a huge scean."
Duilin then scatched his chin "So, let me see what's going on here. The weapons contain the power of these disasters, you are trying to find the weapons to defeat the disasters. I'm basically trying to make a liveing here, but not haveing much luck, those damn Ice Warriors kept stealing my food when I opened a fruit stand, and locals never followed my foot steps when I attempted to open up a church. Most people just don't trust deamons." He then pondered for awile "Well, if you need help, I supose I'd be willing to help you out."
My revenge might not even be complete yet, the reason why I have given such pain is not yet gone...
-
Seijin, are you sure this guy's gonna do anything bad with the weapons?
<span style='color:blue'>No.</span>
...
"Hm. I was told that the weapons gave incredible power. We don't want anyone abusing it. So I'll be keeping an eye on you, if you don't mind."
--- --- ---
(2 posts left)
-
Lars folded his arms under his cloak.
"Hmmm, so you have some beef with winged one? Interesting... I could use a few good men, that is if you're good. You'll be paid well, if you pass my test that is..."
The wind blew his black cloak.
"Show me what you've got. Both of you attack me at once."
-
Cheetah came closer toward the unconious beast and looked at it from closer range, then put one leg against Gungun's body and with full force dragged the hammer from it's hand.
Altough somehow returning to his proper senses and feeling a little pity, he did not allow this feeling to overcome him: with full force, he smashed the hammer at beast's left head, left the grasp of his tool and turned around.
Whenever it was some sort of honor or interior spiritual rule or maybe even a disguist - Cheetah did not really cared about gaining the ability to assume form of such a being. He looked at Duilin and Zeros.
"Weapon, eh, Zeros? Is there some specific form of evil spirit you're trying to destroy this time?"
---
Kismet, obviously lacking experience in real battles, tripped over and fell on his face as Armic began his question.
"Gods damn it!"
"I am Kismet, the priest of Milintica! What are you, foul excuse of a living being?"
And as he finished speaking, still kneeing on the dark floor, he silently began to chant a defensive spell.
-
"Actually the spirit of the weapons is made of pure dark aura." Zeros' pondered for a moment before continuing. "The spirit of the weapons, other then the one held by Iduran, had been taninted by the use from Retan. Right know the other four or so are locked away somewhere. I suspect people that seek absolute power wish to use the weapons for evil.
"Me, on the other hand, I believe in obtaining power through hard work and training. I haven't lived over 900 years for nothing." He chuckled under his breath.
-
Kahn looked at Nevina.
"Probably just drunks causing trouble, ye best pay no attention.
-
Ellenna said: "There was a large magical fight, a loud one."
_____________________________________________________________
Haraldur induced the soul of the deceased sasquatch to leave the body. Screaming, he caused the shimmering blue soul to merge with him with a small flash of light. His aura flickered and was larger than normal for a few seconds, before resuming its normal size.
Haraldur said: "I would like to assist you Zeros', because that is my goal also."
-
"Zeros'. I'm only 31, but am half deamon, would I live an extreme ammount of time also?" Duilin asked
----
Frost and Bite looked at each other they shruged and then frost threw his pick axe at Lars and Bite blasted his Ice Thrower at him.
-
"My name is Armic a' Kahrr, the one and only priest of the glorious immortal, Qor. Why hath ye trespassed upon my dwelling? Kahhck..." He finished, spitting at the downed man.
The spit was venomous, though not appearing any different than normal saliva...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ah. I presume it's over, then? I sense very little happening now... I guess I should just turn back and head home... Unless you could use my assistance." Said Nevina.
-
"Woo, 900 years. You don't look it."
Zion felt around for any unusual energy. He knew that somewhere, a fight was starting.
--- --- ---
(1 post left)
-
Ellenna said: "I would greatly appreciate any help with helping those to the north."
-
"Qor... Qor..." - Kismet stood up, and he began to glow in dim light, the venomous spit dropped down on the ground, flushed from his skin. - "Whatever evil you are and whatever greater evil you serve..."
Wait a second. This wasn't looking any good. He standing there alone, before some servant of a powerful god or demon, who could kill him any second.
"...I prefer not to come in your way without any serious aid!"
You idiot, you idiot, should have thought about this previously, Kismet kept telling himself in his thoughts as he turned around and in darkness, began to run toward where he believed was the exit from the crypt through which he entered it.
---
"Damn those long living people... I can't understand how after so many years you can still enjoy life." - Cheetah said, rubbing his aching head.
-
Zeros' turned to Duilin and pondered for a moment.
"Yes I would imaging you could, but my master was even older then me. I imaging it was because of his imense ki control. He could use it to mend minor wounds, get rid of scars and mend broken bones." Zeros' sighed and looked at the destroyed tavern.
"At least we didn't kill anyone...except for the yetti. Oh well." Zeros' started walking away, Kami-ryu following on his heels. He stopped for a moment and turned back towards the group.
"Uhh...do anyone of you know where the other four weapons are anyways?" He said while scratching his chin. Kami-ryu sighed and shook his head back and forth slowly.
-
//I have an Idea, but first, are we allowed to make up the locations of the weapons?//
-
//I would ask Xorlak first.\\
-
//Nye, forget it for now//
"Hmmm...I don't know really." Duilin answers "Maybe that Lars character knows...but he left, and I don't trust that guy. If only there was a way to detect them or something..."
-
Zeros' frowned. From what he heard about that guy, he didn't favor him much.
"I don't think a show of faith would do it. The power of each weapon rivals my power and Haraldur's."
-
(You characters can discover where the weapons are, as long as it looks good story wise, and you don't do them all at once. i.e. let's stretch it out for a while.)
----
Lars grabbed the spinning pickaxe in mid air and threw it backwards with his right hand, simultaneously whipping his left arm from under his cloak, tossing a wave of flame at the impending icy blast, neutralizing it.
He shook his head at the ice warriors.
"... Not particularly impressive... I'll give you one more chance."
The pickaxe landed some twenty feet behind him, sticking into the ground.
(C'mon! Put some effort into it!)
-
Zeros' thought for a moment.
"I think that Lars character you were talking to is letting off more then he believes us to believe." He looked over at Kami-ryu, who just shurgged and nodded slowly. Kami-ryu took back the hood of his cloak with both hands. He revealed his face once again. What was one a stern face, was now wraut with discord.
-
Haraldur looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think I remember seeing a weapon flying at great speed towards what used to be Aritan, which is now under the sea. That seems to me to be very easily picked up by an evil sea creature. Where it is, will take ages to find out, especially since after the destruction of Aritan the sea there has very strong and unpredictable currents."
-
"Evil sea creature sounds like fun to me." - Cheetah said. - "I can freely travel underwater, currents shouldn't play too much role, altough the only problem would be recovering the weapon itself, if it's guarded. Alone, I don't have much chances..."
-
"Well your not alone anymore are you? I can also freely travel underwater by projecting a ki shield around myself." Zeros' crossed his arms over his chest for a moment and appeared thoughtful. "Also a giant evil sea ceature wouldn't be much of a problem with all of us. I guess we will have to just try huh?"
-
"I will come. The water poses little problem for me."
-
"I'm not sure if I can travel under water freely, I'm only half deamon, and I don't have any sorse of ki. Zeors' would I be able to travel in the ki shield, if not...I'll just stay out side of the water..." Duilin asks
----
"Okay...effort in it eh?" Frost then swung out his Ice Sword, he held it far away from him he stood in front of Lars, but wasn't faceing him, Bite was faceing him and he had his weapon aimed at the Ice Sword.
Bite removed the ice crystal from his weapon and tossed it away, he then loaded in another one, he then pulled back a small switch on the weapon, a clack sound could be herd and followed by a magic sounding ice crack, he then fired the weapon, a farely lage blast flew at the Ice Sword, and then the Ice Sword blasted a huge ion ice beam laser at Lars.
-
//Whoo... Nevina finally learns to fly and now everyone has gils. She won't help much in this chapter either I suppose.//
"Ah, a journey to the North sounds interesting. I shall join. But first, what is our objective?" Nevina asked.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armic a' Kahrr allowed Kismet to leave, for Armic was no longer hungry, but Armic set out of his Crypt, drapped his face under his hood, and set out into Laus.
-
"Sounds like a nice plan to me, and an interesting adventure." - Cheetah concluded. - "So... when are we departing?"
---
Kismet ran out into the graveyard, grasped breath of fresh air, then sped like a torpedo toward the city.
"Demon! No, evil priest! Hell! Whatever it is, get rid of THAT!"
He noticed a group of people he knew form the tavern - the priestess of Kala debating with some others.
"Priestess!" - he screamed, still running, from time to time turning back to see whenever the priest follows him. - "Uh!"
He stopped, tired, and breathed out the air.
"We have a problem, I guess. Some dark priest... at the graveyard crypt... he propably murdered someone, and now he might try and come to the town."
-
Zeros' folded his arms and closed his eyes.
"I could carry everyone in a ki shield if I wanted to. To make the shield, I use my own ki and also the elemental ki." He said as he looked around at the people.
"There are many elemental ki's, such as water, air, earth, fire and such are just some of the basic ones. Master martial artists, such as myself or my master, could control out ki and infuse it into the elements, such as what I do with my Yamasen-ken blades or my sword. The same goes for my ki blasts, except I use my emotions to control those." He said while gazing around the room.
-
Duilin ponders abit about the ki energy. "This stuff sounds interesting....The only thing I've been able to do is control heat and throw it at people, and that's a basic fire technique." Duilin then rubs his chin and then looks at the others "Well, I supose we can get going now."
-
Lars jumped straight up into the air, his cloak unfurling like wings... The huge blast of ice blazed underneath him as he rose, crystallizing the trees and shrubbery behind him. Suspended in air, he held both hands above his head.
"Much better... now let's see how you handle a little heat."
He closed his fists and then opened them, a crimson orb of flame appearing in each, swelling to about a foot in diameter. He flung his right hand downward, sending the first fireball diagonally downward, hurtling straight at the ice warrior with the sword. The second ball he threw to his left. This orb would arc around, attacking the other warrior from behind...
-
Zeros' looked around and then back towards where the door *used* to be. He furrowed his brow in frustration.
"Where's the Artiastian island anyways? Or the general direction?" He looked to Kami-ryu, who just shrugged. He looked back towards the group.
-
"I hate fire!" Frost cries, as he jumps away dodgeing the fire ball flying at him.
Bite saw the fireball fly around so he quickly dove to his right avoiding that fire ball.
Must be some sorta mage... Frost thought This is good....I think...
-
Ellenna said: "I am afraid that due to the collapse of the Dark Empire, small evil and competing territories will emerge, and that there would be looting, and bandidacy, resulting in further suffering for the people of Laus and of what used to be the Dark Empire. I hope to do my part in stopping complete chaos."
She then saw Kismet running towards her, and heard what she said. She quickly trod the road towards the graveyard. She then saw Armic walking down the road. She took out her holy symbol, of a yellow sun on a silver back, and held it out at arms length towards Armic. Light glowed from it.
"Stand back! If you be of evil intent, return to your crypt or dust from whence you came!" She shuddered, she had never had to do this before. She wished she had paid more attention to this part of her training.
___________________________________________________________
Haraldur said: "I know where Aritan is. I was there, briefly, before it was destroyed. I think I could find it again. It lied far in the east, and used to be a continent by itself. I could lead you there, but at a running pace the journey would take many months, and many days at fast fight. We will also have to go at the pace of the slowest, since I am the only person likely to know the way."
-
Zeros' looked thoughtful for a moment before gazing around the room.
"Well then, looks like it's going to be awhile. I hope everyone can fly." He looked around the room. He wasn't sure if Nevina could fly or not. Kami-ryu could always fly with him. He knew Cheetah could turn into a wyvern and Duilin gained flying capabilities after learning of his demon heritage again.
-
"Well, I'm sure we all can." Duilin scatches his head "So, I supose we can go...or if we should prepare a little or something."
-
"Im ready as I'll ever be." Zeros' put his right arm on his left shoulder and worked out the kinks. He walked out of the tavern and into the streets and put his arms down to his sides. He closed his eyes. His back seemed to reeth, as if it was alive. Five other wings burst forth, 2 from the right side and 3 from the right.
Black feathers feel from the wings as he slowly raised into the air, his six wings flapping slowly, kicking up dust as the people watched and awe and started murrmuring. He floated for a moment before turned to the east.
Kami-ryu looked up at his master and nodded to him. Kami-ryu crouched slowly and concentrated his ki. His cape reethed with power as his ki infused into it, making two black bat wings burst forth. He jumped and flapped his wings and landed on his master back.
Zeros' spread his ki and enveloped Kami-ryu, his bat like wings slowly recieding back into the cloak. Kami-ryu jumped off his masters shoulders and landed beside him in mid air, seeming to float on air.
"Cmon guys. Lets go!" Zero's called down to his compainions.
-
I'd better follow...
"Wherever you're going, I'm going with you!"
Zion floated up into the air, ready to go.
--- --- ---
Now on the other side of the platform, Tsu walked over to the energy orb, taking hold of it. Not knowing what else to do with it... He ate it.
Suddenly, he was floating. He tested his new ability out by floating all the way back to Seijin. He landed on his feet and looked at the blue haired man.
"You're a smart one. Everyone else spent 10 minutes thinking about it." Seijin looked up at Tsu. "Laus is this way..." He got up, walked over to Tsu, grabbed him, and threw him through the cloudy wall. Tsu fell a couple of feet, and then started flying in the direction Seijin threw him.
<span style='color:blue'>I will let you and Zion know when I figure out how to wake up Xenai.</span>
//I need some way to get one more character point...
-
The area around Haraldur seemed to warp for half a second, then went back to normal, and he hovered up to be beside Zeros'. He then moved east slowly, walking on the air, waiting for the others. He then stopped 50 metres away, saying "It is this direction, if you would like to follow me."
-
"Sure thing!" - Cheetah said and turned into wyvern, then flew to meet up in the air with the rest of companions.
---
Kismet ran after Ellena.
"I hope at least SHE paid attention to the priest training." - he thought as he watched the priestess perform some sort of exorcism.
-
Zeros' nodded and flapped his six wings, flying after Haraldur with Kami-ryu seeming to be standing on mid-air.
"So what can you tell me about what happened to Artista after the war? I ventured there many times during my martial arts training, but I never took in the sights really." He said while looking out towards the expansive mountains.
-
Duilin followed Zeros' out, and then he backpak started to rapidly move, he then removed it from his back revealing to wings, that were curled up, they cracked abit as the spung open.
"Ow, it's been a week since I've been arborn.." Duilin then soared up in the air with the others...
-
(EoN: Make it a good quest for an item to wake him up, and I'll consider your extra point.)
----
"That is enough."
Lars' cloak ceased to blow in the wind as the prophet floated downward, landing in between the two ice warriors.
"You're able to execute as well as dodge basic attacks. A good start. You two may go somewhere with proper training..."
He reached into a sack tied to his belt under his cloak, pulling out two glimmering gold coins, tossing one to each warrior. The coins were quite heavy and thick, a good inch and a half in diameter. They were crudely stamped with the insignia of the Dark Empire... Their value was at least 100 of the tiny diluted gold coins used for trade in Laus.
"When you work for me, you do exactly what I say and I pay you well... very well. You do otherwise... then other things happen... There is no partnership. Take it or leave it."
Lars was facing Laus as he spoke, and he noticed several figures take to the sky and speed off to the east.
"Well, well, quite the following we have..."
-
Nevina chased after Ellena and Kismet as they ran.
Her eyes gazed upon the figure, and could feel evil pouring from it, but she said nothing...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armic starred at the symbol, and it seared his eyes, but, he held the pain.
He spoke in his normal voice, one he did not use on Kismet in the Crypt. In a charming, enchanting voice he spoke, "My dear lady, have you gone Senile already in your young age?...."
Armic with held an urge to hiss at the 3 Holy People, as he continued his stroll towards Laus.
-
//Mmyes... Okay then... I'll start thinking about that then.
Zion flew after Zeros' and the other people with him. Tsu saw the crowd and caught up to them. Zion was happy to see Tsu in the air. "Your timing's perfect."
"Or lucky."
Tsu would fly next to Zion.
--- --- ---
Meanwhile...
//This is just for comic relief... Nothing useful really happens here.
Seijin stood over the sleeping Xenai Omega. "Hm... What to do with you?"
Seijin's first idea was to slap him. And slap him he did, rapidly across the face. He backed off after it didn't work.
"Hm..."
Next, he would grab his legs and drag him around a bit. After that didn't work, he shouted loudly into his ear, "Wake up!"
"COME ON! WAKE UP!" exclaimed Seijin with fury as he jumped up and down on Xenai's chest.
"Grr!" He stood Xenai up, and performed a move he invented that he dubbed 'Rock Bottom'. It still didn't work.
"I give up!" Seijin flew off, trying to come up with any bright ideas.
-
"Yes sir!" Frost and Bite both said
"Aw man, look at these coins!" Frost wispered
"I know, we'll be rich in no time!" Bite replied
They both grined
"I bet that's were the deamons went to, Were do you think there going, boss?" Frost asked
-
Haraldur started flying fast towards Aritan.
"Aritan was destroyed on one of my visits. I was going through one of their teleportation tunnels, when the whole country and its people collapsed and exploded around me."
___________________________________________________________
"Stand back!" shouted Ellenna.
-
Cheetah followed Haraldur.
"Country and it's people exploding? Strange times that we live in..." - he thought.
---
"That's him, gods damn it! The accursed... whatever he is!" - Kismet said, pointing at Armic. - "Don't you even dare try to excuse yourself!"
-
Zeros' continued to follow Haraldur, while Kami-ryu seemed o be deep in thought or meditating.
"At least you were still strong enough to survive the blast. The same thing happened to me when I took the spear from the island it was at. The whole island crumbled around itself and into the ocean."
-
Haraldur said: "I do not know. I managed to escape... somewhere... before finding out if I could survive it."
-
"This... this, abominiation... It lies! I can feel it..." Said Nevina, studdering at the evil she was in the presence of.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armic hissed.
"Arrgghh... Sharp, are we? The Holy one finally has some not-so-dull followers...".
Armic began to turn around, when he lunged, jumping onto Ellenna and atempting to bite her neck.
-
Kahn noticed Ellenna and Nevina had ran off.
He went after them.
-
Ellenna jumped back, attempted to hit Armic on the head with her staff, then ran behind the other people.
-
Zeros' nodded to Haraldur.
"I see...most of my adventures were...less involved. I mostly further honded my martial arts, becoming stronger every day." Zeros' looked around at his companions. "Let's pick up the pace." Zeros' flapped his six dark angel wings harder, reaching up to 70 m/ph. He could go faster, but he wanted not to get ahead of himself.
-
It wasn't too horribly hard for Zion to catch up, but it was harder for Tsu. Xenai was on Zion's mind, and he needed to find a way to wake him up somehow...
-
Haraldur accelerated to 400 m/s.
-
//400 meters/sec? That's a little too fast, don't you think?
-
Zeros' put more speed into his wings, infusing them with ki and bursting through the sound barrier and catching up with Haraldur.
"Don't you think we should slow down a bit?" Zeros' pointed backwards towards the ground, who was slowly vanishing. Kami-ryu didn't look fazed in the slightest.
-
Duilin glared as Haradular started warping ahead, Zeros' was also going faster, he then picked up the speed and caught up with Zeors'.
"We there yet?" Duilin asked
-
"No...not really, or Haraldur would stop." He glanced at Haraldur for a moment before picking up speed again, reaching faster and faster, slowly going towards Mach 2.
Zeros' sent Haraldur a telepathic message, knowing he would be able to pick it up with his ki and magic, one more so then the other. He knew Haraldur had a good amount of ki, but he also had as much magic as he had ki.
Haraldur. I think we should slow down. I don't think the other would be able to keep up for long. Zeros' glanced backwards at the rest of the group, who were slowly falling behind.
-
(Just because MotD pulled out, doesn't mean his entire country had to explode. Heh...)
(400 m/s = 895 MPH
Mach 2 = 680.58 m/s = 1522 MPH
Gah!)
----
Lars replied as the group disappeared on the horizon,
"They're after the Six Weapons of Retan... They think they're doing the world a favor... Idiots."
He turned around and began to walk down the path through the forest, expecting his new recruits to follow. He spoke as he walked,
"One thing's certain. It's not going to be pretty if they succeed... Our best bet would be to find one of these weapons and hold on to it. Five are useless without the sixth. I have an idea where we can get some more information..."
The forest began to open as they strode down the path, taking a left fork in the road. In a few minutes the trio would be upon Armic, Kismet, and co.'s location...
-
// according to my calculations, 400 m/s = 666 km/h, rounded down... //
"Damn!" - Cheetah thought as suddenly Haraldur sped up to extreme speed.
Cheetah, unlike the others, didn't even try to catch up - it was impossible for him, so he slowly continued following Haraldur and Zeros visible in the distance at his own speed, hoping that they won't sped fast enough to erase from his view too soon...
---
Kismet made a step back, seeing attack on Ellena and her dodge.
-
Haraldur stopped suddenly. "Fine then. We will wait for them to catch up. We simply are not 1/100 of the way there yet, though. And we have no enough time for this to take months."
-
Zion grabbed Tsu's arm and sped up. As he did so, he recieved a message.
<span style='color:blue'>Find whatever gave Xenai the mark and destroy it.</span>
Huh? Do you know what or where it is?
<span style='color:blue'>No.</span>
Seijin's presence faded out of Zion's head. Great... Now what? Zion stopped about 25 feet away from Zeros' and Haraldur. "Tsu, what did Xenai's mark look like?"
Tsu thought for a moment. "Uh... Like an upside down, demonic looking cross. Like it was made of flames."
Zion looked to Zeros'. "We have to take care of something! For now, I'll trust your word that you're not doing anything malicious!" Zion turned around and took back off toward Laus with Tsu.
-
Duilin noticed Haradualr has stoped, he then sped up abit untill he caught up with him.
"Damn, your fast! Hey, you think you could like, carry the rest of there, if were so damn far away!" Duilin asked, half jokeing
----
"The Six Weapons of Retan..." Frost repeated
"What are they?" Bite asked
"I told you, 6 weapons the Dark Empire was looking for a month ago."
"So, were gonna help this guy find them, and he helps us ice Duilin and Zeros'?"
"Duh!!" Frost smacks Bite in the back of the head
"Hey, It's that priest dude we saw awile ago, the one who didn't help us!" Bite yelled
"Yeah! It is, Boss, can we kill ice him to?" Frost asked Lars
//Note, "ice" is what they use for "kill", now, just to give them character//
-
"I could carry at least two of you there, if you you like."
-
"Well, I'm one of the slower ones, I supose Cheetah is to, Zeros' your fast, maybe you could carry the others or something."
(Eon's characters are here right? If not ignore the fact that I mentioned 'the others')
-
//Realize, Ellenna is a level weaker than. Armic. Without add from Nevina, Kahn, or Kismet, Ellenna will succome to one of Armic's attacks//
Armic dunked down and shifted to the right.
He then pulled his cursed long sword from his coat, and as he dodged the blow, coming back up, he slashed at Ellenna's side.
~Total Time: 1.222 seconds~
-
"I can carry Cheetah with me. All he has to do is get inside my barrier and shrink down to human form like Kami-ryu." He pointed to his assistant ninja.
-
"I will carry you then, Duilin," said Haraldur.
______________________________________________________________
//Ellenna is hiding behind the others, so I assume you have dodged around them.//
Ellenna stopped the blow with her staff and again attempted to hit Armic on the head.
____________________________________________________________
Ellenna is level 0? No, she is level 1, the same level as Armic:
I'm making a new character, and reducing Jakk's level to a level 1.
Name: Armic a' Kahrr
Level: 1
Gender: Male
Race: Humanoid
Age: 42
Job: Dark-Cleric
Weapon(s): Long Sword: Blade black in color, hilt made of Silver, this weapon is oddly light and is decorated with strange runes. Qor's curse swarms over it.
Staff: This Staff is made of an ancient wood, solid black in color, the head is golden and embedded with a blood red gem at it's top. The bottom jags and is coated in an odd metal, coming to a tip.
Alliance: Alligned only to the glorous god of Death and Chaos, Qor.
Description: This man's silver hair drapes over his face gracefully, covering a red eye. He is pale, and his skin feels deathly cold, but smooth. His lips are deep red, and vampiric teeth show in his mouth. His chest is covered in a Black coat on the left side, under it a chain mail shirt rests upon his creast. In his black coat rests a book, bound human skin. On his other side, no coat, only the chain mail. From his waist, a cloath belt hangs, a flag, white in color, with a siver pendant, the sign of Qor, hangs past his knees. His black pants come to the top of his black boots gradually, and on his left leg, he is covered in black leather straps.
Bio: The man knows nothing of his past, and remembers only trouble, and Qor. The God Qor, comforting him in his despair. He swore his alliance to Qor, and now works only to spread Qor's work, andbring forth the worlds destruction, fo after the brink has past, only Qor will exist, and the creation of the world will be redone into Qor's perfection.
Cookie to whoever can guess what game I got the name "Qor" from. ;^)
You have Nevina, 2, Jakk "Ass" Tyric, 1, and Armic, 1, making up your four.
_________________________________________________________
//Is Nevina not going to do anything against this evil priest thing which goes around her?//
-
//Zion and Tsu took off.
Zion and Tsu arrived at Laus and started looking around for the nearest library.
-
"Okay, let's go then." Duilin says, to Haradular.
-
"Don't worry. I shall catch up with you later. I can sense the residual ki and will be able to follow you without much problem." He looked at Cheetah's wyvern form aproching him and waited.
-
// Karmic leveled-up to level 2, and Cyber un-activated another character, Haraldur, read through all the previous posts before making your judgement... //
"Carry me? ME?" - Cheetah thought, then to say what he wanted, he turned into human form, began to fall in the air, screaming "NO WAAAAAAAY" and turned back to wyvern form, then raised up with a headache...
Uh...
---
Seeing another attack on Ellena, Kismet decided to react somehow. He formed an orb of burning light and threw in direction of evil priest.
Simple. And wasn't too hard to learn at the priest's training.
-
Zeros' shook is head and extended his barrier father, engulfing Cheetah in it.
"Try now..." Zeros' said. "Once you shrink to a smaller form I can lower my barrier to accompany it. It saves my ki energy."
-
Haraldur picks up Duilin and goes towards the remains of Aritan at 20,000 m/s.
-
Zeros' sighed and extended his six dark angel wings. He looked over towards where Haraldur had departed and charged his ki into his wings. Soon his wings were glowing bright blue as he flapped them once and then again, speeding forwards, letting off a sonic boom as he passed through the sound barrier and proceeded from Mach 1 to Mach 3 in a couple seconds.
"Cheetah, If you could, please shrink. As you can see you are fine now." Zeros' reassured.
-
Duilin was shocked at the extreme speed. He was speachless, motionless, he was frightend, like the first time you ever road a roller coaster. He just closed his eyes and hoped for the best...
-
"This demon is literaly a speed demon!" - Cheetah thought, still distrusting extreme speeds.
Shrinking? Hell no! He liked his wyvern form, no matter how long could it take him to reach remains of Aritan...
He was also pretty much sick of hearing word "ki" so frequently during one day. Again, he denied Zeros' offer.
// We're over ocean, I presume? //
-
Lars studied the group as he approached. Apparently they were fighting. One of them attacked another with a ball of light.
"This isn't a pleasure trip. There will be no icing of people just because you don't like them... Well, not yet, anyway..."
He stopped and folded his arms under his cloak, standing where he could get a good view of the battle.
"It is unwise to jump into a battle that has nothing to do with you. Sit back and watch. See, the one with the silver hair's putting on a good show..."
-
//Well, seeing as it's 4 against one, I figured Nevina could stand and do nothing. Surely 3 level 1's (or is Kismet L.2? o.o) can take Armic down alone... Armic needs back up. Everyone is this RP is currently on the "good" side with the exception of Armic//
Armic dodged Ellenna's attack in a way similar to the way he dodged the first, but Kismet's energy ball struck, and sent Armic behind the foursome by about 3 feet.
Armic slid into the ground, uprooting the grass as he plowed back, hissing from the horrible burning sensation the holy energy caused him..
The Qor Cleric then spun, his jacket flowing in the wind, and appeared to dissapear, but really, he had ascended upwards, out of sight, and began chanting an incantation in Slythin, the language of Demons and Seperents, also known as a common language for Qor to be summoned in.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina had drawn her Sanctified Bastard Sword, and gripped it tightly in both hands, but before the elf could strike, Armic was gone.
She began to speak, but was quickly cut off as the ground began to rumble a bit.
-
// Kismet is level 1... //
-
Kahn looks around.
"Hah! The fool ran away."
Notices the ground rumbling.
"what now?"
-
Tsu and Zion step into the library, and walk over to some podium like thing. There were many others in the area.
"Ok," said Zion, "draw the cross right here with your finger."
Tsu obeyed, drawing the inverse cross with as much detail as he could. The podium flashed a bright flash, then it started glowing, with light fading in and out.
-
"Yes sir." Frost said. He then kneeled down and watched the fight, Bite sat down beside him, he started polishing his gun.
"Hey, wanna bet on the fight?" Bite asked
"Dude, we pool our money!" Frost replied
"Oh yeah....Gentlemen's bet?"
"No, what are you...a...gentle man?"
Bite, then shook his head and continued watching the fight.
-
The podium stopped glowing, and a book appeared, entitled "Kurayami X." Zion opened it.
"Whoa..." Zion saw a painting of the creature upon moving the cover. Tsu looked at it, and took on the same astounded expression as Zion. The demon looked like a humanoid in a black fire form.
"The cross... I see it on its hands!" Tsu pointed to the crosses on the demon's hands.
Zion turned the page and started reading. "Kurayami X is a demon that implants an inverted cross symbol onto victims with strong presences of darkness in their soul. This turns them evil. When the cross is removed, the victim falls into an eternal sleep and does not awaken. The victim sleeps until death. Of course, victims who are still alive will be awakened if Kurayami X is destroyed. But the cross must be removed in order for the victim to stop being evil. Kurayami X is located in a forest near Romme."
"So that means...-"
"-...We have to go to Romme."
-
//Yes were over the ocean.\\
Zeros' sighed as he noticed Cheetah wasn't shrinking. Oh well. He focused his power through his wings again. The ocean and air ki started swirling around his wings, the colors changing from a green air, ocean blue, a blue of confidence and so on.
The colors kept changing as he ascended through the sound barrier once again and proceeded to reach Mach 4, leaving a sickening sonic boom as tidal waves reached astounding heights as Zeros' continually poured his ki into his wings, moving faster and faster.
The waves parted in his wake as he proceeded to fly after Haraldur as he steadily came into view.
----
As the ground continued to shake where Armic disappeared, forms slowly appeared, glowing black globs started to appear as shapes started to poke out. Daemon's reached the arms out as well as snake like creatures started appearing, slowly ascending on the do-gooders.
//As Cyber Wolf said, he needed allies so I'm making NPCS.\\
Black bolts of energy started to shoot out towards the ascended group as the Daemons started to show there full bodies, some slim and agile while others bulky and muscled.
-
"Ha! Demonic summoning. Not bad."
An eerie wind blew Lars' cloak as the creatures appeared out of the points of darkness, descending upon the four in front of him.
Suddenly, several dark orbs appeared around Lars and his two recruits, demons of varying shapes emerging. A winged gargoyle-esqe creature appeared faster than the others, and brandishing an axe, swooped down upon Lars and the Ice Warriors from above. Lars instantly responded, thrusting his left hand from under his cloak, sending a crimson orb into the demon's chest, causing it to literally explode into burning peaces right in front of Frost and Bite's faces.
"It appears they want a piece of us as well..."
Five other demons circled the trio...
-
Cheetah lowered his flight, and dived into the over, as suddenly turning into water drake he raised his head above the water line.
"Far more comfortable." - he thought and began swimming much faster, keeping track of the rest of group in the air.
---
// NPCs unconnected with your character... huh... strange new trend Wink //
Kismet made few steps back again as he noticed how Karmic dissappeared and demons appeared out of nowhere. He turned and noticed Lars observing him. This man wasn't looking too trustworthy as well.
Turning back to Karmic, Kismet began to gather energy for a spell to deal with the demons.
-
"Holy smokes!" Bite yelled as the deamon spirts suronded them.
Bite swung a kick at one of the spirts knocking it away...
Frost slashed the same one with is Ice Sword, finishing it off...
"More like UN Holy Smokes..." Frost replied
Bite then armed his Ice Thrower, he held down the trigger and it started to charge up, Frost then held his Ice Sword a few feet away from his weapon...
(It's the Freeze Beam attack I did earlier, but now that it's a real battle, it takes a post to do it, since there only level 1s)
-
//Ah, thanks Zeros'. I had something similar planned, but Demons is a better idea. ^.^//
Armic screamed with glee, as 6 deamons flew up to him. Armic and the demons then headed straight down, diving towards Ellenna, and Armic's sword began to swarm with darkness. The very feeling off it was enough to turn a Holy man's stomach.
Armic swung his damned long sword at Ellenna's neck, while the Demon swarmed over her, trying to get in a strike.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two bulky deamons arose from the the crevase in the Earth, bearing long swords.
Both of this sadistic beings flew at Nevina at once, one aiming high, one aiming low.
Nevina used her newly-found flying abilities to help her lunge upon the lower flying deamon and decapitate him, forcing him to nose dive into the ground.
The other deamon dived down to Nevina.....
-
Zeros' saw Cheetah descend and shrunk his barrier down, only covering himself and Kami-ryu. The proceeds to pump more ki into his wings, almot reaching Mach 5. Haraldur and Duilin can be seen over the horizion.
-
Bite blast his Freeze Thrower at the sword and the sword blasts a freeze beam at 2 deamons freezeing them to soild ice!
"I think deamons can survive that, if the ice unthaws. Boss, maybe you should melt em." Frost subjests
-
Zion and Tsu darted out of the library and took off in the direction of Romme.
-
// Errr... Romme was sucked into the black hole, and the remains sunk underwater, as far as I get it //
Cheetah continued swimming toward Aritan...
---
Kismet turned after the demon and released a beam of light directly at it as it attacked Nevina.
(the light spells generally only deal harm creatures of purely "evil" origins - demons and undead - but they could blind or fry a bit anyone else as well)
-
Lars whipped out a broadsword from under his cloak, just in time to parry a stab attack from a goblin-like creature with a rusty sword. The cloaked man pointed his sword to the ground as it began to emanate a crimson aura, slashing it left and upwards to knock the weapon out of the creature's hand. He immediately followed with a stab to the demon's right side, sinking his blade in deep as the creature squealed in pain. Placing his right foot on the monster's chest, he pulled his blade out as the demon fell limply to the ground.
Lars spun around, sticking his sword into the ground in front of him.
"Stand back!"
He thrust both hands forward towards the demon trapped in the ice, then brought them in for a series of quick hand motions, gathering crimson energy in front of his chest, before thrusting them forward again, sending a bright red ball of light hurtling towards the ice statue, shattering it to pieces in a fiery explosion.
"These demons really are the dregs of the earth..."
-
Zeros' gained more speed, breaking the sound barrier once again and proceeding to Mach 5. He could now see Haraldur and Duilin plainly, but still fuzzy.
Haraldur, How much longer? Zeros' asked the magic man.
-
//I know. I just mean the general area of Romme.
Zion stopped where he thought Romme used to be. "It should be somewhere around here."
A black blur shot by Zion. He spun around, then turning in the direction the demon was speeding in, just in time to see it coming toward him.
"Here it comes!!!"
-
"guess I gotta help her"
Kahn withdrew his dagger and ran towards Armic and Ellenna.
-
Lars removed his sword from the ground, wrapping it in fire once more, and stabbed through the final demon's armor with a forward lunge. He stopped as it fell, the flame disappearing from his blade.
All of the demons that attacked the trio had been felled. He returned his sword to its scabbard under his cloak, watching the other group deal with the silver haired one and their set of demons...
-
"HAAAAA!!!"
Zion let out a yell that flared his ki and powered him up as he unsheathed his Eternity Weapon and traded a few blows with Kurayami X. The demon phased out then in before Tsu. "You have darkness in you... You are my next prey!"
The demon's palm lunged out at Tsu's forehead. Tsu held up Kuon Yaiba just in time to block the palm. "Holy cow..."
-
Zeros' frowned as Haraldur wasn't listening to him. He continued on at his current pace. He could still see Haraldur, so he had no reason to speed up.
-
(Gah! 2 posts? What happened?)
The wind blew through Lars' cloak as he waited...
-
//Wha?
Zion slashed downwards at Kurayami X. It turned around and grabbed the sword. "You are composed of too much light. You mean nothing to me."
"Can't say the same to you, buddy!" Zion started slashing rapidly at the demon, who had no problem parrying him. The demon snickered at Zion when he stopped slashing. "Wasted effort, kid. I could parry you all day."
"Kuon Yaiba Ryu - Kuon Suisei!"
Translation: "Eternity Sword Style - Eternity Comet"
Tsu sped forward toward Kurayami X with his blade pulled back to his gut. As he came up to the demon, he thrusted the blade out, and ended up tearing right through the demon. Tsu whipped around, shooting up into the air. "Kuon Suisei Nishiki!" (Eternity Comet Third form) He then tore through the demon vertically. The demon was now in 4 fragments. Tsu turned around just in time to see it merge back together, laughing the entire time. "What the crap is this thing?!"
-
(3 days... you know what that means.)
Suddenly, the demons began to circle the group at an alarming speed, chanting something in their demonic language:
"?hą-đôw-Đěŝ-ŧŕöý-ëŗ!!" (Shadow Destroyer!)
In a flash of violet and darkness, a massive explosion ensued. Lars covered his face, a red orb surrounding him. When the smoke cleared, the demons were gone and everone around Lars had been knocked cold, lying on the ground covered with dust.
"Hmm, that was... unexpected."
He began to float in the air, as something had caught his attention. There was a battle some distance from here. Near the former location of Romme...
"Can't be the winged one and his merry men. They're hundreds of miles away by now... Let's have ourselves a look."
A crimson aura enveloped the shrouded man and he shot off towards the direction of the battle like a rocket.
(Kahn: The explosion doesn't have to effect your character, since you posted two days ago.)
-
// Not fair! You made a confusing comment and left us to explain what it means while you really counted days til we all lose consiousness! Sad //
-
"Whoa!" Frost yelled after the comotion stoped, he then ran after Lars trying to keep us.
"Hey! Dude wait up!" Bite yelled as he followed...
-
"...What can we do to destroy this thing?" Zion glared at Kurayami X, then looked over at Tsu. "There's one thing we could try, but I can't guarantee it will work." This sentence was said as he slowly floated nearer to him.
"What's that?"
"Do you know how to use ki?"
"Not in the way that you do... I can use ki with my attacks to strengthen them a little bit, and suck a little bit out of the air."
"Gather as much as you can. Oh, and hold your breath." Zion grabbed Tsu's arm and pulled him downwards. The two fighters went into the ocean, trying to hide from Kurayami X. Zion shot forward as fast as he could. All the while, Tsu was trying to charge up, and making sure he didn't breathe. Zion stopped and started to charge up, as did Tsu. He and Tsu watched as Kurayami X ignorantly fired energy blasts and casted Shade spells at the location where Zion and Tsu entered the water.
-
//I'd like to argue against the unconciousess of all the characters. We were waiting on Haraldur, who didn't update Ellenna. Kismet and Nevina shouldn't suffer due to that. =/ //
-
(Folks, all your characters have to do is sit up and dust themselves off. Heh...)
Lars stopped in mid-air, sensing motion behind him.
"Hmm, tougher than I thought."
He turned around and dropped to the ground in front of Frost and Bite.
"Let's see what these folks are about, shall we?"
He walked in between the icy duo, down a small incline, and to the dirt road where the battle had taken place. Some of the victims of the blast were stirring. Lars folded his arms under his cloak. What is this? A priest? A pirate? She looks like an elf of some sort. There's another woman over there.
"Now, what is such a motley group doing in such a dangerous forest?"
Lars' eyes shifted back and forth. Where did that ghoulish silver haired one disappear to...?
-
//Sorry, I lost the internet for a few days.//
Ellenna woke from her unconsciousness and got up from her prone position. She had a cut on her neck where Armic had struck. Somehow she had survived. She charged at Armic and tried to hit him on the head with her white staff.
__________________________________________________________
After a while, Haraldur suddenly stopped.
"We are here," he said, and threw Duilin out in front of him, who floated in the air.
They were above a patch of see, full of floating trees and other debris.
"Now I must rest."
-
// Happens... //
Cheetah hurried seeing floating trees and other things like that.
"Must be here."
---
Kismet sat up and began to dust himself off.
-
Zion noticed that there was still energy charged into his sword, from when he was about to use Hyperion on Gungun. He nodded to Tsu, then shot out of the water.
"Consume all, flash of death!"
Kurayami X turned around just in time to become immobilized by the omni-directional 1-ton push of Omni. It screamed out in pain. Tsu shot out of the water. Ok, how can I nail this creep without getting pounded by that spell? Tsu stopped about 20 feet in front of Kurayami X. Tsu sent the energy he had gathered into his blade. And that white light that powered him up came again. Kuon Yaiba could cut once again.
Tsu shot past Kurayami X with his sword out to the side, cutting him into two halves. He then floated above him and came down, Braver style, cutting him in half once again. Kurayami X had been cut into quarters. The white light faded, and Tsu backed off as Zion unsheathed his Eternity Weapon.
"By light, you shall fall! Hyperion!"
Zion slashed in Kurayami X's direction several times, unleashing several energy balls toward it that tore it up even more, then he sent the last of his charged energy down at him in the form of a giant white energy ball, that would vaporize the many pieces of Kurayami X.
Tsu floated there for a moment. "Is that it? Did it work?"
Zion just floated in silence, watching for any trace of Kurayami X. Nothing showed up. "It's dead. But whether or not Xenai wakes up is a different matter entirely."
//Will that do for the point? Or should I do some more stuff?
-
Duilin seemed abit dizzy from traveling at such speed.
"Whoa..." Duilin rubed his forhead, he sat down to, not even noticeing the floating trees...
-----
"Don't know boss, sorry." Bite said
"Whoa, hey, that one chick got up!" Frost pointed at Ellenna, "What shall we do sir?"
-
Armic had been blown off from his mark by the blast, making him miss the vital shot at Ellenna's neck, but still scathing her. He was knocked into the ground, out of sight, but jumped up as Ellenna swung herr staff at him.
He grasped her staff in his one hand, his other crutching his sword. He twisted as he yanked at the staff, trying to pull it from the Priestesses grip, and he swung his sword at her side.
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Nevina got up from the shake, and discovered the deamon attacking her o be dead. She brushed herself off, spotted her Bastard Sword, grabbed it, and charged towards Armic, but was not in striking reach just yet...
-
Ellenna wrenched the staff out of his burning hands: the staff would burn all those of evil intent who were not powerful in a god-like manner. She then blocked his shot with the staff. She then stepped aside, out of the way of Nevina, and then aimed to strike Armic in the side, below the ribs.
-
(Okay EoN, you can have your point.)
----
"Ah, there he is... patience, my friends."
Lars stepped up to Kismet as he was sitting up, holding an outstretched hand as Armic, Ellenna, and Nevina fought in the background.
"You folks seem to be having a bit of trouble. My warriors and I can offer aid if you require. That is, if you're willing to return the favor..."
-
Cheetah got to the sunken Aritan site.
---
"Favor?" - Kismet turned toward Lars, still keeping away from battle. - "WHAT favor?"
-
Zeros' passed the area by a few feet and suddenly cut off his ki, abrutly stopping him in mid-air. The release of all his ki causing it to be pushed forwards, creating a massive tidal wave of 100 feet to be pushed in all directions.
"That was refreshing..." said Zeros' as the water washed over his body. Zeros' released his ki barrier while above on of the floating trees. Kami-ryu put his feet out below him and landed on one of the branches with grace. Zeros' calmly floated down while retracting four of his wings, leaving the two closest to each of his shoulders out.
"I need to rest also..." Zeros' said while his body started to be surrounded in a multicolored mist, washing over his whole body, replenshing his ki sources.
"Well now..." said Kami-ryu while looking around. "So this is where Artian used to be. I've always wanted to visit this area, along with the long dead area of Romme."
-
"There's nothing there to see really." Duilin told Kami-Ryu. He was better now. "All there is, is a big hole hold of nothingness, the most you would find would be an old rival of mine's skeleton, but I dought that's still intact after the blast."
Duilin then looked around "Floating trees? I'm standing on air?" Duilin reached into his pocket and took out a water cantine, he opened it up and took a sip of it, closed it and then put it back into his pocket. "Yeah, this is Artain allright." Duilin had herd of this place, back in the Dark Empire, herd it was a strange place. "I to, have wanted to see this place."
Duilin then relized he didn't have his weapons with him, yet he relized he probally won't be needing them, and now he is trying to improve his skills. He's mastered the deamon fire technique (new name for Fire Ball Of Death) and he wishes to try it out more, anyways.
-
"Hmm..." He noticed the face Duilin made and finally figured out what he was distreased about. Kami-ryu reached to the hilt of his sword, the one with the ruby eyes, and slashed with it, sheathing it after. He was quite speedy, but not at the ungodly speed off Zeros, Duilin (sometimes) or Haraldur.
He reached up in his hand as a branch he slashed above him fell into his extended hand. It was about two feet in length and about 6 inches thick. Kami-ryu held out his extended hand that held the branch, his metal hand.
On the back of his hand, in the middle, there was a Star of David-esque type design that reached out past the edge of the circle, which was reinforced by another circle a few centimeters in.
The symbol on his hand started to glow and spark with a blue lightning, as well as the stick in his hand. There was a bright flash of light and the branch he was holding was replaced by a five foot wooden MALLET that looked very heavy and duriable.
He hopped down from his pearch and appeared beside Duilin, holding out the wooden mallet.
"Need a weapon?" He said with a smirk.
-
//Ah great. The demons are all dead, and the side opposed to Armic grows in size...
L.2 (Nevina), L.1 (Ellenna), L.1 (Kismet), L.1 (Kahn), L.1 (Lars [I'm correct about level, right?]), L.1 and L.1 (Frost and Bite), 8 Levels! C'mon guys... Do you really need that many to take down a L.2? =/ //
Armic screamed as the staff seared the flesh of his hands, and he jumped as Ellenna swung her staff, but not quick enough. The staff banged him in the shin.
Landing on all fours at Ellenna's feet, he heard Nevina charging towards him. The man screamed again. A blood curtling, lustful, glass shattering banchee scream, and black energy flew from his being, Darkening the air to an almost pitch black tint.
Armic flipped his silver hair back a bit, revealing his red eye, and with this eye, he could see through the darkness fog.
He ran, heading out of the fog.
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Nevina heard the shriek and fell to the ground, her ear drums thumbing, all she could here now was a ringing in her ears.
She picked herself up, now temporarily deafened, and blinded by the fog, she began to lose her grip on reality. She thought he saw or heard things that weren't there, tried to block strikes that were never aimed. The fog was robbing her of her sanity, and her senses.
//All characters within the Fog (basically anywhere within a 30 yard radius of Armic, with the exception of Armic himself, should be affected in a way similar to the way Nevina did.//
-
//Woot! Awesome!
"I guess there's only one way to find out if he's awake..." Zion turned in the direction of where he was sleeping, and took off, thinking that he had felt a spark of life force. Tsu followed as well.
--- --- ---
Xenai slowly opened his eyes, and got to his feet. "What the hell... Where am I? All I remember is the kid slashing me, and I conked out!"
Xenai crossed his arms and tapped his foot. "I suppose I owe those guys an apology... I suppose... Whatever." He snapped his head to the right and spit at the ground, then starting to wait.
-
Duilin grined. "Sure." He took the wooden mallet. "I'm used to chained weapons, but this shall do. Thank you, Kami-Ryu." He went back to his normal exprestion.
He swung the mallet around, getting used to it.
(Yeah, Duilin's equipment, has accually totally changed now)
"So, Kami-Ryu, wile the others are resting do you want to explore the area?" He asked
-
"Eh...no idea actually." He said while crouching down and rolling back on the balls of his feet, surprisingly graceful.
-
Zion came up on the island where Xenai was left. He was glad to see that he was awake. Zion and Tsu landed in front of him, then silence. Everyone had straight faces.
Xenai was the first to speak. "I'm sorry... I guess. Whatever."
Zion's expression didn't change. "Apology accepted."
"Are you lamers just going to stand there with dull faces, or are you going to follow me to Seijin's cloud?" Xenai walked past them and looked up, waiting for it.
Zion relaxed a bit. "Sure, I'll follow."
-
(Heh... Lars is a level 2.)
"I'm merely looking to hire a few good warriors..."
Just then, there was a blood curdling scream and a dark mist formed about the area...
"Gyah! What is this?"
A red protective orb appeared around Lars as the black mist engulfed the battlefield. Even under the barrier, the fog was choking... To escape, Lars shot straight up into the air some 50 feet, where he dispersed the barrier and breathed the fresh air heavily...
"Blast. Ruined my shot..."
Lars' eyes darted around before he noticed Armic shoot out of the fog, making a break for it.
"Forget them. He's perfect..."
Lars began to glide over and past the mist, following just behind the man as he ran. He shot Armic an eerie telepathic message:
"Running is not necessary, my friend... I've been searching for one of your caliber for quite some time... I have a proposition for you, if you would listen..."
-
Kismet jumped back as suddenly a fog began to emanate, dsome dark spell by Armic...
He covered himself with hand and repelled the fog from himself (hge was quite distant from the fight anyway), but still he could not see what was happening inside.
-
Armic continued his run for his Graveyard home, but felt a telepathic message go through mind, and he stopped dead in his tracks.
At first he thought it was Qor, but quickly realized it as being a Mortals voice.
He wasn't sure where the message was from, but he traced the source, and sent a message of his own back to Lars.
Who are you? Where are you? And what is this proposition you offer, my good sir?
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The ringing in Nevina's ears finally subsided, but she was still blinded by the Fog, and the air seemed to be getting heavier, and she started to choke.
"*Cough* ugh.... I gotta *cough* outta here!" She managed to say, inbetween coughing fits.
She desided the Fog must have a barrier, and if she ran in a staight line, she would certianly get out eventually.
Nevina attempted to create a sphere of Holy Energy, to help her guide herself out, but the fog seemed to block her connection to her God, she was rendered spell-less!
"Dammit!" She yelled, as she ran blindly, trying to get out of the fog. (She's heading north, towards the city of Laus, While Armic was running south, towards the Graveyard, by the way.)
-
"Gah!" Frost cried, he started coughing
"Geez, What's going on?!" Bite asked
"Black..mist...." Frost then starting running, Bite followed, they fell to the ground, still contious, they looked up and spoted Lars, with the barrier, and the floating up in the air.
"I wonder what the boss is up to now?" Bite asked
"We'll just have to wait and see..." Frost replied
-------
"Very well." Duilin replied. He then started paceing around.
He then looked around. "This is such an odd place..."
-
"Indeed." He muttered.
-
Ellenna recovers from the fog. She then stands up, gets overpowered by it again, and collapses for a third time.
__________________________________________________________
Haraldur returned to the surface, strangely, since noone had noticed him going under. He was glowing slightly more than before.
"Zeros', having aquired two of the weapons, you should by now be able to detect the general direction of the nearest weapon. If you can, where is is, roughly? It should feel like a pins and needles sensation, with a direction, but very faint. I know this, because of... research."
-
The trio took straight up, at the sword cloud. The three burst through right where they were supposed to, simultaneously, and almost in formation. Seijin noticed this as he looked over at them.
"Well, well, well! Good morning, Xenai."
"Feh..."
Seijin got up and walked over to the trio as they landed. "You three were perfectly synchronized, and in formation, you know that, right?"
The three fighters' eyes widened as if to say that they didn't. Sejin danced around in one place with teeming excitement. "Oh, you three are perfect for New Forever!"
-
The shrouded Lars flew over Armic's head, flipping in the air, and landed in front of him before folding his arms inside his cloak.
"I'm looking to assemble a group of warriors with... unique talents... Your demonstration back there impressed me, outnumbered as you were. I'm wondering if I could hire you for your services... the pay will be well... very well. Or if it is not gold that... er... your kind desires, I can ensure that I can make your deepest desires come true once our mission is complete..."
-
"Trust him man." Frost says
"The pay is great!" Bite chips in "Really great."
They show Armic there coins, that Lars gave them.
-
"A tingling sensation..." Zeros' remembers what it felt like before with the spear. Zeros' closed his eyes and concentrated. He slowly opened his eyes and touched his back with one hand and lifted up his shirt and coat to where Iduran's sword was. He turned around towards his three other companions.
Under his skin, there was an impression of a sword, covered by hundreds of scars on his back. There were also six parts on his flesh that were covered by his wings. The impression of the sword was glowing a soft blue aura.
"The sword is reacting to the other weapon...the dark aura that eminates from it draws the sword..." Zeros' slowly pointed in a direction which was deeping into the forest of floating trees. Zeros' crossed his arms across his chest and slowly flew towards that direction.
Kami-ryu nodded and started tree hopping towards the direction. His cloak rised everytime he jumped, showing his metal right arm and metal left leg.
"Be wary." Zeros' warned. "There is a great power here...that is not the weapon..."
-
"Well, then we must be carefull." Duilin swung his mallet in a clockwise derection down to the ground. "But are we gonna find that weapon or just sit around here like a bump on a log?"
-
(Gyah! They uploaded an out of date forum backup. Here's the posts that didn't get transfered over.)
----
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Kahn </span>
Kahn crawled along the ground hoping he could find a familiar face, but after having no success he decided to wait for the fog to disperse.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Zeros' </span>
Zeros' sighed and started flying off in the direction Kami-ryu had tree hopped, his senses on full alert.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Haraldur </span>
Haraldur followed Zeros'.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Cesque </span>
Cheetah dived and looked around. Yeah, it seemed that in the depths, Zeros' guiding would be nice. He followed him swimming on the surface of water.
Hopefully, the force or being Zeros felt won't kill him. Hopefully.
---
Kismet moved out to safe distance. A deal between the strange prophet and the evil priest? This wasn't looking good.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Xorlak</span>
Lars nodded to Frost and Bite as they approached.
This should be all that is neccessary for now, if we can get him that is...
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Dude Man </span>
"Oh, and now we leave!" Duilin says, getting annoyed, he ignores it and jumps up and starts flying, following Kami-Ryu, Zeros', and Haradular.
----
//I talked to Cyber Wolf on MSN and the fourms aren't working for him at the moment, so it might be awile //
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Zeros' </span>
"Haradlur, just out of curiousity, what did this great sea dragon that was supposed to be here?" He said while glancing over his shoulder towards Haraldur. Zeros' slowled his flying down, as did Kami-ryu's tree hopping.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Haraldur </span>
Haraldur said: "I did not mention a specific creature, I just said that it might be picked up by one, and they can easily be attracted by the weapon's power... as were you, since you have inevitably been slightly tainted by the weapon. You had a slight tingling sensation. For an evil creature it would be much stronger."
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Dude Man </span>
//Gack, the fourms keep not working for me, every now and then, so if I just sorta stop posting, you know were I am, sorta.//
"Monsters?" Duilin says "I've delt with quit a few of them, big snakes, gel monsters, back when I was with the Dark Empire, me and Cheetah took down a giant serpent once, that's how he got his serpent form." Duilin relizes that nobody would care so much so he just shrugs "So what kind of weapon is it?"
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Zeros' </span>
"Hmm...tainted? Maybe, maybe not." Zeros' said while strokin his chin.
"Most people consider daemon's mosters as well Duilin. Some might even consider Haraldur or Kami-ryu monsters. Haraldur due to the immense magical power he possesses and Kami-ryu for his metal limbs and alchemic abilities." He said while shrugging.
"People's views and beliefs have changed from all the centuries I've lived. At one point, monsters and humans coexisted peacefully. That was well over 600 years ago though." He said while glancing around. "You can see how people's beliefs change."
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Dude Man </span>
//Uhhh, It's Duilin, NOT Dude Man, geez, learn to read //
"I supose so, but us deamons, are not really monsters, in my belief. As you said peoples beliefs change, since I used to belive deamons were monsters." Duilin responds.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Haraldur </span>
Haraldur suddenly visibly had a spasm, shuddered and fell on top of the water, before bringing himself back up, wet. The weapon was so close now, the sensation he was getting was almost too much for him to conceal, almost too much for him to stop himself from rushing towards it to take it for himself.
He saw the others staring at him so he said: "Sorry, I have not eaten yet since gaining my true form..." He hoped his excuse would work. He conjured up a large leg of lamb, raw, and consumed it quickly without it being cooked. He looked visibly healthier. He was now controlling himself much better.
"We are very close," he said, "Soon we will be directly above it."
His hands twitched just a bit, before he regained full control.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Xorlak </span>
(Thanks for the intel, DM)
----
Lars bowed slightly to the silver haired man.
"Take all the time you need to make your decision. You will find us north of here, past the borders of the former Dark Empire in the city of Redvik. You shouldn't have much trouble finding us..."
He turned and began to walk away, motioning to Frost and Bite.
"Come. We have... work to do..."
----
(Yeah, it seems at random times the forums are inaccessible for 30 minutes or so, but the rest of the site works. Not sure what's going on there.)
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Cesque </span>
// Dude Man, he propably meant you're demon as well as your character //
"Above?" - Cheetah thought, trying to stay away from the thing. - "Sure, flying hypocrites..."
He was afraid to dive and see what the creature looks like, since propably Haraldur waited with the description of it until it attacks.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Zeros' </span>
Zeros' looks at Haraldur falter and smiles. Not one of those kind, gentle smiles, but more of "I there's something more" smiles.
Sure Haraldur... He thought to himself.
"The weapon is indeed close though." The glow from underneath his shirt and trench coat gave off a brighter blue glow.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Haraldur </span>
Haraldur smiled sarcastically at Zeros'.
He then dropped gracefully into the water.
___________________________________________
Below the water the area was crowded completely with various evil creatures, glowing sharks, other aberations, aquatic demons, krakens, and the like. They backed away from him, as slaves back away from a deadly master who has discovered their disobediance.
Haraldur smiled a strange smile, then chanted some strange words, more sounds than words. There was a bright flash, and the water around him evaporated and became plasma, killing all the creature near him, causing all but a few of the survivors to flee.
He looked at the defiant ones, and smiled. They looked back, attacked him. His hand became a claw, and he disembowled one, leaving just 23 left.
________________________________________________________
Above the surface could be seen water disappearing in a 20 metre radius, revealing Haraldur on the seabed with 24 other creatures, and the bodies of many more. Then the water flowed back in.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Zeros' </span>
Zeros' smiled and stopped flying, plunging him into the water. He bonded some of his own ki with the ki of the ocean, forming an oxygen shield around himself.
He drops fast into the water and lands right besides Haraldur.
Well know, whats do we have here? Zeros' said telepathicly to Haraldur. Zeros' unsheathed the Masamune, erecting itself into its 12 foot long, 2 feet wide form, complete with the apperance of rotting flesh and all the spikes.
One of the glowing sharks made a lung for Zeros', but with a flick of his wrist, charging his blade with ki, cut the shark cleanly inhalf, also resulting in the water being split, making a slight slash in the water as it slowly seeped back in.
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<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Posted by: Haraldur </span>
Haraldur conjured up a flaming sword, still burning under the water, causing steam to rise in bubbles.
He slashed it at a kraken many times, leaving it in singed slices.
It could be noticed that he was not breathing, despite the huge amount of activity. It was not necessary.
-
(That archive script sure comes in handy. Heh...)
Lars continued walking, coming to the outer reaches of the forest. This mode of transportation was clearly too slow. He shouted back to Frost and Bite:
"If we are to arrive in due time, we need to hurry..."
A red aura appeared around the shrouded man as he levitated a few inches above the ground. At once he burst down the path, flying just above the ground, kicking up great amounts of dust as he went. He speed was only 30 MPH or so, but it beat walking. He glanced behind him to see if his two mercenaries had enough magic power to keep up.
-
Frost and Bite ran to keep up with Lars, they were pretty fast for people with no magic speed and carieing weapons and armor.
-
Zeros' quickly sheathed his sword and thrust both his palms forwards. Two balls of glowing blue energy started small as a baseball at first, but quickly grew. Zeros' cocked back both his palms and clenched his hands into a fist and turned towards Haraldur's direction and towards the Kraken and threw both balls with a side-arm pitch, weaving past Haraldur and hitting the Kraken in the sides of the head.
The kraken roared out in pain as the two ki balls connected with its head. causing a blinding flash. When the flash disappeared, the kraken stood there with pieces of his scales falling off and floating up towards the water, blood seeping out of the now enlarged wounds that the ki blast and sword slices made.
----
Above the water, Kami-ryu stood on a tree above the battle ground with a smile.
-
Haraldur stuck his hand into the kraken's head, and ripped out its brain. He then killed a second one in a similar fashion.
20 evil creatures left. //You can choose what they are.//
-
//Nyah ha, I'm back! =P//
Armic, who had his head pointed downwards at the time, brought his hea back up and looked at the trio that stood before him.
"Mm... I have no desire for riches, but, youwill fufill ANY desire of mine if I comply?What must I do?" Armic said, with a sly grin on his mug.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina breathed a sigh of relief as she exited the evil black cloud, and her vision began to return.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The cloud starts to dissapate....
-
Zeros' sent a mental message to Haraldur.
Don't use too much power. The energies could cause a chain reaction with the weapons, casuing a hell of a strong burst of ki and magical energies. Maybe as strong as the blast that destroyed Romme a month ago.
Zeros' took out his sword and split it into its 7 foot long, 1 foot thick form, splitting it into two swords, while the appearance remained the same. He flapped his six wings and used the water ki to propell himself forwards into the group.
Zeros' was met with heavy resistance as he tore into the group, killing a smaller kraken with ki induced strikes towards various points with presencion. He was forced to block as the strikes of what looked like Jayce's draken form, but more serpantine and blue scaled attack him.
Zeros' fought with him for awhile and landed various strikes on his arms, chest and stomach, but he shrugged off the blows. He threw a couple Yama-sen-ken into the crowd, killing three of the smallest monsters instantly.
Zeros' was forced to dodge again as the draken-like monster came at him with his claws and feet, forcing Zeros' on the defensive while he kicked at him.
16 left, 1 being engaged.
-
Haraldur told Zeros' telepathically, If it pleases you, but I would easily be able to escape if I knew what was going to happen, and to carry a couple of others.
Haraldur stepped around the draken-like thing, going behind it, and whispered something in its ear. A look of fear came over its face, before it collapsed, dead.
Haraldur then stuck his sword through the stomach of an aquatic demon, which died because of the poisoning. A second one attempted to hit him with his claw, but he dodged.
14 left, 1 engaged.
________________________________________________________
Ellenna started to wake up.
-
Zeros' dodged to the left as two shark creatures flew past where he was. He clapped his hands in front of him and put the sword back in its sheath. Zeros' then clapped his hands in front of him and started to slowly move them away, a ball of ki forming in between his palms. He slowly started circular motions with his hands around the ki ball, expanding it and making it corse with energy.
Zeros' looked his head around back and forth before smirking at a small group of monsters. He quickly did another circular motion, causing the ball to pulse with energy and then threw it at the group of smaller monsters. They looked shocked for a moment before they noticed the ball heading towards them. Three more monsters were obliterated.
11 left, 1 engaged.
-
(Gah, Lars and co. took off while waiting for Armic to reply. But we'll improvise, heh...)
Lars stopped short, dispersing the crimson aura. The silver haired one had caught up with the three and stood before them. Excellent, he's interested...
"It's quite simple, really. I need backup for a little... operation. It's a raid of sorts. There is... a certain thing I require in the fortress of Redvik of the former Dark Empire. Since the fall of the empire, I'm certain the former chief of the fortress has commandeered what military was located there for his own personal uses. So it is likely to be heavily guarded. I simply need a few good men to aid in its infiltration. If you enjoy a good battle, I promise you will not be bored..."
-
"Ack, sounds fun, as long as we aren't stopping the Armegeddon, or anything... " Armic said, rather gruffly.
"Do we 'ave all we need, or must we seek more... (Armic looks suspciciously at the people surrounding himself)... individuals?"
-
Haraldur slashed off the head of the demon, killing it. He then said some words in a strange language, to the monsters, and all but 4 fled.
He killed a kraken by making it choke on its own ink.
3 left.
-
Lars nodded to Armic.
"Excellent... The three of you shall do. Though we are likely to meet much resistance, they will be weak and undisciplined. Come, we've no time to lose."
Lars levitated a few inches above the ground once more and began to speed northward along the path, his cloak blowing in the wind...
-
//Need to come around here more often. Merry XMas.
Xenai spit down through the hole in the floor, and looked at Seijin. "What's this New whatever yer talkin' about?"
"Well, it's-" Suddenly, Seijin vanished, right there and then, within an instant. That couldn't have been good. Well, not for them.
"Uh..." Zion stared at the empty spot and binked a couple of times. "Crap. I suppose we have to find him. But we can't do it right now... We got some weapons to find... Xenai, where's Zero Weapon?"
"Beats me." Xenai shrugged. "What's it matter?"
Zion scratched his head. "Well, I felt a dark, suspicious energy in Laus... I don't want him getting ahold of it."
-
Zeros' unsheathed the Masamune again, leaving it whole. He vanished from sight and reappeared directly behind them. Zeros' looked at the monsters and smiled. He cocked back his arm again and slashed in an upwards arc, using his ki to obliterate the last 3 monsters. He twirled his sword and smirked to Haraldur.
What now?
-
Now, we find the weapon, it is around here somewhere. You would probably have the best idea what we are looking for. All the other creatures will not be returning here anytime soon. This Haraldur told Zeros' telepathically.
-
Zeros' looked around briefly in all directions. Trying to sense where the weapon went. Zeros' dropped to the seafloor and started walking towards the northeast.
----
Above the sea, Kami-ryu took a deep breath before jumping into the ocean and swimming in the same direction Zeros' went.
-
Lars lead the small group to a river, with a forest on the opposite side. The trees were visibly more twisted and decayed than those previously passed, and the forest and even sky was darker...
"Beyond this river is the beginning of the land that was once of the Dark Empire. A month ago, this border would have been heavily patrolled."
He crouched to the ground and sprang up, performing a massive bound over the 20 foot wide murky river, landing on the other side. He turned and looked back over the river, waiting for Frost, Bite, and Armic to cross.
On the northern horizon, past the forest, a dark fortress loomed...
-
Haraldur followed Zeros'.
-
"Oh cool, you guys, the way's clear." - said Cheetah cheerfully (altough it sounded a bit more like roar due to his form change), then dived, following Zeros.
---
Kismet looked at Armic and the prophet departing.
"Oh well." - he told himself. - "Better not anger them now."
-
"My head aches..." said Ellenna, clutching her head.
-
Armic stared at the disgusting river, and knew he couldn't make the jump.
He raised his head, and looked at the land next to Lars, and focused upon it.
After a few seconds of staring at the patch of dirt, Armics body faded away, feetfirst, leading up to his head. You could see the particles of his body flying through the air, as pure energy. The energy gathered next to Lars and reassmilated, forming an Armic.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina was now completely out of the Fog, and she turned around, facing it. It was starting to clear out, and she could actually see into the cloud a small way.
-
//Yikes, sorry for being away, Aww, I missed out on all the action Sad , oh well, I'll improvise why he was gone//
When the monsters arive, one of them smacked him and he started to barrle roll away...
He gained control again, and shook his head a few times, he then starts to follow Zeros' and Haradular.
-
(Shall I just assume Frost and Bite are following us? Heh, don't worry, things are going to get interesting for the Lars group in just a few posts...)
The cloaked man continued into the depths of the twisted dark forest, walking this time. It was just a short while until they arrived on the other side. Before them lied an open field with tall yellow grass. A winding path lead up a shallow hill. At the very top was the fortress known as Redvik. It was a bleak building, with tall brown walls encasing a small outer town. At each corner there was a guard tower.
Lars lead the group up the dirt path, straight up to the closed metal gate of the outer wall. The doors were much bigger up close, possibly 40 or 50 feet high. The clocked man banged on the doors with his fist.
The response was quick, since they were easily spotted from afar in the open field. The door creaked open slightly, and a soldier peered out, still in the old battle armor of the Dark Empire.
"What'd ya want?"
Lars responded eloquently, "We are mere travelers seeking to rest for the night. We were wondering if you could accommodate us?"
"King Wallace doesn't want any foreigners in his city. Get lost!"
"King? ... I insist you reconsider. You see, we bring gifts..."
"Huh? ... Hold on. I'll go check."
The door slammed shut.
Lars folded his arms and leaned against the door, a smirk emerging from under his hood as he turned to his group.
"We'll progress as far as we can quietly. I doubt that will be very far, however... Hmm, I never did catch your names, did I?"
-
Zeros' stops his stroll underwater and looks around curiously. He looks behind and notices Cheetah, Kami-ryu, Haraldur and Duilin still behind him.
It's here. Zeros' points to the ground while sending a message to Haraldur. Zeros' slams his palm into the ground, shaking the ground violently. After a few moments, the ground collapses to reveal a pair of ornate covered doors surrounded by an invisible bubble. Zeros' walks down the stairs and into the bubble, which surprisingly allows them to breath.
The stairs descend at least 20 feet into the ground, lined by torches where the door sits, decorated in the purest gold, gemmed with sapphires, emerals and rubies along the sides.
Near the right of the left door, theres is a depiction of a man in a cloak, surrounded by six weapons (Guess what they are?), holding a ball of darkness above his head. Behind him, there is a great mechanical machine ready to strike at any moment. Above him, the draken form of Jayce floats while Xenia is below him, looking towards the right door.
Near the left of the right door, there is a depiction of a image that looks like Zeros' holding out his sword, split in both forms, with two wings extended. Above him, Haraldur from one month ago is hovering above him and towards the ground, Tsu is looking at the machine with his sword.
Along he edge of the left door, each other warrior that formerly worked for the Dark Empire stands there ready with there weapons or magic at ready. While along the edge of the right door, everyone that fought against the Dark Empire, weither on Romme's side or not, stands everyone else with there magic, weapons or transformations at ready.
Zeros' looks at this and laughs.
----
Kami-ryu sees this and goes up for air before returning downwards and swimming towards the stairs that appeared.
//The reason Zeros', Retan, Xenia, Tsu, Haraldur and Jayce are explained are because if I remember correctly, they were the main ones in the last parts of Chapter 3's last battle.\\
-
//In fact, two parts of Haraldur were there: the younger Haraldur and Ragnar.//
Haraldur looked at the pictures with amused interest, before carrying on.
-
//That's "Xenai", not "Xenia." No biggie, though. Jus' type it right next time.
Xenai turned around and looked at the hole in the cloud. "Come to think of it, it's about time I should reprogram the Zero Weapon... It was supposed to work only for the Dark Empire, and the Dark Empire is now gone. Which means it is now hostile to everything."
Tsu gulped. "We're going to actually go FIND that thing?"
"Yep, we are," said Xenai, "and we're gonna fight it too, 'less you aint got the balls." Xenai jumped through the hole and took off toward where his gut feeling said the Zero Weapon was. Zion jumped out and followed a foot or two behind, and Tsu would hesitantly bring up the rear.
-
Duilin walks down the stairs and the looks at Haradular and Zeros'.
"What's going on?" He asks, he then spots the pictures.
"Whoa, I wonder who did those. They didn't really capture my hair right, and the yellow in my eyes are abit to bright." He laughs
I wonder if they'll have more pictures like this. For some reason I want to find more about Nex
-
Cheetah follows Zeros, and amazingly suddenly realises he has trouble moving on land in his water drake form.
"Oh well." - he thought and turned into humans, catching a deep breath of air.
"What the heck...?" - he asks himself, looking at the depiction.
-
The soldier entered the dining hall. It was a complete mess, broken dishes, half eaten food spralled across the long table. There was only one man sitting at the end. He was rather plump and gruffy, with a scraggly beard and dingy clothes, gnawing on a chicken leg like a dog.
The soldier saluted.
"Sir Wallace!"
"Idiot!"
The soldier was promptly smacked with a chicken bone.
"I'm the KING of Redvik now!"
"Ermh... yeah..."
Wallace, the former overseer of the weapons development facility deep within the fortress, had taken over the entire establishment, naming himself king when the Dark Empire fell.
"What'd ya want?!"
"Some people want to be let into the city. They say the bring gifts..."
"People? What people?"
"A man in a black cloak, a sliver haired man, and two weird knights in blue armor..."
"Huh? Yeah right! Tell 'em to get lost! That's the oldest trick in the book!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Dolt! That's sire! Or majesty! Or something..."
"Ermh... yeah..."
----
The door creaked open again, the soldier peering out.
"No. Go away!"
"That's a shame..."
Lars grabbed the soldier by the collar and ripped him from the doorway, throwing him on the ground behind him. With the other hand, Lars reached into his cloak and produced his broadsword, which he proceeded to ram through the soldier's flimsy armor. The shrouded Lars then propped the massive door open, motioning a polite bow to his mercenaries as he extended his arm to the open doorway.
"Coming?"
-
Armic smiled. "I'm Armic a'Kahrr, by the by..."
He admired Lars quick desposal of the incompitant infidel, and followed, making sure to stomp on the dead soldier.
Armic walks into the room, grabs an uncooked (yet half-eaten) chicken leg from the table, guzzles the small amount of blood leaking from it, and then stands by for Lars' orders.
-
"Yes sir." Frost replied to Lars
"Sure thing boss." Bite replied
They entered the building.
"So we gonna get to iceing people?" Bite asked, raiseing his Ice Thrower. Frost placed his hand on the handle of his Ice Sword, prepareing to swipe it out on Lars' comand.
-----
Duilin looked at Cheetah as he entered. He then looked back at the picture.
"Yes, very interesting. I say we should probally find the weapon." He subjested
-
//If someone grabs the next weapon, make sure there is something standing in the way. It would only be fair. The only reason I didn't put anything up for the first weapon was to set the story going. Looks like it works.\\
Zeros' smirked and entered the building.
Inside, is a giant shrine. The length is a massive 500 feet in length, shined to perfection. If one could, the would be able to eat off the floor. The heigth is around 200 feet, which extended with a dome shape. On the roof, there is another depiction of the battle one month ago. On the left walls were pictures of past Dark Empire rulers, while on the right were the rulers of Romme. Momuments for the other three countries can be seen, but they are not as spertacular.
Every 10 or so feet, a giant pillar reaches up to the dome to support the huge shrine. The room is lighted in an eerie way, with no visible light sources.
From the door to the back, a red carpet is laid out, streching the entire 500 feet. At the end of the path, there is a gaint altar decorated with gems, golds and silvers that are shined to perfection.
Floating slowly ontop of the altar is an ornate covered staff made of pure gold with an outcroping that elongates into a C shape with a circular sapphire floating in the middle for the head of the staff. From there down, the staff is perfectly cindrical slowly thinning into a point that floats above the altar about 3 inches.
"There it is. That's the legendary staff. We already have the sword and spear. I fear they won't be easy to get a hold of, especially because of Lars and his group, not to mention the others." Zeros' said while slowly walking forwards, his six feathered wings pointed outwards.
"These are the Dark Empire's rulers." Zeros' gestures to the left side of the room. "As you can see, some one keeps track of all this. The Romme rulers are on the right side." He said while gesturing to the right. Kami-ryu took this all in shock and awe as he slowly followed his master.
"I fear that the ones that are on neither side could determine who wins the power struggle. And also who has the weapons, but those alone are not enough." He said as he looked towards his companions.
"I should also mention that this space lives inside a pocket deminsion. A place that exceeds the boundries of our world and the laws of time and space." He said with a smirk.
-
"Weird." - said Cheetah. - "Very weird. One who made this place must have been totally insane..."
-
//I thought Retan founded DE...//
Haraldur turned to Cheetah and said: "Yes, he probably was. He also created the weapons, if you must know, at the same time. He was my father, the god Melkoth. He used to control the whole world, and before he was defeated by his enemies he forged six weapons to help continue his legacy..."
He ignored the shocked faces of some around him.
"Are you taking it Zeros', or do you think another should?"
-
(Yeah, Retan technically founded the "Dark Empire", heh...)
----
"Right now."
The foursome found themselves in the guard room inside the outer wall surrounding the fortress. Some ten guards burst through the door before them.
"Looks like the quiet way is out the window..."
Lars began a mad dash at the enemies, the sword out to his side glowing a faint red.
"Follow me! We haven't the time for these insects!"
He proceeded to perform a huge leaping horizontal slash, sending four of the guards airborne, colliding into the wall behind them. Lars then broke through the door, which lead to the inner town, and took off down the path, heading straight for the main fortress at a full run.
-
//Well even if Retan technically "founded" the Dark Empire, that doesn't mean he hadn't passed the throne time to time...Heh.\\
Zeros' shook his head. "No. I already have two of them. One of you guys should take them. Iduran's sword is already bonded with my flesh." Zeros' looked towards the staff and shook his head back and forth.
"I had a feeling there was more to you then meets the eye Haraldur. Heh..."
-
//Hey, can I decied were the next weapon is? I got an idea!//
Duilin pondered for a moment, weather or not he should take the staff.
No...not this one...
"I think Haradular should." Duilin subjests
-----
Frost took out his sword and pick axe, incase anymore soilders attack. He ran following Lars' on the guards swung his sword at him, but he block the attack, he stabed the guard with his sword and then swung his pickaxe behind the guards shoulder and then pulled him foward with it, he then pushed the dead guard back and started following Lars. Bite followed Frost, and started running backwards and shooting away at 2 of the guards chaseing him. The two were frozen soilded, they'd die withen a few minutes. He turned around and continued following his brother, following Lars.
3 guards left
-
"God... Melkoth?" - Cheetah said. - "Yeah, I fit pretty well in this team. Two demons and a son of god."
"And you'd better be careful with these weapons... I have evil feelings about this place." - he added.
-
Armic was a tad angered by the sudden change in plan, but he liked the chaotic method better than the peaceful way. He looked around him, and as the soldiers began to close in on him, he resonated a black glow. His shadow had disapeared from the ground and engulfed him, forming a black tint all around him.
It was merely an amusing trick, but the soldiers were of a supersticious type, and they backed up from him in fear. He motioned for a soldier to move out of his way, but the soldier was fear-stricken. Armic drew his Cursed long sword and decapitated the man, holding the head in his hand, and beckoned the men off as he followed Lars out of the room, in a slow walking pace, quite over confident in himself.
-
"Well...lets see...I'm the son of a demon and an angel, Haraldur's the son of an ancient god, Duilin's a daemon, Cheetah's a shapeshifter that, with enough power, can copy any form and Kami-ryu is a ninja with metal limbs and a cloak that can change shape..." He counted off.
"But I agree with Duilin on who should pull the staff. Haraldur seems the best choice, considered his usually means." He said nonchalantly. "If were lucky, we'll be able to get all the weapons before anyone else can and dispose of them."
-
"OK, then. I will take it. However, be ready for something to happen: in the majority of cases, my father liked to have guardians for his treasures."
Haraldur walked up towards the alter, and pulled the staff away, backing away quickly.
Where the staff was there was a flash of flame, revealing itself to be a Balrog, a spirit of fire, a servant of Melkoth.
"Of all the chances we have to have this now..."
//When in doubt, plug in Tolkien. As well as the Balrog, there is Melkoth (Melkor + Morgoth). I love being cheap.//
-
// I knew the name "Melkoth" sounded familiar Wink //
-
Zeros' stepped forwards and vanished with his emense speed and reappeared by Haraldur's side. Kami-ryu was back by Cheetah and Duilin.
"So...a Balrog? Interesting..." Zeros' commented as he pulled out his sword, willing it to transform. Zeros' held the sword forward in his right hand, pointing at the chains at the fire spirits neck. His sword slowly took on a bluish haze as he gathered his ki, using his sword as a catalyst. The aura slowly conensed around the sword as tendrils of blue flowed around it, lashing wildly in the air.
"Let's get it on." Zeros' swiped his sword at the creature. The blue aura left his sword as a crecent shape flew outwards and struck towards the Balrog. It roared its flames and the crescent lessened before dissolving.
Meanwhile, Kami-ryu calmly flipped his wrist towards the creature as five kunai flew outwards from his hand towards the creature, surrounded by the same bluish glow. The balrog extended its hand and clenched the kunai beneith its huge hands.
-
"Holy crap!" Duilin yells, he jumps up into the air, dose a back flip and lands down on the ground
<span style='color:blue'>I like these wings.</span>
Duilin closes his eyes for a few seconds, he then opens them, and they are glowing yellow, like they were when he first revealed his deamon form.
He then raised his hand pointing toward the Balrog, he then blasted a fireball at it.
The Balrog didn't even flinch (You know, fire vs. deamon, no use). Duilin then made a stupid look, noticeing his stupid idea. He then took out his new mallet and then jumped into the air, his feet pointing at the Balrog, but as soon as he came closer to it he swung his mallet infront, flipping him over and smacking the balrog right in the chest, the creature roared in pain, and smacked him away, he flew back a few feet and slid on the ground a few feet more, he droped his mallet as he hit the ground, it layed there a few feet away from him.
-
Zeros' sheathed his sword and vanished from sight. He reappeared right behind the Balrog's head and forced hundreds of open palm strikes down on his cranium. The beast roared in pain as it flew several meters, landing on its stomach with a halt.
Zeros' touched the ground gracefully and tunred on the monster, only to see it expand its flaming aura as it charged at Zeros'. Zeros' grinned and avoided the blows while casually hitting the monster when he saw an opening.
Kami-ryu clasped his hand together in front of him before slowly spreading them and then slamming them into the ground, causing tendrils of energy to shoot out towards the Balrog. Kami-ryu smiled inwardly when the ground started to crack with each step the monster took. He also noted that the aura expanded to its maximum, no longer able to keep its control.
Zeros' thanked the ninja and unsheathed his sword and launched a barrage of Yamasen-ken blades at the Balrog. The monster dodged as the blades caused gashed in the marble floor to grow. Zeros' sheathed his sword and stood firm, waiting for the monster.
The monster blinked, but kept charging. Zeros' smiled as he pulled back his right arm and uppercutted in a corkscrew motion.
"HIRYU SHOTEN HA!" The clash of temperatures immediately made a giant tornado fueled by the hot ki the Balrog poured out. The monster didn't have time to react as the tornado grew larger in diameter and sucked the monster into its clutches while absorbing the hot ki.
It felt like hours watching the tornado, but it only took moments before the ki tornado disappeared and the monster hit the ground, a web of cracks and a slight crater.
"It's not over yet." Zeros' stated. Sure enough, the Balrog got to his feet and roared while expanding his aura out again to full. Althought if one looked close enough, the aura was slightly smaller.
-
Cheetah began transorming to the ice serpent form.
"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
Standing back not to get too burned, Cheetah breathed out a stream of cold air which clashed against the flame aura of Balrog. Angered demon turned in his direction and began charging at him.
"Not good."
Still standing firm, Cheetah went on with the cold attack trying to slow Barlog's progress a little, and then, when the beast was pretty close, he tried to jump to the side.
It didn't worked too well in his serpent form - the burning leg of Barlog stepped at the tip of his scaled tail, causing fire damage. Cheetah screamed with the pain which was enough to turn him back to human form and ducked to his right, banging his head on the floor as the beast went on charging, a bit confused, waving it's muscular arms as if trying to fend the intense cold from ice serpent's attack away.
-
Haraldur said: "If you cannot breathe underwater, hold your breath now."
From his left hand large shards of ice as big as your arm flew forth into the Balrog, and from his right a huge rush of water came, pushing him slowly backwards. It covered the monster.
Due to these attacks, the Balrog only had a little flame left, but its body of shadow and darkness was unharmed, and it would still survive after losing its flame.
"We need to completely quench the flame so it does not reignite quickly."
The water was already up to his knees.
______________________________________________________________
Ellenna said "I think I must be blind, where is everybody?"
-
Duilin saw the water quickly raise, above him. He then started to fly to the top of the room above the water. He watched the Balrog's flame die...
-
Cheetah, still in pain, turned back to water drake form and with his tail smash formed a tidal wave that clashed on Barlog.
---
"Everybody?" - Kismet heard voice of Ellena and looked around, noticing her. - "No idea. The dark priest left along with the prophet. I don't think they were going to have a coffee so expect them to cause mess somewhere else."
-
"Uh... sir..."
"WHAT?!"
"In... intruders..."
The soldier meekly pointed to the dining room window. The fat man broke away from his meal and wobbled to the window, which overlooked the paved road that lead though the town to the main fortress. A man in a black robe was running straight towards them, seemingly wrapped in flame, smacking random soldiers and bystanders out of the way with his sword.
"Idiots!! Kill them! KILL THEM!!"
----
Lars made his way down the street, striking down anyone who so much happened to be standing in his way.
"This is... ridiculous... Perhaps I should... no it's too early..."
He stopped in front of the huge metal doors of the main fortress. These made the doors of the outer wall look like a broken wooden gate... Hmmm...
About twenty soldiers, armed with various weapons, poured from the subsidiary buildings on his right and left side, completely surrounding him with his back to the doors. He was alone, since his mad dash had lead him to the fortress ahead of the others...
Lars held his sword with both hands above his head, a faint crimson aura engulfing his body and blade. No one moved...
"Gentlemen... would one of you happen to have the key to this door?"
An authoritive soldier pushed his way through the crowd.
"How did you get in here? Is there anyone with you?"
The man stepped too close... In a red flash, the soldier was severed in two, diagonally across the chest. Lars' sword was now pointed towards the ground. Bits of armor clanged upon the stone street.
"I asked but a simple question..."
A sinister smirk flashed from his shadowed face...
-
Kami-ryu saw the water and quickly made two claws appear on both his hands and started scaling the nearest pillar.
Zeros' stood firm. He watched the water slowly quench the flames. He cocked his right arm back and slowly heat started to build in his hand, making it glow a faint red. He grinned and punched outwards towards the Balrog.
"HIRYU SHOTEN HA REVISED! HORIZONTAL STRIKE!" A tornado immediately flew outwards from his fist and went straight towards the Balrog, taking any water near it and crashing into the Balrog.
The water clashes and immediately freezes then dissolves back into water.
-
Armic eyed the group of Soldiers, and spotted one with a ring of keys hanging from his belt.
Perhaps YOU know where we could obtain the key, Sir?" Armic said viciously as he turned to face the soldier.
The head Armic was holding began to pump and bulge at random parts of it's skull, it opened it's mouth wide.
Armic tossed the head onto the key-barring soldier, and it began to devour the mans flesh as he screamed in grotesque horror.
The other soldiers backed away, fearing the head would leap upon them.
Armic quickly snatched the keys from the dead/dying ma, and tossed them to Lars.
"Try the different keys. One of em' is bound to open the door."
Armic seemed to go into a daze, his eyes went blank, and his hair flailed upwards from his head. He opened his mouth wide, showing his vampiric teeth as he devoured the souls of the fallen Soldiers.
[Armic retains his Level 2 status]-(He requires souls to keep his abilities)
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The dark cloud has now completely vanished
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina watched as the cloud dissapeared, and now she could see Kismet and Ellenna in the distance.
She ran over to Ellenna to re-group,
-
//Oi! I REALLY need to come around more often.
Xenai stopped, waited for a minute, and pointed straight down. "There." He was above the ocean.
Zion and Tsu stopped behind him. Tsu asked the first question. "Why don't you just summon it?"
"And risk him stomping through the planet killing everything in sight? I don't think so. Let's go." Xenai started to drop, and Zion stopped him. "Wait."
Xenai whipped around, irritated at Zion. "What the hell is the goddamn holdup?!"
"I have an idea... Start without me. I'll be back in about... 1 hour."
"1 hour? Are you (Editor: Censored)in' nuts?"
"Maybe." Zion took off in the opposite direction.
Xenai looked to Tsu. "Looks like it's just you an' me." He dropped into the ocean.
Tsu gulped, and followed.
-
Frost and Bite were right behind Armic. Bite then warned off a few soilders with his gun, as he back steped towards the door, standing a few feet away from Lars'. Frost was following him, warning off a few soilders with his weapons aswell. "Nobody, make a move, or, uh, you'll end up, like, uh, that guy." Frost ordered and pointed to man who was attacked by the head.
"We got ya covered boss." Bite said to Lars.
-
Haraldur saw that the flames were quenched, and they would not reignite for hours.
He sucked up the water from the same hand as put it there, his right hand. From his left hand a bright light started to fill the room, causing the Balrog to back away in pain, obviously a little weakened.
________________________________________
Ellenna said: "Hi, who are you? I think I must have been hit on a head by something in the dark..."
-
Cheetah, weakened, turned back to human form and stood back, watching the ongoing offense on barlog.
---
"I'm Bond." - Kismet answers. - "James Bond."
//When in doubt, plug in James Bond. As well as Bond's quote, there is Kismet (Goldfinger + Scaramanga). I love being cheap.//
And after these words, Kismet looked weirdly at Nevina.
"I mean, honestly... you're having some trouble with memory? My name is Kismet. I'm the one who began the brave assault on that evil sorceror or priest or whoever he was, you know."
-
Lars caught the keys with one hand, examined them, and choose a longer one with a bluish tint. He calmly inserted the key into the hole, turning it. It worked, the very first one he tried...
"See now, that wasn't too hard."
He pulled the huge door open, walking inside.
A gruff voice barked from a window high above:
"IDIOTS!! Kill them! KILL THEM ALL!!"
The soldiers snapped out of their dumbfounded trance, raised their weapons, and made a dash at the intruders, about five rushing at each one.
Lars barely stepped into the main fortress hall when he noticed this, turning around without warning with a glowing left hand. He fired a quick crimson ball of flame into the group coming at him, which exploded on impact with the three nearest soldiers, sending two airborne flaming bodies right back out the door, and a third into the wall on his right.
-
"Fools! May the posessed head devour you all!"
The head, satisfied with the damage he did to the first man, killing him, lept onto one of the soldiers running towards Armic, and ate his face off.
It then continued to eat the man.
Armic drew his Cursed Sword once again and lept into the group of 4 approroaching him.
He raised the black sword to the sky, and it pulsed with energy. Armic brought it down, and with one arc of his blade, he smite 2 of the soldiers, dicing them in half at the torso.
Armic turned to face the remaining 2 soldiers, one who appeared to have gotten a slight gash from the blade attack.
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Nevina said to Ellenna jokingly, "I am God. Kiss my foot."
She quickly pulled her foot away, afraid Ellenna might actually do it.
"So uhmmm.... I think we better go after that... thing. It certainly won't be doing anything positive for the community, ecspecially with that other weirdo. We better get going.. Are you alright, Ellenna?"
-
"Did you see how I hit him on the head? Then it was brown, brown, all brown..." said Ellenna, before falling unconscious again.
-
Duilin jumped back down onto the floor. He stood a far distance away from the Balrog.
----
Bite, quickly reloaded his weapon with a new ice crystal. He then pulled the switch, to set it to rapid fire. He blasted ice beams at all five soilders, running at him.
Frost swung his Ice Sword at one soilder, sliceing him in the gut. He then swung his pick axe down at him, finishing him off and imedently swung it back at another soilder, causeing him to fly back, bleeding, landing on the 3rd soilder. He jumped down at the two, stabbing the 2nd one and the sword went threw all the way to the 3rd one, killing them both. The other two ran at him, Bite then helped out by freezeing one of them, the 5th one, was shocked as somebody beside him was motionless, and all blueish. Bite then swung his pick axe at the frozen soilder's head, causeing it to fall off and hit the other one in the head breaking his neck.
-
Zeros' raised his right palm upwards and started to gather energy. In an instant, a pinprick of blue energy started to form, tendrils shooting out in every direction as it expanded.
Kami-ryu, seeing this, decided to brace his feet against the pillar. He then jumped off and landed near where Duilin was. He then looked over towards Cheetah, who was father away.
"I suggest we move farther away." He then started jogging towards Cheetah with his hands behind his back.
-
"Good idea!" Duilin responded
Duilin then jumped all the way to Cheetah, with the help of his wings.
"Let's hope he dosen't get himself killed."
-
The ball of energy instantly turned from blue to green to white to black then settled on red while expanding, while Zeros' chanted to himself.
"Darkness from twilight, crimson from blood that flows; buried in the flow of time..." The ball expanded and soon became the size of a baseball.
Keep him busy. This spell takes awhle to charge, Haraldur.
//When in doubt, rip of a popular anime series...\\
-
Haraldur jumped at the Balrog, pushing him to the floor, and the two of them grappled and rolled around, trying to strangle eachother, but failing.
Happy?
-
"Now I'm fighting barlog. Ow ho ho." - said Cheetah, collapsing on his back, then holding himself on his arms, ending in sitting position on the cold, wet floor.
// When in doubt, throw in Die Hard //
---
"Brown?" - Cheetah looked at collapsed Ellena. - "Not good. We should heal her, or take to the healer, or something..."
-
Lars quickly grabbed his blade with both hands, performing an upward slash on the nearest soldier, sending him flying into the air. He continued with a vertical leap, slashing at the airborne soldier and sending him crashing diagonally downwards, wrapped in flame, into a second solider. The crimson aura around Lars and his blade was slowly growing stronger...
"Quickly! We must make it to the lower levels. There'll be hundreds of them down our throats in a minute..."
He took off running deeper into the main hall. Slashing at random soldiers who stood in his way.
-
Kahn got to his feet and saw Ellenna, Nevina, and Kismet in the distance. He started in their direction.
-
Armic ran to the doorway after Lars, but stopped before he went down the stairs.
He turned around, swished his left hand index finger through the air, and the undead head's animation magick ceased. It fell down to his victims side, blood still running down from it's mouth.
Armic turned around again, and went down the stairs as soldiers ran after him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina thought over it a bit. Brown she thought.
"Ellenna is a holy woman. That.... thing... is tainted with the curse of Qor. You can smell it on him. Ellenna came in close contact with him. Perhaps his curse is aling you. We must get her to a Holy temple so she may have the curse lifted from a higher being." Nevina said.
-
"Holy Empire?" - Kismet asks. - "Where the hell is this? I'd sooner say we should take her to the headquarters of my believer group, the Milintica, and maybe the High Priest will be able to do something... At least it's on the same continent as we are."
-
"...in Thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness! Those who oppose us shall be destroyed by the power..." The ball in Zeros' hand expanded even more while wild tendrils shot off in every direction as he became inveloped in a red aura. The ball now was the size of a basket ball.
Move!
"You friend really should get out of there..." Kami-ryu idly commented.
-
Haraldur jumped away, keeping the Balrogs attention away from Zeros' by causing bright light to spring forth from him, making the Balrog flinch.
-
Duilin took a few steps backward, he was standing beside his mallet he droped abit earlier, he leaned down and picked it up, and stood back up again.
---
Frost and Bite followed the others. Frost swung his weapons at soilders that attacked him, knocking them away. Bite blasted his Ice Thrower at them, hitting the occanional soilder, but mostly scareing them off.
-
Tsu floated down and down and down with Xenai... Xenai snapped his fingers. The environment was changing now... It looked like some kinda warp... Xenai halted, feeling around for something. He touched a solid object, then feeling around a bit. He found a doorknob, which he twisted to open the door. He and Tsu walked in to see it.
The Zero Weapon stood right in front of them. Its eyes shot open.
-
"...you and I possess! DRAGON SLAVE!!" Zeros' pushed his palm down as the globe expanded one last time, becoming bigger then Zeros' body as it flowed with red tendrils of energy (No, its not a fire spell). He thrust his palms forwards in the direction of the Balrog as it was distracted, sending a beam of energy towards it and impacting. For a brief moment, there was nothing, but silence. Then, the Balrog roared in pain as a red sphere extended from the point it was hit and in a flash of light, covered the entire room.
There was only silence as the light dimmed and the Balrog's body disappeared into nothingness, leaving the staff on the ground, undamaged. Zeros' then collapsed to one knee and wiped the sweat of his brow.
"Damn...that takes alot out of you." He said while pushing himself up.
-
Haraldur picked up the staff, and he put it under his cloak.
-
"Ok...we have 3 of the weapons. Where next?"
-
Duilin noticed something. That the tile on the floor were the mallet droped, seemed, removeable, and was a lighter color. He knelt down, and then lifted in up, from the floor, he turned it around, it was this strange drawing on a person pointing to his left, at the end of his hand was the number 7 in Roman Numerals,and there was a compass in the corner.
"Hey guys..." He said holding the tile. "I think found something..."
He rotated it, to the area, were he remembered was north, so the man was pointing west (I got that correct, right?)
He then looked west. And then back at the tile. "Seven..."
-
Zeros' walked over to where Duilin found the tile, as well as Kami-ryu. They both looked at the roman numerials then around then back.
"Either someone is playing a very good joke or this is too much of a coincidence." Kami-ryu said. Zeros' then turned his attention to Haraldur.
"You father wouldn't happen to have relations to the Norn Goddess of the Future, Skuld, would he?" Zeros' asked while stroking his chin in a contemplative manner.
-
"My father created the future when he was in charge of the running of the world. In all likelihood, yes. He was also a womaniser. Who knows?"
-
Zeros' shrugged. Then he looked at the tile in the floor. The "I" was pointing towards him while the "II" is pointing towards Kami-ryu and the "III" towards Haraldur.
"Ok...thats just unnerving." He said pointing towards each roman numerial.
-
"Insects! Out of our way!!"
Another slash sent a soldier tumbling down the spiral staircase, crashing into several more who were on their way up. Another group of soldiers appeared behind, and began to climb over the bodies trying to get to the intruders. Clearly the stairwell was becoming too crowded.
Sword in hand, Lars leapt over the rail and fell down the open center a good hundred feet or so, crouching as he landed on his feet at the bottom. Some of the soldiers who were making their way up the stairs turned around, clumsily making their way back down in pursuit. As he stood back up, he thrust his left hand forward, sending a blast of flame into the closed wooden door before him, completely unhinging it.
They were effectively in the basement. On the other side of the door was a long dark hallway. But rather than a cold stone dungeon-ish environment as one would expect from looking at the exterior of the fortress, this area was well kept up, the wall seemingly made of metal, and a red carpet flowing forth down the hall.
"Hmmm... This must be it..."
----
"WHERE?! Where did they GO?!"
The slovenly "king" appeared on a balcony that overlooked the first floor.
"They... seem to be making their way down stairs, sir..."
"Huh? They couldn't be after... that... !!"
"No way. We can't even start it ourselves..."
"Right! That means there's no way out! Hurry up, we'll trap 'em!"
"Indeed!"
"Gyah ha ha ha ha!!"
"Ah ha ha ha ha!!"
-
"Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man!" Tsu was flipping out as the Zero Weapon stood up to its full height.
"Shut the hell up." Xenai glared at his creation as he pulled his huge sword out from nowhere, and slid into a ready stance. "This is what you do: Repeatedly attack one spot until the armor breaks, then go for the hull underneath it. That's the only way you can really damage it. I'd say to go for the chest armor... It's strongest there, but its core is under the armor."
Tsu was confused. "Shouldn't we attack the head instead? We don't want to destroy it, only to obey us. Its brain would be in the head, right?"
"Oh yeah, I'm sure it's just gonna obediently stand there while I, no longer with the Dark Empire, try to reprogram it. Attack the core and shut it down!" With that, Xenai leaped toward the towering demon's chest. Tsu gulped, and flew toward the chest as well.
--- --- ---
Zion returns in 10 posts.
-
Frost and Bite who were not to far behind from Lars, were just a few feet behind him.
"This is, it?" Frost says, steping beside Lars.
"What's, it?" Bite asks Lars
------
"Is it, now is it..." Duilin says. "Well you see, the guy seems to be pointing east, but, not entirely at the seven, because his hand seems to pass it abit..."
Duilin then ponders for abit. "Seven, east..." Duilin then turns to Zeros. "Now what's all this talk about the future?"
-
"Well, I think I have a few ideas. I was once in three, you were the first to claim a weapon with even an inkling as to its identity, and Kami-Ryu is your second."
-
Zeros' nodded at Haraldur's explination.
"So apparently each of these numbers make out a certain weapon." Zeros' said while tapping his foot and closing his eyes. "So if we follow these numbers we can find each weapon, right?" He said glancing at Duilin then to Haraldur.
-
"The advanced weapons development facility... I'm willing to bet what we're after is right down this hallway..."
Lars took off running once again, his feet clanging on the metal floor...
-
"Advanced weapons development facility!" Frost and Bite both said, likeing the sound of that, the smiled at each other evilly and then ran off following Lars, there feet also clanging on the floor.
-----
"Yes, I supose so." Duilin responded. He then thought of the east part. "My old village was to the east! That means that a weapon must be there. I hope I'm right." He takes the tile and puts in in his inside pocket. "So, shall we go?" Duilin asks the group, almost dashing off.
-
Haraldur said "Weren't there only 6 weapons?"
-
"Yeah?" - Cheetah added after Haraldur.
-
"Wait..yeah....Hmmm...Seven, must mean something else then....or there is another weapon? But I think it might mean, 7 east, we have to do something 7 times in east? We have to go 7 miles east, or we have to take seven...steps east..." Duilin was pretty sure that his last guess was right. He steped back onto the empty tile space and took seven steps to the east...nothing.
"Hmm..." He then looked down "Ah ha! The tile is a different colour." He leaned down and lifted it up.
"It's a map...to ONE of the six weapons, by the looks of it, and I was right, it seems to go to my old village..."
-
"Well, then. That should be our next logical stop. Lead the way."
-
"Yeah". - said Cheetah, standing up, having some trouble moving due to his slightly hurt legs. - "Anyone eager to carry me? You know, getting hurt by Barlog surely isn't any good for health."
-
Duilin nods, the ditchs the old tile, because it's only weighing him down.
Duilin then runs off, half flying, up to the over ground...
-
Zeros' disappears from sight and reappears near Cheetah.
"Need a lift?" Kami-ryu come up behind Zeros' and smiles. Zeros' then concentrates and expands a bubble of ki, enveloping both of his charges. He then crouches and jumps, flapping all of his six wings after the direction Duilin left in.
//Note: The bubble that Zeros' uses allows people who cannot breath, fly, hover ect. to follow Zeros' without having to do anything. Much easier then carrying someone.\\
"It's possible that the "VII" stands for something else..." Zeros' comments while flying behind Duilin.
-
"It could be, but this is a reasonable guess."
Haraldur started flying after Duilin and Zeros'.
-
"Hmm...I never thought of that...But it did lead me to the map, however...I could be just coincidental." Duilin replied...
"Okay, so, judgeing to this map were are going to need some of that extreme speed stuff going on, because judgeing by this rate we should arive there in about 1 month and a 15 days, I guess. Haradular, wish to help us out agian?" He says "I think I've gotten used to the extreme speed now."
-
Haraldur picked up Duilin from the air and sped forward at such a rate as to take 3 days, so others could catch up.
"You direct, OK?"
-
Lars slowed his pace as he neared the end of the long hallway; yet another set of large metal doors... He stopped and looked behind him, waiting a second for Frost and Bite to catch up. He had apparently left Armic behind, as the silver haired necromancer was nowhere to be seen. Screams of agony from the stairwell behind suggested he was not yet finished with the soldiers-- a perfect distraction...
Lars took one more step towards the door, immediately the glow of two red eyes on each side of the door became apparent-- the eyes of two dragon-esqe statues, barely visible in the darkness. The statues were perhaps ten or twelve feet tall, each of a gray scaly winged lizard sitting on a pedestal. At once they sprung to life, each dashing to opposite sides of the trio, snarling as smoke emanated from their mouths...
Lars readied his sword, clutching it with two hands as he faced the beast on the right...
-
Frost spun his weapons in a circle, and Bite pulled the switch to it's 2nd highest setting (has 5 settings), they both faced the dragon on the left.
Bite then charged for a large blast and Frost knew exatly what he was thinking, he dove down on the ground, being a safe distance from the dragon, enough for it to put on some speed.
"Come here dragon!" Frost taughted, then raised his Ice Sword, pointing upward wile he was lieing on the ground, belly down. The Dragon then began to run at them, giveing a deep roar. "NOW!" Frost yelled
Bite then blasted a large beam at the Ice Sword, prisiming out of the blade, causeing the Ice Wall effect. The Dragon smashed right into the Ice Wall, spliting the wall and giveing it a spliting head ache...
-
Zeros' smiled and immediately charged ki into his winds, breaking the sound barrier and disappearing from sight, immediately reappearing beside Haraldur.
"So what know?" He asked above the wind resistance. It sounded more like a shout then a question.
-
//Eh.. I ended for Armic to have been following Lars the whole time. He'd followed for about 34 posts so I figured "Why bother repeating?". I'll play along though. Fighting the remaining soldiers sounds fun//
Armic hit the floor, did a spin kick, and knocked 4 soldiers to the ground, knocking their feet out from under them. He withdrew his staff, chanted and waved it through the air, and the floor turned to quicksand under the soldiers, too slow to get up, they were drowned in the floor, which hardened after they went under.
Armic then raised his blade, sliced another soldier in half, vertically, then after finishing the split, quickly ran the blade around, seperating another soldier from his legs.
6 down, 5 left
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"No, not to a Holy Place far away, just to a chapel of some sort..." Nevina said.
-
"Cool, and thanks." said Cheetah and began checking the bubble walls in amazement.
-
"We follow Duilin's directions. I am speeding up now."
Haraldur accelerated so that they would be there in a few minutes (posts).
-
"Okay, were not far now, just turn left when you get near that moutain and keep going that way untill we get near and then turn right!" Duilin derectes Haraldur.
-
"We go right when we get near to what?"
-
"The beach! Sorry...Dude Man forgot to type that I said that." Duilin replies
-
Zeros' smirks and accelerates even more, breaking the sound barrier and matching speeds with Haraldur easily.
"Ok so we turn right when were near the beach?" Zeros' spies a beach and starts banking right, heading towards the village.
-
Haraldur does the same, and lands a little way away from the village, about 100 metres away from the wooden wall around it, and drops Duilin onto his feet.
-
(Not much time today...)
Lars gripped his broadsword with both hands, a crimson flame circulating around it. He dove towards the beast. The dragon lashed with its left claw, which Lars parried before jumping and aiming a stab to its underside...
-
Zeros' lands nearby Haraldur and Duilin and released the bubble, causing Zeros' to fold his wings back in.
Kami-ryu looked around for a moment before smiling and walking ahead of everyone at a steadly, slow pace.
-
Xenai let out ki-empowered yells with each slash of his great sword, making extremely forceful contact with the same spot over and over. After his stamina was zapped, he floated upward, shouting an order to Tsu. "Attack now, while the pressure's on it!"
Tsu flew in at maximum speed, executing the same technique he did to Kurayami X. "Kuon Suisei!!!" He pushed through as hard as he could, but he did not make even a crack. Tsu started slashing in a frenzy, and Xenai gave him a bit of energy to empower his slashes. But still, the armor seemed completely impenetrable.
With a swing of the Zero Weapon's arm, Tsu and Xenai were forced into invisible walls with inconcievable force. They were not dead, but Tsu was hit extremely hard, for his level of strength. "This isn't... good..."
-
The dragon blasted a river of flame, at the ice wall the brothers made. The wall melted almost instantly. The dragon then jumped at Frost who was closest to him, the monsters claws grabed him, and put him in lock. Bite then blasted an Ice Beam at the dragon's face, causeing it to flinch and drop Frost. The dragon then blasted another ball of flame, but it was derected at Frost. He saw the flame flying at him, and he threw his Ice Sword away, and his pick axe at the flame, but it didn't help, the pick axe, just flew back down, and the flame fell down on Frost..
Frost's armor was all burnt, and his skin was all dusty and black, he felt weak, with his last ownce of strenght he yelled "I HATE FIRE!" and then he passed out...
-----
The village was still busted up, nobody ever took the time to fix the damaged buildings, there were burnt buildings that look as if they have been like this for many years. The only sign of civilization was a metall shed and an old building that looked like a bunch of peices from old buildings nailed together.
"This place hasn't changed abit." Duilin says. He walks around the old buildings...
"Darion, a Dark Empire Commander, leaded an attack. They killed so many people, and took the rest that seemed worthy of liveing..." Duilin said softy
-----
"Somebody is here?" A rhaspy voice says
"Nobody has been here for 10 years!" A different deeper voice says
"Well it's about time some more people came, it's been getting pretty boreing..." Says the first voice again
-
Zeros' walked up to Duilin and layed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I know how you feel. My village was burnt to the ground, the women and young girls raped then klilled. My brother, sister, mother and father were among those killed...I was the only survivor of the attack that day." Zeros' said as he remembered painful memeories. His eyes grew dark and a grimce passed his face.
"But that's not the reason were hear. We needn't retell painful memories of the past." Zeros' looked over to Kami-ryu, who has a similiar expression on his face as Zeros' had a moment ago. He was remembering how he was forced to slaughter the enemy clan and the one he loved. All for the sake of his clan. He wished he could go back and stop it...
"That's right." Kami-ryu said finally. "Were hear to find that weapon and stop there melevolent powers." Kami-ryu's cloak unwrapped, showing a 5 foot spear. The handle was made from a fine dragon hide, the shaft made of pure gold while gems lined the handle and base of the spear, a ruby studded in the very bottom. At the head, a 3-pronged silver spear crafted from the finest mithril shown in the sun's light.
"Now..." Zeros' said after a moment. "Where do you suggest we start?"
-
Cheetah bowed down on the ground and vomited with full force.
"Blegh!" - he said. - "No more sound barrier crossing again!"
He then stood up and looked around. It surely wasn't looking good. He just hoped the rets know what they're doing.
-
Duilin rubed his chin, and then looked around the area. "I think we should check out those houses, they might have somebody in them." Duilin walks up to the one with, the parts of old houses. He knocks on the door. There are two voices talking and then finally somebody answers the door.
The man is bald, with the symbol of the Dark Empire as a tatto on his head, he is wearing bits of Dark Empire armor aswell, but not the full suit. He has a nose ring and there is a scar down his lip. He looks almost 40 years old, and was abit taller then Duilin.
"Yes?" Asks the man, in a rhaspy voice. (Like that werid voiced fat guy from Independence Day)
"Uhh...We're, um..." Duilin seems abit shocked that a man from the Dark Empire is standing right in front of him, stareing at him.
"What?! What?" He asks again, impatient with his hestation
"We're travellers, and we are looking for some sort of weapon, a map lead us here."
The man turns around, he seems to be talking to somebody else in the room
"Somebody here, is asking about *ahem* a, 'weapon'."
The person who is talking to says something Duilin couldn't quite make out.
"Sorry, your map must be wrong." He closes the door, and the sound of a lock is herd
"No luck..." Duilin says to the group
-
"Are you sure I'm fit for this?" Tsu was extremely weak from the hit that he took. The Zero Weapon didn't even hit them with the arm... The force just came from the shockwave that the arm sent out with its swing.
"No. But try anyways." Xenai tossed an elixir to Tsu, and started charging up Omni. "Drink that, and then gather some energy."
"Uh... Ok..." Tsu gulped down the elixir and started gathering energy.
-
"I think they are hiding something," said Haraldur, who went up to the door and kicked it in with one kick, then shouted "Do not be rude, there are rules on hospitality you know, you must offer hospitality to guests for at least three days, unless they damage you, but you have broken this law."
Haraldur picked up the bald tattoed man by his throat, and threw him so he landed in fron of Duilin. He then started to kick and punch and bash the man against the wall in a mad frenzy, in pure bloodlust.
-
Zeros' walked over towards where Haraldur was beating the man. He grabbed Haraldur's arms.
"No sense in him being dead Haraldur." Zeros' said. He sniffed his nose and wrenched when he caught a scent. He let go of Haraldur's arms and walked past. He stops in the darkness and mutters under his breath. Soon, a ball of fire formed in his palm and he froze.
Around the door, several other men stood huddled in the house. Most are older, around 30 to 40 years old, while one or two look to be about 16 or 17. Each wore pieces of blackened armor, all of which was donned by a cape that hung on the far wall with the Dark Empire symbol etched into it.
"Who are you people." He stated. Behind him, Kami-ryu looks on in mild interest.
-
Haraldur stopped beating the man up, and gave him to Duilin saying "You question him."
He then followed Zeros' in, and glared at the men inside.
-
"Chill out, Haraldur!" - Cheetah said beginning to slowly realise he's in the middle of bunch of freaks trying to get a weapon of extreme potential.
"Please excuse this guy." - he said to other people sitting in the house.
-
"You didn't have to beat me up like that! Your trust passing!" The bald man said
"Your right, but we need to talk..." Duilin said to him, he knelt down to him "What's your name?"
"My name is Lash, who the hell are you?"
"I'm Duilin, an ex Dark Empire soilder, but now, I'm trying to find the 6 lost weapons, were are they?"
Lash coughed abit, he didn't want to get hurt anymore so he chose to tell him "We found one, you see that metall shed over there, it leads to an underground cave, we hid it down there. I wouldn't go down there, because the people who hid it down there never came back..." Lash coughed and hack again.
-----
One stood up, he looked older then the rest, he was a quite big person (Not as big as Darion) he had brown skin, dark hair, a scar along his eye, he held a large double bladed axe.
"We should be asking you that..." He spoke in a deep voice "But for arguments sake, we are the soilders that stade in this area, after we wiped out this city 10 years ago, we had many camps, but most of our men were killed, we served for the Dark Empire! We rule this land now. We will not harm you, only if your here to cause trouble, just state your reason of being, here, and we may talk of it."
"We can't trust them, they took Lash!" Yelled one soilder
"We will worry about him later...I think I know who these people are..." The Commander said
-
"If you were once of the Dark Empire, then there is one of us whom you should remember, probably in infamy, unless you have a very bad short term memory."
He walked forward, and his appearance changed, to the crazed, dark appearance of Ragnar.
"You will cooperate, totally and with no trouble. Otherwise you are mine."
He then reverted back to his normal appearance, and stood beside Zeros'.
There was a look of fear and loathing on the faces of the ex-Dark Empire soldiers.
-
Lars's blade bored deep into the dragon's chest. It tore back in pain, smoke billowing out of the hole. In a roar, it countered with a massive ball of flame, which Lars caught with his left hand. He thrust his hand forward, sending the ball into the dragon's head. An explosion ensued, and Lars shielded his face, his cloak blowing back from the force. When it was over, no trace of the dragon was left...
Lars turned to his left, noting the injured Frost and the second dragon looming over him...
"Blast..."
Lars made a mad dash through the air at the beast, his glowing blade over his head in striking pose...
-
The dragon was struck by Lars, drawing blood. It roared in pain, and then prepared to blast a large fire ball at him, but Bite quickly blasted the dragon in the mouth with his Ice Thrower, causeing his flame to explode in it's mouth, blowing it's head to peices, the dragon fell to the ground dead.
"No! Frost!" Bite cried after he killed the beast. Frost was out cold. "Boss...we gotta do something..."
//Frost will be inactive for awile//
--------
"We herd of the great battle that had the Empire fallen, yet we took no part in it." The Commander Said "My name is Commander Darak, I belive you must be the great Haradular, and Zeros', many stories have been told of you. Now, I'll admit my forces aren't strong since we have not been in battle for many years, so I have agreed to help you find the weapon down in the caves, in the metall shed..."
The soilders were so frightned of them that they said nothing, even the Commander was afraid, yet he did not show it...
-
"You mean this freak is known worlwide?" - Cheetah asked Darak, ponting at Haraldur. - "And how do you know where the weapon is, anyway?"
-
"Well, a month ago, the weapon flew this way,"Darak begins "it landed in the middle of town. We knew that soon somebody would be comeing for it, and we knew that the Empire must have fallen, so we hid the weapon down in the caves, the soilders that went down with never came back, they were most likely killed by monsters."
"Yeah..." Said Lash, getting up off the ground "They attacked us, and went down in them, so we built that metall shed, and locked it up, just to make sure they didn't get loose, we also, hide our, 'valubles' in there to..." He rubs hsi neck, for it is still hurting.
"Well we have to get the weapons, Darak." Duilin says "And your comeing with us."
"Very well, young deamon." Darak noded, and then looked at Lash "Lash! Your comeing to, but don't get in the way to much."
"Yes sir..."
Darak walked over to the metall shed, and unlocked the door, he looked inside. "It's clear...Well, come along..."
//No, Lash won't be become a main character, He's still an NPC, if you want to set him up to die go ahead, but Darak, might become more main, if things go cool//
-
"Actually Cheetah, were probably all considered freaks to normal people..." Zeros' said with a hint of sarcasim in his voice. Zeros' shrugs and follows the ex-Dark Empire soldiers to the shed and down into the cave.
"Oh yes. Try anything and you die..." Zeros' said leaving his threat unfinished. All the soldiers gulped and nodded.
-
Darak chose to lead the way, since he had abit of an idea of what the cave was like. He climbed down the ladder, it has bite marks on it. Duilin followed, then Lash, then...umm...you guys, in whatever order Razz .
"I've slept in worse..." Duilin says (See Chapter 2 and 3) He arms himself with his mallet "I can hear something...."
"Keep your wit's about you!" Lash says (Heh, Frap says that in JOD)
Suddenly, a set of 25 rodents creep up, they groan at the group, they seem very hungry
"Those aren't small animals..." Duilin says, the rodents run at group, Duilin smashes his mallet down on one, breaking it's spine, killing the beast. "Save your energy guys, these buggers will be a piece of cake!"
(There about the size of a cat or something)
Darak slices one in half with his axe. And Lash takes out his wip and starts wipping away at few....
23 Rodent's left....
-
Zeros' looks on at the rodents with interest before shrugging. He jerks his hand backwards suddenly, gathering a strange brownish, green glow, before he slams it into the ground, breaking the sound barrier and causing a crater and spider web of cracks to form outwards. This also causes a sudden earthquake, rocking the cavern as small rocks tumble to the ground.
"DUG HAUT!" The energy he gathered in his palm pulses outwards in an amazing arc of energy across the ground, rushing towards the rodents. Suddenly, giantic spikes stab upwards, catching 6 of the rats off guard before the spikes of earth pierce them through there chest,blood exploding out of the tops as blood slowly seeping down the spikes.
Kami-ryu calmly throws his hands forwards. 10 kunai materialize out of nowhere, stabbing two rats in the head, blood flowing down there faces as they sceamed out in pain.
15 Rodent's left...
-
A rat jumps at Lashes faces, scratching him.
"YAAA!!!" Lash yells (it sounded werid with his voice) "Duilin, get it off me!" Duilin shrugs and then swings his mallet the rodent on his face, but it quickly jumps off, and the mallet hits Lash in the face, knocking him over...
"Ooops..." Duilin laughed, Lash didn't find it so funny...
//I just felt like posting that because it seemed funny Razz //
-
Haraldur grinned at Cheetah.
"What, save my energy? Fine then."
He then pulled out the staff, it seemed to appear from nowhere. He held it in front of him in both of his hands, and rushed in front of the others. At the front, huge lightning bolts flew from the staff, killing the remaining rodents.
"That is just a taste of this weapon' power, my friends..."
-
Zeros' shrugged and looked in Haraldur's direction.
"Are you trying to scare the guys spitless? We still need there help. Keep the destruction down to a minimum..." He said and started walking again. He stopped and looked towards Lars.
"Uh...where are we now?" Zeros' asked as Lash sweatdropped.
"Just follow me..." Lash grumbled under his breath. "Stupid daemons..."
-
Cheetah, not having too much chance to join battle because of his laziness and 2 post limit, made a short gesture with his hand devouring essence of one of the rodents - it looked perfect. Not too small, fast animal to transform into and run the hell away in case Haraldur plans something evil.
"All right. If you hid the weapons not trying to use them, I guess we can trust you." - he said, then followed Lash.
-
Lars lowered his blade and looked over the injured warrior.
"We need to get him out of here."
He turned to the thick metal doors blocking their way. Holding his weapon with both hands, he brought it to his right side, the tip pointing towards the doors. The sword began to flow with bright crimson energy. In a flash, he leapt at the doors with full force, attempting to thrust his blade into the crack in between the two doors and pry them open. He struggled for a bit, trying to force the blade in, but to no avail...
"Blast!"
-----
"Gwa ha ha!! We got 'em now!"
King Wallace ran into the stairwell, brandishing a sinister jagged sword, along with some fifty heavily armed soldiers. Many were Dark Knights, a slower yet much better equipped version of the common soldier.
The mini army stopped and gasped at the sight-- dead bodies strewn about the stairs leading down. Most obviously were not killed by something human...
"M... maniacs!!"
(For clarification, they're at the top of the stairwell. Not quite at the basement level where Lars and co. are at just yet.)
-
Xenai stopped his charging. He then forced all the energy from Omni to the tip of his sword. An extreme force pushes in all directions, but to apply it to one spot and one direction, is that power times 360 ^ 3!
Xenai swiped the energy Tsu was charging by putting his hand on his back as he shot past, for an extra power boost, and charged toward the Zero Weapon, preparing for a Hirazuki (Thrust) with his massive Omni-charged sword.
-
Bite takes Frost's Pick Axe, and swings it into the crack between the doors, to open them.
"Toghther, now boss." Bite subjested
------
"I think we are almost there now..." Darak says. "I told them to put it down in this old chamber..." They come across, a large stone door, it looks as though with medium efforet somebody chould push down the door.
"I got it!" Duilin says, he pushes at the large stone, and it then falls down to the ground, revealing an large room, with torches along the walls.
"I've been here only once before, we do not know how this room got here, but we chose to put it in here..."
"You know, I wonder how those Soilders died anyway..." Lash says
At the end of the room, is a large torch with yellow flame, under it is a large smooth stone with a mace on it, and a dead body lieing next to the stone.
"This must be it..." Duilin says, walking up the weapon, his hands prepare to pick up the glowing mace...the dead body's head turns to Duilin's lead, and it's jaw falls...
//Okay guys, I got some bad news. We wiped our hard drive, but apparently it lost the information of our modem and graphics card. I am useing the computer at my dad's house. We don't have the install disc for them, so I won't be able to get online. Maybe, my mom and older bro. fixed the computer. But if it dosen't, I won't be able to post much, so if so, I'll be setting all my charas to NPC status, so you guys can control them if I don't post in 3 days after today. It would be best if Xorlak controled Bite and the guys with Duilin controled him and Darak, you can leave Darak at the town however, just don't go messing up any mayjor details about any charas, Do whatever with Lash, he is just an NPC I made//
-
"Necromancy." Zeros' whispered as he watched the dead body. "I knew it wouldn't be that easy." Zeros' turned to look at his companions.
"What should we do?"
"No idea..." said Lash. Darak nodded his head while Kami-ryu shrugged.
-
//This may be my last post for awile//
Duilin then grabs the mace, it shines it an aura as he lifts it..
"4 down 2 to go..." Duilin says with a grin...
The dead body then grabs Duilin's leg and bites, it...
"Holy shit!" He yells, his swings the mace at the zombie, smashing his head in, but the the thing still lives, suddenly from the shawdows, multipule zombies start groaning and makeing sickening noises. The headless zombie starts strangling Duilin. Duilin then shoves his hands into the zombie, and casts fire into the body burning the undead creature. Several more zombies, start crawling in from nowere surronding our heros.
Darak swung his axe at one sliceing it in half, but the top half just jumped up at him at started punching him in the face and the legs started kicking at him. Darak pushed off the necromancer, and sliced the legs apart makeing them imoble, but the top half grabed on to one of it's destroied legs and grabed Darak's leg with his other hand, and beating him with the leg.
39.5 Necromancers left...
//Well guys, you know the drill. I MIGHT be posting tomorrow, but I guess we shall have to wait and see. Well bye, guys -_- ...//
-
//Sorry, changed comps and was net-less for several days//
Armic ran towards the door, threw his staff in the middle of the room as he exited, and behind him in the room, a large explosion accured, killing all the remaining soldiers. His staff then regenerated in his hand.
-
//Actually, Necromancy is an act of minipulating the dark arts of the Death along with anything of the sort. Nothing short of death, gore and blood.\\
Zeros' searched the room with his senses. Zeros' eyes fell on the beatiful golden mace. It had a leather grip along with a grape sized gem studded in the bottom. The tips of the maces spikes seemed to shine, indicating the diamond tips of the weapon.
"There's something going on here..." Zeros' muttered to himself. He noticed how the weapons were going around. He collected a sword, Kami-ryu had a spear, Haraldur has a staff and Duilin a mace.
"I think someone is seriously playing with us..." He said under his breath. Ryu (Kami-ryu) heard him and looked at Zeros' strangely before considering it.
Zeros' unsheathed his sword and held out its transformed state. He spread his wings and shifted his stand to the left suddenly, only after images fluttered after him. He thrust his sword out in his hand, catching a zombie in the abdomen before ripping upwards and bringing the sword downwards, sending a crecent wave of energy, destroying 3 more zombies.
He shrugged and reached behind him as his crimson cape fluttered before the ornate spear dropped into his left hand. Ryu twirled it for a moment before holsting it in both his hands, left hand on the grip while his right focused near the middle.
He dropped into a strange stance, his right foot ahead while his left foot stood behind him. He pointed the spear towards the nearest zombie as blue tendrils arced across the weapons length, making the weapon glow an eerie blue. He disappeared from sight, using his speed and the shadows to his advantage.
He ducked under and attack and parried a zombie armed with a sword by bring up his metal leg, snapping the top half of the sword off. Ryu wasted no time before stabbing it through the stomach and ripping upwards with all his might, splitting it down the middle of his head. The zombie dropped to the ground as a balck smoke slowly raised from it.
Ryu shifted the spear into his left hand as his right hand flicked outwards, sending a barrage of 10 kunai towards a zombie. It struck in its face, roaring in pain, but abvously not dead. Ryu then lashed out with his cape upwards, attaching himself to the celling.
34.5 Zombies remaining...
-
Xenai came up to the Zero Weapon, thrusting out at it with all of his might, making contact with extreme force, that sent cracks through the torso armor.
Tsu blinked a couple of times, then flew forward at the armor. With a couple of powerful slashes, chunks of the armor fell, and the skin was exposed.
-
A group of 10 zombies were all bunched up under a crack in the rock ceiling.
Haraldur shouted a few unintelligable words and very fast lifted the staff up with one hand to point at the crack, and it seemed to lengthen. It then hit the ceiling with a huge noise, causing the ceiling to cave in on top of those 10 zombies.
He then smashed a zombie's head to piece when bringing his stick fast down from its high point.
23.5 zombies left.
-
//False Alarm boys. I'm back! Read Topic.//
Darak, then sliced the top half zombie, into two quaters of a zombie, and that seemed to be the end of it...
Duilin then, admired the mace, for a few seconds. "It seems so dang werid...."
"Hey Duilin!" Lash yelled angrly "Wake up!" he shook his head "Stupid deamons.." He muttered under his breath. Lash then wiped away at two zombies that were lurching toward him, yet the wip barely made them flinch. The zombies then tackled down Lash and started biteing him and clawing at him. Duilin then jumped at the zombies attacking Lash, and blasted a fire ball at one of them. The zombie then started trying to beat the flames out, but it didn't work, Duilin then picked up the other one and threw it at the burning one. He swung his mallet down at the two burning zombies.
"Eat that!" He yelled..
Lash, starting coughing, un controlably..
21 zombies left.
-
Zeros' dodged to the left as a muscled zombie came at him. It nicked his left arm some. He looked down at the zombies and at his arm.
?KIJIN RAISHUU DAN!? Zeros' swung his sword at blinding speed, making vaccum blades appear off of his sword. 11 zombies feel from his sword.
Ryu's cape let go of the ceiling, propelling Ryu downwards. He lashed out with his right fist, causing a zombie's head to cave in. Behind him, a zombie came up with a club and bashed Ryu in the back. He roared in pain as he hit the ground, a spider web of cracks forming. Ryu quickly did motions with his spear, cutting the zombie that attacked him into 5 clean pieces.
8 zombies left...
-
Lars jammed the blade into the crack once more at the same time as Frost. This time it worked, and the sword plunged through the door a few inches. He pushed the sword to the left with such force that it snapped in two, causing him to lose his balance. But at least the force was enough to creak the door open.
Lars tossed the half of the broken sword to the ground in disgust.
"Useless metal..."
He reached into the now widened crack with his hand and pulled the door open slowly, until it widened enough for a person to fit through. He turned to Frost and motioned to his fallen comrade.
"Grab him. We're outta here..."
He then shouted to Armic, who he could now see down the darkened hallway, silhouetted by the flames of the explosion:
"Coming, Armic?"
He turned and strode into the doorway, which lead to yet another darkened room?
-
"Zombies. I hate zombies." - said Cheetah, watching others fight.
-
Bite helped up Frost. His eyes opens and looked at him, he closed them again. Bite then started to carry, him. He attached his equpment onto his belt, he was quite ecumbered so Bite was moveing abit slow, considering he was carring an Ice Sword, a Pick Axe, an Ice Riffle, and his brother that was equal his weight...
-----
2 Zombies lurched toward Lash, one from infront and one from behind. They started gnawing on his neck, and limbs. He yelled in pain, Darak ran to help his comrade, but he was tackled by another zombie, he droped his axe. The zombies attacking Lash finished him off, Lash lay there dead. Duilin then came to Daraks aid. He karate choped the zombie, with flame flowing threw his hand, burning the zombie, he pealed it off Darak, and kicked it in the neck, knocking it's head off. The body then burnt to a crisp. Darak nodded at Duilin. Then they both ran to Lashes aid, only to find out it was to late. Darak then ran at one of the zombies in rage, and sliced it diagonally in half, it's blood splatered on Lashes wounds. Lashes eyes opened, they were totally black, with red pupals, he then rose up, with one hand pointing to Darak. Lash grabed Darak's neck and started punching him in the head, the other zombies then clawed at Duilin, but he swiped his mallet down at the zombies head, knocking it down, and then casted more flame on to it, since fire seemed to be very effective...
Darak, then swiped his axe at the Lash zombie's wasit, cutting it in two, but Lash kept punching him, but his grip grew weaker, so after 3 seconds he fell to the ground. Darak, then sliced him down in a vertical motion...
5 Zombies left.
-
Ryu quickly dodged to the left as a zombies fist impacted with the ground. He kicked there legs out from underneath it, causing it to fall to the ground. He lashed out with his cape, catching the zombie in the head three times, chest five times, feet and arms twice. He then used the body as a spring board, cutting it diagnolly across the chest, killing it.
Zeros' sheathed his sword and formed two ki balls in his hands and blasted at the last four zombies, killing them.
"Well now..." Zeros' said. "That was interesting."
-
"We lost Lash." Darak said sadly
"Yeah, sorry about that." Duilin says symapathectly "Okay, my friends...behold." He holds up the shineing golden mace, it's spikes were sharp and clean, the leather grip was still in good condition, it infact was the most beutifull weapon to Duilin's eyes. "I'll carrie this with pride, and take good care of it..." He said softly. He sliped it on his belt, and fasend it tightly. He looked at the cuts and brusies on him, his cloths were stain and sligtly torn. "Darak, do you have any spare equipment? I could use a new wardrobe."
"Yes. Come now, we must go to the surface." Darak began to lead the way back up to the lader, followed by Duilin, and you guys Razz .
-
Lars waved his hand. Torches lining the walls immediately began to ignite in succession, revealing a massive underground room...
In reality, it was more like a ship dock, with long platforms extending out into the void of the gargantuan enclosure. It took several seconds for enough torches to light to reveal what was in the center of the room...
There it was. It was a black ship, yet there was no water. Its structure was very similar to that which Emperor Retan rode to Romme: The Great Black Vessel. Yet this one was much smaller. Still, it spanned over 100 yards in length. It's black metallic sides eerily reflected the red light of the torches...
-
Armic ran faster, picking up pace. He ran straight into the room, almost running into Lars.
"Ooh, are we to commendeer this vessel?" Armic said with glee.
-
"Well mass assassination and killing are all good and well, but we need to find the last two or three weapons." Zeros' said quietly. Ryu just nodded behind Zeros', his spear held behind his back, sheathed in his cloak.
"If we can all use our weapons, doesn't that mean's Iduran's is useable too?" Ryu asked after a moment of silence.
Zeros' shook his head. "I have no reason to use it. I have my own sword." Ryu only nodded in response.
-
"Anyone have any ideas where the other weapons are? It is useless for us only to have those we have. They were created at the same time, and they will have to be destroyed at the same time.
"Since all the weapons we have found had returned to their original homes, why should we not go to the Dark Empire capital? That is where such records would be kept. I know, I have been there before."
-
"Dark... Empire... Capital?" - Cheetah asked. - "Good joke. Now, where should we really go?"
-
"It really should not be too hard, since the Empire has collapsed into many squabbling factions. The only downside I can see is that it is a warzone now."
-
"Great. That should be LOADS of fun." Zeros' said sarcasticly. Ryu just nodded.
-
"Indeed."
Lars lead the group up the ramp into the ship, which was also pitch black at first. But upon their entry, various touches and candles lining the walls ignited, lighting the way.
Lars turned to Armic and Frost, pointing to a ladder.
"That should lead to the navigation deck. Go there and see if you can steer it, once I activate the core, that is..."
He turned, flipping his cloak, and ran down the hallway in the opposite direction.
(It won't do anything until Lars turns it on!)
----
"No way! They're gonna try and steal Prince Jayce's prototype ship!"
"Ha! Impossible! Even we don't know how to activate it! They're cornered now! KILL THEM!!"
Some fifty warriors burst into the torch-lit docking bay, running at the black vessel at full speed...
-
"Yeah, maybe after we got to the Dark Empire capital, I could see if I can fit the mace ball into my mouth." Duilin chiped in.
We shurged and then went into the wooden building. Darak derectied him to the armory. He got a new jacket, abit darker then his old one, he then got some knee pads, and he washed his hands and face, from the water pump. He looked at his new jacket, it had the symbol of the Dark Empire on it. He didn't seem to mind so much. But he decieded to scratch, the Romme symbol on his mallet. Also in wight ink he had the Romme symbol on the front of his jacket.
----
//FYI, Xorlak, it's Bite who is active and Frost who is KOed//
"Whoa...that's quite a ship..." Bite commented, then he turned around and spoted the small amry of troops. He aimed his Ice Riffle at one soilder and froze him, he then blasted another ice beam at another one, then the Ice Crystal ran out of juice..
48 Soilders left...
-
Xenai thrusted his huge sword once again, now into the demon's skin. The sword pierced the skin, and brought an enormous roar from the Zero Weapon.
It immediately retaliated with a full force punch that sent Xenai into the wall of the confined dimension, and caused him to tear through it. Tsu immediately followed him as best as he could. As he found himself in the normal dimension, he saw Xenai falling. He immediately flew over to catch him, and put him down on land. He was unconscious. "Oh, shit!"
Tsu turned around to watch the Zero Weapon leap out of the tear, landing onto a nearby remote island and causing extreme tremors. The Zero Weapon had done exactly what Xenai wanted to prevent: escaping.
-
"Oh well. Your will." - said Cheetah. - "Where is that capital anyway? Somewhere in the mainland?"
-
"The capital is on the mainland near the coast. It is in the North. It has a large port.
"However, it will be long and hard to get there. And we will have to go on foot. There are many traps against flyers, including invisible, moving walls. Even coming from the sea, the walls start immediately once you get above land. We will have to walk. And we will have to walk from Laus: it is closer than here, despite being further south."
Haraldur hovered above the ground.
-
"Sounds like a plan." Duilin says to Haradular "Might be a bit crazy...but hey, what isn't now a days." Duilin now had something like sword holster, but it was designed for his mallet, he was holding the mace in his right hand.
"Well, I wish you the best of luck." Darak says to them "We are hopeing to turn this into a fully functional base, someday, not nessicarly for the Dark Empire...."
"Well allright, good luck to you to, hope your not to upset with us takeing your weapon and all!" Duilin smiled at Darak
Darak glared at him, and looked at the golden mace. Darak might have even attacked him, if Duilin hadn't of saved his life, and if Haraldur and Zeros' were not so powerfull.
-
Armic looked at Bite sheepishly, "Can you pilot a ship?"
'If not, I could definately have fun trying to learn..." Armic said with mischievious grin, as he grabbed the steering wheel.
-
//Please, people, remember that Ellenna is still unconscious on the ground...//
-
"No, I can't but Frost, can, here." He places Frost down on the ground infront of Armic. "I spent all the time learning to fight, he's the smart one. Try and find some healing potions, wile I hold off these losers!" He tells Armic, as he loads up his gun. He stands in the doorway, blocking the enterance so the soilders couldn't get in, he starts blasting away at the soilders, freezeing them soild!
-
He notices Darak's look in his eye. Zeros' stared at the man for a moment. Darak suddenly started sweating and looked around frantically.
"Well...I'llbegoingbye!" Darak said sheepishly while dashing off, far away from the party. Zeros' just shrugs and walks over to Cheetah, Ryu right behind him.
"Well. It looks like were going back to Laus. Oh joy!" Zeros' exclaims happily while setting up his ki shiled, enveloping both Cheetah and Ryu. "I'll get a head start and meet you at Laus. See you there." He said while flapping all six of his wings and flying off southword.
-
(Oops... Yes, Bite, I mean. Heh...)
Lars continued down the narrow hallways of the ship, but stopped suddenly, sensing an incredible force enter the dimension far away...
"Hmm... I wonder..."
Realizing he hadn't the time to ponder it, he continued on, finally reaching the reactor room, which contained a dark orb in the center of an extravagant looking mechanical device. The shrouded man walked up to it, waving his hands over the orb, chanting a spell in his mind. Slowly the orb began to emit a yellow glow, various translucent "wires" visible on the walls throughout the ship displaying the same aura. The ship seemed to come alive...
----
Various lights and levers began to emit light in the ship's control room. Sensing the awakening of the ship, the "roof" of the underground enclosure began to slowly open...
(Weapon systems activated!)
-
Haraldur picked up Duilin and flew to Laus.
-
// As far as I get, Cheetah is in Zeros' shield again? Kewl. Leet. //
-
// Yeah. Right know there flying towards Laus. \\
-
Tsu was completely pale. How was he going to fight such a monstrous demon? He was only human. The Zero Weapon pointed his hand at Tsu.
"Gah!" Tsu jumped into the water holding Xenai, and swam as fast as he could, as deep as he could, as the demon shot a huge red beam of energy at where he was before.
Zion, what are you doing?
-
Lars ran backtracked through the hallways of the black ship as it began to emit a humming noise...
He reached the ladder to the control room and ascended to a chamber slightly above the deck, with glass windows on all sides but the rear. Seeing Armic at the wheel, he approached from behind.
The roof above was almost completely open, revealing the overcast sky above.
"When the roof is open enough, find the switch that activates the vertical lift and hit it full blast. Once the rest of them figure out what's going on, they're not going to be happy..."
He stepped to a panel to Armic's left and began to fumble with some odd controls. On the exterior of the ship, one of the cannons began to move, aiming directly at the approaching horde of soldiers. After a brief charge, it fired a concentrated orb of shadow energy into the mass, scattering them through the air with an explosion that rocked the docking bay. About half of them were vaporized instantly...
King Wallace turned and began running like a scared child.
"H-how d-did they?! Just who are these guys?!"
-
"Hahahahah! Look at him run!" Bite laughed, he then fired a few blasts at more soilders, trying to atemp to reach him...
"Uhh...." Frost groand
"Dude, your awake?" Bite said, turning his head for a second
"Give me a (Editor: Censored)ing potion! I'm really hurt!" Frost yelled
"Yeah, sure, the Boss, seems to have things taken care of with the ship's cannon."
Bite then ran of into the infirmatary (it has one of those, right?) , he found a small cabnet on the wall, he broke it open, with Frost's Pick Axe, it held two potions, he quickly swiped them and then dashed back to the others, he triped, but kept the potions in his hand. He placed them down on the floor, and got back up and then picked them up again. He helped Frost drink one, and then another.
"Feal any better?" Bite asked
"No, it still hurts...but that's potions..." Frost got back up, Bite gave him his weapons, he cracked his knuckles, and he grined "I'm back!"
-
// This is getting boring you guys Smile No interaction for us, we're all fighting NPCs we are controlling ourselves Sad //
-
//I think it's still fun.But we just have to wait, soon Duilin, Zeros' and the group, will bump into Lars and his group, and then we can have a cool battle...just...we need to wait. Unless, maybe if get more villans, because currantly we have 4.//
-
//That is exactly why we are going to be going north from Laus, so that we are more likely to meet them in a logical way.//
They were nearing Laus.
-
// Oh well, I wasn't tracking what was Lars and the rest doing Sad //
-
(The rules do state you should read EVERY post, ya know... Heh...)
Lars turned around, seeing that the fallen Ice Warrior had recovered, partially at least.
"Excellent. You should be wary of those of the fire element. Leave them to me."
He then turned to Bite.
"You found those downstairs? Excellent. How well stocked are we? I don't think we'll have time to muddle around for additional supplies."
Lars ran to a window and noted that their pursuers had all fled in terror.
"This is a prototype ship intended for use by the former Dark Emperor's son. Former ships of this design were capable of flying some 50 to 100 feet high. But, due to their design, they were required to be over a water source such as a lake or ocean to work."
He turned around, his hands behind his back, behind his cloak.
"However, this ship is quite different. It does not require proximity to a water source, meaning it can travel anywhere. Quite a bit higher, too... Also, I hear this one is built for speed, that is, if everything actually is complete and working..."
A large clanking sound echoed throughout the chamber. The roof above them had opened up completely, revealing the open, overcast sky.
"Hit it, Armic. The switch should be on your right."
-
Zeros' suddenly stopped in mid-air. He looked towards Laus. His eyes became unfocused as he shivered for a second. He shook his head and grimced. Ryu looked over worried, but Zeros' waved him off.
"I'm...fine...It's nothing..." Zeros' looked towards where Lars group is and frowned.
Haraldur...you feel that? There trying to revive the Dark Empire...we need to pick up speed. Zeros' said to Haraldur thought a telepathic link. Zeros' flapped his wings once, rocketing him ahead, breaking the sound barrier repeatedily.
"I'll kill you all..."He said quietly.
-
// Oh noes!!!11 I abused the rules, I'm banned Sad //
-
//Well it's your fault for having her pass out and giving us no real clues as to how to help her... I made a suggestion, but it didn't go anywhere. =/ ///
Armic hit the switch as he was told, and the ship shook a bit, knocking Armic to the deck suddenly, as it began to ascend.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Well, are we going to take her to a Temple, or do you have a better idea, Kismet? She needs help.." Nevina said.
-
"Dude, the boat's like flyin' and stuff...." Bite says
"Good job for finding that out, Bite!" Frost sneared "Hmm, I bet those deamons and there friends won't know what hit em, after we show them this thing." He smiled
"So, uh Boss, you think we should take this thing to Laus?" Bite asked
------
Even Duilin could feal the presence of evil, once he became a deamon, he has had strange fealings and sences, that he never had before. He still wasn't used to this deamon mumbo jumbo, but he acepted it.
-
//Well, an unconscious person will not exactly be in the position to be giving clues, will she?//
They will die. You can count on that. The bastards will die... I will have my revenge...
Haraldur rocketed towards Laus, and landed at the north edge of the city. He dropped Duilin gently to the floor.
We will need to stop so the others can rest and eat.
-
"Finnaly, were here. I'm starveing...I also need to tell Nevina were I've been, I told her that I went out for a drink, and that was a week ago!" Duilin says, he then streches "Hey, Haradular, I'm gonna go to my place for awile, I'll meet back here, okay." He then walked off, his wings then totally folded down and sliped under his jacket.
-
Tsu just floated there in the water as long as he could. The Zero Weapon turned in the direction of Laus and started walking.
Tsu popped his head above the water, noticing that the demon was walking away. He put Xenai onto the patch of land he was on, and then realized where the demon was going. "Crap! Not to Laus!"
-
Zeros' stopped in mid-air and litterly fell, his wings still extended. He dropped right by Haraldur and gave him a glance before letting down his barrier.
"You guys go rest. I have some...duities to attend to." Zeros' said before crouching and jumping straight into the air. After he reached over the top of the city, he retracted the bottom four wings and kept two of his out. He floated in mid-air, the beating of his wings the only sound coming from him as he turned his head in the direction of the evil.
"And so...it comes." He looked in the direction the Zero Weapon was heading from and sighed. "An old foe comes..." He then turned to where Lars's group was coming from an sighed again. "A new enemy comes..."
Haraldur. Lars and his group have come into contact with a great evil force...it feels like the time we fought Retan directly...there using the same magic. Zeros' turned in the direction of the Zero Weapon and sighed.
An old enemy also rears its ugly head: the Zero Weapon. I shall deal with the monstrosity. I have to pay him back for Qeni and Zev. With that, Zeros' spread his two wings wide and flew off in the direction of the Zero Weapon.
"I shall see you dead..." He muttered under his breath.
----
Meanwhile, Ryu was looking off towards where Zeros' flew off. He turned his attention towards Haraldur.
"I suppose we should find something to do. In awhile, Laus will become a war zone. I'm sure you remember the war almost a month ago...things might become like that again: absolute destruction. I know that you, my master, Duilin and Cheetah were all involved in the war." Ryu sighed as he glanced at the unsuspecting peopel. "He once told me what happened. If that is any indication, we should stand by." With that, Ryu walked off towards a tavern to wait for the conflict.
-
Haraldur shouted to Ryu: "In that, case, start organising defences. I have things to do."
With that, Haraldur pulled the staff from nowhere, and held it in front of him. The staff lengthened fast, pushing him 100 metres upwards, and then shortening to normal length, with Haraldur floating on air.
He looked around, and saw Lars' ship.
I sense the presence of those Ice Warrior scum with Lars. I will harry thim.
He flew towards the ship.
-
Zeros' looked forwards and stopped in mid-air, his wings beating against the wind as he looked onwards towards the Zero Weapon.
"It's him..." Zeros' stood and waited for the Zero weapon to come closer. At this distance, any attacks would fail as the weapon would dodge it or deflect. All he could do is wait.
He started going forwards at a much slower pace, inching closer towards the being known as the Zero Weapon as it inched closer towards him.
----
Ryu looked around breifly before he spotted Duilin. Ryu immediately ran and walked by Duilin.
"Sir Duilin; be ready. They come. The people from the tavern come as well as a new threat, something my master and Sir Haraldur recognize. Sir Haraldur said to organize defenses to protect agianst the foes, but what can we do?" Ryu said to the older man.
-
Tsu slapped Xenai around a bit, then remembered he had an Elixir on him. He nearly drowned Xenai with it, and he woke up coughing.
"What the hell are you trying to do, kill me!?" Tsu jumped back, startled. Xenai turned his head to look at the Zero Weapon. "He's going to Laus!" Xenai took off toward him. After a bit of hesitation, Tsu followed. After catching up to him, Tsu asked a question.
"Why couldn't you have just left it in its little dimension?"
"There's a function it has that would really help us. Has Zion come back yet?"
"No..."
--- --- ---
If I'm counting correctly, Zion should return in 2 posts.
-
Zeros' stood about 100 meters away from the Zero Weapon as it trudged forwards. Zeros' hand rested on its hilt as he stared forwards at the monstosity. He kept his left hand rested on his sword hilt and raised his right palm, aiming directly at the Zero Weapon.
Zeros' remembered a great pain, a great anguish. He reopened scars that have long since been dead, buried in the stream of time as tendrils of a sickly green color coursed across his body. The green aura grew as he remembered times when his friends and family were killed, murdered and he watched as his friends grew old and died, as his master died by his own foolishness.
The sickly green aura increased as thousands of tiny tendrils coursed across his body. He pushed all these emotions forwards as the aura disappeared and a green ball of energy slowly formed on his outstreached palm. In a whisper, "Shi Shi Hokodan.", was heard as it carried across the winds wings.
The green ball suddenly pulsed with energy and grew into the size of a compact car and rushed forwards towards it prey. The green ball of depression ki slowly gained speed as green tendrils arced across its form, heading towards the Zero Weapon as it was only a few meters away.
-
Duilin nods at Ryu, in agrement
"Hmmm, well, if we can find my friend Nevina, she could help." Duilin says "I bet we could find alot more, this place is packed with old warriors looking for adventure, I also recall some sort of priest like person, the Ice Warriors were picking on. We should go find find, them, let's go."
-
Cheetah died from his lethal disease, Bublogamia Pygmendosium.
He never told anyone of this disease, thinking it will scare the others.
---
Kismet spontanously combusted and died.
Aaa! Looks like I have no more characters left now!
-
Haraldur was a few hundred metres above and away from the ship.
In his hands a ball of balck smoke compacted to the size of a basketball, getting darker and darker.
He threw it down at the ship, covering it and the area around it for many kilometres it thick, black smog.
-
Cheetah died from his lethal disease, Bublogamia Pygmendosium.
He never told anyone of this disease, thinking it will scare the others.
---
Kismet spontanously combusted and died.
Aaa! Looks like I have no more characters left now!
What the hell!?
-
// Didn't I tell you about Cheetah's disease previously? Must have forgotten. //
-
(Aww come on, Cesque. You, Dude Man, and I are the only ones left from the original cast!)
----
Lars ignored the Ice Warrior's question for the moment, peering out the window with a sinister grin... His gaze was fixed to the south, to Laus...
"What a splendid machine... Even acting on its own, it provides the perfect distraction..."
The ship rose higher and higher into the gray sky. Soon, a black smog engulfed the exterior of the ship.
"The prelude is over. Let the first act begin... That's right, you ignorant fool, come and get me..."
He turned, calmly walking to the door that lead to the outside deck.
"Ice Warriors. Steer the ship northward at 10% speed. Once you're out of the fog, figure out how to operate the cannons... Armic, come with me when you're prepared, this particular one's a handfull..."
He opened the door and walked out onto the deck. The thick black smoke reduced visiblity to a minimum. Lars began to float straight up into the air, his arms folded under his black cloak. In a second, he was above the smog. Haraldur was in plain sight...
"Ragnar... Yes, I'm surprised I didn't recognize you then... But then again, you are more notable for your actions than your face... So now, tell me, what interest does this great destroyer of nations have in saving the world alongside a bunch of demon-winged freaks?"
-
"Saving the world? You think that is my motive? My plan comes into action immediately after the destruction of the weapons. If you do not know, then you evidently have not thoroughly studied them. Maybe this will give you a clue."
Haraldur held out his staff in front of him, and it lengthened to 100 metres. He then tapped the ship with it, by lengthening it further.
"These weapons are part of me. They are prisons for part of me. Surely then, you can see my motive for their destruction. I want my full self which I never received. This will be the retributive strike of retributive strikes.
"You have your own choice of what stance on this is."
-
The Zero Weapon took the hit in the exact spot where its skin had been exposed, sending it flying for a few yards. Tsu and Xenai narrowly dodged the monstrous being, and flew up to Zeros'.
"I know you probably don't trust me," said Xenai, "But don't completely destroy it. Just shut it down."
Tsu nodded his head at Zeros', as if to help influence him to trust Xenai.
--- --- ---
Zion held up his Eternity Weapon, from high above the clouds. It had a light cyan gem on it between the hilt and the blade. "It's done."
Zion will return next post.
-
// Actually, Zeros' was in the First Chapter, he just didn't finish it. \\
"Shut it down huh?" Zeros' stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Guess I could do that." Zeros' hand rested on his sword before he vanished from sight using pure speed. Next, he reappeared near the Zero's Weapon's head, his sword transformed and poised for a thrust.
He charged his weapon with an aura of blue ki and thrust it downwards at the Zero Weapon's head...
-
"I come ready..." Said Armic with a big smirk on his face.
He quickly jumped to Lars' side and said indestcreetly, "Who's this freak?... Qor's followers should've destroyed your kind long ago..."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina slowly backed away, then turned around and fled, running from the burning Kismet and unconcious Ellenna.
-
The armor on the Zero Weapon's head had not been removed, but Zeros' was quite strong. Many cracks were sent through the armor, and part of it even broke off. The Zero Weapon looked up at Zeros', its eyes glowing red, as if it were about to go Cyclops on him.
"Stop right there!" Zion was floating about 5 yards away from the Zero Weapon with his new sword drawn. "The problems with your creation, Xenai, are 1, it's too permanent, and 2, it's too freely controlled."
Zion held his sword into the air, the new gem glowing. "Come, Eternity Weapon!" A new demon //demon does not necessarily mean evil// appeared behind Zion. It looked much like the Zero Weapon, except it was more streamlined, not evil looking, and about 3/4 its size. "This baby is faster than yours, but not as strong. And to prevent any screw-ups, it only stays out for about 15 minutes to a half hour. It's not really exact."
Xenai whistled at the new creation. "Woo, that's nice! Does that one have a merge function?"
"Yeah, but it only lasts about 8 to 15 minutes. I assume you wanted to fix the Zero Weapon just so you could get to its merge function?"
"Yep."
"I don't blame you. It would help us out a lot. The Zero Weapon can't possibly beat each and every one of us. Attack, Eternity Weapon!"
//This is a big power, so I figured I should put some limits on. First, Zion must charge for 2 posts. The Eternity Weapon can only stay out for 3 posts, and can't come back out until after 10 posts. And the merge function lasts for only 2 posts, and causes the Eternity Weapon to go away after the merge is over. After Xenai fixes the Zero Weapon, it will be the same way. Are these limits okay, or should they be adjusted? I'm wide open to any suggestions of adjustments. I'll show off the merge function next post.
-
Zeros' smiled and flew gently backwards, sheathing his katana as he went. He turned towards Xenai and looked at him straight in the eyes.
"When the Zero Weapon is fixed, if I ever hear it killing innocents, unintentionally, I will personally come and kill you and your weapon." He siad this with no malice in his voice, only truthfulness. His look vanished as he gazed into the eyes of the Zero Weapon. He understood the creature completely, but something as powerful as it couldn't go unpunished if it started to rampage.
"I'll hold it off: somehow." He said, bearing no emotion in his voice. He was aware that all three of them knew the extent of his power. "I'm going to use an old trick. I'm sure you three will recognize this. If you can, make fire to throw into my attack." Zeros', of course, was talking about the Rising Dragon Ascension attack. The tornado of hot and cold ki increases with power if an opponent readily fed a hot aura, or even fire, into the tornado. The only way its stopped is if the opponent stops generating heat or the source of fire is stopped.
Zeros' vanished in an after image, which stayed for a few moments and reappeared right beneath the Zero Weapon. He scanned the weapon with his senses, of course it had no ki, but he could sense a heat coming from it.
"Hey Xenai, I hope your machine shuts down after awhile. The Hiryu Shoten Ha's winds reach up to Mach 1 if enough heat is fed. If you can keep the Eternity Weapon cooled enough, it won't be affected by the tornado. Same goes for you all. Even if this doesn't work, the circuts should be visible after this attack, so it works both ways." Zeros' flapped his wings and drew back his fist. He looked upwards at the stomach carapace of the Zero Weapon and sighed. It was a magnificent creation, but it was too dangerous.
Soon enough, Zeros' right hand became impowered by hot ki, a reverse technique he discovered for the Rising Dragon Ascension. Instead of drawing a person into a spiral and using the Soul of Ice, he instead concentrated his ki to heat up, forming the hot battle aura needed in his fist. When he released the heat in a form of a corkscrew punch, as soon as it is met with a cold air, the tornado forms this way. Still, heat is the main soruce of power for the tornado.
"HIRYU SHOTEN HA! (Rising Dragon Ascension!)" After a few moments of quiet, the water below Zeros' extended fist started to swirl and not soon after, a magnificent tornado formed. The ammount of hot ki Zeros' used almost covered the entire weapon. "You guys might wanna get away! This tornado can get rough! Just remember to stay calm!" He shouted to the three over increasing winds.
-
"Hey, if you gotta kill me, that's fine. Just bury me with 100 girls." That last sentence said jokingly. His soul comprised of darkness, but that is in no way evil, even though that's what darkness was most associated with. Now that the evil mark had been freed from him, he was just a real laid back guy and a smart ass, but a good guy. Xenai used a large amount of his magic force to cast a high-level fire spell to coexist with Zeros' attack. "Zion, show me your merge function!"
"Will do. Eternity Weapon, merge!"
Zion and the Eternity Weapon glowed a perfect white, as in 255 255 255. The two bodies came together. There was a bright flash, and there stood the merged form, Eternity Ultima. It was like Zion wearing the Eternity Weapon as armor. White metal covered Zion's entire body, actually, it was his body. Except for his head and hair, which were normal, except for a headband-esque piece on his forehead. Zion gripped a more majestic Eternity Weapon sword in his metal right hand. "Let's shut that thing down fast."
//Hm... I don't think Eternity Weapon or Zero Weapon should be able to merge for one summon after merging. That sounds good.
-
Duilin then dashed off, hopefully followed by Ryu, but it didn't matter to muhc to him. He then went near the area were Kismet, Nevina and Ellena were. He then spoted Nevina
"Hello there!" Duilin called to her "Come, here, this is important."
-
(All those rules sound good, EoN.)
----
"Ha ha ha ha!! So in the end it all boils down to the same thing. It's power, isn't it? Prisons, huh? You think destroying the weapons will give you more power. Some think collecting the weapons will give them power. It's all the same..."
Lars nodded to Armic, before begining to slowly float towards Haraldur, arms still folded.
"What if this part of yourself isn't what you think it is...?"
-
"Oh, it is not power. I have all the power I will ever need. It is part of myself. When the weapons are destroyed, I will have nine of my parts recovered: I have three recovered now.
"There is no power in the weapons themselves, however it might seem so. Those weapons have actually been leaching off me, for the whole of my existance. Apart from that, the only thing they have is part of my mind.
"Why should I let this continue?
"Anyway, how else do you think I have the ability to use this staff so easily? It is part of me, with no skill needed to control."
He paused for a moment, and looked thoughtful.
"All my life my self is lost, and I am vengeful."
-
Frost sets the speed to 10% north. "Bite, figure out how to work the cannons!" He says
"Fine, then." Bite replies, he then looks at a bunch of switches and buttons. "I wonder what would happen if I pulled this switch, the ship the started to move back wards.
"Bite, you idiot! Pull it back!" He yells
Bite then pulls the switch back. He then looks at all the others, he then remembers what Lars did to fire the weapons, he then looked around untill he found the controls, the cannon then fired a shot, just flying by Haraldur.
"Guess, that's it!" Bite says.
-
The tornado picked up speed, growing and growing in size and gale as the they pumped it full of warm ki/magic. Soon, the tornado reached as big as the Zero Weapon while going just around 500 mph. The wind howled against the Zero Weapon's massive machine plates, seeking to destroy it.
//EoN whenever you feel like it, you can stop the tornado by stopping the flow of hot ki/magic.\\
----
Ryu looked around where Duilin stopped at the three other people.
"Interesting...preiests..." Ryu mummbled under his breath.
-
As Haraldur ranted on, Armic jammed his left hand into his robe and began charging dark energy into it. It was not visible, as the energy itself was black, and Armic was taking care not to let it be seen.
He muttered incantations over and over in his head, and it began to burn in the back of his skull, as his entire arm began to pulse with energy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Duilin?!" Nevina shouted in relief.
"Finally, someone familiar who doesn't blow up!" Nevina said, rather offbeat from the conversation.
-
"Okay, listen. There's this huge ship in the sky, it has somebody who I belive served the Dark Empire. He's looking for the 6 weapons, and I have one." Duilin says, he shows her the mace "Zeros' still has the sword, Haraldur and a new friend here have, one." He points to Ryu "Nevina, this is my Kami-Ryu, Zeros' aprentice. Kami-Ryu, this is Nevina, a friend of mine that I met on the Romme Island. Okay, now Nevina, we might be needing your help."
-
//I'm glad you're content with the limits, Xorlak-sama.
The Zero Weapon's armor shattered, due to the intense assault made by Zeros'. Tsu flew around, catching as many pieces as he could, knowing that they would help repair it. "Yeah, it's working!" Xenai was very impressed by Zeros' strength. The Zero Weapon's vitality now started to fade. Xenai cut off the flow of heat. "Zion, attack!"
Ultima Eternity flew forward, pulling its sword back in Hirazuki posture. The Eternity Weapon alone was 3/4 as strong as the Zero Weapon. With Zion merged, Ultima Eternity's strength was equal to the Zero Weapon's. Ultima Eternity thrusted its sword at the Zero Weapon's core...
=== === ===
EW: Merged, 1 post left
ZW: ---
-
The winds died down to a gentle breeze as Zeros' retracted his fist and gentle flew back and crossed his arms over his chest. The caught his hair as it gentle shuffled in the wind. His trench coat remained in a still position as he watched.
----
Ryu bowed to Nevina.
"Hello Lady Nevina. It is a pleasure to meet you." Ryu raised from his bow and put his hands behind his back. "Zeros'-sama mentioned something about a 'Zero Weapon' that's coming towards Lars." Ryu commented nonchalantly.
-
Lars raised his hand, signaling Frost and Bite in the ship to hold their fire.
... Just who is this guy anyway...?
Lars' path curved as he floated, so that he was now approaching the opposite side of Haraldur. In a minute Haraldur would be directly between Lars and Armic.
"Hmmm, interesting... Yes, I do believe that is a new one. Well then, if you are after destroying the weapons, then you have no business with me, as you should clearly be able to tell that I have none..."
A smirk became visible behind his shroud.
"However, I can't help but get the feeling that you are going to get in my way..."
-
"And you in mine, I do not doubt. I will not allow anyone to keep the weapons in existance, and I suspect that is your wish: to leach off me, as Retan tried before.
"If, however, you have no interest in the weapons, and no interest in my companions as yet, then I can happily bid you farewell, and fair weather.
"What is your stance on the weapons?"
Haraldur edged so that both Armic, Lars and the ship would remain in his field of view.
-
Kahn walked towards Ellenna and saw Nevina with others in the distance.
"She's none of my concern."
He stood over Ellenna.
"Hmm unconscious. Well you still owe me a job, but I'm afraid that if the Jin Elf isn't going for help, then I may have to leave you here.
-
Armic, still charging his pssible attack, began to smile, but it was a painful smile, as his mind began to burn. But, he tried to speak. "Well... Why are yo-ou still here then...?" Armic said, trying to hide his pain.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Uhmm... weapons, flying ships, I'm not really getting it here. Maybe you could explain on the way." Nevina said. As she finished speaking, she bowed in return to Ryu's bow. As she came back up, she lifted her body of the ground and began to float, ready to fly.
-
"Hmm, odd, I don't recall you being able to fly. Anyways, Nevina. Possibly an old member of the Dark Empire, is flying around in an advanced prototype of Retan's ship. Haraldur has confronted them, and Zeros' I belive is battleing this, Zero weapon, I don't know much about it at all. So shall we go?" Duilin asked, as he flaped his wings and began to float in the air.
-
Ryu frowned for a moment and glanced between Duilin and Nevina. He could indeed make wings out of his ki, but it took so much he was usually readily exhausted from the expendxure.
"Yes we shall." Ryu said while following Duilin on the ground.
-
"Heh..."
A faint crimson aura surrounded the shrouded man...
"As far as the weapons go, I intend to let sleeping dogs lie... I would suggest you and your 'companions' do the same...
"It's a shame though. I'm afraid I cannot allow your 'companions' to live for other reasons... If you insist on defending them, then you'll simply have to be removed. It's especially convenient since you've taken the trouble to come down here all by yourself. Nothing personal."
Lars extended his right arm, a bright crimson orb appearing before it.
"Also, I've heard so much about Ragnar, the traitor of traitors... The uncontrollable enigma that was once not a bad general. I'm simply dying to see what you're made of..."
The first orb fired like a cannon, straight at Haraldur, the recoil of heated air blasting in all directions. Lars continued with a continuous stream of explosive fireballs, rocketing one off twice a second...
-
Haraldur saw this, and acted a split second before the first could hit.
He split into 4, the two Haraldurs, Ragnar, and the staff, which warped into the shape similar to Ragnar.
The fireballs went through the middle of them. Then they reformed, leaving Ragnar as the outside image.
"Oh, indeed..."
Haraldur fired a grey orb at the ship, which hit, releasing a cloud of knockout gas.
He then formed a shield around himself, which would survive a few hits before being destroyed.
"Spoiling the fun already? I wanted to explain my feud with the Dark Empire, if you would be so kind..."
//Treat the shield as an NPC, which can withstand around 10 (give or take) average hits, and fewer powerful hits.//
-
The Zero Weapon fell backwards, into the ocean as Ultima Eternity pulled its sword out. "It's ugly with its armor off, ya know..."
Tsu floated over to the tiny island, putting down the last piece of armor.
Xenai grabbed all the armor and went underwater, commencing to repair and re-program the Zero Weapon.
"Now that's done for. We have 2 great powers on our side... So long as the Zero Weapon is reprogrammed right. We'll be glad to join you in destroying the weapons."
=== === ===
EW: Merged, 0 posts
ZW: ---
-
Duilin looked down at Ryu. "Kami-Ryu, if you wish to come with us to the ship, I'll carry you, but if you wish to help out Zeros', I'm afraid you'll have to walk, the choice is yours."
-----
"Frost, looks like Lars, is fighting that dude, who...just....multiplied..." Bite called "Should I fire at him?"
"I dunno, wait for the...wait, what the hell is this stuff?" Frost replied
"Uhhh....I don't kno..." Bite then passed out, followed by his brother...The knockout gas got to them...
-
Lars began a dash at Haraldur, moving faster and faster as he neared the man. It was not a straight line, but rather more sporadic, as Lars' image blurred as he approached, appearing to the left and right at irregular intervals.
"Surely a man of your caliber can speak his life story while parrying attacks from a simple mage as myself..."
He shouted the words as he fired three low energy fireballs in succession at the barrier, which because of his movement, came from three different directions.
-
//Barrier at 7 hp.//
"Simple? I doubt you are simple...
"The Dark Empire would use me to further their own power, to leach off me. It took me a while to realise this, but as Ragnar I realised the truth first: they were part of me and would be used to leach from my power, my self, my consciousness. So I rebelled."
Haraldur caused the barrier to explode, releasing the energy of 7 fireballs on Armic and Lars. He then caused a poisoned knfe to appear in his hand, which he threw at Lars.
-
Zion came apart from the Eternity Weapon, which got sucked into the gem on the sword. Xenai floated out of the water with a similar gem on his sword in the same place, except his was red. "I think we're good to go."
"I agree."
Tsu nodded his head slowly, though he was of little use.
=== === ===
EW: 10
ZW: 10
-
Zeros' looked up at the three warriors and sighed.
"Come on then. We have to stop Lars and his party." Without waiting for a reply, Zeros' folded his wings outwards and brust forwards towards the position Lars was in, breaking the sound barrier.
-
"I guess, we have no choice, let's go Kami-Ryu!" He picks up Ryu and flys off to the location of the ship.
-----
Frost and Bite will wake up in a few posts.
-
Armic was consentrating souly on the preperation of his attack, and his head was throbbing in pain. One of the energy balls hit him square in the chest, knocking him down, but his consentration was so great, his spell did not fizzle.
He lept up, his spell finally complete. His arm had become black steel, just as his sword, and it resonated dark energies. He charged at Haraldur, then as he thought Harauldur was about to counter or Parry, he teleported behind him, and swung at the "God's" side.
//Level 2 + Spell Preperation of 2 posts = 4 VS. Player Level of Target: 3//
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina followed Duilin and Ryu.
-
Lars threw both arms in front of his face, forming a quick barrier. Three of the fireballs slamed into it, destroying the barrier and sending Lars flying backwards several feet, though he quickly regained his balance.
"Hmm, fair enough. I suppose I would do the same in your position..."
Lars moved his head to the left, the knife whizzing past his cheek, barely missing it. At this point he noticed Armic was ready to attack.
"One final question..."
He extended both arms to his sides. His palms erupted in flame as he gathered the energy for the spell, though his tone of voice did not change as spoke casually.
"This plan of yours... the one you mentioned that goes into effect once you've destroyed the weapons... It wouldn't happen to involve ridding the earth of that vile winged one now would it? You know if you try anything drastic, he's going to get right in your way... And knowing you're style, that's exactly what's going to happen. If so, I can see a mutually beneficial alliance between our causes..."
-
Zion grabbed Tsu's arm and took off after Zeros', putting all his energy into matching his speed. Xenai was right next to him, doing the same.
"Oh, by the way," said Zion, as he came up on Zeros', "who's Lars?" Neither 3 of them had met Lars yet.
=== === ===
EW: 9
ZW: 9
-
Haraldur was hit by Armic's blow, but it was just a minor scratch, which healed before Armic's eyes.
Haraldur grabbed Armic's arm while the blade hit, and tries to throw Armic at Lars.
"I do not think that far ahead."
-
"He's a guy I met awhile ago who thought I was a threat to the world if I regained all the weapons. 'S probably why we split them between Haraldur, Ryu, Duilin and I. So far we have 4 of the weapons: sword, staff, spear and mace." Zeros' said while heading towards the boat.
-
"So which ones 'r left?" asked Xenai.
Zion could see something up ahead...
(Not counting this one... Didn't do much anything 'cept talk.)
=== === ===
EW: 9
ZW: 9
-
Lars immediately dispersed the energy he had gathered, and used his now free arms to "catch" the thrown Armic so neither of them would substain any damage. He let go of his ally, assuming he would be able to fly under his own power.
"Hmm, unfortunate, yet somehow unsurprising..."
He moved his fists to his sides. The faint crimson aura surounding him began to grow more intense.
"I had intended to keep this guise a bit longer. But a small reordering of plans really won't make a difference..."
At that instant, a violent explosion of fire burst forth from the shrouded man. The sky turned from grey to blood red... The withered trees below burst into flame... The man in the center of the fireball exumed an inhuman aura of power... Lars's dark cloak began to burn off... morphing actually. It took slowly the shape of black armor, lined with vermillion. The cape was black, with a crimson dragon upon the back... The hood that masked his face was gone. The man's face was young, handsome perhaps. His long black hair was tied back neatly at the shoulder...
Wrapped in a flame of intensity never seen before, Draven folded his arms and smirked his usual smirk...
"... after all, traitors cannot go unpunished..."
-
Armic was sustained by Lars and slowly hovered onto the ground.
He seemed to be having a conversation with himself, but no one could really make out the words.
Armic: "W... What just happened to Lars?"
Qor: He has finally shown his true form. I had seen this all along... but I thought it best not to let you know before it required knowledge.."
Qor: "Why, that is the lord of the Dark Empire, Draven, my child. I have watched him from his birth. He is no ordinary man, my Qorling. If you do not bring upon Armeddeggon, this man certainly will..."
-
Zeros' twitched slightly and sped up even more, breaking the sound barrier and proceeding top Mach 3.
He watched as the sky changed colors and the trees wither and burst into flame. His face scrunched up into a grimce and he involuntarily clenched his fists. Heading at such high speeds he soon came upon the scene of Draven, Haraldur and Armic.
He stopped near them and stood there, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Hello...Draven. Long time no see." Zeros' spat.
-
Zion and Xenai stopped near Zeros'. Zion let go of Tsu, who fell for a few seconds, then suspended himself. "Draven," said Zion. "Long time no see."
Xenai snickered. "THIS is the dude I was about to work for? Psh!"
=== === ===
EW: 8
ZW: 8
-
"Ah, Draven, how nice to see you again... May I please thank you for failing to aquire the sword. Incompetance does, indeed, have its own virtues. Even spectacular incompetance, in your own case. Especially now."
A blue orb appeared in each of Haraldur's hands, and they grew. He then threw them bth at Draven, them exploding into small shards of ice once within the aura of flame.
-
Duilin arives up to the ship in the air. He then looks at Lars. Draven? No...can't be....Draven's dead.
-----
Frost raises his head, he looks at his brother. "Bite, you awake?"
"Yeah, what the hell was that?" Bite asks
"Knock out gass..." He replies wile getting up. His brother dose the same.
"I see...Hey, I think we got more guests to the party!"
"Heh, looks like those deamons, that Kung-Pow guy, and some elf chick."
"I'll re-boot the weapons system...Let's get iceing!"
-----
"Kami-Ryu, You think you could make it to the ship? The Ice Bros. are in there, perhaps if your able to defeat them, you could shut down the ship?" Duilin wispers
-
"Maybe..." Ryu whispers quietly. He looks at the ship and shrugs. "Let me see..." Ryu struggles out of Duilin's grasp and plumits towards the ocean. Ryu closes his eyes and concentrates. Soon, he is enveloped in a faint blue aura. The aura shifts towards his back and two leathery dragon wings sprout. There are both about the size of Ryu with rune symbols on various area's etched in. He gives them a flap and starts flying quietly towards the black boat.
He glances over at the assembled grew and shivers. He knew who Draven was from the stories of the wars, but he never thought he might actually met him. This is almost too unreal, but its happening. He never actually thought he could be involved in saving the world, but here he is.
He quietly grasps the edge of the boat, about twenty yards away from where the ice warriors are. He disengages his wings and gasps for breath. He always had the ability to use those wings, but it takes too much of his ki to even fly a short distance. He shakes his head and grasps tighter with his left hand.
He looks back towards Duilin and gives him a thumbs up with his right hand. Ryu steadies himself on the edge of the boat and flicks his right wrist. Five kunai imbeed themselves in the side of the ship. Ryu reaches up and grasps one with both his hands. He steals a glance towards Draven and clears his mind.
Ryu steadily makes his way up the ship, throwing kunai whenever he needs a hand or foot hold. Soon enough, his right hands grasps on the edge of the starboard side. He steadies himself once more and flips up onto the top of the ship. He rolls and quickly grasps the hilts of both his katana's, ready to fight off anyone, but so far no one has noticed him.
He quietly does a set of handseals with both hands, moving in a blur as he soon shimmers and then disappears from sight, making his ki, chi and chakra non-visible to people. Luckily he never used magic in his life, so his magical abilites are scratch at best.
-
"Weapon's systems are engaged!" Bite tells Frost.
"Allright, wait, for Lars' signal to fire!" Frost replies
"Hey, I think somebody just jumped onto the boat!"
"Yeah, stay here, Bite. I'll go check it out..."
Frost, armed out, his Ice Sword and pick axe. He walked slowly to the deck of the ship.
"Well, well, if it isn't Wang-Chung, or whatever your name is supost to be, I don't give a sack of Albatros dropings!" Frost calls as he sees Kami-Ryu "Let's get to the iceing part! Come on!"
He runs at Kami-Ryu and swings his Ice Sword at his torso...
-
Ryu slips out of his jitsu (technique) and jumps slightly over the sword, making it pass under him. He lands slightly on his feet, on the flat of the blade facing Frost.
Ryu reaches behind with his left hand and pulls the spear out of its sheath, resting it lightly on his left shoulder.
"So...you wish to fight." Ryu commented as he stepped off the sword. He held his spear steady as he jumped back and flicked his right hand, causing several kunai to fly towards the ice warrior.
-
(Just in case: The black ship is an airship, floating several hundred feet above ground with everyone else. There's no ocean nearby!)
Draven's eyes shifted to the left, fixing on Zeros' and the other new arrivals.
"The pleasure is all mine. Don't worry, you'll get your turn..."
Arms still folded, the burning man returned his gaze to Haraldur.
"Oh, my. Was that an insult? I'm so terribly hurt..."
Draven waved his left arm outwards, sending a wave of fire into the oncoming orbs, melting them before they could come close. The flame continued on at a downward angle, spiraling into the dead forest below, wreaking havoc on the twisted trees...
At the same time he extended his right arm before him, a crimson orb appearing before his palm. The bright sphere quickly swelled to two feet in diameter before he blasted it at his opponent with enough force to mangle a stone wall...
-
Haraldur caused a giant oak to be uprooted from the ground, and to fly upwards at huge speed. It hit the fireball, obliterating it, and catching fire before falling to the ground, setting the nearby drought blighted forest alight.
Haraldur threw at Draven a large dark red swirling orb, which, if it hit, would cause Draven to fall to the ground like a stone.
-
Duilin then looked at Draven It is him....But how could he have survived when the island exploded? He then look down at Armic That guy is going to get really hurt, if he falls all the way down.. He then looks at the ship That's a big ship...
Hmm....I think I'll stop looking at everything and thinking about it
He then looks back at Draven "Ah, what the hell..." He then raises his arms over his head and then starts aborbing heat, the famous deamon fire ball appears, it's about 1 meter in diameter, he then tosses it at Lars.
------
Frost, swings his weapons, slashinh away at the kunai, one hits him in the torso, but he keeps his balance. He then dashes at Kami-Ryu jumping into the air and swinging a kick at Kami-Ryu's head...
-
Ryu turns his head sideways so the kick grazes his left side, causing his hood to be cut off, revealing his face. The bandages suddenly started to fall off, causing Ryu to jump backwards and try to hold them in place with his other hand. He looks towards Frost and shrugs. He drops his hands, causing the bandages to fal away, revealing his face.
Under the bandages was a horrific scene to say the least. Where there was once an eye was now a blood red eye with a white pupil. The whole area around his eye had viens poping up, looking as if his face has a spiderweb growing outwards from the eye. All the skin where the bandages were was dark rotting flesh that leaves nothing to the imagination.
On top of his head, you can clearly see where some of the skull is supposed to be. In various places, chunks of rotting flesh and some parts of his skull are ripped off, showing of the brain or muscle tissue.
Ryu stays back with his spear and throws his left arm outwards. A blue ball of ki about the size of a beachball fly's outwards and towards the ice warrior positon.
-
Frost stares blanky at Kami-Ryu's face, it was freakiest thing he had ever seen in his life. "Holy fu-" Frost yells but get's cut off as soon as the ki ball hit's him, he stumbles to the ground, in pain. He rubs his face, and then recovers himself back up.
"Your dead, Nerco-Chung!" Frost yells. He then runs at Kami-Ryu and swings his Pick Axe at Ryu's legs, atempting to hook his target's legs causeing him to fall...
-
Nevina hovered down towards the ground until she had solid earth beneath her feet.
She glared towards Armic and automatically felt a feeling of repulsion.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armic stared at Nevina, and had a similar feeling. He could not tolerate the Holiness surrounding her.
It was driving him mad, he was forced to escape somehow. He chanted, speaking to Qor in a foreign tongue. He was surrounded by a red aura, and he floated upwards a bit. His eyes were rolled back in his head, and he screamed, "All hail Qor the Veil!!" And he quickly went to the ground, through the ground, sending himself into hell.
-
Ryu stumbles as the pick gets him in his right leg, gasing it slightly. Blood poured down his leg as he removed it with force and stumbled back. He kicks the pick away with his metal leg and stabs forwards with his spear.
-
The spears stabs Frost, and he yelps in pain, as he lowers abit to the ground. The spear is slightly stuck into him, he then swings his Ice Sword in a vertcal motion at Kami-Ryu's right shoulder.
-
In a flash of red, Draven shot up into the air like a rocket. Haraldur's and Duilin's energy balls collided underneath him, the opposing magics causing a thundering explosion.
"Tch! A tad too crowded..."
Draven brought both hands to the sky, his aura of flame flaring.
"Ragnar, my apologies. I'm afraid I'm going to have to postpone our little duel... Do try to stay alive until we next meet..."
Several dozen points of red light pushed though the overcast sky, high above...
Where in blazes did Armic go...?
-
"Oh, I could not disappoint you in that respect..."
Haraldur sees Frost fighting Ryu.
"Hmmm... Ice Warrior..."
He threw a fireball at Frost, just to get his attention.
-
Ryu lets the weapon hit him in the right shoulder. His cloak his split, but his right arm his unharmed, other then sparks where the Ice Sword hit his metal arm. Ryu looks to the sky and sees the ball. Ryu twists his spear, hoping to cause more pain (its a three-pronged spear) and jumps back quickly, blood staining the blade.
He stuffs the spear back to somewhere, making the weapon disappear. His right hand reaches inside his robes and throws several shuriken towards Frost while his left hand unsheaths the katana with the sapphire gem, Ocean Breeze, out of its sheath. He holds it loosely by his left side as he waits for him to strike.
He glances back at Bite and flicks several senbon (metal needles) towards vital points in his left arm.
Zeros' also glances at Ryu's battle, but turns away. He glances at Haraldur then to Duilin and the three others nearby.
"We need to find Draven again. He could quickly become a pest." Zeros' unfolds his arms and cups his hands around his mouth.
"RYU! YOU HANDLE THE ICE WARRIORS!" Ryu looks towards Zeros' and gives him a thumbs up with his right hand, singling an (OK).
-
The attack caught Bite by surprize. Most of them hit him, yet he kept his balance. Bite then blasted at the door way of the control deck, freezeing it shut, fortifing himself in there.
The fire ball missed Frost as he fell to the ground. He was bleeding very baddly. He looked at Ryu and glared. "DIE!!!" he then threw his pick axe at him.
Duilin looked around, and then at Haraldur "Haraldur, we should probally blow up the ship, I need to to distract Bite wile I try and get into the control area, okay?" Duilin subjested.
He got sick of waiting and blasted the weapons system at Haraldur and Duilin. Duilin drove to the right dodgeing the blast...
-
Ryu looked towards the Duilins yell and then to the weapons system's firing. He didn't have time to react as the pick axe gashed him in his left side. He screamed in pain as the pick dug through his skin. He looked at the wound and gritted his teeth. He pulled on it with his right hand and screamed in pain again as the pick left a 3 inch gash on his side, bleeding all the way down his metal leg.
He threw the pick axe towards the side of the boat and reached inside his cloak, pulling out banadages. He grimced as the wound started to freeze, but managed to tear off the parts of the flesh with his blade, staining it red. He made sure the bandages were sercure and walked towards Frost, his blade still held by his left side.
"I hope you like death." He said to Frost. He raised the blade high in his left hand while his metal arm just hung down his side. Ryu quickly flipped the blade in mid-air, the hilt pointed skywards and the tip towards Frost and rammed it straight downwards.
-
Frost screamed blood murder in pain. He started to cough out blood. His body could take it anymore. He gave Ryu the evil eye, and took his last breath, and died...
-
Around Armic swarmed a dark, hideous plane of existance. Battered souls screamed in agony as they are currupt, mortals residing here are tortured horribly, having them die by removal of organs, only to ressurect them afterwards. Those are just the fortunate ones of this planes residents.
The land itself is black, but much is covered by never dying flames. As Armic passes, the very Deamons and Hell-Hound Archons themselves salute him. He walks through the flames without so much as a blink, hears the most hideous banchee wails without a cringe.
He continues through the open lands and reaches a fortress, close to a grove of odorous dead trees. Before reaching for the door, a cloaked figure appears. Armic expected this.
He (Armic) bows.
"Master..." he says, on bended knee.
-
Frost falls down on a stone bord and a fimular dark deamon arives. He then starts ripping out his organs. He then goes to the table beside Frost's and starts doing the same to Darion.
"And a rip, rip here! And a rip, rip there! Here a rip! There a rip!"
//Heh, just a post for fun. Cookie to the person who guess who the deamon is!//
-
//Uh... Nex? ^_^//
-
//Nex.//
Haraldur said to Zeros': "We should not trouble ourselves about Draven at present. We should destroy the weapons first, and not get slowed down by him, which is probably his aim. The weapons are potentially a source of power for him, and we should destroy them as soon as possible."
Haraldur saw the bridge of the ship, and threw a couple of fireballs at it, in aim of panicking Bite.
-
Zeros' looked over towards Haraldur and he did have to agree with the logic.
"Leave the Frost Warriors to Ryu. He is plently strong enough to take them out...I hope."
----
Ryu calmly stepped back and flicked his sword, sending the blood to the ground before he sheathed it. He looked up towards Haraldur and sighed. He softly touches the wound to his side and grits his teeth in pain.
"Damn..." He mutters as he limps towards Bite's positon.
-
//Gives cookie to Cyber Wolf and Haraludar//
Duilin then sored of over to the ship and then landed on the deck. He then walked over to Kami-Ryu. "Whoa, are you allright, maybe Nevina could patch you up..." He then looks at his face, he dosen't bother to comment.
The fire ball startled Bite as it hit the ship. With Armic and Lars gone and his brother dead, he relizes he's going to die, but he's not going to give up without a fight!
"I'll never give up! You guys are dead you hear! Dead! Ahahaha!" Bite yells. He then starts sealing every posible entry of the room, with the ice thrower. He then reloaded his weapon.
"Only 2 crystals left..." He then searched threw the storage cabnet's. He found a cross bow and some arrows for it. He then loaded an arrow into the crossbow, and held it his right hand and his Ice Thrower in the other. "Come and get me suckers!"
-
Flying higher and higher, Draven brought both hands down. The red points of light above pierced the clouds. Great balls of fire began to rain from the heavens, massacring the already ravaged terrain. Draven angled the attack so the meteors would not strike his airship, but rather the area where he and Haraldur were previously dueling and beyond. This consequently divided his enemies in two: those who had made it to the airship and those who had not...
Draven flipped in the air, flying in a wide arc, and landed on the far rear deck of the ship, just barely escaping his own attack. The ship had been set at 10% speed a while back and was slowly trekking northward. Time to see how this thing really moves...
Draven turned and began to fly towards the control room, which was situated above the deck near the front of the ship, skimming inches above the black metal floor as he went. He noticed a few other figures were on board up ahead as well...
"Looks like we'll have to flick a few flies off first..."
-
"Boss!?" Bite cries "They killed my brother! Those wormeaters killed my brother!"
He straped his ice gun over his shoulder, and then fired the cannon again at Zeros' and Zion (I'm not 100% sure if I'm able to hit them, if I can't just ignore that part then)
"You stupid jerks are gonna pay!"
Duilin then looked at Draven and then Haraldur "Let me take him, you destroy the ship!" He then looked back at Draven "So, I guess you are back. Remember me? Like the new look?" He smiled and then trusted his left hand out, blasting a fireball at Draven.
-
Haraldur flew down very fast towards the ship, landing behind Draven, causing the deck to crack under the huge force of the blow caused by his huge speed.
He threw two large fireballs into the control room: they would not affect Draven much, but he would destroy the Ice Warrior first if he could, to make an easier fight.
-
Bite looked at the fire ball in shock, he fired his cross bow at it, instead of his Ice Thrower. The fire ball hit him, he was still alive, but the other to burnt him to a crips...
//Ice Warrior Bros. defeated!//
//Will Duilin be upgrade to Level 3? No! Laughing //
-
"Master... Draven and I need your assistance on the mortal plane..." Armic said, still on his knee, bowing to Qor.
The omnipotent force merely nodded, and he became a black vapor, entering Armic through his nostrils.
The mortal lept up and screamed in pain, his eyes bulging, pupils rolled back in his head. He raised his arms to the fiery sky as he inherited Qor into his own body. He burst into a purple flame, emitting a black smoke.
His body was medamorphosing under the veil of fire.
The fire began to subside, as did Armic's screams. And there stood. A near perfect blend of God and Mortal. He opened his eyes, red fire emitted from his optical orbs, which were pitch black. He waved his hair out of his face, revealing gray, corpse-like skin. Yet it was rock solid. Lumps began to strain on the top of his cranium, and on his back. Then outbursted horns. Somewhat blunt, and only about 1 1/2" long, they only added to his fearsome look. From his back emerged wings. Glorious red wings, 4 feet in length each, gave him an overall wingspan of 9 feet. He folded his wings, crossed his arms, and as he spoke, 2 voices spoke, in eerie unisen, "We're Ready..."
\~|~[Armic becomes level Three]~|~/
Armic brought his arms together, twisting his hands in a somatic spell, became translucent, then disappeared.
He reappears in the exact same locale he had occupied before his descention into Oblivion, with a dark smirk on his face.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Armic returned, Nevina suddenly felt the energy drain from her body. She fell to the ground, shaking franctically.
"H-he's too.. vial..." She managed to sputter, before completely collapsing and blacking out.
\~|~[Nevina becomes level One]~|~/
-
Zeros' looks at Draven and then to Armic. He curses silently and flaps all six of his wings and burst forwards, disappearing from view as he blasts through the sound barrier, reappearing in front of Armic and Nervina's unconcious state.
Any trees were uprooted violently as the sudden burst of air caused dust, rocks and any thing that could not survive the super sonic blast flew backwards in a massive surge of trees, rocks and dust.
Zeros' stood there, arms crossed, facing towards Armic as he cast a protective barrier around Nevina and slowly levitated her away from the battle field.
"Qor. Never thought I would see you agian or any of your minions. Quite a surprise." Zeros' starts to chuckle. "Trying to revive a long dead religion? Amusing isn't it? I thought Genma's destruction of your cathederal and banishing you to an alternate realm would of destroyed you forever. Guess not."
----
Ryu looks at Draven and curses under his breath. He knowns he's not near powerful enough to even hurt him. Ryu releases a heavy sigh as he stumbles forwards towards the sealed door.
He looks at it and sighs again. He starts a complicated series of handseals and soon a fireball imerges and burns away the ice. Ryu stumbles in and starts to look for anything to stop the ship.
-
Draven stopped, smacking Duilin's fireball away with his left hand. At that instant Haraldur's two fireballs whizzed past him from behind on both sides, smashing through the outer windows of the control room ahead. Draven could hear the scream of the last surviving ice warrior...
He turned halfway and gave Haraldur a raised eyebrow.
"Gentlemen, I'm going to have to ask you to kindly get your rotten carcasses off my blasted ship..."
The yellow energy that visibly coursed through the wires embedded throughout the black walls of the airship suddenly turned red... flowing from Draven's intense crimson aura as he stood in the center of the deck. With a mere hand gesture, all the cannons fixed to various points along the deck began to move independently... At once, hundreds of rounds of concentrated shadow energy began to fire at the trespassers standing on the outer deck from various directions...
-
Duilin quickly thrusted his hand at one of the energy blasts, he aborbed the heat from it, and then blasted a fire ball at it, makeing it desolve into nothingness. It took quite abit of stamina for him to do that some more times. So he swung his mallet out at an other blast. It worked, but his mallet was blown to pieces.
"Damn..." Duilin relizes that he'll have to use the mace, but he dosen't just yet. Instead, he flys at Draven, trying to aviod the energy blast, prepareing a double kick at his head and torso...
-------
Meanwhile...what appears to be robed man, approaches Ellena. He looks down at her unconscious body. He kneels down, and shakes her lightly.
"Hello?" He says in ghastly voice...
-
3 cannons shot their beams of shadow energy at Haraldur, who just let them hit him. Blue points of light went up them towards the canons, which exploded. Haraldur was unhurt.
Haraldur smirked, then shot the energy he had absorbed from the canons at Draven.
_______________________________________________________
Ellenna remains unconscious. She looks slightly green and very ill.
-
Can looks at the robed man and draws his dagger.
"What do you want?"
-
"Oh, nothing I'm just a simple travler. Why aren't you helping this girl, lying on the ground, she looks very ill." The robed man says to Khan.
-
Armic merely hissed at Zeros' and his face twitched at the name of "Genma".
He turned towards Haraldur and spat. Qor recognized his bloodline immediately, but said nothing. [I refer to Armic by his name and by "qor" now, since they haven merged]
He turned his back to Zeros' and Haraldur and extended his wings, raised fro the ground, twisted his hands in a rigerous fashion, and let out a Banchee-like scream. The earth cracked, and a rip appeared in the air. Out of both locales spilled hellish deamons, a few even favored Zeros' in appearance.
--Deamons continue spewing from the holes even after the end of this post--
-
(I love how you two keep timing your attacks. Heh...)
Draven leapt straight up into the air. Haraldur's energy blast was nearly upon the location he stood an instant ago, right where Duilin was heading...
Draven brought his right hand above his head, a bright crimson orb forming above.
"What's with all these freaky half breed humans with wings nowadays, anyway?"
From his position above the airship, Draven could see the ground below beginning to swarm with demons. In the center was a demonesque figure that seemed half familiar and half stranger...
Armic...? How very... interesting...
-
Duilin then noticeing what Draven has done, flips himself in the air, landing on the ground, the energy blast flies right by him, he stumbles backwards almost looseing his balance.
"That was close, let's try and be more carefull next time." He says to Haraldur. He then blasts a wave of flame around himself crateing a shield of flame, a few cannon energy blasts hit it, and then the sheild fades away....
-
//Sorry for my absence. I got Ubuntu Linux recently and was playing with it. ^_^ Internet doesn't work on it. >_< Also got my normal computer set up with a new 80GB hard drive and was playing with it too.
Zion, Tsu, and Xenai snapped out of their little trances, watching a ball of fire shoot down in front of them.
"What the heck happened to us?" asked Zion, dazed and confused.
Xenai had recovered from his trance much faster. "That's not our problem right now. The main problem is tall, dark, and evil." Obviously in reference to Draven.
Zion and Xenai took out their swords, and went into ready stances while Tsu just floated back to watch.
//Taking 3 posts instead of 1 because of being gone so long. Hope that's okay.
=== === ===
EW: 5
ZW: 5
-
Kahn puts his dagger away.
"well mabye I was planning on helping her, but I don't really know my way around."
-
Floating above the airship, Draven brought his left hand up. The controls inside the navigation room began moving independently. The ship began a diagonal climb, the nose pointing higher and higher into the air. The speed increased dramatically as well. The formerly horizontal deck now became 45 degree incline, which alongside the drastically increasing wind speed made it nearly impossible to stand on without flying off into the open sky...
Just incase that was not enough to rid his ship of these meddlesome pests, Draven threw the ball of crimson energy he gathered earlier straight down at the deck, which exploded an instant before striking it. Eight smaller balls shot out in all directions, four changing their trajectory and heading towards Haraldur, and four towards Duilin...
-
"Oh, no! What's going on?" Duilin cried, as the ship began to move at great speed. He grabed on tight to the ship, but suddenly three fire balls shot by Draven fleu right at him, him have half immunity to fire was not burnt a great deal, but lost his grip, and fell of the ship, flying into the air...
Frost and Bite's corpses also flue off fadeing into the distance....
---------
"Well, then my friend. I find it very odd, that somebody who stand here, doing nothing in the presence of a sick girl, wile a large ship is flieing in the air..." He then looks up into the air...
"Oh, it seems to have dissappeared...Anyways, What is your name?" He asks Kahn
-
Haraldur's aura became watery, and he then shot upwards, to collide with Draven, and to grapple him. At the same time it caused him to dodge the fireballs. He spirt water above him to hit Draven before he did.
-
Inside the interor, Ryu stumbles abit as he was thrown off balance and collided with a wall. He screams in pain as his wound is hit by the ship. He struggles to remain upright. He breaths heavily and concentrates the chakra to his feet, allowing him perfect grip.
He trudges along and soon he is met with the controls of the ship. He looks at them and sighs. He takes a running dash backwards and flipps though the air while turning around and throwing out dozens of kunai at high speeds towards the control of the ship.
----
Zeros' calmly levitated the body of Nevina to a safer place while extending all six of his wings outwards while the demons poured from the surface of the earth.
He shot up, breaking the sound barrier while some of the nearby demons stumble. Zeros' stops about 250 feet in the air and grasps his katana and unsheaths it, transforming it into its 12 foot form, and holding it towards the demons.
"Time to unleash my true aura..." Zeros' said to himself. He raised the blade high above his head while a sickly black aura enveloped Zeros' along with his swords. Tendrils soon started lashing out in the air, wreathing with pain.
"Kijin Raishuu Dan Advanced." Zeros' said calmly while he swiped his sword dowards. In one attack, five sickly black blades of ki flew towards where all the demons were. They cried out in agony as they were enveloped in the ki attack, leaving nothing more then death and destruction in its wake.
----
Here is an explination of his aura, this combines demon and angel auras. Zeros' is also a character in another one of my stories, so this description is from it.
[Instead of a cocky aura that most expected to expose, they stood in shock and awe as he expanded an aura easily 30 times his own size that was black as night. His aura emanated pain and torment for anyone that crossed him. Sympathy was only in the slightest traces. The aura was also cold and spiteful, saying that he had experienced much grief throughout his life.
There was also love and caring present under the dark and grimy interior of the cold, spiteful aura. It showed that this man had the power to hate and to kill without remorse, but could be the most caring person in the world. There were also undertones that promise anyone to hurt his friends, family or someone very close to him, say a girlfriend or wife, he would promise that they die a slow and very painful death.]
-
"Must...get...back...." Duilin groaned wile spining in the air. He then thought for a moment, he was still experementing with his deamon abilities, it was time to try another one, he then charged flame in his hands, then pionted them behind him, he then spread his hands out, keeping the fire in his grip, he then blasted the fire, and flew at the same time, somehow this made him fly much faster then normal. As he was flying he spoted Zeros' and Nevina. There were a bunch of deamons, around him.
"Zeros'!" He called, glad to see him. A few of the deamons noticed him, so he then swung out the mace. He spun it around afew times to intimiate his openents. He then dove down into the air, and swung the mace at one of the deamon's faces, smashing it in and flue back up. He looked back at Zeros' "Is Nevina okay!?"
-
--Demons continue coming through the portals--
A pack of 10 demons rush at Haraldur, all acting independantly.
Armic warped from his station on the ground, and came to the control room.
"Draven, speed this thing up! The Deamon portals won't stay open forever!" Armic cried in his creepy 2 person voice.
As Ryu's attack sped towards the controls, Armic ran out in front of them and cast a black-glass shield in front of himself.
It stopped all the attacks, but one. One came slower than the others, and as Armic let his shield down, it struck him in his left wing.
Armic wailed in pain as the blood dripped from the rip in his wing.
//Keep in mind, these Demons have over a milienia of training under their belts. Disposing of an entire army of them seems a bit.. unrealistic, without it being some sort of Demon's-bane attack or something. I'd say killing about 5 a post would be fair, but not more than that. That's up to Xorlak's judgement though. BTW, 1 post= 15 deamons spawn. There are currently 5 unnocupied deamons, and 10 attacking Haraldur.//
-
"What are these flippin' demons?" Zion finally noticed them all. "Spread!!!" A large water pillar shot up underneath a bunch of demons, taking them out.
"How the hell should I know?" Xenai looked at a bunch of demons coming toward him. "Eruption!!!" A pillar of fire similar to Zion's water pillar met the demons with the same fate.
Tsu was surrounded, meanwhile. "Crap... I don't need to die yet. I'm only 18!" He started spinning around rapidly with his sword extended. "Kuon Kaiten!!!" He would take out any demon that was around him, and all those that charged at him while he was spinning.
=== === ===
EW: 4
ZW: 4
-
A deamon flies at Duilin, and starts blasting fireballs at him. He trusts his hand out infront of the fireballs and aborbs them, he then tosses it back at him, but it had no effect.
Pure deamons...damn...
Duilin then swung the mace at one of them, but he grabed the chain. Duilin then pulled the mace, and punched the deamon in the face, causeing it to let go of the mace, he swung the mace back at the deamon, smashing it apart.
-
"Duilin take care of Nevina. She fainted from the dark taint Qor expended." Zeros' said while dropping to the ground, his sword held in his grasp. He dropped the the ground and lashed out with his sword, taking one demon by surprise, slicing its head clean off.
Zeros' didn't waist time as he sheathed his sword and brown tendrils of magic started crackling across the surface of his right palm. He raised his hand and slammed it hard into the ground, causing a crater a few inches deep to expell a spiderweb of cracks as brown tendrils shot across the ground and under the demons.
"DUG HAUT!" With that said, spikes of earth erupted from where the tendrils stopped, causing several demons to become impaled on the spikes, but not dead. They roared in pain and started to throw fireballs. Zeros' calmly swept his hand in front of him, making a shield of ki, blocking the fireballs as he disappeared from sight.
He reappeared behind the demons and smashed there heads in with his extreme strength. Black blood flowed down his fists as he worked his way across the battle field.
----
Ryu grimced as he noticed the occupant of the room. He knew he wouldn't be able to leave here alive if he stayed.
"Kage Bushin no Jitsu." He muttered under his breath. Instantly, a 100 Kami-ryu's appeared in the room and glared at Armic. They all drew kunai from there sleeves and started hurling them in tandem towards the demon.
Meanwhile, the real Ryu managed to slip out unnoitced and slowly made his way towards the deck.
-
//How can 10 daemons attack me when I am moving up at high speed about to crash into Draven?//
-
Duilin flue down towards Nevina's position. He picks her up and then lands down on tge ground. Several deamons spoted him and began running at him, but he just ran off. They were cataching up, so with one hand Duilin casted a fire ball down at the ground before the deamons, causeing an explotion, once it cleared up, Duilin and Nevina were went off into the city....
-
//The deamons goal is to be a distraction and allow an escape. If they're unable to attack you now, they're chasing you. They have wings, and they're hells-spawn for gods sake. They aren't exactly turtles....//
-
//OK, they are chasing me.//
-
Kahn looked at Ellenna then back at the robed man.
"My names Kahn, she's Ellenna. How bout you"
-
Draven brought both arms to his side, charged for a second, then thrust both forward, sending an intense wall of flame towards the impending Haraldur. He then shot downwards, dodging the his adversary's charge just as the ship below flew past.
Landing on the ship's deck, he performed a polite bow, bringing his right arm before him and his left out.
"'Till we next meet, Ragnar..."
The speed of the ship increased exponentially, slicing through the thick clouds ahead and disappearing into the distance...
Draven turned and began to walk towards the control room, seemingly unaffected by the torrential winds...
(Chapter 4 ends one week from today -- Feb. 6th)
-
The robed man, steped closer, revealing part of his icy blue face...
"Scumfreeze..." He grined
----
Duilin keeps flying his way towards the city, he'll be there in one post...
-
Haraldur dodges the wall of flame, causing him to stop, and then the ship is out of his view. He does not know where it is.
"Damn!"
The wall crashed into the pursuing daemons, killing five of them. There were five left.
"Ooohhh... fun..."
He took the staff part of himself and lengthened it, and it came to the daemons. From the staff came many blades which cut them up, and then entered the staf again, which melded back into Haraldur.
He then looked around to get his bearings and to see if there was anyone else around, and to rest on the air a bit.
-
Ryu quietly slips out of the ship and stumbles as the winds push him back. He steadies himself with chakra and starts running, not worrying as he passed Draven and jumps off the ship, arms spread. He concentrates and his two leathery wings sprout from his back and he floats downwards towards safety...
----
Zeros' stops and glanced towards the sky and sees Ryu falling. He crushes the skull of the demon he's fighting and readies his wings, spreading them and then taking off at supersonic speeds towards Ryu.
Ryu is breathing heavily now as his ki is being effected by the wound in his side. He managed to use chakra and ki to close it and stop the blood flow, but the exhaustion coupled with all the ki and chakra he's been using and is steadily going towards conciousness. He stumbles in the air and starts falling, loosing the concentration on his wings.
Zeros' speeds up against and dives, reaching Ryu in an instant as he breaks through the sound barrier. A light sheen of sweat now comes across Zeros' brow as he catches Ryu and holds him in his arms and flys off towards where Duilin disappeared, flying at a slow and steady pace now.
-
Armic dunked down and covered himself with his cloak and it became a shade of steely gray, absorbing the blows of Ryuu's attack.
-
Draven turned as he noticed a figure bail off the side of the deck, but he flew past too quickly for Draven to take note of who he was. Probably not important.
He continued to the control room, where he found several dozen images of that same man wildly attacking Armic.
"They are but illusions..."
he said, as one leapt towards him. He got a good look at it: a man with a mauled face, blood dripping from his wounds, and metallic limbs... like a ruined man pieced back together. Quite disgusting really... The image disappeared in smoke as it aimed a punch at Draven's chest...
Draven placed both hands before him and let lose two low energy waves of flame at groups of remaining images on either side of Armic, taking care not to damage to control room instruments.
-
All the illusions disappeared with a *POP*.
-
Duilin arived at Laus. He walked threw the city, carring Nevina.
-----
Meanwile Scumfreeze noticed that something flew into town.
"I bit you farewell for now, I must check on something..." He then dashed off.
Scumfrezze, then molded himself into a pile of slime, when nobody was watching, he then slithered around, following Duilin.
Duilin senced something was near him, so he turned around, he saw nothing. Scumfreeze, slithered around a near by house and got infront of Duilin, wile his back was turned. He then splated himself out, allowing Duilin to walk over him. A foot print was made on him.
<span style='color:blue'>Got it!</span> He then slithered off, over to the area, of the pub. He then spoted, huge foot prints of a Yettie, and some of some other people. He found, pair of two foot prints, matching the Ice Bros. and one pair matching the one he collected
<span style='color:blue'>Yes, this is the deamon I am looking for. That means I can the Ice Bros. if I follow him!</span>
-
"If I follow in Scumfreeze direction he may lead us back into the Laus"
Kahn picked up Ellenna and ran in that direction.
-
With the ship finally secure of enemies, Draven walked over to one of the control panels and flipped a switch. A yellow barrier engulfed the airship, masking the great magical aura that the ship exuded as well as the auras inside... It would be difficult to track the ship from afar. The barrier also served to reduce the exterior wind, making for a quieter, smoother ride.
Draven turned to the newly transformed Armic and approached the intimidating demon-esque figure, stroking his chin curiously.
"Hmmm... you're much more than a simple dark-cleric, aren't you?"
-
Zeros' landed on the outskirts of Laus and gently expanded his aura and magic, willing it to heal Ryu. A gentle glow surrounded Ryu as his wounds visibly healed. Zeros' smiled at him.
Zeros' started walking, his six wings folded behind him as he walked. He didn't know where he was going, only that he let the good spirits guide him. He searched out with his senses and found Duilin and Nevina, apparently alive from the conflict. He smiled and began walking towards their positon, glad their alive.
-
"Zeros!" Duilin called happily, "I should have know you were able to beat those deamons. Nevina hasn't been moveing much, be she's still alive. We need to heal her."
Meanwile Scumfreeze was watching them from not to far away...
<span style='color:blue'>Ah, ha! It's the other deamon! Perfect! They are both there.</span>
He then senced that he to was being followed, it was Kahn. But he was no matter, he must find out what happened to the Ice Bros. He then slowing creeped closer to Duilin and Zeros', still appearing as a semi-large frozen puddle...
-
Having rested a little, Haraldur gently floated towards Laus.
-
"Yeah..." Zeros' sighed as he held Ryu. "Ryu's pretty shaken up. He had to use almost all his chakra and ki to escape from Draven and Armic." Zeros' said.
"If it was just Armic, Ryu MIGHT of been able to handle himself at full power, but even I would have a very hard time beating Draven. Both me and Haraldur would." He said while looking around. Zeros' looked in Scumfreezes direction for a moment, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"I could of...nevermind." Zeros' sighed.
-
Armic, now standing fully erect, let out a sickly gleeful laugh.
"No Draven, I am not just a simple Dark-Cleric. At least... not anymore."
Armic then turned his attention from Draven to his ripped wing. He bowed his head, put his hands into a praying position and enveloped himself in white and red aura. His body quivered as the rip began to shrink, finally disolving into nothingness. No scar, no blood.
"Hmmph. The darkest force the this world has given birth to, yet I still have powers more divine than a holyman could dream of. Irony." He said with a smirk.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina began to stur, but was still unconcious. She was finally recovering from her shock.
-
Zeros' stepped over the road and towards Duilin and Nevina. He gazed down at Nevina's smaller form and sighed. He carefully reached out with one finger and lightly tapped several points near the neck, shoulders and spine, willing the body to come out of unconciousness and slowly come into the waking world by speeding up the ki and chakra flows of the body.
"There. That's all I can do for her." Zeros' said shaking his head. "I could heal her with my ki, but the malice and hate would potentially grow over time and consume her soul." He said sadly while gazing upwards at the clouds.
"The amount of hate, anger, malice, grief. Its spiteful and cold. No mercy while it slowly consumes your soul, taking all your painful memories and embracing them with vigor while the only joyful ones were slowly cast away to the side - to be forgotten and never to be remembered." He said with a sad, wistful smile.
"The only reason I hadn't gone mad is because of my incrediable control over my emotions. I never let my weakness show, no matter how unlucky a situation I am in. Sometime I wonder when can I finally die and rest in peace." He said slowly. He gazed at Duilin through half-lidded eyes.
"Duilin, remember to always embrace happier memories. Never let the anger and hate overcome you. Embrace your human side, but never forget your demon side." He said to the half-demon. "I have two sides myself; half-angel and half-demon. I embraced the demon side for revenge while my angelic side sat by and watched me."
-
"Thank's I'll keep that in mind. I supose I'll just stick with the control of fire to protect myself and others."
"I used to think I had a bad life, but now I relise I haven't really suffered much at all. But sometimes it difficult, when a bunch of people you knew for ever, just started dieing all around you..." Duilin took a deap breath "But hey, I avenged them. Darion and Nex are dead." He looks down at Nevina, as he is holding her. "Think she'll wake up soon?"
-----
<span style='color:blue'>He wishes to die, eh? Well I supose I might aid him in that, after I find out were the Ice Bros. are</span>
Scumfrezze then turns himself back into humen shape and puts back on his robe, he then slowly walks toward Duilin and Zeros'.
-
Haraldur was above Scumfreeze when he changed, and came to the conclusion that he was sneaking up on his companions. He rushed down towards the ground, throwing two fireballs at him. His eyes were in a frenzy.
-
Scumfreeze, changed himself into a blob and tossed himself away, the fireballs only burning the robe. He then formed back into a humeniod shape, and then threw is fist in Haraldur's derection but it swung it formed into a tentacle and wraped and atempted to wrap around Haraldur.
-
Haraldur grabbed hold of the tentacle that was trying to wrap around him, threw a fireball at a nearby wooden thatched house, which burst into flame, and threw Scumfreeze at it, because he was holding the tentacle.
-
Zeros' set Ryu on the ground and turned on Scumfreeze at a very slowly. He had a hand on his katana and very slowly unsheathed it, making it seem dramitc as the wind blowed at his back, making his hair and coat shift menicingly.
In one swift, blurring motion, a sickly black crescent blade of hate, grief, malice, pain and anger headed towards Scumfreeze. As it traveled along the ground, it created a gash in the road that yeiled to its will while any grass around the area suddenly withered and died, along with various plants in planter boxes.
-
Scumfreeze shrank his arm back to normal size, bringing Haraldur into the fire aswell.
"Ack, you freaks! You must have killed the Ice Bros. Now to deal with the real power of The Ice Warriors!"
Scumfreeze formed into a flying creature and soared out of the way of Zeros' attack. He then dove down at Duilin. Duilin quickly, but gently laid Nevina down on the ground. Scumfreeze then formed his wings into blades and slashed at Duilin's legs, cuting them very badly.
Duilin fell to the ground...
//Okay, for a litte wile, Duilin will only be level one, because of his damage, and now Scumfreeze will be Level Three, here is the next 'boss fight'//
Scumfreeze, then form himself back into a humeniod but kept his blade arms, he then dashed at Zeros' swinging one blade at his oppents neck and the other at his torso.
//I have a fealing this guy will last about as long as Dippy's character....uhh....the Yettie guy....//
-
Draven nodded to Armic, responding in his philosophical Lars tone:
"If opposites were not identical in all but a few aspects, they wouldn't be opposites now, would they?"
He turned and walked to the main navigation panel.
"I see you know who I really am, unsurprisingly. Saves some explanation..."
He took hold of the airship's "steering wheel", which resembled the large rudder wheel of a classical ship, and made some minor adjustments to the course. The airship was now silently blazing through the clouded skies, heading north. A setting sun broke the monotone greys of the western sky.
"Me unveiling myself serves as a double edged sword. I hadn't planned on doing it so soon... On one hand, we won't have to worry about fighting former Dark Empire officers anymore. Anyone who knows me will submit to my command, which is what I intend on capitalizing right now...
"On the other hand, Fly-Boy, Mr. Split-Personality-With-Issues, and their merry men will undoubtedly be down our throats every corner we turn...
"However, the remnants of the Dark Empires forces combined with your demonic army should be more than enough to rid the earth of the likes of them...
"The Dark Empire is dead. The time for a new era has begun... not a dark one, but a very bright one indeed... the light of my flames shall engulf the entirety of this dark continent at first, then the remnants of the word... witness the birth of The Crimson Empire... MU HU HA HA HA HA HA HAHHH!!!"
-
Haraldur summersoulted and stood on the air. He made a huge orb of fire appear all around Zeros', to protect him. He would not be affected, but the heat was enough to quickly melt Scumfreeze.
-
"Hmm... a bit color/shade obsessed are we?" Armic said with a grin.
"So, what is our next course of action, my good sir?"
-
Zeros' blurred with speed and captured Scumbreezes blade wings with his hands and held them, grinning.
"Oh? Another copy cat." Zeros' said mostly to himself. "But...you have no Gepardi blood in you. Your origins revolve around the ice?"
Zeros' held out both feet towards Scumfreeze while his wings held him aloft, sending embers from the fire dome spiraling into the air. Zeros' pushed his ki into his feet, sending a shockwave of ki faster then the speed of sound towards Scumfreeze as he held his hands.
-
Haraldur's flame began to melt away, Scumfreeze, and slow him down...
The ki blasts from Zeros' were to fast for his agility, because of the melting....he then harded himself, and as soon as the blasts hit him, he shatered and crumbled into a pile of smashed ice...
"Ack...." Duilin said, sittting up "My wounds seem to healing pretty fast..Perhaps it one of the benfits of being a deamon....I could still use some aid however..."
///Duilin is back to level 2//
Duilin picked up Nevina, and walked towards the others. "I don't think we'll be seing much of him anymore..." He then looked down at the remains of Scumfreeze. "A spy for the Ice Warriors I guess...they must be up to something those guys...But I don't think we should worry, so much...."
-
Haraldur landed, and said nothing. He started jumping on Scumfreeze's remains in absolute delight.
//I will be leaving the UK for France for four days on Sunday, leaving very early, so I will have one day of posting here before that. Then I will get my character to a situation where he rests for a while. Ellenna is unconscious anyway, so that is fine.//
-
(Good timing. Chapter 4 ends this Sunday, anyway.)
Draven responded to Armic, his gaze fixed on the clouds before the ship.
"First we're heading to the capital of the former Dark Empire. Partially because that will likely be the place with the largest force to commandeer. And partially because... well, you'll see..."
-
Zeros' walked over to Ryu and pulled him over in a fireman's carry, staring at the remains of Scumfreeze.
"He was weaker...guess I put too much power in that blast." He mused to himself. He shrugged and started to walk in a random direction.
"Know anywhere we can rest Duilin?" He asked over his shoulder.
-
"Yes, accually. I rented a house over here, I have a far amount of funature." Duilin says, leading the way. "I was heading my way over, accually....It's should be right..." He turns the conner "Here!" He points to think reqular sized house, with a dark yellow roof and a red door.
"I have two beads, a sofa and two chairs. I think's it only fare to let Ryu and Nevina have the beds. You and Haraldur can fight over the sofa." Duilin smiles "I'm gentlemen enough to let you guys choose, but Nevina and Ryu, should get the beds..."
He then opens up the door to his house "So, will this do?"
-
Zeros' peered inside the modest house and nodded. He'd had much worse then this.
"Yeah. I've had worse." Zeros' shrugged. He walked over towards one of the beds and sat Ryu down, making sure to cover him with blankets as he covered his right eye back up with bandages. He walked over to a chair and pulled it beside the bed, kicking his feet up and closing his eyes while crossing his arms, all six of his wings folding into a more comfortable position.
"You can have whatever. This is fine enough more me." Zeros' said without opening his eyes.
-
"You've had worse? What is that supose to mean?" Duilin says, without expecting a reply
He then places Nevina down on the other bed, and then sits down at the other chair.
"The couch is all yours Haraldur." Duilin says, folding his wings down.
-
//Ah, good. When will it start again?//
Haraldur lay down on the couch, and floated up a metre and a half into the air, so as not to hit the roof.
"The couch is all yours Duilin, you have your own injuries to rest."
Haraldur fell to sleep, his dark aura shimmering around him.
-
(Usually put up the signups after a week or two, then another week for people to post their profiles.)
Draven continued peering into the clouds as the ship speed though the sky. Just a few minor details to work out... No matter... they don't stand a chance...
-
Kahn arrived in Laus and went to the tavern. He handed Ellenna over to one of the staff.
"Make sure she gets some help."
-
//Heh, I have a great idea for a cool character allready. Hopefully, I'll find the will to have him last//
"Now that's just werid..." Duilin says, as Haraldur floats up into the air...
"Well, have it your way..." He then lays down on the couch, but dosen't fall asleep just yet. Just to relex.
"Let's hope they wake up soon, err, well ever." Duilin says to Zeros' "After we rest we should really start to find Draven, or the rest of the weapons...."
-
"Draven's a minor nusance compared to the to the threat of the weapons could insue, since they use parts of Haraldur's power." He said without opening his eyes. "We don't want another Retan incident. That is entirely possible, but on a much larger scale. Possibly the entire continent if were not careful."
"But for now, I will rest. I'll see you guys tomorrow. I expect we have a long day ahead of us."
"Oh and Duilin, to anwser your question about having worse, I've had to sleep under rocks sometimes." Zeros' said before drifting off into a meditive trance.
[End Chapter for Zeros' and Kami-Ryu.]
-
Duilin continued to just lie down at the couch. He took out the golden mace and looked at it, for awile. He then placed it down on the table, near him. He then looked at his jacket he had over his shirt. He then glaced at the Dark Empire symbol, and thought about Draven's return. He then riped off the jacket and then tossed it away, into the fire place. It was not currently burning however. He then scratched his right wing and then folded them back in and then fell asleep on the couch.
[End of Chapter for Duilin]
-
"Yeesh... Somethin' big is afoot. I can feel it." Zion looked up into the sky.
"This ain't good, man." Xenai looked up into the sky with Zion.
"Whatever," said Tsu. "You guys come home with me. I'm sure neither of you have a place to stay."
The trio flew off toward Tsu's little cabin.
//End of Chapter for me. Keeping EW/ZW post count...
=== === ===
EW: 3
ZW: 3
-
Thus the day ended... but it was just a beginning... a mere hint of the true chaos to come...
To be continued...
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 5</span>
A small spec parted the dark clouds in the southern sky, visible between the tall dark towers of the fortress.
"That thing in the sky! What is it?!"
"Shall we attack?"
"Wait! That ship... could it be the... Emperor...?"
"Not sure I recognize that one..."
"It can be no other! Make way! It's landing!"
---
Draven sneered out the window as he navigated the black airship closer and closer to the large platform extending out of the black fortress. As he expected, the airship design was instantly recognized by the fortress occupants as the Emperor's. Otherwise it would have been difficult to even approach the heavily armed former capital. Scaly dark wyverns remained clutched to the tower sides, eying the ship as it hummed past.
The ship slowly landed with a clang, the magic fueled engines powering down. The door at ground level opened slowly, a bit of mist emanating from within. Several dozen Dark Empire soldiers approached meekly, not sure what to expect...
-
Duilin stands in the firely volcanic dark place. Fissures explodeing with lava surond him all over the place. He looks around, and walks quitely around...
Suddenly a figure attacks him, it creates a blade of fire and swings it at Duilin. Duilin grabs the flame as it flys at him, atempting to block it, relying on his demon powers, but it burns his hand. The figure then charges at him, grabbing him, pounding at him, he trys to fight back, but nothing happens. Duilin gets enraged, at the figure, and a dark aura glows around Duilin. He then transforms, into what looks like a full demon and then rips the figure apart...
Duilin awakes, bolting up. With a slight yell of fear.
A dream....nothing more Duilin thinks. He then sits up on the couch, and rubs his forehead and sighs.
"Damn, nightmares..."
-------
A large man was with the group of warriors. He was much bigger then all of them, so he stood out.
"It looks like the Emporer's ship...a little..." He says
"Could it be the Emporer, Maxwell?" A soilder asked
"I don't know. But I'm prepareing for the worst.." He loads a few bolts in his gun, but keeps it lowered. "My brother better be on that ship..." Maxwell says quitely...
-------
This place is so...clean...and peacefull...could this be heaven? Could the gate I found in hell would have lead me to heaven?
A small, red, winged, humaniod, creature stands on top of a stone building.
No, this must be the place, were the 6 weapons are. Armic must be looking for them. He has joined with Quor. For some reason I don't like that. This is just to much, the deamons were in this world, and they destroyed many things. I seem to have lost my demon partner aswell. Imps need a demon partner, so I need to find one. Hmm...I sence demons...one...no...two. Two demons!
The Imp then glids down to the ground and then heads towards, Duilin's house.
"My name is <span style='color:red'>Rink</span>! I rime with <span style='color:pink'>pink</span>! I'm so small, I fit in a <span style='color:blue'>sink</span>!"
-
Zeros' groggily wakes up and puts a hand to his forehead. He shakes his head, his silver hair spillng over his shoulders as he plants his feet on the floor and pushes off. He folds all six of his wings behind him and looks out the window at the small red imp. He slanters over to the door and peers down at the small red creature as he opens the door.
"What in the nine hells is an imp doing here? Shouldn't you be back in Qor's realm?"
-
Haraldur awoke, his aura forming little snowflake patterns in the air. He floated down to the ground. He came to the door, saw the imp, and glared at it.
-
A shadow appeared in the doorway, turning into Draven as he stepped out of the ship. His walk was calm and authoritive, his cape flowing behind him, striding as if he never had been missing for a whole month...
"L-Lord Draven?!"
"Who is in charge here?"
"C-Commander Maxwell, s-sir..."
The soldier pointed to the mammoth of a man in black armor, standing at the opposite side of the platform. Draven pushed the soldier out of the way as he continued walking.
"Commander Maxwell, I commend you. You've kept the capital in fair order during my absence. Many other cities have fallen during our absence. You are to be rewarded."
He continued walking, the entourage of confused soldiers meekly following their general.
"Alas, it seems our glorious Emperor and the rest of the high generals will not be joining us... I will be taking full command from here on."
Draven sneered. The black gates opened to the interior of the Dark Palace.
"The one behind me, Armic, is my guest. Do see that he receives the same respect as is given to me."
-
Maxwell, glances at Draven in slight shock. "Very well lord Draven. I'll make sure the annoncments spreads around." He straps his weapon on his belt. "I take it the Emporer is dead now. I didn't think Retan could have been defeated. But one question..." He then steps infront of Draven "Were is my brother? Were is Darion? I didn't hear about him, when the reports came..."
-------
"An Imp?" Duilin says, getting up. He then looks toward it. Rink then runs into the building, slides in past Zeros' and then glares at Duilin.
"My name is Rink!" Says the Imp. He then walks around..."Nice place you got here..Who's is it?"
"Mine." Duilin replies "How the hell did you get here, the portal is closed!"
"Well...Imps are parnered with Demons, and well. My demon was killed, by a golden mace barring half demon."
He then turns at Duilin "You! It was you! But worry you not! For, I have a clue, that staying here is the spot!"
"What a horrible rime." Duilin groans
"My name is Rink! I rime with Pink! I'm so small, I fit in a sink!" Rink the dives on to one of the chairs. "I knock down stuff..." He then jumps into the air, and blasts a tiny flame at the chair, knocking it down giveing it a slight burn "...in a firey puff!" He then jumps at Duilin "And I'd like you to know, You stink!"
"Geez, okay, Your a good rimer. Now get outa here!" Duilin says, smacking Rink away.
"No, but you see...the problom is...I need a new demon partner. And since you have slain my old one, it has to be you! So...Weither you like it or not, you are to be my new demon!"
"But I'm only a half breed! Can't you just take Zeros' he most demon then I am!"
"So you think...You can't fool, old Rink! Your more demon then you belive, Your dreams do not desive!" Rink grins at Duilin, and gives him a look...
Duilin the glares at Rink."What do you...nevermind...Okay, then, your can stay with me!" Duilin laughs. "I still don't get it, why is it so important for you to have a demon? If it won't make you go back home..."
"Next time the portal opens I can go back home...But I don't want to much, perhaps, we should find the weapons?"
Duilin rubs his chin, "Hmmm..."
-
Armic got out of his crouched position against the vessels wall and trodded out of the ship behind Draven.
Bending his wings as to not bang them against the doorway, he steps out and observes his surroundings. He examines the soldiers, and finds one out of the crowd that seemed to fear him. As he walked down the aisle, the made sure to feign an attack against the fearful soldier, enjoying the sudden jump his target made.
Laughing to himself, he stands slightly behind Draven, to his right side and folds his arms, his wings halfway expanded.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina wakes up, feeling groggy, but feels renewed strength within herself.
-
Zeros' rubs his temples and glares at Rink.
"Don't worry Duilin. Most demons have a partner imp. Its a bonding ceremony. The only reason you haven't obtained an imp yet is because you've lives most your life as a human. The reason I don't have an imp is because of the blood of a god/goddess I have. Most imps wouldn't survive with me because of that. I'd have a better chance with an angel instead of an imp, but I choose not to. Kami-sama and Hild-sama are just plain annoying..." He explained while looked between Duilin and Rink.
"But since I'm not directly involved with either ruler - Kami-sama being heaven or Asgard and Hild-sama being Nifelim - I have no need for a partner. Probably the only reason I've not been attacked yet is because I'm one of the strongest being on this planet, Asgard and Nifliem included."
-
Draven continued walking, the group now moving inside the dark-walled, red carpeted tower.
"As for exactly what happened to the Emperor, I'm not sure. Alas, I do know the fate of your brother, however...
"There was a traitor among us at Romme. Though I didn't see him do it, I'm sure it was him. A miserable soldier named Duilin. Darion informed me of his treachery and went off to punish the traitor, but the next time I saw him he was dead in front of Romme Castle...
"If you wish to seek revenge you are in luck, for I saw Duilin just yesterday near Laus. He seems to be part demon and quite resilient, though I doubt he'll give you any trouble..."
The group came to a grand spiral staircase and began to descend (for the ship landed on an elevated platform, about halfway up the tower.)
"But first things first... Maxwell, the underground shrine this fortress was built on decades ago... has it been opened in the past month?"
-
"No, sir. It hasn't been open since the Emperor left." Replies Maxwell.
"Duilin...I'll remember that name...." He says softly "
I supose my brother's friends suffered the same fait...
"He desided not to open the shine, untill one of the High Generals, or the Emperor returned, if they didn't come in about a year, then we would stop waiting...I guess, your lucky you came...my lord."
-------
"Well, if you put it that way, I guess, I'll just have to live with it." Duilin sighs
Rink grins and then glides onto Duilin's shoulder. "Ahhh...I almost allready like you more then my old master, he didn't talk, and he smelted like cheese, so he wasn't so fun." Rink laughed
"I see..." Duilin then swipes Rink off his shoulder, Rink falls down to the floor. Duilin turns around. And notices Nevina awake. "Nevina, your awake!" He then walks over to the chair near the beds, and then sits next to it. "You allright? Need anything to drink?"
Rink then gives the I have an Idea look "My name is Rink! Shall I go to the sink? Should I fetch a cup and get her a drink?"
"Hey, that accually wasn't bad. Nevina, this is Rink. An Imp...we are stuck with him for now. He likes to make rimes, apparently..."
-
"If he get out of line, I'd be happy to skewer him on the end of my Masamune. I don't like demons from other plains of existence, other then Midgard - that's this planet." He grumbled under his breath.
-
Haraldur looked on with mild amusement, before looking serious again.
"We have work to do," he said. "We should leave north soon, before Draven has the cahnce to destroy the records we need to find."
-
Zeros' straightened up and smiled.
"Yeah yeah. Lets go." He said as he walked towards the door.
-
Duilin, picks up the gold mace, and clips it back onto his belt. He also takes out his old combat knife,from a drawer, and slips it onto his belt aswell.
"Let's go Tinkerbell." Duilin says, to Rink.
"Hey, Duilin. Shouldn't you introduce me to every one?" Rink asks
"The guy in the robes is Haraldur, the sixed winged demon angel is Zeros', the woman sitting up on the bed is Nevina, and the man sleeping is Kami-Ryu." Duilin says. He then looks to Zeros' "What about Kami-Ryu?" He asks "Should we wake him?"
-
"*cough* No, I'm fine.." said Nevina, coughing softly. "Just a little sickish... but-" As she cut herself off, she raised her right forearm into the air and a wave of virtigo swept over her, and she jumped from the bed. "-nothing I can't handle." She said with a smile, finishing her sentence.
-
Tsu walked out of the cabin, seeing Zion and Xenai just standing there with their hands in their pockets.
"I can still feel him," said Xenai.
"I'll finish him off," said Zion.
"How long have you guys been up?" asked Tsu.
"Roughly 2 hours," replied Zion.
"Jeez." Tsu walked up next to Zion. "So when are we leaving?"
"2 minutes."
"Okay."
=== === ===
ZW -- 2
EW -- 2
-
Draven continued leading the group down the stairwell.
"Hmm, excellent. I have a feeling..."
He stopped and turned.
"Armic, Maxwell, come with me. The rest of you idiots get back to whatever you're supposed to be doing... now!"
The soldiers scattered in a panic, some disappearing into doorways and others up and down the stairs, leaving the three alone. Draven continued on, now turning into a dark hallway. He was speaking more towards Armic, as Maxwell wouldn't have known what was going on:
"Its rather interesting that our little group of trouble makers is recovering the weapons as quickly as they are... they have at least three, possibly four... I'm wondering if the weapons somehow returned to a set location on Retan's disappearance.
"The shrine beneath this fortress has always been empty to my knowledge, but I believe the first weapon was found near here long ago. It is always possible that it could have been removed beforehand... Also, Retan always spoke of 'performing the ceremony in the shrine' after obtaining the weapons... It's worth a look."
He continued on, leading deeper and deeper into the fortress...
-
Zion flared his aura in an act of determination. "Let's GO!!!"
Xenai flared his aura as if to compete with his old friend. They both showed off their power (Nothing like DBZ or Kuon, just a bunch of colored energy and wind), competing with each other, finding themselves to be equal to one another.
"Tsu, come on!" Zion took off, with Xenai following. Tsu seemed to get along pretty well, actually. He followed Zion and Xenai without too much of a problem, but he seemed to have gotten less sleep than he should have...
=== === ===
EW - 1
ZW - 1
-
Haraldur exited the house. He floated upwards a little, and in the corner of his eyes he could see the flight obstacles, but most of them as yet not operational. They could still get there in time. Such folly to sleep! Damn! I should have refused them sleep.
"The barriers are dormant, let us go."
He sped northwards, the staff glowing as it melded with him.
-
Armic said, "Weapons? What is all this talk of weapons? That God-spawned freak we had a run in earlier was yammering on about them too... What are they, any why do we want them?" Armic asked.
-
Zeros' shakes his head.
"No. He's used too much ki and chakra. He needs to rest more before he's even fit for fighting. His injuries aren't serious - except for the one to his left side - but with his ki and chakra so low, he'll be more of a burden then a help. I can't recharge his reserves because of my energies dark natures." He then sweeps out the door and glanced over his shoulder.
"Well lets get going!"
-
Zion's team honed in on Zeros' ki signature, and flew toward it, as fast as possible.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
"Very well." Duilin replied "Let's go."
Rink, then darts outside, and then leaps right over Zeros' and then falls down back onto the ground on the street. Duilin walks outside, and stops beside Zeros' and then looks at Rink.
"Uhh...Apparently, I need aid getting into the air. My powers seem to have dimed up slightly." Rink sighed
"Allright, then." Duilin said, he motioned to his shoulder "Let's get going."
Rink then hoped onto Duilin's shoulder. And the pointed up into the air. "Up, up and away, my noble steed! On forth to insanity!"
"It's gonna take along time to get use to this..." Duilin groaned under his breath, he then jumped into the air and started flapping his wings, to hover up into the air, and then rose higher and then soared off...
-
Draven opened another set of doors, leading to a cold, damp, dungeon-like basement.
"Heh... we don't..."
The interior was pitch black. Draven extended his right palm; a fireball appearing within it illuminated the scene.
"However, Ragnar and Zeros' clearly do... If we obtain but one, they will have no choice but to eventually go through us... and that's when... heh... get the picture?"
He started down the final set of stairs.
"I can think of a dozen tactical advantages... That is, of course, if there actually is one of the weapons down here..."
Finally reaching the bottom, the flame from his hand rose into the stagnant air, igniting two torches on either side of a great stone door. It clearly hasn't been opened in years.
"Excellent..."
Draven forced his hand into the crack beetween the door and the wall. At first the stone didn't move, but with some effort, he eventually pushed it aside, the rock cracking under the force of his palms...
"Shall we?"
-
Zeros' crouched low and jumped straight up. He spead all six wings wide to their wingspan and flapped and sped off towards Haraldur and Duilin direction.
-
And they were there.
"Zeros'!" called out Zion, waving at him as they caught up. "Are you guys by any chance heading towards where Draven is?"
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Haraldur is half the way to the Crimson Empire capital. He ignores everyone, and accelerates and disappears off the horizon, filled with rage.
_____________________________________________________
Ellenna woke up in the temple, smiled at Kahn, and went to sleep again because of her tiredness.
//She is currently inactive until woken up Kahn: wake her up).//
_____________________________________________________
The Great Prophet appeared in front of Duilin and Zeros' as an image only. He said: "You have the weight of history weighing on your shoulders. The one you ally with has many possible futures, some destructive, some not. He is The Bitter One, the one in which anger can so easily fire up to destruction. For the safety of the world, it is crucial that The Light, his predestined lover is found, and that they meet, else there will be much suffering."
The image disappeared.
//The great prophet is inactive.//
-
"Zeros' what was that?! I think he was talking about Haraldur...maybe we should go back..." Duilin says to Zeros'. He sees Zion and his group.
"Hey, it's...those people..."
Rink just scratches his head in confusion.
-
"Oi, Zion." Zeros' waved towards Zion. "And Yes were heading towards Draven's empire." Zeros' scratched his head as he recalled the image,
"According to that prophet, Haraldur is called 'The Bitter One', probably from his fusion with Rangnar. Apparently, he has the power to destroy the world. I also do...but that besides the point. It seems we have to find his predestined 'lover' who is named 'The Light.'" Zeros; stroked his chin in a contemplateve matter.
"It seems weve bitten off more then we can chew. The problem is, if Haraldur goes crazy and we don't find his lover, we have to slay him." Zeros' leveled his gaze at his four companions.
-
"Hmmph... Why don't we just cause an apocalypse if we want to be emancipated from them. Kill billions of birds with one stone..." Armic said with a sick grin as he followed Draven through the door.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina thought about trying to heal the Ninja on the bed, but decided it might be best that she didn't. She walked out of the door, concentrated all her energy into the air beneath her feet, and she began to ascend into the air. As she got a good 50 feet in the air, she flipped over so that she was in a 'flying' postion, and she forced herself forward, gradually accelerating, as she followed Duilin.
-
"Well I guess she's alive"
Kahn walked over to Ellenna and started to shake her.
"No time for sleep, I believe we still have a job to do."
-
"I hope you don't mind if we tag along," said Zion.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Draven continued striding through the dark ruins.
"Now, how would we go about causing a catastrophic global scale apocalypse, hmm Armic? It's not worth putting in more effort than we'll get out."
After descending a bit more, they came to a large room that looked strangely different from the rest of the subterranean shrine. This room looked newer, as there was considerably less dust and dirt built up on the floor and wall. In the center was an altar, something dimly visible sparkling on top of it. On each side was a statue of a menacing dragon.
"Well, I'll be..."
-
Zeros' shook his head as wind waffed through his hair, bangs abskewring his emerald green eyes.
"The more help the better, I'd say." Zeros' said as he gazed towards the horizion. "Both the weapons you two have'll help, as well as your magic and skills." He said as he glanced at each of the three.
Zeros' mystic senses sought out Haraldur's sudden impowering rage. He gritted his teeth as he concentrated.
Haraldur! Calm yourself! Going into a pure blood rage won't help our situation. He sent the risky thought out to Haraldur. He glanced at his companions and closed his eyes, focusing the air and his own dark ki into his wings. They fluctuated in color wildly as he gritted his teeth as his back suddenly started to bubble below the last pair of black angel wings.
As sudden as the sensation appeared, it disappeared as two more dark angel wings appeared below the six already their, breaking another barrier upon his inclosed power.
[An explanation abou Zeros' power. Each black wing harbors to contain some of his dark aura. Everytime he releases another wing or pair of wings, his power slowly returns to him. Similar barrier are placed upon all gods, goddess and demons, except in the form of limiter earrings, which limit the beings powers. Since Zeros' doesn't have dedication towards Kami-sama or Hild-sama, he uses his wings to contain his power, fearing if he released too much, he wouldn't be able to contain it.]
"We need to hurry. I fear for Haraldur as I can sense his increasing rage. He may do something he would regret." Zeros' voice was only a whisper in the wind as he broke the sound barrier several times, disappearing totally from sight, speeding off as fast as he could towards Haraldurs postion.
-
I feel someone is close to part of me: one which is neither you nor Duilin nor Kami-Ryu, some other. This must not happen. This must be stopped... I will stop it. Help me if you wish.
The sword and the spear and the mace all glow a fiery red, tugging a little northwards, in an urgent way.
Haraldur was near to the capital, and could see a landing area with a black ship, and it was swarming with soldiers.
He roared down on them, falling down as a fireball, and exploding on the landing area, cracking the stones.
Around him were many dead soldiers. He stood up. And screamed a scream of rage that surely could be heard from Zeros' position.
He grabbed a soldier by his neck and shouted: "Where is Draven!?" The soldier pointed. Haraldur broke his neck, then went in the direction of the point.
__________________________________________________________
Ellenna got up. "Yes, we must go." She thanked the temple staff and went outside, waiting for Kahn.
-
"Whoa, my mace is going crazy!" Duilin says "We better go guys, follow me, wile I follow the weapon..."
Duilin then ilumniates a firey blast, and then soars off, a great speed. Rink grabes on really tight to Duilin's shoulders...
"Yaaaaaaaa! To fast! Slow down! Slow down!" Rink cries
----------
"Amazeing." Maxwell says "So, with this weapon, we will lure the enemy here, and destroy them? Sounds good." He then stares at the satues "Well, my lord. You should probally get the weapon" He subjests
-
Draven stepped up to the altar, upon which sat a long intricate battle axe with a green gem in the handle. Suddenly the whole thing began to glow a fiery red...
"Hmm..."
Draven picked up the weapon. Immediately swirls of crimson and darkness began to conflict with Draven's own aura of flame, which automatically appeared to protect him.
"This weapon... has two auras..."
He ran his hand over the handle, casting an invisible barrier over the weapon that would temporarily seal its magical contact with the surrounding world. The auras vanished. Draven dispersed his aura as well.
An explosion, screams from above...
"Well, now. Looks like our guest has arrived early..."
Draven rested the long axe on his shoulder as he began to float a few inches above the ground.
"And here is how our miserable band of ruffians will meet their end. Ragnar is a rash fellow. Notice how his friends showed up a few minutes after he tried to attack our ship yesterday? He's likely acting against their concil. And they'll likely show up to save his sorry self again.
"Maxwell, you will prepare the forces for a full assault. Not on Ragnar, but on his band of merry men that will appear in a few minutes. Use everything we have-- the soldiers, the cannons, the wyverns...
"Armic, your role will not come into play until after our band of losers has arrived. Once they are deeply engaged fighting our forces, you will summon your demons behind them. We'll trap our enemies in a pincer attack, wiping them out easily. I assure you, Armic, it will be at least as fun as Armageddon... heh...
"As for Ragnar, I will deal with him personally."
An explosion of flame violently burst forth from the man. Draven took off like a rocket, flying though the corridors and stairwells of the shrine and entering the massive dark fortress from below. He shot a telepathic message to Haraldur, outside.
"My, my, what a temper. Looking for something?"
-
Zeros' new speed allows him to catch up towards Haraldur in seconds. He stops in mid-air and drops to the ground besides Haraldur. He narrows his eyes as he looks towards the castle. He then stands straight and glares at the soldiers. Many of the ones standing directly in front of him shrink back and shiver, but they don't back off.
"So be it." In a blur of motion, Zeros' unsheaths his sword and fells five soldiers with one sweep. Blood gushes and flows from the gashes as their headless bodies roll along the ground.
----
In the back of the ground, a captain looks at Zeros' and shivers.
"GO! CHARGE! OVER POWER HIM!" He yells. The soldiers look towards the captain and then back towards Zeros' and let out a warcry, charging towards him.
-
A temper, Oh, yes... Looking for something? Only what is me.
Each weapon tugged violently towards him (far away, somewhere, on an alter, the last weapon flew and hit the wall before being forced back to it's resting place by its guardian).
There was a charging captain below him, ahead of his soldiers. Haraldur picked him up in front of their eyes, and looked at them with a menacing smile while the captain screamed as his body was turned to plasma and then thrown at Draven. The vast majority of the soldiers fled.
With his other hand, he conjured up a roaring ball which he threw at the fortress, causing rocks to fly out, and larger ones to fall from above Draven.
To Zeros' he sent a message: Curious... it seems that I do not have to be in possession of all the weapons to destroy them: all we would need is the last remaining weapon, then you give me all five. We go to Draven, and then... and then it will be done.
Haraldur grinned at Draven mockingly.
-
Maxwell then runs off as fast as he could back to the surface. He then yelled at an officer "Sound the alarm! Now!"
The officer noded, and ran up into a near by tower, he then started to ring several large bells the ringing ehcoed everywere. Suddenly more and more soilders started to run out. Armored Wyverns and there riders, flue up into the air, and began circled, and trying to hunt down the enemies. Armored hourse pulled carts, with cannons wealed there way around. Soilders armed with swords, axes, spears, hammers, maces and cross bows began to storm the area...
"Now, it's time, to march forth and kick some ass!" Maxwell chanted, he fully loaded up his Bolt riffle. And began to head toward the docking area...
-----------
"Hold on tight Rink! I'm going to try and go faster!" Duilin calls to the Imp
"Oh, no!" Rink cries, he then crawls into Duilin's arms and Duilin holds him tight.
Duilin then blasts like a rocket ship, breaking the sound barrier, for the first time in his life. He was amazed at how fast he was going. Yellowish fire was surrounding him, he looked like a fireball blasting threw the air.
He then spots the place were the weapon is takeing him. The Dark Empire base. He then, smashes down on the ground near by Zeros' and Haraldur. Scorching the ground, he lands down. Rink has his eyes bloted wide open, shivering like a 55lb man wearing boxer shorts in Antarctica.
"Never do that again Duilin. Please..."
-
Xenai looked at Tsu. "Looks like you're hung, kid. You're not achieving zanzoken any time soon. Take care, buddy."
Tsu was slightly relieved, yet sad that he could not help his friends. "I'll hold the fort here."
Zion concentrated in the direction of the Dark Palace. "No, you're coming with us. You're needed for Seijin's special attack. Stand back."
Tsu floated a good distance backwards, away from Zion and Xenai. Zion and Xenai assumed firm stances, focusing on their ki, and letting out thunderous yells. Their auras clashed with one another, and then Zion and Xenai started to grow... wings. Angel wings, they were translucent, and seemed not to be attached to their backs. Zion's were white, while Xenai's were black. They'd taken the seal off their power.
Zion and Xenai looked at Tsu with narrowed eyes, pointing their hands at them. "Pick a color," said Zion.
Tsu's eyes were widened. "Uh... Blue."
Wham! A massive amount of energy slammed into him, and just like that, there were the same type of wings on his back, they were blue. "You don't have much power," said Xenai, "But those babies will make sure you fight with all of it. They also enable ki-challenged people like you to use Satsu-ki (Explosive ki, or literally, 'Death ki')." Zion and Xenai grabbed onto Tsu, and took off toward the Dark Palace at a blinding speed.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Maxwell then spots Haraldur, Zeros' and Duilin.
"Hmm, those must be them." Maxwell says. "I'll be sure that they die!"
He then dashes toward a canon, near by. He grabs a cannon ball and then loads it in. He grabs a torch on the wall and then lights the cannonm it then fires, just missing the group.
"Hmm...Haraldur. I'm not sure what one that is. But let me think on this, two of them look like demons, and Haraldur I do not belive is a deamon. So I supose that's him! And one of those two must be, this, Duilin character..."
A group of Wyvern flew over to the area
//I was wondering, can Wyvern's shoot fire?//
"Attack the demons!" Maxwell yelled.
The wyverns riders, then shot arrows down at Duilin and Zeros'.
---
Duilin dived out of the way. But a few got him in the back.
"Owch! What ever happened to saying hello?" Duilin groaned
Rink then flue out of Duilin hands and then started blasting fireballs at the arrows flieing at him.
"Zeros' there attacking us. Should we run for it?" Duilin asks
"You know, I could go for that, right about now!" Rink cries
"Accually ditch that, idea! Looks like there not letting us out!" A group, of 15 soilders ran the group, 5 ran at Duilin. Duilin thrusted his hand out and blasted a fire ball at one of them, killing him instantly. Rink dived at one soilder and started clawing at his face, the soilder droped his weapon and started running off. The remaining three ran at Duilin...
-
Zeros' hands blurred as the three heading towards Duilin fell limp to the ground, decapitated.
Yes...after we have all the weapons though, can you summon Ryu here after we secure all of them? He has he spear still, hidden away in his cloak, but I can reach it.
Zeros' glared defiently at the ground ahead of him.
"No Duilin. We stay and fight." Zeros' held up his left hand, the one not currently occupied. His hand started crackling with brown and green energy. He grinned at the soldiers.
"DUG HAUT!" Zeros' raised his arm more as the energy crackling across his palm increased. He slammed it down faster then ever, the breaking of several sound barriers popping through the air as a 30 foot crater appeared below where Zeros' palm slammed, knocking all the soldeirs around him off their feet.
Before anyone had time to react, tendrils of grown and green slivered across the ground, crackling with intense magic energy. Soldiers cried out in pain as spikes made of earth impaled those all around Zeros', Duilin and Rink, killing them instantly as blood poured down their chests - where the spikes punctured their hearts - and heads as their brains exploded from sheer pressure, littering the ground crimson.
"Duilin! Attack the castle directly!" Zeros' used his sword to deflect stray arrows that reached his position while screams of anguish pierce the battle ground. "I'll deal with this!" Zeros' charged his ki. Even ones without training in anythng could feel the death, grief, pain, anguish, rage and anger surrounding his wings. He jumped into the air and flaped all eight of his wings as they sent a super sonic blast through the feild.
Soldiers were knocked off their feet and arrows were crushed by the pressure as Zeros' rose into the air and spotted Haraldur and Draven in the distance. He headed into that direction, which also placed him near the castle, indirectly.
Zeros' stopped near Draven and Haraldur and grinned at hm, mockingly.
"We meet again." He replied cooly.
Haraldur do you sense Qor? He sent the thought to Haraldur as he extended his sense. He sensed Armic towards the castle. He glanced in that direction and saw Maxwell as he ordered around the units.
-
Kahn left the temple right behind Ellenna.
"So where are we off to now?"
-
Haraldur told Zeros': If we do not force the axe from Draven's possession into ours, then we shall return to Laus to pick up Ryu. We will then find the last weapon, hopefully with information from here about its whereabouts. Then we shall enter another confrontation with Draven, and because he will be close, it will be posible to destroy the weapons. If we do get the axe from Draven, then we find the last one anyway, and destroy them at that weapon's shrine.
Yes, I sense Qor, the stunted runt that he is. He may cause us problems, so we should get this over with as soon as possible.
___________________________________________________________
Ellenna said "We go north. I feel something drawing me there."
-
"You got it cheif!" Duilin replies to Zeros' as he blasts off. "Okay, Rink. Could your old partner do this?" He raises his hands in the air. His eyes start glowing yellow. He begins to aborb heat heat from all around him, and creates a fire ball about 7 feet in diameter. He tosses the fireball at one of the castle walls. A huge explotion had part of the castle parially knocked down.
"Yeah, I think I saw him do that once or twice. Uh oh. More Dark Soilders!" Rink says
The soilders run there way threw, avioding the spikey things that Zeros' made.
As one ran at him, he jumped into the air about 10 feet with aid of his wings. The soilder slid on the ground, and was about close to a meter away from Duilin's former postion, so that as Duilin lands the soilder is behind, him. Instantly another run, with his sword pointed at him, so Duilin jumps again and the Dark Warrior kills the other one instead. Duilin then picks up the soilder and then casts fire wile holding him, turning him into a firey heap. He then tosses the soilder at a few others, and then grabs one of spikes and breaks and then tosses it at another soilder, going right threw his torso.
"The others better hurry up. I can't fight these guys all by myself. Rink, I don't supose you can do anything?" Duilin says as he fights off more soilders with his mace. An armored hourse pulled carts, with a cannon started there way to Duilin's location (I guess we can call them Cart Tanks).
"Yeah, I think so.." Rink relpies. He then flies over to the Cart Tank. And then jumps on the hourses back, and then quiclky burns off the straps and the chains, that held the hourse, and smacks the hourses back, Getting it to run off. He quickly flies off the hourse and then crawls into the Tank.
"What the hell is that thing?" The Tank driver cries. Rink then blasts a fire ball at the mans eyes, and then jumps at his face. He claws at his head, killing the creap. The gunner then freaks out and jumps out of the Cart and runs. Rink, then reals the cannon at the Wyvern's and shoots one down.
The hourse then runs at Duilin's position. "Whoa there!" Duilin says. The hourse stops and looks at Duilin. Duilin rubs his chin...
-----
"Rats! Two of them are close!" Maxwell groans, he points to a group of 10 soilders "You! Get the new weapons and then go after the eight winged freak! Leave the other one."
"Sir, yes, sir!" The soilders reply. Then then open this large door. The soilders put on extremly thick steal armor. They arm themselfs with Caliberate Shotguns, with plently off ammo. Then the 10 shock troops ran as fast as they could to Zeros'.
They arived quickly to his position, seeing as they were not to far away. They then began fireing at Zeros'. Shotgun shells rapidly flue threw the air, flying at Zeros'.
//10 Shock Troops. There armor is really powerfull. So they won't die easly at all.//
-
(This is great stuff. Heh...)
Draven gave Zeros' a raised eyebrow.
"Is it just me, or do you get more freaky every time we meet? I mean 8 of them now... you're going to have trouble entering doors before long."
Draven rose higher and higher. He was positioned high above the dark fortress. One of the tallest towers was at his back. He strapped the large axe to his belt on the left side, speaking to Haraldur:
"Look what I found in my basement! I know better than to try to use this on you. Still, you'll find any attempts to call it to you quite futile, as it will remain deaf to your calls as long as it is in my possession."
He clenched his fists and brought both arms to his side. To anyone near Draven, the intense clamor of battle below seemed to muffle out completely... The ambience seemed to darken, becoming more of a pale red... the only audible noise was a soft wind that blew gently upwards over Draven's body, making his long hair slowly wave upwards and his cape extend outward. His face was calmly focused and his reverbed voice pierced to the soul:
"Shall we begin?"
The man immediately exploded in flame with an intensity never seen before. A surging sphere of flame blasted outwards in all directions. The upper reaches of the tower behind him literally disintegrated, the very bricks crumbling into dust... When it was over, a dark figure in the center of a massive crimson fireball painted the sky an eerie red...
Draven's features were not easily distingushed wrapped in the intense crimson aura, but his eyes shone though, two white triangular slits much more intense than the flame itself...
-
Zion, Xenai, and Tsu arrived at the Dark Palace. Tsu was released, and Zion and Xenai connected their wrists, standing back to back. Tsu floated behind them as they pointed their palms at a clump of soldiers, a safe distance away from Rink and Duilin.
"Satsujin-ha!!!"
Blue waves of energy erupted from their hands, and slammed into the clump of soldiers, obliterating them.
Tsu, with a newfound courage, swooped down near Rink and Duilin, landed, and started to hack away at the soldiers.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
"Ha ha." Zeros' deadpanned. Zeros' used his speed to dodge above the shotgun bullets. He pointed one finger towards them, his eyes never leaving Draven, and charged it with ki. Ki started to crackle around his finger as he sent a message towards Haraldur:
Do you want help with Draven? If so, I'll stay. If not, I'll go after Qor. He released ten ki bolts in the direction of the Shock tropers. The shok tropers were not killed, but the ki bolts knocked them back several feet, also making dents in their armor as they hit a wall and slumped down, dizzy.
-
"Glad you boy's chose to stop by!" Duilin says to Tsu. He then hoped onto the hourse. "Tsu, I want you and the others, to fight off the soilders. I'm gonna blow this god forsaken palace to dust. I won't go far!"
Duilin used to ride hourses back when he was with the Empire, so he knew a bit. He rod the hourse, closer into the castle area. He swung his mace in circlular motion. And then casted fire into the hand he was holding the mace in.
"Something tells me, this will work!" He then swung the mace at one of the towers of the castle, it created a large firey disc. The mace seemed to have a strange power. The disc made the entire tower fall down, crushing several soilders. "Huh!? How do like that, pukas!?" Duilin yelled
After Rink nearly cleared the sky of the wyverin riders, the cannon ran out of ammo.
"Damnit!" Rink yelled. He then flied out of the tank. He then looked around, abit. And noticed that several more headed the way. "Ah, crap! Duilin! Get back here!"
He looked toward Tsu "Hey dude! You think can handle some Cart Tanks, I'm not exataclty the right size to be fighting about umm...5 of them!"
Duilin then ran his way back closer to were the others were, swinging his mace, at soilders that attacked him.
------
"That's it. Those punks have gone to far! There weaking this castle to shreads! I'm going in!" Maxwell says. He straps on a chain of bolts, around him. And then runs out into the battle feild. "I can't belive one guy can do so much. It appears that there are three more! This has got to end!"
He hops into a hourse pulled cart, along with another soilder, to stear the hourse. He fires several bolts at Zion and Xenai.
------
The shock troops slowy make there way back up. "Resume fire!" One shouts. And they continue to fire there shotguns at Zeros'.
-
Armic smiled Grimly at what Draven had said, but was a bit dissapointed that he had to sit and wait in the the little room until the enemy poured in. He decided he'd wreak a bit of Havoc above ground while still below it.
He removed 2 of his silvery hairs and put one in each hand. He chanted an incantation in a language older than time itself. Only Qor and the most ancient of deamons were even aware of the tongues existance. as he chanted, louder with each repeat of the phrase, the silvery hairs in his hands began to glow red. Once they were burning in his hand, hot enough to sear metal, he broke his chant and shouted out in plain English, "Constructs of Dreams, Golems of Death itself, I command you, lend me thy power!"
As he finished his sentence, the hairs dissapeared from his hands, but something much, much bigger appeared above ground...
There, next to the Castle Gates, 2 Huge Demonflesh Golems appeared on either side of the door. Nearly 40 feet each, bleeding red blood to the ground with each movement of their exposed muscles. Almost completely red, they were fearsome looking beasts. Huge wings on their backs, and a deamon skull for a head. One look at them could make the queemish go into acoma.
Armic laughed as he controlled the beasts with his hands, like puppets.
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Nevina finally arrived on the scene, cursing Haraldur for going so fast.
Nevina drew her Holy Bastard sword and leaped into the frey. Cracking the skull of one soldier with the flat side of her blade, she then blasted a holy ball into a group of 5 soldiers, who blew up instantly from the hit. Their weapons flew out from the blast and one of the longswords impaled another soldier through the skull.
-
Kahn looked towards the north.
"Well let's not waste any more time."
-
Zion and Xenai swatted the bolts away. Zion looked down to Tsu. "It's time!" he yelled.
Xenai looked at Zion, wide-eyed. "You're serious? On just this little bit of trouble?"
"We need to warm up to it."
"Alright, I suppose." Xenai looked down to Tsu. "Start charging energy! Prepare to accept a whole shitload of some too!"
Zion forced all of the energy out of Eternity Weapon, and Xenai forced all the energy out of Zero Weapon. They were glowing white and black, respectively, and with huge auras of the same color.
Tsu charged up as much energy as he could. For some reason, the intent of the trio caused Tsu to develop a large aura of... just heat waves.
=== === ===
EW ---------- 10
ZW ---------- 10
Neither weapon will resume charging until New Forever has been executed.
-
Zeros' glanced over his shoulder towards Tsu, Zion and Xenai and smiled at them. He mouthed "Thanks guys." to them. He then disapeared and reppeared near the double doors leading into the castle. He leaned forwards and eased the doors away and started strolling down the path towards where Armic was controlling the demons.
-
Haraldur's aura flamed up, diverting the flames of Draven, causing a quite interesting paisley pattern to appear in the air for a few seconds.
Haraldur told Zeros' I suggest you get Qor, I can easily face Draven with few ill effects, and even if I do, he cannot kill me.
Haraldur slowly moved towards Draven, at the same time propelling two balls of ice towards him at great speed.
Pointing towards the two flesh golems, Haraldur shouted to Duilin "Deal with the new arrivals!"
_________________________________________________
Ellenna picks Kahn up, and hovered 15 cm above the ground. She then flys/hovers northward at 30 metres per second.
-
"Holy shit!" Duilin yells as he sees the golems. The hourse scared as hells, jumps up, knocking Duilin off, and runs away. "Me kill them? No problom...*gulp*"
He spins the chain mace around a few times wile he walks toward one. The beats swings it's fist down at Duilin, Duilin quickly strafes out of the way of the giant fist. He swings the mace at the monsters fist, 3 times. Blood began to ooze out of the fist. The other one atempted to stomp on Duilin. Duilin dove out of the way, and then swung his mace 3 times at the monsters foot. Same result.
"Geez, talk about repitition!" He sized the monsters towering over him. He then flue up into the air and swung the mace at one's face. It then swung a punch back at him, but Duilin flue out of the way, and the golem punched the other in the face causeing it to fall to the ground. Duilin flue down right on the fallen monsters face and slamed the mace on the golem. The other monster, prepared to stomp it's foot on Duilin...
-----
The Cart Tanks rode there way to the group. On fireing at everyone, except Haraldur, Duilin and Zeros'.
Haveing there way blocked, the Shock Troops then ran into battle, prepareing to attack Tsu, Zion, Xenai and Nevina.
Maxwell. Rode his cart close up, and prepared for some brutal warfare. He stood up, and aimed a shot at Nevina, but sudenly Rink flue right at his face, and blocked his eyes. Maxwell looseing focus, fires a bolt at a Dark Empire soilder, killing him.
"What the hell!? Get off me!" Maxwell yells, as he rips Rink off. "Well what do we have here?"
Rink blast a small blast of fire at Maxwells face, knocking him down, dropping Rink. Maxwell fires his weapon at Rink, but missing by a inch, hitting the ground next to him...
-
Sure.
Zeros' continues walking down the stairs towards the shrine Armic sits. He warily extends his senses, searching every shadow he came across.
"Quiet...too quiet." He murrmered as he pushed the door to the shrine open.
-
The trio barely dodged the shots fired at them. Tsu jumped up to his partners, outstretching his arms. Zion and Xenai made contact, sending their energy into Tsu. They then floated there right next to Tsu, to watch the show. Xenai pointed out Rink, then Nevina. "Don't hurt that little guy there, or her either."
Tsu pulled back his palms, connecting his wrists. His hair had spiked up, and his pupils had heavily constricted. He was overflowing with electricity, and his aura was overflowing with black and white energy.
A huge ball of energy built in his hands. He pointed it in front of him.
"New Forever!!!"
The energy burst forward in an inconcievably large beam, nearly 100 feet wide. Charged with the energy of darkness, it could do extra damage, yet charged with the energy of light, it would spare those it slammed into that were intended to be safe.
As the beam slammed into the group, several soldiers were sent into the air and instantly vaporized, while it had no effect on Rink and Nevina except for warmth, and blinding light.
"HAAAAA!!!" The last bit of his gathered energy thundered forward amd finished off the attack with a bang.
=== === ===
EW ---------- 10
ZW ---------- 10
-
Nevina was in awe as she watched the huge machine, then she was blinded by the light.
She fell down and began to rub her eyes, trying to regain her vision. It slowly returned, and found many Dark Empire soldiers had been killed by the attack.
"Neat trick..." She thought for a moment, but she quickly returned to her combat, sheathing her Bastard Sword, she drew her Scimitar and dirk, aiming for a more Finesse form of fighting this round. She ran and phased from visible to invisible as she charged along, then finally became fully visible as her blades gutted 2 Dark Empire soldiers.
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Armic felt his hands being tugged at, he knew his Demonflesh golems were taking some hits. His left hand seared as Golem A took a gash in it's skull, but he knew the beast would tough through much more abuse than that. He forced the Golem up and had it expose it's foot and a half long claws and it dived at Duilin, aiming to pick him up and impale his body with the sword-like appendages.
-
As the golem dived up, Duilin tumbled off. The golem reached to grab him, and impale him, but he swung his combat knife out, and casted fire into it, createing a fire blade, and swung it at the golem's hand, catching it on fire. He then thrusted his hand out, and blasted a fireball at the damage at the monster's head.
(I'll leave it up to CyberWolf if that kills it or not)
The other Golem, failing to stomp on him, walks over to the rubble of the castle, and picks up a large stone...
-------
Rink, seemed to be un effected by the blast, and barely noticed it. However, he noticed Maxwell being blinded by the light, so he used the opportunity to fly off, to were Nevina is. "Nevi...Duilin...needs....help...." Rink said slightly tired out.
"Arrg! What the hell was that?" Maxwell cried. "Were did he go? Ah, what's the bother. Hmm...those three seem to be causeing trouble..." He spoted the Trio.
"Wyvern riders, attack the ki bareing trio!" Maxwell ordered. Suddenly, 8 Wyvern's with riders armed with Cross Bows and 3 armed with Auto Shotguns, fired there weapons at Tsu, Zion, Xenai. He then looked at the two Golems "Hah, those two should kill that deamon. I suspect that one is Duilin, it shall be good to watch him die. Yet I would prefer to do it myself. Oh well. Hahahah!"
-
High above, the burning Draven made a quick note of the last arrivals. How many are there, 6 or 7? Whatever. Close enough. He shot a final telepathic message to Armic before plunging into battle:
"They're all here. It is time..."
For the rest of the battle, his focus would be Haraldur alone...
Draven began a mad dash at The Bitter One, a red streak of flame scorching the sky behind him. The two powers' auras clashed violently as Draven stopped but a few inches from his adversary, where he aimed a flurry of intensely high speed punches at his opponent's head and chest, the very shockwaves of his burning fists upsetting the very foundations of the towers below...
-
During Draven's flight, the temporary magic shield he had put over the axe shattered, and the axe glowed red, but this was not visible among the flames of Draven's aura.
Draven was a few inches away from him. Haraldur allowed his punches to hit him: he could handle the pain, although he flinched from some of the harder ones. At the same time, the axe was now really glowing now, and he touched it while being punched by Draven. The axe immediately melded with him because of his aura's presence.
Haraldur immediately turned his aura off, so Draven's punch to his head sent him flying 500 metres away in one second.
He smiled at Draven with his bleeding face, and said: "Goodbye..."
He shot upwards before vanishing.
____________________________________________________________
In his private dimension, Haraldur sat, amongst his belongings he had kept there since a small child, in his former elder Haraldur form. He smiled, wiped the blood off his face, and slept: he would not be able to leave for quite some time.
//Haraldur is now inactive.//
_____________________________________________________________
Ellenna felt a force tug her forward at high speed, and she arrived above the whole battle, directly above the golems, carrying Kahn.
She screamed in terror, and then fell, clutching to Kahn in fright as a child would do to a teddy bear.
She was falling, falling, head first. She started praying to Kala with no real hope of salvation...
_____________________________________________________________
The Great Prophet appeared above the battlefield as an image, and shouted "Behold! The Light has appeared in the air and is falling! The future of the world rests on your shoulders and on your quick thinking!"
He then disappeared.
_____________________________________________________________
//Just in case: The magical shielding put on the weapon was temporary, and it would have been practically impossible for Draven to have stopped Haraldur touching the weapon in mod punch.//
-
Ryu suddenly sprung awake, gasping for breath as he clutched his heart. He looked warily towards the battlefield where he could barely sense the aura's clashing together.
Ryu swung his feet over the bed and pushed off, wobbling slightly as he steadied himself. He walked out the door and peered in the direction of the battle and sighed. He concentrated his ki and chakra towards his cloak, his aura springing to life as he looked towards the field, determined.
Suddenly, two leathry wing sprouted from his back and he lifted into the air and took flight, possibly towards his last battle.
----
Zeros' entered the shrine and immediately spotted Armic. He grimced when he felt Haraldur's aura disappear.
Be on guard. There's somethin strange going on. Zeros' said telepathically to Duilin, Tsu, Xenai, Zion, Nevina, Rink, Ellenna and Khan. Draven has something up his sleeve. Keep your senses sharp. Don't worry about Qor either... Zeros' grimced. He's mine.
"Qor...how pleasent to see you." His voice dripped with sarcasim.
-
"Hmmph, you're looking horrible these days, Zeros'. Your father would not approve..." Armic said with a twisted scowl.
He turned his attention from Zeros', but still kept an eye on him, and held his sword close as he mumbled his incantation. He used only his left hand in the somatic component of the spell, keeping his right and his swords silver hilt.
His hand weaved around a red orb, growing in size. His hand was dyed red from the light, along with the left side of his face. He finished his verbal component and snatched the glowing red orb with his hand. He squeezed it, and as he applied force to the ball, a rip appeared outside, behind the warriors above. It too was red. It started small, a mere seam undone in the fabric of space. As moments passed, the small hole turned into a huge, gaping chasm. Within you could see a dwelling of ice, with human souls trapped within the confines of the icey prisms. It was the 9th level of hell, Qor himselfs dwelling.
Deamons bursted forth, these much stronger than the ones previously encountered. Many of them not unlike Zeros' himself.
//Zeros': You don't mind all these references to your characters Demonic heritage, do you? If so, I can edit the post if you want.//
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The Golem fell to the ground, moaning in pain, and as he fell, he broke his wings under his own weight.
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Nevina charges at the downed giant and slashes at it's hands, severing several of it's fingers as massive amounts of blood spew fom the Golems wound.
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-
Duilin looked at the spirt of The Great Prophet. "Him again!" Duilin then spoted Ellena falling down to the ground. "I must save her!" He jumped onto the downed Golem and then flue into the air. And grabed Kahn and Ellena.
"Gotcha!" Duilin says "Ooo, boy...Not cut out to carry two people..." Duilin slowly glides down onto the ground, and gently places them down on the ground. "You kids be carefull now. I'm Duilin by the way." He let's them go. He looks at Kahn "Make sure she dosen't get harmed! Something tells me she's very important..."
//Cyber Wolf, are the demon's in our view?//
-
//unless soldiers are in the way, yes//
-
Draven looked at his glowing fist as he realized Haraldur had just ripped off the weapon...
"You son of a..."
He shot after the man, blazing forward then banking upward as Haraldur flew skywards. Draven was almost upon him when he vanished into thin air... Draven overshot the spot where his opponent was, turning around and looking left to right as his flight slowed.
"Coward! Where did YOU GOOOO?!?!"
His voice boomed through the battle field, but his only reply was the wind...
His eyes darted back and forth as he gritted his teeth. His adversary's presence was gone...
"Can't believe... the blasted teleport trick again..."
He threw his hands out to his side, flaring his aura of flame once more.
"GYAH!! Very well! All of your friends DIE!!!!"
The burning madman began to descend on the dark fortress like a comet in the sky, coming from the opposite direction of the horde of impending demons...
-
//I don't mind.\\
"Yes...how nice." Zeros' spat. "Don't you talk about my father that way. He was one of the greatest taiyoukai (full demon) ever. He was stronger then Qor ever was..." He gritted his teeth as he felt the output of youkai (pure demon energy. Referance from Inuyasha.).
Zeros' slowly stepped forwards, his left hand resting on the hilt of his Masamune, slowly circling Armic as he gazed at him with the utmost hatred.
"Yes Qor...I can finally have my revenge for my mother and father." Guys...good luck. I'm sorry I can't help yall. I have my own problem to take care of. He sent telepathically to all his companions, even the approaching Kami-ryu.
"Shall we dance?" Zeros' asked as he jumpped back and his left hand blurred in speed, making his katana to become unsheathed and transform, sending a ki wave rippling across the ground, tearing up granite as it flew towards Armic.
----
Ryu stopped his flight and gently hovered into the air, looking towards the battle field.
"Damnit..." Ryu cursed under his breath and started flying with renewed vigor, his feet skimming the ground as wave passed in his wake.
-
The Great Prophet materialised before Draven in a solid form, saying: "I do not believe that would be a good idea in the long term, Sonny Jim..."
He was standing in the air, resting on a staff which was resting on the air. He looked old, very old.
____________________________________________________________
Ellenna let go of Kahn. She looked at the Golem Nevina was fighting, and launched a small, weak ice spell, hoping to distract it from Nevina, giving her a chance to attack more easily.
-
Maxwell then spoted that Draven was running toward the battle feild, "Good, maybe we can accually KILL something now!"
----
Duilin spoted the hord of demon's flying toward the battle feild. "Aw, crap!" He yelled. "Guy's we got more company!" He says as he twirls the mace.
"Qor has just gone to far, this time..." Rink plucks at bolt from the ground, and holds it like a spear. "You'll never take me back!"
A demon charges at Duilin, he swings his mace right at the demon's face, knocking it down. Surprizeinly the demon survived it. "What the..." The demon jumps back up at him, but he swings the mace at the demon's face again, killing it.
Rink runs off into the battle feild giveing a war cry like yell. He then stops and then sees how insanly out powered he is. He runs away giveing a scared girl like yell. He jumps into a broken down Cart Tank and hides. Duilin glares at Rink as he jumps into his hideing spot. Rink then pokes his head up and shakes his fist at Duilin wile yelling
"What the hell do you think I am! I'm not fighting damn demons! Holy shit!"
-
Armic became translucent and siffed himself away from Zeros' charge, up behind him.
"Hssss... Perhaps he was... but he followed me!" Armic hissed at Zeros', his weapon drawn, but it was loose by his side. He stayed translucent.
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The Golem lept up from the ground, knowing he was in danger if lying upon the ground. His wings broke, His hand gushing blood, he knew he was doomed unless he fought harder. He held his hands as if he was holding a huge sword, and slowly a huge, 30 foot sword, just his size, made entirely out of flame appeared in his hand.
Ellenna's ice spell struck the blade and merely hissed as the fire over powered in, but the Golem turned his attention to Ellenna now, instead of Nevina. He swung his mighty sword at the little priestess, hoping to sever her from her legs easily.
//Just to let you know, the Golems are on Auto-Pilot right now. Armic can still control them if he wishes, but since he is inputing no commands, the Golems are acting on their own. You guys are free to control them by the way, as long as you don't make them switch sides or something. They're bound to the Crimson Empire.//
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Nevina charged, this time with her Holy Bastard sword. She came close to slicing the Demonflesh golems ahkillese (sp?) heel, but the other golem quickly parried the blow with his massive 7 foot, rock solid toenail.
Nevina shook as she struck the appendage, her sword shaking horribly afterwards.
(You know how when you whack something with a lead pipe and the lead pipe can't break it and it shakes the pipe and yur arms and feels funny? Yah, that's what happened)
-
Duilin then thinks for a moment. He then waits untill a few demons fly at him. "Come on punks!" He yells. He then, drags them and then stops. "Try and get me, scum sukers!" He taunghts. The demons begin to charge fireballs at him, Duilin then runs at the second golem, and flies onto it, wile running up it. The demons then toss there fireballs at him, they but they hit the golem instead. The golem growls in pain. Duilin then, swings his mace right between, the eye's with demon fire flowing threw the mace. The golem, then falls to the ground. "Who's your daddy!?"
Duilin then spots the other golem, readying to attack Ellena "No! SAVE HER!"
----
Maxwell, then stops and points at a few demons. "You! Who are you?" He asks. The demons look at him, but say nothing. "Your on our side right?"
The demons nod.
"Well then come with me! We need to start killing people..."
Maxwell then fires a bolt at Nevina. The demons then both begen to charge Demon Fire (AKA Fire Ball of Death)
-
(Achilles' tendon. Heh...)
Draven stopped in mid air, turning to the old man, his aura still burning brightly.
"Eh? Who in blazes are you? And why not?"
He folded his arms and looked at the prophet inquisitively...
"Or do you just want to be first?"
-
Ellenna jumps as the huge sword slashes underneath her feet. Realising she could not win this fight, she runs a little way away, to the body of the other golem.
___________________________________________________________
The Great Prophet sighed. "Young men of today..." he said. "Always so brash and aggressive....
"Tell me... have you ever actually seriously thought about what you do?"
-
//Forgive me. Lost internet at Dad's. Posting from friend's. Might get it back today, might not.
The trio dropped to the ground, barely avoiding the arrows. They charged into battle and started to hack away at the stuff attacking them.
Okay... I can feel it starting now. Zion had recieved Zeros' message, and was now feeling Draven's power increase.
=== === ===
EW --------- 9
ZW --------- 9
-
Zeros' looks at Armic, rage burning in his emerald eyes as he held his sword, point towards the ground.
"Yes...I know..." Zeros' holds out his right palm and forms a sphere of ki the blackest color known to man. Even light cannot escape. He launches the beachball sized orb at Armic, not expecting it to hit.
----
Ryu lands right behind Ellenna, his cloak reforming back into the crimson flowing material, both sword out, ruby eyes glinting in his right palm, sapphire in his left.
He looks behind himself and looks back towards the demon, just intime to intercept a blow from a rather nasty gorgan demon. This demon isn't very common, yet not that unique. It had tanned skin with four eyes and six well muscled arms as it towered over seven feet tall.
Ryu grits his teeth as he pushes against the demon's arms, gashing them as they cut into the muscled arms. With a roar, Ryu pushed the monster off balance, casing it to stumble slightly, but just enough for Ryu to use his ki and minipulate his cloak, causing a dozen of spikes to form out of his crimson cape (he has a cloak made of black and a small crimson cape that goes just below the small of his back), piercing the demon through the eyes, arms, jugular vein and forehead.
The gorgan demon roared in pain as blood sputtered out of the wounds, flowing down his tanned body, forming a steadily growing pool of blood beneith his feet as he falls to the ground with a gutrial cry of pain, dead, as Ryu's cloak forms and he looks towards Ellenna.
"You ok?" He askes as he scans the grounds for more threats.
-
//Internet up. But I'm not gonna post yet. ^_^
-
Duilin. Then flies down by Kami-Ryu. "Glad you were able to come!" He says. "Protect her, something tells me she is extremely important!" He adds. He then walks abit off, as a dark soilder runs at him. He picks him up and then punches him in the mouth, causeing his hand to break his teeth and go right in his mouth, he casts flame into the soilders mouth, quickly burning him to a crisp. A demon then runs at him, Brute Demon, no wings just big and strong with a dragon like head, useally just bites his apponets. As the monsters runs at him, and prepares to bite him, Duilin blocks with his left arm, causeing it to bite his arm rather then his face. Duilin yells in pain, but fights threw it, he swings the mace at the demons head, breaking it neck, killing it instantly. "Oww...."
-----
"Man, all this action, and I'm missing out on it...Maybe I should go out there..." Rink looks about, slightly revealing himself from his hideing spot. "Hmm....dosen't seem to bad, just Duilin and the guys fending of demons and soilders...maybe I can handle it..."
He climbs out, suddenly a fellow Imp flies at him. "Traitor!" He hisses!
"Gah!" Rink cries. Rink then swings a punch right at the Imps face. The Imp kicks Rink in the torso. Rink then falls back, and the Imp walks over to him. Rink then trusts the crossbow bolt he had in his other hand at the Imp's chest. "Gotcha!" he says as he trusts it in more. The Imp then falls down dead.
Rink sighs and then plops down on the ground "Geez...he was right...I am traitor....Ah well! Hahahaha!"
-
Draven squinted at the old man.
"Psh! Is that all you have to say? Yes, you senile old fool, I know exactly what I'm doing, and exactly what needs to be done. I should kill you for making such an impudent remark, but by the looks of it, you're about to fall over dead any minute anyway, so why waste the energy..."
Draven let loose an intense shockwave of heated air with enough force to knock any normal man right out of the sky.
"Now, out of my way!"
He blasted forward through the sky, leaving a crimson streak behind him...
-
The Great Prophet brought his staff out in front of him, splitting the shockwave in two and away from him. He then followed Draven.
-
The ball of Dark Energy passes through Armic's translucent body, but causes him to have to solidify. Now completely solid, Armic merely laughed at Zeros'. "Heh, yes, let us cry!" Armic said, mocking his opponents grief/rage.
"You know... Your father was a great servent... And was appropriately rewarded. Why don't you just return to your fathers ways...?" Armc said, as if giving Zeros' a proposition. He quickly drew his blade though, as to parry any more attacks Zeros' brought on.
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Nevina glowed with an awesome aura or white light. Its purity was so great, the Golems were forced to step back from her. As the aura growed, it formed a sphere around her. It kept growing, convulsing, spinning with each increasing centimeter. Soon it was a full 5 feet in diameter, and then it began to deplete rapidly, looking as if it was going to implode. Once it got to Nevinas skin, It expanded quickly and exploded into an awesome burst of white light, blinding everyone within a half a mile radius momentarily.
-
//Cyber Wolf! You need to pay atteintion! Maxwell fired a bolt at Nevina!//
Duilin, blocked his eyes wile Nevina's light blasted out. "Yikes!" Duilin crie. Duilin seems to more quickly recover from the blinding light, then the others, probally because of his demon powers.
He takes that to his advantage, and flies at the golem he recently knocked down. And smashes it in both eyes with demon fire flowing threw his mace.
Rink seems to be almost totally uneffected by the flash of light. He then begins running at Dark Soilder, he grabs the warriors sword and throws it down at the soilder the sword get's stuck right in the man, killing him instantly. "Hoo Hah!"
-
Ryu seems unaffected as he lifts his left hand towards his bandage and rips it off, revealing the rotted skin, blood red eye and bulging veins, which appeared all around the skin of the eye and also several surrounded the outsides of the eyes, giving it a ghastly appearance as it swirled with a black pinwheel, four comma making their appearance as they swirled wildly, the eyes rotating in every direction, giving him a 360 degree view.
[As the limiter to his power was decreased, his bloodline, his power grew to a level 2]
Ryu lowered his swords as he backup, blocking, parrying and attacking any demon or imp that came nearer towards Ellenna.
----
Zeros' formed his face into an indifference mask. He knew he had more training then Armic/Qor would ever hope to have as well as being equal in power right at the moment, but he stil hadn't released all the limiters on his power.
Zeros' disappeared from sight, closing the distance faster then any human or most demons could follow and reappeared in front of Armic, sword trailing in the ground, leaving a long gash, slashing upwards at Armic.
-
Zion noticed Draven flying off. "Tsu, stay here! Xenai, let's go!" He and Xenai took off toward Draven, while Tsu stayed back, confidenty knocking out all the soldiers with Kuon Yaiba, one by one.
=== === ===
EW -------- 8
ZW -------- 8
-
Duilin overherd Zion saying Draven was comeing. "What? That mean....No...impossible!"
Duilin, belived that Draven defeated Haraldur. With great rage, he smashes at the Golem's face another time. The golem being totally blinded, he then punches the golem in the eye, and then blasts a fireball right into the golem's head. The golem head beings burning up with fire and it falls down to the ground, with an earth shakeing thud, and dies (Hope that's cool, CW). "Ahhh!" Duilin yells. He then craks his knuckles and begins flying toward Draven. He flies over Zion and Xenai "I'm helping you guys fight him..."
-
A blinding light emanated from behind one of the walls of the crumbling fortress which caught Draven's attention. Flying lower, Draven weaved through the towers that were still standing with interest and saw Nevina in the distance.
"Well, what do we have here...?"
However, before he could come close, he noticed a party of three approaching him and immediately lost interest in the elf girl.
Draven stopped suddenly and dropped down to land on the peak of a mound of rubble. Aura still burning brightly, he folded his arms and smirked up at the three specks as they came into view.
Hum, more winged fools... we'll just have to clip them... Let's see... Teal-head's back for more... as is Duilin the loser... and... hmm? Is that Xenai?
"Xenai, Xenai, don't tell me you're ignorant enough to renounce your obligations as well... How unfortunate. Yet another to be added to the long list of traitors, done in by their own misjudgment... What a shameful end."
-
Ryu eyed the battlefield warrily as he slashed upwards with his sapphire sword, sending a demon sprawling towards the ground, a deep cut from his abdominal to his jugular vein, blood steadily leaking out. He flipped the sword in his hands, holding them so the point of the blades face behind him and quickly formed several complicated handseals.
[This is because if the hand seals in a NinJutsu are not performed correctly, the Chakra will be released wrong and a different effect will occur, probably failing the Jutsu. As a result, Hand Seals need a lot of concentration, which is why techniques cannot be interrupted, or the technique will definately fail. In the lines below, we have gathered images of all of the most frequent hand seals.]
"Mugensajin Daitopa no Jutsu!" He yelled. He held his hands up to his mouth as a vicious stream of wind and sand exploded from his mouth, catching the demon by surprise. Ryu kept the stream going as the sand started to form into sharp-like blades, using his chakra to minipulate them, cutting at the flesh of the demon.
-
The Great Prophet was blinded, and disappeared, saying "Damn, why do the runes always have to scuff?"
_____________________________________________________________
For want of anything better to do, Ellenna smashed an unsuspecting demon's skull, before blocking a hit from another.
_____________________________________________________________
A hole opened up in the dimension of Haraldur's. Hmmm... strange he thought. That is unusually fast. Well, it is random, so it must do this some of the time.
He should land close to his companions: now that five of the weapons were found, finding the last would be easy, very easy.
He entered the hole.
He was going through a gleaming blue waving tunnel, at huge speed, he moved into a side alley an came out above the world, 500 metres above the ensuing battle.
He watched to see what was happening, while keeping himself invisible.
-
"Draven!" Duilin called in rage "What did you do to Haraldur?" He landed on the ground standing about 5 feet away from Draven "What did you do to him?" He repeated. Yellow electricity seemed to flow threw his hands for a split second, and his eyes gave a slight glow.
------------
Rink turns around, and shifts his eyes "Were's Duilin?" He asks himself, he then spots him abit further away, with Zion and Xenai and some other person. "Must, be that Draven, person." Rink then scratches his chin "Hmm...Duilin is supose to destroy the castle, but it dosen't look like he's getting much of a chance, he keeps on getting attack...Why is that? Because he makes so much of a scene! He's got those huge wings and glowing yellow eyes when in attack mode, who wouldn't notice a guy like that. Yet! There a abunch of little Imps, alot of them probally don't even know that I'm not with the rest of them...So....Hahaha!" Rink then happily runs off, into the derection of the castle, the demons not seeming to notice him.
-
Draven glanced down at Duilin from atop the mound of rubble.
"You mean Ragnar? That miserable wretch of a coward. You put too much trust in your allies..."
Draven pressed his hands together in front of him and slowly brought them apart, a pillar of fire surging in between them. When he was satisfied with the length, he grabbed one end with his right hand, the flame forging into a burning sword.
"He has one goal only. And it doesn't involve the safety of you or your friends..."
The fortress was burning in several places. The intense auras of the fighters, combined with the disterbance of the open gate to the underworld was causing tremors and random fissures of exploding lava to blast apart the ground...
Crimson blade in hand, Draven leapt off the mound, dashing madly at Duilin. The burst from his crimson aura caused the rocks from the top of the rubble to fly into the air, disintegrating half of them cause the rest to rain down as burning meteors.
As he flew towards Duilin, Draven brought the blade above his head and slashed to the side, causing a crescent shaped wave of flame to fly ahead of him, straight for his new opponent...
----
A blood-curdling roar emanated from the dimensional rift that the demons were pouring from... Something was coming...
-
//Oi. I thought someone attacked Nevina, but wasen't sure. Oh well, I'll fix that.... and yeah, it's fine you killed a Golem. They're lasting longer than I was expecting. But did you kill the sword-barring one or the other?//
Armic had trouble seeing the attack, but Qor caught it quite easily. Armic having no idea what had happened, he noticed Qor had guided their hand into the direction of the blade, grabbing it to a stop.
The blade obviously damaged their hand, but only slightly. Between the gloves protection and his dead stone skin, he took relatively low damage to his hand. Hardly enough to make him wince.
After grasping the blade, Armic held onto it, keeping Zeros' in place, he swung out his own sword in a quick stabbing motion, aiming to run Zeros' through.
//While it may seem Armic has too much resistance, you have to take into account the resistance is only versus melee attacks. Armic is extremely vulnerable to Holy Magic, which makes up for his melee resistance.//
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After the blast, Nevina appeared to be colapsed on the ground, victim of a bolt attack from an unknown (to her) attacker.
-
Xenai smirked at Draven as the trio landed. "Renounce my obligations? I've just come to my senses."
Zion cracked his knuckles. "This time, the fight won't be so evenly matched."
The roar was noticed by the trio, and caused Tsu to take a hit, but come back two times harder. Zion and Xenai were focused on Draven.
=== === ===
EW ------- 7
ZW ------- 7
-
Maxwell grined as he saw, his target, knocked down on the ground. "And that my friends is what I want you damn soilders to do!" He walked over towards Nevina, to check if she was alive...
-------
Duilin curled his fingers into a fist, as he did it more yellow electric energy flew threw his hands, but lasted abit longer. His eyes also began go glow more...
-----
Rink then came up to a castle wall, he began climbing it, there was nobody there but a single guard, all the rest were out on the battle feild being slaughted by others most likey...
The guard spoted the small red imp. "Hey! Your not supose to be here!" He fired his cross bow at Rink, but he blasted the bolt with a small blast of firel, knocking it off corse, and it fell to the ground burning. "Uh oh..."
Rink gave a badass grin and then arived at the top of the wall. The guard droped his weapon, obivously he was a cowardly soilder.
Rink picked up the cross bow, it was quite to big for him to be carrying around but he seemed to be able to lift it very easily, he threw it at the soilder. The weapon hit the soilder in the head, knocking him out. Rink rubed his hands together "Allright, they gotta have something here!" He then ran across the wall, untill he spoted a trap door. He opened it up and then hoped down. It was a small room, with barrels of gun powder, and cannon balls and various weapons and armor.
"Hahah! This should do!" Rink laughed
-
Zeros', using his incrediable speed, dodged to the side while Armic still held his sword. He smirked as he watched the reactions.
"I see." Zeros' said quietly as he looked Armic directly into the face. "So, the little one is only a pawn in your plans, Qor. How dispicable. Using your followers lives, giving them power so you can control them. This one must have stronger wills then the ones before." Zeros' commented. He then spread all eight of his black angel wings out and concentrated on using his god/goddess heritage.
Soon enough the sword glowed with holy energy, white enough to blind any who look into it.
----
Ryu backflipped away from an attack, only to have a demon hit him in his left side, right where the gash was. He gasped in pain as the wound reopened, blood flowing freely down his side, but he concentrated his chakra and ki, stopping the bloodflow, but not closing the wound.
He then stabbed backwards, catching a demon in the stomach, causing it to gasp in pain and grab its middle, doubling over as he wrenched his ruby sword.
"We need to get out of here, miss." Ryu shouted towards Ellenna as he pushed off an attack made by a demon to his right arm, which luckly was made of metal.
-
Ellenna said to Ryu "Where should we go?"
________________________________________________________
Haraldur saw and heard the exchange of words between Draven and Duilin, and saw the crescent of fire flying towards Duilin.
With a burst of noise, like a cannon, a wall of ice dropped between the two, causing an explosion as it intercepted the fire crescent.
"Ah, Draven, I see another has caught your attention. I am glad to see you have been affected by my timely tactical retreat."
He moved his hands as if fondling a sphere, and a hollow icy one surrounded Draven, and started to shrink, like the Big Bang in reverse. He hoped it would last for a while.
-
"I have no idea" He said while ducking under a swipe, "but we need to get out of here. I cannot hold them off forever."
-
Kahn walked over to Ellenna and Ryu and withdrew his gun.
"You two best escape while you can. I should be able to hold em off till you're gone."
-
Duilin touched the wall of ice, as it fell between him and Draven. He then sees Haraldur "Your alive!" He then walks back abit and then jumps into the air, and flies up 65 feet. "I herd something...." He then looks at the dimensional rift "Whatever it is....I'll protect my friends from it, Haraldur can take care of Draven...."
-------
Rink then rolled around the barrels of gun power all around, he pointed a cannons at servel spots in the room, he attached the wicks on the cannons together. "This should be fun to watch!" Rink laughed. He then blasted fire at the wick, and then flew off, out of the tower and landed on the ground a safe distance. Then a huge explotion takeing several soilders, blowing away neary a quater of the huge castle, peice of the castle flew off in many directions, makeing tiny craters at they hit the ground. Rink held his hand in salute as the explotion went off.
"Long, live the Empire, my ass!" Rink laughed "Hahaha!"
-
"Eh?"
Draven made a dead stop, planting his foot a good several inches into the ground as the sphere of ice surrounded him.
"Wonderful..."
As the sphere shrunk around him, he jammed his crimson blade above and to the right, weakening the attack in just that one spot enough for him to break though. As he dove through the small hole, the rest of the icy sphere collapsed upon where he was, creating a small blue explosion that knocked him away before he could land. He spun through the air and rolled once on the ground before catching himself, balancing on one foot and one knee.
Draven leapt backwards several feet, so that he may keep Haraldur in the air and other adversaries on the ground in his view. Assuming a sort of martial arts stance, he spun the crimson blade in his right hand and held it above his head, extending his left hand before him.
Not again! Where are all the soldiers?! Where are all the demons?! BLAST IT!! With teeth clenched, the burning Draven shifted his eyes from warrior to warrior with glaring hate...
----
Another hideous roar from the dimensional rift... A few more demons began pouring out, but these did not have the look of battle ready killers, rather, they were terrified...
Suddenly, a huge dragon-esque skull jutted out of the opening, glowing crimson orbs for eyes in it's empty sockets. Skeleton claws clasped the two sides of the rift, ripping it open wider. The hole was not big enough for the thing to fit through...
When it managed to pull the rift open to twice its size, it jumped out, the earth quaking as it landed on the ground. It was a complete skeletal dragon, over 30 feet tall, though it's posture was hunched. Tremendous spikes of bone jutted from its back. It was a Necrodragon.
(Yes from DA2. Heh...)
-
"Holy crap!" Duilin cried, as he spoted the Necrodragon. He landed on the ground, near by Ryu, Ellena and Kahn.
"Ryu, get the girl out here!" Duilin tells Ryu, he then looks at Ellena "Miss, Haraldur, is okay, you should be re united with him shortly..." He then looks at Kahn "If you wish to live by all means, run. But I wouldn't mind some back up fire..."
-------
Rink turns around as he spots the Necrodragon "Aw, man, now why the hell did they let that guy loose?"
-------
Maxwell then gasps as the Necrodragon appears. "Ahhh!!!" He then forgets exactly what he was doing, all his coruage seems to drain from his body...
"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!! DON'T LET THAT THING HURT ME!"
The soilders then begin running back to the castle, scared for there pointless little lives. Maxwell runs by Draven "IT WILL KILL US ALL, DRAVEN! RUN!"
-------
Duilin then tilts himself in a fighting stance, and walks abit closer to the Necrodragon. He then closes his eyes "Focus...just focus...." He then cluches his right hand, and then trusts it out, the yellow energy begins to flow threw his hands. His eyes go to there full glow, as like they were when he battled Pheonix. He then opens his hand, fire and energy begin circle in his hand, it froms a large ball of fire and energy. It grew to 15 ft in radious, and then he tossed the energy blast at the Necrodragon...
//It's an NPC, right?//
-
Ryu grabs Ellenna's hand and starts running the opposite direction, his sapphire sword still clenched in his left hand as he pulled her along with his right; away from the dragon.
He knew he had to fight it, but he had to get Ellenna out of the area first. He looked around the field of blood and body parts, his magical eyes rolling around in his head, searching, as his other eye scanned for shelter.
-
"HOLY F*CKING HELL!!!" Xenai's eyes were widened at the sight of the Necrodragon.
"Oh... my... god..." Zion was trembling.
Tsu watched the Necrodragon from afar, able to feel its intense evil energy without having any real ki abilities. He gulped a heavy gulp, then restored his focus onto his target, which had fled. He turned around and took off toward Zion and Xenai.
Zion looked to Xenai. "We've got to get a grip... We'll finish charging up our weapons, and unleash them on it."
"No... New Forever. We should do New Forever." Xenai's eyes were still affixed on it. After some hesitation, he turned focus to Draven, along with Zion. "We'll see what we do when we're charged up," said Zion, "but I myself think we'll be able to draw an adequate amount of energy from ourselves."
The duo charged at Draven, their swords ready to strike.
=== === ===
EW ------ 6
ZW ------ 6
-
"Hmmph. I promised Armic nothing." Said Qor. "I merely helped him escape the clutches of society... It's not his fault he was... vampire spawn." As Qor finished this sentence, Armic was shocked. He never knew he was born evil. At this point, as Armic tried to cope with his disbelief, Qor took over almost completely.
"I am no different from any other god... I do not lure people to me, people seek me, for benefits. We just have different ideas of helping. And the 'holy' gods look down on me because of this. Hmmph." He said.
Then as the sword glowed with it's holy energy, is seared their hand. They relenquished their grip from the blade, and quickly retreated, hissing, eyes closed from the blinding light, their hand still smoking from the burn.
Qor put the injured hand behind him, and began weaving it frantically in a somatic component, careful not to let Zeros' see it.
"So... Why do you you turn your back on your own heritage, Zeros'? Are you ashamed of your father? He would not approve of your behavior. Why do you choose to be a Heretic against your own kind?" Qor provoked, trying to keep Zeros' distracted.
-
Ellenna said, "Haraldur? Who is Haraldur? What are you talking about?"
__________________________________________________________
Haraldur told Zeros': How long do you think you will take? If we get out of here, we will easily be able to find the last weapon, since we have the other five. I will show you why. So do not hesitate to retreat from your combat if it does not look like you will easily win.
Haraldur told Duilin: Be prepared to leave here at short notice, we have everything we need from this place, and we seem to have outstayed our welcome.
Haraldur saw that the castle had one last remaining tall pointy tower. He held his arm out towards it, and a spectral arm appeared, which stretched to the tower, and broke it off. It then dropped it point first on Draven.
-
"Huh? Oh nothing....it's just....nevermind...." Duilin replies to Ellena, "Now go! Quick!"
Haraldur's message entered his mind. Duilin then nodded his head Very well, but we might I might have to kill this monster..., Duilin was not sure if his telpathic message worked, he hasn't really mastered it, but he tried...
//That happend before Duilin attacked the Necrodragon//
The energy blast exploted as it hit the Necrodragon, it yelled in pain. But the blast didn't seem enough.
"Damnit..." Duilin then swung the chain mace around. "It should work with demon energy..." the yellow energy then flew threw his hands, and into the mace, the mace formed it into a energy disc, and then Duilin swung the mace in the derection of the monster, blasting the demon energy at it! The only thing it acomplished was causeing a mark on one of the leg bones...
-
Zeros' caught the message and replied: Don't worry, I'll be fine. I have something to settle with Qor anyways. If you need to, take Ryu with you. I will not die before my time. He sent the message to Haraldur.
"I am not ashamed of my...father. Rather I'd want to tear him limb from limb, but not ashamed." He growled. "As for my heritage, if you did not notice, I am both a demon and a god. I use both sides of my heritage equally and as I choose fit! I am not a heretic of my own kind! Most demons would give me praise, using any advantage I have for my own gain!" He yelled, not in anger, but as stating a fact, and charged at Qor, holy energy still charged as he disappeared from sight and reappearing infront of Qor in an instant, slashing at him as the blade left a trail of holy energy.
----
Ryu stopped in mid-stride as he glanced towards the dragon and pivoted on his foot, twisting Ellenna in front of him and pushing her forwards, pointing towards a patch of trees as he released her hand.
"Go towards their. I must fight the dragon." He said as he glanced at the Necrodragon. "I will meet you soon." He said as he sprinting towards the Necrodragon, both of his sword clasped in his hands.
-
Ellenna hid among the trees.
________________________________________________________
Haraldur told Zeros': In that case, I will stay. There is no point me leaving now without all 5 weapons in one place.
-
"Glad to see you Ryu!" Duilin says as he see him running. "This thing is strong! Were going to have to do some heavy dudey attacks..."
Duilin then cluches his hands and then energy flows threw his arms, he opens his hands and beings arborbing fire, combineing demon fire and demon energy together. He then began forming it into a large ball....but he didn't stop there, he continued aborbing heat and chargeing energy, he was createing alot of fire, considering the pits of hell were not to far away....
-----
Rink contined walking toward Duilin, Ryu and Lars. "Geez, that Necrodragon sure looks angry, and the thing hasn't even attacked them yet!" Rink shook his head. "Well good thing it hasn't. That thing would probally kill them in a single swipe, or two..."
He looks behind him and looks at all the people and demons running "Geez...such cowards...I know that thing won't hurt me...I'm probally to little for the damn thing to see me!" He looks back at the group, he's standing about 50 feet away from them "Soon, he'll crack. Soon, he'll go beserk, and wipe that thing out...I can smell it!"
-
Draven made a leap to his left in an effort to avoid both Xenai and Zion's charge and the falling tower. Taking flight at mid leap, he rose higher, charging energy into his left hand. But before he could attack, he caught glimpse of the gargantuan skeleton monster towering over the rubble...
"What in blazes...? AH HA HA HA!!! Game over, cretins!"
----
The Necrodragon became infuriated at Duilin. It opened its jaw, violet and black masses of energy visibly surging up its spine. It released over a dozen blasts of shadow energy. A few headed for Duilin, but the majority wildly sprayed across the crumbling fortress and battlefield, the resulting explosions causing mass chaos...
-
Duilin flew from side to side, dodgeing the blasts. "I need to keep chargeing this blast...Just a teeny bit more...."
----
Rink opened his eyes wide open "Yikes!" He cried. He snaped his fingers and dissappeared in a puff of smoke, it's a simple Imp trick, in half a second he reappeared, behind some rubble, a few feet way. "That's better...."
-
//That seems like the house-elf's from Harry Potter, but they disappear with a *crack* in the air, not smoke.\\
Ryu dodged to the side as the blasts headed his way skimmed the ground, destroying them in bits of dirt, dust and grass. He mentally sighed as he went though his technique lists, clenching his swords tighter till his knuckles went white.
-
Armic arched backwards, avoiding the blade, but the Holy energy resonating from the strike came close enough to his Torso to make his skin boil under his coat and chain mail.
"They wouldn't approve if you were to try to use it against them. Hmmph, your Father may have been a great servant to my cause, but your mothers blood has tainted you. You're not worth salvaging." Qor said coldly.
As he finished his sentence, his spell grew hotter in his palm. He decided it was time... He withdrew his hand from behind him, and tossed the spell onto Zeros'. A red Pentagram began to glown under his feet. From the lines drew flames, which began gathering around Zeros' waist as a sphere.
It was a hellball, and as the pentagram began to fade, the sphere orbitted around Zeros', moving faster and faster. The detonation would be powerful enough to completely blow up the tiny room Armic and Zeros' stood in.
"Tootles." said Qor, smuggly, as he teleported to the Castle Roof. He heard a colossal explosion far below him...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina smelled the foulness of the Necrodragon, and began to awake with a grunt.
-
[Second before Armic disappeared...]
Zeros' eyes glanced at Armic's hand, which just finished the spell and his eyes narrowed. He barely had enough time to use his ki and magic to erect a barrier, taking the blunt of the damage, but he was still hurled back and out of the room as it collapsed under the explosion.
Zeros' groaned as he sat up, his trench coat (which, by the way, weighed 3 tons) and under shirt were ripped to shreads while place where his training weights were placed hung in tatters. He sighed as he ripped them off, fling them to the side, crushing the ground underneath it.
Zeros' winced as he felt his heavily scarred (remember that every inch of his body is covered by some scar, except his groin and face. He also has one long scar from his right shoulder all the way down to his right palm, a scar made by his father) body. The brusises and cuts would heal in a few minutes, but the residual magic energies would take longer to heal, even with demonic and god healing.
He sighed as he spread all eight of his wings and flew out of the room, his sword clasped in his right hand, transformed to its 12 foot, 2 foot thick form, decorated with wicked spikes and metal that smelled and looked like rotting flesh.
He turned around and came face to face with Armic. The indention in the middle of his back was caused by Iduran's magical sword, point facing down his backside, was carefully turned away.
"Don't you worry about my mother or father. You'll be seeing my father soon in the afterlife, where you belong." Zeros' replied as he wings held him aloft.
----
Ryu landed on his feet and slashed upwards with both sword, causing a sapphire and ruby colored crescent blast rocket from his left and right sword, respectively, heading towards the Necrodragon, empowered with his ki and chakra.
-
"Shit!" Xenai shot upwards, Zion going with him. "Focus all efforts on the boner dragon!"
Tsu charged forward at the Necrodragon at full speed. "I hope he hasn't been drinking milk..." Pulling back the sword... "Kuon Suisei!" ...and shooting forward with amazing spring action! Right at the skull!
Zion gathered some energy from the sun. "By light, you shall fall!"
He shot high up into the air. "Hyperion!!!" With a swing of Eternity Weapon, many small balls of light energy were shot down at the boner dragon. Hehe. Boner dragon. Another swing of the sword, and a few larger balls were sent down. One more swing would send one big ball down. Zion then shot downwards as fast as he could, focusing the remaining light energy along with some of his own into the blade, and slashing down, intending to cut through the dragon. This attack was considerably less powerful than that used on Neptra.
"Get brittle bone disease, stupid boner dragon! Fire Beam! Water Beam! Wind Beam! Earth Beam!" Smaller-than-medium-sized waves of energy of the corresponding elements were fired at the Necrodragon in those order. He must have hit them in the right order, because... "Tetra Beam!" A larger wave was fired at the dragon, and was a swirl of all the elements, though not a direct mix. Zion and Xenai's attacks were both done in haste, and were thus, weaker.
=== === ===
EW ----- 5
ZW ----- 5
-
//Eon, you need to cut down with the inuendo! ie: bonner dragon, big balls...sheesh!//
The energy ball (not that type you sicko!) grew to 15 feet in diameter! (30 foot radius!)
"This should be enough!" Duilin then threw the energy ball into the Necro Dragon's mouth! "Who's your daddy!?!"
//I'll let Xorlak deside what that dose Wink //
-
Armic had regained his composeur, and had taken back over as the Dominant soul within his body.
Rising up from the ground as well, with his red, feather-bare demon wings, one with a scar from a previous battle with Ryu, Armic withdrew his staff, rested it upon his left forearm, and pointed the bloody red, ruby embedded tip at Zeros' head.
"Hmmph, to hell you say? Where I will be praised for Eternity? Bah, killing me would actually make life Better for me! Heh heh... I'm only hear to cause an armeddaggon. But you've worn on my nerves. I'll have to kill you first..."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina lept up from the ground to aid her comrads. As she charged towards the Necro Dragon, She focused all of her Holy Energy into her Bastard Sword. She Cried out "God Sabre!!" as her Sword began to gleam with Holy white aura. She Lept from the Ground, her Sword swinging down at the Necro Dragons tail.
-
Zeros' wagged his finger in front of his face as he made a 'tsk' sound with his free hand while floating a few feet in front of Armic.
"Ah...young, what was it, Armci?" He questioned as he gazed at him with half lidded eyes. "I said I would kill you, but I didn't say how." He said with an evil gaze at Armic. "I will kill your spirit. Once I defeat you, I will leave you in a bloodied heap, within an inch of your life, but I will not kill you." He said with an evil chuckle.
"Oh no. I will not do that and you can thank your evil deity Qor for that. For after I beat you down within an inch of your life, I will use the god part of my blood to use an anceint, forbidden spell I came across. This 'spell' is the ultimate form of tourture. I will let you live and recover, but the spell I will cast will eat away at your life and magic force as your body will slowly drain of any energies, steadily making you weaker, draining your magic and lifeforce permanetly so they cannot recover." He let out another evil chuckle as he gazed at Armic.
"But that's not the best part. As the spell slowly drains all forces of life, it will allow you to hold onto a sliver of life, just enough to live, but you will not be able to move an inch and no matter how much demonic interferance you have. This spell also anchors YOUR soul and ANY other soul into your body to the sliver of lifeforce, which will never go away. Your body and soul will remain forever on Midgard, never allowed to pass on into the afterlife, then you will WISH I would have sent you into the next-life." Zeros' roared with laughter as he glared at Armic and smiled grimly.
"This is the ultimate tourture. I'm sure if you ask your Deity about it, as I'm sure he's well versed in this tourture method, that is, IF he stays around long enough." He said grimly with an evil glint still evedent in his eyes. As he was saying all this, he was chanting a spell in his head as he used his free hand and waved it in a vauge gesture.
Crackles of magical energy arched around the length of Zeros' and Armic, expanding for about 30 yards then stopping, forming a barrier around them, allowing nothing to get in or out, including souls, magic or bodies.
-
(Hmm, forums weren't working yesterday...)
Draven smirked as Xenai and Zion went off to fight the monster. He slowly began flying towards Haraldur.
"Well now, it seems its just you and me once more..."
He stopped about fifty feet from his target and extended his left hand, which was glowing brightly with the energy he had collected previously, while he held his crimson blade loosely with his right. He quickly fired off three large burning spheres, each over three feet in diameter, but his aim was seemingly off... Two headed above and past his target, one to the left and right, and the third below...
----
(15 ft diameter = 7.5 ft radius. Heh...)
The Bone... err... Necrodragon waved its claw at the crescent energy sent by Ryu, but the energy wave hit its wrist perfectly, severing it. The undead abomination became furious once more, but this was the perfect distraction as all of the other warriors began their attacks.
The Kuon Suisei created a large gash on the left side of it's skull, which it retorted by lunging at Tsu. But before it could reach him, it was slammed by the Hyperion. This combined with the Tetra Beam dislodged over half of it's ribs and its left arm. At the same time, Nevina's blade severed its tail half way. As it screamed in rage, Duilin's attack slammed it right in the mouth, which caused its upper body to explode, sending bone fragments in all directions. The lower half of its body collapsed as the dust rose, shaking the ground...
----
Another roar eminated from the rift, identical to the Necrodragon's...
(You guys might want to do something about this portal. Heh...)
-
//Dude Man, get your mind outta the gutter. Boner dragon was intentional, the energy balls weren't! Sicko. Razz
Tsu could do nothing to avoid getting hit. It took a whole lot outta his vital force. Zion and Xenai watched the dragon crumble. "At least that one's gone, said Zion."
"Here comes more," says Xenai, watching the rift.
"Drat."
=== === ===
EW ---- 4
ZW ---- 4
-
Ryu's magical eye immeaditely swirved towards the portal as he sheathed both his sword in two hidden sheaths that weren't visible on his body. He reached the edge of the portal and started forming a series of extremely complexe hand seals as chakra, ki and chi started to radiate of him in waves as it started to focus around him. As he stopped the complexe hand seals, chakra, ki and chi exploded outwards from him as he slammed his fists into the ground, palms opened.
"YOUKAI MENURI MONMYAKU NO JUTSU! (This roughly translates into "Demon Sealing Portal Skill/Technique")" He cried as line of chakra, ki and chi slowly wandered over the portal, first lining up in the middle and spreading out like a spider web, gradually growing in size and shape as they weeved around till the portal was complete covered in lines of body energies as a circle of twelve Chinese runes appeared, which were slowly circling out in clock-like form, turning clock-wise.
(These are the symbols are going clock-wise from 12, 1, 2, ect, starting from 12 and going towards 11. Mind you, these are if they are stopped.)
12 o'clock: Nezumi (Rat)
1 o'clock: O-ushi(Ox)
2 o'clock: Tora (Tiger)
3 o'clock: Usagi (Hare)
4 o'clock: Ryu (Dragon)
5 o'clock: Hebi (Serpent)
6 o'clock: Uma (Horse)
7 o'clock: O-hitsuji (Ram)
8 o'clock: Saru (Monkey)
9 o'clock: Tori (Bird)
10 o'clock: Inu (Dog)
11 o'clock: Ousu-buta (Boar)
The symbols glowed blue, white, red, yellow, orange, violet and slowly shifted to many other colors before slowly circling again and flattened out and stopped as they took up the original position as they landed on the barrier so they were flat as an intense light covered the feild.
Soon as the light lifted, Ryu collapsed from exhaustion on all fours, breathing heavily with a smile on his face as the 12 symbols of the Chinese Zodiac were etched on the ground, in their original position, in front of him on a circle of dirt, a presence of emmense evil coming from it.
"It's....done...." He breathed as he looked up, managing to struggle to his feet.
-
Haraldur rushed backwards, and caught two of the fireballs in his hands, and kicked the other. In an amazing display of soccer/football skill, it went through the portal. The stress of so much energy going through the wrong way, made it explode into nonexistance. The two fireballs he chucked at the fortress, further disturbing the rubble.
"You really must get some variety into your life Draven, otherwise killing is no fun," he said, as one of the descending fireballs burnt a soldier to a crisp. "You are capable of things other than fire, you are wasting yourself, and your enjoyment. What is the satisfaction in killing people if you are going to do the same things every time?"
With a mad, disturbing laugh he brought his hands out to his side, and lifted them up. The ground below cracked, and a mass of water rose up quickly, forming a high cuboid shape mass of water with the battle field as its cross sectional area, engulfing him and Draven, before running away and causing severe flooding and landslides for days.
-
//Hah, I guess you got a point there Eon. It's me who has the warped mind! Razz :wacko: //
"Yes, Kami-Ryu....it is done....or is it?" Duilin sighed...he floated down to the ground and stood between Ryu and Nevina. Rink then walked next to Duilin, he looked down at his little Imp friend. "Nice work you did with the castle..."
He then turned around and spoted Haraldur causeing the huge blast of water. "What the devil is he doing!?" He then ran abit closer to the two.
"Duilin!" Rink cried as his friend ran...
-
Armic was stricken with fear, but Qor reassured him...
"You know as well as I do, Zeros', a spell only lasts as long as the Caster's life... And for you... I predict a very short life..." Qor said, as he feinted a frontal attack at Zeros' stomach, he phased, but left an image of himself charging at his opponent, the real Armic had gone behind him, spat upon his tainted blade, and thrust it into Zeros' back, or at least, where Zeros should be, if he chose not to be ran through by the "ghost".
//Have both of my Demon Flesh golems been killed? I know Duilin killed one of them...//
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina smiled in Satisfaction as the Necrodragon exploded into dust, but jumped as she heard the roar of another one approaching.
Nevina knew she coul close the portal, and possibly damage the Underworld... but she would have to do it from within...
She rushed INto the rift, and began her journey through Hell itself...
-
"Ah, yes, we wouldn't want you to get board now, would we?"
The two fireballs Haraldur threw at the fortress changed direction, after the encounter with one of the soldiers.
As the water rushed at him from below, Draven thrust his left hand straight down. A violent shock of superheated air met the water before it could come close to the madman, instantly evaporating the majority of it. A thick white steam engulfed the battlefield and surrounding sky, reducing visibility to a mere few feet, especially around Haraldur and Draven.
"Variety... Jack of all trades, yet master of none?"
Draven snapped his fingers and the two surviving fireballs, now one on each side of Haraldur, exploded into twelve long sphere shaped flames each, which blasted upon the bitter one from the left and right. At the same time, Draven lifted his crimson blade and made a mad dash through the thick steam at his opponent...
----
The remains of the fallen Necrodragon began to stir... Suddenly, the lower half sat up and began to clumsily make its way towards Duilin and the others. As spray from the water attack began to rain down, bits of severed bone began to float in air, moving toward the lower half and reuniting with it...
----
The tear in space began to shrink behind Ryu's seal, but the second Necrodragon appeared behind it. Neglecting to notice Nevina, the massive abomination roared and clawed at the seal like a caged animal...
-
//Both golems are dead Cyberwolf.\\
"Ah yes, I know that, but it matters not as I can survive for several hundred centuries because of both elements of my being. Also, I had toyed with the spell and found I can anchor it to other being's if I desire..." He replied calmly as Armic sped at him.
Zeros' sensed the attack and flared his right hand with demonic and god ki, making his hand become enveloped in a swirl of midnight black and glowing pure white ki and caught the sword behind his back as he parried the attack of the 'ghost' Armic. He held on fast as he reared his hand back and threw Armic with all his might towards the edge of he barrier, which reached down towards and into the ground.
----
Ryu sighed as the seal held the barrier together. He also noticed the lower half of the other Necrodragon glowing faintly. Ryu stood shakily, both hands on his knees and pointed towards the Necrodragon.
"Look!" He yelled as he pointed towards the lower half. "It's still alive, if barely."
-
//Cyber Wolf, Ryu allready closed the barrier. Sheesh, read posts :rolleyes: //
Duilin eye's widened as the Necrodragon rose back up "Now you have got to be shitting me!"
Duilin then charged a fire ball in one hand and an energy ball in the other. He trusted both hands toward the Necrodragon and the balls flew at the monster. Hitting it front legs (It's on all fours right?) causeing it to slump slighty down on the ground, to buy them some time...
Rink slowly backed up, he blasted a few fire blasts at the Necrodragon, but it had basically no effect on it. "Dang, I won't be much help here..." He flew up 6.5 feet into the air "But, I'll do what I can..."
-
//Actually I meant the portal that the other Necrodragon was coming out of.\\
-
Haraldur said: "Not necessarily."
He teleported to be a few mtres behind draven, and then moved further away in that direction.
//Short range ones are OK, I understand.//
Haraldur told Zeros', Ryu and Duilin: We must go! This battle is unimportant and only wastes time. We have the fifth weapon, there is nothing else here of interest. As I said, we can find the sixth when we have all five. We must go! Zeros', your petty squabble is unimportant at this time, we must go, and take the weapons with us! The weapons are currently the most important. We must go! I repeat: we must go! We must go! NOW!
Haraldur started slowly accelerating southwards. All the weapons glowed with urgency.
-
//They should all be coming out the same rift... And anyways, the Necrodragon was still squeezing through at this point. Which in turn, gives Nevina just enough space to squeeze through the rift and into Hell. I'm reading. Razz//
Sliding back, but not falling into the barrier, Armic said grimly,"You sir, need a new hobby."
He blasted a red beam of light at his barrier, forming a small hole. The barrier began to rebuild, closing the hole, but it was still just big enough of a breach...
Qor knew Nevina had treaded into his terratory, and it all worked into his plan of Armeddaggon...
"Either way, good luck binding me to a plane of existance that, soon, will cease to exist..." Qor said delightfully, as he warped from the Building, through the Barrier Breach, back into his Underworld home, awaiting Nevina...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevina flew through the 9th level of hell, severing suprised Deamons from their limbs as she went along.
She had to get to Limbo, the very first level of hell, and sever the ties between Midgard and the Underworld. This would force Qor out of Armic, and send all rightfully bound demons back into Hell, permenantly, and make it impossible for Mortals to journey to Hell, in life or the afterlife. This would make Nevina a saviour...
But little did she know, Qor was right behind her, with a completely different scheme in mind...
-
I'm coming He replied as he pazed out of the dispelling barrier and appeared next to Ryu, picking him up in a fireman's carry and forming a barrier around himself to protect him from wind resistance and followed Haraldur southward.
-
Duilin resived the message. We can't go...Nevina, she's down in Hell...
Duilin looked at the portal and then to the south and then back at the portal.
"I've got to go in after her! She might not make it!" He cried as he slowly ran to the portal.
Rink grabed him, but it didn't seem to slow Duilin down. "Don't do it man! You could get really hurt! Belive me! They don't serve well to outsiders! Your only half demon! You'll only make things worse!"
Duilin slowed down "But I can't just leave her!"
"Duilin! Yes you can! She can take care of herself! Listen, the guys really need you, they can't afford to loose you! You're the weilder of the Mace!"
"But..."
"Duilin, I know I haven't known you for very long, but something tells me that your needed here. You'll have another chance to help her, the Portal needs to be closed! If to many people go in it will endanger her mission! Wouldn't she have asked for help if she needed it!?"
"I...I guess your right..." Duilin noded. "Now, let's get out of here!" He runs off to tress, were Ellena was hideing. "We have to go! Now!" He picks up Ellena and then begins to run off and jumps into the air, speads out his wings and then flies off following Haraldur. Rink, grabs onto Duilin's shoulders and spreads his wings out, makeing a double flight like thing...
-
Haraldur flew southwards at lightning speed, towards laus, dodging the stationary invisible barriers with ease, as if he could sense them.
-
Zion watched his companions leave. He decided to stay back and deal with that which remained.
Xenai broke an elixir over Tsu's head, and it somehow healed him. He came to consciousness, and stood up.
=== === ===
EW --- 3
ZW --- 3
-
"We gotta get out here! Fast!" Rink says
"Well I can't do the fire boost, it'll burn the girl!" Duilin replies
"Good point, try and think of something, you've taught yourself all your demon skills. I'll help, we might not be able to go as fast as before, but preety, close, contain the energy.."
Duilin noded, his eyes began to glow a complete bright yellow. He then zoomed off, at great speed, Rink grabed on, tight, so he wouldn't fall, he help Duilin go faster, by aiding his flight....
----
"Soilders...let's go back out!" Maxwell yelled
Maxwell slowly walked out into the battle feild. With only half the people left. The soilders began to march out again. Several ones with cross bows pointed at Zion, Tsu and Xenai. "Surrender!" One called
Maxwell stood a few feet away from Draven. "They ran away, didn't they? Should we kill the ones remaining, or capture them?" He asked Draven
-
Floating near the ground, Draven smirked at Maxwell, replying very plainly:
"Kill them."
He flew straight up into the air, and with a explosion of his aura, shot southward after Haraldur. He dispersed his crimson blade as he flew, bringing his arms to his sides.
"Another tactical retreat? Oh, dear... Not this time..."
His cape flowed as he shot through the sky, unfurling like the wings of a dragon...
Far ahead, another speck in the sky was visible tailing Haraldur. It was Zeros' carrying Kami-Ryu. Now where is everyone off to in such a rush?
----
(Actually, it's just the bottom half right now-- just two giant skeleton legs walking around. Heh...)
The half Necrodragon began rampaging wildly, which happened to be in the direction of Zion and co. and Maxwell and his soldiers. Bits of bone flew to it, partially reforming its spine and a few ribs...
-
Maxwell, gave the signal to the soilders to fire there cross bows. But suddenly the half Necrodragon headed toward them.
"Kill that! Kill that!" Maxwell ordered. Bolts then began to bounch off the Necrodragon, doing no damge. "Damnit! Geez, I must be crazy..." Maxwell then used his Superhumen like strength to lift up a large piece of ruble from the castle. He tossed it at the Necrodragon, knocking off a bone. "Hah! How do like that skinny!" He laughed. "Soilders! Get man the cannons!"
"The cannon are gone sir!" One soilder cried
"Then get the tanks or get anything that goes 'Boom', butter knifes won't work on this thing! And you guys with the bows, make sure those three don't get away! Shock Troops, you might be helpfull, shoot the dragon! I'll go find Armic!"
Maxwell then began his way to Armic's position...
-
Zeros' sensed Draven's aura as he put on a sudden burst of speed, dodging across the same barriers Haraldur had sensed and meeting up with him in seconds.
Draven's coming. He told all his companions quite plainly.
-
"Rink...Draven's on his way..." Duilin says softly. He had Zeros' and Haraldur in his view, yet he was quite far behind him. "I don't what to do. Ellena seems to not be moveing, I'm sure she's alive. The Prophet said that if she dies, then something bad will happen. The Light is the only one who can calm, The Bitter One...if only I could catch up to him. Rink we need to speed up. You, keep the energy withen for a change! You, use the force, my young aprentice!"
Rink noded and then spread his wings further, he began to glow with fire, and they began to rocket off, catching up closer to the the others...
-
Draven folded his arms as he flew. There was someone else joining them now... Duilin, perhaps? Carrying someone... and some little imp thing...?
Draven weaved around magical disturbances in the sky, as was common above the wasteland area they were now above. He flew a bit higher, so he could see the group better from afar. For now, we'll just see what they're up to...
---
The Necrodragon remains began thrashing up and down, sending boulders and rubble from the ground into the air. It's left claw had regenerated, which it used to make a violent slash at both the attacking soldiers and Zion and co. behind...
-
The slash killed two Shock Troops, the cut went right threw their armor.
"It's claw's regenerateing!" Cried one soilder
"It's going to fully grow back, what are we gonna do!?"
4 Cart Tanks came there way and stoped 46 feet away from the Necrodragon, they fired there cannon at monster.
----
Maxwell arived near Armic's position.
"Armic! This giant Skeleton came threw the Hell Portal! We need your aid!"
-
"You guys really suck," said Zion to Maxwell's soldiers. He turned around with Xenai and Tsu to face the reforming Necrodragon.
Zion charged up a beam of pure light energy. It'd surely be good enough to take it down...
Xenai and Tsu went the front line. Tsu hacked away uselessly, though Xenai's hits started to send cracks into the dragon.
=== === ===
EW -- 2
ZW -- 2
-
//Uhh... Armics in Hell, silently trailing behind Nevina//
Nevina ascended into the 8th layer of hell, bashing the minotaurs guarding the boiling lava pits, parrying the arrows they fired with her sword. She sent down one large ball of holy energy, buring the skin off a few dozen of them, and their remains fell into the pits, as the Sinners souls began to attack them.
She ran into a tower, seeming to spiral into the Black and red sky of coal. Entering the tower, she flew along the spiral stair case, and after a good 5 minute flight, arrived at the top, giving her access to the 7th layer of the Damned World.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armic followed silently behind her, completely invisible.
"You my dear, will be my Martyr!" He whispered to himself sinisterly.
-
Somewhere beneath the rubble, the decapitated skull of the skeletal monster began its ghastly roar. It burst through the pile of stone, surrounded by rotating orbs of darkness, and began flying towards its body to reunite. (Heh...)
The partially reformed body, stumbling, swung its claw at Tsu.
-
Xenai leaped back behind Zion.
Tsu dove to the side, rolling away from the claw, and a safe distance from what Zion was about to do.
He let out his loudest, most powerful kiai as he fired the light energy beam. With the kiai, the beam had grown big enough to engulf the entire Necrodragon. The beam itself wasn't all that strong, it was just widespread light energy. But from the darkness the dragon radiated, Zion knew that it had a weakness to light. Hopefully, the beam would shoot through to the head. But there was no guarantee that it would.
=== === ===
EW - 1
ZW - 1
-
//Oh, I misunderstood the post, I tought Quor was following him, cause of like spirt crap and stuff//
Maxwell searched the room. "Armic?"
He wasn't there....
"Damnit, he left to..." He turned around and rubed his forehead. "That hell spawn will kill us all...." He then walked out, and went onto an over view wall, and watched the Necrodragon rebuilding itself, killing soilders, and fighting Zion, Xenai and Tsu. "Let's see...If the monster kills the trio, then that means battle will be victorius! But the monster will still be there...But what if the trio kills the monster....then I'll be stuck fighting them. And my soilders don't seem to be very usefull at all, not at all! And I can't fight them all by myself..."
Maxwell, paced around. He didn't want to loose fighting, he was a general, and had seen many battles. He also needed to avenge his brother.
"Damn, I wish Lord Draven was here!"
-
Haraldur arrived in Laus, and went to Duilin's house, and waited for the others.
-
Duilin just continued flying "Rink, were almost at Laus. We shall wait for Draven there, he's all alone, now!"
They speed up and then land at Laus. Rink jumps to the ground.
"Were to?" Rink asks
"I think he's at my place...Let's go." Duilin replies. He then heads his way to his house...
-
Nevina decided to try to phase from one level of hell to another. It would be a difficult manuever, but due to the vast, baren landscape surrounding her, she decided it would be by far the quickest way.
She drew energy from the still air about her, and began to fuse it with her own. Soon she became translucent, and finally dissappeared.
The plane warped. she had no idea where she would end up. Plasma Masses surrounded her, blinded and disoriented her. She finally reassimilated in the 6th level of Hell, the realm of Heretics and Blasphemers, The City of Dis...
-
Zeros' immedaitely disengaged his flying and dropped to the ground, setting Ryu down on his feet as he sighed in relief.
"I may not mind flying...but I'll never get used to flying at super sonic speed's..." He mumbled as Zeros' chuckled as they walked into Duilins house with Haraldur.
-
"Gyeh? What are they doing, lounging in some cabin?"
High above, Draven watched them from afar as they entered Duilin's house.
"Bah! They know I'm watching, so they changed course. Lousy wretches..."
Draven considered vaporizing the little hamlet with a single blast out of spite, but he knew in truth he was still outnumbered, and the battle would just be a pain...
Draven dispersed his aura so he would not be detected, and fell several hundred feet, landing gracefully in some bushes. He folded his arms and leaned on a tree in the shadows. Now what is the great destroyer of nations and the winged one doing in such a pathetic shack?
----
The blast of light engulfed the Necrodragon completely, the floating head roaring as it gazed into the blinding white-ness. In a few seconds, the monster began to disintegrate, turning into tiny particles that blew away in the wind...
-
"Glad you could stop by guys..." Duilin says as he enters the house.
He places Ellena on one of the beds. "Guys, Nevina went into the portal...she going to close it...she might not make it out..."
He then walked over to the fire place and shot a ball of fire into it, starting a fire.
"Haraldur, do you know that women?" He says as he points to Ellena "I belive she's the one called "The Light", has some connection to the *ahem* "Bitter One". I'm abit confused about all of it."
---------
"Gah!" Maxwell says as the Necrodragon was blown away "Imposible!" He then shouts, "KILL THEM! KILL ALL OF THEM!"
Tons of soilders then begin running at Zion, Tsu and Xenai.
"I will NOT loose this castle to three...magic barring baboons!" Maxwell sneers, as he reloads his weapon. He watches the battle from the tower.
-
Haraldur saw that all five weapons were in the house.
"Give me your weapons, please, Duilin, Zeros' and Kami-Ryu. We have five, and with them, I can locate the other, I will show you."
He placed the axe on the floor near him, a bit north of him. North of him but south of the axe he placed the staff.
"Zeros', give me the sword, for it will be the compass needle. Duilin, put your mace on the eastern side of the circle. Ryu, please put the spear on the west side."
-
Duilin placed the mace at the eastern side, as he was told. He then turns and looks at Rink. "Rink, go sit by the girl, and wait untill she wakes up."
"Will do!" Rink noded, and he then glided over to the bed beside the one Ellena was on and sat down.
-
Ryu reached behind his back and instantly black tendrils appeared as te spear materialized, Ryu placing it at the western point. Zeros' looked around and sighed.
"Ok...if anyone is squimish, I suggest they cover their ears and close their eyes..." Zeros' said as he flexed his right hand. Without his trench coat or undershirt on, his bare, scarred chest was exposed to the world. He reached behind his back with his right hand, directly inbetween the joints of his eight wings and directly where the main vertibre of his spine stood.
Zeros' looked grim as he plundged his hand into his flesh and grasped the indention-sword hilt under his skin, blood leaking down his back and fingertips as he gritted his teeth and yanked out. He gave a small, almost unaudiable gasp of pain as the sword teared through his flesh, blood flying everywhere as massive amounts of it flowed down his back and spine, the muscle and bone showing easily.
He showed them the bright, gleaming sword as he placed it in the middle of the other weapons as he made a trail of blood follow his footsteps. Luckily, with Zeros' demon and god powers, the flesh was already reforming, slowly, but left him with fresh skin, but the scar in the shape of Iduran's sword was quite visible, even under all the blood that he lost.
He licked his bloodied hand clean as he smiled at the occupaints.
"Luckily the sword didn't have time for the magic to engrave itself into my system or the sword would of been alot harder to pull out." He said pointed towards his back with his now, slightly cleaner right hand, which only had bits of his flesh and blood while his back was still soaking, including his pants. "And don't worry about scars..." He said to them. "I wear them proudly. They remind me of all I've done. All my falures or all my accomplishments."
-
Nevina treaded softly through the City of Dis, surrounded by hordes of zombish souls, starring at her in awe. They had not seen a living one for milenias. As they brgan to constrict her, standing in her way, she set her blade ablaze with a Holy Aura. All the souls backed up. She walkeddown the coal black streets, starring at the steely gray sky, and the red hued clouds.
She was forced to walk/run, flying would attract the attention of the "Enforcers", Angry Pigfaced men armed with Bows, who ran particially naked on horseback.
Approaching the town square, Many enforcers stood, guarding the Portal to the 5th Level. Nevina prepared for a fight... But Qor saw this ahead of time. He set off a massive explosion in the Eastern District, and the Enforcers galloped away from the Portal, allowing Nevina passage as she stepped into the purple ambience.
"She has to make it to Limbo..." Qor said brashly. "She'll have plenty of time to die then..."
-
Haraldur wiped a bit of blood off his face, just a little, and left the rest, and tasted it. He smiled quietly.
He spread out his arms, and the five weapons floated in the air, the sunlight from the door gleaming off their clean metal blades and points and shafts. The sword rose slightly above the rest, and started to spin slowly. It accelerated, so it was spinning at huge speed, so that a whorlwind appeared above it. Then it stopped, instantaneously, so its deceleration was infinite. The blast was significant, blowing a small hole in the floor.
The sword was pointing straight downwards.
"Ah... yes... I should have expected something like that," said Haraldur.
The weapons rushed in and melded with him, and he jumped down the hole.
He was falling... falling. Not an end in sight. The light above him soon becoming just a speck. It would be soon...
Follow. Everyone in the party heard this, but more echoed than usual, as if the tunnel had some effect.
-
The trio set their attention to the oncoming horde of soldiers, and took them on headstrong. Zion and Xenai had little trouble fighting the soldiers, but Tsu had a little more trouble.
"Should we summon our weapons?" asked Zion.
"Nah," said Xenai, just as the weapons became ready. "We need to save them for bigger threats."
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Draven had stealthily made his way to the window of the cabin, constricting his energy level as much as possible. He peeked in as Zeros' was removing the blade he once sought after. It seemed so long ago...
"I'll be... So that's where... after all this time... blasting..."
He watched with interest as the hole formed and Haraldur jumped in, ducking his head before anyone would turn and see him...
----
(Some time ago...)
The brutish Jayce replied,
"But what use do we have with 'magic' weapons? We have more than enough power to..."
The Dark Emperor cut him off sternly,
"They are not 'magic' weapons. Why I require them is none of your concern."
He turned, his black cape flowing.
"It is only a matter of time before someone manages to reunite them. If done improperly... if someone other than me does it... we'll have an issue to deal with..."
Jayce bowed his head.
"Yes, Father..."
He walked away.
"Oh, my. Bickering with your father again?" Draven smirked from behind.
"Silence, cur!"
"That's enough!" Neptra folded her arms.
-
Both Zeros' and Ryu exchanged looks before jumping into the hole Haraldur disappeared into.
-
Duilin grimanced as Zeros' ripped out the sword. He couldn't bare to watch, he haden't seen something the gross since the zombies at his old village. "I needed to redecorate anyway..." He groaned. As he turned, he thought he spoted something duck outside the window. Can't be Draven....I'd be able to sence him...
As the portal opened, He turned around. "Rink, stay here, and take care of the house...and....clean up a little." He then jumped into steped into the portal following Zeros' and Ryu.
"Watch the house Cinderelly! Clean the floor Cinderelly! Kill the Necrodragon Cinderelly!" Rink sneered as Duilin exited. He then opened his mouth but kept his teeth shut, and rubed them, makeing a squeeky sound. "Hmm...my teeth are getting dirty. The mortal world sucks..."
-
Above him, and above Duilin and Ryu and Zeros', the hole collapsed, becoming blocked off at the top, and the collapse was at the same speed as Haraldur was falling: once the tunnel got too far away from him and was also above him, it collapsed.
There was a blue glow appearing from far down...
-
"There are too many of these bastards! It'll take a while to take them all out!" Xenai stabbed one through the chest while kicking one back into two others.
"Sucks for you, because I'm going for the leader." Zion looked to Maxwell while he backfisted a soldier in the face. He then took off toward him.
Tsu looked to Zion, then to the soldiers charging him. "Kuon Kaiten!" He held his sword outwards and commenced to spin around like a top, knocking out every soldier that came near him.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Kahn looked in the direction of Laus.
"They took Ellenna back there."
He started to sprint towards Laus.
-
Zeros' frowned as he looked down.
"Haraldur! What's going on!" Zeros' yelled.
-
//Kahn, your character should arive at Laus in about 5 years! TIP: The Dark Empire base, has many boats Wink //
Maxwell, turned his head, and spoted Zion heading toward his way. "Damnit!" He then held his Bolt Riffle in his left hand, and then swiped a sword from a near by corpes. "Come and get me..."
-
"Blast it... Hmmm... Well, obviously I'd be a fool to follow them this far and then turn around..."
Draven broke though the window pane in a single bound, ignoring the imp, and made it though the hole a split second before it closed.
He found himself endlessly falling though darkness, the tunnel rapidly closing above him. Far below were those that jumped in first, barely visible in the blackness...
-
Rink was sleeping when Draven broke in. He opened his eyes and then spoted Draven jump down the split second the portal closed. "Hmm....Now who could have that been..." Rink shurged and then layed back down on the bed.
-
Haraldur dropped into the bubble of blue at the bottom of the shaft, which closed around him. It would cut him off for a few minutes, enough time for him to do what was needed to be done...
His companions would, unfortunately have a bad landing, but they should just bounce off with few ill effects.
In the centre of the bubble, the last weapon hung in the air.
He took it. He had waited for this day, so long...
He held the six weapons, three in each hand, each of the weapons as sharp and unbreakable as to be indestructable, and drove them point first into the floor. They shattered.
The pieces shattered, and those pieces shattered.
Those tiny miniscule pieces all rushed into Haraldur. He shouted out loud: "Goodbye."
Then he screamed. The scream rose through the tunnel, echoing through it, and causing rocks from the top to fall. It woke Ellenna, who hid under a bed.
The pain was unbelievable. He was ripping apart from the inside. Then... nothing. There was noone there.
There was a rumble from the ground, similar in sound to the earlier scream. The rock shook.
An image of the great prophet appeared, the sight of runes quite visible: he had been rushed. He was sweating.
"Oh, shit. We are in trouble now..."
Far above, Ellenna wimpered in pain.
-
Zeros' crouched and rolled with it, bouncing off the shield as he sprung out of his crouch and landed smoothly. Ryu also crouched, but didn't have time enough to roll with it and bounced painfully and finally landed on his feet, wincing slightly.
Zeros' looked at prophet and rested his left hand on hi katana and folded all eight wings behind him and tensed his muscles. Similiarly, Ryu sent into a basic kenpo stance, his magical red eye swirling wildly.
"What's going on?" Zeros' inquired from the Prophet.
-
Duilin, spread out his wings bonched of the sheild after Ryu, and then landed on the ground, with minimal pain. He shook his head rapidly.
"Were are we?" Duilin asked, Haraldur.
-
//Thanks for the tip!//
Kahn came to a stop and began looking around.
"Where am I anyway?"
He noticed a small boat. "It's been a while since I've been on the water." He snuck in to it and pushed off.
-
Draven fell from above, but began levitating at the last second so that he would not hit the blue shield. His cape flowed in the air as his decent halted. He was now in plain view of the others, floating slightly above the blue bubble.
"Fools! You don't have the slightest clue what you just helped him accomplish, do you?!"
Draven clenched his fist and looked downwards, scowling, squinting to try to see through the translucent shield...
It was that second aura... energy not Haraldur or Ragnar's... or the weapons'... it was invisible, but its presence seemed everywhere...
-
The Great Prphet said: "It is difficult to explain. You could describe The Bitter One as a force of nature, but that is not accurate, not precise enough.
"What has just happened is that The Bitter One has finally got nine of his parts to him, and fused with them. However, he did not realise that his personal mission for himself would still not be complete.
"And it is for you to hope that he never will be complete... because him being complete entails the world's destruction... unless he finds a way around that. The world may not actually be destroyed, but he will have to do something to it to become complete... What, I do not know.
"He has just experienced extreme pain, pain from being torn up and having had his particles turned inside out and then outside out again. And he has realised that he is not finished. I must say this, but he is understandably angry. Which explains the strange aura coming from here. It is his anger, mixed with what else he now trys to capture which is part of him. We are merely at one of the focuses of the force which remains unattached to The Bitter One."
A rock fell from above, through the image of The Great Prophet.
"I suggest you leave, quickly..." He disappeared.
__________________________________________________________
Ellenna lay on the shack floor, pain filling every nerve in her body, her screams deafening.
-
(Obviously, you didn't think I was going to let go of my original intention of the weapons as well. Heh...)
Draven shouted up at the image, shaking his fist.
"Anger? You're tell me that aura is his anger?"
It was getting stronger... it was everywhere...
The prophet vanished before he could finish. Draven flipped his cape in the air.
"Blasted old man! Then why... why does it resemble..."
As the tunnel began to crumble, the dark aura, the feeling intensified... It was a sort of nervous pang, a pang of anxiety and dread that even struck the battle hardened Draven...
"...R... Retan?!"
Draven's eyes darted around the collapsing tunnel, trying to locate the source of the aura... It was indeed similar to Retan... or Jayce maybe... but still, it was different...
----
"How kind of you to decide to let me go. Oh, that's right. I stole your memories of me with your inanimant pieces. You didn't have a clue, did you? I knew you'd come around eventually... Myeh heh heh heh..."
-
"Something is deadly wrong here!" Duilin says. He then closes his eyes, and then reopens them, his eyes begin to glow yellow again. He turns and looks at Ryu and Zeros'. "Should we leave? I don't know what would happen if we did."
----
Rink jumps down to Ellena, and trys to confert her. "Miss, Miss Light...Calm yourself! What's wrong, talk to me!?" He darts his head around "Duilin!"
---
"Guys..." Duilin says "I sence something, an aura, it's stronger then anything I've senced before..." He turns around and sees Draven. "Draven! What the hell is going on here!" His left arm begins to flow with yellow energy as he clutches his fist.
-
Nevina observed her surroundings... The River of Styx...
Around her she saw demented souls, drowning in their own defications in the river. The smell was over-whelming, she had to shield her nose as she plunged into the waste-filled river. She quickly sank to the bottom, being weighted by her weaponry, and was sucked into a Whirlpool at the River's bed.
"Ugh... I'm not following her into that!" Armic said to himself. The next 4 layers she's on her own... I trust she'll make it to Limbo..." He said with a smirk, as he warped himself to the 1st level of hell, Limbo.
-
//Just to make this clear: Ellenna has no idea who Haraldur is, no idea she is The Light, no idea that Haraldur is The Bitter One, and has absolutely no idea what is going on!//
Ellenna said: "What? Why are you calling me Miss Light? Why do you people keep mentioning someone called Haraldur and call me his bride? What the hell is going on?"
____________________________________________________________
The blue bubble at the bottom of the shaft was becoming unstable, streams of blue fire, akin in appearance to solar flares, but blue, flew off, smashing against the tunnel walls, which were also cracking of their own accord. Something was affecting it: The Bitter One was getting closer to acheiving it, as part of himself.
____________________________________________________________
Out of one of the many volcanoes on Víkingagarð, Haraldur came roaring up in flame.
He was dazed, confused, angry, violent and dangerous, and intended to spread it around.
Below him was a village, but more like a farmstead with a village attached to it. It was evidently market day, as the streets completely filled to more than capacity with people and animals.
A fireball would not work this time, he needed it to be up close.
He landed quietly, close by to the village, and entered it, his long blond hair and beard sticking out as if a huge static charge was in him. The people around him stared, neither in fear or happiness, but out of surprise. The expression turned into fear soon after, and the atmosphere into one of panic.
Haraldur had punched one of the buildings, which had promptly exploded, frying the family inside, as a fireball came from the fist in mid punch.
Haraldur went around the village leaving destruction in his wake.
-
//Sorry about being gone so long. Devoted an entire day to doing a project.
Xenai and Tsu continued to play with the soldiers.
Zion pulled his sword up, swinging downwards as he came up on Maxwell.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Maxwell blocked the sword with his gun. The weapon being made out of the same material as a sword, was undamaged. "You're going to regreat ever comeing here!" Maxwell thrusted his sword at Zion.
------
"Hmmm....You don't have a clue what's going on, do you?" Rink sighed "Let me explain...You see, there are these 6 weapons, that contain a unspeakable amount of power. And this person Haraldur, "The Bitter One", who is an okay person, but he is crazy and he's going to hurt alot of people. And, I don't understand it more then you do, but, You, are the only person who can tame him. It may all sound pretty crazy. But hey isn't a Imp talking to you about destiney crazy enough? You are known as The Light, and you are needed to stop The Bitter One!"
Rink then turned his head "Something's going on here..." He creaked open the door "Oh no! It's began allready!" Rink cried "You must do something!" He looked up in the air and cried "Duilin!!"
-
Zeros' clenched his jaw tightly as Ryu started to sweat nervously. Zeros' then relaxed his posture and folded out all eight wings and glided upwards into the air, his hand still resting on his katana. Zeros' calmly cast a levitating spell on Ryu as he floated upwards and level'd out with Zeros' height.
"Well Draven..." Zeros' said slowly, turing towards the man. "Looks like a temorary cease fire is in order. It seems this problem with Haraldur take on more importance then our petty squable..." He sighed as he closed his eyes. "What do you say: truce, temporarly?" Zeros' said, piercing Draven with his emerald eyed stare.
-
Ellenna looked at Rink incredulously, and said, "Have you been stealing mushrooms from my pouch? Some of them have odd effects you know..."
______________________________________________________________
A large flare came from the blue orb, going up the shaft at huge speed, cracking the rocks about it, causing the tunnel to fall in.
The tunnel looked about to collapse.
______________________________________________________________
Haraldur had killed an entire village, and the souls of the dead looked up at him. He beckoned to them, and they joined with him, silently: no screaming this time.
There was another village in the distance...
-
Draven landed in front of Zeros', folding his arms as the orb flared and boulders began to fall around them.
"Hmph... Very well, winged one..."
A large stone fell near, quaking the ground. Draven brought his arms to his sides as he exploded in crimson flame once more.
"Perhaps it would be best if we resumed this discussion outside..."
Draven shot up the vertical tunnel like a rocket, his flames tailing behind. Seeing the top off the shaft had been closed off, he clenched his right fist as it seemed with crimson energy as he flew.
"HA!"
Thrusting his hand upwards, the blockage blasted away in a fiery explosion, blowing a huge hole in the floor of Duilin's cabin above. Wrapped in flame, Draven shot out of the hole and continued through the roof of Duilin's house, stopping some 100 feet in the air to turn and look at the gaping hole in the house from above.
The foul aura was still at the bottom of the tunnel... Was it... concentrating...?
-
Zeros' grabbed Ryu's hand and shot through the collapsing tunnel at supersonic speeds, barely making the hole and stopping in Duilins house. He sighed in relief as he let Ryu down on the floor.
"That was interesting..." Zeros' murmered to himself.
-
"We'll just see about that!" Zion spun out of the sword's path, and brought his leg to the back of Maxwell's head. If Maxwell is at the edge of the tower, he might fall off if he gets hit.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Duilin flies up following Zeros' and Draven. He looks at the hole in the roof.
"Geez, this will take days to fix!" Duilin groaned.
"Duilin! Haralur will kill us all!" Rink cires as he jumps at Duilin, he clutches to his torso. "Ellena don't belive me. I explained everything! Somebody back me up!"
Duilin grunted, as he swiped at Rink, knocking him off. "We haven't the time for this!" Duilin then opened a chest, and then carefully took out his old Claymore "Time to wake up." He then turns to Zeros' "Do, you think we can trust Draven? What if he pulls something?"
----
Zions foot wacks Maxwell in the back of the head. "Ack!" He tumbles and trips of the edge of the wall, he drops his bolt riffle, and grabs the edge of the walls. "Gnnnn!" He lifts himself up with one arm back onto the wall. "I weigh almost 350 lbs, and only 4% of my mass if fat! Let me show you some strengh!" He swings a punch at Zion's chest.
-
Zeros' shakes his head.
"I do not trust him, but I do not believe he will go agianst his word. He is a powerful man. He has done great things - teriable things - but great notheless. Right know, Haraldur is more dangerous then both Armic and Draven if he is currently going insane. I have a feeling that Miss Ellenna is the key to solving this puzzle as the Prophet stated he had eight pieces. That would include himself and Ragnar along with the six weapons." He said resignigly.
"Then the man mentioned Ellenna as the only one who can calm his fury and rage..." Zeros' then turned on Draven. "As I'm sure you noticed, you must of come to a similiar conclusion from my words," Zeros' then gave the meriest of shutters. "I also believe there was an aura similiar to Retan's in the tunnel, correct Draven?" He inqured of the man.
-
Rink then looked at Ellena "See I told you!" Rink then crossed his arms "It may sound crazy, but stranger things have happened. People flying around, and giant armys of demons...it's crazy I tells ya!"
"Good for you Rink." Duilin said to Rink. He then rubed his chin "Hmmm, what is the aura in tunnel then? Could it be the great doom power thing or whatever, Draven was telling me about at the pub?"
-
Ellenna shook her head, and smiled the smile people smile when they are near someone who is having delusions. Then she disappeared.
The Great Prophet appeared, in solid form, and said, "I have taken The Light into safety, and in the meantime I will come with you. I have lived long enough that death holds no fear for me."
He looks at Draven and then pokes him in the chest with his walking stick. "Ah, I see you are also with us, young man. You should calm down... live a little, hehe..."
-
"Oof!" Zion took the punch, landing on the tower and staggering back a bit. "You are indeed strong." Zion sheathed his sword and held up his fists, ready for a knock-down drag-out fight.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
The whirlpool dropped Nevina in a plane of eternal blackness. She could see nothing, and actually felt as if her vision improved with her eyes shut.
She tried to walk but found herself running into walls and tripping over pebbles. She had reached the 4th level of hell, a labrinyth in a land of eternal darkness. She could see nothing, so she sparked up a bit of light in her hand. The Darkness immediately engulfed it. She tried once again, this time making a huge ball of light around herself. It glowed with the intensity of 50 suns, but it still just did penetrate the dark.
As she opened her eyes, around her she saw hundreds of souls, their eyes wide open like owls, their pupils engulfing almost all of their optical orbs. The souls stared at the light, unseeing, as the eprivation of light had blinded them all. Nevina tried to navigate the labrinyth, but always ran into a dead end. She stood in place for a while, and then noticed the labrinyth was MOVING. Changing its shape, keeping her lost. She levitated, and flew over the labrinyth, saw a red light in the distance, only light within the labrinyth besides her own. It was in the farthest corner of the Labrinyth, and had no ground entrance at all. It was only accessable via aerial landing. She turned out her globe of light and stepped into the light.
-
Maxwell, then ran at Zion, wile holding up his arm, and when he came close enough he swung his fist at Zion's face.
//His musle kinda slows him down, there's a tip Wink //
-
Draven, still burning with flame, landed in the house from the hole above.
"C-CALM DOWN?! You brazen old fool!!!"
He lifted his right arm as if to backhand the old man across the chin, but restrained himself, dispersing his aura of flame in the process.
"Ehrm..."
He folded his arms and turned to Zeros'.
"Yes... there's something down there... something was released when the weapons shattered... Its energy signal is so similar... it must be what Retan was seeking with the weapons."
He stepped to the hole in the floor, which was now caved in and only went down a few yards.
"Hmmm, whatever it was, it appears to be trapped for the moment..."
Still, it was growing stronger...
-
"Young people of today..." murmered The Great prophet.
-
Zion tilted to the side, letting the swing go by, then bringing his knee up towards Maxwell's gut.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
No, Haraldur thought, I have taken the edge off my hunger, I need something larger...
He looked towards the nearest forest, and walked to and into it. He roared a roar of challenge, and a strange beast appeared. The beast had no definite shape, whenever you looked at it all you would see would be random parts of different animals and plants stuck together, fur and leaves, in one myriad of forest images. It rushed towards him, now owning a fur covered arm which held a tree branch.
They fought. The beast's arm was cut off by the sword, leaving blood, or sap, everywhere. The beast closed its wound, got another arm with a branch and attacked again. They carried on fighting.
A few minutes later, with the whole area covered in a mixture of blood and sap, the beast ran away. Haraldur pursued, carrying two severed arms, one in each hand, waving them like clubs and trying to hit the beast.
They chased.
-
Zeros' frowned and looked at the tunnel for a moment before glancing upwards.
"Yes...now it seems trapped...but it is growing stronger with each passing minute..." Zeros' said slowly. "What should we do about Haraldur though?"
-
The beast ran off a cliff, and Haraldur followed, slowing his fall so that he landed softly by the body of the beast, which still was indistinct. The soul was there, staring blankly. He grabbed hold of it, then absorbed it into himself.
Around him, the forest withered and died, leaving the stench of rotting wood and flesh.
-
"I recomend some of us split up." Duilin subjested "Let's see, there's me, Ryu, Zeros', Rink, The Prophet and *ahem* Draven. Three of us should go stop Haraldur and three of us make sure, whatever is in that tunnel, dosen't get out."
Duilin, swung his Claymore in the air. "Unless someone else has a better idea?"
Rink shruged and then looked at the rest.
------
Maxwell, grabed his gut as Zion kneed it. "Ooof!" He then, gave an enraged look at Zion. He picked up a crumbled rock from the wall and tossed it at Zion.
-
(Today is DAL's 1 year anniversary! Heh...)
Draven smirked.
"You call him Haraldur, huh? Ah yes, his 'prince' name. I'm guessing you don't know much about who he really is, do you? Of course not. Goody-goodies like you wouldn't have helped him at all if you knew what he does for kicks..."
(Note that Draven never caught the whole fusion thing, and thinks the original Haraldur and Ragnar are and always were the same person.)
"Ragnar is of minor concern. He told me himself the weapons will not grant him additional power. He is a coward who loves chaos and destruction, but only if he is in control. A slippery one, at that. When confronted with a threat of equal or greater power, he will use his magic to distract and flee. Reminds me of a lightning mage I once knew... His spells are mostly wide spread, meaning they are more effective against a group than a single target. Seriously, that haggard beard is rather unbecoming as well..."
He nodded at Zeros'.
"Fly-boy over here and myself together are more than capable of killing him. The rest of you are liable to get killed and should just go home..."
Draven stared at the hole a second before an evil grin crossed his face. He eyed the prophet.
"What were you babbling about earlier? 'The Light'? Is this girl the final piece to the puzzle that he seeks? Let's just kill her..."
-
//Just to make sure everyone is clear, it was a fusion of three, Haraldur, the Prince, another Haraldur who had his name because his parents like naming their children after kings, and Ragnar, the madman. However, all three were insane, to varying degrees. What we have now, is a more powerful madman.//
The Great Prophet looked upon Draven with unconcealed scorn, and said, "The Bitter One has no knowledge of the girl, and at present that is a good thing. The girl is something totally other, of which I will not go into now.
"Yes, the weapons do not grant him additional power, the was and always was and will be his, they would just drain him whenever they were used, and by their existance. He failed to destroy them, because there are other parts of him he is yet to find for him to be come his complete self. So, he remains at liberty to split up whenever he wishes.
"The reason his spells are usually over a large area is that he likes to see the damage to the surroundings. One of his incarnations once covered the whole of Romme with winter, I believe, causing many innocents to die in the process. We are not dealing with a sane human being."
-
"I see..." Zeros' said quietly. "I agree with Draven though. Even as strong as Haraldur is, he probably couldn't handle either me or Draven alone, let alone us together. As for Haraldur being sane, I agree with the Prophet." Zeros' crossed his arms and closed his eyes while flapping his wings, sighing.
"Now we have a problem as to where Haraldur is..." Zeros' said idly.
-
"Ow!" His hand came to his head where the rock hit. Now he enraged as well, he snaps a kick up into Maxwell's face.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
As Zion's foot hit Maxwells face, he fell over. He then recovered and then swung his hand at him, if he were to hit, he would grab his oppenet. And he about big enough to lift him.
----
"From the start, I knew there was something strange about him, but I thought I was just paranoid." Duilin sighed "Well, yes. You and Draven can fend off against Haraldur, Rink, you didn't happen to see were he went?"
"There was a village, not to far awake." Rink says, as he points to a smokey area in the distance. "He...messed the place up...you guys should start your search there."
"Allright, good. Zeros' maybe you and Draven could start your search there..." Duilin said. "I'll protect the others, if anything comes out of there, or something. Ever since the Necrodragon, I don't trust strange portals leading to random places anymore. I'm getting stronger then I was before."
Rink, gulps and grinds his teeth, he seems to be abit nervous about the entire situation. Ever since he left hell, he has feared his new mortality.
-
Draven smirked (again).
"Well now, sanity is only a point of view from a certain perspective..."
He turned to Duilin, assuming a much more serious tone.
"I don't know what's down there, but if anything comes out of that hole... kill it immediately... if you can, that is. I don't trust it without the Emperor..."
He jumped straight up, flying out of the hole in the roof and stopping some 30 feet above. There was indeed a faint plume of smoke in the northwestern horizon. He shouted to Zeros':
"Coming?"
A crimson aura engulfed the man once more and he sped off through the sky.
A temporary alliance... that is all. Just as two nations ally to destroy a third, before plotting to destroy each other. Yes, that is all...
-
To the Southeast, Haraldur saw a faint glow of red. Idiot... he thought, Draven always was ostentatious. I do not want to be entertaining him tonight, he is a bad houseguest. I prefer visiting him.
Bleh...
He rose up, on a level with the faint light in the sky, and sent a fireball towards it, as a warning shot. Then he moved eastwards, at speed.
I can kill a forest, now for the remnant of a continent...
-
Zeros' let his arms fall to his side and flapped his wings before speeding forwards, catching up with Draven in seconds, following directly besides him. Zeros' smirked as he looked towards the horizion.
-
Haraldur moved at huge speed, nearing 100 000 000 metres per second, towards the remains of Aritan.
He would be weakened, I might as well start with those who are weak...
-
The hand made contact. "What the--?"
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Draven eyed the fireball as it whizzed past the unlikely duo. A point of light was blasting eastward at incredible speed.
"As I thought, he appears to be fleeing..."
Draven glanced at Zeros'.
"He knows nothing of our alliance. Fly ahead of me and I will pretend to chase you. Follow him as if you have a message or something... Once we get within seeing distance, you and I will begin a mock battle. The fool will likely intervene, thinking that your presence will increase his chances. That is the opportune moment... strike him when his back is turned. If there is anything left, I will hit him from the front. Game over. You lose... Ha ha ha ha!!
"I will admit, you have the speed advantage over me... If he figures us out beforehand, it's up to you to keep him from escaping... Be wary of his teleportation tricks. Just keep him close and I'll nail him..."
----
All at once, something burst forth from the collapsed hole-- a great surge of energy... It was completely invisible, but to those who could sense darkness, it looked like a black cloud of evil...
It ran circles around those that remained in the house, weaving through the walls (like a specter, not damaging them) outside, underground and out again, though the air and back down...
-
Maxwell, lifted up Zion. "Gnnnn!!" He then tossed him off the tower. "Ha hah!"
-----------
"What the heck is going on?" Duilin says "Something is here....my sences aren't very strong...but something, a ghost, is here!"
"I think I can see it..." Rink smirks "It looks like a cloud of...evil!"
"Get it outta here! I don't want that thing flying around!" Duilin says
-
As he neared the striken continent, he roared a similar roar to the one before, its harmonics bouncing around the boiling seas. A giant beast, looking to be near death rose up out of the water with a dazed expression. Haraldur then collided with it, making it explode into pieces.
The soul followed him, before be absorbed by him.
Far below the waves, the remnants of Aritan degraded into dark mud.
-
Zeros' glanced at Draven and nodded his head. He concentrated as his wings glowed an ethernal color and he gave them one flap...and disappeared from Draven's sight, breaking the sound barrier several times and heading towards Haraldur at incrediable speed.
----
Ryu looked around warily, his magic eyes swirvling around the house as he glanced at Rink and Duilin.
"Rink is right...its a cloud of evil. But you must remember: there is no such thing as pure evil or pure good. Not even demon's are comprised of purely evil intentions, such as gods aren't capable of only pure intentions." Ryu then slowly walked around the house, his red eye following the cloud as it floated.
"We must seal it back into the void. That is our only chance." Ryu spoke expressionlessly, hs face blank and eyes devoid of all emotion.
-
"Gah! Okay, you win in terms of ring-out!" He shot a wave of energy at the ground and shot back upwards, landing in the tower, and on Maxwell's face. "But the real fight ain't over."
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
"Blast it! Not that... fast!"
Draven's aura exploded in flame and he began to tail the multi winged man. Draven's method of flight-- thrusting his aura outward and behind, was very unnatural, and thus was wreaking havoc on the already scorched wasteland below. He shot out over the ocean next, parting the waves as he flew hundreds of feet above.
Zeros' was a mere speck in the sky ahead of him. Keeping the spirit of the ploy, he shot out a few fireballs in Zeros' direction as they neared their target's location...
----
As quickly as it started-- it stopped. Whatever it was... it was now outside... stopped in one place...
Outside the cabin stood a small child... perhaps ten years of age... Nothing in particular stood out about the child except for his white hair. He was draped in black robes. His expression was slightly confused, though not really an expression of fear...
-
Almost completely ignoring the speck which was moving fast towards him, he flew south, again and magnificent speed.
-
//Well, it seems that we are off to see relatives now for a week, but I cannot think of anything to do here, so I suggest that Zeros' gets lost by Haraldur, and they deal with the kid/Retan, because I will not be here for a week.//
-
"When I fight" Maxwell barked "Their are no rules!" He picks up his sword "Raa!" He he runs at Zion and swings his sword at him.
------
Duilin then steps outside, and looks at the child. He stares at the child for a little wile. "Who are you?" He asks
Rink steps out, and then spots the child and then takes a slight step backwards.
-
Zion unsheathes Eternity Weapon (His sword), and parries the slash, snapping a kick toward Maxwell's gut.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Zeros' curses under his breath as Haraldur disappears. He grabs the fireballs and launch them backwards, hitting the other fireballs, causing them to explode in midair.
Draven, Haraldur disappeared. We should head back and deal with the evil force. Ryu was too weakened to do another seal. Zeros' says telepathically as he turns around and blasts backwards towards Draven, uprooting trees and causing gaint waves to wake across the land.
----
Ryu steps outside also and looks at the child. His magical eyes stops and he narrows his other eye.
"This child...he is the evil." said Ryu.
-
Maxwell grabs Zion's foot, and atemps to flip him on the ground.
-------
"Either that, or he went abit to crazy with the 'goth' look." Rink smirks
"Well if he is...should we get rid of him? Because I'm not really comfertable killing a kid." Duilin says
-
Ryu gazed at Duilin through half-lidded eyes.
"No one is comfortable with killing. That is what makes us human." He indicated himself and Duilin with a hand gesture. "As for pure demons, I have no thought of what emotions they have." He gazed at Rink for a moment before turning towards the boy, his magical eye exploding his senses with evil taint.
Ryu flicked his fingers quickly, causing several kunai to speed towards the young boy.
-
Draven folded his arms as the two blasted past each other at full speed.
"He is a slippery one indeed... Hmph... we'll have to try appraoching him more discretely next time... Yes, that aura is the one that worries me, anyway..."
He banked around and began flying in the other direction, after Zeros'.
As they approached the site from afar, the aura was far stronger than when they had left... Reality seemed to distort around them... they were flying at inhuman speed, but they seemed to not be getting any closer to their destination...
----
The kunai tore through the air and shot right through the child as if he weren't there... nothing...
"You seem frightened... why is that?"
He began to walk towards the group of onlookers...
"I await the command of my Master... Where is my Master...?"
-
"What the hell is that?!" Rink shouts. He cowards away back into the house.
"Ryu, I think the child may be a ghost or an evil spirt of some sort." Duilin says. He then slowly takes a single step toward the boy, he then turns his head slightly "Maybe we should try talking to him." He then turns his head back "Who are you?" He asks
-
Maxwell flipped Zion backwards, but he landed on his feet, slashing upwards with his sword.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Zion's sword cut threw abit of Maxwell's armor, gashing a cut. "Arrg!" Maxwell yelped. "Not that I wasn't going to in the first place, but I'll kill you for that!" Maxwell then trusted his sword at Zion.
-
Zeros' glances warily at Draven and nods to him.
"The spirit is preventing us from progressing. It seems the others have no idea how to deal with this force." He said as he stopped in mid-air. "The spirit of evil is distorting, not allowing us to approach. We have to find another way to progress." Zeros' said towards Draven.
----
Ryu looked towards the sky in the direction Zeros' was coming and nodded to himself. He could sense the area around him distorting and bending towards the beings will.
Ryu looked at the small boy through half-lidded eyes. "Child, we have no masters." He then growled slightly and closed his eyes completely. "Dispell the barrier now."
-
Zion tilts his head to the side, bringing his hand up in front of Maxwell's face, and firing an energy blast at him.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
The energy blast smashed Maxwell in the face. He falls to the ground, wile grabing his face. He then plops down to the ground, his bloody face is revealed as his hands fall. He glares at Zion just before he looses contiousness...
-
Draven landed on the ground, which was begining to shift and move...
"What in blazes...?"
The sky was now red, and the rocky ground attained a similar tint. Far ahead was a point of red light...
"B-Blast it!! That's what Retan was after... If he could control it... so can I!"
He began to hop from shifting rock to rock after the light, not really making any progress...
----
The child continued to approach.
"Who? I am my Master's. That is all."
His glance turned to Ryu. There was no more confusion in his face.
"You don't know where my Master is? That is bad. Dispel? Master says not to accept commands from entities other than himself."
He stopped directly in front of Ryu.
"You must help me find my Master.... Master says if I stay away from him too long, bad things will happen..."
-
Zion took a bunch of money out of his pocket, dropping it next to Maxwell. "You fought well. You can have that when you wake up."
Zion jumped off of the tower, to see that Xenai and Tsu were done. "We need to find Draven," said Zion. "Zeros' will know where he is. Let's find him."
Zion took off toward the direction of Zeros' ki signal, Xenai and Tsu following him.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Zeros' glanced at Draven and flew beside him.
"Draven! Don't be foolish! Look what happened to Retan! He wanted ultimate power, he gained death! That is what will happen if you go after it!" He snapped at the crimson man.
----
Ryu glanced down at the boy.
"Bad things always happen, child. We cannot prevent things from happening." He stared down at the child. "Your master is not here." He made a gesture with his hand. "He is out there, but seeking him in meaningless.
-
Still flying. Just killing off the posts it takes to arrive.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
"Ryu, I think his Master might be someone else...." Duilin says, he then looks at the boy. "If your master is who I belive he is, then he may be dead...Can you tell me who he is?" he kneals down, next to the boy, narrows his eyes and folds down his wings.
-----
Maxwell opened one eye. "Maxwell is a person so....let my Maxwell go...." He groans. "Zion! You be hurtin' me!" He begens to ramble, and thought begin to swarm in his head "Draven! You came back, and brought order! But you brought....fools....rebels....Retan! We need you back! We need you to rule...Darion....my poor 12 fingered brother...killed, by...Duilin! Duilin....I don't even know you! I don't even care....you live...you go ahead and live, your evil, demon life! Demons......Nex? I allways thought he was a demon, he was crazy. Oh yeah, for sure...."
A lutenaut came and walked near him. "Sir...they escaped....but they took alot of our army, we barely have anything left!"
"Really?" He then tilts his head, he is still lyeing on the ground, with blood driping from his face, he spots the money bag. "Ahhrg! This is an insult!" He throws the bag at the lutenant. "You.....you....We are going...south! We must! That's were those, scum sucking no good people are! I want them dead! They have all weapons! Look!" He points to the sky "We are all in deep shit! Draven, is all alone! We need to do something! You, me and a few others, Wyverns! Let's go!" He slowly rises and then begins to limp away...The lutenaut becons a group of 10 soilders to follow.
-
Ryu looked at Duilin with an expression of utmost expressionless.
"We can either assume it is Retan or Haraldur. And before you ask, Zeros' told me tales of his explots in this war."
-
"I assume the same, Ryu..." Duilin said without looking at him. He stood up. "This boy is very strange..." He looks up into the sky "Something is going wrong here, Do you supose this talk about bad things happening if we don't return him to his master is true? It's just if it's Haraldur, we would have the risk of looseing our own lives if getting to him and if it's Retan, well, he's dead..."
Or is he? I never saw him die with my own eyes. I just assumed he did, when the island exploded.
"Well, what if what he means by, 'bad things will happen', is that bad things will happen to those who are bad themselfs. What do you think Ryu?"
-
Ryu sighed.
"I have no idea. What do you think?"
-
The trio caught up to Zeros' and Draven, and looked upon the commotion.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Draven turned to Zeros'.
"Is that really what happened on that island? I know thier kind, and I find that hard to believe..."
He continued attempting to approach the light.
"Ultimate power or not, that thing is wreaking havoc on this dimension. If I don't get it to stop, I won't have a world left to conquor. Blast, if I only knew the spells Retan was casting upon the weapons..."
----
The child seemed to grow angry at Ryu...
"Prevent...? All things cause and prevent. You lie. Lying is bad..."
He turned to Duilin.
"Re-tan...? Haral-dur? Are they dragons? My Master is a dragon... a very old one..."
Suddenly, a shockwave burst forth from the child, tearing apart the earth underneath. The ground split, wrecking the foundation of the nearby house. The child began to float in the air...
"I must seek my Master..."
The distortion around the group shifted as he slowly moved upward, allowing those outside the disterbance (Zeros' and Draven) to approach him.
-
Duilin, backed up as the ground began to crack.
"His master is a Dragon? Dragon!"
<span style='color:blue'>FLASH BACK</span>
Iduran handed his sheathed blade to Duilin.
"Listen... I have no idea how to release this blade's power... or even if it exists... I thought the wizard we met awhile back might have known something, but apparently not... There's only one more I can think of to consult..."
He sighed, as if trying to decide whether what he was saying was a good idea or not. After a long pause,
"As you may have noticed, there's a mountain in the center of this island. Climb any tree and you will see it. Deep inside sleeps... a fire dragon... he's an intelligent creature, I know, and he's lived for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. If there's anyone who would know about the enchantment of a blade, it would be him..."
<span style='color:blue'>FLASH BACK OVER...</span>
"No it can't be! The Dragon would have been killed in MDAA or whatever...." Duilin shook his head rapidly. He looks at Ryu. "I think that this kid is evil, and that bad things will happen to him and his deadly plan, whatever it is, if he is not reunited with his master..."
//I like makeing flashbacks of things that happened during the RP Razz //
-
Zeros' looked over at Draven the instant the distortion allowed them entry.
"Cmon Draven! Let get rid of that...thing!" Zeros' flapped his wings and flew directly towards the child, stopping a few meters near him.
Ryu jumped back with utmost grace and landing a couple meters from where he was once standing, his black cloak billowing up, shining his metal leg. He looked up and saw Zeros' floating near the child.
"Zeros'!" Zeros' looked down at Ryu. "The childs master is a dragon!" And according to Duilin, he said the dragon should of been killed in something called an MDAA!" He shouted up at Zeros'.
Zeros' nodded and turned to the Zion and his party.
"Zion! Right now we have a truce with Draven! He have to get rid of this child first!" He said pointing towards the child. "Anyone have any ideas?" He shouted.
-
"Ryu tried blasting it, but it didn't seem to work! It flew right threw the kid like it wasn't there!" Duilin tells Zeros'
Rink slowly walks out of the now, crumbling house. "The others are back? Good....now it is safe...Hopefully."
"It might not be for to long Rink." Duilin says. He then looks at Draven "I don't supose you have any idea how to get rid of this child, do you? You have been serching for the weapons for awile."
----
Maxwell and 11 other soilders, rideing on Wyverin fly towards Laus. "They went this way, men! Head toward the darkness in the sky!" Maxwell ordered. He had his bolt riffle back, and straped onto his back, in a specially disigned holster, he also had his new sword, in a holster on his leg. "Faster!"
-
"Woo, I can feel some strong ki pouring off of him!" Xenai was impressed by what he felt.
"The weapons... Should we bring them out?" Zion looked to Zeros'.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
The child continued rising, his eyes now burning a crimson red. An intense gust of wind circled him.
"Rid? You wish to be rid of me? That is bad. I will ask my master for permission to kill you. My master says not to kill without permission..."
Burning with his crimson aura, Draven burst forth through the gathering spectators. He circled the boy, stopping directly in front of him.
"Child, Retan is gone. However, I am the rightful heir to the Dark Empire, and thus your new master. Come, obey me..."
The child raised an eyebrow at Draven.
"I don't understand... You are all very confusing... My Master cannot die... You are a liar. Liars are bad... All of you... go away! GO AWAY!!"
It was a mere flick of the finger to him. In an instant, the child gathered a tremendous amount of shadow energy before his tiny hand, and sent towards Draven like a laser beam. There was no time to block, let alone move... The energy broke straight through his aura of flame and pierced through Draven's left shoulder.
"Gah--!!"
Draven's aura faded and he fell to the ground like a rock...
-
"What the hell!?" Duilin yelled, walked over to him, and kneeled down. "Draven?" He looked at the kid and then at the others "We can't harm it, but it can harm us....this is NOT good!" He looked at Draven again "Draven? If you're awake, answer me?"
He didn't seem worried, more of an 'Uh Oh' fealing. He didn't have any likeing for Draven one bit, but he had to admit, that he would be a usefull ally.
----
Maxwell and the others come closer to Laus....
-
Zeros' flew directly in front of the child and stopped just inches from his face. He stared the little boy directly.
"Child." Zeros' spoke in a deadly calm voice. "If Retan was your master, he is dead." Zeros' said while gathering holy ki in his right hand as it started glowing a pure white, crackling with energy. '"If he was not, he is still alive, more then likely. Everyone dies, no one is immortal." Zeros' voice faded away as his right hand shot out, crackling with holy energy, directly towards the childs head.
-
Zion charged up some light energy, while Xenai charged dark energy, and Tsu charged neutral energy with which to handle the other two.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Duilin kept knealed down, but he shifted himself into a fighting stance kneal. He held his sword in his right hand, and he had his left hand pointed behind him, he then began to charge his yellow demon energy in his left hand.
Rink noticed everyone prepareing for combat, so he took a few steps backwards. I think I might sit out... He rubed his left shoulder and grinded his teeth, his famous nervous actions.
------
Several Wyverns landed about 45 feet away from the group, the wyverns had the soilders and Maxwell on them.
"Let's walk from here...They might spot us, if we fly..." Maxwell ordered. The squad, moved threw the terrian, like a modern day army platoon. "Laus, that's what the town is called. I went there before..."
-
The child dissapeared in an instant as the energy tore through the air where he was...
"A N G R Y . . ."
He was directly behind Zeros'... His teeth were clenched, his left eye twitching...
"M-Master says not to get angry... Must not get angry... Bad things happen when I get angry... Bad.......... bad.... bad......"
A dark aura engulfed the boy. He began to chuckle lightly for no apparent reason...
"He he he he..."
----
Draven sat up abruptly, holding his shoulder. He removed his right hand from the wound, gazing at the blood on his glove.
"You... you... you little BRAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!"
He jumped up, exploding in flame. Mounds of dirt and rock flew from the ground aound him.
"KILL HIM!! KILL HIM NOW!!!!"
He braced his good right arm like a cannon and quickly gathered a massive amount of crimson energy before him. In a second, a crimson sphere some 15 feet in diameter was before his arm, which he fired at the boy in the sky with ferocious rage...
-
Zeros' disappeared from his spot and reappeared a few meters away and held his now transformed sword in both hands, having seprated it. He held both blades in his hand, the left one glowing a sickly black while the right one glowed a holy white.
Ryu grimced as he looked at everyone. He hadn't got enough ki, chi or chakra left to to anything useful.
-
Duilin, quickly stood up (more of a jump). And thrusted his left hand at the child blasting electricity at him. (Similar to The Emperor?s lightning attack in Star Wars, only yellow)
------
"I hear something!" Maxwell called, he then ran, they spotted Draven, with the enemy. "What?!" they noticed them attacking a child. "Hmmm....what is this?" Maxwell shifted his head around, and spotted Zion, he aimed his bolt riffle at him. But the lieutenant grabbed his gun and lowered it "No, sir, I believe Draven has formed an alliance. Perhaps that child is an evil sprit, just look at. I'm sure his' parent's wouldn't allow him to dress like that."
Maxwell gave an angry look at the solider, but then stopped. "That's a good point. I'll promote you to Lieutenant!"
"Sir, I already am Lieutenant." He replied
"Shut up! Or I'll bust you down to Lieutenant, so fast your head will spin!" Maxwell barked back. He then aimed his bolt gun at the boy and fired.
-
All of the attacks slammed into the boy at once, resulting in a massive explosion. The sky clouded in smoke...
Draven began to float, slowly moving up and closer.
"Myeh heh heh..."
Draven's eyes darted back and forth.
"Where...? Blast it! Where?!"
It was... everywhere...
"Free... at last..."
-
Zeros' returned his swords with a flourish and appeared right beside Draven, throwing him an inquiring glance.
"Draven...what is it?"
-
Draven looked back at Zeros'.
"I'm... not sure..."
The smoke faded... the child was gone...
"Free...? What is he babbling about...?"
A voice was behind them...
"I've managed to escape two prisons in one day. Not bad."
The child appeared older... like a teen now. He no longer wore the innocent look, but now a menacing grin...
-
"My god! What happened?" Duilin says, shocked
"Guys I shall have you know, that I am offically freaked the hell out!" Rink says
Maxwell's jaw droped. The soilders shook seemed to be very frightened "This, is obviously, not going to be very challengeing. But I am a General, and I will NOT give up!" He aims his bolt gun at the teen.
"Don't!" Duilin says "Did, you NOT pay attiention to what happened last time? He might become an adult, and get even stronger!"
"Why should I listen to you? You...you killed my brother! If we didn't need your help, then I would kill you, right now!" Maxwell says enraged
"Shut up!" Rink yells "We have a serious situation!" Rink himself even seem shocked by his out burst of commanding.
Maxwell grunted, and Duilin just stuck his sword into the ground and crossed his arms. He looked at the boy and uncrossed his arms. "Or maybe..." He says, speaking to the group "He is free, there for meaning, we a able to attack him?"
Maxwell shruged, and then aim his gun at him again.
"YET AGIAN!" Duilin added, Maxwell rolled his eyes, and lowered his weapon "It could mean something else..."
Rink raised one eyebrow and looked at Duilin. He shook is head, and then steped back, behind the group, and went back, with the weaker ones. (ie: oracle, soilders, ryu)
-
Zeros' spun around and faced the child in its teenage years.
"I see..." He said rubbing his chin. "So...escaping prisons....which means your power is limited until these prisons come undone..." He said thoughtfully.
-
"Myeh heh heh... There were only two... one for the body, the other for the mind... That 'fool' wanted me to obey his every wish, and placed me under his spell. He manufactured a weak minded spirit for my body... But the spell must be renewed continuously, and thus I have awakened due to it's weakening over time...
"The second was the one despite enough to divide his very being into pieces in order to contain me for eons... Or was it someone else that did it to him? No matter... I shall now reward you all!"
The surroundings began to distort once more as he lifted his arms to his sides. The sky turned red and plates of the ground began to shift.
Still beside Zeros', Draven placed his left arm over his eyes as an intense gust of wind blew from the entity. With his right he began to gather crimson energy just in case.
"Blast...! You wouldn't happen to know how to seal cataclysmic dark entities, would you...?"
-
Duilin cluched his wings, down tight, so the the gust of air, wouldn't have asmuch force agianst him. "Damnit. This is not good. So I supose since he is free from his 'prisions' he will be even more stronger then before!" He sheilded his eyes "That means, he must have unlimited power! How are we going to be able to defeat somebody that powerfull?"
Maxwell, thought of fireing his bolt gun at the teenager, but it was far to windy. "Lord Draven, are you sure sealing, catali...cata-entities is possible?" Maxwell called.
-
Ryu crouched and jumped ontop of a building nearby as the plates in the ground began to move.
Zeros' grimced, but kept steady against the winds despite hovering in the air using all eight of his wings.
"Ryu is more a professional on it then me...as for sealing it, all the spells I know work on demons, I'm not sure about them working on an dark spirit. On technique can seal any entity, but we need a body for it and the use to sacrifice there soul to the Shinigami (God of Death)..." Zeros's said slowly. He glanced back at Ryu and nodded impecibly, seeing him safe.
"We could try and exhuast his energy reserves or try an get someone to seal him, but I don't even know if that would work, if he has an almost unlimited supply of energy. Just using enough can break the seal. Some deamons have enough yokai (demo energy) that they can will themselves back into existance after they get killed, but they become extremely weak for a long period of time."
-
"So, what you're syaing is..." Duilin says to Zeros' "Is that one of us has to die, or we need to find a demon, yokai, to revive himself after we do it?"
A few of the soilders look at each other, they seem to be abit consered about the second option.
Maxwell grined "I've got some expendalbe people right here!" He then notices that the soilders ran off, heading back to the wyverns. "Selfish cowards."
Rink did a swift laugh "Hipocrite..."
"Well, the first option seems abit extreme, unless somebody here is willing to give up there life. I think that rules out, Rink, considering how cowardly he is. But if the only demon's here, is Zeros' and I, I don't know if either of us can do that..."
"And obviously, we can't drian his energy!" Rink adds
-
Before him was the oldest land spirit in the world. His destruction would mean only the continent formerly the Dark Empire would be left, as Retan drove the Earth spirit away long ago...
The Earth spirit was sitting on an island meditating, and blissfully unaware of all else. He was the shape and size of a human, and wore white robes. He felt a hand cover his mouth, and steel cut into his throat.
Haraldur dropped the knife in the seawater as the island sank down into the ocean, at the same time as all continents apart from the dark one.
One more continent to go... then we shall see what happens, he thought, as the Earth spirit's soul entered him.
He flew towards Laus.
__________________________________________________________
From the harbour of Laus, could be seen the sinking of a nearby island, which was not part of the continent.
-
"I wasn't suggesting that...I was just considering my options, actually. And I woundn't demand any give there life to kill anyone else..." Zeros' finished. "And about the life sacrificing part, the person who uses the technique give there soul up. They don't actually die, they basically live, going through motions. The technique takes months to learn anyways."
-
"Damnit! Should we blast it, or what?" Xenai grew impatient. The trio was now fully charged, ready to perform New Forever.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Haraldur landed at Laus Harbour, and down the street he could see the group. He stood, and watched to see what would happen next.
-
The group of running soilders, spoted Haraldur.
"It's him!" The lutenaunt yelled. The warriors, not includeing the lutenaunt, ran at him
--------------------------
"I agree with him!" Maxwell said "I grow werey of this. We should just attack him! What do we have to loose?"
"Our lives! If we attack him, he will just attack us. With his power he could probally kill us all..." Duilin says
"This is bullshit! How do we know it's 'all might and powerfull', it's probally just some stupid trick!" Maxwell enraged, runs past Zeros', Draven and Duilin, and runs at the spirt fireing bolts "Yaaaaaa!!!"
-
Haraldur threw a ball of energy at the leiutenant and his soldiers, turning them into so much molten slag.
He then walked up towards the group. He hovered a little above the ground, ignoring all except the teenager, and said, "Hello... goodbye."
With two dark knives in his hands, infected with a deadly venom, he stabbed quickly at the boy, at the same time a seismic shock coming from him, at the boy, destroying many of the surrounding buildings.
-
The entity allowed the knives plunge into his torso... nothing. He merely smirked at Haraldur.
"They talk to much. I you better."
His response was a blurred closeline punch towards the newcomer's face. At the same time, 7 identical images of the boy leapt from his body, all shouting in eerie unison:
"Accept your reward!!"
Three madly blazed toward Zion, Xenai, and Tsu, two more for Duilin and Maxwell, the next for Draven, and the last for Zeros'.
Draven began franticly blocking a flurry of flying shadow elemental orbs sent at him from his clone.
"This is... madness!"
(This guy is a NPC with special rules. I'd like everyone to have a crack at controlling him. The rules are 1. Keep him in character and 2. He's quite invincible in combat. We obviously must think of a different way to beat him. Heh...)
-
"Crap! We can't do it! Split up and take 'em on!" Zion just lumped the energy he charged up onto Tsu. Xenai did the same. The trio flew off in three opposite directions, each entity following their assigned target.
Zion turned to face the entity coming up on him while continuing to fly in the same direction, connecting his wrists, and firing an energy wave at it. The entity simply smacked it away and fired one at Zion that was 5 times stronger. Zion could do nothing but take the hit and hit the ground. "Ugh..."
Xenai turned around and stopped, attempting melee combat against the entity. Every punch and kick was effortlessly blocked. Xenai took out his sword, and slashed at the entity, but it blocked with HIS FINGER. A swift punch to the gut brought Xenai to his knees.
Tsu was trying to come up with a way to fight that thing... He had the light and dark energy, as well as the neutral energy to contain and utilize it. The only way he'd stand a chance against the entity is to use that energy to power up. He spun around, stopping, and let out a thunderous yell.
"New Forever!!!"
The ground underneath him formed a large crater. His hair stood on end now, because of all the energy. He had a quite large aura now, of swirling black and white. He gestured toward the entity to bring it on. "Psh, nice trick. It won't help you." The entity flew at Tsu.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
Zeros' merely moved with blurring speed, dodging everyone of the entity's attacks. Zeros' blurred with speed, launching punched and kicks at the entity. The entity dodged all the attacks with the same speed.
Both people became a blur as they dance in the air. One of the entity's attacks hit him in the gut, sending him fast towards the ground. Zeros' flipped backwards and landed on his feet as he launched into the air. He grabbed his sword, transforming it and splitting it in two, charging both sword with energy. He launched both attacks, one a sickly black-green, the other a holy white.
Both crescent attacks merged as a now glowing white crescent wave crackling with black energy raged towards the entity. The entity stood there, his arms crossed, an arrogant smirk on his face. The blast his the entity, exploding, sending a shockwave of holy and death energy. The dust cleared and entity still stood, but this time had a small scratch in the middle of his chest. A trickle of ethernal blood made its way down his chest.
The entity stood there with a gobsmacked expression on his face. hHis eyes alight with rage.
"You...You...YOU DARE!?" he shrieked in rage. "DIE!" he launched a barrage of deadly powerful shadow orbs at Zeros' as he dodged around them.
-
As the entity ran at Duilin, he swung his claymore at it's head. He quickly dodged it, and swung a punch at Duilin. He grabs the entity's fist, and swung him to the ground. Duilin, then stabed his sword down at him. The entity, smirked and then smashed the sword as it came down at him.
"Uh oh..." Duilin groaned, as he backed up.
The entity rose up "Accept your reward!!"
"I'll give you a reward!" Duilin blasted an energy ball at the entity, but he conter attacked with a dark blast, blowing right threw Duilin's attack, knocking him to the ground. "Aww...man..."
---
Maxwell, he swung out his sword at the entity. He smilply grabed the blade and bent the weapon. "
"Wah?" Maxwell ghasped. He then swung his gun at the entity's face, knocking him to the ground. He blasted a bolt at him, but the entity, jumped up and punched the bolt, and it fell to the ground. "What the hell!?"
Maxwell swung a punch right smack dab in his face, causeing the entity to move back abit. He then jumped at the Maxwell, and jump kicked him right below his chin, causeing him to lift up his enemy and brake out a tooth. Maxwell fell to the ground, in dizzines.
-
Zion's opponent grabbed his hair, pulling him up, and letting go, having enough time to spin around and put its foot into his gut, sending him flying backwards. "Urgh..." Zion waited for the entity to fly directly above him, and then took out Eternity Weapon, thrusting at the entity's chest. It hit, piercing the chest, drawing a little bit of blood. "You fool..." the entity pointed its hand at Zion's face. "You have no chance."
Xenai tried to get to his feet, but the entity would doublefist him in the head, sending him all the way down to the ground. "Gr..." Xenai sprung forward, in a somersault manner, and planted both of his feet into the entity's face, pushing him down to the ground, and slam! Xenai jumped off of him, snickering. The entity got to its feet, and within a microsecond, had planted his palm into Xenai's face, sending him about 10 feet back, hitting the ground hard.
Tsu glared at the entity, and the entity glared back. A standoff. Tsu spoke first. "Here I come." As he ran toward the entity, 5 times faster than normal, he put dents into the ground. Kuon Yaiba was unsheathed in a battou-jutsu manner, bringing it across the entity's head, causing it to spiral to the ground, but onto its hand, which pushed it off with a kick toward Tsu's face. Tsu dodged the kick, grabbing the entity's leg and spinning around, then throwing it at a nearby tree. The entity landed with its feet on the tree, sending a massive wave of energy at Tsu, that put him on the ground.
=== === ===
EW Ready!
ZW Ready!
-
The boy's attacks had no effect on Haraldur, as they went straight through him. He grinned at the boy. He then noticed that the small wound one of his images had suffered healed very quickly, and grinned again.
He said to the world at large: "There is a chance that this being is a relative of mine..." Then to the boy he said, "Hello, brother."
He then sat down and watched what would happen, letting all attacks pass through him.
-
A punch to the face sent Draven flying downwards into a pile of rubble, which he entered with a bang, and flew out the other end, bouncing and tumbling across the ground. He recovered to he feet, clutching his wounded shoulder.
"Cr... cretin!!"
His firey aura flared. Pressing his palms together, he formed a blade of fire as he always has. At the same time the dark entity clone opened his right palm, a blade of darkness, burning with shadow energy, appeared in his grasp.
"..."
They stared at each other for a brief second before Draven broke lose with a mad dash, the aura that flared behind him ripping the scorched earth apart. The blades rapidly clashed again and again, each time with an explosive shockwave.
The darkened red sky blurred the vision...
Draven managed to send a telepathic message to Zeros' during the freocity of battle.
"Ragnar's here... if we can split him back up into the weapons... I can't possibly think of another way to contain this thing..."
----
(*Ahem* You're the only one not getting beat up Haraldur... Heh...)
The dark entity fighting Haraldur scratched his nose.
"You are correct to sense a kindred... I am the result of a spell cast upon blood collected from the most destructive of warriors... The invincible Draken Alpha Retan*... An ancient king of Víkingagarð..."
The dark entity shifted his plane of existence slightly. It was a trick advanced mages often used to appear in one dimension, but exist in another so that attacks from the dimension they appeared in would not hurt them. Now in the same plane as Haraldur, he began a furious assault of shadow energy...
(*Alpha Retan would be Retan's ancestor.)
-
"If he was invincible, howcome his blood was shed? Or did he do so himself?"
Haraldur allowed the shadow energy to envelop him, and said, "You have some things to learn about the effect of kindred, my brother, you should know that that will not work."
He split into nine identical copies: Of his nine incarnations. They were all Haraldur/Ragnar shaped, for Ragnar's hair had had its colouration corrected. They surrounded the boy.
"My brother," they said in unison, "You must be the last of the ten, the one which must now be complete is nearly so. All ten brothers, together for what must be done. Surely you know this, or has the captivity affected you worse than the captivities of ourselves? Surely you know what must be done, for our collective destruction, the end of our suffering."
-
Zeros' dodged the furious asault and agreed with Draven.
Yes...but how can we succedd in doing that? Zeros' asked telepathically through as he dodged the shadow energy from the teenager.
-
The entity fired a blast at Zion, which put him into the ground. The entity threw a punch, which Zion rolled away from. He jumped to his feet, backing slowly away... "Crap, crap! I better summon it, or I'm toast!"
"Eternity Weapon!!!" Zion held his sword up, the gem on the hilt flashing brightly, and very rapidly. Eternity Weapon fell from the sky, landing in front of Zion, roaring at the entity.
Xenai rolled backwards onto his feet, noticing Eternity Weapon. "I guess it won't hurt to pull my ace out too."
"Zero Weapon!!!" Xenai thrusted his sword into the ground, and a pillar of darkness shot up around it, flinging the sword out of the ground, and back into Xenai's hand. Zero Weapon pulled itself out of the ground and roared at the entity.
Tsu jumped to his feet, immediately retaliating with an energy blast of his own, and following up with a furious renzokudan. The entity took the hits, bringing only grunts from it. When Tsu stopped firing, the entity appeared above him, instantly creating a huge energy ball and bringing it down upon Tsu. An explosion.
=== === ===
Eternity Weapon ------ 3
Zero Weapon ------ 3
-
Duilin, tilted his head up, his vison was slighty blured....He spoted Haraldur, and his copies, he overherd what he had said.
"My god, we should have never trusted him...." Duilin groaned, he then began to get himself back up, the entity clone, pressed his foot down at Duilin's chest, pushing him back into the ground. "Damnit..."
You are weak. It hissed
"I...I am not!" Duilin snaped
The enitity grinned. "Ha ha ha..." He then knelt down, as he swung his fist at Duilin's face. Blood began to draw. Duilin was in to much pain, to cry out. His vision began to blur.
"I...am......not......" Duilin groan. "I am not!" He repeated, more louadly.
------
Maxwell, slowly got back up. The enitity, stood there and watched him. It blast a ball of dark energy, at Maxwell. burning threw his armor, knocking him back down onto the ground. Maxwell, then recoverd once again. He picked up a piece of rubble, and threw it at the entity. It did nothing.
"This, is imposible!" Maxwell yelled, he then, lifted up a huge peice of rubble. He then chucked it at the enitity, the rubble smashed into the entity, knocking it the ground, appearing to crush the boy.
"Ha ha ha ha!" Maxwell laughed "Stupid kid..."
Suddenly the enitity, warped behind Maxwell. "Now, my friend, you will die!". Maxwell turned his head, only to see the enitity palm open pointing toward his face. "What the fu-" before he could finish, the enitity blasted dark energy into Maxwells' face, melting it into nothingness....
(So, how many thousand characters have I killed off?)
-
//I think 5 or 6.\\
Ryu eyes narrowed as his magical eyes swivled wildly. He jumped down from the building and landed in front of Duilin and grabbed the entity's arm.
"Well now...WHO is this?" The entity smirked maliciously. Ryu's eyes narrowed as he roughly pushed the entity away from him, making the being stumble, not expecting that.
"You ok, Duilin?" Ryu asked kindly as he ducked under a punch. He reared back and delivered an axe kick, which caught the entity in the chin, lifting him into the air. The entity regained its balance and delivered a hard kick to the back of his knee. Ryu, still off balance, gritted his teeth in pain as the kick connected to the back of his knee, sending him onto his stomach.
He barely rolled out of the way as the entity's kick made a crater in the ground. Ryu raised his right arm and made a slashing motion. A vaccum blade appeared from his hand the sliced through the entity, who phased out of existance. He reappeared behind Ryu, smirking, but a small, almost unnoticable cut appeared in his robes.
----
Zeros' dodged widly as the entity went into a frenze of shadow blasts, its moves becoming less percise and missing him by inches, instead of centmeters. Zeros' sheathed his sword and held out his right palm, all the while dodging the entity's attacks. A small ball of pure the same shadow energy with the entity used appeared in his palm. Zeros' clenched his palm into a fist, causing the energy to spark and grow into a wicked blade of darkness that crackled with black energy tendrils.
The blade, which was made out of pure darkness, didn't look like a sword. It was roughly seven feet, but with the energy coursing through it, it flcikered in an out of focus. The entity stopped and smiled evilly, forming a sword of darkness that looked like a sword, not a wicked spike.
The entity rushed forwards with blurring speed and Zeros' countered with the same.
-
Duilin, rubed his eyes, and then hopped up, useing his wings, and then landed on his feet. "Thank you Ryu..." Duilin nodded.
The enitity, then glared at the two "It is not wise to continue fighting, demon. It may be fatal!"
"Eat shit, moron!" Duilin yelled, he blasted at fire ball at the entity. The fire smacked the boy in the torso, causeing him to flinch and wobble abit.
The enitity that had just slian Maxwell, shifted his eyes in search of a new target. He spoted Kami-Ryu. He then ran at him, and jumped into the air "DIE!"
"Ryu! Watch out!" Duilin yelled. He then turned back at his oppenent. He then jumped into the air, and then dove down feet first aiming a jump kick at the enitity's torso, knocking him to the ground. The enitity fliped himself back up, and landed on his feet.
"You, just don't give up? Do you?"
"You talk to much!" Duilin, yelled. He then spoted the cut on his robe. Duilin blasted another electro shock at the enitity cut. The boy yelled out in pain as it zaped him. "And die to little..."
-
Zion jumped up at Eternity Weapon. A flash, then it and Zion were one: Ultima Eternity, as if Zion were wearing Eternity Weapon as armor. "Impressive." The entity leaped at Zion.
Xenai jumped up at Zero Weapon. A flash, then it and Xenai were one: Omega Zero, as if Xenai were wearing Zero Weapon as armor. "Still wanna be cocky with me, asshole?"
Tsu was borderline reverted. The entity's attack had taken a lot out of him. He used the last of his energy to kick the entity into the one that was now attacking Kami-ryu. He reverted and fell down, face first.
=== === ===
Ultima Eternity ---- 2
Omega Zero ---- 2
-
"The blood he shed was his own. He is the one that created me. The one I used to call 'master'. I intend to find him and... return the favor someday. Then we shall see if he truely is 'invincible'..."
He folded his arms as the Haraldur incarnations surrounded him.
"Myeh heh heh... So it is true. One of my parts is part of something greater. How very convenient. Yes, there will be much destruction and suffering... But I shall continue to subsist, for I am the one to cause it!"
He began to shapeshift, taking the form of a gargantuan four winged black and gold dragon...
"Surrender to me and your suffering will swiftly end... I shall absorb you all! Your soul is MINE!!"
A blast of energy began to pull the Haraldur incarnations towards the dark entity, several souls that Haraldur had absorbed himself peeling off and merging with the beast...
----
The dark entity clones lost a little power-- just a little, as the real one became preoccupied with Haraldur...
Draven seized the moment and planted his crimson blade deep into the clone's chest. With a swinging motion he brought the being underneath him and let go of the blade, opened his palms, and let lose a huge orb of flame racing after the entity as it plummeted to the ground. The earth tore appart in flame... Unsatisfied, Draven followed up with an endless barrage of smaller fireballs as he flew higher into the air, the air filling with smoke as he pummeled the fallen being.
He was physically exhausted after a full minute of the attack and panted heavily, clutching his arm, as he waited for the smoke to clear...
"Im... Impossible...!"
Two red eyes glared at him from below...
-
You suffer too, brother. You seem not to realise.
I do not need all those millions of souls I absorbed: I only need them with you. So, whether or not you take those souls from me, it makes no difference.
I think you will find that the merging is very egalitarian: each of the ten parts have equal power, and are of like mind, as are you.
Perhaps you think you are the only one with the power you are displaying. I must demonstrate to you that that is not so. You are the dragon, the only one of us that can do exactly that. We, are other equally powerful things.
The Haraldurs stopped moving towards the dragon, and all of them changed.
The one which had been the sword changed. It became a metal giant, a golem, covered in spikes, and with swords attached to all 4 of its hands. There were spikes on top of its feet.
The one which had been the spear changed. The others moved a little way away. It became a metal golem, covered in long pike-like spikes, going 10 metres in all directions, with spears in both of its hands.
The one which had been the axe changed. It became another metal golem, its skin a system of sharp blades. Its hands were axe heads.
The one which had been the staff changed. It was a slim metal golem, shimmering with magical energy. Its arms could stretch.
The one which had been the mace changed. It was a huge golem, with massive fists.
The last weapon, noone but Haraldur had seen. It had been a halberd. It changed into a metal golem with blades on spikes, and arms like the axe's, but longer.
The one which had been the younger Haraldur changed. He changed into a water demon, 10 metres high.
The one which had been the elder Haraldur changed. He changed into a demon of the air, transparent and huge. Lightning struck from within him.
The one which had been Ragnar changed. He changed into a demon of the earth, with magma flying above him.
All they needed now was the fire. The dragon.
Join us, brother. All your suffering, your servitude, will be over. Unless, you want revenge first, in which case, we will assist. We can feel your suffering, as we can feel eachother's. Come with us and be finally free.
-
"Holy shit!" Rink yelled. He was hideing in the remians of Duilin's house. "I can't belive it!" Rink steped, and gleamed at the golems and the dragon. "So, that's what the weapons do..."
----------------
The entity clone laughed at Duilin. Suddenly it seemed to react, to it's losse of power. "Hah. Guy's the clones, are looseing power." Duilin said. He then turned as spoted the golems and the dragon "I guess that's why....Come on guys! We've got to defeat these things!"
The enitity clone, then ran at Duilin, it began to charge up a blast of dark energy. Duilin, then rose his left hand, and charged energy. The enitity clone, tossed the energy at Duilin, but continued running. Duilin, flung his left hand the blast, and tossed the energy at the attack, stopping the blast. As the clone ran at Duilin, he palmed it in the chest and lifted him over himself, and slamed him face first into the ground.
"Weak, huh?" Duilin, smirked, as his enemy laid on the ground.
"Yes..." he responded, and then dove back up and swung a kick at Duilin's torso, knocking him down.
"Damnit...." Duilin groand...
-
Zeros' slashed upwards at the entity as it lost its power. The entity faltered and failed to block the attack. Zeros' seized the chance and began to slash at the being with unrelenting fury. The speed at which he was swinging caused shockwaves from each hit and the air pressure to waft off in waves, shattering nearby houses that were still left standing, causing there roofs and walls to fall off in bits, crumbling under the pressure of Zeros' assult.
Zeros' finished the attack by plunging his sword into the entity's skull and using an axe kick on the beings skull, sending it towards the ground and driving the blade further into its skull. When the being hit the ground, it screamed out in pain as the blade exploded in a flash of shadow and holy energy. Zeros' landed nearby and crossed his arms, smirking.
As the dust cleared, the entity groaned and shakily got to his feet. He came stumbling out, none worse for wear. His robes were hanging on its lanky form in tatters as blood poured out of its gashes, black blood started to pool at its feet.
"Y-Yo...u a-a-are...s-s-s-stron-n-ng..." The entity leaped forwards again as Zeros' disappeared and reappeared in front of the entity, backhanding it in its face and elbowing it in his gut, sending it flying backwards and into a crumbled builidng...
----
Ryu crouched as the entity went flying over his head. He then leaped up and drove both feet in its gut, sending the entity high into the air as Ryu rushed towards Tsu's side, turning him over and inspecting his injuries. Ryu lifted Tsu into his arms and put him into a fireman's carry, dodging the attacks that the entity threw at him.
Ryu gently put Tsu down in a safer area and turned back to the entity and unsheathed his both swords from there invisible sheaths, the sapphire sword in his left hand, the ruby in his right. He slashed upwards with both swords, making twin crescent blades, the left one icy blue and the right one ruby-fire red, both crackling with energy. The entity blocked both energy crescent's, flinging them upwards and slashing a nearby building in two before exploding in a dazzling display of energy.
Ryu charged at the entity, both swords held low as the entity now held a shadow blade of his own.
-
Zion sped toward the entity at lightspeed, grabbing it by the neck, speeding forward, bashing the entity through trees, and then throwing it into the sky. A slow backfip in the air as Eternity Weapon started to glow, and as he came to face in the entity's direction, he unleashed a giant wave of light at the entity, and I mean giant.
The entity glared up at Omega Zero. Xenai snickered, materialzing a gigantic sword in his hands. A downward slash. The entity jumped out of the way and tried to come in from the side, but Xenai was in no way slow with the sword. He spun around, smashing the sword into the entity, and sending it flying. He spun around again, putting an enormous amount of energy into a giant energy ball, of neutral energy. He charged for a few moments as he spun, and when he came back around, the ball was thrown at the entity.
//I don't want to gauge the merged weapons' strength vs. the entities'... I'd rather leave their fates for this one to you, Xorlak.
Tsu laid on the ground, watching Kami-ryu fight for him. "Thank... you..."
=== === ===
Ultima Eternity -- 1
Omega Zero -- 1
-
(You can start killing them off now. Heh...)
----
The dragon folded his arms.
"Myeh heh heh... You don't get it, do you? The one you call 'brother'... He is my slave. He longs to be rejoined with you, but his being belongs to me forevermore... Come! Fulfill his and your wish by submitting your life force to me!!"
The force pulling the transformed incarnations toward him increased ten fold...
(Whether he's in denial or telling the truth is up for interpretation. Whether he absorbs or merges, I'll let you (mostly) control what comes out.)
----
The dark entity shot out of the smoke, raging at Draven like a rocket. He struck Draven in the chest, cracking his armor, and instantly delivered a double axe-handle to the ex-general's back, swating him out of the sky like a gnat. Draven plummeted down, creating a crater in the earth as he struck...
The dark entity was there before him. He grabbed the choking man by the collar and slowly raised him from the ground as the surroundings burned.
Then Draven snapped...
Grabbing the entity clone with both arms, he flipped him over his shoulder. As the entity flew in the opposite direction, Draven extended both arms in front of him, pulling gargantuan amounts of crimson energy out of nowhere...
"DIE!!!"
A flaming pillar, over twenty feet in diameter followed, completely engulfing the entity and carving a mile long straight path of destruction in the forsaken land...
When he was finished, he stood straight up. His armor was in pieces, his cape tattered, his long hair nearly standing on end from the violent aura of flame surrounding him. He nodded at Zeros' across the battlefield, who had just finished his own clone. He then set his focus on what the real entity was doing with the Haraldur transformations, taking off through the air at them at full speed.
"I don't care how big or how many... I will kill you all!!"
-
//I would have him in denial.//
You are fooling yourself, brother. Your incarceration and suffering has evidently damaged your brain. It will be corrected. You always were the one most likely to be emotionally manipulated. That, also, will be corrected. Come, and be free.
Ignoring the force from the dragon, the nine incarnations started to walk forward, stretching their arms out to grab at the dragon to hold him still.
The incarnation on the opposite side of the circle to Draven, the one which once was Ragnar, saw him. The one in Draven's path, the one which had been the mace, jumped up and then let himself drop, so that unless Draven stopped or dodged, Draven would be squashed by 100 tonnes of metal.
-
The enitity clone stood over Duilin. "Heh...You pitfull weakling, I shall destroy you. Demon's shouldn't be so weak."
"I am not weak!" Duilin, coughed.
The enitity shook his head
"Screw you!" Duilin shouted "Screw you, and all your stupid other clones!"
"Big mouth. Time to shut it." The enitity, charged another dark blast.
"I'LL SHUT YOU!" Duilin yelled. He kicked the enitity back, and spung himself up. He then punched the clone in the face several times. The clone woozed in dizziness. Duilin then uppercutted him in the chin, knocking hiim over. Before, the clone could make it to the ground, he blasted electric energy at the clone, but it seemed to be a bit of an orange tint of yellow, rather then, just yellow. The blast, zapped the clone blowing it back. "I'LL SHOW YOU WHO'S WEAK!" Duilin, then jumped into the air, slamming himself down at the clone fists first, with energy and fire flowing threw his body, a huge electirc and fire explotion bursted from the hit, smashing the ground. The clone then shivield up like a prune and then fell into dust, and became no more.
Duilin seemed to have slighty changed. His rage seem to have, made him look slighty more demon like. The horns on his wings, became bigger and darker, and his skin seemed to look more scalely, yet not to noticably.
"Rink....I feal stronger......" Duilin said
FLASH BACK
(When Nex, reveiled to Duilin that he was demon...)
"Oh, Duilin my young friend, I'll make you a deal. Join me, and we can defeat everyone, and YOU can live." Nex says
"No! Why should I join you? Your an evil deamon! Your even trying to defeat your own team!" Duilin yells
"Oh, but, us deamons should stick together!" Nex smiles
"US deamons? What are you talking about?!"
"I mean, your daddy, was a deamon, so therefore you are part deamon!"
"Don't bullshit me!"
"I'm not! I knew your father, we were old pals! He even wanted you to join!"
(Before the battle verses Scumfreeze)
Duilin, remember to always embrace happier memories. Never let the anger and hate overcome you. Embrace your human side, but never forget your demon side."
FLASH BACK OVER
I need to let that aside now...As Rink said, I need to focus my power and if I be carefull then I control it, without letting my demon side take over. I am humen, but slowly I'm becomeing more and more demon...First my wings grew....now, I'm starting to gain facial features of a demon...the horns on my wings are become bigger...My power, become stronger. But I am humen. Nex and my father continue to fight me, even beyond there death, but they will never take control.
"They won't you hear me! They won't!" Duilin, knealed down to the ground, and closed his eyes, a slight aura flashed around him...
//You think Duilin, is ready for the third level?//
-
Zeros' nodded to Draven and looked upwards toward the golem barring down on Draven. Zeros' held out his palm and slowly gathered a white ki ball with wicked black stripes arching across its body. He let the energy loose as the ki ball sped towards the golem.
Zeros' then inclined his head towards Duilin and sent him a mental message. You see now Duilin. Rage can become a powerful weapon, but it can also become a boon. Always remember that. Never let rage seduce you.
----
Ryu dodged and parried as the entity slashed downwards. Ryu sidestepped again and lashed out, both swords flashing with ki. The entity charged his own energy and blocked out most of the ki, but what remained made the entity stagger backwards, loosing the grip on his sword.
Ryu was now breathing heavily. The continuious use of ki has exhausted him and even now, he could see the blackness started to envelop him. Ryu staggered forwards and lashed out with both blades, cutting off both the entity's arms. It screamed out in rage as black blood poured out of the stubs that were once his arms.
"Y-Y-Y-Y-You...h-h-h-h-huma-n-n..." The being staggered forwards as Ryu plunged both blades into its gut. The entity staggered forwards and slid down to the handguards as black blood flowed down the blades and hilts. Ryu smiled dimly at the entity and removed both blades, sheathing them with a flourish as the entity dropped dead into a pool of his own blood and disappeare into the wind.
Ryu limped towards where Tsu was and smiled down at him. "N-N-No p-p-probl-l-l-lem..." He then fainted, the blackness of unconciousness welcoming him.
-
//Meh, well yes. Duilin, I supose will now be level 3. He's been around the 3rd longest, so I think he has earned it//
I will try Zeros', I will try. Duilin messaged back. Duilin, was amazed when he messaged back, he tried before, but he failed, his mind seems to move quicker now, yet he feals an inside void.
Duilin then walks up, a yellow aura flickering around him. He then dashes his way, near Draven and Zeros'. He glances at the mace fisted golem. "I thought I raised you better then that?" He then blasted an energy ball at the golem.
-
The golem, showing amazing grace for its size, dodged the energy ball, which passed harmlessly.
-
The entities that Zion and Xenai were fighting died as the enormous energy blasts connected and exploded with dazzling light. They seperated from their weapons, and withdrew them early. //I'll start the count at 12 for this.
"Wow, you're strong..." And out he goes.
=== === ===
EW ------------------------ 12
ZW ------------------------ 12
-
(Haraldur, he's trying to absorb them. Your guys are trying to merge with him. Not that huge of a difference. Heh...)
One of the metalic incarnations touched the black dragon's forearm.
"Got ya!"
An aura of darkness engulfed the two as the incarnation's body began to lose its shape and fuse with the dragon...
----
The huge fisted golem continued to descend upon Draven after dodging the attack, crushing the man under his huge metallic foot... The foot sank deep into the ground...
But then the foot began to rise in the air... Draven pushed it back with his right hand...
He quickly shot up the leg and was floating inches in front of the mammoth creature's face in an instant....
Draven seemed different... very different. He was focused and calm, yet wielded a burning anger like never before...
He reared his right fist back as it glowed with a bright crimson flame, then thrust it forward, aiming a brutal punch square between the eyes...
-
The golem which the dragon was trying to absorb tried to merge with him at the same time.
The golem Draven attacked jumped up again, and landed behind the dragon, touched it, and started merging with it. The other seven incarnations touched the dragon, and also started merging with it. Their task was made easier by the fact that he was trying to absorb another, and failing, and by the fact that by doing so his defense against merging was down.
The dragon could not fight off the merging power of the nine incarnations, each as powerful as himself. All their shapes became indistinct, and then there were 10 Haraldur/Ragnar looking things in a group, with the most recent in the middle of them.
Any remaining entities are still there, since they are not affected by the original.
The one which was the fire element said, "You promised me revenge." The others nodded. They merged to form Haraldur's familiar form. "I will have all my revenge, all ten instances. But this, brother, will be our first priority."
He rose and said, "Goodbye, my friends, for I trust now that Draven is also a friend of yours, and so, mine. There are some things I must do. First, tell me, have you heard of someone called Alpha Retan? A dragon? This I must know. I must complete my revenge before I can destroy myself."
-
Draven shot another telepathic message to Zeros'
"Don't believe him for a second... That maniac just merged with the greatest evil force known to man..."
He didn't disperse the energy he had collected, nor his focus. He simply folded his arms.
"Alpha Retan was an ancestor of Retan of the Dark Empire. His great grandfather, I believe. They were drakens, so yes, technically dragons. Drakens do not live forever as far as I know. He is long gone..."
-
Zeros' shot back a message.
"I wont...ever again...after that..." Zeros' didn't need to refer to him and Duilin helping Haraldur get the weapons.
-
Duilin, nodded at Zeros'. He then watched in amazement as the golems merged with the dragons.
"This is just...crazy..." Duilin said.
His eye's were glowing yellow. You could barely make out the detail in his eyes, a firey aura flowed around him.
He looked at Haraldur "Iduran told me about a dragon, who knew about the weapons. But I am unsure if it has anything to do with Alpha Retan..."
Zeros' do you think we should let Haraldur finish his revenge? Ever since he started randomly killing people, I began to loose trust in him.
-
"I will seek this dragon you speak of."
He flew towards the remains of Romme.
-
Zeros' cursed under his breath in an ancient demon language, one which only demons like Rink and Zeros' could understand. He spread his wings and quickly flapped them, speeding off the ground, making the air pressure to shudder as the road broke under him. He sped off in the same direction as Haraldur, mentally sending a message to Duilin.
"Don't trust him. Ever. I begun to see threw his ploy just now. The dragon he seeks will further his power, if my calculations are correct." He also sent the last sentance to Draven, but he was sure Draven already came to the same conculsion. Zeros' smiled inwardly at Duilins growing powers. He's a different boy - to Zeros', as he's almost a millennia old - then when he first saw him in the first clash of Romme and the Dark Empire.
-
"Tch! The nerve... He acts as if nothing happened..."
Draven began to float as Haraldur moved farther and farther away.
"All at once, we will strike. Surround him from all sides."
The battered Draven shot after him, approaching Haraldur's left as he began charging crimson energy in his right fist...
-
As Draven appraoched the left of Haraldur, Haraldur arrived at the point where he was above the sea. He lowered into it, until he was travelling 10 metres under. He accelerated.
-
The Great Prophet limped out of the burnt out house, leaning ong his staff. "Everyone rushing off everywhere! What are we supposed to do about The Light? She is comatose."
//Due to his limp, the prophet is now level 1.//
-
"Prophet!" Duilin says "You missed out on everything. Listen, Haraldur is seeking the dragon."
"I think it's time we get, 'The Lights' help, if you say is true about her being able to tame The Bitter One." Rink says to the Prophet
"Good idea. Guy's I'm going with Draven and Zeros', I have a fealing I will be needed." Duilin, with the aid of his power and wings, jumps up 26 feet, and hovers in the air "If you guy's wish to follow, go ahead." He then smiles "If you can catch up!" He then flies off in the same direction as Haraldur, Zeros' and Draven.
"Hey, umm...Zion and Xenia. How did you do that stuff with those machines? That was like....amazeing!" Rink asked, trying to lighten up the mood
-
The Prophet telepathed to Duilin and Rink: A dragon? If he has merged all of his ten parts, he will be wanting to have revenge on those, or those things, that have wronged him, of which there will be ten. Then he will destroy himself, or he will be destroyed if he fails his revenge. All the continents in this world have sunk below the sea and disintegrated, except fot the one with Laus. When The Bitter One is finally destroyed by himself, this continent will sink too. This is where The Light becomes involved. In order to prevent the sinking of the last continent, he will have to meet her before he destroys himself. It is essential that he does not destroy himself while still totally steeped in hatred. He must complete his revenge, and meet The Light. Do you understand?
-
Duilin telepathed back to The Prophet: Yes, I understand. But you need to convince The Light, that her destiny is true. From what I saw, it dosen't look like she belived Rink. Perhaps, you, Rink and the trio can convince her, and then bring her here when it is safe. Zeros', Draven and I will try and stall him.
He then telepathed to Zeros' Zeros', The Prophet told me, that Haraldur has made all the continents in this world sink, except for the one with Laus. And if he complete's his revenge then Laus will fall to, and it very well may be the end of the world, unless we all turn into fish. He have to stall Haraldur.
-------
"Prophet? What will happen if they kill Haraldur?" Rink asked
-
Zion looked to Duilin. "Eternity Weapon and Zero Weapon? It's far too hard to explain, and it's gonna be a while before we can bring them back out."
"Let's go kick that golem dragon thing's ass!" Xenai's fists came together, he was rarin' to go.
"Can't go yet. We'll need Tsu." Zion looked over to him. He was out cold. "We must wait until he comes to."
=== === ===
EW ---------------------- 11
ZW ---------------------- 11
-
Beside him, suffering from ki and chakra exhaustion, Ryu moaned weakly and rolled over on his back, hold up his gleaming metal hand.
"Alittle help here...?" He asked weakly.
----
"I see...but what if we can destroy him? Wouldn't that be easier? Im sure between the three of us, we could possibly destroy him. I have no extent to the length of Haraldur's power, but it seems to be vast. What would happen if he just destroyed Haraldur though?" Zeros' telepathed back. He also relayed the information to Draven, who was at the moment, an ally.
-
The Great Prophet said to Duilin: You must not hinder his revenge, otherwise he might destroy himself prematurely. You must let him have his revenge, then make sure he meets The Light immediately after his last act of revenge. Take The Light with you, she need not be informed, it makes no difference, she will be just as reluctant if she knew.
With amazing strength for an old man, he pulled Ryu up.
____________________________________________________________
Ahead of Haraldur, below the oceans, he could see that last remains of Romme, and he saw a cave. He went towards it.
-
Draven hovered above the spot where Haraldur submerged under water. He was too far away to shout, so he relayed a telepathic message back in the direction of the one he just recieved:
"He has gone where I cannot follow... Someone's going to have to go down there and fish him out..."
Draven looked around. He was floating above an endless ocean. He had seen no landmasses while following Haraldur.
Interesting... I though there were at least a few islands between here and Laus...
-
Zion casted some healing magic on Tsu. He slowly got to his feet. "...It's time to go, Tsu."
He shook his head and brushed the dust off of him. "Where?"
"To fight Haraldur, I believe..." He looked to Duilin. "Are you coming with us?"
=== === ===
EW -------------------- 10
ZW -------------------- 10
-
//Duilins gone EoN, its Ryu thats almost unconciouss.\\
Ryu shook his head clear and looked at the four.
"I'll t-t-try...but my ki and chakra are almost g-g-gone..." He said stifling a yawn.
----
Zeros' stopped by Draven and looked down towards the ocean.
"I could go down there...but theres something nagging at my skull for me to stay away..." Zeros' turned to Duilin. "What do you say?"
-
//Duilin kinda allready left//
Rink ran up, "What about me and The Prophet? Should we come?" He asked
------------
Prophet, resummon the Light, have one of the trio bring her.
Duilin, rubbed his chin. "Zion and his friends are comming, I told The Prophet to tell them to bring The Light. We need Haraldur to kill the Dragon, and then bring The Light."
But he then thought some more "Yet, they might not get here in time. And defeating Haraldur, would most likey work. Or the dragon could possibly kill Haraldur, and the dragon would be enraged and possibly kill everything. I guess, I will go in, the whole thing is my fault for telling Haraldur about the dragon anways. If Zion, Xenia and Tsu get here with Ellena, bring her down."
Duilin took a deep breath, and then exhaled. He raised up his arms and clutched his fists, he formed an air energy sheild. He was amazed of his new power, he then lowers his arms, and then dives down into the water...
-
Zeros' snorted in laughted and waved his hand over Draven, covering him in a magical shield that would allow him to breath underwater. He then used his own ki to form a sheild around himself and stopped hovering, diving into the depths of the water.
My ki and magical reserves are starting to deplete...I need to be careful. He thought to himself.
-
Haraldur arrived at the cave, and entered. There was a long tunnel. He walked along it.
___________________________________________________________
The Great Prophet said to Zion and the others, "Take The Light with you, she should not complain, she is unconscious."
He summoned her, and she arrived, lying on the floor.
"I am going to find a ship for myself."
He walked towards the harbour.
-
Duilin continued swimming, he could sence Haraldur's immense power. He began to follow it...
----
"Well that's great. What do I do?" Rink groaned
He paced around abit "Hey, dudes. You mind if I tag along?" He asked the trio. He then pointed to himself with his thumb, "Y'know, I need to make sure Duilin dosen't get hurt." he said with pride.
-
Zion casted his strongest white magic upon Kami-Ryu, then held Ellena in a fireman's carry, and then giving her to Tsu.
"Let's GO!!!"
The trio took off at high speed toward Haraldur. As they flew, Zion had an idea...
"Take the light with you..."
"Xenai... We're going to use The Light here, along with Draven... We'll power up New Forever..."
=== === ===
EW ------------------ 9
ZW ------------------ 9
-
"Well..." Ryu then follows after The Great Prophet towards the harbour.
----
Zeros' sinks deeper as he uses his wings to manuver himself towards Haraldur and Duilin.
-
The trio arrived above where Haraldur was. Zion turned to face Tsu, who held Ellena. "Should I wake her?"
=== === ===
EW ---------------- 8
ZW ---------------- 8
-
Duilin, arives at the cave. He looks down it, he spots Haraldur.
He twiches his fingers, and energy begins to flow threw, his eyes give a slight glow. He slowly walks down, trying to not let Haraldur notice him.
------
"Hey, guys! Wait!" Rink shouts, but the trio is allready off. "I can't fly that.....fast" He then scratches the back of his head "Well that ain't no good." He then turns around and spots Ryu and The Prophet walking off. "Hey, I'm commin' to!" he begins running after Ryu and The Prophet.
-
Draven watched as Duilin and Zeros' submerged. An image of him flying into the sea while getting electrocuted by Scorch's lightning strike flashed through his mind.
"Gyh..."
He flew farther up, away from the waves.
"It's not the breathing that worries me... My spells are quite ineffective underwater... Unless I part the waves, which is a pain... I'll remain here. As soon as he shows his head, he's mine..."
----
The innermost reaches of the underwater cave were unflooded. A deep voice growled from the darkness...
"Who...? Who is this that has broken into my prison?"
It was a gigantic Red Dragon, with gleaming red scales...
-
Zion saw Draven just floating there. "Hey! Draven!" He flew over to him. "As much as I don't like it, we need your help... ...That is, if you're open to ideas on how to beat Haraldur..."
//That IS Haraldur, right? :/
-
Zeros' arrives by Duilin and quietly sneaks to his side, using his ki to mask his presence. He watches the dragon closely. He puts a hand on Duilin's shoulder and lets up on the technique for a moment, putting a finger to his lips and shaking his head negative before engaging them both in the cloaking technique.
-
Haralur noticed a faint glow reflecting off the dark obsidian rocks. He turned, and saw Duilin.
"Welcome Duilin. Are you here to assist me?"
He heard the dragon's growl. He put his finger to his lips, signalling for Duilin to be silent.
He said in a loud voice: "One that would speak with you."
He saw an indistinct figure come up to Duilin, before it and Duilin disappeared in the shadows.
"Ah, good to see you here, Zeros'."
He turned again, and walked up to the dragon.
"Greetings. I am hoping that you might have some information for me, to help me with my inquiries."
-
"Zeros' you think he saw us?" Duilin says sarcasticly. He releases himself from Zeros'. He then wispered "He dosen't seem to be expecting anything, but he seems to belive we are with him. Maybe we should just, get The Light down here...Alltough, he IS merged with The Dark Entity, perhaps he's trying to trick us." Duilin ponders for abit "What do you think we should do?"
-
Zeros' whispers lowly, so the sound doesn't echo on the cave's rocks.
"We should wait...we need to strike when the time is right. According to the Prophet, if we kill Haraldur before time is up, he'll destroy himself and most of the surrounding area..."
-
"Sounds good..." Duilin wispers "But how will we know when the time is right? And how should we do it?"
-
Draven folded his arms and looked away.
"Gladly. Fish him out and I'll kill him. I'm not getting wet..."
The cool sea breeze blew his tattered cape.
----
The red dragon snorted and flames lit up the cave for an instant.
"I see you are a magician of some sort... I do not like your kind... But, I will answer you questions to the best of my knowledge... If you perform a favor for me in return. You see, some fiendish mage recently buried my cave here at the bottom of the sea while I was in deep slumber. I will admit I am the most incapable swimmer... If you would know another way out..."
-
"I have one first question, and then I will have nine others. But before I ask, when did you become trapped? If it is a month ago, then you are evidently the dragon that lived in Romme.
"My first question is, I am led to believe there is or was a dragon named Alpha Retan. If he is still alive, I would wish to know of his whereabouts. I hope he is not dead, I would prefer not to go to the underworld, it takes time. After you answer me this first question, I will get you out of here, I am capable of drying part of the sea easily enough."
He turned towards Zeros' and Duilin, and said to the dragon, "Those two are half demons, and are friends of mine. It will go very hard for you if you even threaten violence against them, and yes, I do know about the animosity that still remains, a little, between dragons and demons, but I do not care."
_____________________________________________________________
The Great Prophet came up to the harbour, and saw a crew lounging around a fishing ship. He lifted his staff up, and there was a huge cracking sound, like that of a whip. The crew were startled, and a little frightened by the spell casting.
He walked aboard the ship, and told the crew, "You will be my crew, and will take me where I wish."
He waited for Ryu and Rink to come aboard.
-
Rink glided onto the ship. "Yeah, and I'm an Imp, we imps have special powers. Such as turning people who don't listen to old guys into small rocks."
Rink was of course lyeing, but common people, wouldn't really know much about Imps.
-
Ryu walked calmly on the boat, not aleast bit disturbedf by Rink or the Prophet. He started at Rink through half-lidded eyes. He whispered so only Rink could hear.
"You do know thats wrong right? Its more of the demon nature to burn humans into ash..." He chuckled under his breath.
----
Zeros' walked fowards calmly as he sent Duilin a message through his mind: Act like we trust him. Right know its best we act friendly with Haraldur. When the time comes, we can strike. Zeros' also sent Draven a message about his plan: We've met up with Haraldur. He's conforonting the dragon right know. Were acting friendly at the moment, but when the time comes, we will strike. Tell the same to Zion and his group.
"Ah. Hello Haraldur and you, dragon." He said inclining his head in the dragon's direction. Zeros' folded his eight black wings behind him and crossed his arms. "I believe I might have met you...briefly..." He said towards the dragon.
-
Draven smirked and began to relay the message to Zion, who wouldn't have heard a thing.
"It seems fly-boy's playing along with Mr. Personalities' ruse for the moment. We'll let Ragnar think we're gullible idiots and trust him... for the moment. Then we strike. Rest up, boys. Things are going to heat up real quick..."
----
The dragon chucked at Haraldur's last comment.
"It is not demons that I dislike so much nowadays... It is humans..."
He then turned his head towards Zeros'.
"Hmm... You are not familiar. I do not recall an eight winged man."
Then back to Haraldur.
"One month perhaps... yes. I do not know what Romme is. I do not bother remembering names of human civilizations, as they appear and disappear so quickly..."
He stretched groggily, then snorted another plume of flame.
"Alpha Retan... that name, however, I will never forget... He was an insane Draken that conquered the world. I was once one of his knights. If you are looking for him, you are quite late I'm afraid. He disappeared while executing an attack that eradicated most of the life on the planet. This was over three millennia ago, mind you..."
-
"Fish him out? Hydrophobic..." Zion looked into the water, floating back to the rest of the team. Then getting the next message. "Oh, now we're gonna play gullible, huh? Psh."
Xenai didn't get any of the messages. "What's going on?"
"Draven's afraid of water, and now all of a sudden, we have to pretend to trust Ragnar... Haraldur... Whoever."
"No action yet, then?"
"Nope."
=== === ===
EW: -------------- 7
ZW: -------------- 7
-
"Well, they don't know that." Ryu wispered back
-----
Duilin, wondered if Haraldur, was trying to trick them. He was basically netrual about the entire idea, but he thought, better safe then sorry. He didn't wish to ask The Dragon any thing. He thought of asking if the dragon knew anything about his father, but he thought it was best left be. He never saw his father much, allways seemed to be out of the house doing jobs outside of town. He useally came home when he was asleep, and when the Dark Empire raided his village, his father seemed to have disappeared.
Duilin just crossed his arms, folded his wings down, and said nothing.
-
"That is why I said briefly...however it seems my suspictions were wrong. However, it has come to my attention that Draken's are a form of dragon, correct? I believe it was when dragon seduced human females that the race of Draken's came into existance, am I right?" said Zeros' towards the dragon. "And is it also true that dragon's are capabe of obtaining a human form?
I have also heard rumors that Draken's were actually dragon's that stopped inbetween the two forms, combining them. I am merly curious."
-
Haraldur said, "After I let you escape this cave, I would have you lead me to the place where he executed the attack. One must always visit part relatives, even if it is only through earthly form."
He chuckles at something to himself, then revealed what he found funny: "There is an irony here, though, considering you were one of Alpha Retan's knights. Two in fact. On month ago, the island of Romme, where this cave used to be, were invaded by the forces of the Dark Empire, lead by a fire mage called Draven, who, I guess, is probably above us refusing to enter the water. He was after the last of six weapons, a sword held by the knight Iduran of Romme. Those six weapons are 6 of my 10 parts, all of whom are here. Two of my parts then left Vikingagarð, unknowing of their identity, to see what was happening on the island nation. These two met Iduran and we helped, a little, Zeros' and Duilin here to prevent the weapon falling into Draven's hands, for which I am truly grateful. Annoyed by Draven's lack of visible progress, his commander in chief, the Dark Emporer, arrived at Romme himself, and his name was Retan, a descendent of your former master. He cames also with his son, Jayce, and another of his generals, who was also a relative, Neptra. To cut a long story short, Retan eventually decided to destroy the country using an MDAA, which I helped, in part, well two parts, elder Haraldur and Ragnar, to accelerate, on unknowing and the other one knowing the outcome. The outcome was that the MDAA detonated early, destroying Retan, Jayce and Neptra, or so we think. It also destroyed Romme, and trapped you here.
"So, you were trapped by Alpha Retan's descendent, Retan. However, the two Haraldur's and Ragnar were also descendents in earthly terms, all being related to Vikingagarð's royal house, the elder Haraldur being the crown prince. Further, the tenth part of me is dragon shaped, formed from some of Alpha Retan's blood. As you know, the six weapons were creations of my father Melkoth, of whom all my parts are a son to. I am sure you understand the irony.
"I wonder, with what I have told you, are you sufficiently versed in lore to have guessed who I am yet?"
-
The red dragon addressed Zeros' first.
"Yes, the Drakens are a race of Dragon. Where exactly they came from, I am not sure. From what I heard, Alpha Retan came to this land from another plane of existence along with a handful of his kind... But he seemed different in that other Drakens have a much shorter life span than he.
"All other dragons are incapable of shifting forms unless they learn some other means... As for your final question, I have never heard of a Draken that has partially transformed."
He then turned to Haraldur, yawning sleepily...
"Hmmm, your speak of 'parts' confuses me. Hmph, yes, I am unsurprised that it is a descendant of Retan that put me in this predicament.
"Six weapons... Melkoth... I believe he was an enemy of Retan... Or perhaps I am thinking of someone else. It has been a long time... I recall an event in which six weapons were used to merge with and contain Retan's most powerful tool-- a dark entity he created which had no mind except to serve him..."
-
"Let us leave," said Haraldur. He walked along the tunnel, expecting Zeros', Duilin and the dragon to follow. He came to a watery bit, and muttered a few words.
Much like at the first time all the group had gone to a shrine, there was a mass of steam as the water seemed to burn away.
Haraldur stepped out onto the seabed, look up at Draven, smiled, and bowed to Draven in a mocking fashion.
________________________________________________________
The ship was pushed off, and left the harbour.
-
Zion looked to Draven, then into the water, thinking that he saw Haraldur bowing. "Uwaa?"
=== === ===
EW / ZW ------------ 6
-
Duilin, turned and began to follow Haraldur. He turned his head and took a look at the dragon. He then turned his head to Zeros' "Let's go." Duilin said.
He rasied his arms, and created the air sheild. He then lowered his arms and dived down into the water and arived back up at the surface. He saw Zion, with Ellena, and gave a slight grin.
He telepathed to Zeros' The Light is here, we may not have to kill Haraldur after all, we just need to bring the girl.
He then telepathed to Draven We're going to the ruins of were Alpha Retan was. Haraldur wants go there for some reason. We'll attack him there, maybe.
He didn't wish to share the part about not attacking Haraldur, and just haveing The Light with them, when he completes his revenge, with Draven. He could just sence that Draven would disapprove with the fact, and maybe make things worse, somehow. He could still not trust Draven.
-
Zeros' crossed his arms and spread his wings.
"Good-bye, Lord Dragon." He bowed and used his ki to form a shield around him and left out the cave. He blasted upwards and came to the surface, shaking his head and looking at Draven, then towards the Trio with Ellenna.
He sent them all a message: Zion, Xenia, Tsu; come with us and bring Ellenna. Draven, I would advise you stay far enough away that Haraldur cannot sense you. We will be able to attack Haraldur soon. We just have to bid our time...
----
Ryu glanced around and sighed.
"GET THIS DAMN SHIP MOVING!" he bellowed. The crew jerked in surprised before they went about for a few minutes, preping everything before the captain cave a shout and the ship moved out of the harbor, towards the direction of the group.
-
//Er... Haraldur just made the sea burn away, and there are walls of water to the sides, like at the first shrine. There is no water.//
-
//It's Xenai. ai. Not ia. Heh.
Yes... But Draven... if you can manipulate dark energy, I'll need you to be ready to come at a moment's notice. The trio flew in close and followed.
=== === ===
EW/ZW ---------- 5
-
Draven didn't say a word. He continued floating in the fixed position he had been, arms folded, as Haraldur bowed. He merely looked down upon him...
At that moment the red dragon burst forth from the dried cave in full flight. Finally out of the darkness, the magnitude of the majestic beast could be seen at last. He was some 100 feet from head to tail, with a wing span approaching 200 feet. Draven was somewhat taken by surprise by the dragon and the familiar intense fire elemental aura that it exuded... The dragon returned the glance as it flew by, watching Draven for a few seconds before arcing around and swooping above Haraldur.
"Crimson... Dragon..."
The dragon swooped over Haraldur's head, and began flying north.
"I will take you near where I believe the incident happened. I cannot guarantee anything, though. A world likely changes much in three thousand years..."
-
Zeros' mearly nodded and followed the dragon.
-
Haraldur followed the dragon and said to Draven, "You might like to come, if you would wish to know anything about your former master, but I guarantee nothing."
-
Duilin seemed amazed as the dragon flue out of the cave. It looked much cooler in action. He then flue off following the dragon.
---
"Wow are we going to get anywere is there is water!?" Rink groaned. He paced around the boat "This sucks..."
-
The entire trio was shocked by the dragon, Tsu so much that he nearly dropped Ellena.
"Ho, shit! Damn, that's big!" Xenai voiced his surprise, of course, in the most expletive way possible.
-
What could this fool possibly want with Alpha Retan, now? Is he looking to absorb more dark spirits?
Draven trailed behind, but flying higher than the rest. Clenching his fists, he contacted Zeros' telepathically again:
"I've had just about enough of this. The very existence of him after what we've been through is but a mockery to each and every one of us..."
----
Far enough away from the cave, the sea thrashed against the invisible wall holding it back. The huge dragon flew over the water, gracefully increasing its speed.
-
The ship had reached the end of the water. Below them, dead whales and fish and dolphins littered the now dry seabed. When the sea came back, it would be scavenger heaven. Then the invisible barrier disappeared, as Haraldur stopped the spell. The seas spilled inwards, pulling the little ship downwards and forwards before eventually arising to the top of the whirlpoll that had formed as the sea rushed in. The waves were huge.
The Great phophet shouted, "Shit!" as they were falling.
_____________________________________________________________
Haraldur telepathed to Draven and Zeros': Indeed, Draven. What you have been through. You do not know the meaning of the phrase Draven. Zeros' might, but you do not. Even if you spend the rest of your life in utter torture, it will not compare to how I have suffered. This would be further lessened by the fact your life would be very short. So you talking about what you have been through in reference to me is quite pathetic to me. As far as I know, you have only died once, and then, you might not have died. Look on the bright side of your life, Draven, after all, if you defeat Zeros' and the others after this, if you have the ability, the competance, which currently impresses me little, then you will be the emporer of the only remaining continent on this planet.
-
"Shit, is right!" Rink yelled. "Why the hell is there a wirlpool?! There isn't supost to be any wirlpools! Who said that we were going to have wirlpools!"
Rink shifted his head around. "Ryu! Do something heroic! I'm to scared!" He paniced
-
The Great Prophet said, "Of course there is a whirlpool. The sea has rushed inwards and is swirling around."
The whirlpool was no diminishing, and now became just part of a mass of sea that was hugely agitated, with 20 metre waves.
-
"Well I'm glad that's over.." Rink sighed in relief. "Now we just have to deal with extremely large waves. What fun."
-
Draven stopped completely, and folded his arms.
"So, you can intercept telepathic signals. I didn't think you would be stupid enough to think you could trick even those fools who blindly followed you from the beginning, let alone me, who was your enemy even from the start."
He brought his arms to his side, a crimson orb surrounding the man...
"Oooo... you're suffering... gonna cry? Here, let me make it better..."
Several hundred orbs of flame emanated from the man in all directions as his aura of flame increased dramatically. Fiery masses crashed into the ocean below, adding to the turbulent waves. His voice echoed across the skies:
"I care not of your suffering, your personalites, whatever this light is, or the babblings of a senile old man! Your antics have gone on long enough, Ragnar! I shall snap your life like a twig!!"
----
The dragon turned around to look at the trailing madman just in time to bat away a stray fireball with his right claw.
"What is this?"
-
Haraldur moved his arm upwards, causing a portion of the sea of a few hundred cubic metres, to rise up, engulf some fireballs that were going towards it. The fireballs had little effect, only evaporating a little of the vast mass of water moving upwards.
He said, "You have chosen the wrong place to attack me Draven. And you might care about my parts soon Draven."
He turned to the dragon. "This is a fire mage," he said, "Whose name is Draven, the one I told you invaded Romme, where your cave was." He turned to Draven again. "The one too incompetant to secure the last part of me Retan needed, and so brought Retan here, and so indirectly caused you to be buried for a month.
He split onto his ten parts, who then changed their forms. Each of them had the same aura, the aura that Haraldur had before he merged with the weapons, the dark one of many dark shades. It engulfed them all in a haze, and amount of red in the aura was increasing, until it seemed purely of red and black. They surrounded Draven, and in the middle of the circle, where Draven was very close to, a ball of pure destructive energy formed. They then started to move so Draven would be in the middle of the circle.
-
"Aw, crap..." Zion watched Haraldur charge Draven. "What the crap do we do?" Zion looked to Zeros', welcoming suggestions.
=== === ===
EW/ZW -------- 4
-
"Guys! Stop it!" Duilin yelled "We don't have time for this!"
He began, to move toward the two...
-
"God damnit..." He muttered. "Now I have to play babysitter..." He continued to mutter under his breath till his waved his hand, causing his sword to leap and transform. He slashed downwards with it, causing a wave of pure holy energy to intercept the darkness energy.
"CAN WE SETTLE THIS LATER!?" he yelled. "LETS DEAL WITH THIS DRAGON, THEN YOU CAN RIP EACH OTHER TO SHREADS!"
----
"That was interesting..." Ryu muttered to himself. He looked up at the waves then down to Rink.
"Well, just hold on and enjoy the ride," he said smiling.
-
Zion's eyes widened. Zeros' can manipulate Holy energy?! The more holy and dark energy there is, the better... As long as it's relatively even...
=== === ===
EW/ZW ------ 3
-
Rink crossed him arms, and rolled his eyes at Ryu "Yeah, right..."
-
Draven ignored Zeros' entirely and shot straight downwards towards the sea, escaping the closing circle of his foe's forms, which was now above him. As he approached the water, it bowed away from him as identical magnetic poles repel each other. This caused a massive wave to travel out in a circle away from him.
He plummeted downwards and downwards, the water flying farther and farther away until he landed on the dry sandy sea floor on one knee. He placed his right palm on the ground, which began to glow red.
"Fool! Feel the wrath of the planet you dare distort! VULCAN BLAST!!"
He jumped up, now flying straight at the Harladur incarnations from below. The ground mounded up and followed him as he rose, cracking and burning. He had tapped into a stream of magma below and created a volcano...
The mountain rose from the earth following its master as it broke sea level, the returning water splashing and steaming against it. Higher and higher it mounded until it erupted in volcanic fury, sending a huge wave of lava straight upwards, engulfing Draven and rushing all ten incarnations from below...
----
The dragon circled the battle, irritated at first.
"I will not wait for your petty squabbles..."
But he watched the fire mage with increasing interest. The other one is definitely not human, but the fire mage... It is impossible for a human to wield so much power...
-
Zeros' looked over towards Zion and his group...
"It's useless isn't it?" he asked towards no one in particualr.
----
"Well that's about all we can do now..." He then pointed towards the horizion to where Draven summedhis volcano, which was now plainly visible, as well as the Dragon. "At least untill they calm down."
-
Duilin, flue backwards a few feet Draven created the Volcano. He knew he couldn't stop them from fighting. "Dragon! Please, stop them." He called
------
"Whoa!" Rink said getting up, looking at the Dragon "Son of a bitch..."
-
The incarnations smiled faintly, and then rushed into one, in Haraldur shape, a little way away from the magma's path. The energy ball fell.
The energy ball landed at the top of the magma, and detonated, sending bits of magma and anything inside the stream of magma flying in every direction, and causing the volcano below to explode forming a large hole in the sea bed, too large for magma to stream out at high speed. Then the sea came back, causing a steamy haze to cover the battle area.
Haraldur watched for any movement.
-
"I don't think they're gonna stop." Xenai crossed his arms and watched attentively. Zion was watching as well, but Tsu was getting tired of holding Ellena, and had all of his attention focused on not dropping her.
=== === ===
EW/ZW ---- 2
-
Zeros' noticed Tsu struggle and used his speed to almost transport in front of him. He smiled at him and took Ellenna from his arms, not waiting for a response. He flew on to his previous position, keeping his vigil.
"Anyone up for a spar?" he asked casually, dropping Ellenna, who floated quietly in the air, a shimmering barrier of magic around her whole body.
----
"That is interesting...looks like Draven lost his temper or some such..." He muttered to himself.
-
"Right here." Zion had enough stamina for a spar.
Tsu plopped onto his butt, finding repose upon it.
Xenai created a tiny little ball of energy and dropped it, kicking it around in the air (Hackey sack (sp?)... Heh).
=== === ===
EW/ZW -- 1
-
Zeros' unsheathed his sword, transforming it, holding it pointed towards Zion, his left hand held limp at his side while his right held the gigantic sword steady. He spread out all eight of his wings and looked at Zion with half-lidded eyes. (Makes him look less alert)
----
Ryu sighed.
"Any ideas Rink?"
-
Zion unsheathed Eternity Weapon as he turned to face Zeros'. He yawned with his free hand, his eyes half-closed as well. As his free hand fell, a flick of the wrist would flick a ki ball at Zeros'.
=== === ===
EW/ZW Ready!
-
Tremendous amounts of steam engulfed the air above the sea as the lava tried to push its way back over the top of the waves.
"Over here!"
Draven, who had slipped to the opposite side of the energy ball as it made contact with the magma, was now directly above Haraldur. Balancing on his right hand above his head was a massive glowing sphere of tightly compact lava, over twenty feet in diameter.
"Die, cretin!!"
He launched it straight downwards at his foe...
Hit or miss, it was going to make a mess...
----
The dragon glided past Duilin.
"Their battle is none of my concern... However, I am appalled by this rudeness. I shall continue on my own..."
With a great flap of the wings, he continued on north, away from the battle...
-
Haraldur split into his parts, who were in a circle, with the ball of magma falling through the middle of the circle. He then rejoined himself.
Seeing that the dragon was moving North, he decided to stop fighting, it was wasting time, so he followed the dragon Northwards.
_____________________________________________________________
"Young people of today..." murmered the prophet.
-
"Finnally." Duilin sighed. He then looked at Draven "Don't you go attacking him again!" He said. He then nodded to the others, and then followed the Dragon.
----
"Hmm, looks like they stoped, they are moveing now. Let's follow them!" Rink said
-
Zeros' caught the ki ball in his free hand and lobbed it into the air and with a flourish, sheathed his weapon and nodded his head towards the dragon, who was currently flying away. He flew towards Ellenna's position and picked her up in his arms and flew towards the dragon, being mindful to keep a sheild around Ellenna.
----
Ryu folded his arms and tapped his foot.
"Hmm..." he murrmered to himself. He then jumped off the side of the boat, running on the water. He bent down and ran fast and fast.
-
The ball of magma continued downward, plunging into the sea. A brief moment of silence preceded a massive water-muffled explosion. The ocean turned red as a geyser shot hundreds of feet into the sky. When it was over, the sea was visibly draining into a rupture in the ocean floor, forming a vortex above...
Draven clenched his right fist as Haraldur simply flew away.
"Typical!"
He turned to Duilin with fire in his eyes...
"YOU don't tell me what to do, you miserable little ingrate!!"
Quite irate, he flew a bit higher, addressing the whole group surrounding him with two clenched fists.
"Idiots! You had at least two openings... I'm not following you wreatches around because I like being watched!!"
He chopped the air with his right hand.
"GYAAHH!!!"
He fell to a lower altitude and took off in a north-western direction, parting the sea below from the force of his flight...
If you want something done right...
----
The dragon noted Haraldur was following once again, but said nothing. He continued on for a while, surveying the endless ocean around them.
"Hmm... yes, it appears the world has changed. I recall a group of islands that we should have passed a while ago..."
-
"Calm the hell down." Some advice given from Xenai to Draven.
Zion sheathed Eternity Weapon, and the trio continued on their way.
=== === ===
EW/ZW Ready!
-
Duilin, glared at Draven. "Fine!" He said, and then turned away, and continued flying off, with the others "We should kick his ass after were done." He said quietly to Zeros'. "Why did we even let him join in the first place. He's tried to kill all of us at least twice. I lost track after third or fouth time, for me."
---
"Hey!" Rink yelled, as he jumped off the boat, and flue after Ryu "Were do you think you're going!" Rink called. He then turned around "Old guy! I mean, Prophet, you coming?"
-
Ryu shrugged and continued running on the water, unconciouslly using his ki and chakra to regulate himself.
"I'm following their energy signatures. If you concentrate enough, you can sense them. Haraldur, Zeros', Draven and Duilin have the largest ones, as well as the dragon. Zion and his group are alot smaller then the others, more then likely due that the others aren't exactly human." he said and shrugged.
----
"Don't worry about it," said Zeros', murmurring lowly. "We'll deal with it when the time comes," said Zeros' reassuringly.
-
Haraldur said, "That is only a very recent change, it only happened on this day. It will happen to the only remaining continent on this world, too, unless I am fulfilled."
____________________________________________________________
The Great Prophet caused a wind to blow the ship quite fast following the Dragon.
-
"A very recent change..." Zeros' murmurred to himself, "your talking about Retan's MDAA, right?"
----
"Rink," he said towards the small imp, "we need a plan. Were not strong enough to take them on directly...they'd obliterate us before we could blink." He sighed and turned his head towards the imp, "Have any plans?"
-
Haraldur said to Zeros', "I was referring to the recent sinking of all the land except for the land mass which was previously dominated by the Dark Empire."
-
Draven had steered far away from the group and was now over the ravaged lands of the former Dark Empire. His diabolical mind raced with schemes as a slight smirk crossed his face.
----
The dragon growled,
"I hope you are not disturbing the delicate forces of the planet itself..."
He arched his head back forward to the northern horizon.
"Yes... now I remember the spot. No land markers will be necessary..."
The air was getting noticeably colder, and vast chunks of ice began to appear in the sea below.
-
"What? Attack them? Why? Who? Huh? Why?" Rink asked with an odd look on his face
----
Duilin, shivered slightly. Yet the coolness was slightly soothing to him. Draven's volcano did give off alot of heat. He looked at the water below, and stared at his reflection moveing along with him. "How much further?" He asked
-
"Not much," said Zeros' as he squinted towards the horizion.
----
"Attack Haraldur, of course," said Ryu bluntly, "who else?"
-
Haraldur looked at the Dragon in surprise and said, "Why would I wish to disturb myself?"
_______________________________________________________________
The Great Prophet said, "I said it is imperitive not to hinder him."
-
The red dragon slowed in his flight, replying to Haraldur skeptically.
"Hmmm... you are perhaps the most curious of beings I have met in my entire life..."
A flap of the wings.
"We have arrived..."
The ocean was completely frozen here, covered by countless centuries of unmelting snow. The solid ground formed of the ocean of ice was completely flat, save some rolling hills that were only noticeable to those flying at a low altitude. There was nothing here at all. They were essentially at the planet's northern pole.
But a few seconds more of flight would review a dramatic sight through the mist ahead. The ice suddenly dropped off sharply, going down well over several thousand feet. The dragon lead the group over this ridge and continued on. Even past the ridge the ground sloped downwards more, becoming deeper and deeper. It was several moments later before the opposite ridge was visible.
It was a giant crater.
"This is where it happened, over three millennia ago... Now I will take my leave, as I have repaid my debt. I wish you good fortune on... whatever endeavor you seek to partake..."
The great dragon swooped around the group and began to return in the direction from whence he came.
-
Ryu rubbed his head "I stand by my confused slurs..." He then thought for a second "We should just wait, for the others to attack or, whatever Old guy has in mind, I mean Prophet..."
----
"There dosen't appear to be anything in sight." Duilin sighed "Were do you think this, Alpha Retan is, Haraldur?"
Zeros' we should be ready with the Light, we just might not have to attack Haraldur, since we have her.
-
Zeros' nodded his head. I agree Zeros' clutched Ellenna tighter as he peered down into the crater curiously.
"Ahh yes...I can still sense the risidual traces of Dark magic, as well as demonic and angelic auras...curious...curious..." he murmured to himself.
----
Ryu hopped off the water, rising into the air as he landed on the ice and started jumping from glaicer to glaicer with inhuman percision.
-
Haraldur looked towards the Dragon, and said, "I believe the agreement was that you would assist me ten times in return. Your life for my death. Wait... this might be the place for everything after all... All my parts were born partly of Alpha Retan and of Melkoth... Hooray that this day has come..."
He lowered slowly.
-
"I sence them to." Duilin said. He looked at Haraldur, as he lowered down. He then turn and looked around at everyone else. He then looked back at Haraldur.
----
Rink continued flying threw heading his way toward the others
"It seems that they have stoped, and the Dragon left..." Rink said "You think they know we are following?"
-
Ryu nodded. "Its possible, very possible, but unlikely, still..." He muttered as he hoped from another glacier and slid on a long incline.
----
Zeros' nodded and floated down with Haraldur, albeit more slowly.
-
A caped figure stood amongst a partially ruined fortress. The setting sun was to his left.
Draven inspected the damage done to what was once the capital of the Dark Empire. A shame... well, not really... in the end, it doesn't really matter at all... He ignored the groans of several injured soldiers lying about and entered what was once a majestic front gateway.
-
Xenai gave a whistle. "Inconcievable," said Zion. Tsu just floated there gaping in awe.
=== === ===
EW/ZW Ready!
-
//Sorry I was gone, (Well not really, but =P), anyways, I'll sum up what happened to my remaining Characters...//
Nevina and Qarmic get to Limbo, Nevina steps into the light, mumbles her incantation, breaks the connection between Midgard and hell, but as she does, Qor/Armic begin to fall appart and both perish, but before that happens, they managed to limp up behind Nevina and slice out her throat, then they die. She ascends into Heaven and becomes a Goddess because of her being a Martyr for a greater good.
//I'm sure it doesn't matter though, they really weren't vital to the storyline now anyway.//
-
Zeros' looks up at the three and nods his head.
"Tsu, close your jaw. Your liable to catch flies," he joked towards the man, but anyone could see the seriousness in his startling emerald green eyes.
----
Ryu suddenly started running faster and jumped high into the air, using his chakra to "hop" into the air, propelling himself forwards rapidly. He landed, cat-like, on all fours right under Tsu's group.
"Hello there," he waved vaguely up at the three, before looking down into the crater.
-
Duilin lowers down with Zeros' and Haraldur. He could feal that something was going to happen and he needed to be there.
Rink finally arived with the others. "Duilin! We're here." He began to lower down towards Duilin
"Stay there Rink." He commanded "I don't want you to get hurt..."
Rink shugged and then nodded
"Never thought I'd say that..." Duilin mumbled to himself
-
Xenai took care of that with a quick bop. "Ow!" Then Tsu kicks Xenai's butt. "Hey, hey! Hands and feet off!"
The trio waved down at Ryu, Tsu holding his chin.
Zion floated over to Zeros'. "What business have we here?"
=== === ===
EW/ZW Ready!
-
"Be on guard," Zeros' warned, "we have no idea what's liable to happen," he shook his head ruefully. He waved backwards towards Ryu, who waved back while using his cloak to walk down the slope.
"Don't worry about me," he reassured Zeros', who was cut off from his thoughts, "I won't fight anything unless I absolutely have to."
-
(CyberWolf: Aw, you could have at least posted that in dramatic RP form. Heh... Ah well, closure is closure.)
----
Silence. Dead Silence. Except for the wind...
It was a deep, raspy voice, yet very far away.
"Yes... come closer... perfect..."
-
//Where is this voice?//
-
//I think we are not supost to notice that, it would be stupid if you did and ruin everything, to be honest.//
-
//Either the voice is where Draven is, or it is where we are. That is why I asked.//
-
//I think its where we are...\\
-
(Sorry. That was meant for you guys. Heh...)
As Haraldur neared the base of the crater, a thin white light slowly rose from the ground. After becoming some eight feet in length, it widened to the shape of a doorway, large enough for one person to enter at a time...
-
"Amazeing..." Duilin said "Looks like we'll have to enter single file..." He subjests.
"But should we all go in?" Rink asks
-
"Looks like it," murmurred Zeros'. Ryu nodded his head in agreement.
-
Haraldur walked up to be right in front of the door, and shouted: "Will you come out, or will I have to drag you out? The outcome will be the same."
-
Nothing but a profond silence...
(Heh...)
-
"Who's he talkin' to?" Rink wispered
"Haraldr, perhaps, we should go in?" Duilin subjested
-
Haraldur said, "Do what you like, I am getting the bastards."
He entered the door... and was traveliing through a blue tube at huge speed.
-
Zeros' shrugged and stepped into the doorway right after Haraldur. He found himself in the same blue tube, traveling at high speeds.
----
"I'll stay here," said Ryu as he stepped aside.
-
The trio followed in, going single-file.
=== === ===
EW + ZW Ready!
-
After traveling through distorted layers of dimensions, those that entered the doorway found themselves in a large dark room, the portal behind them...
The walls and ceiling were jet black, and it was impossible to tell how close or far they were, or if there were nothing there at all. The floor was an intricate tiled pattern that faded off into the surrounding darkness.
Many feet before them was a golden throne, surrounded by four lit torches burning an eerie deep blue flame. In this throne sat an old man, with his head leaning on his right hand as if he had been dozing, although he wasn't anymore...
The man seemed very frail and his white beard was long. This contrasted greatly with the heavy plates of black armor that covered his upper body. These details were very faint, however, as the old man, the throne-- everything was covered with a thick layer of gray dust. He had clearly been sitting there for a long time...
He shifted his weight slightly, sitting up straighter. This caused layers of congealed dust to tear away from his body and fall to floor.
"Ah, yes... excellent. Took you a bit longer than I expected, but no matter. So, have you executed the purge?"
-
(Before the old man speaks)
Duilin begins entered following the others. "Rink stay here with Ryu." He says slightly turning his head.
"Fine!" Rink crosses his arms "I never get to do anything..."
"That's because you can't do anything..." Duilin sighes and then enters and disappers with the others
Duilin looks around, and then narrows his eye brows as the old man speaks. What is he talking about. The purge? Was that Haraldur's rampage? He thought
-
Haraldur said, "Maybe, depends on what it is."
-
Zeros' crossed his arms across his chest and folds his wings inward as he steps towards Duilin.
"Keep your guard up," he murmurred under his breath, just barely loud enough for Duilin to hear. "Something doesn't smell right..."
-
The old man slowly got out of the chair, more dust falling off of him as he supported himself on a long cane that was leaning on the right side of the throne.
He seemed to stretch, his bones cracking.
"What else? The world. You've finished destroying it, haven't you?"
-
"The last parts will fall apart when I am finished, unless certain events, of which I am sure you know of, take place. As for the fate of the world, to me it matters little, since I would not be here to love or loathe it."
-
"Destroying the world...you would have the world destroyed? The world that betrayed you? The world that destroyed you, Alpha Retan?" he inquired from the old man.
-
Duilin nodded in agrement to Zeros' command.
"But how could he destroy the world, if the world allready destroied him?" Duilin added
-
"How would he destroy the world? Me. He made an agreement with my father Melkoth. Six weapons would be made to help him in his revenge. Unbeknownst to them, however, I was the power source, and I split into 4 at birth, with one disappearing a lot faster than the rest. They found out, and decided it was the perfect arrangement, especially since I am the force of nature. I wish to revenge myself."
-
"Yes, I'm aware you wish to revenge yourself, but what did the world do to you, to deserve such punnishment?" Duilin asks
-
"The world? I have nothing against the world. It is them who I intend to have my revenge against."
-
"So, you wish to punish Alpha Retan for his crimes or do you want to punish your father, Melkoth?" said Zeros' towards Haraldur.
-
"Meh heh heh... One cannot build without tearing down first. Destroying by force is a mess and would render the energy of the planet useless. However..."
The old man looked straight at Haraldur.
"If one of the planet, were to decompose it entirely to its base state, the pure energy would be completely harvestable."
He smiled widely, uncovering gaping yellow teeth.
"It is unfortunate that the virus I implanted on Number Ten wasn't totally successful, or else you surely would have completed this task already. But that is quite acceptable, because the main function-- the need to seek me out and thus forever tear a hole in this prison, was quite a success. It was quite an easy emotion to program, the desire for vengeance...
"You have been very useful, child. Go now and meet your destiny. Reduce the rest of existance to nothing. I shall be waiting..."
-
Haraldur turned to Zeros', "Both," he said.
He turned to Alpha Retan, "You are mistaken. The virus was totally eradicated from my system, by myself. You have no control over me. I suspect my father will get involved after I have finished you, but no matter he will die soon too. Prepare to die, Alpha Retan."
Haraldur clicked his fingers, and the portal behind him disappeared, leving the room completely cut off from the universe, much like his personal dimension.
"It is impossible for you to escape. I have the knowledge from my own universe, and I can control all others."
Haraldur opened his right fist, with a blue flame burning from it. He started to walk towards Alpha Retan.
-
"Should we help Haraldur or leave him to his own devices?" he asked Duilin.
-
"Maybe we should help him. This Alpha Retan is sick, and I belive we should aid in ridding the world of him." Duilin said "But I fear if we do, we might kill him, and Haraldur's revenge would be failed, yet I don't know what would become of that..."
"Yet, I still don't think we should just sit here, like a bunch of losers. And we can be carefull..." Duilin nods "Yeah, lets. Something about this Alpha Retan guy makes me think that he is more then meets the eye. Yet, who isn't these days?"
Duilin's eyes glow bright yellow, he charges energy and aborbs heat and makes flame, the energy swirls around as Duilin crafts the energy ball...
-
The trio slid into ready stances, ready to fight, though holding off on summoning their weapons... Heck, could they even summon them here?
=== === ===
EW + ZW Ready!
-
A bright flash of light emanated from the old man. But it didn't appear to do anything...
"Dear child, you have much to learn. But that begs the question, can something artificial actually learn?"
He leaned forward on his cane with a smirk, as if anxiously awaiting Haraldur's attack.
----
The flash of light shot out of the portal at the bottom of the crater as it closed, slowing and becoming a human-esque shape, walking slowly on a cane, hunched over and weighed down by thick plates of black armor under a long black cape. The real Alpha Retan nodded politely to Kami-Ryu, who was positioned nearby.
"Good day."
He began floating, slowly rising high above the frozen crater. He closed his eyes as he read the planet...
"Let us see... only a few continents... a mere 10-11% of the planet's total energy freed. Rather unfortunate. It is much more than I would have been able to extract if I had destroyed it myself, however, so I will consider this a partial success."
He brought the staff above his head, revealing a blood red ruby on the tip. Small points of bright white light began to rise from the ice and wind, few at first, then increasing to several hundred thousand at a time... They slowly flowed through the air and into the ruby, which glowed vigorously...
-
Duilin, spread his arms apart, and finished the demon energy ball. He narrowed his eyes, and tossed the energy ball at the Old Man.
-----
"Holy shit!" Rink yelled as Alpha Retan flue up into the air. "Is that...is that...him?" He asked, sounding frightened
-
Haraldur smiled at the flash, and grabbed the vision's arm. It would cause a force to pull the real figure down towards the Earth, a force he would have to fight.
He held out list left arm, touching the wall. He concentrated, causing a ripping sound to be heard. The dimension exploded out of a hole as it shrunk to nothing.
______________________________________________________________
Behind Alpha Retan, a large hole appeared in the air, where the entire contents of the now destroyed dimension exploded out with great speed, including the characters. At the front was Haraldur charging forwards throwing a lightning bolt before him as he split in mid flight.
"You choose to be destroyed in this dimension. By doing that, you increase the probability of this world's destruction, as you would wish, but it makes no difference, for here, or anywhere else, I will destroy you."
He reassembled while still flying forward, throwing magma before him.
______________________________________________________________
The Great Prophet saw this and said, "Oh, shit."
He hides under a rock, and shields himself, in case of the worst.
-
"(Editor: Censored)!" said Zeros' intelligently as he slid out of focus and reappeared near Ryu, who jumped in surprise.
"Thats Alpha Retan," he said as he his slid over towards Retan's figure, confirming Rink's question. Zeros' right hand glowed with a faint black aura as he watched for the right moment to strike Retan.
-
Duilin, followed Zeros' out and appeared next to him, Ryu and Rink.
"So, that's him..." Duilin said softly.
"Do you think you guys can defeat him?" Rink asked
"I sure as hell hope so." Duilin replied. He straighted his hand and lifted his arm half way up, demon energy began to flow around his arm, he looked up at Alpha Retan. And waited along with Zeros'
Rink nodded. "Well...good luck with that, I'm going to go over and hide under a rock with The Prophet, now." He said with a serious tone in his voice, he then flue off and sheiled himself under a rock...
-
The trio was flung out into the other dimension to find the real Alpha Retan, and everyone going in to strike.
"Should we bring 'em out?" asked Xenai.
"One moment," said Zion.
=== === ===
EW + ZW Ready!
-
The old man spun around, ceasing to gather the white points of light, and thrust his staff before him, creating a translucent red shield which deflected the burst of magma.
"Heavens, child. Did I make you angry? But that begs the question, can something artificial have emotions?"
His wrinkled face contorted in a devilish smile.
That's right. Perfect. Show me more...
----
An explosion of red appeared far on the horizon.
"So it begins..."
"You orders, my Lord?"
"Full speed ahead."
-
"Ok, now! Eternity Weapon!"
The Eternity Weapon fell from the sky, landing in front of Zion.
"Zero Weapon!"
The Zero Weapon shot out of the ground, landing in front of Xenai.
=== === ===
EW + ZW ------ 3
-
"You tell me."
Haraldur conjured two swords, one in each hand, each sheathed in furious energy. He pointed one at Alpha Retan, shooting a blue orb of energy straight at him. With the other, he turned the gorund below to large rising spikes, which detached from the ground and flew upwards, looking to impale the old man from below.
"Goodbye, earthly parent. You will be destroyed."
_______________________________________________________________
As spikes began to rise around him, The Great Prophet screamed in fear, before rushing out from under the rock and flew to a high position away from the vertically moving projectiles.
-
"Now!" Duilin yelled. Seeing that Haraldur was attacking it would make a better probabilty of one of the attacks hitting. He then blasted a yellow bolt at Alpha Retan.
-
A red orb surrounded the old man, deflecting the blue and yellow bursts of energy sent his way.
"You shouldn't attempt to do more than your fate deems, child. Why would you--- GAH!!"
The sharp pain in his leg snapped his attention. A sharp spike had penetrated his left thigh, which was now streaking with red blood... He slowly lowered his altitude as he recovered.
"Now you see... You've forced me to defend myself..."
Black lightning thundered around. The sky grew dim. The ice below began to crack...
His posture straightened as he brought his arms to his side, his cape blowing in the intense wind. Color returned to his decrepit face, his eyes glowing a bright crimson.
He addressed Haraldur in the voice of Melkoth:
"I have been destroyed many times, my son. Each time I learn from my mistakes. Each time I become stronger... Each time I become closer... No matter the outcome, this is a victory for me..."
A blinding flash glazed the eyes of all those present. As it faded, the outline of a scaly black dragon became apparent...
----
The lieutenant's armor began to clang as it shook.
"W-What's th-that...?!"
Draven leaned far over the deck of the airship in disbelief, his breath fuming from the cold climate.
"That brazen fool... He let loose another one!!"
He turned around, his new cape flowing with the motion as he clenched his fist.
"He'll try to absorb it just like last time. And those idiots are just going to stand around and watch!"
He flipped around again and pointed at the spectacle in the distance.
"GO! Kill Ragnar!! Kill that dragon!! And kill any who stand in your way!!"
The force of nearly 25,000 wyvern riders, many of them atop advanced forms of the species, along with several hundred dark dragons, began to make a wide circle and surround the crater, with Draven's airship at the lead.
-
"Amazeing..." Duilin said. He stared at the black dragon for awile. "Well let's see, we killed a Yetti, a Belroth, an army of zombies, a necrodragon, the Dark Empire and the spawns of hell. This shouldn't be to different from anything we haven't fought before."
Duilin looked at Zeros' "But how are we going this?"
------
Rink steped out from his hideing spot and took on look at the dragon "Well I'll be sleeping in a pile of Vile Lizard shit..." He shook his head rapidly "Okay back behind the rock for me..."
-
"Ah, so both my parents are here..."
Haraldur changed form without first splitting. He changed into a huge humanoid form of himself, but covered in armour and spikes, and weilding two huge swords in either hand.
One sword slashed at the Dragon, at it did so it left a trail of the blue energy it was sheathed with.
The other was thrust deep into the ground: he was so large that from 500 meters up, he could stick the sword, which was of normal size relative to his body, into the ground. He cut through the deep crust of the Earth, letting magma rise up as from a Geyser, leaving a roaring sound as it rose.
-
Xenai looked in the direction of the wyvern riders, then up at Zero Weapon. "Take care of 'em."
A huge sword appeared in Zero Weapon's hand, and it started to circle around the crater, taking out the Wyvern riders.
Zion looked at the transformed Alpha Retan. "Get him."
Eternity Weapon rushed forward at the dragon, pulling its fist back and sending it forward at its head upon coming in range.
=== === ===
EW + ZW ---- 2
-
Zeros' flipped Ellenna over on his back, making her wrap her arms around his neck and her feet around his chest. He then used spells to affix them to his body, but made sure he still had full movement from his wings, legs and arms.
The black glow that appeared around his right hand disappeared briefly before a glowing white flame of chi appeared, small black tendrils flying from the flame. He also dodged the land spears as they came up towards him, using his wings to manuver himself expertly.
When he stopped, the flame around his right hand now streched across his whole arm, burning a blinding white light while black embers flew from the white flame.
He stood there, silently flying and dodging while the white flame of chi grew stronger and the black embers started to dance in the air as they gained more power from the ambient chi that lingered in the air and the area.
----
Ryu dodged despretly as they earth spikes began to come up from the ground. He winced in pain as one of the spikes scratched his right leg, causing it to flow blood. His metal limbs were starting to become sluggish as well, his strength draining.
He started breathing albeit more heavily as he reached the Trio's position.
"Damn spikes..." he murmured under his breath as he unsheathed his dragon katana's, the ruby on in his left hand, the sapphire one in his right. He held them at his sides loosely as he turned to face the wyvern rides head on.
-
Duilin, continued to hover in the air. He raised both arms and began to charge a large orb yellow/orange demon energy. He prepared it for Alpha Retan. He shifted his head around. Rink's still cowareing around...Something tells me we might even need his help.
He fouces back on his target, and continues chargeing his attack.
-
(Grand Finale time! Chapter 5 ends in 10 days.)
"I am Alpha Retan, heir of the universe. Foolish mortals, your insignificant struggles mean nothing..."
The dragon blocked the blue blade with his left arm, slightly denting his armor like scales. The magma did not seem to effect him, but the Eternity Weapon smacked him dead in the temple. He road threateningly, spinning around and sending his long spiked tail towards the Eternity Weapon's chest. At the same time, he spewed forth a stream of shadow energy at Haraldur from his gaping mouth...
----
The wyverns began to swarm the mammoth Zero Weapon like bees, hundreds of them clawing at its thick armor. Several of them took note of Ryu and began to dive bomb him, spewing forth flame and ice.
----
The few wyvern riders that made it close to Haraldur and the black dragon held off in fear, waiting for more allies to attack with.
----
"Move in close and fire at will! I'm going in."
"But, sir...!"
Draven dove off of the deck of the airship, a crimson aura engulfing him after he fell a few hundred feet. He began to fly at a low altitude straight for the chaos ahead...
-
Ryu looked towards the sky and swore, dodging expertly as a stream of flame flew past him. He spun around wildly and jumped into the air, launching several ki charged blades from his sword tips and dodging the spew of ice and flames.
----
The wyvern's tried to move out of the way, but they couldn't. Several had either one or two of the dragon's wings cut off, someone even had thier heads cut off, while other killed both the dragon and the rider.
----
Zeros' glanced down at his hand and smirked. His while arm was now enveloped in a white flame of chi, burning brightly, while black embers crackled. He looked towards the dragon and nodded to himself and phased out, reappearing right near the dragon's neck, behind the head.
He lifted his hand up and pointed it towards the dragon's neck, like a claw posed to strike. When he fired the shadow energy at Haraldur, he snapped his wrist and plunged his hand towards the dragon's neck.
-
What? Draven's here? Looks like this is going to be a three way war... Duilin thought. He then finished the energy orb "This better hit!" He tossed the demon energy orb. The orange/yellow orb flew like a rocket at Alpha Retan.
----
Rink peeked up over the rock. "I'm sick of hideing! Enough of this! I'm going kick some ass!"
Rink flies off, and blasts a series of fireballs at the wyverns swarming around. "Hiiayaa!!"
-
Haraldur looked on with interest at the shadow energy flew towards him, and smiled when it hit him. He seemed unaffected, but, somehow, he looked to be slightly larger.
He looked towards the wyvyrns, and smiled as if recollecting a sweet childhood memory. He recalled the feat of destruction Ragnar had done when he had seperated the electrons from the atoms of the bodies of the thousands of Viking mages, and then let their ionised and disintegrating bodies, get huge electric shocks as electrons came in from all sides orbiting the nuclei again, and releasing enough energy to form a fireball. He did the same to the Dragon, and to the wyvyrns. The wyvyrns quickly exploded because of this.
-
"Our guys need energy!" said Zion.
"Anyone willing to donate to the cause of beating the shit out of Retan using mechanic-esque demons, please do so!" said Xenai.
The Eternity Weapon took the hit, sending it to the ground, but it promply jumped to his feet, unleashing two beams from its hands that spiraled together toward Retan.
The Zero Weapon gave a monstrous roar as it emitted a large wave of energy from itself, extremely concentrated, but only reached as far as where the wyvern riders were. Hopefully, this would take care of them.
=== === ===
EW + ZW -- 1
//Heh, are people allowed to donate energy to keep them out longer? They are seperate entities, and thus, will require seperate donations.
-
(Keep 'em out as long as it seems practical in the story.)
(Too many wyverns... you guys control them!)
----
The dragon roared in pain as he was slammed with the multiple attacks. He stretched his head skywards as the multicolored explosions from the various attackers ensued around him, then plummeted to the ground, cracking the already battle ravaged ice.
For a brief second, it almost seemed as if it were all over.
But his head propped up...
"Power... Brute strength... Something I have yet to attain... But I have something far greater..."
The beast scampered to all fours, spreading his wings out. His body began to deform, boney spikes began jutting out of his joints, and his skin seemed to melt off in some locations...
He roared again, but this time it was much louder, distorted and less animal sounding. It was like a gust of wind, but it burned like acid, blasting all those around him...
----
Before drawing too near, Draven shielded his eyes from the explosions and created a barrier to repell the intense sound waves, but even he was repelled several feet.
He smirked for a moment, lost in thought, then after checking his surroundings, shot straight up in the air so that he was directly above the ensuing battle. From behind his back, he withdrew an ancient book, visibly worn and adorned with skull like carvings on the outer cover. He flipped quickly through the pages and, after finding his spot, began to chant passages from the tome under his breath as he brought his right hand up to the sky above...
-
Haraldur put his hand in front of him, cutting the blast in front of him in two, causing it go around him. Spotting Draven with the book, he tossed a few small fireballs, to try to incinerate the tome.
-
Duilin, was blown back spinning around in the air. He used his demon energy to help him stay stable.
Rink was blown away, and crashed into the ground.
"Rink!" Duilin yelled "Are you allright?!"
Rink lifted his right arm, and gave a thumbs up and his arm crashed back down into the ground. He was breathing deeply, he was in much pain.
"He'll live.." Duilin muddered. Suddenly two wyverns flue at him. Once swung it's claw at Duilin's side. He grabed the cut, and blasted a fire ball at it, warning it off. The other one, grabed Duilin, and flew off with him. It's neck lowerd and it prepared to bite Duilin's head. Duilin's arms were in a lock, so he couldn't raise them to blast it's head, yet he wasn't going to give up. He blasted energy and flame, causesing an explotion, killing the wyvern. Duilin was only harmed minorly.
The first wyvern dove down at him, screeching. He grabed the wyvern by the neck, and tossed it, down onto the ground. It hit the icey below with a lowd thud, and Duilin, charged energy and blasted it at the wyvern, killing it.
-
Zeros' held out his hand, which was alight with black flame and caused the attack to rebound, sending it towards Retan. He unsheathed his sword with a flourish and transformed it and sent a wave of pure white flame with black embers, lightning crackling, speeding towards Retan.
----
Ryu flared up his cloak and blocked the attack. He dodged as one wyvern rider tried to spear him. He jumped and slashed, taking the neck of the wyvern and landed gracefully.
-
The dragon hissed as he sprouted two more heads, but these were merely skulls and uncovered with skin. The entire body of the beast was becoming more deformed, his legs and claws much longer than before.
He took Zeros' blast head on, causing him to stubble, but not quite lose his balance. The newly formed left head retaliated by opening its mouth and spewing forth a stream of blue flame at the winged one. The other two heads were focused on Haraldur, and the dragon leapt towards the oversized man, swinging down a massive right claw...
----
Draven twisted his body so that his left shoulder faced the oncoming fireballs, which one of them struck, displacing his spot in the air slightly.
Blast, he knows what I'm up to...
A small dark orb appeared above his raised hand. It swelled a bit before burning a bright red...
Draven's version of Dark Emperor Retan's special!
Crimson-Death Annihilation Attack (CDAA): 10%
-
"Holy shit!" Duilin yelled. As he watched the dragon grew two extra heads.
He saw Draven chargeing up some type of an attack. He flew towards him, and stoped a few feet away.
"Well, well, well, look who bothered to show up." Duilin smirked "What's this, you're up to? Listen, Haraldur is just trying to avenge himself, and frankly there is nothing wrong with it, we have the Light with us, so there will be no harm done. He's accually saveing the worll from monster! And I will not let you screw this up!"
He began charge demon energy, and craft another orb...
//Yeah, I'm accually expecting for Wyverns or the ship to shoot at Duilin or something. I just want Duilin into serious play here, since it's the final battle.//
-
Haraldur moved one of the swords up towards the claw to stop it, and hopefully cut it off. With the other he stabbed towards Alpha Retan.
He smirked when he fully realised Draven's intention: if he could keep the monster here, then it would be in the area when the explosion happened. So would he, and both would perish with the rest of the world.
-
Zeros' grabbed the flame out of the air, a hiss and the smell of burning flesh was soon in the air. He lobbed the fireball back at the dragon and disappeared and re-appeared near the right most head. He brought down his huge sword swiftly, glowing with a white fire.
-
//Very well...
Some kind of ethereal force was causing the weapons to fight past thir normal time limit...
Zero Weapon looked at Draven. Xenai gave the order. "Kick his ass!" Zero Weapon flew over to him, rasing its fists up, and bringing them down toward Draven's head.
Eternity Weapon was very focused on Alpha Retan. Zion's body glowed with light, as did that of Eternity Weapon. The two bodies united, and Ultima Eternity was formed. It brandished its sword, made of pure light energy, at Retan. "Let's go!"
=== === ===
Ultima Eternity ∞
Zero Weapon ∞
-
//Trent, can't you see, you're interfering between a fight between Duilin and Draven?//
"Get it out of the way Xenai!" Duilin commanded, as the Zero Weapon charged at Draven. "It's blocking my aim!" He yells, as he continues to charge the orb.
----
Rink weakly got back to his feet. He walked along the ground, moveing threw a feild of dead wyverns. "Why did I ever come to this world...There is nothing here but death. Hell is even nicer then this."
He looked up at Duilin. Rink was preety far away from everyone. "Well, I did help him out alot...But he's becomeing more, demon-esk. More, evil...So, why do I feal guilty about it."
He sighed "Because of me, Duilin might even have his demon side take over. It happened to his father."
-
Haraldur's blade cut cleanly through the claw, which the dragon drew back quickly so as to parry the second blade. At the same time, the white flame of Zeros' sword tore through the right skull, causing it to disintegrate along with half of the bony neck.
The two remaining heads hissed in synchronized fury. Black tendrils of energy and exposed red muscle wrapped around the remnants of the third neck, and very quickly two more skinless dragon heads emerged from the wound. The now four headed dragon roared to the sky, sending several dozen large spikes of a size capable of impaling a man out from its body in all directions to repel its attackers...
----
Draven's eyes squinted in rage.
"Avenge? Save the world? Are you that blind? Utter foolishness. If you wish to stand in my way, then I'll disintegrate you, gnat."
Having memorized the repetitive incantations, Draven tossed the book aside and pointed two fingers of his now free left hand at Duilin.
But before he could do a thing, the massive fist of the Zero Weapon came slamming down upon him, sending him crashing into the ground. The orb he had been charging eerily remained in place in the air...
Draven darted out of the miniature crater he had be cast into burning with rage.
"XENAI!!"
He shot right up to the gigantic weapon's chest and brought back his burning right fist.
"Worthless toys!"
He let forth a blazingly fast punch that bored right through the thick outer armor plate. With his fist inside, he opened his palm and let loose an explosive blast of crimson energy...
----
Due to broken concentration, the CDAA fades!
CDAA: 5%
-
Ryu aburtly stops fighting the wyvern's and and quickly ran over towards Rink, jumping past dead wyvern corpses and dodging stray bits of magic. He stops near Rink and crouches down to his height, both of his sword still in hand, dripping with blood.
"Don't worry Rink. Zeros' can use some spells to lock away a portion of Duilins power till he trains to harness the demon energy's powers bette," he tried to reassured the small imp. "He won't become like his father," he dropped his voice to a low whisper, "the same thing happened to Zeros' father when he joined Qor. He went insane with the demon power Qor gave him, resulting in his own death. Qor visited Zeros' several times through his thousand years, but each time he was beat back.
So don't worry," he said patting the imp on the shoulder.
----
Zeros' leaned to the left as the one of the heads came his way. One of the spikes grazed Zero's left side, causing him to hiss in pain. He expertly dodged the spikes while parrying or dodging the claw strikes or bites.
"How the hell do we kill this thing!" he yelled out towards Draven and Haraldur. He had met dragon's several time ? even demon and zombie dragon's ? but they were smaller then this one and didn't have multiple heads and regenitive powers ? except the zombie dragon.
He quickly parried the next bite attack the thrust his other hand forwards, a small black sphere the size of a bastket ball with arc's of white tendrils, flew towards the dragon's incoming paw.
-
"Yeah, I supose that's true. Also, I've been haveing trouble senceing Qor's power..." Rink replied "I think...Nevina might have been sucessfull in defeating Qor..." Rink rubbed his chin, and then relized something and sighed "Duilin will be upset to hear this...But I belive Nevina must have also died. Well, that isn't important. We just need to worry about the dragon and these damn wyverns!" "Let's get to work!"
-
"You are going to have to try harder than that, old man.
Haraldur deflects the spikes coming his way, causing them to embed themselves into the ground below.
Seeing the CDAA, he wondered what would happen if it suffered an impact. He reach towards it, and it moved towards him. It circled him while accelerating, before being catipulted at huge velocity towards the dragon. This would be interesting...
-
Ryu glanced warily at Rink and nodded. He jumped back at the wyvern's, his katana's flashing as wyvern's fell to his blades. Blood stained his already crimson cape and black cloak. His metal and human hands were stained red and his sword were glowing an errie crimson color.
Ryu jumped back and swept his sword behind him and threw all his weight forwards on his sword. Several red crescent blades made of blood flew towards the wyvern's. Some managed to dodge, but others fell quickly.
-
The only 5% complete spell slammed into the dragon's side with a muffled explosion, and without much effect... The dragon's rage was building, and he swatted at Zeros' attack, knocking it wildly off course.
In retaliation, he extended all four of his heads with gaping mouths, one pointed at Zeros', one at Zion/Eternity, and two at Haraldur. He held this position for a moment before it became evident what he was doing as the mouths lit with fire. A continuous beam fired from each mouth at each target, circling in vibrant colors through each element. The blast was so intense that it even pushed the mighty body of the dragon back as he fired...
----
Draven shot straight back from his attack, which had built up so much smoke he could not see the damage done to his target. He turned and shot upwards, trying to find a quieter spot to begin casting his spell again.
He spoke to Zeros' telepathically once more:
"I will liquidate them both in one fell swoop. Keep these peons off me!"
He was much higher now, and directly overhead the dragon. He lifted both hands above his head and concentrated intensely. Another orb appeared as before, but was growing faster...
CDAA: 20%
-
//Heh. Sorry, DM.
//Blah! Retan attacked Zion, didn't see it...
The Zero Weapon let out a painful roar as Draven unleashed his energy inside it. It was flung backwards, and put on the ground... It wasn't moving. "What the hell!?" said Xenai.
Zion was poised to charge, but he was stopped from doing so when he went to block the oncoming assult of fire that was targeted at him. "Ugh!" The attack still managed to put him on the ground, but he rolled backwards to his feet.
=== === ===
Ultima Eternity ∞
Zero Weapon (Near incapacitation!) ∞
-
Zeros' immediately sheathed his sword and grabbed the blast heading towards him, reinforcing his hands with ki and magic. As the beam slammed into him, he was pushed back several dozen meters. He grunted in effort. The beam held steady before Zeros' managed to start pushing against it. The beam of magic started to be pushed back slowly, Zeros' beating his wings wildly.
He roared and flung the beam of magic directly at Draven's CDAA, hoping to combine the beam of magic and the CDAA together.
Ryu, Rink, Zion, Xenai, Tsu, Duilin; leave Draven alone. The attacks he's charging is similiar to Retan's MDAA. He's going to use it against the dragon and Haraldur. He mentally said to the said people. Zeros' pulled his sword from its scabbard and transformed it, but this time it was different.
Instead of the rotting flesh smell and sickly black color of rotting flesh, the sword was shining with an ethernal light. The sword didn't become longer, but instead of a thin katana, it became large, wider (think Inuyasha's Tetsugia). The hilt transformed into a long mane of golden fur, reaching past the hilt and trailing down for another foot.
Zeros' features also started to change. His hair slowly became changed from platinum silver to a ethernal white. His black wings started to shift in colors, going from midnight black to a bright white with the tips of the feathers becoming gold. His clothes stayed the same; thought his muscles seemed to almost unnoticable decrease in size as his frame became leaner and more athletic.
//Right know, Zeros' let his god side take over. He basically blocked all his demon blood, effectively making himself full god. He can reactivate the flood flow at anytime. He can also do this with his demon form also.\\
Zeros' flapped his newly white wings and rushed towards the dragon with greater speed, almost twice as fast in his half-demon/half-god mode. He disappeared and reappeared in front of the dragon heads. The distance covered between the two points was almost 100 meters.
With his greater speed, he slashed downwards with his sword, a sonic boom echoing in his wake, as five crescent blades of holy energy streaked towards the dragon.
----
Ryu nodded and continued fighting the wyvern's, dodging and weaving inbetween attacks, trying to dodge as many as he could.
-
One of the beams caught Haraldur's left shoulder, but he managed tom dodge in time to not sustain much damage. He ducked underneath and came up under the necks of the two heads. With his two swords, he slashed towards them to sever the heads.
He put his left sword away in its scabbard, and a ball of swirling dark multicoloured light appeared in his left palm: bitter death anihilation attack, which would grow at an exponential rate, doubling each time.
BDAA: 7%
-
Zeros' looked down at Haraldur and rolled his eyes.
"What's with you guys and attacks that can destroy the world and everyone in it?" he asked curiously.
-
//Edited previous post.
Zion panted heavily, and then charged. Upon coming in range, he executed that flurry of slashes that he intended to do earlier.
Zero Weapon slowly got to its feet, and just stood there, waiting for orders from a confused Xenai. "Oh, jeez... Who to attack?" Zero Weapon twitched a bit, indicating its low vital force.
=== === ===
Ultima Eternity [OK]
Zero Weapon [Low]
-
Duilin narrowed his eyes as he resived Zeros' message. "Whatever..."
The energy orb was at huge size, about 20 feet in diameter. He then looked at Draven, a grined, he faked the move, makeing it seem like Draven was the target, yet he tossed it at the Dragon.
I still can't trust Draven, but I supose we are going to have to need him.
--------------
"Yeah, I'll leave Draven alone," Rink said, as he resived Zeros' message "but I'm not going to be so nice to these damn wyverns!"
He glided up into the air, and created a mini Demon Flame attack, and tossed it at a wyvern's wing, causeing it to crash into another wyvern causeing them to both crash down into the ground and smash threw the ice.
"Whoa! Did you that!" Rink yelled in pride, makeing his first wyvern kill
//I'm aware in post I clearly stated he rapidly fired flame at a bunch, yet I never said that killed them//
-
(No time today, so I'll have to make this short.)
Haraldur managed to sever another one of the heads, but before the dragon could retaliate, four of the five blades of energy from Zeros' attack embedded themselves in the dragon, crippling it as it collapsed under its own weight as Duilin's attack hit and Zion struck his blows...
----
The energy beam augmented Draven's orb, as it did The Dark Emperor's before. Red bolt of lighting cracked about the sky as the clouds turned dark and parted... The crimson orb was approaching 20 feet in diameter.
CDAA: 45%
(Heh... looks like I'm starting a trend...)
-
"Argh! Draven, you're not finishing that, you bastard!" Xenai's body glowed white, as did the Zero Weapon. They united, and Omega Zero was formed. This didn't really help Zero Weapon's condition, though.
Zion jumped back a couple of feet, waiting for Retan's next move.
=== === ===
Ultima Eternity [OK]
Omega Zero [Low]
-
Zeros' faded forwards and reappeared under the dragon's wing. He sheathed his sword and once again shifted forms.
His hair started to darken rapidly, flashing from white to silver to grey and finally to midnight black. His wings flashed in colors too and changed from pure white to an endless color of black, blood right outlining each individual feather, making them errie to look at. His frame grew out in size, expanding his muscles, making him twice as strong as his half-demon form, but his speed decreased.
Instead of the sparkling emerald that his eyes usually held, they were now a crimson red. He threw his hands into the air and extended his fingers like claws. A endless black aura of black sprung from each hand, crackling with crimson lightning. He plunged his hands into the dragon's wing, right where the joint connected to the main body. Blood sprouted from the wound, coating his arms in the crimson liquid.
He grabbed the bone of the dragon's wing in his right hand and with his left hand, grabbed the side of the wing. He clentched his right hand against the bone of the dragon's wing joint and pulled with all his might. With his left hand, he gained a steady hold and dug his fingers into the wing, sprouting more blood to flow. He pulled with all his might with his left hand also.
//What Zeros' is trying to do is rip off the dragon's wing by assuming his full demon form, which is twice as strong as his half-demon/half-god, but also slower. He also gained more ki while his god form gained more magic. If Zeros' is successful in ripping off the dragon's wing, just let him hold it. If not, have him simply knocked away.\\
----
Ryu felt a flash of power and looked up towards Zeros' who was trying to pull the dragon's wing off. He winced. He dodged another wyvern spear, but one of the others grazed his metal arm in the elbow joint. Instead of the spear pulling back, it broke off.
Ryu was startled when he felt his arm break and stop working. He cursed under his breath and sheathed both sword quickly and dodged.
-
Haraldur hovers back a bit, and his sword lengthens. It is now longer than the dragon. He slashes the sword downwards, hoping to slice Alpha Retan in half.
BDAA: 14%
-
The dragon pulled back from Zeros' and the wing became undone. This same motion moved him away from Haraldur's slash as it sunk into the ground. Tendrils of darkness surrounded his wounds, forming two more heads from the severed one. Two more wings began to grow from the gaping socket, although they were quite crooked and looked unsuitable for flight due to their dissymmetry.
The dragon seemed to be getting a bit sluggish in his distorted body...
Zeros' was right in the dragon's face(s) as he returned to his feet. All five of the heads lashed out for him, two surrounding him from each side and one in the middle...
----
"Not long now..."
Draven smirked in the crimson aura of his spell. The massive sphere, now over 40 feet in diameter, was alternating from deep black to bright vermilion as he combined the shadow elemental spell with his own energy...
CDAA: 65%
-
Zion charged in from behind and slashed horizontally with all his might, aiming to cut off all of Retan's heads.
Xenai nonchalantly walked up to Draven and his pretty ball. The merged forms of the weapons, as a reminder, were not that big. Their users simply appeared to be wearing their weapons as armor. He looked up at the ball, floated up, and shoved his hand in. It didn't hurt so much... Zero Weapon was very much of the shadow element. He did however, feel the burning of the fire element, and tried his best to tough it. "I'll be taking that now." Xenai attempted to suck up the energy to improve his condition, and to detract from the ball's completion.
=== === ===
Ultima Eternity [OK]
Omega Zero [Low]
-
Duilin, raised his arm. Let's see if this will work!
He twirled his arm around, and created a circle of energy. He then lowered his arm down, and used his other hand, to craft it into the blade. He basically did it the same way he crafted the orbs, but he made it a different shape.
He had just made an energy blade, he wasn't sure if it would last more then one hit, but it was worth a try. He dove at Alpha Retan and atempted to trust the energy blade into the dragon's chest.
-----
Rink, dodges a wyvern diveing down at him. It smacks down into the ground smashing threw the ice again. He the points up at the dragon "I think they might kill it soon!" He yelled.
-
BDAA: 28%
Realising that now his anihilation attack was at quarter strength, he thought it might now be time to make use of it.
Haraldur shrunk to his normal size, and sped towards and above the dragon, landing on its back. With his now shrunk sword, he sliced into the dragon's back, making a hole with flaps of skin. He put the orb into the hole, and then put the flaps of skin back on top. He seared them with a blast of fire, causing the bits of skin to fuse, keeping the orb trapped in the whole, and rising its' potency to 37%. He jumped off and into the air, and fired an energy down, trying to hit the area of charred flesh.
He telepathed to Zeros': I advise that you get out of there, since I might not miss him.
-
Zeros' barely dodges two of the heads on each side. The one going towards his middle grazes his chest, causing his shirt to rip in half and show his scarred, muscled body. He quickly feinted downwards, using the wing as a shield to block the remaining heads.
He flips backwards in the air and delivers a horse kick to the dragon's wing he pulled off. The wing bends in the middle and the two heads are knocked for a loop. Zeros' quickly shifts forms to his half-demon, ignoring the gash across his chest.
He fades backwards and began to move towards Xenai. He reappeared behind Xenai and forceably removes him from the CDAA, pulling him back from the scruff of his neck. He moves backwards quickly and whispers fiercely in his ear,
"Listen!" he hissed. "We need Draven to kill that damn dragon. Leave his CDAA alone. If you need energy, here," he said, using his free hand to conjure a ball of pure energy using his magic in front of Xenai. He removes his hand from his neck and turns around and uses his wings to break the sound barrier, moving about 500 meters away from the battle field and pulls Ellenna off his back, who is maraculiously unhurt.
He drops her from his hands and murmurs a spell under his breath, causing Ellenna to raised back to his height and float, an invisible shield holding her in the air. He turns around and uses his wings to return to the battle field in seconds, unsheathing his sword.
-
//Aren't we in some super-icy area or something? If so...
Xenai flinched, and looked at Zeros'. "Yeah, but haven't you considered that just maybe this super-icy place might be an ice cap? I don't know where the hell we are, and the last time one of these annihilation attacks were used, it wiped out everything that was there, and more for about 100 miles, I'd say!"
He grabbed the energy, and it shrunk to nothing as he took it in. "...Thanks."
=== === ===
Ultima Eternity [OK]
Omega Zero [OK]
-
(Most creative attack award: Haraldur. Heh...)
Due to their proximity, Zion succeeded in lopping off two of the dragon's heads at once. The open wounds began the regeneration process, but Duilin's sudden blade in his chest distracted the dragon and delayed the heads from reforming as well as allowed Haraldur to perform his surgical incision...
It was too late when the dragon realized the situation. Haraldur's blast connected with the orb of energy in his back... and exploded...
The dragon literally blew apart. A huge gaping hole tore across his back, flapping the skin and wings from his back around the front, even with his chest. Lacking a spinal chord, what was left of the dragon collapsed painfully...
The crimson eyes of the three remaining heads flickered dimly on the cracked ice...
"For me... another beginning... For you... the end looms..."
----
Draven flashed Xenai the dirtiest of looks, as if to say, "You're dead."
The sphere continued to grow, despite the slight interruption in its casting. Draven noted the opportune moment to strike was now... Blast, just a few more seconds...
CDAA: 80%
-
Zeros' realized the moment now. He connected his mind with Zion, Tsu, Xenai, Duilin, Rink and Ryu: It's time to go...now! He said mentally. He sheathed his sword and looked down at the badly wounded dragon. He shook his head in disgust and transformed to his full god body. His increased speed helped him.
He grabbed Ryu by the waist and doged the remaining wyvern's and flew towards Rink's position. He grabbed his by the waist also and tucked him under his arm. He then faded and flew towards where he left Ellenna. He carefully pulled her out of the air and started to fly as fast as he could in the opposite direction of Draven.
While he was flying though, a errie white glow encompased the whole ice island and several miles around it. Zeros' was murmuring under his breath, waiting for Draven to cast his CDAA. His plan was to block the flow of water that would come when the CDAA his the icecaps.
-
The Great Prophet got back onto the boat, and headed southwards.
______________________________________________________________
Haraldur flew south, with a look of purpose on his face.
-
Duilin, hovered in the air for awile.
"Well I guess that anwsers that." He sighed, and then flue off following Zeros'.
-
"Damn!" Xenai took off, remaining merged to retain full speed. He flew off in Zeros' direction. Zion grabbed Tsu and followed, remaining merged as well.
Tsu was quite angered. "What are we doing!? What about Draven?!"
Zion looked down at him. "There's nothing we can do."
"Can't we destroy Draven, or at least prevent the succession of his attack?"
"I wouldn't bank on it. Keep quiet."
=== === ===
Ultima Eternity [OK]
Omega Zero [OK]
-
Zeros' let go of Rink and used his ki to keep Ryu afloat beside him. He fell back towards the Trio. He still held Ellenna in his arm's though.
"Don't worry. The world won't be destroyed by his attack. If you look back towards the area," he said, pointing towards the ice caps, "you can see a ethernal white glow around the area. Once his spell activates and destroys the dragon, that spell will activate. Its called Fusegu Ankokujidai (to protect the Dark Ages); it forms a barrier of earth and rocks hundreds of miles tall and hundreds of miles wide (this spell forms the Grand Canyon. Muhahahahah...)," he said.
"This will keep the access water from overflowing into the Great Ocean's," he explained. "The only problem is it takes almost all of my magic to use this attack. If I start to weaken, then that means the spell was successful; if not, the spell wasn;t successful. We'll just have to wait and see," he said patiently while flying in his god form (this form gives Zeros' twice as muh magic and speed, but less ki and muscle)
-
Rink flue off towards Duilin. "You seemed preety worried, when I almost died there." Rink smirked at Duilin
"Heh, yeah, maybe a little." He replied. He laughed and then, grabed ahold of the imp, since Rink couldnt fly at high speeds for very long.
"Well I was worried to, enspecially when you got alittle angry up there, I thought you were gonna go all, demon and rampage on everyone."
"Hahaha, no not quite. When, I made that blade, it was like I was useing, humen energy or something. I think I can sucessfully balance my humen and demon now." He nodded "But that's not the worry now, the worry is that Zeros' spell will work. But I'm sure it will, he hasn't failed much attacks."
"So, will Draven make it out. Or will this be the end of him?" Rink asked Zeros'
-
Zeros' shrugged.
"It doesn't matter. He won't be destroyed by his own attack. As for my spell, if it works, were safe; if not, the world's flooded," he said, shrugging.
"But..." Ryu started.
"Don't worry," he said, stopping Ryu's comment. "With our combined power, we could burn all the excess water into steam. We'd be extremely weak after it though. I don't recommend it."
-
"I'm just not sure that we should go about this so nonchalantly," said Tsu. "Draven's not exactly weak. If he has enough energy, he could break through your spell..."
"Yeah, he's got a point," said Xenai. "But we'll take care of it when it comes."
=== === ===
Ultima Eternity [OK]
Omega Zero [OK]
-
Draven scowled as Haraldur began to move away.
Blast... I must catch him in the explosion...
The sphere swelled to over 100 feet in diameter. It throbbed with crimson flame and darkness... it could grow no more. Lightning cracked around. The spell was complete...
He arched his back and strained his arms, beginning to pull the nearly unmanageable energy downward.
"Say goodbye!!"
The sphere fell forward over his head and plummeted towards the earth. Without checking to see if his aim was straight (it wouldn't matter anyway) he shot off at full speed perpendicular to the line of flight of the other warriors, knowing all too well what was seconds away...
The dragon lifted one of his heads as the sky above was replaced with a bright crimson...
In an instant, a pillar of flame shot straight through the bottom of the atmosphere and straight down thousands of feet trough the ice. The pillar expanded outwards in all directions, breaking the sound barrier as mountains of ice lifted into the sky and disintegrated into nothing...
-
As he crossed the boundary of Zeros' spell, Haraldur saw that behind him a wall of earth and rock was forming. He stuck his hands into the wall, causing an invisible barrier to appear a few meters on the other side. He took half the blast from the exploding fireball before continuing southwards. Haraldur smiled that there would still be people of such power when he left.
-
Duilin, saw the explotion come and Haraldur, practiclly aborb most of it. Yet some flame still flue by...
"That guy is freakishly powerfull...." Duilin said
Rink, had a tight death grip onto Duilin's arm, as he was scared from the shockingly huge explotion.
"Umm...uhhh...Ma-ma-maybe we should go..." Rink squeeked
-
(Let's end this, say, this Sunday.)
Outward and outward the expanding wall of flame raged, pulverizing the arctic north. A tidal wave appeared in front of the wall as if the ocean were trying to escape the blast. Draven flew madly just before it, a tiny spec compared to the destruction he had caused.
After expanding in all directions for several miles, Zeros' barrier began to take effect, weakening it substantially, but not entirely. The flame broke past the protected region in a weakened state, now just skimming the surface of the planet rather than uprooting it...
-
Zeros' faltered in his flying substantially and began to fall. He fell for about 100 meters before finally regaining his footing and flying back up towards the others level, breathing heavily.
"D-D-Damnit..." he gasped. "T-T-That spell was powerful...." he sighed audiably and began to slow down, falling behind the group while still carrying Ellenna.
"D-Damn Draven..." he looked down an spotted a small island with lots of tree cover. Let's rest down there.... I need to recover.... that barrier spell almost used all my magical energy.... the only thing I can do is wait for it to regenrate, considering only Duilin has demonic magical energy, but he wouldn't have even half my full capacity.... no Offense Duilin, but you have more alot more ki then magic. he said telepathically to his copanions, pointed down towards the small island.
He slowly guided himself and Ryu towards the island. Once he was right above it, he folded his wings inwards and began to drop at tremendous speeds. When he hit the small island in the middle of a clearing, the ground cracked and a crater about 10 feet deep formed, a spider-web of cracks forming outwards as he landed.
He jumped out of the crater and put Ellenna down, leaning on a tree. He sighed in relief and fell onto his back while Ryu landed next to him, sitting in a mediative position.
-
Duilin, swooped down on the island, letting go of Rink, letting the imp fly down and sat in a tree. Duilin stat down next to Zeros' on the opisate side of Kami-Ryu.
"I wonder if the girl will wake up, she's been asleep more then she has been awake." Rink laughed. He created a small fireball, and balanced on his pointer finger, and the flame began to spin around, and he looked deep into the fire, as if it was showing something...
"You going to be allright Zeros'?" Duilin asked
-
The trio flew onto the island, but Zion and Xenai remained merged. Was there anything to remain merged for? The end was nigh. There wasn't any need to keep the weapons out, let alone merged.
...Or was there?
...Most likely not...
...But one can never be too careful...
Mugen Seijin floated a very safe distance above the destruction. "Is that it? That can't be it."
-
The flame carried on for a while longer before it fizzled out. The explosion at the pole had caused the planet to become unstable, and earthquakes spread across the globe. Masses of land began to rise from the sea while parts of the ones that remained began to sink...
Realizing he was totally exhausted, Draven landed on one of these newly sprouted islands-- just a slab of rock and seaweed, leaning heavily on a boulder as he tried to catch his breath...
That other fiend... is he still alive? Draven was too tired to scan the horizon for Haraldur...
-
"I'll be fine..." he said, shaking his head. "I need to recover my magic power though.... I'll be fine in awhile...." he murmured. "If I didn't use that spell, the world wouldn't be here, more then likely. Midgard is already unstable do to the emense magical power Draven used in his attack. Another attack of that magnitude will completely destroy the world.... maybe even this galaxy...." he said mostly to himself.
(When Zeros' is at full power, he can open portal's and jump to other multiverses. It's like this: there would be this world where Retan used the MDAA, but there would be another universe where Retan never used the MDAA and Romme was still standing; or there would be another where Iduran's still alive and the Dark Empire never existed.)
"Is Haraldur still alive?" asked Ryu questonabily. Zeros' sighed and nodded.
"He's alot harder to take out then we thought.... I need to be at my full power and I can take him down by myself.... but right know, I'm weak.... ki will only do so much damage to Haraldur.... I might have to call on some of my more extreme spells to banish him.... Haraldur will never truely be killed.... he's not human enough...." he said.
-
Haraldur reached the centre of the Dark continent, there was an eruption taking place nearby where the ground cracked because of earthquakes.
"Come out..." he whispered. There was a great sighing noise, and a dark blonde haired figure lowered down to the ground.
"My son..." said the entity. He then drew his sword, and Haraldur did likewise. Haraldur slashed towards the figure, but his blow was parried. Melkoth might take a while.
//Anyone can control Melkoth, he is just a normal NPC.//
-
"The planet..." said Zion. "...It's dying..."
"Ain't there anythin' we can do?" asked Xenai.
"Is New Forever strong enough?" asked Tsu. "To stabilize the planet?"
Seijin had appeared near them. "Depends. How much energy you got? How much can you take?" He had a grim, serious look on his face.
-
(Heh, I wanted to end this by tomorrow... Okay, but just a few more days!)
Draven struggled to look up. Another battle was ensuing far away...
"Blast it..."
He was too exhausted to even stand up, let alone fly. He could do nothing but sit there and try to recover...
----
Melkoth leapt back and extended his blade horizontally before him, holding the tip with the other hand. Black clouds engulfed the ravaged surroundings and great bolts of lightning began to strike Haraldur's vicinity like droplets of rain, tearing the ground to shreds...
-
"Gaia..." he murmured. "Give me enough magical energy and I can summon the spirit of the planet.... she may be able to help us...." Zeros' stuggled to his feet, still feeling magical exhasution. Ryu ran quickly to his side and supported him with an arm of his shoulders. Zeros' flashed him a smile and grimced. Zeros' focused all his ki and magic outwards. Ryu helped by doing the same thing.
Soon, all around groups area, green and blue pinpricks of light that looked like fireflies started to swirl around them.
"Focus your energy outwards from your body...." Zeros' said. "I-If you can, we might be able to call the spirit of Midgard and Gaia to help stabilize the planet.... N-Normally I'd have enough eergy to do this, but the barrier...." Zeros' flattered for a moment, but Ryu quickly held him upright.
Off into the distance, more green and blue pinpricks of light started to appear, swirling and dancing in the nonexistant breeze. Both of Zeros' hands started to carve runes into the air, the runes glowing with an ethernal power.
D-Draven.... focus what's left of your magical energy outwards.... I-I'm tying to summon the spirit of the planet.... s-s-she might be the only one able to stop Haraldur and Melkoth.... he said through telepathy.
-
//Can the others see Seijin, or is he some spirt?//
It's true, Nevina really did do it... Rink thought to himself as he stared into the flame I better wait, to tell Duilin... He grabed the flame, and smothered it. And then hopped down.
"Spirt Of The Planet eh." Duilin said "Allright..."
Focus, my energy...okay... Duilin, then focused his energy out of his body...
Rink nodded and did the same.
-
//I can do it quickly if you like, Xorlak.//
Just as the bolts of lightning were about to hit him, one of Haraldur's parts split off, becoming a long metal staff. The lightning bolts were earthed through this, then the staff reattached.
Haraldur swung his sword towards Melkoth, despite the fact he was out of reach. As it swung, the sword lengthened, and was going to slice through Melkoth's abdomen...
-
//Seijin's real, but he can't give any energy. He's just an NPC.
"Do it," said Seijin.
Zion gave a heavy breath, and looked at himself. "Are these guys staying out because this is their last stand?"
"It'd make sense," said Xenai, looking Omega Zero over. "Looks like it's time for these guys to go."
Tsu started charging up energy, preparing for New Forever.
Zion held his hands straight up, and his body glowed pure white. Eternity Weapon had withdrawn, and its entire being was compressed into a small white ball above Zion's hands.
Xenai did the same thing, except turning pure black and withdrawing a ball of black energy.
"Tsu, get ready! Hold nothing back! Zeros' needs EVERY BIT we can give!" said Zion.
"Put everything you've got into this one!" said Xenai.
-
(No problem. It's over when it's over.)
Draven's brow twitched as the horizon began to glow with points of blue and green.
"Spirit of the planet? Ridiculous! I refuse to waste my energy on such fairy tales!"
His teeth clenched as he struggled to stand up.
----
Melkoth swung his sword diagonally downwards and his blade lengthened as well. The two blades met at the midpoint with a ferocious clang and he pulled his back in the opposite direction, using the momentum to spin around 360 degrees. As he came around, he aimed the gigantic sword well under Haraldur's feet and it split the ground like paper.
The opposite patches of ground the father and son were standing on began to separate and, as Melkoth brought his left hand to the sky, the crack billowed with lava, forming a wall between them. He thrust his hand forward and the 100 foot tall wall of molten rock began to fall upon Haraldur...
-
The runes began to grow larger, the points of light started to swirl faster. New colors began to appear as the clouds still left in the sky started to swirl and move wildly. All around the planet, the Earth started to shake wildly. Wind started to pick up as Zeros' moved his hands faster and faster.
The runes carved into the air started to rise and grow, glowing brighter and brighter with each movement before noone could look into the sky without being blinded.
"NOW! TRANSFER THE ENERGY INTO THE EARTH!" Zeros' shouted and slammed his hands into the Earth, his left hand glowing holy white, his right glowing midnight black with flames crackling.
Ryu unsheathed his swords, glowing ruby red and sapphire blue respectively into the Earth. The Earth started to shake more wildly as natural phenomenon started to occur randomly.
----
As the energy fluxed, the cracks formed in the Earth began to reform. Trees that were burnt or uprooted were returned to their natural glory. Young saplings became towering trees that swayed in the breeze.
-
Tsu held up the ball of neutral energy. Zion put Eternity Weapon in the ball, and Xenai put Zero Weapon in. The ball swirled wildly with the energy. Tsu took the ball in, absorbing it into his body. The amount of energy there was was inconcievable. He was forced to eject the wings he'd recieved earlier in order to handle it all, but it continued to pulse within him. It was changing him.
"KYAAAAAA!!!!!"
Tsu's hair flashed rapidly, turning white, his eyes flashing and turning gold. His wings grew enormously, turning gold, and his entire being glowed with a bright light. Arch-Angel... //A transform from a side project of mine... Heh.
Zion and Xenai stepped back, and Seijin watched with a smile on his face. Tsu pointed his hands at the ground. "New Forever!!!"
The energy erupted from his hands in a bright flash. It enriched the Earth, speeding up the process of healing it. The entire existance of the Eternity and Zero Weapons were put into this. They were sacrificed to heal the planet.
-
Haraldur copied Zeros' phasing technique, and ran quickly around the wall, and behind Melkoth. As he did this he swung the sword towards his father's neck...
-
Duilin, slamed his fists down onto the ground aswell. His energy flowed into the earth, Rink's energy flowed into Duilin and down into the earth.
Life began to form. Animals, that were nearly wiped out by the destrution of the planet, began to appear.
Duilin's skin seemed to change back to normal, his wings did not dissappear yet they were rid of the crooked meancing horns, and evilish features.
"I think..." Duilin gasped "...that might have did it..."
-
The ground glowed bright and th pinpricks of light fluxed even more wildly and he wind began to blow at Mach 1.... then it al suddenly stopped.
For a moment, it seemed that it didn't work. Then, a thin green, white and blue beam of energy erupted from the island the group was on. There was a defeaning explosion and a flash brighter then a thousand suns. The Earth shook wildly for a moment before any damage done to the Earth began to fix.
Cracks in the earth reformed, flowers blossomed and saplings became towerin trees. Islands that were sunkken by unnatural means began to rise from the ocean (like Retan's MDAA.
Romme rose again. The trees towered taller then ever, the grass green then before and the flowers seemd to glow.
All of his happened in a few seconds.
----
Back with Zeros' ground, the light was still bright. As the light faded, a figure could be seen.
(Gaia is an NPC. She would be rated.... VERY powerful, Melkoth and Haraldur's level.)
Standing in the middle of the island was a tall feminine figure. She had long, golden blone hair that reached to the floor, swaying in a nonexistant breeze; she wore a robe of pure white and green that seemed to flow off her perfect feminine figure. Her hands were clasped in front of her, a serene expression on her face. On her head was a circlet made of wood, vines and leafs.
The woman also had two, large pure white angel wings outlined in a white-green - they were easily three times the size of her body. She also seemed to glow with an ethernal light, telling anyone of hidden powers she held.
Slowly, she blinked and opened her eyes which were a startling emerald green with gold iris's. A smile lit up her face as she observed the group.
"Hello," she said, her voice sounding serene, as if the balad of a thousand angels, soothing and taking away any worries. She folded her wings and gazed at the group. Her smiled growed as she laid eyes on Seijin.
"Hello, Seijin," she said serenely.
-
"Hey, Gaia," said Seijin. "It's been a while."
Zion, Xenai, and Tsu were taken aback by the goddess's beauty. "You... You know her?" asked Tsu.
"Yup." //Next part can be ignored if you think light-heartedness isn't needed now, or if you think Gaia's too good for Seijin. Razz// "Graduated from high school with her. Went to prom with her, actually. We pulled the most awesome prank on Hades."
-
"Yes," she laughed heartily. "Those were the better times." Her face suddenly turned serious as she gazed at the group. "Now, what is the purpose for summoning me, other then the obviousness of my planet suffering because of the sin's of man," she frowned. Her eyes glassed over and her gaze seemed a thousand miles away before she came to attention again.
"Ma'am," Zeros' said, bowing with a flourish. He seemed to be least affect by her beauty, whilst Ryu was stunned with a glazed look; even his crimson eye stopped entirely. "We have summoned you because of the recent.... problems on Midgard and Gaia," he said heavily and started to lean on Ryu again, who quickly snapped to attention. "I'm sorry.... I could not sufficently protect the planet...." he trailed off, seemingly ashamed.
Gaia crossed the distance with her white robes flowing off her form and lifted his chin with her elegent hand, forcing his bright green eyes to focus on her equally green and warm eyes.
"It ok, child," she soothed. Zeros' seemed to relax slightly. "Much to my dismay, I have witness the events of the past eon's. How man kind destroyed the earth.... but I also had the pleasure to see how certain people tried their hardest to protect the world. That, is what gives me the greatest warmth," she said serenely. "Now please tell me why you have summoned me," she added.
Zeros' already knew she knew, but humored her anyways. "Its because of Haraldur and Melkoth. I have had the displeasure of meeting Melkoth during one of my demension travels. Normally, I would be able to match them, but because of Draven's attack and myself putting up the barrier, I have been weakened too much to even stand a chance against anyone here," he said sorrowfully.
"I understand, my child," she said pleasently. "Now we must decided what to do about them or I fear the world may be destroyed by their battle," she added and looked around the group. Her eyes fell on Ellenna's sleeping form and she frowned again and moved towards her in long strides. When she reached her, she opened her wings fully and placed a gentle hand on her forehead, her frown deeping.
"I see," she murmured quietly. Her hand glowed a gentle greena and white as she wrapped her wings around her protectively, willing her awake.
(Gaia is an NPC.... anyone can control her.)
-
"Wha-- what in blazes...?"
Draven was stunned by the regeneration around him. Even the barren island he was on was sprouting plants. He sensed a warm inviting presence that seemed to slightly replenish his sapped strength.
"Impossible..."
No amount of chaos or destruction could impress this battle hardened man. But this regeneration, this regrowth... was completely foreign to him...
His curiosity won over his fatigue, and he took to the skies, slowly approaching the source of this strange power.
----
The rejuvenation stopped before it could near the father and son, as the battle was much too intense to allow it...
The blade clipped the tip of Melkoth's hairs as he ducked, and he began to spin rapidly with his own blade outstretched. A fearsome tornado emanated from his body, digging deeply into the earth and spewing massive boulders skyward and towards his son...
-
"Amazeing..." Rink gasped "Gaia. Good to see you."
"Um, yes. Who are you little one?" Gaia asked
"An ex servent of the dark god Qor. I highly belive he has passed." Rink asked
"Interesting. But yes, I belive I herd of that happening." Gaia
"Yeah..." Rink said softly "I'll have to stop you right there, I know how it happened, we'll talk about later. The half demon dosen't need to hear it right now..."
"Um, miss Gaia..." Duilin said "You probably allready know this, but that women, is known as The Light, and an old Prophet told me that if she if present when Haraldur finishes his revenge, then the world, ahem, 'won't' end..." He paused for a second "Is that your plan madam?"
-
Gaia shook her head.
"No, young one, it is not. I sensed her in a deep enduced sleep. For what reason she was in it, I have no clue," she sighed and shook her head. She then looked at Duilin. "Even if this is true, I am waking her because she need a chance to live again; a right everyone should have, no matter how evil or pure they are. Because life is one of the most precious things you can cherish in this realm," she said serenely.
-
One of the rocks hit Haraldur's hand, causing his sword to be knocked away, but it went back towards him and merged with him. Haraldur jumped towards Melkoth and grabbed his neck, and began to squeeze...
-
"Well, if Haraldur finishes his revenge, then if what the Prophet said was true, then the world will be destroied." Duilin replied "If we can't find Haraldur, then what will we do?"
-
Gaia placed Ellenna back on the ground and straightened and looked at Duilin.
"You seem to forget that this is my Earth.... I control this Earth and Midgard.... I can banished people from the mortal plane if I wish, but I have never done it, for one i've never have a reason and another was it takes too much effort to extract the soul from the body..." she said mildly as if talking about the weather.
-
Xenai didn't have so much trouble now. "So yer sayin'... Haraldur kills Melkoth... BOOM! World destroyed... But... This is your planet so you can cancel out this propecy...?"
"Or are you saying," said Zion, "That someone's gonna have to destroy Haraldur and Melkoth?"
"Or..." said Xenai, "Are you sayin' somethin else?"
-
Gaia blinked and smiled at them.
"I can cancel out the power of those two's fight.... but in the process, I would be destroyed to save the Earth.... I cannot cancel the prophecy though.... destroying both Haraldur and Melkoth would cancel the effects though.... but right know, the people capable of it are too weak...." she sighed and shook her head. "Though I've never had to fight before, it seems I may have to use my powers now," she said, upset at the idea.
-
Draven landed behind some shrubbery behind the goddess, not so close as to attract much attention, but close enough to hear the conversation taking place. He rubbed his shoulder that was still sore from a while back and tried to catch his breath...
----
At first Melkoth did not flinch and reacted with the same motion, grabbing his son's neck in return. The auras of the two warriors clashed violently, mauling the surrounding landscape... But Melkoth's grip loosened slightly as Haraldur's tightened. His knees buckled as he tried to regain the upper hand...
-
Ignoring the choking of his own neck, Haraldur turned his hands into two sharp sickles, which sliced Melkoth's head off. Melkoth's lifeless body fell to the blood soaked ground, before burning.
Haraldur telepathed to Zeros': If you wish to save the world, do it now.
__________________________________________________________
The Great Prophet, still on his ship heading to the Dark continent, had been amazed by the rising and flowering of many islands. His heart now sank when he saw them begin to wither and sink again. Zeros' and company would have to act soon...
__________________________________________________________
Ellenna started to float a few millimetres off the ground, it was almost imperceptible. The Great Prophet's face appeared above her, saying: "Do it now!"
-
Gaia smiled sernely and place her palms out in front of her and pointed them at Zeros'. Her hands started to glow white and green as did the whole groups bodies.
As suddenly as it started, it stopped - but there was a difference. Everyone was fully recharged and not a hint of exhaustion was left. She turned on Zion and Xenai and smiled at them.
"I am sorry I could not bring back your machines....this is my last gift to you...." she whispered as her form started to fade. "I will watch from the side lines.... you must defeat Haraldur or the Earth and Midgard are doomed...." she waved her hands over the group and they started to glow white again. "Good luck....my son...." she glanced at Zeros' for a moment and with that, she faded from view and the planet flourished with energy.
----
When the light faded, Zeros' found himself looked directly at Haraldur with the island he was on floating behind him. He kept his god form activated and unsheathed his Masamune, transforming it into its godform as well. Zeros' put a hand on his trenchcoat and undershirt and threw them away, landing on the island. He waved his hand and Ellenna's body floated over and stood behind him.
Stay on the island.... none of you will be able to stand up to Haraldur.... even Duilin can't because he lost most of his bloodrage.... if I die.... I'm sorry.... but do not interfear.... this fight is between me and Haraldur.... plus, you guys have to kill him if I fail.... he telepathed to everyone, including Draven and cut off the link harshly.
He pointed his transformed sword directly at Haraldur, the white fur of the sword flowing in the harsh wind.
"Hello, Haraldur," he said calmly, his face betraying no expression other then his shocking emerald green eyes that seemed to burn with power. He waved his hand and Ellenna's body floated in front of him and up to Haraldur's eye level. He lowered his sword slightly. A glow enveloped his body again, blinding the surrounding area. When it cleared, Zeros' stood again with pure white hair with ten wings that were at least five times as big as his body and they were golden.
-
"Whoa... WOOO! Thank you so much, Gaia!" Zion gave a hearty laugh, and he was rarin' to go.
"HELL YES! You ROCK!" Xenai was obviously invigorated as well.
Tsu's regeneration was good news to him in that he was about to drop out of his transformation.
"Zeros', you idiot!" said Tsu. "Don't be so selfish! Gaia did not regenerate us all so that you can fight alone! Whatever you're fighting for can't possibly be more important than the good of the planet! Get some sense! It's not you versus Haraldur! It's US versus Haraldur and Melkoth!"
-
Zeros' gave him a half-lidded stare.
"I said that because Draven is hiding behind the bushes and I am not quite sure of his alliance.... and Melkoth is already dead. I felt his lifeforce fading. As for fighting alone, I only said against Haraldur.... he can also split into different forms.... so.... " he trailed off and turned his attention back towards Haraldur, his sword still half-way up and half-way down.
-
"Let him go."
Draven was now standing behind Tsu. He folded his arms, looking much more refreshed, and thus sporting a much more defined smirk.
"I get the winner..."
-
Haraldur smiled at Zeros', before lifting his arm up. He seemed pull at the air, and Ellenna floated towards him. He lay her down on a soft patch on the ground, and then stood up again.
He turned to Draven and said, quite calmly, "All the others are dead. You are the only one that lives still. I wish for vengeance on you, and to rid the world of you. Whether Zeros' helps me or not, you I will kill, or die in the attempt, in which case you will die anyway, Draven."
Haraldur spread his arms out wide, and a misty white light seemed to permeate the surroundings. //Zeros', Duilin Tsu etc. should have extra strength or whatever for a few rounds.//
"Come and get me," he said.
-
"So what do we do?" asked Zion.
Tsu just stood there and waited, glancing quickly at Draven.
-
"Good question..." Duilin responded "But apparently, Haraldur has to now kill Draven. I belive we might be able to trust Haraldur, he just needs to finish his vengeance and with the Light here, there is no reason to stop him."
I just hope the girl won't be killed...
-
Zeros' shook his head resolutely.
"Haraldur, stop trying to play god. You've probably already pissed off plenty of gods up in Asgard sporting all your 'I'm-so-good-I-can-kill-everyone' crap. And you should be lucky god's can't interfer directly with the world or you'd have plenty of them barring down on you right now.... I'm even lucky I'm allowed to, although I'm not controlled by Kami-sama or Hild-sama," said Zeros' sadly.
"Its time to die Haraldur. The fates are on my side," said Zeros' before shifting into his final form. Zeros' glowed again and flashed as the light enveloped the area and exploded outwards with unimaginable power. Trees were torn from their roots, mountain's crumbled and waves reached towering heights.
Dark clouds gathered around the area as a ethernal barrier shimmering into existance for a mile around. Any land that was their was pushed out of the way. The clouds started to pour rain as thunder crackling across the sky, the god's showing their support for the hero's.
As the light receeded, there stood Zeros'. Instead of the ten wings, he had two huge angel wings - the right one pure black outlined in crimson red and the left one pure white outlined in gold. His hair had a base of midnight black with white streaks. The scars still litered his body, but instead the formed complicated runes using the scars as connecters. His left eye was pure white and his right was midnight black.
His sword was the same, but it glowed with an almost unnoticedable ethernal glow. The fur on the sword receeded and barely brushed his hands. It was now pure white with midnight blacks streaks forming patterns.
"Come," said Zeros' with a dual voice. One pitch was soft and the other was hard. "We fight now Haraldur." Zeros' faded from view and reappeared in front of Haraldur. He swung his sword with such speed it seemed to disappeared instead of blur.
-
"Ha ha ha ha ha!!"
Draven threw his head back, billowing in laughter.
"Oh my, so now you actually want to fight? I'll be right here when you're done with fly-boy," he shouted back to Haraldur.
He didn't move as Zeros' began his attack. His eyes trailed off to the girl lying upon the ground. What is so important about her anyway...?
-
Duilin narrowed his eyes and nodded.
"I supose Zeros' has a good point to stop Haraldur. He's become to power crazy." He then shifted his eyes toward Draven.
"Um, Duilin?" Rink meeped, wile tugging on Duilin's leg
"What?" He responded
"What are we going to do? I mean, I'm not sure if it would be best to fight Haraldur, and we might need Draven if Zeros' fails."
"I hope Zeros' dosen't fail, I cannot tolorate fighting against Haraldur along side with Draven, or vice versa, I can't trust either of them, I'd fight both of them if I had the strengh, I shouldn't have given up my bloodrage, we could have summond Gaia without it!"
"No we couldn't, you almost gave as much power as Zeros' did!"
"Perhaps...but we need to be prepared. I don't like the way Draven's eyes move..."
Duilin, narrowed his eyes, they gave a slight glow. He still had greater power, but not as much as he did before. His demon side was looseing the battle, yet with Draven in his presence it was makeing his demon side want to come back and take over, it would be good thing, yet that could possibly lead to coruption, and Zeros' needs his powers to stop Haraldur not him.
-
Haraldur rose, and lifted Ellenna up with him.
"In that case I will not weaken you before you fight Draven, especially if you think so little of me."
He moved back from Zeros' sword, and jerked. Ellenna awoke, and seemed terrified at being so high up and clung onto him. On Haraldur's surface, pictures of his parts swirled around, before getting close to eachother. Their shapes seemed to become more sylised, before they touched and it revealed they were parts of a puzzle, which was now complete. The lines between the parts began to glow with a white light, which then filled the whole area, blinding everyone near. Above a large whooshing noise, screams of pain could barely be heard. After a few seconds, the white light was gone, and there was nothing there.
Suddenly, where Haraldur had been a moment ago, the great phrophet appeared, before falling heavily on the ground. A muffled swear word escaped through his teeth before he muttered, "I hate my own prophecies..."
-
"Holy crap!" Rink called as Haraldur dissappeared
"What the hell!?" Duilin yelled, he ran towards The Prophet "Were did they go!?"
-
"Damn," said Tsu.
Zion looked upon Tsu, watching him clench his fists. Tsu had a new confidence about him, a new strength, that wasn't just because he was transformed.
"Where the hell did the girl go!?" asked Xenai, in surprise and rage. "Don't we need her? Where the hell's Haraldur!?"
-
Zeros' folded his wings inward and lowered his sword. He narrowed his eyes in concentration as he held both his palms out and began to chant. His wings burst out again and began to flap wildly as his arms traced intracate patterns in the air and runes started to appear again, glowing with power. His hands started to blur and disappear as thousands of runes began to lite up the air and the area around him crackled with magical energy.
He finished with a flourish, bringing his palms into the sky as lightning crackled around him. When he was done, there was another bright flash of white light and a portal of swirling black and white energy appeared on the island. In the portal, it showed Haraldur and Ellenna through the watery surface.
"Its a locator spell. It will transport you near the target's magical aura," said Zeros' in his dual voice. "Come, if you want," he said. "Be warned, you may be seperated from the group once you step in."
Zeros' fell from the sky and stepped in. He unsheathed his sword and turned it into its god form. All around him was an endless void of black. Haraldur and Ellenna were nowhere to be seen, but he was counting on that.
"HARALDUR!" he bellowed. "COME AND FIGHT ME!"
----
Back on the floating island, Ryu shook his head and entered the portal. He was in the same endless void of black with noone in clear sight. He shrugged and walked forwards.
-
//Er... this was Haraldur's suicide, you know...//
-
//You should have made it more clear. But I knew that. Zeros' you should edit your post//
-
(Heh... Good place to end. Let's wrap up in two days (the 22nd).)
Draven watched with a raised eyebrow as Haraldur vanished, keeping his arms folded. He had seen many teleportation spells lately. This did not look like one...
-
"I get the feeling he's not coming back," said Tsu. He turned to Draven. "Now what about you?"
-
(No! Not Sunday! I'm busy then! I'll be at my dad's and I'm going to see Star Wars III! Can't we make it later?)
"He's gone isn't he..." Duilin groaned "So Draven, you happy now?" He turned around "I subgest you either run or fight. The world can't be safe with you in it! Yet again, now you have nothing! The weapons are gone and your army is dead. You have nothing left, Draven!"
-
Zeros' smiled into the void and sheathed his sword and let his powers drain out of him. He did not sense Haraldur presence. His hair shifted back to its silver and his retreated into his back, his muslces relexing. He waved his hand and Ryu was called to his position. Ryu looked up at Zeros' questionabily and Zeros' only smiled. Ryu nodded his assent and disappeared with a shimmer, his two sword and the blood red eye clanking to the ground.
//Ryu was never real. Zeros' made him using his powers.\\
Zeros' then turned and held out his palm and made a slicing motion. A shimmer in the air could be seen and Zeros' stepped into it. With a shimmer of displaced air, Zeros' disappeared.
//Zeros' was actually in Limbo. He wanted to make sure Haraldur's spirit was gone forever. The spell he cast was a tracing/teleporting spell. It traced the users aura and teleported them there. Since Haraldur was dead, it sent Zeros' to Limbo.\\
----
Back on the island, a small, almost unnoticable cut formed behind some trees and Zeros' stepped out of the worm hole. He leaned against a tree and sighed, rubbing his fingers to his temple.
"Don't count me out yet.... It'll take moe then a trip to Limbo to finish me off..." he said
-
"Were did Kami-Ryu go!? Did he make it back?" Rink asked Zeros', sounding a little worried.
-
There was a rumbling sound, and, all around the Dark continent, new land was rising up, finally resulting in it having doubled its size.
________________________________________________________________
"So, the lands did rise up. What happens next I wonder?" said the Great Prophet.
-
(Okay, Monday then. And that's final!)
Draven's head tilted towards Duilin.
"My my, ungrateful aren't we?"
A flash of heated air pushed downwards from him, glowing crimson at the tips. The man began to float. He turned to Zeros'.
"The job is done. Our alliance has come to an end. The next time we meet, we shall be adversaries once more... I look forward to that day, my worthy opponent..."
Crimson flame engulfed his body and he took off, disappearing over the horizon as night began to fall.
Before he disappeared, Draven contacted Zeros' telepathically, his voice ringing in his mind...
"You are much better than these earthly fools. Don't allow them to hold you back..."
-
"Cowardly bastard..." Duilin muttered. "I'll be looking foward to fighting him again..."
He turns around and walks off abit... "sigh..."
-
Zeros' grinned in anticipation and sent a message telepathically towards Draven.
"Our next fight will be our last. I look forwards to it and noone shall interrupt. And don't worry, next time you'll finally see the full extent of my strength...
Zeros' stood from his position and turned and looked towards Duilin.
"Ryu was never real. I used my power to make a body to act like a real person," he said. He looked towards the sky and smiled. He sat down on the ground and folded his arms behind his head, leaning back.
"Now it is time for us to wait.... The final battle draw's nearer.... our next confrintation with Draven will be our last.... the battle with shatter the heavens and shake the earth to its core.... get some sleep. We will need out strength," he murmured sleepily. He closed his eyes and let the wind waft over him and feel asleep in seconds.
-
"What do you mean 'our'?" said Tsu. He crossed his arms, letting his transformation fade out. "It's obvious that you want to do everything yourself." He laid down and let sleep come.
Zion noticed it too, but decided not to say anything. He laid down and fell asleep. Xenai was already out.
-
"Well, I'm going to help Zeros' fight Draven. He enslaved me for a large fraction of my life, with the Dark Empire. I to, have a vengance..."
He crosses his arms, and folds his wings. A vision of his smashing Darion's face comes back to his memory and he flinches as he remembers Pophin's spear nearly impale him.
"Duilin," Rink said "I think you're getting alittle to angry with him, I thin-"
"Shut it Rink..." Duilin interupted. "And I don't see why we don't fight Draven now, Haraldur gave us enough strength to fight a nest of Red Dragon's before he killed himself."
He picked up a stone, and threw it in a near by pond, it skipped across it.
-
As the last rays of the sun fell behind the horizon, chaos seemed to give way to peace... another cycle completed...
To be continued...
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 6</span>
Five years later...
"AHHHHH~!!!!"
It was a scream in the distance, its source hidden by the thick blanket of early morning fog. The black cloaked warrior listened intently, trying the determine the direction. It was from his right, definitely deeper within the town...
He had stumbled upon this village during his travels, not knowing its name, let alone his exact whereabouts... The buildings silently stood around him, their figures reduced to black boxes in the thick fog.
A dark figure dimly appeared in the mist on the dirt road ahead, in the direction of the eerie scream. The visitor did move, instead waiting for the figure to move closer. Perhaps this person knows what is going on... As the figure approached, it became evident that it was limping, moving rather erratically...
"Hello, there!" the black clocked visitor shouted, "is... everything all right?"
The figure did not respond, instead moving closer and closer, until it was visible through the fog. It was a pale man, clothes tattered, bits of skin missing, exposing muscle and bone... it was undead...
"... uhhhhhhh ...."
"Oh, for the love of--!!"
The cloaked visitor jumped back as the zombie lunged at his face. In the same motion, the visitor drew the long sword upon his back, producing a bright silver blade that cut the fog. The slash was smooth and fluid, decapitating the zombie's head and right arm. It fell to the dirt road, lifeless.
The cloaked warrior brought the blade to his right side, angled down, and listened... The ground creaked around him... the dirt shifted and rotten hands sprung from the earth.
"... uhhhhhhhhh..."
Five or six zombies had him surrounded, with more on the way. He lifted his blade above his head in attack position...
"Great..."
-
Just then, a mysterious warrior appeared out of nowhere, pulling out a massive, golden sword, preparing to attack one of the zombies with all his might!
"Prepare yourself, creatures of darkness!!"
"YAAAAAAAAAA!"
The man then stood there, and looked upon the zombie, waiting for a "response..."
-
Duilin, found himself in the firey cavern, he had seen so many times before. He just walked down, without even thinking of it. He's been threw this so many times before, he can't get out of it, he looses control, he wants to run away but he can't, he just keeps moveing. Suddenly, the specture appeared from last time, he battled it again. He swung his punches and kicks repeatedly at it, but it was no use. He felt anger and hate, he didn't know why, he just did. Horns grew from his forehead, another set of wings grew, his skin darkened with red, and his eyes glowed shineing starts in the night sky. Instead of killing the spector this time, he reached his hand out to it, and it reached his. They both began to merge. Duilin screamed wanting it to stop, and enventually, he woke up, back in his bed.
He fixed up his house. He was able to make money off of becomeing a craftsmen. Rink theived money, for him. Duilin wanted him to stop, but times he rough and he needed the money. The people of the town seemed to have gotten used to Duilin's appearance, but they still feared him and insulted him behind his back. Duilin, dosen't care, to hell with them, he says.
"Duilin!" Rink yells "Duilin, the land lord's knocking at the door."
"Allright..." Duilin replies "I've got it, I've got it..." He walks over to the door and opens it up. He looks at the beared man, he was in his mid fortys, and he had a muddy working cloths, and he allways had a look on his face like he had something to complain about.
"Duilin! Do you have any idea what day it is?" The land lord yells
"Ummm, Wendsday?"
"Yes, and you bill is a month over due! You have 10 minutes to get the hell out!"
"What!? You said I had another week!"
"Yes and that was two weeks ago. Get out!"
"...Fine..."
---------
"Marshal, what was that?" A man wearing blue colthing, and very light armor, of blueish tint and an iron helmet with two horns, on his head.
"I'm not sure, it sounded like yelling and screaming." A man wearing the same uniform replied. "Let us investigate."
The two were warrior mages of the cult know as the Blue Minotaur. They belive that the creatures of the gods were put on the planet for us to use to protect others. It was a small group, that lived in a mysterious pyramid like temple. The one Marshal had been in the group since he was born, his parents were high ranked mages in the group and Marshal hopes to follow in there footsteps.
The both arived were two mysterious warrior were battleing the zombies.
"We should aid them, my brother." Marshal subjested. The two nooded at each other and each held up a small staff made of steel, at the end was a saphire. As they lifted it up the saphire glowed. And two blue bird shaped phantoms appears above them, and both unfaded to the shape of Albatrashes. The two birds flue at a zombie and began ripping it apart.
-
Meanwhile, the warrior was stunned by a sudden darkness, which brought him to the ground. He heard a dark laugh in his head...
"Ha ha ha ha ha haaa..."
"What the hell?!" said the warrior! "Who are you?"
"I am the one who will be the doom of all of you, Aminaga Ragtunos...."
Aminaga could then only watch, as he is tortured by the mysterious shadow...
-
High above the sky, above the clouds, a rift slowly appeared in the sky. It grew bigger and a flash of silver was seen before a figure jumped out of the rift and started to slowly hover in the air.
Zeros' crossed his arms and gazed down at the ground. He hadn't changed at all. The two black wings behind his back steadily kept him afloat in the air as he studied the ki levels. He smiled sadly. He swivled his head and stared at a spot in the horizion. He uncrossed his arms and pulled his legendary sword, Masamune (the sword of daemon's), from it's sheath and sliced in the air.
A thin line appeared in mid-air. He reached out his left hand and pulled it apart and stepped in, disappearing from the sky.
----
Behind Duilin's land lord, a thin line appeared, from which it grew larger. A flash of silver was seen and Zeros' stepped out, folding his wings behind him, not bothering to hide them from sight.
The land lord nodded and went to turn, but ran into Zero's chest. He was about to yell at him for being reckless, but then he noticed the dark, angel wings and long sword and paled. He fell down and started to scamper backwards.
He opened and closed his mouth several times, but finally his throat seemed to open and he let out a primal scream of terror.
-
"My thanks," the dark cloaked warrior said, his back to the man with the golden sword. But he quickly noticed the man was in pain.
"Are you... all right...?"
This was no time to talk, as a second and third zombie were quickly upon him.
"Gyah!!"
He spun around and clumsily chopped off an approaching arm (having had his attention diverted). The second slash was much more skillful, severing the torsos of the two attackers at once. They plummeted to the ground in pieces...
-
"Thank you for helping me..." The man then restored himself using his chaos powers. He had of course been freed from the mysterious shadow this had meant, however, he still had yet to find out who was behind it...
The man then walked away into the far distance, shouting,
"The name's Ragtunos, Aminaga Ragtunos..."
-
//May I ask where in the world this is taking place? Laus? I need to know for my characters.//
-
"What?" Duilin gasped. He then grabed his land lord as he fainted in shock.
"What the hell is goin' on here?!" Rink asked as he glided to the ground from outside the door.
"Zeros'? Is that you? Wait...well of course it is, who else looks like that. Well why are you here?" Duilin asked
--------
Another pair of zombies came there way to the two Blue Minotaur mages. On grabed Marshal, and began biteing his arm, and the other one bit his allys neck. The Albatrashs flue towards there masters to the rescue. The giant birds riped apart the zombies with there claws. Marshal, fell to the ground holding his arm, and his ally fell to the ground, with his eyes shut.
-
Zeros' shrugged nonchalantly and looked up at the sky, crossing his arms again and closing his eyes.
"I felt... distant powers stiring... Over the last five years, it had been too quiet..." Zeros' dropped his head down and opened his eyes, staring at Duilin. "I'm sure you had felt them too..." He whispered. He turned his head to the direction Animaga and the black cloaked man.
"But the strange thing is...." he turned to stare at Duilin again, "... this power isn't Draven's. It's much too dark, not the heated and chaotic aura Draven uses. I came back to find out what this power is." He finished in a whisper, with his arms crossed and eyes closed.
-
//May I ask where in the world this is taking place? Laus? I need to know for my characters.//
//Good question, Haraldur. The planet I know is called Gaian, but yeah, where on the planet is it taking place?//
-
"Yes, I thought I did sence something, yet I've been haveing my nightmares more often..." Duilin replied. "Something tells me, the nightmares have a meaning, since in the past they have related to events that had happened later."
He took a few steps, and looked into the sky. "But, I belive this dark power may have a connection, or it may lead me to the meaning of it some how." He turned around and looked inside to the small red imp inside his house "Rink, bring the landlord inside and put him on the bed, I think we just might be able to extend out bill's due date." He then turned to Zeros' "So, how do you belive we can find this strange power?"
-
A small beam of light pierced a zombie's head. Moments of silence. Then, a rush of even more of these beams. The zombie fell down, incapacitated. Zion Ultima dashed by another zombie, slashing it in half. He fell down behind another, slashing downwards, cutting it in half. "Wanna tell me what's going on?"
-
(It's not Laus. Let's make it on a different continent. Someone else can name it. Heh...)
Seeing more people were joining in on the fight, the dark cloaked man gained more confidence, his silver blade splitting another zombie. He yelled back to Zion:
"No clue. I'm just passing through..."
The undead hordes began to dissipate. He held his blade to his side and approached the figures in the fog that were fighting the same battle as he.
"But judging by the level of decay on these undead, I would guess they were summoned here, rather than recently created..."
-
//Someone else name it.\\
Zeros' looked towards the horizion and turned back to Duilin.
"We simply go to the point where most of the dark power is originating. Though, I don't doubt Draven might somehow be connected to it," he said simply.
-
//I'll let Dude Man, Trent, or Haraldur name it. They better just not name it Makmudda, cause that's copyrighted! Razz//
Aminaga, knowing something was still wrong back at the village, ran back there, and pierced one of the zombies heads with his golden sword, which was called, the Blade of Champion. He looked at Zion Ultima, shouting, "Who are you? This is my battle!"
-
"I am just a wanderer, and as far as I'm concerned, this is OUR battle now, not just yours." Zion started to charge up his most powerful spell... Omni.
-
//Xorlak: Please do not count this as a third post of the day. The copy of the other post dosen't count, right?//
Well, I suppose you can use some backup! Just then, Aminaga charged up his Blade of Champion, and jumped into the air, lunging his sword into the ground, creating a massive shockwave of immense chaos energy, attack the zombies all at once!
-
//How about Isola?//
Marshal stood up. He saw his fellow warrior dead. He closed his eyes, and turned his head. The other Albatrash, faded away into a blue mist. Marshal's Albatrash was still hovering around. Marshal then looked to the hooded man.
"Well despite me being a mage of summoning, I asure you my clan the Blue Minotaurs did not summon these undead beings." Marshal told him "We do not summon the undead."
------
"Well since you came all this way to see me I supose I'll help you find this." Duilin said to Zeros', he cracked his knuckles "Shall we go to the direction the energy is?"
-
The silver blade of the black cloaked man diced the final zombie as it groaned. The rising sun began to burn off the intense fog, peaking over the dark buildings of the seemingly deserted town. What little undead were left retreated, burrowing underground the way they came.
The visitor sheathed his blade and took a step towards the warriors that aided him in battle.
"I should thank you for your help. I am a traveler and am unfamiliar with these parts. What is this place?"
At the end of this sentence he seemed slightly distracted, shifting his eyes to his right. After a pause, he muttered lowly:
"... No... not here..."
-
//How about the town being River Town, on the river Laetus in the continent of Helternia?//
Floating over the water on a disk made up of lighting and plasma, Nikola Tesla moves towards an area of scarred ground near Laus, and then drops gently down to it. He kneels, examining the ground on which no plant life has grown during the five years since the leader's departure. He could see the signs of confrontation, of battle, both here and in the distance, seeing mountains which had not been there before that day.
He did not find anything useful, although he did find something of sentimental value. On the ground was a small locket made of the deepest black jet, still with a perfectly preserved leather thong. It appears the leader must have dropped it before whatever happened happened, he assumed it was deliberate.
He put the locket around his neck and beneath his clothing, and move eastwards. He had been told of some strange people being in the east, and it would be wise to meet those the leader counted as companions.
______________________________________________________________
In his meditation chamber, The Great Prophet was startled out of his meditations, by his second sight falling away. The moment was obviously soon to come. He would die soon. All prophets have the inability to see the time at or before their deaths. His life as a seer was now over. A life without such powers, though short, had just begun.
But he had a pice of information from his meditations that troubled him. He assumed that if Zeros' had noticed anything, he would have visited Duilin, so he flew east to River Town in Helternia.
-
//That works.\\
Zeros' nodded his ascent, but stopped and looked towards the direction the Prophet was coming from.
"Yes. I see the Prophet is coming here as well. Shall we wait for him, or go on ahead?" he said, looking towards the direction the chaos energy was coming from. He then sensed a farmiliar energy near the area and several ones that were new.
"It seems that Zion has already at the area, though, there are other's there as well. Their intentions may be evil or they may be pure. I cannot tell from here," he said, looking towards the horizion.
-
As The Great Prophet approached River Town, which was built on one of the new continents, this one rising from the remains of Aritan. For this reason there had been many visiting treasure hunters, hoping to find the treasures of that deceased civilisation. This had made many of them very rich, and many dead by the hands of eachother. River Town had been founded on the mouth of the river Laetus to act as a trading hub for the sale of the treasures of Aritan.
He spotted Zeros' in the air, and moved towards him. When he was close enough, he said, "Hello, Zeros'. I will be dieing soon, so I can no longer see into the possibilities of the future, but I have one last one: be wary of those with tatoos which look like this:"
With a gesture, he brought up the image of ten identical blond and bearded men wearing black, all in a circle. In the centre was another identical man, but larger, the same size as the others combined. From him, sparks of lightning were attached to the smaller ten men.
"I cannot tell anymore, for that is all I know. I do not know who they are, only that we should be wary, for we know not their intentions."
_____________________________________________
Nikola Tesla was reaching the edges of Helternia, determined to ask questions of those who were the leader's companions.
-
"What is wrong?" said Aminaga. Aminaga began to have a bad feeling something was wrong.
Aminaga waiting a very long time, and began to believe he was wasting his time here.
He also thought, "Hmmm, what was that shadow that tried to kill me? It remindes me an awful lot about myself..."
-
The black cloaked visitor turned his head towards Aminaga.
"I appreciate your help, but there is something I must do... alone..."
He spun around and began to run in a southern direction. The morning fog was almost completely gone by now, and it became evident that there were a number of small rivers that zigzagged through the town. His metallic boots clanked on the first stone bridge as he hurried across it.
He could not have summoned the undead... but he is here... My god... what evil forces have you allied yourself with now...?
----
The dark figure balanced at the very tip of a steep steepled roof.
"Oh my, followed me again. And he's brought friends. What fun! Heh..."
-
"No!" shouted Aminaga! "Damn, I need to find some way to help! I have no idea what's going to happen to him!"
The song, Knock Them Down from DAX plays in the background, as Aminaga follows the dark figure, and hopes that everything is okay...
-
Zion's charging ended up of no use in the current situation, but he remained charged up as he followed Aminaga, not saying a word.
Meanwhile...
--- --- ---
Tsu sat silently in a chair, waiting for his next turn. Please lose... He hears the roaring crowd outside. I don't want to fight you...
Then, from outside: "Hikari wins!"
"Oh, damn... I can't do this again..." Tsu closed his eyes, and sighed.
-
Zeros' turned and looked at the symbol and simply nodded.
"I see. I will be wary of them, thank you Prophet," he said and turned towards Duilin. "Shall we go now, Duilin, Prophet?" Without waiting for an anwser, Zeros' spread his black angel wings to there maximum wingspan (16 feet from the tip of the right to the tip of the left wing) and took off towards the horizion at a steady pace, his great, black wings carrying him on through the air currents.
-
The Prophet followed Zeros', after all, a prophet without his seer abilities did not have much of a purpose in life.
____________________________________________________
Nikola saw Zeros' black wings flying in the sky, and moved towards them. When he was moving neck and neck with Zeros', he said, "Good morning! I would like to ask you some questions."
//Please note that Tesla's tatoo is completely covered up by his suit.//
-
"Rink, you gonna come along on this one?" Duilin said turning his head, to the imp.
Hmmm...I don't want to...but there's just so much he needs to know. Rink thought. He then tilted his head up and grinned "Hell yeah, let's kick some ass!"
"That's the spirt!" Duilin jumped into the air, and spread his wings, and flue off following Zeros'.
Rink sighed and then flue into the air following the rest of the group.
That symbol, the Prophet showed us. The men seems to remind me of Haraldur. Duilin pondered
-
Zeros' cocked his head calmly to the side and nodded.
"Sure, go ahead," he said.
-
Tsu walked out into the ring, saving the announcer the need to call him out. Aura looked at him. Not him again...
Tsu unsheathed Kuon Yaiba, and waited.
-
Tesla nodded. "Did you know someone called Haraldur?"
The Great Prophet noticed this, but carried on.
-
Duilin turned his head and looked at Tesla. He gave a look at him that seemed to say 'How the hell do YOU know him?'
Rink rubbed his forehead.
-------
Marshal leaned to down to his dead companion, and took his staff. He held his friends staff and summond a strange figure, that didn't appear to fully materialize, and his friend was consumed by the figure. "Rest in peace with the spirt." He then sighed and followed the others. He seemed curious about this situation, he herd of people like this haveing something to do with the near end of the world five years ago. He decieded that if these people had something to do with this, and if they did summon the great goddess of earth, then he would attempt to gain as much information about them and document it.
-
The black cloaked visitor came to a large open space in the town, his flashing blade by his side. In the center was a large fountain, though it was not functioning. Large steepled buildings surrounded all four sides of the town square...
"My my, don't you ever give up?"
The visitor's eyes shifted back and forth.
"Show yourself!"
"Really, this is getting ridiculous. You of all people should be helping me..."
"Mavas! Show yourself!!"
"Ven, Ven, Ven, irksome and tiring this is... it's about time you gave in..."
A shadow engulfing a faint red point of light disappeared into an alley. Ven brought his silver blade forward and clasped the hilt with his second hand.
The next five seconds were nothing but intense silence...
Suddenly, a massive explosion tore apart the small tavern directly behind the dark cloaked man, sending him tumbling forward in a clumsy summersault. The next few seconds seemed to occur in slow motion for the experienced warrior. He spun around in mid tumble, facing the blast, regaining his balance in a crouching position as the flames skid past him. At that moment, some forty thin blades of steel began to rain down on him from the heavens, each blade piercing deeply into and crushing the fragile cobblestones of the street. Ven leapt backwards in evasion, narrowly escaping the assault, and brought his silver sword from his right side to his face in anticipation of the strike from the shadow rapidly descending from above...
Mavas' jagged sword met Ven's with such force that the two were knocked apart some twenty feet, the feet of each skidding on the ground as they regained their balance.
Ven stood upright without saying a word, grabbing the collar of his black cloak and throwing the cloth off, reavealing a billiant suit of silver armor. He held his blade with both hands low to the ground in anticipation...
-
Zeros' gave Tesla a piercing look.
"I might of..." he said slowly, unsure of this man's intentions. He then turned towards the horizion and saw the explosion. He pulled his wings inward and flapped them once, causing a sonic boom to reverberate around and propell him forwards at more then 200 m/ph. The dust on the ground fanned out and swirled in the air as Zeros' flapped his mighty black wings.
-
"Hee-YAHH!!"
Ven slashed his blade upwards, letting lose a brilliant silver crescent of energy towards his opponent. The crescent skidded across the ground, tearing up the pavement as it blasted towards the dark figure.
Mavas met the attack with a diagonal swipe of his jagged sword, deflecting the energy in two. Ven retaliated with an identical attack, and another... and another... Each time Mavas destroyed the attack with his blade, taking a step closer to the silver knight with each blow...
-
"Nooo!!" shouted Aminaga, as he continued to run toward "Go to hell!" said Aminaga, as he approached Mavas, preparing to strike him down with his Blade of Champion.
"Yessss...." said a voice in Aminaga's mind. "Use your rage to destroy him!!"
-
Duilin, saw Zeros' fly off, so he grabed Rink and casted an explotion at his feet, causeing him to blast like a rocket, he spread out his wings and began following Zeros'.
-
Zion appeared directly in Aminaga's path. "Are you going to charge forward with rage fueling you, or are you going to just charge?" He could feel the emotional energy inside him.
--- --- ---
"3... 2... 1... FIGHT!"
Aura charged forward, both her scimitars in the ready. Coming up on Tsu, she commenced a flurry of slashes, with Tsu doing nothing but blocking them. He did get caught across the cheek, though, and lashed back out by swinging low and tripping her up. He said not a word, and just waited.
-
Marshal ran and caught up to Aminaga and Zion.
"Sir, you need to calm down." Marshal said to Aminaga "By the looks of it, it dose not appear he wants you interfer in his battle. Just wait..."
-
Zeros' narrowed his eyes as he felt the strong rage energy being built up. He looked back and noticed Duilin and Rink flying towards him fast, with Tesla and the Prophet behind him. He turned around and flapped his wings harder, using his senses to propell himself on the strongest current of air he could find, making him fly faster.
He did not want to expend much energy, especially not know how powerful this force was.
-
"If he wants to help this guy, it's his business. I know I'd do the same. But rage is dangerous. If you cannot properly use your emotions, then they simply consume you and impair. Calm down, and then I will go in with you."
--- --- ---
"Why won't you fight me seriously!?" Aura lashed out at Tsu with a powerful slash, but he had his blade up relatively long before the scimitar connected. He pushed back, and leaped high into the air, turning a flip, sailing to the other end of the ring. From above, one could see teal translucent angel wings fading out. He landed, and turned around. "..."
"I'll never like you! Stop trying and just fight me!"
"...Fine..." He held Kuon Yaiba in an awkward stance as he hung his head, causing his eyes to be covered with a dark shadow. His right hand gripped the white hilt, and his left hand was held with its palm on the golden cap on the hilt. He started to glow with dark energy.
-
"No!" shouted Aminaga. "I must finish him off! As I said, this is my battle!"
Aminaga charged up his Blade of Champion even more, as he approached Mavas, ready to close in for the kill...
"Veerrrryy...gooooood...." said the voice in Aminaga's head...
-
"Nya ha haa!!"
Without looking at the rapidly approaching attacker from behind, Mavas raised his blade and began a sort of spinning jump. His jagged blade struck Aminaga's sword in the first spin, deflecting the attack. But he angled his body in the second spin so that his blade rapidly fell upon the back of Aminaga's neck...
But this attack was interrupted by a metal boot to the face. Ven had lunged at Mavas, performing a long distance flying kick which sent Mavas tumbling on the ground some twenty feet. Ven landed directly behind Aminaga.
"Blast it! I said stay out of this!!"
Mavas recovered mid-tumble and balanced himself in a crouching position, his left fist now glowing an icy blue. He had been knocked over by Marshal and Zion, and was effectively surrounded by the four warriors.
"Nonsense, brother! The more, the merrier..."
He shot up into the air in a giant leap, turning his glowing fist to the ground, he let loose a small orb of blue energy. The orb impacted the ground where he was standing an exploded in a bright cyan color... The ground around the explosion was instantly frozen in a 15 foot radius, and razor sharp shards of ice began to rain down upon the four warriors...
-
//Aminaga, why the Star Wars copying?//
Tesla followed Zeros'. The locket around his neck was throbbing slightly, which worried him.
-
"Idiot!" Zion charged at Aminaga. He pulled Eternity Weapon back, slashing at the back upon coming in range.
--- --- ---
Aura watched the darkness flow from Tsu. Then, the two swordsmen charged at each other.
"Despair Force... Ignite! じきーしい、いきます！" The darkness around Tsu focused to the blade as he leaped into the air, turning many, many flips, and then slashing down toward Aura.
"Eclipse Blade!" Aura's blades were surounded by a white light, and she swung upwards with all her might toward Tsu.
The two warriors passed by each other, and then, suspense.
-
"You shall pay for that one!" shouted Aminaga in his fury! He then began to charge up his Blade of Champion, however, he knew that Zion was not worth it, and decided to save it for Mavas. "I am sorry. Let's save it for who we're really after. What is your name again?"
//Aminaga, why the Star Wars copying?//
//Heh. It'll make sense to you when it gets later into the story...//
-
Zeros' stopped in the air with a gentle flap of his black wings above the battle, observing the fighters below.
Hmm... Zion is already here fighting... He though, spotting Zion among the warriors. He looked at Aminaga, feeling the pure rage. He has great power, but his actions are clouded and fueled by rage. He looked at Ven and Mavas, noticing their similar aura's and the last part of his sentence.
Brother's... hmm... He mused silently to himself. He then looked at Marshal. He is one of them... interesting He thought. He then noticed the ground freeze and icicles start to rain.
-
Ven deflected a shard of ice with his blade, severing it in two.
Mavas began to slowly float downwards, a mist emanating around him from the remains of his attack. He paused for a moment, then singled out Zeros' with a glance.
Excellent... Most excellent...
"I shall take my leave now gentlemen. 'Till we meet again!"
The ruby around his neck flashed a bright crimson and a pillar of light shot southward... he was gone...
Ven charged the mist and slashed it with his blade as it thinned.
"BLAST IT!! So close... I told you to leave me alone!"
He clenched his fist angrily at Aminaga and the gathered warriors in general, but then calmed down, saying in a more forgiving tone:
"You wouldn't understand..."
The silver knight sheathed his sword on his back and walked towards his discarded black cloak.
-
"Please tell me. I have a feeling I will..." said Aminaga. I have once have an enemy like you almost a decade ago. "Please. I know what this is like. I am just wanting to help you..."
-
"I suggest you be quiet," The Great Prophet said in a grumpy and impatient tone. "Let us just get on with what we are doing."
Tesla said,"Actually, what are you all doing?"
//I mean this, what is actually happening? I have not a clue. Why are we in this spot? Where are we travelling to? Is there method to this confusion of relationships?//
-
Duilin hovered in the air next to Zeros', flapping his wings. "This must be it, Zeros'." He looked at Ven "It seems to be comeing from him."
He then looks at Aminaga 'A warrior clouded in a battle of rage. Seems much simular to me.'
-------
Marshal steped foward "Excuse me..." He said to Aminaga "But by my first impression of you, it seems that you might need some help to." He said not trying to sound offensive.
-
Zeros' nodded.
"Yes..." he said. He looked at each warrior in turn from his position in the air. He noticed the Mavas character leave and decided this was a good time to show himself.
Without waiting for an anwser, he used his superior speed and ghosted (a term for when one seems to disappear from sight and reppear almost an instant) right behind where Ven was walking.
His trench coat flared out behind him from the sudden movement and ruffled as he reappeared. The dirt flared and swirled. The grass around flattened as a sudden wind came over it.
"Hello there," he said, being polite.
-
"I am Zion Ultima," he said. "You are...?"
--- --- ---
More suspense.
Then, Aura collapsed on the ground. Tsu turned his head to look, and then left the ring as the commentators announced the winner.
-
"My name is Aminaga Ragtunos." said Aminaga. "I have ventured many lands, and apparently, my travels have brought me here, Zion Ultima." He then said to Marshal "And who are you?"
-
"I am Marshal Royle. I am a warrior of a group known as the Blue Minotaur, we specalize in the summoning of creatures for the help of man kind. I have herd stories of people such as yourselves who have had something to do with stopping the near end of the world five years ago..."
Duilin landed down on the ground. "Zion, long time no see." He nodded
"Ah, another winged man." Marshal said. He then spotted Rink, cluching to Duilin's arm "And, and an imp as it so appears!"
"It's okay, he's solitatary." Duilin responded "His name is Rink, I'm Duilin."
"Yeah, it stunk down in hell." Rink said, as he jumps down to the ground. He dusts himself off. "So, what the devil is goin' on here?"
-
Nikola Tesla said, "My name is Nikola Tesla."
The Great Prophet said, "People just call me Prophet."
-
Ven stopped in his tracks as the dust swirled around him. He turned and looked the man in the eye. He appeared human, except for the wings... but he obviously was not. Not with that kind of an aura...
He nodded his head in return.
"Hello."
It was obvious his little battle was attracting much attention. Probably best to tell them... He began with a sigh.
"My name is Ven Hyul. The man who attacked me... Mavas... is not what you think."
He turned and picked up his discarded cloak, removing a concealed canteen from it. He took a drink before continuing.
"The pendant around his neck bears a curse. While it grants him great power, it also makes him insane... It is tainted with evil... It is impossible to remove by anyone except by him, for anyone who touches it will also become afflicted by the curse, or so I've heard..."
He threw the black cloak over his silver armor and began to fasten it.
"I've heard of another similar pendant... the Kelvos... one with a blue gem that blocks the curse, which is what I've been seeking for the past few months... None of you would have happened to know anything about that now, would you?"
It was worth a shot, since they looked like a pretty well diversified group of warriors.
-
Zeros' scratched his chin thoughtfully, pondering the man's question.
"I'm not too sure. Even as well versed in my travels of this planet over the centuries (Zeros' never reveals his age), I've heard many legends from other angel's and demon's that come from above and below to...hunt for me. I overheard a group of angel's talking about the pendent you talk about, the Kelvos," he said looking up to the sky.
"They didn't say the location of it, only that it was forge by a mystical being from Asgard - which is the plane above - and sent down to earth to counter the pendent that the demon's in Niffliem forged, the one with the red gem. Neither of them were supposed to fall into human hands," he said contemplatively.
"Each grant a special power. The one with the red gem grants the user great power, but makes them insane. It is said that only the demon's born from the flesh of Niffliem could control the state of insaneness that the red gem grants in order to harness the power properly. And the red gem does indeed inflict the curse on the person who touches it, but that curse cannot be removed, or so I've heard.
"The Kelvos is the opposite of the red gemmed necklace. The Kelvos will block the user from any curse as you said. It will also allow the user to control any emotion that they feel, which mean combining the two, that person would be a force to reckon with. I am sorry to say, Ven that I have heard of both, but have seen neither in the face of battle," he said. He tilted his head down and stared Ven directly in the eye.
"Now, I have a question for you: have you heard of a man named Draven or his Crimson Empire? Any imformation would be extremely helpful to myself and my companion, Duilin and Rink" he said, gesturing towards Duilin and Rink's position.
-
"I beg your pardon, but who is this Draven you speak of? And what is the Crimson Empire?" said Aminaga. "Are they working with Mavas? Or are they your own enemy?" "And Ven, are you asking us to find the Kelvos for you?" said Aminaga.
"Also, everyone, I apoligise for that sudden rage conttroling me."Aminaga said. "For it was a sudden darkness trying to control me. I still have yet to discover what it is..."
-
Ven adjusted a strap on his silver gauntlet.
"Hmm... Draven... yes, I've heard that name. A former general of the Dark Empire turned emperor. Not very surprising, considering what I've heard. A man who has destroyed cities with his open palm and can incinerate a man with a glance. I've heard other sorts of rumors as well. A god among men, people in some areas call him. An accomplished dragon slayer. And a few people insist he has saved the world at least once. I'm not sure which ones to believe. I don't intend to go anywhere near the Dark Continent again anyway..."
He then turned to Aminaga.
"I certainly hope Mavas isn't with this... Crimson Empire... I'm not asking you to find anything for me. I just want to collect as much information as I can."
-
"Don't worry, Ven, I will do whatever you say." said Aminaga. "I'm with you till the end..."
A breif pause for 10 seconds...
"Okay, now what?" says Aminaga. "Must we go after Mavas, or should we try to find this Draven the man with the wing speaks of. That is, if Draven is still alive..."
-
Duilin snorted after Ven's description of Draven. "Saved the world? The only thing he's saved is his own sorry ass from a multiple headed black dragon. The man, is powerfull I'll give him that, but if you want to make a choice of what to belive about him then here is it: He's a hartless freak, and he is the one true mistake the gods made in this world."
Duilin crosses his arms and then looks at Aminaga "I assure you Draven is still alive. You can rip his hart out, if he had one, and shove it down his nose, and he'd still probabbly have enough energy to pillage a small town and order a bunch of stupid brutes around and capture young childern and eat there parents."
Marshal narrows his eyes at Duilin "I take it your not to fond of this 'Draven' character?"
"Oh what are you kidding? I love him! He's like a brother to me." He replies sarcasticly
"Calm, Duilin." Rink warns "Whenever the name Draven, or Nex, or Darion, or Veronika comes up you get angry. Now hush!"
Duilin sighes and then turns around.
"Might I subjest..." Marshal says "That we go in search of Mavas first, since he is closer, and we know that he is a bigger threat at the time."
-
He offered a nod of greeting to Duilin, and simply listened in to everything.
-
"Dark Continent..." he whispered under his breath, etching the name of the continent in his memory. He nodded in thanks to Ven and turned to Marshal.
"That is partially true. If Mavas and Draven join their power, I'm not sure if we can stop them in time. And I agree. Mavas is a bigger threat as of now," he turned to Ven. "Would you know where the man might be hiding?" he inquired.
-
Meanwile on the shores of river town a watchman spots a small dot on the horizon he suspects nothing and contunues on his watch.
After a half hour or so the dot turns out to be a ship with a black sail that be a pirate sail with a big dark age dollar G with cross bones.
soon the ship pulls up to the dock and a slim trim jamacian looking pirate walks out, from the crossplank
"Who are you and what do you want?!?" exclams the watchman.
"The names' Captain Jonny Albatrash, and I have come for your money, your boooze and your women!"
"You can't just waltz in hear and-" He was cut off by the sound of Albatrash's shotgun blowing his brains out all over the dock. Him and his crew walk off the dock and step into the town, filled with frightened townsmen.
"Now every one! you heard me hand over your stuff!" Albatrash then motions for his first mate, Skippy and a bunch of pirates to collect the goods. Albatrash smiles and then a small monkey wearing a bandana runs out of the ship and climbs up onto the captain's shoulder.
-
"Huh!? What's that?" Duilin turned around hearing a noise.
"What?" Marshal asked.
"I herd yelling and...gun fire..."
"Gunfire?"
"Yeah, sounds like a Calibrate Auto Shotgun..."
"What's a Calibrate Auto Shotgun?"
"It's a handheld gun, that you can load with as many ammuntion as posible, and it just fires all of them out..." Duilin responds "I remember somebody useing one. The sound is comeing from the town, near the shore. This shouldn't take to long, let's check it out."
Duilin jumps up into the air and flaps his wings and Rink jumps up and grabs onto Duilin's leg. He then sores off into the derection of the comotion.
-
"What the hell?" said Aminaga. "What do they mean by that?" Aminaga said. "Guys, do you happen to know what Duilin could be talking about?" "I mean, this can't possibly the Draven you guys are looking for! Is it?"
Aminaga wondered, "Should he follow them, or stay behind?"
-
"Listen Aminaga." Marshal said "As you can plainly hear, there is a town, in danger from 'something' and my best bet is that it might be the Crimson Empire Tax Collecters. They are a band of cold blooded pirates, that raid towns for money to aid the Crimson Empire war fund. I've confronted them before, and I had hunch they would come here. You shouldn't question helping people in need Aminaga."
Marshal then runs off following Duilin.
-
"You're right, Marshal! I must assist them immediatly!" said Aminaga. He then followed Duilin and Rink, wondering what this danger was.
-
"Well..."
Ven partially ignored the commotion while conversing with Zeros'.
"He's been running around the world aimlessly since he has been afflicted. At least it appears aimless... I can sense the pendant's aura when he uses some of it's stronger power sometimes, but I believe that may be intentional. He has been trying to spread the curse to me as well, you see... I can also usually sense his own aura within a half mile or so. He has left to the south, which is the direction I intend to go. It's usually hit or miss. Sometimes I wonder if he isn't following me...
"I am worried, though, that he has begun to ally himself with other forces of evil. I doubt the hordes of undead that attacked this village could have been summoned by him, you see..."
More commotion emanated from the harbor, which Ven couldn't ignore.
"Perhaps we should... see what's going on?"
He began to walk in the direction of the harbor, briskly, his black cloak flowing with him.
-
Duilin and Rink arived near the town. Duilin pointed to Albatrash. "You! What the hell do you think you're doing?" He yelled
Marshal runs up and spots the pirates. "Just as I thought." He said to himself. "Let's see what dose this call for..."
-
"Ahh... so is this resistance? Perfect, now i get to have some fun!" Jonny Albatrash says as he aims his gun.
"gawhah shugg fshihhh!" a crazy peggleged tungeless man with two hook hands runs out of the ship and jumps at Duilin. Albatrash's first mate Skippy, swings out his scimitar. The burly man walks toward the group of heros, along with a large group of pirates.
-
Zeros', himself, flaps his winds, dust and dirt fanning out behind him as he rose into the air. He then flaps his wings again and propell's himself towards the harbor.
-
Zion swept into action, following Marshal to the commotion, and finding the captain and brains blown out. He prepared to engage the man, but a familliar voice stopped him.
"Back off."
Xenai Omega dropped down in front of Marshal and Zion with Zero Weapon unsheathed and at the ready. "I've got this guy. I understand there's quite a bit of a bounty on him, or at the very least, my client's willing to pay me quite a bit to take care of him."
Zion sheathed Eternity Weapon. "Fine by me. Oh, and hi. Nice to see you."
"Same to you, bud."
-
"Zion, who is this man?" Marshal asked "He seems like a bounty hunter."
Duilin, is knocked to the ground by Belge. Duilin, kicks off the attack. "What the hell?" He asks himself as he sees the crippled monster. "I should just end your misery, right now..." He begins to charge a fire ball but stops "Wait, I think I'll have some fun with this guy." He, takes out his mace, and jumps at Belge and swing his mace downward at the pirate.
-
Belge grabs at the mace with his hook and attempts to cut Duilin with the other hook but misses
"yarr you show that punker whos boss!" Skippy cheers him on
Belge than kicks Duilin in the gut with his peg leg "BLAHH!!!"
Meanwile Albatrash talks to Xenai
"So i see you are after the bounty on my head, well soon there will be a smoking crater in yours!" Albatrash aims his gun at Xenai and fires. the bullet hits the ground between his feet "Dance! Little bounty boy Dance! Because Veronnica is on the floor!"
Skippy takes out his pistol "Alrite Boys its playtime!" All the pirates take out there guns and swords and begin to robe the homes and attack anyone who stands in there way.
Bongo (the monkey) junps off Albatrashes shoulder and sees the cheeky little imp Rink and thinks he might have something of value so Bongo takes out his dagger and charges.
-
Zeros' flaps his wings once, stopping his forwards momentum and obseves the pirates with distaste.
He see's the pirates attacking the village and ghost's down from his position in the sky and appears in front of the pirates, his wing's spread wide and his arm's crossed in front of his chest.
"Hello, pirates," he said in distaste. "Leave now before you get burtally maimed or killed," he said in a matter-of-fact voice.
-
Just then, Aminaga jumped on the scene, and pulled out his Blade of Champion, ready to attack the pirates. "Now, pirates, prepare yourself!" said Aminaga, as he lunged into the air, ready to crush one of the pirates in one blow...
-
Ven stood in the middle of a cobblestone street that overlooked the harbor. The street was on higher ground, thus providing him a good overview of the battle.
"Blast... I don't have time for this..."
His right hand clasped the hilt of the blade on his back as the cool sea breeze blew his cloak...
-
Nikola watched the fight with interest, before deciding to intervene.
He dropped his Tesla coil on to the ground and zapped it with a beam of light from his index finger. The coil began to hum, and then large spears of lightning like electricity went towards the three pirates. Due to the very high frequency of the alternating current, the pirates would not feel anything, due to it being faster than their nerves. However, after a long enough time, their skin would burn off (it starts getting damaged as soon as it is hit). There is no way to avoid this attack except moving away from the area, in which case the coil will either target the ground, someone closer, or another target until turned off.
He then fired hot plasma at Albatrash from his ray-gun.
-
Duilin, steps back a bit after the wooden leg hits him. Duilin then thrusts his mace at Belge's face. (I'm very aware of the fact that, face and mace rime)
As the monkey runs at Rink, the imp points his pointer and middle finger at the monkey and shoots a fire ball at him.
Marshal notices Tesla is blasting electricity all over the place. "What the hell is that fool doing? He could kill us all doing that. He runs off, to a safer distance. He then rases his staff, and a blue phatom image of lizard appears, it then forms a Vile Lizard. The Lizard then runs off and begins attacking pirates.
-
The plasma shot skims by Albatrashes face "Owch! Hot! well i see you have some sort of magic device you witch! I dont like witches" He takes out his rapier and charges at Nicola and slashes.
The pirates being lead by Skippy see Aminaga "Ahh freash meat, Pirates attack!" Skippy orders three pirates to attack
The fire ball hits Bongo knocking him to the ground but that mostly enrages the monkey so he runs at rink to stab him.
-
//In the mean time keep in mind that you should have sustained some damage from the tesla coil, whoich you have moved away from.//
Nikola sees Albatrash moving towards him, and ducks from the slash. After that, he fires his ray gun's plasma shot into Albatrash from point blank range.
-
"Fresh meat?" says Aminaga. "I'm not THAT fresh. Why not eat Marshal over there, he's fresh meat."
*Prayes to god Aminaga won't get eaten.
"Aw, what the hell, why don't I just kill you?" says Aminaga. "Lunges Blade of Champion into air again, this time, showing Skippy the true meaning of rage! "Now, witness the the great, flaming power, of the Blade of Champion!" says Aminaga. "Ah ha ha ha haaa!"
-
Xenai dances to appease the man, but a sly smirk comes on his face. He charges forward at Albatrash. "Say your prayers, boy! 10 Seconds To Hell!"
He unleashes a flurry of rapid ki-powered slashes upon the pirate captain, holding out this fierce assault for 10 seconds. Upon finishing the assault, he jumps back to see how he did...
-
Zeros' steps forwards and disappears from the pirate's view as one of them attacked a woman and child. He reappears as the pirate swing's the sword downwards at the woman and child. He simply holds up his hand and catches the slow moving, clumsy sword slash with his left hand.
"Too bad," he said distastefully. "Attacking innocent woman and children," he spat. His right hand twitched and it blurred. When Zeros' let go of the sword, there were four, loud thumps as the pirates bodies fell to the ground, their swords clattering uselessly beside their dead, limp bodies.
On all the pirate, there were four holes right below the left breast. Blood oozed out and splintered bone pieces broke off and fell. The skin around the wound seemed to be burned slightly. Behind each of the pirates was a still-beating heart.
"Who's up next?" he asked.
-
Albatrash sees the ki slash coming at him he draws his rapier to block it when the plasma blast hits it "Ahh! Damn you, man. You melted my sword!" he says at he throws a magic bomb at the ki blast decresing it to a nomal sword strike cutting him across the chest. "Thats it man, I am gonna kill you both for that" he readys his shotgun and fires several times (at both Tesla and Xenai) wilst lying on the ground.
Belge turns his head to doge the mace but was to slow and was knocked back a few feet on to the ground out cold.
"Hahaha! I laugh at that blade of...Champion......RUN!!!!!!" the Pirates begin to scatter in fear.
"You idiots! Ohh well if you want a job done you have to do it yourself." Skippy mumbles as he draws his scimitar "Yarr me matey! Lets go!" Skippy gets into fighting stance.
-
Duilin grins. "That easy eh? I was hopeing to at least put SOME energy into the that..." Duilin, examins the crippled freak. "God...What happened to this guy?" He then stands back up. "Well you stay there and stink up that peice of earth your sleeping on, you'll wake up with an extremly harsh headache. Meanwile, rest well and dream of deformed crippled women..." Duilin, then walks off and blasts an energy bolt at a random pirate, draining the life out of the weak little man.
As the monky runs at Rink, he flies up into the air, dodgeing it, and then dives down aiming a kick at the little creep.
The Vile Lizard, stomps threw the village, scareing villagers and pirates, it tackles a pirate and begins tearing it up and eating it.
Marshal watches it, he seems to be focused well on it. He can control it, but he likes to leave it on auto pilot. It knows friend from foe, the monsters mind is slightly connected with Marshals.
-
"You laugh at that Blade of Champion?" said Aminaga. "Hardly, pathetic cowards. Now, as I was saying, witness the the great, flaming power, of the Blade of Champion!" shouted Aminaga as he leapt into the air, and remained in the clouds for a good 5 seconds.
Just then, Aminaga fell back down, and his Blade of Champion fell through the ground, creating a massive shockwave of intense energy, about 20ft tall. "I warned you!" said Aminaga with a sinister grin on his face.
-
"How rude. They're interrupting my game. They're loosing too... Idiots! They're MY victims!"
"Hssss... yesss..."
"Well now, their loss is your gain... perhaps you should give them your gift. Make things a bit more... interesting... heh..."
"Yesss, masster..."
The smaller shadow and the taller one with the glowing red core parted ways.
----
Ven remained frozen in his stance for some time, seemingly disturbed...
"Heavens, such a random brawl is above your taste, is it not?"
Ven quickly drew his blade and held it to his side.
"Mavas..."
Like a flash of lightning he brought the blade above his head and cleaved the shadow behind him. The illusion faded with a chuckle.
"Heh heh heh..."
With his back to the battle, Ven stared into the town.
"You can't run forever..."
He took of at full speed back into the winding streets, his silver blade to his right side, his black cloak flowing...
----
A small figure, some four feet tall, draped in gray robes, silently approached a group of dead pirates at the edge of the battle. There were three of them, lying in pools of their own blood.
"Deathh, deathh, oh gloriouss deathh!! Show them..."
One by one the pirates eyes opened with a blank, pupil-less stare...
"... uhhhhhh..."
As the gray figure disappeared behind the shadows of crates near the harbor's pier, the pirate zombies sprung to life, the three of them approaching Marshal from the side...
-
Using his mastery of magnetism, Tesla causes the metal balls from the shotgun to slow down and stop moving horisontally, and so they fell down vertically with no horisontal movement.
While doing this, Tesla shoots the prone Albatrash twice with his ray gun from point blank range, surely there was no way for him to escape.
The Great Prophet arrives, leaning on his walking stick. He wacks Albatrash (or his dead body, depending on what happens) on the head with his walking stick, hard.
-
"My god..." Marshal gasped "A necromancer is among the area..." Marshal swung his staff at one of the zombies, knocking it away. He became abit frightened, he dosen't do much fighting himself, since his only way of protection is summoning monsters. He made a high pitched whistling noise, and the Vile Lizard immedately ran at one of the zombies, jumped into the air, tackleing it, and ripping it's throut out.
Duilin, spoted a the small figure. He jumped into the air and flaped his wings and swooped over to the specter. He casted a fireball, and held it in his hand, prepareing to toss it "Who are you!?" He yelled
-
Albatrash takes his already burnt and melted rapier and uses it to block the shot however he doesn?t let go fast enough and gets extremely shocked making him fly back a few feet as the Prophet begins his assault.
The kick at Bongo causes him to rune away to his master Albatrash and sees the old man hitting him he instinctively jumps on his head scratching at him. Albatrash staggers to his feet and pulls out his shotgun and aims it at tesla as Bongo puts his dagger against the Prophet's throat. "Now, you have a choice! Put down your witchcraft machine now or the old man dies!"
---
Skippy gets up off the ground with a slightly singed beard "Well...That?s some shockwave sword you got there...well I have one better... A rusty iron scimitar! If the blade doesn?t kill you the tetanus will!" Skippy takes a drink from a bottle of rum a pirate hade dropped there before and then he runs into a sword fight with Aminaga.
-
The Great Prophet grinned. "Old I may be, but helpless I am not."
He used a short range teleport spell, moving left, leaving Bongo hanging in the air. As Bongo began to fall, he smashed him away from his descent with a strike from his walking stick, sending him rushing towards Albatrash as a living missile.
//Did he actually shoot the gun at Tesla?//
Tesla shot at Albatrash twice, with the slight possibility of hitting the flying monkey instead.
-
//100 Pages...\\
Zeros' narrowed his eyes as he sensed the Necromancy being used. He ghosted from his position to the last undead pirate. As the undead pirate spotted him, he began to moan and shuffle towards him. Zeros' simply closed his eyes and held two finger to his forehead.
As the undead pirate reached within a foot of Zeros, he snapped his eyes open and thurst his two finger out, touching them to zombie's forehead. The undead pirate blinked and let out a loud moan before it simply turned to ash.
Zeros' looked around before ghosting and reappearing at the Prophet's side.
"Did you sense that just now, Prophet?" he asked, his arms crossed and eyes closed.
-
Xenai simply tilted his head to avoid the bullet, and he pointed a finger up at Albatrash, firing a small but extremely fast ki ball at him.
-
//Dippy, why are you always going after Aminaga only?//
Aminaga blocks Skippy's attacks, and slashes through his Blade of Champion, however, he really had slashed the sword with a baseball bat.
He through the bat aside, and used the Blade of Champion to slash through Skippy's sword.
"By the way, 'Skippy', was your mother drinking when she named you?"
Aminaga raises his Blade of Champion again into the air, preparing to close in for the kill...
-
// No I am not \\
Bongo falls to the ground and scurries onto Albatrash's shoulder and begins to shiver "Aw poor thing... Alright! All pirates move toward the ship! We have done enough damage here!" Albatrash commands the pirates as he steps back letting the ki blast hit the tesla blast and he starts swiftly skipping toward the ship as pirates are scrabbling to get aboard and you can hear the faint sound of him whistling the sailor song. As the pirates get on the ship. The ship begins to move and the large metallic cylinders lights up and the rocket propulsion kicks in and the ship sails away.
-
"Oh, no! You are NOT getting away!" Xenai ejected translucent black angel wings from his back, and took off after the ship, quickly gaining on it. He dropped onto the deck. "Come and get it!"
-
"I'll stop them!" said Aminaga. "Let there ship fear the wrath of the Blade of Champion!"
*Dark choir singing in background. Razz
"Now, my ultimate weapon, let us go, destroy that ship, and win this battle for us!"
The Blade of Champion attacks the ship, and pierces a hole in the ship, then, his fiery blade led Aminaga back to the shore.
"Now, let's find Ven..."
-
"Sure, have your fun and destroy the ship, but I have a bounty to earn!" to Aminaga. "Get your ass out here, Albatrash!"
The ship was probably going to start sinking soon, but Xenai was confident that he could take out Albatrash before he went under.
-
Zeros' sighed and shook his head at the antics of his allies.
"Amusing..." he said amusedly.
-
All the piates surround Xenia and aim their guns at him "Now if you would be so kind as to leave my ship so I dont have to get the deck swabers to clean your blood and guts off the new flooring I had installed" Albatrash said wile taking out an anti-magic bomb.
A few workers patch the hole in the upper side of the ship where no water could get in anyway.( I took the liberty of notting where the hole was as you did not Razz )
// I am making a retreat so will you just stop some how chasing down a rocket powered ship and let me?!? \\
-
"Yes, quite amusing..." Marshal sighed.
"Allright boys!" Rink yelled "We don't have anytime for chaceing. Let's get a move on!"
-
The tesla coil stops frying the ground around it, and returns to Tesla's hands. As the coil gets closer to him, Tesla notices the throbbing of the locket getting more and more powerful and frequent.
He places the coil down again, and turns it on, causing the sparks to only hit the ground. He takes the locket off from around his neck, and notices it is faintly glowing, and the glow becomes more intense the closer it is to the coil.
He puts the locket above the coil, so all the sparks enter it. It glows at a huge intensity and, slowly a glow in the air forms, shaping itself to the rough shape of a human, with it getting more detailed as he lowered it closer to the the coil itself (and so less of the energy is lost to resistance from the air.
He stops, and put the locket around his neck again, and picks up and turns off the tesla coil. He then flies away from the rest of the group without explanation.
-
"Hehehehehe..."
The small figure weaved though the shadows of the crates.
"Hsss... Who am I? What am I? Who are you? What are you? Who are they? What are they? ... In deathh all are the ssame... the ssame... the ssame!!"
He disappeared from Duilin's view behind one of the larger crates as a few more of the fallen pirates began to groan and rise...
----
Ven arrived at the opposite side of the town and exited the open gates at a jogging pace. The forest around this area was fairly thick, but mostly sparse pine trees, so the morning sun illuminated the area well.
Mavas was some 300 feet straight ahead, halfway up one of the tower trees, his feet resting on one of branches, his back against the trunk, and his arms folded...
"Now now, you don't look like you're having a good time..."
Ven slowed his pace as he approached the dark man in the tree.
"Where... where are you leading me?!"
"Heh heh... now what did I tell you about trusting strange men? There's only one person you can trust in this world, you know..."
Ven's eyes widened as he came to a stop some 100 feet from the tree, his blade poised at his side.
"So... you have memories from before..."
"Heh heh heh..."
"What? What's so funny?"
"Heh heh HA HA HA HA HA!!!"
Mavas threw his head up in laughter. Ven clenched his teeth.
"I can't take this ANYMORE!"
Ven brought the silver blade above his head as it flashed a brilliant white, bringing it down as sliver wave of energy shot from it. The crescent tore through the air and split the tree at the trunk, which began to creak over like cleanly cut lumber.
But Ven took his eyes off of Mavas as he performed the attack, who had since disappeared from sight...
-
Zeros' noticed the approaching undead pirates and sighed. He held out his right hand, palm facing away from him. His hand seemed to twitch before he slammed his hand faster then anyone could see, bar demons and very powerful humans (Draven...).
From where his hand slammed, the ground rippled outwards from the spot and formed a crater a few feet deep and wide with a spiderweb of cracks forming outwards from the crater.
With the ripples, came a white light. As soon as the white light hit the undead pirates, they moaned loud (in pain, not like that you perverts...) and collapsed into small piles of blackened ash.
But, as the ripple of power continued outwards, the buildings started to rumble and shake, pieces of the roof coming falling down to the ground, but, marciously, the builds stayed standing.
"Now," said Zeros', his eyes closed. "Come out and fight. Stop hiding behind your undead minions, or, is that all you can do?" he said mockingly.
-
Duilin, turned around "Show, yourself." He tossed his fireball at one of the crates.
Rink narrowed his eyes "Marshal, you have any idea who this guy is?"
"No, I don't belive so..." Marshal replied. He rubbed his chin. "A necromancer, you don't see very many of those."
-
The crate exploded, spreading flame to several of the surrounding boxes.
"Hehehehe... Very good! Very good!"
The shadow danced around, avoiding the flames, before being forced to leap away from their protection, landing in plain sight near the edge of the pier.
He stood at about four feet tall, draped in dirty gray hooded cloak. He leaned heavily on a short staff, made of some type of heavy oak. His face was completely shrouded in the darkness of the hood, save two white slits for eyes. He cowered at the morning sun, binging up his arm to hide his face.
"Hssss, later we shall resume. Yesss..."
The figure leapt backwards (more of a unnatural diagonal levitation) as a red sphere circled him. He fell into the sea and disappeared under the waves...
----
Ven held his position (blade in front to the ground) as the tree crashed before him, his eyes shifting back and forth...
"Hah hah hah haahh..."
The laughter echoed though the forest. Directly behind the mangled tree there was a straight path. Trees lined each side, merging towards the center as far as the eye could see... Obviously the laugh emanated from that direction.
Ven released the blade from the grasp of his left hand and let it hang lose on his right side. He began to slowly walk into the unknown, the pine needle ground softening his steps...
-
Zeros relaxed his stance some and looked around. It seemed as if the remaining villagers sensed the danger was done and started to cautiously peek out at the strange group of adventurues. Some of them looked admiringly at everyone of the edenturures, but more then half tried to glare Zeros', Duilin and Rink to death. Zeros' was unaffected by all of this, used to it many times in his travels.
He had noticed Tesla's coils fire off in the random direction, but he ignored it for the more...immediate threat.
"We can assume that wasn't an attack by Draven, at least the strange man. For one, he wouldn't send someone else to attack us. Even if he did, which I highly doubt, he'd have them attack us first," said Zeros' to his companions, then his last sentence to Duilin.
He had no doubt that the Crimson Empire Tax collecters were not here on one of their random visits... more like a ruse to lure himself and the ones he hadn't killed before...
"We can only hope that Draven doesn't drag this out long..." he murmurred mostly to himself, his arms crossed and eyes closed again... he had been thinking about it for awhile now, ever since before he came back. He hoped this grudge between him, Draven and Duilin would be done soon.
He just hoped their battle (the battled between Draven's force and the heros') didn't tear the earth from it's foundation like the events five years ago...
-
"Yes, he would." Duilin said to Zeros', walking to his position. "The one, pirate. With the shotgun. I overherd him call it 'Veronika', strange." He said, scratching his head "Probabbly nothing."
Rink, swiped the dirt of his shoulders, and turned his head and looked at the villagers "What the hell are you looking at!?" He said agresively, and a few looked away from him. He rotated his shoulders and cracked his knuckles and walked to Duilin and Zeros' position.
"Um, Zeros' is it?" Marshal said "I recall seeing Ven, heading towards the other side of the town."
-
Tesla arrives at what he judges to be a reasonably isolated spot.
He places the tesla coil down, and turns it on. He then directly put the locket on top of it.
The locket glows, and disappears. The figure of a man forms within a bright light. Around him are ten other smaller men, with sparks connecting the centre one to the out ones, like on Tesla's tatoo.
The figure solidifies, accompanied by a bright flash.
"Hello, Nikola."
"Hello Haraldur."
"We should rid ourselves of our tiresome prophet."
"As you wish."
_____________________________________________________
Standing behind Zeros', The Great Prophet has just seen a premonition of his own death. He shouts, "The Aspyes are going to kill me!" before becoming mute again.
-
Aminaga used his powers to disappear, and while he was invisible, he walked away from the others, and began to try to find Ven, and follow him toward wherever he was off too.
He then spotted Ven, and then, Aminaga remained invisible, and continued to follow Ven...
-
"You are all in way over your head." Xenai snickered, and swung his blade in a complete circle, taking out the pirates around him. He then pointed the sword at Albatrash. "You're next."
--- --- ---
He walked directly behind Aminaga now, locked onto his ki signature, not bothering to cloak, yet concealing his energy signature.
-
Zeros' whirled around suddenly and glared in a, seemingly random direction.
"WHO are they Prophet..." he aksed quietly, his voice barely concealed with contempt. That wasn't just a random spike of power... it was farmiliar...
"Did you feel that Duilin," he asked quietly again.
-
"Yes, I felt something." Duilin replied "What was it?"
"Felt what?" Marshal asked
"Seriously man, don't trouble yourself in trying to understand, all that." Rink said to Marshal, laughing.
"Hmmm..."
-
The Great Prophet looked annoyed. "How am I supposed to know? The premonition was not detailed, I have told you all it told me. My only guess would be that that picture I showed you has something to do with them. Now, if that is the case, then-"
He dropped to the ground, his head missing, his neck a burning stump, he had been hit by some super hot plasma. The head had burned away completely. He was obviously very very dead.
The attacker was nowhere to be seen.
_____________________________________________________________
Tesla smiled as he saw the bolt of plasma hit the prophet. He returned to where Haraldur was. Haraldur turned, and said, "Where is everyone else?"
Tesla replied, "The new Crimson Empire discovered them imprisoned by the Dark Empire, and have kept them there. Probably for the same reasons too."
"We should pay them a visit," said Haraldur.
They rose up, and flew towards the Crimson Empire. This meant they flew above Zeros' and the others. Grinning, Haraldur made some hand movements, causing a picture to appear in the air, hugely bright, with light coming from it. It showed one man surrounded by ten other identical men, with sparks connecting them, and below was an arrow pointing towards the Crimson Empire, and one word: "Follow."
Haraldur chuckled to himself, wondering what Zeros' reaction would be.
-
Ven continued through the forest. The trees were becoming more dense, resulting in less and less penetrating daylight. He paused for a moment, thinking himself followed... but it was nothing...
After a good twenty minutes, he noticed large vine-covered slabs of stone appear randomly on either side of the path as he progressed. These became more and more common as he progressed. It was evident that he was in the middle of some ruins of some sort. The path was noticeably more treacherous as well, with undergrowth spilling on to it, fallen trees to leap over, and the like.
At the very end of the path was what looked like the ruins of a temple, the foundation at least. It looked to be a rather tall structure at one time judging by the size of what was left, although now it was little more than a pile of rubble. Ven weaved in between the large stone slabs in his way as he progressed closer to the mysterious site...
-
Duilin's jaw dropped "He's...dead..."
"Holy crap." Rink gasped
"My friend's look." Marshal said as he pointed to the two men flying above, and the symbol appearing in the air.
"That symbol." Duilin said "That's the one The Prophet showed us."
"It says follow." Rink noticed "Should we?"
"No." Duilin said "The Prophet told us, that we are not to trust ones, with that symbol. So I don't think it would be smart to follow them."
"I wasn't able to see who they were. Who were those people who flue over us?" Marshal asked
-
Zeros' narrowed his eyes and controled his growing rage. It wouldn't do to lose his temper now. He looked up at the symbol and focused his eyes on the main figure. Now he was sure of it...
"So... you want to play game do you, Haraldur?" he whispered the last word in an almost unaudiable whisper. Then, suddenly, his hair shifted from a shining silver to a flowing white. His wings went from midnight black to white with gold outlines and his emerald eyes turned even brighter.
He raised his hand faster then anyone could see, causing a sonic boom to reverberate around the area they were in. Zero's trench coat billow out in all directions. The grass flatened as the wind came over it and dust rose into the air.
His palm pointed towards the glowing symbol and it dispelled itself. He also raised his other arm, his left arm, in a seemingly random direction and a ball of pure white ki shot out in the direction, going faster then the eye could track. The direction was also the direction pointed out by the mysterious symbol, right towards Haraldur.
Right after the ball of ki flew in that direction, Zeros' spread his massive white wings and flapped them, rising into the air and flying in the direction the symbol pointed.
Come. We must go. Haraldur will be going in that direction, which is, no doubt something important to him. We have to stop him. He said telepathically to his companions.
-
Albatrash smiles "I like your spirit so I wont kill y- ha i almost got that bull out...." He raises his gun and so do all the remaining pirates(who are farther than the length of the sword so he dosn't try that sneaky sword spin trick)
Albatrash then trows an anti magic bomb.
-
"Damnit I guess I was right about that symbol being about Haraldur. God I hate that." Duilin groaned. "Allright Rink, you herd him let's go." Rink grabed onto his leg. Duilin flapped his wings and jumped into the air, and hovered for a second. "Marshal, do you wish to come along?"
"What about Ven?" Marshal replied
"Aminaga, can take care of that. Besides, maybe there is a connection between the two." Duilin responed "There's allways, a connection..." He sighed under his breath.
"Very well. I supose this will aid in my studies." Marshal then rose his staff and summond another giant Albatrash, he hoped onto it's back and it flapped it's wing and flue into the air. They group then flue off following the direction the symbol pointed.
-
Xenai bats the anti-magic bomb back into the sea with his huge sword. He then charges up Omni...
-
The tension in the air was heavy. Ven moved much more cautiously though the giant stone slabs and thick vines. A twig cracked behind him and he spun around... nothing... He remained in that position, blade outstretched, listening...
At that moment, the huge monolith to his right, once part of a great wall, began to creak, falling directly towards him. He leapt forward out of its path as it came crashing down, only to find himself in the path of a second, even larger falling stone. He leapt backward, landing on top of the first.
His silver blade came crashing down on the head of the unnoticeable shadow at the base of the toppled stone... at least it was there a second ago...
"Heh heh heh..."
-
Haraldur smiled as he dodges the ki ball flying in their direction. Good, he is doing as I expected. Why does he think of me so? Meh, no time for soul searching presently.
The picked up pace, and eventually arrived at the Crimson Capital, outside the main gates. Haraldur conjure up a large ball of water, around the size of a bus, and chucked it within the city walls, to capture the guards' attention.
When he could see he was being warily watched by those same guards, he yelled, "I request an audience with Lord Draven. If my request is not fulfilled, then I will have to have a less cordial audience with him, and your lives will be forfeit. Go!"
A guard captain sent a messenger towards the Imperial Palace, in order to carry the message.
While waiting for an answer, Haraldur watches with interest as Tesla has target practice shooting the dire animals in a nearby wood.
-
Ven lifted his blade from the stone. The silver sword was unscaved, but the stone now bore a gash. He glanced around, spotting an opening in the rubble of the temple with stone steps leading down into the darkness.
Ignoring the obvious threat of a trap, he began to descend the stairs, blade in hand...
(So, are people following him, or what? Heh...)
----
(*Sigh* Must we involve Draven already?)
The mammoth gates opened slightly-- just enough for several men to walk through. The torches along the walls burned brightly with an bright orange everlasting flame. These were part of a spell that protected the city from aerial attacks. Still the guards and the red wyverns perched at the wall tops eyed the bear skinned visitor irritatingly. Obviously the wise guy who likes to throw water attacks over their walls wants to be killed...
The lead figure exiting the gates was dressed in fine black armor with a bright red cape... it was not Draven, but a man who walked tall and was obviously trying to look important. Six guards followed the man, two on each side. They resembled the soldiers of the old Dark Empire almost exactly, except the crimson dragon insignia was no longer a red outline, but a solid color, and a diagonal sword outlined behind the beast for effect.
The group stopped in front of Haraldur and Telsa, the guards in back moving out to the side so that in case their leader gave the word, they could more easily surround the intruders.
"Sir, firstly, Lord Draven is out on business at the moment. Secondly, he is a busy man and does not have the time to grant audiences to commoners. If you would leave you message with me, I will pass it on to him upon his return..."
-
"Hello!" Aminaga shouted to Ven as he turned visable again.
Just then, Aminaga hoped he haden't said that. He had begun to feel a dangerous presence. "Ven, we should turn back." said Aminaga. "We can catch Mavas later. For all we know, the others could be in grave danger..."
-
//No, not necessarily, I am just doing this for a couple of reasons. First, the relationship between Draven and Haraldur I believe needs to be fleshed out a bit. Second, I want to establish the Crimson Capital as setting with a sense of place, as a location in the RP. Thirdly, it is part of my explanation of "Aspyes" and the relationship between Haraldur and Tesla, and the tatoo. Fourthly, in reference to number three, there are some NPCs I want to introduce, some of which may become PCs. Fifthly, to start elaborating what Haraldur, The Rebel of the Aspyes, and the Aspyes are rebelling against. So, I do have some reasons. After all, this is a very good story-telling medium.//
"Ah, good, an underling," said Haraldur, smiling as he saw the party approach.
"I expected him to be out, after all, he has an empire to run," Haraldur said as he smiled sardonically. "However, I advise you not to refer to me or my associates as commoners, as it is innacurate. To be called a commoner implies being common, while we are quite rare.
"I have a request. I request that you release all your prisoners who have this tatoo on their arms," he said, as Tesla rolled up his sleeve, showing the men his tatoo. "My reasons are my own," he said, as Tesla covered the tatoo up again, "but it should be sufficient that I request this. If you do not have the authority to do this, or you would prefer to consult your master, then send a message to Lord Draven sending Lord Haraldur's best regards and that Lord Retan would be proud etc. etc. and that Lord Haraldur requests that his old comrade in arms would grant him an audience in reference to some prisoners Lord Haraldur would like released."
Haraldur bowed, and for an instant, a line of red was seen on the edges of his black clothes, resembling that of a Dark Empire High General, before disappearing again.
-
Zeros' suddenly flapped his wings and stopped right in mid-air, his white, feathery wings extended to their full length.
He cursed under his breath and turned to his companions.
"Haradlur's aura signature disappeared," he said to his companions.
-
Zion tried to feel any dark presences... But he had been passively following Aminaga the entire time, and was half unconscious in doing so. ((Focused on fighting Albatrash.))
((By the way, if Dippy doesn't post soon, can I kill his charrie? Razz Ah, feh. *Casts Omni anyways.*))
--- --- ---
"Foolish pirate... Feel my true potential!!!"
"Consume all, flash of death!!!"
Instead of a gravitational force that pushed in, an extremely powerful non-elemental surge of energy pushed out from him in all directions, breaking the ship into many small pieces. It was obviously strong enough to do lots of damage to a human.
-
//Dude, you should have gave him another day. Now he's going to be pissed. I kept telling him, non magical characters don't last, but he didn't listen.//
"His aura dissappeared. I forget, what dose that mean?" Duilin asked
"Haraldur...I've herd that name before..." Marshal said under his breath
-
Ven stopped mid-step and looked back, seeing that Aminaga was following.
"You again, huh... Listen, this is something I have to do. If you think your friends are in danger, by all means go and help them. Personally, I wouldn't worry about them... with that hybrid and all..."
He turned and continued down the steps, deeper into the darkness...
At that instant, the shadow with the red core was directly behind Aminaga... Mavas clutched the glowing red pendant around his neck with his right hand, and outstretched his left, which now glowed with the fury of the pendant.
"You're mine!!!"
Mavas lunged at Aminaga, aiming to grasp his neck with the glowing red hand...
----
(Heh, okay, points taken.)
The officer and the guard to his right began whispering, and after a moment's deliberation, the crimson caped man turned to Haraldur again.
"Sir, we do not keep track of tattoos on our prisoners, and it is rare that we release them, let alone keep them alive for more than a few months. However, we will give Lord Draven your message upon his arrival."
He hesitated for a moment, knowing he could get in trouble if he gave too much information, especially if this guy isn't who he says he is.
"Lord Draven is on business at the southern fortresses near the border. You could try seeking him there, but he is due back soon and is likely returning aboard his personal airship, The Raiken, at this moment. You may be better off waiting for him here. You'll know when the ship comes..."
He bowed slightly.
"Good day."
He turned, and the guards followed him back towards the gates.
-
((Sorry about that, DM. But I was getting kinda impatient.))
Zion's full consciousness returned. He pulled out Eternity Weapon, and dashed in toward Mavas, slashing at him before he could get to Aminaga.
((If there is any reason that Zion's following Aminaga could get halted, please do tell me. ^_^))
-
((lol Why? Is there a reason you're always following Aminaga? =p))
"There you are, you cowardly bastard!" shoted Aminaga in rage. Aminaga, with all his might attacked Mavas, and prepared to engage him in combat! "I'm going to kill you for what you've done!" Just then, Aminaga stabbed Mavas straight in the stomach with his Blade of Champion, and then stood up, and said. "There you go. How does that feel?"
-
//Allright, well Dippy's been POed as I assumed, so looks like Xenia earned his pay.//
-
(Aminaga: When you throw an attack, the recipient of the attack decides weather or not to get hit by it or not.)
Mavas immediately released the pendant from his grasp and unsheathed the sword upon his back. He brought the jagged blade to a rest just behind his head, Zion's blade clanging against the steel a mere half second later.
At the same time he took one step backwards as Aminaga's sword scarred the black armor protecting his stomach.
"Not bad."
He spun around, Mavas and Zion's blades scraping together before he pushed them apart. Nearly backing into Aminaga, he thrust his blade into the ground before him.
"HYAAAHHH!!!"
The dirt rippled in a three foot radius around the sword's entry point. A crimson circle appeared around the man before exploding in flame. It was an explosion spell, meant more to force the two warriors off him more than damage them.
----
The black ship parted the clouds as it sailed through the air...
A figure stepped to the large window, which gave a magnificent view of the passing clouds and the mountains below, folding his hands behind his heavy cape.
"M...my lord?"
"... He's back..."
-
Zion is flung back from the explosion. "What the crap?" He looks Mavas over very carefully.
-
Zeros' turned to Duilin.
"It means, he's hiding is aura from our senses, making us impossible to sense where he is," he said. He then reached out again, spreading his senses wide. He felt Tesla's aura, though, where Haraldur's had disappeared. It was possible... but highly unlikely...
"What have you heard about Haraldur, Marashal?" he asked.
-
Haraldur nodded. He turned to Tesla and said: "I do not want to be followed. Go to the south a few miles and shut your aura off like I trained you to. Then find the flying ship, turn on your aura, then turn it off again, and return here."
Tesla nodded and did so, while Haraldur slept using the air as a bed.
-
"Well..." Marshal began "Us members of the Blue Minotaur, are seekers of legends and great phemonia. I have been told by my supeiors that, a mysterious man known as Haraldur was powerful being who nearly destroied the world because of atempting to complete his vengance. I'm not sure how my supierors found this out."
"Have you ever asked them" Duilin asked
"Yes, I did, but they say I wouldn't understand, or that my knowledge of the art of summoning and seeking of legends is to small." Marshal replied
"What if your part of a group how come you went off with us?" Rink asked
"Well, partly because of this. I suspect you people had something to do with near end of the world, and you are as what some people say 'The Creaters Of Legends'. You can't really expect to be flying around and defeating dragons and armys of zombies and not get noticed whould you?" Marshal explained "So anyways, If I stay with you, I will be able to obtain as much detail of this adventure, for I belive the Blue Minotaur will be very pleased to see that I have gained such information and have helped 'build a legend'..."
"Allright, good to have you with us then..." Duilin said, he then turned to Zeros' "Now, what could Haraldur's plan be this time. His vengance is complete, so what the devil, dose he need to do now?"
-
Mavas took a leap backwards, so that now he Zion and Aminaga were the points of a triangle. He turned to Zion, staring him straight in the eyes... a ring of darkness seemed to engulf the two warriors... but just for a brief instant...
"Heh heh heh, splendid! I'm sure you'll enjoy this one..."
He brought his sword to his side and clenched his fist, charging some sort of spell...
----
Ven turned to dash back up the stairs when he heard the noise, but it was too late...
The cave opening collapsed above him, closing him off from the outside battle. He jabbed his sword at the obstructing boulders.
"Bl--blast it!!"
----
The main control room bustled with activity, officers and more common soldiers attending to various tasks...
"My lord, someone approaches..."
Draven glanced at the small crystal ball like orb in the center of the room, which displayed an unfamiliar character...
One of the more important looking officers ventured,
"Shall we--"
Draven lifted his right hand.
"Let him come. Let's see what he's up to..."
-
Behind the walls of the Crimpson Empire castle stood a man in white hair and a black robe. He had a large black bladed sword holsted onto his back. He wandered around untill he spotted the officer and the guards returned. As they walked passed. He sprinted towards them. "Who was out there?" He asked
"Some strange flying men." One of the guards replied "They wanted to see Draven."
"Oh...Allright." He replied and walked off. "I sence his blood, he has returned. He is no longer a child, he has become more powerfull...that is good. Master your death shall no be in vain. It was but a step to our victory..."
He then walked over to the gates. "Yet aid may be helpfull..."
-
Hm... What could this be? Instead of rushing in to try and stop it, he sheathed Eternity Weapon and concentrated upon his aura. A magical barrier, moderate in strength, formed around his body and all of his appendages.
--- --- ---
Xenai dropped an unconscious Albatrash on the desk of his client.
"You said dead or alive. If he escapes, it's not my problem unless you can find me and pay me."
The man at the desk lifted up Albatrash's unconscious body and took him back to a jail cell of sorts, leaving Xenai's pay on the desk. Xenai took up the pay and left.
-
Tesla arrived South, turnred his aura on and off, and carried on. He arrived at the ship, and did the same. He then returned to Haraldur's side, keeping his aura off, with a little effort.
"I wonder what Draven's reaction will be to all this, when at last he realises our common history," said Haraldur.
-
Zeros' turned his emerald gaze to Marshal and back to Duilin.
"I have no doubt his twisted, sadstic soul has some plan cocked up again, and it happens to involve all the... old players," he said, emphasing the old.
-
Aminaga, knowing something was wrong, decided to leave Mavas to Ven, and try to go find the others. Eventually, he caught up with the others, and shouted. "Okay, what the f***ing hell is going on!? I heard something happening from here." Aminaga, fearing something bad was about to happen, pulled out his Blade of Champion as always, and prepared for battle...
-
//Um Aminaga if you mean by the others as, Rink, Marshal, Zeros' and Duilin. They are several miles away, hovering in the air, spying on the Crimpson Empire. It took us a couple posts to get there and we were flying at great speed.\\
-
The crimson gem around his neck pulsated brightly. Mavas' form began to shift slightly, as if a translucent image was appearing over him...
He appeared to Zion as... Zion... an exact clone of himself. Yet Mavas' image was still visible in the translucent impostor, as was the red pendant...
"Consume all, flash of death!!"
A bright flash of light emanated from Mavas' body. The light dimmed, forming a sphere of darkness around Zion. The gravity inside the bubble increased rapidly, soon reaching magnitudes several hundred times the natural level...
The impostor spoke, with a sinister mix of Mavas and Zion's voice:
"Yes... in order to keep your techniques I have to kill you. Which is exactly what I intend to do!"
He slashed the jagged blade and extended his left hand, focusing all his might on increasing the spell's power...
----
Trapped in the cave, Ven finally sheathed his blade. He faced the boulders in his way and brought both fists to his side as a dim aura engulfed his body...
----
The mammoth black airship appeared on the horizon. As the Crimson Capital appeared in the window of the control deck, so did the small specks that were the two visitors, waiting outside the gates.
The ship stopped just outside the city's southern entrance, hovering some 500 feet in the air. A door opened in the bottom and five armored figures floated slowly to the ground...
The four in back were men of various types, all in varying styles of dark armor and capes. The one in front was familiar-- it was Draven.
The group landed in front of Haraldur and Telsa. Draven folded his arms and the entourage copied their leader's posture to their best ability.
"Well, well, what do we have here? Didn't you kill yourself or something?"
-
//I did say "Eventually, he caught up with the others." Razz//
-
//Were also not by the Crimson Emprire... per say. Where we are, Draven isn't able to see us, only sense us.\\
Zeros' narrowed his eyes as he saw the massive airship move towards the Crimson Empire. He felt the farmiliar fiery aura of his nemesis of five years.
He only whispered one word...
"Draven," he whispered.
-
//HAHA! You're using Omni! Freaking awesome! >D Oh, wait. That's bad for me. o_o;
Zion could feel the extreme pressure of his own spell coming in on him. He charged up his own Omni, looking at Mavas intently, trying to withstand the force long enough to push against it.
-
//Dude, that dosen't matter, you can't just sort of magically appear here in one post. Besides, Aminaga would have no clue were they went, he never saw them leave. And why would he abbandon Zion and Ven?\\
Duilin, glared at Draven from above.
"Duilin, don't get to angry. If you get angry, your blood rage will become to strong and Draven might be able to detect you." Rink warned
"Of course it's just. It's all his fault I was enslaved..." Duilin replied
Marshal's Albatrash bird lowered down, and pearched onto a near by tree. Marshal looked up at Zeros'. "So, this Draven is the leader of the Crimpson Empire. Perhaps Haraldur wants to create an allience with the empire, so he can have an army." He pondered
"God, I sure as hell hope not. I trusted Haraldur..." Duilin sighed
-
"Consume all, flash of death!"
He had to expend more energy to alter the spell, to cause it to push out, rather than push in, against the spell that Mavas casted. It was now a battle of Omnis.
-
//Why? Because I need to find out all the facts for my game. =p//
"Okay, I have a bad feeling that whoever's in charge of the Crimson Empire's here. And whoever it is, show yourself, and explain everything!" shouted Aminaga in rage.
"Yessss...." said the voice that had always haunted Aminaga...
-
"Nyagh!"
The retort spell caused Zion-Mavas to take a step back, though he wasn't that close to Zion, and his own spell faltered.
"Fool! I shall improve upon your pathetic weakness!!"
Keeping his left hand outstretched and focused on keeping his Omni from shattering, he jammed his blade into the ground so that he would have two free hands.
He cupped his hands in front of him, so that from his perspective it looked like he was crushing Zion with his own hands (as you can shut one eye and cover a full moon with your thumb)...
As the strength of his Omni multiplied, the ground around Zion flew up in small chunks in disintegrated, creating a crater under the warrior, who was now suspended in mid air, caught in the effects of two conflicting gravity spells...
"Die! Die!! DIE!!!"
----
(Aminaga, make sure you read every post and understand what is going on. The way I take it, you just gave Zeros' and co.'s position to Haraldur and Draven. Also, next time it should take several posts to get from one place to another.)
Draven's eyes shifted to the right. As he finished his remark, a noise emanated from deep within the forest. Someone yelling or something...
He turned his head and glanced at the dark warrior at his far right. The man nodded, understanding the gesture completely.
A yellow aura engulfed the bodyguard, bolts of crackling electricity dancing about his body. He took off, riding the wind with his feet an inch above the ground at a good 40 miles per hour, straight at the source of the noise. This was obviously an Air Mage. His black hair was extremely tall and spiky, and his black armor was intricately decorated with yellow crests and such. As the wind riding warrior neared the edge of the forest, he removed a small metalic pipe-like object from his belt and held it firmly in his right hand...
Draven returned his attention to Haraldur.
(Now if you kill or loose this guy quietly, you may not get noticed!)
-
"I am not the first person to come back from the dead Draven, or at least to seem to. You should know. Did you receive my message?" Haraldur looks quite at ease.
Tesla looks in the direction of the sound, in want of anything to do.
-
"I... refuse... TO DIE!!!" A surge of energy, and he would continue to push out against Mavas's Omni. His eyes blanked out, his muscles seemed to be bulging a little bit. This showed just how hard he was pushing, and while his body had a chance to recover, his spirit was working its butt off. His magical capacity is amazing! I can't believe how strong he is...
--- --- ---
Xenai could feel a spike of energy off in the distance, recognizing two copies of the spell he was so familliar with. "What the hell have you gotten yourself into now?" Xenai ejected his black wings once more and took off in that direction.
-
Zeros' pursed his lips and held one finger over them in a Shh motion.
"Be quiet. I'll handle this guy," he said and whispered something under his breath. "Umi-Sen Ken," he whispered. His form shimmered once and completely disappeared from view, using the Thousand Sea's technique to fold his aura around himself, making him almost impossible to detect and also hiding him from sight.
In the cloak of the Umi-Sen Ken, Zeros' folded his wings in on his body. Then, he used pure ki to make himself float silently towards the Air Mage. He saw him holding the small, pipe-like object in his hand and nodded to himself. Then, he snuck up upon the Air Mage from behind and extended his right pointer finger. He coated his finger in a white, holy ki.
Quickly, he jabbed towards a point near the base of his neck, right where the spine and neck joined. An instant unconcious pressure point...
-
//Aminaga, you don't have to have your character here in order to know what is happening here. You can read the posts of other people's actions. I don't see the point for Aminaga to be here, unless he's here to get more help to fight Mavas Wink //
"Aminaga, you fool." Duilin wispered in an annoyed tone. "Shut the hell up, and don't yell."
Marshal watched in amazement as Zeros' becomes invisble and knocks out the Air Mage. "Zeros', you should put him in a safer place..." He said quietly
----
Valos, walked up onto the walls of the Crimpson Empire fortress. He looked down at Draven and Harladur. "What do we have here?" He said to himself.
-
"Arrrgh!!"
Mavas was loosing his death grip. The sphere around Zion grew larger (due to the forces pushing it apart).
"Noooo!!!"
Further and further it slipped-- until his Omni broke. The opposing gravity burst forth from Zion in all directions, slamming Mavas backwards through two trees, which promptly split in half, and into a thick patch of bushes.
----
Sensing a sense of urgency outside, Ven poured all of the energy of his spell into his right fist.
"HYAAA!!!!"
The collapsed boulders shattered under his punch and he could see daylight... He began to crawl through the rubble.
----
The elite bodyguard slowed down upon approaching the area where the noise came from and began walking. He stopped, looking behind him, but at that moment a light tap to his neck rendered him unconscious and he collapsed.
----
"Hmph..."
Draven scowled slightly, but then looked a bit more interested.
"Message, huh? I've received nothing. Just flew in, you see..."
His eyes shifted up at the giant heavily armed battleship hovering above them.
"But, of course, I'm listening..."
-
"Indeed, but I was assured you would receive my message once you had arrived. No matter, I will recite what I told the messenger earlier: If you do not have the authority to do this, or you would prefer to consult your master, then send a message to Lord Draven sending Lord Haraldur's best regards and that Lord Retan would be proud etc. etc. and that Lord Haraldur requests that his old comrade in arms would grant him an audience in reference to some prisoners Lord Haraldur would like released." Haraldur smiled, eidetic memory was useful.
"Now of course, you will need to have a good memory to understand half of the message, but the important part I am sure you can understand, comrade."
-
Zeros' became visible again, but still masked his presence. He ghosted down below the airmage and caught him in his arms. He slung the body over his shoulder and spread his wings, this time, and flew down towards the spot where the rest of the group was.
"What should we do with this mage?" he whispered, motioning to the unconcious airmage slung over his shoulder.
-
Aminaga tried to respond, but the darkness withen him started to cause sudden pain, and withen only a few seconds, just then, he vanished, vanished into thin air...
//This means I'll be out of town for a while, meaning I won't be able to respond. Sorry, I have no choice...//
-
"Quite curious..." Marshal said. "Well, I'm sure he'll be alright."
Duilin, narrowed his eyes, and then turned to Zeros'. "Well, we could toss him somewhere, yet then, he might wake up and report what he saw, or we could kill him, yet then that would set the empire into alert, if they found the body, unless we vaporize the body."
"I say, we just toss him somewhere, I'm sure if he gets good knock on the head he'll get amnesia." Rink chuckled.
"That probabilities of that are quite low, my little red friend." Marshal replied.
"Ah, even if he dose blab about us, it won't matter. I was able to fight of an entire army plus two golems, so I'm used to having empires wishing my death." Duilin said
-
As he stood in the courtyard, totally illuminated by the moonlight, and soaked in his own sweat, Isaloer practiced his sacred martial art's final form repeatedly. Every step, he exhaled softly, but the techniques themselves created a mighty gust in the winds. For hours, Isaloer would train every night, perfecting his already perfect form, whilst trying not to wake the head priest and his fellow apprentice clerics, for had they known he knew this art, he would not only be expelled from the temple, but put to death.
When his form came to an end, a soft but stern voice spoke from the shadows.
"Your talent is out of the ordinary. However, as a cleric, you are forbidden to follow such barbaric practices." It was Galen, the head priest himself. His garb was of pure ruby-red silk, glistening in the winds. "It is not unknown to me that you are the only master of this art...I have read that journal you kept under your pillow, and I have seen you practice your art in the dead of the night."
Isaloer glared at the elderly priest, a flicker of hate in his eyes. "You call yourself a priest, but you read an individual's private journal as if it were open to the public?" He turned away and began to head into his quarters. He stopped just before he arrived at the main door, and turned to the priest. "How am I to be punished for practicing my family's art?"
The old man smiled calmly and walked toward the youth. "Since you are a talented fighter, and an overly skilled cleric, I cannnot end your life. However, since you have broken our rules...I have no choice but ot banish you from this temple. Get your belongings together, and leave."
Isaloer nodded and retrieved his bags, and left the temple, never looking back.
//Sorry for the delay, guys. My computer's been weird about me posting here 0_0;; //
-
(Actually, the forums themselves have been on the fritz for a while.)
Draven raised an eyebrow and the remaining bodyguards glanced at each other.
"Erhm... yes..."
I suppose it's better than him randomly destroying things...
"Prisoners, huh? I don't just give things away... make me an offer and I might give you some consideration..."
Obviously Ragnar is up to something, but what use is a few worthless prisoners? Draven wasn't in the mood for an epic battle outside his capital's gates, anyway...
-
Zeros' threw the mage uncermoniously to the ground.
"We could always interogate him for anwsers about the Crimson Empire," he said, thoughtfully.
-
"Ah, so I see your memory remains damaged. No matter, I am sure it will heal itself in time, comrade. As for what I should offer, I have no idea, so I suggest you think about that. However, I will tell you one thing for free: Zeros' and company are following me, and are likely to be those whose sounds we heard. I thought you might like to know who you sent the scout to. He will not be reporting back. Worst of all, they now know that you know that someone is here. Well, Lord Retan always did say that you acted before thinking."
-
Draven brought his right fist before him, clenching it tightly. Yep, he pressed the right buttons...
"Memory? What in blazes are you babbling about now? Secondly, fly-boy and his merry men are of no concern to me, as are you, you washed up has-been!"
The bodyguards took a good three steps back as a faint crimson aura appeared around the man.
"I'll have none of your games, Ragnar. If you wish to offer further petty critiques or find something of my interest for a reasonable trade, leave your message at the door and I may decide to read it if I have time at the end of the day."
He brought his right hand up in a waving motion, signaling the airship above to continue on. It did so, slowly moving over the city walls.
The aura disappeared from Draven and he promptly walked past Haraldur, giving Telsa a quick glare, towards the gates of the capital, the three elites following.
-
Zeros' felt the faint fiery spike of power, and nodded.
"It seems... Draven has learned how to control that temper of his. No matter... we will deal with him when the time comes," said Zeros'. He picked up the air mage again and slammed him against a tree. The tree groaned against the force, a small impression of the man's body forming in the tree, a small spiderweb of cracks forming outwards.
Zeros' stepped away from the tree and muttered some words under his breath. He waved his hands in the man's general direction. White ropes appeared around the man and tied him secruely around the tree. He stepped forwards and tugged at the experimentally. He nodded, seeing they were secure.
He extended his pointer finger and touched another point on the back of his neck, making the man come out his his unconcious state. Zeros' stepped back from the man and addressed him.
"Hello there. As you may have guessed, you were knocked out by none other then me," said Zeros', extended his wings to their full length before folding them back. He also reverted his transformation back to his half-demon form, his hair turning from white to silver and wings from white to midnight black.
"Now. I want information on the Crimson Empire and I want it now," he said calmly, but one could hear the demand in his voice. "Oh and if you struggle... let's just say there's an unpleasent surprise," he smirked then.
//The surprise is the ropes will pull tighter as he struggles and will become surrounded in fire as long as he struggles. The flames also extended upwards and downwards of a foot each from where the ropes are. Sort of like quicksand, as you keep sinking as long as you struggle.\\
-
"I am afraid I do not have the time, I am almost as impatient as you, Lord Draven."
Haraldur looked towards Tesla and said, "I am afraid it is with deepest regret that we must carry out plan B." Tesla grinned and Haraldur chuckled.
They started slowly flying towards the city walls.
___________________________________________________________
Deep in the silver mines below the Crimson capital, a group of prisoners were having a break in a hollow in a tunnel wall. All were male, and all were bare-chested, and all with a tatoo of one man surrounded by ten other men on their arms. They were each chewing on some hard bread, the stuff they were given everyday. They were waiting, as they always had done, for the signal they had been promised for years.
In the middle of the hollow a glow started slowly to appear, forming into a hologram of the same symbol of eleven men, slowly turning around and around in the darkness. The time had come to carry out the plan they had prepared for for years.
Away, on the other side of the mines, was hidden an explosive charge. It would go off in a few minutes, activated by the signal they had been given. And it would open up a tunnel where the prisoners were, due to the nature of the fault line which created the mines.
The prisoners backed away to the side walls, waiting for the blast...
-
Zion glared at Mavas after breaking the spell, panting very heavily. He turned and limped away. Xenai arrived at that moment.
"You okay, man?"
"Not really."
-
Haraldur and Tesla reach the city walls, and sit, near an otherwise quite ordinary stetch of cliff.
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Impact'>BANG!</span></span>
The half of the city on the opposite side to Tesla and Haraldur had exploded, and been utterly pulverised, bodies flying through the air.
The bit of cliff they were near to had collapsed, revealing a tunnel created where the fault had just moved. Out of it, those tatooed prisoners were rushing. Haraldur and Tesla threw food and water to them.
Then the group of about fifty, including our two heroes, ran into the forest, and hid.
-
"Holy smokes!" Valos yelled. He climbed back down off the walls, and ran up to Draven and the elites.
"Lord Draven! Lord Draven! I saw them, they went threw the forest!" Valos yelled
------
"Ha ha!" Duilin laughed as he saw the explotion. "Yeah, that's defenatly the same Haraldur."
"He allways has to make a big scean dosen't he." Rink chuckled
"My word, that's going to take an extremly long time to clean up." Marshal sighed
"Zeros', should we follow Haraldur and see what he's up to?" Duilin asked
-
A severed arm landed on Haraldur's shoulder. He brushed it off. Seeing the emaciated bodies of the former prisoners, Haraldur decided that their safety was paramount.
He opened a hole in the air, and motioned for everyone to get in. Tesla and the prisoners did so, entering Haraldur's dimension, but keeping the hole open. Haraldur took the hole and folded it up, and put in in the pouch on his belt.
The second charge would be going off soon, to give them something to remember him by, the bastards.
He checked his aura was off, and started slowly walking south through the forest, hoping not to be noticed, and that the second blast would be a sufficient distraction.
___________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, above the city, a symbol similar to the one before appeared in the sky, this time pointing south east, and saying again, "Follow".
_____________________________________________________________
After some walking Haraldur turns west and then north west, and carries on walking, being far away from the city. (This would be in a few posts' time).
-
Zeros' turned his head and surveyed the group for a moment before sighing and turning to Rink.
"Rink," he said, "could you find someway to dispose of the man? I ask this of your because of your... interesting past. It's possible Draven could trace any sign of myself using any of my spell or abilties," he said quietly. He then swivled around and faced the main tied to the tree, his trench coat follow his movements. "It seem that Haraldur has found a way to disrupt our actions, once again," he said, chuckling mirthlessly.
He then glared up at the symbol and waved a hand in it's direction. The symbol disappeared in a shimmer of displaced air.
Then, we swirvled around again to face the southeast, his trench coat billowing behind him. He flapped his two, black angel wings experimently before gently hovering in the air.
And, without turning around, he addressed Marshal," Marshal, I warn you now. Draven is an extremely... violent man. He uses fire as his power. There is also and extremely high chance you might possibly lose your life," he said.
He then, rose into the air and started flapping his wings harder. After a few moment, Zeros' suddenly shot out like a bullet, his arms to his sides and his legs brought inwards towards his body. A sonic boom trailed in his wake. All he looked like to anyone was a blurred black, silver and black blur, his wings working in a blur.
-
(Haraldur, please DO NOT update three times before I can respond!)
Draven sighed as an explosion rocked part of the capital. He pointed to a group of fleeing men, Haraldur in particular.
"Kill them all."
Auras engulfed the three men behind him, one was dark, one a bright blue, and one green, and they sped off into the air, seemingly flying in random directions.
Draven turned his head to the forest, and grinned his maniacal grin...
"I know, Valos."
It wasn't an aura of flame that surrounded him, but super-heated air. He shot up into the sky.
----
From the darkness they watched the prisoners enter... and Haraldur close the opening on the other side. The prisoners seemed alone...
The scraping of many swords being unsheathed echoed through the small dimension.
"That will be as far as you go."
It was the voice of a low ranking lieutenant in charge of exploring the various mini dimensions the Crimson Empire had recently learned to access. A group of armed soldiers, comparable to the number of escapees, surrounded the men on three sides.
----
"Sir Valos!"
Three soldiers ran up to the officer, two carrying a heavy object.
"We've found this."
The two soldiers behind placed the heavy device on the ground. It fell apart, in four or five pieces.
"The prisoners have somehow been planting bombs. This one was disabled successfully, but we couldn't finish the first one in time..."
----
"That was somewhat impressive..."
Draven's voice echoed from above. He came in from a diagonal direction with great speed and landed some twenty feet behind Haraldur in a crouching position, his cape falling around him and the dirt ground cracking under the intensity of the impact.
He slowly stood up, a blade of searing flame in his right hand pointed diagonally toward the ground.
"I never would have guessed you had people on the inside. Oh, well, I suppose I should have paid more attention to the details..."
He turned the sword of flame in an arc until it was perpendicular to the sky, bringing it infront of his face. The sword seemed to scorch the very air...
"Oh yes, I've decided what I want in return... your head..."
----
"What the--? ARRRGHHH!!!"
The air mage struggled against the ropes, and found them to be burning him. It took him about three tries to figure out that wasn't a good idea...
By this time Zeros' had left and he scowled at Duilin and the others.
"Errgh!! What do you want?!"
His eyes darted around, and he spotted the small metallic tube that he was carrying, on the ground in the same spot he dropped it when he was knocked unconscious... no one had seen it...
----
Finally free, Ven rushed out of the cave, running at full speed toward Zion and Xenai.
"What happened?!"
"Heh heh heh..."
Mavas slowly worked his way out of the thick foliage, the red gem around his neck beating steadily. A large branch was stuck to his armor, and he dragged it along as he steadily walked towards the trio.
"Heh heh hah hah hahh....."
-
Zion looked to Ven. "Mavas tried to copy my best spell... And he did a dang good job of it, too!" He could see Mavas rising out of the corner of his eyes. He alerted Xenai and Ven to his presence immediately. "Look who's getting back up."
Xenai looked the guy over. "This the guy you were struggling against? The reason there were two Omnis being casted?"
-
//Sorry. I got ahead of myself.//
Tesla saw the soldiers, and bared his teeth. He tugged at the hole. There was a ripping sound.
Those closest to the hole just landed near Haraldur. Howver, those further away were thrown out, with the magnitude of the force increasing proportional to the increase in the distance from the hole.
The result of which was that Haraldur was suddenly surrounded by his followers, some with bruises from being thrown a little way. On the other hand, the soldiers did not fare so well. They had been flung out at very high speeds, and there was much bone breaking and they smashed into nearby trees, dead.
Haraldur sighed, he would have to transport them a different way. With a click, all of them except Tesla became very small, and were in his hand. He put them into suspended animation, and then into a small box, which he deposited in his clothing.
Tesla turned to Haraldur, pointing towards Draven, saying, "We do not have time to delay with matters such as this. You should converse with him later."
"Indeed," said Haraldur. He turned to Draven. "You can have it when it is next unused, which will never happen."
Tesla shot at the ground, causing dust to fill the area. He then grabbed hold of Haraldur, who shot south east at great speed. It would be useful to run into Zeros', if just for a few seconds, if Draven follows.
-
The soldiers who were thrown from the portal (and who were not dead) stumbled around confused, looking at their leader.
Draven watched Haraldur and Telsa take off as a crimson aura surrounded him.
"More fleeing and chasing, huh?"
Draven shot into the sky after the two and was hot on their heals within seconds.
"I do hope you've learned a few more tricks in the past five years, comrade."
Crimson blade in his right, he extended his left hand, opening his palm quickly. A bright flash of light appeared about a half mile directly in front of the escaping duo, followed by a rapidly expanding ball of flame. The explosion blasted apart the trees directly underneath, setting many more ablaze. At these speeds, Haraldur would fly directly into the blast within seconds...
----
"Sir Valos!!"
A fourth and fifth soldier approached the officer, carrying a haggard bearded man in prisoner's clothing who had his hands tied. The prisoner was forced to his knees and a sword held to the back of his neck. The prisoner struggled a bit before scowling at Valos.
"My lord, all the prisoners assigned to D Block escaped... except for this one. He had be assigned toilet duty this morning and was separated from the group. He tried to run when the explosion hit, but we stopped him... Your orders sir?"
A distinct tattoo of one man surrounded by ten smaller men was on his right arm...
----
"Copy your attack?"
Ven drew his blade. Mavas continued slowly moving closer and closer...
"That infernal gem does something different every time..."
"Hah hah hah hah!!"
His black cloak blowing in the breeze, Ven targeted his silver blade at Mavas and began to slowly sidestep to the right. As he moved, he glanced at Zion and Xenai and nodded his head in a way that any experienced warrior would understand as 'One of you go around left and one of you stay in the middle'.
The last branch and shrubbery fell off of Mavas and he stopped. A few dents and scratches spotted his armor, but he seemed physically unaffected.
"Heh heh... three for the price of one..."
-
Zion pulled out Eternity Weapon started to circle left, staying aligned with Ven. Xenai remained in the middle, pulling out Zero Weapon.
--- --- ---
Tsu didn't feel right. Something was going down with Zion and Xenai. He ejected his wings and took flight, in an attempt to find him. It would be kinda difficult since he couldn't yet feel ki.
Aura saw him, her blue eyes widening. She decided to follow him... Unfortunately, it would have to be on foot.
-
Spotting the blast in front of him, Haraldur split, leaving Tesla in the middle. In order to protect Tesla from the blast, sparks of energy went from the ten Haraldur's to Tesla, shielding him from the blast. The ten Haraldur's were in a circle, which expanded to surround and avoid the blast. The ten Haraldur's smiled at the symbol this created.
The ten Haraldur's morphed into what they had been before, the six weapons, older and younger Haraldur's, Ragnar and the boy. Ragnar grinned at Draven before they all converged again, holding on to Tesla as they merged to form Haraldur again.
Tesla shot at Draven with his ray gun, shooting plasma towards the Crimson Emporer. After he did that, Haraldur did two things: he made holograms of himself and Tesla, occupying the same space as themselves so it would not be noticed, and then made both him and Tesla invisible, and with suppressed auras. They then wheeled off to the north and then north west, leaving the illusions moving south east.
Haraldur hoped that they would reach the ruins of Vikingagarð without any more hitches, both the drop off the prisoners, and to see what Tesla and the others had done in the years he was away.
-
As Zeros' flew in the air at speeds exceeding Mach 1, he passed the Crimson Empire, but decided to ignore it in favor of following Draven and Haraldur's power spikes.
Look's like they already found each other. That's not good. With their battles, they could destroy half the world. He mused silently to himself. He, then, felt Haraldur's and Tesla's aura disappear suddenly. He cursed mentally.
Damn. I doubt that Draven can even sense aura's. No doubt more of Haraldur's trickery. He flapped his wings harder, putting on another burst of speed. He nedded to each them. And fast.
-
Rink flapped his small wings, and hovered infront of the Air Mage, and smiled at him. "Oh, we want nothing of you. Infact we want you to be, nothing!" Rink then raised his right arm and opened his palm, a cyclone of fire began to swirl around and become bigger, untill it became nearly twice Rink's size (so about 3 feet in diameter). He then blasted the fireball at Air Mage, burning him alive.
"You're sick Rink." Marshal grunted "We'll the whole army has proboabbly gotten in alert. He then patted the Albatrash on it's back. "We might need more help."
"Allright guys..." Duilin said quietly "Just try and not make to much noise, watch out for each other. Rink, you taught me how to use my powers, and now I want you to try and do them yourself."
"Hey," Rink began "It's not the fact that I don't know how. It's the fact that I can't."
"Just, try. Marshal, summon something, big if they come." Duilin ordered
"Were are you going?" Marshal asked conserned "I didn't like it when Zeros' told me I might die, and then went blasting off."
"I'm just going to search around. I might be able to gain more information, and I'll be able to defend myself if they find me." Duilin then dove down silently onto the castle's wall and then sneaked along the side, folding his wings down.
Marshal bit his lip and looked at Rink. Rink, gave a look of concern.
-------------
Valos turned around and looked at the prisoner. "So you tried to escape..." Valos said calmly. He then drew his sword. The black blade was clear but dark. He shook his head. He then looked into the bearded man's eyes. He then lifted his sword and readied to swing, sudden he stopped and looked around. He then looked at the fourth and fith soilder "Take him in for questioning." He then pointed at the other three "Follow me...I sence something." He said quietly. "General Nex told me what it should be like..."
"Um, General Nex? Sir, Valos, didn't he die five years ago?" One of the soilders said.
Valos turned his head, and narrowed his eyes and nodded, he turned back and started walking around. "There is a demon here..." He said loud enough for all three soilders to hear, clearly.
-
The prisoner looked livid at the idea of being questioned, and he concentrated for a few seconds. And explosion of energy emanated from him, as his life force literally exploded away from his body, knocking down a few nearby walls, leaving just a burning body. A sort of destructive suicide.
-
Draven slashed his blade before him, deflecting the plasma energy in two directions. He squinted at the brightness of his explosion, but quickly spotted his targets fleeing southeast.
He brought his left arm before him and blasted an intense pillar of flame at the two. They vaporized in the heat, and the flame traveled on to a group of trees below, decimating them in a fiery explosion. Obviously those were illusions...
He closed his eyes, not allowing himself to be fooled by such optical tricks, searching... He turned northeast, but a much larger power was approaching and he opened his eyes while turning to his right.
"Well well, what a day of happy reunions..."
It was the distinctive aura and the unmistakable wings of Zeros' headed his way.
----
Something jumped out of the burning tree, shooting in the air high above Marshal and Rink.
"TRY AND OFF ME, HUH?!?!"
The air mage's face was slightly charred, and his armor smoking. As he fell downward upon the two, the sky opened up and pillars of lightning began to strike the ground near Marshal and Rink in rapid succession.
----
"Hey, yo."
The three dark bodyguards were suspended some 500 feet in the sky, side by side, watching the large firey explosions appear over the southern forest. But the flying lightning bolts to their left that just appeared were much closer.
"Looks like someone ticked off Hans."
"Who doesn't?"
"Think we should give 'im a hand?"
"Might as well. Ain't gettin' nothin' done 'ere."
The black, green, and blue auras shot through the sky.
----
Ven continued circling until the three warriors had Mavas completely surrounded.
Mavas chuckled.
"It's not fair."
"Life's not fair," Ven snapped back.
Mavas turned his eyes towards Ven.
"It's not fair, considering how badly outnumbered you are..."
"Uhhhhhhhhh...."
Ven turned his head. Some thirty zombies were rising out of the ground around the the tree warriors and Mavas.
"Heheheheheheeee!!!"
The short gray robed figure nearly fell out of his perch high in the tree, laughing.
Roars emanated from under the ground, and three much larger things began to dig their way out...
-
Zeros' narrowed his eyes as he spotted Draven floating in the air. He gave another flap of his black wings and gained another burst a speed, a sonic boom reverberating behind him, causing the water to wave behind him.
When he reached Draven's position, he flapped his wings and stopped suddenly. Water came up from behind him in a gaint tidal wave, hiding him from view.
As the tidal wave disappeared, Zeros' stood their, flapping his wings gently with his arms crossed and feet dangling down. His hair was drenched, sticking to his wet trench coat and dripping with droplets of water. His face was emotionless, hair spilling over his forehead and obscuring his eyes from view. Water dripping down from his hair and down his face, evaporating before it could hit the water agian.
"Hello Draven, pleasent day, isn't it?" he said, seeming casual about seeing on of his greatest opponents after five years of absence.
-
At long last, Haraldur and Tesla reached Vikingagarð, or at least what used to be its ruins. There appeard to be a fortified settlement here, and there were a few flags and banners, and they all had a revolutionary feel: the background was a blood red and in the the top left corner was the same symbol of Haraldur surrounded by his ten copies. On the main gate was the same symbol.
It was good that even now they had managed to keep the aura of the town completely suppressed, Haraldur thought.
They landed on the empty pedestal in the centre of the main square. Immediately, many people huddled around the pedestal, and there was shouting and people leaving buildings to go to the pedestal. Eventually some hundred individuals were in the main square, three quarters of them male, given the nature of their bundle of gifts, abilities and disadvantages, the vast majority of those with such gifts were of the male sex. It was visible that all those with bare arms had the same tatoo as Tesla.
Tesla jumped off the pedestal, and Haraldur took a box from amongst his clothing, and deposited the former prisoners amongst the crowd, who handed them cold food.
"Citizens of Aspyes, those who I have taken from Romme, Tjed, Aritan and the Dark Continent, those whose minds are like my own deemed abnormal to those formerly around you, those scorned and mocked by ignorant simpletons who both underestimate and envy our abilities, and shun our social weaknesses, we will soon be making our existance known, and we will do what we have thirsted for for years. As I speak, already the first blow has been struck. The Crimson Capital, formerly the Dark Capital, has now been highly damaged with the deaths of thousands of our enemies.
"We will not fail, we will never stop until we have been avenged of our collective persecutors, and we have established a world order where peace can reign, with equality of income and rights for every one of us, in a sustainable system of distribution of goods and services. Those who oppose us will be crushed, for they deny progress, and deny the advancement of our species beyond our current stage.
"Soon, we will raise our light house, to attract those similar to us, and make our presence known. Let them tremble with fear!"
The crowd shouted, "Aspyes!"
Haraldur jumped down and said to Tesla "Get the defence turrets up, and armed, and make sure that we are prepared for any attack. We must not falter at the first hurdle, it will cost us valuable time and lives."
Tesla bowed and scurried off to do as he was asked.
Haraldur jumped back on to the pedestal, and it rose high up, and he used it to survey the surrounding area while preparations were busily commenced in the town below him.
-
Marshal spotted the Air Mage jump down. He saw a lightning bolts blast down, he quickly jumped off the bird, as a bolt zapped it to death.
Rink, pointed his middle and index finger at the Air Mage and blasted to fire bolts at him. "I thought I killed you!" He yelled.
"Rink!" Marshal yelled "Stay on the ground, if you go in the air, you'll have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning. Rink nodded. Marshal then ran further away from the tree. He lifted his staff and it blasted a blue humen shaped specter, but it was much more burly and sloucched. It materialized into a large club weilding ogre. The ogre ran at the air mage, yelling, it swung it's large club at the Air Mage.
--------
Duilin, slid down the wall, and hid behind a small building. He took out his mace. I hope I didn't make a mistake leaveing Marshal and Rink alone. He knew that somebody was looking for him. He could sence a strong power, it reminded him of somebody.
--------
The three soilders followed Valos around.
"What, the hell is he lookin' for?" the first soilder wispered
"I dunno, this guy is even more confuseing then Draven." the second one wispered back
"He...He is close..." Valos said he pointed to a building. "There..." He said quietly.
Duilin closed his eyes, the power that he senced was accually preety strong. "No sence of hideing, I can take em..." He said to himself. He then stepped away from the building and revelied himself.
Valos raised his eyes, and grinned. "Heh, my my you have grown. Nice wings to." He laughed
"What the hell?" Duilin asked "Have we met?"
"I senced you were comeing, I have been watching you for awile, I should have acted sooner, when your power was stronger, but I can tell that you are getting more...rage...and hate."
"Who are you!?"
Valos, took out an old piece of paper, it appeared to be an old document. He looked at it and read. "Name: Duilin Talonscar, Rank: Leutenat, Status: Terminated from the Empire, for betrayle, treason, and murder of several soilders and officers."
"How the hell do you know me?" Duilin asked
"Nex...Before you went to war to fight in Romme, Nex told me that he expected the place to bring you rage and hate, he knew that you would 'evolve', the stronger you get the closer you get into coruption. But oh, it's not bad at all, soon, you shall bring victory to us, all we need is, your father!"
"My father! Nex, told me, he was a demon, he became insane and corupt. He ran away a few weeks before my home city was destroied. He's dead! I'm certain of it!"
"Hah, not really. I'm surprized Rink hasn't told you everything. I herd he found you. But this is no matter, you must come with me, there you will obtain extreme power and control. You can crush, the people who you belived to be stronger then you, even...Draven."
Duilin's face went to netruel. "I...can become...stronger....No! I don't need it, Zeros' is strong enough to protect me and all of my friends, Rink, Zion and rest."
"You won't need him. Rink has taught you to use your powers, but he is holding you back. Zeros' isn't protecting you, but he is preventing you from useing your powers, so you can stay weak..."
"I...am not...weak!" Duilin lifted his mace and ran at Valos. The tree soilders ran at him with there sword, Duilin swung his mace at one of the soilder's heads, smashing his skull knocking him down, he swung a punch with demon flame flowing threw at the second one, and jabed his hand right into his stomach, burning the soilder from the inside, wile he smashed the third soilders skull in aswell.
Valos drew his large black sword and pointed it at Duilin. "Bring it on!" The two ran at each other clanging there weapons together...
-
Draven replied as sarcastically as possible.
"Yes, just lovely..."
The burning blade disappeared and he folded his arms, turning towards the northeast.
"So, he's been trailing you on too, huh? Unfortunately, our problem seems to persist, which means our agreement remains as well..."
He shifted his eyes towards Zeros'.
"But it is obvious that he wanted us to meet. I saw his symbols in the sky. They were meant for you, weren't they? He wanted us to find each other... He wants his enemies in one place..."
----
"Hyaah!"
Landing on the ground, the air mage met Rink's bolt with shield of electricity... but he didn't see the club.
"Ooof--!"
The ogre slammed him hard, and he flew backwards some ten feet into a tree and tumbled to the ground.
A long, slender blast of shadow energy flew from the sky, piercing the ogre's back. It wailed as a black burning aura engulfed it and it disappeared.
"Heh heh heh, who're these guys?"
The three bodyguards landed in a row, in between Marshal and Rink and their fallen comrade.
"Terrorists tryn' ta screw up the peace..."
"Clearly the terror alert level must be increased to teal."
"Indeed."
The big one took a step forward, smashing his right fist in his left palm.
"Well, better get started..."
A blue aura engulfed the short one on the far right.
"Allow me."
The water mage thrust his right hand in the direction of the ground. Immediately the ground began to freeze and jagged shards of ice crept towards Marshal and Rink. A green aura engulfed the burly earth mage...
"HRRRAAAGH!!!"
He punched the ground with his right fist, shattering the ice and the frozen dirt below, sending both large cracks through the unstable ground and airborne razor sharp blades of ice at the two...
----
Ven spun around, lopping off an arm of a zombie that was nearly upon him before finishing it off. He quickly brought the blade before his face and it began to shed a silver light as he prepared the spell...
-
Xenai handed an Elixir to Zion. "Drink up, buddy. I've got an experiment to try." Zion gulped it down.
Xenai started to charge up Omni. "You too, kid." Zion obeyed and did the same.
-
As the pedestal shunk back to normal size, and Haraldur lowered down, Tesla nodded to him, the weapon systems had been prepared. Good.
The people stood in a circle around the pedestal, holding eachother's hands. Haraldur stood up. The circle turned around in the opposite direction to the world's spin, pouring energy into the pedestal. The pedestal got taller and wider, and carried on doing so, shaping itself into a massive light house.
Haraldur was now standing next to the light house beacon. He stood on it, and sat down, and meditated. He began to slowly spin, speeding up to a steady pace. From his forehead then cam a broade swathe of red light, a spinning beam.
_____________________________________________________________
Accross the world, the sky would turn red, and there would be curious symbols in the sky. Suddenly, many people would notice odd tatoos on their arms the same as the symbols in the sky, and would be thrown out of their villages, towns and cities.
With each sweep a force tugging them towards the lighthouse would increase in strength, eventually making them fly towards the light house at high speeds.
_____________________________________________________________
The main square not occupied by the light house was starting to fill up with those people who had been marked by the light house. They would be told by residents what they were here for, and the ideology of Aspyes, and all stayed, and were in agreement.
_____________________________________________________________
A strange small flying creature flew up to Draven, unfolding itself into a note, its paper red. OIt's header is the same as Tesla's tatoo. It landed in Draven's hand.
It reads:
"Greetings, Lord Draven:
The revolutionary government of the new nation of Aspyes, demands diplomatic recognition from the Crimson Empire recognising its existance and its right to existance. For reasonably obvious reasons you are not going to be informed of its location. Please reply on the back of this note, it will then fly back to me,
your comrade,
Lord Haraldur, former High General and Governor, Northern Territories, of Azure Empire, Blue Empire, Green Empire and Dark Empire
PS. Nice work, keep the line going.
-
Rink, blasted two fireballs from his hands at the ice blades headed toward him and Marshal.
"Hmmm, mages of each element." Marshal said "Well, I am a mage of summoning. Giveing me no elemental strength yet no weakness." Marshal backed up abit "Rink, I'm going to try something, protect me for a little wile."
Marshal then bent down on one knee and raised his staff, a large figure began to materilze.
As the mage did that, Rink created a flame in his palm, and lifted it up to his mouth he blew at the flame and created a large firewall melting the ice on the ground.
------
"Haha" Valos laughed "Your friends are in danger, and because of me, you cannot help them."
"You bastard! I'll just kill you and your mage buddies!" Duilin yelled. He blasted a lightning bolt at Valos, knocking his target back a few feet.
"Ha! You think your magic can out do mine!?" Valos, casted dark shade at Duilin, knocking him to the ground. "Ha, weak. Rink has done more damage then you!"
"How the hell do you know so much about me!" Duilin yelled as, he crawled back up.
Valos blasted another shade at him, knocking Duilin back to the ground, he then lifted the hair above his forehead revealing a tatto on his forehead.
Duilin looked at it, at first he expected the Aspyes' symbol. But it was a tatto of what appeared to be a bird talon making a cut upon skin. "A talon...makeing a scar..." Duilin relized that it seemed to be symbol representing his last name.
"Talonscar was a cult name. Your father ran it, he married your mother, saying it was his last name, and hid the fact that he was half demon." Valos explained "You are the key, to helping your father. Join, me and you and your father, can rule the world. Wipe out, the Empire, and every force that wishes to conquer the world."
"No." Duilin cried "My father, just wants me to become courput so I can join him as a servent in Hell!"
"Oh, no my friend." Valos grinned "A ruler, you can make it whatever you want. You can change the world..."
Duilin narrowed his eyes, they began to glow redish orange. He then blasted a ball of red flame that seemed to have orange electricity flowing threw it. The blast knocked Valos several feet away and down to the ground. Duilin slowly got up from the ground, and turned his head, he looked at the dark mage, turn, and get up.
Valos smiled evily at him "Good, very good...". Duilin looked at his hands and arms, they went back to how they were before, when he killed the enitity clone. He touched his forehead, he could feal two slight bumps.
-
Zeros' nodded at Draven's inquiry.
"Yes, indeed. It seems he thought our hate for each other would lead us to fight, and eventually kill one another, leaving him alone to take over the world. I would admit, our friends and allies are powerful in their own aspects... but I don't think they are simply strong enough. Even we may not be strong enough to permentally defeat this... monster," said Zeros' neutrally. "But, it seems he has underestimated us once again... and yes... it seems out alliance must be held, once again."
-
Draven noticed the piece of paper and plucked it from the air as Zeros' spoke the last sentence. He read it with interest, but his face glared with annoyance halfway through.
"Azure, blue... green...? You pompous... God, I hate that man..."
When he was finished, he flew closer to Zeros' and handed the note to him so that he could read it.
"You wouldn't happen to be able to stealthily follow a flying note now, would you?"
He searched in a small pouch attached to his belt and took out a quill that he happened to carry around (obviously the magical kind, that doesn't need to be dipped in ink and can even write upside down).
While Zeros' was reading, he turned to his fortress in the distance and noticed there were at least two battles going on, judging from the multicolored flashes of light produced by the spells.
"Your friends were snooping around my fortress, weren't they? *Sigh*"
----
The water mage took a few steps back, but then retorted with an intense blast of ice particles from his open palms. Behind, the air mage struggled to his feet and flew up into the air, enraged, sparks flying about him.
"THEY'RE MINE!!!!"
But at that moment, a telepathic message was broadcasted through the air (meaning everyone can hear it). It was Draven:
"Cease all attacks on those in league with the winged one, Zeros'. This includes another winged man, a small red imp, a man with teal hair, and a man with blue hair."
The bodyguards immediately ceased their spells, eyeing the red imp. What could this mean?
----
"Hehehe... from a distance, we shall watch them die!"
"Definitely too crowded here. 'Till next time!"
The gray robed figure leapt off the tree branch into the underbrush. Mavas took off into the forest as well.
"Blast it! No you don't!"
The distraction made Ven fail to notice the zombie to his right, which grabbed his arm. He kicked it off and it stumbled far enough away for him to swing his sword...
Blade fully charged, he brought it to his side and sliced the zombie in half with a huge arc. The energy continued on, catching six more zombies. The white light burned their flesh off and the skeletons stubbled around in agony, the silver energy still engulfing their bodies, until they vaporized.
By this time, the three things were fully out of the ground... they were mid sized dragons, some ten to twelve feet long, undead with partially visible skeletons. Each one lunged at a warrior...
(Remaining zombies: 22, Z. Dragons: 3)
(Haven't done this for a while. Heh...)
-
Zeros' nodded.
"Yes. I have... several techniques I can use to follow the note," he said as he read the note. Halfway through, he chuckled where Draven grew annoyed. "Yes. Haraldur has a warped sense of humor," he said amusedly. But, as Draven did his own telepathic message, Zeros' did his own as well, so it seemed it wasn't a trick by the Crimson Empire's leader:
Stop your attacks on Draven's forces. For now, we are allied. It seems Haraldur wanted us to destroy each other. We need to work together... for now. Zeros' telepathic message ran clear. He also broadcasted the message to Duilin, who was farther away then the bodyguards, Rink and Marshal.
He turned towards Draven and chucled humorlessly.
"They may be rash at time, but they are some of the most powerful people on this world. My friends are the only ones that can even stand against Haraldur for minutes to hours without being destroyed," he said.
-
Marshal sighed "Just as soon as it was getting fun." He stopped summoning and then stood up.
Rink, crossed his arms and chuckled. "Heh, so apparently we are allies now."
-------
Valos lowered his sword. "Draven and Zeros', wish us stop fighting."
Duilin narrowed his eyes, and twirled his mace. "This isn't a battle between sides." Duilin stepped toward Valos. "I don't care what they say. You have stocked me long enough."
"Hahah! Your demonic side is takeing over, good." Valos laughed "But, we can no longer continue this battle, at the moment. They are not letting us, we could be punished if we do. Haraldur, wants us to destroy each other."
"So...perhaps we should aid Zeros' and Draven, to improve the chances of destroying Haraldur." Duilin replied as he holstered his mace.
"Yes, my friend, yes." Valos, holstered his sword onto his back. "Let us go." He covered himself in a dark purple and red aura, and levitated himself.
Duilin blasted on his firey yellow aura. The two rivals fly off towards the area were Draven and Zeros' followed Haraldur to.
Duilin sent a telepathic message to Rink 'Rink, I am going to assist Draven and Zeros' with Haraldur. Perhaps you should stick with Marshal untill Aminaga comes back. Then come to were I am.'
-
Zion and Xenai watched the dragons emerge. And there were still yet more zombies.
"Great," said Zion. "Is your experiment gonna take care of all of these?"
"It might, it might not. We need, for one casting each, to modify Omni so that they are cast synchronously. The outcome, we have no clue, but we gotta make sure it doesn't hurt you, me, or the shiny guy over there." In reference to Ven.
"On 3... 1... 2... 3!"
What came out of their mouths seemed to be modified...
"Consume all, flash of annihilation! Omni+!"
The black stream of non-elemental energy shot forth out of the ground, straight up, for the entire distance that a zombie could be see. The only spots from which this energy did not erupt were those where Zion, Xenai, and Ven stood. The energy shot up high enough for most to see, including...
--- --- ---
Tsu halted, watching the spell being casted. Aura was catching up now, and she could see it too. Tsu took off in that direction. Aura watched him. "What's up with this guy?"
-
Duilin and Valos landed about 10 feet away from Zeros' and Draven's postion.
"So, apparently, this Haraldur has some sort of plan." Valos said
"Yes, last time he wished to complete his vengance. He nearly destroied the world. He had us belive we were on the same side, I accually trusted him." Duilin replied as he began walking
Valos followed "You shouldn't trust anyone. Even if they are your closest friends."
"I'm sertainly not trusting you right now." Duilin snapped back. He then, stood a couple feet away from two. "Zeros'." He said in greeting. "Draven..." He said in a more annoyed tone.
Valos grinned and bowed "My lord." He said to Draven. He then looked at Zeros', narrowing his eyes and grinning "Heh, nice wings..."
-
Still in the sky, Draven glanced at Duilin, but didn't say anything. He replied to Zeros'.
"Excellent... If you could find the location of this 'nation' and report it to me, it would give us quite the advantage, especially if he is unaware that we know..."
He took the letter back and began to write on the back:
"Ragnar,
I hereby recognize your nation's existence. I hope as leaders our interests will not conflict and our two nations can peacefully co-exist, standing side-by-side as pillars of virtue in this glorious world of ours.
Crimson Emperor Lars Draven I"
A smirk across his face, he looked up at Zeros'.
"I leave the rest in your hands."
He released the letter, allowing it to fly under its own power. Draven then turned and flew a bit lower.
"Come Valos. We have a war to prepare for..."
A crimson aura engulfed the man and he took off back towards the capital...
----
The bodyguards mumbled to themselves.
"Since when does he make alliances?"
"Seems kinda fishy."
"I hate fish."
They took of into the air and began looking for their leader.
----
"Whoa!"
Ven remained still as the darkness engulfed the area around him. One step would pull him into the effect of the spell...
The zombies moaned in pain around him, and were pulled back into the ground and crushed-- all of them. The larger dragons seemed more resistant. They tried to trudge forward under their much increased weight. Their skin and muscle was eventually completely pulled off, and the three skeletal dragons marched on...
-
The red letter flew south-east for a while, before burning up.
___________________________________________________________
Haraldur smiled as the reply was telepathed back to him from the letter.
Obviously we would be under attack.
He floated down and arranged for the people to prepare escape routes. There must be preparation for guerrila warfare, and the nearby mountianous landscape would be perfect.
-
The spell died down, and Zion and Xenai turned to look at the dragons that were still there.
"Well, we did SOMETHING to them," said Xenai.
"The zombies are nowhere to be seen," said Zion.
The two warriors split up, each heading for their own dragon.
-
Zeros' watched them go and cloaked himself in the Umi-Sen Ken and followed the letter's direction stealithly, his figure and aura complete obscured. As he follow the direction the letter, he mentally calculated the path it was taking.
After a few moments of following the letter, he saw it burn and cursed to himself.
The letter is going the opposite direction from the ruins of the old Vikingagarð empire. He narroed his eyes in thought. So... he's going home... or he's trying to confuse us... Well then... Zeros' turned in his cloaked flight and spead back off towards the Crimson Empire with the new information.
-
//Er... Zeros'... the letter was going south-east, while Haraldur is to the north west.//
-
//Er.. EDITS POST.\\
-
Draven landed at the gate of the capital and marched in at a quick pace. Soldiers and workers were busy at the other side of town cleaning up the results of the explosion. A meek luitenant aproached the emperor.
"Damage report."
"My lord, much of the prison block built upon the silver mines has been destroyed along with several civilian dwellings. One of the twelve city wall gun turrets has been destroyed, and hole blasted in the northern wall. Casualties are estimated in the several hundreds to low thousands range..."
"And the Crimson Fortress?"
"The fortress remains untouched."
"The aerial shield?"
"Still fully operational..."
"So in other words, no significant damage..."
"Huh? Well, I suppose..."
"Tell me lieutenant, why did the 500 wyvern riders perched atop our walls, the two operational crimson death turrets at the north end, the 10,000 able bodied men posted within the fortress, and the 500+ men positioned at random intervals outside the city walls not stop these 50 some prisoners from escaping?"
"Uhh... well... there was a lot of smoke... I guess..."
Draven extended his left hand and pointed at the luitenant's head. A bright red laser emitted from his gloved fingertip, piercing his head and causing it to explode. The lifeless body fell to the ground.
----
Ven brought his blade up and deflected a claw swipe from the dragon skeleton. He parried a second blow, and retaliated with an arc of his sword, lopping off the skeleton's left wrist. He took a step back, charging a silver glow to his blade...
-
//Er... the prisoners escaped from the south side, opposite to the explosion. This is because of the fault beneath the city in which there were seams of silver, which caused a hole to open up in the south.//
-
Zeros' arrived at the Crimson Empire capitial, just in-time to see Draven blow the man's head apart. He let go of the cloaking technique and folded his wings behind him and chuckled.
"Really, Draven.. You need to learn how to control your temper. If you keep blowing apart your soldiers heads, you'll soon have no one but yourself," he said amusedly. "I followed the note as far as I could. From what I could find out, it was heading to the south-east... The strange thing is, though... It was the opposite direction that I thought Haraldur would be heading, towards the Vikingagarð ruins," he told the fire mage.
-
Duilin and Valos had followed Draven back toward the empire. Valos stood about ten feet away from Draven. Duilin, was let in threw the gates with Valos. He stood beside Valos.
"Ha ha ha..." Valos laughed as Draven blew off the head of the soilder.
Duilin oddly smiled. He found joy in the man's death. He was surprized at first. He was starting to realize that he was changeing ever since he killed Darion, so many years ago.
"Vikingagarð, ruins, eh?" Valos said, as he walked closer towards Draven and Zeros'. "Perhaps, it was supost to go in the incorrect derection? To trick you."
"But how could Haraldur get the message if it went the wrong way?" Duilin asked as he walked closer.
----
"I saw Duilin and the others return, Rink." Marshal told the imp.
"Well, let's try and get in, see what's going on?" Rink replied
"Will they let us in?" Marshal asked
"Of course, we have an alliance remember?" Rink told
"That mind message thing, I got really gave me the creeps. Can Duilin do that?" Marshal asked, as they walked to the gates.
"Yeah, apparently, he couldn't allways but not he can." Rink explained "Infact, I belive before I met him he didn't even have wings."
"Could he still blast stuff?" Marshal asked
"Yeah...I think. His father was a demon, and he's trying to courpt him. Even threw *ahem* death." Rink finished as they arived at the gates. 'I just hope I was able to keep him dead'
"We are with, Lord Draven, let us in." Marshal told the guards at the gate.
-
(North, South, whatever. As long as we know what is going on. Heh...)
Draven continued his walk towards the capital.
"If it turns out that everyone is incompetent, then yes, I shall remove all their heads..."
He stroked his chin.
"Hmm, yes. It would make sense that the letter was a decoy. Making it fly in the exact opposite direction is a tad obvious, but worth looking into..."
By this time the four bodyguards had arrived from the sky and joined the group. Citizens and soldiers alike gawked at the entourage of warriors.
As they approached the crimson fortress, it became obvious that in addition to the larger airship Draven had arrived in, there were a few other smaller ones docked at the fortress sides as well.
The front gates opened, revealing a magnificent torch-lit golden hallway...
----
"Hyah!!"
Another parry, then a stab. Ven's silver blade punctured the neck bone of the dragon, and the white aura left the sword and surrounded the beast. The white fire began to burn away the monster slowly, and after a minute it evaporated into nothing.
Ven fell to the ground rather clumsily, then sat up, sticking his sword into the ground and breathing heavily. His vision seemed blurred a bit, and since the other two were a safe distance away fighting their dragons, he decided a 60 second break couldn't hurt...
He happened to look up at the collapsed opening to the temple he had broken his way through a few minutes ago. The rocks seemed to be bending and moving... He thought he was just tired and seeing things, but then got up on one knee to better study the opening. It wasn't just the rocks, but everything around the temple opening seemed to be bending and twisting...
The opening itself began to give off a soft violet aura. Ven could have sworn when he was last in there, there was a dark staircase leading down. But now, he could clearly see a long straight corridor with a floor made out of some sort of deep green stone...
----
Seeing the red imp, the two guards nodded to each other and opened the gates.
"Straight ahead."
-
Zeros' looked around where they entered curiously.
"AHh... Well, Draven, it seems you were busy in my five year absence," he said, looking at the golden archway. "But, yes, as you said, the letter flying in the opposite direction would, more then likely, be a ruse," he said towards Draven then turned to Duilin.
"As for recieving the letter, I'm sure they were more then likely several spells on the letter. That is porbably how he got the message even without seeing it directly," he concluded.
-
Marshal and Rink dashed towards, the group.
"We are here." Marshal said.
Duilin nodded.
"Duilin, you look, a little different." Rink said.
Duilin said nothing to this, he turned his face, and looked at the others. He gave a slight eye contact with Valos. Valos nodded, and gave an evil grin.
Marshal turned his head. "So, what is the plan?"
"It appears that Haraldur, hasn't finished his vengace perhaps." Duilin said, looking into the sky. He then turned and faced Marshal "So, we are going to find him, and stop him."
Rink tilted his head "So, who were those tatto guys, his army or something?"
"I think so." Duilin said, he then turned to Zeros' and Draven "So, you think we should go to Vikingagarð?"
-
Zion leaped into the air, trying to slash straight down through the dragon. Nothin' doin' there, but it did inflict some damage. The dragon swiped at him, connecting and knocking him back quite a bit. Zion got to his feet, and the dragon unleashed a breath of flame. Zion rolled to the side, then jumping up when it was done and issuing a boot to its face, knocking it over. Several ki blasts were fired at it while he was still in the air to finish it off.
Xenai was having more luck with his sword, as it was fscking huge. He swung the blade at the boner dragon's arm, shattering the upper part of it and allowing the rest to drop. The dragon retaliated with a fierce breath of fire that Xenai could do nothing about. It scorched him, badly. So he came back, retaliating by swinging Zero Weapon at the neck, demolishing it and sending the head flying. He then cut straight down through the remainder of it.
-
"Nikola."
Tesla turned, and walked to Haraldur's side.
"Nikola, I am going to place a protection spell on the settlement and all those within. The settlement will seem not to exist, its spacetime folded out of the universe. I want you to participate with the spell. The result will be that for the settlement to join the universe again, both of us must allow it to, or both of us must die. You know why we do this, our comrades are not as strong as that."
"Yes," said Tesla.
They left the bounds of the settlement and then faced it. Then Haraldur made some hand signals, which Tesla mirrored. Then Haraldur made his hand look as if it was holding something small between thumb and finger, and the space got smaller and smaller.
The settlement vanished. The only clue to something strange was the huge distortion of space around the area, which would now be dangerous to enter.
"At least they are now impervious to attack," Tesla said.
"Indeed. Now let us continue negotiations. Let us go south, then east, to the Crimson Capital."
-
Zeros' felt a shift in the air (Because of his long life span, he can detect the slightest distorions and irregualr activites all over the planet) and narrowed his eyes. He shook his head, putting the distortion that appeared for later investigation, even if it was from the direction the old empire Haraldur came from.
"No, Duilin, I do not think we should. Haraldur's followers will more then likely have similiar powers as he himself has, though significantly less powerful. Still, the number of them that escaped could cause some problems, as well as others they may have already rescued," he said.
Zeros' turned to Duilin for a moment, his eyes snapping to Duilin's forehead for a only a moment, before he made it look as if he was looking at the sky, where smoke was gathering above them in great, gray and black clouds.
"And yes, I also think that the men with that tattoo are party of Haraldur's regime," he said agian. His eyes then traveled to Valos and narrowed slightly, but he said nothing, and turned to Draven. The wind shifted alittle, causing the smoke above them to seperate and move away.
"What do you think, Draven? We will need your millitary stategies and support to make this work. Like I said, going in their half-cocked will get us killed."
-
Draven continued leading the group, they entered the palace and began winding up a large staircase.
"The men of Vikingagarð are a unique enemy. Attacking them with a large air or sea force is unwise, as many of their warriors are able to manipulate weather conditions, which if used correctly, could prove disastrous. The question is, of course, if the enemy really is the nation of Vikingagarð, or some new threat..."
They arrived at another large set of doors. Now they were in a large war room. A long table stood at the center. Some maps were thrown on top of it and some more fastened to the walls. Guards stood at full attention at either end.
"I do not believe the prisoners to be from Vikingagarð, else they would have been identified and put in more magic-resistant confines many years ago.
"Ragnar, of course, is a unique enemy as well. If he plans on building an army 50 prisoners at a time... well, that's just futile. The man does, however, specialize in wide area attack spells. I believe even an army of 1,000 low class soldiers would have some amount of difficulty. However..."
He stopped in front of a golden throne, turning to face the group.
"... if this is made to be a battle of us mages and warriors... He is quite outclassed and outnumbered."
----
Ven sheathed his sword and stood up. He wiped the sweat from his brow as a cool breeze rustled his black cloak. He watched the strange opening for a minute. It looked like a gateway to another world... Nothing seemed to surprise him anymore...
He turned his head to Zion and Xenai.
"So, what'd ya think? Painfully obvious trap, huh?"
He took a few steps closer, but not too close (for fear of being sucked in or something). It was definitely a straight corridor that went on for several hundred feet, but there was no ceiling. The green stone walls on each side seemed to be about ten feet high, and a sort of violet cloudy sky was visible above... In the distance, behind some more of these walls, was a sort of temple made of the same green stone...
-
Zeros' nodded at Draven's assessment.
"Yes, Haraldur is well outmatched in numbers. But there in lies the problem... even if we have thousands of battle-readied soldiers, how many of them could survive a spell from Haraldur and not be almost totally exhausted? Almost all of your men have little to no magical training, and even then, it still wouldn't be enough to survive one of Haraldur's entertaining spells.
Even with us, Duilin, Marshal, Rink and your elite mages, we can only hold shields on the soldiers for so long before we run out of magic," he said.
Although, I use ki more then magic, so running out of it wouldn't hamper me in the slightest. He thought to himself.
-
"Well, it doesn't look to be safe," said Zion as he looked it over, sheathing Eternity Weapon.
"There might be somethin' there worth goin' to, but we'd probably have to go through hell for it." Xenai put Zero Weapon on his back as he observed it.
-
"Well the thing is, you can send fifty soilders at Haraldur, and he could kill every single warrior with a single spell. Yet, one mage can put up a descent fight. It's odd really." Duilin said
"Yes, the mind is stronger then a sword." Valos added, and he rubbed his chin, walking closer to the table.
"Perhaps, if we were able to get enough mages then we would be able to take 'em down." Rink subjested
"Yeah, but were the hell are we going to find, over a hundered mages." Duilin said. "Unless there is like some cult of mages or something."
"Well..." Marshal replied "We may not be exactlly mages of offenive spells, yet members of the Blue Minotaur have been know to summon giant subterrian creatures and powerfull beasts, such as minotaurs, and even dragons." Marshal turned to Draven and Zeros' "Perhaps, a few additonal Summoning Mages may be of help?"
-
"Now we must take, ah, heh, a pretence at defending the island as if we were defending our comrades. But they are safe, so we shall make a defence of this vast land as part of our last stand, well hopefully not the last, but a stand nonetheless. Why they seem to wish to attack me so I simply cannot fathom. Either they are evil, maybe involved in oppression, repression and persecution, or they think of me in similar terms, the origin of the latter I cannot begin to have an idea about. But needs must and we must prepare ourselves. They probably know exactly where we are, especially if they have any intelligence. Let us begin!"
Tesla caused a wall of water to rise up from the sea, which when people got within a kilometre of it, would spurt water at them at high speeds and masses.
Tesla rose his arm upwards, holding his palm open, then lowering it. There was a faint sloshing sound as an aerial barrier hit the ocean and then went into it, blocking entry from underwater as well as from the surface and the air.
Haraldur caused the sea beyond the wall of water to be very turbulent, and when someone was above it, water would be spurted up towards him at high velocity.
In addition, he caused there to be a large storm, the fitting the whole country within its eye, and surrounding it with swirling winds and clouds, and lightning strikes.
As a finishing touch, Haraldur caused an invisible field to surround all the defences and beyond the defences. When this was breached (and the people would not have got to the defences yet and would be quite safe), it would speak thusly:
The nation of Aspyes bids you welcome, and thanks you for your thought of paying a visit. However, there are things we are busy with at the moment, and we would emphatically prefer not to be disturbed. If you are traders, rest assured we will arrange deals at a later dates. Please leave and come again, thankyou
Afterall, thought Haraldur, if there is a possibilty of death, why not have a laugh?
-
"You've all touched on my point."
Draven walked to a large map pinned to the wall. It was a map of the old world, before the planet reshaping events of five years ago. To the right of it was another map, much cruder in design. It was an estimate of what the world looked like now, though not very accurate. The main contents were in the same place, but had generally different coastlines and seemed to have spots missing that had sunk into the sea, and there were more islands and smaller continents in the oceans.
He looked at the large island nation labeled "Vikingagarð" on the old map, then at the corresponding unmarked island on the new one.
"A full frontal assault would be useless. We must attack in two stages."
He pointed at the center of the island.
(*Cue SeeD music from FF8*)
"First a small elite unit must be formed, composed of no more than a few warriors. These warriors must be capable of confronting and subduing Ragnar alone. The first objective of this unit will be to ensure the safe passage of an army-- basically find and destroy any traps, neutralize any defensive spells, etc. This objective must be fulfilled as quietly as possible.
"The unit's second objective will be to confront Ragnar himself. This battle must serve two purposes: 1) to prevent Ragnar from casting any more protective spells and 2) to ultimately defeat him...
"While the elite unit is keeping Ragnar busy, stage two will begin. This will be a full scale invasion, care of the safe passage provided by the elite unit. I will send an army of 10,000 to obliterate the land-- burn the forest forests, villages, fortresses, whatever he's hiding over there. A few stronger warriors shall be necessary in this vast army as well, to protect the common soldiers in case something goes wrong."
Draven folded his arms.
"That is it. Choose your group wisely, 1 or 2, and this nation of Aspyes shall be removed from the face of Gaian before the next sunrise..."
----
"Well, I've come this far. No sense turning back."
Ven walked towards the eerie gateway.
"You guys have been a lot of help, but I don't blame ya if you turn back. This is my battle, after all..."
The air around him rippled as he stepped through the portal, and his boots clicked on the strange green stone floor on the other side.
-
Zeros' walked over to the maps and crossed his arms and looked back and forth between the maps serveral times. He closed his eyes for a moment, thinking over Draven's words.
"So, basically, one unit will remove and traps, ulimately fighting Haraldur in the end, while the second unit will destroy the land and resources," he said, summing up what Draven said in one sentence.
He thought about it for a moment and nodded.
"I'll go with the elite force. Because of my Umi Sen-Ken," he said, using the skill for a brief moment to disappear completely from view, both from the eye and from the senses, "I could sneak past any sentries Haraldur had set up," he finished.
-
Tesla had a look of concentration on his face, and then said, "Haraldur, they cannot find us so easily if the country moves."
"Indeed. Even better, we can move it North, the worse the weather, the better for us. Also, the space distortion will stay in place, so anyone who can detect it will not see us moving, especially since are auras are suppressed."
There was a loud bang and a groan as a new tectonic plate was formed. Then, the edges of the surrounding plates melted, so it would not cause huge earthquakes when it moved.
Slowly, it moved north, leaving the distorted space behind it, and having a hole in its land mass where the settlement used to be.
To the North, the vast icecaps would not know what would hit them.
"Means to an end. This is the means, freedom is the end."
Tesla nodded in agreement.
-
"Hmmm..." Duilin thought for a moment. He turned and looked at Valos, and then at Draven "I'll go with the Elite group to."
"Perhaps I shall aswell." Valos said, grinning.
"I'm going to go with the attack squad." Marshal nodded. "My monsters that I summon will provide great assistment." He then turned to Rink. "Will you go with me little one?"
Rink, then thought for a little wile. He then turned and looked at Duilin, who didn't look back. "I'm going with elite squad."
"Are you sure?" Marshal asked.
Rink paused for awile and then nodded "Yes." He then sent a small telepathic message to Zeros'. 'I know what your thinking, but I am mainly going to keep an eye on Duilin. I'm worried about him, he's acting different.'
Marshal then looked at Draven "Well, do you think it will helpfull if I make contact with the Blue Minotaur, asking if they could aid?"
-
Zeros' nodded very discretly and sent a message back:
Actually, I am surprised by Duilin's control over his powers. I was actually predicting him to go partially insane five years ago. Because of how suddenly he came to the powers, I'm surprised he still has his sanity.
Zeros' explained for Rink, "Actually, Marshal, it would be helpful for Rink to come. He is powerful for an Imp and because of his small size, he could sneak through places we couldn't," he explained.
-
Zion crossed through the portal. "In case you need me." And then Xenai. "I'm bored."
-
Draven nodded at Marshal.
"The aid of your group, while not necessary, might be helpful. If you can contact them quickly, that is. Time is of the essence..."
He turned to the rest.
"Excellent. Though I would prefer to be part of the elite unit, I must organize and lead the troops personally. Once my men make a safe landing and begin their task, I will join you."
He turned to his four bodyguards in the back.
"You four are on defense. Make sure he doesn't attack from behind and skrew up my palace."
"What?"
"Ah, man..."
Draven folded his arms.
"That is all, move out at once. My army won't be far behind. Zeros', contact me telepathically when you've made a clearing for my men and give me the location."
He turned and left the room, passing an officer who began to follow.
"How many, my lord?"
"All of them."
----
Ven turned to see Zion and Xenai walk through a solid wall... Apparently it was a one-way portal. Great.
He continued down the corridor. There was an opening on his right, and apparently another corridor parallel to the one they were in. A little ways down, there was another opening on the left and and a similar scene. It was at this point Ven realized he had lead the group into some sort of giant labyrinth...
He stopped and scratched his head.
"Uhh..."
Then the footsteps came.
There was something big walking around in the maze with them. They seemed be coming from the general area of the left doorway, though somewhat far away...
-
Marshal nodded in acknowledgement to Draven. "I shall make contact with them as soon I can."
Duilin turned around and took out his mace twirled it. "Another epic battle. This should be fun."
Marshal then walked over to a blank piece of paper on the desk, with a pen. He then began writing...
Dear Blue Minotaur High Elder Garu
A powerful army in the nation of Vikingagarð, has proven to be a great threat, possibly attempting to take control of the world. The leader of the army is the man known as, Haraldur, he is extremely powerful. I have made an alliance with a few people who were the ones who in fact saved the world five years ago. My group, and the Crimson Empire are going to take force on this army. Yet your help would be greatly needed for the enemies' soldiers are very powerful mages. Arrive at the Crimson Empire stronghold if you agree to help, but please be quick on your decision.
~Marshal Royle
He then step outside, rose his staff, and a spectre of a winged creature appeared. It materialized into a wyvern. He gave it the note, the creature held the note in one of it's claws. "Go, back to the temple, give this to the High Elder. Make haste."
-
"I detect a large hostile presence approaching."
"I ain't got any more elixirs."
"Great..."
//Hopefully, it shouldn't be TOO hard to find out who's saying what.
-
//Taking over the world? Soldiers? Army? Where are your characters getting this impression from? Or are they just making an assumption? I want to know because I want to guage how obvious or subtle Haraldur will be with his intentions, as my current plan does not seem to be working in that respect.//
-
//Feh! How did I double post!?
-
//The characters think that Haraldur is trying to take over the world, or at least, part of the world, or to destory the world, starting from where Haraldur is currently located. They want to stop Haraldur before he has a chance to initate whatever plan he has.\\
Zeros' nodded. He turned towards his three companions in the elite force.
"Let us make haste. We have no idea what Haraldur has planned," with a swirl of his cloak, Zeros' wings furrled from his back and he took off in flight. He then remembered the distortion in the air and went towards it. Now that he thought about it, the distortion he felt must of been Haraldur weaving some spell.
While flying, though Zeros' started to think about this conflict more.
Yes, Haraldur did try to destroy the world five years ago, but what if this time Haraldur has an alternate plan, what if he really wants to work in Harmony... One part of Zeros' mind mused silently to himself. He kept these thoughts seperate from the mental connection of Draven. They were, of course, his angel side that said that.
-
Marshal headed towards over to Draven. "Draven, I sent a note to them, they should resive it shortly, but it may or may not take awile for them to reach a choice. So I shall wait here untill they arive, or reply saying they cannot." Marshal stated.
----
"Duilin." Valos said to him. "We must go."
"Well, I'm not sure if we should leave just yet." Duilin replied.
"Why not?" He asked
"Because, we should save up our energy it will be a hard battle."
"Well, Zeros' dosen't seem to think that is nessicary."
"He runs on a totally different type of power, ki, I have chosen to the path of magic, and bloodrage. Since I am a demon bloodrage is natural, yet since I am also humen, I am able to use magic."
"Of course..." Valos, rubbed his chin "But won't they need our help."
"I have fealing it will take awile for them to find the island. The world has changed alot."
"Very well, I shall inform Lord Draven. You tell your friend, Zeros' about our plan..."
Duilin sent a telepathic message to Zeros'
"Zeros'. My power is very low at the moment. I am going to atempt to build up more energy before I atempt to fight Haraldur. I'm sorry, but I must get more power. I hope you understand."
Wile, Valos sent one Draven
"Lord Draven. Duilin wishes to build up more power. This shall perhaps build up his bloodrage makeing him more suductive. Heh, if everything goes acording to my little plan he may be of aid, after I alliance with 'Flyboy', as you call him, is over.
Rink, overherd the conversation, and even was able to intercept a small amout of the telepathic messages. He then sent one to Zeros'.
"Zeros' something is going wrong here. I'll handle it. I'll be on my way in a few hours or so. You might not want to try and fight Haraldur yourself untill then, but go ahead if you wish to."
//Yeah, the reason for this. My mom couldn't have picked a worse time, but I am going on a tiny vacation for a few days. Untill Saturday to be exact. Sorry about this, so on Saturday afternoon, I'll be back. We are leaveing tomorrow, so I may be able to make a quick update for tomorrow, but it's not a sure thing. My mom's really stuborn about the computer. <_< .\\
-
(We can slow down for Dude Man a bit.)
Draven smirked at how gung-ho the "heros" were in taking out Haraldur. Excellent... this is going to be very entertaining...
"Yes, Valos, keep a close eye on that one. He may attain a useful level of power some day..."
He and the officer continued down the set of stairs, making a turn at an adjoining hallway. Two guards lifted their spears out of his way as he passed a heavy door...
----
(You could help me out a bit. I'm just winging this, you know. Heh...)
The footsteps came closer and closer. Ven flashed the others a concerned look, but didn't say anything for fear that it would hear. The footsteps seemed to be winding their way around corners, getting louder and louder...
Ven stepped towards the doorway on the left and moved toward the right side of it, pressing his back against the wall. He drew his sword, and slowly began to peer out into the opening...
-
They had reached the north pole of the world. Now instead of rain, large hail stones were falling from the storm clouds. Bits of ice were floating in the sea, and the turbulent areas, and large chunks of ice were in the walls of water.
-
Zeros' sighed and shook his head. He sent a message back to Duilin:
Don't worry. I understand. He then sent a reply back to Rink. Keep a close eye on Duilin. He choose magic and bloodrage. If he gets too drunk with power, he can be easily manipulated. I believe this might be how Qor recrutied Duilin's father to his side: The promise of power.
Unknown to Draven or Duilin, he had kept a very discrete mental connection with both. He couldn't nessessarily read their minds without making the connect stronger, thus, making it detectable. This type of connection let him detect their surface thoughts. It took someone who had been practicing arts of the mind for over one hundred years to even detect the connection, let alone sever it.
He felt the pleased aura come from Draven and he could only guess what it was about (he can actually only read emotions and thoughts that stay in his mind too long; if they pass by too fast, he can't). So, therefore, he slowed down some, his eratic flight changed into a more lazy drift across the air, for once, being able to enjoy the sensations of flying with wings.
-
Draven entered a large room, filled with soldiers standing at attention. He turned to the officer.
"We shall divide them into four platoons of 2,000 each and two platoons of 1,000. The four large groups will board four of the smaller, faster warships, and the final two will board two of the smaller airships. Each ship is to be additionally equipped with a wyvern unit and a defensive mage unit. Understood?"
"Yes, my lord."
The gates in the back of the room opened and the soldiers began their march to the long row of piers, except for a fifth of them, who began their mach to the upper reaches of the palace where the airship docks reside.
"Excellent..."
-
The other two joined Ven in hiding... and then it emerged: A huge dragon... The shape of a necrodragon, but this one was alive. It looked grand, yet terrifying. It had black scales all over it, and deadly purple eyes.
//How's that? ^_^
--- --- ---
Tsu landed, coming upon the portal. It seemed to be closed. Aura then caught up, about 20 feet back. Tsu turned to look at her. "Why are you following me?"
"Just trying to find out some things about the creepiest guy I know."
Tsu unsheathed Kuon Yaiba. "Be gone."
"I don't think so."
"Very well... You leave me no choice..."
-
(See. Fun, huh? Heh...)
The violet-eyed monstrosity stopped just after clearing the doorway. It lifted its nose to the sky, smelling the blood of the trio just behind it. It would be only seconds before it turned and realized they were there.
Back against the wall, Ven lifted his blade silently. If he charged, he could stab the thing in it's exposed stomach, but would his blade be enough to pierce its scales? He turned to his right. The opening was so close... maybe if only they could tiptoe to the other side of the wall...
-
Zion and Xenai remained frozen, trying to figure out the best possible course of action.
--- --- --
Tsu and Aura charged at each other, swords clashing. They backed off and charged again, slashing furiously at each other, their swords connecting each time. Tsu rolled back, away from Aura. She retaliated by jumping up and coming down toward Tsu with her sword pointed down. Tsu rolled to the side, and onto his feet, swinging Kuon Yaiba into the back of her head with all of his might. She staggered forward, turning around to face him again. Tsu's eyes were narrowed, and appeared to be filled with darkness.
-
//Whoa, I barely misssed anything. Thanks guys, your the best ^_^ lol! \\
Rink sighed as he herd Zeros' reply. "Yeah..." He said to himself. "I miss him." He then walked over to a small vally were Duilin and Valos were training. He watched. "I don't trust Valos. This alliance might have even been a bad idea."
Duilin, swung his mace at Valos. The dark mage blocked it with his giant black metal sword. Valos, pushed his foot towards Duilin's chest. Duilin quickly grabed his oppent's foot with his free hand, twisting it, and fliping Valos to the ground.
Valos, begins to get up. "Good, very good."
Duilin helps him up. (Let's say they have been training for awile.). "Well then. I think that might be enough training."
"Really? Perhaps, we should test our strength of magic?" Valos asks
"Fine." Duilin nodds.
The two take a few steps back. They look at each other. Duilin blasts a lightning bolt, as Valos casts a shade, they both are knocked back a few feet, yet they were able to keep there balance. Duilin tosses a fireball at Valos, yet he casts a haste spell on himself and dodges the attack, then blasts a dark lightning bolt at Duilin, knocking him to the ground.
"Hah!" Valos laughs "Your magic is weak compared to mine. Yet you should try and use your demonic powers."
"Yes, but let's not waste our energy." Duilin says.
"I have elixers, we will be fine." Valos replies.
Duilin noddes, and then swoops up to his feet, with the aid of his wings. Valos, then poses a fighting stance, as Duilin charges yellow/orange energy around his hands and wrists. He then crafts it into an orb, and then tosses it at great speed. The orb smashes at Valos knocking him to the ground. "YAAHA!" Duilin yells in pride.
Valos grins and he covers. "Very good. Now-"
"Enough!" Rink said with a serious face. He glided down, closer to the two, and then went to a more normal exprestion. "Uh heh, what I mean is we are going to have to get going soon, ya know?"
"Yes and they have agreed to help." Marshal added, as he appeared in the scean. "I see the Blue Minotaur warriors, they have agreed to help."
"How many?" Valos asked
"Around thirty." Marshal replied "Might not seem like alot, but the warriors are very strong. I am but a scout."
"Very well." Valos said "You should group up with Draven and his forces. We will meet you at Vikingagarð."
Marshal nodded. Duilin, Valos and Rink flue off to group with Zeros. Marshal, then watched them fly off for a little wile. And then turned and saw the group of Blue Minotaur Mages, land down. All were wearing the simular clothing of Marshal's yet, they had stronger armor, with saphires in them for decoration. All but, one was rideing a wyvern, one was rideing a small blue dragon. The one rideing it had no head gear, a short beard, and a shineing blue/silver cape.
"General Roland." Marshal bowed to the caped dragon rider.
"Yes, young one, at ease." The dragon rider replied. Roland then rubbed his chin. "So, take us to the leader of the Empire."
"Um, yes." Marshal said "Follow."
Roland signaled the soilders to stay here. He then followed Marshal into the castle. Marshal and Roland came to the large barraks, were Draven was. He then spoke to the guard. "Tell Draven, that Marshal is here, with the General of the Blue Minotaur's army."
-
Draven stood at the edge of the pier, his hands behind his back hidden beneath his cape. Directly behind him were large barracks from which a never ending stream of dark warriors marched. Two ships were armed and ready, filled with soldiers and leaving the docks. Two more were in the process of loading soldiers.
"My lord. The general of the Blue Minotaur has arrived."
"Send him in."
Draven turned as the general riding the small dragon and Marshal approached.
"Welcome. Your aid is most appreciated. Those that provide us aid are entitled to a reward. It is our way..."
He folded his arms and looked to his left. Behind a line of his own soldiers, he could see the Blue Minotaur group waiting, only thirty or so strong... He extended his arm in the direction of the ship on his left.
"I'm sure you have been notified why you are here. Your soldiers may board this ship, that is, unless you have any questions, General..."
He paused so that the general may say his name.
----
Ven took a slow careful step towards the opening... towards safety...
*Snap!*
Of all places for a twig to be...
The violet-eyed beast spun around, its tail marring the other side of the wall. Its eyes burned with rage, its multi-fanged mouth gaped open, oozing a dark shadowy aura.
"Great."
The dragon proceeded to spew a black flame at the trio.
"Hya!"
Ven quickly thrust his blade at the impeding dark flame. A flash of silver light emanated from the sword and a white beam met the shadow energy half way, but this was not strong enough, as the black fire began to push the beam back and back into Ven...
-
"Who puts a f*cking twig in a mysterious looking portal!?" Xenai was the first to emerge, running next to Ven and pointing his hands up at the flame. He shot out a beam of enregy, to combine with Ven's.
"What luck." Zion was next. He ran to the other side, pointed his hands up, and gave some of his power.
--- --- --
Bokura wa ima demo sakenderu...
The two fighters charged at each other, swords clashing seemingly endlessly. The two soon found themselves in a struggle, pushing against each other with their swords.
"Why can't you just take me?! Don't you see how much I care?!" Tears flowed from Tsu's darkness corrupted eyes, rage evident on his expression.
"Why can't you just leave me alone?! Don't you see I don't want you?!" Aura wasn't crying, but the rage was there.
-
Zeros' swooped down low and flapped his wings, causing a wave of water to burst out in front of him. The water continued the wave before it stopped and Zeros' stood their with his arms crossed and his eyes seemingly focused on a spot in the air, but their was nothing there...
Draven, it seems that Haraldur has hidden his country within a rift. It seems that distortion I felt earlier was Haraldur using his magics to minipulate the air around the country of Vikingagarð. Anyone coming close enough to the area will be immedaitely destroyed. Keep your ships a moderate amount of distance between them and the distortion.
The only reason I am not affected is because I am also minipulating the air around myself, causing the two energies to clash. Indeed, it seemed that something was happening. Small tendrils of dark energy were randomly appearing and disappearing around Zeros' body. He sent this information to Draven and also to Rink.
-
"Greetings Draven." The General replied "I am General Roland. I run the army for the Blue Minotaur. I do have a few questions however..."
Roland turned his head and looked down at Marshal and then back at Draven. "This, Haraldur, The historians of our clan have studied this Haraldur, we do not know alot him, but we do know he nearly destroied the world five years ago. We want to get more information on this story? Marshal, said you had something to do with what happened."
-----
Rink resived Zeros' message, and replied 'Yeah, that seems like something he would do. With no dought he was sertainly expecting an attack.'
"When we get there..." Rink said to Valos and Duilin "Don't get to close. He's set traps..."
"That dosen't surprize me." Duilin replied.
The three spotted Zeros' a few yards away.
"Ahoy-hoy!" Valos laughed, as he waved his hand signaling Zeros'
-
Tesla and Haraldur were staring into a pool of water, showing an image of Zero's arriving at the rift.
"You were right, Lord Haraldur, we are going to be attacked."
"Indeed. Can we attack through this thing?"
"Yes. Anywhere on the battlefield, and this will not be visible. It will attack from its viewing point. If it then moves, it can attack from somewhere else."
"It is very fortunate for me that they found you."
"Thankyou."
-
Draven folded his arms in response to the general, now looking out towards the sea.
"Roland, yes... This... 'Haraldur' as some call him, is an interesting fellow. Five years ago he was set on destroying the planet in the name of 'revenge'. I'm not sure why. Bad childhood or something... Now he wants to build a nation. Heh, yeah right."
He looked over he shoulder.
"He has a perplexing personality. Of course, he is made up of several people, some insane, some just jerks, at least one demonic entity, and several metallic weapons... don't ask..."
Draven returned his gaze to the sea.
"Ask my officers if you wish to be informed of his strengths, weaknesses, typical battle tactics, etc." (The same info Draven gave in his speech earlier.)
The last of the soldiers boarded the sea bound ships. The full airships high above docked at the towers started their magical engines. It was time...
Draven closed his eyes and responded to the long distance telepathy:
"As I suspected. Find a hole, every defense has a weakness..."
----
"HYAAHH!!"
Ven held his ground with the help of Zion and Xenai. The black blast of fire slowly receded under the intensity of the triple attack.
Finally the dragon was completely overcome. It's body began to burn in multicolored flame. The merged beams entered the beast's mouth and a huge explosion ensued, followed by a swift change in force in the opposite direction. In the dragon's place a sort of black hole was forming-- another portal...
"Whoa!"
Ven slipped and fell, his armor clanging on the floor. He then began to slide along the ground toward the portal until finally flying up into the air into it...
-
"Oh, for fuuuuuuu!" Xenai is swept into the portal, Zion immediately after.
--- --- ---
They broke the struggle off, backing away from each other. Aura turned and started to walk off. Tsu simply stood there, doing nothing.
-
Without turning around, Zeros' raised his palm behind him, signalling for them to stop.
"Stay there. This rift is very strong," he commanded. He recieved Draven's message and nodded inside his head. Yes.. every defense had a weakness..
Zeros' slowly flew closer towards a certain area and started to examine around the area. He moved slowly and paused many times in his movements. At those times, his aura extended slowly for a few moments before coming back towards his body.
-
Draven began to float, shooting straight up into the air. He landed on the deck of one of the two passing airships.
"Are all preparations complete?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Then let us go."
The entourage of more than 10,000 began to slowly move towards the general area of their destination. The four battleships spread out across the sea in formation and the two airships above...
----
The trio materialized some ten feet in the air. Ven promptly fell, his armor clanging on another stone floor.
"Ohh..."
He sat up, feeling many eyes staring at him...
They had appeared in the middle of some sort of town... but this was not a typical village... The spot where he had landed was very crowed, and every single person had stopped what they were doing and flashed the intruders cold hard stares-- there were hundreds of them, mostly men. Those with shorter sleeves or no shirts displayed a distinct tattoo on their arm. The same symbol as on the red flags flying around the settlement.
Furthermore, the sky was eerie. It was constantly moving, as if the town were in the middle of some sort of dimensional distortion...
"Uh... hello..."
(Yes, they're supposed to be in Haraldur's town!)
----
"You idiot! What happened?"
*SMACK*
"Hsssss!! They weren't ssupposed to defeat the dragon like that! They were ssupposed to flee and find the mysstic jewel at the end of the labyrinth to place in the head of the giant sstatue that would transsport them here sso we could--"
"Just tell me where they are!!"
"Well, it was a random disstortion. They blew a hole in the very fabric of the dimenssion... sso they probably would end up where the planet's space is most distorted..."
"Wouldn't that be where they entered?"
"I would think sso, but..."
-
A man was usherred into the front of the crowd, and smiled at the three men.
"Good morning. You are most welcome to stay for the moment, but to be honest you can do little else, since we are supposed to be cut off from the rest of the universe at the moment, the obvious exceptions being yourselves. There are, however, two questions I would like to ask you before I arrange for you to have accomodation, for we know not how long we will have to be cut off, for it is not known how long it will take for danger to pass, so you would understand if we were a little surprised by your entrance. First, it would be appreciated if you gave us your names, to go in our records, and as courtesy, and secondly, we would really like to know whether the portal you came here by was permanent or temporary. I hope you understand why we ask this."
On the other side of the square, there were several ethereal chess boards and chess pieces, and just then the games were restarting. Here it was obviously a spectator sport, with much cheering as people gathered around. There were no timers, but the contestants were wearing earmuffs, so that they could not receiv help from the crowd. Whites castled.
On this side of the square were several anvils manned by blacksmiths, forging swords in case their leader and his companion were killed. Each blacksmith had several anvils, and seemed to be controlling hammers which floated around by themselves, giving the equivalent of mass production. Every few minutes a blacksmith would leave the heat of the forge to cool down by watching the chess match, while someone else left the match and replaced him.
-
"Ow, my head..." Zion sat up after the unpleasant fall to find those cold, hard eyes.
"Where are we?"
Zion looked up at the man. "Uh... Zion Ultima."
"Xenai Omega... We got here through some weird portal... We heard somethin' big walkin' around, so we hid behind a wall. It came out and it was some huge black dragon. So he" Motioned toward Ven. "stepped out cautiously, and lo and behold, a friggin twig was there. So the dragon noticed, and we all three shot energy beams at it to counter the flame it was shooting at us. The combined beams pushed back the flame and entered its mouth and it died, making a black hole that sucked us up. And now here we are."
o_o; Zion just looked at Xenai.
-
"How are we going to get threw?" Rink asked, the two.
"Hmmm..." Valos slowly headed foward, he fowarded his hand were the water would spring up. As the water blasted up, he casted an ice spell freezeing the water, then with his other hand he swung a firey punch at the ice, smashing a far sized hole into the water, and flue threw the hole. The water rised up again and smashed the ice, just after Valos got threw.
"Okay, what about us?" Duilin asked.
"Firepunch the ice as soon as I cast it." Valos said. Valos icepunched foward as the water blasted up, freezeing the water. Duilin quickly firepunched a hole into the ice and then grabed Rink and flue threw. They then stood behind Zeros'.
---------
"Interesting." Roland said. He then signaled for his warriors to fly with the ships. "Let us go Marshal." He said to him as he saddled back onto his dragon, and flied with the army.
"Yes, sir." Marshal replied. The wyvern he summond earlier was the the knights, so he hopped back onto it. "Ya!" The wyvern then flapped it's wings and then flue off with the army.
-
Zeros' turned his head towards them for a moment before turned back to his prodding. He moved several feet to the left, then he moved down and to the right. Now, he was standing roughly 30 meters above the water, a gentle ripple echoing beneth his shadow as his wings flapped, keeping him upwards.
He held up one finger and slowly coaxed his aura out. A midnight black aura, tinged with the slightest bit of white around the corona, appeared around his finger with tendrils flowing from it.
He reached out and dragged his hang across an invisible spot. The air seemed to shimmer for a moment, a glimpse of a color passed by, before their was a rippppp and the crack sealed itself with a inaudiable pop.
While he kept up his ministrations, he felt the dimensional rift appear, as did it with Ven, Zion and Xenai's auras.
-
"Ven... Ven Hyul..."
Ven stood up and sheathed his sword, trying to look as non-hostile as possible. He brought his right hand to the back of his head.
"Hah, yeah that's pretty much how we got here."
He looked straight up.
"I don't see anything up there but sky, so I guess it was a temporary portal. Just our luck..."
Ven took a look to his left and right, noticing the chess matches on one side and the blacksmiths and floating hammers on the other. Interesting... He looked the man in the eye.
"Your hospitality is much appreciated. We won't get in your way. Say... you wouldn't happened to have seen a man in black armor, about my height, with a glowing red pendant around his neck around here, would you?"
-
"A temporary, portal, that is fortunate. Anyway, you are our first visitors, so no such person has been here before you. I do have a favour to ask of you three, though. It would please me if you spent your time here, however long, getting to know us, our customs, and our purpose, although I would be probably the best person to ask about that. It appears, as you can see, that many people want to destroy us and our leader and his companion, for reasons we know not. And if our leaders are killed, then it would help if you could speak on our behalf, especially if you know any of the attackers. And if our leaders manage to fight them off temporarily, then you will be able to leave, and I am sure they would like to meet you, and use you as intermediaries for the same purpose, if you will. Our situation is very precarious, and we need all the help we can get."
He pointed to a four story building on the west side of the square (they were on the south side), and said, "You have rooms at that inn, if you ask, the innkeeper will show you to our rooms. It is unfinished as yet, so it will not be painted yet etc., but it is free for you at the moment, so well... any questions?"
-
Valos looked up at Zeros'. "What the devil is he doing?" He asked
"Beat's me." Duilin replied "Half the time I don't really understand what he's doing. I just watch him and wait for the outcome. I'm sure, he knows what he's doing."
"He's very odd." Valos said softly.
"I'll have to agree with you there." Duilin said "But the man's a hero, I don't think I'd be alive if it weren't for him."
"Hmmm." Rink rubbed his chin. "I senced a gateway portal..."
-
"We'll do what we can. Thank you." Zion bowed lightly to the man, and Xenai was already making his way toward the inn with a quick "Thanks."
-
Ven studied the blacksmiths for a moment. They were indeed making weapons... a lot of them...
"Hmm, yes I see... Just who is trying to attack you? Are you... vulnerable in this dimensional distortion?"
Ven hated to get sidetracked... Mavas is still out there... but he could sense the urgency in the man's eyes. Perhaps it would be best to stay and help them. He didn't see a clear way out of the rift, anyway...
----
Draven stood at the mast of the airship, his cape blowing wildly in the wind as the ship pierced through thick clouds. They had a ways to go, but it wouldn't be long now... His smirk was maniacal, if not devilish...
Ready or not, here I come...!
-
"Apparantly, those woh wish our destruction are predominantly the former comrades of our leader, Haraldur, the one made up of ten. Hence our tatoos. One, Lars Draven, is Emporer of the Crimson Empire, and former High General in the Dark Empire. Haraldur himself was a High General in the Dark Empire, and a governor, of the Northen territories. In fact, he had been there even before the Dark Empire's existance, in the ancient Azure, Blue and Green Empires, although there were several others. We do not know why the feud.
"Then there is a group including a half demon half angel called Zeros', and a half demon half human called Duilin, and an imp called Rink. In fact, your two friends were involved with that group quite a lot, sometimes at the same times as Haraldur was. Maybe they could answer any questions you may have. Apparantly, they also seem not to like our leader very much, and what is more, Haraldur himself does not seem to know why that is.
"It seems that mostly we are being attacked because of who our leader is, although, as I say, their emnity towards him he does not, and certainly do not, understand.
"Are we vulnerable. Apart from you, no. This is because it is absolutely impossible to enter at the place we came from, without killing our leaders first. I expect that is the point, he wants to protect us. I would have said it was absolutely impossible to enter, but for you, however, I have no expectation of anything similar happening again, so we are safe as long as our leaders live."
____________________________________________________________
Through the pond, they could see that there was a large force in the distance. It seemed to me mostly comprised of flying ships.
Haraldur grinned as the sight moved to be directly above the force. He picked up a stone from the ground, and skimmed it accross the pond.
____________________________________________________________
Down where the ships were, sudden craters suddenly appeared in the water, which then shot huge quantities of water upwards. There were five of them. The fourth one to appear (they were all in a straight line going in the same direction. What caused them was unseen) was directly underneath a ship, of medium size. It was knocked out of the air, and broken into splinters, before the wreckage was then sucked down into the deep.
There were some 5 survivors clinging to various barrels and tables.
____________________________________________________________
Haraldur smiled and then shouted into the pond, sticking head in, so that it was visible from the ships as a huge head floating in the sky, the size of a large cloud. His words were, "We regret to inform you the nation of Aspyes is not as yet open for visitors! Begone, trespassers, you have entered our territorial waters."
He lifted his head out again, water dripping from his face. The sight moved away from where his head had appeared, just in case.
-
"My god..." Marshal gasped as he saw the giant head.
"Territorial waters, eh?" Roland said "Well, I asure you if people listened to there enemies whenever they said 'be gone' then I don't think there would have been as many wars as there was today."
"They destoried one of the ships to." Marshal added "There seem to be gisers or something, controled by magic." He turned his head. The dragon the two were rideing on was near by Draven's ship. Marshal then yelled to him "Haraldur is allready defending!"
-
Zeros' right hand suddenly became enveloped in a dark aura, tendrils of darkness leaping off his hand. He reared his hand back and stabbed forwards with impossible speed. A sonic boom eminated from where his elbow was. As Zeros' hand reached a certain point in front of his body, his hands seemed to disappear suddnely, leaving only his low forearm visible.
Zeros' left hand also became enveloped in a dark area and he plunged stabbed in at the same place, another sonic booom reverberating around him. Zeros' wings flared out and his arms seemed to be shaking.
After a few, agonizing seconds, with a hefty roar, Zeros' hands suddenly appeared, along with a small hole, not bigger then an inch or two. His arms became twin pillars of dark flame. Dark power was thick in the air around him as violent sparks flew between his hands and the area he seemed to be pulling apart.
He streached the hole a couple more inches, his dark aura seemed to get darker as more tendrils leaked off his form.
Beyond the hole, a small glimpse of land could be seen off in the distance.
-
"Ah ha!" Duilin said realizeing what Zeros' was up to. "You created a portal. Uh, you did right?"
"Yes..." Valos mumbled "It appears that Haraldur has been hideing in another 'demenstion', or something to that effect."
-
In front of Zeros', the fabric of reality was pinched off again, cutting off where he had prized himself into from the area to be defended. It would do this every time someone tried to enter. The warpin was so extreme that in the centre any mass would become a black hole, and would affect the dimension Zeros' was coming from as long as the hole stayed open.
The voice of Haraldur shouted, "Leave my followers out of this Zeros'. Whatever quarrel you might have with me, it certainly is nothing to do with them, so leave the innocent (of what crime?) alone." The sound would be deafening to a normal human.
______________________________________________________________
In the cut off dimension, there was a loud crack, like that of thunder. The man turned around and saw that one horison was glowing, and there was a hole. In front of it, a new horison lowered, covering it up, but not touching the ground, but the horison again, so the land would not be maimed by warped space.
"It appears people are already trying to attack us."
-
"Back off. Back off."
The one remaining airship and the four sea ships turned to the opposite direction. The original plan cannot be comprimised. This is as far as they could go before Haraldur is distracted. One of the seabound ships stopped to fish out some survivors on the way. The low class mages began to collectively errect translucent shields around the ships.
Draven folded his arms, somewhat irritated. Now the wait begins...
----
Ven was not surprised at the mention of Draven. He had heard about the actions of this man... but Zeros'? The winged man he had met earlier? Those people with him? Ven nodded his head uncomfortably.
"Y-yes. Thank you."
Great. When he last talked to the group, they didn't seem too friendly towards Draven. Could they actually consider this Haraldur a bigger threat? Something didn't seem right... He wasn't about to trust the word of either side just yet...
Ven nodded politely and turned around, heading towards the newly built inn. He passed by Zion and Xenai, speaking softly:
"So, you guys know anything about this Haraldur guy? Looks like we ended up in his territory..."
He adjusted the strap on his guantlet as he passed, trying not to attract too much attention to the conversation.
-
"Don't worry, Haraldur," he said softly, knowing the man could hear him, but not the others, "I'm not like Draven, I won't slaughter countless innocents to get what I want. If I need to, I will turn on Draven to protect your own civilian's, as they have done nothing yet. But, for you past actions against this beatiful planet, you must be punished," he spoke softly.
"If you come out now and we end this quickly, your people will be left with no harm, and I might even help reinforce the enchantments your put on your followers homes," he said, just as softly.
Zeros', also, sent a copy of this mental message to Rink, knowing he was the most logical of the others. Draven would slaughte everyone. Valos would follow Draven's lead, per Draven being the leader of the Crimson Empire. Duilin.. he wasn't sure. If Duilin allowed it, he could turn out like his father and fall into darkness and to never be returned..
He also sent an aditional message: Rink, if things get too hectic, I want you to concentrate on shielding the victims that can't shield themselves. They have no crimes on they're shoulders.
-
"What past actions, against the planet itself? Are you referring to the continental rearrangement, as I like to call it? There is no way I could have stopped it if I tried, and you killing me will not bring those millions back. I did, granted, have the ability to control the details, and you will note that the most populous continent, the Dark Continent, was completely spared. What is more, I improved things in the long term. When the land rose back up again, you will notice that coastlines were longer with more natural harbours and peninsulas, and that the total landmass had increased. If you had not interfered, by calling in Gaia and rising some bits of land up (which then sunk anyway, how pointless), I would have had more control. Then the coastlines would have been even longer, and the soil even more fertile. The shape and ditribution of the continents would even be symmetrical, but unfortunately, you decided to become involved with something you did not understand.
"What is more, I performed several other essential services for this planet. I both prevented Alpha-Retan from gaining control of this world, and I did the same against my own father, Melkoth. And after that last act, you then proceed to threaten to attack me, which made me quite distressed, as you would realise if you remember my last words before completely fitting myself together, your emnity seemed quite sudden even then.
"I was not stupid enough, however, to completely get rid of myself. My friend, Nikola Tesla, a follower of mine of above average ability, then brought me back, by a method I will not describe to you. For I had other things to do, which involves my followers, who you also do not understand, nor do you understand my intentions, but you are still quite willing to assume that they are evil.
"So, unless you satisfactorily explain how I have done damage to the planet, I will not do as you request."
_________________________________________________________
Tesla stuck his Tesla coil into the pond, and turned it on. The pond became electrified.
_________________________________________________________
The sea now became totally electrified. The four ships on the sea now started to drift as the sailors within were electrocuted to death, due to the conducting properties of salt water. The ships then started to burn, sending the stench of burning corpses rising up to Draven's nostrils.
_________________________________________________________
Tesla saw that the coil had done as he intended, and withdrew it, as the carred remains of the seabound ships sunk.
-
Zion's ears perked at the mention of Draven. Xenai stopped and whirled around. "Draven? Gah, I knew somethin' had to be done aobut him."
As the three continued to walk...
"Haraldur, I know very little about. It's been 5 years, I don't remember anything Zeros' said about him. Draven, though, I know plenty about. Even after such a long time."
-
"This Haraldur is only giveing us more of a reason to destroy him!" Roland yelled
"Draven! We should act soon. Who the hell know's what he's going to do next?" Marshal yelled
-------
Rink replied to Zeros' message 'Yes, I supose his people are inocent. They have done nothing, yet Haraldur and Tesla have killed quite a few soilders allready, and also our friend The Prophet.'
"Come on!" Valos snapped getting impatient. "Soilders are being killed, let's finish Haraldur once and for all!"
"Yes, it will be a powerfull battle, but he's out numbered. I'm sure if any of his followers attack us they will be made short work of." Duilin added
"Just wait!" Rink snapped "Zeros' is negotiating with him.
"Screw negoations!" Valos yelled back "Let's kill!"
"Hey, hey, hey!" Duilin said "Calm down there soilder. Just let those two talk. Then we can get to fighting."
-
A voice in air in the air which sounded like Haraldur appeared before Roland, shouting very loudly, "Are you suggesting that I do not have the right to defend the territory of the nation of Aspyes from what certainly looks like an invasion force? For shame! Would you allow an aggressive force open access through your territory? Not if you had a shred of intelligence."
-
Draven closed his eyes and sighed.
"Very well..."
His body lifted a few feet above the airship deck.
"Save who you can... then get out of my way..."
The airship commander nodded and the ship lowered, throwing down rope ladders to pick up survivors from the burning ships-- mostly mages who, failing to protect the ship, put their energy into protecting themselves. With the additional legion of mages aboard, at least the 1,000 soldiers aboard the airship would be difficult to subdue.
Draven was left floating in mid-air as the ship descended, and he stayed there for a moment.
"I had forgotten. But so have you..."
He brought his arms to his side and opened his eyes. A brilliant crimson explosion emanated from the man, painting the entire sky and sea a deep red. Wrapped in a huge ball of flame, he shot forward, a sonic boom pounding the eardrums of the frazzled survivors... He was now putting out a level of energy at least twice his largest display five years ago.
"Come out come out wherever you are..."
As he rocketed forward in super sonic flight over the ocean, he brought both hands to his sides. With this motion, the boiling sea below parted, vast waves souring in either direction several thousand feet high. These waves alone would be enough to destroy any seaside settlement within a thousand miles... But the partition continued, slamming all the way to the sandy sea floor, and even this was no match for this forceful rage... the sea floor parted as well, a deep chasm forming in the planet.
Draven shot in a straight line with his own form of destructive distortion. Himself the knife and the planet the butter...
----
Ven stopped mid stride, his mouth open about to respond...
The sky turned a crimson red and a continuous low rumble resonated through the ground, the newly built buildings creaking... Ven turned, facing the sky in the opposite direction, his heart racing...
Ven had fought Mavas many times, and due to that red pendant, accepted the fact that Mavas had a stronger magical aura than himself... But this one... though it was far away... this one was far greater than anything he had ever experienced and ever could have thought possible... and it was getting closer...
"D-Draven? This wouldn't be who you're talking about, now would it?!"
-
Zeros' smirked to himself at Haraldur's acusations.
"Ah.. You are quite right. But, even me and my friends are wrong with all out actions. You see, Haraldur, there is no good or evil. The world is a shade of gray. There are people with power and people without. It is how those people use that power is what makes them 'good' or 'evil', as they say.
The actions against the planet, as I said, what the exact actions you said, "..the coastlines would have been even longer, and the soil even more fertile.." You caused the deaths of plants, animals and people. With the reshaping of the planet, the tectonic plates moved themselves while grinding against each other, cauisng massive quakes. This, in chain reaction, caused builds to fall and forests to collapse, killing animals that inhabited the forest. And as the buildings fell, hundreds of thousands of people died, buried under the rubble of which they built.
And it is true that we can't bring back the people which are already dead. And Alpha-Retan? Pfft. Both you and I knew that either of us could kill him, even Draven could of with some difficulty.
Your actions against the planet? Killing millions. These include humans, monsters, fish, plants, birds, ect.," he said softly. He then smiled at nothing in particular. "Oh and Haraldur.. I could break through this barrier at any moment, but, as of yet, I don't feel like trying to reveal how much more powerful I had become," he said.
-
Roland narrowed his eyes. "Was he, talking to me?"
"I think so." Marshal replied.
"Well, I supose he's right. Besides, the Empire has caused some probloms with us in the past." Roland said. "And he dose have a reason to be scared, we have wiped out several savage forces. The Red Cyclops, The Ice Warriors, and the Hydra Skulls."
"Let's follow Draven!" Marshal subjested
"Um, yes. Let's." Roland replied. He then motioned for his soilders to follow. "Kill any of these, 'Aspyes' you see."
"Um, sir." Marshal said, tapping on Roland's shoulder. "Isn't that abit chaocic? I mean, shouldn't we see what they have? What if they are weak? Maybe we could negotiate? We are researchers not killers."
"Very well." Roland muttered "You herd him boys. Move!"
The flock of wyvern riders fleu off, towards the land of the Aspyes.
----
Valos unsheathed his sword. "What the hell is takeing him so bloody long?!"
Duilin unholsted his mace, and swung it up and down, patting his free hand with the bar.
Rink turned and spotted Draven and The Blue Minotaur heading towards there location. "Great. Things are gonna get messy..." He sent a message to Zeros'.
'Zeros', Draven is coming. I'll bet my wings that he going to slaughter tons of inocents if he gets to the island. We can defenatly trust the Minotaur, but not Draven.'
-
...After a few days Jonny awakens from his slumber. He is in great pain. "Oww....My head...That Asshole! I'm gonna kill that man!" He runs toward an exit.*bang* he hits a bar. "Damit! A cage! Where am I? Hello!!" he begins yelling.
"Exelent...you have awaken' I knew you would. I payed a lot of money for you." The client says.
"Well who are you! Wait... Franky! You still mad about that?" Jonny remembers.
"What? About you convinceing my wife to become a nun, you puting your stolen goods in my house so the guards find it and evict me? Or... The letting me explore the seas with you only to trade me to savages for rum?!?" The client (Franky) replies angerly
"ohh... yeah... *chuckles* good times, good times." Jonny smerks
"Well I imployed an assasain, Xenai, I think it was Xenai, to bring you to me. Now you are up I will leave you in here to rot!" He leaves laghing.
"I'm gonna kill you Franky!" Jonny yells at him as he leaves.
-
Don't worry about Draven. He's not here.. yet. I will deal with him when the time comes.
Zeros' contacted Valos through a mental link: Valos, if you make any sudden moves towards my postion, I will strike you down where you stand. If I can negotate enough, it will be easier for us to strike down Haraldur and his empire. I know you know who I am. If you keep calm, I can finish these negotiations and we can obliterate Haraldur.
-
"What part of "there is no way I could have stopped it if I tried" do you not understand, Zeros'? Do you think I did it deliberately out of petty spite? No. I managed to control which areas were worst hit, and so millions died instead of billions, Zeros', billions. Are you obtuse, or deaf?"
A faint rumbling sound appeared.
"I have to go, someone is attacking."
____________________________________________________________
Haraldur was tugged at huge speed towards Draven, so fast the their relative velocity was nearing lightspeed, and their increased masses warped spacetime around them, and for them time slowed. Haraldur now was on a collision course with Draven, with two scissors katars in his hands.
____________________________________________________________
The land was tugged similarly to Haraldur, but towards the rift, very quickly arriving at where the invasion force was. Tesla was still there. The land collided with the invasion force, and caused a huge tsunami (which would only hit the invasion force and the south pole, no landmasses).
At the end, only 5 wyverns remained all else were dead, including the mages (the PCs do not die, unless they want to). Tesla left the aerial barrier and shot two of the wyverns out of the sky.
____________________________________________________________
The followers braced themselves.
-
(The invasion force was already reduced to a single airship, but I guess a huge tsunami could still catch it. Dude Man is entitled to defend his more skillful wyvern force if he decides to, though.)
As the airship fled, a massive wave rose higher than the ship itself and the flying ship disappeared under the depths...
----
"Ragnar! We've some negotiations to discuss!"
His voice boomed though the sky. A burning blade formed in Draven's right hand, which he brought before his head.
The two blazed toward each other head on, like two ballistic missiles. The crimson sky filled with black clouds and lighting struck once per second. As if the colossal waves were not enough, torrential winds blew across the ocean and the island that had just exited the rift. It was like the world was ending again... like five years ago...
If the two conflicting auras even neared each other, the resulting explosion from the collision would be tremendous...
----
Ven crouched on one knee as the insanity began, the sky suddenly changed, becoming a blur, before stopping. Like the town had moved to an entirely new location. The vibrations were now much worse and the sky was filled with lightning. He could see them... two points of light speeding towards each other...
-
Zeros' smiled faintly.
"No way you could of stopped it, eh? I seriously doubt that. Don't take me for a fool, Haraldur," he whispered to no one in particular. He swirled his cloak and reppeared behind the three others.
"Come," he said quietly. "The town is no longer here. It has moved, along with Haraldur," he finished and then, he was gone, his wings spread wide as he blasted forth with immense speed, breaking the sound barrier so easily. He kept speeding forwards, going as fast as Haraldur.
Seconds later, he reppeared near the barrier where the landmass had moved to. He flapped his wings and suddenly stopped so aburptly, a wave surged forwards. As the wave stopped, it seemed to be flowing down an invisible wall.
He looked around, and spotted Haraldur and Draven speeding towards each other. He decided to keep back and watch their fight...
-
"Arg!" Roland yelled "We lost men! Marshal, let's spread out more!" He commanded
"Yes, General." Marshal replied, he flue his wyvern 25 feet left, from Roland's position. They stoped about 35 feet away from were Draven and Haraldur met. Roland drew his sword. But Marshal signaled him to hold position, Roland nodded in agrement.
-----
"Hmmm." Valos pondered for a moment. "Duilin, we will follow Zeros', if you want. But I must show you something before our alliance is broken."
"Duilin, don't!" Rink warned "He's trying to suduct you, into evil!"
"No, I am merly going to show him the truth of his past." Valos said defencively
"We will worry about that latter." Duilin said sternly "We have to defeat Haraldur."
He then flapped his wings, and blasted on a firey aura, he looked at Rink.
The imp nodded and hopped onto Duilin's back, and grabbed onto his shoulders. Duilin is much faster then Rink, so it's best this way.
Valos, then nodded, and blasted on a dark purple aura. The two then flue off in Zeros' derection at great speed. (But not as fast as Zeros')
-
"Oh, shit... Just the guy we need to see. Draven."
"Yeah, it definitely feels like him."
Zion and Xenai watched as the chaos began.
-
There was a large sucking noise as the settlement renentered the universe in the little hole in the land. Tesla was floating above, and readied himself to defend it against all those who would attack.
He shot at the wyverns, hoping that they would either be hit, or leave.
-
The warriors came so close that their auras collided. A huge explosion burst forth, letting lose another series of waves and crating a crater at the sea floor... Haraldur was now within Draven's grasp...
"Hyah!!"
A quick flick of the arms brought his crimson blade above and to the right of his head, which he promptly brought downwards towards his opponent's neck in a spinning motion...
----
Ven watched the two points of light collide. The resulting explosion was blinding, and a huge wave developed under it. It came closer and closer... Ven braced himself. But the sky suddenly changed-- the town had entered the rift again, and the wave disappeared with the rest of the violence...
Ven turned to the others.
"We're in the middle of a war zone... we have to get out of here..."
He walked past Zion and Xenai, and behind the building that was supposed the be where they were going to stay. He wanted to see the "end" of this place. A magical wall? Some sort of drop-off? He wanted to see it for himself...
----
"Hey, there."
A shadow was floating behind Telsa. A red light emanating softly from his chest...
"Nice trick..."
He was referring to how the town just got sucked up into another dimension.
"Did you do that yourself, or did someone else...?"
-
With the katar in his left hand, Haraldur caught the blade of crimson. Because of their relative velocity, the katar then slid towards Draven's fingers as Haraldur's motion was now going along the line of the blade. The scissors katar in his right hand now came stabbing towards Draven's undefended stomach, to slice open inside him if it hit.
_____________________________________________________________
//Er... Xorlak, the settlement has just reentered the universe, not left it.//
Tesla pointed his ray gun at the stranger.
"Who are you?"
-
Zion and Xenai followed Ven.
"Without Eternity Weapon and Zero Weapon, we can't hope to take on such a huge force," said Zion. "There's too many of them, too much going on."
-
Draven continued the spin just enough turn to the right and push off from Haraldur's blade that was touching his own. Haraldur's other blade skimmed the armor on his left side and bore a hole through his cape, which tore completely through as he completed his turn.
Draven was now to the left of Haraldur, facing him and flying backwards. With both hands, he launched his crimson blade at his foe, sending it spinning though the air like a saw blade...
----
Ven stopped and turned around.
"Eternity and Zero Weapons...? I've heard of these... You know how to... control such giant mechanical beasts?"
He folded his arms thoughtfully.
"Hundreds of years ago, my kingdom used to use such things for war. But no one knows how to operate them now, so they are sealed underground. I'm not sure if they are similar to the ones you are talking about, but I can show them to you. If we can find a way out of here, that is..."
----
(Yes, that's what I meant. Ven saw what was going on outside right before the settlement re-entered. Telsa did not enter the dimension because he's defending against the wyverns, correct? Or did he enter with the settlement and is shooting at wyverns that entered as well. Heh, confusing... I'll wait for you to clarify, since what Mavas does depends on it.)
-
//He was always outside the settlement. Before the settlement reappeared, he went above the rift to defend it once it rematerialised.//
With a twitch of his fingers, Haraldur warped the space in the empty dimension, not breathing, because of the lack of air, but not needing to. Due to the warping of the spacetime, the spinning blade seemed to disapper in a fold in spacetime, before returning spinning towards Draven, at increased speed.
He then held the warp and fold in space-time, him being able to feel it as if it were solid, as a meterial thing. He swung it around his head and threw it towards Draven. Through the warp, Draven's image warped and stretched, and similar things would happen to Haraldur's image from Draven's point of view. The warp caught up with the flaming sword, going towards Draven now in many-pointed pain, as the blades replicated themselves and bent.
Due to the lack of air, and so sound, Haraldur telepathed this message to Draven, How disappointed Retan would be. He was so much more subtle than you...
-
"Yeah... It's been 5 years since we last called them out. At that time, we had to sacrifice them to restore the planet."
"So you got stuff like 'em, eh? Alrighty, then. We could give 'em a shot. But how ta get outta here...?" Xenai looked around, trying to find a way out. "Um. Um. We should destroy something really big."
"Um, no. Think harder."
"It might work!"
-
Zeros' carefully unsheathed his katana and flipped the blade over in his hands a few times. The blade came to life and transformed into it's holy form. Fur replaced the handguard and the sword grew in width and height, but not in length.
//It's hoyl form is basically easier for minipulating magic. Demon form is easier for manipulating ki. It's normal form is balanaced for both.\\
The sword glowed in a soft, pulsing light. He brought his right arm up and slashed quickly down. His sword hummed through the air and a small split formed in front of him.
---
Near Ven, Xenai and Zion, the same type of rift appeared in front of them.
//Instead of destroying the barrier, he bipasted it by making his own tear in dimension.\\
-
"Fall back!" Roland ordered. The wyverns and the riders then flue back, approxmently 20 yards. Roland and his dragon only went back ten or so yards.
"What do we do?" Marshal called out
"Find out who's shooting at us!" Roland ordered
Marshal looked up and spotted Tesla "It's him! But it looks like he just wants us to stay away from that area. I bet he is guarding Haraldur's demention, or something." Marshal examin's him "He seems quite strong, if we want to get the demention then we'll have to get one of the stronger ones, to get rid of him."
"I don't think that would be wise." Roland replied "If we get in, Haraldur may follow, and he will kill all of us."
"Maybe this attack wasn't the best idea." Marshal sighed
"Heh, no shit..." Duilin said, over hearing there conversation.
"Zeros' made a tear in the dimension!" Valos grinned "Perhaps we can get in, and *ahem* capture the Aspyes. They may have no commited any crimes, but they will!"
"Let's not worry about that, let's worry about Haraldur." Duilin replied
"Lord Draven, can worry about him. Draven, will defenatly be able to defeat him." Valos snapped back
"I hope so..." Duilin sighed
"I don't." Rink said softly, not loud enough for most people to hear.
-
Zeros' sheathed his sword with a flourish and turned to Valos.
"If you kill any innocents, alliance or not, I will elimante you, myself. While you may have no qualms about killing innocents, I do," he said calmly. Then, without waiting for a reply, he stuck just his head into the dimensional rift.
---
On the other side of the rift, Zeros' disembodied head appeared.
"Ah. I thought I felt you three around here," he said, spotting the three that were unfourtently, stuck in Haraldur's nation. "Come now. Just step through here and you'll be teleported outside this town. Be warned, though, the other end pops out over the ocean," he said and his head disappeared from the rift.
-
Tesla saw the wyverns fall back, and nodded to himself.
He moved his hands as if juggling and some words began to form in the air for the wyvern riders to read. They read:
Greetings. I, Nikola Tesla, and currently defending this area. However, should you wish to negotiate, always a possibility in this situation, then we may be able to talk, although we will not be giving up any territory, nor military capability. Nor will we be handing any people over, for whatever reason. However, it is preferable to death, and we do have a new and relatively undamaged conference room.
_____________________________________________________________
The man ran towards the cut as it appeared, and overheard Zeros'.
"Indeed, you are free to come and go as you please. However, we would like to know the stranger's name first. As a precautionary measure."
People were gathering around the rip, waiting to see if the person who had cut into here was friend or foe. They suspected the latter, because this method of entry could be no accident.
-
"Negotiate eh?" Roland grunted "Marshal! Go negotiate him, we may be able to come to a peacefull agreement and end this pointless war." He comanded
"Um, me? Yes sir." Marshal nodded, and flue his wyvern closer to Tesla. "I only wish to speak to you Nikola. Is it okay if I ask you a few questions?"
---
"I don't see what the big deal is, with killing them. They ARE a threat, if they have the power of Haraldur, then who knows what they will do!" Valos snapped back to Zeros'
"Valos! Listen they haven't done anything yet." Rink said sternly
"But they could! And they will!" Valos yelled at the Imp "Duilin? Don't you agree? I belive you saw what Haraldur did five years ago..."
"I...I don't...I don't know..." Duilin groaned
Rink made an angry look at Valos. "Valos, just shut the hell up and don't try anything. You herd Zeros'!"
Valos crossed his arms and muttered a few words to himself. He looked at Haraldur and Draven duel.
Duilin, just stared blankly at water below him. He looked at his reflection, he tuned out the sounds of Draven and Haraldur fighting, and Roland yelling and ordering around his soilders.
Rink, breathed deeply. He seemed quite scared that Duilin might turn out like his father. Valos, started to notice this.
Valos was quite confused, why an Imp seems so desperate to stop this. Why would a creation of Qor, not want another minion of evil to be gained?
-
Draven, on the other hand, was breathing heavily, for the aura of flame around him contained within it a limited supply of air. The conglomeration of distortion was approaching him faster than he was flying backwards. He brought both arms to his sides at full length, then quickly clasped his hands in front of his chest. At the same time an external force hit the oncoming distortion from both sides, squeezing the whole area, blades and all, until it was nearly paper thin, frozen in front of him. Draven stopped with the distortion, holding it in place.
"Subtlety, my friend, can be a disappointment in itself..."
He obviously did not allow it to show, but this was a bad thing... a very bad thing... He did not expect his foe to use dimensional distortions as a method of attack. Even contained, flames from his aura seemed to be pulled into what was now a glowing slit before him...
----
The shadow folded his arms, and read the words above, although from his point of view they would were backwards. He seemed to whisper into Telsa's ear, though he was several feet behind him.
"Ah, Mr. Telsa. You may refer to me as Mavas. I ask if you are the one who shielded that town, or if someone else did it, for you see, there are some people that belong to me within its walls..."
The ruby gem glowed dimly, but Mavas would be difficult to see to anyone not particularly close... He backed away a bit as Marshal approached.
----
"Zeros'...."
Ven stared at the rift for a second before realizing he just gave the name of one of their enemies. He glanced at the other men.
"Uh..."
He scratched his head in thought for a second.
"Right... well, if you have a message you would like us to give to him or something, we'll do it. But we must leave now..."
-
Haraldur held his left hand out, and the distortion there seemed to be absolutely colossal. A potted plant, a rare orchid, was resting in his hand, with a beautiful purple shade. It floated away from his hand. He sent a message to Draven, Look, see, for he creates wonders from empty space, without having to take away. In his right hand, an identical flower appeared, but of antimatter, And look, see, for he can create its opposite, without taking away. Then he threw them both at a point a few metres in front of Draven, where they met. Their total mass was approximately two kilograms. E = mc^2. E = 2 x 9 x 10^16, E = 1.8 x 10^17 kg m^2 s^-2. Energy comparable to an atomic bomb was released. It then disappeared. And look, see, for he has the power to annihilate, without the release of energy.
Do not be sad, the flowers would have died anyway, due to the lack of atmosphere.
He then stared at Draven, waiting for his reaction.
________________________________________________________________
"Well, Mavas, slavery is something we do not tolerate in Aspyes, if that is what you mean. Regardless, you cannot enter, we are currently at war."
Tesla turned to Marshal, he said, "Not until you call off the attack, making sure noone attacks, noone at all, and then you give me your personal assurances. Then you may ask questions."
________________________________________________________________
"Stop!" the man said, as the other started pointing various projectile weapons towards the group. "We would first like to ask a question of Zeros', who we know we have no chance of defeating by ourselves, why are he and others attacking us. That is a question we would very much like answered, promptly."
-
"I'll be right back," he said, but left a parting message with Duilin, "Duilin, it doesn't matter what Haraldur has done. What have the innocents in the nation done? Other then being assossciated with Haraldur, they have done no crime. What about a man that comes home from work to greet his wife and children. What of a son who works all day to care for his sick father?
Would you kill these people because of who they assossciate? If that was so, you would of been dead long ago for assossciating with the Dark Empire and Retan," he said before he fully stepped through the rift.
---
Zeros' reppeared through the rift and looked around at the people curiously.
"You may anwser and question you want. I will anwser it to the best of my ability," he said calmly.
-
Duilin pondered about what Zeros' said, the final part seemed most convinceing. "Valos...they have done nothing..." Duilin said calmly "Do not attack the innocents." He said the final part abit more sternly, he then looked back down.
"Hmmm..." Valos rubbed his chin
Rink smiled. "There ya go."
Marhsal pondered abit. "Well, perhaps...If you and Haraldur are the only foe of this battle then perhaps I shall call of the troops. I'll have to ask the others." He then looked at Rink and the others. "I shall return, in one moment."
He flue his wyvern down to Duilin, Valos and Rink's position.
"Ah! Marshal." Rink smiled as he saw him.
"Oh, so the summoner has brought his army." Valos hissed
"Um, yes. I belive I can bring this to a peacefull negotiation!" Marshal grinned. "But, Tesla will only negotiate if I call of the forces, yet what if it is a trap? Do they have more?"
"No accually. Apparently, this 'army' is non-existint." Duilin explained "They are all inocents, they pose no threat. There is no need for an army. What we have here is enough."
Marshal grinned again "Ah excellent. Hopefully I can end this peacefully then." He then flies his wyvern back to Roland's position. "He want's you to leave. There is no army. But thanks for the help sir."
"What no army? But you said there was?" Roland barked
"Apparently. The army is non other then a group of innocents. They are mearly followers of Haraldur."
"Well aren't they dangerous? If they follow Haraldur then won't they attempt world dommination or something?"
"No, they won't. They are all harmless people. Like the commeners on the street."
"Well killing innocents is not what Blue Minotaur wants to get an image of. Very well. You herd him boys! Marshal will negotate, and attempt to bring peace." Roland and the group of wyvern riders then flue off, back to mainland.
Marshal flue back up to Tesla. "It has been done. Now shall we talk?"
-
"Why are you and others attacking us?" said the man.
______________________________________________________________
"Indeed," said Tesla, leading him down to a palatial looking building a way off from the main part of the settlement. Inside, some object, such as vases, had smashed, but the building itself was in quite good condition.
Tesla arrived at a small table and sat down on one side.
"You said you had questions, which you may ask, but first, why did you and others attack us?"
-
Jonny woke up in his cell a day later and hears a squeaking sound."whoa, whats that, go away!" Jonny rants still half asleep. "Wait I know that squeak! Bongo!" He realizes. Bongo runs over to the cell door and he sits at attention. "Bongo, get the key, the shiney!" Jonny says to bongo with a smile. Bongo leaps on the table across from the door and grabs the shiney key and brings it to Jonny. "Yes! Thanks Bongo you're the best monkey!" Jonny says as he grabs the key. He unlocks the door and opens it. Bongo immediately hops onto Jonnys shoulder as he walks to a wepon locker. "Yeess..."Jonny says as he grabs his shotgun a gold and dimond incrusted rapier with the name Frank Gozwell on the handle (it probobly belongs to franky.) and he puts an expencive looking pistol in the the empty holster on his belt. "Here Bongo." Jonny says as he hands him a small dagger.(Bongo gives an impish little grin.)
He walks down the empty halls of Frank's manor untill he comes to a door that seems to be occupied and has light coming from the crack at the bottom. "Frank! Are you in there!" Jonny says.
"What! How did you... Uhh... Shit!" Franky runs to the door and bolt locks it.
Jonny smashes at it with a nearby wood cutting hatchet untill a hole opens in the side. "Heeeres Jonny!" He yells as he sticks his shotgun in the hole and fires until he hears a scream. He then walks away to the exit door.
-
Zeros' looks around at the people carefully. Around, there were all types of people. There were some young, some old, some sick, some poor. He could even here the sounds of small children playing nearby, though, they were protected by a barrier of some sorts.
"Yes. I'm quite sorry about that... You see... Myself and your leader, or as you refer to him, Haraldur, haven't exactly been on the... best of terms. But, when I found out only Haraldur and Tesla were trained, I've decided to back out of the battle. Now, only if you attack one of my friends or myself, only then shall I retaliate. I take no pleasure in killing the innocents," he said calmly.
-
Ah, well..." Marshal began "When I met Zeros' and his group, they told me that they once knew Haraldur. I wanted to join them, merely to gain knowledge of these legendary people...in hope to become one. I herd that Haraldur nearly destroied the world, and he went from continent killing people and destroing the land. So, when I saw Haraldur run off with other people, that he resucued from the Crimpson Empire, we assumed that he must be building up an army, to try something like what he did before again. So, we allied with the Crimpson Empire. We thought that you and Haraldur were a much greater threat to the world. Haraldur did nearly end the world."
-
Draven brought his arms before his face and felt himself hurdled backwards at great speed. After the massive blast subsided, he was perhaps over a thousand feet farther away from Haraldur. To be caught is such a massive explosion was an exhilarating ride...
"Tch! The things we find we are able to do when we get a glimpse of the beyond..."
So he wants to show off does he?!?!
Draven extended his left hand towards the turbulent sea below, and opened his palm. Likewise, he extended his right hand towards the sky in a similar matter. His aura was flaring and his eyes burned crimson...
"This may sting a bit..."
----
"My my, a rude one this is..."
Rather than pursue the fellow, Mavas decided to keep his distance and observe. It was then that a huge explosion lit the sky behind him. What a fine amount of chaos Ven has discovered!
----
Ven found himself relieved that Zeros' had appeared, for the villagers seemed to be getting restless. Zeros' seemed to be getting all of their attention. Ven glanced at Zion and Xenai and then the portal. He began to side step toward the dimensional rift. Hey, he wasn't doing any good standing around here, now was he?
-
//Draven, I thoguth we were still in the cut off dimension, and nowhere near where everyone else is?//
-
(I'm imagining a sort of sphere of distortion around where they were, in which nuclear-scale explosions and the like might be partially visible to outsiders... perhaps? ... No? Heh...)
Very quickly, Draven brought his arms together in front of him, clasping his hands. A flash of crimson erupted below Haraldur, and a geyser of molten lava spewed skyward along with much rocky debris. At the same time, a flaming meteor appeared overhead, some 500 feet in diameter, hurdling downwards at the same target...
----
Ven evaded suspicion in his sidesteps and arrived at the portal behind Zeros'. He quickly stepped in.
"Wait, he said... over the... sea...?!?!"
He found himself in thin air spiraling downwards over a very turbulent black ocean. He collected himself and, at the last second, thrust his right hand at the water. A blue-white flash froze the water in a five foot radius and he clutched to this flotsam as the waves tossed him about.
"Beautiful..."
-
Duilin spotted Ven falling out of the portal and freeze the water below him. "Hey, is that Ven?"
"That it is." Rink replied, he thought that he would be here.
"Ven? Who is this Ven?" Valos asked
"Some guy we met in River Town." Duilin answered "He had a problom, but we couldn't help him because of Haraldur." He then lowered himself several feet hovering above the water, lightly flapping his wings. "Nice, day for a little rafting, eh?" Duilin laughed "I wondered what happened to you. Need a hand?"
-
Tesla said, "So basically, you took for absolute truth the word of people you hardly know what they said about someone you have never met, without checking it out first? So basically, this was an unprovoked attack."
_________________________________________________________
Haraldur moved backwards, allowing the meteor and the lava to meet, throwing shreds of lava all over the place, to float forever through space.
A small distortion of spacetime appeared in his fingers, which he lightly threw towards Draven. This would suck up all heat in the surrounding area. It was also heat seeking.
-
This little dimension of his is bad news...
Draven remained motionless as hundreds of balls of molten lava and rock spewed past, for none were on a collision course with him. He was breathing too heavily. Now that Haraldur was distracted would be a good time to catch a breath of fresh air.
Draven closed his eyes so that he might sense the fibres of this distortion around him. It was not like a whole new dimension he was in, but rather an artificial one created within the real world... he found the spot, and sped off diagonally upwards, smashing through a floating chunk of rock on the way. He brought his right hand above his head, from which grew a long blade of flame like an extension of his arm. He slashed at the empty space, and a slit became visible in the dimensional fabric. The hole tore open as a blast of air came rushing into the vacuum...
On the opposite side, a hole in the sky appeared, which became a sort of vortex, sucking air into it, for there was no air on the other side.
----
Ven struggled to stand up, but was knocked to his knees by a large wave.
"Yes, actually, if you know the where some solid ground is, that would be nice."
He was then slammed to his stomach by another wave as the ice raft began to sink...
-
Duilin quickly grabbed Ven, as the ice raft sank.
"We gotta find some land." Duilin said to the others
"Hmm..." Rink looked around the area, he then spotted a small clump of land. "There's some land over there." He pointed
"Ha ha." Valos laughed
"What's so funny?" Rink asked
"Oh, nothing it's just that there happens to be this small island, that nobody noticed untill now." Valos replied, chuckled abit after that.
"Right..." Rink, rubbed his brow.
Duilin then flapped his wings, and then sored off to the small island, and placed Ven down. The others followed. Duilin sat down a foot from Ven. Valos stood by the shore, and crossed his arms. Rink, sat in a tree, and casted a small flame, and held it in his hand, and looked in it.
"I'm haveing the strangest fealing of deja vu." Rink said.
"So, Ven. You were in Haraldur's demention? What did you see in it?" Duilin asked.
-----
"Err well..." Marshal said stumped for abit. "Well, it's just that we, the Blue Minotaur, are recorders of Legends. And well, the near end of the world five years ago, was recorded as one. I've read about it alot, I was fascinated by the power of these people and well, when I saw them, I trusted them." He paused for a moment "I know it sounds silly...but when I was young I wanted to become a hero of some sort, you know save the world?" He then sighed. "But you know, I'm starting to think I've been wrong about you people. I'm mean, I think it was abit silly for me to aid with the Crimpson Empire, I mean, they are very evil people. I'm not to sure about Haraldur however, I mean he killed all those people. Didn't he?"
-
Ven removed the soaking wet cloak around his armor and began to wring it out. It was a heavy material that seemed to resist moisture well, but it worked better in the rain, rather than tidal waves...
"It was odd... it was some sort of village. All the inhabitants were preparing for war, yet they were very calm and prepared, refined even. They seemed to be genuinely confused as to why they were being attacked, and named Zeros' and you fellows and Draven of the Crimson Empire as their attackers."
He unfurled the cloak and shook it out.
"To be honest, I don't have the slightest clue what is going on either..."
-
"Haraldur, nearly ended the world five years ago." Duilin explained, he looked off into the horizion. "He helped us with an issue we had, involveing a few weapons, terribley long story..." Duilin started to remember a few terrible images, piles of corpses all over the courtyard of the Romme Castle, and dead bodies paveing the cave wall of a hideout, the corpes of Iduran. He shuddered and shook his head rapidly. He stood up and faced the other way.
"Yeah, I was there for some of it..." Rink said "Haraldur, helped the guys find a bunch of weapons, they were parts of him or something, um yes he's combined between a few people and a bunch of weapons. After he was 'complete' he then starting burning villages and destroing continents, yet he did defeat a very big and ugly dragon."
"That would have been interesting to see." Valos said blankly, he really seemed to be getting bored.
"Well, enough talk about the past." Duilin said, turning around "Ven, how did you get into the demention?"
-
Zeros' looked around and smiled.
"Well, it seems that my time is done here," he said, turning his back to Haraldur's followers. "I wish you all in good health," he said and simply stepped forwards and... disappeared.
---
Seconds later, Zeros' appeared behind the group without a sound. He crossed his arms and leaned against a tree, carefully masking his presence and listened in on their conversation.
-
Rink noticed Zeros' but said nothing.
-
Tesla stared at him, and said, "A tangled web of assumptions, lies and half-truths is not a good motive. This is especially so because none of you have complete understanding of the events of five years ago."
______________________________________________________________
Haraldur remained motionless as he watched Draven go.
He thought to himself: It is imperitive that he is killed. Not just removed from power, but killed. Like all oppressed peoples, surely his subjects are ripe for revolt? It would need just a nudge, but not from me. They would not regard me as a messiah, with my reputation. But someone else? Who?
-
Draven exited the rift, letting the air pierce his aura. It was cold, but fresh air none-the-less. He turned, flying backwards, and extended his palm towards the open portal. A ball of concentrated red energy appeared before it, which he would launch as soon as he saw any movement from the opening...
Up in the sky, he was now in plain view of those on the island.
----
Ven replaced the damp black cloak around his silver armor.
"We were chasing Mavas when a portal appeared, which took us to some sort of labyrinth. There was a fight with some sort of dragon, an explosion, and we found ourselves in that village... Hey! They're still in there! Zion and that other fellow. I didn't catch his name. The two that were helping me out..."
He turned and squinted to see the slit that he came through still up in the sky.
-
Unknown to Ven, the rift Zeros' had opened was still active, and waiting for Zion and Xenai to step through.
-
"Lies? I assure you, the legends are not lies, they perhaps may have beem inacurate. I admit it was abit foolish, but I trusted those people on there word, because they have proven to the world that they are trustworthy, I saw them help out a man in need, and save an entire village from pirates." Marshal said. "Haraldur, killed people in revenge that dosen't sound very trusting, dose it?"
-------
Valos looked up to were the slit was. He then saw Draven in the sky. "Ah ha. I assume he might have defeated Haraldur."
"I don't think so." Duilin said "Haraldur, is just....You just can't kill him."
"So, Zion and somebody else, is still in there?" Rink asked "Must, be um, Xenia or something."
"One would assume." Duilin replied. He then looked up in the sky at Draven, and then turned away, and walked nearer to the middle of the tiny island.
Valos, turned and followed Duilin. "That story, you were talking about. The one about the wepons. I recall, a Darion going on that mission."
Duilin's eyes lit up. "Those people, are the one responsible for my family's death."
"But not your father. He left before the attack?" Valos said.
"Yes. Darion slaughtered my mother, and brothers and sisters. My father ran off before. Nex, told me that he wanted me to live, so I can become a full demon...for some reason...And you know why, he wants me to become a ruler...of hell?"
"Perhaps...He means you no harm...You have nothing to loose...And you can obtain great power" Valos says
Duilin gives Valos a dirty look "Bastard...You think you know everything about me. You think I like being like this? You think I just sorta woke up one day and said 'Hey maybe I'll go learn how to shoot fireballs and and grow ugly wings'. It's people like YOU who made me like this."
"You would have never lived and many others would have died. Nevina would have died on the island if it wasn't for you demonic said. It was the DEMON who saved your friends in need, it was the DEMON who defeated Nex, killed an entity clone, sliced off a head of Alpha Retan."
"How the hell do you know so much about my past?" Duilin asked
"Oh, the word has been spread around." Valos said.
"You're just a werid strange little man aren't you." Duilin sighed and then spoke louder enough for more people to hear. "Is this alliance over yet!?"
-
As Jonny leaves the house he sees that it is near a dock with a boat docked on it that as the words "Lil' Billy's" on the side. He remembers the name from a tavern he used to go to, it was an alcohol delivery ship! "Score! Bongo we are so stealing this one!" Jonny looks at Bongo as he smiles in agreement.
After a few minutes they were on the ship and undocking it. "Bongo, I got the wheel, you go down and get me some rum!" Jonny runs to the wheel of the ship as Bongo finds his way into the storage area. After a few minutes the ship was ready to go and they set sail toward the Crimson Empire Base.
-
//Internet died. Sorry. -_-
"Whaddya say? We goin' in?"
"Oh, for Gaia's sake, you know we are."
And they went in. And dropped. Xenai poked his head out. "Piece of shit!!!" Followed by Zion. They then looked around.
-
As Zion and Xenai stepped through the rift, a loud pop echoed across the ocean as the rift sealed itself, on both sides.
-
Draven continued flying backwards with his arm pointed at the rift... nothing...
"Fine. Stay in there and pout."
Having flown quite a distance away, he noticed the small island and the group of warriors resting on it, particularly Zeros'. Dispersing his fireball, he turned and blasted his way towards it, his red aura rocketing over Zion and Xenai in the process.
He shouted, to Zeros' in particular.
"It seems our roles in this mission became reversed. I take it you took care of the other half?"
----
Ven gazed at the bright crimson aura of Draven as he rapidly approached.
"So... he is with you guys..."
Ven folded his arms underneath his cloak as the Crimson Emperor passed overhead, trying to look casual and appear to know what was going on, though he still didn't, really... He had heard both great and awful things about this man, and thought it best to believe the later, and keep his distance. At least for now...
-
"Just for the time he is." Rink explained to Ven.
Duilin stared at Draven. "Have fun with Haraldur?" He asked, not expecting an answer.
"Wellcome back Lord Draven..." Valos nodded
Rink telepathed a message to Zeros'. 'Best say that you did take care of the other half. If he belives they are out of the way he won't try and kill them all himself.'
-
Zion and Xenai rubbed their heads, looking around.
"This is just great..." Zion looked up, seeing Draven.
-
Zeros' stepped out from behind and trees, his arms still folded, and eyes still closed.
"Yes. I took care of the other half of the mission. The only problems we now have to deal with are Tesla and Haraldur, himself. Why do you ask?" he said, his eyes still closed.
He telepathed a message to Ven and Duilin: Don't worry about Draven. He want's to know if I... slaughtered the innocents inside of Haraldur's nation, which you should know I did not. Fear not, for, I will never do something so horendious.
-
Draven smirked.
"Excellent. Then let us take care of the big one first. He's in that rift back there. Just watch out for his space distortion spells... Quickly now!"
He turned and blazed off in the direction he came.
----
Ven knew where the telepathic message came from, and nodded in Zeros' direction from some distance away. It seemed to be all coming together now. At least the 'whats' rather than the 'whys'...
He adjusted the strap on his right gauntlet.
"Listen. If you folks need a hand in your battle here, I'm more than willing to lend you a hand. I seem to have lost Mavas for the moment, anyway."
----
"Heh..."
-
"Well, sure." Duilin said to Ven. He then turned to Zeros' "He can't fly however...But..."
Valos took a small glance at the others, and then flue off following Draven, not far behind.
Duilin then flapped his wings jumped into the air, and took flight in Draven's direction.
Rink, blue out the flame in his hand. "Marshal went to negotiate with Tesla." He told Zeros'. "Hopefully, he will be okay. But the Prophet did say, to watch out for people with that symbol."
-
//I know I shouldn't have skimmed, but I did after getting my internet back. Sorry. Razz
Zion and Xenai made their way toward Ven, still able to feel his unique ki signature. Upon getting there, they looked to see who or what was around. If they were actually already there by him, they'd realize it soon enough and Zion would respond to him with, "Our battle? I'm not fully briefed on the thing yet, but help would be nice... Where's Zeros'? Surely he's involved."
-
Draven approached the vortex-like rift, his aura burning brightly again. He brought both arms to his sides, fists clenched, as he waited for the others to arrive.
"Ready?"
(Haraldur, let us know if he's still in there. Or if you can't post at the moment, we'll assume he just got away.)
----
Ven smiled at Zion and Xenai.
"Glad to see you guys. Yeah, I don't have much of a clue what this war is all about either, but it beats just standing around."
He removed his blade and swung it in the air, then pointed it at to Zeros' behind him and to the right, who was leaning against a tree several yards away.
"Zeros' is right over there."
Ven walked towards the island's shore while replacing his blade, looking up at the fighters that just flew away.
"I never got a handle on this levitation thing, but lets try this..."
He pointed his right hand at the water. A blue flash of light emanated from it, freezing a patch of sea like before. A second flash created a sort of raised portion at the front and sides of the ice. Ven jumped on board this new and improved ice raft, grabbing on to the waist-high projection on front with his left hand.
"Just might work..."
He pointed his right hand towards the back of the raft, from which an intense blast of wind came forth, sending the raft out into the ocean at high speeds. Despite looking rather ridiculous-- a heavily armored black cloaked man with a sword strapped across his back surfing through the waves on a jet-ski built of ice, he felt he had accomplished something as he sped towards the flying warriors.
-
Zeros' mearly shrugged. Then, he disappeared with a small shimmer. He reappeared in the air, heading towards the directions of the others.
-
Zion was about to ask Zeros' what the crap what was going on, but grumbled as he vanished. The duo came out of the water, released their wings and took off in the direction the others were headed.
-
Draven blasted into the vortex and disappeared for a few seconds...
Then the portal began to close and he reemerged from it, appearing back outside before it became too small. He clenched his fist as it disappeared behind him and the others arrived.
"Blast it! He's gone..."
Draven folded his arms as he floated where the rift was, his aura dimmed a bit as he tried to detect his adversary's energy signal... Nothing...
"Probably skipped to another one of his side dimensions... the coward..."
----
Ven arrived below on his ice jet ski spell/thing. He was getting the hang of it, but he heard the commotion above.
"Must have lost him. This is the leader of those people in that town, right?"
He said it more as a thought to himself, since he was likely to be too far away for anyone to hear, with the waves and all.
-
"Dang..." Valos sighed. "Don't supose we can travel to the demention he's hidden in."
Rink crossed his arms. "I'm sure he'll turn up soon..."
"Perhaps he turned off his aura." Duilin said "Wouldn't that make him indectecable?"
-
Zeros' stopped behind Valos, Duilin and Rink silently.
"We could travel to his dimension... But, I can't sense his aura. Therefore, I cannot located what dimension he's in. There are millions of possiblities of where we would appear. We might appear a thousand years into the future, or, we could travel two years into the past. Another posibility, is, we could travel to a dimension where Retan was never defeated... There are so many posibilites that the chance of find Haraldur is astronomical," he said.
Suddenly, his hands flew into a series of seals too fast to see. He thrust his hand at the water, his hands glowing with a bright white flame, and suddenly, the raging sea calmed. Now, it was still.
-
And the two caught up.
"What the hell are you doin'?" to Zeros.
-
Zeros' turned his head and looked at the two.
"What's your question, Zion and Xenai?" he said.
-
//I apologise for not posting, but I temporarily lost internet.//
Tesla said, "Inaccurate legends? I will accept that. You may now ask your questions."
______________________________________________________________
Haraldur had cut open a slit in the fabric of that dimension's reality, and arrived back in the dimension of Gaian, in the settlement. Some residents bowed to him as he passed. He sensed Tesla's presence, and that of another, in the conference room. He entered it.
______________________________________________________________
"Good morning, Tesla," he said.
Tesla bowed. Haraldur turned to Marshal, "I do not believe we have had the pleasure? Your name? I am sure you already know mine, you being obviously a member of Blue Minotaur."
Around Haraldur was a field suppressing the auras of everyone in the settlement.
-
Draven's aura disappeared.
"Hmph. He'll likely try and strike back at me, since none of you have countries of your own. I'm going to return to my capital. We shall continue this the next time he shows his face... In the meantime, you may enter my empire freely, for I have shown my generals images of you, and they will not attack. Just don't do anything they might view as suspicious..."
He turned and began to fly westward, back to the Crimson Capital.
----
Ven leaned on the ice, listening intently to those above. Luckily the waters were much calmer now. It looks like the battle had been averted, for now... Maybe he could use this time to get a few more answers... or maybe he should continue looking for what he was in the first place...
----
Draven raced through the sky, the wind in his face. The sky had regained its blue color after the intense battle, and it was almost nice. Almost...
"My my, what a lively one you are..."
Draven stopped immediately in mid air, and addressed the shadow that was now floating before him...
"What did you say? Do you wish to die?"
Mavas appeared in full view now, the pendant ruby around his neck beating a crimson light. He held his right hand to his chin, and the other at his hip.
"Heh heh heh... death? What is death, exactly...?"
"I'll take that as a yes."
Draven extended his right hand, pointing his index finger at the man's head. A brilliant red light appeared at the tip of his gloved finger.
Mavas began to laugh. He threw both arms outwards to his sides.
Before Draven could execute his attack, hundreds of white points of light appeared around him. They began to shoot inwards towards him, reforming their shapes into the images of knives. Drave clenched his extended right fist (and the red light within it) and brought his left hand out from under his cape, which made his cape spread out behind him, snaping his hand outwards and then to the sky as if he were batting away a single ball of energy. All of the knives immediately ricocheted off of a sort of invisible barrier and disintegrated...
-
Marshal looked at Haraldur. It was amazeing to see him in person, he was slightly frightened, yet he didn't seem so evil. "Marshal Royle..." He replied to Haraldur. "Yes, I am indeed a member of The Blue Minotaur. I have read many legends, includeing ones about you, and the others. I wish to ask you a few things." He paused for a moment and then continued "Friends of mine, have reason to belive you are a threat to the world. They have told me, you nearly destroied it five years ago, and now you return. You appear to be, in no dought, up to something. May, I know what is exactly your operation?"
------
"Zeros'?" Duilin asked "Would you be able to sence Marshal? I know he is not very strong, yet summoning creatures is a powerfull talent."
"Well, if he can't sence Haraldur how the hell can he sence Marshule, or whatever the hell is name is?" Valos asked
-
Zion looked down again at the sea. "Exactly what he said... What are you doing?"
Xenai grumbled. "I feel Draven's energy. It's fluctuatin', as if he was fightin'. I feel that freaky guy with the gem, too."
"What?!"
-
"Heh heh heh HA HA HA HAAH!!"
Mavas thrust his right hand towards Draven, sending a dozen orbs of black energy at the man. Draven waited until the last second, then his aura exploded from his body, sending the orbs spiraling into the sea below.
"Little hint: Laugh when you're winning."
"Heh heh heh... perfect! You shall be mine!!"
Mavas drew his jagged sword and began to dash madly at Draven. Again Draven didn't move, this time bringing his right hand before him, unveiling the bright crimson energy at the tip of his finger he had stored before. An intense red laser shot forth very quickly, which seemed to pass through Mavas' right shoulder. It was over in less than a second...
"Gaahh..."
Mavas lost speed, then lifelessly dropped from the sky, splashing into the sea...
Draven eyed the body as it fell.
"Idiot."
Draven's aura disappeared and he continued flying towards his capital, not really caring what that was all about...
----
Ven stared at the western horizon.
"Mavas... no..."
He cast the wind spell behind him, and directed the ice-raft in the direction Draven flew...
-
Zeros' shook his head.
"Marshal's aura is undetectiable. It's quite possible Haraldur might have cast some spell to make everyone's auras around him undetectiable," he said, before he turned towards Zion," As for what I'm doing.. I'm trying to help destroy, or at least, expell Haraldur from the planet and this demension.. forever," he said.
-
"Were the bloody hell is he off to?" Valos asked as he saw Ven ride off
Duilin watched him as he left "Hey, you be carefull now!" He warned
Rink seemed interested when Zeros' told them his plan. "Expell Haraldur from this demention, eh? You know you can do WAY to many different things..." He laughed
"It won't work..." Duilin sighed "He'll be able to sence that you're doing it." He said to Zeros' "But it is worth a try...But it might put us in danger..."
"God, this 'senceing' shit is annoying." Valos groaned.
"Well you can do it to, right?" Duilin said
"Yes, but...don't talk to me about magic. I remember refuseing to use it..." Valos said, as if begining something, but then stopped, and realize that he might accually be bonding with his enemies. He rapidly shook his head and crossed his arms and then seemed to lay back abit. His hair flew back abit revealing his tatto on his forehead, of the talon makeing a cut on flesh.
Duilin looked at it, reminding himself, that he was but a spawn of evil, destined for damnation.
-
Ven turned around and waved at Duilin, shouting back:
"Don't worry about it!"
He continued onward...
----
"Mwa hah hah hah haaah...."
The calm sea began to churn. Bubbles rose from the depths...
Then, it was like a guyser that burst forth from the ocean. The waves parted around him, repelled by the intense heat. The man who rose from the waters... looked... like... Draven...
But he was overall darker in appearance, and his burning crimson aura was laced with black, and of course there was the red pendant... Just as he had copied Zion, Mavas was emulating Draven, and his powers...
"So good of you to give me a taste. Now I shall take the rest!! Heh heh heh hah hah HA HA HA HAAH!!!!"
His dark-crimson aura exploded, and Draven-Mavas blazed through the sky after his target...
----
It was like a flash-- very sudden...
Draven stopped in mid-air, turning to find a shadowy replica of himself stopping before him...
"What in blazes are you...?"
-
"Zion, let's MOVE!!!" And Xenai took off in that direction.
"..." And Zion followed.
-
"It is possible to expell Haraldur from this dimension, but it will take almost all of my power.. which is, quite alot.." he mumbled under his breath. He looked in the direction Draven flew off and stared.
"Well, it seem Draven might have his hands full," he said. He shrugged and took off in that direction, at a slow, steady pace.
-
The two similar burning figures stood in the air motionless.
"Answer! You dare mock me?"
The dark false Draven responded in a similar, yet slightly lower distorted voice:
"Heh heh heh heh..."
Draven extended his right arm, a bright red orb appearing before it. Like a cannon he fired the orb at the false foe, who responded with an identical attack. The two orbs collided in between the two, lighting up the sky in a brilliant explosion. Draven-Mavas suddenly appeared through the smoke from the explosion, dashing at his opponent, a burning crimson blade laced with black in his right hand...
Draven evaded the horizontal slash with a sort of jump (although he was already floating in mid air), then landed a well timed kick from his right boot to his opponent's face. This caused Draven-Mavas to loose his balance for only a second, recovering with a spin and a vertical slash, top to bottom.
By this time Draven had pulled his own crimson blade out of thin air and met his opponent's darker blade with it, the recoil from the flaming swords colliding sending the two adversaries flying backwards some five feet each.
Both recovered at the same time and began dashing towards each other, Draven with a look of irritation in his face, and Draven-Mavas with an evil smirk that more resembled Draven's natural visage... What happened next was too quick for the average human eye to see... They began to sword fight at super speeds, each resulting block of a burning blade sending a shockwave rippling through the air and thrashing the waves below...
-
Zeros' stopped and observed the battle from about 50 yeards away, not at all affect by any of the shockwaves.
He was mildly impressived with Mavas's ability to copy peoples attacks. He knew of other beings that could do it, but it was more complete.. more refined. The people who he fought like Mavas were able to copy attacks and use them in seconds as if, they'd been using them for years.
He suddenly stared and shook his head. He had to observe more of the battle to be absoluetly sure of his assumption. . .
-
Duilin spread his wings, as did Rink, the two of them zoomed off to Draven's location, followed by Valos. Duilin was flying quite faster then the two, yet Valos caught up, leaveing Rink abit behind. They arived...
"What the hell?" Duilin asked seeing the two Draven's fight
"Two of them?" Valos asked, not beliveing what he is seeing.
"And, I thought one was more then enough..." Duilin groaned
Rink narrowed his eyes, and rubbed and blinked them a few times. "Yeah, that's is two Draven's fighting each other."
"I've gotta bad fealing about this..." Duilin muttered as he crossed his arms.
-
And the duo showed up. "Damn, they're fast!"
--- --- ---
Tsu was steadily, slowly flying away, but he then sensed the commotion occuring. He looked off thataway. "Holy crap..." And he took off toward it.
--- --- ---
Aura looked up, seeing Tsu flying at full speed. "What's he doing?" And she once more began to follow stealthily, yet quickly.
-
Haraldur said, "Because of my involvement, the world had no chance of being destroyed, but it probably would have were it not for my intervention. You may notice how the Dark Continent, the most populated, was almost completely spared, and how most of the landmasses now have longer coastlines: those are the fruits of my intervention, the lives of billions saved. If Zeros' had not interfered with something he does not understand, the continents would have longer coastlines, and would even be symmetrical and symmetrically arranged. You probably have not noticed, but the sunken remains of Aritan sank further, and so sparing landmasses still above the water, because of my intervention. Yes, millions died, but not billions.
"As for my current intentions, I do not want to reveal them yet, but in the short term they are towards increasing the quality of life for my followers, and my wish at the moment is for Aspyes to be left alone."
-
The two danced about the sky trading blows for a few seconds before an explosive hit knocked them away from each other once again. Draven neared the waves below, his aura pushing them away as he came to a stop in mid air.
Draven-Mavas cackled manically...
"Hehehehe.. the power!! I must have more! MORE!!"
Draven dispersed his crimson blade as he brought both arms fully extended to his sides.
"Come get it."
Draven-Mavas began a dash at blazing speeds, bringing his own burning blade above his head, ready to slice his opponent in half. He blazed through the sky, parting the waves below. Draven remained motionless... until the very last instant.
As the imposter began to bring his blade down, Draven shifted to the right and fell backwards, sending his right foot skyward and connecting with Mavas' chin. The massive kick was like an explosive spring recoil, and Mavas flew skyward a good 100 feet in a second.
Draven now brought his outstretched arms before him, having gathered the required energy, and let loose a thick column of super concentrated flame at the flying impostor, the very shockwave from this blast vaporizing a 500 foot radious half-sphere of water below him and painting the sky a blazing crimson red...
----
Ven brought his gauntlet before his face to shield his eyes from the light.
"Blast it, Mavas... If he keeps on unlocking secrets from that pendant..."
He ducked down on the ice raft to steady himself, as the waves were becoming large once again...
-
Zeros' suddenly moved. He knew what would happen if Mavas got hit by the attack..
He ghosted from view and reappeared in front of the column of super concentrated flames. He brought out his sword, and it appeared in it's holy form. The thick, white mane of angel hair was briskly wiped back and forth. His blade glowing a with a bright, white flame, the edges danced with raven-black.
He brought his sword down swiftly, intercepting the super-heated flames. The column was split directly in half, none of the flaming remains hitting anyone, including Mavas.
Draven, you fool He said into Draven's mind. As much as I'd like to see you killed, we don't need another manaic running around with your powers! Anything new you throw at Mavas.. he'll copy it. He yelled mentally.
-
"What the devil is he doing!?" Valos yelled at, as Zeros' stopped Draven's attack.
Duilin reconized that laugh from the battle at the docks. "That, must be Mavas. Ven's brother...He must have the abblity to copy people's attacks, as well as there image..."
"Well then why dosen't Zeros' let Draven kill him?" Valos asked
"Because, then, Mavas would use that attack aswell..." Rink said, merely makeing an educated guess. "If not, then I supose it's because Ven dosen't want Mavas killed."
"Why not?"
"Because, there is this strange amulet that is makeing him like this. Anyone who touches it, becomes power crazy and insane...Ven's trying to save him, not kill him." Duilin responded
Valos shrugged "If my brother went insane and tried to kill him, I would destroy him."
"I take it you're an only child..." Duilin sighed
-
Draven glared at Zeros', but then realized what he said made sense...
"Hmph, so I see... Very well, there are other ways..."
Draven cracked his knuckles and began to fly up and around Zeros'. He didn't need magic to rid himself of this impostor...
Draven-Mavas continued flying higher from the blow, finally regaining control with a flip in the air and began to descend slowly. His crimson aura was diminished somewhat. He held his chin with his left hand, but still chuckled uncontrollably through the pain...
"Huh huh huh heh..."
He extended his right hand towards Zeros', who had his back to him, and a dark aura engulfed him. The same darkness began to form around Zeros'...
-
Zeros' mearly turned around and smiled serenly at Mavas. It seemed uncanny in the middle of a battle. The black aura around him surged and then blinked out of existance.
"So.. Trying to copy my attacks now, are you? Well then, I'll just have to fix that," he said, and then, he was gone. He reppeared behind Mavas. "Copying attacks, form, posture.. It's remarkable. But, you can't copy speed, power and intelligence," he said. Then, he struck out directly towards the middle of Mavas's back, not using any sort of form.. just a straight punch that any basic human/demon or angelic being would know.
But, the power and speed he put behind it, his fist litterly couldn't be seen. The shockwaves rippled around him with such power, waves flared up so high, the bottom of the sea could be seen. His punch held enough power to total thirty or more tanks.. without effort or stopping.
-
"Hmmm, you seem to accually have good intentions." Marshal said to Haraldur. "We will leave to Aspyes alone, but you must promise me, that you will harm no innocents, I do not care if you attack the Crimpson Empire. Perhaps, the Blue Minotaur and the Aspyes could coexist with each other?" Marshal asked of him
-
"Perhaps, but nothing will stop me from obliterating the Crimson Empire once we are in a better position."
A murmering arose from the crowd outside, but the words became audible as the words to a song:
Arise, ye workers from your slumber,
Arise, ye prisoners of want.
For reason in revolt now thunders,
and at last ends the age of cant!
Away with all your superstitions,
Servile masses, arise, arise!
We'll change henceforth the old tradition,
And spurn the dust to win the prize!
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
No more deluded by reaction,
On tyrants only we'll make war!
The soldiers too will take strike action,
They'll break ranks and fight no more!
And if those cannibals keep trying,
To sacrifice us to their pride,
They soon shall hear the bullets flying,
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
No saviour from on high delivers,
No faith have we in prince or peer.
Our own right hand the chains must shiver,
Chains of hatred, greed and fear.
E'er the thieves will out with their booty,
And give to all a happier lot.
Each at the forge must do their duty,
And we'll strike while the iron is hot.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
During the second verse, Haraldur said, "Bullets are a type of ammunition we use in some of our newest weapons, and these weapons are much more powerful than bullet using slings, I can assure you."
-
Zeros' punch shot straight through Mavas... but he was only a shadow... The image dispersed like smoke.
"Heh heh heh... copying... it's not quite that simple, my friend..."
It was Mavas' original voice. The black shadow with the red core formed behind Zeros'. It was Mavas' true form. By this time Draven was rapidly approaching his left side.
"I've learned much from you two... heh heh... you're next..."
He shot down towards the sea below.
"?Till we meet again!"
Draven curved, shooting down after him.
"I think not!"
Mavas plunked down into the water and Draven stopped short, gritting his teeth. He brought both hands before him and quickly spread them to his sides. The waves below parted deeply in response. He was trying to take out the water from beneath the submerged Mavas. He tried again and again, but couldn't find him...
"Blast it!"
He flied low over the water, searching for the impostor, heading in the direction of his empire?s mainland...
----
Ven could see the red beacon clearly under the waves. It was like a signal meant only for him. He slipped away during the commotion, following the light towards the Crimson Empire as he propelled his ice raft.
-
Zeros' rubbed his chin.
"Well.. This is getting interesting," he murmured, before slowly flying after Draven.
-
Valos unsheathed his sword, and followed Draven. "If that, thing comes near the mainland, I'll vertically bisect that freak!" He said thoughly
Duilin, flew beside Zeros', followed by Rink. "I wonder how Marshal's doing, in Haraldur's demention." Rink said lowly
"Oh, probabbly good. Haraldur's probabbly trying to purswade him or something..." Duilin replied
-----
"Yes...I belive I understand. Is it simular to shotguns?" Marshal asked. "But, it appears that you infact DO have a military. Yet, if you only if to defeat the Crimpson Empire, then I supose you can be left alone by us. Yet I fear the others, may aid Draven. They are good people, that Zeros' dose seem like a very heroic character. I don't wish to see them be defeated, perhaps you should try and make peace with them? I could tell them you mean to world no harm." He subjested
-
"Hm...I wonder who they can be...I do so hope they have something valuable with them!" exclaimed Yamvy to himself, refering to the multitude of people flying, or at least they looked like people, Yamvy was rather far away. A cloud of mist conceaked this young Illusionist from view.
"They look like they may be chasing each other, maybe I should stay out of this mess...or maybe not!" laughed Yamvy evilly as he broke through his fog concealment, gripping his Fooled Staff tightly, and darted after his targets!
-
Of course the duo would commence to follow Zeros'. But as they started, Tsu caught up. They turned around. "Well hello there, Mr. Pro Swordsman. Are we rich now?"
"No, Xenai. Not rich at all. Still poor of the most important thing..."
Aura watched from a distance. "Hm." She backed up, and started to run in place, getting faster and faster. And she was off, running over the water! She was fast and light on her feet.
"What most important thing?" asked Zion.
"Maybe that important thing right there following us." Xenai pointed to Aura.
Tsu looked back at her, his eyes widening. "Damnit!!!"
-
"HA HA HA!!!!" laughed Yamvy as his pace started speeding up...or was it an illusion. Then suddenly hordes of Yamvy illusions started surrounding the quick-flying people...whom were to Yamvy as his brand new victims!
-
"What the hell!?" Duilin yelled, his most common question
"He must be an illusionist!" Valos said.
"This might be a very expected question but, What one is real?" Rink asked
Valos narrowed his eyes, and glared. He swung his large sword at one of the illusions. "Fight me you coward!"
Duilin make a small smirk "This is gonna be a peice of cake!" he, focused his magic and then began forming a large orb of lightning...
Rink began, fireing fireballs at the illusions rapidly, hopeing to hit the correct one.
-
Zeros' mearly stared at the illusions.
"I don't know why you are wasting your breath. If he's an illusionist, obviously, he won't fight for himself. He let's his illusions confuse his opponents and then, he strikes," he said casually. He batted a few illusions that got too close, seemingly bored.
-
"They are similar to shotguns, yes, but are more effective at longer range. The more recent ones can shoot many bullets in quick succession.
"We are a revolutionary society, an intellectual one also. We aim to destroy the various aristocracies on this world, and the bourgeoise under them."
-
(Great. Haraldur's a communist. Heh...)
The cloudy sky over the jagged eastern peaks at the edge of the Dark Continent lit up in red as Draven flew over, landing on one of the taller gray rock formations. His burning red aura disappeared. Immediately two dark wyvern riders appeared from the mist, one on either side, and landed next to their ruler, bowing deeply.
"The villain Ragnar has been dealt a humiliating defeat, yet still remains a threat. Double security at the boarders and keep all fortresses vigilant. Also... there is an impostor in the area... a shape-shifter of some sort with some kind of glowing red pendant. You deliver this message to North Point, and you report to Bandervil."
Both of the dark warriors saluted by making a fist with their right hands and positioning their arms across their chests, responding at the same time:
"Yes, my lord."
They parted ways, one flying northwest and the other southwest. Draven lifted into the sky, a dim red aura forming around him once more, and began to blaze towards the west...
-
Suddenly, all of the Yamvy copies disappeared.
"Wow! I hope you had a lot of fun smashing some holograms? Would you like to smash more?!" asked Yamvy with a snicker. His voice seemed to echo from every direction. Then a waterspout started forming right under Valos...
-
Valos, saw the water blast from under him. He castest an ice spell freezeing the water. He then swung his sword at the ice, with dark magic flowing threw the blade aiding the swing. The ice smashed into millions of peices, makeing a hailly mist all around. He sent a telepathic message to the others. 'Let's go.' He then blasted off towards north, clouded by the mist, so Yamvy wouldn't be able to see. Duilin and Rink flew off to. The three landed near the Dark Continent...
-
Zeros' shrugs and followed Valos and the others.
-
Pearched on high jagged peaks above, dark warriors recognized the officer Valos as he lead Duilin and the others in their direction.
"Who are they?"
"They are part of the alliance against Ragnar. Lord Draven wishes that they be left alone. Unless, of course..."
"Of course..."
They nodded in agreement under their visors, and continued to observe from afar.
----
Ven had lost the red beacon some time ago, but continued following in the direction in which it went. The sky was cloudy here, and it seemed darker... and colder...
After much travel through the sea on his melting raft of ice, he finally could see the gray jagged peaks before him...
"The Dark Continent..."
The remains of the ice raft gently floated to the rocky shore and he jumped off. Before him was an incredibly steep wall of mountains that stretched as far as the eye could see either way, down both sides of the shore. He sighed and adjusted his gauntlet, then began to trudge upards, along a rocky path...
-
"Fools!" laughed Yamvy, as he sat on a chair of mist high in the sky. He'd been watching the battle all along from there.
"They are quite good, I may wish to give chase...later on, but not now of course!" shouted Yamvy evilly, drinking a glass of non-existing wine.
-
Valos stepped threw the main gate, rubbing off a few ice chunks from his clothing. The others followed. "Duilin..." Valos said to him. "I wish to speak with you later. Rest awile, first." He then walked off into the keep.
Duilin shook his wings, and then folded them down. "I wonder what he wants to talk about..."
"I wouldn't trust him. Infact I don't trust this alliance." Rink sighed
"Well, we need to defeat Haraldur, he's cooking up something really sick, I bet..." Duilin replied. He walked around, a few soilders glared at him, wile others turned away. He then spotted a fimilar face. A large black man, was sitting down at a wooden chair sharping his axe on a rotateing weal. The man looked at him and narrowed his eyes. "I remember you..." He said. "I met you and your friends at your old village."
"Darak?" Duilin asked, beliveing he remembers the man.
"Ha ha! So you remember me? I couldn't possible forget you...I see you are also with, that multi winged one...Zeros'..." Darak replied
"Yeah. As you probabbly know, that Haraldur guy, is planning something bad. Bad for all of us..."
"Yes, Haraldur I remember him. He was overly cruel to my soilders, they were just doing there job."
"Well, it's good to see you're still alive...I guess.."
"Hahah! Yes, yes...thank you...I guess." Darak laughed and then turned away and went back to sharpening his axe.
-------
"Well, then I supose that would lead into, oh, world domination then?" Marshal replied. "First you try and fix the world, and now you are trying to rule it. What makes you belive that the people of the world should follow you?"
-
"I merely act as the regular army, for the most part. Given that this is a revolutionary society, the army takes a lead. I did found this organisation, but after the revolution is over, rule would be based on those most competent. Besides, I will be leaving after this is successful.
"In the mean time, they will follow me. It is only logical. Howevr, I intend to have leadership through admiration, not fear, and so far I have been successful in that regard."
-
Suddenly a figure in dark cloaks approached Darak and asked,
"I believe you are Mr. Darak, may I ask you a question?" Before Darak had time to answer, the figure interrupted.
"Do you enjoy illusions?" asked the figure again, more cheerfully as he through his cloak off, revealing...
-
Zeros' looked over towards Darak and looked at the cloaked man. He walked up behind the cloaked man and greeted Darak.
"Hello again, Darak," he said casually. Darak looked at Zeros' strangely, before turned back towards the cloaked man. Zeros' turned towards him, and, "accidently", his right arm went towards him.
-
(I take it Zeros', Duilin, and co. returned to the capital city, correct? Just to clarify, Ven landed somewhere else, more southwards.)
As Ven continued up the rugged path, he was suddenly knocked to his knees by an intense blast of wind from above. A large figure swooped overhead. Ven moved to one knee as the large scaly talons of a black wyvern landed some five feet before him. The thing was some 15 feet long from head to tail. Perched atop was a fully armored man, his head invisible behind his mask. Suddenly, the tip of a long halberd was inches from Ven's face.
"WHO ARE YOU?"
"... A traveler... I'm... I'm just looking for someone."
"THE EMPEROR DOES NOT TAKE KINDLY TO STRANGERS..."
Ven rethought his strategy.
"... I am part of the alliance with Lord Draven against Haraldur..."
"... HARALDUR... YOU MEAN RAGNAR... VERY WELL..."
The wyvern sent another blast of wind towards Ven with its wings as it lifted skyward. Ven stood up and watched the beast and rider as they nearly disappeared in the thick black clouds above, rejoining two other similar wyvern riders in the distance... boarder patrol...
Ven continued on. After a half hour or so of rough climbing, he reached the summit of one of the many gray peaks. Along the path below, which was mostly down hill, he could see the lights of a small village. The only beacon in this dismal land...
-
//I need to come by here more often. x_x
Zion, Xenai, and Tsu are wherever Zeros' is. x_x Aura is nearby, but is hiding.
"Where did she go?" asked Tsu, more to himself.
"An admirer?" asked Zion.
"No, a victim of obsession that hates me."
Aura peeked out. "..." She then quietly left. She had no idea why, but she felt an urge building within her to destroy the man. She didn't hate him that much! But she had to find some way to do it! That Crimson Empire she's been hearing about. Perfect. She'll join it...
-
Ven had traveled briefly though the Crimson Empire before, so he knew it was a dismal place, but this area was more so. It was a vast continent and he had never been to these reaches, anyway. Of course, he had been halfway around the world chasing Mavas, so what's the difference?
He approached the wooden walls of the village, several torches lining them. The ground was mostly barren. Certainly this isn't a farming community. The gates were wide open, and he entered.
A few villagers were walking about tending to their business, but the town wasn't exactly bustling. A few soldiers eyed him from the tops of the walls, and one from a point near the open gate. He approached this soldier, bowing his head politely.
"Excuse me sir, I was wondering if you've seen a man in black armor..."
The black armored soldier looked at a group of other soldiers in black armor. At that same moment, a group of three haggard mercenary type fellows, all also in black armor, passed behind Ven and continued into the town. The soldier looked at Ven as if he were an idiot.
"Uhh... I mean... A man wearing a red pendant. It glows in a sort of pulsating fashion..."
The soldier mearly shook his head "no".
"Uhh... okay. Well, thank you."
Ven continued walking into the center of the village. Obviously Mavas was out of his reach once more... in addition to being in a place where he fit in quite nicely...
-
//Zeros' did you attack Darak or Yamvy? And FYI Yammy, Darak is an NPC that I made in Chapter four, but I decieded to have him come back, just for fun. Anyone can control him, just I'll choose if it's okay if he dies.//
Duilin turned his head, and saw the cloaked man. "What the hell!?" Duilin ran at him. Duilin turned to one soilder "Somebody's here!" He said to him. Saying that reminded him of when he was with the Dark Empire. The entire alliance reminded him of his old military days. He dashed a few yards toward him, and blasted a lightning bolt at Yamvy.
Rink seeing the comotion flue over atop on a near by building, and pearched down and observed what was going on. "Hmm, it appears we have a psycopathic murderer on our tail..." He said softly to himself not loud enough for anyone to hear.
-----
Marshal rubbed his chin. "Hmmm..." Marshal thought. "So, from what I am understanding from this, you plan to bring the world to peace by haveing one big war? I really find no reason for this. The world is fine how it is from my point of view."
-
"From what I understand, the Blue Minotaur is not exactly suffering hardship. The upper classes of the Dark Empire do not suffer hardship either: they are the priveleged few, who exploit and oppress those under them. The proletariat, the peasants, are my followers. Some of them are here, but most are not.
"Also, do not confuse war and revolution: war is the struggle between two groups of the priveleged, a revolution is a struggle of the oppressed against their oppressors. I plan to bring equality and high quality of life to all, and then leave (although they can recall me later, should they wish).
"The world is fine from your point of view, because you have not experienced it from the point of view of those who are poor."
-
//I was going after the Cloaked man.\\
-
"What is the meaning of this?"
The soldier drew his sword. It seemed out of nowhere, a group of some twenty heavily armed soldiers amassed (for the capital city is quite infested with them) and surrounded Duilin, the cloaked man, and the others. A higher ranking lieutenant stepped out before the others, and yelled at Duilin (since he was seen performing the attack).
"We will have no acts of violence in the city by non authorized personnel."
They were interrupted at that moment, by a voice...
It was coming from a large orb positioned at the tip of a pole in the center of a square at the end of the cobblestone street they were on. The orb was suspended high above so that it may be visible to large crowds of passerbyers. It became evident that there were many orbs like this scattered throughout the city.
Visible in the orb was an old man, neatly dressed with a braided white beard. He had a certain priestly nature about him. He spoke, his voice transmitted through the orb:
"Citizens of the Crimson Empire! Our glorious Emperor has defeated the evil Ragnar and his nation of outlaws."
Some cheers and clapping emanated from the bystanders. The transmission continued:
"But, our Emperor bids us caution! For the evil Ragnar remains still at large!"
The image of the old man faded, and a new one appeared-- it was a still image of Haraldur, except he looked a bit more haggard, his eyes were more slanted, and he had a ridiculously exaggerated evil grin on his face.
"This is him! The one who tried to destroy the world five years ago! He is plotting to destroy us now! But fear not, for he is no match for the might of our glorious Emperor! If you see this man, report him immediately!"
The image faded, and the old man reappeared.
"Thank you citizens, and long live our Emperor!"
At that moment, the soldiers, the citizens, it seemed like the entire city faced the large crimson palace in the center, and thrust their right fist into the air, yelling a booming:
"LONG LIVE LORD DRAVEN!!"
----
Ven was startled by the transmission, and watched it curiously. There was only one orb in the remote village, and it seemed like everyone came out to watch the transmission eagerly. When it was over, they also all thrust their right fist into the air, yelling:
"LONG LIVE LORD DRAVEN!!"
... and went about their business.
The soldiers noticed Ven did not partake in this cheer and one of the approached him from behind.
"Why didn't you salute our Emperor? You do know that is a crime..."
Ven turned around, startled.
"Oh, my apologies... I don't live here... I'm a traveler... you see..."
"You should be more careful. I'll let you go, but that sort of behavior would likely get you thrown in jail in one of the cities..."
----
The old man wiped his brow with a cloth and stepped away from the large blue glowing orb...
"There, it is done."
Draven was in the doorway, casually leaning on the door seal with his arms folded.
"Excellent. Impressive speech as always, Vander."
-
Darak cheered "LONG LIVE LORD DRAVEN!!" with the others.
Duilin, quickly retracted his lightning blast. "Fine..." He then stepped toward the cloaked man. "Let us just talk instead of fighting. Who are you and what do you want?!" He asked demandingly.
----
Valos, was writeing something down. He was writeing a battle report about the 'battle' with the Aspyes. He was listing names of casulties and such. After he was done, he sealed it into an envolope and carried it outside of his quaters and handed it to a messenger. He saluted Valos and left. Valos then walked threw a few doorways untill he arived outside.
He heard the speeached and cheared "LONG LIVE LORD DRAVEN!!" with the others. He then pushed a few soilders away, in the large crowd around Duilin. "Stand down!" He ordered. He then looked at Duilin and the others, and crossed his arms, and sighed. He saw Duilin was talking to who appeared to be the person who attacked them earlier, so he waited untill he was done...
-
"LONG LIVE LORD DRAVEN!"
When Zeros' heard that, he almost chuckled. Almost. Especially, from the image he put of Haraldur on the transmission orb. It was a gross exaggeration. Well.. Not of the unjoined Ragnar, but, of the current Haraldur, it was.
He pulled back his arm and stepped next to Duilin and looked at the man. He was that illusionist from earlier, but, if he was an illusion or not, was still to be determined.
If he assessed Draven's soldiers correctly, they would not stop a fight.. If it wasn't too dangerous. A brawl every now or then would get them a slap on the wrist and thrown into jail for a few days, more then likely.
It would be amusing to see how this played out..
-
"Y-yes, my lord!"
The lieutenant and the rest of the soldiers immediately saluted Valos. The majority of them then left, but a few remained with the lieutenant, who was still curious about the situation.
----
Draven walked to the only window in the room, and gazed out into the city, his arms folded behind him. Workers were still cleaning up parts of Haraldur's mess from earlier.
"You are excused."
The old man behind him bowed.
"As, you wish..."
The elderly Vander turned and exited the room, slowly making his way through the torch lit hallways. He felt nervous... He hadn't felt this way since Retan disappeared. But Draven was hiding something as well... he could see it in his eyes. With the exception of the single city of Laus to the south, uniting the continent, the young emperor hadn't made any efforts to conquest more territory. Draven being a very active conquering general in the Dark Empire days, Vander found this behavior... uncharacteristic... But of course, the old man was merely a messenger to the people now, so what would he know...?
-
Valos, seemed to noticed that the illusionist was staying silent. He walked towards them, standing next to Zeros' and Duilin. He looked at the illusionist, and narrowed his eys. "I ought to slice your head of right were you stand. But I'm curious about what you could possibly want being here." He then made an even more visous look "If you do not explain yourself, now I shall report this to Lord Draven, and he dose not take kindly to intruders." He then made a more calm but threatening look "Nore do I..."
----
'God, this guy is such an assface...' Rink thought, as he looked at Valos. 'I accually can't wait untill this alliance is over. I know what he's up to, but if I tell Duilin, I don't think he would belive me and he is starting to trust Valos, and if he knows I know, big trouble is going to happen.
-
//Er... Hello Dude Man?//
-
//Ooops, sorry. It's hard to keep track of all these characters sometimes. Laughing //
Marshal pondered about this for a moment. "I belive I may understand. I have no dought in my mind that the view to those less fourtunate is horrible..." He then looked out the window at all of the people. "I supose, what you are doing will be good in the view of the Blue Minotaur...well at least for me anyways. I'll talk with the Elders..." He then sighed. "I'm just worried they won't take it well..."
-
Too bad Aura was heading where Zion and his trio seemed to be... She'd have to avoid Tsu at all costs... How can she get into the Crimson Empire? How can she become a soldier? She will ascend the ranks, and eventually destroy Tsu with heightened power... But why is she gonna do that?
-
Haraldur said, "Thankyou."
Tesla stood up, and said, "Shall we go?"
"Yes."
"And what shall we do when we arive?"
"We shall raze it to the ground."
"Innocents?"
"There are no innocents."
"True."
They flew towards the Crimson Capital.
-
A messenger reported to Draven while he was looking out of the window. Draven took the letter and skimmed over it with disinterest. It was a casualty report from Valos. He chuckled softly and folded the paper, placing it into a pocket under his cape.
He turned, still in deep thought. In order to deal Haraldur the final blow, he needed to know where he was. That wasn't happening. Draven decided he had done all that he could. The defenses in all the five major fortresses were at full strength. The boarder patrol was reinforced. The citizens alerted. And on top of that, he had the "good guys" on hand. There was no sense in worrying about this one man any further.
Of course, with all of them here, it would be bad if...
Draven turned to the messenger.
"Tell me, are our allies with Valos?"
"Yes, my lord. There were several men with him not from our forces."
Draven brought his hand to his chin.
"Excellent. Report to them they are invited to a banquet in celebration of our victory and that I have important information for them. The banquet will be located in the main dining room here in the Crimson Palace. And if you get the chance, tell Valos not to let them wonder around..."
"As you wish, my Lord..."
The messenger left through the open doorway.
-
//Arrrg, it dosen't look like Yamvy is posting, I'll deal with it, however.//
"Your silent treatment you bring me, dose not help you!" Valos yelled, he then walked off, and signaled two guards. "Lock him up, question him. I'll kill him later." He said quitely to him.
The messenger from before then aproaches Valos. "Sir, you and our allies are invited to a banquet in celebration of our victory and Lord Draven have important information for them. The banquet will be located in the main dining room in the Palace."
Duilin, rubbs his stomach. "I haven't had a good meal in along time." he then nodds. "Count me in."
Rink jumps down to the ground. "Me to, I'll come."
"We will need a booster seat!" Duilin says to the messenger, with a smile. He then turns and looks at Zeros'. "You going to come?"
------
Marshal sighed. "I hope I made the right choice..." He then, walked outside, watching the people heading there way to the Dark Continent. He then, points his staff foward and blasts a blue specter, that forms into a wyvern. He hopps onto it, and flies off, towards Rivertown, back home.
-
Zeros' shrugs and smiles softly.
"Sure, why not?" he said, and starts to follow the messanger as he walks towards the main dining hall.
-
Zion, Xenai, and Tsu had followed Zeros' ki signature, and silently flew in behind him.
"What's going on, anyways?" asked Zion. He was quite confused about what was going on... Draven, Mavas, Aura... All of it.
--- --- ---
Aura stopped before the capital of the Crimson Empire. "Heh heh heh..." Why do I feel so evil? What's happening to me!?
-
Zeros' didn't turn towards Zion, already aware he was being followed by the three.
"Well.. It seems, Draven wishes to rule more then he has. Over the five years I was gone, though, Draven has only conqured this capitial city, and only one other city.. That doesn't seem like the Draven from five years ago, now does it?" he said softly, as to not alert the guards to his speaking.
"But, it also seems Draven knew Ragnar ? one of Haraldur's alter ego's ? before this whole war between the Dark Empire and Romme ? five years ago ? began. But, when Haraldur rejoined with Ragnar, he didn't seem to know Ragnar. It is all quite confusing. I'll just have to watch them," he said the last sentence softly to himself.
-
//Oh yeah, and if Yamvy ever feals like posting again, don't make a huge battle now, it's really not the time Wink \\
As Marshal returned to mainland, near by the area were the whole mess started, he retracted the wyvern and and began going on foot. The temple wasn't very far. He walked threw a very tree crowded forest, he seemed to know were he was going. The trees seemed to form a maze, yet every turn Marshal took it was the correct one. Threw this maze was the Temple of the Blue Minotaur. After a few minutes of walking he arived. Roland was at the enterance of the Temple. The building was a large square based pyramid with cubes at each corner, with doors on each side.
"I take it, the negoations went well?" Roland asked
"They have agreed to let us be, yet they will conquer the Crimpson Empire." Marshal replied.
"Well...I supose that will do..." Roland replied, rubbing his chin.
"Well, they plan to start this 'revolution' to bring the world at peace, to make it equal for everyone." Marshal added
"Well, frankly that sounds abit crazy to me...You'll have to talk to the elder, about that." Roland said
Marshal then walked into the temple...
---------
Valos and the messenger walked slightly ahead of the group. The messenger said softly to him. "Lord Draven also told me, to not let them wander around."
Valos nodded, and then came to the palace gate, two guards opened the doors for him and saluted. Valos then walked though. The guards held the door open for the rest of them. They then headed there way to the main dining room.
-
The five warriors and the imp were greeted by a classic snooty butler type wearing long red robes, standing in front of two golden doors.
"Welcome, gentlemen. Our lord will be with you shortly. In the meantime, you may be seated..."
He gave the doors a soft push, and they opened, creaking loudly, revealing a golden dining room. Through the middle was a long table made of heavy cherry oak, shined to a gloss. The table could seat at least twenty, maybe more. Lined on top were many dishes with silver lids covering them. The chairs were red with golden trim, except for the one at the end of the table, farthest away from the door, which was a large golden throne. The smell of food was in the air.
Further stepping into the room would reveal a large golden chandelier high above, with possibly a hundred candles lit and burning. The walls were some type of dark wood, with gold trimming everywhere.
Servants immediately appeared, moving the six chairs closest to the door away from the table back, three on each side, for the guests to sit in. Another servant arrived with a sort of child's highchair and promptly replaced one of the normal chairs.
Then the lids to the appetizers were removed, and the smell became much more vivid. There were many exotic fruits and meats, and the servants began pouring out glasses of red wine.
----
Two soldiers rushed from their position at the crimson capital's gates to meet Aura.
"HALT! Who goes there?"
"Aw, it's just some girl. What'd ya want?"
-
Zeros' took a seat next to the chair he assumed Draven would sit in. He sniffed the food and took a sip of wine. He declined the servents ushering for him to eat the food and held his wine glass in one hand and waiting for Draven.
-
(Sorry, I've been on vacation and missed A LOT!!!! I'm confused with what happened to Yamvy right now...was he the guy locked up?)
-
Tesla and Haraldur arrived within sight of the Crimson Capital, being a kilometre above the surface.
"I am debating with myself, Nikola, whether we can use Draven's ignorance of the Dark Empire's history to ouir advantage, and how we should do it."
"What? You are going to call him out and accuse him of betraying the Dark Empire?"
"It would be a pleasant irony. And possibly a good diversion, and would allow me to draw his fire."
"You forget that there are no revolutionaries here, and no innocents."
"Ah, yes... this is after all his capital, and purely administrative. Only bureaucrats and bourgeoise here."
"So it would seem that duelling him might be good in itself, if it destroys the city."
"Yes. I might accidently miss him with a huge distortion. I wonder what the tearing apart of thousands of bourgeoise sounds like...
"Let us wait a few minutes. It is, after all, lunchtime, and we cannot begrudge him a final meal."
They waited, floating in the air in silence. They wondered where Zeros' and Duilin might be, and whether they were nearby, or in the Capital, and what hassle that could cause.
-
The trio took seats near Zeros', taking in the smell of food, wondering what was next.
Tsu had a concerned look on his face. She's near, I know it...
--- --- ---
Aura snickered at the two soldiers. "I am here to join the Crimson Empire... As a soldier of sorts..." She removed her scimitars, the evil force inside her feeding her huge amounts of light energy. "And before you call me some bratty girl... I'll show you your powerlessness."
She seemed to appear between the soldiers in an instant. A field of light enerrgy appeared on the ground, with her in the center. The energy field lashed out from underneath the soldiers with incredibly powerful blows. "Shining Bind!!!" And then a huge flurry of blows, less powerful than the first, but still powerful.
//Clip of the move <a href='http://n.ethz.ch/student/wmartin/videos/ToS%20PS2%20(JP)%20Abicion's%20Shining%20Bind.rmvb' target='_blank'>here</a>. Yeah, it's blatantly ripped off of Tales of Symphonia.
-
//Oh, yeah, your character got locked up I guess. It looks like Haraldur is going to attack soon, so you can escape then, because all the guards would be alert, so wait untill then, I guess.//
Valos sat at the seat on the otherside of were Draven would be assumed to sit. Rink sat in the highchair next to Zeros' and Duilin sat next to Valos.
"Well..." Rink said sniffing the food. "This is accually preety nice." He said this abit surprized. He took the glass of wine, he had smaller hands so he had hold it with both hands. He took a sip, quite a big sip for a little guy.
"Of course it is." Valos snapped back. "We are the Crimpson Empire." He then chuckled "You know conquering land can be a very prophetable job." He then lifted his wine glass waiting for Draven.
Duilin took a sip of wine, he saw Zeros' and Valos lifting there glasses but he didn't do the same, he took another sip and put the glass down.
-----
Marshal arived at the Elder's room. It was a large room, lighted by a series of candles in blue glass orbs. An old man, wearing blue robes with a large beard, and the symbol of the Blue Minotaur tattoed on his bald forehead, was sitting on a blanket on a small circluar elevated floor.
Marshal aproached the man and bowed down.
The old man looked at him. "What do you want here my son?"
"I bring you information, on a legendary story." Marshal began.
The elder rolled his eyes, Marshal seemed to try and make a legend almost every month. "Yes, what is it this time?"
"Well, it's about Haraldur..." Marshal said
"Ah yes, I herd about this, you sent that note, so I told Roland to help you out, continue, my son." The elder replied seeming abit interested
"Yes, him a man know as Nikola Tesla, they wish to start a revolution. They say they want to bring the world at peace, by overthrowing the nations who wish to dominate land, well basically just the Crimson Empire. After they defeat them then they want to show the people of the world a new way of life. They have agreed to let us be, and keep our way of life."
The elders eyes narrowed "What if he was lying? He is combined of many parts. Some of very good men, and some of pure evil. You may have put us and the world in danger."
Marshal, then made abit of an upset looked but abit of denial "Well, he had many people. Innocent, people, like the ones from cities, they trusted him, I could sence he was telling the truth."
"Don't let that trick you my son. Yet, you may be correct. If they are going to attack the Crimson Empire then I want you to go there, and WATCH, do not get seen, one side may wish of you to join." The elder told him. "Gather as much information on this Haraldur, the way he fights, the things he does, and what he plans to do next, we need to know if what he told you was true, if he wishes to bring the world to peace or to his domination."
"Yes, elder...I will do so." Marshal bowed once again and then, began his way back to the Crimson Empire, ridding on a wyvern...
-
Suddenly, the golden doors behind the throne at the end of the table opened and Draven emerged, an entourage of servants and two heavily armed guards behind him. The servants scurried to set his place before he arrived, and the two guards waited at the door.
"Ahh, welcome..."
He held out both arms as the said this, his cape flowing behind him (which he had changed to a new clean one, still black but with much more defined gold trim).
A female servant nervously filled his glass as he stepped closer. She knew it absolutely had to be filled before he sat down, and not a drop spilt, or else... She succeeded with inches to spare, and leapt out of the emperor's way as he sat.
Draven took the glass and sipped it, holding the glass like a cocktail and swirling the liquid gently when he was finished. He brought his left hand up and flipped out his fingers, signaling the servants to leave-- and they did so, rather quickly.
"So it seems with Ragnar still out there, we have to work together a while longer."
He sat back casually, the glass still in his hand.
"As I've said, he'll likely try to attack me. The poor fool... But you see, there are many points to attack. All of my fortresses, my most important locations, are quite well equipped to counter him. If he thinks his pathetic island storm trick was a defense, well heh..."
He took another sip from the glass.
"These fortresses are North Point near the northern shores, Bandervil in the center of the continent, Sigmund to the far west, Redvik to the south, and of course, the Crimson Capital right here."
(Redvik would be just north of Laus, where Draven, as Lars, got the airship in Chapter 4)
(The Crimson Capital is sort of north-easternly positioned, next to a small gulf that connects to the sea.)
He continued on.
"Now my point is two fold. Firstly, Ragnar would be unlikely to attack these points, unless his only goal is to attract attention. Secondly, all of our talent in one place is a waste. My suggestion, my formidable warriors, is to split up and occupy a few of the smaller towns, which, although I have provided them with a military presence, would be quite out matched against our mad friend, and losing them, while not truely significant, would be a sizable loss none-the-less.
"How does this sound? It would certainly increase our response time, wherever he may strike..."
He sat the glass down and brought his fingertips together before him.
----
The two soldiers were blasted away by Aura's attack, literally doing flips in the air before landing on the ground in two thuds, motionless...
The gates opened and a red caped man exited, walking calmly towards the woman.
"Forgive their rudeness, madam. If you are interested in enlisting, we always accept talented individuals as yourself. Right this way."
He turned flipping his cape, and lead the way into the gates.
----
(Yammy, let's pick up here. Valos ordered your cloaked character arrested before he left.)
After Valos and the others left towards the palace. Three of the remaining guards approached the cloaked man, two on each side and one behind. The two soldiers on the sides grabbed the man's arms roughly, and the third pressed his sword against the man's back.
"All right. Let's go."
(The three generic soldiers being NPCs, you can control them yourself in your next post, just try and keep them in character. The setting is the Crimson Capital city, a busy street, and the place is crawling with soldiers.)
-
"Sounds like an excellent plan my Lord." Valos responded, takeing another sip of wine, and then took a bite of fruit.
Duilin watched the female servent walk out of the room. He then took a rather larger sip of his wine, leaveing only a small bit left. He took a hunk of meat and began munching on it. He really didn't seem to care about his manners. What were they gonna do?
"Duilin." Rink said trying to get his attiention
"Oh, uh yeah?" Duilin burped and looked back at the imp.
"Slow, down, there is more then enough food for all of us."
"Whatever, I eat my way, you eat your way, pinky!" Duilin laughed and continued munching on his food.
Valos raised a brow at Duilin, he then gave a little smirk. Sin of glutony, and the way he looked at the servent, sin of lust. That should aid his demonic side.
"Well, then." Rink began, saying to Draven. "I do belive that Haraldur is most likely, to attack here. I'm sure he would not bother himself with the other establishments. He probabbly, knows that you are here, so he will attack here first."
"Well, that's the point, Lord Draven will go to another place. Rangar won't know." Valos says to Rink.
"I dought that." Rink said back. "He most sertainly will defenatly find out were he is. Haraldur really wants Draven dead."
"Ahh, who dosen't?!" Duilin laughed. He sat back, and tossed a grape into his mouth.
-
"Time to interrupt them, and call Draven's bluff."
"Yes."
Tesla called the settlement into a small ball, placing it in his pocket, to keep it safe.
The city walls started violently shaking, throwing guards off them. The frequency of the shaking increased into a hum, and a voice became intelligable.
This message comes from Lord Haraldur, Dark Empire High General and Governor, Northern Territories and Lord Ragnar, Former Dark Empire High General, Eastern Division, Former Governor of the Dark Capital, and Current Dark Empire Special General of the Intelligence forces, Secret Police and the Elite Commando Units, the Echos. We call Lord Draven, Current Dark Empire High General, Eastern Division, out and we charge him with High Treason against the Dark Empire and Dark Emporer Retan, Dark Imperial Prince Jayce, High General, Western Armies and Dark Empire High General Neptra, Southern Navy and Marines, as well as the already pending charges of Incompetance from a previous unsuccessful mission involving the retrieval of certain items. This Court Martial will commence once the accused comes before us. The law used will be Dark Empire Military Frontier Law, and the penalty is death. Your rights are meaningless, but we do not have any torturers on hand anyway so it makes little difference.
This sound was very loud, and would certainly be heard within the city, and many miles outside it as well.
The ten Haraldurs, one of them being Ragnar, were arrayed in a semicircle, with Ragnar and the spirit released from underground being at the center. They were all dressed in Dark Empire uniforms of very high rank. From the uniforms alone it was obvious that these people had been very important in the Dark Empire at one time or another. If one looked closely, there were hints of similar uniforms of different colours, of the Empires that had preceded the Dark Empire. This would only appear if the onlooker was aware of the existance of the previous Empire.
To an observer close at hand it was obvious that this strange entity/entities was ancient and had been intimately involved with many of the inner workings of kingdoms and empires in the past.
The one which had been the staff said to the one who was at one time the younger Haraldur, "This is a trip down memory lane, is it not?"
"Yes, it is."
They then floated in stilled silence.
//My characters are not lying by the way, not at this moment anyway. It might also be good to note that in some ways Haraldur acts as a Gestalt entity, but not exactly so. I will leave his motives unclear for the moment.//
-
Zeros' took a sip of wine and idly commented on the booming message, "He has you there, Draven. I wonder if your followers are loyal enough to listen to Haraldur's propagandious message ? which is true ? or stay by your side. It doesn't matter much to me, we'd have to fight eventually."
He took another sip of wine and continued, "And it wouldn't matter anyways. Even if I did somehow manage to die, I'd be reborn a few hundred years later, stronger then I was when I was banished."
Zeros' took one last sip of wine, only draining the wine glass alittle less then half full.
"I think I'll go say hello to our madened friend," he said, pushing himself up on his arms. A servent scuried up and pulled his chair out for him. He nodded his thanks and turned. With a swirl of his trench coat, he ghosted out of the dinning room, but not without leaving Rink on last message:
Watch Duilin closely. He's delving deeper into his demonic side ? more then he should ? being half-human. I'm sure the only way you know he could attain total peace is to balance out his demonic and human blood.
"Oh and, don't bother following me," his voice reverberated through the room, but, there was no sign of Zeros'.
---
Zeros' ghosted into view directly above the capitial and about 50 meters away from the Haraldur's. His trench coat swayed in the breeze, created by his two, black angel wings.
"Ah. Hello Haraldur," he said polietly. He then glanced around at the other nine, stopping at Ragnar," Ah.. Nice to see you to Ragnar." He then turned his attention back to the eldest and most farmiliar Haraldur.
"I see you brought some realitives," he said. He turned to the younger Haraldur, "And who is this? A young Prince or brother? Interesting," he said.
He calmly placed his hands into his trench coat pockets and observed them, once again, with half-lidded eyes.
"Now, why are you here? Other to spread propagandious messages against Draven, which are entirely true. Trying to create a state of disarry? Or is it part of a deeper plan?" he asked, seemingly interesting, and waiting for Haraldur's reply.
-
"So who do we join?" asked Xenai quietly.
"I don't know," said Zion. "It's all so confusing. We've been out of the loop for five years."
"We don't know shit about this Ragnar... We need to learn more. Let's go ahead and join with him for now. We can just bail if he starts to do anything that ain't kosher."
Tsu rose from his chair, pushing it in before the servants had a chance to do anything. "Please excuse me. I have urgent matters to attend to."
"What urgent matters?" asked Zion.
"Please, do not concern yourself with it. Have a good day." He bowed to those present, turned, and promptly left.
"That girl," said Xenai. "I bet you anything."
Tsu exited the castle and headed out to the town. Gotta intercept her and find out what the hell she's doing!
Aura followed the caped man, seeing Tsu emerge from the castle out of the corner of her eye. She glanced briefly at him. She looked to the caped man. "Do you see the man emerging from the castle? I want to avoid him at all costs."
-
"Relatives? How perceptive you are," he lied.
"You are remarkably curious for someone who, just a couple of hours ago, was trying to coax me to give myself up to be cleansed from this world.
"Currently, my business is with Draven only. After this, whatever the outcome, I might speak with you, but now is not the time."
-
//Note, I am under the impression that each chapter is about a day long, in terms of the world of Gaian. Hehe, 'Days That Changed Gaian' would be a relevant title.//
-
"Yes. I am curious. I saw what happened to the weapons after they were all gathered together, but, I never knew what they were like. Humorous? Serious? Idiotic? Intelligent?" he asked. Then, he turned his back and started to observe the sky, and watch the clouds drift by lazily, unaware of the battle that was to take place.. soon.
"Haraldur.. Let me ask you a question: Have you ever heard of a man named Hilter?" he asked, but didn't wait for Haraldur's reply and continued, "Of course you have. You and me are more alike then we think. We both have an almost unlimited supply of ki and magic. We can do things that the others could only dream of. Rip holes in the fabric of reality.. Travel across universes.. Destroy whole planets in the blink of an eye..
//Note: This is Zeros' assuming Haraldur could also travel across demensions, which, he probably could.\\
Now.. About Hitler.. You are very much similiar to him. Hitler wanted to create the perfect society. He preached, passionately, that all people with blond hair and blue eyes were an inferior species and deserved to be killed. He ordered his soldiers to find these people and he proceeded to mercilessly slaughter hundred of thousands..
//Zeros' is also judging this, based on his assumption from what he's seen of Haraldur.\\
While you MIGHT NOT do this, you have some similiarites of Hitler. All blue eye and blond haired people were immedaitely inferior. What is a blond haired, blue eyed person with an IQ of 160 was capture and killed, for no reason at all, other then being classified in that special sect.
You seek to destroy the people who blemish society too much. Take Draven, for example. He's leader of the Crimson Empire. His high ranking officers may exploit the poor below them. But, what of the poor who work in the capital, taking multiple, honest, jobs just to feed their wife and children? What of the servents? The cooks? Would you destroy them, as well as Draven and his generals?" he finally finished, turning to Haraldur with hard eyes.
//What Zeros' is trying to do, is get Haraldur to idmit his plans. He's comparing Haraldur to a major figure head of WWII, Hilter. With Hilter's merciless slaughter of Jewish people in Concentration camps, and anyone else he preceived inferior, Haraldur is also leading onto the same thing.
He said on the previous page he wishes to kill "...various aristocracies on this world, and the bourgeoise under them." That also means civilian's, servents, cooks, construction workers, ec cetera, since they are under Draven's rule.
Basically, he's calling Haraldur a hypocrite, because, he wants to make a utopian society, which, he knows isn't possible.
I hope that clears it up for some. If not, I'll try to explain it more clearly in my next post. I also want to say I mean no disrespect for any people of Jewish orign. I was only citing certain parts from a histroy text.\\
-
"This might interest you: my followers are drawing up a "map" of all the various dimensions (of course, this is and always will be out of date, as they are contantly increasing in number, unless I intervene... One of the main features is that we have a classification system. I assume you are talking of dimension c class 43, the one where Hitler, fortunately, lost.
"Your opinion of me remains apallingly low, I see. If you think that I am going to set up a discriminatory state, then you are quite mistaken.
"I am an anti-fascist, and will remain so. You may have not visited a small country of Spain in that place, but I did, a few years before the war which destroyed Hitler. I joined in the P.O.U.M. militia in the Spanish revolution, to kill the fascists. As a matter of fact, I was in Eric Athur Blair's troop, and he later wrote about hi experiences under the name of George Orwell. I saw him shot through the neck, so I know what revolution is like. So to think that I would advocate any stratified society would be mistaken.
"As for your concerns about "innocents", I will let my Ragnar personification handle this."
Ragnar floated towards Zeros', saying, "As former Governor of this city, and the chief of the secret police, I can trust myself to know what happens here. These people you speak of do not exist in this city. This is purely an administrative capital, with the closest equivalents being the various servants. However, there is great competition, since it is viewed as opportunity to get into the Army straight into the Officer Class by befriending your employers."
The main "spokesman" entity said, "However, as much fun as it is describing our attitudes and plans to you is, it i not what we are here for."
//A bit of a Deus Ex Machina moment, hehe.//
-
Marshal, retracted the wyvern. He saw Haraldur spit into ten parts. "So, it is true...amazing..."
//Marshal is hiding, right now. So yeah, no need to see him!//
-----
"Shiznit!" Duilin gasps. He then finishes his wine, and then stands up and spreads out his wings.
"Rangar is here!" Valos yells. "My lord, Draven. I shall sound the alarm...wait, I think the entire kingdom allready knows...I shall rally up the...Shock Troops..." He bowed, and then unseathed his sword and then off exiting the room.
"Looks, like as if we don't have enough time to plan something at the time Draven." Duilin said to the fire mage. "I think it's time for some quick action."
"I agree." Rink added. "Well, we should get outside, quick before Haraldur burns the entire place down."
"Quite." Duilin nodded. "Let's kick some ass!" He then takes out his mace, and then begins running towards the outside. Rink jumps up and flapps his wings and begins following him.
-
Zeros' nodded at Haraldur's explantion.
"Yes. There are no innocents here, but what about other parts of the island? What will happen to the innocents there? And how many servents have you ever seen or heard of that have extended beyond that? 1 in 1,000?" he asked before he tilted his head to the side and observed them.
"You understand, though, I can't let you kill Draven, correct? I have to kill him myself," he said calmly.
-
(Aha, now facism and Hitler enter the scene... good lord... Heh...)
The vibrations from the message shook the table, and Draven's glass of wine shattered, some of it spilling on his cape.
He held his head in his right hand.
"... What the f#@$/...?"
He stood up. Everyone was leaving... He outstretched his hand as Zeros' disappeared.
"Wait!"
He folded his arms and clenched his teeth. His eyebrow twitched as he scowled... Where does he get it from?
He began to float eerily, rising above the table. One of the elite bodyguards from earlier, the one with the shadowy aura, appeared on the balcony that overlooked the table.
"On my signal."
The warrior nodded and left. Draven continued flying toward the balcony and quickly exited through the doorway.
----
The capital's inhabitants were very much startled by the message and the figures that appeared overhead...
... It was a personal insult...
... not only against their Emperor, but against the former Emperor Retan as well. For someone that Retan had publicly banished to claim authority was an insult in itself. Many boos and hisses came from below (although cautiously from behind windows and other safer places)...
A point of red light slowly rose from the crimson palace.
The orbs fixed to the outer walls of the capital began to glow a deep vermilion, crackling and sparking... A red aura seemed to surround the entire city... the defenses were primed...
Draven rose higher, passing through the protective aura above the capital. His arms were still folded, but his scowl was replaced with a smirk, and he was chuckling audibly...
-
The other cities interest me not, at the moment. As for the chances of success for the servants, that is irrelevant: the intent is there.
As for you having to kill Draven, I could not care less. It matters not who makes the killing blow. You may strike the killing blow, but to do so you will have to attack with some vigour: I am not going to hold myself back because of your whim.
"Ah, I see we have a visitor coming, and in quite high spirits."
________________________________________________________________
They had heard their leader, and they had gathered. In the small room were the head of the CEIA (Crimson Empire Intelligence Agency, formerly DEIA, Dark Empire Intelligence Agency), the head of the Red Stars (the Secret Police, formerly the Dark Stars) and the Flame (formerly Echo) commander.
They had waited for this moment, and they had their orders. They would be greatly facilitated by the Byzantine heirarchy in the Army, and each of them instilled fear in the common soldiery (and general populace), and the Generals as well, as did their troops.
They had their orders, they had had them for some while, since Draven had become Emporer in fact. Lord Ragnar had appeared to them at a meeting, in a very ethereal form. He had given them orders, but not the time of execution. Now was the time.
They wished each other luck and left.
______________________________________________________________
The Echos, lead by their commander, rushed into the Crimson Capital Main Barracks. The soldiers were very surprised, and frightened, when they saw the Flame, as they thought it was, rush in.
They were equally surprised when that same group of the Flame drew hand crossbows into both of their hands and shot each soldier through the neck.
They then started running towards the palace, driving those people still outside indoors.
______________________________________________________________
The Dark Stars went along the battlements of the walls, arresting huge swathes of soldiers, accusig them of treachorous thoughts and activity, and executing on the spot. Soon, the walls were unmanned. They then entered each of the gatehouses, emptying them of soldiers, permanently.
______________________________________________________________
The DEIA agents entered the generating room which controlled and powered all of the city's defenses. They were greeted deferentially by the technical staff, who thought this was a surprise inspection, especially since they had recieved a sudden order to put all the defences on at once, after a strange voice from outside sounded.
From their point of view, it was a typical surprise inspection, except that a few minutes after the inspectors left, the whole building, the generators and the controllers exploded. The defences completely collapsed due to the lack of power.
______________________________________________________________
At once as the red aura collapsed, each of the ten Haraldurs created a warp ball the size of a palace, distorted the light all around, giving a very odd rainbow like effect.
The ten balls were all thrown towards the city, travelling at the speed of light, having no rest mass. Ragnar's subordinates had been betrayed. He had not arranged for a coup to return the Dark Empire to how it used to be, but he had destroyed the city.
The Crimson Capital was now nonexistant, nothing existed there except some small splinters of debris. The warps had sucked and then exploded, leaving nothing alive.//Apart from player character obviously, since they are superhuman.//
The Haraldur that used to be the axe smiled, for he had designed the defences.
The "spokesman" Haraldur turned to Zeros', and said, "No loss. I wonder if our visitor is so high spirited now?"
-
Zeros' looked behind his shoulder and saw the former place of the Crimson Empire. Nothing.
"Ahh.. Interesting attack, there. Hm.. I wonder how you'll like mine.." he said as he drew his sword with a flourish. The sword transformed into it's holy form and Zeros' held it out, point towards the Haraldur's, with one hand.
He air around the air started to distort slightly, almost unnoctiably. He casually slashed towards the Haraldur of the Staff //Since they all have weapons as primary components..\\, sending a bright white blade of ki towards the Haraldur of the Staff.
But, under the ki layered attack, was a suprise. Anything it touched would be sucked into another dimension, especially created for Haraldur. Nothing could get in or out, no matter how hard they tried. Just getting out would cause them to expend all their energy and die, sending their essences to the Underworld.
-
The Haraldur that was the Staff floated still, unflinching, and smiled as the blade touched.
All the Haraldurs saw the same vision. There were spinning lights and warping sounds and a prickly feeling, or getting small electric shocks many times a second.
To the outside observer, it seemed as if the images of each of the Haraldurs were warping and shimmering. In the area all around, objects started to float gently upwards, and to fall apart and disintegrate as the electromagnetic forces between them broke down, and the weak and the strong ones, leaving just a sea of quarks, gluons and leptons floating around. This was for a split second.
Zeros' was blasted away from this particular Haraldur with a force equivalent to being hit by the Titanic going at 100 m/s. The Haraldurs were each knocked in the opposite direction by 1/10th the force.
The Haraldurs looked seething with fury. Someone wanted to interfere with the fabric of the universe while not having any understanding of what they were doing, did they? How typical of Zeros'.
"You Fascist!"
They each drew swords out of thin air, to the accompaniment of a flock of birds falling out of the sky as a strange form of lightning discharged from each Haraldur going into the sky instead of from it, from the excess energy and anger.
Each sword was blood red in colour, and its colours seemed to swirl around, as the blood which made them up swirled around inside the magical field holding the swords together. The swords glowed.
They surrounded him, pointing their swords inwards, and a red cloud surrounded Zeros'. This formed into a gridded sphere, which began to constrict. It too was formed from swirling blood. Zeros' was being squeezed from all sides by pure life force, not the "life force" used by the many healers of this world, but the seething, primal, blood red of living rage. The rage of the first human murdering another human with a bone, the rage of all the violence of the past ages.
Tesla looked up from his pre-occupation with making sure the settlement had nice weather in their confinement, and brought his ray gun to his shoulder. He started to shoot through the bars of the life force cage.
-
//Wait a minute. Is it okay to force the destruction of an entire city, one that ALL OF MY CHARACTERS ARE STILL IN?! >_<
Where I RP, that is far from okay.//
-
//Player chracters are superhuman, which is obvious by the battles we have, and so are probably unscathed.//
-
Inside the sphere grid, Zeros' was standing there calmly. The pressure didn't affect him at all. He was much older then Haraldur knew. The rage didn't even bother him. He had seen and fought demons with much worse. The rage of a human murdering another with a bone. No matter how much Haraldur wanted to believe himself all powerful, he was only part god. 1/10 of a god, and 9/10 a human. //I'm basing this on the weapons and the Haraldurs. Ragnar, plus the two alive Haraldurs and seven weapons.\\
As for Tesla's ray blasts, they barely tickled him, as he had erected a ki shield, made from his demon ki, around him, protecting him from Tesla's ray gun.
Zeros' held his right hand up, and formed a swirling ball of white and black ki. The ki he had contained in the ball caused the swirling orb grid to squeeze down tightly for a moment, before the sphere shattered like glass, the blood dripping from the sky and into the water below.
He closed his hand and the ki ball disappeared. He drew his sword and it transformed into it's demonic form. It grew twice it's previous size, making the sword around 13 feet long. The width of the blade increased, making it now 2 feet thick. The blade was predominantly black, but with colors of rotting flesh at random intervals. Jagged spikes also extended from random points, some as small as an inch, while others were as big as a foot or two.
"That was pathetic, Haraldur. By spliting yourself into ten, you divided your power ten ways. I'm disappointed in you," he said, shaking his head in disappointment. "And if you try to recombine, I'll kill you before you can. You can't erect a barrier while rejoining yourself or use any of your powers, making you as defenseless as a human babe. I could kill any of you with minimal effort," he said.
He shifted into a low stance, holding his sword with both hands and crouching at his feet, holding the blade at shoulder level with the point towards the main Haraldur. The one he was before he joined with the weapons and Ragnar. He ghosted out of view, not even leaving an afterimage. All that was heard was a swirl as his trench coat disappeared and faint trail of bright white.
Zeros' reappeared silently behind Haraldur of the Sword, his original target. His blade was glowing a faint white with trails of the white aura leaking off it. He slashed faster then the sound barrier, but no sonic boom was heard. Zero's had erected a sound barrier around his sword, elimating any sound the sword would make.
-
"HOLY SHIT!!" Valos screamed, as the island exploded. He jumped up into the air and started to a large height into the air.
Duilin and Rink, were also extremely shocked by the blast, both of them flue up into the air.
"Haraldur! I can't belive you! You sick bastard!" Duilin yelled
"You will burn for this!" Valos screamed "May your death be slow, painfull and imberrassing, you ingratefull shit!"
-----
Marshal, quickly summond his wyvern again. "Anyone with that great of power has to be a threat..." He then droped his head. "Oh my god....what have I done." he sighed. "No, no, no...This would have happened either way...I alone could not have stopped it." Marshal was very good at self help. "But, I fear for my life staying here. I have witnessed enough allready. I must leave!" Marshal then flue his wyvern off back to mainland, once more...
-----
"Zeros'" Valos said. "I know you can take care of him yourself, but I wish to help you. I am sure Draven would wish the same."
Rink crossed his arms. "Now, now, now Haraldur, that wasn't very nice, now was it? Do you wish to achive world peace by wipeing out humanity?"
Duilin, looked at Valos, and he looked back. Both of them pointed there arms out, Duilin at the other Haraldur (is he the younger one?) and Valos at Rangar. Both of them blasted a dark lightning attack.
//Oh yeah, and I think you are going a little to fast. Well, I did miss a day, but still. I'm only able to post once a day, so yeah.\\
-
//Even still, you're forcing the destruction of an entire city that belongs to someone, namely Xorlak.
-
(Haraldur, please tone it down. Remember the rule that states that if you think another player would want to respond to an action, that it would be best to let them respond? You pulled off a good four-part chain reaction in that one post, which is way too much.
With a similar post, I could also use my secret organization that I never told you about cleverly positioned with the city hidden in your character's pocket to tear it apart as well. See what I mean? That's just not fun.
If my comeback to your coup seems unfair, It's only because I don't think your post was fair. Heh...)
----
There was nothing left of the grand city but a smoking crater...
The fight ensued high above, a great torrent of wind fiercely swirling around the two, coupled with bright flashes of light.
Draven watched the whole thing, not lifting a finger. He had calmly watched the traitors sabotage the plant below, the explosion, the defenses disappear, and the bright blinding flash before the Haraldurs' attack hit.
It was all gone... all of it. What kind of a sadistic Emperor would watch his capital destroyed with a smirk? And chuckle during the explosion? The Haraldurs and Zeros' where at it neck-and-neck. The great forces from their attack blasted at him from all directions, though he did not move an inch.
Still with his grin, his eyes left the battle before him. He looked up slowly as if following something, continuing to raise his eyes until he was looking almost directly above...
*Cue that one music from FF3/6. You know, THAT one.*
The sky darkened, becoming blacker and blacker... A MASSIVE object was materializing overhead... A gigantic floating rock appeared high over the heads of the warriors locked in combat... It was a floating island. And atop of this island was the Crimson Capital, completely intact and unscaved... It was all there-- the city, walls, the palace... Floating nearly a mile high in the sky, the massive island blacked out nearly all light below...
----
The old man Lord Vander collapsed in front of the glowing orb.
"*cough* ... That was, perhaps, too close..."
A younger robed man helped him to his knees.
"That was how our Emperor ordered it... What about the other half?"
"Yes..."
Vander limped to the orb and extended both arms. He transmitted his message:
"The CEIA, Red Stars, and the Flame are dismissed by order of the Emperor. All members are to be executed immediately for the act of high treason in the name of Emperor Lord Draven. The only authority is the military of the Crimson Empire."
----
The red caped gate officer was worried at the appearance of the CEIA agents, but regained his courage after hearing the announcement. He shouted to Aura:
"Let's see what you can do. Help us take out these traitors, and you might make an officer right off the bat."
----
Hearing the announcement, the captive soldiers immediately revolted against the traitors. Although their weapons were removed, they far outnumbered the former secret police. The Crimson generals and other more powerful officers brutally attacked the leaders of the traitorous organizations. Chaos ensued. Explosions burst throughout the city, for the Flame and Red Stars had several talented warriors themselves, but they were soon subdued by the overwhelming military presence. In but a few minutes the newly floating city was quiet, returned to Draven's absolute control...
-
Aura flipped her hair, glancing to the red-caped dude with sapphire blue eyes. Gawd, she was radiant! "Direct me to the target, and I will destroy it, or them." She looked to a few of the CEIA agents, which //I assume// were just wandering around the city. She readied her scimitars... "I presume it to be these guys?"
"What the f!ck just happened?!" Xenai was obviously enraged. Zion was concerned about his temporary ally. "Draven, are you okay?"
Tsu looked around, trying to find the girl of his dreams, find out what she's doing, and sort out the confusion that was just spawned all at the same time.
-
Ven was fast asleep in the quaint little inn he had found. Even this building and its interior were dismal. No wonder this land was once called the Dark Empire.
He usually didn't fall asleep so quickly and he was weary of the innkeeper (because the innkeeper seemed weary of him, the 'outsider'), but he was absolutely exhausted. The nap was rather short, however, as he awoke at the sound of someone yelling outside.
Ven sprung out of bed, still in full body armor and cloak (it being quite improper and unnecessary for an RPG type to change clothes for the simple task of sleeping), and walked to the window. Two soldiers were dragging a rather important looking man, who was rather upset, away from the building next to the inn.
"Fools! Do you know WHO I am! Unhand me!"
"By order of the Emperor, all non-military government offices have been terminated. One of our Captains will act as mayor of this town until further notice."
"What?! W-Why?"
"For the security of the empire."
----
The warm blood trickled down the jagged blade and onto Mavas' black gauntlet...
The lieutenant choked, gaping for air... trying to yell, scream, anything... but his throat was slashed... all was going dark... His grip on the sword through his belly loosened...
Mavas flicked his sword down and the bleeding corpse slid off of the blade, crashing into the ground. The alley was dark and only dimly lit from the crimson pendant around the shadow's neck... He spoke to the dead man.
"Very much is happening on this side of the world..."
He turned. The northern sky was a strange color of red. Something was happening...
"It is best not to interfere before you know the details... Yes, observation is best for now..."
A black aura engulfed the man and his form began to change... His face became that of the dead man's, as did his armor. His jagged sword did not, and he replaced this in his scabbard. He brought his right hand before him, aiming at the corpse. Immediately the body ignighted in flame, burning so that it was unrecognizable...
Mavas, under the guise of the Crimson Empire Lieutenant, turned and calmly exited the alley.
-
(Zion and Xenai are still in the city, right?)
Draven did a Zeros' style phase out and appeared directly in front of Zion and Xenai. His arms were still folded.
"I'm quite all right, as is the city. What you just witnessed was Phase 2 and 3 of my capital's... new features... My men short range teleported the entire city out of harm's way. Furthermore, we are located on a floating island high above where the city once was... Think of it as a giant mobile command center..."
He brought his right hand up and moved his index finger from side to side.
"You're missing much living on the outside, Xenai. Heh heh heh..."
He turned and looked at the wall that encased the city.
"As for what just happened, some agencies that remained loyal to Ragnar just tried to knock out the city's defenses. Luckily, I denied the CIEA access to information regarding how my new capital operates, leaving it's control in my closest men. The CIEA always seemed unsympathetic to my rule, and I found my assumptions about their intentions correct. They are being dealt with as we speak.
"Zeros' is dealing with Ragnar and the clones... or whatever... below us. I'll let him have his fun..."
----
"Yes, that's them! ATTACK!!"
Some 25 soldiers joined the red caped officer as they bum rushed a single CEIA agent, denoted by his red scarf. By now they had recovered their weapons and took off in pursuit of a second man, who was running for his life.
----
Half way around the world...
A single ship was slowly trudging through the murky waters... It was heavily weighted down, the flags of the Crimson Empire flying high on its masts. They were far from their territory, so far that local pirates did not fear their flag and attacked on two occasions, although the ship was well equipped and fended off the assault both times.
The cargo was so large that it would not fit in the ship's hull... it was clumsily strapped to the deck of the ship. It was a gigantic semi-translucent black stone, some 100 feet in diameter, cut into the shape one would see a diamond in a ring...
-
//Zeros', I said once that Haraldur was born before he split. Besides, what is there to suggest he was created anew that time?//
To Zeros', Haraldur which had been the spirit said, "Is that so? We shall have to learn about that through trial and error."
The younger Haraldur said to Rink, "Humanity? Did it even slightly look like an attack on humanity? No. It was an attack on an oppressive and corrupt city. Somehow that defines me as a destroyer of humanity, does it?"
11 4 dimensional warps appeared next to each Haraldur and to Tesla, and they were caught in them. The two dark lightning attacks were warped around and bent, and left the warps in random directions, leaving those inside unscathed.
The warp around the Haraldur who was once the mace, who was furthest away from the other characters, increased in size at huge speed, spreading out to have ten "tentacles". These touched the other ten warps, and they were all drawn into the warp of the mace, leaving to warps occupied with a figure of a man in each. In one was Tesla, in the other was the combined Haraldur.
"Zeros', you were saying? Obviously you have not yet figured me out completely. I bid you fare well."
He turned to Tesla, saying, very loudly so that it could be heard by all present, even Draven, "Atrocity be damned! I swear by the universe that I will wipe the Crimson Empire off the face of Gaian. Come Nikola, let us visit Laus. They, at least, might be pleased to see us."
They moved south, at the speed of an albatross, their warps surrounding them.
"Put the settlement in stasis, Nikola, it will be some time before they can be let out."
"Yes."
-
Zeros' simply chuckled as Haraldur retreated. It was all the evidence he needed. Haraldur said he had not figured him out. That, was apparently, untrue. If he was so powerful, why did he not simply destroy him, and the rest?
Even true that the Crimson Empire was a corrupt and opressive society, which wasn't, now? Haraldur had seen different dimensions, ones where magic died and technology advanced. This dimension could of done the same, but it seemed the God's let the dimension retain it's magic, causing humans to be dependent on it, such as people were dependant on technology in other dimensions.
In these dimensions, he had observed how some conutry's had developed past the primative, opressive society of this age, and had become obsessed. If Haraldur truly tried to wipe out every town and city like the Crimson Empire, then, at least, 3/4 of Gaian's population would of been destroyed with no mercy.
Haraldur wasn't the prophet he belived himself to be. He was a delusional man with dreams of grandeur.
"Not an attack on humanity... What happened to your sense, Haraldur? Even if the Crimson Empire is opressive and corrupt, which major cities aren't? You don't even understand yourself, Haraldur," he said towards no one in particular.
He sheathed his sword and put his hands into his pockets and smiled up wistfully to the sky, painted red.
"So, Haraldur... When will you finally see fighting is futile...? You've seen many different dimensions where you've won this war, but, you've also seen ones where you lost. Now... How will this one, end?" he asked towards the sky.
-
Valos began laughing oncontrolably, as he saw them retreating. He then, looked up and saw that the palace was fine, and he began to laugh even more.
"What cowardly fools!" Valos laughed. "You think one with a power like that wouldn't run from a fight, eh?"
Duilin, crossed his arms and sighed "That reflecter beam attack was so predicatble. He relies to much on magic."
"Yes...that can possible become a weakness perhaps?" Valos thought
"Maybe..." Duilin, rubbed his chin, he hadn't shaved in abit. "Hmm..." He then looked at Zeros'. "I think this has convinced me, that Haraldur is indeed 100% mad."
"Duilin, shall you aid me in the slaugter of some traitors?" Valos asked
"Sure, I guess. I wanna try out some new attacks anyway." Duilin grined. The both of them swooped over to the city.
The second CEIA agent, who was running from the 25 soilders, was in there view. Valos, casted a Slow spell on it, makeing him move at the speed of a turtle.
Another one, who spotted Valos and Duilin began running. Duilin, then blasted a yellow laser, that railed threw the CEIA agent, makeing a gapping hole from his back to his chest, the agent fell to the ground dead.
Rink, sighed as he saw the two chaseing the agents down. He then looked at Zeros'. "I saw Marshal, eh." He then paused for a second. "If he talked with Haraldur then that means he must have seen what he had inside, a more detailed look. He might have some very usefull information. I saw him heading back to Rivertown, should I follow and bring him back?" He asked.
-
//They never left the castle. Heh...
"Apparently, I am missing a lot," said Xenai. "This is some really impressive stuff."
"Indeed, it is."
"So what are we gonna do? Go outside and fight the CEIA, or go down and fight Ragnar?"
"Jebus, who is Ragnar, anyways?" Zion scratched the back of his head.
--- --- ---
"Yes, sir." Aura looked to a fairly large group of CEIA soldiers. Her eyes shimmered, right before she charged forth. She whipped out her scimitars, slashing through about six of them, spinning around to face the group, who immediately rushed her all at once. Light energy was rushing through her, it felt good, yet so bad... She leaped back, sheathing a scimitar and pointing out the hand that held it. "Feel this! Divine Judgment!"
<a href='http://n.ethz.ch/student/wmartin/videos/ToS%20PS2%20(JP)%20Abicion's%20Divine%20Judgment.rmvb' target='_blank'>http://n.ethz.ch/student/wmartin/videos/To...20Judgment.rmvb</a>
Needless to say, none of that group remained.
-
"Laus is a potential ally, Nikola."
"Yes, I have heard that, while keeping a low profile, resistance exists there to this day."
"Have we still got the feeder dimension in close proximity?"
"Yes. If we arrive there soon, we could totally remake Laus in a few seconds."
The warps accelerated to the speed of light, and they were there.
A sign shone red in the sky: REVOLT!.
____________________________________________________________
Down in the city, the citizens of the city saw Haraldur's sign, and knew that now would be a good time, since they would all do so simoultaneously. Revolt! The word had such command, and such potential freedom. Revolt! Remove the Crimson Army!
Skuffles broke out, and within minutes the Army was cornered in the main barracks.
The people stood back as they saw two strange figures float down onto the top of the barracks, and set them alight, the crackling of the flames accompanied by the screams of burning and choking soldiers.
As the growing croud watched the two men stretched a warp like a pizza, and floated in the air as they made it as big as the city, and then dropped it.
The effect was immediate. All the streets and shacks were gone, replaced by paved paths, magically powered wagons on tracks, and housing all similar in appearance to the housing around it. No size differences, complete equality. In addition, the city walls that had been dismantled by the victorious Crimson Army were back, and ten times over, being much larger than their previous incarnation.
Haraldur stood on the walls above the newly rebuilt main gate, and addressed the crowd in the main square:
"People of Laus! Today is an opportunity greater than any of your lifetimes! You have the opportunity to free yourself from the Crimson Empire, once and for all, and the opportunity to have a truly egalitarian society! Are you with me!?"
The crowd, still awed by the sudden transformation of the city, gave a loud cheer, and then stood around not knowing what to do.
Tesla shouted, "Man the walls, have a man in every lookout post! You have your freedom, but you must also defend it! Let the ravenous beast of the Crimson Empire, which has taxed you and commited atrocities against you, finally feel the force of proletarian wrath! Let them finally realise that the people will not tolerate heirarchy and exploitation any longer! Let them all die!"
And then the greatly embittered towards the Crimson Empire population of Laus gave an even louder cheer than before, and did as Tesla had said, and made other preparations for struggle to come. They found that the city had plenty of escape tunnels, all of which led underwater, an would need to be swum out of.
Haraldur left a sign to last above the wall, reading: Zeros', why must magic and technology be seperate?
To Tesla he said, "Arrange so that all merchants coming in and out are quickly indoctrinated, so they can spread discontent and revolution throughout this continent. Do the same with all other travellers as well, in fact.
"Remain here and protect this place, and the jewel of freedom you carry in your pocket as well. I must go, my friend, you who have stood by me so."
"I will. Good luck."
"Thankyou."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Haraldur left southwards, accross the raging waters further south, of the waters they call the Rumbling ocean, as it is always rumbling from the sound of waves and constant thunderstorms. This had only been like this since five years ago, since the rearrangement. This was one of the consequences of Zeros' actions, this which has been a fertile fishing ground, was now a place not even pirates would dare to tread, or survive.
Still he flew south, towards the southern pole of Gaian, to meet an old friend...
-
(Heh, okay Haraldur, you can have Laus. But again you did like three major things in one post. I would expect capturing a town to take at least half a dozen... slow it down!)
A soldier ran up to Draven holding a small orb in his hand.
"My Lord!"
He bowed his head deeply and offered the orb to his Emperor.
Draven took the orb via levitation, and it landed in his outstretched hand. Inside the orb was the image of a Crimson officer, yelling in a panic. It was a recording from earlier. The officer said:
"Laus requests backup! *static* --magic spell!! *static* ... citizens-- *static* revolting!!"
The message ended with a fiery explosion overtaking the man.
Draven pondered the message, bringing his hand to his chin.
"So, he's stuck down south as well..."
He looked up at the soldier.
"Tell Vander to transmit to Redvik. Tell them to cut off Laus at the mouth of the peninsula. Do not attack yet, just fortify the boarder. No one enters... or leaves..."
-
"Hahaha, Duilin. Excellent. That was a stunning technique!" Valos laughed, as he slowly lowered down.
"Um, yeah. Thanks..." Duilin replied. The two of them lowered down to the ground.
"Yes, yes, yes...now, Duilin. I wanted to talk to you." Valos began. "You see, this alliance has been very good for me. I have finally found the last Talonscar."
"Yes, and?"
"Well, I need to tell you something about Nex and your father..." Valos' voice went to a more serious tone. "The two of them, were partners as you know. Your father wished to become the leader of hell, yet his power was limited by a foe, a high imp."
Duilin narrowed his eyes, he hated to hear things about his father, but he knew the gist of his story, his father became full demon because he wanted to become leader of hell, but he died and he wants Duilin to take his place. "I've herd it all before...Just shut up, Valos..."
"Well, I just wish to ask...Why do you refuse your destiny? Why not come with me, I shall take you to the Temple Of Qor, and you Duilin can make his world be yours!"
"Listen, if hell wants a new leader they can pick somebody else! I don't want to! Just shut up!" Duilin yelled
Valos, turned around. 'He still is still refuseing, what do I do.'
'Wait, longer! His power is still weak, untill he knows it all it cannot be done correct. Our lord must gain the throne.'
-
Zion and Xenai watched the message with Draven. "Ugh... This is a headache!" said Zion.
Aura watched the city she was defending transform. She then looked to the men preaching. She watched them fly off, and then looked to the group of CEIA soldiers approaching her. "What a nuisance."
She started to charge up light energy.
For Hyperion. (Used way back when on Draken Neptra.)
-
Zeros' heard Valos and Duilin, very brief conversation. Even if he was over 50 meters away, his blood gave him excellent hearing.
He ghosted from his position and silently reappeared behind Valos.
"Why do you push him, Valos?" he asked.
-
//Er... Trent, where exactly are your characters? Are they in Laus, where there are no CEIA etc. to speak of, or are you near the Crimson Capital, which is on the other side of the continent?//
-
As he carried on south, an increasing number of icebergs became visible. He reached the north pole soon afterwards.
He landed, and split in ten, all of them surrounding the circle of the south pole. A blizzard was blowing around them.
No to wait for the Southern Lights.
-
After a long time of sailing Jonny sees something.
"Land! I see land!" jonny runs to his telescope.
"The Crimson Empire base...We found it!" Bongo runs onto Jonnys shoulder and looks at the land on the horizon.
"But...What!?!...No...Its gone...They blew it up!" Jonny exlaims.
Bongo gives albatrash a slap on the side of his head to get his attention and points up at the floating castle.
"Holy crap! Its flying...Why didn't I see that?" Jonny stands in awe at castle."How are we gonna' get on?"
-
Valos, posture suddenly became more straight, as he herd Zeros'. He turned, and faced him and make his famous smirk. "Well, his rage gives him power. Without his power he surely would not have made it this far, nore would his friends." He said calmy. "He has quite a gift. I am aware you are part demon, yet you have other parts of you. I'm sure you understand the life of one, but not to it's full extent. He however his part humen. Humen blood is much weaker then demonic, therefore, his is mostly demon. If he dose reach the state of full demon, he would still be the same person, just far more powerfull." He paused for awile. "Just because something is ment to be evil it dosen't mean it has to be. Look at Rink." He smiled once more, and prepared to turn away...
Duilin, herd Valos talking to Zeros', but he didn't feal like paying attiention. He then spotted a small boat. "Well, well. Look who's back." Duilin, then spread out his wings, and then swooped over to the boat, with Jonny and Bongo inside. "Hello, there. Need a lift?"
//I'm going to control Dippy's character for abit, he dosen't mind, it just saves time this way. He dosen't have as much time for this game as I do, because he gets more homework, has less time at home, and plays a double bass\\
"Normally I don't really trust mutant witch people, but I supose I could use some help." Jonny replied.
"Hahaha! Sure thing." Duilin grabbed onto Jonny and Bongo, and flue up to the Palace in the sky. "There you go. Now go easy on the pillageing, you two." He then walked off, and watched the sky...
----
Rink flue off and caught up with Marshal. "Hey buddy!" Rink yelled getting his attiention
"Oh...hello, Rink..." He said quietly
"I herd you got into the Aspyes demention, did you get any information?" Rink asked
"Oh. Yeah, they are planning on starting a revolution, to bring the world to peace. They have a large army, with bullet fireing weapons..."
"Really. Interesting, I should tell Draven about that...Or should I..." Rink thought
'If, I tell Draven that Haraldur has an army, then he will know that Zeros' didn't kill the people inside. Oh, I could just say that he recuited more people, and built an army. God, am I ever smart." Rink giggled abit.
"Well, Rink. I don't want to get involved anymore. I'll um, see you later I guess. Good luck to you friend." Marshal said solomly.
"Oh, okay then. Goodbye." Rink sounded a little disapointed, why do all his new friends have to leave or be illisoins made by Zeros'.
"Goodbye..." Marshal said, he then flue his wyvern off dissappearing into the distance.
Rink sighed and flue back to the Crimpson Empire.
//Marshal is NOT inactive at the moment. There is still more for him, just try not to interfer here, I need to work on a little plan.\\
-
(Yay! Haraldur's sane today. Heh...)
(Yes, the transforming buildings, revolting, etc. happened way down south in Laus.)
(... Which reminds me, as mentioned in chapter 4, Laus is a port town based largely on free trade and market. Lots of merchants there. (Just less pirates now.) I don't think the citizens will like Haraldur's "egalitarian society" for very long... Heh...)
----
Draven pocketed the small orb and returned to the innards of the crimson palace.
Servants were busy cleaning. The building was intact, but several statues and ornaments fell during the commotion and were being set back up or replaced with new ones. Draven passed a messenger in the hall, who bowed deeply.
"Tell my guests that we may resume our meal when they are ready."
The messenger saluted and hurried down the hall before finding subordinate messengers and relaying the message to them. They split up in search of the allied warriors...
-
//Aura's in the Crimson Capital. Is that where the CEIA is?
-
Zeros' looked at Valos sharply.
"Valos, you do not understand. Duilin will be much more powerful, true, but, if he fully dips into his demon side, he will go into a blood rage, a state where his demonic blood takes over his body fully, for the first time. He'll be an uncontrolable killing machine, killing anyone that dares cross his path. The only reason I don't do this everytime is, I've been around longer then both Romme and the Dark Empire, combined. //Heh. A small hint on his age.\\
The first time I went into a blood rage, was when I was a small child. That's how I met my master. He was forced to almost kill me. I had destroyed my own village. . . Not bandits, like I told the others. I was too ashamed at that part of my life.
So you see, since I've had such a long time to control my demonic blood, I don't go into blood rages," he finished. He turned his back to Valos and spoke once more, without turning around, "I hope you understand before you keep pushing him to fully embrace his demonic side. . . You yourself aren't even half demon. . . Has it ever occured to you that Duilin's father WANTS his son to become an uncontrolable killing machine?
If he does ever dip into a blood rage, I will be forced to take him down. . . I just hope it's not as extreme as the one I went through. . ." he whispered the last part before ghosting out of view.
---
Zeros' reappeared //Actually, he was moving faster then any of the servents could see, therefore, rendering him invisible to them.\\, right after the messanger left to go find the allied warriors.
He had his hands stuck in his pockets and walked up to Draven casually.
"Hello, Draven. What's the status on our fine, crazied, friend?"
-
(Yes, the CEIA is in the capital. Though they're probably about dead by now. Heh...)
Draven continued walking down the hallway, as if Zeros' were behind him the whole time.
"It seems he has taken Laus to the south. I hadn't much of a military presence there. It is too late to send aid. It is as I said, the smaller establishments are in more danger..."
He sighed.
"Ah, I remember my general days. I would receive an objective and pursue that goal to the very end. Focusing my men and resources on that very one thing. When it was achieved, I would move on to the next. So much simpler...
"But now, as Emperor, my talents are split. I can no longer worry about a single man or a single sword... There are hundreds of things to address. When I took over, I never reestablished Retan's High Generals. I remained solely in charge of the military, my sub generals have to consult me in every major decision. It is very tedious, you see, but there are no men I believe competent enough to promote..."
He turned and looked Zeros' in the eye. He was very serious and sincere.
"I need a competent man to put in charge of removing the Ragnar problem. I need a High General of the South."
-
"Oh, Zeros'..." Valos said, knowing he could not hear him. "You may a wise man, but you still have much to learn about the world." He walked back into the palace. In the main hall. He watched the servents work. He was in Draven and Zeros' view but he didn't wish to bug them. Duilin entered the room aswell.
Valos looked at Duilin, and he looked back.
"Don't even." Duilin said, to Valos. The messenger from before went up to Duilin.
"You may return to the dining hall." He said
Duilin nodded, and went there, and took his seat, same place as before.
-----
Rink swooped back down to the palace after a few good minutes of speed flying. He ran up to Zeros' and Draven. "Draven! I've got some news about Haraldur." Rink said to the Emperor.
-----
Marshal had returned to the Blue Minotaur Temple. He headed his way back to the Elders chambers. He bowed down, as soon as he entered.
"You...have returned?." The Elder said
"Yes, I have. And I bring shocking news. Haraldur, his power is extreme. He may be to dangorus to trust."
"Yes, I am aware." The Elder sounded abit mad. "And, if Haraldur knows about us, and if he plans to dominate the world, then that puts us in danger!"
"That fault is all mine, Elder. I am sorry."
"That dosen't fix it. You were just supost to protect the area around the temple, and then you get involved into a war! The Crimpson Empire may even attack us now, because of this! You have put all of us in danger. We may have to leave this place, and you....you will take a different path." His voice toned down abit. "Because of your foolishness, you must leave the Blue Minotaur."
"But I was just doing what we were all supost to do! Seek legends!" Marshal said, devestated
"You were pokeing your nose into other people's affairs! You are no longer aloud to wear that uniform." The elder demanded
Marshal, removed his helmet, and took of his armor, and his baggy shirt. The only clothing that remained, was a musle shirt and his blue pants. He then, turned around and headed back to the outside world.
What am I to do now...I have no place to go. My entire life was in that temple and because of my stupid curiosity I have lost everything. Perhaps, I should just give up. No, that's a foolish thing to do. What if Haraldur's plan will do better for the world? Perhaps...Draven is indeed an evil man, and he is sided with demons? What was I thinking? Perhaps, I should find the Aspyes...They can help me."
-
Zion and Xenai silently commenced to follow Draven and Zeros'.
--- --- ---
The last of the CEIA agents came close, ready to avenge their fallen comrades, not ready to get owned trying.
"By light, you shall fall! Hyperion!"
She leapt high into the air, forcing the energy she charged into her scimitars. A swing of the left scimitar, and down comes a flurry of ki blasts. A swing of the right, three larger ones fall. Both are then swung, sending down one huge blast. She then dives down with her blades extended, toward the group, toward the explosion of light occuring. She skidded out of the back. None of them remained.
--- --- ---
Zion could feel the attack being executed. Who was that?
-
//Duilin, I suggest that Marshall might seek out Tesla, since he is carrying the settlement in suspended animation, and shrunk, in his pocket. That means going to Laus.//
The Southern Lights glimmered in the sky as a man appeared in the circle as an image. It was the Prophet.
"Greetings, Haraldur."
"Greetings."
They waited.
-
Zeros' looked at Rink for a moment, before turning to anwser Draven.
"A High General of the South? Me?" he asked quizically. "Ah. . . I'm flattered Draven, but, I'm more of a lone wolf. I'm not really suited for ordering men around. Perhaps, Valos or another one of your generals ? the more intelligent ones ? would be more suited to the job. Don't get me wrong, I'll still help in the destruction of Haraldur," he said. He really was flattered, but, he intended to destroy Draven later on. And he knew Draven knew it.
So, this was an interesting situation.
-
//Heh, Haraldur called me Duilin Razz \\
"Um, yeah." Rink began. "Well, I caught up with Marshal, and he did get a deeper look inside Haraldur's base. Apparently he has recuited an *new* army with special bullet fireing weapons. His intentions are to start a revolution and bring world peace, yeah right." He told Draven
Valos tuned in, and heared Draven offer Zeros' to be a High General. How could this be? He isn't even offically a member the Empire, and this is only a temporary alliance, could he accually be, becomeing friends with 'Flyboy'? He paced about for a few minutes, and looked at Draven and Zeros' and then into the next room with Duilin, he was talking to a female servent.
"Oh, yeah they were pretty werid at first, and it was kinda hard to get used to..." Duilin said with a smile, to the servent. "But, now I don't know what I'd do without them."
The servent laughed, they were talking about his wings "Oh, sometimes I wish I had wings, I'd probabbly fly off, for hours and hours, not knowing were I'd be going."
Duilin laughed, and the servent laughed back.
------
"Now, let's see. The Aspyes are not at the Crimson Capital, anymore, but I don't belive they are at there demention either, since they wish to defeat the Empire." Marshal said to himself, trying to figure out were they could be. "Well, the story happened around Laus, and I belive he may have made quite an idolization there, if I remember the history right." Marshal, summonded an Albatrash, and hopped onto it. "Ya!" He then headed his way to Laus...
-
//Oooops... this RP must be getting to me Very Happy , which is a good thing.//
-
Draven brought his hand to his chin.
"Really now? That's a shame. At least give it some thought. I will be back shortly."
He turned to the imp.
"World peace? Ah yes, who doesn't seek world peace in one form or another... heh... The only difference is the method."
He continued down the hallway, disappearing into a doorway.
I'll turn him yet...
----
Several more servants appeared in the lavish dinning room, finishing the clean up and replacing empty plates with more food.
(This looks like a good spot to end the chapter. Let's end it in 3 or 4 days, when this scene is over.)
-
//Already? OK. Haraldur is not fully active at the moment, since I am still trying to think what to do with him. Tesla is awaiting Marshall's arrival. All is fine.//
-
(Oops. Forgot about EoN. Heh...)
The red caped officer watched in awe as Aura obliterated the agents, shielding his eyes from the blinding light. They were all gone...
"Y-yes, madam, I believe we have just the opening for you. Right this way..."
He lead the way to a small but fortified building within town. It seemed to be a busy place with many soldiers entering and exiting. Several soldiers saluted him quickly as he approached, then went about their business. He entered the building...
-
Xenai scratched his head. "Why's he want us all to help him out?"
"I'm wondering about that too."
--- --- ---
Aura snickered, an evil grin on her radiant face. "As you wish, sir." She followed the man into the building.
--- --- ---
Tsu saw Hyperion occur, and darted offf in that direction. But by the time he got there, no one was there. "Damn."
-
Draven reentered the dining room, begining to speak before everyone was seated. The servant rushed to fill the wine glass again.
"Yes, pardon that... interuption... As you can see, the Crimson Capital is quite inpervious to attack."
He sat down, taking the glass.
"But as I suspected, he has taken one of the smaller cities. Laus to be exact. I should have expected that, since the citizens there are probably not quite used to... our occupation yet..."
He took a sip and swirled the liquid, leaning back in his seat.
"Laus is located on the southern peninsula of this continent. I've sent the order to fortify the border where it meets the mainland. At the very least, we will be alerted of any movement very quickly. Now here is where one of you come in...
"I need someone to enter the city. A sort of spy mission, if you will. I have men trained in these arts, however, I believe someone from outside the Empire will have a better chance of not being caught, and probably a better chance of staying alive if he is caught... any volonteers?"
----
The red caped man lead Aura to a small room with a man sitting at a desk... He was a tall skinny man, wearing light leather armor with some medals, completely bald with an eyepatch covering his right eye and a complimentary vertical scar going underneath it.
The red caped man leaned over the eye patch guy and started wispering to him, motioning in Aura's direction. The bald guy could be heard saying, "Are you sure?". After some more wispering the red caped man nodded and left.
The bald eye path guy smiled a grotesque smile at Aura. His voice was very gruffy:
"Venson says you're quite the fighter. Ya wanna join huh? Well, lets see..."
He rummaged through some papers and took one out, placing it on the desk. He took a quill pen and dipped it in some ink, then began writting in a few locations, filling out some blank spots in the form.
"I'm Colonel Skul, recruting officer. Colonel Venson recommends you skip basic training and are inlisted as a Luitenant."
He looked up at her.
"This is serious. Luitenant is the highest allowed starting rank in the military. You'll have quite a bit of men under your command. Think you're up ta it? Of course, you've gotta pass the test, first..."
He turned the paper around and slid it to the other side of the table, holding out the quill for Aura to sign. The contract read:
I, __________ hearby pledge my life to the Crimson Empire in military service, for the good of the The Emperor, The Empire, and The People.
Enlisting Rank Luitenant
Recruting Officer Colonel Skul
Under the supervision of:
Crimson Emperor Lars Draven I
High General _______________ (left blank)
Signature ____________________
-
Zeros' stood off to the side, this time, instead of sitting at the table.
"A spy mission... I would go, but I am by far too noticeable..." he said, gesturing to his trench coat and wings. Plus, everyone already knew of him.
-
Marshal arived at Laus. He saw that the place has changed alot. "It seems as if my thoughts were correct." Marshal said to himself. "It seems like Haraldur was here." He walked around the city. He fit in well with the other, with his uniform off. He then spotted Tesla. He ran abit up towards him.
"Nikola Tesla." Marshal said in greeting "Hello. I have one more question for you. Are the Asypes recuiting soilders? I am willing to join." He said with a smile.
------
Duilin, finished his conversation with the servent just in time for her to fill in Draven's wine glass. He listened to Dravens speach.
"Well, I'd like to go. But I lived there for awile and the people know me to well, negatively." Duilin said
"I'll go." Rink said, raiseing his hand. "I'm the smallest and sneakiest one here. I'm able to get in and out of rooms without being noticed." Rink made a second thought. "Hmm...well. Yes, I will do it. I'd probabbly be more use as a spy then a warrior anyways, but I'm still better then your grunts, heh heh. So, when do I leave?"
Valos walked by Zeros', he was done paceing around. "Don't feal like eating, eh?" He said with a smirk. He sat down, and took a sip of wine "So, the imp is going on the spy mission?"
-
"Greetings, Comrade," said Tesla, "Indeed we should be very please to receive your support. Besides, we believe in world revolution, you need not ask to join, you may join regardless, comrade.
"However, I will arrange for you to have some equipment, should you wish. Possibly one of those new weapons you have heard about? However, I would firstly like to ask you this: why are you suddenly here? You did not seem to take that much of a revolutionary interest when we last met."
-
Xenai's hand shot up. "I'll do it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yep."
--- --- ---
Aura seated herself before the colonel. She listened to him carefully. "I'm quite sure, and I am quite confident that I will pass your test." She took hold of the pen, and filled in the blanks.
I, Aura Hikari, hearby pledge my life to the Crimson Empire in military service, for the good of the The Emperor, The Empire, and The People.
Enlisting Rank Luitenant
Recruting Officer Colonel Skul
Under the supervision of:
Crimson Emperor Lars Draven I
High General _______________ (left blank)
Signature <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Lucida Handwriting'>Aura Hikari</span></span>
-
Draven sat the drink down.
The choices were Xenai, an ex-officer of the Dark Empire and technically qualified, but because of his desertion, also technically a traitor and therefore untrustworthy...
Then there was the imp, who ironically seemed smarter than the lot of them and probably on to him... but probably could squeeze into places easier...
"All right, the two of you can go. Xenai, try to fit in. See what they're up to, and what he's forcing the citizens to do. Pretend that you are one. Imp, you see if you can get some 'behind the scenes' information... but don't let them see you. They'll probably be suspicious of an imp walking around. Report back to eachother periodically, and work together if necessary..."
He stood up.
"That is all. We will execute this plan tomorrow..."
----
Skul took back the document with a smile. He reached in the drawer and produced a small golden medal.
"Congratulations, Lt. Hikari. This medal signifies your rank. You'll find a suit of armor for you through that door. All officers ranked colonel and below are required to wear the customary Crimson Empire military armor."
He stood up.
"A crash course since you skipped the basics. This is important, since some officers might kill you if you don't get this right... When you're within twenty feet of a superior officer, you've gotta salute them, like this."
He stood at attention, and snapped his right arm before him and brought his hand, clenched in a fist, across the left side of his chest, covering his gold colonel medal that was pinned there. His arm was parallel to the ground.
"For an officer one rank above, you've just gotta do it for a second, then you can be on your way. Two or more though, and you need to wait for them to pass by, unless of course you're dismissed. Also... if you ever see the Emperor, you need to do the salute on one knee and look at the ground. Don't let him see you standing... just don't... Unless you need to deliver a message or something, then you can do the normal salute.
"Guard captains, soldiers, dark knights, etc. are required to do anything you say, unless it conflicts with the order of the lieutenant they are assigned to or a higher officer.
"We'll that's it. Give me the salute now and you can be on your way. Your test will begin tomorrow morning."
(Chapter 6 ends in 2 days.)
-
//Please not that Laus is being run on egalitarian, and volunatary lines, roughly equivalent to anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-communism or libertarian communism/socialism, not a police state. Oppression would not be appropriate.//
-
//So the chapter ends on Friday?\\
"Well," Marshal began. "The Blue Minotaur did not like me snooping around because they belived it was getting them into trouble with other groups, such as the Empire, so they had me banished. I then got to thinking what you and Haraldur said, and you are totally right. The world does need change, a big change." Marshal cracked his knuckles. "So, yes, I will keep useing my skill of summoning, and build upon it, untill I am better then the ones who went threw full training, just to spite them. But, yes, some new equipment would be nice, such as one of the new bullet weapons. I'll transfer the saphire on my staff into an amulet, I'll need some tools and a chain for that, if it would not be so much to ask."
-----
"Sounds good." Rink said, and he took a bite of a pear, and then sat back.
Valos wiped a wine stain off his face. "Well, tomorrow might have quite a battle in it. And these new weapons Rink told us about, that the Aspyes have. It seems as if they may be superior to our soilders. So, I belive in the cass of battle we shouldn't waste or grunts, since they may be nearly useless. We should have our mages, and the shock troops ready for battle." //The shock troops are the troops that Maxwell sent out with the huge armor and the auto shotguns, in the previous chapter.\\
Duilin, finished his leg of turkey and then finally quit eating, and then sat back and siped his wine. "Well, then. Tomorrow sounds like quite a day."
-
"Yes... It seems the next few days will be quite interesting," he whispered to himself. He knew what would happen should either Haraldur or Draven should win. He knew Draven's intentions, and he also knew Haraldur's.
He only had to wait for the right moment...
Zeros' then ghosted from the room, and went to a special place where no one could track him...
//End Chapter for Zeros'\\
-
"Alrighty, then." He looked to the imp, then to Zion. Zion gave a weird look, as if he wasn't sure if he liked what was going down.
"So what am I gonna do while you're doing this?" asked Zion.
"Wander or something. Or more importantly, find Tsu."
--- --- ---
Tsu felt a really bad feeling in his heart. He felt... The girl he loved, had truly become his enemy.
--- --- ---
"Thank you, sir. I promise, you'll not be disappointed."
She proudly put on the medal, performed the salute, and was on her way. She went through the door, expecting to have to get used to men's armor. Instead, she found a set of woman's armor. Oh, must be my lucky day. She put it on, and commenced to figure out what she had to do next.
//Will she be taking the test this chapter?
-
Rink, then looked at Xenia. "So, then. You'll pose as a commoner in Laus, eh? I don't think Tesla got a good look at you so you might even be able to to 'join' them, but I wouldn't risk it, if they reconize you we would be in deep shit. I guess you could just see what the peasents are up to then." Rink laughed.
He then noticed Zeros' had left. He nodded and then flapped his wings rapidly, just to give them a little exersize, they, also fanned him off abit. Man, wings are really usefull.
"Lord Draven..." Valos said softly. "If I may ask you a question...I overherd you offering the position of a High General to Zeros'...why?" He said this quietly enough not for the others to hear, he didn't want the others to know that Draven offered this to him, it might start conflict.
Duilin, then took a final sip of his wine, finishing it up. He then placed the glass on the table. He then, made a little smirk, at Draven. "Give the chef my regards. He's a kick ass cook!" He then stood up, and streched his arms and wings. "So, where are our rooms?" He asked.
-
"Hello?...Seems empty must be geting ready for a big day tomorrow, lets go see what's going on." Jonny says looking at the big lobby room and Bongo.
Jonny walks over to a servant to ask whats going on.
"Pardon me, man, but do you know what's going on here?" Jonny asks
"...Ohh uhhh...I just clean rugs here, I don't know what is going on." The servant replies "Try going to the dinning hall, Lord Draven is down there eating, you are best geting some food to." He adds.
"Thanks...ohh you missed that rug over there." Jonny points out a rug he just walked on with his dirty boots. He then walks to the dinning hall.
"Jack ass tax collectors." The rug cleaner says under his breath to a fellow servant.
Jonny Albatrash comes to the great dinning hall and sees Lord Draven eating. He aproaches, and stops a few feet in front of his section on the table, and bows down on one knee and salutes, he then stands back up, and removes his hat, and holds it againts his chest.
"Greetings my Lord." Jonny says. "Captain Jonathan H. Albatrash, Tax Collector. I have reterned with great losses in crew and in tax money as my ship was destrioed in an...exploding witch person attack." Jonny says this with great shame in his voice "However, I did find a new ship that contained enough rum, ale and beer to cover all the losses." Jonny quickly adds to not look like a failure.
-
Several servants appeared which would lead the dispersing guests to lavish rooms with silk sheeted beds and those nifty mini bars.
Draven spoke to Valos quietly, but sternly.
"That is none of your concern, Valos. I will send you south of Redvik tomorrow to oversee the front line at the boarder of Laus. Get some rest."
He gave the general a sort of pat on the top of the shoulder, which while looking soft, would likely be with enough force to smack the general halfway to the ground.
He turned to Albatrash, sighing loudly.
"So you are requesting additional crew and to keep you job? ... Ugh... Take it to one of the military tax officials."
He flipped his cape and disappeared through the doorway at the north end of the dining room. 'Military tax officials' was his name for the leaders of the pirate-like organization that plundered gold from small sea side settlements in exchange for an agreement that they would not be assimilated into the Crimson Empire, and that the Empire would offer them sea wise protection in that area. Draven considered it an outdated practice left over from the Dark Empire days, but it had its uses...
One of those 'military tax officials' happened to be passing into the dining room for a meeting and approached Albatrash, having heard the conversation.
"Yar... ye got some rum...? Well, that makes it all worth it, then! We'll fix ye up with a new crew tomarrer. But... we needs ta take yer rum. Fair trade, no? Har har har harr!!"
He gave Jonny a big slap on the back and continued on his way.
(Chapter 6 ends tomorrow! (Friday))
(Yeah, Aura will do her test at the beginning of next chapter. When I figure out what it is. Heh...)
-
"OK."
Tesla moved his hands, and a strange weapon, which was mostly a long tube, and a set of tools, and a piece of Crimson Empire armour, repainted, flew and landed near Marshall's feet.
"The Empire had quite a surplus of stock here! There are more sets of armours here than citizens! Presumeably this was because this is a very good place to transport things to other parts of the Empire.
"Now, I must be off, I have to make sure the defenses are properly attended to."
-
"Nice room." A low whistle given from Xenai. He promptly made himself at home. "The only advantage to being evil... The bad guys have all the cool stuff. Well. Draven's not really being evil right now, so."
--- --- ---
Zion entered his room, took a look around, and approached the bed. WHUMP. He was out.
--- --- ---
Tsu found a room at an inn to utilize...
--- --- ---
And Aura was just sleeping wherever it was that she slept.
//End of chapter for all characters.
-
"Thank you." Marshal said. He then picked up the items and then walked into a near by shop, and then got to work...
-----
"Bah!" Valos said, as he was nearly knocked down by Draven, he then stood up. And muttered under his breath. "I really, really hate Zeros'..." He then walked up to his room, he passed by the others "See ya tomorrow..."
Rink then cracked his knuckles. "Well, I'm gonna hit the hay. See you kids tomorrow!" He then heads up stairs, to the guest rooms.
Duilin then heads upstairs to. Valos heads into his fairly huge and nice room. Being a General of the Crimpson Empire, he gets a room much nicer then the other soilders, but not nearly as good as the High Generals or Lord Draven's.
Rink and Duilin go to seperate rooms. Rink sits down on the bed, it was huge for him.
Duilin, sits down on his bed, and rubbs his face. "Geez. What a hell of a day. Never thought I'd be in here without trashing the entire place killing soilders..."
He then hears a knock on the door. He turns his head and looks at the door. "That better not be Valos, I swear to god..." He then gets up and opens the door. It was the servent girl from before.
"Hey..." Duilin says to her. "What's up?"
"Hi...Can I come in?" She asks him, smiling.
(I won't get into further detail. Don't wanna get myself banned! Smile )
//End Chapter for my characters, maybe not Marshal just yet.\\
-
Draven entered his large, torch-lit chamber. Two servants promptly shut the door behind him and left. The Emperor removed his leather gloves and threw them onto one of the smaller gold trimmed tables.
The armored figure standing in the darkness, almost behind the red curtain next to the bed saluted. He was the only other in the room.
"My lord. The preparations are nearly complete."
Draven sat down on one of the red padded chairs, facing away from the figure.
"How long?"
"Tomorrow. Mid day, at the latest..."
"Excellent..."
"Then... shall I prepare for... the opening?"
Draven leaned back.
"It is a trump card. A big one at that. True, I promised them, but I never said when. I'd rather not use it until necessary, if necessary... Besides, our little allies have bought us this much time, let's see what else they can do for us..."
From his inner cape pocket, Draven removed a small black stone and a worn, tattered slip of paper, upon which was written strange demonic-like symbols, along with his own signature...
----
The weighed down ship was now fully docked, seemingly on an island in the middle of nowhere, and the crew began the exhausting task of removing the giant black stone from the deck. They had to disassemble part of the railing and built a grand ramp. Some fifty men grappled the black diamond with a combination of pulleys and raw man power, carefully carrying it ashore...
To be continued...
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 7</span>
Draven folded his arms behind his back as the morning sun's rays broke the horizon. Standing atop one of the higher towers of the Crimson Palace, the cool morning air waving his hair, the view was even more spectacular now that the city was floating nearly one mile above the ground. Streaks of clouds obscured the rows of rocky foothills and valleys below.
Draven nodded to the man in black armor standing behind him, who returned the nod and promptly left via the stairway. Draven rolled the small black stone in his fingertips behind his back...
----
A very loud knock resonated on the doors of the two separate guest rooms where Rink and Xenai stayed, two messengers delivering the same message to each one:
"The high speed airship Falcon V is departing south to Redvik in thirty minutes. Details about your mission to Laus will be given on board. Report to the docking bay on the 30th floor."
----
"Lieutenant Hikari!"
The tall bald eye-patched Colonel Skul banged loudly on Aura's sleeping quarter's door holding a sheet of paper in the other hand.
"We've your test..."
----
Ven had trouble sleeping after the incident he witnessed the previous day, but now in the early morning hours, he found himself more troubled by the handwritten note that he found near the door to his room. Someone must have slipped it under the door during the night. He read it a few times, not sure what to make of it:
Traveler,
You must leave immediately! The soldiers have become suspicious of all outsiders, especially you!
He paused in thought. The was some noise resonating through the wooden hallways of the old inn. Like footsteps, only metallic. They became louder and more evident that there was more than one...
Suddenly, there was a loud knocking on the wooden door.
"Open up."
Crap.
Ven took a look around and his eyes landed on the window, the one he saw the incident with the mayor from yesterday. He was on the second floor.
More knocking (obviously metal on wood).
"I said open up!"
He had jumped from higher before, right?
Ven opened the window and scooted out the window feet first. He landed with a loud clang on the cobblestones below, his black cloak rising around him revealing the bright silver armor underneath. He stood up as the cloak fell back around him, realizing there were some six or seven people staring at this guy who just jumped out of a window. He did a sort of embarrassed smile and wave, and then started walking quickly but casually.
Time to leave.
----
The glow of the red pendant wasn't as noticeable in the sunlight...
The dirt path in the forest was wide. A group of soldiers began to pass the man in lieutenant's armor, stopping in their tracks and saluting him.
Mavas wasn't expecting this reaction and grinned...
"Where might you be off to?"
On of the soldiers wearing a silver medal took a step forward.
"South of Redvik, sir! To reinforce the line at the boarder of Laus, sir!"
"Oh, really..."
-
Zeros' shimmered into view, right next to Draven. He also stared at the view.
"It seems even the all-powerful Draven can't resist the view from up here," he said. He turned towards Draven.
"So, Draven, before I can even think to help you, more then what I've done already, I need to know what your plan is, for dealing with Haraldur," he asked.
-
Xenai got out of bed. "Yaaaaawn! Right-o!" He had left all his stuff on, save for the armor. How dare he change his appearance for sleeping! Wink He puts his armor on, and steps out of the room. Now it was time to figure out where the crap this 30th floor was.
--- -- ---
Zion and Tsu had spent the night at the inn, and were now awake and talking. "So you think she's joined the Crimson Empire, huh?"
"I'm sure of it."
"Doesn't matter, really. We're allies with them right now."
"I see..."
"Draven's been really well behaved lately. Hope he stays that way. He's got a nice city here."
"Heck yeah, he does."
--- --- ---
Aura got out of bed. She had the armor off, it was just the undersuit underneath the armor that she kept on for sleeping. Comfy, but how dare she change her appearance to sleep! She opened the door, performing the salute. "Good morning, Colonel." She looked at the paper. "My test, huh? Oh my. I can't wait..."
-
As the sun rose for a new day, Haraldur turned to the ghostly visage of the Prophet, and said, "Why did you betray me?"
"I do not believe in your foolish idealism! It would be chaos! Why not just let the weak be ruled by the strong as they always have. You know how that works, you, after all, have been instrumental in the design of the Empire system on the Dark Continent, for millenia."
"I am a changed person now, as you can see, and I will not let the status quo rest."
"Status quo?"
"It is Latin, a language from another universe."
"Anyway, are you going to let me out of this hellish place you sent me? If not, why else have you come to visit me?"
"You are released. Do as you will, I do not care. You will not find me so merciful next time."
"Merciful?"
"Indeed, I will be having lawyers fighting over your case?"
"What is a lawyer?"
"Do not trouble yourself with that, it would terrify you. I am merciful enough not to give you an answer."
The Prophet started to fly North, thinking to himself that he must ally himself with the Crimson Empire, or else find Zeros'. This foolish idealism must stop! Freedom for the masses? He must be stopped!
Haraldur watched him go, and smiled to himself as it became evident the Prophet did as he expected.
___________________________________________________________
Tesla was waiting close to a tower in the city walls, watching for any sign of attack. He moved his hands up and down, dragging the ground connecting the peninsula to the mainland up and down as well, making it rough, wet and with many sharp rocks. Any land army would need a lot of surgeon for the foot and leg injuries, he thought.
Behind him, the automated city went like clockwork. In the square were troops of men doing training with spears and swords, on the other side similar weapons were being forged in preparation for war.
-
Cold.
Bitter cold.
Ein got up. He felt his body, finding his cloak somewhat intact. He looked around, observed the area around him. He seemed to have been washed up on a beach, but a beach he did not recognize.
"Damn", he thought. "That was one hell of a storm... Wonder where i ended up?"
He proceeded towards the trees that were just up by where the beach ended. Trees were tall, covering a large part of sky. However, by darkness around him, he realized that night was nearing. He had to seek shelter.
As he proceeded through the small path in between the trees, he heard a twig snap somewhere behind him, to the left.
-Who's there?
No answer followed. Ein resumed his course. Then, he heard another twig snap, this time to the right of him. He spun around, but seeing nothing. "Stupid squirrels..." As he turned around, someone painfully punched him in the forehead, knocking him down to the ground. Ein gathered up his thoughts and looked at the attacker. The man was tall, wearing a cape, and had an interesting-looking crossbow in one of his hands. The other one was empty, and Ein noted that the empty hand was his right hand, therefore the man was left-handed.
-"Gimme all your money!" The man's voice was very loud.
-"I have none. I just... err... arrived here."
-"I don't take that as an answer! If you have no cash, then prepare to die!"
The robber pointed the crossbow at Ein's head. His finger touched the trigger... and the crossbow was out of his hands, and in Ein's legs. He quickly flipped it around, put it in his hands and hastily fired it, aiming at the highwayman's head. Arrow hit him in the neck. The only sound coming from him was a faint gurgle, then somewhat of a sigh. The giant was dead.
//i'm gonna watch you guys for a few posts before actually talking to other characters. don't want to sound like an idiot in front of everyone by talking off-topic Razz
-
Duilin, stood in the middle of a dusty wasteland, standing at the edge of a canyon. He sky was firey, like the depths of hell was surrounding him. The wind was hot, it blue threw his hair. He looked down, and saw tons of dead bodies in the canyon. Somebody put his hand on his shoulder, he startled him. Duilin turned around, and saw a fimular face, somebody who he hasn't seen in many, many years...But he looked different. He looked deep into the mans eyes, and saw himself in them. He saw himself being burnt alive, being torn apart, but still screaming in pain, and being left to rot, alive....
-----
Rink, was sitting on an open window sill, looking at the sunrise. He then looked at the messenger, and listened to him, the Imp nodded. "All ready, eh?" He smirked. He then stood up and cracked his knuckles, and the little guy went off, into the hallway off to find the 30th floor. He saw that Xenia was up, he looked lost. "Good morning." Rink said, waveing. "We better get to docking bay, Xenia."
------
Marshal walked threw the town, wearing the recolored Empire armor. He was holding the new bullet weapon. He had an amulet around his neck, with the saphire of summoning. He watched Tesla reform the ground. "I thought I had a werid tallent." He chuckled to himself. He then walked up to him. "I wonder how the Crimson Empire is going to plan this attack. There last attempt was lacking, do you expect anything better?"
------
Duilin's eyes shot open, and he gasped for air.
"Duilin?" said a beautiful calming voice.
He looked up, and saw the servent girl's face looking at him.
"Duilin? Are you okay?" She asked again
"I'm allright..." Duilin said, getting out of bed. "Just a bad dream..." He looked at her. "You should go...I don't think the Empire's Officers would like to find you here."
"Well...okay." The servent replied. She gave him a quick kiss. "Bye..." She then opened the door and left...
Duilin sat down on his bead, and rubbed his forehead. He was fealing flushed.
He then heard a knock on the door.
"Come in..." Duilin called.
Valos opened the door. "Have a nice sleep, Duilin?" He said with a smirk.
"Sorta..." Duilin replied. "What do you want?" He asked him without turning his head
"Oh, nothing. Just wanted to check in and see how you were doing." Valos replied. "Today might be a big day, we are attempting another strike on Haraldur. I've been called to the front lines."
"What did you do to deserve that?" Duilin asked, sitting up, with his hands on his knees, and looked at him.
"Oh, I questioned Lord Draven on why he offered High Generalship to...Zeros'." Valos replied, sounding annoyed.
"Seems that all you soilder-boys are into turning men into demons." Duilin said sternly, and then got up and walked pass Valos, and headed to the main hall.
-
Jonny wakes up in his room. He can't remember last night very well so he looks around and sees his keys are left in the door, there is barf on the wall to his left and Bongo, his monkey is passed out in a buket of oats.
"Shit...I must have had one hell of a party last night!" Jonny exclaims.
"Nope, it was just you." A servant says to him through the door."and it was the most disgusting this I have ever seen." He adds and shudders.
Bongo wakes up and staggers over to Jonny. "I don't think that you should have drank a whole bottle of that." Jonny says after noticing the dirty little monkey. "Well you get back to your oats, I'm gonna look around."
He walks around the halls untill he sees a solder and asks him whats going on.
"Ohh its you! You got so wasted, it was diisgusting. So yeah, we are gonna attack the Aspyes." He replied. "But first we are sending spies to get info on them."
"So we are spying on the Aspyes? Get it? As-SPY-es?" Jonny jokes.
"That was terrible..." He replied.
"Sorry, I have a bad hang over."
"I see." The soilder says and heads off.
Jonny than goes off to get breakfast.
-
Haraldur started to fly back towards Laus. As he flew, his thoughts turned to his good friend Tesla. "I am the universe, and I favour those who work to understand me," he murmered to himself. "Where I go, they try to follow. What I do, they study. Those I love, they revere.
"I have too long been apathetic. Suffering of the masses is the fault of my indifference. Zeros' is right, I am a monster, but not in any way he can imagine, and misinterprets, whether deliberately or not, my attempts at improvement. He does not work to understand me, he does the opposite."
-
"I can feel it getting closer."
Hyperion had nothing to go by but this feeling. His master told him only to go fight under the command of Draven for the Crimson Empire. He was not told why he was going or where the Crimson Empire was.
He chose to fly as a full dragon as he could fly high enough to avoid being noticed.
Something caught his eye in the distance though, and he started to fly lower. He noticed what appeared to be two figures upon a high tower in the direction he was heading.
"Could it be.....Draven?"
Whatever was coming, he was ready.
-
Draven paused for a moment, before pocketing the small jewel. Again speaking to Zeros' as if he were there the whole time.
"Hmmm, yes of course... Of course, it is difficult to plan if you are unsure of your opponent's next move, and a difficult one to predict this one is..."
He turned to the south.
"It would be very useful if our little inside mission succeeds, and I believe they have a greater chance if Ragnar isn't in the city to begin with... Perhaps you can make an appearance somewhere near Laus, off shore or something, to lure the fool away... I have a shuttle to Redvik below if you are interested, though I'm sure you can get there on your own..."
----
The docking bay on the 30th floor was occupied by a number of black airships, but only one had its side doors open, and a few soldiers and mechanics wondered in and out. It was the smallest one there, some 100 feet long, but it had a very sleek and smooth design, resembling something more like a rocket ship.
Outside the doorway on the metal boarding dock was a sign that simply read "Falcon V".
----
The colonel gave a sort of chuckle-grunt and handed Aura the sheet of paper.
"That's the spirit! You've been assigned to the southern front, the line north of the fallen city Laus. There you will be under the command of General Valos. Your assignment is to lead a group of twenty men-- here's their ID numbers. Now this is less than a lieutenant normally would lead. The catch? They're all newbies. All fresh out of basic training. Zero combat experience. If you can prove yourself here, you'll get a full squadron. That's at least five groups of ten at your command.*
"You'll receive specific orders when you arrive. There's an airship at the Crimson Palace leaving in... less than 20 minutes! Better hurry!"
(*See beginning of Chapter 2)
-
Valos, approached Rink and Xenia, and looked at them. "You two should get to the 30th floor." He said to them.
Rink turned and looked at him. "Good morning..."
"Yes...I'm on my way there myself, I'm leading the attack. You can follow me there, if you're lost." He turned around, and began his way to the 30th floor. Rink shrugged and looked at Xenia, and then followed.
-----
An Aspye Trooper trusted his spear at a Mudman, impaleing the creature, yet not killing it. The mudman barely took any damage. Another one trusted it from behind, causeing the creature to wail in pain. Suddenly, the creature formed into a blue specter and was sucked back into Marshal's amulet. He was hosting a training session for the troops. "Very good he said. Teaming on an oppenent is a good idea, but you have to remember that the Empire troops will be fare more experinced then that." Marshal told the troops. "They will be comming in large groups, and will show you no mercy. With the Empire, there are NO innocents."
-----
Duilin, was outside, he was standing near the edge of the floating palace. He was in sight of Draven and Zeros'. He stretched his wings out, and took out his mace. He walked further from the edge. He saw Darak standing not to far looking at him, he had his large battle axe, resting blade down on the ground, and he had his hands on the edge of the handle.
"Shouldn't you be boarding one of the airships?" Duilin asked him.
"Oh, yes. But I saw you heading outside and I wanted to ask you something." Darak replied
"Okay, what?"
"I've seen you talking to one of the servent girls, lately. Me and the others have been...talking about it." Darak smirked
"That, is none of your affair." Duilin replied, annoyed
"Well, that's not all. I've also seen General Valos and you talking alot. Are you friends with him?" Darak asked
"Pfft...No, he's trying to convince me to let my demonic side to take over." Duilin answered
"Why?"
"Oh, hell I don't even think he knows. Valos is crazy, I feal sorry for you grunts haveing to take orders from him."
"Yeah, he's been acting werid ever since, a member of the clean up crue saw him doing a demonic worship. He said, he saw him do some scary shit, some things...almost...unhumen..."
"Unhumen?"
"Yeah, like his eyes...they were glowing red, and he starting makeing this werid laugh...sorta just entered your brain, like you weren't hearing it with your ears. I don't know if that's true, but I wouldn't be surprized if it was."
"Hmmm...." Duilin, slipped his mace back into his holster. "You better head to the docking bay. I'm going to leave with Zeros' and Draven, when it's time to go."
Darak nodded, and then jogged back into the palace.
Duilin thought about what Darak told him about Valos. It almost seemed famaliar...
-
Ein continued walking through the woods. His encounter with the highwayman ensured him of human life upon this land, but he was now questioning the hospitality of this place's human habitation.
It was already deep into the night, and he still hasn't found a place to stay of some kind. It wasn't like he needed an actual house, or bed. He always had his cloak which could serve as some kind of a pillow if folded. However, a nice bed after all these years would've been appreciated.
Eventually, after about half hour more of walking, he came to a tall cliff overlooking a town. He could barely see now, but he saw some lights around the houses... and yet, he was too tired to get up and go... His legs felt like made of lead, he couldn't lift even his arms. So, he fell upon the dirty ground, and fell in a deep sleep.
-
Xenai shrugged and decided to follow Valos, seeing as how he knew nothin' about this place anyways. This place was real nice, and it kinda made him wish he was still in the Crimson Empire.
--- --- ---
"So now," said Zion, "We'll need something to do while Xenai's doing his stuff."
"What about that Ven guy?"
"Yeah, we should probably find him."
And the two made their way out of the Inn.
--- --- ---
"Complete newbies? Ah, I'm sure they'll do just fine. I'll not let you down, sir!" She performed the salute and closed the door, putting on her armor all fast like, grabbing her scimitars, and getting outta there, heading for the airship. She stopped at a map on the wall. 30th floor? 30th floor. And she's off!
-
The mechanics stepped aside and passengers began to board the Falcon V. They were mostly lower leveled officers assigned to the front line (for troops were already stationed in the area). The small airship couldn't carry much more than 100 people.
One of the officers, wearing a more conductor like uniform brought his hand to his mouth and yelled:
"Five minutes to departure!"
----
A lieutenant met Valos in the doorway of the hangar, saluting him and handing him a scroll with the Crimson Seal on it.
"Instructions on dealing with Laus from the Emperor, sir!"
The rolled up paper read:
General Valos is hereby granted the authority to oversee the Laus front line, acting in accordance with the following priorites and instructions:
Priority 1: Prevent Ragnar and his forces from pushing into the mainland.
Priority 2: Ensure the undercover mission is not compromised.
Priority 3: Reclaim land between the front line and Laus with minimal endangerment to troops.
The order to attack and recapture Laus will supercede all priorities when the order is given by The Emperor. Laus must not be attacked until the order is given.
You are given the authority to make decisions on your own so long as they do not conflict with the above.
Crimson Emperor Lars Draven I
----
Ven walked through the grassy field, the bottom of his cloak dampening from the morning dew rubbing off of the tall blades of grass. The sun was piercing through the clouds, so he at least knew which direction he was going... Of course, that offered little help due to the shear vastness of this continent... Mavas could be anywhere...
At least it was somewhat less dismal here than the valley that village was in...
-
Zeros' turned briefly to Draven, then, turned away and looked back towards the horizon. He had felt Hyperion already, but, he sensed no maliace towards himself or his... aquantices.
"I merely don't think a simple apperance near Laus would throw Haraldur off our trail, but, I'm sure his men aren't as intelligent as himself," he turned and spread his wings, the two, large, black angel wings extended to their full wing span of 15 feet, from wingtip to wingtip. "But, I'll see what I can do," he commented before he took into the air, in the direction of Laus at a steady pace.
The early morning sunlight colored the sky oranges and reds. But, Zeros' had no doubt, the sky would soon be painted red with blood...
-
Haraldur reached Laus, and landed on the tower above where Tesla was, and shouted down to him, "It is time that Laus is permanently seperated from the Empire that has been near or on it for generations. This must be done so we are less spread out. Wait until the attack, however. I want the isthmus between us and the mainland to be fullof Crimson Empire troops before the move."
"What of the damage it will cause?"
"Who cares? I can repair any damage relevant to us. It is useless, Zeros' is already been confirmed to be objectively on the side of the Empire."
___________________________________________________________
Under the isthmus magma moved into a newly created hollow, and pressure started to build up.
-
"More seperated from the Empire? Does he mean, move the land?" Marshal asked. "Indeed, Haraldur is powerfull.". He double checks to see if his gun is fully loaded, he aims it at the air, to get more so used to it. He then lowered the weapon.
------------
Valos examined the message, and read it. He nooded. "Back to work lieutenant." He said to him. Valos then turned to Rink and Xenia. "Get aboard the ship, now. We have five minutes, so don't doddle." He then walked towards the ship. "Why, fly yourself if you have a ship to do it for you." He gave a quick smirk, and then walked aboard. The mechanics saluted him as he stepped into the ship. He then looked at all the passengers, and nearly everyone saluted him. "At ease, grunts." He laughed.
------------
Duilin then spread open his wings, and then jumped into the air, and flapped his wings and began flight. He swooped up nearby Zeros'.
"Good morning Zeros'." Duilin called to get his attiention, yet he probabbly allready senced him coming. "Get a good sleep?"
-
"Still your tongue, Marshall!" said Haraldur. "We have no idea who may be listening, so never mention things explicitly."
-
The full palace began to reveal itself as Hyperion flew closer. When he noticed Zeros spread his wings and take off, it made him feel a little bit better about where he was heading. He began to feel the Crimson Empires power.
-
Xenai obeyed the given request, boarding the- Holy hell, this is a nice ship!
//Aura's supposed to be on the ship with Xenai, Rink, and Valos, right?
Ah, finally. Aura reaches the 30th floor. The Falcon V catches her eye, and she figures that's the one she needs to get on. She boards the ship. "Excuse me, is there a General Valos on this ship?"
Xenai looks over to her. "Holy hell! You're that one girl that was dashing on the water after us!"
Aura looks to him. "You... You're one of Tsu's friends, aren't you?"
"Yeah, what of it?"
"Nothing, really. Just wanted to know." Yet she seemed to be thinking a little deeper.
-
Draven folded his arms as Zeros' began his flight southward into the horizon. A smirk returned to his face...
"Excellent..."
He turned and strode towards the stairwell, but paused halfway there. It was at this point he noticed some sort of dragon flying about. Strange, why hadn't the wyvern riders intercepted it? He watched it for a moment...
----
"All aboard!"
The doors to the airship closed and it could be felt leaving the ground. It shot out of an opening in the floating palace in into the sky with no visible propulsion save for a yellow glow emitting from it's underside.
The conductor performed the military salute.
"Our vessel will arrive at the southern fortress of Redvik in a little over an hour."
He grabbed the pole he was standing next to as a tremendous g-force could be felt as the ship accelerated greatly.
The inside of the ship was extremely roomy and luxurious, the seats positioned more in the fashion of a train's dining car, with padded seats positioned around small tables.
(The trip, of course, will last as long as you guys need for your conversations, etc.)
----
Ven removed his blade and began to hack at the thick yellow grass before him. It seemed to be getting taller and thicker as he went on... Hmm... wrong turn, perhaps...?
He sat down on a rock. Who was he kidding? Trying to find him in a place like this... He doesn't even know what he'll do when he does find him...
Some sort of black bird flew overhead.
Fight him of course... try and break the spell... well, see if the spell happens to break at least... he still has to try... he owes him that much...
-
The Prophet was now nearing the Crimson Capital, and flew towards Draven.
"I need you to help me put history back on its proper course."
The arrogance of trying to alter the course of history! As if he is the universe or something! The upstart! It is my order that decides what happens in the future!
-
Valos sat near Xenia and Rink. "Might as well sit with you people. I have to spend the next few days with you in a huge war I might as well put up an effort to get along with you. Besides the grunts are terrible conversationist, they are to affraid of me." He then looked at Aura, and examined her. He could tell she was a soilder, she appeared to be a lieutenant, but he didn't reconise her. "Hello, I am GENERAL Valos. You may have herd of me. I belive you are the new girl, I heard about."
Rink then sat back and turned to Xenia. "You know her?" He asked gestureing to Aura.
-
Aura performs the salute. "Hello. I am Lieutenant Aura Hikari. The new girl."
Xenai sighs. "I don't know a thing about her. You'll have to ask my friend about her... Kid with black hair, you might have seen him... Though he's definitely not much of a kid anymore..."
-
Caudillo de Alterña por la gracia de Dios Generalísimo Benito Franco Salazar sat at his desk, signing the death warrants of the last monarchist resistance fighters to have survived, knowing that his orders would be obeyed the next day. It was well to give the public such spectacles, it gave the illusion of efficiency.
He sighed, and stood up, looking out the window to survey the land of which he was the abolute ruler. As he got closer to the window, an albatross came over and rested on his arm, which he stroked, and crooned to. He attached a small tube to a ring on the leg of the bird, in which was a letter. He zapped the bird's head, giving it knowledge of the appearance and smell of Draven. The bird then took off, flying towards the Crimson Emporer.
Franco sat back down, and made arrangements for his deputy to run the country on a temporary basis during his absence, before kneeling down in front of a statue of the mother of God to pray.
(It should be assumed that the albatross reaches Draven by the time of Xorlak's next post, here are the letter's contents:)
To the Crimson Emporer General Lord Lars Draven, greetings. I have heard much of your success on the Dark Continent and am very impressed. However, I have heard worrying reports of a revolution of some sort, and I do not wish such things to spread, both for my sake and yours. It is, then, my request to you that you would permit me to meet you in your Imperial Palace to discuss an Anti-Aspyes alliance, and stop this threa together.
Yours,
Caudillo de Alterña por la gracia de Dios Generalísimo Benito Franco Salazar
-
-"Ahh, bright morning light!"
Ein woke up, stretched, and started walking towards the town he saw last night. In daylight, it looked much bigger than last night, probably because some of the houses did not have lights burning in them yesterday. As physically-strong as Ein was, he could not see in the dark.
As he got closer to the town, he saw a signpost which said "Lavessov" on it. "Hmm, must be the town name", thought Ein. He continued walking into the town. Strangely, not a lot of people were outside, for a town as big as this. In fact, the remaining people were running into their houses as well.
Suddenly, Ein heard footsteps behind him. He hastily turned around, and saw a tall man walking towards him, who looked suspiciously like a mage. He was not well indeed; he looked terrible, and was probably dying. He was holding a staff with a blood-red transparent rock on top of it.
-"Touch... the... staff..." The man's voice was so weak it was barely hearable.
-"Why? Who are you?"
-"Just... touch... the... staff..." The man seemed stranger and stranger, and looked as if he was getting older, too.
-"Alright... whatever." Ein cautiously placed his hand on the crimson rock.
...everything went blood-red, then black...
---
In a far away inn, two soliders were relaxing with some nice ale. They were intently discussing something.
-"Hey, did you hear about some nut with a crossbow and a black cape murdering an entire town?"
-"Yeah! They say he was as fast as a lightning, jumping from one building to another, and firing his crossbow without even looking at the target, but never missing."
-"Gee... pests like him need to be kept under control."
-
Hyperion transformed into human form with dragon wings, as the tower was but a couple minutes away. He came to complete stop though, when he noticed something coming. A lone wryven rider.
He called to the rider. "Halt soldier! I have been flying for ages and only now you try to stop me. If I was the Crimson Empires enemy I could have easily lead an assault on this palace. You a have failed the Empire and you've failed yourself. If I was a better man, or even a human I might spare your life, but unfortunetly for you, you're out of luck."
-
Zeros' looked at Duilin for a moment and cranned his head back towards the direction of Laus.
"Sleep doesn't come easy, for one as old as me. The memories of all the hundreds of years I've been alive all come back to you at that moment try to sleep, and, keep you awake through the night. I've stopped trying to sleep many, many years ago. Now, the most I've gotten, was a mediative trance. One could almost mistake it for sleeping, but, none of my body shuts down. I'm aware of everything, even some senses I have are heighted more then normal," he said quietly.
"But, enough about that. Apparently, Draven wants us to distract Haraldur, or, his men, so the spy mission won't get interrupted. Up for it?" he questioned, seemingly forgetting about his somber topic.
-
Draven turned around, completely distracted from the dragon, to see some old man flying towards him... He seemed vaguely familiar...
(Is he translucent or ghost-like or anything?)
"Hmmm... yes, you're that senile old man that tried to get in my way a few years back. Come to your senses like the others now, hmm? Tell me now, why is it that you think you deserve my help?"
At that moment an albatross landed on a brick at the edge of the tower. Draven flipped his cape and walked to it, removing a scroll from the tube attached to its leg, which bore the seal of the nation of Alterña.
"And make it quick, I'm very busy, you see..."
Alterña... yes, it was a nation located on the other side of the world. Never invaded by the Dark Empire. It was too far down the list, especially after Retan became fixated on finding those weapons... After Draven assumed control, it became of little more interest than a name on his world map. What could they possibly want?
He broke the seal and unrolled the scroll, leaning on the wall next to the doorway they lead back down into the tower casually. He read it.
Interesting... news travels fast... but why would they care about one miserable town in a foreign country?
Draven shouted into the stairwell leading down into the tower.
"Letter!!"
A moment later, a clumsy soldier emerged from the stairs carrying a blank scroll and a quill. Draven took the writing supplies and began his response:
Caudillo de Alterña por la gra--
"Aw screw it..."
He crumpled the scroll and began writing anew:
Sovereign of Alterña,
I am most pleased with your concern, and am happy to inform you that the rebellion is minor and being dealt with at this moment. However, I am always open to explore new paths of peace and cooperation. It has always been my policy that those who aid the Crimson Empire be handsomely rewarded. Your request for a meeting has been granted. Show your seal to my men located at one of my ports and they will accompany you to my palace.
Crimson Emperor Lars Draven I
Draven affixed the scroll to the albatross and folded his arms. He looked at the prophet and then the original letter still in his hand. Now, why would he say "revolution" as opposed to "rebellion"...
-
"Of course I am, Zeros'." Duilin replied. "It'd be nice to work next to you, instead of Valos. Like the good ole' days." He then thought for a moment. "To bad that, Marshal guy isn't here, he could of summonded up something to create a distraction. But, I'm sure we can do a fine enough job without him."
----
"Oh allright." Rink said back to Xenia. "Him or Zion aren't comming, are they?"
Valos then nooded back at Aura and smiled. "Good, good. So, they officers seem to find alot of respect for your skill. Do you use any magics?" He asked her.
-
"Nope. I wonder what they're doin'...?"
--- --- ---
"Where the hell is that Ven guy!?" Tsu was tired of looking for any clues. "You haven't even talked to any NPCs yet," said Zion.
"They never say anything useful!"
"Try one!"
"Fine." Tsu walks up to a random townsperson and hits the A button. He recieves the response "Shopping is fun!"
>_<!!!!
--- --- ---
"...I bet they're havin' fun."
Aura smiles at Valos. "I'm glad that the officers find me skillful. I use lots of light-based magic."
-
The wyvern rider moved first, charging with his lance. Hyperion reacted quickly, by hitting the wyvern full force with his right wing. The beast flew for half a second longer before losing consciousness.
"You are officially relieved of your duty." Hyperion added as the wyvern and rider fell to their certain doom.
He then turned his attention back to his destination.
-
After the odd encounter with the man and the slaughter of an entire town, Ein has gained much more knowledge about both the surrounding world, and magic. However, there was a very odd effect left by his "enlightment": the name Haraldur. He did not know who he was, but he knew he had to find him.
He then left the town. He walked on a long sandy road, hoping to find someone. After about an hour of walking, he met a solider passing by.
-"Hello." Ein decided to start the conversation.
-"Hello, citizen. Have you seen anyone armed with a crossbow in a black cape?"
-"Err, no." He felt an odd tingle behind his belt on the back where his crossbow was hidden.
-"Alright, because I was sent to Lawessov to investigate on some wild rumours i've been hearing lately."
-"OK, if I see anyone, i'll make sure to tell one of... you... yeah. By the way, before you depart again, do you know anyone named Haraldur?"
The solider was in somewhat of a shock.
-"Of course i've heard of him! The Crimson Empire is planning an attack against him!"
-"Oh? Where can i find him? I want to see if i can take him on by myself."
-"Hah, you'll die for sure. But, if you're so eager to do it, you can start on Laus."
-"Thank you sir. Have a nice day."
The solider walked off. Laus... An island. Ein just knew. He did not know where that knowledge came to him from, he just knew.
-
Tesla sat on the edge of the wall and concentrated on the isthmus connecting Laus to the mainland. This must be done correctly.
Haraldur called down to Marshall: "Marshall, are you still trusted by Zeros', Duilin and company? If so, I would appreciate it if you would distract them from here, so I have fewer problems to deal with simultaneously? Maybe you should emphasise the evils of the Dark Empire to them? Or, at the very least, tell them that, in a psychotic rage, I destroyed Laus and massacred the populace, before leaving north again. They will believe that, at least," he added bitterly. "I need to be in a situation where I can focus on just one or two groups of enemies."
___________________________________________________________________
//The Great Prophet is quite solid.//
The Prophet said, "It is in your own interests that the Aspyes be destroyed and that you ally with Alterña, as that is what I am suggesting. I wish Retan's legacy to be destroyed no more than you, Draven."
___________________________________________________________________
Benito Franco Salazar read the letter just sent to him by Draven, and then jumped out of the window. He stood on the air, and a small bodyguard of fatigues wearing soldiers flew up to be beside him. They started flying towards the Dark Continent at a leasurely pace befitting an absolute ruler.
-
"Really, now?"
Draven folded his arms and slowly walked toward the old man, staring into his eyes.
"Then how absolutely convienient of you to arrive at the same time as that letter. I did not arrive at the position I am today by means of listening to random people, especially old men who fly in out of nowhere. You need more credibility than just being old and calling yourself 'a prophet'. Be gone, before my archers mistake you for a flying skeleton or something..."
He flipped his cape and proceeded into the stairwell.
Draven could never bring himself to trust a word of this man. No point in starting now. Still, he had already made the decision to meet with this Salazar, and intended to go through with it.
----
Through the windows of the airship Falcon V, a fortress could be seen in the distance. It was Redvik, a smaller, more mechanical looking structure than the Crimson Palace. Rather than airship docks in the towers, it's docks were located underground, and a large plate of ground could be seen moving near the walls of the fortress, like a giant lid opening up for the airship to land in.
----
Ven sneezed.
"Hah, someone must be talking about me."
He sneezed again, and realized it was the pollen of those strange flowers around him.
"Blast it!"
He began to chop at them with his blade, but this only released more pollen into the air, which caused him to sneeze several more times. He finally got up and escaped the pollen cloud.
"Arrgh! These seasonal nasal allergies..."
"Hehehehehe..."
"Huh?"
Ven looked up. In the clearing of the field stood something... very short... wrapped in grey cloth. An image flashed through Ven's mind. It was that little necromancer that hung around Mavas...
"You...! Who are you!?"
"Hsss... Who am I? What am I? Who are you? What are you? Who--"
An explosion rocked the ground at the necromancer's feet from a fireball thrown from Ven's blade, causing him to jump some twenty feet in the air. He squealed in his high pitched voice:
"H-hey, you can't ruin my intro!!"
He landed a great deal farther from Ven.
"Hsss, if you musst know, I am Degzgronzo, sservant of the all powerful Mavass!!"
"What the...? Never mind. Where is Mavas? Tell me!"
Ven flipped his sword in another ark, this time sending a much faster blade of wind at the little man, who avoided the attack in the same manner.
"Hehehehehe... Masster ssayss that he doessn't need Ven anymore... to keep you away... that I can have you now... hehehehe..."
-
Marshal nodded at Haraldur and called back. "It will be done." And we went off, he straped his gun over his shoulder. He could easily explain his reasons of the new equipment, to them. He thought that he should go over to a near by cliff to the north, he would probabbly be able to get Duilin and Zeros' attiention.
---------------
Duilin flue abit faster, he wanted to hurry there, the others are probabbly almost there. "We should speed up Zeros', come on." He said to him.
---------------
"Maybe, they are looking for Ven. I hear he has probloms of his own." Rink replied. "I bet his problom might even tie into ours."
"Hmmm, light-based magics." Valos said, wile rubbing his chin. He sat back. "That is indeed a good talent. I can see you going up the ranks very quickly." He then looked out the window. "Ah ha, we are almost at Redvik." He then stood, up, to get the soilders' attiention.
"Soilders! We are almost at our destination of Redvik. Now, we are to send two spies into Laus. We are not to attack as soon as we arive, but you must still prepare. You all know your positions and what lieutenants you are to go with. Make sure that you don't get lost. We are to attack, when Lord Draven himself tells us to!"
-
Zeros' shook his head and flew minimally faster.
"Duilin, it would do us no good to rush," he said, but accelerated agian to catch up with the other half-demon. The sky, once the colors of dawn, was now starting to glow yellow. Steam rose from the lake below them and raised into the sky, the beginning forms of clouds could be seen.
-
Ein waited until the solider was out of sight, and looked around. He was in a small open area with lots of sand around him.
-"Hmm... sand... not perferable... but it will do."
He walked around, found a small stick, and started drawing a strange circular diagram, sort of.
-
Aura was looking over the paper she recieved from Colonel Skul, making sure she knew where she was to go, and Xenai was doing... Nothing.
--- --- ---
"Come on, let's fly..." said Zion. "We've better luck flying around looking for him." The translucent teal angel wings appeared, and he took off. Tsu ejected one white angel wing on the left, and one black devil wing on the right, and took off.
-
Hyperion landed softly on the tower as his wings disappeared, turning himself into full human form. He looked around expecting to see Draven, but he only found The Prophet.
"Hey old man! In what direction has master Draven gone?"
-
The Prophet glared. The insolence of this man! It would be better then to lie low for a while then, to some of the smaller towns to find a following of his own.
" 'Hey old man! In what direction has master Draven gone?' ? One so young as you should show more respect towards your elders and betters, else you will end up like the individual you speak of. Where did he go? Why, he turned into a troop of pixies before disappearing in a burst of fairy dust. Where do you think he would go from this high tower with one staircase, without flying, as you would have seen him if he had? Kids of today... This is proof that the education system is a joke. Good day."
He flew west, into the countryside. He must find somewhere remote.
__________________________________________________________________
Haraldur and Tesla watched him go. Tesla said, "We will also find out where his loyalties lie."
"Indeed, and I am quitely confident that those same loyalties lie with us."
__________________________________________________________________
Salazar and his troop were now reaching the mainland of the Dark Continent, but it woiuld still take some time before they reached the Crimson Capital. Around him, his agents held various strange object. One was holding a piece of canvas on wood, and was mapping the countryside at a very fast rate. Others were noting down information about fortifications.
The capital came into view in the distance, and these objects were surreptitiously put away.
-
"If you say so Zeros'." Duilin replied. He slowed down abit, but not as slow as he was going before. "I'm just getting impatient, sorry..." Duilin continued flying.
"I had another nightmare, it was alot different then the others." Duilin said softly, "My father, he was in it...I'm not sure if it had a meaning, but..." He hesitated to continue, not like he was trying to remember the rest, but like he was trying to forget it.
--------
Marshal, came to a cliff. He knealed down, and looked into the distance. 'They should be coming soon...' He thought
--------
"Hey Valos." Rink said to the General.
"What do you want, Imp?" He snapped back, as he sat back down.
"Remember what Zeros' said about killing innocents. Not all the people there are soilders for the Aspyes." He said sternly
"Hahaha...I'm sure, I'm sure." Valos smirked, turned away and cracked his knuckles. "You just worry about your mission and I'll worry about mine."
Rink gave Valos a dirty looked and then turned away and crossed his arms.
-
"Halt! Who goes there!?"
Two armed guards emerged from the stairwell and found Hyperion standing there alone. They drew their blades.
"Who are you?!"
"That is enough."
The two guards immediately stepped aside and bowed their heads. Draven reemerged from the stairwell, staying in the shadow of the structure. He folded his arms.
"Hmmm, you're that dragon, aren't you? What is it that you seek? I'm not in the best of moods now, you see..."
----
Six wyvern riders suddenly swooped upon Salazar and his entourage from above, surrounding the group. The leader was a man in bright gold armor, carrying a long spear in his left hand.
"Identify yourself."
----
The Falcon V landed in the subterranean dock and opened its door. Several soldiers were waiting as the passengers exited, saluting them as they passed. There was one man who did not salute.
"General Valos."
It was General Vincent. He did not wear any armor, but rather something resembling more of a black trench coat with a few military adornments on his chest. His long black hair was tied in a ponytail behind his back and his calm, almost brooding eyes shone behind his small square rimmed glasses. His hands behind his back, his voice was soft and unemotional.
"Welcome to Redvik. What a surprise to have you come all the way down here to quell such a small upstart. Anyway, you will find the front line set up just beyond the forest south of this fortress. 8,000 men, as The Emperor requested. Do be sure to keep those rebels away from here..."
----
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
Ven brought his blade back, about to send another blast of magic.
"Hehehehehe!!!"
The small gray robed man clutched his staff with both hands and brought it above his head. The ground began to shake. A hill formed underneath the necromancer, sending him upward as it formed-- but it wasn't a hill...
...it was... a GIANT head...
... a giant ZOMBIE head...
More of the beast emerged from the ground, revealing a bipedal monster, complete with a large club in it's right hand, some 30 feet tall. Its rotting body was composed of exposed flesh and what looked like moss. With the necromancer still on it's head, it billowed a monstrous roar.
Ven took a step back.
"Great..."
-
Jonny and Bongo had just fiished their breakfast when saw a doorway he had not seen before. "Hmm...Bongo do you remember that doorway being there before?" Bongo looks at him,"ohh yeah, you're a monkey."Jonny puts him on his shoulder and walks to the door and sees a sign on is saying "Athorized Personell Only"
"Im a high ranking dude, I guess I'm athorized." So he opens the door and sees nothing but a small pit. He looks inside and sees it leads to the mainland.
"Score! Im gonna go ask abou-" He in interupted by the door closeing and it locks.
"Shit! Ohh, parachutes!" Jonny notices tree parachutes on a rack so he puts one on and grabs onto Bongo before jumping out the pit.
Bongo starts squealing and taping at Jonny. "What is it!" Jonny asks Bongo. "Ohh, it's that three story moss-giant thing!" Jonny starts reaching for his gun and lands about 100 yards away. "I better try and take that thing down." He then spots Zion and Tsu flying off. "I looks like they are heading that way to. I might need those witches help!" He then takes out his caliberate shotgun, loads it up and dashes off to the action.
-
Hyperion got down on one knee and looked at Draven.
"As the last command of my creator and former master, I was told to fight for you and the Crimson Empire. I have no idea as to why this command was made, but because of it my power now belongs to the Crimson Empire. Use it as you see fit."
-
Tsu pointed at the Zombie head. "Isn't that slightly unnatural?" It was quite far off. Zion squinted. "Yup..." The two start flying toward it.
--- --- ---
Xenai exited the ship with Rink, taking a look around. An eyebrow was raised at the trenchcoat man. //Should Aura salute Vincent?// Aura had exited as well, and was awaiting the order to move out. Maybe then she'd find out who her men were. There didn't seem to be any of her men around her. She glanced once more at the piece of paper. Her specific duty was to... //Xorlak can of course fill that in. Razz
-
Zeros' nodded at Duilin.
"Yes... Sometimes, dreams have prophetic meaning. It might be a glimpse into the past ? maybe a memory that was locked ? or it could be a sight into what might come (The furture). Prophet's and men and woman of visions sometimes have dreams about people they are to met, or protect," he said.
"Sometimes, even the ones closely connected with gods and demons are hard to understand the ones in higher positions. The vision of your father could of also came because you share a link with him. They say blood is thicker then water," he said, once again.
Apon the horizon, a glimpse of Laus could be seen through the misty skys and horizon.
-
//Zeros', does your character of the same name see the great sign in the sky above the city, which Haraldur put up, saying: "Zeros', why must magic and technology be seperate?" It is meant to be quite large.//
Salazar look upon the leading wyvyrn rider with unconcealed disdain, and said, "You should call me Generalísimo, at the very least. I am Caudillo de Alterña por la gracia de Dios Generalísimo Benito Franco Salazar, the leader of Alterña by the grace of God." He flashed his signet ring at them, "Emporer Lars Draven is expecting me."
_________________________________________________________________
The Prophet was entering a heavily wooded area now, with many small village he could exploit. Brilliant.
Below him he could see a person of obvious magical knowledge scribbling what looked like an octogram in the sand.
The Prophet hovered above him and shouted, "Hail, my friend! What brings you outside this day?" Wizards are not usually the outdoor type afterall, he thought.
//That means you, D. Ein.//
_________________________________________________________________
Haraldur looked towards Tesla, and said, "Have you released our first settlement?"
"Oh, I forgot..."
"Do it, then..."
Tesla removed the box from his pocket, an it dissolved in the air, dropping the settlement lightly in the own square, no longer in suspended animation. The people were looking a bit confused, but were reassured by the presence of their two leaders.
The various guns and other defences were moved by Haraldur's telekinesis onto the top of the walls alongside those already there.
They looked down on the remade city of Laus. All around, there were red flags and red and black flags (like this, but without the lettering: <a href='http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/CNT_FAI_flag.png)' target='_blank'>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d...T_FAI_flag.png)</a> all with the symbol of ten men surrounding another, the red and black ones having two, in the red and the black corners (where the lettering is on the picture). All around the city, wheels turned and forges burned as the populace was busy building a large structure in the centre with a lot of pipes, hollow metal cylinders and tanks which were surrounded by the aura of there being a high magical presence. Some enthusiastic members of the public had painted part of the machine in reds and reds and blacks, with the 11 man symbol drawn on, with varying levels of quality.
-
//He can see the sign, somewhat, but, he can't make out the lettering as of yet. I'd estimate there still a good couple miles away from Laus. If it wasn't for all the magic Gaian had absorbed, the mist ? which is now saturated in magic ? Zeros' could clearly see it, because of his demonic and god heiratiage. Zeros' COULD see through it, but, he want's to save his energy for Haraldur and Tesla.\\
-
"Perhaps you are right, Zeros'." Duilin replied. "Well, enough of that..." He then looks foward. "There's Laus." He lived there for a little wile so he could remember it. But it looks almost totally different, from here, Haraldur must have changed the placed.
------
"Ahah. I see them." Marshal said to himself. Zeros' and Duilin were only a small spot in the sky, but he could tell that the two creatures heading there way towards Laus had wings. "It looks like Duilin, is also with him..."
Marshal prepared for them to get a little closer.
------
"Ah, General Vincent. It's been awile." Valos replied. "Excellent. We are going to send these two 'people' to spy on them before we attack." He gestures towards Xenia and Rink "Lord Draven, will give us the order on when to attack. These spies, are quite powerfull, so I wouldn't worry about them getting caught, they would be able to put up a fight." He then turned to Xenia and Rink. "Well, you two should get to your mission, I will ready my soilders to the fortress."
"Allright..." Rink replied. "So, I guess I better find a clever way to get into Laus. I'm assuming they won't allow an Imp to just walk right in. But hey, I'm sneaky!" He then spread out his wings, and then began to fly off. "Xenia, we'll split up as soon as he get close to the town."
-
//It's spelled Xenai. Just thought I'd let you know.
But I'm not going to RP anything until I find out what Aura's supposed to be doing.//
-
Draven brought his right glove to his chin and studied the mysterious man.
"Hmmm, interesting. What is your name? And the name of the one who made you?"
He could tell the man wasn't human at all by his aura, but he didn't seem dragon either. Clearly artificial, and quite impressive work at that... He had never seen anything like it.
----
The wyvern rider nodded at the name and pulled out a small orb and gazed into it, seemingly nodding at an unheard message. He put the object away and smiled underneath his metal face mask.
"Generalísimo, welcome to the Crimson Empire."
He bowed slightly, holding up the reigns of the beast.
"If you would follow me, I will show you to your destination."
He turned the wyvern around and flew in the opposite direction, above the clouds. The remaining wyvern riders remained in their positions, waiting for the guests to follow before following themselves.
----
(Yes, Aura should salute all generals.)
Vincent sighed inwardly.
"Yes, awhile indeed... Just get your men out of my fortress as quickly as possible. I'm very busy here."
He turned and left, his entourage of troops following him back into the upper levels of the fortress. He couldn't stand the fact that this... general from the north... was given charge of the situation when he was so close to the area...
A colonel appeared from the other direction, stopping and saluting Valos. He was wearing a black cape and was adorned with military medals.
"General Valos, sir! I have prepared the troops and await your orders. We currently have our forces split into two primary base camps. My cartographers prepared this map for you last night."
He handed Valos a small sheet of paper:
(http://http://darkagegames.net/dal/laus_map.jpg)
"A complication has arisen, though. Scouts reported early this morning that the land just between the front line and Laus has been severely damaged somehow. Much of the ground has become upheaved and dangerous sometime between this morning and when Laus was captured. We have marked this area with the X's on the map, but we're not sure actually how far back to Laus it goes... If you would follow me to base camp 2, I will present you our forces."
(Dude Man, from here on in you can take control of the situation for the front line. Take care of Aura's assignment too. I have way too many things going on. Heh...)
----
With the necromancer still riding on its head, the zombie beast took a step forward.
"Hehehehe... die! Die! DIE!!"
It reared its huge club up into the air and slammed it into the ground, the resulting tremor knocking Ven off of his feet. Ven rolled backwards and regained balance in a crouched position.
Gotta think fast... Open field, lots of grass... undead monster... likely flora elemental... has to be weak against fire...
A short bust of crimson flame engulfed Ven's blade and he slashed it at the oncoming beast. The flame carried on to hit the beast's shin, but it was too weak to have much effect...
-
"Interesting..." Valos said as he exaimed the map, "So, you say the ground is damaged? Hmmm, perhaps Haraldur may have something to do with this. I suspect something will happen, I'm not sure what, but our last attempt of wipeing him out, we took alot of damage before we even got into his city. I know he is able to the control the movement's of earth...Anyways, I'll explain more of this later. Lead the way colonel." He then turned to the others. "Let's move, soilders!" He then pointed to Rink and Xenai, "You two, should come with us accually, before you just go skipping in there."
Valos, had brought some of his shock troops with him, since they found out the Aspyes have bullet wepons, he thought brining high-tec weapons would be needed.
The colonel lead began to lead the others to base camp 2. He then looked at Aura, "I will explain your mission once we get there." He told her.
-
"Indeed... There is Laus. Interesting to see how Haraldur has changed and sculpted the area to his will," he said, commenting on the buildings and such. While they weren't new to him, he was, of course, a dimensional traveler, so...
He felt a farmiliar aura... It seems Marshal was already here, but, there was something lingering on the very edge of his aura. Zeros' wasn't one to trust people impliciably over working together for only a few short hours, so he was slightly wary, seeing how Marshal's arsenal was changed.
But, he proceeded nontheless.
-
He thought he would be more nervous in the situation, but he wasn't at all.
"My name is Hyperion and I am the finest creation of the magician Edgar Gonzalo."
-
Draven stroked his chin. Gonzalo... hmmm... didn't ring a bell... This will require looking into. After his meeting, of course.
"Hyperion... very well. I will permit you to be in my service if you can perform a simple task."
He looked in the direction that the old prophet flew into.
"Find that old man and kill him. Bring his head to me..."
His eyes returned to meet Hyperion's, glistening as he grinned.
"Of course, you must not lead on that you were sent by me. You will not be granted that privilege until you pass this test..."
He turned, flipping his cape, and disappeared back down into the stairwell.
Those fools follow this old man's "visions" blindly. Hate for him to get an attitude and tell them to turn on me... Better remove this one...
-
Benito Franco Salazar followed the leading wyvyrn rider, as did his entourage. The other wyvyrn riders followed cose behind. They came to where Draven was //the Crimson Palace, I assume.// and Franco moved forward, and bowed the shallow bow of unaquainted equals.
"Greetings. I trust you are not currently troubled by other urgent affairs of state?" he said, with the implication being there was none more important.
__________________________________________________________________
//Come on D. Ein, do not keep me waiting! Razz//
-
// I'll nag at D.Ein to post Wink \\
"Ah ha." Marshal clearly saw Zeros' and Duilin. "Over here!" He yelled
"Wha? Zeros', did you hear that." Duilin said, he turned his head, and spotted Marshal. "Well, I'll be. It's Marshal, what the hell is he doing there?" Marshal, was sitting on a cliff, seems odd why he would be there, and what was that stuff he had on? He swooped over, and hovered a few yards away from him. "How's it goin'?" He said cheerfully. 'Something's not right...'
"Oh, my, It was terrible..." Marshal said sounding frightened
"What, happened?"
"I went back to the Blue Minotaur Temple, and it was gone...Haraldur destroied it, so I went to Crimson Capital, and I saw he tried to destroy there to. I saw you people there to, and well...I followed him back to Laus. I stole some equipment, and possed as one of Haraldur's followers. I herd him talking with some others, and then he started killing people, and then said he was going to destroy Rivertown, next...You must hurry, there. Haraldur's has gone beserk again...I can't stop him, but I know you two can!"
Duilin turned and looked at Zeros'. "What do you think?" He asked
---------------
Valos and the others arived at the base camp. Tons of soilders were there getting ready for battle. There was one table reserved for him and the others. He placed the map down on the table, and motioned for the others to group around. He then began to explain his plan
"Allright, now apparently, Haraldur has rigged the ground. I assume the the ground may crack open or huge sprouts of water will blast out, or volcanos will sprout from the ground, or some random shit like that. So, I supose it would be best to enter Laus very carefully! Now, Aura, I want you to group with the newbies as you have been instructed, they may be abit jumpy and scared, don't let them slack off.
Now, Xenai from this base, I want you to head down to Laus, pose as a commoner, or something, try to blend in. Imp, you can enter were ever you want, since your not supost to be seen anyways. Well, try not to. You two gather as much information as possible, try and find out what Haraldur did to the ground. Telepathicly message all information to me. If you get caught, don't run back here, they will follow you, and blow our cover. Now, as soon as I get enough information, about the area, there army size and such, I'll inform Lord Draven about it.
Now, once we attack, we'll send out forces from base camp 1 to attack the north side of the city and the soilders from base camp 2 to attack from the south side, attacking them from both sides, leaveing them nowere to run. We will have a fraction of our forces to guard the front line, once we attack they some may run off and try to attack our camps, we may also get trapped from the rigged ground so, leaveing troops outside would be a wise choice. Now, I don't want the less experinced to pick a fight with Haraldur, he is very strong. Me, Draven, Duilin and Zeros' are probabbly the only ones able to put up a fight. You two spies, I want you to leave ASAP. Any questions?"
-
//Don't feel like RPing Zion and Tsu... I'm in a really bad mood.
--- --- ---
Of course Aura had saluted all the generals. What, you think she didn't? Open your eyes.
"The newbies will be fine, sir. I'll get them into shape. My guys and I will be attacking with the guys from camp 2, right?"
"Like a commoner, then?" And he just tosses his armor aside, revealing normal-looking clothing. "Like I need it anyway." Zero Weapon wasn't visible, it materialized at will.
-
Ein was thrown off his concentration, by a voice above him. He stared at the man above.
-"Wha...? Who are you? Well, that matters not. I am currently attempting to use this... Gift, if you will, of magic, that I recieved from a dying sage. As he... umm... gave it to me, i gained knowledge of an entity named Haraldur, and a location: Laus. I was in the process of trying to teleport there. I may be doing a few things wrong, but... You know. We always try to do our best, now don't we?"
//Oh the joy of returning to DAL! Stupid internet wouldn't start up, so i could only go on MSN... sorry about the wait, guys.
-
Hyperion suspected he would have to do something of this nature, but was hoping otherwise. He looked towards the direction the prophet, trying to get an idea of where he went.
"I had better make this one quick. Perhaps I shouldn't underestimate him though."
He turned into a dragon and flew in the direction.
-
Zeros' looked at Marshal carefully, before lightly resting his hand on his sword hilt, almost unnociabily.
"Well... For one, what would Haraldur get out of destroying a cult of summoners who are only interesting in history and legends? More then likely, he'd want to recruit them," he said casually.
"And another thing is..." he pulled his sword out in one, swift movement and soon had the sword in its god form, leveled at Marshal's throat. The blades length didn't change, but, it got taller (As in, bigger going up ad down). The hilt of the sword also changing into a ethernal white mane, about a foot in length, which seemed to flow and shift without any wind. "... Your totally and utterly lying.
For one, your aura has more subtile traces of Haraldur and Telsa it should have. You mave of had a meeting with the two, but, it was only brief. The ammount in your aura suggests you spent more then that time around them. Another thing, is, if Haraldur destroyed the Blue Minitour temple ? which he didn't ? someone here would of felt a power spike.
Don't try to trick me, Marshal. I've been alive longer then either Draven, or Haraldur. I've been to Asgard (The God plane) and Niflheim (Hell) more time then you can count," he growled out. "I'll give you one chance to redeem yourself in my eyes, before I cut you down," he said, leaving his threat unfinished.
-
Duilin shook his head in shame as he looked at Marshal. "I'd rather have Haraldur kill him for his failure. Just run Marshal..."
Marshal looked flushed, he was frightened "But, you don't understa-"
"Your in enough shit as it is. Go tell, your great leader what a wonderfull job you did."
Marshal, got up and ran as fast as he could, without even thinking of looking back.
"Heh, you see this might accually turn out to be good. You see, Haraldur will know we are here, therefore his main focus will be on us, not the others." Duilin said. "So, shall we go kick some ass?"
------
"Hmm, let's see." Valos said to Aura. "Yes, I supose you will, better get moveing then soilder."
"I supose that's all the info I need." Rink replied. "I'll be sure to keep my aura off. I'll give you a metal message if I see any sign of Zeros' or Duilin." He flies his way off to Laus...
-
Zeros' shook his head and resheathed his sword. The wind shifted briefly, showing his horribly scarred hands as he ran his right hand through his hair. On the back of his palm, the webbing between his thumb and pointer all had a metal welding on the back, in a net-like pattern. Barely any skin was shown through, as, the rest of his hand, even his fingernails, were littered in scars. Some even reached the bone. It was only thanks to his demonic and godlike powers half of his body was still useable.
"Kicking ass? No. We only need to cause a distraction... Remember Draven's spy plan? We need to stay true to that. All we need to do is cause some kind of distraction," he said, placing both of his hands into his trenchcoat pockets, a habit he picked up in another dimension.
-
//Meh, can't go on the comp after 4:30, so might as well make my second post now.\\
"Hah, allright." Duilin said back. "Well, let's see. I supose just us being here could be big enough, but Haraldur might suspect something..." Duilin, sat down, on the cliff were Marshal was. "Well, perhaps we could run threw the city banging pots yelling 'The Rommes are coming!' but that would be crazy." He said jokeing. "But perhaps, we could just fly over the city and start dropping fireballs in the streets, and then kiddnaps some people." Duilin subjested. "You'd have to be a fool to ignore that. So, I supose that might work."
-
The Prophet looked at Ein, and said, "If you are on Haraldur's side, I will have to kill you, if not, then I suggest that you travel to the nearby town of Redvik: even now an army of the Crimson Empire are preparing to attack Laus, and they doubtless would appreciate new volunteers, especially those as magically gifted as yourself. If you are against Haraldur, I would quite like to accompany you."
__________________________________________________________________
"Nikola, I am going to start my own diversion, and provoke the Crimson Army, I am impatient for them to attack. Assuming he is still alive, whether or not his mission was a success, tell Marshall to attack the North side of Redvik, as I attack the South. If his mission has failed, which would not be a surprise, make it clear to him that this was anticipated, and we are not angry etc. etc.. It is to our advantage if we, after that setback (if indeed that as happened), further strengthen his loyalty to us, and the cause.
"Anyway, I expect you to be able to hold off the attacks in the meantime..." he chuckled.
Tesla nodded, but kept silent maintaining his concentration on the huge forces he was holding back with only the power of his mind.
Haraldur jumped off the battlements, and flew northward, preparing to destroy the frontline when he approached it later.
-
"Ah, Lord Salazar, I presume."
He glanced at the accompanying wyvern riders and waved his hand, and they promptly left back into the sky.
"Of course not. You had an appointment after all. Come, we should have our meeting in a more hospital environment."
He lead the way down the stairwell at the top of the tower, through some winding hallways, and into the main dining hall, where he took his seat at the throne at the head of the long table. Dozens of servants scurried about, setting plates for the guests.
The elite in black armor silently watched from the balcony.
Draven waved his hand as the wine glasses were being filled.
"Come and sit. Tell me now, why are you so interested in this little affair with the Aspyes?"
----
Ven jumped out of the way of the beast's club, summoning another fire spell to his sword. As he landed he had to jump again, the giant left hand now coming at him. But as he descended, he jammed the blade, now burning with flame, into the undead monster's left arm. It wailed in pain as the whole arm went up in a burst of crimson, flailing it around wildly and speeding the flame to nearby bushes and grass. The left arm burned completely off, but Ven's sword was thrown some 20 feet behind the beast in the process and the beast seemed rather angry now...
Ven readied himself for some major dodging as the beast set its sights on him once more...
"Real great..."
-
Ein chuckled.
-"Kill me? You seem like a man with harsh methods. I can't be blaming you, though... From my general opinion of this land's population, such methods are... encouraged, or rather, needed. In any case, thank you for your information, but i prefer not to disclose my current plans."
He continued drawing the diagram in the sand. As he finished tracing the final line, he pointed to the ground directly north of him, and started drawing a shape in the air. After a few swift movements, a glowing pentagram appeared around and over him. He started chanting.
//heh, someone mind describing Laus for me? I sort of want to know what it looks like before teleporting there...
-
"And where the f*ck were weeeee?!" sings Tsu.
"I like bands of armenian descent as much as any other guy," came Zion's retaliation, "but now is not the time!"
"Party pooper. Oh yeah, where's Armenia?"
"I have no idea." They land, unsheathing their weapons. Zion chucked a ki ball at the beast. "Need a hand, Ven?" asks Zion.
--- --- ---
Xenai headed out for Laus, looking as casual as he could be, and was he good at it! He subdued his aura as much as possible, and did good at it.
Aura was about to head off to Camp 2, but oh, look. She was already there. Guess she would just hang out here until the time to attack.
-
Hyperion came to a stop after a while and surveyed the area. He sensed that the prophet must be close by.
"Where is he?"
He decided go a little further.
-
Ven prepared to do another crazy leap for his life when a ball of energy exploded into the one armed zombie-beast from the side, causing it to lose its balance and fall over. The necromancer fell off of his ride and into some nearby bushes.
"Arrrghh!!"
Ven brought his right hand behind his head.
"Uh, well yeah, I guess so..."
The ground tremored as the beast hit the ground. Seeing the opportune moment to strike, Ven lept some fifteen feet into the air, holding out both hands and charging them with the fire element.
"The sword! Toss it here!!"
-
Marshal returned to Laus. He saw, Tesla. "Tesla...I am sorry, but I have failed. Zeros' and Duilin are probably going to attack soon."
----
Rink arrived at Laus, nobody seemed to notice the small imp fly into town. He sat on top of a building, next to the smoke stack, making it harder for people to notice him.
'Hmmm, he certainly likes things to be even.' Rink thought. 'God, this way of living really won't work.
He then scanned the area, he sees a few people walking around, some high-tech and magical things all around. It all looked crazy. He was more used to firey caves and everything terrible uneven.
-
D. Ein continued chanting. Eventually, the circular diagram in the sand started glowing eerily, and soft breeze could be felt in the general area. Then the pentagram above Ein suddenly flashed brightly. For a split second, everything was covered in bright yellow-orange light, and... He was gone. The diagram in the sand was still visible, but it was twisted, and nearly unrecognizable.
As the light faded, Ein looked around. There were square-shaped buildings around him... All the same. He saw two people talking a few feet away. He came over to them.
-"Hello, gentlemen. How are you today?"
//By gentlemen, i mean Marshal and Tesla Razz
-
Tesla felt a familiar presence, enter Laus, and smiled grimly to himself: they are spying already. Oh, well, if we are not bad judges of character, it seems unlikely that they will attempt murderous sabotage, so no problem.
He turned when he heard Marshall. "Indeed, it was anticipated that might happen. Haraldur is just to the North, waiting for you to accompany him to Redvik, to agitate the enemy. He will want you to attack the North of the base as he attacks the South, understand?"
A look of intense concentration returned to his face as he turned back towards the city.
___________________________________________________________________
Haraldur waited.
___________________________________________________________________
The Prophet looked at Ein, and said, "I deamnd that you answer me, are you on the side of Haradur?"
//What Laus used to look like is irrelevant, here is what it looks like now:
Around Laus are very tall and towered gleaming stone and galvanised steel walls, on top of which are a number of plasma firing big guns (think of the larger plasma weapons on Star Wars, or the Lasguns of Dune). In the middle of the city is a large city square, on which is deposited, in a corner, a settlement from the North, Haraldur's original followers, who have been released from stasis into Laus. To the east of the square, is a large series of pipes and cylinders and liquid tanks, covered in symbols. The rest of the city is made up mostly of housing, storehouses and workshops. All the housing is of good quality (steel, stone and brick) and equally sized, and initially aesthetically identical (although doubtless the inhabitants have made some personal modifications). Everywhere is covered with revolutionary slogans, red and red and black flags, the flags with the Aspyes symbol on them.
The people, long oppressed first by the ruling merchant guilds and by pirates, and then by the much worse Crimson Empire, are almost universally enthusiastic about the revolution, which they agree with making a world revolution. Many of them, who had worked in magical and mundane workshops before, have found themselves very busy with new objects and machines they are having to learn about to help their training, and are working on a strange substance Haraldur informed them about called "electricity", whatever that is. Expect some interesting (explosive) results as they try to work it out, without guidance from Haraldur or Tesla due to their current preoccupations.//
___________________________________________________________________
Salazar sat, and said,"I am sure the Crimson Emporer likes to jo... wait, you do not know what is going on? Have you purged your intelligence forces recently?//Hehehehehe...// How much do you know of what is happening?"
He looked very concerned.
-
//Grrr... that is what happens when you spend time on a post...
Anyway, I will assume you are not in the streets, but on the wall, as that is where Tesla and Marshall are.//
The prophet swore and cursed as Ein disappeared from view, and decided to carry on west, to visit his acolytes. He flew west.
___________________________________________________________________
Tesla turned quickly, his plasma gun pointing straight into Ein's chest, as several revolutionaries stood up, surrounding the suddenly arriving intruder pointing various bullet weapons at him. Tesla said, "Who are you!? Speak quickly, lest I get impatient."
-
Zeros' shook his head and chuckled ruefully.
"Yes... Dropping fireballs WOULD be quite hard to ignore, but, I was thinking something else," he said. He unsheathed his sword, but, this time, it transformed into it's demonic state. Unlike the sleekness of the god blade, the demon blade was made for power.
It doubled in length (The original sword was already about 7 feet long) and grew much wider (As in, thicker. It's now about a foot across, horiziontally). The silver sheen disappeared, being replaced with black and reds... The colors of rotting flesh. Spikes, some as small as a few inches, while others reached up to two feet, were randomly placed on the blade. Dark tendrils of energy leaked out out of sword.
Zeros' walked over, and looked down off the cliff. He saw the town below, and many of the technological improvements Haraldur had made.
"Now this, is what I was thinking of," he stated. He looked around, and found the tallest building in the area: A watch tower. It towered over the rest of the town. It was one of the best sentry outposts, almost level with the cliffs, but not quite.
Zeros' hoisted the sword, and rested it across his right shoulder (As, he had pulled out the sword in his right hand). He seemed to be contimplating something.
Hm... No... That wouldn't work. Hm... Not the Rising Dragon either... he pondered for a few more moments, before the perfect attack came to him. Faster then almost anyone could see (Well... Haraldur and Draven could probably see it), his sword blurred from his shoulder. There was a clap like thunder, as his sword ripped through the sound barrier. Now, the sword was in a downwards diagonal slash, but, that wasn't the main point of the slash.
From where his sword had slashed, a crescent blade of pure black ki flew from the point where his sword has slashed. If one looked directly at the ki blade, the person would see a distortion around the crescent blade, as, it seemed the ki blade was sucking the light from the surrounding area and taking it into itself... Or was it?
The target of the attack became clear after a moment. The blade blade of ki rocketed towards the tower. The two men manning the tower didn't have time to scream, before the blade of ki hit the watch tower. Nothing happened at first, but, after a few moments, there was a large RIPPP!.
From where the ki blade hit, it expanded outwards, until it reached the size of the tower. From there, the black aura from the attack enveloped the tower, until it was covered and completely obscured from view. There was another large RIPPP!, and the tower simply disappeared.
All around from where the tower stood, around a 5 foot radius, and sign of plant or animal life was simply... Dead.
-
Haraldur, from above, saw the light absobing ki blade fly and hit the tower and saw the results. Anger seethed within him: Zeros' assertions to him being the moral one of us has now been proved to be hypocritical insult. Oh, I do not harm innocents, ha!
He saw the 30 plasma guns (shielded by Haraldur's power as of this moment) start firing towards Zeros'. The idiots! Why are they attacking one they should know is beyond their power to kill?
His face impassive, he moved his left hand towards the gap in the wall: a new tower rose up, but with the dead patch now on top, with two flags on one pole stuck into it, and seven black and red ribbons attached to the pole, each to announce a martyr to the cause. As the people saw this, he heard an increasingly loud roar of anger from the populace, now newly motivated by attack.
He dropped downwards in his flight, a large wooden shoe (sabot), about ten feet wide, in his right hand. He threw it down with great force, and it smashed against the rocks, with a small fireball following it.
The sabot dropped right onto the foot wide sword, attempting to smash it to pieces, meanwhile the rest of it broke up into large dagger sized splinters, which were ignited by the fireball, sending burning splinters at Zeros' and Duilin.
"You hypocritical bastard, Zeros'! You are moral, are you? You harm no innocents, do you? The sun, my sun, shines out of your arse does it? You have finally proven yourself just as much filth as the Crimson Emporer himself!"
Grrrr... why must I now be border control? Damn, I suppose Marshall will have to handle Redvik on his own... damn it!
____________________________________________________________
Tesla remained still as, behind Ein, a tower was destroyed and replaced with a new one, and the martyrdom signs. He heard the rising sound of anger from the crowds, and the firing of the plasma guns. He saw the agitated looks of suspicion of the revolutionaries around him towards the intruder.
"I say again, speak quickly, or, considering the circumstances, we will automatically assume you an enemy. Speak your name, damn you!"
-
//Curses be upon Dudeman for telling me tesla & marshal were on the streets >.<\\
Ein glanced at the gun pointed at him.
-"Well, hello to you too. This seems like quite the place for warm welcomes! I'm Duke Ein. I understand you are in some way related to Haraldur? Might you know whether or not he needs any assistance? I am quite adept at ranged combat, and I can crush bones in melee combat as well."
Since it looked like Tesla wasn't going to be lowering his gun anytime soon, Ein started explaining:
-"Once upon my wanderings, I have met a dying man. He kept begging me to touch his staff, and I, being the fool I was, touched it. Seems he already charged a memory-altering spell, and was just waiting for the right moment to use it. Anyway, it... changed my points of view upon the world. To make a long story short, I think he was a follower of Haraldur. He also gave me the gift of magic, as you might probably see."
-
"In that case," Tesla said, "Please demonstrate this by going out there and killing those fighting Haraldur. Any follower knows Haraldur by sight, as would have your magically gifted friend, so I trust you will be able to tell which one he is, before you see him fighting one to two."
He lowered his weapon, nodded to Ein in recognition, handed him a half red and half red and black cravat, like that which the revolutionaries wore, and then pointed his plasma gun towards the image of Zeros' in the distance and shot.
-
-"All right. I will try my best."
Ein jumped off the wall, and hurried to the two figures in the distance. However, suddenly he stopped, and sat down on the ground. He looked around. "Stick, stick, stick... Oh, there we go." He picked up the stick, and drew a basic circle on the ground, with three lines meeting at the centre of the circle. Then, he drew a few symbols around the circle. After that, he quickly muttered a short chant, and the lines in the middle seemed to shift a bit. Then he took out a bolt and put it on the circle. The bolt suddenly got covered in ice. Ein carefully put the enchanted bolt in his quiver, and continued running swiftly towards the two people.
-
Duilin, flew back and shielded himself with his wings, and briefly surrounded himself in a fiery shield, to protect himself from the burning shards. He then stood up and dusted himself off.
"Oh, I'm sorry Haraldur, you will have to excuse my friend Zeros' here." Duilin called out. "Of course, soldiers devoting themselves to guard a war mongering city by killing anyone by blasting them to hell with a witchcraft cannon HAS to be an innocent!" Duilin, flapped his wings but still stood on the ground. "Funny because, according to your logic, anyone who has anything to do with a certain group with a violent cause such as the Crimson Empire or the Aspyes, isn't innocent. And don't tell me the Aspyes are not violent, because you people have enough weapons to kill a freaking god."
He then narrowed his eyes, and spotted a caped man, coming toward them. "I'll take capie, over there." He then upholstered his mace and then soared over towards, the newcomer...
-
"Zeros' definition seems to include such people!" shouted Haraldur. "I was using his definition is my communication with him!"
-
Tsu looked to the sword on the ground. He dove for it, grabbed it, and flung it Ven-ward while Zion watched with a "Holy crap, you're gonna cut an appendage off" look.
--- --- ---
"Rock... Paper... Scissors!" Rock beats Scissors, and Aura wins.
"Lieutenant, why are we playing Rock Paper Scissors?"
"I was wondering when you'd ask that." ^_^ She grinned at the soldier she was playing against. "First of all, we have nothing to do until they give us the word to attack. Second of all, I'm trying to get you to learn how to predict me. If you know what your opponent's gonna do before he or she does it, you have an advantage over them... Many, actually."
"Oh... I get it... I'm still kinda nervous, sir... ma'am?"
Aura snickered. "Don't worry, you guys'll do fine. I'll make sure of it."
--- --- ---
Xenai walked on into a pub, taking a seat at the bar. What better way to be natural then to drink beer? He made sure to drill it into his head that he 's passing through and wants beer, so that he doesn't blab his assignment if he gets really drunk. "I want a Jack Daniels."
"Ah, always a good decision," says the barkeep. And before long, Xenai's gulping down that beer. Hah... Glad I decided to do this! Passing through, of course! HAR HAR HAR!
-
Ein continued running towards the two figures, as he saw one of them rise up. A second later, he noticed that the figure had... wings. That stopped him in his tracks. "What the hell...? Is that a bird or something? Hmm... odd. But, in the end, it truly matters not. After all, they have to be defeated, be it a bird or otherwise." He continued running.
As Ein was right below the winged person, he jumped landing on his back, ripped out his crossbow from behind his cape, and hastily fired several bolts at the "bird", aiming for it's head.
-
Hyperion finally noticed The Prophet flying westward. He decided to follow from a distance. He thought he may be able to give Draven some valuable info as well as the old mans head.
-
//Arg, I know I'm moving to fast, but I need to update Marshal and Rink, so I might as well update Duilin. And Ein, if Duilin is with Zeros', I wouldn't refer to Duilin as the 'winged one', heh.\\
"What the hell?" Duilin yelled as, the caped man jumped on his back. As Ein fired his crossbow bolts, Duilin ducked his head, dodging the bolts, and flipped himself around, knocking his attacker off. "That was mean. And believe me, I know mean," Duilin said, "I'm a demon!" the half demon, then raised his left hand pointing towards Ein, and dark purple electric energy began to surround his hand, suddenly, a dark purple lightning bolt blasted his way at D.Ein.
-------
Marshal saw the commotion, but saw that he was not needed here. "I will carry out, on the mission. I wish you luck of defending from the demons. I will not fail this time." He said to Tesla.
Marshal, then un-strapped his machine-gun from his back. "Lock and load!" He said, describing what to do with his gun. Perhaps the phrase might catch on! He then dashed his way towards, Redvik.
-------
'Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle.' Rink thought, as he spotted Marshal dash off. 'That fool, joined the Aspyes. I'd hate to have to kill him, but I might have to in the future. I don't blame him for not trusting us, we are a rather scary bunch'
He then saw Xenai walking into the pub. He smiled and sighed. Tipical. He observed the battle headed outside the gates of the town. 'Talk about a distraction, I could probably, dance around in the streets naked and nobody would see. Oh wait, I don't wear close in the first place.'
He then, began to hop from building to building. 'Quite some weapons they have here, I'll inform Valos of the area.'
'Hey, shit-face, I mean Valos. They've got some heavy-duty weapons here. It looks like, some sorta plasma cannons, that they have. I saw Tesla fire one. Also, Marshal has joined them, he's headed your way. Maybe taking him out now would make the battle a bit easier. But seriously, all the building are they same, and the technology is insane. It's run by magic. Anyways, that's all. 10-4!' He closed it with a term used in another dimension. Apparently, Zeros' isn't the only one who travels in between dimensions.
------
"Ack, I hate that stupid Imp." Valos groaned as he reseved Rink's message. He was sitting on a table, with his legs up on a barral, smokeing a cigar. He wasn't to far from Aura.
"Hey, Aura, you up for some quick action? Some, fool is coming to attack. Maybe you can take him yourself. It would be overkill if I went." Valos called to her. "Now, which one of you newbies, wants to arm wrestle me? Come, on!"
The soldiers raised their eyebrows, and immediately turned away, and step back a few feet.
Valos just laughed, and then looked back at Aura. "I hear the guy is a summoning mage. So he might be a toughie, but other then that, I think it'll be smooth sailing. So, you think you're up to it, or do you want me to go handle it?"
-
Jonny Albatrash arrives on the sene with his shotgun ready.
"Alright you giant-" Albatrash stops an gazes at the larger-than-he-remembered-giant.
"Well, at least I won't miss."
He aims his shotgun at the zombie a shoots it in the back.
"Ahoghe!" He grunts as he sees the hole in it ozzing with rotting zombie inerds.(Be creative with your imagination)
The zombie seems to have had no reaction to the shot so Jonny runs toward Ven.
"Looks like you need some help." he says "And if you don't then too bad, I'm bored!" he adds and gets out of his way.
"Bongo you go hide untill Jonny is done with the zombie babey steal somthing nice for me." Jonny says as he lets Bongo off his shoulder and he skurries off into the streets.
Jonny shoots at the Zombie a few more times and it lets out a loud bellow.
-
//eh... i don't care. You're the only one who used the above mentioned wings. And um, HEY! How do you know my character's name so quickly in the story?\\
Ein quickly flipped the crossbow around, and hit the bolt with the crossbow handle, blasting it back at it's source.
-"Mean? Define mean, bird. You are mean in my point of view, I am mean in yours. There is no true definition, as there is no "good" or "evil". Each side considers themselves good."
He rolled over on his back under a tree, firing another bolt just as he hid under the tree's canopy.
-
Draven sat back and appeared to be in a low chuckle for a few seconds.
"Heh heh heh..."
He leaned forward, his gloved hands under his chin, his gaze piercing into Salazar's soul.
"That would be the next of my questions, Lord Salazar... How much do you know? You see I've always welcomed the prospect of forming alliances. But you see, there is a small problem with allowing foreigners in your domain. I'm sure you are familiar with it. Spies tend to appear... Little insects that report your secrets to outsiders... I despise them almost as much as traitors. Before you know it, you have enemies attacking your weaker shore... Ambassadors appearing... at just the right moment... when your nation is in crisis, to offer 'help' only they can provide, to get in on your good side..."
He took a sip of wine.
"Yes, of course. We have Ragnar, the one who tried to destroy the world because he had a bad childhood or something... I forgot exactly why... anyway, who also hates me, probably because he made a bad career choice earlier in life, I'm not sure... anyway, who suddenly out of nowhere decides he has some peaceful ideals, frees a few criminals and takes over my weakest town, being as we've just subdued them a few years back, brainwashing the population, likely using some form of black magic. I've seen it before."
----
Approaching some twenty feet in altitude, Ven plucked the sword spinning towards him out of the air and took it in both hands. He pointed the blade downward as the fire energy from his hands transfered to the sword, his black cloak flowing behind him, revealing his bright silver armor. His voice reverbed throughout the open field.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"
He rapidly fell, plunging the blade into the monster's back. It billowed as it lied on the ground, the flame from the sword completely engulfing it. A tremendous explosion followed, sending burning chunks of the monster in all directions. Ven was thrown backwards, landing on his back at least 15 feet away. He slowly sat up, and gave Tsu a 'thumbs up' and a half beaten up smile.
"Guess I owe you guys."
He stumbled to his feet.
"Zion and... don't think I've met you two."
He was referring to Tsu and the pirate Johnny.
----
"Chaos... I can smell it... so very close..."
Mavas found himself in a sort of soldier camp assembled in the forest. Random soldiers will still saluting him, for he still had the appearance of the Lieutenant he had killed. Idiots. What delightful idiots...
"Where is this place? Speak."
A soldier stopped and saluted.
"Sir! This is base camp 1, Laus border, front line!"
"Hmmm..."
He turned, seeing a group of fifty soldiers or so standing at attention, with three guard captains apparently inspecting them. He approached them.
"You there! Come with me! All of you!"
The three guard captains saluted. The closest one spoke.
"S-Sir! By order of the general, we cannot move until the signal is given!"
"Oh, really... where is this... general..."
"Base camp 2, sir!"
"And where is that?"
"Follow the front line westward, sir!"
Without a word, Lt. Mavas began walking westward, disappearing into the forest.
"That was weird. You'd think he'd know..."
"What's with the red gem he was wearing...?"
-
The sabot viciously strained against the power of the sword. For a moment, it it seemed the sword would win, but... There was a sound like breaking glass as Zeros' sword broke into large pieces, and flew in random directions. Some of them imbedded themselves into Zeros' skin, along with the wooden shards.
Zeros' looked at the broken sword. He stared at it for a moment, idly blocking all the guns that had shot at him with his aura. The shards were imbedded in his skin, but he ignored them. Then... he simply disappeared. The shards of his sword that were formely imbedded in his skin hung in the air for a moment, before they clattered to the ground. With a hiss, the shards of the sword turned back to their original color, and stared to glow with a white aura.
The shards that were far away, started to magically fly back, til all the parts of the untransformed sword were in a pile. The shards continued to glow white, while they gradually reformed themselves into the sword.
---
Zeros' reappeared behind Haraldur, the hilt of his sword in a safe place. His trenchcoat was torn in many places, and burned, with blood flowing anew. Zeros' simply ignored the wounds, as, he knew they would be healed in moments.
"So... I'm a hypocrite, eh? That might be true... But, what did you say about the Crimson Empire? There were no innocents? I could say the same for you, Haraldur. Your so much alike Draven in many ways, even if you do deny it," he said towards the crazed leader of Aspyes.
-
//Just because I mentioned your name in my post, it doesn't mean that Duilin knows your name.\\
The bolt stuck Duilin, in his shoulder. He let out a small yelp of pain. He was used to it, however. He just plucked it out and tossed it aside. "That's a good point, shaded one..." Duilin replied. "I do agree with you. So, die!" Duilin, then dashed towards Ein, and swung his mace down at him.
------
Rink continued hopping from building to building, deeper into the town. He then spotted a few rebels, practicing with spears. Nothing interesting. Hopefully, Xenai may be able to get more information.
//I'll update on Valos and Marshal after Trent posts.\\
-
-"Huh?"
Ein was caught off-guard, as he saw the giant mace coming towards him out of nowhere. He tried to dodge it, but unsuccessfully. The mace whacked him on his right arm, injuring him badly. The crossbow was also knocked out of his hands.
-"Ow, damn, that hurt! Grr... Go back to where you came from, bird!"
He took out his enchanted bolt, and dashed around Duilin. He then jumped on his back, putting his right arm around Duillin's throat, and using his left arm to lunge the frozen bolt into the back of his opponent's neck.
-
Duilin grabbed Ein's arm, pulling it back and used his other hand to rip off Ein's hand away from his throat. "Stay the HELL off my back!" He yelled. Duilin, then flipped Ein in front of him, and swung his foot at him as he fell. "Hiiyaa!"
-
Duilin's devastating kick got Ein square in the stomach. Ein flew a couple of feet into the air, and landed in the same tree that he hid under earlier.
-"Ugh..."
His vision went a little fuzzy, but he recognized the object lying next to him: his crossbow. He took it, tried to load it with an arrow, but failing miserably due to the fact that his hands were shaking. He took the crossbow by it's other side, and ran towards Duilin, swinging the steel end of it into his head.
-
The steel end of the cross bow, whacked him in the head. "Aw, shit!" He yelled. His vision as well became blurry. "Ooo...that smarts." He backed up a few feet, and rubbed his head. "Oh, your gonna pay!" He then raised his right arm, as if he was going to throw something. Flame began to spin his hand, forming a fireball; he then flung the fireball at Ein. Yet it might not be too accurate...
-
-"What the hell? Is that magic of some sort?"
The fireball hit the ground a few feet left of Ein, melting it to solid rock.
-"Yeah, that was magic... Damn, stop pulling rabbits out of your ass and fight like a man, err, bird!"
The fuzzines was all gone by now, and Ein took another bolt out of his quiver. He ran off behind a tree, and drew a small octagram in the sand. Then he dashed a simple line across it, and threw the bolt onto the octagram. The pre-mentioned bolt suddenly started glowing red, and it's head burned on fire. He grabbed the bolt as fast as he could, and put it into his crossbow, however, not without severely burning his fingers.
-"Die, bird!"
He fired the bolt at Duilin aiming at his wings.
-
Salazar looked towards the Emporers face impassively, and said, "Who is this Ragnar? Is he an associate of this creature we hear tell of: Haraldur?
"Anyway, I know enough to be very concerned, and obviously more than you do. Let me fill you in on some background: as you may know, I have recently made my grip on my country uncontested, after monarchist and peasant rebellions. The peasant rebellions were mostly about the famine, at first, however, in small areas, they seemed to become more radical in their goals. They seemed, from our scanty intelligence reports, to believe in some deity called Haraldur, and that their priest and leader was a person called Nikola Tesla, who we never found, although we heard that he left the country a year before the rebellion failed.
"Now, it seems, this Haraldur is not only an existing person, but has taken over your city of Laus, as well as established at least one settlement elsewhere. We hear also that Tesla is there. Not only that, we have heard of some of their ideas, and that is what we feel is dangerous.
"The most threatening two ideals they have are these: the total abolishment of autocratic systems such as mine and yourself's, and the total abolition of property, especially of those who are our primary supporters."
___________________________________________________________________
Haraldur turned to Zeros', and glanced down at the fight below, and said, "If you wish to parley, then please instruct your associate to stop attacking mine."
___________________________________________________________________
The Prophet was now flying over bare mountains.
-
Zion and Tsu looked at the pirate with a "WTFJOHNNY" look on their faces. "Yeah... I'm Tsu. Nice to meet you."
--- --- ---
He was now drunk, yet sober at the same time. The physical consequences were kicking in, and he would probably say/do something stupid, but he was conscious enough to know what he had to do. It's time to do some spying. Now where the hell do I start?
--- --- ---
"Will do, sir." She saluted Valos, grabbed her scimitars, and headed out to meet her opponent. "Hmm..."
-
"Excellent..." Valos said. He then, got up to stretch his feet abit. 'Rink seems to be doing a fine job spying, let's hope the other one can get some more information.'
-------
"Hey!" Duilin snapped as he saw the bolt flying toward his wing, he simply folded it down and the bolt just flue by. "Red, glow? Looks like magic to me! And stop calling me bird. It's Talonscar...Duilin Talonscar." Duilin, vision was fine now. He then, lifted both his hands and yellow energy began to spiral around his fingers, he then pointed his hands at Ein and blasted two lasers at him.
------
"Looks, like the base camp is over here..." Marshal said to himself. He then viewed the area above, he then spotted a women, with two scimitars. "Oh, dear. I don't want to have to fight a woman, and such a looker to. But it looks like, she is after me, I wonder how they knew I was comming...Well, maybe Zeros' or Duilin messaged somebody in the camp. Well, I better make this quick."
Marshal ran foward, and looked at Aura. He aimed his machine gun and fired four times.
-
Draven stroked his chin with another chuckle.
"Heh, this 'Haraldur' has many names and is known as Ragnar in these parts because that is the name he went by before he turned traitor to the Dark Empire. Although he somehow absorbs other things that are also angry at the world, or something... one of them could have been named Haraldur. Minor details...
"Yes, I've heard of this Telsa before and I believe I might have caught a glimpse of him yesterday, in fact... As for the other settlement you mentioned, one of my... associates... has taken care of it..."
He grinned a bit.
"Although the reasoning for your concerns is somewhat laughable, my friend. What other sort of government is possible other than 'autocratic systems', as you call them? Are you suggesting he is promoting anarchy? Once that arises, that state is immediately given away to rule of the strong, which is what we have in place now, is it not? The strong will always govern the weak. It is the will of nature. In this world, there exists men who can kill 100 others with the mere wave of a hand or the chanting of a spell. Are these men not fit to rule? No? Then stop them. How? Oops, you can't. They're at the top of the food chain...
"Now as you can see, Ragnar is simply an insane fool with a bit too much power. The alliance I have formed has defeated him before, and will succeed again. Once the head of the snake is removed, the body will die. There is simply no one else strong enough to carry on his delusions, and his followers will simply be crushed and forgotten."
Draven leaned back in his chair and began to pluck off a few grapes from a plate.
----
Ven took a step towards the three, but there was a rustling on in a bush on the other side of the field. The short necromancer suddenly burst out of the foliage, leaves flying in all directions, waving his staff above his head angrily.
"Hss!! HOW D-DARE YOU!! CRETINSSS!! FEEL THE WRATH OF DEGZRONZO!!! COME, MY CHILDREN OF DEATH!!!!"
The ground rumbled. Ven wearily brought his blade in front of him, ready for the worst...
"Uhhhhhhhhhh...."
The zombies began to crawl out of the earth... all... two of them?
"Huh? Only two?"
"WHAT?!?!?! ... B-b-blassst...! Musst of ussed too much energy ssumoning the lasst one!"
-
Zeros' looked at Duilin from below, and to his sword. He considered Haraldur's offer for a moment, until, he felt the planet's pain. (Zeros' has a direct link with the planet, which means, anything that happens to it, he can feel. So, he felt Tesla's manipulations of Gaia.)
Zeros' shook his head at Haraldur.
"No, Haraldur. I have no wish to call parley. You have asked me countless times why magic and technology cannot co-exist, and I have told you because they can't. One has to die out, and the other has to rule. I know you can travel to other dimensions, as can I and I'm sure others could. Have you visited a dimension where magic and technology had co-existed?
"Oh sure, there are countless ones out there that HAVE co-existed with each other... But, not peacefully. I'm sure you've seen these. What makes you think YOUR society would be any bit different? The people who had no magic would become jealous of those who had the ability, it's human nature. The people who could do magic, and did things others could without technological advances, would think they were superior.
"Now, tell me Haraldur. How do you THINK you can change this?" he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets, and staring at Haraldur through half-lidded eyes.
-
-"Birds have names? Odd."
Ein jumped aside, just in time, as the lasers hit the ground where he was standing. "Damn, i'm lucky that didn't hit me..."
He ran around behind a tree, and took out one of his bolts. He quickly muttered a protection chant, putting a yellowish-orange pentagram over and around him. //sound familiar, haraldur? Smile\\ Then he started drawing a series of complex circles, lines and symbols on the ground, chanting at the same time.
EDIT: //I finally decided to show what Ein's diagrams look like, to avoid confusion... here's an example:
(http://http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/5683/gear3sh.gif)
dudeman saw me make one of those Smile\\
-
"Whether or not their aims are possible, Emporer, is irrelevant. They are still dangerous. Should certain segments of the populace, namely the slightly more educated peasants, learn of this, they will find the ideas attractive (you know how they are, I certainly do, and how to crush their revolts). This is a direct threat, whether or not this Ragnar remains alive.
"Remember, also, that "an insane fool with a bit too much power" is a dangerous fool, and dangerous fools, through history, have a tendency to stir things up too much for governments to last long."
Salazar sighed. "However, this is not the point. The point is, I wish to see them stopped, and every one of their population wiped out, all of the population of Laus, like I did to the peasants at home with similar ideas. Do you understand me? Their ideals should not leave the walls of Laus. I am, of course, willing to assist."
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur shook his head. "You are obviously not as... well travelled as I am. There are many such places in the multiverse, places where there is a stable integration of magic and technology... [whisper]of which I played... no small part[/whisper].
"Jealousy does not occur when it comes to things which are possessed by all the population Zeros'. People are not jealous of those with food when they are all well fed. People are not jealous of those with magical knowledge or ability if they have similar such advantages. Do you understand me? You or your friends may have noticed that my followers are universally of magical ability (some of which granted it or trained by myself), inluding my new ones, the citizens of Laus... now. My gift to them.
"My new associate, who is fighting with your associate, is obviously not one who has been born with magical ability, you can tell by the way he uses it. I would not be surprised if he had learnt it from a follower of mine.
"Anyway, are you going to call Duilin off my new associate? I would so like to learn his name before he might die."
____________________________________________________________________
The prophet arived near a small outcrop, and turned around, and saw a giant dragon following him, and swore a curse so unexpected from one so venerable.
He lifted up his quarter staff, and swung it around his head, sending cylinders of blue light tumbling towards Hyperion, which woul cause dangerous burns if they hit.
-
Hyperion couldn't react in time to dodge at least one of the cylinders, which hit his left wing. Due to his lack of flying opponents in the past he never relied on the ability, however it was a blow to the ego to loose it so quickly in battle.
"I wasn't expecting this."
As he was already falling he swooped down and swung his tail full force at The Prophet.
-
Zeros' shrugged. He had heard Haraldur's whispered words, thanks to his superior hearing, but, put them in the the forefront of his mind.
"I don't really care. Duilin can handle himself. It looks like your subordianate is the ones who's in trouble. But, again, you assume something else Haraldur. .. You cannot simply snap your fingers, and give them the ability to use magic. They have to be born with the ability, and then LEARN how to use it. Of course, with you, you simply take magic from somewhere and shove it in their bodies, giving them the ability.
Also, you have something else to think about. What happens when your people might get better ideas, and not follow your rule anymore? They can use the magic you granted them against you. While none of them even compare to your power, many and many of them could eventually overpower you with just sheer numbers.
Did you ever think of that, Haraldur?" he asked mockingly. "And don't give me your all 'I'm-so-powerful-I-can-kill-and-decide-anything.' speech, either."
-
"Cannot snap my fingers, you say? You are quite mistaken. It is quite easy to snap my fingers, but not a method often used. If you are assuming I did so without the consent of the populace, you are mistaken. We split the city into two halfs, in one half for magic ability, other for not. We told people who wanted magical ability to go to the releveant half. They all did. And are now receiving training, Zeros'. This has the potential to free humanity from toiling at physical labour.
"Better ideas? What would they be, pray? There are none. Most of my comrades agree with my ideas, and all of them with the fundamentals. Also, if I continue to increase their quality of life, I doubt they would spontaneously start disagreeing with me without outside influence..."
He paused and sent a transparent globe, but for a few sparks when it hit dust in the air, down towards Ein, an impact and energy shield which sparks outwards when hit. It will survive 12 impacts the size of a room-sized fireball. //Use your own judgement, Duke Ein.//
"As you can see from what I have just done, and my response to your attack, I value the lives of my comrades, and yes, they are comrades, not followers. Myself and Tesla have no authority to give orders just suggestions. Everything happening in Laus is voluntary, people are allowed to leave, but choose not to (although, admittedly, they cannot get very far what with the Crimson Empire being to the north of us), they do not have to follow my suggestions, but they choose to do so. Those men you just killed, Zeros', if this is any consolation for you, were not conscripts, they volunteered. They even volunteered for that particular tower (because it is near the kitchens, I have no doubt), indeed, two of them I knew personally. Quite the ideologues. They are a representative sample of the rest of the tens of thousands of Laus residents.
"Now, Zeros', if myself and my comrades are defeated, what do you think will happen? Will the Crimson Empire just let them live to move around the country, spreading my ideas around and causing discontent? Will other countries and their governments allow that? If you stop this, you will be personally responsible for the deaths of nearly 100 000 people, and I will know that I am not to blame. They knew the risks, and agreed with me. But for you, it is a different situation. Do you wish to be remembered as a mass murderer (although that will obviously not happen if everyone is wiped out)? Do you wish to be remembered as the protector of privelege and autocracy? I myself, all ten of us, would not wish to have such a reputation, or such things on your conscience. And, even you will not be able to stop the Crimson Empire from doing so, with the help of its allies, or soon to be allies, who are grouping together even now as we speak.
"However, since you are a hypocrite, this will obviously have no effect on you whatsoever. Why did I waste my breath? The satisfaction, it made me feel good to tell you these things. Now, leave us alone, we have enough problems as it is without you adding to them."
Haraldur turned, and dropped down lower. He was just 100 metres above the fight.
My new comrade must not die so soon after becoming so.
-
The Prophet was hit full on hard in the face by the flailing tail, and was knocked backwards a few metres.
"What is the world coming to? Murderers and revolutionaries and no respect!"
He dropped his staff, which transformed into a huge serpent, with a saddle and reins. He sat down in the saddle as the serpent kept floating above the ground, swimming in the air.
____________________________________________________________________
In the swim bladder of the serpent, air was being let in, a little, to rdeuce the vacuum, increasing the density of the serpent.
____________________________________________________________________
The serpent dived, dropping down and towards the falling dragon. It caught up, and the prophet directed its head to the offending flailing tail. The head quickly opened into a large mouth, with four large, hollow, venom filled fangs, lunging towards the tail in an attempt to bite it and poison the victim.
-
//since dude man doesn't seem to be in any hurry to post, i'll continue charging my attack then...\\
Ein drew the final line on his diagram, and continued chanting quietly. As he was doing so, his shield was suddenly hit by an orb of some sort. "Hmm... strange. This orb doesn't seem to be corrupting my shield, so i'll assume it protects me. I wonder who sent it...?"
-
Bernard Goujon sat at a table in the kitchens eating from a bowl of soup as breakfast. He was aone, having arrived late. He had just returned from seeing the first attack on the revolutionary city of Laus. He had been right at the edge of the dead zone surrounding the tower during the attack, and hence had only just survived. He had seen also the quick replacement of the tower with a new one with a memorial on top, for his brother and for six other comrades.
Some other comrades had suggested he go down for some soup to steady his nerves. The soup was cooling in front of him as he thought about the fast moving events of the last few days. A few days ago he would have been toiling in the fields to grow grapes to make wine for the upper ranks of the Crimson Empire military. He smiled as he thought of how the loss of the principal wine-making area was causing a shortage of wine for the officers of the Crimson Army.
That day that Haraldur and Nikola had come, and had burned the garrison alive had been such a euphoric one, with the feeling of euphoria now stronger than ever. They had given speeches explaining their new world view, and it made perfect sense. Then theyhad said that all those who wished to become magically able should move to one half of the city, and everyone, including him did. He smiled as he caused the spoon to orbit his head, dripping soup in a circle all around him.
As well as euphoria, now there was grim determination, when they had been informed by Tesla exactly how much force woul be used against them. It was the force to wipe out an entire population. Todays events have now completely convinced him of this.
Now some strange people had been released from a sort of suspended animation, some earlier followers, with those tatoos of the symbol. It had ow become quite popular fashion, although not all took it up (he had not), and Haraldur had no tatoos, in fact no scars at all... odd.
He looked down at the two neckerchiefs he was wearing around his neck, a red one and a red and black one. They could be seen all over the city, worn almost universally, including by Haraldur and Tesla.
He finished his soup, and decided to go to the pub, his comrades would probably not have too much trouble as Haraldur was out at the front. And he wanted to drown his sorrows.
//Xenai is still at the pub, right?//
He walked down the street into the militia's bar, and walked in and asked for a vodka. He was given it, with no charge. Yes, money had been abolished too, as well as private property.
He sat down, and looked along the bar towards a strange person, no revolutionary colours, but looking a tough person.
"Hello, stranger! What are your opinions on the glorious revolution?"
-
Zeros' dropped to Haraldur's height and shook his head.
"As you know, the only reason I'm joined WITH the Crimson Empire is to defeat you. I'd rather sooner join a circus and become a clown before letting the Crimson Empire take over the rest of the world. As for killing the people, what makes you think I did kill them? Did you even bother to scan the traces left over from the attack? Of course you didn't. You and myself are alike in many ways. We assume things too fast.
"If you want to know, that tower was simply transported into a pocket-dimension I had created. As for now, they're in Limbo, not able to do anything. They're basically in coma. You want proof? Here's the proof," he said, and waved his hand. A shimmer appeared to the side of Haraldur, and, the bodies of the men in the tower appeared, looking peaceful, if not abit restless.
"As you know, even with all the power I have, it is almost magically impossible to bring someone back from the dead - even you cannot bring someone back. Sure, I could manipulate the bodies into doing my biding, but, if you can their souls, you'll find they're alive and well, with their own souls. Your city would of been erdicated earlier, if I was not joined with the Crimson Empire. They had planned a blitz on the city, to reduce it to rubble.
"Draven can be remembered as whatever he wants. I, on the other hand, am not going to be seen as a mass murderer. I have never hurt, or killed, anyone that wasn't fighting against me. Stop assuming, Haraldur," he said sharply. The bodies of the men were still floating idly beside Haraldur, bobbing up and down with random gusts of air.
-
//Zeros', how is my character supposed to "scan" anything, if I myself do not know what happened? In order for that to be valid, you would have to tell me explicitly, out of the storyline, what happened, so that my characters could reasonably "scan" things. "OK, yep, I have just released all the population of Romme from Limbo!" This could be used as a tool for revisionism (assuming that is not what you have done), so that anything done by the characters in the past is completely cancelled out. Apart from that, this "scanning" stuff is a complete cop-out. If your character kills, then that which is killed is dead, even if killed by your "holier-than-thou" character.//
"You should stop assuming too Zeros'.
"It is not my city, Zeros'. I claim no ownership of it. Only autocrats claim ownership of cities, and I am no autocrat. You may call it semantics, but it is an important distinction. I am a leader, yes, but not a ruler. I lead, but I do not rule. The populace rules.
"Would have beens are irrelevant Zeros', what matters is the future and the now. And you will be remembered as a mass murderer, if the Fascists of the Crimson Empire and its allies eradicate Laus. Why? Because at this time you are objectively Fascist. For all intents and purposes, you are on their side. Therefor, you will be directly responsible for the deaths of 100 000, whether that is your intention or not. Whether or not you are directly involved with the killings, they would still be a result of your actions. Do not fool yourself.
"As for bringing people back from the dead, I have some good news for you. The Prophet is once more alive, and with personality intact. I released him at the South Pole this morning. I am sure you cannot construe his death as being moved to Limbo."
He caused the air currents to blow the soldiers over to the city walls, and to blow the memorial away into the sea.
"The only thing worse than an objective Fascist is a real Fascist, and the only good real Fascist is a dead one. Think about that."
-
"Bah!" Duilin shouted. "The coward is using a barrier!" He looked and then saw Haraldur and Zeros' were not fighting. "Odd..." He noticed Haraldur, added protection onto Ein's barrier.
"Looks, like Haraldur cares about you..." Duilin said to Ein. "To bad, nobody else here seems to..." He examined Ein, hiding behind the tree with his barrier chanting something. 'That barrier looks strong, but I still wish to break it.'
Duilin begins to gather up heat, and charging up energy, mixing up a large energy\fire ball....
------
Rink, hasn't really found anything more of interest, so he chooses to go view the battle happening outside. 'Zeros' and Haraldur have stopped. Yet, Duilin and the other one are still fighting...I suspect the battle may go on for awhile, but the way Haraldur is protecting him, he won't allow Duilin to kill him. I hope he doesn't. He's killed to many people already.'
-
-"Coward? Maybe i'm shielding myself because i don't want to die? Can't have someone LIVING, now can we?!"
Ein finished chanting, took out a crossbow bolt and stabbed it in the earth right in the middle of his diagram. Suddenly a lightning erupted from his bolt, completely breaking his own and Haraldur's barrier. The lighting then made an arc in the air, and hit the ground next to Duilin. The earth started shaking, and the place where the lightning hit slowly rose. Then a giant black scaly claw could be seen clinging to the formed crevice, as if something was trying to get out of the ground.
-
Haraldur called to Ein, "Comrade, be cautious. Whether your opponent lives or dies is of little matter, I know him better than to consider him an enemy, but enough to know he is objectively Fascist. Take care of yourself, I wish to learn of your name after this, and from your own lips."
He dropped another pretection orb on Ein.
-
-"Wha...? Wh-- God! That's Haraldur!"
Since Ein was previously under a tree he did not notice Haraldur soaring over him.
-"Thank you, i will keep this in mind."
Meanwhile, the giant claw was making progress of getting out under the ground.
-
Duilin, narrowed his brows, as Haraldur planted another barrier on Ein. "Now, this is just some seriously heavy bullshit!" He shouted. He finished chargeing his energy ball. He then held it in one hand, and flapped his wings into the air. "I think, I'll let this one live. But, maybe whatever is underground would like some help getting out so I can kick it's ass!"
He then tossed the energy ball down at the ground were the clawing was coming from. "Let's see what's wanting a piece of ole' Talonscar?" The energy ball smashed into the ground, most likely damageing whatever was under there...
-
The ground around the creature exploded. It, however, was left completely intact, unscarred and all. As ground around it collapsed, it finally came into view.
Nine feet tall.
Black scaly skin.
Golden horns.
Glowing red eyes, eminating evil.
The whole thing looked like a giant wingless dragon standing on front feet. It let out a huge roar, and then... it spoke, in a deep voice:
-"zomg! i r teh eskapzorz from teh roon skaip, nad i r gona pwn teh nubs hree!"
Ein looked over at the creature with a "what the hell" look:
-"What?... Oh, i get it, it's speaking in demon tongues. Well, that's what you get for summoning a demon from a completely different dimension. Hmm, i doubt anyone will be able to understand it."
The demon headed for Duilin.
-
Draven brought his left hand to his chin.
"Hmm, yes, our point in meeting is the end result and not the method or reasons. I believe I currently have the situation under control, as my army is poised to strike Laus at this moment, after a little snooping around first of course... However, since you are so concerned about these 'ideals', then I will allow you to aid my army in speeding up the process...
"Are you prepared for a navel strike? I believe approaching Laus from the south with a fleet would catch our Ragnar off-guard, since all of my ports are located north of Laus. And of course, pinching him would be most advantageous. You need to be prepared for his weather related attacks, however, especially in the open seas... He is quite the defender, I'll give him that.
"However, my stipulations are that you both strike and cease on my command. Operations are best guided under one mind, I'm sure you agree..."
----
"Hmmm... base camp 2, I presume... You there, where is the... general?"
"Sir! In his tent, sir! Right over there, sir!"
The soldier pointed to one of the larger tents, the flag of the Crimson Empire waving over it.
"Yes... of course..."
Time for... a promotion...
-
"I must say that I dislike demons, they tend to be very heirarchical and exploitative, so I find their use distasteful, but each to his own."
Haraldur glared at the demon.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar said, "I am afraid we do not have a viable navy, it is a new addition to our armed forces, and is very small and fragile. I do not wish them wiped out.
"I do, however, have a force of canon-fodder that might interest you - prisoners and peasants with sticks! We could dress them up in uniform, your uniform, and then use them as a distracting force. They would be deafened and blinded first, of course, because of the nature of our enemy. How do you like that?"
-
//Gah, sorry about that. x_x
Uh... two? Tsu raised an eybrow. "Crimson!!!" And one of them burst upon fire. Tsu looked to the side and saw Zion with an outstretched hand.
--- --- ---
Xenai looked at the guy. "Revolution? Notta... -hic- ...Notta clue 'bout it. Jus... jus... passin' through."
--- --- ---
Aura looked at Mavas(?), not knowing who the guy was, and not having a good feeling about him.
-
Bernard downed his drink in one, and said, "Do you have a place to stay, comrade? You look as if you need to sleep this off. You can stay at my residence if you have nowhere else."
//May I assume that Xenai is blind drunk: unable to move and semi-conscious?//
Bernard looked at the man, barely able to make the glass reach his face. He took the glass, and poured the rest of the drink into Xenai's throat.
"Sweet dreams, mate."
He lifted Xenai up, and carried him out of the pub and down the road to his new house, opened the door and went in, laying Xenai on the spare bed, and chucking some blankets over him.
Bernard went to the kitchen and started to practise his magical skills on the cutlery. No wonder magically able people are so showy with their spells, he thought. Magic use gives a feeling of ecstacy!
In front of him, it seemed that two poltergeists were having a sword fight with a fork and a spoon.
//Of course, if you object to this, I will make it clear that this did not happen. Wink //
-
Without the use of his wing Hyperion had no way of escaping. He fell to the ground turning into full human form as he landed. His tail was gone but the poison made it into this form.
"Have I been poisoned? Grr what have you done to me old man!?
-
"I can heal you, shapeshifter, but ony if you answe my questions. Firstly, who sent you?"
The Prophet floated above, riding the serpent.
-
//Trent, what the hell? You need to pay more attention. Valos sent Aura to go outside and stop Marshal. And right now, Aura is outside and Marshal is shooting at her!\\
"Whoa, my blast didn't even hurt it." Duilin said. He took out his mace again. "Time to for some skull bashing!" He dived down, and swung his mace down at the demon's head.
(The demon is an NPC, so I do have the power to control it, but I'll let you control it Ein.)
-----
Valos was sitting down at his desk writing down something. It didn't seem to be in human writing, it was strange symbols, demonic looking. He took the note and folded it up and placed it into a pocket in his robe. He rubbed his forehead. It felt like something was clawing inside him. "Stop!" He yelled, and then he felt better, he then laid back onto his chair. He turned his head and looked outside, he saw a soldier approaching his tent, wearing a red pendant. "Wha?"
-
//That's fine, Dude man, you can control it from this point on if you wish. The only reason I got Ein to summon it is because if I fought Duilin with Ein... Let's just say I had no way of winning, you're much more experienced\\
Ein stood up, walking out from behind his hiding tree. He then yelled to the creature:
-"You there! I command thee to attack the bird-thing!"
The demon then turned it's head towards Ein and replied:
-"wft r u yelin at? i r teh leet, i r teh pwn teh noo-" And at that point, Duilin's mace hit the thing's head, right between the horns. The demon took a step forward (because he was facing Ein at that time, making Duilin's blow come from the back)
-"zomg! u r teh hax! trun it off!"
The demon swung it's claw at Duilin, while Ein started hastily retreating. He tried to make himself less visible by jumping from branch to branch //i assumed that the fight takes place in a forest\\ , and heading towards the tall gleaming walls of Laus.
-
Duilin flue backwards dodging the demons claw. Duilin, then dives back at the demon and swings his mace, but the demon swings his claw again, smacking Duilin, onto the ground. The demon walks towards Duilin.
"lol nub! i r teh poon u! omg! u r teh dumxorz!" the demon taunts in it's strange tongues. The demon, stands above Duilin, and swings his claw downwards. Duilin, almost to fast for you to see clearly, recovers, and dashes behind the demon striking it in the back, causing it to fall to the ground and fall several feet back. "wtf! u r hcax! i r teh reeport u fer maconing!"
Duilin gives the demon an odd look. "This thing is truly not from this dimension..." He sighs. He then dashes at the demon, swinging his mace, the demon blocks it with his claw, and then swings it's other claw down at Duilin. He grabs the demon's claw, drawing some blood. Duilin used his demonic strength, and began to break the demons claw. He then, kicked the demon right in the gut, and it stepped back. He stared into its eyes, and it stared back. They both ran at each other. The demon brought back it's claw, ready to strike the half demon right on it's head. Duilin then jumped into the air, right over the demon, back flipping, he faced the back of the demons head, and he swung his mace right at its neck. A loud cracking sound was herd and the beast fell to the ground. Duilin gracefully landed on the ground.
"Ownt..." Duilin said proudly with a smirk.
-
Ein heard the demon's bones crack, in the distance. "Ah... It matters not. It was but a diversion. After all, I needed to get back from there in one piece, because I am not the type that gets killed by the first island he lands on."
He ran up right next to the walls. "Hmm... No visible gates. Not from this side, at least. But ah well, I won't waste time finding some." He searched around his cape, eventually finding what looked like a long whip without a handle. He tied that whip to a bolt, placed it in his crossbow and fired it around the top of the wall. The bolt hit the wall, getting stuck in it. Ein pulled himself up the whip, eventually reaching a small step, sort of, in the wall. He then jumped on top of the wall where Tesla was //from the absence of posts involving him, i'll assume he's there now\\.
-"So... Did i prove myself useful in any way, in case if you were watching?"
--- --- ---
//i made a new character a while ago, he's in chapter 7 signups\\
After finishing yet another successful deal, Gerard continued on his path. "Hmm... i've got aqua fortis, now i must concentrate it in order to get aqua regis. I wish there was another way, but there is not... hmm. Now. If I were a distillation apparatus, where would I be?"
-
Hyperion was exhausted at this point. He was sure on any other day he could defeat this old man, but he would admit defeat for now.
"Draven.... Draven sent me."
-
//Well, that IS his additude... But, what happened, was, when the ki blade hit the tower, instead of completely annihlitating it, it instead sucked the tower into the dimension Zeros' had created, bringing the dead soldiers with it. Because there was so much magic used, the soldiers bodies couldn't handle the strain and sort of, "shut down", in realitive terms.
But, all magic leaves small traces of where it once was. If one very adept in magic, say, Zeros', Haraldur or Draven, went back to the place where Alpha Retan was destroyed, they could still feel traces of barrier Zeros' had thrown up to delay the planets destruction. So, someone as adept as Haraldur in magic could scan the resadue near the tower, and find out it wasn't a maliacious spell, but, a teleportation spell.
So, the spell wasn't really "harmful" in a way, if you don't count putting them into a coma harmful. And, if your look back to where I posted the tower scene, it never said the tower was "destroyed", it simply said "disappeared", so, there could of been infiniate possiblities. As for the "dead zone" that happened after, that the result of using such a powerful spell. The magical backlash is what caused the "dead zone" to happen.
I hope that cleared things up. Onto the story!\\
"A Facist is always a Facist, even if they're only indirectly involved into incidents with make them this, eh Haraldur?" he whispered. "Maybe it is true, but... Times are changing, rapidly. Soon, more then likely, magic will be gone, and we'll be forced into hiding when they start to grow more independant and daring," he said to no one in particular. He decided arguing with Haraldur would simply give him even MORE of a headache then he had already devolped from Haraldur shattering his sword.
//The sword has a direct link with Zeros'. The pause in where Zeros' had just stared at the sword was from shock, but, he was also in pain, because he could "feel" the sword shatter. This, in terms, gave him a headache.\\
Zeros' disappeared, using his ghost technique, and reappeared next to where his sword was reforming. There was one last flash of light, and the sword reappeared, good as new. It had taken Zeros' some magic on his part just to reform the sword, but, luckly, the swords own magic took away most of the strain.
Zeros' picked up his swords, and did a few practice swings - switching inbetween Demon and God forms - before nodding, and resheathing it. His trenchcoat was almost completely destroyed, so Zeros' chucked it away.
Now, one could see all of Zeros' upper half. His body was... one big scar. Everywhere you looked, there was a dark or light scar on his body, covering almost every inch of his skin. There were even some place that were reinforced by metal and steel, much like on his right hand. Some of the scars went deeper, still.
Zeros' left hand didn't have nearly as many scars, or the problems that his sword hand did (Right hand). The scars throbbed constantly while Zeros' was in battle, but, he usually ignored and fought through the pain.
He turned, clad only in his loose, black pants, and walked over to Duilin. He put a hand on Duilin's right shoulder and stepped up beside him.
"Now, what do you want to do, Haraldur? Your other man is gone, and it's two against one," he said to the slightly crazed man.
-
//It does not clear it up. You should have said what you have just told me in the original post, otherwise my scanning of the area would have been impossible, regardless of the ability of my character. Just saying "disappeared" instead of "destroyed" is not enough: I have/would use the word "disappeared" to mean that they were completely annihilated, destroyed, no trace, OK? "Teleported" or "teleported to Limbo" would have been fine, as it was explicit, and my character could reasonably then have come to the conclusion that his comrades were not dead, or not, depending on my decision as to make him jump to conclusions first or to check the place before making conclusions. Instead, it forced my character to jump to a conclusion, since anything else was impossible, and so made my character look like a complete buffoon, without it being my decision as to whether he would be a buffoon. The end result is that you have effectively controlled my character's actions, which, as you know, is frowned upon. Worst of all is that my character is not supposed to be an idiotic character, so he has been forced to act out of character.//
"Magic never disappears. Magic is a law of nature, with mathematical models for how it works. Nature is uniform, so magic is an unbreakable law of Physics. I have studied Physics in several universes, including magical ones. The availability of magical energy and training and ability can be suppressed, but not destroyed.
"Two against one? Only the simple speak in terms of numerical odds only. As for fighting me, you seem to have no logical reason to do so."
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla smiled at Ein. "All we wanted to do was make sure you were not trying to trick us. You seem to be genuine. I suggest you go to the kitchens to eat."
He again concentraed on the ground in front of the frontline.
____________________________________________________________________
"That treachorous slime sent you, did he? Well, well... He must be replaced by someone more agreeable..."
He looked at Hyperion //If you have objections to what is below, then it will be removed, I just think it would be reasonably cool.// and said, "The poison my steed put into you is a residual one, after one day it will kill you, in the meantime making you weak, unless you are given the antidote (and I am the only person who can make it, as I designed the poison as well). In addition, after the antidote is given, then it is 2 days before the poison kills you, in the second day you will become weak, so you will need daily doses to remain alive, and I am the the only person who can provide them.
"Therefor, it is in both our interests that you become my slave, my servant, my vassal, bondsman, or whatever you wish to call it. Good for you, because you then will remain alive, and good for me, as I do not have to buy myself a slave at the horrendously high prices they have nowadays, and I get one more powerful than I could have hoped. Do you agree to the terms?"
-
-"Hmm. Although I don't know where the prementioned kitchens are, finding them would be a good excersise for me to have better orientation in the city."
He turned around, nodding as he passed the revolutionaires. "Great... So this wall doesn't have a visible way of getting down, either. I suppose we all have our... ups and downs." Ein then simply jumped down off the wall, landing on one of the streets below. He walked down the street, looking at the houses around him. "Heh... the huts I saw in Lawessov don't even compare to these houses. This city must've been designed and created (recreated?) by someone skilled."
As Ein was deep in his thoughts, he eventually reached the city square. "Ah, the centre of the city. Which way now?"
--- --- ---
Gerard continued his path to find a distillation apparatus. After about 30 minutes of solid walking, he reached a town. However, the people in the town were somewhat rushing. There were also a lot of soliders, who looked suspiciously like Crimson Empire's minions. He spotted an idle person.
-"Good day to you. Might you know where I can find a distillation apparatus? Perhaps there's one in this town?"
The person he was talking to looked exactly like a 10 year old who just heard all of the principles of Earth's gravitation.
-"A distillmation what? Oh, you're talking about a witchcraft device, no doubt. I really don't know, but they say that all witchcraft devices come from one location. I'll be damned if I can remember what that location is, though."
Gerard scratched his forehead. "Hmm, no pie for me today."
-"Alright, well, perhaps you have some junk you'd sell me? After all... One man's junk is another one's treasure."
-"Yes, actually! This is not exactly junk, but I've no idea what to do with it. Here."
The villager handed Gerard a small chunk of silvery-white material.
-"Ah, i see. I'll give you 20 gold for this."
-"20 gold...?"
-"Yes, unfortunately I don't have any more at the moment." The piles of gold in Gerard's inner pocket suddenly got heavier for a second.
-"Okay... Well, I guess I should do that, then. After all, I wasn't expecting any pay for this."
-"Thank you, kind stranger." With these words, Gerard went deeper into the city.
//The city he's in is incidentally Redvik, but I'm using vague descriptions because I don't know what it looks like, either. please excuse me if i make any mistakes in the descriptions.\\
-
//Ein, there will be plenty of revolutionaries stnding around the square, talking, debating, loving, whatever, so you can ask directions easily, if you like.//
-
"No logical reason?" Duilin asked. "But is there any logical reason for us not to fight?" He takes a few stepps foward. "So, anyways, perhaps we should use this 'unbreakable law of physics' instead of talking, because that seems not to get us anywere."
He turns his head and looks at Zeros'. "I say we fight him. Talking doesn't stop anything." He looks back at Haraldur, and takes a few more stepps foward...
-
"And what, pray, is it that you are wanting to stop?"
Haraldur prepared a spell in his cloak behind his back, a circular serrated blade of pure light energy, mostly gamma rays, which would home in on the neck of its target.
-
Ein came up to a pair of townspeople, who were intently arguing over something.
-"Hello...?"
The two people turned to Ein.
-"Hello, comrade. How can I help you?", said one of them.
-"I'm looking for the kitchens... Do you know where they might be?"
--- --- ---
Gerard came inside one of the houses, spotting a man with white hair sitting behind a table on a chair. He came up to him.
-"Hello sir. I am but a humble merchant, might you have any wares for sale?"
//that means Valos, as I understood he was in Redvik\\
-
The revolutionary said, "Follow me."
//Assuming Ein follows...//
He led Ein accross the square to the Northeast, to the tower, now replaced, that had been "teleported to Limbo" by Zeros', and pointed into a large building from which the smell of leek and potato soup was wafting through the air invitingly.
"Bon apetit, comrade."
The revolutionary left and returned to the square, an to his debate.
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla moved his hands around, forming a red transparent dome above his head, which enlarged to encompass the whole of the Laus peninsula south of the northernmost tower in Laus. Any damage would go directly to Tesla, for him to handle.
Above the city, the whole sky became red, and the people started to carry their weapons around more often.
-
"How does follower sound, oh I don't suppose it matters though, I wasn't really looking forward to dying anytime soon."
He didn't really want to be a slave, but he had had it worse. He looked down at the ground for a moment.
"Fine I agree to your terms, but you should at least give me your name in return."
-
(Ein: Valos is in an army camp south of Redvik, waiting to strike at Laus. It's at least a good walk away. Here is a description of the city.)
Historically, Redvik is the name of the large fortress at the center of the city, however most people nowadays refer to the town as Redvik as well. The fortress is much less glamorous than the Crimson Palace, much more blocky and bleak. There is an odor about the air, some sort of pollution likely from the fact that the fortress also serves as the Crimson Empire's primary airship manufacturing facility, which extends deep under the streets, with serveral large 'trap door' style gateways scattered around the fortress in which airships enter and exit.
The city, surrounded by a standard wall, isn't gigantic, but not exactly small. A select part of the population work and live inside the fortress (under military contract) as engineers, scientists, and alchemists on airship production and... various other... projects... The rest of the population are largely maintenance workers, etc. and a few merchants.
Redvik is under the supervision of General Vincent, who seems to resent the sit-and-watch position (and who I may make a character later, if the story goes that way) and Chief Wallace, who is in charge of airship production (that fat guy from chapter 4. Heh...)
Currently security is tight, due to what is happening just south in Laus, and very few people are being let in the fortress.
----
Draven raised an eyebrow at the Generalísimo.
"Ermh... well... I don't think that would be of much use... Have you no air units? No capable troops you could land on the shores, even?"
----
Ven shielded his face from the heat as the zombie exploded in flame. Impressive! Ven ignored the other zombie and made a mad dash straight for the source...
"Hss! Wait! What are you doing?! NOOOO!!!"
Without a word Ven attacked with a full overhead swing, which the necromancer blocked with his staff, the momentum sending him flying backwards and rolling on the ground. On the third roll the necromancer lifted to his feet, and dashed into the forest madly.
"Masster!!! Ssave Degzgronzooo~!!!"
Cloak flowing behind, Ven followed in a full sprint.
----
"Sir! The general is--!!"
The Lieutenant with the red pendant pushed the soldier out of the way. His grin widened and his eyes began to burn... He walked up to the tent and ripped the opening apart with his right hand. He immediately recognized Valos as the general due to his unique uniform and medal. He snapped to attention, performing the Crimson Empire salute, with the left hand, however...
"Sir... I have a message for you..."
He stayed frozen for a second... then without warning, performed a mad jump at the general, literally flying over a wooden table and knocking a chair down, his right hand grasping for the general's neck...
"DIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!"
-
"I tell noone my name," the Prophet said, "and I remain the only living person in the world, except one, who knows it. That one, who is now my enemy, I believe still has sufficient respect to keep his lips sealed. People usually call me The Great Prophet, The Prophet, or simply Prophet. I have encouraged this.
"Now, we are going to visit my acolytes. You will find your life not too arduous I hope. You might even learn something. Jump onto the saddle, you are to hold my waist in order to stop yourself from falling off. Oh, and here is the antidote."
He chucked a small phial to Hyperion.
He will fly west at a leisurely pace one Hyperion gets on.
____________________________________________________________________
"Ah, so you are not a fan of cheap diversionary tactics? OK." Salazar smiled. "We do have a large army of soldiers capable of magical flight: they have been most useful in destroying monarchist resistance in the mountain regions."
-
//DAMN! Sorry about that, guys. I'll patch everything up. Also, am i going a little too fast...?\\
The man turned around, facing Gerard.
-"No, I do not. I'm sorry."
--- --- ---
After having a nice meal at the kitchens, Ein exited them and started wandering around the city, spectating the setting of it.
-
Zeros' stepped infront of Haraldur, and stared up at him.
"I have no reason to fight you? You call manipulating Gaia, the place my mother protects, something I can't fight against you for? Well then, Haraldur, your sadly mistaken," he said to the man. He saw the barrier rise up, but, ignored it as of now.
-
Valos, being caught off guard, wraps his hands around his attacker's arm, trying to pull his arm away, as he grabs his neck. He then lifts his leg, and swings his foot in an attempt to kick him away.
-------
Duilin stared at Haraldur. A gust of wind began to circle around him, and bolts of energy flue threw him, he clenched his fists, and closed his eyes. He opened them, and they were glowing a slight golden colour. He then opened his hands and placed them together, he then slid his hands apart and formed a large blade of energy (Like the one he made at the end of Chapter 5). He then blasted his way towards Haraldur at great speed; he then flipped over Haraldur and swung the blade at Haraldur's back, at amazing speed.
--------
"Holy crap!" Rink shouted out loud. "I've never seen Duilin go that speed before in an attack. Zeros' does that all the time, but Duilin...never..." Rink pressed his hand against his forehead. "I'm getting worried..."
//If Trent doesn't post until tomorrow, does Aura get hit? Or does he have until Tuesday? \\
-
"Your mother is a fool. The world should be used for the benefit of sentients, not the other way around. Besides, what is so special? This is just a rock. Any magician of sufficient power can create similar objects. There is nothing special, except the sentient lives. She should go and defend some other lump of rock so as to be out of my way. I think her time as my father's whore must have damaged her psychologically. You have no logical reason to fight me."
Haraldur watched impassively as time slowed for him, and he saw Duilin moving in slow motion flipping over him. He stepped aside and turned very fast, while Duilin was still in slow motion. He moved his hand from behind his back, bringing out of his cloak light blade/disc, looking a bit like a circular saw. He threw it at Duilin, and it started spinning. It curved around and then followed Duilin constantly accelerating.
Time went back to normal, and Haraldur curved around in his flight to be on the North side of the two half-demons. He then started to quickly fly backwards, right into Redvik, his original destination.
He held his right arm out to his side, and a plasma gun appeared, and then he started firing at the two half-demons.
-
//Damn... I may need to pull out. I'm losing every trace I have of a life.
Zion ignited the other one with another casting of Crimson while Tsu took off after the necromancer, on foot.
--- --- ---
//Xenai wasn't asleep, but with how I've been slacking off here lately, he might as well be.
"Alw... alw...ays... good de... zzz... cision..." He wasn't supposed to drink himself to sleep. He messed up. Not good.
--- --- ---
An eyebrow raised. Wait a second, something's not... She looks off somewhere else... OMFG GUN. She dives as she starts to get shot at, rolling to her feet, and taking cover behind a tree. She gathers a moderate amount of energy to the finger and takes aim... "Ray!" And a ray of light energy shoots out at Marshal. Wait a second... Did I go into a standing coma or something? What happened to that other guy? Is he inside the base camp? General Valos...! Damn! Gotta take this guy out fast and help Valos!
-
//Can't sleep... and since it's over 12 here, i'm technically posting as tomorrow Razz\\
Eventually Ein got bored of walking aimlessly around the city, so he decided to put his time to a good use. He headed back to the city square, then went the road he came from originally. He came to the wall. "God damn this wall! Where's the ladder?!" Of course, since he is so lazy, Ein decided to make his own "ladder". He simply climbed the wall. As he got up there, he walked around until he reached Tesla, who was concentrating on something.
-"Hello again, friend. I'm sorry for disturbing you, but I've yet to learn your name."
--- --- ---
After wondering around the town, Gerard understood that this town was not so promising, as for his skill. He only aquired a piece of stannum, and not even that much. He exited the city and continued walking.
//for those who don't know their chemistry, Stannum is latin for tin, hence the strange name on the periodic table (Sn). Oh yeah, and trent, you got the 3,000th post \\
-
"My name is Nikola Tesla, comrade. Now, if you would excuse me..."
Above Nikola, a patch of blue appeared in the red of the shield, becoming bright white in the centre. Suddenly, with a loud thunder crash, a long string of charge left the dome and arced upwards towards Redvik. It hits a tower (not a special tower, just any old tower) on the fortress, smashing it to smithereens, sending rubble falling onto the soldiers below (unless, of course, there is some sort of shield, but if there is, the energy has to go somewhere...)
-
(Audience's reaction to Haraldur's comment about Zeros' mother:)
"Ooooooooooooooooooooooh..." (Heh...)
(Trent: Try going down to one character. I had to do that for a while, myself.)
----
Draven placed his fingertips together in front of him.
"Yes, that would work. Here, take this."
He tossed Salazar a small green orb.
"Give that to your commander. I will broadcast the order to attack over that. Now at the risk of seeming rude, I must take my leave, as I have other matters to attend to. Good day, Generalísimo."
He stood up and began to walk towards the exit behind him.
----
The necromancer's movements were very unnatural and sporadic, and he zipped through the forest while Ven began to fall farther and farther behind. He stopped, raising his staff to the sky.
"Hehehehehehehee..."
On the surface of a large tree behind him, a portal opened. It looked like a vortex of violet and black, and the matter around the portal began to twist and distort.
"I think not!!"
Sill in a full sprint, and some 100 feet behind, Ven slashed his sword through the air, sending a crescent shaped blade of wind at the tree, shattering it and causing it to fall upon the opening of the portal."
"W-W-WHAT?!?!"
----
Valos' kick hit Mavas in the leg, tripping him and forcing him to do a sort of summersault to avoid tumbling on the ground. He broke away from Valos and landed on his feet about three feet away in a crouch, splintering another wooden chair in the process. He paused for a split second.
Curses. Have to do it fast or the rest of the camp will find out.
His form began to distort, a black aura engulfing him, and his body and armor morphed to their normal forms, his eyes burning red.
"Heh heh hehh..."
Without warning, his right hand drew the jagged blade on his back and thrust it forward. What looked like liquid metal flew from the sword-- a half dozen droplets that molded into small knife shapes in mid air, while flying at the general...
----
General Vincent watched the collapsing tower through his office window within the center of the Redvik fortress. His hands behind his back, his eyes hidden behind the glare in his glasses. Soldiers began busting into his office at random intervals.
"Sir! An explosion! One of the south towers!"
"S-Sir! Witnesses report some sort of beam from the south!"
"Sir! T-they're firing at us! From Laus!!!"
"Sir! Shall I contact the capital?"
Vincent smiled. Just slightly.
"No, that will not be necessary."
"Huh...?"
He turned around to find some ten soldiers saluting him. The ones in the back waiting for the chance to give their reports.
"We have just been attacked. We require no permission for self defense. Prepare to return fire."
"B-but sir! There is no way our guns can reach that far!"
Vincent pointed to the sky. (But was actually pointing through the ceiling to the very tip of the fortress.)
"Ready. The BIG GUN."
*GASP*
"T-t-t-th-the B-BIG GUN, sir? But i-it's still..."
"Do it... NOW!"
They all snapped to attention at once, all yelling:
"Sir! Yes sir!"
and scattered out of the room.
Vincent turned back to the window. Finally, after all these years... the chance he was looking for... He shall be the one to defeat Ragnar... Oh, the fame! The glory! The fortune!
-
Zeros' heard the comment, and his blood turned cold. His wings froze in mid-flap and his eyes stared ahead, glazed over. His hands dropped to his sides, and his head bowed.
Even through Zeros' calculating mind, Zeros' saw red. Blood red. His head snapped up and his hair color started to change widly, as did his wing colors. His aura expanded slowly, very slowly, interchanging between colors. Until finally... Zeros' snapped.
His aura exploded all around him. The sky that was formely red, was now tinged all different colors. Zeros' wings were mixed between black, white, red, gold and green, while his hair was a mix between it's original silver, black, and golden. His right eye was white and his left eye was black.
No one called his mother a whore, and lived to tell about it.
Time slowled down to a crawl. Zero's merely flapped his wings once, and he was speeding through the air faster then anyone could follow. He reached Haraldur in less then a second, and got infront of him.
Time speed up again, and Zeros' ghosted into view about 10 yards infront of Haraldur. His left hand crackled with a ball of pure light, while his right hand held a ball of pure destruction. He brought his hands out to his sides, and forced the two opposites into another. His eyes were cold and hollow, showing no emotion. Not even anger.
The ball of swirling black and white sped towards Haraldur faster then anyone could see, but Haraldur. If it was stopped, it would simply implode out 50 yards in all directions. It didn't even leave an afterimage as it sped towards the crazed man who called Zero's mother a whore...
-
Ein saw the sky go up in insane colours.
-"Sir Tesla, don't you think that's sort of odd?"
He found a rock lying nearby, and etched a small diagram on the top of the wall, next to him.
-"If you stand in the middle of this, it should increase your mental powers, so you can support your shield for a longer amount of time and damage than usual."
--- --- ---
Gerard continued walking, as he heard a loud roar to the right of him. He turned around, only to see two tusks ramming into his chest. He fell over.
-"What the...?"
He looked closer at his attacker, realizing that it was a wild boar. He ripped his dagger out of it's sheath, and lunged it deep into the beast's chest.
-
Tesla nodded, and stood on the diagram, feeling his metal powers quicken. He sent two more beams arcing towards random places within Redvik.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar left the room, and passed the orb wordlessly to his deputy.
____________________________________________________________________
"Oh, so you dispute the fact that she was a member of my father's harem? How else do you think she got those claw marks on her back?"
An odd spontaneous warping caused the two balls to curved around and down, now flying down straight into the heart of Redvik, as they were now right above it. The two energy balls hit the North wall of the fortress.
Haraldur's flying motion changed, now moving very fast but always within the limits of the city of Redvik. Yes, let him unleash destruction here, let him unwittingly assist me. He let himself fly backwards as if hit by an attack, and let himself smash through the North-East tower of the fortress, showering rubble into the city.
Haraldur turned in a movement not unlike that of a skater on ice, and seemed to skate on the air. Below him, yellow, red and black clouds of burning oil appeared and started to rain down on the city. He laughed, it had been ages since he had used that spell.
Lightning flew down from the malevolent clouds, onto the remaining towaers of the fortress. Haraldur caused a ball lightning to fly out of the clouds and go towards Zeros' and home in on him.
Below, the wooden built city surrounding the fortress burned.
-
Duilin used his blade to block the energy disc and the plasma blast. He realized that Zeros' was very enraged about the comment that Haraldur gave. He kept a grip on his blade of energy; he then backed away a few feet. He began to charge more power into his blade...
----
Marshal, gets blasted by the ray of light, and falls to the ground; his gun goes off firing, not hitting anything in particular. He grabs his weapon, but holds it only using his right hand. He then uses his free hand to hold the gem on his amulet. The sapphire shines, and a spectre begins to appear...
----
Valos, swung out his sword from its holster, and slashed at the knives flying towards him.
"Intruder!" Valos yells, to get the soldiers attention. He then charges dark energy into his sword, it then glows a dark purple. He then ghosts behind Mavas and swings his large black, empowered sword at his enemy?s back.
A few soldiers take out there weapons and dash towards the commotion.
----
"Okay, well enough fun here." Rink says. "I think I have enough information now. I better fly back to Redvik." He says. And then he jumps up and flaps his wings, and flies toward Redvik.
-
//someone 'xcuse me for being a noob, but does Zeros' mother exist in this RP?\\
-
Hyperion took the antidote and got on the saddle.
"Acolytes eh? This should be fun."
-
//WOOT! I have the 3000th post! Damn, this RP's old! >D I may reduce my characters to just Aura, but all four of them are entagled in conflict right now.
Tsu was starting to catch up now, breathing heavily. "My god, what is this thing?"
Zion jumped up, turned a flip, and waited for the right angle... He connected his wrists and fired at the ground... A beam jump. That would send him to his destination quickly. He righted himself, landed, and skidded to a stop.
--- --- ---
"Uhhh..." Xenai slowly awakened, sitting up in the bed. "That was not a good decision... Euh? Where the hell am I?"
--- --- ---
She dashed out of the tree, fury visible in those beautiful blue eyes. She had to finish this guy off quick so she could help Valos. She rapidly came upon the man, while charging up a short-distance teleport. What the heck is this specter? She would need to get between the two...
-
Ein spectated the fight, wondering whether there's anything he should be doing right now.
--- --- ---
The beast let out a deafening wail, and eventually stopped moving. Gerard threw the beast off his chest, dusted himself off, and kept walking towards his yet unspecified target. After a good solid walk he reached what looked like a military camp, with a lot of fights going on in it. He only saw one fight, though. The other one he had a clue about, because there seemed to be some sort of a commotion inside of one of the houses. Outside the house there was someone firing a gun.
-"Hmm... I wonder what principle that object operates on..."
He then came up closer to the two people fighting, hiding in the shadows.
-
//I think Zeros' mother appeared a couple of chapters ago, near the end of chapter five. But I'm not sure if that was her. \\
"You shall soon learn a lesson, a very valuable one indeed." Marshal grinned to Aura. "Have you heard about my skill of summoning?" He asked, not expecting an answer.
The blue spectre came into shape. It was large, about 20 feet tall. It was humanoid shaped, but had a bull shaped head. He was holding a large hammer, yet it could hold it in one hand. It had smooth brownish fur along its muscular body, and wore a rag around its waist, held up by a golden belt. The figure was a Minotaur. (It looked alot like the one in Heretic, or the Dark Servant in Hexen, if you have played any of those games.)
The monster roared, it stared at Aura, and deeply exhaled, wind visibility blew from its nose. It then smashed its hammer down at the ground; creating a large shockwave booming it's way towards Aura.
-
Perfect! He fell for it! She performs the teleport right before the hammer strikes, allowing the shockwave to wear off before phasing back in between Marshal and the specter.
"Shining Bind!" The same attack she used to prove her worth upon the soldiers was unleashed here. A large white circle appeared on the ground with her in the center. The energy in the circle lashed out, upwards at Marshal and the specter, several times. Then, 3 times more blows were unleashed all in 3 seconds, these being a little weaker.
That attack just drained her severely. She won't be doing that one again for a while.
//Again, link to a clip of the move <a href='http://n.ethz.ch/student/wmartin/videos/ToS%20PS2%20(JP)%20Abicion's%20Shining%20Bind.rmvb' target='_blank'>here</a>.
-
//Yeah. That was his mother. It was why his eyes are green.\\
Zeros' stared and Haraldur, and idly grabbed the ball of lightning that headed straight for him. He simply crushed it, and shook his hand, getting rid of the numbness that was caused from the voltage.
"Your father was a bastard Haraldur. He FORCED her! HE FORCED HER!" he growled out between clenched teeth. He disappeared, and did one of Haraldur trick, bending space and time to his will.
Haraldur slowed down to a crawl. He was moving at a snails pace now. Zeros' ghosted, and reappeared RIGHT above Haraldur (as in a few centimeters). His fingers snapped together, and he threw a knifehand thurst, right at the flesh that covered Haraldur's neck...
Outside of reality, it simply looked as if Zeros' had disappeared, and reappeared with his hand blurring down towards Haraldur's neck.
-
In the middle of a stride, Ven grabbed his sword with both hands and thrust it into the ground, putting energy into the blade. An explosion followed, sending him flying upwards and over the necromancer. He performed a flip and landed on his feet. The gray robed man was now surrounded on two sides, Zion and Tsu being on the opposite side as Ven.
Ven's face was different. He seemed disgusted, even enraged...
"Last chance! Mavas. NOW!"
"Hsss! DIE AWAY!!"
A raised staff produced three orbs of shadow energy, which rotated around the necromancer once before each sped of for its own target...
----
Blast. Cover blown. Oh, well...
Mavas performed a leap backwards, tearing through the wall of the tent and landing out in the open in the middle of the camp. Soldiers from all sides surrounded him, brandishing their weapons...
But Mavas was distracted... The sky was changing colors... two large forces quickly passed overhead northward. One he recognized...
"You... I promised you, didn't I... Even better than before... Myeh heh hehh..."
He stabbed a soldier in his way, and barged through the rest, northward into the forest...
----
Chaos was everywhere in Redvik. Some of the attacks were being repelled, some reflected even. Some hit their marks, causing death and destruction to rain down upon the city.
Small magic powered cannons began to fire upon Haraldur from various turrets. A small legion of wyvern riders was unleashed to pursue. The airships remained underground... for the moment...
A large block on the top of the fortress split, a long metallic cylinder emerging from within, with various tubes and such connected to it... some 100 yards in length and 10 feet in diameter... it was... THE BIG GUN... A translucent red dome shield appeared around it as it slowly angled towards it's target.
"Sir! S-should we call for backup?"
"No! We haven't even begun to fight back... FIRE IT!"
"But sir, we must increase the energy beyond recommended levels to reach Laus. If we..."
"NOW!"
A deep humming sound could be heard as the mammoth gun powered up, the innards of the barrel glowing a deep crimson...
Vincent adjusted his glasses.
"Colonel, oversee the cannons. I'm going up top."
"Up top?! Outside? Sir, I cannot recommend--"
He was gone, dashed out the doorway, and wound up the stairs. General Vincent appeared on the roof. Not the same structure as the giant cannon, but atop a fairly close tower that jutted out of the fortress, not quite as tall as the highest point, which the cannon was resting on.
Vincent adjusted his glasses and placed his hands behind his back, eyeing the destruction around him as the breeze blew his hair and flaps of his black trench coat. There he was... flying overhead... Ragnar... the prize... and another, fighting? Who is that?
Vincent smiled lightly...
-
Around Tesla, more comrades were stepping to the edge of the wall, facing North. They copied him, and an arc of blue dots could be seen near the edge of the dome, which became white in the middle. More came, until the walls and roofs of the city were completely saturated with people, and blue dots appeared in a ring around the dome and in clusters above where roofs were. These too became white in the middle. The more competant magic users were all preparing to fire off the arcs of charge.
After muttering a spell to greatly amplify his voice, Tesla shouted: "Fire!" The word echoed around the city, and 20,000 blue and white spots on the red background of the shield started firing off charge arc towards Redvik.
20,000 attacks from Laus to Redvik.
____________________________________________________________________
Hyperion would still be weak, so the Prophet caused the serpent to accelerate only slowly. They flew west.
____________________________________________________________________
Bernard entered, and said, "Are you sober?"
____________________________________________________________________
"Yes, my father was a bastard, why else do you think I killed him Zeros'? As for what he forced, I am perfectly aware, and it has indeed caused psychological problems in the past, including with, in my opinion, your mother who thinks this world, unaltered, is more important than the people living on it. I cannot agree with that."
Haraldur sliced the time even more thinly, Zeros' moving hand standing almost still. With a movement of his left hand, he warped and ripped space in front of the whole, making a portal into empty space, far away, but in the same universe.
Haraldur saw some cannon shots in a cluster in front of him, seemingly standing still. He moved towards them, and touched them simoultaneously. Let us see if this finally gets Zeros' to open his eyes, though not obvious, this is as drastic as I dare. The shots detonated, releasing blasts of ion plasma. Haraldur's skin burned as he clenched his teeth against the pain. The Laws of Physics are impossible to break, unless the universe is damaged. Around him, the air became solid and unyielding, then plasma, then seemed to disappear in a puff of radiation as the atoms fell apart: the fundamental forces of gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force and the colour (strong) force wiped out in that instant. The area where this happened expanded, before Haraldur caused his healing systems to kick in. They did so, and the sphere of forcelessness started to shrink, but not before it was chucked down into the roof (the flat bit, not the towers) of the fortress, causing it and several floors below, and any objects or people there, to disintegrate into radiation.
Time returned to normal, and Haraldur reeled back in pain, somersaulting through the air as his body visibly healed in but a second.
-
Marshal raises his hand, pointing at the minotaur, he slides it infront of the blasts coming towards him. The minotaur follows Marshal's hand movement, and strafes right infront of the blasts, taking them all. The monster roars in pain. The beast still lives, because it's one though mutha...
The monster dashes towards Aura, and swings it's hammer in a downward motion towards Aura. Regardless if the hammer hits her, it would cause another shockwave.
----
Duilin still holding his energy blade. It has grown to about 10 feet high and about a foot wide. He then, flue his way toward Haraldur.
"I'll be damned if this attack hit's him." Duilin mutters. As Huraldur tumbles, he swings the energy blade at him...
----
"Kill him!" Valos yells, as Mavas runs off. "That was him...The one who coppied Lord Draven. He had that red pendant..."
He motions two shock troops to go chase Mavas.
The shock troops run after Mavas, and fire their shotguns...
----
Rink arives infront of Redvik. "Holy crap. This place looks worse than hell!"
-
Ein watched the dots head for Redvik.
-"Hmm... looks like quite the powerful attack you're attempting. Are you sure you know what you're doing? I mean, you might blast half your shield with that. At least, that's what that looked like."
--- --- ---
Gerard watched the bright flash, and the creature taking the hit.
-"Hmm... metaphysics. Quite curious, really. I've no use for them, however, as I am in no way magic."
-
//Euh? Did you watch the video, DM?
"Light and darkness bend to my will..." Tsu held out the hand, catching it, and turning around. Like a magic trick, as he completed the rotation, the ball was now of light. He sent it right back.
Zion didn't have such an excellent balance... Heck, he had no balance. He was very mostly of light orientation. He simply slashed through the ball and countered, holding out his hand. "Photon!" A sphere of light energy appeared around the necromancer, striking inwards twice.
--- --- ---
He rubbed his head. "Yeah..." He looked at the guy. "Who're you?"
--- --- ---
Aura could do nothing about the next shockwave. She successfully evaded the hammer, but was sent into the air by the shockwave. As she flew through the air (It wasn't very far, about 5 feet), she noticed Mavas. Three birds with one stone... Many, rather. She started to charge up some light energy.
-
//Um, no. My computer can't run whatever type of file that was.\\
The minotaurm, stomped it's way towards Aura. It made another enraged exhale. It then roared, and then smashed at a tree, breaking it in half, it then picked it up with it's left hand, and tossed the tree at Aura...
-
"NYAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
The necromancer outstretched both hands as he was slammed with the two orbs of light, throwing him backwards at incredible speed-- right towards Ven.
Still enraged, Ven charged flame energy into his sword once again.
"HYAAAHHH!!!"
He dashed and performed a two-handed stab towards the incoming body-- impaling the necromancer right through the middle... The flame from the sword and the light energy mixed and engulfed him and the burning necromancer utter one last word...
"...f...fr-ee..."
An explosion followed, knocking Ven down. A sort of green glowing mist was shot out in all directions, which condensed into small orbs, which spiraled around each other flying skyward, but then as if some unseen force caught them, dragged downwards, disappearing as they hit the ground...
Exhausted, Ven struggled to one knee.
"Heh..."
----
Bullets rained through the forest as Mavas fled, shredding through leaves and shrubbery.
"Fools."
Charging the shadow element into his fist, he punched the ground. The forest floor behind him heaved and shot up, hundreds of long metallic spikes, ranging from two to four feet high, jutted through the ground in the direct way of his pursuers.
Mavas continued on, not noticing the battle between Aura and Marshal, but fixed on the two that flew overhead a moment ago...
Back at the camp, in Valos' tent. The orb atop a table began to glow, and a holographic image of the upper half of Draven's body, arms folded, became visible.
"Valos! Report!"
----
Vincent watched Haraldur's attack disintegrate a hole in the roof near the tower he stood upon... Amazing... He hadn't seen an attack like that before... That was no ordinary spell. Was it even a form of magic...? No... had he changed the very form of the matter around him? A form of... alchemy?
A second attacker was now taking a shot at the target. Vincent decided to see how these two faired against him...
Suddenly, the multiple cannons stopped, their shields disappeared for a brief instant... the BIG GUN was drawing their power...
The humming sound became horrific as the crimson glow lit up the sky. The shot came with a massive recoil and shockwave-- a massive long beam of red energy. It flew towards Laus at breakneck speed...
The the same time, the 20,000 shots from Laus sped in the opposite direction. The two colossal waves of energy were dead on. They met half way-- too close to the base camps in between for comfort... The sky turned white for miles around... The explosion itself, while significant, only served to singe a few acres of trees. However, the two beams shattered in the process. Each shard, now a volatile ball of energy, shot out from the explosion center in a different direction.
Destruction rained from the heavens. Both Redvik and Laus, the front line camps, and forest and fields in between, were hit with a rain of fire from the sky...
Vincent watched the impending destruction as it flew his way from atop the tower, his glasses reflecting the red light.
"My god..."
-
Valos, went back into his tent. He didn't seemed to shocked about the battle going on, he was used to it.
He looked upon his desk, and saw the holographic image of Draven. "Lord Draven.." He then sat down at his desk, and looked at the image. "What is it, my Lord?"
-------
Rink viewed over the base camp. "Whoa..." He saw, Marshal and Aura fighting. He had summond a large beast. He watched the giant blasts go flying buy...It was indeed an amazing sight. He then spotted Zeros' and Duilin fighting Haraldur. "I better land, and find Valos...see if we can attack now..." He then swooped down to the ground in the base camp...
-
//Just a note for clarification: Haraldur's "attack", which is the second time a thing like that has happened (happened after attack on the Crimson Capital), is not an attack, but a consequence of him sustaining damage, intrinsic to him (and unique), which, for the purposes of the way I would like the story to go when it comes to Haraldur only, I would appreciate not to be copied by Mavas or any other character. It is, after all, not an attack, and breaks the Laws of Physics in this universe (which is impossible, implying damage to the universe) and so should not be regarded as a typical attack, but illegal, for the sake of the storyline. Just a request. This will not happen often, Haraldur avoids damage to himself as much as the next man (if not more). So, please, no copying of this one.//
Haraldur was still uncontrollably tumbling backwards, quite unaware of the energy blade swinging towards him. The blade struck him in the right leg, causing him clench his teeth again. This time, his healing systems kicked in straight away, but not before this happened: for a split second another forceless orb appeared around Haraldur, much faster and larger than previously, as the damage was so much worse, but receding almost immediately as Haraldur healed. The energy blade disappeared from point to hilt (in that order) as radiation in a split second, and so does Duilin's hand (and the rest of his body) unless he moves away quickly with his super demon powers (as he obviously will succeed in, since this effect, at aboout 1/10th of a second, is much to slow to be dangerous).
The orb having disappeared, and, after a second, the leg being healed, scarless, Haraldur tumbled further, and then regained control of his flight. He did so in time to see the Big Gun shoot while the shield went down, and decided to defend his comrades. After the shot, but before the shield came back up, he sliced the space where the gun was into several pieces, leaving a complicated warp (think of space as paper, and this as complex origami with a lot of scissors). The soldiers ripped apart and the gun exploded before the warp righted itself, causing the pieces to implode, and then fall in opposite directions on the city.
He then blasted at one of the two remaining towers (the one vincent is not on) with his plasma gun he was still carrying, causing it to ionise and explode, sending hot masonry to smash down on the already burning city. From below the stench of burning corpses was finally beginning to waft upwards, exciting the nostrils.
Redvik was now just a shell of a city, buildings within burned down, walls intact most of the population dead, and a damaged fortress, with factories below it, in the centre.
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla said to Ein, "Comrade, the shield is what makes this attack possible. This shield is the attack."
Before he could react, a couple of shards hit the shield, and Nikola had to repulse them. Then, he used telekinesis on the shards that had not yet reached the shield and they accelerated towards Redvik. Around him, at different times, others started to help, voluntarily. Others started firing at will, sending shots at different times and in slightly different trajectories, to hit different places in Redvik.
Total: 15,000 shards flying towards Redvik, 5,000 charged arcs arching to it.
____________________________________________________________________
"My name is Bernard Goujon, comrade. Care for some soup?"
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar walked through the corridors of the Crimson Palace, and then flew out of a window. Let us look at how the Crimson Empire treats its subjects.
He dropped down, and flew to the undamaged parts of the Crimson Capital to the town square, to the place where he knew there would be executions, and he could see a crowd gathering around the stands.
//Xorlak, could you continue the description of this scene?//
-
-"I see. I am sorry, I do not understand magic as advanced as this."
Ein began to feel useless, and started doodling diagrams on one of the wall's bricks, transforming it to different shapes and sizes. Eventually, he got bored of this, and jumped off the wall //AGAIN!!\\ down into Laus. He went towards the city square, which he knew a little better now. From there, he turned left, and then eventually met one of Laus' citizens //or whatever you'd call them\\. He turned to him.
-"Is there some sort of inn, or any quiet spot you know of that I could visit?"
//sorry for bugging you, haraldur, or whoever will show me the way... but i still have no idea where specific buildings are in Laus\\
--- --- ---
Gerard continued watching the fight.
-"These shells that pop out of the loud object that funky looking man is carrying look like they're made of cuprum. That should come in handy... Better wait for the fight to be over, though."
//once again, for those who don't know their chemistry, cuprum is... ah the hell with it, if you want to know then look it up!\\
-
Zion and Tsu raised an eyebrouw at the orbs. "What was that?" asked Zion.
--- --- ---
"Nice to meet ya. Naw, I don't want any." He slowly got out of the bed.
--- --- ---
Aura brought her two scimitars near each other, and slashed downward through the tree. She then returned them to their positions at her waist, and was suspended in the air.
"Judgment!"
Many, many strong beams of light shot straight down from the heavens. She tried to extend its scope as much as possible... this scope being a circle from where Marshal and the specter were, to deep into the forest, however, this would spread the rays out a little more. She was hoping that Mavas would get slammed with it too.
//I hope that the camp isn't in that scope.
--- --- ---
Zion looked off in the direction of the rays of Judgment. "That's Judgment... One of the strongest light magic arts... Who other than I has that?"
Tsu's heart was in pain... "That's Aura... I just know it..."
-
Duilin, was shocked that he hit Haraldur. He saw his blade was dissappearing, he let go off the blade, and then flapped his wings backwards, pushing himself several feet away from Haraldur.
Duilin, then watches Haraldur. "Holy crap..." He sighes. "He's smashing this place up preety good."
He then, raises both of his hands on a 90 degree angle, and yellow energy begins to spiral around his hands. He then points both of his hands at Haraldur and blasts two yellow lasers at him...
-----
Marshal opens his eyes wide open as he spots the attack coming down. It was beautiful, but he shouldn't stay for the show, but it looked like there was one one quick way to protect himself. He crouched and held his hand toward the light beams blasting down toward him. The minotaur then sheilded Marshal, taking all the hits. The attack was to much for the mighty beast. The minotaur, then faded back into it's blue specter form, and then into a small energy matter, and was sucked back into Marshal's ammulet. The gem, was getting exhausted, that was a powerfull monster, so he would have to let the gem and his own magic energy to rest. (The amulet supplies only help for Marshals summoning abbilites, so he has to use some of his own magic to summon creatures).
Marshal, then glared at Aura. He then fired his machine gun eight times at Aura...
-
Ven stood up, sheathing his sword and stumbling a bit, holding his right arm. He watched the glowing orbs as they disappeared into the ground.
"Not sure... his spirit or something? They're gone now, anyway..."
His eyes trailed up to see the bright light in the southern sky. Judgment... In fact the whole sky was lit up in multiple colors all around it.
"Looks like there's a huge battle going on..."
He climbed atop a log to try to get a better glimpse over the tree line. It probably wouldn't be a huge stretch to assume Mavas is involved. Or at least drawn to it...
"Well... guess we better find out what's going on..."
He began to limp towards the south, but paused.
"Hmmm, maybe we should find a vehicle or something..."
----
"Valos!"
Draven barked through the hologram.
"How is the mission proceeding? Has flyboy lured Ragnar out of the city? Have our spies reported anything useful? I am sensing much activity in that direction..."
It was at this time that balls of fire began to rain down around the camps, igniting parts of the surrounding forest.
----
(Laus can get a little messed up too, ya know. Heh...)
Vincent clenched his fists and swore as the primary gun and another tower fell.
"Son of a--!!"
A soldier was running up the stairwell behind him. Vincent turned around and barked his orders.
"Redirect the big gun's core energy to the secondary cannons. Cease fire and use the energy for the forward shields."
He looked up and saw a second wave of energy balls headed their way.
"You have twenty seconds!!"
"Y-yes sir!!"
Soon after, a beam emitted from the remaining smaller cannons, producing a red half-sphere shield around them, less translucent than the previous ones. The incoming blasts largely reflected off of these shields, except in the areas that had already damaged and thus had no cannons, which crumbled even more.
After the second wave of attack from Laus subsided. Three large gateways underground slowly opened, one of the east, west, and north side of the fortress. Three large black airships slowly emerged, their decks filled with mages who immediately began their work casting barrier spells around the vessels as the ships rose into the air.
Vincent did not give the order, but approved of the decision, most likely given by the colonel. He turned to set his sights back on the three fighting above.
----
There were three of them on the stands, with a noose around their necks. To their right was large buff man wearing the lower armor of a crimson empire soldier, shirtless, and a dark face mask. Another seemed to be an officer, without a helmet and a long mustache, holding a scroll. A crowd of perhaps a hundred or so was gathered around to see the end of these men, and were on all sides except behind, where there were a few more soldiers. The man with the scroll lifted the paper and began to read, the murmuring of the crowd immediately dissipating.
"Now hear this. These men, the last of the traitors of the rebellious acts of yesterday, those that seek to destroy us and our great nation, have been sentenced to death by order of our Emperor."
The crowed resonated:
"HOORAY!! LONG LIVE LORD DRAVEN!!!"
The shirtless man pulled the chord and the trapdoors under the men let way. They were hung, and their lifeless bodies swung in the breeze.
As it happened, jeers and laughter randomly emanated from the crowd. They slowly began to disperse, going on about their lives...
Except for one. There was one near the front, a younger man, who did not partake in the cheer, but seemed to be weeping bitterly. He began to dash at the stand with the hanging men, but was intercepted by a soldier. The soldier, who was much bigger, took him by both shoulders and spoke a few words to him. The young man responded by punching the soldier's armored chest, which did nothing at all. The soldier gave the young man a knee to the stomach and, with the help of a second soldier, dragged they young man into the buidling behind the stands.
And that was that.
-
"Ragnar is out of the city. The demons are taking care of him." Valos said, "Yet, Ragnar, is doing a lot of damage to the city and the camps..." He then paused for a moment, and turned his head, looking outside the opening of the tents, seeing fire raining down...
"But, yes. The imp has obtained some information; they have surrounded the entire town with 'plasma' turrets all around guarding the city. The technology is quite odd and is run by magic and all of the houses are the same. And also that member of the Blue Minotaur, has joined them. Perhaps, the whole clan may have joined them to, but we don't know. We may need more soldiers, we have already taken a bit of casualties, but shall we proceed with the attack?"
-----
Rink then arrives at Valos' tent. He looks and sees what he is doing, but says nothing...
-
-"Actually, never mind. I'm sure I can find my own way."
Ein turned around, and walked off. He then entered the first building he saw that looked suspiciously like a tavern. He talked to the person in front.
-"May I please have a room for the night?"
The clerk responded:
-"Yes, of course. Here's your key."
Ein thanked the clerk and took the key. He then went upstairs, and entered the sixth door on his right. He looked around the room he was assinged. Quite tidy, with a bed in the middle, a small dresser in one of the corners. A window directed outside, through which other houses and a street below were seen. "Looks alright. This is actually better than the wet cold cave where I used to live." He moved the bed over a little bit, so he could have more space on the ground. Then he sat down on the floor, so that his head and back were resting on the side of the bed. He closed his eyes.
After about 30 minutes of trying to concentrate through the clamor heard from the streets, Ein finally succeeded. He completely relaxed his body, thinking of absolutely nothing. He slowly entered a trance...
He was now moving through his own mind. It was a lot like diving into a very deep pool, with the exception of the fact that he did not need to hold air in this place. However, as he got deeper, the pressure on his self increased. It was harder and harder to stay in trance.
Eventually he got to a place that looked like a lot of white dots in the middle of the blackness of his mind. These were his basic body controls, which he could do without entering a trance. He had to go deeper.
A while later, he encountered a number of different sections of his mind. First, advanced body controls with which he could slow his heart down, make himself generate more heat, be unable to feel pain, etc... Then came his memories. Things he did in the last minute, last hour, last day, last week, and eventually he was before his own entire life. "No... still not there. I must go even deeper." After passing his full memories, he entered a field of blackness. The pressure on his ego was now immense, even a slight distruption can make him exit his trance, or in the worst case, go into a deep coma.
Then... he finally reached it. A large, gray throbbing spot right at the bottom of his subconciousness. "Here we go. The Depth of my mind." He reached out for the gray... no... someone opened the door of his temporary room. He felt himself leaving his trance. He concentrated as hard as he could, using all his willpower to do so. He reached out... just a little closer... and touched it.
---
Outside, in the real world, a janitor was entering his room, since apparently there was something wrong with the bed. He saw Ein on the floor, with his teeth clenched and his eyes closed, suddenly collapse from his position.
--- --- ---
-"God damn it... How long does it take to finish a damned fight?!"
Gerard pulled out his dagger, which suddenly started glowing with red light //this is not his magic, the dagger itself is magic\\, and rushed towards Marshal, trying to lunge his dagger into his neck. This dagger would paralyze anyone it touched (except wielder) for at least ten seconds. The poison already present on the dagger should be kept in mind, too.
-"Hyaaaaaah!!!"
-
"What the--" Marshal yelled, as Gerard ran at him. "What do you think you are doing!?" He yelled, he then backpeddled as Gerard thrusted his dagger at him, he then fired his gun point blank at Gerard.
//Remember, that I allready attacked Aura. Don't forget again Trent.\\
-
The bullet got Gerard in the right part of his chest. It made a fairly large hole, and blood started gushing out. Gerard fell over.
-"Oof!"
He felt his conciousness fleeting, and lobbed his dagger at Marshal using his last strength.
//wang, my 2nd character dies in his first 10 posts -_- \\
-
//The solution for that, Ein, is to produce superhuman characters.//
Bernard said, "OK, well, good morning, comrade. I am going outside to help in the defenses, so please excuse me."
Goujon left. He walked up the street, and levitated up and then stepped onto the wall.
"Good morning, Nikola."
"Good morning, Bernard. I hear you had a visitor?"
"Oh, yes. He seems to be an outsider, so I was extra polite to him."
"Hehe, he is probably some sort of spy. No matter, let them see what they can see. Why should we care if they get worried?"
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur, having recovered control of his body's flight, easily dodges the laser shots. "So, we have the dream team back, brilliant. Why bon't you two actually go and fight some bad guys, I mean, that is the point, right? Oh, wait, I remember, you are fascists now."
Haraldur spotted the airships, and thought: OK, I have done some attacking, but defence of my comrades must come first. He dropped down right in the path of the airships: they would have to get past him before reaching Laus.
Nikola, we have airships coming towards you. Set your attacks to have affinity for floating objects large than a dinghy. Also set it to attract to the magic used, you know the sort I mean.
//The one remaining tower is unshielded, right?//
Haraldur spotted the one remaining tower, and there seemed to be someone in a high ranking uniform there. Hmmm...
Extending in his right hand a massive pair of bolas, with the balls made of iron and the size of wrecking balls. He spun them around him, and himself around them, and then made himself be still in relation to the ground, and left go. The massive bolas hit the tower on the bit which was the super strong chain, causing the ends with the metal balls to wrap around very fast, until both hit the same side of the tower, blowing out a whole level, causing the tower, with Vincent on it, to to fall, down onto an airship, along with the bolas, which killed a few mages, and made a hole in the deck, but caused no structural damage.
Around Haraldur, wind speed started to increase. Then, he started to spin himself, as a tornado surrounded him, but it was a tornado in reverse, it squashed things on the ground, and threw things in the air to the ground. Below him, the city walls began to collapse. He started to move towards the airships as the wind speed increased.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar smiled to himself. Intelligence had been right, there had been a small uprising, and it has been put down.
Anyway, time to launch an attack of his own. Draven will not mind if he does not know, besides, it will be worth it just for mapping of the area. Peasants, even trained ones, are scum afterall.
He and his entourage flew back towards home, and preparation.
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla received Haraldur's message, and relayed it to his comrades. Then, including Bernard, they fired off yet more charged arcs.
20,000 shots from Laus, all hitting the airships due to attration. Despite the fact the first ones, by Tesla, destroyed utterly unshielded towers, most are not as powerful. They should be considered of equivalent destructive power as a grenade, so what effect 20,000/3 (approx.) would have on a heavily shielded airship will be an interesting thing to see how strong those things are.
____________________________________________________________________
//Where is Kahn?//
The serpent was going very fast now, and in the distance a lone mountain appeared on the horizon, surrounded on all sides by flood plain.
-
Zeros' started to become more enraged, but, he stopped himself and calmed down. The more rage he had, the easier his attacks were to read, and the sloppier he would fight. It wouldn't do him good to become sloppy at this point.
He had watched Haraldur disentergrate the roof, twisting around matter and bending it to his will. He had watched the BIG GUN and the 20,000 lights connect. He had watched it all. He watched Haraldur destroy the city, and kill the innocents, however few that lived there.
His hair gradually settled back on it's original color, as did his wings and eyes. (Note: Normal form. Silver hair, green eyes and black, feathered angel wings.)
Zeros' sighed, and ghosted to the side, appearing right infront of Haraldur. With a simple wave of his hand, the tornado dispersed, and Zeros' unsheathed his sword, it transforming into it's Holy/God form.
His blade glowed with a faint aura, and swung at Haraldur. He used his other hand to shove a ki blast directly infront of Haraldur.
-
//I try not to go above the line. A god character wouldn't be as fun to have as a normal human character (everything is easy if you're a god)\\
Ein was still unconcious, but he was coming to.
-
//Sorry! Things came up.//
Hyperion looked at the lone mountain intrigued. This was the furthest he had travelled in his life, in fact he had never left his island home before his master died. He wished he was more amused by his surroundings, but came to the conclusion that more important matters were at hand.
"That mountain, is that our destination?"
-
Marshal was shocked. He has never killed a person before. Sure a monster that he has summond has taken a life, yet he himself has never personally killed a person. It wasn't much different, yet it felt different. He staired at the dead body, he picked up the magic dagger. "I'll hold onto this for now..." He then looked at Aura, to see the outcome of his attack...
------
Duilin, sees that Zeros' is to close to Haraldur to make a safe attack. So he begins to charge his power, and forms two energy orbs....
-
//Dudeman, before dying Gerard lobbed his dagger at marshal - if you don't know what "lobbed" is, it means "thrown", so... yeah.\\
-
"Vehicle... How much do you weigh?"
"Zion... Carrying him will slow us all down."
"But we'll still get there."
--- --- ---
Xenai eavesdropped. Naughty naughty. Mkay... Passing through... but to where? D'oh! I forgot that part...
--- --- ---
"Gah!" She whipped out her scimitars, trying to shield herself. Many bullets bounced off of them, but many others hit. Some of them brushed by, some of them connected. No vital organs were endangered though. She would land on the ground with bullets in her left ankle, right thigh, left upper arm, and right forearm. Many more scrapes would be found. She flared her aura to push the bullets out, and pulled a bullet out of her hair. Gah! He ruined my hair... "Crap..." She eminated with a soft light... She had to stop attacking so that she could take care of those wounds. An eyebrow was raised at what happened next, and then her eyes widened. Dummy... Thanks for trying, though.
-
Ein finally woke up. He stood up, dusted himself off... His head hurt like someone just crammed a rock inside it. He then headed towards the door... and then it happened.
"<span style='color:red'>Hello, Ein.</span>"
-"Huh? Who said that?"
"<span style='color:red'>I did.</span>"
-"Who are you? Where are you? Show yourself!"
"<span style='color:red'>That would be quite hard. I am but a shadow in your mind. Did your parents ever tell you that your father was a member of a cult?</span>"
-"What? What cult? My parents would never do such a thing."
"<span style='color:red'>Well, they did. However, the cult was later hunted down and destroyed. Seeing that, your father allowed me to posess him.</span>"
-"Why would he do such a thing?"
"<span style='color:red'>Because, Ein, I am the subject of their worship. From this point on I will reside in your mind until I find a more suitable host.</span>"
-"WHAT?!" The idea of a voice inside his head did not comfort Ein at all.
-"Well, at least tell me who you are!"
The voice was gone now. Ein shook his head, as if trying to get it out of himself. After a few minutes of trying, he realized that it's not gonna do much to him, so he headed for the vestibule. After getting there, he thanked the clerk and gave him back his keys.
-"Oh yes, and by the way -- a comrade of mine found you unconcious in your room. Were you OK?"
-"Yeah. I was just taking a nap."
//by the way... the fact that Gerard died does not mean he's out of the story Very Happy Stay tuned...\\
-
//The concept of an "employee" does not exist in Laus.//
-
//sorry about that, i'll edit it//
Ein exited the tavern and headed for city walls.
-
//I know what lobbed means. I guess I missed that part. Say, Marshal caught the dagger.\\
Marshal staired at Aura. He raised his weapon and aimed it again. However he hesitated to shoot again. He didn't feal good about killing people. He started to shake, he clenched his teeth, and fired a single shot again. "Gah!"
-
"Hmmm, probably around 200 pounds with this armor on... Why? Oh, yeah. The whole wings and flying thing."
Ven stumbled a bit, and sat down on a nearby log.
"Erh... used up... a little too much energy, I guess..."
His head hung heavily, and his arms drooped under his cloak. Finally he leaned over, his back resting on a perpendicular log, and he fell unconscious, completely worn out...
(Actually, I'd like to give Ven and Mavas a little break, since so much else is going on. If you'd like to pull out Zion and Tsu for a while too, this would be a good point to have them make a camp and rest or something. But if you don't, I can wake Ven back up next post.)
----
The Draven hologram responded to Valos.
"Hmmm, interesting... Yes, I believe the time to attack has come. There will be some units from Alterña, who I just reached an alliance agreement with, attacking from the other side. Raze the walls, kill all who resist, etc. The Alterñians insist that everyone is killed, but I really do not care, so it's your call. As for the city itself, I have other port towns, so destroy as much as you want... Just make it clear to Ragnar that I will remove any trash he attempts to build on my land..."
Draven's image faded...
(Note when you have Valos make his move that the camps are equipped with more than just plain soldiers-- use your imagination!)
----
The orb that Draven gave to Salazar, which is now in the possession of one of his men, echoed with Draven's voice:
"If you have been able to prepare this quickly, you are now authorized to attack Laus."
----
The glow of the orb dimmed in his hand and Draven pocketed it, turning towards the window. The clouds were level with the floating fortress and seemed close enough to touch.
He could barely resist the urge to be in the front line personally, but he couldn't oversee every little operation... Still, perhaps a visit would be necessary sometime soon. It is Ragnar, after all...
----
Vincent swore again as the tower began vibrating immensely. He was going down...
As the tower crumbled, Vincent crouched and placed his right palm on the stone foor below him. A brilliant blue circle of light appeared around him, some three feet in diameter, enough to encircle the spot he was standing on. The stones within this circle flashed and turned a gray color, now smooth, uniform, and metallic. This disc fell slower than the rest of the collapsing tower, and soon the general was above the falling rubble. Three metallic blades, about two feet long each, then jut out of the metallic disc he was standing on. These blades began to rotate around the edge of the disc rapidly like a helicopter. Vincent placed his hands behind his back as the disc he was standing on gently descended downward...
The crumbling tower fell on one of the airships as another wave of attacks from Laus slammed into it in multiple locations... It began smoking immensely and began to slowly fall into the burning city. The crash was not spectacular, as the airship had barely gotten off of the ground in the first place, but it skid along the ground, smashing through several buildings before coming to a halt and beginning to burn itself. Soldiers began to leap from the deck.
The other two airships turned their cannons towards the incoming blasts, destroying a percentage of the attack. Another percentage was reflected by the mages on board, but still some of the energy made its way to the airship hulls and decks, a series of small explosions ripping across each. When it was over, both were still flying, although smoking lightly in several locations...
These two ships began to move straight up, to make way for wave 2...
Three more large airships became visible as they rose out of the mammoth trap doors, one from each...
Atop the floating disc, Vincent circled the three warriors locked in combat, his hair and coat flaps blowing to the side. He was finished observing. Of course this next stunt would be very dangerous, but certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity. For the learning experience, at the very least... The surrounding flames reflected brightly in his glasses. He leapt from his strange flying device and landed on top of a large pile of rubble, shouting so that he could be heard over the commotion and Zeros' attack:
"Ragnar! First degree criminal, public enemy number one, you are hereby under arrest by order of the Crimson Empire. You are to cease and desist all action and surrender immediately."
-
//apparently i really don't know anything about DAL at all, so i'm gonna turn passive again... i really have to stop making an idiot out of myself. I'll somehow try to kill off ein, and perhaps make a new character next chapter, with godlike powers as everyone else.\\
-
"Yes Lord Draven!" Valos smirked. "Let's kick some ass!" He turned around. He looked at Rink. "You herd him, Imp. Move! We are going to attack!"
He then dashed out of his tent, and swung out his sword and spun it around (kinda like how Cloud Strife does) He then, shouts to one solider. "Ring the bell! We're going in!"
He then dashes into the main barracks. "Alright, maggots! Into Laus!"
The soldiers then gave a war cry followed with "LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE!". Basic soldiers armed with swords, battle-axes, maces and war hammers. There were soldiers in red armour, with small horns on their helmets, armed with flamethrowers. Mages in crimson robes began to charge their magic energy. Valos' elite guard began to load up their shotguns. There were even ninjas, armed with a katana, ninja stars, smoke bombs and a grappling hook. Wyvern riders began to fly off into the sky. Soliders armed with bolt guns (see Maxwell, chapter 5), began to charge off with the rest of the soldiers. Most eye raising of all, ogres, with pieces of armour on, and huge swords, or war hammers, even dashed off with the rest.
The signal was given to base camp one, to advance towards the back of Laus...
Valos, was at the front lines of the attack at base camp 2, going to the front. He was backed up by the mages, who began to charge energy shields, to protect the forces running in.
------
Rink, just standed in were he was, trying not to get trampled by the soliders. "May the gods be with us, ALL of us..."
//Trent, you can have Aura run off, and get her attack group if you want to. Since this battle is going nowhere. \\
-
Allen walked out of the tent he was in, hearing the rallying war cry of Valos. He watched the troops move about, and sighed. He wasn't near as powerful as anyone else, and he didn't try to delude himself into thinking he was. He knew his limits.
His coat shifted briefly in the breeze, as the wyvern riders took to the skies. Dust filled the air as they flapped their magnificent wings. He didn't think this would end well... Not at all.
He looked around, observing what was happening, and saw Marshal attacking the newest Lt., Aura. He narrowed his eyes at Marshal, his blue eyes now hardened like chips of ice.
His hand snapped up, and, with speed befiting a much younger man, brought his hand down to the ground. A brilliant blue cricle of light appeared beneath him, humming with an unseen power.
The light expanded outwards, towards Aura and Marshal, as a barrier made of steel rose infront of Aura, intercepting the bullet fired from Marshal's gun.
He raised his hand from the ground, and stepped forwards, adressing Marshal.
"Well, well... What do we have here? A fool turned to the Aspyes. How disgusting," he said disgustedly.
-
//Dude Man, please inform me when Valos and his men reach the area of cracked and sharp ground.//
The tornado automatically started up again, squashing the remainder of the buildings. Zeros''s attacks went through Haraldur with absolutely no effect.
Hearing Vincent, he turned, shouting, "Piss off, you inbred lackey, with no ability to lead by yourself! If you were a true leader, you would have rebelled years ago. Get out of my sight."
He then saw that there were now five airships, and decided that it was now time to defend.
He started to fly back towards Laus. As he did so, he passed over the mobilised troops. He passed over a company of soldiers and one of mages. Warps appeared over them, ripping them to pieces, and sending blood and gore flying over the rest of the troops.
He flew over the cracked land, and was now standing on the air in front of Laus. Oh, well, plan B is always an option... again.
In the air above the cracked land, he produced a warp in space, to rip up flying objects.
____________________________________________________________________
The Prophet nodded. "Yes, that is our destination. We will be there soon."
They carried on flying, it was now just a few kilometres away.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar received a message from his deputy relaying Draven's message. OK. He sent a message to his generals at the barracks.
____________________________________________________________________
At Salazar's homeland, a small fleet of ships left, carrying a poorly armed peasant and prisoner army. Above them flew elite mage troops. They started travelling towards Laus.
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla strengthene the shield in preparation as he saw Haraldur approach. Good, the pressure was near the limit now.
Another 20,000 shots were sent, and then the remainder of the population, including children (women were already involved, equality etc.) came up, and started to send rocks flying towards the camps.
-
//changed my mind Razz\\
Ein was on top of the wall again. He watched the horrific army approach Laus, and then he looked over at Tesla and citizens of the city, all trying to fend them off.
-"This is the point in time where I did something drastic."
He etched a circle with four lines coming off it's centre in the wall. He then added small marks to the lines, making them look somewhat like antennae. Then he stabbed the middle of the diagram with one of his bolts, making it get stuck in there. Suddenly, the lines lit up, eminating the area around Ein in a soft golden light. The bolt was starting to change colours, too. It went from silvery-white to somewhat rusted, and then started to turn gold, very very slowly.
-
//Okay, but you better not kill all the soldiers, because that would really suck. \\
Valos, signalled a few of the mages to take flight, he knew that the ground was strange and he didn't trust it. Him and about 25 mages jumped into the air, and blasted an aura around them, and flue off, they were in the air, flying next to the wyverns, the troops then approached the damaged ground...
------
"He's getting away!" Duilin shouted, he then flue off after Haraldur, he tossed the energy orbs that were now about 3 feet in diameter. The orbs locked on to Haraldur like heat seekers...
------
"Hah, you are the one who is disgusting. Aiding a force bent on world domination. We Aspyes plan to bring peace. Using any means necessary!"
Marshal's amulet then glowed, and then a blue spectre blasted out and formed into a mud man, that began to slosh its way towards Allen.
-------
"God, he really had to much rest for the past five years." Rink said as he saw Duilin chase after Haraldur. Rink then flue up towards the commotion. He saw Vincent, on his flying machine. "Now I've seen everything!" He then saw Haraldur attacking the ships. "We?ve got to protect those ships!" He then, picked up a loose brick on one the damaged towers. "Hey Haraldur, catch!" he then tossed the brick, at Haraldur...
-
The bolt was now completely gold, and was somewhat eminating a soft gold light around it as well. Ein ripped the bolt out of the wall, put it in his crossbow, and fired upon the enemy army...
A bright yellowish-white flash occured as soon as the bolt hit the ground before one of the soliders. A huge explosion followed, sending chunks of soliders over others, and spraying them in blood. The explosion took out at least 100 people.
-
"Alright. Tsu, help me set up camp."
"Okay."
--- --- ---
He's just standin' there, trying to get his land legs after sleeping so deeply.
--- --- ---
Aura starts to dodge, but it seems as if she doesn't need to. She looks to the guy who came to his aid. "Hi there." o_o; Uh, she salutes just in case.
// Did I mess up anywhere?
-
Allen smirked at Marshal, and greeted Aura.
"Hello there, Lieutenant. No need to salute to me. I'm but a mere researcher. I should be the one saluting you," he said. He turned towards Marshal, he eyes turned back to ice. "You need to go help the rest of the Empire. I'll take care of this pest," he said, indicating Marshal and his creation.
Allen turned, and looked at the mud man boredly.
"Do you really think something as simple as that can hurt me?" he asked mockingly. He demonstrated his point by putting his hand to the ground. Out infront of the mud man, a pit 10 or so feet deep formed, suddenly out of nowhere.
He reached to his side, where a dagger sat in it's sheath. He unsheathed the dagger, twirling it around in his hands. There was nothing special about the dagger, except some small runes carved into it's ebony handle. He held up his thumb, and made a small slit with the knife, causing a small cut to appear. Blood slowly leaked from the cut, and dripped onto the ground. Allen took a cloth out of one of his inside pockets, and wiped off the dagger clean, and sheathed the dagger.
He cracked his knuckles, and put his left hand on the groud. A glowing blue circle appeared, as it reacted with the blood. Suddenly, a rush of water was heard as the pit infront of the mudman rapidly filled with crystal clear water.
Since the mudman was made of sand, and water, the water in the pool would disolve the mudman into nothing more, but mud.
---
Zeros' sighed as his attacks missed. He hadn't expected them to hit, actually. The ONLY way to beat Haraldur was to drag down his mana stores, and exhaust him, which was almost impossible.
He looked at the attacks coming, and then to the rip Haraldur had formed. He looked between the two, deciding to fix or counter the rip.
He ghosted from his position, to where the rip was (Took him serveral seconds, too). He prevented himself from being sucked in, by forcing is aura outwards, and in an opposite direction of the rip.
//As for directions, since they're sucking something into them, they have to go some direction.\\
Zeros' waved his hands, and muttered a few wards. Another rip appeared, directly next to the one already there. Zeros' made it go in the opposite direction of Haraldur's rip. This, in term, caused the rips to work against each other, meaning the airships could flyby without worrying about being sucked into the hole.
After a few moments, though, the rips eventually countered each other, causing both of them to disappear, with a not quite so quiet RIP.
Zeros', in turn, smirked in Haraldur's general direction.
-
//Heh, 123 pages. One two three....\\
Marshal rubbed his chin. "Smooth move..." He mumbled.
His amulet glowed once more, this time the spectre formed into an ogre. It growled and then swung its club in a downward motion, onto Allen...
-
Allen dodged to the side, barely missing getting squashed by the club. He readjusted his glasses, and looked at the ogre. It was big, and strong, but also bulky. Allen was small, and lean, but fast, nowhere near Duilin or Zeros' levels, but he was faster then normal.
He dodged again, as the ogre's club came down at him again, but the club brushed his arm. He winced, and tumbled to the side. He stood, and shook his head of the cobwebs. Ogre's also had very tough hide. The softest parts of their body were their insides, or... They're eyes!
Allen's glasses glinted, and his eyes started to shine. He let out a brief laugh. He looked at his the blood smeared on his thumb, and suddenly got a plan.
He dodged once more, and slammed his left hand into the ground ? the hand that he had cut ? and a alchemic circle appeared beheath him. Unlike the others, this one was green, and had a picture of a tree depicted on it. The circle started to spin rapidly, glowing brighter and brighter with each movement, then, it suddenly stopped.
The effects were felt immediately, though, as giant tree roots freed themselves from the ground, and moved to entangle the ogre (It says "moved to entangle" which means, the ogre can smash them or something). They also had thorns on them, which would probably do nothing more then annoy the beast.
-
Duilin's attack was ripped apart by the warps in space.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur was gone by the time the brick got to where he had been.
____________________________________________________________________
//Rips do not have direction, in the sense you mean. They do not suck anything, either, unless they link to empty space, in which case it is irrelevant to the rip itself. Also, these are warps, not portals to empty space, so there was no sucking anyway.//
The rip was not visible temporarily, but reappeared, and increased in size as Zeros' interference has damaged the fabric of reality even more. It increased in size so much that Zeros' was in danger of being ripped into pieces.
Haraldur grinned at Zeros''s incompetance. He chucked two more warps. One was added to the previous one, increasing its size again, and the other was a little behind it.
He called to Tesla, behind him, "Do it now, we need to go."
Tesla nodded, and released the concentration on his mind.
____________________________________________________________________
Below the ground, the force holding back the highly pressurised magma disappeared. The magma surged upwards and Northwards.
____________________________________________________________________
From the cracked ground lava spewed upwards at a magnificent rate. It arced upwards, covering everything from the frontline to completely shrouding Redvik in red hot melted rock.
//Please note that this has been effectively "charging" for about 10 or 20 posts. We are talking about a supersupersupervolcano. Not something you can block or stop.//
The common soldiers were wiped out, as they had no means of defending themseves. //Dude Man, you decide what happens to the mages.//
The two damaged airships were burned and smashed. The other three were significantly charred (they get hit by tonnes and tonnes of red hot lava, so...) and very damaged.
There was a large cracking sound as the Laus peninsula seperated from the continent, and started moving away.
____________________________________________________________________
In Laus, the large complex of pipes and cylinders started to make a chugging sound, and the scenery started moving. The people cheered as they saw themselves moving south and east from their former oppressors.
They then fired yet another round of 20,000 charged arcs.
Haraldur sat down behind the crowd, as the engines fed off his energy. Tesla stood over him.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar and his army are half way to where Laus used to be.
____________________________________________________________________
The Prophet arrives at the mountain, and waits for Hyperion to get off.
-
Ein smiled at the destruction caused by the magma.
-"Seems that the entire city of Laus looks like magic and technology combined. I'm supposing that this is what you and Haraldur do here?" //speaking to Tesla\\
--- --- ---
Gerard's body was now gone, and there were drag marks on where he lay.
-
"Partly," said Tesla.
-
//Um, I'm not sure what these 'arcs' are.\\
The rest of the mages were able to save a few of the soldiers. Most of the stronger ones were saved. They then began to fly forward, dodging any attacks tossed at them...
Valos watched as nearly his entire army just died, like that. "Shit!"
The mages planted a few of the soldiers down on land floating away. They then charged into the town...
Valos turned his head, and saw the peninsula separate from the land. He clenched his fist; he then pointed his sword toward the town of Laus. "KILL THEM ALL!!"
The mages then all began to charge large orbs of dark magic energy; they then shot the dark shade blasts at the town.
Valos' began to charge his sword with magic; a dark purple aura began to highlight the blade. A dark eerie glow began to surround Valos, as he was charging his attack. Two mages then flue in front of Valos to created a large shield around them, and their general...
-----
The ogre swung its club smashing away at the roots. Marshal laughed. He then pointed towards Allen, the ogre then dived at him swinging its club downwards...
-----
"Rink!" Duilin said, seeing his small impish friend.
"What's going on?" Rink asked
"Haraldur keeps making rips, and Zeros' is trying to fix them." Duilin replied
"Well, it looks like the attack is going down the drain. Valos can't fight the entire army by himself. Those mages may die soon." Rink said, pointing towards the battle going on to the south. "Looks like Laus is floating away, because of Haraldur playing god again..."
"I hate it when he does that..." Duilin sighed. "Partly because it's such a powerful skill and partly because he does it so damned much!"
"Valos' combat plan seemed to have failed. Haraldur always seems to be one step ahead of us..." He then paused and crossed his arms. "Well, maybe we should just go off and fight. Haraldur's god playing, rebellion should stop." Rink suggested, as he uncrossed his arms and cracks his knuckles.
-
//The "arcs" are discharges from the shield which attacked Redvik earlier. Equivalent to a grenade.//
The soldiers could not enter the town, as they were blocked by the covering shield. They were soon killed by the defenders on the walls.
The atmosphere was now filled both with steam and poisonous sulphorous gas (killing many) as the magma touched the water. The island that was once a peninsula accelerated and left a high wake, sending tsunamis accross the land, washing away many of the mages and filling the atmosphere with more steam and sulphorous gas.
Arcs were fired towards the dark shade blasts, making them shatter and scatter onto the sea. Even more went towards the multitude of mages (although accuracy is impossible, considering that the air is filled with steam).
Haraldur was still, conscious, but only just, as the engines accelerated further. He sent a message to Marshall: Come back to Laus and defend, and make sure not to breath any of the sulphorous gas that fills the steamy areas. He then fel unconscious, resting his head on his rolled up cloak.
Tesla saw two mages protect a man who was flying towards Laus, and fired two shots from his plasma gun at his shielded form.
The island was now going at several hundred metres per second, protected by the shield, breaking both the sound barriers in air and water, sending sonic booms and the equivalent in tsunamis behind them. The red and red and black flags flew straight in the wind.
-
Zeros' growled. He ghosted away from the rifts, and reappeared at a safe distance.
"Fuck this. So, Haraldur wants to play god, so let's play god," he spat. He mearly held out his right palm, and it started to glow with an arcane brilliance. Soon, a dome of magic appeared around all the rifts. He concentrated, and the rifts started to get smaller, and smaller, eventually growing so small, they disappeared. He countered magical rifts, with pure magic.
He scanned the area, and he felt Haraldur go unconcious. Perfect. The gasses didn't both him at all. He'd breathed in worse. His sword came from it's sheath in seconds, and soon, he was flapping his two dark angel wings, accelerating at high speeds. This, also, caused the gasses to blow away harmlessly from Redvik. (Harmlessly away from Redvik, not the rest of the world.)
"Haraldur's the hypocrite. He said humans should populate the world, and use it's resources. Look what he's doing now! He's spreading posionous gasses all over the world! Just because his people can survive all the gasses because of him, what about the others?" he questioned to himself. He soon saw the island of Laus coming into view. He didn't bother with fancy attacks. He clenched his left hand into a fist, and made his body cool as ice.
He threw a corkscrew punch, and a condensed tornado flew towards Laus at amazing speeds. Because of all the heat in the air from the magma, he made his body cold. When he threw the punch in a corkscrew motion, it caused them to mix, forming a tornado that fed off of power. The more power that was used against the tornado, the stronger it would grow.
---
Allen dodged the club again, bringing his hand briefly across the ground as he rolled. The ground glowed very briefly, with a very light blue with a tint of green, confirming alchemy. It happened in a 10 foot radius to the sides, and backwards.
He continued his roll, and sprung to his feet after a few moments. He adjusted his glasses, and smirked, waiting for the ogre to step on the part of the ground affected by his alchemy.
The ground, was affected by a alchemic transmutation. The soil was very loose, so, the heavy weight of the ogre would cause it to collapse in on itself, causing it to fall into the 50 feet of pit, where, spikes made of roots were waiting for him.
-
Hyperion got off the serpent. He looked back in the direction they came, thinking he probably made the right decision.
-
//Zeros', you do know that a huge amount of magma has just landed right on top of Redvik? And that, before Zeros''s actions, the gas was just staying there due to a lack of wind? Harmlessly away from Redvik, and towards the rest of the world. Well done.//
The tornado was not travelling as fast as the island, and was blown backwards by the winds from the sonic boom, causing it to go back towards the mainland.
Meanwhile, Haraldur had his first nap since being reborn.
____________________________________________________________________
The prophet jumped back off the serpent, which prompty turned back into a staff, which the Prophet used to help himself lurch towards a bare patch of the wall of the mountain. He muttered something, and a door opened.
"Follow, my young serf."
He entered the door, and started walking down a long corridor.
-
//so this means that Laus is no longer a peninsula right?\\
D. Ein looked at the tornado slowing down.
-"Heh... let me help that reach its target."
He etched a small arrow pointing to the tornado and drew a circle at it's base, with a lot of lines going off it, all different size and length. He chanted a short incantation, after which he traditionally stabbed the circle with one of his bolts. The circle lit up, then emitted a flash that covered the entire back wall of Laus. Then the tornado made a sharp V-shaped turn and headed back to Zeros'.
-
//Yes, Laus is now a fully mobile island.//
-
//Yes, I said harmlessly away from Redvik. He knows what he did, also. It would of happened anyways.\\
Zeros' looked at his own attack turned back on him, and sighed. His sword, transformed to it's god form, was brought up, and he deflected the tornado upwards, blowing away harmlessly.
Zeros' suddenly smirked, as he saw a perfect chance to amend a mistake. He charged up a blast in his free hand, and threw it directly into his tornado. The tornado ate the blast, and gradually grew bigger, the winds growing stronger, and stronger with every moment. Soon, a roaring tornado was high in the sky, almost two miles wide, with speeds up to Mach 5.
This, in term, caused the gas that was blowing away from Redvik to suddenly slow, stopping before it hit a town. It gradually stopped, and started to slowy come back towards Redvik, and eventually become sucked up in the tornado.
Soon after that, the tornado continued, and Zeros' held out his palm again. A barrier appeared around the lenght of the tornado, and soon, it started to gradually shrink the roaring twister.
After a few minutes, the tornado was only a few yards wide, but, still very powerful. Zeros' was starting to sweat with the strain of transporting parts of the gas and energy of the tornado away from Gaia, but, soon enough, the barrier and the tornado disappeared, taking the gas away with it.
To where Zeros' transported it, we shall never know.
Zeros' calmed and turned his head towards the floating island of Laus. He dropped from the sky, dodging the giant tsunami's, and reached sea level with Laus. His sword shifted, and transformed into it's demonic form.
The sword glowed black briefly, before a sonic boom resonated throughout the air, and five, deadly, but thin, crescent blades of ki were travelling towards Laus, at almost Mach 3. The waves litterly parted for the blades, as they gave off a dark aura, and approached Laus rapidly.
"This isn't war anymore, Haraldur," he whispered as waves washed over him. "This is now a sandbox..."
// Since these are crescent blades, and thin, wind won't affect them that much. Magic also wouldn't do much good, as, magic and ki are two entirely different things. The blades won't do much area damage, but, they were deadly. Anything they touched, basically died. \\
-
The blades bounce off the shield and fly harmlessly upwards, out of the atmosphere and travel through empty space, until, after a few billion years, they are sucked into a black hole.
//As mentioned when the shield was put up, any attack on it is equivalent to an attack on Tesla (as are all shields put up by the Aspyes duo, as demonstrated when an attack on the settlement made Haraldur be jerked involuntarily to be in the way of the attack), so he has to deal with it, think of it as defending someone from a gun shot by jumping in front of them like a bodyguard.//
-
The plasma blasts hit the shield, the mages were fine, and the shield began to spark, the mages simply used more of there magic to fix the shield. They both used their free hands to guzzle down ethers. Their magic ability wasn't as strong as our heroes, so they were getting a little tired. The three of them continued flying towards the island as the shield protected them. Valos began to sweat mostly because he was supporting mostly the entire flight as well as charging up a dark spell.
"Sir...I'm not sure if your attack, will do much. That winged guy's attack didn't seem to do anything." One of the mages said
"Shut up! Do you get paid to be smart?" Valos barked back.
"Well, being a mage isn't an easy task, sir..."
"Shut the hell up!" Valos growled.
His sword began to shake, as he began to charge more power into it...
-----------
"Let's go!" Duilin said to Rink.
The Imp, then grabbed onto Duilin's shoulder as he blasted off toward Laus, they flue near by were Zeros' was. They stopped.
"What's happening, Laus seems to be zooming off." Duilin asked. He saw Valos chasseing after the island. "Rink, I'm going to ahead, I'll see if I can help Valos with his spell."
"Well...fine. Good luck..." Rink sighed.
Duilin then blasted off to catch up with Valos...
Rink then sniffed the air. "What the crap. I smell gas..."
-------------
'That easier said then done...' Marshal thought to himself, as he got Haraldur's message.
He saw the ogre distracted his opponent, so he released the monster from his control. (So, anyone can control it now). He then blasted a blue spectre that formed into a wyvern. He hopped onto it, and flue off toward Laus, keeping a fair distance away from Zeros', Rink and Duilin. He reloaded his gun, and strapped it over his shoulder.
The ogre, then stepped into the soft ground, and the pit was revealed, it dropped its club and grabbed onto the edge, and tried to crawl back up...
-
Ein watched as the blades reflected off Tesla's shield.
-"I see..."
He then leaned on the wall, watching the water below.
-"Heh... I'm gonna send the mainlanders a little present."
He scratched two squiggly lines into one of the wall's bricks, and then put a dash across it, and a line at the top of the prementioned dash. Suddenly, a lightning shot out of the carving, and arc'd around hitting the water. Electricity started arcing all over the place, the waves and such, finally raising a good 40 meter tall water mound.
-"SPECIAL DELIVERY!"
He made a somewhat waving expression with his right arm, and then pointed to the mainland. The water mound started moving, acquiering (sp) wave properties as it did, gradually turning into a gigantic tsunami.
--- --- ---
Gerard slowly opened his eyes, seeing a smiling face over him.
-"Wha...? i'm supposed to be dead..."
The man over him chuckled and replied:
-"Heh, and you would be, if not for me. I took care of that bullet hole you had in your chest, and got my assistant over there to cast a small spell on you." The man pointed to a lady dressed in mage robes.
-"I see... wha? what are you doing?"
The man injected Gerard with something. Gerard lost feeling in his limbs, and eventually everything darkened, then went black...
-
Aura simply watched the man in amazement. Is this guy one of those alchemists? Whatever, I need to stop dawdling! She moved to attack, but was suddenly stopped by the sound of an eruption.
"...oh shit..."
--- --- ---
Xenai hears the noise. "What the fuck?!" He dashes to the window and looks, eyes widening.
//Are Zion, Tsu, Xenai, or Aura in danger?
-
(This is what I get for missing a day... Heh...)
Draven lifted a finger and the three officers he was conversing with immediately shut up.
"Someone is playing with fire..."
He strode to the window and gazed to the south once more. That one he felt. Definitely...
----
Vincent took a seat in the airship control room. He was sweating heavily. He removed his glasses and wiped his brow before replacing them. Things finally looked stable. What occurred happened so quickly, and the images flooded his mind as he closed his eyes...
Vincent thought it amusing that Ragnar retreated so suddenly. Amusing, yes, but curious...
After Ragnar left, Vincent boarded one of the airships and assumed command, preparing to pursue his target. Another wave of attacks from Laus came, but these were easily defended by circling the ships close to the fortress and using the combined fortress and airship cannons and shields.
Then it came.
An earth-trembling blast and a wall of black smoke and molten lava. Two of the ships were lost in the rain of fire, and the other three damaged. All efforts were put into defending the fortress, and every single ounce of magical strength was put into the barriers. It was a horrifying twenty minutes as the relentless flow of magma surrounded the fortress. Many mages simply collapsed from exhaustion. Many cannon and shield generator cores exploded from overstress... The lava seeped closer and closer... but Vincent would not allow the airships to retreat, guaranteeing their safety while sacrificing the fortress...
When it was over, all three airships and the fortress were on fire in spots... The city was gone. A wall of smoking rock surrounded the fortress, half as high as the fortress itself...
-
//Redvik is still there, after all that punishment?\\
-
Allen looked down at the ogre in disgust. He kicked it's club away from it's reach, while hurting his foot in the process, and adjusted his glasses, and looked down on the poor creature, a sneer coming to his face.
// While it wasn't mentioned in his bio, Allen is a very bitter man. All of the research and war slowly turned bitter man. He never liked Retan, actually, he just worked for him. He really didn't have a choice, as, all his family was pro-Dark Empire. But, while he hated Retan, he had liked Draven. So, when he heard Draven remade the Empire, he had joined him. Also, Allen has one of the sphere's that Draven could use to talk to him. It was located in an inner right pocket in his coat. \\
"So. This is what people do now. The simply abandon others, using them mearly as tools," he sneered, looking at the ogre. In turn, the creature seemed to understand him. It roared, and tried to smack him, but Allen stepped out of it's reach. He touched his hand to the ground, and it simply crumbled away, sending the creature to it's doom.
He turned away from the scene, and adjusted his galsses once more, looking off towards the direction of Laus... travels.
---
// If your wondering what Zeros' ment by a sandbox, he means, its now a playground for them to use. Basically, like building something with blocks, then knocking it down, not caring about what happens to anything. \\
"Yes... That IS gas, but, I took care of it with that giant tornado I made," he said calmly.
Zeros' looked at the giant, incoming tsunami. He sighed, and shook his head, causing his silver hair to fly about. He sheathed his sword, and ghosted infront of the wave.
With a few simple motions of his hand, Zeros' created a barrier that was exactly as tall as the tsunami. When the giant wave came nearer, Zeros' braced himself.
When the wave hit, Zeros' was visibly pushed back by the force the wave hit the barrier. Zeros' ground his teeth together, and pushed back agianst the wave. He flapped his wings harder, causing the water under him to buffet out into a wave, as he started to beat his wings harder.
After a few minutes, both Zeros' and the wave were at a standstill. But, after a few, excrusating moments, Zeros' managed to push the wave back, slow, but surely, until, the wave was sent back to it's creator with a gigantic push of ki, growing larger, and larger, as it went, and also faster and faster.
-
//Look what you did Zeros', now you have everyone else swearing!\\
"Oh, I see..." Rink said nodding. He then watched as he stopped the tsunami and sent it back. "Who'd expect that you would do that?" Rink laughed.
-----
Duilin caught up with Valos and the two mages.
"It's about damned time you go here!" Valos yelled, as he spotted Duilin.
"Yeah, I thought I'd just stop by and say hello and see how things were going." Duilin joked
"Very, funny...Listen. Maybe you could help out a bit. Grab onto my sword and transfer your dark magic into it." Valos asked of him
"Well, okay. Not sure what good it will do."
"Listen, I'm going to smash up Laus, just as much as they smashed up Redvik. And I'll personally kill every single man, woman and child in that city!"
"Have fun trying..." Duilin smirked. "But, fine, I guess I'll help you smash up the place. Just remember what Zeros' said about killing innocents."
The mages then lowered the barrier, and Duilin flue in. The mages then reactivated the barrier.
Duilin grabbed onto Valos' sword. The two of them, charged their dark magic into the blade. The glow around the sword was so bright, that the area in the barrier was like a black light...
------
Marshal, spotted Valos and Duilin flying toward the island charging some sort of attack.
He then took out his machinegun and fired, but the barrier stopped the bullets.
Suddenly, three other mages came towards Marshal, and four wyvern riders.
"Oh darn..." Marshal muttered. He then fired his gun at one of the mages, taking it out. "The rest of you guys want to join him?"
A wyvern rider then aims a cross bow at Marshal and fires it, Marshal flies his wyvern to the left dodging the bolt.
-
//Just for clarity, there was no deliberate "creator" of the wave, it is just what you realisticly would have if you move a huge chunk of land at above the speed of sound in water. This is similar for the gas, you get poisonous gases in eruptions.//
The wave went towards Laus, but could not reach the speed of the chunk of land, which now turned from going South East to going East, while the wave moved in a straight line.
All this time, more tsunamis were constantly and continuously coming in the wake of the moving chunk of the land, with the directions now changing.
Meanwhile, Zeros''s wave smashed into the land of Wahabia, a desert land for the most part, but with some sea ports on the North coast. These were absolutely wiped out by Zeros''s wave, along with a total number of sentients of 30,000. Debris was carried several kilometres into the desert, adding salt water to the dry sand, leaving a sandy salt pan years later, littered with bones long picked clean by vultures.
//All actions have consequences.//
Tesla watched as the new direction of the wake caused waves to go towards the completely barren land of Tristeria, a sad place home only to hermits. A few hundred lives at the most, not worth the loss of speed caused by saving it. The survival of 100,000 was much more important.
Almost the entirity of Tristeria was overrun by water, leaving only a few mountain peaks untouched, and so leaving only the more pious hermits alive. Years later, that evolved into folklore in the hermit communities, that their god had sent a great wave to cleanse Tristeria of the less righteous, and force the hermits to continue on the pious path. As a result, their hostility to infidel outsiders increased with fanatically religious fervour.
//Trent, Xenai is perfectly safe and within the city walls of Laus (obviously not for very long though if he attacks the inhabitants).//
Tesla said to Ein, "You evidently have great intellectual ability for magic. Well done.
"If I get, er..., jerked away and Haraldur does not immediately awake, please make sure he does."
The island continued to move at a steady pace, the engines in the centre making only a little noise.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar and his army on water and air stopped when they saw a giant steaming mass in front of them, making it impossible to see anything. //The heat of the magma is still producing steam.//
Ah, perfect, thought Salazar, Draven has already done the work for me. Better make sure, though...
Franco picked up an orb and sent the following message to his temporary embassy (read: the deputy in the Crimson Palace), which relayed it to Draven:
I have just arrived near Laus with my aerial and ground troops, and am, I think, pleasantly surprised to find that Laus has been eliminated, as it is emphatically not visible. Indeed, the area is saturated with a hot fog as from underwater volcanic activity. Which General of yours was it that devised such a cunning method of eliminating Laus? I would wish to reward him.
Generalisímo Benito Franco Salazar
____________________________________________________________________
//Assuming the Prophet is followed by Hyperion...//
The Prophet finally reached the end of the corridor, and unlocked a door, allowing Hyperion to follow.
The acolytes stared up to see their master back, and then returned to their books.
All around were stacks and stack of bookshelves and books, and desks with hundreds of acolytes scribbling details into.
The Prophet turned, and faced Hyperion. "Hopefully you now know the way here. The password for the outer door is 'Long life and power for the Gaian Empire', hehe... ah the ambition of that first Empire, run by Melkoth when he was very very young, ooh... hundreds of thousands of years ago. He started many other empires later, but this was the first. Good times. Unless you were a slave, of course, but what does that matter? Ahhh... There is a lot of history written here, my young vassal. Our history.
"We are not in fact prophets, although that is the image we prefer to give, although we do have very limited prescience. Our actual activities are in fact concerned with making history go the way we want it, and for hundreds of millienia we have been absolutely successful, until very recently. Our name is this: 'Order of the Poison Ring of Melkoth', you are not to tell this to outsiders. You will find out about the Poison Ring and more, later, if you succeed in your first task.
"I wish you to seek out Lord Draven, and kill him. I want definite proof of the deed as well: I want his head. Do you have any questions?"
-
//just as a BTW notice -- that wave isn't too powerful, because i only took one post to charge it\\
Ein turned around facing Tesla.
-"Thank you. Actually, you should be thanking the mage that got me here in the first place... however, i DID practice some crafts of my own."
He then turned around again and leaned on the wall, watching Zeros'.
//damn, had to edit my post... this is what happens when i spend too much time writing\\
--- --- ---
Gerard woke up, again.
-"Huh? What happened to me?"
He felt around his body, feeling rough scaly skin. He however could not get up, apparently he was tied to some sort of bed or table.
-"Hello, servant." The man he's seen earlier was standing left to him, and he had some sort of a purple glow around him //for clearance, he can see all living things surrounded in a purple aura\\. He went over to Gerard.
-"I found your body in a near-death state. Your brain was still active at the time I found you, and I decided to use it as a part of my experiment."
-"What sort of experiment? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!"
-"SHUT UP! Adress me only as master!"
-"Why should I?"
-"Oh dear... seems the memory-altering serum didn't work."
Gerard suddenly felt a surge of deep rage, and let out an inhuman roar. He easily broke out of his bindings, and headed for the scientist.
-"What have you done to my body?!"
The scientist was too scared to talk. Gerard repeated his question, but the scientist failed to answer yet again.
-"Alright then... if you won't speak, I'll make you speak."
He put his right arm on his shoulder, and applied a little bit of force to it.
-"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The scientist's shoulder made a nasty crack, and Gerard felt his bone being crushed.
-"Speak."
-"Alright, alright! I basically synthesized a body of a hellion, dissolving an organism in a series of compounds, then my assistant casted a spell on it so it will look at least somewhat human but i still needed it to have a mind and i couldn't find a volunteer and then you popped out and then...! then...!" The scientist blurted all that out in a single sentence.
-"And then what?"
-"And then i replaced it's brain with... yours![/b]!"
Gerard took a few steps back, shocked, and then yelled:
-"MINE?!"
-"Yes..."
That was too much for Gerard to handle. He swung his arm around aiming at the scientist's head, blowing it clean off. The head hit the opposite wall, and rolled to the feet of his assistant, who was now wimpering in fear. He came up to her.
-"Do you want that to happen to you as well?"
-"please don't hurt me!"
-"Alright. Show me the exit out of here."
The scientist's assistant also appeared in a slight purplish glow. They headed towards a door in the opposite side of the lab. As they advanced towards the door, they passed a mirror. Gerard looked at it, and gasped.
He had a pair of huge long arms with vicious looking claws on them. His skin, or rather what looked like skin, was now black, and covered in scales. His head resembled that of a lizard, with two ram-like horns. His legs now had hooves on them. Despite all that, his trenchcoat was still on him.
-"What have you done?!"
The girl mage was now crying, covering in fear. He did not expect an answer anyway; he opened the door and saw a long staircase, leading upwards. He headed up towards it, and saw yet another door. He opened that, and went outside, to fresh air...
-
Noticing that Marshal was gone and the ogre dead, she gave a sigh. She bowed to Allen. "Thank you very much."
She walked back into the camp, seeing that Valos was really, really, really pissed. "Sir... The attacker left..." She didn't exactly feel great that she wasn't able to take the guy out.
--- --- ---
"Aw shit..." Xenai gives a sigh. "Somethin' bad's gonna happen." He heads to leave the house, thanking Bernard on the way out. "Thanks for takin' care of me."
-
(Ein gets 100 coolness points!)
(Trent: Valos isn't anywhere near the camp, which was likely destroyed by the volcano. He's now flying towards Laus, which is on a moving island detached from the mainland.)
----
Draven turned to the deputy and listened to the message. He thought for a moment. Valos likely isn't capable of that sort of magic. Zeros' perhaps... He thought back to Ragnar's hiding his other city in another dimension. Ragnar is also capable of that sort of destruction... Also, Valos would report as soon as the job was done.
"Tell him that I am also pleased at the news and not to worry, for I will reward my general personally. However, I have not received report that the job is done yet, so be on the lookout..."
He took a few steps towards the window and removed the orb from his pocket. It glowed in his palm.
"Valos! Report!"
(It's possible that Valos could have left his orb in the camp.)
----
One of the three damaged airships returned underground. The other two had landed in front of what was left of Redvik. Much of the sun was blocked out by the wall of frozen lava that now surrounded the fortress. It was almost as if they were in a crater.
Vincent evacuated the ships and walked around them, inspecting them. The soldiers and engineers stood around, watching curiously (while also marveling at the wall of magma that almost overtook them).
With some white chalk, Vincent drew some strange symbols in seemingly random spots on the black hulls of the massive ships. It took him several minutes to do this until his was satisfied. He motioned for his men to stand back, and they did, forming a circle around the two airships. The general moved directly in front of the two ships and placed both hands on the dusty ground. Suddenly, a bright blue stream of light flowed from his hands, following the ground and engulfing the ships. The symbols on the hulls glowed as well. The two mammoth airships slowly floated up off of the ground and began to move towards each other, the metal sides passing through each other and merging with a bright flash of light. The light molded the ships and the size shrunk somewhat. When it was over, one airship was there, resting on the ground. It looked different-- a smaller, sleeker design. Furthermore, it was completely repaired.
The onlooking soldiers gasped in awe and began clapping. Vincent ignored them and examined the new vessel, walking around it a few times. Once on each side, he pressed his palm against the black metal and the side of the ship changed shapes, a short wing growing from the side.
He adjusted his glasses and smiled when he decided he was finished. He approached the Colonel, who saluted him.
"I've merged the cores of the ships. It's a little less stable, but according to my calculations, this one should output four times as much power."
"Sir, may I ask what you plan to do?"
Vincent removed his glasses and began wiping them with a white cloth from his pocket.
"Why, follow him, of course."
"But sir, shouldn't we report to the Emperor?"
"We've been attacked, Colonel, which authorizes us to counterstrike. Besides, the fortress remains intact. There's nothing to report."
A few bricks from the semi crumbled southern fortress wall broke off and began to tumble downward.
"Y-yes sir..."
"Remain here, Colonel. If the Emperor makes contact, simply tell him the truth. We've been attacked and I pursued the attacker. I doubt we're that important, though... Evacuate everyone to the underground facilities. The upper levels may be unstable."
The Colonel saluted again.
"Yes, sir. Good luck..."
Vincent waved towards a group of the surrounding soldiers. About fifteen men came forward and boarded the new airship. Vincent entered and the door closed. The ship's engines hummed, and a yellow light emanated from underneath, as the others did. The airship took flight, rising straight up, above the wall of frozen lava and fortress, and blasted forward.
-
// Before Zeros' does his next attack, I need to know if the barrier around Laus is just that. Is it complete, also going underground, or, is it only around the top? \\
Allen looked at Aura, and actually smiled at the girl. He had a sort of soft spot for women. Ones that weren't attacking, or trying to kill him, of course.
"Yes, yes. You don't need to thank me. I'm just doing my job, Lt.," he said casually. He looked towards where Laus was now becoming a spec in the horizion, and sighed. He didn't even know why he came back. He wasn't near as powerful as anyone. Anyone of the people (main people) could defeat him with a wave of their hands. It was only his genius and alchemy that kept him alive.
He sighed once more, and reached into his inner right pocket, pulling out a communications orb.
"Draven, sir, the attacker has left, and Redvik is in ruins. I await your orders," he said into the sphere.
-
Hyperion looked around the room. He couldn't remember ever being interested in history.
"Just one. Am I to assume that Draven is as easy a target as you make hime out to be? Not that he himself will be a problem, I'm more concerned with his empire getting in my way."
-
"Okay, Duilin. We almost have the attack charged." Valos said. "Keep charging the blade..."
Valos then herd something, from inside his pocket. "Ack, just a sec. I've got a call." Valos then took out the orb from his pocket. "Yes, Lord Draven?". Draven would probabbly be able to sence alot of activity.
--------
Marshal, fired his gun several times at the wyvern rider. Killing him, and the wyvern. The mage he shot earlier came towards him and fired an ice blast at him. Marshal flue his wyvern downwards, and then flue up, flying right under the mage. Marshal's wyvern clawed at the mage sliceing his vital organs. The two other mages and the three other wyvern riders advanced towards Marshal. He then pointed his amulet, it glowed, and then a swarm of bats flue towards his attackers and began to bite and claw their was at them. Marshal then flue off, and landed on Laus...
--------
"Sir! Somebody just went by us!" One of the mages said to Valos.
"We'll deal with that later." Duilin said on Valos' behalf.
---------
Rink thought it was best to go check up ahead with Duilin and Valos. "I'm going, Zeros'." He said, he then surrounded himself in a firery aura, and flue as fast as he could to catch up.
-
//wow thanks xorlak! my first cool post, horray!\\
Ein looked down upon the water beneath him. He watched it, noticing slightly irregular wave patterns due to Laus speeding over them. He turned to Tesla.
-"Where's Haraldur now?"
--- --- ---
Gerard looked around, watching the setting around him. It was a forest, and every single tree had a green aura. He turned around, noticing a lot of auras all over a place. Some were green, some were purple, some were red. All of them had different shades. He went back down into the lab. After all, he himself was a scientist, so there should be at least something of interest to him in there.
-"Oh, lookie here: a distillation apparatus. Gee, what are the chances of that?"
He approached the apparatus. However, as he was walking towards it, he tripped over the dead scientist's body, which was now eminating a barely-visible aura.
-"Damn! You there, get rid of this."
The scientist's assistant walked over to the corpse, and dragged it outside, with tears in her eyes. A nasty blood trail could be seen where she dragged him.
-"And don't even think of running."
The assistant quietly and hastily nodded. "Hmm... now, let's see here. I wonder if i still have that stannum?" He felt around in his pocket, finding the small chunk of material. It was a little tough to grab it though, because of the size of his claws. Finally succeeding, he took out the silver rock, and put it on a table near him. The mage girl was now finished with her task.
-"Oh yeah, and don't forget the head", said Gerard, noticing the head still lying in the corner. The scientist's magic assistant burst in tears.
-"I'm sorry, i just can't. Please don't make me do it!"
Gerard sighed.
-"Damnit, fine."
He picked up the head, and walked outside with it, finally throwing it off into the air.
-
Bernard, through a strange quantum mechanical effect, arrived at his house, before that being on the walls firing off charged arcs, looking very bewildered, just when Xenai started speaking. He was too dazed to answer.
// Razz Razz Razz //
He then returned to the city walls.
____________________________________________________________________
Franco waited to receive confirmation about the situation after Draven's reply.
____________________________________________________________________
//The barrier is spherical, and acts as an extension of Tesla, and so any attack on it counts as an attack on Tesla.//
Tesla saw a familiar person with a familiar aura descend on Laus, and so allowed Marshall to pass through the shield.
Tesla turned to Ein and said, "Er... look down. He is sleeping on the floor by your feet..."
____________________________________________________________________
The Prophet said, "As with most of the Empires before the Crimson Empire, Draven is the Empire, the rest is just a bonus. You might face his lackeys, but he seems a very hands-on type of Emporer."
-
//sorry Haraldur, didn't pay attention Sad\\
-"Oh. Must've drifted away while looking at the sea..."
-
Marshal hops off his wyvern. He lets it stay, however. He then walks over towards Tesla and Ein, wile strapping his gun over his shoulder. "I suspect the gases Haraldur was talking about, made everyone fall asleep." Marshal said examining everyone. "Sorry, that I wasn't able to take care of the General. I'll see if I can work on that later."
He then took out the dagger he got from Gerard. "Oh, Ein. I don't have much use for this, since I'm not too skilled in melee combat. Do you want it? It seems to have magic properties."
//May as well give the dagger to a person played by the same person. \\
-
Ein looked at the dagger. It was long and pointy, with a wavy blade and a red gem in the middle.
-"I'll take it. What does it do?"
//come on dudeman, use your imagination and come up with something good Smile\\
-
He walks out of the house, and notices something... The city's moving!!! "Good god, am I still wasted?!"
--- --- ---
Unfortunately, she found that the camp was slighly destroyed. She did remember seeing Valos fly off toward Laus during all the commotion... What the crap did she miss? She looked down to make sure her legs weren't molten away, rubbed her head, and proceeded into the wreckage, hearing the voice... She looked around and found the orb. She picked it up, and saw Draven. "E...Emperor!" She performed the appropriate salute while still holding the orb.
-
"I'm not sure." Marshal replied. "I saw it glow, so perhaps it has quite some power to it. Perhaps you can use it to power your spells." He subjests. He then notices Xenia walk outside. "Hey, I reconize him."
He walks over towards Xenia. "Be quite, people are sleeping." Marshal says. "But, I reconize you. I met you during the pirate attack on Rivertown." He then grins. "But don't worry. You can't do us any harm, so we won't cause you any harm." He then lowers his grin. "Yet if you do cause any trouble..." He motions towards his machinegun.
-
//How does Marshall know Ein's name?//
-
Allen's report came to Draven first, and he channeled it so the conversations would be separate, a small hologram of Allen appearing in the air.
"Redvik!? Hmm... actually, I'm not that surprised... Hold your position for now. I will issue additional orders shortly..."
The Allen image disappeared and an image of Valos replaced it, who seemed to be flying with much activity going on.
"Valos! What in blazes is going on down there? I've received report that Laus has been destroyed. Can you confirm this?"
Next to Valos, a separate image appeared of a young female Lieutenant who Draven did not recognize. Must be from Valos' secondary orb at the camp.
"You there! What are you doing at the camp!? Why aren't you attacking!?"
He paused for a second, bringing his hand to his chin.
"Hmmm, actually you may be of use where you are. There is an old alchemist named Allen near your position. Find him. You will serve as his escort for his next mission..."
----
Vincent's airship passed over what was left of the camps. Staring out the window with his hands behind his back, it had become clear what had happened. The peninsula Laus was on was completely gone... The pattern of still smoldering dried magma told him that the volcanic blast was primarily directed northward... meaning there should be at least something left of the peninsula Laus was on...
His eyes chanced upon the southern horizon, and there it was... Far in the distance, there was an island that shouldn't be there... Vincent pointed to it and the airship pilot nodded. They passed high above over a fleet of ships and air units barring the flag of Alterña.
The sleek black airship zoomed ahead, faster than any airship had previously achieved. Vincent paid no mind to this minor accomplishment. The one and only goal lies on the horizon...
-
Allen nodded his consent, and tucked the orb back safely in his jacket, whispering an almost silent, "Yes, sir."
---
Zeros' looked on as Laus started to disappear. Zeros' used his cloaking technique to disappear, erasing his presence, and used it to stealthy follow the moving island.
-
-"Ah well, it doesn't matter. Thanks anyway." He took the dagger.
-"Oh yeah, and what's your name?"
--- --- ---
Gerard took the stannum, and put it on the table. Then he took a hammer and hammered the small silver rock into a thin sheet, which he then broke into small pieces. He put the pieces into a pot.
He looked around the shelves.
-"Hey you, do you know whether or not that guy had any sulfur in here?"
The assistant turned to him, and said:
-"Yes, it's over there." She pointed to a shelf on one of the walls.
Gerard came up to the wall and immediately saw a small glass container with a chunk of yellow material. He took that, and chucked it onto the table with the hammer on it. He then hammered the yellow chunk, crushing it to dust. He put that in the pot with pieces of tin in it.
-"What is in the distillation apparatus?"
-"I'm not sure... I think he was distilling water."
-"Ah, yes. Perfect."
Gerard poured the distilled water into the pot, and shook it slightly. The water started bubbling, and smoking a little. After a few minutes he took six empty vials and emptied the liquid into those vials.
-"This is aqua regis, which means 'royal water'. It is an acid so powerful that it can even dissolve gold."
He put the vials on the shelf, and headed outside.
//For clarification, chunks of tin, sulfur powder and pure H2O don't do anything. So don't go around trying to make a bomb or something Smile\\
-
//Remember Ein's <a href='http://www.mysticsoftware.net/ibforums/index.php?showtopic=472&view=findpost&p=30137' target='_blank'>intro post</a>? He said his name. Marshal was there too.\\
"Marshal Royle." Marshal said, nodding.
----
"It still stands, my lord." Valos replied. "It's been separated from the land and is floating away at great speed. I am currently chasing the island, followed by mages, and I am charging an attack, with the help from the half demon, Duilin." Valos then turns his head and looks down at his sword. "It's almost done. I'll be blasting the attack at the island soon."
----
Rink flies closer and sees he is not too far from Valos and Duilin. But he sees he will have to fly a little bit faster to catch up.
"Damn this war..." Rink groans.
-
Xenai squinted at the guns. "Those things take me? I don't think so. What the hell are you doing here anyways?" An alarm went off in Xenai's head, as he felt Valos near, and him charging up something strong... What the...!?
"I think I left something just outside of Laus... I'ma go see if it's on this island..." He heads out of the town... Of course, that was just an excuse. He hid behind a building on the outskirts of the town and ejected black wings. He flew up toward Valos.
--- --- ---
"Y-yes, your highness!" Attacking? Is that what they went to do? That blasted machine gun guy kept me too busy... She looked to Allen. "Allen is your name, right? It looks like I'm your escort..."
-
"Well if that's how it is."
Hyperion started walking towards the exit.
-
Draven responded to Valos.
"Hmmm, yes, I should have expected as much. Carry on."
He turned to Salazar's embassy, who hadn't left yet.
"Laus is being relocated... Tell them to look for some sort of moving island... that's their target."
He turned and took a few steps towards the window, speaking into the orb.
"Allen, Laus has detached from the mainland and is moving away. Proceed with your primary mission, but keep your distance at first and execute it only if the military strike fails..."
----
The island was becoming larger in the airship window. It was apparent there were others chasing it as well. Vincent ordered the pilot to increase altitude to make their approach less obvious by flying above the cloud line (though it was only partially cloudy), and to veer off to the right slightly, so as to pass it...
-
Allen heard the command from his communications orb, and nodded slightly, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He also nodded to Aura, showing his consent.
"My primary mission... Creating a weapon similar to that of the legendary six. The metal and jewels are easy enough to obtain... Making the aura of the weapon duplicates Haraldur's might be a smidge challanging..." he murmurred.
He clasped his hands behind his back, and began to pace, thinking of how he'd manage this. He's heard of what Haraldur could do... He would stand no chance against a man with that much power. His eyes shifted to the sceneary around him. He defiently wouldn't. Hell, even the imp he'd heard was traveling with the two half-demons had more pure power then he has.
He continued pacing, his thoughts formulating plans faster then most people thought possible. He might not be strong physically, but, his mental capicty was amazing.
-
"Yes, my Lord." Valos finished and he put the orb back into his pocket. "Okay Duilin get ready!" He then put his other hand onto the blade. "Okay, back up people!" He warned.
Duilin and the mages then flue to the side, and Valos pointed the power-pumped blade at the island. Duilin spotted Xenai. "Look out, man. Valos is blasting an attack."
Valos then thrusted the blade foward, and released the power. "EAT SHIT!" He yelled as a huge dark purple arrow blasted down at the island, causeing a dark explotion to make Valos fly back a few meters, yet he still kept his stance. The blade went at an amazeing speed, brakeing the sound barrier as it flue down.
Rink, was startled when Valos fired his attack.
-
"HEY!!! What the fuck do you think you're doing?!?!" There was no way he could bat that thing back. He phased out of the arrow's path, then into Valos's face. "Have you lost your fucking mind?!?!"
--- --- ---
Weapons? What's he talking about? Whatever. It's not my business.
-
The airship passed the island at a safe distance. They're attacking the north side. Perfect.
The ship continued on south of the island, and turned so that it was above the moving island's path, perhaps a half mile in front of it.
Vincent looked around the control room, thinking. He proceeded to one of the walls and placed his left palm on it. One of the large sheets of black metal that lined the walls came loose. He took it and proceeded to the door that lead outside.
"Sir! W-what are you--"
Vincent turned.
"Keep your distance. Pick me up when you see my signal."
With that, he opened the door, the resulting wind causing the soldiers to grab something and hang on. Vincent jumped from the open door (this redesigned airship having no deck) and fell towards the water below...
-
Tesla said to Marshall, "The gases can be quite lethal, and are the inevitable result of such a volcanic attack."
He froze, and said, "Someone has just attempted to make themselves untraceable, you can sense it in the air. However, his gravitational effect, though small, is still traceable. It is obvious who is tracking us. Look out for Zeros', Mr. Holier-Than-Thou."
Suddenly there was a large bang as Valos' blade smashed into the shield, and Haraldur awoke. Tesla was tugged violently towards the blade, appearing there within 100th of a second. The blade was moving towards him at terrific speed. What had Haraldur told him to do in such a situation? Be as a planet is to a moon or other satellites, be the star to the planet, use the fundamentals as your defence. He dodged to the right of the blade, as it was ahead of him, and warped the space around him as if he were a body of high mass, like a planet. The sword entered the warp, and Tesla and the sword orbitted eachother, being of roughly equal masses (considering the velocity of the sword). At a critical moment, Tesla judged, using all the skill from his training by Haraldur, when to stop the warp. He did so, and he went flying backwards towards Laus, and the sword flying back to where it came. The shield came back immediately. This had all happened within 1/10th of a second.
Tesla crashed into a patch of farmland just outside the city walls, breaking a leg. He had not been able to concentrate on his fall sufficiently for it to be slowed. He screamed in pain. He then made himself slowly float up, and moved back into the city.
Haraldur looked up and around, and cursed Crimson Empire: "Damn those bastards!" He then increased the power output to the engines far away, and then he saw that they had travelled far enough that they could now, at last, travel North!
With a click of his fingers the city and its inhabitants blinked out of existance, an the island of Laus changed direction, steeply turning from going East to going North, and then the city returned.
Laus was now moving so fast that it would be halfway up the side of the Dark continent within a few minutes, and the wake had increased a huge amount, with 500 metre high waves following them and moving to the east and west. He smiled as he thought about the Imperial navy in ports on the Eastern coast. He then swore when he realised that they would mostly be safe in their ports, or, at least, relatively safe.
Tesla arrived, his leg limply hanging at a painful looking angle. Haraldur winced, and cast a mending spell on it, causing the leg to heal fast. "Be careful with it, comrade, it will remain a bit sore for a while."
____________________________________________________________________
Along the eastern coast of the Crimson Empire, the almost uninhabited area only of note because of its naval importance, having a large number of natural harbours close to other land masses. To the east, somewhere, was where Laus had once been, and, indeed, the Dark Army had departed from several naval bases in this area. Apart from the armed forces though, it was mostly uninhabited.
To the East observers could see a large chunk of land strangely floating on the water, and then massive waves roaring over the top of the water. The huge waves washed onto the harbours, only the most protected surviving, while the smaller naval bases were highly damaged.
In his office, a General frantically contacted Draven through an orb, saying: "Your Majesty! We appear to be under attack from many many massive waves hitting our harbours one after another! I have given orders for the harbour entrances to be shielded, but they will not hold against this bombardment, in fact several in other bases have already been overcome! I thought I should inform you. What does your Majesty command?"
____________________________________________________________________
The Prophet watched him go. OK... It appears out time must come. Melkoth told me that this must be done should difficulty arise. Time for the Grey Empire to rise up.
He turned to another door, and entered the balcony area at the front of the dining hall, and watched his acolytes eat breakfast. He cleared his throat, and said:
"My followers, it is now time. It is time for us to establish the Grey Empire that Melkoth so long ago ordered. We have had this standing for hundreds of thousands of years, and it is finally time to honour our friend and leader. For Melkoth!"
The acolytes cheered and shouted, "For Melkoth!" They dispersed, abandoning or quickly finishing their meals. The thousands of them left the room, and started equiping themselves with spellbooks and components and other magic enhancing items, and some went to hollows in the walls where they were odd magical instruments, which they started talking into. There was exitement from the wait of several hundreds of thousands of years in the air: hundreds of thousand years that these apparent youths had all lived through. They all knew Melkoth by sight.
Within a few minutes, all 377 other bases, not quite as magnificent as this one, had been alerted, and there was quick speech through the instruments discussin battle strategy.
After such matters had been settled, and some strange lensed objects had been pointed towards the Prophet, sending images of him to the other bases, the Prophet reached down his shirt. He pulled up a locket, one similar, but less powerful, to the one Haraldur was reborn from, and shouted, "For Melkoth!" The acolytes echoed him.
He placed the locket on the air, and it stood still above the ground, the chain hanging down. "We shall welcome him back, our leader..." From each acolytes and from the Prophet came black smoke, which converged on the locket. The locket started to glow...
//Stay tuned for my next post, where we will finally learn the Prophet's name!//
____________________________________________________________________
Benito Franco Salazar received Draven's message, and cursed. The wake of such a thing would be enormous. He ordered his fleet home, retaining only his airborne soldiers.
He sent this message to Draven: "Which direction did Laus go in? It has evidently moved far enough away not to be visible from where it used to be."
He moved, alone, to the North to survey the damage a little.
-
Duilin, and the mages created a shield and the blade coming back to them smashed into the shield, causing all three of them to fly backwards. (It wasn't the sword that was blasted, it was just energy, the sword was used to shaped the energy and blast it.)
Valos looked at Xenai, with disgust. "Don't you dare talk to me like that, you ungrateful little shit! I know exactly what I'm doing!"
"Um, sir..." One of the mages said
"What!?" Valos snapped back, he was in a terrible mood.
"Um...it didn't work...sorry sir..." The mage flinched after saying that.
Valos' face turned red. "NOOO!!"
Duilin sighed. "Calm down, Valos. It's not the end of the world..."
"It might as fucking well be!!" Valos shouted. "Nothing we do works!" He then smashes his head down into his hands.
Rink finally catches up with the group. They have stopped moving. "Gee, good job Valos. That worked well."
"Shut the fuck up, you stupid imp!" Valos yelled. "I am not in the mood. Listen, I have just had almost my entire forces killed and a huge dark energy blade attack, just pissed back at me...."
"Geez, sorry." Rink snapped back. "Does anyone have any other ideas?"
"No, I am out of fucking ideas." Valos groans.
"Well, let's ask for Draven's help." Duilin suggested.
"Uhhgg...listen, he's trying all he can. I'll just have to report I have failed...There is no way to beat him. We've lost."
"Ooo, the great General Valos, gives up!" Rink laughed. "What an image for ya."
"Imp, you're pushing my nerves..." Valos then lies back on the air. His voice begins to calm down. "Aw, why don't we just fly into the island, and die fighting, we'll be more respected in death then in life...Unless somebody has a better idea..."
-
Marshal then noticed that a ship is not to far away from the island. "What the devil?" He muttered.
He then dashed towards the edge of the island. "Hah, those territorial fools are trying to swim?" He laughs. "Go, my fishies!" His amulet glows as it blasts out 3 a spectre that from into sharks. "It is feeding time..."
Three sharks then swam their way towards Vincent...
-
-"Whoa."
Ein turned around to Tesla.
-"Are you alright?"
--- --- ---
Gerard continued walking, eventually reaching Redvik.
-"What the hell? Was there an eruption or something?"
He proceeded to the fortress, when suddenly he felt a scorching pain in his back.
-"AARRGGHH!!! What is that?!"
He felt his skin rip open, and then he felt two new limbs. He twisted his hand around feeling them. They felt like bones with tiny claws on them, and skin between... Wings!
-
Tesla nodded. "My leg is only little sore." He started to rub it.
-
Allen was still murmurring to himself, before he looked up. The air was still crackling with after-effects of Haraldur's spells... Then, it clicked. He could absorb Haraldur's aura from the air.
Allen grinned grimmly, and looked towards Aura.
"Lt., we need to get back to the capital... fast," he said grimly. While he might not be near as good at tracing and detecting auras, he could sense whe n something big was going down... At it was almost that time.
He snached a special vail out of his coat, and strode forwards, towards a random spot. But, to anyone with aura sense, they could see the crackling aura that Haraldur had left. He swiped, and caught the aura in one of his special vails. It was unbreakable, by normal means, such as being crushed. It was also designed to hold aura in it, meaning Haraldur's.
He strode back towards Aura's location, and took his communications orb out of his pocket. He waited for it to light up, and spoke into it.
"Draven, I have what I need to make the weapon... I need a ride back to the capital. Immediately. I'm sure you've sensed it. Something BIG is happening," he said grimly. "Get someone here as fast as you can," he said into the glass orb.
---
// Well, if Melkoth is coming back, Gaia might have to make a visit, as well... \\
Zeros' narrowed his eyes, obseving as the blade passed through the shield.
He came out of his stealth, figuring Haraldur or Tesla must of sensed it by now, anyways.
"Stupid fucking pricks. Why can't they just leave this damn dimension... What IS so special about it? It's not as if he doesn't have enough power to transport an island to another dimension..." he murmurred to himself. He pulled his blade from it's scabbard, transforming into it's demonic form.
He dived underwater, and cast an underwater breathing spell on himself. He used his wings to propell himself through the water, his blade charging with pure ki, instead of it's usual demonic energy.
// It's a charge attack. And, with pure ki, it's actual body energy. It doesn't depend on any form of energy or emotion... It's just there. And, magic can't block pure ki, and pure ki can't block magic. Two complete opposites, that can't repel each other. Just like body energy and spirit energy can't block, or counter each other.
So, magical energy can't block PURE body energy. Demonci and angelic ki are different from pure ki, because they depend on that part of a person. Pure ki is drawn directly from the body, from their soul. \\
-
Xenai brings a hand to his forehead. "I just want to know why the hell we're trying to destroy an entire island, still with innocents on the damn thing."
--- --- ---
She didn't see it at first, but suddenly, it appeared to her, the energy in the air, just as Allen swiped it out of the air. She wasn't sure what to say, if she were to say anything at all.
// Why are you creating metaphysical rules? O_o That's kinda overstepping your bounds, isn't it? I mean... Zeros' and Haraldur are arch-gods already... And then telling us how the world is supposed to work... -_-
-
"Hah." Valos snapped back. "Innocents. They don't care about our innocents, so why should we care about there?s. Innocent people die, have to die sometimes to, in order to effect the enemy."
"I don't see why they should however..." Duilin adds. "Xenai does have a point."
"Well, you helped me with the attack." Valos smirked back
"Well yeah...but..." Duilin stuttered
Valos grinned, at Duilin. "Well, yes, I do see your point. But I don't care. It's a dog eat dog world. Do unto others before others do unto you."
"Hmmm...."
"Ack, well. Enough floating here. What should we do?" Rink asks
"I think.... I sence Zeros'..." Duilin said
"Do you?" Valos asks "Hmmm, well your connection to him is stronger then mine. But what about it?"
"Maybe he has an idea...I'll go look for him." Duilin subjests.
"Suit yourself." Valos groans. "But nothing is going to work. That island is as well guarded as a.... umm.... arg, just go and find your demon\god friend."
Duilin then dived down underwater, and then created an air bubble, from energy. (See Chapter 5). He then swam towards Zeros' aura...
"Well, hopefully Duilin has fun. Hope he makes it out alright." Valos said. He then turned to Xenai. "Now, what information did you get, Xenai?"
-
// Think of it like two opposites... Body and Mind.
Let's say you have a bodybuilder, agianst a nerd, for lack of better term. Well, the bodybuilder is smart, but not as smart as the nerd.
The nerd could overpowered him with his wit, and intelligence, but, he couldn't block him. Just like the bodybuilder could rush at him, and plow him down, but, he couldn't block the assult on his mind.
I don't know how to explain it better... But, just think of it as two things that can hurt each other, but can't block the other. Two buses driving at each other could hurt each other, but, they could never block each other.
I really don't know how to explain it... Plus, Zeros' needs a way to actually do something to the barrier. >_> \\
-
Duilin spots Zeros'. He speeds up to catch up with him. "Hey Zeros'! What are you doing?" He asks.
-
//I just wish there to be less emphasis on the Aspyes. Maybe I am getting a little too much into character.//
Far away, the large land that was once Vikingagarð started to move, again. Sout moved South East, to go past the North Eastern point of the Dark Continent. It accelerated
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur sent this message out to Marshall: It is advised that you get back within the city walls soon, as we shall soon be going to a relatively safe place, although, safe relative to this does not sound so very encouraging. Nonetheless, we need to get our comrades to safety.
The island, still accelerating, was now going so fast that the water going around it was going so fast it was heating up, and starting to vapourise. The turbulence behind the island was magnificent, a chaotic mess of huge waves and foam. As Vikingagarð got past the North Eastern point of the Dark Continent, it became visible on the horison. It would be a collision course. Laus was now halfway up the Eastern edge of the Dark Continent. The populace looked a little bewildered, and a bit apprehensive of the crash they thought was about to happen, despite the fact they would be protected by the barrier.
____________________________________________________________________
Deep in the cave complex of the base, the glow of the locket was now almost blinding. Around it a dark aura started to form, slowly moulding itself into a humanoid shape. The shape solidified and the glow disappeared. The man was wearing all black, and had blond hair and beard and blue eyes.
Melkoth turned towards the Prophet. "Is it time, Quintus?"
"Yes, my Lord. It is."
"Order all bases to have personnel block all trade and travel routes, whether terrestrial or not, on or above the mainland of this continent. I want the current countries here to be besieged from within. What countries exist on this continent?"
"Only one, my Lord. It is called the Crimson Empire, led by a mage called Draven, who specialises in fire."
"Crimson, eh? OK, then."
Melkoth paced across to the acolytes, who stood silently. "To war then!"
The acolytes finally dispersed and left.
-
Marshal resived Haraldur's message. "Well, my pets can take care of him." He brushes his hair with his hand, and then turns around and walks back into the city. "Calm down my friends." He said calmly to the populace. "The barrier will protect us."
-
//Quintus is the name of a kid in my latin textbook, heh\\
Gerard flexed his new wings.
-"They seem functional... Hmm. Damn, still, that was my favourite trenchcoat..."
He then attempted to flap them a bit, but nothing happened. "Cases like these are the ones where I should follow nature." He climbed up on top of the smoking fortress, spanned his wings and jumped off. He noticed that the muscles in his wings were exceptionally strong, so it took no effort to keep them open while gliding. However, after a short while he tried to flap his wings again and was not successful. He fell down into the frozen lava.
-"Damn!"
However, when he was still in the air, he noticed a commotion up ahead, in the ocean. Seemed like separate fights...
-"Hell no, i know where this is going. I'm not interrupting any more fights."
He climbed back up on the fortress and attempted flying a few more times.
-
//You probably use the same book as I did, then.//
-
Draven responded to the report about the waves and flooding.
"Fool! You should close your flood gates and have your defense mages cast barriers! What do you mean what should you do?! I swear, surrounded by sheer... Hmmm..."
At that point, Salazar's messenger gave Draven a second message.
"Hmm, tell your leader that there are reports of tidal waves along the south-eastern cost, so it would be my guess that the island has moved northward from his location... Also tell him General Valos is flying around in that area, and it would be in his best interest, for his goal of course, to work under the guidance of him."
Draven flipped his cape and proceeded out of the war room, down a winding hallway. The elite in black armor, the one he had been conversing with earlier, the one with the dark aura..., appeared from a separate room and strode just behind him. They kept a quick pace.
"My lord, it seems things are heating up, so to speak..."
"There will be one more thing that heats up if you came only to state the obvious."
"My apologies, my lord. The three giant black crystals are in place. You only need give the word..."
"Excellent... Yes, that's very good indeed..."
The two came out at the top of the tower again. Draven folded his arms while gazing towards the clouds below. The city below was bustling with soldiers, and the land the city floated high above was grayed slightly by the distance and mist in the air.
Draven found the small black stone in his pocket and removed it, holding it before him in his right hand. He turned, so that he was facing the empty space in the center of the tower. The elite moved to his left side. A flash of flame emanated from Draven's palm into the small black crystal, and the outline of the stone glowed a very bright red, though the stone itself remained pitch black.
Something began to appear in the center of the tower. It was a shadow-- huge, at least 10 feet high and very bulky. It took form. Massive menacing curved horns appeared, piercing crimson eyes, a spiked tail, huge hoofs for feet. It was covered in a sort of red armor, but where its armor ended and scaly skin began was difficult to tell.
It was translucent, as if it were from another dimension. It was what one would call a Class S Demon...
The elite standing next to Draven took one step back.
The thing, upon seeing Draven, crouched on one knee and bowed it's head deeply. Even in this bowing position, it was still taller than Draven. It spoke with a sort of voice that emanated from everywhere, and unnaturally deeply at that...
<span style='font-family:Geneva'>"Our Savior... Our King... We serve and revere only you..."</span>
Draven's smirk returned to his face and he placed his left hand to his chin, keeping his right outstretched with the crystal.
"I bring good news. Your freedom is nigh... but I must ask a question. Do you have a small legion ready that I might summon before the rest?"
<span style='font-family:Geneva'>"Impossible... For so long we have waited... Kill each other we will for the chance to escape before the others..."</span>
"I see. Would it be possible, then, when the gates open, for you to concentrate more of your... efforts... on one smaller target?"
<span style='font-family:Geneva'>"Impossible... We do not work like your human armies... Enemy is an enemy... Each demon shall enact his vengeance in his own way... It is how the contract states... We will ignore the lands and people that are yours... and destroy all the rest, one no more or no less than the other... and populate them... Once the original wave of vengeance is done, then we will serve you in this new world..."</span>
"Yes, that is what we originally agreed upon... Very well. Your time will come soon..."
Draven clasped his fist over the black crystal and the image of the demon faded away. He brought his right hand behind his back, beneath his cape and turned around.
----
Vincent placed the metal sheet under his feet as he was falling. The metal began to change shape while water vapor from below shot up and hit the sheet from below, slowing his decent. In a few seconds, he was standing atop a floating surf board like thing chasing after the moving island, which had suddenly changed directions.
"Well, that's nice..."
Furthermore, three sharks were rapidly swimming in his direction. He bent down and touched the water with his right hand. The water before him froze, many jagged icicles jutting out towards the sky. One of the sharks was impaled, but the other two swam around and towards him, baring their teeth. Vincent slid up on top of the ice he had created and jumped over to the other side, the surf board skimming the water as it landed.
Drat. Abort. The island changed directions and is moving away too quickly... He waved towards the airship above, which began to lower a rope while descending. The sharks were gaining and he was losing speed... As one of the sharks made a leap out of the water, mouth wide open, he leapt and grabbed the rope with his right hand and was pulled out of harms way. Hanging with one hand while being raised to the airship, he watched as the island grew smaller and smaller on the northern horizon...
----
Two soldiers passed a broken window in an upper level of Redvik. The upper levels were mostly evacuated, and they were almost done moving the important equipment down to the underground levels where it would be safe.
"Yo! Did you see that?!"
"What?"
"There's something climin' on that wall down there."
"Don't see nothin'."
"There it is again! It just jumped down!"
"Nope. Didn't see it."
-
"Info? I spent too much time tryin' to sneak in, but there was this one guy... Bernard was his name... refered to all this shit as some 'glorious revolution'. That's it, unfortunately. Oh, and Marshal's there. At least I think that's his name."
-
Zeros' held up one hand in greeting, as his sword began to glow more.
"Hello Duilin," he said. His sword started to glow a translucent white glow, growing stronger, and stronger.
"Hopefully, this works," he murmurred, as he continued to charge his blade.
-
//assuming Duilin is close enough to hear Ein...\\\
Ein caught sight of Duilin.
-"Oh, lookie here! It's the bird again. Haven't seen you in a while, bird."
He kneeled on the floor, took out a crossbow bolt, and started etching a diagram...
--- --- ---
After a few... falls, Gerard seemed to have gotten the hang of his wings. He could now lift off solid ground, without having to glide first. He then noticed two soliders in one of the windows.
-"Oi! Who's in charge?!"
//Keep in mind that hopefully Gerard looks somewhat intimidating...\\
-
The General of the East shouted back into the orb, "That is exactly what we have done, but they cannot hold off the bombardment for long! We need assistance! You know yourself that since the attack on Romme our garrisons have been reduced!"
In the background noise that filled the message through the orb, there was a loud crashing sound, indicative of shields and flood-gates being overcome, and some yells were heard.
"Oh, shit!"
There was then just the sound of water crashing around destroying a stone fortess before the orb deactivated. General Rapael Totti was now obviously quite dead.
____________________________________________________________________
Generalisímo Benito Franco Salazar nodded, and his company flews fast to the North East passing right over the destroyed Redvik, some of the soldier with mouths wide at the destruction and the new lava plain. They ascended, and in the distance they saw harbours bombarded by waves, and the red glow of protective shields. They saw one shield be overcome by a particularly large wave.
They looked further North, and they saw a small speck moving accross the water at fantastic speed, leaving a destructive wake of waves behind it, and, further North still, a large mass of land moving at comparable speed, leaving behind it even greater turbulence, adding more to the problems of the Eastern Crimson Empire.
Their flight turned to be closer to North in its direction, and they accelerated.
-
//Sorry Ein. Duilin is underwater right now. So Ein and Duilin would be unable to hear/see each other at the moment. \\
"I wouldn't bother, Zeros'. Nothing seems to be working. The island is to heavily guarded. Both me and Valos tried, but it did nothing!" Duilin said to Zeros'
----
"Hmmm, well that information won't help us..." Valos groaned. "Well, if Duilin and Flyboy are down there doing trying to do something, maybe they can find a way. Zeros' can practically, do ANYTHING, so let's go!"
Rink sighs. "You should give up while you?re ahead..."
"Shut up Imp!" And Valos flue off, followed by the two mages.
"Well, I guess I might as well go down with Zeros' and Duilin. I guess you can come if you want to, Xenai."
Rink sent a message to Duilin and Zeros'. 'I'm coming down guys; Valos is totally unbearable to work with. But he?s staying above the surface.' He then zoomed across the water, towards Duilin and Valos' position.
-
//i have GOT to pay more attention.\\
Realizing Ein was shouting at empty air, he stopped. However, he continued drawing the thing, which was now glowing blue.
(http://http://img420.imageshack.us/img420/9093/deathgramm6if.gif)
//sorry, it looks more like a technical plan of some sort than a demonic diagram... but i did the best i could\\
-
Draven listened to the general babble and die.
"Hmmm, unfortunate. Guess that weeds out another unqualified man..."
The elite smiled slightly.
"Indeed... So... shall I make preparations for... the arrival?"
"No. Not yet."
"..."
"It will be an event that changes Gaian forever. It is not a decision to be made lightly... Heh... Ironic, isn't it? Given how much I despise demons. But of course, servitude is servitude..."
"Yes, my lord..."
The elite paused, then saluted.
"Then, my lord, please allow us the privilege of dealing with Ragnar..."
"Your time will come... You and your elites will remain here. I am going to stop those waves from doing any additional damage... I shall return shortly."
"Yes, my lord..."
A light crimson aura appeared around Draven. He bent his knees and shot up into the sky like a rocket. In but a few seconds he was gone, blazing eastward... The elite watched from atop the tower...
-
Allen looked at the orb frustrated, and growled, forcing the orb back in his pocket. He stuffed his hands in his pocket, and glared at the sky.
He looked around, and spotted a piece of twisted metal. He smirked, and, slammed his hand into the ground. Three circles appeared on the ground, the outermose red, green, then blue. They spun around Allen, and glowed brightly. After a few moments, they started to move vertically, whilst still spinning.
There was a flash of multicolored light, and, instead of the piece of twisted metal, there was now a circular, five-foot plate, humming slightly, and hovering about a foot off the ground.
He smirked, and staggered, before continuing his giat, and hopping up onto the metal plate. The sagged for a moment, and lifted itself back up.
Allen turned to Aura, and smirked.
"What are you waiting for, Lt., let's get going to the Crimson Empire," he said.
---
Zeros' smiled thinnly.
"Never say never, Duilin," he commented, and pushed his wings harder. A sea of bubbles extended from his wings, as he was rapidly pushed forwards. He also displaced the water around him, making him go faster, and gradually catching up to the island.
Meanwhile, the sword started to glow alittle brighter...
-
Hyperion had been flying for a while in full dragon form when he noticed a traveller on the ground.
"I have an idea but I'll need his help."
He dove down quickly, coming up behind the traveller. The traveller tried to look back but Hyperion grabbed the mans head in his jaws and tore it off. He lifted his own head up and swallowed the travellers head whole. With a swing of his tail the rest of the mans body flew into the distance. Hyperion then procceded to curl up and cover himself with his wings.
"It's been years since I've done anything like this ."
-
Laus and Vikingagarð were now very very close. Laus turned a little, and then neatly slotted into a notch in the coastline that had obviously been prepared earlier, and fused because of the collision heating up the rock. The city had blinked out of existance during the massive deceleration, so as not to kill the population.
Due to Vikingagarð's larger size, the unified landmass drifted at quite high speed southwards, and rotated quite fast also, for just 7 seconds. After those 7 seconds, the entire unified island disappeared, leaving only massive turbulence, waves and foam.
____________________________________________________________________
The landmass had been transported to a different universe, via universe with no movement, in order to stop the rotation, and was now in the sea of a planet almost identical to the world they had just left, except there were no humans here, nor any other sentients, but plenty of animals and vegetation.
Haraldur set up a doorway in the central square of Laus, which led back to the home universe, and put a shield on it and all other entrances, cutting the universe off from all others and making travel to it impossible without breaking the barrier.
After amplifying his voice, he spoke, "People of Laus, my comrades, fellow revolutionaries, you are now in a seperate universe to the one you know, one in which we have no enemies, one where you will be safe. It is abundant in all that is necessary for survival and more. Take your opportunity to explore the new land this city has been attached to, and then work it to make it perfect.
"This door in the centre of this square, the one with the blood red shield of the Aspyes over it, leads back home. I hope that you, the citizens' militia would keep it under guard to prevent intrusion to this your paradise.
"You may be wondering why I have brought here, as we were defending ourselves so well. I had just felt the tremors of an event, which would have resulted in your safety level falling even lower than already: an ancient tyrant has just returned, one more terrible than you would have experienced for 20,000 years.
"Over the time we will be spending here, I will tell you more about myself, for not even Nikola knows all about who I am. We are joined by an idea, now we can be joined by other things as well.
"Firstly, I must tell you that my father, well, that is the nearest equivalent word I can think of, is Melkoth..."
Stunned silence.
"... and I have just felt his return to our home."
Shocked silence.
"I will stay for a time here, and then I will leave to fight him, while Nikola will be staying here indefinitely to make sure this place is safe from attack, both from within and without this universe. Our recently joined comrades," he motioned to Ein and Marshall //I am assuming that you do not mind having come on this journey?//,"and anyone else can go through the doorway if they inform Nikola or myself. In fact, it would be appreciated if, at a later time, some of you went back to foment revolution in other countries."
He paused as Tesla removed the shield surrounding the city of Laus.
"But first, I would like to teach you of the interdimentional history of our movement. I trust you will find it very interesting, and that some things will make you very angry. It is a long story, one of struggle and of betrayal, and of suppression..."
//Haraldur and Tesla and Laus are effectively inactive when it comes to everyone except Ein and Marshall. They need a rest anyway.//
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar stopped suddenly as they saw the two landmasses join and disappear. They stared for a while at the turbulence left in the sea as it started to subside. What is this? Some new annihilation attack devised by the Crimson Empire?
Salazar sent another communication: "Well done for finally annihilating Laus, or has it just spontaneously ceased to exist?"
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar's embassy received the message and sent it to Draven.
____________________________________________________________________
The Prophet, Quintus, left the cave complex to organise some of the acolytes.
The acolytes were now systematically blocking all roads in the area, and throwing transparent floating and moving barriers into the sky, to block those capable of flight.
They would just have to wait until the blocking of supply lines was noticed, and then it would be their moment.
____________________________________________________________________
In the path of Draven's flight, some such barriers had just been put, and they were all around. Below, some acolytes from a different and smaller base (one to the East of the Crimson Capital, not to the West) were throwing up yet more using magic. When they noticed that Draven was flying straight into a cluster of barriers, they grinned. Before he reached the barriers, they shot some balls of shade magic towards him.
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth left the complex, and flew upwards to survey the Dark Continent. Oh, the memories, such wonderful memories.
He had not noticed Haraldur's presence, but he suddenly felt the background aura of Haraldur's presence completely leave the universe, and it was quite a shock. Why would my son leave instead of attacking me? Has he failed to sense my presence? Impossible. Oh, well. I should find out soon enough.
He resisted the urge to scream his name out into the world, to inform them all of his return.
He shot a couple of blue spheres towards the ground, and they formed a fast moving swarm of flying rats. He sent them towards the East, to a city on the horison he did not know was the Crimson Capital.
-
//bah... this is somewhat unexpected...\\
Ein finished drawing his diagram and chanted a little. After about 4 minutes of chanting, the etching flashed, and Ein was completely hidden in it's light for a split moment. As he reappeared, there were no changes noticed; only the etching on the wall was gone, and Ein had a slightly irregular patch of skin. He turned to Tesla.
-"I have unfinished buisness with a few people. I will leave Laus, for now."
He walked to the center of Laus and entered the doorway...
//where exactly does it lead? or should I use my imagination?"\\
--- --- ---
The soliders appeared to ignore Gerard. He walked around Redvik, spectating it, and walked back to the lab. As he entered, the mage girl was now gone. "Heh... I didn't expect her to stay with something that killed her master, possibly." He walked to one of the walls that had a shelf on it. The vials he prepared earlier were still there; their contents were intact. He took off his belt, tied the vials to it, the put the belt back on, and headed back out to the exit.
-
//You arrive anywhere in the main universe you want. It is advisable to arrive where there is atmosphere.//
Wherever Ein went, a communications orb, decorated with revolutionary symbols, arrived in his hand, allowing him to communicate with Laus, as the orb had a particular frequency of emission that allowed the signals to pass through the shields.
Ein will need to ask Nikola or Haraldur how to get back, if and when he wants to.
-
"Of course, sir." She hopped on and charged light energy to her finger, just in case anything should try to attack them.
-
"Melkoth..." Marshal repeated. He had heard legends of that man. He then walked into one of the houses, it had storage of bullets, he took some, and then walked back outside. "Well...perhaps I shall aid Ein, with his quest. He may need some help..." He then turned to Haraldur and Tesla, and nodded. "Wish us luck."
----
Valos and the mages stopped as he saw the island disappear.
"Shit..." Valos groaned
"Sir, um...What happened?" One mage asked
"If I know Haraldur, and I don't much. But, my best bet is that he went into one of his freaking alternate universes."
"Um....Sir?"
"Remember last battle? He was hiding in his own personal universe."
"Oh...What do we do now sir?"
Valos just stared in the position the island once was. He shook his head. "We...go home..."
"Yes, sir." The mages then turned and flue back to Redvik.
Valos stood floating in the air, the wind blowing his hair and flapping parts off his robe. He took out the communications orb from his pocket. "Lord Draven, report..."
----
Rink, rubbed his eyes as he witnessed the island disappear. The imp dived down into the water, holding his breath, until he flue into Duilin's air bubble.
"What the...Oh, Rink." Duilin said a little surprised. "What's the news?"
"I think the island is gone." Rink said.
"What?"
-
//if marshal follows, which i think he does:\\
Ein walked into the portal...
...He and Marshal were now on a large hill, from which surroundings could be seen perfectly. He looked around...
-"Ah, I know where we are. Look -- isn't that Redvik?", Ein said, pointing to a large fortress surrounded by blackish-red lava. Suddenly, his arm that he was pointing with jolted a little; he screamed in pain. The small patch of deformed skin started growing larger, and if that was not enough, his little "friend" awoke:
"<span style='color:red'>Ein... what are you doing? Why did you cast that spell?</span>"
-"Arrgghh! SHUT UP!"
His arm AND his head were hurting like insane now. He fell on the ground. After a few minutes, however, the pain somewhat succumbed. The patch became bigger and continued growing, slowly. To Ein it felt like someone was pouring slightly cold water over the areas where the patch dominated, but before that, it was more like liquid nitrogen. He got up.
-"Alright... I last saw that... bird over there, southeast of Redvik. Let's go."
-
(The Crimson Capital, located on a detached island floating a mile above the ground, wouldn't be affected much by rats from the ground. Heh...)
Something was up ahead. Draven shouted into his orb.
"I'm busy! Save it!"
What was this? Floating blocks? Ragnar is really pushing it... Trying to invade now? How very unlucky of him...
Draven extended his left hand. The sky flashed orange as a multitude of explosions ripped through the air several thousand feet before him. The barriers within his path disintegrated into nothing in a spectacular display. As he passed over the space that was blocked, he noticed he was being shot at from the ground.
Draven now pointed a glowing right hand downwards, and effectively carpet bombed the mages B-52 style. Hundreds of small explosions ripped the ground apart in a wide strip. He flew several hundred yards past the destruction before stopping and having a look behind him, floating upright. He really should tend to the waves, but troops actually on his land is a more immediate threat, especially if Ragnar is here...
----
(Oops! Totally forgot about Gerard last time! Sorry!)
One of the soldiers ran back into the hallway and looked around.
"Now I swore I heard something this time..."
The other followed.
"Huh?"
"A voice. Kinda deep and weird..."
"Nope, didn't hear nothin'. You okay?"
"You never... Hey, look?"
"What? Don't see nothin'..."
"No! That' airship in the sky! Looks like the generals' back."
The airship hovered over the remains of Redvik. Vincent paced back and forth the whole trip back. Another chance, he would have it soon. He was sure of it...
----
Salazar's messenger found the elite on the tower roof.
"I'm sorry, Lord Draven has left but will return shortly."
-
"Crap..." Valos groaned. "Might as well just go back and tell them the news..." He then holstered his sword onto his back and then flue off back to Redvik.
-----
Marshal nodded. He then noticed Ein was in pain. "Ein, are you okay? You like you are in pain."
-
//
and they formed a fast moving swarm of flying rats
Rats with feathery wings. Pretty much omnivorous locusts. In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, by George Orwell, they will attack a baby in the proletarian areas, and strip it to the bone in minutes. This is a swarm. It will attack adults, and they will get everywhere. As said in mentioned book, they will usually attack the eyes first, or burrow into the soft skin on the side of the mouth, below the cheeckbones.//
//By this time most of the Dark Continent will be covered by these invisible barriers.//
One of the acolytes, who had once been in the intelligence section, shouted, "Brothers, that is the Emporer himself!"
Then the attack hit, and he and a few others were not quick enough to put up shields, and were vapourised.
The others had reacted in time and had saved themselves. They sent forth another bombardment of about 50 balls of shade. One of them did not, however, and fired a small dart, too small to cut skin, at Draven, in order to get it to attach itself to the back of Draven's cloak. It was very small, about the size of a grain of rice. It would act as a homing device.
____________________________________________________________________
Quintus flew North a little way, followed by a group of acolytes. They flew into a forest the order had tended for millenia, with a clearing in the centre, and inhabited by many dangerous animals and evil beasts. They landed in the clearing, and stood in a circle around the edge of the clearing. The clearing was 1000 metres wide, and there were about 6000 acolytes standing around the edge, confident in the knowledge that the inhabitants of the forest would not attack them.
They each stuck either their right or left arms out, more often right than left, pointing towards the centre. Spreading out from the centre, the foundations of a circular building were magically laid, then a system of hypercausts and then the floors, on and on, building up the building layer by molecular layer, at super speed, so that it rose in height by a couple of centimetres a second.
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth stood waiting for a while, pondering about how long this would take, this time. He always did that each time he attempted a take-over, at the beginning.
Let us instil a faint sense of foreboding and fear to add to the effect pf hindered travel and transport, he thought.
Above him, the whole sky began to uniformly (not concentrated over himself) fill with a black smog, turning the clouds from puffs of cotton wool over a blue ink to disturbing dark blotches on grey, decaying, necrotic skin.
____________________________________________________________________
In villages around the world, and in cities too, there was a slow panic as people saw the darkening of the sky, when it still was morning. Some of the more religious among the population of each village started talking of the end of the world, while the more educated were making comments about how, in some ways, it might as well be, since they could guess that some of takeover by cruel masters was about to happen. Typically, the names of such cruel masters escaped them, as their education had been scanty, and a long time ago, so they only had a sense of unease.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar saw the darkening of the sky, and some thoughts raced through his head. Is this the work of revolutionaries? No, it is too threatening to be a sign of hope and struggle to the proletariat. It is a take-over that is coming. Worrying, but an opportunity.
He glanced South. He knew that beyond the Southern horison were territories of Wahabia, and the continent beyond it. This would be a perfect cover to take it over, especially because of the wave damage they have sustained. Laus was obviously destroyed, so there was no more reason for him to tarry here.
"Fly South, today we take Wahabia."
The mage-soldiers flew South, singing nationalistic and Fascist-style songs as the landscape and sea passed below them.
____________________________________________________________________
The waves were now only twice the size of normal waves, and so would not cause any more damage to the coast.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur sat down by the door, after performing a time distortion operation to accelerate time in Laus compared to all other universes, to fit a huge amount of time into a second of another universe, to cut it off from interdimensional time, and said, "There is, somewhere, a universe where I have spent a lot of time. It is a universe that has never had magic of any form, and recently some technology. Let me tell you of some of the events of this planet in this universe, called by its inhabitants: Earth..."
Haraldur explains about the features of the solar system, and shows them images of the geography of Earth. He also shows the evolution of languages, cultures and the movements of peoples. This took a few weeks in Laus, but barely a second for the other universes.
He then starts to explain about the early industrial revolution.
In the meantime, cultivation of the surrounding land has started, and dams have been constructed to obtain electricity. Factories powered by the dams have been built, fully automated, producing many things, from clothes to chocolate. A system of distribution has been introduced, based on the energy consumed in producing any particular item.
Outside the city, five large structures are starting to be contructed. The purpose is not immediately obvious as yet, but they are large enough to contain many thousands of people.
-
-"Ugh... I'm fine... i think..."
Ein wandered around the hill for a while. The patch has now grown all around his arm, and was somewhat itching. He started rubbing it.
-"...what?"
Another patch grew on his palm, the one that he rubbed the other hand with. This was not the way this spell should've worked.
"<span style='color:red'>Hehehe... I've made a few... personal modifications to your little dragon transformation spell</span>."
-"Argh, damn, what did you do?!"
"<span style='color:red'>I guess you'll have to wait and see...</span>"
The other patch was spreading like wildfire. His entire hand got consumed by it in a matter of seconds. //If you've seen trigun, it looks sort of like when vash or knives use their angel arms\\ That hand also jolted a bit, and he felt a surge of pain.
-"Damnit, what did you do?!"
Suddenly, the patch stopped growing. Ein stood in silence for a moment... and then both his hands did something really odd. The wierd skin "exploded" in millions and millions of fibres that wrapped him in a sort of a goldish cocoon. The crysalis with Ein in it thrashed a bit, and then it stopped moving.
--- --- ---
Gerard was now armed with aqua fortis. He exited the lab again, and headed back to Redvik for some... tests. He then noticed the airship in the sky.
-"What the crap?! What is that?"
-
Marshal backed up a few steps, and rubbed his eyes. "What the..."
----
Valos looked up into the sky. "Huh?" The sky was changing colours. "What the heck is going on here?"
He noticed that something was going on in the direction that the Crimson Capital was. "Holy crap...Something weird is going on."
He spotted Vincent's airship. He then scanned and saw the remains of Redvik. "Damn..." He then flue down to one of the buildings that still stood. (Were the two soldiers talking about Gerard are)
He looked at the soldiers, and crossed his arms, to announce his presence.
-
Meanwhile in the pits of hell, a crazed demon was thrashing about. He was locked on the wall with chains, and had large gauntlets on his arms. He had demonic symbols branded on him. He sensed something. He sensed that a good friend has arrived on the Gaian. He also sensed that an old plan, he had almost given up hope for was making progress.
"I...must...go to Gaian..." The demon said weakly. He then gave an inter-dimensional telepathic message to Melkoth.
'Melkoth, even I as a demon am suffering here...I ask of you to release me... He paused. 'We will talk more once I am free...'
-
Melkoth's face betrayed a look of shock as he heard the familiar voice in his head.
"Unbanish!"
The demon was inter-dimensionally teleported to be in front of Melkoth, on top of an armchair floating in the air.
"It is good to see you again, Abodahon, my old friend. I, too, have just been released." He paused. "Now, let us talk, please, say what you want to say."
-
"Why thank you, Melkoth." Abodahon said bowing his head. "I would like to tell you something. I have assigned two of my allies to find a young man named Duilin. Their names are Nex and Valos. Nex was with the Dark Empire at one time, yet he suffered a bitter defeat." He then stretched a bit before continuing. "Valos, however, is with the Crimson Empire. He is very loyal, yet he is not important at the moment anymore, since he has done all that is needed. I had him attempt to persuade Duilin into becoming full demon. This has not yet been done; however I sense that he is almost near...I was quite a strong connection with him. But as soon as it is done, I will not be far into gaining control over the demons, as you have wished upon me."
Abodahon, then took a deep breath, he was unused to this atmosphere. "Also...I must find Valos...he is carrying something important. But, first I would like to know what is going on at the moment. So...what have you accomplished so far, Melkoth?"
-----
"Whoa.... I just felt something..." Duilin said
"You did?" Rink asked sounding concerned. "What?"
"I dunno, a few things...It seems like the world is going to hell all the sudden." Duilin said. "Zeros', it looks like Haraldur has left, but I feel a huge jolt of power. It's scary.... We really should find it. Do you want to help me?" He asked.
-
A while after the zombie was destroyed Albatrash had returned to the castle on wyvern back. He had returned to his large room inside the castle he had bought with his 20% pay of taxes he collects (plus the little bit he pockets when his crew isn't looking :ph34r: ).
"Honey I?m home!" He yells into the room as he drops his jacket on the floor, and his little monkey jumps up on his shoulder in greeting. "Looks like you found your way back little dude." He smiles at Bongo.
"What's that you got?" He asks as he sees an envelope on the floor. "A letter? Well if it aint daggered to my door it aint important." He tosses it onto a chair but sees the name, To: Captain Jonnathan Halfire Albatrash. From: Albert "Wizzy" Corsanda.
"Wizzy! That?s the jackass wizard I lost an arm wrestle to." Jonny grunts, "He cheated." He murmurs to Bongo. He opens the letter and it reads:
Greetings, my friend. I am currently between jobs at the moment and I would wonder if you would have any more jobs to fill after your ship exploded. If so please meet me at the end of the hall.
"What the hell?" Jonny walks to the door to look at the end of the hall. "He isn't there" He walks out to see for sure, when he feels a hand on his shoulder.
"Other end of the hall Jonny" Wizzy appears seemingly from nowhere.
-
Zion sat up really fast, panting heavily, sweating... Tsu slowly sat up and looked at him. "What's your problem?"
"Just a dream I had... Demons coming from the underworld onto Gaian..." He got his bearings back and felt around... There WERE two demonic energies on this planet, at least! "Oh no... It feels like I'm right..."
--- --- ---
"Well that was a hoot." He flew off in the direction of Zion's ki signature.
-
The chrysalis started slowly transforming. It was growing larger. Eventually, some fibres popped out of it's sides and attached themselves to the ground, so that the cocoon will stay in place. Ein, although not visible, was still there... And even concious.
His brain stopped revieving messages from the rest of his body. He did not feel pain; he did not feel anyting. However, he could still think. He thought about the things that happened to him recently. Things that happened a while ago. Things that happened before his arrival on the Crimson Continent. He tried recalling these things, but could not recall some of them. He thought, and thought, and thought...
Suddenly, he felt another jolt, but this time it was more of a mental jolt. Something was alive in his mind... Oh, no.
"<span style='color:red'>Hello, Ein.</span>."
"Gah! You again! Okay, hopefully now I can get a few answers out of you. What did you do to my body?"
"<span style='color:red'>Wrong question</span>."
"Damnit, don't leave so soon! I'M NOT DONE!"
The voice was silent again. Ein could no longer feel it's prescence, either. "Stupid thing... What is it, anyway?"
Outside, in the real world, the cocoon was now taking up half of the hill...
-
As soon as hyperion digested the human head, his wings formed a complete shell around his body. It only took a few seconds for the shell to start cracking. It broke open to reveal Hyperion in a quite large snake form.
"I wish I had been made with more forms, It's far too energy consuming to construct my own."
He wanted to spend some time getting familiar with his new form, but he had a job to do. Without hesitation he began to burrow under ground and head in Dravens direction.
-
Zeros' growled in frustration, but didn't stop his sword from charging. Unlike everyone else, he was directly connected with the planet. If he was destroyed, so was the planet. Luckily, he had made a fale-safe with the planet, and did not get destroyed if the planet did. That rule, unfortunetly, didn't count out his mother.
"It's Melkoth. That damn bastard is back," he growled. He stopped his forwards motion, as Laus was gone now. He shot straight up, and into the air. He observed the clouds, and the sky. Then, he looked towards where Melkoth and his aquantice are. He headed in that direction.
He'd be damned if he let Melkoth take over the world.
---
Allen wave, and the circular disc started to spin, but he didn't. It started to hum louder, and hover higher off the ground. It bobbed up and down, before shooting forwards, and off towards the Crimson Empire at amazing speeds.
Allen had also felt the power of Melkoth. And he was scared, but, he didn't let it show in his face. He kept his fear hidden beneith a finely honed mask.
-
//what? so does that mean that no one can kill zeros'? or if we will, the planet will blow up?? looks like a god character... then again, i AM the noob of the RP so excuse me if i don't understand something\\
The cocoon began to hatch. First, it was a small crack in the side. Then, the crack widened, letting out a huge fly-like leg. The leg threw off the rest of the cocoon off itself, revealing a giant pitch-black, red-eyed, red-winged... Moth.
The moth was huge. Very huge. It took up nearly 3\4th of the hill, and that's not counting it's limbs. It had two gigantic razor-sharp pincers, that could probably smash solid metal their size in half. It had a glowing red upside-down pentagram on it's forehead (the evil demonic type). It lowered one of it's wings, as if inviting Marshal.
...Ein was still there. However, his mind was no longer working like it does in a normal human. This could be compared to an operating system inside a computer: he did not feel any pain, he did not feel anything from the moth's body, but he could control it's limbs. Also, he could see from it's eyes.
-
Floating about twenty feet in the air, Draven eyed the changing sky, still convinced Haraldur was behind it.
"Oh, my. More with the cheap lighting tricks..."
There definitely was something amidst, in the general westerly direction, an aura that was Ragnar-like, but he couldn't place his finger on it, or directly where it was...
He glanced down just in time to see the return barrage of fifty or so blue orbs headed his way. In retort, he thrust his left hand out, creating a wedge shaped crimson barrier. This caused the orbs and anything else sent his way to deflect in two directions.
"You miserable little insects..."
Draven smirked... ah the nostalgia... He couldn't help himself... With a flash, he fell straight down, landing on one foot. His body exploded in flame, an intense crimson aura wrapping around him, and he dashed, buring a straight trail through the ground, at the nearest group of mages.
The nearest was a group of five, standing close together. The one in front immediately put up a barrier. As Draven impended closer, he brought his right hand to his side, a burning blade appearing in the emperor's fist. The mage intensified the barrier as the screaming ball of flame approached with the force of a semi truck. Draven thrust the blade right through the barrier and into the man's heart, sending a wave of crimson energy through it and causing the mage's body to explode. The explosion engulfed the four other mages and they flew skyward as burning corpse.
A spray of orbs from the left. Before the bodies could hit the ground, Draven spun and slashed, deflecting the orbs back towards their owners. Another barrage, from the right. Continuing the spin, Draven performed an upward slash, digging his blade through the ground at the start. A crescent wave of flame rushed from the fire sword, vaporizing the attacks and continuing onward to meet the attackers with explosive results, sending another twenty or so burning bodies skyward.
The battle continued in the same manner. In 27 seconds he had wasted the entire group, killing or maiming all of them, save for one. This one stood among the charred ground and remains of his comrades. Still burning with his crimson aura, Draven rushed the last mage and grabbed him by the neck with his left hand. He continued forward, lifting the man up from the ground. They flew diagonally some thirty feet, until Draven slammed the mage up against a tree and held him there, still by his neck. Draven's crimson blade still burned in his right hand. They were some 10 feet off of the ground. The top of the tree ignited from the proximity of Draven's aura.
"Tell me, where might I find your exalted leader? We have some issues to discuss, you see..."
(Now would be the time to plant the tracker!)
----
(Oops! How could I miss 'flying' rats? Heh...)
The elite with the dark aura noticed something on the horizon, other than the change of sky color, of course. There was an odd cloud headed their way. He opened a pouch strapped to his belt and removed a nautical telescope. Looking into the lens, he could see the strange creatures in detail.
"Hans! Get up here!"
The elite with the yellow trimmed black armor appeared from the window of a separate tower and flew up to his leader.
"Aye, Cap'n!"
Elite Julian lowered the telescope before getting the bad joke and taking a swing at his subodinate's head with the object. Hans ducked out of the way.
"Sorry! Geez..."
"Just shut up, Hans. I don't like the look of those flying things with teeth headed our way. Take care of them."
"Right!"
Hans floated some twenty feet above the tower roof and outstretched his arms. A yellow aura surrounded him.
"Fear my ELECTRIC DEATH!!!"
Julian put his left hand over his face in embarrassment.
Dark clouds formed above and below the swarm, and a barrage of lightning danced through it, electrocuting all the creatures. The swarm fell out of the sky...
Julian leaned over the edge of the tower. Something is up... better sheild the city... Although creatures like that would be a major threat to the smaller villages...
----
At Redvik, Vincent's airship landed in one of the underground docks and the door closed overhead. Vincent emerged from the vessel. The colonel saluted him.
"Status report."
Meanwhile. The two soldiers immediately saluted General Valos.
"Sir! General Valos, sir! General Vincent has just returned and is likely in the lower levels, sir!"
-
"Excellent..." Valos then walked his way down to the lower levels, to meet Vincent.
He arrived at the underground dock. "General Vincent. It appears that Ragnar has left. I saw his island disappear. I can only suspect he went into, ahem, ?another universe?..."
----
Marshal backed up, he was a bit scared to the creature. "Ein?" He then looked at it. "You are Ein..."
He then looked at the moth's wing. "Well...okay..." He then walked onto the giant moth.
----
Duilin and Rink flue up and followed Zeros'.
"Melkoth?" Rink asked "But isn't he? Ah, never mind..."
"Yeah...I wonder what he wants." Duilin said
"Well, I can only guess his plans are a lot worse then Haraldur's." Rink replied
"There are two of them.... They are familiar. I know one of the is Melkoth, but the other one..."
-
//How the hell can Zeros' see Melkoth from the other side of the Dark Continent? For a start, Melkoth would be beyond the horison, a few hundred times over. Does Zeros' constantly use x-ray vision?//
"Duilin? You might like to ask Quintus, he might have met him in his travel. He will also be pleased to see you again.
"What have we accomplished so far? We have paralysed internal communication, transport and travel, excepting orbs, within the Crimson Empire, although, of course, they do not realise it yet. Quintus is just now contructing the Grey Palace in that forest over there, in the clearing. I myself have caused a little panic, no doubt, by darkening the sky. Apart from that, we are just beginning.
"I am led to believe there is a port city to the west of here, called Retangrad, which is quite large and significant. We are going to attack it and some villages between it and us, and some more surrounding our position here, to get ourselves a foothold."
____________________________________________________________________
The helpless acolyte placed the barbed dart in a fold in Draven's clothing, the one that would signal Draven's position.
The acolyte then took a deep breath, and there was a loud crack as he cracked open an insertion in one of his teeth containing poison gas. He breathed out as he did so, blowing the gas in Draven's face.
Just before he himself died, he used the last of his magical power to make his still alive body explode, flattening an area of forest 100 metres in radius, with Draven in that area.
____________________________________________________________________
The palace was now about 1/4 finished. Columns were being slowly built up.
Quintus, the Prophet, received a homing device signal, and information from it about the target. It was Draven! At least now they could see what he did, whether he was fighting, and where he was. Good, I can see how effective my slave might be.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar's troops started to fly over the deserts and salt mines of Wahabia, flying towards the capital city of Wahabia, Mellibasra.
From the city walls, arrows came flying up, picking off one or two of Salazar's soldiers.
The soldier-mages sent down a few explosive fireballs, blowing up sections of the mud brick and stone wall. In return, fireballs were thrown at them by defensive mages on the walls, about 40 of the soldiers were killed.
Horns sounded in the city, and out of the central palace flew the king of Wahabia, and his personal bodyguard, consisting of about 400 mages, flying toward the invaders...
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur now starts to explain about Marx and Engels, the Paris Commune and the Anarchists.
He tells them of the First World War, and then of the Russian Revolutions, both of them. He tells them of Lenin's death, and then of Stalin's betrayal of the revolution. He tells them then of the Civil War in Spain, and the Revolution there. He tells them of the differing factions in the Republican government, and how the Stalinists crushed the Revolution, as they had in Russia. He then tells them of George Orwell and his books (and reads them to them, from memory) and of the Second World War, and of nukes.
He then starts talking of a group in North America called the Technical Alliance...
The five structures are still being contructed, and are rising fast, now being very tall.
-
"Very interesting." Abodahon replied. "I will join you in the attack on Retangrad. I have no fought for quite some time, and I would like to give the world a preview of my power." He then turned his head, at were Quintus was. "Ah, yes. Quintus. I shall speak with him, now. Inform me on when we attack Retangrad."
Abodahon then flue down to were Quintus was working. "Quintus, how good to see you again." He said greeting him.
-
"I can feel your presence nearby Draven."
Hyperion was gaining speed and he was already moving far faster than he could ever fly.
-
// Ein: No. You can still kill Zeros'. It's just, if you kill him, the planet goes with him. But, if you destroy the planet, he won't die, but his mother would, who is the sentient being, basically the spirit, of Gaian, the planet.
Haraldur: No, Haraldur. He doesn't have X-ray vision. If you remember back to... Chapter 4 or so, your character fought Melkoth, so, Zeros' had a chance to sample his aura, which is quite similiar to Haraldurs, but not exactly. Because of Zeros' extreme connection to the planet, he could feel anyone that came onto the planet. Plus, he was well over a few millennia, so, he had ample time to develop his senses.
As for god characters... Look at Haraldur. Also, if Zeros' dies from natural means, such as working himself to death, or something like that, the planet would still stay. Only if Zeros' is killed by external means, does the planet go with him. \\
"Yes... No doubt Melkoth's plans are worse then Haraldur's... We have to stop him at any cost," he said, and continued to fly faster. He wouldn't reach Melkoth for several more minutes, even if he flew his fastest. He didn't know what Melkoth would do in that time... He knew it wouldn't be good, though.
---
Meanwhile...
Allen's disc hummed across the water, leaving a trail of wave in it's wake. The tip of the Crimson Empire could be see, hovering in the sky, miles away.
Allen, himself, just wanted to reach Draven and get this mission over with.
-
Draven coughed once, but the foul odor did not affect him. He folded his arms, floating above the resulting crater.
"My my, how rude. Well, I was going to blow him up anyway..."
He rose a bit higher above the ground. Draven's ability to sense the auras of others had improved significantly since his days as a High General, but he still needed to be within a few dozen miles to pinpoint an exact location.
"Hmmm, let's see..."
The Ragnar-like aura was to the west... Zeros'... to the south... maybe a little east... Flyboy's no doubt on it as well. Best to stay separate for the moment. We'll have a better chance of finding him that way...
Another explosion of flame emanated from his body and he shot westward wrapped in a fireball.
(Could you give us more detail on these floating barriers?)
----
Vincent walked towards Valos, a small entourage of troops following him. He spoke calmly.
"It seems this Ragnar is tricky one. A very dangerous foe... I can see why the Emperor is held in such high regards for defeating him five years ago. That is, of course, if the events we are told occured as they say..."
He stopped short, and realized it would be best not to go in that direction...
"But of course, that is none of our business..."
A soldier ran up to the two generals and saluted.
"General Vincent! General Valos!"
"Yes?"
"We are receiving reports of strange magical barriers being placed around Redvik... particularly across trade routes and paths."
"Placed by who?"
"We don't know, Sir. Local officers request permission to attack."
"Only if attacked... Find out what you're up against, first..."
----
Across the land, the barriers and insurgent mages are discovered by the many wyvern rider patrol units.
Barriers are torn down and the insurgents repressed with minimal difficulty near the large fortresses and larger cities, where there are strong military presences.
More rural areas (which actually most of the continent consists of) and small villages are in trouble, however, and smaller military units in these areas find themselves cut off without reinforcements.
Minor skirmishes sweep across the land...
----
"Meh heh heh... Well, well, you're looking well, friend..."
An outline of a figure appeared behind Melkoth. It slowly filled in, and a translucent figure stood there. It was a very old man, hunched over and leaning heavily on a staff with a ruby gem on it. Heavy plates of black armor rested on the frail old man's shoulders...
The specter of Alpha Retan smiled, revealing crooked jagged teeth.
"Reckless as ever, eh? You know, they're not gonna like that..."
He lifted his staff and pointed to the fortress under construction.
"Heh, oh well, you were never one to waste time. A little patience will do you good, though, ya know..."
-
"Barriers?" Valos asked. "Well it can't be the Aspyes, they are gone."
Valos passed back a bit, and then turned back to Vincent. "Perhaps there is another enemy amongst us?"
----
Duilin and Rink sped up more to keep up with Zeros'.
"You know..." Duilin said. "This may sound crazy...but...If Melkoth is back, and if he is to powerful. We may even have to form an alliance with Haraldur."
"You serious?" Rink asked
"Yes, I am. We did so with Draven."
-
The giant moth began flapping its wings. At first, it did so slowly; then, the wings moved faster and faster, eventually becoming blurred. After a couple of seconds, the giant insect rose and headed to where Duilin was.
Ein manipulated the insect with ease. It was not even his own body per se, but he controlled it as easily as it were. It was like controlling a machine, but even easier, as he did not need to learn how to control it. He already knew. "Hmm... whoever that guy was, this alternation is not so bad!"
-
Zeros' shook his head.
"Melkoth is strong, yes, but, he more then likely, can't access his full powers here. It's only a theory, but, since he was banished from Gaian, I assume a miniscule amount of his power must of also gone with him," he said, while still flying.
---
Allen breathed a sigh of relief, as, he came directly below where the Crimson Empire was floating.
He signed something upwards, and, a thin red beam shot down, and enveloped the disk. The disk and it's two passangers de-materialized, and reappeared in the hanger, that was just above where Vincent had landed his airship.
The disk landed, and he hopped off the disk, his coat flaring behind him. He saluted the guards, and they saluted back.
"Where is Draven?" he asked.
"He left, sir," replied one of the guard. Allen cursed.
"Who else is here, that is in command?" he questioned. The two guards looked between themselves and shrugged.
"Well... General Vincent and Valos are here, sir," said the guard. Allen nodded, and signaled them to take him to them. The guards saluted, and one left his post, and scurried down the hall, taking Allen in Valos and Vincent's direction.
Before he left, he turned and smirked in Aura's direction.
"Are you coming, miss?" he asked, before turning on his heel, and walking out the door.
-
(Vincent and Valos are in the (mostly underground) fortress of Redvik, way south of the floating Crimson Captital where Elite Juilian has been left in charge.)
(A note on these shady 'elites'. They're like Draven's personal bodyguards. Not really military officers. They usually aren't in charge of any military functions, unless they are given a task, like in this case they are to defend the Crimson Capital.)
----
Draven continued streaking through the sky westward, visibly passing south of the Crimson Capital, about even in altitude with the floating city.
----
"Another enemy?"
Vincent placed his hands behind his back.
"Hmm, I wouldn't rule that possibility out, considering Ragnar's retreat from the mainland, and it is odd enemy factions would just appear randomly around us... Although I'm not sure whether that supports your theory or not..."
-
//Zeros', should I assume that Zeros' has this magical way of avoiding invisible barriers in the air?//
//The barriers are 10x10x10 metres of rock. 1000 metres cubed. Big. Hurts a lot if you crash into one by accident at high speed.//
//By the way people, please remember that almost all the Dark Continent has flight hindering barriers of the type mentioned above.//
//Whatever it is that Zeros''s character thinks, Melkoth actually did die in the (almost) conventional sense, but had methods of having himself brought back.//
Melkoth nodded to Abodahon. "I will."
____________________________________________________________________
A little startled, Quintus turned, and said, "Abodahon! This is a pleasant surprise. How did you come to be here?"
He then noticed that Draven was flying very fast towards them.
"It seems we will have guests soon..."
He telepathed to Melkoth, People can detect us by our auras, we should leave this place. We might as well begin the attack.
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth replied: Yes. Tell Abodahon that we two shall attack Abodahon, while you guard this place.
____________________________________________________________________
The Prophet nodded. "Abodahon, Melkoth wishes you to acompany him now to attack Retangrad. I will stay here to guard."
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth grinned. "Really? I prefer, 'He who hesitates is lost.' Anyway, I see you also had plans for your survival. Is this your final form, or would you like me to help come back in a more solid way?
"Please answer quickly, as Abodahon and I are about to attack Retangrad, your old city, in order to gain a port city. In fact, you might like to attend, my old friend. I have heard it is quite run down now, despite its excellent harbour. Apparantly it is not near enough hostile territory, from the point of view of the Crimson Empire, to be worth maintaining. We will have work to do."
He waited both for Alpha Retan's answer and for Abodahon to arrive.
____________________________________________________________________
The palace is 1/2 finished.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar's troops and the bodyguard of the King of Wahabia fought, until the King was alone.
Salazar flew forward, as did the King. Salazar moved around the king, and the king around him, and then they shot fireballs at eachother. After a few minute of fighting with different spells, the king was dead, and his charred body was dropping to the ground.
Salazar brushed some soot off his fatigues as his soldiers flew into the city to kill all males and children, and rape all females.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur now explained of the Energy Survey of North America that was carried out by the Technical Alliance, and how it was completed in the early '30s. He then talked of how they regrouped to form Technocracy Incorporated, and then he started explaining the plan and the ideology. His comrades were starting to nod with agreement with much more frequency.
The explanation, in detail, took many months. //For a very diluted version (without the calculations etc.) got to www.technocracy.org (http://www.technocracy.org) and read everything there. I doubt you will though, and it is not important to the story until later, when I will explain it anyway.//
The five large buildings were nearly finished.
-
"He wasn't just banished from Gaian." Rink said. "He was killed."
"Well, it has been five years, maybe he has gotten even stronger perhaps?" Duilin replied to Zeros'
----
"Melkoth released me from my entrapment." Abodahon responded. "Oh, attack so soon? Very well, I wish to ask you some questions afterwards, when the two of us are less busy." He then flapped his wings and flew up to Melkoth. "Shall we?"
----
"Well, no it doesn't. Yet, I'm sure the Aspyes wouldn't stay and fight. I'm sure they are all gone in some alternate universe, with their thumbs up their asses!"
He then looked outside. "Yet I do sense a few powerful auras...new ones..."
-
Ein continued guiding the insect towards Duilin.
"Hehe... Better get ready, bird. I bet you never ate an insect this big!"
He made the insect snap it's pincers a bit.
--- --- ---
Gerard watched the two airships land somewhere around Redvik. He also noticed a small figure fly into the fortress. "Curious..." He started walking to where the airships landed, but then he noticed a small staircase guarded by two soliders. They were intently conversing. He flew up...
The soliders were talking to each other.
-"Hey, you heard? Laus vanished off to another universe again."
-"Damn, that Ragnar keeps pullin' tricks out of i don't want to know where."
-"Heh... yeah, he's always like.... wha? hey, did you hear that?"
-"Hear what?
-"Ah, never mind, probably was the wind..."
Gerard was stealthly gliding over the two soliders. He then glided a little lower... extended one of his arms. Suddenly, a solider turned around.
-"WHAT THE HELL?!"
Gerard swooped his hand, impaling the solider's neck, but not completely ripping it off his body. In fact, he raised the solider's body with him. The other one hastily turned around.
-"Hey, where'd you...? Ahh!"
Gerard, with the other solider's corpse in his hand, whacked the other one over with the corpse. Then he jumped on him and kicked him in the head //this gets a completely new meaning as he has claws on his legs as well\\. He walked onto the staircase.
-
// I never said he was flying straight, did I? \\
// As for his thoughts, Zeros' thinks Melkoth was banished from Gaian, and with it, a small portion of his power. \\
Zeros' growled. He was getting pissed off with these invisible barriers. They were more annoying, then anything.
He kept flying erretically, while making sure Duilin and Rink were still following him.
"Stronger? No... I don't believe so," he said, in response to Duilin's question.
---
The guard led Allen deeper, and stopped and conversed with a guard, and turned back to Allen, saluting him.
"I'm sorry, sir. I hadn't relized iit, but, General Valos and Vincent are gone," he said. Allen sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.
"Great... Just great," he murmurred.
-
Hyperion stalked Draven from underground waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike and he was willing to wait as long as was necessary. He was able to keep his life last time, if he failed again he may not be that lucky.
-
(Cool. I'm guessing you're the same Haraldur on that site, huh? Heh, I'll read more later. However, as interested as I am what the people of Laus are doing, I must remind you that this is a medieval themed RP!)
"Where in blazes are these stone blocks coming from?!"
Draven let loose another wave of fireballs, destroying the barriers in his way. Pebbles began to rain down from above. He began to fly a bit lower towards the ground, so as to avoid a set positioned above. Someone was going to pay, for the irritation factor alone...
----
"Meh, you know the rules..."
Alpha Retan shrugged.
"Only 995 years left before my body regenerates, though. Where is that idiot son of yours anyway? I really must thank him again for releasing me. He he he..."
He stood a bit straighter and shook his staff at Melkoth.
"Anyway, the reason I came, other than the void being so boring, of course, is about the one that killed me last. The one who's land you're messing up right now. I really should thank him too. The way he killed me, I should get at least 20% more magical capacity with my next body... so much beautiful hateful power he possesses!
"My point about your hastiness, however, is that right now in trying to take over the first country that you see, you are attacking the only nation that is fighting against your son... You catch my drift?"
The old man looked up and saw the demon approach Melkoth.
"Ah, Abodahon, if I remember correctly..."
-
"Ugh... How long did we sleep, Xenai?"
"Two days."
"Holy crap... Ven, wake up. I think we've slept enough."
"And what, praytell, do you plan on doing while you're awake, huh?"
"I want to find out what those demonic energies are."
"I might as well go with ya. Tsu, you comin'?"
"Of course."
"Well, let's see what Ven here thinks about it."
--- --- ---
She saluted the guards. "Yes, of course." She quickly follows Allen and the guards. //Bah, I know I'm not supposed to do posts like that, but I don't know what else to do.
-
Abodahon nodded. "Greetings Alpha Retan. With the three of us here, our goals will be much easier to accomplish. Anyways, I expect that we may have some guests drop in on our attack, since our auras are catching attention, yet it will just make it all the more fun. Alpha Retan, shall you be joining us on the attack on Retangrad?" He inquired
----
"Hmmm?" Duilin responded, neutral about Zeros' answer. "Well...it seems like their are...two, no three...three auras...Strong ones." He may be skilled with powers, yet he was still new to them, he has gotten used to them, yet five years wasn't very much compared to Zeros', Haraldur or even Draven.
----
Valos then rubbed his chin. "Yes...I believe these auras that I sense are connected to whoever is making those barriers." He crossed his arms. "It seems that a few people are heading towards them, so I'll let them take care of it."
----
Marshal was a little freaked out from the giant moth that he was riding on, yet now he seems a bit more comfortable. "I wonder were they are going? They seem to be headed somewhere." He then looked up in the sky, examining it more so, he noticed that it changed before yet he didn't pay much attention to it. "Perhaps, something has done this, and they are trying to find out. This is just a theory however." He supposed.
-
//
(Cool. I'm guessing you're the same Haraldur on that site, huh? Heh, I'll read more later. However, as interested as I am what the people of Laus are doing, I must remind you that this is a medieval themed RP!)
Yes, your guess is correct.
Medieval themed yes, however, our middle ages went through the Renaissance and then the Industrial Revlution, so things will not be static, and need not follow the pattern of history on Earth. Also, there is an important difference: magic! I find it amazing how many fanatasy-themed things there are where magic seems to be amazingly underused, considering its utility. It is like us knowing how electricity works, but not using it. How do societies develop in a magical environment? This is, potentially, a fascinating topic. Ther certainly would be the possibility of authoritarianism, which is very well represented in this RP, adding to the sense of logic and "realism".//
____________________________________________________________________
//I was under the impression that Haraldur killed Alpha Retan with the long charge attack (which I forget the name of) which he inserted into Alpha Retan's body and detonated, blowing him up.//
Melkoth grinned, "Do not forget that is your son as well, Alpha Retan. Do not forget your own involvement.
"Yes, I realise that this "Crimson Empire" is fighting our son, but this is to our advantage. There is a chance that they think we are our son, and so will go after him not us. They will also assume, because of this, that we will act like he acts. Also, they have probably been weakened by fighting our son."
//Dude Man, can Valos sense any familiarity in Abodahon's aura? Does he recognise his master?//
-
//Well, not entirely. He hasn't seen Abodahon for many years, so he wouldn't be able to recognise, since his aura has grown so much since then. He was mostly under Nex's order. \\
"Hmm, yes I sense that Duilin is coming with them." Abodahon said "Once he is here, defend yourself from him if he attacks if you must, but do not kill him."
"So perhaps we should get started on our attack? We should try and finish it before the others get here, perhaps." He suggested.
-
Ein was flying the moth straight at Duilin, but then something unexpected happened. The creature suddenly stopped, sending Marshal flying, but not completely knocking him off. Ein got a hugimungous headache. "Ow... What the hell was that?" He got his moth to snap it's pincers at where it crashed. Then a big chunk of rock appeared, being smashed to pieces by the insect's pincers. He then continued flying.
--- --- ---
Gerard continued going down the staircase //the one that leads to the place where the airships are\\.
-
(Haraldur <a href='http://darkagegames.net/dal/viewer.php?mode=1&id=472&page=115' target='_blank'>disabled</a> the dragon form Alpha Retan (very badly) and Draven <a href='http://darkagegames.net/dal/viewer.php?mode=1&id=472&page=116' target='_blank'>finished the job</a> by nuking the entire arctic circle. (Heh...) I'm not sure if AR would have died or not if Draven hadn't done that. On one hand, AR has regenetive abilities, but on the other, his energy was totally spent by that point.)
The translucent old man shrugged.
"Bah, one tenth mine. One tenth... Actually, with a few programming corrections, Number Ten may become useful to our cause once again... Ah, what a blissful sweet angel of unholy destruction he was... he he he... We may still be able to separate him before destroying the rest, considering he is an artificial replacement for your son's true tenth component...
"Hmmm, I see your point. However..."
Alpha Retan held out his staff diagonally, the red gem away from him. A white translucent orb appeared floating above it, about one foot in diameter. Within that sphere an image of Draven appeared, flying close to the ground, wrapped in flame. Rage was building in his eyes as he effortlessly plowed his way through a series of barriers...
"You see, he's headed this way. And he's quite angry... Unless your son happens to show up in his path within a few minutes to distract him... Now him along with the people Abodahon mentioned... well, several hours of needless distraction seem to be headed your way while your son is free to go about his business..."
The image disappeared.
"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter in the end. I'm just here to watch."
He smiled his crooked smile.
----
Ven sat up.
"Oh, god...!"
He held his right hand to the sharp pain in his neck. Note to self: Don't use rocks as pillows...
He stood up, dusting himself off and straightening his cloak. He fealt rejuvenated and refreshed.
"Guessed I used up too much energy. Sorry about that... Oh, hey, Xenai."
He stood up and looked around the forest. He moved his left arm around in a circle while holding his shoulder with his right.
"Demonic energies? Sure, why not? Don't worry about carrying me this time. Think I've recovered enough to handle that myself."
He brought his right hand before his face and clenched it into fist. A yellow aura surrounded it. Then thrusting it to the ground as a palm, a barely visible disc of wind appeared under his feet, which lifted him a foot off of the ground.
"Lead the way."
-
Zeros' turned at the sound, and sensed Ein's aura, but, kept moving anyways.
He stopped suddenly, and shot straight up, while growling.
He held out the hand that wasn't holding his sword. A condensed beam of energy formed there. It grew bigger, and glowed white.
Zeros' smirked, and fired. There was a crumbling sound, as all the barriers over 1,000 yards back were destroyed, the rock fragments falling into the ground.
He adjusted himself, and flew into the hole he made.
---
Allen ran a hand through his hair, and sighed, frustarted.
"I have no damn idea what to do," he said, towards Aura. "Any ideas?" he inquired.
-
"Hmm, I guess that works." Duilin chuckled, as Zeros' blasted down the barriers. He then turned his head, and saw a giant moth with Marshal riding it. "What the hell? I guess Marshal didn't go into the barrier, and it looks like he summoned a giant moth or something. Yet, I can also sense that one caped man with him, yet I don't see him...Odd."
"Well, let's fly faster, maybe we can loose them!" Rink suggested
"Zeros' is doing that so yes, let's." Duilin agreed. He then grabbed onto Rink, since he can't fly as fast and then he blasted off thru the broken barriers...
----
"Arg!" Marshal growled. "They are flying to fast, what do we do?"
-
The palace is now 3/4 complete.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar entered the palace of Wahabia, letting his troops loot and pillage, and wrest control of the rest of the country.
He sat down on the throne, and smiled. He had now multiplied the size of his empire by 8. He laughed a little to himself. And now for the joys of government, and for him to change the society of this conquered land.
He stood up, and went to arrange for a team of secretaries and administrators to be brought back from his home.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur faced the five now completed structures, and spoke to the people.
"Those five large buildings you see before you are called Urbanates. They are massive buildings, as I am sure you can see, and they can each house 20,000 of you. From there you will travel to here to do work, if you choose. You will sleep there, buy goods there, although as you know the concept of ownership, and , indeed, purchase, is redundant. You will hvae all the recreational and educational facilities you could possibly want, and many other things.
"All the buildings are very energy efficient, with excellent insulation. Each "house" within a building is sound proof, fire proof, vibration proof and connected directly to the distribution system. The power needed is provided by the river on the other side of the hills.
"You will be able to live there soon, when the transport system is finished.
"This is a revolutionary new society, equality, freedom, and plenty. If anyone here wishes not to be involved please make this known, you will be allowed to set up a different system on the other side of the island."
There was no response.
"Very well. Let us now dream of the day when all the peoples of Gaian are as free as us..."
There was silence, with, on many of the faces, looks of elation.
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth shrugged. "Do not forget your other, less purposeful involvement. You were once the ruler of Vikingagarð, and one of the ten parts was, is, the Prince (well, King now, actually, although there are no longer any people). He is your direct descendent.
"Watch then. Let us go, Abodahon."
He started to fly westwards, towards the coast. Retangrad was just on the horison. The barriers moved aside as he flew, and did the same for Abodahon and Alpha Retan //assuming they both follow//.
____________________________________________________________________
Quintus watched his master fly west. He then wondered when his servant would attempt to fulfil his task. Why is he taking so long? he thought, Surely it is not so hard to find someone who continually sheathes himself with flame?
He glanced down at the rising palace. When we are in control of this continent, he thought, things will be absolutely glorious, like the old days. We will show the world how a real Empire is run.
-
Hyperion could start to feel his new form start to slow down. He knew he had to act now. In a quick move, Hyperion burst out of the ground under Draven, turning into dragon form on the way. He swung his tale in an attemp to knock Draven out of the air.
"I will end this quickly!"
-
"Excellent." Abodahon then also flue westward, with Melkoth. As Abodahon flue, he looked at the orange diamond on his right gauntlet, he tilted it, as it made a little shine in the light, and then it changed to a darker more reddish tone, and then back to orange. He then focused back on were he was going.
----
Valos sighed; he was quite bored, with standing around, looking into the distance. He heard footsteps coming down the stairway. "Hmm, Vincent you go see who that is. I sense that I may be needed back at the capital. Take care, Vincent."
He then jumped off the ledge, of the opening in the passage way, and then surrounded himself in a dark purple aura and then flue off...
-
Closer closer... yes... hmm... there's more than one... and they're on the move...
Draven removed the orb from his pocket and broadcast to all the major military establishments and orb holders as he was flying:
"Attention. Your Emperor orders all Generals, Colonels and independent working officers with an even ID number to move your respective forces to the western edge of the continent, near the Retangrad region, specifically. The primary target has been spotted in this area. Eliminate all hostilities on the way. Officers with an odd ID number will remain in place and maximize defenses."
Draven moved orb away from his mouth and it ceased glowing.
"A few hundred thousand troops down his neck should keep him in place while I catch up... OOF--!!"
Draven suddenly felt himself smacked out of the sky. He dropped the orb, and it flew in the opposite direction into several bushes. Draven tumbled in the air, still wrapped in flame, and landed a hundred feet away, regaining his balance just in time to land on his feet.
It was a dragon-- no, that same dragon that approached him this morning.
"So, you turn traitor so soon? Miserable wretch! I shall cook you and serve your roasted body to my slaves!!"
In a fury, Draven slammed his right fist into the ground. The forest floor split with much vibration, and geysers of molten magma burst forth from the ground in rapid succession towards the traitorous beast.
----
A force of over eight thousand was gathering in Retangrad. The city, though large, did not have a fortress, but did have a wall of medium height around it. A patrol unit of wyvern riders saw the approaching menace from the south and informed the city, and a force of 5,000 was lead outside the city to meet the invaders, along with 100 wyvern riders overhead.
----
A force of over 20,000 was slowly moving northwards, lead by three gallant generals and split into three roughly equal legions, traveling in parallel, though separate groups. They were south of the fortress under construction, but slowly approaching it, several wyvern riders flying ahead and back to report to their commanders the odd construction ahead.
----
G-64000726
Vincent smiled at the reporting soldier.
"Looks like we're heading west. I'll take my regular airship staff and twenty-five men."
The colonel staggered.
"That's it? But sir...!"
"We are going to the other side of the continent. In order to arrive in due time, I must take my modified airship, which, as you can see, does not hold many men. The other warships would best be in position here, as this area is already weakened. Besides, Sigmund has been recently equipped with an airship fleet of its own."
Vincent turned and left towards the docks, an entourage of men following him.
The Colonel sighed.
"I hate it when he does that..."
----
Alpha Retan shrugged (again).
"Meh, his blood is too far diluted. He's barely a shell of a true Draken."
He began to levitate and follow Melkoth and Abodahon, his hair remaining still, unaffected by the passing winds...
-
Hyperion launched himself upwards, unable to prevent minor burns.
"If it's any consolation I would have preferred the Crimson Empire, however The Prophet had an offer I couldn't refuse."
He then dived at Draven, trying to stomp on him.
-
"Hmm?" Valos was thought as he heard Draven's message. "Yes something is going on. Yet...it seems that I must stay here. Unless..." He then thought of something but then shook his head. "No, that won't do." He then landed on the floating palace.
A messenger approached him, and saluted. "General Valos." He said in greeting.
"Greetings, what do you need?" Valos asked
"Lieutenant Aura and Alchemist Allen were looking for you. They request your assistance." The messenger replied
"Ah, yes. That one young woman." Valos grinned. "And it's been awhile since I've seen Allen."
The two of them went into the palace. The messenger saluted him and when a separate way. He approached Allen and Aura.
"It's nice to see you're still alive, Aura. I feared you might have been taken out by the volcano." Valos said grinning. He then turned to Allen. "And it's good to see you're still alive because...heh, heh, you know." He chuckled. "But, yes you look flustered, is there a problem?"
-
Allen turned, and looked at Valos, and sighed. He had also heard the message, but, decided to stay back.
"Yes... I'm in quite a sticky situation. I have all I need to finish the main project, but, I assume it'd be quite useless now," he said, while fishing through his jacket, and taking out the vial that had Haraldur's aura sample in it. He held it up, and it seemed to glow slightly "This is Haraldur's aura sample," he said, throwing it towards Valos. "And that is what we'll use to draw Haraldur to us," he finished.
---
Zeros' sighed, as he reached the end of his hole. He stopped his swords, charging, and looked down at it.
The demonic version of his sword was now surrounded in a corona of ethernal light, about a foot in diameter. He drew about half back into himself (Since the sword was basically a part of Zeros', and the aura WAS Zeros', he could reabsorb the aura), and rested the sword on his shoulder.
"Here goes nothing..." he murmurred. He reared back, and slashed with his sword, and ethernal aura trail following behind him. The effect was immediately noticed, as, the barriers a couple miles all around were litterly... destroyed. All that was left was rock fragments falling to the ground, making splashes in what water was left on Gaian.
He resheathed his sword, and stuttered almost unnoticabily, but continued the motion, and moved forwards.
-
Aura scratched her head. "Well, I saw General Valos flying off toward Laus, so..." and the General in question showed up. Aura saluted. "Volcano? Oh yeah... That..." She thinks hard... Was she casting Judgment when that happened? Feh... "Thank you for your concern, General."
--- --- ---
"Ow, there's a sharp one... ow, damn! He feels familliar..." Xenai stuck a pinky in his ear, feeling the famillar energy of Alpha Retan, feeling that it exists, but not knowing what it is.
"I feel it too," said Zion. "But I don't know what it is either."
The three of them ejected their wings. "Think Draven will know anything?" asked Tsu.
"Maybe," said Zion. "I do suppose he owes you a bit, Xenai."
"For what? All I did was go to Laus and get hammered."
"O...kay." Zion locked onto Draven's aura. "It feels like he's fighting. I suppose we should get there quick and find out what he's doing." He pointed off in that direction. "Let's go!" And they took off.
-
//Guys, I won't be posting much anymore -- I have other things going on in my life, so if i don't post for a day or two, that doesn't mean that i'm not there\\
"Flying too fast... Hmm. We'll have to deal with that, now won't we?" He altered a few of the moth's parameters a bit. The pentagram on it's forehead flashed brightly, and it flew much faster, and lower.
-
"Tch!"
Draven took a diagonal leap to his left as the mighty dragon's clawed feet came crashing down upon where he stood.
"What was his offer? A spectacular suicide?"
Draven's jump leveled off as he brought both hands outwards to his sides. Still flying backwards, bright orbs of crimson energy appeared in each and he thrust his arms forward, sending to glowing orbs rocketing towards the dragon. They rotated each other, spiraling through the air as they descended upon their target...
----
Ven followed the three now winged warriors, shifting his weight forward so as not to fall off the column of air supporting his weight.
Usually it was a bad idea to expel this much magical energy on transportation, especially when it sounds like there's going to be a battle at the end of the ride... However, Ven noted his previous total magical exhaustions and felt that he could push himself a bit farther each time.
As they cleared the treetops, the black cloaked warrior tried to push Mavas to the back of his mind. These demonic energies, or whatever these guys can sense, are his only lead, anyway. It made more sense than just looking for Mavas in the dark, at least...
-
The palace is now completed. It is generally in the shape of a huge dome, with a tower in the middle, and columns around the outside.
The mages entered the huge building, walking through corridors to defensive positions on the outside walls. They noticed some wyvyrn riders, and brought a couple of wyvyrns down with fireballs, leaving the beasts of the forest to deal with the riders.
Quintus entered the palace, and entered the main court, and approached the throne, and sat down on the slightly smaller chair to the side of it. He would be in control for now.
Might as well set up the automated systems.
____________________________________________________________________
On the outer walls of the palace, what had looked like gargoyles started to move, and the robotic troll wizards started to fire off spell after spell at the force approaching from the South.
____________________________________________________________________
//Invaders? South? Melkoth is coming from the East, and he is alone apart from Abodahon and Alpha Retan.//
As he approached Retangrad, Melkoth noted the force that had moved to be South of the city. "How curious..."
He noted the 100 wyvyrns flying in the sky, their riders looking intently to the South. He grinned. Who are they looking for? No matter, they are in our way.
He took a deep breath, and exhaled, at high speed, a gas discovered long ago in the Black Empire, one that was instantly fatal only to wyvyrns. I moved towards the city and the skies above, a faint green trace, and the 100 or so wyvyrns directly above the city died and dropped down, crushing buildings in the city below, and causing either great injury or death to their riders.
He then chucked a lump of rock that had materialised in his left hand down and accross into the mass of 5000 soldiers, like an asteroid, smashing in the centre of the group, killing about half of them, most of them in the centre of the group. It injured many others.
He waited for Abodahon, and maybe Alpha Retan, to attack.
____________________________________________________________________
Franco left the palace, leaving standing orders for his subordinates, and left South, in order to look over the border of the next country, soon to be invaded.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur nodded. "Now I must leave. In the meantime, allocate yourselves your respective houses in the Urbanates."
Haraldur walked over to the doorway, and entered, passing through the shield.
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla kept watching the doorway as the people walked towards the Urbanates, and then went onto strange floating trains, which carried them towards them.
The Urbanates were very tall buildings, with a courtyard in the middle. In the courtyard were various service centres, ranging from distribution to health, to libraries (not much use as yet as most could not yet read, although that was changing) and swimming pools.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur arrived on Gaian again, his aura stronger than ever. Even those not magically adept (yet... hehe) could feel his presence all over the universe. For those more sensitive than others, the aura seemed to fill the atmosphere thickly, like a red and black fog, with dashes of grey.
His father would undoubtedly be acting against the Crimson Empire, so I can attack the Crimson Empire beforing turning my attention to my father.
He flew west, towards the Crimson Empire, and the city of Barnsby, in the heart of the Empire, and full only of bueaucrats and those who serve them, the merchants and bankers, and other scum. He would raze it to the ground to announce his quick return.
In the meantime his aura was so thick that some of it got dissolved in clouds, despite being not a very soluble substance, causing red rain.
-
Marshal grabbed onto the moth tighter, as it flue faster, he grinded his teeth. "That Zeros' is very powerful...It's frightening..."
----
"No problem my dear." Valos grinned back to Aura as he caught the vial, and held it up looking in it. "Ahh...yes. Excellent, you did it." He said to Allen. He then smirked. "So, yes. I suppose we should get working on this right away then?"
----
"Hey, well looks like they are going faster." Rink groaned.
"Whatever, we can loose them." Duilin replied. He then saw Zeros' blow all the barriers apart, and rolled his eyes.
Rink swung his arm out and grabbed one of the falling rocks, and grabbed it. "Yeah! Caught one! Hoo hah!"
Duilin turned his head at Rink and gave him a blank stare as he continued flying.
Rink shrugged, and looked back. "What? I'm bored. You're doing all the flying." He chuckled back.
Duilin let out a small laugh, and turned his head back. Rink tosses the rock into the water.
----
Abodahon felt the power strike when Zeros' destroyed the barriers. He turned his head back as he continued flying. "Interesting...We've got a live one here." He then turned his head back and view the city.
Abodahon laughed. "What the hell? Guarding the south? Good that will do them!" He then looked at Melkoth. "I like to fight close...so I can smell the fear!" He then dived down into the ground of the remaining soldiers. Creating a burn mark were he lands, a few soldiers back up. He has his hands in fists down on the ground and his head facing down.
He then rises quickly, and swings his gauntlet covered arms, around, smacking a few soldiers around, they fly off about 50 feet into the sky, and plop down to the ground, like fruit flies. He was spinning his arms around like a chainsaw blade. Amazing for carrying something as heavy as that.
He then slammed his hands down on the ground, creating a huge shockwave and waves rippled the ground and soldiers were again tossed in the air. Bricks, dirt and bodies were flying all over the place. He then laughed evilly. He had killed tons of soldiers with just using his demonic strength. "You ain't seen nothing yet mortals!"
Suddenly, his gauntlets glowed blood red, and then he blasted two huge lasers about the diameter of a sewer tunnel, in two directions leaving torched skeletons lying on the ground. Only a small fraction of the soldiers remained.
(Yay! My first crazy insane slaughter!)
-
//
making splashes in what water was left on Gaian.
What do you mean? Where has the other water gone? The volcano did not get rid of it all, and the steam would condense back to water anyway!//
-
"More like a spectacular poison, which by the way I wouldn't have been infected by had you told me the Prophet could....."
Hyperion was blasted out of the air, landing hard on the ground. He slowly pushed himself up, opening his mouth along the way. He began charging a large fire beam.
-
// That is true, but, it also takes awhile for that to happen. It would not happen instantaniously. And, the period between the volcano, and now, would only be about 30 minutes, or so, but, time might of moved faster in Haraldur's other dimension. \\
Allen nodded, and turned, saluting to the guards, and walked out the doorway briskly, motioning for them to follow. He lead them down a series of hallways, and went even deeper into the castle, going down many twisting stairwells, before finally reaching a blank wall.
Allen put his hand on a section of the wall, and a steel door shimmered into view. Allen took a key from his pocket, and unlocked the door.
Inside the room, was like almost what you'd expect from an alchemist. There were many potions vials, pots, pans, bottles, and such, located all over the room, along with many other scientific instruments. Also, lining the walls, we're some of the few suveners he had collected in his travels, between the fall of the Dark Empire, and the rise of the Crimson Empire.
They were made out of many different materials, some were silver, others were gold, and some, were even made out a granite and sandstone.
Allen didn't come here to observe the sights, and strode confidently into the room, returning to his element. He went to his shelves, and pulled down a collection of filled vials and bottles, and walked over to a counter, where, a sword that seemed taken apart, was sitting in the middle of an alchemic transmutation circle.
"Now..." he murmurred, "I just need to figure out how to get done with this project," he said, while spreading out the materials he'd need to actually get this done.
---
Zeros' cursed. Multiple times. Haraldur was back, and he didn't want any tea and crackers.
He ignored Haraldur, for now, and continued to fly in Melkoth's direction. If he was lucky, they would kill each other off, or, one would weaken the other signifigantly enough, they wouldn't be a threat to the once-beatiful Gaian.
He really hoped Melkoth would kill Haraldur off, that was he could kill Melkoth himself. He still needed to kill him for his mother. If he didn't, oh well.
Or... He could make his problem completely worse, by, Melkoth and Haraldur joining forces, as unlikely as that'd seem.
He'd deal with it, when the time came.
-
(Doggonit! Sometimes I imagine landmarks to be in particular spots and forget to tell anyone else. (Heh...) You need to play along or compensate instead of assuming the soldiers are idiots. (Heh...))
----
Draven flew a few feet higher. Blast it... don't have time for this! He could sense Ragnar in the other direction now... What in blazes is going on?!
Draven cupped his hands to his right side and they began to glow with a crimson fury.
"Fool! So, you allowed him to poison you and now you're his dog, while he waves the antidote in front of your nose! Ha! Then you deserve your fate, unless... you wish to be cured by the white mages of the Crimson Capital... but of course, you'd have to prove yourself first, and you already failed at that..."
----
There was a deep feeling of dread within Ven. He looked around as he flew. It seemed the dark sky was getting even darker.
"Uh, guys? What do you make of that...?"
----
The airship rocketed through the sky. Vincent leaned close to the airship window as an unfamiliar building came into view.
"A dome? Where are we? I don't recall a domed building around--"
*KABLAM!!*
A blast of energy from the building slammed into the side of the airship, and it turned sideways, ejecting Vincent out of the glass window. He plummeted downwards into a tree and then some thick bushes. He opened his eyes just in time to see his smoking airship curve to the east and fly behind the tall tree line, a column of smoke detailing its flight past...
"Hmmm... carelessness. Note to self: Defenses sub-standard at top speed..."
He stood up, removing a tangled mess of leaves and shrubbery from his black trench coat before dusting himself off and adjusting his glasses. He spotted a soldier that had apparently fallen with him in some bushes a few yards away. He walked to the man and offered his hand, and the soldier nervously took it, standing up and saluting.
"Thank you, sir."
Vincent removed a leafed twig from the man's medal on his chest.
"Captain..."
"Fernandez, sir."
"Excellent. Are you okay?"
"Y-yes, sir..."
"Then let's go."
The general began walking in the direction of the newly erected foreign palace, the guard captain following.
"But sir, the airship sped off in the other direction..."
"I realize that, Captain. I want a closer look at this..."
----
"AH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!"
The ghostly Alpha Retan laughed hysterically at the destruction Melkoth and the demon caused. Such glorious death! It was an insignificant amount, but it had been so long... With luck, maybe they'll end up destroying the planet anyway... Oh, the energy to be harvested...
Far to the north, three airships appeared. But they were moving slowly, as if following something on the ground...
-
//Xorlak, were you referring to me? Also, where is Zeros' right now?\\
The moth was speeding up still. Then... it's wings... stopped. But, it continued flying by inertion.
-
(Zeros' is with Duilin and Rink.)
"Hmm? I sense that Haraldur has returned." Rink said
"Yeah, his power is pretty high. But we need to deal with Melkoth right now." Duilin replied.
----
Valos looked at the materials. He wasn't familiar with this sort of thing. He just looked into the vial some more.
-
Aura looked around in awe at the alchemy room, and watched Allen do stuff with interest. She had a feeling about a massive power that was disturbing her.
--- --- ---
"OH GODS! What the fuck is that power!?" Xenai's eyes widened as he halted to a stop.
Zion and Tsu halted as well. "Hm..." Zion begins to analyze the various strong energies. "Zeros' that way... Lots of other strong energies... A bunch of demonic energies... And this one... I've felt this one before. I believe this is the one they call Haraldur."
"I've adapted to fighting without our mech demons, but damn! I don't want a run-in with that guy!"
"Me either... We should just stick to finding Draven and learning about these demonic energies."
They continued flight and soon found Draven. Zion shouted down from the sky. "Hey, you look like you're in a pickle! What's going on? Need a hand or anything?"
-
"White mages? Where!?"
Hyperion heard Zion's shout from above. He expected he was in trouble but chose to remain focused on the task at hand. He stored the attack he had charged and began flying towards Draven.
-
Abodahon laughed. "You puny mortals...I haven't had this much fun slaughtering people like this for years."
The soldiers looked at each other. A bunch of them dashed towards Abodahon with their weapons swinging at him. He blocked at the swords, and axes that were swung at him with his gauntlets. He then, swung a punch at one of them, causing him to fly off and hit another soldier and then another. The warrior was of course dead.
Abodahon laughed again. His gauntlets glowed blood red, and swung his hand across the soldiers surrounding him, slicing them in half, making a huge cut in between the top and lower half of their bodies. Both halves of the warriors burnt up into ashes leaving only their damaged bones...
-
(Ein: I was referring to Haraldur and Dude Man's characters' wondering why the soldiers were moving in the wrong direction. Heh...)
----
Draven noted Zion, Tsu, Xenai, and Ven's arrival behind Hyperion. Draven's aura dimmed and the previously charged energy wrapped itself around his right palm. Draven extended his left hand...
"Why my legion of professional miracle workers is located within my heavily guarded, untouchable floating city of course. I suppose I could make an exception to the 'destroy all traitors rule' and order them to cure you, if you can prove your usefulness to me... If not, well, we'll make it quick, seeing how badly outnumbered you are and all..."
He lifted an eyebrow to the four warriors behind the dragon along with his smirk.
Ven was lagging behind slightly, and flew up behind his three traveling companions.
Good lord... him again... Ven recalled the first time he saw the burning emperor fly overhead the small island he was on... Ven still had the same uneasy feeling... He stopped, standing fully upright on the disc of wind beneath him, and folded his arms behind his black cloak to watch the Emperor and the dragon converse...
----
Vincent stood behind a tree, the captain close behind. It was a tree at the very edge of the forest. From here there was a clearing of fifty yards of so until the domed palace's walls. It would be impossible to approach any further without being detected, for they would practically be walking through an open field.
He watched the mechanized gargoyles atop the outer walls fire spell after spell southward. Vincent reached the conclusion that a force was descending upon the fortress. These things would impede them...
"S-sir?"
"Our mission is to disable those automated defenses."
"... How could we..."
Vincent swiftly placed both hands on the ground. A perfect circle of blue appeared around them, about two feet in diameter. The ground in this circle seemed to disappear, creating a long narrow hole straight down.
"From inside."
He jumped in. The captain nervously followed.
-
Allen studied each vial for a moment, before nodding. He turned to his two companions, and clasped his hands behind his back.
"Now... This is VERY dangerous. This is, what we alchemists like to call a... Human transmutation. Very, very forbidden things were working with here... One SLIGHT miscalculation, and all three of us would be gone. No traces left of us. We'd just be... Gone. Just imagine a condensed magic spell that obliterated everything. That, is basically what would happen," he said. Then, he held out his palm. "If you would, Valos, sir, the vial," he said polietly.
"Oh, and, I might possibly need both of your help for this. While it might only be a fragment of that demented mans aura, it is still very powerful, and unpredicatable. I don't have much raw power myself, but, I have trained my mind farther then what most people deem healthy," he added.
---
"Yes... Melkoth. A demented god who is obsessed with Gaian, for some reason. I've met him before he went insane. Quite a nice fellow, actually. Never did figure out why he went crazy... But, that's a topic for a later point," he said.
He flapped his wings harder, and waved his hand. Rock fragments flew through the sky, as more and more barriers were blasted apart, the sharp fragments flying in every direction.
-
//Another point of clarification: regardless of the opinion of Zeros''s character, Melkoth never "went crazy", he was always the way he is now (not identical, but roughly the same). All this might show is that Zeros''s character is not clean.//
Two werewolves from the forest had been following Vincent and his companions, and followed them through the hole, and then attacked, poucing from behind in order to bite the throat.
____________________________________________________________________
Quintus cast a spell, causing massive growth of the forest, excluding the clearing, and increasing the number of dangerous animals. He then left the palace to attack the attackiing force. He brought down a few wyvyrns with a fireball.
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth now entered the now effectively defenceless Retangrad, and entered the governor's palace. He walked through the corridors unopposed, and entered the office of the governor, who appeared to have killed himself with an ice shard spell, which was melting, sending red tinted water across the room, ruining the carpet.
He strode out onto the balcony, with worried people staring at him.
"My new subjects, welcome to your first day in... THE GREY EMPIRE!"
As he said that, the sky darkened even further, localised over Retangrad, apart from one area, which was in a peculiar shape: giving the image of a grey fist, wearing on the middle finger a grey ring, with an eagle's head sticking out, as if the beak were to scratch. Below it, words, in grey, proclaimed, "Welcome back my subjects, welcome to the new Grey Empire."
Now, column after column after column, 100,000 in all, of grey uniformed magical combat troops entered the city, raping women as they chose, and enforcing martial law.
Melkoth himself now left North, heading for Alphagrad. Two ports, that should be our first aim.
He always enjoyed conquest as the most interesting part of empire building.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar now arrived at the border, and saw that there was a battle between his troops and those of the neighboring Kingdom, Buteria. He moved in...
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur arrived at Barnsby, and then started shooting a few fireballs at the city, setting some of the houses alight. He then started a strong wind. Within minutes, the city was a firestorm.
After a while, when the governor realised that no attack would have any effect, a white flag was flown on top of the palace, one of the few buildings still standing. Haraldur chucked another fireball, blowing that area of the palace to pieces. The palace was now definitely alight.
Haraldur watched, waiting for the fire to have completely destroyed the town. In the meantime, he sent this message to Ein and Marshall: In case you have not noticed, I have returned. The city of Barnsby, that pit of evil, is no more.
-
Abodahon, walked threw the soldiers running and fighting. He grabbed a soldier of Retangrad that ran past him wrapping his hand around his torso. (Note, that his gauntlets are gigantic) The warrior struggled, yet it did nothing. With his other hand he flicked the man head breaking his neck, and then tossed the body off to the side, and then jumped into the air, and flapped his wings, and flue next to Melkoth.
"Were are we headed now?" He asked
----
"Hmm. Interesting." Duilin replied. "Well, it seems as the auras are moving again...Yet we are getting closer..."
"Yeah...that other one...It seems familiar." Rink muttered...
----
Valos handed Allen the vial. "Our help? Very well. I suppose I know a bit of this alching stuff..."
----
"Ein, Haraldur has returned." Marshal said. "You think we should join up with him? Or just continue chasing Duilin and Zeros'?" He asked.
-
Hyperion glanced behind for a moment before turning back to Draven.
"I think you might be overestimating you and your freinds abilities, however if your people have a cure I'm listening."
-
Aura nodded. "I'll be glad to help with whatever it is you need."
--- --- ---
Zion unsheathed Eternity Weapon. Zero Weapon appeared in Xenai's grip. Tsu positioned himself for a battoujutsu attack. They were ready to strike if need be. They and Draven ARE temporary allies, after all.
-
Draven flew close to the dragon's face. Up close he was nearly dwarfed by the creature.
"Overestimating? You needn't fear, lizard, you will be purged of the poison by tomarrow morning. If you follow my every word, that is..."
He floated over the dragon's head, to address the four newly arrived warriors.
"The one up ahead isn't Ragnar, yet the aura feels familiar... There's some more with him as well... Either way, they're making a mess and much be dealt with... This way, quickly. You too, dragon."
Draven's aura of flame brightened and he flew westward, towards the group of auras he was now close enough to pinpoint.
Ven shrugged. Didn't even acknowledge him... He shifted his weight on the disc of wind and flew after the burning emperor.
Suddenly Draven slowed and fell back, flying just to the right of Ven.
"And who might you be?"
Ven froze in terror.
"... Ven... Ven Hyul of--"
Blast! Almost said it! He was in enough trouble as it was, leaving against decree to search for Mavas... There was no way he could get his country involved. The King would not likely approve of an alliance with the Crimson Empire.
"Of what? Tell me warrior. The Crimson Empire rewards it's allies in the most generous of ways..."
"Nothing. I'm a wanderer. Just a friend of the three back there."
"I see. Then you shall be rewarded for your service. If you can prove your worth, that is..."
Draven burst forward with a surge of speed...
----
(Where exactly did Melkoth's huge army come from, anyway? Heh...)
Alpha Retan floated through the captured city like a ghost, smiling but at the same time shaking his head. He passed through a wall and appeared outside the city, and caught up with Melkoth.
"Well, well, looks like you're going to have company in a minute. These ones will recognize me, so as not to blow your cover of not being known, assuming you intend to use that, I shall take my leave for now. Good day!"
He politely nodded to Abodahon. The old man's image faded and he vanished.
A red light appeared on the eastern horizon...
To the north, where the airships were hovering, the entire horizon past the dismal tree line glowed faintly. Soldiers bearing torches...
A lot of 'em...
----
At the bottom of the hole, Vincent placed his hands on the wall in the direction of the palace. The dirt shifted and an empty tunnel lined with brick formed before him. He stepped forward, the captain following.
Suddenly the captain let out a scream as fangs bore down upon his right shoulder. The captain fell, a hulking werewolf beast bearing down upon him. The second werewolf came down the shaft, landing next to the first, and leapt towards Vincent in a single bound.
As if in slow motion, Vincent spun around on one heel, the long flaps of his black trench coat swinging open, revealing a glistening sliver double barreled shotgun under the left jacket flap. With his right hand, he removed the weapon and swung it before him, pointing it down the tunnel like a pistol.
During this time, the second werewolf was in mid air, flying towards him, fangs barred. By the time Vincent fully extended the gun, the beast's mouth was two inches from the tip of the barrel. Vincent pulled the trigger. The wolf exploded, uniformly splattering the captain and the first wolf with blood.
Vincent then began a mad dash towards the fallen captain and the first wolf. A shot from here would kill them both... His foot fell on the beast's neck and it rolled off the captain, exposing it's side. As the beast lunged at Vincent, he thrust the barrel deep into the fur. The second explosion was much more muffled.
The captain awoke, finding his wound bandaged. Vincent was leaning against the tunnel wall, cleaning his glasses.
"How does it feel?"
"It stings a little... but I'm fine."
"Good."
Vincent replaced his glasses and slung the sliver gun on his right shoulder before entering the depths of the tunnel. The captain stumbled to his feet and followed.
-
Zeros' narrowed his eyes, as he felt hundreds of smaller auras grow weaker. He sped up even more, not even waving his hand, as barriers kept exploding into bits in front of him.
---
Allen nodded, and grabbed the vial from Valos. He walked over to the sword, and placed the vial in the middle. The sword, was not made out of the typical steel. It was made of the element "Fe" or Iron. It was known as one of the worst conductors of magic, but, it's ability to hold magic and ki was unsurpassed.
"Now... This is very delicate work, as I started before. The vial will contain Haraldur's aura. We need to fuse the aura into the sword," he said, while sealing the vial in the middle of the sword, and sealing it. "We need to have enough power to make the aura seep into the sword, effectively creating a fake replica of the legendary weapons. Now, place your hands on the circle, and concentrate your power. I'll regulate where the power goes," he said, while taking off his glasses, and closing his eyes, placing his hands on the circle.
The circle, drawn in chalk, started to glow a faint blue, and hum slightly...
-
(I'm assuming they came from, the Grey Empire base.)
Valos nodded. He simply placed his hands onto the circle. He was interested in the outcome of this. He has heard much about the legendary weapons, yet he wasn't deeply involved in that mission. He mostly kept his post at the capital during that time. He remembers seeing Duilin using the mace, charging his power into the weapon and using for greater attack, five years ago, before he was a General, serving under Maxwell, who was considered the leader after the fall of the emperor and the High Generals.
----
Duilin and Rink kept flying faster. They were flying just a bit slower then Zeros' was. Rink was still clinging onto Duilin, he defiantly wouldn't be able to fly this fast at all.
Duilin was wondering how that servant girl, Belle, was doing. (Decided to give her name).
Rink was worried that Valos may show up. He didn't like him one bit. The things he did and said. Pushing Valos to become full demon, just because Duilin's father wants him to. Rink barely remembers Duilin's father. He suffered from severe memory loss several years ago; he only remembers a few things of his past. His earliest memory was serving in hell, torturing souls. He never felt like he belonged in hell for some reason?
-
Zion looked at Ven with a look that said "It looks like your country has something against Draven, or something to that effect. I'm sorry we dragged you into this." Such detailed looks he gives! The three of them took off after Ven and Draven.
--- --- ---
Aura put her hands on the circle, and put in all the ether and ki that she could afford to.
-
Hyperion turned back into his human form with wings to make group travel easier. He followed behind Draven. He was hoping that this would be last time he switched sides.
-
"Huh? Oh, no problem at all."
Ven placed his right hand behind his head.
"I owe you guys a favor, anyway."
Blast it! I've got to stop dropping subtle hints... can they read minds, too? Wait-- blast it! I'm doing it again!
Draven cleared a ridge of trees. And there they were... A huge demon-esque... thing... and some other guy... He passed just overhead Retangrad and then took a sharp right.
Draven's flying aura dispersed, leaving a dim flame around him and he began a free fall, flipping once in the air. He landed, his arms folded, on a small hill some fifty feet to the north of Melkoth and Abodahon, his cape floating down around him. Alphagrad was just past the horizon behind him, but before that, a massive dark army was slowly approaching...
He looked at the two curiously, before speaking with a snide tone.
"Oh dear, trespassing and vandalism? It's not going to be pretty for you, I'm afraid..."
His smirk appeared, his teeth appearing, and his eyes narrowed. He unfolded his arms and pulled his right glove tighter with his left hand, his cape flowing around him from his dim aura of flame.
"So tell me, more fools tricked by Ragnar? Some more rejects with a vendetta? Or just the shut-up-and-die type?"
Oh. My. God...
Ven landed on another small knoll, just to the west of the one Draven was standing on. The disc of wind that he was riding disappeared.
Just look at the size of that... thing! From about 75 feet away, Ven barely noticed Melkoth, as he was fixated on the hulking Abodahon...
What was he doing here anyway...? He could see the huge army approaching from the north, spanning the entire breadth of the horizon as he flew in. To the south, there were grey soldiers in the overrun Retangrad. Then there's Draven and some gigantic demon lord or something... It's like two forces of pure evil decided to have their Armageddon death match, and he was caught in the middle... Does it even matter which side wins?
Right. He owed Zion and the others a favor. He'll at least keep them from getting killed...
He removed his silver sword in a flash with both hands, angling it diagonally to the ground.
----
A stone tile lifted up and moved aside. Vincent's head appeared and looked around. Clear...
Vincent emerged from the square hole, setting his shotgun down while helping the captain through it. He held the silver gun with two hands as the captain replaced the floor tile.
They were in the palace now... The hallway seemed empty. Still, neither said a word, and Vincent moved to the wall, the captain following. There were structural pillars lining both walls, which would provide a little cover, at least. The two quietly began to make their way down the hallway...
-
//Melkoth's army comes from the many Grey Empire bases that have essentially been dormant for thousands of years.//
Melkoth said, "Alphagrad."
He nodded at Alpha Retan as he left.
Melkoth grinned as he saw the multitudes of soldiers. Behind him, column after column of grey clad troops marched North. He sent a couple of life-holes towards the opposing army, hitting it, and sucking the life out of all the soldiers in a 300 metre radius, and then they started to independently move, following groups of soldiers, causing dead and undamaged bodies to drop down to the ground below.
He then glanced at Draven, and messaged to Abodahon: You deal with him while I get Alphagrad. He said to Draven, "Of course, we intend to conquer this continent on Ragnar's behalf, in order to facilitate his Grey Empire." Hehe, he thought, this will confuse them.
He swerved to the west, going past Draven, and accelerating towards the remaining enemy soldiers and Alphagrad, a translucent scythe appearing in his hands as he started chopping off heads.
____________________________________________________________________
All this time Haraldur's aura's intensity, pressure and density had been steadily increasing, it seemed, although the growth was curving up into an exponential curve, at a slow rate. The pressure of the aura outside the vial was now much larger than inside the vial, so the vial was only just resisting from being crushed and shattered.
Suddenly he felt the slight shock of someone interfering with his aura. "What, again? They are trying that again? It was dangerous before, but now the effects are different."
The reaction this caused to the aura was dramatic. The rate of increase accelerated, the curve becoming ever closer to the vertical. Even the magically untalented could visibly that the sky was no longer dark, but vivid red and black, and with bits of grey. Blood red and pitch black liquid dropped from the sky as rain, all over the world, even in the deserts of Wahabia, soaking the sand to make it a bright red and black mix, swirling around as the liquids rained down.
Around the world, all devices designed to contain auras, not allowing them to escape or enter, started to be crushed, releasing many imprisoned spirits to leave, and do as they wished. This means that the sword is in danger of being crushed, unless it has magical assistance, and is also effectively impotent.
Barnsby was now completely destroyed, the fires now being blown out because they reacted explosively with the super-dense aura (an effect caused only by the high concentration of the aura, this would not normally happen)
To the North-West he could see the floating rock that was the Crimson Capital. This time he would have to do it the traditional way.
He flew North-West, the layers of laminar flow being seen in the aura, soon becoming turbulence in the aura as his velocity relative to the Crimson Capital increased. A bloody sword appeared in his hand, blood still fresh and wet from when he had last used it, more than five years ago. Through the translucent blood, the pattern welded blade's beautiful construction could be seen, gleams of different brightnesses visible through the red blood.
____________________________________________________________________
The Prophet sensed there were intruders, and that Draven was near Alphagrad, the second target. He has better investigate the intrusion.
He stood up and left the courtroom, and went down a few corridors. He arrived a little behind Vincent and the Captain. At the time, the Captain was not in cover, and quickly succumbed to a poison dart shot from a tiny spring loaded device hidden in Quintus' sleeves, dropping down onto the floor, his armour clanging.
He sensed there was one other, and moves now along the side of the hallway until he will se Vincent. When this happens, he will fire another poison dart. //While at the same time you can do an action, this is a situation where things happening simoultaneously is realistic).
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar had destroyed Buteria's army, and his troops flew forth. He then noticed a massive increase in size of an aura he had noticed before, but did not know the owner of. Well, whatever it is, Draven can surely handle it, besides, I am busy, spreading the word of Dios across these heathen lands, by the sword and magic spell. In the distance he saw some of his troops landing on beached. And spreading it by the spear, too.
Was this one of the fastest conquests ever? He thought. This is spectacular! Why did I not do this before?
____________________________________________________________________
A year has now passed in Laus. The revolutionary attitude has slowly receded, as more attention has been paid to the contruction of buildings and farms, led by Tesla.
-
Abodahon nodded and messaged back: It will be done...
He then turned around, his hands hanging down, as he flies towards Draven. He slows down and stops about 10 feet away from him. "Ah, it's a pleasure to see you. You must be the, ?all mighty lord? of the Crimson Empire...Draven is it? I believe a few friends of mine associated with you before, yet they aren't of any matter to me anymore."
He hovers in the air as he looks upon him. "So...one of your position must strike fear into those of a lower position. So tell me Draven, do you know what it's like to be afraid?"
He then dives toward Draven, ready to drive his enormous gauntlet covered fist into him.
-
Allen cursed, as he noticed what it was doing.
"Stop. STOP!" he shouted, and redirected the aura the two were spilling in, away from the vial, and the sword.
---
Zeros' sighed. He had finally reached an area near Retangrad, which, was barely visible on the horizion.
He felt Draven and the others near, and turned sharply, blowing more barriers to bits, and he sped towards Draven's location.
-
Aura quickly pulled back, wide-eyed. She looked to Allen, wondering what was wrong.
--- --- ---
The three landed and took in everything. "Sweet holy hell, that thing's huge! And it's coming this way!" Xenai looked at the approaching Abodahon with wide eyes.
"Move," said Tsu. He stepped past Xenai and Zion as he placed his left hand upon his sword, pushing it just out of the scabbard with his thumb. "Shin Kuon Yaiba... sharpen." He stepped in front of Draven, waiting for Abodahon to attack as he slipped into a battou-jutsu stance. "Draven's not exactly my best buddy... But we <i>are</i> temporary allies... Come."
-
Valos quickly stops as Allen shouts. "What? Oh wait...I sense something...Ragnar..." He said.
----
Duilin and Rink, fly along with Zeros'.
"Hey! There's Draven." Duilin exclaims. "It looks like he's being attack by...holy...that guy's huge!"
"I'll say!" Rink squeaks. Seeing as a large person like that could easily crush his tiny body in a single poke, he?d find a person like Abodahon quite threatening.
---
Abodahon keeps diving towards Tsu, he swings his punch he had prepared right at him. If it hit him, he'd probably fly into Draven and hurt both of them, if Tsu dodged he'd probably have a better chance of just hitting Draven, with Tsu screening him.
-
//it seems i won't be posting here for a while now. i no longer have access to my computer at home. dudeman has the control of both of my characters, if he wishes to use them. If not, feel free to kill them.\\
-
//sure, I'll probably just deactivate them however. I can't keep up with all the characters. I'll try and keep Ein alive, since we all like him.\\
Gerard walks around the room, and sees that the people are not there anymore. "Dang...well. I suppose I shall have to find something else then."
Gerard, spread opens his wings and then lowers them again, as he turned around and went back up to the surface. "This is very odd. Well...This Empire has become a real pain, they made work for me impossible, and now I've been put into this body. What next?" He asks himself. He then jumps off the ledge of the building spreading his wings; he gives them a good flap and then flies off towards safer grounds...
---
Marshal, and the Ein's moth finally catch up with Duilin.
Rink then jumps off of Duilin and then noticed Marshal and Ein. "Damn, they caught up."
"Yeah, looks like it. I want to help Draven and Zeros' right now. Perhaps you can handle it Rink?" Duilin asks
"Meh, yeah I suppose...I've got some fairly descent fighting skills." Rink replies. Duilin continues on his way, and Rink flies towards the moth and Marshal.
Rink swings his fist back, creating fire around his fist as he flies towards Marshal; he swings a fiery punch right at him, knocking him down, yet he still stays on the Moth.
"Ein!" Marshal says. "It seems the imp wants to die!"
Ein then moves the moth around until he flies a bit further from the imp, he turns around and flies towards him, he then swings one of it's razor sharp wings as it turns right at Rink. The Imp blocks the wing with his arm, drawing a bit of blood on his arms.
Marshal then fires several bullets, yet Rink was able to fly his way threw them flying toward the moth.
Marshal fires his gun again, yet it clicks. "Darn it! It's jammed! Watch out Ein! He's coming!"
Rink blasts a fireball right at Marshal. The man yelps out as he is struck by the fire, and falls down once more. "I'm getting hurt here..."
'Sheesh, I can't believe a little guy like this is causing such trouble.' Ein thinks.
The moth then flies towards Rink, ramming its abdomen at the imp causing him to spin in the air back a few feet.
-
Tsu tenses up. He turns around... "Riptide!!!" and comes around, slashing out with a fierce battou-jutsu, connecting with Abodahon's fist. He skids back a bit, his heels digging into the ground. "Kyaaahh!!!" A burst of will, and a push of the sword to push Abodahon back, and render the giant's attack generally ineffective.
-
Abodahon's gauntlet clanged against Tsu?s sword. He noticed the young man was trying to push him back. He simply placed his free hand on top of his fisted hand; he then pushes forward with his mighty strength. If it was enough force, he should push him into Draven, or break his sword, causing the metal of it to fling towards his attacker...
-
Even after Allen had stopped his action, the aura around the sword and vial continued to intensify. The vial shattered, releasing the aura within it, and the sword crumpled, releasing anything inside it. Still, aura gathered around the sword and vial specifically, forming an opaque red and black and grey haze around the two objects. Within the haze, there was clattering as shards of the vial, made contact with the crumpled sword, both moving. The sword straightened itself, looking as new, and ejected itself from the opaque haze, sticking in the wall on the other side of the room, skimming past the side of Allen's face.
The sword looked like it was starting to melt in a haze of red, which formed into a human shape. Haraldur looked at Valos, Allen and Aura, and said, "An 11th part? It might have been, were it not for your shoddy workmanship!"
A burst of fire spread from his body, completely destroying the building they were in, and possibly damaging the other occupants.
He flew up, and then shouted, "Gah! Shoddy workmanship!" as his body disintegrated into nothing, with no trace, not even of the sword and the vial.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur (the real and permanet one, well, ten) was now nearing the flying Crimson Capital as he saw an explosion in the city, followed by the disintegration of the potential 11th part in a red haze.
He came up to the shield surrounding the city, and struck it with much force with his sword, channeling magical energy through it. The mages who were powering the barrier had no chance against the onslaught, and all spontaneously cauht fire, and the shield broke.
Haraldur now flew in, bursts of fire from his body destroying several buildings at a time. It would be slow progress, but he would enjoy every minute. He passed a few soldiers, and cut off all their heads with a sweep of his sword. He was slowly moving towards the palace.
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth continued to fly into Alphagrad. Around him, the soldiers were in disarray as they flew from the life sucking balls.
Below him, his grey clad army entered the city as he landed on the governor's palace, the governor having already been executed by his followers. A grey flag, with the Grey Empire's emblem on it, materialised in his hand, and he stuck it on top of the roof of the tallest tower in the palace. To the south, a shield had just been put over the city of Retangrad, and the same was being done here in Alphagrad. His territory was now triangular, Retangrad in the South, Alphagrad in the North, his palace to the East.
He flew south a little to finish off the rest of the soldiers. From the ground underneath the soldiers, a poisonous black haze rose, wiping them out.
He then flew back towards Draven, to help his demonic friend. Melkoth's shape seemed to become less distinct...
____________________________________________________________________
//Salazar is now semi-inactive (you can still contact him if you wish), partly because he has to organise the bureaucracy of his enlarged Empire, but mostly because I cannot think of what to do with him at the moment.//
-
Shin Kuon Yaiba was an excellently forged sword. It wasn't gonna break. He had to think fast, now that there was two times the force. He pushed the blade down suddenly, attempting to push the fists down with it. As he performed that move, he also jumped into the air, performing a front flip, and bringing his heel down toward Abodahon's head.
-
EDIT: Valos creates a sheild around him and his allies.
"Yes, Ragnar is here!" Valos says, as the explosion stops. He then lowers the shield. "Aura, come. Allen if you want to help me, go ahead."
He unsheathes his sword and then jogs out of the damages lab.
A soldier runs towards Valos, and salutes. "General Valos, Ragnar-"
"I know...Were is he?" Valos asks
"He's running though the town, killing people. He's not to far sir. Follow me."
The soldier then runs towards Haraldur's position, followed by Valos, and hopefully Aura and\or Allen.
----
Abodahon allowed his fists to be pushed down, he then saw the young warrior bring his heel down onto his face. He simply looked up, with a normal expression, as his foot was press down upon him. He then ghosts a few feet away from Tsu and Draven.
"That's quite a fine sword." Abodahon commented. "That is one of the few times a sword wasn't broken by my strength. Sadly for you, my strength doesn't just lye within my physical ability."
Abodahon's gauntlets begin to glow blood red, his long white hair flows a little back, he then blast four black fireballs, two from each hand. They had the shape of a skull upon them, and they seemed to produce the same type of lighting as a UV light. They travelled at great speed towards Tsu and Draven, two at the swordsmen and two at the emperor.
-
//Dude Man, does Valos not defend himself from the blast of the explosion? Also, how could he detect Haraldur by aura if he is absolutely surrounded by the aura, as a consequence of trying to entrap him?//
-
//Oh, sorry I was kinda in a rush: Post edited.\\
Rink then regains his control, and narrows his eyes as he stares at the moth. He then surrounds himself in fire, and then flies at a great speed towards the moth, smashing it in the thorax, knocking it back causing Marshal to fall off.
The moth quickly swoops down and grabs Marshal, saving his comrade.
Ein then flapped its wings but remained hovered into his position. The moth then starts to create large gusts of wind, causing the small imp to loose control. The moth then flies at Rink, swinging its razor sharp wing at the Imp once more cutting it along the chest.
"Arrg!!" Rink then falls down bleeding, and plops into the water...
"Haha." Marshal laughs. "You did it...the imp is gone..."
Or was he?
-
Despite the thousands upon thousands of slain, the dark army of the Crimson Empire kept coming from the north, marching over the bodies of their countrymen. There were huge ogres in the reinforcements, which towered above the rest, wearing plates of armor and brandishing clubs. There were small wingless dragons, which dark knights rode, carrying long spears... There were hundreds more wyvern riders, their beasts of various elements... There were mages that cast spells to contain the life draining orbs (at the cost of many of their own lives), and cast fireballs and Shade spells at the Greys, and cast Fast, Rage, Barrier, and Enchant spells on random warriors of their side...
The Crimson army scaled the walls by the hundreds before the Greys in Alphagrad were able to put up their magical shield. The Greys had the high ground, and fought back well, however, until a flyby by two black airships sprayed the city with shadow magic enchanted cannon fire, destroying several of the buildings, including the one with the Grey flag on top...
The Crimson Empire had no concern for the cities. Only that the enemy needs to be purged...
Draven thrust his fist forward, smashing the energy orbs sent his way, and redirecting the energy into two patches of ground behind him, which promptly exploded.
This one is a distraction... He took flight, letting the others deal with the hulking demon and went after Melkoth.
Ragnar's aura was heavy in the air, everywhere... and the skies began to rain a red and black rain...
This one is a distraction as well. A kinsman of Ragnar, perhaps? Possibly an equal threat. Ragnar's aura is more concentrated to the east... Better take care of this one quickly.
Draven promptly appeared in front of the returning Melkoth, floating several feet off of the ground, burning brightly, his burning crimson blade in his right hand...
"How very impressive, swinging at my little men like that when I'm right here. Tell me, slave of Ragnar, does it make you feel stronger to select the weaker targets over the stronger ones?"
He smirked, bringing his left hand before his face and snapping his fingers. A wall of flame began to form 100 feet to the left and right of him. Looking from above, the flames began to rotate in a counter-clockwise fashion, soon completely encircling the two warriors on the sides. The flame then began to move above and below them. In a few seconds, Draven and Melkoth would be locked in a hollow sphere of flame 100 feet in radius-- similar to the burning death cage he had used while fighting on Romme several years ago...
"I'm curious to see how well you'd fare against a true warrior..."
----
Ven pointed his sword to the black and red sky.
"HAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
It began to glow an intense white. The flaps of his cloak blew in the wind, revealing his bright silver armor. This is it... just a few more seconds...
----
Suddenly, the entirety of the Crimson Captial, palace, city and all, became translucent and wavy...
The floating city disappeared under Haraldur's feet, and Haraldur and Valos were left suspended in the air 1 mile above the ground... The city's image became visible again to the north about a half mile away, some areas smoking lightly. It was the city's mobile teleportation system that it had used before to get out of the way of Haraldur's previous attack.
(Allen and Aura should still be in the city.)
Four dark warriors floated around Haraldur.
"That was close..."
"Hmm, that's the last time we will be able to execute that procedure, I'm afraid."
"Huh? Why?"
"The teleportation cores are overheated and will require replacement..."
Hans smashed his fists together.
"Won't need it, man. I'll tear 'im apart before Valos even lands his hit. Check it!"
Hans blasted toward Haraldur at lightning speed, appearing on the opposite side that Valos was attacking, his arms crackling with electricity.
"Hans!! Wait!"
Hans brought both fists to his sides.
"MORTAL ATTACK!! OMNI DEATH FIST! HAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"
He let loose a barrage of high speed electrically charged punches at Haraldur...
----
Vincent brought his back to the wall, listening... A foot step...
He dove toward the middle of the hallway, pointing his weapon in the direction of the sound. At the same time, the dart flew his way, and he changed the gun's trajectory, blasting the impending poison dart instead of the enemy.
He stopped for a second, aiming the shotgun at the prophet. He quickly whipped out a small metallic box like object from the inner pocket of his trench coat and jammed it into a slot the top of the shot gun, above the trigger. The cartridge had a picture of a flame on it.
He now held the weapon with two hands and slowly walked towards the old prophet.
"You are hereby under arrest by order of the Crimson Empire. You are to cease and desist all action and surrender immediately."
-
"Maybe I should do something."
Hyperion turned into Dragon form, but continued to hover in the air.
"But I don't want to get in the way."
-
Aura dashed after Valos, readying her scimitars. She would arrive to get her eyes widened by the Hans guy.
--- --- ---
Tsu assumed a very low stance. The sword was pretty much on the ground. He leapt up, slashing upwards fiercely, sending the skullballs up and away.
Zion watched Draven leave. "Why's he leavin'?" asked Xenai. "Probably to look for the main guy," said Zion. "Let's take care of this guy... With one, two, three, four... five of us here... It shouldn't be a problem at all."
-
Trent, Valos is floating up in the air, were the city was, but it's back on the ground now, flying would work better then walking to reach him.\\
"Arg, those four fools..." Valos groaned. He never liked them; they were as much of pests as the grunts, yet he couldn't treat them like one. He flies towards Haraldur, knocking past one of the dark warriors. "Out of my way." He then swings his large sword with magic empowered in the blade. "Hiyyaa!"
----
Duilin lands beside Zion and Xenai. "Hey boys, mind if I join in?"
He then glances at Abodahon. "Holy hell...literately, looks like a demon...Maybe from half human blood..."
Abodahon grins. "Hahah! I'm worth about ten of you, so brace yourself mortals!" He then slams down his fists on the ground creating a huge shockwave. Duilin flies up into the air, dodging the wave. He messages to Zeros': 'Maybe you should help Draven with Melkoth, me and the other guys will handle the hulk.' He then says loud enough for everyone to hear. "That dragon dude going to help us out?"
----
Marshal climbs back up on the moth's back. "Well, Ein. Haraldur is back, should we join with him?"
"No?" Ein replies. "It's to far back. Perhaps we should just find that bird."
"Well...it seems that he is fighting...something. But Haraldur's father is here...Melkoth, is truly evil..."
----
Rink swims up to the surface and treads water. "Sheesh...better not try that again."
-
Allen grimaced. He had almost no raw power. His alchemy would do almost nothing agianst Haraldur's pure strength. He put his glasses back on, and briskly walked off, and went to help repair the damaged orbs.
---
Draven is too proud a man. He wouldn't accept help now, even if I offered it. Plus, I have an interest in fighting a demon that's had time to master his powers... No offense to you, Duilin, but you still a flegling, and Nex came into his powers only minutes before I killed him. You should help Rink with Marshal, and the other man, and then help the Crimson Empire troops... They aren't doing too well.
Zeros' suddenly disappears, and reappears down on the battlefield, standing next to Abodahon's gauntlet. His sword was still sheathed, and his arms were crossed across his chest.
"Ah... A demon. How curious," he murmurred. "How is it, your here? Are you under the command of ANOTHER, who's not even a demon? How pathetic. Your not even a true demon. A true demon wouldn't even take orders from a god, even an evil one," he said, trying to get a rise out of the demon.
-
"Heheh..." Abodahon grinned at Zeros'. "That's quite some words you use there. I can tell you must have demonic blood in you." He then lowers his face. "Yet I do not 'take orders' from Melkoth, I'm merely assisting him, out of returning a favour and for my own benefit. I was locked up in the underworld because I was too much of a threat to Gaian. Melkoth was the only one who could release me..."
Duilin turned his head around and then saw Rink treading water, he then flue off.
Abodahon, narrowed his eyes as Duilin left, but then focused his eyes on Zeros' again. "That's quite a set of wings you have there, hehe...But yes, It's also blindly clear that your friend there is also half demon and half human, quite an imbalance, one like that could be a danger to travel with, could snap at any minute." He then clenched his fists; he kept a normal expression on. He then smashed the ground, but this time making large cracks into the ground heading towards Zeros'. The cracks in the ground then sprouted flame. Abodahon's gauntlets then glowed blood red, as he kept them on the ground, suddenly spectres of the top halves of red skeletons flue from the fissures and flue towards Zeros', they were bombs, and would simply explode in a dark explosion if destroyed or made contact with the target. They weren't dark spirits of anything; the image was probably for intimidation only.
----
"Rink!" Duilin said picking up his impish friend. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm alright...I just got slashed long the chest, but I'm okay." He then pointed to the healing cut. "Look."
"Hahah." Duilin laughed. "Okay, so what do we do about Marshal and the moth?" He asked.
"Well, I think the moth, is Ein. I don't know how it is, he must have some weird transformation magic."
"A Gepardi?"
"No, I don't think so...Anyways, it looks like those two towns are in trouble. A lot of innocent people are being killed."
"Yeah, we should probably help them out." They both agreed and then flue off to Alphagrad...
Marshal spotted Duilin. "There they are! Ein, go after them!"
The moth then flue a great speed chasing Duilin and Rink...
-
//Bah. Sucks that Aura can't fly. So what should I do to get her there? Would a beam jump be efficient?
"Any and all help that we can get is good," says Zion. "It will just widen the margin for victory. And yes, I do believe the dragon is on our side." Then suddenly, Duilin left, being replaced with Zeros'.
"And now you're screwed," says Xenai.
"Get him! NOW!" Zion gave the command, and he and Xenai stood back-to-back. They connected their wrists and pointed their palms at Abodahon, getting them as close as possible. "Twilight Blast!" Beams of light shoot forth from both warriors. Zion's is of light element, Xenai's of dark. The two beams merged, creating raw, unrefined Twilight element. An extremely bright, brightly sparking black beam. Like the beauty of a city at night time.
Why was there no neutral medium required? The neutral medium used in New Forever is to refine the Twilight element, and enhance it... A lot.
Tsu, because of his excellent balance of light and dark, was able to do it himself. But it wasn't as strong as Zion and Xenai's. He sheathes his katana and leaps up into the air, crossing his arms in X formation, and bringing his knees up. He lets the blast burst forth from his entire body as he throws his arms out to the side, and lets his legs drop. "Twilight Blast!"
-
(Ask Allen to make Aura a flying surfboard or something. Heh...)
Ven's blade was finished charging, and resonated bright white. He watched Zero's distract the demon. He watched the spectacular Twilight Blast take shape...
Now! This is it!!
"EAT THIS!!!"
Ven pointed the glowing white blade at the hulking Abodahon. A bright flash of light burst forth, followed by a burning stream of light energy. The Twilight Blast and Ven's attack were coming from almost two opposite sides, and would hit at about the same time...
-
Zeros' simply smirked, and side-stepped away from the fissures, and ghosted from view, the spirits gliding past him harmlessly. He reappeared behind Abodahon's head, his back turned towards the monster, and his arms still crossed.
"Pathetic..." he muttered. His brought his foot up, and slammed it downwards, towards Abodahon's head. A small sonic boom resonatied throughout the area, as Zeros' foot blurred, and aproached Abodahon's head at amazing speeds.
---
Allen stopped, his cape swirling around his once more, before coming to rest. He had found one of the defense orbs. It was a large, reddish orb, which was cracked and fractured in many places. Allen sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose, and rubbed his eyes.
He pulled out some materials that he carried with him in his jacket, and started to work on fixing the orb. The mage, who had worked the orb, was disembowled, and splattered over the walls...
-
Seijin stood atop his cloud, looking down upon Gaian. "Such chaos... I fear I may have to make good upon that promise I made to Tsu soon..." He started to charge energy into Transcender.
--- --- ---
Aura looked around for Allen. She didn't see him fly off on his disc, so he still had to be around. She needed to get to where Valos was as soon as possible. ((Assuming he's still there...)) She soon found him, and walked over, grimacing at the sight she saw. She regained her composure and looked at Allen. "Hey, do you think you can make me one of those flying discs? It's embarassing to say, but I can't fly yet..."
-
Abodahon laughed. He lifted his right hand towards the Twilight Blasts and his left towards Ven's attacks. He empowered his gauntlets (the blood red glow) and the blasts only made slight recoil upon him; a slight pain tingled down his arms. "Ooo...Kinda liked that." He said mockingly. He noticed Zeros' coming in for an attack, his senses were amazing so he could see his foot fly at his face, so he simply titled his head to the side, at an insane speed. "Haha!" Abodahon laughed, and then smirked "Pathetic!"
He then ghosted a few feet back. He placed both his hands together as he empowered his gauntlets, he then blasted out a laser beam, traveling at the speed of light (duh), that was about big enough to hit them all, lucky that they had the gift of magic, the attack would not be as fatal as it was on the soldiers before.
----
"God damnit, will those two ever give up?" Rink groaned seeing Marshal and the Moth following them.
"Just ignore them." Duilin replied.
They then landed upon the city were Grey Empire warriors and Crimson Empire warriors did battle. Duilin took out his mace, and Rink flamed up his fists. Duilin jumped high into the air and pointed his feet down, landing on a Grey Empire soldier, he then smashed his mace into the warriors face, another one came up behind him and swung his sword at his back, yet he shifted his wings, and blocked the blade with the horn on his left wing. He then smacked the warrior with his right wing, and then back flipped and landed behind the solider loosing balance, and swung a punch with his free hand charged with lightning magic, knocking the life out of him.
Rink flue at a Grey Empire soldier and swung his fiery fist at the soldiers face knocking him to the ground, the warrior attempted to recovery yet he slammed his other fist down on him. The warrior then swung his sword slashing the imp taking him to the ground. He then stood up and looked at the fallen imp, and grinned in victory. Rink, had just faked his out coldness, and then phased in front of the warriors face and then swung his two index fingers into the warriors eyes blasted fire right into him. The soldier made a brutal scream as he took his last breath and fell to the ground. "God, I almost feel bad about that one...Well, he killed children and raped women, screw his rights."
----
Marshal flew over the battlefield on the moth. "Perhaps we should stop these grey armoured warriors they seem to be doing a lot of damage. They are followers of Melkoth. Yet, we should take out the Crimson ones as well."
Ein's moth nodded and then flue over two pairs of soldiers fighting, he then swooped up into the air and then tossed the warriors into the air. Marshal fired his gun at the airborne troops, and there bloody bodies landed on the ground.
"Eeeechh...I always get a weird feeling whenever I take a life myself...Perhaps I should summon something." Marshal says. He then lifts his amulet and then it glows, a spectre of large Vile Lizard takes shape. The creature then begins to claw at soldiers every which way.
-
"Oh, for the love of Gaian..." Zion phases to the front, and demonstrates how powerful he really is. Bullet time engages in his head. He pulls his arm back, and shoves it forward, putting all his soul into it... He smacks the beam off to the side, scalding his hand, but still getting the job done.
-
"My god..."
Ven blinked as his attack and the others did nothing to the demon... A blast of light was sent back to him, and he hit the dirt as it traveled overhead.
Ven dug his sword into the ground and sat up, watching the others take their swings at the monster. This is insane... He stood up straight, his black cloak waving behind him, and began to run off of the knoll and at the mad beast, his sword fully extended to his right side. He wasn't charging because he was ignoring the strength of the demon, but rather because of the demon's strength... the others need him down there, right now...
-
Zeros' turned, and watched Zion fling the beam away. He uncrossed his arms, and unsheathed his sword, going into it's demonic form.
He started to fly fowards, but feinted, and ghosted from view, and reppeared inside of Abodahon's guard (Basically, right next to him). His giant sword slashed towards Abodahon with even greater speed then the last attack.
The sword, was also empowered with holy ki, the complete opposite for demonic.
---
Allen stopped his tinkering, and nodded. He took something from his jacket, which appeared to be a small ball of steel, a compound. The small ball fell to the floor, and Allen placed both his hands on the ground.
The transmutation circle appeared, and glowed, before flashing, and a 3-foot flying disc was humming in the air, ready to be mounted.
Allen nodded briskly to Aura once more, and moved onto the next orb.
-
Abodahon looked at Zion, "Good work human." He then saw Ven run at him, he then swung his right hand attempting to backhand the knight to the ground. As Zeros' phased towards him and his sword stuck his chest, he tumbled back a few feet a squawked in pain. "Okay, getting better..." He then dashed towards Zeros' breaking the sound barrier and karate chopped at Zeros' at a speed just as great as Zeros' sword slash.
----
The moth then flies down closer to the ground, and flies across the battle field, slicing soldiers with it's wings, and biting away at the ones in front of him, or hacking at them with his claws.
The Vile Lizard dives at the pair of soldiers and begins to claw away at them. Another soldier comes from behind the creature and swings his sword at it's back, causing a deep cut. The monster then turns around and claws the warrior in the face. One of the soldiers that was earlier attacked survived the clawing and thrusting his sword into the creatures back in the same cut that the other solider made, killing the creature. The two soldiers nodded at each other, they realized they were on opposite sides and then clashed sword and began to dual.
Meanwhile Marshal summons two more Vile Lizards, and an Ogre. The monsters then run into the battlefield smashing and clawing away at soldiers...
-
//I apologise for my tardiness, but I have been very busy recently.//
//Why is it that a city can teleport, while a character cannot?//
The Grey army managed to put up the shield in Alphagrad, causing the Crimson Army to be magically expelled, literally thrown out of the city with a large force, devastating them, and destroying both the airships. Assuming Duilin and Rink remain in the city, the Grey Army backs off a bit, and then lets fly with thousands of spells, of various types, all of the damage giving variety. A magical firing squad numbering thousands.
Melkoth grinned at Draven, "Hehehe... The most stupid leader I have ever met..."
Melkoth looked at the firey cage being brough around him and Draven. He held his two poisoned swords in his hands, dripping with black venom. He feinted with the sword in his right hand, hoping to draw Draven's attention to Draven's lower left. With his left hand, he moved his other sword stealthily up (at the same time as the feint) and saw that the poison was being burned off, so he charged the sword up with electrical energy and slashed towards Draven's neck, hoping to cause severe burns if the neck was not severed.
____________________________________________________________________
Hans' punches missed, as did Valos' sword strike, as Haraldur was gone. He had sliced time thinly, and moved quickly back to the Crimson Capital. He worked towards the palace again, this time destroying larger areas at a time. He arrived at the palace, with various soldiers and servants fleeing from the already burning building. He saw a man dressed in the uniform of an Alternan Army Commander, and thought, Alterna is involved as well? Good, it gives me every excuse. He sliced the man in half before starting to bash the outer walls of the palaces into pieces.
____________________________________________________________________
Vincent was aiming at thin air. The Prophet had, during the one second between Vincent aiming the shotgun and loading it, slipped into the shadows of the pillars, and was now creeping along the ceiling. Quintus dropped a glass bottle containing very potent poison (after muttering a breath spell, so he would not breath the poison gas). The bottle shattered, releasing purple fumes that diffused through the corridor almost instantaneously. Shrouded by the poisonous purple fog, Quintus walked along the ceiling, and then passed through the wall to be outside the building.
He then tried to sense if there were any living auras in the palace...
____________________________________________________________________
The Aspyes area of the land they brought with them is now almost completely automated, automated farms, everything.
____________________________________________________________________
Salazar's bureaucrats arrive, and start their work.
-
"Thanks so much, Allen." She was worried about him... He didn't look so good. She hopped onto the disc and took off in the direction Valos went.
--- --- ---
Seijin continued to charge energy into Transcender.
--- --- ---
Zion let out a loud scream, his body becoming engulfed in a bright white aura. His eyes blanked out and became really bright. All of his attributes had to be at least doubled, and his wings grew a little bit. He phased in front of Ven, unsheathing Eternity Weapon and thrusting forth at the incoming hand with all his might.
Xenai let out another loud scream, his body becoming engulfed in a black aura. His eyes blanked out and turned bright purple. The same effect was caused. "Watch this!" He phased right in front of Abodahon, Zero Weapon in hand. "Tsu taught me this one..."
"Kuon Yaiba Ryu! Kuon Katsu..." (Eternity Blade Style, Eternity Victory...)
"Oh, nice." Tsu grinned as he watched. Xenai let forth a large flurry of high-speed, high-power slashes, and with that monster of a sword. (Zero Weapon is much bigger than a claymore, but smaller than Sagara Sanosuke's Zanbatou.) He then put the blade over his shoulder, putting his left hand under his arm, forcing the gathered kinetic energy into it. He executed a Trunks-style finish... "...Dead Wave!!!" And a beam of energy ripped forth upon the tenderized area.
-
Hyperion watched the battle with Abodahon from a safe distance. He was however more concerned with the The Prophets poison. He didn't want to fight if it wasn't necessary.
-
//accidentally double posted//
-
"What the fuck!?" Valos shouted as Haraldur disappeared and went towards the capital. "Son of a bitch..." The General groaned. "I'm going after him, I don't care what you morons do." He then landed in front of the entrance of the palace. "God, this is going to be annoying..." He then spotted Haraldur smashing the walls of the palace.
"Ragnar! You're starting to piss me off! Fight me you rebellious coward!" He taunted pointing his sword at Haraldur.
----
"Aw crap..." Rink groaned seeing the Crimson Empire troops get tossed out of the city. He then stood back to back (or leg judging by size) with Duilin.
Marshal and the Moth noticed that something fishy was going on, so they flue off.
Suddenly the thousands of magic blasts began flying towards them. "Holy shit!" Duilin shouted. He then began dodging and blocking with dark, flame and lightning element based shields (in case you haven't noticed those are the types magic that he is most skilled with). The occasional blasts hit him, yet he could take it, for the time being. Rink of course being scared shitless grabbed onto Duilin's leg, and began to shake uncontrollably. They didn't seem to stop firing at him, he could last long, but he didn't know how long enough. "Damnit, I'm going to need some help..." He then sent a message to Zeros', Zion, Xenai and Tsu: 'Um, yeah. I'm taking quite a lot of magic fire. You think one of you could help me out?'
-
//Is Abodahon gonna take his hits, block, dodge, play god, or what? Razz
Tsu looked off in Duilin's direction. "I'll help Duilin. Good luck, guys!" He took off in that direction.
-
//Abodahon is going to wait until Zeros' responds to his attack.\\
Duilin continued to block, dodge and takes hits. He then noticed that Tsu was coming to the aid. He then messaged to him: 'They're not giving me enough time to attack back, and if I do, I'll be to open for one of theirs, so I need you to take a lot of them out, as fast as you can, then I'll be able to fight back.'
----
Gerard, lands on a small island. "This looks like a nice place for a rest..."
//I can't keep up with him, I'm going to have him inactive for now.\\
-
(Characters can perform actions. A city cannot. Also, I need the captial city intact for a climactic plot device, so I'm not gonna let you blow it up. Heh...)
----
Draven leaned forwards flew backwards as the blade impended, his feet striking the wall of flame behind him. As he did this, his aura amplified as the flame from the wall surrounded him, and he began to move up, following the inner sphere of flame almost like a skater. He followed the arc until he was at the upper tip of the inner sphere and then promptly fell, flipping around and slashing his burning blade downwards, creating a thin crescent wave of flame that extended the full height of the sphere and sliced the air as it flew towards Melkoth...
----
"Oof--!!"
Ven found himself slammed in the stomach by a huge metal gauntlet and thrown back at least twenty feet. He tumbled and rolled a few times on the rocky ground, kicking up much dust, before steadying and propping himself up on his sword and one knee.
"Aww... nuts..."
----
Vincent blinked as he looked for the prophet. As he heard the bottle break, he knew exactly what was happening. He buried his nose and mouth under a flap of his trench coat and ran at full speed down the corridor, in the direction the prophet came from, while holding his breath.
He kicked open a random wooden door at the end of the hallway, and entered, promptly shutting it behind. He dare not breath yet, and continued into the dark room, stumbling over a wooden chair, before finding the door on the opposite side. He opened this one, more gently this time, and entered, shutting it with loud *clang* that resonated a few times in a fading echo.
He now breathed lightly. This hallway was lined on both sides by glassless windows. It looked like a corridor that passed through a courtyard, connecting two main buildings.
He stood there, catching his breath and listening to the silence... profound silence...
After a good few minutes, he began to walk. Slowly... Though he stepped lightly, his boots still made an audible clap on the stone floor, and he listened for a response...
----
The wall that Haraldur was in the process of smashing suddenly froze, large sheets of ice continuously edged over the large cracks, reinforcing it. Fires were quickly put out and other damaged walls supported in the same manner. The short elite with the blue trimmed armor landed on the frozen wall that Haraldur stood before.
"Hmmm, interesting. So single minded he is in his objective, he has ignored everything else and left himself open to attack..."
"HARRRRRRGH!!!!"
The huge elite with the green trim landed ten feet in front of Haraldur, before the wall. Raising his right fist in to the air.
"I'LL SMASH YOU!!"
"DO NOT use your earthquake attacks in the city, Rufus..." the dark one ordered, as he landed some twenty feet behind Haraldur.
An enraged Hans flew in from where he missed his attack out in the sky, surging with electricity.
"That's right! He's MINE!!"
Julian extended his left hand to the side, which would have caught Hans' head if he had continued flying past.
"I believe General Valos has issued him a challenge. Who are we to interrupt?"
"HUH?!"
-
Zeros' turned quickly, and raised his other arm. He blocked the karate chop, and reinforced his arm with ki, so it wouldn't break. (That would hurt... Alot.)
From the connection of the two forces, a sonic boom reverberated, sending a shockwave out in all directions, and uprooting a few trees in the process. He sheathed his sword, and pulled his arm from the lock, and ghosted backwards, and behind the hulking demon, right at his neck.
A ki blast of holy energy formed in his hand, and grew rapidly in seconds, and he shoved it backwards, towards the demon.
---
Allen cursed, as the city was rocked. He stopped the tinkering of the second orb. Luckily, the second mage managed to escape, alive, but barely. Allen had found him, bleeding to death, and managed to save him, if barely. He would be VERY tired, for a couple months at least.
He paused, and listened. He went back to work, as soon as he could balance correctly.
-
Apparently Zion's defence for Ven failed, as he swung himself to the side as Zion's sword clanged on his gauntlet and he swung his hand at Ven knocking him around 20 feet back (he was already hit, I was just reviewing that). He then swung his other hand forth and blasted a black fireball at the hitting the parts of the dead wave that would hit him. As Zeros' phased behind him and trusted the energy at him, he phased away dodging the attack; he appeared behind Zion, he then swung a punch at him, and angled it so he would fly into Zeros? if he hit him well enough.
-
//Ahem. And Xenai's attack? Razz
-
The small fleet of ships slowly edged through the turbulent waters, their blue etched flags nearly tearing from the masts. The sky was red and black. It rained a strange rain. The compasses were spinning, useless...
"My liege, we must turn back. You are in grave danger. Please, at least go back and we will continue the search for you..."
The stately king stroked his thin peppered beard.
"I will hear no more of that sort of talk. It's my fault he left... and I will correct my own mistake."
----
Ven slowly stood up, dusting himself off. He held his sword to his side as it began to glow with white energy once again... Blast it... think!
-
//Ahem?
He then swung his other hand forth and blasted a black fireball at the hitting the parts of the dead wave that would hit him.
From what I read the dead wave was his attack.\\
-
He phased right in front of Abodahon, Zero Weapon in hand. "Tsu taught me this one..."
"Kuon Yaiba Ryu! Kuon Katsu..." (Eternity Blade Style, Eternity Victory...)
"Oh, nice." Tsu grinned as he watched. Xenai let forth a large flurry of high-speed, high-power slashes, and with that monster of a sword. (Zero Weapon is much bigger than a claymore, but smaller than Sagara Sanosuke's Zanbatou.) He then put the blade over his shoulder, putting his left hand under his arm, forcing the gathered kinetic energy into it. He executed a Trunks-style finish... "...Dead Wave!!!" And a beam of energy ripped forth upon the tenderized area.
Razz
-
//I have an anouncement: on Sunday I will be leaving my home to go for an interview at Oxford University in the UK. This means that I will be away until Tuesday, and possibly Wednesday too. So, for the next few days, please do not reply to my characters' actions.//
//(Characters can perform actions. A city cannot. Also, I need the captial city intact for a climactic plot device, so I'm not gonna let you blow it up. Heh...)
D'oh! You spoil my fun! Razz Oh, well, I will get it yet...//
Haraldur raised an eyebrow at Valos. "Coward? Haha... I am a coward because I acquire some principles? As for principles, Valos, I am wondering why you have yet to rush to the side of the newly returned Abodahon Talonscar. Yes, I can feel his presence. Is the symbol on your forehead for nothing? As for rebel, I prefer revolutionary."
Haraldur blasted another piece of wall. He had now reached the kitchens.
As the walls then froze. he saw some Crimson Empire soldiers, wearing strangely important uniforms, gather around him. They looked like heavies. He ignored them.
He heard a slight whistling in his ear, audible only to him, and then received a small message of squeaks. So, the Fascists led by Salazar have taken Wahabia and some surroundings...
He decided to leave this area for his father, for now, so he started flying South very fast. He would get Salazar, that is for sure...
//Inactive for a few days.//
____________________________________________________________________
The Grey Mages fired yet more spells at the imp and the half-demon.
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth became immaterial for a moment as the flame wave passed through him. He punched Draven, but was still immaterial, and he swore. He backed away a little, becoming material yet again. He walked on air, around Draven, then chucked a sand storm at him (a very localised one) threatening to both stop Draven's flame and damage Draven's eyes, armour, and the rest of his body, it was a flesh eating sandstorm.
Melkoth broke out of Draven's flame sphere with only minor burns. Safe in the knowledge (at least from his point of view, he is not necessarily right) that Abodahon would deal with things, he decided to fly back East to see the new palace Quintus had built him.
//Inactive for a few days.//
____________________________________________________________________
The Prophet could sense that he had failed to kill the second infiltrator, so he flew back down to the palace. Quintus turned into a yellow haze, passing through the small slits of the glassless windows, behind Vincent. He reformed himself, and said to Vincent, "Tell me, why are you so keen to defend an Empire with no future? I would have thought that one so skillful as you would be eager to join with a resurrection of one of the great Empires of the past...
"Right now myself and this building are immaterial, I cannot harm you, nor you me. You might as well talk with me."
//Inactive for a few days.//
-
Zeros' moved quick. He reappeared, and stood on the demon's neck, anchoring himself to his back with ki and chakra. He charged his sword with holy energy, and raised it above his head, angling it downwards, while, changing it to it's holy form.
He stabbed down, his sword blurring.
-
Eternity Weapon did little to stop the gauntlet, and he was blown away by it. Xenai's attack seemed to do some damage, but not nearly as much as it would on warriors of his own caliber. He floated back. "Damn." He floated back. "Come and get me, you hulking bastard..."
Zion got to his feet, and looked at Abodahon. There had to be something he could do... Where's a weak point? Where's he getting his power? Those gauntlets! He had to deactivate them or destroy them somehow...
--- --- ---
Tsu arrived at the scene, looking around at all the mages. He decided to call upon the power of darkness. He started muttering an incantation to himself, gathering ether. "Black flames of hell, rise up in the name of good..."
--- --- ---
//I'll update her next post so that she just misses Valos.
-
//Trent, I don't understand your post, was the sword slash the attack or the dead wave? Well if it was the sword slashes we'll assume he took the hits, and then continued on with the other things he did. Now update Tsu and Zion.\\
Valos lowered his sword, as Haraldur spoke. "He's...here?" Valos asked. "I do sense something like his aura...but stronger..." He then glared at Haraldur and ran at him swinging his sword, yet he flue off before he even moved his blade. "Shit!"
He then looked at him disappear into the distance. "Well he is right. I should go see him." He then walked into the hole Haraldur made in the palace walls, the soldiers and servants that were in the area looked at him. "Well don't just stand there you fools! Fix this place up!" they then quickly got back to work.
He then looked at the four elites. "I'm going off to do some business, I'll be back in a wile."
He then walked down further away from the palace into the main city square, a messenger was standing there who saluted him as he approached. "Inform Allen and Lieutenant Aura that I have left to do some business, and shall return a wile."
"How long is a wile, sir?" The messenger asked
"How ever long I want it to be..." The general then jumped into the air and surrounded himself in a dark aura and flue off towards Abodahon's aura.
'I bet Melkoth has something to do with Abodahon's return. I'm going to get in some big shit, maybe I shouldn't trust him.
He then felt a sharp pain, like a claw was squeezing his hart.
He clenched his chest and stopped flying. "Stop! I'll trust him, damnit..." The pain then stopped and he continued flying.
----
Duilin continued to block as many attacks as possible. He was getting tired, because there was so many and a few were hitting him. "Damnit, hurry up guys..."
-
//Xenai's attack was a combination of the slashes, and the wave was a follow up. Whatever. Updating now. Tsu has already arrived where Duilin is, and is charging an attack.
Aura arrived in the city where she thought Valos was. She hopped off the disk, and it seemed to transform into a... hairpin? Oh, a cute one too. How convenient. Wow, Allen's good at this. She stuck it in her hair. The messenger approached her. "You just missed General Valos, ma'am."
"What? Crap! Where's he going?"
"He only said that he was going off to do some business, and that he would be back in a while."
"How long's a while?"
"However long he wants it to be."
"Crap! What am I supposed to do now?!"
-
//What about Zion? Abodahon punched him.\\
-
(Awesome, Haraldur. Good luck!)
Draven closed his eyes and dispersed the sword, so that it would augment his aura. The flame swirled around him, in the opposite direction of the sand, and the two reacted violently for a few moments, before neutralizing each other and dissipating. When he opened his eyes, Melkoth was gone, the diversion a success.
"Typical!"
The enormous hollow sphere of flame around him began to rise skyward, and Draven, remaining in a fixed position in the air, became visible as he pierced the bottom. He brought both hands above his head as the 100 foot diameter ball of flame continued it's upward rise. It was like the sun that the thick red and black clouds above denied, bathing the battlefield below in an orange flame. Soldiers of both sides took notice of the awesome sight...
"Miserable coward! Show yourself!" His voice boomed across the land, his eyes darting back and forth, but his opponent was no where to be found.
The giant globe of flame began to shrink (it being hollow), getting even brighter in magnitude, until it became a solid sphere of burning energy some 20 feet in diameter...
----
Ven could not ignore what looked like a man holding the sun above his head in the sky... He turned his attention back to the demon, still readying energy in his blade, studying Zeros' and the others attack the beast...
----
And now it made sense.
Vincent spun around and took a few steps back until he felt he was a safe enough distance away to appropriately respond to any hostile attack... He then rested his weapon on his shoulder, to give the appearance that his guard was down.
"The Grey Empire... Melkoth..."
He brought his left hand to his chin.
"I see. So the legends have a hint of truth to them. An underground society lying in wait to resurrect their 'God', and return Gaian to a previous state of total unity under his rule... Yet this is the same ideal as the Crimson Empire, except Lord Draven dismisses gods and religion as blasphemy, and therefore we are your direct competition...
"I will admit your ability to organize such an assault underground is impressive, but your claim is still quite bold, old man... There is one thing I'm afraid I do not understand. This Ragnar, is he Melkoth?"
----
"Let him go."
"WHAT?!"
Julian folded his arms as Haraldur flew away from the floating city.
"We will restore the orbs and apply the level 3 barrier. He will find future assaults quite futile."
-
Hyperion noticed that Dravens battle had ended and his opponent was gone. He flew over, but stayed a good a distance away from the energy sphere.
"So.. uh.. what now?"
-
//Looks like no one missed me. At any rate, i'm back. Dudeman, care to get some of that weight (Ein and Gerard) off your chest?\\
-
//Yes, that would be nice. I already have five characters without those two! But yes, currently Gerard is at some small island, and Ein is with Duilin, observing the battle, near Zeros', Duilin, Draven and co.\\
-
Draven smirked at Hyperion.
"Why, clean up this mess, of course..."
He stretched his arms higher into the sky and clenched his fists, grabbing thin air. The glowing orb of flame above him tensed. He brought his hands downward quickly in a throwing motion, and the twenty foot burning sphere flew ground-ward like a spiked volleyball, straight at Retangrad...
An explosion ensued as the orb smashed into the translucent shield around the city, knocking nearby trees flat and illuminating the battlefield in bright red... As the light dimmed, the shield around the city was gone.
A small nearby force of Crimson soldiers noticed this and charged the city, but a group of Greys popped up from behind the walls and fired off a continuous stream of explosive blue orbs at the attackers, killing many and driving them off.
From high above, Draven pointed at the town as he spoke to Hyperion.
"Now we shall see how you perform, dragon. Infiltrate the city and attack them now before they restore their shield. As for the city itself, it is of minor importance. I've plenty more..."
----
His back is turned... This is it... here we go... now or never...
Ven did a mad leap, some twenty feet in the air, thrusting his sword downward as he began to fall, the blade burning with white energy.
"HAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!"
He dove down at Abodahon, aiming the blade straight for the back of the neck...
-
Abodahon, then swung his body forward dodging Zeros' blurring sword. He then clenched his fists and empowered his gauntlets, yet he sensed somebody going towards him. He spotted Ven thrusting his white energy empowered sword down at him, he would have phased, yet he was charging an attack and he didn't want to interfere with it, he then moved forward, yet he didn't totally dodge the attack, the blade struck him on the left side of his back, causing a deep cut, his blood splattered on the ground, causing steam to rise as it landed. He growled in pain, him being a demon the cut began to heal. He then flapped his wings and back flipped further landing several yards away from the group. He then fired two giant lasers at Ven and Zeros'.
----
Valos began to fly faster and faster as he moved towards the location of the two cities. He keeps a blank expression on his face. Abodahon must have been brought back from Melkoth, those two have been doing deals with each other for quite some time. If he was with Melkoth and if Melkoth is the one attacking the cities, then he may even have to turn against his former master or his current one.
-
//DM, could you update Ein and Marshal one last time please? I read the last two pages, and I still do not know where we are at the moment\\
-
//We'll assume that Zion stopped right before hitting Zeros'. The way I posted before can still imply that he took the punch.
Zion noticed that his opponent was busy firing lasers. Zion looked to Xenai, who just happenedt to look over to him. Zion nodded toward one of the gauntlets busy firing lasers. //Even if the lasers aren't being fired from the gauntlets, Abodahon is still occupied with his attack.
Zion and Xenai phased away from the lasers, and right up next to one of the gauntlets. They slashed at it in perfect unison, with all the power that they could muster directly after a teleportation. They would connect simultaneously.
--- --- ---
Tsu's aura turned black, flared, and then disappeared. "Damnation!!!" Several rays of darkness shot up from the ground, taking out several mages with each ray. He chose randomly where each ray would rise from, but he made sure not to hit Duilin.
-
//Ein and Marshal are nearby the same spot as Duilin and Tsu, but they are just flying and watching everything. \\
Duilin nodded at Tsu. "Thanks friend!" He then shook his leg flinging the scared little imp off. "Come on pipsqueak, we got work to do!" He then flue into the air, flying past a few magic blasts. The imp then followed. Duilin began to create a large fireball; wile Rink blasted smaller ones at the mages.
----
Marshal looked down at Duilin, Tsu and Rink fighting the mages, as he rode on Ein's moth. "Perhaps we should wait until they take out Melkoth's mages, it'll save us the time of killing them ourselves, then we make our strike at the half demon." Marshal suggested. "Or we can help fight the mages and then backstab. What do you say Ein?" He asked.
//I'll wait until Zeros' and Xorlak's reply before I respond to Xenia and Zion's attack. \\
-
"This I can do."
Hyperion swooped down towards Retangrad, shaking the ground as he landed. This caught the attention of nearby soldiers who began to fire. Hyperion began to flap his wings, creating gusts of wind that sent the soldiers blue orbs back towards them.
-
Zeros' turned, and phased, making the lazer that was heading past him speed past where he was, roaring, and making the ground it hit burn, and trees become cinders.
He reappearing in front of Ven, and backhanded the giant lazer, effectively sending it up, and into the sky. His hand was burned, but, he'd had worse burns. It would be stinging for awhile, but, it was a mear annoyance, more than a serious problem.
He nodded at Ven, and looked back towards Abodahon. He noticed the aura trail the lazer had left, and smirked. He pulled back his hand, and kept himself calm. Then, with a blurring fist, he threw hundreds of corkscrew punches at Abodahan, flying towards him, fast.
The tornadoes fed off the aura in the air, and started from condensed, deadly, screwlike tornadoes, and started to grow, as they sped towards Abodahon.
---
Allen looked up from repairing the fourth, and final orb, as a messanger reached him. He nodded, and took the message from the man. He saluted the messanger, as he scampered off, scared by the gore on the walls of the mage that had once been here.
He sighed. So, Valos was rushing off into battle now, too.
He shook his head, and started to tinker with the orb.
-
-"Let's wait. No need to get our hands dirty if we don't need to."
Ein was becoming more fused to the moth with every second that passed. His mind was slowly being melded with the moth's. He was now simply gliding around.
--- --- ---
Gerard stood up. "Ah, enough rest. Hmm... This looks like a good place for a settlement..." He flew up, glided around the island finally noticing a large rock cliff. He descended towards it and started clawing at it, turning the solid rock into small chunks. Some chunks contained some sort of black metal between them. Gerard extracted the said metal, and put it elsewhere.
//for now, Gerard won't go into contact with other characters.\\
-
Draven closed his eyes, 'watching' the auras dance around him... It seemed the capital was no longer in danger, at the moment, at least... Still this charade could be part of a distraction...
He floated down slowly, opening his eyes and seeing the soldiers of both sides locked in hand to hand combat. Small explosions ripped around randomly.
So, how to end it? Crimson Death Annihilation? Oh, what fun... but no, that would render a good chunk of his own land uninhabitable... Let the battle play out? Hmmm, might take too long, especially with Ragnar and whoever his weirdo freind is running around...
Release... them...?
Hmmm... Still an option he still wasn't sure he fully accepted...
At this point, he noticed the demon Abodahon was still alive and fairing quite well against the group of attackers around him...
"What? Why is that thing still alive?"
----
Ven returned the nod and darted off to the right side of the beast at a quick pace, trying to charge the white energy back into his blade once more. He would wait for Zeros' tornados to hit and then flank the creature...
----
"Need a hand?"
A voice resonated through the halls behind Allen. It was James, the short blue elite with the watery aura.
"This one is nearly depleted. It will require a jump start..."
He walked up to the orb and placed his right gauntlet on it. His body glowed with a blue aura that surrounded the orb, and soon the large orb resumed its normal crimson glow. The elite clutched his chest as if he felt a sharp pain, but his face played it no mind and he quickly brushed it off.
"It will last perhaps 10 or 15 more hours. A replacement is badly needed."
He turned to the open hallway door as two soldiers passed.
"You there! Clean up this mess! Slovenly rejects..."
-
//I'm still interested if Zion and Xenai's attempt to neutralize the gauntlet is effective. It most likely won't be, but don't count them out just yet or anything.
-
Abodahon spotted the two men swing their swords down upon his gauntlets. The blades hit his massive gauntlets making a clanging sound, yet they only scratched the hard black metal. "Fools!" He then lifted his hands and prepared to slam his fists downwards and crush the two. Yet he saw a series of tornados flying towards him, they swooped him up into the air, and he flue into the air. "Ooof-"
He then regained air control and he then dropped himself to the ground fists first and slammed them onto the ground, standing on his fists, making a huge shockwave and cracks and waves in the ground.
----
Duilin continued to charge his fireball, then added lightning energy into it, as it grew bigger. He flue around a bit dodging magic blasts that flue at him, while he charged his attack. Rink flue near by his half demon friend and fired back at the mages, he then fired a high-speed one taking out one of the mages.
----
Valos continued to fly towards his location. "Yes, it is him...Abodahon has returned. I wonder if Duilin knows it yet..."
-
-"Marshal... I think we'll let the mages do their best while we relax a bit." Ein flew another circle.
-"Actually... I have a better idea."
Ein landed the moth, and got one of it's claws drawing circles on the ground. They were coming out pretty shabby as a moth's leg isn't too precise, but it had to do. He drew a bit, and then slammed it's massive claw in the middle of the finished "piece". The mages were now more powerful, more resistant to damage, and took less to cast every spell.
--- --- ---
Gerard kept mining the black material.
-
Tsu landed. "You're quite welcome. Shin Kuon Yaiba, become flat-edged." He started dashing by mages, starting to take out mages one by one with battou-jutsu attacks aimed at the head.
--- --- ---
Zion and Xenai held their swords so that they took the brunt of the shockwave. Zion thought to himself. What can we do against this guy? It's obvious he values those gauntlets very much, and that most of his power comes from them... But how do we negate them?
--- --- ----
Aura looked around. She saw Lord Draven up in the sky, looking off in another direction. She looked off in the direction he was looking in, and she could hear a lot of activity. She then thought she saw a giant jumping around and firing lasers. She caught a glimpse of that man she saw on the ship fighting against the giant. She figured that the giant was an enemy of the Crimson Empire. She should go help them! She took the hairpin out, and tossed it. It turned into the flying disk, which she promptly jumped on, and flew toward the battle.
Seijin frowned from his cloud. "No, don't go there..." He sent a telepathic message down at Aura.
Do not go there. That beast is far too strong for you.
"Wh- what? Who said that?!"
That isn't important. What is important is that you don't join that battle!
Aura was freaked out now. She floated in place, trying to decide what to do.
-
Hyperion flew around the perimeter of Retangrad dropping fire bombs on any soldiers hiding behind walls. Along with the bombs he dropped four claws at four corners of the city. He landed softly and began charging an attack.
-
"Hyaaahh!!"
Ven charged the beast as it landed, leaping over the impending shockwave and spiraling downwards. He brought the white flashing blade to his side as he came down... a weak spot... he must have one!
His side... this time he'd try for his left side, under the arm... Ven reared the blade back as he aimed the slash...
----
Two groups of Greys wielding swords and spears emerged from the center of Retangrad and merged, charging the dragon straight on. Another group of Grey mages appeared behind, casting a shield in front of the charging soldiers and firing some more orbs over their heads in Hyperion's direction...
-
Zeros' simply jumped, avoiding the shockwave. He then thurst his hand up, and all of the tornadoes (Theres hundreds of them, and they're growing slowly every second) followed his hand, and went towards the giant demon, spinning faster, and growing stronger.
---
Allen nodded to the blue elite.
"Yes... This one was damaged the most. The others are still in well-enough shape, that, they still won't need replacements for a few weeks... If nothing this major happens again. I'll start work on the replacement soon... Right now, we need to worry about how much Haraldur will damage the main city," he said.
He had also seen the blue elite clutch his chest in obvious pain, but, he didn't question the man about it.
-
"Ein, it seems that you made the mages stronger, um....Why?" Marshal asked, rather confused.
----
Duilin then finished his lightning\fire ball and then tossed it down on the ground, zapping and burning all the greys within a 30 foot radius. Yet many of them survived.
"Huh?" Duilin noticed this. "What the hell? What's going on?"
"They are mages, give them a break." Rink said
"Yeah, but I charged that attack for like 3 posts!" Duilin complained
"Yes...I suppose it is odd..." Rink rubbed his chin
----
Abodahon then empowered his gauntlets and a firey aura surrounded his gauntlets and he then blasted flame into air making the area very humid, and the tornados then began to die due to the change in air pressure. Abodahon continued to do this, until suddenly somthing struck the side of him. He growled in pain and then looked at the knight that struck him. Adodahon then swung his hand towards Ven's head in an attempt to knock him out or give him a huge headache.
----
Valos finally arrived at the scene. He then landed about 40 feet away from the battle Abodahon was in. "Hmm...Yes, I suppose that does look like him. He has changed past the few years."
He observed the area. Suddenly a Grey Empire soldier ran at him and swung his sword. Valos didn't even draw his weapon he phased behind the warrior and grabbed his neck and then blasted a lightning spell into him, knocking the life out of him. He exaimed the warrior. "Grey armor? Hmm..." He then looked up at the Grey Empire logo in the sky that Melkoth made above Alphagrad. "Grey Empire? What the fuck?"
-
-"Don't worry, Marshal, keep your panties on."
Ein rose the moth a little higher. "Hmm. The mages use magic, obviously. That's the whole reason i boosted them a little -- more magic, more damage, more fun."
He then got the moth to pick his speed up a bit, then his wings were engulfed in a reddish glow. He skimmed right over the mages. Suddenly, the mages stopped casting spells... and quite a lot of them literally blowing them up from inside, combusting their magic supplies.
-"Hehe... See, this is fun!"
He got the moth to fly even lower, decapitating some more mages with his wings.
--- --- ---
There was now a large pile of black material next to Gerard. He kept extracting it.
-
"Oof--!"
Ven found himself flying backwards. Not again... He tumbled a few times and caught himself with both hands and knees on the ground.
At least he felt that one... ugh...
He collapsed under his own weight, still clutching his sword.
----
The blue elite nodded to Allen and proceeded to exit the room.
"We shall take care of him, if he decides to return..."
Two soldiers passed him, entering with a mop and bucket, quite distressed at seeing what they had to clean up.
-
That last one hurt. Abodahon was limping a bit from the gash on his side, and on his back, yet they both were healing. He watched the knight fall back again. He grinned and then looked back at the others.
Valos then walked closer to were Abodahon was, he was fighting Zeros', Ven and the other two. It looked like Ven just got a good hit on him, yet the demon punished him for it. He was indeed strong.
Abodahon then spotted Valos and narrowed his eyes and gave him a quick glare. "What are you doing here?!" The demon shouted at the general.
Valos was a bit startled when the demon spoke. He didn't really know what to do, Abodahon didn't seem to be harming any members of the Crimson Empire so he just took a few steps back and then viewed the fight. He brushed his hair back revealing the tattoo on his forehead.
Abodahon gave Valos one last look and then glared at Zeros'. He dashed at him at great speed, the running hurt him due to the cuts yet he kept going ignoring the he then surrounded himself in a black fiery aura and jumped into the air and aimed a kick at his opponent?s head.
----
Marshal then pointed his machine gun at the soldiers that they flue past and fired his weapon rapidly at the warriors, killing quite a few of them.
-
Zion looked to Valos briefly, then back to Abodahon. He shot a lot of his energy to Xenai, who gladly caught it and absorbed it.
"Tsu taught me this one, too--!" He quickly flew up to Abodahon, and with his gigantic sword, commenced another flurry of slashes, this one slower and more deliberate, with each slash charged with energy.
"Mazawereshi inochi ni... Ima motarensaren setsuna no kiseki... Toki wo kete... Koko ni yuugo sesshu mirai hi no taiduu--! GISHOUKEN!!!" And one huge downward slash...!
--- --- ---
Aura looked at the scene from afar... She thought she had seen Valos flying there... She had to go, then!
"I'm going!" No, don't!
She started off toward the battle.
Tsu continued to slay each mage that he could, but then noticed Aura heading toward the battle with Abodahon. "NO!"
With great speed, he flew over, completely exhausting himself to get in front of Aura. "Do NOT enter that battle!"
"Oh no, it's you..."
"So you've joined the Crimson Empire..."
-
Duilin blasted a lightning bolt at a mage knocking it to the ground. "Sheesh, there are a lot of these guys..."
Rink blasted a barrage of fireballs taking out another one. "I'll say."
Suddenly a group of Crimson Empire troops charged in and began to clash at the Grey Empire troops. The Grey Empire turned most of the focus on the Crimson warriors.
Duilin crosses his arms and then walks a few steps around and faces to direction of Abodahon and Zeros'. "That demon is still alive? He must be strong...I sense he is to."
"Indeed." Rink said back, he was also looking in that direction. "Hey, Tsu's over there. But he doesn't seem to be fighting, wait, I see that one woman, um, Aura I believe, she was on the ship with Valos and Xenai. Valos is here to, what is he doing here?"
"Maybe he's protecting the cites, like any general would."
"No, I don't think that's it...he seemed to be focused on the huge demon."
"Well...he is quite a shocking sight. But why isn't he helping Zeros', Zion and Xenai?"
"I don't know, Duilin...or wait...It feels like I should know..."
"Why? Why do you think you should know?"
"Um, that...that I don't know."
"You don't know much at all, do you, Rink."
"Hey! I know more than you! What's the wing span of a fully developed male red dragon?"
"Shut up Rink."
-
Hyperion noticed the greys approaching, but he wasn't worried. He would have to take the full force of their attack until his own was ready. The ground of Retangrad began to heat up.
"Soon your city will burn."
-
Ven slowly stood up once more. He was a lot more dizzy this time...
"Just one more..."
The sword began to gather energy again while he began to limp his way around the back of the demon in a wide circle, while Xenia unleashed his attack...
-
Ein flew another circle, then suddenly dropped on the ground. His body started changing quickly. His skin was regaining it's colour, his limbs became more human-like; the moth spell wore off. He was now a simple unconcious human.
--- --- ---
Gerard finished mining the material. There was a lot of it now. He took all of it, dumped it in one pile, ripped some trees out of the ground and threw them into that pile. Then he threw a rock in there, whacked his claw on it creating a spark which ignited the trees. They started burning rapidly and producing unbearable light, and heat. Gerard took a few steps back.
-
Due to Ein turning back into a human, Marshal fell to the ground. "Ooff!" He then stood up and then picked up his gun. "Ack, what? You're back into a human." He then reloaded his machinegun. "Well, I hope that won't cause problems." The monsters he summoned seemed to have been taken out in the battle. "It looks like my pets have died. Ein, maybe you should do something, like one of your symbol thingies. I'll try and summon something."
Suddenly a group of Crimson soldiers surrounded the two.
"Uh oh..." Marshal gulped. The warriors ran towards the two men, they ready their swords. Marshal shoots down one of them, yet the rest of them still advance.
-
Regaining conciousness, Ein got up.
-"Huh...? Oh, alright, fine..."
//i'm still confused at where we are right now :S\\
Ein charted a line with an arc over it, and another line coming from the centre. It started glowing eerily. Ein began to chant...
--- --- ---
The black metal was becoming super-heated due to the trees' rapid combustion. It slowly started melting.
-
//DM, what's the hold-up?
-
// Ack. Internet been screwy... Back now. \\
Zeros' looked at the attack aimed for his head. He brought up his arm, and surrounded it in a holy white aura. He grabbed the kick aimed for his head, and threw the foot up. This gave him enough time to phase away, and reappear at his side, his sword out, and aiming a point-blank shot, his sword fueled with holy aura, directly at the demon's side.
-
//I was waiting for Zeros' to respond, just like last time.\\
Abodahon back fliped into the air as Zeros' tossed up his foot, and then landed upon the ground. He spotted Xenai slashing at him; he swiftly shifted to the side. Zeros' sword then struck his side. Abodahon yelled in pain, he then turned his head at Zeros' and gave him an evil look, fire was burning in his eyes, he then jumped about 10 feet into the air and glided 20 feet back away from the group, he them empowered his gauntlets, a gust of wind surrounded him and chunks of the ground flue into the air, he then surrounded himself in a dark protective aura and continued to charge power.
----
Rink and Duilin then flue closer to the battle, about the same area that Valos was.
Valos turned his head. "Stay out of this one...Well...Duilin this demon may interest you, yet you might not like it."
"Who is he?" Duilin asked
"You'll see." Valos grinned as he turned his head back towards the battle.
"What are those gauntlets he has? Those are huge, they look like they'd be a bitch to remove." Duilin asked
"I think that is some sort of demonic material." Rink replied
"Is it strong?"
"Strong as diamond, maybe tougher or weaker, I'm not sure."
Valos then noticed Aura had arrived. He then walked towards Tsu and Aura. "I would listen to him. That demon would make short work of you, just look how he clobbered the knight."
Duilin then turned and walked towards them, Rink followed. "You know who this demon is. How? Did you personally know him? Or is he from some legend of some sort."
Valos grinned. "You'll see, Talonscar...You'll see."
----
The soldiers got closer to the two. Marshal fired rapidly mowing down about five or so. Two soldiers came towards Marshal, he shot one of them and the other swung his sword at him. He blocked the blade with the metal of his gun; he then kicked the soldier back and shot him in the head.
A warrior then came towards Ein and swung his sword...
-
Zion charged up a fire spell...
Xenai created a generic-looking, but moderately large ki ball, and chucked it at Abodahon's head.
--- --- ---
Tsu and Aura glared at each other with cold eyes.
"You seem to forget that you are everything to me."
"You seem to forget that you are nothing to me."
Tsu frowned, closing his eyes. "Riptide..." He spun around, unsheathing the katana in a slashing motion toward Aura's head, intended to knock her unconscious. A scimitar blocked the path. Aura pointed a finger of her free hand at Tsu. "Ray!" Tsu's eyes widened in surprise. He took the hit and flew back a moderate distance. When did she learn magic?
-
A spear flew into Hyperions leg as he was finishing charging his attack.
"I need to finish this...... NOW!"
The ground began to crack beneath him as he put all his strength into the attack. The ground of Retangrad began to rapidly heat up even burning Hyperions feet. He stopped charging and turned back into human forms with wings, but the heat was still increasing. He flew up over the city and looked down below with a smirk. Moments later the ground of Retangrad started on fire.
-
Zeros' looked at the demon, and simply crossed his arms, waiting for the attack. He knew nothing would work against him at the moment, so, all he had to do was wait...
Wait and see...
-
To the west, off of the cost and barely visible on the horizon (especially with the darkened sky) a small fleet of ships appeared, six in all. They bore blue flags, different from any previously seen.
"My liege, there is a battle up ahead. If we stray closer, I fear we may be mistaken for a target..."
"That is our destination..."
"Huh?"
"He's there, caught in the middle of it..."
----
Ven watched Xenia's ball of ki energy fly towards the creature. A perfect opening... he would time his strike so that he would hit a mere second after the energy ball...
Now!
With all his remaining strength, Ven made yet another mad dash at the creature. It was another strike with his glowing blade aimed underneath the arm, this time on the opposite side as the last...
-
The sword hit Ein on his shoulder painfully. It wasn't fatal, but it hurt a lot. He groaned in pain, but continued charging his spell.
--- --- ---
The metal was nearly boiling. Gerard dug out a deep pit, about 1m deep, 1.5m wide and 3m across. The metal poured into the pit, and began cooling off.
-
The warrior prepared to swing again at Ein, yet Marshal shot the soldier in the head. Another one came towards Marshal, yet he smashed him with his gun and then shot him as he fell back.
----
Valos turned his head around and saw Tsu attack Aura. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" He began to run at Tsu, yet Duilin grabbed his shoulder. "Hey!?" He yelled at the half demon.
"Just let them sort it out." Rink said sternly.
Valos looked at the imp and glared he then looked at Duilin, as he nodded to him. The general then looked at the other battle, and looked at Zeros'. He then backed away and then sat down on the ground, and watched Abodahon.
----
The energy ball then struck his sheild, and took it out. Abodahon then laughed evily and then readied to blast his attack at the three heros. He then pointed both his gauntlets and prepared to fire, yet the knight then struck his sword under his arm. He fell back and blasted a huge dark red blast into the air, it exploded in a huge blood red orb with a large ring around it, as soon as the explotion cleared up then it began to rain blood.
The demon groaned in pain. A mere mortal seemed to be a threat towards him, he should have paid more attiention to him. He grinned at Ven, as he slowly got back up. He then looked at Zeros'.
"You seem preety confident half breed." Abodahon said to him. "Yet, I can see why. You must think very much of yourself with your many wings wings and your 'holier than thou' image going on." He then coughed. This fight wasn't going anywere, he knew that they couldn't kill him, and he knew that with Zeros' there, he wouldn't allow any of his friends to die. "Well, you I guess you just allways have somthing planned, you know exactly what's going to happen next, don't you? Well, this isn't totally over, my friends."
Then a blinding white pentagram appeared on his chest, expanded engulfing him and then just simply dimmed. Abodahon was no longer there.
-
Tsu got to his feet, hearing Valos yell at him. He didn't give much of a shit about Valos. He was protecting the one thing he lived for. "Damnit, I'm trying to protect you! You know I love you!"
"And you know I don't care! You know I don't want anything to do with you!" She started to gather light energy... But Abodahon had vanished. There was no longer anything to protect her from.
Zion stored away the fire energy he charged up, then looked over to the commotion going on. Xenai watched as well. Zion soon realized what she was about to cast. What...?! She has...!
Tsu soon realized it too. ...Judgment?! When did she get so much power?! "Aura, I have no more reason to fight you. You don't need to charge that spell anymore."
"Shut up! You annoy me, creep!"
Damnit... Tsu assumed a defensive stance. He charged some lightning energy to his hands...
-
Zeros' looked at when the demon had once been, and snorted at the demons description on himself. 'Holier then thou'? Oh sure, that's how he came off to most, but, that was totally wrong... As for knowing what would happen next, his brain processed information so fast, it only seemed like he knew what was going to happen. As for the wings, he only had two now. He merged them all together into two, larger wings.
"Well... That was interesting," he commented idly, as if talking about the weather.
-
//Since I am a bit out of it at the moment, and Christmas is very soon, and assuming that because of this proximity to Christmas that the chapter will soon end, there is little point in me starting to post again this chapter.
Of course, I must ask you this Xorlak: Is this chapter going to end soon?//
-
(I was planning on letting it run for another 2-3 weeks or so, but do people feel like stopping? This probably would be a good time, I guess.)
Ven fell backwards from exhaustion. He did it... well not really, but he was part of it. Lying flat on his back he thrust he left fist up in victory... then brought it to the back of his head.
"Ohh, headache now..."
----
The fighting seemed to simmer down a bit, as if both sides were regrouping and preparing for wave two... the Greys within Alphagrad and Retangrad, and the Crimson Empire forces in various groups around the cities, save for a few small skirmishes and Hyperion's still ongoing assault on Retangrad.
Draven was on the ground between the two cities, surrounded by a large force, a caped officer talking to him, and Draven yelling back, pointing in several directions and waving his hands, and the officer nodding in comprehension.
----
(Haraldur, do you want to continue Vincent and the prophet's conversation, or should I just have him high tail it outta there? Or there's no reason why we couldn't have these two pick up at this point at the beginning of the next chapter.)
-
"Aura, knock it off!"
"I'm sick of you! You're creepy, and I hate you!"
"Damnit!" He sheathed his sword quickly performed 3 ninja seals... (And I've memorized them in real life, except for the seals' names... I do believe I've earned the right to use this at least once here. Razz) Ox, Yiang, Hare, then grabbing his left forearm while holding out his left hand, as if holding a ball.
"Judgment!!!" The sky starts to shoot down rays of powerful light at Tsu, who weaves through each one as he heads toward Aura, trying hard to concentrate ki to his hand. "Raikiri! Lightning Edge!" His hand erupts with lightning.
Seijin frowns from his cloud. I don't like that...
Zion doesn't like it either. That technique's made to kill! What are you doing?
He comes in range, thrusting his hand out, formed like a knife, toward Aura's shoulder. She dodges as Tsu starts to cartwheel past, and unsheathes one of her scimitars, slashing at him. He catches it with his feet, and pulls his left hand off the ground, thrusting into one of her legs.
"Ugh!"
-
//Let us continue Quintus and Vincent's conversation next chapter.//
-
Valos laughed as Aura attacked Tsu.
"How could you laugh, you're such a heartless jerk." Rink snapped at the general.
"This, coming from an imp. Haha, that's extremely amusing. Okay, I laugh at a women giving the harshest rejection possible, and you whip thousands of people for not admitting they didn't go to church, before they died, and that makes you a better person, ahem, 'being' then me." He said mockingly
Rink readied to fly up a smash Valos right in the face, yet Duilin grabbed him as the imp flue upwards.
Valos began to laugh even more. "Oh god, this is the amazing, just classic!"
Duilin narrowed his eyes. "Listen, we already have two of our allies fighting and we don't want more. And, Rink I don't think the Empire would like it if you attacked a commanding officer."
"You're taking his side?" Rink asked in shock.
"Well, it's true and in a way he does have a point." Duilin said, he seemed to regret saying it after he did.
Rink jumped to the ground, and just walked away without looking back.
"Rink! I'm sorry!"
Valos put his hand on Duilin's shoulder. "Let him go, he's just trying to limit you anyway."
"What? Limit me?"
"Your power. He doesn't want you to become to strong or else you'll go fully demonic, yet it wouldn't be dangerous if you did."
"What about bloodrage? Won't I loose control and harm people?"
"No, untrue. Your father, didn't and he became very powerful and had just as much control over himself as he did when he had his human side."
"Did you witness my father...change?"
"I suppose you could say I did." He then stepped back and turned around, he looked up into the sky as the blood rained down.
"God, this is disgusting." Duilin groaned. After a few seconds when he said that, it stopped raining.
-
(Chapter 7 ends in 3 days. We won't be doing the classic, "everyone goes to bed" thing, since its not practical in the middle of a battle like this. Heh...)
The sun was setting behind the thick black clouds, though it was barely noticeable.
Ven slowly sat up and dusted himself off (again). It seemed lines have been drawn and the fighting stopped for a while, around him at least. Still, there was the sound of one more scuffle, sounds of spells being cast and raised voices...
Ven limped, following the sounds, moving around an obstructing portion of raised land and small shrubbery to witness the battle himself. It was Tsu and some woman in Crimson Empire uniform. Ven approached behind Valos and Duilin, overhearing the part of the conversation about the 'bloodrage' and such, and decided not to say anything...
-
Tsu sprung to his feet. He looked up at the brief rain of blood, as did Aura. They both said in unison, "Eww!" Their eyes locked onto each other's immediately after that. Aura's wide eyed stare quickly switched to a glare, while Tsu's wide eyes just turned sad.
"Do you really think you can beat me?" asked Tsu. "Let alone with that wound I just gave you?"
She thought back at all the times they had fought as pro swordsmen, at how inferior she had been compared to him. "Grrr... I know I can beat you!" She started to dash toward Tsu, but the wound in her leg was shocking... It hurt, and it tingled. Both pretty badly. She came down on her good knee. "Crap... One day, I WILL beat you!"
"I'm already aware of that."
"..."
"That's what I always used to tell you."
~~~~~~
Aura and Tsu dashed at each other, a crowd of roaring fans surrounding them in the stadium. They passed each other with that flashy effect they always do in animes, followed by suspense. Aura dropped to her knee, then turning to look at Tsu. "Why... Do you always beat me?"
"Don't stop trying. You will beat me someday. That, I am sure of." Tsu looked at Aura, smiling warmly. He walked over and extended his hand to help her up.
"Hmph. Creep." She got up herself and walked off. Tsu just frowned with sad eyes.
~~~~~~
"..."
"Now is not the time for us to fight anyways. We are allies right now." He sheathed his sword and walked over to Zion and Xenai. "I'm ready to go. Is there anything else we need to do today?"
"No, not that I know of," said Zion.
Aura looked to Tsu for a moment, then sheathed her scimitar. She got to her feet and walked over to Valos weakly, though trying not to show it. "Please forgive me for what just happened."
-
Zeros' sighed sadly, and shook his head. The rain of blood didn't bother him... That's all his immortal life was. Blood, death, and the will to survive... Once this planet was on the right track, he would leave Gaian... Forever. He would never come back. He'd let the humans deal with their own problems. He floated the the ground, and phased away, appeared next to Rink, and falling instep with him.
He put a hand on the smaller demons shoulder, and just sighed.
"Don't worry about Duilin... He's a good kid. He won't even have what it takes to go fully into his demonic heritage. If he did, he would of never left the Dark Empire five years ago, and help Romme fight," he said.
---
Allen finally sighed, sat down, removing his glasses, and wiping his brow. He had finally finished a new main power orb. He didn't have all he needed to make it as powerful as the other one, but, as long as there wasn't a massive explosion, it would be fine. He had transfered the juice the blue haired elite had put into it into the new orb, and recharged it.
Now, all he had to do was wait.
-
Valos smiled at Aura. "It is nothing to worry about, my dear." He said calmly. "He is not a part of the Empire, loosing him would be a small loss, if any." He then put his hand on her shoulder, and spoke softly. "Don't worry, someday you will beat him." He then looked at Duilin. "Well, my friend. You seem to be reliable enough, since you stopped Rink, if anything like what has happened goes on again, try and talk some sense into your friends.
Duilin looked at Aura and Valos and then at Tsu and then back at Valos. "Sure." He said lowly wile nodding his head.
Duilin then turned around and saw Ven. "Hey, I saw you got pretty hurt up by that demon." He said to him. "You okay?"
----
Rink turned his head up and looked at Zeros'. "That's what I'd like to think, Zeros'." He said as he continued walking. He then lowered his head, and looked in front of him. "But...that Valos...he makes me hate this alliance so much, and as soon as Duilin stopped me from hitting him, I know he was just trying to stop a fight, but...it seems like he's on his side." He then walked a bit faster, up ahead of Zeros' and then stopped and clenched his fist. "I just...can't wait until this alliance is over." He then turned around, and looked back at Zeros' and then looks at the group further away and saw Valos talking to Aura, and Tsu all upset. "I know I'm not the only one who's getting sick of him..."
"I can't remember much about Duilin's father." He said, seemingly trying to change the subject. "But I remember talking to him, telling him what he was doing is wrong, and him just yelling back, telling me I don't understand. He was just going mad with power...But...I don't know why I was there...or really how I know it was Duilin's father...but, I know I'm not wrong about it...How many people have the last name Talonscar anyways?" He said making a fake grin.
-
-"Okay, i'm done... but it doesn't seem to do much good..."
Ein stood up. The small picture he drew on the ground dimmed, and eventually completely darkening. Nothing happened.
-"Wang..."
--- --- ---
Gerard continued repeating the cycle. A humungous pile of largelicious black bricks about one ton each continued building up.
-
Marshal groaned. Another soldier readies his weapon at Ein, and he fired upon him. One came towards him, and he shot at him, yet one came behind him, and stabed him in the back, cutting through the armour. "Oh...my..." He limped down towards the ground. The soldier then readies to finish him off, yet he fired his gun at him, just pointing his right arm behind him, without turning around. He then stood up, that strike on him really hurt. "I'm in need of medical assistance." He groans. He then lies back on the ground. He then looks around. "Guess...I got them all...Ein...we should leave...we need to find Haraldur..." He says breathing deeply. "I'm hurt...but I should live....not to...worry..."
-
Ein came over to marshal, and helped him up. Then, suddenly, a huge lightning struck the earth behind him, right into the picture he drew. The ground there split in half.
-"A little late..."
//end chapter for all characters\\
-
Hyperion flew back down into Retangrad to put the injured out of their misery. There were still Greys left who managed to get to safe grounds, but he didn't expect they would try anything.
-
"If you would excuse me sir, I would like to return to the Crimson Capital. My leg needs rest." Aura saluted Valos before tossing her hairpin into the air and letting it transform into the flying disc.
Tsu flapped his wings a bit. "Alright, let's go, then." He took off quickly toward the Crimson Capital. Zion and Xenai looked at each other, and then followed.
Aura looked to Tsu with a hateful envy of the wings. "Ugh, he's going that way too?" She hopped onto the disc, and took off toward the Crimson Capital, not as quickly as the winged warriors.
--- --- ---
Zion and Xenai shot forward quickly, catching up to Tsu, who was flying faster than he should be. "Dude, what the hell? You need to slow the hell down!"
"I am grateful that I've not yet experienced this feeling that you are now."
"Seijin, you'd better make her realize..."
"Seijin? What's he have to do with all this?" asked Zion.
"I asked him to protect Aura if her life would ever be threatened, and he accepted, to pay back for way back when, when we helped Gaia save Gaian. But he said, however..."
--- --- ---
Mugen Seijin spun the Transcender around in his hand, tossing it around like a member of high school colorguard. It gathered more and more energy. "Now that Aura's in the Crimson Empire, there is no doubt her life will soon be threatened. I hope you understand, Tsu. I can only do this once. I'm not supposed to meddle with human dealings."
//I hope this energy transfers over to the next chapter.
--- --- ---
"...So when he does save her... He had better knock it into her head, that I am the one."
//End of chapter for all characters.
-
Zeros' plopped himself on the ground, next to Rink, and sighed.
"Not many people have the name Talonscar, yes, and it's also possible for Duilin to be his father. I promise you, if, Duilin becomes mad with power, I will kill him. You and I both know he's a good kid. He wouldn't of even known about his heritage, but, Nex had to tell him. Even if Nex hadn't, he would of met with Valos eventually, and then, Valos would of had time to shape him.
"The way I figure it, our influence on him might give him enough to not turn towards Valos, just because he had known his father," he said, ending his train of thought. He leaned back, and cross his arms behind his head, closing his eyes, before opening them, and looking up, towards the tormented sky.
"Maybe... Just maybe... This alliance will be over soon, and Haraldur and Melkoth will be gone. Then, I can finally rest," he looked over towards Rink. "You know, I lied about my age... I'm probably around... 200,000 years or older... I've lost track of my exact age," he said, and chuckled. "Figures," he said amusedly.
Then, he just continued to stare at the sky, and wonder what would happen...
---
Allen leaned back against the stone wall, right outside where his old lab used to be. Everything was destroyed. He slid down, and sighed, closing his eyes. He would just rest...
//End for both. \\
-
Ven took a few steps back and leaned on one of the many dismal gray boulders around the area. He responded to Duilin:
"Yeah, I'm fine..."
Except for the headache. Right leg hurts like heck AGAIN as well. Both shoulders kinda sore too... And the back. Ohhh... but that's been sore since he's met these guys. Blasted heavy armor...
He leaned his head back and looked up at the sky. It's a little too quiet...
"The eye of the storm..."
Things were going to heat up again real quick, he could feel it... He rested his eyes for a bit, tying to recover as much stamina as possible before round two...
He could hear a group of soldiers approaching... It was a garrison of the Crimson Empire regrouping and forming ranks nearby, the officers yelling their orders resonating in the background...
-
Marshal, then sat back up, and reloaded his gun. "The others, should be looking of us, so we better watch out." Marshal said. He then held his weapon ready to shoot any soldiers that came his way, yet it seemed to be calm at the moment. "Really watch out, Zeros' or Draven could pop up and take us both out, if we don't be careful. But, I'm not sure if we are the main problem to them at the moment." He then rubbed his forehead, and then placed his hand back onto the gun. "We shouldn't be here, we should leave soon..."
----
Rink then laughed. "Yeah, I'm kind of like that to. But the thing is, I don't even have a clue, I could be fifty or five thousand for all I know." He then laid back. "I hope we don't have to kill Duilin...But you're right...we won't. Valos can't convince him."
----
Duilin grinned. "Okay, okay." He then sat down, in front of one of the boulders near by Ven. "You know...You remind me of an old friend, I knew back in the day...He was knight, some army called Romme. He was a good man. I still miss him..."
He then took out a small shard of metal from his pant pocket; it had the symbol of Romme on it. "I kept this, just to remind me not to trust the Empire, and remember what I'm avenging..."
He then looked at Valos, watching the four others leave. The general then approached them. "Duilin, do you wish to head back home? I'm sure there is somebody waiting for you, heh heh."
Duilin narrowed his eyes. "Actually...no, I'm staying here, they need me."
"Very well...I suppose I should stay as well...I still haven't finished everything I needed to do..."
Valos then nodded and walked off into the fields.
----
Valos then looked at the two cities in the distance, and then turned his head towards the Grey Empire castle. "He must have gone there...He couldn't have gone far."
"Oh I didn't go far." Said a recognizable voice from behind Valos.
"Holy..." Valos then turned around, it was Abodahon. "Master...Abodahon...It's good to see you again." He said a little frightened
"It is good to see you two are alright, have you been working well together.
'I've had to remind him a bit, yet we are working fine.' said a ghostly familiar voice that seemed to just enter Abodahon's mind.
"Excellent, just remember your place Valos, or else you'll loose your freedom, just like Nex did." Abodahon said
"Yes...master..." Valos replied with his head down.
"Excellent, now...keep your trust with the Crimson Empire, it may be useful for the next battle."
"What do we need me to do?" Valos asks
"We'll discuss this later, just keep a good eye on my son...Duilin" Abodahon said, ending the conversation and then disappearing just as he did before.
//End Chapter for all characters\\
-
Ven simply nodded. Romme, yes he knew of it. A bitter enemy of his nation at one time, then a powerful ally. Then an enemy once more... Back and forth. It was a three hundred year history between the two...
And then one day, it was gone.
The King didn't know whether to celebrate or mourn. The two kings had last met on unfriendly terms, but still, no nation deserved a fate such as that... An explosion, an evil spell, rumor circulated that the island had returned after the blast, but it wasn't the same... what was left of the civilization that was once there in ruins...
-
"So, you are a wizard?" Albatrash says to his new companion "You should know I don't like witchcraft." He adds
"Well I only use basic element spells and none of that black magic crap." replies Wizzy.
"Good."
"Well... anyways there is a battle going on out there and I want to be a part of it!
So lets go to the commander."
They head toward the commander's office and see that he is looking busy.
"You Albatrash! Get over here!" The commander says.
"Yes sir!"
"You looking for some action?? The commander offers
"Uhh...Well...I'm not into..."
"No pervert! I mean do you want to go into battle?"
"Ohh! Oh, yes sir."
"Great, I?ve got squad of shock troops ready to send to Alphagrad and the commanding officer died when Ragnar and you have permission to lead the squad.
"Perfect! Wizzy, you can come to. If that?s alright?" Jonny asks
"It is, now lets go inspect the troops!"
//End for all my charaz, I guess...ner...\\
-
"The job is done."
Hyperion looked at the destruction he caused and grinned. In a smooth motion he waved his hand and the fire disappeared. He began flapping his wings, but barely got off the ground before falling back down. He glanced over to his wing where a spear had been lodged.
"Damn"
A group of the remaining Greys surrounded him, they were all armed and ready to strike.
//End Chapter for mine\\
-
An even greater darkness swept the battlefield as night fell...
To be continued...
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 8</span>
Flashes of light could be seen in the darkness between the hundreds of glowing balls of light-- reflections off the armor between the scattered torches. A "Hail Emperor Draven" resonated from the small group of men scattered around the Emperor, and then they parted. Some by flying wyverns, some by large scaly lizards with the speed of horses, and some simply by foot. They had their orders.
Quiet moments passed.
The darkness was almost impenetrable, and a torch bearer could barely see five feet in front of him.
Large columns of torches could be seen from one watching in the distance, forming two organized groups. The two legions separated, one moving northward to Alphagrad, the other southward to Retangrad. Wave two was beginning...
Then a red light tore the sky. It was Draven. He flew eastward at an altitude of 200 feet or so, away from the battle at a casual pace...
----
Ven sat up, startled at the sound of clanging armor, a steady strong marching sound somewhere behind him. He had apparently dozed off for a few minutes and sat up to peer over the rock behind him that he was leaning on. He tried to pinpoint the location of the fading noise, but there was nothing but blackness... what sort of an army can move without light?
As the sound faded, Ven took a look around for his traveling companions, but could barely even see his hand in front of his face. He crouched down and ran his gauntlet through the dusty ground. Perhaps he could find a branch or something to ignite with a flame spell...
-
//Xorlak, the more i observe you and your characters, the more you seem like a pyromaniac to me, heh\\
Ein looked at the field filled with corpses.
-"Meh... What a waste."
He turned around facing Marshal.
-"You said we should leave soon. Where do we have to go?"
---
Steorra was walking on a road passing through a large, extremely dense forest. Soon an opening seemed to appear at the end. She hurried towards it...
...strong smell of sulfur and smoke hit her like a brick. She covered her nose with one of her sleeves, and caught sight of a large black mass. It was still smoking, but even through smoke she could make out what used to be towers, and remains of some sort of a fortress. //she is in whatever's left of Redvik right now\\
-
Duilin tried to stay awake, he was afraid of having another nightmare. It was terribly dark, he couldn't tell weather or not he had his eyes closed or not. He still only had normal vision of a human, despite his other demonic abilities. He could hear somebody rustling around near by him; the closest person to him was that knight. "Ven? Is that you? I can barely see it's so dark..."
----
Rink, barely even noticed the dark. The dark did lower his vision yet his eyes were much stronger then those of a human. Yet he mostly didn't notice since he was in deep thought. The imp was sitting up in a tree, watching the area. Something else is here. It was still preety dang hard for him to see. He could hear marching. He could also hear Duilin's voice off in the distance, and a few soldiers talking nearby as they were walking off.
----
"Holy crap is it ever dark..." A bald tanned skinned man with a goatee, wearing the standard Crimson Empire armour, stated as he walked.
"Why thank you, for the information." Said a tough looking dark skinned middle aged man, holding a torch in his left hand, and a battle axe in his right. He was also in the standard uniform, yet he had badges indicating his rank as a Captain. "I would have never noticed the blinding darkness without you giving me this detailed information." He added mockingly. He didn't nearly have as much power as Valos or Vincent did; yet the troops still gave him respect.
"Sorry, sir...It's just really dark..."
"You ken see, that red glowin' up in tha sky thou..." A messy haired soldier, who was missing a few teeth, slurred as he pointing in the sky at Lord Draven, flying off.
"Captain Darak, you think this a good idea going out like this in the dark?" The other soldier asked
"I'm not sure, corporal. But frankly it doesn't matter. Just keep moving."
"Yes, sir..."
----
"I don't know, Ein..." Marshal said back. "It's very dark.... We should wait until Haraldur arrives. We could get killed or captured if we go out there."
He then rubbed his chin. "However, we could take the darkness to our advantage, and go back the outside of the Aspye portal."
----
"They are going towards the cities..." Abbodahon said, as he watched the soldiers march off. He was in the Grey Empire palace, viewing this from a ghostly orb. Several Grey Empire servants were near by him, yet they had the Talonscar symbol tattooed on their foreheads, like Valos does. "Let's just see how this turns out...heheh." the demon smirked, and continued viewing.
-
-"Killed? Captured? Laughable! You fear these maggots?"
Ein started pacing back and forth.
-"That amulet of yours, does it not aid you? I saw you using it. Looks like a powerful toy for someone who doesn't use magic itself."
He then stopped.
-"Then again... My crossbow isn't all that magic as well. It's only the bolts."
He glanced at Marshal's amulet again.
-"So, you use magic creatures to attack, and I sometimes use a magic bolt to attack."
He then looked around himself, seeing nothing through the darkness.
-"Dark, dark, dark. Very dark. Oh well, this can be helped."
Drawing a bolt from his quiver, he wondered whether this will get much attention. He then sat down on the ground and found a rock. He whacked the bolt on the rock, creating a small spark. The spark immediately went into the bolt which got about 50 shades darker.
Ein placed the bolt in his bow, aimed high and shot. As it flew into the sky, the bolt suddenly disappeared in a vortex of light, illuminating an incredibly large area beneath it.
-"The bolt should not attract attention, as there is no way to clearly see where it exploded. Also, when I fired it it was dark, so no one should've seen it."
The illuminated area was filled with corpses. No living soldiers could be seen, though.
-"Looks as though there are no more maggots to fear, anyway."
-
Zeros' slowly opened his eyes, but, kept his arms crossed. He was sitting against the tree, using his senses to aid him.
He didn't mind the dark... It was more like an old friend that came to comfort him. He couldn't see worth shit, granted, but, he could see farther then most, because of his heritage.
He peered up at Rink in the tree.
"Can you see anything, Rink? I can hear the clanking of armor, and the feeling of hundreds of auras drawing near..." he said, moving his eyes around in the dark.
---
Allen slowly opened his eyes, and sighed, rubbing his temples, before replacing the glasses on his nose. He slowly pushed himself to his feet, and observed. Nothing had changed, but, the icky darkness that seemed to creep into the walls.
"What the hell is going on, here?" He mummbled, before streaching, and walking off in the direction of where he last saw the Elites. Maybe they knew something about this...
-
"Yeah, over here."
Ven responed to the sound of Duilin's voice.
By now he had wrapped his hand around a small shrub, and proceeded to yank it out of the ground. Placing it before him and squatting, he placed both hands on the thick leafed shrub as a red spark emitted. The first time failed to ignite, but a second try yeiled a slowly burning makeshift torch. It would only last a few minutes, though.
As he picked up the torch the light illuminated Duilin's figure.
"The darkness approached so quickly..."
He slowly waved the torch back and forth, trying to get his bearings while seeing if he could pick up any other of his allies.
"I'm assuming that group that just marched by is our side. Did the Emperor give us any specific orders, or our we to act on our own?"
He turned and scanned the area. A few points of light here and there from torches, a random burst of light on the horizon (a battle perhaps?), and there was something else...
As he faced west, there were some more lights, although these were clearly much farther away. There were two sets, one on top of another-- reflections on water. There was a small group of ships on the ocean...
"I wonder who those are..."
----
The small boat gently slid into the dark beach. A dozen dark figures stepped out hastily.
"Sire, once again I must stress the danger of entering this battlefield... We cannot even see..."
"Then they can't see us. Quickly now, before they resume their battle."
The group trudged through the sand and into some long grass eastward, without a light guiding their way.
----
As the first legion approached Alphagrad, a flurry of blue fireballs emitted from behind the city walls. The volley was returned with red flame and a bright battle of projectiles commenced.
The second legion heading south approached a Retangrad already in disarray from Hyperion's attack. This legion was met by a group of Grey foot soldiers, and a battle commenced outside the city walls...
-
"Yes, I can somewhat." Rink replied. "It looks like the armies are fighting at the cities...I can't make out much however. It seems a bit tricky to see."
He then scanned the area a bit more. "Hmmm, I also see a patch of light somewhere...I can see, a couple off people there, not sure who they are..." He then, stood up and rotated his arms, making a slight cracking sound, since he was in a stiff position for awhile. "Should we go find the others?" Rink asked.
----
Suddenly the squad Darak was with was attacked by Grey Empire foot soldiers outside the city walls of Retangrad.
Darak could still barely see with the torch he was carrying. He spotted a soldier run at him; he swung his axe, in a horizontal motion, slicing the soldier's gut, taking him down to the ground. Another Grey soldier swung his sword at him, he blocked it with his axe, yet he dropped his torch, and the light went out.
"Shit!" Darak cursed as the light went out. He then kicked at the soldier, and then swung his axe downward at his enemy finishing him off.
He then backed into something and following his first reflex he spun around and hacked at the it with his axe, making a wood chopping sound. He appeared to have hit a tree. He let out a breath of relief. Torchlight then cased his shadow upon the tree, and he turned around, and readied to attack the person, yet it was a friendly.
"Ah, good." Darak said, nodding, he picked up the unlit torch, and then motioned to the torch barrier. "Quick, light it." The soldier did so, and the two then split up.
----
"Hopefully that will not reveal our position." Marshal said to Ein, as he stood up. He then checked his machinegun. "Well then, maybe we should still be on the look out. I can hear a battle going on however, near by the cities. However, I'm mainly worried about the Empire's allies. Mostly that Zeros' guy. He gives me the creeps."
----
"No I didn't hear anything. I haven't seen Valos since he walked off, for some reason." He then stepped beside Ven, to get a closer look at what he was looking at.
"I don't know...They don't think those guys are with the Empire." He said softly. "But judging by the fact that they are sneaking around in pitch dark I don't think they are here on a pleasure trip..."
He then softly stepped closer. "Let's see what they're up to."
----
Suddenly a purple glowing projectile began to fall down in the centre of the battle outside of Retangrad. A few soldiers looked as the glow landed down, some people even stopped fighting.
A figure covered in a glowing purple aura could be seen. The figure stood up, the Crimson troops recognized him as Valos. He then drew out his sword, and pointed it diagonally upward. He remained silent and motionless.
Abbodahon's voice echoed in his head. Remember your place Valos, or else you'll loose your freedom, just like Nex did.
He closed his eyes, and then swung his sword around in the air. A Grey Empire soldier ran at him, yet his head was sliced off before he could even make a move. He then began to clash swords and fight with the troops attacking him.
----
"That fool..." Abodahon, groaned. He was viewing Valos fighting. "Well...I'll give him awhile, he's been in the Empire for a long time, so it should take him awhile to think things over."
He was sitting down on some sort of demonic throne. The room was glowing red, and the doorway seemed to have figures of skeletons and demons, there was an eerie looking fountain that flowed red wine. A servant scooped up some of the wine with a wine glass and handed it to Abodahon. He sipped the wine, as he watched the fight go on. He then viewed the fight at Alphagrad. "Ahhh." Abodahon grinned. "My men have arrived."
----
Suddenly five ghostly figures seemed to jump over the walls, of Alphagrad. Yet detail could not be easily noticed, they were wearing dark grey suits, and had strange red glowing eyes, and wore gauntlets, similar to Abbodahon's yet made of a more simple metal, and only rubies on them, and much smaller. They began to blast blood red lasers from their hands at the Crimson warriors.
-
-"Zeros', eh? Hmm... Oh, is he the guy who was with birdie last time we saw them? Seems like it..."
Ein looked around. The light was still visible. It was as if it was emitted from one location in the sky, but every time you tried to glance at it, it moved to a different spot. Clever illusion, Ein thought. That Aspye //sp\\ mage had some nifty tricks up his sleeve...
-"Hey, now that I mention it, the name Zeros' does ring a bell! I heard some people talking about him in Laus. He's the guy who kills the planet if he dies, right?"
-
"Sounds like a plan to me."
The shrubbery in his hand began to burn out, but with the light of the ships visible, at least he could keep his bearings. He checked his blade in his scabbard strapped to his back and proceeded to carefully step eastward towards the ocean, tossing the last remnant of the smoldering leaves on the ground. He knew his black cloak would make him practically invisible in the darkness, so he whispered to Duilin behind him.
"This way."
----
"My lord, I am lost! I cannot see where I am going!"
"Over here!"
The voice came from a hundred feet to the man's left, and he followed it to rejoin his group.
Whispers from the men in back could be heard.
"Has our Lord truly gone mad? Such a wild goose chase this is..."
"Quiet! Our Majesty's Eye of Truth allows him to see all. Even through total darkness!"
Up ahead, a more elderly but stately voice could be heard.
"Hold on. I will check the situation."
A faint blue glow penetrated the darkness, and illuminated the one in front. An older bearded man became visible, wearing a crown and robes. The blue light seemed to emanate from his forehead. As quickly as it appeared, the light vanished.
"Yes, he's here... this way, quickly now."
----
At Alphagrad, those in the front line were quickly slaughtered by the ghostly figures. Beastly screams suddenly burst out from behind as a group of lizard men barring scimitars and shields attacked the five dark warriors from the darkness, blocking the beams with their shields as they drew closer...
-
//Xorlak, are any of your characters near the remains of Redvik right now? I want Steorra to ally with the Crimson Empire, if you don't mind\\
Steorra walked around the rubble, not seeing much through the darkness. Somehow there was lava all over the place... Where would lava come from in this environment?
---
-"Eh, it doesn't matter. You know what? I have a pretty good place to go to. It doesn't have many people in it, though... We could teleport there. On the other hand, I'm going. If you want, you can come with me."
Ein took out yet another bolt and started drawing complex circles on the ground.
-
//Ein, outside of Retangrad, Darak is fighting there. Maybe Steorra could make contact with him.\\
"I'll take your word for it." Marshal said, stepping closer to Ein. "There is nothing for us here." He added, he still kept a firm grip on his machinegun however.
----
Duilin fortunately was also wearing black, yet his wings may make him stand out a bit more, he folded them tightly down. He then nodded in acknowledgement to Ven and followed him.
----
The ghostly figures, then dashed towards the lizard men, jumping up in the air, behind their foes, and continued to blast beams at them.
----
"Hmmm? I hope those cold-blooded warriors, don't cause too much of a problem. I'd don't have an infinite amount of my elites."
Adodahon, being the leader, or rather the 'god' of the Talonscar cult, he personally trained a fraction of his followers, in his demonic magic. Yet not demons themselves, they have mimicked the powers Abodahon. Obviously, they were nearly as skilled as the demon lord himself, yet they could still put up quite a fight, and far surpass the basic foot troop or mage. They are titled the Talonscar Elite Warrior, but since Abodahon only sends his finest into battle, they could simply be called Talonscars.
----
Darak continued to lock weapons and take out foes as he progressed into battle. Valos however stood his ground and continued to defend himself and kill only his attackers. Enventually, the Grey Troops finally hesitated to attack him. One of the Grey Empire troops, however spotted the tattoo on Valos's forehead.
"He has the same symbol as the demon lord..." He said to one of his allies.
Darak overheard this. He then attacked the soldier who said that.
"What demon lord!?" He shouted, as he swung his axe.
The foot troop blocked the axe with his sword. "Why should I tell you?!" He snapped back, as he pushed away his attackers weapon and then swung his sword at him.
Darak blocked the swing of the blade, by hooking his axe around his opponent's weapon and he swung him to the ground, and jumped on him, and grabbed his head, by the hair, and put his axe, up to his neck. "Wrong answer!"
"He's a friend of Lord Melkoth, some demon who was around a number of years ago, they go way back. I don't know much more, honestly."
"Well, thank you. Now die." Darak sliced the man's head off. And then stood up and laughed. A Grey Empire warrior ran at him seeing a chance to take out Darak. Yet a Crimson warrior intercepted him. Fire began to catch to the trees, slightly illuminating the area, making it a bit easier to see. Valos' glowing Aura also made it easier to see.
Darak then stepped towards Valos, and saluted him. "General...is there a problem?"
Valos stood silent for a while, and kept staring into the darkness "Yes."
"May I ask what, sir?"
"No."
"Umm, very well sir..." Darak then turned around, and readied himself for more action.
-
"Hey, kid! Are you flippin' ever going to pull those damn wings in?"
"No."
"Tsu, you've had them out the whole time we've been here."
"It's necessary. I must balance the light and the darkness within me."
"Psh. Whatever. No skin off my back."
Tsu looked at the streak that had shot past. "That's..."
"...Yeah." Zion finished the sentence for him. He then looked to Tsu. "Are you going to do it, or not?"
"Yeah. I'll do it." Tsu gathered a massive amount of energy. "Ready... Judgment variation... Damnation variation... Apocalypse!!!"
Tsu's wings... A white one on the left, a black one on the right... Both flashed and spreaded as wide as possible. The area before him was then bombarded with rays shooting up from the earth and down from the heaven, each one consisting of a light and dark ray spiraling together. "How was that, Zion?"
"It was good... My turn. Xenai, a rock please."
"Boulder coming right up." He lifted a decent-sized boulder and hurled it a good distance over Zion's head.
"... ... ... GO!!!" A bright white flash, and the rock is dust, Zion standing right in front of it with Eternity Weapon out to the side. Really, Zion had struck the rock with the sword... In 256 places. Zion panted very heavily. "Xenai, do yours. Then we're turning in."
"Alright, wimp." He grabbed another rock and heaved it forth. "GRAAAAHH!!!" A huge burst of energy, and that rock is dust too, and Xenai is in front of the rock, in the air, with Zero Weapon extended in front of him. He landed. All of that was just one hit.
"...Alright... Let's go to bed." With Zion's word, the three turned in.
// I used both of my updates for the day up for that lame, pointless intro post. Really, they won't be able to do these moves that quickly.
--- --- ---
Aura waited in her room for an order. She was told that she had a special mission. She waited in her room now apprehensively. What kind of special mission did they have for her? The quicker it pushes her through the ranks, the better. She needs to get stronger.
--- --- ---
Seijin waited now. It was gonna come soon. Transcender was ready. He just had to wait.
-
Ein finished drawing the diagram. It made a feeble bleak flash.
-"Hmm... it's not supposed to do that..."
He walked around it a few times. Then a gigantic lightning hit the diagram from the skies, knocking Ein off his feet. It was shortly followed by a blinding flash. The ground then did something very odd: it evened out exactly, like glass. Ein bent down, and showed his finger into it. The ground seemed to sink in, but not as individual particles, rather as a whole mass. When he tried to pull it out, some of it stayed on his finger, then flowing back into the chart. In other words, ground became liquid.. Ein got up.
-"Ah, there we go. This one had to attract attention! But we don't care. Hop in!"
He walked into the liquid ground surrounded by glowing circles, and sank in it.
---
Steorra, realizing that there was nothing for her here, kept walking. She eventually hit a forest road like the one she exited out of prior to this. Walking through the road, she used her staff to illuminate the path in front of her. Suddenly, she heard voices and sounds of fighting in front of her. She saw a man with a battleaxe surrounded by other people. She came closer.
-"Ego nullum armam habeo. Nullum captium cogito. Quis es tu?"
(I have no weapon. I wish no harm. Who are you?)
//sorry, I take Latin in school, so I have to apply it somewhere...\\
-
Marshal looked behind him, and then took a deep breath and then stepped into the liquid ground and sank into as well.
----
Darak pointed his weapon at Steorra. He then heard her speak words that sounded gibberish to him. "What?" Darak said, looking confused. He even readies to strike her down.
Valos then looked at Darak. "Stop."
Darak turned his head and looked at the glowing General. "What?"
"She means no harm. She wants to know who we are." Valos said to the soldier. He then stepped toward Steorra, and began to speak in similar tongues. "We are the Crimson Empire, we are currently at war with several forces, know as the Grey Empire and The Aspyes. Right now the Grey Empire has taken over two of our towns, and we are attempting to get them back. I suggest you leave, it's not safe here."
-
Steorra came a bit closer to Valos.
-"Ubi sunt legiones tu dixis ab? Non video. Num tu falcidi?"
(Where are these armies you speak of? I don't see any. Surely you are not lying?)
The gem on her staff started burning a little brighter.
---
Ein was travelling through what felt like sticky honey, but amazingly he could breathe in it. After about six minutes the honey disappeared, and he was out in fresh air again. The town he landed in was familiar... It was the place where he got all his magic knowledge from. A half-torn signpost was still in place near the front enterance. You could vaguely make out the word: Lavessov....
-
//Ein: If you kill Zeros' the world won't be destroyed. It's only if the world is completely destroyed by unnatural means, such as, throwing a gigantic energy blast, and destroying the core of the plant, would Zeros' die with the planet. After the war, though, Zeros' connection to the plant is going to be severed. \\
Zeros' nodded to Rink, and moved from his sitting positon, moving his stiff joins, cracking his neck and knuckles.
"We should. Strength in numbers, and all that jive. Even the most powerful warriors in the world need allies," he murmurred, refering slightly to himself. Without the others, he probably wouldn't be alive today. Nor would Draven. Haraldur, Melkoth and even the big demon he had fought earlier wouldn't either, even if they wouldn't admit it.
He started to slowly walk forwards, his hands stuffed in his pocket, and the sheath of his sword glowing slightly, giving him a five-foot radius of light around him.
---
Allen stopped near a guard, and muttered something to him. The guard saluted Allen, and pointed in a direction. He nodded to the guard, and saluted back.
Allen turned quickly in that direction, and started to walk.
-
//I suppose I misunderstood you, Zeros'.\\
-
(My apologies for the short update. Been kind of busy.)
Ven followed the direction of the lights of the ships, cautiously walking down the shallow slope of a hill (for it was still impossible to see). After a moment he paused, hearing voices ahead. He held out his left hand to signal Duilin to stop and listen.
A voice echoed from the darkness:
"Who goes there?"
A familiar voice... In near disbelief, Ven took a step forward.
"... My Lord...?"
A burst of light came from the direction of the voice, illuminating a older man holding a freshly lit torch. A fine green robe and a simple crown adorned his head. The light unveiled eleven more men clad in armor behind him, some simple of leather, some of a more intricate green metal.
Ven stared at the man for a moment... and then lowered himself to his right knee.
"My Lord..."
He turned his head slightly to explain to Duilin.
"This is my liege, King Henri of Tjed..."
-
//heh, look at me, i'm such a fanatic: every other post on this page is mine\\
Steorra waited, expecting an answer. Valos was just about to say something, but then she said:
-"Tacite! Ego sonum audio. Nos solus non sumus."
(Quiet! I hear a sound. We are not alone.)
Suddenly, a huge man with an even bigger axe came out behind one of the trees behind Steorra. He pushed her aside.
Another man, a shorter one with a black hooded cape appeared left of Valos. A third one came out to the right of him holding a large odd-looking mace on his shoulder. Then, a tall man with a sheathed sword and a tall-collared cape slowly appeared out of the darkness behind him.
-"You there! With the hair! Do you serve the Greys?"
-
Melkoth looked down on his new palace and smiled. He entered one of the larger chambers.
"So, Abodahon my friend, how is the battle going?"
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur finally arrived at the palace that Salazar was staying in, completely invisible to the eye.
He chucked a large fireball down onto the palace in order to bring Salazar out.
____________________________________________________________________
As he was by his desk, Salazar heard a loud crash and felt a great heat that then turned into his room being in flames. He quickly flew out of the palace, flicking a few embers of his now damaged fatigues.
He looked around, and saw noone. So, it must have been incompetance in looking after the boilers for the baths, he thought.
Haraldur, remaining invisible, was some meters away from Franco. He lifted up a rifle that materialised in his hand (invisible) to his shoulder. He aimed it at Franco's head and fired.
Despite his quick senses, Franco had no chance, as the bullet hit him before the sound arrived.
The bullet entered through the forehead over Franco's right eye. It passed through the brain expanding and breaking up. The entire back of the skull was blown off, and fell down with the rest of Franco's lifeless body and the pink sludge which was the brain mixed with blood.
Haraldur's invisibility stopped as he started to rain fireballs on the area.
____________________________________________________________________
Quintus stared at Vincent for a few moments. "You mean to say that Draven has failed to utilise one of the oldest tricks in the book? Surely he could not be so dim as to not see the value of religion as a control mechanism for the plebians?
"Melkoth is Ragnar? Ha! No, they are quite different individuals. My Lord is a God-Emporer, who's cult even now is the state religion of Alterna, under the name of Dios, normally. Ragnar, or Haraldur, is a dangerous lunatic with no respect for established order.
"I have an offer to make to you, the alternative being death. The new Empire will be in need of nobles, generals and others of high position. Judging by your talents, I could see you easily being very important. A High General, for instance..."
____________________________________________________________________
Years had passed, and an unaged Tesla looked down on the area surrounding Laus. Laus itself had been turned into a museum, of sorts. All day to day living was in the nearby Urbanates, the large structures around the old centre. Industry was magically automated and products distributed, most factories being a way away.
The most common hobbies were exploration and mapping as the colonist found out more about their new land.
The experiment had been an amazing success, having reached a state of harmony quicker than had intially been thought possible. At last, proof that their design for society would actually work...
He was standing on a platform high in the air where the door to Gaian remained closed, below him there were many flags waving as farewell celebrations were taking place. He opened the door, and entered Gaian, locking the way behind him. Above the sea, he reduced the invisible doorway in size and place it in a box, which he locked. He put it in his pocket. It would be impossible to get to Laus until the box was opened, due to the universal border protections. It would be impossible until he at last unlocked the box after the success of the project.
He received a signal, from Haraldur (who had just sensed his return), telling him of the death of Benito Franco Salazar, and to liberate Alterna. He flew west.
-
"Sir Ven Hyul... you need not bow."
The king took a few steps towards the crouching knight. Ven stood up, but still did not look his liege in the face.
"My Lord, I apologize..."
"There is no need for that, Ven. It is behind us..."
"Then..."
"Yes, your title remains. Though it was forbidden for you to leave, I cannot blame you for chasing after your brother..."
"I am most grateful..."
"I've come because we desperately need you back, Ven..."
"What is it? Another demon attack? Revolt?"
"No... much of the population has succumbed to a dark plague. Thousands are bedridden do to this strange illness... The moral of the nation has dwindled to nothing since, well you know... and your disappearance... If you were to return, I know it would restore hope to our people..."
Ven brought his gauntlet to his chin and lowered his gaze to the ground. The king continued:
"Forget Mavas. He's gone..."
-
Vincent took one step backwards, easing up the focus of his shotgun.
"Hmmm, a most interesting proposition..."
In fact, it was... He had never actually considered revolt as a means to gain rank... A High General... Yes... Still, the Crimson Empire had treated him well...
But what difference does a color make?
Vincent brought the shotgun to his shoulder, resting with the barrel pointing upwards. He grinned.
"You'd have to pay quite a bit, as well. Treachery against Draven is quite the risky business... Though I cannot see how you could possibly afford not to have an insider, if you know what I mean..."
His glasses glared with the light of a nearby torch, accenting his devilish grin...
-
//Zeros': so you made the whole Zeros' - Gaian thing to stop people from using way too powerful spells during the war?\\
The man with the tall collar unsheathed his sword. It was as though it was made of ice, and it looked very vicious.
-"I will ask you again. Are you with the Greys?"
--- --- ---
Ein came into one of the larger buildings in the town. He turned over to Marshal.
-"Hey! See those logs and planks over by that house? Could you bring them over?"
Meanwhile, he went inside the building, and saw a small table, a sheet of paper and some pens lying on the table. He picked one up and started sketching what looked like a strange machine...
-
"Excellent. By paying you, I assume you mean as when you are High General or similar? Well, we will probably be using this system, which is a modification of our old system in order to reflect the greater importance of powerful individuals in the this world than ever before:"
The ambient light decreases in intensity, and a screen appears in the air with light being projected onto it from an invisible source somewhere behind Vincent (basically, this is a spell). With the aid of diagrams (that I cannot be bothered to draw), Quintus explains:
"The structure of the Grey Empire is like this. At the top is the God-Emporer Melkoth. Simple enough. He personally owns a large portion of the land of the Empire and does with it as he sees fit. He also manages the overal state apparatus. Below him is the Army Council, including High Generals, any assistants they brings, and Church leaders (all at least 2nd Class Generals , religious belief discouraged), who are responsible for keeping the population spiritually compliant, and there are a number of Generals responsible for policing (i.e, keeping the people under control). In addition, there is a High General who has an additional responsibility of coordinating scientific, technological and magical research (are you interested in the position?). Of course, there is also me. These all have large areas of land, containing millions of people, to do with as they see fit. Pretty much absolute power for each region. That is not to say that you have to do any management. What are sub-ordinates for?
"All trade is conducted and controlled by and through the army and those High Generals, with, as you can see, guaranteed labour. This is where a lot of your wealth, apart from taxation, comes from. I am sure that you can understand its significance.
"As for the rest of society, at the moment it should be sufficient to say it mostly is run under military lines with dissension not much, or at all tolerated. Of course, this varies from province to province according to each General's, or otherwise, personality."
The screen disappeared.
-
//I was kinda hoping someone would give Aura a mission. I'm shot right now.
Zion woke up, kicking Xenai in the ribs. "Oof! Bitch!" Next, he simply grabbed Tsu's arm and pulled him up. "Uhhh."
"Zion, those were my damn ribs!"
"Uhhh."
"Look," said Zion, "Something weird's going down. I wanna find Draven and figure out what it is."
"So I guess we're headed to the Crimson Capital?" inquired Tsu.
"Yep. Let's go." The warriors ejected their wings... But the weird darkness... Zion took out a compass. "This isn't going to help. Tsu, you're going to hate me for asking this, but... please, pinpoint Aura's location. She may still be at the capital."
"...Fine..." Tsu closed his eyes and concentrated hard. He then pointed off in the direction of the capital.
"Alright, NOW let's go!" And the three took off.
-
Valos narrowed his eyes as he looked at the man questioning him. "No, I am not." He then turns to Steorra. "As you can see in the darkness, there are warriors in Grey Armour, look around."
Darak pointed his axe towards the newcomers. "Who are you people?" He asks in demand.
----
Marshal looks around at the area, and then nods to Ein and walks over to pick up the logs. He then walks into the building were Ein seems to be drawing something; he places the wood onto the table and then looks at the paper. "What's this?" He asks curiously.
----
Duilin then looks at King Henri of Tjed, and then back at Ven. "Tjed...okay. So, you're were having problems with demons." He then steppes forward, and opens his wings. "Well, you're not alone. I have half demonic blood. But don't worry...I mean you guys no harm. But anyways, if you don't mind me asking, sir, why is that you are sneaking around in an area as dark as this?"
----
Rink jumps off the tree and then follows Zeros'. "I can sense Valos' aura near by Retangrad, it's stronger then normal. But it seems like Duilin and Ven are over that way." He points near the shore. "I believe they are looking at something that came on shore."
----
Abodahon turned his head and looked at Melkoth. "Ah, not bad. However my elites seem to have ran into some large lizard men, yet I believe they can defeat them. And Valos seems to still be thinking if he should join us or not."
The picture then changes to the location of Valos and the strangers. "What's this? We seem to have some newcomers." He then looks closer upon the four strangers; one was wearing a robe, with a symbol on the back. "No...it can't be..."
He then stands up. "It seems followers, of an old rival of mine, Iban are here." He then looks at Melkoth. "After the unexpected death of Qor, several demons, including me and Abodahon fought over the place of the throne. Iban, seemed to have been my greatest problem for gaining the throne, turning demons against me. Because of him, I was locked up. Knowing that his followers are here, gives me rage. If Valos joins us, then I can have him destroy them for me. I have to find Duilin, Valos isn't doing a fast enough job upon him. The best way to do this is for me to confront him in battle. However, with his friends around it may cause problems." He then thinks for moment. "Perhaps, you could distract his friends for me, wile I confront Duilin."
-
-"Quis sunt haec homi?"
(Who are these people?)
Steorra charged up her staff which started glowing brilliantly, and slammed it into the man who pushed her. Leto (that's his name) stumbled a little, then got back up and came closer to Steorra.
-"Damn you... Didn't your parents teach you not to intervene?!"
He backhand-slapped her, after which she fell down unconcious.
Felix Leaven, observing this with a careless expression on his face, turned around facing Valos as he heard him speak.
-"These warriors? I see. I did not notice them before. Celer-- do the honours."
The short guy covered in a hood and cloak seemed to disappear into the darkness. Then, Gray Empire soldiers started falling down like wheat reaped with a scythe. After there were no more soldiers left, Celer reappeared on where he stood before, except just after reappearing, Leaven caught sight of two of his daggers. Blood dripping off them as Celer sheathed them. "Good work", he thought. Nice and quiet. He turned back to Valos.
-"I see. We are the Iron Wing subdivision of the Ni-- I mean, an organisation. My name is Baron Felix Leaven. The axeman over there is Leto the Meteor, the caped man is Celer the Gale, and that over there is Ogen the Worm. We are seeking an entity known as 'Abodahon'. Do you know where we could find him?"
--- --- ---
-"Ah, thank you. These planks should come in useful for the frame."
Ein heard Marshal's question.
-"This? This is just a small toy i'm building for myself... Perhaps you'd like to help?"
He finished drawing. The machine looked like a massive cart with six no less massive wheels, three on each side. It's middle resembled... something. Lots of mechanic devices, some blank spaces with symbols drawn on them. Next to the drawing of the machine there was another one, with what looked like a huge log with a sharp end. It too had two symbols on it - one on the side and one on it's rear ending.
-
Valos' eyes widened as he said Abodahon. "Abodahon, eh?" He was about to say more, but then he felt 'it' twist his heart again. He grabbed his chest, and then kneeled to the ground, his glowing aura, flashed a bit larger, and then went back to it's previous size and brightness. He then turned his head up and looked at Leaven. "Sorry about that...No I don't know about Abodahon." He then brushed his hair over his forehead, covering the tattoo.
Darak then stepped toward Valos. "We'll advance towards the city now, General. I suppose you can handle these people." Darak then yelled at a loudly. "Advance toward the city!" He then marches off with the other soldiers as they head there way toward Retangrad.
Valos then stands up. "Well, then, Leaven. I must warn you, there are many soldiers about the area, and they may mistake you for an enemy so I suggest you go about your way. There isn't anything that would interest you here."
Valos then places his sword back into the holster upon his back, he dims the glow on his aura, and the colour goes to a more light indigo. He looks the Iron Wing group. "So, is there anything else I can help you with? I was trying to have a conversation with this women, before you came dashing in here, like you own the damn place!"
----
"Well, it seems like quite an invention you have there." Marshal comments. "Yet it looks as if some of the things here will require more then just two men to build this. Fortunately for us, I have this." He holds up his amulet, for a second. "Perhaps, I could summon up my minotaur and a couple ogres as a build team?"
-
Felix heard Valos' comment. He chuckled.
-"Ignorant masses... Why must you rush your fate? There is still little time left. I advise you to make good use of it. As for her," he turned to Steorra, "she seems a lot like an unarmoured Grey agent. Leto, you know what to do."
Leto came up to her and raised his axe. Felix looked at her again. Just lying there... Unconcious... Defenceless. Where would the the honour in just killing her like that? No, no, no. If she was a Grey agent, he would see her again. Then it would make more sense to slay her.
-"Stop. Celer, Ogen, Leto, come with me. As for your comment, stranger, we do not fear these troops. We've taken on tougher enemies before. In fact, our master often requires the extermination of groups, and there were groups MUCH larger than any armies you've ever seen." He sheathed his sword.
-"It seems you're hiding something. Normally you wouldn't have such a reaction when I said the entity's name. Then again, that could have been a mere coincidence."
He took something out of his cloak, something looking like a small stone wrapped in paper. He threw it to Valos.
-"If you happen to... remember anything, take out the stone and touch it. I have one of these stones as well. We will be able to hear each other telepathically. For now, good-bye."
--- --- ---
-"Hmm, when you're right, you're right. It would take me weeks to do make this on my own. Such a team would be greatly appreciated, but we also need something that can work fine details. Do you have anything that has lots of small grippy arms?"
Ein went over to the pile of planks and logs, and started placing them together. After he placed two pieces together, he put a few marks on them and they seemed to stick together.
-
A pinpoint of crimson light appeared distantly in the darkness in front of Zion, Xenia, and Tsu. It grew rapidly and the burning fireball shot over the trio's heads, stopping some ten feet behind them. It was Draven.
Wrapped in burning flame, he turned his head and placed his right glove under his chin, underneath one of his evil smirks...
"Hmmm, yes... you three will do nicely... Quickly now, this way!"
He did a hook in the air and shot down some 50 feet, then blazed northwest, in the direction of Alphagrad...
----
The king turned his head towards Duilin, handing the torch in his hand to a man who stepped to his left.
"Well, we were not exactly sneaking around. We were looking for Ven, you see, and it happened to get quite dark. And not wanting to attract attention to ourselves..."
"Our majesty can see in total darkness!" A man shouted from the back.
"That is enough, Edward." King Henri cut him off. "And don't worry, son. I understand that there are both good and bad demons. The one that destroyed our port town five years ago was a sinister one, but we haven't seen him since."
Ven folded his arms under his cloak.
"I will return, my Lord... Though I also have obligations to allies I have made here, although I can assure you it is not with the Crimson Empire... A fierce battle is underway. A battle of two evils. Some that have saved my life have sided with one, and I feel it is my duty to repay the favor..."
"Ven, I fear we may not have much time..."
----
Vincent buried his weapon in his trench coat and placed his hands in his pockets as he watched Quintus' little presentation.
"Hmmm yes, you would find I am quite qualified to coordinate your nation's scientific and technological research, and I have experience in conducting numerous magical experiments as well..."
He placed his arms behind his back.
"Though, I must caution you not to overlook the task at hand. Any resistance you have met so far has likely been Draven toying with you. No cities in this region are of any importance to the Empire. He is likely gauging your strength. I'm sure you have been watching him for the past several years, and all indications have shown that he has done little militarily. This is most undoubtedly untrue... although my rank has not permitted me to see exactly what he has been up to..."
----
There was a loud knock on Lt. Aura's door, and a message posted there. It read:
"You are to report to the Crimson Palace, floor 25 for mobile turret control. You are to be in charge of defensive turret guns 30 to 34, mounted in the southeastern wing during the Capitol's flight to the center of the continent.
- Shinryuu E. F."
-
//Ein: Yes, but, no one, as in character type, know about it, except maybe, Melkoth, and possibly Haraldur, unless, he had told them, or, they found out somewhere else.\\
Zeros' nodded at Rink, and he looked around. The simply kept the light coming from his sheath dim, so, he could see anyone that he came in contact with. He could of expanded it much farther, but, that would give his position away. He headed in Duilin's direction, determined to reach him before someone else. Duilin may be powerful, but, he knew the demon he had fought before had some tricks up his sleeves, as did Valos.
He sensed Ven near Duilin, as well as many others. He hurried his footsteps, and walked briskly in that direction, making sure to keep Rink within the aura of light.
---
Allen wandered, and stopped in front of Aura's door, just as the messanger delivered her new orders. He cursed to himself, and adjusted his glasses. He was tempted to drag her away, and have her ignore the orders she had just recieved, but, he shook his head, and wandered off... He had to find SOMEONE to help him with his project.
-
(Actually Zeros', I wouldn't mind having Allen do something with Aura, since I'm in danger of overloading here. (Heh...))
Someone quickly walked past Allen in the hallway, followed by two soldiers. He stopped and looked at the alchemist. It was James, the short elite with the blue trimmed armor.
"I take it the defensive orbs are ready? We will likely need them soon. If you require assistants, you may take your pick out of any of our troops."
-
O_O! O_O! O_O! Draven?! Oh, how convenient.
The three whipped around and took off after him. They quickly caught up. Zion pushed ahead, next to Draven. "What's going on here?" Xenai took the other side. "Yeah, what the hell's with this trippy darkness?"
--- --- ---
Aura emerged from her room, and looked at the note. Since she was off-duty, she was in more casual clothing. "Mobile turret control? Interesting..." She saw Allen talking to one of the elites. Did he want something of her, perhaps?
-
//Trent: why does everyone insist on calling Xenai "Xenia"?\\
-
Allen turned his head, and looked at James.
"Ah... Yes. They'll be ready soon," he said, looking around. He spotted Aura, and grinned to himself. "Yes... Any troops you say? Well, then... I'd like to at Lt. Aura with me, then," he said casually. He did say anyone...
"I've gotten the main orb back online. It will last for awhile yet, but, it would only hold for a few seconds against a major attack from Haraldur or anyone else," he said. "I have to go somewhere and find a rare material to repair the orb fully with," he said.
"Well... Aura," he said, turning to her. "Would you like to come with me?" he asked, his glasses twinkling in the light.
-
Valos catches the stone, and looks at it and then puts in his pocket, along with the stone for talking to Draven. He then kneels down over to Steorra. "Are you okay?" He asks, attempting to wake her up.
----
Duilin rubs his chin as the king and Ven talked. "Ven has been a very good help. He helped warn off a large demon." He says. "It would be useful for him to stay with us, however if you have your own problems that you need him for, perhaps, we could help each other? I have a friend who's quite strong and wise, you may want to speak with him."
----
Rink continued with way along with Zeros'. He was also worried about Duilin. Ever since he seemed to side with Valos, he was worried if he would take his side. Yet he sensed Valos' aura much further away, and seemed to keep still mostly. He also seemed to have a bit of a concern of Melkoth and that brutish demon friend of his. He was obvious that they would prove to be big threat upon the world.
----
"Small grippy arms eh...Let's see." Marshal said thinking for a wile. "Ah ha..." He then steps outside, and then begins to summon four spectres that begin to make shape.
----
Darak makes his way closer to Retangrad. Suddenly, a group of Crimson warriors, a few holding torches, approaches Darak. "Captain S. Darak?" One of the soldiers says.
Darak then stops and looks at the group. "What is it?" He asks them
"We're having heavy opposition at Alphagrad. One of the Captain's recommended that we go off to get you, since you're know for you high kill count."
Darak grins. "Heavy opposition? Just more notches on my axe handle, lead the way boys." He says. He then dashes off towards Alphagrad.
//Yeah, I noticed I don't have much for Darak to do, so I suppose I may have him join up with Draven and the others. Just to get him more so into play. \\
-
Steorra got up, rubbing her cheek.
-"Ow, that guy slaps hard..."
She noticed Valos' expression when he heard her talk in English.
-"Hey, the fact that I spoke in Latin does not mean I do not know English. I thought that people speak Latin here as well as they did in where I came from. Anyway, before that rude interruption, you were saying?"
--- --- ---
The Iron Wing were walking down a familiar road that they used to travel to Valos. Trees still had marks of Leto's greataxe when he was using it to clear the way. Felix started thinking out loud.
-"You know, this is quite confusing. I don't know what to make out of this whole mess. First our Master tells us to gather all information on any Crimson associates stationed in this area, then he tells us to pick off the most recent one. Just happens to be that guy. I am SURE that he knows something... Did you see the expression on his face change when I mentioned Abodahon's name? This is all very very odd."
Leto turned facing Leaven, and said:
-"If I had to guess, the Master doesn't want that guy dead... yet."
Leaven scoffed.
-"No one's making you guess, Leto. In fact, I'd prefer you'd keep your mouth shut. Just leave the thinking to me and concentrate on doing what I tell you to."
Celer finally showed some signs of life besides walking with a dull expression on his face.
-"Why did Abodahon decide to pop up just now? Who let him out of his cage, anyway?"
Ogen, who kept quiet during the whole thing, replied:
-"Not sure, but whoever they are, they are probably not too thrilled about the idea of us going after Abodahon. Although we kept quiet during the last few years, they will learn of the Nightshade eventually. I don't think we should fear them anyway, though."
-"What DO you think, Ogen?"
Leto sighed.
-"How come he gets to think and I don't? You're not fair, Felix."
-"Life's not fair, get used to it. Anyway, you were saying?"
Ogen made up a wierd expression on his face.
-"Well... Remember when the Master was telling us of his times down there? He once mentioned that the struggle for the title of Lord of Demons included more than just him and Abodahon. I think one of them allied himself with Abodahon for some quick riches."
-"No, I don't think so... Honestly, I'm all out of ideas. I don't know WHAT to think. For now, let us just concentrate on getting back to the cave in one piece. I'll let the Master know of our opinions. As for you, I believe you have some tasks to do meanwhile?"
The other three quietly nodded.
--- --- ---
Ein looked at the shadowy outlines of creatures forming.
-"Nifty trick you have there. Must come in real useful, eh?"
-
(That was an honest typo this time! I usually get Xenai right. Heh...)
Draven continued speeding along as the lights of Alphagrad appeared on the horizon.
"The darkness is due to Ragnar's clouds covering the entire sky. Without even the stars, the night is absolute. Remind me to thank him for the tactical advantage."
Draven's aura suddenly cut, and he fell to the ground, landing on his feet.
"Suppress your magical auras. We're hitting them silently and quickly..."
He continued running on the ground at an unnaturally fast pace, making giant leaps over occasional rocks, etc. It was a slower method of movement, but it put out far less traceable energy, and no visible light...
He turned northward a bit, away from the battle raging on at the south of the city and around towards the northern wall...
----
The king turned to Duilin.
"A strong friend, huh? Yes, he may be useful. In fact, we would appreciate all the help we could get."
Ven also turned to Duilin.
"It looks like I will be in you guys' debt once more! But I don't mind returning the favor."
He turned back to his king.
"This plague you speak of. I'm assuming it stems from unnatural means?"
"That is correct, Ven. The cure is hidden from even my Eye of Truth..."
"That means..."
"Yes, some sort of curse... It doesn't seem to be contagious by any normal means, but seemingly random citizens have fallen ill..."
"Oh, dear..."
The king turned back to Duilin.
"Where is this ally you speak of so that we may ask for his assistance? We really must be off as quickly as possible. I have not even announced my departure from the courts, and my absence will be missed shortly."
----
James nodded to Allen.
"If you must leave the island. Make sure you take a communications orb with you so that you may track our position. We will be moving towards the center of the continent shortly."
He turned and continued down the hallway, the two soldiers following.
-
Melkoth said, "That I will do. First, show me where they are and other such things I must know."
____________________________________________________________________
Quintus nodded to Vincent. "You are part of our new strategy, based on exceptionally powerful individuals rather than regular armies. We need to know what is the most important place that you have some authority in (maybe the Crimson Palace? An airship base?), where you could destroy the defenses from the inside (obviously, you would be relying on soldiers relying on your orders as a General) as we attack from without. If you do it well, you could even plead incompetance, or bad luck or some such.
"Do you have any suggestions?"
____________________________________________________________________
After having driven the Alternan Army into hiding, Haraldur floated down to a nearby shanty town. There he met militants and told them that now, since their leaders and their occupyers were both now dead, they could easily conduct a revolution.
Within moments of Haraldur starting his flight towards Alterna, street fighting in the town started between revolutionaries and the remaining police. After a few hours of fighting (as in, in the future but is going to happen anyway) a red and black flag replace the Alternan flag in the town, and this action spread to surrounding areas and through the whole continent, as all authority had been effectively decapitated.
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla approached Alterna. It was still farway, but he could see smoke. The revolution was apparantly already underway, already informed by Haraldur. He smiled as the sound of street battles filled his ears during his descent...
____________________________________________________________________
Franco's diplomatic deputy sends a message to Draven to inform him that Benito Franco Salazar has apparantly been killed by an "invisible man".
-
Abodahon, nodded at Melkoth and then looked over his shoulder. "Yes, I can sense his aura, is near by the shore lines, I believe there are others with him." He then looks at Melkoth again. "I have a strong connection with Duilin, because the one time I visited Gain clocked in a human form, I raised a family. Duilin is my first-born child, and is the only one who is still alive. I wish to keep it that way, for now. A few other things, Duilin's friends, there is a knight, covered in a dark robe. He may seem weak, but don't ignore him, there are also a few, swordsmen, who also have skills in magic, such as spells and flying. Also, he has made friends with another half demon, yet I believe he has a half god form, rather then human. He appears to be stronger then most of the others. I have reasons to believe he has other friends, yet I haven't fought them. I did see a tiny little imp, but I doubt he'd be able to do anything, yet I'd like him to be left to me."
Abodahon then pauses for a bit. He then remembers something. "Ah, yes. Valos, is also allied with them at the time, as are the Crimson Warriors. Yet, of course that can be taken care of. I will get Valos, on our side, and then the three of us can take them. We have to be careful because of the darkness, yet we can use that to our advantage." He then took a deep breath. "So, in short, my plan is, obtain Valos, then go to Duilin and his friends. Perhaps capture him. It would be easier to persuade him that way."
----
Darak and his group arrive at Alphagrad. Suddenly one the ghostly figures jumps in the middle of the group, swinging its gauntlet-covered fists, at the warriors. Darak blocks the gauntlet with his axe.
"What the hell...are you...human?" Darak says in confusion
The elite seems to ignore him, and swings another punch. Darak blocks the gauntlet once more with his axe, and then kicks his opponent back. The elite then blasts a red laser from his palm. Darak slides out of the way. "Holy smokes..."
----
The blue figures, coming from Marshal's amulet, begin to make shape. Two of them, finally form into an Ogre, and one forms into a squid like creature, with a shell. The largest one is still in progress.
"I'm done three...Give this four one a second." Marshal says to Ein.
----
Valos then stood more upright. "Oh well...you seem quite powerful. If you go..." He then tries to detect Darak, he couldn't really, since he barely had any magic, in fact maybe none, he likely has the ability to use it, yet he hasn't learned any. "That way...You'll find a city. Alphagrad, the solider from earlier may need some help. If you can find him, he may reward you." He informs. "I however, cannot help you. I have matters to attend to."
----
"Well, I haven't seen him in a few hours. However, I detect he is coming this way..." Duilin tells the king. He then turns around, to check if he can see him. "Hmm, he seems to have a light around him, at least I believe that is him." He then lowers his voice. "I see, Rink with him too...I hope he's forgiven me for what I said, earlier..."
-
Steorra got up.
-"Thank you, I'll do so promptly."
She began walking down the path Valos pointed to. She used her staff to illuminate the way ahead of her.
--- --- ---
The Iron Wing closed up to a large mountain range. Felix lead them through the underground tunnel they've used so many times... and then entered the cave. It was enormous. A large open area greeted them as they walked in. It was dimly lit by a few torches near the ceiling, and millions upon millions of candles on walls. These candles, each enchanted by Iban, never burned out.
The frontal area housed a large amount of round tables with four chairs around each of them. Iban's diciples sat in those chairs and did various tasks like reading a random book on world domination, a magic tome, or planned future attacks and such. Some had sheets of paper in front of them upon which they had a large number of equasions. The diciples wore long red robes with shoulder pads that had the Nightshade symbol on it. Some were also holding a book, and other, higher-ranking ones, had a staff.
In this area, the Iron Wing split up. Leto followed a passage directly to the east of the centre; Ogen went north-east. Celer crawled through a narrow passage to the west, and Leaven went straight north.
Leto entered a room full of weapons, ammunition for the said weapons, and a few levers. You could see crossbows, small cannons, axes, swords, maces, morning stars, flails, spears, javelins, knives, one or two flamethrowers, some shotguns and even a submachinegun. The levers controlled defensive measures for the whole cave. Some operated portcullises, other controlled trap doors, a few did fun stuff like rocks that came tumbling down the tunnels or launched arrows in a narrow passage. Leto was here to make sure everything was operational, and then he and the Iron Wing were to meet Leaven for some unnamed assignment.
Celer entered a place that resembled the main area, but a lot smaller and with different-looking people. These guys wore black robes and had iron shoulder pads, instead of just leather. In the middle of the whole thing there was a very big round table. Celer needed to go over some of the plans for future assaults on the Greys. He was in charge of forces promptly getting in and out. Leto was to command the forces themselves. He was there to make sure everyone did what they were supposed to - slaughter everything that moved. In short, this was a strategy refining/planning area.
Ogen followed a long tunnel leading outside, to a storage yard. All medical supplies, food and fresh water were kept here. The outside environment was cold, and cold was mandatory for the longevity of most of the items that were kept there. Sometimes, however, the water froze, and a skilled mage was needed to thaw it out. Simply putting it, imagine thawing a lake - yeah, that's how big their water reservoir was. Ogen's job was to maintain, distribute and manage all items that were kept here. He was also in charge of getting new supplies.
Leaven had to walk for a LONG while just to reach a small magically-powered elevator, and then wait for about six minutes 'till it descended. The entire way down was teeming with all sorts of traps - hidden pits, rocks in the ceiling that fell onto your head if you didn't know how to avoid the trap, and many other nasty surprises. Finally he reached an incredibly large door with eight guards around it. They all wore dark-red robes but had chainmails, and were armed with the most brutal weapons in the armory where Leto was. Some torches on the walls lit their grim faces. They had a reason to be pissed - their shifts sometimes lasted more than six days.
Felix quietly said to one of the guards:
-"Guildia ne pobedit."
The guard just stood there for a while, then pulled a leaver behind him. The doors opened.
The next area that he entered was, mildly putting it, big. It was at least eight times the size of the first area, and was even darker. Only one torch hung from the ceiling, a big one, but still, just one. It barely lit the path in the middle of the whole thing. The path itself was a thin walkway, to both sides of which was an endless chasm... They say it lead to Hell.
Felix walked over the path. After two minutes of solid walking, he finally reached a small "island", upon which was a throne. A man in blood-red robes resided upon it. He had a long white beard that could be seen from under his hood. His face was barely seen due to the lack of lighting, but the lower part of it showed. He had pale, shriveled skin, with a small scar on the right cheek. He took a deep shaky breath, and spoke:
-"Zdravstvuy, Felix. Dokladivay."
(Hello, Felix. Report.)
-"Gospodin moy, mi nashly tovo kovo ty nam naznachil iskyat."
(My Master, we found the one whom you told us to seek.)
-"Neuzhely? I chto?)
(Oh? And what?)
-"My ego doprosili ob Abodahone. On nechego ne otvetil, no mne kazhetsya on chtoto skrivayet. Ya emu dal... kamen."
(We asked him of Abodahon. He did not say anything, but it seems to me that he is hiding something. I gave him... the stone."
-"Kamen? Zachem? Ya yego tebe doval tolko dlya extrennih sutuacziy."
(The stone? What for? I gave it for you for only the most extreme situations.)
-"Gospodin my, u menya nebilo drugovo vybora. Eto bil... yedinstevvy put."
(My Master, I had no other choice. It was... the only way.)
-"Ladno. Ya na tebya raschitivayu, Felix. Ne prervi moih ozhidaniy."
(Very well. I am counting upon thee, Felix. Do not fail me.)
-"Spasibo, gospodin moy. Ya vas ne predam."
(Thank you, my Master. I will not betray you.)
//if anyone wondered, I decided to stick with my native tongue this time - Russian. After all, an evil cult's leader (heck, even the entire cult!) should have a mysterious language that no one else can understand!\\
Leaven left the temple, and retreated back to the main lobby. There, the rest of the Iron Wing were waiting for him. Ogen first saw Leaven.
-"What did the Master say?"
-"He didn't say anything. I just told him what he did and how we acted, and that's about it. Anyway, we have something special for us today, something that the Master planned and got our friends over there to build." He pointed in the general direction of the diciples.
-"Haha, I'm just cracking with exitement..."
-"Don't be so concieted, Leto. You don't know what it is yet, and you're already being an ass."
-"Oh fine... Let's just go then."
Felix walked into the armory, and came up to the wall. He started dragging his hands all over it, as if trying to find something. Finally, he found it.
Eight circles of brilliant green light appeared from the floor, surrounded the group, and then flashed brightly. After that they gently went back into the floor... but the Iron Wing was gone.
--- --- ---
Ein glanced at the Ogres and the squid.
-"Hmm, looks good. Especially that squiddly thing... Where'd you get that? Hell, I don't even know what it's called."
He looked at the pile of materials for his "machine".
-"Can you tell these things instructions? If so, then could you please tell those two ogres over there to ram down a few trees for me? I'm gonna need a hell of a lot more than what we have here..."
Ein then noticed the fourth creature forming, and what Marshal said about it.
-"Heh, must be a real beauty then, eh?"
//Whew! That was a huge post!\\
-
"Yes, of course I can." Marshal replied. "They are under my complete control, however I can release them at any time, yet I usually can't get back my control unless it's something small or less intelligent." He explains as he continues summoning.
He then motions his hand to a tree, and the two ogres, armed with large axes, lug there way toward the tree and begin hacking at it.
"Oh yes, and this squid thing. In fact, I'm not entirely sure what it is myself. Back when I was with the Blue Minotaur, I looked this thing up in a historical summoning book. Not very many of these things are even alive in the wild today. I'm sure if one was to travel to the bottom of the sea, they would find once. However this once is covered in slime, so it can travel on land. The tools may get a little slimy because of that however, so beware of sharing tools with it."
The giant spectre then finally takes form of a large minotaur.
"My pride and glory, behold. This thing, could uproot trees, hammer things into place, without even using it's hammer." Marshal says with a grin, as the minotaur gives a large stretch.
-
Ein took a few steps back and tripped on a random root that was just sitting there.
-"Damn! Holy crap! umm... DAMN!!! That's one huge minotaur! With that thing, the work should fly by. This thing can probably build the entire machine by itself!"
-
Seeing a torch light in the distance, as well as the presence of several other auras - including Ven and Duilin's - Zeros' quickens his pace slightly, and comes upon them, greeting Duilin and Ven.
"Hello, Duilin," he says, and nods to Ven. "And hello Ven," said Zeros', as his head turns towards Ven's king. "Oh? And who might you be?" he said curiously. He could sense a strange aura around the king, but, it wasn't anything he was concerned with. Obviously, if Ven and Duilin were being civil to this person, they were no threat.
But, he kept his aura VERY surpressed. To any average senser, he would be no more powerful then a peasent.
---
Allen nodded at James, as he walked away. He indeed had his communications orb with him. He turned towards Aura, and smiled at her, the corners of his lips curling into a smile.
"Ah... It seems we're going to work together again, Lt. Aura," said Allen, as he crosses his arms. "Now... The mission I need you for is very simple. I need to collect an ore from a distant island. I need this ore to fully repair the shield generators. As you heard, right now, they can only hold for a few seconds agianst a man of Haraldur's power.
"In the description of the mission, it MAY NOT seem very dangerous... Go to an island, collect some ore, come back... But, the ore won't be that easy to get... It's guarded closely by many strange creatures. I may have my alchemy, but, I don't have any pure, raw power. In terms of power levels, I'm probably the weakest out of all the big players," he said, not at all ashamed at admitting it. He had learned humility long ago. He wouldn't delude himself. "They could kill me faster then I could blink.
"So... What do you say, Aura? Up for something to get out of this old castle?" he questioned. If he was right about Aura, she wouldn't turn down any sort of mission that involved danger. In his fourty and more years of service in the Dark Empire, he'd seen all the types: the ones who fight for honor; the ones who fight for power; the ones who fight for the thrill of battle, and so on, and so forth.
If he was right about her... She was in one of those many categories.
-
Draven sped ahead of the others, coming to the northern wall of Alphagrad. The barrier around the city illuminated the area and was very visible up close, like a translucent orange wall several feet in front of the city's real wall.
It was an excellent defense, and would require a very strong attack to destroy it.
A small hole, on the other hand...
Draven calmly walked up to the barrier's edge, stepping into the light it emitted. He brought his right hand back, and it swelled with crimson energy. He then thrust it forward, a ring shockwave resonating from the impact with the barrier, his cape blasting back. The barrier before him shattered like glass, a ten foot tall hole appearing before him with deep cracks spreading out several more feet.
Though the cracks quickly mended, the hole was much slower to disappear. Draven entered the barrier parameter, and folded his arms, waiting for the others to catch up.
----
"This is King Henri of Tjed, my Liege..." Ven answered Zeros' for the king.
The king spoke up after him.
"We hear you are quite strong and wise, and may be able to assist us in ridding our nation of a terrible plague, likely brought on by a curse or something similar. Of course, if you are occupied here, we will not trouble you. But we must leave immediately..."
----
Vincent nodded, keeping the grin.
"My presence in the Crimson Palace would arose suspicion, because I have been assigned to this area. However..."
Also, Draven might be at the Crimson Palace. He knew better than that.
He walked towards the left wall of the corridor they were in and placed his left hand on the wall. The bricks rippled and formed into solid stone, upon which etchings formed. It was a map of the Dark Continent.
"... I know of a place that, if captured, would ensure your victory in the west... As you may know, there are five major fortresses within the Dark Continent (one being the Crimson Palace)."
He pointed to the twin cities, Alphagrad and Retangrad, then moved his finger east and slightly north.
"This is Sigmund, the fortress of the west, located in the foothills of the Dark Mountain Range. A military super stronghold and an airship dock... As long as this place is functional, Draven will have a virtually unlimited supply of troops to attack you with... It is built into the side of a mountain, equipped with the standard barriers and the like. It is virtually impenetrable to both land and aerial attack..."
He turned to Quintus, folding his arms.
"I have no authority over the fortress because I am already in charge of Redvik. However, I will have no problem entering... Bring your force to the front of the palace, in plain sight, but no closer than 1,000 yards from the front gate. I will take care of the rest, you will know what to do when you see it... However, make sure the force is truly prepared for war. I will be able to level the playing field, but the fighting itself is up to you..."
----
Julian read the message addressed to Draven, for he was in charge of the capital at the moment. He looked up at the other two elites in the room with him.
"He's in Alterna."
-
//Sorry about that, you guys. :/
"Ragnar? Isn't that Haraldur?" asked Zion.
"And he's crazy fuckin' powerful, ain't he?" asked Xenai.
The three warriors kept up with Draven quickly and efficiently, without using their ki. Tsu said not a word...
--- --- ---
//I so hope Haraldur or any other of the super-powerfuls tries to kill Aura. I want Seijin to kick their ass. >D
"Sounds interesting. I'll do it, Allen. I'll be right out, I need to get my armor on." She walked on into her room and commenced to get ready.
-
The Iron Wing appeared on a large installation set upon a mountaintop. Iban's diciples were everywhere; some were just pointlessly wandering around, others were reading books, and some were tweaking a HUGE machine that was the aim of the mountaintop installation. One of the diciples noticed the group.
-"Hello, Iron Wing. Welcome to installation S-207. This is one of the projects the we have been working on for the past while. This particular one is an experimental instant-teleportation device. See that vortex over there?" The diciple pointed to a swirling storm emitting lightings in the middle of the mountaintop.
-"You should be aware of the project by now. After all, you got here using a smaller version of it. Anyway, in case if you forgot: We set a destination, you walk into the vortex, you appear at the destination. Pretty simple."
Leaven rubbed his chin.
-"I was not supposed to get here. We were to be arriving at S-184 where we were to conduct an experiment on opening a vortex to the space beyond our planet. From what I heard, it's uninhabitable there, so if the project will still advance, it can only be used as a weapon. Anyway, why were we rerouted her-- WHAT THE...?!"
The portal in the middle started to fluctuate. It sent lightings out beyond the shields that held it in place - one of them headed for Leaven. He barely dived out of the way as the lightning hit the exact spot where he was standing, and ripped a hole to the floor below. The diciple shouted something, and the shields became more condensed.
-"Sorry, we're having some trouble with that thing. Anyway, did you see that fluctuation? That means someone's coming."
The portal sent out another lightning, this time hitting the shield. A man came through the vortex, and harmlessly descended to the floor through the shield. He was another one of Iban's diciples, but looked more like one of the guards that guarded the temple. He had a chainmail and a large one-sided red axe that he himself could barely lift. He came over to Leaven.
-"Gospodin Leaven, an urgent message from the Master. You are to proceed to installation S-184 using the reconfigured instant teleportation portal. You will be recieve further instructions on site."
Felix looked at the portal with an obvious dislike.
-"Do we really have to go through that...? I'd rather just wa..."
-"Gospodin, it's really urgent. The Master insisted that you go through that portal... NOW."
-"Ugh... Fine..."
The diciple set the coordinates.
-"You may proceed."
The Iron wing came up to the portal. Leto went in first, followed by Ogen. Celer took some distance and hopped in, too. Felix went up to the portal.
-"I refuse to go through that. In fact, when I get back, I will tell the Master to make this installation saf--"
He didn't have time to finish, as the diciple pushed him into the vortex.
Everywhere around him was screaming.
Lightnings.
Turbulence.
Noise.
It didn't last too long, though. After about two seconds he was spit out of the other end of the tunnel. It closed soon thereafter.
-"I am DEFINATELY walking next time."
The area that he was in now was very similar to the previous one with the exception of the large device hanging from the ceiling and the vortex in the middle. It was all covered in tables which had calculation sheets on them. Diciples of Iban were studying the sheets, sometimes placing a few marks on them. There were not many devices, just a smaller one on one of the tables. Leaven came up to one of the tables.
-"I am here to recieve the instructions I was sent here for."
-"Ah yes, Gospodin Leaven! We have some new toys for you. Come take a look."
The diciple that spoke lead Leaven and the rest of the group out of the main area and lead them into a smaller room. It contained yet another table with a thick silken blanket over it. On the blanket were resting twelve objects resembling cannonballs, around the same size, but they were half-transparent and half-reflective. Leaven saw his twisted reflection on one, but also caught sight of constant lightnings inside it. He turned to the diciple.
-"What is this?"
-"We call it the Gravity Vortex. It's essentially a portal similar to the one you came here through, but it's always set to one destination - a location beyond our planet where stars are born. We discovered that it is a zone of low pressure, and used basic technology and incredibly advanced magic to make nearly pernament stable portals leading there, and encased them in these containers. The containers are made of a special material native to the mountain beneath us. Using special techniques we balanced the forces of attraction between the particles that make it up, to make them a lot stronger inside than on the outside. However, the portals are not stable, so if large amounts of air pass through it, it collapses."
Silence.
Silence.
Silence...
Leaven:
-"Could you please explain it in simplier terms?"
The diciple put his hand on his head.
-"Take the ball, throw it, it cracks, big black thing appears, sucks everything in, then disappears. Got it?"
-"Yeah, I think i do... So, do we get one?"
-"You each get three. They will be for your next assignment. Which, by the way, is to assault a Crimson fortress."
-"What are we to do?"
-"You will stay unnoticed. At least, until you disable those turrets around the whole thing, they will hinder our progress. With them there it will be harder to assault the target with our main forces."
-"Why is that "target" our target anyway? What did we do to the Crimsons?"
-"You will be flushing Valos out of there, so that he will lead us to Abodahon's hive."
-"Very well... We'll go get ready. Farewell."
The Iron Wing took the gravity portals and took off.
--- --- ---
Steorra kept running until she saw a large man with an axe fending off some sort of an attacker. She charged up her staff, and then blasted it at the creature. As it travelled to the creature, it burnt out all grass and trees in it's way.
//I'll let you guys decide what happens to the elite.\\
--- --- ---
Ein looked again at the minotaur and yelled:
-"Hey you! Can you go help me out over there? DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"
-
Sorry, double-posted
-
The minotaur growled at Ein.
"Oh, sorry. I forgot to order them to listen to you as well." Marshal said, before he made some hand motion at the monsters.
The minotaur then looked at Ein.
"Go ahead, tell it what to do." Marshal said smiling. He could tell Ein was uncomfortable, with the monster.
----
The shaded warrior was caught off guard and struck by Steorra's attack, and fell to the ground lifeless.
"What the?" Darak said in confusion. He then turned around and noticed Steorra. "Ah, it's you...Thanks..." Darak then walked towards Steorra. "I assume Valos sent you."
----
Rink looked at Duilin.
"Hey, man. Sorry about earlier." Duilin said calmly
"Don't worry about it." Rink said.
They then shook hands; well Duilin's hand was of course much larger, but never the less they shook hands.
The two then turned their focus upon The King and Zeros'.
-
Ein called the minotaur over to the shed.
-"Alright, so we need to lift that, yes, like that, and then hammer this into- HEY, not that hard! We don't want to break this thing just yet! Alright, so get that, yeah, then i'll get this and attach it to this..."
He continued working on the machine.
--- --- ---
-"Yes, the gentleman with white hair told me to seek you out. I want to be allied with the Crimson Empire for now. The pay seems good."
-
Zeros' simply shrugged.
"Lead the way," he said simply.
---
Allen nodded, as Aura went back into her room. He leaned against the wall, and waited for her.
-
Having passed through the barrier, Draven approached the northern wall of Alphagrad, rubbing his hand against his chin as if in thought. He took several steps to the left, finding the right spot, then suddenly shot up into the air in a giant bound, performing several flips as he flew over the fifteen foot high stone wall. As he began his descent towards the opposite side, a bright red flash of light emitted from his right palm-- his crimson blade, giving away his position to a group of Grey soldiers below with a loud swoosh...
He landed on his left foot and right knee, thrusting the blade into the ground before him with both hands. Five streams of flame emitted from the blade, breaking up the stone street as they raged towards five surrounding soldiers, incinerating them in a violent explosion that through their bodies backwards. The sixth soldier was left unscaved, and quite taken aghast.
Draven stood up and smirked at the man, resting the burning blade on his right shoulder.
"Tell your leader that your perimeter has been breached, and to send your finest warriors to stop the intruders that have made their way to the center of town."
At the end of his sentence he stuck his left hand out towards the man and pointed at his head.
"Quickly now..."
A bright crimson flash emanated from the tip of his finger, and a tiny vermilion orb, no bigger than a pebble, shot out towards the soldier like a bullet. The speck of light passed some two inches from his right cheek onward through a window of a wooden building some ten feet behind the Grey soldier. A second passed, before a fiery explosion burst through the building, breaking the glass and raining flame upon the man.
He took off, probably to tell his commanding officer just that...
----
The stately king nodded.
"Excellent. Thank you. Let us go..."
The entourage reformed around the king, and he began to lead the group through the darkness back towards the beach. Ven joined his king up front by his side, and the two began to chat, although at an inaudible tone except for those closest by.
But before they could get too far, they heard a voice behind them:
"ARRGH--!!"
"Huh? What was that?"
Another torch was illuminated, revealing that they were one man short.
"Edward? You okay?"
A few seconds of silence, then, "Yeah, no problem," from the darkness behind. Edward became visible in the light of the nearest torch. He was a younger man with a green cloak, and had it wrapped tightly around his body as if he were cold.
"Just tripped back there... can't see a thing."
The group continued on, reaching the small boat at the beach which they would board to return to the dimly lit ships visible off coast...
-
Aura emerged with her armor on, her scimitars at her sides, and the flying disc hairpin in her hair. "I'm ready."
--- --- --- ---
The three warriors followed Draven over the wall, watching him pwn the soldiers. "Are you sure it's a good idea to alert the enemy to our presence?" asked Zion. "Damn, you are good at this." Xenai admired the emperor's display of badass-ness.
-
The Iron wing, with it's new weapons, returned back to installation S-207. There, a new portal was charging up. Destination: 2 km south off the Crimson Capital. Meanwhile, Felix went over to a higher-ranking diciple to review the plans for their assault of the capital.
-"So, we teleport there, and then what?"
-"Then you are to continue south to the capital's walls. There should be a few guards or turrets there, you shouldn't worry about those too much. Just take them out using your usual methods."
-"What do we do once we're at the wall?"
-"Find a gate, bust it open. If you don't find one, or if the existing one is too tough to open, use this."
The diciple handed Leaven a small sticky brick, a crossbow, a very long and thick rope, and a sheet of paper with a sign on it.
-"Put this brick onto the wall, then just carve this sign in it using any avaliable objects. It should then burn a thin hole all the way through the wall. The hole won't be nearly wide enough for any of you to fit through. Instead, you take a bolt, tie the rope to it, and shoot it through the hole. It should go all the way through the wall and on the other side. After that, light the rope - it contains powerful explosives, and should blow a hole wide enough for you to get through, if you're lucky."
-"And if we're not lucky?"
-"Run. The wall will collapse. In the end however you will have a way through either way. Also, I believe your ride's good to go."
The man pointed to the vortex in the middle of the room, which was now blasting out lightnings every way inside it's shields. The group went through...
They landed on soft grass. Tall walls of the capital could be seen from their position. Leaven whispered to the rest of the group:
-"Okay, we should do this by the book - nice and quiet. Don't attract attention to yourselves. Stay low."
--- --- ---
Ein was now done building his machine. The ogres made a huge pile of tree trunks near the shed. Ein walked around his creation.
-"Well, the big part's done. Now... We give this thing life."
He started etching things on the machine's hull, wheels, and the mechanisms in the middle. They seemed like they were meant to propel something, like a giant crossbow.
-
(Remember that the Crimson Capital is located on a floating island one mile above the mainland, surrounded by barriers, and is on maximum security due to the threat of a Haraldur attack. Heh...)
----
Draven began to walk towards Alphagrad's center.
"I merely wish to see what this enemy is all about, and this is the quickest way."
A group of 25 or so Grey soldiers turned the corner around a building. Draven immediately began running at them at full speed, his crimson blade outstretched to his right.
"Fools! I said your finest! Not peons!"
Not fully knowing what was going on, the soldiers turned and drew their weapons. Draven engaged the closest few, felling them singly with a quick slash each...
----
Vincent held up three fingers, moving towards a window in the corridor.
"Three hours. Have your forces there in exactly three hours, and your path will be open..."
He jumped out the window, falling some distance towards the paved ground in a courtyard of the fortress below. He pressed both of his hands before him like a prayer, then pressed them against the floor as he landed. A blue circle surrounded him, rising up from the ground, cutting off the piece of floor he stood in as it rose from the ground. It was a sort of floating disk, with a large propeller underneath. He flew up into the sky, towards the northeast, towards the Fortress Sigmund...
-
Allen nodded at Aura.
"Good.. Let us be off, then," he said, and turned.
He walked briskly from Aura's room, to down the hallways. The torches that had been lit after the threat of Haraldur illuminated the hall, and gave it an eeriey glow, as the torches crackled, sending shadows skittering across the hallway.
He lead her down several flights of stairs, and to a door, which, was guarded by two guards. The guards stood at attention, and saluted Allen, who, saluted back. One of the guards pushed open the door, and whispered something to Allen, in which, he nodded.
He walked in the room, which, was about 10 meters by 10 meters. It had no windows, or any other exits, except for the singluar door. In the middle of the room, was a large, circular disc, spanning about half the room, with several smaller, white circles in the middle, all on a raised, stone platform. There were also a variety of gadgets and gizmos, as well as a set of stairs leading up onto the platform.
Allen walked over, and started to tinker with the machine.
"This will take a few moments to charge up, but, when it does, it will teleport us to the nearest mass of land, from which, we'll proceed to the island that has the materials I need on it," he informed her, as he tinkered with the machine. A soft, pink glow started to form around the area of the circle, as, a mixed form of magic, alchemy and technology started to power up.
---
Zeros' nodded, and follow the king and Ven. He was interested on what they were talking about, but, he didn't want to intrude, so, he simply followed behind them, his sword giving him enough light to see by, as well as the troops torch light.
He kept his senses on high alert, though. It would do no one any good if they were ambused simply because they weren't ready or expecting an attack.
-
A Grey Empire soldier ran to the doorway of Abodahon's room. "My lords! The Emperor of the Crimson Empire himself is in Alphagrad."
"Hmm...Interesting. In fact this gives me an idea. Melkoth, I'm going to obtain Valos and bring him into Alphagrad, I'll put his 'loyalty' to the test. We'll launch the rest of my plan at a later time." Abodahon explained. He then walked off, and then headed his way out of the palace.
----
Duilin and Rink followed along with Ven.
"I've got a funny feeling like somebody is after me..." Duilin mumbled
"I'm not surprised...Maybe Valos is hunting for you." Rink said back
"Maybe...But I do wonder were he could be. He's been gone for awhile."
"Who cares? He's off fighting a war."
----
Valos sits down on a rock. His head is aching like hell. Random pictures run through his head...Images and scenes of his past...
--Flash Back--
"The attack on Romme is going to happen in a week, and I've been called." Says a large man, with six fingers on each hand, wearing a suit of dark coloured armour, and a medium helmet.
"You be careful, Darion. I don't want my only brother dieing." Says a similar looking man, with a normal amount of fingers and no helmet.
"Ah, don't worry, Maxwell. They say it's a weak kingdom. Besides, High General Draven is leading the attack."
"Hey, isn't Nex going aswell?" Maxwell asks
"Yeah. Right now he's keeping an eye on Duilin and Pophin. They've got mop duty." Darion laughs.
A fairly attractive woman with a Russian accent, wearing body armour speaks. "Pophin and I may also be called over later, if any problems happen, but it's not a sure thing."
"What use would that wimp Pophin be? Duilin's a tough guy, but Pophin?" Darion asks
"He can be of some use." The women replies
"Yeah..." Maxwell says, suddenly a rumbling sound happens. "What the...Damnit Valos!"
Maxwell gets up and open up a door, and picks up a five year younger looking Valos, and tosses him on the ground. His hair is shorter, and his tattoo is more visible. "Would you stop practicing that witch craft bullshit? It's bad enough that Nex uses it!"
"But..." Valos stutters
"Shut up, wimp! You're lucky we didn't kill you like the rest of those losers in that village! We can't trust a mage who used to be prisoner!"
----
'They took you from your home, Valos...The ones who did it may be dead, but the people who made them still live.'
'Nex, became to miss trustful, and became too loyal to the Dark Empire. So I had to destroy him. Remember; follow the Talonscar...
-
Aura started off after Allen. She'd heard about the threat of the one guy, whom she'd not known anything about. Obviously, he was powerful. If a floating castle has to go into an emergency state because of one guy, he's obviously powerful. She saluted the guards and followed Allen into the room.
"This is a really interesting device," said Aura. "Teleportation, huh? That should be fun."
--- --- ---
"Xenai, Tsu, let's go!" Zion gave the command, and the three started. They were each able to take out the enemy at the same rate as Draven. This would make the process much faster.
-
<span style='font-family:Optima'>"Wake up"</span>
Hyperion opened his eyes and looked towards the voice. A shadow figure stood above him.
<span style='font-family:Optima'>"Get up"</span>
He pushed himself to his feet and came face to face with the figure.
"Who are you.. And where the hell am I?"
<span style='font-family:Optima'>"You need not worry, you are near Retangrad but out of danger. As for me, I have come to make you an offer."</span>
The figure reached behind it's back and presented a halberd(axe/spear).
<span style='font-family:Optima'>"This weapon has been passed down from shape shifter to shape shifter throughout the ages, Its purpose is to protect the weak and rid the world of evil. With it you will be able to take any form you so desire." </span>
-
//I never get the details right... well, now i know\\
-"Ugh, look! The thing's floating! The shadows made it seem as though it stood on the ground... damn optical illusions. We're gonna have to find a way to get it down."
Leaven and the Iron Wing crawled up just below the fortress. Leaven noticed a low hum below it.
-"Damn... looks like they have shields as well. However... nothing can shield them from THIS!"
He pulled out one of the reflective balls, and threw it way down, near the fortress' middle. The "cannonball" busted, releasing a vortex. Unnoticed at first, it only made itself known by rising winds, due to the air being pulled in. Eventually it grew in power and started blasting lightnings around, which didn't do much due to the barriers installed on the fortress. However, the fortress slowly started to get pulled down...
--- --- ---
Ein finished doing the "paintjob" on the machine. He silently muttered a short chant, and all the diagrams flashed and started to glow softly, each different colour. He climbed into the machine.
-"Ooh, a beauty. Now, let's see if it works."
He drove it around a bit, constantly exclaiming about how much of a genius he was. Then, he parked it back near the shed, and walked over to the pile of logs. He turned to Marshal.
-"Hey, could you tell those oafs over there to make the ends pointy?" He pointed to the ogres. -"This will be our ammo."
--- --- ---
Steorra started to get mad as Darak was obviously ignoring her.
-"So, am I good to join or what? I know you're all high and mighty but could you at least respond?"
-
Draven plunged his blade into the heart of the last Grey soldier, quickly pulling it out and pointing it to the side.
He began striding down the center square, tapping the crimson blade on his right shoulder.
"Five minutes... five minutes before I liquefy the cobblestone streets..."
Hmmm, clearly that one who ran off... that one who was working for Ragnar was responsible for capturing this city, and the peons were sent in afterward to occupy...
A volley of blue orbs appeared from the south, and began to rain down upon the invading foursome. Draven extended his left hand, creating a translucent red barrier that deflected the ones in his path left and right, sending small explosions bursting into the surrounding buildings. It was a legion that was stationed in the southern half of the city, ready to join the still ongoing battle outside, but was diverted to handle Draven and co. There was at least a hundred, a mixture of mages and warriors...
----
The men boarded the boat, which was slightly cramped due to the new passengers, and began to make way towards the dimly lit ships in the darkness. A ladder was thrown down when they reached the middle ship, and the king ascended to the deck, followed by Ven and his other men.
"Welcome aboard the Posidon X, friends."
King Henri politely spoke the gesture to Duilin and Zeros'. It was probably too dark to see, but the ship was slightly irregular in shape compared to the other two vessels.
"Feel free to look around the ship at your leisure. There are guest chambers if you wish to rest, and a gambling hall downstairs. We've quite a distance to travel, but these ships are quite fast and the trip will be over before you know it."
The king took his cape in his right hand and bowed slightly, before turning and heading up a flight of nearby stairs to a higher level deck. Most of the entourage followed.
----
"Preparations are complete. Prepare to move forward, as per our orders."
"What's with this vibration?"
"Uh, sir... We're uh... losing altitude..."
"What?"
Julian pushed the soldier aside to get a better look out the window. Dark as it was, the barely visible treetops below were getting closer...
"Is the emerald failing? Where's James?"
"He said he was checking up on the barrier orbs."
"What about that alchemist?"
"Assigned a critical repair mission."
"Blast it! Hans! Rufus!"
The burly Rufus stepped up from behind Julian. Hans appeared running at a sprint from accross the room.
"Yeah, boss?"
"What-cha need?"
Julian pointed to the window.
"We're falling. One of you go out there and see if you can see anything abnormal."
"DONE!!"
Yellow lightning crackled around Han's body, and he shot ten feet across the room through the window and out into the sky, sending shards of glass flying everywhere.
Rufus followed like a slow running football player.
"Hey! It's my turn! You got the last one!"
A green aura engulfed him as he shot through the window after Hans, and proceded to follow him down around the side of the floating palace.
Julian covered his face.
"Idiots! The door! The door!!"
-
Zeros' nodded at the king, as the aura around him dimmed, and disappeared. Instead of wandering around, he simply leaned against a wall, and looked towards Rink and Duilin.
"So... What now?" he asked.
---
Allen cursed, and quickly started to readjust the teleporter as he felt the floating fortress loose altitude. It started to hum louder, and the disc on the platform started to spin slowly, as it erupted with energy, sending a shower of colors into the air, illuminating the room a translucent glow.
"HURRY! Get on the platform! We'll do no good to the empire dead, and buried into the water!" he yelled over the hum of the machine, as he waited for Aura to step on.
-
The portal was growing more powerful in strength. Now, trees were ripped right out of the ground, and even lightnings themselves had trouble leaving the black hole. The palace continued descending, with increased speed. The winds were so high now that the Iron Wing were struggling to keep on the ground. Leaven struck his weapon into the ground to prevent flying off into the vortex. He yelled at the top of his lungs:
-"WHEN THE HELL IS THIS THING GOING TO DISAPPEAR?! ARGH!"
To which Ogen responded:
-"I THINK IT'S REACHING IT'S CLIMAX POINT!"
-"WHAT?!"
-"I - THINK - IT'S - REACHING - IT'S - CLIMAX - POINT!!!"
Celer shouted:
-"IT SHOULD OVERLOAD WHATEVER THEY'RE USING TO LEVITATE IN A FEW MOMENTS!"
Suddenly, Leto noticed a lightning leave the palace. Since he was the heaviest of the group, he didn't place any efforts to keeping himself stationary. He wanted to report the sighting to Leaven, but then he thought that it was just one of the lightnings from the portal - he'd look like an idiot if he did.
-
"Oh, sorry. I was distracted by something." Darak replied. "Perhaps you could help me get into the city. I saw something get in there."
----
Rink looked around a bit. "Well that gambling hall sounds fun." Rink grinned.
"You ever gamble before?" Duilin laughed
"Well, not really. But I herd a lot about it! I've lived in hell before so I've met my fair share of gamblers." Rink replied chuckling afterwards.
"Well, I don't have much better things to do, and I've got a couple coins to waste. Zeros' you up for it?" Duilin asked
----
Marshal motioned towards ogres, and they walked there way towards the logs and began sharpening them.
"This looks like quite a dangerous machine..." Marshal said.
----
A large dark figure stepped in front of Valos.
"Abodahon..." Valos said, greeting him. He had a bit of fear in his voice.
"Have you made your choice yet? Do you wish to follow your true purpose, or waste time with these pigs?" Abodahon said, sternly. He pointed to a corpse of a dead Crimson Empire soldier as he said 'pigs'.
"I'm not sure..." Valos said.
"That is fine, Valos. But remember what I said. You can prove to me, that you are worthy of keeping your body if you come with me, now."
Abodahon didn't even wait for a response; he just flapped his wings and flue off into the darkness.
Valos stood up and then flue off following him.
-
The fortress... it's falling! She could feel its altitude decrease underneath her. She heard Allen's command and leapt onto the platform. She can't beat Tsu if she's dead.
--- --- ---
The three warriors used their weapons to deflect the orbs coming toward them, and looked out toward the legion of warriors approaching. "Draven, take a breather," said Xenai. "The three of us will handle this. Zion, Tsu, let's do it quick-and-dirty-like. It'll take only that much to wipe them away."
Zion created a moderately large ball of light energy, while Xenai created one of the same size and concentration. Tsu created a ball of neutral energy, a little larger and a little stronger. All of the energy was concentrated to the outside... The ball was hollow. Zion and Xenai threw their balls in (STFU, kthxbi), and the energy started to crackle inside as it blended turbulently. Tsu tried with all his might to contain it while it mixed together...
-
"Hah, suit yourself..."
Draven leapt up into the air, performing a backwards flip in the process and dispensing his crimson blade. He folded his arms as he landed at the tip of a nearby chimney-- a good view of both sides.
Let's just see how much they've improved...
The Grey troops continued their charge, sending more blue orbs towards the three in their way...
----
Ven watched his majesty walk up to the higher level platform and into a captain's chamber. One of the king's entourage stayed with Ven, and spoke:
"We were lucky with him."
Ven turned and listened.
"Our king was the first to fall victim to the illness. He was bedridden for quite a while, starting just after you and Mavas left... He is so strong, though. He pulled through. The rest of the population doesn't seem capable of it... Glad to have you back, Ven."
The green armored soldier walked away, following the king.
The ships began to move. Their plan was to travel south around the southern edge of the Dark Continent, then eastward towards their homeland...
----
"What in BLAZES is-- WHAAA--!!!"
Hans immediately felt himself being sucked through the air towards the black abyss under the floating island. Rufus fell from above and grabbed his arm, and the two used their combined strength to escape, flying some distance away from the hole, their green and yellow auras burning brightly.
Hans clenched both of his fists.
"It's some kinda black hole thing!!!"
"What should we do?!?!"
"I don't know, blow it up!!"
Hans brought both of his hands before him and a strong, bright electric current began to flow between them. He brought his hands above his head as an orb began to form in between the stream of electricity.
"MORTAL ATTACK!!! ELECTRO-DEATH ORB!!!! HYAAAAA!!!!!!!!!"
An orb some ten feet in diameter quickly formed, crackling with electricity. Hans arced his body and threw the ball of lightning like one would do a huge rock, and the crackling orb flew straight towards the black hole. The orb hit, with some bright flashes, and then disappeared into the darkness. The black hole was unaffected.
Hans and Rufus floated there wide-eyed.
"Well... crap."
-
Zeros' shook his head at Duilin and Rink, as he felt the ship starting to move.
"No... I think I'll just... explore," he said, as he melded into the shadows. While inside the shadows, he moved past Ven and the guards, and heard their brief conversation. So... They're country was in the grips of a disease... Interesting.
He moved past them, and followed the green armored soldier, making sure to keep him in sight, but, not to move too close. Even if he was using his cloaking technique, making him virtually undetectable, he didn't want to take chances, so, he followed at a safe distance.
---
Allen nodded, as Aura jumped into the portal. He quickly flipped a few switches, as he felt the castle dropping even more. The machine starts to hum louder and louder, as the disk spun. It equpted with a bright flash of energy, and, Allen and Aura were gone from the room, as the machine stopped spinning.
---
On a nearby island, away from the main capital and the blackhole, Allen appeared, about five feet above the ground. He didn't have time to flip, and feel to the ground, the air being knocked out of him.
"Ugh... Rough landing..." he said, as he pushed himself up off the ground, and onto his feet, dusting himself off, while adjusting his glasses. He waited for Aura appear, to do anything else.
-
Rink and Duilin arrive at the Gambling hall. Rink examines the room.
"Wow, this looks like a lot of fun." Rink says
"Yeah, but it can get addictive, and you loose a lot of money. Back in the Empire, Darion got really into gambling. It took him years to earn back his money, but he could only afford some pretty rusty armour. He was even thinking of selling me for gambling money."
"Sell you?"
"Yeah. I was basically a slave for a large period of time. Until I gained enough trust to actually become a soldier. Now anyways, let's go gamble. Maybe I might get lucky and get forced to sell you." Duilin laughed. He then opened up a pouch in his pant pocket, and gave Rink a hand full of coins. "Don't get crazy. I recommend Blackjack. The slot machines are rigged."
"Rigged? Oh yeah, I bet you I can win first try." Rink grins as he flies toward a slot machine, and pops a coin in. He pulls the handle.
Cherry.
Slug.
Mudman.
"Shit...Um, best two out of three?!" Rink asks making a big grin.
Duilin just rolls his eyes, and walks off to the blackjack table.
----
Valos and Abodahon, make there way towards Alphagrad.
"Okay, what is it that you want!?" Valos asks demandingly
"I want to know if I can trust you. You're becoming to loyal to the Empire, yet I wish to give you chance." Abodahon replies
"Go on..."
Abodahon then points down towards the three warriors fighting the large group of Grey Soldiers. "Now, while those three are distracted by them." Abodahon begins, he then points to a man standing on a chimney. "Attack him. If you can make a strike upon your emperor, then you can be trusted by us."
"Attack Lord Draven? Me?"
'Do it Valos...you have no choice...do it...or your body and soul will be mine...'
"Yes, Valos. You." Abodahon says sternly. "I shall supervise..."
Abodahon then flies towards Draven, he stops about ten feet away and four feet higher from him. "Greetings Lord Draven. It's nice to see you again. I see you're enjoying yourself, destroying your own city you've fought so gallantly to protect."
Valos then arrives, a few feet behind Draven.
"You've met my friend Valos, haven't you? Oh yes, that's right. He's one of the General's of your army. Well, he'd like to have a few 'words' with you."
Valos then draws his sword. "Lord Draven, I don't expect you to forgive me for this..." He says.
-
Leto saw the two auras in the air, and the energy ball they threw into the hole. He was perfectly healthy, so he was positive he wasn't hallucinating. He turned around facing Leaven.
-"HEY, I THINK I JUST SAW SOMETHING! LOOK UP THERE!!!"
Leaven heard him through the howling of the wind.
-"WHERE?!"
Leto pointed to the air above him. Leaven smiled.
-"Hehehe... looks like we have a few guests visiting us."
-"WHAT?!"
-"NEVER MIND! CELER, I THOUGHT YOU SAID THAT THING IS GOING TO BE DISAPPEARING SOON?!?!?!"
Celer, who was holding onto a tree to prevent himself from flying off into the wormhole, bellowed:
-"GIVE IT SOME TIME!!!"
-"WE DON'T HAVE THAT TIME! THE BLACK HOLE ISN'T GETTING ANY SMALLER!!!"
Finally, the wormhole started to fluctuate a bit. The floating fortress was still gaining speed as the hole closed up. The island, driven by inertia, slammed into the ground, sending out a considerable tremor. It knocked most of the Iron Wing down, with the exception of Leto who just stumbled a bit. Leaven got up.
-"Gentlemen... I congradulate us on a mission well done. Now, what are we going to do about those two floaters up there?" He pointed to the two auras in the air.
--- --- ---
Steorra heard Darak speak.
-"Very well... I've nothing to do right now anyway. What will this help include doing, sir...?"
--- --- ---
The ogres were finishing up with the projectiles. Ein was happily etching small series of lines on their sides. After each etching the log became rock-hard and heavier than lead. Ein turned over to Marshal.
-"YA THINK?! Why do you think I'm building this machine, other than for the purpose of being dangerous? Anyway... That kid over there", he said pointing to the minotaur, "do you think he will be able to lift these projectiles up? They're quite heavy... Ah, and also, he'll need to stay here. Although the machine itself is fully autonomous, we need someone to push these logs through a portal I've created. The other side of the portal is right there." He pointed to a floating pentagram at the rear of his machine. "See, the projectile will go into the portal over there that i just made, and exit through the one on the machine, thus loading it. Then, using some levers and a lot of magic, the bow-like device up there will be drawn back, then released at a push of a button, propelling the projetile towards the target. The projectile itself is made of a material called "blackrock". It's the hardest and heaviest thing known to me. Pretty useful for busting walls. Anyway... I have a test target in mind. Want to come with?"
-
"Well, find a way for both of us to get in the city." Darak replied. "It seems to be surrounded by a huge barrier however."
----
Marshal nodded. "Yes, I'd love to come." Marshal replied. He then motioned to the minotaur. The beast then picks a few logs, and then carries them over to the portal and drops them in.
-
The shadow figure pushed the Halberd into Hyperions hands. It didn't take long for him to feel the new power.
<span style='font-family:Optima'>"There is but one rule, and this is of the utmost importance, you may only use this weapon for good."</span>
Hyperion held up the Halberd examining it closely.
"I think.....you should have told me that before giving it to me."
Hyperion swung the halberd at the figure, but it was already gone.
-
Zion and Xenai assumed orb deflecting duty. As for Tsu's job, the ball was ready. "Hehehe..." He tossed it into the air, and leapt up after it, flipping the whole way, and rapidly.
?位な！ New Forever!?
(Kurai na! ~ Eat this!)
He slammed his foot down on the ball, and it screamed down at the legion. The explosion will not touch Zion, Xenai, Draven, or myself. He gave the ball a command, something for it to make sure that it didn't do. The explosion was large, and it was a beautiful sparkling, glittering blacklight color. It ate away at a large amount of the ominous darkness. However, it just grew back into black. The legion, however...
-
//Xorlak, when will "three hours" have passed?//
Tesla landed in a town that was in the middle of street fighting. On one side were uniformed officers of the Alternan Army, on the other were a ragged mob of people, most wearing either red and black neckerchiefs, red and black forage caps or both.
He landed behind the Army barricade, unnoticed in the noise. Just seconds later, the soldiers were charred corpses, while the ozone from the lightning floated away.
He was watched by some of the revolutionaries for a few moments, until someone recognised his face, and nodded. The people then started to march towards the palace of the largest landowner in the area...
Tesla followed, sending this telepathic message to Marshall and Ein: Benito Franco Salazar has just been killed by Haraldur, and the revolution has spread to Wahabbia and Alterna! I just thought you might like to know.
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth left the palace, and flew towards Alphagrad. New tactic now: utter destruction.
He sent a signal to some of his commanders, and there was surreptitious movement amonst the Grey Army. They still appeared to be fighting their utmost, as they were since the fanatics were at the front lines, but they started to prepare to leave the two cities. Draven would notice no difference to their resistance.
Quietly, some of the soldiers entered the primitive sewers of each town and started to plant a lot of barrels and long, thin, lengths of rope that had been soaked in oil.
They would now wait for his second signal...
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur turned North, towards a ship that was skimming the edge of the Northern part of his horizon.
He knew that, since his aura was pentrating to every place in a very strong form, that he would be indistinguishable compared to the surroundings, effectively cloaking his aura. He had his invisibility on, and even if someone could ignore that, it was dark and his dark clothing provided excellent camoflage(sp?).
He floated above the ship for a few seconds as it moved, and dropped lightly on the high back part of the deck, behind the King. He became visible, and said, "Greetings... 'King'."
-
Draven turned to see Abodahon, that one that was giving Zeros' and the others trouble a while back...
He then spun around to see Valos land on the roof behind him and draw his sword.
"Friend? You?"
There was a few seconds of silence...
Then Draven through his head back in laughter.
"HA! So you're actually turning against me? My dear Valos..."
Draven pointed his left hand towards Valos, outstretching his finger. A bright red spark appeared at the very tip. His voice grew darker and more sinister.
"Your jest is very amusing, but clearly you wouldn't want to take this little joke of yours too far, for it would be very damaging for me to mistake your jest for truth and, say, disembowel your innards and mount your head among the other... examples..."
His eyes shifted to Abodahon.
"Quickly now, give me the head of this one, so that we may laugh together at your pathetic excuse for humor another day..."
----
King Henri and his entourage of ten men exited the captain's chamber and returned to the deck, rounding a courner of the freestanding chamber. The soldier Zeros' was following followed them, but when he turned the corner, he gasped when he saw Haraldur.
Edward, with his arms folded, smiled. The king turned, knowing the voice.
"Well now, if it isn't Haraldur... though you seem different..."
A blue aura flashed from the King's forehead. What looked like a third eye opened, then shut after a few seconds.
"I see... ten parts now, though you seem as one. Tell me, what brings you to my ship? Another country you demand an alliance against? Or perhaps you feel like causing more destruction, and killing more innocent people? You would best leave us now. You are most unwelcome."
The entourage of men grasped their swords. Ven appeared on the other side of the ship, his black cloak hiding him.
Yes, now he remembered... Haraldur was that "demon" that totally destroyed their one and only port city five years ago... This "Ragnar" that the Crimson Empire was fighting against... is the same man...
But why? Why is he an enemy of... everyone...?
----
(Recap: In chapter 2 or 3, the two Haraldurs traveled to Tjed to seek an alliance against the Dark Empire for Romme (albeit rather rudely and forcefully, heh...). In-between chapters 3 and 4, the merged Haraldurs and Ragnar went back and attacked a costal city of Tjed, so Haraldur is generally hated there.)
----
(Three hours can be up when Vincent is done with his little tricks I will post in the next few updates.)
"Who goes there?"
A figure appeared in the darkness, clutching his side and limping.
"General Vincent of the Crimson Empire. Open the gates."
"Y-yes sir!"
The humongous iron gates cracked open just enough, and Vincent walked through. A colonel rushed to meet him.
"General... Vincent? What brings you to Sigmund?"
"My airship was destroyed and my men killed. Inform your commander in chief that I've some... urgent information for him..."
"Yes, sir!"
----
The entire Crimson Capital shook as in an earthquake as the tip of this floating island grazed the ground. The island rocked, as if about to fall over, but then leveled... It began to rise back into the air slowly, a few inches at a time...
A lightning bolt shot out of the sky, striking the ground some twenty feet to the east of the Iron Wing members, reforming into an rather irate looking Hans, his hair sticking straight up and his body crackling with electricity.
"Hey, well lookie here... We've got a couple of trouble makers..."
He clenched his fist in front of his face and opened it, and orb of electricity forming in it.
A small tremor rocked the ground as Rufus fell out of the sky, slamming into the ground on the opposite side of the foursome. His feet dug deep into the ground.
"Yo! It's my turn! You're always stealin' my kills and I'm gettin' sick of it!"
A stern voice echoed from above.
"Hans, do try to consult me before attempting to address technical problems next time..."
James was floating some fifty feet in the sky above the group, a dull blue aura around him...
-
Zeors' saw Haraldur appear, and held himself back. He smiled slightly at the king. He felt Ven in the room, and he quietly shifted himself over in that direction, and appeared behind Ven. He placed a hand on his shoulder, and leaned down toward him, and whispered something in his ear, even if he couldn't see him.
"Don't interfear... Yet. Let it play out," he said quietly, so only himself and Ven could hear it.
-
-"Stealing your kills? Don't be hasty, now."
Ogen went over to Rufus.
-"So... It would seem as though you came here with every intention of being a nusianse. Are you going to act as such, or shall you stand aside and let us do our job?" His grasp on the mace tightnened.
Leaven drew his sword.
-"Leto, go get the yellow one. Celer, keep your eye on the blue one."
Leto came closer to Hans, dragging his ginormous axe on his left shoulder.
-"What's that cute little ball you're holding? Surely you're not going to use that to hurt me?" He placed his axe in front of him using his left hand, and then spun it in a circle with his fingers (the axe is double-bladed, about as big as a large closet and weighs around 200 lb).
Celer simply removed his hood to see better, and started staring James down.
-"You gonna get down from there, or are you afraid of me?"
Felix, still keeping the careless exression on his face, said:
-"Well kids, you have fun. I have business to attend to."
With those words he began running towards the rising fortress.
-
"Ah, did you hear that Ein?" Marshal asks sounding happy. "Benito Franco Salazar is infamous for his barbaric raids. It should greatly improve the world with him gone. Rejoice comrade!"
----
Duilin walks up to the blackjack table.
"Ah, what'd your bet?" The dealer asked
"Just five." Duilin replied, putting the money on the table. The dealer dealt the cards. Duilin checked what he had. "Hit me." He had twenty. "Stand."
The dealer dealt himself, and then they both revealed their cards, he had nineteen.
"Oooh, close one, good job. Like to play again?"
"Meh, all right."
Meanwhile Rink seems to be running low on coins at the slots.
----
Valos trembled, he grinded his teeth. It wasn't to late to turn back. But could he take Abodahon? Yet, could he take Draven? He was indeed, in quite a pickle.
Abodahon laughs, as he watches Valos, stare at his sword.
"Y...yeah...This...demon here...He thinks he's in control of me...So, um." Valos stuttered, still looking at his sword. "I just thought I'd.... Humour him."
Abodahon raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"
"You, think you know everything about me demon?" Valos said, still sounding scared, but trying to sound tough. He turned around and facing the demon, and stepped forward.
"Yes, yes I do Valos." Abodahon said, his voice turned softer, and he made an evil smile. "Now die."
Suddenly, Valos felt the claw grab his hart, and twist it and stick it's tips into it. Valos grabbed his chest, and dropped his sword, and began coughing.
"Don't worry Draven. His body will go to good use. I like to recycle. You'd be familiar with it. I had the same thing done to Nex."
Valos then screamed, looking up in the air. He quickly began to rise, spikes tore from his skin on his shoulders. He then tore off his robe, only leaving his pants and grey muscle shirt, with the same symbol on the chest as his tattoo. His eyes went totally blank white, and then bleed over until they were a solid red. Small horns sprouted from his forehead, and demonic pentagram between them, replacing the tattoo. He then began to speak, in a very familiar but different voice from before.
"Sorry, Draven. But you have to realize that the world is full of disloyal back stabbing jerks." Valos(?) said. "You'd know, you?re one of them... I see you've taken Retan's job. Yup, backstabber. I'm surprised you survived the blast on that island." His voice was exactly like Nex's.
Abodahon then decided to spill the beans. "A wile ago, I summoned a Spirit demon, or lost soul, whatever you like, into your army. Nex was the first to be infected, and then I believe it spread around a bit after that, until it reached Valos. It's a selective hunter, I had it target the disloyal members of my cult."
Valos then cracked his knuckles, and then brought his hand back, and then tossed a dark energy ball at Draven.
-
"Yes, 'King', I am different, very different. In ways you could not imagine. It does not worry me that I am unwelcome, as this is irrelevant to my visit.
"I have come here to give you an ultimatum on behalf of the Revolution. We are currently smashing the state and other tools of oppression in the areas we control, creating an equal society. You must dismantle your state, your army, your police, and distribute all weapons amongst the workers and peasants. You must abandon all of your authority and the authority of others. You must peacefully go into the situation of a stateless, classless and equal society. If you have not done so by the time we have dealt with some of the things we have to do right now, we will have to make your revolution for you. You have been warned.
"Any questions?"
____________________________________________________________________
Revolutionary spirit was everywhere, and intensifying fast...
In the capital city of Tjed, red and black flags were waving as a protest march, increasing in size as it marched, walked up the main street towards the palace. slogans were being shouted: "End privelege!" "Solidarity!" "The rich keep plague prevention for themselves!"
A few minutes later, some police and army arrived to block the way to the palace. Some rocks were thrown, and they then charged into the march, launchng a full scale riot in the old city...
____________________________________________________________________
The proletariat of that Alternan town reached the landowner's palace, with Tesla among them.
Suddenly, arrows came from the palace, with a few people slumping to the ground as the rest took cover. Tesla motioned to some other revolutionaries, and fired at the building with his plasma rifle, blasting the door away. He rushed towards and entered the building, followed by many others.
After some confused fighting, the revoliutionaries were victorious, dragging out the landowner and several priests, and the local bishop. There were calls for the oppressors to be killed.
Tesla nodded, and the prisoners were dragged to the main square, and lined up. Tesla walked up the line, blasting the plasma rifle through the face of each one, spattering burning blood onto the cobble-stones, to the cheers of the crowd, the largest cheers being for the landowner and the bishop.
They then started to walk back towards the palace.
-
Tsu, Zion, and Xenai turned to face the new arrivals. "Oh, this is FUCKING great! Not that guy again!" He scowled at the sight of Abodahon. "Xenai, why do you think we went though that training?" The blue-haired asshole quickly pondered it. "To be able to inflict a huge amount of damage in a little amount of time, why w- Oh. Heh."
Tsu frowned. "If we're going to fight, don't count on me using New Forever anytime soon... I just know I won't pull it off." He looked down at his hands, which were tingling insanely.
They then observed what transpired. "Holy sh-! This fucking demon...!" Damn, should I get that ball away from Draven? No, Draven can take care of it.
"Valos..." Just what we need... This demon is THAT merciless...
"..." ...
-
Ein noticed that the minotaur picked up a number of logs.
-"Hey! Throw one at a time!"
He then turned around to Marshal.
-"Yes, I heard. Although it really means nothing to me. I have never even heard of the person."
He walked around his machine.
-"Hmm... It needs a name... How about...... Zerstorungscmaschin? Means "engine of destruction" in a language I happen to know." //German\\
-"Nah, too long... Oh, I know: Leviathan! Yes, Leviathan it is."
He pushed a few levers here and there, and the machine started rolling through the woods. He then stopped it.
-"So Marshal, are you coming with or staying?"
--- --- ---
Steorra brandished her staff a bit.
-"So are we going, or what? And when I said "sir...?" i meant, what was your name?"
-
Draven's eyes widened at the sound of Valos' new voice.
"... Nex...?"
Before he could react, the ball of shadow energy sped towards him. Draven moved his finger slightly, blasting the small speck of crimson energy at the orb. The two forces collided exactly between the two, sending smaller flames of fire and shadow speeding in all directions. The building they were standing on was filled with holes, and began to crumble... Draven seemed to disappear in the blast and resulting smoke...
... But his image suddenly appeared directly behind the hulking Abodahon, his figure dwarfed by the monster...
"You! How dare you manipulate my men!"
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Draven shifted his weight to his left side, falling just behind Abodahon's head...
Blast it! One soldier that actually proves his blasting worth, and you kill him!!
"Demon scum! DIE!!"
He brought his right foot up as his body ignited in flame, and sent a super powered kick in the direction of the beast's skull...
----
A chuckle riegned out from the men surrounding Haraldur. The king was not as amused.
"What sort of nonsense is this? How dare you mock us with such ridiculous demands! Be gone, foul demon."
Ven knew it was Zeros' who spoke to him, and if it wasn't for him, he would have charged...
Ven's face faulted and he clenched his teeth. He brought his right hand to his sword hilt on his back, and resisted the urge to attack...
Any quick movement, though, and he will not hesitate...
Suddenly this mysterious enemy that had fought against far away from home had become a very personal threat...
----
(Um... no, Haraldur. Just no...)
The capital of Tjed, hidden high in and surrounded by mountains, echoed with the din of the small riot that night. It occurred in the upper class neighborhood, near the castle.
An upper class woman fearlessly exited her house and faced the crowd, in response to the chants.
"How could you say we have protection from the plague? My children suffer just as yours!"
She broke down in tears. Another man appeared.
"How dare you insult the integrity of our king! After all he has done for us!"
"His free clinic has saved hundreds!"
"Yeah!" A couple more echoed.
In the torchlight it was reviled that those leading the crowd and held the flags also bore large bottles of whiskey and ale, and were in fact quite drunk. Those that threw the stones were arrested and sent to jail for the night to dry out, and at most a fine of a few copper coins. The rest were sent back to their homes with a warning but also condolences from the soldiers, who also had family members who had fallen ill.
The chancellor watched the crowd peacefully disperse from one of the castle's higher balconies. This night may have ended well, but the populace is getting more and more restless. He feared the worse if a cure for this plague was not found soon... Everything seemed to go down hill after the High Knights of Tjed disappeared...
(No revolutions in Tjed, please. Heh...)
----
Vincent entered the innards of he huge fortress. General Hector appeared at the end of the hallway, followed by some twenty crimson soldiers and a colonel. He was a tall man with pitch black armor, and a striking red cape. He spoke in a thick Australian accent.
"Well, well, if it ain't Vincent the alchemist. What brings ya ta Sigmund, mate? Did ya finally get kicked out of Redvik for doing nothin' all day long?"
"Charming, Hector. I've come to warn you of an impending attack. There is a large force approaching from the west..."
"Ha! So what? No one can touch us in 'ere! We'll just blow 'em up if they get too close. Get outta my way. Go make some gold or somthin'..."
Hector continued down the hallway, his entourage following. Vincent placed his hands behind his back and watched him turn the corner.
"Heh..."
----
"WHAT!? You want to DIE? Just keep talkin'!!!"
The orb in Hans' right fist swelled to double size, he threw his hand back and then foward like a baseball pitch, aiming the electric orb at the (probably conductive) metal axe, rather than Leto himself.
Rufus brought both of his huge arms to his sides, widening his stance.
"Hah, you ain't got a clue who we are, do ya?"
His left fist swelled, the muscles budging. Rufus slammed the fist into the ground creating a small tremor and sending a crack towards Ogen. When he pulled his fist up, a large chunk of ground came with it-- a rock some five feet in diameter.
"HRRRAAARRRGH!!!!"
He reared his hand back and punched the rock his left fist was embedded in, sending the bolder soaring towards Ogen.
James flew towards the ground very quickly, his descent slowing when he was about two feet away from the ground, a ring of dust pushing away from his feet. He landed softly, still some distance away from Celer. At the same time his eyes shifted, following Felix, before returning towards his opponent.
"Perhaps you can tell us your reasons for attacking the Crimson Capital and perhaps we can spare some unnecessary violence."
Explosions could be heard from the other two elites' attacks.
"If you are attempting to employ diversionary tactics, I can assure you they will not succeed..."
-
Celer drew his daggers.
-"We are looking for one of your generals, namely Valos. We have reasons to believe that he is in that fortress. //don't bother correcting me - i know he's not in there, but the Nightshade doesn't.\\ And you're right - perhaps no blood shall be shed if you just make way for us into the fortress. We have reinforcements standing by in a charged portal - all they need is a signal from us, and your castle up there will be flooded with our troops. No, if that happens, you just DON'T want to be there."
Ogen watched the boulder go towards him. He made absolutely no effort to dodge it. The boulder landed on him and a really nasty crack could be heard from down under it. After a few seconds, however, the boulder moved a bit. Then it moved again. Then it simply rolled away, and Ogen got up. He was all covered in scratches and scars. His head had a fissure in it. His left arm was oddly bent. He was limping on the right leg, which had a bone sticking out of it. However, he continued coming towards Rufus.
-"No, quite frankly, I have no idea who you are. And I don't care. All I'm here to do is my mission, and get out. If it involves killing a couple of maggots like you, then so be it."
As he approached, his scars started to heal. The fissure in his head grew back and his bones evened out. He flexed his newly-healed arm. When he stopped about a meter away from Rufus, his body was as good as new. The leather armour that he had took no damage.
-"There is absolutely no way you can kill me. Not with pathetic strikes like that. In fact, even I know of nothing that can kill me. I welcome you to test that statement at your convenience."
His tone changed with the last words, as he brought back his mace and swung it aiming for Rufus' shoulder.
Leto placed his axe in front of him, which was struck by the orb. The energy, arcing in small sparks, travelled from his axe to his armour-plated gloves to the rest of the armour that he was wearing. //from the description, he doesn't have armour as such - just large evenly cut pieces of metal strapped to him.\\ However, he took no damage. The armour seemed to absorb the blast.
-"Let me ask you something, yellow one. Do you know what capacitors are? Well, I don't either, but what I do know is that they're these little things in my armour that seem to absorb all sorts of energy. Now..." He waved his axe over his head. "Now all that energy will be released... into the first thing I touch with my axe."
He came closer to Hans, ground shaking as he walked.
-"But why should you believe me? Why don't you try it YOURSELF?!"
He brought the axe to his side then swung it at Hans, hoping to cut him across the chest.
Leaven was now almost near the fortress. He made a leap... and managed to get up close enough to the bottom of the fortress. //from your comparison of the fortress to a floating island, Xorlak, I'll assume that it's bottom half looks like an upside-down mountain, sort of.\\ He struck the rough surface with his sword, keeping himself on the surface. He searched around inside his robes, finding the "blow-it-up-yourself" kit that was given to him by one of the diciples. He placed the small brick on the island, and used his pinky finger to carve the symbol on the soft surface of the brick. In the next moment the brick emitted a controlled blast into the island, burning a thin hole through it. Felix reached for the crossbow...
-
Abodahon then moved his head back, dogging the kick; he then ghosted a couple feet in front of him.
Valos then turned his head and looked at Draven "Well, you should come to expect this sort of thing my friend. You've been betrayed by so many people: Ragnar, Scorch, Duilin...etcetera."
Abodahon then spoke. "I really don't see why you continue to trust people, you obviously don't have the correct people skills." He then motioned toward Valos to attack, still keeping an eye on the enraged man.
"Oh, it just upsets me to think how heart breaking your love life must be." The demon added mockingly.
Valos then jumped into the air, surrounding himself in a dark purple glow. He thrusted both his palms towards Draven and shot two dark lightning blasts.
----
Marshal nodded. "I'm with you." He said heroically. He then climbed aboard The Leviathan. "Onward."
----
"Oh, sorry, Captain Smith Darak." The soldier stated. "Anyways. I saw somebody get through a hole in the barrier, if you could fly us over there, hope you don't mind caring me, then we could start fighting."
----
"You're on a role here, sir." The dealer said to Duilin. "What's your next bet?"
"You know...normally I wouldn't do this. But I'm feeling lucky, I'm gonna bet all 200 of my gold coins!" Duilin replied
"Sir, are you sure?"
"Just deal the cards dock..."
They play it out for a little bit. Duilin eventually gets 20. "Stand."
They both reveal their cards. The dealer had 21. "I'm sorry sir."
"Oh fuck!" Duilin yelled. Turning some heads, some people found it quite offensive; to see a demon walk in, play blackjack and start swearing. Duilin then, rubs his forehead, ignoring the people around him and then walks over to Rink. He seemed to have a lot of luck with the slots; he had an entire pile of coins next to him.
"What!? How did you do that?" Duilin asks in great confusion.
"I guess I'm just lucky." Rink smirked. "Looks like you busted out, Duilin. You should be careful, blackjack games are usually rigged." He winked to him
"No they aren't!" Duilin snapped back
"Shut up Duilin." Rink said smiling. He was quite enjoying this.
-
The proletariat arrived at the palace, and proceeded to start a debate on whether to collectivise the land around the settlement, though it was effectively a formality.
Tesla went off towards the prisons, there was an old friend incarcerated...
____________________________________________________________________
"Mock you? You think I come here just to mock you? Also, what authority do you have to order me to leave? Why should you have authority?
"My purpose for being here is to negotiate a peaceful transition rather than violent revolution in Tjed. The reason for this is that, so far, you have been slightly less tyrannical than the those rulers of kingdoms surrounding you.
"As for foul demon, I would have thought you might be more thoughtful about your speech, as you have two half-demons on board your ship, 'King'."
Haraldur sat down on the floor, taking a map out of a pocket in his black bearskin cloak. He unfolded the map, and layed it out on the floor in front of him.
On the map was a picture of the whole world, with all the land coloured with the colours of their allegences. The Crimson Empire was a fiery red, and there was a patch of Grey on the western side of the Dark Continent. Tjed was (//whatever colour Tjed is, you choose, Xorlak.//). Wahabbia and Alterna would have been green a short time ago, but now was speckled. In the green were areas that were black (as you cannot have black and red for one country...), and they were centred on settlements, and were growing in size and number. They could be see merging as both countries went from green to black.
Haraldur pointed towards the grey patch, and said, "This is the area currently controlled by the Grey Empire, that is controlled by my father Melkoth (in whose employ I was when I attacked you five years ago, but now my mortal enemy). It aims to enslave the entire world under its iron-clad fist. It is currently fighting the Crimson Empire, which has similar aims."
He pointed towards Alterna and Wahabbia: "These areas were under the rule of Benito Franco Salazar until very recently, when I killed him. Currently the Revolution is spreading and victorious there, as you can see by the expanding areas of black."
A spot of black appeared in the middle of a pool of green, and then spread out.
"Here you have just seen a settlement vote to collectivise all the land around it, and so run it more equally and efficiently. They are not under my control, I have nothing to gain by their actions, other than the same as they gain (if I ever live there). They are carrying out their new lives in an equal society, with no rulers."
A large spot of black appeared before spreading out.
"Ah, and there goes the Alternan capital. Now, why am I telling you this? I am doing this, 'King', to show that my motives are truly open, but also to show that this is no joke, and that I am determined to bring this to its ultimate conclusion: an Anarchist world."
//Note: In case you do not already know, black is often associated with Anarchism.//
-
The trio phased nearby pretty soon after Draven did. "Draven," said Zion, "Whether you like it or not, we're helping you with this one."
"This big fuckin' guy was really, really, bothersome before," said Xenai. "This time, I hope that changes."
All three started to gather energy. (1/2 charging posts)
-
-"Well then, off we go."
Ein pushed a lever forward. He then pulled another one, and the machine fired. A new projectile slid in place. Ein, seeing Marshal's confused expression, said:
-"I needed to see if the minotaur will put another log in there as soon as I fired this one. Anyway, now we can REALLY depart."
He pulled yet another lever, cranked some wierd mechanisms, and the machine slowly started building up speed. It went faster, then eventually it stopped accelerating, but it was already going very fast. In fact, a horse would not be able to outrun it.
-"Weiter, weiter ins verberden!" (Onward, onward to destruction!)
--- --- ---
-"So, are we going or what?"
Steorra was walking about, looking bored.
--- --- ---
Leaven whipped out the crossbow given to him, took out a bolt and tied the explosive rope to it. This process took quite a while (imagine tying something while you're using one hand to keep yourself on the ceiling!), but he managed it. He prepared to fire through the hole.
-
"There are good demons and there are foul demons, my friend, and we all know the difference..."
King Henri looked at the map with interest.
"The Crimson Empire is evil, and deserves your wrath. I've heard of Alterna's foul deeds as well. Anarchy would be an improvement for them. But keep your 'revolution' away from our nation."
Suddenly a bright blue light emitted from the man's forehead, and a third eye stared at Haraldur.
"I can see your work at hand, cleansing Gaian of unjust tyrants. But I have no such desires, and I will protect our people to the end from this... lawless chaos that you speak of. If you do not believe me, then you are welcome to talk to our populace yourself, and they will laugh at your ridiculous ideals just as my men have. I stand by my subjects as my subjects stand by me."
The eye grew wider, staring into Haraldur's soul.
"I can see some success. I can see freedom from oppression... I can see happiness..."
His tone grew darker...
"But then, when the populace is left alone for some time... as the generations pass... I can see much darkness... I can see a tyranny far greater than is capable by the worst tyrants today... Greed is an undefeatable enemy, and no mater how equal the citizens are, each is laced with a very uneven level of greed... I can see a war spanning the entire globe, and suffering to match...
"Haraldur, your ideals are not meant for this world..."
Ven couldn't hold it back any longer. His majesty didn't even retort Haraldur's challenging his authority. He stepped forward, his black cloak flowing with his long strides. His voice was fiery and became more angry the more he spoke:
"What about you? What authority do you have, deciding how nations are governed? Do you take us for some stupid fools who blindly follow the orders of a man just because he claimed some god gave him special privileges? Or maybe because he has a big strong army and he'll kill us if we say 'no'? Are we too stupid and weak to decide what is good for us on our own?"
Ven's arm flowed from the cloak, pointing at Henri.
"I'll have you know this 'slightly less tyrannical' man's endless sacrifice for his people knows no bounds, and his wisdom is greater than the entire mind of the people of Tjed combined. There is no common vote of the populace that could ever hope to match his benign decisions. If you utter just one more syllable of an insult towards this man or suggest that you intend to defile our great nation with your one-man 'revolution' once more, know that I will claim your head RIGHT NOW!!!!"
As he said the last word, Ven removed his blade from his scabbard and slashed it to his right side, a shockwave of wind emanating from the sword and sweeping across the deck, splintering the wood just below the blade. The sword exploded in a furious white light, bathing the dark ship in brilliant light.
Henri turned and held out his hand, angrily snapping:
"Ven!!"
The soldiers in-between Ven and Haraldur got the heck out of the way...
(Translation: Haraldur, go away and let me do one non-political side quest, okay? Heh...)
-
(( Uhm.. Trent: Allen is waiting for Aura to land from the transporter. So, if you could... ))
Zeros' sighed, and shook his head at Ven's rashness. He stepped out of his own hiding place, and let down his cloak. The elbow of his left arm rested on the hilt of his sword, and his right hand was in his trench coat pocket. He looked towards Henri, and shrugged, as if to say 'sorry'.
"Ven... I told you to not act rashly. Now look what you did," he muttered.
-
"Lawless chaos? That is your view, and I think it is one based on inaccurate information, but I will not stress the point. Suffice to say that I disagree, and think ti will be a very sustainable and equal system. Keep in mind, that most aspects of human behaviour, such as greed, are results of the conditions within which they live. Maybe at some time in the future, I could show you the town of Laus? It has currently been away from Gaian for 100 years, for them, due to accelerated time. I think you would find that things are going very well, without either mine, Tesla's or indeed Durruti's involvement."
Haraldur stared impassivley at Ven during his tirade, then spoke:
"I have no authority other than the natural loyalty by those who have met me. I do not order people to do things and assume that it will be done due to my position, as I have no position higher than anyone else's. Many people just choose to carry out my suggestions. Even then, they are not many, as I do most things myself.
"No, you follow him because he was born into that position, and happened not to be massively incompetant. The fact that he is very good at what he does is a bonus.
"This 'slightly less tyrannical man' still has authority which is not the natural authority I mentioned earlier, and that is tyranny. Police, army, taxes, laws, all are parts of tyranny. Inequality of income and power is tyranny. Also, on your point on common votes, you are assuming those votes to be coercive, to have power over others. These sorts of votes would not exist in the society I envision.
"One-man revolution? Wow, I must have many more parts than I thought. Not ten, but 300 million. Wow. Just because I am a type of figurehead does not make the revolution either mine or one-man."
Haraldur brought his hands out in frontn of him, repairing the splintered deck.
"And Ven, and I do know your name from before, there is something I would request of you. I request that you cast your memory back a few days ago, back to when you were stuck with some of my comrades in a settlement that is now part of Laus. And no, there are no popular votes."
Haraldur stared at Zeros'. "Greetings, hypocrite. Have you finally stopped carrying out Draven's dirty work, or is this just a holiday?
"I will take my leave, I have other things to attend to. Good day, 'King', Ven, Zeros'."
Haraldur jumped up, and flew North into the Dark continent.
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla entered the prison, and started unlocking all the doors, finally reaching the one on the end, and opening it, smiling at a bedraggled looking man. The man looked up, and smiled, standing up and the embracing Tesla.
"Where is Haraldur?"
"He is currently moving into the Crimson Empire for an attack, shall we join him?"
"Yes, let us do that."
They flew Northeast, towards where Haraldur's signals were coming from.
-
-"Ignoring me won't get you anywhere. Now, either you will let us through and allow us to search the fortress for Valos or we will both waste time and energy fighting. Then again..." Celer took out one of his own gravity vortexes. "Would you like to do this my way? I can assure you, we brought more than one of these toys. Twelve, in fact, and we still have eleven ready to go."
--- --- ---
The machine with Ein and Marshal was speeding through the woods. Eventually, a rising island in the sky could be seen...
-"What do you expect me to do? We're Aspyes, we hate the Crimsons, and Lawessov just happens to be near the Crimson Capital."
-
"Of course." Darak said. He then headed nearer towards Alphagrad. "I can hear fighting going on." He then pointed to the barrier. "That's what is blocking us from getting in. Could you use one of those fancy spells? From what I saw, you seem to be far greater then average."
----
"Ah, yes. An excellent target." Marshal replied. He then noticed something. "It seems as if somebody has the same idea as us. It looks like that elite force that I saw a few days ago are fighting some people."
----
//I'll wait until Xorlak responds to Abbodahon and Valos before I update them\\
-
(Abodahon wins the quote of the chapter! Heh...)
Draven's eyes widened in rage as his body turned perpendicular to the ground. He stayed floating a few inches above the street... He turned his right hand towards the dark thunder headed his way, meeting it with a blast of crimson flame and neutralizing the spell...
That's it. Everyone's gonna die...
He padded his right cape pocket... empty... Blast it! The communications orb... he dropped it when fighting that dragon...
Suddenly Zion, Xenai, and Tsu could hear Draven's voice in their heads...
"One of you go find my communications orb and return it to me... I dropped it in the forest southeast of here... it should give off a detectible aura..."
Draven then became fixiated on Abodahon, ignoring Valos-Nex entirely.
"So, all of my traitor problems stem from you... Well, then I should thank you for directing me to my proper target..."
He brought both of his clenched fists to his sides. His black hair began to wave with his increasing aura of flame.
"You worthless demon scum... always trying to meddle in the affairs of superior races... You stupid brutes are meant for nothing but servitude. Now, accept your punishment..."
Draven brought his fists downwards as his burning aura literally exploded. A shockwave of flame ripped through the delicate buildings of Alphagrad, disintegrating their very foundations like sandcastles and igniting the rest of the town in a blazing inferno.
Draven was now wrapped in an intensely burning fireball, hovering above a deep crater that the resulting surge of power created...
----
Ven sheathed his sword, and the light died down. He watched Haraldur depart.
"He's gone..."
Henri's third eye closed.
"What settlement?"
"I saw one of his societies at work. I hadn't made the connection then..."
Henri placed his arm on Ven, smiling softly and the two began to walk towards the captain's cabin.
"So you were able to see it objectively. How was it?"
"It seemed... like a utopia..."
"A utopia is unachievable, but you can clearly see that this man is not evil..."
"But... any man who seeks to usurp your reign..."
"He is a visionary, an interesting one at that... a visionary with a lot of power..."
"You're not saying..."
"No, of course not. Like all visions, his has it's flaws..."
Edward appeared from behind, his arms still folded.
"My liege, we've more pressing matters..."
"Yes, the plague..."
The three ships began to round the northern edge of the island that was once Romme. The island had returned some time after Retan's attack, but it's populace had not. It was now an uninhabited, overgrown island...
----
The metal door swung open, and the two soldiers present saluted as Vincent entered the room. He looked around at the various metal compartments, his hand on his chin, the soldiers standing at attention...
He went to the larger one, and looked out the slit in front of it to see the long barrel of the magic powered gun sticking outside. He then opened the compartment, a violet glow emanating from within. The soldiers eyed him...
Vincent removed the long slender jewel, looked at it for a moment, then turned it upside down and replaced it in it's slot. He shut the compartment door.
"Are you this gun's operator?"
"Y-yes, sir!"
"You should be careful. This turret is liable to explode..."
Vincent placed his hands in his pockets and exited the room, smirking...
----
(Ein, just because I didn't get a change to update these characters doesn't mean they're ignoring yours. Wait until they respond before updating yours.)
James smiled slightly, placing his hands behind his back.
"Hmm, you are are a few hundred miles off if you are seeking General Valos. He is stationed in the west quelling some insignificant resistance. You wouldn't know anything about this resistance, now would you?"
A portal, hmm? That would be perfect. If these are in fact members of Ragnar's army, a counter invasion through portal to discover their base of operation would be perfect. They technically didn't have the authority, but Draven would likely approve... Of course, it's probably just a blasted bluff...
(The Crimson Empire is still under the impression that the Greys are under the command of Haraldur.)
"Hmm, yes. Do bring your troops. We've several friends that are just dying for company..."
James then caught sight of the gravity vortex encased in an orb.
"So that's how it is done... I see. I wouldn't mind seeing one of those in action as well..."
"Huh?! What the--?"
Rufus took a few steps backwards as Ogen regenerated.
"That's just, really freaky man..."
He brought his left fist upwards, the mace striking his metal gauntlet with a loud clang, denting the metal. At the same time he took a small leap backwards.
"'Course, that just means I get to hit ya a whole lot more!"
His right fist slammed into the ground, fissuring the rocks beneath Ogen. Two gigantic boulders rose on each side of his enemy, and fell quickly towards him, in an effort to sandwich the man in-between....
Hans jumped straight up into the air, the axe passing under his feet. He flipped upside down and his hands met the earth. He catapulted himself away to gain some distance, and landed on his feet.
"Nice, let me show you mine..."
He removed a small metallic tube from his belt. The upper end of the tube crackled and a beam of light shot forth, forming the blade of a sword. It was similar to Draven's crimson blade, although it was composed of yellow lightning energy...
Hans flipped the blade towards the ground, which the tip of it passed through, leaving a scar on the earth.
"Check it-- LIGHTING SABER!!"
His feet left the ground and he flew towards Leto at breakneck speed, aiming a quick slash at his adversary's neck...
-
//yeah, I know, sorry about that. I just needed an excuse to use a cool phrase Smile Also, when you talked about the portal, what did you mean? Because the Nightshade is not allied with the Greys in any way. In fact, they're specifically against them.\\
Celer, still keeping his daggers out, said:
-"No, we know nothing of such resistance.
"Oh? That would mean you've nothing to hide in that fortress up there. How about letting us see for ourselves? We've nothing against the Crimson Empire, it is just Valos that we're after. Perhaps if you do that, we might give you a few of these nifty toys..." He waved the reflective sphere around.
"I will not summon the reinforcements unless there will be a need. As for your friends, well, I suppose it would be an unlucky day for them. Our initiates do, in fact, posess incredibly powerful weapons."
Ogen, although posessing incredible regenerating capabilities, could still feel pain. The prospect of getting squished by two boulders did not really appeal to him. He lept out of the way, but his arm still got caught. He was now partly stuck to the two boulders...
Leto hit the ground, sending out an electric shock in all directions.
-"Damn! I missed. Credits to you for being fast."
He watched Hans activate the sword, then jump at him. He barely had time to shield his neck with his hand. The sword slid over the armoured glove. Then, something odd happened. //I'll assume that the sword generates energy, and not just have a battery of some sort that can be drained.\\ The sword got stuck in between Leto's fingers for a second. Energy started transferring to the armour from the sword...
Suddenly, there was a loud BANG! Leto felt a jolt of sharp pain from his back. He let go of the sword, and fell to the ground. The capacitor on his back overloaded, and blew up, leaving only a red shirt underneath his armour to protect his back. He slowly got up.
-"You bastard... Now, you die."
He walked away from Hans a short distance, then sharply turned around, and flung his charged axe at him (the one capacitor that blew up was not the only one, so the axe still has some charge) at an incredible speed. The axe would be difficult to dodge, and even more so to block - imagine stopping a 200 pound chunk of metal! Leto aimed right at his opponent's chest.
-
//I didn't expect that I was supposed to react to poofing away. You know where they're going. You land them. Razz
"Tsu, you do it. But keep charging energy!"
"Hai!" He took off into the forest, searching around for the orb, yet taking care to still gather energy. He picked up the orb's aura and started after it.
"Zion, are you sure this will work?"
"No." They both guard against the huge flame.
"Damn, Draven! Calm the fuck down!" The two continued to gather energy. They were done now, but they needed to wait for Tsu to get back. (2/2)
-
Allen looked up, and Aura phased in. He held out his arms, and caught her, before she hit the ground. He placed her on the ground, before turning, and stroking his beard.
"Hrmm... We need to head..." he said, before closing his eyes, and pointing off in the opposite direction of where the Elites were fighting. "There," he said. He reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out a small disc. He threw it up in the air, and his hands glowed slightly, as the disc suddenly expanded, and gently floated the ground, hovering slightly above the ground.
Allen stepped up onto the disc, and looked back towards Aura.
"Follow me, if you will," he said, before he put his hands into his coat pockets, as his disc started to rise, and then move.
---
Zeros' looked at the two departing men, then, looked towards where Haraldur had flew off to.
"So... A utopia... Is that your plan now, Haraldur? A 'perfect' world?" he murmured to himself, before his feet carried him towards Rink and Duilins direction.
-
Abodahon didn't even flinch as Draven's aura exploded. The flame just tickled off him like water.
"Demon's meddle in the affairs of superior races?" Abodahon asked raiseing on brow, he then narrowed his eyes at Draven. "Demons are the superior race. You human's don't realize that you're just small fish in a big ocean filled with hungry sharks."
Abodahon then charged power into gauntlets and they began to glow deep red.
'Valos I'll handle this one. Stop those young ones over there.'
The large brutish demon then blasted two red beams that appeared to have an image of a skull at the front of them. The mouths of the skulls open up. One blast went right towards Draven, and the other flue past him and then flue back towards him.
Valos then picked up his sword, and spun it around above him, he then swung it back words and charged dark magic into the blade and then swung it forward, tossing two energy blades that flue towards Zion and Xenai.
-
Draven brought both hands to his right side and cupped them over each other, a bright ball of crimson forming in his fingers.
"At the very least I admire your taste in attacks, cur."
He shot both hands forward, opening his palms as an intense pillar of firery light shot forth, slamming into the buring skull that was heading straight for him.
The two blasts of energy met with explosive force, tearing more chunks of the ground away, and Draven's began to push the skull back... But the second skull veered around and tore after him from behind. Draven eyed this, and at the last second removed his right hand from the beam of flame he was firing forward and directed it behind him, firing a second pillar of flame at the second skull...
Draven was now sandwiched between two attacks, firing two waves of flame to his left and right with both outstretched arms, holding them at bay... Of course, both beams were half the strength of his initial, due to him casting them with one arm each, and as a result, the skulls inched their way closer...
He stayed in this way for a moment, before thrusting his arms downward. His body shot skyward and the two skulls crashed into each other, causing yet another explosion and more buildings to collapse... A quarter of Alphagrad was entirely rubble at this point...
Still gaining altitude, Draven spun around in the air to face his hulking adversary on the ground. His cape unfurled like the wings of a dragon, surrounded by and flowing with the burning flame that engulfed the man. His eyes burned even more intensely...
He brought his right fist before his face and extended two fingers. The left hand was extended flat and brought perpendicular to it... Fine points of crimson light pierced through the impossibly thick darkness of the clouds high above...
----
Ven was still angry and muttered to himself as he walked away from the group and headed towards the lower levels of the ship.
"Tyranny... police... somebody find that loon a blasting dictionary..." *mumble* *mumble*
King Henri entered the ships bridge. Most of his entourage split up and randomly moved about the ship. The captain approached the king.
"My lord, we will be home by dawn."
"Excellent."
----
"Hmm, they should be arriving any minute now... Just enough time..."
Vincent wanted to time the last part just before the Greys should arrive, since it would be potentially the most incriminating and it would be best to minimize the amount of time available to find him out...
The fortress Sigmund was essentially built into two mountains. Several large structures were constructed in the small valley between the two, and many corridors dug deep into the mountains on the north and south side as well. The north and south walls were essentially the mountains themselves, steep, unscalable, and rising higher than even the tallest structure in the valley itself. The west and east walls, which contained the front and back gates respectively, were largely part of the slopes of the mountains as well, with additional stone walls built up to completely encase the central structures.
Vincent entered one of the corridors built into the northern mountain and followed it's winding path to a room cut from the stone located several hundred feet to the left of the front gate, and behind 25 feet of solid rock relative to the exterior of the fortress. Here the corridor was closest to the outside. Though 25 feet of solid rock is still quite impenetrable...
He exited and returned minutes later carrying two buckets filled with water, with a few strange looks from passing guards.
When the coast was clear, as it was most of the time in this lightly guarded section, he placed the buckets on the ground and soaked one of his hands in each... He then placed his hands on the stone wall. A circle of blue light immediately appeared on the wall and it changed in color slightly. The water from the buckets flew into the air and entered the wall, and that section of the wall became discolored slightly more... light cracks forming across the surface... On the opposite side, outside the fortress, an etching of circles appeared on the discolored patch of rock that looked like a target.
They should get the picture...
Vincent placed his hands in his trench coat pocket and walked away.
----
(You see, so many groups are attacking the Crimson Empire in such a short period of time-- Haraldur, the Greys, now your guys-- that they think they are all part of the same organized movement. They think your guys are with the Greys, and the Greys are with Haraldur (a.k.a. Ragnar). So yeah, they're doubly confused here. (Heh...) Also, when I do a paragraph by itself that isn't surrounded by quotes but sounds like dialogue, that's my way of doing an internal monologue for the character.)
James raised an eybrow.
"Are you serious? Firstly, this is the Crimson Capital. We do not simply allow heavily armed foreigners to simply wander around without question, especially when we are in the state of war. Secondly, I do believe you attacked us with one of those orbs and put the populace at quite a state of panic and dissarray for a few moments, which certainly makes some suggestions about your intentions... And additionally you are threatening us with the use of force, which, although I honestly don't believe a word of what you're saying about your army, places you as our enemy."
The wind rustled his short hair, but he remained motionless with his hands behind his back.
"So unless you surrender immediately and drop your weapons, I doubt any of you will be allowed access to our fine establishment..."
Rufus saw his opportunity, but took the time to gloat instead.
"GAH HA HA HA!! You like that, huh? Here, let me give ya another!"
He buried his fists in the ground and remove a colossal chunk of land-- a boulder spanning some ten feet in diameter and weighting several tonnes...
"GRRRAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"
He tossed the massive rock at the trapped Ogen as a finishing blow.
Hans saw the impending axe, and shifted all his weight to his right in an attempt to fall in that direction...
He was able to move his chest out of the path of the axe, but his twisting body placed his left metal shoulder guard in its way. The axe dug through the metal armor and grazed the top of his left shoulder. This would be a minor injury, but the axe still contained some absorbed energy in recoil from the capacitator burst, and the contact with the metal caused that section of his armor to explode...
"AAARRGHHH!!!"
Hans flew backwards, spinning in the air and dropping the energy sword, which disappeared as he let go, the metallic tube clanking on the ground. Hans hit the dirt a second later, some seven feet away...
He sat up on one knee, clutching his exposed left shoulder with his right hand.
"Not bad..."
-
Celer readied his daggers.
-"I'm sorry, but that is as much friendliness as I could offer. Now that I think of it, it does seem pretty strange from your side - someone almost destroys your home then wants to go inside. But, here's something you should consider: while we were here talking, one of my teammates is already inside of your fortress. So go ahead, kill us. I'm sure your soldiers will deal quite a bit of damage to ours." Celer glanced at chunks of Leto's armour. "But know this: If even one of us stops breathing, the next place you will find your palace is floating in small bits in the space existing outside of our planet. Each of us has three gravity orbs, including the one that's up there." He pointed to the castle.
"But once again, we have nothing against the Crimson Empire. It is your choice if you want to continue fighting us."
Ogen tried to get his arm out of the boulders. However, he only succeeded in dislocating his shoulder. Then he saw the rock coming towards him... That's right, fool, he thought. Go ahead, help me get out of here.
The rock smashed into the two monoliths keeping Ogen in place, and shattered to bits. A larger piece with a sharp end fell onto Ogen's arm, severing it off his body. He rolled away from the pile of rocks. Then... Whatever was left of the bigger part of his arm which was still stuck, seemed to burn up. The dust from it flew closer to Ogen, and went in place of his lost arm, turning to flesh. He now had a large blob of biomatter for his arm. He came forth to Rufus.
-"I get the impression that you're pretty determined when it comes to killing your enemies. Oh well."
He raised his "arm", and it started to turn more arm-like than it was. Slowly morphing, the limb was now more recognizible. He flexed it, making sure everything's in the right place.
-"I suppose using normal methods of combat would not work in our situation, now would it?"
He raised both of his hands, holding his mace over him. Then, he quickly sank into the ground. When he was fully submerged, he crawled to the place where he saw Rufus last. He stuck his hand out of the ground, trying to grasp Rufus' leg and trip him.
Leto smiled.
-"Not bad yourself. However, I don't want to stay here trying to fight you guys off forever. How about a bit more fun in this little game we have here?"
He sat down on the ground and closed his eyes. A pentagram appeared over and around him (like a semisphere). Anything that attempted to cross it would bounce back, but he wouldn't be able to maintain it for more than 5 strong hits. //is it still dark?\\ However, there was an odd wind rising, and clouds seemed to move differently...
Leaven was now crawling through the tunnel that his rope made. After a few minutes of solid crawling, he reached the end of the tunnel. He got out and looked around. He was inside the fortress.
--- --- ---
Ein squinted his eyes.
-"Yes... Yes, I see it. Looks like two people are talking, and four are fighting. But in our purpose, who gives a crap?"
He stationed the Leviathan behind some trees and pushed a few levers, after which the launching part of the mechanism seemed to rise up a bit. He then placed his hand on a glowing symbol that was right next to him. The projectile was launched, heading straight for the same window that Hans, James and Rufus flew out of. A new one slid into the slot from the diagram behind it.
-"Here comes the sun, bastards..."
The projectile suddenly caught on fire, but continued flying. It took no damage (obviously, because it was made of rock!).
--- --- ---
Steorra lifted up her staff, and aimed it at the sky. //assuming it's still dark...\\
-"First, we gotta clear up a bit."
A bright ray shot out of the staff, and cleared up a small patch in the sky. The sun could now be seen.
-"There we go... Now, for that barrier."
She positioned the staff so that the light from the sun would fall directly on it. The gem in the prementioned staff acted as some sort of a prism. Light amplified thousands of times passed through the barrier, tearing a hole in it large enough for Darak to fit through. The clear patch was quickly dark again, as the black clouds pulled over it.
-"There ya go. Now what?"
-
Aura pulled the hairpin out of her hair and tossed it in front of her. It changed into a disc, and she hopped onto it and took off after Allen.
--- --- ---
Tsu slowed down and came to a halt, landing among many, many trees. He felt around... That orb is here somewhere. He tried to distinguish the direction of the energy as an ear distinguishes the direction of sound. He turned to where it was and walked over to it. There it was. He snatched it up and took back off towards Alphagrad.
--- --- ---
Xenai looked toward Valos, and his energy blades. "Hey, what the fuck you think yer' doin'?! Zion, move!" Zion looked in that direction. The duo split and took off in opposite directions. They were saving all that energy for Abodahon, and his gauntlets. They would have to save it for now. They stored the energy away and took out their weapons.
They went to opposite ends of Valos and shot down toward him. When they came in range, they would slash simultaneously.
-
Allen closed his eyes, as he felt the wind whip across his face. It had been so long since he was allowed to relax. He opened his eyes, and looked behind him, seeing Aura follow him. His disc dipped alittle, and grazed the waters surface, leaving a trail of water rising in his wake. Sometimes, it was peaceful just to skim across the water, with no cares in the world...
He shook his head out of his daze, as mountains starts to form in the distance, rising into the sky. He could still feel the wind beind pulled slightly towards the Crimson Empire.
He closed his eyes again, as his disc continued to bring him forwards, going towards his destination.
-
Finally the darkness began to give way...
In front of the three ships, a glimpse of sunlight finally peeked over the eastern horizon. Far away from the Dark Continent, the sky was not blanketed in clouds here, and beautiful reds and pinks painted the sky.
Up ahead, a small land mass became visible, and slowly rose in stature.
"Land ho!" One of the Posidon X's crewmen shouted.
The king arrived on deck to watched the approach. It was perhaps the most breathtaking way one could approach the island, and the king's favorite. The ships soon fell under the shadow of Tjed's mountains, due to the sun's lowness in the sky. Vast hills and valleys came into view, and large mountains further in, a morning fog surrounding the taller ones. As they approached Tjed, the island took up their whole field of view, and the ships slowed in their approach, nestling into a small inlet and a port town up ahead.
----
James frowned.
"Hmmm, very well. But at the very least, you could enlighten us as to what you are looking for."
Rufus took a step back.
"Man, this guy's REALLY freakin' me out."
Ogen disappeared into the ground. Rufus brought his arms to his sides and his muscles bulged, a green aura surrounding the man.
"HA! If you think yer safe down there...!"
He raised both of his arms, but before he could pummel the ground, a hand rose from the ground, grabbing his foot. He tripped falling on his back, and his left arm struck the ground. The energy stored in his arms caused a fissure around him, causing a hole some twenty feet in diameter to form around the two warriors. He fell downwards, along with much rocks and debris...
Hans stood fully up.
"Oh, so NOW who's doin' the pretty stuff?"
He released his left arm and let it hang loosely, since it was quite sore. He clenched his right fist and extended it. A bolt of lighting cracked through the sky and struck him, leaving him with a bright yellow crackling aura, which increased in intensity as he gathered energy...
----
From atop the Crimson palace, one could see the eastern horizon glowing. It was morning, but the thick clouds blocked most of the light.
Suddenly a fireball could be seen raging from the ground. It drew closer before a shot of shadow energy from on of the turrets half way up the palace intercepted it, with a small explosion above the city below.
Julian folded his arms.
"Yes, it would seem we're under attack."
"Down there, it came from the trees..."
"Release an aerial squad."
Suddenly the sky above the floating island was filled with fifty red wyvern riders brandishing long spears. They flew around the upper reaches of the palace and past the magical barriers, circling the island in search of the source of the attack...
-
"Oh no, an air squad." Marshal groaned pointing to the sky. "Hmm, but perhaps I'll take care of them..."
Marshal, then held out his amulet and casted a blue spectre that formed into a wyvern. He casted two more, forming them into giant black birds (those black albatrash thingies). He then hopped onto the wyvern. "The birds will be some what of bait. Wyverns hunt these birds." He then looks up to see were the red wyverns were. "If some of them come down, the minotaur should be able to take them out."
The wyvern, then dashed off before taking off, Marshal kept a good grip on the creature and held his machinegun in one hand. The wyvern then soared off in the air, followed by the two birds.
"Come here..."
----
Duilin and Rink met up with Zeros'.
"It looks like we've arrived." Duilin said, looking out the windows.
----
Darak then looked at Steorra. "Now, we go in and fight. If you do well, I'll put in a recommendation for to join the Crimson Empire." He then steps into the hole in the barrier and then. Looks around.
"Okay, who what's to get sliced open!?" He called out. Several Grey Empire soldiers approached him. "We have our first volunteers." He said grinning. He then readied his axe and then dashed towards the warriors...
----
Abodahon then brought his left fist back and his right one forth, and turned to the side, making some type of fighting stance. He then open his right hand and made crushing motion.
"You ain't seen nothing yet, kid." Abodahon taunted.
He then jumped in the air, bring his left hand forward and then flue down towards Draven, an orange-red glowing demon skull like image appeared in front of his fist as he came down toward his target. The impact would result in an explosion of demonic energy shards.
Valos jumped in the air and front flipped a few yards forward, avoiding the slashing coming down toward him. "Now, I know even you two chumps could do better then that. Well, it's show time now!" He then made a maniac laugh, and then charged his sword with dark purple energy; he then spun around at a great speed. Six tornados of similar energy then spewed out and flue their way towards the two warriors.
-
-"OI! The cheap bastards have turrets! NO FAIR!!!!!"
Ein was furious. He came over to the next loaded projectile, and took a bolt out. Although it took him a more than fair amount of struggling, he etched a symbol into the rock. The symbol softly flashed then glowed in a lukewarm colour of green. The rock started getting a bit blurry, then entirely disappearing out of view.
-"Let's see you shoot THIS one down!" //the turrets are man-operated, right?\\
He slammed his hand on the symbol, and a quiet click was heard, no louder than a twig snapping... Then a new projectile slid in place. He then noticed the wyvern riders.
-"Hah, they expect to get us with these... abominations? Fools..."
He aimed the mechanism at one of the wyverns, and fired the projectile. It pierced it's target, ripping it in half. The projectile fell down on the ground near the people fighting.
--- --- ---
-"We want to use Valos to guide us to our Master's mortal enemy, Abodahon. Some... sources told us that Valos is collaborating with the Greys. Abodahon is the leader of the Greys. We also know that Valos is one of your generals, and we heard that he is usually found hanging around in this chunk of rock." Celer pointed to the fortress. "But, what you told us was most unexpected. We will dispatch scouts to check that area immediately."
Ogen had a really surprised look on his face when the ground around him blew up. He then noticed Rufus.
-"So you're good for SOMETHING... Well, at least now I know I'm not wasting my time with you."
He climbed out of the pit, and started chucking small rocks at Rufus, vexing him.
Leto chuckled.
-"Well, I'm not the one squeezing little yellow balls and passing them off for lethal weapons. This is functional combat, my friend. Behold..."
The clouds started swirling in a spiral. A small fiery dot could be seen through the said spiral.
-"Are you ready to die, little man? They don't call me Meteor for nothing, you know..."
Leaven walked around a bit. He then took out his "copy" of the stone that he gave to Valos. It was a simple black stone, showing no signs of life.
-"He's not here. DAMNIT! Why did we waste our time on this?!"
He heard footsteps. Someone was coming. Felix pressed himself against the wall of a narrow passage, and held his breath.
The man passing by happened to be a simple soldier. He stopped near Felix' hallway, fixing something on his armour. Leaven felt a strange jolt. No, he thought. Not now. Please...
He leaped onto the man, bashing his head against the floor, knocking him out. Turning him over, "he" turned out to be a young woman. Felix bent over to her neck and sank his teeth deep into the soft skin...
--- --- ---
Steorra aimed her staff at another soldier running towards her. The soldier froze, looked at his hand, then at Steorra and yelled:
-"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
His hand started to smoke a bit, then began to burn. Soon, the rest of his body started smoking. His flesh was peeling right off, revealing charred meat and bones underneath. He fell on the ground, motionless.
-
Zion quickly charged up blasts of light energy to fire at the dark twisters to neutralize them, and he let them loose. As sure as a tornado stops at the threat of a hill, they were quickly gone. Xenai boldly weaved between the tornados before Zion destroyed them. Zero Weapon disappeared, and upon coming in range, he shot a fierce upward kick at Valos's jaw.
Tsu arrived on the scene. Oh great... He flew past Draven, stealthily sliding the orb into his pocket, and then u-turning and taking back off toward his teammates.
--- --- ---
Aura descended down to follow Allen's lead... Water skimming was fun! She experimented with it a bit, tilting the disc and making various motions to alter the wake.
-
Hyperion looked off into the distance but couldn't sense where Draven was.
"Ugh I hope I'm not in trouble."
He placed the halberd under his cloak and began walking in a random direction.
-
Draven took the orb in his left hand along with his maniacal grin.
"Why, thank you. Now, you and your friends best get some distance away..."
He turned his attention to the impending Abodahon...
"Oh, really..."
The points of red light piercing the clouds grew brighter, before bursting through...
"I hope that hulking body of yours doesn't impede your speed too much..."
He thrust his right hand forward and fanned his fingers.
"Meteo!"
Great balls of fire began to reign from the heavens-- dozens of them in upwards of 10 feet thick, directed in a circle fifty feet in diameter around Abodahon and himself. The first meteor struck the already weakened barrier around Alphagrad, decimating it, and the rest followed through to mangle the city. Draven flew backwards around the spheres of destruction as they came in, having the attack pattern memorized, towards the exterior of the target range, expecting the big demon to be too slow to dodge...
----
The Posidon X and other two ships sailed into large docks within the small port town. A ramp was unfurled, and King Henri walked onto the pier followed by his entourage of men. He turned to one of them.
"Please inform our guests that we have arrived."
The town was very small, but well kept and clean. On the other side of the bay, though, one could see the ruins of buildings overgrown with shrubs and trees... After Haraldur's attack five years ago, only the essential parts of the town were rebuilt, and many citizens encouraged to move inward to the much safer mountains.
Two older men were fishing on one of the unoccupied piers and noticed the king's ship arrive and the king step onto the platform. They talked to each other and pointed, as it wasn't something you saw everyday...
Then Ven emerged and stood next to the king. One of the old men stood up.
"Can it be? Sir Ven has returned!"
"Sir Ven has come back to save us from the curse!"
"The King really did it! He got Sir Ven to come back!"
"Horray!!"
Within a few minutes, a bell could be heard ringing and over a dozen people gathered around the edged of the pier to see the homecoming, shouting similar praises.
Ven brought his right hand to the back of his head.
"... Uhhh..."
Henri smiled.
"You see, they're very fond of you."
----
"Greys? Is this the name of the faction that is allied with Ragnar?"
James turned, hearing an explosion and spotting one of the wyverns crash into the ground.
"Oh, I see. So this conversation is meant to serve as nothing more than distraction while you attack us from the other side..."
Rufus jumped out of the hole after a rock hit him in the head.
"GRRRAAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!"
He landed on the opposite side of the hole as Ogen, the ground vibrating in his wake.
"NOW YOU DIEEE!!!"
The green aura around him swelled and entered back into his body... All of his muscles swelled this time-- his arms, leg, chest... His entire body expanded by 50%...
"GRRRAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
He jumped straight over the hole, the very force of his take off crumbling the ground he was standing on. As he descended on Ogen, he reared his right hand back, ready to deliver an earth-shattering punch to the now much smaller man...
Hans' turned to see the meteor headed his way and gasped. The only other one he knew could summon meteors was...
He snapped back around.
"Ha! I'll hit ya ten times before that thing even gets close! Check it!"
He angled his right fist upwards as the energy surrounding him disperesed.
"MORTAL ATTACK!! THUNDER RAGE!!!"
A brilliant flash of light illuminated the battlefield. Lightning bolt after lightning bolt-- several dozen in rapid succession hit the ground around the two warriors randomly, tearing huge chunks of earth out of the ground and sending them skywards...
----
"Hey, down there!"
Seeing where the attack came from, about fifteen wyverns down rushed towards the patch of trees where Ein's machine lay hidden...
Five saw Marshal and his black birds, and swooped towards him, the front two instinctively going for the birds first...
-
Allen sighed, and muttered something about 'kids and their tricks'. He shook his head, and opened his eyes, seeing their destination only a couple minutes away now.
---
Zeros' smirked slightly. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, and walked from his position, upwards and around, towards where Ven and Henri were. He walked up behind them, and loomed behind Ven slightly, smiling at the people below. // Well... Since they're on airships and everything... \\
"Interesting welcoming commity you have here, eh, Ven?" he said casually.
-
//Oh! The Crimsons didn't know what Greys were?\\
-"Yes. I'm surpirsed you haven't heard about the Greys. They're a pretty big army right now. And quite frankly, I've no idea who's shooting at you. Chances are it's one of them..."
Ogen was paralyzed by the sheer size of the man.
-"Whoa..."
He just stood there, his mace over his shoulder. He did not even try to attack, defend or do anything.
//I didn't know Draven could summon meteors as well... sorry\\
Leto flinched as the lightnings struck the barrier. Pretty quickly, the barrier disappeared, but the remaining lightnings went into his chest place, charging it up. The dot was getting bigger and bigger, now seen as a small plate.
Felix, after completely exhausting his victim of blood, stood up, looked at the ceiling and sighed. He did not reveal to many people that he was like this... Only the Iron Wing knew about it, and so did Iban. He threw the girl on the floor, and rushed back through the tunnel. He slid down, and painfully landed on the barren earth beneath. He yelled:
-"HE'S NOT THERE! Execute maneuver X316!" He then spotted the fireball in the sky. "Oh... Nevermind."
--- --- ---
Ein noticed the wyverns.
-"Ahh... crap."
//Dudeman, what minotaur? The one that's loading the machine stayed in Lawessov, remember?\\
He took out his crossbow, and fired off a few bolts. He killed one wyvern, and injured six others, so that they could no longer fly. They fell down on the ground.
//Xorlak, Ein shot an invisible projectile at the castle, just letting you know...\\
-
//Oh yeah, that's right. Whoops...\\
Marshal then aimed his machinegun and fired at one of the wyverns coming at the blackbird. The bullet struck its head, taking it out in a single blast.
Marshal attempted it, on the second one, however he missed. The wyvern clawed at the bird, taking it out and began biting it and ripping it apart.
Marshal fired several times at the wyvern wile it was distracted. He then flue off, with the other bird as the remaining three wyverns chased them.
----
Rink and Duilin followed were behind Ven and stood next to Zeros'.
"Well, well." Duilin said grinning. "It's nice to come to a place with warm welcomes."
"Wish people liked me, this much from my home place." Rink chuckled
----
Darak noticed the meters raining down. "Steorra, watch out!"
The warrior then backed away. "It seems that Lord Draven is here. He must be fighting a tough opponent."
----
"Arrgg--" Valos fell backwards as Xenai kicked him.
He then recovered holding his sword in his right hand, and wiping the blood of his face with his left. He then smiled.
"Now THAT wasn't very nice now WAS it?" Valos then charged his sword with electric energy and then slashed it on the ground; creating two lightning bolts that moved diagonally left and right, and then turned in Zion and Xenai's direction. The bolts would magnetize the two warriors and smash them against each other.
----
Abodahon smiled. "I have to admit that is impressive." The demon commented as the meters flue down upon him.
He then began flying, at a surprising speed. Probably nobody would have seen somebody of his size move at such great speed.
However, he wasn't fast enough...
"Ooff--" A meter struck the large demon as he fell down to the ground in a large crater.
As the smoke cleared up, Abodahon slowly stood up. He was covered in ashes and dust and had a few scrapes upon him, other then that he seemed fine. He then dusted himself off, as he approached Draven. "Indeed you are powerful for a mere mortal."
Abodahon then charged power into his gauntlets, and raised his arms above him. He then chanted a few demonic words and then slammed his fists down upon the ground.
A large fissure then opened right under were Draven was floating, and at several other places around him. Fire began to burst forth from them, and burning ghostly skeletons crawled out. Fireballs blasted from the fissures and flue towards Draven. The ghosts flue towards Draven, ready to kamikaze in a dark magic explosion as they grabbed on to him.
-
Aura simply continued to follow after Allen. She had stopped her experimentation by now.
--- --- ---
The attack was too fast, Xenai couldn't avoid it. Zion couldn't, either. The two warrior suddenly found themselves shooting toward each other. WHAM! And they were connected. "Shit, shit, shit! How the hell do we get out of this?"
"We need to demagnetize ourselves, and quickly!" Valos isn't gonna wait for us...
Zion shot electric energy through himself... He was trying to polarize himself so that he'd be the same polarity as Xenai! He jumped away from Xenai... It worked!
"Now... You stupid bastard!" Xenai looked toward Valos, and shot all sorts of energy balls at him. They weren't intended to hit. They were intended to miss. Meteors crashed down all around them as the fight raged on.
Tsu, almost reaching his team, turned to see a meteor heading for them. He charged up a blast and let it rip, decimating the metor.
-
Draven was not ready for the attack. He crossed his arms and bended his knees somewhat, and the burning aura surrounding him folded inwardly upon him, becoming thinner yet more concentrated, and more of a shield. Several of the apparitions latched on to him, an a huge explosion engulfed his body...
The smoke slowly cleared, and Draven was in the same location, though his aura was slightly dimmer. Many strands of his hair had become loose from the tie holding them together and the edges of his cape were somewhat tattered. His scowl revealed that he had taken a good deal of the force of the explosion...
"Tch! It seems you are also powerful for a mere demon..."
The last meteor slammed into a half collapsed building, finishing it off. Draven straightened himself in the air, as if he were standing on solid ground, placing his right hand on his hip and holding out the communications orb in his left.
"Say, I know a couple of guys you'd get along with real nice... See, a couple of years ago we were toying with the prospects of creating portals to new dimensions and such... when we happened to land in one of particular interest...
"This was a fiery plane, filled with millions of brutish demons of all sorts. They didn't take kindly to us and attacked. Killed a few good men too... But they also were fighting against themselves... It seemed their exalted leader, someone named Qor or something, had been killed. They were fighting over who should be their next ruler..."
Draven removed a scroll from his inner cape pocket, holding it in his right hand.
"Long story short, they didn't like their plane of existence very much. So I made a little... deal with them, demons being as unfit for self rule that they are..."
The scroll unfurled, revealing some demonic symbols...
"Freedom from their world, in exchange for loyalty... I would grant them access to this world, and allow them to enact their unholy vengeance on all creatures that were not cursed to be bonded to their plane-- excepting members of my empire of course-- and in exchange, they would serve me and hail me as their new king..."
The scroll rolled back up. Draven's smirk became more sinister and his aura brighter.
"So how does one pull off a summoning this big? Well now, allow me to show you..."
Draven's palm opened up, revealing the glass orb. A small translucent image of Julian appeared above it.
"Elite Julian, move into position and activate the black crystals. The time has come..."
----
(Not airships, just normal ships, though the Posidon X looks more advanced.)
King Henri lead the group into the town's streets, more onlookers taking note on the sides.
"I've directed everyone with the plague to be moved to sick houses we've set up in the capital, so I doubt you would find anyone in this town with it. But be wary of dark auras... it seems everyone that has been infected possesses one..."
They continued walking, now out of the town and towards a mountain pass.
"It is a strange disease. The victim is completely incapacitated, but we've had no deaths as a result... they just lie there, pale and breathing shallow, as if on the brink of death..."
They came to a single guard standing at the base of a large hill.
"Good morning, your majesty. Ah, Sir Ven! Glad to see you back!"
"Glad to be back, friend."
Upon closer inspection, the side of the hill actually contained a hidden doorway. The guard stepped back and the door opened upward like a latch, grass and all attached to it.
Henri turned to Zeros' and Duilin.
"This is a shortcut to our capital. It would take days going through the mountains, but we've created a tunnel straight through. We keep it hidden though, since I'm sure you understand the implications if this were to be discovered by our enemies..."
The group entered the dark tunnel.
----
Julian nodded at the receipt of the message.
"Yes, my Lord..."
The floating island, having regained its original altitude, now began to slowly float westward, in the direction of the center of the continent...
An invisible blast rocked the edge of the barrier surrounding the island, leaving visible red cracks, which slowly began to mend themselves...
----
James turned his head as Felix fell from the island. Huh, looks like he was telling the truth...
A voice came from the orb James was holding behind his back.
"It's starting. Better get back inside."
James put the orb back into his pocket, looking back to Celer.
"Well then, I must thank you. You've been a useful source of information, at the very least..."
His head moved up, looking past the man.
"Rufus! Hans! Let's go!"
A thin blue aura surrounded the man, and he began to levitate backwards and upwards.
Rufus barreled down on his opponent, his feet cracking the ground around Ogen. His fist stopped an inch away from the man's head.
"WWHAT?!"
Hans stopped as well.
"Are you serious, man?"
James shouted back as he flew back towards the now moving palace.
"These four are no longer a threat. Look, you do what you want but the boss says come back..."
Rufus clenched his teeth and stared at Ogen for a second, then turned his head and spat on the ground. His rage began to disappear, his muscles slowly reduced to their normal size. His scowl melted away to a warm smile.
His fist opened up and he brought his hand higher before giving Ogen a huge slap on the back-- the kind that knocks the wind out of you.
"HA HA HA!! That was great! Let's do that again sometime, buddy."
The green aura engulfed the man once more and he shot off into the sky after the island.
Hans wasn't as enthused. He gave his opponent another glance, and then shot off skyward, zipping ahead of the other two, after picking up his metallic tube of course.
As James passed the underside of the island, chunks of ice formed around the upside down cone of rock, sealing off the hole Felix used to enter...
-
Zeros' nodded at the king. Yes, he could understand what would happen. Very well, in fact. He couldn't tell much from the darkness of the tunnel, other then what he could hear reverberating off the walls of the tunnel.
He simply shrugged to himself, and followed the king.
---
Allen glanced back, to see Aura had stopped her manuvers. Not that he had minded, of course. For the disk to activate, it took a miniscule part of someones aura, and transfered it to the disk. So little, any normal person would assume it simply activated on itself. But, to an aura reader - an advanced one - they could detect even the smallest change in someones aura. A normal aura reader wouldn't be able to detect such a small change , unless they looked.
It also used up more of your aura if you worked it harder. The defalt gliding setting - which is what he was using now - could basically work for 24 hours on a normal person with no training, and, they wouldn't even notice a difference in their energy stores. But, the harder it worked - such as pushing it faster and faster, or, doing more dangerous manuvers - one would start to notice their energy being drained.
Allen shook his head out of his thoughts. He had to focus himself, or, this mission would be a failure.
-
Leto lost the smile, and his eyes opened wide.
-"WHAT?! Hell no, you are NOT getting away!!!"
He flinched, and the fireball changed course, crashing right in the middle of the fortress. //please respect this attack -- i charged it up for 4-5 posts...\\
-"Leto, NO! Goddamn! This was supposed to be hit and run, and not destroy, murder, crash, annihilate and run! Ugh!" Leaven was cussing at Leto.
Leto got up.
-"Sorry..."
Ogen fell over, but quickly got up.
-"We will meet again..."
--- --- ---
-"Moving? Not so fast!"
Ein launched another projectile at the fortress.
--- --- ---
Steorra backed off.
-"Gah! Who's Lord Draven?"
-
"Who's Lord Draven?" Darak laughs "Oh, you're serious. Empoer Draven, he is the ruler of the Crimson Empire EVERYONE must pay him respect. Those who don't die..."
Darak then watches as the city begins to burn and crumble. "It dosen't look like much people are left."
Suddenly four Talonscar Elites seemed to jump out of nowhere. The elites charged up thier gauntlets, reading an attack.
"Uh oh..."
----
Duilin and Rink walked with the group in the dark hallway.
----
The wyverns flue faster and began to catch up with Marshal. One wyvern digged it's claws into the black bird, and began biting it. Marshal then fired several shots at the wyvern, killing it and the bird in the process. Marshal then flue his wyvern upwards and then made a turn in the air and flue back down finding himself behind the two wyverns. He fired his machinegun at the remaining creatures, taking them out.
----
Valos laughed. "Ooo, fancy effects you have." The former human then rotated his neck making a cracking sound. He then made a mad dash towards Xenai and Zion and swung a spinning swing that would spread out enough to hit them both.
----
"No need for your demonic history lesson." Abodahon snapped. "But yes I am famililar with what is going on, infact, I have great interest in it." Abodahon then raised one eye brow (I supose that his trademark action now) "So, summon demons now are we? Well, humour me with your magic tricks then, mortal."
-
Zion jumped in the path of the attack, situating Eternity Weapon in a position that would block it. "Xenai, now!" The two warriors jumped back...
"HAHAHA! Hellzone Grenade!"
Valos was surrounded by energy balls! The thing Xenai was doing was positioning the energy for the attack! They all closed in on Valos now...
--- --- ---
I feel boring, oh so boring, I feel boring, so boring, and dead... x_x
-
Valos looked around at the energy balls. 'What in the name of Qor is going on?' He thought to himself. He was unsure of what to do, so he stayed focused and prepared for the next move.
-
// My last post was supposed to be the attack, but oh well. Razz
"Go! Go! GO!!!" Xenai cackled as the energy balls around Valos all shot toward him. There was no escape. Zion poised himself to attack, because when Valos defended... even if he didn't... he'd be wide open. He was gonna use THAT attack. He might as well use all that energy he'd charged up.
-
//Sorry for my absence, there was a sudden, compulsory family trip, with no internet access.//
Melkoth thought that now was the time, and sent a second signal to his troops.
In the cities of Alphagrad and Retangrad, the soldiers melted away, leaving into the hills and to their bases. And then...
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'>BOOM!</span></span>
Fireballs engulfed each city as explosives planted in the sewers detonated, wiping the cities and the ordinary people (non magic users) out completely.
Melkoth then smiled, and flew towards where Abodahon was in order to assist.
____________________________________________________________________
Quintus arrived at Sigmund with a couple of thousand elites, and chuckled at the large target sign he saw.
He threw a small seismic ball at it, awaiting the results...
//Have fun describing the effects, Xorlak!//
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla and Durruti caught up with Haraldur as he was nearing the Crimson Capital.
"Oh, hello. Where have you been, Durruti? Back from the dead?"
"Prison actually, Tesla released me."
"OK."
The three of them approached the moving Crimson Capital and, ignoring all other things around them, flew to it and landed, standing on top of the barrier.
They each materialised what looked like large sledgehammers, and started smashing the barrier with massive blows, a blue glow surrounding the hammerheads when they struck, discharging the barrier's energy as light.
Large cracks started to appear...
//Five Aspyes characters now, wow. Attacking the same place, too...//
-
What was left of Alphagrad crumbled around Draven. Did his meteors set off some explosives or something? Oh, well...
Draven smiled. Abodahon clearly didn't understand the magnitude of what was about to happen... Although he had wanted to achieve the effect of utter hopelessness in his foe by outlining his diabolical plan in classic villain style, this attitude would be far more entertaining to watch crumple as hundreds of his own kind ripped him to shreds for being a traitor "Gaian dweller"...
Draven shot some fifty feet in the air, and his head turned eastward...
Ragnar had returned, and was too close to the palace... If he messes with the black crystal during the summoning... some ill effects might occur... Plus the spell was too important to leave in the hands of the Shinryuu to direct...
He turned back towards his foe, raising his right hand and one finger.
"Certainly... be right back..."
His aura exploded around him and he shot off eastward.
----
The walk through the tunnel was long and uneventful. The group took a few turns as the tunnel was actually a network, with a few dead ends for safety, and a few passageways that lead to other roads outside the mountain.
When the group finally reached the outside, they found themselves overlooking the capital city of Tjed, Tjedon, and a winding path down into the valley in which it was built. The city was much larger than the small port town, but still seamed quiet. No doubt the plague at work... The sun was just high enough to pass clear the mountain tops and illuminate the mostly white stone buildings. Thick lush shrubbery and trees surrounded the outskirts of the city, and a classic castle made of the same white stone towered above most of the other structures, far on the northern end.
As they approached the southernmost entrance, they experienced much of the same welcome as in the port town, with many cheers of joy at the return of their hero. Ven did his embarrassed wave to the citizens, glad to be home, but still unsure what the heck he was going to be able to do about some disease...
They came to a very large building near the center of town that looked like some sort of exhibition hall, the guards opened the doors for the king.
"Do not be afraid to enter, we've had no cases of people contracting the disease by contact with those striken with it... We really have no idea how it spread..."
Henri lead the way into the building, which was revealed to be a makeshift hospital. The grand hall was covered in columns of the sick lying on the floor-- thousands of them...
Ven gasped at this sight. There were men women and children of all sizes and sorts, lying on the floor as if dead, but a closer look revealed them to be breathing lightly, as if under a trance...
Henri sadly placed his hands behind his back.
"Well... any ideas?"
----
Hans turned as the fireball slammed into the fortress.
"Those blasting sons of b--"
Rufus pointed above.
"Uh, guys..."
"It's him," James commented coldly.
Julian gave the command, and the roof of the uppermost central tower of the Crimson Palace began to split, a compartment opening and revealing a huge black crystal, right underneath where the Aspyes where attacking... It began to glow with an eerie red aura...
The palace continued moving westward...
Around the world, the three similarly large black crystals planted the other day began to glow with the same red aura... These were positioned hundreds of miles away, and formed an equilateral triangle, with the center of the triangle at the center of the Dark Continent... the location the Crimson Capital was slowly moving towards...
The leader of the elites Julian emerged from the palace and joined his comrades.
"Rufus! Defense. That shield's gonna give way any second."
"Right!"
Rufus left the group and entered the barrier, which accepted his aura. He flew towards the large black crystal, preparing to defend it with his defensive spells, his specialty...
Julian turned to the others.
"The rest of you, pick a fly and commence swatting..."
The three elites phased in around the Aspyes at the top of the barrier, each fifteen feet behind one of the men, Julian behind Haraldur, Hans behind Durruti, and James behind Tesla. Each held out a hand, charging a different spell, aiming so as not to strike the fragile barrier...
Julian fired an orb of shadow energy, Hans a continuous lightning bolt, and James a half dozen shards of ice, which grew into large blades as they flew...
----
General Hector laughed at the approaching army from his vintage point in the upper reaches of the fortress.
"Hah, let 'im come. Well blow those blokes up once they get in range..."
Suddenly an explosion rocked the exterior of the fortress on the north side, but from his point of view he could not see what happened... A very large opening was now in the side of the mountain, and connected to the tunnels that lead to the inside...
As the Greys began charging the opening, four more explosions ripped across the exterior walls. The largest cannons exploded when they tried to fire...
"WHAT?!"
Vincent exited the fortress from the opposite side, his hands in his pockets and whistling, just as the sirens began wailing. He walked down the calm but dismal mountain path.
And now the battle began, the winning side would earn his future services, and the other his future treachery. Ah, what a perfect position to be in...
-
//my meteor dealt no damage? Sad \\
Felix called over the Iron Wing.
-"Alright, what's done is done. Let's get out of here. Celer, signal?"
Celer raised his daggers which produced a small lightning. The lightning struck the sky, and a small portal near him opened. Iron Wing walked through the portal.
Familiar faces greeted them. Diciples, distracted from their work, looked at Leto and Felix. Leto, straight away, entered one of the doors leading from the main area, to get his armour fixed. Leaven looked around.
-"So, this is installation S-207, right? Well, we've got to get back to the main domain."
He, Ogen and Celer walked over to a smaller room. Leaven pushed the wall, and again, six bright green circles surrounded them, engulfing them in a gentle green glow...
Felix idly wandered around, as a diciple with a staff came closer to him.
-"Gospodin Leaven, the Master summons you. He says it's urgent."
Tacitly nodding, Leaven headed for the north passage. He went through the whole labyrinth of walls and traps, passed by the guards and entered the temple. Not much has changed, but there was a man standing next to the throne with Iban in it.
-"Felix, eto nash luchshi razvedchik. On skazal chto Duilin znaet obo Abodahone."
(Felix, this is our best scout. He said that someone named Duilin knows of Abodahon's whereabouts.)
-"Kto takoi Duilin? Gde on? Kak razvedchik uznal ob etom?"
(Who is Duilin? Where is he? How did the scout find out about that?)
-"Ya ne znau. Ti dolzhen uznat. A kak on znaet, on skazal on slyshal ob etom."
(I do not know. You must find out. The scout heard about it from some sources.)
-"Mogut li eti ludi byt dovereni?"
(Can these sources be trusted?)
-"Da."
(Yes.)
-"Horosho, ya uznayu o nem. Do svidania."
(Very well, I will find out about him. Until the next time we meet [Russian for "good-bye"].)
Iban said nothing. Leaven exited the temple, and made his way back up into the main area.
--- --- ---
Steorra flung her staff at one of the elites, throwing him backwards.
-"Who are these people?"
-
Zeros' eyes sweeped over the thousands of sick. His wings were still folded against his body, as his left elbow rested on the hilt of his sword, while his right hand was in his coat pocket. His sleeve shifted, and showed his heavily scarred hand, metal and all.
He let his senses open up, and winced at the onslaught of sickly black and green that assulted him.
"This disease... You said it appeared out of nowhere? Tell me more..." he murmurred, apparently interested in this strange disease.
---
Allen's disc slowed to a stop, as he reached the edge of an island. He hopped off the disc, and stepped onto the beach of the island. His disc floated onto the land, and shrunk to a carriable size, as Allen picked it up, and stuffed it into his inside coat pocket.
He turned, and looked at the island. Lush green forest was spread out infront of him, with hot sand beneath his feet, as the sun beat down on him from above. Several different kinds of flowers and herbs were spread around, as well as several types of trees, some only five feet high, while others towered to 100 feet and more. The inside of the forest was shadowed, but, there were some things you could barely make out, such as glowing eyes staring back at you, and the sounds of rustling underbrush, giving the island a mysterious atmosphere, as a strange fog also seemed to settle over the land, coating the lush green in a thin, misty dew.
"Well... This is different then I last remember it... But, nonetheless, we have to continue on with our mission," he said, as he stepped forwards, his boots crunching the sand beneath him.
-
//Arg, Ein. Not yet, Duilin barely even knows about Abodahon. Oh well, he does know were he is anyways.\\
Marshal then spotted Haraldur and the other two. The three of the elites appearing behind them. He noticed them charging attacks. "Oh nice try..."
He flue his wyvern about 10 feet away from them. "Eat lead!" He yelled, firing his machinegun at them.
----
Abodahon turned his head, and watched Draven fly off, he grinned. "This one sure has spirit."
He then noticed Melkoth coming towards him. He then flue a bit closer, to get into better speaking distance. "Valos has joined us. I have him fighting off a few of Draven's allies. But it seems the young emperor has taken advantage of the absence of Qor, and is planning on summoning demons."
----
Valos sheilded himself, yet it barely did any good. The energy balls smashed into him, he dropped his sword, and his knees fell to the ground. He then picked himself up, and then scanned his hand across himself, his wounds then began to heal.
----
"Holy hell." Duilin gasps as he walked across the sick people.
"This looks awful..." Rink said.
"So, yes. What more do you know?" Duilin asked, also sounding interested.
-
Tsu noticed Draven flying off. Where the hell's he going?
"Now!" Zion dashed forward, Eternity Weapon in hand. He came within Valos' range... And then he did IT.
// And the first person to tell me what this is based off of gets an ubercookie.
"256 Points of Divination!"
Time then slowed down extremely. He commenced his attack. He didn't really want to kill Valos, so he decided to miss vital points and attack the tenketsu (energy flowing points) that weren't vital points, as well as various random areas on the body (within humane reason) with thrusts that were tip deep.
"2 strikes! 4 strikes! 8 strikes! 16 strikes! 32 strikes! 64 strikes! 128 strikes! 256 strikes!!!"
To Valos, this would sound like nothing more than a quick screech. And he would instantly hurt all over... Zion would appear behind him after a bright flash... How would Valos defend against this?
// I do hope that's within reason after 2 charging posts.
--- --- ---
Aura arrived at about the same time as Allen. She hopped off the disc, and it turned into a hairpin, which she stuck into her hair. The island looked pretty ominous, and the uncertainty she had gotten upon landing was crushed with a surge of determination and confidence. "Hehe... Alright, then. Let's go."
-
Valos' eyes went wide open, as the strikes went all over him. He felt a bit dizzy, as blood began to sprinkle from him. "You sneaky little rat!" He said, his voice of a bit croaky. His cuts began to heal, and then swung a backwards punch at Zion whom was behind him. The swing of his fist had great force and insane speed into it enough to knock a person to the ground.
-
What the?! The punch was completely unexpected... He shouldn't have held back. He took it and spiraled to the ground, skidding back. Bad decision on my part. He slowly got to his feet. There wouldn't be any gathering energy during this fight.
Xenai decided to have a try at it. He jumped up in the air, above Valos, Zero Weapon raised.
"Hell Slam!"
Time slowed down again... But this time, it was one unrestrained attack. He shot down with all his force and speed, bringing his sword down on Valos. He was going his fastest, from within the slowed time. He would skid past him, and time would resume for him at normal speed.
-
Draven removed the small black gem from his inner cape pocket. It was also glowing with an eerie red aura.
"Excellent."
He replaced it, and continued his eastward flight towards the continent's center.
----
Henri nodded.
"Now that I think of it, it was soon after the incident, though..."
The king walked up to Zeros' and spoke softly so that Ven could not hear. He didn't want to upset the man by bringing back these memories so soon...
"I'm sure he told you about his brother, Mavas. He discovered the cursed Kelvot pendant, killed his fellow High Knight, and fled the country. Ven followed him. We were vulnerable... something must have happened during that time. It was soon after that that these victims fell."
Ven knew what they were talking about, and walked closer speaking loadly, pretending not to have taken notice.
"I'm certain they all have something in common."
Ven grabbed a sheet a paper at one of the victim's feet, listing the patient's name and household.
"Perhaps we should check with their non-afflicted family members... I'm sure they came into contact with something... We'll find the source of this evil and slay it..."
Edward, the man with the green cloak, stepped forward. His arms still folded like the night before.
"Ven has an excellent idea. If we all take a few names and split up, we would be able to cover ground very quickly."
"Makes sense," One of the other men commented. The rest of King Henri's entourage nodded in general agreement.
Henri nodded.
"An excellent idea. But don't spread yourselves too thinly, lest you find the source of this evil by yourself..."
Edward looked at his king from across the room. It wasn't a particularly outstanding look, a slight raised eyebrow perhaps. The king wasn't looking at him...
But Henri's voice trailed at the last word, and his eyes became half closed. Edward spoke next.
"But of course, there is much ground to cover, and we can always regroup once this... commonality between them is found."
The king replied, his eyes still half lidded.
"Yes, a splendid idea. I've matters to attend to. I will await your results."
The two men of the group that were royal guards followed the king to the exit, and the rest of his entourage took up several papers each, and proceeded to start their investigation. Ven did the same. He passed Duilin, Rink, and Zeros'.
"I don't expect you to help with this part, but you can if you want. If not, the castle has some nice guest quarters. Be ready, though. I'm getting the feeling something's not right..."
(Bear with me. Things are going to get entertaining real quick. Heh...)
----
One of the bullets struck Hans in the armor with a loud *ding*. After performing his blast of lightning, he spun around, his hands blurring in the air in reaction to the machine gun. He stopped, opening his right palm and revealing a half dozen lead bullets. He clenched his left fist.
"Are you throwing pebbles at us?"
A couple of wyverns swooped at Marshal from above, plumes of fire spewing from their mouths. More wyverns exited the palace by the second... The first wave was fire elemental, but now they were of multiple types: fire, ice, and poison.
-
"Well, I'm game for whichever." Duilin replied
"Me too." Rink added.
Duilin turned to Zeros'. "So, you just want to go to the guest quarters?"
----
Valos was able to sense the time delay, he increased his speed, and back flipped a few feet away from Xenai's attack. As he was in the air, he aimed a backwards kick at Zion and shot a dark shade blast at Xenai.
----
"Uh oh." Marshal groaned as the wyvern blasted flame at him. He flue the wyvern back a few feet, and avoided most of the flame but still experienced a few burns.
He then held his amulet forward and blasted a large cloud that formed into a swarm of bats. The bats then began to swarm around the wyvern clawing and biting at it, until the creature finally gave in. However, another wyvern shot a blast of ice at the bats freezing many of them, a bunch more began to flock towards him.
"Not good!" Marshal cried. "Yaa!" he then flue down his wyvern, to get in range of the Leviathan, hopefully Ein would notice and fire at them..
----
"I'm not sure." Replied Darak, swinging his axe at one, striking it and then dodging a laser beam. "They must be with the Grey Empire." He then noticed the Talonscar symbol on one of them. "Now were have I seen that before.." He then swings his axe at the one he struck earlier, finishing it off.
-
Whoa, he's good! Zion wasn't expecting the attack. He got hit, and staggered back, countering by tossing a simple ball of light energy at Valos.
Fuckin' missed... Xenai saw the shade blast coming just in time to get hit by it. However, since he's almost 100% darkness, he took very little damage from it. He simply waited.
-
Melkoth said, "Let us get him!"
He chased after Draven, and then attacked from behind. He shot a poisoned dart from a blowpipe at Draven's neck, then flew out in curved motion charging a shade ball in his hands...
____________________________________________________________________
As the soldiers under his command swept through Sigmund, Quintus flew upwards, and saw a few men surveying the battle (General Hector etc., but he does not know that). He threw a large fireball at them.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur saw the glow of the black chrystal just as his hammer smashed the shield into pieces.
"Destroy that thing if you can, whatever it is!"
Just then, Tesla saw that Haraldur and Durruti were about to be attacked, and shouted "Duck!", dropping down just as the other two did.
Durruti dropped an explosive chargen onto Rufus and the black Chrystal, and it exploded //you decide what happens, Xorlak//.
Haraldur ducked the bullets from Marshall (meanwhile telling the Durruti about Marshall and Ein) and shot two lightning bolts at James and Julian, while Tesla shot at Hans with his ray gun, and shot another ball of plasma towards the black chrystal.
-
Abodahon let out a quick laugh and then flue towards Draven as well. "Change of mind. Just can't risk you summoning demons." He then crafted a ball of red electricity. "Nothing personal." He then winked at him and then tossed the lightning ball at his target.
-----
As Valos landed on the ground after kicking Zion he placed his hands onto the ground and flipped over, picking up his sword as he forward summersaults towards Xenai, and then stands up and thrusts his sword toward him, aiming a stab at the fighter's torso.
-
Zeros' shook his head and Duilin and Rink.
"No. I think I'll just explore abit," he said. He cracked his neck and knuckles, and spread his wings to their full wing span, 15 feet from the tip of the left on, to the tip of the right. He folded his wings back into their previous position, and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
He walked towards the enterance to the castle, and waved over his shoulder.
"Call me if you need me," he said, walking out of the palace with a lazy wave. If anyone had saw his eyes, they were narrowed into slits, drifting over the palace. Fast.
-
Ein caught sight of the wyverns coming for him. He turned the Leviathan accordingly.
-"Eat blackrock, scum!"
Slamming his hand down the symbol, he sent death out to five of the wyverns, ripping them in half. However, a few more were attracted to the deaths of their comrades. Ein noticed that.
-"So you want more, eh?!"
He whipped out his crossbow, loaded with a bolt. He shot a wyvern, knocking it down at another one that was coming for him. Both wyverns were rendered "inoperational". Total kill count: Seven.
--- --- ---
-"Where have you seen what befor--?"
Suddenly, an Elite appeared out of the darkness, sneaking up behind Steorra. He kicked her in the back, knocking her down to the ground. He then placed his foot ontop of her and readied his sword, aiming it at her neck.
-"Argh!!"
--- --- ---
Leaven made his way back into the main area, from which he entered a passage. He walked through, entering a medium-sized area full of tables, resembling a caffeteria.
-"Oi! A shot of something strong, please."
A man in rather festive clothes came over to him, holding two glasses. He sat down near Leaven.
-"What be botherin' ya, brother?"
-"Ugh... The Master gave me another impossible task. You know, sometimes I wonder if it's really worth it being in the Iron Wing. All these things he tells me to do... And the "baron" title doesn't help, either. So what if I can have a mistress any time I want, and that I have unlimited clearance? Man, life is tough..."
-"Ah, don't be worryin', brother! Take a sip, it be help."
Leaven drank some of the fiery liquid from the glass.
-"I guess getting drunk once in a while helps."
He drank more, emptying the glass.
-
//DM... Valos has a sphere of light energy flying toward him...
-
//Ooops, disregard that.\\
Valos then landed on the ground and reached over to pick up his sword, but was then struck by a light energy ball. He tumbled to the ground, and then picked up his sword. He then dashed toward Zion and thrusted his sword forward, aiming a stab at the torso.
//In, short Valos got hit, and he's attacking Zion instead of Xenai.\\
----
Marshal grinned. Good ole' Ein. He then fired his machinegun at one of the wyverns. The creature then flue at him, and blasted a poisonous blast at the wyvern he was riding. He then fired several times more at it. "Oh no..."
Marshal's wyvern began to wheeze, and flying a bit slower.
"Come on, boy...You can do it." He said calmingly.
Suddenly, another enemy came at him, digging his claws into the ill stricken creature. They then began to crash into the ground. Marshal quickly jumped off into a tree on the way down. He then grimaced as he saw his wyvern get torn up, he then turned away.
"Oh now it's on..." Marshal then blasted a blue cloud that began to make shape...
----
"Okay then." Duilin said to Zeros', as he left.
"So, then..." Rink said looking around. "Were are those guest rooms at?"
-
Zion brought the sword up in a parrying motion. Assuming that Valos is thrusting with the right hand, Zion parries the thrust off to Valos's left, so that both his arms are off to the side. He follows through this motion, leaping up and spinkicking toward the side of Valos' head.
--- --- ---
Aura couldn't help but wonder why they weren't moving. A dustball rolls by.
-
Allen blinked.
"Whoops... Got lost in my thoughts," he said sheepishly. He shook his head, and continued to walk. The reached the edge of the forested area, and looked around.
"Hm.." he murmurred, before stepping into the dark forest. The glowing eyes blinked, and disappeared.
---
Allen looked around the forest. It was... Dark. Very dark. He could barely see, actually. He looked up, at the canopy. The trees towered over him, and enterwined themsevles, with large vines hanging from the trees. The underbrush crunched beneath his feet, as he stepped forwards, and into the darkness.
-
Some sort of dart penetrated Draven's aura. It immediately caught flame and burned up before nearing his flesh. Draven turned his head as he forged forward to see both the demon and Melkoth on his tail.
Wonderful.
He arked downwards as a ball of lightning zoomed past. He could probably loose the big stupid demon, but he wasn't sure of the other's speed. No matter, even if they did follow him back, he could sick the Shinryuu on them while he took care of the crystal...
Draven's altitude dropped to the point that his aura clipped the trees below. He outstretched both arms to his sides and the forest ignited in flame as he passed over, huge flames erupting behind him and thick black smoke rising to the sky-- a massive smokescreen.
----
Ven was the only one left in the room with Duilin and Rink (apart from the victims, of course).
"Just exit this building and follow the main road north to the castle-- you can't miss it. Ask the guards there. I'm sure our majesty has already made the arrangements."
He held up the sheets of paper in his hand.
"I'll meet you there later. See ya."
He exited the hall, the door slamming echoing through the room.
At the sound of the shutting door, all of the plague victim's eyes simultaneously opened....
He walked down the steps, past the guards at the door. They were talking with an elderly woman, explaining that they were not allowing visitors at this time, and to return this evening between five and nine.
Hearing the name the woman spoke, Ven shuffled through the papers to see if he got lucky. No, but it wouldn't hurt to talk with her anyway.
"Excuse me, madam, could I have a word with you?"
He asked the old woman a number of questions about what her husband did before he became ill. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except that a few days before he got sick, he came home quite shaken and explained to her that he saw Sir Mavas being chased by royal guards and the High Knight knocked him down, laughing, during his escape through the streets.
He thanked the woman and moved on down the street. Hmmm, he didn't expect to be reminded of that day...
He continued on, until he heard his name being called from a dark alley...
"... Ven..."
He turned, the shadows revealing a pale man in peasant's clothing walking towards him.
"... Yes?"
"... Ven~..."
"What?"
"... Vennn..."
The man grabbed him by the shoulders. He was wimpy compared to Ven, who was a foot taller. The man gazed into Ven's soul and grinned. It was the same crazy look Mavas had...
"... Vennnn..."
Ven brought his right hand up and socked the man right in the face. He flew backwards, slamming into the wall. Ven outstreatched his hand.
"Whoa... Hey, are you okay...?"
The man sat up, still with the smirk and now chuckling...
"... Vehehehehnnn..."
Suddenly a different voice from his left-- lots of them actually...
"... Vennnnn..."
He turned, just in time to see the two guards at the medical hall's doorway getting pushed down the stairs by a mob of pale men women and children. The plague victims spilled out of the building, looking quite healthy apart from their paleness.
One of them stopped and pointed.
"Ven!"
The rest turned their heads, thrusting their fists into the air.
"VENNNN!!"
The mob began to run at the high knight.
Ven took a step backwards, visibly quite freaked out.
"What the--?!"
----
The barriers surrounding Sigmund gave way next. From here on it was a straight fight between the armies. The skies filled with wyverns and the ground littered with soldiers, knights, ogres and the like.
Hector was enraged. While standing on one of the upper roofs of the fortress, a fireball suddenly hit his group, sending them flying into the air. All of them died but him, who was more magically inclined. He landed on a lower roof on his knees, his armor smoking and his red cape tattered. He pointed at the figure in the sky, screaming:
"KILL HIM!! KILL HIMMM!!!!"
----
Rufus braced himself. Two explosions engulfed the platform that he was protecting, the first one stronger. The smoke cleared to reveal a greenish barrier localized to the platform, namely himself and the black crystal.
Great... He knew he could only keep this up for a few minutes, at this level of abuse...
Hans bent his body to avoid the ray blast.
"Relyin' on weapons, huh?"
He began raging at Tesla at lightning speed, taking the metallic tube from his belt with his right hand. The lighting blade flashed into existence, and he sliced at the ray gun...
James and Julian thrust their hands outwards to deflect the lightning blasts with their respective elements, flying closer to each other.
"Give me a minute."
"As you wish."
Julian brought his clenched fists to his sides as a blackness surrounded him...
James' image faded, becoming mist, and the mist gathered in front of Haraldur and Durruti, his short form appearing from the cloud.
"My my, once again you've proven yourself quite a rude fellow. Perhaps we can discuss this like civilized men..."
He placed his hands behind his back.
The red aura surrounding the crystal grew in intensity. The clouds above the palace slowly began to circle as the island continued its slow movement westward...
-
The skies were turbulent. Celer, Ogen and Leto went outside to check it out. There were red lightnings everywhere; winds were high. No sign of the sun. Then they heard someone from the direction of the cave. Turning around, they saw Leaven helping Iban come out of the opening.
-"Is it done?", Celer whispered.
-"No, my friend. It has not even begun."
Iban then sort of pushed Felix away, and said something. Three diciples carrying a large open coffin-like structure with a staff in it showed up. Iban picked up the staff.
-"This planet has served it's purpose. We should have all died the second the portal to Hell was opened. Mankind has outlived it's alotted time to live."
The Iron Wing kneeled as Iban raised his staff. Suddenly, a red beam from the skies shone upon him. He slowly started rising in the air.
The staff, which resembled a red wooden stick with a claw-like formation holding a black gem on the top, started glowing. Iban stopped rising, and looked down. A huge red lightning struck his staff, branching off and striking Ogen, Leto and Celer.
-"Felix, my son... I've known you for far too long to just let you die. Step into the light, and be saved..."
Leaven was motionless. Iban shook his head.
-"As you wish."
He pointed the staff to the ground. It made a long humming noise, after which it shot out a red ghostlike skull. It hit the ground and went in deeper.
-"There is still time, Felix... come..."
Leaven still stayed on the spot. As much as he wanted to, he could not move. It was as though he was but a beholder from his own body. He could not control it. Could not move. Could not scream. Could not breathe.
Iban's face showed a few marks of sadness.
-"Very well... Goodbye."
In a blinding red flash, he disappeared into the skies. Suddenly, large beams started coming out of the ground, destroying everything in their path. One, two, three... Then they all combined into one gigantic one, and exploded.
From space, Iban saw the small blue dot emit a bright red flash, and blow to pieces, creating a supernova-like explosion in process.
-"Gospodin Leaven, are you all right...?"
Leaven woke up in cold sweat. He looked around; he was on the table where he last remembered enjoying his drink.
-"Damn, I must've passed out..."
--- --- ---
Ein yelled over to Marshal:
-"Hey! Kill those last ones off, and get on! The fortress is getting away, we're not letting it do that!"
-
Marshal gave the 'okay' sign to Ein. The blue cloud then formed into a small blue dragon. He then hopped onto the dragon. "Now let's see what you can do!"
He flue the dragon towards the remaining wyverns. He fired his gun rapidly at them, killing off many of them. He then reloaded his gun, as the wyverns flue closer. The dragon then fired a blast of flame at them, killing three and the rest flue off in fright.
Marshal then flue his dragon closer to the Leviathan. "I'll stay with this. Let's just catch up with that castle."
----
Abodahon then growled as the smokescreen flue at him. He then narrowed his eyes, and blinked a few times. "He's getting away." The demon snapped. He then flapped his wings and then surrounded himself in a dark aura, to increase his speed, and then flue after Draven.
----
Duilin and Rink began to go there way towards the guest quarters, but then noticed all the sick people get up and begin walking off.
"What the shit!?" Rink exclaimed
"Were are they going?" Duilin asked
"Let's find out."
The two of them stepped outside, and found them all swarming towards Ven and calling out his name.
"Uh oh..." Duilin groaned. He then began to charge up a fireball.
"No! Don't!" Rink snapped, jumping in front of Duilin. "They're still just innocent people. They're probably under some strange trance."
"Well, what else can we do?"
"Umm..."
----
"Oohh--"
Valos swings his head to the side, as Zion's foot smacks him in the face. He then swings a horizontal slash with his sword at his adversary.
-----
//Um, Ein, the elite's use gauntlets, but okay. Maybe some can also have swords, They'll be similar to Valos' but smaller. Good work Ein!\\
Darak then ran at the elite reading to attack Steorra. He swung his axe at him, as it stuck right into the shaded warrior. He then ripped his axe out and the elite fell to the ground. He then helped Steorra up. "Looks like that was the last one..."
He then rolled the dead elite over and looked at the symbol on the chest of his uniform. "That symbol. It's like the one tattooed on Valos' forehead. Remember, that general with the purple glow from earlier?"
He then examined it for a wile. "It's looks like a bird talon making a cut..." He then rubbed his chin, and thought for a moment.
-
Melkoth cursed, and made a note to himself to get some clay darts in the future.
He entered the smoke, and just carried on through it. When he was on the other side, he then saw that he was quite far from Draven. He flew towards Draven and accelerated in order to catch up.
____________________________________________________________________
Quintus laughed at the little man on the roof shouting. He chucked two vibration orbs at the man: if they did not kill the man, they would at least destroy the roof he was on, making the roof tiles and beams shake themselves to pieces.
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla quickly let his mind energy flow to his plasma gun. The strike went right through the gun with no effect other than to send a psychic shock up the weapon towards Hans, which could potentially cause his brain to flow out of his ears. A trick Haraldur had taught him.
"No, weapons can just be useful sometimes."
From his hand, lightning went forth, and he thrust his hand in Hans' face, so that as many as possible of the lightning sparks would hit the man. He then shot at Julian with his plasma rifle.
Haraldur said, "Ignore him, Durruti, he is just stalling us!"
He then threw down a torus (donut) shaped space warp at the barrier. When the warp made contact, the barrier was curled around it, spinning faster and faster through the hole and around the inside, releasing a lot of light as the barrier's energy was sapped, and forming a hole in the middle of the "donut".
Haraldur's aura went through the hole in a very high concentration, forcing the chrystal's aura back into the chrystal, making the chrystal vibrate as if about to explode...
At the same time, Haraldur threw a lava ball inside the barrier.
Durruti saw the hole appear in the barrier, and smiled as he thought of what an explosion in that confined space would do, if the barrier was strong enough. He dropped two dynamite fuses onto the lava ball (when it was inside the barrier). They detonated. If the barrier was strong, then the pressure change inside would be sufficient to literally "splat" even a magically advanced human, let alone a normal person.
-
"I found him."
Hyperion looked towards the direction he could sense Draven was in. Until recently he forgot he was still poisoned and if not healed, would soon succumb. As a first test of his new ability he transformed into hawk and flew towards Draven.
-
From outside, Zeros' saw the mob shout and scream Ven's name. His eyes narrowed, as he phased out of view. He ghosted himself rapidly towards Ven, and reached him in seconds. He grabbed the slightly shorter man by the back of his armor, and jumped into the air, as the mob reached Ven's position. He flapped his wings, and kept them suspended in the air.
"I knew something was fishy..." he muttered, while holding Ven up higher then the mob could reach, flapping his black wings lightly, easily able to hold Ven in the air.
-
Draven saw the glow of the floating crimson palace far in the distance... Closer, he was able to sense the auras of multiple attackers...
If he were actually trying to escape, a few tricks came to mind. But by now it would be obvious that he was trying to reach the palace, so he simply continued on.
Eh, they'll just be first...
----
"Vennnn..."
The crowd grew under Zeros' and Ven futilely jumping up and down, hands reaching in the air.
"Vennn!!"
Ven hung in the air embarrassedly.
"Blast it! Mavas... They touched the pendant... They share his curse..."
"Curse?"
Edward was standing on one of the roofs, only visible now that the two were in the air.
"Ven, you put it in such a negative way..."
He unfolded his arms, revealing a glowing red pendant around his chest...
"The rule is, you touch it, you're mine..."
His body grew taller, his green cloak morphing into Mavas' black armor...
Ven clenched his teeth.
"Why!? Why must you involve them!?"
"Always with the questions, Ven. I will show you..."
His glance shot up to meet Zeros'.
"... if you would be so kind as to release him... Or if you prefer, there is an alternative..."
The villagers stopped their chanting and most of them pulled out knives and swords. They then held the blades to their necks...
"How much blood does the human body contain, anyway? With that many, I'd bet it'd be a small river... Myeh heh heh..."
Ven's eyes widened in terror.
"NOOOO!!!!"
"Gah ha ha ha!!!"
"Do it... Drop me..."
----
Hector leapt from the roof as it collapsed. His forces dwindling and blinded with rage himself, a red aura engulfed the man as he took to the sky after Quintus.
He removed a rod some three feet in length from his belt, holding in the center with his right hand as he closed in on his target. Both ends flashed red as a thin crimson blade extended from each end, some three feet each. He spun the dual-blade once and slammed one end down towards his target upon reaching his altitude...
----
"GRAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"
Rufus dashed forward, dispersing his barrier and forcing all of his weight in to a forward punch into the magma ball as the dynamite connected with the ball. It only took a fraction of a second for the dynamite to explode, but he punched it so hard that the mass was several feet back by the time it went off.
A flash of light and fire engulfed the platform, but the crystal seemed to be okay...
Suddenly, a wall of ice shot up on the platform separating the 1/4th that Haraldur was standing on from Rufus and the crystal on the other side.
"IDIOT!"
James flew in from Haraldur's left, his normally calm demeanor now melted to a worried expression.
"Do you have ANY IDEA what would happen if that crystal cracks NOW?!"
Moving to Haraldur's front, he extended his right hand as moisture in the air crystallized before him. Thin long streams of ice shot forth, the first ones too low, penetrating the metal platform floor like paper at Haraldur's feet, and moving upward...
Julian swore at his mistake... no time at all... But his energy was gathered, and now was the time to use it. Haraldur should have been his target due to him being the strongest... but Durruti's explosives were the largest threat to the crystal, plus he was a better target farther away from the platform...
Julian brough his right first skyward. Darkness surrounded Durruti as an enormous crackle of Dark Thunder shot at him from both above and below...
Hans faltered from the shock to both his mind and body.
"Argh!"
He zigzagged in the air, losing altitude and crashing into a tall tree below...
The hairline crack that formed in the giant black crystal was unnoticeable... It's aura continued to grow... a vortex appearing in the clouds above...
----
In a land of endless flames, a million pairs of yellow eyes turned skyward at the point of light forming...
-
Aura sighed, and followed Allen into the forest. She couldn't help but wonder what Allen was thinking about, though it was probably of little importance.
--- --- ---
Zion was in a very bad position for the slash. Eternity Weapon was way out of the way, and he had just finished the kick. He could do nothing but roll away from it, but he still got clipped, drawing blood. He rolled backwards, onto his feet, and waited for Valos to come.
-
Melkoth went up behind Draven and threw several clay containers at Draven, to crash into him and his aura. These containers contained liquid nitrogen, and so would react violently with the hot flames of the aura.
____________________________________________________________________
Quintus dodged the red blade and threw two more vibration orbs at him to try to shake him to pieces.
Below him, his soldier started shooting arrows at the man with the red aura.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur said to James, "No, I have no idea. Please enlighten me as to what would happen and to what its original purpose is before I finish destroying it, if it is that important to you."
Skipping past the flying ice shards as he walked through the air, he threw two ball lightnings at the orb, wondering what intense heat would do.
Realising that the attack on him would set off his explosives, Durruti shielded himself, and then moved near to the chystal, dragging the Dark Thunder along with him. Just before the attack hit him in his new position, he used a random short range teleport, and appeared above Hans' tree. He used the opportunity to drop a small charge of dynamite on the prone man.
However, his teleport had left some of his explosives there, unshielded, quite near the chrystal. They detonated, with the chrystal receiving the full force of the shaped charge, held in its place by telekinetic force.
Tesla summoned two large winged wolves that would now harass both Julian and Rufus (who was further away). While Rufus' wolf travelled towards him (but still out of range of the explosion) Julian's jumped and lunged for the throat, its wings flapping in order to help knock the man down by proving more force.
Note: These attacks hit in the order as written, except for the one on Hans, which is just after the detonation of the explosive.
-
Zeros' sighed, and dropped Ven from the air, knowing the man could land on his feet. Zeros' righted himself in the air, and crossed his arms, making sure his hands went behind his arms, hiding them from view.
Behind his arms, Zeros' hands moved rapidly forming seals.
---
Allen looked back at Aura, as he lead them through the forest. He wondered himself, where they were going. He dodged another tree root from the ground, which, seemed to premiate this place, as he continued into the darkness.
-
"These things seem annoying. Allen, let me lead. Just tell me where to go." She walked in front, starting to cut away at the annoying roots.
-
Valos then grinned. He spun his sword around and then dashed towards Zion, giving a mighty swing of the sword towards his opponent.
----
Abodahon still kept on the trail of Draven. "Draven seems to be moving a little to quick for my tastes." He then raised his right arm, and a light blue spiral formed around it. He then pointed his fist towards Draven and blasted the spiral at him. If it hit the target correctly his movements would be slowed down.
----
"Holy crap." Duilin exclaimed. "It's Mavas."
"Something's going on. Quick let's get over there!" Rink yelled, as he jumped into the air and flue towards the scene.
Duilin flapped his wings and then flue off, passing Rink and arriving near by Mavas and Zeros'. His position would result in making a triangle, with the tree. He took out his mace. "What's going on?!" He asked demandingly.
-
Zion swung his sword to connect with Valos's, and parried it away. He quickly snapped a kick up toward Valos's face.
-
//anyone miss me?\\
Leaven walked around a bit, clearing his head.
-"Ughhh..."
The same man that was with him earlier came over.
-"Ah brother, not be doin' too good, are we? Try some readin', it be help."
-"You already suggested something that "be help". It didn't turn out very helpful, to my memory. Then again, you have a point."
He turned around, and walked out of the kitchen.
Walking through a pathway lit by torches, he reached the central area. He came to one of the walls near the area, and took out a book that was sitting on one of the panels. He opened it at a random page.
Iban, once an overly powerful mage
Then later became an all-knowing sage.
He form'ed a cult, called the Nightshade
Consisting of people begging his aide.
So lived the Nightshade in peace and their pleasure
'Till four youngsters came looking for treasure.
They were indeed an odd little bunch
But Iban let THEM in; he had a strange hunch.
Ogen and Celer, Leto and Leaven
All the four kids were basically even.
They each had a power deep in their hearts
And it was indeed not dealing cards.
Celer the gale, a fast little bugger
Could have any quick mugger.
However, as soon as he saw a much stronger man
He looked for a small road and he ran and he ran and he ra-
Felix threw the book down.
-"Argh, who writes this crap?!"
He then took out another book, this time actually reading what was on the cover. The book was titled, in a neat cursive writing, "Recordings of the Oracle". Ah yes, he thought, the Oracle. Everyone had a bit of trouble with their futures that were told. The problem was not of the futures themselves; it was extracting information from the mystic language the Oracle spoke in. Leaven opened the first page.
User: Holthion C.
Date: Yanvar 46, 6943.
Prophecy:
"-We won't lose hate the night we walk in the light reflection."
Possible translation: Love awaits you when you join the cult.[/i]
Fulfilled: Yes.
=== === ===
User: Voda H.
Date: Fevral 34, 6943.
Prophecy:
"-Life hurries us in our tenth friendship."
Possible translation: Your death is soon.[/i]
Fulfilled: Yes.
=== === ===
User: Leto T. M.
Date: Ijun 21, 6944.
Prophecy:
"-We will lose an entity in the next's bed."
Possible translation: Be on the lookout for a date.[/i]
Fulfilled: No.
Leaven put down the book, and looked straight ahead of him. His head was buzzing.
-"What the hell...? Leto already went. I think I should try it out sometime, too."
--- --- ---
Steorra came closer to Darak.
-"Oh? And what would this mean...? Oh wait. Does this somehow include the gentleman with the white hair in this battle in some special way?"
--- --- ---
Ein nodded to Marshal, and rolled ahead in his machine.
-"If these fools think they can get away that easily, they are WRONG!"
-
Allen looked at Aura as she stepped out infront.
"It's simple. Just keep heading straight, until you can see a light," he said, walking behind Aura as she chopped down the vines.
-
Valos swung his left hand up and grabbed Zion's foot. "Stop trying to kick me in the face..." He then twisted his foot, either resulting in hurting his foot quite badly or causing Zion to fall over.
----
Marshal nodded in agreement. "Yeeaah." He called to his dragon, and they flue faster towards the floating palace.
----
"Perhaps..." Darak replied. "I wouldn't be surprised. He is highly into demonic worship. I heard rumours that he sometimes drinks human blood." He then thought for a moment. "A half demonic...ally of mine, wouldn't call him a friend, named Duilin, was constantly being pushed by Valos to allow his demonic side take over..."
He then rubbed his chin, as he thought more and looked at the symbol. "Talonscar...Duilin's last name was Talonscar...that symbol looks like it would mean 'Talonscar'. Quite odd, perhaps they are related or something."
Darak then looked at Steorra. "Or perhaps, this Talonscar is some sort of cult, in league with the Grey Empire. I bet Valos and Duilin are spies!"
He then looked around a bit. "Steorra, I'm familiar with how your magic abilities work, but I don't know how to use them. So I know you can detect auras. Can you detect if Valos is near by?"
-
(So he just happens to be carrying around containers of liquid nitrogen...? Heh...)
Draven caught glimpse of an object falling from him from above and instinctively dodged, but the container still passed close enough by his aura to crack and bust from the rapidly heating liquid. The containers exploded violently around him, the liquid changing to gas almost instantly, and he found himself pelted by super cooled shards of clay.
"What the...?!"
He shielded his face as he looked up at the explosions around the black crystal as the Crimson Palace came into view...
"Blast!"
James thrust his left arm forward, a spear of ice bursting from his cupped hand. It elongated very rapidly, impaling the two lighting orbs and holding them in place. The electricity melted the ice as the shock traveled up the stream of water, shocking James badly.
"Because... the portal transporting whatever Lord Draven is summoning will form incorrectly, with any number of ill effects, including pulling both you and us into it..."
Rufus turned, and thrust both hands at the crystal. An instant before Durruti's blast engulfed the black stone, a green barrier encircled it, this one localized to the crystal only. The blast hit, the translucent glow of the barrier diminishing somewhat, but still remaining...
However, Rufus' side was turned to the winged wolf, and the beast pounced him, the two flying over the edge of the platform. The beast bit Rufus' armored left shoulder, and the two wrestled in the air as they fell down the side of the Crimson Palace...
Julian's teeth clenched... He remained motionless as the second winged wolf flew towards him, its size even larger than his great frame. The beast lunged at his neck, but Julian caught the wolf's first with his right hand. The beast clawed and struggled as it choked...
No time for this...
Draven rose his left hand as the wyverns hovering the palace came into view. Understanding the signal, some fifteen of them broke away and dashed at Melkoth behind Draven.
He flew diagonally upward, increasing his speed two-fold, at the platform, the crystal, Ragnar... Pressing his hands together before him and slowly pulling them apart, a pillar of flame coursed between them, lengthening until it took the shape of his crimson blade. He flipped the blade to his right side...
Now the vortex above was spinning rapidly, and following the moving palace as it went. Red lighting bolts shot around it while the hole in the sky began to emit a deafening roar...
----
Hans opened his eyes, recovering from the attack and fall. Suddenly a sizzling tube fell from the sky and caught onto the branch he was sitting on about three feet up.
"... Huh?"
*KA-BLAM!!!*
He found himself spiraling through the air and then tumbling on the ground... He opened his eyes and slowly sat up, his entire body aching...
"Oh, yer GONNA DIE!!!!"
The sky crackled with thunder as random shots of electricity danced around the blur floating in the sky...
(Be back in a few hours to update the rest of the characters.)
-
Abodahon increased his speed greatly and finally caught up with Melkoth. He then swung his gauntlet-covered fist at one of the wyverns, shattering it's bones. The creature, then fell down to the surface below. He then looked at the palace.
"Is that...Haraldur?" He asked, mostly to himself.
He turned to Melkoth. "I'll hold of these things, you get Draven." He suggested.
He then grabbed another wyvern and tossed it downwards with great force.
-
He went with the twist, and spiraled to the ground, catching himself with his hands. Eternity Weapon was just sandwiched between his hand and the ground. He yanked his foot free, spun on one hand, pivoted on the other, pivoted again on the first, and then swung his leg for the back of Valos' legs.
--- --- ---
"Understood." Aura then continued forth, slashing through the vines without error, watching for the light that Allen mentioned...
-
Mavas leapt off of the building.
"None of your concern, little one. Any false moves and they might slip..." Mavas responded to Duilin, eyeing the knives the villagers held to their own necks...
Ven fell to the ground landing on his feet, his cloak flowing after him. Five controlled villagers immediately seized him...
"Leave them out of this!"
"You could free them, you know..."
More arms gripped the knight.
"What are you talking about?!"
"Use it, Ven... or they will die!!"
One of the villagers restraining Ven unflinchingly took his knife to his own arm, and the blood splattered on the knight's cape.
"NOOO!!!"
Suddenly a blue flash burned from Ven, engulfing the villagers who were holding him. Their color returned. They blinked, staring at each other blankly and confused...
"Huh, where am I?"
"Sir Ven?"
"What is going on?"
The villagers let go. Ven stared down in awe. Around his neck was a bright cerulean pendant...
"This is..."
Mavas mused at his correct assumption.
"That's right, the Kelvos..."
----
Hector batted away the two balls of energy with ease, one with each end of his weapon. They parted in opposite directions, each smashing into opposite mountains and causing a small landslide with the resulting vibration.
"You miserable wretch! Do you actually think you could win? I'll run ya through before--"
He stopped. A small hole had formed in his forehead and blood trickled out. His eyes pulled back and he dropped the weapon, the blades disappearing. He fell lifelessly some 500 feet before crashing into the ground in a garbled heap...
Vincent watched Quintus through the scope. The magnification was magnificent, even from a half mile away. Alas, if only he hadn't been directly behind Hector, he could have seen the expression on his face.
Vincent placed the long slender golden firearm down onto the grass next to him and picked his book back up, thumbing through the pages with disinterest. He leaned back on the tree he was sitting under.
"There's your gold."
-
// Oh, and, Trent... That 256 point attack is copied from Neji from Naruto 64 Points of Divination technique, which, he uses on Naturo during the finals of the Chunin Exam. Smile \\
Zeros' eyes narrowed, and he whispered something, as his hands formed the last seal behind his arms.
All of the infected villagers, which had swarmed out of the palace under control of the "plauge", were now bound. They couldn't move. Zeros' had complete control of them.
He had modified a technique he had learned from his master. In the original version, you could bind yourself to someone elses shadow, and they'd copy what you did exactly. In this version, he bound everyone to their own shadows.
They couldn't move, but, they could still hear and see, and, they were most certainly alive.
The sheath by his side also gave off a bright glow, adding to the effect from the shadows cast by the suns rays. The moment the people were healed by Ven, which, he assumed was the only way, he'd release them. Not until then, though.
And best of all, he could move and act, as long as he concentrated in some form on his shadow binding technique.
-
Valos simply jumped above Zion's swinging foot. He then spun his sword and then thrusted it downwards at Zion.
----
Duilin and Rink watched in awe as they saw the Kelvos around Ven's neck.
"What the shit just happened?!" Rink asked loudly
Duilin held his mace in more of a fighting stance. His mace then glowed in a fiery aura as he enchanted it with fire. He was still unsure of what to do and what exactly was going on.
-
// Quoaz (Heh) gets the cookie. Razz
Zion was still not in the most ideal of positions, but in this position, he could fight so that Valos isn't used to it. Eternity Weapon, still held under his hand, was grabbed. He spun on the remaining hand and parried Valos' attack away, continuing the spin so that he would come back around and send a foot toward Valos' gut.
-
(Bah... too burned out today. Update coming tomarrow...)
-
Hyperion got close enough to see what appeared to be a battle taking place, however he wasn't going to intervene yet. He decided to try and get in front of them while they was stalled. To make the trip faster he turned into a wyvern and sped off.
-
"Uhhgg--" Valos was pushed back a few feet as Zion's foot hit his gut. "That's it, party time!"
Valos then charged dark lightning into his sword. The dark electricity then surrounded the blade. He then smirked at Zion and then dashed towards him and swung his dark electronic sword at him.
-
Mavas scowled as the villagers were restrained.
"What a fool. Wasting your energy on puppets..."
Ven stood straight up, holding the blue pendant in his hand. At last... After all this searching, and it was within him the whole time... But that must mean the other one was within...
Mavas' voice broke his contemplation.
"Very good. Now give it here. I've one last puppet..."
King Henri approached from a dark alley, his face expressionless. Mavas drew his jagged sword. Taking the king by the neck with his left hand, he held the fearsome blade to the empty minded king with his right.
"You see, I was unable to withdraw the pendant from you due to the negating effects it has on my own. Luckily, your compassion for these fools did the job for me. Now, if you don't mind, I be taking it. Stay where you are. A simple toss will do..."
"My Liege! NOOO!!!"
"NOW!"
Ven removed the blue gem... He had heard that the pendant can reverse the curse... perhaps if Mavas touched it...? But he had also heard having both would be a bad thing...
But the king is in danger...
Ven quickly took the pendant in his right hand and through it at Mavas as hard as he could. Overshoot it and distract him! Save the king!
The pendant slowed down to a mere float as it approached Mavas' outstretched hand... Blast...
"Myeh heh heh heh heh..."
Mavas tossed Henri aside like a rag doll. He gripped his own red glowing pendant as the blue one slowly floated towards it, turning it around as the other did the same in the air, a violet electricity flowing between the two, interlocking backsides...
"Complete at last... no more half spells or partial copies... Myeh heh ha HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"
The two pendants joined at the backs creating one complete pendant with a red and a blue side. A deep violet aura circulated the man tearing up the streets around him as he laughed. All of those possessed seemed to snap out of it, including the king, who began to crawl away from the madman...
The red and blue stones faded, replaced with two deep violet ones. But the color of both shifted again, leaning more to the red...
-
Zeros' released his technique, and folded his arms across his chest, and watched Mavas from his position in the air. He knew something was up... He just didn't know WHAT, yet.
These two amulets... He'd never heard of them before. They must of been made of created in his absece from Gaian, or, he'd of sensed the creation.
-
"So, the two things combine together..." Duilin said, stating what seemed to be very obvious.
"Okay, this is some crazy stuff going on..." Rink said, watching everything.
"It looks like everyone has been, 'cured' suddenly..." Duilin stated noticing change in the people. He then looked a bit impatient, and then twirled his fiery mace around. "Okay, I'm sick of just sitting around watching!" Duilin flapped his wings and then flue towards Mavas. "Time to rip flesh!"
"No, Duilin! Wait!" Rink warned. Duilin isn't realizing that Mavas is much more powerful then before and could fully copy him, as Mavas so stated before.
Duilin stopped a few feet away from Mavas and swung his mace forward. A wave of flame then spewed from the mace and flue towards him.
-
"Ah... I get to have some fun, huh?" Zion sprung to his feet, and charged light energy into Eternity Weapon. The two blades met and he started to push against him.
-
(Zeros' did give Ven a bit of info on the pendants when they first met way back in chapter 6.)
"Fool!"
Mavas leapt into the air, jumping some ten feet over Duilin. He landed with his back to him, basically surronded with Ven and Duilin on opposite sides, and Zeros' in the air.
Ven drew his sword sharply.
"The villagers... are all back to normal, but the curse on you... blast it, Mavas! Snap out of it already!"
"Ven, Ven, Ven... There is no curse... The Kelvot was merely an instrument conveniently discovered... an instrument to fulfill a dream of mine sown long ago..."
"No, that cannot be true..."
"Think what ever you want. But look who's in charge now, brother..."
The dark aura surrounding Mavas spun more quickly, and a crimson flame sparked from within...
"Now, I shall show you the true power of the pendant..."
Mavas' form began to shift once again, the armor changing shape, a cape forming, his hair growling longer and blackening... and a familiar smirk-- not quite the same, but with his own sinister twist...
"The power! THE POWER!!"
He took the likeness of Draven as he had done before... A burning crimson aura surrounded him, though laced with darkness. His jagged blade kept its shape, but began to burn with the ferocity of Draven's crimson blade...
But this time his energy signal was closer to the original's, and though not quite as potent as the mad tyrant himself, Mavas' energy was a good deal higher than his last attempt's...
"Now I no longer have to replace a victim before gaining his form. A mere whiff of your aura is all that I require! You are ALL MINE!!!"
Ven brought his blade to his front as it began to glow with faint light. A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face as his clenched his teeth...
"Great..."
-
Ein's head suddenly decided to hurt.
-"Ow! Damn! Marshal, gimme a sec..."
--- --- ---
Steorra pointed her staff to the skies, sending out a bright ball.
-"Ah... Morning glory."
The area around illuminated and all auras in the said area emitted a bright red light.
-"Was any of them your guy?"
-
"Hmmm, yes." Darak replied. "I think that one is Valos'. Let us go."
Darak then started his way towards Valos' position.
-----
"Holy..." Rink gasped. If he didn't know any better he'd say that he may have been the real Draven.
Duilin looked at Mavas. "Wow, so apparently you can change assholes." He smirked. The half demon then shook off the flame on his mace, he wouldn't need it. He got into a fighters stance, and then thrusted his right hand forward and blasted a three red lightning bolts, one shot forward, and one aimed Mavas' left and right side.
-----
Valos then charged more electric energy into the blade, and it began to circuit into the Eternity Weapon.
"Ahaha!"
The effect of this would probably cause quite a shocking effect to Zion, unless he did some fancy magic work.
-
Zeros' narrowed his eyes, as he ghosted from his position in the air. If he had understood that right... Mavas could copy anyones powers by simply being around them. He kept his aura surpressed, and used his inhuman speed.
He reappeared three times - once for each lightning bolt - and deflected them away from Mavas. After deflecting the third bolt, he disappeared, and reappeared near Duilin, slapping him in the back of the head.
"Idiot! Didn't you hear what he just said? He just needs a WHIFF of your aura. If those lightning bolts would of hit, he could of copied you," he snapped slightly, then sighed. "That's not what we need right now..."
"The easiest way to get him is to not use any aura attacks. Aura or magic. Otherwise, he can just copy us," he said, while assessing the situation rapidly in his brain. If there were no aura attacks...
The sound of the sword being quickly drawn was heard, as Zeros' disappeared from view. He reappeared directly behind Mavas, his arms already swinging down at instane speeds, in it's God form.
---
Allen looked up from the ground, and looked around. He stopped Aura, and pondered the situation.
"Well... I'd say..." he looked around, before sighing. "We're hopelessly lost," he said.
-
Duilin made an angry look at Zeros'.
Rink sighed. "He's right Duilin, calm down." He was surprised at how quickly Duilin got into this.
Rink then jumped in the air and then flue towards Mavas at great speed aiming a kick at Mavas' forehead.
Duilin took his mace back out, but didn't make his move just yet.
-
Draven-Mavas shuffled one step to his left as Zeros' blade whizzed two inches past him, slicing through the ground...
"Ha ha!! But how can you possibly hope to stand up to Draven without any magical enhancements?"
He brought his left arm up to shield his head, Rink's tiny foot striking it, a crimson barrier forming around it as Rink's foot bounced off.
"AH HA HA HA HA HAAA!!!!"
By this time Ven was charging at full speed, not that Mavas' back was turned. He had heard Zeros' comment and dispersed the light energy on his sword-- a pure physical hit would have to do!
"HYAAAHHH!!!"
Leaping up into the air, Ven slashed down at Mavas' back with all his might. The blade could only penetrate a mere inch into Mavas' Draven-copy aura of flame... Draven-Mavas spun around, thrusting his right hand into Ven's chest plate...
"FOOL!!"
A fireball one foot in diameter quickly formed, and he launched into his brother's chest like a cannon ball. Ven flew backwards, the burning energy pushing him back...
"ARRRGHHH!!!"
He slammed into a house, breaking the wall and landing inside before the fireball exploded, causing the rest of the structure to fall on him...
Draven-Mavas turned again, now holding both hands out at his sides at his surrounding opponents as his aura flared brighter...
"There is no way you can penetrate Draven's aura of flame without magic! Nothing! There is NOTHING YOU CAN DO!!!! AH HA HA HA HAA!!!!!"
-
Zeros' ghosted inside of Draven-Mavas aura projection, and started to ghost in a circle, making the flaming aura swirl around in the air.
"Who said we need magic, fool?" he said, as he raised his fist into the air. All the hot, swirling aura from around Draven started to swirl faster, as a tornado errupted around Mavas, made purely of hot and cold air - the cold air around Zeros' calmness and the hot, swirling air around Draven-Mavas. This wouldn't allow Mavas to absorb his aura.
Zeros' quickly ghosted out of the tornado, as it grew larger very quickly, because of the flame auras output.
-
"Hopelessly lost... Hmm..." She took out her hairpin and turned it into the flying disk. She pulled Allen onto it and floated upward, above the trees. "See anything?"
--- --- ---
He could feel himself start to be shocked. Crap...! He pushed on the blade... Pushing forward and upward, removing contact and shaking off the circuit. He would fly over Valos' head. He freed his left hand from Eternity Weapon and pointed it at Valos, firing a rapid stream of energy blasts at him as he sailed overhead.
-
The vortex above the Crimson Palace began to roar... The skies began to fill with translucent creatures... millions of them... The number was so great that from the top of the palace, they spread to the horizon in all directions...
"Yes! It's working..."
Draven flew in close to the crystal as the wyverns and elites flew and fought around...
But suddenly red lightning began to shoot from the black crystal randomly. The hairline crack grew, now glowing itself...
"What?! Something's wrong..."
Draven circled the crystal, trying to stabilize it with an invisible spell shot from his left hand. The earth around the floating island shook and a suction began above the palace, uprooting trees and the like and thrusting them into the air...
----
"Blargh! Still yourself!"
Mavas slashed through the vortex at Zeros', missing every hit, becoming more confused as the flames' rotation increased. It was evident that he lacked the skill with which Draven commanded his powers.
"Arrgh!!"
He dispersed the aura around him, but the outer edges remained, burning him even-- something Draven would never allow. He shot out of the top of the tornado, enraged with clenched teeth and fists.
Fast! He's too fast! BLAST IT!!
Maybe, just maybe...
Draven's cape began to wave around Mavas, the armor disappearing and forming into a black trench coat. He became slightly shorter and his black hair turned platinum, a green glint in his eyes... Two black wings sprouted from his back, opening widely...
In a few seconds he was the spitting image of Zeros', minus the scars... And his jagged sword remained the same. He spoke with an eerie combination of Zeros' voice and his own.
"Well well well, looks like a mere glance will work as well. Myeh heh heh heh..."
He began to ghost around the roofs of the town, laughing manically.
"AH HA HA HA HAAA!!!"
In an instant, he appeared above Zeros', sword high above his head, and sliced it downwards in a mighty slash that broke the sound barrier...
Ven removed the block sitting on his chest and climbed out of the rubble, looking at Mavas masquerading as Zeros'.
"Argh... there's no other way..."
He removed his black tattered cloak, exposing his shimmering silver armor. Bringing his silver sword before him, it began to glow with a white light...
-
Zeros' smirked to himself, as his back was facing Mavas. He turned around quickly, and his hand snaked out, and grabbed the blade, stopping it mid-swing. The blade cut into his hand, but, he ignored it.
"So... Trying to impersonate me?" he asked, seemingly interested. In mere moments, his God-version of his sword replacing his hand. "It won't work, fool... Your not like me. Your only an imposter. You don't have the thousands and thousands of years of training I do!" he roar out, as he deflected the blade to the side. He ghosted behind Mavas, his back facing Mavas' back.
"You can ever TRY to copy my speed... But, are you used to it...?" he asked. He turned so quickly, his trench coat ripped, as his sword broke the sound barrier more then once, repeated echoes resonating through the sky.
---
Allen peered around. His eyes spotted a cave near the very southern tip, and, he pointed towards it.
"There... That looks right," he said.
-
//Sorry about the lateness...//
Haraldur lightly chucked a couple of very small fireballs at the chrystal. "And what is the original purpose of this chrystal?"
Tesla shot twice at Julian with his plasma rifle.
Haraldur sensed something that attracted auras, and quickly shut his down, completely clearing the sky of black and red. There is a new threat to the revolution...
________________________________________________________________________
Melkoth shot lightning at the approaching wyvyrns and carried on following Draven, shooting lightning at him also.
________________________________________________________________________
Seeing the angry man sparking lightning and rising up, Durruti shot tow red liquid balls at him. These were a substance that would poison on touch: the poison being very specific: due to the fact that anger is caused by hormones, this poison reacted to these hormones by exploding, literally blowing each and every blood vessel apart, including even the strongest arteries. The same effect was for excitement and for presence of adrenaline in sufficient amounts.
________________________________________________________________________
Quintus smiled at Hector's death, an organised the occupation of the fort, and the repair of the broken wall.
-
Rink was shocked as Mavas formed into Zeros'. He then watched what was going on and then grinned as Zeros' told off Mavas and attacked him.
Duilin looked at Ven. "I agree. If he can copy Zeros' just like that then what's the point." He then began to charge an orb of dark magic.
----
Abodahon then grabbed another wyvern by the neck and then tossed it at another one, and then blasted a red laser blast killing both the creatures. Only one remained, and he flue up in the air and dived down in free fall, fists first, right on the wyvern breaking the bones of the creature, and then regained his flight. He smirked. "I hope he's got more, that was quite amusing."
He then began to fly off towards the palace, not to far behind from Melkoth.
----
Valos then blocked the energy blasts with his sword and then swung the blade at Zion, with great speed.
-
Haraldur's fireballs exploded near the crystal, and the vortex seemed to increase in intensity threefold... The sky became littered with random but rapid spurts of red lighting... The figures that were appearing in the sky began to fade-- now the entire floating island itself was becoming translucent as it was slowly pulled towards the black hole...
"Imposssible! You FOOL!!"
Draven rushed to the platform as it began to fade, madly pouring his own energy into the black crystal in an attempt to stabilize its energy... But the effects were negligible, and the chain reaction continued to build...
Tesla's shots veered wildly in the wind as James fell to the platform near Draven, attempting to grab onto the edge so that he wouldn't be pulled in the vortex in the sky... Julian joined Draven in an attempt to help stabilize the energy... Rufus was oblivious to these events as he wrestled with the wolf after falling through a roof in the city below, near the base of the palace...
(Yeah, anyone who doesn't want to get sucked into the vortex of doom better move away. Heh...)
----
One of the liquid balls struck the already disoriented Hans in the leg, and he fell backwards, falling unconscious into some bushes and then down a hill into a thick ravine...
The tops of the trees began to rip apart, flying towards the vortex above...
----
Zeros'-Mavas brought his sword up just in time to feel it connect with a tremendous force. He was blasted diagonally backwards by the sheer force of the true Zeros' impact, flying cleanly through two consecutive stone buildings before tumbling in the street behind them...
He sat up, barely moving his head to see a large gash in his sword, the metal melted away from where Zeros' blade connected...
"NO!"
Power but no experience!? This cannot be!!
"NO! NO! NO!!!"
He hobbled to his feet, using the sword as a crutch. It snapped in two, causing him to lose his balance.
"NOO!!! I won't except it!! I refuse to be the powerless one any more!!"
He waved the stump of a sword around in the air angrily.
Ven held his glowing blade on guard...
"So that is what this is about..."
Henri approached him, looking quite bewildered.
"Ven..."
Ven sighed deeply...
"It's all right... He's not my brother anymore..."
A new aura swirled around Mavas, a different one than before... He began to gain the attributes of Draven once more, the trench coat turning into armor and a cloak, the hair gaining streaks of black... But the transformation stopped half way, and he was left as a hybrid of Zeros' and Draven with wings... But his eyes changed completely-- they were his own. The pendant flashed its violet-red brightly and the cut off sword began to grow, taking the likeness of Zeros' blade in it's demon form... before engulfing in crimson flame...
"DIEEEE!!!!!"
With both hands, he thrust the burning demon blade before him, blasting a huge wave of flame and shadow energy at Zeros' that tore apart the stone buildings he had passed through...
From the sidelines, Ven pushed Henri back with his right hand, before grabbing his own blade with both...
"This is it!" He shouted to Duilin, knowing Zeros' would have a counter attack prepared. Just have to wait for the right moment...
-
Not liking the look of the now translucent and shaking island, Melkoth began to fly backwards, slowly, in order to see what would happen next.
________________________________________________________________________
Haraldur, before his comrades could react, could see where this would be going, having seen it happen years ago to the previous Emporer.
He covered himself and his comrades with warp balls. Due to the residual instability still existing in the planet's magical field, teleportation remained risky, as all horisontal travel would cause turbulence, greater the further you went. The only way to go was up.
The three (plus Ein and Marshall if Ein and Dude Man wish) seemingly blinked out of existance...
________________________________________________________________________
Far above the Crimson Palace, small flurries in the grey grasslike objects on the Moon indicated the sudden presence of a creature.
Haraldur stood up and surveyed the strange lunar landscape, the flatness of the lunar grasslands broken by the occasional tree-like thing. The atmosphere was similar to that of Earth, but at a lower pressure (but with a larger proportion being oxygen, so the partial pressure of oxygen was the same, allowing him to breath). A few strange but obviously not sentient grey creatures stared for a few moments before returning to their grazing. Far away, what was obviously a predator could be seen chasing a small creature that seemed to have strayed from its herd.
He could not see his comrades anywhere. Obviously there had been a small sideways displacement, so creating a little bit of scatter.
He waited for a few minutes to acclimatise so that he could sense auras.
Hmmmm... he would have to study the flora and fauna here at some time, it would be fascinating.
//Basically, all sideways teleportation creates randomisation, which increases with distance, but vertical is unaffected. Here, there was small sideways distance, so a little scatter.//
_____________________________________________________________________
Tesla landed in what seemed to be a grey swamp, splashing about before getting himself to hover above the tepid "waters".
_____________________________________________________________________
Durruti landed in a tree-like thing, not the most comfortable of arrivals, and swore. Haraldur had better have a good explanation for this.
_____________________________________________________________________
Quintus climed to the top and waited for Vincent to arrive, in order to tell him to subjugate the surroundings before another land grab.
-
//I'll wait until Ein chooses if he wants to be teleported.\\
Duilin then crafted, an orb of flame magic, combined with dark and lightning magic. It looked like a fireball surrounded in dark lightning. He then waited along with Ven, for the time to strike.
-----
Abodahon stopped next to Melkoth, and also watched what was going on. "This seems interesting. Perhaps we won't even have to crush the place."
-
What a disadvantageous position! Zion could only take the hit and get slammed into the ground. He bounced off and winced as he landed on his feet. He ran up to Valos, and spontaneously went into a short burst of super speed, attempting 16 strikes upon random areas on Valos' body in the short instant, not holding back this time.
-
At the moment that Haraldur and co. disappeared, the vortex broke a threshold, and the intensity increased another order of magnitude...
With much upsetting of the earth below, the entire floating island waved out of existence... the vortex disappeared and the sky returned to normal... Soon, large boulders and trees that had been thrown up into the air began to rain down from the heavens... No trace of the Crimson Capital was to be found...
----
Vincent placed his hands on the sturdy back gate, a rectangle glowing and a door forming out of the metal. He reentered Sigmund to find it a mess.
He strode up some stairs and on to the eastern wall, where he could see strange lights in the sky. Hmmm...
He then saw Quintus behind him and on a higher ledge. He shouted to the prophet:
"Not bad, I must say. Not bad..."
-
In one swift motion, Zeros' sheathed his sword, and ghosted directly in the middle of the blast. He pulled his hands back, as they glowed with an ethernal light.
"Haaaa..." he murmurred, before he thrust his hands forwards. The shadow and flame energy suddenly stopped, as it came in contact with a wall of pure spiritual energy. The conflicting energies tore at the ground, forming deep, scarring gashes into the roads, as buildings were litterly torn from their foundations.
Zeros' trench coat flared wildly in the breeze, his hair whipping behind his head. The flame and shadow only served to make the scars on his face more prominent. The sleeves of his trench coat flared back too, showing off all the scars and metal that had been grafted into Zeros' hands... His experience... His memories... And his scars.
"NOW!" he shouted above the roar of conflicting energies, as they tore deeper and deeper into the ground. Even if the roads and buildings were repaired, they would never be the same. Gravels started to rain from the sky, as well as other debres. He flattered for a moment, before he equalized the energies again.
"DO IT NOW, VEN!"
-
Duilin having also charged up his attack, quite a bit tossed the fire/dark lightning orb at Mavas.
// Can we assume he does this at the same time Ven does his attack? (Assuming he strikes next post) \\
-----
The first strike hit Valos, he blocked the next two hits with his sword, and then next two hit him again. He dodged the next hit and blocked two of them after that. The next four hit, him, he blocked two more; he was hit again and dodged the final strike.
"God, this is the longest fight I've had in a wile..." Valos thought to himself.
"You know...for a pretty boy like you, you fight well." Valos grinned. "But don't take that as much of a complement. I don't want to have my victim get his hopes up before I crush him..."
Valos then began to glow in a dark purple aura, and began to float a bit in the air. Dark blue orbs began to surround his sword, increasing in speed. His hair flowed a bit, and his veins grew larger, and his skin tone began to change to a more rotten colour.
-
"DIE DIE DIE!!!!"
Mavas' blast of energy swelled, and after coming to a dead stop, began to fight its way through the opposing energy and towards Zeros' once more...
Ven tensed as he pointed his blade a Mavas, the white light surrounding it glowing brightly...
Blast it! Do it! Do it before you remember!
Remember... who he is...
Was... who he was...
Right.
"HAAAAAHHH!!!"
A brilliant flash of light pulsed from the blade, followed by an intense stream of energy. The pillar of light ripped through the air, engulfing Mavas in a burning white flame...
"ARRGH!!!!"
Mavas' beam began to slip, losing power as his body burned...
At that instant, Duilin's orb connected with a significant explosion following, knocking Mavas off balance and the beam out of aim. Zeros' attack freely flowed through and Mavas suffered the full force of the attack...
"NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"
A gigantic explosion ensued, a violent wind blasting in all directions, knocking over another wider circle of surrounding buildings. Mavas' silhouette broke apart in the bright light of the blast... The pendant flew up into the sky, the two parts separating, their glow dimming... They shattered into many pieces, the glistening shards flying in random directions as far as the eye can see...
Ven fell to his knees, jabbing his blade into the ground, exhausted...
-
Zeros' landed on the ground, and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples with his fingers, as he observed the damage he did to the town. Over half the city was destroyed... Maybe more.
Zeros' stuffed his hands in his pockets, and walked over to Ven and Duilin, as he stood over Ven, and looked in the direction Mavas was.. Or used to be.
"So... What happened to Mavas?" he asked.
-
Duilin sighed, and then turned his head and looked down at Ven, but didn't say anything.
Rink, who was just watching everything from a short distance, fluttered down near by Ven.
"So..." Rink began. "Is he gone?"
-
//Gah! sorry for not posting. Won't happen again. =-) I need a bit of time to get back in the story, though. And yeah, Haraldur, teleport Ein as well.\\
-
Ven stood up. Henri approached from behind, placing a hand on Ven's shoulder. His third eye opened, glowing...
"Yeah, he's gone..."
From around the outskirts of the damaged area, from behind piles of rubble and half standing houses, the citizens began to emerge, curiously approaching the warriors.
One of the cured plague victims began to clap. Another followed. Soon the entire city joined in a cheer. It was finally over...
Henri began to clap as well, joining in the praise of the three heroes, and the imp that sort of helped. (Heh...) He rose his voice in a speech to his people.
"We've much work ahead of us, tomorrow. Much of the town will need to be rebuilt. But for now, we feast!"
"HORRAY!!" The people shouted in unison.
Ven placed his hand on the back of his head, gazing at the blue sky. He carefully resheathed his sword, lost in thought, not sure what to think...
-
Hyperion floated towards the former site of the Crimson Capital, turning back into a human along the way.
"This had better not stand in my way of getting cured."
-
"You're good yourself, as expected." I knew he was strong, but I didn't expect he'd be THIS troublesome. He entered a ready stance and prepared for whatever may come.
--- --- ---
//Forgot about Aura for a while, sorry.
"Alright, then. Hold on." She took off toward the indicated cave. The disk was pretty fast, it wouldn't take too long to get there. She hopped off, holding onto Allen, and transformed the disc back into her hairpin. It was put into her hair once more, in a fashionable position.
-
Zeros' just smiled, and kept his hands stuffed in his pockets, with his head held high, and let his head pan around, and observe the people he had saved.
---
Allen nodded his thanks to Aura, as he stepped down, and observed the cave from where he stood.
There wasn't much in the cave... That you could see. It all seemed to be obscured by shadows in the caves. There was a steady drip of water, echoing off the cave walls.
Allen looked back to Aura.
"C'mon... We have to go inside," he said, while motioning into the dark cave. He stepped forwards, and soon, disappeared in the darkness of the cave.
-
//So, I assume the Aspye crew is on a grey planet of some sort?\\
Marshal arrived at what seemed to be a rocky grey mountain. "Whoa. What's going on?" Marshal asked himself. He looked around to see if he could find his dragon. Since he was so close to it, it didn't go to far.
Marshal spotted the dragon, growling at a similar sized creature. He then fired his gun in the air, scaring the other creature and it ran off.
"Let's see if we can find the others. They should be near by." Marshal mumbled. He saddled up on the dragon and then it flue off, high into the air. Marshal watched the ground below, to see if he could spot anyone.
-----
Valos laughed as Zion commented him. He began to glow more, and he seemed to grow bulkier, and the orbs around his sword moved faster. He then seemed to stop charging power. He then slowly swung his sword back (like reading a baseball swing) and then slashed it forward, blasted a large, navy blue coloured, energy disc at Zion. The disc probably had a 20-foot diameter, and it was moving quite fast. If the disc missed it would turn around and go right back to it's target.
-----
Duilin grinned, and waved to the crowed.
Rink hovered up in the ground, and smiled at Ven, Zeros' and Duilin.
Duilin held out his fist, and Rink bashed his fist against it.
"Okay, so where?s the grub? I haven't had a decent meal in days!" Duilin said to the King, still smiling.
"What are you talking about? We had a big feast at the Crimson Capital." Rink snapped. "In fact, you ate like a pig."
"Shut up, Rink." Duilin laughed.
-
Without hesitation, the gates to the castle opened, and people exited carrying grand dishes of food, the scents filling the air. Tables were quickly set up right in the middle of the wide open crater dug into the city, and the food brought to them. The people of Tjed had a way with making the best out of a negative situation. Shepherds and farmers, seeing the explosive battle from hilltops far away, were greeted with the festivities as they arrived in town. It seemed the curse had passed completely...
Henri sat at one of the larger tables, and mead was poured all around. He raised his goblet to the blue sky.
"A toast. To the winged Zeros' and Duilin, and our knight Ven!"
"Hail Sir Zeros'! Hail Sir Duilin! Hail Sir Ven!!" Chants came from the crowd. There weren't enough seats for everyone, but there was plenty of food and drink to go around.
Ven took his seat to the right of the king, still contemplating what just happened. Still soaking it in. He had more questions than answers... but maybe now's not the time. Time for a rest... at last. It's good to be home.
-
Zeros' sighed embarrasedly. It had been a long time since he'd ever been hailed a hero of any sorts. He sat down in a chair, but, he didn't grab any food. He just sat down, and leaned his head back, looking up at the sky, as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.
So... Mavas was finally dead, according to Ven. Now... They still had Haraldur and his gang. He sighed.
It seemed that the war for Gaian would never end.
-
//Are we to assume that Draven is out of action or dead and that the Crimson Empire is crippled?//
Melkoth looked at the disappearance of the Crimson Capital and jumped as if the air below him was solid.
"How fortunate! Abodahon, get our forces to take all the major settlements of the former Crimson Empire, especially around the fortress Sigmund, which Quintus and a friend have taken. We must now consolidate the Grey Empire!"
________________________________________________________________________
Quintus turned to Vincent.
"Indeed, High General. I have received word from Melkoth that the Crimson Capital has disappeared and is assumed destroyed. Now, I would like you to organised the subjugation of the area surrounding this place. When we have consolidated our territory on this continent and have it mostly under control, we will discuss land distribution. Do you need anything else?"
________________________________________________________________________
//Dude Man, this is not a planet, this is Gaian's Moon. If Marshall looks up, he should see Gaian's continents above him in a sea of blue on a round object.//
Haraldur sent a telepathis message to the other four when he sensed their auras: You will soon noticed a pulsing aura on this, Gaian's Moon. This would be my aura. Come to me.
He then waited as Tesla and Durruti came to him. Durruti shouted "Why have we come here? I landed in a tree, and it hurt!" //This is after everyone else has arrived.//
Haraldur then said, "The Crimson Capital was about to be sucked out of existance, so I brought you with me in order to save all of your lives. As we are here, we should have a quick discussion as to what to do now, as it seems the Grey Empire might get a lot of power if Draven has been eliminated."
-
Aura nodded and followed him in, holding her left hand out and gathering energy in the palm. A bright energy ball formed, and it illuminated the cave. She used an invisible energy thread and tied it to her finger, and proceeded forth. //Heh, I'm doing this exact same thing using Tsu in another RP. That's pretty funny, seeing as how there's a love story between the two.//
--- --- ---
Zion willed energy to his feet, and focused. He jumped up, and started to fall, and landed right on the center of the disk as it flew past. It didn't miss, but it didn't hit. What would the disk do?
-
"Hahah" Abodahon laughed. "Yes, of course Melkoth. Right away." The demon nodded and then flue back towards the Grey Empire palace.
----
Marshal spotted Haraldur's aura and then landed the dragon near by them. "Greetings Comrads." He said, grinning.
----
"Huh?" Valos was surprised at what Zion did. "Creative..."
The disc just hovered there. Valos sighed and then blasted a dark lightning bolt at it with his free hand. The disc then exploded, likely resulting in damaging the person whom was on it.
----
Duilin sat down at one of the chairs next to Zeros'. Duilin then began eating the fruits and meats. Yet he ate a bit more respectfully, this time. Before, he was actually trying to offend Draven, since of course; he didn't like him at all. But these people seemed more kind. In fact, they may make much better allies then the Empire.
"Ahh, well it's nice to have finally accomplished something, after five years." Duilin said.
"Yeah, but something tells me that there is going to be a lot more going on. Like, those Grey Empire guys...And Haraldur seems to be progressing very strongly in his revolutions." Rink sighs.
"Yeah..." Duilin thought. "But I'm not to worried, we've crushed almost every enemy that has stood in our way." He added
"Well, I'm a bit worried. Mostly about you, Duilin. You're acting a bit to tense in battles, you?re reckless. You need to relax a bit."
"What are you talking about? Relax? When you fight, you give one hundred and ten per cent."
"Well, still. You have quite an imbalance in your power, so just try and not get to worked up."
Duilin rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He then continued eating.
-
(Yes, Draven and co. are on vacation for a while. Heh...)
----
Vincent raised an eyebrow.
"Crimson Captal... disappeared?"
Hmm, that didn't seem quite right... But at the very least, it seems the Greys have it together after all.
"Is Draven gone as well?"
If so, he could breath a lot easier...
"If he is out of the picture, our work will be much easier... New subjugation won't be necessary at all. When the Dark Emperor Retan disappeared, the continent fell apart into many smaller independent city-states ruled by warlords. But when Draven returned, they collectively pledged their loyalty with minimum conflict. These people don't know anything but subjugation-- it has been their life for generations, and will serve the strongest man... If Melkoth convinces the people that he defeated Emperor Draven in a death match for the imperial crown, they will likely change their flags with nothing more than a shrug..."
----
The atmosphere in the hastily prepared feast remained jovial, and lasted for a long time. Some city architects and engineers gathered around the king after he was finished eating and discussed how the rebuilding was going to be done, and new and improved building designs were decided upon. Ven's gloomy mood slowly lifted and he found himself adding to the conversation, pointing to one of the drawing on the scrolls and commenting on how he liked it, and the high knight's preference was graciously received by the excited young architect who designed it.
As the feast was winding down, Ven turned to Zeros', Rink, and Duilin.
"Will you be staying with us for a while? There is much work to be done... But you have helped us so much already. As for me, it looks like they'll be needing my stone cutting skills."
He brought his hand to the sword on his back and unsheathed it two inches, the blade was visibly glowing it's white light. He winked.
King Henri chimed in, turning around in his chair.
"My friends, you are always welcome here. Stay as long as you like. When you are ready to leave, I will have a ship prepared for you... In fact..."
He paused for a moment, then a warm smile spread across his face. He removed a scroll from his cape pocket and unfurled it on the table, beginning to write. When he was finished, he rolled it up and placed a royal seal on it.
"In fact... I'll give you one! Just give this to the port officer back the way we came. It's a small ship, but fast-- well suited for warriors like you. It also has some.... special features. The port officer will explain. Now, don't worry. It is but a small token of my appreciation!"
-
Zeros' lifted his head up, and his eyes looked down at the scroll. He nodded his thanks to the king, and pocketed the scroll in his inside pocket, keeping it safe. He didn't touch the food, though.
He could feel Haraldur's crew on Gaian's Moon, but, he ignored them, for now.
"Thank you," he said to Henri, and leaned back into the chair again. "Yes... One threat down... Countless, untold others to go..." he murmurred.
-
Duilin finished up a chicken wing, and then placed the bare bone on his empty plate. "Well..." Duilin began. "I'd like to stay, but I am unsure if we should. There is a lot going on."
----
Abodahon arrived at the Grey Empire palace. Several Grey Soldiers approached him. "The Crimson Empire is gone, take all major settlements. I'm going off to Sigmund, which Quintus and a friend have taken. Make you take the fortress around it. It is our time to rise, my children."
Grey Empire soldiers then marched there way off to the fortress, removing the Crimson Empire flags, and replacing them with flags of the Grey Empire.
Abodahon then flue his way towards Sigmund...
-
Ein looked around, seeing grayish earth around him. He did not recognize the place. As he looked up he saw a large planet in the sky. He did not recognize it, either. He then noticed Marshal walking towards another group of people.
-"MAARSHAAAL!!! Where are we?"
He ran towards him, effectively tripping on a rock and nearly splitting his head in half. The surface was covered in small jagged stones and craters. He got up, shook his head (which was miraculously clear of any injuries) and continued moving towards the group.
--- --- ---
-"Alright... let's go, then."
Steorra followed Darak.
--- --- ---
Leaven got up and walked around a bit. There was absolutely nothing for him to do... yet.
-
(As you can probably guess, I'm trying to cut down to a more manageable number of characters for the moment. So Zeros', Duilin, and Rink can take off as I won't be initiating anything with Tjed for a while.)
"Yes, indeed."
The king lowered his head.
"I can sense battles spread across the world, and more to come... If you ever need an ally, come back to us. The kingdom of Tjed is on your side."
Ven leaned over the table firmly.
"Right. I lost count, but I still think I owe you guys a favor or two. You've my sword whenever you need it."
He leaned back, taking the last bite of a large dinner roll.
-
Zion could do nothing but take the explosion. But this was his chance to end this fight! It was a huge risk, but it was still a chance! This was perfect! The explosion had tossed him back, but he righted himself in the air, and took off into the explosion! The explosion ate away at him, damaging him severely, but he pushed forth. He absorbed some of the energy in the explosion into Eternity Weapon's blade. He emerged from the explosion running very low to the ground, but very quickly. He had burns all over his body. He quickly came up near Valos, and pushed the blade upwards, toward Valos' neck.
-
Zeros' nodded at the king and Ven. He stood from his chair, and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
"Yes... We really should be going now... I appreciate the favors, sir," he said. He took out the scroll from his pocket, and tossed it in Duilin's direction. "Here. You hold onto it," he told Duilin. Unknown to Duilin, Zeros' was subtely testing him... He wanted to see what Duilin's reaction was towards holding a deed to a ship, given to them by the king.
// I'd update Allen, but, I'm way too tired right now. \\
-
"Oh really?" Duilin asked. "Well, alright..." He put the deed into his pant pocket.
'Wow, makes me feel, important...kinda...
"Well, we best be going now. It's been fun helping you guys out." Rink says with a smile. "So, let's see this boat, we've got."
"We should name the boat, every good boat needs a name." Duilin began "Like a woman?s name, such as Jenny or Anne...or Belle."
"Wasn't, Belle the name of that servant woman at the Crimson Palace?" Rink asked
"Oh yeah..." Duilin was wondering how she was or if she was upset because he's been gone for a while. "Speaking of which. Perhaps we should go check on there. See if any sign of Haraldur or anything. Maybe Valos or Draven may have a job."
Unknowingly to him, the Palace has been sucked into nothingness and Valos has had his body taken over by a demonic ghost. Anyways let's see how Valos is doing...
----
Abodahon then arrived at the sieged fortress of Sigmund. "Well, well. Quintus must have quite a powerful friend here."
He then found Quintus and Vincent. "Greetings, Quintus." He then turned to Vincent.
"Greetings, stranger. I assume, you're the one Melkoth said Quintus has befriended. Well, I'd like to congratulate you on a job well done. I am Abodahon Talonscar. I am one the superiors of the Grey Empire, and supposedly the leader of the Talonscar Cult. A group devoted to the worship of well, me." He chuckles a bit.
He then examines Vincent. "So, you used to be with the Crimson Empire, have you not?"
----
Valos gave an angry look as Zion survived the blast, and absorbed the energy. He then spotted him swinging his sword upward at his neck. He then readied to block to block the blade coming at him with his sword he needed to act quickly. He then lifted up his blade, however it slipped from his hand. Oh well...
"Heheh..." Valos laughed. He then watched the blade impale his neck, cutting right through his head, knocking it off his body. The detached head rolled off down the remains of the streets, out of site. His body then fell down to the ground, and then fell over, and soaked in a pool of blood.
Darak arrived at the scene. Just in time to see the death of his commanding officer. However, he didn't fully recognize Valos.
"What is going on?" Darak asked, speaking in a loud voice.
-
Henri waved to the exiting heroes.
"Farewell then, and may the gods watch your every step. Just go back through the tunnel and visit the port where we first landed. I'll send a carrier to inform them to get it ready right now."
----
"Vincent Elridge, my good sir."
Vincent held out his right hand to Abodahon, but then realized shaking the demon's hand, er humongous gauntleted claw may not be such a great idea. He pulled his hand up.
"... Right. Still am with the Crimson Empire too, in a technical sense. I was just discussing with your associate ways for the Grey to stage a quick coup d'état and avoid unnecessary battles here on the Dark Continent. I'm looking forward to working with you."
-
Haraldur said, "We must protect this place from all other outside interference, for the safety of all of Gaian. This place could house a devastating weapon that shot man-made meteorites."
He waved his arms, and all around the Moon small points of light (which would be visible from Gaian) were distributed, and they moved.
"These points of light will, when a creature arrives that is not native nor one of us, send an alarm call to me and to you people through these communications orbs. They will also be attracted to the intruder, surrounding him and lighting him up for ease of discovery."
He handed out the communications orbs.
Before we leave, are there any questions or suggestions? Should we stay here to do some thing I have not thought of?
Tesla and Durruti shook their heads. Haraldur looked to the other two.
______________________________________________________________________
Quintus said, "Welcome, Abodahon. Ah, I see the Emporer is on his way."
Melkoth arrived flying at a leisurely cruising speed, before stopping just behind Vincent.
"Ah, our new ally. Greetings, High General. You three will be pleased to know that it is my decision now for you three each to have equal power, effective immediately. I leave you now with one order, the execution of which you may discuss among yourselves: I wish to have complete control over this continent, or at least all of it that matters, as soon as possible, then we will have the meeting on land distribution. In the meantime, I will organise the surveying of all land on this continent, to facilitate the aforementioned meeting.
-
"Ah, yes. Sounds like an excellent plan." Abodahon grinned. "Perhaps, this will give me some time to work on some personal tasks I have."
The demon then turned his head and scanned the area.
"I do believe that is some Crimson Empire pawns scrapping around, perhaps I could send my elite guards to finish the leftovers."
----
//Oh, Ein's Internet is down for around a month. But maybe I'll see if he can come over to my place so he can update time to time.\\
"Well..." Marshal began. "The creatures here do seem quite interesting. If I could perhaps, memorize the aura of perhaps the larger creatures, I could summon one. It's not important, but it wouldn't take a long time, this gem that collects most of the information." He holds up the sapphire on his amulet.
-
Zion watched as Valos seemed to die. You fought very well. Rest in peace. He looked up to see the guy show up. Oh, great. Xenai walked over to answer the question. "This guy showed up with the really big gauntlet guy, and they attacked Draven. Zion took him out. I think he might have been one of the Crimson guys before, but he wasn't when he showed up with that big guy."
Zion's eyes widened, and he took in his surroundings after being so absorbed into the fight. "Draven! How is he?"
Tsu floated down a few feet behind Zion. "I don't imagine he's doing excellent... There's also the issue of whether he's still being good or not."
"How troublesome..." Zion sighed.
-
Vincent saluted his new emperor.
"As you wish, my lord."
Wow. He had never been given so much power before... High General Vincent, yes, a nice ring it has indeed...
He turned to the other two.
"I will require a very large force, possibly most of the men you have brought here, Quintus, if you do not need them at the moment. Further east of here is another fortress, Bandervil, roughly the same size as this one. If I appear on their doorstep with a large army, claim them to be former Crimson Empire soldiers, and proclaim that our lord has defeated Emperor Draven for the crown and point to Sigmund as an example that resisted, I will likely be able to get them to switch sides without bloodshed, and gain a legion of men as well..."
-
"Get on with it then, comrade," said Haraldur to Marshall. "By the way, these orbs will also be able to portal you directly to here with no chance of scatter, from any location in space (though not in time, that was difficult to do. It would be pointless for you to come back here in space and in time, right?)."
________________________________________________________________________
Quintus nodded, and said, "As you wish. I only need a small garrison to repair and man this fortress anyway."
-
Zeros' nodded to the king, and waved farewell. He walked back towards the tunnel, the sound of the celebrations behind, as he looked up, and saw the lights on Gaian's Moon.
He stopped, and nudged Duilin.
"Look up there," he said, pointed towards the sky. Even thought it was daylight out, because of all the strange happenings on Gaian lately, the moon was visible, even in daytime now.
---
Allen stopped, as Aura's light reached a large cave. There was nothing here, expect, a small natural rock formation that seemed to form steps.
Allen walked forwards, and stopped, looking level with the highest point on rocks. He smirked, and pointed. Hanging in mid-air, there seemed to be some sort of... Glowing line.
"Here it is..." he murmured.
-
Darak nodded. He recognized the people as those new allies that were with Duilin and Valos on certain occasions.
"Oh yes. I believe I know whom you are speaking of. I'm unsure of how Draven is at the moment. I saw the large gauntlet holding one, and another one chase him off, in the direction of the capital." He then rubbed his chin.
"Perhaps you could assist me, in getting there? I don't have any magic ability, such as flotation..."
----
Marshal nodded and then walked off towards one of the creatures. He studied it, and then aimed the gem on his amulet; it then glowed and began sparking. "Ooopss..." Marshal groaned. After a few minutes, he then walked towards the group. "Alright, I think I've got it. So, are we off now?"
----
"Holy smokes..." Duilin said softly in amazement. The moon had glowing all over it, he wasn't sure at all what was happening, his first thought was some sort of strange eclipse. "What's going on with the moon?"
-
//Just a point of clarification: these lights, while bright, are small, and very numerous, and are moving around quite fast and quite randomly. Therefore, bright spots are where they have randomly bunched up (before then dispersing), and dark spots are where there are very few. Therefore, the moon is twinkling!//
-
Xenai, being the comical smartass he was, would be the one to make the offer and joke about it. He bent over, as if offering a piggyback ride, held his hand to his mouth and made PA sounds. //I'm assuming this technology exists on the Crimson ships already.//
"*pssht* This is the Xenai Omega express, offering one lucky soldier a free ride. *pssht* Ah, yes, you there, you're our lucky rider! Come on down! *pssht* The smartass will depart in 2.12746 minutes. Board now, or the smartass will leave without you. *pssht* Have a nice day, and enjoy your Omega flight. *pssht*"
Zion and Tsu laugh at Xenai. The guy was naturally funny.
--- --- ---
Aura looked up at the thing. It looked kinda pretty... "Is that it there? What about traps? There has to be SOME."
-
Vincent organized his new troops quickly and they were off, moving in tight formations and at a quick pace. It wasn't long before they were over the western horizon of the rugged, barren terrain of the central area Dark Continent.
Once they were at a steady pace he stepped to the side as the legion moved past so that he could get a chance to study the odd seemingly pulsating light emanating from the moon in the daytime sky... He removed a small collapsible telescope from his right trench coat pocket and took a gander at it.
"Hmmm..."
The magnified image revealed many tiny points of light pulsating around the heavenly body.
"Interesting."
At the very least, he felt like he should keep an eye on it...
-
Darak rolled his eyes. For the first time in his entire life, he felt embarrassed about not being able to fly. He then got onto Xenia in the most nonsexual way he possibly could.
He watched as Zion and Tsu laughed. "Shut up..." He groaned. He then turned his head and looked forward trying not to make eye contact with Xenia. "Just go..." He sighed.
-
"Come on, man! Lighten up!" Xenai grinned and took off, Zion and Tsu following.
-
After the feast was over, Henri retired to his chamber seeming somewhat troubled. Ven noticed this and followed him through the long stone hallways, managing to catch up to him before the older man made it to his thick oak doors. Henri seemed to be expecting Ven.
"Odd..."
"Is something the matter, my liege?"
"I can no longer detect Emperor Draven or Haraldur. They seemed in a battle earlier and I was 'watching' them before, well, you know... But they both seemed to have disappeared off of the face of Gaian now..."
"Perhaps they have destroyed each other? We should throw another feast!"
"I doubt that, Ven. I doubt that..."
-
"Oh well." Darak mumbled. "So, how long until we get there?"
//Trent, I suppose you should choose when we get to the former location of the Crimson Capital.\\
-
Walking along side his massive legion, Vincent happened to look over his shoulder and spot three specs just over the horizon to the southwest. Pulling out his telescope, he could see them quite clearly. Three men he did not recognize flying out of their own power, and a fourth being carried by one of them. Hmmm, the forth is wearing a Crimson Empire officer uniform. Interesting...
He held out his left hand, signaling the marching legion to stop.
Vincent, still wearing his Crimson Empire general medallions himself, wanted to find out what exactly they were doing... He pointed to a rocky hill closer to the incoming men.
"Get up there and flag them down. I want to talk to them."
Ten soldiers from the closest row ran towards the hill and began waving at Zion, Xenai, Tsu, and Darak...
-
Darak pointed the soldiers signaling them. "Over there!" He said. "Some people over there. I belive I see one of the generals." He added. "Let's stop here."
-
"I suppose it will be 10 to 20... Oh, okay." The trio landed there where Darak specified, Xenai slowly standing upright to let Darak off.
-
Zeros' shook his head at Duilin, in response to his question about the twinkling moon.
"I have no idea, Duilin... But, I can assure you that it can't be anything good... Probably not at this time, anyways," he failed to mention he could sense Haraldur's forces on the moon, with his connection to Gaian.
"Anyways, let's move on. Sitting here, staring at the moon isn't going to get us anywhere," he said, and continued to walk, towards the tunnel they came from.
---
Allen smirked slightly.
"There are no traps," he said, before walking around the small thin line, and up the formations of rocks. He looked down, and smiled a bit.
Instead of a small, thin, slightly glowing line, there was now a pool of translucent water, shimmering slightly, reflecting the ceiling above them.
"This, is the trap... The pool, is the trap," he murmurred.
-
Darak then hopped off and then slowly approached the group of soldiers.
----
Duilin rubs his chin and as he looks at the moon a bit more.
Rink then nudges him, in the leg, due to his lack of height. "Come, on. Let's go."
Duilin nods and then they walk to the tunnel.
-
The trio followed Darak over to the group of soldiers, examining them each carefully. Special attention was paid to Vincent. He looked to be a very high-ranking soldier.
--- --- ---
Aura followed Allen over to see it... Oh, it was so beautiful! "Oh, wow..." Her eyes sparkled as they stared at the pool. "...So... This is the trap? What do you mean by that?"
-
Vincent allowed the four to walk towards him, and the Grey soldiers slowly massed around them. Vincent recognized Darak, through only by a brief acquaintance in the past. He didn't really know the man.
"Ah, Commander... Darak? I am pleased to see that you are all right. You have heard the news, haven't you? It seems Emperor Draven has been killed, and a new Emperor has risen in his place. Yes, yet another change of colors... Emperor Melkoth wishes us to spread the news to the remaining cities to ensure their loyalty to the new... Grey Empire... Perhaps you help us out? I need a more experienced officer to help lead this massive force."
He looked past Darak to Zion and the others.
"Who are you, anyway?"
-
"Greetings, General. Yes, Commander Darak." He replied. "No I have not heard the news at all." Darak said, sounding surprised, he didn't really expect any of this.
He then rubbed his chin and then nodded. "Well, this wouldn't be the first time I've gone through the change of Emperors or colors. Very well," He then scratched the back of his neck. "So leading a force? What is the forces? task sir?"
-
Zeros' looked behind him, at his friends, as they emerged from the tunnel. He motioned for them to follow him, as he proceeded back the way that they came.
---
Allen smiled.
"This pool... Is a magical one... It's fueled - by fear," he whispered. "It's fueled by the fears in human hearts... The fear of hunger; the fear of betreyal; the fear of love, in some cases," he said.
"Inside, you will face your greatest fear, no matter what it may be... Death, hunger... Your worst fear shall be shown inside the pool," he said, before turning back, and looking at the seemingly harmless pool of water.
"Now... No more time to waste... Let's go," he said, before jumping from his pearch, as his body disappeared beneath the water.
-
//I thought I already posted...
"Zion Ultima..." "...Xenai Omega..." "...Tsu Nami."
Zion didn't like what he'd heard. "Draven's... dead?" Zion felt a bit bad, they were just starting to hit it off, even if a tiny bit. He was naive and thought that Draven was being good the whole time, but still didn't know about the demon thing that Draven was responsible for.
"Well... I guess our alliance ends here, then. We were allies to the Crimson Empire. This doesn't make us enemies, though."
Xenai thought about the name Melkoth... "Melkoth... Melkoth... Where have I heard that name?"
--- --- ---
//Quoaz, you kick ass.
Aura thought back at the last comment, the fear of love. Tsu instantly came to mind. She clenched her teeth and dove in after Allen, already knowing what she would have to face...
-
Vincent smirked.
"That would be High General now, commander."
He placed his hands behind his back.
"We are heading to the fortress of Bandervil to ensure that their allegiance falls in with the new regime. For now I'll have you help me guide this army their. Afterwards, I'll probably have another task for you."
He turned back to Zion and the others.
"So you were allies of the Crimson Empire but not with the new regime? I'm sorry to hear that. I'm afraid I can't have you running around freely, even if you mean us no harm. Nothing personal, protocol and all..."
He waved his right hand in the air.
"Seize them."
A mass of Grey soldiers descended upon Zion, Xenai, and Tsu...
----
A small ship, was moved into the closest harbor bay, visible from the caves, gleaming and new looking. It looked similar to the oddly shaped Posidon X, that they had traveled to Tjed on. It was largely made of a bight cherry wood, with large fin like sails that extended out of the back and to each side. It looked to be big enough to carry 10 or so comfortably.
-
"Very well, High General." Darak said grinning.
He then looked a bit surprised, as Zion, Xenai and Tsu suddenly ended the alliance and then had them surrounded by soldiers. He looked at them and narrowed his eyes.
"Perhaps, sir. If they changed their minds we could let them, live?" He suggested.
-----
Abodahon watched what was going on with Vincent, Darak, Zion and the others.
"Hmm, those are the mortals that I left the possessed Valos with..." Abodahon mumbled. He then sighed. "Not again..."
He then closed his eyes, he had a mental connection with the spirit demon he would try to locate it and see the status on it.
"Argg...apparently it still doesn't have full mobility control, its powers are still limited from what it can fully perform. No matter..."
----
'Awaken my servant...'
The headless body of Valos then slowly gets up and then walks over toward its head and picks it up.
'Perform the needed repairs, then come to my location.'
-
"Whoa, hold on a moment!" Zion frowned at the turn of events.
"Yeah, man! Seriously... We're not enemies!" Xenai waved his hands frantically as if he were trying to cover up a mistake in what he said.
"Zion, Xenai... We're not enemies, so just start the alliance again."
"Yeah... Okay... Are you willing?"
-
Vincent frowned, as if in thought.
"What is this 'alliance', anyway? Who do you represent? Do you mean to say you wish to join the Grey Empire? It would probably be the most healthy choice in the long run..."
The grasping soldiers held back, awaiting their general's command.
-
"Well, Draven needed our help, so we figured we'd help him out for the time being." Zion commenced to explain the situation.
"Melkoth... Melkoth... Where have I heard...?" Xenai continued to ponder, and shook it off. "Anyways... Draven was an enemy before, but it had been a long time. He seemed to not be doin' evil things."
"Yeah... The alliance was going well until the guy died. Last we'd seen him was when Valos and the huge guy with gauntlets attacked. It seemed Valos was betraying the empire under the big guy's order. We fought, and I killed him. Valos, that is. Draven tried to take the big guy. Did that guy kill him?"
Tsu shook his head. "I have no idea what I want to do..." He mumbled quietly. "...Wait... Do you guys have any information about Aura Hikari?"
"Yeah," said Zion, "I would also like to know about Zeros' and Duilin... Ven Hyul as well, if possible... Can you guys give us some information?"
-
Duilin made a low whistle as he saw the ship. "Whoa...what a beauty." He commented. 'And, if I'm the one holding the deed, that would make this ship mine.'
Rink examined the ship. "You think that's amazing? You should see some of the ships they've got in hell." He smirked.
----
Valos walked out of the remains of building, his head seemed to have been stitched on, the skin on his head was terribly pale. He cracked his jaw and headed off...
-
Zeros' smirked a little, as he motioned the two on the ship. He sent a telepathic message to Rink as well: Watch Duilin.
He walked inside, and examined the ship. It was brand new, as far as he could tell. Never even been used before. He headed to the helm of the ship, and examined everything.
"Well... Everything seems to be in working order..." he muttered, as he waited for his companions to join him.
---
// Oh yeah. Trent: Don't wait for Allen to respond. They're in seperate places. \\
As Allen decended into the water, he saw a variaties of images flash all around him. One of different orgins, but, all connected by fear. Some, were the fear of dying... Of losing a loved one... Of betrayal... Of love.
Even if the air around him looked more like water, he could breath perfectly fine.
As he decended further, he just hoped the Aura was also well...
-
//Alright.
Where am I?
This place...
I knew...
I'd end up here...
...All along...
It is a place where there is only light, and only darkness. Nothing exists here, and everything exists here. Nothing happens here, and everything happens here at the same time. Here, everything is possible, yet at the same time impossible. There is no time here, yet all the time in the world is condensed into this little bit of nowhere, into this everywhere. It is conceivable, so much that it is inconceivable, creating a paradox with the power to revive or destroy the world. This place is Paradox.
And Tsu was standing right across from her there. Her breath quickened... She started to sweat... And her fists clenched. She was ready for this. Or was she? This wasn't real anyways... But a fear she had to face.
-
Vincent shook his head.
"No, I can't say I've heard of any of--"
Wait. That girl that came to Redvik with Valos the other day had 'Hikari' etched on her badge.
"... Well, actually I believe I saw Lt. Hikari the other day in Redvik. I'm afraid the company that went to attack Laus met with an ill fate, though."
He then took a second look at Xenai.
"Oh yes, you were one of the guests on that flight too. One of the Falcon model ships that landed in Redvik. Didn't recognize you at first. No, I haven't seen her since then."
(Feel free to make interesting things happen. I'm too burned out to start anything major at the moment. Heh...)
----
A mechanic entered the ship's small bridge, coming up behind Zeros'.
"Oh, so you're the ones. She's ready to go! It's pretty easy to operate. Here's the manual."
He slammed a huge phonebook sized document down on a small table.
"It just has a lot of... features. Be careful of this, for instance."
He pointed to a large leaver underneath the classic wooden oversized ship steering wheel.
"Don't hit that when anyone's on deck. That's makes it dive underwater. And that one..."
He pointed at a red lever near the first, but paused and scratched his head.
"... Well, uh... actually I don't know what that does. That's not on our other ships... Must be some kinda prototype thing that never made it on the others. Better not mess with it..."
He took a few steps back and waved.
"Well, gotta go. Have fun!"
He hastily left, leaving the ship to Zeros', Duilin, and Rink.
-
//Thanks a lot. x_x
"Ill fate... No, she's alive. I can feel it." Tsu sighed. "She'd have a fit if I joined up with you guys. Probably would claim me to be stalking or something."
"What are you saying? Are you saying that you want to be dragged off by these soldiers?"
"I could really care less."
"Damn, kid! What's with you?"
"It's love," said Zion. "It can, at times, be the most destructive emotion in existence."
"Well... Nothing personal, but we're not joining you guys, then. Sorry. That, and you can go ahead and haul us off."
"Wait, what!?" Zion was shocked at Xenai.
"Yeah, do it! See... Fighting here is just boring, you know? If you take us in, it's a lot more fun to break out ourselves. You agree, don't you?"
"Oh, whatever!"
"I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to the grey guys!"
"Fine, okay. Drag us off."
--- --- ---
The illusionary Tsu stared Aura down... He was just like the real thing! "You don't understand how I feel about you... Not at all... Why do you fear me?"
He was creepy... Ugly... Geeky... //If there's any activity Gaian considers geeky, we'll say that Tsu does it.// ...And so damn good at fighting... She couldn't stand it! She had to beat him!
"I'll get you... Right here, and right now."
She extended her right palm, gathering light energy into it. She formed it into a ball, and willed it to swirl... She would strike it with her free palm in various places to make it swirl better. She would continue to develop the attack.
"I'm sorry it has to be like this, Aura..." Tsu charged forth, a hand going to the hilt of Shin Kuon Yaiba...
-
Duilin and Rink arrived at the ship just in time to hear what the mechanic had to say and then quickly leave.
"He left in a hurry." Rink said
"He's probably scared of us. I don't blame him." Duilin replied. "I mean, I've known Zeros' for quite a wile and he still gives me the creeps sometimes." He then looked at Zeros' and smiled. "No offence."
"So, who's going to drive this thing?" Rink asked
"I guess I could." Duilin answered. "It's been a wile since I drove a ship. Darion and his buddies were always to drunk or just plain lazy to do it themselves, so the just taught me how to."
"Well, I dunno. Remember what happened with that fishing boat a year ago? I still don't think they found Eddie's wooden leg."
"Hey! That wasn't my fault!"
-
Zeros' smirks slightly.
"No offense taken. And, you go ahead. I want to take a break for once," he said and sat on a ledge near the window looking out of the helm. He folded his legs underneath him in an indian style, crossed his arms across his chest, and leaned back.
"I'm starting to wonder if Gaian will ever truely be free of all it's pain and torment again..." he muttered, looking out into the sky.
---
Allen landed gracefully on his feet, in the middle of nothingness. There was nothing around him... Nothing at all. Only sickly blackness all around. He could hear screams of pain, sorrow, anguish... He could hear it all. He knew what he'd have to face... And he didn't like it.
Not one bit.
There was a shimmer behind him, and he turned quickly, and came face to face with...
Fear.
The true representation of fear...
Fear itself. He feared fear itself.
-
Vincent shrugged.
"Suit yourself."
He pointed at the three and shouted behind him.
"Bound their hands and feet and hogtie them each to a log. Carry them to Bandervil; I'll decide what to do with them later."
Vincent turned and made his way back to the front of the mass of soldiers and out of sight as menacing hands clutched the three. Three long logs were conveniently produced by another set of soldiers along with some heavy chains...
-
The three submit quietly, Xenai snickering the entire time. Zion glared at him, and Tsu retained his apathetic expression.
--- --- ---
The illusionary Tsu drew closer. He leapt up...
?九音刃りゅ！ 九音下降！?
(Kuon Yaiba Ryu! Kuon Kakou!)
Eternity Blade Style, Eternity Drop
He brought Shin Kuon Yaiba right out from the sheath, bringing it down mercilessly toward Aura's head.
"Take this! Holy Spiral Sphere!" She brought the sphere up to meet Tsu's blade, and the two forces started to push against each other. Tsu was shocked, just like the real one would be. When did she create such an advanced move?
-
Darak rubbed his chin as we watched the tree be carried off and then walked next to Vincent.
----
"To be honest I don't think it ever will." Rink sighed. "Sure, at times it will be at a lesser extent, but the world will always have problems."
Duilin read a few pages of the manual. "Bleh..." He then walked over towards the captain's wheel. "Okay, let's get this thing going..."
-
//Dude Man, could you do something about Ein's characters? Get him to post from your house or post for him? Thanks.//
-
Allen stood there, shifting on his feet with his hands resting in his pockets, as he observed Fear.
The figure was cloaking a couple feet off the ground, covered in a tattered black robe, with long, sweeping sleeves and a hood that covered his face, which was enshadowed by darkness.
Allen breathed, and saw his breath. He shivered slightly, as the room he was in dropped below freezing. He looked at the figure, and saw the figure breath - it was a hollow sound, rattling and shaky.
"So..." Allen spoke slowly, and observed the floating figure. "You are my representation of... Fear?" he asked. The figure - Fear - nodded, and took another rattling breath.
Now... How the hell was he supposed to conquer... Fear?
-
Zion and co. were quickly tied to the logs, and four big men, two in front and two behind, carried each log horizontally as they began to resume their marching order.
Vincent made his way to the front of the resting army as three figures appeared over a rocky hill to the west. The three messengers he had sent ahead to Bandervil earlier had made it back. They were former Crimson troops, riding atop large long-leged scaly lizards, suited for quick running.
They stopped in front of Vincent and Darak, bowing to the officers as the lizards' heads bobbed up and down.
"My lord."
"Well?"
"General Ajax of Bandervil said that he will accept the rule of any new emperor, with sufficient proof. But he will not accept you as High General. He believes this to be a ploy, sir..."
The second soldier pointed to a moist spot on his left chest plate, and said in a wimpy voice:
"He... he spit on me, sir..."
Vincent ran his hand through his hair.
"I expected this. Very well, then. If it is proof he wants..."
-
The trio couldn't do much but watch the events in progress.
"So..." Xenai attempted to break the awkward silence. "...Seen any good swordfight matches lately?" This directed to the entire soldier body in general.
"Shut up." Zion retaliated.
"Oh, come ON!" He was earnestly hoping for an answer. //Because everything's been too serious around here. Razz
--- --- ---
Aura let out a yell and pushed forward, even harder. The spiralling sphere... It was twisting at the blade! Tsu couldn't keep the grip, and the katana flew out of his hand, spinning off to the side. Aura pushed through to Tsu's gut with the rest of her power. "Ugh! What's...!" Tsu was sent back, spinning around the axis of the line that connected him, Aura, and the sphere. He righted himself in the air and landed on Paradox's imaginary floor. "Amazing..." He dropped to one knee.
What a tough bastard! He can still fight!?
-
//Yeah, I'll see if I can do that. What do you need Ein to do though? He's just standing there doing nothing, he can just assume he's following Marshal.\\
Duilin began to pilot the ship back towards the area of Alphagrad and Retangrad (that's were we're going, right?).
"I have a feeling that a lot has changed since we left." Duilin mumbled
"Most likely. I wonder how Zion and the others are doing." Rink said.
-----
Valos slowly emerged from the darkness behind Abodahon, as they stood at a near by hill from the location were Vincent and Darak are.
"They've been carried off. Now our new ally is attempting to gain the trust of the rest of the Crimson Empire." Abodahon said.
"I see, master..." Valos said weakly.
"We can let him handle this." Abodahon turned and looked towards the ocean. "I can sense Duilin going back towards the direction of Alpha and Retangrad. I believe he may have his friends with him, most likely Zeros'. I want you to find them and lead Duilin to me. He will be much easier to persuade if we have him in captivity."
"Heheh, of course master. I'm not afraid of Zeros'..." He then walked off, and readied to leave, and then turned back. "Nothing can stop me. Not even death." He then laughed and flue off.
-
"Well, uh yeah, actually it was pretty cool back there in Sigmund when that one guy took out--"
"Stop conversing with the prisoners!"
"Uh, sorry..."
The order to march was given up ahead, and the three prisoners now found themselves in the middle of a marching brigade, their heads narrowly missing the occasional sharp rock on the ground as they hung from their logs...
In the front of the marching soldiers, Vincent was the first to top the rocky hill in font. He was actually getting a little worn out. He wasn't used to walking so much, with his former desk job back in Redvik and all...
Pish! I'm a High General now.
He motioned one of the riding messenger soldiers (there were only a few) to come his way, and ordered the man to get off the lizard-thing he was riding. Mounting it's back, he found the beast difficult to control, but it beat walking.
Before them was a fairly steep, but not unwalkable decent. Then a rocky plane, with Bandervil in the center...
The fortress wasn't terribly huge, but it was built upon another naturally perfect location much like Sigmund. It was built on top of a plateau in the center of the relatively flat land around, and huge walls topped the already steep cliffs on all sides.
He stopped as the troops began to clear the top of the hill, turning his ride to Darak.
"If we happen to have any Crimson Empire banners left, we better raise them along with the Greys. I'd really rather avoid a fight here, if at at all possible..."
-
"Yes sir." Darak replied. He then took out a banner from a pocket underneath his armour. He then unfolded it and then passed it to one of the soldiers caring a banner, since their were several Grey Empire banners he replaced it with the Crimson Empire one, other soldiers also had some left and a couple others were raised.
"That should do it sir, however..." He then wielded his axe. "Just in case. This thing can be a bit slow on the draw."
-
Yeah, that fight in Sigmund was good. Wait... In Sigmund... in Sigmund... in Sigmund?! "Tsu, you had a match with Aura in Sigmund, didn't you?"
"Please don't bring her up right now, Xenai..."
"Come on, tell me!"
"Yeah, we did have a match there a while back. It was the closest she'd come to beating me. It's not really surprising since it was the last match we'd had before all of this started back up. She had me up against the ropes, but since she'd figured she had won, her guard was not all the way up. She tried to attack head on, leaping at me with a downward slash, but I rolled off to the right and hit her in the back of the neck with the flat end of my blade. I turned the match around instantly. I fought from there and won."
"I see..."
--- --- ---
"This won't be like in Sigmund... I've shown you that already! Now I'll finish you!" She leapt at Tsu, and slashed downward. When Aura was a foot from him, he looked up with cold, stony eyes, and rolled off to the right, and onto his feet. He didn't even look at Aura when he pointed his left hand at her.
"Twilight Blast!"
The sparkling blacklight beam shot forth and hit her head on. She was sent flying for about a decameter. Tsu turned around and looked at her. "Won't be like in Sigmund, huh?" He had instantly turned the match around.
Paradox commenced to change the environment. They were now there... In the stadium at Sigmund. Or at least an illusion of it, complete with dirty dirt, fresh air, solid stadium walls, and even the roaring crowds.
-
Zeros' shook his head, as he observed the water pass by them from his position. It was the more peaceful sight he had ever observed, since he came back, five years ago...
"I'm sure their fine... Those three won't go down without a fight," he said.
---
Fear took another, rattling breath, as Allen crouched down and clutched his head with both hand in agony.
"AA-- A... AA-- AARGH!" he screamed out, as he felt memories consume him. Suddenly, Fear disappeared from sight, as the walls of Paradox shifted and changed rapidly, before Allen was landed painfully somewhere.
He lifted his head weakly and saw he was now smaller... Much, much smaller. He pushes himself to a sitting position painfully, as a voice he hadn't heard in many, many years called out to him.
"ALLEN!" screamed a feminine voice, as he was suddenly engulfed into a hug. Allen stiffed slightly and turned his head...
Only to see a tearful face...
The one of his dead mother.
-
Vincent nodded his head.
"Excellent."
He turned the lizard towards the fortress below.
"Forward!"
The beast began a slow trot down the hill, and the soldiers followed at a marching pace. Their numbers overwhelmed the steep slope as they made their way down the rocky incline.
The fortress on the plateau grew larger and larger...
Hmmm, they haven't shown any signs of resistance, or acceptance for that matter... It they were going to attack, they would probably do it by air, with wyverns. The fortress was just a bit two small to hold a airship dock.
Vincent's mind raced as he looked at the formidable fortress on a rock. What could it's weak point, be? He had never been in a situation quite like this before. Really, he hadn't had much experience in the field either... There were a few garrisons he lead when he was a colonel, but never in any strategic battles. And his job in Redvik was mostly alchemic and airship production research, and the occasional defense of the city...
The fortress grew larger and larger...
But this is what he wanted, right? To finally be out there in the field! To finally be respected! ... Maybe he should have settled for sabotage in this one too... His eyes trailed to Commander Darak to his right. No! Do NOT let him know you have no idea what you're doing!
"Forward!"
The hill was now completely covered with Grey soldiers, descending and marching towards the fortress ahead...
-
Darak continued to advance towards the fortress. He turned his head and looked at Vincent. He seemed to look a bit tense, and acting a bit odd, mostly because of him giving the same command twice. He didn't want think too much of it and continued his way towards the fortress.
----
Duilin continued to sail the ship, they were almost there. He remained pretty quiet so far.
Rink was just pacing about, and looking around at the inside of the ship. He then looked at Duilin. He seemed to be enjoying the control over the ship.
"Um, hey Duilin, how long will it be until we get there?" Rink asked
"Not to long, Rink." Duilin replied.
-
Vincent steadily moved the army forward... Up close, the elevated fortress was looking enormous now...
Still nothing. Ha! Ajax is all bark and no bite. They'll open the doors and submit to High General Vincent any second...
Suddenly, a shrill screech sounded from above and the sky began to darken... It wasn't one sound, but rather a vast multitude of wyvern screams... Thousands upon thousands of wyverns poured over the high walls of the fortress and over the heads of the approaching army... Worse, two smaller legions of airborne wyverns flanked each side of the army as it blanketed the low ground...
Vincent's ride bucked and kicked in the confusion.
"That fool! How dare he!!"
General Ajax appeared as one of the gates opened high above a cliff, and quite out of reach of the menacing army below. He was a huge man, bald and with minimal black armor, with a huge battle axe to boot.
"Hah hah hah haaahh!! If Draven truly is dead, then I shall be the new emperor!!"
-
Haraldur made small warps surround himself and his comrades, and they teleported back downwards, straight downwards, so there would be no scatter.
____________________________________________________________________
They ended up above the rough centre of Alterna, in their exact relative positions as before. Below them, the landscape was dotted with towns and villages, and even farmsteads, with one or more black and red flags flying.
Sensitising his hearing, he could here many shouts from where the people below could see them, in several different dialects: Viva de la Revolucion! Viva el Anarchismo! Evviva il Anarchismo! Evviva Haraldur! Viva Durruti! Viva Tesla! Evviva Marshall! Viva Ein! Meurte de la Fascismo!
Durruti said, "Let us go to the Eastern Dark Continent, that furthest away from the Greys, and organise an insurgency and revolution."
Haraldur and Tesla nodded. Tesla said, to Marshall and Ein, "Do you want to come?"
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth had completed the survey, after flying about over the land, and decided to check up on his new High General. He started to fly towards his position.
____________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, Quintus had finished garrisoning the fortress Sigmund, and was now taking a larger army down the west coast and takin over settlements, and laying siege to all the fortresses they came accross.
-
"What the hell?" Xenai tried to see what was going on, though he could already tell.
"If you let us go," said Zion, "We'll help you fight."
"What? Then we can't do the prison escape thing!" o_o!
"If you want to so badly, you can flick the High General in the head or something." -_-;
"That's not gonna do it!" ;_;
"Psh... Whatever. We don't even know that they'll let us fight. They'll probably just put us back on the logs afterward, so you'll still get to do your prison escape thing." ¬_¬
--- --- ---
This IS just like Sigmund... I inflicted a huge blow on him, but he got one bigger on me... The Spiral Sphere... I thought it was stronger than that!
"I have a trick too," said Tsu.
He sheathed his sword. He then raised his right hand, and flung it down. Suddenly, it erupted with lightning, making the chirping of a thousand birds.
Aura started to create another Spiral Sphere... The crowd started roaring... I get the feeling this scene's been done before, somewhere...
-
Allen looked up quizically to his mother, before the scene shifted again and now, he saw several people up in the air, with one man holding a huge ball of power, while the others tried to stop him, but they were unsucessful.
"But..." he murmured. He knew what scene this was and his eyes widened in shock and fear. This was the moment the MDAA was released. He saw the energy suddenly implode on itself, as the man and the island suddenly disentagrated. He heard screams... He heard his mother... His father...
His family...
Tears streamed from his eyes, as he hit the ground roughly, being deposited back in front of the ethernal figure. Allen looked up and glared at the hood of the monster, as he shakily stood on his feet.
"You..." he growled. He was silenced, as he struggled to talk, silenced by some other force. He settled for growling, as more scenes shifted before his eyes... All of different fears...
---
Zeros' nodded in agreement. He could also sense they were close.
He just wasn't quite sure what they'd find once they arrived... Death... Destruction...
He simply didn't know anything anymore...
-
Marshal grinned as the people cheered his name. "Yes I shall come." Marshal replied.
----
Darak narrowed his eyes. "High General Vincent. It seems that a peaceful takeover will not happen. Shall we charge!?" He asked, reading to charge to the fortress.
----
Abodahon then saw Melkoth moving towards Vincent's position. He thought he would go join the fray but he felt that he could handle it. He could hear the cries of the wyverns from were he stood.
He then looked back at the ever-expanding fortress Quintus was working on.
----
The ship finally arrived at the main land location. "Okay boys, we're here. Anything you need to do before we undock the ship?" He asked
Rink shook his head. "Nope." He then looked to Zeros'
----
Valos was hiding in the shadows; he had cast an invisibility spell upon himself. He saw Duilin's ship arrive.
"Heh, Young Talonscar has arrived..." Valos whispered
"Now my children, go and strike when the time is right..."
A group of translucent skeleton like creatures appeared, they were red and walked on all fours, and had spider like legs, there skulls appeared to be in the shape of a human's but had a larger lower jaw and sharp teeth. The demonic creatures crawled from behind the ghosted Valos and disappeared behind trees and rocks.
-
"Yes! Attack!! Darak, I give you two thousand men. Storm the front gate."
He pointed to a long, narrow path that lead up the side of the cliff, eventually leading to the front gate of the fortress high above. At most points the path was so narrow, that soldiers would only be able to march two per row, with a rock wall to their right and a vertical drop off to their left...
A wyvern suddenly descended upon the two from behind Darak. The flaps of Vincent's trench coat opened and he produced his silver shotgun within an instant. Holding it with his right hand, he blasted the creature down, and it barreled through the air, flying overhead and crashing behind Vincent.
"I will keep the wyverns off of you and follow once I get the situation under control here."
The wyverns began their collective attack, surrounding the grounded army almost completely. Blast of fire and ice reigned from the sky, and blue orbs flew from the grey mages in return.
One of the soldiers laughed at Zion.
"Hah! Yeah, right. Like we'll fall for that one--"
*KABLAM!!!*
The soldier was instantly vaporized by a fiery explosion, knocking the other soldiers that were holding the trio off of their feet. The logs fell to the ground along with their prisoners, and the chain binding Tsu's left hand shook lose...
-
Tsu capitalized on this opportunity, removing his left hand. "After I get you guys out, kill the wyverns! We'll do just as you said we would!"
"Now! 千鳥!!!"
(Chidori - Thousand Birds)
His hand erupted with lightning, commencing to make the sound of a thousand birds chirping. He used it to pierce through the other chains. He hopped up and and freed Zion and Xenai in the same way. The two jumped off their logs and grabbed their weapons from some nearby soldiers. Tsu looked to a nearby wyvern and charged more energy into his hand to keep the technique alive for a little longer...
--- --- ---
Aura and Tsu stared each other down... And suddenly, they charged each other! They thrusted out at each other...
"Holy Spiral Sphere!!!"
"Chidori!!!"
And the two attacks connected. They started to push at each other, each feeding all the power possible into their attacks... This would be the decisive exchange!
-
"Yes, High General!" Darak replied.
"Charge! To the fortress! Single file, along the path!" He commanded.
Darak charged his way along the pathway. He motioned for a bunch of the soldiers to go in front of him. "Watch the path it's narrow." He warned.
One of the soldiers was shot by a fire blast from one of the wyverns, Darak ran faster and swung his axe as he ran at it, cutting it's stomach as he dashed under it.
Darak continued to advance towards the fortress. "Spread out, but stay in line!" He yelled to the warriors.
-
The lizard Vincent was riding on bucked and reared in the confusion. Making an adjustment to a dial on his weapon, Vincent lifted the shotgun and fired on an approaching wyvern rider, knocking him off the beast. With a leap, he bounded to the flying wyven's back as it passed over head. At least this one he had some experience with.
He pointed the red wyvern to a group of others now about to storm Darek's men on the cliff side and the creature obeyed, himself now souring through the air on the wyvern's back. In transit, he removed a tall cartridge from his inner trench coat pocked, and snapped it into the slot on the top of the shotgun with a click. Flipping a switch near the base of the cartridge to the "Auto" setting, Vincent grinned as the gun began a barely audible high pitched hum...
Directing his wyvern to flyby the group of enemy wyvern riders descending upon Darek and his men, he firmly held the gun with both hands and squeezed the trigger. Explosion after explosion ripped from the tip of the barrel. The enemy wyverns screamed as he flanked them, spraying them each at least once with the explosive blasts. Ten shots in rapid succession maimed the majority of the group too badly to fly, and they fell out of the sky, the others retreating towards another wyvern group nearby...
General Ajax burst from the front gate at the top of the path.
"GRAHH HA HA HA HA HAAAH!!!!"
Hundreds of Crimson solders behind him in single file, he raced down the narrow path straight into the first of Darak's men, knocking them over the edge of the cliff like bowling pins with his huge battle axe...
-
Tsu pulled his hand back, and leapt up at the wyvern. "It's over! Chidori!" The lightning edge made contact, and pierced right through the winged creature.
Zion darted up a nearby tree, getting to the tip and jumping off, like a gymnast, toward another nearby wyvern. He spiraled around in the air, and ended up slashing through it at the end.
Xenai just did it raw. He quickly charged up an energy blast and winged it at another wyvern. It took the hit, and spiraled down to the ground.
"Alright," said Zion. "There should still be more!"
--- --- ---
Suspense...
-
Darak charged forth, only to find the monstrous General Ajax slashing away at his soldiers. He continued moving forward, a deep breath, he then came closer and made eye contact with the General. "Prepare yourself!" He shouted. His axe was smaller, but probably faster then his opponent?s. Yet Ajax looked much stronger then him, but Darak was still an experienced soldier, probably more skilled then three of the warriors combined. He then swung his battle-axe at Ajax in a diagonal motion. "Hiya!"
----
//Oh yes Ein has given me temporary control of his characters.\\
Ein nods his head. "I'll also come. I'm ready for more action." He grinned.
----
For argument's sake we will assume Steorra has followed Darak and has agreed to help them out on the attack.
She casts a white light-based magic laser at a few of the wyverns attacking, taking them out.
-
Zeros' shook his head, as he stood, cracking his neck and knuckles.
"Nope. I don't need anything. Let's get out of here," he said, as he walked slowly out of the ship. He had felt the creatures, but hadn't said anything yet. He wanted to see how far Duilin had progressed. Just recently, he had started to think of Duilin as a kid brother, unoffically.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets and waited for Duilin and Rink near the enterance of the ship.
---
Allen dusted himself off and glared at Fear again. The creature just took a slow, rattling breath and Allen shivered, as the temperature dropped again. He tried to ignore the fears circling in front of his eyes, trying to settle on more pleasent emotions.
He had no idea how he could defeat someone... Such as this creature.
-
Vincent circled the wyvern towards the fortress wall, and pointed the beast into a quick dive. Just as he cleared the top of the wall, an explosion hit the wyvern's underbelly from an unseen source, and Vincent was thrown from the flying creature, tumbling on top of the outer stone wall. He caught himself in a crouching position, holding his shotgun tightly with his right hand...
Just below Vincent, Ajax slammed his axe into a Grey soldier.
"You TRAITOR!! Now you DIE!!!"
He plunged the battle axe upwards, in an opposite diagonal motion to meet Darak's. A spark shot from the two metal axes as their blades scraped, and Ajax's weapon was pushed backwards, causing him to loose balance for an instant, surprised at Darak's strength. Without hesitation, he swung his axe a second time. Clearing well over Darak's head, the blade lodged into the rock wall to his left, causing boulders to dislodge and tumble down upon his opponent and the soldiers immediately behind...
-
Tsu looked to the rocks that were starting to fall. Perfect... He could also hit that Ajax guy from here while saving Darak. He pointed his hand at Ajax... "Twilight Blast!" The sparkling blacklight shot forth, vaporizing the rocks that threatened to hit the grey soldiers, and would plow right through toward Ajax.
Zion bounced off of the mid air remains of the wyvern he just killed over to another one and killed it the same way. Another wyvern came right behind Xenai. He turned around and swung Zero Weapon down, crushing it and slashing through it at the same time.
--- --- ---
There was a bright flash...!
-
The sign of the Poison Ring showed up again in the sky, its eagle head pointed directly downwards, at the fortress.
Melkoth swooped in, electrical sparks coming off him like a tesla coil. He grappled a wyvyrn, which soon dropped down on the field below, its heart stopped by the alternaing current going through both its arms and accross its chest. The same happened to a couple of other wyvyrns that came to attack, sending their riders down to the ground.
Once he was approximately in the middle of the wyvyrn throng, a blast of sparks went forth from his body, in a flat oviod shape, nearly a disc, killing the wyvyrns within, but there was a shell outside of the area, who were unaffected. The charred carcasses dropped down onto the fortress, causing many soldiers to rush out to be away from the smell.
____________________________________________________________________
Quintus and his horde were now nearing the soutwestern point of the continent. There was a large fortress on the horizon, and it was flying a new standard. Its own.
"So, someone fancies himself a new ruler. We will need to be careful with this one."
Some trolls were on his left, landward, flank. They had traditionally been the servants of the various empires on the Dark Continent, with the exception of the Dark Empire, with which they had had a disagreement, and hence the Crimson Empire also.
//Didn't think I would bring that back all the way from Chapter 2? Wink //
He shouted a quick command in the language of the Southern trolls, and they started to run forward. The people at the fortress would not expect that, he thought, not expect it at all. There has not been a troll charge for centuries.
Below him, large swathes of forest (the Dark Continent, as with all other landmasses on Gaian, was predominantly forest, the human population not being large enough for agriculture to dominate the land) were smashed away from the charge.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur and his comrades flew towards the Eastern Dark Continent.
The sea rippled below them before becoming still as the wind dropped. The sky was cloudless, and their reflections could clearly be seen on the water, a multicoloured feast for the eyes, with a large amount of red and black.
The black, volcanic, cliffs of the Eastern shore popped up over the horizon.
-
//Oh I remember those trolls. Oh BTW Marshal and Ein cannot fly, I assume Haraldur has that flotation spell cast on them?\\
Darak watches the blast take out the rocks above him. He makes a quick laugh and swings his axe in a horizontal motion at Ajax.
----
Duilin and Rink stepped out of the ship, and walked out onto the dam. Around them was foggy, mostly dirt around them, but there were a few clumps of grass and trees about. The dock was close by Sigmund and Bandervil.
"Wait...something is here..." Duilin said lifting his right hand and pointing upwards.
"Yeah, I sense it to." Rink said. They could hear the sound of ghostly shrieks, but the sound seemed to just enter their mind. They couldn't tell were it was coming from, it felt like there were things all over the place.
"What is it?" Duilin asked
"Hell Crawlers..." Rink said, as if he's dealt with those things before.
Suddenly, one of Valos' creatures appears out of nowhere and jumps at Duilin. He blasts a lightning bolt at it, and it bones fall apart and scatter all over the place.
Rink groans. "That won't work. Hell Crawlers are used for torture in hell. Once they are blown apart they regenerate into five more."
The bones of the Hell Crawler then form into several others.
"How the hell do you kill them?" Duilin asks backing away as more of the crawlers surround the area.
"That...I don't know. I've only seen them in the Underworld. Even then, I never fought them, just witnessed other dealing with them. It seems that almost every spell causes them to explode and they can't be frozen."
Rink quickly examines the area, his perception is quite impressive as is his thinking capacity, he counted around 25 of them.
25 Hell Crawlers //God, I missed doing this. Now we have to come up with a more creative way of killing them.\\
-
Vincent ducked as sparks flew overhead and falling corpses plummeted from the sky around him, the stench filling his nostrils. He eyed Melkoth above.
Great. Just like Draven...
He spun around, heading towards a set of stone stairs that lead down to the interior side of the wall as he tossed away the empty cartridge from his weapon. Two soldiers appeared as he approached the stairs. He made quick work of them with his gun and pressed forward...
-
The trolls were nearing the defiant fortress and were now running up the slope. Arrows bounced harmlessly off them as they climbed up.
After a few minutes, it was all over. The defenders, not possessing weapons that could serious damage trolls, were massacred. Quintus' horde carried on South.
________________________________________________________________________
Melkoth sent Vincent a telepathic message: The survey of the lands on this continent is complete.
He swooped down to where Darak was. "Greetings," he said as he flew past, snatching Ajax's axe out of his hands and throwing it into the face of a wyvyrn rider, sending him to his ancestors, or whatever afterlife he believed in.
He flew West of the fortress, and on the ground there a hole started to appear, a hole with long, wide steps. There was a rumble as more trolls rose out of the hole and formed ranks. The hole closed after a couple of thousand had climed up.
My gift to you, High General. They are under your command.
Melkoth flew south to see what Quintus was doing.
_____________________________________________________________________
//Fine, they float along behind.//
The Comrades landed on the shore and dusted themselves off, the dust having come from that same shore.
Haraldur said, "I would like you four to get as many people in this area as possible to support our cause, and so have a patch of freedom on this continent. I will be back soon, but I must give a gift to the people of Alterna, the same on I gave to those in Laus."
He flew away.
Tesla moved towards the nearest town, and Durruti the local village (after wishing the other two luck).
Durruti got to the village. There were many soldiers in Crimson Empire uniforms there, but the uniforms had a new symbol on them. Evidently there was now a struggle as many different former Generals, now warlords, tried to get large territories.
He smashed his way into his village, blowing the armoured guards away with a seismi ball. Many soldiers rushed towards him, but soon perished, killed by explosions coming from Durruti's own body.
The people, who had been hiding away from the explosions in their cottages, stared at him, then noticed his red and black neckerchief. They then recognised his face.
In the preceding months, some of the few villagers who could read had been given some books by some masked individuals. In those books they read a lot about the Aspyes Revolution's principles, and seen the faces of some of the importants activists and theoreticians. They had then, in secret, read them out to the other villagers in bars and suchlike.
After a short question and answer session, a long thin log was raised above the walls of the village, with some cloth wrapped around it, a bearded man on the wall grabbing hold of it as the log was attached to the wall. He then untied some string, and a red and black flag started to flap in the breeze.
Tesla travelled Northwest, defeating a few patrols, all seemingly from different factions. Once he eradicated two at once, who had already been fighting eachother.
On the horizon, Haraldur could see Alterna again.
-
Zion and co, deciding they were done messing with the wyverns, followed Vincent to wherever he was going.
--- --- ---
Aura was spit out of the lake. She flew high into the air, then hit the ground right by it, rolling away from the substance upon contact with the earth. "Wh... wh... Damn! Did I win? I don't know what happened... Just a bright flash... And now I'm here. Did I do it right?"
--- --- ---
Seijin noticed a disturbing sensation as he meditated in the clouds, waiting to go save Aura. "...Paradox... There are people in Paradox... But this isn't really Paradox... Just a weaker incarnation, an imitation... They must be at THAT lake. Oh, there goes one of them... Aura? Hmm..." The guardian thought it interesting, but in the end, paid it no mind.
-
Vincent ran back to the edge of the wall and look over in awe as garrisons of trolls appeared. The earth based creatures began scaling the steep rocky ledge with relative ease. He pointed to a older looking tower that appeared to have some structural damage above a group of trolls within earshot.
"There!"
To his surprise, they all heard and obeyed as if it were all part of a previously drawn out plan. A few hundred made it up the steep slope and began attacking the base of the tower's wall. In a few minutes, the tower collapsed upon them, taking many out, but leaving an easier to climb pile of rubble along with a significant hole in the wall. The trolls pressed on, unfazed, along with several Grey soldiers.
Vincent turned and shouted in the direction of the scurrying Crimson soldiers on the interior side of the wall.
"You've had your chance to submit. Now you pay!"
----
Fire was everywhere.
The massive figure of the thirty foot tall demon lord dwarfed the shadowed figure of the averaged sized man...
"TRAITOR! YOU-PROMISED-USS-FREEDOM! YOU-WILL-DIE-FOR-YOUR-LIESSS!!!"
The demon lunged forward. One claw swipe would do... But he was stopped by a tremendous force to the gut, a bulge breaking through to his back. A pillar of crimson light followed, severing the demon at the torso, and the pieces fell several hundred feet into the lake of fire below...
"I swear that's the fifth time I killed him..."
Draven left his right fist extended right where it hit, the demonic blood dripping from it. His eyes were glowing slits of crimson light now. Slits filled with anger and rage...
Draven, Julian, and Rufus floated above the Crimson capital, now floating over an endless lake of flame. Their armor tattered and beaten, breathing heavily from the hours of fighting. Most of the wyvern riders and crimson solders were long gone, and the capital it self was in near ruins. And the demons kept attacking...
"James is in bad shape..." Rufus shouted to the other two. James was crouching in the middle of a ruined section of the city, looking sickly sweating heavily.
"These creatures... have no minds... How did you ever get them to listen to you in the first place?" Julian shouted to Draven.
The next one was only twenty five feet long, but it had bladed wings and four arms.
"By beating them into submission..."
-
"Hmm... Hell crawlers... Vile creatures indeed... " he muttered. He drew his sword with a rapid motion, the demonic blade singing out from the sheath, as the large, black blade rested on his shoulder.
"If you can't blast them apart..." he turned, the sword starting to leak demonic energies. "You said they keep reforming from the parts of themselves... That's not a problem," he said and turned, bringing his sword down. A large wave of black energy flew from his sword and vaporized the Hell crawler that had been sneaking up on him.
The creature shreaked loud, as a large gash appeared in the ground, deadening all the life around it.
"Then, we have to simply vaporize them... All of them," he said, smirking.
24 Hell crawlers
---
Allen started to pace back and forth, completely ignoring the monster near him, as well as the fear circling behind his eyes.
And suddenly, he was flung out of the pool, just as Aura had been. Not being neary as agile as Aura, though, he landed rougly on the ground, rolling about fifteen feet, off the small platform and onto the ground.
He grunted in pain, but his left hand had something clutched in it...
There was a small, shimmering black rock, only about the size of an average man's fist.
It was the ore. The ore they needed to fix the Crimson Empire's defenses.
-
The trio watched in awe as the tower collapsed. They didn't know trolls had such power. They then looked to Vincent as he shouted at the crimson soldiers. o_o; o_o; o_o;
"Guess we follow him in," said Zion.
"Yep," came Xenai.
"...No."
"What?" "WHAAT!?"
"Draven's alive. I think. Can't you feel his life force?"
"Actually..." "Yeah, that feels like 'im alright."
"So what do we do?" asked Zion.
"Aiight," said Xenai, "These'r our options. We either stay and fight with the grays, stay and fight with the reds, stay and do nothing, or go towards the life force."
"Hmm..." "Hmm..." "Hmm..."
--- --- ---
Aura's beautiful eyes followed Allen as he was shot out of the lake. She saw the ore in his hand. "Allen! You got it! Yesss!"
--- --- ---
"And there goes the other guy... Why does that lake have to be so forceful?"
-
Darak looks about as the trolls rampage the area. "What the--" He then runs and stops next to Vincent, he notices that victory is imminent.
----
Marshal and Ein then venture there way to a near by settlement.
Marshal then walks into a small town square. "You don't need to be enslaved by the Empire! We can have a better life then this."
This gains a lot of attention. A few people began talking.
"Are you the Aspyes?" One person asked
"Yes we are." Ein said. "The Empire has been bad mouthing us, but that's only because they know our way is better?"
Marshal then begins explaining the better ways. And the people begin nodding. One person however yells out. "Your logics are flawed!" And then runs off, and a few Crimson Warriors quickly arrive. They point at Marshal and Ein.
"You see, they know we are right!" Marshal says taking out his gun pointing at them while backing away.
"Surrender or die, rebel slime!" The guard demands
"They're just worried they'll loose your support. It's them that need you! You don't need them!" He continues
The soldiers then run at Marshal, but the crowd of people then swarm at the two guards and begin beating them, taking there weapons and striking them with it.
Quickly, Ein helps the citizen's raise a revolutionary flag.
More soldiers came, but Marshal began fending them off, and the villagers then grabbed pitchforks and torches and planks of wood or any other weapon like thing they could use, and began overthrowing the soldiers.
----
"Well, yeah that works." Rink shrugs. A hell crawler then jumps at him, pinning him to the ground he then readies to bite his head but Rink grabs the creature's jaw and pulls them apart. The teeth were pretty sharp on his hands however, and they began to bleed.
Duilin then grabbed the crawler by the spine and lifted it up. The crawler then began to bend it's neck backwards to bite Duilin's arm, yet he tossed the creature and then blasted a magnetizing lightning shock at it and then blasted dark energy and vaporized the creature.
Rink quickly blasted a series of fireballs at a few others coming towards him. "Damnit, I need different magic spells!"
-
//Xorlak, does this mean that Retan might someday return?//
Haraldur reached Alterna, ready to change the inhabitants' lives forever. He started to fly around the land, behind him a red trail, which reached down to the bottom and extended up before curving to form what would become a hollow hemisphere, but now just a sector of one.
After flying right around it, the shield-like dome flickered with red and black mixing around in its liquid like surface.
Cloud started to gather around the dome and spin above it.
________________________________________________________________________
Durruti left to go to other villages, and some of the villages went too, but to different villages. Accross the area, villages would have pause of activity and then raise the red and black flag (or both red flags and pure black flags, plurality was not frowned upon if they were some variation on the standard, even if only one of the colours was used). Sometimes this pause was violent, sometimes not, depending on the presence, dogmatism and numbers of the guards (some of whom joined the revolution), but they were always outnumbered by the villagers and defeated.
Tesla approached the city of Dalinn, its glistening walls rising out of the clay surrounding it. This impressive facade was deceptive however. As he got closer, he heard curious sounds from within. There were screams, and sounds of charging horses and men, and lashes of metal against metal. Closer still, it could be seen that the southern section of the wall was breached, obviously through magery. The sounds were of streetfighting between two competing warlords' armies, with unfortunate inhabitants caught in the middle of a battle between between two would-be masters, both of which they despised.
Ruthlessness is necessary, thought Tesla, as he turned South.
He saw that the breach was quite empty, with just a few guards. Evidently the attackers seem to have the upper hand.
Using the most advanced techniques he had learnt from Haraldur, he began to feel in his brain a sense of the ground around him, a taste of the soil.
In a field next to the walls, there was a slight rustle before earth and rock ripped itself out of the ground and and fell back down, its trajectory towards the hole in the wall. Withing seconds, the guards were squashed below rocks and clay, and the hole was filled, trapping all inside the city, as some had also blocked up the main gate.
The sound of confusion was in the air as Tesla raised himself above the ground, flying over the wall, with a look of fury on his face. He saw many uniformed individuals running towards the blocked gap to see what had happened, then they fighted eachother again, the two sides fighting in that area again. An advance from what were obviously the defenders could be seen, and a counter advance back to the former gap by the attackers as well.
Perfect... thought Tesla. He held his right arm out, and several wireless Tesla coils came into existance, and they dropped onto the battle from above, initialising as they fell. Screams could be heard accross the city as well as the sound of evaporating steel as the bodies were burnt up in plasma. Shots were fired at him, mostly from arrows, but there were a few bullet guns as well. Obviously, the Crimson Empire had been quick to attempt to emulate Aspyes technology.
The Tesla coils disappeared as he dropped down, materialising a sword in his hand that shimmered around the edges with occasional sparks coming out of it. On close inspection, it could be seen that lightning was wrapped around it. He dropped down into the city in the middle of the throng of infighting warriors, who were also shooting at him from time to time. As he slashed at them, vapourising them and their armour, sand from Durruti's song, The Internationale:
...And if those cannibals keep trying,
To sacrifice us to their pride,
They soon shall hear the bullets flying,
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
At the sound of his booming voice filling the city, and of the screaming soldiers, the voices of the people hiding from the fighting could be heard:
No saviour from on high delivers,
No faith have we in prince or peer.
Our own right hand the chains must shiver,
Chains of hatred, greed and fear.
E'er the thieves will out with their booty,
And give to all a happier lot.
Each at the forge must do their duty,
And we'll strike while the iron is hot.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
From numerous places, from houses, sewers, taverns and inns, a rush of people came, behind the soldiers fighting Tesla, brandishing knives and spears, some stooping to pick up discarded guns and swords, skewering the invaders from behind. Within the next 20 minutes, the remaining soldiers in the city were dispatched.
A General Assembly was immediately started, after seeing to the wounded (killing in the case of an enemy, in revenge for the rapes and extortion, and treatment for friends) where the people started to discuss among themselves what to do. Since, there were no dissenting voices, the whole population having been radicalised by the recent hardships, a Commune was quickly established in Dalinn and the lands around it.
From each tower on Dalinn's damage walls a flag was raised either red, black or more commonly red and black.
There is now revolution in an expanding patch of the Dark Continent on the East coast.
_____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth continued flying south.
_____________________________________________________________________
Quintus and his horde turned a corner at the Southwestern point of the Dark Continent and went East along the South Coast. Next stop: Laus.
-
Allen smiles weakly and gave a thumbs up, as he stood shakily on his feet and groaned.
"Damn... I'm not used to this kind of punishment..." he said, while prodding his bruises with a wince, but he smiled and raised the ore in his hand. "But... I got it," he grinned and shook his head, clearing out the cobwebs.
"Now... It's time to get out of here and back to the Crimson Empire," he said, as he walked back, limping slightly.
---
Zeros' turned rapidly and grabbed one of the creatures by it's neck, throwing it away. He threw the creature so hard, though, it broke the sound barrier and smashed through about ten trees before coming to a stop, shreaking loudly.
Zeros' ghosted out, as five tried to ambush him from behind. With his sword still on his shoulder, he reared his foot back and kicked one of the creatures into the air, a ball of holy magic following in it's wake.
There was a bright flash as the ball connected with the creature, but all that remained was air.
Zeros' spun again and deflected the claws and teeth of one with his demon sword. The hell crawler gnawed, chewed and scratched the sword while shreaking.
"Well... I can already tell this is going to be annoying..." he muttered as he ghosed away, as two tried to grab his legs. The one that was on his sword fell roughly on it's bottom, before getting to it's feet and shreaking, leaping at Zeros'.
Zeros' sighs. This was going to be a long day...
-
"Alright." Zion had decided. "We're heading toward Draven."
"Got it." "Understood."
And the trio took off toward the life force.
--- --- ---
She grinned. "Alright, let's go." She put his arm over her shoulder, to support him, and headed for the exit of the cave with him.
-
//Zeros' you didn't report how many were left. I believe you killed 3?\\
"Duilin!" Rink calls, jumping out of the way of a crawler jumping at him. "I can't really cast any vaporizing spells, but I can probably lure them towards yours."
"Right..." Duilin replies. He then casts a shade blast at a hell crawler, smashing it to pieces. "Shit!" He then quickly blasts another spell, vaporizing them pieces. "Phew..."
Rink has three hell crawlers surrounding him; one dashes closer but Rink blasts a plume of flame to fend it off.
Duilin then shoots two dark lightning bolts at two of the Hell Crawlers, erasing them from existence. The third one sees Duilin and then runs at him, yet Rink jumps on it and pins it down...
17 Hell Crawlers left...
----
Marshal and Ein continue their way to other villages, raising black and red flags. Marshal hums the tune to the revolutionary song as they progress.
-
(Trent, Draven is effectively in Hell, where he was attempting to summon the demons from. Although he would greatly admire the trio's loyalty. Heh...)
Vincent ran down to the fortress' center keep, relatively unopposed due to the mass confusion in the center of the fortress and the decisive battle ensuing at the fallen wall. He replaced his weapon under his coat. And ran his fingers over the course stone work. He concentrated, and a blue circle appeared around his hand, larger in radius than his body. The circle gained intricate markings, almost like a technical diagram, and began to rotate clockwise. The fabric of the stones began to wave as the transmutation began... He would need another minute to complete it...
(Do you guys think this is a good spot to start wrapping up the chapter?)
-
Allen nodded and limped with Aura to the cave enterance, still grinning, clutching the ore tightly in his hand.
---
Zeros' ghosts over and pulls the Hell Crawler out from under Rink and squeezes it's throat, crusing it's wind pipe easily and then vaporizes it with a simple blast of magic.
Zeros' turns and swipes down with his sword, it transforming in mid-air to it's holy form - surrounded by a bright white aura - as the creature is cleaved in half. Zeros' then releases the energy, causing it to detonate, exploding the creature.
With his back to Rink and Duilin, the remaning fifteen creatures form a circle around the three, lashing out with claws and spitting, shreaking.
Zeros' smirks slightly.
"Well... This will be fun..." he mutters.
15 Hell Crawlers left...
-
//Crap. Alright, thanks. It just seemed like he was still around, what with him making reference to the capital.
"...Tsu, are you on crack?" Xenai was very agitated at his teammate's incompetency.
"What? What's crack?" Crack had only just been invented.
"Those are just traces in the air! His fuckin' life force is nowhere! He's fuckin' nowhere!"
"Oh, f-" "Whatever, turn around!"
With Zion's last command, the trio turned around toward the fortress. Since Draven's not around, obviously, they would fight with the grays.
"Quick and dirty!" came Zion's order. "Do it!"
Tsu created a hollow, neutral energy ball. Zion shoved light in, and Xenai shoved dark in. Tsu flung the ball toward a large gathering of reds, where no greys were. //Hopefully, the fort doesn't have a frickin' roof.
--- --- ---
The two now exited the cave. With her left hand (her right one was holding Allen's arm over her shoulder), she grabbed her hairpin and threw it. The flying disc poofed into existence. Aura got on and helped Allen up onto it. They then took off toward the capital...
-
(Blast, I did it again. The whole floating island, with the capital on it, got sucked in with him as well. Heh...)
Vincent held his grasp on the wall. The stones of the entire base of the keep began to run together, as if melting into a gray slurry... The keep itself (a thick tower in the center of the fortress) began to lean to side opposite Vincent...
----
Suddenly, the stone which Allen was holding began to resonate... But not in the sense of giving off light... it was like a heartbeat... like a wave of thought that pierced the mind...
"THE ISLAND"
... and another...
"ROMME"
... and another...
"NOW"
----
(Chapter 8 ends in five days. That's Sunday, not tomorrow. Let's minimize the premature endings this time. Heh...)
-
Allen blinked and looked up towards Aura.
"Did you hear that...? I heard a voice that told me to go to the Island of Romme..." he hmm'd slightly and nodded. "Aura, change course: to the Island of Romme," he said.
-
//Oh, Zeros' I may have not made it clear, but the Hell Crawlers are skeletal, so they have no organs, ie: wind pipes. Sorry if that was unclear.\\
Duilin looks around as the Hell Crawlers surround him. "Oh yes, very fun indeed." Duilin then brings his hands close together and begins to charge energy...
Rink just tried to look tough so the Hell Crawlers wouldn't attack him, he really had no way of killing them however, but the Hell Crawlers are dumb anyway. But he could still fend them off.
A crawler then jumps towards Duilin, however Rink jumps in the air and quickly intercepts. He sees Duilin is charging something, so he thought he'd help him out. He kicks the hell crawler in the skull, and knocks it towards the ground, hitting another one. Rink growls and tosses flame at the Hell Crawlers, and they begin to back away a little bit.
Duilin then releases his energy and blasts a large wave on the ground in front of him. A sheet of gold coloured energy flows forward under the Hell Crawlers. Seven of the hell crawlers then begin to shrivel up and then vaporize into the air.
8 Hell Crawlers left...
----
Darak continued to fight the Crimson warriors who attacked him, slashing and crushing them with his axe.
-
The trio landed in the fort and split up, each running to their own crimson soldier and eliminating him. They would continue to fight this way for a bit.
--- --- ---
"Huh? Romme? Uh... Alright..."
She then stopped, trying to remember for a moment which way it was. She then took off in the correct direction.
-
The tower began to tilt more, the base now completely mush. It fell over with a gigantic crash, placing another hole in the wall opposite the ones the trolls made. The fortress was now completely overrun and the fighting began to die down... Satisfied with his work, Vincent placed his hands behind his back and took more of a surveying position.
----
The stone repeated the thoughts over and over, projecting a mental image with each word.
"THE ISLAND"
It was a view of the entire island, far above.
"ROMME"
It was a closer look, focused more on the central, southern region. A large grassy plain surrounded by forest on all sides.
"NOW"
It was a small cluster of flat rocks in the middle of the said plain...
-
Marshal and Ein noticed that mostly every settlement in the area has either been revolutionized or struck with conflict.
"So, Ein." Marshal said, looking off into the distance, noticing the battle happening in Tesla's area. "What shall we do now?"
"I'm not sure. Perhaps we could join the fray?" Ein suggested
"Hmm..." Marshal checked his ammunition supplies. "I don't know. I'm running low on bullets. I'll have to ask Tesla or Haraldur for a restock."
"How do they get these things anyway?" Ein asked scratching his head.
"I don't know, really. They seem to just pull things out of thin air. They both seem to be insanely powerful."
"I'm really glad I joined with you guys." Ein mumbled
----
Darak being one of the stronger people on the battlefield seemed to have most of the enemy staying away from him. He was about ten feet away from Vincent.
Steorra found Darak and stood next to him.
"So? Is the battle almost over?" She asked
"Yes, so it seems." Darak replied, watching the rest of the fray.
-
Quintus and his horde reached Laus, or were it ought to have been. The whole place was capped with hardened lava, so recent that there was no visible weathering.
"Hmmm..."
Melkoth arrived from the North.
"Yes, Laus seems to have been removed. I will assume that Draven did this as a reprisal. It is the sort of thing he would do anyway, it is his style. I will assume this until we have evidence otherwise.
"Quintus, your men look exhausted, I suggest we set up camp."
And so they did.
//Hehe, Enid Blyton style... Melkoth and Quintus are now inactive.//
________________________________________________________________________
Tesla left the newly formed Dalinn commune. Outside stood Durruti, with a tent. Tesla waved it away.
"The people of Dalinn have offered us temporary accomodation, for all five of us. I will inform Haraldur when he comes back.
"Come along, you two," he says to Ein and Marshall.
Tesla and Durruti enter Dalinn and got to a large tenement building. Inside, there are five single beds, and a notice saying when breakfast was to be served.
_____________________________________________________________________
There was a bright flash from the clouds as thousands of lightening bolts hit the dome, which rippled before blowing away as burning plasma.
The people of Alterna were now all magically gifted, like those in Laus, aking them more difficult to subjugate using superior magery.
Haraldur flew back to the Dark Continent, homing in on his Comrades and reaching Dalinn. Tesla informed him of the arrangements.
//Haraldur, Tesla and Durruti are now inactive.
-
Zeros' smirked, as his sword glowed bright. The Hell crawlers noticed this and started to swarm Zeros', jumping and clawing at him, but he ghosted out of the way.
He reappeared near them and with a single slash of his sword, all the remaining Hell Crawlers died in one, bright flash of light.
Zeros' sighed and sheathed his sword.
"Well... That was fun," he said idly.
---
Allen blinked, as more images flashed through his mind. He relayed what he saw through the vision to Aura, telling her where to go.
He didn't know why he was being guided to Romme, but he wasn't one to ignore signs such as these.
-
Ein and Marshal look at each other, and shrugs.
"Okay, let's go." Marshal says.
The two of them then enter the tenement building.
"Not bad..." Ein complements.
----
"Well...this shouldn't be as entertaining then..." Said a familiar voice, especially for Zeros' and Duilin.
"Who said that?" Rink called out. "Show yourself!" The imp demanded
"Hehehe...Who am I?" The voice replied. "I...am death....I am fear...I am sin."
"No..." Duilin said remembering the voice
Suddenly a translucent figure of Valos appeared.
"Valos!" Rink shouted "What is going on here!?"
The figured disappeared
"We're sorry Valos isn't hear right now!" The voice said again. "Please call again! Hahahaha!"
"Nex..." Duilin groaned. "Holy shit..."
The figured appeared again, it was Valos, but different. He had spikes on his shoulders, and a pentagram on his forehead instead of his tattoo. The Talonscar symbol was on the chest of his grey muscle shirt.
"Not quite, my friend. Nex was just my former body's name; I'm now in the body of Valos. I've been in it for quite some time, he's just had the greater control that's all, hehehe."
"What the hell do you want?!" Duilin shouts.
"I want you to come with me now...I am unstoppable so you may as well surrender yourself now..."
Duilin narrowed his eyes and gave an angry look at Valos...
-
The fighting narrowed into a few pockets of hopelessly outnumbered soldiers. They fought on madly at the Grey troops and the troll creatures. Vincent waved his hand.
"That is enough."
Although he was angry at their resisting his new found power, he knew when enough was enough. General Ajax was nowhere to be found, anyway.
"Take them alive. If they cooperate, allow them to join our ranks. There is no sense in killing good men."
HIS men now...
----
The stone continued projecting the three thoughts, one after another, in the same order. They seemed to increase in urgency as the sun approached the western horizon...
-
The trio stopped killing crimson soldiers.
"Hey," said Xenai, "Are we free to go, or do we still gotta do that prison escape dealie?" o_o;
--- --- ---
Aura was following the directions spot on... What's so urgent all of a sudden? Why Romme?
-
Vincent turned to see Xenai and the others helping route the Crimson soldiers.
"Hmmm, well I suppose you did prove yourselves. Actually, I could use a few more good men, if you're interested..."
He placed his hands behind his back.
(Chapter 8 ends in two days.)
-
"We're not really interested in joining, but I suppose we could stick around and help out with things for a bit..." Zion answered the question for them.
"...I'm not sure that's such a good idea for me." Tsu glanced to the side and frowned.
"Because of Aura, huh?" Tsu simply nodded to Zion.
-
//omg - I'm back! And in the Brotherhood! Very Happy Could someone tell me what's going on in the RP, please?\\
-
//Teh Crimson Empire got pwned and teh Grey Empire has basically taken over and teh Aspyes just pwnd a bunch of towns and revolutionized them and now there at teh camp restoring lol. (Sorry about that I recently pwnd some noobs on C&C Renegade) Steorra is with Darak, she'd probably be the best character to control for now, since Ein is with the others, resting. Darak, Vincent, Steorra and Zion and his buddies have just fought a battle against the Crimson Empire.\\
(Hmm, I hope Zeros' posts soon.)
-
Zeros' smirks and steps up, directly in front of Valos.
"Ah.... Valos... Nex... Whoever you are... How are you?" he says cheerfully, a hand resting idly on the hilt of his sword. "We missed you all so much," he said sadly, is if he was truly disappointed Valos/Nex was actually gone.
"Why'd you have to be so mean?" he sniffs, looking at Valos/Nex sadly, with big, wide, puppy dog eyes, before they rapidly change.
"Oh well. That's life," he shrugs. "Now... What the hell do you want?"
---
Allen continues to give directly, also wondering why they had to go here.
-
//ah, the chapter ends in a few days anyway. I won't bother posting then\\
-
Vincent brought his hand to his chin.
"Hmmm, very well, I suppose I could allow you to stick around. Just don't try anything funny..."
He turned and entered a less damaged portion of the fortress as the setting sun painted the western horizon a bright red...
----
New visions were cast into Allen's mind as the island came into view-- a spot to set the stone on, a complex alchemic circle to draw around it...
Their questions would be answered in due time...
-
Darak holstered his axe and wiped the sweat off his forehead and then walked along with Vincent.
-------
Valos grinned, exposing his dirty teeth and bleeding gums. "Draven and the Crimson Empire are gone." Valos begins "So the Grey Empire prevails now. I have requests from one of the Grey Empire superiors for Duilin to come with me. No harm will be done to him. If you, Zeros' wish to join, I assure you, we will easily be able to destroy Haraldur. Our empire is much more powerful then Draven's and goes stronger by the minute."
"By gone..." Duilin asked, "Do you mean dead?"
"From what it appears, yes, dead."
Rink rubs his forehead; he's unsure what to think of all of this.
-
"..." Tsu wasn't too excited about the news.
"Understood. Thank you."
"We'll be little angels, don't worry 'bout that."
--- --- ---
Aura continued to follow the directions, now coming up on the island. They were pretty much there. "Any specific spots to go to?"
-
Allen told Aura about his most recent vision. Now, he wanted to badly to get there... It was interesting.
---
Zeros' shrugged.
"You know, that's our choice. Also... Why the hell would I join someone who raped my mother, genius?" he asked lightly.
-
She arrived at the designated spot, helping Allen off the disc in case he was still injured. The disc turned back into the hairpin, and it went into its usual spot. "Allen, what is this place? And... will you be able to walk on your own now?"
-
(Don't want to leave Allen and Aura's quest hanging, but they can just pick things up next chapter.)
Vincent patiently watched as the former Crimson soldier opened the lock. Hands behind his back, he entered the storeroom along with several other Grey soldiers. Coming to the end of the stairway, a single lighted torch caused the entire room to glisten in a yellow hue...
Gold...
Vincent smiled. Yes, this would do nicely as his payment...
To be continued...
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 9</span>
The smell of smoke and dust was still detectible in the morning air. The rising sun's rays settled on a half-destroyed stone fortress atop a plateau. Bandervil had fallen. The Greys around the base of the step cliffs began to break camp. A new target would be arranged soon...
The trolls remained separate from the human forces. They had apparently done some hunting during the night and were gathered around various campfires, cooking and gorging themselves on some sort of mountain goat like creatures in a rather disgusting manner.
High General Vincent appeared on top of one of the lesser damaged walls, stoking his right hand though his hair and taking in the cool morning breeze. Losses from the battle were more than expected, and the number of dissident troops gained from the capture less than expected. The trolls Melkoth had given him should make up for the miscalculation somewhat, though. He turned his head to look a the troll camp below, seeing a few of them chase off an officer, who probably wanted to give them an order, with spears much taller than themselves. A bit unruly, yes, but useful...
And he would have less men to pay. Luckily the fortress had a good stock of gold. He had arranged for the soldiers' cut to be divided out and placed into small linen bags to be distributed this morning. It was a bit painful, seeing his massive stockpile dwindle down by 40%, but a necessary move to ensure troop loyalty. Draven always paid his men well-- twice as much as Emperor Retan did. To keep the men from returning to what was left of the Crimson Empire, he topped this sum by 50%, which was a ridiculous sum for a commoner. But as soon as things stabilized, he would cut the sum down again.
----
As Aura and Allen reached the vacant island of Romme, the images the mysterious black stone projected into the alchemist's mind became clearer and clearer...
There was a clearing up ahead, some distance away from the beach. The stone almost pulled them there... There was a spot on the ground it seemed drawn to... There was a complex alchemic circle the stone "wanted" Allen to draw around it. A complex transmutation of the ground around the stone...
None of these images offered an explanation as to why these things need to be done or what would happen if he did... but as the two grew closer to the target location, the aura the stone projected grew darker and darker...
-
Mark has just returned from Trank's Trans-dimensional goods with a strange tattered old book in his hands. He opened it, rising clouds of dust, and began reading...
"Kronos. Ijun 25th, 3253: It all went as planned. Our new experimental elite troops seem to be faring quite well, considering the conditions. Surely, their life span is somewhat of a downer - only two weeks, but this is one of those strange situations, where the pluses outweigh the minuses. It seems we are yet to find a practical use to them, though... Hopefully that time shall come soon enough.
After yesterday's discussions with the palace's Masterminds, a helpful situation has been exploited. If one were to look at the current state of affairs of this... what did they name it? Crimson Continent...? one can't help but wonder how it hasn't ripped itself to shreds yet. Order must be brought! And without the Crimson Empire defiling this rich land, it will be easier than ever... Just to make some make-believe friends now, to even further facilitate this situation. The remains of the Crimson army under the command of that baffoon Vincent looks promising. I've dispatched a winged messenger to discuss terms of alliance."
---
People rose their heads as a shadowy figure flew by in the sky. It was about three times bigger than an ordinary person, with great wings supporting it. The figure flew around the half-ruined fortress a few times, and landed with a loud "thump" next to High General Vincent. It was over eight feet tall... whatever it was. It looked like a demented dragon that was dead for a couple of years, then brought back by a mysterious force for even more mysterious purposes. Torn, rotting flesh was dangling from bleached bones; most of the organs were already gone. The creature had a long scroll in its hand.
-"To High General Vincent Eldridge of the Crimson Empire: Dear Lord Vincent; You do not know me, but I know much of you. I am Kronos, Marshal of the Kandarinian Souvereignity. The Crimson Continent shall soon be consumed in another war; I found no nation to be worthy of survival but yours. It is true, is it not? With your leader missing and no one above you, you control what's left of it. In any case, I propose an alliance. This is a peaceful message. However... A friendly offer is hair-width away from forced submission. I leave this desicion to you. With respect; Kronos."
The creature rose its head, expecting an answer.
--- --- ---
A loud horn sounded throughout the cave. The entire Nightshade cult gathered in the main chamber. In the middle stood Iban in person.
-"My faithful followers... I come to you to bring you the word of hope. The infidel Crimson Empire has fallen. The Greys are now no longer busy with fighting them as they used to be; They will relax now, attempting to lick the war wounds. We shall let them. Meanwhile, we must prepare for a full frontal assault. I shall see no diciple doing nothing. I shall hear the sounds of hammers smithing swords. I shall see archers making arrows and stringing bows. I shall see warriors training. I shall smell the gunpowder being prepared! We will catch the Greys off-guard with a massive assault! WE WILL PREPARE FOR WAR! The pitiful demon Abodahon WILL FALL!"
The crowd exploded. The air was full of whatever the diciples happened to be holding at the moment - books, staves, weapons... Objects falling down did cause some discontent, but no one cared.
-"Now... Get to work! We must be ready!"
Diciples, having their spirits thorugh the roof, rushed to their place of work. Soon no one was idle.
//I'll wait for DM and Haraldur to update before updating Ein and Steorra - I have no idea where we're at after the wait!\\
Gerard walked inside his newly-built palace. It still smelled sweetly of molten metal keeping the giant blocks of blackrock together.
"How I always wanted my own palace... Well, time waits for no man. Better get started on the inside."
With these thoughts, he swiftly climbed up to the top, and began hammering on the walls, crushing the excess rock off. The inside of the palace slowly began to take shape.
-
Allen blinked and pondered, but continued to give Aura the exact directions where the mysterious stone wanted them to go, also knowing it's purpose, unable to sense the dark aura around it.
The mysterious stone wanted him to do a complex transmutation on the ground around it... Never before had be done something like that...
// I'll wait for Duilin before getting Zero's was well. Heh. \\
-
Vincent waved his right hand as the mysterious creature spoke, signaling away the two wyvern riders that followed it as it flew in.
The creature itself repulsed him. It was obviously the work of a necromancer, and quite a powerful one too, as the undead creature was sentient (or at least directly controlled) which is quite difficult to do to the undead.
Interesting. This "Kronos" claimed to know everything about him, however, he missed the fact that Vincent was now one of the three High Generals of the Grey Empire and now served Melkoth. Of course, having made the deal just yesterday, and quite in secret, it would have worried him more if this carefully constructed message included that tidbit of detail.
But of course, opportunity knocks again...
A little "alliance" behind Melkoth and Quintus' back might be good insurance... And if confronted by either of the two, he could of course claim it was in the best interest of the Grey Empire...
Vincent kept his left hand in his pocket and looked the thing in the eye, seemingly unintimidated and unimpressed.
"Yes, it is quite obvious that war will engulf this continent once more. But I have no qualms with your nation, my dear necronic dragon, nor do I have any intention of attacking it, so long as I am not attacked in the first place. So consider your friendly offer accepted with good tidings."
----
The stone began to lash at Allen's doubts.
"DO IT NOW! DO IT NOW! DO IT NOW! DO IT NOW! DO IT NOW!"
-
The undead dragon gave a barely visible nod to Vincent.
-"The non-agression pact has been accepted. Thank you."
With these words, it jumped off the wall, opening its wings. It started gaining altitude... and then crumbled to pieces in mid-air. It seems that it has served its purpose... The scroll it was holding burst in flames, leaving no remains.
---
"Eldridge took the bait. Not like he had much choice... I suppose I could've worded the message better, though. It seemed a bit too opressive. However, in the end, it did not matter. I succeeded, and that's what is most important. Now, it is time to make final preparations for the war. I descended one floor lower, into the council chamber. Somewhat strange were the skeletons in steel cages hung up on the ceiling, but every palace needs a decoration. The twelve Masterminds were at their posts, as always. They were seated around a circular table. I sat down at the throne in the middle.
-"Kandarin prevails, Marshal", sounded the chorus of voices.
-"Kandarin prevails. Now, before I continue, are there any important news I need to know of?"
-"Yes, my lord." I turned around to Hazeel, who had a concerned look on his face.
"There is a great army massing up, and preparing for war. Not much is known about them, except that their leader is a mortal enemy of the demon Abodahon."
This was new. I was not aware of any other major superpower.
-"Tell me everything you know about them so far."
The Mastermind took out a narrow, but long piece of paper, and began scanning it with his eyes.
-"Well... from our reports, it says that they are somewhat advanced in the ways of magic. They also posess several powerful weapons, but lack an army large enough to deal any major damage. In short, they are nothing to be concerned about."
This somewhat relieved me.
-"Very well. Now, to the matter at hand. As I mentioned earlier, a new opportunity arose. The largest force at the continent has been thrown into disarray, but I managed to make an alliance with its remains. If we are..."
I was interrupted by the sound of doors being slammed open. A short man holding a charged fireball ran in.
-"DIE, TYRANT!!!"
He threw the fireball at me. Hmm... I think something has to be done about the loyalty of my subjects. I raised my hand. The skeletons in cages over me fell apart, and their individual bones formed a barrier between me and the fireball. The fireball exploded, dealing me no harm. I slowly walked over to the man in the doors. There was sheer terror in his eyes, and he dashed out of the room. A quick spell silently muttered, and a series of large blighted trees grew out of the ground in the doorway, cutting off his route to escape.
-"Y-you! You executed my wife! You enslaved my children! How could a human being be possibly capable of...!"
-"Silence, maggot. I made this empire. I made YOU. And now, I can just as easily unmake you. However, I will not just yet."
I snapped my fingers, and the trees moved a little, allowing two half-decayed guards to pass through. They siezed the the man.
-"Bring him to the square, and summon the townspeople. I will arrive shortly. Prepare my tools." With these words, I stormed out of the chamber."
-
"Enough games!" Duilin shouted. "Valos what do you want?!"
Valos groaned "The Grey Empire is quickly taking over. And the Aspye's influence grows stronger. I think it is only sensible for you to side with one of us. Knowing Zeros' I think you'll find us a more suitable ally. Melkoth may be our leader; however my master has as much power as Melkoth does. My master was impressed with your power Zeros', he would also like for you to join, perhaps you could even overthrow Melkoth yourself."
"I don't trust him, Zeros'" Rink snapped "I saw we kill him."
"To be honest I think we should at least see who this 'master' of Valos is" Duilin says
----
Darak was resting his eyes on a stool back up against a wall; when suddenly he was awaken by a loudly talking crowd of soldiers.
"Hey! Shut it!" Darak demanded. And the soldiers quickly stopped talking and split up.
Darak then grumbled and then got up. He looked around for Sterroa.
"Um, Steorra? You said you wanted to join us right?" Darak asked "Perhaps I could introduce you to the High General...."
----
Abodahon seemed to appear from nowhere, in the remains of the fortress.
"Well it seems he's got more then I expected." Abodahon mumbled to himself.
Soldiers looked at him walk by, in fear, some even running off. Abodahon simply ignored them.
He began wondering how long it would take for Melkoth to arrive, and for Valos to come back with Duilin and his friends. He spotted the half dead dragon-man fly off and Vincent standing at one of the towers.
He wasn't sure why he was here, but he's been pretty bored hiding in the shadows and drinking blood from demonic wine glasses, so he thought he'd spend some time with the locals. Plus check and see how his new ally is taking care of things.
-
Haraldur and his companions left their new stronghold in Dalinn. The levitated to 500 metres. All around them there were villages with new flags, either red, black or red and black. To the west, they saw one new black flag be raised above a village. Just beyond that, they saw the vast walled metropolis of Gief //ethereal cookie to anyone who guesses which European city that name is based on//, which was just before the crest of the revolutionary wave. Smoke from street battles could be seen above the city.
Beyond that, a few tens of miles away, could be seen the lava covered wasteland surrounding the remains of Redvik fortress. Some grey banners could be seen, and they were moving towards Gief. Wait, Gief, that is where their comrade Makhno was!
Haraldur said to them all, including Ein and Marshall, if they followed, "A comrade is in danger, follow me."
They flew at speed towards Gief.
________________________________________________________________________
Melkoth landed down near Vincent. "Splendid, you subdued them. Since I know Quintus very well he could carry on his campaign while we discuss territory. So, Vincent, Abodahon, is this a good time?"
________________________________________________________________________
Quintus' horde moved off, breaking camp. The nxt big town now that Laus was gone was Gief, a town surrounded by fertile fields and rich mines. This should be their temporary goal.
The horde moved off, with the trolls on the inland side, going East.
After a while, there was a disturbance as several trolls, more chalky in nature than average, started screaming after being deluged with a colourless liquid. A strong acid! Someone knows we have trolls!
On his order, Quintus' men surrounded an area they thought the attack came from. They saw a pole raised. Ah, thought Quintus, they are going to raise a white flag of surrender.
A flag was raised on the pole. However, the shade of the flag was not white, but black! Black as the opposite of surrender. Where had he seen it before? Wait, Haraldur always wore black clothing. However, he is nowhere near here, otherwise he would have targetted me. It must be someone who does not know me and who I do not know. Hmmm... Tesla prefers the red flag, and Durruti the red and black, so who could it be? Then it dawned upon him. The Makhnovites!
"Attack!"
Some mages threw some fireballs into the bushes, but the fireballs changed direction and smashed into the grey-clad troops.
A small group of people walked out of the bushes. At the front was a man wearing a blue jacket and a fur hat, carrying a black flag with a skull and crossbones on it, with the words: Liberty or Death!
Damn, thought Quintus, the man himself is here. They must control most of this part of the Ugran.
//Come on, you must be able to guess what Ugran and Gief are based on!//
-
Marshal heard what Haraldur had said. "Ein, come on. Haraldur said a comrade is in danger. I can also hear the sound of soldiers."
Marshal picks up his machine gun, and checks to see if it's loaded. He pops a couple bullets into it and locks it up. He then quickly summons up an Albatrash and then hops onto it and flies off with Haraldur.
-----
Abodahon stretched his wings as he approached Melkoth and Vincent. "Yes I suppose this is a good time to talk this over. I've been getting bored lately." He then looks around and makes eye contact with a soldier staring at him. The soldier then looks away and quickly moves off. Abodahon makes a quick smirk and he looks back at Melkoth. "So territory. First let's talk about what territory we have, so I...we can take our pick."
-
"I hope you lamers slept well!"
No response.
A large breath of air drawn in... "Get the hell up!!!"
The two sprung into an upright sitting position, and soon found themselves on their feet.
"Loud enough, Xenai?" asked Tsu.
"Actually, I think not."
--- --- ---
Aura could almost feel the intent of the stone radiating to her too, only hitting her in forms of hunches. She could especially feel the "DO IT NOW! DO IT NOW! DO IT NOW!" and it caused her to speed up and quickly arrive at the spot. She and Allen got off the disc, and the disc was now a hairpin in her hair. "Quickly, do what the thing wants you to before it gets mad!" O_O;;;
-
Snow settled gently on the ground, only to be disturbed by the footprints of many passersby in the bustling economic center of Glacia City.
Alex had decided to take a rest after travelling up and down the high peak, and was reading a book given to him by Caulus Zalridge, the wise old wizard who had raised him those many years ago. Alexander, or Alex, as he was called, was a relatively quiet merchant inside the Glacia region, but a hired gun to everywhere else. Alex had spent the past few years of his life researching a new combat potential yet to be put into use in his area. While being a mercenary was his primary way of making a living, he had been putting more effort into economics recently. All across the mountainside, mines dotted the white snowscape. These led deep within the mountain, which was rich with uncommon and rare metals. Alex's abode was conveniently located near one of the veins closer to the surface, and has harvested these ores. Albeit he had the money to fund his research, the area he lived in simply lacked effective military technology. He had to leave.
Getting up from the aged wooden bench he was sitting on, Alex proceeded to stroll down the main avenue of Glacia City. It was late in the afternoon, and the icy temperatures coupled with biting thirty-mile per hour winds made night life a grim business. Snow always fell on Glacia, without fail, everyday. The top two or three inches of the ground were always covered with a fine white powder. Any newcomer to Glacia would have noticed this immediately, but to the native inhabitants, like Alex, it was as mainstream as the cold.
Whichever doors were open in town, orange lights were cast upon the ground. From stoves to forges, the folk of Glacia spared no expense at keeping themselves warm. Stepping into a Glacia home or establishment was similar to stepping into another world entirely. The cold replaced with warm, the dark with light, and the howling winds with the chatting voices of many. Of the establishments in Glacia, the blacksmith's shop and the pub were the most popular, whether it be the sociality of the patrons, the merchandise sold, or simply that both locales were the warmest in town.
Alex's abode used to be a blacksmith's shop, but was sold to him when a competing blacksmith moved out after proving unsuccessful with the native man. Complete with a workbench, a furnace, as well as many other working tools, his residence was second only to the smithy in town when it came to an industrial workplace. Alex also managed to get his hands on a rather rare piece of technology, a fractionalizing still, which he used for refining crude oil into useful products, whether it be candle oil, cooking oil, or kerosene.
Upon opening the door to Alex's workshop/quarters, one would see a warm, hospitable living space on one side of the single-room building, and a gritty, junk-strewn workspace on the other. Alex did not mind living this way, as he knew that this was the best money could buy at the moment. Alex closed the door behind him, the howling wind ceasing.
Alex took off his leather jacket and tossed it across the room onto his bed. There was something about that jacket. Alex recieved it over five years ago, from a seemingly regular marketplace that was visiting town for the week. On the left side of the chest, as well as on both upper arms there was an emblem sewn onto the jacket. It was a white-purple spiral on a blue-to-cobalt gradient background. Only Alex knew what it meant, and when asked by other people what it meant, he simply replied, "just a collaboration of style and the past." What Alex meant by "the past" were the two arms of the spiral. One white, meaning goodness, light, and the purple one meaning evil and darkness. Alex believed it was necessary for existence to have a delicate balance of both, otherwise there could be dire consequences. The gradience from blue to cobalt is what Alex inferred by "style," as blue and cobalt were two of his favorite colors.
Alex stoked the stove with some fresh coal, and lit it. The room was a little cooler than usual, which led Alex to believe that there was a leak in the walls somewhere, allowing ever-precious heat to seep out. Alex ran his hands over the walls to find a cold spot, but found none. He later realized that one of the windows was slightly open, and closed it. With a warm environment to work in, Alex sat down at his workbench and got to work.
-
Fire was building in the town, even though it was not so visible from afar, even with the telescope but he knew there was trouble ahead.
"Not this again. Those fools. They want to be taken serious with a Jolly Roger on their flag? Pests and vermin these men are."
He got down from Lufia, the tree Quadricentennial named for it was the biggest and darkest. Why it was named so was an ode to a warrior he knew named Luffie. He walked the black road of the Campaign forest, known for its dark mist that it requires a very strong fire to see through but Quadricentennial could get around it without one. He went to his perch tree and grabbed an arrow and bow. To him it was a primitive weapon because guns were quicker and more ballistic but it was all he had.
"I don't want to intrude in the valors of others but these crusaders with their black flag are causing too much of a ruckus. My owls get scared too easily. I will not have my animal friends be scared. DAMN YOU UNGRATEFUL MEN!!!!! Why must you torture yourselves by greed and hate? Why not accept each other."
He aimed his arrow at one of the flags. It was at least 20 yards away but he was learned to aim and fire from long distances. With his telescope balancing on his shoulder to his hand, which was being used to hang on the arrow, he took aim at a black flag and fired the arrow.
-
The arrow, which missed, was lost in the overall confusion where Makhno and the other Black Guards (Chernogvardia) were. Arrows were raining on them everywhere, as well as bullets. These attacks were bouncing off the shields, and damaging the Greys a little.
Lifting up his sabre, Makhno shouted "Die Imperialist scum!" as he charged forward, followed by the other black guards.
They smashed into a wall of soldiers and mages (the trolls were on the other side of the surrounding force), some using the poles of their flags as weapons, smashing open the heads of the grey-clad men. They seemed to be rushing towards the centre of the largest part of the force.
They reached the centre, and a magic circle appeared around them, seperating them from the grey-clad men. They then started doing the same a each other, doing the same spell. Hundreds of dots of light started to appear on the blue transparent walls of the magic circle, when suddenly they became hundreds of stampeding horses, all rushing from the centre, except for some 40 horses, one for each revolutionary, that had been mounted by the revolutionaries. They shot their rifles into the air, causing the stampeding horses to become even more crazed.
The horses trampled hundreds of men, and made thousands more flee. Some were shot at, making their madness worse, so further dispersing the grey-clad troops. The Black Guards cut down any stragglers they came accross, as a wide field of open (if bumpy with trodden men) ground surrounded them.
Quintus, furious, surrounded them with a wall of fire, burning up any fleeing men. The wall became a dome, centred on Makhno, that was shrinking.
Hesitantly, warps surrounded the Black Guards as they galloped. They teleported directly upwards, so causing no scatter. The hollow sphere of fire that was shrinking still surrounded them, however.
Their horses galloped on thin air, towards the remainder of the army, with the shrinking sphere following them. They reached the army, burning the humans up and causing the trolls some discomfort.
In order to save his men, Quintus cancelled his spell, cursing himself for not thinking of that eventuality. In the mean time, the Black Guards made away into the forest, waiting for what Quintus would do.
On the horizon, Haraldur and his companions were flying, and they could see the action, and accelerated towards it. They reached the Grey Army as it was about to enter the forest, and charged into the rear.
Haraldur threw a warp field around himself and simply ran into the army, ripping men into pieces without striking a blow. Tesla surrounded himself with lightning and did similar, and shot at the officers with his plasma rifle. Durruti chucked explosive charges far into the grey ranks, sending men flying through the air. Ein and Marshall do whatever they do.
The battle continued as the shots from the grey troops were deflected and trolls were ripped apart by warps. Still, the Black Guards waited.
Quintus started to panic. He was going to lose his army! He slinked away quietly in order to get back to the closest fortress he controlled. Dammit! The revolutionaries are all here!
Melkoth, Vincent and Abodahon received this message: Haraldur and his friends are here, and they are stirring up trouble. They have been encounted in the Ugran, near Gief.
______________________________________________________________________
Far away, Melkoth swore: "Fuck it! They control the mines of the Ugran!"
//Any takers on the cookie? What are Ugran and Gief based on?//
-
//Haven't a clue Haraldur.\\
Marshal flue over the group of Grey Empire warriors. He then holds up his amulet and casts a blue spectre that forms into a strange creature. It was grey skinned and had a reptile like head, and praying mantis like claws, and four legs. It was the creature that Marshal studied on the group?s trip to the moon.
The creature's skin was very strong; the swords of the warriors didn't do to much. The creature slashed away at the soldiers. However it was stabbed several times in the torso, and brought the creature to its death.
"Hmmm very interesting." Marshal commented. "Well, let's see them stab my bullets to death."
Marshal begins firing down at the soldiers. The albatrash flies around dodging the on coming arrows.
----
"Mines of Ugran?" Abodahon asked. "Oh yes...that place. We are far too busy to go off and fight. I'll send a group of my men to help Quintis out."
Abodahon then narrowed his eyes and looked away, his eyes turned bright golden and then back to normal and then looked back at the others. He had just sent a quick message to his followers.
----
Suddenly a large gust of wind came from above Ugran. Ten people with dark grey cloths wrapped around them, including all over their face, and red glowing eyes and wearing large gauntlets, appeared hovering in the sky. They landed down upon the ground and began to attack the revolutionaries
-
Ein took out his crossbow, and loaded a softly-glowing red bolt into it. He shot it at one of the soldiers somewhere in the middle of an army. The bolt went inside the soldier, and then two more bolts erupted from inside of him. The two bolts did the same thing as they struck someone. The cycle repeated four times, taking out around 30 soldiers. Ein smirked.
--- --- ---
Steorra looked at Darak and smiled.
-"Sure! This was, in fact, my aim all along. Why would I pull back now?"
--- --- ---
The cave was buzzing with exitement. Leaven, however, was not. He wandered around aimlessly, catching angry looks of passers-by. As much as he hated to admit it, right now he had nothing to do! Leto was busy teaching troops simple battle tactics; Ogen was inspecting the water supplies; and Celer was gathering and compiling information from scouts.
-"Perhaps I'll go fix myself a drink..."
--- --- ---
Gerard was done hammering down the palace. It was now as tidy inside as it was outside. It looked like a large black pyramid with a sawn-off top, forming some space on it. The space was taken up by four obelisks, one in each corner of the resulting square.
-"Now, for the main course..."
Gerard ripped some trees out of the ground, and started making planks out of them with his bare... claws?
--- --- ---
"After some debate with myself, I went over to the square. The man who attacked me was there, sitting in a chair, restrained by his hands and legs by large metal shackles. Next to him was an open briefcase, MY briefcase, full of all sorts of devices: scissors, needles, syringes... Everything a man needs to have fun. I looked around myself.
There were tall buildings around me. Most of them were made of stone, and when I say stone I mean STONE! They were large rocks with space carved inside of them, and metal poles piercing them right through, fixing them in the ground. Not that they really needed to be fixed: no force could even as much as move them anyway. From my deceased parents' tales, I heard that our great ancestor has placed these stones here by the use of magic, then shaped them in these shapes - tall pyramids. People, not assured by their durability, added the metal poles down the center.
Phasing back to reality, I turned to the crowd.
-"Citizens of Kandarin! Today, I present you a man that was not pleased with my ruling methods. He is a traitor! Such behavior will not, SHALL not be tolerated! May this serve as an example to all of you out there who do not like my methods."
I took the first thing my hand happened upon - a scissor-shaped apparatus - and began to do what I always enjoyed to do.
Hours seemed to fly by as I had my fun. Eventually, all that was left of the man was a bloody stump, but he was still alive and concious, thanks to the simpliest spell of Necromancy - a spell to channel my power to the dead, so that they are workable. The crowd was obviously enjoying the show as much as I did. It seems as though I did find a way to boost their morale. Hmm. I should do this more often."
-
Peking, an owl who happened to be his friend, came and gave a hooting. "What is it?" Quadricentennial asked. It was hooting frantically and would bob his head left and right, forward and back in that order.
"Interceptors? Someone is trying to enter this forest?" Peking shook his head.
"Shelter?" Peking shook his head again. He flapped his wings and spun at the same time.
"They are battling in the forest? How close are they to Campaign?" Peking blinked his eye 18 times.
"18 yards away? Alright, keep an eye out on them. If they get close to Campaign or start burning anything, notify me immediatly."
Peking nodded and flew away.
-
(Wow, very impressive posts, everyone!)
Vincent rubbed his right hand under his chin as Melkoth and Abodahon conversed. The skinny trench-coated man looked out of place next to the hulking demon and Emperor of the Greys.
"Ugran, Ugran... yes, a major mining area for the Crimson Empire's weapon metals, among other things. Definitely a tactical advantage on their part..."
He pushed his glasses up further on his nose.
"Because of the abundance of metal, there is a proliferation of weapons in that area as well. Even the lowest commoner is heavily armed, as many are weapon smiths. If this Haraldur has convinced the populace to join him, he will have gained a considerable army... Swift action will be required to make sure his fire does not spread, but great care must be taken if we are to attack Ugran itself..."
-
//*puts on an important look* =I= was the one who noticed the potential in Dark Spartan. Hmph.\\
"There is time for fun, and there is time for work. Now, I had to do the latter, whether I liked it or not. I returned back to the council chamber. The Masterminds were awaiting me. They haven't even moved.
-"Anyway... As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, if we are to start a war, we need an army. Now, I may not show it, but I do value human life. Not because I really see it's worth - because there are things more expendable. I suggest using our newly invented elites for special missions only, and create our main force from... the other source. I am sure you understand what I mean."
The Masterminds murmured in agreement.
-"What I really need, however, is a good place to start massing up this army. What can you suggest?"
Ahzurt, the Mastermind responsible for all historical events, summoned me. He began talking in a quick, quiet manner.
-"Marshal, I believe I have the perfect location. Here."
I glanced at the small map he was handing me. It was a geographical map, with some numbers scribbled on its' side.
-"There here are the amounts... yes... and this is their equipment."
I glanced at the figures, and felt a slight shock pass through my skin. This... this was better than I could have ever imagined. This, along with a few other locations like this, would give me an army large enough to consume the entire continent!
-"Gentlemen... Thank you for your assistance. I will now be promptly packing."
I dashed out of the chamber, and hurried across the streets of pyramid-buildings. Over eight thousand... Dear Skorn...
I ran and ran and ran. Soon enough, I arrived at my first destination. It looked like a large amount of smaller rocks, neatly placed in a circle of about nine meters in diameter. Inside the circle, there was freshly-dug ground. Over it hovered three stones with chains linking them. Strange purple energy was running through these chains... This was the Boneyard.
I came up to one one of the stones, and placed my hand on it. I felt my power leaving me - a pitifully small amount, yes, but I could still feel it. The soft ground inside the stone circle slowly moved. It moved again. Then, I saw one of my lovely Winged Messengers emerge from the depths. I had direct control of it, but my energy was no longer drained due to the three hovering stones supporting the resurrected creature.
The Messenger limped towards me, then turned it's back. I climbed on top, which was easier than it sounds - after all, there were bones one could hold on to. Tight leathery skin was still holding between the wings - it'll fly. I mentally urged the creature, and into the air we rose. Next destination - the remains of Redvik."
//Xorlak - Where was Vincent when I made contact with him? The Redvik fortress or someplace else? Also, are there any forces at Redvik right now?\\
-
Peking returned after 35 minutes and perched on a branch. He started walking left and right, left and right.
"They are spreading out? Good. Let them not tear this place." Peking then bobbed his head up and down, spun then dropped to floor.
"An injured person? I do not care. Let him limp away and if not, let him rot. He will make a meal for the worms."
Peking flew up to Quadricentennial, grabbed on to his scarf, and tugged.
"NO PEKING! I will not aid those who fight. Warriors like those do not deserve my help." Suddenly all the owls came and started pulling his scarf. Quadricentennial was feeling bothered by it all. He shooed away the owls. They all perched and stared at him. Quadricentennial stared at them, particularly Peking. With a stare on his blue and green eyes, he bowed his head down and walked up to him.
"Very well but let this be the only man I help. Come with me then. Show me where this injured man lies."
-
//Before I post again, is this injured man a member of the Black Guards?//
-
// Sorry for the long delay.. Internet troubles. \\
Zeros' smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at Valos through half-lidded eyes.
"I can already guess some of what his 'master' has to say... As allying with him, I don't think that would be in our best interests... Considering Valos already betrayed our trust, as well as Draven's," he said midly. "How do we know that he would do it again?"
---
Allen blinked and stumbled forwards, putting both his hands on the trasmutation circle in front of him. The circle started to glow and spin, white and blue pinpricks of light slowly drifting upwards.
Allen eyes were wide, as he slowly watched what was happening...
-
(//I did not specify so it can be whoever)
-
Valos' eyes widened "Oh! But I have not betrayed anyone's trust. I'm a ghost using Valos' body to communicate to you, my friends." Valos then grinned, "I assure you. I'm telling the truth. A few of your friends, um, Zion, Xenai...and oh...the other one, Tsu, they are allied with us. Our intentions are no different then the Crimson Empire, and my branch has far better intentions then the rest of the new Empire."
Rink rubbed his chin. "I'm still not to sure about this..."
Duilin closed his eyes for a few seconds. He believed Valos but didn't want to say anything. He opened his eyes and looked at the ground next to him, and took a deep breath, and then looked back at Zeros' and Valos.
----
"Pfft..." Abodahon snorted, "Haraldur is the only one in his group that is remotely any of a threat to us. He alone is more powerful then the rest of them combined, but Melkoth and myself, separately, are even more powerful then him, I wouldn't worry to much."
//Note that what Abodahon said may not necessarily be true.\\
----
Darak began his way to the tower were Vincent and the others were, assuming Steorra would follow.
-
"After a few hours' worth of flight, I finally reached Redvik. There was the sweet smell of death everywhere. I could feel the unrested spirits in the air... Perfect. After some commotion, the party landed. There were nine other Messengers following me, each chained to the same sort of device I saw over the Boneyard: Three stones chained together. My faithful servants immediately began setting the device up. They simply dragged the stones in a vertical chute position, and they stayed there, hovering in place. I took out a small book, which is always on me. It was Nerbont's Thaumaturgica, a tome written by the very founder of the Kandarian nation. It contained the darkest and most complex Necromancer spells, and much, much more. I quickly flipped to the correct passage, stepped in the center of the "chute", and began reading.
As I got to the last verse, the ice-cold arrow of doubt shot me. Am I sure I want to do this? Quickly thinking the situation over, I realized that even if I was not sure, it was too late to go back now. The wheels were already set in motion, nothing could stop them. I muttered the final word.
I felt as though a giant lightning struck me, and began squeezing the energy out of me. Quickly the devices over me kicked in - they acted like a huge prism, amplifying my energy thousand-fold. I felt myself being lifted up into the air."
//if anyone wants to do anything about me raising an army of 8,000 zombies, my next three posts would be the time to do it... otherwise, stay out of my way :ph34r:\\
--- --- ---
Ein saw a man in the distance, being bothered by a flock of owls. Something didn't feel right about him... He loaded another bolt into his crossbow, shooting a soldier running right at him. "I'd better keep an eye on that one..."
--- --- ---
Steorra followed Darak.
-"So... er... who's this "General" you speak of?"
-
(Ein: Vincent and co. are at Bandervil, located in the central region of the Dark Continent.
Redvik is south-easternly positioned. The town surrounding the fortress has been completely wiped out by a volcanic eruption. The fortress itself still stands, but is in very bad shape and could crumble at any moment. However, much of the true fortress is underground and intact, and still full of Crimson Empire soldiers, likely totally oblivious to what has been going on. Heh...)
"What in blazes is that?"
"What? Has Ragnar returned?!"
"No, it's a bunch of freaky looking dudes with floating rocks... or something..."
"Huh?"
The two Crimson soldiers peered over a dislodged boulder from the southern wall of Redvik, spying the necromancer and his men perform their ritual.
"Should we like, ask them what they're doing or something?"
"Dude, screw that. I don't get paid enough!"
The first one turned and left, the second following hesitantly after taking another glance. They entered a small stairwell hidden in a pile of rubble and shut the thick metal door over it, locking it behind them.
----
Vincent smirked at Abodahon slightly.
"Very well, I will leave you to that. I will travel back to Redvik, with his majesty's permission, of course. My men there are loyal, and they will follow me to the Grey Empire's side. Also there are three battle worthy airships there, which should prove to be useful..."
----
The runes around the black stone began to glow a bright blue, then shifted to a red hue, rotating counter clockwise around the stone...
A pillar of darkness rose from the stone, lifting the gem higher and higher into the sky, the transmutation circle spinning faster and faster all the while...
The sky blackened, and bolts of lighting danced about the clouds over Romme... The gem stopped a hundred feet up, and a fast moving swirl of smoke emanated from it. It was like a reverse vortex-- a blast of wind shot from the point of darkness in all directions. Objects began to spew from the void-- rocks shot out and slammed into the ground violently. Planks of wood, and increasingly larger objects followed...
In the center appeared two dark figures...
"Success..."
-
Alex had worked long into the night at the fractionalizing still, taking crude oil from the mines, and converting it into large amounts of kerosene. Either he was designing a new weapon, or coal wasn't good enough for him.
The house was permeated with the smell of kerosene, but Alex had grown used to it. At times he would open the windows to allow it to air out, so that there would be less danger of a serious fire. Alex had worked himself into near exhaustion tonight, but was relentless in getting his work done.
He soon noticed that the howling of the wind outside the house had ceased. Curious, Alex donned his jacket and took an excursion outside. To his disbelief, for the first time in nearly fifty years, it was not snowing. The air was crystal clear, and every star of the sky could be clearly seen, as well as a full moon, which cast an eerie blue light on the scenery.
"This is incredible..." Alex whispered to himself in a low tone. Alex walked further out to look over the enormous Glacia canyon, which separated the mountains from the valleys below. It was one of the most beautiful sights in the region, the canyon itself was over a mile wide, and over five hundred long. From where Alex was standing, it was a good five thousand feet down to the very bottom of the canyon. Passing through the canyon was the only way to get out of the Glacia region, far down below to the Kingdom of Asgarnia. Alex had only journeyed out that far a few times before, and going out unprepared meant certain death. A journey through the canyon meant facing random blizzards, feral wolves, and temperatures thirty below zero. However, the Kingdom of Asgarnia was well worth the hellish travel. Natural resources were plentiful, there was always work available, and it was rarely as cold as it was in Glacia.
"If I set out now, it'll be a good bit of walking to Asgarnia...I MIGHT make it by morning if I take all of the shortcuts."
Those who had lived in Glacia for a while knew where all of the cut throughs were to shave hours off their travel time. However, these obstacles were not for the faint of heart. Extreme athletic skill and agility was needed to clear these treacherous passes, some hanging over thousand-foot drops, where one mis-step meant certain death. Alex was well-versed in these shortcuts, as he had taken them before.
There was a saying amongst those who lived in Glacia, "To survive the canyon, you have to be as hard as the ice atop the peaks." Not just anyone could pass through here. The conditions were too extreme for outsiders. It is for that reason why so few Asgarnians make their way up to Glacia in a healthy state. From where Alex was standing, the elevation was about seven thousand feet above sea level. To the people who lived in the flatlands, the air would be too thin to breathe comfortably. For an Asgarnian to reach Glacia, it took months of acclamitization, going up and down the mountains to get the body used to the conditions.
Alex knew where he was headed. He knew the risks. He knew the rewards. Alex turned from where he stood, taking one last look at the ebony sky and the crystal-clear air, and made his way back to the cabin. While walking back, Alex noticed snowflakes which seemed to be hanging in the air, backlit by the moonlight. Scientists would say because the air is oversaturated with water and could not hold anymore, but most people call it the "Magic of Glacia."
As soon as Alex got into the cabin, he began putting supplies together for his trip, his goal fresh in his mind. He was going to Asgarnia.
-
"I was now right in the middle of the rocks. Energies channeled through me, like water would flow through a hose. The dead began to rise up from the mortal ties which bound them to the earth. I started hearing voices in my head... Countless voices, all begging for commands. Several corpses were already attempting to free themselves of the earth holding them back. I promptly barked a mental command for them to stay put - I have not channeled nearly enough energy for them to even move..."
-
Allen stumbled backwards, his eyes wide and his glasses askewed. He fell to the ground and slowly crawled backwards, not sure of what to make of the two figures standing in front of him.
---
Zeros' looked at Valos, long and hard, then to his two companions and back to the supposed "ghost".
"I can see you're telling the truth about the three... But, I saw your eyes widen and I could see it in them... You are Valos..." he said. "Even if you have been reborn..."
-
Reaching the end near the forest, Quadricentennial looke around the now bloody site. There wasn't much death but Quadricentennial did not care. He only cared about the trees, which was stained with blood and guts.
"Disgusting. These barbarians polluted the trees of this area. How I loathe them."
He then saw the flock of his owl friends around the wounded man. Quadricentennial got close to him.
"How terrible. He had it coming. I pity no one of the likes of him. But if you wish for the pain to stop, I shall grant you death, which is the only humble thing I can give to such a man." Suddenly a jolt struck him. A painful heat emmited through his arm but he was not harm for his armor underneath the sleeves took the hit.
"What on earth was that?"
(//I don't know if it was him that was hit or not. If not then I'll come up with something)
-
"High General Vincent. He was the one who told us of the changes the Empire had. I'm sure this Crimson Empire changing to the Grey Empire stuff is really it just being taken over. But personally I don't care, I don't care were I get the pay from, as long it's from somebody."
Darak arrived at the top of the tower, were Melkoth, Vincent and Abodahon were.
"High General Vincent..." Darak said, "I do not mean to bother you, but this women here, she is highly skilled in magic, she would like to join us."
----
//TKGB he just shot at an NPC soldier, not your character. \\
Marshal was next to Ein, he fired at another soldier coming towards him.
"Ein, what was that you were looking at?" Marshal asked
----
Valos let out a quick laugh. "Well...perhaps...I'm surprised that you still are having trouble knowing the entire truth," his voice slowly lowered "your senses seem far beyond anyone's I have ever known...Especially that time on the mountain" Valos make a quick grin and then his facial expression went to normal and then he spoke up louder. "So, will you come with me or not?"
-
"I continued chanelling my power to the dead. The voices were beginning to quite annoy me... "All of you, listen up! Shut up and let me concentrate!"
Only a few more minutes..."
//Charging 2\3 done\\
--- --- ---
Steorra put her staff on the ground in front of her and kneeled before Vincent. As the staff left her hand, the gem in the middle stopped glowing.
-"A true pleasure meeting you, sir."
--- --- ---
//TKGB - Yes, Ein simply shot a generic NPC. If he were to shoot Quadricentennial, I would've explicitly mentioned his name in my post.\\
-"Oh, I don't know... See that guy over there?" Ein pointed to a man clutching his sleeve. "There were some owls next to him, you don't usually see that with normal folks. Moreover... There's something about him... Actually, it's probably nothing. Never mind."
He quickly slid another bolt into his crossbow, and spun some trinket on its side. The arrow seemed to go further back than normal as he did that. After a few spins, he aimed at a soldier and shot. The arrow pierced the soldier, and kept going. It killed three soldiers in total.
-"Oh! You know what, the Leviathan would be quite useful in here. Gimme a sec, i'm gonna teleport it over here. Meanwhile, get something big n' heavy to chop down the trees to load the Leviathan with."
-
Quadricentennial looked around. He spotted a soldier who shot him who happened to be another wounded soldier. He ran towards him and looked down upon him.
"Who be thee that thine see's?" The soldier was silent. He did not move anymore.
"Dead. His last ounce of strength was used to kill again. What a waist of a life." Peking then perched on his shoulder. He gave an unsure look. "Why do you give that eye?" Quadricentennial looked around. "There is someone here. Someone remains." He then remembered the soldier that was still alive. He ran towards him. He then picked him up. The man went unconsciences.
"Let us take him back to our home and heal him, Peking." Quadricentennial went back and headed towards the depths of Campaign forest. He looked back once more to see if there was anyone else that was alive.
-
//OK, Ugran = Ukraine, Gief = Kiev. See?
I am assuming the injured man was not a Black Guard.
Yay! Retan and Jayce are back! I think...//
The Black Guards charged out of the forest into what was now the rear of the Grey Army, sending them into disarray, and into the warps surrounding Haraldur, sending high velocity blood flying through the air.
Then the dark-grey-clad people came, and attacked. Taking their horses airborne, the Black Guards cast defensive spells as they fired rifle shots at the dark-grey-clad people, about ten shots per dark-grey-clad person.
Haraldur walked through the remaining Grey Empire troops towards the ten strange men before taking to the air, flying towards them in order to catch them in his warps.
Tesla helped mop up the rest of the Grey troops. They were now eradicated, including the trolls. In the mean-time, Quintus was flying his way North to Bandervil.
Durruti flew towards the ten odd people, and spikes of rock appear above them, dropping looking to impale them.
Makhno throws a grenade into the middle of the group of ten.
______________________________________________________________________
Melkoth turned to Vincent: " If you encounter Haraldur, then inform us and we will come and assist if we need to... Actually, since we now seem to control Terian except for the revolutionary areas, I will come with you anyway. Abodahon?"
-
"No you go ahead. I'll wait here for Valos." Abodahon replied. He points to Darak and Steorra. "Perhaps you could bring those two with you. They may not be able to make up for the lack of me, heh, but I can see that they are above average."
Darak looked at the huge bulking demon. He remembered seeing it before, chasing after Draven. He called Melkoth as well, doing the same. He quickly looked back at Vincent. Waiting for him to respond.
----
Marshal grinned. "Excellent idea comrade." He says. "A minotaur would be to big of a target in this area. I'll summon an ogre, they are less big."
Marshal then takes a few steps back, and takes some cover. He then holds out his amulet and then the common blue spectre flue out and began to take shape.
-
//I hope none of my trio have been adressed. I'm trying to make up for my lack of activity yesterday with a quick post. x_x//
"So why don't you tell us where we are?" asked Tsu.
"I don't fuckin' know. We just wandered out here and fell asleep."
They were among a bunch of trees. They floated up above them and surveyed the area...
"I think we're near the fortress we raided before," said Zion.
"So whaddya think we should do now?"
"Find out who Melkoth is, first. The alliance is temporary, and I like not the smell of this authority." //And if you can tell me what play that last bit's from, you get a cookie.//
"Then what're we waitin' for? Let's find Vincent and find stuff out!"
"Alright, then. Let's go."
The trio took off toward the fort. Why they left, who knows?
--- --- ---
Aura stared up at the figures in awe, not quite able to discern what they were. "What are those, Allen?"
-
One of the Elites blasts a gold coloured energy blast at the oncoming grenade, blowing it in mid air. As the spikes of rock fell down upon them, they each grabbed the spikes as they came down. Six of the Elites threw the spikes at Haraldur and two at Durruti and two at Makhno.
-
The wind from the reverse vortex increased violently, the force black gale smashing the trees below...
Then with a loud sonic boom, the wind stopped abruptly, and there was nothing...
... but the two figures...
Floating 100 feet above ground, an aura or darkness exuded from the two and filled the air. It was like a poison poured into a pure water lake, spreading in all directions and merging with the atmosphere...
The voices were almost of a British accent, the first very deep, the very sound of it cutting through the soul...
"You see... It is as I said."
The second was younger, somehow both brutish and refined...
"It has been years..."
"No thanks to you, you ignorant, indignant reject."
The Dark Emperor Retan turned his head slightly, deep red eyes flashing from underneath the blackness of the helmet, glaring at his much larger, much heavier armored son to his left.
The deep cut scar that now covered Jayce's face, starting from the middle of his forehead, barely missing his right eye, and down his right cheek, burned. It would always burn. It would serve as a permanent reminder. Never disobey again.
Jayce didn't meet his father's gaze, but rather looked towards the ground 100 feet below.
Retan turned his head towards the western horizon, his black cape flapping in the wind.
"This smell. I had almost forgotten it. This sickening odor of plants and vegetation... and life."
Jayce folded his arms and regained some of his familiar cocky tone, his black cape flapping in unison.
"And humanity... Much human blood is in the air..."
"Much has changed. I'm sure there is much to be put back... in order... Come."
The two began to slowly float towards the southwestern corner of Romme, totally ignoring Allen and Aura.
----
Vincent nodded to Melkoth, then turned to Darak and Steorra.
"Hmmm, yes of course the lady may join. You may accompany us if you can keep up-- we must travel quickly, you see."
Vincent crouched down and placed both hands on the stone floor under him. A circle glowed around him and the stones began to change shape, the circle forming in to a metal and levitating him from the ground. After a moment's work, he had formed his propeller driven floating disk again, and began to fly southeast, hands in his pockets as he flew aboard the disk.
He shouted back to Melkoth as an afterthought,
"Actually we have North Point to worry about as well. It is likely to be more heavily fortified than Bandervil, however, Haraldur is a more direct threat to our plans."
-
"Oh, HELL NO!" Seijin saw the calamity from above... But was utterly powerless.
Aura soon realized who they were, the fact flashing through her mind. Good thing she had studied her history well... "You... You're the Dark Emperor... Retan! And his son... Jayce!"
-
"Before this moment, I've never even drained as much as a sixteenth of my power. Now, I was almost completely empty. The stones did, however, help... Once enough power is channeled, I will no longer have to spend my power at all.
The power was still leaving me... leaving... but it suddenly came to a stop. The stones were fully charged now. My army was now ready."
//Charging is complete\\
--- --- ---
The dead around Kronos begun to rise. Mages, wyvern riders, grunts... all 8,000 of them. They dug their way out of the dried magma, using their weapons, and with some help from the Messengers.
Kronos deemed the first place to clean out to be the Redvik. Although it seemed pretty much dead, there must've been equipment inside his troops could utilize.
The first to attack were the mages. Together, they summoned a large amount of fireballs and sent them flying at the walls, making holes in them. The foot soldiers then marched inside...
--- --- ---
Steorra picked up her staff and lifted the glowing gem in it above her head. A blinding flash of light followed... Soon the light dissipated, revealing Steorra. Something was different about her, though... Wings!
She had a pair of brilliantly glowing wings on her back now. They were spread. By the looks of it, she was getting ready to fly after Vincent. She turned to Darak.
-"Hey, you want to come as well?"
Darak nodded. //I checked this over with DM\\
She walked closer to Darak, and sneaked her hands under his arms, and picked him up...
-
"Whoa, whoa!" Darak snapped "I had enough of that with that Xenai! Well, I suppose having you carring me would be more enjoyable, heh." He then shook his head. "But it's emasculating having a women carring a man around, no offience. Could you perhaps cast that magic wing spell upon me?" He asked
-
-"Hehe... Looks like someone's afraid of girls. Alrighty then..."
She casted the spell on Darak.
-"I don't think you can fly those wings too well yet... I'll control them for you. Just enjoy the ride."
They flew outside, following Vincent.
-"So... Who's this Xenai?"
//by the way - you'll find DM and me have the same IP's in these last posts because we've posted at a school library, which uses one connection for all computers.\\
-
Darak rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up..."
He looked from side to side as she casted the wings on him. "Sheesh...They're too bright and sparkly...." He then muttered under his breath "Maybe you should have carried me."
He then grinds his teeth as she asks who Xenai is. "Oh he's that one guy we saw back in Alphagrad when we were looking for Valos, remember?"
-
Allen stumbled quickly to his feet and rushed over to Aura, grabbing her arms.
"Quickly! We have to find Zeros'! NOW! He's the only person who can stop the Dark Emperor!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide and wild.
----
Zeros' frowned, as he sensed the dark portal opening and two vaguely farmiliar people coming back to Gaian.
"The mountain..." he sighed and shook his head, his senses idly probbing those two, new signatures. "So then... Valos... Or should I call you Nex... What do you thi---" he suddenly stopped, as he finished probbing the two new signatures.
They were different, but they were also utterly farmiliar... They had been twisted so much... But, a lingering of their old selves still remain...
The Dark Emperor Retan...
. . .
... And Jayce.
"SHIT!" Zeros' cursed loud, loud enough for everyone to hear. He glared at Valos and simply turned his back towards him, before his both of his black angel wings spread wide, some feathers falling from them from the force.
"DUILIN! RINK! We leave. NOW. We have much, much bigger problems than worrying about this has-been," he exclaimed, before grabbing Rink and Duilin's arms and speeding off.
-
"What the f---" Duilin exclaimed as Zeros? arm grabbed him and carried him off.
"What' bigger problems?" Rink asked
"Zeros' what the hell are you doing?" Duilin asked aggressively, as if thinking his friend has gone insane.
Valos gave an angry glare. "Were do you think you're going! Get back here!"
"Hold it!" Said Abodahon's voice in his head
"Yes, Abodahon..." Valos replied.
"Apparently Retan has returned. Zeros' is going off to stop him. Duilin of course also holds quite a grudge against Retan. He killed Iduran, and good friend of there?s. Duilin's rage will make him stronger, and easier to control. Follow them, but hide yourself."
Valos casted a cloaking spell on himself turning him invisible, and he then dims his aura to make him less detectable. He then flew off and slowly follows the three...
-
The violent sounds of battle was loud enough to be heard even in the darkest depths of Campaign. Quadricentennial had to block it to heal the wounded man.
"Blasted men. Making me use the medicine I made. This medicine was made for you and our friends Peking, not for disgustings monsters as the likes of him."
He looked at the soldier with a distaste to his cause. "Such heavy armor means he must be built to withstand carnage. To block that out truly looses one humanity."
He would put him to rest on a pile of gumton leaves and leave him to heal. "He'll be fine. Come on Peking. Let us scrounge around the area of the battle to find anything of value. We'll also clean up the area to keep the forest from drinking vile blood."
-
(Hmm! How Sould i start)
Nick jumps down from the ceiling landing on the ground in a secret manor undetectable he started to run out of the castle.
As he passes all of the walls he watches the blurs of banners.
He tries no to make a sound as he leaves the ground to leap into the air.
Nick concealed himself in the shadows and grabs one of the banners being careful not to rip it.
Then Nick hid behind the banner waiting for one from the Crimson Empire to pass.
For he saw a Crimson solider walk into the room.
-
The dark duo floated through the air, off the southwestern shore of Romme. Retan outstretched his hands, dropping in altitude, and a mist began to gather above the ocean tides.
"Hmm, yes, it is still here..."
A blackness engulfed the sea below the two... A huge object began to materialize... The mist thickened and seemed to support it from beneath... The mast materialized into existence first, followed by the deck and several large exterior cabins... Torches re-ignited around the edge of the entire ship, one by one in succession... it was...
... The Great Black Vessel...
Like a ghost ship, it hovered a few feet above the ocean waves. There were a few cracks in the side, a few of the many grotesque demon statues that lined the edges broken off from a battle years ago, but it remained in excellent condition, just as The Dark Emperor had left it.
By the time Retan and Jayce set foot on the deck of the colossal warship, dropping from above, the mist was so thick a swift motion of the hand would part it...
----
Vincent traveled towards Redvik as quickly as his flying device would take him.
There was something strange in the air. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on. Something he was somehow used to, but hadn't been exposed to for a long time...
Dark clouds rolled in overhead.
-
Zeros' let go of Duilin's arm, but held onto Rink, knowing he couldn't keep up.
"Can't you sense that?!" he exclaimed, still speeding off. "It's RETAN AND JAYCE! They're back!"
-
The soldier walked into the room.
Nick jumped from the banner and stabed the solider.
he started to get out of the castle.
-
//Duilin and Zeros' are flying over the ocean, they are not in a room and the Crimson Empire soldiers are not wandering around. Also they are flying very fast and I don't think your character could catch up. If you read our previous posts you would know that we are at a small shipyard near the shoreline.\\
"Holy crap!" Duilin exclaims. He then flaps his wings and starts flying very fast, going a bit ahead of Zeros'.
-
//Burton, try putting what your character says in quotations, like "Where are you going?", asks Nick in concern. This makes it easier to see what your character says.\\
The large wavering field of the undead was now flooding the fortess. Those that had damaged weapons replaced theirs with the ones found in storage rooms scattered through Redvik. They did not, however, find any enterances to the underground.
-
*srry bout that i guess i got cofused with the posts from all the other places*
Nick went into another room in the castle in Urgan
as he climbed the latter then walked trough the hallls passing Black and red banners.
He walked up stairs and saw a light he was in the middle of a battle zone he looked around at the the remains of the castle he was just in the rubble of the barracks next to the castle.
"Holy Lord said Nick in amazment" The hole battlefeild was covered with corpses just before Nick entered the castle the was a huge battle now everything was still.
-
"Yes, holy crap!" he says loudly, easily catching up with the faster moving Duilin. "The planet is already being strained enough as it is with all this war going on... And last time, Retan's MDAA was interrupted. He couldn't complete the spell. We have to stop him before he gets a chance to do anything!" he exclaims.
Truthfully, he didn't know how much more strain the planet could hold... Gaian had already been through so much... Islands falls and lands and plates being re-shapen and destroyed. Even rare plant and animal life had been wiped out...
And, he didn't know what kind of power an uninterrupted MDAA would cause... The interrupted one wiped out Romme...
"Imagine what destruction an uninterrupted one could cause... The first one destroyed the large continent of Romme..." Zeros' shutters in mid-air, just thinking about the possibilites of the MDAA...
// Sorry about my short last post. It was 2:30 AM in the morning. Heh. \\
-
Zion stopped, immobilized in fear. "R-r-r-r..."
"What the fuck are you babbling about?"
"RETAN!"
"Yeah, the dipshit's dead. What about him?"
"That 'dipshit' is back!"
"Oh, hell."
Tsu frowned... Why's it feel like Aura had something to do with this?
"You know what we're gonna do."
"Oh, hell yes."
The two turned and took off toward Retan and Jayce. Tsu's eyes widened. He hesitated for a bit, then followed.
--- --- ---
She took out her hairpin and tossed it. The disc appeared. "Call me crazy, but I'm going to follow them. I don't exactly know why yet... But I want to. Will you come too?"
-
(Romme is more of a medium sized island than a large continent. Heh...)
Retan and Jayce strode into the largest cabin door in the center of the ship. The hallways were long and dark, but crimson torches ignited along the walls as the two walked past. Two large oak doors opened under their own power, revealing a large dimly lit room with a central table and a black throne.
They entered... walking past a corpse of a fallen hero...
Retan took his seat, and Jayce stood at his right, already beginning to look bored.
"Let us asses the situation."
Retan spoke as a large clouded glass ball descended from the ceiling and stopped an inch above the cenral table. Dark clouds seemed to turn within the glass like a storm. The first image to appear was that of an ongoing battle. Images of the key players flashed one by one. Haraludur was the first.
Retan sighed, touching the tips of his fingers together as he relaxed on his throne.
"It is as I have expected."
"What? Who is that? He looks familiar..."
"My weapons have been improperly merged, the attached souls set free and combined. An unfortunate waste..."
Jayce folded his arms. He didn't really understand, but he didn't really care. More images of the battle of Ugran flashed.
Retan scowled at this.
"Ungrateful humans. I leave them be for a few years and they wreck what I have so graciously built for them. Look at what they have done to the Dark Continent."
"I really don't understand why you continue to put up with such an inferior race. They do nothing but war with each other and stab us in the back every chance they get. This whole mess is the humans' fault in the first place... I would eradicate them..."
"Firstly my son, I did not ask for your opinion of the humans, which you ceaselessly repeat again and again. Secondly, as I have said before, the generous ruler that I am, I will allow any who pledge their complete loyalty to me to continue to exist. That includes humans."
"..."
"However, I am now considering that humans are a degenerate species and unfit of rule... Either way, punishment is an order..."
----
Vincent cleared a large spread of pine trees. He had never rode his flying device this far before and hoped it would last the entire distance...
Not too much farther, though...
----
The Crimson soldiers of Redvik peered through small slitted windows hidden at the base of the complex. It was like a nightmare. Their fallen comrades, killed citizens, even wyverns had risen from the dead and menacingly walked around the outside and upper reaches of the crumbling fortress.
There were less than a thousand men underground, many of them lower grade alchemists and technicians. Best to wait this out, as a battle with the 8,000 strong undead would likely end in disaster.
They huddled around, trying to be as quiet as possible.
-
Nicks Watched the dead soliders and the dying ones.
"My comrade" said a general from the grey army.
"What! What is it? Asked Nick
"Retan" Said Gerneral Krios
"What about Retan?" Asked Nick
"He's...He's...Ba..." The General replied as he became still and silent, no sound no nothing Just a vast area of nothing.
Nick Stared at the general looking as if he was tearing but he was not.
Rain started pouring down like the was no tomorrow.
Nick put his sword into the ground, with blood dripping down from the blade mixing with the rain.
"This life is not cut out for me we have to win this war" said Nick talking to himself.
He started to think about the past. "I swear i will be the one to destoy The Dark Empire and all who stand against me" Nick was yelling at the top of his lungs so even the island of Romme could hear.
*Xorlax are you on Crimson or Grey or Dark or whatever* *And who else is on Crimson so i know whos on my team*
-
//Burton, everyone has a few different characters. Players are usually not just on the one team. You could specify which character you have in mind?\\
Steorra flew a bit closer to Vincent.
-"Excuse my asking, but... Where exactly are we going?
--- --- ---
The undead finished rearming. Everyone... everything now had nice new shiny tools of death. However, the revival was not yet over. Ancient creatures were now escaping the ground. Incomplete dragon carcasses, wyverns, among other things one dared not describe. Kronos seemed to be at work - old skeletons disassembled themselves, rearranged, added a few new bones forming a new monstrocity. The army grew in power...
-
(//ACK! My weakness: Too much reading.)
He reached the end of the forest once more. He scrounged around. He didn't want to take the armor because he had no use for it but weapons was a must. He took swords and shields as well as helmets. Quadricentennial collects helmets from around as a hobby when he leaves the forest. He then hears the sounds of a man coming. It was the wounded man from before.
"What is this? He stands? But I barely healed him." He looked straight at the soldier. "Who be thee that thine see's?" asked Quadricentennial.
"I...I...must return...to...URGH!" he plopped to the floor.
"That dumbkof." exclaimed Quadricentennial. Suddenly the ground started shaking. An earthquake or so it apears. "ARGH! The ground. It shakes violently. At this time?" He grabbed on to a tree and held. The ground shook and it broke open. It wasn't a giant opening but as if it was the end of it. "What is this?" He looked ahead and saw that the hole was getting bigger in the castle ahead. "One logical being is that a massive beast arose from the ground. What sorcerry is this? This could affect Campaign. I must investigate." The soldier groaned with pain. "Bufoon." said Quadricentennial. "You should of stayed put where you were. Why'd you follow me?". The soldier stared at him.
"I...I...fear...the dark." said the soldier.
"What's this nonesense?" asked Quadricentennial. "Afraid of the dark? A man of your caliber? You are weak. Why do you fight if you fear the dark, which your armor seems to bare the tone." (//I dunno which soldier wears black armor or if there is an army with black armored soldiers so if there isn't, I'll make something up.)
"I...I...obey only one." the soldier exclaimed.
"Whom?" asked Quadricentennial.
The man did not reply. He just layed there.
"Dead or dead tire?" He checked for vital signs. "Dead tired. What a loof. I should just let you to die, but Peking will not allow it." He grabbed the soldier and rested him under a nice big tree with apples. "Rest here. Food will drop when you need it." He went back to Campaign and grabbed his bow and his newly found sword, though he did not need it for his glove and feet were enough of blades for him. "I shall go to that castle and see what the matter is but I shall mercy no one if the occasion comes when battle is unavoidable." He readied himself and headed towards the castle.
(//I wrote all this without knowing anything about what's going on. I dunno whose with whom or what. I hope the DAL wiki is ready enough for me to know whose who and what's what cuz frankly I want to get into some action while knowing what's going on.)
-
(Nick, you're mixing up what's going on. If there are wounded Grey soldiers around, then you are at the battle of Ugran, which is taking place in the eastern Dark Continent. The island of Romme is serveral hundred miles away.
There are three factions fighting for control of the Dark Continent: The Grey Empire vs. The Crimson Empire vs. The Aspyes. The Dark Empire has been gone for five years (it actually turned into the Crimson Empire), but with Retan back, it looks like that may change. Check out <a href='http://darkagegames.net/dalpedia' target='_blank'>DALpedia</a> for articles on some of those. You'll probably want to edit your post a bit. (You're not doing a bad job of RP-ing, though!)
TKBG: Soliders of the Dark Empire wear black, and therefore the Crimson Empire as well, since there was little modification in their armor design. I think black is the color of one of Haraldur's factions as well.
You're doing just fine. Your character is near Ugran as well, and there definitely should be castles around. Heh...)
-
//Xorguy, I believe Aspyes' colours are black and red, but red mostly\\
-
*thats what i said in beginning i thought i was getting mixed up*
Nick felt a teriable pain from the insideout like he was being ripped apart.
This blue vortex appered around him,and he was trasported to a dark place.
"Well well well look what the bas---- brought in" said a dark voice.
"Who the hell are you" asked Nick.
"Just an old friend" replied the voice.
"No not you not again" said Nick "Not Drakke"(guy i just made up)
"Yess!" replied Drakke in a hissing voice that struck fear in Nicks eyes.
Drakke came out of the shadows and towered Nick.
"I will kill you said Drakke i wont spare you like last time" said Drakke
Drakke had vines comming out from his robe."How do you like my thorn sword?"asked Drakke."It sucks" said Nick. Drakke Charged toward Nick and swung the sword Nick got hit by a torn slashing a cut from his cheek to his brow.
*what battle is going on in Romme?*
-
//No battle is going on in Romme, not yet anyways. I recommend you don't have any of your characters go there. And what is a torn sword? Do you mean thorn?\\
"Em-De-Aye-Aye?" Rink asked.
"Mega-Death Annihilation Attack." Duilin replied. "It's probably the strongest magic attack known to man, demon or draken. Remember that attack that Draven did to kill that huge dragon? That's nothing..."
"Wow..." Rink said in astonishment. "Well, speed up!" Rink held on tighter to Zeros' arm.
----
The ogre then took its shape.
"Excellent." Marshal said. He then pointed to some trees, and the ogre walked over and began cutting them down with his large axe.
"I hope Ein hurries up with that machine." He mumbled.
-
Allen nodded and seemed to collect himself. His old master was back... And so were all the former Dark Empire's master... He knew this wouldn't end...
He hopped on the disc with Aura and waited...
---
Zeros' nodded and flapped his wings once, before putting on a burst of speed. The sounds barrier was broken, with a shockwave reverberating behind him.
"We won't rush headstrung into this battle..." he said, not going towards Retan and Jayce, but towards where Zion and his crew were located. "We need to go get Zion, Xenai and Tsu... I'm sure they'll help us."
-
Upon the trail, corpses and blood were splattered about. The road was being covered with decaying bodies and birds pecking them. "Disgusting." exclaimed Quadricentennial. "So much death and torment." He then saw a dead soldier with a fancy helmet. "Very pretty. Will be a nice addition." He took the helmet and put it into his bag. He continued on the road to the castle ahead.
(//Just so you guys know, I'm taking it slow right now to figure out where exactly Quadricentennial is heading towards)
-
As if it were possible, the dark throne room inside the Great Black Vessel somehow grew darker. There was a mist about the floor, but a very different one from the mist outside...
"Meh heh heh..."
Jayce's eyes shifted back and forth, unable to detect the source of the laugh. He drew the massive scimitar at his back, swinging it to his right side. The blade cut cleanly through the floor that he rested it on.
Retan did nothing.
The mist began to congeal before the two.
"I have come bearing news, Sigma and Tau..."
The translucent image of a decrepit old man formed, burdened by heavy black armor, hunched over and leaning heavily on a red tipped staff. It was Alpha Retan...
The Dark Emperor Sigma Retan brought his right hand to his chin.
"Hmm, it is you. The one that appears in my dreams."
"Yes, your ancestor... before I was trapped, but was freed during your absence. Though I will not be able to take physical form again for 995 years..."
Jayce raised an eyebrow.
Sigma Retan sat back in his throne.
"Bare your message quickly. You will find I have even less patience when I am awake..."
Alpha Retan smiled his crooked yellow smile.
"With your presence, our victory is ensured. Melkoth's turn to rule has come. You must aid him in building the Grey Empire in every way possible, my descendant. As his knight, the forces of Haraldur will crumble at your feet. With your combined strength, all who oppose you will perish. The Grey Empire will dominate the entire--"
"That is enough."
The Dark Emperor Retan rose from his seat. A blue flame suddenly appeared around Alpha Retan, engulfing his body.
"Wha--! What is happening?!"
Sigma Retan took a step forward, his eyes burning a crimson red under his helmet.
"For half a century you incessantly plague my dreams with your incoherent prophecies and blatherings. And then you have the gall to appear before my presence and order me to submit to one other than myself..."
The blue flame burst into a crimson red, and a burning hole appeared underneath the specter Alpha Retan.
"NO! YOU MUST--!!"
"You are but a ghost. A memory from a lost age. Bother me no more."
The Dark Emperor snapped his fingers and a great suction came from the hole, swallowing up the specter as he screamed. The hole snapped shut, replaced with the solid floor of the ship. The scream echoed down the hallways, then all was silent...
-
//Xorlak, exactly what relation does Sigma Retan have to Alpha Retans and Melkoth's project: Haraldur etc.?
I wonder what his reaction will be to finding out that is ancestor's ally has returned.
The Aspyes colours are those of Anarchism: black and red, mostly.//
Melkoth thought... hmmm... has Alpha Retan returned or one of his descendents? I will find out.
"Vincent, I have an urgent matter I need to attend to. I am going to go to Romme. I am sure you can do well by yourelf."
He left.
________________________________________________________________________
Quintus arrives at Bandervil.
"Hi Abodahon. Do you know what that strange aura signature is? It seems familiar, but I am starting to lose memory in my old age."
________________________________________________________________________
Tesla vapourised the spikes in a lightning strike.
Haraldur sensed the return of a Retan family member, Sigma. Rage filled him.
"Nestor, Nikola, and Buenaventura, stay here and deal with this filth, I know you are capable. I will go and fight the return of the Retans to Gaian. When you have finished with these bastards, follow my aura signal and aid me."
They quickly nodded before commencing their attacks:
Tesla shot two of the ten people with his plasma rifle, wounding one in th leg and vapouring the other's head. Makhno charge through the air with his horse and cut off two of their heads with his sabre. Durruti threw two fireballs into the fray.
Haraldur sped towards Romme, a bowwave of air appearring around him as his speed increased. Ripples could be seen in his aura. He would kill the Retans, and then he would kill the bastards who brought them back.
His appearance seemed to wobble, and Ragnar became the dominant outside image of the Gestalt, with his black hair glistening with lightning.
-
"Yeah, I agree." Duilin replied
"I assume they sensed the aura as well." Rink commented. "Hopefully we'll meet up with them on the way."
----
Abodahon nods as Quintus arrives.
"The signature you can feel is the aura of Sigma Retan, the descendent of Alpha Retan." Abodahon answered. "I know of this, because my son Duilin has met this Sigma Retan. My connection is extremely strong with my son, thanks to some of the powers Melkoth has given me."
"I'm sending my agent over there to collect some information. I believe Melkoth may be going there himself."
-
Then Drakke created a flame forming out of his palm, He threw it a Nick.
Nick put his hand up trying to see if the was something he can hold, so that he could get up. The fireball hit Nicks hand. He yelled in agony"Ahhhhh!"
After the pain subsided he used his sword to pull himself up.
With one eye closed and one hand burned he charged at Drakke.
Drakke didnt see this coming so he teleported Nick away so he could not harm him.
"He has to much spirit that young boy" said Drakke.
Now Nick was in Redvik one place to fimilar, He was once on recon for the Grey Empire when he was found and was tourtered by the Crimson soliders.
"What the.." said Nick as he watched his hand being covered by a red energy.
"I heard somthing over there follow me" said a solider some what 20 feet away.
Nick heard the pounding of at least 40 feet running towards him.
He couldn't get up he was to weak. Soliders surrounded him " Halt you are now a prisoner of the Crimson Empire" said one solider. 5 soliders picked him up and walked him into a room. Then two soliders tied him to a stilagemite. "Who are you?" "Who do you work for" said one solider who started prosecuting him.
"What the hell is it to you" said Nick as the Solider started whiping him.
*Save me! Save me! I need salvation.*
-
(Sigma Retan obviously has no plans to work with Alpha Retan or Melkoth. His relation to the six weapons and Haraldur would be best reveled through the upcoming confrontation. However, so I'm not throwing fastballs at you, Haraldur should know that the physical weapon forms of six of his parts were created quite separately from him (or the parts of him), and the six souls were individually attached to each weapon with a merging process.)
Vincent nodded and watched Melkoth speed off. He suddenly felt less safe.
Romme? Wasn't that some island in the middle of the ocean that got blown up? Probably had little to do with him, anyway.
Redvik was just over the horizon... which was a very odd color indeed. Something seemed not right as he approached the fortress. There was movement-- a lot of it. There was no way there were that many men left there... He slowed and landed under the tree line out of sight, to wait for the other two to catch up.
He may need them after all...
-
* Xorlak is Vincent with the grey empire*
The soliders continued to whip him tearing his flesh.
Nick wouldn't talk about anything for the Grey empires sake.
"come on you be so hard on your self just tell us everything the Grey empires up to and we will let you go" said the solider whos name was Kalvin.
"Never" yelled Nick. Spitting in his face. Kalvin whiped him again and another solider punched him. "God i never asked for you help till now"Nick said to himself.
blood was racing down Nicks face from the cut that Drakke gave him.
Nick tried to block out the sounds of the men and he heard voices talking but he didn't know whos. Was someone comming? he thought. "Were they from the Crimson or Grey army?" "To kill him or save him?"
You could now see that Nick was tired his eyes were glowing red and he needed energy.
-
"After enough power was transferred to the stones, I was no longer needed there. I allowed the energies to bring me down. Wait... What's this? There's something in the air, it seems... Birds? No. Most birds I know of do not have shining wings."
--- --- ---
Steorra and Darak landed next to Vincent. Steorra observed Redvik. She turned to Vincent.
-"What do you make of this, sir?"
She suddenly swirled around.
-"Excuse me, hold that thought..."
She saw the commotion around Nick, and quickly hurried there. There were soldiers around him beating him up. She held up her staff.
A quick signature flash of light, and the soldiers were down on the ground, groaning. She went up to Nick and helped him up.
-"It's not safe... Come with me, if you cherish your life."
The undead, attracted to the flash, were getting close...
--- --- ---
Ein scrambled over and quickly performed a teleportation ritual, summoning the Leviathan. He ordered the ogre to load the projectile, and launched it into the air. Coincidentally, it seemed to fly in Quadricentennial's direction...
-
"Thank you"said Nick as she lifted him into her arms"Thank you"
Nick's energy was totaly gone and he fell asleep in her arms not knowing what she would do.
Nicks eyes turned back to the normal blue color and his wounds just healed as if they were never there.Only the cut on his eye became a scar
-
Darak landed on the ground, he almost lost balance but he regained control of himself as he landed. He then rubbed off the area were the wings were, as if were wiping off a mess. "Thank god. I can't stand those fancy wings."
He then looks around. "Holy..." He then notices Steorra "Where's she off to? Wait I did hear something..."
Darak then looks off at the fortress of Redvik, and the volcano near by it. He notices that there is a large group of.... something.
He then looks at Vincent. "Sir, do you see that?" He asked, pointing towards the large group.
//Nick, never mind that, I edited my post. He wasn't supposed to see him.\\
-
//Sorry, guys. I had a play to do this morning and it went kinda badly. I was a tad stressed.
The trio saw the island of Romme coming into view, and could feel the immensely powerful dark energy. Zion stopped, and the other two soon after.
"Can we do this...?"
"Whaddaya mean? Everyone else's prob'ly gonna be there."
"I know, but still... What about US?"
"Yeah, what about us?"
"We did as well as we did back then because we still had Eternity Weapon and Zero Weapon."
"Naw, we don' need them."
"You're crazy."
"Maybe, but we've gotten lots stronger."
"If we're gonna go," said Tsu, "Let's go."
"Right... Let's go."
Zion took off, and the other two followed.
--- --- ---
The flying disc started on its course, toward Retan's energy. Her fighting ability wasn't that good. She couldn't feel ki auras, but Retan's... It was amazingly powerful. She drew near to his location...
-
While Nick was out cold he had a dream but it was more like a vision.
"Brother" said a man.
"Who?" Asked Nick.
"Im Calavous your Brother"
"Where are you?" asked Nick
"That is not of any importance right now"said Calavous"Just listen to me, You are being helped by good people"
"Ok" said Nick.
"I will see you soon my brother" said Calavous as the vision drifted away.
As he awoke he asked the girl "who are you?" and "where are you taking me?"
His hand hade the red energy flowing around it and then all of the energy went into him. He felt a powerful surge enter his body rushing in as if no where to go.
-
Travelling along a now clean of corpses trail, which he prefered to walk on, Quadricentennial heard foot steps ahead. They were of soldiers. He quickly hid besides some trees. The soldiers were running scared. One fell to the ground. The other guy went to help him up.
"Let's not linger like this. If the lord finds out were deserting, he'll kill us all. Let's go." The soldier got up and continued to run.
"Lord? Followers of somekind. Could they be of that group with the black flag that rose earlier? Something tells me I am entering dangerous territory. I must be wary of my surroundings now lest I be beheaded before I know of it."
He continued on the road that lead towards the castle afront.
-
Zeros' sped up futher, heading towards the three aura's of his commrades. He connected a link with all three of them, Duilin and Rink, allowing them a sort of telepathic chatroom.
I'm guessing you three sensed it already, correct? he asked through the link.
---
Allen could barely even sense energy, but what he sensed of his former master... He shuttered and steeled his nerves...
It seemed...
Everyone was heading for Romme.
-
//Nick: I actually wouldn?t call Darak and Vincent 'good' people. But if Nick is with the Grey Empire then guess towards him they would be.
TKGB: I hope Quadricentennial is aware that a large projectile is flying towards his location.\\
The Talonscar elite that had his leg shot, seeing as that we was now useless in the battle jumped (using his one good leg) towards the oncomming fireballs, he fell to the ground, with his burnt body.
The remaining eight, began to fire orange energy blasts at Tesla, Durruti and Makhno.
-
//Just making sure: in reality those with the black flags would recognise no lords or masters.
Dude Man, unless these people can surive beheading, there are only six of them left...//
Quintus nodded. "Ah, OK."
He then went off to organise the rebuilding of the fortress.
________________________________________________________________________
Durruti released a shield, protecting himself and his comrades from harm. He then flew in and punched two of the remaining people, with explosions coming from his fists, smashing their bodies into pieces.
Makhno again rode by the people, his sabre lengthening and so allowing him to cut off three heads, which dropped to the ground before splatting.
With just one ( Wink ) of the people left, Tesla sent two plasma shots towards him at high speed.
_______________________________________________________________________
Melkoth accelerated, but still was going at a leisurely pace, so sure was he that Retan would be cooperative.
_______________________________________________________________________
Haraldur's rage increased as did his speed, combining to give the aural equivalent of a sonic boom, that would be detecting by all aura-sensitive people on Gaian: he was coming. As he flew, several warps started to orbit him, and two others appeared in his hands as Romme popped up over the horizon.
The Ragnar persona was literally glowing with a red outline as the sea passed below him.
-
//By the way, what has happened to Ven etc.?//
-
The trio continued their voyage, a look of great apprehension on Tsu's face.
--- --- ---
Aura suddenly came upon the large ship. "My god..." She gulped and took off toward it.
-
Zeros' finally caught up to the three, after a few minutes of fast flying. He let go of Rink, as he was sure that Duilin would catch up soon enough.
He nodded to the three and flew beside them, at the same pace.
"Hello... Zion, Tsu, Xenai. I'm guessing you sensed Retan's return, as well as his son Jayce," he said, incase they didn't get his telepathic message.
---
Allen didn't seem disturbed by it, but he also seemed fearful of it.
"N-Now... Let's take it slow and e-easy Aura..." he said shakily.
-
TKGB: I hope Quadricentennial is aware that a large projectile is flying towards his location.\\
//No. He isn't.
Quadricentennial continued his path towards the castle. Peking, who was perched on his shoulder, suddenly flew on Quadricentennials head and screached.
"What is it?" Quadricentennial asked. He looked up.
"What is that?" he asked, in a calm matter.
//What is the projectile that Quadricentennial is looking at?
-
//It's a very large crudely made wooden pole Ein launched from his machine. For more details, go <a href='http://ibforums.mysticsoftware.net/index.php?showtopic=472&view=findpost&p=32059' target='_blank'>here</a>. Read the last section.\\
-
(//I don't understand anything from a story unless I read from the begining so I'm gonna have to read everything before my char can get into the fray. Before that, he'll have to remain a solitary char.)
Quadricentennial jumped out out of they way. It was no good because the giant projectile landed in the area. It cause a giant crashed. Quadricentennial made it out okay though. He managed to jump into the giant hole in the nick of time.
"What is this? Now I am being targeted? I best keep in the shadows during my voyage towards that castle." Peking perched back on Quadricentennials shoulder and they continued on towards the castle.
-
"I'll ask you one last time who are you"" said Nick as he jumped out of the girls hands and starting to run in the air next to the woman.
Nick powered all his energy to his sword ready to attack or defend.
"Who are you and What do you want?" Nick asked waiting for a quick reply.
//still waiting to figure out were steorra took me while i was outcold\\
-
Steorra, startled, turned around facing Nick.
-"Hey, chill! I'm just trying to help you here! You see those guys over there?" She pointed to the seemingly endless rows of the undead. "Chances are that if they saw you, they'd rip you to bits, then you'd become one of them. You wouldn't want that, now do you? As for your other question, we're heading over to my group. Me and a friend are currently with High General Vincent, who, in case you don't know, is with the Crimson Army. Now, are you just gonna stand there?"
She then noticed the menacing look in Nick's eyes, and placed her staff in front of her.
-"...or will this come to a fight?"
--- --- ---
"I marvelled at my children. They were all well-equipped and battle-ready. My other creations, on the other hand, were still being completed. When they're ready, no Hell will have seen what I will do to this earth...
Since I had nothing better to do, I began wandering among my army, while at the same time mentally compiling my creatures. Undead soldiers were sharpening their weapons, undead mages were meditating, undead wyvern riders were petting their undead wyverns... Beauty for those who understand it.
Oh, what's this? I suddenly noticed dark figure with a glowing staff and a man brandishing his sword. Were those... trespassers? I hurried towards the pair as fast and as quietly as I could. Thank my loyal smith for this great armour - so easy to move in... Unfortunately, I had to kill him after he completed it. Wouldn't want another set just like it, now would I?"
-
"Fine I shall come with you" Nick said "by the way whats you name I didnt catch it?"
And thanks for saving me I guess I was being a little to pushy.
"Well any way I shall come with you and help with your needs."
//ok\\
-
//He is... He's commanding what's left of the Crimson Army, but made an alliance with the Grey Empire. I don't know all the details, you'll have to ask Xorlak.\\
-
//BTW Burton, you don't have to post constantly, like the one post were you just said 'ya I hope Quadricentennialis aware he will be shot lol' was just taking up space and didn't add anything. Try and be a little patient with other's posts aswell.\\
The remaining elite was then burnt up (or whatever the effects of his gun are) by the plasma blasts.
----
Duilin quickly caught up with Zeros' and Rink. He caught Rink as Zeros' let him go. He then flue next to Zeros' and looked at Zion, Tsu and Xenai.
-
(To clarify, Vincent joined the Grey Empire, but never officially left the Crimson Empire. He is currently trying to get the Crimson Empire troops to join the Grey. He is basically a traitor to the Crimson Empire.
Nick: Please refrain from posts that don't contribute to the RP.
Edit: Haraldur: Ven and Henri are back in Tjed, reparing damage done to the captial city and taking a break. Can't manage that many characters at once... Heh...)
----
Retan returned to his seat. More images flashed in the sphere. Images of all those racing towards his location now...
"Hmm, it appears our mere return has caused quite a disturbance..."
"Father, allow me..."
"Patience, my son. You will have your violence soon enough..."
Jayce replaced the hulking blade on his back and folded his arms.
Retan leaned back in his chair.
"Now, listen carefully..."
----
The door to the outer deck of the Great Black Vessel opened. The mist surrounding the ship was incredibly thick. Jayce appeared in the doorway, stepping out onto the outer deck alone...
----
Vincent scowled after Steorra ran off.
"That fool! She'll get that entire army down our throats..."
Kneeling behind a large boulder, he removed a small telescope from his pocket and began to examine the troops moving around Redvik.
"My god... these soldiers... they're undead..."
This was a totally unexpected development. Some sort of necromancer had apparently taken advantage of the carnage around Redvik. But who? Was Haraldur capable of this?
Vincent closed the scope and replaced it in his pocket. Necromancy was another topic that interested him. However, this would probably not be the best of times to study its effects. He turned and sat with his back to the rock, now hidden from view. Opening his coat, he removed his shotgun device, placing a cartridge with the image of a flame on it into the slot on the top of the gun. It clicked into place.
"And get down, Darak! They'll see you..."
He totally missed the man coming in their direction...
-
Steorra, relieved, smiled, and placed her staff to her side.
-"Alrighty then. You should head to the General and Darak now. They're right over there. Just try not to make noise as you walk. As for me... I'll stay here, and try to figure out what's controlling them. Oh, and my name is Steorra. Tell me yours when I get back."
She crept up behind a stray undead and took out the glowing gem from her staff. She brought up the gem to her eyes, as if trying to see through it. The undead, however, noticed her, and swung his axe at her...
-"Crap!!!"
Steorra grabbed her staff just in time to block the blow. She then quickly bashed it to the side of its head, knocking it off to the ground. The whole thing promptly collapsed.
-"Gotta be a bit more careful..."
--- --- ---
"I decided that the pests wandering right next to my army would not cause much trouble. I turned away, and began creeping back... Just then, I heard a cry for help in my head. It was one of the soldiers... Someone damaged one of my children! Curiosity eating me, I decided not to repair him just yet. I stealthily approached the location of the stricken soldier...
The figure! The same person that I saw a while ago, without his friend, was now present. He held up his staff over my minion, no doubt to finish him off. Rage exploded inside me. I raised my hands, and was about to cast a spell on the infidel... as the person turned around to me.
The spell got stuck in my throat. The person, who turned out to be a young woman, was beautiful. Perfect curves... Blonde dreadlocks coming down on her shoulders... I was paralyzed, for I have never seen such beauty before in my life. There I stood, stuck in a stupid pose with my mouth gaping open, as she approached me with a smile.
-"Who are you?", she said in a sweetly melodical voice. "Don't you see this place is covered in walking corpses?"
It took a few seconds for her words to sink in.
-"Gah..."
I seemed to have lost my speech.
-"Well, are you just going to stand there? Come on, what's your name?"
Slowly, my ability to speak was coming back to me.
-"I'm... uhh... Kronos... and you?", I said bluntly. The girl frowned.
-"I'm Steorra. Come, it's not safe here."
As much as I tried to resist, I found myself walking to her side, trying to get closer to her."
//They're heading back to Vincent & Co. right now.\\
-
Darak raised his eyebrows in shock as he heard Vincent say 'undead'. He then lowered down as Vincent has ordered him.
He then turns his head and notices Steorra returning with two other people. One seemed to be heavily focused on her (Kronos), the other one was a young man, with a scar along his face (Nick). He motioned to them to lower down.
-
I took a while but Quadricentennial made it to the castle. He stayed close to the walls within the shadows (//I assume it's dark outside right now). Peking flew off to safety while Quadricentennial investagated. He peered through one of the holes of the wall of the old castle. He glanced inside but could not see a thing for someone was blocking his view.
"I must get a better view." He moved around, trying to find a better spot. He walked around a corner. There he saw a small opening to what seemed some kind of drainage.
"Should I go in?"
-
Nick walked down to the general and the person beside him he tried not to make it as if he was a threat.
Nick tried not to make a sound as he swiftly was running in the air as if he was a cloud being pushed by the wind. He landed next to the general. "Hey im Nick Steorra told me to come here". Nick look at the general watching his eyes looking at him intensely. Nick looked back were Steorra was and saw a man beside her. He wondered what he was doing.
-
Crouching down behind the rock, Vincent turned and glared at Nick, but his glance softened a bit when he realized he was just a kid. Probably 16 or so. It wasn't uncommon for a kid his age to take up arms very young and become decently skillful at an early age. He'd seen it before.
"That's nice, kid. Go sit down over there and be quiet."
He motioned to another boulder a few feet away. Ugh... This is turning into a blasting rescue mission... He waited for Steorra to come within low speaking distance. He didn't want to risk attracting those zombies over in their direction... And who's that? There's someone else with her...
"Look, we're not here to save every random villager that gets in danger..."
He pushed his glassed up on his nose, his attention immediately overtaken by the second newcomer walking beside her. This obviously wasn't a commoner. His armor was unusually well crafted, and he wore five red feathers in his hair. It was a curious dress, an indication of royalty in some nations, Vincent had read.
"And who might you be?"
-
//Go Xorlak! Finally, someone bothered to read one of my characters' profiles...\\
"As we came in sight of the girl's party, I felt an icy blade strike my heart. One of the people waiting was Vincent! I saw him through my messenger's eyes when they first met. Trying as hard as I could to sound confident, I managed:
-"I'm... uhh..."
The blonde mage frowned.
-"He told me his name was Kronos. I found him just a short distance south of here."
Damn her! Wait. It's me I should be blaming. I shouldn't really go around screaming my name to every random girl with pretty eyes I meet... Deciding that my cover was blown, I straightened out and proudly said:
-"Yes, I am Kronos, the Marshal of the Kandarinian Souvereignity. You must be High General Vincent? Small world..."
Noticing a surprised look in his eyes, I quickly mended:
-"Er, I've heard quite a lot about you from the occasional wounded troop that my shepherds pick up. You seem to be quite a popular figure among your people."
Caught in my own spindle of lies, I began mentally cursing myself. My story was incoherent and made absolutely no sense. I am surprised I even held a straight face through it! I'm just going to have to pray and hope he buys it."
--- --- ---
When they first met, Steorra didn't really hear much of Kronos' speech. She now noticed that he had a curious habit of lengthening and silencing his s's, so that they sounded almost as if he whispered them. He also seemed extremely confident of himself, and overall looked like an intelligent person.
Another aspect of him that she did not notice before was his armour. Jet-black and sporting curious symbols of a strange stylized image of a bird on the shoulder pads, it made no sound when its wearer moved. It also seemed to completely align itself with Kronoses body, probably making it very comfortable. She suspected that if she were to use it, she would not even be aware of its existence while wearing it.
//In case if someone does not see the conclusion: although Kronos is aware that he is somewhat shaken up, he still manages to sound confident.\\
-
Quadricentennial walked through sludge and vile green water in the small opening of the sewer. There were rats about and other vermin, including a creature he never saw before with eyes of a rat, wings of a pigeon, and ears of a human. "God, what is this place?" He walked around, sloushing about. He found an opening and went in. He got out and entered into a room down below. A sort of storage room but only wood was being kept. He looked around for something to dry himself with and found an old stove. He lit it up and dried himself up. A door suddenly came open. He went to hide behind some limber. A man came in, a soldier, and dragged in a big bag and quickly left. Quadricentennial peeked inside the bag. More timber. He crept close to the door and openened it slightly. Suddenly it opened entirely. A big soldier was in front of him. He was huge with huge armor and a big mace.
"Who. Are. You?" asked the giant mountanous soldier.
"A tourist?" exclaimed Quadricentennial.
"Tourist? I. Don't. Believe. You."
"Alright then. I'll be on my way then."
The giant armored man drew his mace out.
"I. Will. Crush. YOU!!!!!!!!!!!" He swung his giant mace. Quadricentennial jumped out of it's way. The mace flew and crushed the side of the wall. Quadricentennial jumped back. The giant barbarian of a soldier swung his mace about, crushing log after log. One more swing but this time Quadricentennial saw it coming. He extended his fingers and swooshed it through the air. It cut the mace in half.
"HUH?"
"You will have to do better than that."
"YYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" The giant soldier swung his gigantic monstorous fist towards Quadricentennial. Quadricentennial leaped out of the way. The giant was obviously powerful but also majorly slow. Quadricentennial jumped up and gave him a Swinging Kick (//which happens to be a move where he jumps up, swings his foot at high velocity, and cuts the persons targeted area deep but not through) but it failed. It only scratched his armor.
"HAR HAR HAR. You. Are. No. Chance. For. Magnot." Quadricentennial looked about but not exposed area seemed to be present. All armor. He then looked at the scratch he made but had to quickly move again for another massive fist was heading towards him. He leaped out of the way in the nick of time.
"URGH! What is this beast? What of it's armor being so strong?"
-
Tesla called to Marshall and Ein: "We are going to Romme. If you want to come, follow us."
Tesla, Durruti and Makhno now flew in the direction Haraldur had.
____________________________________________________________________
Melkoth arrives and flew into the mists, and accidently bumped into Jayce. Quickly sizing him up, it was obvious that he was a person of high stature, despite that strange wound on his face. He flew backwards a few tens of centimetres, and then bowed.
"I am Melkoth, Emperor of the Grey Empire. May I ask who you are, sir?"
____________________________________________________________________
Directed by Quintus, a corps of mages were starting to repair Bandervil.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur reached the mist, and detected Malkoth's aura, and smiled. He flew into the mist, after using an invisibility spell, and towards the dark shape within. He silently landed on the deck of the ship, and started to search for a hatch.
After a couple of minutes, he found a hatch in the silence. An oil can appearing in his hand, he carefully oiled the hinges. He then released the catch, opened the hatch, dropped in, and closed the hatch after him.
He was in a corridor in what had been barracks for the Emperor's personal bodyguards, who in reality were only ever used for state occasions. He picked up a well made spear from a rack, which became invisible, like himself, once it came into his hands. He then slowly crept through some corridors towards the aural signal.
-
"Okay, well now that we have our greetings all in order, we should try and see what we can do about Redvik." Darak said. He then looked to Vincent. "Do we have a plan High General?" He asked.
-----
"Romme?" Marshal asked. He has heard much about Romme, most of the story about what happened there five years ago spread around and was recorded by the Blue Minotaur. "Ein, perhaps we should follow them. This could be quite interesting."
Although we was banished from the Blue Minotaur, he still held interest in collecting this secret history. Since much of what goes on isn't in the eye of the general public.
Marshal then hopped onto the Albatrash he summoned earlier and then flew off following Tesla.
-
Ein looked up at Marshal on the large bird, flying away from him.
-"Well, that's REAL polite of you! What if I can't fly?!", he shouted.
An idea then struck him. The moth he turned into a day ago... he should complete the ritual much quicker now, since he had the basic hang of how to do it. He scribbled a symbol below him, and was quickly wrapped in a gray chrysalis.
The chrysalis quickly began expanding. In as short as 15 seconds, it burst... Letting out a huge gray moth with dark red eyes. This merge, however, was more pronounced on Ein - he now felt like the moth's body was his own. This gave him more control over it.
He flew off after Marshal and Tesla, his joints kinking uncomfortably.
-
Quadricentennial continued avoiding blow after blow from the massive beast. Magnot was starting to quicken up in his fist but Quadricentennial still had the advantage over him but he couldn't keep it up forever. Quadricentennial gave another swinging kick but the results were the same, one lousy scratch.
"How do I stop this beast?" He looked around but didn't found anything that could help. "I'm gonna end up flattened if I dont come up with an idea." Magnot went for a charge attack with his shoulder. Quadricentennial leaped up in the air to avoid it. He landed on near the wall. He then felt something on his back. It was the sword he got earlier. He drew it out. "Well what good will this do?"
Magnot hit some more logs and got up and faced Quadricentennial. Quadricentennial then saw the scratch he made on the armor. It suddenly hit him. "That could work, but I only got this one chance." Magnot was going for another charge. Quadricentennial leaped from the wall as Magnot hit it. Magnot got up but could not find Quadricentennial. "HEY! Where. He. Go?"
Quadricentennial hid behind some logs. He broke the handle of the sword with his Brass Claws. He then loaded the blade onto the bow. Magnot was lifting logs to see if he could find him. Quadricentennial popped out. Magnot then saw him and faced him. Quadricentennial suddenly launched the blade. Magnot thought this was the most patethic attempt to pierce him armor. Suddenly a jolt of pain sprang to his chest. The blade got inside the crack that Quadricentennial made. It striked the heart. Magnot staggered about and fell down. He died quickly.
"Oh man. What beast from what hell did this creature came from." He took out the helmet and looked at his face. It was ugly and ghoulish like it had died one time. "A corpse? Someone must of automated him. Fools. Do they have naught respect for the decease?" He looked at the helmet he was holding. "Oh. I do not have this one. Ti's too heavy to carry around. I'll come back for it when I'm finished here." He placed in near the enterance of the sewer so he could retrieve it later.
He got out of the room filled with the now broken timber to investigate the castle.
(//Hey Haraldur. I have a feeling I'm somewhere near one of your chars)
-
//TK, if the dude that Big Q just fought was an undead - that's my army, hehe. I am not aware of any other large armies of undead other than mine. Was this what you meant?\\
-
(//Yeah)
-
//Heh, OK then.\\
"Suddenly, I felt another cry for help. One of my creatures, an Ogre\human hybrid, was struck down by an unknown foe. What is this?! This was supposed to be a quiet operation, and now I've got half of this forsaken continent after me?! Urgh... Barely tensing my mind, I directed a small jolt of my energy towards Magnot. On the outside, however, I didn't even flinch. With the stones amplifying my energy, this could barely be compared to a hiccup of my total power."
--- --- ---
As Quadricentennial began walking away, the slain giant behind him moved, and slowly got back up. There was something different about him - the hole in his armour that was made by the blade striking him was lit up with a soft purple light. A glowing purple orb was seen through it. It was as if some arcane energy was now powering the giant...
-"You. FOOL! How. Can. You. Kill. Something. That's. Already. DEAD?!"
He charged at the man, swinging his fist as he ran.
-"DIE!!!"
-
"WHAT?" Quadricentennial leaped out of the way of another flying fist of the beast. Since it was so sudden, he leapt without knowing there was a statue where he was heading. He hit the statue and hurt his head.
"ARGH! My head." Magnot grabbed Quadricentennial by the arm and lifted him up. He gave a disgusting grin. "You think you got me? Think again." With his other hand, he swung it fast and cut Magnots face. Magnot screamed from pain and was taken aback. Quadricentennial got on his feet and high tailed it as fast as he could. He turned to a corner. He was in a hallway now. "Drat. Now how am I suppose to get out of here?" He saw a window and decided to look outside to see if he could jump it. His idea fainted when he saw a horrible giant wyvern that seem to rot in every piece of his body.
"What in the world is that hideous creature." Suddenly stomping footsteps were herad. "Blast. The wretchet soldier returns". I better hide. He hid behind a door. How lucky he was that it was unoccupied, but it wouldn't be for long. Someone was knocking on the door.
"Sir. Is that you? Are you alright sire?" A soldier asked.
"Do you think it's him?" asked another.
"No. I swore I saw him outside of the building. It must be an intruder. Let's open the door and see."
"No you fool. If we disturb him, he'll have our heads."
"It's gotta be an intruder. I swore I saw the master outside with his army of ghouls."
The sound of a window being broken was heard. "What's going on?" They soldiers broke in and saw the big window pane broken and no one in sight.
"INTRUDER!!!!!!!"
-
//There's no excuse for THIS huge delay. I'll be more punctual from here on in.
"Zeros', it's good to see you." Zion smiled at him.
"Yeah, but who wouldn't sense the guy? His aura felt like getting hit by a fuckin' airship. And we're nowhere near him."
Aura... Please tell me you're not going there... I think she is... Seijin, please...
--- --- ---
//I do hope I'm not missing something about the visibility of the ship.
Aura landed on the ship, a very good distance away from Jayce. She placed the hairpin into her hair, and stood in such a way that she would be guarding Allen. "Just stay behind me. I want to see what this guy's about, is all. I don't really intend to fight him..."
-
// This will be my last post to around friday cuase im grounded but i might be able to post in school\\
Nick was sitting behind the rock Vincent told him to go to he was silent he watched as one guy was running towards another person.
Nick walked up to Steorra and said "By the way im Nick"
Nick watched the personcharging at the other guy and figured from what he said and did that those undead things were his. "Idiot" Nick said to him self watching one person being chased by thousands of monsters. "Huh" Nick heard something in the trees he made his senses acute to hear what it was. He saw a bird fly out of the trees be he was not satisfied with his answer. There was something else, Nick ignored it and turned back around to Steorra.
-
Jayce brought his hand to his chin.
"Melkoth of the Grey? Yes, we've been expecting you. I am High General Jayce of the Dark Empire, Western Division. The Dark Emperor Retan will grant an audience with you, once he is finished with his... current appointment..."
He smirked as he watched the displacement in the mist that was the invisible Haraldur enter a hatch on the other side of the ship, then folded his arms and stood there like a night club bouncer...
The mist itself was an extension of his father's aura, so he could read it well. In fact there were two more displacements on the other side of the ship...
----
Once Haraldur stepped into the center of two intersecting corridors, he was greeted with a loud *SHWOOSH* as two touches ignited, one on each wall in the corridor to his left.
There were a few seconds of silence as the torches, an unnaturally deep red in color, flickered their light on the invisible man, casting a visible shadow on the floor. All other lights seemed to slowly fade away.
Then more touches ignited in rapid succession:
*SHWOOSH* *SHWOOSH* *SHWOOSH* *SHWOOSH* ... and so on...
They lit up in turn, two at a time, down the long hallway like a runway, revealing two large oak doors at the end, a small black dragon statue on each side.
There was a very loud creaking noise. The two great doors opened slowly, revealing total darkness within. A faint sound of an organ playing the first chords of The End is Nigh filled the air. The room was lit in the same manner as the hallway, and in the center sat the Dark Emperor himself, upon his black throne.
He was leaning to the left slightly, and his right gloved hand drummed slowly on the flat stone arm of the throne. When he first spoke, he was quite a distance away from Haraldur, but his voice seemed to come from all directions.
"Welcome, Ragnar. Or rather, Haraldur... You should know it is quite impossible to hide from darkness. Leave your weapon at the door, it is quite unnecessary, and I am quite a gentle old man..."
He seemed to pause for effect, two red glowing slits for eyes now piercing from under the darkness of his helmet.
"Do step forward. We have much to... discuss..."
----
Vincent stood up from behind the boulder, still holding his shotgun in his right hand, but carefully pointing it towards the ground to his right.
"You're Kronos?"
As in the guy who sent the undead messenger to him this morning? Vincent looked to his right at the mass of undead soldiers stammering around and put two and two together.
"So you're responsible for this?"
He was somewhat repulsed, seeing his own dead men reanimated. Well... not really. It was more like... recycling. In fact, as a scientist, reanimating defeated soldiers made sense in every possible way.
He flipped his weapon up on his shoulder, turning back to Kronos with a slight smirk.
"I like your style. Tell me, do you have a specific target in mind?"
Opportunity!
-
"The General's conclusion has struck me as an icy cold arrow, right in the heart. My brain, quickly going over all the possible explamations, eventually stopped. Yes, he will know the truth. How much truth? That is up for interpretation... I put on my most convincing tone:
-"Yes, I am Kronos, and I am somewhat responsible for this. Of course, I alone could not possibly sustain an army of such proportions. I am, however, in charge of its movements. As for your other question, I... do have a target in mind."
I quickly thought up a potential target.
-"Recently I have read of a... group, a movement, I suppose, which defies every single belief my philosophy stands for", I lied. "Instead of resurrecting the dead like you see here, they wretch the souls of deceased creatures from the Underworld. With Necromancy, you channel some of your power to the target, simply enabling them to move at your will. They do not have a mind of their own."
I did it again, ladies and gentlemen. I had just told a blatant lie with a straight face. I really should stop with this, though. This man before me was smart enough to figure out that I was in the control of this army. Nothing stops him from further concluding that at this point, I am absolutely at a loss as to what to attack! I suppose if I am ever to stop lying, this would be a good time to do so.
-"Although... It really is a small target... It is the headquarters of this group, called the Blue Minotaur. Their spiritual nexus is at a temple in the woods. A few reports in my posession reveal that it has inferior defences. Perhaps I could just get some of those beauties over there." I pointed to some of my creations that I assembled from unneeded bones. They were HUGE, all different shapes and sizes. Ogre-dragons with whips made of human bones... Spider-like creations with a couple more heads and a dozen more limbs than the gods intended... Necromancy. Gotta love it.
-"Yes... them. But, as I was saying, at this moment I am open to suggestions, as long as they are within reason. I will not have my army spend days attacking some small village!"
With those words, I turned facing all of them.
-"Oh, and as for you - you don't have to hide. My troops will not even notice you." Once again, a rather blunt lie. When the blonde beauty here disabled my footman, he noticed it, alright. Even I noticed it. They, however, need not burden their mind with such trivial details..."
--- --- ---
-"Oh... Nice to meet you, Nick. You already know my name, I presume."
Steorra, while no one was looking, took the gem out of her staff again. She could see force lines through it - the channels that magic travels through. Spells use force lines - for example, a fireball would have a strong force line between itself, and the caster. She looked around... and almost fell back, from the surprise. Kronos had a massive, massive line extending from him to the strange contraption near Redvik. From there, thousands upon thousands of other force lines were scattered all across the fields. Probably one for each undead. So Kronos was responsible... in every imaginable way. She had to tell Vincent, somehow...
-
"Blue Minotaur?" Darak said. "It may be a good idea to get rid of them High General." He said to Vincent. "I hear they know...well everything, they probably know a bit more then we want them to know, sir."
----
"I bet Haraldur and a bunch of the others are going to Retan as well." Duilin said. "I can sense it..."
-
Nick took his sword and put it to the ground as a power overcame him. He made a weird symbol a kind of G with a line down it. He cut himself. Blood dripped down from his arm to the symbol. he put his hand on the symbol and it started to glow a red color. there was a big flash of light, and Nick's eyes stopped glowing red and he wasn't being taken over from the power.
---
Out of the light came a figure one that was like Nicks. "Hello brother" said Calavous. Nick watched in amazment as his brother came out of the flashing red color. There was a gaint sword on his back and he speaked in a slightly deep voice.
-
Quadricentennial stepped along the edge of the building. He found he had no use in being in the castle.
"Something tell's me I wont get the chance to rectify things. I'm going home." He climbed down a pillar and landed but there were ugly undead ghouls roaming about.
"This will be most challenging."
-
Zeros' nodded.
"Yes. Haraldur is already there... As is Melkoth... I can sense that alchemist I saw briefly from the Crimson Empire there... As well as..." he turned his eyes towards Tsu. "Aura... I can also sense Tesla and a few others also coming to the ship," he said, before sighing, then cracking his knuckles.
"Well, it looks like we're on clean up duty, guys... And a big one, at that..."
He said, as he could see the distant outline of the ship now, in the horizon. He could also see the mist and sense what it truly was. While Haraldur and Melkoth may be extremely powerful, they never truly honed their skills. They rely too much upon pure power...
At least, that's what he assessed.
---
Allen nodded at Aura. He had NO intentions to fight Retan either. He frowned, though, as he stood behind Aura. There was something... Utterly strange about this mist.
"Aura... Is there something... Strange... About this mist we're in?" he asked lightly, trying to keep the conversation light... He also noticed he felt no condensation. Nor were his glasses fogging up...
-
//assume im following vincent + co\\
Nick's brother came out of the G "Thanks for helping me".
---
"No prob Calavous" Said Nick. Nick walked towards Vincent. "How shall i be an asistance". Nick watched Kronos angrily. Nick heard something from trees again he took a slab of a rock and trew it into a bush. It was one of the zombies or something that started towards him. Nick couldn't really see what it was his eyes still hurt from watching the blinding light.
---
Calavous took out his sword and wacked the figure, it turned out to be a crimson solider that was almost eaten by the horde of undead beings. He put it back just as fast as he took it out. "Heh what a loser" Calavous said while the solider went out cold.
-
//Burton, please pay attention! The undead army is now ALLIED with the Crimson Empire! Please, read all of the posts before posting yourself. Vincent is commanding what's left of the Crimsons, just in case you didn't know. Also, there are no Crimson Empire soldiers wandering around...\\
-
//Burton, please pay attention! The undead army is now ALLIED with the Crimson Empire! Please, read all of the posts before posting yourself. Vincent is commanding what's left of the Crimsons, just in case you didn't know. Also, there are no Crimson Empire soldiers wandering around...\\
(//Or if your like me, then dont reference anything someone else made until you get the facts right)
-
"A-Aura is down there?!" Tsu's eyes widened.
"Tsu, calm down. We just have to get there quickly. But it's still far off..."
"Then let's speed the hell up!"
--- --- ---
Aura looked around in the mist. "It is strange... What is this stuff?" She waved her hand through it, observing its strange properties. She suddenly felt... the intense evil. "Oh god... This mist... I fear... this... is Retan..."
-
// Dude your zombies attacked the people around me(Crimson soliders) and that one guy escaped mmmkkk! <_< \\
(//Or if your like me, then dont reference anything someone else made until you get the facts right)
//Burton, please pay attention! The undead army is now ALLIED with the Crimson Empire! Please, read all of the posts before posting yourself. Vincent is commanding what's left of the Crimsons, just in case you didn't know. Also, there are no Crimson Empire soldiers wandering around...\\
//and there not wandering around soliders were just there <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>about</span> 15 posts ago
-
//Burton, here is what happened: Kronos, who is the current focus of that location, arrived there, and started raising zombies. There ARE soldiers inside the fortress, underground, but they are sitting there and not doing anything. They are aware of the army on top of them, and because of that they are not coming out of the fortress. Prior to Kronos' arrival, there was NO one there. Soon afterwards, Vincent, Darak and Steorra arrived. Still, NO Crimson soldiers. They got Kronos, who is now with them. Once again - NO soldiers. The only ones that were apparently there were the ones that were beating on Nick. I don't know how they managed to get there - once they'd seen Kronos raising corpses, they'd probably run or try to fight the undeads, in which case they'd fail.
Also, my guys were NOT attacking you. The only one they were attacking was Quadricentennial, who is in a completely different location right now. Perhaps you thought they were attacking you, because Steorra, Vincent and Darak were hiding from them. Well, wouldn't you be hiding as well if you saw a mass of walking corpses?\\
-
//i never said they were attacking me were does it say that and the solider i was talking about was one that ran away\\
-
(Ugh... One random lost Crimson soldier wandering around is okay.)
----
Vincent heard some commotion behind him, but paid it no mind as he was in the middle of a potentially important conversation.
"The Blue Minotaur? Hmm yes, I've heard of them, though I was unaware they had a presence here in the Dark Continent. Very well. As per our agreement, I have no intention of standing in the way of your affairs, so long as you do not stand in the way of mine. And though the men you resurrected were mine, they are quite useless to me dead, so I see no reason not to allow you to do what you want with them.
"However, I do require access to that complex over there."
He motioned to the remains of the crumbling fortress of Redvik.
"So if you would be so kind as to remove your forces away from the main entrance so we could get through, it would be appreciated...
"And when you are done with the Blue Minotaur, I do have a suggestion... more of a request really, since these all were my men at one time. Would you be interested in lending your undead in an assault on the town of Ugran and its surrounding mines? The spoils would be many-- a large supply of metallic weaponry, the finest on the continent, and much raw ore. Of course, you would be entitled to a large cut..."
Things seemed to be falling into place perfectly. Almost too perfectly... Vincent was now potentially digging his hand into a third nation.
-
//Arg, alright... Sorry, Xorguy, I'm kind of strongly opinionated...\\
"This seemed like a good idea. A town rich with resources and equipment? My troopers will need everything they can get. I thought about it for a second, and replied:
-"Sounds good. I, however, am only interested in equipment. Ore and other raw materials pose no interest to me. I have... different methods of getting them."
I looked at the half-ruined fortress.
-"Oh, why of course. However, my army sort of... borrowed some items from it. It would be quite a lot of trouble to gather them all back now. I hope you don't mind."
Since I couldn't just wave my hand and set the army in motion (well, I could, but that would cause the group a lot of suspicion), I climbed on top of a rock, and yelled at the top of my lungs:
-"LEGION, MOVE OUT! ONWARD TO THE HERETIC TEMPLE!!!"
At the same time, I gave my army a mental command to move. I heard groans of discontent in my head - the soldiers wanted to see their ex-General one more time. Unacceptable. I gave an even stronger command, and the army was now set in motion. I jumped off the rock.
-"Well, it was nice meeting you in person, High General. I do hope we meet again."
With these words, I commanded a wyvern somewhere behind me to fly over me and grab me by my shoulders, carrying me away. Don't you love theatrical effects?"
--- --- ---
Once Kronos was out of sight, Steorra dashed to Vincent. Because of the terror she experienced, she seemed to mix languages, creating vaguely understandable speech.
-"Dominus... Mea culpa... I thought that that erat not a bonus time... Kronos... Ea is not what he appeared to be... He is exceptionally powerful, et it would be unwise to underestimate him... Ea was controlling that whole legiones by himself... Ego think that he would have around as much power as Ragnar himself, only in different fields..."
She stopped for a minute, and caught her breath.
-"I've read about Necromancers back when I was still studying the ways of magic. If this one is any good, then I fear for us all. Now, heed my advice: whatever you do, under any circumstances, do not allow him to die. Necromancers can revive themselves, even in death - but only in a form with their powers multiplied thousand-fold. It is believed that this is because they themselves travel to the land of the dead. Whatever happens, this must not take place."
-
//Burton, here is what happened: Kronos, who is the current focus of that location, arrived there, and started raising zombies. There ARE soldiers inside the fortress, underground, but they are sitting there and not doing anything. They are aware of the army on top of them, and because of that they are not coming out of the fortress. Prior to Kronos' arrival, there was NO one there. Soon afterwards, Vincent, Darak and Steorra arrived. Still, NO Crimson soldiers. They got Kronos, who is now with them. Once again - NO soldiers. The only ones that were apparently there were the ones that were beating on Nick. I don't know how they managed to get there - once they'd seen Kronos raising corpses, they'd probably run or try to fight the undeads, in which case they'd fail.
Also, my guys were NOT attacking you. The only one they were attacking was Quadricentennial, who is in a completely different location right now. Perhaps you thought they were attacking you, because Steorra, Vincent and Darak were hiding from them. Well, wouldn't you be hiding as well if you saw a mass of walking corpses?\\
(//Wow. That cleared alot of things. Thanks for posting it.)
Quadricentennial continued to stick to the walls. The living dead were walking around the camp, some with old broken armor, but alas it was strong enough to last a thousand wars. Quadricentennial then remembered his helmet.
"Drat. I can't leave without my collectable. I must go back to that storage room."
He sidled along the walls and headed back towards the pillar and climbed it. He got back on the ledge. He peeked inside the window he crashed through. There were soldiers investigating the room.
"Double drat." He then thought of something. "Wait. Why go back when I can simply go through the same opening of the sewer I originally entered through."
Once again he climbed down the pillar and stuck to the wall and sidled along, sticking to the shadows.
(//BTW Ein, for my article on Campaign, if were not in Romme, where are we?)
-
//We are in the Crimson continent, next to Redvik. I don't know exactly who is in Romme right now. I am also somewhat at a loss where Quadricentennial is...\\
-
Allen nodded, but didn't seem THAT unnerved by it. He had been working with Retan as one of his lead alchemists for many, many years. He had "sort of" gotten used to the strange aura Retan had commanded.
"D-Don't worry, Aura... I'm sure we'll be fine... I know the others are coming... I can feel it," he said, trying to reassure the younger girl.
---
Zeros' nodded and accelerated more. A shockwave followed and rippled after him, as he sped past the group...
He could see the ship coming in clearer and clearer.. He could also see a strange, misty like substance suspended over and around the ship. He scanned it further and smirked a little... It seemed Retan was projecting his aura all around the ship...
"No time to dilly-daddle, guys! We need to hurry!" he yelled back to them.
-
"Good idea..." Duilin replied. He then strongly flapped his wings and began to only slightly tail behind Zeros'. Rink kept a good grip onto Duilin.
"No matter how many times we do this, I still don't like going this fast..." Rink complained
"Honestly, I don't enjoy it that much either." Duilin replied. "I don't even know how I can go this fast..."
----
"God, can they ever go fast." Valos thought to himself. "It'll be awhile to get there if I don't want to get detected..."
----
Darak rubbed his chin. He wasn't to sure about this Kronos guy; he seemed a bit odd. Yet, of course him being himself, he doesn't care too much.
----
Marshal continued his way following Tesla and the others. He felt a bit worried, the atmosphere and the air around him seemed to feel different.
-
"I will protect Kronos"said Nick."I shall not let him die this time i will not let someone die becuase of my cowardness." Nick's eyes burned like everlasting flames"Not this time"He yelled. A visable energy came around him as if he was on fire.
---
"Nick the first time wasn't your fault, it was mine i should have been there." Calavous walked up to his brother and touched him. nick energy grew 3 fold. Calavous backed away. "Brother stop it cool down." Calavous put his hand on Nick's Back and drained his energy. Nick fell down and Calavous hoisted him on his back.
-
//Don't hurry too fast. I'll never get to use Seijin and his connected plot device at this rate. Razz
The trio sped up to equal Zeros' speed, but the ship was still a little far off. "Damnit...!" Tsu was very worried about Aura. "I don't think we'll make it in time... Seijin... Don't let me down!"
"Wait, Seijin?" Zion looked up at Tsu questioningly.
"I told you once before..."
Seijin waited... Tensed up... Transcender in hand... "I don't like how this looks. I might have to go down there after all."
Aura's teeth and fists were clenched. She was scared, but stood her ground. "Others... Others...? No, no! I don't need Tsu! I can beat this myself!!!"
-
Jayce rose his head, looking past Melkoth.
"Excuse me. I'll be back."
Though the thickness of the mist, Allen and Aura could see a towering black figure slowly approaching them...
----
"Whoa, now. Slow down."
Vincent motioned for the rest to follow as he lead the group towards the front gates of Redvik while talking with Steorra.
"As powerful as Ragnar, you say? Hmm, well I would say that's a stretch, but of course I will be watching him anyway. Now what is this about him dying? That doesn't make any sense. If he would gain so much power, why wouldn't he just kill himself now?"
This art of necromancy was intriguing. As an alchemist, he had done some research in creating human life. He had come to the conclusion that it was not possible, as had many alchemist before. But the approach from necromancy was completely different, it being magical rather than scientific. Although the effect wasn't perfect and the resurrected beings were basically monsters, it was much more impressive than the disgusting blobs of flesh alchemists had produced in their failed experiments.
Passing several piles of rock and rubble, Vincent reached the front gate to the massive fortress and found it was left open, probably by those undead creatures...
-
Aura's eyes widened. "Wh-... Who are you?" She took her scimitar out, trembling a little bit, but still standing firm. "Do you come in peace?"
-
Steorra thought for a second.
-"There is only one other accounted record of that happening. I'd guess he doesn't want to take chances, since even he himself does not know what will happen. Now you would probably think that a megalomaniac like Kronos wouldn't care, and simply dive into this whole business head-first. Usually people like him - achieved people, with nearly infinite amounts of power - wouldn't care for death. I'd guess that he wants to do something before leaving this world... Perhaps something to do with that army? It couldn't be as simple as just destroying that temple he mentioned. Realistically, no matter how strong the temple's defences are and how powerful the people inhabiting it would be, you would not raise almost ten thousand zombies just for that. Not to mention those... abominations... did you see them?"
She then paused, and eyed Vincent suspiciously.
-"Heey... When he mentioned his name, you seemed to recognize him. Is there something that I should perhaps be aware of?"
--- --- ---
"I flew and flew and flew. As I was flying... an idea struck me. I was over the ocean dividing the Crimson Continent and the Kandarinian Souvereignity right now. I quickly disassembled the wyvern I was flying on, and rebuilt it to resemble a small flying platform. Letting go of the one bone I was holding onto while reconstructing the dead creature, I landed on the newly built platform, and sat upon it. This is an ideal place for a new centre of operations... Not too noticible, not too reachable, and best of all, easily defendable. The ocean beneath me was teeming with the spirits of dead creatures. If an emergency was to arise, I had much force to repel it, whatever it may be.
Well, here it comes. I slowly lowered the mental barrier separating my mind from the undeads...
VOICES!!! Booming voices from everywhere, every direction, every side, every plane, every dimension! Too loud...! Too noisy... too... distracting...
I felt myself collapse onto the platform. My mind was now fully spread across the army. Not only was I hearing voices from my troops, I also saw images from their... eyes? Whatever was left of them, anyway. At this point, I must stop writing, as I did not remember much from that point on..."
There was a small gap in the journal entries.
---
//Imperial March (Star wars, Darth Vader theme melody) plays:\\
The undead army was marching across the land. Every forest they reached, they cut down. Every village in their path was destroyed. All inhabitants, children, seniles, and women alike were slaughtered, just to be raised back as a part of the army. They were simply consuming all resistance.
Only to make matters worse, Kronos got a better hold of his army, freeing some of his mind. As the army walked, new undeads dug their way out of the ground, joining the main force. The army's magnitude was quickly climbing.
-
//We are in the Crimson continent, next to Redvik. I don't know exactly who is in Romme right now. I am also somewhat at a loss where Quadricentennial is...\\
(//Quad is somewhere in the castle with the monsters and ghouls that were summoned. Though looks like the char who occupies the castle has left. I dunno.)
Siddling along, he came to a halt for the wall ended. If he wanted to presume, he'd have to be out in the open.
Oh no. In such a territory with monsters running around. What am I to do. There was a window on top of him that was open. He looked in. It was a kitchen and there was a chef, who was now leaving. He climbed up on it but did not realize there was a pie cooling on the shelf and burned his hand.
"OW! He screamed."
"HEY! Whose that?" said one of the soldiers. Quadricentennial jumped inside and hid under the table. There was nothing covering it so he could be spotted if a soldier checked. Soldiers entered the kitchen. The checked around throughly in the kitchen. They check in the cuboards, inside the walk-in freeze box. One even looked under the table.
"Did you find anything?"
"No."
"He must of jumped through the window. Let's go."
They all left. Quadricentennial was lucky enough that the soldier only looked down and didn't check the top of it, which Quadricentennial hanged on too by holding on to the sides of the table that had a piece of wood suspended around the tabletop supporting the legs. He got down from it. He waited for the soldiers to be gone. After they did he got down from the table, only to see Magnot.
"AHA!" said Magnot.
-
Meanwhile at the Blue Minotaur temple...
"Elder!" General Roland said "We are being attacked!" He shouts in a scared voice
"Attacked?" The elder asks "But who could have found us out...Marshal..."
"What? What about Marshal."
"I bet that fool gave out our position. If I haven't of known any better I would have got rid of that boy."
"I don't think it has anything to do with that, your greatness. The...people who are attacking us...are well, zombies. Thousands of them, I think we may have to use, the Master Crystal."
"Well, DUH!" The elder then runs to the door way of the temple.
The temple was a large building, with torches on each corner of it, on the roof was a large blue crystal on a pedestal, and lower from it was a large prism.
The elder lifts up his hands, he sees the undead army coming towards him. Roland runs to the doorway and runs past the elder outside the temple. He draws his sword and holds out his staff with his left hand and begins to summon a something.
The large crystal above blasts a large blue laser as the elder's hands begin to glow a light blue color. The laser it blasted into the prism and ten separate lasers blast onto the ground. Instantly, ten minotaurs armed with large hammers were created. They surround the temple as the undead come closer and closer.
Soldiers of the Blue Minotaur come out of the temple, prepared to fight...
//Don't worry about saving the Blue Minotaur. In fact, don't.\\
-
The undeads were closing in on the temple. Soon enough, the first axe was swung - and an undead soldier crumbled to bits. The undeads stopped.
-"Do not resist us... There will always be more dead than living... Succumb... Die..."
The soldier that was struck down was quickly rebuilt, and got up. The undeads were in motion again.
The minotaurs guarding the temple roared, and dove into the army. The bones of the undeads being smashed by the giant hammers soared into the air, just to be rebuilt again by Kronos in the distance. An unlucky axe swing, and a slain minotaur collapsed on the ground. A few seconds later, however, it moved... and got back up. No longer alive, though. It rushed to attack the other minotaurs, that were still alive.
-
Allen frowns and looked close at the figure... It looked like...
He gasped. Jayce. He cursed under his breath, but made no movement to get into a battle stance or prepare anything.
While he was in Paradox, he had a revolution... He tried it out almost right before he got out and he was amazed at the results... He could now do Alchemy without a transmutation circle. It had only been recorded once or twice in histroy had alchemists ever done so.
He only stood firm and calmed himself and prepared his nerves...
---
Zeros' frowned and continued forwards at the same speed. It was as fast as he could go without using any of his ki or magical reserves.
He wanted to be prepared for Retan and Jatce.
-
Calavous tranfered some of Nick's energy into his body and he got up. "What shall we do General Sir?" Nick asked
---
Calavous walked up and introduced him self to the group and told then everything about why Nick summoned him through that transmutation circle, and how he got like that. " I was in another demention Hell I was there after a terible accident. I opened the gate of Hell with my powers in a last resort to kill an army so big it was going to unstopable. i was part of a force to go over those mountains. He pointed to mountain far out the horizon. It was a group of half demons called the Fallongs there were hundreds of then with great power. They were marching this way a few years ago aroud when the Crimson empire started. The only way to stop them was to open Hell and suck them in, but i had to sacrifice my self. There was only one surviver of the Fallongs and i sense his power still."
// is it ok to make npcs like that?\\
-
//Now I have absolutely no doubt. Allen's based on Ed. Razz Hagane no Renkinjutsushi is indeed good stuff. That's Fullmetal Alchemist.
-
//Burton, didn't I already tell you the Grey Empire only recently started, as in it was not around a few years ago. The Crimson Empire however was formed five years ago.\\
"Man, I hope I'll be able to take them..." Duilin says as he continues flying
"Well, we have Zeros' and the others." Rink says
"Yeah, it's just that I usually get really hurt in situations like this." Duilin mumbled. "Well not usually, just sometimes I do. Like I got that ugly scar above my waist when I nearly got impaled by a spear, remember when I told you about that."
"Owch...yeah I remember. Interesting story that was. I almost feel sorry for that Pophin guy."
"Heh, yeah."
//In case you DAL veterans (ie: Zeros', Trent, Haraldur and Xorlak) forgot, in Chapter 3, Pophin threw his spear at Duilin.\\
-
//Time for an epic battle... DM, when I talked to you about it in school, you didn't seem to care much for the Blue M temple, so I'll go ahead and take control, as it's an NPC anyway.\\
The undeads were advancing. One by one, the minotaurs fell. Roland, alarmed, lifted up his arms again, and began an extremely concentrated chant. The army, having consumed all ten minotaurs, kept crawling forward.
Suddenly, a bright beam of light erupted from the Master Crystal, and hit the earth right in front of the army. A large cloud of smoke arose.
-"RAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!"
A gigantic blue dragon was now standing in the middle of the dust cloud! It took a huge breath, and exhaled a long jet of fire.
The undeads were getting fried by the hundreds. The dragon, seemingly satisfied, took flight. It flew around the temple in a gigantic circle, and then soared behind the army.
Another jet of fire brought a few hundred more zombies to a nice crispy condition. The dragon flew high into the sky, then dived right into the middle of the legion, slamming into the ground. A terrible shockwave followed, crumbling another 50 dead troops. The army seemed to pause for a moment.
Meanwhile, Kronos was getting a little unrested. The Blue Minotaurs want to play with big toys? Very well...
Suddenly, a few trees from a forest just behind the blue dragon flew up into the air, crashing into some undeads. Four horrible creatures rose up from the woods, each as big as the dragon. One was an Ogre-Dragon, wielding a long whip made of bones. The second one was an odd mix between a wyvern and a monkey, in which it had two large wings and four enormous hands. Third was an exceptionally tall creature with five legs, each ending in a spike. On top of the legs rested a massive contraption with some undead ogres inside. The last abomination was huge. It was like a bug, covered with tough bone carapace, with thousands of tiny legs underneath it.
The dragon let out a fierce roar, and charged at the newly arrived reinforcements. The bug-tank, trying to hurry as fast as it could, crashed right into the dragon. The undead creature did not seem phased by the concussion; however, the dragon stumbled back, and shook its head in bewilderment. The ogre-dragon then leaped upwards onto its blue relative. The dragon, however, regained its stability, and slammed the ogre-dragon in mid-air, knocking it back down onto the ground.
Roland and the Elder were supervising the battle from above the temple.
-"That dragon completely drained me... I don't think I'll be able to summon anything else soon.", sighed Roland.
-"You did what you could, friend. Let us hope our blue servant shall be successful."
The Gorvern (gorilla-wyvern) hurried past the army to the dragon. Just as the blue reptile turned around, it was greeted by a bony fist right on its forehead. Another shot landed on its neck; third and fourth fell onto the places where the wings met the back. The poor creature wailed, and summoned its last forces in a powerful swing of its claw. The Gorvern's head soared high above the ground, landing somewhere in the distance. The rest of the massive body collapsed onto the ground.
The dragon was nearly out of energy, as three giant spikes nailed its wings to the ground. It looked up in desperation, seeing the Marcher (tall thing with ogres on top) above it. The ogres housed in the bone cage on top were released, all falling down on the dragon, and beating it. The mighty creature resisted, then gave up.
Kronos was quite content with the way things turned. "Time to count up the damage and deal some more..."
The temple grounds were quickly overrun by the zombie army. The bug-tank, the Gorvern and the ogre-dragon were dealing massive blows to the temple, crumbling it to bits. Any resistance was swiftly neutralized. The Marcher, however, walked over to the large crystal on top of the temple, and let some of its ogres down to get it. The ogres retrieved the giant prism, and loaded it up onto the Marcher.
Soon, the battlefield was deathly silent. Crushed undeads were being repaired by Kronos in the distance, and coming back to life. The "live" ones were salvaging what equipment they could find from the temple. Even more zombies were now making up the army. Now also consisting of some undead summoners, not many forces could match its power.
Roland was fighting bravely behind the temple, fending off the undeads. The Elder was next to him, assisting him how he could.
-"Well, my friend, it seems like this is the end. I don't know if we will get out of this alive or not, but that matters no longer. I want you to know it was a pleasure working with you..."
-"Spare me the teary speeches", barked Roland. "In case you haven't noticed, we have some other problems right now." He swung his sword at an incoming ogre, and busted another one's head right off its shoulders. "Look at this - as soon as I strike one down, it is instantly being repaired by some... force... If only we knew what it is! It woud definately be this army's weakne - ARGH!!!"
Roland missed an undead minotaur wielding an axe coming behind his back. The large rusty axe was now stuck in between Roland's shoulder blades.
-"Gah... *cough*... *gurgle*..."
-"Roland?! Are you alright?!"
-"Do I... *cough*... look... alright?"
-"Oh no, what can I do?"
-"You can do... *cough*... little... *gurgle*... to ease my pain, old friend... You must... *cough*... seek out Marshal and tell him of... *gurgle*... this onslaught..."
-"Very well, old friend. May the spirits be with you..."
Roland let out a final *gurgle*, followed by a *cough*, and stopped moving. The Elder quickly summoned a wyvern and hopped onto it, urging it into the skies. He almost made it... A huge bone whip from the ground struck him down, off the wyvern. He let out a scream, and fell onto one of the temple's spikes, dying instantly. The temple of the Blue Minotaur has fallen.
Kronos was as close to being happy as he ever came in life. The raid of the Blue Minotaur temple was a complete success, and even more than that. He directed his ogres to clumsily cast a spell on the Master Crystal, enabling it to now create beings under his own command. The Marcher let the ogres out, and took the undead summoners back inside. Perfect.
He then raised some more slain Blue Minotaur followers, further expanding his army. It was indeed a perfect assault force - anything that went down was almost instantly brought back again. The army's magnitude was now almost 14,000... including the blue dragon.
//Whoo! Long-ass posts own!
EDIT: DM, I probably made a million storyline integrity mistakes in that, and for that I am sorry. But please, let's keep it that way - I love the drama!\\
-
"Peace?"
The brutish voice echoed through the mist.
"Heh..."
Jayce stopped some ten feet away, just enough for his features to be visible.
"You must be the ones that let us out... Father would say to let you go. But don't get cocky. He knows as well as I that any puppet could have been made to do that..."
He began walking forward again, now focused on Aura.
"Yes, it's been a while... too long since I smelled human blood... Five years in the void without a decent meal. But what luck... the young females are the most delicious..."
He blinked his eyes as they showed slight reptilian glint, a large smile revealing fanged teeth. He made a leap for Aura, grabbing for her arm with his left hand...
----
(Nick: NPCs are fine.)
Vincent shouted back to Nick and Calavous:
"Yes, I believe I've heard of the skirmish with the Fallongs. You must be referring to the Crimson Empire, though, since the Grey has only just surfaced.
"We'll be going into battle shortly. Now is your last chance to leave. If wish to fight, then you must follow my every order... Take your time to decide. If you'll be joining, follow me."
He walked past the open doorway into the main hall of the crumbling fortress of Redvik, continuing his conversation with Steorra.
"Hmm, yes, those creatures did seem a tad excessive for an organization as insignificant as the Blue Minotaur... And your suspicians are correct, my lady. Kronos contacted me this morning through one of his beasts and we arranged an alliance. Which is convenient, since we haven't the time to worry about anything but Ragnar right now..."
There was a Crimson solider hiding behind a statue in the main hall, who Vincent shouted to without even looking.
"You can come out now."
"G-General Vincent? Is that you?! We've heard terrible rumors about the Emperor..."
"No time, Captain. I will explain later. Prepare the remaining airships for launch. We're evacuating everyone...
"And attacking..."
-
Magnot stood very still, as if he was commanded to.
"What is this?" asked Quadricentennial.
"I. Am. Needed. By. Master. I. Must. Go. Now."
"What?"
Magnot put his mace away and started running.
"Where is that loaf going? Shall I follow him? Do I have buisness anywhere besides my own?" Something in his gut told him to follow Magnot. As if the earth was asking for his help. He made up his mind and followed the beast.
-
//Finally!
Oh, hell. Alright, let's go. "You will not!"
Seijin slashed through the air with Transcender in a matter of microseconds, creating a tear in space. He crossed through and appeared directly between Aura and Jayce, snapping up a kick toward the Draken's forehead in an attempt to stop him.
Aura's eyes widened. "Wh- Wh-... Who are YOU, now?!"
"...I'm a planet-saving-order guardian."
"What now?"
"In time, child."
Seijin raised Transcender in a ready stance...
The trio stopped right there and then as they saw the huge displacement of air and energy where Seijin appeared.
"I remember now," said Zion, looking to Tsu. "You asked Seijin to take care of Aura."
"..."
"There is no 'in time!' All of this stuff has been happing all so suddenly, and I want to understand something, NOW!" A pissy foot stamp was issued by the female Lieutenant.
Seijin gave a sigh. "Wake up, Aura. Your heart is not moved? At all? You have no idea what he'd do for you. At least not until now. He would move mountains for you, he'd part oceans for you. He'd help save the planet, and ask a favor of its guardian... For you."
"You don't mean..."
"Yes, I do. You know exactly who I'm talking about."
"NO!!!" Aura's hands came to her head as if her mind couldn't take it... And it couldn't.
Seijin gave a heavy sigh and brought his eyes back to Jayce. He should be up by now, and ready to make another charge.
"I also asked him to help wake her up. To help make her realize. But that girl..." Tsu sighs. "I don't know if anything can erase the black mark she has on my name."
-
//Ein, no storyline mistakes at all. Roland and the Elder had no defined personalities considering they are only minor characters. That was a good post Ein!\\
Marshal then had this quick shiver down his back, as he continued flying towards Romme.
He then turned his head and looked at the giant moth flying next to him.
"Ein...I just had this strange feeling that something terrible has happened..."
----
Darak began marching forward and shouted. "You heard the General! Now move!"
He thought this may have been necessary seeing as he is actually much physically stronger then Vincent, so perhaps he'd be more intimidating to a few of the others.
He then turned around and looked at Steorra. "My lady, you since you are the most magically skilled of us all, I may have to tell you that if Ragnar is there you may have to confront him. Mages seem to have a much better chance of surviving against this 'person' then melee warriors such as me."
-
//Ah, just to remind you guys, Seijin had been charging up for the teleportation since last chapter... Just to make sure you know I'm not breaking the no unbounded instant teleportation rule. Mkay?
-
// Not completely. The instant transmutation thing is, though. \\
Allen blinked, as he had been waiting for the right moment to save Aura. Strong, he may not be, but a skilled alchemist... He was.
He was glad, though, that he didn't have to show his 'trick' yet. He needed to save it for the right moment... He would only have one chance.
He eyes shifted between the newcomers... Zeros', Tsu, Xenai, Zion, Seijin, Duilin and Rink... He sincerly hoped his allies would be able to win this for them...
He knew the frightening powers of Retan and Jayce... He also knew that these people, except Rink, helped in the downfall of the two terrible Draken.
He hoped, beyond hope that they would fall and never come back...
---
Zeros' landed, just as Tsu and his two companions did and looked between Seijin and smiles.
"Ah... Seijin.. It's been quite a long time since I've seen you... How many thousands of years has it been?" he chuckles, but his face than turns serious and his eyes look to Jayce.
"It seems it is true... You and your daddy are back... I can tell you now... It's useless. Everytime you come back, we'll just smack you down again... You're only wasting your time..."
-
The kick connected with Jayce squarely in the forehead, throwing his head back and to the right some six inches. His feet remained planted...
He held this pose until Seijin was halfway though his dissertation. His eyes opened, and he slowly brought his head back in place, cracking his neck in the process.
His attention shifted to Zeros'.
"You... Heh, typical. A fluke occupies our time for a while and you claim credit... This should prove... entertaining..."
He gaze moved back to Seijin.
"Food is more satisfying if it requires effort..."
He crouched slightly, his feet diging into the black planked wood of the deck, sending splinters in to the air. In an instant he was skimming over the deck towards Seijin in a dash, his claw-like black gauntlets held outwards to his sides menacingly.
The first strike was horizontal chop-like slash towards the guardian's torso, a trail of blackness following the gauntlet as it cut the misty air...
----
Doors to the underground complex were opened and soldiers scurried about. Vincent lead the ground downstairs, which was relitively undamaged. The stone walls were replaced with sorts of black metal ones, and there were many tourches about.
Vincent spoke with the captain, who was now walking alongside.
"Are the rumors true, sir?"
"You only need to know that we are now the Grey Empire, and I am now a High General."
"Huh? Y-yes sir..."
"How many able bodied men have we?"
"About 950. Some 600 are fighting class, the rest are engineers and alchemists. We have three battle class airships ready to fly, as well as some damaged ones that still need--"
"That is good. Load the men eavenly on the three ships and prepare for immediate departure."
The low count of men wouldn't help much, but he had plenty to crew the airships, and they would be much more useful than a land army...
-
Duilin landed and he let go of Rink. The imp jumped in the air and began flapping his wings hoving in the air.
"Hmmm, I somewhat recall this guy..." Duilin says eyeing Jayce.
"Somewhat?" Rink asked
"Yeah, I didn't see to much of him, I think his name is Jayce. He was at Romme but I didn't see to much of him, I also remember seeing a bit of him when I was in the Dark Empire..."
"Right...So who's the other guy?" Rink asks pointing to Seijin.
"No clue. Looks like Zeros' know him." Duilin then dashes forward a bit. "Might as well reintroduce myself then!" Duilin takes his mace out, he then begins to augment the mace in flame, it begins to glow a fiery orange-red, with waves of flame surrounding it....
----
"Hehehe..." Valos laughs to himself. "Let the show begin..."
The invisible Valos floats around 25 feet away from the group. He senses that a few others are coming.
//I hope Haraldur will remember to post.\\
-
The army has finished rearming. Kronos was now busy raising any of the corpses that he happened to overlook. Roland, who was lying behind the destroyed temple, slowly opened his glossy eyes, and got up. Meanwhile, Kronos heard an unusually clear voice in his head:
-"Ready to serve you, my master."
Even on the outside, Kronos visibly smiled. What a fortunate turn of events...
He got some of his undead troopers to salvage a nice unripped set of Blue Minotaur clothing for Roland. He put it on - it no longer seemed as though he was ever even hurt by anything. He summoned a wyvern, and began flying towards Marshal's current position.
--- --- ---
Steorra was walking along with Vincent, carefully listening to his words.
-"Airships? What are those?"
--- --- ---
"Kronos, Ijun 25, 3253. Now that I had a better control of the army, I had enough of my mind free to remember everything I did. I quickly summoned a Winged Messenger from the capital, who already had a prepared scroll. The scroll contained details of my victory over the Blue Minotaur, and the message that we are now avaliable for the conquest of Urgan. The winged messenger made its way towards Vincent, while my army began marching towards our next target."
-
Magnot continue to run and Quadricentennial followed behind. Peking suddenly flew next to Quadricentennial.
"Best to embrace yourself peking. Who knows were we go."
-
Nick and Calavous were catching up to the General and they agreed to join in the fight.
---
"I shall fight." Said Nick" But i will need time to get ready is that alright sir?" Nick was already adding some daggers and swords to his body. He took another sword and 4 daggers.
---
"As will I." Said Calavous." I will also need time to charge my energy." Calavous energy was already growing by 2 fold. "If you need i can teach your alchemists to summon?"
-
Aura, through her hysteria, glared at Tsu.
"Why do you glare at him?!" asked Seijin. He jumped upward, flipping to the side over the incoming chop. As he landed, he leapt backwards away from Jayce, tossing an energy ball as he did so that he could lecture the ignorant girl.
"He's... He's... He's so... ugh!!!"
"You're fighting your feelings! Wake up!"
"But he's not... Not nearly the guy I want!"
"What overcomes you, girl? I know what you were like back then... Back when the planet was saved so long ago. You were so idealistic..."
Aura's hands came to her head again...
Laus, 5 years ago...
Aura walked the streets, carefreely. She wasn't interested in sword fighting at the time. She was just a girl. Just a normal girl. A snobby-looking... And his looks do confirm his manner... This guy approached her. Aura gave a sigh.
"So, my fair lady... What say you? Will you court with me?"
"No, Zane. How many times do I have to tell you? You're not the kind of guy I want."
"Then what guy? What guy do you want? I have so much money. I could give you anything you want! Why will you not court with me?"
"Do you think I'm so brainless? So heartless? Love is not about whichever guy gets me the most stuff. It's about devotion! Something YOU can't do! You'd do whatever you'd do with me and toss me aside. I would be nothing but a fling to you! But I want something more! I want a knight, be he in rusty or shining armor, who would do anything he could for me. I want someone sincere, honest, good-hearted... Unlike you, you lying, snivelous, evil... So very hot... UGH! No! You're not the one for me, and that's all there is to it!"
She turned away from Zane and walked away from him.
"I wish I'd picked Zane..."
"Do you, now? Why is that?"
"Because I soon found out the guy I wanted doesn't exist! I found who I thought was the guy I wanted so long, and he betrayed me!"
"And that broke your trust."
"I figured that no guy could give me what I wanted, so I decided that a guy like Zane was good for me. In fact, he was perfect for me! I never found him, though! Instead, I have this... This... This ugly little nerd-bomber after me!"
Tsu clenched his fists... A faint red aura started to appear around him.
"When your trust was betrayed, you were infected with a demon, one that people in the Astral Plane have been fighting against for a very long time. You gave in to the evil in you, and it was permitted entry."
"What kind of crap are you talking about?" As she angered, the same type of aura started to appear.
"This demon is called Anti. It flows through the Astral Plane, finding the strongest, most good-hearted people on Gaian to conquer. Its selection is somewhat random... At least we haven't figured out how it picks who it picks. It waits for the right time, when any of those people start to weaken, and it enters. It is most attuned to three negative emotions: Hate, Misery, and Despair. When all three activate in the target simultaneously, it enters. And as these individual emotions rise inside someone, Anti's presence does as well. Like right now. I can see it." Seijin's eyes narrow. "You were infected at that moment your trust was betrayed. Hatred toward all men, Misery because of your betrayal, and Despair for never being able to find anything like that again. Tsu was infected too, when he found out your hatred for him. Hatred toward himself for what he was, Misery because of how you hate him, and Despair for never being able to be with you. However, unlike you, Anti has not changed Tsu's personality. He never gave into his evil. He fought. Unlike YOU."
Aura and Tsu were both starting to become beside themselves, as a second energy merged with them both. Tsu was locked onto Aura, and Aura locked onto Tsu. Tsu was the first to speak. "You don't see it now? You can't cut through your own-"
"Shut up! I'll not hear anything from you!"
"Aura, I-"
"SHUT UP!!!"
//And cue "Bat Country" by Avenged Sevenfold. Razz
Aura leapt at Tsu, slashing at him with her scimitar. Tsu's katana came out just in time to block the slash, but he would be pushed back, her pushing at him all the way, and both of them... Would go off the ship.
"Tsu!" "Tsu!" Zion and Xenai called after him. "Tsu! Aura!" Seijin, very discontented with the turn of events, called with them. He started to go, but froze before he got anywhere, looking back toward Jayce. "Oh yeah, I have an opponent. Say, I wonder... Since both of you died once, I wonder if I can fight your father after we crush you."
-
//Heh, sorry I haven't been so active...a lot's going on in the real world right now.\\
Alex was strolling with his bag slung over his shoulder, and his scimitar hilted on the belt around his waist. The snow crunched softly under his feet as he made his way to the edge of town, which was through the main marketplace. As Alex kept walking, he looked left and right at all of the stalls set up by traveling merchants. The merchandise sold here was as diverse as the snowflakes which hung in the air. The goods ranged from cakes to seafood to magic runes to swords and battleaxes.
Alex made his way to the gates of Glacia City, the last thing separating civilization from wilderness. On his way out, one of the guards stopped him.
"Alex, heading out again, are ya?" called Seth, a local who Alex had befriended.
"Yeah...going to Asgarnia," Alex replied, his breath instantly misting in the freezing cold.
"Well, be careful, man. A pack of wyverns moved into the region not long ago, so I'd steer clear of those things if I were you," Seth said, motioning his comrades to allow Alex by.
"Relax, I've got it covered. Besides, none of the shortcuts lead towards typical predator gathering spots. That's what they were meant for. I'll be back in a few weeks. Try not to burn all of the firewood again, Glacia only recieves 100 cords of firewood monthly," said Alex as he walked past the enormous iron gates which kept unwanted outsiders out.
"Good luck, Alex. I hope you find what you're looking for." Seth hollered as he waved goodbye.
Alex had left the warm embrace of Glacia behind, to head to a much more promising land. It almost never snowed in Asgarnia, and when it did, it was so little that it usually melted by midday.
It was still dark when Alex set out, the only light being a full moon, which was more than adequate to navigate by. Most residents of Glacia say that the nights in this region were more beautiful than the days, and for the most part, they were right. By day, Glacia looks no different than the other hundreds of snow-capped peaks which made up the mountain range, which stretched north and south for almost fifty miles. By night, however, Glacia was one of the most beautiful landscapes one could ever lay eyes on. For reasons no one can seem to explain, on some occasions the sky is ablaze with swirling ribbons of light, spanning all of the colors of the rainbow. In addition to that, the air is sometimes so dense with hanging snowflakes that you could take your hand and wave it through the air, and the snow crystals would dance.
Unfortunately, Asgarnia lacked such beauties, but made up for it in terms of prosperity. Almost anyone who moved there wound up becoming successful at one trade or another. Asgarnia was also abundant with natural resources, including one of the largest mines in the region, solely run by dwarves. Swarthy and bearded, these hard-working folk are surprisingly hospitable, allowing anyone to come into the mines for ore. All that they ask in return is to keep the workspace in good order, stay out of trouble, and occasionally a pint of beer here or there.
Alex had been traveling for some time, and he soon saw the first in a series of daunting shortcuts that allowed quick ascent and descent of the mountain. In this case, it was some rocks that could be used as handholds to climb past an impossibly steep slope. Of course, one could simply slide down the slope, which was faster, but far more dangerous. Alex, deciding that he was in no hurry, freed his hands up and prepared to climb across the handholds.
-
"Let's see how long that'll take, to crush him..." Duilin added...
He then dashed towards Jayce and swung his mace forward and it shot a narrow wave of quickly moving fire.
Rink sighed as Tsu and Aura began fighting. "They're wasting so much time." He then held both his hands out to the side, glowing orbs fire began to glow in his hands and become brighter and stronger...
-
The undead army continued marching, consuming all the resistance along the way. By the time it reached Urgan, its magnitude was around 22,000.
-
Jayce caught Seijin's energy ball with his right hand, crushing it into a muffled puff of steam.
"Humans and your petty squabbles!"
He sidestepped to the right, bringing up his left gauntlet as a wave of flame licked it and Duilin's mace missed him by a mere inch.
"You are a disease, the lot of you. Continously bickering over the most insignificant of things. Waging war at the drop of a hat and killing each other at every turn..."
He leapt in the air, flipping over the entire group.
"And your tone, as if any of you actually had anything to do with our little disappearance five years ago..."
He landed facing them some twenty feet away on the eastern side of the ship. He folded his arms and stood there. He still hadn't touched the hulking sword on his back...
"However, seeing your expressions of anger and pain is most amusing to me... I'll bet they'll be a thousand times more delightful, though... say, if you were to experience real loss, and not some petty argument..."
He extended his finger and stroked his chin, his grin widening.
"Since I'm in such a good mood, we're going to play a little game... The name of the game is Save the Worthless Dregs. If you would like to hear the rules, then you'll have to keep up..."
A black sphere burst from the man's body, swelling around him. The mist directly above parted like an inverted twister. Jayce shot skyward through the funnel and out over the Great Black Vessel in an instant, stopping some 500 feet above the wave. The darkness swelled further, engulfing the man as his upward motion stopped and he shot northeast right over the island of Romme, trees below lying down from the force of his flight...
----
Vincent turned to Nick and Calavous.
"It will be a little while before the airships are loaded and ready for launch, so you still have time to prepare. Not more than twenty minutes, though. As for your question, the alchemists here are in charge of airship maintenance and development, and not really suited for summoning."
He turned back to Steorra.
"You've never seen an airship, my dear?"
The doors opened at the end of the hallway as the reached them, revealing a massive open space underground. Long platform extendend into blackness, for the far end of the room wasn't even visible. At the ends of the platforms stood several black ships. They were huge, complete with cannons and sort of small fin like wings.
"These are airships..."
Three of the larger ones had a faint yellow glow penetrating through small partitions in the black metal in spots. The others had no glow and seemed to be damaged in various spots.
The functional ones were being hurriedly loaded with supplies and troops...
A soldier approached from behind.
"A message from... uh, Kronos, sir."
"Yes?"
"His army is available to attack Ugran, sir. Or so a sort of zombie monster with wings told us outside..."
"Excellent... Tell him to watch for airships from the south."
"Yes sir."
The soldier ran back outside to relay the message to Kronos' undead messenger.
-
Calavous Started to charge his energy the massive power was lifting him from his feet. His eyes turned red and the demon inside him was coming alive. His hair was blowing like leaves in the wind.
---
Nick went into a room not far away from the airships. He put on dark red clothes, put two swords across his back and daggers across his waist. He walked up to vincent and said "Im ready I shall help with you preperations sir." Nicks demonic energy was brewing inside of him ready to come out just like that. Energy growing and growing between Nick and Calavous' energy the the whole place felt like it was blowing up.
-
"High General." Darak said. "I'll aboard the airship now, I'd rather not fly." He then looked at Steorra.
"You wanna come on the airship? You look like you could use a rest."
----
"Aw crap..." Duilin groaned. "I've got a bad feeling about this..." He then flapped his wings and jumped into the air, he was surrounded in a fiery aura and hovered into the air a bit and he held out his left arm. Rink then jumped to Duilin, and he grabbed on. Duilin then flew off towards Jayce's direction.
----
"God damnit." Valos snapped. "When the fuck is the action going to start! Is all they are going to do is just fly around. God this is boring..."
-
"Zion, Xenai! Try to keep up!"
"Sei-" Before Zion could say anything, Seijin had already taken off toward Jayce, and at an amazing speed. Zion and Xenai followed the fastest they could, but they still weren't as fast as Seijin.
"As it is now," said Zion as he started to speculate, "Seijin is only allowed to fight Jayce. Because he almost klilled Aura. But his point is a good one: Retan and Jayce died. These gods do have a code... But is there a loophole that allows him to fight someone dead on the living plane?"
"Who knows. We should prob'ly save our strength in case he can't."
--- --- ---
The last battle between Aura and Tsu was starting under the ocean. They didn't pay any mind to breathing. It seemed they didn't need to. Aura pointed her finger down at Tsu, who had already sunk deeper. She shot multiple beams of light at him. Tsu countered by sending his own to intersect them. The two warriors shot at each other, creating a sonic boom that resonated through the water. Their swords clashed with their owners' immense strength behind them, displacing the water around them in the shape of an extremely large sphere.
The auras around them were like fires. A translucent red, full of hatred, misery, despair, and most of all... Evil. Anti had given Aura the ability to fly. She didn't need her disc right now. The two were at a standoff in the air, inside the displaced sphere of water which could collapse in at any time. They glared at each other, not breaking eye contact. They both started at the same time, with the exact same attack. A horizontal slash, coming from their left sides. The swords deflected each other, and a melee exchange began at lightspeed. The water sphere then collapsed, at first engulfing the two warriors. However, a bubble of air plently large enough to contain the two warriors was intact, and filled by Anti's aura.
It was on. Now that their demons were revealed, this would be their last time.
-
The moment Jayce had let his guard down, Zeros' had already ghosted inside his defense, appearing right in front of hm and swinging his fist towards the Draken's face. His fist seemed blurred as it traveled faster than the speed of sound.
It seemed that he was MUCH faster and stronger than when Jayce had last fought him.
---
Allen shivered at all that was going on and went to stand by the crurrent non-combatants to watch the fight.
-
Steorra hesitated. The village she grew up in has never seen an airship, and she was relatively afraid of going in. Then again, she hasn't slept in nearly two days...
-"Lord Vincent, I... uh, and Darak, you know, I've never been on a machine of such caliber... I think I will depend on myself this time."
She has cast her spell on herself, with another pair of magnificent wings behind her. The wings alone lit up almost half of the room.
-"I understand, it's a bit noticible... It's the best I can do, though."
She turned around to Nick and his brother, her blonde dreadlocks blowing in the wind generated by the eminating energy.
-"Hey, you guys might want to tone it down - you wouldn't want this whole place to blow up now, do you? Also, Nick... Those clothes you're wearing right now... They're new. Do you always keep a wardrobe with you whenever you travel?"
--- --- ---
Ein flew a bit closer to Marshal, and telepathically questioned him about his strange comment.
-"What do you mean, something bad? How can you know?"
Just then, another dark figure appeared at the skyline, and dived towards Marshal. As it got closer, one could identify a man riding a wyvern. He flew in Marshal's direction. The man was Roland.
-"Hello, Marshal. Long time, no see", he said, in an unusually hollow voice.
//Remember, right now there's no way Marshal can tell he's a zombie just by looking at him...\\
--- --- ---
Kronos, already aware of the response from the messenger (as he was controlling it), directed his army to attack Ugran. The undead horde crawled closer, and began slaughtering everything in its sight...
//Argh, Haraldur, where are you?! I'm not going to hold back, sorry. In 3 posts, Ugran will be overrun by undeads unless you post.\\
-
"Roland!" Marshal said sounding surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Just stopped by to say hello..." He replied
"Why?" Marshal seemed a bit confused. "You know that I've been banished, right?"
"Oh yes, I know..."
"Ein..." Marshal whispered. "Something doesn't seem right..."
-
Ein scoffed, although on the outside it seemed more like a click.
-"No shit? Some random guy just shows up out of nowhere, moreover, while we are moving. No one should even know we're here!
He backed up a little bit.
Roland, however, stayed at the same distance.
-"So, long-lost friend... How is your life?" Roland seemed to visibly flinch when he said "life".
-
Nick looked at Steorra "Yes I do" Charging 1/3 //For both//
" I shall go there by foot " . Nick ran out of the massive underground city sprinting faster than the speed of sound.
---
Calavous went into the airship his energy still growing if he stops now no one will survive the blast of energy " Lets head out. Send me in first I will whip out there first defences. //Are we attacking castle army Etc?//
-
//We are attacking a city, which is already partially-consumed by my army.\\
The undeads were digging deeper into Ugran. Fallen troops were revived, and slain enemies were converted. Defying every possible law of war, the army was getting bigger as it attacked...
//2 posts remaining\\
-
/*I wish Xorlak would respond.
I guess I gotta step up all my characters a bit. It's really bad if Zeros' is substantially more powerful than a god.*/
One last clash of the swords would send Tsu and Aura backwards, away from each other, and up towards the surface. The two warriors were now miles away from each other, but could see each other very clearly. They took off toward each other at an insane speed, dashing acrosss the water, creating immense wakes behind them. They slashed at each other, clashed, and sprung away from each other, Tsu being the first to go behind his wake. It seemed as if in that instant, he was behind Aura as she went behind hers. A mighty upward kick was issued that would send her an immense distance into the air. Tsu flew up to intercept her in a matter of seconds. He spun around several times and slammed the flat-edged katana into her. She shot down into the ocean, creating a massive crater. Tsu sheathed his sword and pointed his palms down at her...
"Twilight Blast!!!"
A huge, sparkling blacklight ray shot down toward Aura. She had hit a large hillside in the water, and was lying there until she realized what massive damage the slash had done. She got to her feet just in time to see the Twilight Blast slam into her.
But they both knew it wasn't yet over.
-
"Well...actually it's been okay. I've been doing some revolutionary work with the Aspyes." Marshal replied
"Really and how is that working out for you?" Roland replied smiling
"Umm...okay...Seriously, why are you here?" Marshal asked in a determined and stern voice.
-
-"Well, actually, it's because the Elder seems to be having trouble in the area of..." Roland paused. "High-energy demonology. As you can surely remember, no one there was better at it than you. The Elder is getting old, and can no longer do some things as good as he used to."
He rewarded Marshal with an icy cold look. His eyes were somewhat glossy, but exceptionally calm.
-"Now... Are you ready to come back? All your past... mistakes were forgiven. You are once more welcome in the temple."
-
(Job + long commute = one post per day for me. Heh...)
(Clarification: Jayce and Retan never died. They just got sucked into another dimension.)
----
Jayce's left hand flashed in front of his face, smacking into Zeros' fist. His forward motion stopped completely, the abruptness of the two motions colliding sending a black shockwave outward in a diagonal circle, blasting apart a gigantic rip in the forest of Romme below, leaving a deep cut chasm in the earth...
The vile Draken had apparently increased his power output to match...
"Oh, so you do want to play... good, good... The rules are very simple..."
There was a flash of darkness... Blackness seemed to exude from the sky above and melt down towards the horizon... The figure of Jayce that caught Zeros' punch slowly disintegrated into smoke after four translucent images of the dark man quickly flew from it, two above Zeros' and two below...
"I get one point for every human I kill... You get one point for every human you stop me from killing... If you beat me, I let you live... for a while... Sound like fun?"
The four images flew wildly past Zeros' past the opposite shore of Romme and over the ocean to the northeast... Two plunked underwater with huge splashes and the other two spun around each other distantly as they rocketed skyward...
The mountains of Tjed were on the horizon...
----
Vinent placed his left hand on Steorra's shoulder.
"Listen, m'lady. These are the most technologically advanced warships on the planet. We've mages to cast protective barriers around the whole ship as well as backup the magical core-- It's a whole lot safer to be on board then flying around outside. Look, you can ride on the deck in the open air if you want, and take off using your wings at anytime if you feel the need."
He turned to the others, noting the preparations were complete. A blinding light filled the whole chamber as the roof slowly opened, flooding the underground dock with daylight, even though the sky was overcast.
"It's time. Let's go!"
He walked up the ramp, following the narrow passageway to the well windowed control room. Stragglers rushed on board as the engines of the three behemoth ships hummed louder and louder.
----
(I'm sure something has come up with Haraldur and he's busy. However the story does need to move forward. Give him at the very least until Wednesday. And let's see some NPC spirit while he's gone, people!)
The revolutionaries were somewhat disillusioned when the undead army suddenly attacked, without their main leaders present and all. The initial terror soon boiled into a war fervor one more, as the black flags were raised high once again.
"Vive la revolution!!!"
The well armed revolutionaries charged the undead gallantly, hacking many down on the spot, but the effectiveness was waned by the undead's high endurance.
A group of mages burst on the scene sending waves of flame into the mass and burning several zombies.
"Fire! Use fire!"
-
//Right, Wednesday it is. Also, I don't know what you meant by spirit, Xorlak, but I suppose you meant going into more description?\\
The burnt zombies collapsed on the ground, but got up again. The mages casted another wave of destructive flames, this time burning the zombies to cinders.
Meanwhile, Kronos quietly cursed. It took much more time to repair burned undeads, so he didn't even bother. Instead, he just arose a few new creatures on the same spot the dead ones fell. The defenders need not know the weaknesses of his troops...
The mages were amazed as new troopers arose from the ashes of the old ones. They were ever so much more amazed by the four enormous creatures coming in from the direction of the army. The bug-tank, ogre-dragon and the Gorvern got to their usual businesses - crushing larger better-armed infrantry, demolishing the city's defences, among other things. The Marcher, however, strode over to the bigger concentrations of enemy troops. Their swords were quite ineffective against the bleached bones the creature's legs consisted of.
The resurrected Blue Minotaur summoners at the top got to work. They each casted a spell into the Master Crystal also housed inside the Marcher. After every set of incantations, the Crystal shone a beam down on the ground. The illuminated place soon brought about a creature - a wyvern, a dragon whelp, an ogre... Even a minotaur, very occasionally. The newly-spawned beasts fiercely charged at the enemy.
Kronos, however, was not satisfied. The action was moving... It was not moving fast enough. Time to bring in the new instrument of war.
Back at the battlefield, a truly frightening phenomenon could be observed. At the very line of horizon, the skies were getting darker, concealing a something that was flying in the middle of the event. People were pointing and staring. The scariest thing, however, was that the thing was approaching. People could now vaguely make it out.
It looked like a blue dragon... A very deformed blue dragon. It was about 65% decayed. Loose leathery skin on the wings miraculously supported the abomination, as it dove right to the middle of the army. It opened its mouth, filling whatever was left of its lungs with air, and contracted them...
It wasn't fire that erupted from its mouth. In fact, it was quite the opposite: a concentrated icy mist froze about a dozen soldiers in place. Ground-bound zombies were now effortlessly shattering the defenceless troops.
//I can't quite control both sides of the fight - if not Haraldur, somebody please take control of the Ugran army. I just can't get myself to go against my own side...\\
--- --- ---
Steorra smiled at Vincent's proposition.
-"Thank you, it is indeed a generous offer. Especially considering the fact that I've just joined your side. I mean, judging by the fact that, according to you, these ships of air are the most advanced on Gaian, I suspect that we are in a secret compound. Chances are you wouldn't let just anyone in here. I do not know how you do it, my friend, but you've certainly won my trust. Oh, and of course, I am on your side", she quickly mended. "Well, enough talk, I suppose... Darak, I'll see you soon, I hope."
She flew up through the hangar bay doors, and fluttered in the air far above the ground. Her wings could still be recognized, even in broad daylight.
-
// Zeros' is both a god and a demon, althought half of each. He's also been the guarding Gaian from extreme threats for millions of years. So long, in fact, he can't remember all of it. He barely remembers a hundred years ago.
Plus... Look at Haraldur. He's basically equiv. to a God. \\
Zeros' cursed. Loud.
"FUCK!" he exclaimed and cursed some unpleasent words in different languages, most inillegable unless you had a vast understanding of demonic and god culture.
"Damnit..." he growled and looked at his fist, clenching his scarred fist tightly, so that rivets of blood started to flow. "They're heading to Tjed! We have to hurry!" he growled again, as his anger started to take over, his hair growing much darker, as his wings started to warp from feathery into leathery type wings with a red, shimmering glaze. His eyes also turned from emerald green to a dark red. If you could see inside his mouth, his front inscisors started to enlongate slightly, almost into psuedo-fangs. His hair also shortened from it's long state to a short, almost spikey hair-do.
He muscles started to bulge, as he crouched and jumped. The ship dipped down, as he jumped off and flapped his mighty wings once, his wing span now reaching 25 feet from tip to tip, as he accelerated fast, using his ki to push him past the sound barrier several times at once. His trenchcoat came off in mid-jump, revealing his heavily scarred and battered body, now only having his pants, boots and sword on.
Soon, he was speeding off towards Tjed, wanting to get there before Jayce, much faster than he had gone from where he was with Valos to the ship.
---
Allen tried to keep his nerves and blinked at the abruptness.
"What th--" he was cut off, as he felt the ship dip. He lost his balance and stumbled, landing on his butt.
"What the hell?" he said, confused as to what just happened.
All he understood was that Jayce wanted to kill... And it seems there was a town nearby, just ripe for the picking...
Deciding he wasn't safe here, he took out a small, metal disk from his pack and threw it off the ship. He smiled, adjusted his glasses and cracked his neck. He started to run, but stopped, as Zeros' coat landed nearby. He shrugged and picked up the coat, before jumping off the ship.
A few moments later, Allen could be seen speeding off into the direction of Tjed, although MUCH, MUCH slower.
-
"Aw shit!" Rink exclaimed. "Hurry it up Duilin!"
"I knew we have going to do something to Tjed!" Duilin then began to fly increasingly faster. Not as fast as Zeros', he was probably going to fast for anybody to keep up.
----
Marshal narrowed his eyes. He didn't believe him, but he was still interested in what Roland intended. Marshal, being a man who craves adventure, then smiles. "Lead the way Roland..."
"Excellent..." Roland grinned. "Let us go..."
----
"The dragon! Attack the dragon!" One Asype mage exclaimed. They began to quickly shoot fireballs at the large zombie dragon. The large creature then turned its attention to it.
As the zombies that were marching in began to smash at the frozen combatants, several trap doors from the ground snapped up, with a Black Guard armed with a machinegun inside, they began to gun down the ground-bound zombies.
-
"Dude, we gotta kick it up! These guys are pretty much gods!"
"Yes, I know. It may be bad for us if we go too far, but we gotta put everything into it."
The two stopped holding back, and took off at full force after Jayce.
"It's 4 against 1!" yelled Seijin to Jayce. "You can't win this game!" Sejin himself also kicked up to full power. He was, of course, a god, and as such, his power was quite comparable to Zeros'. However, as things stood right now, he could only fight this fight before going back to his cloud. He then took off after Jayce, quickly gaining on him.
--- --- ---
The hit she had taken was extremely hard. Her armor had shattered, leaving only the black undersuit, which was cut and torn in various (but none inappropriate) places. The flame around her was burning more violently than ever... And it was healing her wounds, too! Tsu glared at her from afar, his flame burning just as intensely.
"I know you'll hate it if I use your own move on you..." said Aura, resentment apparent in her voice.
"...?"
Without a word, Aura appeared behind him, scimitar in hand. Tsu turned around just in time to see the barrage he would come under. "Kuon Katsu!" She started a flurry of slashes that the normal eye would see only as a blur. The last slash would be followed by Tsu creating a sonic boom as he shot backwards.
Aura created one as well as she shot right past, stopped behind him, and kicked him diagonally upwards. She next appeared right above him... A Spiral Sphere already in hand! But this one wasn't white. It was purple. She slammed it down into Tsu's gut, and he shot right down into the ocean, creating yet another crater. How much abuse would Gaian take before this fight ends?
-
As the craters appeared in Gaians earth, small pinpricks of light slowly rose into the air, shimmering and twinkling different colors. As they rose, the craters started to slowly repair themselves. Almost unnoticable at first, but if one studied closely, they seemed to slowly fill up, any cracks slowly, ever so slowly, closing.
---
Zeros' growled, as he flapped his wings again, accelerating him again, the shockwaves showing below him as the water seemed to be ripped apart.
"JAYCE!" he roared out, his voice shaking with rage. "GET BACK HERE!" he exclaimed loud again, his voice echoing in the air. In his hands, two balls of dark red - almost black - ki formed in his hands. He threw them like baseball pitches, breaking the sound barrier, as he spied the two Jayce's that had flew skywards. The two energy balls rocked off after them, one on each.
---
Allen blinked and shuttered, as he heard Zeros' voice, filled with rage and anger. It seemed that's what was fueling his transformation. Any other person that had been with him when he went full Demon before, they would of noticed vast differences.
Allen frowned, as he saw the others speed past him, his little invention not able to keep up with their extreme speeds.
But, he figured, I'm not strong enough to do anything to help anyways...
Those were his thoughts as he seemed to drift lazy towards Tjed, in comparison to the others.
-
Duilin continued towards Tjed, chasing after Jayce and his clones.
"Man, Zeros' is getting very angry. I wonder why?" Rink asked
"I think Jayce may have had something to do with the death of one or both of the children Zeros' used to protect." Duilin replied softly.
"He's like...getting more demonic." Rink said, looking closely at Zeros'. "Geez he's kind of hypocritical..." He mumbled softly after that
"What?"
"Oh nothing. Hey Duilin, you think you could blast something at one of those Jayce clones?"
"Not very accurately when I'm going at this speed. I'm not a god you know."
"Could have fooled me..." Rink mumbled
"What?"
"Oh nothing!"
-
Calavous got into the airship and and grabed the edge as he was about to slip off it." Whew close call, would have broken a bone there". He walked up to the piloit and asked if everything was ready to go.
---
As Nick ran out the underground city he grabbed a grapling hook off of a rack. He reached the outside of the city. He looked back and saw the airships about to departure. He kept running towards Urgan, as he did he started swinging the grapling hook. From the speed of Nick running the trees started bending. Emence power bursted from him as he ran dodging trees. The grapling hook started to be unbalanced, it hooked a tree and riped it from the ground. The massive tension from the snag brought Nick back fifty feet.
//What is an airship exactly? Like a starwars kinda thing or a flying boat?\\
-
"Heh heh heh heh hehhh..."
The two spheres of energy trailed the two translucent images of Jayce closely, spiraling around each other as the images circled one another in the air. The spiral was tightened closer and closer until the two orbs collided, painting the sky and sea crimson in a tremendous explosion...
"You'll never be able to beat me like that, half breed. Demons are almost as worthless as humans, and more disgusting...
"As for you, god, we will have our way with your kind soon enough... we Drakens are the prefect race, and will soon rule gods and demons alike... so yes only four against me is quite unfair... for your side... The game begins NOW!"
The images of Jayce grew and faded into blasts of wind...
In the port town of Kesnar, the town where Zeros' and Duilin visited earlier and received the ship from the port, located on the southwestern shore of Tjed, people gathered on the beach looking at the strange lights in the sky to the southwest...
Suddenly a very violent wind from the ocean knocked them down. The villagers warily stood back up, and began nervously talking and pointing as Zeros', Seijin, and the others came into view heading their way from over the sea...
----
(These are more classical RPG-ish airships, so they resemble sea faring ships. However, they're made of a glossy black metal instead of wood and don't have any propellers or anything like that. They're powered by air elemental crystals and such, and thus give off a dim yellow glow from their undersides.)
The three ships slowly rose out of the hangar, Vincent's in the lead. They took off towards the northeast as their mighty engines roared.
It was quite quiet in the control bridge, though. Vincent placed his hands behind his back and stepped towards the front most set of windows, observing the land below pass on either side of the deck, which was almost completely visible from the bridge.
"It won't take long to reach Ugran. Hopefully we'll meet up with Kronos first, so we can coordinate an attack. Keep your eyes peeled for a medium sized land army, probably 7 to 8,000 strong..."
-
Nick got up from the ground."Aww my neck". He looked behind him" ouch! I landed on a rock" Nick started to get up and saw the Airships coming. He swung the Grapling hook and it clenched the side of the sleek black Airship he started to climb up. Wind pushing him back and forth. "Aww crap he said about to hit the tree tops of a forest. He quickly climbed up to the top to see that Vincent was on the ship. "Sir" He said being surprised.
---
Calavous looked off the side of an airship no to far away from where Nick was. Energy Continuing to grow by the folds.//Charging 2/3 for both\\ He saw the rope hanging from the ship infront of him "Nick" he said to himself.
-
Away on a distant mountain fort...
"Shaak! Where the hell is our food!?!" Shouts a large muscular orc to a much taller skinnier orc.
"I don't know Kraig, go ask the chef." Replies Shaak.
"He isn't a chef, he's a smoothskin! I hate smoothskins!" Kraig shouts using the word smoothskin, a term orcs use toward humans.
"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" Shaak groans.
"Good, 'cause that?s what we're having for dinner."
The two orcs head toward the dining area (By dining area I mean pile of dead horses).
"This horse meat tastes like shit!" Kraig yells as he throws the meat to the ground.
"That's because you?re eating its ass!" Shaak says and he and some others start to laugh.
"Shaak, we need to go in to town and look for some work. I'm starvin' for some smoothskin meat!" Kraig shout and the human chef turns away in disgust.
"Alright. We'll go down to Ugran." Shaak replies and they continue to eat.
-
//Xorlak, you probably know this already - Vincent doesn't - but the army is around 22,000 big now. Just in case.\\
The dragon whipped its head around, and another cloud of mist erupted from its mouth. The remaining fireballs froze as they were coming towards the dragon. The mages were in confusion.
-"What the hell?! Normal dragons are supposed to breathe fire! This is some kind of a... a... a demented un-dragon!"
The Un-dragon charged at the mages, throwing them to the sides. At the same time, it froze a dozen more soldiers directly in front of it.
---
The undeads were not phased much by the machine-fire. Some got their limbs torn off, others crumbled to bits. However, just as their remains touched the ground, they repaired themselves, and got back up in the form of a new undead. The army kept expanding, consuming more and more of Ugran's population, while the giant beasts were reducing the buildings to ruins. Ugran was nearing a complete fall.
---
"I was getting tired of waiting for Vincent. Since it was closer, I sent an undead summoner from the Blue Minotaur temple to seek him out. The summoner was mounted on a wyvern, so it should reach him quicker than usual."
--- --- ---
Roland smiled, although his smile looked forced and empty.
-"I knew I could count on you, Marshal. Onward."
They flew towards the temple. As they were flying, a different person on a wyvern passed them by, flying in the opposite direction.
-"Hmm, it seems more of our brothers are seeking out the long-lost ones. We should be complete again very soon."
In the distance, Ein followed them. He turned his shade a bit lighter, to blend in with the daylight.
--- --- ---
Steorra was vacantly flying over the rising airship. It reached the required altitude and began to slowly move forward. She circled it a few times, and then simply fixed herself over it, matching its speed.
-
//I apologise for my absence: I have recently lost internet access, and I can only visit this place very infrequently, so I ask for patience.//
Melkoth waited patiently, watching the battle with mild interest, and adding mental notes on all he saw.
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur calmly cast aside the weapon, and smirked at Retan as he heard the sound of battle outside.
"Discuss? What topics are those that you wish to discuss?"
He telepathed to the rest of the Comrades: Those of you coming to Romme, make your presence explicitly known. The rest I leave up to you.
____________________________________________________________________
//I think I made Laus and Vikingagard land on Alterna, if not, then they have just come back from the other universe and done so, hehe...//
All through Alterna, the population of mages were getting signals from the Ugran about a necromantic attack on Gief. //Ugran is a region, not a city. Gief is the capital city, so I assume the attack is on Gief.// This included what used to be Laus and Vikingagard.
Since much of the construction work was finished, many of the now magically adept people had free time, so millions of people, using magically powered flight, hovered up in the air. They quickly formed small discussion councils, each sending a delegate to other councils, until there was just one council of a small number of delegates. A voluntary command structure was set up, with Bernard Goujon chosen as General because of his battle experience. The council broke up, with the delegates, now elected officers by the men under them, returning to their respective columns, with Goujon taking his own.
Goujon looked back, and saw millions of mages (about 1/5th of the population of Alterna, so 8 million) bobbing up and down on the air, flying various flags all symbolising one thing: international solidarity among all Anarchist Communist Technocrats, among all Aspyes.
They flew East and a little North, at fast speed.
//They will arrive at Gief later this post, to make up for my absense. This response is meant to be immediate.//
____________________________________________________________________
Gief was now almost taken, but from the west, from a recent battle with the Grey Empire, a corps of mages swarmed in on flying horses, landing on the Un-dragon's back, and slicing it to pieces, watching its crumbling smash other undead. They quickly set it and the things around it aflame, reducing it to ashes.
Some undead was now in the middle of the city of Gief, but none controlled the walls. From the walls, fire from numerous imported plasma rifles shot into the centre, burning the undead "alive", into ashes, so emptying the city.
To the east, lay other cities in the Ugran, and from then more black flags and warriors and mages rode forth, meeting the undead horde head on. Their losses were apalling, further fueling the undead horde, but with the later release of prototype flamethrowers, they started to hold their own, now in the dynamic equilibrium of bloody stalemate, but at least they were preventing the zombies from moving further forward. They had received news of the return of Retan and Jayce, and so knew why their heroes could not help them at this time.
From the North, Aspyes dwarves, miners from the Northern mines, flying a red flag with a yellow hammer on it, marched, then stopped. They had been dragging logs, which they constructed quickly as catapults, as they had been prefabricated. Behind the lines, large balls of twine-like hay were being soaked in hot oil, and placed on the catapults, and then lit, and then released. The flaming orbs arced through the sky before crashing into the dead ranks, scattering many and burning others.
But still there was yet no force from the South to surround the undead army...
____________________________________________________________________
As the Alternans flew forward, below them three airships could be seen flying towards Gief. With a quick flying council of the officers, one officer, by the name of Juan Vidal, took a troop of 2 000 mages, the column electing a temporary replacement officer, called Maite Boillan (pronounced my-te (te as in Latin "te") boi-y-an), a woman.
Vidal and his troop descended down towards the airships as the rest of the columns flew quickly above, disappearing over the horizon. They then attacked.
200 of them dropped fireballs onto the decks as another hundred, zapped lightning towards where they thought the engines would be. The other 1 700 shot a mixture of machine gun and rifle fire onto the ships, hoping to cause some structural damage, or human damage.
____________________________________________________________________
From the south, the undead army was then surrounded as a result of the influx of 8 million Alternan mages. The undead army was big, but not in comparison to the mages. A swift flurry of fireballs was soon to come, destroying all the summoned creatures and most of the undead, just leaving a core around Kronos, and that a core swamped by hot ashes and embers, setting fire to the edge of the core. The core number 2 000 only, and the Alternan losses had been negligable through sheer force of numbers. However, only half of them had yet attacked.
2 millions fireballs and 2 million bolts shot down at Kronos and the core, and then 8 million more fireballs as the mages used their second attacks. More shots came from the walls of Gief.
As it stands now, 2 000 undead plus Kronos (assuming he is with his army) are swamped by a thousand tonnes of ashes and have 12 million attacks falling towards them. //This might seem excessive, but this is effectively a charged attack, and even a charged attack from the previous chapter. And Alterna is pretty damn big.//
Maite, Bernard and the other officers, and the troops, watched with baited breath to see what would happen.
____________________________________________________________________
Makhno turned back towards Ugran as soon as he heard word of the attack through signals. Tesla and Durruti went on after wishing him luck.
They finally arrived at Romme to already see a battle commencing, and were pleased at this. A red and a red and black flag were waved (no black flag as Makhno was not there) by them after being materialised. Tesla aimed, with the scope on his plasma rifle, at a dark shape on the horizon, the shape of Jayce, firing two plasma shots at him from afar, hoping to hit.
Durruti landed on the ship, and started to quietly and as stealthily as possible to plant explosives of various kinds. Hopefully he woul be able to destroy the ship with a dose of trinitroteluene (TNT)...
//Woohoo! A bomb throwing Anarchist... I love stereotypes. Well, cool ones anyway.//
-
"I'll acknowledge this, and this alone. Drakens are indeed very powerful. But you've become too callous! Too egotistical! Too prideful! And now, you will pay for your hubris!"
Being a god, it wouldn't take Seijin very long to charge it up.
"Judgment!!!"
The beams of light started to shoot down from the sky, at least 5 beams for every 3 square feet. The attack would cover the area that Jayce was currently in.
"Seijin!" Xenai was rather discontented with the guardian. "There's a city right over there, you know!" He pointed at it.
"We have to move this fight! We'll cause mass panic!"
"It's not like the ordeal between Tsu and Aura is helping, either."
--- --- ---
"Nnggh... Ngghhhagghh..." As Tsu got to his feet, he could barely contain his fury. He was wounded just as bad as Aura was before. Anti took advantage of it... And took over. "That's it, woman!" Because of the heightened power that Anti gave him, charging up took no time at all. Demonic wings shot out from his back. "CHIDORI!!!" His hand erupted with a massive amount of lighting as his teeth grew into fangs.
Aura endured the same transformation now, as Tsu shot up toward her at lightspeed. She caught the incoming hand, spinning him around and throwing him, Mario 64 style. "Die!!!" She pointed her hand at him and shot a thousand rays of light forth.
Tsu flipped backwards in the air to right himself, and flared his aura. All the individual rays were somewhat weak, and his aura was able to block the attacks.
"Damnation!!!"
He called upon the power of darkness, and many beams of darkness shot up from the ground, in much the same way Seijin's Judgment did, covering the area that Aura was in. Aura took little effort to dodge the beams, and flew out to Tsu. The two fighters then commenced an inconcievably fast melee exchange. Weapons no longer had a place in this fight.
-
//How do all those mages know that fire was the undead weakness? Also, Kronos is safe far far away in the sky over an ocean.\\
"Every single voice was booming, screaming, ripping through my mind like a knife through hot butter! Eventually, however, almost all the voices were silent. A mere 2,00 of my troops remained. Very well... They want to play dirty? They'll get far, far more than they bargained for. Time to employ some of my druid magic..."
---
The fireballs flew towards the remaining army, frying the zombies. The battlefield was silent for a minute. Soon, however, something really strange began to happen...
The inner ring of the attacking mages was suddenly impaled by rust-coloured spikes coming from the ground. They retreated back into the ground, and went on to the next row. This happened lightning-fast, effectively taking out hundreds of mages at a time. The dead mages promptly came back to life, and every one of them cast an anti-fire barrier on themselves. The resurrected mages attacked the live ones with a mixture of spells. The fallen ones soon joined the horde.
--- --- ---
//Remember that one time last chapter when Steorra's staff randomly flashed? She was charging an attack since then, so... yeah.\\
Steorra flew a circle around the attackers, then upwards, and dived towards them. Her staff emitted a bright blinding flash, and all the attackers, sizzling, fell down on the ground.
Smile
-
//We need to add more rules to the Rp Sad \\
Marshal continued to follow Roland back to the temple. He keeped a firm grip on his machinegun. He knew that something was up.
//Oh where is Melkoth right now? Romme?\\
-
Zeros' blinked through his rage-filled mind, the words cutting through to his logical mind. He closed his eyes, as his muscles bulged down, his wings shrunk and changed, his hair grew longer and much lighter, effectively shfiting back to his normal form.
He reached Tjed and hovered above it, looking around, trying to find out where the images of Jayce were.
---
Allen sighed, as he drifted slowly towards Tjed. All the others had passed him up, but he drifted along, at approximetly 80 miles an hour. Much slower than the fighters.
By his calculations, he should reach Tjed in about 30 minutes...
-
Duilin and Rink were still not quite there.
"Come on Duilin! Faster!" Rink groaned
"Hey you wanna walk!?" Duilin snapped back
"Heheh, sorry. But seriously, people's lives are at stake."
"Yeah, I know Rink. My wings are starting to ache and get sore."
----
"Heheheh..." Valos laughed, still following the group. "I'm rather interested in Jayce's little plan here. It will sure get my friends on their toes."
//FYI Valos right now also has the memory of Nex, in case you are wondering how he knows Jayce's name. Plus I'd also think he might also have the memory of Pophin as well, since the demonic possessing him basically takes everything from them.\\
-
Nick roled up the grapling hook and swung downwards flying towards the massive armies. // Charging 3/3 for both time for demonic energy to prevail\\
He let go and was gliding down into the battle. He took a dagger from his belt and put massive amounts of energy into it. He threw it down into the middle of the battle feild. The shockwave must of blown everyone up 5 feet because Nick was tossed through the air. Out of no were Calavous came with wings(demonic stage).
He threw Nick to the Mages. As Nick was about to land he trusted his hand into a mage and sucked his energy.
---
Calavous landed on the ground and swung his massive sword knocking down all of the mages in sight.
-
Kraig and Shaak make their way toward the town.
They see the battle taking place in the city below.
"Holy shit! Shaak look at that!" Kraig shouts as he sees the commotion.
"Man alive! Look at all those soothskins! There must be like a thousand!" Shaak replies.
"I know those flags! The smoothskins are called the Ass-pies I think..." Kraig says as he recognises the Aspyes fags.
"We need to get in on this, I say we join in on the rotting skeleton army 'cause the Ass-pies look like they taste better."
"And I want nothing to do with a group called Ass-pies!" Kaig adds.
"Anyways let's get going." Shaak says and he points out the Kandarian Sovereignty army.
Kraig blows on his horn and the entire orc army stands on the summit of the mountain.
Kraig faces towards the army and begins to speak. "Orcs! Listen up! We are joining in this battle! We have chosen to be with the rotting Necro dudes! So lets kick some smoothskin ass!"
The orcs charge toward the battle and scream.
"Ready up the shock troops!" Shaak yells to he army and a squad of twenty armoured ogars move toward the front of the attack.
as the army gets closer Kraig takes out his horn and uses it a megaphone.
"Greetings ugly dudes! We are here to help you kill the Ass-pies! Your general can pay us later!" Kraig boldly shouts at the undead army, not noticing the little to no reaction he received "Now my soldiers! ATTACK!"
//Horaldor the Horrible, don't kill my army in one post with your futuristic tesla man Razz .\\
-
//Dippy, either your spelling has gotten substantially better or you're using MS Word spell check. Either way, my respect for you just soared.\\
One of the surviving Winged Messengers limped over to Kraig.
-"Ah, hello! Your assistance in this matter is most unexpected, but welcomed. You say our enemies are called Ass-pies? A most unusual choice of name..."
The Messenger tilted its head a bit.
-"Anyway, once this conflict is resolved somehow, I'm sure my master will find you a most generous reward..."
The creature limped back to the circle of revived mages. The brown spikes (which are actually blighted plants) continued shredding through the mage army, and the slain mages continued coming back to life. Every single mage had fire protection. Thousand after thousand, the huge army was slowly being converted into the Horde.
---
"Even with an experience as expansive as controlling a whole army, my mind still had its limits. A nation, however, did not. I sent a mental signal to all my undead assistants back at home, who reactivated the stone power prisms. With all of them online, I could easily control an army of 60 million. However, before raising any other creatures from the depths of the earth, I first had to convert that newly-appeared army into my own legions. Another idea struck me.
Without much after-thought, I sent a huge wave of power down at the ocean beneath me. A minute passed; nothing happened. Three minutes later, however, the ocean erupted with all sorts of bones. Thousands upon thousands of ex-creature chunks soared into the air, and changed course towards Gief."
--- --- ---
Marshal and Roland arrived at the temple. It seems that in their absence the undeads rebuilt it, for it seemed as good as new. Roland and //assuming he follows\\ Marshal jumped off their wyverns and entered the temple.
-"As you can see, friend, nothing's changed." The duo was passing through the main temple hall, catching cautious glimpses from other temple inhabitants.
-"Now, come just this way, to the Elder's chambers. I'll be glad to answer any questions while we're on our way."
In the distance, Ein landed and quickly turned himself back to human form. He crept towards the temple, trying not to warn any undead troops.
Bypassing all patrols, he found himself at the walls of the temple. He produced a what looked like a coil of rope from his belt, and threw it up onto the temple's roof. He began climbing.
Now, Ein, although poorly learned in the lore of the Dark Continent, has in fact heard of the Blue Minotaur group. He also saw some drawings of the temple, and instantly recognized a huge fault.
The Master Crystal and the prism were missing!
-
(NOTICE: New rule amendment added on "charging attacks". See signup topic.
Haraldur: 8 million mages is ridiculously unreasonable. Let's try and keep our sanity somewhat. (Heh...))
----
The Dark Emperor Retan rose from the throne, placing his hands behind his back and taking a step forward.
"Firstly, I believe you have some items in your possession that belong to me..."
He waved his right hand. Nothing appeared to happen at first...
"Yes... you're the one..."
A bright orb suddenly seemed to shoot out of Haraldur's chest, though he could feel no discomfort at all. The dim red ball flew across the room, forming into the shape of a sword as Retan plucked it out of the air...
It was an unusually ornate blade, with a red gem in the hilt...
The same sword that was once wielded by the knight Iduran...
The only difference was the gem no longer glowed dimly, but was a very dark and bland shade of red.
Retan sighed annoyedly, even though he was already sure of the outcome before this meeting.
"An unfortunate waste... The souls bound to the six weapons have been rejoined and the weapons are useless... I would have to find new souls to bind to them if they were ever to be of value again..."
(Retan essentually freed the part of Haraldur that was attached to the sword. While that part of Haraldur remains attached to the other 9, the sword is no longer associated with him, however the blade retains whatever connections it has with Retan.)
----
The people of Kesnar, Tjed began to panic as Seijin's Judgment attack struck nearby.
"Oh my god! They're attacking!"
"Run!"
Villagers scurried about the streets in confusion.
"Send riders to the capital!"
"Get Ven! Ven will save us!"
A shadow zipped through the streets and disappeared, most visible from Zeros' vantage point. It moved too quickly for human eyes to notice...
"Eeeeeek!!!!"
A woman's scream pierced the din of the confusion. She covered her mouth and took a few steps back from the tree. There was a young man slumped over with his back to the bark... and a large hole in his chest, blood still oozing out, though he was quite dead...
On his forehead a vertical line was carved. The number "1".
----
"Good. Didn't think it would be that easy..."
Translucent magic barriers formed over the parts of the airships under attack, and the mages' blasts exploded all around. Vincent smirked and nodded to the captain, hands still behind his back.
Turrets burst from hatches lining the sides of the mammoth flying ships, and a great volley of shadow elemental return fire was send back the mages' way. From his vantage point in the bridge, Vincent could see Nick, Calvous, and Stoerra go to work on the remaining attackers.
"Turns out they were useful after all..."
The ships continued on, the city of Gief appearing on the horizon...
It was a spectacular battle as seen from the air, and Vincent took a moment to take in the beauty of random destruction blanketing the entire city and surrounding land.
"Hmm, seems our new friend started early."
The ships accelerated to attacking speed, spreading out far enough so that they would not be a single target. Their weapon turrets were pointed at the ground and spread out so that the entirety of the ground between the ships would be covered, and a good deal on the sides...
Vincent took a quick scan of the field for any sign of Kronos. Being a necromancer, he would definitely be controlling his army from the sidelines, so no worries about hitting him. The battle was too hectic to discern friend from foe, however a shadow elemental attack would be rather ineffective on the undead, and quite the opposite on the living...
The turrets opened up, spewing forth an unholy rain of mass destruction in their wake...
An area half a mile wide was carpet bombed (Final Fantasy 4 style), and quickly approaching the center of the city, the destruction following the airships as they advanced...
-
//Yes, Melkoth is in Romme.
Dippy: the mages are currently floating up in the air by a hundred metres or so. I will assume that the orcs are attacking the city?//
Bernard cursed when he saw the spikes rise and impale his comrades, who became undead.
The mages rose up higher in the sky (which they never left), in order to avoid the spikes. With one action they created for themselves a collective shield, and with the other, after a small consultation, they caused the land beneath the horde to collapse, causing the undead to be buried under tonnes of rock.
Those in the city started to shoot at the charging orcs with their various weaponry.
The dwarves started to catapult their fireballs towards the airships.
The men from the east and those from the west started to move towards the airships. They were slaughtered by the airships' attacks.
Then Makhno arrived on his flying, wingless horse, chucking his sabre at an airship. It spun in the air and lengthened, and then stuck into the hull, having cut through a barrier, severing a beam, causing that part of the airship to creak, and then a section of hull and nearby corridor and rooms fell out, smashing onto the ground along with some doomed soldiers.
Makhno then landed on the ship //whatever ship you want, he does not care he is just attacking any of them you think best, Xorlak.// And started hacking his way through mages towards the bridge.
____________________________________________________________________
Juan Vidal and a few others survived by just being outside of Steorra's circle, due to strange quantum fluctuations. Razz They quitely limped off.
//I want to keep thatr NPC if possible.//
____________________________________________________________________
Haraldur's eyes became wide with anger: "Oh no you don't. I will not allow anyone to ever be imprisoned in such a way as that again, that I promise you."
//Anyone now wondering how Haraldur became an Anarchist?//
Haraldur rushed at Retan, a sword of blood appearing in his hands, which he slashed towards Retan's chest. twirling around Retan, he kept on moving, smashing out through the hull of the airship and into the open air. He chucked a fireball in behind him.
Durruti had set up the charges, and now jumped off the ship, after setting a timer for three seconds. Then the TNT exploded near bridge of the ship and near the bow, what Durruti thought would be weakpoints, hopefully causing parts of the ship to explode and others to fall apart.
Melkoth, hearing the explosions and Haraldur's rage, turned around, and saw that Haraldur was close. A black sword appearing in his hand, started charging towards Haraldur through the air. Tesla shot at him twice with the plasma rifle, but the shots were dodged. He reached Haraldur, and slashed twice, but Haraldur dodged each time, and spun back and glared at both the Grey and Dark Emporers, his aura expanding. Durruti fired his rifle at Melkoth, but missed due to another well timed dodge.
-
//Guess you didn't like the Seijin's Transcender bit... Razz
"See? Look. They're panicking." Xenai pointed at the city, shooting a 'You're a moron' look to Seijin.
"I suppose I should have taken more regard before doing that move."
Zion looked down over the city. His eyes caught the shadow, but only for an instant. "He's fast." Seijin could see it much better than Zion could. "Not THAT fast." The guardian floated down to the city, Transcender appearing in hand. Zion and Xenai landed behind him.
"Hey," said Xenai, "Doesn't that sword manipulate space and time?"
"Yeah."
"Slow time down."
"Shouldn't need to..."
They walked up to the first victim, examining him closely. A hole in his chest... Who could do him in like this, this fast? "Get ready, you guys. Just be on your guard. If you see him well, try and get him. But for the most part, leave that to me."
--- --- ---
The melee exchange stopped suddenly with the demonic warriors jumping away from each other. They glared at each other.
"Aura... Why?"
"Look at yourself."
"No, YOU look at YOURSELF!"
"Yeah, what about me?"
"You're denying your feelings."
"I deny nothing!"
The two jumped back, away from each other. A Spiral Sphere appeared in Aura's hand, becoming easily thrice as powerful as her last. Tsu's hand erupted with lightning, this one thrice as powerful as his last Chidori as well.
"Wake up!!!" "Get a life!!!" The two leapt at each other...
-
Nick trusted both his hands ad lifted two mages over him and threw them into the ground. he look behind him seeing the orc coming ( lord of the rings * dundundundun da da da*) He put energy into his hand and threw it at some of the mages and they fell from the sky.
-
Zeros' saw the shadow with his quick eyes and ghosted down towards the man, looking at the "1" on his forehead and the hole in his chest.
"Jayce..." he growled, but he kept his rage from overflowing again. His eyes scanned the city, as he crouched and jumped into the air, his eyes now scanning the city as a whole from above, trying to see the ma--- No, Draken.
His hand rested on the hilt of his sword, ready to pull it out at a moments notice... He would not let Jayce kill another.
// Allen is slowly traveling to Tjed. It'll take him about three of my posts to get there, so, I won't update him. 'M too lazy...
And, Dippy... Ass-pies? Ahaha. That's just great, man. \\
-
Duilin finally landed in Tjed. "Damnit, Jayce has already started killing people."
Rink hopped onto the ground. "I'm gonna go find Ven. Duilin you try and win Jayce's sick excuse for a game."
Rink then flutters off towards the keep (assuming Ven is around there)
Duilin then ran through the city trying to find Jayce.
----
Darak watched in awe as Nick and Steorra pwnd all the mage newbs.
----
Marshal followed Roland through the temple. He looked around, it seemed like he hasn't been here in months, even though he was only banished around a week or so ago.
"So, Roland. I noticed the gem is gone." Marshal grinned. "Also the Elder doesn't use demonology." He then aimed his gun towards him. "So tell me, great general, why really do you want me here? And what in the name of Gaian is really going on here?"
-
//Er... the mages are flying a few hundred metres above the ground...//
-
//ARGH! Haraldur, stop killing armies in one post!!! I'm gonna go emo... Sad Also, we know. Steorra and Nick are also flying.\\
"What kind of devilish power am I dealing with here?! Argh! Well, if nothing else works...
I rerouted all the power I could find, across my mind, across my body and across my nation, into a huge blast towards Gief. It dealt absolutely no damage to the mages; it was not supposed to. My power only extends to plants and the dead. Not the living. Let us hope then, that this attempt to retaliate will be successful."
---
The rocks below the shielded mages rumbled, and undead mages dashed from underneath, towards their enemies. A drastic change could be seen - each mage was now wrapped in a dark red aura. Kronos' energy affected not only the mages, who were going insane with the power flowing through them - radical changes were happening all around. The trees were going over some kind of transportation. Their bark became blighted, hardened and solidified. Even the grass was phased: it turned into sharp needle-like spikes protruding from the ground.
The berserk mages began ripping through the airborne army, completely bypassing every single barrier in their way. They had no thoughts left. Just power. Pure, raw, untamed power. It needed a way out. Mages were providing that exit, right onto their enemies.
The trees continued changing. The power flowing through them was so abundant that they became conscious. They ripped out their roots from the ground, and leaped (:o) onto the army above them, killing lots more magicians.
//I'm really not proud of this godlike thing Kronos is pulling, but seriously... He could've killed around 50,000 mages right now at most. Not even a tenth of the total force. Seriously, 8 million is just too much, but I'm not giving up. As soon, however, as the army is defeated, Kronos will seem to "forget" all this nonsense. Thanks for your patience.\\
--- --- ---
Kronos was a bit startled by the turn of the events in the temple. He tried as hard as he could to reconstruct it, but he had a few other million souls to worry about. He accidentally missed out the Master crystal...
Roland whipped around. The gun was pointed directly into his chest.
-"So... It would seem as though I am discovered."
A wide grin slowly appeared on Roland's face.
-"Then again, if you really hate me this much, as to point a gun at me... Why don't you shoot?"
Roland took a step closer to Marshal, so that the muzzle of the gun completely touched his chest.
With an adamant face, Marshal held the gun at the same spot. //Checked this over with DM.\\ Roland's grin became even wider.
-"Thought so. Now, as for the important part..."
Roland quickly raised his hand, his index finger pointing at Marshal. He took a deep breath...
-"WAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
This scream was like no other. At least nothing a human could do. Moreover, every single temple person in the vicinity rushed to Marshal, trying to tackle him.
-
Many of the mages used short range teleports to dodge the various attacks, and then set the trees and grass aflame.
Then, a few tens of mages to a spell, they made rocks appear within the bodies of the undead quite suddenly, making about half explode into pieces, the explosion increased in size due to the raw power flowing through the undead. In other undead the raw power just melted the rocks which started to burn their ways out, setting many undead aflame, leaving just a quarter of the undead force remaining.
In the meantime, the mages started to employ a tactic common to birds and locusts: they formed a flock, a swarm, a shoal. Swirling all in between eachother, a combination of that and their flags and bits of clothing (but not all clothing) of black and red gave a confusing swirl of colours, making it absolutely impossible to distinguish them easily and hence making attacks harder to aim.
Some units now started to charge up banishing spells...
-
Kronos' attack reached the army, and entered the high-power zone. This enabled it to bust through the mage barriers.
At first, no one could notice anything. Then, a strange wind began to arise... then a sound. The sound reminded that of a shell falling, except it was everywhere, and much louder.
The sky darkened with the miriads of bones blocking the sun's rays. Below the army, the mages also crumbled to bits, making even more projectiles. Now, there were two huge attacks - one above, and one below. They impaled a vast majority of the airborne army...
Only half of the army remained, and the dead half was promptly risen back up by Kronos.
//Now it's even. Razz\\
-
"Send in reinforcements!" Kraig shouts into his horn toward the top of the hill. Minutes later five thousand more orcs stand atop the summit. Thirty shock troops with war-hammers and axes stand at the front of the army and a flock of ten albatrorcs (An albatrash that has been through orc mutation.) fly into the battle and begin picking off a few Aspye warriors at a time, doging arrows and blasts of magic.
"Attack!" Skaak shouts to the rein forcers and they move into the battle.
Kraig and Shaak move toward a piece of ground filled with bodies of Apyes, orcs and redead-undeads.
"Shaak you gotta try some of this smoothskin meat!" Kraig says with a mouth full of dead Aspye.
"Heh..." Shaak takes a bite "That is good!"
-
Retan brought the blade before his chest, taking a large side step to the right. The two swords met for a split second, the two very different leaders locking cold stares as Haraldur burst past, making his exit through the wall of the ship.
Retan lowered his blade and looked through the hole as his remaining five once precious weapons escaped into the mist outside. Explosions rocked the outside of the vessel as the image of Haraldur grew small... The Dark Emperor's red eyes gleamed...
"That one... will have to be dealt with..."
Sections of The Great Black Vessel began to break off and fall into the sea, but the ship itself remained still, floating several feet in the air above the waves... The mist thickened, almost forming a shield behind Haraldur and Melkoth as they left the vicinity. The black debris floating in the water began to break apart into tiny specks and slowly trickle through the air and fill the many gaps now in the sides of the ship. It was slowly repairing itself...
The Dark Emperor returned to his throne and sat down, letting go of the sword in the air, which began to eerily rotate around him very slowly, like a specter. He brought his right hand to his chin, brooding as the orb on the central table flashed back to life...
(Normally I'd give chase, but I really need to cut down right now. Heh...)
----
On the opposite side of the port town of Kesnar, a huge explosion rocked the residential section...
Jayce floated some ten feet above the pile of smoking rubble, a small pulsating orb of darkness floating an inch above his right palm.
"Oops... just a small family hut... That's five now...."
The orb suddenly shot up into the air and split into three, each blazing in its own direction, each flying towards its own, much larger building...
----
Vincent watched Kronos' undead and the mages battle from high above. It was like each army had its own single mind the way they moved together... a beautiful dance of death as they swayed through the air, trading mortally devastating magical attacks.
To the inexperienced observer, one would likely exaggerate the number of mages in the millions, due to the huge area they covered. However, Vincent was good with numbers, and estimated the combined force of both sides to be perhaps between 300,000 and 350,000, with the numbers falling rapidly. Perhaps the largest number of mages he had ever seen before...
(350,000 is hugely awe inspiring, and much more beliveable. So there. Heh...)
Paying attention to battles you are not directly involved in isn't advisable during the heat of an assault... Vincent snapped back into reality, realizing the heavy fire his own ships were under. Everything underneath the ships was pulverized easily enough, but there was still a good deal of heated projectiles comming from straight ahead, particularly behind the main walls of the city... Most attacks were shielded against, but a few were starting to sneak their way past the magical barriers and knick the sides and bottoms of the ships...
Vincent scowled as he looked at the ship to his right (Vincent's ship is the center one). One of the enemy had some how made in to the deck and was cutting down mages in his path. A huge amount of firepower was unleashed on the attacker in retaliation, as doors opened, Crimson soldiers running out madly and filling the deck.
Turning forward, Vincent ordered the cannons of his ships to be directed straight ahead, spewing a devastating rain of explosive black orbs. At full speed they charged the southern wall, and the catapults...
-
Upon running for miles non-stop, the giant beast finally slowed down. Quadricentennial could not but collapse on the floor for he was struggling to keep up.
"*Uff* Oh boy. That...monster sure did...ran fast...for a huge guy." Quadricentennial raised his head, immediately shocked at what he saw. A gigantic army of undead soldiers roaming about. "What...where...wh..." Quadricentennial was speachless at the horrid display.
"By the great God, what has happened? HAd I entered the hell?" He got to his feet and looked beyond from a tree. He spotted Magnot who headed towards Kronos's direction.
"Is that the man who is responsible for all this?"
Magnot approached Kronos. "Master?"
(//Lengthy reads are not my strong point so, from what I scanned, I tried to make sure I didn't do anything wrong and if I did then it could be fixed easily)
-
//Not too bad, except Kronos is floating above an ocean, far up in the sky, and the undeads have been completely wiped out - now it's two armies of mages, each the size of 300,000 against each other.\\
-
(//Like I said, lengthy reads are not my specialty. Alright, then let's say Magnot floated along with Kronos. As for the undeads, let's say they are what's left.)
-
Zeros' growled and waved his hand.
As each of the three orbs neared their designated building, they seemed to hit a barrier, stopping them from progressing.
In the meantime, Zeros' ghosted widly, leaving after images of himself, as he rushed towards Jayce.
As he appeared near Jayce, his sword was already transformed into it's God form, slashing down towards the Draken at extreme speeds.
-
Duilin saw Jayce being attacked by Zeros', he decided to join the fight.
He dashed towards them, he then pointed his flame empowered mace towards Jayce and blasted a lightning bolt at him, with the hand holding the mace, creating some sort of "fire bolt".
----
Rink continues his way to find Ven. He was going very fast for him, he knew he had to hurry because people's lives were at hand....
----
Marshal's eyes widened and he flinched as Roland roared at him. He then noticed many people were rushing towards him. He then saw Roland reaching for his sword in his sheath. He clenched his teeth and fired, knocking him to the ground. He then began to move quickly backwards firing his gun at everyone who came at him.
"EIN! GET YOUR HIDE IN HERE! WE'VE GOT TROUBLE!" He shouted loudly.
-
"Good, good!"
Jayce placed his right hand on the sword handle rising from behind his back and flew in reverse, narrowly dodging the sword swipe and lightning/fire spell, which were both surging at the same spot in the air.
"Shameful you can't fight anywhere near full strength with all these filthy humans around..."
The massive scimitar was unlatched from his back and brought above his head single handedly, its length nearly as long as the dark man was tall and quite wide as well...
He sliced the air before him from top to bottom a black cleave surging from the blade as it divided the space between Zeros' and he, becoming a dark crescent wave of energy that lengthened as it sped to his target. The lower end reached the ground and began to slice through the debris lying there, sending chunks left and right, while the top soared some ten, then fifteen feet above Zeros' head. The wave would surely cleave the building just behind Zeros' if not stopped completely...
-
Seijin was insanely fast. Pretty much as much as Zeros'. It took him all of 2 seconds to blur across the town and find himself directly behind Jayce. He turned a quick flip and slashed directly downwards with Transcender.
"This one's out of our league," said Zion.
"You sell yourself too short."
--- --- ---
Ladies and gentlemen, the conclusion.
The two warriors drew near, pulling back their hands...
"Chidori!!!" "Spiral Sphere!!!"
The two attacks connected, sending out a huge shockwave out in all directions for miles and miles. The attacks started to react as they pushed against each other. The combining attacks then became a mass of energy, pulsating and growing rapidly. Eventually, it grew to consume the two, the sphere crackling madly with electricity. Inside, the two continued their struggle. The lightning edge and the spiralling sphere could still be seen.
Suddenly, a flash!
I'm here again... But this is different. I feel completely and totally different. This is the part I didn't get to before...
It is a place where there is only light, and only darkness. Nothing exists here, and everything exists here. Nothing happens here, and everything happens here at the same time. Here, everything is possible, yet at the same time impossible. There is no time here, yet all the time in the world is condensed into this nowhere, into this everywhere. It is conceivably inconceivable phenomenon; a paradox with the power to revive or destroy the world. This place is Paradox.
Tsu and Aura stood their, free of their demonic forms. They were free of them because the representation of Anti was right there... A huge demon reminiscent of the Zero Weapon, but much more organic, and colored red. It roared at the two.
"Tsu, how'd we get here?"
"...Don't know. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that we destroy this."
<span style='color:red'>"You will do no such thing. Hell Bind!"</span>
The attack that appeared was very similar to Aura's Shining Bind, except it was black, powered by darkness, and pushed downwards instead of upwards. It came so suddenly, they couldn't do anything but get hit by it.
"Ugh... Aura, I have an idea..."
"What's that?"
Anti created a huge ball of darkness in its hands and flung it at the two. Tsu grabbed Aura, who surprisingly clung to him, and jumped upwards, over the ball. They landed and he let go of her. She was a little slow to the punch and let off a little later. Tsu raised his hand and flung it down. He held the crackling hand out toward Aura. "Create a Rasengan. Quickly."
"Rasengan?"
"A spiral sphere. Come on, hurry."
"R-right." She visualised the electric energy in Tsu's hand starting to swirl. She somewhat feared it shocking her, but she still complied, starting to swirl the lightning around, striking it in various places repeatedly with her palms. Soon enough, it was ready. Anti created one more ball of darkness...
Tsu went to the other side of Aura, backing up a bunch. He had to get it right the first time. "Alright, when I pass you, grab me and throw me!"
"What!? O-okay..."
Tsu darted by at full speed, holding out his left hand. Aura grabbed it, and spun around a few times, another Mario 64 style throw. She let go at precisely the right time. Anti threw the ball then. Tsu pulled his left hand back, and thrusted it forward. "Twilight Blast!" The blacklight beam shot through the ball, cutting it in two and causing it to vaporize away. The beam shot through right to Anti, hitting it in the forehead, and causing it to stagger back. "It's over!" Tsu came up on the demon's chest...
"螺旋丸千鳥!!!"
Rasengan Chidori
Spiral Sphere ~ One Thousand Birds
He thrust the hand forward with all of his might toward the demon's heart, connecting. The sphere swirled around against the skin, the lightning edge component allowing it to cut through. It was like a swirling ball with knives all over it. Electrically-charged knives. Tsu shot right through. The demon became electrocuted right after Tsu shot through, and fell to its knees, then right on it's face. Aura was standing just two feet from its head. The demon then dematerialized.
Tsu walked over to Aura. It had hit him now, how she had clung to him when they jumped away from the first sphere. He wasn't sure how to talk to her. "It seems you're different now..."
"I'm sorry."
"What?"
Tears were starting to form in her eyes. She looked down, filled with sorrow. "I hurt you... I hurt you so much. I was so cruel... I had given in to the evil in me, because I'd been hurt by what I thought was good. I was denying my feelings." She looked up at him. "I can see now that you were struggling too. You were about to give in, too." Tsu looked down and to the side. "The guy I was talking about... To Zard. Way back when..."
"...I realize now... That's you. It feels so weird to say this all so suddenly when I've played the charade of hating you for so long... But I know it now."
Tears were visible now in Tsu's eyes, as if an impossible dream had come true. He couldn't hold back his emotions, and he clung to Aura, who willingly clung back. The two silently cried together... And were transported out of Paradox.
In the real world, the only thing visible was a large, gently pulsating white sphere. It shattered, and Tsu and Aura fell down to the ocean, upside down, still holding onto each other. The tide washed them onto a nearby shore, where they were no longer holding each other, except for two hands that were still held. They were asleep. They had just fought the battle of their lives, and needed rest.
--- --- ---
As Seijin turned his flip, he could feel the happy ending that just occured. Good then... I'm glad it ended well.
-
"Hehehe" Valos laughed "What an emotional reunion." He said to himself as he spotted Tsu and Aura. He then put his hand on the handle of his sword and stepped forward.
"Not now." Said Abodahon's voice in his head
"Shit! What are you, watching me or something?"
----
Rink finally found the keep (or whatever building it seemed that Ven was inside) there was this one guard leaning against the wall he seemed to be asleep. What a foolish time to sleep.
"Excuse me!" Rink said loudly, attempting to wake the guard.
"Huh? Who? I'm awake." The guard mumbled. He then rubbed his eyes and looked at the small imp standing before him. "Oh it's Sir Rink! Hello, what can I help you with?"
"Is Ven here? It's very important I see him. The town is under attack by a powerful draken, he's killing the citizens!"
-
Before the ship had finished its self repair, Tesla and Durruti rushed into it. The went into the room where Retan was. Tesla shot at Retan twice with his plasma rifle, and Durruti threw two explosive orbs at Retan, which would explode on impact (on anything they impacted).
Outside, Haraldur and Melkoth's battle continued. Melkoth slashed twice at Haraldur so fast that the air flamed, but due to time splitting by Haraldur both the attacks were dodged. Haraldur then made his aura explode in a ball of white plasma, catching the ship in the blast, and evaporating much of the sea below him, and setting large fires in the forests on Romme. Melkoth managed to shield himself just in time, and then Haraldur punched at him, and this was not dodged. The fist emitted a fireballs, causing Melkoth to fly backwards, his clothes burning, before stopping himself and making his clothes stop burning. His swords extended in length as he stood on the air.
Haraldur glared, "GRRRRRR!" and then rushed towards him, running on the air which started to burn up around his feet as his aura interacted with it.
________________________________________________________________________
The banishing spells were released, spells specifically designed to do away with undead. Many undead mages fell before shielding themselves, doing away with a quarter of their number.
Makhno made flames of black emit from his body, blasting all the others on te deck and causing the already damaged ship to start to sink down, its decks burning with black flame.
He then saw the attacks on Gief, and jumped off, in front of the attacks. With a quick shield, he caused those same attacks to deflect off onto the undead mages. After that, more attacks against the ships came from the catapults and the defenders in Gief.
-
Zeros' growled and ghosted down and appeared in front of the black crescent wave. His arm and sword blurred. Fast. The air seemed to crackle with electricity, as his glowing white sword connected with the crescent wave of dark energy.
He pushed against it and found it equal to his current strength. He sighed and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he pushed the crescent blade back, but the building's roof underneath him started to form a small spiderweb of cracks from the energy output of the two.
He held out his other hand and put a forcefield around the wave of energy. It was held still. He swung his sword behind his back and his arm blurred. He broke the sound barrier and there was a sound like shattering glass, as his sword impacted against the dark wave of energy.
The crescent changed directions and sped of towards the opposite end and crashed into a nearby unpopulated forest, since abandoned by the animals there from the fighting of the other days.
Zeros' sighed and looked towards the building and saw minimal damage had been done, only a few cracks. He ghosted back up towards Jayce, already swinging towards him again, his arm and sword blurring, breaking the sound barrier, his sword glowing an ethernal light.
---
Allen hummed to himself as he drifted lazily towards the town.
"Damn... This is so boring..." he started to whistle a song he had heard the orchestra play once.
-
Duilin then glared at Jayce and then watched as Seijin and Zeros' attacked him. He then shook out the fire from his mace and then holstered it. Duilin began to form a blade of his demonic energy and lightning magic...
-
//srry for not being able to post busy with rs Nickynick600 w00t\\
Nick saw as all the undeads were being destrioed. He put energy into his hand and threw it at a building making it implode. colapsing instantly. Nick ran into the dust killing mages around him.
---
Calavous flew up to a mage and stabed him, slicing him in half. He lifted the blade over his shoulder and swung it downward, as he did it grew twice in size and createdan explosion as it hit the ground. shock waving pushing some mages around.
-
(*Stands and applauds at the Tsu/Aura finale*)
---
Sitting back in his throne in a relaxed slump, the Dark Emperor Retan lifted his left index finger slightly, causing a translucent gray half-dome barrier to form in front of him, the plasma shots and explosive orbs bursting against it on impact.
"Peons."
He slowly rose, his menacing red eyes glowing from under his helmet, glaring at Tesla and Durruti...
"The young and foolish type. Hopelessly misguided and quick to act, clueless of the implications of your actions..."
He opened his right palm as the sword rotating around him landed in it. At the same time he extended two fingers of his left hand.
"Now die."
Black bolts of lightning flew from his left hand and within less than a second the Dark Thunder Rage filled the entire room...
----
Jayce flipped around and slashed the sword up, meeting the Transcender with a deafening sonic boom, sending a translucent shockwave in all directions that cracked the very foundations of all the surrounding structures. He flipped again, meeting Zeros' blade with a blinding flash and recoil, this shockwave finishing the work of the first, crumbling everything in a 200 foot radius. People screamed and ran in the opposite direction of the arial battle...
The dark Draken continued to flip the sword back and forth, up and down, meeting the two super-elite warriors' rapid blows. The sheer size of the weapon kept them from drawing too close...
Upon seeing the third challenger, Duilin, approach ready to join the melee, he quickly shot up into the air, up and out of the deadlocked supersonic sword match. He hooked in the air, diving straight towards the ground, taking his mammoth scimitar in two hands downward and plunging it five feet into the earth...
The resulting tremor was colossal. A bright flash followed and the ground began to disintegrate, huge chunks of rubble flying up into the air and breaking up in a fiery flash. The crater that resulted pushed outward rapidly, engulfing the already destroyed section of town and speeding towards habited sections yet untouched...
----
Tremors could be felt as far north as the capital city of Tjed as Rink finished his last sentence.
"Oh, for the love of god!"
Wails could be heard on the balcony above Rink as the black cloaked man pounded on the stone wall he was leaning over with his fists.
"Just one normal day. One frickn' normal day, is all I ask! God!"
Ven vaulted over the short balcony wall, falling some twenty feet and landing skillfully next to the imp below.
"Why do all the psycos attack us?! *Sigh* ... Which way, Rink?"
He noted smoke rising from the south.
"Kesnar... Blast! Arghh..."
With a running start he lept over the edge of the keep, a gust of concentrated wind appearing beneath his feet. Crouching to ride the translucent green gust, he sped through the air to the south...
Four larger knights decked out in full body armor rounded the corner out of breath, stopping before Rink.
"Ven! Wait!"
"There he goes..."
"He's doin' that surfing thing again..."
"He sure likes surfing on things..."
"We better get some men down there, and quick."
"Right."
----
The ship to Vincent's right was burning in a black flame and quickly losing control.
"Blast!"
Vincent signaled to slow as the out of control ship pulled in front of his. He smirked when he realized the doomed vessel's captain's resolve. The ship plummeted into a batch of catapults directly ahead, a huge explosion overtaking them and collapsing a section of the city's wall.
The path ahead was clear...
In a mad dash, Vincent's ship flew through the flames and temporary cease-fire caused by the panic. They were in. Past the southernly pointed catapults and over the outer city limits, which he promptly ordered to be blessed with a hail of death from his airship's turrets...
Vincent had resolved that it would be nearly impossible to claim the city as it is. The next best thing would be to totally destroy it... The main buildings of the central city were just up ahead, ripe for the pulverizing...
The third airship, the one that was to Vincent's left, wasn't near enough to the explosion to capitalize from it, and banked left, firing at the city from the outskirts as it began to circle it.
-
"That sounds like a good idea boys..." Rink said to the soldiers. "But I recommend that you don't approach the mad man attacking, he's far to powerful, no sense in wasting lives. But you should try and get the citizens to a safer place."
The imp then looked back at the battle going on, and then back at the knights "I'm not much for fighting this guy so I'll help you. What would be a safe place to get them to?"
//When would be a wise time to have Darak exit the airship?\\
-
//*Grins.* I'm glad you liked it, Xorlak. ^_^
Tsu and Aura were asleep, completely oblivious to their surroundings, as well as Valos' appearance.
--- --- ---
"Oh, HELL no!" Xenai started to flip out at Jayce's dive. "Zion, if he hits, he'll make a huge crater! We gotta contain it!"
"How are we going to contain the creation of a crater?!"
"Um, um... I guess spreading our energy out around it and into the ground? But I know for sure, it'll happen too fast to get any villagers away!"
"Alright! Duilin, stay there and help us!"
Zion and Xenai split up and flew off to points where the two of them and Duilin would form a triangle around the crater-to-be.
"No you don't!" Seijin created a lasso of energy, and tossed it down. It caught around Jayce's legs and closed up, but the Draken had too much force. The only thing the lasso did was slow him down a tiny bit, and stretch until it snapped.
"Alright, guys! Do it!!!" Xenai shouted loud enough to where Zion and Duilin would both hear him. He planted his hands on the ground, and sent energy out into it in a sort of arc. Zion saw him and did the same. The two energy arcs connected. The two could feel it when the arcs connected. But they didn't feel Duilin yet. He had to complete the circle, and hope it had any effect at all on the crater...
-
Zeros' growled again.
"Damnit!" he cursed and ghosted quickly, appearing beside Jayce, his sword already coming down and around, about to hit Jayce like one would hit a baseball, breaking the sound barrier.
He also subtely helped contain the blast a little, just enough until Duilin could help. He could clearly see what they were trying to do and decided to give them a small boost.
---
Allen smiled, as he drifted along. He might not have much aura sense, but he could still see ( and feel ) that Tsu and Aura had calmed down now. he reached inside his pocket, pulling out a beatiful rose petal. He slung Zeros' coat over his shoulder and cupped his hands, placing the rose petal in his hands.
His hands shimmered and crackled and soon, the rose petal had transformed itself into a beatiful, fully-bloomed multi-colored rose, one of the rarest roses found on Gaian. During is travels, he had encountered some and picked a few of their petals for research. He had found it was made from the tears of young lovers, crystalized and preserved in this form.
He smiled and turned around. He whistled and a white pidgeon came and landed on his shoulder. He gently stroked its's beatiful white head with a finger and held out the rose. The bird hooted and grasped the rose gently in its mouth and flew off, letting the wind carry it's wings.
---
The pidgeon appeared over where Tsu and Aura had ended the fight and dropped the rose. The rose dirfted down in the air, swaying slightly in the breeze, as it slowed and stopped, somehow positioning itself in Aura's hair.
// Heh. \\
-
//I will assume that Retan's ship is unaffected by the plasma blast then.//
As Haraldur ran on the air towards Melkoth, his outline started to waver, and his clothes started to split. After a couple of seconds, what was running at Melkoth was a black wolf two metres at the shoulder, with Haraldur's clothes, his red and black neckerchief, his cloak and his robes, torn and dropping onto the flaming forest below.
Before Melkoth could recover from his surprise, Haraldur was on him, grabbing his neck and crushing it. Just as it seemed that Melkoth was breathing his last breath, his form transformed to that of a brown bear, one severely injured in the neck. The two shapeshifters grappled trough the air, with occasional blasts of fire, shade or pure energy coming out, and further affecting their surroundings, the airship included.
At last the wolf reached the already weakened bear's neck again, and bit it so hard that it was severed, and the body fell. Melkoth was dead, again. Haraldur reformed, and conjured the same warm clothes around himself, his face covered in blood as red as the red half of his neckerchief. He then turned, and looked upon the smoking airship self-repairing, the same one that contained the Emporer Retan. He started running on the air towards it, blood dripping down his chest.
________________________________________________________________________
With a quick motion of his hand, Quintus extracted another Melkoth locket (for he had gathered together all the lockets hidden around the world, exept one, an insurance). Placing a little magical power into it, Melkoth appeared by his side, revived once again.
"Damn," said Melkoth.
"You should rest."
"I will."
Melkoth entered the fortress and found a place to sleep.
______________________________________________________________________
Durruti and Tesla ignored Retan's remarks. Tesla's Tesla coil automatically emitted its own force shield, and then sent lightning bolts back at Retan. Both Tesla and Durruti were shielded.
With one hand, Tesla shot towards Retan's head with the plasma rifle. With the other, he sent forth a stream of lightning bolts in Retan's direction.
As that was happening, Durruti rolled around the sides of the room with the help of a levitation spell, arriving behind Retan. He placed a pistol behind Retan's head and fired, hoping to damage him.
_____________________________________________________________________
Seeing that almost all the Aspyes dwarves who had come to fight were dead, Makhno, jumped towards the other ship that Vincent was not on, and started to kill those on its deck. After a while those on deck were dead, and there were some small fires.
He jumped down a hatch, and fought his way to the bridge, covering the walls of the corridors with blood. When he reached the bridge, he grabbed hold of the wheel that had just been let go by the dead hand of the captain. Finding the turret controls for the ship, he caused the turrets to turn to the right, towards the other ship which had Vincent on. At the same time as Vincent's ship was being shot at, he made his ship do a hard right turn, and it crashed into the side of Vincent's ship, crumpling the hulls of both ships. His ship was already damaged, and from the cracks forming in his hull, the corpses of the soldiers started to fall out onto the battlefield below, further staining the ground red.
-
"Damnit, I don't want to waste this energy on a stupid shockwave. I'd rather just shove this thing right through that draken's chest..." Duilin thought to himself.
He saw Zion and Xenai looking at him, waiting for him to complete the circle and rolled his eyes. "But I don't wanna let my friends down..."
He then took the energy blade and pushed it into the ground and placed his hands upon were the placed the energy and blasted an arc connection to Zion and Xenai's.
"This outta hold him..." He said
-
A small pebble of metal bounced off of Retan's helmet, ricocheting dangerously past Durruti's face. The tendrils of dark energy emitting from the Dark Emperor's hand wrapped around the incoming bolts of lighting and plasma shots, and the two forces neutralized each other.
"Your speed is nearly admirable, but your strategy lacks ingenuity."
At this point, the ship was taking heavy damage. Not wanting to sacrifice it just yet, Retan waved the sword in his right hand.
Once again the walls, floors, everything became translucent and faded. The entire ship disappeared in a matter of seconds, the mist concentrating around the vanishing vessel and dispersing along with it.
Retan, Tesla, and Durruti were now a few hundred feet over the sea to the southwest of Romme. The ship was completely gone...
He released the sword, and it return to its localized orbit around the Emperor. A thin darkness seemed to outline the man, growing thicker by the second. He folded his arms as an unfelt breeze ruffled the cape around him.
Haraldur was now in plain view, raging towards the three.
"I thank you all for your eager participation. My son and I now have an adequate gauge of the current players in this game. We shall meet again... shortly..."
The darkness swelled around him rapidly. With a violent twister shaped gust of wind, and an explosive burst of darkness-- he was gone...
Completely gone... No trace of his aura could be felt anywhere on the planet...
----
The knight shouted back to Rink, as he began to run about with the others.
"The mountain tunnels in between here and Kesnar would be safest. Thank you, Sir Rink!"
----
The expanding crater of destruction was slowed by the containing efforts of Zion, Xenai and Duilin. However, it managed to shatter another ring of dwellings around the circle and blow off the roofs of several more structures, including the local tavern. Panic overtook the bar-goers as they poured out of the damaged building, some off duty knights who had stopped in for a quick drink taking charge and pointing villagers to the tunnel in the mountain up north.
Except for one... The fellow shrouded from head to toe in black robes in the corner of the bar sipped his red wine, unconcerned of the chaos around him...
Zeros' big swing connected with Jayce's black metalic shin guard, but at a flat sided angle. Holding tightly onto his sword planted into the ground, Jayce was blasted diagonally into the air. He held out his arms and legs after reaching an altitude of over 500 feet-- directly over the town...
"A perfect view..."
Replacing the sword on his back, a thick black fire burned around him... He seemed to bend and absorb the light of the sun itself, and the sky grew darker...
"Game over folks... you lose..."
Dark orbs appeared and circled the dark Draken, growing in size and strength rapidly...
But Jayce's concentration was suddenly broken by a voice...
"RETURN"
Jayce clutched his head...
"WHAT?! Not now!"
"RETURN"
"Blast it..."
The darkness returned to his body and he shot off southwest, but instead of going straight he flew diagonally upwards, piercing the thick cloud layer...
----
"Argh!"
Vincent lost his footing and nearly fell, if it weren't for the railing.
"We've been struck by number 3, sir!"
Vincent clenched his fist.
"How are they even getting on board?!"
The ship was on fire. They were losing altitude fast...
Vincent closed his eyes and dropped to the floor, placing both hands on it...
Chunks began to fly off of the ship... Down and down they went...
No way to repair it quick enough... Bright colored alchemic ciricles appeared around the outside of the airship... Vincent ignored the panic around him.
The innermost section of the ship began to glow. As wreckage peeled off the burning disaster, more glowing sections were revealed underneath...
At a mere hundred feet above the ground, the last chunk of debris flew off and the glowing ceased, revealing a new, much smaller sleaker looking ship in the shape of a rocket... An explosive blast of flame burst from the rear and the vessel retained its altitude, blasting apart the houses below...
They were on a colision course for the large tower at the center of town...
"I've changed the crystal core's composition to something more... volitile... It's quite unstable; we need to get out of here now..."
Vincent ran to the back of the control bridge, the only room that remained unchanged, and threw open the door. Instead of the hallway they had taken to reach the room before, the other side was now open air.
"This way!"
The back of the ship contained a series of flying disks similar to the design Vincent always uses, except larger. Taking the ships captain and a soldier with him, he hopped onto one of the disks and it broke off, flying away. There were a few more disks for Darak and the remaining crew...
(Yes, he turned the ship into a missile. Heh...)
-
//A rose in her hair? Nice, Zeros'.
"Damn! It didn't work!" Xenai got to his feet inside the crater, Zion doing the same soon after. "Hey, where'd he go?"
Seijin was able to see Jayce shoot up through the clouds. "Hold it right there!" He took off after him, at the speed he'd demonstrated in the fight before when he went benhind him.
"Xenai, look." He pointed up at Seijin, who'd taken off after Jayce.
"Shit, he's too fast."
"Oh! We've forgotten about Tsu!"
"Yeah, but doesn't this sky disturb you just a WEE bit?"
"...We'll stay for a bit to see what happens."
-
Darak then walked out from the wreckage. "Steorra, Nick, other dude. Let's get out of here."
Darak dashed towards one of the flying disks and jumped onto it. It broke off and flew along with Vincent and the others.
----
Rink then looked up into the air as Jayce flew, and Seijin followed. "Looks like he's leaving." The imp said, he then looked at the knights "You should still put the town on alert, just in case he comes back."
----
"Damnit...totally wasted my energy." Duilin mumbled. He then stepped into the crater.
"Well that was a waste." He said loud enough for the others to hear. "I should have just drived that energy blade right into him, at least I would have cause him some pain."
----
Valos then decided to uncloak himself, he then unsheathed his sword and began walking through the destroyed city, heading towards Duilin and his friends.
-
//Haraldur, please stop killing off my army so quickly. Also, someone mind giving me a quick recap on what happened? I read the posts, but I might've missed something.\\
Ein heard Marshal's call for help, and quickly hurried into the temple. He took out a light-enchanted bolt, and shot it at a random zombie.
-"MARSHAL! You OK?"
Meanwhile, Roland got up, and charged at Marshal. He skillfully blocked all other incoming bullets with his sword.
-"Come now, Marshal. Why don't we both put our weapons down and I will peacefully escort you to... our destination? Also, don't worry about your friend back in the hall. He won't be able to assist you on this matter."
Just as Roland said that, a large bone cage fell around Ein. He tried shooting it, then blowing it up with one of his doodles - nothing seemed to work. It was as though besides the cage there was a barrier inside.
-"Argh! Let me out!!!"
-
//Ein, everyone dies quickly in magical battles, except player characters and some NPCs. Right now mostly what is happening is that there are big explosions on the ground from crashing ships etc., so people on the battlefield and not airbourne are in great danger.//
Haraldur reached Tesla and Durruti. "Damn..."
"Shouldn't we assist Makhno?" said Durruti. Tesla and Haraldur nodded, and started fly quickly back to Ugran, the sea passing quickly below them.
____________________________________________________________________
The tower and a few buildings around it, exploded in the centre of Gief, a relic from the founding of the city had been obliterated. From below the remaining defenders shot towards the discs above.
His vessel was spiralling towards the corpse laden ground, but he still did not leave, then it crashed. The explosion was significant, and Nestor used it to throw himself out of the ship and towards Gief. He turned in the air as he flew as a projectile. In front of him, with his back turned away, was someone wearing a high ranking uniform (Vincent). Makhno roated in the air without changing his trajectory, and sped past Vincent, slashing towards Vincent's neck as he flew by. He then turned under his own power, so he was facing Vincent, and as he did that he threw a spear from the now crashed ship at Vincent at very high speed (and hence energy, and hence destructive power) and then took his black flag from his back.
-
A bullet suddenly bounced of the shoulder of Darak's armour.
"What the hell?" Darak snapped. "Holy crap, they've got those auto-guns!"
Darak shielded himself with his axe, and a bullet ricocheted off of his axe, and back onto the ground, pecking a rebel in the leg.
"Haha, cool! They bounce!" Darak laughed.
----
Marshal looked around at the fallen warriors around him, they appeared to be zombies, former Blue Minotaur members, and now undead servants of forces unknown.
Marshal looked at Roland, and narrowed his eyes. Was he the necromancer behind this? Could it be possible that his idle, was an evil fraud the entire time? No. It had to be somebody else. He knew for a fact that Roland did not have that type of power, the Blue Minotaur had that type of magic forbidden, plus the Elder would have known if he was practicing that sort of thing. Perhaps Roland is also a victim of this.
Roland then pointed his sword at Marshal. "So my friend...what will it be?"
Marshal then fired his gun at Roland another time and then kept backing up, Roland blocked the shot with his sword, and the other zombies began to get back up. Marshal seeing as the odds for him were low, he turned around and darted the other way, out running them.
He came towards Ein in his cage. "Ein! What happened?" He asked with a panicking tone in his voice. The group of zombies lead by Roland could be heard coming towards them.
-
//I give up...\\
Suddenly, as the mages were finished doing whatever it was they were doing, all the undeads fell. A small black transparent blob of something erupted from each of their chests, and flew off into the distance.
---
"This battle no longer had point. Vincent was seemingly convinced that my efforts were genuine, and that is all that this battle was intended for. I released the souls of the undeads, which were powering them individually, and gathered them all up. In the distance, I ordered my servants to gather up the deactivated boneyards and bring them back to Kandarin. I slowly opened my eyes...
...discovering the hulking shock troop over my head.
-"Magnot? What are you doing here? How'd you gain independent conciousness in the first place?"
This was either my early mistake, or someone else is tampering with my force lines. Of course, this would be crucially important to investigate, but not under these circumstances. I forcedly wretched the giant's soul from him. The purple glow inside him slowly dimmed, and vanished...
I noticed the man not far away from my position //that means you, TKGB\\. I stood up, and yelled out:
-"You! If you value your very soul, you will forget what you see here!"
As I was saying that, the souls of the undead mages became vividly visible on the horizon. I waited for them to gather into one orb of pure blackness in my palm, and threw down into the ocean. This is the closest to a burial those troops will ever get...
Without any second thoughts, I propelled the platform I was standing on towards Kandarin. On my way, I channeled my remaining power to the warriors in the Blue Minotaur temple."
//TKGB, I would've had a longer conversation with your guy, but you don't post as much, so that would've been somewhat difficult. If you want, though, Quadricentennial could follow Kronos or something.\\
--- --- ---
Steorra quickly hopped off the ship, and fully spanned her wings, gliding over Vincent. She caught up with him, and leveled herself with him, to a comfortable speaking position.
-"Sir, after you left, those undeads seemed to deactivate. Just in case you hadn't noticed..."
A concerned look appeared on her face.
-"You know... this seems exceptionally ironic. I mean, here I am, a Light sorceress, and we just happen to ally with an undead army. If I wanted to, I could've annihilated all of them without any effort. Light and heat are very effective against zombies alone, but combined they would indeed be the perfect weapon against that army. Makes you think that someone is messing with our fate..."
Her casual look was back.
-"Anyway, as I was saying. Kronos has released the undeads from his rule by taking back the energy he used to power them. Essentially, he stole their souls. Now, this was a very lage army, and for him to dispose of it just like that - that's just... I don't know... un-warlike. Perhaps he has achieved whatever his goal was? If so, then we should soon perpare for an even larger impact... Large or not, I somehow doubt that this is the last we've seen of him."
--- --- ---
Ein, somewhat relieved by Marshal's well-being, was still pretty pissed.
-"What the hell does it look like? There's a big fuckin' cage around me, and I can't break free! ARGH!"
He made another pitiful attempt to break free, by banging on the bones that made up the "bars" of the cage. Although obviously uneffective, this seemed to calm him down.
-"This is an incredible warding spell. Nothing so far has worked against it. Whoever made this certainly knew their stuff... Marshal, it seems we've got another major player in town."
He turned around, then back to Marshal.
-"Listen, whatever you do, you do NOT want to go outside. Last I was out there, there were people all over the place. Your best chances are to run deeper inside, and hope that your folks made some sort of a secret escape route. Anyway, don't worry about me - run!"
Zombies were closing in on Marshal.
-
Nick was running towards vincent and Steorra. a giant clump of metal was falling down above him " Oh! Crap." he said quivering. He emitted energy out of his hand but it just deflected off the metal...
---
Calavous clenched the clunk of metal just before it was about to hit Nick and swung it into another fragment of metal knocking it to the floor. " Need help?" Calavous said. He grabbed Nick by the collar and and flapped his jet black wing once and started to fly through the air. He glided up next to Steorra. Then he put his sword onto his back and put Nick onto vincents Flying disk.
---
Nick then went up to vincent and said. " Where are we going sir?" he looked back as the burning airship was falling. He stared at the red hot flames in a curios way.
-
Jayce flew higher and higher, but Seijin was right on him and gaining quickly.
"It's been fun. I'll be generous and let this count as a tie... Next time we play for keeps..."
He hooked around and sped straight towards the ocean below, which his flight path took him over. Down and down he shot, becoming a black blur. There was a violent tremor and a sonic boom and Jayce vanished much like Retan, a blast of wind penetrating the ocean waves immediately afterwards... He was gone...
----
Ven appeared overhead the ruined section of Kesnar, ready for battle. He sword was drawn and his black cloak was thrown back like a cape, revealing his brilliant silver armor. He leapt from the wind burst he was riding, performing a stunning flip, and landed in front of Zion and Xenai, slashing his sword once through the air and posing.
"..."
He held the pose for a few seconds before his eyes shot back and forth.
"I... missed it, didn't I?"
----
"Wait! What do you mean he's disposed of them?"
Vincent's little victory was short lived. Kronos had pulled out and he hadn't an army left to command.
He turned to Steorra and Nick, the propelled flying disk still flying quickly. Smoke was everywhere...
"We'll have to pull back as well, for now..."
He turned to face forward as there was a bright flash of steel before him followed by red hot pain.
"ARGH!!"
Makhno's flying slash connected with his chest and left arm, sending forth a slow motion splattering of blood as he realized what just happened, nearly stumbling off of the flying disk. His gaze met the flying warrior, now above him, just in time to see the spear headed his way. The spear struck cleanly through the center of the disk, just inches from his feet, and the flying device shattered. Clutching his arm in pain, Vincent fell towards the burning city below...
-
Marshal looked at Ein. "Okay...I'll see you later!" He said hopefully. He then began to run back deeper into temple, he held out his amulet as he ran, and blasted a spectre that formed into the moon creature he summoned earlier.
As the zombies came closer, the creature makes a frightening screeching sound and began slashing away at the zombies, cutting most of them in half or impaling them, with it's large claws.
Marshal continued his way, he knew that they had an emergency bunker, that apparently connected to a large tunnel system that connected with a few other settlements, such as Rivertown.
----
Valos appeared from the dust and mist of the ruins of the city.
"Well, well, well." Valos grinned, approaching Duilin, Zeros', Zion and Xenai. "Who'd think that I'd bump into my friends here..."
"Valos!" Duilin snapped. "He followed us..."
"Hehehe...now where were we?"
-
Thinking quickly, Steorra dove for Vincent. She caught him in mid-air, and soared back up into the skies.
-"That was close. Those disks of yours aren't too dependable, it seems. Here's something a bit sturdier."
She cast the wing spell on Vincent. //Just to clarify, these wings are not like butterfly or fairy wings - more like an eagle's, but you can't really make out the details, because they're basically made of light.\\
She let go of Vincent, who now had a pair of his own wings, and flew over to Makhno.
-"You! Die!"
She swung her staff at the warrior.
-
(//Oops. Sorry D. I should check here often.)
Quadricentennial step forward and looked up upon the man floating in the sky.
"Is this your doing? Did you awaken these deceased men? Why did you not let them rest?"
He had an agered look on his eyes, as if he wanted to kill the man on the sky.
-
// Thanks.
Zeros' sighed, as he sensed Jayce disappear. He knew he wasn'[t gone from Gaian. More likely Retan had shieled both of them from his senses. He looked towards where Ven landed and held back a chuckle, before hearing Valos' voice.
He ghosted down and in seconds, his sword was at Valos' throat.
"If you want to live, leave now," he said, his tone leaving no room for arguement.
---
Allen blinked and then sighed. The battle was over, but he still drifted lazily along. He could now see the town in the horizon, at least. It would only be a matter of time before he reached it.
-
Valos laughed. "Oh come on now, old friend." he then ghosted right behind Zeros' with his sword pointing at the back of Zeros' neck. "Can't we just get along?"
Duilin drew his mace.
"Leave now Valos! You can't take all of us." Duilin said holding his mace towards Valos.
"Oh, really? Well then, obviously you shouldn't be afraid of me being here then." Valos replied with his sword still pointed at Zeros'. "But you should be. Let's pick up before we were so rudely cut off..." He voice then became more harsh and he pressed the sword more strongly to Zeros' neck. "Now, what is your choice, will you come with me to my master, or not!?"
----
"Aw shit!" Rink exclaimed "That bastard followed us here!" He then jumped up into the air and flew back as fast as he could.
-
Nick fell soaring down to his death he tried all he could to slow down....
Calavous came down after him catching him by his sleave." Twice in one day, losing you touch." He grabed a falling peice of the disk and put some energy aroud it, placing nick on it at the same time.
---
Nick was gliding with the peice of metal." Just like training in the forest temple" Nick flew up to Steorra and kicked his foot at Makhno's face enough power to knock him away. " How do you like this you IDIOT?"
-
"Sure did." :] Xenai gave Ven a stupid-looking smile.
"Good to see you, Ven. How have you been lately?"
"What about Tsu?"
"Hold the crap on."
"Oh my god, you said crap!"
"Shut up, please."
Then Valos showed up.
"Hey, didn't you kill him?!"
"I thought I did! What's the big idea, huh?"
"Shut up and shoot 'im!"
"Fine. Ray!" Zion pointed two fingers at Valos' head, as if his hand were a gun, and a thin, yet highly concentrated beam of light energy shot forth from the fingertips. It was fast, too.
-
"Great, guess I didn't miss everything..."
Ven turned as Zion's Ray attack shot past him and sped towards Valos, resuming his heroic stance.
"Hey, you guys think you can fight the psychos outside of town?"
----
"I'll have another."
The shrouded figure sitting in the corner of the now roofless tavern flipped a gold coin across the room, where it landed on the half smashed bar, from which the barkeep slowly rose from his hiding place underneath. They were the only two left in the trashed building.
"Uhm... Coming right up..."
----
Vincent felt a very strange sensation over his body, unsure if it was a spell cast on him or just an effect of the loss of blood. He found that he could control the wings, which felt very foreign and awkward to him.
His vision blurring, he managed to glide safely downwards, away from the flames below and into a darker cobblestone alley. He landed somewhat roughly and fell to a crouching position, the wings on his back vanishing a short moment afterwards. He turned over in an upright sitting position, feeling very dizzy indeed.
"Blast it."
Nearly the entire left side of his black trench coat was soaked in blood, staining the material a deep maroon. He warily glanced up towards the black smoky sky, getting his first good look at his attacker, Makhno, and Steorra and Nick charging him. With his right, undamaged arm, he pulled open the straps of his coat and clumsily removed his weapon. He was skilled enough with the shotgun to operate it with one hand, but there was no way he could aim properly... his attacker and allies becoming fast moving blurs to him...
-
"High General Vincent!" Darak shouted, spotting his seemingly dieing superior officer.
Darak landed the floating disc down on the ground, near the cobblestone ally.
A rebel armed with spear ran at him. Darak swung his axe, horizontally, breaking the spear and then once again, vertically at his attacker quickly taking him out. He ran into the ally way, and held his axe with just his left hand and helped his general keep balance with his other.
"General? Are you alright?" He asked, sounding worried.
//I'll update Valos after Zeros' posts.\\
-
Makhno swung his flag-pole with its black flag at the staff, and slid it down the staff towards Steorra's face, a fireball coming out from the top towards Steorra's face from about 20 centimetres away. He then somersaulted over, avoiding Nick's kick and land behind him and trying to stab him in the back with his sword.
Within moments of that, Haraldur, Buenaventuri and Nikola arrived on the scene, and flew towards where Makhno was. Tesla fired two plasma shots at Nick, and Durruti stabbed twice towards Steorra's back with his knife.
Haraldur looked down at the damaged city below and started to repair it, starting with the walls. The pieces of rock that had been broken off were now flying back to their original positions.
The mages started to attack the few enemies they could see on the groudn from the air, with fireballs mostly.
-
Nick took a dagger out and blocked Makhno's attack. Then he jumped so the plasma shots would end up going to Makhno.
---
Calavous started to fly into Tesla and takle him. Glass from a window in a cottage broke as he lifted off. He looked as if a blur just moving so quickly you couldn't keep your eye on it. his blone wavy hair was blowing back and his clothes making snaping souds like a flag in the breeze.
-
Steorra easily regained control of her staff, and dodged the fireball and the stabs. She spun in the air.
-"Two on one? How fair is that..."
She sent a lightning from her staff, surprisingly enough made of light [/sarcasm], arcing towards Durruti and Makhno. She flew back a little, and turned to Durruti.
-"How is it that you, a poorly-dressed soldier-like man, know the ways of the arcane? At least dress for the profession..."
She turned towards Makhno.
-"And you? Since when do peasants fly in the sky? You look like someone who just stopped milking Mary the Cow from some god-forgotten farm! What's this world coming to?!"
-
"Ergh, just a scratch..."
Vincent struggled to his feet with the help of Darak, pointing the barrel of the gun down, using his weapon as a cruch until he was on two feet.
"Listen, Darak... We've gotta... regroup... at Bandervil to the west... ergh..."
He was very tipsy as he said this, and at the end of the sentence fell over unconcious due to the blood loss...
-
Zeros' smirked and tsked.
"Valos, Valos, Valos..." He suddenly disppeared from Valos' view. "You already know what my anwser is. Why bother asking?" he questioned from... Somewhere.
-
Makhno easily dodged the plasma shots.
Tesla skipped around Calavous and dodged the tackle, and his Tesla coil went on automatically, sending lightning sparks into Calavous' body. He then shot at him twice as he went past.
With quick shields Durruti and Makhno blocked and dissipatred Steorra's lightning.
Durruti said, "Magical skill should not just belong to the ruling class but to all, to all the people, all the proletarians."
"Fucking snob," said Makhno, "besides I have technically been a worker, in an iron foundry, for the last few years, and before that a shepherd."
Durruti threw a fireball into Steorra's face and stabbed towards her again. Makhno went behind her and slashed towards her neck with his sword, looking to decapitate. He then sent an ionisation attack towards Nick, looking to rip all of Nick's molecules apart.
Having prevented the walls and other buildings from collapsing further, Haraldur turned his attention to the skirmish behind him. Two kukris appeared in his hands, and he threw them very fast towards Nick and Calavous.
-
Nick dodged Makhno's attack and went to trust his hand into his body" Dip shit! Im not stupid I can sense attacks." he yelled. Nick then trew a dagger to block the Kukris.
---
Calavous quickly soared down to the ground dodging both attacks. He picked up a boulder in one hand and chucked it at Tesla. " I just wanted to do some heavy lifting."
// Will any of you guys want to join my rp just to get it moving along?\\
-
"Aw damnit." Darak groaned. "Wake up, General." He shook him a bit. "Stupid kid..." He muttered under his breath.
He then lifted him up and carried the passed out man over his shoulder. He went his way towards the floating disk and jumped on it and it broke off and began flying west...
----
As Zeros' disappeared, and the ray of light flew towards him, he swung his sword batting the light energy away.
He then looked around. "You see Zeros', I honestly don't care what your answer is. It's just that you seem to be the brains of the group, heh, well at least for Duilin."
Duilin stepped forward and clenched his left fist and held a stronger grip on his mace in his right hand. "What?!"
"You're just a stupid brainless shit Duilin, face it." Valos' voice raised "You follow Zeros' around, because he's a freak like you, and is smarter and can make choices for you. You're just as weak and stupid as those two dumb kids that followed Zeros' around." Valos looked down to his said and grimaced. "God I hated that Qeni, I wish I was the one to kill her." His voice changed to Pophin's "And that stupid dog and angel form of them wouldn't piss off."
"What?" Duilin said, sounding worried with the familiar voice.
"I've got Pophin's mind as well...Valos'...Nex's.... Sometimes it?s even hard to organize everything." Valos then shook his head; his voice went to Valos'. "Enough of this shit! So Duilin I think it's obvious that you can't do anything without your big buddy Zeros' permission. I'll just do your father a favour and kill you, he'd be upset to see what a stupid fucking parasite you've become."
"Screw you!" Duilin yelled, he dashed towards Valos and swung his mace towards him so hard, it flue from his hand, Valos swung his sword, knocking the mace out of that way. Duilin then surrounded himself in a golden fiery aura, creating a slight shockwave, pushing some rubble away from him. Valos then blasted on his dark purple aura. The two rivals then flue towards each other ready to lock horns.
-
Flexible like a whip, Steorra easily dodged the attacks. She flew a small distance away from Makhno and Durruti.
-"A shepherd? I'm sure you're awful proud... and what do you mean, all people? Common man should never be allowed the power of the arcane, as a gnat must not posess the power of a bear. Chaos theory in action, stranger."
She looked down, and saw Darak flying away with Vincent.
-"Well, it's been extraordinary pleasant chatting with you gentlemen, but I must be going. I so do sincerely hope that we meet again."
She flew downwards, and next to Darak.
-"What is the next destination?"
//Burton, I would, but not now. Perhaps next week - I'm too swamped with homework and such... I think you can expect me in by Monday. Right now, I barely have enough time to post here...\\
--- --- ---
"My platform floated a little closer to the man, on my command.
-"Because I can, stranger. Now, you will step aside, or... unfortunate things may happen."
The grand plan was getting to be quite slow. I had no time for these distractions."
-
Calavous flew and grabbed Nick before he can finish his attack. " let me kick his ass!" Nick screamed
"Next time. Next time."
"You got lucky"
Calavous flew down to Vincent, Darak, and Steorra.
"lets speed things up." Said Calavous. "They'll catch up soon."
Calavous started to speed up.
Nick jumped out of his brothers hands and started to run. He was going faster than the others." Come on hurry up to where every we going!"
// thats ok and great!\\
-
//Whoo! Never mind. Finally, time to update Roland! Oh yeah, and Nick, I'm joining your RP as well. Already got an idea for a character.\\
As Ein stood helpless locked up in a bone cage, undeads were chasing Marshal thrugh the catacombs. Roland was right behind.
-"Haha, you can run, but you can't hide! Stop, Marshal, you yourself see that this is quite over!!!"
Eventually, however, a particularly large one blocked his way.
-"Puny human no go. Me crush puny human!"
The thing swung a mace-like contraption right down onto Marshal.
//DM, to make the storyline a bit more "flowable", I need to sometimes take partial control of Marshal. Nothing as major as being hit or saying stuff - just, for example, if Marshal dodges this attack (which he probably will), for the story plot I have in mind (which I told you at school about), he needs to be forced back when dodging. Could we do that?\\
-
(Haraldur, must your characters always attack twice in a row? It just seems strange, especially when both attacks are on the same person. Yes, each character is allowed two actions per post, but an attack is an action that requires a response from another character, so don't you think it would be more natural to end the post with this sort of action rather than immediately follow up with another? Remember this is a story we're writing, and not a description of a turn based ATB battle system with haste-ed characters. Heh...)
----
The outline of a tall shadow appeared in the darkness...
"Father, why must you interupt my fun?"
"We've no time to play with warrior zealots."
"It was just for a while. I intended to kill them when I was done."
"Two of them were god-class."
"One and a half. So what?"
"I do not intend to engage divine armies spiteful for revenge of a fallen comrade at this time."
"Gaian, nor the dregs that call themselves 'gods' here, are under no such protection."
"Are you questioning my logic?"
"... No, father."
"Excellent... Now there is much work ahead. It seems the Upper Dark Empire collapsed entirely during our absence."
"What did you expect? Miserable humans cannot be trusted with even the simplest of tasks, let alone maintaining an empire."
"Yes, it seems punishments are an order. We will return to the Lower Dark Empire and asses its state."
"Good good... More my kind of people... Heh..."
-
Marshal jumped backwards as the mace-a-ma-bob flue down infront of him.
"Great scott..." Marshal said softly, as he looked at the giant zombie.
"Me no like puny human! Puny human go back now!"
The large zombie then swung his fist at Marshal and he flew back a few feet, and felt a bit dizzy and laid down on the ground for a small wile.
The moon creature then dashed towards the giant zombie, jumping over Marshal. The zombie swung its mace-thing at the creature striking it, yet not taking it out. The creature then shoved one of its claws into its chest and its other claw slashed the zombie's head off.
Marshal was then able to get up. "Owch..."
-
//Ahh... Flue... oww... oww... Razz
"Should we step in here?" asked Zion.
"No. I think it's Duilin's fight right now."
"Well we're sticking around for now."
-
//THAT'S MY MAN, TRENT!!! Help end the horrible spelling of DM!\\
The lifeless zombie corpse crumbled down onto the ground. However, just as Marshal got up, Roland ran up behind him, and tackled him into a room nearby. He looked around the room, noticing a familiar figure standing by a fireplace. The figure slowly turned around, and simoultaneously (sp...) Marshal's eyes widened.
-"Why, if it isn't our lost boy..."
The Elder smirked.
-
Zeros' growled, but restrained himself, as he reappeared near Zion and the other two, his arms crossed, with his fingers twitching every so often. If one was to look close, they could see his eyes shifting back and forth between the normal emerald green and the red of his rage-induced demon form.
---
Allen arrived above the town, laying down on the disc. He stepped on a rooftop well away from the battle and started to slow make his way towards them.
-
//Shut up... Razz \\
Marshal looked at the zombified elder. (I assume he could tell seeing how brutally he died.)
My god, him too? Who ever were responsible is going to pay greatly for this.
"Elder...I have to warn you, my skills have greatly increased since you banished me." Marshal said taking stance
"Really? Let's see then!" The elder said sounding interested.
Marshal motioned in front of him, and the moon creature quickly arrived at the scene. "Bet you've never seen this before."
"What? What on Gaian is this creature?" The elder asked outraged
"Heheh, you'll see."
The elder then quickly casts a dark brown spectre that forms into a zombifeid razorback (some sorta hog) that stood on two legs and had very sharp tusks.
//Pokemon Gym Leader Battle Theme plays\\
----
Valos swung his sword towards Duilin. The half demon backed away as the blade swung nearer to him. He then blasted a lightning bolt at Valos, yet he batted it back with his sword. Valos then flew towards him thrusting his sword towards Duilin. Duilin jumped in the air and flipped over Valos.
"Face it Valos, even with all your new powers you can't even beat me!" Duilin said harshly. "You're nothing but a freak with split personalities!"
"Split personalities eh?" Valos laughed. "Well, let's see what I can do with these split personalities..."
As soon as he said split, two ghostly images shifted from Valos. One formed into a large humanoid with torn robes, and wielded a large scythe, and a scared up face with two horns on his forehead.
"Yes let's just see how this goes now!" Said the dark figure with the voice of Nex.
The second figure was dressed in dark blue Darkness gear (Mortis' clothing), it seemed to have a much more human look, but had two large demonic wings. It wielded a large spear.
"I'd highly enjoy seeing the outcome of this..." Said the second figure, in the voice of Pophin.
Valos then grinned and spun his sword and pointed it towards Duilin. "Heheheheh!"
"Aw shit..." Duilin gulped
"I'll tell you what Duilin. Maybe we will include your little friends in this battle." Valos said
"Yeah I've got quite a score to settle!" Said the Nex clone, swinging his scythe in the air, he then quickly flew towards Zeros'. "A storm's coming!" He then swung his scythe at Zeros'.
The Pophin clone then chuckled and then flew towards Zion and Xenai. "It's play time kids!" He pushed his spear towards them and blasted a large energy blast towards the two.
-
A flash of steel came from above and severed the energy blast sent by Pophin, sending each half into parallel piles of rubble to the left and right with small explosions. Ven stood in the way.
"Argh! There are PEOPLE here! Blast it!"
He held his sword with both hands to his right side and the blade began to glow with a dim white light. Projectile attacks were out of the question in this populated area. He would have to stick to his physical weapon, and try to get at least this third of the enemy to do the same...
He opened with a straight dash at the shadow Pophin, ducking to his left at the last instant with a wide horizontal slash at his opponent's mid section...
-
-"RAZOMBIE! Spine attack!"
The razorback bent back down to two legs, shooting a cascade of spines at the moon creature. It then thrashes about.
-"Argh, stupid thing, get up!"
The beast stopped thrashing and got back up on its two legs.
--- --- ---
"I awaited a response and got none.
-"Fine... You can live, for now. However, if you'll excuse me, some of us have work to do."
I urged the panel away from him, and flew off towards Kandarin."
-
The moon creature swings it claws blocking a few of the spines coming at him, he then dashes towards the razorback and goes to slash it across the chest simultaneously with both it's claws.
----
"Oh my people are here!" Pophin said mockingly "Oh sorry I forgot to care!"
Pophin skidded backwards avoiding the slash coming towards him. He then tossed a fireball, but it accidentally hit a nearby dwelling, setting it a blaze.
"Whoops." Pophin teased, putting his left pointer and middle finger under his mouth. He then lowered his hand and laughed in a french sort of way. (Him having a slight french accent and all)
--
Valos flew towards Duilin, swinging his sword at him. Duilin shifted himself back from the blade drawing closer to him.
Duilin swung his leg upwards and then kicked Valos in the neck, causing him to back away a few feet.
Valos rubbed his neck and then stuck his sword into the ground and then began rapidly shooting dark shade blasts at Duilin, most of them hitting him.
-
"Zion, put that house out, and sit out of this! I get no action lately. This one is for me and Ven."
"Right, whatever."
Xenai dashed forward. The gigantic Zero Weapon appeared in his hands, and it didn't seem to hinder his movement at all.
Meanwhile, Zion created a very large ball of water, and tossed it at the house, drenching it completely. No more fire.
Xenai shot past Ven, right up to Pophin, sword held down by his feet. He slashed upwards with it, aiming to lob the guy's head off.
-
The Comrades watched them go. They descended on Gief, while many were leaving the town to tend to the countless wounded.
They landed in the town square, surrounded by rubble. They now went through the almost routine operation of repairing the city and improving it with gun turrets and similar. In the centre of the square they put a memorial to the fallen in the Battle of Gief, a towering object where the lists of the hundreds of thousands who died were written on it. It had stairs and people could climb to the top, passing all the names (which were listed by category, different lists for those from Alterna, the mines etc.), and look around and see all of Gief and the immediate surroundings, seeing what people had died for as well as freedom. At the very top was a black flag that was in tatters, one from the battle field itself that had been dropped, soaked in blood from many people, friend and foe, flapping in the wind and protected by a preserving spell that would last forever. The flag itself was 5 metres by 3 metres, one carried by a horseman of the Black Guards, and plain black originally. It could be seen from everywhere in Gief and the surrounding area.
Standing on top of the memorial, which was now the tallest object on Gaian, taller even than the tallest mountains (which was why the higher areas were surrounded by a shimmering shield like spell, a spell that kept the air pressure high enough to breath. The only high area not affected was the highest point, with the flag, so it could fly, and it did constantly due to the high winds at that altituded), tall so all the names would fit. There was a lift leading back to the ground for those (the majority) who did not want to endure the climb up (in years to come there would be annual races up to the top of the memorial, up all the steps, lasting many days. The winner would then give a speech at the next years event about the battle, as the races always started on the anniversary of the battle, and then would spend a few days walking up after the years contestants, and would then kiss a replica 5x3 metre black flag that would then be his own to keep, a year after his win. The replica flag would be a little lower than the original, and would be reached by all the contestants of the years race after the current winner).
To their west they could see the lava fields where Laus once was, within which was the lava surrounded Redvik fortress. They all looked up at the flag, and then kissed near the bottom of the, very high, flagpole, as they were standing as they did this. They sat down and stared towards the floor of the top of the tower. They all looked absolutely furious. Makhno looked up and said, "When I find out who was responsible for this I..." He pulled out his sword, Vincent's blood still on it. He stuck his tongue out and licked the blood off, and then swallowed the blood in his mouth. "I swear that I will kill the owner of this blood I have consumed, and anyone else responsible for this attack, and then eat their bodies." He then smashed his sword against a wall at the top of the tower, leaving the two snapped pieces sticking out of the stone and embedded in it.
He jumped onto the surrounding wall of the tower and jumped of, summoning a horse under him that started to gallop on the air as he rode towards Redvik, his eyes red with sorrow and rage, and disgust.
Haraldur turned to the other two. "It seems that we cannot allow the Grey Empire last any longer. Durruti, go back to Alterna and ensure their safety. Tesla, as you come from near here, you look after this region. I am going to confront the Greys with a few... old... friends... ..."
Tesla sat at the highest point within the pressure spell, keeping watch on everything while holding his rifle. Durruti flew south to his home of Alterna. Haraldur flew off to the East, towards the signal of Zeros' and Duilin. This might be their last chance. If they did not aid him, he might regard them as his enemies, forever...
-
"We are going west." Darak said. "To Bandervil. Let's hurry."
----
Pophin blocked the oncoming sword with the pole of his spear, and quickly backed a few steps. He then jabbed his spear towards Xenai.
--
Duilin callapsed on the ground, but still held himself up his his hands. Valos picked his sword up and walked over to Duilin. He smirked and then thrusted his sword down at him, Duilin quickly rolled out of the way, stood up and punched Valos in the back of the head, but held him in place by shocking him with his lightning magic.
Valos made a rapid gurggling sound as the electricity flowed through him. Duilin however still in pain from the shade blasts loose his grip and Valos does a spin kick at Duilin's chest, knocking him to the ground. Valos wipps the drool from his mouth with the back of his hand. "You're a tough little punk aren't you?"
-
" Want me to carry vincent im faster?" Nick stopped for a second he heard something. He ignored it and started to run again. Nick took a string from his pocket and put it in his hand he mad some hand signs and chanted some words. He put his arm strait out. Spirit wolf he called as a wolf like figure came out of his palm it was made of energy. The string turned into the wolf or was it in the wolf he could not tell and he didn't care. The wolf ran next to Nick giving the extra ear just in case his mind was playing tricks on him.
-
Ven took off after Xenai after he shot past. Xenai aimed high, Ven would go low...
Imediately after Xenai's attack was blocked, Ven saw his opening when Pophin struck back. Another wide horizontal arc of the sword, this time from left to right and just two feet from the ground-- he slashed at his adversary's legs...
-
He turned around, catching the spear in his left hand, holding Zero Weapon in his right. Seeing Ven go low, he went once more for the head in a quick horizontal arc that would make his arm sore after the fight. If things went by schedule, their attacks would connect simultaneously.
-
The Elder's grin vanished.
-"Enough of these games!"
Six huge bone spikes fell onto both of the creatures, three on the moon beast, and three onto the razorback. Almost instantly, a large cage of bones fell onto Marshal, with a powerful protective ward around it. It was quite like the one in which Ein was imprisoned.
-"Now then... Shall we get to business?"
The Elder sat down into a large luxurious-looking chair, facing the bone cage.
-"Marshal, you must've noticed this..." He looked down at the gaping hole in his stomach. "...and you must understand, that those who have the power to control life and death are the closest you can get to gods. Soon, the Continent will no longer be in disarray..." The Elder's eyes began to wander. "and all of it will belong to only one monarch. Everything, everyone under the supreme rule of Kronos, the Marshal of Kandarinian Souvereignity... That shall be humanity's golden age."
The Elder got up, and came closer to the bone cage. He looked directly in Marshal's eyes with a piercing stare.
-"But, as all wars, this one will have its losses. You, on the other hand, don't need to be one of them. You can be one of us... Although even if you decline, you will still eventually be with us. Only this way, you can still retain your free will. So, what will it be? Will you join our cause and survive, or will you oppose us and fall, like the rest?"
--- --- ---
Steorra glided along with Darak.
-"Bandervil? Never heard of it. Really, though, it matters not. Let's just get there, and I shall see for myself... Then we'll take care of this little... situation..." She glanced at Vincent's limp body.
--- --- ---
"An hour or so later, I arrived at my glorious kingdom, and let the platform down. It crumbled into individual bones, then to dust. All from but a thought from me.
Taking my time, I made my way towards my palace in the core island. They'd better have completed the assignment...
I walked into a side room branching off from the main hall. It was a small study, with a wooden table, shelves filled with books, and paintings on the walls. Everything one needs for a good read. However, this was not the whole purpose of the room... I walked over to one of the shelves, and pulled a book with my glorious land's symbol on it.
A bright light filled the room, and I dissipated into thin air."
-
Zeros' just silently stood by, his anger slowly ebbing away. He knew he could take on both of the two and probably win, but he decided to let his friends handle them.
---
Allen landed on a roof nearby and silentl observed the fighting from above.
-
Makhno reached Redvik and landed on the fortress. His horse dematerialised as he jumped off, and searched fo an entrance, which he found after a while. He stood outside the entrance, and a new sword materialised in his hand. He shouted into the fortress:
"This is Nestor Ivanovich Makhno! You have 5 minutes to join the Revolution, or die!"
______________________________________________________________________
Though they did not know much about the outside world, the soldiers and the technicians and scientists had heard about the Aspyes, and of Makhno. Most of them were inclined to ditch the Empires. However, all the officers and some loyalist soldiers were against this. Inside the remnants of the fortress, the officers and loyalists fought against the majority of the soldiery, and in a few minutes the revolutionaries were victorious: and taking great pleasure in executing their former officers, repaying them well for past ill treatment.
They opened the door and rushed past Makhno carrying many light, and not so light, weapons, and then gave him the revolutionary salute: the clenched fist. He gave them a revolutionary salute. He saw they were few and some wounded.
"Make your way to Gief. I suggest that you modify your uniforms to make sure they understand you will not attack them."
The soldiers and scientists left, riding to Gief on little floating discs made by a few of the scientists.
A horse rematerialising below him, Makhno rode on the air North, towards Bandervil.
______________________________________________________________________
Durruti reached Alterna and rested on the air, using it as a soft cushion. Below him, construction work in Alterna was continuing. To the East, the towers of Laus could be seen.
______________________________________________________________________
Haraldur droppedout of the air, landing close to where Zeros', Duilin, Valos, Pophin, Nex, Ven and Xenai were.
"Missed me?"
-
"Its time to tell you guys something." Nick looked towards the group. " I never wanted to fight, No one ever does just the ones that wish to kill. I never wanted to go to war, its not about doing something for my life, its for protecting lives from being taken, so they live life. I dont people to go through the pain, and have no home nothing but a brother by my side. living in a life with nothing bt yourself. I can hold it in anymore I do not wish to kill for glory only for the lives of others. When I think something is right i do it, when wrong i stop, but that is only my opion... I cant make things right or wrong only try, i will try untill i am killed and i am no more. If people cant just stop ware then try not to start it. If people just try this will be better a place that is better. Nick started to walk again.
---
Calavous listened to the passion of Nicks voice. " He right lets try to make allies with whom were enimies. If we try we might make things better." Calavous didn't want pointless wars either just peace for the sake of others.
-
Steorra turned towards Nick and Calavous with a disgusted face.
-"If you want to join the Aspyes, be my guest. Or maybe, it would seem, you will be one of those people - the people that change sides more often than I change my hairstyle..."
She turned away, and continued flying.
-"Then again, you might have some truth in your words. If you want, you can go try. We'll continue our way to Bandervil."
-
(Haraldur: Vincent evacuated Redvik when he took the ships. There's no one left there. 'Course, didn't do them much good in the end. Heh...)
(Ein: Remember of course, that Steorra originally joined up with Vincent's group at Bandervil. Heh...)
Vincent began to gurgle incoherent babblings in his unconscious state...
"*Mumble* *mumble*... High General... *mumble* ... lead into gold... *mumble* *mumble* ..."
----
The two could feel the platform moving downwards... There was no light at all. They didn't need it...
There was a loud *click* and the downward descent stopped. There was a tremor as the boulders before them parted, seemingly resisting the effort they had not been forced to do for several years.
The two exited into the dim torchlight. The air was stagnant-- a repulsive mix of vapors nearly unbreathable to surface dwellers. Three figures now approached them. The front most was hunched over and wrapped in robes. He moved slowly with the help of a cane, as if dragging something heavy behind him. The golden crown on his head glimmered in the torchlight... but his non-human face was more striking... He was a lizard. His toe claws clicked on the stone floor with each step. The two figures behind him were the same, save for their massive body armor wrapped around their reptilian bodies.
They stopped ten feet from the two and fell to the floor, groveling deeply. The crowned one spoke:
"Dark Emperor Retan, Prince Jaysse Retan, welcome back to Mizar, my lordsss..."
-
Nick looked a Steorra. " This is not about sides I could care less on which side im on, this is about inocent lives that are at stake becuase of these fueds. These fueds are for power, but have any of you thought of the people that are in the middle... Probally not." Nick started to run back to were they left to talk to the Aspyes.
---
"Nick wait." Calavous said but his attempt faild. " Its useless to get to him. I know ill see him later.
-
//She did? I thought it was at Redvik. Also, no one told her that the place she joined Vincent at was Bandervil. At least I don't think so... Bah, i'm a noob anyway Razz\\
-
(//OI! I've been distracted so much, I forgot about this RP. Well hopefully by June the distractions should come to an end.)
Quadricentennial was left in awe for a while after being approached by the floating madman. He never saw such a man before. He snapped out of the state to realized he was headed to another destination.
"Where is he going?" Quadricentennial ran towards teh beach, jumping over dead corpses that have sadly died once again. He looked around but there was nothing but corpses and bloody sand. He saw a small hut and ran towards it. It was trashed everywhere but he found a small boat.
"This boat survived whatever catastrophe happened here. This boat must be sturdy." He grabbed it and set it on the water and set sailed towards the direction of where the floating man went.
-
"You've never heard of Bandervil?" Darak asked, with a quick laugh. "That's were we came from. You need to pay more attention to things."
He then watched Nick leave. "Newb..."
He listened to Vincent's mumbles and grinned. "Gold eh?" Darak then looked ahead; the large broken fortress could be spotted from a distance. "Ah ha, we are almost there..."
----
"Hey let go of my spear!" Pophin shouted. He tried to pull it back, but he quickly felt a sharp cutting pain in his lower half, and then spotted Xenai slashing his sword right as his head. He then began to walk backwards from the two. A white glowing light appeared were he was slashed.
"No fair! I don't want to go back in!" Pophin cried. The lights from his cuts took over his entire body until he turned into a white laser that shot right back into Valos. The spear however stood in Xenai's hand.
//Since Zeros' is being a noob and ignoring me and I don't have time to wait for him, I'll just have Nex take over the fight now.\\
Nex then flue towards Ven and Xenai, swinging his scythe across the both of them, so they would both be cut.
Rink finally arrived at the scene. "Holy shit, what's goin' on here?"
----
Valos then began to charge some type of glowing cyan energy into his sword.
Duilin slowly got up, and wiped some blood off his face. A golden glow came into his hands, and his eyes began to give off a slight glow...
"You just don't know when to quit do ya!?" Valos laughed. He then pointed his glowing sword at him. "Come on...I dare ya!"
"I've had it with you Valos. You and your stupid 'master' and your bullshit about my father you keep tossing at me, and this crap about my demonic side being good." Duilin said angrily. "I'm not stupid Valos, I'm thirty-six not twelve."
Valos grinned and then started laughing. Duilin continued to charge his demonic energy and Valos still charged his...
//I'll update Marshal later....\\
-
// Ah shit. I read the part where Nex attacked Zeros' again. I thought Nex had sent the energy blast and Ven intercepted that one. -.-; \\
Zeros' sighed and uncrossed his arms, clenching his fists, before he fulled calmed down.
"Haraldur," he said, nodding, with a calm voice. He had made a smart move. Haraldur knew that he wouldn't attack him here. He could simply wipe out the whole town with a single spell. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" he said calmly. Plus, it also didn't look like he wanted to fight... Now. He wouldn't want all those innocent peoples deaths on his hands.
---
Allen, from his nearby position, watched the battle. He knew all about Valos, Nex and Phophin. He had seen them before when he still worked regularly inside the Dark Empire's castle in the alchemic division.
He had honestly never knew Nex was a demon. Sure, he came off a little strange, but a demon... He never knew.
But, he continued it observe the battle. He knew he wouldn't be much use. All of the people down there were much too powerful for him to fight alone.
-
-"Don't you tell me to pay more attention! I pay enough as it-- WHAM!!!"
Steorra flew right into a huge rock, knocking herself down to the ground.
-"Uhh...", she groaned. "My head..."
She tried to get up, falling again.
-"Hey guys... someone mind lending a hand?", she said weakly. It is doubtful anyone would've heard her, though.
--- --- ---
"I was in a small confined stone area, deep beneath the earth. In fact, it was at least 6 KM down below the sea level. A series of portals on the walls open up above in Kandarin provided ventilation. Other than the portals, there was a stone pedestal in the middle of the room, some robes next to it, and a wooden table with two curious items. They were a book and a staff, but both of them were translucent. It's time for the ceremony to begin...
I took off my armour and put it to the side of the pedestal, and put on the robes. They were black, red, and beige in colour. A very large collar was behind my head, as well as two bands - one around my shoulders and one down at the feet. Everything was ready.
I lay down at the pedestal. The portals closed the minute I touched it. I only had so much air left..."
There was another gap in the entries.
-
Xenai snickered in celebration of his and Ven's victory. Didn't last long. He looked to see Nex coming in fast. He dropped backwards, landing on his hands (Think Voldo for this position), Zero Weapon between his right hand and the ground. Now that Nex was open as well, he pulled back, and shot forth with a spring-like kick toward the head, Zero Weapon still in hand and ready for any kind of follow-up.
-
Calavous stuck out his hand to Steorra. " There you go." He helped her up.
---
Nick was near the town he looked up and saw the gaint memorial. He saw a man atop it. He ran to it and called to the man. " Hello sir can I talk to your leader"
Nick stared at the gun ready to run at a split second.
-
Marshal looked at the cage around him.
"Well elder. I've got to admit, I admire your determination." He says, sounding unafraid. Yet deep down inside we have at total loss what to do, it seemed like this may finally be the end. But should he just give up? Will the life of a zombie be better off for him? Or can Marshal find a way out of this?
//We'll find out tomorrow when Dude Man isn't as tired and doesn't have as much of a head ache, same DAL Time same DAL Channel! Razz \\
-
"Argh!"
Ven jumped backwards from the totally unexpected retaliation from Nex. Although the slice took only a fraction of a second, it was like a slow motion replay for Ven... He clenched his teeth as the scythe slashed through his chest armor...
Landing some five feet back, he put his hand over the hole in his armor. Luckly it was just the metal that was skimmed, and the blade did not reach his skin. That was too close...
As Xenai struck back, Ven sidestepped, quickly moving behind Nex. Holding his sword to his side again, it began to glow with a dim yellow light this time. He'd have to time this just right...
-
Nex quickly ghosted out of the way, avoiding Xenai's spring kick and reappeared behind him.
"Ahaha! Surprise, surprise!" Nex laughed, he then swung his scythe at his legs...
----
Marshal examined the cage, it was pretty strong and he was indeed trapped, however it did appear that the cage also protects him, so if they were to kill him, they would have to remove him from the cage, giving him a chance to attack and/or run. Marshal looks at the elder.
"Okay, I've made my choice, there isn't any point in refusing since it will have the same outcome, might as well go out without embarrassing myself by making an idiot of myself." Marshal sighed. "Let's get me out of this cage and get over with it..."
----
"So..." Duilin said, looking at Valos in the eye as they both charged their attacks.
"What ya charging?" Valos asks, grinning.
"Demon fire and lightning magic mix...you?"
"Um...a...vaporization spell...hehehe."
"You know, you smile and laugh a whole freaking lot. What's up with that?"
"Frankly...I'm not so sure why, habit I guess." Valos replied, slightly lowering his smile. "So, you goanna shoot your attack soon?"
"I could, then you would see mine coming and then shoot yours. Plus I'd rather charge it up a bit more...why don't you fire yours?"
"Same reason...I guess...Plus this attack is pretty dangerous."
"Really?" Duilin asks, raising his eyebrows and slightly tilting his head to the right.
//That barely had any point.\\
-
Tesla watched as Nick rushed into Gief and into the middle of the square, next to the towering memorial. He lifted his gun away from pointing at the ground so as to look less threatening. He shouted down to Nick:
"Greetings. I must first tell you one thing: we have no leaders, no masters, everyone here in Gief is free to do pretty much as they wish. However, I think I am probably the one you would wish to talk to, as I am effectively responsible for the defence of this city.
"So, if you wish to talk to me, there is a lift in front of you to the top of this memorial. I am all ears."
________________________________________________________________________
Nearing Bandervil, Makhno dropped on the ground, his horse dematerialising. Sneaking through the forest, he started to walk towards the fortress.
________________________________________________________________________
Haraldur smiled. "I have a proposal to make concerning an individual we both despise. The molestor of your mother and one of the imprisoners of myself. You may not know this, but he has many stored lives in the form of lockets. I wish to destroy him, and then all the remaining lockets and so rid Gaian and the universe of him forever. I propose that you, Duilin and my former comrades and your current friends unite in getting rid of him. Do you have an objection?"
-
Nick climbed onto the lift and went up to the top of the memorial. " I have a proposal for the Ayspes. If you would listen carefully you might consider joining the Grey empire in destroying the Dark empire. after it is over we could go seperate ways and both of our empires control different areas." Nick started to tell Tesla the same thing he told his group earlier." And you see how we are just fighting over nothing.. its the dark empire that destroies we wish not to but have to for the sake of ending war."
-
Fuck! I missed! Hey, wait! Xenai looked in his left hand, the spear was still there! He righted himself, shoved Zero Weapon into the ground, between the tip of Nex's scythe and his pole before it could hit him, and thrusted at his chest with the spear.
-
Darak (and hopefully the others if they were following him) finally arrive at Bandervil.
The spinning disk lands down on the ground and several soldiers approach Darak as he is carrying Vincent.
"Arg! What's wrong with the High General?" A solider barked.
"He's fainted from blood loss. Now get out of my way!" He snaps back.
The soldiers quickly spread away from him. Darak enters the fortress.
A fellow officer approaches Darak. "I heard High General Vincent has been harmed. Will he be okay?" He asks.
"I'm not sure." He said.
"Do you still need to carry him?" He asked.
"My arms are getting tired. I need to put him down somewhere." Darak groaned.
"Yeah, I ordered a couple grunts to get a stretcher, there they are."
Two soldiers, carrying a stretcher quickly run there way towards the two officers. Darak places the general on the stretcher.
"Get him some help boys!" Darak orders.
----
The spear stuck right into Nex's chest. He backed up with the spear still in him. "Heheheh." It seemed that they still needed to do more then that. He swings his scythe forward and a wave of lightning blasts at Xenai.
-
Zeros' looked at Haraldur with half-lidded eyes.
"It depends on what this proposition ensues," he said, trying to stay as calm as he can in the face of one of his mortal enemies.
-
Rink looks at Valos and Duilin standing there, charging attacks. He thinks if he should interrupt, but he knows that Duilin wouldn't like that and just get angry. He then senses Haraldur and then looks and sees him, talking with Zeros'. He flutters over towards them. "What's going on? Why is Haraldur here?" He asks.
-
Calavous rushed past the men at the gate and went up to Darak."Do you think he'll be alright?" he asked in concern.
-
The Elder sighed.
-"Marshal, Marshal, Marshal. You..."
Marshal's words sank in.
-"...accept? Alright..."
He made a movement with his arm, as if raising something. The cage raised and crumbled to bits.
-
Marshal grinned and then raised his machinegun. "Thank you!"
"Elder! You idiot!" Roland yelled, drawing his sword.
Marshal then fired his gun at the elder and he fell to the ground, he then fired several more times at his unconscious corpse.
"That's what you get for banning me you old quack." Marshal snapps.
"Big mistake..." Says Roland, running at him.
Marshal turns his head, and sees Roland swinging his sword down at him. He gets out of the way, and Roland's sword sticks into the elder.
Marshal then runs off down the hallways.
"Arg...damnit." Roland groans, as he rips the sword out of the elder. He then helps the old man up.
The elder touches the big gapping hole in his chest, he then glares at Roland. "Don't just stand there, chase him you fool!" He then smacks Roland across the face, in rage for him stabbing him.
Roland rubs his face. He then glares at the elder. He then grabs a torch on the wall and then stuffs it into the elder's gash in his chest.
The elder then yells, as he burns in flame. Roland kicks him at the wall, and his burnt corpse lies motionless on the stone floor.
"I've always wanted to do that." Roland smirks and then turns around, rubbing his face again and then chases Marshal.
-
/*
(http://http://eon.mysticsoftware.net/objection.gif)
How's Nex able to attack with his scythe? Zero Weapon's stuck into the ground, and inside the crescent of the blade, too. It wouldn't be that simple. Ah, the hell with it. */
Zero Weapon was flung out of the ground with the swing of the scythe. Xenai jumped back to dodge the scythe, and caught Zero Weapon in his right hand. His left hand moved to assist. He started to charge up some energy...
-
Tesla's face looked quizical, and then he laughed. "I do not think you understand: we are against all Empires, all oppression. We want a society without masters, and we will never aid anyone in oppressing us. Besides, the Greys have now already attacked us twice."
________________________________________________________________________
Quintus heard about Vincent from a guard. He rushed down to the gates of Bandervil, and when he saw the High General he ordered that the medical mages see to him.
________________________________________________________________________
Makhno walked through the forest, and quickly ran to the wall of the fortress without being seen. He started climbing the walls...
________________________________________________________________________
"What this proposition ensues? It is very simple. We go to Bandervil, where Melkoth and whoever it is that keeps reviving him, probably Quintus (who you know as The Great Prophet, surprising, eh?) are currently, and we kill them both, recover all the lockets Quintus has and destroy them, and then search for any remaining lockets and destroy them too. Then I will be focusing on Abodahon and the Talonscar Cult, which you can be involved in if you wish. Up for it?"
-
"We both want the Dark empire out of our lives so lets make it easier and faster. Then we can figure out who gets what land." Nick watched Tesla. " Im not going to say this again there are not many differences in the Grey and Ayspes we can work out an government together. We can make the world better for both of use alike. Nick pounded his fist in his hand making a small explosion. "War can be obsolete after we finish this war and come together as one."
---
Calavous walked up to Quintus. " How bad do you think it is?" He asked.
-
Tesla looked serious. "Tell me, do you know what we, the Aspyes, are, what we stand for? What we are trying to do?"
-
// Oh sorry Trent there was so many posts I had to speed read everything and I was so tired and I had to think of something quick and I was a bit to focused on Valos and Duilin's pointless conversation I thought it was pretty funny didn't you? (Major run-on sentence on purpose) \\
Darak walked next to Calavous. "Don't worry, young man." Darak says to him. "What I would mostly worry about is, exactly who you are?" He stepped in front of him, so he wouldn't walk away, not to intimidate him or anything, he made his voice sound a bit more peaceful so he would show the man that he meant no harm to him.
"I don't recall you exactly being a member of the Empire." He started. "Yet from what I saw, you seem to be quite a good fighter, like our newest recruit, Steorra. I can see that you are quite loyal to our Empire, what is your name warrior?" He asks.
----
Nex grumbled a bit and then tried to remove the spear lodged in his chest, but it seemed pretty stuck into him...
--
Rink narrowed his eyes, and then rubbed his forehead. "Abodahon..." He said softly. "Now where have I heard that name before?"
-
Calavous looked towards Darak. " I am Calavous. And who might you be?"
---
Nick looked back at Tesla. " Well I assume that the way your people are free you want to be free of this nonsense of a war, And we can make this happen by making a government that brings together both our beleifs. Whould I be right or do you have to add something?" He asked back to Tesla.
-
"This is not war, this is revolution. We are free, and we want everyone else to be free. Therefore, we want to destroy all Empires, all states and all governments," said Tesla.
-
Then im sorry...then I will leave in peace and come back another day for this fight will never end like this believe me. Nick said as he started down the lift and towards Bandervil.
-
A female white mage and a man in priest's garb entered the room and went to work on Vincent with everyone right there watching. The only healers left in the entire complex... Some spells were cast on the wounded man.
"He will need his rest... I can't say for sure whether he will pull though at this time... The wound is very deep."
----
"Blast..."
With energy charged in his sword and ready to go, he watched as Nex and Xenai danced around.
"Can't get a clear shot..."
Suddenly Nex paused to try to remove the spear lodged in his chest.
"There! HAAAAHH!!!"
Ven angled his blade towards the ground and arked it upwards, a violent gust of wind ensuing from the sword. A stationary tornado formed around Nex with a radius of five feet or so and narrowly shot up skyward. This was about the only spell he could pull off without risking additional damage to the surrounding neighborhood...
-
//Don't sweat it, dude. We'll just assume ZW got flicked out for now.
Oh, this is perfect! Thank you, Ven! He pulled the sword back... And in an instant, he was standing on the other side of the twister, sword held out to the side like he just slashed! One could hear a noise likened to a thunder strike as he passed through. Did I get 'im? I didn't see what I did...
-
Zeros' actually smiled at the crazy revolutionary leader.
"That idea sounds good, in theory... We could destroy Melkoth," he spit the name out like a bad taste, "and destroy the Greys. Then, we can kill Abodahon and his goons..." he said, summing up what Haraldur said. "But, before I even begin to think about accept this proposial, what do those lockets the Prophet have contain, exactly? And after they're gone and destroyed... What then? What about Retan and Jayce?" he questioned.
He wasn't as cocky and headstrung as people believed. If Haraldur had went to Duilin and tried to discuss this, Duilin probably would of tried to attack him on sight.
"As to anwser your question, Rink, Haraldur has a proposition for us," he said simply, then added something to Rink through telepathy. One that has a few holes in it... Haraldur isn't being specific enough.
---
Allen threw his disk back out and glided onto a rooftop closer to the battle. He stepped off the disk again and drew a small chalk circle on the ground. The alchemic circle glowed a faint blue and started to turn, until a cone like device was formed.
He put it to his ear and he was able to hear the tail-end of their conversation.
...What about Retan and Jayce?
-
Steorra got up, and flew the rest of the way to Bandervil. She retraced the aural traces left by the group, and descended to Vincent.
-"Is he going to be OK?", she questioned the white healer mage.
-
Nex was tossed up in the tornado. "Waa! Arg!" He cried. Suddenly Xenai's sword then slashed right across him, splitting him in half, he laughed as he dematerialized in a similar way that Pophin did, leaving only a white laser heading straight towards Valos...
----
Darak looked at Calavous. "I am Captain Smith Darak." He said, however not as proudly as one of his rank might sound. He then spoke slightly bit softer. "Just between you and me, I would be a General, but I was mostly put out of the game for around seven or six years. I was at Helterina I believe. It's a terribly long story I just don't feel like talking about. Plus I don't think I'd be authorized to tell you, even though most of superiors involved in the operation are dead now."
----
Valos sensed that his clones have had their energy transferred back towards him. He then gained a strong boost of energy; his sword began to glow quite strongly.
"That's not a vaporization spell is it?" Duilin asked
"Hey, you know Haraldur's here?" Valos said, ignoring what Duilin asked.
"What?" He said, looking around.
"I can sense him talking to Zeros', plus Nex picked up that they were talking, heheh, I think they are allying."
"What!? Why? So is he going to let his crazy revolution go on?" Duilin said sounding angry
"I guess so. I guess you're going to follow Zeros' and let him do it to.? He then smiles and speaks in a more enthusiastic and mocking tone ?And we'll all have a nice barbarian style life, sounds fun eh?"
"THAT'S IT!" Duilin blasted his attack. Valos quickly fired his spell. Duilin's attack was simply vaporized, the spell flew forward and vaporized Duilin as well...
It then slowly made a large explosion. However, only things organic or of magic properties were vaporized.
Valos laughed evilly. He then sent a message to Zeros'.
You're going to need more then Ragnar's help with this one pal.
He then sent a message to Haraldar
I'll let Abodahon know you're stopping by.
The explosion then vaporized Valos as well. He was a bit to close for the spell not to affect him, not to mention the disappearance of a small number of citizens still in the area. The explosion however was not close enough to affect any of our heroes.
-
"HOLY!!!" Zion.
"SHIT!!!" Xenai. "Duilin! What the fuck was that?!"
"They're... They're both gone."
"...Damnit!" He punched a nearby building. In the end, they couldn't save their friend.
The two of them walked over to Zeros'. "Hey, what on Gaian is going on?"
-
//Ooops, forgot Rink and Marshal.\\
Marshal tried to remember the secret escape passage. He was only told about it once, unfortunately the person chasing him was the one who told him, so he would likely be followed by him, but it would still give him a chance, the tunnel system is large, and dark, he'd likely be able to loose him, not to mention get lost in there, but it's still better then getting enslaved as a zombie. Despite that Roland and the Elder didn't seem like the mindless type, they probably had there own consciousness, unlike the rest of the zombies he saw.
He then remembered, eight tiles left from the rest rooms in hallway F. He made a few turns, followed the stink, and then kicked at the tile he assumed to be the right one. The tile shifted open, and he squeezed himself in. Marshal then relaxed and took a few breaths.
"Holy smokes...." He sighed. "That was a close one..."
----
Rink, obviously noticed the large cyan coloured explosion a few blocks away.
"D....Duilin...DUILIN!" Rink flew towards the former location of his friend, and the one who appeared to have killed him.
"DUILIN!!" He shouted again, collapsing on the ground, pounding the ground. It looked like that Valos was taken by his own attack as well. He wouldn't even have revenge to count on; there was always this Abodahon, who he assumed was Valos' master.
"..."
-
Tesla watched Nick go shaking his head. "What a confused boy..."
________________________________________________________________________
Haraldur grinned. "Once all the lockets Quintus has are destroyed, we will have to search Gaian for any remaining ones in order to be finally rid of Melkoth. Of course, this assumes that they are all on Gaian and not on other places. The search for the lockets need not happen immediately afterwards: we might as well try to do away with some of the others before that. As for Retan and Jayce, I have even more reason than you to wish their destruction, so destroying them is another aim, whether long or short term.
"And as for what is in the lockets and how they work, I will not tell you. However, I respect you enough to tell you why I will not tell you: I have used them in the past, and I will not risk anyone interfering with me again, as that has also been done in the past (by Melkoth, Alpha Retan, Sigma Retan and others...)."
Haraldur watched impassively as Valos and Duilin disappeared, and then smiled. He sent a telepathic message to Valos: Good.. He searched for Duilin's aural signature, and when he thought he had found it, he sent this message: You might get a chance to damage the Grey Empire, Duilin, if you do, please do so, I implore you!
_____________________________________________________________________
Makhno, jumped over the crenelated battlements and down through an open door on the other side of the wall. He started to walk through the crowded corridors of Bandervil, amongst the many others.
-
Nick was almost at Bandervil.
Calavous looked at Darak." I have told you many thing that I shouldn't have and thats with your oposing empire.
//Srry I was thinking unclearly today!!\\
-
//That was a bit to speedy, it took Darak and co. 4 or so posts to get there, plus it took Nick around three posts to get three quarters there, yet now he can do it in one post? I wish I could do that.\\
-
Ven's eyes widened in terror as he saw the explosion from afar. Though he was not inclined to detecting magical auras, he knew something went wrong...
He ran closer to the spot. Apparently a few citizens got caught in the blast as well and had simply dematerialized... Though it was strange, since there was no additional structural damage to the surrounding buildings. Worst of all, there was no trace of Duilin at all...
"BLAST IT!!"
Ven jammed his blade into the cobblestone street, forcing the sword some six inches into the ground and falling to his hands and knees...
"ARGH!"
----
The shrouded man in the roofless tavern swirled his wine glass amusedly.
"Heh..."
----
"We won't know for a day or so," the white mage replied. "He needs his rest..."
Vincent was moved to small stone room with a single bed in it, and guards posted on the outside.
-
Shaak, Kraig and the rest of the OMG make their way into the city of Jovil, The capitol of Kandarin.
"Man in need some booze..." Kraig pants as they enter downtown.
"Well we have four choices: The pub, the tavern, the inn, and the bar." Shaak replies.
"Let's go with... The tavern."
They enter along with a dozen other orcs (the rest go to the inn, the pub or the bar.)
"Get me two pints of ale!" Kraig shouts at the bar tender.(or the tavern tender, I guess)
"Then get me two gold pieces!" The Tavern tender shouts back.
"Put it on Kronoses' tab! We work directly for him." He inform him.
"Kronos does not have a tab, Kronos rules all, Kronos drinks for free." The tavern tender begins a speech that sounds well rehearsed.
"shut up and gimmie my drink!" He grabs the ale and chugs it down.
The orcs begin making a awful mess smashing everything: stools, glasses, tables, guests.
"Hey Shaak, I've never liked you or yer two fading identical twinz!" A drunken orc says as he swings a punch at Shaak as he falls to the floor.
A messenger of Kronos flies into the tavern to see what all the commotion is.
"Hey ugly dude! I wanna speak with Kronos!" Shaak orders.
"Sir, do you have an appointment?" He calmly asks.
"No, Jackass! We don't but we need our payment or we'll take this tavern."
"We'll i'm sorry but if you don't have and appointment-" He begins but is cut off by Kraig throwing an empty glass at his head. The messenger lies KOed on the ground.
"Now Shaak, We wait and drink!" Kraig raises his glass.
-
The messenger's head rolled away through the doors. The bartender was visibly impressed.
-"Wow... You'd better be someone important, or else Kronos is gonna hand your ass in a bag to you for this. Besides, he is in the middle of--"
-"Relax, Calahan." A ghastly figure appeared from the floor. It was Kronos, but visibly changed. He no longer had his armour on. Instead, there were loose robes on him, but they were not moving like they were supposed to. They were not quivering in the wind... it looked more like they were under water. In that, they moved very slowly.
Just as he completely phased through the floor, Kronos' figure became more opaque as it solidified. A new feature could be seen - judging by his face, he either got really thin, or he aged a lot. His robes were moving normally now.
-"Ah, yes. Our unexpected friends... But as I understood it, your friendship was for sale, and I am yet to pay the price."
He slowly turned around in the air. The slightly torn robes completely concealed his legs and hands. Without looking back at the Orcs, he quietly whispered:
-"It would seem as though you've made some... redecoration for me while I was gone. I can't say I really like your taste."
He turned towards Shaak, piercing him with a cold stare.
-"Now then, gentlemen, if you would be so kind as to follow me... The royal treasury has been getting quite crammed lately. I don't suppose you could help me with that?"
He looked at Kraig, rewarding him with a wide grin, and slowly drifting out of the tavern.
--- --- ---
Steorra looked at the wounded general, then at the healer mage.
-"Geez, nobody even bothered to ask me if I can do any healing magic", she quietly muttered under her breath. "Now to pass time..."
She went outside, and dispelled her wings. After looking around, she began wandering around searching for Darak.
--- --- ---
The walls around Marshal trembled, as the zombie occupants roamed the halls looking for him. There were occasional curses and comments about each others' mothers heard through the walls.
-"Hey! Watch where you're going!"
-"How can I, dumbass? My eyes were burnt out by that stupid dragon!"
-"Arg, no matter. Get moving!!!"
-"...asshole..."
-"WHAT?!"
A hollow clunk suggested a skull hitting the floor.
-"Hey, someone check in that corridor!"
Meanwhile, something right next to Marshal... moved?
-"H-hey... are you... um... a zombie?"
The man seems to be a survivor of the attack...
-
Zeros' hmm'd to himself and looked at Haraldur's grin.
"I don't think allying with eachother would be the best... idea. I think more of a... cease fire would be better. A cease fire between us until we can get rid of other problems," he said, looking at Haraldur.
He then searched for Duilin's signature as well. He sent a message out towards it, hoping it would reach him... Wherever he was... Duilin... If you must know, the ONLY reason I was talking to Haraldur is so he wouldn't of vaporized the whole town. If it was my choice, I'd of attacked him already.
-
Rink got up. "He's still alive...They both are...all of them."
-----
Marshal pointed his gun at the moving figure. He heard it speak, it sounded human. He lowered his gun.
"No...are you?"
-----
Darak lowered his eyebrows. "Very well, Calavous. I'll just give you gist of it. I was involved in a slave-collecting mission back when we were called the Dark Empire. However, it was mostly just a pointless slaughter on a village. I'm not proud of doing it; it's one of the only things I've done that I was ashamed of. But when it goes right down to it, I'm doing all this Empire mumbo jumbo just for protection and money."
He then noticed that Steorra was looking for him. "Now if you excuse me, I must go. Nice talking to you Calavous."
He then walked over towards Steorra and nodded at her in greeting...
-----
Where am I? Did I die?
It's so dark in here. It feels like I'm lying on stone...
I ache, so I guess I'm not in heaven.
And I'm pretty cold so I'm certainly not in hell...
Suddenly a large series of torches light the room. He seems to be in a large, empty prison cell, about the size of a house, behind the bars was a hallway going across it, and in the middle was a creepy looking stair case. Duilin could here the cries of people all around him.
Valos was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room. "That didn't turn out right..."
"What happened?" Said Duilin as he slowly got up. He looked at Valos, and waited a few seconds "Valos! What the hell just happened!?"
"I used a teleportation blast. It got some of the people of Tjed. Don't worry they should be okay." Valos gets up. "We are in Abodahon's dungeon of Bandervil. We are currently fifty feet below ground. These cages are made of demonic metal, it's pretty strong stuff, don't try breaking out."
"Valos! Get me out of here right now!" He yelled. "Zeros' will honestly rip you apart! You are going to regret this so much!"
"Zeros' is going to rip you apart!" Valos says in a squeaky mocking tone. He steps towards Duilin, and points his finger at him. "Zeros' does NOT frighten me! You got that!"
"Well...he should...in fact. I could probably take you right now."
"Heh." Valos lowered his hand. "Listen Duilin...I don't really want to kill you, I knew that this was the only way to get you here. My master really wants to talk to you."
"Who the hell is your master anyways?" Duilin asked sounding annoyed. "It's that huge ass demon, I assume, but who is he?"
Large footsteps could be heard, and the clanging of stone like metal on the ground. A large figured appeared walking down the staircase. The figure walked towards the bars of the cell.
"Go to him...talk. He won't hurt you." Valos said softly, he then turned around and rested his arm on the wall.
Duilin stepped towards the figure. The torchlight revealed it as a massively sized humanoid demon.
"Who...are you?" Duilin asked.
"Don't you remember me Duilin?"
Duilin looked at its face...it looked so familiar. He hadn't seen this face for about fifteen years, but he remembered it.
"Father..."
"Yes...It's me Duilin. I'm sorry about what you've been put through."
"You're sorry!!?" Duilin yelled. "My life has been hell! You've ordered your goons to kill me! What is your fucking problem!?" Duilin sounded terribly upset.
"I've never wanted you to die Duilin. You are my son." Abodahon said.
"What about my brothers and sister? Didn't you care about them."
"I did Duilin, but I could only allow one of you to live, Duilin. I chose you."
"Why...Why did anyone have to die? Ever since you disappeared and there was that raid on my house..."
"I never wanted it to happen Duilin. I was weak back then, but they said I could live and I could choose one other person to live. So I chose you."
"..."
"This is the truth Duilin."
"What do you want with me?"
"I want you to join me, and the Grey Empire."
"Why should I join you?"
"Because, we are the salvation of Gaian. Haraldur and his cult of the Aspyes, will bring chaos to the world with there new ways and Zeros' and Rink.... well they are not what you think..."
-
Zion looked back and forth between Zeros' and Haraldur. He then turned around and headed the other way.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"We've nothing do do here. Let's go."
"You seem pissy all of a sudden."
"I don't know what's going on. I'm going to look for Tsu. It's your choice if you want to join me."
"Hey, Zeros'! Zion's all pissy, so tell him what's going on!"
-
(Dude Man gets 10 awesomeness points. Heh...)
Ven approached the little imp, walking slowly. He sheathed his sword on his back as he spoke.
"Alive? Are you sure? How do you know?"
----
"Arise, my children."
The three lizard men rose to their feet at Emperor Retan's command.
"I take it everything has been kept in order during my absence?" the Dark Emperor inquired.
The robed one flicked his tail.
"Yess, my lord. We've also made much... progresss..."
The three creatures turned and lead the way in the opposite direction, the Dark Emperor and his son following...
-
//<a href='http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia/index.php/Kronos' target='_blank'>Uploaded new Kronos image, this time hand-drawn by me! Sorry for the crappy artwork, this is like the 2nd drawing i've done in my life...</a>\\
The man next to Marshal looked around, then back at Marshal.
-"W-when the attack began, I was just minding my business. Then I heard the temple tremble... I ran for the nearest hole I found. It happened to be this one. Why, who are you? I thought no one else survived."
---
Ein, who was wandering around pointlessly in his cell, suddenly got an idea.
-"Hey... I got an idea!"
He dropped on the floor, and wrapped himself into the cocoon. Seconds later, he emerged in his moth form, overloading the cell with pressure and ripping it to shreds. However, the ward was not so easily dispersed... Ein was stuck in an awkward (sp) position inside a softly-glowing red sphere, without the possibility of turning back into a human - there was not enough space.
-
Nick reached Bandervil. He went up to his brother. " Im back."
"Good you didn't die." calavous said in unmeaningful way.
-
"What do you mean?" Duilin asked "They're not what I think?"
"Well, let's start with the fact that they are holding you back." Abodahon began
"Holding me back?"
"They are afraid of how powerful you can become. Because of such an empower balance between humans and demons, your demonic energy can become quite powerful, maybe even more so then Zeros'."
"Well, why Rink?"
"Rink is just a agent for Gaia, Zeros' mother, he'd probably do anything for Zeros'."
"Well, they are holding me back, because my power is dangerous, I'd loose control."
"Pfft...I have complete control over myself. That story is just hogwash. Zeros' is afraid of you, because he knows that someday you will be stronger then him, your power is growing faster then his has been. He's jealous; Valos has even said that he would kill you if you went fully demonic."
Duilin turned and looked at Valos, still leaning against the wall, half covered in the shadows. He nods at Duilin. "He doesn't trust you Duilin."
Duilin shakes his head and looks at his father. "No, that's a lie!"
"I'm sorry Zeros', but it's true. I know I can't prove he said that, in fact Valos can't either, but Valos is honest to his word, at least to me, and I give you my word it's the truth. Despite my demonic heritage, I do not lie. Have I ever lied to you before?"
"Well...not really, I guess...." He said, depressed.
"That's not the only reason you shouldn't trust him, I'm surprised you haven't noticed this, but he has been an enemy from the start."
"How so?"
"Think of it? He collected several weapons, which held the power to destroy the world. He stopped the world from fixing it's self, by claiming it was falling apart and then asking his friends to help stop it. Also he allied with Draven, the ruler of the Crimson Empire. I have a strong connection with you, I can sense your hate for that man right now...it seems a bit weaker then your hate for Valos however. Heheh."
Valos rolled his eyes. But then stepped forward. "And another thing, he's just allied with Haraldur! The all mighty Bitter one. You can smell from here that guy's stench of insanity." He then looked at Abodahon. "Oh by the way he's coming."
"Good for him." Abodahon muttered, he then looked back at Duilin. "You see? How can you trust a man like this?"
"Well...how can I trust YOU." Duilin hissed.
"Heh, well, let's start. I am your father. My goal is to gain the throne as ruler of Hell, and bring the source of all evil to better more fair ways."
"Really? I thought you wanted me to do that?" Duilin asked
"Well, perhaps, but I need somebody to take my place in our new Grey Empire. Perhaps you would be happier ruling here, on Gaian?"
//I'd like to state that Duilin didn't receive any of the telepathic messages, he was unconscious for a bit, after he was teleported.\\
-
Reconstruction work on Bandervil was nearing completion.
_________________________________________________________________________
Looking for the aura of his target, that he knew now from the ingested blood, Makhno found it a few floors below him. He took off onto a side passage, and, when noone else was looking, he slipped out of a window and scaled down the inside walls in an alcove between a corner of a wall and a tower, and so he was unseen.
He could now sense that to his left was Vincent's room, and he knew he would have to be quick lest he be seen. Waiting for the right moment, he then quickly went across and in through the window, in absolute silence. He then jumped quickly off the window sill very high and was directly above the prone Vincent. A dagger appeared in each of his two hands as he fell, and he stabbed downwards as he fell, in order to put the full force of his fall into the body of his enemy, in his heart.
_________________________________________________________________________
"As you will," said Haraldur, "though such a cease-fire was already effectively in existance. I will leave you now."
Hmmmm... I should find out where Marshall and Ein have got to...
He diverted his course and went towards where he could sense their aural signatures, and sent them each this message: Marshall, Ein, where are you?
-
Ven appeared behind Zeros', the black cloak neatly wrapped around his armor once again. He heard the tail end of the conversation with Haraldur and sighed inwardly of relief. Ever since their last meeting, Ven had no respect for this so called "revolutionary". The words Haraldur spoke to the King of Tjed, direct threats in Ven's mind, still burned in his ears, and his emotions ebbed on rage even now.
But he chose to say nothing. Haraldur was leaving now. Instead, he just offered a cold stare from behind Zeros', waiting for the man to leave.
----
Vincent opened his eyes just slightly.
It was far too late.
The blur above fell upon him. A tremendous weight was now upon his body as Makhno was now on top of him. He felt the bed frame collapse and the mattress slam to the floor. An instant before the knives touched his flesh, he grabbed Makhno's left arm with both hands...
The knives pierced straight through. One through his heart, the other through his left lower lung...
Blood splattered into Makhno's face and chest, and his hands were covered.
With a dying grip on his enemy's arm, Vincent's eyes were open widely, his pupils tiny, and a sinister grin on his face... He sputtered his last words in a whisper as blood dribbled from his mouth...
"You're coming with me..."
The alchemist's hands were already glowing bright blue... As he died, Vincent casted his final transmutation with an instinctual prowess far greater than any he had casted before...
The cloth sleeve of Nestor's coat turned into solid lead in the dead man's hands, and began to rapidly spread up his clothing. In but an instant it would begin to affect his skin and inner organs, and without a reversal, he would be a complete lead statue in mere seconds...
-
Marshal got Haraldur's message. I hope Ein can reply to that. I'm not to skilled in that sort of thing.
He looked back at the man. "I'm Marshal Royle, I was banished a few days before the attack happened. Roland was zombiefied, but it didn't show, he lead me back here. I was able to loose him. But I fear he's going to find me." Marshal replied to the man.
"Marshal? Oh yeah, I heard you were banished because you gave out our location to the Crimson Empire and some Rebellious cult." The man replied.
"I didn't give out our location, it's a bit more complicated then that. But the rebellious cult is actually a group dedicated to bringing the world to peace."
"Really?"
"Yes, you see the world is mostly just run by Empires, enslaving the world, not giving anyone any freedom. We, the Aspyes, plan to rid the world of all empires, and live in freedom, an anarchy as it is called."
"Pfftt..." The man rolls his eyes. "Well, I guess we'll see how far you get with that. Listen the world ain't gonna be free anytime soon."
"You should see what we've done already."
"Yeah, if we ever get out of here that is."
Suddenly the sound of a shifting tile can be heard.
"Maarsshall..." the voice of Roland called.
"Uh oh..." Marshal whispered, as he turned to the direction of the sound. He then turned his head to the man. "Run...I'll take care of him. Try and find another exit to this tunnel system."
The man nods and then runs off.
Marshal steps forward. "I'm over here Roland. Come and get me." He was going to end this little problem for good this time.
The shine of Roland's staff appeared in the darkness, and the zombified man emerged. "Well, well Marshal. It's a wonder you've lasted this long." He then took a few steps closer. "I could crush you so easily. I could summon up a dragon right now."
"Yeah, but could it fit in this little tunnel system?"
"Heh, good point Marshal. Then I suppose I'll have to summon something smaller. Shall the winning creature kill the opposed summoner?"
"Agreed. But I wouldn?t say you'd be killed. You've died a little wile ago."
The crystal in Marshal's amulet and on Roland's staff begin to glow a shining blue...two spectres are blasted out, one in the shape of a large burly creature and the other a smaller more gelatinous creature.
Marshal's took the shape of a green Ooze (See DAX in the Cave Of Evil). Roland's took the shape of a burly white ogre...it looked quite mad (Also see DAX in the Cave Of Evil).
//I just saw those two creatures in DAX yesterday and I just had to put them in.\\
(Oh, D.Ein, you may control the Mad Ogre)
-----
"I just know Ven. I can feel it." Rink then turned around and then stepped next to Zeros'. "You can sense he's still alive, can't you Zeros'?"
-----
Duilin, turned around and then leaned against the bars. "Whoa...I don't know. Just a few minutes ago I was along side with Zeros' and my friends defending Tjed. Now...I don't know what to think." He rubbed his temples and then turned back at Abodahon. "Father...So far you haven't been able to keep my trust. I'm sorry."
"Well, my son. I can't have you going around free; you'd be too much of a threat. I can help you properly control your power, Duilin." Abodahon said, leaning his face closer. "You, can help the Grey Empire bring peace and order to the world of Gaian. Zeros' and his group will solve nothing, if they destroy us, then it will leave the world open to the Aspyes taking over. Haraldar's new way of living will bring the world to chaos, you know this. Zeros' is just...a bringer of death."
Duilin hesitated...
Abodahon saw that his son needed more convincing, so he thought he'd just turn it up a notch. "He is going to kill you Duilin! You can't avoid your demonic blood, some day when your power is finally complete he'll just kill you and your other friends won't do anything to stop it! Not your mercenary friends and not even Rink! They will let you die. Zeros' is just keeping you under with watch so he can keep his title as the holier then thou' oh mighty power smiting saviour of the world!"
Duilin shook his head, and turned around. Many of the Tjed citizens who were in the cell with him began to get frightened. Valos grinned.
"Oh my god..." Duilin cried. "You're right. I should have seen it..." He then turned around and looked at his father. "Let me out of this cage, when Zeros' and his friends get here...I'm gonna give them something to be afraid of!"
Abodahon ginned, and then a group of bars lowered into the ground, allowing for Duilin to step out. Valos followed, but the bars closed.
"Hey! What the hell!?" Valos snapped. "Let me out!"
"I need you to keep an eye on the people in here. We don't want them to get hurt now, do we?" Abodahon grinned. He then led his son, upstairs.
"Hey!" Valos stomped. He then swung his sword at the bars, but didn't even chip the metal. "Let me out! Maybe I'll just teleport out."
Abodahon turned around. "You can't. The basement is filled with mana draining gas, I use this place to hold mages as well." He smirked. "Don't worry Valos, I'll let you out soon."
-
The Orcs follow him to the treasury.
"So, Skeletor. Me and Kraig were thinkin' and we have decided that we will need 10, 000 Gold pieces for that last battle." Shaak explains. "You know for loss of troops and equipment."
"And for if you chose to hire us full time we will need... 5, 000 G's a day plus 10 for every casualty. But judging by the shitty firepower these Ass-pies have, I'm sure we won't have very many" Kraig offers. "Also if you need more skeleton warriors we'll be more than willing to... Clean the bones off for you." He adds.
"So, what do you say?"
-
They made their way to the palace. Kronos, who kept silent, turned around to Shaak. He chuckled.
-"Loss of troops? You mean these troops?"
A small crowd of orcs carrying large brown bags with the Kandarinian symbol on it exited the palace. Some bags had holes in them - shiny gold coins with a silver core were spilling out on the street. The orcs had large scars and stitches on them.
-"As for your proposal, I think I will accept. As you can undoubtedly see, it is a win-win situation. I get troops to fight for me, you get gold and excersise for your men - excersise, no more than that. I can easily repair slain bodies. It is what I do."
--- --- ---
Roland hoarsely chuckled.
-"So, it had to end this way. You think that little green blob can stop this ogre?"
The ogre swung at Marshal's creature.
--- --- ---
Steorra saw Darak, and ran towards him.
-"Hey, what do you figure we could do? I think--"
Suddenly, she sensed Vincent's aura fade, and a massive outburst of magic energy. Her tone quickly changed from apathetic to adamant.
-"Follow me. Now."
She ran inside the fortress.
-
"Huh?" Darak turned and watched Sterroa run back inside. "What's going on?" He asked following her. "Wait up!"
-
Zeros' felt the cold glare at his back, but he didn't flinch. Instead, he chose to reply to it.
"Either you aren't happy with me or Haraldur... I can tell you right now that I'd rather of attacked Haraldur and killed him on the spot, but I didn't. Do you want to know why? He could of easily vaporized this entire continent, killing all the people... Destroying all the ships... Killing King Henry," he said. "By offering a cease-fire, with me indirectly allied with you, I ensured that your town wouldn't be attacked.
"But now, it seems, that Haraldur has plans of his own, as does Valos... I suspect he's probably trying to corrupt Duilin for some sick purpose," he said, sighing. He had sent the message to Duilin, but he didn't recieve a reply, which means, either: He was unconcious; he was busy or that he was currently being corrupted by Valos and his master, so, he chose not to reply.
Althought Valos didn't know it, he wasn't scared of Duilin. He wanted to bring Duilin into his powers gradually. If he came into them all at once, he could go berserk and attack everything and anyone in sight, not caring about what he destroyed. If they were in a safe location, he would of let Duilin come into all his powers at once, but, unfortunetly, they were in the middle of a war.
He didn't have time for mistakes or screw ups.
---
Allen listened into this all and nodded in agreement. He had heard what Haraldur could do. He would've personally done the same thing. Ensuring the safety of innocents before destroying an arch-nemesis was something that was high on his list.
-
"Hmm..." Zion just continued on his way. "Come on. We got what we want. Now we have to find Tsu." He took off in some random direction. Xenai signed and followed.
-
Nick and Calavous ran up to vincents room as they saw Steorra. " What the hell!" they exclaimed.
-
"I agree with Zion." Said Rink to Zeros'. "Let's get going." He held out his hand, offering for Zeros' to carry him there, since he can't fly very fast and it would be a very long trip for him to fly on his own, and he'd get tired out and the trip is overseas so it would, in fact, be impossible for Rink to fly on his own there.
----
"So, Duilin. You wouldn't believe how pleased I am to have you on my side." Abodahon said to his son, as they arrived at the top of the stairs. They were in medium sized room with three doorways leading to long hallways. He walked through the doorway to the left, with Duilin. "You see, having you join me was one of my major life goals."
"Go figure..." Duilin replied. He still seemed a bit uncomfortable with Abodahon. "Yeah...so anyways. What's the plan?"
"Well...right now, we must prepare for an attack. Haraldur, Zeros' and his band, are going to attack our mighty fortress. Melkoth has been wounded by Haraldur, due to him...well getting killed, but he's back...it's complicated."
"Yeah, yeah. I understand..." Duilin replied. They then arrived at a large stone door, with the symbol of the Talonscar engraved on it. The door automatically slides open, with mechanisms and magic sensor systems. The room looked, well, like hell, literately. It was all orange coloured stone, with lava fountains. Duilin made some uncomfortable looks, but still walked at a normal pace, in the room next to his father. At the end of the room, there was a large throne, it looked similar to his other room he had in the former fortress. Abodahon sat down on the throne, and then looked back at his son.
"So, Duilin." Abodahon said. "Would you like anything to drink?"
"Yeah...some water." Duilin replied.
Quickly a servant dressed in dark robes lined with a gold colour on the ends, and a shaved head and pale skin, caring an eerie mug, full of clean water. Duilin took the mug and sipped the water.
"Oh, Duilin. You may like this, about five years ago, on my little visit to the underworld I found this." Abodahon motioned to this, quite majestic looking sword. Duilin recognized the weapon; it appeared to be Nevina's Holy Bastard sword. (I never checked over with Cyber Wolf about this, but I don't think he would really care.) "I found it around the time when Qor died...It was in fact a great day when that happened. The woman who did that was a hero to us all."
"That was Nevina...she was a good friend of mine. I saved her from getting caught in the MDAA." Duilin stated.
"Ah yes, that's right. I must warn you about the sword however. It contains many holy properties, it can be pretty harmful to demons, almost killed my spirit demon it did, however he quickly teleported before he could get destroyed, however the body of Nex wasn't as lucky."
"Can I have it?" Duilin asked
"Umm...I'm not sure if that would be the best idea. I keep it as more of a decoration, I have these gauntlets to protect me from the holy aura." Abodahon then motioned at his servant. "If you do want a weapon you can have this. I know how much you enjoy maces."
The servant carried over this impressive looking mace, rather then a ball with spikes at the end of the pole it had four blades. It had a red leather grip and was made of dark metal, likely the same metal as Valos' sword. It had runes engraved on the pole. Duilin took the mace, and admired the weapon. "Impressive." He swung it in the air, it seemed surprisingly just as easy to swing as his old mace. "I like it...I like it a lot."
Abodahon grinned. "Excellent. Now perhaps, you'd like to be taught some more demonic magic?" He asked.
"Of course father." Duilin grinned back.
-
"Of course, Zeros'," Ven replied.
"I most certainly would have done the same."
These magical types can apparently read emotions, and Zeros' must have picked up on Ven's building rage. He would have to watch that. Can they pick up thoughts as well? Blast it, doing it again...
"Listen, I want to thank you guys for bailing us out again. I really want to go with you, but I need to stay here. We're not even done rebuilding the part of the capital damaged in the battle with Mavas, and now we need to come down here and rebuild a chunk of Kesnar... Not that it was anything you could have prevented. We really would have been screwed if either of those guys showed up without you around... Thanks again."
He smiled lightly, and brought his left gauntlet out from under his cloak, gesturing a "thumbs up". He then turned and began walking north, up the street in the direction of the caves that lead to the capital city.
-
Quadricentennial finally landed on the shores of an island. He was exhausted from all that rowing. He got out of the boat and layed on the sand.
"How tired I am." He layed for a while then got up to look around. It was an island but not the one he was searching for. "Where am I?" He got started walking around. He walked for a while through a large vast of sand. There was nothing here. He looked across and saw some kind of structure. He went forward to get a better looked. It was a fortress of sorts.
"This must be the destination I was looking for." He ran forward but then saw gaurds roaming about. He took a closer look and realized they were undead soldiers. "Once again this man raises the fallen? Does he have no shame on what he does? He must be dealt with a lesson." He quickly tried to look for a way in.
-
//TKGB, where are you?\\
-
As Kronos walks back into the castle Shaak and Kraig keep watching the undead orcs.
"This is getting out of hand." Kraig says worried.
"What do you mean?" Shaak asks.
"I mean the whole Kronos turning dead stuff into live stuff, creepy stuff..."
"You knew he could do this."
"Yeah, but then it was just smoothskins! I mean, I knew these people, like that guy,
he owes me money!" Kraig points out. "I just don't trust this Kronos. He could easily kill all of us and turn us into his zombie slaves!"
"Yes Kraig, a little too easily"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean if he was going to, he would have already."
"Why do you think he hasn't?"
"Because Kraig, he knows we're smarter than him, he needs our military experience."
"I like that," Kraig grins "but what about our troops? He will probably kill them and steal their bodies."
"Are any of them worth more than 10 coins?" Shaak asks.
"Good point!"
"So I say we let him have our troops and we get the money and we can become Kronoses General and tactical advisor, eh?"
"I like the way you think Shaak."
"That?s what I'm here for."
-
"Yes, I think I can." Marshal replied. The ooze quickly slipped out of the way of the club. "And it's an Ooze, not a blob."
A flame then surrounded the ooze, and then it blasted a fireball at the ogre.
----
Abodahon then lead Duilin to another room. It was completely empty, the walls were made of the same orange rock, but the floor was more of a flat stone.
"This is my training room, I usually use this to teach my human followers the ways of demonic powers, after some slight enhancements to them." Abodahon explained.
"You enhance humans?" Duilin asked.
"Of course, but only if they wish to. If they don't then they can just serve as warriors in Melkoth's division. In my division, I train fewer, but more skilled warriors, I train them personally. Now, I will train you."
"I'm ready..."
"Excellent. Now let us begin..."
//I don't feel like going into to much detail, it'll be more of a surprise when he uses the powers in battle.\\
-
"Tsu!"
"Tsu!"
"Hey, Tsu!"
"Where the hell are you!?"
They looked around, but didn't get any response. He and Aura were still asleep. Zion and Xenai tried to feel the faint ki response... It was a lot weaker from his exhaustion... And followed it.
"There he is!" Xenai pointed at the two lying on the shore.
"A happy ending... Good for them." They flew down towards them.
-
"Ah, crap," said Makhno. He jumped out of the window again and started to fall towards the ground. With a quick word the lead changed to gols, and so the transmutation slowed, giving him more time to think. His fall slowed due to a weak levitation spell, and he landed with a light bump.
Right, I learned a significant amount of alchemy when I was working in the iron foundry... How to stop this... Hmmm... First stabilise all nuclei involved. How is that done? In this case it would take to long, so to be slowed I must use stable iron nuclei from my blood, which will leave me a little anaemic. OK, now the nucleus stabilisation process can begin...
Many of his blood cells had been destroyed as a deliberate act releasing iron containing heamoglobin molecules. The rest of the molecule would be turned to gold, but not the iron, and the spread would slow at a greater rate than just with the whole blood cell turned to gold except the iron. Then, using free neutrons from the endothermic process turning his body into gold, he stabilised the gold nuclei, and so ending the spread. He stood up, very tired due to anaemia, but at least he would not get lead poisoning. He was a bit heavy on his left side where some of his skin was gold, very heavy in fact, so staying vertical was hurting his back, and he had to keep his left arm and shoulder (the affected regions) still in order not to break the skin. He lay back down again and cast another levitation spell, which very slowly, due to the weight, lifted him up and out of the fortress. He was shot at, but a shield he put up blocked the few shots that were on target.
Knowing that Haraldur was busy, he sent a distress signal to Durruti, and then landed and his in a nearby forest. All his clothing had broken off (being made of gold) except for that on his left arm, which he now removed to lesen the weight. Back at the fortress, a small fight was breaking out over the pieces of gold on the floor.
____________________________________________________________________
Durruti recevied the distress signal, and left his post defending Alterna: they would have to defend themselves, and they could do it better than those in the Ugran who were already weakened. He flew as fast as he could towards Makhno's direction.
____________________________________________________________________
Hmmm... I do not know about Marshall, but Ein must definitely be in trouble, as he did not answer. He started flying at high speed towards Ein's position, not knowing he was flying towards the Blue Minotaur palace.
-
Zeros' nodded and picked up Rink, before turning towards Ven and giving him a "thumbs up". He crouched low, before jumping high into the air, using his wings to give him some momentum, before he picked up on Zion and Xenai's signatures and started to follow off towards them.
But, in mid-air, he suddenly caught something flying towards him. He snatched it out of the air and saw it was his trenchcoat. He looked towards the direction and he saw Allen jumping down from the building he was on. He nodded and Allen nodded back.
"Now, Rink.. Yes. I could sense it. Both Valos and Duilin are still alive... But, they're over in the direction of the Grey Empire..." he said quietly. "What do you think about all this?" he asked.
---
Allen nodded, as he saw Zeros' catch his trenchcoat, as he landed on the ground near Ven, stumbling from his fall.
"Ouch... Damnit... I knew I shouldn't of done that..." he grumbled and stood up straight, before dusting his white coat off and turning to smile at Ven. "Hello... Sir Ven, is it? I'm an... Ally of Zeros' and I saw your town get destroyed... I was wondering if you might of needed some help repairing the town?" he asked.
-
"Hmm..." Rink thought for a moment. "Perhaps Valos was using a teleportation blast. If this is so, then perhaps the few people of Tjed are also in the area of the Grey Empire." Rink concluded. "Looks like we may have to do a rescue mission, but I suppose this is much better then a funeral for Duilin and the others."
-
//whoop! sorry, Haraldur, I forgot to update Ein\\
Ein got Haraldur's message, and sent a reply, that he needs immediate assistance - failing miserably. The message bounced off the shielding ward and reverberated back into Ein's mind. "Crap...", he thought.
--- --- ---
Kronos turned to the conversing Orcs.
-"Your troops, although somewhat unlively, can still tire out, you know. Those bags ARE quite heavy."
-
Nick was staring into vincents watching his lifeless body. " Dammit, now im definetly killing him." Nick started towards where the gold was dropped. " Where did he go he asked come of the people on the floor. " Down that way." pointed a man. Nick ran into the forest.
Calavous yelled to Nick "Wait!" He grabbed some gold on the floor. He said to himself the first rule of alchemy. He made a transmutation circle, and put the gold in the middle. He went to vincents room and picked him up. He was going to revive him....
// Haraldur what is makhno sacrificing for his alchemy. isn't the first rule you have to give an equivilant lose to make? im not trying to be a smartass i dont know if tha rule applies to this rp.\\
-
Ven turned and listened to the man in the white coat, placing a gauntlet on his chin from under his cloak.
"Well, yes, actually we could use all the help we could get."
Ven sized the older man up. He looked more like a scientist than a worker... Hmm...
"... What can you do, exactly? Are you an architect or something?"
----
The shrouded man finished the glass of red liquid and replaced it on the table. Getting up from his seat, he strode to the roofless tavern's exit, stepping over several dislodged planks of wood and tossed chairs on the way. The door was ajar, and he slammed it behind him. The force was just enough to cause the wall to creak, and within seconds of his exit, the entire front face of the tavern collapsed with a plume of smoke.
The barkeep peeked from behind the counter again.
"Uhm... come again...?"
-
"You learn quickly my son." Abodahon commented "And very well I may add."
"Thank you father..." Duilin said, staring at the wall...his demonic energy has greatly increased, the yellow colour in his eyes were much more deep and noticeable. Around the room were many burn marks, and broken stone.
"I can see you become a very powerful warrior, maybe even more so then me, someday."
"Heheh...I'd like to see that." Duilin replies. "But I'm not sure if I could do that."
"Well...it will take time, I am many centuries old actually. Once your power is even greater, soon age will no longer be a problem for you, my son." He then placed his giant hand on his son's back. "That's enough for now. Come."
He takes Duilin back into his main room. Suddenly a knock on Abodahon's stone door could be heard. He motions to the door, and it opens. A messenger runs in, seeming very shocked.
"Lord Abodahon! High General Vincent has been killed!" He cries.
"Hmmm..." Abodahon then turns to Duilin. "They have drawn the first blood." He says, he then looks into the hallway behind the door. "But we shall draw the last. We must make the final preparations my son. Let us go."
He then walks down the hallway; Duilin and the messenger follow him.
Abodahon looks at the messenger. "Set the fortress on high alert."
"Yes, Lord Abodahon." The messenger then runs off.
"So, Duilin, are you ready to fight your old friends?"
"Yes, father...I am..." He then took a deep breath, and continued walking.
-
(//Im sorry to say but I cannot continue this RP. It's too sophisticated for me seeing as you need to be able to read lengthy reads. Plus I recently lost my computer access)
Looking around the perimeter, Quadricentennial looked at the corpses that were walking about the castle. The inside of his soul felt like fire. "What is this feeling?" he asked himself. "Is it hatred? Is it pity? I do not recognize it." He looked at one of the soldiers eyes, his dead eyes. Molting and retchet. "These warriors, who fought so long ago, they walk around, continuing there toil to a tyrant, or whomever else controls them now. Were they free once? Did they had families? I wish this world wasn't so cruel." His eyes were turning watery. He was begining to cry. "No. What is wrong with me? Why do I cry? Why do I water? Why?" He looked deep within himself. He remembered his life, full of hatred and hell he endured and the only one who cared for him, suddenly vanishing. "I don't know what I am anymore? Am I no more than these corpses that walk around aimlessly at life? Am I the same? Do I just want to follow someone but have no one to follow because I cannot control my life? WHY DO I FEEL THIS?" He was at a good distance and no one heard his cry. He went back to the boat and set sailed back to Campaign. "I'm don't care anymore. Peking, let us go home." Quadricentennial would go back to his forest, to shed his tears.
(//Though this is the end of him for now but he will return. I assure you.)
-
Zeros' nodded in agreement, carrying Rink and putting his jacket back on. Instead of his old trenchcoats, this one was made out of dragonhide leather. It wouldn't burn or tear easily. Inface, dragonhide is as tougher than some of the armor the soldiers wore. It could also deflect minor spells, not that it would help any against the types that they were fighting here...
"Now... Let's see... There's Zion and the others," he said, pointing down towards the four people. He flew down and greeted them.
"Now... Before we do anything, we need a plan... It's just us four - since Tsu and Aura were out - versus a whole established empire," he said grimly. "Any ideas?" he asked.
---
Allen shaked his head and smirked. He looked at a nearby water well, which was currrently collapsed in on itself. He walked over and placed both of his hands on the well. He closed his eyes and the rubble of the well was encased in a shimmering blue-white light and there was a flash and Allen stepped back.
The well was fully restored.
"I am an alchemist, sir," he said, turning to Ven with a smirk on his face, dusting off his hands and adjusting his glasses.
-
//Hope to see you come back TKGB.\\
"Well, I'm not to sure if I'd be so good for brute combat, seeing as I'm only a foot or so tall. The only advantages I have, is short-range phasing and my close immunity to fire. I could easily sneak into the Empire, but I'm not sure what good that would do?well for me, at least" The imp thought for a moment.
"If you guys found a way to sneak in, we could attempt to just target the superiors, The Prophet, Melkoth and this, Abodahon, who I assume was the large demon you guys fought earlier. But I think Haraldur will be able to take care of at least one of those three." He then thought of more ideas, seeing as how that one doesn't help much.
"Hey, King Henri owes us a favour, perhaps he could lend us a large group of knights or maybe even a small army? Seeing as the Grey Empire is a threat to Tjed as well."
----
"Duilin..." Abodahon said.
"Yes father?" He replied
Abodahon then used his pointer finger to scoop out a necklace from his pocket. It had a golden medallion of the Talonscar symbol, the Bird claw making a cut, on the chain. "Take this."
Duilin took the medallion necklace, and put it around his neck.
"This will show you that you are now a superior officer of my division of the Grey Empire. Not only does it look nice, but it is also helps boost your magic power, when you use it. It's been enchanted in a similar way as these orange diamonds on my gauntlets."
"Yeah, so how do those work anyways?" Duilin asks
"Well, really, they just boost the charging of my magic attacks. People think my power relies on them, but really I could live without, but these gauntlets cannot be removed, easily. Also, I've gotten far to used to having these things on, I'd be like loosing a limb." He then looks at the medallion around Duilin's neck. "Now take care of that, Duilin. I don't want you to loose that, it's been in the family for centuries."
-
Steorra ran in, and looked at Vincent's lifeless corpse.
-"Damn! I'm going to get someone real bad for this..."
--- --- ---
The ogre got hit, but barely winced. It charged at the Ooze.
//too lazy to make longass posts.
P. S. TKGB, come back!! Or else i'll hate you. -.-\\
-
Darak stepped into the room, after Steorra.
"Oh...dear lord." He saw Calavous holding Vincent. "You lousy good for nothing?"
He took out his axe, he assumed that Calavous was the one who killed him, or at least he could have, but he also had a sneaking suspection that it was the Aspyes, but Calavous was putting himself in a very bad postion. "Put him down this instant!" He yelled in command. "You?ve got a ton of explaining to do kid!"
----
The ooze, then quickly jumped and then stuck itself onto the roof of the tunnel, and shot a poisonous toxic sludge blast the mad ogre.
-
//Burton, what are you talking about? Sacrificing? What?//
Durruti arrived in the forest where Makhno was, and got to him.
"Shit, this will take a while."
He grunted as he lifted Makhno up, gently. He ran deeper into the forest until they reached a small scout hut that they had used for spying, but which was currently disused (the spies had abandoned it due to the high risk of detection).
He layed Makhno down onto a bed of hay, and took some splints out of the chest that was at the foot of the bed. He tied the splints around the arm as that it would not move, and so break the skin, during the procedure. He then, with Makhno's help, started to increase the rate of blood cell production in the body, and provided the iron necessary for this from some lumps of it in the chest, kept for that purpose.
When Makhno's condition had stabilised, the lengthy process of turning the skin back into real skin began (this was lengthy because the structure of skin is so much more complex than that of gold: gold is one element in a polychrystaline structure, while skin is a large complex organ with capillaries, keratin layers, sweat ducts, nerve endings and hairs). However, this would take 2/3 of the normal time as Makhno still had one hand free.
//Oh, and Xorlak, the reason my characters usually take two actions is because I treat them as being one for each hand.//
______________________________________________________________________
Quintus and Melkoth, who had been sleeping, were woken up by the noise of the fortress becoming alterted. Melkoth went back to sleep at Quintus' suggestion.
Quintus left the room and got from a guard the news of Vincent's death, and went into a rage so foul that that area of the fortress emptied. He then started walking towards the room where Vincent had been put.
______________________________________________________________________
Haraldur arrived at the palace of the Blue Minotaur. He could see that there had been a battle, but could see no bodies. He looked for Ein's aura, and found it, and noticed that Marshall was close by. He walked towards Ein, and through the walls and down into the ground, as if he was a ghost.
Some seconds later he appeared out of the wall where Ein was, in moth form. //He is in moth form, right?// and saw him in a cage, and felt the ward. "What the hell happened?" he said.
-
// have you ever seen full metal alchcemist? well to create on thing there has to be an equal loss, like gold for gold etc.\\
Nick ran trough the forest, passing trees and trees. He saw asmall hut with a man and Makhno in it.
---
Calavous looked at Steorra and Darrak. " What, I couldn't have done this I was behind you when we heard the sound." Calvous continued to the transmutaion circle, placing Vincent down. " I shall try to bring him back." he said looking back at Darrak.
-
Ven stood there wide eyed as he watched the well being reassembled. It looked better than before it was destroyed.
"I had no idea alchemists could do THAT! Yes, we definitely can use someone like you! I'd definitely like to take you to meet King Henri. It's sort of a long walk. I hope you don't mind."
People were starting to come out from their hiding places to assess the damage to the port town of Kesnar. There were some lamentations for those killed in the attack by Jayce, and Ven offered his condolences. He assured another group that some of the people that disappeared may still be alive, and one of the heroes that saved the capital from Mavas was going after them, along with some more heroes.
This took a few moments, afterwards he turned back to the alchemist.
"All set? We must traverse these caverns. Right this way, please."
He began on the path to the caves that lead toward the capital city of Tjed and the castle within.
-
//Er... Burton, how can Nick see Makhno and Durruti when they are inside a small hut? And how can he see through the roof so that he can see the chest, and so strike at it, while he falls?//
-
//Yeah, he's in his moth appearance. Also, the ward that's around him - if you want to disable it, could you have Haraldur struggle a bit with it? Ein couldn't break out at all, so... yeah. Razz\\
Ein tried to move, hopelessly squished inside the ward orb. Since he could not speak while being a moth, he attempted a telepathic message to Haraldur - which instantly reverberated against the ward. //Haraldur couldn't've heard it.\\ He moved around a bit more, as if trying to ask for assistance.
--- --- ---
//Burton, alchemy here doesn't have to be like in Full Metal Alchemist. In fact, your type of alchemy could require runes or something. Or, it could need no sacrifice at all. Originality! Smile\\
Steorra, visibly angered, charged towards Calavous.
-"Keep those claws off him!!! I don't care what you say about being behind me, you seemed to possess high speed when we were travelling from Redvik to here!"
She rose her staff, which, fueled by Steorra's rage, was eminating power. Small yellowish-white sparks were jumping off the stone in the middle of the staff. Her eyes glowed with anger. //not literally, I hope everyone understands that...\\
-
"Hey there." Zion greeted Zeros', since Xenai was busy...
"Wake up wake up wake up wake up!" No matter how much slapping Xenai submitted Tsu to, he wouldn't wake up. Xenai grumbled and walked around, stepping on a twig. It made a small cracking sound.
*Yaaaaawn.* Tsu sat up. "Hey there, guys."
Aura opened her eyes next, sitting up. She touched the rose in her hair. Allen... Thanks.
"That's six now," said Zion as the two got to their feet. "We just multiplied our chances by 1.5."
-
"No you are not reviving him!" Darak said enraged. "We will NOT have a zombie as our High General." The thought of having a superior officer, being a person who's life relies on some kid's magic tricks, sends shivers down his spine. He knew for a fact that anyone revived from the dead, never acted the same.
He heard stories, that when the body dies, so does the soul, but if it's revived then the soul stays in there and rots. He wasn't sure if that story is true however, but it sort of made sense, but only in a world of magic, demons and sixteen year old kids gaining extreme powers.
He then got a little shocked as Steorra ran at Calavous, in rage. He backed away. He didn't want to get in the way of this. He holstered his axe, on the strap around his back and then he walked around the two, and picked up Vincent's body and placed it on the bed, he then lifted the blanket and covered his body.
----
//Meh, Roland isn't a character, so I'll just take control of him and the ogre since Ein's being lazy.\\
The ogre's right shoulder is stuck by the toxic, it burns a patch of skin and poison begins to flow through the ogre's systems.
The Ooze then slides it's way backwards, still sticking to the roof, and begins to charge a larger fireball.
The ogre swings at the Ooze with its club, but misses...
-
//Haraldur: Humm I read through the last two pages and Makhno never went into a hut!!\\
Calavous looked towards Steorra's raging eyes." Hey back off I'm not doing a thing... Even ask my brother when he gets back! he chased after that guy that he was fighting earlier." Calavous exclamed has he got up. Calavous' demon side subsided, he became normal again.
-
//Yes he did, try reading harder next time and don't skim over sentences.\\
He grunted as he lifted Makhno up, gently. He ran deeper into the forest until they reached a small scout hut that they had used for spying, but which was currently disused (the spies had abandoned it due to the high risk of detection).
//I hope you're happy, you made me use Quote tags!\\
Darak rolled his eyes. "Yeah, of course we can believe your bother." Darak said sarcastically. He then rubbed his chin and then lifted up the blanket, and looked at Vincent once more.
"Well...it looks like he was stabbed twice, or with two daggers by somebody..." Darak said, examining the body. "Now, I've only seen Calavous use a large sword. But that still doesn't prove anything, but I wouldn?t be surprised if a rebel, in fact it's much more likely."
Darak thought for a moment. "Steorra, you make a good point about his speed technique, however didn't you sense that Vincent was being killed, or being killed before Calavous went into the room?"
He could barely believe he was sticking up for Calavous, usually he'd just sit back and laugh about the whole thing. He assumed the reason why he's figuring out alibis for him, because he thought he'd be more useful for fighting the Aspyes, then getting killed.
-
Steorra calmed down a bit.
-"Yes, that's true... Yeah. I guess I shouldn't jump to decicions so quickly. That's just what I am."
She frowned.
-"When he died, I also sensed a strong airborne force line. As if someone escaped using flight... I bet it was one of those farmboys, the ones I... talked with in the air. They're the only ones magically capable of this."
-
//Dudeman: yes i am happy to see you suffer. Razz And i fixed it Very Happy \\
" I've done it plenty of times." Calavous said reassuring Steorra.
---
Nick bursted trough the hut door seeing Makhno and lunging towards him, not noticing the man beside him.
-
Nick was blocked by an automatic sheild coming from Durruti, and would have to use a shield of his own in order not to be thrown back and into the air at high speed.
Durruti quickly finished the healing of Makhno, and then shot his high powered rifle towards Nick.
Makhno quickly sat up and took a quick swig of an energy giving potion, and then his naked body jumped up and through the roof, and he flew towards the fortress, new clothes, identical to his old ones, and new equipment materialising on him as he moved through the air.
________________________________________________________________________
Quintus reached the room where Vincent had been attacked, and said, "What is going on here?"
________________________________________________________________________
Seeing Ein's position, Haraldur poked his fingers into the ward, and was thrown back against the wall. Damn. At least now he culd see the strength of the ward and the cage.
He took a piece of chalk from his pocket, and wrote in Tengwar script //As it is cooler than Roman script, and I like Tolkien, and it fits with this, so let us assume that this world predominantly uses that script.// on the wall "Shield yourself if you can, otherwise you will get burned at the very least, unless you are stronger than I thought you were."
Blocks of TNT materialised around him, and he placed levitation spells on them, and made them float right above where the ward was.
"Good luck," he said.
He then did a directly upwards teleport, so that there would be no random scattering. He was now hundreds of metres above Ein's position, and he then turned the levitation spells off.
______________________________________________________________________
Back where Ein was , the blocks of TNT suddenly dropped. When they touched the ward, the energy from the ward caused them to detonate.
<span style='font-family:Impact'><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'>BOOM!!!</span></span></span>
The ward itself disappeared with an explosion of its own.
______________________________________________________________________
Below him, Haraldur could see a fireball rising up and many rocks. Thankfully he was too high for them to reach. He hoped that Ein had survived both blasts.
-
Zeros' nodded and looked over their forces. Six of them vs. an Empire now... How...
"Fun..." he muttered. He let out a sigh and looked towards the sky, then towards the approximate position he felt Duilin's energy signature, assuming that's where the Gray Empire was.
"We could do what Rink said, but I don't believe I wouldn't be noticed by them, sadly... If my assumption is correct, they can probably sense energy as well, unless you five know how to dampen your energy signature to nothing," he said. "But, no, Rink... I don't think Knights would do much... They would tear through the knights like a hot knife through butter," he said again.
---
Allen nodded and brushed a hand through his gray hair and followed Ven. He looked around at the destroyed buildings and sighed. He could repair them, but it would take alot of his energy... Probably almost all of it.
He shruged and continued to follow Ven towards King Henri.
-
Nick moved back barley being hit by the rifle blast, only spilling some blood. Nick then swung his sword to cut off the barrel of his gun.
-
//Burton, isn't Nick being held back by a force field? How can he cut the barrel of his gun off if he isn't even close enough to him?\\
"Meh." Rink muttered. "Guess you've got a point then."
----
"I'm sorry sir." Darak said. "Vincent was attacked, we are not entirely sure who did it. We thought it was him." He pointed to Calavous. "But he was seen out of the room, when Vincent was attacked."
He then motions to Vincent's body laid down on the bed. "I'm sorry but he is gone, sir."
----
"Arg!" Roland snapped. "It seems I have underestimated your Ooze, but it also seems you have underestimated my Ogre!"
The Mad Ogre then swings its club back, waves of white energy then flow around the club, as the ogre roars.
"Oh really?" Marshal says back.
The Ooze then blasts a large explosive fireball at the Mad Ogre, the explosion causes the Ogre to fly off, and hit Roland. The ogre then dies from the explosion.
Roland gets back up. "That's it..." Roland takes out his sword and runs at Marshal.
The Ooze then blasts a lightning bolt at Roland's sword, and continues to rapidly shock Roland. He is stunned in his position, shaking from the currently flowing through him.
"Game over Roland."
The electric current gets so strong that Roland's body starts to burn up, turning most of his body into ashes.
The Ooze stops blasting lightning when Roland's burnt body falls to the ground.
Marshal then holds out his amulet and the Ooze is transferred back into energy, and Marshal grins, and turns around.
"Hey! Marshal!" Says to voice of the man from earlier. "I found an exit!"
Marshal then runs to where he heard the voice.
-
// Its says sheild not force feild and it was to block his attack on Makhno, not the gun. Does that answer you question?\\
Calavous looked up at Darrak." I guess you right. Lets leave this town now and find a safer place. I feel an energy coming." Calavous startedtowards the gate. " I'll probally find a peacfull place come look for me if you need help." He was now at the large gate pushing it open, and on his way to a new place. He walked down the rundown path, that many carts have crossed. He passed the forest that Nick was in and walked on... as if he would forever.
-
Quintus looked annoyed. "Right then. Darak, you are High General until further notice. This is your assignment: find out who did this. Use your new rank to help you do this."
He then left the room muttering to himself, and made his way to the lookout tower.
________________________________________________________________________
Durruti moved his rifle and made it hit the flat of Nick's sword, knocking it out of the way. He then threw a fireball at Nick at point blank range.
-
"So..." Tsu rubbed his eyes. "What's going on?"
"We're going up against the Grey Empire. Discretely, too."
"The Gray Empire?" asked Aura.
"Xenai, Tsu, and myself were captured by a high general of the Grey Empire. He'd said that Draven had died, and that the Crimson Empire was becoming the Grey Empire. Is all this right, Zeros'?"
-
Nick lifted his other arm to try to block the fireball only burning his arm in the process. His whole left sleeve was singed off. He then got his sword free and swung towards Durruti's ungaurded abdomen at a close range.
//are there any beaches near bandervil?\\
-
"You go ahead Calavous, I am staying here. I'm not leaving my place." Darak said to him, as he left.
Darak couldn't help but grin a bit when he heard that he was now High General, even though that it would likely just be a temporary position. But perhaps if he did the job well enough then he could keep this position.
"Yes sir." Darak replied to Qunitis "I will not let you down." He then saluted him, and then looked at Steorra.
"Steorra, come. We have work to do." He barked.
He then walked out of Vincent?s room, and headed his way towards the main barracks.
-
Ven lead Allen out of the town, and the two began on the winding path heading higher into the mountains. Trees lining the road offered patches of shade on the dusty ground and the light singing of birds faintly filled the air. Up ahead the cave was visible.
But then Ven suddenly stopped. He quickly drew the blade from his back and held it to his right, so that Allen would not pass. Without an explanation, he had probably scared the old man half to death, but he didn't have the time to explain...
"Come out."
Ven wasn't looking at Allen, but rather the thick shrubbery that lined the right side of the path.
"Come on, I can see you there."
The shrouded man stood from a crouching position several yards back into the woods. If he hadn't moved, he would have been impossible to notice, with his black cloak and all...
"Hmm, good... very good..."
He slowly began to walk out of the vegetation, towards the two on the path.
"I'm surprised, I've hidden my aura entirely."
Ven kept the same pose, sword outstretched and all. He didn't know how to sense magical auras very well; what he actually noticed was a constant rustling of leaves to his right as the two walked.
"I have my ways. Come out where we can see you. Slowly now."
The shrouded man continued walking fearlessly towards the knight and alchemist. Ven noticed a slight limp in his step. He reached the pathway in the open and stopped, folding his arms in front of him. His cloak was a darker black than Ven's, and it covered his entire body, including a hood that hid his face from view, save for the tip of his chin.
"I was wondering if I could have a word with you king..."
-
Zeros' shook his head.
"That's wrong... The Gray Empire is an entirely different faction from the Crimson Empire... For one, the giant demon we saw, Draven was also against and he's part of the Gray Empire. Another thing is... Draven isn't dead. I could tell when that blast happened that made him disappear that it didn't kill him, but only transported him... somewhere. Exactly where? I don't know...
But, the Gray Empire is not the Crimson Empire. They're only trying to take over the position that the Crimson Empire had," he said, before he started to explain further.
He swirled his hand in the air and colors formed in front of him.
"This..." he said, gesturing to a flag that had the same colors and patterns as the ones Haraldur's did, "is the faction of Haraldur's. They only control a small section of Gaian, but they're rapidly growing.
Next, we have..." he swirled his hand again and the flag of the Gray Empiure formed, "the Gray Empire. They also control a small section of the world," he said.
His hand swirled through the air and the flag of the Crimson Empire formed, opposite to the others. "This is the Crimson Empire. They control more than both of the others combined," he said. "Then, there's us... We have no alligence now. We are the "rebels", sort of speak..." he said, before all the pictures disappeared.
"Now... We just need a plan.. We could always charge in there directly, but..." he shruged.
---
Allen stopped suddenly at Ven's sword, his eyes wide, but he soon calmed, as he noticed the figure step out. His wisened eyes looked over the man, noticing the limp also.
He said nothing, though, as the stranger talked.
-
//Before I reply today: The Aspyes Revolution has control over the entirety of Alterna, which is both a country and a continent. It also has control over the Ugran and surrounding areas: 1/3 of Terian. The Grey Empire controls all the rest of Terian, having pretty much assimilated the Crimson Empire, with a few hiccups.//
-
//Kandarin is not on the mainland. Wink
Oh, and I have edited the DALpedia pages for my four Comrade characters with their flags and stuff, in order to avoid confusion.//
-
"Well I don't know about you guys..." Rink began. "But I could easily sneak in there. If Duilin is in there, then perhaps I could find him and help him escape, we could then stir up some trouble and attention, inside and then maybe you guys could rush in wile they are busy dealing with us. That's the best plan that I can come up with."
----
Marshal arrived to where he heard the voice. He saw a ladder, leading up to an open manhole, he saw the man's face from outside. "Come on up." He said.
Marshal strapped his gun over his shoulder and climbed up the ladder, and looked around and examined the area.
"We are actually only thirty or so feet away from the temple, but at least we are outside." The man said, he then pointed to the temple. "I saw some magic-man throw some explosives at the temple. I'm not sure what's going on."
"Haraldur, I bet, or at least one the other comrades." Marshal said. "Come. Oh by the way I didn't catch your name?"
"The name's Raymond." The man said. He then followed Marshal as they walked closer to the Temple.
Marshal noticed Haraldur floating up in the sky. "Comrade Haraldur!" He called over, waving his hand.
-
//Eh, that's right... BTW, Haraldur - why don't you ever go on MSQ anymore? Razz\\
Ein the moth unravelled like a spring and fell down, clouds of smoke rising from his damaged form. His wings were burnt in a few places, and his antennae also had burnt tips. The temple around him was destroyed.
He redirected his antennae at Haraldur and sent him a telepathic message.
-"Not the way I'd go about doing that, but thank you for the rescue anyway. Now then, before we jump to further conclusions, let's find Marshal."
---
A little pile of ashes known previously as Roland started rearranging itself in a more neat pile, somewhat reminiscent of an outline of a human. A soft beige glow followed, ending with a beige flash - and Roland was back in his former glory.
-"Marshal, Marshal, Marshal. You never learn."
He climbed through a window in the crumbling temple, where the Elder was waiting for him.
-"Let's go."
The Elder already had a wyvern prepared. They got on, and took course for Kandarin.
//BTW, I know that Marshal was not in the room with Roland when he adressed him. He was sort of talking to himself.\\
-
"Whhazzzzaaaaaappppp!" A drunken orc greets Shaak and Kraig as the return to the tavern.
"Well, yes... anyways Kraig." Shaak call Kraig over, ignoring the drunkard.
"Yeah?"
"We need to find a place to stay."
"How about the Inn?"
"Nah, more like a... Base somewhere to keep all our troops you know."
"I say we ask the barkeep where we could get a place like that." Kraig whistles at the barkeep. "Hey, Bar dude! You know where we might find like a base of operations for us orcs?"
"Ummm... You might try the outskirts; there is a lot of unused land you can make a base in. You probably need a permit to build anything there though." The barkeep replies.
"Well thats too bad! I need a place to put all my shit and either it's at a base on the outskirts or in here!" Kraig shouts and slams his fist on the table."
"Okay, okay! I'll tell one of Kronoses messengers that you are building it and he will probably agree but-" The barkeep gets cut off.
"Thanks!" Kraig cuts off. "Alright you slimy sons of bitches, lets move out!"
-
"Who are you?"
Ven didn't falter, keeping his sword poised and ready to strike. Seriously, the guy is draped in black robes and his face is hidden...
"What does it matter?"
"Answer the question."
"Henri will know when he sees me..."
"There is NO way I'm letting some random robed man near our liege..."
"... Very well... you may call me... Lar-- Oh, screw it!"
Draven whipped off the hood, revealing an irritated face and a scowl. Ven gasped at the realization of who he was dealing with, taking a step back. Draven clenched both fists, the robes flowing around him.
"Listen you miserable little ingrate! You take me to your freaky three eyed king right now, or I rip out your heart and jam it down your throat..."
Without warning, Draven dashed forward, his boots skimming an inch above the dusty road. Within a second, Ven found himself suspended in the air, choking as Draven lifted him up by the neck with his right hand, his left grasping the knight's right wrist, rendering the sword useless.
"And don't think any of your friends will be able to save you. I've acquired the ability to mask my magical aura entirely. My presence is completely undetectable. So long as I don't decide to heat things up, that is..."
He gave Ven a violent toss, and the knight flew across the road and into some shrubbery lining the path. Draven folded his arms.
"I'll give you a minute to think about it. In the meantime, I'll be in town murdering hundreds of innocent people. I need to work off some steam..."
He flipped his cloak and turned to walk back towards Kesnar.
"WAIT!"
Draven turned to look at the bush where the smited Ven lay, but instead there were only dislodged leaves flying through the air. Ven was almost twenty feet above the Crimson Emperor, an amber stream of wind energy swirling around his blade.
"HYAAAAHH!!!!"
Draven rolled his eyes. He brought his right gloved hand from under his robes. Ven bore the blade down hard with both hands as he rapidly fell on his adversary. But his sword was suddenly stopped in mid air... Draven had caught the blade between his pointer and middle finger and Ven couldn't advance it further for the life of him...
Draven promptly clenched his left fist and delivered a powerful hook to Ven's face. Ven blasted backwards, tumbling in air before making a rough landing some ten feet further down the path, rolling into a sitting position. The blow dislodged the sword from his hand, and Draven now held it blade first. Like a throwing knife, Draven launched the sword at the downed knight. It flipped through the air and lodged itself between Ven's legs, pinning his cloak to the ground.
Draven folded his arms.
"Well now, what's it going to be?"
-
Calavous kept walking, he finally reached a little town. He walked to the bar. " Hey barkeep." he barked. " Wheres the closest beach?"
"A little north-west from here."
"Thank you." Calavous said as he was out the door.
" Your....eh..Welcome." The barkeep said as calavous was out the door.
Calavous passed out of the town in a few minutes. He went north for about a mile.
*Clears throat* "Ahh." He said as he sat down to relax.
// Err... I guess Durruti is knocked out cause haraldur hasn't posted for him in 3 days or so?\\
-
//No, it's only been 2 days. If he doesn't tomorrow, then yes.\\
-
// No since he has posted for the person im attacking...............Ohh i thought that would count as a day too. Sorry.\\
-
//You attacked him on June 8th and it is only June 10th. 10 - 8 = 2\\
-
//Hail DM the mathematician\\
Kronos watched the orcs go back to the tavern.
-"Hmm, I suppose they don't want their gold, then."
He ordered the resurrected orcs back inside the palace, throwing the heavy bags back into the treasury.
-"Now I'd better find someone to write for me... It would prove most difficult in my condition."
-
//I think Bandervil is inland.//
//Aspyes also control the area of Wahhabia and the surroundings.//
A shield came out from Durruti's body, blocking the sword strike, and sending him flying back (and Nick too, unless Nicks stops it). Durruti was stopped by the wall of the now roofless hut. He shot at Nick again with the rifle, and from his left hand red plasma swirled out and went towards Nick, in order to broil him.
________________________________________________________________________
Haraldur sent a message to Ein: Marshall is just outside.
He then descended down to where Marshall was. "Greetings, comrade! Who is this man, and what is this place?"
________________________________________________________________________
Makhno landed right above where Vincent's room was, and teleported directly downwards, to find the body still there and with noone else there. He grabbed the body and teleported it back upwards and then he flew, with the body, back into the forest. He would now fulfil the oath he made.
He walked deep in the forest, dragging Vincent's body behind him. He eventually reached a clearing. On the edge of it was another scout hut, and a lot of firewood. He entered the empty hut, and dumped the corpse on the bed. He undressed it, and packed the auto shotgun, sword and gold rifle away in the chest at the bottom of the bed.
On the other side of the hut there was a frame for hanging up the carcasses of wild animals. He hung Vincent's body by its feet, and started skinning it.
After a while, he had cuts of meat in jars, to preserve them. They had been salted as well. Also in jars were the major edible organs, such as the heart and the liver.
He then, using the intestines, started making sausages from the odd bits of meat. After that was done, he took the remaining carcass outside and dragged it into the forest and left it there for the wolves, who leapt at it after he went back to the hut.
He started a small fire, and placed the clothes and a few odd objects onto it, watching them burn, and then started making a stew from part of the meat, with some potatoes and carrots and herbs that had been stored in the hut.
-
Allen blinked. He was seriously not expecting that. He decided to take the safe way out and not respond or comment. He sighed at Ven's foolishness, but he waited for Ven to get up.
---
// Alright, then... Just imagine Zeros' said all that. >.>; \\
Zeros' nodded.
"Well, that's the best plan we have right now, other than barging in their and destroying everything in site," he said. "Unless someone has a better plan."
-
//I think I'm going to vomit.\\
"Ah, well this is Raymond, he helped me get out from a tunnel system, underground." He then looked at the remains of the temple. "And this...was the Blue Minotaur temple. I believe it was attacked by an army, with perhaps a necromancer about them."
"Yeah, I swear I'll find out who did this. This place was my home." Raymond sighed.
"Perhaps you would like to join us, the Aspyes? We'll are a very powerful group." Marshal says.
Raymond looks up at Haraldur. "Heh, I don't doubt that." He then looks back at Marshal. "Well all right, guess it wouldn't hurt if you dudes, had another summoner with ya. I'll join."
"Excellent." Marshal replies, he then looks back at Haraldur and Ein. "So, were are we headed comrades?"
----
Darak arrived at the main barracks; it was full of soldiers, talking and playing cards and such.
"Okay everyone! Listen up!" Darak shouted, a few people turned and looked at him. "Vincent has so sadly passed, so for now, I am the new HIGH General!"
All the other soldiers immediately, came to attention.
Darak smirked. "Now, I have reasons to belive that it was one or few of the Aspyes who has done this, it was only a short amount of time, so they cannot be far." He walked through the barracks, looking the occasional soldier in the eye. "Now, I want you to scout the outside surroundings of the base, don't leave any ground uncovered within a 100 yards around the base."
The soldiers looked at each other, looking a little confused. "You heard me! Now!"
The soldiers then grabbed their weapons and heading there way outside.
-
Nick went flying back but got up and deflectedthe two shots from Durruti. He charged towards him ready to thrust his hand.
---
Calavous started up again and went west. He walked and walked. He rached a small little village, and went to get food.
-
"Actually Duilin..." Abodahon said to his son. "Would you like to know more about these gauntlets, it's quite an interesting story."
"Well...okay." Duilin replied.
"Okay, well it all started a long time ago, way before you were born. I'm not sure how long ago, but bare with me here." Abodahon began. "Melkoth hired me, because of my demonic heritage, I was one of his first allies to join with him. He would grant me with some special powers, if I myself, were to overthrow the dark god Qor, and gain control of the demons."
"You see, Melkoth himself asked Qor is he would help him in his conquest, but he refused. He then spotted the potential in me, and then offered me the deal, and I excepted. With my new powers, and my old ones, I believe I could take over Qor. However, that was quite a big mistake. He defeated me in battle, due to my powers taking a bit to long to charge, but he let me live, but as a punishment he severally damaged my upper arms, making them quite useless."
"Wait?" Duilin interrupted. "If Qor is dead now, then how come you aren't the ruler of the demons?"
"Well, because I have my counterparts. My largest rival of them is Iban. He has his own, Nightshade cult."
"So, what does this have to do with your gauntlets?"
"Yes, I was just about to get to that. You see, Melkoth, then got one his most powerful followers to then make me these gauntlets, they practically would serve as new arms, I would be able to lift them up as if they were my own arms and swing them around as normal, they were also equip with the orange diamonds to increase my magic charging speed."
"So..." Duilin asked. "This person must have been pretty good, if he himself made these things, who was he?"
Abodahon then showed an inscription on the gauntlets. Duilin read the inscription it clearly spelled...
"Haraldur..." Duilin covered his mouth as if he cursed in a church, and then rubbed his lower lip as he moved his hand down.
"Well...of course. Haraldur is the son of Melkoth. Remember that you yourself were an ally of this madman."
"Well, yeah, but I didn't know he was so...crazed."
"Nore did I. Or Melkoth, we all trusted him, and believed him to be a strong ally. But then...well you should know the rest."
"Does Haraldur have any control over those? Like, who knows? Those could be dangerous!"
"Oh calm yourself my son. There is nothing at all to be worried about."
-
//What was with that vomit comment?\\
The journal entries continued, but in a completely different writing.
"The moment we have all been waiting for so long finally came. I performed the ceremony, and was successfully reborn a Lich. It is indeed a curious sensation... I can split my physical being between dimensions. The faint ghostly outline of my appearance remains here, while my physical matter is sent to another dimension. In short, I am both a person and a ghost."
--- --- ---
Steorra held her staff up high, then set it back down.
-"I can't detect them in the vicinity... You know what? I think I--"
She suddenly stopped, then collapsed on the floor, unconcious. Looks like the fatigue got to her.
--- --- ---
Ein cleared the land around him with his legs, and crawled out of the ruined temple. He noticed the man next to Marshal.
-"Hey, I see you got a boyfriend here while I was gone?"
Though his physical features did not reflect it, Ein was a bit scared. He sent out a telepathic message to both Haraldur and Marshal.
-"Folks, I don't like it here. Hows about we leave before any more undeads decide to ruin our day?
--- --- ---
Roland and the Elder have descended to Kandarin. Kronos was waiting for them.
-"Is it done?"
Roland mysteriously smiled.
-"They do not suspect a thing..."
-
//Me not on all day = Cave Story's fault. Beat it in one day, I did. On the easy path, though.
Xenai scratched his head. "I'm no strategist, so I'll just do whatever the hell you tell me to, mkay?"
Zion was deep in thought, trying to grasp the situation.
Tsu and Aura stood there doing mostly nothing.
-
(Wow, I am now officially freaked out. Ein, you DID read what Makhno did, right? Heh...)
Ven slowly stood up, removing the sword from the ground.
"All... right... I'll take you."
"Excellent. See now, cooperation is so much easier, isn't it?"
Draven began walking down path towards the cave, still with the slight limp. He seemed to be favoring his left side slightly, at least that was what Ven could make of it. Ven shot Allen a distressed glance, as if to say "I'm sorry."
Draven had a different comment for Allen, when he made his way ahead of the other two.
"Oh yes, Allen. I will have your next assignment once I sort out this little mess..."
----
The Dark Emperor and his son followed the three lizard people though a rock tunnel and towards a large opening, where the crimson light flooded in. They were soon on a balcony made of stone, high above a vast underground chasm. The cave was gigantic, and it was impossible to see the opposite wall...
Over three hundred feet below they scurried about like ants... These lizard creatures... There were thousands of them running about among the plumes of flame and smoke scattered about the mammoth cave floor. Some were striking anvils, making weapons from small ovens attached to the streams of magma that flowed through. Others worked on what looked like suits of armor, suited for reptilian forms. Others were assembling strange metallic devices, some of them quite large and many resembling catapults and others cannons. Other lizard men were attached to harnesses and pulling loads through roads. And others tended to rows of white oblong eggs that haphazardly scattered the chasm... The noise spewing from below was deafening...
Retan brought his hand to his chin.
"Most impressive, Prime Minister Grav. When we last met, you were but a small population of a few thousand..."
The robed lizard Grav bowed his head.
"And all are your sservants, my lord..."
The lizard turned to the masses below, twitching his tail as he spoke.
"These are mostly C Class. We had only had a few hundred when we last met, but as you can see, they are now by far the most prevalent."
"The 'growable' warrior class, correct?" Jayce interjected, his mouth almost watering as he leaned far over the balcony, fantasizing at the countless minions soon to be under his disposal..."
"That is correct, my prince. They take three years from conception to be ready for battle. They have a lifespan of five years past that point, and are capable for battle for all of it. Afterwards, they'll just drop dead wherever they stand. You'll know it about a day before, when they become sluggish..."
Jayce turned and grabbed a small device that one of the lizard soldiers behind Grav was carrying. It looked somewhat like a remote control with a blue gem at one end and a display gauge with a needle underneath. Jayce returned to his vantage point and waved the device over the lizard horde below, watching the needle as it danced about.
"Oh yes! A battle aura of over 1,000 each! Delicious! The finest trained Dark Empire human soldiers rarely break 200."
"You ARE masking this place, are you not?" Retan quickly shot at the lizard prime minister.
"But of course, my lord. In addition to an aural shield around the entirety of Mizar, which renders everything that goes on here un-sensible to magically inclined outsiders, there's quite the powerful force barrier one layer underneath. It took us an hour to merely open a hole large enough for the two of you to enter."
"Excellent. And what about obedience?"
"You will find them to be far easier to work with than humans, hexed or not. Their intelligence is minimal, so their orders will have to be simple and clear, however they are programmed to recognized officers, friend, and foe with minimal direction. Furthermore, they respond to a certain shadow elemental frequency of magic fairly well. Observe."
The prime minister held out his staff and uttered the word "Bow" quietly, which of course wouldn't have been heard over the din of the work below. However, about a hundred of the closest lizards below immeditely dropped what they were doing and bowed to Grav above.
"Impressive. Allow me to try."
Retan blinked. Without a word the entire populace stopped in their tracks, the din of work ceasing entirely, and dropped to their reptilian knees, muttering "Hail Retan... Hail Retan..."
Grav gazed wide-eyed at Retan's level of control. Jayce smirked.
"I am quite pleased with your work here, Grav," Retan mused. "Now, show me what you've done with the D Class..."
"Yess, my lord..."
-
//Yes, I did, and good god, it's nothing to be all OMG about! So what, he just ate Vincent...\\
"I believe it is time to use the elites I spoke of so long ago. But first, a few preparations...
I rose to the top of my palace. There, an arcane machine was already set up. It consisted of lots of levers, spikes, and electricity arching back and forth between the parts of the machine. My very own prototype weather control device.
I pulled a few levers here and there. All the energy inside the machine redirected into a large silver ball, which in turn sent a lightning into the sky. It was soon completely covered with dark clouds, which descended down upon the earth. Similar things happened all across Gaian. It was virtually impossible to see anything more than 20 meters away.
The elites were being processed now."
---
Back on the Crimson Continent, in a small unnamed village the people were looking up and pointing at the sky. The dark clouds were new... the area that they lived in barely ever got dark, except at night. The clouds slowly descended upon the village...
Just as the darkness completely consumed the hamlet and all its inhabitants, an inhuman scream was heard. The entire village population, it seems, was experiencing something extraordinary painful. Soon, however, the screams succumbed. The sound of churning bones followed, as if the villagers were being mutated into something...
-
Calavous went out of the town after he stopped by the weapon store. He kept moving west. He went past more forests and landforms. He traveled for a few hours. Calavous finally reached a beach. He walked over to the docks, and saw some pirates on a horrifing ship. The flag was painted blood red with a badly painted skull. Calavous walked up to the boat.
"Arr... What thee want with us? Huh matey?"
Calavous looked up at the rugged men on the boat. "I want your boat." He exclamed with firey eyes.
" Hahaha! Me hearty! Why would pirates like us give up our sea worthy ship?" All of the pirates started to put there feet up on the railing.
" I guess ill just have to kill you! Every single one of you!" Calavous leaped aboard and stabed all the men then sliced the captin across the stomach. He then threw them overboard.
-
Zeros' frowned and sighed, shaking his head.
"It looks like - at this point - we have to go with Rink's plan," he said, before shooting a glance at the small imp. "Not that it's bad, but I just don't want you to get hurt," he said quickly, before Rink could have a chance to get angry over it.
He looked up at the sky and the position of the sun and then into the direction of the Gray Empire.
"Well... It looks like it's time to go..." he looked over his friends and allies and smiled, before he turned around and started to fly off in the direction of the Gray Empire.
---
Allen nodded and gave Draven a salute.
"Yes sir," he said promptly. Unlike some others, he didn't mind serving Draven. Sure, he was a little... over the top and pompous at points - and sometimes down right evil - but, no one couldn't admit he wasn't a good leader and knew how to get people to follow him.
He nodded at Ven's expression and smiled back, before he faltered in his step and fell behind, trailing the two.
-
Calavous set sail with the boat. He was off on a voyage to a peaceful place. He sailed westward.
//Just so you now im making a new group in dalapedia, the characters are npc but you cant really kill them off without my consent.\\
-
Makhno ate some stew. It was rather good.
With a sweep of his hand, a large chest appeared, which hovered above the ground. He place the rest of the stew and the meat in it, and then shut it. It flew very fast to Gief, and reached it later on, placing itself by Makhno's bed in his dwelling near the centre of the city.
Makhno walked into the thick parts of the forest, towards the right position for when the signal came. He came to a hide by the edge of the forest, similar to those used b birdwatchers but even more camoflaged. He took out an impressive looking rifle from a box, but it was in pieces. He started on the task of piecing it together.
________________________________________________________________________
Durruti jumped aside, and slashed down on Nick's thrusting arm with the bayonet on the end of the rifle, hoping to cut it off. He then jumped away to the west a little, towards a deep part of the forest.
________________________________________________________________________
After Ein's message, Haraldur said: "OK, let us go now to Gief with our new comrade, so that he can learn what the Revolution is about. You two, Marshall and Ein, might like to see it too, as you were not there when the battle was happening.
"Actually, no. I will as Tesla to pick you up and then show you around. I have some things to attend to."
He dropped down, and turned away from them. Within second his form had changed to that of a fierce black wolf, 2 metres high at the shoulder (as in, HUGE!). However, the wolf reduced to normal wolf size, no doubt for reasons of his own. I ran into the forest, its aura disappearing completely within a few seconds, a deliberate act to avoid detection. In a few moments he was gone, in the forest where none could find him without his intent.
Far away in Gief, Tesla started flying towards Ein, Marshall and Raymond's position.//Treat it as though he arrives just as when either Dude Man or Ein start to post.//
-
//I'm too lazy to post right now, but i'd just like to comment: Burton, it's kind of ironic how Calavous is on a voyage to a peaceful place, after slaughtering around 30 people in cold blood, essentially for no reason. Just my opinion.\\
-
Ven lead Draven and Allen into the caverns, taking the twisting passages, inching closer and closer to the capital city of Tjed. Ven took his time, thinking long and hard about what to do. Should he lead this madman the wrong way on purpose? What business could he have with King Henri? Could his intentions actually not be bad, after all?
He desperately felt the need to consult his liege, but of course, that was the very thing he was trying to decide what to do... Ven finally decided to go for it... He would take the Crimson Emperor to the castle. There were just too many questions. At least this way, we would get some answers. Besides, nearly the entire Royal Army was stationed in the capital right now. He hoped it would be enough...
Light became visible at the end of the tunnel...
-
"Pfft..." Rink snarled. "Don't worry about me, Zeros'" He said, as he was carried off. "I can take care of myself, besides I'll be able to quickly find Duilin. He'll protect me!"
//Or will he? Heheh.\\
----
The massive hordes of soldiers began to cover the ground all around Bandervil. They were all spread out from each other, scouting in groups no larger then five. So they could not be easily down sized in such short times.
Darak goes back into Vincent's room. He looks around and notices the body is gone.
"What in blazes?" He said, looking rapidly around the room. He steps outside the room, and one of the healing mages from earlier walks in front of him, as if trying to get into the room.
"Um...sir." The mage says, but is interrupted by Darak, pointing back into the room.
"The body is gone? Did somebody take it?" Darak asked.
"Um...no sir."
"High General, don't call me sir anymore. I'm starting to not like the sound of it. For now on, I want to be called. High General Darak, or at least High General, or General Darak." He goes on, sounding cocky about his new position.
"Um, no High General Darak, sir."
Darak grinds his teeth. "Outta my way! I'm going find that sicko that took his body." He then headed outside. "Who knows what things he could be doing to it." He shudders at the thoughts that enter his head.
----
"So, Raymond let me tell you a bit about our revolution." Marshal says.
Raymond nods. "Okay, let's hear."
"Well, basically we a large group, towards increasing the quality of life. We plan to bring a revolution, take out the Empires who rule this world with an iron fist in there cruel ways."
"Cruel?" Raymond asks. "I don't see how they are, the Empires didn't seem to bother us at all." He then looked back at the remains of the Temple. "Unless they did this."
"Well, you have to realized that the Blue Minotaur were not poor people. We had our defences, strong economy, and we kept mostly to ourselves. The Crimson Empire never found the need to enforce law over us, because we only had a small plot of hidden land. But you see, the lives of those less fortunate, are well, hell. Haraldur and another comrade of mine, Tesla (who will be here shortly) explained this to me. In fact I used to be against this group, I believed they were a cult out to dominate the world, when really it's the opposite. The Aspyes wish to end all of this domination, no more Empires."
"So, no more Empires?" Raymond asks. "So, these people under control of them, would just be as equal as everyone else?"
"Yes." Marshal said grinning. "We would all be equal."
//I hope I had all that communist-anarchist stuff right, Haraldur.\\
Raymond rubs his chin and nods. "Sounds good really."
Suddenly, Marshal notices Tesla arriving. "Ah! Here is comrade Nikola now."
Marshal walks over to Tesla. "Greetings comrade. This is Raymond."
"Uh, hey." Raymond said, waving lightly to Tesla.
-
//Remember, guys, everything's going very very dark... You've been reading my posts, have you not?\\
Ein greeted Tesla with a telepathic "hello". He soon noticed the pitch black clouds setting down onto the ground.
-"Uh oh... I don't like the looks of this..."
This message was sent to everyone in the vicinity, including Raymond.
---
The village was completely silent, except for a few twigs snapping, and the silent rustling of clothes. The elites, it seems, were ready.
They looked like black silhouettes of people, with their features impossible to notice in the dark. However, one peculiar thing: Every single one of them had bright colourful neon-like patterns on their bodies. The patterns glowed brightly in the dark, completely giving away their position, but not really illuminating their bodies.
They leaped high onto the trees, making absolutely no sound. Every move was carefully calculated and processed, but at extraordinary speeds.
As they reached a certain height, they simply... disappeared? With a silent whoosh, the elites dissolved into the dark, leaving no trace behind them. Almost instantly, they appeared behind the trees around Ein's group. They hid behind the fat tree trunks to disguise their glow. //i.e. there's no way anyone would be able to detect them right now. As for how they found the group, that will be revealed later\\.
-
Xenai shrugged and shook his head. He was clueless, so he'd just take orders on the go. Tsu and Aura were just as clueless, but not as obviously so as Xenai. Zion was trying to understand it, and was the first of the four to follow Zeros'. Next was Xenai. Tsu and Aura were the last ones remaining.
"...We wake up and get thrown into a fight right off the bat."
"As if we didn't just finish one."
"Yeah. Anyways, hop on my back. You don't need to use that disc, it's too slow for now."
Aura nodded and hopped onto Tsu's back. Tsu then took off after them.
-
//Ein, what about Steorra? She was supposed to follow Darak, shall we assume she is?\\
"But wait..." Duilin said, to Abodahon. "Valos said that Haraldur would be coming."
"And?" Abodahon asked
"Well, he knows how those gauntlets work, what if he hid something inside of them?"
"Hahaha. I assure you I would know Duilin. My powers are extremely high, comparable to Haraldur's, and Melkoth's." Abodahon said.
"I don't know..." Duilin said sounding a bit worried. "That Haraldur can do anything, plus a little bit more."
"Heheh. Well, again. I assure you, don't worry yourself about me or Haraldur." He paused for a second, but kept walking. "If anything, you should worry about your friend Zeros', you will have to confront him and prove to him who is stronger."
"You think I'm ready?" Duilin asked
"Zeros' may also have his demonic side, but your demonic strength is much stronger then his." Abodahon said with a grin.
"But he's half god."
"Hah! That half comes from Gaia, even I am stronger then her."
-
//Ein, should I assume that even people in the forest, i.e. Haraldur, cannot detect them?//
-
Zeros' frowned at Rink's statement. He didn't think that was true... He had felt a large spike in his demonic power. He just hoped that Duilin wasn't stupid enough to fall for the man's persuasions... He knew who Abodahon was. He hadn't been around for over millions of years for nothing.
Abodahon was the leader of the small cult called the Talon Scar. He had also had a son with a human woman. Most strange. He had his ways to be hidden by everyone, being the avatar and son of Gaian. He had followed Abodahon's progress for awhile and had also followed Duilin's as well. That was why he took such an interest with Duilin and tried to protect him and raise him.
If Abodahon had managed to presuade Duilin to his side, he'd have no doubt that he'd have to fight his long time companion and friend. He was the only original member left of their ragtag squad of rebels.
Zeros' sighed and looked at Rink, before speeding up his flight. He needed to get there faster. He also looked behind him and saw the other four trailing after them.
---
Allen gave up trying to memorize the way they were going. It was obvious that there would be many different paths to get to the King's castle. Some paths led to dead ends, no doubt and others probably led to horrendous traps, while the others led to the King.
Allen sighed and trailed after them.
-
//DM: Yeah, sorry. I forgot to update her.
Haraldur: He can't, unless he's hiding behind the trees as well.\\
-
//Ein...from middle of page: Yes calavous' peacefullness is killing!i!i!i!i\\
Nick took is other hand and grabing the bayonets tip and shattered the fine work of metal. He ran out the hut then made his way back to bandervil.
---
Calavous was sailing for about two or so hours and decided to rest. He went down into the boat looking for a place to sleep. He found a small cot and laid in it...There was a faint sound then a *guhh* inside the ship. Some little deckboy stabed Calavous with a dagger. He pulled the dagger out of his left arm and leaned up with his right. "Hey...Didn't your mother ever tell you not to stab strangers." The deckboy came out of the shadows it turned out to be a beutiful young women.
" I am Cyan Sybil. But call me Cyan."
"Well Cyan will you want to join me on my journey."
"What kind of journey?"
"One to a place were I can train."
//Btw cyan one of my characters so i'll post bio soon.\\
-
//damn you correcting my spelling errors!\\
now that calavous knew hewould have no sleep he stood up and walked up to the deck. He grabbed the steering wheel and talked to cyan and told stories to pass the time. They finally reached a small island. Calavous docked on the sand an started to shearch the island. He looked towards a small forest and saw a metal pole. He walked towards it finding out it was a flag pole on top of a stone underground building. It was a bunker of some sort. Or a rebal base? It didn'y matter it was shelter.
---
Nick reached near bandervil and saw Darrak running without question he folowed.
"Sir! Where are you going? What happened?"
-
After receiving Ein's message:
Tesla said, "Greetings comrades. Greetings Raymond. We should leave. Now."
He landed on the ground, and then rose about half a metre, a wide disc forming below him.
"Get on, Ein, Raymond, Marshall. Let us go."
After they get on, assuming they do, the disc rises and flies towards Gief.
______________________________________________________________________
Durruti looked annoyed at the breaking of the bayonet, but it soon regenerated.
He ran out of the hut until he could see both Darak and Nick.
He took a bullet from his belt pouch and placed it in the rifle. He put the rifle to his shoulder and aimed, and then fired at Nick's retreating back.
He then pulled back the bolt of his bolt-action rifle, ejecting the bullet casing, and placed another bullet in the rifle. He brought it back to his shoulder, and shot the bullet at Darak's head.
_____________________________________________________________________
The black wolf Haraldur ran at full speed towards the centre of the huge forest which stretched from western Ugran to Bandervil (with a clearing in it where the Blue Minotaur temple was).
He passed through tree, trotted through the undergrowth, and jumped over above ground roots. He swam through rivers, walked along fallen logs and crossed canyons.
He reached a large clearing, and then howled a long howl. Around him the forest moved as many many wolves, grey in colour, entered the clearing. They stared at the large black wolf, looking strong enough to be the alpha male for the entirety of Gaian.
Haraldur issued a challenge, and none of the wolves took it. He trotted northwards, towards Bandervil. Behind him, hundreds of wolves followed the black wolf.
-
//Burton: It's damn not dam.
Haraldur: The Blue Minotaur temple apparently is on a separate island as Bandervil. But seeing as even I forgot that, perhaps we can connect the island (Helternia) to the main land, so perhaps it's a peninsula.\\
Darak, who didn't even leave the main gate of the fortress, apparently notices that he had already made a scene and spots bullet hit the wall just in front of him, if he had left just a bit sooner, it likely would have hit him.
"Arg! What the hell?" He barks. He then looks around. "There he is! Get him!" He points at were the shot came from.
A large horde of soldiers runs towards Durruti's position.
----
Marshal and Raymond then step onto the wide disc coming from the ground.
"Heh.... interesting..." Raymond says looking at it.
"I'm still not used to all of this myself, heheh." Marshal chuckles.
-
// :angry: Damn you also correcting my spelling and vocabulary and other big words that I cant spell that mean spelling. Razz \\
Nick was hit by the bullet. It hit square on his shoulder blade. He fell to the ground, Half concious after he hit the ground.
//I have a massive and I mean massive idea. When chapter 1-10 is done there should be the ablivoration of the world. THe we make it a book after fixing up alot and rearanging. Then we start a new one almost from scratch but with the remnice of the old and stuff. you now what im saying?\\
-
Ven lead the emperor and the alchemist out into the light, and there it was... the capital city of Tjed. Majestic mountains surrounded all sides of the valley, almost hiding the city.
The three took the green path down to the front gates. By now, Draven had replaced the hood on his head. Ven lead the way into the city, politely nodding at passerby-ers, who gave the shrouded man in black and the man in the white coat strange looks before continuing on their way. They traveled through a lively marketplace, filled with peddlers selling their wares, then through a part of town that was damaged during the battle with Mavas. Reconstruction work was going well, and the frames of new buildings were already up along with new walls added to damaged ones.
Finally they came to the majestic stone castle at the back of the town, the guards opening the gates widely for Ven...
-
"Well, your friends will likely be here soon. Might as well finish setting everything up." Abodahon said.
----
Down in the basement, a group of bars opened. "Holy crap!" Valos groaned. "It's about time..." He then runs out as the bars slide back into place behind him. He runs upstairs. "I'm going to kill somebody soon..."
-
Calavous and Cyan traveled deeper into the forest finding that there were no trees in the middle just a town. " I guess I'll have to do with this." Calavous said as he walked into the town. Calavous walked up to this little tower in the middle. Cyan said she would be back and she flew to the markets. Calavous opened the large doors and saw a spiral flight of stairs. Hey walked up the dizzying stairs and saw a tiny spider fluttering down on a string of its web. "How can life so insignificant be so interesting?" He asked himself. He looked up and it looked like a long way to go...
//Yes i used word! Razz\\
-
"He always goes faster, and faster, and faster," said Xenai. "Like he wants to race us. Well I'm game." He took off extremely fast, gaining on Zeros', looking to pass him up.
Zion sighed, and he and Tsu simply accelerated to match Zeros' speed.
-
Once they were through the main gates, Ven turned to the shrouded Draven.
"Wait here."
"That won't be necessary, knight. I'm through with you. Run along now."
Draven began to stride through the open main hallway of the castle. Ven stepped in front of him.
"Now wait a second! King Henri will--"
Draven grabbed Ven's left gauntlet and shoved him aside, sending the knight off balance.
"Hey!"
Two large guards now stood in the way of the cloaked emperor, but Draven sent them away with a mere push of the hands, smashing them into the walls on either side. Draven quickened his pace, walking swiftly down the crimson carpeted hallway. Ven regained his balance and pursued at a jogging pace.
"Bl-blast it!"
-
Ein flew up into the sky.
-"So, we goin' somewhere?
-
The disc flew towards Gief at high speed. Tesla told Ein We are going to Gief.
________________________________________________________________________
Durruti threw a pack of explosives at the soldiers, which he shot at in the air, detonating it, killing all of the soldiers.
//Burton and Dude Man: You determine whether Nick and/or Darak are caught in the blast etc..//
________________________________________________________________________
Haraldur and the pack rushed through the forest and were now nearing Bandervil.
-
Nick Felt the blast as he got up. He charged towards Durruti and trusted his sword into this stomach area, he was hiddin in the flash of the explosion.. The bullet in Nicks back made him move more slowly.
" I'll get you this time!" He yelled when his sword was mere inches from Durruti.
-
//Actually, he would not be hidden, he would be silloueted(sp?) against the flash and so would be very visible indeed. Also, the flash would not last very long either, so not long enough for Nik to charge.//
Before Nick was anywhere near him, Durruti could see him. He put the rifle to his shoulder again, and shot at Nick's stomach, and then at his head. He then jumped up into the air, and hovered a few metres up.
In the hide, Makhno had finished assembling the rifle. He placed its tripod on the platform and turned it towards where Darak was. He shot at Darak twice, at head and then chest.
The bullets which came out were larger than normal, and consisted of a coating of brass, and within that a detonator at the front of it, which would go off when the front was crushed by impact, and explosive behind the detonator. The ullets would explode on impact with enough force to destroy small buildings.
-
Nick dodged Durruti's bullet and climbed a tree near by. He jumped from the top landing on Durruti's back about to strangle him.
---
Calavous started to get tired of climbing the stairs, so he sat down a rested. He revealed his wing which were hiddin under a cape he had put on. And flew up to the top of the towers seeing a man. "Hello."
"Hello Calavous." said the old robe wearing man.
"How.... How did you know my name?"
"I am Le the great Seer I know all."
"Then why did I come here?"
"To seek a place to train."
"So you must really now all."
"No only the present not the past nor future."
-
//Killing ALL of the soldiers? No.\\
Some of the troops were killed in the explosion, but do to them to have kept their distance away from them, many of them also lived. Two mages emerged and started shooting powerful dark lightning blasts at Durruti and Makhno.
Darak noticed the large projectiles coming towards him. He ran backwards back into the fortress, falling over, but able to get out of the way before the projectiles hit him. The exploded but the explosion oddly, did not reach him.
He rubbed his face and then got back up on his feet.
"Close the god damn doors!" He shouted.
The large drawbridge door (Or whatever the hell the fortress has as doors) closed up. //So now Darak is not involved in the battle.\\
"Damnit, there is only two of them and they are giving us a pounding." Darak groaned. He looked a soldier, inside the building. "Have you informed any of our superiors? What about that huge demon dude?"
"No I haven't High General. Do you want me to sir-erm High General?" He asked
Darak gave him a look as if saying 'what the hell do you think?'.
"Err, right away High General!" The soldier then ran towards the hallways, he opened up one of the doors, only to bump into Abodahon himself.
The soldier fell to the ground as if hitting a stonewall. He then crawled backwards, frightened by the large demon.
"What is going on here?" Abodahon asked
"Were, under attack by the Aspyes. I know it's them, I recognized them from the Battle of Gief." Darak replied. He then noticed Duilin, almost hidden behind Abodahon. "Duilin!?"
Abodahon, looked at Duilin. "You know him?"
"Yeah." Duilin replied. "We've met a couple times."
"Right." Abodahon said. "Well, Duilin why don't you stay here. You need to save your energy. I'm going to deal with these Aspyes myself. I assume Haraldur may be on his way."
"You mean Ragnar?" Darak asked.
"No!" Abodahon snapped. "Welcome to the Grey Empire old man. Now I?m going out there.?
"But, um sir. They?ve got some sort of explosion gun, and well, a lot of explosive stuff." Darak warned.
"Oh dear!" Abodahon sarcastically replied. "Their boom-booms will give me boo-boos!"
Duilin gave out a quick laugh; he was surprised to hear his father say that.
Abodahon pointed to a few mages. "Is the energy protection field up?"
"Yes my lord." One mage replied.
"Ah, so that's why the explosions didn't reach me..." Darak mumbled.
"Excellent." Abodahon grinned, and looked at Duilin. "I'm going out there. See you in a little bit."
----
He then ghosted right through the door. Appearing outside, seeing explosions, dead soldiers, and a few spread out, advancing towards Durruti's and Makhno's position.
"Such idiots." Abodahon sighed. He noticed Nick fighting Durruti, and Makhno using some sort of tripod gun. "I have to admit I admire Haraldur's creativity in weapons."
Abodahon then decided to just walk towards Makhno's position, just to cut him some slack and find out what his little toy did.
-
//Durruti and Makhno are nowhere near eachother, and Makhno's position is hidden.//
Durruti moved to the side, letting Nick fall towards the ground. He shot at the two mages. They both put up shields, but they were not strong enough to stop the bullets taking their heads off. Durruti then copied Haraldur's tactic of flying above the target, as he flew towards Bandervil.
Makhno saw Abodahon moving towards him. He flipped a switch on the gun, setting it from semi-automatic to automatic. He then pointed it towards Abodahon, and sprayed hundreds of explosive bullets at him, in a vague cone. As a result, some did miss and exploded off the shield around Bandervi, and so were likely to slightly burn the other side of Abodahon.
Now that the ammunition was used up, and so the weapon was useless, Makhno left the hide by its door, and moved to the side through the forest so that he could more easily see the entrance to the fortress.
________________________________________________________________________
They were now very near Bandervil. The wolf Haraldur now increased in shape, to the amazement of the other wolves, to be 2 metres at the shoulder, a massive dire wolf, its fur as black as jet, and mud around its four feet.
Haraldur now smelt a very familiar smell, of a familiar demon, and the familiar smell of his own handiwork. And also the smell of a friend, who was nearer at hand.
Within moments he was past Makhno, who now had been sprayed with mud by the passing massive wolf.
Haraldur was still in the forest though, running, unseen, towards Abodahon, as Abodahon was still walking towards the hide where Makhno had been //I am assuming this.// Abodahon was close to the forest, and Haraldur jumped out of the forest to Abodahon's side, trying to grab Abodahon's neck with his teeth, regardless of how injured the demon might be.
Assuming that he does grab Abodahon's neck:
Due to his velocity, Haraldur the wolf twisted around in a semi-circular motion, ripping Abodahon's neck, unless the neck breaks due to the force on it.
//By the way, remember that this wolf is 2 metres high, which makes him heavier than a polar bear.//
A bit away from that, some other wolves jumped out and attacked the falling Nick. However, most of them waited in the forest for now.
_____________________________________________________________________
Both Quintus and Melkoth heard the explosions outside, and rose up to be above the fortress, and looked to see what was happening.
_____________________________________________________________________
The disc landed at Gief. Tesla said to a passerby: "Comrade, if you are doing nothing else, please show these men, and the giant moth, around Gief. I must go."
He turned to the other three. "Comrades, the attack on Bandervil has begun, and I am going to assist Haraldur, Benny and Nestor. Come with me if you wish.
He jumped up and flew as fast as he could towards Bandervil.
-
//im guessing the following wolves are npcs?\\
While Cyan was in the market she looked at all of the jewels and such."Ohhh! I want this.....not wait this.....no this is so cute."
---
"Sir what is going on now with my brother?"
"He is in danger from men named Durruti, Makhno, and....... Haraldur. But he has help from people....there names are......Abodahon and two other men but the vision is blury."
"Thats a releif i thought he would be dead without me." Calavous said sarcasticaly.
"This is no laughing matter. Ill show you where the best place is to train. There is a bunker at the edge of town. Bring those men to Bandervil in a few days. You can train twice as fast if you train there. And one last thing...watch out for the girl your with shes not what she seems..." The man said as he disapeared.
-
//Yes, they are NPCs. What else would they be?//
-
//I thought you might be the only one controling them.
Btw am i aloud to post at 12pm would that be considered tomorrow?\\
-
//Well, I am so far. It is a convention that you usually allow the creator of the NPC to have most of the control, but it is not a rule. Just remember that these are savage wolves who could probably as a group quite easily kill an average human.
But of course, player characters are not average humans...//
-
(Remember in the upcoming battle that Bandervil is atop a plateau, with steep drop offs on all sides. <a href='http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia/index.php/Bandervil' target='_blank'>Reference here.</a>)
----
There were two loud thumps. The doors to the throne room burst open, and Draven strode in, stepping over the two unconcious guards.
Normaly, there would be members of the governing court sitting around the large central table, but today Henri happened to be meeting with a division of foot soldiers. There were ten knight captains spread around King Henri, and another fifty will armed men lined on either side. The conversing stopped as soon as the shrouded Draven walked in.
Henri stood up.
"What is the meaning of this?"
All of the soldiers drew their weapons.
Ven ran in from the open doorway, another seven knights following due to the comotion.
Draven removed his hood and folded his arms, a slight smirk spanning his chin as he met the king's eyes. Henri's tone became dark.
"Leave us, all of you."
"My lord?"
"Now."
The small army slowly filed out of the room, walking around the mysterious man in black. A servant shut the door from the outside leaving the two rulers alone, and the slamming echoed throughout the empty room. Henri sat back down. Draven casually took the seat on the opposite side. Henri spoke first.
"I thought we had an agreement."
"Now come now, I've just come... to chat..."
-
//Just so you now im not posting over the limit in my timezone its the next day.\\
Nick landed with his left hand and did a flip thing dodging the wolves bites and stabing towards one killing it. He pulled his sword out of the ribcage and moved back with one push of his leg. He was now standing 60 meters from Abodahon.
-
//Nick: Durruti and Makhno were hundreds of metres away from eachother, and hence Abodahon is now hundreds of metres away from Nick.//
-
//Well remember Haraldur, Abodahon is 8 feet 1 inch (and I do believe that is more then 2 meters, if my memory is correct) and probably weighs a bit more then a polar bear. Heheh.\\
As the explosions blew next to him, Abodahon was barely affected by them, only suffering minor burns, which rapidly healed. As the rest of shells flew towards him, he lifted up his left hand. The gem on his gauntlet changed to a light blue colour, and the rest of the shells flew away from him, in random directions (some of them close enough to Nestor to effect him). The gem then went back to its normal orange colour.
He then shifted his eyes and noticed a larger then average wolf diving towards him. He ghosted a few feet away from the wolf as it neared towards his neck, and swung his right fist at the front of wolf's mouth.
----
"That...demon." Darak asked. "Is that your father?"
"Yes. His name is Abodahon." Duilin replied.
"Talonscar?"
"Yes, how did you know?"
"Well, he's the head of the Talonscar cult, and well, I remember seeing him about fifteen years ago, I believe."
"You did?"
"Umm..." Darak tried to remember what happened. He then thought for a few moments.
"Well?"
"Oh um...never mind. I think I may be thinking of something else!"
-
//Yes, 8 feet is taller than 2 metres, but remember that a wolf is also quite long. Its body mass would be many times that of Abodahon. It is a four fotted animal after all.//
Melkoth spotted Haraldur, and so did Quintus. They flew down towards Haraldur and Abodahon.
Quintus started charging a fireball, but was interrupted when Makhno jumped up out of the forest and flew towards him, slashing his sword at him, and catching the Prophet by surprise. Quintus' right arm fell down to the ground, where it was grabbed by some wolves and devoured, the fireball dissipating into nothing.
Quintus was now left with just a bloody stump for a right arm, utterly useless. //Quintus can now only do one attack per round, as I interpret the two action per round guideline as being one for each hand.// He threw a fireball at the passing Makhno, but it missed and struck the shield around Bandervil //and does whatever Dude Man wants it to do.//.
Melkoth turned around to see Makhno passing by him, and was about to strike him with his poison ring on his hand when he felt someone grabbing his neck. He threw Durruti off of him, and said, "What the hell do you think you are doing?"
"Doing? Dios, I am avenging the people of Alterna for your oppressive religion. You are also an earthly tyrant Melkoth, and we will destroy you."
//Bet none of you guessed that the deity, Dios, that is worshipped in Alterna as well as in most of Terian at some time, was Melkoth? That is why all the priests in Alterna and Ugran were shot!//
Durruti shot at Melkoth once, but the bullet deflected off a shield and thudded into the ground. Likewise he blocked Melkoth's fire stream attack, like a flamethrower.
Abodahon's punch missed, and Haraldur landed on the ground and turned, increasing size to 3 metres at the shoulder, with his head now about a metre wide. He opened his mouth and bit at Abodahon, trying to get the demon into his mouth.
If that succeeds, Haraldur starts to chew.
_____________________________________________________________________
Tesla continued to fly towards Bandervil.
-
Zeros' had continued on towards the Grey Empire, rapidly approaching it, with Rink help in his hand and his allies behind or next to him all the way.
After a while, he could barely see the main structure of the Grey Empire. He could also sense several other signatures around, inlcuding Duilin and Haraldur's and several others.
Zeros' frowned. It looked like everyone was here...
---
Allen shook his head at the foolishness of the knight and stopped, as the door closed behind Draven and into the kings chambers.
He sighed and set himself up as a vigil near the door, not knowing what else to do.
-
Abodahon takes a few steps back as the wolf grows size. He smirks, he can clearly tell it's Haraldur in there. He always had an obsession with wolves.
Abodahon then jumps backwards, and flies off a few feet avoiding the large mouth clamping down upon him.
He then smashed his fist down, as his gauntlet glows blood red. A fissure then cracks right under Haraldur, regardless if he falls in, six translucent top skeleton halves fly at the wolf in hope to grab onto Haraldur and then explode in a demonic element magic blast (I guess that would be like darkness and fire combined.)
----
"Ah ha!" Rink said. "We're almost there...I can sense that Haraldur is there, I can also sense that Melkoth and that Abodahon guy...I think I can also sense Duilin in there...his aura seems.... stronger..."
----
Duilin watches the battle from inside, using one of the holographic orbs Abodahon uses, it was wheeled in by a Talonscar servant.
"My god, I can't believe Zeros' is siding with these Asypes." Duilin commented. "Just look at them."
"So, this Zeros' guy, wasn't he your friend?" Darak asks
"Yes, but my father showed me he's just an envious freak, whose only plan is later kill me, when he's done with me."
"Really..."
Not that it was Darak's place, but he knew quite a lot with the entire situation with this Talonscar business, but he doesn't know if he should tell Duilin. In fact he knows enough to make him have second thoughts on his father.
"Were the hell is Valos? It looks like we might need him, Melkoth is doing okay, but I think Quintis is about give in." Duilin mumbles.
"Valos?" Darak asked. Isn't he dead? No wait, perhaps that zombie that Zion fought was he, but no, he'd still be dead his head was off. "I though Valos was dead? When did you last see him?"
"I don't know, about ten minutes ago, he was in the basement dungeon, maybe you should go check on him or something."
"I'm not allowed down there, nobody is unless they have Abodahon's permission."
"Whatever...." Duilin could sense his former friend's coming towards them. "We just might need him, more people are coming."
-
"Ahh... it's complete!" Shaak says as they gaze upon the nearly finished orc stronghold.
"It's pretty sissy looking though." Kraig replies.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, sure there's spikes on the walls but there's no heads on 'em. And the gate, We got four little scrawny orcs! We need... We need a Cyclops!"
"Cyclops! Are you crazy? You know how hard it is to find a fully tamed Cyclops, and even if we did the cost would be-" Shaak gets cut off in his ranting.
"But it would be really cool."
"Good point, let's get one!" Shaak agrees.
Kraig calls over an orc. "You! Come here!"
"We need you to get us a cyclops guard for the gate."
"A Cyclops? Uhh... okay." The orc replies.
"And not one of those little ten foot ones, I?m talking one of the big twenty foot Cyclopes of Rhaaldak."
"Well... yes sir."
"Yeah, get it in an egg and buy one of them growth potions, I don't want no poorly trained Crapclops." Shaak informs.
"Okay, I?ll take an Albatrorc then."
"Good, now go!" Kraig rushes the orc.
"Sweet, now lets go talk to the smithy." Shaak guides Kraig to the blacksmith.
-
Nicks demonic energy flurished. His hair started to lift from the push of the energy.
The burns on his arm healed and the bullet in his back popped out and the wound healed. The wolf demon in him was going to come out. There was a faint vision of a wolf and Nick's energy rose 10 fold. The trees started to come from the ground.
blood dripped from his sword and he jumped up in the air near Durruti's position. His trusted his hand towards his chest and his blade towards the side if he tried to slip away."No way out of this one!"
-
//Er... Nick: Durruti is now hundreds of metres away and a few tens of metres up in the air attacking Melkoth. You cannot "charge" at him.//
-
//Well, this sucks. Where are all the yells of "ZOMG IEN KOEM BAK PLX! WE MIS U!!!11 Sad Also, nobody seems to be paying any attention to the fact that it's completely dark everywhere - I already pointed that out 3 times. I'm beginning to wonder just how much attention my posts acquire. In fact, I am in deep doubt anyone will pay attention to me this time... sigh.\\
Ein landed in a large clearing, and watched Tesla go.
"Marshal, I'm pretty sick of this form. One sec'."
He quickly morphed back into his human form, forcing down a snicker for no reason whatsoever. //Is Raymond still with them?//
-"Alright, Tesla! I think I need a break, though. Marshal, you with Tesla fighting your ass of, or maybe we'll get some... attention in Gief?"
Completely oblivious to their surroundings, the group did not realize that Kronos' elites have completely surrounded them... again?! How could they move so fast?
--- --- ---
"I smiled, observing the little clearing through my minions' eyes. However, it is quite unfair that they get all the attention to themselves. I'd better check in as well...
Opening up a small dimensional rift, I materialized about 3 km from the group's position. Fun, fun, fun! Let the entertainment begin."
---
//What's the status on Steorra and Darak?\\
-
Zeros' nodded in agreement. He could also sense his aura stronger... More demonic. It seems that Abodahon had sucessfully turned Duilin over to his side. He had feared this would happen, but it seemed he would have to fight Duilin.
He sighed and shook his head, as he continued onwards towards the Gray Empire. If only Duilin knew the true reason of offering a cease fire...
But, even if it cost him his life, he would make Duilin see that he had done the best he could at the situtation.
"Why are people so easily influenced when they're angry?" he murmurs vaguely at his little Imp companion. "He saw me talking to Haraldur instead of trying to kill him and he assumed I was allying with him. Now, Abodahon just spun some elaborate lie to turn Duilin to his side," he says, before sighing and continuing on.
He wished he wouldn't have to do this..
-
Henri leaned back in his chair, touching the tips of his fingers together.
"I do believe you promised never to come back..."
Draven removed the hood from his head, leaning back as well.
"I said the Dark Empire would leave you alone. As you know, my empire is the Crimson."
Henri frowned, memories of Draven leading his troops through his city five years ago... He hadn't changed a bit.
"A convienient name change."
"Not quite. As I'm sure you also were able to detect, Retan has finally returned..."
"What do you want?"
"Just a few questions this time..."
"Last time it was one..."
"And I held my end of the bargain, did I not? It would have been you instead of Romme. You complied, I complied, everyone's happy..."
Henri closed his eyes... It was but a word... A tiny bit of information that brought down Tjed's lifetime rival... but not by his hands, but by a foreign nation looking for a blasted sword... The decision stung his heart every time he thought back... but he didn't have a choice... it was them or us...
"Three questions. But first, how did you get that injury?"
The injury Draven had been hiding, of course. He rubbed the tender gouge in his left side.
"Demonic army. Finicky, impatient little maggots. I was summoning them when I was interupted, and the spell flew in reverse, sending us to their world instead of them to ours. They didn't like that and attacked us. Of course, I killed them all... well most of them at least... Blasted monsters with long horns, you see..."
He poked the wound under his robe with his finger, indicating the stabing method of entry.
During this time, Henri's third eye opened in his forehead, and the old man could read Draven's memories as he spoke. He could see the Crimson Capital sucked into the firey place, wave after wave of lower class demons attacking them. The attackers grew stronger with each wave, and after many hours only Draven was left. Draven's tone was deceptively confident. He had actually tried depritely to save the floating city, and then his personal elites, who fell one by one. The image of an ice mage sacrificing himself to take down a huge fire dragon like creature in a massive explosion was quite vivid. In the end, there were seven high ranking demons left-- hulking beasts of various shapes, which the exhausted Draven took on alone in a fit of rage. He managed to kill two and injure another two, but with a bad injury of his own, he finally bailed, returning to Gaian using a small black stone.
Henri nodded, having obtained much more information from the description than intended. He decided that Draven was entitled to some information of his own.
"Three questions."
-
//Ein I'm paying attention. Razz \\
Nick stoped noticing a man was already fighting Durruti. He landed on the ground near the gaint wolf and the gaint demon fighting. He felt everones energy there. *Sniff* He felt a different energy. He thought it was just all the fighting. Nick looked towards the cracking ground. A crack creeped towards Nick he jumped away tripping over the gaint yellow demons foot.
---
Calavous jumped from the tower speading his wings flying to the market." Cyan we must go."
"Follow me to that bunker I want to show you my boss." THey walked to the bunker down the satairs and around a corner. A man in feathers turned around. " Hello Cyan who's your friend?" Calavous became frightened as he say the fallong
"His name is Calavous."
"What? Calavous! He the cults enemy the one who destroied the first cult."
Cyan staired at Calavous."What?"
"It...It is true." Calavous said as his heart beated faster and faster.
The fallongian flaped his wings pushing Calavous to the wall. Calavous ran out the door being followed by the fallongian. Calavous' shoes skidded as he stoped to turn a corner, he ended up in the mass hall. He jumped over the tables and out the other side. Frenier ran into the mess hall screaming. "Get him!" all of the soldiers ran out of the mess hall and out of the bunker following Calavous. Calavous climbed aboard his boat and started to set sail but he moved before he even got to the deck. Cyan was she helping him? WAs she a fallongian traitor?
//Ein: Darrak is inside Bandervil being protected by a force feild and I dont know about steorra.
-
//Oh sorry Ein, It's just you never made too much of a deal with the black fog, and it didn't seem to have much point to it really. But Steorra, would be in the keep inside Bandervil with Darak, since she was lastly following Darak.\\
"More people? You mean Zeros'? I suppose those other three would be coming as well." Darak asked
"Yeah, but I don't know if I can take all of them." Duilin said.
"Maybe Steorra, can help out." Darak said, turning and looking at her //Assuming she is still with them.\\
"Yeah, sure." Duilin looked at Steorra. "About four more people are coming; one of them will have a bunch of scars and large wings. Leave him to me."
----
//Oh yes, and Raymond is still with them, control him is you want. In fact isn't he your NPC? Heh, I kinda stole him.\\
"My word." Marshal said to the group. "It's getting terrible dark."
-
Xenai caught right up and decided not to pass him, 'cos he was being boring about it. He frowned and sunk back to where Zion and the others were. Not much was said during the trip...
-
//I thought the sky darkening was only a localised effect.//
Despite the darkness, Tesla could see Zeros' and company. As he passed them by he shot his plasma rifle into the air and called a greeting: "Salutations."
He then arrived at Bandervil, floating above the ground, and this is what he saw:
Makhno swerved around and slashed his sword at Quintus, but this time the old man was prepared. Quintus grabbed the sword and swung Makhno around (with his one remaining hand) and into the shield around the fortress. The shield broke because of the force and the explosion threw Makhno a few hundred metres before he regained control. Makhno then threw a homing fireball at Quintus.
Crap, thought Quintus. He was still bleeding heavily despite his spells to stem the flow, as he was preoccupied with avoiding further attacks, and was in great pain: it has not been a very clean cut: skin was shredded, muscle torn, the artery in the air was severed in several places, longitudinally and horisontally, from Makhno's very fast hacks (he did not make one slash, but several high strength hacks as he went passed), and the bone was literally splintered, with pieces stabbing into the already torn muscle.
Quintus dodged the fireball, but it swerved around towards him. Crap! He dodged it a few more times before it hit the stump of his arm again. He screamed in pain as the blood loss was stopped by the burning shut of the blood vessels. He became nauseus because of the smell of burning flesh, but only for a split second, as he then blacked out due to the pain from his stump of an arm: which was still burning as the fireball had not yet dissipated. The fireball was still moving forwards towards his centre, consuming him slowly in flame. It was travelling up the shoulder (this fireball is very dense and at very high temperature, and is about the size of a tennis ball).
His body fell from the sky and fell towards the plateau below, with the wolves waiting in the forest below that. However, due to a freak wind, his fall was slightly skewed and he landed on the edge of the plateau, on a sharp cliff, slicing through some flesh on his back and snapping his spine. As he fell down towards the plain near the forest he finally died, and the spells in his body that automatically resisted damage dissipated. As his body landed on the ground it was completely engulfed in flame from the now unhindered fireball, and the wolves nearby scattered.
Makhno, hundreds of metres above, spat down at Quintus' burning body in disgust and loathing. The path of the droplet of saliva arced down with great accuracy downwards, and would be there in a few seconds. Makhno then ignored it and flew towards Melkoth in order to assist Durruti when he reached them.
While this was happening:
Durruti and Melkoth flew very fast at eachother, exchanging many many spell attacks, making a very impressive light show between their bodies as the spells deflected and collided off eachother, and detonated, sending shards of spell in random directions before they decayed (whole spells never decay before activation, but shards of spells do due to their incompleteness).
The two combatants reached eachother and grappled. They each sent powerful spells down their arms, and each had to use very powerful shields to block the undodgeable attacks, and this energy (from the shield and the attacking spell) was discharged as explosions due to the high energies involved: this happens to all shields of a similar type: of course, when the shield is overcome, all of its energy is released, not just some, causing it to make its own explosion, like what happened with Ein at the Blue Minotaur temple. Any impact, however, will cause the shield to lose some energy: those not permeable to air, for example, would be continuously releasing energy as the air particles collided with the shield,, and so would need to be continuously supplied with power to be sustained, and even those not impermeable to air would be having many discharges due to small, but not quite as small as air, things discharging, and air particles less often. This is why all the city defences which are unmanned shields require large generators. //I love inventing physical laws! However, I am sure you people will not mind this one: it seems almost to be aconvention already!//. All these attacks and subsequent discharges and explosions (and these discharges and explosions being blocked by still more shields etc., //you can see where this is going, no?//) made Durruti and Melkoth disappear from sight as explosions flew around them, making them look like a small extremely localised star (but not quite so hot).
Shortly after Quintus has broken the shield around Bandervil with Makhno, two very large spells (and corresponding shields) from both Makhno and Melkoth caused there to be a very large and asymmetrical discharge. This discharge went down at an angle, and struck Bandervil, flattening half of it and leaving a crater that was 30 metres in radius.
And still they grappled.
Haraldur jumped up in the air, transforming back into human form (which was more flexible: more fine manipulator, more opposable thumbs, etc.), above the fissule, and a shield came out of his body, smashing the skeletons down onto the ground, making them explode creating small craters.
As his clothes rematerialised around his naked body, Haraldur pointed his sword towards Abodahon, and he pointed his left hand up towards the darkened sky. In the sky, clouds appeared and started to churn around in a tornado. Tesla and Makhno were momentarily blown about a bit before they managed to stop themselves being taken by the wind. As the tornado's angular speed increased, sparks could be seen within it, but some force, obviously caused by Haraldur, was preventing them from escaping. Then, just as the whole tornado had now been ionised, ripping apart all its molecules and leaving a super-reactive plasma as the tornado, lighting up the sky (and increasing in brightness, though now large amounts of gamma rays were being produced, more than the normal light, and x-rays and ultraviolet rays, though these all were blocked in order to not kill almost everyone in the 100 mile radius) along with the small starlike thing that was Durruti and Melkoth, a whole appeared the the shield around the tornado (though only allowing through the electrons), and it was directly above Haraldur. Instantly one large lightning bolt came straight down towards Haraldur, in an absolutely straight and half a metre diameter cylinder, and touched his fingertips and went through his body. The bolt went through his chest and down his right arm and down his sword and then sprayed towards Abodahon in a 20 metre wide (where Abodahon was) cone, which did two things: most of it went straight towards Abodahon in order to absolutely destroy him, as direct attack, however, some formed a sphere looking like a 3D spiderweb, which then started to shrink. If touched it would release a vast amount of charge into Abodahon's body. //I wonder how, with his metal arms, Aboahon will avoid that!//
Then the shield around the tornado increased in impermeability, and so blocked everything that went in and out of it: so that there was now no wind, no light from it (even though there was still a huge amount of charge and ionisation there), and the shield around it looked like a cone shaped blob. Haraldur then brought his left hand down and the shield with the tornado inside rushed towards Abodahon, and then broke when it was very close to him. The 3D web thing was broken and discharged all its energy at Abodahon, while plasma rushed out in all directions in something resembling this:
(http://http://www.serendipity.li/more/nuclear_explosion.jpg)
Even if Abodahon does not get killed, or even injured by this massive attack, this is what happens to the surroundings:
A crater is made that is 800 metres in radius. This crater is lined with a glass-like substance (as part of it is made from the same stuff that is in glass), and is very smooth (and in years to come the whole area was very popular with children who liked to slide down into the crater: getting back out was harder, but not impossible. Keep note that there is no fallout: there was no nuclear explosion, and so no release of neutrons or radioactive elements: though it was hot enough, the pressure was not quite there to initiate a fusion reaction: after all, it is nitrogen and oxygen, mostly, and some water vapour with hydrogen (but not enough to cause any significant fusion) and so greater temperatures and pressures are needed for fusion than with hydrogen, though if it had been just hydrogen fusion would have taken place. Also, even if fusion had taken place, no fallout would have resulted as the products would not be radioactive), though not yet as it still needs to cool. Apart from that the crater is empty. Around the crater is many hundred metres of burning (and flattened) forest, and beyond that just flattened forest. And a few dead wolves (most of the wolves are quite far away on the other side of Bandervil).
Bandervil, well, the part of it not flattened by Durruti and Melkoth, is probably quite shaken up now from tremors through the ground from the (non-nuclear!)explosion. A few towers have probably collapsed.
After the explosion had died away, Haraldur said, audibly but not too loudly, "What's cooking?"
Tesla unfortunately had been affected by the blast and was thrown into orbit by his own shield discharging its energy as it protected him from its effects. He could bee seen flying through the air as a sort of metoer, but in reverse, flying upwards, as the shield rubbed against the air, heating it.
When he reached space, he managed to keep all the air inside his shield. Now, how would he get back down? Hmmm... Ah, of course, a directly downwards teleport. He looked down: by the time he had recovered some of his energy he would be above Kandarin...
//This has to be the most pyrotechnic post ever! Quintus dies from a fireball and then is burned up (he is still burning as of the end of this post: I am going to put that fire to good use, do not miss it!), Durruti and Melkoth release huge amounts of light and ionise the air around them to form plasma and have huge amounts of explosions, Haraldur uses a hugely ionising tornado to attack Abodahon with a huge burst of lightning and then throws the plasma at him causing something similar to a nuclear explosion, and then Tesla flies up into space as a huge fireball!
Oh, and Dude Man: If Abodahon somehow does die, then the conversation we discussed having earlier can still take place but with Duilin as a stand in.//
-
// Actually, Haraldur, I don't this post is entirely in-line with the guidelines of the story... It's rather... Huge. A 800 meter crater around Abodahon would affect ALL of the surrounding area, meaning Duilin and all the other characters.
Not ALL of them are gods. \\
Zeros' waved back at Tesla, "Greetings," he said, before casually deflecting the plasma bolt.
Before he could reach the combat area though, he saw everything that happened and stopped, dead in his tracks, just staring.
-
Nick Charged massive demonic energy into his hands. The energy around his hands looked as big as Abodahon's Guantlets then even bigger. He smashed his hands together and then pushed all the engery out. With the energy his protected himself from the "Detonating" tornado. After the crater was formed he was in mid air covered in a black ball of energy.
//Ahh the apocolypse!\\
-
//Nick: Oh, come on! The attack was not even aimed at you! And the attack is under my control until such time as it hits, and I already said that the tornado "detonated". Besides, by doing so you are restricting Dude Man's freedom of action to defend himself in such as way that he sees fit.
Zeros': It certainly seems that I estimate the distances to be much larger than other people do. This is my reasoning: Most of the active characters in this story can move at huge speeds, covering a few hundred metres in seconds or less, so they are, to them, not large distances. Besides, I thought Bandervil was supposed to be a huge fort.
And also, by saying that Tesla shot into the air, I did not mean at Zeros'!!! It was meant as a friendly gesture of acknowledgement, not as a hostile warning shot! Trivial I know, but I dislike being misinterpreted.//
-
//Yeah Nick, I have a cooler idea.\\
Abodahon raises his hands and creates a shield blocking the direct attacks. Yet as the web begins to close down on Abodahon and starts charging the energy into him, he seems to be at lost. However, Abodahon is surrounded in a white aura. He takes the energy being charged into him negatively and manipulates it into another shield. Basically he just turned the spider web into a protective shield.
He charges more energy into his shield, enduring the entire explosion.
He stands in the middle of the large creator, as the smoke settles. It's revealed that he is still alive, although rather exhausted.
The shield around the fortress was able to protect it, mostly. The base only suffered minor damage, and the shield was a bit weaker.
----
"What the hell was that!?" Duilin shouted, as the explosion rumbled the entire base. The image sphere went totally blank. "What's going on?"
"There seems to be a strange interference, Master Duilin." a Talonscar servant replied.
"We'll I'm going out there. I'm stronger then most people think." Duilin replied. He then ordered for the keep door to open.
"Duilin wait! Do you have any idea how powerful Haraldur is?"
"I've got a lot of a better idea then you do..." He snapped back. He then flew out of the keep and through the town.
-
//Well, the shield was already destroyed accidently by the deceased Quintus, and then half of Bandervil destroyed by a large shield discharge, but I will assume that another shield activated after half of Bandervil was destroyed but before the plasma exploded.//
-
"HOLY SHIT!" Xenai was the first to react of the four people, and the most vugarly. All of them had stopped and started staring.
"Oh my god..." said Zion.
"...Is this what we're up against?" asked Aura, clinging tightly to Tsu in horror.
-
// If you recall Nick was behind Abodahon....But i fixed anyway.\\
Nick was wraped in smoke that cleared away in seconds after he bursted out of the cacoon of energy. He landed down into the crater not to far from Abdahon.
"This is what I call training." Nick said looking over to the demon. "Tell me if you need help." he added in as he sat in the bottom of the crater looking around to see if there was an enemy in sight. He stuck his sword into the ground.
---
Calavous' boat was almost near shore when he hit a reef. He spread his wings once more and started towards Bandervil. " I wonder how my brother is." He said to himself as he flew over a town.
-
Abodahon raised one eyebrow and looked at Nick. He laughed. "You're kidding right?" He then looked at Nick a bit more. "No, you aren't. Well kid, let me tell you something, I've been alive on this planet much, much, much longer then you. By the looks of it, you seem to be a half breed demon, I am a full breed. I have been training my power for centuries, just a speck of dust compared to your short lifetime." He then narrowed his eyes. "You suggesting that I may need help is laughable."
He honestly didn't care if he offended the kid.
He then sensed the auras of several others coming towards him, he could distinctly sense Zeros', he could also sense the auras of four others, a few of them he had fought before, he also sensed the smallest power, the imp named Rink.
"On second thought." Abodahon said. He looked at Nick again. "Boy, more people are coming, distract them for me, just leave the large winged one with scars //That's Zeros'\\ and the imp alone, I must have my son confront them, so please try not to interfere with his destiny."
The giant demon then stood more upright, but with his fists still lay down on the ground like a gorilla. His power was quickly regenerating.
"So, Haraldur. That was quite impressive, but you defiantly over did it a little bit. You always had a habit of doing that. I use to admire that in you." Abodahon said to the 'madman' floating above him. He then sighed. "You could have become such a great ruler, you could have had it all, but you choose...this? Your revolution, can't you see you're just pulling the world back to the Stone Age?"
He took a few steps forward, leavening heavy footprints. He kept a stern eye on Haraldur, keeping a straight, emotionless face.
-
Draven brought his gloved hands beneath his chin.
"Good... My first question is, who exactly is responsible for this mess on the Dark Continent? Ragnar clearly is the main one, but in retrospect, I suspect these coordinated attacks against my bases were not all his doing, and I've been hearing the words 'Aspyes' and 'Grey Empire' whispered quite a bit... So tell me, oh three eyed seer, who are the true players in this little game?"
Henri seemed disengaged, staring into nothing as his guest spoke. Draven raised an eyebrow after a moment.
"Did you hear me, old man? Answer! Or have you contracted Alzheimer's already?"
Henri snapped back into reality.
"Impeccable timing, Crimson Emperor. The main players happen to be engaged in a decisive battle at this very moment..."
"What do you mean?"
"See for yourself..."
Henri's third eye flashed brightly. Draven could feel a mind spell being placed on him, which he blocked at first due to instinct, but let it unveil before him. An orb of light appeared above the table between the two men. Within it, images of the battle of Bandervil flashed. The two watched it all-- Quintus' death, Haraldur's attack, the tremendous explosion...
"That is the leader of the Aspyes movement... Haraldur." The king motioned when a close up of the bear skinned man flashed.
"Ragnar... yes I know him well... Carry on."
The image became transfixed on Melkoth as he battled Durriti.
"Melkoth is the ruler of the Grey Empire, reveired as a god by some."
Draven dug his nails into the table.
"That blasting... Yes, that's the one who claimed to be an officer of Ragnar when I fought him... I see now, they had no chance against me alone, so they attacked me from both sides, and now they are free to go at each other when I'm out of the picture..."
"Abodahon is the leader of the Talonscar, and is allied with the Grey."
"That blasted demon again. I'm so sick of demons... So we're dealing with three groups here? Carry on..."
"Zeros'... and there's a few others with him, but they're there to rescue someone from the Greys rather than join the battle. That was their original intention, anyway..."
"Yeah yeah, fly-boy sticks his nose in everything. Carry on."
"There's one more, but it is shrouded in darkness."
"Yes, of course, Retan..."
"No..."
"What?"
"There is... another..."
"You vagueness is irritating, old man."
"A necromancer... he's spreading a vast darkness about the land..."
The orb searched and searched for an image, but could find none...
"The name. Give me the name."
Finally the orb rested on a silhouette... it was very faint picture, and none of the details were descernable...
"Kronos... This may be the most dangerous one of all..."
"Kronos of Kandarin... interesting..."
The images of the orb began to fade. Henri seemed visibly worn out, and was breathing heavily.
"As for my final request, where is Retan?"
"I cannot..."
"You better."
"I've been trying to find him since before you arrived. He and his son have disappeared behind an impenetrable wall of darkness... I have no idea..."
"You mean he hasn't made a move yet?"
"No."
"Does he even know what is going on on his Dark Continent?"
"I don't know."
Draven leaned back, his maniacal grin returning...
"Those poor wretches... This is going to be a very interesting show indeed..."
----
By now, Ven and several other knights were packed around the thick throne room doors, ears pressed against them. What in blazes are they talking about?
----
(Edit: In reply to Nick's comment below: He's pointing out the leaders. Nick has joined the Grey Empire, right? He's not the leader of any movement.)
-
Nick pulled the sword from the ground and stood up. " So when you say "Distract"
the other two do you mean take out?" He asked as Abodahon. "And why would I be kidding it takes more energy to open hell then to fight these people."
//*Says Sarcastically* oh thanks Xorlak dont say anything about Nick oh that's fantastic. Fine be that way mention everyone but Nick!!\\
(Xorlaks comment above: So hes special! And if you saw i wrote in ** says Sarcastically. I was only joking.)
-
//THANK YOU, HARALDUR! Opportunity! Time to kill off some characters.\\
Although all the preparations were complete, the cave collapsed down on the Iron Wing and the Nightshade, due to the powerful tremors from the explosion.
--- --- ---
Although his island was far away, Gerard was affected as well. A loose brick thrown off balance fell down on him, crushing him and killing him instantly.
--- --- ---
Steorra, who was still sleeping after falling unconcious, simply evaporated after the blast hit. The initial heat wave burnt her body into a black paper-like silhouette. The final wave, however, simply blew the remaining body into a thousand pieces. The shining staff was thrown away, the gem in the middle slightly fading, then going completely dark.
//Hmm, Darak outlived Steorra... I never expected that to happen.\\
--- --- ---
Ein yawned.
-"Ehh, oh well. This fog isn't doing me much bad right now, but - ARGH!!"
A neon glowing staff struck him square in the spot where his neck met his head, knocking him down, unconcious. The elites appeared out of the trees.
-"Hrr... Smell foul stench of khhhherrrrretic Aspyes. Hr, therrrrre is one morrrrre!"
Three or four elites hopped down from the trees above, landing in a circle around Marshal.
-"Ghhhhive up, worrrm. No match you arrrre against the we!"
The elites were indeed hard to understand. Their speech was riddled with rolling r's, although very quiet. They almost left all the vowels out.
Another three landed around Roland. One took out a coil of neon green glowing rope, and threw it at Roland. Wrapping around his leg, it tripped him, as yet another elite jabbed what looked like a pitch black sword with a (neon) glowing handle at Roland, missing. He got up, and threw the elite off him.
-"Umm... Someone help me out! Hey, moth dude, wake up!"
Ein groaned.
-"Urgh.... my head..."
--- --- ---
//The most dangerous one of all? Oh Xorlak, you charmer, you're making me blush! Razz\\
"I was slowly gliding along through the darkness. Even with the complete absence of light, I could see quite well. It seems I no longer needed light to see. It was... interesting. Like how one would see a tree in the darkness, only the tree sparkles so. It's hard NOT to see now... Quite odd. It would appear as though becoming a Lich had some side effects I was not aware of...
However, once this little group was dealt with, there are much more pressing matters at hand. Even though my army was defeated at Ugran, this means nothing to me now. Back then I struggled to control it, now I do not. With but a mere thought can I control thousands upon thousands of undeads... Power beyond any Necromancer's dreams.
Anyway, the defeat of Ugran means nothing. The fools haven't burnt the corpses down, and spread the ashes over the ocean... I can still revive them. The slain troops of the opposing army is just a little bonus for all my troubles.
So, who else is left? The Aspyes, the Grey Empire, as I was informed by my scouts, and... is that it? The remains of the Crimsons were absorbed into the Greys. Talk about killing two birds with one stone...
Vincent? Dead already? The idiot...! He would've made a valuable asset, but he just HAD to get himself killed! What kind of a bafoon put that wimp in his position, anyway?! Not to mention the barbaric Aspyes making a turkey dinner out of him. Now I can't revive the poor fool. Well, as peasants say... crap happens...
Deep in my thoughts, I did not notice that I was already at the attack site. Quickly shifting phases, I ordered my Elite warriors back.
-"Aspyes.... what a true pleasure to meet you, gentlemen. May I introduce myself: I am Kronos, the last name you will hear. Shall you make a pitiful attempt to resist me, or shall you spare yourselves from a long and excruciating deaths? I may be wanting to kill you, but that in no way means I am not a reasonable man."
Feeding the plants around me a tiny bit of my might, I cut off the escape routes from the group. Oh, this will be so fun..."
//So, the fact that Draven knew Kronos was from Kandarin - without Henri telling him that - does that mean that Draven was aware of him before?\\
-
"Scratch that ill just Answer that for myself." He leaped from the ground and made a hand symbol. A jet of black energy came from his index and middle fingers. One towards each of the people next to the scared man. He flew past them and said. " Hey wanna fight or you just going to sand there?"
-
//Ein: I am to please, you are welcome. Razz //
Makhno's drop of salive finally reached Quintus' burning body, due to the height of its fall. Oddly, though, the flames seemed to be repulsed by it, as if there was something in the flames itself that did not want to be touched by it. However, it eventually got to the body itself, and then touched the flame. Around the droplet flames fizzed around it and then went out from it in red rising up to white and then to blue and then...
<span style='font-family:Impact'><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:purple'>BOOM!!!</span></span></span>
The explosions was large, vapourising Quintus's remains, and then 27 balls of fire seemed to be flung out of it in all directions.
Melkoth and Durruti disengaged to see what this strange explosion was, in all its colours. Makhno turned as well. Tesla looked with interest from space. Haraldur turned around and grinned. "Did you spit on him Makhno?"
"Er... Yes, comrade. Why?"
"I was about to tell you to do so, comrade, once this battle was over with."
"What are you talking about?"
"Hush, wait a bit, and enjoy the light show."
Melkoth started to slowly back away in the air, as if to sneak off. Shit! he thought. I must make some more!
The 27 balls of fire and multicoloured light landed, several of them within Bandervil (not part of a perfect circle though because the shield slowed some of them down before they broke the shield). Tornadoes of multicoloured fire appeared above them, and then ghostly images were seen within the tornadoes, images of Melkoth. Then each of them exploded, one after the other, in those same many colours. Bandervil was now falling apart.
A look of realisation was on Makhno's face. "Oh, so they were the lockets Quintus had..." He looked around and could see Melkoth flying away. "Shit he is going."
"THEN GET HIM BEFORE HE CAN MAKE SOME MORE!" shouted Haraldur.
Durruti and Makhno now chased after Melkoth, all three of them flying very fast indeed. They each shot at him twice but missed, as their focus was on catching him up.
Haraldur turned to Abodahon. "Yes, I will talk to you and let you rest for a bit. After all, when it comes to killing you, to travel is better than to arrive.
"My revolution, a stone age? Hahaha! Ah, the irony of your comment.. We are the ultimate progress, and even if it does end up as a bit of an exaggeration, which I doubt, then still this will have been the greatest ever expansion of industry on Gaian. The weapons that we use are more advanced than yours, and you call us the stone age! We are mass producing them! Also, in our areas, we are finally producing an abundance of food, and soon more besides. The standard of living in Alterna is the best in all Gaian, and hopefully in Ugran soon too. No, Abodahon, you are the reactionaries, not us.
"By the way, how are the arms keeping you? Still fit? Not loose at all? Diamonds still there? I have designed an upgrade you know, but you are probably not interested in getting them to talk with you. After all, you are the future demon lord, aren't you? Noone could talk back, and it would be hell if your arms DID! Maybe they would embarass you by correcting you when you state things incorrectly? Hahaha...
"But seriously, are they as good as when you got them, or do they need a tune up?"
____________________________________________________________________
Tesla was still in orbit, but then he sensed a strange aural signature in Gief, which was no directly below him. Hmmmm...
He disappeared.
____________________________________________________________________
//Ein, I think you mean Raymond, not Roland.//
Tesla landed in the middle of the circle with Kronos and the others, with plants growing around him. He pointed his rifle at Kronos, and said "What the hell are you and what are you doing here?"
As he said this, the growing plants started to burn as they were attacked by members of the public.
//By the way, I do believe that my big post with the explosion might be the biggest ever on DAL, though I know the picture could be misleading. Before that, the biggest, I think, was most certainly Xorlak's introduction to Chapter 1, and I think that my recent post might have exceeded it, even without the picture. I will check presently.//
-
//My pyrotechnic post:
Pages: 5
Words: 1838
Characters (no spaces): 8786
Characters (with spaces): 10650
Lines: 158 (the picture counts as one line, I checked)
Xorlak's introduction to Chapter 1:
Pages: 3
Words: 958
Characters (no spaces): 4429
Characters (with spaces): 5411
Lines: 99
Are there any longer than mine? Laughing //
-
// Pfft. Crazy, pyro, revolutionary person... \\
Zeros' frowned, as he observed what was happening from afar, before moving forwards again. Well, he had to give one thing to Haraldur: He knew how to put on a light show.
He looked at Rink and the others, before he took the lead.
---
Allen shook his head and chuckled at Ven and the guards.
"It's useless, boys," he said, the others being much younger than himself. He ran his hand through his greyed hair. "If they don't want anyone listening in, then you won't be able to hear them. I can assure you, though, that your king is prefectly fine," he said, trying to reassure them.
-
"Sir!" Yelled a solider running in, to Darak.
He ignored the man.
The solider groaned. "High General Darak!"
"Yes?" Darak said grinning.
"I thought you might want to know this, but it appears the mage women you were with, well she's dead."
Darak narrowed his eyes and kept silent for a few moments. He looked outside at Haraldur floating in the sky. "Those Aspyes are going to die, first Vincent, then a large fraction of my warriors and now Steorra..."
---
"Technology wise, yes I have to admit your Aspyes are far more advanced. But your ways of society, it's barbaric. You have the technology of the future but the ways of burly men in animal rags bashing rocks together." Abodahon said back.
He then raised one eye brow about the comment about his gauntlets. He took a few more steps forward. "No, they're fine....why?"
Duilin arrived standing about 20 feet away from Abodahon. He looked up in the air; he could make out his former friends coming.
-
Haraldur laughed. "We are barbaric because we refuse to be treated like cattle?
"As for my 'comment' about your gauntlets, I am merely inquiring about my handiwork, how it had been over the centuries etc.. After all, it was a prototype, so I had no idea how long it would last."
He turned to the new arrival. "Ah, Duilin, you have finally joined my enemies I see, finally become a reactionary. How proud you must be to a futre oppressor of millions."
-
"Watch your tone with my son!" Abodahon yelled, pointing at Haraldur.
Duilin glared and clenched his teeth. "I don't care, Haraldur. I'm doing what I believe in, I'm not just going to band with a crowd just because it's big. But I see you have no problem being an annoyance, to billions." He smirked, and then looked back to were he saw the others coming.
Abodahon lowered his hand. "Yes, anyways. Seeing, how it actually is your business, seeing that you made them. But they have lasted much longer then you expected. They have also proved quite useful, serving as some nice training gear. I do slightly owe my large obtainment of power to you. Hats off to you, Haraldur, I've killed tons of people with these things." He said slightly smiling. His face went back his more neutral expression.
"But yes, you did quite a good job with them, they're comfortable, which is good, seeing as they cannot be removed. And this black metal they are made of, I'm quite impressed with it. Not very many people would literately go through hell to get a metallic element."
"In fact the work was so well done, that it took quite a lot of time for me to replicate it, for my followers. Even so, the metal in their gauntlets are not quite a strong, and the diamonds in them were manually enchanted, and they are much, much smaller."
----
Meanwhile in Abodahon's room, the Holy Bastard Sword seems to be.... gone!
-
//Whoops forgot Marshal.\\
Marshal gave an angry look, showing his teeth. He backed up, but noticed he was circled. He then took out his machinegun, and fired in a circle, allowing the recoil to slightly take over.
Raymond, then held out his wand, and then blasted out a large blue spectre, it then formed into a Dynox (those one horned triceratops things from DA2). The Dynox then began thrashing around at the other elites near Raymond.
//Oh Xorlak. I'm boycotting DAX until you update Draven's page on the wiki.\\
-
//Members of the public? WTF? I thought we were in a forest?\\
-"Now, now, my dear friends... Why must you hurt these innocent trees? They did nothing to you. Not yet, at least."
I unleashed a small wave of energy. The trees grew back into a wall, and quickly regenerated from the flames.
Who are those people, setting fires to my creations? Why?
Another tidal wave of druidic power, and the front rows of the bystanders were instantly impaled by sharp spike-like roots from the ground. The roots continued growing at an unbelievable rate, wrapping around the dead people, and tightening, like a boa constrictor. Soon, they were squished to the point where their bodies could no longer hold together... Crimson red blood exploded in all directions, covering large numbers of the people and extinguishing the fires. The vast majority of the blood-covered public ran off, away from the terrible place.
As I was having fun manipulating the plants, a barrage of bullets flew through me. I could not help but laugh.
-"AH HA HA HA HA! You there, with the gun! You HONESTLY thought that your pathetic machinery will have any effect on ME?!"
Due to the shifted phases, any physical matter would harmlessly pass through me.
-"Well then, I suppose you've made your choice. I offered you a quick death; it seems you prefer it to be long and painful. We've got more in common than you think. Elites!"
My elite warriors appeared out of the black fog, and surrounded the group. Six of them dropped down around Marshal.
-"ATTACK!"
While the Elites were attempting to take Marshal down, I turned over to the man with the strange device pointed at me.
-"You... you must be one of the Aspye agents. I can smell the stench of herecy all over you... yes, you're definately with the Aspyes. So, will you make the right choice and leave, or, perhaps, shall this come to a fight?" I looked away, my mind wandering. "...more of a slaughter, really. Your pathetic magical abilities would not be enough to bring a quarter of me down. Still, that device you have is most intriguing. I'll have to remind myself to get my servants to scrape it off your scorched flesh, after I am done with you."
-
Nick continued to throw blasts of energy at the group around Zeros'. " Oh! Come on not able to fight a teenager?" He taunted the group.
---
Calavous was near Bandervil when he saw the gaint crater, the people within and around. " What the hell ?" He said in bewilderment. He continued on his way Seeing Nick throwing things at a group of people. He gained speed passing Nick within seconds and landing near the middle of Bandervil ( well the edge now.) He walked up to Darrak. " Sir what has happened? "
-
//How did he get into the keep so quickly?\\
Marshal was taken down to the ground by the elites. //Don't interfere, Ein and me have a little plan.\\
----
"How did you get back into the keep so quickly?" Darak asked, sounding amazed. "Anyways...What happened? Well were the hell do I start!?" He says louder and starts talking quickly. "First, we get attacked by a couple Aspye commandos, then Ragnar, erm, Haraldur comes over and starts fighting. One of our leaders of the Grey Empire, Abodahon, starts fighting him. Haraldur makes the hugest explosion! It kills off almost my entire army! Steorra got killed by it! And now more people are coming!" Darak then kneels down and sits down, on the stairs. "My god...I'm doing such a terrible job as High General."
He then rubs his temples. He tried to reassure himself, in his head. Okay, you can get through this alive, Darak. Remember we're in this for the money. I'm High General now, think of all the money I'd get for this? Besides, I've only got around 20 or 30 years left of life. I've lived a full enough life, I've had my good times, I've been with my women, I've killed a good amount of enemies and fought a fair amount of battles.
"Okay mages! Try and get the shield back up to its full power!" He commands. "Nobody go outside, unless you are a skilled mage! No grunts or newbies you hear me! I don't want to waste any more lives! And get this place cleaned up! Patch up the damages damnit!"
He looked at Calavous. "I've got a lot to do in here. Your brother is out there fighting, you might want to help him out, and those other guys who are coming are no pushovers!"
-
//Hes been traveling for 3 posts now.\\
"Well I had a little problem on my journey. I'll tell you later if i'm alive." He said to Darrak as he was ordering the mages. " And i'll try to stop the men. I think all of us can handle it out there.
-
//Ein: I said the disc was going to Ugran, which means you landed in the city somewhere. Let us assume it is in a large park within Gief? OK? That would explain the bystanders.
Dude Man: That second comment was directed at me, right?
Nick: I think Dude Man was referring to Calavous arriving at one location and then instrantly moving on to the next.//
"Watch my tone with your son? Ha! I have known him for longer than you have. I am sure he can tell you many things about the events over the last decade involving me, and probably from a tremendously skewed angle too. Doubtless a result of Zeros's influence. Strange, though, that he should abandon other parts of Zeros' influence because of you, but not others."
Haraldur turned to Duilin. "You are doing what you believe in? Tell me, Duilin, what do you believe in, exactly? The oppression of people, treating them as disposable resources that can be slaughtered like cattle? Pushing around the people as a group with your demands? You believe in the stifling of all dissent by the method of slaughtering villages and cities? You believe in mighty and corrupt empires where the majority of what the people produce is stolen from them by malicious greedy bastards in uniform, the High Generals, advisers, members of the Court? You believe in seizing tribute from the starving? You believe in the rape of all dissenting women, a practice that went all the way to the top, including that of Zeros' mother by Melkoth? You believe in using prisoners, both political and not, as feed and sport for demons in the arena? You believe in the eradication of entire cultures, species, and land masses if they do anything that does not involve bowing down to you? You believe in the constant magical surveillance of all those not in the higher ranks of the officer class? You believe in the creation of new diseases just so that people are dependent on what little medical care the state provides? Where do you think the Jet Plague came from, exactly? You believe in the strict enforcement of a religion in the name of the unaging Emporer, rising him to God status? You believe in the execution of individuals who do not observe this religion, either due to having their own or realising that all powerful deities are a nonsense? You believe in the genocide of large groups who refuse to believe in this religion? How do you think the Dios religion, where Dios is another name for Melkoth, became the most common religion on this planet?
"How do I know about this, you ask? Well, I am the perpetrator, the programmed killer, the assassin of millions, the destroyer of continents (and the production of the moon from their remains. If you ever visit there, you should see the bones that are there if you search hard enough), the arena's favourite, the disease maker, the religious enforcer, the watcher, the destroyer of free thought, the designer of the Jet plague... and the designer and builder of your father's gauntlets. I know what I am talking about. I have seen how oppressive things can be, at first hand, as the one doing the oppressing. Admittedly, I was not under my own control, and even now people still desire to control me, what I am, whatever name they choose to call me.
"If you believe in this, then you are one of the most malicious, evil bastards that has ever existed. You have joined that elite club, the club of oppressors, like Melkoth, your father, Draven, Sigma Retan and his ancestors, the ancient monarchy of Romme of 50 000 years ago. Feel proud, when eventually your hands become about a millionth as bloodstained as mine! I vividly remember the day the Imperial court, including your father, and myself, and Melkoth and Quintus, for a New Years Eve laugh bathed themselves in the blood of 40 000 virgins from Wahabbia. I expect that you have that to look forward to."
_____________________________________________________________________
Tesla glared at Kronos: "It will be you that will have your flesh burnt up if any of our fights came to a conclusion, I promise you that. Now, piss off!"
-
Abodahon started laughing, harder and harder by the second, as Haraldur was spilling his large speech.
"Father, is all of this true?" Duilin asked.
"Hahah! Duilin, my son." Abodahon was still laughing a bit. "Haraldur went insane many, many years ago. He suffered from crazy visions of us enslaving people, bathing in blood all sorts of things. One of my favourite ones was the Jet Plague story. The plague was simply named after the empire, comparing the heavy progress they had. But different things happened with the plague and the empire I assure you." He then looked at Duilin and Haraldur. "Answer his question, my son."
//I'd like to also say that more then Duilin and Abodahon?s conversation took place then what was posted. Not all of it was true, I'll assure you, but Duilin believed it.\\
"Well, that was a very amusing speech, oh great bringer o' peace to the mighty land of Gaian." Duilin began. "But I know I haven't been around as much as you 'demi-gods', but I to have seen my fair share of shit happening. Let's see, well my entire family and fellow villagers were slaughtered, due to my father being unable to protect them because he was cast under a spell, by you, that made him a normal human. He only had enough money to 'pay for' me to live. So to answer your question, no I do not believe in the slaughter of villages.
"I'll have you know Haraldur that I served the life of a slave for about ten years, which seemed like fifty-five to me. So I know the hardships of people being treated like cattle. I had to be treated like this until I had to bullshit my way to get a sliver of more freedom as a soldier. But I was still watched over. So no, I do not believe others should be watched over like that, thank you very much.
"When I was sent to Romme to go fight, I saw many people get killed. The first person I killed there, and in fact the first person I ever killed, was Darion. It was mostly an act of vengeance. He deserved it, even you would agree with that. The dark warriors I killed, I had to, so I could defend my friends.
"About a week ago, I had fought a group of pirates hired by Draven's empire that were raiding the small settlement of Rivertown. So to answer your, other question. No I don't believe the productions of the people should be stolen by greedy bastards, (such as Draven) etc.
"I also don't believe in starting huge ass groups and killing people because they have different beliefs, be they anarchistic, imperialist, or even demonic worship. I believe it shouldn't be anyone?s business of what other people believe in.
"I also don't believe that somebody should be killed due to them being to powerful, I'm sure everyone here agrees with that, except for a certain somebody who is on his way. I also don't believe just because somebody's powers just may be dangerous, or that they should be held back because they might loose control, unless it's proven that they will due to there history, of oh insanity for example. Kind of like you Ragnar.
"I also don't believe in starting revolutions to force your beliefs on everyone in the entire fucking world. And everyone who does believe in what you think will have to at least pretend to or else they're be afraid that they'll get shot with one of your future sticks, or have their head melted by a plasma blast, or destroy an entire village. I believe people should be allowed to think what they want; they shouldn't have to agree with your barbaric ways, even the Empires.
"As for all that other shit you asked me, I think you're the only one who could even think of that crap. I knew you were crazy ever since I saw you at Romme, my first instinct was to run form you."
//It's true, back in Chapter 2, when Duilin first met Haraldur, my first intention was for him to run from him. But I changed it quickly after.\\
Abodahon was nodding his head, causally after almost every point Duilin made. He then laughed in joy as Duilin finished. "You see Haraldur? We're not all bad. Even demons have harts."
-
(Heh... I'll see if I can write a script this weekend that will find the longest post. I'm pretty sure I capped 3 pages at least a few times.)
(Dude Man: When my only options are to make a DAL post or update the Wiki, I choose the post. Plus I've been working on... certain other projects... *wink* *wink*)
----
Draven stood up, and began moving towards the door.
"You've been most helpful, old man. As per our agreement, I will leave you in peace. Until next time..."
Henri merely sighed. He hated to help such a cruel man, but he didn't see any other way... Surely Draven would have wreaked havoc if he refused. At least this time the target was far from home... The third eye in his forehead closed. The old king's sight was failing, he could tell. It was becoming more exhausting each time, and he couldn't see as much as he used to...
Draven flung open the doors, and the knights leaning against them fell to the floor at his feet. A crushed Ven smiled and waved with a free hand from the bottom of the pile.
"Uh... hi."
Draven ignored the idiots and stepped over them into the hallway, where he saw his alchemist Allen waiting for him.
"Allen, you are free until I next call upon you. It may be a while. You'll know when it is time..."
He began to walk away, but turned to add another comment.
"And if the Dark Empire happens to resurface, don't leave this island. Trust me, the Crimson Empire is, and always will be, very much alive."
He gave a variation of his usual smirk. This one a bit warmer, but filled with the usual confidence. He leaned a bit closer.
"And keep an eye on these losers for me, especially three-eyes in the back... Wouldn't want anyone else taking advantage of our little friend here..."
He winked and turned down the hallway on his way... The black robes flowed around him, a faint crimson glow sweeping around the man. It was difficult to suppress one's aura for so long. It required constant attention, and Draven was glad to let the barrier down. The robes shifted, becoming Draven's familiar black, red trimmed armor and cape with the majestic red dragon insignia of the Crimson Empire on the back.
He was back.
Moving towards an exterior balcony, Draven removed a small scroll and a quill from his belt. Unfurling it revealed a list with the words "People to Kill" written on the top, with several names already scratched out. Draven struck out the item that read "That old guy", having seen Quintus' death through Henri's sight. He then wrote in "Melkoth" and "Abodahon" at the bottom before rolling the scroll back up.
By now he was at the edge of the balcony and he simply walked off, much to the surprise of the two guards watching him. A tremendous blast of flame erupted from just past the edge and Draven shot off into the sky wrapped in the vermilion glow. He flared northwest, over the mountains of Tjed...
-
"This is crazy," said Xenai, as they took off after Zeros'. "What she said..." Thumbing back to Aura. "...are we gonna have to fight that?"
"I certainly hope not," said Zion.
Aura was still clinging really tightly to Tsu, speechless. Tsu didn't really have a problem with it.
-
Nick kept blasting energy at Xenai, Aura, Tsu, and Zion. "Don't run now." He said as he flew in front of them. " Your not going anywhere now."
---
Calavous walked to the crater watching the people fighting and such. He passed the ruins of that was once Bandervils gates.
-
//Nick: Horisontal teleports result in randomness of arriving location which is proportional to distance travelled. Only height can be controlled exactly.//
-
Zeros' sighed and looked side-ways at Nick, as he got closer.
"Do you really wish for death, boy?" he asked mildly. He didn't care if Nick was just a kid - well, everyone except Melkoth and Haraldur were kids to him - he would kill him if he kept up his antics.
"But, yes... As for fighting Haraldur, we will have to fight him, eventually, but with this treaty he said we have, we can put off the inevitable. Haraldur also knows that we'll meet in battle again, weither it be a day, a week, a month or even years from this point," he said, to anwser the questions.
He turned his attention back to Nick and casually deflected the energy away with his hand.
"Persit and you shall die, boy," he said again.
---
Allen nodded at Draven's statement and resisted the urge to sigh at Ven and his knights, but he took his orders. Don't leave the island and keep an eye out on everyone here.
Despite what many people thought, Draven was a decent man... Well... Sometimes... Maybe every once in awhile, but it did happen.
He walked over to Ven and offered him his hand.
"Have a nice trip?" he said jokingly, a small smirk on his face.
-
"My son." Abodahon said, quietly. "It seems Zeros' is here now. Do what needs to be done. I'll handle Haraldur from here."
Duilin nodded and then walked off, to where Zeros' was floating over.
Abodahon grinned, and then lowered his expression and looked at Haraldur. "So, my friend, you see? You can use your mind games on all of us, even my son. As for the fact that you claim to have known him longer, that isn't even true. Sure for the past five years you have, neither of us saw very much of him, ten years before you met him. But before even that I spent my share time with him. Sure it wasn't a lot, but you don't know the hardships of being a parent." He raised one brow. "You never had any children, to my memory, correct?"
----
'I swear he's going to pay for this. I'm not getting replaced.'
----
//Whoops I should update Rink.\\
"Zeros'! There's Duilin!" Rink points, flying a little bit away from Zeros'. He then lowers his hand. "Yeah...I think you're right Zeros', something is different about him... god damn Valos!"
-
Nick put his hand up. "Im not talking to you." He said as he looked at the other memberof the group while moving his hand at there position. A large energy ball apeared and gently left his hand. A soon as it was a few meters away it grew in size and imploded after a few more meters. Bolts of the scattering energy was blow in every direction but Nicks. " I want to fight them." He said as he put his right hand on the dagger on his belt.
---
"Brother!" He yelled from the crater. He smashed the ground and picked up a gaint boulder from destoried earth. He rested it on his shoulder and threw it soon after. It was heading towards Tsu...
-
"I kill people because of what they do, or what they seem to have a motive to do. The Grey Empire, and all other Empires, are a threat to those who value freedom, and so must be killed to ensure freedon prevails. The Grey Empire wishes to enslave Terian, and perhaps all Gaian, once more. I will never allow that.
"The Revolution is not my Revolution, it is the Revolution of the people. I have done very little revolutionary activity, most of it has been done by the people themselves: myself and my Comrades are merely an elite wing who protect the Revolution from really powerful threats. For instance, in Alterna, I only stayed in one village, while the whole country rebelled. They are wanting the Revolution themselves, otherwise the Revolution would not be. And he in Terian, according to my most recent reports, the revolution has recently reached the West coast, and they will soon be moving North. I am not there to direct them, I am here, to protect them from you, Duilin, and your father, and Melkoth, and all others who would wish to kill or enslave them. And of course we do not shoot those who wish to be enslaved, but if anyone tries to enslave anyone else, then we shall shoot them, as they are scum.
"At Romme, you say? Hahaha! I was still under partial control by people like your father at the time, so it is not surprising.
"Oh, by the way, Draven is back, and I will probably have to fight him soon. No rest for me it seems."
He turned to Abodahon.
"Have I ever had many Children? Well, no. When I was under control by you and others it is true that I raped women, but they were of course all killed afterwards, so that could not happen, and recently I have been to busy trying to protect the people from scum like you for that to be a priority. However, your question obviously proves that you do not know what I am, and I will let you keep your ignorance.
"Now, are you ready, or should I allow you to rest some more?"
//Haraldur receives almost constant reports from other revolutionaries through telepathic means by trained mages.//
_____________________________________________________________________
Makhno and Durruti, as they could fly fater than Melkoth, were catching up. Melkoth turned, and from his body a shield went out and carried on expanding, and went to meet them. They each were touched by the shield. However, they were too strong to be thrown back by it, causing it to disharge into itself, breaking it. However, before it broke they sent energy through it so that it got directly to Melkoth, who did not have time to block it, and was thrown up in the air.
They rose with him, and he did the same again, and again it ended up with him being chucked further up, until they were out of the atmosphere. Melkoth then ducked downards and accelerated towards the ground, with Durruti following, but not Makhno, who stayed where he was.
Durruti caught up with Melkoth, and they then did the same as they did at Bandervil, leaving a very bright light. They kept on falling towards the ground.
When they were nearly at the ground, Makhno, far above, accelerated downards at huge speed, with green flames around him due to the air resistance on his shield.
-
"Hahah!" Abodahon laughed. "Well Haraldur, you admit to have raped women, and have done evil, tyrant things, and you claim to have been 'under our control' wile doing those things. This just further more proves how crazy you are. You are an insane hypocritical nutcase! People like you deserve to be locked up and sentenced to weave baskets for the rest of their lives. I've had enough rest. Now allow me fix the biggest error Melkoth ever made...you."
Abodahon held his gauntlets to his side, and energy began swarming around his hands. He quickly levitated until he reached Haraldur's vertical level (assuming he is still in the air, if not then he is floating just a few yards up, in the air).
-
"I have no idea how involved you were with the project that was me, or, at least, this manifestation of me. I was, however, under the control of the various Empires both of Melkoth and others, Gaian, Red, Blue, mind control, usually, but there were others, some even utilising non-intelligent variations. Of course, it seems you have no knowledge of this, and have assumed that I am the 'son' of Melkoth in a more or less conventional way. How wrong you are! The 'son' of Melkoth is actually older than the supposed 'father', but was bound by a complex spell, all those years ago. I was 'created' with direct intent behind the action. I was designed and programmed to do what would benefit the Empires. I am not human, nor a demon, nor any other type of creature, I am myself, a unique entity that you know nothing much of. If you want to know more, I suggest you ask Melkoth, but it is likely that he will die soon, my comrades have been... enhanced. And each moment I remove the restrictions of my 'creation', and there will come a time when, if you are still alive, you will finally see what I am, if you have not the wit to deduce it from other things I have said. A clue though, for if you survive this: I saw Gaian created<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>(within me...)</span>, and similarly for hell, which came later as the work of some of your predescessors as they meddled with the fabric of... No, that might be too big a clue, probably too big already. Therefore you have no ecuse not to come to the right conclusion, unless your intelligence really is as weak as it seems."
Haraldur stood still as a strange spherical wave front seemed to come from within him, a wavefront of colours, some visible and some not: in a wave air particles were ionising and then releasing their energy as the electrons fell back into their ground states, some in visible light, others at lower and higher frequencies of radiation. Abodahon's body would be ripped into just ions and electrons by the ionising wave of energy if he did not move away.
As this was happening, a small invisible shielded dart came out of Haraldur's body on the side not facing Abodahon. It moved to be close behind the wavefront, and to the side of Abodahon. Any signature from it would be absolutely swamped and masked by that of the wavefront.
_____________________________________________________________________
As Melkoth and Durruti kept falling as the bright light, Durruti sent a telepathic message to Makhno: Where are you?
Do not worry, I will be there in a small while. When I say "now", you must shield yourself as strongly as you possibly can, else you will be destroyed.
After a few seconds, Durruti received a message: NOW!
He made a super strength shield that was shaped as a skin around his body, a difficult task, so that Melkoth would not be in any way protected. Just then the bright light of Durruti and Melkoth in battle was struck by a large green fireball containing Makhno. Durruti's shield was severely weakened, but he managed to move out of the way before it broke, by starting his movement just before the fireball struck. However, Melkoth, who was unaware, could not. He was smashed into the ground and flattened, leaving a crater the size of London as Melkoth's body then exploded, releasing all his energy in one burst, so none of his mass was there, all converted to energy. Durruti captured some of the blast energy, and analysed any signatures within, and then sent them telepathically to Haraldur.
______________________________________________________________________
Haraldur smiled at the news he received from Durruti. Melkoth's earthly form had been completely annihilated, and now for the coup de grace: the destruction of Melkoth himself, so he could never form again.
In front of Haraldur, 16 black lockets appeared, as if summoned from elsewhere, and to have travellered invisibly but made visible in Haraldur's aura.
"Interesting, so he was still exerting some influence on me obviously. It was obviously not mind control though, so what was it? Let us find out, Abodahon."
He grabbed all of the lockets in his two hands, and then started to squeeze. Light started to appear in the gaps between his fingers, and then...
-
Draven eclipsed the final mountain peak, flew over the declining slope, then blasted over the ocean. The waves parted, repelled by the enormous blazing ball of fire rocketing through the sky...
Wrapped in flame, Draven extended his arms outwards to his sides. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but somehow... somehow he felt different... Although he did get a short rest and a good meal in after battling that gauntlet of demons, he still expected to be somewhat worn out. But on the contrary, he felt great... Even his wound, which was quite crippling in the early morning hours, seemed much better. No sense dwelling on it. He shrugged the thought off.
The Dark Continent would appear on the horizon shortly. This should prove... entertaining...
----
Ven and the knights slowly de-piled, and went about their business.
"Uh... yeah. Hah..."
Ven straightened himself and adjusted his armor straps. He turned after the bright red light left the window.
"So... you know him?"
-
Abodahon phased several yards to the left avoiding the wave completely.
Abodahon continues to charge energy, the spirals of energy keep spinning around his hand rapidly changing colour, and the space around him begins to burn in flame, and sparks and fire start spinning around him. "I understand completely what you are, a mental case, but soon you will be a corpse!"
He then narrowed his eyes giving Haraldur a glare as he watched him squeeze the lockets.
----
Duilin decided to just give in the first strike.
He took out his new mace and swung it in the air.
"Duilin?" Rink asked. He then looked a bit scared as he watched Duilin. "Oh no..."
Duilin then swung it forwards. He blasted energy through it, and fired two golden-coloured energy blasts that looked like strange fan blades, made of translucent bones. The blasts then flew towards Zeros' and Rink.
//They'd hit at the same time, so I'll allow Zeros' to block them or whatever.\\
-
//Dude Man, it was a spherical wave, like an expanding blast.//
-
//I see. It was to confusingly written, I read over it five times. Plus my brain was tired out from an exam today. But Abodahon would still be able to ghost away from the blast, like it has to stop somewhere. And if it doesn't then it would destroy the entire world!\\
-
//Sorry about the 1-day long absence.
Xenai got smacked in the back of the head with an energy blast. "Tsu, your sense of humor is balls!" He spins around. "You're not Tsu, though." He pointed at Nick. The others turned around then as well. "I got this, guys."
Xenai flew up ahead... Or behind, depending on how you look at it... everyone else.
He created a pretty wide shield of dark energy that protected his whole team from the bolts. "I don't see why you wanna fight us, but if you got a beef with us, I got a beef with you." He then turns the shield into an energy ball. He shoots it forward at Nick, at tremendous speed.
-
Zeros' let out a soft sigh and stared sadly at Duilin, as he whispered to Rink, "Leave this to me...", before he disappeared from sight, bringing Rink with him, the energy flying over him harmlessly, as he had ghosted downwards.
He let go of Rink and turned, to face Duilin, drawing out his sword, the sleek version of it's holy form coming to bear.
"There's no way I can stop this fight, is there, Duilin?" he asked, sounding more sad than anything.
---
Allen nodded and turned towards the knight, adjusting his glasses.
"Indeed I do... He is the ruler of the Crimson Empire, Draven. He is also my lord," he said.
-
Duilin glared. "Don't give me your bullshit. Like you've even cared about me. Valos told me everything; he told me that you'd kill me if I got to strong! You're afraid that I'll become even more powerful then you."
He then looked at Rink. "And you! Sure you've been teaching me some ways to use my magic, but it's never to progress even further! You're holding me back! I bet the only reason why you staid with me for five years is because Zeros' wanted you keep an eye on me!"
Duilin then glared back at Zeros'. "I'm with my father now, Abodahon. He gets me! He wants me to use my powers however I want them to; he's got big plans for the both of us! He wants to put me in his position when he gains the throne of hell, he'll bring peace there and I'll rule here! Maybe I'll clean up this shit hole of a planet and get rid of a few scumbags who keep messing it up, like Haraldur and Draven."
"I don't even see how you could trust Haraldur. Draven I can kind of understand, but Haraldur, is an insane freak, which preaches with his so-called 'revolution', but it's clearly just some continental take over.
"Oh an in fact I can see how you trust Draven, he's an ass, he orders raids on villages and tells them to kill people, and leaves one person to live. Not to mention a pile of other shit."
Rink frowned. "Duilin, we're your friends! We aren't even allied with Haraldur, and Draven never ordered those attacks on your village.... your father did." He said, as if just remembering it.
"Bullshit!" Duilin then swung his left hand around as if he was swinging a flail; suddenly a translucent image of a blood red coloured spinal cord attached to a skull appeared in his hand as he was spinning it. He then threw the demonic flail and then it flew towards Rink.
Rink ghosted a few feet away from the flail and it then turned around and then flew towards Zeros'.
-
Nick quickly pulled out the string (from earlier) made a few hand signs and yelled. "Spirit Wolf Blast!" A large wolf type blast came from the string and I sucked all of the energy from the ball. Making it twice the size big enough to abliborate the whole group. " Don't make me kill you so soon."
//Trent: just so you now theres a boulder flying towards Tsu.\\
-
//Like any other wave that spreads, its intensity reduces as it gets further away from its source: it spreads out. As it is a sphere and not a circle, the intensity is proportional to 1/4π(r squared), rather than 1/2πr.
I will post again later.//
-
(There's been a lot of comment-only posts lately. Let's try to cut down on them a bit.)
After some time, the black jagged terrain that was the Dark Continent came into view. It shortly spanned unendingly to the right and left, filling the horizon. Draven crossed over land east of what was left of Redvik and touched down about a half mile inland, dispersing his aura of flame as his feet hit the rock. The ground was smooth here for as far as the eye could see with no vegetation of any kind, due to recent lava flows.
He rubbed his chin with his right gloved hand, smirking his usual smirk. Oh, how he wanted to crash the battle at Bandervil and blow all of his enemies away with a single Crimson Death Annihilation Attack... they were all right there... and he could do it too, having memorized the proper spell weavings... But no... this way... would be better... he reassured himself.
He pushed his battle aura down below detectible levels once again... his blip would disappear off of the radar once more. Under the new masking spell, he could operate at perhaps up to 10% his normal strength without breaking it. Flying would put off too much energy, especially with his forceful method, so he broke off northeast on foot in a full sprint... It wasn't a normal run, though. Channeling energy into his legs, they moved faster and faster until they were but a blur, and he zipped across the rocky terrain and breakneck speed, leaving a trail of dust behind him...
----
Ven adjusted one of his gauntlets as he spoke with Allen.
"Well, I wouldn't have guessed. You don't seem quite the type that I would expect to... associate with him. Hmm, well, never mind. Let's see about putting your reconstruction skills to use!"
(I'd actually like to put all of Tjed on break for a while, if you don't mind, in which case we can assume Allen helps with the reconstruction. But we can keep going here if you'd rather keep Allen active.)
-
Cyan followed Fenier and his army onto a gaint boat. They set sail but for where. She sent a message to Calavous: "Where are you?" She asked. By that time they where out into open water not to far off shore.
---
Calavous recieved the message and with in a few seconds he sent a reply: "Ban...r....il." His message was blurry.
---
"What?" she asked her self outloud.
"What's that Cyan?" Asked Frenier.
"Errr....Nothing"
-
As the wave dissipated, the invisible dart that was near Abodahon moved from its position 15 centimetres away from Abodahon's side very fast towards Abodahon's kidney area. Its poison was potent: it was bile from the black crested duck: a very rare species of bird that lived in the far north. Its effects were explosive, literally. A small amount in the blood would cause all the fat, all the proteins and all the glycogen and glucose in th body to be respired at a huge rate, and without the energy being stored in ATP, so releasing it all at once in one blast.
Regardless of whether Abodahon is killed:
Hmmmm... I wonder what the energy release of this would be? Nice, it should wipe out this area save for the very strong... and I will be caught in the blast, taking full force. Ah, but I won't, for the effect on me will be strange indeed, hehe... Oh, wait... what is this?
As he continued to squeeze, the light was now blinding. It was nearing the tipping point...
(http://http://www.mcgoodwin.net/pages/images/ivymikelr.jpg)
When the stuff had died away, there was no trace of Haraldur there. Melkoth had been completely destroyed, and it would seem to any onlooker that he had taken his killer with him.
Obviously Abodahon would be caught in the blast...
______________________________________________________________________
Durruti and Makhno were blown down and fell flat on their backs by the blast, the energy burst having already been blocked by (and weakening) their sheilds, which were broken by the blast. When it was all over, they looked to see at the slowly rising mushroom cloud of this (again non-fission) explosion, and no trace of Haraldur's aura anywhere.
"He must have sacrified himself to rid the world of Melkoth..."
"But that is impossible!" interrupted Makhno, "Unless he was mistaken about that one thing..."
"It seems he must have been. What a waste, we have lost our best fighter. What do we do now?"
"We carry on regardless. It is what he would want us to do, but, more importantly, it is what we should do, for the sake of the people and the Revolution."
"Agreed, let us go."
They started to fly back towards Gief to tell Tesla the bad news...
_____________________________________________________________________
At Bandervil, those outside were burnt to a crisp and then vapourised, and then the blast came. The whole remainder of the fort was now rubble, with half the plateau now a landslide. A few badly burnt survivors limped out, but only a few. The surrounding forests were burning, and the surving few wolves were mostly on fire, and were running into the forest, setting the wood aflame (well, the stuff which was not already burning...), most dying, though a few made it to the river in time.
//Ein, where are you? You have not responded to Tesla yet!//
-
//Ein's been very busy lately. I'll make sure he posts soon.\\
Abodahon noticed something prick him, he then saw Haraldur squeeze the lockets, "What the fu-"
Abodahon was injected with the poison, and the blast seemed to blow him mostly apart.
Abodahon fell to the ground, his skin was burning off, and parts of his body were exploding. Due to his large size, it would take a long amount of time for him to die off.
"Damnit Haraldur.... you crazy bastard...." Abodahon started coughing out blood. "Duilin my son...it is not yet over. Finish off Zeros'!" He started to watch the fight of Zeros? and Abodahon, the last view his eyes would see?
----
A few parts of the keep remained, yet mostly it was now a burning pile of rubble. It would take even longer from them to fix it.
Darak pushed off a few rocks. He rubbed his eyes, and started limping upwards.
"Melkoth...Qunitis...are gone!" Darak said loudly. "Hey wait a second. That would leave me, with the power of the new empire...Or should I just give it up."
He saw Abodahon on the ground, in a pile of his own blood and guts, yet still alive.
"Holy shit...I'll just finish him off then..." Darak smirked. He picked up his axe from the ground, and started stepping towards Abodahon.
Suddenly, Valos appeared right in front of him. He laughed evilly and then shoved his large sword right into the chest of Darak. "Shiiikakaka!" Valos squawked. "DIE! DIE! DIE!" He pulled his sword out and then stabed him several more times. Darak was paralysed in his spot as he was being stabbed. Blood started gushing from him, and he then fell down onto Valos' sword. The man laid dead, impaled on Valos' sword.
Valos took a large bite out of Darak's neck, and swallowed what he caught in his mouth. He kicked the corpse off his sword, and walked back down into the dungeon, where screams of fright could be heard. He started licking his sword clean as he went downstairs.
//I hope Zeros' posts soon, we should try and wrap things up quickly.\\
-
Tsu looked to see a boulder coming toward him. He went to get rid of it, but- "Ray!" Aura had taken care of it for him. A thin beam of light shot forth from her finger and blew it to pieces. "Heh... Good job."
"Thank you!"
"Hey, Zion! Get your ass over here, now!" Zion was one step ahead, though, and had made it over to Xenai by the end of the sentence. They floated side by side, connecting their wrists together so that there would be a square sort of figure... Zion had the left and right, while Xenai had the top and bottom.
"Twilight Blast!" The large sparkling blacklight beam shot forth from their hands, and shot right through the large sphere. The energy from the sphere diffused away from the group. The Twilight Blast would shoot right through to Nick, though.
-
/ That's fine. I'm a lazy ass. Heh. \
Zeros' glared at Duilin. His eyes weren't those of his friend any more. They were cold, hard and emotionless. They were the eyes of a Warrior that had seen one too many battles. The eyes of a killer; the eyes of a sinner.
"Duilin... Do you really believe that I allied with Haraldur of all people? If so, then you're more insane than the man we speak of..." he said, shaking his head.
"Duilin, look at this scenario. I could of fought and attacked Haraldur then and there. Yes, I might of been able to beat him, but do you remember where we were? In a city. Full of hundreds of thousands of INNOCENT people, Duilin.
Would you rather I of attacked Haraldur and the resulting battle of killed ALL of those innocents? Just to satisfy our urges to kill him? What would that result in? We'd be no better than everyone we've fought against! So, I talked to him and showed him I was peaceful. My actions probably saved that town.
And, as for what I was talking with him about, I proposed a cease-fire. This also ensured that Tjed was also under the cease-fire, meaning that Haraldur couldn't attack Tjed, unless he wanted to break that pact. It gives us breathing and thinking room, Duilin.
And, as for trusting Draven? I don't trust him. I respect him for his power and his mind. Insane as he also may be, he is a very smart man. He is also very power, as well. Those are things that deserve respect. Back five years ago, he could of killed you without even breaking a sweat!" he exclaimed, his eyes staring into Duilin's own.
"Do you really believe that your father cares about you?" he asked questionabily. "He just wants someone to take over for him when he dies! He's running out of time, Duilin. He knows you're stronger or have the potential to become stronger than himself.
And, as for us stumping your training... What kind of fucking BULLSHIT is that, Duilin? Power doesn't come when you ask for it. It takes hard work. Would you rather your power be given to you and have no idea how to control it or would you rather it come gradually and allow you to fully control it?" he said, his eyes a hard emerald, no longer looking at his friend with the friendlyness and warmth he usually had.
"If it's a fight you want, Duilin..." he said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, before opening them again, his sword coming to rest on his shoulder. "Then I shall fight you..."
-
//I like how half of the people in the immediate vicinity of the blast have not noticed its existance while two people many many kilometres away were knocked down by it...//
-
//This is the final week of school, and there are like 3490578348 things i had to do, including exams. Sorry for the absence.\\
"I looked down upon the tense man.
-"My flesh? Burnt? You sure do talk awfully tough, considering you don't even have the guts to shoot me..."
I pointedly glared upon the weapon pointed at me.
-"...even though I doubt that that little toy will do me much damage. You, on the other hand..."
In my mind, I quickly scanned the ground below me for any potential material. Aha! There it is.
-"...you, I would not be so sure of."
About twenty undeads popped around Tesla. Two made a grab for the weapon he was holding. Letting my subconcious take control of the process, I turned around to the man lying on the ground. An Elite effectively clubbed him on the back of the head, knocking him out.
-"Itsie bitsie Aspye went up the Gorvern arm..."
The huge flighted beast, seemingly simply appearing out of the fog, picked Marshal up, and fluttered away into the distance.
-"...down came the bones and shut an Aspye up..."
A huge cascade of sharp spike-like bones came raining down on Tesla.
-"...out came an ogre, and clubbed the Aspye too..."
Yet another of my beasts, an Ogre-Dragon, emerged from the darkness, and swung a huge club at Tesla.
-"...and the itsy bitsy Aspye respects lord Kronos now."
I sighed, with a smile, and looked at Tesla.
-"Did you like my song?"
-
//Haha! Nice one Ein!
Haraldur, we'll assume that dodge the explosion, some how. Zion and Xenai are strong, they can handle it! Razz \\
Valos emerged from the dungeon; it was completely silent down there.
"Heh, I'm on quite a roll now...Hehehehe!" Valos then ghosted away.
-----
//Yeah, this chapter's been pretty long; let's finish this saga up. Long ass post time!\\
Rink flew a bit forwards.
"Duilin...I remember your father now, and what Haraldur told to you about him is true! It's knowing history. He's allied with Melkoth! Don't you know how sick and evil that man is?"
"..." Duilin was silent for a few moments "I guess..."
"How can you let yourself be manipulated so easily. This may be hard to except but your father is an evil person. You aren't, I could tell when you stood up to Haraldur and told him your beliefs."
"Don't...*hack*...listen to them Duilin.... They just want to kill you...*wheeze*" Abodahon said weakly. He had little time left.
Duilin, turned his head away, looking downwards and to the side. "You know.... now that I think of it...maybe I am being a little to naive...It's just...." He closed his eyes. "I crave power...I don't know why. I have people to protect me, but it's like something controlling me. I can't get enough of it; I'd follow anyone just to get more power.
"Ever since I killed Darion five years ago I felt a surge of power run through me, and when I defeated Nex, I felt like a super human, the power to fly, and after I killed the entity clone I felt almost like a god, but I still wanted more. That's why I started practicing black magic. Then when Valos started helping me with my demonic powers, I kept getting stronger and stronger, barely anything mattered to me anymore.
"But then Valos started treating me like shit, but the thing is that made me want to get stronger and stronger, and when I met my father, I guess when he showed me that I could get all the power I wanted I just jumped at the chance."
Rink sighed. "You see, that's the point, Duilin. Nex and Valos and even Darion have been setting this up from the start. They all served Abodahon, your father. In hope to get you to carry on in his shoes when he dies off."
Abodahon crawled forward. "No...*hack*....I still care about you Duilin....everything I've done since you were born was for you."
Duilin turned around. "So it's true, everything Rink and Haraldur told me is true."
"That's not all!" Valos said appearing.
"Valos! *hack* Don't you..." Abodahon laid his bleeding head down, he could barely talk. "..d...dare..."
"He didn't care about YOU exactly. He justed wanted a son to carry his torched. He didn't want a pure demon son however." Valos began, walking by Abodahon's dieing body. "Demons by themselves are not as totally manipulative, as easily charmed as they are, but the most easy to convice is a half demon, half human. So he had Melkoth, disguise him as a humen, so he could...well explore the world."
"Why are you telling me this?" Duilin asked.
"Well...because. He tried three times, with different families in different villages, around the same time aswell. That's why your father was away, he was living a triple life."
"No..." Duilin said, yet believing it, it made a lot of sense, and explained a lot about his past.
"Let me finish...the villages he visited: Pophin's old village, your old villages and mine." Valos said. He then started to sound a bit upset.
"You mean.... you're...my..."
"Brother. I'm your half brother. But the thing is, because of his human form, the demonic gene didn't go into Pophin and me, it only went into you. Despite him saying you're his eldest son, you're actually his youngest, I'm the oldest. Your brothers and sisters were of a different father because Abodahon and your mother were having problems. Remember?"
"Yes...I remember that..." Duilin sighed.
"And what Rink says about Abodahon is true..." Valos lowered his voice. "Nex remembers it all..."
---Flash Back---
10 years before the start of Chapter 1?
A group of about forty soldiers, riding on horseback, in the armour and uniforms of the Dark Empire, were scouting the hills of Helternia. At the front of the group there was, Darion and Nex, at the time Nex was just recently appointed a General.
?General, I thought you said you knew were this town was?? Darion groaned.
?Well, I do, but this is a freaking continent. It?s not like it?s a few doors to the left of anything.? Nex snapped back.
Darion then scanned the area, he then saw a small scout of warriors. ?Over there, some people.? He said pointing. ?Darak, go over and talk to them.?
Darak nods. ?Yes sir. He then rides off towards the scout.? One of the scouts was Patrick (see Chapter 1). At this time he is only 18; he?s on his very first mission.
?Hello there, how may we help you?? Patrick asked.
?We are looking for this one small village. It supposed to be in the deep south-east of Helternia, but we lost our compass.?
?Oh yeah, I know what you?re talking about. We were just recently at the place.? He points behind him. ?You aren?t very far just keep going ahead.? He then looks at Darak and the other warriors. ?Were you guys from anyways? You don?t look like you?d be from Romme or Tjed and I haven?t heard of any kingdoms in this area.?
?We?re from?far west.? Darak replied. ?Thanks for your time.?
Darak pointed in the direction that Patrick did and looked back at the group. ?It?s this way!?
He then rode over, and the others followed. After a few minutes, the small unnamed village was able to be seen just a little wile away.
A bulky man in a large robe was standing at the hill. ?Nex?? The man said.
?Abodahon?So, this is the place? Funny spot to have a village in the middle of nowhere.?
?Indeed.? The large robed man replied. He then tossed Nex a bag of gold coins. ?Kill all of them, leave only my oldest son.? He then tossed Darion a small locket, with a picture of Duilin in it. ?The largest house is mine, he should be in there, I have no use for the place, so burn it if you wish. But remember, my eldest son MUST survive at all costs. But don?t let him know how important he is.?
?Yes, Abodahon, but why him??
?The others have no potential, I?m not even sure if the demonic gene was given to them. My oldest son has the strongest potential.?
?Very well. Darion, take over. I?ll escort Abodahon back to the ship.? Nex said. He then looked at the other warriors. ?Don?t speak anything of this to anyone. If they ask, tell them we went here to collect slaves, but the resistance was to heavy, so we were only able to get one.?
?Yes sir!? Darion saluted, the other soldiers saluted as well. He then moved forward a few steps. ?MOVE IN!? He shouts raising his sword, his horse gallops towards the village, followed by the rest.
---End Of Flash Back---
"Holy shit..." Duilin glared at Abodahon. "So it's true. You fucking paid to them to kill my family..."
"Valos.... *hack*...why did...you..." Abodahon wheezed.
"It's because you're replacing Duilin with me, and it makes me sick!" Valos yelled.
"But Valos..."Duilin said. "You aren't even really Valos. You just have the memory of him!"
"And Pophin and Nex...not to mention my first memory. I'm just some strange spiritual entity, but do you know how hard it is to be...well me? I can't control my thoughts, so I let one take over. You would NEVER understand EVER."
"Well...Valos...Pophin, I'm sorry."
"Don't give me your bullshit you lousy fucker." Valos screamed.
"Duilin...*wheeze*..." Abodahon cried weakly. "Even I did the things I did...It's not like I didn't have a reason..." He gasped for air, and a one of his legs exploded do to the poison. He screamed.
"Demons used to be free...but humans, gods and drakens hated us because of our power...so they banished us all to hell...us demons deserve to rule.... and we WILL!"
Duilin shook his head. He then kneeled down. He was feeling faint. "Zeros'...I'm sorry..." He looked at Rink. "I'm sorry Rink...." He looked up at the others. "I'm sorry guys...really I am..."
"Aww...boo hoo!" Valos mocked.
"Shut up..." Duilin stood up and walked towards his father. "What you've done...all those things you've done. You had no right to. Bathing in blood...creating viruses. You're more insane then Haraldur. I'm ashamed to have you as my father. But I'm not ashamed of my demonic side, I'm going to use it for good, not for whatever sick twisted shit you've got planned."
He then looked at Zeros' a tear then ran down his face. "I'm sorry Zeros'..." He then looked back at Abodahon. "He's been more of a father then you have. I can't believe you got me to turn on him!"
"But...*hack*...son...You can have...*wheeze* *hack*.... so much more..." Abodahon groaned.
"Well you can take what more I can have...and you can shove it up your ass, Abodahon!!" Duilin then stormed away, tearing off the Talonscar medallion, and tossing it away.
Abodahon then lifted himself up, trying to reach Duilin. "NOO!!" Suddenly the torso of him exploded, blood flew everywhere, splattering on Duilin.
He simply shook it off his wings and continued walking forward; a few more tears came from his eyes.
Valos lowered his facial expression, and sighed. He then walked towards the remains of the fortress...
A tear runs down Rink's face aswell...
-
(Awesomeness.)
Draven slowed his pace a bit, distracted by the energy force produced by yet another tremendous explosion. A white mushroom cloud could faintly be seen rising far in the distance, towards the center of the continent... Draven was not particularly skilled in picking up individual energy signals, but he could tell that there were definitely less and weaker signals coming from the area.
Perfect. His smirk widened. They were destroying each other...
He banked to the right a bit. Vegetation was more prominent here, and short trees and shrubbery dotted the field he ran through. He was now deep in the new Aspyes territory, though sings of rebellion were minimal here due to the sparse population. Traversing a hill yielded a small farming village ahead, some meaningless hamlet that the Crimson Emperor had never personally been to before...
His accelerated step slowed to a normal walking pace as he began down the path between two grain fields towards the quiet town, his cape unfurled and flowing behind him...
-
//OMG! DM, why can't you make long-ass posts concerning my characters? Sad You hate me, that's why... It's because I'm Russian, isn't it... Well, to get back at you, EAT [strike]LEAD![/strike] MY GRAMMATICAL MISTAKE SENSE!
Despite him saying your his eldest son, your actually his youngest, I'm the oldest.
The funny thing is, you keep saying how stupid people like this sound... <span style='font-size:2pt;line-height:100%'>whispers: hypocrite... hehehe</span> But, that post was pretty cool, I must admit. I actually read it! Go me.\\
Ein, with a clear head, loaded up his crossbow, and fired it at a couple of Elites. The string on the crossbow was pulled all the way back, and the arrow flew with such force that it pierced three Elites at once.
-"Haha, score! Dumb elites, oh yeah, Ein owns, oh yeah...!"
The Elites made a strange cough-like laugh.
-"Hrrr hur hur hrr hur! Pathetic Aspye... Hurr hur hrr hur! We's has been imbued withhh the powerrrrrr of Krrrronos himself! Hrrr, die, hhherrrretic-h!"
Ein stood up straight, and stopped laughing.
-"Crap."
The last thing he saw was a highliter-yellow glowing stick coming right for his stomach, and then red all over...
-
Durruti and Makhno continued to fly towards Gief.
______________________________________________________________________
Tesla made a shield wave come out from his body, stricking all the things going towards him with great force, and directing all the discharges into the creatures themselves. The bones, the club, the orgre, and all twenty undeads around him vapourised, leaving just an angry Tesla in the middle.
He sent a telepathic message to the watch towers, and the city around him started to evacuate, so that if the city was destroyed the people would still survive.
He then sent all of his personal energy into the plasma rifle, and then shot it one at Kronos, who was just a few metres away. As the ball of plasma left the barrel, it expanded due to its hiher than normal energy, until Tesla controlled it and reduced it in size, so it was smaller but at higher temperature, as it flew straight towards Kronos' chest.
//This plasma ball counts as two in one.//
______________________________________________________________________
In the village there was quiet panic as most of the inhabitants ran into the forest and through a secret trail to some caves to the west. A few of the younger ones fired some arrows at Draven, and one used a gun. Then they too ran into the forest. The town was deserted, except for, perhaps, one or two stragglers.
______________________________________________________________________
Deep in the caverns of Hell, those huge chambers, a lot of demons were gathered, as it was market day. They seemed to sense a strange presence, which was worrying them slightly. However, there was nothing odd to see, or to smell or to hear. Most of them ignored it and went about their business.
-
//Well you try and write the 2nd longest post in DAL and not make any typos.
And mostly the reason why you weren't involved in it is because I didn't need to update Marshal because the Gorlem, or whatever it's called is just carrying him away. But fine I'll include one of your characters' in my tiny post.\\
Marshal opened his eyes; he then realized he was being carried off. "Arrg! What in the world?" He then looked at Ein, Raymond and Tesla. "H<span style='font-size:6pt;line-height:100%'>el</span><span style='font-size:5pt;line-height:100%'>p....</span><span style='font-size:4pt;line-height:100%'>mee...."</span>
//Wee! Text effects to show he's being carried off in the distance!\\
-
"Tch!"
Draven caught one of the arrows between two fingers of his right glove. They were all running away...
"The rudeness..."
By the time he had reached the outer limits of the town, it seemed completely deserted. Quite vexing indeed. So it is indeed true... A black flag rose high above one of the taller buildings.
Draven's right fist began to burn in an intense crimson flame...
He continued striding at a quicker pace, down the dirt road towards the center of the hamlet. By now his expression had melted to slight irritation and resolve. Clearly these peasants, insignificant as they are, deserve punishment.
He stopped in the middle of down, surrounded by worn down wooden buildings. He brought the glowing fist into the air, and a reverbed "HYA!" echoed through the surrounding wilderness. He slammed the fist directly into the ground he was standing on. The resulting explosion of flame was instantaneous. A shockwave swayed the trees surrounding the hamlet as the wooden buildings blew apart, bathed in the crimson fury. It took less than a second to reduce the village to nothing but a black crater...
The sky was filled with flaming bits of what was once a peaceful village... Thousands and thousands of burning chunks of debris floated away from the blast site in a perfect circle... After about ten seconds, they began to rain down...
The foolish villagers who had attempted to fight back, and thus had not quite made it to the caves yet, were caught in the hailstorm of flaming fury as it sliced through the foliage above their heads. Screams of agony could be heard in the forest as they were impaled by burning planks of wood... The crops surrounding the village quickly caught fire when the blazing projectiles landed in them...
Draven began to levitate above the black crater that was once the village, the smoke eerily circling around him. Ah, how relieving that was! His smirk had returned. From his elevated vantage point, he could see over the tree line past the radius the burning debris covered that there were three people frantically running up a path towards a small opening in a hill...
Draven extended his left hand, sticking out his pointer finger like a "gun", and aiming it towards the cavern entrance in the distance.
"I'm sorry, the correct response is groveling..."
Bang.
A tiny spec of crimson light flew from his finger, flying over the treetops and square into the hole in the rock before the villagers could reach it...
A tense second passed... Suddenly a huge blast of flame erupted from the cave entrance. Similar plumes shot out of three other locations scattered around the forest as the cave system filled with fire... The hill began to collapse, and thick black smoke began to pour from the cavern entrances, as well as newly formed cracks scattered about...
Draven threw his head up in laughter as a bright crimson aura surrounded his body. The unlawful rejects now properly punished, he flew off into the distance, still cackling...
-
//Uggghh Dam you all making longass posts that I have to read. And sorry for being absent for a few days.\\
Nick trusted his sword into the air as the waves came. By magic it sliced down and opened up.....the gate of.....Hell. "I'll have to kill you next time we meet." He said as he jumped in. He landed in some weird place with demons moving all around like being afraid of something.
---
Calavous was hit almost head on by the blast. Falling to the ground half dead. He body only a little torn apart and in pain and agony.
---
By the time the boat reached land Cyan flew ahead seeing the giant explosions in Bandervils direction. "Lets go to bandervil." she said to Frenier who nodded. She flew faster towards that posistion.
-
//Sorry, Haraldur. If you haven't noticed, I'm being attacked, and I keep getting swept away from the RP. Razz I'm not sure how to react to it though. I thought it was just another showy explosion way off in the distance.
The Twilight Blast shot harmlessly past as the portal to hell closed. "Damnit," said Xenai. "...We'll deal with him later."
"We shouldn't have to. Who the crap is that guy?"
They turned around. About now, the spectacle with Duilin was starting ((The long-ass post)). They watched the entire thing, wincing as Abodahon exploded. Aura started to cry, shaken by the entire spectacle, placing her head on Tsu's shoulder. Tsu sighed...
Zion was just about to say something to Duilin, but a very faint, distant series of explosions caught his attention. He and Xenai looked. "He's not being a good boy anymore," said Xenai.
"How long did you think he'd keep that charade up?" asked Zion.
-
Zeros' simply smiled and sheathed his sword, putting his hands in his pockets and bowing his head in respect for a few moments, before he lifted it back up. His eyes were filled with the same kindness and warmth he looked at Duilin with. He looked at his companions and replied to Zion's question.
"I didn't expect him to be a goodboy for long, but, as I said, I respect him for his intelligence and power," he said once, before shouting out to Valos.
"What will you do now, Valos?" he yelled.
-
Valos closed his eyes and stopped. He then made a quick, insane laugh.
He then turned around. "Oh there isn't much really. Now that Abodahon is dead, my soul purpose is gone." He was speaking through the spirit demon itself. "I may as well abandon this body, try and clean out these memories that are making me insane. But I do have one last thing I must do."
He held out his hand and the Holy Bastard Sword appeared in it. "Duilin, I believe you already know what this sword has done? It does in fact have enough power to kill a dark god. But that is why I wish to bring this back into hell with me. You see, things have gotten a lot better without the ruler of hell, so I choose to bring this back with me."
From the fog and dust of the remains of the keep, emerged the remaining Talonscar Elites, carrying candles, they walked into the centre of the creator, were the pile of Abodahon?s remains were lying. They circled around him. Valos stood behind the bloody remains. He held the sword on the ground below him.
The Elites started chanting things in demonic tongues, they then stopped circling around and placed their candles on the ground.
Valos lifted up his left hand, and then grabbed the blade of the sword. His body then began to burn in a light blue flame.
Duilin watched contently, as this was happening.
Valos' eye went a blank black, and he kept being covered in flame, until finally his body was no more. However a black spectre that looked much like him remained. The ghost then fell down, into the remains of Abodahon's body. Suddenly a large pentagram connected with the candles laid down. The elites stepped in front of the pentagram. A large burst of flame consumed the group of elites, as the descended into hell. When the burst of fire was gone, there was nothing left, but a permanent burn mark of a pentagram were it was. It would likely remain there for years to come, probably attracting more attention along with the crater itself.
"So..." Rink said softly. "Is it over?"
Duilin turned around and spoke lowly. "At least for now. But with Haraldur, Abodahon and Melkoth gone there is still more to be done. Just you won't need to worry about me anymore, I swear for as long as I live, on the grave of my family, I won't turn on you guys, ever again."
"Even on the grave of Abodahon?"
"I said on the grave of my family, Rink. Abodahon is not my father, my father died a long time ago." He then started walking down the slope.
//Ahh?finally, only three characters to manage.\\
-
(Chapter 9 ends in 4 days.)
Wrapped in flame, Draven continued pressing on through the sky. Now he was in an area he thought he had visited before-- near the border of the Ugran region. There were several points of interest here that the Aspye disease could have corrupted. Gief in particular... Alas, poor choices must be punished...
The raging battle in the center of the continent seemed to have died down. Draven wondered which side could have won. Well, it didn't matter, really...
-
//4 days? I wonder how the inevitable reaction in this post will fit with that.
Dude Man: Who has power in Hell at the moment? Iban? Noone? I must know.//
As Durruti and Makhno were nearing the borders of the Ugran region, they saw Draven crossing them. "Shit," said Makhno.
They flew very fast towards the Crimson Emporer, and in silence. Their paths split, and Makhno had his aura suppressed. Durruti flew around at great speed to bea few mtres in front of Draven, directly in front of him. He threw a large seismic orb and an entropy increaser orb (a spell that would cause some of Draven's energy to quickly disperse into the surroundings, so weakening him unless he can regain energy very quickly).
While this was happening, the aura suppressed Makhno flew quietly around the bak of Draven. As he neared, flames came from his body, mimicking Draven's aura (except that they did not touch him, they were a few centimetres off his body). He flew into Draven's flame aura, so that his flames would be completely masked (at the same time they kept Draven's flames away from his own body). When he was just a few centimetres behind the Crimson Emperor, he stabbed twice wiith blades that materialised in his hands in a split second. Once between Draven's neck and his right shoulder, hoping to sever the carotid artery, and once towards Draven's left kidney. Both blades have grooves running down them, and in those grooves is a solution of cyanide held there due to capillarity. If the strikes hit, a lethal dose (for a normal human being) of cyanide will be released into Draven's blood from each blade. The yanide will act as a non-competitive inhibitor for respiratory enzymes, so stopping respiration, and hence ATP productions, and so causing death if there is enough cyanide.
______________________________________________________________________
In the cavern in Hell, on the red rock of the walls of the cavern, large black letters seemed to be being written by themselves:
"The principles of Anarchist Communist Technocracy, by Haraldur Haraldsson, Nikola Tesla, Nestor Ivanovich Makhno, Buenaventuri Durruti..." in a Tengwar script. A few demons gathered around and started reading with interest.
-
//My god. I don't think anyone could beat you in a TB-Logic based chatroom battle... You think all of this through. x_x
-
Zeros' nods.
"Yes... There is still so much more to do, but... I wouldn't count Haraldur out of the battle just yet..." he said, as he turned in the direction he felt Draven's aura.
"It seems Draven is heading somewhere... Where, exactly, I'm not sure," he said, crossing his arms.
-
Calavous tried to get up as the elites were having a "ceremony" for Abondahons death. He quickly fell back down in pain.
---
Cyan was very close to Calavous posistion. She saw him rolling on the floor in pain. "Calavous" she said to herself as she flew down to him. "Are...You alright?" she asked him whild tears dripped from her eyes.
"No.....I'll be leaving this world soon and I'll asure you that I will be back."
"No don't leave. Not now." A tear dripped on Calavous destroied body.
He winced in pain. He couldn't hold on to his life and then he was dead.
---
Nick was walking around hell when he saw the writing on the wall. "What the......?" he said as he read the names. Nick wondered who was writing it. No one was there. "Probally a damn spirit." He said to himself.
-
//
//My god. I don't think anyone could beat you in a TB-Logic based chatroom battle... You think all of this through. x_x
Was that towards me? If so, thanks. What is TB-Logic?//
-
// TB logic is text-based logic. He means you think all your posts through very throughly, compared to other people. \\
-
//TB-Logic is short for Turn Based Logic, which is a chatroom based battle system, one could say. Basically, the objective is to put your enemy into a situation he can't get out of, thus forcing him to take a hit, or using such a well-thought out move that if it hits, you win the fight instantly.//
"He's not out for good, but he's out for now, which makes our job easier. Because look who's back in." Zion's head canted in the direction of Draven's aura.
-
His influence would be weak, so I guess Draven would still be able to manipulate them. Plus many of the demons are still loyal to Qor even after his death.
"Draven..." Rink said. "So he's back or Valos lied when he said he was dead."
"I wouldn't be surprised if he came back from the dead." Duilin said at a normal tone, despite that he was slowly walking away. "It wouldn't be the first time..."
Yet he never witnessed Draven getting killed by Scorch on the Romme Island, despite the fact, he never saw or sensed him leave when the MDAA hit the island and if the ground didn't survive when it was hit then surely the person above wouldn't survive. If it were Haraldur who has in the position, then surely he wouldn't find trouble surviving it then (Heh...)
-
Cyan started bursting out crying but she didn't notice the Frenier and his army were close enough to hear.
"What's this Cyan?" he said questioning here emotions. " He's our enemy not our friend." He said kicking dirt into the calavous' lifless face.
"Get away Frenier!" She screamed out quickly clasping her hands around her mouth.
"What you deny me." He said raising is arm.
Cyan lifted her arm in fear and Frenier was pushed up a 20 meters. "Get away from me."
---
Nick walked away from the crowd. The tall caverness ceilings were looming with shadow and darkness. He walked through the unfamilar land. He felt a presence behind him. He turned around seeing some type of demon. "What?"
"Your no demon, nothing but a halfling."
"Ya and I bet I can kill you with one shot."
"Oooo! A hot shot."
"So what do you want?"
"No... do you want a chance to be more powerful?"
"Fine"
"Take this sword and folow me....lets talk.
"Fine" Nick folowed him and they talked.
"I'll teach you the most powerful demonic spell."
"Why is this?"
"Becuase I can smell a scent.... You smell like your father."
"How do you now him?"
"He was a great demon."
"Enough talk teach me this spell of yours..."
//Don't worry about Calavous he'll be back!\\
-
"Well now, it's about time!"
Draven slowed in his flight, bringing two clenched fists to his sides. As the two dissimilar orbs of magic flew towards him, he thrust two open palms forward, releasing a three foot thick wave of flame directly in front of him in a disc shape that grew in radius but lost thickness as it blazed forward. Both orbs punched through the flame, which wrapped around them as they passed, the magical entropy ball and the surrounding fire absorbing each other and canceling themselves out. The seismic orb was merely knocked off course and passed towards Draven's lower right.
At this point the Crimson Emperor mused at the amateur behind him who wrapped himself up in flame. The instant Makhno choose to use fire magic, Draven could feel his presence quite vividly. As the amateur's flames additively mixed with the outlying flames of his own, he knew how the man was posed, his weight and body mass, his pulse rate, and his choice of weapons... (And of course, it was impossible to mask one's aura while having a visible magical aura-- the two notions were contradictory.)
The now motionless Draven folded his arms and brought his aura tightly around him, condensing the flame into blazing crimson energy and raising the intensity and temperature significantly. In a bright flash the aura inches away from his body broke 2750°F, and the man glowed white hot.
This technique had two effects. Firstly, Makno's blades melted an inch before making contact, the glowing red liquid dripping towards his hands... Secondly, since Makhno's aura was mocking Draven's (and still within it at this close range) it too condensed tightly around him, and the temperature skyrocketed. At this rate, he would be incinerated within seconds...
-
//got one question, Is there even a Grey empire anymore everyone is like dead?\\
-
//DM, that saying is copyrighted.\\
"I was flying towards Kandarin, with my Gorvern just a little bit ahead of me. It should be most entertaining questioning that Aspye...
Due to the fact that the fog was powerless against my own Lich eyesight, I noticed a recent disturbance in the mountains. What is this...? I've seen these mounts before, but nothing important has ever happened there. It looked like a cave-in, so I flew downwards to check it out. The Gorvern continued flying towards Kandarin.
Yes, a cave-in it was, indeed. Just as I was about to discard it as a natural event, I saw something most... unusual...
There were people there. People in red robes and red hoods. They were all dead. Dead. Dead... Dead? DEAD!
I flew closer to one of these people. He did, in fact, have the robes on him, along with a staff in his hand. He died not from the initial cave-in, but rather because of the frost that has creeped inside him. It is a long-shot, and a challenge to revive one that has been frozen. But, I like challenges. Who, other than lazy ungrateful peasants, doesn't?
I slowly channeled necrotic power to the frozen heart. Slow and steady... was not enough. The heart was just too solid now to move. Sigh. Nature thinks it is better than me? Pathetic... I am one of those who has beaten the two most powerful forces of nature: life and death. Nature is nothing, compared to me.
Very well... Looks like this one needs a little jolt to revive. Not a problem.
I concentrated my mind at the one sole object in my inner eye, the heart, the very frozen heart inside that very man's chest. This one had to be revived with all the dilligence I could muster; it is not but a grunt of a miriad army. I need this one alive and concious.
The heart burst in a small explosion, resulting in a moderate hole in the man's chest. So much for having him completely alive.
The remaining power in the place of his heart was still concentrated, and could act as a sort of a mirror for the rest of the body. Opportunity!
I sent out a wide beam of my energy, and it quickly spread across the man's entire body. His eyes slowly opened.
-"Uhh... wha... where am I? What happened? Wh... Why is there a hole in my chest?"
-"What hole?", I interrupted, thinking quick. "You OK, buddy? Sure you're not seeing things?"
-"Who are you? What are you doing here? This place is supposed to be secret!" The man sounded genuinely amazed.
-"Oh, I was simply passing by, and saw you in the snow. I shook you up a bit, and here you are, nice and awake. The cold must've gotten to your head... imagining holes in your chest and all. Does it even hurt?"
Obviously, it couldn't hurt, as there was the power of life bursting all through the man's body.
-"Actually, no... In fact, I feel better than ever! It's definately a hallucination. Nothing some meditation couldn't take care of. Anyway, thanks for waking me. How can I help?"
Prior to seeing the man, among the other junk scattered around, I saw some interesting crystal orbs.
-"What are those?", I said, pointing in the general direction of the spheres.
-"Oh, um... those are... nothing... uhh... yeah." The man tried to look as innocent as possible, but I could see right through his lies. He obviously realized that something has happened.
You know what? Screw the challenge. I prefer to get my information with no delay.
I took complete control of his body, and quickly acquired the information I needed. Hmm... Gravity vortex... this one does not have all the details, but those orbs are of great power, it seems. I will have to resurrect more to find out.
Dispersing a wide beam of energy across the entire site, I revived about three hundred more or so. The other ones were not needed, as of yet. I thought this would be enough to get all the information I required.
Letting the memories from the lifeless hollow shells pour into my mind, I strolled over to the edge of the mountain. Below, a man seemed to be attempting to climb the cliff. No doubt an Aspye, attracted by the burst of power from this area. I shifted phases, and descended into the solid cliff as if it were water.
When I reached the point where the man was at now, I flew right out of the wall, through the man (no doubt surprising him) and turned around behind him.
-"Well, well, well... If it isn't another little Aspye insect just waiting to be squashed..." I then noticed the odd-looking spiral on his shoulder. "Wait. You're not an Aspye. Still, you'd better explain yourself, or else there will be blood, and trust me, it's not going to be mine."
-
//Ein: What happened to Tesla shooting at Kronos?//
-
(After months of inactivity, I have returned. Sorry for the inactiveness, enjoying my summer.)
Just as Alex was making his move towards the icy rock handholds, he felt something pass through him. It felt extremely cold, as if the mountain's icy wind had somehow found its way into his body. Nearly losing his footing from the shock of what happened, he let out a holler and stumbled onto the ground. Upon seeing that it was a person (or what appeared to be a person), he began considering if he was a threat to his passage.
Looking upon this stranger, Alex fingered the handle of his scimitar.
"Can I help you with something?" Alex asked. "I'm just a warrior making his way through the mountains to the Kingdom of Asgarnia."
Alex noticed the stranger had his eye fixed on the spiral on the shoulder of his jacket.
"Oh, you're probably wondering what that is... Don't worry, it's just a personal emblem, it doesn't mean I'm part of any sick cult or anything. The jacket was plain and needed some decoration. By the way, the name's Alex. Who might you be?"
-
//OMG! Sorry sorry sorry, I didn't notice... I posted about that, but it seems because of my stupid wireless the post didn't get through. The post prior to that should've included the bolt passing through Kronos, then zapping a tree behind him. He then said that he has more important matters to attend to. I'm sorry, I really am...\\
-
"Now pick up the sword. You always need this sword on you when you use this spell."
"Why will I die?"
"Umm...Yes. It's a sacrification spell, but it plays out less....gory if you have the sword."
The Demon whispered the instructions to Nick."Got it!" He held the sword up in the air. The sword had a very weird blade that was split at the two and had a engraved picture of somesort. No not a picture but a language. "What does the sword say?"
"It says the place of your fathers grave."
"Wheres that!" He said coming face to face with the demon.
"In the deep caverns of hell. He was not to good in the years on giaian."
Nick held the sword up once more whispering the spell. Then there was a giant explosion. Making some of the walls cave in. When the smoke cleared Nick was still there with not a scratch on his body. "What is this sword called."
"The reapers blade. Now go to your next trial. It is in the west." The demon said as it disappeared.
Trial Nick wondered as he walked west.
-
//I am currently under the impression that on Gaian all who die go to Hell, as there is no Heaven... thankfully.//
Tesla followed Kronos towards Kandarin, and when Kronos stopped, he continued towards that land. It was obious that another group was trying to interfere and enslave people whether living, or dead. That could not be tolerated.
________________________________________________________________________
In hell recently there had been several rulers over different areas, warlords, all struggling for power, and making the life of the average demon and dead soul a misery.
As the writing finished in the cavern, a long essay that completely covered the walls, the demons finished reading. Everything had made perfect sense. They had a discussion about who might have written the messeage, and whether the person was trustowrthy, but came to the conlusion that, since it had made so much sense, they should take it as true anyway. They then discussed how they should organise themselves to build a better society, and then commenced to do so, to organise themselves. The market traders dumped all their goods into a nearby warehouse, and there was an election as to who would have the responsbility of distributing stores from that warehouse. The person elected was an old demon called Fangdin, who had been a quartermaster in an army in ages long past. A few of the hungriest demons then rushed towards the warehouse where they were provided with the food they needed.
With the demon blacksmiths going about their work quickly, the demons started arming themselves. Meanwhile, word of these developments spread quickly through the underworld. In the areas where some demons tortured dead souls for a living, they stopped doing so, apologised to the souls, and then both they and the souls started to build a new society, though notm however, without a few arguments with former tormentors.
_____________________________________________________________________
Makhno's body temperature dropped, as an opening to outer space half developed within his body, carrying eat away wth it. The temperature in outer space is about 2.7 K, very very cold. Draven's aura was now being sucked into the unaffected Makhno, and if Draven was not careful, he would be frozen himself. As this was happening, two more daggers materialised in Makhno's hands, and he stabbed them into Draven. They were very very cold (like Iduran's sword in Chapter 3), and would shatter once entering the body, leaving cold shards within Draven.
Meanwhile, Durruti lew to be very close to Draven, only a few metres or so, with Draven between him and Makhno. A machine-gun materialised in his hands, and then he shot into Draven from point blank range with hundreds of bullets.
-
//Haraldur I'll remember that your thankfull for no heaven. So see ya in hell.\\
Nick continued on his trial. He was still walking west when a demon poped up in front of him. This one more elegant with a human form. "Are yo..." Nick started asking as she interupted.
"Yes"
"Ho..." She interupted him again.
"How did I know what you were going to say? Well I can read your mind. And heres your new weapon. Its called Death's Dagger."
Nick placed the dagger next to the obsidian one. "So what are you going to teach me?"
"Well its called the Sting Of Death. You paralyze your enemy by hitting them in 6 different nerves, head, legs, arms, then finally the chest. Now go south to the next trial and yes for your next question."
Nick was going to ask: Towards that town? Nick Looked towards the town that was more alive now. all the demons were moving and reacting with each other. It was more like a society then an underworld.
-
"The reaction of the man was quite amusing, though somewhat understandable. I shifted my eyes from his emblem to his face.
-"Alex, I see. What might you be doing in these parts?"
Just as I was formulating a proper way to finish Alex off in case if he as much as moved a muscle, I felt a strong aura over me, flying in the same direction that I was. Interesting... but not dangerous. Kandarinian defence is a force to be reconed with, even by the strongest of the creatures."
--- --- ---
The forward observation posts in Kandarin, equipped with enchanted lens to see through fog, darkness, rain, snow or any other obstacle, quickly caught sight of Tesla flying towards them.
-"Intruder! Raise the defences, full red alert!"
The small outposts started buzzing with activity, like a beehive that was just thrown a rock at. The people were readying the coastal defences, while the observation posts measured the man's aura.
-"Crap, this one's strong! Get the clockwork scorpions ready!"
Using a magic stream running through every single house, every single outpost and every single building in general, the defenders signalled Qim, the industrial region of Kandarin. Large factories were stationed there, creating steam-powered and clockwork appliances as well as war machines.
The large gates of the factories opened. Big, a bit rusty in some places, scorpion-like tanks began making their way to the coast. They were incredibly well-armoured, and their tails housed rather powerful cannons.
-"Clockwork scorpions ready!"
A Kandarinian general, who was in charge of the defence on this particular coast, smiled. Even if the initial defences would fail, they had a secret weapon. The fact that it was magic was but a nice small bonus...
He walked inside the communications tent, with only a table in it. The table was there to support a crystal orb, which was used to communicate through the magic streams.
-"Jovil; Main palace; Council chamber."
A holographic image appeared over the orb, in the shape of 12 miniature men, copies of the chairmen of Kandarin.
-"Hello, gentlemen. I assume you have been informed of the situation?"
An older, grayish-looking type answered.
-"Yes. I, in turn, assume you've taken the correct steps?"
The general was wounded by that remark.
-"Why, yes! Anyway, since the Lord is not in right now, I suppose I could ask you. Permission to activate the Enigma complex in Sizri."
The gray guy was taken aback by that request. Seems he did not expect it.
-"Well... If you deem the situation that approperiate, I suppose... However, before actually using it, we must consult the Lord. You know I have the authorisation to charge, but not to engage, the Enigma complex."
The general was calm again.
-"I understand. We can contact him using the M-grid, can we not?"
-"Yes. I will inform you when it is done."
-"Thank you. General Arlin out."
The hologram vanished. Arlin sighed.
-"Now we wait."
---
Meanwhile, in the middle of the Sizri arcane studies compound, a large building began to eminate a low hum. The building looked like a sphere, but with hundreds of small pipes stemming from it and connecting to the pyramidical buildings around it.
-
// There is a heaven, but it just seems that most people want to go to hell... Heh. \\
Zeros' shruged.
"Draven was never truly dead... I don't think that man will ever truly die," he murmured quietly, as she looks back towards where he felt Draven's heat spike.
"But, that's not something to worry about now..." he said lightly. "Now... We have to choose our next plan of attack."
-
"Attack?" Rink asked. "Well, I suppose so, but the thing is, that all the superiors such as Abodahon, Melkoth and likely the High Generals are dead now. But the Grey Empire did take over quite a lot."
"Perhaps we could go back to Alphagrad and Retangrad, I recall the Grey Empire making a large fortress in between there." //From what I remember from a couple chapters ago.\\ "Maybe we could smash that place up, or another one of there fortresses."
Duilin stopped, walking off. He didn't go to far, and he was walking slowly. "Hmm, perhaps we should just let it be. If Draven is back, maybe we should ally with him again to take out the Aspyes."
"You sure? I mean, the part against going back against the Aspyes. I'm sure Retan and Jayce will be coming back. They'd be a bigger threat then the Aspyes I bet. Plus, if Draven is back, he could easily gain back his control over the Grey Empire, and get his old Empire back."
"You're right, Rink. The rule of the Dark Empire was a dark one indeed. We should continue the cease-fire. But Draven might now agree with that. But maybe we could convince him to help us fight Retan. But perhaps if we can't take out the Empire wile they are weak, we could finish off Draven and his group, good ole' backstab, heheh."
"But the question is." Rink said. "Can we defeat Retan without Draven?"
//I'm assuming that Retan is the most powerful character, plus he really should be. Heheh.\\
-
(Haraldur: I'm sorry, but the idea of demons reading some propaganda on the wall and suddenly living in harmony is quite ridiculous. Firstly, they're "demons". Mostly mindless power hungry brutes that have been battling each other for eternity. Secondly, people don't read things then suddenly unanimously agree upon it after civilized discussion. It's very unrealistic. Now apply the second to the first.
I'm not saying you cannot have a sect of demons following Haraldur. You just need to go about it in a more convincing manner and stay in context. Please remember that this RP is medieval themed.
Oh, and in reply to your question, apparently the demon Iban is currently the major contender for the ruler of hell.)
----
(Is there anything these guys can't do? They seem to be capable of any spell of any element, alchemy, summoning specialized weapons, etc. upon etc. None of this is hinted at all in their bios. Let's try to be more believable here too.)
Draven was startled by the coldness coming from Makhno, and as Durruti opened fire, he quickly dashed to his right, his aura of flame becoming its normal translucent red again. His arms still folded, he turned to face the two, flying at a casual pace backwards as Durruti now fired upon his own ally...
From the folded arms position, he brought his right palm before him, curling the fingers at the tips. Red sparks flew skyward from his hand and body before disappearing a foot above his head, indicating a cast spell. A redness peered through the cracks between the black clouds above...
(End ranting post. Heh...)
-
(Sorry but I just have to say this: Why would they need to put in bio if they aquire during rp? You can just put in chapter (Whatever) Bio. And Can you answer me this is there still like a Grey empire anymore everyone that I know of is dead?)
-
Alex seemed a little bit concerned about the coldness of this man. This stranger looked prepared to kill Alex if he were to make the wrong move.
Alex took a deep breath of the freezing cold mountain air. "I'm heading towards the prosperous kingdom of Asgarnia," he replied, his breath jetting out at the sharpness of his voice. "I'm looking for a decent way to make money, seeing as there's not much of a demand for hired guns out there anymore... Glacia's just not doing it for me, you know? Perhaps I'll find my calling in Asgarnia."
The stranger stood still, which made Alex all the more nervous, he reached closer and closer for the hilt that his scimitar was housed in. Alex had a sort of intuition that the old wizard who raised him taught him. There was something about this man that just didn't seem right, and Alex knew it.
-
(Nick he was referring to Haraldur's characters. And the Grey Empire, well, dead I guess. I can only guess that the living soldiers in the many other outposts will join back with Draven or something.)
Marshal wakes up, he's lying on a stone tablet in a small dark room. His armour has been removed, as well as his amulet and his machinegun has been taken away. It's tall and high in the room is a small-bared opening. He rubs his eyes. He feels very dizzy as he slowly walks towards the door in front of him. He attempts to open the door. He notices it's locked. He remembers were he was last, and assumes he is a prison of some sorts.
He bangs on the door. "Let me out! This is injustice!"
"Ahh...so you're awake." Says a voice. The sound of a latch is heard and the door opens.
Marshal attempts to topple over the person behind it, only to bump in to a large burly man, with a baldhead and a large beard. Wearing a messy short-sleeved shirt. The large man pushes Marshal back, and he falls onto the stone tablet on the other edge of the room. The man then steps into the room, and aside from the doorway to let another person in. He was much smaller, and had neck length and messy brown hair, and a face only a grandparent could love, with a scar along his upper lip and left cheek.
"So, you're our first Aspye prisoner, how does that feel?" Says the man. He had a sore voice, as if he hasn't talked in awhile and the times he has, he was yelling loudly.
"Were am I?" Marshal asks demandingly.
"Ooo, so quick for questions are we? You're in a Kandarin Prison. This is were we keep our prisoners of war..." He replied.
"So, what are you doing to do? Kill me? Beat me for information?" He asked.
"Heh...no not really. Our Lord and Master Kronos, has other methods of getting information. As for killing you, well depends. If you're lucky, we'll kill you. Our Master will likely revive your body and you will be given the grand opportunity of joining his fine army, yet you won't have much choice after being revived. If you're not as lucky, we will keep you here until you die. You'll get food once a day, it will be slid under the small door hatch, we'll also pick up your bucket, to clean it out." He points to a small bucket in the corner of the cell.
"What do I do with the bucket?" Marshal asks.
"Oh, you'll find it to be the most useful thing in the world eventually. Ha hah heh..."
Marshal gulps, getting the idea.
"Anyways, I actually do want some information. That amulet you had? It's very interesting, may I ask how you got it? I can tell it's enchanted so don't bother saying it's useless."
"I got it from an elder of mine, when I served with the Blue Minotaur."
"Oh, so you're one of those historian summoners? You must be proud, being the first Aspye AND Blue Minotaur prisoner of ours." He then turns around. "Well, anyways. I'll see you in a week or so, we'll be coming by to...check on you."
"Why?"
"Heh, show him..." He says to the burly man.
The large burly man walks out of the room. A couple seconds latter, he comes back, with a hot iron rod. The smaller mans backs up, as the large mans steps towards Marshal.
Outside a loud scream can be heard...
//Since the chapter ends tomorrow, that will be my last post for Marshal this Chapter.\\
-
//
Haraldur: I'm sorry, but the idea of demons reading some propaganda on the wall and suddenly living in harmony is quite ridiculous. Firstly, they're "demons". Mostly mindless power hungry brutes that have been battling each other for eternity. Secondly, people don't read things then suddenly unanimously agree upon it after civilized discussion. It's very unrealistic. Now apply the second to the first.
I'm not saying you cannot have a sect of demons following Haraldur. You just need to go about it in a more convincing manner and stay in context. Please remember that this RP is medieval themed.
It is not merely propaganda, it is a long work that covered the whole of the cavern, and long works can be convincing, especially when people have those same thoughts half developed in their heads anyway, which is quite likely in an oppressive society (which the demon society almost definitely is, what with the power struggles between Qor, Abodahon and Iban...). Also, they are not "suddenly living in harmony". They are organising, preparing for a struggle.
Demons you say? What about them? They are obviously intelligent creatures, and peaceful enough not to have annihilated their species. They are intelligent enough for people to want to rule over them. The only demons who have really played much part so far have been power hungry brutes, though not mindless: Abodahon, for example, and Duilin for a very short time. Those are their (would be) leaders, who even in human society are power hungry brutes (look at Napoleon, the Russian Tsars, the modern politician of today...).
"Secondly, people don't read things then suddenly unanimously agree upon it after civilized discussion." It happens, and reading a long essay is not "suddenly". I am pretty sure also that I did not say there would be no arguments (in fact I think I mentioned a discussion of the validity of the essay). In this case there were no effective counter-arguments, so the essay won the day.
Also, I am working under the following assumptions: Demons need sustinence, they form communities, they are not that different from humans, they have the equivalents of farmers, blacksmiths, they have similar hopes for peace and a good life, and dislike oppression. I am also assuming that Hell is BIG: a whole planet for its own, almost (after all, all those dead souls...).
Therefore most things which apply to humanity must apply to the demons.
Is there anything these guys can't do? They seem to be capable of any spell of any element, alchemy, summoning specialized weapons, etc. upon etc. None of this is hinted at all in their bios. Let's try to be more believable here too.
Things like this were hinted at earlier this chapter, where I think I mentioned them being "enhanced" by Haraldur.//
Tesla sensed a familiar signature. So, there is Marshall, in that prison building. How did Haraldur say you went from material to ethereal? Slip behind a fold in space and then what? Oh, yes. Tesla now appeared slightly translucent: it used less energy that way. He flew towards the prison building.
______________________________________________________________________
The half portal to empty space closed as Makhno went about preventing the bullets from hitting him. His thoughts crossed the space towards one bullet, which then veered off and started homing in at Draven. Now the difficult part was done, and the thought then ricocheted off the other bullets in a chain reaction until they were all following Draven at high speed.
Durruti, not liking the look of the clouds, cast a one way shield around himself and Makhno. From Durruti's hand a small metal bird appeared, with a blade in place of its beak, poisoned, of course The bird began to fly around after leaving the shield, vaguely in Draven's direction.
They then began to back away slowly towards Gief. They must be warned!
______________________________________________________________________
Down in hell, in the now empty market place, except for a few corpses of those who held positions of power, the demon sheriff for example, the almost invisible shade moved up and out into the sky of Hell.
If Hell can be liberated... then all else can. The shade flew on towards Hell's red sun as it was setting in the sky.
_____________________________________________________________________
As the sun set down in the Western sky as seen from Alphagrad, the grey clad soldiers stared watchfully to the south. They were hearing strange reports, and the last few patrols had not reported in. Then there were those explosions to the East just then.
Mage Corporal Gibbs handed his lit pipe to his close friend Mage Lance Corporal Bishop, who sucked on the tobacco smoke and then exhaled, letting forth a smoke ring. He was just putting the pipe to his mouth again when an arrow came flying through the air and then through his throat. The mage fell to the ground as more arrows fell. "Shit!" shouted Gibbs. "Some bastards are attacking us!"
And so the Black Army's attack on Alphagrad began, to last through dusk and night.
-
Zeros' nodded.
"Yes, yes... But, for now, we need to think of several possible strategy and tactics. Plus... Stopping the fighting for a little while would be a nice break," he murmured, rubbing his temples.
"As for allying with Draven again? As far as I know, the treaty was never broken," he said. "But... We have to break one of the treaties we have... We either have to choose to strike Haraldur's forces or Draven's forces first..."
Yes. He was old. Several million years old. A rest from fighting would be a pleasent break.
-
//I suppose if Hell is that big, then not all the demons would be involved in Haraldur's story, because taking control of an entire race of that size is insane.\\
Duilin crossed his arms. He stretched his swings, and looked off into the sky. He could sense battle still going on.
"I was hoping for this to be over soon. But it looks like we still have a long, long way to go..." Duilin said softly, mostly to himself.
He thought for a wile, about what Haraldur said to him. He knew that Haraldur's intentions were good, but would they be for the better of the world. His followers obviously thought so, but what if they are wrong. It wouldn't be the first times in the world a large amount of people?s beliefs were wrong. Yet some people who they convinced to join them were quite intelligent, like Tesla and that hooded character. Yet some were just fools, like Marshall.
But as for taking out Draven right away. Sure it would be nice to finally take him out, but who knows were he has been for so long, or how power he has became. Draven was younger then him, but stronger then him and perhaps maybe even Zeros'. Would he be a better ally for now? But with Haraldur gone, do we really need Draven anymore?
He then thought about Jayce and Retan, how they just came from nowhere, and then disappeared again...
Well enough wondering and worrying, now he rests...
-
Nick walked into the small town. " Now where the next demon?" He said to himself. He was hit in the back by a giant black demon walking by. "Hey watch it!"
He was hit again but by something that was not there. "Hey!" Nick said turning around.
"Hello, I'm the next demon on your trial. Give me your obsidian dagger." The demon said becoming visable.
Nick handed the demon his dagger. The demon cuped it in his hands. When he revealed it the was nothing there.
"It's the Soul Bane."
"What's it do?"
"Well first off its invisable andsecond it can make you blend with shadows."
"Thanks.....I guess."
"Your next trial is to the east."
Nick started towards the east walking past various demons and such.
//Ill post next trial next chapter.\\
-
//Argh.... everything is left hanging with my characters. One day isn't going to be enough to end it for me. Oh well. End chapter for both Ein and Kronos.\\
-
//One market square is not the whole of hell.//
The wind was strong as the arrows rained down on Alphagrad. The grey clad defenders shone some lights down onto the plain below, and saw nothing, but the arrows kept coming down. Shining the magical lights upwards they saw humungous kites, silently riding on the wind, with several men on each kite, shooting down on them and into the town. The defenders ducked for cover. Meanwhile the commanders were receiving reports of unrest within the city itself: the populace was now aware of what was happening, and they could guess who the attackers were. If "order" was not restored soon the Grey Army could be restricted to the walls and have to defend itself from without and within.
Shields around the walls sprang up, making the arrows now nearly useless. The kites were taken down: they had had the element of surprise, and had been able to do damage, but no longer, for the shields would make them inaffective. The field officers of the Black Army gathered in nearby woods to discuss the next line of action, now that Alphagrad was under siege, effectively. They had already made it almost impossible for communications to come from Alphagrad to Retangrad, unless both had the new communications orbs.
The moon now rose as the last of the twilight ebbed away...
-
(Chapter 9 ends tomorrow!)
Still flying backwards, Draven clenched the outstretched fist. Points of crimson light suddenly shattered the clouds above, revealing themselves to be great masses of fire. The burning meteors pummeled ground-ward, one taking out the conglomeration of bullets, another the mechanical bird. A circle 1,000 feet in radius around the three was hammered by the burning rocks, tearing craters into the earth and spewing flames into the vegetation. Several struck the two Aspyes' shield, bouncing off and violently crashing into each other, sending vibrations through to the other side as the magical defense strained greatly. For several moments it was a very intense hailstorm...
A larger one flew in-between the two Aspyes' line of sight with Draven, but when it passed, the Crimson Emperor was no where to be seen...
-
//Well I guess i'll just post for nick anyway.\\
Nick reached back to the place where he came into hell. The next demon was no demon, but a spirit. The spirit of Calavous. " Brother what has happened to you?"
"I died." He said as he flew into Nick tranfering all of his energy and powers into him. Making Nick twice as powerful and twice as intelligent. He was faster and more cunning.
"Brother Noooo!" Nick said knelling on the floor. "I'm going to destroy all whom followed that man. The man that killed you!"
Nick got up and walked over a bit. He took out his swords and started to train for the inevitable...
//Hope there is an few year interlude.\\
-
"Well... Whatever you decide to do, please let us know. I'm tired. I'm gonna go find a place to stay. I'm sure you can find us." Zion gave a farewell nod and took off.
"I'm not gonna say anything meaningful, because it would just end up being the same thing he said. Anti-Climaxes, for the win!" A farewell nod from Xenai, and he's gone.
"If I have to hold on any longer, I'll fall off. Tsu, please take me somewhere to rest."
"I'm in agreement with her. Bye, Zeros'." He nods as well and takes off.
-
Zeros' nodded and waved at the three, as they departed.
"I do wonder when this war will be over... Or if it will ever be over..." he murmured, as he seemed to lean back in the air, closing his eyes.
-
//4. What, have Aura and Tsu melded together? I'm not using fusions in this RP. Razz
-
Cyan started to leave Bandervil as Frenier followed. " Get out of my life!" She yelled back. She went down the Platuae. He used her powers to lift a chunk of earth which she rode off to the south.
//Umm hows it gonna end?!?\\
-
The sun having set, and the thick clouds masking the stars, the only light emanated from the fires of the meteor shower as it dissapated... Now on foot, Draven traveled through the darkness, silently enhancing his speed as much as was possible without giving away his position...
To be continued...
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 10</span>
The short lizard man rubbed the gem on the top of his wooden staff nervously, waiting for his lord to take notice. The room was so dark. Much darker than even his kind was used to...
Finally the black throne before him turned, pivoting smoothly as if on air. The outline of the black armored Retan came into view as the seat turned to face the scaly prime minister of Mizar. Retan leaned back in his seat, his attention finally turned away from the cloudy glowing orb in the center of the room. The crimson eyes from under the helmet piercing...
"You may speak, Grav."
Grav sighed inwardly, for the past ten minutes had been an awkward silent wait.
"Thank you, my Lord... I have personally come to report that the serum is nearly complete, and results will be presented to you as soon as possible..."
"Excellent. Though, I don't care much for the wait..."
"Noted, my Lord. We shall redouble our efforts..."
"Do that."
The chair slowly swiveled around. Grav remained in his spot for a moment before turning and making his way towards the heavy black doors.
The two guard-lizards shut the doors and followed the prime minister down the misty torch-lit hallway. One of them spoke in a whispering hiss.
"Are you sure that was wise? We're not exactly ready..."
The smaller lizard struck him in the side of the head with his cane, nearly knocking the warrior lizard down.
"SSILENCE! We shall be!"
-
Rink was sleeping on the branch of a tree. He woke up, and spotted Duilin, training, practicing swinging his mace and his fists, and tossing fireballs at rocks and trees. Rink, hopped off the tree and looked at Duilin. He could sense a large amount of guilt in him.
Duilin was feeling terribly guilty for turning on them; he felt like he didn?t serve the trust Rink and Zeros? gave him. He remembered what Zeros? once told him: embrace your demonic side but don?t forget your human side. Abodahon made Duilin focus too much on his demonic magic, so he is going to work on his neutral natural-human elemental magic. He may as well stick with the wind and fire elements as his skill in those are satisfactory already. However he is going to stop using dark magic altogether, he?s going clean from it. He already has his demonic side to worry about so he doesn?t need another evil teasing him from the inside.
"Duilin." Rink said in a greeting matter.
"Oh...hey." Duilin replied, he stopped practicing.
"You okay?" The imp asked.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine..." Duilin replied.
"Great, me too."
"Hey...listen. I just can't get over how sorry I am about earlier." Duilin turned around, and looked up. "I just can't believe how stupid I was..."
"Hey, man. Don't worry about it." The little imp said in a comforting way. He stepped next to Duilin, and turned his head up and looked at his friend.
Duilin looked forward. "Well, I should really, like I don't feel right anymore. Like I betrayed you guys, really I did, I don't deserve to be with you guys."
"Duilin, I've known you for five years, I know compared to my and Zeros' life time that ain't much but it's more then enough time to really get to know somebody. Now, I'm going to be honest with you, you're a very manipulative person, but that's because well, it's natural with demons. It's okay, just remember, to think for yourself. Remember that we're fighting for good guys here."
Duilin took the shard of metal with the Romme symbol on it, from his pant pocket, and flipped it in the air and caught it. He looked at once more before tucking it in his pocket.
----
"God, it seems like I've been here for days, but it's barely even been a few hours." Marshal groaned, as he sat in his prison cell.
The small trap door opened up, and a hand with a scoop plopped down something that barely even looked editable. It looked like something in-between mashed potatoes and dirt.
He didn't eat since he was at that one revolutionary building yesterday so he took the tray and began to much the food like substance. It tasted exactly how it looked, but with a hint of stale added to it.
As Marshal ate his crappy food he thought of something. Perhaps he could escape by summoning up something, like with his own magic he could probably copy the aura of something without his amulet. Now if only he could remember some of the aura patterns. Yes, a gel, a very simple creature.
"Okay, let's see...yes..." Marshal batted his fingers about as if he was composing music in his head and writing the notes. Suddenly a blue spectre was cast from his hand and it formed into a small gel creature. Probably if he quickly repeated the pattern and put more magic energy into it, he could probably get a bigger one, yet he was tired and this monster would do just fine.
Now to wait for them to pick up his toilet bucket...
//My new Angel dude will come shortly.\\
-
"I slowly smiled, and drifted away from the man.
-"Excuse me for a second. I have some matters to attend to. Oh, and if you think of escaping, don't. I can see every move you make, no matter where you are." //btw. Spartan, when you get back, that's your dude I was talking to.\\
I floated up to the crumbled plateau. The dead were living again; their thoughts were pouring in, mixing with my mind. Interesting. The Nightshade?
Cult mechanics, social structure, clothing, poetry, blah, blah, blah. Boring. Are cults really that un-evil? Wait... there's something. Technology. What is this... "Gravity Vortex"...?
I quickly scanned over all the thoughts for mentions of this device. Indeed not many knew what it did or how it worked. The experience of some "Iron Wing", however, proves it most powerful. I had a number of my underlings get the mirrorlike orbs.
Suddenly, a message struck my mind. Looks like someone's using the M-Grid from Kandarin. It seemed to be one of my advisors.
-"Hail to thee, Marshal of Kandarinian Souvereignity, master of life and death, Lord of nature, our divine mona-"
-"Quit with the ass-kissing already. What is it?"
-"Lord, General Arvin deems it approperiate to use the Enigma machine. He is powering it up. You just need to give us the final word."
-"What the hell are you using that for? That thing gobbles up half of Sizri's arcane already, just by sitting there. We've never even tested it!"
-"Lord, I know, but-"
-"Oh, does it have something to do with that maggot I felt flying over there?"
-"Yes, Lord, I wouldn't-"
-"Activation denied. I'm coming. Warp."
As I angrily barked the last word, I realized I was talking out loud, whereas the M-Grid is used through the mind. Oh well, it's not like anyone saw me. The channel was closed, anyway.
I quickly deconstructed the rest of the living corpses, having all their memories in my own mind. Their body parts quickly reassembled into larger creatures, all winged or otherwise able to get across the ocean. We made our way back to the homeland."
--- --- ---
Horus was ripping through the woods like a knife through hot butter. Energy, energy... Energy is all he needed, and it was the one thing that he never had enough.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! The enormous maul was more effective at clearing trees than a wildfire. If one wanted to find Horus, one would not find much difficulty in that. All he needs to do is follow a trail of destruction, topped off with some half-decayed bones...
Suddenly, the huge figure froze in place. The stone ears on a stone jackal-like head moved a little. Yes... a fresh aura, passing right over him. The entity's aura revealed her to be a young female, riding a rock propelled by telekinesis. // = Cyan\\ Aura... Telekinesis... Youth. These things meant that the Converter would be quite satisfied tonight.
Horus slowly lowered to his fours, freezing again as he reached his final position. An iris opened in his back, allowing a long purple rod with a black glass-like coil around it to rise through the opening. It made a faint click as it slid into position, following Cyan through the sky. Small black sparks began to jump between the coil and the rod.
Whoosh. A rather minute black lightning erupted from the inside of the coil, right in the space between the glass and the rod. The lightning was aimed dead at the stone Cyan was flying on. The cannon retreated back into Horus, the stone iris closing right after it.
--- --- ---
-"Damn! They've got Marshal."
Ein quickly morphed into a moth, and flew right after the group through the thick black fog. While on his way, he established a telepathic link with Tesla.
-"Hey, any news on Marshal?"
However, a powerful barrier seemed to be blocking that message. Wherever Tesla was last at, it's extraodrinarily magically powerful... and even scarier, most of that power was coming from a point, a single source. What could eminate so much energy?
-
Tsu and Aura entered an inn in some random city ((:P))... Aura was in one of her casual outfits... A black sleeveless shirt and a long black skirt. The armor had been put away upstairs in her room. Zion and Xenai, who were sitting at a table, looked over. Xenai gave an upward nod and was the first to talk.
"How'd your little date go? God knows you two needed some relaxation."
"We didn't get any relaxation," said Tsu.
"Huh?"
"It was disasterous," said Aura.
"Yet amusing," added Tsu.
"You'll have to tell us about it," said Zion as the two walked over and sat with them at the table.
"Ugh... Some other time... The only thing that worked was going to sleep."
Xenai snickered, and the two immediately interrupted before he could get anything out. "No!"
"Fine! Bite my head off!"
"I will!" Aura tried to look menacing by making chomping motions, but with the Zerobi gone, she simply looked cute.
"Well... Nothing we can do except relax until Zeros' comes to get us," said Zion.
"Boring..." Xenai rolled his head.
"Don't have a choice, bud."
"Yeah, whatever."
-
//Ahh a new chapter with new ideas....\\
The rock crumbled beneath Cyan and she fell to the ground....
-----
Nick still standing in hell training. Flinging the swords all around his body.
The night before he learned something he learned he was not his own being but an incarnation of a great demon his so called "Father". He only learned that at the point him and Calavous fused together. Nick stood in the same place doing the same thing. Like a lifeless body but a lively mind...
----
Cyan hit the ground some of the impact was taking away with some telekinesis but wasn't enough....she died. Calavous body resting at Bandervil now disapeared....
//About the Friener and the whole Fallongian npc group you guys can do what ever you want to them.\\
-
//Laus went into another demension back in Chapter 7 Trent.\\
The big burly prison guard, came over to Marshal's cell door, he opened up the trap door, and took out the toilet bucket. He looked inside, as he often does, for an unknown reason.
He noticed some sort of blue-ish gelatinous liquid inside. Before he could ask what Marshal eats, the gel jumped out of the bucket and grabbed the guards face.
The large man attempted to pull the small gel from his face, yet it kept a strong sucking grip onto him. Soon the gel began to crawl bits off it up his noise and began to suck out his brain.
The smaller guard noticed this and ran towards the big guy's aid. The large man fell to the ground, and the gel crawled away from him. The smaller man, looked at the big guy's concaved face.
Meanwhile the gel snatched the key from the big guard's belt and slides it into the keyhole (an monster of course does not have the intelligence to do this, but you must remember that Marshal can fully control the things he summons).
The door is kicked open and the small guard glares at Marshal. "Well, well looks like you don't need that silly sapphire in the first place!"
"Well, not really, but I don't feel like wasting my time explaining the logics of my magic to such a small man, with a small brain and probably some other small things as well."
The man growled in rage and then grabbed the hot iron that was fortunate enough to be in his reach. He jumps at Marshal and thrust the hot iron at Marshal wile he was reaching towards him. Marshal kicks the man; right before he reaches him, and he falls and hits the oven the iron pole was in.
As the guy lied down on the ground in pain, Marshal stomps his foot down on his chest, wile he walks by. He looks around the room. It was a small hallway, with two other cells yet the doors were open and the cells empty. There was a stair way to the left that likely lead to more rooms. On the wall in front of him, was a map of the place; it seemed to be a large prison tower. It had some basic information that this was a place were the held war criminals and prisoners of war.
"Interesting..." He said to himself. He then looked to his right, and what do you know, all his stuff was there, piled up. "God, you're as stupid as you are ugly." He said to man, groaning in pain. He picks up his armour plate chest and puts in on, and slips on his plate legs, puts on his badass gloves and boots, and grabs his summoning amulet and places it around his neck. He then grabs his belt with his supply of bullets and his machinegun.
He checks his gun, apparently they were messing around with his gun, trying to find out how the thing worked. It had a few scratches on it, and he noticed a few empty bullet cases were on the ground. He also noticed that his supplies of bullets were slightly less then they were before he was captured.
He then headed towards the staircase. However the man grabbed Marshal's ankle on his way past him. Marshal turned his head and looked at him. "You know, I was going to be nice and let you live...but."
Marshal pointed his gun and fired a bullet at his head. He noticed that the gun made a slightly different sound when he fired it, and it was smoking a bit more then it usually did. "What in the world? I think I'll need to get Tesla to get me a replacement..."
He then stepped down the stairs, looking more at what the fools did to his weapon.
-
Horus stood back up, and leaped over to Cyan's motionless corpse. Dead isn't as good as living... but it will do. He kicked the corpse, just to make sure she was dead.
She sure seemed dead to him. Horus picked the body up, opened his mouth and shoved the whole thing inside of him, pushing her right into the Converter.
Almost immediately he felt his power getting back to him... Yes... a strong one this one was. However, the Converter is ever so greedy, it will want more before it had its fill. Horus got back down on all fours and started galloping in the general direction of Bandervil.
-
//Fine. *Goes and retcons it.*
-
The two orcs, Shaak and Kraig were in the newly finished fort inspecting the facilities.
They entered the armoury and saw a large variety of swords and spears. They weapons looked like they were recycled with bolts and chain links seen within the metal as if they didn?t quite melt in the smithy.
"Where is my Trident?" Shaak asked one of the weapons specialists.
"And my axe?" Kraig added.
"Well they are being upgrades at the labs."
"We have labs?" Kraig asked, he was surprised at how many things were in the newly finished base.
"Yes, you may want to stop by there and see what they are doing. But in the meantime, check out this!" The orc points to a rather strange weapon. It had three barrels attached by triangular spokes and had two wheels on the sides.
"This sir, is the Orc Mercenary Group Transportable 3-Barreled Heavy Gatlling gun. Or the OMG T3H Gatlling gun."
"that, that is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!" Kraig looks at the machine with almost a tear in his eye.
"It uses any piece of scrap metal as ammo. You see you put the metal in the grinder at the top and it smashes it into little bits and then blasts them at the enemy. The only down side is that it is horribly inaccurate so it is mostly useful for large crowds."
they leave the armoury to head to see the rest of the base when they see somthing on the horizon. It was the albatrorc rider they sent out to get a Cyclops egg. So they waited a little wile until he landed in the fort.
"Sir! I have the Cyclops egg you requested." The rider said, as if he had been waiting days to say it.
"Did you get the super uhh? growth... stuff." Kraig asked
"Yes."
The orcs looked at the giant egg. It was about 5 feet wide and 6 tall.
"Well. Take it to the stables and keep it warm." Shaak ordered.
"Yes sir!"
"Now what do we do?" Kraig asks
"Wait for Kronoses orders." Shaak replied.
"I'm gonna see the gun again!" Kraig runs back to the armoury.
-
Nick heard a portal being opened as a new soul came into hell a figure of a girl one that looked like she practiced magical arts. He jumped through the portal landing a little south of Bandervil. He got up and looked around. seeing some beast with a jackel-like head a few 20 feet infront of him.
-
"This sir, is the Orc Mercenary Group Transportable 3-Barreled Heavy Gatlling gun. Or the OMG T3H Gatlling gun."
// Dippy wins forever. I'm waiting for Zeros' to post so I can do something useful. Razz
From Dude Man: Stop making comment only posts, remember the new rule. Wink
T's rebuttal: If Zeros' did anything, I wouldn't have to. Razz
-
//Ah, DM already close to abusing his powers. That's the DM I know\\
"I had arrived back home, just to catch sight of that excuse for a fighter zipping away into the distance. //Tesla is going to some place that starts with "A", right?\\
Even from a distance I could see Kandarinian coasts, fully prepped for assault. Looks like they were trying to fend off an army or something. Ah well, it is better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.
Now, since my army was already mobilized, it's best if I do something with it. It would be best to clean up the small garbage calling itself "villages" scattered all over the Continent, perhaps attracting some pathetic do-gooder to "bring an end to Kronos' evil reign". Meanwhile, the fallen defenders of the villages will simply add to my army. Talk about killing thousands of birds with one stone, and then bringing them back to life! Hmm, undead birds. My genius often surprises me myself.
Deep in my thoughts, I did not notice that I reached Kandarin. I slowly lowered myself onto the ground and phase-shifted back to reality. Through my summons, Arlin, the Elder and Roland were already waiting for me.
-"Hello, gentlemen. Do tell me of the state of my military."
Arlin, who was busy unsuccessfully trying to hide his embarassment, spoke first.
-"It seems that the incoming enemy... uh... feared our mighty defences and fled... my Lord."
I pierced him with a cold stare.
-"I think he left because he was about to shit himself laughing with the level of preparation you ordered! It was one man! Eurgh..."
Arlin's head sank.
-"Yes, my Lord."
-"Anyway, to other matters. Roland and Mr. Elder, how are things on our little pet group coming along?"
The Elder and Roland exchanged a cryptic look from each other, and turned their attention back to me.
-"The one called "Ein" is coming to Kandarin. He should not be much of a problem. Roland has it figured out."
-"I'm sure he does. Roland, what is the plan?"
Roland's expressionless face... er... stayed expressionless.
-"Ein, despite being a common human, is able to turn himself into a giant moth. Me and the Elder thought up of a solution to our little upcoming moth problem... Perhaps some open flame, from a certain type of lizard...?"
I grinned.
-"Can you do that?"
-"I believe I can. We retained our summoning powers even after the descention."
Hmm, Roland seems to be genuinely with me.
-"Very well. You know, you may be looking to a full independence from me soon enough.
Now it was Roland's turn to grin.
-"Thank you, my Lord."
With that, I left the group and entered the nearest building. The family residing inside the small pyramidic home dropped down to their knees and bowed.
-"Lord! To what do we owe such a blessing?"
I was somewhat annoyed.
-"I need to use your M-Grid device. Oh, and while you're at it, please, get off the floor!"
The couple sprang to their feet as if the floor had burnt them.
-"Yes, master!"
Forgetting about the family for the time being, I approached the transparent orb. I reached out for it, and put my had on it. At that exact moment, I shifted phases, effectively merging into the stream, and exiting in the lab where Kraig was admiring his new cannon. I slowly drifted out of the orb.
-"Hello, Kraig."
I turned away from him for a second, towards the exit from the lab.
-"SHAAK?! GET OVER HERE!"
My attention was back with Kraig.
-"Anyway. Due to a slight... mistake... of one of my high-ranking officers, I have an army deployed. I want you two to get them over the ocean to the Continent and begin raiding all smaller towns and villages you can find."
I paused, closing my eyes, and sending orders to my undead operatives in Qim's factories. Re-opening my eyes, I found another technician in the room, eyeing me carefully. I ignored him.
-"A number of transports were arranged for you and the army at the Kandarinian Industrial sector of Qim. You will also find Clockwork Scorpions there. Quite useful toys on the battlefield."
Still expecting Shaak, I moved my head closer to Kraig. My eyes thinned.
-"Now, here's the real part of the deal. No mercy. Kill children, abuse maids, torture men. Absolutely no mercy. Make it known that there is a new power. Splatter everything with blood, burn houses down, whatever. That's your art right there. Am I making myself clear?"
-
"Yes, Sir... er, Kronos."
Kraig waits until Kronos leaves.
"That?s the first time I?ve seen you kiss ass to anyone." an orc technician said modestly.
"Get back to work!" Kraig shouted, not to be made a coward.
"Was that Kronos I heard?" Shaak said as he ran into the building.
"Yes, and he gave us a mission."
"What is it?"
"We go to the shores of Kandarinian, pick up some clock bugs, cross the ocean and kill shit."
"Is that what he said?"
"Umm... yes."
"Whatever."
The two go outside and head toward the briefing room to inform the troops.
"Please report to the briefing room for briefing... Please report to the briefing room for briefing..." The nasal voice of the orc on the loudspeaker repeats.
"Shut up"
"AARRGGG!"
"That is really annoying!" The orcs cry on their way to the briefing room.
"All the more reason to hurry up!" Shaak explains to the troops.
"Thats why you do that eh? It's still annoying as hell though." Kraig grumbled.
"Sir, come quick!"
"What?" Shaak and Kraig respond.
"The egg! It's hatching!"
The three run to the stables to see the colossal egg rolling around cracking. The after a little wile the egg split revealing what looked like a giant foul smelling baby.
"Wow, look at those big strong arms and those powerful legs and those evil piercing eyes. Wait, eyes?!?" Kraig notes in shock.
"Are you sure it was a cyclops?" Shaak asked, also in shock.
"I'm sure." The orc said.
"But the cyclops' got two eyes!" Shaak exclaims.
"It's not a cyclops! It's a... Byclops." Kraig said
"Should we return it?" The orc asks.
"Screw that, everyone has a cyclops but we are the only ones in the world who have a Byclops." Kraig said proudly
"Well, you take good care of the uhh... Byclops. We need to breif the troops now." Shaak reminds Kraig and they head off.
"I'll use that growth potion, it says it should make it mature in about ten hours. Okay? Shaak? Kraig? Man I need a smoke."
-
Nick left the seen in a hurry to leave the destroied scene of Bandervil. He didn't want to run into the Aspyes again. He assumed the Grey Empire was completely gone maybe a few patches of armies and such. But little did he now that he was right. By the time he finished thinking of this theory he was lost in an unfimilar place.
-
Horus stopped. Not too distant, he saw the towering Bandervil... and a LOT of live auras inside. Dinner time.
He dropped down to his fours, deploying his cannon. A low hum around it began to build up... smaller lightnings fried some trees around him. The cannon was aimed at the fortress' high walls.
-
Nick continued going northwards passing by Bandervil. He went into the shadow of the walls. He looked at the Souls Bane. He felt the power course through his demonic blood. He disapeared into the shadows. //soz i fixed\\
-
//Sorry about that comment only post. I just can't do anything until Zeros' tells my characters what needs to be done. Dippy still wins forever, though.//
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Think maybe we should go look for him?" piped up Xenai with an idea.
Zion took a short break from reading a newspaper to glance at his vulgar friend. "Maybe. Don't think those two are up to it, though." He canted his head toward Tsu and Aura, who'd fallen asleep, heads on the table.
"Oh, great. Should we leave 'em behind?"
"We're staying."
"Dammit, Zion!"
-
//Arg, burton, not yet! Horus didn't open fire on the walls. That was supposed to be a charged attack.\\
The black energy continued to build up inside the coils. The hum was also taking a higher pitch.
-
"Duilin do you hear something?" Rink asked.
"Yeah, sounds like some high pitched humming noise." Duilin replied.
"Hey, where?s Zeros'?" Rink questioned looking around.
"You know, he was hear a second ago..." Duilin answered.
"Guess I'll just go check it out myself, like seriously, how bad could it be?" Rink shrugged. He then fluttered off towards the direction of the sound.
Meanwhile Duilin leaned against the tree, Rink was resting on. He slowly looked around, seeing if he could spot Zeros' anywhere. Suddenly he sensed an aura.
"Hmm..." Duilin thought out loud. "Now...this seems like of familiar." Duilin however, was still not quite as sensing auras as Zeros', and maybe not even Zion and the bunch. But Duilin somewhat recognized the aura, from not to long before.
Duilin stepped forward and looked around. He could sense somebody was hiding behind some of the broken walls...or maybe 'in the shadows'. He remembered he sensed a demonic aura from earlier...
---
Rink fluttered to wear he heard the sound, only to see a giant machine charging up a huge blast. "Sweet mother Gaia!" Rink snapped in a startle.
He quickly dived behind a rock. Now, what the hell was that? Some sort of machine-like thing? He then peeked from under the rock, to get a better look at it.
Holy smokes, it is a machine! It seems to be charging up a whole blast of dark energy. I wonder what it wants? Obviously he can tell by the energy it's charging that it's not around to talk about the weather.
Rink then flapped his wings back towards Duilin, as quickly as possible.
-----
"Yeah, I seriously don't know enough about how this things works in order for me to know what's wrong." Marshal grumbled. "I'd be nice if Tesla told me how these things worked..."
He then arrived on the second floor, this floor had several more hallways, and several more rooms, and several more guards.
There was a man, wearing a beige and red coloured uniform (or whatever those Kandie-Sov guys wear). He had a large belly, a full thick beard, and a baldhead. He was sitting on a wooden stool, staring at the wall, when he spots Marshall coming down the stairs.
"Now what in the great name of Kronos, are you doing here!" The man exclaimed.
Suddenly a man wearing a similar uniform, but with a cleaner build, and short blond hair runs in and points at the man, who questioned Marshall. "How dare you use our great ruler's name in vain!"
"Well, hey wait a darn minute, I did say 'good' name, didn't I?" The bearded man said in defence.
"It does not matter! Do you have any idea what Kronos has done for us? You think you can go about using his name in any way you wish!?" The blond haired man said back.
Suddenly another man, shorter then the blonde, with red hair, shouted and pointed at the blond haired man. "You have just said his name in vain as well!"
"What do you mean?" The blonde hair man said trying to defend himself. "All I said was: 'Do you have any idea what Kronos has done for us?' I was just mentioning his name."
"Well, still. You can't just say 'Kronos' freely, he is our great ruler!" The red haired man said.
"Ah ha!" The bearded man shouted, pointing at the red haired one. "Now, YOU have just said his name! How about that?"
"W-Well..." The red haired man said trying to defend himself now. "I had my reasons to...you see..."
Meanwhile Marshall unlocked all the prison doors on the floor while to two different coloured haired people began to argue. The prisoners then snatched some things they could use as weapons and began to run through the floors of the tower, releasing the prisoners (Not that when I'm finished the post, they will not be done yet.)
-
"I was walking peacefully through my city back to the citadel that is my palace, when I finally began to notice a spirit leaving my city. Odd. No one is due death today... Someone must've killed one of my men!
By the looks of it, the death came from somewhere in Undecimus. That's where most of the barracks and prisons are. Ah! There we go, some escapees. I sent a small jolt of my energy to the particular prison, and continued walking."
---
As Marshal was releasing the prisoners, a loud groan could be heard from the stairwell. A horrid-looking undead was crawling up the stairs! There was a bullet hole in his head, as well as the bird-shaped Kandarin symbol branded on his back, still smoking. The zombie had a freakish smile on his face.
-"You know, I was going to be nice and let you escape... but."
A number of live guards armed with brutal-looking crossbows showed up the same way, from up the stairs. Some more undeads were following.
-"If you know what's good for you, surrender. Maybe we'll kill you quickly that way. On the other hand..."
The guards chuckled, exchanging menacing grins.
-"Personally, we'd actually like it more if you resisted capture."
-
//Hey what about the big guy who got his brains sucked out by the gel?\\
Marshall looked at the guards and the zombies surrounding him. He then grinned. "Well, personally I'd actually like it more if you all consumed your own fecal matter!"
Marshall then held out his left hand, his right hand still holding his gun, and then his amulet began to glow, and a large blue spectre flew from the amulet and into his hand, and the spectre balled up in his hands, then faster then you could blink, the spectre exploded into a swarm of blood sucking bats. They began to swarm around biting (yet not killing) the guards and zombies. They flew in the guards' faces, to able Marshall's escape.
Marshall then waved them goodbye in a mocking way, as he slid down the railing of the stairway.
"Viva la Revolution, you fascist scumbags!" He laughed as he slid down...
-
Shaak and Kraig enter the briefing room stage and see the full ten thousand orcs and 120 ogre shock troops. It looked like an ocean with all of the swords and spears waving around. The noise of the crowd was immense, you could barley hear your own voice so you had to speak louder causing an eternal cycle of yelling.
"Now i'm sure you're all wondering why you were sent here." Shaak starts, the crowd is not paying attention at all. "Our client Kronos has given us a mission." The crowd still carries on in their conversations.
"Could you please listen!" Skaak barks, but still not one of them turns their head.
"LISTEN UP YOU LITTLE SHITS OR I'M GONNA RIP UP EVERY ONE OF YOU UP LIKE A DWARF AT A BARBIQUE!" Kraig yells out the loudest bellow he could muster working like a tsunami of shut-up across the crowd.
" *Chough* Well um... now that I have your attention, Kronos has sent us on a very important mission. We are to go to the Kandarinian Industrial sector of Qim and rendezvous with the Kandarion army. We with load up onto the transports and sail across the ocean to our destination. Now, here's the fun part: we are released onto thousands of acres of villages, civilians, and unburned crops. We are sent to make it a wasteland, needless to say, it's an open buffet of the juiciest smoothskins you've ever tasted, but remember orcs: no racism, they all deserve to die equally!" Shaak is met by a wave of cheers by the thousands of orcs.
"That was a great speech, but... Do we get to bring T3H Gattling guns?" Kraig ask like a child wanting his toy.
"Of coarse Kraig, now to business. What do you say we bring all but about a hundred orcs for guards, all of our shock troops, the fleet of a hundred albatrorcs, and I think we can get the smithies to make about a hundred of those OMG T3H Gatlling Guns." Shaak lists.
"Me likes!" Kraig grins.
"Sir, Sir, Your weapons are ready!" An orc R&D worker pants, the sweaty nerd looks like this is the first time he has seen daylight in months.
"Lets go Kraig."
They walk into the musty innards of the labs a few more nerds are tampering with little odds and ends.
"Greetings Shaak, Kraig."
"Why did you say his name first?" Kraig asks, not liking to be upstaged by Shaak.
"Uhh... I don't know, I guess it just sounds better." The scientist stutters.
"Anyways, where's my trident?" Shaak changes the topic.
"Ohh, yes hear it is, as you can see I fixed it up with a little something."
"What something?"
"A Lighting Orb Launcher! You see it shoots a little ball of electricity out of the end that may cause paralysis or death." The scientist explains.
"Cool, but what the hell is electricity?" Shaak ponders.
"And for you Kraig we have the Sonic Terrainian Fissure Upgrade. It emits a sonic blast into the ground that opens up a fissure and engulfs the target." The scientist explains.
"Umm... so it makes a... uhh... what?s a fizzer?"
"It's called a fissure, and basically what I mean is you hit the ground and it makes a crack in it that can swallow the enemy." The scientist tries to reach Kraigs dense mind.
"Okay... Would it make a crack in the skull of some smoothskin at a bar trying to bum a smoke offa? me?"
"Uhh? I guess."
"Cool" Kraig grins and takes his new weapon.
-
//Dippy always adds comedy to this rp. Very Happy \\
Nick continued north completly passing Bandervil. "So where to go?" He asked himself. "Maybe where ever the wind takes me." he thought.
-
//Oh come on, what about me! I'm just as funny as Dippy in some of my posts!\\
Rink fluttered down on the ground next to Duilin. "Du-Du-Duilin...There's like this...huge crazy machine thing!" The imp exclaimed, pointing back in the direction he came from.
"...and?" Duilin asked sounding barely interested.
"It's charging like...this huge...dark...energy...blast thing."
"Hey, where's Zeros'? Shouldn't he be telling us what to do right about now?" Duilin asked.
"DUILIN!" Rink shouted sounding annoyed. "There is the huge ass machine-like thing with a dog head and it's going to shoot a blast the size of Draven's ego in our general direction, if we, sorry, YOU don't do something about it!"
"Why me? Can't you?" Duilin said grinning.
Rink crossed his arms, and looked at Duilin in the eye. The one foot little imp looked rather annoyed.
"Sheesh, okay, I was just kidding. So let's see this magical machine thing." Duilin then walks off, and Rink follows beside him, flying about five feet in the air.
-
The cannon was charged to the point of making a nice wide gaping hole in the wall.
What? What's this? Two more auras to the west...?
Another low grumble from inside Horus' body, the cannon turned with lightning speed towards Duilin and Rink's position. The black beam erupted from the cannon towards them. If it were to miss, it would still make a reasonable hole in the ground as well as a small shockwave.
-
Duilin grabbed Rink and jumped to the left, avoiding the main blast, he landed on the ground shielding his friend, and the explosion was able to scorch his wings. "Ahhhrrrgg..." Duilin growled. He then slowly got up, leaving the imp on the ground. He dusted himself, the back of his shirt and his wings had burns of them. "Rink, hide. If I get in trouble, get the others."
Duilin took out his mace, which he had his holster attached to his belt. He then spun it around, and then ran towards Horus, he assumed that since it had to charge up the blast that it would take awhile. "Brace yourself tick-tock, I really liked this shirt!" He then jumped into the air, front flipping, he then flew downwards as he fell towards the ground; he swung his mace at the mighty machine.
-
//Clarification: Laus is, currently, a small island on the Eastern coast of Alterna.//
-
// <Coughs> I should check back sooner... <Scratches his head> Sorry. \\
Zeros' was actually floating near Duilin and Rink, cloaking in a technique that let him stay invisible, as well as completely hide his aura. It was rather simple to do, but it took him some weeks to fully master and prefect it, even as old as he was. It was rather useful, though, especially for stealth missions.
He was fortunte to be near enough to Rink's comment about Draven's ego and quietly snickered. He quietly moved forwards, wanting to see how Duilin did without his help. In the meantime, he sent Rink a telepathic message.
No worries, Rink... I'm am nearby enough to help you two out if you need it. I want to see how Duilin fares by himself without anyone, but yours help, if you wish to help him. he quietly telepathed to Rink, making sure to keep his aura depressed still.
In referance, he also sent a telepathic message to Zion, seeing as he seemed to be the most logical of the bunch.
Zion, I want you and your companions to come to Duilin's position... eventually. You can take your time. I'm with him, but I want to see how much he's grown. If he needs help, I'll help him. Take your time getting here, but don't rush yourselves. he told - who he decided - was the most logical of the four.
He had also moved around behind Duilin, but about two hundred feet away, ready to help him if he needed it.
-
For an island in the middle of noware, it seemed as though this one can suite a Golbin Warlord very well, it had running water, a vlcano and a mountain system leading all across the island. Ulmec stared at the mountains with a large glee for he knew that it would be the best place to build.....and hide an army of millions.
"I wonder what would the rest of the Goblins say if they saw me now."
He approached a small cavern just down the beach and looked in, all he say was rock and water, with a few climbs down the sense of safety came to be and began to mutter incantations.
" Islgiath Mordgul Aletgh Daguld Islgiath Mordgul Aletgh Daguld ". Over and over and over and over he went. after a good hour or 2 of muttering, around 20 naked creatures appeared from the darkness of what was once a peaceful Cenotae. After carefully inspect the creatures he peared into the cave, it was smoldering and the water had turned into such a thick mud it could almost be walked-upon.
"What biddings do you have master?", Ulmec turned around to see one of his newly create goblins. Finally, in a brief second, he muttered a few words......."We got work to do"
-
He perked up a bit. "Got a message from Zeros'. We're to go to Duilin's position!"
"At last! Action!!!" Xenai literally sprung out of his chair and ran out the door.
"H-hey! Hold it!"
"Uhhh... Why so much noise?" Aura slowly raised up from the table, looking at Zion with eyes half-open.
Zion's eyes fell on her. "Go change and get your swords. You probably shouldn't wear that armor, either. It'll weigh you down."
"Uhm... Okay." She lightly shook Tsu. "Wake up. We have to go."
"Uhhhhh... But Mommy, I don't want to go to school today, I want to stay home and bake cookies with you..."
She kickz0rs him. "Wake up!"
"Gah!"
A few minutes later, the three guys were standing outside waiting for the woman.
"Why'd you tell her to change? Now we're waiting on her. Who cares if I accidentally happen to position myself underneath her?"
"I care." Tsu frowned a really exaggerated frown at Xenai, the kind where he knew that Xenai was joking, but didn't really appreciate the joke.
"I can hear you, perv." Aura finally emerged, in a white t-shirt and blue jeans, her scimitars sheathed on her back.
Zion and Tsu laughed at their idiot friend, who was presently grumbling with another exaggerated frown as Zion sought out Duilin's location. "It's no biggie. Zeros' told me that we could take our time. There he is." The three guys took off in that direction as Aura pulled her hairpin out. Zion looked back at her. "Oh, no. This is too troublesome. Tsu, can you take her to Seijin like I did for you?"
"No problem."
Zion and Xenai took off toward Duilin's location, while Tsu took off toward Seijin's cloud with Aura on his back.
-
//Whoah. Lookin' like i'm about to get a hella lot of attention. Also, Ulmec, an army of millions is not really allowed in DAL (if you were going to make one). The top for an active army should be around 100,000.\\
Duilin's mace scraped the sandy armour, not even putting a dent in it. A grumble almost like laughing came from inside Horus, and he retracted his cannon into his back.
He took his maul off his back, where it was hung up by the handle, and slammed it into the ground in front of Duilin. A massive shockwave resulted, probably knocking Duilin over.
Then Horus froze. Two more strong auras, approaching at a high speed. There was also something else... Something in the air some distance away. He couldn't quite put his hand on what it was... probably a bird or something. Nothing to be worried about.
He snapped back to reality, and placed his maul in a defensive position. Meanwhile, the cannon inside his back began to charge up again, emitting a low hum.
--- --- ---
"I entered my vast citadel, and continued walking to the Sizri operational centre. There, some of my minions were already waiting with the gravity orbs, as well as some very confused scientists.
-"Ah, I am guessing you are wondering what those orbs are for." I was the first to speak. "These need to be examined thoroughly. Use the highest level of caution while conducting tests on them. They should prove a rather valuable resuroce, if we open the mystery behind them."
-"Yes, my lord, but... what are they?"
-"Well, if I knew, I wouldn't be asking you to find out, would I?" A small lie never hurt anyone. Besides, if he would be successful, there is a chance that we could produce our own weapons of this grade.
Before leaving the Sizri compound, I activated it's M-Grid commorb.
-"Undecimus; Orc district; Briefing room."
My image popped up in the middle of the orc-flooded area.
-"Before you depart, you should know that there was a jailbreak in Undecimus. Try to leave some men to apprehend the prisoners; possibly even an OMG T3H Gattling gunner. The leader of the jailbreak is probably armed and should be considered dangerous. Warp."
The code word ended my hologram.
---
//Damn, completely forgot about Ein!\\
Ein was now at the Kandarinian shores. He quickly morphed back into his human form, trying to avoid all possible detection.
He landed in what appeared to be a wide bay, with some signposts offering directions. The most repeated one said "Jovil". That must've been the name of the place where he landed.
The sides of the streets were filled with very strange-looking houses - most were of a tall pyramidic shape, with what looked like a pole coming out of the top. Ein snuck inside one of them.
This particular building was rather small, and empty. No one was inside it, however, it appeared to be living quarters - there was a bed, a wardrobe, a study, and some other insignificant things. He opened the wardrobe, and changed his clothes to the first set he found inside.
He now appeared as a normal Kandarinian citizen - a black shirt with many folds, black pants, and beige boots. The shirt had some sort of a bird-like symbol on it - the owner was either very patriotic, or the leader of this place was a true tyrant. Ein walked out onto the street.
-
//Army of millions is just an expression//
Work, a thing that Goblins hate but are best at( besides combat), what pain it was to uproot all those trees, pretty soon, Ulmec returned from a scouting mission in the mountains to find 3 of his archmages enchanted another goblin pit.
"Since when have we been so eager to work my brothers?" They all answered at the same time," Since we have benn so safe from the oustide world my'lord!"
Ulmec sat down to think, "why are my goblins afraid from the outside world?" This was a question that needed fixing for Ulmec knew that a goblin who is afraid is not a good fighter. The only person who know was the creator of goblins himself,Huget . but sadly Huget is long since passed into the other world. It seems that he will have to use this army which seems to have a......Mans Soul! Ulmec jumped up with a childish glee and began to cheer as he realized that all he needed was a orc mineral to complete the goblins.
" Gable, get me the a sample of our golbin-mineral."
"Master, are youess sure, tis' very dangerous to bring out mineral?"
" Do it, for i Ulmec command you!"
" Yesssss master Ulmec."
Gable was the first Goblin Ulmec create so Ulmec had more emotion over him than any others. Although he was just another goblin, Ulmec had treated him with much respect and has transformed him into a very good figher. Most of his inspection has to do with walking around the base. Finally, Gable returned with the stone but the examination was interuppted with a goblin returning to announce that a long lost enterance to the mountains has been discovered.................
-
The orcs look in confusion at the spector of Kronos.
"Well, you heard him. I will send platoons 2-9 to deal with the situation. You may take 5 T3H Gattilng guns with you. Leutenet Harek, you will lead them." Shaak breifs the squad of 400 orcs.
"Four hundered? Just for a jail break?" Kraig questions.
"Better safe than sorry Kraig, besides, we have orcs to spare."
The orc soliders got ready to go to Qim. They loaded crates up with weapons, food and varies other supplies. The stablemaster loaded up albatrorcs into their cages and the uhh... Byclops into a cage. The creature had already visably grown, the stable master had also given him a name: Thor.
After everyone had packed their bags they set off toward Qim. The other group headed toward the jail break to lay down the law.
-
"Zeros' seemed to stress taking our time," said Zion. "We need to give Tsu and Aura a chance to catch up anyways."
"Yeah, fine." Xenai frowned. The two then slowed down a bit.
--- --- ---
//For the record, Seijin's an NPC right now.
Tsu and Aura arrived upon the cloud. Aura looked around, mystified. "Whoooaaa..."
Seijin turned to see them. "Looks like you two have made up."
"Yeah... Um... Aura needs to fly."
"Well, I guess I have to... No, forget it. It's my job simply to decide if the person's worthy. I don't have to give any test. I feel no traces of the Zerobi in her, so I will give her some wings." He waves his hand, and a pair of translucent, ethereal angel wings appear on Aura's back. They're pink. Aura looks back at them and flaps them a bit.
Seijin continues to describe the wings. "The wings are for energy enhancement. Enhancing the energy, in turn, enhances the person it belongs to. They will appear when you need more power. But you don't really need them out in order to fly. You know how to fly now. You just don't know it. When you leave the cloud, just do it like it's natural, and you'll be fine. You can now also detect energy signatures. You can't detect them very well yet, though."
"T-thank you, sir." She bowed to him, and walked over to the wall of the cloud, her wings fading out. She looked to Tsu. "Um... Will I be okay?"
"I'll catch you if you mess up. So don't worry."
"O-okay." She gulped and jumped out. Suddenly, the information she needed appeared in her mind. She flew around in a circle with a "Woo-hoo!"
Tsu floated up behind her. "I see you like it."
"Yeah, a lot!"
He felt around for Zion and Xenai... "Alright, let's go." ...And took off in that direction, at a moderately slow speed so that Aura could get used to it.
"Okay..." She touched her hairpin... Don't really need it, but she'd keep it anyway 'cos it looked good. She followed Tsu after that brief pause.
-
Nick heard the explosion of the walls and became visable again. He started running very fast coming upon what used to be the crimson capital. "What the hell was that?" he said looking back at the Bandervil. He sensed a few aruras that he may have encountered in the battle of Bandervil. "I wonder......"
-
"???" Duilin was then tossed in the air, and then hit the ground, due to the shockwave caused by Horus, yet he got back up and shook his head a bit.
"Crap..." Duilin mumbled. He then heard a humming sound from the machine's cannon. "Oh no you don't!" Duilin then charged up lightning energy into his mace. Bolts of lightning circled the blades at the end; wile the entire mace had a slight yellow glow. Duilin then dashed towards Horus smashing his mace towards the chest of the machine, the effect would likely cause electricity to jolt through Horus.
---
Marshal then arrived at the next floor. Two guards jumped up and stepped towards him.
One guard pointed towards Marshall "In the name of-"
Marshall then shot at the guard, taking him to the ground. He didn't want to hear him say 'Kronos' and then he'd have to endure another stupid argument.
The other guard simply stepped back. Marshal kept his weapon pointed at him. "Give me the keys." Marshal demanded.
The guard took the key chain from his pocket and handed it to Marshal. He then checked on the other guard who was shot.
Marshal then unlocked the doors; a couple prisoners then tied up the two guards.
"Who are you?" One prisoner asked.
"Marshall Royle, I'm with the Revolution."
"Oh yes, I can see by your armour colour. Some of us are with the revolution as well. A few of us were taken prisoner during the battle of Ugran. It was kind of odd being taken away by zombies."
"Zombies, yes I have noticed a lot of zombies lately. An old group I was with, the Blue Minotaur, was sadly turned into zombies, perhaps there is a connection."
"Perhaps, Blue Minotaur are summoners, correct? I did see some zombies summoning monsters during the battle."
"Ah ha. So this must be the place that houses the necromancer. By the way, do you know who Kronos is?"
"Yes, he is the ruler of this place, they seem to have a ton of respect for Kronos, I believe he is the necromancer of the group. I've heard that they are extremely dangerous, being a necromancer is a very though thing to do. So, anymore questions?"
"No, at least not for now. Thank you, you've been more then helpful, now let's get to the other floors and save the rest of them."
"Wait, but they are sure to have noticed all of this, what if they attack us?"
"We'll have to take arms and fight back if we wish to live. I can summon monsters so I may be able to protect most of you."
Suddenly they could hear the group of guards coming down the stairs.
"Uh-oh..."
-
the Orc mercenary group thunders across the land of Kandarion. The sea of spears, swords and helmets wave around like a... sea... of... chivalry... ner.
Civilians look in awe as they see the orcs pass by.
"That?s the second biggest orc army I've ever seen!" A man cries.
"Third for me." another replies.
"OMG it's the OMG!" A little boy shouts.
"Wow, look at all our fans," Kraig says with pride " it's a pitty we are all droping salt on their farmland so nothing will ever grow again."
"Yes, but what is one orc to do?" Shaak plays along.
They both burst out in a evil laugh. As they approach the industrial sector they see the giant smoke stacks spewing pollutants into the air.
"So this is how clouds are made." Kraig looks in wonder.
Shaak gives Kraig a dumb look "You are the biggest dolt in the universe!"
"Hey! ... What's a dolt?"
-
//Arg... I know i'm kind of breaking the rules here by posting three times a day... but this is way too exciting to just leave off!\\
The mace made a hollow "clunk" when it hit Horus, electricity zapping through him. Although it dealt him no serious damage, he definately felt it. Even though he did not use electricity as his main power source, he was designed to feel it when he came in contact with it. In other words, Horus + Electricity = Pissed-off Horus.
The cannon continued humming, hightening in pitch. Horus swung his mace just in front of Duilin, not hitting him. He continued spinning around his own axis due to the maul's momentum, gaining speed. As he reached a certain speed level, he jumped up, whipping his speeding maul right at... Rink! //he's hiding nearby, right?\\
Still spinning in the air, Horus fell back down, aiming his fist at Duilin's face.
--- --- ---
Ein walked through the street, rarely seeing any citizens. He walked up to a passing one, hoping to ask him some questions. Since he did not know how the greetings worked in this strange place, he just let the person do the talking. It turned out to be a rather nice looking young woman.
-"The Lord prevails, friend", she spoke, as Ein advanced towards her.
-"The Lord prevails. Listen, I'm from a different part of... er... this place, could you show me around?"
The lady was somewhat confused.
-"But this is the capital. Surely you've been here before. We must all pay tribute to the public executions that take place here." Her face visibly darkened when she uttered the last sentence.
-"Oh... right, I meant I have never been in this particular part of the capital. However, I was looking for a different place. I wanted to visit a friend... he works at that one place... you know? Where they keep the prisoners?"
The citizen started to suspect something.
-"We do not work, we serve. Who are you? Answer now or I will summon the guardians."
Ein's overly active imagination started buzzing. His parents always told him he was good at acting.... He dropped down to his knees and burst in tears.
-"Oh please, my lady, have mercy! *sob* I am but a cripple! *sniff* A year ago, in a tragic accident, a... brick fell on my head, and knocked me out! *sob* I only awoke yesterday, alas, with much of my memory gone... *sniff* Please forgive this humble cripple... *sob* Shall you call the guardians?"
The girl was visibly moved and convinced. She smiled.
-"On the contrary. Please, what is it you wanted to know again?"
-"Where do they keep *sob* the prisoners... My friend who serves there is said to have taken over my home... I *sniff* wish to reclaim it from him..."
-"All of the prisonyards are kept in Undecimus, the main military center. It is right down this road, over the bridge. However, I am not permitted to talk to strangers for this long. I must go. My name is Amaya, if you wish to find me again, speak to the allocation officers."
-"Thank you, milady. Good day and thank you."
As she walked off, Ein could not help but feel guilty for lying to such a good person. Whoever attacked them at the Continent was obviously not the consensus of the main population of this place... Apparently nice people exist in countries ruled by Necromancy.
---
"After handing the scientists the gravity orbs, I retired to the Council chamber. Therce, amongst the usual members, Arlin was present. I sat at my throne, overlooking the room.
-"Well, gentlemen... I want a full report from you on what happened while I was gone. I want to go into details when it comes to the part where you were "attacked"."
-
//whatever, its 2 updates per character per day. Plus it's a 2 post a day recommendation.\\
Rink made a quick teleportation, leaving a small puff of smoke at his former and current location.
Duilin was hit right smack in his face, he flew back several feet and smashed into a tree braking the main trunk.
Duilin slowly got back up; he was quite a determined person. "Oh ha ha..." Duilin growled sounding pissed. "Big mistake, you hunk of junk, that just got me started!"
Duilin's mace began to glow; he lifted it up in the air. Several bolts of lightning shot from Duilin's mace into the sky. A strike of thunder was heard, and the lightning bolts then blasted back down, striking the ground around Horus, most of the thunderbolts flew done at Horus.
(Yay Thunder Rage, or whatever it's called.)
-
Nick stoped when he sensed a fimaliar arura in the east. One from redvik. He turned east and kept moving. "Guess i'll pop in to say hi...."
-
//Yowza, finally back from my trip, and ready to resume.\\
The other man had left Alex alone on the icy cliff. He dared not make a move towards escape, heeding the stranger's words. Putting his backpack down in the snow, he sat down on the ground, his back against the rocky wall, and waited patiently.
"Interesting things happen in these mountains..." Alex mumbled to himself. "And to think I was expecting a dull passage through Glacia...so much for that."
When Alex said this, he was surprised that an ex-merc would ever say that. He remembered the good days, fighting for whatever side had the most money...that is, until the war was over. Albeit he was paid handsomely for his work, the money just didn't fill the void. He missed the thrill of the kill. He wouldn't find much work during peacetime except as a merchant, which he thought he wouldn't be very good at.
Suddenly, Alex remembered the weapon he was planning. He reached into his bag and pulled out the blueprints and looked them over. It was nothing like any normal person would ever see. It was not a sword, battleaxe, longbow, or anything similar. Alex himself was slightly mystified by the marvels of engineering that would go into it. Once complete, it would make swords and crossbows obsolete. This weapon could rule a sword-based battle with large jets of flame hotter than any flaming arrow, and just as portable. It was a flamethrower.
This amazing feat of engineering had a portable fuel supply on board the weapon, and would use pressure to propel large streams of fire at the enemy. The fuel used could be any hydrocarbon, such as gasoline, kerosene, or perhaps even methane. Alex knew that these fuels could be obtained by fractionalizing crude oil. However, how to pressurize a gas into a liquid to use as a flame propellant to shoot the fire was a challenge. To Alex's knowledge, there was no way to pressurize a gas...unless he could design a way.
Alex caught himself. His mind was wandering, thinking about secret things. He did not know if this stranger could read his mind or not. He immediately supressed all thoughts about it. He stood up and noticed that there was no sign of the man anywhere. Maybe he forgot about Alex. Maybe not. Alex took his chances and picked his backpack up and resumed on his way down the icy mountains.
-
//welcome back, DS!\\
The lightnings struck Horus from all directions. He collapsed down on the ground. A grinding noise came from inside, kind of like heavy breathing.
The maul at Rink's position suddenly started to move on itself, as if attracted by a giant magnet, towards Horus. He grasped it and got back up.
The heavy maul seemed to be as light as a feather in Horus' hands. He drove it all the way backwards, then slammed it right down at Duilin's direction.
Meanwhile, the cannon continued to hum, hightening in pitch as it went...
--- --- ---
Ein reached the prison complex. It was a large, very grim-looking structure, with tall spires. The doors were heavily guarded by zombies. The only way to get in seemed to be the windows up top...
He took a bolt out of his quiver. A strange-looking sigil appeared on the ground even before he touched it. He simply drove the bolt around the edges of the sigil, tracing it.
The sigil was complete. It was quite strange, at that - once completed, it stopped glowing, not the other way around. Ein carefully stepped in the middle.
WHOOM! A powerful updraft wind threw Ein upwards, right into the window.
-"Aaaaaaaaaaahhh-oof."
---
"As the council continued to babble on about the internal affairs of Kandarin, I could barely keep myself awake. Might as well have some fun while at that...
I sent a weak energy pulse towards the mountains where I came back from a few hours ago."
---
As Alex continued his path down the icy slope, an undead in a red cloak freed himself from under the ice.
-"Ahh... did... I... ssssay... You can... Go...?"
The undead was brandishing a questionable sword, covered in rust and half-eroded. He swung it at Alex.
-
Shocked at the attack, Alex lost his footing and slid down the ice slope, the undead's sword missing Alex's face by mere inches. Alex careened out of a control...
"Whooaaaaahh!!"
...and right into a snowbank.
"Urgh!"
Picking himself up, he withdrew his scimitar from the hilt. The undead was stumbling and hulking towards Alex, slowly but surely. Just then, Alex realized he was without his armor.
"Great...the one time I decide to travel light," grumbled Alex. It was a one-on-one sword fight. Alex noticed that the sword in the undead's rotting hand was rusted and well beyond repair, but very jagged in places. It appeared to be painful should Alex get hit. Alex stepped out of the snowbank, half-freezing, and stood his ground.
The undead got ever closer. There had to be someway to easily destroy it. Alex remembered someone who easily destroyed a zombie with something called a "shotgun." But what was such a weapon? This was no time for useless thinking. Alex took a swing at the undead.
The undead blocked Alex's strike, the rusty sword holding up impressively, despite its condition. The undead then took a slice at Alex's arm, making a small cut.
"Urgh! You'll pay for that," growled Alex.
Alex raised his scimitar and sliced the undead's left arm off, which was easy to do considering he was a deteriorating zombie. The undead roared and took another swing at Alex. Alex leaped backwards and was somehow able to keep his footing on the slick ice. He slid back a few feet and then leaped forward, now bringing his sword down on its right leg. The undead lost its balance and fell backwards onto the ice, letting go of the rusty sword.
Alex walked up to the undead and raised his sword.
"Any last words?" Alex said.
"Tarren Silenthium Naar Grith," mumbled the undead before disappearing into a cloud of smoke.
Alex breathed a sigh of relief. He had won this consolation. He then turned his attention to the wound on his left arm. It was not bleeding seriously, but the rusty sword might have infected it. Alex reached into his bag and pulled out a medical kit. He treated the wound with an antiseptic and then tightly wrapped it with a bandage. The antiseptic would kill any pathogens that might have been introduced, as well as function as a basic painkiller.
"Tarren Silenthium Naar Grith," repeated Alex. He had no idea what these words meant. Perhaps it was the undead's native language, or maybe words to summon a demon. Alex didn't know. He picked up his things and sheathed his scimitar, pondering the mysterious utterings of the undead.
-
Ulmec sat on the horse wandering endlesly through the mountains. "Where is the end of this path?"
"Almost there master", After about half an hour of travel they came to the end of the path, Ulmec sat in amazment of what he saw. It was a wall, a cliff wall 300 feet high, on it was writing in the ancient language of orcs.
"Amazing....."
"I told you sir"
How such a wall was carved by orcs was amazing but the interesting part was where it was positioned. looking down he saw a cavern decending to the very core of the island. Jus tin front was a bridge half-destroyed but still walkable. The goblins led Ulmec across the bridge and inside to find around 100 orcs watching them with interest.
"How could these orcs come to be without a wizard or mage?"
Then, in amist the endless talk a lone figure emerge out from the dorrway. Ulmec bowed imediatly for he knew exactly who this person was...... Huget.
-
//DS, just to let you know shotguns and flamethrowers have already been introduced into DAL. Well, one character used a flamethrower back in chapter 2, but shotguns have been not to uncommonly used by people with the Crimson Empire. But I suppose it would be fine if you invented a flamethrower.\\
Duilin jumped backwards and increased his distance with a flap of his wings, to avoid the large maul slamming down at him.
He heard that it was making a loud hum. "Damnit, how can I stop it from doing that?" He examined it, and well, he couldn't figure out anything. "Guess I'll just have to kill it."
Duilin held back his free hand, he figured that lightning worked a lot on it, so small bolts of lightning circled around in his hand and then formed an orb. "Heads up!" Duilin called, he then tossed the lightning orb like a baseball, aiming for the machine's head.
----
As the group of guards arrived down the stairs, a group prisoners were armed, they held torches and short swords. Marshal was at the front of the group, pointing his gun at the guards.
They stopped dead in their tracks. The two groups stared at each other.
"Enough of this!" The short zombie guard shouted. "Kronos will protect us, kill them!"
Marshal fired seven shots at the zombie's head, eventually taking it off. Wile he was shooting the guards and prisoners clashed swords. The prisoners holding torches threw them at the zombies, burning them up.
-
Horus shielded his face with his hand. The ball lightning hit his hand and dissipated across his entire body. The glyphs on it flared brightly, and the glow they eminated took a lighter shade of purple.
He dropped down on all fours again. Another hollow roar-like sound followed, and two metal spikes popped out of the top of his ears. He dug the ground with his rear left leg, in a manner of a bull preparing to attack.
After yet another grinding noise, Horus charged right at Duilin. If he were to be successful, he would end up impaling him. The cannon, however, continued to charge up. It was almost overcharging, black energy sparks were flying from the circular aperture in his back.
--- --- ---
Ein was walking through the prison, when he heart gunfire. This nation doesn't seem to be using guns... Marshal!
He ran towards the noise, where Marshal was gunning down the zombies. He shot one zombie's head off with his signature crossbow, and approached the prisoner group.
-"Miss me?"
-
Meanwhile, Zeros' was observing the battle from nearby, He was worried about that machine, but he would jump in if it fired again. He wasn't sure what the machine did exactly, but he knew it wouldn't be very pleasent for anyone to get hit by.
He nodded to himsefl, watching Duilin's progress. If Duilin had met this man earlier in life, he would of surely lost the battle. He slowly floated around the battlefield, moving out of the way of stray attacks. It wouldn't do for himself to get hit, would it?
-
Zion and Xenai had slowed down to the point where they were completely stopped. Tsu and Aura then caught up.
"Ah, good to see you can fly now," said Zion. Aura grinned back at him.
"Can we get moving now?" asked Xenai, nervously scratching the back of his head. "I got this bad feeling about this bad kinda somethin'."
"A bad feeling? Alright, then..." said Zion. "We're off!"
The four of them took off toward Duilin's location...
-
Nick reached the coast. He put his hand in the water. Feeling its cold chill. " To cold to swim." he said as he stood up. "I'll have to run across it." He said with a quiet whisper. He looked towards the north-eastern direction seeing a island covered in fog....." I guess thats where im going." He continued to reach his destination.
-
//Check out Ulmec profile at DALpedia to understand the next chapter\\
Ulmec pulled out of his bow to finally grap some breath for he stopped breathing the moment Huget emerged.
" It is an honor to have you here Huget"
Huget gave a few words, " I believe you are the guest in my house, or is this now your land?"
" No my lord, i am willing to give you all my service's but in turn i will need some help"
Ulmec watched Huget who started to walk alongside the cliff looking down into the cavern as if it was his first visit here. After a few paces he turned to the side of the cliff where Ulmecs armies were hard at work constructing more caverns and other buildings to house the many Goblins coming out of the pits. Huget had a change in his face as he walked back to the orcs who were watching him.
"Siruith Magfal Olenko!" with Hugets last words, a beam of light fired from his mouth, thorugh the doors, into the temple and BANG!!!!! with a swift ball of fire, all orcs and the temple itself were destroyed, not even ashes or boulders remained. the entire inside was just obliterated, leaving a newly formed plateau.
Huget began to speak, " This, is my thanks for you finding me"
The mighty warrior Ulmec who was a smart goblin as well as a smart fighter looked very puzzled. "why would he destroy the temple to create a plateau for no reason and say this is his thanks?" Then, Ulmec looked around and after a minute or so he realized what was happening, Huget had created a perfect foundation for a vast castle that could rise along the side of the mountain!
"Thank you Huget" Huget who was pleased at what he just saw turned back to Ulmec and simply smiled, Ulmec understood this as a Your Welcome. Then Huget turned back to the goblin base below in the valley and spoke.
" There is a great deal to be done before we can begin movements" Ulmec once again looked puzzeled as if he had no idea what Huget meant. another though began to run through his head, " i can't believe that the great Huget is assisting me in my work. Huget muttered a few magic words and then a long piece of silk came into Ulmecs hands. A flag!
" This is the new symbol of the goblins" Huget spoke but Ulmec was amazed on the beauty of this flag, it was perfect and just as he had imaginged a banner.
(http://http://www.fotw.us/images/f/ficomord.gif)
Now, with new insperation, Ulmec rose and started to walk down to the camp with Huget just as 2 great rulers should walk. after reaching the bottom he was a magnificent wall being raised and a thousand goblin warriors fully armed in a nearby field waiting for orders. Ulmec told the architects of the wall to make it higher and have occasional spikes on it and went on into the field where the goblin army was standing. He spoke in a soft voice but due to Hugets magic it was amplified so all could hear it.
" March to the mountains, kill all who oppose and ally with any thast support our occupation of this island!"
And with that, the army moved far away and was lost in the mist of the great mountain......
-
//I don't care if im posting 3 times a day its the next day in my time zone, and nice Dan.\\
Nick ran swiftly over the water as if it where a peice of land. He would reach his destination in a matter of time. Time meant nothing to him anymore knowing his lifespan was unlimited. (unless he was killed by some one) Material posesions meant nothing. He would probaly get rid of he demonic weapons once he reached his destination. Nick watched his feet as he ran over the clear blue water. Water dripped from his shoes eveytime he lifted his feet. Time felt slower for a second when lost his balance. Then continuing to move.
-
Duilin beckoned the machine as it charged towards him. A little bit before Horus was about to ram into him, Duilin jumped into the air, he flipped backwards so he was facing Horus' back. He then fell down; smashing his still lightning enchanted mace right down onto Horus' back.
----
Marshal took a few steps away until he was at the back of the group of fighters, so he could reload his gun. Then he heard the voice of his friend Ein.
"Ein!" He said in amazement. "You've made it! Excellent. Ein, how'd you get here? This place is crazy we've got to try to leave. Have you heard at all from Tesla, Haraldur or the other comrades?" He asked his friend.
The prisoners and guards continued to brawl. Guards and prisoners from other floors began to fight as well, the entire tower as soon in a large battle.
-
Horus, driven by his own momentum as well as the force of a Duilin slamming his mace into him, flew right into a tree, knocking it down. Horus himself also smashed into the ground head-first, at a high speed. Now he was quite annoyed.
He stood up, and turned around, facing Duilin. The mace impact didn't do much; the cannon was covered safely by an aperture. However, Duilin simply doesn't know when to die, it seems. Horus stared right into his opponent's eyes, and for a second, he almost seemed alive to himself...
...but no matter. Duilin was but another opponent, a bit too big to be gobbled down by Horus. Besides, the girl he consumed earlier still provided plenty of power. Her initial soft tissues were already broken down. Only bones remained. Alas, those do not store much of the victim's life force.
Horus made a harking sound, and spat out Cyan's bones right at Duilin. Quickly, while his opponent was (likely) disoriented by this... turn of events, he dropped down to his fours and deployed his nearly overcharged cannon. It fired.
A loud piercing scream-like sound was heard from the cannon. The dark energy burnt most of the trees around Horus just by firing. The black lightning projectile arced over the burnt landscape right at Duilin.
--- --- ---
Ein grabbed Marshal by the sleeve, and dragged him away from the prisoners.
-"I'll answer all questions later. Listen, outside, I saw a large Orc legion massing up towards this place, not to mention the guards already stationed outside. The freed prisoners will serve as but a distraction for us to escape."
His face, now uncovered from his hood, turned bitter.
-"I know it's wrong... but if we stay, we will not survive. We MUST get going, you hear me?"
---
"The council finally stopped rambling. Now time to listen to Arlin's apologies... Somebody kill me now."
-
Duilin stared at the bones. It seemed to that this machine eats people, and perhaps wished to eat Duilin now.
It was quite a depressing sight, actually. He then turned his head up, and looked at the large blast flying towards him. His eyes bolted wide open as he spotted it.
"HEY!!" Said a high voice, seemingly out of nowhere a large white feathery winged creature popped right in front of Duilin.
"Ahh, just like Zeros'." Rink said grinning. "Jumps in a just the right moment...wait a second."
The winged one had a shield of light blue energy held in his hand, it was about two feet wide. The blast stuck the shield; he was blown backwards and smashed right into Duilin. The two winged people flew back several yards and piled down in the ground. The entire ground was scorched, several remains of the fortress were flying all over the place, Rink had to run out of the way, and was knocked over by the shockwave off the blast. A rock hit his head. "Oww...." He rested his eyes. "That smarts..."
The area of Bandervill looked very different from how it did before the entire attack. With several large craters all over the place. Not a blade of grass is left, just scorched earth. (Due to the effects of Chapter 9 and the current battle.)
The new commer stood up, with a perfect stance. It appeared to be a human with eagle like wings, wearing a toga and a headband made of leaves. It had a strange shine of light around him and a bright gold ring above his head. He was carrying a long golden rod. He looked like he was quite young, yet tall for his age.
"I am the great Aegidius!" the person spoke; he had a very soft, but heroic sounding voice. "I am an Angel sent by the great Gods and Goddess of Paradise in the capital of Olympus! I have assigned to: Defend the world from abominations that are in threat of destroying this world."
He spun his rod, and held it by the end and pointed it at the machine. "THAT is one of them. Its purpose in life is to only kill others in order to power itself. It has no use, other then to end the lives of others. Solution: It must be removed with full force. It is not alive, therefore no harm what-so-ever would be caused by destroying it."
Duilin still lying on the ground rubbed his eyes and shook his head rapidly. What the heck was this?
The angel stood in its position. Only his arms moved as he put the rod behind it's back, it seemed to just float in place, he held his hands and arms out like he was holding a longbow. Suddenly a longbow made of a magic-type of crystal materialized in his hands. He aimed the bow at the machine. An arrow of a light blue coloured energy appeared as he fired the bow, and the arrow flew towards the exposed cannon.
----
Marshal hesitated. He couldn't just leave them. He wasn't selfish.
Marshal steps forward, a blue spectre blasts from his amulet to his right hand. He throws the spectre right at the group of people, causing a strange blue explosion, knocking the guards back, as the explosion cleared up, it turned out that what he through was a large group of jel monsters (not gel, mind you). The jel monsters proceeded to consume the brains of the guards in a similar matter that the other gel did. However, since Marshal had a lot of energy and his amulet these jels were quite strong. Half of the jels combined together and made an Oooze. The gelatinous monsters and the prisoners then rushed upstairs ready to take out the rest of the guards. The prisoners gave a few extra stabs at the bodies, and burnt the corpses.
"Hopefully, they'll be able to live..." Marshal said. "But we've got to comeback and help them when he gets the others, okay. Now, how in the heck are we going to get out of here?"
-
Nick was almost at the gates when he saw the well prepaired defences. Two guards faced him.
" I'm sorry no one can enter or leave."
"Don't tell me shit, I really don't care I'll enter one way or another."
"State your name and buisness!" The guard demanded.
"I'm Nick of the Grey Empire and I've come to see your master."
The guard whispers to the other.
"There is nothing left of the Grey Empire. I doubt that you are part of it."
"I'm a survivior of the battle in bandervil, but I doubt you ever heard of it. Now let me in."
The Guards opened the gate slowly and Nick entered. He stood looking at the magnificent architecture of the buidings. The gate silently closed behind him.
Nick saw a woman pass by. "Excuse me milady who runs this place?" Nick asked
"Oh, Kronos, I guess you arn't from around here."
"Thank you and your right. But where is he?"
"There!" she pointed to a towering citidel.
"Thank you and good day." Nick now stared at the massive tower.
-
The guard who let Nick in stood looking dumb, while the other guard on the opposite side of the gate shouted right into his ear:
-"WHY THE HELL DID YOU LET HIM IN?! Guards! Bag this idiot and bring someone who actually has some balls! Also, get a squadron to apprehend Mr. Commando who thinks it's funny to disturb the Lord like this!"
The other guard looked at the shouting one, just before getting clubbed by another one on the head from behind and dragged away. A different guard was posted in his place. The rest of the guards entered the courtyard with Nick in it.
-"You there! Halt!!!"
The alarm was activated. An extraordinarly loud fog horn sounded, resonating through the pyramidic buildings. The small gathering of guards pointed their lances at Nick. One of them spoke.
-"State your business here, or become like rot-brain over there", he said, pointing to an undead guard. The remains of his brain were seeping through fissures in his skull.
---
"Strange. The alarm sounded, I wonder why...?
-"Excuse me, gentlemen."
I quickly shifted phases, and floated through the solid walls out into the courtyard. My guardians were positioned around some teenage-looking kid. Hey... I saw him before... but that did not change the fact that I was very, very angry. I pointed a shaking hand at him.
-"You... how DARE you just walk in here?! Listen, you half-breed, if you don't want your pretty head stuck onto my citadel walls, you WILL tell me what you are doing here. Otherwise, I will make SURE you are to be made an example of..."
I slowly lowered my head at the guards beneath.
-"Why was his presence not detected? WHO WAS IN COMMAND OF THE COASTAL DEFENCES!?"
The guard I was looking at probably pissed his pants three times over.
-"Uhh... General Kovan, my Lord..."
At this point I was so furious that my eyesight was becoming darker. I had trouble speaking, for I was being choked by my anger.
-"Assemble... the citizens... at the square. Drag Kovan over here... alive... and bring out... the bone machine..."
//From this point on, I'd appreciate if no one got in Kandarin with that much ease.\\
-
Nick looked at the gaurds yelling at him. "My busniness is my own...don't make me kill you..." The peircing sound of the horn hurt Nicks ears. "ahh, Shit what the hell." He said kneeling on the floor. Nick turned around as Kronos spoke. Nick knew him from somewhere. " I am sorry I felt a fimilar arura in this direction I though you where on with the Grey Empire. The Arura Nick felt was right in front of him. Nick walked up to Kronos as he was barking out orders. "I'm sorry if I disturbed you...take these for my apology." Nick handed Kronos the demonic weapons. "Now if you want I'll leave..."
//Btw: ulmec wont be able to post hes in fire Island..and sorry Ein.\\
-
Zeros' blinked and then groaned, palming a face into his hand. He dropped his cloaking technique and slowly flew down next to Duilin and his new angel companion, his eyes focused on him.
"What are those idiots at Olympus thinking? Zeus and the others know that Gaian is my district..." he says, looking at the new winged person. Then he turned after saying that, smiling at Duilin.
"Sorry... I wanted to see how good you did fighting this..." he looked over at their opponent. "...person by yourself. And you did quite good," he said, smiling. "But now that I know what he does and how that machine his powered, I can't stand idly by any longer."
He buffeted his wings, then folded them back to his body, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, his emerald green eyes boring into Horus.
-
Aegedius' arrow hit Horus, but once again it was absorbed by the glyphs. They further lightened in shade.
Great... Now it's three people versus one machine. Ah well. Horus has been in bigger brawls, and he almost always came out the winner. He looked at the three people talking. All against him...
Now one of them is glaring at him. What is this?! He took his maul off his back and patted it on his hand, in a "tough guy" manner.
--- --- ---
Ein and Marshal hurried to the window. It was a long way down - the sigil was barely visible. Ein questionably looked at Marshal.
-"So... yeah. Jump down and try to land in that little thingy down there."
---
"I accepted the weapons.
-"Very well... what is it you wanted? I suppose you're worth of my attention for bypassing my security like this."
-
//Sorry, Dude Man. I neglected to mention that Glacia, the region where Alex comes from, is technologically behind the rest of the areas due to the desire of a simple lifestyle. Anyway...\\
Alex had been walking for some time, he had caught his breath from the scuffle with that undead. This stranger who stopped him on the cliff must've doubted his motives...Alex didn't even know his name or what he did for a living. Why would he want to make an attempt on Alex's life? Did the stranger know of what he did years ago? Did he find out of Alex's stoking of the war to fuel his ill-gotten gains? It was something Alex was not proud of once he began to think about it. Either way, he would have to be on his guard.
Alex stopped for a second to check his position. Judging from the foliage and less-than-frozen snow, he was about halfway down the mountains. The snowline stopped at three-quarters down, to be replaced with a warm, temperate climate. Hopefully Alex would find the technology he needed to build the flamethrower, and thus have the upper hand in his next encounter.
Alex's thoughts turned to the ultimate anti-undead weapon, the shotgun. It was a powerful firearm, effective only at close range though. Alex had heard of such weapons, but had never seen them. Glacia preferred a simplistic lifestyle without such corrupting technology. Alex had heard rumors of firearms making swordplay obsolete due to the fact that a gun could hit a target from a distance. The shotgun was a special type of firearm though. Alex hadn't ever used one before, but he knew how one worked. A shell full of shot was loaded into the chamber and cocked. A firing pin would strike the rear of the shell, thus detonating a tiny explosive behind the shot. The expansion of the resulting explosion and gases would break the shell open and propel the shot out of the barrel at high velocities. The shotgun was effective at close range, since the shot pellets would disperse over distance. Zombies, with their weak bodies, could be easily destroyed by such a weapon.
Unfortunately, shotguns were very expensive since the resources to build one were very hard to find in this day and age. Nonetheless, there are some out there who are lucky enough to have possession of multiple firearms.
Alex took a deep breath through his nose. The air felt warmer and more humid. He was near the snowline. Mustering up his determination, Alex continued down the icy path, with his hand always ready to draw his sword at any time.
-
//Not a problem at all DS.\\
Marshall stared blankly at what Ein. He looked from side to side, and then looked closely at the coloured dot at the ground.
He then looked at Ein, making a stupid smile. "Okay~~" He said in a childish voice. His face then turned more serious, and gave a 'what, am I an idiot?' look.
"Okay, I'm not that stupid. If I fall that far down I'm dead. There is no way I can even land on that tiny thing. Only a total fool would attempt a stunt like that."
----
"Huh yeah...umm okay." Duilin replied. He was pretty hurt, he rubbed his eyes and looked at the angel. "Hey, that was a huge blast, shouldn't you at least be bleeding."
"Oh, no." Aegidius said proudly. "As I am an angelic guardian, from the great Olympus, damage will not very easily show up on me. I do not easily bleed; it would take a very powerful and sharp blade to draw blood from me. I am pure angelic!" He said brushing the side of his hair with his right hand, giving a grin.
"Uhhh...right. Um hey, could you take my place, I need to go check on a friend of mine."
"Of cource young one, but do not attempt anything. I can tell you are a demon, so by defeault, I do not fully trust demons."
He steps up and dusts himself. "Yeah, half human too." He then walks over to check on Rink.
"Sheesh, Zeros'." Aegidius groaned. "I'm not surprised you picked up another half breed. Did this one go berserk yet?"
He kept a good look on Horus, his crystal bow seemed to have disappeared. He had his rod held in both hands now, ready to fly at Horus on his next move...
-
The last of the troops marched into the mist of the great mountains ahead. From that Ulmec turned and stepped of the rock he was standing on. Huget waited patiently in a group of trees behind the rock Ulmec stood on. Ulmec approach him and asked him why was he hiding.
" I fear that showing my face may affect the behavior of goblins"
Ulmec for the fourth time stood puzzled, "Why would that be so?"
Huget sighed and began to explain. Since Huget was the creator of goblins, they are genetically connected to him in a special bond unknown to most others. These type of bonds are only formed when magic and earthly minerals or substances are used in a form of life creation. In this case it was the Orc-Stone and Hugets magic.
Ulmec finally understood" Oahh, now i see it"
"All in good time Ulmec, all in good time"
They walked back from the field and into the main site. The walls are nearing completion and a architects were finishing the foundations for barracks,armories,bunkers,etc.... All seems well. What Ulmec loved was when he saw the primary command bunker already open and occupied by troops. Inside he saw some of the most advanced magical items he has ever seen (Designed by Huget...Duh). They ranged from creature tracking devices to full scale magic defense shields. All of this was designed in magic that is lost now to modern wizards and druids. Only Huget knows what these magics can do and how to cast them.
A lone goblin approached," Sirs,we have finished surveying the plateu and have started construction on a base for your castle, but we will need more rock and iron to complete the castle" Ulmec and Huget looked at each other. Then Ulmec spoke,
"Take a team and teleport to the Grey Empire ruins. Arm yourselves with the "special" armor i have in my private stores. Take all you can and bring it back"
Then, Huget walked over to a goblin pit and began to mumble, a stream of goblins instantly came out and stood at his attention. This move amaxed Ulmec but he stood still not knowing waht will happen. Huget started to think,"I will take these troops and tell them to go into the mountains to use their "powers" to quarry iron and coal to make steel. This should definatly strengthen the walls and castle."
"Go to the mountains and mine all the coal and iron you can"
Without question, the goblins went to the armory, within a few mintues they emerged and began the long march tot he mountains the same way the main army went. Ulmec was very satisfied at the accomplishemtns he had made, he has made his own empire. But still.....he wanted more. What Ulmec wanted was th e ultamite fighters and ultamite armor. Then the armies of the Goblin Republic will march whereever and whenever without question. And Ulmec knew just how to get it.....
-
Ein smirked.
-"Suit yourself."
He hopped through the window, down, and into the sigil. Just before hitting the ground, he slowly stopped moving. The sigil did its job.
--- --- ---
Horus was getting tired of waiting. With a mechanical grinding noise, he swung his maul at Zeros', with absolute full strength he could muster.
-
(http://http://eon.mysticsoftware.net/holdit.gif)
The four had arrived on the scene. The "Hold it!" had come from Tsu, who'd be the one to speak next.
"If you're testing people's abilities, then let me step up... That is... Aura and I."
"Me? Wait, you want..."
"Yes, that's right. Zeros', may we?"
-
"What did I tell you!" Marshall groaned. "Total fool!" He then looked around, seeing the others fight. He then looked back down at the sigil. "How about that, he made it."
Suddenly a headless zombie pushed Marshall, and he fell out of the window.
"Ahhh<span style='font-size:6pt;line-height:100%'>hhh</span><span style='font-size:5pt;line-height:100%'>hhh</span>...."
Marshall then decided to aim himself towards the sigil. "Come on..."
He then slowly lowered down as he lowered down onto it. "Phew..."
----
"Rink, are you okay?" Duilin asked. He saw Rink lying on the ground; he helped the little guy get on his feet.
"Rink?" the imp asked. "Who's Rink?" He slowly fell down onto the ground.
"Yeah...he's fine."
"Uhhhgg.." Rink rolled his eyes, in an unnatural way. He kept lying on the ground, on his belly. "Duilin, that thing looks strong, go on, help the guys fight it."
"You sure?" Duilin asked. "I'm not doing much."
"Because you ain't putting enough 'oomph' into it. It's okay if you use your demonic abilities to fight it, that is your strong point, you can focus on upping your less strong abilities later, this thing is going to require a lot of power to fight."
"Okay, by the way. This angel just popped out of nowhere, any comment."
"No. Now go help the others, I've got a major head ache to work off..."
-
"Bah. I don't care what you say. I've been wanting to use this again really badly..."
Tsu flung his hand down, and it erupted with lightning. He held the hand out toward Aura, who struck the energy in various places... Compacting it into a swirling ball of electricity.
This attack would be technically perfect. The Spiral Sphere is a compacted, retained swirling ball of energy. Upon contact, there would be a powerful drill effect because of the swirling energy, and it would be continuous because of its being retained. Combining this with the Chidori, a relatively simple technique used to cut through things, is simply genius. The continuous drill effect would be turned into a continuous slicing effect, and powered by electricity, there is also a chance of electrocution or shock. Perfect for this machine like thing that Horus seems to be.
The attack was now fully charged...
-
"Well....everyones been telling me that there is no Grey Empire. I'm not just going to sit by watching this war. I'm not joining those damn Asypes and not the dark empire. I want to side with you and the old allies of the Grey Empire. What do you say?" Nick asked Kronos. Nick turned around not waiting for an answer and was going to walk away......
-
//Still waiting for Zeros' to reply to my attack.\\
--- --- ---
Ein grinned.
-"Ah, I see you decided to come, after all. Well, we'd better get running, before we get captured again... I have a feeling that if that were to happen, we would likely not enjoy it. Come on."
Ein sprinted to the fissure in the wall that he came through originally. He surveyed the area outside.
There was the bridge he used to get here from the other island. Below the bridge was the raging ocean. Seems as though this is an island nation... Also of note was the fog around the whole area. The fog made it impossible to see the more distant islands, as well as adding a creepiness atmosphere to the place. The tall, emotionless pyramidic buildings enhanced the effect. How could these people live here for so long and not go insane...? Seems like the human race can adapt to any environment.
Ein (and Marshall, assuming he follows) came up to one of the smaller buildings. This was the same kind that he got his clothes from; common sense suggests that there would be clothes in there, as well. He drew another sigil on the outer wall of the pyramid. It flared brightly.
-"Stun technique... Should knock out anyone who was inside at the time."
Ein creeped inside the house. A person was lying on the floor, out cold. Same basic premise of the house he saw earlier: a bed, a study, a wardrobe, and other household items. He looked inside the wardrobe, and found another set of Kandarian-looking clothes. It was slightly different than Ein's, but had the same characteristics as his own clothes: a broad shirt with many folds, and same-coloured pants. The overall colour of the clothes was dark red. Ein urged Marshal inside.
-"Here, put this on. Should be easier to sneak by the guards in this place."
---
"I slowly lifted up my fist, then violently thrusted it down. The gate just in front of Nick slammed shut.
-"How rude. You asked me a question, and you walk away. We can't have that now, can we?"
I lowered myself on the ground and phase-shifted into reality.
-"Assuming I let you join... How would you be of help? What will you do to uphold the great cause of Kandarin? Or are you just joining for the paycheck?"
I stared blankly in his eyes.
-"Don't get me wrong, gold is not an issue. However, if you do not believe in the truth that is Kandarinian Sovereignty, do not bother coming to me."
-
Marshall followed Ein to their destination.
"Well, I guess so." Marshall said to Ein. "Haraldur or Tesla can replace my armour and my gun. Besides some scumbags messed around with it, and I have no idea when it will explode in my face next time it fires."
Marshall removes his armour, and slip the new clothing over his old ones. He put the gun and his armour in the wardrobe. He slipped his amulet under shirt. "I'm going to keep this with me, it's irreplaceable now that the Blue Minotaur are gone."
-
Zeros' looked at tha maul as it swung for him. He didn't move, but responded to his companion.
"Yes, yes... And no. He hasn't going berserk yet, if you must know," he said, while ducking under the maul. He brought up his left forearm and put it on the maul, hoping to send the mail off-balance.
His other hand came off the sword hit and charged a ball of energy in it. He then shoved it towards Horus.
-
Nick stoped as the door closed and turned around to face Kronos. "It's not about money any more it's revenge. I can bring you my strength, my stealh, my speed, and many demonic abilities." Nick now looked at Kronos with more intensity. "My one cuase at this moment....and that is to bring down the Asypes." Nick folded his arms and leaned against the wall. "So what do you say?"
-
//Zeros', the maul was not going from left to right - more like from up down on Zeros', just letting you know\\
The maul slammed into the ground. Horus tossed it aside. His opponents were treating him as a pest, nothing more. Not satisfactory.
He did not have time to dodge the energy ball shoved at him by Zeros'. The glyphs on his armour seemed to absorb it as well, further lightening in shade.
It seemed to Horus that these fleshy creatures did not understand the power of converted tissue... of converted souls, countless of which were circulating through him as nothing but power. Well, time to amaze them, then.
His armour began to unfold - the plates of the strange stone were being shoved aside, as if with a hiss. The deploying armour exposed metal poles serving as bones, tubes with glowing purple liquids running through them, strange ball-like structures for joints, and other things that these people could not possibly comprehend. The largest plate over his stomach moved away, exposing the Conversion engine.
In the same manner as the rest of the armour, the conversion chamber began to unfold. As it moved, incredibly bright light poured from the formed fissures. Just when the first ray of light broke out, the rest of the machinery in the remaining body parts started to do the same thing - they unfolded, letting more light out.
All the passive energy, accumulated by Horus from countless victims, started to seep out of the mechanism, along with the light. No matter how much armour people were wearing, no matter what kind of a ward or shield they would use, they were completely unprotected against it. This kind of arcane power was only helpful to Horus. It was deadly for anybody else who would encounter it.
//No time to update others. I'll do that later.\\
-
"What the hell is that?" asked Xenai.
"Something I should probably stop. Aura, do-" "No!"
They all looked at Zion, who then spoke. "That energy, it's too dangerous. Hold onto that attack. It's incredibly impressive, I'll give you that. But if you get near that energy, it will probably kill you. I'll let you know when to use it. For now... Stay away from it."
The four of them obeyed and stood there, watching the energy closely. Tsu held onto the swirling ball as long as he could.
-
"Hah, well that's good to know. Generally I don't trust demons, nor does Zeus and the others, which is sort of why I am here, if you catch my drift. Ha ha." Aegidius says to Zeros'. Apparently they slightly knew each other from the past.
"Now, anyways. I don't think this thing should be taken so lightly, it may be a machine, but I sense that it's got a mind of it's own."
The angel then flung forward his free hand, a dark blue glow surrounded his hands, and soon a visible array of rings blasted from his hands, flying towards Horus. If they hit he would greatly slow down for a small period of time (how ever many posts you want, as long as it's not less then 1)
After he fired the spell he then covered himself with a light green sheild of energy.
//Cookie goes to the person who guesses what DA Magic Spells those were. With the clues I put in, you're a fool if you don't get this, even if you haven't played Dark Age.\\
-
//
No matter how much armour people were wearing, no matter what kind of a ward or shield they would use, they were completely unprotected against it.
Damn it, DM! and you said you read ALL the posts...\\
The rings coiled up around Horus, however, without much point. He was not moving anyway, simply radiating the energy piled up inside him. The deeper parts of the mechanism started to leak, too... the area of effect was expanding, crawling forward, very slowly.
-
//The sheild was not blocking the attack, he merely made it to protect himself from other attacks, so next time he gets attack I won't have to dodge it or get hurt, but just for one hit, to be fair.
Anyways, I was confused with your light ray attack, it seemed like he was charging up an attack on my first read, and when I reread it, it kind of just seemed like he was just doing some fancy light show, but I understand now. (It's energy polluting the air.)\\
"Arrg, great Hades, this is exactly why I came here." Aegidius complained, as the energy was blasted at him. "Zeros', we better back up a bit, this thing is tough."
(Come on guys, we gotta have a fair fight here.)
The angel kept his shield around him, to protect him from any attacks that he'd shoot at him. He flapped his wings, and began to fly upwards.
Duilin overheard the angel and flew up in the air as well. Duilin's mace and his left hand had a yellowish glow and small bolts of lightning spinning around.
Rink is further away, and lying on the ground, so he should be safe from the light ray.
"Excuse me, young demonic one. Might I ask that you stay out of the way? You see, this official Olympus Elite Guardian Business, would you mind telling your friends over there the same?" Aegidius asked Duilin, with a grin.
"Okay, one, I'm not young I'm thirty-six." Duilin said back to the angel with a glare.
"Oh wow, really? For a human, you don't look a year over twenty-eight."
Duilin rolled his eyes but ignored the comment, he was aware that his demonic life span made him look slightly younger then he was. "And two, no, I was here first, and I was just doing fine until you showed up. You know, it really pisses me off when people pop up out of nowhere and start attacking either me or even my enemy when I'm in a fight."
"Hmph, have it your way." Aegidius then shot a light cyan laser from his left hand, at Horus, aiming right at the source of were the light was coming from, the Conversion engine.
Duilin continued to charge energy, and Rink continued to rest on the ground.
-
The cyan laser entered the energy field and was quickly dispersed among the entire area, only making the field stronger. The Conversion engine continued to spew out the wasted energy, but it seemed it was running out. The clogged mechanics were becoming clean again, and it would most likely take a lot of victims to clog it up to this level again. It still, however, radiated the deadly energy over the entire area. The remaining trees simply seemed to burn down, without a fire.
---
Ein looked back at Marshall.
-"Yes, we need some sort of means of self-defence. I have my crossbow, but I might not be able to defend you if we get separated, so it's best to keep the amulet either way."
He noticed another citizen walking in their general direction. Ein caught up with him.
-"Excuse me, do you know where I could find an allocation officer?"
The person chuckled.
-"Why, at the allocation office. However, it's break time there, and it just happens that I am an allocation officer myself. I understand it would be hard to tell the symbol apart, through this horrid fog. It's never been this thick before..."
Another passer-by joined in.
-"Yes, I hear it's because the Lord got some sort of a new weather-controller device. I suppose we'll use that to our advantage in the upcoming war with the Crimson Continent."
While they were talking, Ein noticed a small golden pendant on the first person's chest. It looked like a stylized watch. Probably the allocation officer symbol. He, however, still had a question.
-"Yes, I'd like to find a person. Amaya was her name."
The officer turned back to Ein.
-"Alright, just follow me to the office."
Ein was already about to leave, but then he remembered he forgot Marshall behind.
-"Hey, uhh... Darion! Come on!"
---
"What an amusing fellow I've got to deal with...
-"What do I say? Well."
So he isn't joining for the paycheck, but for access to my armies, so he can take down the Aspyes. Ah well, it's still a common goal.
-"Alright. For now, you can be sided with us. We will send armies to crush the Aspyes like the bugs they are, and you may be lucky enough to command the assault on them. However..."
I searched around in the folds of my robes. Ah, there it is. I pulled out a ceremonial dagger, once used by Skorn himself.
-"...if you fail, expect no mercy. Also, right now you are but an ally. If you wish to truly join the Kandarian Sovereignty, you must prove your dedication to our cause."
-
Ulmec had finally asked Huget and he agreed to switch the Orc-stone with his human stone. From then on his goblins were unafraid of everthing. The entire island was turning into a large fort. The foundation at the plateu was complete and some goblins returned from the the ruins of the grey empire with plenty of supplies, all is going as planned.
-
" Well thanks....but i don't need to be shown mercy i've been to hell and back. The is no mercy in war...." Nick unfolded his arms and opened the door leaving the courtyard. He quickly moved to the market area. " Hmm, need some new blades..." He saw a blacksmith. " Hello fine blacksmith..."
The gruff man looked over at him. "Aiye young lad."
"Who you calling young!" Nicks veins poped out and he held him arm to keep from killing the man. "What ever old man, give me your finest swords."
"Aiye lad." The man went into a back room.
Nick waited for five minutes untill the man came back out. "How much?"
"How much for what young lad." The man looked at him puzzlingly.
"Two of your finest swords......."
"Oh 2000 gold coins for each."
Nick slaped his face. " I don't have that much." He said to himself. "Maybe some other time old man..."
Nick heard two men talking about some jail break in Qim (if i'm not mistaked) "Wonder why that Kronos guy didn't do anything about it....or did he?"
-
The four slowly backed away from Horus... Xenai frowned, then pulling Eternity Weapon out of Hammerspace ((Yes, that's where he keeps it.)) One, it was an object, not living. Two, it was protected by its own dark energy. This totaled together, it would not be affected by the hazardous energy field.
"Xenai, what the hell are you doing?!" Why Zion would cuss here would never be known.
"Take this, pal!" He held the large sword by the hilt, and launched it forth toward the energy converter, twisting his hand a little bit to put some spin on it. The large sword was now flying toward the converter like a spinning dart.
-
// Actually, my post still works... If it was coming down at him, he could duck and absorb the impact and then knock it off-balance. He might be really powerful, but he can still be off-balanced. \\
The second Horus had started to convert the energy, Zeros' had backed away a sufficent distance. He studied the air and the machine from afar, looking at Horus as he charged...
Effectively, Horus was immoble, at least until he stopped charging the energy. If anyone was to get close to him, they would probably die from the energy he was radiating... But, if any energy attacks were thrown at him, they would only be absorbed...
Which left...
Physical attacks.
"Guys... We need to hit him with physical attacks... Anything containing any sort of magic or ki will be immediately absorbed and converted to energy... But, the problem is, that energy is highly violate to anyone, but that man down there," he said, pointing down towards Horus.
He looked down at his sword and frowned. He could possibly throw it, but it was one of his most prized possessions. It would - of course - reform, but it took awhile and it also took his own energy to do that.
He then blinked and smacked his forehead and groaned. How could he have forgot! He had been relying too much on his ki and magic lately. He slowly crossed his right arm over his chest and slashed downwards at Horus.
From where his arm slashed, a highly compressed vaccum blade flew at him. It contained no sort of energy that Horus could use to convert. It had no ki or magic in it. It was simply a construct of highly compressed natural air and energy.
And since, he pondered, the natural air and energy of the planet isn't being absorbed - at least not from what I can tell - this attack shouldn't benefit him...
-
//10 woots to Zeros' for explaining the nature of the energy. Couldn't've put it better myself.\\
The zooming sword hit the Converter, slightly scraping it on the outside, but not doing much damage on the inside. The Weapon, however, still managed to cut a random purple tube open. Dark purple liquid gushed out, melting right through the ground where it hit. Moving at momentum, the sword went through Horus and was stuck in the earth just behind him.
The vacuum blade greatly threw Horus off. He could not identify the attack's nature, so he made little attempt to dodge it, hoping it wouldn't do much damage when it hit. The blade struck him at the tip of his outstretched arm, moving upwards to the shoulder. Most of the armour plates in the attack's path were sliced off, each dulling the attack just a little. In the end result, when the blade reached his head, it lost most of its momentum and evaporated.
The energy being let out had a certain threshold. When enough radiation was let out (radiation as a different word for energy... not the X-ray type), it engaged in a chain reaction, completely melting every carbon-based lifeform in the area. By the looks of it, Horus had just enough wastes left to reach that threshold...
The Conversion engine continued venting, further advancing the deadly field. Now dead birds were dropping right out of the sky, falling around Horus.
--- --- ---
//Burton: the districts of Kandarin are as follow:
1. Jovil, the capital. This is where Nick is right now, and where the main palace is located. There's also a small port there in a tightly guarded bay.
2. Qim, the industrial region. Here are located a number of ports, as well as factories, and some storage yards.
3. Sizri, the magic research centre. The Kandarinian "superweapon" (The Enigma complex) is located here, as well as all sorts of magic... er... thingies. Yeah.
4. Undecimus, the military coalition. This place contains large military installations, barracks, as well as prisons. This is where the jailbreak took place. It is also where Ein and Marshall are, and it is surrounded by high walls and eleven towers (Undecimus means eleventh in Latin, which I study at school).
Also, you may have already known, but just to avoid confusion: Kronos sent out an armed apprehension squad to capture the prisoners, as well as a nice legion of 400 orcs, complete with OMG T3H Gattling guns.\\
As Nick turned away, the merchant's face changed from "I-don't-give-a-damn-about-anything-as-long-as-it-doesn't-concern-me" to "holy-crap-what's-wrong-with-me". He quickly called Nick back.
-"Oh! Aren't you the new ally our Lord informed me of? Yes, I can see it's you!"
He was beaming.
-"Here, look at these beauties." The merchant took out two beautifully ornamented silvery katanas. The part where the blade met the hilt had a stylized bird sign on it - the unmistakable Kandarinian crest.
-"Compliments of the Lord."
-
"Oh, bloody hell..." Aegidius groaned. "Well, I'm out of ideas. I can't get to close sadly, I don't want to risk it."
"So much for your official Olympus Elite Guardian Business!" Duilin laughed.
"Well, what are you going to do? It's not like you would last any longer in that fog of death then I would." Aegidius snapped back.
"Oh stop fighting." Rink mumbled finally getting up. "It's about time I do something."
The imp walked over to a brick that was formally part of the Bandervil fortress. He then flapped his wings, until he was about fifteen feet into the air. Despite his size, he had a surprisingly good throwing arm. "Hey dog-head, CATCH!" Rink then swung his arm back and chucked the brick right into the Conversion engine...
----
"Oh um." Marshall lowered his voice. "Uhh, yeah. I'm uh, coming."
Marshall then stepped off and followed Ein and the other person. He was pretty uncomfortable since, he wasn't to sure what he was doing and he was scared that they may get caught. Never the less, he followed them.
-
The officer led Ein and Marshall to a larger pyramidic structure, this one looking more like a temple than an office. Inside, the first thing noticed was a huge banner of the Kandarin symbol, spanning the entire wall. Even the pentagram inside the bird looked more menacing than usual.
Below that was another large symbol, the same stylized watch as seen on the officer. It looked like a golden spiral with three coils, and two arrows extending from the middle. The whole thing seemed to suggest organization.
The officer dug in some ancient-looking papers, finally selecting one. He quickly read it.
-"Right... Amaya... yes, we have one like that. Amaya Ryleh, correct?"
-"That's her."
-"Her adress: Kandarin. Sct. 8. Psg. 3. Hs. Nomer 9. Amaya Ryleh. Here, let me write that down for you."
He scirbbled something down on a piece of paper, and handed it to Ein.
(http://http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9711/messageqx6.jpg)
Trying to hide his confusion, Ein left the building.
-
Nick looked at the swords. "Very nice!" he picked them up and sheathed one. He swung the other around, tring to get used to the sleak style. "Thanks old man." nick said as he started to leave once again. He seathed the other sword. "Hmm about that prision break....should i start killing those escapies or leave them? Maybe killing." he said as he started to walk towards the prison.
-
Marshall followed Ein, he kept mostly silent. He watched the officer hand Ein the sheet of paper, and followed Ein outside. "What does it say? Do you know?" Marshall wispered.
-
"That goop you just made come out... Is that what's being converted into this deadly energy?" asked Zion as they continued to back away.
"Maybe... But Zero Weapon's over there now."
"Yeah, but I still have Eternity Weapon, Tsu still has Shin Kuon Yaiba, and Aura has her two scimitars."
Zion pulled Shin Kuon Yaiba out of Tsu's scabbard, seeing as how he was a little occupied, and shook it a bit, trying to make it sharp. It didn't obey, but Tsu glanced at it and it became sharp. He then unsheathed Eternity Weapon, as Aura unsheathed her scimitars.
"That's four attacks we can use against him. We'll be unarmed afterwards, but what else can we do? We might as well hit him with them all at once! Let's go!"
Zion threw Eternity Weapon dart-styled, like Xenai did. However, Shin Kuon Yaiba and the scimitars were curved, and couldn't be thrown like that. Thus, they were thrown Strike Raid-style, just spinning toward the converter.
-
Nick saw the same men talking. "Hey where's this jail break?" he asked.
"The jail in Undecimus....why?" the man asked after Nick had already left the scene.
Nick ran around trying to find the jail. He say zombies and orcs flooding into this huge building. He looked at the gatling guns. "Uh...They got this under control..." He looked around seeing any escapies. "Hmm....nothing unusaul." He just watched how the Kandarin army worked.
-
//Burton: Kandarin, not Kardarin. Razz
Zeros' and Trent: Just to clear up, the Converter is hollow inside. It's basically a chamber which converts biomatter that falls in it into energy. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear on that.\\
Ein whispered back.
-"I've NO idea... but I think I see someone who does."
He hurried over to a passer-by.
-"The Lord pervails! Could you tell me wh-- Amaya?!"
He instantly recognized the person as the one whom he met earlier. Looks like he didn't have to go to annoying lengths to find out the message, after all.
-"Listen, umm, do you know a place where I and my friend there can stay? I'll explain everything, I promise."
-"You can stay at my home. However, I'd like that explamation now, if you will."
--- --- ---
Rink's rock hit Horus in the converter plate, bouncing off it. The rock made a hollow clunk, and dropped down to the ground.
Just as the energy in the Converter was completely vented, the four weapons struck it. The outer plating didn't begin to come back together yet, so the swords fell into the fissures in the engine. The plates came back together, locking them inside.
Horus realized this, and was not too happy. Almost all of the energy was vented, except in his left arm. He closed up the plates of armour on the rest of his body. However, he reopened the Converter, and took the blades out with his free hand. He threw them behind next to the zero weapon.
Just then, all of the energy was released. It was like nothing words could describe - every single living thing inside the field began to waver before one's eyes, as if made of rubber, and then rush down in a pool of dark liquid. The cloud remained at its present spot, and would still retain its effect for some time before dissipating.
Horus locked down the rest of his armour, and kneeled before the weapons in front of him. He took his maul and carefully put it on top, just so that the hammer part completely covered the weapons (just in case if nobody read Horus' wiki page, the maul is around as big as a person). His eyes slowly dimmed, and he shut himself down. Time for the repair cycle.
Inside the gargantuan mechanism, thousands of smaller spider-like machines were released. They were patching up the damage dealt by the weapons, as well as emitting a very weak energy pulse that rid Horus of Aegidius' attack. A few were crawling out of the hole where Zeros' vacuum blade hit. They gathered the sliced armour plates lying next to him, and fused them back into their original positions, right after going back inside Horus.
There was still some damage to be repaired inside. Horus remained inactive.
--- --- ---
The prisoners beat down the armed apprehension squad beyond the point of recognition. Kronos got tired of resurrecting them over and over, so he just left them rot. After all, the prisoners were simply crawling forward to their own deaths.
The jailbreak was already at the front gates. They were securely locked.
-"Get me somethin' heavy!"
-"Git it youself!!"
-"Hey, if you don' wanna rot down here, you'd bett'r be a team play'r! That log there looks good."
The prisoners took a giant wooden pole out of a pile of like poles, and began battering down the gates.
-"3, 2, 1... *CRASH* 3, 2, 1... *CRASH*"
The large gothic-looking doors crashed open. The prisoners froze.
Outside, a huge legion of orcs was waiting, with five Gattling guns positioned at the gate enterance. They began spinning, raining death down onto the prisoners.
Whoever tried to run was quickly apprehended by their own friends, brought back to life. No one survived.
//dear god... this has to be the lamest post I've made since joining...\\
-
Nick watched as the prisoners were aprehended. "Heh what stupid idiots..." Nick looked around tring to figure out where everything was on Kandarin. He ran back to the courtyard.
//Dm: yes, yes, i assumed Kronos was close by becasue he was resurecting the people.....didn'tthink he'd have x-ray vision.
-
"Ahh, dammit. That thing's big and it's covering our weapons. Maybe we could all push the thing off?"
"Hmmm..." Zion pondered it. "Tsu, step around and see if the weapons are in this fog."
"Uhm.... Zion..." Attention was brought to the Rasengan Chidori left in his hand.
"What the...!?" It was starting to burn his hand. It would cause too much damage if he held onto it for much longer.
"I need to use it or lose it."
"Aw, man..." Zion started to circle around the fog, staying at a safe distance, trying to see which areas were uncovered, if there were any. "Come on, you two." Tsu and Aura followed him. Xenai stood and did nothing.
-
//I love how fast Nick can move, he must also have very good eyesight, judging Kronos is in the courtyard of his palace.\\
Aegidius looked at Duilin. "It seems that he'll soon be vulnerable to magic attacks soon. We'll have to wait for the fog to clear up." He then noticed a few of the others flying around. "Hmm, perhaps they are looking for a weak point. I will help, you...keep conducting your electricity..."
Duilin hovered over to Xenai, seeing as he was doing nothing. He kept a good eye on the machine, however and was still charging electricity in his hand and his mace. He turned his head, and gave a joking look at him. "Hey, dare you to touch my mace..."
-- -- --
Marshall's eyebrows rose, as soon as Amaya asked for an explanation. "Oh...well...you see..." He then gently nudged Ein.
-
The others were still checking for open areas on the fog.
Xenai chuckled. "The thought is so exciting it makes all my hair stand on end."
-
Zeros' frowned when he saw this. He crossed his arms over his chest and thought for a moment... He needed to find out exactly how to get through that armor.
Zeros' crossed his arm over his chest and swung down, releasing another vaccum blade of energy. As that one was flying, he did it again and again, making five of the vaccum blades in succession and spread apart some.
-
Horus had his armour locked down. The blades hit the armour, without doing much (previously, the armour was deployed, so it was easy to slice off - now it's completely covering him, so there aren't any weak points).
The repair cycle continued. Almost all systems were back up and running again. Meanwhile, the black lightning cannon began to charge up, emitting a very low hum...
//I am WAY too tired to update Ein, I'll do it in the morning. Oh, by the way: Great Overlord and Our Moderating Savior DM, do you think i'm going a bit overboard with the machinery?\\
-
//Well, maybe not. Technology is supposed to be low, but from this it looks like it's all powered by magic, and frankly comparing your character to some others, I would not find it that you're going overboard. But don't push it any further (Heh). Great now I'm talking like Xorlak.\\
Duilin smirked. "Well, it wouldn't be smart if you did. I don't know how much power is in this right now. It's kind of numbing my hand, but once that fog of light clears up, I'm going to blast so much lightning into him he won't know what's what."
"You sure, it will work?" Rink asked.
"Well it got him pissed off before so why don't we really make him mad. He had to have been angry for a reason."
"I guess so." Rink replied.
Aegidius noticed that the fog was clearing up but it would take a little wile for it to clear. He also saw that it was charging another blast. "Hah, it seems that he is going to prepare another blast. Not to worry, I will fully handle this."
Aegidius, still with his shield floated in front of the machine. "Come on, you clunky oaf, give me all you've got!"
-
//Nope, you're nothing like Xorlak. His spelling and grammar skills are better than yours. Razz\\
Horus was fully repaired. He powered up again, the red glow in his eyes returning back to normal. All the smaller repair machines hid back into sockets inside Horus. He looked up at Aegidius, but did nothing. The cannon continued charging, while the cloud was slowly dissipating - but it was still lethal for everyone who stepped inside.
--- --- ---
Ein was walking along with Amaya.
-"Well, um, you see... I'm not actually from Kandarin. I came here to rescue my friend, Marshall." He pointed at Marshall. "He was captured by Kronos' forces. I couldn't just leave him to be dissected by the Sovereignty, so I came here. I'm guessing by this point you hate me..."
Of all the things one would expect her to do, Amaya smiled.
-"Quite the contrary. It is a noble thing you are doing, and trust me: not everyone fully embraces the truth. The ones that do, however, do it for a very good reason: it is very hard to escape the Lord. He is ubiquitous. He is everywhere. He is, as some put it, the Alpha and the Omega."
Ein was somewhat taken aback by that comment. Was she with him or against him?
-"My own loyalty lies with the Aspyes and Haraldur. Kronos seems to really dislike them."
-"Aspye ideology is the complete opposite of Kandarin Sovereignty. They are like dark and light: they cannot co-exist together."
-"So Kronos will - hunh!"
Amaya elbowed Ein in the stomach.
-"Don't say the Lord's name!! If you are heard, you will be executed!"
Ein groaned.
-"Ugh, alright... so is this your house?"
They came up to a rather average-looking building, just like the rest of the pyramids on the street.
-"Yes. Hurry inside."
-
//Uggh been a while.\\
Nick walked up to Kronos. "Sir, When do we depart?" he asked while tring to catch his breath.
---
Frenier and his army climbed out of the crater. The spoted the group fights. "Charge!" Frenier said. The army ran towards Horus and everyone else. Frenier spoted Zeros'. He flew up into the sky and dived towards his posisition.
-
Marshall looked quite freaked out as Ein explained the entire thing, what was he crazy? He just blew everything. He was really surprised that the woman wasn't enraged and called for the guards. What was going on? He didn't want to say anything but he didn't seem to trust this woman; she was probably trying to get their hopes up and then crush them at any second by summoning those zombie guards of them.
Marshall, still just followed them along, and hurried inside the building. It wouldn't hurt; he'd probably have a better chance hiding inside. Unless there were a group of zombies with that crazy Kronos guy inside. Man, he was creepy...
-
Zeros' narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms back over his chest, looking down at Horus. It seemed he was fully armored now. Their previous plan of attack wouldn't work now. Physical attacks would have no effect. Magical or energy attacks would be absorbed.
"So, now, he is like a walking juggernaut... Fully armored and able to absorb magic and energy..." he then side-way galanced at Duilin, "But... How much?" he murmured to himself. Zeros' suddenly had an idea.
He slowly circled Horus in the air, holding out both of his arms. Then, he used both hands to flick little balls of energy - no bigger then a very small pebble. They flew fast, though, looking almost inivisble, if not for the little stream of light they admitted.
Even if these balls were absorbed, they wouldn't give him barely any energy. Each one of these little balls had the energy eqivelent of a speck of dust.
He kept rapidly circling Horus, flicking these little balls at him. He had now flicked over 2,000. He stopped and watched, wanting to see what those would do.
-
Kerig sighed as he walked, watching the sky rather than where he walked.
He wondered for how long has he walked since his last stop.
His pace was slow and nothing much has happened during the journey so far, and he was beggining to wonder if the land has become more peaceful.
He stopped for a moment to look around, but didn't see anything which was much of an interest to him. Suddenly, he noticed a ruined fort in the distance, sticking out like a sore thumb.
"If you are looking for trouble, that is definetly a place to catch some..." Weloss said. "I see funny flickering lights in the direction of your thoughts, and you know very well what that means."
"But...It might be interesting!" exclaimed Kerig in his mind "You want to see what's going closer up yourself, don't you?"
"I guess so..." Weloss replied "But let's just watch this time. Whatever is going on there, it's most probably not something we would like to get involved in."
Kerig smiled to himself and happily started marching in the direction of the ruined fort.
-
"The fog's dissipating," said Zion. "Find some place on him that isn't covered by that weird armor. I'd much rather you use that attack than lose it. If that attack hits any part of that armor, it'll probably get sucked up."
"Either that, or the damage will be done first," said Tsu. "It's truly fierce..."
"Let's find somewhere on him that isn't armored first."
((So, is anywhere on him exposed? At all?))
-
//As I see it, there are three vulnerable areas on him: the cannon hatch, when it is open; the joints, which are covered in chainmail that is considerably weaker than the rest of the armour; and the mouth, also when it is open. Other than that, he's a tank.\\
Horus decided to make his move. It was getting to be quite boring, just sitting there in the cloud. He grabbed his maul, along with the five weapons beneath it, and jumped up. //I hope those weapons don't have the typical "bond" with their wielders - you know, where you can get the sword to come to you just by thinking about it...\\
Just as he was exiting the cloud, he was greeted by the cascade of energy blasts from Zeros'. The glyphs on his armour absorbed the ones that hit, growing dangerously light in shade. The Kao liquid encased beneath the glyphs was overloading. He still had around six more portions of it, and he hasn't emptied the current one for over four years now. Might as well do that now.
A small iris opened up in the palm of his hand. He pointed it at Zeros'.
A tight stream of bright glowing liquid was released at the winged figure. Kao was highly corrosive when loaded with magic energy, and Zeros' attack almost overcharged it. As it flushed, the glyphs emptied out, becoming the same colour as the armour. New liquid poured in from some kind of container inside Horus. This one was also purple, but almost black in shade.
--- --- ---
"I looked down at Nick.
-"You can depart when ready. I will join you shortly."
-
//guess no one read my post that frenier and his army are going to be attacking horus and everyone around him?\\
"Yes Sir, But what part of your armies shall i take and how will i get there?"
---
Frenier spread his claws and slashed towards Zeros's face as he flew down. His army charged towards the group of people. The soliders slashed there swords at each person (expecaily Horus i hate you ein no im just kidding.) Some soliders had pike some swords and some spears.
//do whatever you want with them.....\\
-
//well, you said they charged, you didn't post an attack like you did now. Also, how could your soldiers survive the energy field? Although it's a bit weaker than it used to be, it will still liquify any normal human.\\
Horus whipped around, furious. How dare these maggots interrupt him?! He extended his hands and started consuming them, one by one...
After the Conversion engine was full with live biomatter, Horus decided it's time for his maul. He slammed it into an incoming soldier. Small fountains of blood and chunks of human splattered across the stone flooring. The other soldiers around him were knocked back by the impact wave.
-
//How many of these Frenier's solider guys are there?\\
Duilin, seeing as how he was floating in the air, watched at the soldiers swung swords at them. He eyed them. "What the hell are you guys doing?"
One soldier then tossed a spear at him, he simply staffed to the left to dodge it. He didn't want to waste his uber-electro blast. He continued to charge energy.
Aegidius did mostly the same as Duilin did. But seeing as he wasn't doing anything he swooped down, and smashed his rod at the solders (lmfao I said rod!!11one). He simply just smashed at three of them, yet he swung forward his rod jabbing into his stomach and flipped him over tossing him into the fog o' death.
Rink, was further away, just watching the battle. He was small and probably nobody even noticed him. He seemed to have a natural talent of being ignored. It worked well for him.
"Oh enough of this, this blast should at least be able to crawl around and get to his weaker points, plus he just got out of the fog." Duilin said. He then grasped the mace with lightning energy being charged into it, with his other hand that was also charging energy. His hair began to stick up a bit from the static. Xenai would likely feel a bit of static energy from where he was standing. He backed up a bit.
"Okay, clunky..." Duilin slowly brought back his mace, he then swung it forward. Stopping when it was pointing at Horus. A large yellow blast of lightning shot forth at the machine, if any of those noob soldiers got in the way of the blast, it would likely just vaporize them and continue going, the blast was quite strong and even hurt Duilin a bit, yet would it be enough to hurt Horus?
//So yeah, even though it was only a 2.5 charged post, because most of my Duilin updates were just talking. But he put a lot of energy into it. But hey, that should be fair considering the damage Haraldur's long ass post attack did, and it wasn't even charged for a single full post.\\
-
//Right about now, I'm wishing my weapons could just come right back. >_<
"What the hell?! Our weapons! What the hell?! An army!"
"Xenai, let's go!"
"Judgment!" "Damnation!"
Beams of light rained down from the sky, and beams of darkness shot up from the ground, putting many holes into the charging formation. Meanwhile, Aura displayed hand-to-hand skills upon any soldier dumb or lovestruck enough to get near her. Tsu could only stand there and retain the energy burning his hand. He couldn't do anything just yet... The fog wasn't yet gone.
-
As Kerig has gotten closer, he noticed two clouds filling the fort ruins.
"That's a riot, numbskull" said Weloss "Probably an army, too. I see funny big bolt-like lights flying around as well, ruining little ones. What..."
"I see these big ones too!" Kerig exclaimed as the light beams from the heavens met and crossed the dark beams from the earth "So pretty!" he thought as he quickened his pace.
He barely realised already that he was close enough for a bloody spear to fly by, which he easily dodged. The spear was clearly not aimed at him, and was probably blown in his direction by some impact.
He came a little closer, and noticed a a small sitting imp not too far away.
Kerig approached the imp and stopped a few steps away from him.
Standing, he turned to the fight scene and asked, as if talking to no one in particular-
"And what is this show about?"
-
Rink was barely paying attention to anything, he was just cleaning his fingernails with his teeth, when suddenly a person approached him, and he got slightly startled. "Bah!" He saw the person didn't appear to mean any harm, but he kept his guard on. "Who are you?" the imp asked.
-
//argh. Now i gotta dodge like 389457 attacks aimed at me. >.<\\
The electrical blast made its way towards Horus, hitting his torso. Although a lot of it was absorbed by the glyphs filled with Kao, there was just too much energy released at once to fully absorb. The lightning formation zapped through him, fusing some pipes together and disabling an obsidian circuit here and there. The repair mechanisms immediately got to work, cutting up the obsidian and rearranging it.
One of the obsidian plates disabled was the aural detection panel. As soon as it was repaired, Horus noticed another strong aura nearby. He turned around to see a thin pale man. //that means you, Jenia\\
However, just as he was about to go into a more in-depth scan, the two light and dark attacks struck him. He stumbled and fell down, just to get back up, even more pissed than before.
A small aperture opened up in his palm, presumably the one where he flushed the purple liquid out of. He placed the five weapons inside, and they simply slid into his hand. The aperture quickly closed.
A hissing sound made itself known just about then. It sounded like air being pumped somewhere...
The hum from his back kept hightening in pitch. The freshly-consumed souls only added to the power of the upcoming blast.
//woot, charging two attacks at once\\
-
"No one, really..." Kerig replied to the imp, grinning in a friendly way. He sat down on the ground and made himself comfortable.
"His name is Rink." Weloss said "Why don't you..."
Weloss was interrupted by Kerig, who started speaking to the imp again.
"You may call me Kerig. So, for how long has this charade been going on,Rink"?
-
Zeros' really wanted to touch that beam of energy, just to see what it would do, but he decided it wasn't in his best health interest to do so. He simply dodged to the opposite side of both the attacks, making both of them miss.
Also, if he was right, the Fenrir guy might be hit by that beam. Ah well... It's his fault for attacking him.
Meanwhile, he blinked down at the soldiers swinging spears and other assorted weapons. He really didn't want to do this, but... They were attacking his friends.
He pulled out his sword from his sheath and it turned a wicked black rotting color with spikes all over it. It also doubled in length and became almost a foot in length. He slashed downwards at the army and five black blades of demonic energy went towards the soldiers below.
// Since you said do whatever... \\
Some of the soldiers managed to evade the attack, but most of the ones in the direct path were immedaitely killed. They had no chance of survival.
-
//There are about 200 soliders, Then Jason De Gra, Setph writh and frenier.....\\
Nick looked at Kronos. " Sir!" He said tring to get his attention. "How will I get there and who will I bring?" He looked around the courtyard.....
-
"Um, not to long, but longer then a few other fights I've seen. Those are my friends over there fighting." Rink replied. He then looked oddly at Kerig. "Wait, how do you know my name? I don't recall introducing myself."
"Arg, it didn't do much." Duilin groaned, he slowly lowered to the ground, brushing his hair down with his left hand. "Okay, angel dude, you take my place, do something, to introduce yourself, maybe you'll be worth hanging around us if you can beat this thing."
Aegidius gave a slight mocking look at Duilin. 'Stupid demons.' He then holstered his rod on his back, as it floated behind him. He held out his hands in the motion of holding the bow, and the crystal like longbow appeared in his hands.
A few of the remaining soldiers dashed towards Duilin. One armed with a sword, one with a pike and one with a spear. He spun around swinging his mace (like Link's UP+B attack in Smash Bros.) smashing away at the warriors. Their damaged bodies flew back landing on the ground, groaning in pain.
Duilin then smashed his mace into the ground. Red lightning crawled along the ground and drained the life from the three warriors.
Aegidius flapped his wings so he was floating several yards in the air. He created an arrow of angelic energy and aimed it towards Horus. He noticed that he should probably take his time, so he continued to charge his energy into the arrow.
-
Kerig childishly giggled to himeself, which was somewhat of an awkward action for a person like him.
"You could say I overheard you saying it..." He said "So... Nice to meet you, Mr.Rink!"
Kerig twisted his head sideways, cousing a series of light "crack" noises.
"So...Your friends are fighting..." Kerig tried to continue the conversation "Why aern't you helping them, then? No combat skills? What about healing or calling for more help, then? Surely you don't just sit and watch them all the time for entretainment..."
Weloss decided to take a look around and so begun to move his position away from Kerig. His was hoping no one who can see spiritual things is around, as a disembodied aura would be mighty suspicious...
-
Horus' left hand continued to make a hissing noise, and the cannon continued to charge. People were being slaughtered by the tens around him, and cascades of blood were raining down on Horus. He, however, did not care.
Small lightnings covered his feet, and he slowly rose into the air. He stopped as he got to Aegidius' level, and drifted forward to him until he and the angel were nose to nose close. His red eyes stared blankly into Aegidius' eyes.
A low quiet growl came out of the machine. His eyes appeared to thin, almost... and then his growl erupted into a horribly loud roar right in Aegidius' face. He kicked down right at him, probably knocking him to the ground, and went down with him. As he was flying through the air, he whipped out his maul and aimed it squarely at Aegidius' chest.
--- --- ---
Ein sat down at a table in Amaya's house.
-"Well, you see..."
He quickly sent a telepathic message to Marshall. "Go outside and look for the palace - this is about to get very very boring..."
He began explaining the situation to Amaya.
---
"I chuckled at Nick.
-"Bit late for the briefing, eh? Well... you are to report to Qim's port district. There you can find a transport readying to go to the mainland. However.... I am surprised you would have a problem getting over. I found no boat whatsoever at the site where you entered Kandarin. That only leads me to assume that... you can cross water without any means of transport?"
-
Tsu was still waiting for an open spot to emerge (in other words, the cannon hatch). Aura was busy defending her lover, and Zion and Xenai were still casting.
"Guys... That guy ate our swords through his hand."
"What?! Son of a bitch!"
// I hope you plan on giving them back. Razz
-
"Yes sir I ran across....but what about the soliders are they at Qim? Unless you want me to go this assignment alone.....?" Nick looked down at his scruffy torn clothing.
---
Steph and Jason attacked Dullin with there weapons. Frenier Just missed the cloud. He turned around facing Zeros' back. He jumped back up and stabed towards zeros' back.
-
Zeros' sighed and shook his head. He brought his huge sword back swiftly and parried Frenier's attack. He also briefly glanced in Weloss' direction, but paid him no mind, seeing as he wasn't doing anything harmful to his allies... Or... Aegidius, he guessed.
"What an amusing man... Attacking someone while thier back is turned," he tsked and quickly spun around, rapidly sheathed his sword as he went. He moved in close to Frenier and quickly jabbed rapidly at his abdomen, throwing several hundred punches in a few seconds. He knew that no one could evade them all, no matter how fast one was.
-
"Well, I'm not to strong as you can see by my size, plus my magic is limited to only casting fireballs and performing short ranged teleportation. If I tried to fight..." He pointed at the gigantic machine. "That thing would likely have to put less the no effort into crushing me. Plus well look at my friends, especially the one with the scars, wings, trench coat and platinum hair, they are quite strong, if they need help, then yeah I can go call for it. Yet sometimes I do even throw in a ?punch? or two to help them out."
He looked at Kerig, he seemed quite strange. "So, what's your story?"
--
Aegidius was kicked back down on to the ground. He almost lost his grip on his bow, but he was able to keep hold of it in his right hand, with the charging arrow kept in it. Wile he was on the ground he saw the machine aiming it's maul down at him, he lifted his arms and swiftly rolled to left a few feet, just avoiding the maul.
As he rolled away he got back up and fired the charged angelic magic arrow, aimed right at the joint of Horus' left arm, where he noticed that the armour was weak there.
--
Duilin jumped in the air avoiding both their weapons he then swung out his legs and kicked towards both their heads, wile he was in the air.
----
Marshall got the message and looked at Amaya. "Hey you know what. I feel like I need a walk. I'll be back shortly." He opened the door and left, but stuck his head back in. "You kids take care." He winked at Ein and then left.
-
Kerig smiled and continued to watch the fight as he spoke
"Nothing much, really... "He said "I was just walking around and we noticed a mess over here...And we were curius so we came closer..."
He leaned backwards a bit and asked, quite innocently : "What coused this mess? Did someone not pay up after a game of poker?"
Weloss was alreay at the center of all action.
He saw a big chunk os souls gathered together in one place...But it was unnatural, as it seemed that they are all being half released into death by a force invisible to him. And whatever that force was, all the puny little people as well as the larger, more powerful abnormal souls, were targeting it.
"WHAT A MESS!" He loudly exclaimed, but his voice was like a telepathic flood in all directions and nothing more.
-
//Now is Weloss like visible right now? I'm kind of confused about him, isn't he supposed to be a spirit possessing Kerig?\\
"Hah, to be honest nothing started this up. Just your average everyday crazy psycho going around attacking people then a group of soldiers jumps in and start to attack us." Rink replies, getting a slight laugh at the end. "This sort of thing happens all the time to us, we've come to get used to it. That's why I was kind of jumpy when you approached us."
-
//Non, Weloss is just joining forces with Kerig and shares his power with him. In every other way Weloss is an independant spiritual entity that can go wherever he wishes, but he is invisible and unheard physicly... So no, he isn't seen. Soldiers and lightning can fly through him since he isn't in the physical realm\\
"Ah...I see..." Kerig sighed "Kind of a heavy tank for your avarage everyday psycho, don't you think?" He asked, still sounding quite innocent "Did you try nagotiating? Maybe hypnotizing or brainwashing him into stopping?"
-
"No, it's appears to be a machine." Rink replied. "I don't think it is even alive; it doesn't even talk or anything. I'm not sure how a machine can move around like this. I've never seen anything like it. Perhaps it's more Aspye technology, or there's another force out there. Do you know of the Aspyes?"
-
//Sorry if I miss some of the incoming attacks at Horus. Might've forgotten about them while typing\\
The arrow struck Horus in the arm joint, piercing the shoulder axle and thus making the arm fall off. Horus growled, and picked it up with a very annoyed look. He jammed the arm back into its original position, and closed his eyes.
A bright flare flashed at that precise point, and continued growing into a purplish brightly glowing orb. The axle began fusing back to the arm...
Horus put his hand up in a defensive position, and kneeled down to the ground. The axle continued fusing back, it would take some time before it is finished. However, better to make all repairs while one can. Meanwhile, the cannon continued charging, and the air inside Horus' hand continued hissing...
//Trent, you'll get your weapons back very soon, I promise. Just as long as the weapons don't suddenly somehow turn into nukes and vaporize everything in the general area of the entire continent, all in one post, mind you\\
--- --- ---
"I slowly floated through the ocean below me in a phase-shifted condition. The ocean was horribly black, as if the water somehow consumed the matter from the night skies. The faint lights of my army were seen from my position... It seems that my orc legions were in place, all prepared, as well as the normal soldiers. As I got closer, I began to distinguish the ghastly outlines of the Clockwork Scorpions, their wind-up keys shining in the moonlight. I floated into the middle of the scene, before some sargeant finally noticed me.
-"Atten-SHUN!!!"
He turned towards me, and bowed down.
-"We are in position, my Lord."
I grinned a very very evil grin.
-"Good... begin the advance."
A loud fog horn sounded, and the large force slowly began crawling forward. The Scorpions, along with the rest of my army and the OMG, grumbled and were set in motion. It was as if... a large beehive, but not airborne.
I looked around at the terrain. Very hilly, occasional trees, mostly cut. Perhaps there's a populated outpost here somewhere...? Populated or not, this is a very good strategic point. We should set up camp here later for the night.
A scout on the frontlines took out his spyglass, and surveyed the area. Spyglasses... I should get those dorks at Qim to build me a giant spyglass so I can burn cities down from afar. Those fortresses everybody's been talking abou-
-"Sir... Village! Dead ahead!"
The scout's words resonated through my thoughts. I barely surpressed a scowl.
-"Good, good... begin assault maneuvers."
The army continued crawling forward. They were deathly silent, even the OMG. It seems as though the OMG were almost as well-trained as my own troops...
The village was heavily fortified, with one major flaw: the walls were wooden. They were patrolled by armed sentries, wielding brutish-looking crossbows. The army was almost at the village gates, as a sentry noticed the moonlight on the helmets of my legions. A loud alarm horn sounded.
-"To arms, my brothers! Defend thine families, thine wives, thine children!"
The OMG in general grunted, and brought one of the Gattling guns forward. Three orcs began to spin the wheel that set the barrels in motion. The ammo belt got gobbled up by the cannon, which was ejecting rains of brass on the other side. The air suddenly smelled of gunpowder.
The walls were almost instantly torn down, the old creaky wood defenseless against the cold metal of the bullets. The defenders were getting ripped to shreds by the steel wall of projectiles. I smiled, and my heart filled with warmth as I listened to shrieking screams from the village..."
--- --- ---
Ein continued explaining the whole thing, wandering around the room.
-"...and then I rescued Marshall out of the prison, and tried to find you."
He sat down on the nearby bed, tired of walking. Amaya was eyeing him closely, with a very strange look.
-"...then that creep at the allocations gave us the wierd slip of paper, and then we saw you walking down the --"
Amaya didn't let him finish. She slowly wrapped her hand around Ein's neck, and pressed her lips against his...
Ein didn't resist.
-
Alex had finally crossed the snowline. He had officially passed Asgarnia's borders. The white snow was replaced with green grass, the dry cold air with warm humid air, and the craggy rock path with a fresh-paved concrete road. From the mesa Alex was standing on, he could see the vast city of Asgarnia, perhaps the finest city in the region. Excited to reach civilization again, Alex started down the concrete pathway.
Asgarnia was a unique city. The town was home to a group of eccentric and wise inventors who were also mages. They were capable of harnessing a power far beyond any current technological equivalent. This energy could be used to power various revolutionary tools and devices that the townsfolk used for everyday work. Because of this, the town was well-defended. The magical power could be focused into both offensive and defensive positions. A large tower in the center of town uses the energy to project a large dome-shaped shield of magical energy around the town which could block magical attacks and most range attacks. When in wartime, this shield would almost always be up. Only residents of the town could pass through the shield, as their magical auras are identified by the magic as friendly, and therefore are allowed to pass. If friendly strangers wanted to get in, they must first be searched, questioned of their motives, and then given a temporary pass through the shield.
Asgarnia also had its share of offensive emplacements as well, being stationed on a high wall that circles the entire city. Various installments include small cannons which focus the magic's energy into a directed blast, which can be fired through the shield. Another weapon is a larger cannon that fires somewhat of a "magic mortar" that is affected by gravity. The explosions from the mortars are about 25 feet in diameter.
Most citizens of Asgarnia wonder where this energy comes from. Only the mages themselves know the true source, but some say they have been able to tap into an unseen source of energy, as abundant as air or water. Of course, this is kept a secret to prevent hostiles from figuring it out themselves. However, the residents of the town have unlimited access to this magic. Some have used it to make their lives easier by using it to animate such items as brooms or sickles to perform manual labor for them. Others use it to power mysterious inventions that would not work under normal laws of science. It is rumored that the mages were working on a handheld version of the energy cannons mounted on the city walls. It is also rumored that they might be perfecting a sort of armor. "Powered armor" they call it, with the magic as its power source.
Alex knew that he would find help with his flamethrower here. Compared to Asgarnia, Glacia was centuries behind. Perhaps he could finally trade in that old, dented Runite armor for something better. He hoped he could get his hands on this unique magic-powered armor. With overpowering zeal, Alex started down the path to Asgarnia?s gates.
-
Kerig placed a finger on his chin, as if wondering.
"I think I'v heared of them once..." he said, unsure of himself "They are the guys who don't like nobles, kings nd the such and want give everyone cheese covered pepper, right?"
Kerig then lowered his head as he decided it can't be "No, wait...they want to give everyone tights...No wait, that's not right either...Was it lights? Flights? Fights? No no no..."
Kerig was feeling somewhat uneasy. He knew that if Weloss were here, he could simply ask him what those "aspyes" are, and Weloss would know from the nearby sitting imp, thinking about it. Nevertheless, he had to try to remember, even though he could simple ask the imp anyway.
"I think it was rights." he finally said "But if they build something like this, I don't see how they could achieve any of their goals..."
Kerig noticed something which cought his interest in the scene before him
"Besides, aern't those soldiers in league with those so called aspyes?"
Kerig knew it was a long term guess, but he took the chance anyway. He enjoyed taking risks, and always had fun taking them regardless of the result.
-
//sorry I was gone for a while...\\
Nick followed Kronos as they raided the village. "My turn now!" Nick ran passed the clockwork scorpions and the OMG. He took out one of his swwords and started attacking people.He created a ball of dark energy and threw it at a small guard tower. The supports burned and it tilted towards the left. The men inside it fell out along with there weapons. There was a eiry craking sound and then *Crash* the tower fell over all together crushing another house.
//Ein you never said when Kronos got on the boat or whatever..
Dm one post down: yes you can...i said that like 20 posts ago.\\
-
//Burton you going to update Steph and Jason, or can I since they're NPCs?\\
"Haha." Rink made a slight laugh. "Well, they're trying to make everyone equal and such, with no rulers or anything, but they also want to expand the use of technology with magic." He points at the machine. "And well that looks like a fine example of it."
He looked at the soldiers. Their equipment wasn't nearly as advanced as the Aspyes, plus the Aspyes fought much better. Most of these warriors looked quite sloppy in fighting, except for the one fighting Zeros', looked more experienced.
"No, those can't be the Aspyes, I'd be able to tell. The Aspyes are nothing like this." Rink said.
//EDIT: Oops forgot Marshall.\\
-----
"Now I wonder where this palace would be. I've got to find out what these creeps are up to, and see what they've got." Marshall says to himself. A few people look at him suspciously as he walks by.
He comes up to some lady simply just standing in the middle of the road, with a big grin like she's pretending to be happy.
"Excuse me my lady, but do you know where I might find the palace?" Marshall asks her.
She points near the general direction of a large building, which was clearly visible towards everyone seeing how gigantic it was. "There!" She says sounding like she just helped out an extremely important person in a very dear way.
"Uhh...thanks." Marshall walks by, and shakes his head, trying to get that deranged person out of his mind.
A man quickly runs up to the happy woman, like he needs to go somewhere, and fast. "Um, hey, erm, do you know where the rest rooms are?"
She points in a random direction. "There!"
-
//Nah, they don't do that. By the way, is the cannon hatch open?
"What's these guys' problem?!" Xenai had stopped casting. He was using up too much ether and decided to stop.
Zion stopped too. "That's a really good question."
"I'm gonna go find out!" He cracked his knuckles and ran in the direction of Zeros' and Frenier.
-
"I saw Nick wreaking havoc upon the small village.
-"FOOL! Get back! We're about to deploy the rest of the Gattling guns, so if you don't want to get ripped to pieces, you'd better find a spot somewhere around here. Otherwise, I'm not collecting your brains for you!"
--- --- ---
//The hatch is closed right now, and it's not really a hatch, it's more like an iris or an aperture - like in a photo camera, you know?\\
Horus sensed motion behind him, but did nothing to avoid it. Chances are that they will not attack him while he is being repaired. The cannon was almost overcharging, and the air was hissing at a slightly lower rate now.
-
Nick heard Kronos from afar as the orcs set up the guns. Nick ran back towards Kronos and the army. "Sir why don't you just let me destroy the village by myself?" Nick distingished a ball of energy in his hand. and put his sword back in his sheath.
-
Steph and Jason were both kicked in the face by Duilin. They dropped their weapons and held their faces in pain.
Duilin landed on the ground and grabbed both the warriors by the back of their heads and smashed them together knocking them both out cold.
Aegidius noticed that his arrow was able to knock his arm off. He could probably do a lot more damage if he were able to charge more power into it, however he'd likely get attacked in the process. There were the others around him, yet there were also those warriors around. Well, maybe he could talk something into the demon/human.
He sent a telepathic message to Duilin, assuming he was familiar with that sort of thing. 'Excuse me, but I don't mean to pry but could you distract the machine for me? Just ignore those stupid warriors. Please?'
Duilin chuckled. "Allrighty then." He flapped his wings and he jumped into the air, and landed closer to the machine.
"Yoo hoo!" Duilin called. He then tossed a fireball at Horus' head to get his attention. "Over here!"
-
"But..." Kerig wondered "What's the point of making a machine of mass destruction?"
Weloss has already returned from his small expedition.
"Where were you?" kerig thought.
"I looked into what's inside." Weloss said "From what I see, a bunch of fools and a few non-fools are fighting some life-eating souless entity."
"That's interesting..." Kerig kept thinking "But the scene is getting boring. Why don't you spice it up a little?"
Weloss was startled "You want me to do WHAT!?"
"Sure" Kerig kept thinking "You won't be detected, it is impossible to harm you, and it would be funny to see some of the weaker ones suddenly going into blind rage and have their weapons engulfed in celestial flames just because you struck your finger at their soul..."
"I guess you are right..." finally agreed weloss "I haven't had this kind of fun in years. I might not have another chance."
Weloss was quickly off again, and pretty soon soldiers started going into blind rage at random. Their eyes shone in a mysterious tone of red, green or purple, and their weapons were ungulfed in otherwordly looking fire.
Kerig sighed. "What a sight!"
-
Xenai arrived at the scene of the fight. "Yo!" Projected in Frenier's direction. "You in charge of this circus here?" Gestured to the other soldiers. "'cuz if you are, I want to know why the HELL you attacked us!"
His dark blue wings appeared, and his true power was now released. He'd need it if he didn't want to look like a total weakling compared to Zeros', which he wasn't anyways.
Zion noticed that Tsu was rather intent on Horus' cannon. "...You do know that you're probably going to take very heavy damage if you attack that part, even with your wings out, right?"
"Yeah, I know. I don't care if I get hit, as long as I hit first."
"You'd better brace for impact then, as soon as you go for it."
"..."
Idiot... I guess I'd better watch out for him.
-
// Since Burton hadn't updated Fenrir in three days... \\
Zeros' sighed as his attacks hit and he turned towards Xenai. He shrugged and pointed towards the man who had just been knocked out by his attack.
"I think I knocked him out with all those punches..." he said and shrugged again. "Oh well," then, he turned back towards Horus and narrowed his eyes.
"That man... That cannon on his back is containing more energy then it can handle," he said, eyeing the place where the cannon was supposed to be.
-
//Zeros', unless Zeros' can see through metal, he can't see the cannon yet - it's beneath a hatch.\\
Horus dismissed the fireball as it were made of leaves. The Kao didn't even change its shade.
His arm fused back to the axle. He moved it around a bit, flexing it and seeing if it was fully operational. It seemed to work fine.
He stood back up, and froze. There was an aura nearby... a rather strong signal coming on a low frequency. Probably a hidden entity... however, it appeared to be in phase-shift, so he could most likely not harm it. On the flip side, the Kao in the glyphs would prevent any such entity from harming Horus, so he didn't worry about it too much. He turned around facing Aura, and lifted his hand up in a "halt" manner.
The air stopped hissing, and the aperture opened. Almost instantly, her blades were blasted at her at an incredible speed, propelled by the compressed gas inside the arm. Without moving his arm, he turned around to Tsu and shot the Zero Weapon at him, then to Zion shooting the Eternity Weapon. Finally, he turned around to Xenai, and sprinted towards him, stopping just behind his back and aiming his hand at his head. He hated attacking people from behind... //just to clear up, this attack was not shot yet.\\
The cannon in his back emerged in an upright fashion, and blasted a black lightning at Kerig nearby. Less enemies, less trouble...
//Please respect both of these attacks - the sword-flinging one was charged for four posts, and the cannon for five. That should've been enough to take out a small village.\\
--- --- ---
"-"Don't blow up the village. I need to see what my army can do. After I'm finished with testing out the new battlefield equipment, you can clean up whatever is left of it. On another notice... I believe it is time for our arachnid friends there to deal some damage..."
The clockwork scorpions began crawling forward, firing as they moved. The tail-mounted cannon worked great, even if it was somewhat primitive - using a crossbow-like method to propel a heavy projectile. The shots landing onto buildings shattered them into individual chips of wood."
-
//JEEZZZZ i have been gone a while\\
Ulmec decided to take a while off from science and simply inspect his site. There was a main wall that was finally finished covering the beach of the island. another wall was being build atop the plateu that Huget created. Not many of the goblins thought that the castle would be created succesfully on the top of a plateu but Huget and Ulmec proved them wrong.
"Goblins, what is the castle's status?" Said Ulmec, One goblin replied
"Foundation is complete and construction on the outer walls has begun"
Ulmec made no reply and continued to stroll along the side of the plateu looking at the work being done below. He was sure that son the army would be ready to move onto mainland and secure the mountains in the middle of Gail, as the Goblins called the land in which they live.
"Sir, we have 10,000 goblins returning from the north"
Ulmec looked puzzled for he knew by heart how many were sent to scout for gold and other riches(2,354 to be exact).
"How is this possible?" The Goblin Cheif looked just as confused as Ulmec and started to ask the soldiers what happened.
"Sir, they claim that another army unbound from any far-out kingdom joined them while scouting a valley."
Ulmec gave a sign that the cheif took as an "ok" and walked to his temporary barracks at the base of the plateu. It was very simple, a carving into the stone wall of the mountain. There was one room in the middle, a bedroom to the right, and a study to the left. Not much but good enough for now. Ulmec walked into the study and began looking up books on "crystalization", the art of creating objects into crystal. This is how he willl create the greatest armor any army has ever ahd, but he has yet to find the book on which to do so. Ulmec, after 3 good hours of searching came to his senses an knew that the only place that such a book would be kept would be at the ancient goblin city, but that is on mainland and it is not safe there.
"I will find a way" Ulmec muttered to himself, and he walked away into his bedroom.
-
Kerig was innocently enjoying the show as he had noticed Weloss rushing back to him.
"What's wro..." was the first part of a chain of thoughts he would'v have if he hadn't noticed the large concentration of energy flying at him from the speeding robot man.
Kerig didn't find it nessecery to get up. When the bolt of blackness had reached him, he had simply closed his eyes for a moment. The bolt missed him, passing the right side of his head, turned right and, from the left side of Kerig's head, turned back towards it's source.
"That wasn't very nice of him, was it? Attacking spectators, that is..." Kerig thought.
After many years of training to control his spiritual and bodily energies, Kerig had adapted quick thinking as well as good reflexes.
Kerig was tought by Weloss that, in the spiritual level, energy is like matter, and behaves similiarly. The black lightning that flew at him might not have been a spiritual attack, but it was quite energy-based, and therefore should be swayed by strong enough "winds". Kerig did nought but spin his own energies around himself to couse that effect.
He knew...That, combined with his speed, made him all but imprevius to long-range attacks.
"This isn't a game anymore!" Weloss angrily told Kerig "I can't have you cought in the crossfire!"
"No, Weloss..." Kerig said, replacing his frown with a renewed smile as he realised he let himself doze off for a moment "Let's assume that it was a mere error...I do not want to miss something so beutiful over some silly misunderstanding."
Kerig returned to his relaxed state, but this time Weloss refused to leave his side.
-
"I don't clean up messes I make them." Nick looked at Kronos. "So is this a Aspyes town?" He watched the town being destroied by the Scorpions.
---
Frenier got up and went to grab Zeros' ankles, looking to throw him into the cloud.
-
// No, he can't see through metal, but he knew about the cannon before-hand and he knew that it was charging because he could sense the energy. \\
Zeros' sighed and shook his head, merely lifting his feet up and out of Frenier's reach.
"Well, theres your man, Xenai. You want to question him now?" he asked, floating a little bit higher then he had last time. "He fully concious and well... fiesty, if you could say," he said.
He wasn't concerned with Frenier that much, unless he pulls some super attack out of his ass. He was more concerned with that man and his cannon.
-
Frenier looked at zeros' "How dare you not fall to my power." He charged his energy while flaping his wings. His power started to grow. He looked towards his depleting army and the unconcoius Jason and steph. "God damn you!"
-
//It's just that it said that Zeros' looked at the cannon...\\
The blast came around Hours, who skillfully caught it in his cannon. It was fully charged again, and he retracted the cannon back inside, not bothering to overcharge it. He was still staring at Xenai's back, hoping that he'd notice him.
--- --- ---
-"You make messes, eh... Well... if you want to be a part of this army, you might want to learn to follow orders. If not - you can go rampaging through the villages as you wish, as long as you mention my name in there somewhere.
As for your question, I have no idea who this village belongs to. It was in the way. Now it is not."
My army smashed through all of the frontal defenses, and began to pillage the rest of the village. More screams followed. The buildings around me were splattered with people's brains. The soldiers were amusing themselves by writing "He is coming" in blood, as well as "Kandarian Sovereignty FTW", whatever that means, and "You can't hide". None of them had the guts to write my name... good..."
---
Meanwhile Kandarin buzzed with activity. Soldiers were drawn from all across the land into Undecimus. Qim was at its peak of activity, spewing out all sorts of clockwork devices. Clockwork scorpions, gigantic crossbows, steam catterpillar-like machines... The preparations for war were underway.
---
Ein and Amaya, having finished their... business... were now talking as if absolutely nothing happened. Well, almost.
-"Ein, I love you."
-"I love you more."
-"No way."
-"Hey, when me and Marshall get out of here, want to come with us?"
-"Sure!"
-
Alex approached the shielded gates of Asgarnia. Despite not being in wartime, the shields were meant to deter any unwanted guests. A guard stepped out in front of Alex.
"One moment, sir. Where ya from?" asked the guard.
"Um, the Glacia Commonwealth." replied Alex.
The guard stifled a chuckle.
"What's so funny?" asked Alex.
"How do you make a living up there? I bet those folk have never even heard of magic!" joked the guard.
"Those people prefer the simple life." said Alex.
"Simple or not, those people need to get with the times. At one time or another, an attack force is going to wipe that little town off the map. I'm sorry to hold you up. The scan won't take but a minute." replied the guard.
Two devices which appeared to be the scanners telescoped from both surrounding walls and scanned Alex up and down. These scanners were meant to detect any counter-magic which could destabilize the power grid. The orb in the corner lit up green, which meant Alex was clear.
"All right, son. You're good." The shield went down, and the guard motioned Alex through. "Enjoy your stay in Asgarnia."
"Thank you, I will." called Alex.
Asgarnia wasn't like anything Alex had ever seen before. Everywhere he looked the magic was being applied to one purpose or another. As he walked down the street, he saw a rake glowing with a blue aura tending a garden. Even more amazing, the rake was moving on its own.
"I guess there really is no limit to the applications of this magic," mumbled Alex.
Alex came up on the city center, which was ringed with stalls, which stocked all sorts of magical goods, from spellbooks to jewelry. Alex also saw a very large portal-like structure to the south. What was on the other side of that portal? Was it the source of the magic? Alex doubted he would be able to go through, seeing as there were two guards posted on either side of it, armed with what appeared to be handheld versions of the lasers atop the city walls. Alex decided to steer well clear.
Alex came upon a building whose door was open, as if people were welcome inside. Upon looking through the threshold, it was no shop or inn, but some kind of laboratory.
He entered the lab with a cautious mind, as there were bubbling beakers and flaming burners. From experience, he was ready to duck should something blow. Half of the things in this lab Alex had no idea what they did, so he took care not to touch anything. He saw a man at the other side of the room, rummaging through crates and cages. He was a bald man of about sixty, and was wearing glasses. He wore a white lab coat and khaki pants. He seemed worried about something. He looked into one of the cages.
"Blast that little...where did she get to? Lamarr? Come out of there!" he rapped on the cage a few times, but nothing was inside.
"Excuse me," called Alex. "Is everything all right?"
The old man hit his head on the cage and stood up. "Oh, hello sir. Well, almost all right. Lamarr has gotten out of her cage again."
"Who's Lamarr?" asked Alex.
"Why, Lamarr is my pet headcrab!" replied the old man. "By the way, my name is Doctor Isaac Kleiner."
"Nice to meet you, Dr. Kleiner. I'm Alex. I'm just passing through here looking for someone who knows a lot about this place... Hey wait, what's a headcrab?"
"It's quite a long story, but I suppose I have time to explain," replied Kleiner. "Have a seat Alex, and I'll tell you the story."
-
Shaak and Kraig looked at the burning of the houses and people.
"Isn't this great!" Kraig says as he munches away on what looks like a large chicken leg.
"Yeah, could you pass the bucket of baby legs?" Shaak asks (eww... it wasn't chicken.)
"So.. we seem to be running out of smoothskins, and house fires to cook them." Kraig points out.
"Well... I guess we could move on."
"Okay... But lets not go beside the clockwork scorpions again... They scare me."
"..."
"What? They move without anybody in them! They?re the devils work I tell you!"
"Sir! Sir! We have good news!"
"What?"
"The cy- sorry Byclops, it's reached maturity!"
"That was fast."
"The potion works really well."
"AAAAAAAAAAIIIRRREEERRRAAAKKK!" The Byclops screams as it exits its cage. The towering beast stomps over the countryside looking at the new world. It sees a dead man on the ground so it picks him up and swallows him whole. Suddenly a stray bullet from a T3H Gattling gun hits the Byclops in its side. In fury it stumbles over to the gunner and pounds him into the ground with his fist.
"No... That's the devils work." Kraig stands in awe at the towering monstrosity.
-
//God I miss one day and then I have to read like 4392 posts. I'm tired so I'm sorry if I missed anything.\\
Marshall looked at the huge palace. He saw the entrance.
"Um, hey can I come in." Marshall asked a guard.
The guard raised his right eyebrow at Marshall. "Uh...no."
"Well, I'm um, expected. You see our ruler is expecting me...to..um clean. Clean his...bedroom?"
"I don't think he is. Now get out of here before I have you arrested."
"You sure? I mean...I have...um...permission to be let in. What I meant to say is that...um...our ruler wants me to...um...democleanionstate."
"That's not even a word." The guard said, sounding slightly annoyed.
"I'm pretty sure it is." Marshall said.
"Really?" The guard smiled. He then whispered something to a guard on the other side. The other guard stepped forward and began to listen.
"Yeah it um...means to um...you know demonstate my power, and to clean up...stuff...and then like...uhh...work for him."
"Okay, so I guess you're one of the many people who come to demoncleate."
"Democleanionstate!" Marshall snapped. "Now listen our ruler is highly expecting me and he would be terribly upset to know that his guards are making me be late! So I demand you let me in this instant!"
The guard laughed, and then made a stupid looking smile. "OKAY!"
"Thank you." Marshall said, bowing his head and then stepped forward to walk into the palace. Yet the guard grabbed his shirt, and lifted him in the air.
"That was a joke you idiot. Now for the last time, get the hell out of here and don't let me catch you trying to get in." The guard then tossed him on the ground.
Marshall then slowly walked off.
"Democleanionstate...what an idiot." The second guard laughed. The two guards then began to laugh uncontrollably.
----
Duilin annoyed with being ignored dashed towards Horus in rage.
"Wait!" Aegidius warned. "I wouldn't recommend that. You need to have a focused attack, charge up some energy and aim for the weak points." Still charging his arrow.
Duilin glared at Aegidius.
"No, look...above the arms and around the neck." Aegidius said.
Duilin 'zoomed his vision' towards where the angel said. Yes, the armour was weak there.
"You just keep charging your arrow." Duilin said. "This piece of shit's gonna ignore me eh?"
Duilin put the mace on the holster on his belt.
"YAARRGG!" Duilin shouted he held out both his arms, and red demonic fire began to charge in his hands?
-
//Sorry for not coming by all day, guys. You forgot to shoot Tsu's sword. Is it safe for me add his into the attack?
"Aura, heads up!" She stopped pounding soldiers for a moment to look at Horus, with his gesture. They dove to the sides moments before the attack launched, when the air stopped hissing. However, the amazing speed of the attacks created a windcutter effect that would inflict heavy damage on their backs. Tsu continued holding his charged attack, but the burning on his hand was getting really bad. They looked to the four weapons stuck in the trees behind them, one certain huge weapon having cut one down. (Aura's scimitars, Zero weapon, and Shin Kuon Yaiba)
Zion wasn't nearly as smart for some reason. As his sword came to him, he timed a grab of the hilt. He grabbed it just fine, but his sword took him for a ride. The sword shot past a nearby tree, slamming Zion into it. The sword came out of his hand and stuck into the ground nearby. "Ugh..."
"Hey, fool, pay- eh?" He detected an energy coming at him at high speed. He turned around. "Whoa!" He leaned waaay off to the side, grabbing Horus' arm and attempting to fling him into the air. With his wings out, strength certainly wouldn't be an issue.
Tsu looked over at Horus, whose cannon aperture was just closing. "Crap!" He slowly got to his feet, the windcutter effect having done quite a number on him. "I'm tired of waiting. I'll lose my hand if I keep this pent up any longer." The attack was now swirling very violently. "Aura, let's do it!" His cyan wings appeared, and he looked to Aura, who was getting to her feet also. Her wings appeared as well. He walked over to her, extending his free arm. Aura grabbed it and started to spin around... The newfound strength from her wings would increase the attack's power by a lot. It also allowed her to spin much faster. She'd be able to throw him much harder...
-
Frenier continued to charge energy and flap his wings....
---
"Fine!" Nick folded his arms and leaned on the ships mast. "I'll be in the cabin." Nick walked down into the cabin. Most of the orcs down there where still getting ready others waiting for orders. He leaned against the wall. " I'll wait untill theres some real action."
-
"Hmm?it seems Duilin's getting annoyed with this guy." Rink commented. "He doesn't like fighting huge things and getting ignored so I guess I understand."
Duilin continued to charge his demonic energy. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and opened his eyes again, trying to calm himself.
Aegidius continued to charge his angelic arrow, also trying to focus an accurate shot the machine, yet it was moving a lot.
----
"Great how the heck am I going to get inside now. This is crazy." Marshall groaned. "Well at least I just get a good look at what's going on outside."
Marshall passed around the town square, walking along the pathways around the palace.
He looked up and saw a balcony, with somebody standing on it, looking into the distance. He recognized the person.
'Roland? My, it is. I thought I had his corpse burnt to a crisp. Must have just been the clothing or just parts of him. But he's clearly there. I better get back to Ein and that Amaya woman before he notices me.'
Marshall headed back towards Amaya's house as quickly but safely as possible.
-
"So, you're saying that this headcrab, Lamarr, is some kind of creature from another world?" Alex was quite confused.
"That's correct," replied Kleiner. "Headcrabs may be small, but should not be underestimated. The primary attack of a headcrab is to jump at a victim's head, using its beak to pierce the skull and take control of the host's body, mutating it in the process, turning them into a horrid zombie."
"...And you keep something like that for a pet?!" cried Alex, suddenly concerned about becoming a necrotic.
"Oh heavens, no need to be worried! Lamarr is debeaked and utterly harmless!" chuckled Kleiner. "The worst she might do is try to uh...couple with your head. Fruitlessly, of course!"
"What do you mean, 'debeaked?'" asked Alex, clearly perplexed.
"Why, she has had her fangs completely removed!" said Kleiner. "That's not to say that it's not a bit shocking for her to couple with you for the first time."
"What do these things look like, anyway?" inquired Alex.
Dr. Kleiner rummaged through a desk drawer and produced a conveniently full-color picture of a headcrab:
(http://http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/995/headcrabuk6.jpg)
"How big are these things?" Alex asked, not understanding much about this creature.
"Oh, I'd say upwards of about two feet in length or so," replied Kleiner.
Just then, some crates on the other side of the room shuffled.
"Lamarr?" called Kleiner. "Are you back there?"
Just then, Alex felt something pounce on his back and crawl upwards toward his head.
"Augh! Dammit, get it off me!"
The culprit emitted a sharp shriek, and proceeded to couple her mouth with the top of Alex's head. She then rested on his head.
"This the thing?" Alex asked to Kleiner, who was still rummaging in boxes.
"Wha...? Oh, Lamarr! There you are! How on Earth did you get out of your cage?" said Kleiner.
Lamarr made a small squeak and popped herself from Alex's skull, only to climb up Kleiner's back and do the same thing.
"Urgh...that felt so weird." sighed Alex, checking his hair to make sure some disgusting slime wasn't left behind. His hair came up dry.
"Oh, goodness, she does this when she's hungry," replied Kleiner, who reached into an icebox to take out a watermelon. Excited, Lamarr sprung off of Kleiner's head and onto the table. Kleiner cut a slice of the watermelon, which Lamarr immediately began to consume.
"An alien head-humper from another world, and it prefers watermelons," mumbled Alex. "Any chance it came from that portal in the center of town?"
Kleiner left Lamarr to eat her watermelon and rejoined Alex. "Who knows what's on the other side of that portal...the guards never let anyone through. Some say it's where the inventors discovered the magic. Others say it's a side effect of the magic, and people have just been afraid to go through."
"It takes a lot to spook me," said Alex, completely forgetting what happened five minutes ago.
"I don't know..." said Kleiner. "It would take a lot of convincing for them to allow you through. They put the safety of the population first, and one person travelling through to another dimension could entice whatever's on the other side to invade our world. Besides, that armor you have is clearly antiquated. There's no way you could survive in that world."
"Well, Doc, unless you have something better..." suggested Alex.
"I do, but I don't think it's ready for field use yet," said Kleiner. "It's essentially a sort of powered armor, utilizing extreme heat conjured from the magic to fuse two very heavy metals, crystalline cetanium and pure firanadium, to release the vast energies inside these metals. Most of the energy is dedicated to the armor's functions, while a little is allocated to maintaining the fusion reaction. See, the magic is only used to spark the reaction."
Alex was a little lost, but he understood the concept that Kleiner was trying to explain. "What exactly can this armor do?"
"The suit keeps tabs on your vitals and administers white magic to whatever injuries you might have, as well as keep track of the energy levels of whatever magic-based weaponry you might have," explained Kleiner.
"If only I had one of those lasers..." said Alex.
"I've constructed one similar to the handheld magic lasers the guards have, though not as powerful. There's also no telling what could happen to the laser if you were to cross worlds," warned Kleiner. He reached into a cabinet and pulled out a large, rifle-shaped weapon. "This is it. It's powered by the same reaction as the suit, but the power is directed into an energy blast."
"Hot stuff," said Alex.
"Hot stuff indeed," replied Kleiner. "If you're going to enter the borderworld, we might as well get you suited up." Kleiner led Alex to a closed set of double doors. Kleiner pressed a button and they slid open, to reveal the powered armor he mentioned.
The suit was fully-enclosed, including a helmet, sealed hands and feet. The suit was black, but glowed blue out of various grooves in the suit where joints met. The suit's outer layer was smooth in texture, made from an unknown metal.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Alex?" asked Kleiner. "Once I start the fusion reaction, it cannot be stopped until the supplies of the metals run out..."
Alex looked at the suit, the rifle, and out the window to the portal leading to the borderworld. "I'm sure."
-
Marshall continued to quickly walk back. "Aw man. If Roland knows we are here who knows what would happen." He grumbled to himself.
He tried to remember where exactly Amaya's house was. He then noticed that crazy happy woman. He slowly walked by her, trying not to make eye contact.
"Hi!" She said in a high-pitched voice.
Marshall stopped dead in his tracks. 'Maybe I should have stuck with Roland.'
"I remember you. You asked me where the palace was. You're funny. I like your hair."
"Uhh.... thanks."
"Need the directions to any place else, you funny, FUNNY guy?"
"Uh yeah, do you know where a woman named Amaya lives."
"I know Amaya, she's fun. She knows lots of stuff, she's nice."
"Yeah, where does she live?"
"Where does who live?"
"Amaya!"
"I know Amaya, she's fun. She knows lots of stuff, she's nice."
"0_0..."
----
Aegidius continued to empower the angelic arrow. "Just a little more power..."
Duilin also continued to charge his demonic power in his hands; the swirls of energy were growing, as well as the glow.
-
Frenier continued to charge his energy and he flaped his wings faster.
//Don't do anything with frenier now, k? \\
-
//Not Typing much, ill post a long one when i get hime\\
Ulmec sat and simply waited for something to happen. He soon fell asleep.
-
// I edited that post. And no offense Burton, but this isn't DBZ where people get to charge attacks unnoticed or uncontested. Sorry. \\
Zeros' turned back to Frenier and looked mildly amused at his attempts of charging up energy.
"Now... What exactly are you trying to do? And as for your army... Well, they fell rather easily to my friends. And now... For you..." he unsheathed his sword, it's holy form coming to bear. It didn't increase in length, but it changed to look like a rather large scimitar. The hilt changed to a flowing white hair, the same color of the hair in his God form.
He rested it on his shoulder before slashing it in Frenier's direction, a white crescent blade of energy speeding towards Frenier. He didn't make it one of his super fast ones. He didn't want to kill the man...
-
//I meant don't control him. <_<\\
Frenier moved to the side getting his arm slashed. "Argg" He created a funnel of wind and pushed it towards Zeros'. If he were to touch it he would be torn to shreds. //It was charged for 3 posts so don't take it like his normal attacks.\\
-
"I say, Alex. You look splendid in that armor!" exclaimed Kleiner as he supplied the magical spark needed to start the fusion reaction.
The suit's systems flared to life. The grooves in the suit glowed a bright blue, and the heads-up display inside the helmet's visor activated. Inside, Alex heard a voice.
"Welcome to the H.E.V. Mark One protective system, for use in Hazardous Environment conditions."
"Hey, how does it do that?" asked Alex.
"The suit has a sort of magic presence inside," explained Kleiner. "It's what keeps the user informed on their status."
Fully suited up, Alex looked out the window at the portal. "There's no way they'll let us through..."
Dr. Kleiner walked outside and looked up into the sky. Clouds above were roiling ominously, and lightning danced throughout them.
"Oh dear..." said Kleiner. "Alex, take a look at this."
Alex looked to the clouds. With each passing second, they grew more and more violent. Suddenly, a large bolt of lightning arced from the sky and struck the ground about 50 feet away.
"Goodness!" exclaimed Kleiner. "This is no electrical storm I'm afraid."
"What makes you say that?" Alex asked.
A guard ran up to Alex and Kleiner.
"I'm afraid the doctor is right. These are not just any storms. These are portal storms."
"What the hell is a portal storm?" queried Alex.
"Portal storms are extremely powerful rifts in the dimensional continuum. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to create them, and once they start, they're difficult to stop."
"Sir, you must activate the city shield!" cried Kleiner.
"Of course, we will at once," replied the guard.
Alex looked up towards the tall tower with a large dish on top. The dish was glowing, and the shield was about to activate. In an instant, a superbolt of electricity struck the projector and made it explode. The city was defenseless.
"It's no good! These portal storms will wipe Asgarnia off the map," cried Kleiner.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that," said Alex. "What if that gateway in the center of town is the cause of these portal storms?"
"In theory I guess it's possible," replied the guard. "That suit you have looks like it take a lot of punishment. Please, for the good of Asgarnia, cross over to the borderworld and see what is happening!"
"I hope you understand what you're getting yourself into," said Kleiner. "If you cross over, there's little chance that enough energy will remain to bring you back. You could be stranded in the borderworld forever."
"....I understand," said Alex. "I'm always trying to help people."
"I have given you clearance to the portal gateway," replied the guard. "Cross over when you're ready, but every second you waste could be one less second Asgarnia has."
In the background, more portal bolts began destroying Asgarnian structures.
"There's also no telling how the laws of physics apply in the borderworld," replied Kleiner. "That is, if there are any."
Alex walked up to the giant gateway, essentially a swirling purple vortex leading to parts unknown.
Alex approached the portal, but hesistated. He approached Dr. Kleiner. "I hope that there's a city to come back to."
Alex and Kleiner shook hands. "Not to worry, Alex. We'll do our best to defend the city, whatever the cost. Do be careful."
Alex turned back to the portal. "I will."
Alex passed through the portal, leaving the world behind in a blinding flash of purple light. Alex regained his vision standing on a large island-asteroid floating in the midst of an unimaginable abyss. A purple vortex replaced a bright blue sky, and a similar one swirled an indescribable distance below. Many other island-asteroids of varying size floated around. There was no mistaking it. Alex was on the borderworld.
-
Horus let out a laugh-like grumble. A puny shortie trying to flip a 20 feet tall machine? Pathetic... He shot the final weapon at Xenai, now that he had his attention.
However... the cannon COULD use a bit more power. He continued charging it.
[that's 6 cumulative charging posts now]
//by the way, Trent... your post, was that an attack or a description of an upcoming attack?\\
--- --- ---
"The village was burnt down to its foundation. Whoever was alive was being taken care of. The soldiers were salvaging whatever equipment they could find in the ruins, and setting up a camp. The commanding officers in charge should have been more than competent to lead this assault, and I have other matters to attend to in the capital. I departed towards the massive island nation in the distance."
---
Kandarinian soldiers were conducting wartime drills, generals and other command staff were revising attack plans, and janitors were playing poker. This was the biggest assault Kandarin has ever massed up, for it included every concievable type of war device: people, machines, mages...
A small group of united scientists from Sizri and Qim were busy translating the secrets of the eleven gravity orbs brought to them by Kronos. Even though much information was gathered, their purpose as a weapon was unclear: a small shift in the coordinates of the wormhole allowed access to the centre of a star, thus making an ideal power source. The technology, however, still seemed far far away...
-
"Crap. He's charging up a hell of a lot of energy." Duilin commented. "Hey pretty boy, think you can stop him from firing?" He asked Aegidius. Still charging his demonic energy.
Aegidius ignored the pretty boy comment, be answered anyway. "I'm not sure. I think the only way would be to destroy it, or to shoot at when the cannon comes out...but...it comes out and back in pretty quick. I don't know what we're going to do." He sighed, but continued to charge his angelic arrow, it was quite big, the light would seem like it would blind the angel, but he seemed to not even notice the glow it was giving off.
(Duilin and Aegidius' attacks are at 4 posts, I noticed I forgot to state when Aegidius started to charge his attack, if I did it would be 5 for Aegidius.)
----
Marshall finally arrived back to Amaya's house and stepped inside. He noticed that they weren't there, yet he heard something from another room, he opened the door and stepped inside.
"Hey Ein I wasn't able to-" Marshal immediately turned around surprised because of the sight he saw. "Heh, um...sorry. I'll um, wait outside."
He walked out of the room, and chuckled slightly.
-
Nick felt the boat moving so he came out of the cabin. He walked up to Kronos and asked. " Where are we going?" He stared at what once was a lively village.
//Assuing Im still with kronos..\\
-
The OMG is still wondering around the ruins of the village, eating the corpses and stealing the money.
"Well, that could not have gone better, we hade only one casualty and that was from the Byclops." Kraig reports.
"Now we have to organize the army, that could take at least two posts."
"What?"
"It could take at least twenty minutes."
"Ohh, i could have sworn you said something else."
"Well, you must have heard wrong."
"Okay then... I will assemble the troops."
"Alright then."
"This has been going on too long."
"So?"
"So shut the hell up."
-
// As for me controlling Frenier, I didn't... If your character isn't updated within three days, you can assumed he was 'knocked out' by the attack. \\
He frowned. A funnel of wind spinning at high speeds... That vaguely reminded him of one of his own attacks. He didn't stick around wanting to see what it would do to him. Pure wind was alot harder to deflect then energy... Much harder.
He dodged wide, making sure to avoid the attack completely. He didn't leave unharmed, though. The winds around the funnel managed to brush against his leg, tearing apart the skin on his leg in an instant. He winced and pressed a hand to wound and growl.
"Damn... I actually felt that one..." he mumbled, looking over at Frenier. The funnel of wind was also heading towards other people. // Xenai, Horus and Duilin and Angel dude.\\ He just hoped none of his friends got caught up in that funnel.
-
//...
(http://http://eon.mysticsoftware.net/objection.gif)
Now... I should think that with people like Zeros' and Haraldur around, an ascended form of Xenai should certainly be able to flip a large machine. I remember in my post, it said: "strength certainly wouldn't be an issue."
I don't feel like stopping the RP because of it, though, so I'll let it go.
Oh, okay, you never intended to shoot Tsu's sword in the first attack.//
Xenai pulled and pulled... What the crap? Okay, screw this. He shot an energy blast at the ground to propel himself away from Horus, right before he fired Tsu's sword at him. Shit, too close!
//Tsu and Aura's attack comes NOW. Wink
Aura let go at the perfect time, sending him straight toward the currently unaware Horus at an amazing speed. Zion looked up from his spot by the tree. Crap... He's going! Just in case he gets in danger, I'd better get him away from it once he's connected for a little bit. With that thought, he charged up an energy blast.
He came up on Horus now, with the violently swirling mass of energy in hand. He thrusted it toward him...
"Rasengan Chidori!!!"
//Now, I'm gonna have to ask you to respect this attack as I did yours, due to the following points:
1: This attack effectively uses two characters.
2: There are 3 steps to the attack: The creation of the sphere, the spin, and the launch.
3: The technical aspects of the attack. It's a highly destructive sphere of swirling, crackling electric energy that drills into the target until the user can no longer retain it (It's harder to retain while it's actually being used on someone/something). I should hope that Horus can't absorb it without at least taking SOME damage.
4: I've been saving it for way too long, man! Razz
-
//respect it, eh... fine, but you have to REALLY respect what i'm about to do... this was an attack charged for 6 posts, enough to kill a freakin country, according to Xorlak...\\
The blast burrowed deep into Horus' armour, through his chest, and hit the Converter. It dropped out of the machine. The rest of the body made a (relatively) small explosion, blasting away the overcharging cannon. The cannon froze in mid-air, and for JUST A MOMENT, just for that split moment, everything was deathly silent.
Everything after that happened lightning-fast. The cannon crumbled, and formed an orb of pure blackness, absorbing everything around it, once again, for just a moment. Then, it exploded.
A massive wave of black energy swept through the crumbled fortress. Most of the matter in the blast simply ceased to exist - most of the ruins were gone, all of the trees were as if wiped from the ground...
The Converter, which was still operating, was releasing massive amounts of energy, but opposite to the cannon's. It was like a plus and a minus - except they didn't cancel each other out. They exponentially multiplied.
The still-increasing orb of blackness was pierced with brilliant white rays, as the Converter's hard outer shell was dissolved. Another explosion, even bigger, followed. This one left absolutely no trace whatsoever of any sort of landscape that once existed around Bandervil... which was also gone. Not even a single brick survived, just sand molten to the point of becoming glass-like. Any normal human would not have survived this blast, and even the strongest of heroes would be greatly crippled by it.
--- --- ---
Ein threw a random shoe at the closing door.
-"Can't you see I'm busy??? Now, where was I..."
-
As Kerig had witnessed the robot being pierced, he knew something is going to go wrong.
He ducked and posed both of his hands before him as he begun concentrating with all his might on creating two energy vortexes around him. He closed his eyes, readying himself.
At the next moment, Kerig felt a sudden force hit his "diversion barrier".
Even though most of it was diverted backwards, he was being pushed back by the little that managed to reach him-just a gust of wind, but powerfull enough to push him back far and quickly.
Kerig kept concetrating. He had lost the feeling of the ground below him and was being hit by flying chunks of ashed materials.
"You can open your eyes now." Weloss said after a while, sighing.
Kerig had opened his eyes.
A large, scarred landscape was before him. A huge crater was in the place he had come from. All structures and plant life were completly wiped out by the blast.
"Tsk...And I was just a passerby, too!" Kerig complained to Weloss like a child to a supervisor of sorts, and decided to check himself for injuries.
He had found nothing serious. Mostly dirt, a few bruises and light bleeding on both of his palms and right ankle. The bleeding stopped pretty quickly, and Kerig decided to go look around for survivors.
-
//Trent, you have to remember that Horus is 20 feet tall how the hell could he even reach him? And couldn't I just have Duilin toss a light-speed fireball at Draven, and say 'power is not an issue it will kill whoever is hit by it.'\\
Duilin and Aegidius were able to easily avoid the large tornado. It was flying towards them, yet that seemed like nothing compared the humungous blast of energy flying towards them.
"Holy shit!" Duilin yelled. He then proceeded to transfer his energy into a shield. Trying to block the energy to his best of ability, yet the effort seemed nearly useless.
Rink noticed the large blast heading towards him. Suddenly he disappeared in a puff of smoke. He reappeared about twenty feet into the air, although quite a lot higher then he could fly normally, he could still hover in the air a bit.
Aegidius seeing what Duilin was doing, phased behind him, in order to avoid himself getting damaged. As selfish of an act this was, it shouldn't matter, besides it's only a demon.
Duilin clothing nearly burned off, leaving only a bit of shirt left, and his pants looked more like torn shorts. The skin in his wings had small holes in them.
Regardless that Aegidius was using Duilin has a human shield. His wings showed quite a lot of burn marks; a few feathers were torn away and burnt up.
Duilin fells to the ground knees first, his eyes closed and the rest of his collapsed to the ground.
Aegidius fell to the ground also, yet he wasn't as damaged as Duilin. Aegidius was still able to keep his angelic arrow held in his hand, yet he was forced to let go of the bow; he would have to charge up another one.
Duilin started breathing deeply. He seemed to attempt to say something, likely to Aegidius, yet he was to fatigued to say anything.
"You rest, now." Aegidius said, he felt a bit guilty for letting Duilin take all the damage. "I'm sorry."
Duilin's eyelids began to shake, as if he was trying to open them...
-
Frenier's attack was sucked into Horus' explosion making it even more powerfull. Frenier stared into the Darkness as he was torn away. His feathery hair burnt instantly, Clothing ripped to shreds, and he was gone...The explosion ripped him apart as if he was a tiny blade of grass in a brush fire.
-
Alex was astounded at the appearance of the borderworld. It did not resemble Gaian in any way, save for there being actual solid ground to walk on. Alex also noticed that gravity was significantly less than the world he just came from. Alex looked to see a larger island floating about fifty feet beyond where he stood. Even if gravity was less, could he span the distance? If not, he would be doomed to fall forever.
Alex took a breath and backed up to get a running start. He took off running towards the edge of the island rock he was standing on, and forced himself away. For a few seconds, Alex was hovering above a bottomless abyss before, to his relief, he saw solid ground below him yet again. He brought his legs in front of him, and dug them into the ground. He finally came to a stop. When he managed to dig himself out of the dirt, Alex confused as to what he saw.
"What the...?"
It appeared to be a large pool of water, tinged a bit purple, like everything else in the borderworld, with a waterfall...but what was this? The water was flowing...upwards?
"An upward-flowing waterfall," Alex commented to himself. "So I guess that makes it a...water-rise?" Alex started snickering to himself, but soon stopped laughing at his own bad joke.
Alex did not know he had made an important discovery. Liquids flow opposite to gravity on the borderworld.
The water-rise flowed to what appeared to be a smaller rock, directly above this one. Seeing nowhere else to go, Alex jumped into the water and made his way to the center. The torrent of water defied what little gravity there was and pulled Alex up. He was then deposited in a deep pool of water, the heavy weight of his suit pulling him straight to the bottom.
?Great,? he grumbled to himself. ?Now what??
The bottom of the pool was sloped, meaning that Alex could walk along it to reach the surface. Alex proceeded to walk, and was surprised at what little resistance there was to his movements. Normally, water is very hindering to movement. It was either another strange property of the borderworld?s liquids or an effect produced by the suit itself. Regardless, Alex ran along the bottom to reach the surface.
Upon reaching the surface, Alex was in some crystalline cave. Many glowing blue crystals lined the walls, as well as some silver-tinged rocks on the ground.
Suddenly, Alex remembered what Dr. Kleiner told him. Crystalline cetanium and pure firanadium were rare enough in Gaian, but were abundant in the borderworld. If Alex could harvest some, he could have enough to power the suit for at least a week. As of now, the suit had enough energy for 96 hours of continuous use. Dr. Kleiner had told Alex that the suit shielded him from harmful energy present in the borderworld, a sort of ?dark aura? that would cause insanity within 18 hours, and death within 36. The creatures native to the borderworld were naturally immune to it, some thriving on it even. However, all visitors are susceptible to the aura and must have some sort of protection. Symptoms of the insanity ranged from murderous bloodlust to hollow hopelessness, to the point where the victim would either get in a fight that he had no chance of winning or throw themselves into the swirling abyss.
The abyss. It was omnipresent in the borderworld. All of the borderworld existed within it. The borderworld had no outer limits and no core. It defied the structure of a planetary body. Going extremely high would not give access to the heavens, and going in the opposite direction would not result in emerging on the ?opposite? side of the ?world.? No one knew what happened to those who befell this fate, but there were a number of speculations. Some say that plunging into the void would result in passing through a portal to another world at total random. Another fate was that the borderworld?s harmful energy originated from here, and those exposed to it would face total annihilation in every possible way that the term can be perceived and even some ways that are unable to be comprehended by human intelligence. Still others say that victims plummeted forever until they died of senility or starvation or whatever their cause of death, and that their corpses essentially fell for all eternity, having no destination. Despite these theories, the abyss was not a pleasurable experience.
Alex?s mind was wandering again. It seemed to him that he went off on ?mindwalks? very often. He then looked at the huge stores of potential suit fuel and how to harvest some. Alex raised his rifle and fired a cerulean beam at some cetanium. The laser instantly vaporized the rock holding it in, revealing a solid lump of the turquoise-colored crystal. Alex tried the same thing with the firanadium, with similar results, exposing the silvery metal to harvest.
Alex was relieved that his suit could keep going indefinitely. Dr. Kleiner instructed Alex to open a small hatch on the back of the suit, and simply drop the metals in, and the fusion reaction would do the rest.
Fueled up for at least a week, Alex departed from the grotto to explore the borderworld further.
-
Horus' razed body lie among the ruins, seemingly dead. His mind was still functional, however, on a small energy capacitor. He tuned it down, below any aural detection piece. Nobody should be able to sense him...
--- --- ---
Ein walked out the door, seemingly just having pulled his pants up. Amaya followed right after him, and closed the door.
-"So... we want to get out of here, do we not? I'm guessing we do, and we probably won't take a cruise ship to do that, either. Chances are that if we tried to book a nice passage to the Crimson Continent, the folks would get a bit suspicious... however, I do have another plan in mind. We could open a portal!"
He happily drew a crossbow bolt from one of the many folds in his puffy Kandarinian shirt, and started scratched a sigil onto Amaya's house wall.
-"Ah well, who cares. I'm not going back to this house anyway, by the look of things."
Ein continued scribbling the devilish sign.
-"I've only done this once before, to get to Laus. It might show some interesting results..."
He etched the final line into the stone, and the circular glyph sunk into the wall. The entire area of the sigil turned to green liquid, without flowing down onto the floor. Ein dove headfirst into the liquid, and...
...nearly choked.
-"Gag! Glurph!"
He quickly cast a protective orb around him, with a small area of earthly atmosphere inside it. Almost blinded, he scribbled a sigil right next to the portal, which created a breathable atmosphere for anyone who followed. He opened his tear-filled eyes.
He was in a purplish-looking... world? It appeared to be a series of islands, freely floating in the space around him. The farthest reaches of this strange place looked like purple swirling clouds in some giant atmosphere. He crawled to the edge of the island he was on, looked down, and just then decided that doing so was a big mistake.
Abyss. Endless abyss, as far as the eye could and couldn't see. Ein quickly crawled back, just before his head started to get a bit dizzy. What did he do wrong...?
He smacked himself on the head. DAMN THAT STUPID DIMENSION LINE! The one line that he prided himself on knowing, was etched the wrong way. No wonder the portal was green... It should've been yellow, for this dimension. Whoever invented these stupid sigils should've been castrated.
He crawled over to the portal, still unable to bend his legs. He has to warn Marshall and Amaya not to go inside... Since the portal was a few centimeters from the ground, he had to get up. His legs made a painful cracking sound, but finally gave in and bent. He slowly got up...
-"Wheeeee!"
Amaya crashed right into Ein from the portal, knocking him down.
-"Unh... Amaya... geroff me..."
As he rolled over, he noticed a man on the same island as them, eyeing them suspiciously.
-"Hello... and who the hell are you?"
-
Aegidius noticed that Horus was lying on the ground; no energy signs were coming from him.
Rink crawled out from the rubble. He saw the half dead and half naked Duilin lying on the ground. "DUILIN!"
He ran towards his fallen friend. He looked at the angel. "You just...you just...YOU JUST LET HIM GET HIT!"
"I'm sorry, I just wasn't thinking. I was taught that all demons were just mindless monsters. That's what most of us at Olympus are taught from the gods. That?s why most of us don't trust Zeros'." Aegidius said, he sounded slightly guilty.
"God, some angel you are. I guess you're only here to protect your world. I bet you also give special treatment to the normies." Rink said angrily. He then looked at Xenai, Zion and other 'normies' "No offence."
He looked at Duilin. "Duilin...are you okay? Can you hear me?"
"Rrrr..." Duilin gargled.
Aegidius kneeled down on the ground, rubbing his shoulder making groaning in pain.
"Oh...well it's nice to know you got hurt too." Rink muttered.
Aegidius smiled. "Thanks." He said sarcastically.
----
Marshall looked side to side. "Typical, he goes ahead and does what ever he wants, and doesn't even hear my idea."
He sits down. "Well I've had it. I'm sick of running, I'm going to fight my way out."
He heard a banging on the door.
"Hey! Funny guy! It's me! Can I come inside! Pweeze!??"
"Aww snapp..."
He jumped into the portal.
He shook his head and he landed on the ground, knees first. "What the heck?"
-
Alex was shocked to see other humans enter the borderworld. Dr. Kleiner had told him that the Asgarnian portal was the only one. Alex withdrew his rifle, preparing for a fight.
"Who am I? I could very well ask you the same thing. My name is Alex. I'm looking for the source of the portal storms ravaging Asgarnia. Unless you know what it is, I suggest you stay out of my way."
-
//20 feet tall... That would be a hindrance indeed...
Zion's eyes widened at the success of the attack, but he knew that something was gonna go wrong. "Xenai, move it!" He flung the energy ball at Tsu as fast as he could, which connected and sent him off to the side quite a distance... Not far enough to get him out scot free, though. That burned hand was gonna be the last of his concerns. Zion quickly dashed toward Aura, picking her up, and running away from Horus with her as fast as he could. "What about Tsu?!"
"He'll get hit really badly. But not as bad as what'll happen to you if you stayed that close."
Xenai dashed away as well, as fast as he could. When the blast occured, the three warriors who were able to run away got violently thrown forward, and were burnt very badly. Aura got to her feet without thinking, and immediately started looking for Tsu, who was now flying through the air. "No!" She took off toward him as fast as she could, catching him in her arms. He was badly burned and unconscious. She bit her lip, trying to keep from panicking, and flew back toward Zion, who had taken a little bit more time to get up. She set him down. "Is he going to be okay?"
Zion shook his head a bit, to shake off the daze, and went to check Tsu's pulse. "AH! He's hot!" And he quickly jerked his hand back. "How'd you get him back here?!"
"I don't care about that! Tell me if he's alive or not!"
Zion blinked a couple of times and felt his pulse... He seems to have cooled down a bit, but he was still hot. "...He's alive." Aura let out a relieved sigh. "...However, he'll need time to recover. That, and if I don't do something about him, he'll die of those burns."
Xenai was now walking over, cringing from the burns. "Sweet holy hell... That kid had to have gotten the worst of it. And the little lady can't be doing that well either."
Aura checked herself out... Yeah, she got it really bad too. As her wings faded, she started to feel the wounds worse. She looked at Tsu... His were gone too.
"We need to get out of here for now," said Zion. "Fnd a city for you two to stay in. You are gonna take care of him, aren't you?"
"Yeah..."
"Alright... Xenai, stay here. Follow Duilin or Zeros', and help them in whatever way you can."
"Sounds good to me."
Xenai walked off toward the disasterous scene, while Zion picked up Tsu and flew off with Aura.
// So 3 of my fighters are out, 1 for a short time and 2 for a little longer. Is that an equivalent exchange? Razz
Also, is there anything in this post I need to fix?
-
//your post is perfectly fine, Trent. In fact, I was expecting you to pull out some uber shield and not get phased by my explosion, Zeros' to, idk, shift dimensions for the duration of the blast, and DM to somehow reverse the explosion and turn it against Horus, who's half dead anyway. But you didn't hear this from me.\\
Ein completely ignored the rifle pointed at him, and sprinted over to Alex.
-"Why the hostility? We're both stranded in a dimension foreign to our own, and besides, judging by the looks of this place, you can't really be sure if your rifle would even work in here! The name's Ein, by the way. That over there is Marshall, and the girl is Amaya."
He took out a crossbow bolt, and quickly jotted down a sigil on the floor of the chunk of land floating in the abyss. It brightly flashed, and when the light was gone, there was... a carton of milk, with an empty glass next to it.
-"When in doubt, drink milk!"
Ein picked up the newly spawned items, and tried pouring the milk into the glass. However, opposite to all expectations, the milk flew upwards.
-"Well... that's no good then, is it?"
He put the glass over the carton so that the milk flew right inside it. Drinking it was a whole new problem, as he had to pour it downwards, then catch it with his mouth. Finally, he was finished.
-"So, as a landmark of human activity in these barrens, I propose we be the first people here to litter."
After crumbling the empty carton up, Ein ceremonially threw it down onto the ground. It seemed to bounce a little, due to the decreased gravity.
--- --- ---
After scavenging the ruined village, the army continued moving North-West. Some undeads were also making up the army's main force, resurrected from the slain populace of the settlement.
-
//Well Ein, Zeros' hasn't posted yet. He needs to more often!\\
Marshall stared oddly at Ein attempting to drink the milk. "Interesting." Marshall looked around. "So, um, Alex is it? How did you manage to get here?"
-
Alex was slightly irritated at Ein's antics, but slightly amused as well.
"Well, I would drink some milk, but this full-face helmet prevents me from doing that. As for the rifle, I tried it earlier and it works fine. I wouldn't exactly say that I'm 'stranded' here. You see, for reasons unknown, some portal storms have kicked up above the city of Asgarnia, and they threaten to destroy the city. I'm here to find the source of the storms and stop it. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything yet."
Alex strapped the rifle over his back, obviously trusting these new visitors.
"Perhaps if you guys aren't too busy, maybe you could help me out in the saving of Asgarnia? I can see to it that you are rewarded handsomely. Just a question of how you're going to survive outside this weird bubble thing."
-
//It looks like we're all getting better. We're letting stuff happen to our characters. There won't be any story advancement if the whole time is spent in a never-ending fight, and no one takes any damage. Of course, no one wants their characters to die, but, y'know. They don't have to.
Xenai walked around the area, keeping an eye out for everyone, and especially watching out for that huge machine. It's a lot bigger in person... "Duilin! Zeros'! Are you guys alright?"
--- --- ---
Zion and Aura arrived in a nearby city, though still far enough to be unaffected by the blast. Zion was carrying Tsu. "Where are we?"
"Who cares?" Aura was already making her way toward the inn. "Come on!"
Zion blinked a couple of times and quickly followed.
A couple minutes later, they were in a room, with Tsu on the bed, and Zion sending a steady flow of white magic into him. "...He's alright now... He'll make it. Stay with him, okay? Don't go anywhere until you're sure he's recovered."
"...How did you guys get into this kind of mess?"
"Huh?"
"Why do you go around fighting such dangerous fights? I mean... Fighting like in sports... It's wonderful fun and all that, but this... He could have died out there. I could have died out there. You could have died out there, and so could your cocky friend."
Oh... He nor Xenai had never introduced themselves to Aura. Oops. He was done healing now... He stopped the flow of white magic and looked to Aura, pondering it. "Hmm... I've always wanted to protect this world. I don't know why. I think Tsu feels the same way. That's why we go out of our way to do such dangerous things."
"..."
"...You want him to stop, don't you?"
"...I don't know."
"He won't."
"How do you know that?"
"He knew full well what the risks were of going in attacking like he did. In spite of it, he still went in and did it. You won't be able to stop him from helping us. All you can do for him is stay with him, and grow stronger with him."
"...Okay."
"Good... Alright, take care." He got up and headed for the door. He stopped before exiting. "...Zion Ultima. My cocky friend is Xenai Omega."
"...Nice to meet you."
With that, he exited. Aura stared at Tsu. Get stronger...? She thought back on all the fights she'd had against Tsu in the swordfighting venues. She was always the weaker, and it was obvious. It seemed as if Tsu completely dominated the entire career. But then again... No one who swordfights does the stuff he does. Having the weight of the world on your shoulders... Must make you incredibly strong. She gently pushed him onto one side of the bed, and laid down on the other. She was tired. She needed rest too.
//Tsu and Aura are now inactive. Any posts I make that concern them will most likely be sidestory filler stuff, and can most likely be disregarded.
-
Kerig walked the scorched lands of ash.
Soon enough he saw an image of a person in the distance. Looking carefully, it seemed as if there were at least two people left standing.
"That's not good..." Kerig thought "We must help them!"
"WAIT!" Weloss stopped him "Don't. The big wave might be over, but the tide is not. "
"What are you talking about?" Kerig asked, suprised.
"Look at your grappling limbs and try moving them, fish-skull..." Weloss said "They look funky on my side, a least."
Kerig looked at his arms again. He tried moving them.
The glove felt as if it doesn't fit anymore, but all four joints were working correctly...
"FOUR JOINTS!?!!" it suddenly hit Kerig "I remember only having three! And now my fingers look longers, too..."
"Whatever that blast was, the radiation it coused must be speeding up your transformation." Weloss added "By a whole lot. Now...Do you really think it's safe to go there when you look like a monster traded limbs with you?"
"I...I guess not..." Kerig was slightly diappointed "I guess we will have to go home?"
"And run into stupid humans on the way?" Weloss kept scolding Kerig "No. You are going to simply out forge a cove for yourself right here and now. Then we won't be spotted,looking a simple ash dune. Inside you'll have to fix your clothing, at least. Now hop to it!"
Kerig decided to return to smiling to himself. He begun to concetrate, and using his energies, he compressed, hardened and gave shape to the dust around him.
Soon enough he was inside a 2-layered dust house of one room and a circular corridor seperating the inner room inside the first later and the outside world through the 2nd. The open hatch to exit the room and the corridor where on opposing sides as to prevent visual detection. The structure made was very fragile however-A mere infants finger could pierce it and make a hole in it.
Kerig took out some materials he had brought with him and begun reparing his clothing.
-
// ... I keep forgetting! \\
Because he was in mid-flight/turn, he didn't have time to get out of the way. He put up a mid-level shield the second he felt the cannon collapse. The shield would do little, though, to prevent the whole of the damage. He manage, though, to readjust his flight with his wings and go 'with' the blast.
He flew several hundred yards, finally righting himself and wincing. His trenchcoat managed to survive, only becasue of the way he had been blasted by the energy. His pants, though, didn't survive... They weren't made out of any special material. Just plain cloth. Though, he did have enough cloth left to stay decent... And his underwear was still intact!
Though... His legs were all scorched and burned. He may be a half-demon and god, but that much energy was hard to reflect from ones body all at once. He moved one leg barely and winced heavily, feeling pain shoot up his legs. He knew he wouldn't be walking anytime soon. His legs were all red and blistered, some skin starting to peel off and blood starting to pour down both legs.
// Think of it as... third++ degree burns on ALL of his legs. Both of them. \\
His hands were minorly burned, but he had worse. His wings managed to escape much damage, except for a few burnt feathers here and there. He slowly start to fly his way towards where Duilin and his angel 'friend' was.
-
Ein smirked.
-"Huh, the wierd bubble thing. You see that sigil on the ground? That's what's keeping it up. All I have to do now is just draw the sigil on an item that a person is carrying, and you have a perfectly good atmosphere around yourself. Perhaps I could do the same for you? God forbid if you fart in that thing..."
He scratched the sigil into the hilt of his crossbow, and a blueish shield appeared around him. He walked out of the bubble of atmosphere he conjured up earlier, and seemed to be fine.
-"Well, the portable solution seems to be working quite well, at that. Now, I need everyone to donate me something hard to write on... you could find a rock or something lying nearby, then hang onto it. All I need is something solid."
He scribbled the same symbol into a small flat stone lying nearby, and gave it to Amaya. The blueish orb surrounded her now, as well.
-"Hey, Marshall, hows about I put one of dem symbol thingies on your gun? You might need a portable atmosphere later in the future, thence you can just reactivate it."
Ein turned back to Alex.
-"Well, I don't know about Marshall, but I'll gladly help. I'm assuming we should hurry, too - this place looks like it could give mercury a run for its money, in terms of turning people insane..."
--- --- ---
Everyone seemed to be gone from the immediate field of view...
The small repair machines crawled out beneath the rubble that used to be Horus, and started dragging the pieces away. They only had so much power before they shut down.
-
"Hmm, as long as we're not actually exposed, the insanity will not occur. I still suggest that you watch your step, it's a long way down."
Alex looked around for something that could point them in the right direction, but to no avail.
"Unfortunately, I don't know where to go from here...we need to act fast, God knows what the portal storms are doing to Asgarnia."
Alex dug around and found a small rock.
"I would ask you to etch a symbol on my rifle, but the systems are delicately balanced, it could throw them off."
Alex tossed the rock to Ein.
"Perhaps I could use one of those protective shields. Could you be so kind as to etch one for me please?"
-
"Good idea, Ein-stein. Except I had to leave my gun back in that house in K.S." Marshall groaned. He looked around. "I don't see much around here for you to write something on, except for my amulet, but I'll be damned if you go vandalizing this, its worth more then the both of us."
Marshall then sat down on the ground. "Hey you know what. I just spend a last twenty minutes running around a city and I'm pretty pooped, how about you guys just go on without me, I'll be fine, don't worry. I need a break from all this world saving."
----
Aegidius looked at Zeros' as he approached them.
"Man, Zeros' is going to be pissed once he finds out that you just let Duilin take all the damage." Rink laughed.
"Meh, we don't even see on the same levels anyway. We're from different 'governments' of the gods. I serve under Zeus wile he serves under Odin (or Thor or whatever Norse god Zeros' likes)."
"Ah, so you're not such an outsider in the first place then?"
"Yeah. Well, since I haven't been the nicest person so far and I'm sure the god's won't mind me helping out Duilin, since he is half human. I know some white magic, so I can heal him it'll take awhile for him to recover however. He did take the most of the blast then anyone else did."
"Please do." Rink snapped.
Aegidius vaporized the angelic arrow, and it reappeared as a tinkling green/blue dust. He waved his hand over Duilin, the holes in his wings began to repair and his cuts began to heal. "It'll be awhile. I'd be best to stay here and rest along with him."
//So yeah, in case you didn't get my subliminal deactivation of my characters. I'm going to be out of town for the next three days. Not to long, but meh. I'm sure you guys can live without me. So my characters are inactive, so no attacking them. If you want to slow down for me then that'll be nice, but please don't feel required too. Take care people.\\
-
//Wrong. Tsu took it the hardest. Razz
Xenai soon found Zeros'. "Hey! How are you doing?" He ran over to him.
--- --- ---
Zion was now on his way back to the scene.
-
-"Eh...? Why the hell not..."
Ein picked up the stone, and scribbled the sign on it. As soon as he was done, the blue shield appeared around the stone. He tossed it back to Alex.
--- --- ---
Armies continued massing up, and readying for the full frontal assault on the Continent.
-
// Zeros' doesn't really serve under any Norse gods... But, we can say his employed by Odin... Odin is cool. \\
Zeros' smiled and winced, looking down at his charred legs.
"I've been... better," he said, reaching down and gingerly touching his burnt legs. He winced again and shook his head. "I'll heal from it eventually, but the scars are going to be wicked..." he sighed and shrugged. It's not like scars were anything new to him.
"How'd you four make out with that blast? And what about Duilin and Aegidius?"
-
"I haven't found Duilin and that other guy yet. Tsu got hit VERY badly, because he was right by him when it happened... But I think he'll live. Obviously, I didn't do so well either." His shirt was gone. Pants converted to shorts. Somehow the boots survived. "Zion and Tsu looked kinda like this. But for some reason, the little lady didn't. She got burned as bad as Zion and I, but her clothes were all still there." That is the #18 Effect working its magic on Gaian, yes, that's right, girls' clothes don't tear off from batttle!
--- --- ---
Zion was still on the way to the scene of the crime...
-
//You people suck, four measly posts wile I'm gone. =P. Meh, guess I'm to important then.\\
Duilin grumbled a bit and then slightly got back up, he was more so kneeling down on the ground.
"Good, you're up." Rink said. He saw Xenai and Zeros'. "Hey guys! Over here, Duilin's awake."
Duilin stepped up. "So, um...angel dude...you uh..." He still sounded tired. His face was tilted down, due to him having a bit of a neck ache.
"Yes, I realize what I did, I'm sorry." Aegidius said.
"Uh?yeah. So...why? Aren't you supposed to be like...um...protective."
"Yes, but I've been taught for thousands of years that demons are our enemies."
"Ah, a racist angel. Gotcha." Duilin gave him a thumb up. "Nothing wrong with that. I understand."
"You're mocking me aren't you."
"Yeah." Duilin started stepping towards Xenai and Zeros'. "Hey guys. We loose anybody?"
//I'm having deja vu all the sudden with the scene...\\
-
Zeros' shurgs and lands on the ground, wincing.
"I don't think so, but... some people were badly burnt from that explosion," he said, while looking down at his own legs. he sighed and sat down on the ground.
"Well... That didn't go how I'd of thought it might... I wasn't expecting some overpowered cannon to blow itself up and almost kill some of us."
-
//DM, you have a huge ego... even bigger than my... ahem. I couldn't post a lot as my grandparents from Belarus are here.\\
Horus' repair machines dragged him a fair distance out of the blast field. The cannon and converter will have to be rebuilt... for now, the machines drew their power from the light of the sun. Some were placing the armour plates back in place, others were fusing the pipes together. Some of the more essential pipes already had purplish liquid pumped through them.
//OMG! Zeros' has a working avatar now! Surprised\\
-
//Still don't see it Sad \\
Nick looked towards Kronos. "Are you in a trans or something you haven't po..I mean said answered my question...we'll what ever. He folded his arms and stood looking into the sea.
-
Kerig stood up and put on the last of his good-as-new "garments".
"You are getting quicker..." Weloss said.
"Practice makes perfect!" Kerig said.
Kerig happily marched out through the wall of his ash-house.
He reached the adges of the crater and wondered there for a while, but suddenly he stopped as he came across a weird sight.
"Ooh, look at all those funny pipes! Shiney!" He said.
"It's probably what's left of the couse of the blast. Leave it alone." Weloss warned Kerig.
"But it's so shiney!" Kerig said, and looked up very closely, suddenly noticing that there are a few plates already around, and that more layers of mass were being amassed...
"I think it's still alive. Let's help it!" Kerig exclaimed happily.
"Are you stupid? It'll kill you as soon as it's back up!" Weloss kept warning him.
"But if we be reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaly nice..." Kerig diregarded Weloss's warnings "It may become our friend!"
And with that, Kerig started pouring his energies into the rubble.
-
"Well, as long as nobody is dead, we'll be okay." Rink replied.
"Hey, Xenai. Maybe you should take us to that town the others are at. I need to get some new clothing, and maybe a drink or two." Duilin suggested. He looked at Zeros'. "What do you say? I'm just really getting sick of this place. It's a friggin' hell hole."
-
Zeros' nodded, looking down at his charred legs.
"Yes... I could use some rest. My legs aren't in the best shape right now and neither are my pants, as you can see," he said, gesturing towards his new shorts. "And also, we can take care of the others that are hurt there. If that thing get's back up and running, we'll need to be more careful this time and destroy him as fast as possible."
-
Zion arrived right as Duilin mentioned his idea. "Yo, Zion! Where's that town you took Tsu and Aura to?"
A sweatdrop runs down his head. He just left, and he's already going back? "Alright, I'll take you guys there... Follow me."
Zion took off towards the town once more, and Xenai followed.
-
//<a href='http://images.freewebs.com/Images/imageNotFound.gif' target='_blank'>Zeros' Avatar</a> <--- LOL. I suggest you use imageshack or something else. Heh.\\
"Excellent." Duilin said. He slowly flapped his wings. "Let's go Rink."
Rink hopped onto Duilin's shoulder.
"Owch!" Duilin exclaimed, as the imp landed.
"You okay?" Rink asked in concern.
"Yeah, yeah. Just some left over aches." Duilin replied. He looked at Aegidius, who was looking off into the distance. "Hey, uh. You want to come with us, after all you did help us."
"Meh, I guess so. Besides Zeus did inform me of a few other dangers. He didn't have a lot of information. Just something about person controlling souls of the dead, I think."
Duilin checked his belt, which was still strapped around him. His mace looked fine, as the leather hold for it only had minor damage on it. He checked for his pouch. "Damnit, my pouch got burned up. I'm out of money."
"Don't worry about it." Aegidius said. He lifted up his right hand and a golden coloured pouch appeared in his hand. "I was issued with some, gold pieces." He tossed Duilin the pouch.
Duilin grabbed the pouch, and then opened it up and checked inside. "Hmm, looks good. Thanks." He grinned. He the flapped his wings and flew off into the air, following Zion.
Aegidius took off in the air along with Duilin...
-
Alex caught the rock Ein tossed to him and secured it to his armor. If the suit failed, at least he'd have a backup shield.
"All right, I guess our main objective now is to find the source of the portal storms and take it out...the problem being I don't know where to start looking."
Once he finished saying this, Alex thought that he felt a buzzing sensation in the back of his head...was it the borderworld's radiation kicking in, or was he imagining it? When Alex let go of the stone Ein once had, the buzz stopped... Alex simply thought that it was the magic cast on the stone, but it was actually something much deeper than that.
"Well, any ideas on where to start?"
-
Ein scratched his head.
-"Nope. None at all."
He looked up. There were more islands there, as well as some down, and a lot more to the left and right.
-"Well, we could go exploring... I have a form that allows me to fly. Anyone up for some moth riding?"
--- --- ---
The energy filled Horus up. Now he'd have a while before it ran out again...
The smaller machines continued fusing the armoured plates onto Horus.
--- --- ---
The Kandarian army continued mobilizing. The troops were performing war excersizes and getting their final training advices from the older members.
-
Kerig, not knowing wether all he gave already was enough or not, kept pouring his energy into the thing as it made minor shape changins in front of his eyes.
"Can you hear me?" He attempted speaking to it, still smiling and feeling happy about his idea.
Weloss did nothing but silently stare.
-
Alex was perplexed.
"Moth-riding....? Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
-
//Long-ass-post time.\\
-"Bad feeling? HA! I've been a moth longer than you've been in that suit, by the looks of it, so you shouldn't be talking!"
Ein quickly morphed into his gigantic moth form. He flew up, and hovered above the group in the air.
-"See?"
He began to fly towards the end of the atmospheric bubble.
-"There is absolutely nothing to worry aboOOOAAAAH---!!!"
A sudden jolt whipped Ein up, as soon as he left the air-filled area. He was slammed right into an island above, then dropped back down.
-"Ugh..."
He morphed back into his human form.
-"Well, that's that... Hey, I've got an idea. Does anyone have any rope?"
He looked around at the group. In a moment, however, he slapped his head.
-"I'm getting old or something. I forgot that I always carry a nice coil of rope with me. Anyways, I'm thinking that I can tie the rope to the crossbow, and shoot it at one of those islands above. Perhaps that will be enough for us to advance far enough to find out what is causing these storms that Alex's been talking about."
--- --- ---
The army has been fully mobilized, and soldiers filled the streets of Kandarin, marching towards Jovil's large bay, to man the transports stationed there. People were coming outside to see the grand procession - some waved, others yelled. However, one peculiar thing: everyone seemed to be for the war, not against it. There was absolutely nobody in the crowds of cheering people who wasn't the least bit happy.
When the legions entered the ports surrounding the natural bay in Jovil, the transports stationed there opened up, letting the fighters inside. The transports weren't quite like anything - they were completely flat, balanced on two long cyllindrical cisterns, filled with air. A third barrel was installed on the deck itself. Below it was a small furnace, heating the air inside the barrel.
Once a squad was loaded into a transport, a small hole in the barrel opened - letting out a long jet of hot compressed air. The transports blasted away, similar to corks popping out of champagne bottles. Due to the transport's unique floatation device, there was very little friction with water. That allowed each "jump" to last quite long. Very soon, the transport armada reached the continent. All of the soldiers were unloaded, the total mass counting at around 20,000. There was a rather angry-looking general in the middle, on a makeshift stand.
-"LISTEN UP, YOU MAGGOTS! This is war time! You will be divided into ten subdivisions, 2,000 troopers each, and attack the nearest ten towns. Your superiors have already been instructed on your designation points. Now GIT LOST!!!"
The army erupted in a mighty cheer, and divided into ten equal parts, 2,000 troops each. The sarges and lieutenants were barking orders left and right.
-"Division Odin, direction: south south west!! Division Dva, direction: dead south! Division Tri, direction: north west! Division Chetire...!"
The huge mass of people quickly dissipated, with the separate divisions leaving to their own destinations. Drummers at the front of the divisions began playing, encouraging the fighters to walk faster. The heavy vacuum-action spearguns were somewhat slowing them down, but the powerful spirit of war was above all of the legionnaires, nearly making them run.
--- --- ---
"The chatter of my advisors about the war was somewhat making my head hurt, so I decided to do something else. None of my armies were at their targets yet, but they'd be rather fun to watch, anyway. Despite the advisors' somewhat angry but controlled protests, I left the Throne chamber.
The palace was somewhat empty at this time. That is, of course, if you dismiss my dead friends hanging above in the cages - at least SOMEONE in the palace has a decent sense of decoration... then again, the bottom floors that I was on were a bit untidy. The walls were made of bare brick, as were the columns looming high above the pathway I was on. The columns disappeared into the infinite darkness above.
As I was pondering on my artful place of habitat, I almost missed my destination. It was merely a circlular stone in the floor, with a radius of about one meter. It was different than the rest of the floor: instead of plain brick, it was made of white marble. A black silhouette of the Kandarinian symbol was outlined on it. I stood dead in the centre of the circle, and closed my eyes.
The air around me began to shift a little - I was being taken higher. If I were below the platform of my ascent, I would notice that its bottom was trimmed with bones. That is how I am able to lift it. I would have clockwork machinery installed there, but I just can't be bothered. It works, and I'm fine with it.
The platform continued rising, no longer needing me to sustain it. I opened my eyes, and looked up.
The blackness was still thick, but a small, bleak circle of light was reaching my eyes now. As the platform ascended, the circle got bigger. It was an opening - an opening to the upper floors of the palace. No one but me can reach this place, which is also a part of the reason why I didn't want to place machines to lift people up here. As long as only one Necromancer exists in Kandarin, my privacy here will not be disturbed.
The platform reached the next floor, elevating me into a large area, filled with light. This was very different from the floors below - all the walls were also made of white marble, and had tall windows in them. The lower level had no windows at all, it was lit with nothing but torchlight.
Most of the floor was decorated with a gilded red carpet, except for the hole that I entered through. Around me were display cases, filled with various objects. There was the Criss knife that the founder of Kandarin wore; over by the window lies the pendant of my father, awarded to him by the Kandarinian citizens for curing their crops of a deadly disease, restoring life to Kandarin - ironically, the very pendant I used to choke him to death. Alas, my father was not well. He believed that people should be given their own choices, and not ruled by a titanic power such as me. People are animals. Weak and pathetic. I am but a tool of the gods to bring order to them, to let them live as the gods intended.
However, this floor was still not my destination. The cieling above, beautifully painted into a scene from the Eon of Creation - when Skorn shaped Kandarin into its present shape - also had a small opening in it. After viewing these artifacts, I returned onto the marble platform, and was taken further up.
This time, I emerged in pure blackness. I searched the area around me, finding a chair-like object. Around it were all sorts of metallic gears, pulleys and levers. I pulled one.
The roof above me suddenly cracked into twelve lines of light, which getting wider. Gradually, as enough light illuminated me, I saw six doors opening up, revealing the pure sky above. When closed, the doors resembled a semisphere, which guarded the telescope from the weather.
Telescope? Yes. Around me was a gigantic telescope, as well as machinery supporting and operating it. The chair I sat in was the observer's seat - the telescope could be used from it with the most comfort, not to mention it was the only place it could be operated from. I peered into the telescope, adjusting it on the Crimson continent.
Therce were my armies - my warriors, marching to thier unsuspecting targets. There's the Sedmoi division, advancing upon a small village. The Dva, on the other side, was approaching to a smaller castle, probably resided by some sort of a lord. No lords but me must exist.
I continued scanning the area through the telescope, marvelling at my forces of destruction."
--- --- ---
The dismembered head of Horus lie motionlessly. Even its eyes weren't glowing. However, one of the smaller machines creeped over to Kerig and tugged his boot (?) with a small claw-like feature, near what appeared to be the mouth. It seemed to be trying to lead Kerig somewhere...
//Assuming he follows\\
The small spider crawled over the battered remains of Horus. A lot of the tubes and circuitry was already replaced and repaired; however, right in the middle of his gigantic body, square where his stomach would be, was a large gaping hole. Lots of purple tubes ended there, with liquid pouring out of them and melting the ground. The repair mechanisms were tying up the loose ends, so that the liquid inside stayed in place. The one that lead Kerig to it stopped and turned around, as if looking at him. The Converter was missing... Horus needed an alternate power source, at least for now.
-
Kerig was somewhat suprised by the little thingamajig that started to turn around and dance in circles for him, but he just clapped happily and followed it.
Kerig stopped when the thing did, and looked around.
All he saw is a pile of junk, pipes and plates.
"It's his body, numbskull." Weloss hinted him "If you want to help him go ahead and do so NOW."
Kerig was really excited this time, and with that, he begun pouring more of his energies into the gaping hole he saw...
All he had poured was no problem for him, as he recovers it all in a rather short while.
-
Nick was now standing in Kandarin He watched as the army dispatched. "Whats happening now?" he asked himself. "God Kronos doesn't tell me shit. I wonder where he went." He looked towards the palace seeing a small firgure on the roof. " What ever!" he said as he turned back around looking out towards the ocean.
(How the hell did kronos get back so fast well what ever I said Nick followed him.)
-
Zeros' waved off the others as they left. I'll follow you guys later. he told them telepathically. He limped and leaned back against a tree, looking down at his legs.
"I can't do much with these..." he mumbled and pressed a hand to each leg. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before forcively pushing energy into his legs, causing the skin to warp and rapidly mend back together and heal. He sighed and slowly slumped to the ground. The downside of using that is his magic would be exhausted for awhile. Luckily, he still had his ki, though.
He looked down at his legs. They were more or less back to normal, except for a few new scars. He shrugged and leaned back against the tree. He had seen something during the battle with Horus...
He was sure of it. And now, he wanted to find out what it was.
-
If you insist, came Zion's reply.
The group soon arrived ((I waited for Zeros' reply to post this, so I think I'm entitled to go ahead and arrive at the town. Razz)), and Zion pointed toward an inn. "Tsu and Aura are staying there. Tsu took it worse than any of us. He'll live, but he'll be out for a very long time."
--- --- ---
Aura had changed into her other set of clothes, the one with all the black. It was comfy, anyways. Her hands were held over Tsu, she was trying to cast curative magic on him. It seemed she was succeeding. She had used white magic before to get into the Crimson Empire army. She wasn't all that good without the Zerobi's influence, but she was getting it done.
-
"Hmm...it's just crazy enough to work," Alex said.
He surveyed the situation. The nearest island was about five hundred feet out from the one they were standing on, about two hundred feet above them. Ein would have to get his aim right, putting into account the altered physics of the borderworld. Would the rope even fall in the direction they refer to as "down?" With such low gravity and strange physics, directions such as "up" or "down" meant less than they did before.
Alex thought again of the Ein's blunder just a few moments ago. Was this a new discovery of borderworld physics? If so, what was it? What little gravity there was still pulled "down." Even this defied modern physics. Gravity should always pull towards the center of a mass. Essentially, Alex should be able to walk along the bottom of the asteroid. However, when the moth-Ein left the bubble, he was violently forced upwards. Alex stepped out of the bubble briefly. His feet still adhered somewhat firmly to the rocky ground. What did Ein do to be thrust upwards?
Dropping the thought, he turned back to Ein.
"Well, whenever you're ready, take aim and fire."
-
-"I will, keep your helmet on..."
Ein carefully guided the crossbow square into the middle of the other island. With the previous failure, he couldn't take any chances.
-"...there it goes..."
The bolt shot out of the crossbow, making a loud whistle as it cut through the air, spinning. However, as it reached the island, something strange happened.
-"...and here it comes."
The bolt didn't even put a scratch into the island. It just fell back down into the atmospheric bubble. Ein inspected the bolt carefully, then his crossbow.
-"Nothing wrong with either of the devices. Must be the screwed-up laws of gravity, or something. Perhaps the air outside isn't really air at all... that would explain how the bolt sped up when it left the bubble."
He shoved the bolt back into the quiver on his thigh.
-"Well, I got an idea."
He took out a different bolt. Its tip was somehow different... it was as if transparent, made of glass... the light shining through it reflected inside of the tip, pleasing the eye.
-"This is a bolt with a diamond head. I only got a few left... Only use em for emergencies... the good thing, though, is that it never breaks."
He opened up a handle on the front of the crossbow, placed it on the ground and stepped on it. Some kind of a mechanism clicked inside, and a new spinny thingy protrouded from the rear end of the crossbow. Ein spun it, and as he did, the crossbow's string got pulled back significantly further than the last time.
-"I can't remember the last time I used this thing... funny how the crossbow itself has a really intricate design, and I barely use the whole thing."
He aimed at the previous spot, and fired. The bolt moved so fast that one could not even see a blur on where it passed, and barely any sound - just a faint 'click'...
As Ein looked up, he saw the bolt wedged tightly in the island. Immediately afterwards, a deathly chill creeped down his spine.
-"OMG! I'm a freakin' MORON!!! I FORGOT TO ATTACH THE DAMNED ROPE!!!"
Enraged at his stupidity, Ein rushed to the edge of the island.
-"GOD DAMN IT!!!"
It seems he was quite nerved up, as as soon as he left the bubble, he... jumped. Basically, the same thing happened as before - a sudden jolt thrusted him upwards, but not as violently. He safely landed on top of the other island.
-"Hmm... maybe I was lucky not to attach that rope, after all."
-
//Finally.\\
Duilin looked towards the inn. "I'll stop in there when I get some new clothing."
Rink looked around. "What do the rest of us do?"
Duilin turned around. "I dunno, mingle. Or see if anyone knows the latest news on the empire."
Aegidius looked at Duilin in concern. "You sure it's safe to just wander around town, I mean you don't blend in so much."
Duilin laughed. "And you do?" He then walked down the street, pointing and waving to the people staring at him.
"What an odd fellow." Aegidius commented
"Hey watch it, new boy." Rink snapped.
"What?"
"I mean, you can't just come in here, all 'Oh I'm sent by the gods, I'm more important then everyone else and everyone is odd.' It's just not right. I mean, we don't even know you."
"Well, there isn't much really. I'm just a typical angelic elite guardian. I enjoy long walks on the beach and viewing plays. I hope to some day have each world rid of it's evil."
"Buddy..." Rink said, shaking his head. He placed his hand on his leg as one would on somebody's shoulder. "Come with me, you've got a LOT to learn about REAL life..."
The two then walked towards the inn (to spend time at the pub)
----
Duilin stepped into a fancy looking clothing shop.
The clerk seemed a bit surprised with him stepping in. "Huh, you must be one of them flyboys everyone's talking about."
"I guess so." Duilin smiled he stepped towards the counter. "I'm looking for some new clothing."
The clerk looked at Duilin's torn bits of clothing clinging onto Duilin. "No shit..." He laughed. "Well, let me show you what I've got. I might be able to get something for somebody of your, shape..." He stared at his wings a bit, and guided Duilin through the store.
-
Zion and Xenai went into the shop after Duilin. "You got two more flyboys to clothe, pal," said Xenai. Zion was already looking around for something to catch his eye. The wings that Seijin gave are translucent. They don't rip through clothes, so they can buy normal clothing. They got their wings from Seijin when they were young.
-
Alex looked up at Ein with a sort of comical amazement. Ein must have been extremely athletic to perform something like that, even with reduced gravity.
"Holy..." mumbled Alex. There was no way that he could make that jump. There had to be another way.
Ein waited patiently at the top for him. Alex didn't want to risk another of Ein's screw-ups, so he took his chances. He took off to the edge of the island. As soon as he kicked off from the island, something happened. The same voice from inside the suit before said this statement,
"Long jump module activated."
Suddenly, a burst of energy kicked Alex upwards on a parabolic path. Bewildered, Alex rode out the jump until he planted his feet on the other island. Alex caught his breath to the extent he could. The suit's air was recycled.
"Wow, that was amazing!" exclaimed Alex. "Dr. Kleiner never told me about that feature."
-
Duilin saw an interesting uniform. It was dark grey and the pants had an orange belt, simular to a karate belt.
"Hey, could you modify that for me?" Duilin asks. "Yeah, I guess so. So um..." The clerk looks at Duilin's wings again. "What's your...um...wing size?"
"Well, I don't know how to measure, my wing size." Duilin said, scratching his head.
"Neither do I, but let's take a look, sit down."
He measures Duilin's wings with a measureing strip (every clothing store manager has one handy). "Alright, so how exactly would I go about this?"
"Well, what I do, I make a slit for my wings and then I have like a string thing to tie over them." (or if anyone else has a better idea)
"Hmm, maybe I could have something like that. Anything else you want?"
"Yeah, could you maybe put this symbol..." He takes our the shard of metal from his pocket, with the Romme symbol on it. "..maybe around the heart area?"
"Yeah, sure just wait here..."
-
Zeros' slowly rose to his feet, standing and dusting off his bare legs, looking around. He knew he had seen something. It wasn't a human either. Or demon.
He cranned his senses, trying to open them and find the strange entity. He shrugged and continued to walk forwards, keeping his senses open for anything or anyone.
-
A shadow suddenly appeared over Kerig? for something had descended from the heavens and ominously hovered over the youthful looking man as he merrily went about transferring his energy to the metallic bits and pieces strewn about?
Draven floated there still for several moments, arms folded and studying this man from some fifty feet in the air. He pondered the jagged and mauled metallic remnants of whatever he was trying to fix and the absolutely decimated and scorched wasteland that was once Bandervil? His cape and hair flowed to his left in the gentle breeze.
What in blazes is going on??
This tremendous destructive explosion that he detected from miles away? Is this man responsible? Is this some sort of super weapon he is repairing? Any sort of confusion would be hidden behind his demeanor. His devilish smirk won out, and managed to barely show itself?
?Well now, what do we have here??
It was that dry, malevolent but slightly amused tone he often used. The one he normally followed up with some sort of impalement if the victim gave the wrong answer.
He slowly floated downwards, his feet touching the ground some 25 feet behind Kerig. His unseen aura blew dust away from his boots before they hit the ground. Should he kill this man and take this... weapon? Should he kill this man before he can fix it?
?It seems you made a mess of things. I seem to be missing a fortress? I don?t like that??
-
"Okay, sir why don't you try this on." The man came back carrying the new suit.
"Ahh, thanks." Duilin took the clothing and stepped into the dressing room. After not to long of a period of time, he came out with his new clothing.
The clothing was dark grey with an orange cloth belt as described before. He clothing had straps, he attached his mace holster onto it, and had his pouch of gold coins. He opened it up. "So how much does this come to?"
"About 50 gold peices." He replied.
"Okay.." He started giving him the amount of coins
"Hey, wait a second, let me look at that." The man picked up a coin. "My, my this was the currency used a long, long time ago. I can tell, by the insignia. Yeah, just a couple of these will do. Thank you."
"You must know your coins." Duilin said.
"Oh yes, I collect them, I have a coin a bit like this, but it's in nowhere near as good of condition as this, where did somebody like you get this?"
"Um, an angel gave them to me." Duilin said, smiling and nodding his head.
The man started at Duilin, oddly. "Man, you flyboys are crazy you know that." He then looked at the others. "So, are these your friends?"
"Yeah, I guess so. I've been hangin' out with them for the past week. I met them about five years ago, in Laus I think." Duilin said. "Why?"
"Oh, well in case you haven't noticed, the word has spread around about you. You've become quite famous."
"Heh, heh. Well is that so?" Duilin seemed rather interested to hear that. He then turned to the others. "Hear that guys?"
-
//I forgot to update Marshall.\\
"Arg, enough of this!" Marshall snapped. "I can't stand just sitting here wile you two save the world." Marshall being the adventurous person, of cource didn't enjoy sitting around. "Find me a fraggin' rock so I can walk around with you guys!"
-
//Welcome back, Xorlak. DM: Way to double post.\\
Even with his passive sensors, Horus detected a strong presence nearby. The term "sensor", however, was not quite correct... the actual readings did not come from any sensors. He just knew something was there. However, the repairs were still incomplete. A few more armour plates had to be fused in place. The Convertion engine was a heavy loss, but Horus' energy capacitors were filled up quite nicely with the energy... borrowed... from Kerig. He needed a replacement soon, though.
Meanwhile, the machines concentrated on fusing the plates on top of the hull, rather than on the bottom. The empty Convertor hole was almost completely covered up now.
--- --- ---
Ein cursed, and took out another bolt. He scratched a sigil into it, and shot it around Marshall's feet.
-"Well, we wouldn't want to damage these rocks now, would we, dear Marshall? Anyway, get your ass up here. And you, Amaya, are free to follow us..."
-"No, thanks. I think I'll stay here, and observe. Maybe I'll notice something that eluded you?"
-
Kerig realised quickly enough that a person was not too far behind him, but was too preoccupied to respond at first. After a few moments, his turned around, with his usual smile of innocence covering his face. He didn't stop pouring the energies.
"Ah, hello there, mister!" Kerig said, seeming happy to see the man despite his looks "Yes, there was quite a mess around here not too long ago...If you lost your fortress in the area, I'm afraid you won't find it around here any longer..."
Kerig's expression turned sad as he continued "This poor guy barely made it and I think it needs help...Mind giving me a hand here?"
He continued to sadly and innocently stare at the man, hoping for help.
A sudden auric jolt snapped from Kerig.
"Let ME tell you what is 'going on'..." Weloss spoke into Draven's mind.
"This pathetic being you see before you stuck his nose into other people's buisness at an excellent time and place...While he watched a whole army attack a giant spiritless foe, the spiritless one suddenly decided to blow up...
And about your castle? It was already in ruins by the time we got there."
-
(Probably just be around for the weekend. We'll see.)
Draven grimaced when Weloss spoke to him. Although he could not see the spiritual being, he could clearly detect him once the mind link had been established. He held on to the telepathic tendril once the spirit finished speaking, his eyes following the path of energy to the black, horned spirit that now became visible to him, hovering over Kerig. Hmm, a possession? No, this was different. Some sort of symbiotic relationship. He had heard of these, but never had the chance to see one in person. This alone quelled he desire to kill Kerig for curiosity's sake. He would believe him, or pretend to until he had more information. At least for now.
Draven returned the message to the spirit telepathically, while raising an eyebrow in his direction:
"Ah, I see. Thank you, spirit."
He then began to walk slowly towards Kerig's left, his eyes fixed on the heap of metal behind the man while speaking aloud:
"You should be more careful when choosing who... or what you're going to revive. It's very difficult to tell who's on what side these days..."
He continued past the man, crouching down next to the nearest broken mass of metal. He picked up a silver shard, about half the length of a sword, and flipped it over. Some... thing... jumped from the underside, scurrying across the ground to join several others... What in blazes are these...? Are they... repairing it? He watched as a hole in the largest hunk of scrap shrunk.
"My god... this is some sort of... war machine..."
-
Alex withdrew his rifle. Something about this island seemed amiss... The island that they had just arrived on was extremely rocky, with enormous spires reaching some hundred feet above ground. However, there was a circular pool of water about twenty feet wide to Alex's right. Upon closer inspection, the purple-tinged water seemed to have a glow coming off it.
Alex knelt down next to the pool's edge, and dipped his hand in. Even through the suit, Alex felt the effects of the strange liquid. The water seemed effervescent, completely unlike the atmosphere. In fact, Alex felt slightly rejuvenated just by putting his hand in. Pulling his hand out, he leaned over the pool. With a tiny-kick off from the ground, Alex drifted in the air for a moment before finally submerging into the pond. It was one of the most amazing sensations Alex had ever experienced. The water's magical properties recharged him. Alex had misjudged the depth of the pool. It was easily ten or so feet deep. With his renewed gusto, Alex leaped from the water and landed back on dry land, drops running down his suit and visor.
"That water is amazing. You should really try it."
-
Marshall tossed a blue spectre from his hand that had flown from his amulet that he now had around his neck again. The spectre gained its shape, colour and form of a wyvern. He hopped onto it's back and flew towards Alex and Ein's position, or at least as close as possible.
He looked at Alex. "Well, okay." He hopped off the wyvern. The creature just stared blankly into the distance, blinking only rarely. Normal behaviour for Marshall's creatures.
He knelt down at the shore of the glowing purple liquid. "Quite a beautiful sight. I wonder why it isn't floating in the air like the other liquids."
He dipped his hand into it. "Whoa, that feels interesting." Marshall commented on the effects of the water. He stepped into the water as well; he exhaled, sounding very rejuvenated. He treaded the water. "Whoa I could tread water forever, the water restores me right away. This is amazing."
-
Kerig continued to blankly stare at the large, caped man with an expression of confusion.
"Careful?" he asked, puzzled "His alligence really shouldn't matter...I mean, won't it be our friend if we help it?"
Kerig's expression returned to his usual smile as he added "I bet it can be nice just like it can be aggressive..."
Kerig was still pouring his energies. He didn't plan on stopping until it can stand on it's feet again...
And was expecting the newly appeard caped man to help him as well.
"Don't even bother..." Weloss told Kerig "He won't listen to any convincing."
"Really?" Kerig was suprised at him "But..."
"He doesn't smell like the human filth though..." Weloss interrupted Kerig "And yet there is something I distinguish within him...In any case, do not attempt to use your normal methods of reasoning."
And with that, Weloss stopped and watched.
-
Draven chuckled amusedly.
"Heh... I suppose you do have a point..."
This war machine was simply too magnificent to destroy. And if he could figure out how to control it...
Draven began to float an inch above the ground, his cape swirling about him. A heated breeze spiraled around him and the machine as he extended his right hand.
"Arise, machine! The Crimson Emperor summons you!"
Several hundred tiny orbs of crimson light appeared in the winds, spiraling downwards into the bits of metal with a rejuvenating effect...
-
Ein looked suspiciously at the purplish water. It was slushing back and forth, as if calling for Ein to touch it.
-"I have a bad feeling about this..."
He dipped himself into the liquid. It felt somewhat ticklish.... until his body started smoking.
-"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! GET IT OFF!!!!!!!!! GET IT OFF!!!!! WHAT IS THIS?!?! WHY MUST THIS BE?!?!?!?!?!?!? ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Ein was running around in circles, his whole body in smoke.
-"AHHH!!!!!!!"
-
Zion and Xenai ended up buying some clothes that were pretty much no different than the ones they were wearing before. They walked out of the shop with them on and waited outside for Duilin. "What're we doing next?" asked Xenai. Zion responded with a shrug.
-
Poor Ein. He had gotten himself into yet another situation. Alex helped pull Ein out of the water and on to dry land.
"That's strange...," pondered Alex. "The water only burns you. That's a shame. You don't know what you're missing!"
Alex dipped his hand into the water and thrust it upwards. His hand left the water's surface, along with a pillar water rising up. Alex used his hands to "manipulate" the column into a thin, meandering stream.
"So what is it about you that makes the water burn?"
-
Zeros' frowned and quickly got to his feet, standing up and dusting himself off. He could recognize Draven's aura anywhere at anytime. He buffeted his wings before pulling them in towards his body. He put his hand on the hilt of his sword before he started off in the direction he had sensed Draven in.
He could also sense Draven doing something...
-
The repair mechanisms still had lots of work to do, but Horus was able to move. He got up, the spiders still running around on his body, fusing armour to his damaged hull. He first looked at Kerig, then at Draven. What is this? Why are they helping him?
His gigantic maul was a short distance away from him. He threw a quick glance at it. Would he be able to get it in time if things went wrong?
On the other hand, Horus had no need for battle. He was not in his best condition, and half of his weapons were missing, as well as a crucial part of his system. He has to be fully repaired first, for which he needed proper material. Well, if these two were so bent on helping him...
Horus had no way to orally communicate with anything yet. Perhaps that is an upgrade for the future. He picked up a small stick and drew complex shapes in the sand - a structure of the dark glass, a crucial element for his black lightning cannon. He continued to draw another one, which wasn't as complex - just a number of circles, some single crossed, and some double crossed, all connected by thin lines. This was a model of an Ognemalium molecule, which was the core component of the Convertion engine. He hoped they were smart enough to understand it...
-
Marshall went out of the water, simply wiping himself off as he came out. "That's very odd, it can't be any species specific thing going on, Ein's also human...well sort of, I mean he can transform into a moth. The possibility of it is unexplained."
----
Duilin exited the building.
Aegidius and Rink approached the group; they were talking wile they walked towards them.
Aegidius looked at the three. "Well, humans. I've chosen to help you out with stopping the Aspyes and The Empire, from what Rink has told me. Both Haraldur and Draven's goals seem to be far too extreme for my likings, as opposite as they may be."
"Okay, should we go check on the kids?" Duilin asks referring to Tsu and Aura.
-
Kerig appeard very pleased with the fact that it managed to stand up.
He curiously watched it draw the strange shapes on the sand, wondering what they are.
"I believe this thing you are trying to revive..." Weloss broke the silence in Kerig's mind "Wants some Ognemalium and the thing often reffered to as 'dark glass', probaby to finish repairing himself... But it obviously recognizes you as a rescuer, since it doesn't instinctivly attack you."
Kerig was delighted to know this, and turned to the large man near him.
"Do you know where I can get some 'dark glass'..." Kerig said the last two words slowly "And some ogn...Ogne...Ogune...PFFT!"
Kerig slapped his forehead "Ognemalium!"
Where does Weloss knows such things from, anyway...? he wondered, recieving no answer.
-
Ein brushed off the remaining liquid.
-"Look, I don't care how it is, or why it is, the point is that it IS, and I am NOT going back in there."
A small lightning arced off the top island, one directly above them; Ein noticed it with the corner of his eye.
-"I think I found something..."
He jumped as high as he could, and got just enough momentum to grab onto the other island's ledge. The momentum threw him upwards, and he safely landed on his feet on the other island. He looked directly in front of him...
-"Guys... I think you should see this..."
//exactly what he saw will be left up to D. S., or whoever wants to create the source of the portal storms.\\
-
"23 is kids?" Zion raised an eyebrow.
"Still youngins compared to us," came Xenai's response. "We might as well. Let's go see how they're doin'." He then led the way toward the inn where they were staying.
"Xenai, WE'RE only 33..." Zion followed him.
-
"Well, I'm 36. I'm the oldest." Duilin added, grinning.
"I'm actually 1,204." Aegidius said.
"I don't even know how old I am." Rink grinned.
"Whatever. Anyways..." Duilin said as they approached the inn. "After this, you think we should check back on Zeros'?" He asked the others.
-
Draven folded his arms, flipping his cape to disperse the remnants of his aura from which he lent his energy to the machine below detectable levels. Wouldn?t want any interruptions?
He had never heard of the second one, but the first? ?dark glass?? could it be? His right hand moved to the fold of his inner cape pocket. The Black Crystal? The substance that his alchemists had developed, and the catalyst for the dimensional warp spell? that threw the Crimson Capital into the depths of hell? Draven removed the small black crystal that he still carried around, fingering it in his gloved hand. He proceeded to walk closer to the broken automaton, the thing?s mammoth size dwarfing him as he drew closer.
?Machine! Is this what you seek??
He held the black stone up for it?s inspection (though from his angle he could not see where the eyes, or whatever, were located).
?I?ve more of it, if that is what you require. However, I cannot merely give such treasure away. In return, I will require your service? Do you understand??
-
Horus bent down to his knee and glared at the crystal. One of the repair mechanisms hopped off his armour onto Draven's outstretched arm, then dropped back down, unable to hang onto it. It climbed back on Horus.
This substance, it seems, was really what he needed, after all. Wait... could it be?
He looked at the glyphs in his armour, glowing purplishly. Most of them he knew what they meant... others he had an idea of... but the one symbol he has never been able to even vaguely understand has caught his attention once again. It was a figure of a dragon with four wings, with a sword in the background. He noticed the same pattern on Draven...
Horus looked at the man. He understood his speech, but he had no way to reply. Battle was the only language he knew. He put his maul down before Draven, its magnitude almost hiding the man, and lay back down. Few repairs were still in need to be made, and although Horus did not feel time, his unexpected helpers probably did. He powered himself down, allowing the reparation mechanisms to do their job unhindered.
--- --- ---
The grand armies were marching through the lands of the Crimson Continent. They were ripping through the terrain like a spear through flesh. Wherever the legion under the seal of Kandarin passed, nothing remained other than charred, scarred land. Thankfully, they were not that far in their conquest...
...yet.
Division Odin was conquering a small castle, its defences completely inferior to the might of Kandarinian war machines. The clockwork scorpions were launching heavy projectiles at the walls, crumbling them. One of the mechanical abominations managed to crawl inside the castle. One was very much enough.
The castle gave in almost immediately after that. People were falling down with gruesome-looking spears fixed through their bodies. Their red-hot passion for defending their families, their battle yells and their weapons could not stand up to the cold speargun-like weapons that the Kandarian troops used. Others were getting ripped to shreds by the clockwork scorpions' claws, reluctant to waste ammo on such a small bother.
---
Division Dva was still advancing through the plains. Having shredded through a few small hamlets only made them angrier, and they continued marching onto their next target: a nearby town, which Kronos has labelled for destruction. It would seem that there are rather powerful entities in there, which Kronos detected. There must not be anyone more powerful than Kronos. No one.
---
Division Tri has just destroyed a large village, perhaps even a township. It was rather amusing: after the walls were torn down, the villagers got scared and ran into a nearby church to pray. The clockwork scorpions massed up around the church in a tight circle, with nothing but fires and corpses around them. The commanding officer of the Tri division stepped up onto one of the war machines, and, after clearing his throat, began preaching:
-"Sacred is our Lord; Sacred is our Master. Those who wish to live and embrace lord Kronos-"
A general sigh of fear broke the silence. The higher-ranking officers were one of the few who could pronounce his name.
-"lord Kronos, come out now."
A few people appeared from the side of the church. They were visibly scared.
-"We accept lord Kronos!"
The officer... laughed.
-"HAR! Fire at will!"
The small church was levelled almost instantly. The scorpions didn't even shoot, they just walked over it. Their legs (?) were splattered with blood, and loose bodies were hanging from a few. The sharp ends on the legs really did pay off...
The officer continued.
-"We do not want anyone who changes sides this easily. However, their loyalty will greatly improve once they are touched by the Lord's essence, letting them live once more."
---
Division Chetire was repleneshing their supplies, after a somewhat tough battle. The fort they were assaulting proved to be surprisingly well-armed.
After losing a hundred or so warriors, the entire army backed off and just let their war machines do the job. The scorpions' armour was invulnerable to the arrows and stones thrown from the fort; the larger rocks fired from ballistas and catapults put dents in their somewhat rusty armour, nothing beyond that. Most of the projectiles were either deflected by the scorpions' tough carapace, or shot down in the air with heavy round cannonballs, fired from their tail cannons.
Once the initial defences were overthrown, the rest was pathetically easy. The major populace of the fort were surprisingly peaceful civilians. The soldiers, after toying with the people, flayed them (skinned), and hung them upside down from the fort's crumbling walls. The soldiers that were not busy repleneshing resources from the fort's plentiful supply piles were drawing a large version of the Kandarinian symbol on the town hall - in blood, of course.
---
Division Piat encountered no resistance along their way at all. They, along with divisions Sheist and Vyosem, were to arrive at a Crimson-controlled fortress labelled on the maps as "North Point". They will start by offering peace to the commanders of the place, and if they will not get a satisfactory answer, they will assault the fortress from three sides. Splitting is often the most effective way to take down large targets.
---
Division Sedmoi, Deviat and Desiat were regrouping with each other, sharing supplies and men. All three divisions were almost undamaged, but due to their proximity to each other, they decided to meet together. Having three large forces meet, all from the same command, did miracles for the morale.
The least damaged of all ten divisions was Sedmoi. After crawling up to their target, they realized that they had a huge advantage. The settlement they were ordered to attack was in somewhat of a natural basin. They stationed their scorpion machines around the edges of the basin and began bombarding the settlement with cannonballs. The civilians rushed out of the burning remains, only to be greeted by cold spears through their hearts. The Sedmoi soldiers were always wary of such things, as insignificant as they may seem.
--- ---
"I was beholding the glorious battles that my warriors were waging (and winning!), when I got a telepathic message from Roland.
-"My lord. It seems that Sizri have unlocked the power of the orbs you gave them. Perhaps it would be wise to see it for yourself."
With a deep sigh, I phase-shifted, and floated through the floor, down through the seemingly endless halls of my grim palace, and out to the door. This is going to take some time..."
-
Kerig stared in awe as the metallic being before him bent down before the large man.
"It's probably bowing, bone-brain." Weloss told him.
"Bowing...?" Kerig said out loud "I think it's pleading alligence to you or something, mister...Why don't you try commanding it to follow you and go to your place?"
Kerig knew it-
His potential allies were at stake as allies. He might not be able to follow the man along with the metallic one...
But he decided he will follow until told otherwise.
-
Draven clutched the stone, causing it to disappear into his fist.
"What in blazes? Blast it! Wake up!"
He brought his hand to his chin as the smaller things crawled about the machine. It was obviously a submissive pose, by the laying the gigantic maul down in front of him. And judging by the violet glyphs that appeared on the machine's sand colored-armor, it very well could have been a reaction to the stone. Draven thought one looked familiar, but they disappeared too quickly.
Draven did a large bound and landed on the machine's chest with a clang. Several of the repairing things skittered away from his boots as he touched down before continuing their work. The machine was in better shape than when he first arrived, and looking up and down it, he estimated it would be fifteen or sixteen feet tall if it stood up. He rubbed his chin again as he stared at the deactivated jackal-like head.
Was it worth it? Hmmm... His alchemists at North Point may have what he needed, if the place is still standing that is. He chuckled to himself amusedly as to how far he had let things go.
Of course, none of this would matter at all once The Dark Emperor returned...
"Machine! If you can move, I can take you to where you may receive your materials and be properly repaired..."
-
Alex activated the Long Jump Module again and leaped up to the island Ein was on. What Alex saw was something he had never seen before.
"Good...God..."
Some hundred feet or so ahead of them were enormous spires of blue crystal, with large deposits of the same crystal around their bases. They pulsated with blue energy waves that seemed to be emitting a very high-pitched sound. What was even more unsettling was the sight of an huge rift above the crystals. Alex could clearly see the city of Asgarnia being obliterated by the portal bolts, which arced through the rift and down to the buildings.
Alex tried to approach the crystals, but when he got closer, an intense burning sensation struck him. He quickly withdrew from the proximity of the crystals.
"Urgh!" yelled Alex. It seemed to be the origin of the Borderworld's harmful radiation. If the HEV suit couldn't withstand the extreme energy, what could? Despite the hazards, Alex knew that he and his new accomplices had to do whatever was necessary to destroy these crystals.
Alex turned back to Ein.
"If we're going to destroy these crystals, we need a plan."
-
-"Plan? HAH! I know of no such thing. Behold:"
Ein scribbled a sigil on the hard rocky floor of the floating island, then another one, right next to the first one. The second one seemed to shimmer a little, before turning liquid... a portal...
Without doubt in his eyes, Ein smacked his hand square in the middle of the first one. His whole arm made a nasty crack and mutated into some...thing. It was a tree-like substance, but still resembling his arm. Even though it appeared to be wooden, it was stone-hard. Ein backed off a little...
-"BANZAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII"
With a small run-up, he jumped up into the air, and slammed his fist into the portal. The crystals shattered, it seemed that Ein's portal exited right underneath them. He withdrew his hand, which was back to normal now. Both sigils disappeared, with a faint whisper.
-"Hah. Fool. Ein needs no planning."
Behind his back, the shattered remains of the crystals chimed a little. They grew closer, closer, closer... and rushed towards each other, effectively restoring the crystals. The high-pitched whine was back, which was the only way Ein detected that something was wrong. He turned around, then back to Alex. His face was positively sour.
-"Shut up."
--- --- ---
The armour plates on Horus were fully repaired, as well as the channels through his body that allowed him to move, except for his left arm. His eyes lit up with a grim red colour.
He lightly brushed Draven off himself, and (assuming Draven is no longer on him) got up. He stretched upwards into his full monstrous height: a whopping 20 feet tall, and picked up his maul. If there was a simple way to explain his situation to this guy, Horus needed it.
He pointed to Draven's hand, the one clenching the stone, then to himself. If Draven will provide materials, he will gladly follow him. However...
He pointed to himself again, then a little west of the place where the fortress used to stand. Even if he got the proper materials, he needed the equipment to repair himself correctly. The very place where he was created seemed to be most approperiate.
After looking several seconds in that direction, Horus' torso rotated around facing Kerig. He had no way to thank him for his help...
One of the repair machines jumped off Horus and landed onto Kerig's shoulder. It made a chittering sound, and Horus walked off, back closer to Draven. The mechanism made no attempt to get back to its previous owner.
//i wanna die right now... (not literally, i'm just tired) ...so i won't bother making another 60-page post about every single of my divisions taking over THE WORLD!!! by the way, any kind of NPC involvment from other participants is more than welcome.\\
-
Marshall flew his wyvern to Alex and Ein's location. He watched Ein's attempt on breaking the crystals.
"Hmm, it seems that perhaps these crystals can't just simply just smashed apart. Perhaps if we had some sort of way to vaporize them, it may do the trick. Do you think anything would be able to do that?" Marshall asked.
-
//Wow I missed alot while being in soccer camp. Lets see If i still got some mojo..\\
Kronos Was gone in a second. "What where dide he go?"Nick said to himself. He walked through the streets of Kandrain passing citzens and shops. "Well Im bored..." Nick sat at a bench waiting for something to happen.
//Can't post long stuff to much call of duty today..\\
-
"Something to vaporize the crystals, eh?" Alex said. "As it turns out I have something here that might do just that."
Alex leveled his laser and looked down the sight. He trained on what appeared to be the weakest section of the crystals, and pulled the trigger. A bright blue beam raced through the air at almost light speed and slammed into the crystals. The crystal exploded and released shockwaves through the rest, prompting them to collapse. When the smoke cleared, all that was left was a glinting pile of shattered glass shards.
"See?"
Suddenly, the shards levitated into a stream that rained down on the site and rebuilt the crystals from the ground up. They continued pulsating.
"...Don't say anything."
-
Draven leapt off as the machine started to move and watched the hand motions with interest. He got the part about giving the machine black crystal, and vaguely guessed that it needed to go somewhere once it obtained it. Some sort of lab, for repairs perhaps? Were there more of these things? Now Draven was interested.
"I'm going to take you where you may obtain your supplies. Then I will procure a... large transport to take you wherever you need to go. Do you understand? Follow me."
He strode off northward through the wasteland at a quick pace.
-
"Okay, now that's not going to work." Marshall groaned. "That laser didn't vaporize it, just shattered it again." Marshall tapped his foot and thought. "Well, if the crystals are just blocking the area, maybe we could try and move them somehow." He looked at Ein. "Perhaps if you teleported them somewhere else?"
-
//Sorry, guys. I had my first day of school yesterday, and fell asleep the entire day promptly after. I then missed the second day due to having no gas (and I live in a different county so I can't take the bus), so I took a nap.
Zion led the others into the room... Only Tsu was there. "What the?"
"Little lady's gone, and the kid's still asleep."
Zion walked over to him. He's improved more than he should have... Did she cast some white magic on him? He noticed that her second set of clothes was on the chair. He walked over to the window and looked out...
Aura was training outside. She was currently doing push-ups, hand-stand push-ups. Something she obviously coudn't do in her other outfit. #18's Rule won't protect her from that. Zion looked off to the side to find that she had cut down many trees... Some looked like they had been cut down simultaneously, though they were a decent distance apart. "Wow. She's putting her all into it."
Xenai muscled his way to the window. "Hey, lemme see." He looked out and around. "Jeez!"
She sprung from her hands onto her feet, and sighed. She looked up at the window, and saw Xenai. She waved to him, and headed back towards the inn. He waved back. "She's comin' back."
It didn't really take long for her to get back. She was surprised at how many people there were. "Uh... Hi."
-
"Well, then." Duilin said, looking at Aura. "I don't think I caught your name." He said.
"Aura, isn't it?" Rink said, he remembered her. "I met her on the airship to Redvik, when we tried to take out Haraldur at Laus."
"Okay, so now that we have everyone maybe we should go back and check on Zeros'...I have a feeling something is going on there." Duilin suggested.
"Rink, wasn't there another person at the ruins of Bandervil that you met?" Aegidius asked the imp.
"Oh, that's right. Yeah, you guys ready to go back?" Rink asked the other four.
-
Zeros' had seen all that went on between the three in front of him. He had masked his aura and was currently leaning against a three about a hundred feet away from the three, simply watching the interaction.
He saw the motions the machine made and was easily able to interperate them, letting out a mental sigh as he did. So Draven helping that giant machine would get said machine to follow him.
He closed his eyes before opening them again. He would simply wait and observe.
-
Division Dva already had their target in plain sight: a town, by the looks of it //the one with Xenai, Tsu, etc\\. They were still not close enough, though, so they had to continue going. The scorpions were almost in firing range. The three divisions heading for North Point were still far away.
--- --- ---
Horus grumbled, and followed Draven. The repairs to his arm were complete. He looked as good as new, save for two missing parts. Hopefully he should be able to find the material needed for his repairs in the laboratories. The recently cleansed channels pumped energy through him better than ever, and he was able to think much clearer than what he used to.
--- --- ---
Ein glanced at Marshall.
-"They aren't JUST blocking the way, they are likely causing the portal storms that Alex mentioned. Have you tried getting close to one?"
-
"Yes... My name is Aura, but... I can't go with you. I have to look after Tsu." She glanced to him, still unconscious. "When he gets better, we'll catch up with you."
"Of course." Zion nodded to her, then turning to the door. "Alright... Let's go." He walked out, Xenai following. They then exited the inn, and took off toward ground zero once more, expecting the others to follow.
When all the guys had left, she'd shut the door and change into her other outfit, and get into the bed with Tsu. She brushed his cheek with her hand and then attempted to sleep.
//I don't want anyone sticking around in the town. Aura will handle the approaching Division Dva.
-
Marshall groaned, and then explained more of what he meant. "I didn't mean that, well, not entirely. But if you were able to make a portal into here, then maybe you could make a portal 'out' of here right at the location the crystals."
-
-"Argh. I think it is YOU who doesn't get it. You see, even though when I make a portal, it looks non-solid-" Ein painfully remembered the green goo on the wall of the Kandarian house "-the object must have momentum to enter it. It has to move. Those crystals seem pretty solid to me... however."
He took a definitive pose.
-"I have just thought up of a plan. How about Alex here blasts the crystals using his beam thing...thingy, and then I open the portal underneath the crystals. The remaining shards falling down should be able to fall into the portal, right into - WAIT. That's not gonna work."
Ein started pacing back and forth, thinking.
-"You see, when I open a portal, it only has two ends - source and destination. When I open a source portal here, to down below those crystals, they will rematerialize back here, at the source... right where I will be."
He stopped pacing. Were these portal storms worth his life? Why would he do this, anyway?
-"Alex, tell me what is at stake here. I can think up of another plan, in fact, I already know what it will be. You see, even though it seems that I use a very specific kind of magic, of the Astral element - I can also do weak telekinesis. Sigil magic is incredibly broad, as is the Astral type magic in general. Anyways, here's what I was thinking of doing."
He drew a jagged circle on the ground.
-"This is the island."
Ein proceeded to scribble two circles - one in the middle of the "island", and another one near the edge.
-"That in the middle are the crystals. The one near the edge is us."
He encircled the spot in the middle, the one he marked as the crystals.
-"Using telekinesis, I can rip out the ground from under the crystals, then guide it into the void. Since that void looks pretty deep, I'm guessing they aren't going to return. Besides, they aren't going to have any place to return to, because they will still be on the ground that they originally were on."
The optimistic feeling that Ein had while explaining all that was now gone. If they sensed a big "BUT" coming, they were right.
-"But. You see, although as I said, sigil arcane is broad in appliance, it is mostly quite weak. I will need someone's life force to boost the sigil enough for my telekinesis to work. It won't kill you, but chances are that you're going to be unconcious for the next little while, and when you wake up, you're going to have a MAJOR headache."
Ein's face turned even more bitter.
-"Or we could stick to the other plan, which will render me insane. Either is fine."
--- --- ---
Division Dva summed up around the town. They took their positions, the scorpion artillery hiding behind hills, trees, and anything else sight-concealing. The troops, however, were still one homogenious (LOL U SAID HOMO) mass. The soldiers were chatting with each other, until the commanding officer, none other than Arlin himself, rose into the air.
-"Atten-SHUN!"
The command turned the crowd into organized columns of battle ready soliders. Arlin was still hovering about in the air.
-"Now, as most of you know, this is a special town. Here our Lord detected some sort of a powerful presence, and hence equipped us approperiately. Some of you are what the colloquial speech calls Adepts - people with great capacity of mental power. You know who you are."
There was a slight waver in the division. Soldiers were looking around at each other.
-"Adepts, you will be responsible for shielding our troops. I want one adept and nine soldiers around every single scorpion. Guard those machines with your lives, for they are the key to our success over stone walls. Without them, we would still be conducting sieges lasting for months. Now MOVE!"
The warriors hurried over to the scorpion machines. There were ten guards around each of the 200 scorpions in total.
Meanwhile, Arlin slowly turned in the direction of the city. He rose his hand.
-"FIRE!!!"
The silent peace was almost undisturbed, other than for Arlin's yell. The scorpions were frighteningly silent with lobbing incredibly heavy cannonballs - mostly because they used a catapult-like device to propel them.
In a few seconds, though, all hell broke loose. The town started crumbling, building after building. Tremendous shockwaves shook the very earth, felt even by the attackers themselves, as the cannonballs slammed into the buildings.
Right about that moment, one of the ten soldiers around each of the machines put up their index fingers to their temples. Each of the 200 encampments was surrounded by a shimmering shield now, capable of taking fair amounts of punishment.
Arlin took out a spyglass, and observed the city. Where are they...
-
"No, Ein, YOU don't get it...you see...umm." Marshal stopped talking and then scratched his head, as Ein turned and looked at Alex.
Marshall sat down on the back of the wyvern that was staring blankly into the distance. Marshall watched Ein draw the shapes and explain his big plan. He then looked at his wyvern, with an idea.
"Hey, Ein." Marshall said, giving one last attempt on being useful. "Instead of risking one our lives, why don't we use my wyvern? I mean it's alive, and has a life force so it would be useful. If it's not enough I could always summon some more creatures."
-
Aura suddenly sprung up. "What the hell?!" She darted out of the room as quickly as she could, and immediately out of the inn. The entire town was falling apart. She looked around, wide-eyed, and then glared in the direction of the army. Her wings appeared. I can't let them touch this inn... At all costs!
She'd brought her scimitars down with her, luckily. She stuck them into the ground and started charging white magic energy. The Zerobi wasn't with her, but she wouldn't need it.
-
//Trent, she can't really see the army, the only one she can see is Arlin. The army is all broken up, separate, behind hills and trees. And since the scorpions don't produce gunfire when they shoot...\\
Arlin was still hovering about, as he noticed an aural surge from somewhere in the middle of the town. He pointed his spyglass at that location. A girl...? That can't be one of them... can it? Well, in either case, it should begin soon.
He took his weapon off his belt - a very long, spiky whip. Even though Aura was far away, he had a feeling that she would be here soon, and when she comes, he will apprehend her. Even IF Arlin fails to stop her, the city will still be ruined. Perhaps enslaved... probably wiped out. But that is a thought for another time.
-
The other three then exited the inn. Duilin picked up Rink, and the imp grabbed onto Duilin's shoulder. "Let's get going, pretty boy." He said to Aegidius.
The angel nodded, and him and Duilin flew off along with Zion and Xenai.
-
//That took a while, DM. Razz I didn't know I wouldn't be able to see the army. But she can clearly see the destruction ocurring, and she can faintly detect energy signatures. I'll make a correction.
She frowned... Where the hell were they? Oh... energy signatures. She closed her eyes... Hmm... There! She sprinted off in that direction, continuing to charge energy.
-
Draven lead on northward and west, eventually coming out of the blast zone induced wasteland caused by the now revived war machine. It would be a long trip to North Point by land and Draven considered flying ahead, assuming the machine could not. Even if it could, the Crimson Emperor did not want this weakened relic to expend too much energy, and to leave it behind may allow it to come into enemy hands... No this was his catch.
After a long trek the terrain resumed its familar rockiness, and small shrubs and trees became more common. The reddish rock formations that jutted up out of the dusty ground was almost enough to make this dismal land that was the center of the Dark Continent beautiful.
And there he was.
The black figure stood at the cliff edged just before the horizon. Draven eyed the figure as he approached it's direction, his posture and gait noticeably shifting from relaxed to at edge, the hands that hung at his sides under his cape becoming clenched fists. He continued forward for a full minute, focusing on the figure until his eyes finally blinked. Returning his gaze to the point where the figure was, he found it had disappeared...
It took him a few seconds of searching with his eyes before he discovered the heavy black armored figure was now very much closer, standing on a small rock formation not ten feet above the ground, and less than fifty feet from Draven himself. His blackness looked quite out of place contrasted against the pale blue sky.
"Why hello, Draven..."
Draven stopped, slowly folding his arms in the exact same manner as the other. A soft wind blew through their hair. It was so quiet, until Draven returned the greeting.
"Why hello, Jayce..."
-
//Yeah, sorry your post was blocked out by Ein's post. Razz \\
Duilin decided to speed up; seeing as Zeros' wasn't here to annoy Xenai and Zion he chose that he would tease the group. "Heheh." Duilin chuckled to himself.
Aegidius kept flying at his normal speed. He glanced at Zion and Xenai. He felt a bit uncomfortable since he didn't know anyone and just jumped in, literately out of nowhere. He looked forward, again.
He himself wasn't entirely sure why he was here. Zeus and the other head gods just told him to go here and stop some wrongdoers and they pointed him in a few directions. He was so used to following orders that he never stopped to ask question. Never mind that, he might as well help these people since his goal is similar to theirs.
"I hope that big machine didn't wake up." Rink said concerned. "I wonder who it was made by and why."
"Well, assuming it's finished we don't have to worry about. Hopefully who ever made that thing didn't make more of them, just one took the entire lot of us to take it out."
"But Duilin, we didn't, it just passed out because it ran out of energy."
"....Shit." Duilin gasped, laughing a bit afterwards. "Well, it's best not worry about things like this. I mean we took out a huge-ass multi-headed dragon, an evil entity. Plus we were able to defeat Abodahon."
"Duilin, Haraldur defeated Abodahon, we didn't do anything."
"Shut up Rink."
-
//sorry for being gone Razz lost my connection for a couple o' days\\
Kerig silently followed the man, looking around at his surroundings from time to time.
"Why in the name of all blazes are you gliding?!" Weloss asked him after a while has passed.
"My legs are tired!" Kerig replied hastly "Besides, that way, I'm not bothering anyone with the sound of footsteps."
More time has passed, and this time Kerig was cought wondering about the strange changes his body was going through.
"I told you, it's no use thinking about things like this...You need to throughly research them to understand them." Weloss told him.
"But...What am I turning into?" Kerig was still swept in his river of thoughts "All we know is that it has begun when we first met...And that it sped up since I was exposed to the explosion around here..."
After a moment of silence, Kerig added-
"I wish I could bring you to this side of the world, Weloss...With you, as your own self..."
"I daubt that it is possible..." Weloss told him "Whatever difference lies between me and the spirits of mortals, neither of us knows how to grasp it if at all feasable."
Kerig noticed that the man he was following came to a sudden stop. Only then he realised he never asked for the man's name. Since he felt it would inappropriate to ask for his name now...
"Draven." Weloss solved Kerig's problem, and allowed him to see Draven's reason for stopping. Kerig said nothing.
-
"We just need to get stronger, and/or make a plan for fighting the thing," said Zion. "We'll be much better off next time, now that we know how it works."
"Yeah, all we gotta do is fight it up close with physical attacks, and not give it a chance to use that fog."
They continued in the direction towards Zeros'.
-
Zeros' sighed and shaked his head. This wasn't good. The treaty they had wtih Draven would only last so long. He knew that war machine wasn't dead. He only left it alone because he couldn't sense anymore of it's strange energy. He had a feeling, for now, he was safe from the wrath of that machine, as were his allies.
He could sense his friends walking towards him and decided to simply wait, slumping down the tree and taking on a mediative pose, closing his eyes and crossing his legs underneath him.
He would simply wait for them here.
-
Horus tightened his grasp on his maul. Whoever that other person was, the red guy didn't like him, and if Horus was to get his materials, he should show what he's capable of. However... perhaps this is just a misunderstanding?
He remained in a strike-ready pose, but without really moving. His eyes were fixed dead on Jayce.
-
Jayce smirked.
?I thought you were dead.?
?I thought you were dead.?
There was a long silence. The two simply stared at each other. One could cut the tension in the air with a knife. Finally Jayce spoke in his thick accent:
?I?ve come to ensure your total submission, human. The Dark Emperor has deemed humans unfit to exist in this realm, and therefore you are no longer qualified as a High General??
Draven, snorted a ?Hmph.?
?I would say ?nice try?, but it?s not even that. As a general of equal rank, you do not have the authority to enforce such a decree. Only the Dark Emperor himself may remove a High General. And seeing that he is not here, your pathetic lie is quite obvious. So what now? Sneaking away when daddy?s not looking, huh??
Jayce frowned bitterly, caught in his lie. He took a step forward, falling off of the elevated rock and landing gracefully on one foot. He was a good half foot taller than Draven, and the bulky black armor dwarfed Draven?s in every aspect.
?You should speak, Crimson Emperor,? the last words coming out in a venomous, mocking tone.
Draven remained calm and unmoving.
?You will find that I did nothing against protocol in the last five years.?
Jayce slowly began walking towards the man.
?Heh? that?s the problem. I never did get what father sees in you? You and the rest of the humans have done nothing but hold us back, and what happened on that island was your fault??
Draven raised an eyebrow. Jayce was now less than thirty feet away. The black armored Draken continued,
?Guess it wouldn?t be much of a loss if you? died? some time before we made it back??
It took just an instant for those words to sink in. Any longer would have been fatal?
There was a violent tremor as the dirt path between the two cleaved, fine dust shooting to the left and right of each man. A tremendous explosion followed a fraction of a second later in two parts. The half towards Jayce was pitch black, orbs of seething darkness sputtering into the air, the vile shrapnel vaporizing the nearby batches of rocks. The half towards Draven was a brilliant red, spheres of flame bursting forth, blasting the nearby landscape. For a few seconds there was much too much dust to see what had happened in this violent two second time span, but as the dust settled, the two burning red and black auras could be seen pushing against each other?
With fanged teeth clenched, Jayce was nearly on top of Draven. His gargantuan scimitar held in two hands, pushing downwards against the bright crimson blade. Draven was in the same spot he was before, except he was now standing in a small crater two feet deep with the dark Draken?s blade violently attempting to further push him down. He remained rigid, with both hands above to his right, holding the flaming blade horizontally over his head, blocking the strike. His teeth were also clenched with an additional scowl, and his eyes wide. The two auras from the warriors clashed violently, kicking up more dust and stone from the area?
-
"Hey there, Zeros'." Zion walked up to him.
"How ya doin', bud? Your booboos got any be-" BOOM! "What the HELL?!"
The two looked off in the direction of Draven and Jayce.
-
//I just got out of soccer camp yesterday so i was to beat to post till now....\\
Nick felt all the energy signatures of the battles going on. None where of real importance. "Why doesn't Kronos order me around...?" he whispered to himself. "Nothing to do but wait."
-
Well, this is getting out of hand.
Strange mechanisms grumbled inside Horus, and he leaped high up into the air, landing just behind Jayce.
He swung his maul around himself once, then slammed it aiming right at Jayce's ribs, from the side, in a golfswing-like move.
-
Aura stopped near them. She continued to concentrate. She saw the one guy with the whip, but the other members... She picked up many energy signatures coming from all behind the hills. "Okay... Try this!"
"Judgment!"
Numerous rays of light shot down from the sky on the hidden army. She had no clue what was back there, so she could only hope she got them. She glared in the direction of Arlin...
-
//even a 2-post attack would weaken if it is simoultaneously blasted at 10+ locations, not to mension 200, am I right? If no, just tell me, i'll gladly correct it.\\
The attacks bounced off the shields like pebbles from a stone wall, and the great thing is, the deeper the adepts' concentration was, the more powerful the shields were. The scorpions continued raining death onto the town. People who tried to escape almost surely encountered a scorpion encampment, and then were... treated accordingly. The tough part was ripping the spear back out of them, since it had small flags on the end to prevent that. Perhaps the manufacturers didn't want the victims to even stand a chance when they were struck.
Arlin grinned at Aura's magical assault. So she IS one of them...
-"Well then... how about... Some kind of awesome attack!" //sorry Trent, just had to do it Razz\\\
The ground shook, as if from an underground ping. A long and pointy rock pierced the earth, and aimed right at Aura.
--- --- ---
"I arrived at the magic research centre. The scientists seemed busy with celebrating, and barely noticed my presence. That silenced them quite instantly.
-"My Lord... we've finished reverse engineering the orbs. They are most powerful devices, very capable of destroying even large cities. However, perhaps there is a way to increase their yield..."
-"Well then, work on it. I have much business to attend to."
Without even leaving the research station, I headed over to the nearest M-Grid terminal. I put my hands on it, and tried to reach Nick's mind.
-"If you want to prove yourself, now is the time. There is a town a fair distance from your position, my army is conquering it. However, it appears that there is a... distraction... there. I want you to help Arlin deal with her. Go."
-
Kerig was shocked at the sight of the great struggling auras. He kept asking himself why would such a nice man, who stopped to help a stranger who destroyed his own belongings, be attacked by anyone...Anyone at all...
"I guess I should help him..." Kerig thought, beggining to concenterate a large amount of spiritual energy in his right hand.
"Just make sure to avoid your new friends..." Weloss told him in a somewhat sarcastic manner "And keep in mind that you might hurt that man's pride by helping him..."
"Don't worry about it! Now help me with the finishing touches!"
A light flashed within Kerig's right hand, and within a moment he could be seen holding a giant white swallow, with the width of the blade being almost as high as kerig is and it's length being twice that. It was somewhat transperant and seemed to "phase" through any physical object.
"I hope no one will be knocked out for too long..." Kerig muttered under his breathe as he dashed towards Draven and jumped just behind him, where he swung his swallow at the strange person attacking him.
//Reminder: This "swallow" thing is made of pure spiritual stuff, thus it can only harm spirit, meaning that if it DOES hit, the most common result would be a knocked out (but alive&well) target, and OBVIOUSLY nothing physical can block it Razz\\
-
Jave suddenly jumped straight up into the air, avoiding the massive maul and swallow just barely.
"What are these? Your new peons?"
Jayce scowled at the massive machine and man that took a swing at him as he flew higher into the air. Draven was already soaring skyward after him, his crimson aura breaking up into large burning orbs that rotated about him. The distraction was just enough, for when Jayce turned his head back towards Draven, he found a gloved palm an inch from his face...
"CRIMSON !!"
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
A dozen explosions ripped across the dark Draken's body, each sending a shockwave of blinding red light ripping through the sky. The final one trumped them all, painting the sky an ethereal vermillion and sending vibrations through the ground below, even though they were over fifty feet in the air...
Jayce blasted through the air downwards, a black blur. He slammed into the rocky ground, cutting right through it as the ground tremored. Dust rose from the crater the impact crated...
Draven held the crimson blade to his side, trying to catch his breath as he floated in the sky. He wanted to tell these two to beat it, but this was a god forsaken Draken after all...
-
She flipped backwards, away from the rising spike of Earth. Crap... That's a pretty awesome attack... She glanced back toward the town, and the inn. It was still there, but it wouldn't be for long. She looked back to Arlin. "Gimme about 10 minutes and I'll come back to play with you!" She started off towards the inn, but saw the window by Tsu's room breaking. Tsu jumped out with Shin Kuon Yaiba... He's awake! What the hell's he doing?! His wings appear, and he weakly suspends himself in the air. He looks to Aura, grins, and flies off in the opposite direction from the army. She snickers. "Good boy." Soon after, the inn gets blasted and crumbles. ...Along with her normal set of clothes. Urk. She looks down at her long, flowy black skirt. When I'm done here, I'd better find some pants to wear under this thing. She shakes her head and looks to Arlin, twirling her scimitars around. "Shall we play a game?" I gotta figure out how to take care of this barrage on the town, too.
//Just as a warning, perverts will get hit by a really strong attack without any charging, as we all know that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Razz If you simply need comedic value, I'm not stopping you, but your character's the one who's gonna get punched through the nearest hard object. Razz And please don't dodge it. We gotta have a fair trade here. Razz
-
//Trent aren't Draven and Jayce like way far away? Or is he looking off into the distance?\\
Duilin and Aegidius landed on the ground. Rink hopped off Duilin.
Duilin looked around. "Crap! Did that machine get up?" He asked in concern. "I don't see it?"
"Maybe it's vaporized?" Rink replied.
"I think it got up." Aegidius said.
-
//Most likely off in the distance.
"Great... The machine's gone... We have two VERY familliar energies clashing off over there..." Zion sighed as he tried to think of what to do.
"What's worse... D'you think Draven might have something to do with the machine bein' gone?"
"Oh, please don't say that."
-
"Great something to do!" he replied as he hastily left his posistion. He ran through the streets swiftly. He'd be there by day break. //At least it sound like its going to be day break if not ill fix.\\
-
Alex weighed the consequences. Ein seemed to have his idea very well planned out. Alex had done the math in his head, and Ein's plan was physically possible. The only problem was the life force factor.
"Ein, I believe that this plan is very well thought out. If executed with precision, we just might save Asgarnia, and you two would become very wealthy," said Alex, looking at Ein's diagram.
Alex still had a tiny bit of uncertainty. What if the plan should fail? What if they were sealed in the Borderworld forever? It was a chance they had to take. Alex turned over to Marshall and his wyvern.
"I'd rather no harm came to your wyvern, Marshall," said Alex. He walked back over to Ein. "I'd be more than happy to volunteer my own life force. Here's what's at stake. If we succeed, then Asgarnia will be saved. If not, it will be destroyed, and something horrible will most likely happen to us. Think you can do it?"
-
-"I can do it."
Ein looked over at Marshall nearby.
-"Using a wyvern wouldn't work. Animal auras are not nearly as strong as human ones are, and same applies to life force."
--- --- ---
//Trent, pervert? I don't get it, what do perverts have to do with anything here? :wacko: \\
Arlin threw the whip over his shoulder. It still hung down from his back.
-"In that case, let's play."
He made a wild spin in the air, and the end of the whip came whooshing down at Aura's face at supersonic speeds //did you know that the whip was the first man-made tool to break the sound barrier?\\.
--- --- ---
Horus put his maul back on his back, and approached the smoking crater. He looked down, carefully...
-
With each passing second, more structures of Asgarnia were disintegrated by the ever-strong portal bolts. Most of the city had been destroyed, but perhaps there was still hope...
Alex stood on the pentagram Ein marked for him, so that his life force could be drained and used to remove the portal crystals. If all goes as Ein described, the portal storms should stop, and the group should be able to return to Gaian before the master portal collapses completely. Despite Ein's misfortunes earlier, Alex trusted his judgement.
While Ein prepared his spell and Alex waited, something crawled up behind Alex. It was a lowly headcrab. Something was different about it, though. It wasn't like a normal headcrab. It had four long legs instead of two long ones and two stubby ones. It was also black with a wet shine. Where its beak was, this headcrab had enlarged fangs. These fangs were used to inject a strong neurotoxin into its victim. However, this headcrab seemed to have no intent of attacking Alex.
It looked like this:
(http://http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/93/halflife2poisonheadcrabzr0.jpg)
While Alex waited, the headcrab crawled up behind Alex and secured itself on his back. Through the thick layers of the suit, Alex suspected nothing.
From the looks of it, Ein was about ready to cast his spell.
"All right, Ein. Whenever you're ready, go on ahead."
-
//Did you know the whip was the first man-made tool to break the sound barrier.\\
//no thank you for that tid-bit.\\
Nick was halfway across the water when he sent a message to kronos. "So where am I going?"
-
//Burton, whatever you may say, i did NOT misspell the word "first." Razz\\
-"Your destination has no name that I bothered myself to find out. The only interest it poses to me is as a strategic support point. My army is bombing the town with some of the ingenious machines that Qim produced, while their commanding officer, Arlin, is battling some... woman..."
As I said the last word, a painfully sharp image of Steorra broke into my mind. I just stood there, looking into nothingness, a small drop of spittle running down from my open mouth. Steorra was the closest feeling I've ever experienced that one may dare to call "love". I quickly sent a wave of my energy, that, like a sonar, would recoil back to me once it found Steorra.
The energy came back into me, with a rather unsettling result. There were thousands, if not millions of individual small pings, from all directions. It seems she was blown to pieces... whatever scum did that will PAY!!!
However, now is not the time to think of revenge. The first step would be to resurrect her.
Since I was in the magic district of my land, I should take advantage of this. I went up directly to my own study, a large stone room with bare rock floor and walls full of books. There was also a bag of dark red sand.
I picked up the bag of sand, and began pouring it on the cold floor. I walked around, making patterns with the little pile of sand. The end result was a complex pentagram, consisting of seven smaller pentagrams. //a big grandma's cookie to the first to find them all!\\
(http://http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1089/septempentagramdy9.png)
I sat down in front of my creation, and closed my eyes. Reviving someone who has been nebulized in that manner was pretty much impossible for me, back when I was still the pitiful worm calling himself a Necromancer. Now it is rather simple, at least compared to back then.
My mind had a hold of every single one of those particles now. I slowly tugged, trying to drag them forward, to this very location. It was hard at first, but after a few more practice tugs I got the hang of it. I slowly began backing them to Sizri, very, very carefully and slowly.
After some time, there was a small whirlwind of particles in the boundaries of my symbol. Time for the hard part.
I enriched every single particle with more energy than any human on earth (other than me) posessed during their entire lifetime. It was a lot harder than it sounds... it was like trying to control 10 million undead soldiers at the same time.
The energy boost drastically increased the particle cohesion. The whirlwind started taking shape of a twisted human body... evening out...
I could clearly see Steorra's outline now. The whirlwind was still there, though, so it seems that only one last step was necceseary. I sent another jolt, ten times stronger than the previous one, to every single particle.
The whirlwind exploded around the room, blowing the books off their cases. Even my reading table was knocked back down by the raging particle shockwave. I managed to phase-shift just in time...
After the initial power surge, the particles "cooled" off very quickly. The explosion took barely a fraction of a second, and Steorra was before me. She was unconcious, it seems. I retraced all my donated energy from her particles, and she fell down.
I stood up, and dove towards her. My hand instinctively reached for her shirt... NO! I am above this.
I restrained myself, which took more effort out of me than the whole process of reviving Steorra. Her beautiful shape was calling out to me, and judging by her short-lived alliance with the Crimsons, this may be the only chance to do this that I get.
Then again, miracles do happen."
--- --- ---
Ein scratched his head.
-"Okay... here goes..."
He slowly lowered down to his knees, just on the edge of the pentagram. His eyes were tightly shut, muscles on his jaws rippling from pressure. It was obvious Ein was stressed.
He began a chant in demoic-sounding tongues. The pentagram flared, and two lightning bolts struck Alex's hands, dragging him down on the floor. When he landed, some strange force spun him around in the diagram so that his limbs alinged with the pentagram's arms.
A deep rumble from the island followed. The crystals shook a bit, then... just fell through the floor, ALONG with the floor. The large airborne chunk zoomed off into the darkness of the void.
The purple shade of the Borderworld seemed to dim a little. Ein stopped chanting.
-"I have NO idea what I just said."
If Alex was still concious, he would be experiencing excruciating pain in his head.
-
Alex's mind was a swimming void of thoughts. For a moment he thought he saw the ghost of the wise old mage that brought him up, Caulus Zalridge. It flickered in and out of his conscience for a while before disappearing completely. While he was able to see him, Caulus seemed to utter these words, with a smile on his face,
"Alex...so this is you at twenty-seven? In another dimension saving a city...I've raised you well."
Caulus' ghost finally faded out of his mind, and soon Alex regained consciousness, his vision extremely blurry at first, but then clearing up. He felt like he had been kicked in the head by someone with steel-toed boots. His skull was pounding.
"Dear God in Heaven...," moaned Alex. He made no effort to give up. He couldn't. He was far too exhausted to even move his fingers. Out of his fringe vision he saw something crawling. It crawled up onto his torso and chirped. It was the headcrab.
"Wha...? Hello there. What are you doing here, little guy?"
Perplexed by the human's words, the headcrab let out a small squeak and then another chirp. Alex didn't try to think too hard as to why the headcrab seemed so friendly. Any further thought would most likely crack his head open.
The headcrab obviously liked something about Alex. Not even Lamarr was this affectionate to him. It was as if the headcrab thought Alex was his father. Come to think of it, this poison headcrab seemed a little smaller than most others. Maybe it was younger? In a desolate place like this, it is plausible that Alex is the only living thing in the area. The headcrab was most likely imprinted on Alex. That is, Alex is the first thing that the headcrab saw, and so thinks that he's its parent.
...Then again, it might just be a lonely headcrab looking for company. Regardless, it seemed to like Alex.
Alex turned his vision up, to see the portal back to Asgarnia. The portal storms had stopped. The city of Asgarnia was saved. The portal sat there waiting for the interlopers to pass through.
"Urgh...guys? Could I get a little help here? I can't exactly move yet...oh, and make sure this headcrab comes back with us, something tells me he could use a friend."
-
Ein helped Alex up, and loaded him onto his shoulder. However, he came close to the edge, and a small dilemma seemed to rise. How is Alex going to get down?
-"Alex, how are you going to get down?"
The rise from the ground, however, made Alex somewhat disoriented. His head was wobbling from side to side, and nothing but groans came from him.
-"I guess we'll have to improvise. Amaya, could you lend me a hand here?"
Amaya was still looking deep into the void. Ein's voice broke her trance.
-"Of course!"
-"Alright, I need you to stand there - no, not there, just here - yes, there, and catch this sack o' meat. Oh, and mind the little crabby thingy on his back."
Ein grunted, and swung Alex off the edge. He fell right onto Amaya, who, although expecting him, was knocked down. She pushed Alex off herself, and got up.
-"Guys, I have some pretty bad news. Whatever you did up there stopped these discharges, but it also destabilized the portal. It vanished."
With a heavy sigh, she looked at Ein.
-"I think we'll need to use your ingenious portal abilities now."
-"Right. Well, here we go..."
//Marshall doesn't have to be a part of this, by the way, just to get some weight off your shoulders, DM.\\
Ein scribbled the portal sigil into the rock face. He, along with Amaya carrying Alex went through the portal...
--- --- ---
"As I was... er... thoroughly examining Steorra for any defects, something rather unexpected happened. Part of the wall that was not covered by the seemingly infinite rows of books became liquid, in a way. Three people came through it, two of them dressed in my own land's clothes. I put Steorra back down.
-"Well, well, well. Who do we have here. If it isn't the most annoying Aspye on Gaian... and who would you be, girl? And also, what is that... that hideous contraption this one's wearing?"
This day will most likely be the highlight of my life, I can feel it already."
-
The shaking of the ground coused Kerig to clumsily fall on his hind and blink.
"?Dodged?" Kerig asked himself, slowly getting up.
"Well, if he gets up, I won't let him dodge again."
Kerig's expression turned somewhat serious as he nodded to himself.
"I'll make it even BIGGER to make sure!"
Both of the swallows glowing blades grew three times larger their previus size.
Kerig decided to use the moment of uncertainty to inquire about the foe.
"Oh um...Sir Draven?" He mumbled somewhat shyly "Just what in blazes is going on? Why are we being attacked?"
-
//"Love" conflicts\\
Nick was almost fully across the water when he saw a sight of explosions.
The water became rough and the sun was almost set. "This will be fun" he said in a low tone and evil smirk.
-
Zeros' groaned suddenly after his silenced and placed his head in his hands.
"Just greeeeeeeeat. Draven and Jayce are fighting... And yes. Draven helped revive that war machine, which is now on his side, so, we're safe from it for the moment. Plus, Jayce and Retan are more important to slay then Draven," he said, while slowly getting up, dusting himself off. He seriously needed to get new pants.
He sighed and looked off in the directions of all the explosions and whatnot. From the intensity of the explosions, Draven appeared to have the upper hand over Jayce.
-
caleb was in the forest picking berries when the explosion happened what the heck he mumbled to himself i better go check it out as he ran through the forest to the site where the explosion had happened
-
//The pervert warning was because of what she's wearing, and in case anyone would want to... exploit it. Anyone who does will get their laugh, but their charrie'll get thrashed. Razz Though seriously, I don't think your character will do anything.
Aura flipped off to the side, and then darted up to him as fast as she could, pulling the scimitars back. The right one went to her left side, and the left one to her right. Once in range, she'd go for the neck, like a pair of scissors.
--- --- ---
"Damn... Should we go help Draven? Or stay here for now?" asked Zion. He hadn't much else to say.
-
Nick reached the land and saw the desruction in its all. "Shit..." he said to himself. He kept moving as he did he saw a woman with two smitchars. "I guess shes my target." he said as he let out a large breath of air.
-
//Holy crap, I miss a few hours, and then I get this. My Marshall update will start during Ein's mid-post. And Ein, I'd actually liked to more involved it seems like Marshall is getting extremely ignored.\\
"Um, hey Ein. If you need help to get him down I could use my wyvern." Marshall suggested. Ein seemed to completely ignore him. "Oh why don't I just die then? Would anybody care if I died? Seriously? Anyone at all?"
Marshall was getting terribly annoyed. He then took his amulet out, removed it from his neck and swung it by the chain and smashed the wyvern on it's back.
The wyvern let out a squeak of pain, and then was sucked into his amulet.
He wiped some sweat off his forehead. "God, this armour makes me sweat like Mel Gibson at a barmitsfa." He mumbled under his breath, not even knowing who he was talking about, or what a 'barmitsfa' is.
Marshall watched Ein and Amaya do everything, while he cleaned the dirt out his fingernails with he teeth and spat after doing so.
Marshall put his amulet back on as Ein and the rest walked through the portal.
"I should have stayed at the prison." Marshall sighed. He then stepped in, after the others...
----
"So Draven fixed that machine?" Duilin asked in concern. "To be honest I don't think that's good at all. In fact he's likely going to use that thing against us. I mean we can't even beat it that thing. So what use would he have for us, plus this would also be the perfect time for him to get rid of us."
"Frankly I think it would be best to let Draven and Jayce duke it out." Rink suggests, "If we interfere it will likely scare Jayce off, if we wait maybe Jayce might kill Draven or vice-versa."
"Wait, Jayce? Rink never told me about him. Retan however? I recognise that name however? Any relation to Alpha Retan?" Aegidius asked. "Alpha Retan actually caused quite some conflict with the gods."
----
Marshall found himself in a very messy looking room. He saw Ein and Amaya carrying Alex...and THAT MAN (Kronos, not the dude from Excel Saga) at the other end of them room.
//Cookie to the person who can correctly spell ?barmitsfa? assuming I misspelled it.\\
-
Extremely nauseated, Alex managed to tap Ein on the shoulder, and then point down to the ground, indicating that he wanted down. Ein promptly set him down on the ground as the headcrab leapt off and sat down next to Alex. He took a moment to get his bearings.
"Urgh...I'd rather stay on the ground if that's okay with you...ow...," moaned Alex weakly. His powerful headache made all other pain in his body seem insignificant. The headcrab paced around Alex while he made an effort to raise his arm. It was as if the creature was trying to think of a way to help Alex.
"Ein...any idea how long this condition will last...?" asked Alex, expending what little energy he had through speech. He was in bad shape, but in good shape also. While he was unable to move, his breathing and heartbeat were normal. Perhaps the immobility was all a mind trick? Despite his efforts, he couldn't sit up. He felt helpless.
Suddenly, the headcrab stopped over Alex's head, and put two legs on Alex's helmet. Using the other two legs to pull, and emitting a sharp squeal in the process, it was able to tug Alex's helmet off. The headcrab then proceeded to crawl on top of Alex and rest at his armored torso, with a clear view of his head. It seemed normal, aside from some perspiration that had condensed on the helmet's visor. Aside from that, Alex's head was fine. The headcrab approached his head, this time crawling off the torso and back on the ground, to sit next to his matted-down hair. The headcrab emitted a series of squeaks and chirps, as if trying to convey something. Unfortunately, Alex had no way of understanding the creature, and just groaned in reply. Discouraged, the headcrab simply sat down, making one final chirp.
Alex managed to force some speech out. "Ein, do you have anything that would speed up the healing process...my head feels like someone set off a bomb inside of it."
-
Draven dropped a few feet in altitude and shouted back to Kerig:
"This is an old... associate... best not to get involved..."
The machine, however, might be useful. However, it was too risky in it's weakened state. No, Jayce would destroy it if he caught wind of what it was. Fortunately the vile dragon had tunnel vision in battle... Speaking of...
As the dust began to clear, the burly Jayce simply walked out the impact crater, showing no signs of injury... not good... The thinning smoke revealed a crooked smile as he carried the massive scimitar resting on his right shoulder.
"What do you intend to do, Draven? Kill me? Tell me, what would the great Dark Emperor think of you then?"
Draven gripped the sword made of fire in his right hand tighter, the flame intensifying and the blade gaining a few more inches in length.
"I don't know. Thank me for removing his idiot son from the line of successors? Nice scar, by the way..."
Jayce's smile vanished, quickly replaced with a scowl... The ground he stood upon cracked and crumbled, and in an instant he was raging skywards, towards the burning man...
And they began again--
A crimson fury exploded around Draven, and he shot forward, rather than down towards Jayce, effectively flying over the mad Draken. Despite his size, Jayce seemed faster than the human, and gained ground as he sped from behind. With a huge cleave, he bisected the air before him, sending a pitch black crescent of shadowy hatred raging towards Draven, who was forced to dodge to the left as the energy carried onward, cleaving a distant monolithic rock in two. Having been thrown off course, Jayce was upon him in an instant, and Draven was forced to spin around and throw up his blade in defense against the massive scimitar...
HIGH!-LOW!-HIGH!-LEFT!-LOW!-RIGHT!-LEFT!-HIGH!--
The blades of the two clashed madly in the air, with Jayce on the offense, their movements but a blur to the untrained eye...
-
//Burton and Camishio: ok guys, what the heck? my machines aren't being attacked by anything. in fact, the occupants of the town are running away with their skirts in their hands. the machines are not exploding, and definately not imploding... why would they do that, if nobody's done anything to them yet? and besides, each encampment (a scorpion machine, an adept, and 9 soldiers) is protected by a mental barrier, cast by adepts. nothing short of a 3-post attack gets through, at this point.\\
Arlin calmly looked at his incoming opponent. So she thinks she's powerful... well then. It can't be helped, it seems.
He decided to use a defensive tactic, for now. He ghosted right behind Aura, while she was still flying upwards towards where he used to be, and sent a powerful whip lash at her back.
--- --- ---
"Somewhat angered by this intrusion, I tried to hide my fury... for now. After taking one last look at Steorra, I calmly walked towards the man in the suit. I recognized him as being the man I saw previously on the mountain, where I found the gravity orbs. I bent down to his level, and with the most peaceful and soft voice I could muster, I whispered:
-"Somehow, I am getting the feeling that your little headache is the least of your problems right now..."
Obeying my mental command, eight undead guards came inside. I pointed at the one in the metal suit.
-"Take this one down to the dungeon. Beat as much information out of him as you can, and perhaps try to get that metal off him - i could use some spare scrap."
The commands I was giving to the guards obviously had no effect on the undeads themselves - it was like telling the stick to fly before throwing it. They had no minds of their own - I was controlling them. Perhaps the content of the commands will strike some fear into these pathetic ones' hearts...
After another mental command, two of the guards picked the metal one up, and dragged him out of the room. I turned my attention to... Ein, was it?
-"Well then. Isn't this so very interesting. The last place I'd expect to see-" just then, I noticed that Ein was throwing quick looks at the girl next to him. This is going to be fun..."-see you. And my inquiry was never really answered - who is this girl? She bears the mark of Kandarin, as do you, Ein. But I know that those are not your clothes, for I found a citizen lying in his house, unconcious. I also found your old clothes in there."
The girl looked up at me with an unexpectedly stern look, just before turning her head away. Her facial traits revealed her to be Kandarinian... in which case, it was but a matter of skill getting her to talk.
-"Oh... I see, then. Stand up, child."
I lowered my hand, and touched her just below the chin. With that hand, I lifted up her head, forcing her to look at me, and dragging her upwards in a standing position. Her eyes were starting to get glossy... looks like she still had Kandarinian blood in her.
-"Tell me", I whispered. "How dare you disobey your Master?"
My hand slid down from her chin to her neck. I smoothly massaged it, while her eyes were starting to get red. She was breathing a lot faster.
-"Do you know what kinds of things they used to do to Citizens who defied their land, when my grandfather was in power?"
I put my hand around her waist, and forced her towards me. With undeniable pleasure, I licked her neck.
-"They would... break... every bone in your limbs. Then they'd cut your chest open..."
My other hand rested on her breast. Her heart was racing, which was (HONESTLY!) the only reason I put my hand there in the first place. I had no attraction for this one. I was simply using certain tactics to get her to talk.... and perhaps annoy the Aspye.
-"...break your ribs outwards.... all while pouring strongest vinegar upon your exposed flesh. They called it..."
My hand dropped from her breast, and down around her waist, like the other one. I looked straight into her eyes, which were wet with tears.
-"the Bloody Eagle."
One of the undead guards hit her on the back of her knees. I let go of her, as she dropped down an all fours, intensely crying.
-"Now... tell me your name, child."
-"*sob* A--*sniff* *sob* Amaya Ryleh, *sob* my *sniff* Lord..."
-"That's a good girl. GUARDS! Throw her down into the dungeons, with the tin man. I'll decide what to do with her later. As for you two..."
I turned to Ein and Marshall, another Aspye I captured recently. The guards slammed both on the back of the head with the hilts of their swords. Ein fell down.
-"Down into the dungeon with you. Put both of them in separate cages... I have a big, big surprise for them..."
-
Alex rubbed his head. He awoke inside a dark cage in a dank dungeon. The tiny windows in the upper part of the wall shone in white light from outside. He was confused.
"Urgh...what just happened?" He got up off the...wait. He got up. Perhaps the headache was finally fading. Despite his increased mobility, he still couldn't stand on one foot or aim his rifle with a steady hand. Apparently the undead guards didn't confiscate anything from him. Not the suit or the rifle.
"Wow...those zombies aren't the smartest corpses in the cemetery, are they?"
When Alex said these words, that same chirping came from behind him. The headcrab leapt off of his back and onto the table next to him.
"Hey! You made it, too. Good to know you're safe."
The headcrab chirped happily. It turned around, as if surveying the rest of the dungeon. It squeaked. It was looking at the unconscious female in the cage next to Alex's.
"Hmm, I don't think we can do anything to help her, man. Not until she regains consciousness anyway. We need to find Ein."
At the word "Ein" the headcrab made a squeak. Did it know where Ein was being held in this dark place? Alex looked over at the sides of the cage. The bars were wide enough for the headcrab to pop through and take a look around. Judging by the slight warping of the bars, it seems that it had made several trips out.
"Hmm, say, can you lead me to Ein? Maybe he can help us out of here."
The headcrab chirped in an affirmative tone.
"Great! That's a good little...errr...you know what? I haven't even given you a name yet."
The headcrab squawked questioningly.
"Well, I should give you a name. It would make it easier to address you for whatever reason...hmm. Your name should reflect your personality. Ever since I first met you, you've been really concerned about my well-being. It should also be catchy and easy to say. How about....um...oh! I got it. How about Otis?
The headcrab squealed approvingly. Somehow now it was revved up. It leapt at the lock of the door and clamped one of its fangs into it. The neurotoxin coated the padlock and melted it away. The door swung open.
"Wow! Remind me to stay on your good side. Come on, Otis. Let's go find Ein."
Alex took a step forward, only to nearly fall. He grabbed onto the bars of the cage to catch himself.
"Whoa. Looks like I need to be careful. Otis, up!"
Otis skittered up Alex's back and draped two legs over Alex's shoulders, and clamped the other two around Alex's torso.
"Now, Otis, I'll need you to be my balance, okay? If I stagger to one side, simply chirp and I'll try to regain equilibrium. Got it?"
Otis chirped, as if he completely understood what Alex said. Alex carefully took a step out of the cage with his arms partially outstretched to help keep his balance. He heard something far off at the other side of the dungeon.
"Uuuuuurrrrggggggghhhhhhh.....," moaned the voice. It sounded like Ein. He most likely came to just now.
"I'd know that moan anywhere," Alex said. "All right, Otis. Let's go save Ein." Alex shambled out of the cage and down the corridor, Otis in tow.
-
//What ever, Im leaveing but first wheres my paycheck? whoops wrong story. What if the thing exploded because of manufature problems?\\
"You girl!" Nick said intensly. "Leave or I shall have to kill you." He took out on blade. It would be enough to take down this woman. "Answer now!"
-
Marshall didn't like the looks of this. He had a good mind to run right at Kronos and sucker punch him right in the face. Before he could do anything he felt a pain smashing down in his head. His eyes closed and he fell to the ground as he passed out from the shocking sudden pain...
He woke up, his sight flickered back like an old buzzing light bulb. He thought we was back home in bed, but then he remembered everything that happened. It seemed like not even a second after he thought of punching Kronos, but then he realized where he was.
"Not again..." Marshall groaned. He got back up, he still had his amulet on, and those that stupid Kandarin clothing. (I forgot that he didn't have his armour on last post, sorry Sad )
It was good he still had his amulet. Shouldn't be too hard to escape then. He held the sapphire with one, and pointed his hand to the ground as he backed to the wall. He began to summon up a monster...
"Okay, let's get the moon creature. I'm ready to rip some zombie a-" Marshall noticed that nothing was happening. He focused his magic energy through the sapphire and to his other hand, but nothing was happening.
"What the heck is going on here?!" Marshall asked himself, in confusion. He then sniffed the air. He recognized that smell. Back when he was training for Blue Minotaur Peace Keepers, he was trained to identify certain gasses, he was told of the infamous anti-magi gas. It totally disabled almost any type of magic, elemental, and sadly some of the non-elemental ones such as summoning. From what he could smell, it was defiantly anti-magi gas. He bet the entire prison was contaminated with it. Guess those zombies aren't too dumb after all.
Marshall sighed. "You've got to be kidding me..."
-
"With but a few thoughts, I got everything ready. There will be an execution today, and I will try to make it most... enjoyable...
I have often stood for smaller offences - murders, theft, assault... but this was like a kick in the stomach. I suppose I should've expected it. The curse placed by Skorn is wearing off, and I am no master in curses... although I should hold my tongue about this, for my next little... toy... is arriving soon.
Just as I thought that, as if by my command, I heard footsteps behind me.
Without turning around, I said:
-"Well... look who's just in time."
I faced my new guest. A bland white mask was hiding his face... The clothes were quite free-looking, showing no outline at all. This one was skilled, at the very least. If this was nothing but a run-of-the-mill merc assassin, I would have known about his arrival much earlier.
-"...as we outlined in our agreement, I will help you get rid of the... curse, was it? In return, I have a task for you."
My guest was silent, replying with but a nod. As skilled as he was, no one could see through my lies. I had little to none experience with curses, which is something I should look into someitme soon.
-"After a certain event takes place, a man named Duke Ein will escape from Kandarin. Let him go; but follow him. When he reaches the main continent, strike when he least expects it. If you get the higher hand in battle, do not kill him... the first three times."
I came closer, and looked directly at the white mask. Chances are he couldn't see me under that thing, but the effect was nice, anyway.
-"On your fourth strike, you will fight like you have never fought before. Get him away from any public attention, and slaughter him in the most gruesome way you can imagine. Exactly how that will be performed is up to you."
A cold, soft reply followed.
-"...and the body?"
The body, yes.
-"I want you to take it and throw it wherever his groupies are at this moment. Chances are that after this, Marshall and the other one will stick together... after you have done this, return to me."
Another silent nod.
-"Now, go. The event will begin soon, and I must attend. I am sure you know what the event in question is."
Without a reply, he turned around and calmly headed for the staircase leading downwards, from the tower I was in. I just remembered something.
-"Oh, and Afelan?"
When he heard the name, he stopped, without turning around.
-"When you are fighting Ein... do make sure and mention the names "Kronos" and "Amaya" in your taunts somewhere, will you?"
A whisperlike reply followed.
-"...understood..."
and with those words, he was gone.
Everything was ready for the execution now, except myself. I hastily made way to the capital's city square."
--- --- ---
As Ein was groaning in his cell, three undead guards came in there and dragged him out. Same happened to Marshall... only Alex remained at large.
--- --- ---
Horus readied his maul and waited for a command from Draven. Perhaps he should not intervene... not yet, at least... and he needed to remind Draven that he had to go to his birthplace lab to replace some of his parts.
-
"Yeah... We should just let Draven and Jayce fight it out now that I think about it," said Zion.
Xenai sat down and kicked back. Might be a while.
--- --- ---
//Burton, it's not your machine. You can't control what happens to others' machines.
The whip connected. It stung. It made a small cut on the back of the black shirt. She winced, and turned around. She heard the guy call out, and looked. She recognized him! "You're the guy that attacked us before!"
She scowled... getting angry... Now would be a perfect time to have the Zerobi... To sit back and let it thrash them. Hey... Maybe... No. She doesn't need it.
She went to sheathe her scimitars and missed. Oh yeah, her scabbards were with her normal outfit. Which is... er, was... in the inn. Whatever. She stuck her scimitars into the ground.
She held out her hand and started to gather energy to it, striking it in various places. The energy started to swirl, faster and faster. Once it was complete, she concentrated on retaining it. She looked up at the two men. "Hmph. If you're so confident, come and get me!"
-
//"Mine" "His" its an "npc"\\
Nick looked up at arua. "Hm...I thought you'd leave." He charged towards he in a fast but slow way. The sun was a beutiful orange and the sky was nested behind clouds. He was right near her when he said. "Your kinda cute in this light."
-
//Burton the entire army is a group which is like ONE powerful NPC and he is controlling it in a character like fashion, therefore it's best not to control it.\\
"Well in the meantime. We should try and plan on what to do next." Rink suggested.
"Well plan for what? I don't think we can plan anything until we find out who wins the fight going on." Duilin said.
"Yeah, but can't we plan for several outcomes? Also, our plans don't need to revolve around Draven. Yet I admit it might be best, seeing as how he's got control of that thing."
"He's likely going to use it on us. With the Greys gone and the Aspyes have been pretty quiet."
----
Marshall's door was swung open, by three undeads.
"Well...it's about time." Marshall said, trying not to sound scared. "Do your worst."
They picked him up and started carrying him somewhere.
"Where are you taking me!?" Marshall demanded. Yet he was unanswered. "I hate zombies..."
-
Alex peeked around the next corner. All was clear. He inched up against the wall towards the cages of Ein and Marshall. To his shock, they were empty.
"Bad news, Otis...," said Alex. "It looks like the guards have already taken Ein and Marshall..."
Alex noticed something. There were fresh footprints on the dusty floor. Jackpot. As Alex followed them, he came to a large set of double doors which had just slammed shut.
"Ugh. Hold up, maybe I can open them." Alex gripped the door handles, and pulled as hard as he could. As he did, the grooves in his suit flared up to a bright blue that illuminated the nearby surrounding feet. Despite his best efforts, the doors didn't budge.
"Gah... It's no good, Otis. We'll have to find another way around."
Otis chirped excitedly and leapt off of Alex's back. He skittered over to a grate on the wall.
"What is this? An air vent?" Alex pulled on the grate until it came off. "Well, it looks large enough to crawl through...all right Otis, after you."
Otis squeaked and crawled through the opening and into the network of airducts. Alex soon followed. The only source of illumination were the glowing grooves on Alex's suit. After some clambering around and hitting dead ends several times, the four-legged alien finally came upon an exit. With a ram of his body, Otis forced the grate off the duct and made an exit. He calmly walked out and sat down. Alex soon followed.
"What is this place, Otis?"
It seemed to be the town square. Strange preparations were being made for some kind of event. Whatever it was, it didn't look good. Alex looked back. He was on the other side of those huge double doors.
"Look over there, Otis, it's Ein and Marshall. If only we could bail them out, but we would draw too much attention...we should lay low for a bit."
Otis chirped quietly before finally going silent. He crawled back up on Alex's back as Alex snuck through the shadows to a dark alley. There, he climbed up a ladder which gave him and Otis a good vantage point to survey what was going on.
"Now we wait."
-
//omg people lay off burton! Once is enough! And besides, it is totally plausible that Qim engineers aren't perfect. Smile\\
Arlin looked over at the burning, crumbling city, then at Aura.
-"Come and get you? You know... I don't think I will. You, however..."
He turned to Nick.
-"You should still try and stop her. Kronos spoke to me of a reward without an equal... for one who brings down the entities inhabiting this city. I already have everything I need, whilst you are not even a citizen of the Kandarinian Sovereignty yet. Perhaps this is your chance to prove yourself."
The city was basically levelled. The mission was a success, save for the intervention of that woman... which really had no impact on the mission overall. As the town is ruined, Arlin felt no more need to stick around. Perhaps later Kronos will send someone over here to occupy what's left of the settlement... meanwhile, Arlin has to report on the success of the composite division strategy.
He rose further into the air, and took out a minotaur's horn. This kind of horn was used by the officers to communicate with the mass of the army. Arlin blew three short notes and two long ones, and the scorpions ceased firing.
The entire division moved into one large group. Every single Adept combined his mental powers with the other adepts, creating one big, incredibly powerful shield. The army began crawling off, away.
---
Meanwhile, the three divisions have reached the North Point fortress. The commanders were shouting at the walls, asking for some kind of a meeting, offering an alliance.
--- --- ---
Horus froze. His aural censors read a few more entities in the area, but they were the least of his worries right now. Something was trying to communicate with him... sending short ultra-high frequency arcane pings, at regular intervals. He peered into the distance, seeing a small dot.
As soon as he noticed it, the pings stopped. Instead, he heard a... a voice? in his own head.
-"Horus... you are damaged. Leave at once."
The dot vanished just as mysteriously as it appeared. He was no longer getting any signals on that particular frequency... how could they even know about it? Are there more beings like him? This was of utmost importance.
Even though this discovery was something Horus had to look into sooner or later, he could not risk losing a potential ally. He dove right into the fight between the Crimson Emperor and the Draken, trying to bearhug the latter. Considering he is 20 feet high, and he can easily swing a 500-pound maul, such an attack would deal considerable damage to anyone, let alone someone so... so very small... Jayce was a tiny thing compared to him...
--- --- ---
"I got to the town square just in time. A large crowd was amassed in front of the wooden construction in the middle, where Ein and Marshall sat, tied to their chairs. There was also a large circular hole in the middle, with faint chirping coming out of it. Above the hole was a crane-like structure.
I rose up onto the platform, and spoke.
-"Today, citizens, you witness what happens when you betray your Lord. GUARDS! Bring out the convict!"
Two guards entered the town square from the side of the dungeons. They were dragging an already half-dead Amaya, with visible bruises and scars all over her body. All of her clothing consisted of two ripped-up rags, one around her chest, and one around her hips.
Ein, it seems, was more than touched by this little procession.
-"AMAYA!!!" He unsuccessfully tried to get up. Now his attention was turned to me. "What did you do to her, you sick fiend?! Let her go! She had no part in this!!!"
I ghosted to right in front of Ein. The crowd awarded me with a uniform sigh of awe.
-"You know, Asype, I debated with myself at first, as to whether or not let you see this. Now, it seems, the answer is obvious. Of course, this may not be as fun with you here making a nuisanse of yourself, but it certainly will be more... pleasant..."
The guards tied Amaya to the aforementioned crane, just over the pit with chirping in it. I turned around, back to the crowd.
-"When the traitor is lowered into the pit, she will be assaulted by the most horrible creatures I could have resurrected from the dead. Also, to the half-anonymous contributor Jenia, if you are in the crowd, please know: I could not use your acid pool idea due to the absence of any source of the prementioned acid. Anyways - let this be an example, and let the fate of all traitors be known NOW!"
The guard began to spin one of the handles on the crane. Amaya was slowly lowered down into the pit. To pass the time, I walked around Ein and lowered my head to his ear.
-"Undead rabid flesh-eating rodents. Heheh."
Soon, Amaya was down in the pit to her neck. At the very moment that her head was no longer in my field of vision...
-"EEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/i][/u]"
The scream was so loud and high that it even pierced me, caught me by surprise. The crowd stumbled back a little, making considerable space between them and the platform. Nasty churning sounds were coming out of the hole now... I was given the impression of a chunk of meat being dropped into a pool teeming with piranhas. Occasional chunks of skin and blood were flying out of the pit.
Soon, everything was silent. The guard-executioner spun the spinny thingy again, rising the rope with a bloody skeleton with loose half-eaten chunks of meat.
-"Now, I decided to spare these two." I pointed at the Aspyes sitting on the corner of the stand. "They will be thrown back to their home land, soon a part of the Kandarinian Sovereignty!"
The crowd wildly cheered. Two undead wyverns flew in from the west, and picked up both Marshall and Ein. They should be dropping them off at the coasts of the soon-to-be-mine Crimson Continent."
---
Steorra slowly opened her eyes. She was in a wide, beautifully decorated room, lying on a posh bed. The air smelled of an unknown fragrance, and the entire floor was covered in rose petals. She was wearing new clothes, and her staff was right next to the bed that she awoke on.
-"Wha... where am I?"
-
Alex winced at the horrid death of Amaya. Ein must have been devastated.
"Good...God...," groaned Alex. "We have little time. Come on Otis. We've got to get out of the city as fast as we can and find Ein and Marshall."
Otis chirped and leapt off of Alex's back and got ready to leap some roofs. Alex had regained almost all of his mobility again, and was ready for some roof-hopping.
Alex pressed a switch on the suit's access panel on the left wrist. "Long Jump Module activated," rang out the suit's voice. A jet kicked Alex up into the air and across the deep alleys below. Despite the suit's heavy weight, it made little noise upon the bulky metal boots hitting the stone roofs. Alex drew his rifle and got ready for any encounter that threatened him. He called to Otis.
"Otis! If anyone gets in your way, attack at sight!"
Otis screeched and kept leaping. He finally came to a rest at the edge of a broken roof, and skittered his legs to keep from falling. Alex stopped short and nearly fell over.
"Otis...why did you..oh."
About fifty feet below was a harbor with ships docked as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately, undead guards wandered the piers and docks below. Getting through here wasn't going to be easy.
"Did they see us back there?" asked Alex. Otis simply chirped. "Well Otis? Ready for a little bit of fighting?"
Otis had his work cut out for him. His primary method of attack was the powerful neurotoxin secreted from his hypodermic fangs. Seeing as the guards were undead, poison wouldn't do much good. For an alien creature, Otis was pretty creative. He would think of another way to help Alex fight.
Alex finally had the coordination back to aim his rifle from the rooftops.
"All right, Otis. Here's the plan. You leap down there and get their attention, I'll cover you from up here. Got it?"
Otis squealed and leapt off the roof. He landed with silent precision. Unfortunately, he had to give himself away by emitting a piercing, screeching cry that echoed throughout the harbor. It wasn't long before hordes of zombies were shambling towards the alien. Alex viewed down the rifle's primitive sights, a series of grooves along the top of the gun. When he had a zombie in sight, he delivered a stream of destructive cerulean energy into the target's rotting head. The resulting blast caused the zombie to collapse into dust and bones.
Alex couldn't fire off shots rapidly. The energy for a shot was pent up over a time of several seconds, and then released it. This made the rifle's rate of fire suffer, but at least the shots were powerful.
The zombies began to advance on Otis.
"Hang in there, man! I've got an idea." Alex sighted a large metal container dangling on a chain about twenty feet above a group of zombies. Alex aimed at the chain and fired. The chain disintegrated and the two-ton container fell to the earth, crushing about ten or so zombies. Just a few more....
Alex pulled the trigger again. Nothing happened. Alex checked the vents on the sides of the rifle. The air near them was shimmering. The rifle had overheated.
"Damn, it's going to take a while to cool down. Hold on, Otis!"
Alex jumped down in front of the zombies and whacked one with the butt of his rifle, sending the hulking mass of decomposing flesh into the water. A zombie managed to get a shot in on Alex, making a long but shallow gash across the suit's torso with his sword. Alex picked up an empty barrel and rammed the zombie with it, knocking it down. Suddenly, Alex got clubbed in the chest with an oil barrel. The barrel cracked open and began to leak. In the shock of the attack, Alex was knocked down and dropped his hot rifle. The vent happened to land on top of the oil, which was enough to light the stream. The flame made its way back to the barrel and exploded.
Alex was thrown back into a pile of wooden crates and the remaining zombies were annihilated. When all was over, Otis crawled over and knocked some crates off of Alex. Otis squeaked to let Alex know that he was okay.
"Whew...what a fight, eh, Otis?" Alex got up and picked up the rifle. Luckily it wasn't damaged from the blast. His suit on the other hand, had taken some scuffs. There was a gash across the torso, and the visor of his helmet was cracked slightly from the concussive blast. There were also several dents from blunt attacks from the zombies. At least he and Otis were alive.
"Otis, up!" The headcrab scampered into Alex's arm and sat at his shoulder. Letting the rifle cool down, the two fighters made their way across the harbor and towards the gate to the coast.
-
Kerig was confused.
"Not to get invovled...?"
Kerig slightly moved to the right, dodging a spark that flew by.
"Well, I guess it can't be helped..." he thought, and was about to sit down.
"Oh no you don't..." Weloss stopped him "Now you stand right there and wait for the right moment to strike. Understand?"
"Sheesh..." Kerig muttered under his breath, but followed the advice given to him.
-------------------------------------------
Afelan was relieved to finally be out of the city.
The citizens were all gathered at the square and the undead guards posed no challenge, so leaving unnoticed was quite easy.
"What an unpleasant persona, that Kronos..."
Slowly walking, Afelan stared at the sky, holding a blindfold in the right hand...
It was bright, cloudless and clear. There was no hint to the bloodshed of today.
"...Well, as long as I get my work's worth, I'm satisfied..."
Afelan increased the pace. Blasting noises were heard in the distance, but no heed was paid to them.
"...I wish this would have been possible to do faster..."
Soon enough two undead wyverns were heard flying through the sky.
As soon as they entered vision's range, Afelan noticed that each was carrying a small figure....They were too high up to figure out, but Afelan knew that the target is one or the other.
"About time." Afelan hastly reached the shoreline and climbed into the blue boat which was prepared earlier.
-
"Arg...That sick twisted freak..." Marshall growled. "How could the gods even allow something like that to happen? How can that person continue living with himself? Does he feel no remorse?"
He sighed, and looked at the ground below him, and then above at the undead wyvern, it was disgusting, but not nearly as horrid as what he saw. He looked at Ein, being carried by another wyvern next to him.
"Ein, you look deathly grief-stricken. Yet you barely even knew the girl, you were together for all of a few hours...Yet again, does that matter with true love?"
"Nevertheless Kronos and his Sovereignty is not only pure evil, but it's also against everything the Aspyes stand for. This Sovereignty must be wiped out; those people deserve to be shown a better life. They have been totally brainwashed, it's going to be hell to convince them the better ways of the Aspyes..."
Marshall sighed sadly. "I'm terribly sorry Ein. I hope you'll be okay."
-
Argh! I was totally useless! She scowled even more as Nick approached and the army left. She gave her response. "Thanks, but my boyfriend thinks I'm cute in every light." She brought the swirling sphere of energy back, and thrusted it out fiercely toward Nick's chest. "And for the record, I AM. Spiral Sphere!" It wouldn't break the skin, but it would hopefully cause massive internal damage, and it would definitely create great external damage. She would retain the energy and it would swirl against his chest fiercely until she could retain the energy no longer.
--- --- ---
"If Jayce kills Draven," said Zion, "He might just get rid of the machine too. But if Draven kills Jayce, we very well might have a very angry Retan on our hands. However, that would be one less Dark Emperor to worry about. A plan... Let me think here."
-
Nick grabbed her wrist. "I'm sorry to kill a beuitiful woman." He pushed her wrist away. "I'll give you three options. one; join the kandrains, two; leave here so I don't have to shed blood, or three; Be destroied. So which will it be?"
-
Zeros' sighed and held up one finger.
"For one... Jayce is more powerful then Draven. I know that almost for certain. Draven is a human, even if he is abit on the extremely powerful scale, but... Jayce and Retan are Draken's, if I remember correctly..." he murmured, a painful memory of Qeni being slashed in half by Jayce entered his mind. He held up another finger.
"Two, if Jayce does kill Draven and the machine, well... Then we'd have to deal with both Jayce and Retan alone... or as along as they'd be. I have no doubt that they've probaby gathered forces of some sort to protect them... Weither it might be other Drakens, undeads... whatever," he sighed again.
He held up a third finger.
"Third... If Draven does manage to kill Jayce, well, he wouldn't turn on us immediately. No matter how powerful Draven is, he can't beat all of us," he said, jesturing to his companions. "Also... That war machine of Draven's is damaged. I don't know to what extent... But it's damage enough that it can't use the cannon on us," he murmured and leaned back. He held up a fourth finger.
"And last... Draven wouldn't take on us until Retan was dead anyways. Retan poses a more immediate threat to him rebuilding the Crimson Empire then we do, due to the treaty we have. As for building our plans around Draven, it's always good to have strong allies, eh?
"Anyways, Anyone want to add anything else?"
-
Missed! She still retained the energy. "Your overconfidence disgusts me." She then let it loose, and it swirled into the air. She pulled her scimitars out of the ground and stepped back a bit. "If you're going to be like that, so will I. I'll defeat you using only these swords." She twirled them around, and awaited Nick's move. "Though something seems strange. Why are you so bent on me leaving?" Tsu had already left safely... Well, safe enough. There really wasn't any point for her to stay. But this just seemed weird to her.
--- --- ---
"Yeh, that sounds good," said Xenai as he nodded.
"Then I guess there's nothing to do then just wait it out."
-
Without warning, Draven suddenly ducked out of the way, jumping backwards. Jayce was caught in the totally unexpected grasp of the gargantuan machine.
"What the blood is this--?!"
Draven took the opportunity to shoot up and over the two. He was panting heavily from the fierce swordfight. His aura of flame flaring, his sword disappeared as he placed both hands above his head. A small point of crimson light developed just above them, and began to grow in size...
Jayce clenched his teeth and growled at the machine that was binding him, his features less human than before...
"Those who interfere will pay with a hundred deaths..."
A blackness emanated from the dark armored Draken... a blackness so deep that the very light around the two seemed to bend and distort, as if it were being absorbed into the void created by the man... The blackness began to engulf the machine, its life sucking aura threatening to emulsify Horus' metal body...
----
There was little sign of life at North Point. The only sound was the endless washing of waves... It was a dreary, stormy place.
The fortress was surrounded on three sides by inscaleable cliffs, with huge two hundred foot drop offs that plummeted straight into the angry ocean below. It stood at the end of a long, narrow peninsula with similar drop offs on the right and left. Any approaching army would have to traverse this narrow strip of land if they wanted to approach by ground...
The southern (and only) gate slowly opened, a lone black caped man appeared standing on the overhang above it. His face was pale, as if he had recently seen a ghost and was trying to recover...
"Our Lord has decided to grant an audience with your commanders..." he shouted back at the army...
Black clouds seemed to have formed in the area, and spread southward...
-
Both of the wyverns landed. Ein was dropped down onto the cold ground, where he stayed. He just sat and looked directly in front of him, saying nothing. His face was completely expressionless.
Soon, however, he heard a voice. In his own head. Figures.
-"<span style='color:red'>So the wretch died, big deal. Move on!</span>"
-"Just. Shut. Up."
The voice seemed to get the point, and made no further attempt to make itself known.
--- --- ---
Commander Hasterb of Division Piat, commander Soghol of Division Sheist and commander Vorren of division Vosem left their underlings, and made way to the fortress. They were accompanied by 12 shock troops, each armed with a very brutal-looking arbalest (a large, more powerful version of a crossbow, able to easily punch through knight's armour). Before stepping foot onto the stone walkway, Hasterb stopped.
-"I do not like this place. I do not like this place at all. If it were not for the Lord's wishes, I would tear this place down without a second thought."
Soghol looked at his fellow commander, and with but a hint of annoyance, said:
-"GAWD, so it looks scary! Why do you ALWAYS have to be so PARANOID? I GUESS that paranoia makes a GOOD commander, but it ALSO makes him VERY ANNOYING..."
Vorren threw angry looks at the other commanders.
-"Both of you, shut up. I have more experience in this kind of thing, and trust me: this is one of those times when you judge a book by its cover. Be very cautious in there, and don't let your guard down. Those clouds also seem a bit sinister..."
-"GAWD, you TOO? Why does EVERYONE disagree with me today? I guess it's just one of THOSE days!"
Vorren angrily whipped around, his nose almost touching Soghol's.
-"If you want to keep your career, you will silence yourself this very moment, at this very point in time. When we get inside, you both will speak when I will allow you to speak. Don't you even dare to think unrelated thoughts in there, or you're going to be scraping your remains off the capital square's execution pedestal, you got that? Good."
Without any more discussion on the matter, the commanders walked across the bridge to the caped man, and shook hands with him.
-"Now, take us to your Lord, if you will."
Both Hasterb and Soghol spoke not a word; they genuinely trusted Vorren. Or they were just afraid of him. Either way, his little talk worked on both of the younger commanders.
--- --- ---
Alarmed, Horus jumped back, off the Draken. Seems this situation called for a more... drastic approach.
He flipped backwards, landing just in front of his maul. As he picked it up, though, the maul's head started to change shape... some of the individual plates making up the maul folded, while others deployed.
Soon enough, Horus' maul no longer looked like a maul. Instead, it was a long pike, with a rather deadly looking head. Spikes, hooks, splinters - you name it - all appeared at the end of the pike.
However, the time to use the actual pike did not come yet. First, he had to get Jayce to a position where he would be vulnerable to the said pike.
Horus flipped his weapon around so that the long handle was now pointing to Jayce. With a spin, he aimed the handle at Jayce's legs, attempting to trip him...
--- --- ---
Steorra was sitting on her bed, still trying to get her mind in order. The last thing that she remembered... the ship... dead Vincent... then, her mind was blank. What happened? Why was she here? Where exactly was here?
Her new clothes were substantially better than her last. It was all in the same style - black flares for pants, and a black shirt for top - but it was made differently.
Instead of the plain black fabric, the clothes were now made of a very strange material - it felt like metallic fibres. Inside, however, it was as soft as any silk, and the best part was that it covered her almost entirely. Other than the fact that it was a little hard to breathe in, this new clothing was amazing.
Still somewhat confused, Steorra walked over to a window. She was overlooking a very misty island, with a lot of... buildings? on the ground.
The door behind her creaked. She whipped around, instinctively scanning the room for her staff, which was right next to the bed. After a short thought, though, she decided to not even bother getting it. Whoever prepared a room like this for her probably wasn't going to brutally kill her now.
The door opened completely. A very strange man dressed in equally strange robes entered the room. He had a black headband with five dark red feathers on it, and his robe was coloured equally - dark red and black, with a few streaks of beige. There was a loose torn up semi-ring of black fabric around his shoulders, just floating around him without any support. Steorra saw this person the first time in her life, but something seemed eerily familiar about him...
-"I see you are awake." The stranger's voice further puzzled Steorra. She almost definately heard this kind of strange pronounciation before: the 's' was longer than normal, and pronounced in a creepy whisper...
-"Who are you? What happened? What am I doing here? Wha--?"
The stranger put his hand on Steorra's shoulder.
-"I know you have a lot of questions. Not even I know what happened... something to blow you into a million pieces happened, but other than that, I do not know how you ended up dead."
Steorra was taken somewhat aback by the last sentence, especially the last word. She took a few stumbling steps back, before falling down on her bed.
-"D-dead?"
-"Yes, but I won't go into details now, we can discuss that later-"
-"Who are you, anyway?"
The man looked down at Steorra. When she saw his eyes - those cold, unfeeling eyes - she remembered everything. Everything.
-"K-k-k-.."
-"My name is Kronos."
Steorra completely collapsed on the bed, unconcious. Kronos sighed, picked her up, and carried her out of the room.
-
Kerig just stood there, watching the growing blackness.
"That doesn't look good..." he muttered "Maybe we should..."
Weloss silenced him. Obviously he had an idea of sorts.
Weloss begun talking into Draven's mind, just as he did before.
"Look, I don't care what's your problem with this freak..." he told him "But obviously he has a lot of stamina, therefore physically damaging attacks would be ineffective. If you want the fight to end now, hold him in place somehow..."
Weloss stopped for but a moment, but continued shortly after.
"Kerig's strike will couse him to faint no matter how strong his defenses are, as long as it doesn't miss."
--------------------------
Afelan's blue boat quickly reached the main continent. The boat's color and the magic glyphs made sure it remains fast and hidden from praying eyes, making it an ideal sea transport.
After getting off the boat, hiding it and marking it's location, it was nessecery to locate the target. The task was not hard, since the undead wyverns were easy to follow. The dropping spot was spotted, and from there it was a matter of footsteps on the ground.
Afelan hopped on a tree, pushing a small squirrel aside and continued to hop from tree to tree, searching for the prey.
-
Marshall was dropped on the ground and landed next to Ein. He heard him speak, seeing as nobody else was around he assumed he was talking to him, and replying to what he said.
"Listen Ein, getting angry at me isn't going to make anything better." Marshall said, sincerely. He got up, and tore the Kandarin clothing off, leaving his blue muscle shirt and black pants.
"I know you're upset about Amaya's death and I'm not asking you to get over it, but we've got to get to closest Aspye camp and inform our comrades of these people. So why don't you get up..." He looked oddly at Ein's face. "...And maybe try to blink a little..."
----
"Well, as much as I'd like to start fighting Draven again..." Duilin mumbled, but then spoke up. "I guess now would not be the time for it."
"Yeah and with Retan and Jayce back, they're probably more of a threat then Draven and the Aspyes are." Rink added.
"Oh, and Aegidius." Duilin said. "The current Retan is the long descendent of Alpha Retan, I'm not sure of the first name of this one...Sigma Retan I think. Back in the Empire, us grunts barely even spoke his name."
"I see...well then." Aegidius said. "So, assuming Draven survives this fight, we will have him as an alley? From what I've heard of him, I don't really like this Draven person."
"Join the club." Rink and Duilin both said. (And anyone else, if they want. Heh.)
-
//Ein: I wonder what room shes going to go in now...\\
Nick looked at Aura's blues eyes. "Sad.." A dark colored energy appeared in his hand. He clenched his fist and the energy covered is fist and made its way down his arm. This was not magic energy but pure energy from Nick. It was harder to control but much stronger. He punched towards her.
-
She smirked, tilting out of the way. She twirled around him, getting behind him, and then slashed downwards toward him with the scimitar in her right hand.
-
After the bout with the zombies, Alex and his alien companion had finally made it to the coast. The beaches were oddly pristine.
"Wow, it's as if these beaches have had no human intervention. Interesting..."
His thoughts were cut short by the fact that the grooves on the suit were blinking. Suddenly Alex was concerned. Dr. Kleiner had told Alex that when the grooves blink, the suit had used up the metals needed for fusion. Definitely not a good thing.
The voice warned, "Emergency. Suit power supply depleted. Locate an energy source immedia..." The voice wound down until it finally stopped. The HUD on the suit's visor blinked off, leaving only an unaltered view of the environment. The grooves stopped glowing blue, and faded out to the inactive grey color.
Otis chirped in question, obviously wondering what had happened to the glowing blue mass of metal he was clinging to.
"Well, buddy, it looks like the suit's power finally died. I guess we used more energy than we thought, the suit was supposed to be well-fueled for at least a week. Maybe a bug in the system..."
While Alex had no HUD and could not keep tabs of his lifelines, the suit would still be able to sustain a good amount of physical damage before finally falling apart. Undaunted by the sudden suit failure, Alex and Otis kept going.
"I saw a pair of wyverns fly in this direction...they've gotta be here somewhere. Otis, what do you see?"
It was a mystery as to how Otis could see anything. He had no eyes. Maybe he sensed heat given off by the environment, or perhaps he echolocated like a bat. He chirped a lot. As a matter of fact, Otis lacked most of the sensory organs most terrestrial animals had. The headcrab had no eyes, nose, or ears. The only main feature was his gaping maw on the bottom of his body, and the razor-sharp fangs that surrounded it, as well as the beak headcrabs normally use to couple with a victim to zombify. However, Otis had small hairs on his body and legs. Maybe those sensed vibrations? Only Otis knew for sure, and he didn't speak English. However, he seemed perfectly capable of understanding Alex's instructions back at the harbor. Regardless, he made a good traveling companion.
The sand must have been deeper here. Alex's foot sunk calf-deep when he took a step. The weight of the suit was taking its toll. The suit weighed at least two hundred pounds, but Alex had perfect balance when the suit was active, for reasons unknown. Now, he struggled to get through the deep sand while bearing the weight of the suit. It was also quite hot in there. Alex had managed to drag his frame up onto a large flat rock. It was here that he finally got out of the suit, and switched it out for his trademark jacket. As he sat down to take a break, the suit lay down on the rock like a lifeless metal man.
"Oh well," Alex sighed. "It was good while it lasted. At least I still have the rifle. Of course, that's going to run out of power eventually, as well."
If Kleiner was still alive, and hopefully he was, it was a good chance that he would let Alex keep the suit and gun just as a reward for saving the city. Alex's thoughts perked.
"Y'know Otis...I have a friend in a far-off city, and he has a headcrab for a friend, too."
Otis chirped questioningly. He raised one of his legs and pointed it at himself. This supposedly meant Otis was asking if the headcrab in question was like him.
"Well...," Alex pondered, "not exactly like you, per se. She's more of the normal headcrab."
Otis was clearly confused. He chirped again.
Alex slid off the rock and picked up a stick. He etched the shape of Lamarr in the sand.
"She kind of looks like that. Kleiner calls her Hedy Lamarr. Never heard that name before."
Otis studied the drawing with whatever bodily structure he used to see. He squeaked and swayed his body back and forth. This was something new, what did that body language mean?
"Hmm. There's much about you I've yet to learn, Otis. We better keep going."
Hold on. What would Alex do with the suit? He couldn't keep it out in the open. He looked back at the knee-deep sand. He suddenly had an idea. Alex climbed back up on the rock and dragged the suit down and let it fall to the ground. He covered the suit up with sand.
"That should do it," said Alex. "If all goes well, we should be able to come back here and claim it when we're ready to go home."
Alex picked up the rifle off the rock and stick a piece of driftwood into the sand that the suit was buried under so he could find it again. He took care to position it like the other pieces of salvage wood on the beach so as to not draw attention to it. Alex collected his belongings and called Otis back up to his shoulder. With his goal in mind, to find Ein and Marshall, Alex continued down the beach with jacket, gun, and headcrab.
-
"Listen, specter," Draven shot back telepathically. "I happen to be an expert in slaying colossal dragons, which is exactly what we're going to be dealing with in a few minutes once he gets bored. Your petty tricks will have no effect on a Draken of the highest rank. But if you wish to buy me time, then my all means go ahead, as I will require it to prepare. I've dealt with this sort before..."
The crimson light flashing above his head swelled to a burning orb over five feet in diameter...
The black energy flowed around Jayce, and his eyes gleamed with a sadistic glint. He watched the massive shaft fly towards his legs, and at the last second flipped his scimitar skyward and then jammed it into the ground with one hand. The thick pole that was the gargantuan spear's handle slammed into the blade at full force, decimating the ground below with a long crack that rumbled the earth, though the blade did not move...
----
The black caped man bowed to the entourage of Kandarinians.
"Right this way."
The darkness inside the fortress was impenetrable, and the faint light of the entrance quickly disappeared as the huge metal doors shut behind them...
One by one, torches lit in slow succession, revealing a passageway, though one could not see more than twenty feet ahead...
The were lead into the darkness, the passage seemingly unending. They took no turns, and seemed to be walking at a slight decline... Despite their training, the shock troops began to whisper among themselves a few minutes into the fortress...
Finally a double door was revealed at the end, though the man who was leading them was no where to be found. He had walked slightly faster than the group, and disappeared into the darkness ahead a few minutes ago. The doors were brazened in ruby red stones, alternating with intricate black patterns. One could make out the shapes of two twisting dragons facing each other, one on each door. Slowly they creaked open, and the soldiers had no where to go but inside...
As the last man stepped foot in, the doors quickly snapped shut behind them, a chilling breeze filling the dank air... This room was at least slightly illuminated. The base of the far wall seemed to have a dark blue hue rising upward, which provided a meager light source...
"Greetings..."
The black chair in the center of the chamber slowly turned, revealing the slitted red eyes and heavy black armored figure of The Dark Emperor Retan.
"I have recently returned from... a minor outing... and have noted the antics of Kandarin with much amusement."
There was a loud <click>, as if the doors behind them locked.
"Since I am a generous ruler, and your nation has... certain qualifying talents... I propose an alliance. I shall allow your nation to inhabit 75% of my Dark Continent and maintain its island home. In return, you need merely continue your current show of force against the rest of the land. If you do not have the authority to accept this offer, I ask that you contact your ruler..."
-
Nick skided towards the right just missing the blade. "Hm...Cute and skillfull." Man shes hot but I can't let that get in the way of my mission. Nick said to himself. He turned around slowly keep his eye on the woman. The energy fled from his arm back to his hand and bursting out towards Aura. I can't do this.He said as the energy flew back into him. He knelt to the ground. "I can't kill such a beuitiful woman so ruthlessly." He bowed his head looking to the ground.
-
Aura was all ready to dodge. She waited for the right time, and... it didn't come. She smiled as she listened to Nick. "Well you get points in my book. While we're in this temporary truce, would you mind telling me why it's so important that I leave?"
-
The commanders, followed by their convoy, entered the dark chamber. The shock troops took positions around the three leaders in a semicircle, occasionally throwing quick looks at the Dark Emperor and at each other.
Soghol and Hasterb were wild-eyedly looking around the room, obviously uneasy at the dark, gothic style of the entire place. Vorren, however, kept his cool.
-"75%, you say... and on what basis do you claim the 25% that you assigned to yourself? Exactly who are you, anyway? This particular hardpoint is noted on the map as a part of the Crimson Empire."
He studied the man sitting in the throne.
-"You don't look a lot like someone belonging to the Crimsons. In fact, you don't look like anyone I would recognize at all."
The click in the doors, probably a locking mechanism, somewhat alarmed Vorren. The other two commanders took two steps back and drew their crossbows, pointing them at the Emperor with quaking hands.
Vorren threw a dark glance at Soghol and Hasterb, which was enough for them to put the weapons away. They were still, however, very tense-looking.
-"Your greeting manners are rather interesting. However..."
The older commander looked around at his fellow Kandarinians. He noted their looks, comparable to that of a cornered thief. The Lord has to be informed of the low amount of morale training in his armies...
-"Since you claim you know a fair bit about the Sovereignty, you should also know that death matters very little to his followers..."
--- --- ---
Horus looked at Jayce. Things didn't seem to be doing good... perhaps... it is time...
He threw his gigantic pike aside. At the same time, something started humming in him, and a large black pentagram just appeared on the ground, with him in the middle. The same kind of black matter was seeping through the fissures in between the armour plates. His hands also underwent a strange transformation. The palms were thinner but broader, while the fingers elongated into vicious claws.
Horus felt his energy capacitors being tested to the extreme. This kind of attack would take a lot out of him... it would be amazing if he could still function afterwards...
--- --- ---
Ein didn't reply to Marshall. He just got up and started walking away from the beach, into the depths of a dense forest, starting right after the yellow sand ended.
-
My master asks of me to despose of the 'annoance' that was getting in the way of his army. It's just that I can't do this to someone like you....The kandrians really aren't bad people." Nick looked up ad noticed a small spring in the ruins of the small town. "So how is your back?" Nick asked in concern.
-
Kerig did not like the sight.
"...Now?" he wondered if the time is right. Recieveing no immediate response from Weloss, he assumed the answer to be positive and jumped into the air as if shot from a cannon.
Fully concentrated on his swallow's aim, Kerig swung it as fast as he could unto Jayce.
-
Zeros' shrugs.
"Not many people - if any - really like Draven, but you have to admit... He does have a hellva lotta power and a kingdom with followers... Sometimes, you have to work with people you don't like or understand," he said reasonabily.
-
"Yeah, he can actually be a good alley." Rink added.
"Well, I guess I can respect that, but from what I've heard of this Draven and you say Retan is even more dangerous then him and that Haraldur fellow, he must be a terrible person." Aegidius said.
"Yeah, he is." Duilin replied. "I saw him once. He killed a very good friend of ours. He was kind of the one who brought us all together, kind of."
"I see..." Aegidius replied.
The three looked off back at the fight between to two tyrants.
"I see the machine is helping Draven." Aegidius said. "If Draven does become our ally, perhaps the machine may as well."
"Hmm..." Rink thought. "Hopefully."
----
Marshall sighed in annoyance. "Ein, where are you going!?" He yelled, following him into the woods.
-
"That machine's massively powerful. Rasengan Chidori's no attack to be scoffed at. And it's already back in this good of shape? Having it as an ally would be great!" Zion nodded as he analyzed that situation. Meanwhile, Xenai sat on the ground indian style and picked his nose like a moron.
--- --- ---
"Aww. Hee hee." She smiled. "My back's alright, thanks for asking. The Kandrians... I've not heard of them. Tell me about them."
-
"The leader Kronos he looks young but he is so ruthless. He said if I ever failed him he would not hesitate to kill me. Theres something wrong with the people there. They are all fine with this evil ruler. Not that I wish to go against Kronos its just that it makes me feel akward." He looked down and waited a few moments. " So who are you with?"
-
//>.< why does everyone insist on misspelling Kandarin? kan-dar-in, and kandarinians live in it. Man, Trent, I feel your pain when everyone spelled "xenai" as "xenia"...\\
"It took me quite a long while to get Steorra back into conciousness. Explaining my complex situation was even harder and longer, even more so Steorra's part in it.
-"Well... with Vincent dead, and you becoming the main world power... I don't see how I have much choice but to stick with you for now. However, even when it is with someone I barely know... I hate living off other people."
She looked at me.
-"Perhaps I could be of some help? Surely you need to manage your nation, and you have no time for small bothers like me..."
I sighed. It was best not to admit this just yet, but I would gladly throw my entire empire aside, just to be with her and her alone. But a force this powerful must not be left unsupervised... at least not now.
-"Well, I do, in fact, have a small task for you. I need you to go scout out a large populated center, labelled "Asargania". It is a short distance away from Bitterfrost Mountains, where lay the ruins of the Nightshade. I currently have three divisions surrounding it from all sides, but they are quite far away right now. I need you to see if there is anything worth capturing... and if there is, I want you to lead the assault."
My hand happened upon a secret fold in my robe, with a small metallic object in it. The object shook my memory.
-"Oh, and one last thing. Come here, if you will."
Steorra came closer to me. From the fold in my robe, I took out a rhombical talisman with the Kandarinian seal on it. However, the eagle was not red... The talisman also had four claw-like features at the corners of the rhombus.
-"Now..." I lifted the talisman by its small red chain, and put it around Steorra's neck. "Now you are no longer a wanderer. Now you are Kandarinian."
The talisman made a faint click, and the four sharp teeth dug dug deep into Steorra's flesh. The eagle part of the symbol filled with her blood...
-"Now, go. I await your return most eagerly."
With but a hint of a smile, Steorra opened the nearest window, and jumped...
I looked out the window. About half-way down, Steorra casted her wing spell on her... a pair of blinding wings of pure light cut through the mist covering my islands. She took off in the direction of the Continent."
--- --- ---
Ein said nothing, but continued walking.
-"Marshall, I need rest. As do you, I suppose. It has been a long day, and both me and you had their fill of necromancers. I suggest we set up camp somewhere in here."
He pointed to a nearby meadow, in the clearing inside the forest.
-"Why don't you gather some long poles while I get a fire ready?"
His voice was pointedly dry. He stared at Marshall with an empty expression.
-
"Uhh, sure, sure. Why not?" Marshall replied.
He walked deeper into the woods, looking for some long sticks of wood that have fallen off trees. One who would go into the woods would find no trouble obtaining long poles of wood.
Marshall was a bit concerned with Ein, he didn't like him acting in this way. He's bottling everything up, it's not healthy for him to do this.
-
The swallow slammed into the unsuspecting Jayce?s chest at full force, and he was thrown backwards several feet.
?What the--?!?
Though the Draken?s deep black aura absorbed most of the spell, just enough seeped through to delay him? just barely?
From above, Draven saw Jayce reel for a split second, and knew that this was the only chance he?d get?
?Blast it? the spell is incomplete??
The blazing, crackling orb above his head had swollen to 15 feet in diameter? far smaller that the one used to destroy Alpha Retan? but he had no choice? there was no way that fiend would let himself be hit with that swallow again?
He stretched his arms high above, grabbing the coursing energy surrounding the orb with both hands. He pulled the mass of flame down, and the huge orb plummeted like a spiked volleyball?
?CRIMSON DEATH ANNIHILATION ATTACK !! <span style='font-size:7pt;line-height:100%'>ATTACK !!</span> <span style='font-size:6pt;line-height:100%'>ATTACK !!</span>?
Just as the paralyzing effects of the swallow brushed off, Jayce looked upwards as the massive fireball loomed just overhead.
?Holy f--?
Draven clenched his fists. Realizing Kerig was way too close?
?Blast it, get out of there!!?
Jayce threw his blade above his head in defense as the blazing volley connected. The sky turned blood red as a pillar of flame burst forth, blasting apart the surrounding terrain in a massive explosion?
----
(Update for Retan later.)
-
The sun was starting to approach the horizon. Unfortunately, Alex was walking west.
"God, I wish Ein and Marshall would stop moving. It's that much more distance I have to cover."
Otis sluggishly chirped. He was getting tired as well.
"At least it's cooler now," Alex said. "Less of a strain."
Alex stopped for a moment. He saw footprints in the sand. Two pairs of feet continued down the beach and then turned north into the forest. Finally, a lead! Alex hoped that if he could get to the end of these footprints by nightfall, that he would find them.
"Just hang on, Otis. I don't think we'll be out here much longer. Once we find Ein and Marshall, we can take a breather."
Alex upped his pace to a fast walk, shielding his eyes from the vermillion light coming down from the sun. As the two continued, Alex noticed that his feet sunk less and less into the sand. He was approaching the forest borders. Tall evergreens reached up into the sky, at least a hundred or so feet tall.
"At least with a forest, we can find some shade," Alex remarked. It wasn't long before the glaring, coarse sand was replaced by lush, green grass once again. Alex sat down for a moment and took off his shoes. Quite a bit of sand had found its way in.
"Urgh, I hate sand in my shoes," Alex complained. Otis made no reply. The little alien had finally drifted off into a slumber.
"Sweet dreams Otis," murmured Alex softly as he put his shoes back on and continued.
Alex continued to trek through the shady forest, safely out of the harsh heat of the coast. If Ein and Marshall had any brains at all, they would have found a place to rest by now. Alex knew they had common sense, but Ein could be a little...simple-minded...at times. For the most part, he got things done.
The foliage of the forest floor mainly consisted of small shrubs and twigs, with occasional big rocks to sit on. Alex wondered why he hadn't seen any wildlife yet...no deer, no bears, no nothing. There weren't even any mosquitoes in the air, much to Alex's comfort.
The effects of shade were immediately noticeable. The air temperature in the forest was at least fifteen or twenty degrees lower than what it was on the beach. The odor of pine needles filled the moist air. It was almost a pleasant environment to be exploring in.
Alex came upon a river that cut through the forest and emptied out into the ocean beyond. The water flowed at a brisk pace, which meant it wasn't stagnant.
Alex carefully sat Otis down beside him as he cupped his hands and dipped them into the river. He scooped out some water and splashed it on his face to cool himself off. Not even the roaring river stirred Otis from his sleep.
Placing Otis back on his shoulder, Alex continued into the forest. The trees got rather thick here, Alex had to be careful and step between them. Finally, he managed to penetrate the wall of pines to reveal a pristine meadow.
"Well...this should make things easier," said Alex to himself.
Otis gurgled a little bit in his sleep. Did headcrabs dream?
Alex sniffed the air. Was that smoke? It must have been, there was a thin but long stream of greyish smoke rising up into the air, on the other side of the hill, about a thousand or so yards off.
"Maybe it's them," Alex sighed with relief. "Maybe they found something to eat, I'm getting a little bit hungry."
With his thoughts turned to his empty stomach and fatigued body, Alex and the slumbering headcrab continued in the direction of the smoke.
-
The Dark Emperor chuckled slightly, leaning back in his chair more and resting his helmeted head on his right hand.
?Heh? I will forgive your ignorance given the? uniqueness? of your nation.? He mused, referring to the Kandarin Sovereignty?s xenophobic nature. ?I am Retan, supreme ruler of the Dark Empire. The Dark Continent and several surrounding nations belong to me and only me. Five years ago an? unfortunate event? drew me away from my duties. Apparently one of my subordinates took up the throne in my absence, but was ineffective. This is the ?Crimson Empire? you speak of. I have returned to find several insurgent movements in my land that will be swiftly punished. However since your nation happens to be doing just that, I have determined that it would be mutually beneficial to allow you to continue traveling your current path as well as allow you to inhabit certain sections of my domain that I find useless.?
Another figure became apparent in the room, to The Dark Emperor?s left. It was difficult to make out in the darkness, but it was short and cloaked, wringing leathery hands and making a scraping sound as it hobbled over to the side of its master? Retan continued,
?Do give me your decision quickly, for it would be unfortunate to see your legions wasted in a moment of indecision due to the fault of my anxious servants??
-
-"As I said," hissed Vorren. "Death means little to us.... Then again, we certainly don't want those servants of yours sweating on a fruitless task - attempting to slay three divisons of Kandarinian soldiers."
The shock troops, although still a bit uneasy, puffed out their chest in pride.
-"I will admit, our troops are as not skilled nor as well-armed as our Lord wishes us to be..." The troops' chests sank. "...but our Lord grants us the gift of immortality."
Vorren awarded Retan with a dark look.
-"However, due to our... uniqueness... I am willing to forgive your last comment."
He took out a scroll out of his long black coat.
-"This contains the original treaty proposed by my Lord himself."
(http://http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/8254/treatyly3.jpg)
//I have too much time on my hands...\\
-"Are you still content with the alliance?"
--- --- ---
Draven's volley missed Horus, but only by so much. The energy stopped seeping through his armour, and he jumped up. No - jump would not be a correct enough word. Horus soared, unable to be detected by any eye. The black pentagram vanished as mysteriously as it appeared...
--- --- ---
Ein was sitting in front of the logs heated by a sigil sketched under them. Amaya... This was really no time to sulk, he thought. Perhaps that thrice cursed voice was right. Perhaps it really was time to move on. Perhaps.
-
Marshall came back, with a bundle of long sticks and placed them on the ground not to far from Ein and himself. He picked up one and stuck into the ground. He picked up another pole and leaned it against the other one, yet it fell to the ground, nearly hitting Marshall's foot.
"Umm...now how would I start with this..." Marshall wasn't the best architect especially with sticks. "Um, Ein. You want to give me a hand with this perhaps?" He asked, hoping for a reply.
----
"Holy crap!" Duilin exclaimed, as he spotted Draven use his CDAA attack. "That was the Crimson Death Annihilation Attack, the one he used to kill the black dragon."
"Yeah, but it wasn't nearly as big, but still the CDAA is a fairly powerful attack. I'm assuming not as strong as the Mega Death Annihilation Attack?"
"Heh." Aegidius smirked. "The name is almost as original as the performance of the attack." He commented sarcastically.
-
Kerig was quite suprised that his attack only stunned his foe.
As he took a moment to ponder wether he needs more training, he heard a loud voice behind him.
Draven was apperantly yelling something, but before Kerig could figure out what it is, he noticed a big shiney ball heading in his direction.
"Crud!" Kerig yelped as he blasted himself in another direction.
Only after Kerig saw himself to be far enough, he actualy bothered to look where he blasted himself to.
BANG!
Kerig's head hit the ground with a loud "puff!", raising a small cloud of dust.
His nose begun to bleed, and for a few seconds, he continued to lie still.
Suddenly, his eyes opened widely. Both shining in crimson red, his body seemed to have begun flaming. His nose stopped bleeding. He slowly got up.
All of his limbs shook like a mad ghoul.
"NnnnGHnnnn..." His voice seemed to be much deeper and darker now.
------------------------------
Afelan was comfortably lying on a tree branch above Ein's still unlit campfire.
"What a nuisance... This is taking too long..."
An idea was to sprinkle water on them, confusing them into thinking it's raining and thus forcing them to move somewhere else, but it was quickly scrapped.
"Drat...I guess I'll wait.
And so Afelan remained to silently observe the two from above.
-
Zeros' shook his head.
"Yes... It wasn't as powerful, but we can only hope it was sufficent to destroy Jayce. One less Draken to worry about," he said, waving his hand vaguely.
-
"Indeed." Rink nodded. "From what I've seen of this Jayce he is quite a dangerous character."
Aegidius sighed. "No wonder I was sent here."
"Heh" Duilin wispered to Xenai. "Ten gold says Jayce lives." He said this jokingly, but he wouldn't turn down a bet.
-
Alex continued to walk through the shin-deep grass that carpeted the meadow. It was like the eye of the forest.
Otis gurgled once again, and started to move a little bit. He chirped groggily.
"Well, glad to see you up again," Alex said. "We're almost to Ein and Marshall, I think."
While Alex kept walking, Otis took his time in waking up. It was doubtful that all headcrabs were this groggy. Then again, Otis has seen much more than any normal headcrab would.
Alex topped the hill and peered down the other side. The smoke rising into the sky was indeed a fire, a small camp fire. Much to his relief, he saw Ein and Marshall milling around the camp. Marshall was busy trying to build what seemed to be a crude shelter, while Ein was sitting down staring blankly into the fire. He must have been more racked up about Amaya's death than Alex thought.
This was certainly a change of character for Ein. Normally he was outgoing, mischievous, and a bit clumsy at times. It confounded Alex to see him in such a skulking state. He seemed inconsolable.
Alex started down the other side of the hill, anxious to finally meet up with his friends.
"Ein! Marshall! Over here!" Alex called. "It's Alex! Thank God I found you guys."
-
"Alex!" Marshall said happily. He let go of one stick and the entire thing fell down, he shrugged and looked back at Alex. "Alex, how did you get here? Did you escape? Man, those Kandarin really need to get better prison security."
-
The thinning smoke revealed yet another crater, this one much larger than the last...
Now he really was angry...
The Draken slowly emerged from the hole, looking a bit ruffled. His teeth were clenched and a deep blackness swirled about him...
"Now you shall experience the power that puts gods to shame..."
Just then dark clouds became visible on the northern horizon, running southward... Jayce seemed very distracted by this and turned his head, his look of anger turning to one more of concern...
"Blast it... he's here..."
He flashed Draven one last look of malice, then turned and flew northwards like the wind...
Draven watched this wide eyed before realizing exactly what had just happened. He began to bellow a cackling laugh, landing on the ground near Kerig.
----
The Dark Emperor chuckled again.
"I admire your arrogance. It is a most... useful trait... But a word of caution..."
He leaned a bit closer to his guests.
"... There are alternatives far worse than death..."
He leaned back again.
"Your treaty is accepted on the condition that the same is recognized for us, the border permissions in particular. I envision this alliance to be most... beneficial... for all of our... people...
"You may have all of the Dark Continent except this fortress and all lands with elevations greater than 8,000 feet. These are mountainous areas that you would find uninhabitable anyway."
-
// Forgive my extended absence. My cable modem died. :[
"You're on, pal." The smoke cleared. "Dammit. Fine, here you go." Xenai pulled the gold out of his pocket and forked it over, grumbling. "Hey, where th' hell's he goin'?"
--- --- ---
"I'm in no real alliance. I'm just with my boyfriend Tsu Nami, who's with a couple of guys named Zion Ultima and Xenai Omega. They're not really aligned with anyone, though they seem to have a temporary alliance with Lord Draven. I'm in the Crimson military... though I joined quite a while ago, and I was very... different then. I'm not sure if I still belong there. I'll tell my friends about your land and your ruler. I'm sure we might be able to do something to help. But I have to go now. My boyfriend woke up and flew off during the siege on the town. He's badly injured from a previous battle, and I have to make sure he's okay. You're not so bad after all. I'm Aura Hikari. You are...?"
-
"Oh...Its Nick. Well I guess I'll see you around." Nick started back towards Kandiran.(if I spelt it right) As he did a sent a message to Kronos The pest you wanted has left. Nick put his sword back, and felt pressure was off his back.
-
Alex was glad to finally see Marshall again. Ein apparently hadn't noticed his return.
"Actually, I did manage to escape, with the help of Otis here," Alex said, pointing to the black headcrab on his shoulder. "I managed to get to the harbor before having to deal with those goddamned undead guards. Again, Otis was able to help. By then, the suit had been completely drained of its energy, so I left it behind so I could travel lighter. I covered it up with some sand so no one else but me could find it. I got into the forest and into this meadow...and here I am now."
Alex looked over to Ein, who was still staring into the fire.
"Poor Ein. He must've really had feelings for Amaya," Alex said somberly. Alex picked up one of the wooden poles that Marshall had been trying to fashion into a shelter. "Maybe I could give you a hand? I know a thing or two about building things."
-
"Yeah, he hasn't really talked much since we got to the island. First thing he said was 'shut up', I assumed he was talking to me because I tried to talk some sense in him." Marshall explained.
"So yeah, I'd appreciate that. I've never been to good at building things. Other then smelling gases, knowing my history and geography and summoning monsters I haven't been to good at anything else."
----
Duilin let out a quick laugh before taking the money, and pocketing it.
"It looks like Jayce is flying away. I could have guessed it would end something like this, really." Duilin said, answering Xenai.
-
"Great," said Zion. "So that fight was pretty much pointless." He gave a sigh.
--- --- ---
Aura smiled and turned around, flying off. She looked once more at the town. She sighed and looked around for Tsu. She saw him leaning against a tree, asleep. She slowly descended to the ground and landed, walking over to him. "Hey... Are you alright?"
He slowly opened his eyes. He was still too weak to even turn his head. She turned it for him. "...I've been better." With that, he just fell asleep once more. She frowned, picking him up. Looks like I'm headed for another town. She then flew off in search of another town to stay in.
-
//Aww...I wanted post # 4500.\\
Letting Ein collect his thoughts, Alex proceeded to teach Marshall the basics of construction. Otis leapt off Alex's shoulder and sat down on a nearby rock.
"All right. First things first. You want your walls to be structurally stable, because they support the roof. What good is a roof that crashes down on you in the middle of the night?"
Marshall nodded thoughtfully.
"That's why it's important to know the strengths of certain shapes," Alex continued. He took some wooden poles and arranged them into a square.
"While a square is a standard construction shape, it's not the strongest one," Alex explained. Alex took another pole and fit it diagonally inside the square, forming two triangles that fit into each other.
"Triangles are the strongest shape in construction," Alex went on. He raised the wall until it was upright. "Having four of these will easily support the roof." Alex took his time in constructing three more, one of them having an opening in it for an entrance. He raised the rest of the walls until he had the basic structure of a shelter...that is, until it collapsed. The loud noise made Otis squeal and duck behind Marhsall, shivering. Ein remained glued to his rock like a statue.
"Of course, it helps to have a form of adhesive or constraint...," Alex said. "It's a pity we don't have any nails. Maybe there's something around here we can use as a substitute."
Alex figured out a solution, but didn't like it. Ein had some barbed crossbow bolts. Alex remembered seeing someone else back in Glacia use crossbow bolts as a substitute for nails. Unfortunately, Ein didn't seem to be in any mood to be spoken to.
"Well...um...would you have any ideas, Marshall?"
-
Zeros' nodded and shrugged. He had a gut feeling that Jayce would barely be touched by that attack of Draven's.
"Well... I guess it's time to see what MR. Insanely cackling man is... cackling about," he said before walking in the direction of said cackling man named Draven.
-
"Well, maybe we could tie the sticks together with vine." Marshall suggested. He looked around. "If we can find any vine, that is..."
----
"Probably something about Jayce flying away." Duilin said, walking along with Zeros'.
"He probably feels proud of himself for making him fly away." Rink added, following the two.
"I'd get pissed if he did that. I usually don't case them down if they do. But I prefer to end my fights. If they do run away I count that as a win on my part." Duilin replied.
"Well, let's get this over with." Aegidius sighed as he walked with the others.
-
Ein glared at Marshall.
-"Just put those sticks together like a cone, then cover the rest up with leaves or something. I will be right back."
He wandered off into the woods, off the meadow.
--- --- ---
-"She has left? Very good. I will dispatch salvage and collonial squads, meanwhile you stay there and guard the city from any other... enthusiasts..."
--- --- ---
Steorra was now around Asargania. She peered at the large settlement.
It was in a somewhat bad condition, with destruction seemingly caused by either fire or lightning. A large dome-like shield was flickering, its source probably damaged by the same thing that crumbled those buildings. This should be a good target...
Meanwhile, the Kandarian divisions were massing up around the unsuspecting city in a huge circle. They were still a good 20 km away, and hence needed to get closer in order to do some actual damage.
--- --- ---
From the sky, Horus noticed Jayce leaving. It seems that his attack would not be necceseary after all. His weapon and his hands changed back to their original form, and he dropped down on the ground. A huge shockwave followed.
He approached Draven, and pointed in the same direction where the dot has appeared earlier. Incidentally, it was also the place where he was created... an underground sanctuary, spanning a good five miles beneath the surface of the earth.
-
Zion and Xenai gave a sigh, and followed the others off toward Draven.
--- --- ---
Aura looked around, and soon found a decent-looking town. She descended slowly and landed, immediately looking around for an inn. She soon found one and entered. In a few moments, she'd found a room for Tsu and put him on the bed there. She walked downstairs and paid the inkeeper for an extended stay. The guy was nice, considering Tsu was very injured. She then headed out for the nearest clothing store, with only a little bit of money left.
-
Nick stoped. Looked towards the town. "Look over what? rubble..." He said to himself and he leaned against a tree folding his arms and sinking to the ground. He started thinking I wonder if I really will ever see that girl again. He waited for the salvage party to arrive.
-
Not noticing the entourage of coincidently winged men in the distance flying his way, Draven traded in his laughter for a smirk which he shot at the machine.
"He won't be bothering us as long as daddy's in town. Speaking of which... he's going to want to have a word with me as well... But there's time yet. I will escort you to where you need to go and see that your repairs are started..."
He took off at a slow pace towards the direction the machine pointed, but flew close to the ground and slowly so that the machine could keep up.
-
Of course! A cone shape. It was like a triangle, but three-dimensional with a circular base. It was so simple.
"All right Marshall," said Alex, "Get over on the other side and put that pole up at an angle, and I'll do the same here.
Marshall followed intructions, and they soon had two wooden poles steadily leaning against each other about ten or so feet above the ground. Alex and Marshall proceeded to enclose the rest of the circle in the same way until they had a large wooden cone. Alex took the belt from his jacket and tied off the top so the poles would remain fastened.
"Well, it's not my idea of shelter," Alex went on, "but shelter is shelter I guess..."
Otis had been watching the bizarre feat of construction from the rock Ein was once sitting on. He was clearly comfortable on the rock, all four of his legs sprawled out completely, obviously enjoying the warmth of the fire. Suddenly something caught the little alien's attention. It was a little bird flying through the meadow, it swooped down and perched on a tree branch a few feet away. Seeing the little animal made him hungry, he chirped and got back up on his legs. Seeing his prey, he bore his fangs and let out a chilling hiss, similar to that of a rattlesnake. Alex hadn't noticed, being too busy with the shelter. Otis emitted a shrill cry and leapt at the bird, knocking it off the branch and trapping it under his gaping maw. The headcrab sank his fangs into the victimized bird, delivering his paralyzing neurotoxin, and proceeded to ingest the avian whole.
Alex turned around at the sound of Otis' cry and ran over to him.
"You okay, buddy?" Alex asked. He saw ruffled feathers on the ground. "...You ate the bird, didn't you?"
Otis chirped happily. His body was swollen with the ingested bird.
"Wow. Yet another reminder for me to never piss you off. I had no idea you could do that. I wonder if you can swim...you'd make a great fisherman..err, crab."
Otis chirped questioningly.
"Otis, up!" Alex called. While he was able to get on Alex's back, the plump little bird in his stomach made it a little harder. Alex went back over to Marshall.
"Marshall, Otis and I are going to go check that river back there for any fish. If we find any, we'll bring them back. Guard the camp while I'm gone. If I see Ein, I'll tell him the shelter's done, okay?"
-
//BLUH!!! Forgot to update my diplomatic mission. My apologies.\\
-"In that case, it is settled." Vorren's expression was changed from annoyed to careless. "I am sure we will both benefit greatly from this alliance. Now, if you would be so kind as to release us from your room... I mean, it is marvellous and all, but we have towns to pillage, and I'd be guessing that right about now my troops are wondering what is taking us so long. I do not think you would want to break this pact the moment it has been sealed... Oh, and while you're at it - would you mind signing the treaty document?"
--- --- ---
Horus heavily trotted after Draven. The sanctuary should not be far now...
Suddenly, the sand a good distance in front of Draven exploded. A gigantic tiger-like creature leaped out of it, having the same basic appearance as Horus. Sand-coloured armour, purple glyphs... except while Horus was mostly humanoid-looking, with only the head of a jaguar, this thing looked completely something out of an animal-loving mad scientist's wet dream. Its armour also seemed a lot thinner than that of Horus, and it looked like it was put together out of the scraps of the material it was made of.
The strange quadruped rose to its hind legs. Two panels on its back opened up, revealing four mildly charged dark glass cannons. They were a lot smaller than the one that Horus had, and they also seemed to lack the purplish coil around it.
A cold, hissing sound came from the new machine, and slowly turned into a voice.
-"Identify yourself, intruder, or be evaporated."
Another high-frequency ping... Horus recieved a signal to proceed into the desert. What was this thing? Was it really the same as him, or was it a clever enemy trying to fool him? Nevertheless, he had little choice but to proceed... Although Draven did promise him the Dark glass, in exchange for his help... This was a most confusing dilemma.
-
//I've only just now noticed I have #4500. XD
Xenai scratched his head. "I get the feeling something was just denied from me." Zion raised an eyebrow at him, then snickered. "You're weird. Anyways, I don't think Draven notices us yet. Should we call out to him to get his attention?"
--- --- ---
Aura walked out of the shop and spun really fast, causing the long skirt to rise. Didn't matter what all was exposed as a result, it was all covered by a pair of black pants. Ha ha. I guess that's too bad for Xenai. She walked back into the inn grinning, though she wished she could have bought a whole new outfit.
//Now anyone attempting to exploit her outfit will just get laughed at, Ralph-style. Ha ha! XP
-
Weloss was quite pissed.
"You pass out on me just when the prey leaves..."
Kerig's body slowly lifted not too high into the air and drifted in Draven's direction, looking like some floating ghoul following it's master.
"I wish I could have had more fun today..."
Kerig's head was slowly lifted as the four-legged machine leaped from the ground.
"Not waking up yet are you...?"
Kerig's body landed on the soft, warm sand. It's head leaned towards the left and seemed to be expressionless.
"I see...Maybe I WILL have some fun today..."
Strange, distorted blackness started gathering around Kerig's hands.
------------
Afelan was quite displeased with the arrival of the new guest.
"What an annoyance."
Silently watching the ongoing progress of the target's companions, it was soon noted that the target left to sit on a rock in a meadow further away from any interference.
"Good enough...The time is now."
Afelan quickly leaped from one tree to another, soon climbing down...
Silently approaching Ein from behind, Afelan drew out a small knife and thrusted it at Ein's right arm.
-
//Trent, I think you mean Nelson-style. n00b.\\
"I guess we could yell towards him." Duilin said. "But I don't feel like it, I'd rather fly towards and him and land on the ground in a generic fashion and then give our greetings. Of course Zeros' would get there first, and I'll get there last, regardless if I'm flying faster then you guys." Duilin grins, stating what usually or recently happened/happens.
"Um...yeah." Rink mumbled. "He's getting to far ahead of us. Should we fly?"
----
"Yeah, okay then." Marshall said nodding. He then looked at the shelter. "So?um...here I am by myself...and talking to myself."
He sat down on the ground cross-legged, and looked at the fire. "Well, I'm sure nothing bad is going to happen to Ein or Alex."
-
(Perhaps the ?good guys? could get distracted with something else? I?m afraid we?re going to have a one-sided 10 vs. 1 again here. Heh?)
Draven stopped short, hovering some seven feet in the air as a wave of dislodged sand sprayed him. Another one?! Draven clenched his fists.
?Blast it! Just how many secret radical military organizations are there on this blasting continent?!?
He glanced back at Horus.
?Friend of yours???
Judging by the machine?s reaction, he guessed a ?no?.
Turning back to the gigantic cat-like war machine, Draven crossed his arms before him, gathering energy into his palms. Floating seven feet in the air, he was about at its torso?s height. Really, that last fight took a lot out of him, though he did not want to show it? This could get ugly if this second machine were both as strong as he gauged his own to be, and it were at full strength?
Completing the gathering, Draven snapped both arms down to his sides as his fists burst into flame, a bright red orb a foot in diameter surrounding each.
?The Crimson Emperor Draven demands that you reveal whatever it is you?re hiding. Step aside and I shall show you mercy??
----
?Yes, of course??
The doors behind the Kandarinians clicked, and slowly creaked open. A small burst of flame appeared over the treaty, and the words ?THE DARK EMPEROR RETAN? were burned upon the document in script. The scroll re-rolled itself in the air and floated back to the Kandarinian commander.
?Do be mindful of my? soldiers? as you continue your conquest. Though they will not attack you, your paths may intersect, and they may be razing some of the same targets as you??
Dismissing the group, his chair turned back around and his attention returned to a pale blue orb behind him. The short robed figure turned as well, waiting to be called upon by his master?
The exterior of North Point was not how the commanders left it when they entered. The dead silence was gone, replaced by the pangs of scratching armor, of movement, of yelling, of fire? which became audible near the exterior gates as a dull roar, escalating to a thunder on the outside.
The three proud Kandarinian divisions were completely surrounded and boxed in by many small platoons of massive, heavily armored lizard creatures. Some were standing in perfect lines, spike armored officers barking orders in raspy reptilian voices. Many were carrying huge chunks of metal, large pieces of catapult, and various other simple machines into and out of the fortress. Makeshift furnaces were built out of campfires, and there was pounding and shaping of metal. It was chaos. But a cold methodical chaos that worked around the waiting troops.
There were small human legions as well. Proud troops displaying the symbol of the Crimson Empire, now nervously looking about, at the intimidating mass of reptiles, and the new cold blooded commanders that ordered them about? They seemed to be mostly lead? herded more like? into the fortress? A glint of fear and uncertainty in their eyes as they passed the Kandarinians?
The lizards themselves ignored the waiting Kandarinian divisions for the most part, save for a few glances from some of the lower reptile troops. Some were hateful glances, others lustful, others hungry?
-
//Dammit, you're right. I gotta watch more Simpsons. *Dies.*
"Uhm, I think Draven's in a tight spot again," said Xenai.
"Should we go help him?" asked Zion.
--- --- ---
Aura watched over Tsu for a while. She was really pooped, so she hopped on into the bed, instantly falling into a deep sleep.
// PLEASE don't pick on her anymore. Since Horus recovered relatively quickly, I'll have Tsu up pretty soon here. But until then, please leave them alone. They're supposed to be relatively inactive. Thank you. ^_^
-
"Hmm?let's wait for it?" Duilin chuckled. He kind of wanted to see Draven get killed or at least have the stuffing beaten out of him, so he wanted to see what was going to happen.
Rink and Aegidius shrugged, and nodded in agreement with Duilin.
-
Zeros' rolled his eyes, but shrugged.
"OK, ok... We can watch Draven and see how he does. Although, I still do want to know what that cackling was about," he said lightly, as if there wasn't two war machines standing several hundred yards away.
-
The new machine took its head slightly off focus of Draven, and towards a small group in the distance. Its eyes slightly flashed.
The cannons folded into its back, and it dropped down to all fours again. It dipped its massive ... paw? into the sand, and sent a cascade of dust flying over Draven and Horus. When the sand settled, the trio was nowhere to be seen.
Both Horus and Draven, however, remained where they were. Around them was a purple wavering semisphere, invisible from the other side. The sphere also dulled aural signatures, thus making it impossible to detect anyone inside it.
Without rising to all fours, the tiger machine deployed its four cannons again. It hissed again, in a completely different tone.
-"Crimssson Emperor Draven? Liesss... Imposster!"
The cannons let forward a little. Black lightnings sprung from each, forming a square of sorts between the four weapons. They, however, did not fire.
-"Do put out that annoying little candle, human, and sstart making sssome sensse... Thesse blessed glyphss you see on my hide will protect me from any of your... tricksss... Now tell me who you are, so I can take thisss... asset... from you... and everybody livesss..."
Horus looked down onto their welcoming party. He completely dwarfed the tiger mechanism, with it only being about four feet taller than Draven, when it was standing on its hind legs. The armour didn't look too reliable, either - with a good blow, Horus would most likely be able to grind this thing into pieces far too small to pick up. But... would he do this or not?
Horus' grip on the maul tightened, his eyes darting back and forth between Draven and the machine.
--- --- ---
-"!!!GAWD!!! Vorren, could you be any MORE MEAN in there? I mean, the guy DID lock us IN! What was I SUPPOSED to do? Watch him BURN US to CRISP?!"
-"Soghol, shut up."
-"GAW...!"
-"Soghol, SHUT UP."
Soghol complied. Since the commanders accomplished their primary objective, of sorts, Vorren needed no more pressure on his nerves. He made his way through and out of the fortress.
-"Sweet Skorn.. what is this?"
Hasterb, who kept quiet, softly replied.
-"I do believe that these are the servants that the entity at question talked about when we were back in his throne room."
Interestingly, Hasterb's sentences were like a ball of wool - one had to untangle them before understanding what they meant.
-"I see."
Vorren took out his minotaur horn - a standard piece of equipment for all commanding officers. He blew one long note.
The Kandarinian soldiers waiting for their commanders seeped through the tight ring of reptilian troopers standing outside. They regrouped in one giant cluster of rowdy, shaken up soldiers. After another long note, they started walking away from the dark, terrible place...
--- --- ---
The horde around Asargania was now in position. Scorpions deployed themselves and began raining death //DM, rain of death - inside joke\\ upon the unsuspecting city. Although the shield blocked a lot of the projectiles, some passed through, due to the shield's flickering.
Steorra flew down onto the ground, and sat down near a tree, looking for a short rest.
//I'm guessing Dark Spartan might want to do something about this invasion...\\
-
"OMG NO FARE >:(" Xenai frowned as the second war machine created a cloaking barrier around the three of them.
"You were saying, Duilin?" said Zion.
-
"You insolent cur!!"
Draven brought his fists to his sides, the two burning orbs surrounding his hand flaring. He suddenly blurred to the left, then forward. In an instant, he was upon the offending machine, his right palm practically in it's face.
"You will find out the hard way then, wretch."
With that, he let loose the crimson fury contained in the open palm, sending forth a superheated wave of hateful fire at the thing's cat-like metallic face with the explosive force of a cannon...
-
//forgot Ein's part >.< Thx Jenia for reminder\\
The blade slashed Ein's hand a little, missing a bit to the side. Ein didn't even bother turning around.
-"Now is not a good time. Leave."
-
Kerig's body was peacefully hovering towards the direction of the semisphere, guided by Weloss.
To Weloss, the barrier stuck out like a sore thumb. To him, who "lived" out his entire existence on the spirit plane, raising an aura-dulling barrier was like creating a cloud of dust.
Weloss was in no hurry to throw everything he had in...yet.
He came to the edges of the barrier and stopped.
Kerig's hands, containing strange light-sucking black balls the size of a large fist, slowly grew as they kept sucking what looked like black nothingness from thin air.
-----------------
Afelan was quite suprised to see the target only barely trying to dodge.
Slowly nearing the knife to Ein's neck, Afelan spoke-
"I'd have never thought that Kronos would give me such an easy job..."
Although it was impossible to see, Afelan smiled. A thought went through the assassin's mind-
"Maybe I should just finish him now...Kronos will never know..."
The thought was, however, quickly brushed off.
Afelan's grip on the knife tightened.
"It is so pathetic...Killing a man who doesn't even resist because his whore got spanked is so boring..."
A short, sinister laugh followed.
-
"Um, well I really wanted to see Draven and that machine cat guy fight." Duilin groaned.
"Out of curiosity, do you have something personal against Draven?" Aegidius asked Duilin.
"Not totally," Duilin replied "it's mostly just because Draven just parades around like his shit don't stink and chants things like "Oh yeah I'm so great, I shoot fireballs and I stole an empire from two seemingly dead guys. All bend over for I, Draven, am the great gift the gods have given to the world.". It really gets on my nerves."
//Just as a side note, Draven is actually my favourite character. Not all of Duilin's beliefs and opinions reflect mine.\\
-
"Oh goodness!" cried Dr. Kleiner. "What's going on?!" Lamarr scurried under the table and shuddered in fright.
An Asgarnian guard walked up to Kleiner to tell him the news.
"Isaac, it seems that some malefactor has taken advantage of our crippled state to finally decimate the city. The other mages have been evacuated to a safe place, you should get going too," informed the guard.
"Oh my..." replied Kleiner. "I've spent my whole life here, it's a little disappointing to see it all go..."
Some buildings collapsed in the background, filling the air with dust.
"Now's not the time to reminisce, Kleiner!" exclaimed the guard. "Get your stuff together and let's go! I've been assigned to keep you safe. One of our scouts has managed to locate Alex."
"Alex...?" said Kleiner, shocked. "My goodness...he's still alive? Where is he, is he still on the Borderworld?"
"Not exactly," the guard said back. "He and his friends escaped the Borderworld after the portal storms collapsed. He's in a forest on the coast of the Kandarian Continent."
"If I remember correctly," Kleiner went on, "there's a lot of military uproar occuring on Kandarin... Well, whatever the problem, you're right. Let's get out of here. Lamarr? Come on, girl!"
The headcrab crawled out from underneath Kleiner's desk and climbed into his bag.
"All right, Sven, whenever you're ready," said Kleiner.
"Isaac, I know a route that'll keep us lying low for a while until Alex can make contact with our scouts. He'll know what to do. Come with me."
Sven led Kleiner to a manhole that led to a tunnel out of the city. He pulled back the cover and motioned Kleiner in. He did so and climbed in himself, sealing the manhole.
The scorpions continued their onslaught against Asgarnia, with soldiers fighting a hopeless battle. The odds of Asgarnia surviving the attack just after the portal storms were a million to one.
--
"Otis, can you swim?"
Otis chirped, looking at the shallow water.
"It's only a few feet deep. If you start to sink, I'll get you out," Alex said.
The headcrab inched towards the glassy water. He dipped his foot in. The water was rather warm for a natural stream. Otis eased his way in until all four legs were in the water. Finally, Otis kicked off the bottom of the stream and out on open water. There was oddly enough no current. Otis seemed to have no problem keeping himself bouyant. The only problem was that his mouth was underwater. It was unsure if headcrabs had gills or not. Somehow, Otis managed to pull off swimming and even dove below the surface once or twice.
"Nice job, Otis!" Alex shouted. "Hey, if you see any fish, you think you could try to catch some? I'm sure all of us are hungry."
The headcrab kept swimming, undulating his legs when underwater and dog paddling on the surface. He saw a nice fleshy trout a few feet below the surface of the water. Hissing, Otis dove underwater and lunged at the fish. It quickly swam away to ten feet to Otis' left. Aggravated, he attacked the trout again, this time hooking it with his fang. He was able to control his poison reflex to prevent the fish from becoming tainted.
"Great! Now bring it to shore," said Alex.
The alien quadraped obeyed. Otis crawled out of the water, shaking what water he could from his small round body, leaving it with a wet shine. He unhooked his fang from the trout and let it flop hopelessly on dry land.
"That's amazing! You think you could get some more?"
Otis squealed and jumped back into the water.
As Alex sat down on the bank of the stream, he heard some rustling behind him. Was someone sneaking up on him?
Alex withdrew the rifle and turned around, quickly scanning the surrounding area.
"Otis," Alex called, "keep fishing. I'm gonna go check something out. If anything happens, give me a screech."
Otis chirped and kept fishing. Alex walked towards the dense trees to locate the source of the noise...
-
//omgz i gtoz ot spot moer...sorry had soccer try outs.\\
Nick waited for the scavanging party. "....." His eyes shut for a moment. "God!!help me!" he said out loud...
-
//huh, nobody's posting. I guess I'm just too important.\\
Draven's fist slammed into the machine, sending it flying across the dome. With inhuman agility, it twisted in the air, landing on its feet. The metallic surface revealed not even a scratch.
-"Hss... my turn..."
The cannons let out a scream, like a wounded animal... but stopped a moment from firing. All energy faded back down, and the weapons folded into the machine's back.
-"Lucky human... Pass, but be quick about it."
Right in the middle of the dome, a large aperture opened, revealing a spacy underground hall. It was all covered with sand, probably the same sand that poured into the opening when the way was first made. A long corridor extended from the main room. The walls everywhere were riddled with glowing purple channels. Liquid of the same colour pumped through them, with a slight waver, adding a torch-like impression. The visible floor was made of compound plates.
These must be the labs. However, Horus did not remember this particular passage. He hopped down into the room anyways. Surprisingly, it was barely noticed - the small mound of sand dulled the noise, while the solid plates beneath absorbed the shockwave. The corridor was just enough for him to fit through.
The other machine remained outside, along with Draven. Horus looked up questionably at the latter.
--- --- ---
The last remark lashed sharply at Ein's heart. His mind, raging for one moment, became puifyingly calm right afterwards.
-"'Whore' is not a good word. Please don't use it to refer to Amaya."
Without even touching his bolts, a bright cyan sigil appeared right under him. The ground directly beneath the demonic sign stood still, while everything outside of the sigil got blasted a significant distance away - the grass, bushes were uprooted, trees fell down...
-"Do not bother me again, pest."
Another sigil changed the first one, this time a yellow one. It produced a glowing shield around Ein.
-
"Sweet mother of Gaia!" Marshall exclaimed. He noticed that trees and bushes were being uprooted; he could hear the sound all the way from his location.
Marshall picks up a spare wooden pole, about a couple feet in length and walks off towards the commotion. Completely forgetting that he should be guarding the camp...
-
"What the hell was that?!" cried Alex, hearing the ruckus in the woods a few hundred yards away. Alex leveled his rifle and kept going. Otis was capable of defending himself.
Something rustled through the bushes behind him. Alex whirled around, and only saw Otis a few hundred feet away still diving for trout. He had caught three more. Suddenly, a hand grabbed Alex's shoulder and pulled him back into the woods.
"Gah! What the?!" Alex spun around again and realized he was pointing his rifle at an Asgarnian scout. He was a tall, slender man with slick, black hair that reached down to his shoulder, and icy blue eyes. He was a man of about thirty or so, and was equipped with a variant of the Asgarnian guard armor, but augmented for forest camouflage.
"You must be Alex," said the scout. "Call me Evan. I'm from Asgarnia, and I was sent to locate you after the portal storms died. It's good to know that you're okay."
"Wait. What condition is Asgarnia in now? Is there still even a city?" Alex asked.
"There's not much of one," Evan replied. "The portal storms took out about two-thirds of the city and left our shield crippled."
"Oh, man..." mumbled Alex. "What about Dr. Kleiner? Is he okay?"
"An unknown power immediately launched an attack on our weakened city just a few hours after the last portal closed. That must have been at least nine or ten hours ago. The malefactor has been using some kind of army of scorpions against the city, raining down hell. From what I've heard, half of the Asgarnian army has been killed off so far."
"And Isaac?" Alex shot back.
"Has been safely evacuated. He's been led to an underground hideout that will make him nearly impossible to find," said Evan. "However, we did not expect you to survive the intense conditions of the Borderworld. How did you do it?"
"I got the help of some passersby," said Alex. "One guy in particular, called Ein, devised the plan that destroyed the source of the portal storms. Unforunately, his dimensional portals aren't perfect. Instead of emerging in Asgarnia, I wound up here on the Kandarin Continent. It seems that he and his friend Marshall aren't exactly well-liked around these parts... It would be my luck to wind up with two nuts with huge bounties on their heads."
"Isaac knows that you're still alive," Evan went on, "and he will try to find some means of contacting you soon. Do you still have the H.E.V. suit?"
"The suit ran out of power a few hours ago after a bout with some zombie soldiers. It was heavy so I had to ditch it," replied Alex.
"You're positive you hid it safely?" asked Evan in a concerned tone. "Who knows what the Kandarin Sovereignty could do with technology like that. It's also a matter of what the malefactor attacking Asgarnia will do with our prized technology...I fear that Asgarnia's time has ended."
"Don't jump to conclusions yet," said Alex. "You make your way back to Asgarnia, do your best to keep the enemy away. I'll work on a way to contact Kleiner also. I noticed something strange when I held one of Ein's possessions in my hand a while ago...some sort of buzzing...I remember Isaac handing me something of his before I left, maybe I still have it. I'd love to stay and talk more, but I think Ein's in trouble. He's in trouble a lot."
"Very well then," replied Evan. "Take care."
As soon as he had appeared, Evan vanished. Alex was alone in the woods. The sound of Otis' enthusiastic chirping got his attention.
"What is it, Otis?" Alex asked, walking back to the river. He saw Otis swaying his body in front of what seemed to be a pile of fresh fish, some still flopping.
"Nice job, buddy! We'll have plenty to eat now." Alex picked up the large pile of fish, trying to keep his balance. "Otis, we need to drop these fish off with Marshall so he can begin cooking them, and then we need to investigate what just happened over in the woods."
Otis squealed and followed Alex as he lugged the dozen or so fish back to camp.
-
Draven balanced the second orb of flame on the tips of his left fingers.
"Well, thank you..."
Wretch.
He dropped down, landing in the thick sand. The orb disappeared, flowing back into his aura, which in turn disappeared. He took one more glance at the cat like machine, which stood there silently, then turned his attention to the gaping tunnel and it's eerie violet radiance...
He didn't get the feeling often, but when he did, he was usually right. He had a bad feeling about this...
Nonsense. Whoever is in charge of these war machines will be put in their place, and their power harnessed for his own use. This should be interesting, none the less...
He followed Horus into the opening, which was quite large given his relative size.
-
Weloss intesified the black flames within Kerig's palms.
He felt pleasurely sinister as he thought of the pain he will inflict upon his foe, regardless of who the opponent is...
Suddenly, the srimson light within Kerig's eyes begun to fade. Kerig fell on his behind and looked around, confused.
"Damn, you always choose the worst of times to wake up."
Kerig Shook his head, trying to freshen his blurred vision.
After finally realising he was on warm, soft desert sand he looked around and came to a conclusion-
Something was missing.
-"Weloss, where did you bring me? Where is Dra..."
-"In the invisible sphere before you, blockhead. Where else?"
At the first few moments, Kerig stared into empty space, expressionless.
The blazing desert sun didn't seem to bother him at all, and yet he enjoyed the cool, soothing breeze.
Eventualy, he smiled and decided to relax. He stretched his arms and looked quite at peace.
-"Well, aern't you going to follow him?"
-"They have an invisible barrier around themselvs...They put it there for a purpose. Let's be nice and leave them alone..."
If Weloss had a physical body, this would be another one of those moments he would slap his forehead. But there was still one thing left unsaid...
-"Kerig, your hands are on fire."
------------------
Afelan's right hand quickly moved to protect the mask from any damage by random flying objects.
Being quite suprised by the casting of the spell, Afelan was actualy pushed back two feet from Ein by the strong winds. There had to be a change of plans.
"So he does resist, not only physicly but psychologicaly as well... This might be fun after all..."
Afelan slowly took out a scroll from the worn shirt.
"I'm sorry, but it cannot be done." Afelan said, opening the scroll, revealing strange runic inscriptions within.
"Do you not regret it?" the runes within the scroll begun to shine, opening a wide round hole within the shield protecting Ein. Afelan went through...
"Had you never met her, she would still be alive and well..." Afelan let go of the scroll, which quickly crumbled to dust as it traveled towards the earth.
"Regret it as much as you like, fool...It is too late..."
And with that, Afelan thrusted the knife into Ein's left shoulder the second time around.
-
Tsu slowly opened his eyes and sat up. He looked himself over. He still had a few burn spots... But he felt better. He got out of bed... Ooh... A tiny bit of soreness. He started stretching to try and fix it. Aura soon woke up too. She sat up and looked. "Tsu! You're better?"
He finished stretching. "Yeah, I guess so. I'm not at 100% just yet, but I'm up. Are you ready to go?"
She got out of bed. "Yeah, I'm ready."
"No you're not." Noting the second outfit.
"Yes I am." Pulling the skirt up a little bit to show the pants. "My normal clothes were in the last inn, which got destroyed."
"Oh, okay." He started for the door, but stopped. "By the way, how did that fight go?"
"It didn't go. There was only a tiny bit of action, and my second opponent didn't fight for very long. He was helpless against... my beauty." She said it in a somewhat joking way. "It was the guy that attacked us before that Xenai decided to fight, but he seemed really nice."
"Interesting... Alright, let's go."
The two went down the stairs and exited, thanking the innkeeper. They then took off toward Zion and Xenai's location.
--- --- ---
Zion looked off into the distance. "Ah, he's recovered."
"And it feels like the little lady got a little stronger, too."
-
"Ah, good more people to sit and watch with us." Rink mumbled.
"Hey, Rink. I still see that one other person over there." Duilin said.
Rink looked at where Draven and the machine where. "Why yes. He is. Why don't we go and talk to him?"
"I don't see the harm." Aegidius added.
"Well, okay." Duilin said. He looked at the others, mostly Zeros'. "We're going to check out that one little dude over there. If you want to come with, then please do."
Rink hopped onto Duilin's shoulder. Duilin flapped his wings, nodded at Aegidius, as he did the same, and the two flew off towards Kerig.
-
"I'll stay," said Zion.
"I'll go," said Xenai as he took off with them.
--- --- ---
"Kandarin?"
"Or something like that," said Aura.
"I can't help but think I've heard that before. Maybe I haven't. I don't know."
Zion and Zeros' were now visible, but still kinda far.
-
The scavenging party arrived. "Great now I'll go..." Nick got up and started to move towards a nearby town. He waited for Kronos to give him new orders.
//Should i make new guy?\\
-
Zeros' shrugged. He never really was one to be sociable with new people, so, he deicded to stay behind with Zion, watching the others walk over to Kireg.
Zeros' sighed and looked over at Zion before glancing back at his friends walking towards the strange boy. He knew there was something different about the boy, but he couldn't place his finger on it.
He could scan deeper and find out... but, he didn't do that. Yet.
-
Marshall arrived seeing the newcomer thrusting his knife towards Ein.
"NO!!" He shouted, in fear for his friend
----
Duilin landed a few yards from Kerig. Rink hopped off his shoulder and onto the group in front of Duilin.
Aegidius landed a couple yards behind Duilin, and watched silently.
"Hey Kerig. It's me Rink, remember?" The imp said in greeting.
Duilin rubbed his upper lip with his knuckle. "So, kid." He said calmly. "I noticed you've been walking with Draven and that...thing. So, what is Draven up to?" He asked.
-
"Yo." Tsu and Aura landed behind Zion and Zeros'. Zion turned to look at them. "Hey there. You seem a lot better now."
"I like to think I am a lot better now."
He then looked to Aura. "And you seem a bit stronger."
"Yeah..." She blushed and scratched the back of her head.
"Xenai's busy over there with Duilin, Rink, and that new angel guy." He pointed off that-a-way.
--- --- ---
"Just as importantly... What's that machine up to?" He thought he'd contribute with a question of his own.
-
The aperture closed, leaving the glowing channels in the walls as the only credible light source. Horus advanced through the dim halls, in hopes that he has not been decieved. Other than the occasional spider-thing skittering by through small holes in the ceiling and the walls, the hall was completely deserted.
Even though Draven might not have noticed anything, Horus did. The air was buzzing with quick high-frequency pings that he recieved earlier, from the other machine. Were there even... more? The pings were too quick to be decoded, which unsettled Horus quite a bit.
After a fair bit of walking, the group came up to a closed door. It was, mildly putting it, big. Covering the entire passage, the door consisted, it seems, of two heavy moving parts - one at the bottom, and one at the top.
Horus felt hurt. After all these years of pointless wandering, he finally gets to see his home - and he is stopped, just like this? This must not be.
Clenching his maul, he took a mammoth swing at the obstacle.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
The sand-coloured door absorbed the impact as if the maul were made of paper. The impact shock hit Horus' hands like a boulder, and he dropped the maul. That dark gem in the middle... if only he still had his glass cannon... it HAS to have been activated by the same kind of energy his cannon shot.
Fortunately, the door didn't keep Horus wondering about its origins for long. Without further problems, the two gigantic halves split, letting a dim beam of purple light through. With a forced sound, they heaved into their open positions.
The next area seemed to be their destination. It was a hangar-like space, with purple tubes hanging from the cieling like some sort of a demented web... those tubes... those tubes!
[flashback]
At first, there was static. At first, there was a little bit of pain, as the nerves were being connected. At first, there were jolts from non-existing organs, probably from shock. At first, there was confusion.
-"Hey... I think he's coming to."
-"All right, Horus?"
Horus tried opening his eyes, or made a motion similar to doing so. He felt nothing from his eyelids. No movement, no nothing. No eyelids.
No eyelids?! What the...? How could this be? But the explosion!...
-"I'm sure you have a few questions right now, but unfortunately I can't hear them. The voice module has not been inserted yet, much less plugged in. The nerve array can only support so much right now..."
Voice module? Nerve array?
-"Noul, I don't think you're starting off right."
The two voices were coming from somewhere next to him, one from left and one from right. Horus made a very futile attempt to move his head, which, it seemed, was no longer there either.
-"Oh... yeah. Horus, the explosion in Tega complex killed you... your body, anyways. What you are right now is a brain, a living brain, the only part we could save. Remember the Unity project?"
The Unity project... Horus could not remember well anymore, for reasons unbeknownst to him yet. He did have an idea why, but he didn't think about it.
The project, last he knew, involved attaching parts of living creatures to an arcane-powered device. Their most successful experiment involved a twitching rat leg, connected to a Dark Glass stimulator. But a brain...! Even more, an almost fully-functional brain! If this was not some kind of a nightmare, Horus would write it off as a hallucination. There is no way that the project was so successful.
-"A short time after the accident, the Empire pulled the plug on the project. We had accomplished too little in too long, they said. Miracles need time for working, we told them, but they were quite firm with their desicion. Of course, we knew, we knew the entire way, that it was his fault... He had a spy in the Crimson midst. The spy helped to extinguish these projects just as they were becoming ripe..."
-"Ironically, we were a day away from a huge breakthrough. Instead of using the nerves to span the entire body, we inserted tubes like those you see right now. They are filled with Kao liquid, an arcanum-enriched compound that took us about ten months to develop."
Ten months? What? If Horus still had a stomach, he would've felt that uncomfortable cold that everyone is too familiar with. If it took ten months to develop but a part of the project, how long was he ... dead for?
-"And now, here we are, almost five years later, in this little hangar we managed to dig out and build... nearing your new body's completion, too! But first, we've just gotta do a few things."
Horus' sight returned back to static. More of those little prickles, probably meaning they're attaching more nerves. Twelve years... all this time... dead...
His mind fell into an inactive, sleep-like state. He was awake, but barely. Seems that his colleagues introduced something into his brain, putting him into this state.
Through the misty shround of the sleep that surrounded his mind, Horus heard banging. Then voices. Then whooshing of fireballs. Screams. More banging. Silence. Then, a single voice.
-"What the hell's this?"
-"I think it's just some wacko experiment those two were working on."
-"Hey, think we could pawn it? The Emperor isn't gonna know!"
-"Na... looks kinda dangerous, I'd leave it alone... besides, it's probably dead anyways. Look at those clowns - shoving a brain in a jar. Lol."
The voices faded away, and footsteps followed. Then, nothing but a black shroud. Complete silence.
[/flashback]
Horus snapped out of his short trance. There were two skeletons in the hangar, as well as a few more doors in the walls. The silent doors, looking as if they haven't been used in 10 years or so, looked very uninviting. Horus neared one of them.
Another forced moan, and the door let upwards. The dusty, web-ridden passage beyond was unlit, not even by the glow of purple tubes. Horus squeezed through the half-open door, which looked very jammed at that point. His footsteps echoed a little, and as he entered, the channels in the walls also lit up.
Mechanisms. Everywhere.
Prototypes of Horus, those tiger machines, and other abominations one dared not name, were all lying motionlessly in the chamber. They were all piled on top of each other, some having parts falling out of them. The room itself was drowned in the Kao liquid, up to Horus' heel, and probably around to Draven's knee. Strangely, none of them had the Dark glass weapons - the empty holders seemed violated, as if someone had torn all of the cannons from their bases.
Digging through the trash, Horus quickly found a replacement Convertion engine, and just in time - the capacitors were already three quarters drained. With the composite sphere in his hand, he turned around and took one last look at the pile, just before leaving the room, not looking back. There is so much to find out about this place...
--- --- ---
Ein did not resist. The knife jammed into his shoulder, making a fleshy cracking sound as it went. His head was fixed at Afelan, in a transfixing stare.
-"Not smart."
He thrusted his good hand right at Afelan, palm-first. Just as it touched the assassin's chest, a small sigil appeared right under his palm. Just for a second. Then, it vanished in a sea of electrical discharges crawling up over the assailant's body...
//sorry for making the attack so "to-the-point", but I don't see how Afelan would dodge it, being rendered immobile by holding the knife in Ein's shoulder... Now, however, as the attack was discharged, Afelan's welcome to block/abosrb it.\\
-
Kerig turned around to see a small group of people coming.
He seemed to recognise Rink, the smallest in the group Larger man came with him, and all started asking questions. Kerig smiled and looked blissfully at them.
"Hi! Nice to see you again, Rink" He grinned at the imp, then turned to the others.
"Nice to meet you! I'm Kerig! And you must be..."
Kerig paused, and stared at each of them from his left to right.
"Duilin, Aegidius and Xenai!" He finally named them at the order in which he looked at them. He then jumped off the sand and suddenly remembered he was asked a few questions.
"Oh, Draven?" He started, rolling his eyes from side to side, holding his chin with his left hand "He was being very nice, helping the shiney guy and all... And the shiney guy? Well, I don't know, but he was nice, too! I mean, look, he gave me a PRESENT!"
Kerig joyfully showed them the tiny fixing bot he recieved earlier.
------------
"Curses. I hate early distractions."
Afelan didn't bother looking behind, and on the outside it seemed as if Marshall was completly ignored.
Suddenly, Afelan felt something pushing against the chest.
"Cra...No wait..."
Afelan let out a short sinister laughter as the electricity bolted off.
"Well well, look who's talking! And here I thought that YOU, of all people, would recognise my clothing material."
Afelan twisted the knife to make sure the damage is severe enough and then kicked Ein's hand away.
"I'v had enough fun for today."
Afelan whipped out a small round object.
"Let us meet again...And next time, let's throughly enjoy our meeting...Hehehehehe..."
The object was dropped, raising the mist-version of the smokescreen. Afelan used that chance to quickly get out of their vision's range, and headed to a nearby village, where they were expected to arrive next...
-
//Twelve years Ein? The Crimson Empire has only be around for 5. Before then it was the Dark Empire, and ruled by Retan. Only now they are two separate empires, I guess.\\
"Holy smokes..." Marshall ran towards Ein, looking very worried. "Ein! Are you okay? Who was that? Are you hurt? Will you make it? Who was that?" He asked rapidly.
----
"Umm...yeah." Duilin mumbled, as Kerig correctly guessed their names. He didn't think to much of it however. "So, Draven and the shiny guy were being nice to you?"
"I mean that thing attacked us on sight, yet he stopped to make friends with you?" Rink asked.
-
//Fix'd. Smile\\
A blue sigil appeared in mid-air around Ein, and his wounds closed. There was still considerable damage, but that will heal itself soon.
-"I don't know who it was, and I'll be fine."
-
Alex and Otis got back to camp to see that no one was there.
"What the...Marshall. I'll kill him for this." Alex put the fresh fish down on the ground and looked to see what direction Marshall went in.
"There, footprints into the woods. Come on, Otis." Both human and headcrab began to nudge between the trunks of the thick trees, following Marshall's fresh footprints. Finally, a small opening between the trees was where Ein and Marshall stood. Some dense smoke hung in the air, as if an explosive had been detonated.
"What happened here? I got back to the camp with a load of freshly-caught fish and noticed there was no one there."
-
"Nice, huh? If you wanna call emitting gas that will kill on contact nice, then yeah, that guy is the nicest guy on Gaian." He chuckled and then put the sarcasm aside, curious about the little bot. "What's that thing do, anyway?"
-
Draven trailed behind the machine, wide eyed. These strange contraptions were even more foreign to him than the nonsense his alchemists worked on in Redvik.
The machine looked very distracted itself, so Draven took the opportunity to wander around. He noted the skeletons as he entered what appeared to be a laboratory, a thick layer of dust and grime coating the facility. Just how did such a place exist without his knowledge? Well, that was easy, given the desert entrance, with probably a host of illusionary spells cast upon it? And it was obviously not in use during his recent reign? But did Retan know about this place??
A loud door clanked, and the footsteps of the machine turned into a sloshing sound in the next room. Turning his attention back to Horus, Draven followed him through a half pried open doorway, but stopped at the edge, as there was some sort of strange liquid covering the entirety of the floor. Not wanting to get wet, he slowly hovered above the liquid, returning to Horus? side. Ripples formed underneath him, flowing in unison with the invisible force that kept him airborne, about a foot above the surface.
Could it be?
More war machines! How utterly delightful! He skimmed ahead of Horus, strafing in the air towards a heap of twisted metal. They seemed to be similar to the one he met outside, but very much in a state of disrepair? If only his alchemists could repair them, or at least learn their secrets?
Draven?s ambitious day dream was shattered when he felt a sudden forceful tugging at his legs. Looking down, he saw that the liquid had risen and formed around his boots, almost like a fist. He could feel the substance draining his energy? With a downward thrust of his palm, he hit the liquid with a blast of heated air, causing it to disperse into a plume of droplets and fall back down, freeing him. He in turn rose a few feet higher, shifting his eyes back and forth at this truly bizarre environment?
-
Zeros' waved at Tsu and Aura, as he used his ears to pick up on the group ahead of them's conversation. He tilted his head, hearing that the man had made... friends with Horus. He found this very strange. Very strange, indeed...
He knew there was something strange about this kid (Everyone was a kid to him, he was, after all, millions of years old. Give or take a few thousand). He had saw something vaguely out of the corner of his eye during the fight with that war machine. He might have to pick up his scanning abit earlier then he thought...
//Just a confirmation, Jenia. Kerig's companion is purely spiritual, right?\\
-
//Yes, 100% spirit until further notice Wink\\
Kerig laughed softly and cheerfully, almost giggling.
"Anyone will be nice to you if you are nice to them." He said "I'm sure of it!"
Kerig looked at the little bot in his hand. He thought of it to be extremely cute, even though it's metallic contruct was far from being the common "soft and fluffy".
"Hmm, I dunno...Maybe I can ask it to call the shiney guy for some tea sometime?"
--------------------
"Not as good as I'v hoped, but will suffice"
Afelan was no closing in on the nearby village. Stopping on a small wooden cabin's flat roof, Afelan noticed two villagers talking.
Listening in on their conversation, Afelan figured one of them to be not only the village medic and herbalist, but also the local innkeeper's daughter.
Afelan skimmed her from head to feet.
"Perfect"
The girl gave a small bottle to the other villager, apperantly a lumberjack (judging by his rough looks and the herbalist's comment on "staying away from trees"), and turned to go home.
A sinister smile has yet again covered Afelan's face.
-
Soadakke finally reached the shore. He wasn't alone anymore...
"Look, there are two boats here...I wonder who left them", Soaddake said.
"We can sell one of them and use the other, if you agree", the short, somewhat chubby man walking beside him suggested.
"Is the gold I gave you not enough? Besides that, we will need both boats."
"Are you saying I'm too fat to sit in your boat?"
"No...of course not."
They stopped near the boats.
"You will stay here, Eshom. You can only hinder my progress."
"Progress? I can walk faster, If that's what you mean."
"Umm..It is not just about walking. We will have to stop more times a day, buy more food...Just be here when I'm back - alone or not."
"Will you take me If I give to back half or your money? Hee hee hee..."
"I don't want it. You let me hide in your wagon, therefore you deserve the
payment."
"Fine. I won't come with you, but don't be surprised if you don't find me here."
"I won't be surprised..."
"So...On the last time, can you tell me...how much is one plus three?"
"Stop trying to be funny. It's four."
"That's right! Hehehe...Goodbye, your highness."
"Don't forget you can escape using the other boat if the soldiers come."
Soadakke put his bag in one of the the boats and pushed it into the water. He then jumped into the boat, sat down and started paddling.
20 minutes later Eshom had already left island, with the second boat; He was headed in another direction.
-
"That's a hard logic to live by my friend." Duilin replied to his 'anyone will be nice to you if you are nice to them.' little saying. "But you can just keep telling yourself that if you want to."
"Plus, I don't think the shiny guy would be much of a tea drinker." Duilin commented. "Seems more of a molten organic muscle tissue drinker."
"Anyways. So, Kerig, where did Draven and the machine go? It's important. We need to talk to Draven." Rink asked.
"Yes, and find more about that machine." Aegidius said. "It's either allied with Draven or plotting to kill him, I suspect."
-
Nick reached the town Aura and Tsu were previously at. He looked for a shop to get new clothes to replace the ones he was wearing for what seemed forever. He walked in browsing the store. He noticed ablack almost translusent shirt and dark grey pants. He took them to the shopkeeper. "I'll like to buy these."
"That will be 50 gold coins."
Nick reached into his pocket pulling out 50 shimering gold coins. He placed them in the shop keepers hand and as quickly as he did this he was gone.
-
//Xorlak: I was originally planning this complex to be built by the Crimsons, but it seems as though there is a lot that I have not known before. Reviving that idea now may not work, as Draven was oblivious to what this place is. Perhaps we could write it off to the Dark Empire? If yes, then what is the D. E.'s symbol?\\
The strange, temple-like build of the laboratory did not appear as something that scientists would create. Horus carefully inspected the channels on the walls. There was a small metal rim around the glowing tubes... why would it be there? Wouldn't the rock already give enough support for these pipes, whatever their purpose may be? Perhaps the rock was not here in the beginning, at all...
He bent closer towards the wall. Indeed, the stone had occasional seams in it. It was as if it was placed there after the construction of some sort of a frame, probably holding the ground and sand at bay from pouring into this facility. However, if this stone was the same material that his armour was built out of... this would be a very heavily-defended station. The cover of sand on top, perhaps an enchantment here or there, then this...! Nothing short of a meteorite would break this fortress.
As he was inspecting the wall, he heard... a sound. He leaned to the wall.
-"H...s... Th... help... ss... kill... tr... h...s... Draven..."
The voices were slowly fading. He followed the direction of the mysterious whispers, and started to make out some words.
-"Horus... you are the one... help us... kill Draven... he does not belong... You are the original... help..."
He lightly pushed himself off the wall. These must be just hallucinations. God knows what that transfer process did to his brain.
He went back into the main area, opened up the armour covering the hole in his stomach, and began reattaching the Conversion engine. The voices, which were but a silent whisper, suddenly turned into a booming roar.
-"He only came for the conversion engine!... He is low on energy! Attack!"
His head darted around to the wall behind him. Suddenly there was clicking everywhere, whining, groaning... It was like there was something moving behind these walls...
--- --- ---
"I began to grow fond of this tower. The Sizri district was, in fact, the only one I felt comfortable in anyway. The tower itself had a nice little study in it, a broad round table, with a few chairs around it. The shelves on the walls were groaning under the weight of the books pressing on top of them. I took out a few... "Curses and Other Enfeeblements", "School of Destruction for Noobes", "Binds and how to use them"...
I sampled the books by flipping a few pages. Most interesting... All these books taught spells use something called a "siphon", using the opponent's energy to cast your spells against the opponent... An intriguing read, while I wait.
Oh, of course. I forgot to mention that there is some sort of a lord coming to see me about... well, he wasn't specific, all he said was "property". I assumed he wanted to buy land from me, and I already started picking out potential spots. The most promising one, other than Asgarnia, was the town I assaulted earlier. This was the one with those pesky worms that I saw earlier fighting a mammoth machine. This particular town still had a relatively large amount of buildings standing, and build on a lone river in a desolate wasteland. All the occupants were gone... this meant both more and less problems for this buyer. On one side, he would encounter no resistance once he got there. On the other, he would need to populate this habitation himself... I wonder if he is up to the task...
I decided to read these tomes for a while, at least until my client decides to show up."
--- --- ---
Ein brushed his shirt off any remaining blood. This was nothing compared to the loss he experienced earlier...
He came back to the encampment.
-"No more distractions. Alex, Marshall, come help me."
-
"Help?" Marshall asked. "Help with what? The camp?"
He scratched his head and then followed Ein.
----
A horse pulled wagon, which seemed to be carrying something, either very big or something small but in a massive amount covered in a blanket, rode towards the gates of Sizri.
The cart was being pulled by a man who had a beard and was wearing...normal clothing (he's not important so you think of something, if you care about him that much). The passenger was a man, who looked like he was in his fifties, but still very fir and healthy. He was wearing a dark burgundy shirt, a black cape, dark green pants, and black leather boots, with a design of foliage on the sides. He had clean white hair and a short beard. He looked quite wealthy with no signs of any bad health to him, except around his eyes, he has bright green veins. Also if one were to smell his breath, they would smell a slight hint of poison. The expression on his face looked quite casual, like the sign of somebody important about to do some very important business. However if you asked anyone, nobody would be able to tell you who he was. In fact the driver of the cart was just paid to carry this luggage, and transport this man, he had only recently met this strange person.
The cart stopped in front of the gates, the iron wheels squealed as it came to a stop and the horse screeched and the driver wiped them to indicate them to stop.
The guards at the gate walked looked at each other in doubt. They have dealt with a lot of people claiming to be important, and they really don't want somebody to waste Kronos' time.
The strange well dressed man hopped from the cart, and stared at the two guards.
One guard, stepped towards the stranger, trying to look unimpressed, yet truly this stranger could purchase the man's rear end with the change in his pocket.
?What business do you have with the great Marshal of the Kandarinian Sovereignty?? The guard asked demandingly.
The stranger grinned and let out a slight laugh. The guard could smell his rancid breath from where he stood. ?My name is Theodore Vandrin.? He stranger spoke. ?I have come to buy a county of land from your Marshal.?
?Um?listen here. You?re not the first person to try this. If you think you?re so smart to pull of a stunt like this just to see our great Marshal, think again. Please do not waste our time.?
?I assure you, I am not wasting your time. I have truly come here to do buisness. He is expecting me.?
The guard was still in dis belief. Perhaps he stole this clothing, he was sure that somebody as well dressed as this would be able to have a better oral hygene. He rolled his eyes. ?Listen, our Marshal IS expecting somebody, but how do I know you're him, and not some well dressed bum trying to attack our leader. I'm not letting you in unless you can prove you are who you claim to be.?
?Is that so?? Vandrin asked. ?Come take a look at this.? He walked towards the back of the cart, and put his hand on the large blanket and beckoned the guard to come to him.
The guard took a deep breathed and walked towards the end of the cart.
Vandrin lifted up the blanket. The guard rubbed his eyes. Before him, was a huge ammount of gold, diamonds, gems, and tons of treasures, worth millions. Obviously this must have been stolen, but who cares? (Aslong as it wasn?t stolen from the soverinty) This is a fourtune we are talking about.
The guard smiled. ?Very well then sir.? He looked at the other guard. ?Open the gates, he checks out.?
Vandrin nodded and then hopped back onto the cart, back onto the passenger seat, displaying some impressive agility for his age.
The horses screeched again and the cart wheeled through the gates, untill they reached the tower of Sizri.
Vandrin hopped off the cart, and walked towards the end of it, and reached under the blanket. He pulled out a large bag, full of treasure. This would probably be enough to at least get this great Marshal?s attention.
The doors of the tower were opened for him.
He looked at the cart driver. ?You know what will happen if you leave, don?t you?? He said.
The cart driver gulped and nodded.
Vandrin then headed his way into the tower.
----
The door in Kronos? room was opened.
"Greetings oh great, Marshal of Kandarinian." Vardin says. "Sorry if I was late. Your guards seem to be a bit over protective of you. But seeing as you are a man of your position I can't blame them." He said, sounding respective but not to flattering or like a suck up. "So anyways, my name is Theodore Vandrin. I would like to buy a county of land from you. I would also like to purchase about one hundred slaves, and perhaps hire fifty guards. I will fully pay upfront for the costs, and I will give you my loyalty."
-
"Another pest...? I swear, when I get my hands on those guards....
Oh, it's him!
I put down my book, and listened to the Count's introductory speech. The little devil on my shoulder was constantly nudging at me to ask the Count when was the last time he brushed his teeth... however, the little angel on the other shoulder told me to keep this as formal as possible. I am a man of class, after all, and although this one may not have an empire like I, we are still monarchs.
-"Count Vandrin, I see." I was surprised how he didn't claim to be a heir for the Kandarinian throne. With a name like that, he'd fool most folks. "So, it is a county you desire? Why, I may have the perfect location in mind..."
I took a map of Terian off one of my shelves. I pointed to a very empty-looking barren.
-"Although it is not on the map, my troops have recently decimated a township in this area. Although it is not as big as one may have desired, it is bigger than most of the... filthy ghettoes that dare call themselves cities... Some buildings lay in ruins, but most still stand. What can I say, it's war!"
"I did not bother myself to find out its name... You can give it a new one when you arrive."
-"Also, as for the slaves: I have a good 10,000 lowlives stashed away somewhere in the mines. Since we are both men of rule, I will give you 200 as a gift. Likewise for the guards, I'd say about 75 Kandarinian Legionnaires, all armed with first-grade speargun weaponry will do. The township itself, however, will not come at such a small price..."
I looked at the Count with a sly smile. My Necromancer skills paled in comparison to my bargaining ones... however... Let us hope that the initial offer seals the pact."
-
(Ein: No problem, but PM me if you want to set things up in the future. Otherwise, I'll assume none of my characters have knowledge of it, unless it's obvious.)
Draven flew a bit away from the heap of scrap, some sort of markings on the far wall catching his eye. Floating over to the panel, he dusted off the rune like etching and moved back a little.
That would answer his question. Before him was the insignia of the Dark Empire etched into the wall: the four winged dragon outlined in a deep red against a diagonal sword. It was slightly disturbing to see it again after all this time, through it only differed slightly from his own insignia of the Crimson Empire. When he had risen to the throne five years ago, he only modified the insignia slightly, filling the dragon in with deep vermillion to symbolize improvement but retaining past superiority. This newer insignia bodly graced the back of his black cape. But he knew that he would be seeing the old version a lot more in the near future...
Draven was only half surprised at this. Retan had many secrets, that even as a High General, the second highest position in the Empire, he was left out on...
Suddenly the walls began to rumble-- Draven darted back next to Horus, finding that the machine was in the middle of repairing itself.
"I would have assumed this place to be more hospitable to you... More defense mechanisms?"
A dim aura of flame appeared around the floating man. If something did attack, that meant it was functional... Perhaps he could disable it without causing much damage?
-
"Not to sound egotistical, but I'd think the Vandrin County would actually sound nice." The count said, grinning.
The count grinned once more, as he was offered some extra minions for his county, and nodded.
"So you say it will not be at a small price. Well then." Vandrin then opens the large bag, revealing many gems and gold, enough to make any person rich. "This is only a fraction of what I have outside. I assure you that money will not be an issue with me."
"So, yes. As I am buying a county from you, I accept the fact I will also be expected to work for you. I actually would like this. Like you, I am a great leader, and a powerful man. I intend to not only build a 'civilization' under your law, modified with a few of my own 'additional' rules. I also plan to build a military establishment, to expand my territory, and also yours. Perhaps I could suggest, that If I ever, oh say conquer a small militia run village, perhaps sell it to you. I prefer to only have a small amount of land and I think we can both agree that money is a great form of power."
-
//Ach, pardon pardon... Well, what can I say? I'm still a newb Surprised) \\
"Despite the the foul, fetid stench slowly filling up my room, I could not agree more.
-"Yes. Other than some, er, direct methods, if you will, money is what helped me become me as you see me now - a leader of a great empire."
I peered into the bag. This was one of those few occasions when I felt that I am not surrounded by obsolete morons.
-"Hm, yes... I do believe we are on the same page, lord Count. Now, as for your proposition..."
His proposition was very close to home, but there were a few points I disagreed on - mostly of etiquette.
-"I am fair. You are buying that land, hence it is no longer mine, and hence my laws will have no effect upon your rule. However, I do think that perhaps an alliance of some sort would be greatly beneficial to both of us. You see, other than a few outposts here and there, and perhaps a capital centre, I have no plans of urbanizing Terian. I am taking over for two main reasons. One, because of raw materials. Two - the most important one - because I can."
I waited, for a dramatic pause.
-"Anyways, we may as well discuss this alliance now. I will supply you with troops, materials, and sustenance. You and your county will serve as a strategic hardpoint. I will put my complete trust in your command over my soldiers. You may claim the cities you conquer at your desire."
My eyes thinned, and I looked directly at the count.
-"But please... for the sake of your well-being and for the sake of my time, please do not try to backstab me... Believe me, my empire, although geographically small, is quite powerful..."
I sat down at the table. This was proving to be an interesting discussion.
-"Do we have a deal, lord Count?"
-
Othainan smiled grimly smiled as he swam, that is, if you can say the twitching and clicking of the mouth of an eel/shark hybrid is a smile smile. For that is what form Othainan had assumed for his long swim to the Kandarinian islands. Not large enough to attract attention, yet big enough to swim deep, and fast. After 2 days of swimming, he had finally entered the ring of islands that made up the sovereignty. But he was having trouble finding the correct island.
He was smiling about the thoughts of revenge that his mind was unable to abandon. After such a long time, revenge was finally in his grasp. All he has to do is...find the wretched island.
Othainan cursed the fog that surronded him as he swam on.
-
//Small reminder, Ein...Ein is POISONED and won't be able to move a muscle within moments of the stab...Unless you sigil also purified his blood as well?\\
Kerig stared at the group before him, confused.
"Erm, I think they walked into some invisible barrier over there" He said eventualy, pointing at what seemed to be the horizon.
"You better not bother them. They probably want privacy if they made an invisibility barrier..."
Kerig nodded to himself.
Only then he noticed that something is missing-Weloss.
---------------------
Under a cover of darkness, Afelon follows the innkeeper's daughter into her own home. During the stalking, Afelan noted that the village is much smaller than the village on the map-much smaller.
Assuming the map was simply wrong, Afelan sneaks into the local inn, a three story high redwood building with a big, round golden sign on it's door saying
"Flyby Inn".
Inside the inn, Afelan hid behind a grandfather clock and listened in to the conversion between the innkeeper and the herbalist.
Upon taking a closer look, Afelan noticed the Herbalist was wearing a strange, shining green shirt on an unknown material and a glittering yellow skirt. Although the sandlas she wore were a little bigger than Afelan's footwear, the rest of the sizes about matched.
"Perfect. All I have to do now is to find the right time and place..."
The rough-looking innkeeper suddenly got up from his stool behind the counter and went into a nearby corridor. Near the entrance leading there was a staircase, probably leading to the other 2 floors. But the Herbalist went inside the door behind the counter...And that's where Afelan will head to as well.
-
Vandrin nodded in agreement with most of what Kronos had said.
No backstabbing? Well, obviously anyone would say that. It never really crossed his mind until now. Before he came here, he had slain his best friends just to get the money. Sure he is upset with the loss, but the insane amount of money was more then enough to dry his tears. He thought he'd just put back stabbing off for a wile.
"You have nothing to worry about lord, Marshal." Vandrin replied.
"Yes I suppose this all sounds good. One last thing however, I don't suppose I could use a larger transport? I was in a horse pulled cart, and the smell of the horse was quite unbearable." He said, this would probably sound very hypocritical to Kronos.
"But yes, perhaps a larger vehicle of some sort, if any cost for them is needed, it's fine. Again, money is no problem."
-
Nick went to a near by inn and got a room. He changed into his new clothes and left the inn through a window and into a tree. He droped from the tree and ran out of the town.
-
The door leading to the corridor opened. About four machines, all modelled after different animals - the good old tiger one, a rhinocerous one, a crocodile one and a flying eagle one - emerged from the passage. They were all about twice as big as a normal human being, still dwarfed by Horus.
Horus, in turn, took out his maul, on the ready.
--- --- ---
-"Then we have a deal."
I smiled at Vandrin.
-"Do not worry about the transport. Just try to make it to Qim, I have arranged a servant to guide you there. The guards and slaves, as well as a few hyrdojump transports have been prepared for you. I expect to hear from you as soon as you make a good start with your city."
--- --- ---
//I don't remember you mentioning that you used poison on the dagger, but that just might be me, so free forgiveness plz Razz let's just assume that the poison was slow-acting\\
Ein suddenly grabbed his closed wound, and collapsed on the ground.
-"Ow... damnit... what's going on...?"
-
Soadakke was too tired to keep paddling. The waves pulled Soadakke's boat southwest; He decided to rest for a while, until the wind changes direction.
Soon enough, he fell asleep.
-
"County, Lord Marshal, county." Vandrin grinned. He left the large black treasure bag, and bowed upon his exit.
He walked through the tower towards the exit. He was quite proud of himself. He never really thought he'd ever get his place back as a rich tyrant count, but here he is, about to rebuild his life. He has allied himself with the most powerful nation on Gaian, and has probably gained a high rank in the Kandarinian Sovereignty, in just a brief period of time. Soon he will have his group of pawns, to boss around, give the people what they deserve...a life of pain.
He exited the tower, he saw his cart driver starring at him, trying to not act afraid, but hiding it terribly.
Just after he exited, a servant wearing the standard suit of the Kandarinian exited after him. //I'll just assume he was already on his way, just to save time.\\
"Lord, Count. Shall I guide you to Qim?" the servant asked.
"Yes. Let us go." Vandrin replied as he hopped onto the cart. He sided over, inviting the servant to hop in.
The servant climbed into the seat of the cart.
The driver snapped his whip at the horses, they screeched and then they were off...
-
Zeros' slowly sat on the ground, crossing his legs under him and folding his hand onto his knees. He pursed his lips into a thin line, as he started to concentrate more on the spiritual plane.
Slowly, he felt his awareness with the physical plane disappear. His sense of smell, touch, hearing... anything was almost completely gone, but his spiritual awareness was increased a hundred fold. He slowly looked around. Even through closed eyes, he could see auras clearly.
The trees gave off a shimmering green... the air a faint grey... almost unnoticeable... people gave off a viratey of different auras, depending on their moods. He slowly turned his senses towards Kerig, slowly scanning his aura for something... anything different...
//You get to decide what Zeros' sees. Razz\\
-
Draven folded his arms, floating a few feet higher as the animal-like war machines entered.
"You there! State what exactly it is you are doing in this facility, your purpose, and who is in charge..."
-
Nick sent a message to Kronos. So my lord what shall i do now? He continued out of the town back towards the scavanging party.
---
//I'll post bio when i get time.\\
Galak Was resting in a forest, looking up through the leaves and branches. He took he pack from his shoulder and took a peice of paper out with a symbol on it, meaning Galak in his language. He placed it on the tree and it bursted apart shooting splinters in the air.
//Any one thats near any forest can make it the one thats blowing up.\\
-
"So they don't want to be bothered eh?" Duilin said, rubbing his chin. He debated whether or not he should just jump into this invisible barrier anyway. He was quite curious about this machine and what Draven is doing with it.
"Well, let me think about this for a moment." Duilin said to Kerig.
----
Marshall looked at Ein in concern, as he grabbed his wound. "Ein! Are you okay?"
He looked at Alex. "Alex! Ein's hurt! We need to do something!"
-
-"Actually, Nick, I do have a small assignment for you. You are to regroup with Steorra in Asgarnia. From there on, you will be part of another colonization attack. However, this will not be an easy battle. It will be you and her against a city."
I relaxed a little. Now I was truly the nexus of of all events in Kandarin, and perhaps even more. And to tell you the truth, I did not really like it. Perhaps it is time to do something in the field, and flex that arcane muscle of mine.
The books, it seems, were perfect for my preparation for the said event. They included many spells which I have never used before. In fact, I haven't used anything other than Necromancer spells, and a change of pace, so to say, was quite welcome."
--- --- ---
The cart sped through the thin streets of the Qim sector. Qim was very comparible with the slums of an industrial city: tall, monotone, silent buildings, covered in rust. The buildings were made of iron, it seemed, and were for the most part of a rectangular shape. This sector was the oddest one of all four districts in Kandarin. The entire architecture of all of the buildings vividly contrasted with the stone pyramidic edifices seen in Jovil.
The servant urged the horses. Qim was even more of a mystery to Kandarinian citizens than Sizri. The only movement here was seen from clockwork mechanisms doing maintenance work on the buildings. No one saw anyone enter or leave the buildings. Ever.
Apparently, some kind of intellectual life forms operated the buildings from inside. Who and what they were remains a closely-guarded secret, known only to the highest-ranking staff.
The cart approached the docks. Eerie silence broken only by occasional waves hitting the piers created a very tense atmosphere. A few hydrojump transports were present, all loaded with slaves and troopers. An empty one was standing by, reserved for the count. A servant was at the helm, ready to go.
-"We are all set, sir. We may depart when you board."
--- --- ---
The machines did not make another sound, attacked. Two of them, the rhinocerous and crocodile, pounced at Horus. The eagle one and the tiger one, on the other hand, dove for Draven.
Horus was still attaching the engine. Time, time... Never enough... he would need at least five more minutes before it is safe for him to act...
--- --- ---
Ein was curled up on the floor.
-"Marshall... Alex... Wat...er..."
His eyes slowly closed, and he stopped twitching. He was still breathing, though, and his skin started to turn reddish in some areas.
--- --- ---
Steorra peered at the city below her, being overrun by Kronos' soldiers. Perhaps soon, when Kronos took over Gaian, she would sit next to him, the Marshal of Kandarin... no... the Marshal of the World...
She thought back a little. Back when Vincent was alive. Back when she was so scared of Kronos... and for little reason. Kronos would never harm her, which was obvious to her now. Either it was because he was lusty for her body, which was the most plausible explamation at the moment... or he truly had feelings for her. She could not imagine why; he had not even known her for that long...
-
"Alex! He needs water! Get him water! I'll keep an eye on him!" Marshall demanded. He kneeled down, and patted him on the back.
It would probably be best if he was left him on his side, so in case of vomiting, he wouldn't drown on it.
Marshall patted Ein on the back. "Don't worry Ein! We'll help you. Don't you die on us!"
----
Count Vandrin, hopped out of the cart. He looked at the driver. "Help me carry the sacks into the cargo hold, and then you can go." He said.
The driver nodded and then climbed of the cart. They both carried the remaining sacks of treasure into the hydrojump, the occasional gold coin fell to the ground, but wasn't even bothered to be picked up. Vandrin could probably retire with this money. He was old enough; then again he hasn't finished his plans.
After the sacks of money were in the hydrojump, Vandrin looked at the strange machine. He never saw anything like this. This Sovereignty was quite advanced. Maybe a bit too advanced to be safe, but as an alley, it would prove very useful for him.
Vandrin, nodded and then stepped into the hydrojump...
----
"You know what. Screw it." Duilin snapped. "I was just minding my own business, enjoying MY privacy and then that machine came up and started shooting at us!"
"Yeah, and?" Rink asked.
"Well, why should I respect its privacy when it didn't respect our privacy much less our lives." Duilin answered. He then rolled down his sleeves. "I don't know about you kids, but I'm going to go down." He looked at the others. "Actually. Rink you stay here. Keep an eye on this guy." He pointed to Kerig. "Xenai, Aegidius, if you want to come down then wait until I send you a telepathic message saying it's safe down there."
"I'd rather just stay here." Aegidius replied.
"Good." Duilin said back. He then saluted the others and then jumped backwards, into the invisible barrier. Expecting to sink under the sand...
Instead he smacked into the ground butt first into the ground. He rubbed his forehead in embarrassment. "Heh.." He stood back up. "Must, um. Be over here."
He then took a few steps to left, and then he vanished...
----
Duilin found himself?basically in the same place he was before. Except now there was some sort of aperture below him. Except for the fact that it was closed.
"Great, this totally ruins the moment." Duilin thought to himself. "Here I am TRYING to be heroic, but I'm blocked off by a friggin' metal door?" He looks around. "And I can still friggin' see everyone. What the hell? Am I destined to be left at the tail end of the action?"
Duilin tried opening the aperture, by pulling it open, but only accomplished pulling his arm muscles. "Sonofa.." He then examined the aperture a bit more. If he could get a huge blast, and I mean one mean shot, he could blow that hole right open. Perhaps if he got some help he could do it.
In his right hand he began to gather his energy and then he sent a message to Xenai. "Hey, it's uh safe. But, why don't you come help me out with something here?"
-
Yes I'll get there right away. He ran towards the direction of Asgarnia. "Steorra.....I know that name from somewhere."
---
Galak took another peice of paper out of the pack and placed it on a rock, smashing it to peices. "Gla sna for ma!" He chuckled as he said he had all the power he needed. His pack was filled with mysterious things such as trinkets and spells he gathered from his trips.
-
Kerig slowly sat down and looked around. He couldn't pick up Weloss anywhere using his pineal gland (AKA "inner eye") so he closed his eyes, now ignoring the newcomers.
Because of their special bond, it was much easier to track Weloss. After a few moments of thin auric line following, Kerig found Weloss observing something strange.
-"Weloss, what are you doing?"
-"Researching. Don't worry, I'll tell you everything later...Keep your guests busy in the meantime.
Confused, Kerig opened his eyes.
//He would probably see something of a random pulsating pure auric color with dark-shark thingies embedded in it. Maybe it would also look torn in some spots?\\
-
Xenai snickered at Duilin as he smacked himself. A few moments later, he recieved the telepathic message. Alright, I'm comin'. He tried to go through the barrier, but just smacked himself. "Dammit!" He moved over a bit, and then got it right. He noticed the door, and Duilin gathering energy. "Ah, I get it." He started charging up some energy as well.
--- --- ---
"Duilin and Xenai just vanished..." said Tsu.
"I'm starting to become a little curious," said Zion. He looked to Zeros', whom he noticed was quite focused on something else. "Hey, what's wrong?" Of course, he didn't know that he wouldn't be able to hear him.
-
"Blast it!"
Draven shot straight up into the air, narrowly dodging the metallic tiger's pounce. But at the same time, the metallic bird was upon him, razor-sharp talons extended. Draven extended his right hand upward, as the talons descended, a mere few inches from Draven's palm...
A bright flash of red, and a thundering explosion followed. The metallic gold bird machine shot skyward, slamming into the facility's ceiling, causing stones to become dislodged and pepper the ground. Draven flew backwards, landing on a balcony some 5 feet higher than Horus's head, his boot clanging on the metal floor as he continued watching the aerial machine he smashed into the ceiling. Wedged in the ceiling, there seemed to be some violet runes glowing about it's body...
Did that thing just absorb his attack?!
Before he could react, Draven was pinned face down on the floor. The tiger-like machine-- several times larger than a real tiger-- had it's massive claw upon his back. Draven spun around, dislodging the claw and lying upon his back, and brought his hands up before him to catch the thing's massive jaws before they could snap into his head... With his left hand on the bottom jaw, and his right hand on the upper, he struggled against the metallic beast, instinctively flaring his burning aura to a bright crimson. However, violet runes appeared on this machine as well, and the increased temperature seemed to have minimal effect...
Finally, with a swift kick to the stomach, the huge machine was sent three feet into the air. It was just enough... Draven sprang upward as his aura disappeared, condensing and swelling into his forearms. His muscles bulged as he reared his fist back and delivered a crushing right hook to the machine's jaw. The thing flew backwards wailing off of the balcony and crashing into a heap of junk on the other side of the room...
Draven took a second to breath, as the metallic bird swooped upon him from behind...
-
"Yeah." Duilin said to Xenai, as he continued to charge energy, a bit of golden light appeared around his hand. "So, when I say now blast your energy right at this metal door."
-
//I do apologize, been busy lately. Hope Ein's not dead from poison yet.\\
"All right, I'll be right back. Come on, Otis."
He and Otis took a container from the camp and immediately returned to the river to get water. While on the way, Alex consulted Otis (if it could be called that) about poison.
"Otis, you're a poison headcrab, what do you know about Ein's condition?"
Otis emitted a series of chirps and squeaks, as if Otis actually understood what Alex had told him. Unfortunately, the same was not true for Alex.
"Erm...damn," Alex muttered as he filled the container with fresh flowing water. "I need a way to actually understand you. If only... Gah. I doubt it's anything special."
Otis made a questionable chirp, as if asking what Alex was talking about.
"Well, everytime I grab an item or possession that belongs to someone else, my head starts buzzing...it's almost as if I can see something else while I do it...like I'm seeing in that person's perspective. It's very hazy, I can hardly make it out. Come on, we've got to get this water to Ein."
Human and headcrab returned to where Ein lay almost motionless. Every now and then he would make a quiet gurgling sound followed by some labored breathing. Alex handed the water off to Marshall, who immediately administered it. While Marshall was helping Ein to water, Alex turned back to Otis, whispering to him just barely audible.
"Otis...there has to be something of yours that I can have, maybe if I can do this weird thing, I can understand you... Wow, that sounds crazy, doesn't it?"
Otis paced back and forth slowly on his four spindly legs, chirping occassionally, looking at Ein, and then continuing to pace. He was clearly thinking about how to help Ein. Were headcrabs supposed to be this intelligent?
Alex left Otis to think and turned back to Marshall.
"Well, how is he?"
-
"Alrighty then, pal." He could feel how dense the energy was becoming. It started to crackle. He pointed his hand at the door, the energy orb suspending itself in front of his hand. "Whenever yer ready, jus' say it!"
-
Zeros' heard some vague buzzing in a corner of his mind, indicating that someone was talking to him. He ignored it, though. He scanned Kerig's aura, a frown slowly appearing over his face.
Kerig's aura was a pulsing and pure, but there were several dark shapes imbedded into it... To him, it also looked like there were several tears in it. He shook his head slowly, coming out from focusing on the spiritual world.
He blinked severalt imes and look up at Tsu.
"Huh? What was that?"
-
Deep within the bowels of Hell, a figure sat motionlessly on a throne, made of piles of human skulls. Hell was in disarray; demons everywhere were blabbering about some 'revolution', they called it... this must not be... especially not with his new plan...
The shadowy figure of his was sitting so still for so long that one could mistake him as a statue. However, today appeared to be an exception...
With many loud cracks, his head slowly turned around, to look at the flames of Hell erupting from the endless abyss beneath. Since his throne was on the tallest of towers in Hell, he could see everything everywhere. Demons, all armed with something, it seems, were advancing upon his summit.
-"Today... war..."
-"Down..."
Some voices were making their way up to even the top of the tower, which his old ears could barely distinguish. So they want war, do they? They will get it, then.
He barely even twitched, and with lightning-fast speed, he simply appeared in the midst of the demons. They immediately backed off, growling, scowling, clutching their weapons.
-"It is a simple question: do I want an explamation, or shall heads roll now?"
Instead of an answer, one of the larger demons let out a blood-chilling roar, and charged at him. The mammoth club that the demon was wielding, though, did not quite reach his hood - it stopped about an inch from it. The demon was also as still as him, although his expression of fury was still burning with the previous rage.
-"Appears as though you have taken the latter choice. Very well."
The gargantuan demon rose into the air. He only looked at the demon; and the entire crowd around him watched in horror as the hellion was being twisted into a tight coil, eventually exploding into a rain of guts and blood, covering the crowd.
Other demons were frozen by this act. He, however, was angry.
-"Now, you follow."
He slightly tapped his staff on the brimstone. The stone around him bent in, making a dent beneath him. The hole was progressing very slowly, as if with great effort. At the same time, sound comparable to a very large piece of steel being bent resonated through the crowd.
Then, an enormous tidal wave of something, warping the very reality, exploded around him and swept the whole crowd of demons away. That's all it did, it simply sent them away... down into the apocalyptic void beneath. Never to be seen again.
With a deep sigh, he inspected the area. There was one more demon left, groaning by a tall pillar, holding up his tower. He slowly approached the demon.
-"What say I. A survivor."
The demon scowled at him, and silently muttered:
-"This is a holy war... Down with Iban, son of Qor..."
He was taken aback, the first time in his life.
-"So this is what this is... this matter must surely be investigated..."
Without any further words, he turned to the tower and left the demon. The demon, however, didn't lie still for long: after a horrible expression of agony, the demon's hand slowly rose. It was shaking, as if the demon was struggling with some force over the control of the arm. The clawed limb turned towards the chest.
-"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The demon's heart was clenched in the clawed hand, still beating and spurting the demon with blood. The demon's head dropped to the side.
Iban was now at the top of his tower, arriving as swiftly as he disappeared. This was a situation that had to be dealt with, especially on the wake of very important... events... coming up...
The foolish Nightshade. Felix was his primary target, up until the feeble structure of the cave collapsed on him. Iban was, of course, in no danger - the person that the Nightshade perceived as him was nothing but a mere projection. There was no way that, without a good host, Iban could ever truly escape Hell.
//I'm guessing since Haraldur only took one or two posts to organize his big hell revolution, I could end it in one or two posts as well. Especially since he isn't here.\\
-
Nick was near Asgaria. He checked his pocket for any loose coins. He contiued moving.
//i'll post more when i have time.\\
-
(Heh...)
----
"Where have you been?"
Gazing upon the dark ground on one knee, Jayce spoke in his deep accent:
"Around."
"What did I tell you?" Retan slowly turned his dark throne. The lizard Prime Minister at his side backed away, not wanting to get caught in between.
"Forgive my boredom, father. But I was just scouting the continent ahead... It seems it is in much dissaray."
"Your boredom would be better quenched organizing the Vi'zar..."
The Vi'zar was the name the Dark Emperor gave to the hordes of artificially grown lizard warriors brought from the depths of Mizar. By now there were thousands amassed outside of North Point, the terrain seemingly killed by their very presence The sky crackled with dark lighting, and the sea sprayed green foam... It's color changed to a murky dull olive...
"Yes, of course..."
Jayce spread his arms and bowed, making his way to the door.
The lizard Gral waited a moment after he left.
"My lord, a question if I may. Why the alliance with the Kandarinians? They are human filth, like those that inhabit the rest of the world..."
He spat the word 'filth', his tongue slipping between his pointed teeth.
"There is a Lich on that island..."
Gral was taken aghast. "A lich?! The records state the nation is ruled by a necromancer... You don't mean--?"
"Yes."
"But there is a one in ten thousand chance of the ceremony--"
"The chances are improved if performed by one of great skill..." The Dark Emperor mused. "I would very much like to see what this... Kronos... can do..."
"But milord, he was a human... just like--"
"A Lich is far from human. And if he is a Lich, then his subjects will not be human for long..."
Retan turned, the chair rotating to the glowing orb in the center of the room.
"And I am down one High General..."
Retan's helmet turned towards the lizard, the crimson eyes piercing...
"Speaking of which... Draven has not reported, though my return should have been obvious. Send a dispatch to find him..."
-
Duilin gathered up more energy. There was an orb of energy the size of a baseball in his hand. "Almost Xenai, just get ready for it." Duilin said.
----
The hyrdojumps then blasted off towards the northern shore of Terian.
Vandrin looked a little surprised with the sudden jump of them. But quickly relaxed as the boat sped quickly through the water.
----
Marshall helped Ein drink the water down. "Yeah, he looks pretty bad, he may not make it, but if we give him the proper help, I'm sure he'll be fine." He said as he looked at Ein. "Okay, Alex, do you think that there may be a near by town, maybe with an apothecary we can get to, or perhaps at least somebody who knows about poison?"
-
Ein's sickly-red skin continued to deepen in colour. Very small, but visible openings began to pop up everywhere on his skin. Black oily liquid seeped through the holes. Perhaps this was not the intended effect of the poison, but perhaps the poison itself served as a catalyst to something in Ein's system.
The black oil poured down on the ground, melting all the life it touched.
--- --- ---
Steorra sighted Nick in the distance. What could he be doing here? She flew over to the speeding figure.
-"Hello, I believe I know you from somewhere... You're Nick, right? Why are you here?"
--- --- ---
"Reading "School of Destruction for Noobes" was definately a great pastime. The process of casting a fireball was particularly intriguing:
"1. Stretch hand in front of chest. Open palm."
Holding the book with one hand and stretching my other one directly in front of me, I complied.
"2. Concentrate arcane powers in palm. A tiny spark should appear."
I closed my eyes, and channeled my energy to my palm. A bloodied skull appeared on my hand, its brains seeping through the eye sockets, undoubtedly runing my great robes. Hilarious.
Carefully landing the book on the table, I threw the skull into the air and gave it a good kick. The skull was sent flying across the room, and right out the window. A nasty "crack" followed.
I tried again, this time instead of using my Necromancer powers, I attempted to imagine a comet burning in my hand. My hand turned red, but otherwise I did not have much success. Bah! To hell with this stupid fireball. Let's try something simplier.
I flipped back to the table of contents. Let's see...
"P. 2 - Don't read this
P. 4 - Simple things even a noobe should know
P. 6 - The four elements - Hotness, Wet stuff, Dirt, and 'that other one'
P. 12 - The REAL four elements - Fire, Water, Earth and Air
P. 20 - Casting that first lightning bolt
P. 53 - The NEXT LEVEL - Casting the Fireball"
Oh, grand. I missed more than 50 pages. Well, I suppose it's back to the lightning bolt for me...
I flipped to page 20. A strange illustration depicting a positively triangle-headed man being stuck by a lightning was the first thing that caught my attention. He had a rather surprised look on his face, and his hair seemed to stand up. I looked down to find the steps.
"1. Hold hand in front of self. Close palm."
I complied, feeling a bit dumb.
"2. Letting the power flow through your fingers, slowly open palm.
(http://http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9057/stringgd8.jpg) Remember! As outlined in "Things even a noobe should know", be very careful not to shake your hand too much. A beginner's power may be unstable, and could go off in the wrong direction!"
This time trying not to draw power from my Necromancer reserves, I thought of energy flowing freely through myself. I even felt that sort of sensation, as if I were a hose that water was pumped through.
Taking my sight off the book, I glanced at my palm. It was shaking. Very carefully, I opened it up a little...
There were small arcs of electricity zapping in between my fingers, as if a dome! I did it!
Someone knocked at the back door. Without looking behind me, I yelled out "come in!"
-"My Marshal... there is something you need to know..."
Recognizing one of my advisors' voices, I turned around and held up my accomplishment.
-"Am I great or am I great, Necirrejel?"
-"You are truly a blessing, my Lord... however... the Mervanians are acting up..."
The force of the latter statement felt like a punch in the face. Before I knew what I was doing, I exclaimed:
-"WHAT?!"
Drowned by choking surprise, completely forgot about the power accumulated in my hand. Without realizing it, my palm opened up completely. Necirrejel barely dodged the incoming lightning, which blew a respectable hole in the wall behind him.
-"It's a good thing that your wife keeps the Bintmeat in her highest shelf, Necirrejel, otherwise all that lard of yours would be just as roasted as the rest of you. Surely you wouldn't want to burden me with reviving another corpse? Besides, having a hole in the middle of yourself is totally out of fashion, even amongst my non-living citizens..."
Necirrejel blushed and said nothing.
-"Yes... anyways, back to that Mervanian situation we were talking about... What was so direly important as to disrupt me from my studies?"
-"I'm sorry, my Lord... but they say that if we do not provide them with sufficcent pigfish by Noyabr, they will leave..."
I took a deep sigh of relief.
-"Well, what's the problem, then? Assemble the fishermen, and get to it!"
-"My Lord... the fishermen are too starved to fish... I checked myself..."
-"Ah, is that the case, now. Well, tell them that if they don't catch enough pigfish, food will be the least of their worries. Meanwhile, subtly triple their pay."
-"Triple?... Yes, my Lord..."
-"Of course. In fact, Nova Sanctum is coming up, isn't it?"
-"Yes, my Lord... In four days..."
-"Oh my. Make that six times their pay. Increase everyone else's by three, for at least two months. Also, cancel all executions due this week."
-"You seem generous, my Lord... may I inquire why?..."
-"You may not. Now get lost, or the next bolt isn't going to miss."
-"Of course, my Lord..."
The chubby man hurried out of the room, while I picked up my book and continued reading."
--- --- ---
Horus finished attaching the cords to his new Conversion engine. He grumbled with satisfaction as he heard the initiating hum.
Just then, he noticed the blurry golden streak, heading right for Draven. Giving his maul a nice spin, he slammed it right on top of the mechanism, just before it reached the Emperor. Considering the weight of the maul and the speed of the moving eagle machine, this feat would never be even dreamt of by a normal human being.
-
Othainan had finally found the correct island. After searching for what seemed like an eternity, he bumped into the island. Literally. Still in his eel/shark form, he flopped up onto land and quickly morphed into a fly. You can never tell what is watching.
Glad to be out of the water, Othainan began flying twords the city. Twords his vegence.
-
A while has passed since Soadakke woke up and found his boat safely on the
shore...He has been travlling through the continent since. As he walked, he came upon a village. "maybe there is someone who can help me at the inn", he thought.
Smiling to himself, Soadakke quickened his pace.
-
He connected his wrists and pulled them back, focusing the energy across his palms and concentrating it even more. He was ready to go whenever he needed to, but some extra bang never hurt anyone.
--- --- ---
Tsu pointed to Zion, who then spoke. "You looked like you were distracted by something. Is something wrong?
-
"Okay..." Duilin said slowly, the energy ball was about double the size it was before. Xenai and Duilin's blast might not even open the door, alone, yet together they should for sure blast that thing open. "...Ready...and...NOW!" He shouted. He then blasted the golden energy right at the aperture below him...
----
Marshall backed up. "Oh my god..." He gasped as the oil leaked from Ein. He nearly believed that Ein was dead. "W-What is that?" He asked sounding scared.
----
"I wonder how Xenai and Duilin are doing." Rink asked.
"Me too." Aegidius replied.
"So, Kerig. Do you really believe that you can make friends with a machine?" Rink inquired. "I mean, how do you know if it even has a soul? Like, it's a machine."
----
The hydrojumps arrive at the shoreline of the Dark Continent. The soldiers, servants and Vandrin exit the hydrojumps.
The group then goes on foot towards Vandrin's new land.
-
"Haaaa!" He unleashed the energy wave upon the door, a simultaneous release with Duilin.
-
"Yes, Lord Kronos sent me....Im guessing your Steorra." Nick said as he was confronted by the woman. "So what is the status on the city?" Nick felt like more of a man now, Unlike his teenage self.
-
Draven turned just in time to lose his balance as the golden bird slammed into the ground below the balcony, a heap of broken metal shards scattering about. He did not have time to thank the machine, for as he spun around to face it, the silver plated megalithic rhinoceros was in a full charge at the machine's left leg from behind. Draven leapt straight over Horus, the balcony he was upon crumbling from the force of the maul, and planted an airborne kick straight in the offending metallic creature's temple. Though the thing's armor was thick, the angle of the attack was unnatural enough to twist the automaton's neck sideways as it lost balance and toppled over, causing more tremors...
----
A black specter flew from the highest tower of North Point, circling the edifice once before shrieking to the south, over the hordes of Vi'zar assembled below...
This dark messenger, the wraith swooped through the skies at breakneck speed, smelling out it's target so that it may deliver its message and leave this cursed world of the sun.
Draven... Draven... must find Lord Draven...
-
Zeros' blinked again and shook his head. Damn. He hated doing that. Oh well.
"It's just that kids aura, is all..." he said, pointing towards Kerig. "It looked.. strange. It was pure, but it had black shapes fluxuating in it, as well as tears... I have a look for yourself."
-
Zion looked over that-a-way, and focused. "...I see it, too..."
"Tsu, how do I-...?"
He looked to her. "Well, just look at him... And just focus on the energies around him. You can't see them, but they're there. Focus on them and they'll appear."
"Alright..." She looked to the boy, and did as her lover told. "...! I see it."
-
Kerig looked around. Some people nearby were suddenly gone from his view, while others were noted as watching from a safe distance. Kerig did not care for it much, however, and returned to his rest.
---------------
Weloss was wondering in a strange place now...A place full with a perfect display of the soul system on it's edges.
His research was about to come to an end. The research he had to start over for over a hundred trillion times due to complete loss of all info was about to bear it's fruits at last...
Yet Weloss was not excited. He was silently watching what he suspected to be undead roaming all around him...
Yes. Some of them seemed to lack something. Something which shines both in borth and in death. Something which shone brightly somewhere in the distance above all those suspected as undead...
Yet, upon a closer inspection, all of them had that in small amounts...Amounts so thinly spread, it looked as if such a being could crumble with a single strike if a weak point is hit, even lightly. And some did indeed seem to crumble, but somehow...Somehow, they were put back together.
Weloss noticed thin lines stretching from the brighter one noted earlier whenever one crumbles. It was as if they depend on him...
It does seem to be the key. With that, they move. With that, they extend their power and themselvs...
And yet, Weloss did not know how to gain it or imbue it within himself. Any attempt to directly contact it were pointless - it did not react to Weloss.
Perhaps, he wondered, the brighter one may be of use, as he seems to imbue many others quite often...
But he only imbued his own shimmer and only very little. It could be very much pointless to try.
Weloss was now closer to the brighter one, and was examining it for any other special differences besides that bright shimmer...
He noted nothing special but a personal crimson aura, indicating that whoever that person may be, they are either cruel or currently angry at something.
Weloss continued to watch silently.
---------------
Afelan cought the girl in her room by suprise, but it was too late for her. The only reaction she was quick enough for was having her eyes widen.
"Too easy."
Taking out a strange, slimy green scroll, Afelan mutters a few words as the scroll is placed on the girls face.
The scroll suddenly begins to shine, and soon the girl's corpse, including the scroll and any bloody stains left on the bedroom rug, vanished, leaving nothing but a strange looking pile of tan-colored slimy gel pile.
Afelan picked up the gel and rubbed it on the white mask, which quickly fused with Afelan's face, making it seem like the dead girl's one.
"Even her own father will not see the difference..."
Afelan sat down on the (suprisingly) rather soft cloth covered hay bed, only now bothering to closely examine the room.
It was not too big. It had the door which Afelan came from facing a large closet, near which stood a long square table. All seemed to be made from redwood.
A window was facing the bed Afelan was sitting on, under which, on the floor, lied a pile of small sacks, each marked for different herbs in them. There seemed to be a wooden doll stuck under the closet, but Afelan paid it no mind.
Afelan wondered is there was anything missed, knowing that the target shall soon be here...
-
The aperture was blown apart, as the two blasts smashed through and into the ground below. The pieces flew about, but away from our heroes of course.
As the smoke cleared, Duilin and Xenai could see the area below them, with a few pieces of the door on the ground.
"Well, I guess the only thing left to do is go in." Duilin stated. He hopped down through the opening and onto the floor below him. He crouched down as soon as he landed and slowly stood upright. He stretched and he examined the area it was quite interesting. There were strange yet nice looking symbols along the walls. He walked forward a bit examining the area around him further.
In the distance he could hear the sound of clanging metal. In the same direction he could sense the aura of Draven in battle. "Okay, Xenai. Looks good, lets get to Draven now." He then walked towards Draven's aura, was he fighting the machine they battled earlier, or something else?
----
The large group of Vandrin and his newly hired workers and warriors continued their way towards the Count's newly bought county...
-
Ein continued to lie motionlessly while the black acid scorched the area around him. Interestingly, though, the liquid did not seem to hurt him.
Soon enough, however, the strange fluid burnt the ground down enough so that Ein turned out to be in a sort of a pit. He completely submerged under the surface of the black oil. The surface itself hardened in literally moments, becoming virtually indestructible.
-
Xenai jumped in after him, landing expertisely and taking a look around. He could feel it too, Draven was pretty into it. He walked forward with Duilin toward the battle. "Wha' th' 'ell is this place?"
-
A young man was standing next to the inn's enterance.
"Are you Soadakke?" He asked.
"How...how did you know?"
Soadakke was astonished, since nobody left his island before him.
"Have we met before?" Soadakke asked.
"No...someone is waiting for you. Follow me."
The man took Soadakke to a small house. An old lizardman was sitting inside, next to a wooden table.
"I found him. I'll be waiting outside", the young man said and went outside.
"I have a message for you, Soadakke", the old lizardman said.
"But...first tell me who you are and how you found me...it seems you already know who I am."
"I am Hoshekahol and as you can see, I'm a lizardman. Some of the lizardmen have telepathic abilities...Another lizardman wanted to tell you something and decided to do it through me. My memory is not good like it used to be, so I wrote the message." He handed Soadakke a small piece of paper. Soadakke read the message:
'Please come back, your highness. You will not get your land back without me, and I will not survive here without you...we should work together. There's a lot to do here, since you do not even have an army."
"If you can please tell that lizardman I'm not planning to come before I find people who can help me", Soadakke said.
"Rillem will help you find them."
"Rillem? The guy who took me to this place?"
"Yes. Be aware to the fact the people here have their own problems, and...good luck."
"Thanks, I'll remember that."
Soadakke went outside. "I'll help you find allies. Don't worry about finding me...I'm sure we'll meet somewhere. Bye", Rillem said.
"Bye." Soadakke replied.
Soadakke and Rillem then left the village, each took his own direction.
-
Marshall took a few steps backward. He picked up the wood pole he had before, he didn't know what to expect from this, and he felt a bit safer with it...
"Ei..Ein?" He stuttered, still a bit scared from all of this. "Answer me."
----
"I'm not sure." Duilin replied. "But clearly it's some sort of secret bunker." He continued walking down the hallways.
"These symbols look like the ones on the machine." Duilin said, as he walked close to wall. "This is a total shot in the dark here, but I'd say this would be where mister shiny guy came from."
He then walked a bit faster. "Come on, let's find Draven."
-
Zeros' nodded and observed Kerig once more.
"Yes... What can this mean? I've never seen anyone who's aura looked like this before, not even Draven... Retan's or the darkest of demons... It's pure, but dark at the same time, while also being torn in places..." he muttered to himself.
-
Xenai sped up as well. "As long as Mr. Shiny's with us, it's a-ok. If he's with Draven, and Draven's still with us, then Mr. Shiny's with us. Just like those tests you gotta do for the higher education." He smirked as he pretended that he knew something.
--- --- ---
"Heh..." Tsu smirked. "Is it really all that surprising? Take a look at mine..." One would see if they looked, a perfect mix of light and darkness. Zion and Aura did so. They were both somewhat astonished.
-
"Um...Kerig? Did you hear me?" Rink asked.
"Excuse me." Aegidius said to Kerig in a loud voice. "Is everything all right?"
----
"Well, the thing is Xenai." Duilin explained, as he continued walking. "I don't trust Draven. I'll admit I've had some trust for the guy during our alliances, sometimes. But what I'm worried about is that maybe he'll find that machine good enough to 'replace us' as allies."
"Like, that machine is obviously insanely powerful. It took all of us to put up a fight for it, and we still didn't even beat the thing. As scary as this sounds, but that thing is possibly more powerful then all of us combined.
?But I may not go as far to say that, since both Rink and Zeros' say that I have potential to perform more powerful techniques then I normally do." He turned his head and looked at Xenai and grinned. "I'm sure you, and others do too. Heheh."
He then looked back in front of him. "Another thing, about Draven using this machine against us, is because well, after we defeat Retan and Jayce, then what? Like, we just go back to fighting or maybe he's afraid he might start liking us afterwards. That may ruin his reputation, if he had friends. Like, a few days ago at the Crimson Palace, I think, I may have over heard Draven offering Zeros' the position of high general. He of cource turned that down."
"But he might want to have us stick around for awhile. But let's face the facts; even if Draven wants us to help him fight Retan and Jayce then after they are defeated he's going to use that machine on us. Either that, or he'll use it on us now. I don't think all of us would survive a fight against Draven AND that machine." He then walked a bit slower. "But then again, I could be wrong." 'I hope' "But that's why we're down here; to ask what he's up to." He then contined walking at his former, faster pace.
-
"Oh!"
Kerig was somewhat suprised when he heard Rink talking to him.
"No, sorry, I completly missed it..."
Kerig tilted his head to the left and scratches his right ear.
"I was just...Wondering about something."
Kerig stood up and looked at the horizon.
"I wonder if Weloss is done yet..."
"Yes, I am." A voice replied within his head.
Kerig's expression changed into his usual smile.
-"Welly! How was it?"
-"Not quite what I expected... But I think I found a way."
-"You did!? Really!?"
-"Quite. But first, your friends wanted to ask you..."
Kerig quickly turned to Rink, raising his pointer finger into the air.
"Right! Of course we can make friends with it! I mean, sure, it has no soul, but it was nice enough to give me a present!"
Kerig lowered his hand and put both his arms behind his back.
"Surely a being with the ability to be kind can be made friends with..."
Kerig turned to look at the sun above, sighed and then asked-
"By the way, do you guys know where can I find this Crow-Nose person?"
-
The monotonous ticking of the mechanical clock on the wall was suddenly disturbed by rasping knocks on the chamber door. An amazingly useful device, this mechanical clock was. A simple concept, but intricately complex in design, its tiny gears propelled in continuous, consistent motion by the tiny crystal embedded within. It was the perfect balance of technology and magic, the enchanted stone empowering the inner workings of the device, simple natural physics taking care of the rest.
?Enter,? the figure at the desk located in the center of the room growled. His lamp was failing, the orange hue had dimmed down to the point where one could not read the characters upon the parchment merely a foot away without straining. But he stubbornly worked on, too enraptured in his work to take notice. A black, claw-like hand dipped the quill into the ink bottle and resumed the half written sentence.
The door creaked open. The stone hallway was well lit at least, revealing a silhouette that carefully stepped into the blackened room. The shadow?s pointy ears, almost like horns, contrasted against the lighted hallway.
?My lord, a messenger??
?Send him away. I?m busy.? The seated figure did not look up from his work.
?It is a wraith??
The quill snapped, splattering ink across the parchment. The seated figure leaned forward across the desk, so that his face may be illuminated by the dying flame. It was not a human face-- far from it. It resembled more of a fox. White fur covered his narrow muzzle, fading into a silvery grey around his eyes and head. His triangular ears were perked and pointed towards the guard.
?A? wraith???
The guard stepped forward into the light of the lamp, revealing himself to be of the same species. His eyes suggested him to be a bit younger. ?Y-yes, my lord??
The first figure fell back in his chair, the old wood creaking from his weight. Five years? it had been five years since they had last heard from the Dark Emperor? But it was unavoidable. Their dept to the Darkness must be repaid?
Before the two could reflect upon it more, all of the lights suddenly went out-- the lantern, the hallway torches-- everything, leaving the two fox-like creatures in total darkness. The startled guard took a step back, stumbling over something, and the sound of breaking glass could be heard.
The first remained at his desk, bringing his right hand before him and snapping his fingers. A flame! Quickly! A plume of fire lit the darkness above his hand for a fraction of a second, but instantly went out. He tried and failed twice more before resulting to a more powerful spell. He clenched his fist and opened it, conjuring a small fireball within. The light steadily heightened, until it was brighter than what the lantern had previously offered? The guard regained his composure as his master?s orange hue illuminated the room?
And there it was?
The wraith floated there eerily, silently on the opposite side of the desk. The guard standing next to it took another few steps back, tail between his legs, nearly knocking over another fine vase, but this one he caught as he tried to regain his composure. He would never get used to them?
The wraith thankfully did not have its hideous scythe? Of course, what it looked like it didn?t have did not matter in the least, for hiding the monstrous weapon for them was as simple as a thief hiding a tiny dagger beneath his cloak?
The apparition held out a skeletal hand, draped in tattered black cloth towards the seated fox. Its hollow, burning red eyes emotionless? Within the hand was a scroll, the seal of the Dark Empire encasing it?
The fireball in the fox?s hand rose higher and floated some three feet above the desk, illuminating the room even better. His right hand free, he took the scroll and broke the seal, gulping deeply. By the gods? what dark deeds must they carry out now? It wouldn?t matter, they would do it. They were of the darkness now? their debt to Retan, their savior, must be repaid? For without him, the Curse would have taken them all?
He unfurled the scroll and read:
HIGH GENERAL VIRMIR, OF THE SKY
Your presence is required on Gaian. You will report to the fortress of North Point. You will bring your ten finest warriors. You will be prepared for battle.
EMPEROR RETAN OF THE DARKNESS
----
Draven stopped to catch his breath, placing his hands on his thighs and stooping. This way of fighting, concentrating his crimson energy into his limbs and striking physical blows, was very taxing and unnatural? Is there no way around these magic absorbing runes?
The metal rhinoceros was trudging to its feet, shaking off the blow to its head, which now bore quite a dent. Regaining its balance on four limbs, it angrily opened its gaping mouth and roared at the much smaller man. Draven?s crimson aura was involuntarily bulling up, and the runes on the creature?s silvery exterior shell began to glow dimly.
Yes, of course.
Draven?s aura flared as he brought his energy back outside his body. He blasted forward, flying right up to the creature?s face and gaping jaw. He stuck his right arm with an outstretched palm right into the creature?s mouth, a bright red orb of flame appearing within? The creature started to bite down on his arm, but Draven stopped it with his left hand to the upper jaw, and his right foot to the lower. The crimson orb swelled in the creature?s maw, singeing the beginnings of its metallic throat?
?Good night.?
The creature suddenly exploded in a violent burst of flame, sending hundreds of thousands of tiny bits of shrapnel in all directions, peppering the walls as the bit of silver metal jammed into them? Draven was left holding the dismembered head, which his promptly discarded, tossing it to the side with a very audible *clang*.
The Crimson Emperor then proceeded to dust himself off.
----
Draven Draven must find Lord Draven?
The dark figure weaved in and out of the trees, heading in the vague general southerly direction of its target?s scent. Why was it masked so? Why was it so difficult to find? Oh, curse this world of the sun!
The trees became sparse, the beginnings of a desert? HSSSS!!!
Though the clouds were dark overhead, still the faint sunlight that crept through was uncomforting?
It continued on, flying at ground level. Though it moved quickly, its flight kicked up no sand?
----
The Dark Emperor leaned over the well of black water, studying the images that appeared within. The sulking Prime Minister of Mizar tiptoed closer, his claws scratching the ground with each step.
?My lord? May I gaze upon the well??
?No.?
Grav shrinked back, blinking twice, before bowing and turning to leave.
?Grav, come.?
The robed lizard turned.
?Look into the well.?
??? Uhm? yes my lord??
The lizard hobbled over to the circular structure, climbing upon a stone step on the floor, for he was too short to look over the edge himself. The well of darkness was attuned to the Dark Continent, and could display images from anywhere on this land, so long as the dark clouds hovered above?
Retan pointed to the winged men standing around in the desert?
?These? I?ve found them? These are the ones that meddled in my affairs five years ago??
Grav gazed into the rippling waters. The image was from too high up to make out any distinguishing facial features.
?Ooooo??
Retan folded his arms under his cape, his crimson eyes burning under his helmet?
?They will be dealt with??
-
Galack came out of the forest near a place called Asgaria. He saw two people talking one male, the other female. He scanned around the ruins. He quickly put a scroll on the ground. It pulled him in like quick sand. His kind moved quickly underground. His hands came the the earth grabbing Nick's leg and Steorra's ankle He started to pull them into there deaths.
-
"Crow-Nose?" Rink asked, making sure he heard correctly.
"Or do you mean Cronos?" Aegidius asked also.
"Well, Crow-Nose or No-Crose..erm...No...nose..." Rink stuttered. He then rapidly shook his head. "No idea who you're talking about."
"Cronos..." Aegidius repeated quietly, maybe he has something to do with why he was sent here...
-
//Kronos. >.<\\
Steorra yelped in surprise.
-"Ah! Let go of me, vile fiend!!"
Trying to pull her leg away from the hand but failing miserably, she stuck her staff into the ground like a lever, to prevent herself from being pulled down. She quickly casted the wing spell on her, and tried to rise up into the sky, undoubtedly pulling her attacker out of the ground...
--- --- ---
The cracked surface of the black oil began changing colours rapidly - first to red, then to black again, then to white, then to black...
THUMP. The surface almost jumped up a little from the jolt beneath. THUMP. Lots of cracks began popping up all over the surface. THUMP...
A small, man-sized black dragon soared from the pit, spreading the crusty shells everywhere around it. It made a large loop in the sky, and dove right at Marshall.
--- --- ---
The remaining mechanisms fled, seeing two of their kind fall. Horus looked around, checking for any more hostiles. There were none. Thus, he proceeded to the pile of the very dead-looking ones, in hope of salvaging a voice module. He did not have to look long - one of the machines had a voicebox intact. He carefully removed it, and placed it in his mouth, letting the repair systems inside him do the rest. Now all that was left was his Dark glass cannon.
--- --- ---
"After practicing the lightning bolt many times, I've grown accustomed to it. I could conjure up an energy orb without trying, just by thinking about it. The destruction power also grew, it seems - every time I tried it, I put a little more thought into it. Changing the way I accumulated power every time, I eventually got to the one that fit me best. By then, I could easily demolish a stone obleisk twice my size, with a single bolt.
Of course, I tried other spells in the book of destruction. The fireball seemed too... messy... while other elemental spells just took way too long to power up, and weren't worth it in the end. Water spells concentrated mostly on ice, and ice is cold, I don't like that. Earth spells were just too mundane. They gave me the opinion of the fool that would try breaking the stone with his bare hands, rather than using a tool to do it. In other words, they concentrated on blind strength, while I prefer the exact opposite - carefully planned attacks. In the end, the wise man wins against the brute.
Just then, I got an idea. This would do miracles for intimidation of large armies. Almost as if reading my thoughts, Necirrejel knocked again.
-"My lor..."
-"Come in, come in!"
-"Yes, my Lord... I wanted to tell you tha-..."
-"Necirrejel, hold that thought and go bring me a present from the slave barracks."
-"...entertainment, my Lord...? At this time?..."
-"In case you haven't learned yet, Necirrejel, in my land there's a clear connection between the rate of deaths and the people who ask questions. In other words, WILL YOU JUST DO AS I SAY?!"
-"Yes... of course, my Lord..."
He hurried out of the room. Meanwhile, I was practicing my lightning bolts by shooting them at birds outside my window. Sure enough, in a few minutes, he returned with two guards. The guards were dragging a slave dressed in rags. He should be lucky he's getting that much...
-"Thank you. Now, if you would let him in my room."
The guards threw him on the floor before me, face-first. I kneeled down towards him.
-"Slave, do you know who I am?"
I got no response. It is a sad day when one's own underlings do not recognize you. I clutched his neck, and rose him into the air.
-"In that case, you are about to."
I charged up a lightning bolt blast. The slave covered in fear, just before I let the blast free. The slave, however, did not even fall down. Instead, he stood up, and looked me right into the face.
-"You are Kronos, the Marshal of the Kandarinain Sovereignty. You are the absolute, while I am the inferior. You are the alpha and the omega."
I sneered. The trick was to stop the slave's heart, then before the soul left the body, to intercept it with my power. The result - it was as if the slave completely changed his personality after getting zapped by me. I can see so many uses for it now...
-"Anyways, what what was it that you had to report now?"
-"Lord, the plan worked... the fishermen, intimidated by your threat at first, now they are close to the point of creating statues in your name... Not all of them... but most... I must congradulate you, my Lord... it was a great deed..."
-"Thank you. Now we wait and see the effects on others who were touched by this change."
-
Vandrin and his men continue their venture towards the county, not to far they can see a few buildings and rubble in the distance, they shall arrive very soon...
----
"Ahhh!" Marshall screamed, he fell backwards as the dragon swooped at him. "Get it away!" He crab walked backwards swinging his stick to fend off the dragon, hoping it would warn it off, and not attack him. He stood up, and put his hand on his amulet; if it were to attack he would be ready...
-
"Ugh... So I guess we're hosed either way." He frowned and continued with him toward Draven.
-
Galak let go of Steorra. The earth repaired as his hand retreating underneath. He was now more concerned to getting Nick underneath.
Nick stabbed his sword in the ground peircing Galak's shoulder.
Galak's right hand retreated underneath. A few moments passed and Galak came out of the ground. He morphed a peice of a rock into a sword like figure. "I am the lord!"
-
Steorra lowered down onto the ground.
-"An excuse, fiend, that's all I ask. Come on. Give me an excuse, and make my day, twerp..."
-
Galak moved towards steorra in a quick motion. He put a scroll on the peice of rock and threw it towards her feet, It would hit the ground shooting shards towards here and enibitaly killing her. He then turned to Nick and grappled him so he couldn't move. Galak placed a scroll on Nick head. He let go of Nick's numb body.
Nick was unable to move or even blink.
-
"Well," Duilin said "I know it's a long shot, but it could turn out like this, either, by some extreme bizarre twist of fate Draven looses his empire, or changes his ways and well, becomes a worthy friend, but I'll seriously eat my own arm if that happens." Duilin laughed. "Or Draven and/or the machine will die when we fight Retan. And that seems much more likely then the earlier."
At the end of the hallway the two came up towards a huge door, it looked much stronger and bigger then that smaller one they blew open earlier.
"Damn, I think this might be our dead end." Duilin groaned.
-
//Oh dear, I've missed so much. I'm sorry! School work is a pain in the ass.\\
Alex was horrified at the transformation that his friend Ein had undergone. What was once his friend was now trying to kill them both!
"Holy mother of God," exclaimed Alex was he rolled out of the way of a swoop attack that the newly-formed dragon had lunged into. "What the hell happened to him... what kind of toxin was that..."
Otis squealed as he skittered out of the way of another swoop. He clambered up Alex's back and clamped on, clearly terrified out of his little headcrab mind. Otis was shaking and squeaking and chirping with a disposition that wasn't too unlike Alex's. Alex reached for his rifle and leveled it, ready to attack. The Ein-dragon dove past Alex again and clawed the weapon from his hands, flinging it several feet away. The weapon sparked violently and stopped glowing. His energy rifle had been damaged! Kleiner had warned him of the delicacy of its systems...
Alex began backing away slowly, seeing no other alternative. "Well, Marshall? Any ideas?"
-
"W-well. When I first met the guy, he transformed into a moth...maybe this is just something natural." Marshall said, still sounding a bit doubtful. "I'm starting to question whether this man is human or not. Maybe he's just scared?"
-
The dragon set down on a nearby tree, and made a roar-hiss at Alex and Marshall. With a violent jerk, it launched itself from the tree with its hind legs, folding its wings in the process. It was basically like a giant arrow, aimed right at Alex.
--- --- ---
"Reports from Allocation Officers were pouring from all corners of Kandarin. The people were overjoyed by my sudden burst of kindness. In fact, this tactic was not mine. When I was but a mewling child, I have read a very interesting book. It was about a cruel but wise baron. I remembered him because of the symbol he had... It was a ram on a red background, I believe... but that does not matter. In any case, he had two nephews, one of whom would later take his throne. Interestingly, one nephew was a kind one, while the other was beyond tyrranical.
Later on, he felt that the reaper was awfully close to him, and thus, he had to choose who will inherit the title of Baron. Did he make up some wimpy test to see which one would be a better ruler? No, not at all. He sent the cruel one to watch over his lands. Eventually the nephew's notoriety overcame his own name - he was known as the Beast to the people. He executed men at his whim; he treated bugs better than his own people.
Some time passed. The Baron felt that the Beast has served his purpose, and sent an assassin to kill his own nephew. As I said, cruel but wise.
This way he had little choice but to give the throne over to his good relative. As strange as it may seem, the people not only had no problem with that - they welcomed him as their saviour from the Beast.
Thus, when the old Baron died, his people were nearly worshipping their new ruler. No matter what he did, it was never as bad as the horrors that the Beast inflicted upon his nation. This is kind of what I used myself. Without a doubt, the people saw me as a tyrant, the Beast, if you will. The last thing they expected was the sudden increase in pay.
-"My lord... One more thing that you may consider doing to further lift the peoples spirit... Perhaps there could be a public appearance of the Marshall before their people..."
-"Necirrejel, you know me too well to consider this." It just so happened that when my father was still in power, Necirrejel (then nothing but a cleaner) was one of my best friends. He was also the one who suggested tht my father was not doing the greatest job. "I DESPISE making any kind of interaction with a group of more than 20 people. I assume I will have to talk to them."
-"I will have the speech prepared, my Lord..."
--- --- ---
Steorra quickly dodged the spikes. However, one of them still managed to pierce her foot.
-"Ah! Damn you! Well, I'd say that that's more than an excuse... are you ready to die, you filthy demon?"
Her staff flared a light so bright that even through her hand covering her eyes, Steorra was almost blinded. It would most likely impair the vision of her opponent for at least 30 seconds. In that time, she limped behind Galak, and swiftly stole his bag of scrolls. //Without scrolls, he doesn't have any magic, right? That's what the signups said, anyway - it said he used "scroll magic", so i assume he needs scrolls to perform it.\\ She chucked the bag on a branch of a nearby tree.
-"Now, pig, I am willing to overlook my minor injury here, for it can be swiftly mended. What I really need to know is what the blazes © are you doing here? Why did you attack me? Answer, twerp, or your silence will be the longest one you will ever experience..."
-
"I am lord of the earth....Here to spread my word...to destroy enemies."
Nick started to shake the spell was wearing off. Intense pain over came him at the moment. "Arrgh!" he yelled.
-
Draven fell to his knee as the remaining enemy automatons retreated, catching his breath. Really, he should stop these all day fighting binges...
Regaining his composure after a brief moment, he rose and turned to the machine, who was making quite a bit of noise rummaging through the debris of more broken toys... and picked up a chunk of metal and seemingly ate it...
"Pardon me for my pessimism," he mused as he walked towards the gargantuan metal warrior from behind, "but I didn't expect you to be so ill received..."
Really, what in blazes is going on anyway? Is he some kind of rebel they want to get rid of? Possibly from some other faction of machines?
Draven folded his arms, starting to become annoyed with the situation.
"Does this facility have some sort of leader these... war machines heed to? I would very much like to have a word with him..."
----
The silver furred fox raised his head after reading the short, curt message from the Dark Emeperor ordering him to Gaian, staring the wraith in it's burning eyes as it floated there.
"When does he expect us? Now?"
The wraith merely nodded. Its form becoming translucent. In a few seconds it was gone, leaving the two alone in the dark room, illuminated only by the small fireball overhead.
Virmir leaned back in the creaking chair, scratching the underside of his long chin with his black claw like hand. It was not the first time he was called in service for the Dark Emperor... The routine was becoming more familiar to him. Even through the past five years, he knew the time would come again eventually...
But it was worth it. Though now they must live as servants of darkness, they at least may still live...
Realizing the quite petrified guard was still there, ears hanging low, he waved him off. "Go. Tell Boren I will need five Battle Mages and five Blade Knights... immediately."
-
Kerig shook his head and sighed yet again.
"Nevermind..." he said "I have a general direction..."
He made a polite gesture to anyone he noticed was left nearby.
"I'm sorry, but I have to leave now..." He said, dissapointed that he missed yet another chance to make friends "Important matters require my attention..."
And with that, Kerig rose a little off the ground and started gliding in a different direction.
-
That door didn't scare him. It was damn big and damn strong, yes... So he wanted to know if he could bring it down. Or at least put a considerably sized hole into it. Xenai brought his wrists near each other, not connecting them, but leaving a few inches between them, holding them vertically, out to the side. He was starting to gather dark energy. "Duilin, can you use light energy? If you can, gather as much as possible."
-
Horus glanced at the Crimson Emperor as he spoke. The system had finished integrating the voice module... perhaps it is time to attempt to speak?
A hiss came at first, then taking shape, so to say, into words:
-"Khhhh... lheadher...? Those twoh skheletohns ohver thehre might help youh..."
The voice was very flat and monotone, and Horus seemed to have some trouble speaking.
-"I don't khnow where those othehr machinhes cahme frohm... Perhaps one who builht them is in charghe, but that depends on if you whant to spend more time in here, which I don't."
The speech seemed to be clearing up, but it was still somewhat more level than that of a human being. It was also really deep, with a hint of a hum in the background when Horus spoke.
-"The Dark glass?"
-
Vandrin and his group arrived at the large settlement.
"Here it is, Count Vandrin." The servant said, as they walked through the area. "As you can see, there are still some people here. They may resist to the change in government, but I'm sure you'll have no problem enforcing it with the soldiers that you hired, our Marshall's warriors are the finest in Gaian."
"Good, very good." Vandrin replied, observing the area. It was pretty messy; people were trying to fix their houses and wells. Vandrin then noticed a flag. It was black and red.
"What is the meaning of this?" Vandrin asked demandingly, pointing at the flag. "I do not want flags like...THAT flying in MY county."
"Oh my, I was afraid of this." The servant said rubbing his forehead, and sighing. "Are you familular with the Aspyes?"
"Yes! I am, that's why I'm so enraged, to see this. I don't want those rebellious shroom popping scumbags in my county. How could you let those 'people' into my newly purchased county?"
"Listen, Lord Count, we had NO idea that the Aspyes would be coming here infac-"
Suddenly a loud bang was heard and blood shot from the servant's chest and onto Vandrin. The servant looked at the hole in his chest.
"Whoa..." The servant then fell to the ground, about five yards from him was a man in a black uniform, holding one of those Aspye bullet guns.
Vandrin narrowed his eyes and glared at the rebel, who glarred back.
Another bang was heard, quicker then the blink of an eye Vandrin had his katana in front of him and the bullet was slashed away by it.
With his other hand Vandrin tossed a green-yellow projectile at the rebel. The rebel was pushed back by the blast and dropped his weapon. Almost immediately after the man's skin began to swell, purple bubbled from his skin began growing over his body, his eye sockets bled as his eyeballs rolled back. His jaw fell open and white foam began pouring from his mouth, eyes and nose. The rebel fell to the ground in a bloody grotesque mess.
A few of the witnessing peasants and soldiers looked in horror.
"I am Count Vandrin!" He shouted. "I am your new ruler. You will follow my laws and obey my every command. All you refuse and wish to challenge...step forward..."
A cool breeze blew, in a small moment of silence; afterwards several foot steps could be heard. More rebels in back suits, armed with rapiers began stepping toward Vandrin. The count drew his second katana, and grinned...
----
Marshall jumped out of the way, dropping his stick. Seeing how the giant arrow would be pretty close to hitting him, he should probably get out of the way. He held the sapphire, flowing his magic through it. The sapphire then glowed.
----
"Oh I see what you're doing" Duilin said. "That old opposites attract trick...or detract trick. But sorry, Xenai. I've got demonic AKA black and I've got fire and wind." Duilin sighed. He then quickly remembered something. "Oh! Aegidius!"
'Hey pretty boy, get down here and get to us as fast as possible. We need your help with something.'
Aegidius received the message. "Rink, Duilin wants me to go down. Do you want to come" The angel asked the imp.
"Heh, sure I guess so. Not much to do now, since that kid is gone." Rink replied.
"He wants us to hurry, so I'm going to fly. I assume since I saw Duilin carrying you before that you can not fly very fast." Aegidius said.
"No, I can't. I'll just hitchhike with you." Rink replied, hopping onto Aegidius and grabbing his shoulder. "Let's go."
Aegidius then dashed into where he saw Xenai and Duilin go into. The angel fell through the broken aperture. He was able to hover over the ground right before he hit it. "Whoa, way to warn me about that." Aegidius grumbled.
He then saw Duilin and Aegidius at the end of this fairly long hallway. He flew through the hallway, flapping his wings and gaining some speed. He was flying much faster then Xenai and Duilin were walking so he arrived there much more quickly then it took the others.
"Okay, so what do you need?" Aegidius asked, as Rink hopped off.
"Gather your light energy and blast it at that door when Xenai says so." Duilin told.
Aegidius shrugged, That's what was so important? He then started gathering light energy in his hands.
Duilin and Rink backed up as Aegidius stepped closer and beside Xenai.
-
Draven folded his arms, not expecting the machine to speak at first, but then nodded.
"Very well. I shall take you to your materials, as promised..."
He looked around a moment, the room being even more trashed than when they entered due to the battle. Regaining his bearing, he spied the hallway from which they first entered the room, and made his way towards it.
----
Yesss... at lassst...
The messenger wraith spun around the illusionary barrier masking the entrance to the underground facility, the ward appearing as a bright half dome to this ethereal being. It dove through it and down into the cave-like entrance, its target's scent becoming stronger as it floated into the depths.
-
Zeros' craned his head backwards and scanned Zion's aura. He smiled at what he saw, but he didn't see anything overly awe inspiring. It would take more then a perfect balance of dark and light to awe him. Being alive for millions of years does that to you.
He stood up and rolled his shoulders, cracking his neck before stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"Well, shall we go see what the parties about?" he questioned, gesturing towards where everyone went with a jerk of his head. "Or shall we go off and find this... disturbing source of energy I've been feeling? It's definetly not natural... It feels more like a necromancer. I remember the same feeling during the Grey Empire's downfall, but to a lesser extent...
But, this time, it's much stronger... as if it's being used constantly," he said towards his three companions. "Have you three sensed anything in..." he took his right hand out of his trench coat and pointing in a rough direction of the Kronos' sovreignity. "...that direction?"
Sometimes, being connected to the planet under his feet had certain perks. Oh. He couldn't find anyone he wanted to... No, no, but he could sense strange going-on's. Plus, he had his senses extended as far as they could go... which is pretty damn far. (Also, you said that Kronos is constantly using his power to move his undead servants... soo... Plus, this will make it more interesting.)
//Oh. Draven, I'm not updating Allen becasue I'm waiting for you. Heh. And I couldn't remember the name of Kronos' sovreignity, so... And I'm sorry for no updates, but school and RL.\\
-
"Awright, man... Now bring your wrists like... in with mine, so that our hands form a 4-sided hand thingie." He wasn't sure how to describe it. "Once you do that, our energy will start mixing. Light and dark don't particularly like each other, though, so we're gonna have to fire it at just the right time so that the mixture goes crazy right when it hits the door."
-
"Okay, then." Aegidius replied. He put his together and next to Xenai's, continuing to gather his energy.
"I can tell just by looking at the door, that you'll need to put a lot into that." Duilin stated. "So take your time with this."
"I thought you were in a hurry?" Aegidius asked.
"Yeah, because I could see that we're going to have to wait, like twenty minutes just sitting here with our thumbs up our asses wile you guys gather your friggin' energy."
"Ah ya...I see."
----
The Kandrin soldiers drew their weapons and the rebels approached.
Vandrin lifted his hand. "No...let me deal with them..."
The soldiers looked at each other and then stepped backed.
The first rebel dashed towards Vandrin, stabbing forward his rapier, aiming for the count's heart.
Count Vandrin, then fiercely slashed his katana in his right hand at the rapier as it swooped towards him, bending the metal, causing it to snap at the end. He then swung the katana in his right hand across the rebel's stomach, effectively cutting it open, he kicked the dieing man away, as two more ran towards him.
Vandrin then jumped in the air, performing an elegant looking flip, and landed behind one of the rebels. Instantly after landing, he stabbed the rebel in the back, the blade driving right through the man. The second rebel aimed a thrust at Vandrin's neck, yet he was no match for Vandrin's quick reflexes as he sliced the rebels head off with his other katana. A third rebel was reading to attack when Vandrin's back was turned, yet the count was able to sense him coming towards him, and wile he was swinging his katana after the decapitation of the previous rebel, he continued his swing his weapon, cutting the rebel across the face. Vandrin then spun around and stabbed his opponent with his other katana, right through the chest, and kicked him off and onto the ground.
Four more rebels, seemed to be hesitative to attack the Count, and then backed away. Vandrin grinned evilly, and grinded his two katana together. He then tightened his grip, and began flowing his toxic magical energy into blades, causing them to glow a yellow green. He then swung his katana one after the other, two poisonous blades flew from the weapons and speeded towards the rebels. As soon as the projectiles collided with them, a green murky gas like explosion erupted from the impact. As the gas cleared up, there was but a large bloody heap of the dead poisonous instantly rotting rebels, you could barely tell were one corpse ended and where the other one started.
"Puts a whole new meaning to the term rebel scum." Vandrin laughed.
Suddenly from the other edge of the town, a large group of heavily armed rebels were charging towards Vandrin.
The count sheathed one of his katana, and with his empty hand, he lifted it up and pointed towards the advancing rebels.
The soldiers knew what to do. They all drew their weapons, and charged towards the rebels. Each warrior was able to lock weapons with another enemy, the numbers were nearly matched. You could barely tell what team had the greater numbers.
The rebels seemed to have a slight upper hand as the Kandrin warriors came towards them. The Aspye's bullet guns seemed to quite handy for far away targets, however as soon as the Kandrin soldiers got close, the riflemen were slaughtered. The melee rebels were mostly armed with spears and swords, not as broad as the Kandrin ones however. The battle seemed to be evenly matched for a little wile, but in the end the Kandrins were victorious.
Vandrin grinned. "Money well spent. Very well spent."
----
//Well Roland has been too quiet. I'm putting him into action now.\\
A legion of zombies were marching their way through an entirely levelled down village. Some of the fighters in his army were once loyal to their revolution, but now loyal to the undead army of the Kandarinian.
Roland was at the front of the army. He was riding on an undead dynox. The entire area was foggy with smoke and the steam and stench of death. Other then the sound of many foot steps, it was totally quiet...a bit too quiet.
Roland's army met very little opposition in this attack. The previous raids had a few rebels desperately fighting back, yet other then a few armed civilians there were no true enemies. Perhaps the Aspyes never made their message towards here, but he doubted it, the last village was less then twenty miles from the last place, they had to have something here...
The out of nowhere, a loud bang was heard, then another and another. Bullets were flying through the zombies, not killing them, but splattering blood around.
Several traps doors, from the ground, were flung open, as rebels fired their riffles at the zombies.
"Spread out!" Roland commanded. The zombie warriors then ran off in all direction, killing anything that moved.
Roland had summoned the dynox himself so he had total control over it, the brutish lizard galloped off, towards one of the rebels. He rapidly fired his riffle at the oncoming creature and it's rider. The pebbles did not even bother the dynox, and the only shown effect on Roland was the bullet tearing his all ready slighter tattered clothing.
He jumped off the dynox and then swung his sword down ward on his way down, splitting the rebel's skull open.
Two more rebels walked towards him firing their weapons. He barely even flinched as the tiny pricks dug into his skin.
He dashed towards the rebels swinging his sword at one rebel, cutting him across the belly and smacking another with his platinum staff. As the metal smacked the combatant, in the chest a satisfying cracking sound could be heard, due to mighty swing.
The zombie warriors began swarming the rebels like bees on honey, killing each and every one of them.
Roland watched as his legion slaughtered the Aspye rebels. "It seems as though these rebels have met their match...no...their makers."
-
-"I'm not doing it."
-"But Lord..."
-"No."
-"The image you will..."
-"No."
-"Please, lord..."
-"No."
Necirrejel was difficult to shut up. However, that seemed to have done the trick. I threw a few more practice shots at the walls, which gave me an idea.
Leaving Necirrejel behind, I walked up on a spiral ladder, leading to the top of the tower. With a slight jolt of energy, I summoned up some bones here and there, a few skulls, a pelvis or two... Fun stuff.
By my command, one of the skulls rose into the air, then shot outwards, up into the air. I kept a keen eye on it, while charging up my next lightning blast. The skull was almost out of my sight when I let go of the sparkling orb, forming a bright arc between my hand and the skull in the air.
The lightning barely hit it, but I was successful anyways. Then again, that was mostly because I knew where the skull was at all times. If you're a Necromancer, you just know.
I decided for a bit of a challenge. Spotting a loose Theta hawk in the sky, I spawned another budding lightning in my hand. The hawk seemed to notice me, and, with a piercing screech, dove right towards me. Alas, the lightning was not charged yet. I hastily phased out of reality, as the Theta's metallic claws barely missed me. It made a sharp turn behind me, coming upwards for another run.
I phased back, and whipped around, ready to blast my lightning. The large bird was clearly in my mind's eye, and so was its approximate position. I scanned the sky, looking for him. There he is...
I drew my hand back in preparation for the launch. For more comfort, I put my right foot forward... which was a big mistake.
Some baffoon left a crowbar lying there, which I failed to notice earlier. As I brought my foot to its position, I tripped on the big metal rod, painfully introducing my face to the roof. Since my concentration was broken, I let go of the lightning.
What happened next was completely beyond me. At first, the lightning went forward, the same way my hand was pointing when I cast it. However, it only travelled so far before arching back to the Theta's silvery talons, electrocuting the bird. It fell lifelessly onto the ground.
A very interesting development... So, lightnings are attracted to metal, are they? How very, very intriguing..."
--- --- ---
-"I need the materials right away. Without the Dark glass cannon, I am useless. This maul is big, but its power doesn't even begin to compare with a properly-tuned black lightning weapon. Without it, I will not have much use."
Horus proceeded to the gargantuan doors blocking the entrance to the hallway. There was some sort of a disturbance behind it... A strange buildup of energy...
...and something else.
A continuous, loud whine almost overloaded his detection array. For some reason, the Kao inside began to react violently, bubbling suspiciously. Normally the liquid is honey-viscous, but now it seemed more fluid than alcohol. Something was definately there.
He had to shut down that particular sensor, for the whine was making it difficult to concentrate on other senses. Immediately afterwards, he heard more noises - a kind of a skittering, somewhere above the doors. For reasons beyond him, he was overcome by a massive surge of fear, for the first time he could remember. The glowing purple pipes stopped eminating their soft light, and the room was plunged into total darkness.
This strange sensation of fear was greatly dulling Horus' senses. He could barely feel some sort of wetness beneath his feet... The entire floor was covered with viscous lukewarm liquid of some sort, seeping through the cracks between the brick plates on the floor.
Horus seemed to be losing it. All of his senses turned a bit fuzzy, blurry... A sound barely reached his ears, a sound like air hissing... Somewhere in the distance... or was it? Perhaps it was just next to him.
Suddenly, the fear was gone, replaced with extreme tiredness. His hands weighed six times as more, his knees were urging to the ground. Somebody's messing with his machinery, has to be... just then, as if in reply, the repair devices started running around in his body. They should be still... Why...
Suddenly, an idea flashed before Horus. His night vision! He completely forgot about it. The devices warmed up, modifying the lens of his eyes to recieve the dimmest light, coming from his own glowing glyphs. In a blurr, he saw a medium-sized creature on four spider-like legs and a human torso approach him... He was too tired to think... All he needed was something cold... Why cold...?
Another idea sped through Horus' mind. For some unknown reason, he was overheating! The repair mechanisms were jamming the Kao tubes on the other side of his armour, basically cutting off his circulation. In this case, the circulation was used for heat dispersal. The spider-thing in front of him reached up to his head, and wrapped its clawed hand around it. Horus found that if he were to move a muscle, he would completely overheat. Not good.
--- --- ---
//Remember, DM, most Kandarinian soldiers are armed with spearguns. Although a melee division was also possible, in which case they are using long, thin wristblades.\\
The soldiers that were struck down were groaning in ... annoyance?
The bullets that reached them were stuck in the hard Kandarinian armour, covering most of their body. Some of the heavier projectiles knocked the warriors down, not doing much damage beyond that. A scratch here and there, nothing to be really concerned about.
As the "wounded" ones were busy pulling the pebbles out of their cuirasses, a few other rebels here and there popped out.
-"Die, occupant scum! We belong to no one!"
Their first mistake, of course, was letting the enemy know they were there. A silent click of the trigger, the whooshing noise of the miniature spear flying through the air, and the rebels fell to the ground, one after another. The particularly persistent ones ran up point blank to the Kandarin soldiers, drawing their rapiers. They didn't seem to recognize the maroon bird symbol on the warriors' chests.
-"Tell your king that your kind isn't welcome in these lands!"
That last comment really set off the bomb. The Kandarinians stopped doing whatever it was they were doing at the moment, exposed their wristblades, and began shredding the opposition to bits. It did not matter that they didn't know that Kronos wasn't a king. The fact was that they said it.
--- --- ---
The groaning zombies were biting chunks of their victims off, as Roland scanned the battlefield with a concerned look.
-"Hmm... these were some clever traps... There may be more of those, perhaps I could note them on the map as potential looting points... and why am I talking to myself?"
A zombie right next to Roland made a particularly nasty crack as it ripped open the ribcage of one of the corpses. To Roland's mild surprise, the corpse suddenly got up and smacked the zombie in the head. Looks like Kronos was quick to pick up on things...
The legion of the undeads suddenly got heftier by a good 120 troops, as the dead woke back to life. The only downside was the continuous squishy, churning sound the zombies made when they moved. Groaning was also a mild annoyance, but it was easily rid of by cutting the heads off the noticibly louder groaners. The others didn't seem to be looking forward to the experience, and walked in (relative) silence.
Just as Roland brought up Kronos' name in his head, the aforementioned's voice boomed through Roland's thoughts.
-"Roland, get your legion and begin a secondary run on Ugran. I'm getting a couple of live armies there as well, but you should be able to deal considerable damage with the horde you have already. Remember, this is Aspye-brainwashed Ugran we're talking about here. Make as much mess as your dead heart desires, just don't ruin any buildings. I seem to have struck a good deal with that count that came by earlier... Perhaps it will be wise to consider selling real estate for some pocket change."
-
//Oh sorry, Ein. I must have forgotten that.\\
Vandrin was very impressed with the combat skill of these warriors.
He walked through the area as rebels were being slaughtered around him. This was good, it would show the villagers, hiding in their houses, who is boss.
A rebel ran at him, swinging his sword. Vandrin blocked it with his katana and kicked him away. The rebel fell to the ground; Vandrin jumped right above him and stabbed his katana right through the chest.
-
?And that you shall have? well, what?s the holdup??
Draven turned around, as the machine was lagging farther and farther behind. What in blazes??
?Hey! You hear me??
No response. It was just standing there in the shadows. Too dark? Draven clenched his right fist and opened it, a bright red orb of flame appearing within, illuminating the black hallway. He didn?t notice it at first, but then it moved, and Draven?s eyes drew to the thing on top of the machine?s head, bathed in the warm glow of his flame. It looked like some sort of lower class demon? a human-esque upper half connect to a lower body of four insectiod legs? Draven raised one eyebrow and scowled. Not wasting a second, he leapt straight at it, crossing the fifteen foot gap in a single bound, leaving the burning fireball illuminating the hallway behind. Bringing his right hand over his left shoulder in mid air and straightening the fingers, he delivered a horizontal chop to the creature?s midsection, swatting it off of Horus? jackal-like head and sending it flying into the wall.
----
A gust of cold wind blew from the open tunnel behind Xenai and Aegidius as they prepared their attack. A dark creature howled down the passageway, flying in great haste. Paying the adventurers no mind, the wraith flew right over the crackling energy they were gathering and disappeared into the solid doors, becoming translucent as it passed through?
----
A similar chill spread about the walls of Jovil, within the Kandarin islands. Another black figure became visible floating in the mists? This wraith traveled much more slowly, stopping to do what appeared to be a respectful bow before two Kandarinian guards positioned outside the city?s gates. It held out a skeletal hand, draped in torn black cloth, showing the edge of a rolled scroll to the guards.
It whispered in a raspy inhuman voice, its eyes burning red?
?Messssage? for Kronosss??
-
The guards barely nodded, returning the gesture. Although they were quite shaken from the overall unsettling appearance of the wraith, they tried to keep their cool as much as possible.
-"S-State your business with the Marshal." //the wraith is an NPC, right? I'm not going to bother with a request-reply post, that will only slow down the action.\\
-"Dark Emperor Retan hasss ...bussssiness... with Kronoss.."
-"Retan?" The guard nervously turned to his companion. "Isn't that the guy the Lord made alliance with?"
The other guard quietly nodded. The first one relaxed a little.
-"Ah, alright... he should be inside the palace, in the throne chamber..."
They stepped aside, making way for the wraith. After it passed through, they closed the gate again.
-"Man... the Marshal does not pay us enough for this kind of thing."
-"Tell me about it... Accepting nightmare-inducing guests of his was not in the job description..."
--- --- ---
"I kicked the crowbar down the trapdoor in agony. Stupid thing! If it wasn't for my cloak, I would've been bleeding to death by now! Blah.
-"Ow..."
Necirrejel showed up, rubbing his head.
-"So, my Lord... how did it go...?"
-"Could be better. But that doesn't matter. Was that the sound of the gate opening and closing? I don't remember any other people willing to see me... come to think of it, I did feel something strange a minute ago, and I can still slightly feel it... Like a chill... Well, it's off to the throne room with me."
I left the tower, and descended into the throne room. The grim brick walls were dimly lit by wavering torchlight. I could see cracks on the pillars running from the enterance to the throne, set around a slightly torn red rug. The bone-trimmed throne, however, was as glorious as always.
I sat down in the comfortable cotton-clad seat. Suddenly, a barely-noticible whoosh along with a spine-chilling cold swept through the room. The torches gave a final waver and blew out.
With an exhillarating [sp] sigh, I snapped my fingers. The six skulls, mounted in each of the pillars, began seeping deep red light out of their empty eye sockets. These cheap parlour tricks had no effect on me.
The blood-red light broke the darkness, revealing a horrible creature, holding something in its hand.
-"Speak."
--- --- ---
The dragon hissed as it missed, and was about to go in for a second run, as a very unusual event happened.
-"Hssssssssssssssssssssss....garrgggghhhhhhhhhaaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
The dragon's shape became blurry for a second, revealing the good old normal Ein...falling down from a rather long distance.
-"AAAAAAHHHH!!!!!"
--- --- ---
-"The Lord of earth? In that case, I'm a six-headed fire dragon."
Steorra limped over to Galak, and... swung a slap at him.
-"What are you going to do without your fancy scrolls now, tough guy? Should've stayed a few more years in whatever demented school you went to and learned actual magic..."
She turned around to Nick.
-"Hey, you alright?"
-
//Now if only Trent would post... Heh.\\
-
"What the shit was that!?" Rink exclaimed as the mysterious figure just whooshed past them.
Duilin shrugged. "Beats me."
----
"Ein!" Marshall yelled, seeing his friend falling down to the ground. He dashed quickly to where Ein was falling so he could catch him...
----
Vandrin stood in the bloody field of rebels. The battle was over and the rebels had been crushed.
His servants were dragging the bodies into large piles, mainly just to clean the way up for construction.
The servant who was first shot then stood up, dusted himself off and looked at Vandrin.
"Doing good count." He said. "Our Marshal made a wise choice with you." He then walked off and joined the others.
Vandrin nodded and then turned his head to observe other things, he then stopped turning and took another look at the servant, he stared for a second but then shook his head and looked back the other way, only to quickly look back at the servant who he was sure was dead.
"Odd..."
----
"Yes, lord Kronos." Roland replied to Kronos' breifing.
He then climbed up on a pile of rubble consisting of bricks and wood, an undead arm was sticking out from under the rubble; it seemed to be moving trying to get unstuck.
Roland stood at the top of pile. "Soilders. We are to go back to Ugran. We shall destroy all living things that stand there. No buildings shall be destroyed, for Ugran shall be sold." He called to his warriors.
"What about the sstatuee?" An undead warrior asked, with his scratchy voice.
"The statue eh?" Roland thought. He never saw the statue of Ugran himself, yet he heard of it being constructed after the battle. Perhaps it should be destroyed, it's an Aspye landmark. I'm sure lord Kronos would not approve of such things in his land, nor would this new count. Plus, they could use the scraps to build other buildings. "Very well, but remember, leave all other buildings standing!"
-
//Sorry, guys.
"Don't worry. This won't take as long as you think. The reaction is more crazy than you know." And the light and dark had already started to swirl together. "Ah, here we go... I'll tell you when. When I say Now, you shoot it with me."
--- --- ---
"I say we go and join the party," said Zion. "Xenai wouldn't be very happy if we went off somewhere without him." He tried to feel something, anything, in the direction that Zeros' had indicated. He couldn't feel anything right now. "No, I can't sense anything. You two?" The couple shook their heads at him. "Alright, then. Let's go." Zion headed off towards where Xenai and Duilin went. Tsu and Aura followed.
-
"I go to no school lke you young lady and im not incabalbe of killing you without those scrolls." He revealed a small scroll from his pocket opening it, showing it to Steorra. "Now you see?" He started to morph into the great beast.
Nick laid there helpless and in agony.
-
The wraith did not speak, but merely floated there before holding out the scroll to the Marshal Lich, the rolled parchment loosely pinched between its skeletal fingers.
The seal upon the ring seal was that of a four winged dragon against a sword, etched in red upon a black onyx surface. The parchment read:
MARSHAL KRONOS OF THE KANDARINIAN SOVEREIGNTY
It is with my dearest sincerity that I wish you the most bountiful use of your newly acquired lands of Terian. Our nations, though close neighbors, have nary known each other through the entirety of our reigns-- a fact which our newly founded alliance will surely reconcile. As a first step in kinship, I would like to invite you and as many guests as you wish to a banquet held in honor of this alliance. This event shall be held in my citadel at North Point. I would also like to use this opportunity to discuss with you personally some minor but irksome obstacles that will require removal in the mutual interests of our nations.
THE DARK EMPEROR RETAN
-
"I took the parchment from the skeletal-looking hand, and read over it. A most interesting invitation... As mysterious as this Retan was, he certainly had a sense of class. This sort of event is highly formal, and formality is one trait that today's monarchs seem to lack.
Speaking my answer to the wraith and having it relay the message to the Emperor hardly seemed to be an approperiate thing to do. Unfortunately I was not in my study, so no paper seemed to be present. Well, I'll have to improvise, then...
I quickly summoned up a nicely dried-out skull, and created a very small lightning arc on the tip of my finger. The arc connected to the skull, and began burning in it the following message:
To DARK EMPEROR RETAN OF THE DARK EMPIRE
I have recieved your invitation, and I am pleased to say that I will be able to attend. Alas, this skull offers little space to write upon, but I am sure we will be able to discuss more at your residence. I will arrive anon.
Kronos, the Marshal of Kandarinian Sovereignty
Finishing the message, I burnt the Kandarinian symbol into the bone under the paragraph. I read it over, satisfied with the contents. This will likely prove to be a most fruitsome audience.
I handed the skull to the wraith.
-"My deepest apologies for the lack of a proper parchment. I hope this will be enough."
The wraith nodded, and disappeared through the doorway. In slight annoyance, I blasted the remains of the lightning arc at the torches, lighting them back up. The red light dimmed, then vanished.
I put my hand on an M-Grid orb, conveniently placed in the armrest of the throne."
--- --- ---
-"I'll show you...!"
Steorra just swung her staff at the still-transforming beast, as Kronos' voice rang through her mind.
-"Steorra, do you know where the North Point fortress is?"
She tensed her memory.
-"Yes... back when Vincent was making plans... He had a map... yes, I know where it is..."
-"Good. I want you there. Nick should be in your area as well, but we need someone to take care of Asgarnia. I'm counting on you."
-"Of course, my Lord. It will be done."
Kronos' prescence vanished from her mind. She turned around to Nick.
-"Hey, kid -- I need to go. Can you take that thing yourself?"
She looked back at the beast, and quickly realized the answer.
-"Alright, I'll give you some supplies."
Steorra closed her eyes and lightly tapped Nick on the shoulder. In that tap, her staff transmitted a powerful healing spell, as well as a hefty boost to his weapon. She noticibly flinched, most likely from the power drain. She, however, wasn't done.
-"One last thing... here..."
Her signature spell, the shining wings, were now visible on Nick's back. A large pair of greatly spanning eagle wings flexed, illuminating the area around him. They were under his complete control.
-"Good luck."
She quickly repeated the wing procedure on herself, took off, and flew off into the distance.
--- --- ---
Arlin, now back from his crusade, was briefing the Adepts in Undecimus on his newly developed tactics of scorpion encampment.
-"...and then, you will need to encorporate all your powers into one, to create a giant shield over the retreating army. Any questions?"
Several hands shot up into the air, but Arlin stopped them with a sign of his hand. Someone was trying to reach him through the M-Grid.
-"Arlin, are you back in Kandarin yet?"
-"Yes, my Lord. The division under my command was highly successful. We should implement the like tactic for all our divisions across Terian. I am briefing the Adepts now."
-"Very good. You have done famously, Arlin. However, there is a more urgent matter. Our new allies, the Dark Empire, are requesting a council. I deemed you and Steorra most approperiate to accompany me, you because you are the senior military advisor, and Steorra because... well, you know."
On the outside, Arlin grinned.
-"Of course. I understand, my Lord. It is an honour. Where is this council taking place?"
-"At the North Point fortress. You will find a transport in Qim fully equipped to take you across the ocean. I trust you will be able to travel on your own from thereon. An informant in the transport will provide you with a map. You are to regroup with Steorra and wait for me. Remember, though - " Kronos' mental voice took a harsher tone. " - I see everything."
Arlin was fighting back violent urges of laughter.
-"Yes, of course, my Lord. You can count on me."
-"Good. By the way, you are hiding the fact that you're amused quite poorly."
Before Arlin could make an excuse, Kronos was gone.
-"Jeez... Well, anyways, I suppose this concludes that. Tomorrow, I expect to see you all in here again. There will be new equipment handed out, as well as complimentary Bintmeat."
Arlin left the pedestal he was speaking on, accompanied by deafeningly loud screams of joy from the Adepts. He made his way from Undecimus to Qim, which was a very short walking distance, and boarded the hydrojump transport. The hydrojump kicked off into the sea, soon disappearing in the mist.
--- --- ---
The spider demon was knocked down, and hissed violently at Draven. In the orange glow of the fireball, one could now make out some rather interesting details. At least half of the demon's body was made of crudely scavenged parts from the dysfunctioning machines. Its head and arms, as well as legs, seemed to be made completely out of Dark glass.
So that's where the Dark glass went. Damn. Such good material wasted on such pitiful creature.
The malfunctions in Horus' body stopped. The demon jumped up onto the ceiling, and disappeared in a hole that Horus could've sworn was not there before. A moment later he knew why - it quickly covered itself with a sand-coloured aperture. As if answering the aperture, all the other doors in the installation opened. The tubes lit up again, but this time not with a purple colour, but with blue.
Blue? Why blue?
...
...
...
OH DAMN.
Horus grabbed Draven in his massive hand, and ran to the nearest exit, where the door just finished opening. He saw a number of people behind it, preparing various attacks. With a single hand swipe, he caught Xenai and Aegidius in his other palm. He yelled to the rest, as emotion-fully as he could:
-"RUN!!!"
--- --- ---
Ein fell down on Marshall, softening his fall, but making the both of them tumble on the ground anyway. He rolled off Marshall, and groaned.
-"What the hell was that...?"
-
"You're asking me?" Marshall asked, as he picked himself up. "You started leaking some black liquid and then turned into some dragon, and nearly crushed us." He explained sounding kind of stressed. "But are you okay now? I mean, you really scared us there."
----
Aegidius nodded to Xenai "Okay, just say when you're re--" Suddenly the door swung open and he was grabbed by the giant machine.
Duilin turned his head and looked at the machine carry off Aegidius and Xenai. "It?talks?"
"Hey! Where the shit are you taking them!" Rink exclaimed.
"Rink, you know, the word 'shit' isn't really used like that. It's more of a noun." Duilin explained.
"Shut the shit up, and chase that shitting tin man before it gets the shit away with them!" Rink snapped.
Duilin grabbed Rink and then dashed after the machine...
-
Zeros' blinks and shrugs, but nods, getting up and brushing off his pants, walking in the direction the other three had gone.
He had followed them, until he heard a loud voice scream out, "RUN!". He blinks and stops, waiting near the enterance to where all his friends and allies had disappeared.
-
Nick was now able to get up.
"Thanks."
He said as he took his fine blades out.
"Now for you!"
He looked at the giant were-bear thing. The palms bigger that a trees trunk. Claws as long as a birds beak. The creature moved towards him whacking his palm towards Nick. It made cotact with his face making him spin into the air and fall to the ground. The beast gave out a chuckle like growl. Nick got up and turned around seeing the beast right infront of him. Galak lifted Nick by his neck chocking him.
"Ghhacck" Nick tried to breathe.
-
Roland and his legion rally up into formation and begin to march their way towards Ugran. Roland was quite confident. He knew that the last battle was quite harsh, yet he has also heard a rumour that their great Haraldur had fallen in battle against a powerful demon.
He wasn't totally sure this was true, since other rumours stated that he was a god, or at least immortal, but it would explain the reason that this Haraldur has not been active. During the time he was alive, people from all over Terian could see the effects of his spells, and feel his presence, but now it was absent.
----
The workers and peasants have been cleaning up the place. A few workers have even started constructing buildings for the troops. It would probably take quite a wile for this place to look ideal. Yet with today's advancements in magic, buildings can be built much faster. Perhaps he could hire some construction mages.
Several tents have already been set up. Workers and soldiers were resting at them. Earlier Vandrin requested a meeting at the main tent. All the captains and head workers were to meet there. As he walked in to the main tent he examined the area. The tent had three large tables, and a stand with a podium. A captain was standing at the podium with one of the head workers next to him. They were talking. The captain then noticed Vandrin walk in and then the rest of the workers and fighters turned their heads and looked at him.
"Greetings Count Vandrin." One of the captains said, nodding at him.
Vandrin nodded back, and then walked towards the podium, the two then stepped away and sat at a bench set up near by.
"Congratulations on cleaning out those rebels from my county. I have made a wise choice in hiring you from your sovereign." Vandrin said to the audience. "Now that we have removed the rebel scum, we can proceed with our main task. I wish to have a wall built all around the settlements we have purchased. We'll of course have our basic guard shifts. But nobody comes in or leaves my county without permission, or proper authorization. I also wish to have a keep built. This is where the higher authorities, respected guests and I will stay. Now... any questions?"
-
?What the--?!?
Draven pounded his fists against the huge metallic hand.
?Blast it! What in blazes do you think you?re doing?!?!?
The machine?s steps were huge and fast, the jarring of the clanking footfalls serving to fuel the plainly irritated fire mage?s temper.
The wraith continued down the hallway a few hundred feet before realizing that it just passed Draven up. Turning and blinking its red eyes confusedly, it sped off back towards the outside, chasing after the escaping group.
----
Virmir turned his attention to the rack of ornate swords hanging on his wall. The silver coated fox had quite a collection. Twelve blades in all, half of them enchanted in some way, all of them ancient, and each tied to the history of Welkin. He reached out to touch the decorative hilts one by one, his other claw stroking the thin fur under his chin. His white tipped tail escaped from under his black robe as he leaned forward, hooking upward and swaying back and forth while he made his decision. He idly wished the Dark Emperor would have given him some details of his mission, so that he would be able to make a more informed choice.
His black claw rested on the tip of the hilt of one of the middle blades. Grabbing the handle, he removed the weapon, the blade humming a high pitched whine as it slit the air. It was the Wind Serpent, his favorite. A long, thin blade, barely three quarters of an inch wide, yet just over five feet in length from end to end with a slight curve. It was longer than he was tall. He brought the blade before him, rotating the razor sharp edge upward as it continued to hum, careful not to dislodge anything from the nearby shelves. As its name implied, it was a wind elemental sword-- the strongest in his collection, with a further enchantment to reduce its handling weight to nearly nil.
Satisfied, he replaced the weapon in its sheath and held the weapon in his left hand, letting the tip touch the floor. Once again he began his perusement, taking a bit longer this time as he studied the remaining swords. Finally, he removed a longsword from the rack-- the Flamberge. This one was wider and more medievalish in design, but less than three feet in blade length, making it less cumbersome. It was much heavier though, which the fox did not like, but its wide spreading fire magic came in handy, even though it wasn?t the strongest.
The silver fox replaced the Flamberge in its sheath, then strapped the weapon to his back so that it was almost horizontal to the floor, the hilt to his left side and within easy reach of his right hand. He did the same with the Wind Serpent, positioning it just above the fire blade. The wind blade was so long that he would have to be careful not to knock things over in passing while indoors, a lesson he learned the hard way when he was younger.
The look of uncertainty in his vulpine visage was gone. It was all business from here on out. With a wave of his claw the oil lamp flickered out, leaving his office in darkness. He turned sideways as he exited to the hallway so that his sword would not catch, before locking the door and striding down the torchlight corridor at a quick pace, his tail swaying behind him.
-
//I hate school, I hate school, I HATE SCHOOL! Sincerely sorry for the delay, Ein and DM, school's a jerk. Now...\\
Alex picked himself up off the ground and gathered up Otis on his shoulder, and knelt down next to Ein.
"Well, whatever happened, you seem fine now... It must have been that strange poison. Thank God you're all right. You nearly dusted us." Alex said. He looked up at the sky, the sun was lazily drifting down towards the western horizon, scattering a vermillion light on the landscape. "We had better bunk down for the night...I guess we'll get a move on tomorrow."
-
A black shadow covered Nick. Within a few moments it burst making Galak let go of Nick and fall to the ground. Nick pointed his sword at the beasts neck. The beast swiped the sword away. Nicks hand glowed red and he blasted the beast... "Gaawack...." The beast exclaimed as he turned back to normal.
-
Swipez0red. "Oh, hell..." Xenai pulled his energy back before the reaction could finish. "Hey, what's going on? Where ya takin' us?" He asked to Horus. He figured that he had good intentions, what with how he yelled "Run!" and then grabbed them. He saw and heard Draven in the other hand. "Hey there, Draven! How ya doin'?"
From the surface, Zion heard the unfamilliar voice. "What was that? Crap... Let's go!" The three went in and then jumped on down the aperture.
-
It wasn't long until Horus saw the light, the light on the way out. He hastily made it to the opening in the ceiling, as the ground started to rumble. Concentrating all his forces, he jumped upwards, through the opening, and landed safely on the ground.
Suddenly, the hole in the ground where the aperture used to be turned to a blue hell. A HUGE, 50-long blue flame erupted from the opening, rising chunks of debris from below. The complex began bending down, and falling to the ground, the effects clearly visible on the surrounding desert...
Horus put the people down onto the ground. Did the others make it out OK?
--- --- ---
"Time waits for no man, they say, and I assume Retan was the same. I phased through the walls of my palace, and to my own little backyard. In there, I quickly built myself an undead wyvern transport, mounted it, and set off for the North Point stronghold."
--- --- ---
//Let's have this chapter go on a bit longer, a bit into the night. Xorlak, this would prove very effective for the little feast Kronos was invited to.\\
Steorra was shreading through the clouds, the wings barely visible through the mist. From the ground, it looked like a firefly was crossing the fogs. Moisture made the wings seem blurred, and Steorra was barely visible at all. The sun was setting in the distance, its fleeting light barely illuminating the ground.
--- --- ---
Arlin got off his transport safely. From here on, he had to walk. Or did he?
Without thinking too much, he rose into the air VIP-style. There didn't seem to be any mountains in front of him... Yes, he would probably be capable of doing this...
A series of rings appeared around his body, all the while Arlin was moving into a more horizontal heading. As he reached the final position, the four rings flared brighty, propelling him forward at breakneck speeds.
--- --- ---
Ein got up, and dusted himself off.
-"Yes, I think I'm quite alright. But if you are to look at the sky, you will find that it's almost night-time, and we accomplished NOTHING in the while! Let's keep at it."
-
"Maybe we should go to Ugran." Marshall suggested. "We know where this dangerous Sovereignty?s location is now. If we can organize a big enough group maybe we can go and take it by force."
----
Aegidius walked towards the aperture (I assume the invisible barrier is gone). "Rink!?" Aegidius called in concern. "Rink! Duilin!"
"Hey pretty boy. Relax we're just fine." Duilins voice said.
Aegidius turned around, and saw Duilin and Rink next to him. "Bah! How...how did you make it out so quickly?" Aegidius asked in confusion.
"Well, let me explain..." Rink said.
--Around 30-60 seconds ago--
"What the hell is that thing doing!?" Duilin asked sounding annoyed.
Rink was clinging onto Duilin's arm. He then sensed something; the entire place was to explode. Although Rink was not strong in combat magic, his 'senses' were much more attuned then most others.
It didn't look like they were going to make it out. Suddenly Duilin heard a loud rumbling sound, he turned around seeing a large blast of blue flame flying towards them. Rink then rapidly focused his energy; suddenly him and Duilin disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Within seconds they appeared outside the underground bunker, on the surface of the desert.
----
"Yeah, I had no idea that Rink could actually use short ranged teleportation on other people." Duilin said.
"Neither did I really." Rink laughed. "Even at my age I guess I'm still learning my powers" Rink then lowered his eyes, and looked off. "...or...remembering them I guess." He mumbled.
"Well...that machine. Well it saved us." Aegidius said. He then looked at the towering machine, that before attempted to destroy them, but had just saved their lives.
"Now...wait a second." Duilin said sternly. He walked towards the machine. "Why the hell would it save us, if before it randomly attacked us. We don't even know what this thing is."
He looked at Draven. "Well, maybe some of us have more of a clue. Tell us great lord Draven, what was it that you two were doing?"
-
(No problem. We'll go into the night and next day if need be.)
Having been dropped into the sand, Draven stood up, flashing a quick scowl at Duilin as he dusted himself off, brushing the sides of his clothes and cape rigorously to rid himself of the offending grit.
"Tch. None of your business. And what, pray tell, were you doing following me?"
Some sand had found its way into his long black hair, which was not a good situation. His gloves moved to his head in quick strokes.
Before he could say more, the wraith suddenly appeared before him, emerging out of the dunes as a translucent specter. It slowly circled Draven once as he eyed it, before bowing lowly and offering the sealed scroll.
"Well, now, what do we have here."
Draven took the scroll and noted the seal of the Dark Empire. Breaking it, he unfurled the parchment and read:
HIGH GENERAL DRAVEN, OF THE EAST
You will report to the fortress of North Point immediately.
EMPEROR RETAN OF THE DARKNESS
He edged his mouth in a half smirk, then crumpled the paper in his right palm. The wraith waited, floating there eerily. He nodded to it, and it nodded back before fading away. He seemed to stop and think for a second, running his left pointer finger under his chin before turning to the machine.
"Come, machine. I've still to give you what I've promised."
With that a pale red aura appeared around the man, and he shot off to the north, flying much faster than before, obviously assuming the repaired machine was now capable of keeping up.
(Let's not have the banquet guests arrive before this weekend, as I'm sure I probably won't be able to do the required story as well during the week.)
-
Galak started to scurry away. He jumped up reaching for his bag ripping the strap. The ground opened up as Galak came down. He retreated into the earth.
"Damn!" Nick said as Galak ran away. Sir Kronos where shall I go know? Nick put his weapons away. Steorra that mole-thing left what shall i do know?
-
"Clinging onto the wyvern's exposed bones, I recieved the message from Nick.
-"You are to guard Asgarnia. It is truly a precious gem, and guarding it may be quite hard. I am counting on you; do not betray my trust. Good luck."
--- --- ---
Horus looked up at Draven, speeding away through the air. A black pentagram appeared around the mechanism...
-
The orange light was all but gone, to be replaced by a dotted array of gleaming stars and a ghostly-white lunar disc. The air was still, and hung with ambient humidity. The forest floor was definitely the coolest place to be, as most of the ambient heat was absorbed by trees and rivers. Otis was again asleep on Alex's back, occassionally chirping while he slumbered.
Alex was tinkering with his rifle, trying to repair the damage to it. Kleiner had warned Alex of the delicate systems in the rifle. If they are just slightly misaligned, the entire weapon is rendered useless. However, the damage here was more serious. The compression coil was cracked, the scope was unfocused, and the energy transfer matrix was burnt. Alex didn't know what any of that meant, but he knew he had to fix it... Alex decided to stow the scarred weapon for now.
"Come on, guys. We need to get going."
-
Zeros' blinked.
He blinked again.
"Well, that was eventful," he said lightly, refering to the giant flame that had suddenly spewed out of the ground. He seemed unfazed. As if anything could phase him at this day and age.
Pfft.
"Anyways..." he turned to Duilin and Rink. "So, did you two find out anything?" he asked.
-
"Well actually..." Duilin said, but then sighed. "No."
"Well, other then finding out that the machine likely won't be attacking us anymore." Rink added.
"Well, that?s a plus." Aegidius commented.
"Well, yeah. But really, we have accomplished nothing. We've been wasting our time." Duilin groaned. "There was no point is following Draven."
"Well, wait a second." Rink said. "He's going north, because of a note handed to him by a ghost. Frankly, I think something is going on up there."
"You think?" Duilin asked.
"Obviously. I say Retan and Jayce have something to do with it."
"So, should we go north?" Duilin asked.
----
"Yeah, sure Alex." Marshall agreed. "Come on Ein..."
He then walked along with Alex, looking at the sky.
-
The desert gave way to forests, and then rugged mountains. Draven noted the sky darkening more and more as he flew northward. Though he was less familiar with the northern reaches of the Dark Continent, the ominous clouds were all too familiar to him.
He glanced back, noting the machine was able to keep a good pace. Excellent?
Wyvern riders began to appear and swoop around, keeping their distance. Although they were quite far, there seemed to be something different about the riders? new armor perhaps? It wasn?t worth a second thought, as the towers of North Point would soon be visible in the haze.
This should be interesting? Draven cringed at the though of having to report to the Dark Emperor once again, especially after five years of running an Empire of his own, however there was a certain simplicity to being a High General that he missed? And if he played his cards right?
-
Nick moved towards Asgaria. "What help would be needed here?" he asked himself.
-
"ABORT!!!" The sound of Tsu's voice led the three out of the aperture, and out of harm's way. The three plopped onto the ground and then slowly got to their feet. //I'm a little confused about that part, so I'll leave this part at that.
"Teleportation, huh? Well, thanks dude." Xenai looked around, then seeing Tsu and Aura, just now noticing that they'd returned. "Hey, they're back, and--!" Xenai giggled at the sight of Aura's outfit. He pointed down at her feet and created a fierce upward gust. He was immediately dismayed. "What? NOOOO!" Aura cackled, and then walked over to Xenai, kicking him in the assets. "If I weren't wearing pants under here, I'd have kicked you harder. But I knew you'd try something like that."
"Xenai, cool your hormones for a moment. Should we follow Draven to wherever he's going?"
"I dunno... Duilin, what are you guys gonna do?"
-
"As much as I'd hate to continue following him. I'm really interesting in what's up at North Point." Duilin replied.
"Well, I'm game." Rink said.
"I also." Aegidius added. "How about you?" He asked Zeros'.
-
Steorra and Arlin arrived near North Point at almost the same time.
-"Well, hello, Steorra. I don't believe we've met - I'm Arlin."
-"Eh... OK... Did Kronos tell you to go here as well?
-"Yep. I guess now we wait."
-
Zeros' glances at his companions and then over his shoulder, turning and starting off into the distance, towards North Point.
"North, hmm? North Point is once where the Dark Empire resided, I believe... back when there was a Dark Empire... but, I believe... They're reforming, if Jayce's return and Retan's aural signature return are any indication," he said to his companions.
"Right now, I'd say our best bet would be to go to the North and actually see if the two are actualy reforming their empire... If they are..." he turns and looks at his companions. "We need to prepare for war... once again."
-
Duilin looked north, as Draven disappeared in the distance. The machine however was still visible, due to its monstrous size. He had a huge gut feeling that Retan already had a horde of well trained soldiers. If the Grey Empire was able to form so quickly under the rule of Melkoth and Abodahon, and Haraldur and Tesla were able to start the Aspyes so rapidly, then who knows what Retan could do.
"Well..I'm ready for another war." Duilin supposed.
Aegidius could sense something more. Probably Zeros' could to. There were a lot of disturbed and tortured spirits of the dead in this world. It felt like the very fires of hell were burning in the north.
"Let's go." The angel said neutrally. He then flapped his wings and took off.
Duilin, grabbed Rink, and the imp grabbed onto Duilin's shoulder. The half demon flapped his wings and flew along with Aegidius.
----
Marshall continued walking through the woods, listening to the chirping of crickets and the occasional firefly lighting up. It looked like a nice night, but it felt terribly wrong.
He could see some light in the distance; he could make out a town beyond the forest. "Come on guys. We aren't far now."
-
(The Dark Empire held the entire Dark Continent, including what the heroes are standing on now.)
Draven glided down, setting his feet to rest at the mouth of the narrow jagged peninsula upon which the fortress of North Point stood at the end. The whole edifice, walls and towers and all, seem somehow twisted and darker than the last time he had visited, not to mention the swirling clouds and the green turning sea far below?
But those were but a minor point. His true attention was on the strange armored figures lining up before the southern and only gate. They were everywhere? these? lizard men? Draven had seen a few, yes, but never an entire army. The din was deafening as they scattered about, preparing for war. Weapons were being forged right outside the gates in huge furnaces of open flame, and the creatures darted in and out of the black fortress, chaotically yet methodically at the same time. The Dark Emperor clearly had taken over his business in this fortress right here and now. Where were Draven?s men, anyway?
He strode towards the gates, flipping his cape, the machine?s metal footsteps shaking the ground behind him. There were a good few thousand lizard men in his way, and they slowly began to part as he started into the rocky peninsula.
They whispered among themselves in raspy voices:
?THAT?s the High General of the East??
?I hear he?s just a human??
?How could HE be a High General??
He progress was unimpeded for the most part, until some halfway through a much larger lizard stood in his path. The scaly ruffian was over seven feet tall, hunched over. His armor was light, in black spikes about his shoulders and chest, though it seemed only ornamental as his dark green scales seemed armor enough on its own. Two horns jutted out of the sides of this one?s head, a feature most of the other lizards did not have. He smiled a reptilian grin, showing a massive mouth of jagged teeth.
?Who are you, little man??
Draven folded his arms as his cape swayed in the breeze, looking unamused.
?I see you wear the insignia of the Dark Empire. That tone is unfit for a High General. Eastern Division, thank you. Though I?ve officiated as Emperor in the Dark Emperor?s absence.?
The lizard waved his massive tale back and forth like a raptor.
?Hmmmphph, I care not who you claim you are, little human. I am Brigadier General Mirkath, under the command of the High General of the Subterrain. If the High General of the East is as petty as yourself, then I will not allow him or his feeble troops to water down our reserves??
Draven raised an eyebrow. Subterrain? The legions of the Dark Empire are, or were, divided into divisions of the North, South, East, and West. But Subterrain? Draven had even never heard of that?
That was of lesser concern, because the reptile just spoke his doom? Draven?s eyes narrowed.
?Oh? Really now, an officer such as yourself, insignificant as though you may be, surely knows the consequences of crossing a High General??
The lizard let out a sound that could have been taken for a chuckle, removing a long jagged sword from a holster on his back.
?Hyeh? We?ll just have to see what rank you really are then??
At that moment, a very violent burst of flame erupted from Draven, causing his cape to flutter wildly, though he did not move a muscle. He burned like a torch, the crimson aura breaking apart the rocky ground beneath him. Several onlooker lizards took a few steps back.
He unfolded his arms, revealing a brightly glowing right hand, plainly visible against the already bright flare of the flames. It was over in a second. The lizard?s eyes bulged as his sword clanged upon the ground, his mouth gaping open and blood spurting out over Draven?s head, just missing him. Draven was standing but a few inches from the lizard, his right arm punctured all the way through the reptile?s chest, the tips of his gloved fingers breaking through to the opposite side.
Draven removed his arm with a snap, and the lizard fell over, quite dead.
The rest of the walk to the fortress was uneventful.
-
Tadewi lied on the ground, having a sound sleep. The earth where she lied was covered with plants and bushes which made it soft and comfortable. A tiny squirrel was sitting nearby staring at her when she suddenaly woke up. Trying to repudiate from her weird terrifying dream she just had, she bent herself into a sitting pose and looked around. She got absolutely terrified - Her dream became truth!
She stood up as fast as she woke up. She was in an unfamiliar strange dark place. She was standing in the middle of the clearing in the forest, and she couldn't remember what happened and how she even got there. She could clearly see the bright moon, which was the only source of light around. She kept looking around as if she is going to find the answers somewhere between the trees but no avail.
She slowly sat down, trying to calm herself down and think logically. She saw near where she sleeped her bow and her arrows. There was her bag with a few inunctions in it, poisonous darts and it's small tube too.
'How bizarre, all of my things are here! Could it be an other test of my ancestors?? But....no. It can't be........Could it?' she didn't know what else to think.
She then noticed the tiny squirrel which still stared at her. It wasn't a usual squirrel. She could sense it. She dispatched her hand towards the squirrel and he didn't got scared at all. He moved closer to her and let her caress him.
After a few moments of thinking she decided to go and look if there was anybody around who can help her out and maybe...tell her where she is.
She stood up again, took all of her things and started walking carefuly with the same tiny weired squirrel - on her tracks.
-
//"Quite dead." I like that.
"Well, I think we know what to do then," said Tsu. "Shall we, Zion?"
"Yes, let's go." Zion, Tsu, and Aura took off. Xenai, however, wasn't so fast. He was rolling around on the ground, clenching his groin. He slowly got to his feet and took off, hands remaining in position. Damn, that wouldn't have been worth it at all.
-
Nick Waited in front of Asgaria. Havoc was upon the city. Kronos' soldiers burning homes and killing people.
"I wonder who that weird thing was?" Nick pondered
He restlessly paced around the entrance of Asgaria.
---
Galak moved deeper and deeper undergound. He reached a large cavern. He now stood up. He took a scroll embeled with the word lock. Placing it on the ground he qucikly moved a few feet away. A blue colored sphere encased him. He went down deeper into a city. Galaks City, he was home at last. "Gei my city."
-
"I flew through the skies on the wyvern, which was almost falling apart. Finally, I noticed Arlin and Steorra in the distance, conversing between each other. I landed the wyvern near their position, and let it fall apart.
Slowly gliding in my phase-shift condition, I noticed a huge amount of auras a fair distance from me. Whatever could that be....?
I appeared by the bushes behind my two convoys. They noticed me, and bowed.
-"I trust your trip was uneventful. Now, shall we go?"
The mages silently nodded.
-"Good."
We left the area, and advanced towards the fortress. Just as it came into view, my heart took a dive.
The lizards were everywhere, everywhere. It looked like a giant mass wobbling around the grim fortress. The noise was rather loud, too. So, Retan actually had some military muscle, it seems... Although it was less than perfectly organized. Some lizards were running around in the crowd, stirring up some commotion, something about some High General... I couldn't quite make it out.
-"Steorra, could you run a little check for me?"
-"Of course, my Lord. What do you need?"
-"I want you to prospect the force lines around this fortress."
-"Of course."
She took off the curious glowing gem in her staff, and looked through it, as if a prism. She squinted her eyes, looking up and down at the fortress, then back and forth.
-"Well... there don't seem to be any particularly strong lines... there are just individual points... but I may be mistaken. All those lines extending from you are kind of swamping the view, I can barely see anything through them... Yes, I definately see several very strong points..."
-"Good, that will do. Thank you."
So they didn't have any other active Necromancers in there. That's a relief. Blah, should've made a bit of an amendment to the treaty, denying the practice of Necromancy... oh well. It's not like there are any other practicioners as powerful as myself.
Just to prove my point to myself, I resurrected some bug I just squashed, and blasted a lightning bolt at a nearby tree, setting it ablaze. The troops in front noticed me, and made a general clamor. I advanced towards them.
-"This is Kronos, Marshal of the Kandarinian Sovereignty! I am here by invitation!"
The lizards shuffled aside, letting me through. Well, at least they were disciplined. Me and my convoy crossed the path from the mainland to the actual fortress. The gigantic black gates were closed. Now just to get their attention...
-"Arlin... Is it true that you've had experience in summoning?"
-"Well, yes, my Lord... but all I can summon is a small black drake... and I can only do that once per day, it takes too much energy for me."
-"Why don't you go ahead and summon it?"
-"Of course, my lord."
Arlin turned around, looking towards the sky. He set his hands apart, and his body oddly bent backwards. His eyes were closed, and he was shaking violently. Soon, some static sparks were jumping in between him and the ground, rising him a little bit into the air. Damn, he sure does make one heck of a show for just summoning a drake. I mean, it's a drake! Not even a full dragon!
The skies were even more turbulent than before. A small opening through the black shroud covering the fortress appeared, revealing the white clouds over it. The one particular cloud extended through the hole, slowly taking the shape of a dragon. The newly-formed drake flew circles around the fortress. Arlin slowly lowered himself back down onto the ground.
-"Good job, Arlin."
I waited for the drake to fly around the fortress another circle, all the while charging up a big, powerful lightning blast. Just as the critter was finishing its second revolution about the fortress, just when it was next to a large window, I let go of the lightning, aiming it right at the drake.
The result was truly spectacular. A deafeningly loud thunder rolled down onto the ground towards the forest in the distance. A lot of the lizard men stumbled, nearly falling down. For about ten seconds, a blue shining image of the Kandarinian symbol illuminated the ground beneath, sparking with lightnings. It was nearly a quarter of the fortresses size. If this little doorbell didn't get their attention, I have no idea what will."
--- --- ---
Horus followed Draven, somewhat amazed at the behaviour of the general with his opponent. It was a bit reckless of him, he thought. A finer job done would require complete stealth, at least for that sort of operation. Horus, however, was lacking in the stealth department. All he knew was brute force.
Then again, there was the now-defunct Dark glass cannon. Thinking back to before he was in this cold shell, Horus remembered the hours that he and his team spent on creating the perfect conductive material. They tried all sorts of metals, which, as one would guess, would happen to be the most conductive. However, none of them were nearly as conductive as the goal required. Months were spent trying to synthesize the correct compound in alchemical vats, but all attempts failed.
But eventually, as in many cases, the light came. The team found an entire new compound, which was as mysterious as the quest for the perfect conductor. It was collected painstakingly from rare crystals in the high alps, in such small amounts that it was near impossible to get a usable bunch. They appeared to be in bent formations, as if forming a gigantic circle... it was like whatever was the source of these crystals went out with a big, big bang...
After many more hours of studying the strange material, the team was able to synthesize it in mass amounts. The results were beyond anything thought achievable - the arcane energies flew through the material better than through air. Here, one would ask the obvious question: Why?
The fun thing about that kind of problem is that when you have a good conductor, you can direct arcane at whatever you want. The result was a cannon with sniper accuracy, its power even greater than conventional cannons. Using powerful energy storing crystals, the team was able to assemble a new prototype of weapon, one that required no ammunition.
That is when the raiders struck. After this, Horus' memory was but a blurr of chaotic images, sounds, and feelings. He could make nothing of it, and it did not matter now. The scientific purpose was lost. Now Dark glass was nothing but a means of destruction.
A means of war.
--- --- ---
Ein rubbed his head, and looked at Marshall.
-"Sure, let's go. I do think there is a village nearby, we could go there."
He walked through the dark looming trees, his path illuminated by nothing other than moonlight. In hopes of forgetting, he forcedly thought of Amaya. His heart sank, but he manned through it. Be a man, Ein. You pulled through worse things before. Wait, no, you didn't. But still. Be a man. Just forget about it.
Relieved, Ein saw the lights of the village up ahead. He hurried towards it, finally hoping to see some friendly faces again. In this haze, he tripped on a root and nearly fell down, but that did not stop him. He ran and ran and ran, towards the nearest house, and banged on the door. A tall, sturdy man opened.
-"Hello... you're a new face. Can I help you?"
Tears of relief were running down Ein's cheeks, smudging the dirt that stuck there during the course of the day.
-"Could me and two other folks here spend the night in your house?"
-"Why, of course! My door is always opened to travellers!"
-"Thank you so much, kind sir!"
Ein hurried inside the house. He slightly glanced at a girl sitting nearby, who was eyeing him suspiciously. Probably the guy's daughter... //that means your char, Jenia\\
--- --- ---
Roland's division was on its way of destruction, advancing towards Ugran, bringing doom to the Aspye doorstep. However, a small clamor passed through the zombies - there was a settlement ahead. Hell, if Kronos was taking over Gaian, why not kill two birds with one stone?
He commanded his beast the other way, towards the settlement. The zombies blindly followed. There was a scout tower a small distance before the village, which would undoubtedly rise alarm if Roland's army was noticed. Perhaps they should take down that outpost first...
There were still a few scorpion machines at his disposal, although not too many. While all the other divisions had 200, he barely had 10. On the other hand, while all the other divisions had soldiers who had to deal with morale and health, Roland's army mostly consisted of unfeeling zombies, the supply of which was being constantly replenished.
The lead scorpion set its tail-mounted cannon at the base of the tower and fired, basically ripping the whole thing down. The canopy at the top tumbled to the ground, killing the sentry inside it. His lifeless corpse fell down on the ground, Roland could sense his death. However, he was moving... and Kronos' force lines were nowhere near his location...
Roland hopped off the back of the beast, and approached the corpse. Its hands were shaking, and something was moving inside him. The commander kneeled down before the dead person, taking a closer look. The movement inside of the lifeless shell stopped.
Suddenly, the body jerked upwards, almost to a sitting position, then fell back down.
Again.
And again.
Something was trying to get out of the body!
Just as the thought crossed Roland's mind, the corpse's chest exploded, blinding Roland with blood. He stumbled backwards, cursing and rubbing his eyes. He opened them to find a blurry, but nevertheless very disturbing image.
Before him was standing the dead man's ribcage, on two legs. The... creature? also had two long tails, composed of unused bones. It, making a churning sound, wobbled towards Roland.
Realizing what this may be, Roland quickly glanced at where the body used to be.
If Roland was still alive and still had a stomach, he would throw up. The body was still there, or at least the skin. It still looked like a person, but only a very deflated one. There was a large cut at the place where the creature burst out.
The commander quickly rolled over, dodging the attack from the creature, and yelled out the total assault command. Obviously, the creature had no chance of surviving a speeding cannonball, virtually disappearing in a black blur.
The rest of the army rushed onto the village, tearing down the defences and the defenders. Roland hopped back onto his carrier animal, and began making way towards the village. All around, he still saw these unsettling events - as the villagers fell down, their body began trembling, and soon thereafter a creature burst out of them. Some were the same strange creatures that attacked Roland - the bipedal ribcages with two tails. Others looked like a complete nightmare - a chunk of human-shaped flesh, with no face on its head. Only a mouth. The bony spikes everywhere didn't look too inspiring, either. Oddly enough, his own falled soldiers turned into these fiends as well - exact same procedure, exat same result. These phenomena were creating a big problem for Roland's army. Little groups of these creatures united, and swarmed lone soldiers, ripping them to shreds, only to give birth to more abominations.
Of course, nothing could stop the might of 6,000 Kandarinian warriors. They gunned down the creatures with their spearguns, pinning them to the ground. Strangely enough, once the abomination was shot with a projectile that would kill a normal human, it rapidly whithered away in greenish ashes. On the turn side, one of those things could take as much as 30 normal zombies.
Finally, the army completely brought the settlement to its knees. Roland was personally slitting the throats of the more resistant villagers, while the rest of the soldiers pillaged the houses, scavenging for supplies.
Once finished his grim job, Roland looked around him at the hard 10 minutes' job. Buildings everywhere were splattered with blood, but there were absolutely no corpses. Whatever caused these strange events, they were methodically thorough. They affected every single corpse in and around the village.
-"Hey, Roland! We found this covering in one of the basements!"
Roland turned around. There were two guards dragging a curiously-dressed person, who was violently resisting his captors. The things he wore - most closely described as light armour - was made of thick, black leather. His left hand was wrapped in black leather belts with silver-shining buckles, sporting a tightly fitting glove on the end, while on his right hand resided a bleached white dragon skull, quite small for its species - about the size of an ordinary bucket. The man, who had pale skin and blueish-purple hair, was using the skull to bash his assailants.
-"Wouldn't tell us his name... some weirdo, he is. Had these creepy symbols in his basement, skulls 'n' stuff."
-"Let GO of me, you stupid morons!!!"
In a particularly violent fit, the captive managed to whack the dragon skull at one of the guards' face, while throwing the other one down with his free hand. The guards instantly sprung to their feet, aiming the spearguns at the man's head. Roland stopped them with a movement of his hand.
-"Tell me, do you know what happened to the villagers and my soldiers?"
-"Other than severe cases of mental retardation for both of them, no. What do you mean by that question, anyway?"
-"Well... would you know anything about certain things conveniently bursting out of people's chests and the like?"
The captive's face cleared, as if he finally understood what Roland was talking about.
-"Yeah, I know. What's it to you?"
-"Well, right now, as you can see, you are somewhat at a weakness before me... Perhaps we will spare your life in exchange for this... information..."
The stranger thought for a moment, then looked back at Roland.
-"Okay then. I made them."
In a moment of silence, Roland thought that his eyes were going to fall out of amazement.
-"You mean, it wasn't an object causing all this nonsense?"
-"Nope. I'm a Necromancer, moron. How else do you think I did that?"
Roland stumbled and nearly fell. His head felt uncomfortably light. Another Necromancer? Kronos would probably need to deal with this himself...
-"Tell you what, kid. I'll get you a convoy and a transport to our headquarters, and in exchange, you comply and don't fight back. Is that fine with you?"
-"Heh, the warden is asking favours from the prisoner. Who is your leader, anyway?"
-"Well, let's just say that you and him have a lot in common..."
-"Is he a Necromancer?"
-"Yes."
-"Why couldn't you just say so, idiot?"
Roland growled. Through his gritted teeth, he spat:
-"Just... get... on... the... wyvern..."
-"Fine then. I hope I won't be seeing any of you retards any more. Bai."
He hopped onto the wyvern. The wyvern's "driver" steered it towards the Kandarinian mainland.
-
//Now time for me to make a long ass post!\\
"Hey Ein!" Marshall called running forward. "Wait up."
He then arrived at the house.
"Come on in. Your friend said that you needed a place to stay." The man said.
"Thank you very much." Marshall said.
"Oh no, it's nothing. People get lost in that forest all the time. They need a place to stay after an adventure that long."
"Hah, you've got no idea friend." Marshall replied.
"Okay, well take a seat." The man said.
"Alright." Marshall sat down on a wooden rocking chair, and looked at the man.
"So, what might your names be?" He asked.
"Oh, well I'm Marshall, Marshall Royle. That there is Ein, and my other friend who is doddling along is Alex."
"So, how long have you been traveling?" He asked.
"Oh, too long!" Marshall laughed.
"Mind telling me a bit of what you've done?"
"Well, let's see, first I was fighting a horde of zombies in my old temple that I lived in, then I flew on some machine towards Ugran, but then I got kidnapped by a giant zombie gorilla, and then got locked up in some hell hole of a prison, then I escaped and then had to fight another horde of zombies, jumped out a window falling several hundred feet and onto some pentagram and then broke into somebody?s house, Ein picked up some chick, created a teleportation portal, and we ended up in some alternate dimension, that's where we met Alex. We then saved the world by breaking some crystals that were jamming something, or some other. After that Ein made another portal and then we ended up in some necromancers room, he killed the chick Ein was with, then the necromancer booted us off here, and then we went through the forest, got mugged by some creep wearing a blindfold, then Ein turned into a dragon and then back into a human. Then we walked for a bit longer and then ended up here." Marshall grinned.
The man, narrowed his eyes. "I've heard over one hundred stories from travellers that came in by and by, but not one of those has been as crazy as what you've just told me."
"Well, I've been in over one hundred people's houses who let travellers in, and they have all said that was the craziest story they have heard. I think they're all lying, I'm sure crazier things have happened."
"I think you're lying." The man said sternly.
"I might be, then again maybe I'm just creating a distraction so my friend can rob you." Marshall laughed.
The man looked angrily and then turned and looked at Ein, but then saw that he wasn't doing anything.
"I'm only joking!" Marshall laughed.
The man, glared at Marshall again, and then shook his head and then walked into another room. "Craziest damn one, yet. Craziest damn one..."
----
Roland sighed in annoyance as the stranger gave his good bye.
"I have a feeling I'm going to be annoyed by him again sometime." Roland mumbled. He then looked at the surrounding soldiers. "See if you can find anymore interesting characters around here."
"Sure thing, Roland, sir." One solider replied, and then the zombie warriors went off in search of more people, in the rubble.
Roland walked back to his Dinox, he hopped onto its back, and then rode off at a steady pace. Something was odd about this area; he was interested to see if anything else as interesting was here.
"Hey Roland! We found something, come down here!" Said a solider, whose head was sticking out of some cobble stone staircase leading to the underground.
Roland hopped off the Dinox, and then walked towards the staircase and stepped down. At the bottom, it leads to an oddly clean little area. The floors, roof and walls were all stone, and had several torches lighting the area. The stone was very well polished, totally white. There was a stone altar at the end of the room.
"I thought you might be interested. At the alter it looks like it has some picture of a Blue Minotaur and some other shit." A solider said.
"Blue Minotaur?" Roland asked. Where did he hear of that? Wait, that's right. It was hazy...but...before he died...
He was part of the Blue Minotaur...a peacekeeping summoning group. He remembered most of it now. It was mostly like an adult remembering what stupid things he did as a child and getting embarrassed over it, to him however. The longer he has served as an undead warrior the more and more he forgot about his living life.
Roland walked towards the altar, and looked at it. There was a stone tablet; in the middle there was a picture of an uncoloured chimera, and around him, were six other creatures, in various colours. One was a blue minotaur, another a red cyclops and a few others, following a rather rainbowish colour scheme. What was this? It seemed familiar, but something was telling him that the elder knows more about this. Maybe if he remembers more about the Blue Minotaur he may be able to find more about this.
But he had a feeling that there was something else out there, and it could be a danger to the Kandarinian Sovereignty, if they didn't do something about it quickly.
He picked up the stone tablet, and turned around. He held it with one hand and pointed to one of the warriors. "You..." he stepped towards the warrior and handed him the tablet. "You've done enough. Take this tablet back to Kandarin, and give this to the elder. Make sure he gets it, or I'll request Kronos to put you into eternal torture, got it."
"Um...uh yeah. I mean, yessir." The solider said, sounding a bit confused, surprised and scared all at the same time. He then walked up the stairs.
"Okay...let's get out of here." Roland then walked up the staircase, followed by the other warriors. He hopped back onto his dinox, and then began to ride off.
A few soldiers marched along beside Roland.
"Something was strange about that place." He said to the soldiers. "I know, that it has something to do with the past of the Blue Minotaur. I think there may be more of them or something. The minotaurs were only a small piece, perhaps."
"What makes you so sure, Roland?"
"Nothing does. It's just a feeling. But unlike the rest of you walking flesh bags, I actually have more of a consciousness then the others. I'm not sure if Kronos wanted me too, or if I'm just...gifted. But anyways, my memory of my living past is still draining quickly, and I don't think there is anything I can do about it. Perhaps Kronos could release me, back into my full life so I could remember more about this, and find out what is going on with those summoners, but I'm afraid I'll loose my loyalty to Kronos if that happens. And frankly, I like the way I am. I have less to worry about, eating and drinking and going to the bathroom can get really annoying sometimes you know."
----
Vandrin's workers have made quite some progress, the basic structure of most of the walls were well underway. A few buildings are almost totally near completion.
He had one watchtower already complete, so he could over see his workers.
"Count Vandrin." A voice said from behind him. It was one of the captains.
"Yes?" He replied, without turning around.
"We got you your files, from your old ship at the coast." He said, stepping next to Vandrin and handing him a bag full of various scrolls."
"Excellent." Vandrin said as he took the bag. He then reached in his pocket and took out a small pouch, and handed it to the captain. "You can distribute that with your group, as you see fit. You may leave now."
"Thank you, Count Vandrin." The captain nodded and then exited.
He opened the bag of scrolls. "I can't believe I actually forgot these. This is all part of my plan."
He looked at one, it was a formula (not a math formula, one for a chemical). "Ah yes. With my new funds, and now that I have enough hired workers, this should actually be possible to pull off." He said to himself. He looked at a few of the ingredients listed down. "Ah yes, some of this I could make with magic. Heheh. Magic these days..."
He turned around and began pacing about. Back when he was a student in Tjed, he studied a bit of chemistry. His teacher, wasn't nearly as strict as his father, but was still quite a heavy load on his shoulders. "Now. With this, I may even have the Marshal himself amazed. Perhaps, I could sell some of this to him."
-
Alex was relieved that this kind man would allow he and his friends to stay the night at his home.
"Thank you kindly, sir. You are truly one of good heart," Alex commented as he walked in. The man noticed the peculiar creature on Alex's shoulder.
"Pray tell, lad, what is that critter on your shoulder?" said the man.
"Oh, him? That's just Otis, my pet headcrab. He's generally good about anything that can't harm him. I would still be careful though, he delivers a powerful toxin if he manages to bite you," Alex replied.
"Oh my," said the man. "How have you been able to tame such a creature?"
"Well," Alex went on, "I didn't exactly tame him. Would you believe me if I told you he followed me from another dimension?"
"I've heard stranger things," replied the man. "You're sure he won't bite?"
"Positive," said Alex. "In fact, he's asleep now, and it's difficult to wake him up."
"Very well then," said the man. "My God, you look worse for wear, young man. What is it that you do for a living?"
"To be honest, I used to be a mercenary," Alex noted. "I don't do much of that anymore. I guess you could call me the adventuring type."
"Heh, I get a lot of those folks," the man replied back. "This road is a more commonly travelled route in these parts. Where are you and your friends headed?"
"You would have to talk to Ein about that," replied Alex, pointing over to the shady man sitting down for a rest. "I personally have no idea where he plans on dragging us next. Anywhere's better than Glacia."
"Glacia?" The man cocked an eyebrow.
"A mountainous region to the far northwest of here," Alex said. "It's still a developing region compared to the rest of the world. Glacia City, the capital, is at the top of one of the higher mesas in the region. I don't think there's ever been a day in the past fifty years where it didn't snow. It's always cold up there and always dry. Now that I look back on it I wonder why I ever decided to live there."
"At least it's not as bad as Asgarnia. I've heard it recently came under enemy control," replied the man seriously.
"What?!" exclaimed Alex. "That's impossible...we closed the portals...unless a malefactor of some sort decided to attack the city while it was down... That's terrible! I just came from Asgarnia. Luckily, a friend of mine managed to make it out alive. Though I don't know where he is now, I'm sure he's safe."
The man remained wide-eyed. "Portals?"
"Asgarnians utilize some kind of magic or dimensional energy to power the city, and apparently the overuse of this energy caused seams to open up to another world. Unimaginable amounts of energy were poured onto the city...I'm surprised there's still a city left to conquer. It's my fault. I was too late..."
"Hey, hey. Don't beat yourself up about it," the man reassured Alex. "You did what you could and that's all that matters."
"I guess so. I just wish I could have done more. And now I'm all wound up in this mess. Who the hell is this guy Kronos that Ein keeps mentioning, and how do I have a place in all of this? It's so confusing."
"I'm sure all will be revealed in due time," replied the man.
"I suppose." Alex yawned. He hadn't gotten any good sleep in a few days.
"Well then, you look exhausted," said the man. "Make yourself at home, the fireplace is over there, and the bedrooms are upstairs. The kitchen is down the hall and to the left if you're hungry."
"Thanks again sir," said Alex cooly as he sat down with Ein and Marshall to discuss where the three intended to go next.
-
After a long while of gliding and many changes of scenery, Weloss has finally declared that it was the place.
"The source...Seems to be missing, however." he stated.
Kerig was too preoccupied with staring at the necromancer's tall fortress to be bothered with such things. He let out a long "Whoa" and started slowly gliding towards the fortress without taking his eyes of it.
Upon reaching the gates, he was stopped by two guards.
"State your buisness!" they said, appearing to be expecting for something strange to suddenly pop out of Kerig. He smiled at them.
"Oh, us? We just came because my little friend here wants to chat with the person in charge around..."
Kerig had a quick look at the fortress itself, and turned back to the guards.
"You know, the Crow-Nose person. He can't chat without me though, so I came too!"
The guards looked at each other, and then back at Kerig.
"The master is not here! Be off!"
Kerig continued to smile.
"Oh, no matter, we'll just wait here until he's back!."
With that, Kerig sat down near the left gate guard and returned to his traditional staring into the sky.
--------------------
"About time. Took them long enough to show up. But why...is he moving...?"
Afelan knew that something was wrong with the target, but for now it was best not to arise any suspicion...
Afelan's thought's were interrupted by the voice of the innkeeper.
"Elly, could you make some of your herbal tea for our guests?"
'Elly' turned towards the innkeeper, her face brimming with a loyal, daughterly smile.
"Certainly, father."
"Haha, yes, certainly indeed."
The innkeeper turned back to his guests.
"Oh, right, we didn't introduce ourselves. My name is Phapas, and this is my daughter, Elara."
'Elly' then interrupted him by whispering to his ear.
"Father, when will you tell them they have to pay?"
"Shh, Elly! I'll tell them in the morning."
'Elly' sighed, and before going into the kitched, she stopped in front one of the guests and just stared into his face. After a few moments, she spoke.
"Are you okay, sir? You look pale..."
//Obviously this means Ein\\
-
?He?s trying to impress you, my lord??
Grav smiled a toothy grin as he regarded the Kandarinian insignia emblazoned in the sky, reflected in the waters of the well, of course.
Retan folded his arms under his cape.
?Amusing. Direct his entourage to the dining room and entertain him while the? other guests arrive.?
----
There was some bit of commotion outside, but Draven ignored it as he made his way into the fortress, the guards having let him in as some robed fellow was flinging lighting about. He and the machine did not make their way too far down the dark corridor before they were approached by a group of five of the scaly green lizard men with black armor. The one in front was of higher class, like the one Draven just dispatched, though without the horns.
?Lord Draven, the Dark Emperor expects you.?
?Yes, but first, where are my men?? Draven found it odd that there was no trace of the Crimson soldiers that had occupied North Point before Retan had arrived. Human soldiers.
The lizard milled around.
?They are? occupied??
Draven folded his arms.
?Very well.? He turned, pointing to the gargantuan machine behind him. ?The machine is with me. He is to be treated with the utmost respect as one of my personal bodyguards. Take him to the second basement, the alchemist facilities; the hallways should be big enough for him to fit through. There, give him as much Black Crystal as he desires.?
?Uhh? Black Crystal??
?Yes, my alchemists developed it. Also known as Dark Glass.? He waved his hand in frustration. ?Just take him down there and inform my alchemists of what he requires!? His tone took on a more agitated ring.
?Hmmm, well??
Draven raised a brow, more of concern this time.
?My alchemists are still here, are they not?? Human alchemists.
The giant lizard began to wring his claws.
?Your alchemists are occupied as well, my lord??
Draven clenched his fists.
?Blast it! Just take him down there and let him do whatever he wants!?
The lizard nodded, then nodded to the smaller warrior lizards behind him. Two of them broke off from the group, motioning for the hulking machine to follow as they strode down a perpendicular hallway. Draven and the three remaining lizard men continued down the main corridor.
The larger lizard fell in stride with Draven, who was now leading the group, his cape flowing behind has he walked at a quickened pace.
?My lord, the Dark Emperor cannot meet with you at this time because he is hosting a banquet that is about to begin. However, he has said that you should attend if you arrive before it is over.?
?Very well. I take it my personal reserve of fine capes are still here??
----
The dark gates opened wide before the three Kandarinians. Emerging from the blackness were two tall lizard men, a third shorter one pushing through from behind and emerging in front, covered by a black cloak and leaning on a staff.
?Welcome, welcome! Brethren of the Kandarinain Sovereignty! The Dark Emperor is expecting you. If you would follow me??
Grav bowed lowly, moving his staff in his right hand before him and outstretching his left claw skyward, his scaly tail shifting back and forth behind him. He turned, leading the entourage down into the dark passageways of the fortress, the crimson glow of touches igniting and illuminating a path before them. In but a while they were before two massive golden doors, which opened to reveal a spectacular dining room. Unlike the rest of the fortress, this room was emblazoned with gold inlayed everywhere-- the walls, table, chairs. The ceiling was a massive arch, with three chandeliers hanging over the long table. There was no one seated yet, but servants-- smaller more tan-ish lizards, darted around, setting up plates and dinnerware.
?Please, be seated.?
----
Virmir and his entourage of ten warriors walked down the narrow bridge connecting the two floating islands, offering a brief glance at the gray abyss on either side.
Welkin was a world of nothing but sky, containing a cluster of floating island-like rocks similar to the border worlds, but with proper physics. Many were connected by simple stone bridges, as the distance between the islands never varied. Virmir remembered when he used to play on this very bridge as a young kit. Back then the sky and abyss were blue, and the Pull nonexistent. Of course, it was still dangerous, as no one ever knew what happened to one who fell into the abyss, but a minimal threat, as even young Velkens were proficient in the art of levitation and could fly quite well.
But that of course all changed with The Curse. Gone were the cerulean skies of Welkin, replaced on all sides by deep grey and black clouds, above and below. Lighting was very common, dancing about in the distance. Thankfully it rarely drew too close. The worst by far, though was the Pull. Even the most experienced masters of self levitation were unable to fly the short distances from island to island as they had done all their lives, and disappeared into the blackness.
There was a female fox waiting on the other side of the bridge, clad in a white dress that accented her form, and stood as a stark contrast to Virmir?s dark robes. Virmir, turned his head slightly, avoiding her gaze. As with all the Velkens, her fur was a silvery color, though they all seemed a bluish tint in the unnatural light from the dark clouds.
?Ken??
Virmir tried to walk past her, but she approached him, grabbing him by the shoulders. She was perhaps an inch or two taller.
?Ken, where are you going? They wouldn?t say??
Virmir still wouldn?t look at her, afraid his battle ready gaze would melt away, instead keeping his eyes fixed at the door to the portal building ahead.
?Gaian. The Dark Emperor summons...?
With that, he pushed her gently aside and continued on, his tail swishing side to side as he walked away. The ten fox warriors passed her next, paying her no mind. She clasped her hands over her heart and whispered helplessly,
?Be careful??
-
"I sat down at the glittering table, waiting for the food. Steorra and Arlin took seats on either side of me.
-"So... where is Emperor Retan himself?"
-
Looking rather serpentine, The lizard Grav rubbed his left claw over his right, which was resting upon his staff.
"The Dark Emperor will be here shortly. We are waiting on a number of other guests, which are unfortunately less punctual than you. Fear not, for we will not wait too long..."
Standing next to Kronos' chair, he turned and pointed his staff at the far end of the chamber.
"In the meantime, I've arranged entertainment. Enjoy the melodically charming music of my homeland!"
Three tan lizards entered, these ones looking feminine, carrying long flute like instruments. They began to blow over the slits at the ends of the metal pipes, creating a god awful squealing sound that reverbed throughout the dining room. Grav closed his eyes and smiled his huge reptilian grin, obviously enjoying the racket.
Just then the door at the far end of the chamber burst open and a disgruntled looking Jayce stormed into the room, still wearing his full black body armor with the sinisterly huge scimitar strapped to his back. One of the flute playing lizards nearly backed into him, and he shoved her aside with his massive hand, knocking her over. As she fell, the flute made a distressed sound that actually sounded better than what she was originally playing.
"Blast it! Where's the food?!" Jayce growled, noting the emptiness of the table.
Grav quickly fell out of his trance, and began running down the length of the table.
"My prince! All of the guests haven't arrived yet!"
Jayce took his seat to the right of the black throne at the far end of the table, removing the sword at his back and placing it on the floor beside him in the process.
"Get me something to eat or I shall consume the flesh of your servants."
He began to drum his fingers on the table impatiently.
"Y-yes, my lord!"
-
-"Urg. I'm fine.", said Ein, and collapsed on the floor, positively asleep.
--- --- ---
"My ears were still ringing after the "performance", when I heard an M-grid call from Roland. He was telling me about some sort of captive... I couldn't quite make out his words, there was some sort of interferance. I decided not to dwell on it, though, and concentrated on the current events. Forcing a smile at the performers, I turned around to the black-armoured man, throwing him a cool glance.
-"Nice sword. And who would you be?"
I looked over at my accomplices. Steorra was staring blankly into the gem from her staff, which she removed earlier. It seemed to be reacting with the golden glow of the room, strange mists swirling in the gem's depths. I bet if I let her sit there long enough, she'd have lines of spittle running down her mouth. That's how immobile she looked.
Arlin, on the other hand, was carefully inspecting the gilded chamber. The gold seemed to be of high quality, although personally I did not enjoy the blinding shine from the walls. Gold's just not my colour..."
--- --- ---
The Necromancer was delivered to the main tower of Sizri, built on the side of the Enigma complex, which was humming mysteriously. The wyvern rider escorted the captive inside the tower, where the Chief Overseer of Arcane Practices was waiting.
-"Well, who do we have here. If it isn't the necrophiliac that the entire nation already knows about."
-"It's NecroMANCER, moron, and I don't think that your leader will be happy when he knows how you call the little hobby of his."
The COAP visibly blushed.
-"Ahem. Anyways, as I was saying. Welcome to the Kandarinian Sovereignty. What is your name?"
The warlock thought for a moment.
-"I prefer to be called the Supreme Lord Of All Zombies From Hell And Beyond. Mmm, yeah. Sounds nice."
-"Err..."
-"Just kidding. Can't you take a joke, dimwit? Name's Jacob."
At that point, Soghol angrily burst in, followed by Hasterb.
-"GAWD! So now, after being TOLD off by that JERK Vorren, I gotta BABYSIT this KID?!"
Hasterb looked like he was about to say something, but changed his mind at the last moment. Instead, Jacob spoke.
-"GAWD, can't you see I'm trying to have a conversation here, MORON?!"
Soghol snarled, and reached for his sword. Jacob took a defensive stance, but Hasterb quickly interfered.
-"Whoa, whoa. Calm down, kiddies. This isn't the time or the place to be gnawing at each other's necks. That's what the practice room is for."
Insulted, Soghol spat a "GAWD!" to the side, and sat down at a nearby bench, looking gruffily at Jacob. He rested his unsheathed sword on his laps.
Then a voice came from across the room.
-"A Necromancer, eh... I see..."
Vorren slowly glided from the shadowed corner where he was lurking, his black cloak dragging on the ground. His rough features conveniently complimented the bleak room, making him look more menacing than ever.
-"How can you see that I'm a Necromancer, fool? That's not quite--"
-"The dragon skull in your hand as well as the human one on your shoulder are a bit of a giveaway, at that."
With a grim smirk, Vorren approached Jacob. Before the latter could react, Vorren's hand pinned Jacob by the neck to the wall with frightening speed.
-"Listen, small stuff. I don't care if you're a Necromancer. I could give less bintmeat if you have 60 tonnes of gold in your basement. However..."
The grip tightened.
-"...if you go mouthing off around me or Arlin or even Hasterb, there won't be a second chance..."
Struggling to breathe, Jacob managed:
-"A... second... chance... of what... idiot?"
With the last word, the dragon skull came crushing down on Vorren's head, knocking him backwards. Jacob landed back down on the floor, massaging his neck.
-"Looks like someone's gotta work on their threats, and it sure isn't me... More like the moron standing in front of me holding his poor little forehead. I'm surpirsed you do that, considering the thickness of your skull and all."
Sensing defeat, Vorren awarded Jacob with a piercing look.
-"This isn't over..."
Slamming the door with a satisfyingly loud BANG, the senior commander stormed off. Jacob noticed that Soghol was looking at him with a lot more respect than before.
-"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted... shall we continue?"
-
Only a few moments after Jayce entered the room, the sound of metal boots, stepping on wood could be heard.
Several lizard men turned their heads to the doorway.
A large reptilian stepped into the room; his deep green eyes scanned the room. He saw Jayce acting like his usual rude self, and Grav being his usual cowardly self in Jayce's presence.
The lizard man was wearing a black leather vest, grey pants, dusty brown knee pads and dark green wrist bands, steel toed spiked boots and a pickaxe was strapped to his back. He had a large snout and two sets of three small horns above each large eye lid he had a green skin, it looked as if he had spent most time either indoors or underground. He had the Dark Empire symbol tattooed on his right arm. By the way he stood and looked around, it seemed like he was on whom was of some importance. Typical, for a High General.
Two other lizard men were with him. One was a seven-foot burly brown skinned lizard, wearing a suit of armour that was able to fit him. It seemed highly unnecessary for a lizard that size to wear armour, yet nobody ever gave it much mind. The other was about the same size as the general; he had a slightly dark bluish hue to his skin. He wore metal shoulder and kneepads, over his simple black clothing.
"Ahem" The blue skined lizard, coughed. "High General Gorus Van'deln of the Subterrain." He announced.
"Thank you, Xarn." Gorus said, in his deep voice. Xarn, and the big one, named Thogus, had been solders in Van'deln's division since his father was the High General. They were a couple years older then Gorus, yet they gave him great respect, as he was an even greater warrior then his father was.
Gorus stepped deeper into the room, while Xarn and Thogus took their seats at the table.
He looked at the other visitors. He noticed a rather interestingly dressed human like being, a female human looking into some crystal, and another human who seemed to be inspecting the area.
"Greetings, Prince Jayce." He said to the young prince. He then looked to Grav. "Ah, Prime Minsiter Grav. It has been awhile."
Although he had actually seen Grav much earlier then Jayce, Gorus preferred the company of Grav a bit more. Not because Grav was a more respectful person, but merely because Grav was another lizard man. Gorus had spent most of his life underground, and with other lizard men; he was rather uncomfortable around other races. One could say he was a racist. Yet most wouldn't go that far.
"So, where are the others?"
-
Jayce turned to Kronos down the table, skowling a bit.
"Who am I? Who are YOU?"
"My lord!" Grav almost covered his face.
"These are our guests from the Kanarinian Sovereignty, the robed one Marshal Kronos himself!"
Jayce's expression lightened a bit.
"Oh, the undead guys. New allies, huh? Good choice, good choice... Prince Jayce, of the Dark Empire. I look forward to... working with you in the future..."
He was quickly distracted from the Kandarinians as Gorus took his seat across from him and down the table a bit.
"Gorus! It's about time you showed up. I was afraid I would have to command the Vi'zar all by myself. Too many troops means the commander doesn't get to do the fun stuff himself, if you know what I mean..."
He smirked at the lizard High General as Grav made his way back around the table.
"Glad to have you here in Gaian, Lord Gorus." The much shorter lizard wringed his claws. "We are expecting several more officers, I'm sure they'll be here shortly. The Dark Emperor wishes to discuss some issues that must be dealt with."
During this time, the servants were lining the tables with appetizer trays. Small things like bite sized rolled meats and cheeses and the like. A few more lizard men made their way in, the table now about halfway full.
Jayce picked up one of the entrees.
"What is this crap!? Get me some real food! God blast it! And bring some MEAD!"
----
A bright blue flash emanated through the open archway and quickly darkened. Eleven figures emerged from the shadows, walking slowly but confidently. An armored lizard man approached the silver furred fox at the front of the procession, who was also the shortest in the group.
"Welcome to Gaian, Lord Virmir."
The Velken nodded, flicking his tail. The lizard continued, falling in step with the entourage.
"There has been a change of plans. The Dark Emperor wishes for you to attend a banquet before receiving your mission."
Virmir's left ear swiveled a bit, turning towards the lizard, but the rest of his attention remained on the dark hallway before him.
"Oh?"
"Think of it as a gift and example of His Darkness' generosity. Did you bring your crown? There will be foreign diplomats in attendance, and the Dark Emperor wishes for you to look your best."
"I'm afraid I did not as I've not much use for it anymore, especially for a trip I thought would be spent in battle."
"You will be provided a replica then. You may take two of your warriors as guests. Allow me to take your weapons..."
The lizard extended his claw.
The fox stopped, his tail hooking downward as he held his hand to his side and shook his head. The lizard took a step back as Virmir unbuckled and removed first the longsword Flameberge from his back, then the cumbersomely long and thin Wind Serpent, instead handing them to the lightly armored fox to his right with a nod. The taller silver fox accepted the weapons with a short bow. Virmir then turned completely.
"Relos, Helex, come with me. The rest of you wait in your rooms."
Relos and Helex, the first one of the five lightly armored knights, the other one of the five robed mages, smiled at the High General and stepped forward. Virmir smiled back at the obviously excited warriors, though the other eight seemed a bit disappointed. The three foxes then turned and followed the lizard, the rest of them heading in a different direction.
-
//Xorlak, you're like the fourth person I know that knows what mead is\\
"My forced smile was getting harder to keep.
-"Yes... the undead guys..."
Twiddling the roll of meat in my hand, I was struggling to not attempt a resurrection spell at it. Without thinking too much, I threw it down my throat. Mmm, chewy.
-"So, Prince Jayce, was it... Why is it that you use those as manpower?" I casually shook my head at the larger lizard, apparently named Gorus, on the other side of the table. "I mean, come... all it takes is but a large enough flesh wound, and they will be incapacitated, at the very least."
I reached for another appetizer, a small red fruit wrapped in a green leaf. It reminded me of my favourite Kandarinian berries for some reason.
-"But of course, to each their own. Myself, I prefer to use ... more disposable forces, if you understand. Heavier jobs occasionally require artillery, but that's just details."
Once again, I distracted myself from the small talk to check on my cojourners. Arlin somehow produced a book out of his coat, and was busy reading it; Steorra was still focused on that toy of hers. I shook her a bit - she was still dazingly glaring at the crystal. Annoyed, I snitched the crystal from her hands.
-"Wha... huh? Oh... You can look in it, if you want..."
Her face was going visibly red. I looked into the crystal.
[there were some ink marks on the page at the point, as if the person holding the quill was unsure whether to write something or not.]
I do not believe that the images I saw were worth placing into this log. I handed the gem back to its owner. All I can say is that my own face would've gone red, too, except the pale skin kind of denied that. With an embarassed look, Steorra put the gem away, and concentrated on her food."
//I think this is the longest single page in DAL so far, containing two of the top ten posts! Not counting the BIG page, of course.\\
-
//I agree Ein.\\
"I wouldn't miss something like this." Gorus replied to Jayce. He then rubbed his lower jaw as Grav spoke to him. "Yes, I made it here as quickly as possible. I'm sorry I'm not as well dressed, I spend all my time in the subterrian so I don't have a lot of proper clothing."
As Kronos made his comment, Gorus glared at the Marshal. He had a good mind to go storm towards him, and bite his head off, but he'd rather not make a huge scene at such a time, especially to a new ally.
As the entrees came he was rather disappointed with the size. He picked up a cheese slice, and looked at it. He knew that it was cheese, yet he never had cheese before. He tossed it into his large mouth and chewed it a bit. The taste was quite odd to him, he wasn't too sure about it; it was to soft for his sharp teeth anyways. He then picked up a handful few meat rolls, tossed them in his mouth and chewed on them for a little wile before swallowing them, with a bored expression on his face. He had a large appetite, so eating a lot before the real food gets here would not be a problem at all.
----
Marshall shrugged as Ein so quickly fell asleep. "It's been a long day for us." Marshall said to the man. Marshall's stomach then growled. "Yeah, I haven't had a lot to eat today. You got any food? Maybe some bread and butter with some chicken?"
-
Zeros' had followed them all from behind, but, he seemed rather distracted, as if focusing on something only he could see, only idly following his companions towards their destination.
Another visit to Retan... How amusing this shall be...
//So, so sorry... RL being crap. \\
-
Duilin and Aegidius kept focused on their destination, flying in front of the group.
Duilin was actually quite surprised that he was ahead of everyone usually it was Zeros'. He noticed that Zeros' has been rather quiet lately, as if he was distracted with something. He's acted like this before when danger was near, but never for this long.
Whatever it was, Duilin would protect his friends at all costs. He nearly turned on them before, and he needed to prove that he was loyal. Maybe his friends still trusted him, but he didn't exactly trust himself...
-
Galak entered his place. Troops where lined up and ready to go. Each one with special Cytanic-steel armor. So strong no sword can break through it, made in the fires of the earths core.
"Men I need you Gei needs you. Thhe surface people are strong. We will relcaim what was once ours."
The men started banging there spears and pikes. The crowds outside the palace started banging on things. A gaint drill made of the same armor was shipped towrds them in a large crane.
-
"Ah, but that's what you would think." Jayce angled his head down the table, a bit more interested now that the conversation had turned to matters of war. "Have you seen the Lizard Men's scales? Tough as nails. Inflicting a flesh wound on them is no easy task. And then there's their claws. Really, I must show you the Vi'zar in battle... It is quite a delicious sight... They are far superior to the mere human fodder we used before, several times over in every way..."
His grin crept upon his face manically.
More guests stepped into the hall, these three shorter than most. Virmir scanned the table for important figures as he lead his mini entourage towards a few open seats. He now wore a thin crown on his head, supported between his two triangular ears. It was a very simple design, a straight half circle with the only embellishment being a single ruby encrested in the center.
Spotting Jayce, who he recognized as the Prince and heir to the Dark Empire, he offered a polite half bow to the menacingly dark figure. Jayce ignored him completely, being engaged in conversation and not paying attention.
Continuing on, the three silver foxes took their places opposite from the Kandarinians, Virmir offering Kronos a quick nod as he sat. The place was crawling with lizards, smiling their toothy grins and begining to make a ruckus as more and more began their independent conversations. Being Velkins, the three had rather excellent senses of smell, and to them these lizards simply reeked. Virmir shot the knight and mage to his left and right a cold stare as the two began to grimace at the odor, at which they immediately stopped. There was something else in the air, though, something which made even Virmir a little uneasy. The stench of death hung close. Virmir's eyes darted back and forth until he realized he was sitting across from a group of undead...
More servants appeared, offering mead, wine, or whatever their preferred beverage was to the guests.
Suddenly, a set of side doors to the dining room opened rather forcefully, as if to attract as much attention as possible. A black caped man entered the room, the crimson lining of his armor almost glowing with the torches lining the dining hall. Another one Virmir didn't recognize. At least he's not a lizard...
Jayce froze, turning his head towards the man and delivering the must disgusted of scowls imaginable. Draven returned the frown, glaring back at the Draken, but his mouth slowly gave way to a devilish smirk. As slowly as possible, he strode towards one of the few remaining open seats, wearing his mocking smirk as deliberately as possible. Jayce looked about ready to jump over the table and attack the human. Draven took his seat, on the same side as the Kandarinians just a few chairs down, as one of the serpentine servants made her way towards him.
"Wine, please. Red."
-
"I looked over at the newcomers. First serpents, then some hippo, then foxes, and now humans? is this a banquet or a zoo? Deciding not to ask who the other people are, I focused at the discussion with Jayce.
-"Hmm, it would be an interesting sight to watch, at least the way you portray it. However..." I leaned a bit closer to Jayce. "Tell me... can these lizards assemble gargantuan beasts, which could easily smash through the toughest of the walls? Do they have weaponry that could send a cascade of sharp projectiles at an enemy army, potentially taking out hundreds at a time?"
I took a short break between the talking to help myself to an elegant glass of wine. The hunger was kind of getting to me, and the main course still hasn't arrived. I wanted to urge a servant for it, but changed my mind.
-"Not to mention all sorts of items that are craftable from disposable flesh... Armour, weapons, jewelry. All sorts of things."
I stopped again to throw a dark look at Gorus. This filty scum should not be allowed to live...
-"In any case, I suppose each side has its own pluses and minuses. The Undeads, for example, are rather easy to take down, but are repaired with equal ease. They are soldiers who do not feel pain, do not feel hunger, do not feel cold... There is, however, a large disadvantage to undeads. You see, all one has to do is destroy the person controlling them, and incidentally, that happens to be me..."
I looked away, studying the new arrival, a person outfitted in red armour. Something looked painfully familiar about him..."
-
Gorus glared back at Kronos. 'Who does he think he is? I honestly should just swallow that skinny little brat whole.' he thought, as the necromancer had the nerve to even look at him.
He looked at the two newcomers; he slightly recognized one of them to be Virmir, of the Sky Division, he has heard of him, but never met him in person and knew he was one of those fancy Velkens. He did not recognize the human however. He assumed it must be that Eastern Division High General, who started his own. The only overworlder High General he met was Jayce, the other ones he never gave too much mind.
Gorus continued chewing the meat rolls, looking rather bored of waiting. He eyed the necromancer a few times, attempting to catch the guy looking at him again.
-
Galak and his army entered the drill. There where smaller drills that held the reinforcements. They set course for the uperworld. The drills had to make the earth vibrate enough that anyone could fell it. It got through a 10 meters every few seconds. They would arrive were Galak retreated. Taking over the uper world would not be easy. Galak knew this, but was determind to complete this task.
---
Nick felt a small vibration that kind of felt good. As it became stronger and more unpleasent Nick got up and started moving further away. He ended up backing into Asgaria's wall.
-
Before Draven arrived, Jayce replied to Kronos,
"Well, of course the lizards can't do that. They're just infantry. We've other methods for smashing walls and mowing peons..."
The Draken flashed a grin and a wink, tightening his right black metal gauntlet.
"I will give you that I am curious to see what some undead can do, though. Perhaps we can trade a platoon or two some time, all in good fun. It seems quite an improvement over worthless living humans, at least."
The last guests to arrive were some demons, decked out in their crazy armor and long horns and such.
Then the golden brightness of the room dimmed, as if repulsed by the black figure entering through the main set of doors...
Grav stood, shouting loudly and holding up his staff.
"The Emperor arrives!"
Every member of the Dark Empire suddenly stood up at once, making a fist with their right hand/claw and slapping it to just under their left shoulder, elbow held out so their arm was horizontal. At the same time they all shouted,
"Hail Dark Emperor Retan !!"
which was quite dramatic given the number of different species in attendance.
Two wraiths eerily floated behind the Dark Emperor as he strode to his throne at the head of the table, taking their positions on either side of the door. Gav hastily stood by the left of the throne, claws resting on the top of his staff and head held high, trying to look as important as possible.
Retan spoke as he approached the table, long dark cape flowing and eyes as burning embers beneath the blackness of the helmet.
"Welcome, allies of the Dark Empire... and welcome to our newest allies from the Kandarinian Sovereignty... Do sit and enjoy the meal..."
He took his place at the head of the long narrow table, Jayce already seated in the first position to his right, Grav taking the seat to his left.
The servants were out in full force now, filling the table with all sorts of exotic meats.
Retan leaned to his right side slightly. His voice was booming, though he didn't speak loudly.
"As you all know, Gaian is the largest world known to us. Yet it is filled with the frailest of sentient creatures, with the oddest of wills. We have tried to tame these humans, yet they scoff at my generous gifts and rebel. I wish to know the opinions of my Generals on humans, and Kronos' as well, if he would be so kind..."
Jayce bit clean through a chicken leg, snapping the bone in half and consuming the whole bite in a few chews.
"Humans are inferior creatures that don't deserve to live, even as slaves. They should be purged from Gaian to make room for superior races."
He glinted at Draven, snapping another chunk off of the meat.
Draven folded his arms, looking disgruntled. He really was the only human here, and was beginning to feel most unwelcome...
"All races have their gems and dirt. I've worked with my own kind all my life. I'm sure the Dark Emperor will remember our success in taking over the eastern regions. They merely need guidence, and their will removed..."
Jayce snorted.
"If you pit two armies of retarded children against each other, one side will still win."
Draven bit his tounge, anger building too quickly to think of a snide comeback.
Virmir looked up and realized the crimson eyes of the Dark Emperor were looking upon him. His heart raced and his voice faltered a bit, as he never did like speaking in front of crowds.
"I've little experiance with humans, my lord, so I will trust those with more expertise."
Retan nodded, then turned his head towards Gorus and Kronos.
-
The earth rumbled, walls and such crumbled all around Gaian. Asgaria had to be almost completely destroied. The wall started to fall upon Nick. He started to run away from the site.
Sir Kronos theres something coming, something big. He kept stumbling as he ran.
A platoon of five large drills and 10 smaller drill carried a total 15,000 men through the earth.
-
//100,000? Organized that quickly!?\\
"Humans are...well." Gorus began, he picked up an entire ham, and took a bite out of it.
A few people sitting next him looked rather disappointed as the large lizard snatched the ham, as if it were a leg of chicken. But said nothing about it.
Gorus swallowed and then spoke. "Humans are weak. Most have little to no magic abilities. However, my father told me, that humans that are enhanced or mixed with another breed are actually quite powerful. Which really only proves that humans are really just unfinished organisms, and I think it is us who should complete them."
-
//@Nick: Yeah... it took you like 5 posts to organize an army of 100,000, while it took me around 7 to organize 20,000
@Dm: What is Gorus saying? Is he saying that he likes humans? It sounds like he's saying that "humans are well". Maybe you meant something like "Humans are... well."?\\
"I was about to open my mouth to reply, as I recieved the message from Nick.
-"Alright... careful now, I'm about to do a little something..."
Imagining the map of Gaian in my head, I concentrated on the spot where Asgarnia was. I sent a huge jolt of Necrotic energy at it, almost halving my current power reserves. I have never had the need to use that much yet. Having done that, though, I returned back to reality.
-"Humans? The only value I see in those vermin is as a good source of corpses. On the other hand, certain humans can be trained to perform tasks that undeads would normally have trouble performing. You know, perhaps firing an accurately-shooting weapon that weak zombie bones would have trouble operating. Or casting magic. Living flesh is a much better arcane conductor than a corpse."
I threw another quick glance at Gorus.
-"Then again, other races can be taught these things as well. However, the question beckons: is it really humans we should be going after right now? They are all but a threat, and I think we ought to concentrate our attention on certain other entities... Such as the ones that I can sense coming to this fortress."
Long ago have I noticed a strange interruption of my bond with the dead in the areas that they have been passing. This can only mean that these individuals are more powerful than normal humans. Interesting..."
--- --- ---
Even before the soldiers poured out of the drills, all sorts of strange events began to take place in Asgarnia. Birds that were in the air fell down to the ground dead, then fell apart into pieces. All people excluding Kandarinian soldiers began to feel sick, fainting soon thereafter, then dying. The clouds began moving at a highly accelerated rate, turning grey, then black, as they raced across the sky. For some odd reason, shadows now fell towards the sun, not the other way around. People who were in a washroom at the moment would notice that the water suddenly started flowing the opposite to how it was flowing a second ago. Strange growths began appearing on metallic objects, growths resembling sponge. Soon, the only life in the area was in a large house that the Kandarinian warriors occupied.
Of course, what is Necromancy without zombies? and with a power surge this large, Necromancy soared to new extents. EVERYTHING which was once dead returned to life once more. The recently deceased people rose again; their clothes had a life of their own, for they were made of lifeless plants; lifeless, that is, until Kronos intervened. Furniture seemed to be groaning more than usual. Things were falling from place, because they tried to move. No matter who the attackers were, Asgarnia was not a sight for the weak. Even the most stout of Kandarinian soldiers were close to fainting at this horrific sight.
-
The Dark Emperor chuckled a bit.
"Yes, that would be the other reason I've called this little assembly..."
Translucent images appeared over the dining table, under the magnificent chandeliers, they formed into spectres of Zeros', Duilin, and the others flying northward and were about 1/4th actual size.
"These are the ingrates partially responsible for some... inconveniences... I've experienced some five years ago. It is clear that they will be punished..."
He stood up, his deep voice becoming even more powerful.
"These meddling insects are blind to my acts of generosity. It is a rare occasion that I must lay down my authority, but tonight it shall be done. Those who do not submit are not fit to walk the soils of Gaian. It is convenient that they have all come together. Tonight at midnight, when the spirits of the wayward are at their strongest, I shall cast them down into Oblivion, forever banishing them from this realm..."
The dining guests became quite excited at this, many of them standing and clapping. Soon a chant broke out:
"Hail Dark Emperor Retan! Hail Dark Emperor Retan!"
Draven slipped out of his chair and made his way out a side door, unseen in the ruckus. He quickly stepped down a narrow set of stairs and through a dark hallway, heading in the direction of the alchemy labs, where he had Horus lead to.
Must get to them first...
(I would imagine Horus got his dark glass set up by now.)
-
Zeros' continued flying, though, flying almost half of his normal speed, but still keeping up with his group.
Unknown to his companions, his connection with the planet allowed him to sense all the strange happenings. I knew the Necrotic magic happenings in Asgarnia... he knew of the huge numbe of people gathering in front of their location. Althought, he knew his companions could also feel them, if they opened their senses. The north reaked of several different types of magic.
"Be prepared when we arrive... I have a feeling..." he said, pausing, then continuing. "... that we won't be 'welcome' there, especially after what happened to Retan five years ago..."
-
"I wouldn't expect to have a warm welcome from Retan anyway." Duilin replied to Zeros', as he continued flying forward.
The palace at North Point came into view.
"We are almost there." Aegidius said to the others.
-
The drills escaped the earths shell. The amount of pressure between the drill and the ground make Asgaria's walls fall inward crushing homes and other structures. Steam came out as large door like panels opened. The men leaped from the machines. Galak Stood before them.
"Men this world is ours!!" Galak felt a large presence in the northern direction. Must be the more powerful of the aboveworld scum, Galak thought. "This way men!"
Thunderous sounds of marching began as the men started northward.
Nick who was behind a rock watched the large army as they departed.
-
Marshall seemed to hear something coming from not to far away. "Can you hear that?" He asked. //I'm assuming the inn they are in, is not too far away from Asgarnia.\\
"Hear what?" The innkeeper asked.
"I dunno, sounds like some rumbling coming from not too far away." Marshall replied, sounding a bit worried. "Hey, Alex, you feel like checking it out?"
----
Meanwile in one of the fortresses of Kandarin, the elder was sitting in his chambers, staring at the wall.
There was a knocking on the door.
"Who is that knocking at my chamber door?" The elder asked.
"Nevermore."
"What?" The elder asked, sounding confused. //Cookie to the person who got that.\\
"I said, can I come in, Roland wanted me to bring you some big flat rock." Said the person behind the door.
"Come in."
The zombie warrior came in and dropped the tablet on his desk.
"Why?" The elder asked.
"I dunno. I'm only a mindless zombie. You and Roland are supposed to be the smart ones."
The elder looked at the tablet. "Aha!" He shouted. "I remember. The spirit! White Chimera!"
"What?" The zombie asked. "What the hell, are you talkin' about?"
"I..." The elder made an odd looking face. "Go away. I need to think.."
-
//Yep, his gun is all repaired. Have Draven come pick him up, though, he won't go off alone.\\
-"Interesting proposition. How will you go about doing that, though? I imagine that such a spell would take quite a bit out of you."
I stopped to think. There's absolutely nothing I knew of this Retan character. Maybe he could generate something like that in as little as a snap of his fingers. On the other hand, I don't imagine he'd know much about myself... I also took note of my recharging power, which was almost complete now.
-"If it so happens that you might require help, I may see what I can do."
//DM, I don't think it's an inn, just a regular house. Also, the quote you used has something to do with a certain type of bird, no?\\
-
Swoosh; Coriko let the arrow fly knowing it would not miss his target. He heard the distant thud of the arrow lodging itself into the wooden target he had set up. As he walked slowly towards the target he looked around. The air was crisp and warm. The summer breeze was cool against his face. The day was perfect? or so he thought. He finally got to the target and pulled out his arrows. He was stuffing them in to his sheath when something back near the town of Asgarnia sounded odd, which made him drop his bow. It was a deep rumbling that shook him to his very soul.
Then a loudly groaning zombie came at him with full force. Coriko wasn?t sure if he was imagining it or not, but it looked almost as if the corpse was glowing with power... It was coming up fast. Thinking quickly, he scanned the area around him for any trees or bushes to hide behind. However, he noticed the zombie?s large axe, and its strange tendency to follow Coriko... It was swinging its axe around broadly so he couldn?t dive out of its path. He knew what he had to do.
Closing his eyes and slowly breathing in and out he relaxed. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. He had to relax to control his powers. His hair suddenly burst into a bright red flame, and so did his hands. He ran his hand through his hair. He always enjoyed doing that when he was using his powers. He needed to act quickly so he made a small ball of fire and threw it at the zombie to see if he could stop it in any way. It made a miniature hole in the zombie, who, however, seemed unscathed.
?Hmmm, well that didn?t work. Let?s try this.?
The zombie was getting dangerously close. He knew he had no more time and so with all his strength he summoned fire to shoot out of the ground to act as a wall. The heavy axe hit the wall with full force and at first it held, but soon it started to crack.
?Just? a little? longer.?
He struggled to hold it together. He knew the wall was about to break so he mustered up all his remaining strength and summoned a fireball and threw it forward just as the wall broke. The fireball hit the zombie force that it blew him backwards several feet, but he was ok. He lay there the world spinning. And just as Coriko was on the verge of passing out he smiled and knew, he has survived, for the zombie was lying dead, in pieces.
-
Jayce stood up and held a clenched fist skyward, chiming in immediately after Kronos.
"Yes, if we all strike now, we will obliterate them like so many paper dolls."
Grav looked confused.
"Wait, like, NOW?"
Retan folded his arms, his black cloak flowing around him.
"I only require them to be distracted while I prepare the spell. That and they must remain in a predefined circle through most of the preparation, though the area of effect is quite wide. The danger to yourselves is minimal, as long as you follow my directions..."
Jayce finished off his mead, then crushed the copper goblet in his palm, the shards falling to the table in pieces.
"Let's DO IT!"
Virmir nodded to the Velkins at his left and right. It seemed like massive overkill, sending all of the High Generals of the Dark Empire into battle at once, and against such a small group too... Still, it seemed the reason he was called was about to take place.
The doors on the opposite end of the room opened wide, and the Dark Emperor strode around the table, cape flowing widely, towards the exit. One by one the banquet guests followed, chanting loudly their emperor?s praise.
----
The huge doors flung open loudly to the lower alchemists' labs, where Draven found the hulking Horus surrounded by fragments of a huge shattered slab of Black Crystal. He was likely recovering the shards from the broken stone used during the failed demon summoning.
"Machine! Come quickly. And prepare for battle..."
Without another word, he turned and was out the way he came.
Shortly, he was out the front gates of North Point, a crimson aura wrapping around his body. He took off southward like a blazing comet, contrasted against the blackness of the night sky, his blaze contested only by the sharp bolts of lighting that constantly darted about the blackness... Many of the Vi'zar waiting outside looked up and watched has he bolted skyward. But it wasn't the signal they had been instructed to wait for, so thus continued their preparations...
-
Nick peaked out from behind the rock watching the army get into a weird formation. A small drill in the front. Three rows of spearmen held there weapons foward and held sheilds to there sides. Swordmen and spearmen in the middle protecting the interior with large sheilds. Nick caught a glimpse of Galak marching infront of them.
-
//The quote is from 'The Raven' by Edgar Allen Poe. It's a famous line that the raven says, "Nevermore".\\
Zeros' nodded his head. He didn't think anyone expected a warm welcome from the leader of the Dark Empire, especially after they had foiled his plans so long ago.
Zeros' frowned. He had suddenly felt a large, fiery gathering of power in the area they were heading too... And, he noted, he could also see it. He knew that aura anywhere.
It was Draven.
And he was heading straight for them.
-
Tadewi walked in the forest holding a squirrel. She walked for a few hours and still got nowhere.
It was dark and she could berly see anything. Something about this place just wasn't right. Evil was in the air. There was abnormal silence in that forest, no rustling, Tadewi was absolutely terrified! she held her squirrel close, the only freind she had, and kept walking.
As time passed by the night became darker and spookier. Tadewi even got more afraid. She stopped, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
'I'm not afraid!' she tried to convince herself, and then started walking again. Faster and more sure of herself.
After a few more hours of walking the trees started to be more distanced.
'it must be the end of the forest...'
then the forest finely ended! She examinated her surroundings very carfuly. She was in an empty field of - 'corn?! someone must live here!'
A wide smile of relief spread upon her face. maybe now she'll finely know where is she....
-
//Correct *gives Zeros' a cookie.*\\
"Well, well, well." Duilin said, grinning. "Look who it is."
The group could see Draven's crimson aura coming from the fortress and heading towards them.
Duilin sped up a few feet ahead of the group, Rink kept a tight grip on Duilin.
"Hey, Draven!" He called over, still giving his sarcastic grin. "How's it been?"
-
"I looked at the Emperor, then at the hovering figures gliding over the table.
-"Very well... they will not get past me. Where are the simpletons?"
--- --- ---
Horus grumbled something incomprehensible, and followed after Draven. The cannon was now comfortably drawing power from the arcane capacitors, while he was passively charging it. It felt good to finally be complete again.
--- --- ---
A Kandarinian soldier pointed at the troops exiting the drills.
-"Heh. Looks like someone's wanting to steal our little gem here. Troops, to the windows! Arm your spearguns! Adepts, be so kind and conjure a nice shield around the building, will you?"
The warriros rushed to the windows of the large buildings, some hastily reloading their spearguns. Others adjusted a small scope to their guns, a recent invention from Sizri. Apparently, an alchemist was trying to create a thicker blend of glass to withstand fire, and he noticed that he saw better through the new glass. Manufacturers in Qim got word of that, and now almost all rifles were complete with a small scope to take down distant enemies.
Soon thereafter, a blue shimmering shield appeared around the building. That was the adepts' work, who could conjure a weak shield... Weak, that is, if there's only one adept supporting the shield. With about ten adepts, the shield integrity multiplied thousandfold. This particular division had over a hundred.
-
Alex was in his room tinkering with his rifle when Marshall's hollering to him derailed his concentration. He dropped one of the pieces on the floor. Alarmed that it might be broken, Alex picked it up and inspected it thoroughly. To his relief, the part had not been damaged. Alex hollered back to Marshall,
"Damn it, Marshall! I'm a little busy right now. Trying to repair my rifle, and it takes utter concentration. Check it yourself."
No reply.
Now irritated, Alex put down his tools and stepped out into the crystalline moonlight. The tremors came again, but this time, stronger. Off in the distance, Alex laid his eyes on the large tower powering the shield defending Asgarnia. The tremors came again, this time so powerful they nearly knocked Alex off of his feet. Grabbing a wooden beam supporting the veranda, he witnessed in horror as the shield spire collapsed to the ground, almost in slow motion. All that was left was a large cloud of debris rising high into the air, illuminated by the moonlight. Alex felt his blood drain from his face.
"Oh, God no....Asgarnia has fallen."
Asgarnia may have fallen, but Kleiner managed to get out safely. All that remained now was to make contact with him. With a heavy heart, Alex returned to the cabin, regretting to be the bearer of bad news.
"Guys, I've got some terrible news," Alex started, clearly sounding upset. "Asgarnia...has fallen."
-
//Ein the army isn't attacking your troops there going to attack northpoint....\\
The men kept moving in a steady formation, looking like a large metal half-sphere. The large towering sheild must just be a one time thing there to heavy for combat Nick thought as he silently followed within shadows.
-
"Spare me the glib pleasantries."
Draven's aura cut out in a flash, and he free fell some twenty feet, deftly landing upon the ridge of one of the many jagged foothills that jutted up around the southern rim of the peninsula which contained the fortress of North Point. On a clear day, the many Vi'zar surrounding the southern gates would look like ants from this vantage point, but they were quite invisible in the darkness of this night, numerous points of torchlight peppering the grounds below instead.
"I've come to offer you a proposition, one that may very well save your pathetic lives..."
He folded his arms as his cape blew. The wind was beginning to pick up, the bright flashes of lighting that tore through the clouds more frequent.
"You've managed to piss Retan off. Congrats."
He said that with a slight smirk. But that faded as he became dead serious.
"There is no force on this planet that can hope to compete with the Dark Emperor's strength. Not even that idiot son of his. Not me. Not all of you together. He wants you erased, and you just walked into his trap."
A flash of lightning illuminated the darkened half of his face.
"This isn't some half baked revolutionary who's choking on his own magic, or some glorified magician who's invented a religion based upon himself. This is the real deal. A Draken who has reached full maturity. A dragon of the highest class..."
He extended his right hand, curling the gloved fingers almost like a claw.
"Join me. It is the only way. If you become my servants I will vouch for you, let it be known how you aided me against Ragnar these past years. He might listen. I may be able to save some of you... If you refuse, then our alliance must end here and forever..."
-
//Ah. Well, you mentioned Asgarnia, didn't you? And there was absolutely nothing in any of your posts about North Point, so I got confused. BTW: oh noes! a comment-only post!\\
-
Duilin completely lowered his expression; it was a combination of disgust, surprise and confusion. Join Draven?
Yeah, sure he's been a great help, and with Retan here, he'd be very useful, but no. This alliance was getting too far ever since the Grey Empire got into the picture.
Then again, what if it is true. Maybe joining Draven would be the only chance of survival. Yet, would death be better then serving evil?
He was thinking for too long, time to answer.
Rink was looking at Duilin, he hopped of and stood on the ground and looked up at Duilin. He wasn't sure if he'd give the right answer, considering how close he came to evil earlier. But whatever choice Duilin made, Rink would follow him, and watch out for his friend.
"No." Duilin said, giving a stern look. "I'll never join you!"
Aegidius took a few steps back, he felt too out of place, he barely knew any of them, but the answer was clearly also no for him, he looked at Draven and shook his head, and remained silent.
Duilin stepped towards Draven. "I'm not going to speak for my friends. Nor will I let them speak for me. But my answer is no, Draven." His fingers twitched a bit, a small spark of black lightning quickly appeared and disappeared in his hands. "I can deal with Retan, without you! I'd rather die fighting then give up like some coward."
Rink took a deep breath and looked at Zeros', wile Duilin glared at Draven.
-
Zeros' grinned a bit and shook his head.
"Thank you for your... kind offer, but you already know my anwser to my offer, as I'm sure you knew that we'd all say no, am I correct?" he said, amused.
"And, even if he does want to get rid of us, you should know me better then that, at least. It'll take more then one Draken to stop me from protecting this planet," he said. "Oh and thanks for telling us we pissed him off. I've always wanted to hear that, but... I could guess we had already pissed him off, considering he was banished from the planet for... five years?"
He shook his head.
"The anwser is no, Draven. And that's final."
-
Awoken by a tremor in a cold sweat, Coriko jumped to his feet, forgetting he was just in a massive fight a few hours prior. As soon as he had planted his feet he collapsed onto his knees. He tried to suppress a groan but it still escaped his mouth. Fighting the urge to lie down in the grass and sleep it off he knew what he had to do. He started to walk, Asgarnia his destination.
-
Draven shook his head slowly.
"Of course..."
Bringing both arms to his sides, his aura suddenly erupted in a crimson fury, his hair and cape waving, the bright red cutting through the surrounding darkness like a knife.
"Then I shall at least grant you an honorable death..."
The ground began to tremble... The lizards were coming... thousands of them... Not from the north, as those were still at the fortress' base, but from all sides... Boulders dislodged as they emerged from cavernous cracks, the mindless Vi'zar tromping through the darkness, slithering through the rocky terrain with their teeth barred...
And the lightning flashed all around...
The black gates of North Point below burst open, The Dark Emperor Retan emerging, leading the entourage of evil.
"They would be arriving right over that ridge by now, my friend," he mused to Kronos, "do your worst..."
Jayce ran out in front of the dark group, glaring at the bright plume of flame burning atop the hill.
"What?! How did he get there before us?!"
With a giant leap, the younger Draken was airborne, blazing towards the ridge at an inhuman speed, his right gauntlet clutching the hilt of the massive scimitar at his back.
Retan too began to float eerily, and most of the rest of the group followed suit... Two of the demons took off after Jayce, eager to help their lord.
The Velkins, now numbering the full 11 as the others had rejoined and provided their High General with his weapons, stayed close to the Dark Emperor. It seemed it was going to be a melee, and Virmir had no intentions to get involved until ordered.
-
Atop a building Coriko stood still surveying the scene before him. What lay in front of him hardened him forever. The destruction and horror that happened here was almost unbearable. He saw something move around the corner of a building a few metres from him. He drew his bow and arrow and had it ready to fire in an instance. He held the arrow beside his ear, breathing heavily, and waiting for anything to show him the slightest sign as to where his target was.
There! He let the arrow fly. He heard a groan and a thud as the body hit the ground. He saw that the arrow was sticking out of the creature?s forehead. He was sure that was the same sort of thing that attacked him in the field. He stood up to his full height. No sooner had he done this then a massive tremor hit and the building he was on crumbled. He knew he was falling yet he couldn?t do anything. He braced himself for the fall.
?This ain?t gonna pretty.?
He landed with a hard thud and rolled to absorb the landing. *Schwing* A massive axe landed where he was just a second ago. He jumped to his feet. He saw a giant zombie standing with his hands on the axes handle; he had an arrow sticking out of his forehead.
?Have we met??
The zombie swung the axe at him again. Two more zombies came up behind the first. One had an axe and the other a sword, Coriko saw this.
?You brought friends, how sweet. Well go on introduce me,?
The axe once again swung for his head.
?Now that?s not nice! You almost hit me.?
Now the other two were joining in swinging their massive weapons at him. He kept rolling or jumping out of the way. He knew he couldn?t keep this up, he had to make a break for his bow. He flipped backwards and rolling down the other side of the ruined building. He was almost at his bow. He slid down the hill of rubble; the zombies were making their way over the pile towards him. He was crushed when he got to his destination to see his bow with a huge crack in it. He heard the rush of air as the axe was coming to wards him. Instinctively he held up the bow for protection, the axe broke right through it sending Coriko toppling backwards. Lying in front of him was his father?s now broken bow, now he was mad. He stood up to his full height. His hands ignited in flames. The zombie in front stopped hesitantly for a moment, but decided to press on. The zombie wound up to make the kill shot and that was when Coriko let him have it, a massive fire blast right in the chest. Blowing a whole right through it and the other two, collapsing into a pile on the ground. Unlike the first time Coriko was not sent backwards and instead stood there staring down at his broken bow, hands still on fire.
-
Marshall sighed. "Well, there has to be some survivors. I'm going out there." Marshall said, bravely. He walked past Alex and out the door, and looked at crumbled city in the distance. It was quite a frightening sight. Marshall took a deep breath and held out his amulet and from it blasted a blue spectre that quickly formed into a wyvern.
He looked at the others inside, as he hopped onto the creature's back. "If I'm not back in thirty minutes...just wait longer." He smiled, to add some releif, but shrugged as he assumed it was a failed attempt at a gloomy moment like this.
The wyvern flew close to the ground, only flying a few meters off the ground, as he carried Marshall to Asgarnia...
----
Duilin stepped backwards, as did Aegidius and Rink. Aegidius took out his golden rod and stood in a fighting stance.
Rink grabbed onto Duilin's leg, Duilin looked at the imp, and shook him off. 'Not now. Just get somewhere safe.' He messaged him.
Duilin then looked at Draven, he eyed Jayce and the two demons as they were flying towards him. 'Zeros', you take Jayce. I wanna go for Draven.'
"Alright come on Draven." Duilin said, storming towards him, as he was engulfed in a golden aura. "Honour me then!"
He dashed towards him, and swung his fist at the Crimson Emporer's head, making a yellow streak in the air as he swung his fist...
-
Now angered at the fall of such a wonderous city, Alex got his things together to head for Asgarnia as well. The rummaging sound got the cabin owner's attention.
"Oy! Where ya goin', lad?"
"Out," Alex said. "I'm heading to Asgarnia."
"Lad, are you daft?! You'll be overrun in a second!"
"I don't care. I still want to see if there's anything there worth saving. Innocent people. They didn't deserve this. Maybe I can save them."
"If you want to go riskin' yer life, I guess that's yer business," the man mused. "At least be safe."
"Don't worry about me," Alex replied. "I'll be fine. If Ein asks where we went, tell him."
"Not a problem, lad. Go on. People need ya."
"Thanks again for your hospitality," Alex called as he stepped out of the door. "I'm hoping I'll be back."
"Best of luck to ya!" hollered the man, waving.
Alex started down the path to Asgarnia, only a few miles away. A huge, coal-black pillar of smoke rose up from where the shield spire once stood. A beautiful contryside and utopian society had been replaced with a sickening vista of crystallized ground and flora from the released energy of the shield spire's explosion. If anyone at all survived the blast, it was a miracle. As Alex walked, the crystalline ground cracked under his feet, leaving a trail of broken footprints. As he walked, he put the finishing touches on repairing his rifle. To his relief, the final part locked firmly into place. He was combat-ready once again.
The walls of the city had been completely decimated, the magical mortar and laser batteries now smoldering piles of metal and crystal. Though it was clearly nighttime, the released energy from the blast hung in the air, illuminating the sky in a neon-blue/green color. It was almost a disturbing beauty.
"My God," Alex said quietly. "The city's been almost completely leveled."
Indeed it was. The portal to the Borderworld was either destroyed or disabled from lack of interdimensional energy. The air was silent. No wind. No flowing rivers or teeming wildlife. Only the crunching glass under Alex's feet, and the occasional rustle of his gear. Alex couldn't help but walk slowly through the ruined lands. The earth and plants had been crystallized. The wildlife had probably been completely wiped out. The flowing rivers were now still pools of stagnant, toxic soup contaminated by extreme amounts of energetic release. The view was almost post-apocalyptic. How such a pristine landscape could be transformed into a tainted wasteland in the course of a few moments was unimaginable.
Finally, Alex recognized familiar territory. He was approaching the outskirts of the city. There was no telling how harmful the radiation from the explosion could be, but Alex didn't care. He just wanted to help people.
As Alex entered the city, he was oblivious to the malefactors occupying the city that would soon deter him...
-
Marshall spotted Alex, heading towards the outskirts of the city. "Yeah, it looks pretty bad." Marshall said glumly. He looked back into the city. He noticed a strange flash of light, as if a fireball had been tossed. "Arg. Looks like there is a fire mage in there, it could be a survivor, but perhaps it's somebody ridding the place of them."
His wyvern then flapped its wings faster and it flew towards the location of the fire mage, through the rubble he could get an image of a very oddly dressed character, with fire around his hands and hair. "You there!" He shouted.
-
Coriko stood in his own world, lost in thought. However he was brought back to reality by the sound of someone talking behind him. Not wanting to take a chance he dropped down and rolled into a fighting stance, now facing the man who was talking, if in fact it was a man. Coriko had his hands out still in flamed ready for a fight. After what he had just been thought he didn?t want to risk anything.
?Who are you. Are you the one who destroyed Asgarnia??
-
"With a dark smirk, I glided out towards the savages, but didn't quite all the way next to them. I lowered myself on the ground, sat down, and closed my eyes. I swiftly went into phase shift, and began meditating. I am a true arcane conductor... nothing matters now... just... concentration..."
-
"Tch! Out of the way, you miserable insect. Flyboy is mine."
Draven began a dash, but immediately had to duck under the forceful swing of the impending fist. The was no getting around the also winged half demon.
Anticipating a second swing, he did a full flip in the air as he shot backwards some ten feet. Twin orbs of flame glowed in his palms as he landed.
"Very well, if this is what you truely desire."
His voice reverbed, a partial effect of the barren rocky cliffs. Thrusting both palms together directly in front of him, the two spheres of fire merged and launched forward with the force of a cannon, waving the flame around the burning man wildly as the superheated projectile tore through the air, raging towards Duilin...
----
The Dark Emperor landed upon a cliff some distance away.
"No one draws near."
Virmir nodded in understanding. In but a split second, the ten fox like warriors disappeared as blurs, reforming in a wide circle around Retan, though some twenty feet in the air. They were so fast... Virmir himself remained at the Dark Emperor's side, folding his arms, his cloak and tail swaying in the fiercely blowing winds.
Grav had been left behind, but was now furiously clamoring up the steep cliffs, his claws dislodging large sections of gravel with each swipe.
"My lord!"
"SILENCE!"
Grav fell backwards at Retan's retort, rolling some fifteen feet down the hill. Though he tried to do so as quitely as possible.
Retan lifted both hands skyward, his cape blowing, his crimson eyes burning... The black clouds began to part, slowly reshaping and circling above...
"The end is nigh..."
----
Retan's Cataclysmic Spell of Eternally Vengeful Banishment!! (CSEVB): 20%
(Chapter 10 ends upon its completion!)
-
//Duilin's actually not using his mace right now Xor guy, he just swung a punch.\\
Duilin lifted his left hand infront of himself as the flame cannon blasted towards him, he created a sheild combining fire and lightning, and energy barrier was destroyed as the blast of flame hit it, yet Duilin remained standing, only slightly harmed from the blast.
"Come on Draven, don't upset me." Duilin taunted. He then swung forward his left hand and shot forth a lightning bolt at Draven.
---
Rink stepped back to a safer distance. He watched Duilin, fight. He was acting a bit like his old self, over eager to fight a certain person. Draven was likely too strong for Duilin to fight himself, Zeros' would likely be a safer match for him, yet Duilin was very determined.
---
Aegidius noticed something, out of the horde of foes dashing towards him. He could sense the over flowing power of several people, Retan's stood out, very well, yet there was another. A lich, a complete abombination to the universe.
"That's it." Aegidius said, comming to a conlution. "It wasn't the machine I was sent here for, it was to get rid of THAT." He said to himself as he searched for the necromancer.
He flapped his wings and the flew from the group, and up high into the air. "There's the lich, this is going to take a lot, but if I can just get rid of it, then I would have served my purpose."
He puts his rod back on his back, and materializes his crystal bow, he aims it at the lich and begins to focus his light energy to an arrow...
-----
"No." Marshall said, his got of his wyvern and walked towards the stranger. "I don't know who did this is...but I do have a few ideas. Who are you anyways?" He asked.
-
Galaks men came up upon Retan and 'Friends'.
"Attack!" Galak said. The men started to attack everyone around them.
"War what a great thing." Galak said but was unheard over the screaming of his men. He wrote something down on a scroll and as soon as he did he became something new. Earth covered him and hardened, forming a rock like armor. A slab covered his mouth making a face mask. The earth formed to his body.
-
Corkio stood up. His hands lowered, flames extinguished. He thought if this man wanted to kill him, he would have.
?My name is Coriko. I was practising my archery just east of town in a giant field when a creature attacked me. I retraced its steps back here, to Asgarnia. I saw the city was in ruins and started scouting for survivors, but then I was attacked. Now I?m here talking to you. Ok that is my story, what?s yours??
-
"My name's Marshall Royle. I was just resting at some house not too far away out of town when I heard some rumbling coming from here, we saw that the town has been destroyed so we came here to also look for survivors." Marshall explained. "Have you found any?" He asked.
-
(Oops... fixed!)
"I intend to do more than upset you..."
Blast it. He had no desire to waste energy on him... The lightning discharge came qucikly, and Draven shot straight up in the air, though he was surprised by it when, at the last moment, it arched upward a bit, the ethereal amber tendrils stinging his right boot, his crimson aura flaring brightly as the two energies combated...
With a growl, Draven brought his right hand to his left shoulder as it glowed intensely. Still flying upwards from the jump, he chopped the air, sending a visible sphere of a shockwave surging outwards from his body, producing an intense wave of crimson flame which blasted downwards towards the half demon. He immediately drove his still glowing arm back in the opposite motion, producing a second crescent shaped wave in its wake.
The first hit as a vermillion-white flash not seven feet in front of Duilin, nearly splitting the entire rocky hill clean in half with a huge tremor, leaving a gaping crack in its wake as the sky rained rocks. The second was more adequately aimed, impending towards Duilin's head...
----
A division of Vi'zar clamoring up the foothills turned as they spotted an army trying to flank them. Thier commander, an A-Class lizard man clad in black armor, grinned in delight.
"Food!"
The mindless solders that made up the B-Class lizards abandoned their previous target and began to run down the mountain, baring fangs, claws, and swords alike. They met the human force full throttle, tearing their fangs and claws into the pink supple flesh of the humans and gorging themselves. The ground was painted crimson.
The lizards were much larger and than the humans, not to mention the built in weaponry and defenses. It took four or five men to simply bring one down. On the other hand, the lizards were outnumbered, so it seemed a more even match...
----
Retan kept his arms skyward, himself now seeming to exude a black aura of evil... The swirling clouds above seemed to part, revealing an even greater blackness beyond...
CSEVB: 40%!
-
Duilin crated another energy shield to block the first strike, yet it faded away after, he swiftly leaned backwards and to the side (not quite the matrix dodge) barely avoiding the second strike. He lost balance and fell to the ground.
He was surprised with himself, at how long he's been lasting in a fight against Draven, earlier he would have been blown away by him. He hopes to himself that he can keep this up, as his foe isn't showing much fatigue yet.
Duilin quickly got back on to his feet, before Draven could get past him. He took out his mace, he hadn't really used this to much yet, except on that machine, it was a pretty good magic conductor, he wanted to see how well it could do with hitting things, at it was a group of blades, rather then a ball with spikes. Draven was pretty quick however, but it was worth a try.
He dashed towards Draven, he then flapped his wings as he jumped up, in the air, several meters, and he then dove down into the ground swinging his mace down at Draven.
-
"I didn't get the chance. I look around for a bit but every time I turned a corner there where these damn creatures. I finally gave up and headed for the roofs to take some of them out. Well as soon as i got up there the building collapsed. What are these creatures anyways?"
-
//Well, not much time left, so I'm going to update Roland.\\
Roland's forces arrived at Ugran, and were closing in to the capital of Gief. Roland had his sword still sheathed yet he held his platinum staff in his left hand. He rode his Dinox at a steady pace, as he led the army of undead warriors.
From where they were Roland could see the towering statue that was built. It was quite a symbolic and meaningful statue; if Roland's sense of remorse hadn't been damaged he'd almost feel sorry to knock it down.
The rebels were already getting ready; they had a horde of solders ready to battle, armed with machine guns.
The walls surrounding the city had large gun towers, with magic powered cannons. This made a bit of an issue, if Roland ordered the gun towers to be destroyed, then that may be going against Kronos' orders, and plus the Marshal may want to have this technology. Then again if he didn't then they could easily damage his force, unless he could find a way to take out the people manning them.
Roland also noticed the city was protected by a magic barrier. These Aspyes seemed to always seem to be at least three steps ahead of them, seeing as they had tons of mages generating the shield.
Roland heard stories that most attacks forces on the Aspye's mother base had nearly there entire force taken out my catastrophic magic, caused by Haraldur. Roland was starting to prey about those rumours about Haraldur being dead were true.
Roland could do this however, he had an idea. He held out his staff and pointed it forward, and blasted four blue spectres. The spectres formed shape into blue skinned wyverns. The wyverns flew in the air and started circling around the walls of Geif.
One got quickly gunned down by the magic canons. Yet the one that gunned it down was shot by a large freeze blast from the wyvern, and the cannon of the tower was frozen soild, the three remaining wyverns began the keep the cannons well occupied, as Roland?s forces charged towards Geif, as Roland stopped and lifted up his staff giving out a warlike call.
The first few lines of warriors quickly drew their shields as the riflemen on the walls, fired down upon them, most of the bullets were bouncing of the shields.
Protected by the shields a few brutish front line warriors ran towards the wall, holding war hammers in their other hand, they began smashing at the wall, making large holes in it.
Roland, summoned another four ice wyverns, who continued to occupy most of the magic turrets, however a few were able to shoot down at the warriors below, taking a handful of zombies...
-----
"Hmm, I hope there are some survivors." Marshall said. "My friend Alex, is also looking for people." He said. "These creatures are zombies. I'm certain they were summoned by, Kronos, Marshal of the Kandarin." He explained, he said 'Kronos' in disgust. "Anyhow, do you want to join me in searching the area?"
-
Coriko decide whether or not this was a wise decision. Well the man hadn't made an attempt on his life so far.
"Alright, I'll come. If we pass by a bow shop though I'm going in, mine was destoyed in that last fight."
Coriko let his hands burst into flames.
"Don't worry about the fire, I have it under control. I am, well i wouldn't say fire mage because i have no medallion or anything. I've just learned to harness the power over the past few years. My hometown was very boring and i needed something to fill my spare time."
Coriko started forward but stopped so his new ally could catch up.
-
Marshall caught up with Coriko, and the two walked through the dead city. "Ah, yes, that's fine. I'm familiar with magic users, from the things I've seen today, that wouldn't scare me in the least bit." He said, chuckling a bit.
"I myself, also have talents. That wyvern I was riding on, was summoned by me. I used to be with a group known as the Blue Minotaur, who practiced summoning monsters, so we could protect others."
"I'm now with the Aspyes Revolution. I'm sure you've heard of us, we're a large group." He then smiled. "We plan to bring the world of Gaian, equality, freedom and a high standard of living, in a sustainable fashion."
As they continued walking through the city, Marshall spotted a weapons shop. "Aha, there is one right there. Let's take a look inside. I'm unarmed, so I could use a new weapon. I heard this place has some interesting technology."
He walked into the weapons shop. He looked around; there were a few swords, bows, axes and the basic stuff, hung up on the walls. He looked a bit disappointed with the selection; he walked around the shop, looking at the other walls.
Near the right corner he saw a pair of interesting looking guns. They were about the size of a pistol and made of mostly metal, save for the handles, which were ivory. On the side of them was a small dial and above the handle was a crystal, on one of them it was light red and the other it was light green, behind the crystal was a small pull. Under the barrel was a pull to open it up.
He noticed a wooden case, with a strap, was also on the gun rack next to it. He took the case and opened it up; there was a fair supply of bullets inside. The bullets looked about the same size that were used for his machinegun, but he was unsure if he could use them for the gun, in the case was a light yellow and a light blue crystal. He closed the case, a wraped the strap around his shoulder. He picked up one of the pistols; he opened the case with his other hand, and took out a few bullets. He opened up the gun, and put the bullets in, he was kind of making this up as he went along, he hopped he was doing this right. He aimed the gun at the wall, everyone was dead so I'm sure nobody would mind if he took a shot at the wall. He pulled the trigger; the red crystal glowed, as the weapon fired a flaming bullet from the barrel.
"Ooops!" Marshall exclaimed, as the wall began burning. He then assumed that the weapon was well, an elemental magic gun, he hastily took out the blue crystal from the case. He tried pulling the red crystal out, but wasn't having much luck; he looked a bit stressed as the flame on the wall was starting to get bigger. He then tried tugging at the pull-tab under the crystal, and the gem popped out as he tugged it. He took out the gem, and replaced it with the blue one. He shot it at the flame, and the area of the wall froze, and the flame was gone.
He looked at the gun, and smiled. He took the other one from the rack; he didn't even miss his old machinegun anymore now.
-
His aura of flame flaring more brightly, Draven brought both hands before his chest and slowly pulled them apart, a thin pillar of fire growing in the space between them. When he was satisfied with the length, he grabbed one edge with his right hand as the opposite flattened into a razor sharp blade as he had done so many times before. Flipping the burning blade upwards, he met Duilin's mace not in the jutting blades, but in the chain behind them, causing the weapon to wrap around his flaming sword. He pulled the weapon with Duilin in tow towards him and to his right, just changing the inertia enough to cause the weapon to miss his head. At the same time he extended his left hand in an open palm as it glowed red. His intention was to catch Duilin's face and then promptly blow his head clean off...
"Goodnight!"
----
The darkness directly overhead was spreading, becoming more circular in shape. In contrast was the lightning, which was dancing around the void more and more frequently, so much so that the flashes were making it easier to see...
CSEVB: 60%!
-
Duilin was shocked as he was swung to the side, and Draven was able to avoid his attack. He saw Draven's glowing hand attempting to grab his face. He quickly rolled to the side, wrapping his wings around himself, yet dropped his mace as he made his hasty escape.
He jumped back up facing Draven, he then swung his hand around charging energy as if he was swinging a flail, He created a cord of dark energy in the shape of a spinal cord with a skull attached (same type of attack he used in chapter 9, against Zeros'). He tossed the demonic flail and at his foe, and it began to fly towards him, even if it missed the demon flail would just fly right back at him.
'Abodahon taught me that, and I shouldn't be using that type of magic, but Draven is really strong, I've got to give it all I got now.' He thought to himself.
//God, where the hell is Ein? We had a bunch of stuff planed for the end of the chapter but now he's wasting time on Guild Wars, n00b. Well, I'll give him three days to post, just to be an ass.\\
Aegidius fired the arrow of light magic, towards Kronos, the arrow was aimed right at the Lich's torso...
-
Walking in to the store Coriko had low expectations, and it was a good thing. As he walked in he scanned the walls. One word came to mind, junk.
?Crap, crap, shit, damn it all this stuff is junk!?
Coriko picked up a bow at random. He pulled one of his arrows out of his quiver. Lined it up and was ready to test it when the bowstring snapped. Slowly and surely he picked up bows at random bad tried to shoot a single arrow, and each one broke in some way.
He got to the last and most expensive longbow bow on the wall. He read the description on the label; this bow was owned by one of the greatest archers. Killed from behind by a highway bandit. The criminal was apprehended and the bow recovered. This bow is claimed to be indestructible and flame-retardant.
?Flame-retardant eh??
Coriko thought about a way to test this claim. He put one hand on top of the bow and one hand at the bottom and then fired a flame from each hand along the bow towards the middle. As he did this, the bow wasn?t destroyed; it kept its shape and stayed on fire. Bewildered by this he then tried to bring his hands together. The bow disappeared into his hands. As soon as his hands touched he pulled them apart and to his amaze the bow was gone. Not believing it he looked around.
?Did you see that??
Coriko asked Marshall, but he saw that Marshall was busy with his own new toy. Suddenly a though came to him. Once again he put his hands together and thought about this bow. As he pulled his hands apart the bow was formed, still ablaze. Amazed he made the bow disappear and reappear several more times just to make sure he wasn?t dreaming. He had a new bow, and a special bow at that. Coriko turned around to tell Marshall his discovery.
"OH GOD LOOK OUT!"
Coriko screamed a warning to Marshall as the back wall of the building was blown in and something big was on the other side.
-
Galaks army started to push foward. Nick ran around the rock running from the fight. He notice the girl from before and started to ask kronos something. Sir what should I do about this army?
-
Marshall turned to look at the wall, being torn apart. He looked up and there he saw a large abomination.
It stood about twenty feet tall, it's torso, which was very over sized and was most of it's body, consisted of several random rotting body chunks meshed together, it's head was of normal size however, which looked quite odd and it had a massive tumour above the left eye and it's mouth was drooling blood. The limbs were that of an ogre. On certain parts of its body it had metal plates nailed on.
The horrid stench and sight of the creature was enough to make Marshall want to gag. He was glad he didn't have that food earlier. Marshall walked backwards, he was to busy plugging his nose to block the stench then to look shocked.
Without hesitation he took out one of the magi pistols and fired two rounds of icy bullets at the creature.
The abomination flinched a bit but barely showed any signs of damage. The abomination picked up a wooden log from the piece of the wall it smashed, it then swung down the log, yet Marshall jumped out of the way.
"Coriko, use some of your fire magic." He said. "These zombies can burn pretty easily."
He then popped out the blue crystal and replaced it with the red one. He noticed the dial on the side. He noticed three letters L, M and H. The dial was pointing to L. He assumed, that this meant low, so he turned the dial to H and aimed the gun at the advancing abomination, and fired a single round at it, the crystal glowed three times brighter then before, and fired a large fireball. The recoil was quite massive so the shot was quite inaccurate, and the blast only skimmed its shoulder.
-
// Soo sorry. RL stuff... Grr... \\
Zeros' nodded, but instead, just 'leaned' back in the air, crossing his arms behind his head, closing his eyes and just... waiting. He knew some big attack was happening. He could feel the air swirling... the energy fluxuating...
He opened his eyes and looked at Jayce. He grinned. It wasn't a pleasent smile either. It was sadistic.
"I still have a score to settle with you, Jayce... And I can promise that I'll repay it... someday."
-
As the dust cleared Coriko saw the enemy and went right for it. Hands ablaze he ran forward. As he got to the zombie, he slid in between his legs and fired a hot blaze upward then went into a roll and spun around facing the creature?s back. He then started to shoot rapid-fire bolts at the creature?s back. As it started to turn around Coriko jumped over the creature. Landing with a roll to absorb the blow, we then rolled behind a desk.
?Let?s try my new bow.?
A huge explosion was behind him and when he looked he saw Marshall standing with his gun. And the creature?s shoulder was blown off. Coriko stood up and turned to face the creature. The two made eye contact for a split second and that?s when Coriko unleashed a wave of fire arrows at the creature. As he shot the arrows he felt less tension on his bow even though it was pulled back really far, and instead of him having to manually light the bows the were lit as soon as the passed the tip. The creature swayed as he a little as the arrows hit him, but he still get coming forward.
?This isn?t working, you got anything else that gun can do Marshall, cause we could use it.?
-
"Son of a..." Marshall muttered. He then drew the other gun, with the green crystal in it. He fired the weapon at the abomination, a bullet flew towards the creature, leaving a streak of spiky foliage, the bullet went right through, and thorny vine was stuck inside it.
The abomination didn't seem to give much notice to it, and lurched towards Marshall and Coriko.
"Coriko I've got an idea." Marshall said. He ran towards the creature, and started to run around it, he fired several more vines at it, as he circled the giant zombie. "If we need to have it catch fire, we need something to feed the flame."
He pocketed the gun and grabbed on one of the vines, and ran towards the creature. It swung down the log, yet Marshall dived under its legs, and the log smashed into the ground. Marshall wrapped the vine around its leg, and ran to grab another vine.
The abomination was very slow. As it was about to lift up the log, Marshall ran up it, and jumped, he almost fell, and he grabbed onto it's shoulder and then he wrapped the vine around it's neck. Marshall grimaced, as the stench of the monster was ten times worse, now that he was so close to it. He jumped down off of it, with still a bit of vine left, he grabbed one stuck into it's back and then tied the town vines together and then he jumped onto the ground.
The creature roared and lifted up the log and turned around to face Marshall, the monster swung down the log at Marshall, yet he jumped out of the way, he circled around the log and grabbed onto a vine stuck in it's arm. He jumped the arm, and wrapped it around. That should be enough, he ran away from the creature, before it could swing the log at him again. He looked at Coriko. "Okay, show off some of your fire magic skills."
----
Roland's zombie warriors were able to smash the wall up enough, which it finally collapsed down, mostly caving in on itself. The wall could be repaired quickly after the raid.
A group of surprisingly agile undeads were able to climb up onto the guard towers and kill the gunners manning the magic cannons. The blue wyverns flew in, shooting ice blasts at groups of rebels that were firing their machine guns at them.
Roland dashed into the city, swinging his staff, whacking at rebel to the ground.
Suddenly several trap doors opened from the ground, men in black and red suits popped out, armed with magic powered riffles. The elite rebels began blasting beams of energy at the zombies, rapidly lowering the number of Roland's army.
From sky, spears came flying down, and impaling the elite rebels. In the air, there were undead wyverns with Kandarin warriors armed with spear guns, riding them.
Roland ran to one of the trap doors, avoiding the occasional bullet flying towards him. He grabbed an energy gun, he waved his staff and one of his blue wyverns flew right over Roland, he jumped into the air and landed on in.
The wyvern flew in towards the large memorial statue. Roland aimed the gun at the statue's head and fired a single blast. A small explosion of energy and stone, and as the smoke cleared up, the head of the statue was gone.
Many of the Aspye rebels looked at the decapitated statue. They looked in horror as their beloved memorial has just been beheaded; it was the biggest insult to them ever.
"SHOOT THAT FACIST DOWN!" A rebel yelled. Suddenly nearly every single Aspye warrior began firing their machine guns at Roland, this actually was a good opportunity for the zombie warriors to take them down wile the were distracted.
Roland's wyvern was torn apart by the rain of bullets and Roland jumped off as the creature's corpse fell to the ground. He fired the energy gun at the statue's torso below him, he dropped the gun and then grabbed onto the hole he made below him. The jagged rock digged into his hand, and an unsually low ammount of blood came out. He didn't have much left, but it's not like he needs it too much. Several bullets digged in to his body. He then pressed his feet against the statue, and then let go and allowed himself to drop, yet he dashed down the statue as he came down, when he was nearing the platform of the statue he jumped and landed on the ground. Several cracks from his body were heard, yet he seemed to show no sign of pain, whatsoever.
The enraged rebels atemped to dash towards Roland, they were desperate to punish him, the stairs to the statue however were far to high, and the spear gunners were able to shoot them dead, before they could reach the top.
The remaining zombie warriors, drew their wrist blades and raiding through the buildings and slaughtered all living things.
Geif has fallen.
-
?Will do.?
Grabbing a handful of arrows from his quiver. He put them all into the bow and released. The arrows flew through the air crackling and leaving a trail of smoke. Hitting the zombie in the chest, right on the vine. Immediately the zombie started to screech in agony, but it still kept coming.
?Determined little bugger isn?t he. We?ll lets try a different method.?
Putting away his bow he lit his hand and got into a fighting stance. He then made a ball of fire in his left hand. And then wound his right hand back. Suddenly thrusting his right hand through the ball of fire in his left hand. By doing this the power of flames combined so the fire surged through his left hand into his right arm and out of his hand. He had a steady stream of fire hitting the zombie and slowly burning a hole through its chest. There was a loud pop as the flame broke through to the other side. This is when the creature fell on its knees and finally fell down, once again, dead.
-
Alex had silently decided to split off from the group and look for the escape tunnels that might lead to Kleiner.
The longer Alex spent in Asgarnia, more he noticed how horrid the damage to the city was. Where the shield spire once stood cloulds were spinning and roiling ominously, occasionally green superbolts of lightning arced through the clounds. The bright green grass and trees in the city's many gardens and parks had been crystallized, almost looking like they were frozen.
One of the city's aqeducts had collapsed, causing water to spill into craters and chasms caused by the spire's collapse. The water glowed a dull neon-green and swirled with purple and blue eddies. As Alex approached the water, a human skeleton floated to the top. Upon this sight, a shudder ran down Alex's spine, chilling him to the core. Any organic matter to dip into this mix would be immediately corroded and decomposed. Those who were unfortunate enough to live became shambling sub-humans, somewhere between zombies and neanderthals. Somehow the explosion seemed to have opened dimensional seams...Alex could have sworn he saw a headcrab or two earlier.
Alex pried open a manhole cover and lifted it away. The water had not yet seeped in. He climbed down the ladder and dropped into a dimly-lit tunnel. He suddenly saw himself face to face with a surviving Asgarnian guard.
"Hold it right the-- Wait a minute. You're Alex, aren't you?" the guard asked, lowering his gun.
"That would be me," Alex replied. "What the hell happened? The city is devastated."
"It was those damn Kandarian soldiers. They decided it would be a good idea to suddenly attack the city for no reason! We were able to hold them off for a while, but soon they outnumbered even us. Our only defense was the shield spire. When that went down, it was over.
"Then what?" Alex inquired.
"Well," the guard continued. "The explosion from the spire's interdimensional energy core caused what has come to be called a 'resonance cascade.' The energy released was registered to have a yield of about 100 megatons. That much energy in such a small space ripped open interdimensional seams between Gaian and the Borderworld. As you can see, the landscape has been tainted and defiled, and there's unimaginable amounts of radiation in the air. I'm surprised I haven't dropped dead already."
"Where's Dr. Kleiner?" Alex asked.
"Isaac and his headcrab cleared the city during the early stages of the attack. They're probably ten or fifteen miles from here. I'm sure he's concerned about you. Luckily, you picked the right manhole to come down. Kleiner took this tunnel to safety. I'll escort you."
"Wait," Alex said. "I have some friends in this city, as well as some others not far from it. If we both go, there's no one to tell them I've gone. You should stay here and pass the word on. I can manage myself."
"All right," the guard replied, unsettled. "At least take my rifle with you. It's similar to the one you have, but it's more of a rapid-fire assault rifle."
"Thanks. If anyone comes to you asking where I went, you tell them."
"Not a problem. Be careful."
"Thanks. I'll see you later." Alex continued down the tunnel, hoping to soon find Kliener.
-
("Earth" -> "Gaian", not to be picky, of course. Heh...)
The sudden clearly demonic spell was unexpected. But Draven was facing a half demon, after all. He flew backwards several feet, performing a horizontal slash across the skeletal thing, the two halves fading from existence.
Impressive. This one was putting up a halfway decent fight after all...
"It's not too late, you know..."
He held out his free left hand, as his burning blade was in the other.
"Your involvement with whole spell-gone-ary five years ago was minimal, as far as Retan knows at least. I could probably sneak you by as my personal body guard. You are almost qualified, it seems, after all..."
----
Jayce let the massive scimitar rest on his shoulder as he floated within speaking distance of Zeros'.
"Really, now? Well then, I'll look forward to it... To be honest, I never agreed with such tactics."
He motioned up to the swirling blackness of impending doom above, ready to cast the enemies of Retan into oblivion forever...
"Seems anti-climactic."
He shrugged.
"Tell you what. When I'm in charge, I'll let you out. Then it'll be you an' me. No distractions. By then the rest of the world will be gone and out of our way anyway..."
His grin was quite sadistic as well...
----
The winds were even more intense, as almost hurricane force winds swept the area. The lighting above was no longer chaotic, but pulsated in a continuous, almost symmetrical ring around the black circle....
CSEVB: 80%!
(Chapter 10 ends in two days. Next chapter will pick up around one year of Gaian time later.)
-
//Psst! Banish Draven too!
Zeros' growled at what Jayce said, but only nodded and straightened himself and held out his hand... to seal the deal, of sorts... but now, thanks to Jayce, he knew what type of spell his father was casting.
"Well, you have yourself a deal, then... Just you and me," he said. Then, he telepathed to his friends: Be prepared for a wild ride... Retan is casting a spell that will banish us from Gaian...
He knew, that what Jayce said was true. He knew the planet would slowly die while the Emperor and his son ruled over it... and also, the planet wouldn't have it's sentiant guardian to protect and watch over it.
He sighed sadly, but smiled grimly, his hand still outstreached.
-
//ONE BLOOMIN YEAR? I thought like three years... One is not nearly enough to take over Gaian!!!\\
"I snapped out of my trance, angry that I could not use the attack I was planning. Well, accidents happen. We all try to do our best, though, don't we?
I shifted phases, and the arrow passed right through me... with a rather unexpected effect. As my transluscent body filled with light, I felt a strange sensation... as if I was about to burn up... but it was gone quite quickly. The arrow was not powerful enough to scorch me, not at that strength."
-
//Ein, you bloody n00b, you ignored Aegidius' attack. Way to break the read all posts rule <<bans ein from dal>>.\\
Aegidius received the message. "No time, for the lich. Maybe I can stop this Retan." He flapped his wings and then flew down closer to the ground.
Suddenly a large figure jumped out of nowhere, and tackled the angel, knocking it to the ground. "Where do you think you're going!?" It fiercely hissed.
Aegidius got up and looked at the creature, it was a fairly large lizard man, with a strong looking build.
Aegidius took out his golden rod. "To stop your emperor from banishing my friends. Who's asking?"
"Heh." The lizard grunted, and then smirked, wile adjusting his sleeveless jacket. "Gorus, Gorus Van'deln. High General of the Subterrain." He said with pride.
"Well, I can tell by the way you stand and announce yourself to a total stranger and potential enemy that you're quite full of yourself."
Gorus growled. "I'd watch it pretty boy!"
Aegidius rolled his eyes. What was up with everyone calling him that? "Please get out of my way. I do not wish to harm you."
"Was that a threat?"
"Yes, yes I suppose it was."
"Well it was weak."
"So, I can assume you will not get out of my way then."
"No."
"Suit yourself." Aegidius shrugged and then jumped at Gorus and swung his golden rod at him. The lizard caught the rod, and then bent it, ripped it from Aegidius' grip and then smashed the bent metal at Aegidius' head, knocking the angel back, and then threw it at him knocking him down.
"Pathetic..." Gorus spat.
----
"Pheww.." Marshall gasped plugging his nose and fanning away at the air in front of him with his other hand. "God, and I thought it smelt bad before. I shouldn't have thought twice before thinking of burning it."
He then began to walk further from the burnt monster. "Good work, Coriko. You're a worthy ally." He said. "Say, I was wondering. Would you like to join my group and me? We could use another comrade." He suggested.
----
Rink received the message from Zeros'. He looked up in the air. Yes it appeared to be true. He stopped hiding and then sat on the rock. He then continued to watch Duilin and Draven.
----
"Personal body guard?" Duilin said, cocking an eyebrow. "Yeah, sure why don't I just wear skimpy leather suit and you can carry a whip." he hissed.
"I'm not joining you. If you're so desperate for me to join you, that obviously means you're afraid of me."
He then pointed at him and raised his voice. "Admit it Draven, you fear my power! You're only a human. And I'm the son of the most powerful demon who ever lived, and his power is in me!" ((That's possibly the cheesiest thing I ever wrote.))
'My god, Not only am I excepting the fact that that Abodahon is my father, but I'm also bragging about it. What's wrong with me?'
He then waved his hands across each other as he created a blade of lightning energy.
He then received Zeros' message. He seemed confident, so he knew that it wouldn't destroy him, but he wanted to finish this with Draven. He didn't want Draven to fly away like a coward, again. Maybe he couldn't kill him, but he could bring him with him.
Duilin kept his glare at Draven but lowered his voice. "No, is my final answer Draven." He then pointed the lightning blade at Draven. "Yet it won't be my final word!"
He dashed towards Draven, he held the blade back as he moved in towards him, the lightning became a more golden orange colour, as he flowed demonic energy into it. He then made a fierce downward swing at his foe.
-
Nick assumed Kronos had not received his message. With arms ready he plunged into the mess of armies taking out one by one the puny men.
Galak turned seeing Nick. "You again I shall kill you myself." He grabbed Nick from the back and flung him into a large boulder.
Nick got up and hit Galak with the flat of his sword.
"Puny Scum." Galak lifted Nick once again this time constircting him, crushing his body.
Nick tensed his muscles hoping to slow down the crushing powers of Galak's rock coated hands. He slipped away from Galaks grip and fell to the ground. Hie stabbed his swords upward at Galak peicing the rock covering his chest and killing Galak. He slowly pulled the blades out. Galak fell to the ground and his army lost hope.
-
Coriko thought about this for a few seconds.
"Marshall, you have been nice to me and if you act this way I assume your other comrades are as well. In saying this, i accept you invitation and would very much like to join the group."
-
Marshall grinned. Already he has gotten two possible joiners of the revolution. "Excellent, most excellent." Marshall said, they began walking through the city. "Let me tell you a bit of our goal here. You see, it all started with this one man, a great powerful man. Perhaps not even a physical formed god, rather then a man."
Marshall took a deep breath and looked into the sky, he began talking as if he was reciting a poem.
"His name, Haraldur, he showed many, many people including me the ways of true freedom. Empires rule the world, but think of this...no empires. When the revolution is done, people will no longer will we be treated like cattle. Nobody would have more power then the other, everyone...equal. People used to say that life in unfair, well we can make that untrue. The Aspyes are the future."
He looked at Coriko. "I really don't see how anyone could disagree with us, except for those sick fascist rulers of the empires and...The sovereignty..."
He looked back in front and continued speaking. "The Kandarinian Sovereignty, is against everything the Aspyes stand for, they are also the biggest threat to anyone living on Gaian. They are the ones responsible for the fall of Asgarnia, as well as many other parts of Gaian. Their ruler, Kronos, has had thousands of people brainwashed or killed and transformed into zombies loyal to the sovereignty. Such as many of the members of the Blue Minotaur." He sighed. He thought about Roland, he highly looked up to him, it was hard knowing that he's now a minion of Kronos.
"Anyways, so any questions?" He asked.
----
Gorus stepped towards Aegidius, the angel slowly got up off the ground.
Gorus shook his head and then swung his foot down in an attempt to stomp on him, however the angel shot a blast of light right at the lizard's chest, and he fell back.
"You little freak! Now you die!" Gorus snarled. He swung a punch at the angel, yet he stafted out of the way.
"Heh" Aegidius grinned. "Pathetic."
"That does it! Now you shall feel the deadly wrath of the Gepardi!" He shouted. Suddenly Gorus was surrounded by a glowing light, and his body was a dark silhouette. He then changed shape, looking more human and much bigger.
When the light faded, Aegidius stood before a giant green skinned ogre, nearly twenty feet tall.
"Heheheh." The ogre laughed in a deep voice.
Aegidius shot two more beams of light from his palms at the ogre. The beast growled in pain yet it didn't seem to do too much.
The ogre swung it's fist down at the angel, he attempted to strafe out of the way, yet his swing was surprisingly fast and was able to smack him back a few yards.
The ogre laughed again and then stomped it's foot down at the angel, crushing it into the ground.
As he lifted his foot, the angel was breathing deeply.
'Can't go down this easy.' Aegidius jumped up and glared at the ogre.
The beast gave a surprised look, he then roared as he swung his foot at the angel. Aegidius flapped his wings as he jumped backwards avoiding the kick, and then flew in the air; he began circling around him rapidly firing beams of light at the ogre.
Gorus growled in pain, and annoyance, as he flailed his arms around trying to grab the angel from the air.
"Time to go down!" Aegidius said in triumph, he then surrounded himself in bright cyan white aura and then flew towards him, aiming a flying kick at the ogre's forehead. As soon as he got close, the ogre?s hand however grabbed the angel, by the right wing. Gorus then took his other hand and grabbed the angel by the throat.
Aegidius was choked as the mighty hand was grabbing his throut, he could feel his windpipe being squished against his neck bone. He could barely feel the pain as Gorus twisted his wing; he then tightened his grip on the wing.
"I won't even give you the honour of being banished by Retan. Time to meet your fate now...pretty boy." Gorus smirked. With one mighty tug a loud snap followed by a scream of pain, was heard, as Aegidius' wing was ripped from his body and then dropped on the ground. Aegidius then began mouthing prayers, not even fighting back his tears of pain; he grabbed the ogres wrists so hard that the angel's hands were soar in a few seconds, yet his attempt at fighting back was useless on the brute strength of Gorus.
"That's right you pray little man. You pray." Gorus laughed. He then grabbed Aegidius throat his both of his hands and pressed him down on the ground. He then leaned his head and spoke into Aegidius' ear. "Now, tell this to your friends up in paradise, angel boy. Don't fuck with the Dark Empire!"
He then roared as he squeezed Aegidius' neck, until finally Aegidius' hands let go of Gorus' wrists and his eyes closed as his spirit left his body and went home...
-
Alex kept creeping through the tunnels below Asgarnia, hoping to soon locate Dr. Kleiner. He wondered if Marshall noticed that he was gone. He was also becoming concerned about Otis.
"Damn it all, I shouldn't have left Otis back at the cabin," Alex muttered to himself. "God knows what could happen to him."
Suddenly, something was skittering in the airducts above him. Alex leveled his new weapon at the duct, prepared to shoot whatever dropped down. He heard an all-too-fimiliar chirping. Suddenly, the duct collapsed, and Otis fell out.
"Otis!" Alex cried. "How in hell did you find me, much less get here?!"
Otis chirped happily and assumed his position on Alex's shoulder. He then chirped a question to Alex.
"I'm down here looking for Dr. Kleiner... Tell me, did you see Marshall on your way here?"
Otis gave a negative chirp.
"Hmm...I just hope he realizes I'm not there with him. He IS kind of oblivious sometimes. Whatever, we need to find Kleiner and get in touch with him. The guard said he was down this tunnel."
A little later, Alex soon came to a large pit full of the noxious fluid once known as water.
"Urgh. I have to cross THIS?" he moaned.
Otis, excited, leapt off Alex's back and into the water.
"OTIS!" Alex hollered in horror.
Otis splashed into the toxic soup, and then surfaced, happily paddling his way across. He appeared completely immune to the water's effects. It clicked in Alex's mind. Otis was from the borderworld, as were the toxins in the water. The substances normally lethal to humans were probably natural to Otis. As he reached the other side, the black headcrab clamped onto a pipe and skittered up the side. He landed on the other end of the pit and shook off the excess water, leaving him with a wet shine.
"Well, glad YOU were able to make it over," Alex snorted. "Now for me..."
Alex scoped around for something he could use to clamber across the poisonous dip. He saw it; a thin pipe that his hand could easily reach around. It was roughly two inches wide, and ran the length of the tunnel. It occassionally dripped, leaving it a little slick in some places. Directly underneath it was a larger pipe that Alex could tiptoe across while holding the top pipe for balance. Seeing no other alternative, he mounted the pipe and secured his balance while his alien companion sat down on the other side and watched.
The pit was about fifty or so feet wide, and with the pipes as slick as they were, Alex would have to take it in increments. The rough texture of the soles of Alex's footwear helped benefit his traction a little. As he took a step forward, he inched his hands across the small pipe above his head. He continued this for a while...
...Nearly over the pit, Alex suddenly lost his footing. His feet slid off the bottom pipe and he was left dangling over the noxious pond below. Using all of his strength, Alex kept clambering the remaining feet with his hands on the top pipe. Right before the edge of the chasm, his hands suddenly slipped off the pipe. For a millisecond he fell before he was able to grab a pipe jutting out of the pit's wall. Grabbing now with his second hand, he pulled his weight up over the pipe until he could reach the ledge. He brought his foot up onto the pipe and stood. He finally picked himself up over the ledge. Impressed with this spectacle of acrobatics, Otis chirped approvingly.
"You have to admit that was good," bragged Alex.
Otis chirped again and scaled up onto Alex's shoulder.
After hours of walking and more pit climbing, Alex came upon a barricade in the tunnel. It was a hobbled-together thing built out of scrap sheet metal and boards. Alex knocked on the gate to indicate to whoever owned it that he wished entrance. A gruff voice answered,
"Yeah, what do ya want?"
"I'm Alex. I'm here to find Dr. Kleiner," he answered.
"Alex, eh? I've heard of you. Hero who saved the borderworld?"
"The very one."
"Welcome sir," the guard said amiably, raising the gate. What Alex saw what unimaginable. Kliener and his escort had converted this large area into a makeshift laboratory, complete with bookshelfs, workbenches, and consoles. Kleiner was again rooting around his lab looking for Lamarr.
"Blast it!" Kleiner cried. "Lamarr? Here, girl! I've got watermelon!"
"Isaac...?" Alex called.
"Yes, what is-- My goodness. Alex! It really is you, isn't it? I had given up hope of ever seeing you again!"
"I know I was gone a while..."
"I'm amazed that you were able to stop the Borderworld storms, but unfortunately, soon after you left, we had greater problems," Kleiner went on. "Kandarian soldiers soon attacked the city for no reason, and we were overpowered in a mere seven hours. The shield spire collapsed, and huge amounts of Borderworld energy were released on the area. As you saw, the landscape was poisoned. The city has been leveled. It's only a matter of time before it's under Kandarian control."
"What about the other scientists?" Alex asked.
"We all managed to make it out safely, and are hiding out here until someone can help us. With you here, it's a great improvement, but it's just not enough."
"Well, I do have some other friends...but they're all back in the city," Alex said. I told the guard at the post to relay my position to anyone who asked..."
Otis peeked over Alex's shoulder.
"My goodness!" cried Kliener. "Is that a headcrab?"
"Yeah, actually. He followed be back from the borderworld, and decided that he wanted me as a friend. His name is Otis."
"I see he still has his fangs," Kleiner noted. "Since he hasn't made any attempt to couple with you, I suppose it's a good idea to leave them as they are. I had to work a little bit with Lamarr to get her to cooperate."
Lamarr crawled out from underneath a box, and immediately saw Otis. Lamarr let out a chirp, perhaps inviting Otis to commune with her. Otis crawled off Alex's back and over to Lamarr. The two began chirping back and forth.
"Hmm, interesting," Kleiner mused. "Let's leave them for a moment while we focus on how we're going to get out of this alive."
-
Draven swung his crimson blade in an upward arc, slamming against the offending sword of lighting. The force of impact was so great that a blinding flash ensued, shattering the stone beneath the two warriors.
"Ha! Demons are the true pathetic ones. Unreliable and deceitful. Easily manipulated, however..."
He finished the upward arc violently, to push Duilin back.
"And now your final parting gift!"
The burning blade dissipated into his aura of flame as he thrust both hands forward.
"Crimson!!"
A large series of superheated orbs materialized around Duilin, exploding violently in rapid succession...
----
Retan suddenly dropped his arms, as if pulling something towards the ground.
"Thus the enemies of the Emperor of Darkness and True Lord of Eternity were cast into the abyss. For never again would cursed Light be allowed to sully this world..."
Virmir, who had be watching silently the whole time, raised an eyebrow.
There was a very deep rumbling...
Grav was less subtle, and his large toothy jaw hung wide open.
The blackness that was overhead, which in itself was over 1000 feet in diameter, began to collapse inwardly as it began to fall downwards. It was soon revealed that there was much more to it as it broke through the thick clouds.
The blackness was merely the gaping maw of gargantuan dragon...
So massive, that only it's face and eyes were visible, taking up the entirety of the visible sky...
The eyes were burning crimson suns, silted and glaring, its victims found...
The skin was nothing but a burning blackness. Like flame it flickered, so black that the dark clouds seemed as bright puffs of smoke as they were shoved aside...
And then the vortex began. A fitful catastrophic gust of wind that drew the targets of the spell and them only into the massive blackness that was the being's mouth...
-
//Edited.
jeez, DM, why are you so uptight about me constantly posting? So I wanted an early retirement from DAL, because I was too busy with guild wars. I know, I know, guild wars > dal, blah blah blah... but come on! It's not like we're married or something! jeez!\\
"The whirling black maelstrom was a truly beautiful sight. A portal to somewhere, by the looks of it...
Feeling myself getting sucked in, I quickly phase-shifted and glided a short distance away. Gravity had no effect on me in phase-shift; in fact, most things didn't. I could only do four things while in it - that is to see, hear, speak, and use magic to some extent. The perks were nice, though."
//Just a few notes. Sorry everyone for being gone. As DM so kindly explained, I am busy with a new game (almost in time for the chapter break, too!). Coriko, your posts are quite great for a newcomer like yourself, but just one tiny small thing: the part where you had the zombie screech? That could've been anything, but just a note: zombies can't feel pain.\\
-
Zeros' looked up, also and noted the blackness. Very impressive spell that Retan was doing.
"Ahh... Impressive..." he murmured. He looked down and saw his angel companion's body destroyed, but, he knew, his 'friends' spirit would be perfectly fine. He flew down and sat down beside Rink, looking up into the dragons maw.
"So, how long do you think it'll take to get back here?" he asked Rink. He could feel the vortex starting to pull him upwards, but there wasn't enough pull to make him move.
-
//Yeah, Ein and we never will be if you keep talking to me like that! Razz \\
Rink noticed Aegidius and frowned. "May the gods rest his soul, he was actually a good man. I won't forget him." He sighed and then looked into the vortex in the sky. He then answered Zeros'
"I don't know. Depends on if we are conscious during our outing and where we are going. I actually wouldn't guess hell because it's so easy to get in and out of that place, that it's stupid."
He looked at Duilin and Draven fighting. "If this is the end for us..." He said to Zeros'. "I want you to know, even though I usually only spend time with you guys in times of darkness, they have been good days for me, just to have some friends."
He looked at Zeros', it was getting to hard for him to keep on the ground. "Well, it looks like I'm going in first. Farewell, Zeros'..." He then flew into the air as the vortex sucked the little imp in.
----
Duilin was smacked around, falling in one direction from one explosion and then falling in different direction after another one, he wasn't even able to hit the ground as the amounts of explosions were flying all over the place around him.
After it was finished Duilin collapsed on his knees, and began breathing deeply, he was obviously in great pain, and was bleeding and bruised in several areas, but not dead.
"When will you learn flame boy...Demons are nearly fireproof..." He then slowly stood up, and looked at Draven in the eye. "But I am half human. So I guess by both either of our logics I'm only half scum..."
He held up his lightning blade, charging more energy into it he then smirked. "...but I'm all ass kicker!" He then spun the lightning blade in circles, with one hand. The lightning then went from orange, to yellow, then green and finally blue. He then held the blade with both hands, as it formed into an orb of electronic energy. Duilin could feel his hands getting numb from the energy...
He then held the electro-orb in front of himself. He raised his eyes looking at the vortex above and grinned then looked at Draven again. "Looks like Retan's magic trick is going to cut us off." He then arched back the electro orb. "Why don't we just put this on hold!" He then jumped into the air and dived down on the ground right in front of Draven, he smashed the electro orb down at the ground with one hand.
'Dear Gaia, make this work...'
A humongous electro magnetic wave of energy exploded from the orb, anyone caught in the wave would be temporally paralysed. With Duilin's other hand he grabbed Draven's chest plate, hoping to lock the two together in the circuit. If all went to plan Draven would be sucked into the vortex along with him...
-
Draven?s aura of flame surged as Duilin latched onto him, the crimson flare that was his body cutting through the deep darkness, looking downward upon the winged man. The fire and electricity surged, ripping at each other as the terrain was torn asunder. In such close proximity they locked eyes for a moment, Draven?s expression a triumphant, hateful sneer.
?Out of time. Out of energy. You?re. Too. Weak.?
He backhanded the man off of him like a rag doll, a tremendous burst of flame following in his arm?s wake which lit the sky in yet another crimson plume. Duilin was cast backwards into the oblivion of the portal. His spell had failed?
Draven flipped his cape and turned. They were all gone, the miserable wretches. There was only one more who stood in his way? Surely he could gain Retan?s favor over his miserably brash son, and inherit the Empire once more. This time for good. A waiting game it would be.
Draven?s boots lifted off of the ground and he began to float towards Retan?s perch. Before he could get close, though, there was a tremendous gust of wind as a gray blur materialized before him. It was one of those fox creatures?
Floating not two feet from Draven?s face with his arms clasped behind his back, Virmir merely shook his head ?no?.
Draven suddenly felt his body being tugged backwards? Eyes wide, he looked past the fox and to Retan standing on the ledge, the Dark Emperor?s eyes slited and burning?
?? No! ? Why?!?
Retan?s response was immediate, loud and overbearing though he was far away.
?Because you failed. In but five years you lost 90% of my Empire on Gaian. That is unacceptable.?
Jayce landed next to Retan with a thud, flashing Draven his right middle finger along with a maniacal grin.
?No! You don?t understaaaaaaaaaaaaaa--!!!?
Draven was hastily cast into the portal with the others. The sky seemed to fold into itself, and there was nothing but silence.
Darkness and silence.
To be continued?
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 11</span>
?GO AWAY!!!!?
The guard felt the ten-year-old?s fist hammer into his gut. He stumbled backwards in a daze, having to stoop to his knee. Three more guards approached, surrounding the child who was now menacingly clenching his fist before him, his black robes swirling about his small frame.
?I?LL KILL YOU ALL!!!!!?
A sudden burst of crimson flame emanated from the child, his robes waving and burning with him, though they were not consumed. His teeth were clenched with rage like some feral animal. The long strands of his black hair began to stand on end. The guards immediately gave the child some distance, though it wasn?t nearly enough, for the man to the child?s left soon felt the crimson orb planted into his chest. He screamed in agony as the explosion overcame him, sending him a good five feet backwards, the flame engulfing, burning his body as he twisted on the ground, tearing at his useless armor.
?Lord Draven, he?s gone completely mad!?
?Stop him! STOP HIM!!!? Came the reply from the back of the room, quickly approaching with the clanging of metal boots.
It was no use, for the other two guards were dropped with no less ease. And two no less explosive displays.
?Lars Edgar Draven! Stop this AT ONCE!!?
Lars? eyes narrowed into slits at the hateful form of his father. The man approaching was tall, walking with impending authority, draped in a regal cloak that waved with the lengthy black hair tied behind his neck. The golden pointed crown atop his head reflected the burning flames emanating from his son.
The child clenched his fists, his aura of flame growing brighter.
?I HATE YOU!!?
Suddenly the child sprinted forward, jumping up at the last second and landing a forceful right hook into his father?s jaw. The king was taken entirely by surprise, stumbling backwards from the blow like a drunken fool. He would have tumbled over entirely if he did not catch himself on the wall.
?Son, stop this! Stop this immediately!!?
Lars was quick to follow up.
?You are NOT MY FATHER!!!?
A second dash, but this time his hand clutched a dazzling orb of flame.
It would not hit its mark, however, for a mere two feet from his father?s face, Lars was struck from both his right and left by blinding beams of cerulean light.
?AHHHHH~!!!!?
He fell to the ground as the bitter coldness engulfed him, the two darkly clad mages steeping out of the shadows, both hands outstretched and amplifying the intensity of the freezing spell. The child withered and screamed in agony as the frost congealed about his arms and legs. But even through this a semblance of the crimson aura burned, melting the relentless ice as it accumulated.
King Vlad Draven stooped down to his screaming child?s face.
?Why!? Why do you fight me??
?Because I HATE YOU!!!?
Lars extended a burning yet frozen claw like hand at his father?s visage, missing by a mere inch due to the man pulling it back in time.
The king scowled, retorting with a strong backhand to the boy?s cheek. The child went flying as the mages cut the spell, landing on his back as broken shards of ice flew from him. The king was quick to his feet, nearly upon the boy even as he hit the ground.
?Why do you resist me? Stop it! STOP RESISTING!?
The boy sat up, answering with a hatefully insubordinate glare. His frozen limbs began to thaw as the flame around him began to rekindle.
?STOP IT!!!?
Another forceful punch, this one straight into the boy?s face. He slammed into the floor, his head striking the ground.
Still the child defiantly pulled himself back up, his face a bloodied mess and tears streaming from his eyes. The blood lust in his eyes? But his father was quick to deliver a final strike, one that sent his child sprawling back upon the floor.
This time the child did not move, the dim flame engulfing his body flickering out like a candle. The king fell to his knees, his mouth gaping as he tried to catch his breath.
The two cowled mages approached him from behind, one of them bending down to help the man.
?You?re right?? he mumbled, barely audible, ?he is a monster??
----
What in blazes??
Draven felt the sensation of falling, but landed on his feet in a crouch, steadying himself by leaning forward and catching the dusty ground in his gloved hands. He slowly opened his eyes as his senses returned to him. All around was a foreign landscape. A crimson sky peppered with blackened clouds. The dismal rocky ground offered no sign of plant life, save a few brown dead shrubs scattered about.
?It worked! I can?t believe it worked!? It was the voice of one of the two cloaked figures standing before the Crimson Emperor, faces shrouded by cowls and the general abysmal darkness of the terrain.
?Is that all of them?? The second slightly shorter figure had an older man?s voice.
?Who in blazes are you and what is going on here!?? Draven interrupted, demanding through clenched teeth, curling his right fist into a ball and standing up straight, though he was still dizzy. Of course? the Dark Emperor?s spell? the seal?
The younger cloaked man was taken aghast. Though his eyes were not visible his gaping mouth clearly conveyed the emotion.
?It?s? you?!?
?What of it? Talk or die!?
Draven outstretched his hand, curling the fingers like a claw.
The two cloaked figures seemed more worried about keeping their voices down as they glanced about the dismal landscape nervously.
?Listen! We have to get out of here? right NOW!?
Both turned and began to run towards an enclave of jagged rocks some distance away.
?Hey! Wait! ? Blasting!?
Draven darted off after them.
?All of you? hurry!?
-
"Finally, the day comes. This is the day when all my underling townships sent their tribute to the great Sovereignty. The gifts were piled in a warehouse some distance away from the main palace, and I was waiting upon my cleric to come and assist me in my duties. At last, I heard him come in... but it seems he had company.
-"...and then, just after the cannonball struck the tower, I clutched the child and pulled him from the path of the falling boulders!"
Amusing.
-"Istvan, still your wagging tongue before I cut it off. You did no such thing, for there were no children in Aterra."
-"My lord, how did you...?"
-"I'm blind, not deaf. Now send her away, for we have much to attend to."
The blindfold fools everybody. Even though I cannot use my eyes as I once could, my hearing is rather good. Then, of course, there was that druidic technique I was taught a while ago, which allows me to sense certain things as though I could see them.... alas, I have yet to perfect thus, and before I do, I cannot rely on it.
-"Yes, my lord. Currently, you have six large lordships, which control most of the continent. They are the most important ones."
-"I trust the lesser ones were tended by the lesser clerics?"
-"Yes."
It did not matter to me much, for the lesser houses were not as important as the six big ones.
-"Good, good... now, what did the main monarchs send me?"
-"Well, Baron Vasburg dispatched ten of his best black dragons; Graf zu Heltzer sends his regards in the form of five hundred of his healthiest slaves; Marquis de Kollhoff pays with a rather nice-looking set of five giant war arbalests, able to punch through castle walls; the Doge of Lowith sent a good six tonnes of iron, copper and tin for golem building; and Lord Victo, in a fit of extreme generosity, sent us a vial of his new elexir - "The Master's Will", he calls it - and his excuse is that it's the first prototype. The only one we have not heard from is Count Vandrin of Vandrin County."
-"I'm sure he'll come around. In the while, why don't you go oversee the construction on Qim?"
-"Yes, m'lord."
The cleric left. I knew that I had many things to do, such as write the invitations for the annual feast held in the capital of the expansive Sovereignty. Even now, I amaze at how I could make this new body work as fine as it does, as if nothing has happened on the day of the accident. The eyes were but a side effect, and I'm sure I will be able to use the druidic technique to its full effect soon."
//I'll wait for some more updates from people before updating Ein and Horus.\\
-
"Duilin!" Called a woman's voice, sounding a bit scared.
"Yeah Mom?" He replied.
"Come look at this."
A young Duilin, who looked about 20 years of age, came to the window of this small cottage home, outside there was an army of soilders on horseback heading towards them.
"What the hell?" Duilin muttered. "Where is father?"
"I don't know. He left again, just before I saw the army."
"Damnit, dad..." Duilin growled. "I'll go out there myself then." Duilin then ran out the door.
"Don't!" His mother cried as he left.
"Mommy, what's going on?" Said a small girl to her mother.
"I don't know."
Duilin saw the army come right from the hills. Several of the townsmen were outside as well.
"It's the Dark Empire. Why are they here?" One man said.
In front of the army was a large, very large man, wielding two swords that looked to heavy for Duilin to use properly. "KILL THEM ALL!"
The army charged into the village, they began throwing torches at the cottages, and slashing their swords at villagers running away.
The large man was Darion. He ran into the town, heading towards Duilin, who was too scared to even move. Darion stopped right infront of Duilin and jumped off his horse. He then grinned at the young man and laughed, he readied to swing one of his swords at him, but a scythe blocked the blade.
A man, wearing a series of tattered robes and a horrific metal helmet covering his face, was holding the scythe. "Not this one. He lives."
Darion looked at him. "Sorry, General Nex." He then sheathed one of his swords and picked up Duilin by the shirt. "Which one is your house!?"
Duilin was silent, he he broke into a sweak of terror as he looked at Darion.
"Speak." Nex ordered sternly.
Duilin pointed behind him. "Th-that one..."
Darion grinned, and dragged Duilin. He blacked out, he then saw his mother get killed right before him, he saw his two brothers and younger sisters bodies fall right next to her mother, in a pool of blood and guts. He was laying on the floor, he walked, and he picked up steel, cold steel, and sharp blade. He swung the blade, he hears a clanging and the felt pain in his arms and the blade was gone.
"You're a plucky little one aren't you? You're coming with us now."
----
Duilins eyes kept shut, he felt angry. The Dark Empire was back, they thought they were gone but they aren't. He felt dizzy.
It didn't work. His stun orb didn't work. Draven...Draven called him weak...
That man will die...
As Duilin viewed a void of darkness he saw a golden rod jab through the void and then tear it open like paper. He saw feathery wings flap away and then he woke up.
"Aegidius?" He asked. He then stood up; he head ached, a lot. "Where am I?"
He was laying in a pile of garbage in an alleyway in some city of some sort. He walked forward a bit. There was a cobble stone road and a horse pulled carriage rolled by. He looked around, soldiers were patrolling the streets, and the people seemed really quiet. In the distance he saw green flag with a strange design of a bird on it. The colour looked out of place.
"Hey, you. Winged Mutant guy." Said the voice of somebody beside him. Duilin looked at person speaking to him. It was a soldier, wearing some more out of colour armour. The green just didn't go. "All winged mutants are supposed to be at the airbase."
"Huh?" Duilin said, but then he decided to play along. "Oh..uhh..yeah. Where's that?"
The soldier glared at Duilin. "Man, you mutants really are dumb. It's next to the barracks, which is just down this street, and you take a left then a right. It's a big building with flags with use sword-holding guys. Now get!" The soldier then gently struck him in the arm with the back of his hand.
Duilin then walked down the street. His head really hurt. All of his memories were rushing back to him. He slowed his pace and put his right hand on his forehead and groaned.
Suddenly he was nudged out of the way by some man wearing, some heavy clothing. A lot around the head but he noticed some short blond hair on him, really light skin too.
The man was walking next to a similarly dressed person. They seemed to be going the same way Duilin was, as they turned left on the next corner. The blond man then stopped, and stepped backwards to take a double check on Duilin.
"Was is it Marshall?" Asked the other man.
"Oh nothing, Firstman. Thought I saw somebody I knew..."
The two continued walking, and Duilin continued slowly towards the airbase...
//Just to let you know I wanted to do that flashback before I read Xorlaks post, so don't be all like "u only did a flashback cuz Zorlax did lol!!1"\\
----
"Iss it alive?" Said a raspy lizard voice.
"Lookz like it." Said another reptilian voice.
"Let me see it." Said a deep lizard voice.
Gorus, picked up the red winged person, with his large hands. "What is it? Some sort of midget dragon man?"
"I think it iss an imp." Said one of the lizardmen. "They are a legendary creature from Hell."
"Pfft." Gorus spat. "It looks like a red noob!" He commented. "How could anyone find something like this scary?" He put the imp down; it seemed to be unconscious, but alive. "Well I guess a human could. But even a human looked stronger then this...stupid thing."
The imp mumbled something. "It'z awake!" Said the other lizardman.
"Duilin...Zeros'...Zion...where?" The imp opened it's eyes. "Where am I?"
"You're in a worse version of hell, that's where." Gorus growled, he then picked up the imp and violent threw him across the room. The imp smacked against a rocky wall. They were apparently in some cave.
"Where did you say you found this?" Gorus asked.
"Around North Point, near the dezert area."
"Interesting. North Point is it? I could have sworn I saw something this size fly into Retan's vortex about 18 months ago."
"18...18 months!?" Rink cried. "Where is...where are my friends?"
"Well what do you know? I think this might be the same one."
"Sssirr...Do you know what this might mean?"
"What?" Gorus asked, looking at this lizard man.
"If thiss is the ssame imp with the group of the outlawss then perhapss the otherss are here too."
"Perhaps." Gorus replied. He looked at the imp. "We'll just keep it alive then. If they are alive, then they'll be able to find him with their magical aura detection. He will be bait." He grinned and licked his lips. "Until then we'll just have a little fun. Get some rope and some darts."
----
Vandrin had sent one of his new mutants to deliver the little present to the Marshall, Kronos of Kandarin. His gift would be a sample of his "Secret Chemical" in a vial, and the mutant delivering it. He would also have the effects of it the chemical and how he could use it, if he wishes to. It would all be on a note...
----
Dear Lord Kronos, Marshal of Kandarinian Sovereignty
Here is a sample of my Secret Chemical. I've kept this project completely secret from nearly everyone, and only me and my chemists know about it, however the general public already knows the outcome. As you can see, I have mastered creating mutants. There are three types of mutants...
-Type 1- Large built humanoids with superhuman strength
-Type 2- Athletically built humanoids with wings
-Type 3- Medium built humanoids with magic abilities
I have also noted that there are some that are a combination of two or even all of the types, which I employ as commanders of the other ones, some also have some deformities which I usually terminate, the success rate of using the chemical is only 85%. The one delivering is of Type 2 and you may keep it. This chemical has been tested and it appears it only works on humans. Use this however you wish.
Enjoy,
Count Theodore Vandrin.
----
//You can assume this arrives at your next post, Ein.\\
-
Time? Was it already that time again? It seemed to Alex that it was only yesterday that Asgarnia fell to the Kandarinian Sovereignty. It baffled him that eighteen months had passed in the blink of an eye.
Alex's status among the rebel scientists and the refugees from the city had skyrocketed, as far as giving him messianic names such as "Alex the Great." The emblem on his jacket had grown to represent areas held by the rebels within and outside the city.
His suit, dented and bruised, had seen many battles with Kandarinian soldiers, and his grown-out goatee and facial hair distinguished him as someone who meant business. He himself, however, had been a little worse for wear. Several times he had been injured in fights, whether it be sword lacerations, fractured bones, or whatever method the Kandarinians wanted to use to extinguish the rebellious firebug. Fortunately right now he was in good health.
Asgarnia had changed drastically over the past year and a half, as the Kandarinians had actually made an effort to clean up the tainted landscape, though these efforts soon died out after the threat of an imminent rebellion was realized. Alex and the rebel scientists had so far made astounding headway with helping citizens out of the city and avoid Kandarinian detection. Alex himself referred to the oppressors as "Kandies," but they were anything but sweet.
The consequences of rebellion, which Alex knew, were held as high treason with the Kandarins, which either resulted in death or a lifetime forced servitude under them.
Despite Alex's best efforts to free citizens, the folk trapped within the city did not see much hope in the near future. These poor people were depressed, hopeless and terrified of the higher power that had taken over their great city. The golden age of Asgarnia was over, replaced with stone.
Alex pondered his next mission route in the rebel headquarters, stationed on the outer rim of the underground tunnel system. Over the months, Alex and several scouts were able to eventually draw up a map of the entire city, and mark areas that were due for emancipation. Alex's job was to travel to these districts and locate any citizens, and bring them back to headquarters. Other brave citizens had set up outposts for those so inclined to escape themselves, almost like an underground railroad. Any Kandarinian resistance Alex met, he destroyed. It was as simple as that.
Alex stood up and looked at the map. The Commerce District of Asgarnia had yet to be investigated. Aware of his role he played in the rebellion, he loaded up on yet another mission of freedom.
-
"I was taking my walk around the palace premises when the courier reached me.
-"Lord! Lor--" The courier was out of breath, and he stopped to catch it.
-"Yes, yes, what is it?"
-"Lord, we recieved Count Vandrin's tribute."
The courier took out a small vial out of his pouch. The vile-looking liquid inside was bubbling noxiously. The courier also handed me a note that came with the vial.
-"That's great, but would you mind reading it to me?"
Even though I could sense general objects and movements, reading was far beyond me at this point.
-"Oh... yes, of course, my Lord. My deepest apologies, I seemed to have forgotten."
The courier read the note out loud. I sighed.
-"Vandrin, Vandrin, Vandrin... Who does he take me for? What am I supposed to do with a single vial that only has an 85% chance of working? What if this liquid happens to be regular coloured tap water? Of course, he could just blame the 15% of failure."
-"Could I possibly make a suggestion, my Lord?"
-"No. Now go take this vial to the chemists at Qim. Be careful not to trip on any of the rubble there - the factories aren't gone entirely yet."
I detected a bow from the courier, and he ran off to Qim. The disappearance of the factories was a heavy loss at first, but golem-building compensated tenfold for everything those factories provided. A silent, filthy industrial area before the disappearance, it is now full of pits where golems are made every day. There are alchemical centres scattered across the peninsula, which are mainly used to strengthen existing golems. I'm sure they can be used to analyse the contents of the vial, though.
Truly, at first, I was apalled by the idea of animating matter that has never been alive into a manageable creature. That is unholy, even by my standards.
Soon enough, though, I began to see the perks. Golems were completely obedient, but at the same time sentient, which relieved my mind of controlling twice as much as I had to normally. Stone golems and iron golems were particularly durable, while the magic-saturated atronachs made perfect heavy assault soldiers, replacing the mechanical scorpion machines. No sword or bow could cut or pierce solid rock.
Unfortunately, since golems came after the conquest of the continent, I've never field-tested them. Luckily, there was a particularly large wave of resistance in the never-surrendering Asgarnia. At the time, dispatching two atronachs and one stone juggernaut seemed like a rather good idea to me..."
--- --- ---
Asgarnia was hiding under a thick layer of clouds, as it has been ever after the Kandarinian invasion. The gloomy sky had some holes here and there, and the light shining through them cast an occasional ray of sunshine down onto the wrecked city. These fissures were quickly mended by the sky, but it was only a matter of time until new ones ripped. It was as if the clouds were trying to stay over Asgarnia...
Today, however, something seemed amiss. There was a large armed convoy approaching Asgarnia. Usually the convoys were small troop reinforcements, and occasionally supplies, when Asgarnia's resources were completely drawn out. The convoy today, however, was gargantuan in size compared to the previous ones. There were three enormous carriages, covered with thick black cloth. The carriages were pulled by six undead ogres on each car. Unless Kandarinians were planning to stay for a thousand years, supply carriages were never this big...
---
There was a large convoy around the carriages; Bert knew that for a succesful raid that should cripple the Kandarinian oppression, the attack had to be carried out in an ambush. The rebel forces were already planted at both sides of the normally small road, made wide by the supply cars going in and out of the city.
-"Alright, folks, you know the drill: take out the undead ogres first. They will crumble quickly under a well-placed shot of Kandigun, but they'll do a hell of a lot of damage if left untended." Bert clutched his own weapon. Kandiguns referred to the Kandarinian spearguns captured in battle and previous ambushes. "These carriages are too big to be food rations - they must be some sort of weapons. If we capture these, or even destroy them, it should give us an upper hand in battle."
The rebels silently nodded.
-"The convoy draws near. Everyone, to your positions. Hide!"
The ambushing party ducked into two ditches on the either side of the road, while others hid behind a few trees on the roadside. They sat tight, and waited.
---
The stopming of the undead ogres was shaking the earth beneath the ambushers. They were really close... Really, really close... but the party had to hold to let the ogres pass a bit in front. Then they could strike from behind, and use the moment to dispose of the ogres effectively, while they were just turning around to retaliate.
The ogres went into the trees... and slowly passed. This was the cue for the ambushers.
With wild screams, they exploded out of the ditches, and concentrated all fire on the 18 ogres. Quickly, the heads began to roll; carriages stopped one by one. The living Kandarinians were quick to react - they opened fire onto the attackers, with little to no effect. The Asgarnians were wearing protective armour designed specifically against spearguns. Most of the Kandies returned their weapons onto the sheathes on their backs, and drew their wristblades. Thus, the crimson blood began to flow through the mockingly white stone road...
Surprisingly, not all Kandarinians were fighting. Three of them crawled into the carriages, one in each, while their fellow fighters were defending the precious cargo inside - whatever it was - from the attackers. Some were slain, many were wounded. It was about time for a miracle to happen to shift the battle either way.
Suddenly, a blood-chilling roar came from the depths of the middle carriage, stopping both the ambushers and the defenders in their tracks. It was the attackers' guess that not even Kandies themselves knew what was the cargo they were defending with their lives.
The black fabric ripped open, and an enormous abomination crawled out of the carriage. It seemed to be made of chunks of marble, which were floating in mid-air - held together by nothing, it seemed, other than sparks of electricity zapping between the stones. The arrangement of the rocks on the head was made to eerily resemble a human face.
The golem let out another feral roar, and begun cutting through the mass of the attackers. Its weapon looked like it appeared out of nowhere - an axe, seemingly made of pure, blinding light blue shine - which was nevertheless more effective than any other weapons ever held by ordinary soldiers. The axe went right through armour, without even putting a scrape on it - but left a trail of necrotic flesh wherever it touched the body. Essentially, the weapon was pure death. It did not cut, it did not crush, it did not pierce. It simply killed.
With the Atronach's appearance, the Kandarinian fighters relaxed a little bit. Soon enough, the other two golems were charged enough to walk into battle. There was another golem looking a lot like the first one, and then there was the stone juggernaut - an awe-inspiring creation, seemingly shapeless due to its huge size. The juggernaut did not bother itself with weapons. All it had to do was step on a human, and the next second, all that was left of it was a perfectly flat bloodied pancake on the ground.
Needless to say, the attackers stood no chance. They were wiped out in a matter of minutes, and as soon as the resistance seized, the three golems turned to Asgarnia, and advanced towards the distant, half-ruined city...
//A quick note on these golems - they look pretty cheap, so I came up with this idea. They can only be active for, say, five posts until they fall apart in need of another recharge. In order for this to happen, a magically-inclined [sic] individual (which could be an NPC) needs to drain a good three quarters of his power, which has to take at least two posts (this being an exception, as it was meant mostly as an introduction). After that, the golems are bound to whoever charged them.\\
-
Nick watched with folded arms as the courier passed. He turned into the room Kronos was standing in. "Sir what happened?" Nick said unfolding his arms. "What did Vardin want?"He continued.
Since Nicks battle with Galak he had not even touched his swords. For the next time he'd have to draw them would hopefully be his last. He wanted peace between nations, but this dream was unrealistic. He had consentrated on his demonic powers forcing all his power to his mind trying to connect with his inner demon.
Nick was treated well in Kandarian it was like he hada family-if he even had one-He had gotten his own room and was able to do work about the districts. Everyone knew him around the districts. Nick snapped back to sense as he looked back at Kronos.
-
A thump was heard.
Zeros' groaned, bodily hitting the rocky area of North Point. His eyes were closed and his hair was matted with sweat. His clothes looked the same as when he had disappeared. His wings were folded inwards, resting against his back.
He lay there for a moment before he let forth another groan, slowly sitting up from his position on the ground. A small *clang* was heard, as his sheathed blade hit the rocky ground. He brought his left hand up and rubbed his temples, his right hand grasping the hilt of his sword. He used the sword as a 'cane' of sorts and slowly pushed himself up and onto his feet.
He looked up into the sky, from where he fell. Those eighteen months were definetly not the most pleasent days he had ever experienced, but they certaintly weren't the worse, either.
He shook his head and strapped his sword back in it's rightful place - at his left hip. He ran his hand through his hair, feeling the sweat-covered locks stick to his hand. He opened his eyes briefly for a moment before closing them again.
"W-Where is everyone..." he rasped, his throat raw. He opened his senses, scanning the planet. He growled, sensing the condition of his beautiful Gaian.
Someone would pay for this... but first, he needed to find his friends.
He opened his senses again. The first people he found were Rink, Draven and Duilin, as they seemed to be the only ones back. He knew Draven and Duilin would be fine. He turned in the direction he sensed Rink's aura and extended his wings.
He flapped his brilliant black wings experimently before he crouched low, jumpping into the air, starting to flap towards where he sensed Rink's aura.
((Where is Rink exactly, DM?))
-
Several miles south of Bandervil was an unnatural looking rocky mountain. Around it were large walls built of stone and metal, and between the mountain and the walls were several buildings and tents with mostly lizardmen inside and around them. Along the wall posts were guns towers, with magic powered cannons. Technology ripped right from the Aspyes.
This was the new fortress of Lizaberg, the mountain itself was a rocky structure, just to High General Gorus' likings. Strange mazes and traps were inside the mountain, only Gorus, Retan, the other High Generals and Grous' elite guard knew they way through. Getting through would be quite a task, for anyone.
----
Meanwhile inside Rink was tied onto the wall, with his arms and legs stretched out, he had several darts stuck into him.
Rink was feeling really weak, perhaps it was the turbulence of the vortex, but he didn't know for sure.
"Okay, that's enough." Gorus ordered. "We don't want to kill it. Soon, those freaks will come here, I'm sure of it." He walked over to Rink, and plucked the darts out of him and ripped the ropes off, but there were still a bit of the rope tied around his wrists and ankles. Gorus picked up a small birdcage. His room was quite messy it had a nice looking bed for Gorus however, but it too was very messy. Piles of random junk were in the corners of the room. The only thing that looked appealing were the weapons hung up on the wall...one of them included Duilin's mace that he got from Abodahon. //remember that.\\
Gorus locked the imp in the cage and then tossed him on the bed. Rink groaned in pain...no matter how hard he tried he couldn't use his magic...
"Out...of....em...pee...." Rink mumbled.
--------
Marshall and Firstman had arrived at the main barracks of the Vandrin County. Vandrin's Kandarin warriors were about it, as well as some large brute mutants.
"I'm never going to get used to those abominations. I can't believe how sick this Vandrin person is..." Marshall said.
"I'll say. In ways he's more sick that Kronos." Firstman replied.
"Nah." Marshall shook his head. "That guys way worse. Anyways, you got the expolsives?"
"Of course, why the hell wouldn't I bring them?"
"No, I mean you have them ready."
"No, not yet. Let's try and get inside first." Firstman and Marshall looked at each other and nodded. They then walked towards the barracks, however the entrance was guarded. They didn't want to make a scene, if they were caught then likely every soldier would charge right at them.
----
Duilin found the barracks and next to it the airbase. He still wasn't sure what this place was. He saw those two strange men again. He wondered what they were up too. He had a feeling that perhaps they were attempting on doing something unlawful. Should he stop them? Maybe they were Aspyes, it might be a good idea. Then again maybe not. Maybe he should just ignore them. But where is the fun in that?
"I'll talk to them." Duilin walked towards the two men, who seemed to be trying to find a way into the barracks. "Hey you too."
"Shit..." One of them whispered.
"What are you too doing."
"You know." The blond man said. "You don't look too much like one of them Air Mutants, you have hair and your skin looks?softer. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were half human and half something else, maybe demon perhaps."
Duilin walked towards the man talking to him. He defiantly recognized him. "Have we met?" He said.
"Perhaps. What's your name?"
"Duilin."
"I'm Marshall."
"Yeah, I know you. What the hell are you doing here?"
Firstman hushed the two. "We can't talk here somebody might see us."
The three men then went into an alleyway next to the airbase.
"Marshall, you know this guy?" Firstman asked.
"Yeah sort of. His name is Duilin, he's one of them flyboys that allied with the Crimson Empire."
Firstman glared. "It's people like you that lowered our numbers. You have any idea how hard it's been to try and spread our message?"
"Just doing my job." Duilin smirked. "But I've kind of changed my business sort of. I've been doing some thinking, and well. I'd rather eat ogre droppings then aid the Dark Empire, and Draven and me got into a little scuffle a bit earlier. So maybe I'll help you guys out...for now."
"Draven?" Marshall said. "Draven disappeared, around um...18 months ago, and well so did you."
"I'll be damned..." Duilin chuckled. He looked at Firstman. "So who's this kid?"
"Patrick Firstman." He said.
"Patrick? I used to know a guy named Patrick, funny guy, his head fell off a couple times."
"Anyways, you wanna help us or not?" Marshall asked Duilin.
"Yeah sure. What's the plan?"
"Okay, Firstman here has got some explosives, he's going to plant it inside the barracks. But we need to get in somehow, and we can't get noticed or else every soldier will come after us and we'll get killed. Perhaps you could cause a distraction somehow?"
"Well, sounds okay. But what about getting in the barracks? You'll need soldier uniforms if you want to move freely around the base."
"Hmm...I've got an idea..." Firstman said...
-
The younger cloaked figure peered out from behind the massive boulder.
"I... don't get it... Where are the others? The seal is broken, right? I mean, all we got was him!"
The older one rubbed his chin.
"It is possible they rematerialized in different places... or..."
"...Or what?"
"... They didn't survive the confinement..."
The younger one gasped.
By then Draven had caught up with the hiding cloaked duo and leapt over the rocks, landing behind them, effectively trapping the two.
"All right!! Answers! NOW!!"
Ven Hyul threw off his cowl, taking a step towards the Crimson Emperor and clenching his fist.
"We were trying to save our friends, but all we got was you!"
Draven tapped Ven in the chest with his pointer finger, sending him flying back into the rock behind him with a clang.
"Don't get curt with me, peon."
King Henri removed his cowl as well, speaking in a much more hushed tone.
"What he means is, we just broke the seal on whatever spell the Dark Emperor cast on you. And for the love of the gods, please keep your voices down!"
Draven raised an eyebrow.
"Why?"
On cue, there was a tremendous screech as something landed in the middle of the barren field where the trio just came from.
"That's why..."
There were two of them. Large muscular dragons, perhaps some 10 feet tall with gray scales and black wings. And the claws... oh the claws... the pair of Dark Dragons sniffed the air and pawed around. Something was amiss, they knew.
With his back to the rock, Ven drew his blade, just peering over the top.
"Those things..." He whispered. "The Dark Continent is infested with them, and other things worse still... It took us a good ten men to bring a single one down, and half of them died in the process..."
Draven wasn't paying attention...
He was floating some twenty feet above the two Tjedians, his fists and teeth clenched, seething with rage.
"RETAAAAAAAAAANNN!!!!!!!!"
He bellowed as a brilliant blast of crimson flame exploded from the man. The heads of both dragons snapped towards him.
"Get OUT HERE!!!!! I'M GONNA KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU MISERABLE REJECTS!!!!"
His fiery aura flared as he shot straight down towards the pair of dragons.
Ven and Henri watched, mouths gaping.
"Oh... my... god..."
The closer dragon opened its mouth to strike, but instead received a massive punch straight to the jaw from Draven's superheated fist. The beast tumbled to ground, causing a tremor as dust flew up into the air. The second dragon had its mouth gaping, plumes of violet energy sparking within it...
-
Alex kicked down a rotted wooden door and scanned the room with his rifle. When he deemed it clear, he moved in. What he found was a typical domicile suitable for a few people. However, it had seen better days. Furniture was crumbled and dilapidated, the walls cracked and riddled with spear holes from Kandigun fire, and a thick layer of dust covering every last little furnishing. Whoever lived here was not a favorite among the Kandies.
"Hello?" Alex called, his voice sounding hollow and distant through his helmet. "Is anyone here? You don't need to be afraid, I'm here to help you."
A young man of about twenty or so crawled out from under a table and laid eyes on the metal man that had knocked down his door.
"Oh no. OH NO! They're here to finish me off! Don't kill me, I don't know anything!"
"No, no, that's not it!" Alex cried. "I'm with the resistance, I'm here to get you out! The Kandies in this area are all dead. It's smooth sailing from here to Asgarnia South."
Asgarnia South was a codename the rebels gave to their underground base, seeing as it lied to the south of Asgarnia proper. Unfortunately, that was all the way across town.
"You'll want to come with me."
"You are a fine man, sir," the scared little man said. "What if the Kandarinians find us? They'll shoot us on the spot!"
"Not to worry," Alex replied. "We have scouts stationed every few miles or so that can direct refugees into the tunnel network. From there, you ought to be pretty safe while you escape."
"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go!" cried the man, taking cover behind Alex's imposing figure. The suit itself boosted his height to roughly seven feet all.
Alex and the refugee took cover behind a crumbled building. "Wait here," Alex commanded the man as he stepped up onto a pile of rubble to scan the burbs ahead.
The Commerce District was once a gleaming section of the greater city, where one could essentially find anything he was looking for. The Seven Hour War converted this area into a maze of collapsed buildings and toxic soup that made it one of the more dangerous regions of the city.
"All clear," Alex motioned the man up. "Head down this block and make a right turn. A rebel will show you into the tunnel network. Keep running, and no matter what, don't stop."
"Oh, thank you sir, bless you!" The man was overjoyed. "May the light of God be with you!" He took off sprinting towards freedom.
"Let's see," Alex muttered to himself. "That makes him the 17th guy I've saved today. That's gotta be a record."
The ground shook. From experience, Alex knew that ground shaking was generally a bad thing. Alex climbed up on top of one of the crumbling walls and peered over the cityscape. Nothing seemed amiss...
The ground shook again, this time much more violent, nearly knocking Alex from his perch. An ear-splitting roar emanated from the lands to the north, outside the city gates. Alex turned his vision there and saw something most unsettling.
Three enormous abominations were slowly but surely thundering into the city. Alex looked down the scope of his rifle and saw that they were golems. Animated rock monsters. It seems that the Kandies had taken some interest in testing new ways of waging war, and decided to kill two birds with one stone by letting the golems loose on the rebellious population of Asgarnia. From the looks of these beasts, Alex judged that conventional weapons fire would be ineffective. From the electricity arcing between the levitating rocks that made up their bodies, it would seem that magic would also be a futile effort. What else could be used?
Cannons. Weapons that used an explosive powder to launch a heavy projectile at high speed. Perhaps a salvo of cannon fire could cause enough structural damage to prevent them from ever rising again.
...Of course, they could always wait until the magic ran out, Alex didn't see hopes of surviving that long. Perhaps somewhere in the city was an military weapons depot containing cannons used before Asgarnia discovered magic. It was an astronomical gamble, and could result in complete emancipation of the city, or total annihilation.
Still unsure of his plan, Alex got down from the wall as it collapsed behind him from the earth-shattering footfalls of the golems. Another deafening roar echoed throughout the air, even causing a minor fracture in Alex's visor. It was only then he realized that one golem had seen him, and was approaching him.
As the megaton monstrosity drew ever closer, only one word found its way from Alex's lips.
"Shit."
-
Since they saw him as one. Duilin pretended to be one of the winged type mutants and entered the Airbase. He had his wings folded around him; he was carrying the explosives under them.
Marshall had explained to Duilin, that this place was the Vandrin County. A subgroup of the Kandarinian Sovereignty ruled by an evil count, known as Vandrin. Vandrin is the most known to be the most evil of the Kandarinian sub-monarchs and owns the most land of them. This Vandrin seems like quite a tyrant.
From what Firstman told him, the mutants are pretty dumb, so they may not be able to tell the difference, also likely only officers would be able to spot him out, since most foot guards and peasants don't spend much time with mutants. A lot of officers were in the barracks, so getting in the front door wouldn't be the best idea, plus mutants aren't allowed in the barracks.
The airbase had a lot of explosive bombs in it already; he barely found the need to hide the one he was holding. Apparently they used these winged mutants to fly over cities a drop bombs down on them. Duilin also saw some quivers, arrows and bows so likely they had them be aerial archers. Not a bad idea.
The building had a roof, which seemed to have some gears and pulleys around them, likely showing that the roof could be opened. It was mostly just one big open room, with mutants drooling around. There were three stories of catwalks along the walls, and windows too.
Duilin flapped his wings and flew up to the third catwalk; none of the mutants seemed to notice, even though Duilin barely fitted in, if at all.
He put the explosives down and opened up one of the windows. The barracks wasn't too far away, if he could find an open window then he could sneak in...
-----
"You sure we should trust this guy?" Firstman asked, leaning against the wall of a building across the street of the barracks.
"Sort of..." Marshall replied. "But he's really strong, I've seen him in action."
"Well, it just seems strange giving our trust to some guy we just met who used to be an enemy of the Aspyes."
"Yeah, well, he hates Sovereignty and Imperialism too." Marshall replied. "Yet I think he's probably more of a kingdom kinda guy."
"I never liked kingdoms. They are usually nicer since kings tend to be better people, but...well you know how it is."
"Yeah, well anyway. I guess we could trust him. When I first met him, he seemed like an okay guy."
"Okay. But you better be right about this."
"Don't worry, don't worry." Marshall grunted and then looked around. "So yeah, lets get moving I think these jerks arrest people if they loiter. Let's just circle around the block."
-
The atronach heading for Alex drew out his signature death-axe. The other atronach changed course for someone else as well, while the juggernaut simply continued stomping towards the city. The old town wouldn't stand a chance against a behemoth golem this large... the question was whether or not the golem would be able to do enough damage before its energy resource died out.
-
Zeros' frowned, as the area where Rink's aura originated from came into view. He saw the defenses and the technology taken from the Aspyes. He landed about a hundred yards away from the main area and hid behind a rock, crouching down and brushing his hand through his hair again.
It seemed that this would be harder then he thought. He wouldn't have much trouble with the lizardmen. He was more worried about the technology. While he'd fought it before and survived, it was more risk then he wanted to take.
He slowly stood and turned towards the towers, observing his options. He could rush in and be gung-ho, but he assumed Rink was inside, so, he'd have to be careful. He couldn't just rush in and hope everything came out swell.
He closed his eyes and tried sending a telepathic message to Rink. Rink... Rink... Can you hear me?
-
//For my new character Druid i have pre written some post, in my boredom, to get his story started. I would appreciate if no one interacted with him till my pre written posts were over. This is much appreciated, thank you.\\
Roger was out walking, like he had done for the past 13 years. He walked the same path, at the same time every day. He had every pebble memorized. He had a name for every little creek and knew all the trees. It was very much a routine, and today he was to break that routine.
Walking passed the first bridge he started into the forest. After about ten minutes in he came to a clearing. He stopped and took in the sights, like he had so many times before. This time, however, he noticed something out of ordinary. A very, very slight red glow was forming in the clearing. Roger, being a simple man of few worldly sights and not knowing of the horrors of Kronos or Asgarnia, figured it was the sunlight on dust. Soon the light glow grew less faint and more intense. Slowly Roger walked forward. He stuck his hand threw the now formed cloud of dust. It went right through and nothing happened. The cloud was getting a lot denser though.
Just as he was leaning forward to stick his head inside, an arm jetted out of the cloud and grabbed his neck. Gasping Roger put his hands on the unknown arm and tried to pull it off, but quickly withdrew his hands. There was some sort of acid on the arm because it burned to the touch. Looking down at the arm Roger saw that it was grey and cracked. The skin was peeling off and the bone was slightly visible. A tattered blue sleeve fell out of the cloud and a deep, soul burning voice spoke.
?Yes, you?ll do. An eye for an eye. Well, not quite. Replacement, yes replacement. No dirty secrets, I know what you?ve done. That?s why you?ll do. Outwitted him, thinks he is so smart. I?ll show him and you?ll help me pull it off.?
These words made no sense to Roger, yet he knew that they did make sense to someone. Then a ripping sensation. All his nerve endings go the same ripping sensation, then nothing. Roger was gone and so was the cloud. All that was left was a man on the forest floor, gasping for air.
-
Draven crossed his arms before him as the beast let lose an eerie violet orb from its mouth, striking the defenses Draven through before himself and resulting in a massive explosion. The enraged fire mage was thrown backwards, tumbling on the ground.
He rolled out of the way as the first dragon struck back with its claws, having regained its footing. Both dragons were upon him as he rose to his feet, snapping their ferocious fangs as the Crimson Emperor hopped backwards, left, right, left ,right...
"AHHHHRRRGHH!!!"
The scream was from behind. Taking a longer leap, Draven glanced behind his shoulder. A third Dark Dragon had found the two left behind in the rocks, and was now flying away with Henri clutched in its claws, a frantic Ven running behind.
"Sire!!!"
With a leap, a gust of visible wind materialized under the black robed silver knight, and he rode the aerial blast skyward, chasing after his liege.
One of the two dragons attacking Draven (the one who felt his punch in the face) thought this was more entertaining and broke away to join in the chase.
Draven clenched a burning fist as the other dragon towered over him.
"Blast it...!"
He slowly subdued his rage. Clearly blindly assaulting the Dark Emperor would get him no where. On the other hand, that king with the third eye which can "see" things, would prove his usefulness once again.
Jumping clean over a tail strike, Draven flipped over the dragon's right shoulder and clutched its scaly gray back. The beast began to buck and rear, lashing it neck around to snap at the unwelcome rider. But Draven was quick to stop it, thrusting a quickly formed crimson blade into the back of the monster's neck, the burning sword sticking though to the other side. The dragon crumbled with a crash.
Removing the sword of fire, the maniacal fire mage darted skyward wrapped in a fireball, after the dragon who was after Ven who was after his liege.
Things would get interesting indeed...
-
After catching his breath he stood up. His long black cloak flowed down his legs. His hood was up and his face was hidden. In his hand he had a black staff with a massive ruby on top.
?You god damned son of a bitch! Get your ass back here you bloody coward.?
It was no use and he knew it. Breathing deeply in and out he tried to calm down, but to no avail.
?AAARRRRRRRGGGGHH!?
He lifted up his staff and slammed the end into the ground. A massive shockwave flew outwards from the tip of the staff. It spread out in all directions but ended at the forest?s edge so no one in the village knew what happened. Anything living in the area of the wave died. Birds dropped out of the sky, mighty trees withered away. He felt a little better.
?Well, best get started on this new world.?
He started walking at a random direction out of the forest. He felt badly for the first town he came across.
-
General Zjott zu Heltzer, son of Graf zu Heltzer, was out inspecting the citizens of Asgarnia. Ever since Kandarin took over Asgarnia, Zjott was put in charge of affairs on behalf of the Sovereignty. Unfortunately, he couldn't see his father anymore because of this - the pesky underground resistance left Zjott little peace.
The citizens seemed to be behaving quite innocently today... even that one house Zjott memorized specifically for insubordination. He had his suspicions that the family residing in that house were a part of the resistance, and he put the house under surveilance. Perhaps it was wise not to execute the family before finding out everything he could about them... maybe this could open a loophole in the resistance, which would let him get rid of it once and for all...?
Just then, he heard the wails of golems. This was new to Zjott, for he left Kandarin before golems were introduced and widely used. He left the patrol party to themselves, and hurried towards the outer city walls.
Luckily, the house he was inspecting was located right next to the city limits, so Zjott got to the walls rather quickly. There, he saw the two Atronachs slicing through the resistance soldiers, as well as the Stone Juggernaut inevitably approaching the city with every intent to crush it.
And then, he saw him. The man that eluded him for so long, whom he only knew from wanted posters and descriptions from his soldiers... Could he have been mistaken...? No, the armour and the weapon both match the description.
He seemed to have been busy observing an Atronach coming right at him. Zjott ducked, and carefully eyed Alex from behind a corner.
---
On the other side of town, in a relaxed inn...
-"Haha! Yeah, and then I totally smashed that Kandie's face in!"
-"Pfft, bull. You had to smash through the glass visor first, idiot! No human hand can break through that without some kind of an obvious injury to the hand. Stop making stuff up."
-"Yeah, but it was a really dumb Kandie! He opened his visor because he was eating."
-"Like hell."
-"Do these muscles lie to you? DO THEY?!"
-"..."
-"That's it, you're gettin' it just like that Kandie did."
When a bar brawl seemed imminent, the inn doors slammed open. A figure completely covered in torn, ripped cloth entered with a slight limp. It did not stop for anything, it just stumbled straight to the barman.
-"The vilest booz' you haff. Now."
Without any comments, the barman filled a glass full of transluscent liquid. The mysterious stranger drank the whole thing and asked for another one, and that's when the barman's eyes started to widen.
-"Most people don't keep standing after one glass, and you want another?"
-"Ve ar' not like mozzt peeple. Ve demand anozzer glas'."
With a wild look, the barman complied. The stranger emptied that one as quickly as the first one, but did not ask for a refill. Instead, he slammed a ruby as big as a human fist down onto the table, which he produced from a fold in his cloak. The figure headed out.
-"Keep ze change."
-
The dragon Draven was tailing streaked as the Crimson Emperor suddenly landed on its back, earning the same fate as its companion, though slightly lower in the neck. Ven and the last dragon were quickly making distance though, and Draven sped off through the skies after them, flaring his crimson aura brighter as he strained to catch up with the wind riding knight.
"Look what you did!" Ven shouted over his shoulder, angrily alluding to King Henri's predicament in the claws of the smaller yet faster dragon speeding up ahead.
"You mean, look what your miserable weakness and general incompetence in paying attention to your surroundings did." Draven shot back as he pulled up along side the knight.
Ven clenched his teeth and began to retort, but he knew the fire mage was right, as manically twisted as he was. He had failed to protect his liege... He sucked in a deep breath and cast the wind spell stronger, begining to speed up, but Draven caught him on the shoulder.
"Listen. That thing's taking King Three-Eyes somewhere, and I'm willing to bet it's not some grimy cave. Taper back and follow it for a while. Let's see where it's heading..."
-
Nearby, Allen was also hiding from those three, huge dragons. He wasn't like everyone else. He didn't have enormous ammounts of power at his disposal, like the other people he knew.
The 18 months had been good to the old alchemist. He didn't look any younger, all the wrinkles of his face seeming the same since he was last seen, but his eye held a wariness in them. A wariness from the constant battles had seemed to exhaust his old bones. He was only human, after all.
He had started to study some basic martial arts, only enough to help him survive.
He quietly walked up to Draven and Ven, clearing his throat softly.
"Ahm... If I may speak, my liege?"
-
(You of course realize Ven and Draven are flying through the air, after the last dragon. Heh... Perhaps Allen is riding one of those disc things?)
Still soaring through the air, Draven turned, seeing Allen approaching. Hearing himself called 'liege' was reassuring, a testament to the now long forgotten Crimson Empire... A bit of sanity left in this world now truly gone insane.
"Well, well, long time... Speak, Allen, your wisdom is always welcome."
He was perhaps a bit nicer to the old man than usual. He should be after all, as this could very well be his last follower in the entire world...
Ven clenched his teeth turning his head back towards the dragon and the captive Henri and towards Allen. The old alchemist's aid in Tjed was crucial the past year in a half, so his words should not be taken lightly. His speed slowed a bit, but he made absolutely certain that dragon did not fall out of sight with his king...
-
Rink's eyes opened as he heard Zeros', he was still feeling dizzy and woozy.
He tried to send a message to Zeros'...
"Zeros'...help...b...lizard..."
----
The barracks, in the Vandrin County, was large building, with several large tents in front of it. The back of the building was facing the air base.
One of the windows of the barracks opened up.
"Man, it stinks it in here..." Commented the soldier opening the window.
Duilin, who was in the airbase, decided to take this opportunity and he climbed out the window keeping one hand holding on to the bottom rim. He hand his feet against the wall, he then jumped from the wall and flapped his wings to gain height and then grabbed on to the bottom rim of the open window in the barracks with one hand still holding the explosives in the other.
The soldier about to leave the room turned around as he saw Duilin climbing up. "What the..." He walked towards the window. "What the hell do you think you're doing!? Get ba--"
Duilin cut him off with a swift slug across the temple knocking him out. Duilin shook his fist; he sniffed the air and grimaced. "It does smell in here."
The opened the door and looked around outside, there was a hallway with several other doors and a staircase. He needed to set the bombs were it would heart.
He sneaked trough the hallway and down the staircase. Not very many people, he assumed they were mostly all in the tent. One this floor was a larger room, with a statue of some handsome looking but old guy, and there was one guard. He was wielding some sort of weapon that looked like it launches a spear. Around his neck was a whistle. He'd probably blow on it and alert a bunch of people. He was looking at the statue, if he turned around he shifted his head he'd actually be able to clearly see Duilin if he wasn't crouching. It seemed pretty tough to get by him...unless.
'Hey buddy, come here. I found somebody.' The guard heard a voice from behind him, it sounded like the solider that got knocked out by Duilin.
"Tray? 'Dat you?" The guard turned around and walked down the hallway at the end of the room.
Duilin had sent a telepathic message to him, using the soldier's voice and threw the 'sound'.
Duilin then walked into the larger room, it had several other doors and a map on the wall facing the statue. Duilin looked at the map, apparently the rooms in the building were either officer's rooms or armouries. He then saw another room. Cannon storage.
"Heheh. God, this is going to be too easy."
-
(Er... Yes! Of course. That's what I meant. <coughs>)
Zeros' frowned, hearing Rink's unsteadiness. He knew that Rink must be weak now, possibly dying. He had to get to him fast, but he couldn't be sloppy. One mistake could alert the lizardmen to his presence and put Rink's life in danger... Well, more danger then it was already in.
He peered up, seeing the sentries atop the walls. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He felt his body lightly shimmer, as hi aural signature disappeared from the senses. He smiled and adjusted his clothes and his weapon, making sure not one thing was out of place.
He stepped out from behind the rock and set a steady pace towards the enterance. The cannons didn't move to turn and fire at him, so, he assumed he was safe, at least for now. He shimmed along the enterance, quietly slipping into the gates, unnoticed, for now.
(And now, Duilin, you can give me a picture of the inside. Or is it just the rocky mountain as a fortress?)
---
Allen nodded and adjusted his glasses. He steadied himself with his feet and hands on his flying disk. He was used to riding these, but not at the speeds Draven and Ven were traveling. He could, at least, stay with the two.
"These... dark dragons work directly under Retan, correct? If so, the first place we can assume they'll be taken is straight to the source, which means, North Point," he said, pointing towards the direction the dragons were flying. He wasn't sure if that was towards North Point or not.
"If they're not going towads North Point, another logical area is somewhere that would be very difficult to access, either it was heavily guarded or they had another kind of defense. It's safe to assume, though, that any attempt at retrieving King Henri won't be easy," he said, voicing his thoughts.
-
//Heheh, Zeros' called me Duilin.\\
Around the mountain (which is just the main part of the fortress) are several buildings with Lizardmen, training, resting, eating or amusing themselves as they wait for assignments. There is an open doorway that serves as the entrance to the mountain. However inside the mountain is a specially designed security system (a series of puzzles, heh).
Getting into the mountain may be a little tricky as the entrance is guarded by two large lizardmen, but if you could get passed the turrets then getting past them might not be to hard.
Inside the mazes of the mountain, it is filled with Anti-Mana gas (so no using invisibility, teleportation spells or any sort of magic to get past). There are three rooms you must get through security system has
//Guess we'll start with my little mini-game now.\\
After you enter the mountain there is a hallway, leading to door, which must be opened with a password, next to the door is a jumble of letters that must rearranged, to open the door.
<span style='font-family:Geneva'>ABPWLINTHOREUBE</span>
Hints:
-5 words
-It has something to do about a place that serves drinks
-Remember one letter does not belong and may be left out
//Let's just let Zeros' try this for himself, if he can't do it then you guys can help out, but I'd like him to give it a shot first.\\
----
Duilin had arrived in the cannon room. Lots of gun power so this should make a big kaboom. The explosives were a series of various types of bombs all jumbled together, and a long wick to detonate it.
He held the wick next to his right pointer finger, which he lit a small plume of flame on with his fire magic. The wick was lit, and began to sparkle.
"Now to get the hell out of here." He said as the put the bomb on crate of gunpowder.
He then dashed out of the room. He looked around, to make sure nobody was around, he didn't hear anyone, so he ran down a hallway and up a set of stairs that led back to the main room, the guard was back. He looked annoyed. Duilin sent another message towards him.
"I'm over here you dummy!"
"Okay WERE!?" He shouted going back down the hallway, sounding angry.
Duilin then ran up the stairway.
The guard turned around. "Who was that!?"
Shit. He saw me, guess that wasn't too smart.
He ran back into the room, he started and then jumped out the window and grabbed onto the open window on the other side, which he came from and climbed back into the airbase and shut the window.
The guard looked out the open window, and then at the guard lying down on the floor, who was rubbing his forehead as he woke up.
"What happened?"
"A mutant I think...hit me on the head, he jumped ou-"
Suddenly a loud booming sound came, and a large part of the barracks exploded in a burst of flame, and the building began to burn...
-
"Would make sense."
Draven said as he turned forward.
"Uh guys..." Ven ventured, "Which way is north even? I can't make out the sun at all..."
Indeed, the dead crimson skies showed no sign of the sun though their thick clouds, only a dull glow, from no particular direction.
Suddenly, the dragon up ahead dropped from the sky, disappearing behind a ledge.
"Blast it, it found what it's looking for all right..."
Draven sped ahead of the other two and landed at the crest of the ridge, peering over the jagged rocks. Before him was a steep valley, walled in on all sides by pointed rocks, almost like a crater. Resting in the center of the valley was a massive black airship with jagged jutting wings and fearsome cannons. The Crimson Emperor recognized it as similar to the warships designed in Redvik, though this one seemed slightly larger and altogether more intimidating.
Sure enough the dragon was flying down towards it, a group of scaly lizard men pointing up at the creature and advancing towards it. Draven smirked...
Ven landed at Draven's left.
"What are-- oh, geez..."
"Close, Allen, a moblie base... Much better for us..." Draven commented, his smirk glinting on evil.
Ven took note of this.
"You think we can get him out of there?"
"No need. I'm going to steal it."
"St-steal it?!"
Ven's eyes widened at the massive black structure. He could at the very least make out a hundred of those scaly lizard things moving about down there... No telling how many more were inside.
"How, pray tell, do you intend to pull that off?"
"We sneak on board and kill everyone after it takes off..."
Ven pressed a gauntlet over his forehead. With beads of sweat dripping from he brow, he watched as the lizards tied and bound King Henri, leading him to a ramp that ascended into the bowels of the ship. His gauze then strayed to a small figure standing off to the side. He thought the black robed figure was wearing a gray helmet at first, but then saw its tail...
"Oh, gods..."
Ven clutched Draven's shoulder with his right gauntlet, pointing the figure out in the crowd of lizards.
"It's one of those gray demons..."
"Huh?"
Draven found the figure. It was definitely calling the shots, pointing at the lizards around him and directing where they went, thought he was much shorter and far less imposing than the fearsome beasts.
"Velken. Only one, though. What's the big deal?"
Draven knew little about the silver coated fox like race, of course.
Ven shook his head, visibly shaken.
"You don't understand... I lost an entire legion of men to those things... And there were only ten of them... They work in small groups, with deadly precision. There's never only one..."
"Feh, I'll handle the fur balls, then..."
-
Zeros' looked around, scanning the vacinity of the area. It wouldn't be too difficult for him to get in. He kept himself quiet, sneaking around and ducking out of sight, even if he was invisibily, when a lizard patrol came. He might be invisible to the ki and normal senses, but he still had his smell and, if he guessed right, the lizardmen probably had an remarkable sense of smell.
He continued this routine until he reached the two guarding lizardmen. He hummed in his mind. He could just slip past them, probably unnoticed and get inside. He reached inside of his jacket and took out a very small, but very sharp dagger. He made a shallow cut on his thumb and sucked on it. Then, he went to either side of the lizardmen and looked around.
He spotted what he wanted. The released his thumb from his mouth and splashed his blood on the sharp rocks he had found. He did the same to the other side. He silently thanked his luck that the mountainous formations weren't very smooth.
Immediately, the lizardmen smelled blood. The both spoke to each other quickly and went to investigate the smell. As soon as they left their posts, he quietly slipped inside, sucking on his thumb to keep the smell in. The two lizardmen returned to their posts, brushing off the scent of blood as a small animal being cut or some such.
He stepped inside of the mountain, his heightened senses allowing him to 'see' the dank mountain. He felt his invisibility drop and nodding. Some sort of anti-magic substance.
"Smart..." he murmured to himself. He came to the first puzzle and blinked.
He blinked again.
He let out a silent groan.
He wasn't one for word puzzles.
---
Allen nodded his ascent and followed the two much stronger men. He didn't go quite as fast as them when they sped up, but he managed to keep them in sight. He dipped down and reached them during the tail end of their conversation.
He floated behind Draven and adjusted his glasses, calcuatingly looking down at the ship. Interesting design...
"What do you want me to do, sire?" he asked, silently floating beside the two, his wrinkled face looking at the ship in interest.
-
//Give up already? Fine I'll put another hint in my post.\\
As Marshall and Firstman noticed that the barracks had blown up they went back to check it out. They passed through a crowd of peasants.
"What happened? Did the castle blow up?" A peasant asked.
"No Leon, I think it was the barracks." Replied another.
"And to make matters worse the pub has no beer left." Added another.
//Heheh...Think you can do it now?\\
----
Rink was started to gain back his energy. He saw Gorus and the other two lizards playing cards, so he thought he should take the opportunity to teleport out of the cage. Yet for some reason he couldn't, he just made the cage rattle.
Gorus turned around. "Hahah!" He laughed. He looked back at the others. "Its a good thing I bought a bunch of anti-mana gas."
"Yeah, but ssir, what if you want to uses magic? Like transsform?"
"Oh, transformation stuff works just fine actually. At least the way the geparti's practice it." Gorus replied tossing a card into a pile of others.
"Zir, you can't burn twozz..."
"You can't, I can!" Gorus snapped.
"What do you want with me!?" Rink yelled, getting their attention.
"Shut up you." Gorus snapped without even turning to look at the imp.
"Who knows how long I'm going to be here, and if you're going to kill me the least you could do is tell me what you want."
"Yeah, well the least you could do is shut the hell up!"
Rink smirked. "I don't even think you know what you want from me."
Gorus turned around and growled. "I don't think you even know when to SHUT UP!" He then turned back and continued playing cards.
"Zir, it wasn't your turn."
"Yeah. It. Was." Gorus snarled.
Rink laughed and then leaned back in his cage. What an idiot.
----
Several Mutant Mages were blasting water spells onto the fire trying to put it out, the fire was already spreading onto other buildings and most of the entire county was in alert.
Duilin, kept quiet and he slowly stepped from the airbase. A few winged mutants had left to go search, so he didn't find much harm.
He spotted Marshall and Firstman, not to far from the alleyway he started from. Firstman motioned him to come over and the three of them stepped into the alleyway.
"Okay, odds are is that somebody likely saw us." Firstman said. "So we've got to get out of here. Any plans?"
"Well how'd you guys get in?" Duilin asked.
"We sneaked in on a supply carriage in a convoy." Marshall replied. "How'd you get it?"
"Hell if I know. I got sucked into a huge vortex and eighteen months later I'm here." Duilin replied. "Well, I do have an idea, actually."
"There they are!!" Shouted a voice. "I saw that haired mutant jump in and out of the barracks!" It was a peasant, with two guards. "And those two were loitering!"
"Oh...bloody hell..." Duilin groaned.
-
All Alex could do was stand there was the massive rock monster stomped closer and closer, leaving crater-like footfalls. His weapons were useless, and the golem's stride was far longer than Alex could cover in time to escape. He needed a plan.
"Maybe if I hide somewhere..."
That hardly seemed a viable option. The golem clearly had the power to level any building he saw fit. Hiding above ground would be just as affective as Alex shooting at it. Seeing no other viable options, Alex decided to track down the munitions depot.
Alex had two back-up plans. The city was a maze of tall buildings and narrow streets. Alex, only seven feet tall, could weave through them far easier than a hundred-foot tall behemoth, who would be forced to knock buildings down. Plan one was to stay in a tight area full of buildings until he found an entrance to the underground, which was plan two. However, his key priority was locating a gunpowder cannon.
Alex clomped through the alleys of the Commerce District, emitting heavy metal on concrete stomps as he ran. The golem stalked him inevitably, but then soon became encumbered on the grid of buildings between him and the armored rebel. Seeing no other way to get to Alex, the rock monster roared and brought his huge stone fists down on an apartment complex, causing debris to fly everywhere. The thunderous crash echoed throughout the district and soon the sun was eclipsed in dust and rock. As Alex kept dashing, a torrent of pebbles and gravel soon bombarded him, filling the air with the ringing of the rocks bouncing off Alex's armored body. Convinced he was far ahead, he stopped to turn around and look. The golem was preoccupied with knocking down buildings. Not exactly a civil tactic, but at this point in time, civility was as dead as the decaying shield spire. Interestingly enough, the Kandarinians had not yet disposed of it. Perhaps they had a plan to salvage it?
Despite the golem's slowing down, Alex kept going to gain all the more distance on the beast. He had gotten intel that perhaps on the other side of the Industrial District there was a weapons cache to be plundered. If Alex could get there, he could commandeer a cannon and thwart the golem...that is, if its magical power had not yet subsided by then.
The Industrial District was an often-avoided part of town, and for good reason. Nearly the entire district was submerged in about three feet of stagnant soup that could even erode Alex's tough outer shell. Thankfully, some gracious citizens had taken the time to construct a network of platforms and walkways that would keep any passersby out of the deadly mix. However, the toxic lake was not the only danger. Malfunctioning machines damaged in the Kandarinian attack still operated, sometimes knocking down walkways and platforms, and even going as far as detonating and demolishing a wall where an unfortunate Alex might be standing. It all seemed to be one big puzzle that had yet to be solved.
"Well," Alex sighed. "I knew this wouldn't be easy."
The golem had apparently lost interest in the rebellious metal man and decided to destroy another part of the city, thankfully. Alex climbed over the fence to the Industrial District, and landed at the shore of the stagnant lake.
It seemed solving this puzzle had two prizes. One was the weapons cache, and the second... Alex would still be alive at the end of it.
-
Draven turned to Allen.
"We're probably going to have to split up once we get inside. You stick with knight boy over here and see if you can get this thing under control. I doubt they changed the inner designs much..."
He then turned back to Ven, grabbing him by the collar of his armor and jerking his face up to his.
"You hear that knight boy? If anything happens to my alchemist, you die. Clear?"
"But I--"
Draven began shaking the man.
"Clear?"
"Erm, uh, y-yes sir!"
He dropped the knight, who began to clench his teeth.
The lizards were beginning to file into the ship, and a humming noise was audible.
"Time to go."
Draven hopped over the boulder, and began to slink down the slope, weaving in and out of the rocks as he approached the black airship. Ven sighed before following behind.
-
Zeros' rubbed his temples with his fingers and peered at the word puzzle again, starting to think more on the strange combination of words.
"Hmm..." he tilts his head and starts to rearrange the words inside of his mind. "Let's see her... No... That's not right..." he sighs and grumbles, rubbing his eyes. "When did lizards get this smart?" he asked to no one in particular, raking his hand through his hair.
Then, he frowned and said five words, "No beer with a pub?"
//Not sure if that's it, but it's five words, has something to do with a place that serves drinks and has one letter left out.\\
---
Allen nodded and looked over towards Ven.
"Yes sir," he said, making a small salute towards Draven before following behind the two stronger men, as they drifted closer towards the ship.
-
//Really, really close. Here is another hint, if you don't get it from this hint then...I don't think I can continue.\\
Gorus dealt a few more cards.
"Ack!" One of the lizards groaned. "Look at thiz, thiz hand iz awfull." he showed the other lizard his hand.
The other lizard looked at his hand. "That hand is ass ussefull as a pub with no beer."
"That's an odd metaphor." Gorus said, narrowing his eyes, looking at the lizard oddly.
"Yeah I know, it jusst came to my mind, for ssome reason."
//I practically just gave that to you.\\
----
"You're coming with us. Put your hands on your head." Said one of the guards drawing his sword, as he walked towards the trio.
Duilin pointed his hand at the guard walking towards them, lightning energy sparked from his finger tips and a bolt of lightning blasted from his hand, striking the guard in his torso, the metal armour he was wearing didn't help him at all. The life was nearly jolted right out off him and he fell to the ground unable to move.
As the second guard witnessed this he lifted the whistle he had chained around his neck and and blew on it, making a high pitched a loud sound. A second later a loud bell rang from a nearby tower. A group of four winged mutants flew to where they heard the whistle, and began circling around the area. Soldiers from all around a half-mile radius who heard the sound grabbed their weapons and began running towards the commotion.
A bullet covered in a large amount of ice, was shot from Marshall's MagiPistol, it jabbed right into the second guard's chest, breaking through the armour. The guard then fell dead on the ground.
The peasant who reported them backed away and ran, Duilin went to run after him yet Marshall grabbed his wing. "Don't! He's only an innocent.!"
Duilin shook his wing from Marshall's hand, spun around and swung his fist right into Marshall's face. Marshall grabbed his nose and stepped back a few feet.
"Don't touch my wing!" Duilin growled.
Marshall glared at Duilin. "You almost broke my nose!" He cried.
"Suck it up." Duilin snapped back.
"HEY!" Firstman shouted, grabbing the sword from the barely conscious guard laying on the floor. "Quit screwing around, let's get the hell out of here!"
"Alright. You two run. I'm gonna take out those mutants, they're giving us away."
Duilin jumped into the air and flapped his wings, and flew up until he matched the height of the flying mutants.
"Hey freaks! Come and catch me!" Duilin taunted, waving his middle finger at the mutants. He exaimed the group, they were definatly mutants, and they were holding spears.
The spear-wielding mutants flew towards Duilin, he shot a fireball at one of the mutants, and knocked it away, its spear caught fire so he threw it at Duilin. The half demon caught it and threw it back, and impaled the mutant and it fell to the ground. The three remaining mutants circled him. They growled and made some strange noises.
"You no mutant. You die." One mutant dove towards him, with his front facing the ground, and his spear pointed forward.
Duilin flew upwards avoiding the strike and dove down and smashed his elbow into the back of the mutant, causing it to rotate head first downward and drop his weapon. Another mutant came towards Duilin and jabbed his spear towards him. Duilin grabbed the spear right under the blade, and broke it off. The third one came up towards him from the other side, he jabbed the blade right into the mutant's heart killing it almost instantly. The first mutant then tired to grab Duilin yet he grabbed the winged creature's wrists, and squeezed them. The mutant however showed no sign of showing pain and just glared at Duilin oddly, and then kneed the half demon in the belly. Duilin let go, and flew back, and few feet. The mutant with the broken spear then struck Duilin in the chest, with the wooden pole and then in the face.
Duilin lost his flight control and began to fall, yet he gained backed his balance however and the flew towards the mutants, coving himself in lightning energy, he then stopped and then blasted the energy into the sky, then a series of lightning bolts began to rain down, striking the remaining mutants, and taking them to the ground below.
Meanwhile down at the floor of the city, Marshall and Firstman had been running from the army of guards, chasing them. A few of them were armed with shotguns and fired at them the occasional times, and Marshall shot back with his magipistols blasting fireballs and ice chunks.
Suddenly Marshall and Firstman found themselves surrounded, as they were in a small street with two large groups of guards on both sides.
"Damn. Maybe we should just surrender." Firstman suggested.
Just then the shot gunners then aimed their weapons.
"I don't think they want us too." Marshall said. "Wait I've got an idea."
"On three!" Said a voice from one of the crowds of guards.
Marshall then holstered one of his MagiPistols and then held on to his amulet.
"One..."
The sapphire then began to glow. "Grab onto me."
"Two..."
Firstman rolled his eyes. "Not this again, you know how much this bugs me."
"Three!"
Just before the guards fired their weapons, a large puff of blue smoke, came and then sucked into a mass under Marshall and Firstman, a brown skinned wyvern then smashed from under the ground and flew the two people away.
"Damnit." Snapped the guard captain. "They're too high now..." He crossed his arms as he watched them get away. "Guess we'll leave it to the Aerial Mutants."
-
?Hey mister, what?s with the clothes, you some sort of evil over lord? My name?s Timmy, my dad is Jerry and my mom is Marie. I had a dog named Marie; she died when I threw her out the window. I actually didn?t; really, I just say I did to seem cool. Do you lie to be cool, mister? I do all the time. Like this one time, when I was with my friends and we found a frog and we were like ?no way? and then I said I?ll eat it. And they were like...?
A loud bang interrupted the child?s prattling and then it started to rain Timmy. Walking forward the man started to wipe flecks of skin off his cloak unaffected by the past five seconds. He thought of this as a necessary loss. A man was standing a few meters a way looking where Timmy was and his wife was crying against his shoulder. The cloaked figure stopped and looked at the pair.
?Was he yours??
Jerry slowly nodded.
?You better hope that kind of behaviour wasn?t picked up from anyone else in the town.?
With that the figure kept walking through the town. Picking a door at random he walked in.
?AHH, what are you doing?! Get the hell out of my house.?
?My sincerest apologies ma?am.?
The figure bowed slightly and left the house. Once in the street he turned around facing the house. He raised his staff up to the house. The ruby started to glow. He lowered the gem to the ground. A red ring formed around the house. He then lifted the staff up the skies. A deep rep blast came out the ground and enveloped the house cutting off all visual view. Slowly he lowered the staff towards the ground and the pillar lowered and disappeared. His staff dimmed in colour and then the light went out. The house was gone, there was absolutely nothing left. It was like the house was never there. Shouting in a loud booming voice the figure addressed the town.
?You will call me Druid or Sir. Druid is not my real name and if you?re lucky you will never know what is. I will inhabit your town for a few days while I get re-oriented. You will show me the utmost hospitality or you will end up like that woman.? He said thrusting his staff in the direction of where the house used to stand. ?I will ask you questions and you will answer to the absolute best of your abilities. I will you know if you are lying and you will pay dearly. Don?t annoy me and don?t speak unless spoken to. Do not break that rule or you will end up like Timmy. If I need anything else I will let you know.?
With that he concluded his address. He then picked another house at random and entered. A few minutes later a family walked out without a fuss.
_______________________________________________________
Druid got out of bed and stood up. Slowly the sun was creeping into the room. As soon as it got to Druid?s feet it stopped, leaving space a reasonable space between it and his feet. It didn?t want to risk illuminating Druid?s war scarred body. The foot stepped forward, the sun moved back. The foot stepped forward, the sun moved back. Anyone watching this would have been shocked and amazed, but after seeing it several hundred times, it gets annoying.
?For god?s sake Sun. We?ve had this conversation before. This is my room. Outside is your world and you have the power there. We have had this conversation on my world and now this one. Now, either grow the balls and come forward in my domain or piss off till you do.?
Slowly the sun shrunk away thinking it may be best to try again tomorrow.
?Damn pansy.?
Druid muttered to himself and was about to get dressed. He had been in this town a day or two now and had found out some interesting things. For one he was on a planet called Gaian or something to that avail, he wasn?t sure. People here summoned creatures and used fire and over elemental powers. His powers were classified as shadow magic here. And? his train of thought was interrupted. Something wasn?t right. He stopped moving and looked at his surroundings. His cloak had been moved, the door was ajar and a lamp was lit in the hallway. His cloak was on a blue wicker chair instead of on the desk where he had put it on top of his staff. Then it hit him, his staff. Rushing over he grabbed his cloak and headed for the door. Walking outside he saw that the town had gathered. All were standing behind a muscular man that was holding his staff.
?You slow minded imbeciles. You think that staff is the source of my powers? That staff is a conductor and only serves the purpose as a way to channelling my powers. I don?t even need it for that,?
With that he shot a small beam from his index finger right at the man holding his staff. The man gasped and fell backwards with a tiny hole right between his eyes.
?as you can see. Thank you for your hospitality. If you hadn?t pulled this stunt I would have walked away and never returned. Since you did however, I will annihilate anything that so much as moves in this town will make sure nothing will ever be able to live here again.?
While he was talking his hands started to glow the same colour as the gem on his staff. Then he lifted his hands up in the air which seemed to spark and smoke. His hands fractured into millions of pieces, absorbing into the dust. As soon as this happened he plunged his hands downwards into the ground. A massive wave erupted around him moving outwards, like in the forest but more intense. When the wave would come across anything living it would cause that thing, human being or animal, to be destroyed at a molecular level. They would agonisingly be ripped apart atom by atom. This entire process was over in a blink of an eye.
The town was completely empty and most building knocked over in ruins and there was nothing but quietness. Slowly Druid stood up, his hands had reformed. He stood there in the vast emptiness slowly breathing in and out. He walked over and picked up his staff, and then started walking eastwards for whatever may lie in his way.
-
Zeros' slapped his forehead and groaned. Now it was obvious, since he said it outloud.
"A pub with no beer," he said, feeling dumb for not getting it last time.
-
Duilin met up with Marshall and Firstman who were riding on the back of a wyvern. They hovered in the air, so they could talk.
"Duilin." Marshall called. "How are we going to get out? They have magic cannons on the walls surrounding the county. We won't be able to fly out of here, without getting shot down."
Duilin rubbed his chin. "Well I might be able to get by the cannons." He said. "Well, then again no. Zeros' was always better at that then I was. I'm more of the uh..."
"What?" Firstman asked.
"Anyways, let's just get to lower ground." Duilin said as he swooped downwards. "We're too easy to spot way up here."
Marshall flew the wyvern down, following Duilin through the city.
----
Vandrin was sitting in his chamber room, reading a large book, titled "How to Get Even More Stinking Rich Then You Already Are." written by somebody named Dill Rates. As he was in the middle of reading a sentence a messenger dressed in a green and burgundy suit came in.
"Count Vandrin." Said the messenger in greeting. "I have troubling news. Apparently three rebels broke in the county, they have destroyed one of our main barracks and they are still at large."
"Do you have a physical description of them?" Vandrin asked, putting his book down.
"Yes, two of them have been identified as white males, likely between the ages of twenty and twenty five. One was wearing a thick blue suit with a black coat, and the other wearing similar clothing but with coloured brown."
"And the third one?"
"He's described as a 'rouge mutant' he has wings and is about the height as most of the winged mutants. Yet he has a full head of hair and is wearing a grey martial arts suit."
"Interesting." Vandrin said getting off of his chair. "Very interesting indeed." The count picked up his katana sheaths and strapped them on his belt. "I'll take care of this one."
"They could be very dangerous sir."
"So could I."
-
Breathing in and out, Druid sat up in a tree. He had been walking for a few hours and came across nothing but the occasional bandit. He dealt with them according to how he believed the law would. This is according to the law back on his home world of course, and since he was ruler, well he did what he believed to be right. So he sat in a thick branch meditating over the past few days. He thought about the revolt and the trick that bastard Silas pulled. Jumping down from the tree he started to walk. Where he didn?t know, but he was getting worked up and needed to calm down. He was walking for about five ten minutes when he saw a man and woman wearing white arguing with a man and woman wearing blue. As Druid got closer he started to hear their conversation.
?You are on the path to moral corruption. Join the Karmax we offer inner peace and absolute equality.?
?That?s no true my brotherin. You will parish in the flames of eternal pain sooner than I will unless you repent and come to the right side, the Jarmaloos.?
?Look an impartial, we shall see who is right.?
The two pairs rushed up to Druid, unaware he was not looking for inner peace and spiritual enlightenment and that he had also just massacred a town of about 100 plus people. As Druid was ready to vaporize the hell out of the two groups, he heard a booming voice.
?My, children you are all sinners in the eyes of god. I am his messenger here to tell you change. Repent or pay the ultimate price. He is not without judgement and will condemn your immortal souls.?
At first Druid couldn?t place the voice of this new preacher to any body. However soon he saw a man dressed in a black suit, a white tie and white sunglasses.
?Please, children come to me, embrace your life for what it is. Live in his favour for all of eternity or die in your false faith. I preach the message of our holy lord he is not with out the act of vengeance.?
?Please preacher, we were here first.?
The man in black looked over at the man dressed in blue. The man in blue who made that last remark gasped and started having convulsions. He grabbed at his chest. Blood started to drip from the corners of his mouth and then he collapsed.
?Carrey, oh please no.?
The woman in blue knelt down beside her partner and started to cry. The woman in white knelt beside the woman in blue trying to comfort her. The man in white turned to the man in black.
?I am not a man of violence, but what was that sir? Did you see no way to solve this conflict with out the act of aggression.?
The man in white lifted up his hands to make the action of posing a question. The preacher grabbed is wrist and lifted it up in the air. The man in white was lifted off the ground, yet the preacher wasn?t even stretched all the way. Druid hadn?t noticed how tall he was until he saw this.
?My friend you have sinned and you will now be absolved.?
With that the preacher moved his arm back and opened his hand up. Then he rushed it forward, yet he didn?t touch the body. The man in white?s heart was forced out of his back and he went limp. The discarded heart lay on the ground a foot or so in front of Druid. Druid saw this and realized the preacher was using telekinesis.
?You have been rejected by god. You shall burn forever in the pits of hell.?
The preacher dropped the man?s body and made a sweeping motion at the women. They were knocked several meters backwards and lay limp.
?You have felt the touch of god. Although you have been rejected, consider yourself blessed you have felt it at all. And what of you sir? I have dealt with the non believers and have not heard your story.?
?Your one twisted preacher man, you know that? Those religious freaks were mine! I saw them first I claimed them, I was even working out how I was gonna kill them. And then you came along and stole my kill in name of your god? Please, I kill for respect and you kill because you believe you are god?s messenger? I have news for you, I am god and your not my messenger. Whoever your working for tell them to get off their ass and talk to me directly.?
The preacher stunned by this stood there. Then, recovering his wits almost immediately, the preacher rushed Druid, who was ready. He had been waiting for this and had gotten himself in the right stance. As the preacher was rushing forward, Druid stuck out his staff and the preacher ran into it impaling himself. Once the preacher was secure on the staff Druid lifted up his staff and flung the preacher over his shoulder. When the preacher was off the staff flying through the air Druid flipped the staff around so the ruby was pointing at the preacher and fired a concentrated blast of shadow magic. The preacher was blown even further back. When the preacher hit the ground he kept rolling backwards. Druid turned and started to walk away when he was blown forward by a force against his back. Taking the roll he jumped to his feet and turned to face his attacker. To his surprise it was the preacher.
?God??
The preacher sputtered and spit out some blood.
?? is unforgiving.?
With that the preacher once again charged at Druid. Once he was close enough, Druid swung his staff and it collided with the preachers jaw, knocking him back.
?Shut the hell up!?
Druid ran and jumped forward towards the preacher. His knees were out and his legs were bent back. The knees collided with the preacher?s chest knocking him backwards again. Druid then walked forward to the body of the preacher, who now quietly rambling to himself god?s message. The bottom of Druids cloak was sopping against his legs, he looked down and saw that this was because it had the preacher?s blood on it. He ripped off the bottom part of his cloak and through it at the preacher.
?Where?s your god now prick??
With that he kicked the man?s head and heard a loud crack. Druid turned and walked away.
?I hate religion.?
Latter that evening a figure stood up in the field. He straightened his tie, picked up his sunglasses and headed after the cloaked figure.
//Please note, I don?t hate religion. This post is not making fun of any religion or trying to make a point. I just have seen a lot of evil priests in shows and wanted to put one in myself. If any one is offended I am sorry. \\
-
The door opens up, as Zeros? enters in the correct password. The next room is a large hallway, about twenty feet long, five feet wide and eight feet high.
On close inspection, and likely a man with as great senses as Zeros? wouldn?t have much trouble spotting this, there were raised plates all over the place, only three inches apart from each other. There were also many openings on the wall, and it appeared there were several trip wires close to the floor in the middle of the room, it would be tricky to get over them and not land on a raised plate.
And what anybody could plainly see, are several swinging blades swinging across the room. Obviously whoever made this didn?t waste any time (or had to much of it.)
If the plates were stepped on they would likely trigger a highly lethal projectile covered in poison. It was the same poison that Haraldur used to kill Abodahon, so likely even Zeros? wouldn?t be able to endure.
And with the anti-magic gas in the place, the challenger of this security system wouldn?t be able to rely on any magic to help him. (Or ki or chi or whatever the heck else.)
If he couldn?t do that then he could try out another word puzzle to get disable the security system?
INFIGOUCAHENMFYYEONYOURHATOUNDSURISOUTHAVEETHTOMHUCTI
No hints, and there is likely several combinations that could do (I think) but you have to guess the exact one I am thinking of.
//So yeah this one isn?t much of puzzle. (unless you want to try the word scramble, but I doubt you do.) This one is more of a creativity test, just try and have it make sense and easy for me to read. Have fun.\\
-
?Silas, once I get my hands on you I am going to make sure you suffer,?
Druid had been muttering to himself for a while. He had gotten all worked up after his fight with the preacher.
?Damn, I hate this desolate rock, these humans who are weak and powerless.?
With that he fired a beam of shadow magic at a passing traveller, who in turn screamed in agony and disappeared into dust.
?Sigh, I need to be proactive. Let?s see how much my powers can be used here.?
Druid stopped and looked around at his surroundings. He was in a big grassy field, a patch of trees to the north. Next he saw a small pond with some people sitting beside it to the east. He could just make out a crowd of people in the west where he had just come from. Finally to the south he saw a small village to the south.
?Ok, let me try a few things, and these people will help me?
Druid knelt down and looked towards the west. He then fired three single shots of shadow energy towards the crowd. Four people were hit by these bolts and fell down. He then walked slowly towards the remaining three people.
?What seems to be the problem my fellow travellers??
?There?s been an attack! We were walking and then three of the people in front of the group fell forward and had black smocking out of their heads. One of these bullets, or whatever they were, went right through one guy and killed David as well.?
?Wow, I have good aim. I mean three head shots and a double kill. Thank you very much for the information gentlemen.?
With that Druid lowered his staff and raised it up towards the heaven and a deep red pillar enveloped them like it did to the house. He then whipped his staff half way down and then to the side. The pillar lowered but it was still prominent enough to restrain them. Two of the men had lacerations all over their faces and arms; however the third looked almost un-phased. He looked confident and arrogant where as the other two were scarred. Druid noticed this but he didn?t care.
?Now watch this, my friends.?
Druid stood with his right hand side facing the pond and pointed his arm, which was holding the staff, towards it. He opened up his left hand and it started to pulsate and glow. Then once there was a massive aura around his and he closed it into a fist and the aura seemed to be released and flew towards his right hand and then out his staff. The gem glowed red as he aura hit it but nothing seemed to come out. Druid smacked the crystal on the ground and a massive blast blew a hole in the ground. The three men looked from one to another with a questioning look on their faces.
?Interesting, this is quite interesting. Don?t you guys think so??
Druid turned and looked at the men. The aura seemed to return from his right hand to the left one. He cupped his hands together and then opened it back up. One of the pillars of shadow magic contrasted and expanding around one of the sick men and then completely obliterated him once Druid opened his hand up.
?Now, let me try that again.?
With his hand still pulsating the aura, Druid refocused his attention to the pond. He then once again allowed the aura to go from his left hand to the right. Unlike the last time, the aura shot out of the end of the staff on the first shot and flew towards the people beside the pond. However just before killing the people the beam fizzed out.
?What the hell, ok so on this world my powers are limited. Let?s see if this works.?
Druid then closed his fist and reopened it causing the pond and all of its surrounding to explode. Druid then turned and killed the other man with cuts on his face. He walked forward eyeing the man with confidence.
?You didn?t have anything to do with that attack on the pond. Cause you know it never ever fails normally.? The man said nothing. ?Fine, that?s perfectly okay.? Druid looked over his shoulder towards the town. ?You see that town? Take a last look.?
With that druid launched himself in the air, streaking behind him a deep blood red cloud crackling with black electricity.
?Hmm, didn?t think I would be able to do that here? Druid though to himself.
The man watched the cloaked figure streak through the sky, knowing what was sure to follow. The figure reached the top of his arch and then started his downward dive towards the town. The impact force was immense and a loud crack cried out from the town just before a massive red cloud went along the ground of the town towards the outer limits. Then as if following a flight plan, the cloud arched up and down in a circle back towards the centre of the explosion. Once the cloud reached the centre it then shot upwards and expanded and slowed as it climbed until it dissipated. The dust was thick and so the restrained man couldn?t see anything and assumed the Druid died in an attempt to show off. Just as he was thinking this a silhouette could be seen emerging from the shadows. The man tensed up but soon saw it was a survivor. The survivor was limping and grabbing at his chest. The survivor saw the restrained man and started to move towards him. The survivor was just about at him when he exploded, dust flew at him. Behind he saw the Druid with his open palm.
?Why did you do all this? What possibly could you have gained from all of their deaths?? the man questioned.
?This was all an experiment. I am from another time or place or planet for all I know, and I just want to know the limits to my power in this?? he paused thinking for the correct words ??desolate wasteland you call home. Now that I have seen my powers I have no use for you.?
Druid was about to strike the man down when something caught his attention back at the village ruins.
?I?ll deal with you latter.? And then Druid launched himself towards the town.
-
Just at the massive airship was lifting off, the trio made it to the gargantuan black wall that was the hull. With a single bound, Draven flew up the side of the ship, his cloak unfurling as he landed on the deck, pressing his body against a cabin wall to avoid detection by a group of heavily armored lizard men on the other side of the deck.
Shaking his head, Ven leapt and latched onto a ladder on the side of the now flying ship as it roared upwards, an amber glow emanating from nooks in its steely black sides. Making sure the alchemist was with him, he scurried up the latter, not wanting to look down. Ven was no expert in flight, and a slip would likely be his doom.
When he finally arrived on the open air deck, Draven was nowhere to be found.
"Argh! Great, just great!"
He sat down on the black metal floor, waiting for Allen to join him.
"Look, I don't know a thing about airships, let alone how to take one over... So, uh, lead the way. Just as long as we can get King Henri out of this mess..."
(Feel free to have Allen 'lead' Ven around. Just make stuff up. Heh...)
----
Draven waited in the shadows as the two lizard guards walked his way. Walking too close to the edge, they were... He was going to wait for Allen and the knight to catch up, but this was too good a kill to pass up. As the lizards glanced in his direction, Draven sped forward, striking the one closer to the railing with a clothesline left, sending the reptile spiraling over the edge of the ship, squealing as it fell.
"H-Hey!!"
The other was quick to draw his weapon, but Draven turned upon the larger reptilian soldier, grabbing his thick scaly neck with his right hand. The beast lashed out with its tongue as flame consumed his neck, unable to scream. In a moment it keeled over, dead, as Draven tossed it's useless smelly head aside.
"Better buckle up boys and girls, here comes payback..."
-
//Hey is it just me or is almost every single post pretty long?\\
"Okay, I think we lost the guards." Firstman said, looking around.
"Yeah, it's pretty quiet." Marshall replied.
"Yeah...a little too quiet." Duilin mumbled. (over used phrases ftw!)
Duilin slowed down and landed on the road.
Marshall's wyvern passed Duilin and then made a U-Turn and landed in front of Duilin. "Why are we stopping?" He asked.
"I sense a strong aura, along with a couple of others." Duilin answered.
"Recognize any of them?"
"Nope. But one of them is pretty strong."
"Stronger then you?" Firstman asked sounding concerned.
"Maybe. I don't know." Duilin shrugged "I've never been too good at this aura detection thing. Auras like Retan's and Haraldur's, I can tell are way stronger then me, but ones a bit closer are a bit tricky. At least I know it's not too much stronger then me."
"Well, let's just get out of here." Firstman said looking around rapidly. "We need to get back to the base camp. We aren't worth anything to the resistance dead." He looked behind him. "There, uh, Duilin, shoot one of your thunder bolts at that wall, I don't see any magic cannons near by."
Duilin shrugged. "Okay, but I think we should keep moving, they're bound to find us sooner or later. These peasants seem to be pretty sucked up to the oppressor."
Duilin pointed his fingers at the wall, and lightning energy sparked around his hand and began to swirl around, he then focused his demonic energy into lightning and his eyes got noticeably brighter.
"I don't think you should do that." Said a voice from behind them.
"Damnit they found us." Firstman shouted. "Marshall, let's split!" He patted the wyvern on the side, but it didn't obey him.
Duilin turned around, pointing his energy filled hand at the enemy behind them. "Well, who might you be?" He saw the group, it was an older man, and looked a lot like the guy in the statue he saw earlier. To his left, there was a pair of large burly looking mutants, they were unarmed yet from what it looked like they didn't need to have any weapon to cause a lot of damage. To his right there were smaller looking mutants, yet they had a greenish glow around them and green flame in their hands, obviously magic users.
"I'll ask the questions! Now identify yourself and surrender or you will be eliminated!" Snapped the human in the middle.
"Oh me? I am Haraldur, The Aspyes Revolutionary. I'm here to spread my barbaric word, pillage your houses and rape your women." Duilin smirked.
Marshall and Firstman glared at Duilin as he said that. They were not amused with Duilin saying things like that about him.
Vandrin laughed and then scowled. "I know for a fact that you aren't. You look nothing like him. I can also see that you are not one of my mutants. You look more like a human and?demon crossbreed." He then unsheathed his swords. "I will ask you again, who are you?"
Duilin grinned at Vandrin. Marshall jumped off the wyvern and took out his other magipistol.
"It's none of your business. Now let us leave or else you will highly regret it." Marshall said.
Firstman jumped off the wyvern and held out his sword. "I don't think this is a good idea Marshall." He said quietly.
"Very well then." Vandrin sighed. "You leave me no choice." He then pointed at the trio with his swords and the four mutants ran towards them.
Duilin with his energy still contained in his hand jumped over the group of mutants running at him, he then pointed his hand forward, as he was flying in the air and closing in to the ground, towards Vandrin. A large orange bolt of lightning then shot from his fingertips towards the Count, hitting him directly in the chest. The count nearly fell down, yet surprisingly seemed to have not been to badly hurt by the attack Duilin then landed in front of Vandrin and the two glared at each other in the eyes.
The two brute mutants then came towards Firstman. One ran towards him attempting to plow him, yet he sidestepped out of the way, avoiding the mutant he the slashed the creature in the back with his sword, digging into the thick protective tissue around the mutant, and drawing some dimly coloured blood.
The mutant grabbed his back and stepped forward a few steps, wile arching backwards. The other mutant then came at Firstman and swung his fist at him. Firstman then slashed his sword at the oncoming fist, yet the weapon was knocked from his hand by the large fist, yet the mutant?s fingers were nearly cut off.
The mutant stepped backwards looking at it's damaged hand. Firstman then picked his sword up. The first mutant then came at him. He then stabbed his sword at the mutant?s chest, and dug in almost right through to the other end. Firstman grinned, expecting to see the mutant die, yet he found him self grabbed and then tossed several yards away. The mutant roared and the plucked the sword out of him and then tossed it away.
Meanwhile the two magic mutants were having a fireball shoot out with Marshall. The mutants were able to make short work of the wyvern by bombarding it with poison fireballs, causing the poor winged creature's skin and organs to melt leaving a burning pile of goo. Marshall was running side to side blasting fireballs and ice chunks at the mutants, wile dodging the odd poison-fire projectiles coming towards him. Marshall then stopped, he side stepped out of the way of an oncoming shot and then aimed an ice bullet shot at one of the mutants shooting in the neck. He aimed for the chest, but just as well.
The mutant mage then fell to the ground, with a chunk of bloody ice stuck in its neck. The other mutant looked at it's fallen comrade. "You die!" It snarled and then empowered it's aura and then dashed towards Marshall...
-
//Heh. Nice work, DM. "a pub with no beer" is my Quake 3 screen name Smile \\
It would've been a rather amusing situation if Zjott did not know that the golems were, in fact, under his command. While the Stone Juggernaut was smashing the city apart, the two Atronachs were finished with the remaining resistance in the area. Just then, Zjott noticed the unmistakable Kandarinian symbol etched on one of the stones of the Atronachs.
The golems retracted their shining weapons, and advanced further into the city. Zjott hopped down in the path of one of them.
-"Hey, you! Thing! You are Kandarinian, no? You are under my command, yes? I order you to stop!!"
The golem seemed to understand what Zjott was shouting. He looked down, and his face almost seemed to somehow twist into... a grimace? He instantly swooped Zjott from his legs and both of them vanished into the thin air, leaving only traces of crackling static electricity...
The remaining two golems were still rampaging through Asgarnia, although the arcane cohesion between the individual stones seemed to weaken just a little bit...
//last post before they deactivate. DS, you can take one (or both!) out your way, if you want. I won't use them for the one post until you decide what to do with them.\\
--- --- ---
General Arlin was busy vanquishing a very violent outbreak of freedom fighters in a conquered city. His whip was slicing through the raging insurgents, blood splattering on his face. His eyes had a battle-crazed look to them.
-"WHITE FLESH!!! MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHA! DIE DIE DIE!!!!"
The corpses were piling up rather quickly around Arlin. He had to fight atop of the pile, as to not give his opponents an advantage.
Suddenly, Arlin heard a whoosh behind him. He turned around to find a battleaxe heading right for his chest. Damn... the whip was not going fast enough to deal any damage, and the opponent was too close to use it anyway. Arlin prepared for the worst.
Contrary to all expectations, the axe did not come down on Arlin. Instead, the fighter fell down onto his knees, the look of pain stuck on his face. Arlin finally noticed a spear sticking through the fighter's chest.
-"Finally, reinforcements..."
He dove into the battle with new spirits, when one of the Kandarinian soldiers approached him.
-"Sir, the Marshal requests your immediate prescence at the palace."
-"Can't it wait?"
-"Sir, I don't think you understand. He requests your prescence there..."
It was too late when Arlin understood what the soldier meant. The three-clawed amulet embedded into his skin painfully zapped him with electricity, and Arlin was gone, just like that.
--- --- ---
Lord Victo, the overlord of the Borr region, was dining peacefully when a servant knocked at his chamber doors.
-"Come in."
-"My lord, the Marshal of Kandarin asks for your prescence at his capital palace."
Victo put his eating utensils down. What would Kronos possibly want with him? He sent his tribute, and it was recieved... He did not get any complaints, so there should have been no problem.
-"Did he by any chance state the reason for his request?"
-"No, my lord. He did, however, ask you to arrive as soon as possible."
Something urgent? What would a figure close to the status of emperor want with a minor lord?
-"Has the Marshal sent someone for me?"
-"Yes, my lord. There's a Kandarinian servant waiting for you outside, atop a fully charged Storm Atronach."
-"Tell them I will be out soon."
The servant bowed and left the dining chambers. Victo sighed, looking at his unfinished food, and headed for the door.
--- --- ---
The trio of the high commanders was together making further plans for their allotted land.
-"GAWD!!! WHY in the name of the MARSHAL do you HAVE to HOG all that AWESOME land??!!"
Hasterb shook his head impatiently.
-"Soghol, the land was agreed upon to be split into parts of our involvement..."
-"GAWD! Look at the DAMNED map, you IDIOT! That rat VORREN is stealing ALL my LAND! LOOK! 50% for Vorren, 30% for you, and 20% for ME!!!"
-"Ah... you added in that zero there, Soghol..."
-"WHAT?! 2%?!?!?!?!?!?!??!!??! !!!!!!!!GAWD!!!!!!!"
Vorren smiled his nastiest smile.
-"Yep. The 18% goes to the training of our Sovereignty's soldiers."
"!!!BUT...!!!"
A knock on the door interrupted the commanders' constant bickering. A senior officer entered.
-"Sirs, the Marshal sends for you. Please be down in his chambers immediately."
The commanders knew better than to keep their master waiting, so they left for the door right away. However, they continued their territorial disputes even on their way down to the Marshal's chambers.
-"2%?! What bloody VERMIN are you, VORREN?!"
-"Oh, just shut up."
-"This is NOT over! I WILL talk to the Marshal about this! MARK MY WORDS!!!"
-"Soghol, shut up."
-"GAW...!!!"
-"Soghol, shut UP."
...
--- --- ---
Zjott ended up in an unknown room, but alone. The Atronach was gone without a trace. Was Zjott the victim of a clever plot of the ever-scheming Asgarnian insurgents? No... nobody would dare replicating the holy icon of Kandarin, other than Kandarinians themselves...
As he looked around, however, he found his suspicions to be false. He was in a very rich-looking room with only two openings, both doors. Way too rich for Asgarnia. One of the doors was very large and gilded with white gold, the wooden parts painted into Kandarinian colours. The rest of the room looked just as luxurious as the door, with an expensive-looking chandelier hanging down from the ceiling. There were a lot of other signs of richness, such as matted dark red rubies stuck all around the room, but Zjott didn't have the time to analyze the rest.
The air around him started crackling, and another person popped out of nowhere. This one had fair blonde hair, tied in a ponytail. He was holding a bloodied whip, and wearing a blood-covered leather trenchcoat.
-"Eh... you were summoned here too, then? General Arlin here, at Marshal's service."
-"Yes... Marshal's service, yes, of course. I've been long absent from the truths of Kandarin... perhaps the Marshal wishes to punish me. I'm Zjott zu Heltzer, by the way."
-"Zjott zu Heltzer? The zu Heltzer? The one that has conquered eight cities with one legion, all while under pressure from the deceitful Asgarnia?"
Zjott felt the blood rushing to his cheeks.
-"Why, yes, that's me, heh..."
-"Wow... I... I don't know what to say... this... this is such an honour..."
In truth, Zjott didn't know what to say, either. His deeds were heard of all across the Sovereignty, while he was barely aware of its existence. It's like, he knew it was there... He knew it was real... but it was as if the whole empire was from another world, something that didn't concern him at all. To him, it seemed that the Marshal betrayed him - they just threw him into that hellhole of a city and forgot about him.
Then, the second, smaller door opened. Out of it came a well-dressed man with rough features and some scar marks on his face.
-"Good afternoon, gentlemen... Has the Marshal not sent for me? Why is he not here now?"
The two generals looked over at the newcomer. Arlin was the first to answer.
-"Hell, I don't know... You were invited as well, right?"
-"But of course. That's what I just said."
-"I see... So, who exactly are you?"
-"Lord Victo of Borr at your service, gentlemen."
This day was getting more and more exciting for Arlin. First, he met Zjott, the legendary conqueror, and now...
-"The Lord Victo? The one that created the Lord's Will? Damn, half of our victories were only possible thanks to you..."
-"But it gets better. As my tribute, I've sent a new prototype which I call the Master's Will. An ordinary soldier drinking that will now be able to stay stealthy for 2 minutes, instead of the previous 1 minute for the Lord's Will."
2 minutes of invisibility... Victo was a genius. Unfortunately, Arlin did not have the time to tell Victo how great he was - there were sounds coming from the other door again.
-"Look, Soghol, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the very easy way... I take the 50%, Hasterb gets the 30%, and you get the 2%, or I get the 51%, Hasterb gets the 31%, and you get a knife through your heart."
-"GAWD! So NOW it's THREATS, huh? I'm SO telling the Marshall exactly WHAT you were telling me!!"
-"Go ahead, I'm not stopping you."
-"Well... umm.... I WILL tell him, and you WILL be punished! YEAH!"
-"Whatever..."
Arlin threw a dry look towards the three commanders.
-"Gentlemen, meet Soghol, Vorren and Hasterb... the senior commanders of the Prime Divisions..."
The talk fired up, and everyone went back to talking about their own matters, without paying attention to each other. Eventually it sounded as loud as at a marketplace, until...
-"What is all that racket?"
Immediately, everyone went quiet. A younger-looking fellow entered the room. His clothes seemed to be made of leather as well, and he was petting the unmistakable dragon skull in his hands...
-
An arrow flew threw the creatures skull as it was about to hit Marshall. The creature halted, but it didn't die. It turned to look where the arrow had come from. Against the sun it saw the silhouette of a man. The figure shot a heavily concentrated blast at the creature burning a hole through its centre. It crumpled to the ground. The figure jumped down off the building and walked up to Marshall.
"I've been trying to find you all day."
____________________________________________________________
Druid?s cape was whipping against his legs. The air streaming passed his face and body, yet he seemed untouched by it. He felt good to be flying again. He would fly every day back in his own dimension, yet here he felt heavy, probably because of a higher gravity. He assumed he would be unable to perform flight before. He could fly but the added gravity affected his performance. It made him unsteady and locked. He couldn?t manoeuvre well and once he hit a certain speed of flight he couldn?t change direction or any movement at all. He started to slow down when he got close to the town. This would allow for a better landing. He figured play it safe till he got used to it. He slowed to a crawl and straightened himself. He lowered to the ground. He had been on the ground for a millisecond when a massive force pushed him through two buildings and a well.
?Son of a bitch!?
Druid was back on his feet in less than the time it took for him to be knocked down. He stood to his full height to try and intimidate his attacker. He couldn?t see the attacker but assumed it was a mage of some sort, because he wasn?t pushed over by a physical being. A figure emerged on the other side of the two houses and well where Druid landed. It was unmistakeably the preacher.
?No living being can stop god?s message.? The preacher charged him.
Druid got into a solid stance. He crouched down a little and had his arms ready for the impact. He summoned some shadow magic to hold his feet in place down and act as a wall behind him. The preacher hit him sending him soaring backwards, shattering his wall and restraints. Tumbling head over heels Druid crashed into a stone tavern. He sat there thinking.
How could he have knocked me over? I was planted down and restrained. Maybe I?m not as powerful as I thought.?
Druid looked up; it was in ruins from his attack. He looked around houses were fallen over, statues piles of rubble.
What am I saying, of course I?m powerful.
He took a deep breath and stood up, composing himself in an authoritative manner.
The two stood, eyes locked on, waiting for the other to make the first move. The preacher wisped his hand upwards and disappeared.
?Neat trick, you can become invisible.?
Druid was knocked from the back and he quickly spun around. Then he was knocked form the other side. Druid stopped crouching and stood up. He stood perfectly straight with the exception of his hand on his staff. Druid reached to his left and caught a hand.
?Tsk, tsk, you have to be quieter than that.?
And Druid threw the invisible figure forwards and returned to his stance. He then heard the figure behind him breathing; quickly he spun around swinging his staff, it colliding with the preachers face.
?Now is that your best effort? You?re getting sloppy.?
Once again Druid stood up straight, hand on his staff. He heard nothing. He strained his ears to pick up the slightest sound. Still nothing. All of a sudden the hairs on the back of Druid?s neck stood up. He swung around just in time to knock an air born preacher down. The sword the preacher had picked up skidded of to the side.
?Now, is that really fair? Trying to convey god?s message when I?m not even looking?? Druid kicked the man in the stomach. ?That?s not very noble of you, and besides, where the hell did you get the sword? No matter, seeing as normal methods cannot kill you I guess I?ll have to take extra measures.?
Druid looked at his downed foe and he sighed. Turning around he walked away. His mind was wrestling with what he just did.
What are you doing? You are showing compassion, you can?t do that. You are ruthless and evil. You kill for fun!
I know that, I just don?t feel like killing him. Other disrespectful people or people who stand in my way of taking down Silas will die.
Like the towns people?
Yes, exactly like the town?s people. Besides, I fight with honour and that is why I couldn?t kill him.
From behind Druid heard the battle cry of the preacher. He was running at him from behind, again. The preacher jumped and lunged for Druid. Just as the blade was about to pierce Druid, the preacher and the knife exploded into dust (his particles were ripped apart causing him to appear as dust).
That was killing him with honour. Druid declared in a triumphant manor to himself. He turned away from his inner thoughts and said aloud, ?Okay, I?ve screwed around enough with these people long enough. Now to find who?s in charge around here.? Druid decided walking was better than flying, at least for now, and headed north.
-
//D. Ein: Noted. I'll think of something...\\
Alex moaned as he picked himself up off the ground. A platform had collapsed out from underneath him, nearly dunking him into the sludge. As he brought his armored frame upright, his thoughts of pain immediately turned to relief...
...He had reached the armory.
"Okay then," Alex grunted. "A jumping puzzle like that....NEVER again." He soon noticed that the golem was catching up. He realized that such a monstrous being would be unaffected by the stagnant mix that would kill all else. He had a few minutes, tops.
Turning back to the armory door, Alex busted the lock with the butt of his rifle and kicked the door down. He scanned the area through his scope, and deemed it safe. He strolled in, weapon at ease along with his mind. He surveyed what he had to use.
The warehouse contained a barrel full of gunpowder, a box of fuses, a ramrod, a pile of ten or so cannonballs, a tinderbox and one 24-pounder cannon, like the ones seen on pirate ships and whatnot. Alex had never used a cannon before, but he knew the basic idea. He loaded some gunpowder in, packed it in with the ramrod, slid the heavy 24-pound cannonball down the barrel, and loaded the rear with a fuse. All he had to do now was roll it into position and aim it. He was unsure of how much gunpowder was enough. Too little, and the cannonball would come up short. Too much, and the cannon barrel might detonate. He didn't have time to decide, the golem was now wading through the waste that he had just worked so hard to jump over.
Alex wheeled the massive gun outside and did his best to level it. All he had to go on was a primitive ironsight, and that didn't compensate for the cannonball's possible trajectory. It was a gamble.
To keep the colossus from moving too much, Alex did his best to get his attention.
"Hey, hey you! Eat lead you rockhead!" Alex never was too good at insults.
The golem, turning towards where he heard the rebel's meager call, emitted a supersonic roar and stomped towards the armory.
Alex lit the fuse. He had mere seconds to aim before the cannon--
*BOOM!*
A deafening blast filled the air as the cannonball launched from the barrel at terrifying speed. Alex watched desperately as the 24-pound ball of lead arced straight towards the golem's chest. In a spine-chilling impact it ripped through the golem's torso. A shockwave rippled through the rest of the golem's stony body. The bonds were overloaded. In an amazing light show of crackling electricity, the once-terrifying monster collapsed into a pile of rocks.
One down. One to go. Could Alex do it again? The other golem was across town. He also noticed something about the cannon.
He had apparently loaded too much gunpowder. The rear of the barrel was slightly cracked. Would Alex dare another shot, or locate another cannon?
He didn't have much of a choice. This was the only armory he knew of. He'd use this cannon until the last shot was fired.
Finally, the second golem had caught sound of what had happened to his brother in the Industrial District. Obviously irritated at his ally's death (to say the least), the second golem now was thundering towards Alex.
Hands somewhat shaking, Alex proceeded to load the cannon once again. In his anxiety, he overlooked how much powder was loaded into the cannon, an obvious mistake.
He waited for the rock monster to get into range, and lit the fuse. Carefully he aimed, but then--
*BOOOOM!!*
This time the cannon had done more than just fire. The cannonball flew out on a ballistic trajectory as the cannon itself detonated from too much powder. Alex, immediately hailed with metallic shards, was thrown back from the force of the explosion, and was slammed into a wall. Despite this mishap, Alex was able to keep his eyes on the ball...as it flew, flew, flew and...
...missed. The ball hung a little to the right of the golem's right shoulder. Amused at this pathetic attempt of counterattack, the golem emitted an earth-shaking laugh. Alex seemed doomed, until...
...The golem's laughter was winding down. As Alex faded in and out of consciousness, he saw the electrical bonds between the golem's rocky components start to dissipate. The golem moaned and emitted one last ear-splitting scream as it fell apart into a rain of boulders, smashing buildings below.
Alex struggled to pull himself up, but to no avail. Cannon shards had lodged themselves inch-deep into his armor. The shockwave from the explosion had resulted in two broken ribs and a fractured leg. His visor was cracked in several places and his HUD flickered as a result. The white magic proceeded in its treatment, but until the pain was dulled, Alex would be immobile.
Thankfully, the white magic could be detected by rebel mages who could pinpoint his location and send a scouting party. All Alex had to do was crawl inside the warehouse and wait for assistance. Ignoring pain temporarily, Alex used what little strength he had in his arms and gripped his way along the ground. Once inside, he leaned up against the back wall and groaned.
"Well..." he said to himself, coughing. "Not precisely according to plan...but, hey, one less thing for me to worry about in the future."
-
//Ein, will Roland and the Elder be at this meeting thing? Wink \\
"Coriko." Marshall said in relief. "It's about time. Where the heck have you been?"
"Hey! Doesn't anybody want to give me a hand here!?" Firstman yelled cornered against a building with two brute mutants heading towards him.
Marshall shot a couple magic blasts from his pistols at the mutants, which flew by them hitting the wall of the building beyond them. The one that was impaled, and had a bleeding hole in him, turned around and looked at Marshall.
"Come on...focus..." Marshall murmured to himself as he aimed his gun at the hole in the mutant's chest. He then shot a fireball from the gun three times. Each ball of flame hit right on target, directly into the hole in the mutant's chest. The creature roared in pain as it burned up.
The second mutant came at Firstman he rolled out of the way and dove for his sword. He grabbed the weapon and then threw the blade at the mutant, impaling it right through the neck. The mutant gargled a bit, before it fell down to the ground.
Firstman sighed. "Coriko, where the hell have you been?" He said as he ripped the sword out of the dead mutant.
//Let's assume they know each other already to save time, it was an 18 month interlude between chapters so it'll make sense.\\
"We've had to mostly depend on that guy." Marshall said pointing at Duilin, who was fighting with Vandrin. "Let's just see how this turns out, don't jump in."
--
As Marshall, Coriko and Firstman finished off the mutants Vandrin and Duilin were engaged in a mighty duel.
Vandrin swung one of his katana down at Duilin. The half demon jumped back avoiding the oncoming blade. The count then swung his other katana. Duilin then spun to his right dodging the blade and ended up beside Vandrin's arm. He grabbed his wrist and twisted it causing him to drop his katana. As it was falling to the ground both Duilin and Vandrin reached for it. As Duilin reached for the blade he swung his foot back into Vandrin's gut, pushing him back. He caught the blade, just in time to face Vandrin and block an oncoming swing.
Duilin swung his blade horizontally across, attempting to get him across the neck, yet the count smashed at the swinging katana with his own and pushed the blade back. Vandrin then went for a slash at the chest, yet Duilin arched back his sword and blocked the strike. Vandrin then quickly spun around Duilin, cutting him across the wing.
Duilin growled in pain, and then smashed his sword down at Vandrin, yet the count shifted backwards away from the mighty swing. The count the spun around again, cutting him across the arm. Duilin was starting to get angry; he fiercely began smashing his blade, down several times, yet the agile Count was able to block each strike.
"I've been practicing with these probably longer then you've been living young man." Vandrin said mockingly. "You have no chance."
Vandrin could tell by the way Duilin fought, that he mostly used crushing weapons, likely a mace. He showed some sword skill, yet not nearly as much as Vandrin did. The two fighters clashed swords for several more minutes. Duilin was nicked and scracthed yet the skilled count remained untouched.
A few peasants had actually begun to watch the fight, as it was the first time they saw a public figure actually battle an outlaw.
"I've had it." Duilin snarled. "No more dinking around." Duilin then wiped his hand across the blade of the katana, enchanting it with demonic and wind energy giving it a golden glow.
"Oh you want to play that way do you?" Vandrin then preformed the same motions, yet he enchanted it with poison magic, giving it a lime green glow. "I can see that the gift of magic is with you, young one. But you're not a master of it yet."
The two enchanted glowing blades were then clashed together. Duilin and Vandrin glared at each other. "Come on boy." Vandrin taunted. "Put more into it. Only your hatred can defeat me."
Duilin the kicked Vandrin in the chest pushing him back. "What the hell are you talking about?!" He said lowering his blade, looking at him oddly.
"Heheh." Vandrin laughed. "I can tell you're demon. I've done some studies on them. Quite a manipulative bunch they are. The half breeds can be usefull, especially your type."
"Just shut it." Duilin snapped stepping towards him, and swinging his blade downwards at him. Vandrin blocked the blade with an upward swing of his; he held his katana with both hands, pushing the blade back yet Duilin was pushing quite hard himself.
"I heard about some of the stuff that happened around Bandervil." Vandrin said weakly, pushing the blade back. "Those Aspyes like to spread words around. They said that Haraldur gave his life to destroy the Grey Empire."
"Yeah I was there." Duilin said. He then looked at him in the eye. "Wait, why am I telling you this?"
"Because you're a fool!" Vandrin yelled, he let one hand go and then shot a blast of poison magic; Duilin then let one hand go of his blade, and blocked the blast with a protective bubble on his hand.
Duilin then went to grab Vandrin's blade yet his hand was grabbed by Vandrin's hand. The two had a one-handed mercy fight as they had their katana locked; the magic mixture was begun to make a bright eerie glow were the two blades met.
Duilin ended out to be the more physically strong as he twisted Vandrin's hand, causing him to squak in pain. Just as Duilin twisted it a bit more, Vandrin glared at him. "Time to die." Vandrin's hand began to glow a lime green.
"Oh shit." Duilin then let go of the counts hand, and the immediately backed away.
Vandrin shook his hand and then blasted a large stream of poisonous energy at Duilin. He blocked the stream of energy with his blade, the lightning energy then faded out and then sword began to melt.
"My sword!" Vandrin shouted. He greatly valued those katanas they were very valuable but only as a pair.
Duilin laughed.
"You cretin!" Vandrin roared he then dashed at Duilin and the swung down his blade, Duilin then jumped backwards, flapped his wings and then front flipped over Vandrin. He was about the land on the ground headfirst yet he pushed down on the ground and then dove backwards driving his feet into the counts back, pushing him to the ground. Duilin landed standing right over Vandrin, he stepped on the counts hand, holding the katana, causing him to let go. He picked the blade up and then grabbed the old man by the neck, and held the sword into his back.
"You won't get away with this, you know." Vandrin said.
"Yeah, yeah." Duilin whispered. "You tell yourself that. Now I'm gonna make you a deal old man. Yeah, listen up. Me and my buddies, you see those two...and..." He looked at Coriko. "Who the hell is that!? When did he get here!?" He shook his head. "Anyways, let the kids fly outta here. They need to get home. I don't want anyone following them. Got it?"
"Yes." Vandrin said, he didn't believe what was going on; he just kept his eyes closed.
Marshall looked at Duilin. "Thank you. We owe you one for this." He then held onto his amulet, and summoned a regular ole' green wyvern. "Try not to hurt the man too much." He said grinning. He looked at Coriko. "Yeah, that's Duilin an old...friend I guess. Okay, so yeah Firstman and me were able to blow up the barracks, well Duilin...helped. So yeah, you want to just get out of here? This place is making me sick."
Firstman hopped onto the wyvern "Let's get the hell outta here!"
Marshall looked at Coriko, as he hopped onto the big lizard. "Coming, Coriko?"
-
"Sure, why not."
Coriko hopped onto the wyverin. He still wasn't used to these things.
"So you want to hear why I was late?"
-
"Yeah sure tell us on the way." Marshall replied. He then patted the wyvern, and it took off, towards the south...
"Alright!" Duilin called, several guards had already formed a large crowd around him and Vandrin. "Me and my buddy here are gonna go for a walk, anyone follows us, and the old man dies."
Duilin, dragged Vandrin to one of the wall gates. Duilin pressed the katana blade against Vandrin.
"Open the gate!" Vandrin ordered, he then lowered his voice and spoke to Duilin. "I'm warning you. You can not get away with this." Vandrin said sternly. "You have any idea how many bounty hunters are going to come after you. I've planned for things like this to happen. One million gold pieces will be on your head and another two million for the rescue of me."
"Well it ain't gonna happen." Duilin replied, as the two walked through the gates, and into the wasteland beyond. "As soon as I see anyone come towards us you die."
"Well it'll be your life, because I've also planned for that. A ten million bounty is on the head of my killer. I'm sure every able-bodied magic-using fighter on the planet will come after you. The word of this has likely already spread to Kandarin and North Point."
"Well good for it." Duilin snapped as he through Vandrin on the ground. "Now do you have any idea were the hell we are?"
"Yes, the norths centre part of the northern peninsula of Terian." Vandrin replied. "What are you trying to get out of this." He said getting up and dusting himself off.
"To be honest I'm kind of making it up as I go along." Duilin said with a grin.
"Oh god. I've been kidnapped by a complete idiot..." Vandrin groaned.
"Hey listen." Duilin growled grabbing Vandrin by the collar. "I'm probably your worst nightmare here. I've killed tons of wannabe mages like you. So I'd shut up if I were you." Duilin pushed Vandrin back on the ground. "Now anyways...off with the belt."
Vandrin looked at Duilin in disgust. "What exactly do you have in mind!?" He stood up and removed the belt anyway, fortunately his pants still stood up, just fine.
Duilin turned Vandrin around and grabbed his wrists; he tied his hands together with the belt. He took the sheath and strapped it onto his own pant leg and sheathed the katana. "I don't want to have to poke with the sword all day, so we're gonna walk peacefully." He said grabbing Vandrin by the arm and continuing to walk.
"What's happened in the past 18 months?" Duilin asked.
"Uhh...well..." Vandrin looked at him oddly. "Let's see, most of the liberated cities have now been taken under control by either the Dark Empire or the Kandarinian Sovereignty."
"Kandarinian, eh? I heard about those guys, they were a pretty quiet bunch, never thought they'd want to take new land. So who are you with?"
"I'm one of the Kandarinian monarchs."
"So I'd assume you'd be the Count of the Vandrin County then. What's your name?"
"Vandrin."
Duilin blinked "...Right..." He sighed and continued walking. "Where is the nearest harbour?"
"North. Why...where are we going?"
"Tjed. I guess. Is it still free from imperial occupation?"
"I assume. Do we have to go there?"
"I've got good relations with those guys. I'd probably be the only place I could call home right now. What's your problem with Tjed?"
"It's uhh...I used to live there. Got banished."
"Heh, how about that." Duilin snickered.
-
There was a tremendous vibration as the airship kicked into overdrive. Standing on the deck was no longer a comfortable experience, due to the fierce, cold winds. Though there was no immediate danger of falling off. The ship was really moving now, cutting thought the bottom layer of thick dark clouds.
But Renard had to stay up there, for it was his turn to supervise the lizards. They were such an oafish dopey sort, and needed to be told what to do constantly. Renard pulled his black cloak tighter over his body to fight back the chilled air. He idly wondered how the cold blooded lizards got along up here, for they didn't even have any fur.
His right ear suddenly swiveled around, picking up that screaming sound... like one of the stupid lizards actually fell off the deck. It would be an unpleasant death, for it was a long way down. The lizards would occasionally fight each other in petty arguments, the ones that weren't genetically engineered and were capable of conscious thought, at least. He would probably have to discipline the winner. The fox sighed irritatedly. It was an annoying job, commanding these lizards. Soon his shift would be over, at least.
The silver fox stepped down the black metal walkway, trying to hold his head high and look somewhat authoritve, which was hard to do in the fierce winds. Judging by his superb hearing he was reasonably sure where the fall had occurred, and stepped in that direction quickly.
And then it happened. The cargo box to his left suddenly exploded in a violent burst of flame, a burning man jumping out with an outstretched hand, tackling the much smaller fox, pinning a flaming hand to the Velken's chest.
"Game over, fur ball."
Renard yelped as he was jettisoned clean off of the side of the airship as if shot out of a cannon, a burning crimson orb raging against his chest. Farther and farther he flew into the deep dark sky, helplessly pushed by that vile orb. Ice! Ice! Cast the ice! Put it out! It BURNS!!
Then it exploded.
Red hot pain engulfed his entire body, from the tips of his ears to his tail. The Velken's instincts kicked in just enough to shield part of the blast, but not nearly enough. Down and down he went. Spiraling out of control. The power of flight, the levitation he commanded so easily would not come to him. Just the drowsiness. And the pain. And the darkness...
Draven threw his head up in laughter, his aura of flame doubling in size. There was no more need for stealth. He clenched his right fist as a crimson glow intensely burst forth from it.
"All right you miserable little insects. Come get me..."
-
Zeros' raked his hands through his hair, walking downt he corridor that had opened for him. He arrived at the room and tilted his head, raising an eyebrow. Raised plates and deadly pendlums. Interesting...
Someone obviously didn't want intruders. There's traps were obviously made for a normal man, but he was no normal man. Infact, he wasn't even human.
He shook his head. He knew solving the puzzle nearby would be easier, but the traps looked fun. His eyes sweeped the corridor in front of him, eyeing any of the plates he could see. He counted one at least every three inches apart. This would be interesting.
He then silently counted the momentum of the pendalums. One... Two... Three... he said to himself.
Then, he nodded. It would be risky, but, if he was lucky, he'd make it across in one piece.
---
Allen nodded and looked around where they had landed.
"Let's see... If this is anything like I think it is, we first need to find a way to either the bridge slash control room or the bowels of the ship, where the furance that powers th ship is. It's your choice..." he said, turning back to Ven.
"Which do you think would be better?"
-
Rink had a good feeling somebody was on the way, he had a good feeling it was Zeros'. He'd likely know if Duilin was on the way since he'd likely start attacking rather then sneak in. It could be Zion or Xenai, but he wasn't too sure about them.
He hoped it was Zeros', he was strong, and he?d likely be able to put up a good fight for this monster Gorus. Yet he did hear the two other lizards call him High General, a couple of times. The lizardman also has the Dark Empire symbol tattooed on his arm, so obviously this guy had to be a very skilled fighter, comparable to Draven.
-----
"So, when are you going to let me go, young man?" Vandrin asked, sounding more bored then scared.
"I don't know if I can just let you go. You see, me being my foolish self I told you that I'm going to Tjed and say if you managed to get back home, then you'd tell everyone where I am and then attack Tjed."
"Well, you're not as dumb as you look." Vandrin sighed.
"Also, I don't think letting you go before we are even out of sight of the walls of the county would be too bright." He then looks off into the distance. "Oh look rockey hills, let's go over there." Duilin picked up the pace and tugged Vandrin harder.
"You know it's dangerous out here. Wild beasts or raiders could attack us. I hear the Dark Empire have dark dragons flying about in the sky."
"Well, seeing as I beat the ass of the toughest Kandarin monarch, I don't think even a dark dragon can stop me."
"Aren't we the cocky one."
"You know, I wouldn't be talking like that." Duilin said feircly tightening the grip of Vandrin's arm as they continued walking.
"Arg, okay. Sorry, sorry."
The two then got closer to the rocky hills, after a few minutes of walking. For a darkened wasteland, the place was quite nice and quiet.
Duilin looked up the hills, if they could get over them it would defiantly get them out of sight. "Now we climb."
"It's going to be very tricky for me to get up there, with my hands tied behind him back." Vandrin said almost smiling.
"Nice try..." Duilin said, he then lifted up Vandrin. "But you're not getting away that easy." He then held him in both his hands, and then jumped up and flapped his wings. He then flew up to the top of the hill. "And just for suggesting that..." He then dropped Vandrin and he began to roll down the hill. Duilin let himself slide down, reaching to the bottom. Once they both did, Duilin helped the bumped and bruised Vandrin back on his feet.
"You okay?" Duilin asked.
"What do you care?" Vandrin hissed.
The two continued walking. "Hey, man. It's nothing personal; it's just that I got myself in a sort of situation you know. I've been...in a comma for 18 months."
"How'd you even get inside my county in the first place?"
"Beats me." Duilin replied. "I'm just trying to figure out what's going on. I don't know where any of my friends are, so I'm probably going to be by myself."
"Aw, and you wanted me for company." Vandrin mocked.
"Hey, shut up." Duilin snapped. "I captured you, because I know people aren't going to follow me around if it means getting you killed." He then took a deep breathed. "Trust me, if I could let you go and not risk anyone attacking me when I'm gone I would." He looked around and arched his face forward to see into the distance.
"Yeah, so where is the shoreline harbour?" Duilin asked.
"Um...just up ahead." Vandrin said. "You see that building right there..." He pointed his head in the direction.
"Hmm..."
-
They were very quick to respond...
A number of gray blurs darted though the air, above Draven's head. He was surrounded in seconds, five on the deck and four in the air. The other Velkens...
"Who is that?"
"Fire mage."
"A human?"
"Wait... where's..."
Virmir was the last to arrive, making the tenth, notable by the long swords strapped to his back.
"Where's Renard?"
Draven answered the question directed to the others.
"Don't know. It probably hurt though. A lot."
His face contorted into that maniacal grin.
All of the foxes' eyes glared at the human. Virmir stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
"Draven, the Crimson Emperor. I owe Retan some... favors, so I thought I'd stop by and pay him back..."
"That's a lie. The Dark Emperor cast Draven away to whence there is no return."
The burning mage did seem a little familiar, though.
"Retan's full of it. And now you get to die..."
Draven brought both hands to his sides, his fists exploding in vermillion fury. If he could lure these fur balls or whatever they were away from the ship, Allen and that knight should be able to take it with no problem...
All of the Velkens assumed a fighting stance, the four remaining mages' hands crackling with energy. Virmir rested his hand on the hilt of the longer sword strapped to his back, the Wind Serpent. If they could lure this human or whatever it was away from the ship, they wouldn't have to worry about destroying its cargo...
All at once Draven and the Velkens soared into the air, disappearing into the dark surrounding clouds. The airship sped on without them...
----
Ven leaned close to Allen, so that his voice could be heard over the roaring wind.
"The bridge sounds like our best bet if we want to take this thing as quickly as possible, but I'm worried about my liege..."
Henri of course was still being held captive on board. Blast it, if Draven hadn't run off like that, they could have formulated a proper plan or something!
A large number of lizard men suddenly ran past, and Ven ducked down and threw himself against the wall. They were obviously distracted by something...
"Of course, I don't suppose we have any idea where he may be held... The bridge it is, then."
He began to scoot across the outer cabin wall he was pressed against, finally finding a door which opened with a latch. Protected from the fierce exterior winds, the inside was a great deal warmer, though kind of dark...
-
"Okay, so I was walking to meet you when I figured I was to early. I stopped into this tavern to get something to drink. I sat down and ordered and as I was waiting for my drink a man walked in. I know what your thinking but this guy seemed different. He seemed arrogant, and powerful. He walked up to the barman and ordered a round. The drunks up front thanked him. He touched them to say your welcome, but when he did they slumped over. I watched intrigued when the man turned around. He yelled something to everyone. He said ?My brotherin?; you are on a path to moral damnation. Repent now and you will be spared in the hour of judgement.? The drunks laughed and this man got angry. He made a sweeping motion across the bar and as he did the bar ripped apart. I am pretty sure he was using some form of telepathy. I seeing it coming be on the far side of the bar I jumped up and grabbed onto the rafters. I then dropped down and kicked a table up for shelter. ?You cannot hide from god?s message.? I then fired flaming arrows over the top of the table to try and hit him. I heard nothing. I sat there for a few seconds waiting for something to happen. I heard nothing, so I burned a small hole in the table to see. There was no one there. I stood up and the man was gone. I then realized I was late for our plan and I bolted here, and you know the rest.?
-
"Interesting story." Firstman commented. "I wonder who that guy could have been."
Marshall then landed the wyvern down to the ground. Everyone hopped off of it. They had arrived near a seemly pointless, large mountain of rocks.
Marshall walked up to where there was this suspiciously flat rock, near the bottom, and an odd hole in one of the rocks. Marshall look a small key from his pocket and then put it into small hole and turned the key. The flat rock then slid to the side, revealing a dark stairway leading downwards.
"Let's go." Marshall said, motioning to the others.
Assuming Coriko is following, he put the key into another keyhole on the inside, turned it and then the door slid back, after the three had entered.
As the three went deeper down the stairs the area got significantly lighter, until they arrived in fair sized underground building.
This was the Aspyes Underground Bunker, it had four floors, and the two middle floors were evenly divided into several rooms, for people to stay in. The top and bottom one. The top one was mainly empty; it was mostly used to store random items. The bottom floor is where the liberation planning was. The number of Aspyes had significantly lowered. About a month after the return of Retan, there was genocide on people with the Aspyes. Both the superpowers had found them to be a large threat and annoyance to there newfound domination, so anyway suspected of being an Aspye was killed. However a man named Peter Kropotkin had organized an Aspye meeting to flee everyone to the wasteland, were he had once found this lost underground bunker. The place had been fixed up of course and moddified to suit their needs.
"Well, let's get to the bottom floor." Marshall said. "Kropotkin likely has another assignment he'd like us to do."
The trio then went down a second staircase, passing the two middle floors.
There was Peter Kropotkin along with a couple other revolutionaries, around a large table with a map of Gaian, a few weapons were laying against the wall.
"Ah, how did the sabotage go at the Vandrin County?" Kropotkin asked.
"Better then we thought, actually. Yet we were detected, a friend of ours helped us out and was able to kidnap Count Vandrin himself."
Peter smiled. "Haha, excellent. With Count Vandrin kidnapped they'll surely focus too much on getting him back. It won't be long before we can liberate the place."
"I'm not sure if we should rush into that just yet." Marshall said.
"Why not?" Asked Kropotkin.
"Well, it seems the place is still fairly well guarded, we almost died trying to get out of the place. Plus the mutant activity is getting higher."
"I feel so sorry for those people who became mutants. They'll never be able to see out better way now that Vandrin took away their freedom of thought. Wait, where is your friend, it might be good if we had Vandrin here."
"Sorry, we had to leave without him. They would have killed us." Firstman replied.
"Who is this friend?"
"Well, he's not actually a friend. Actually it was Duilin Talonscar." Marshall said.
"What the hell are you doing even talking to that fascist!? He's been opposing our cause ever since we started!"
"I don't know. He's changed a bit. I'm not sure if he's an Aspye just yet." Marshall said in defence.
"Very well. I always thought it was mostly that Zeros' who was the problem. Anyways, there is this small village that some of our scouts had found. It's not to well guarded, so we might be able to quickly liberate it, it only has a couple guard stations. We only need a couple people to go for this; if we can spread the word we may be able to have the people join our cause and take the place down. We've got some weapon supplies for the people to use. Marshall can summon something to carry it around; we've got some rope as well, if you need it. You up for it comrades?"
"I don't know." Firstman said. "I think I need some rest."
"We'll I'm game." Marshall said. "What about you Coriko?"
----
Duilin and Vandrin continued their way towards the building in the distance. It was becoming more and more clear.
"What the hell? I don't even see the shore anywere?" Duilin said. "Are you lying to me!?" He growled as he lifted Vandrin up by the collar.
"N-no. I don't know, maybe I, maybe I'm a bit confused about where we are." Vandrin stuttered.
"I'm on to you old man."
'Sure you are, dumbass.' Vandrin thought. He was barely intimidated by Duilin really; he didn't believe half of what he was going to to. He thought he was mostly talk, although he knew for a fact that if he tried to escape he wouldn't let him go. He didn't think he'd kill him however, but he doesn't want to get maimed or crippled. He has his physical image that he doesn't want to mess up.
Both Vandrin and Duilin then saw some strange ghostly images in the corner of their eyes wisp by.
"Did you see that?" Duilin asked.
"See what?"
"Hmm?"
-
Victo, Arlin, Vorren, Soghol, Hasterb, Zjott and Jacob finally got to know each other well, when the Elder and Roland entered. Arlin scowled, and bent towards Zjott.
-"Shh... those guys are undeads... they have a really bad temper, they do. Don't get on their bad side."
Fortunately, Arlin did not have to endure their prescense for long, because...
---
"The large gilded doors swung open, and, as expected, my most loyal servants stood before me.
-"Good day to you all. I'm sure you know who I am, for if you don't, you would not be standing here."
I watched my subordinates bow, and suddenly I realized that someone was missing.
-"Where is Necirrejel?"
Hasterb was first to speak.
-"He is gone, my lord. The way he was and the way he is somehow said goodbye... He did not only say goodbye because it felt so easy for him to say goodbye, in a way that I knew. This is the last time."
As always, listening to Hasterb could be compared to reading poetry: even after so many words are spilled, the information is hardly of any value.
-"Alright, does anyone other than Hasterb know what happened to Necirrejel? Or must I send out wyverns to hunt him down?"
Vorren, looking rather distraught, said:
-"He left this morning, my lord. It seems that after a year of being in the Kandarinian shock troop squad, he finally got sick of it. We found several guards slaughtered, and one hydrojump transport stolen."
There were deaths that I did not sense? What is this? Are my Necromantic powers dulling? ...no, that cannot be. The sly fool must've devised some way to block my mind away from the fleeting souls of the recently deceased.... or perhaps Vorren is lying. Either way, I will find him. Sooner or later, I will find him.
-"Anywho, let us get to the reason why you were brought here. I have recently heard word of a book called the "Necronomicon", which contains the deepest secrets of the Necromantic practice. There were three copies made, but two of them were destroyed by the heretic Blue Minotaur." Roland and the Elder visibly flinched. "The last copy, entitled "Simon's Necronomicon", was stolen by the offshot group which calls itself the "Black Dragon". Similar in practice to the Blue Minotaur, but employing much more radical and extreme methods of achieving their goals. They are bent on preserving what they call the Original Arcane, and Necromancy happens to be a part of that. This is why they preserved the final copy."
Victo was first to raise concern.
-"But what of the cult itself?"
-"The events I am citing, my friend, have long passed. I imagine the cult to now be a little less than small piles of dust."
Vorren was still unsatisfied.
-"Not to sound overly egotistical, but we are your best. Why us? Why not just assemble a legion of expendable undeads to take the tome?"
Roland and Elder flinched again, at the mention of "expendable".
-"Don't question the Marshal's motives, fleshbag, or ... or else."
Vorren scoffed and was opening his mouth for another remark, when I intervened.
-"All three of you, stop this nonsense! You are acting like children! At any rate, there is a reason why I chose you over a legion of undeads. This job has to be covert. No one must know that it ever took place."
-"But why?"
-"Enough talk, all of you. Pack up and off you go."
--- --- ---
Ein hurried away from the tavern, and hid behind a house, panting heavily. The accent might have fooled them... It might have not... nobody must know that Ein is here. Not even Ein must know. No one. Absolutely no one.
With a constantly ripping thread of thoughts, Ein got back up and continued running towards a nearby forest.
-
Zeros' nodded. It was about six seconds for full swing of the pendalums. Between those and the three inch-spaced raised plates... this was definetly made for a normal man, not for a half-demon.
He watied for it to return to the front of it's swing. He counted to two before jumping. He zoomed through the air and landed on the top of the pendalum, balancing himself on the flat edge. He stood there, using the wooden pole that it swung from for support.
He smiled. This would be easy.
---
Allen nodded and ducked behind with Ven as the lizardmen came by. He followed Ven and blinked into the darkness of the inner cabin. He frowned. He could make and change things, but he couldn't make light, sadly.
"Well... At least it's not totally dark," he said lightly, his older eyes making it harder for him to see in the darkness. He looked behind him, as if trying to make sure no one was following him.
"Lead on, Ven... You're the one with all the man power," he said.
-
Aura burning dimly, Draven touched down in some foreign landscape, the ten fox creatures following suit, completely surrounding him. They were in the middle of some sort of barren desert. There was absolutely nothing around, save for endless miles of rolling yellow-gray sand. Thunderclaps boomed in the distance, illuminating sections of the red-black sky.
Draven folded his arms.
"You're one of Retan's new high generals, aren't you? I caught a glimpse of you at the banquet a while back. Tch, Retan's getting weirder and weirder in the help he seeks..."
Virmir raised an eye (he didn't really have eyebrows). So then this really must be Draven...
"Kendo Virmir, High General of the Dark Empire, Skyward Division. I've held this title for over twenty years."
It was Draven's turn to raise an eyebrow. Twenty years?
"A question before I kill you. How long ago was that banquet?"
"Stalling will get you nowhere. You were sealed for well over a year. I don't know why, but it was the Dark Emperor's will, so that is what I will enforce right now..."
Draven brought a gloved hand to his chin. Of course... Retan's reach extended well past Gaian... but how could he not have known? Obviously he was not trusted with that information... Just how big is the Dark Empire?
He chain of thought was interrupted by the silver fox drawing that wickedly long blade...
"Detain him."
----
"Uh, right..."
Ven began to tiptoe down the corridor. There were torches up ahead, so the visibility wasn't too bad. Then again, staying in the shadows would probably be a good thing for them...
They made it to a fork in the road, a hallway intersecting the one they traveled down. The humming of the ship was constant, but distant, so Ven guessed they probably weren't near the engine room or whatever. That was good, since they didn't want to go there.
Ven brought his gauntlet to his chin, rubbing it contemplatively for a moment.
"So... uh, any idea where this bridge might be...?"
Suddenly there were footfalls ringing against the black metal floor.
"Gah~!"
A figure emerged from around the corner down the left fork, his hands tied behind his back but his legs quite free, running for his life towards Ven and Allen.
"K-King Henri!!"
"Ven! RUN!!!"
"Fear not my liege! For I will save you!!"
With a flash of silver from his drawn blade, Ven jumped out from the shadows into the center of the hallway just as Henri ran past him. He could definitely hear something coming around the corner in front of him... Ven held the silver sword with both hands tightly, charging it with a brilliant white radiance.
"Take THIS!!"
Pointing the sword down the corridor, he let lose a jagged beam of brilliant white energy blasting down the corridor. Just then, a large number of lizard men turned the corner. The light arrow slammed into the leading lizard, causing it to stubble backwards a bit and cracking off the left pointed shoulder section of its black armor. They all stopped, the hit one snarling but not exactly hurt...
"Well... crap..."
Raising jagged blades, spears, and the sort, they all charged like feral beasts.
"RUN AWAY!!"
Ven and Henri bolted down the opposite fork.
-
Duilin and Vandrin arrived at the building. It was small building made mostly of wood; it had that ugly symbol on the door. As soon as Duilin saw it he glared at Vandrin. "You think you could stop me by leading me to one of your sheds?"
"Wha-" Vandrin grinded his teeth, he was caught. "I didn't know that was there, um, somebody must of uh..."
Duilin punched Vandrin across the face and knocked him to the ground; he picked him back up, grabbed his shirt and then punched him again. "This is your LAST chance!"
'He has no idea...'
Then surrounding the two were several blury shapes, on close inspection they appeared to be in a humanoid shape.
"What the hell is this!?" Duilin snapped, looking at the figures.
Suddenly the ghostly figures took shape into grey skinned mutants.
"That's it!" Duilin drew Vandrin's katana from the sheath. "Now you die old man."
Vandrin looked shocked as he saw the blade reach down towards him, then suddenly the sword was shot out of Duilin's hand by one of the mutants. Duilin growled in rage and then violently smashed Vandrin down on the ground, suddenly one of the mutant mages blurred right in front of Duilin and swung a fist full of shadow energy right at Duilin knocking him to the ground.
"Damnit!" Duilin snarled, he jumped back up kicking the shadow mutant back, knocking it to the ground.
One of the shadow mutants untied Vandrin's wrists, and the picked him up and began to rush back to the County walls at great speed.
"No you don't!" Duilin shouted he jumped in the air flapping his wings and then flew after the escaping mutant, however three others tackled him in the air.
These mutants were special kind of the Type 3 mutants. They are Type 3 mutants trained by Shadow Mages, Vandrin temporally hired from the Dark Empire.
The mutants began beating down on Duilin with fists full of dark energy, smashing down on him. Duilin suddenly snapped and around him exploded a large ball of demon flame, knocking the mutants back several yards.
Duilin aimed his right hand at one of the mutants on the ground, fire surrounded his hand and he then shot a ball of flame at the creature, finishing it off. Another mutant came at him from the side, he swung his fist in an uppercut into its jaw and as it fell back he shot fireball at the mutant's chest, blowing right through.
Three mutants remained they stood in front of him in a fighter stances.
The flame in Duilin's hand was then sucked away; the half demon focused his demonic energy into his hand and created his already famous demon flail, made of the energy demon bones. He swung the flail around a few times, and the mutants dashed towards him. He threw the demon flail and it smashed into the first one's face that was coming towards it. The mutant fell to the ground, as the demonic poison began to burn away at his face, killing it quickly. As the other two came towards him he jumped into the air over them. As he floated, he pressed his hands together focusing his energy and began packing it together, he then stretched his hands apart and then created a small orb of electric energy. He then smashed the orb down on the ground, creating a shockwave stunning the two mutants. He landed on the ground and picked up Vandrin's katana, he then dashed towards one of the mutants and slashed the sword across the mutant's neck, cutting it's head off, as it was motionless, the dead body was still standing for a few seconds, before it fell to the ground. He then ran towards the other mutant and impaled the blade right through its upper chest.
He stopped; he let go of the blade and took a deep breath. Maybe that was a bit too much. Vandrin got away. Likely they'll send more of those things after him, so he best get moving. He folded his wings and then began walking off...
-
"Sure I'm game. It would be nice to be out in a small town for once. C'mon Firstman. I'm going so is Marshall. It won't be the same without you. What do you say? I mean, what could go wrong?"
---
//This is my final prewritten post for Druid, so feel free to jump in at any time now\\
Druid was bored. He expected the ruler of this realm to have a giant castle and city devoted to him. Statues every few miles, signs everywhere. However there was nothing. Druid realized finding this guy will be harder than he thought. He had been walking along a cliff for a few miles now. He was tired and so he sat down. He watched the water crash against the cliff?s side. The raw surging power gave him a feeling of home. A gust of air rushed past Druid and he drew his cloak closer. His cloak was warm and made of a strong fabric found mainly on his world. Druid?s mind started to wander. He tried not to be a bad guy. He just came off like one because of his harsh punishments and views. Although he didn?t want people thinking of him as a ruler they could push around. It was shard to show some if any compassion while still maintaining his dignity and reputation.
?You ready to repent??
Druid knew recognised voice and didn?t want to take any chances in case he was right. He launched himself several meters upwards. He spun around as he flew upwards and his assumption was confirmed. It was the preacher. He landed facing the preacher. His cloak rippling in the wind, his hand clenched on his staff.
?What do you want? No, better question; how are you even here? I have killed you so many times, and the last one, cannot be undone. And why would you come back and fight me? Why start something you know you can?t finish??
The preacher just stood there smirking. He didn?t move at all, he just stood there. Druid didn?t want another fight. He was tired and bored of this world. He wanted to get off it. All these fights were distracting him from finding the leader, who probably has a way off this rock. Druid lowered his staff down to the ground. He then raised it up again and a deep red pillar surrounded the priest. The shadow magic started to slowly rip apart the preacher?s skin. As this was happening the preacher just stood there smiling. He just stood there smiling as his body was being ripped apart. Once he was completely ripped up druid walk towards the pillar carefully. He saw there was nothing left and lowered the pillar.
?How could he have come back? I ripped him apart by his atoms, I snapped his neck. I broke his spine. When I explode someone, I have practised this so there is nothing left. How could someone bring back him if there is nothing left to work off of??
He turned around to go back to the waves when he was punched in the nose. Druid stumbled backwards clutching his nose.
?Son of a bitch.?
Druid was patting at his nose, it didn?t seem broken. He held his hand up to his nose cradling it. Here he was; all powerful ruler of his dimension, one of the most powerful (if not the most powerful) shadow mage, and he gets sucker punched in the nose by some annoying priest.
?I don?t know how you came back, but I?m gonna make sure you stay gone this time.?
?When god is determined, nothing will stop his message.?
The preacher started to walk towards Druid. Druid closed and then reopened his free hand causing the preacher to explode. The preacher died but was seen as soon as the dust settled. He once again started to walk forward. Druid did it again and the preacher increased his pace walking through the cloud this time, not waiting for it to settle. The preacher started to jog and Druid did it again. This time the preacher started to run. The preacher was almost at Druid when he did it once more. Nothing came forward, then a fist caught Druid in the cheek. Druid stood up and spit out some blood. He was mad and ran to meet the preacher. He dodged the preacher?s attack when he got to him and delivered an attack of his own.
?Why?? Druid caught the preachers jaw with his left fist ?won?t?? Druid smashed the preacher in the side of the head. ?you?? Druid put his hand on the man?s chest and fired a concentrated beam of shadow magic. ?die??? Druid put his hands on the man?s face and caused it to explode. The body crumpled, yet behind was the preacher. He stepped over the body and smiled at the bewildered druid. The man wound up for a devastating punch, and Druid stood there. The attack was delivered and Druid flew backwards. Druid?s head rested on the edge of the cliff.
Druid stood up, he was tired of being pushed around. Sure he couldn?t kill this guy, but he could let him live as a vegetable. The preacher?s boot was coming at Druid?s chest. Druid caught the boot and twisted it. The preacher was caught off guard and his leg was broken. He yelled and pulled back. Druid glared at the man. The preacher started to get up and Druid kicked him as hard as he could in his ribs. The preacher was lying on his back breathing. Druid went over and knelt down beside the man. Druid put his face right up against the preachers and whispered.
?I am your better; I am your god?s better. Walk away while you still can and don?t bother me anymore?
Druid pulled his face away so he could see the man? reaction. The preacher spit in Druid?s face. Druid put his left hand on the man?s neck. He then moved his right hand back and then plunged inside the preacher. Druid was then kicked under his chin. He fell backwards rubbing his chin. The preacher was standing unharmed where his dead body was. Druid lay on the ground and the preacher ran at Druid. He dived at Druid, who in turn caught the preacher with his legs and flipped him over his heels. Druid then stood up. He was tired and was going to end this.
The preacher stood up just as Druid caught his throat. Druid chucked the preacher as hard as he could over the cliffs edge. Druid then sprinted over the side and dived after him. He unbuckled his cloak which flew back upwards onto the cliffs edge. Druid left his staff up there was well. He caught up to the falling preacher and grabbed his chest. Druid then launched himself into flight so they were travelling at an even faster speed.
The preacher was yelling he gave up, but Druid just had a stone cold look on his face. The force heard when the preachers back hit the water went on for miles. The preacher was screaming under the water as Druid kept moving downwards. They were getting quite deep and the light was starting to fade. Druid was starting to feel tired. He could always hold his breath for along time, but this was pushing it. Druid then made a bubble of shadow energy around the preacher so he wouldn?t die. He then blasted the enclosed preacher downwards. The preacher would sink down to the water?s depth and he would be unable to die. He would not be able to resurface because his weight was holding him down. As soon as Druid blasted the preacher downwards he rocketed himself upwards. He was gaining ground quickly but he was feeling weaker. He rocketed out of the water but he was still tired and weak. He started to slow down as he got to the top of the cliff. He was almost there. Druid was just about to grab the cliff?s edge to pull himself up, but instead he grabbed a root which pulled out. He didn?t have the energy to fly upwards and he started to fall back down towards the water.
?no,? Druid whispered. ?no, I wont die like this.? He started to get louder. ?NO!? Druid with a sudden adrenaline burst rocketed up over the edge of the cliff. He then stopped and started to fall back to the ground. He hit the ground with a thud. Druid lay on the ground near his cloak. He sighed to himself.
?I guess I got to keep going.?
Druid then passed out.
-
Zeros' swung with the pendalums motion, counting to himself before swiftly jumping to the next pendalum. He kept doing this. Counting and jumping... counting and jumping... counting and jumping...
He did this until he was on the last one. He smirked and looked back, counting three inches before he reached his position. He nodded and then jumped off, deftly landing on the stone and righting himself. He had passed the trail without activating one of the traps.
He briskly walked forwards, striding through the door in front of him.
---
Allen blinked, but obeyed. If Ven could do nothing against these lizardmen, well, what choice did he have against them?
But, he stopped for a moment, an idea popping into his head. He quickly turned back to face them, concentrating his energy through his body. He closed his eyes for a moment before slamming his hands into the floor of the ship. Immediately, a metal wall sprung up between himself and the attackers, streaching the length of the hallway.
He then turned around and caught up with Ven and Henri.
'I don't know how long that'll last, but it should be long enough," he said, wiping his brow.
-
The five Velken blade knights were upon Draven like locusts, five cold flashes of steel striking out at him in blurs. With a wide crescent of his crimson blade and staggering footwork, all were blocked. But they were so fast... the retorts were immediate and Draven had to expand and intensify his aura greatly to keep the fine points from tearing into his flesh...
Then all five backed off as Draven was hailed with four blue blasts of ice from above as the four remaining mages had their turn. The ice pillars came down fiercely and all Draven could do was retort with a single blast of fire skyward. The spells collided with devastating force, bright flashes of red and cerulean blasting away the dead sands of this desert battlefield.
Then it was the knights again, and the cycle continued, the Velken's Dual Attack relentlessly chiseling away at the maniacal fire mage... Virmir held the Wind Serpent poised, for he knew how dangerous this foe was and was ready to intervene should the pattern of this delicate dance of death be broken. But it seemed they were actually wearing Draven down...
Until one of the Velken knights went flying from the circle... It was a lucky shot, perhaps, the vulpine warrior flying into Draven's random punch, but the force was genuine and the fox was sent flying some twenty five feet backwards due to the lightness of his body and down into the sand. Draven immediately followed with a quick slash of his burning blade, taking advantage of the break in momentum. The slash found home on another knight's chest, a spray of crimson blood soiling the air. He flew backwards as well with a yelp, the other three knights backing off just slightly...
The chain was broken... Draven flew skywards, stopping in-between the four floating mages who regarded him with shock in their eyes. Their half formed ice spells useless... With an angry glint, Draven thrust both hands outward as a fiery explosion ripped the air, sending the four flying...
----
Ven and Henri stopped as the metal wall formed. They could see a small dent bulge forth as the lizards undoubtedly slammed into it, a crashing noise and muffled reptilian curse words coming from the other side.
"Yes!!"
Ven threw his hands in the air, pointing his sword skyward.
"Showed them!!"
He then realized he didn't do anything and his posture slumped.
Henri crouched on the ground, completely out of breath.
"Nice work, Allen."
Ven crouched next to his king.
"Are you all right, my liege?"
"Fine, fine..."
"Hold still."
With a flash of his blade, Ven slashed though the chains on the old man's wrists. The man rubbed them, glad to be free of the heavy cold steel.
"Now we just need to find a way out of here..."
"Draven wanted us to try and commandeer this ship. I don't know where he went, though..."
Henri chuffed at this.
"Is he crazy? Those things are everywhere..."
"Yes, I believe he is, actually..."
"Listen, Allen, how familiar are you with these airships? Do they have some sort of escape mechanisms or anything? I think its best we got out of here..."
----
A metal boot nudged Druid in the side.
"I think he's dead."
"He is not dead you morons. Get away from him."
"Ohhh, master. Can I eat him? Pleassse?"
Jayce backhanded the giant fat lizard in the mouth, the drool dripping from his jagged crocodile like teeth spraying the ground.
"There will be no EATING until I say so."
"But he looks sooo tasty..."
Jayce raised a black gauntlet again and the six foot tall tub of reptilian lard flinched.
Melface resumed a standing position, for he was crouching over the unconcious man. His sliver hair waved in the winds. He looked like a twelve year-old child, except for the long pointed ears. And the red eyes. And the fangs...
"I would have to agree. I don't think he's human."
Jayce walked up to the unconscious lump, grabbing him by the back of the neck. With one hand, the burly black armored Draken lifted Druid up so high that his legs dangled on the ground, his limp body swaying in the breeze. Jayce smelled the man slightly.
"Smells human, but you're right. There's something different about him... And we all saw what he did... Could be fun..."
Jayce smiled that maniacal grin, small fangs appearing in his teeth.
He tossed the body to his side, where it was caught by a rather classical looking demon. A tall demon, with brght red skin and two jutting horns piercing through thick black hair.
Jayce waved behind him.
"Take him back to camp and make him comfortable... I want to have a little chat when he wakes up..."
"But my lord, do we really need--"
"Do it."
Druid was placed in a black linen tent, upon a large cot of moderate comfort. The inside of the tent was mostly barren, except for his staff laid to one side. Reptilian guards circled the exterior of the tent...
-
"No, no. Really I'm fine." Firstman said, gesturing with his hands. "Besides I promised Gustoph and Ramón that I'd join them for a card game."
"Don't you think this is more important?" Marshall said trying to encourage him.
Firstman rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Okay, okay." Marshall said taking back his statement. Firstman tended to get tired out pretty quickly. He also feared death a bit more then Marshall did, and craved adventure a bit less. Marshall understood this. "Well, let's get going Coriko." He said. "Who else will be coming with us?" He asked Kropotkin.
"Just a few other people, they've already left I told them to expect you and/or Coriko to join them soon, they'll likely be waiting, since you two are the most skilled fighters we have, right now."
"You've told me that before." Marshall said grinning. "But I can't help feeling highly about myself when you say that." He looked back at Peter "Anything else we should know?"
"The supplies are up on the top floor, they should have your names labelled on them. Also, intelligence says that these people may join our cause pretty quickly, if we just give them a hand. Don't force them to do anything they don't want to. I don't like to spread that kind of image about us." Kroptkin explained.
"Of course" Marshall looked to Coriko. "Once more onto the breach my friend." The duo then walked back up to stairs. At the top floor Marshall looked around and saw the crate. "There it is." He said pointing. "Help me carry it outside..."
----
The door slammed shut behind Zeros'. He was in a dark room, only lit by a couple of torches, if they went out then the room would be totally dark.
The room looked empty, yet it did have some strange rectangle designs on the walls, at least they somewhat looked like designs. A few seconds after Zeros' entered the room, the rectangles began to fall off the wall, revealing small holes on the walls, each housing a small green drake. There were many of them all over the room. The door at the end was locked. Likely unknown to Zeros' but now known to us one of the mini dragon had the key inside it. (We will assume the key will be in the LAST dragon you kill.)
On a close count, one could see that there were 40 Mini Dragons in this room. They haven't eaten in days and Zeros' looks like a great meal to them...
----
Vandrin arrived back to his castle, he immediately got to worked he signed the forms to triple the entire security of the county.
"Sir, is the bounty still on for your kidnapper?" One of his assistants asked, as Vandrin was resting on his bed in his chambers.
"You're damn right it is. I have never been so insulted and embarrassed in my life! But I want him brought to me alive so I can deal with him myself!" He then sat up on his bed and punched the palm of his left hand with his right fist. "I want that freak castrated and crucified. Then set in the middle of town hall for everyone to throw rocks at him, then when he dies I want his body parts nailed on the outside walls for every worthless savage freak like him to see!"
"I'll write up the warrant, Count Vandrin." The assistant said. He bowed to the count and then exited, before Vandrin went even further. He was feeling sick to his stomach just thinking about what he said.
----
Duilin didn't want to fly, for a couple of reasons. One, he didn't want to get spotted. Who knows what those guys would have done to him if he were captured. And two, he was feeling rather tired from all the work he had done and plus it has been about 18 months since he's eaten or drank, or at least remebers doing that.
He has no idea where he has been, but he knows that it's true that he was somewhere else. It didn't feel like an hour ago he was fighting Draven, it felt like several months ago. It was all in the back of his memory, but with a large nearly empty void in the front.
He felt really tired. It struck him almost suddenly. He thought back to that great feast at Tjed and that surprisingly great banquet at the Crimson Palace. He'd dine with Draven or even Valos, because he was so hungry.
He saw a snake run past him a big, raw, juicy snake. Duilin jumped at the slithering creature, grabbing by the tail with one hand and grabbing its neck with the other. The snake struggled to get free; Duilin watched it squirm as he tried, enjoying the sight. The snake then bit his hand with its sharp fangs the teeth dug into Duilin's skin. He dropped the snake on the ground, and the creature started to slither away. He underestimated the little creature. Duilin smirked and then snapped his fingers lighting a flame in his hand, he then tossed the fireball at the snake, toasting the creature. It was a tough little critter but it was still to weak...
Duilin crawled over the snake's burning corpse he tossed sand onto the flames. He liked his meat a bit more rare but this would do, he ripped a piece of the snake meat off, and chewed it. It tasted pretty bad but he needed to eat. He sat in the sand, and continued munching away...
-
...and so, the group gathered their essential belongings, and was off. They took a hydrojump transport across the ocean splitting Kandarin and Terian, landing at a sandy beach. Their maps showed that their destination lie through a series of forests, deserts and swamps; indeed, it was not an easy journey.
--- --- ---
Absolutely nobody heard the body bag being dragged through the streets. The city slept a deathly sleep, abandoned long ago. The cloaked figure dragging the body bag did not seem to mind the silence. It simply dragged the bag on, towards a half-destroyed house.
The door opened and shut, letting the stranger inside. He heaved the bag through a fissure in the wall, dragging it down a staircase. The person inside the bag was trying to resist, but without much success.
Finally, the cloaked stranger came up to an eerily-glowing red door, with a carving of a thin dragon on it. A creepy voice whispered,
-"What is the colour of the night?"
The answer followed immediately.
-"Sanguine, my brother."
The door slid open, and, dropping the cloak, the man walked inside. He continued dragging the body bag on the stone floor, ignoring muffled screams. There were others like him in this strange place; the man was greeted by occasional quick jealous glances at the body bag. He only sneered in return.
After another few minutes of dragging, the assassin finally reached his target. A simple but sturdy wooden door, with yet another dragon-like carving on it. He carefully opened the door, entering the room on the other side.
The pale glow of the burning oil barely illuminated this room, darker than the rest. The light was coming out of two vases, sending soft eerie light through the whole room; although dim, the light penetrated every shadow.
Between the two vases stood a stone altar-like slab, over it the carving of the omniprescent black dragon. There was another man awaiting, carefully inspecting a dagger in his hands. The bag carrier stopped.
-"Greetings, brother."
The man turned around, and a wide smile cracked through his face.
-"Ah... I see you have brought me... a gift..."
The assassin smiled glumly, and silently nodded.
-"The die is cast; the means of sacrifice shall be determined."
The priest produced a six-sided die out of his robes, and threw it down on the altar slab. Another grin penetrated his dry face, and he slowly looked at the assassin.
-"Sharpen the knives, and prepare the Eviscerator for a new... volunteer..."
The slab came apart, revealing a hole. Mechanic noises were coming out of it, as well as a swooshing very indifferent from that of a swung sword.
The assassin opened up the body bag, letting a very angry-looking pirate out of it.
-"Threats to the Brotherhood... Pillaging protected villages... and the assassination of a fellow Brother. Unacceptable, captain Karnov. Goodbye."
The priest kicked the pirate into the hole, and the slab quickly slid together, nicely muffling the agonized screams. The priest looked up at his guest.
-"Well done, Brother Grief. Your tribute is fullfilled; the Father is pleased. Here is your next target."
The acolyte handed Grief the dagger he was holding.
-"She is a virgin blade. Your target is inscribed on the other side."
The assassin flipped the dagger and read the inscription.
-"High General Arlin..."
-
Draven pointed his burning blade forward as he landed back in the dusty sand.
"Ready to fight your own battle?"
The uninjured rushed off to help the injured warriors, all looking up with worried anticipation at what their master would do with the fire mage.
Virmir was never one for words.
With a single bound, he was off, speeding towards Draven like a rocket, the sands parting before him. In an instant his image split in two as Draven's crimson blade bore down on the silver fox, leaving a wave of flame in its wake. But it was just a trick, and Virmir struck from behind, Draven just flipping his blade up to match that wikedly long sword with a shower of sparks, preventing it from slicing open his neck. The Wind Serpent was indeed an enchanted blade, for it had little trouble slicing though Draven's thick shielding aura of flame.
The Velken style relied heavily on speed and precision, delivering minor blows to fatally sensitive areas in quick blurs that mere human eyes couldn't even follow. Virmir was no exception, except as being labeled the greatest Velken warrior alive he took it to the extreme. He spun around Draven like a tornado, kicking up sand as he struck high, middle, and low from all directions randomly. He was fast-- way faster than anyone Draven had ever faced... the Crimson Emperor just barely able to parry the incoming stabs and slashes with his crimson blade...
----
There was some rustling in a bush near Duilin...
A short dark figure suddenly stumbled out, panting heavily and clutching his left arm... Pain was Renard's world... Every inch of his body hurt, his head especially... The silver fox took a step towards Duilin and fell to his knees...
He was simply a mess. The hastily thrown up protection spell had indeed saved his silver fur from being burned clean off, but still his black robes were tattered and singed, his body covered in bruises and lacerations. Part of his left arm had been outside the area of the protective spell and here the skin was charred and broken, blood flowing freely. Thank the heavens his lush tail had been spared, for that would have been the ultimate disgrace...
His blurred vision followed the path up until he could make out the silhouette of the winged figure there... Who was this? A friend or foe...? Gods, please Lord Virmir... save me!
But it had wings... demon wings...
It could not be... the angel of death had come for him...!
He weakly held up his right claw. No! Go away! Ice! Cast the ice! Put out the fire!!
Cerulean sparks fizzled around his outstretched hand, but faded into nothingness. The world turned. So dizzy. So very tired...
He collapsed face first, his muzzle smacking into the sand. His breathing was heavy and troubled, a pool of crimson blood slowly staining the ground beneath him...
-
Zeros' entered the room and looked around, noting the rectangles. He titled his head for a moment before scanning the room. One... Two... Three...
He kept counting until he reached fourty.
"Hmm... Fourty little drakes... And greens ones at that," he sighed and shook his head. He didn't want to have to kill these dragons, but... He knew, from the look in their gleaming, sltited eyes, that he was a meal to them.
He put his hand on his sword, drawing it out from it's scabard. His sword flashed, illuminating the room. The blade lengthened and dipped lower, the blade forming from the katana shape into a scimitar of sorts. The plain hilt transformed from leather into a brilliantly white fur, made from the god Fenrir.
He hefted the sword and rested it on his shoulder. He would wait for the small creautre to make their move.
---
Allen shook his head. He wiped sweat from his brow. He wasn't as young as he used to be. Doing quick alchemy like that used up more energy then if he did it using a transmutation circle.
"No, sadly. The only sort of exit we have here is the docking bays, but those are used to move supplies from the bay to the airship. There's a door that drops from the side, but at this height(?), we'd just drop off into nothingness," he sighed and shook his head.
"So, the only way to get off is... to fly."
-
Duilin noticed something stumble out from a near by bush. It looked like an animal, a silver fox. He noticed it reach out just before falling to the floor. It had apparently noticed him. He stood up on his feet and walked towards the fox, on the ground. It was humanoid. He's never really seen anything like this before.
Duilin was still really hungry, he wasn't sure if it was dead. But if it was he may as well put the dead animal to good use. But it was pretty human like, and it felt a little uncomfortable thinking about eating it. He knelt down and then poked the fox man, with his pointer finger, a bit more then gently, but not to roughly.
"Uh...hello?"
-
Nick realizing he was being totaly ignore found something pecuilar. His surrounding began to move and the blanket of lies revealed a dark room. A light flickered on putting Nick in right in its ray.
"So this is who you are now?" The voice was Drakes.
"Where are you?" Nick asked trying to spot his foe.
"Right in front of you." Drake appeared before Nick. The room was lit up by four more lights at this time. The rooms walls and floors were an off-white. "Get up!" Drake demanded with a booming voice.
"This is going to be our last encounter you do know that. It either me or you leaving this world." Nick took out one of his blades and held it ready.
"Thats exactly what I planned for..." A vine ran down drake's arm to his hand. "<span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>Thorn Blade!</span>" The blade flowed from his forearm toward Nick's chest. It just missed by a few inches. Close one Nick thought. Nick ran to the side of drake and pulled out a quick attack. He flipped sideways and slammed his blade downwards. Drakes vine broke apart and Nick landed on his knees. "You've improved..." Drake's eyes where set on Nick watching his every move.
-
Druid opened his eyes but he didn?t move. He saw he was in a hut or tent of some sort. He had been moved, but by who.
?They kept me alive, which probably means they know what I?m capable of.? Druid whispered to himself. ?I could level this entire camp ground, yet they probably will be more of a challenge then highway men. I?ll see what they want and then decide.?
Druid swung his legs over the edge. He saw his cloak was resting on a chair along with his staff. Druid stuck his staff into his belt and put on his cloak. He walked up to the flap of the tent. He didn?t know what awaited him. He prepared himself for the worse and stepped outside.
-
Marshall and Coriko carried the crate outside. Marshall did his normal gestures, of holding the amulet and casting a blue spectre from his hand, which took the shape of a wyvern. He then repeated the same motion two more times and three wyverns were ready for flight.
"Okay, then." Marshall said, looking at the creatures. They then put the crate on one of the wyvern's back. It was a flat crate so it shouldn't feel much different from wearing a backpack to the thing. Marshall tied the crate onto it. "Alright, let's get going."
They hopped onto their wyverns and they were off...
----
The little dragons circled around Zeros' for a moment preparing to swarm their pray. Suddenly five of the drakes then pounced at Zeros', two at the legs, two at the torso and one right for the face...
//Feel free to control them, to speed things up.\\
-
The earth shifted and Nick lost his balance. Drake saw his oppourtunity. He struck with great percision. Nick's arm bled..blood flowed down his shirt. Nick pushed up with his right leg dodging a second attack. He swiped his sword at Drake's leg. Drake jumped over Nick and attacked from behind. Nick rolled over just missing getting stabed.
-
Ven clenched his fists.
"Fly... I can cast a wind spell, but I've never done it with three people before. I don't think I could carry us all... Isn't Draven supposed to be...?"
Henri's third eye had already appeared on his forehead, a bright green shimmer radiating from it.
"I don't think Draven is still on the ship... the fog is too thick for me to tell anything else..."
"Still that bad?"
Henri nodded sadly.
Ven brought his silver gauntlet to his chin.
"Hmm, well..."
There was a loud THUMP. A visible bulge jutted from the newly formed metallic wall. Ven turned to it. Another one, the bulge growing larger, the wall almost tearing...
"... I think it's time to leave...!"
They began to make their way down the hallway once more, ducking down a random intersection so they wouldn't be seen.
"I think the docking bay's our best bet right now!"
----
"Game over, fur ball."
Then that face... That burning twisted sneer...
"AHHH!!!"
Renard felt a painful stabbing in his back, his skin still sensitive and body quite sore. He flinched and angled his head to the side, forcing his eyes open. The angel of death!!! Was... poking him...?
Up close, it didn't really look that horrible... Was he hallucinating...? His injuries were that bad... His head throbbing... It looked more like one of the Gaian natives with it's smooth pink skin, kind of like the form the Dark Prince hid himself in, except this one had wings, which didn't seem natural.
"Ergh... hello..."
He clenched his teeth, forcing the words out.
"... are... you..." He paused, searching for the right word... "... hu-man...?"
----
Two jagged blades crossed in front of Druid's chest, the two tall reptilian guards coldly staring down at him.
"Hold." Came a thick voice from across the camp. It wasn't a large settlement at all, just a few black tents, set up in a small forest clearing. Woods surrounded all sides. The lizards immediately took back their weapons.
Jayce was making his way towards the recovered man from across the camp, his burly form impossible to miss. That massive black armor and that huge scimitar across his back. He stopped in front of Druid, taking a moment to size the man up.
"Feeling better? Good, good... I'll cut to the chase. The reason you're here is because I saw what you can do... and I like it. I'm looking for a few good warriors, you see. City razors, purifiers, wide area destruction masters... Looking for a job? It pays well..."
He snapped his fingers. An armored lizard that was hobbling behind him dropped a small chest, a foot wide and a half deep, in front of Druid's feet. The wooden box burst open, obviously stressed by the weight of its contents, revealing glittering gold inside... Dark Empire gold... outlandishly large coins, about an inch and a half wide, emblazoned with the draconic symbol of the Dark Empire...
-
'So it speaks, I guessed so, seeing how the animal is clothed.' Duilin thought as the Velken spoke to him.
"Yeah, I'm human..." Duilin said, he didn't think it was necessary to say his other half, people tended to dislike him when he announced when he was half demon. "What's the matter?" He added. "Didn't you know that some humans have wings? It's uh...rare, but it happens sometimes. Really."
Duilin was rather curious of why it was in its wounded state; perhaps this might lead him into some adventure. He was still hungry, but he wouldn't mind jumping right back into action. He then asked the fox, "What happened to you? Did you get mugged or something?"
-
Coriko jumped onto the wyvern. He never was good at flying these things, but he was better then when he first started. As they took off into the air Coriko called to Marshall.
?Hey Marshall, so where exactly is this town??
---
Druid didn?t look at the chest. He never took his eyes off of the man in charge. The man was a tad bit taller than himself. Druid could probably fight his way out of this place, but he was still sore from his fight with the preacher. Druid quickly ran through this proposition in his head. Druid did need a way to get by. He had to put aside his vengence for a while. Even though he wasn?t a mercenary who was paid to fight, he probably did need money to get around on this world as well. Druid knew he had been thinking for too long already and so he replied.
?Alright I?m in. So what do you have in mind for me?, I?m sorry I don?t know your name.?
-
Drake's aura grew and had a green luminisnece. He took off his hood and revealed his grayed hair and scared face.
"This is the last time we'll meet!" He yelled before striking the vine blade down. It made a thump as it hit Nicks palm which was covered in black energy. The vines quickly grew around him placing him in a cacoon. After a few moments of the cacoon twisting and turning it stoped....A black energy covered the cacoon and made the vines snap outwards. The energy disappated after moving outward a few inches.
"Your right it is!" Nick said as a darkness cocealed and killed Drake. "Now i know I will never put my sword down untill every person like you is dead or cowering before me!"
-
Help had not yet arrived.
The white magic had run its treatment, but Alex was still ailing. The suit's power was only flickering at this point, and no more medical treatment could be administered. He was aware of his injuries, if the shock didn't get him, the internal hemorrhaging would. He would bleed to death on the inside.
Alex was embarrassed as to how helpless he was. In the course of eighteen months previous he had managed to keep himself out of danger, but with three massive rock monsters show up, he can't seem to keep it together. All he could really do at this point is sit and wait.
And even that proved to be a chore. Alex was fighting a losing battle against unconsciousness, and he would soon lose. If he did, he might not ever see the waking world again. Alex never thought this would be how he would die, in a rotting industrial park, bleeding to death on the inside. There HAD to be someone nearby who could help.
Finally, Alex lost the fight. He plunged into the void of unconsciousness.
...Though he was not dead.
Alex appeared to regain consciousness into what appeared to be a dream or a hallucination. He, cast in an ethereal glow, scanned a quick look over his new location. It looked like the old sparring arena his old mentor, Caulus Zalridge, had trained him in. It was large, round indoor room, with plenty of space to spread out and fight. Lining the walls were some of Caulus' magical charms and runestones he so wanted Alex to use in battle. Unfortunately, the stubborn child Alex desired the brutish excitement of melee combat.
Though glowing, Alex noticed that his form was still corporeal, as he could feel the ground below him. Opposite him across the large arena was the ghostly form of Caulus Zalridge, the wise old mage who had found Alex abandoned as a baby. He appeared in the same way Alex did.
Caulus was an old man, of at least seventy, at least, when he departed. His long white beard and hair displayed him as a man with experience, and his robes covered with a variety of runic symbols showed his magical prowess.
"Young Alex," Caulus called. "What brings you here? I thought you were off saving the world and whatnot."
Alex swallowed a lump in his throat, and replied, "Uh, to be honest, I don't exactly know how I got here...I was fighting this golem one moment, the cannon I was using backfired, and then..."
"Hush, child. That was a rhetorical question. I know exactly why you're here. You're just barely hanging on to the threads of life in the real world, son," Caulus replied. "All of this you are seeing, feeling, hearing, is my departed soul contacting you. I believe you remembered what happened last time, at the Borderworld."
"So how do I get back to the real world?" Alex asked, obviously concerned for his physical form.
"That, my friend," Caulus went on, "Is something you will have to learn. Alex, look down."
Alex obeyed. When he did, he saw his body, laying limp against the ordinance warehouse wall. From an outside view, Alex got a good idea as to how bad he had been beaten. His armor was dented, his visor cracked, and various parts of the armor had been chipped off completely. Alex tried to approach his body, but went nowhere fast.
"A common mistake of those experiencing near-death," Caulus seemed to chuckle a little bit. "You see, you can't just float back into your body and be good as new. It doesn't work that way. Someone has to put you back."
"Okay...so can you do it?" Alex asked, feeling a little selfish.
"I wish I could, child, but I cannot. It takes a being of the twilight to do such things," Caulus sighed. "I know one."
"Who, WHO?!" Alex cried, knowing he had limited time.
From Caulus' lips escaped one word.
"Midna."
Suddenly, a blinding flash filled Alex's vision, and he appeared next to his body. Aware he himself could not return to his physical form, he turned back to his former mentor.
"Okay...Midna. Got it. And where do I find this Midna?"
"The last time I heard from her, she was investigating the Kandarinian activity in Asgarnia. Perhaps you could find her spying on them in the Kandarinian citadel."
"And how do I get there without a body?!"
"Alex, you're looking at this new form as a curse. However, there are many things you can do in this spirit form that would be impossible for a human. In this form, you are invisible to all but those well versed in the magical arts. Midna is one such person. Seeing as you have little corporeal form, you can pass through most solid objects by only thinking about it. Also, your senses in this form are greatly heightened, you will be able to hear, see, and smell things you could not previously. Remember, Alex, this is not a curse, but a blessing. Find Midna, and she will restore you to your proper form. Now, I must go."
"Wait!" Alex cried. "How will I know what she looks like?!"
"Use your senses, child. You will know her when you see her." Caulus chuckled, and seemed to vanish into thin air.
Alex looked back at his body and sighed. He couldn't ask for help. No one would hear him. He could not get attention, no one would see him. He was alone.
"If only Ein or Marshall were here...maybe one of them could be able to see me."
Alex turned to the looming Kandarinian citadel. Over the past eighteen months, the Kandies had modified large buildings to their liking. Alex had previously done his utmost to avoid that part of town, but it seemed at this point, he had no choice.
So off Alex went, in search of this mysterious Midna that Caulus had so lightly mentioned.
-
"Yeah, remember when he pointed it out on the map?" Marshall said (not noted in earlier post). "It's a couple miles from Lawessov. Shouldn't take us too long?"
As Marshall was flying towards the location of his next mission, he thought back to his previous mission and his encounter with Duilin. He wondered if he'd ever want to join the Aspyes. If he hates Draven, he may not alley with him again; then again there is the problem with Zeros'. From the day he spent with them, 18 months ago, he could tell that Duilin seemed to follow Zeros', but it was more like an older brother relationship going on, rather then a soldier following his Emperor. And at times, that can be a harder bond to break.
----
Vandrin had identified the man who captured him as Duilin Talonscar, he was a former member of the Dark Empire. Five years ago he was charged for killing several officers and soldiers in the Empire. The charges were dropped eighteen months ago when he helped the Crimson Empire fight the Aspyes. Vandrin also learned that Duilin was not recorded to have wings until around the first appearance of the Aspyes.
Vandrin has issued a bounty on Duilin Talonscar of Three Million Gold Pieces to the person who brings him back alive. Wanted posters have already been posted in several towns, outposts and bases in both Kandarin and Terian.
-
Coriko was flying beside Marshall. He was about to say something to make conversation but he noticed that Marshall was thinking. Coriko thought he should leave Marshall to his thoughts. Coriko turned his attention to the surrounding landscape. It was a lot of green and red. He then looked in the direction of the town and saw smoke.
"Some one got there first!" Coriko yelled this aloud to Marshall to get his attention. Then he pointed at the smoke so Marshall would see. Coriko nudged his wyvern to go faster so he could see the cause of the smoke.
-
Zeros' springs into action, seeing the small drakes starting an assult. He bats away the one coming for his face with his non-occupied hand before slashing with his sword, killing the small dragon instantly. He says a silent prayer for the drake, before returning to his task.
He kicks away two of the drakes heading for his legs, his sword slashing and killing those two. The drake heading for his torso is met with a swift punch to the face, causing the tiny skull to collpase, blood leaking out of it's ears, showing the small dragon to have died.
With these four dead, another drake heads for his torso. A quick slash fells him as well. Seeing five of their brothers die, the small drakes cry out in anguish All thirty-five fly out from theri hiding potions and fly at Zeros', who frowns and readies himself.
---
Allen nods and follows the two, ignoring the lizards pounding into his wall. He didn't give a thought, guiding the two to the docking bay.
-
"Son of a draken!" Marshall snapped. "Go! Go!" He hits his wyvern and it starts to fly faster, and he motions to the third one carrying the crate to fly faster.
"I hope the civilians are okay. Else, this mission is a failure!" Marshall was really worried. He hopped it wasn't Duilin or somebody, he hopped that it was just a group of warriors or something. He'd rather battle troops then have to combat one really powerful mage. Those sorts of people never give up.
-
Nick was teleported back to Kadarin he was outside near the ports. Nick was in a daze, moving around dizzily he reached a ship that was about to leave with crates. Nick climbed aboard and it started on its way to the mainlands.
-
Human. Probably not a good thing, Renard thought. There was a chance he was from the Kandarinian Sovereignty, but that was unlikely, considering this winged version here was alone. No, this guy is probably one of the very humans the Dark Empire is exterminating like so much vermin...
And he was at his mercy...
Blast it. Renard struggled to lean to his side. Obviously the human was weary of him, considering the questions. He couldn't blame the man, of course. Luckily the Velken did not have anything on him that would specifically link him to the Dark Empire. There was the Welkin heraldry on his amulet, of course, but only Dark Empire officers knew what it meant. Technically Welkin was a separate nation, but the government had been assimilated completely by the Dark Empire in time...
Finally managing to lean on his elbow, Renard began coughing violently, a bit of blood dribbling from his muzzle. He wiped it off with his already ruined sleeve.
"Mugged... yeah... something like that..."
He wished. Try getting blasted off a freaking airship...
What could he do? Ask the human for help? Blast it, where were Lord Virmir and the others? He tired to reach out his senses, to try to detect their life forces... but it hurt too badly...
"You wouldn't... have any water would you...?"
----
Jayce's grin grew more crooked.
"Jayce, Prince and High General of the Dark Empire, Gaian Division. Glad to see you're interested... I'm sure you will enjoy all the little benefits of... working for our fine little establishment... This isn't a standard platoon I'm running here. This is a small group of elites I've organized to tear up and pillage this land to assess if I want it enough to invade. Those that do well in this little program of mine find themselves in rather comfortable commanding officer positions later on..."
"What?! You're just gonna let him in?"
"Is there a problem, Boron?"
There was a tall red skinned demon making his way past some tents. A classical demon with two jutting horns and a small goatee. His armor was shiny black.
"I mean, we all worked so hard..."
"I think Boron doesn't want to split another share of the loot." This deceivingly deep voice was from the child-like Melface, who appeared to Druid's right.
Jayce stroked his chin. "Yes, we should organize a test. Thank you for volunteering, Boron."
"Huh?"
He pointed at Druid.
"You two, fight." He leaned closer to Druid's ear. "Kill him and you're in."
Boron heard that. "What?! Fine! I'll gut this little man and eat him myself."
He licked his lips while drawing one of his two katana blades.
"Food?! Who's eating?!"
That huge lizard appeared out of one of the tents, barring its crocodile like teeth.
"NOT now!"
Jayce pointed to the edge of the cliff the camp was near.
"You will fight down there. I expect a good show..."
"Pah!"
Boron took off into the sky floating down the edge of the cliff. There was a grassy clearing at the bottom, surrounded by thick trees. A good spot for a match, especially for any spectators on the rock above.
-
In the small farming community of Honckringe, which is one of the places used to supply the Imperial Forces with food, a foul stench flowed through the air. But this was not the normal stench of pig shit; it was the smell of evil!
"Zeak! C'mer! A fire gone done start burin' in the field!" A lean, well-weathered farmer shouted to his companion.
"Whoa! Now how that?" He responds (barely) to his friend "Let's check it out."
The two run toward the fire. When they get there they see it had totally engulfed a large tree. Then from the giant thick firewall a man stepped out. The man had deep red skin, two horns and his legs looked like they came of a giant goat. Although he had such a Demon like body he was clearly something different, his smile seemed surprisingly pleasing and his eyes looked as if they had never seen evil in their existence.
"Wha... what in Slim Peat are you?" The skinnier of the two asked in shear astonishment.
"Ace!" The Devil snaps both his fingers and gives a nice grin. Just then two streams of fire burst from his fingertips and burn the farmers to ash. Almost as quickly as they died there bodies blew away in the wind without a trace and the Devil moved along with a chipper skip in his step.
-
"No actually, sorry." Duilin said. He examined the bloody fox man; he looked around the desert area, and took note of a few things. This animals wounds looked fresh, so the mugger must be close by, however as he examined the area there was nobody else in sight.
It could have been one of those Shadow Mutants, but what would it want with this guy? Perhaps that amulet, but still it didn't add up. He likely would have spotted the commotion going on. He looked at the animal in the eye. "I might be able to help you. But first, what happened to you...really?"
----
As Marshall and Coriko arrived at the village, they landed near by, were they spotted the Aspye party waiting for them. They landed near by them.
"What's going on?" Marshall asked, hopping off his wyvern.
"Some friggin' devil is torching people in the village. We thought we'd let the Imperials handle it, but I don't think they can." One of the rebels said.
Marshall looked down. clenched his teeth, then sighed and looked back at the rebel. "Well, what are we going to do about it then? Should we just call it off."
"I don't think we should, I'd say the best option would be get the people armed and then escape as soon as possible. I wouldn't suggest picking a fight with the devil if I were you."
Marshall shrugged. "I'll fight it if it comes at me." He looks into the village, he notices soldiers running towards the commotion. "Okay..." He points to a couple of rebels, ready to take the leadership role of the mission. "You two get the crate." The two agree and head towards the wyvern hulling the crate. "The rest of you, carry the weapons into the town and arm everyone willing to fight. Don't force them into anything, escort them out and fend off any of the troopers that attack you. Me and Coriko will distract the devil from attacking the people." He looks at Coriko. "You ready? Perhaps you could find a good sniper spot and distract it, maybe I can summon up something big to fight it."
-
The Kandarinian Citadel loomed high above the rest of the city in its center. It was originally the Asgarnian shield spire, captured and retrofitted by the Kandies for their dastardly exploits. A phantasmal Alex stood outside the perimeter. Since he was essentially invisible, he could walk right in and find Midna.
Alex released an echoed sigh and looked at himself again. He was cast in an unearthly bluish glow, as well as being partially transparent. He noticed that in this form, he was not wearing his P.C.S., but rather, his old jacket and pants.
He started down the hill towards the primary portcullis that kept unwanted visitors out. Any who wanted in would have to convince the hardened Kandies to lower the drawbridge over the stagnant moat that circled the spire, and then let him across. Many citizens knew that so much as approaching this structure was suicide. The Kandies were trained to spear anything that moved.
Luckily, these external defenses would be simple for Alex to bypass. Prior to arriving at the citadel he had done his best to get used to how to move and perform actions in this new ethereal body. While no veteran, Alex was convinced he could cross the wide moat without the need of a bridge. While appearing a daunting distance, Alex set his light feet down on the ground and concentrated.
He thought long and hard about being on the other side, about avoiding the moat. Before long, his feet had risen off the ground and he was drifting slowly to the other side. He softly landed without any noise at all. The Kandies were none the wiser. In fact, Alex was so confident in his stealthy approach, that he casually walked straight through one Kandie and into the spire gates. The Kandie shuddered as he felt a feeling of ice course through his body.
"What's with you?" The other Kandie asked, turning to his comrade.
"Urgh, nothing. Must be the wind or something."
Alex passed through the wrought iron gates and appeared in the foyer. He had never been inside the shield spire before, but its enormous structure was intimidating. He had no idea where to start to look.
He then remembered what Caulus had advised him to do, about using his senses. Trying his best, Alex tuned out all outside distractions, and thought solely about locating Midna. No sooner after he did this a bright spot showed up in front of him. Briefly floating for a second, it flew over to the stairs and spiraled up the helix. Whatever it was, it wanted Alex to follow, so he did.
Through many tiers of Kandarinian war rooms, prisons and barracks Alex followed the strange orb, sometimes passing through the occasional Kandie. Alex chuckled a little bit as he saw them shudder a little from having a feeling of icy daggers.
Soon, Alex could go no higher. He was at the top of the spire. The view from the balcony was amazing, the city of Asgarnia sprawling out for miles in each direction. Down below rebels and Kandies scattered like ants, engaged in a street war. The rebels were most likely planning an offensive on the citadel in order to regain control of the city. Alex turned his attention to the orb. As if by magic, it began to speak.
"So, you're Alex, huh? Caulus told me about you, how he raised you and such. It's such a pity, human life is so fragile. I suppose you want me to help you out."
Alex was dumbstruck. "Wait, so you're..."
The orb sparked, and took the form of an impish creature.
"That's right. I'm Midna."
What Alex saw could best be described as a floating female imp, roughly a meter or so tall. One eye was obstructed by a tall stone-like helmet she wore, the other was an eerie red eye. She had long, pointed ears and one fang-like tooth among other human-like teeth. Her skin was a combination of dark and a pale-blue color, her arms and lower body covered in glowing green markings.
(For those with difficulty to visualize it, here's an image)
(http://http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7479/midnata3.jpg)
Alex was aghast. This...thing was supposed to help him return to his human form?
"I can see you're perplexed...allow me to explain. Somewhere along the line, you've suffered a near-fatal injury and your spirit was jettisoned into limbo. It's here you will remain until someone either revives you or someone, such as myself, deposits you back into your body. I know your old mentor, Caulus. He was a good man, while he lived that is. It's quite fortunate that you were raised by him..."
"Listen, can you get me back into my body or what?" Alex barked.
"It surprises me that you wouldn't treat someone such as myself, your only lifeline to the waking world, with a little more...respect. Perhaps I should reconsider this."
"Listen, and listen good, you whatever-you-are. I'm coordinating a massive uprising effort against the Kandarinians, and without a leader, they won't be able to do jack-shit for themselves."
"Ah, so you're with that rabble in the streets?"
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
"Surprisingly, no. You see, it was a Kandarinian sorcerer who cursed me to this fate I'm in now...I was once a beautiful young girl, the destined ruler of Asgarnia, until that...that...URGH! He challenged me for my spot on the throne, and when I backed down, he turned me into this imp and took it anyway. What he doesn't understand is that his power is false."
"So, let me get this straight. We're both working towards a common goal..."
"You need your body, and I need my throne. Maybe we can help each other out. If I do restore you to your former self, you must vow to front all effort into fighting those...those..."
"Kandies?"
"For lack of a better term, yes. If you can help me reclaim my spot on the Asgarnian throne, perhaps I'll have an even greater reward for you. So how about it? Do we have a deal?"
Alex was silent for a moment, until finding the guts to come up with that one binding word.
"Deal."
Midna raised her tiny hands, glowing and crackling with unknown energies. With one motion and one grunt, these energies enveloped Alex. His vision flickered, and then faded to black.
Alex came to lying on his back on the ground. He made the effort to lift his arms, which was now possible. Even more relieving, he saw he was again cocooned in his protective armor, which had mysteriously been repaired of any damage. He was able to get up, he felt no pain, no aching, no nothing. It was as if he had never engaged those golems mere hours before. Midna drifted down next to him and giggled.
"See? I told you I could help you. Now you have to help me, yeah?"
"Yeah," Alex said, his voice again hollow and distant through the suit's helmet.
"Great," the little imp replied. "You know, just to prevent raising panic, I can hide in your shadow until you need me."
Midna flew down onto the ground and manifested herself into the form of a black silhouette of Alex.
"See? No worries. Now, on with you! We DO have a deal, remember?"
Saying nothing, Alex pulled himself over the brick walls of the Industrial District and back into Asgarnia proper. Midna then instructed him to return to the citadel. Rifle in hand, Alex charged in a one-man/one-imp assault on the Kandarinian capitol.
-
Down though the airship the trio went, twisting through winding corridors and black hallways. There was always some ambient sound wherever they went, whether it was the mechanical grating of gears, the magical hum of the cores, or the scraping of reptilian nails on metal. Often some combination.
The cargo bay finally appeared before Ven, Henri, and Allen. It was a very large room, filled with wooden boxes. On the far end was a very large door, the wind howling though the small cracks on the edges. Clearly it lead outside...
By now, Henri had time to think of a plan.
"Allen, if you can find something in this room to transmute into something... glider like perhaps, Ven might be able to propel it with wind magic."
"Right. We'll have to get that door opened first..."
Ven nodded towards a huge mechanical grating device with a crank that attached to the door.
"WHO GOES THERE?!"
It was a single lizard coming from behind, alerted by their voices.
"Great..."
Ven's blade was out in a silver flash. He spun to face the lizard man entering the doorway the trio just came through. It was huge... some eight feet tall, horns, scaly dark green hide with curling black armor.
"Humans... How lucky I am..."
He licked his lips.
Ven brought his sword up in a ready stance.
"Ahhhh, great..."
He waved back to Henri and Allen.
"You guys get to work... I'll distract him..."
With that Ven was off, meeting the monster's jagged sword with a shower of sparks. Henri ran off towards the door crank, leaving Allen to his own devices.
----
Renard tried to sit up a little more, but the pain was too much.
"Fire spell... hit me real quick... didn't get a good look at the guy... probably a demon..."
He did see that face... that maniacal twisted face... for just a split second... He really couldn't tell what that guy was, though, wrapped in flame like that. Demon was his best guess. Though there were demons employed by the Dark Empire, they were violent disgruntled beings, often unpredictable and loose cannon. The silver fox rolled over on his back, slipping his tail out to the side, as he stared up at the red and black clouds above, trying to dislodge that awful sneer from his mind. Blast it, where could Lord Virmir be?
-
Duilin thought for a moment. The only other demon he knew of that was alive, was Zeros', yet he wouldn't attack somebody just like that, or would he? Perhaps this animal is with the Dark Empire?
No, it couldn't have been Zeros', he's not a strong user of fire magic. Perhaps another demon is around? He remembers that the Dark Empire employed some. Or maybe, it's not a demon? Maybe it was...Draven.
He could sense the crazed fire mage's presence, yet only dimly, and he wasn't totally sure, if it Draven?s aura exactly. He is likely, in the sky somewhere, he could go check, but he can't just leave this animal here, and besides he himself needs some rest.
"So, I assume you were battling this demon in the sky?" Duilin said, as if he had figured something out. "Because I would have seen this happen." He narrowed his eyes. "But why would you find the need to lie to me?"
He looked back to the Vandrin County, which was mostly fades in the distance; he thought he could make out more shadowy blurs coming towards him. There better not be anymore mutants comming.
He looked back at Renard and then reached his hand down to him. "Tell you what, I'll take us somewhere to rest and you can tell me what's going on."
----
Several more of the drakes begin to circle around Zeros'. Seven of the mini-dragons then flap their wings as they take off towards the majestic half demon and dive down at him, ready to tear him open. The rest of them begin to charge towards Zeros' ready to eat...
-
Alex stood atop the same rocky hill he did when he was a spirit, overlooking the entrance to the Kandarinian citadel. Without those mysterious abilities he had as a spirit, getting in wouldn?t be easy.
He was silent for a moment while he thought of an ideal approach.
?Are you always this quiet?? Midna inquired, floating next to Alex, and seeming to recline on air. ?Why not just barge in? Those Kandarinian defenses aren?t so tough. You of all people should know that.?
?True, but if I raise the alarm, they?ll be all over us,? Alex replied, his facial expression obscured by his reflective visor. He turned to look at Midna. ?Unless you have a better idea.?
?As a matter of fact, I do.? She floated up to a girder protruding from the side of the megastructure. Strangely, her glowing orange hair seemed to extend, and form a human hand, beckoning Alex. ?I know a secret entrance. Simply jump up here and we?ll be in.?
Alex bent his knees and forced himself away from solid around as hard as he could. Amazingly, Alex cleared the ten-meter high jump with ease. What did Midna do to him?
?It?s right through here,? she said, floating through a window. Alex pulled his heavy frame through, and landed on the ground with a loud clunk.
?Keep it down!? she whispered to her armored follower. ?You want them to hear us??
?I?ll keep that in mind,? Alex grumbled. ?YOU try wearing two hundred pounds of armor and see how easy it is. All right, you got a plan??
?Actually, no.? Midna admitted emptily. ?I was hoping you would have an idea on where to go. I don?t exactly know this place in and out.?
?Great, so we?re flying blind.?
A pair of Kandies were walking up the spiral staircase from below. If they saw Alex, their goal would be exposed.
?Quick, into the shadows!? whispered Midna. ?I?ll do the rest.?
Alex quickly rolled his frame into the shadow cast by the next stairwell leading up. Midna provided a quick jolt to Alex?s P.C.S. that made him blend in to the shadows.
??So I?m out on patrol, right?? One Kandie said to the other.
?Uh-huh.?
?And there?s no one around for miles, right??
?Uh-huh.?
?So I turn around, and the next thing I know, it gets really cold! And I mean, REALLY cold! I nearly froze inside my armor!?
?Uh-HUH. You know, you ought to ask the shift foreman for some leave time. I think that helmet?s cut off circulation to your brain.?
?I?m telling you, something is in the citadel! If we?re not careful, we could be overthrown!?
?Oh, PLEASE. I?m sure it was just a cold gust of wind or something. You should be less concerned with imaginary ghosts and more worried about the rebels planning to advance on the citadel.?
?What if there?s an inside man??
?No wonder you?re put on guard duty. You?re paranoid as hell.?
The two soldiers kept bickering back and forth as they ascended the next series of spiral stairs. Alex stepped out of the shadows and into what little light permeated the citadel?s interior.
?They didn?t even see us,? Alex said.
?Of course not,? Midna replied jauntily. ?I cast some low-level twilight magic on your armor there. Whenever you move into the shadows, you?ll blend right in. You?ll be perfectly invisible. It only works in darkness though.?
?Neat stuff,? Alex commented.
?All right, let?s get going before some more of those goons show up.?
The two had been going for a while until they encountered a large set of double doors.
?Those guys are too confident in their poor security,? Midna remarked. ?The doors aren?t even locked!?
Alex gripped the door handle, and had to pull with all his weight to get it to open.
?They?re so damn heavy, they don?t need locks,? Alex shot back.
They entered a massive chamber, taking up at least half of the citadel?s interior. The large round chamber extended up and down for several hundred meters, with a small series of staircases lining the outside. In the center of the chamber was something unimaginable.
It could best be described as some enormous and ancient machine. It occupied a major part of the chamber. Alex had heard about this colossal device. It was formerly the Asgarnian shield generator.
Alex leaned over the guard rail to get a better view. On scaffoldings and on the surface of the machine were Kandie maintenance crews. They seemed to be converting the machine into something else. But what?
?My God?? Alex muttered. ?What are they doing to it??
?They?re reworking it,? Midna mused. ?The shield itself is powered by Borderworld energy, applied in a defensive way. From the looks of the new additions they?ve made to it, I?d say they?re making some sort of weapon.?
At the base of the structure, some hundred meters below, a massive swirling portal structure had been built. This weapon would have a direct power draw from the Borderworld, providing boundless amounts of potential annihilation.
?You know what we have to do,? Midna said.
?Sabotage.?
Suddenly, alarm klaxons filled the air with deafening buzzing. The alarms echoed throughout the chamber and the rest of the structure. As they did, some seemingly omnipotent voice thundered.
?Attention all Kandarinian personnel. We have confirmed reports of rebel presence in the lower levels of the citadel. Number at this point unknown, but it has also been confirmed that they are armed with Asgarnian energy weapons. All soldiers are hereby ordered to retaliate. Kill all insurgents on sight!?
Alex again needed a place to hide. Unfortunately, glowing power conduits connected to the ancient machine cast the chamber in a dim red glow, eliminating all shadows.
A group of Kandies run down the stairs and straight into Alex.
?Hey, it?s the rebel leader!?
?He?s here to sabotage the weapon!?
?Seize him!?
Alex, seeing nowhere to go, leveled his rifle and prepared for a fight. As he did, Midna flew back into his shadow and sighed.
?Well, I suppose it wouldn?t be an infiltration without a fight. Just don?t die this time??
-
With the arrogant smirk still on his face, Ace walked through the field. No one was there to witness the crime that just took place, and if they did, what could they do?
Ace saw that he was coming up on the market were the Dark Empire would buy (or steal and leave petty change behind.) The farmers' food. There are many armed soldiers guarding the caravans and making sure no one (Except them) steals the food.
"Hmm... this looks like a good place to try my skills." Ace mutters to himself as he runs into the shrubbery and hides.
Ace starts to glow in a black aura (like those disco black lights ) And takes the shape of a brutish farmer. Afterwards he summons a firewhisp and catches it in his strong grip.
"Stop Devil! There it is!" Two human guards shout as they spot the transformed devil.
"What? You fellers must be m'staken. Ain't nothin' but a lil' fire'hisp who got pissed off, tell ya what." Ace tries to speak in a buck toothed yokel tone.
"Ohh... is...is that so... sorry to bother you... heh." One of the guards manages to sputter out.
"I told you there's no such thing as Devils!" The other guard smacks the other in the head as they leave in embarrassment.
"Sometimes it just seems too easy..." That arrogant smirk returns as he walks into the town.
"Sir! The 'Devil' we have been worried about was nothing more than a spazzed out firewhisp, we can continue as usual" The guard reports.
"You Idiot! What do you think a firewhisp can burn a whole field, AND TWO FARMERS!? The officer roars and throws a book at the guard "leave five guards to look around but you can call back the rest."
-
The Aspye rebels, remained hidden in the near by bushes and tress outside the village. One of the rebels was looking into the town with an old fashioned looking telescope (but somewhat modern for this time period). "I can't seem to find that devil." He said, to his comrades next to him.
"Well, let's just get in. That house, right there, looks like a good place to start." Replied another rebel, pointing to a house a bit to the right of the group.
"I don't know. I'm worried about that devil too." Said the third one.
"Marshall will worry about the devil!" The second guy snapped. "We've got to arm the people."
The three looked at each other and nodded. The first rebel put the telescope back onto the strap on his belt, and took out his machinegun, him and one of the other two sneaked over to the back of the house. The third rebel came with several guns strapped over his shoulders. One of them tapped on the back window.
A woman opened the door. "Go away." She hissed.
"Madam. We're sorry to bother you, but we're with the Aspyes. We're not here to hurt you, we are here to help." Said the rebel.
"Okay, go on."
"We spotted a demon, on the loose, he's going to start attacking any minute. So we are going to help everyone leave the village, and try to avoid the Imperials. You interested in helping?"
"I'm not a fighter, but quickly get in, my brothers have actually been hopping for you guys to come." She whispered.
She helped the three men sneaking inside through the window. Apparently similar things were going on with several other houses along the rim of the villages...
(Dude Man: That was me. Dippy didn't log off.)
-
Ein rested atop a tree, peering at Asgarnia. He watched and watched and watched.
It had been a good year since he last saw it. Likely, nobody remembers him. Surely, nobody cares about him. Nobody, that is, except for Mursh, who was sitting on a branch next to him. He reminded Ein of Marshall a little.
-"So, it seems as though we're going back to the civilization, eh, Mursh?"
-"After a year, eh? Finally."
-"Damn right. They're not gonna expect us."
-"They've probably forgotten about us."
-"Probably."
-"Worth a try, though."
-"I concur."
Ein and Mursh hopped off the tree as if it were but a stump, and came into the nearest inn, on the outskirts of Asgarnia. It soon turned out to be not an inn at all, but a local Kandarinian allocation centre. The allocation officers were peacefully sipping some drink, feet on the desks and all. Ein apologised for his intrusion, and was about to leave...
-"Hey! Who the hell are you?"
One officer finally noticed Ein.
-"Umm... well, you see, we used to live here... until we left a year ago, and now we don't know where to go. I'm ... umm, Kein, and this here is Mursh."
-"Wow, living alone for a year and staying sane all that time... well, almost sane." The officer peered right at Mursh, then back at Ein. "So what are we going to do about you, eh?"
-"What will they do to us, indeed?"
It was Mursh's turn to speak.
-"I say we kill them."
-"Kill them? Why? They didn't do anything bad."
-"Didn't they?"
-"No."
-"Remember... a year and a half ago... does the name "Kronos" ring a bell to you? Sometimes, I think you can be a total idiot."
-"Whatever."
-"Kill who?"
The officer was a lot more cautious now; others have risen and drawn their weapons. Mursh was not pleased.
-"Shut up, you goddamn Kandie! Wasn't talking to you! Ein, kill them!"
-"No! I don't want to!"
-"Oh, yes you do."
Mursh lunged at Ein, and tried to take the crossbow from him. Mursh was strong.
-"Ein... give... me... the... crossbow..."
-"Never!"
Although Ein was strong, too, Mursh was stronger. The last thing that the confused officers saw was Ein trying to take his own crossbow from him. Unfortunately for the officers, Ein happened to accidentally pull the trigger a few times, before all four officers lay on the floor with a crossbow bolt sticking out of their forehead. They were too confused to try to do anything against Ein, and that's what Ein was playing at. He grinned to himself, and stashed his crossbow behind his cloak. So what if it takes a few minutes to get into character? More often than not, his acting skills crush even the stoutest of minds...
--- --- ---
The Necronomicon hunters were on their way through a dense rainforest, Arlin clearing the way with his whip, when something quite odd happened. Victo's backpack fell off.
-"GAWD! Big goddamn DEAL, your stupid little FANNY PACK fell off! just PUT IT BACK ON!"
Without words, Victo stretched his hand to show Soghol, Vorren and Hasterb the backpack. One of the belts holding it on his back was completely severed. Jacob carefully inspected the belt.
-"Well... I don't see how even an idiot as retarded as you can purposely cut his own backpack... maybe it was one of these dumb plants?"
Roland looked around, observing the flora.
-"No, the plants couldn't've done this. Even if they were, I don't know, Ents or something, they would need sharp parts on them to cut through leather. Look - just leaves."
-"Guys, come over here."
Zjott was sitting a small distance away, looking intensely at the ground. Jacob crouched beside him.
-"What is it?"
With a careful motion, Zjott pulled out a strange object. It was a three-sided shiruken, of sorts... the "teeth" parts were made of some strange red transparent rock, while the middle was metallic. In all his days of commanding, Zjott has never seen such a weapon.
-"Think this may have been the reason for the slashed belt?"
At that time, Roland pushed through in between Zjott and Jacob.
-"Here, let me see th--"
It was then when Roland noticed a symbol on the metallic tang. A thin, slithering snake-like dragon... Could it be?
-"Men, if this is what I think it is, it is likely that we do not have much longer to live. My advice to you is to turn back. Maybe the other guy would know something about this... the one with the whip? Come to think of it, where is he? He was here a second ago..."
--- --- ---
"I wandered around Sizri without a solid destination. Ever since I told the group to depart for the holy Necronomicon, there was this feeling... something was amiss. The group was not complete. Somebody was missing.
Then it hit me.
Nick.
I rushed to the nearest house, and grabbed the M-grid orb.
-"Nick, damnit! Get your demonic ass to my courtyard in Jovil, NOW!"
--- --- ---
Deep in the bowels of hell, Iban sat watching over his underling demons. A mortal man could easily mistake him for a corpse that some fool dressed in red robes. He barely moved at all from his throne, and yet, he was not idly resting. He was planning, and preparing. Preparing for the Day.
Ever since those idiotic Aspyes tried to shove their nose where it didn't belong, ever since Iban crushed the weak-minded minions that fell prey to the Aspyes' venomous lies, ever since that very day, Iban was preparing for a great revenge. This attitude saw the birth of many new demons - gigantic caterpillars, overly fat purple demons with metal maces for arms, ten-headed wyverns, and other things too grotesque to describe. Unfathomable has been fathomed; unimaginable has been imagined, and unrealizible has been built. Hell was no longer a torture place for sinning souls. It was a demonic factory. One large factory.
[charging 1 out of 25]
-
"HYAAAHHH!!!"
The sands shook as the pillar of flame surged skyward, ripping forth a huge blast of superheated air in all directions. Virmir was blasted back some hundred feet, the hilly dunes parting in his wake, before using his blade to cleave the winds, sending a residual shockwave diverted to his left and right, digging more holes as it rained the grainy yellow grit. It was a climactic finale to an intense five minute long sword dance, the Wind Serpent versus the Crimson Blade. A brutal draw.
Virmir was panting heavily, fighting the urge to let his tongue all the way out like a dog. His speed advantage was definitive, but he was having trouble cracking Draven's raw power. A lot of trouble...
By now the nine Velken warriors had collected themselves, huddled in a group well off to the side, swords poised and spells ready. They normally surrounded their opponents when waiting, but in this case it was not a good idea. Their injuries were not fatal, the only serious one being the slash across the one blade knight's chest, the warrior resting on his knees in the sand.
Draven floated a foot above the bottom of the crater he had created, crimson blade burning in his right hand as his red aura glared about him. He was breathing heavily as well, but he still had that god forsaken smirk about his face, the silver fox noted has he slowly floated back towards "the ring". He was enjoying himself... The lunatic...
As Virmir made it to the edge of the crater, Draven thrust his burning blade before him with both hands. He was chuckling to himself... With a bright flash the blade lengthened, extending to over six feet in length... well longer than the Velken's blade. Virmir's eyes widened. The Wind Serpent was ridiculously long, but this... this was madness! Draven was cackling madly now.
----
Renard reached up to take the human's hand in his claw.
"Th-thank you, stranger..."
He struggled to his feet, wincing as he did so. Duilin was a good foot or so taller than him. His strength suddenly failed him, and he fell against the man's shoulder. Blast it! Why was he so weak? Curse this weakness! Always depending on others, even now. He was getting sick of it.
"I... erm... I'm not sure how far I can walk..."
If only he could levitate like normal... This was so frustrating... A single hit. A single mistake and he was left a worthless invalid to die in the sand... He stumbled a bit, regaining his balance. At least he had stopped bleeding... so much.
"Where... where is the closest settlement... Asgarnia?"
-
"Asgarnia..." Duilin said, trying to remember the place. In fact the Vandrin County was close, yet no way is he going back there. He remembered the city of Asgarnia was near the Glacia Mountains, which at the north. He looked around, and in the distance he saw the Glacia Mountains. "Yeah, I guess so." (Hope I got that right.) He started walking, along side the Velken. "I haven't really seen one of your kind before. Where are you from? Do you have a name?"
----
<a href='http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia/index.php/The_Malefactors' target='_blank'>A group of four people</a> are sitting at the bar of a pub. One of them is a tall man, in black armour with silver trim, grinning at this piece of paper as he sips his ale. The fat orcs, chugging down his fourth ale, he spills some on his shirt but doesn't even notice. One man, an elf, who looks like he'd be a tribal, is smoking a pipe, he doesn't seemed to have an ale with him. And the fourth one, another human, he drinking down his ale, as he looks over the first guy's shoulder, at the paper.
"This is gonna be one good job boys." Says the armoured man.
"Yeah, but Brice..." Says the young one, to the armoured man. "A job with this good a pay, the dude has to be one tough son of a bitch, ya know?"
"Don't be so sure, Elliot." Brice puts the paper down on the counter. "I've been told I'm one tough sonofa bitch myself." He smirked and chugged down his ale.
The tribal elf looks at Brice. "Yes. But you have realize that no bounty be on you, Brice."
"Well yeah, but you have to realize Rufokanno that I don't get people Vandrin ticked off at me." Brice replies, to the tribal. "You'd have to be a moron to get somebody like him on your back. That single man is almost as rich as the super nations."
"I think we can take him." The orc says wiping the foam of the beer off his lip. "There's four 'a us, and only one 'a him."
"No duh, Scrums!" Elliot said, mockingly to the orc. "Way to state the obvious, loser!"
"Shut up Elliot!" Scrums growled back.
"Alright, enough already!" Brice said lifting his hand. He then handed the paper to Elliot. "We're gonna find this, Duilin Talonscar, we're gonna bust him up and then bring him back to Vandrin. But remember, he wants him back alive!"
"Anyways we should getta outta here." Scrums said, getting up. "The lizards might come lookin' for us."
The group then paid their tab and exited the pub...
-
After several minutes and thirty-five drakes later, Zeros' stood over all of the small corpses, a key clutched in his hand. His body was covered in small cuts, bites and bruises, but other then those, he was fine. He sheathed his sword and walked over to the next door.
He inserted the key and turned it, hearing the small click, indictating the door being unlock. He took and breath and opened the door.
---
Allen nodded at Ven and the king and quickly set off to work.
He searched around. A glider of some sort... He could transmute the framework out of metal around here, but he needed some sort of substance that he could transmute into a sort of paper material.
He searched around, but he couldn't find the material he wanted.
"Damnit," he cursed and walked over towards Henri. "Do you see anything we could possible used for the sail?" he has explained to Henri once how the laws of transmutation work.
What he wanted to transmute had to have some of the same elements. He couldn't trasmute sand into water, but he could transmute blood into water, simply because of the similiar components.
Gliders had a paper-like sail to use in flight, but sadly, he could't find anything that fit this description.
-
Coriko took off through a side street of the town. He didn't like snipping much, but he was good at it, very good at it. He did like a good hand to hand fight everyonce and a while. It gave him a chance to pull of some really cool moves with his fire hands. Coriko noticed a bell tower of some sort after a bit of running.
"Perfect."
Coriko ran a bit past it. He then turned around and got a running jump for the tower. He got some good air and was about one third up the tower. He started to climb.
---
Druid walked to the edge of the clearing he looked down at the demon. He was ready for a fight.
"Hey Boron, why are you so eager to die?"
With this taunt said and out of the way Druid jumped over the edge. His cape rippled as he fell downwards. He landed with a thud and didn't roll to absorb the impact. He just landed in a crouched postion. As much as it hurt to just land, he needed to be intimidating. To scare his opponent, and to show what he is capable of to the spectators.
"Alright, lets do this."
-
"Crap!" Nick said remembering he had a job. "Eh, Yes Sir." Nick jumped from the boat that was departing. He landed on the docks making a hollow sound. He ran hastily to Jovil. He almost tripped a few times before reaching a small wall dividing sectors. He leaped it and kept running.
-
//DM, the Glacia Mountains are actually northeast of Asgarnia, but for your purposes, it doesn't matter.\\
The Kandies surrounded Alex on both sides of the catwalk, pointing primitively dangerous spearguns at him.
?Please tell me you have a plan,? Midna whispered to him from his shadow.
?Watch,? Alex said confidently.
He leveled his rifle at one soldier and fired. The electro-magic beam fried his nerves and sent him flying over the edge of the catwalk to fall to his death. At that moment, two Kandies opposite from each other fired their spearguns simultaneously, nearly skewering Alex. He pulled the spears out of his armor and promptly used them to impale his two new attackers. Stunned, they fell limp as Alex cracked their skulls together and tossed them over the edge. Four Kandies remained.
Alex dashed up the catwalk, kicking the speargun out of one Kandie?s hands, sending it careening into the abyss. The three remaining Kandies immediately retreated to call for reinforcements. The Kandie punched back at Alex, knocking the rifle out of his hands and across the room. Alex withdrew the scythe on his left forearm and swiped, missing by inches. The Kandie ducked his head and kicked Alex in the chest, knocking him over onto the unstable catwalk. His falling weight of about four hundred pounds freed the catwalk from its riveted constraints, causing it to swing down at about a sixty-degree angle. Alex grabbed on to one of the guardrails and hung on. The Kandie was dangling by one hand gripping a jutting pipe. Slowly, but surely, he began to inch his way up the broken section, determined to reach Alex?s rifle and finish him.
Though he wasn?t about to let that happen.
Alex let go of the guardrail, his massive weight crashing down on the Kandie?s skull with full force. His neck broken, the Kandie fell like a limp ragdoll to the floor a hundred feet below. He landed with a distant metallic thud. However, Alex was now hanging in the Kandie?s previous position.
Using all of his might, he forced his weight up the broken catwalk until he had a semi-solid surface to stand on. He picked up his rifle that had slid across the room and shouldered it.
?And THAT, is how it?s done.?
?Don?t think it?s over yet,? Midna warned. ?What about those three guys who went for reinforcements??
?That?s why we get the hell out of here before they come.?
Alex made his way towards another series of massive double doors, again tugging on them with all his might. Surprisingly, the other side was empty. Alex was expecting reinforcements to have already arrived. All that was in the room was a stone spiral staircase leading up and down. Midna directed him upwards. Occasionally the stairwell had a window, and Alex peered out. The city below was growing ever tinier with each step. Undaunted, he continued up. Soon, he came across a set of double doors even more massive than those leading to the shield generator chamber.
?This is it,? Midna said, a little bit of fear filling her voice. ?This is the throne room.?
Alex clamped his gloved hands to the door pull and tugged as hard as he could. After half a minute of pulling and overall soreness in his arms, the door had budged just enough for Alex to fit his bulky frame through.
Upon entering the throne room, Alex saw a large opulent chamber, almost every furnishing was gilded in one way or another. At the far end of the room was a massive balcony overlooking the city. A dark, cloaked figure stood at the balcony, watching the scurrying rebel insects below.
?Midna,? the figure said. ?I expected as much. Here again for a futile attempt to reclaim your throne??
?Your days of power are numbered,? Midna growled, coming out of Alex?s shadow. The armored rebel remained silent.
?It?s almost a shame,? the figure went on. ?Even with your friend there, it will make no difference. I?ve defeated you once, I can do it again.? He approached Alex. ?And YOU. Word has it that you?re behind this little rabble. Tell me, what are you possibly hoping to accomplish? You should have realized long ago that your efforts would be hopeless. Tell me, Alexander??
Alex?s blood ran cold when he realized this man knew his name.
??You have destroyed so much. What is it exactly that you have created? Can you name even one thing??
Alex said nothing.
The man scoffed. ?I thought not. When I toss your fried, dead body from this tower, those urchins in the street will see that their cause is a lost one, and will submit. You, my friend, are the perfect leverage.? He turned to Midna. ?As for you, you dishonoring little wretch, I can make it so that you never return to your true form ever again. Without this radical?s help here, you, along with every other rebel in those streets, are doomed.?
?We?ll never submit to you,? Midna hissed. ?Your power is false. Even if you defeated us, you would not be able to fully rule Asgarnia.?
?Asgarnia?? The man chuckled. ?My, my, you ARE a naïve little girl. Only fools would stop at conquering a city. I desire the continent.?
He approached Alex further, extending one long, robed hand to grab him by the neck. Amazingly, he was perfectly capable of lifting the four-hundred pound rebel three feet off the ground. Alex felt his windpipe closing, gasping desperately for that precious recycled air the suit supplied.
?How ironic that you, the leader of the rebels, would be the one to eventually cause their demise! It?s a pity that you won?t live long enough to feel the guilt.?
?Alex!? Midna cried. ?Put him down, now.?
?IMPUDENT WENCH!? the man roared. ?You are in NO position to make demands. Each word you say further increases your friend?s fate. However, it has already been decided.? He began to charge up some unknown energy in his other hand, raising it to roughly the level of Alex?s chest. Through the reflective visor, Alex was still choking.
?He shall die.?
?NOOOOOO!? Midna screamed.
The man brought his charged fist down on Alex?s chest. An agonizing scream emanated from the voice filter. Lightning played along the suit?s grooves and circuits. The figure brought his hand back, and hurled Alex, still arcing with electricity, over the edge of the balcony. In his preoccupation and elation of his apparent victory, Midna had managed to escape.
?Now, for you?? He was interrupted by the sight of Midna?s absence. In a sort of growling laugh, he said, ?One day, imp. One day.?
Outside, Alex plummeted to the city floor in a wordless scream of terror. To Midna, he appeared to fall in slow motion, terrified for the well-being of the man she had so selfishly conned into a deal with her. After nearly a minute of free-fall, Alex slammed into the ground in what seemed to be for sure a fatal blow. Rebels crowded around him, hollering and moaning, checking to see if he was okay. As Midna grieved, Caulus came to her as a voice in her mind.
?Do not worry for him, Midna,? Caulus said in a terrifyingly calm voice. ?He is alive.?
How anyone could be alive after such a horrifying defeat was beyond even her. ?No human could take such a fall, even with that suit??
?Exactly,? Caulus replied, his ethereal voice echoing in Midna?s mind. ?He is no mere human.?
-
Even though Hell was boiling //no pun intended\\ with activity, up at Iban's summit it was deathly quiet. The silence was only occasionally disturbed by a demonic warlord reporting on the progress of the preparation. Iban still needed a way to reach his means of vengeance, somehow... He couldn't simply open a portal out of Hell and walk into the mortal realms. If he could have done that, he would have done so long ago... and the land above him would be his. Since this was unachievable, however, he needed a conduit, of sorts, to allow him to channel his energies from Hell to the mortal land. He already had a target in mind; he has had one ever since Felix and the Iron Wing perished under the collapsing cavern. The only challenge left was to reach the target...
[charging 2 out of 25]
--- --- ---
"By the time Nick got to the courtyard, I was already waiting there.
-"Nicholas, Nicholas, Nicholas. How ironic is it that you have been in my sovereignty for a good one and a half year, and yet you did so little for me in that time?"
I faced Nick, clearly sensing him in front of me.
-"I was going to send you with nine others for a little tome to retrieve for me, but I'm afraid that it is too late for that. Now, why don't you go to Asgarnia, and bring me... ah... a souvenier, if you know what I mean...heh heh heh."
Deeming the discussion over, I headed back towards my palace. Halfway there, I shouted back.
-"And do be quick about it!"
I had a new nifty little spell I wanted to try... need a live one for that."
--- --- ---
Once again, the silence of the town was broken only by the distant sound of a body bag scraping the ground. Arlin wasn't even resisting - he was knocked out cold. The assassin dragged the body bag towards that very half-ruined house.
--- --- ---
Ein looked around. Asgarnia hasn't really changed since his leave. Same occupation-torn city; same tired citizens, same bored Kandarinians. All this time... they've been here for one and a half years. Asgarnia, by the looks of it, has been sucked dry of everything it used to have. Why would they still be in the city? Perhaps there was something else to it... something Kandarinians haven't quite gotten to yet...
A matter most worthy of investigation.
-
"Oh, blast it."
Henri turned his attention from the crank he was having trouble budging.
"Sail. Right, right..."
His eyes wondered to Ven on the other side of the room, fighting that lizard monster. Henri was pretty quick to think on his feet, so his aged visage didn't have the worry it perhaps should have. Suddenly he darted across the room to the side, drawing his longsword from his cloak as he jogged. There were many metal boxes here, but in the corner some of them were wooden.
He jammed his blade into the nearest five foot cube, bending off the lid. He wasn't interested in the contents-- just the wood.
"Paper sails... Paper is made from wood, right? Could you perhaps use these crates?"
He continued prying off some more lids, throwing them into a pile in the middle of the room.
"HEY! What's THAT?!"
Ven pointed behind the lizard.
"Hssss, I'm not sstupid--"
Then Ven delivered a huge upward slash to the creature's chin with a blinding flash of light, falling back down on one knee after the leap required to reach.
"Yes, you are."
"HSSSSSS!"
The thing was enraged, blood dripping from it jaws. It began slashing frantically and angrily, putting huge dents into the black metallic floor, destroying crates, contents of random weapons spilling on the floors as Ven leapt and dodged for his life.
----
Renard fell in step, still clutching his wounded arm. At least his legs were uninjured, though he was so tired...
"Renard. From... Welkin. It's... a rather distant land... And you?"
He doubted the human ever would have heard of the name of his home world. None of the other worlds ever do...
----
"Oh ho ho, confident eh little man?"
Boron began cracking his knuckles, the moved his neck and shoulders around.
Jayce, Melface, and the fat lizard man stood at the edge of the cliff, a small crowd beginning to gather around. Among them was another humanoid man, with bright cerulean hair and long pointed ears who stood behind the short Melface.
"10 gold on the new guy," Melface challenged.
"What? Boron is no pushover."
"Boron knows, like, one attack..."
"You're on."
Jayce had found a large rock to lean on, folding his arms. "BEGIN!"
Down in the valley, boron brought both arms to his sides, assuming a wide stance.
"All right! Let's see how you like my DEMONIC FLAME!!"
A twisted red and violet aura burst forth from the demon, surrounding plants and shrubbery disintegrating into blackened debris. The ground vibrated as he laughed.
"AH HA HA HA HA!!!! Tremble in fear at my awesome powah!!"
Melface shifted his eyes. "And he's retarded."
Boron suddenly cupped his hands to his right side, a sickly black orb of darkness materializing between them.
"And now... YOU DIE!!"
He thrust both hands forward, sending an intense pillar of blackness outlined with vermillion surging towards Druid...
-
Allen looked over and Henri and nodded. He took out a small piece of chalk and started ot draw complicated patterns and designs on the floor. After a few moments, he completed his work and took the lids, starting to pile them in the middle of his chalk circle.
He stood and looked around. He spied where Henri was and walked over, testing and tearing off some pieces of metal from the metallic boxes nearby, walking back to his circle and using them to make a pile, along with the wood.
If he had enough materials...
He could make a glider.
-
Duilin thought for a moment, I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell him his name. "I'm Duilin, I'm from Helternia." He replied.
He looked forward. He could see the city in the distance. "It's going to take awhile for us to get there." Duilin said. "Maybe I could fly, I don't mind piggy backing you if need be. Unless you've got any magic abilities, and are able to use them, despite your wounds."
----
"Okay." Marshall said to himself. "Let's get this show on the road!" He held his amulet, which began to glow and blue mist began to swirl in his hand...
Meanwhile the people in the village had readied to escape. Some of them were armed, and even ready to fight...
----
"You...killed Aegidius didn't you?" Rink said, finally speaking.
Gorus turned around and cocked his brow. "Possibly, I've killed a lot of people, what did he look like?"
"He was an angel, white feathered wings, toga." Rink said.
"Oh you mean pretty boy. Yeah I remember him, first sucker I killed on Gaian." Gorus laughed. "So, I guess this confirms that you were that imp that I spotted before. I had a feeling."
"Well, you better watch yourself, because you're really going to get it once my friends come."
Gorus and the two other lizards began to laugh. Gorus shook his head, and clicked his tongue. "Listen ya little mutant pixie, I could chew up and spit any of your little friends that come here. They don't pass the position of High General to weak little runts like you."
----
As the door opened for Zeros', behind it stood what appeared to be barracks room. Several brutish looking lizard men were sitting about, playing with oversized decks of cards, which fit their large hands just fine, and others arm wrestling or eating. As soon as the door opened they all turned and saw the intruder.
A small lizard man wearing a grey robe, likely an A-Class one, was the first to speak. "What iss thiss?"
"Lookss like an intruder!" A larger lizard man said standing up and picking up his battle-axe.
"I'll inform Goruss." The A-Class lizard said getting up and dashing up the stairs in the next room.
All twenty-five of the brutish lizards all stood up with their weapons ready.
Around the room were several large bunk beds, crates, tables and one the wall near the end of the room with a large heavy rusted metal switch, with a metal sign over it saying DRAIN GAS DO NOT PULL. (If doing so it would drain the anti-mana gas, which would take one full post to do so.)
----
A loud knocking was on Gorus' door.
"What!?" Gorus barked.
The door opened, and a small lizard wearing a grey robe ran in. "High General, ssomebody managed to get in!"
Gorus growled. "Obviously he's gotta be tough to get through the defences!"
Rink grinned. It must be Zeros'.
"What sshould we do?" Asked the robed lizard.
"Let the troops take care of him first, if he drains the gas, then join in and use your magic to fight him." Gorus said. "I'll help too."
"Don't you think you could juzt take him now zir?" Asked one of his elite lizards.
"Yeah, but I got a feeling he's here for the imp." Gorus replied. He looked at the robed lizard. "Take the cage and get it out of here." He ordered.
The lizard man picked up the cage with Rink inside. "Where?"
"Um, the basement, don't walk through the barracks, since he's probably in there. Take the lift down the first hallway down the stairs.
"Yes ssir."
"What about uss?" Asked the other elite.
"You two get down there." He ordered. The two lizards then left, leaving Gorus in the room alone. The High General looked at the wall of weapons. He took his grappling blaster. He rubbed his bottom jaw, trying to choose which other weapon to take. He then picked up the black bladed mace. He found this right after the vortex sucked up those flyboys. It looked like a decent weapon, one of the blades was slightly bent, but he could probably do a lot of damage with it...
-
Renard cringed at the thought of riding on the winged human's back. He'd simply look ridiculous.
"Um... I'm not sure..."
On cue the fox stumbled and fell to his knees.
"Erg... but I guess I don't have a choice..."
Blast it. At least he'd get to town and into a bed faster. That and some elixir. He could down a full case about now... The stuff was ungodly expensive, but luckily he had his gold pouch on him.
The Velken wasn't heavy by any means, only seventy or eighty pounds. Shouldn't be too much of a strain for Duilin.
"I'm actually proficient in self levitation, but I'm in no condition right now..."
-
"Hmm..." Duilin sized at Renard, he wasn't too big, and Duilin was quite stronger then he looked, he could probably slowly drag Abodahon for a few minutes. He really didn't mind carrying people around, nor did he ever feel too embarrassed if he had to be carried. Even though he can only recall being carried around once, by Haraldur when they were looking for the weapons. Now that he thought back, he could barely stand thinking about it. But whatever...
"Well, actually I think I can just carry you, it'll be easier for the both of us." He helped the Velken into his arms, and lifted him up. At least he was heavier then Rink.
He flapped his wings and lifted himself into the air, he was careful not to be too sudden in movement, so he wouldn't hurt Renard. He then arched forward and began flying towards Asgarnia. He got closer and closer to the town quite quickly.
-
//AAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHA LOL MUTANT PIXIE AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH LOL LOL AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAAA\\
-"Hey... is it a statue?"
Two boys, about 11 years old, were jumping on a very big, yellowish-looking statue. The colour was very faint now, indicating the statue's age. It looked something like a jackal warrior leaning on a very big hammer. The boys were playing atop the hammer, exploring the statue.
-"OOOOooh, look what's on its back!"
There was a circular hatch, of sorts, on the statue's back. The bigger boy was trying to open it, without any success.
-"Ah poo, it's stuck. Wait... I think I hear something..."
He leaned close to the hatch. Indeed, there were ticking sounds inside the statue... Tick-tick, tick-tick.
Suddenly, the horizon lit up with a purplish-red glow. The ticking suddenly became very fast, quickly becoming a solid hum. However, the boys were too entranced by the glow to notice the hum, nor the fact that the statue's eyes lit up a deathly red colour, before quickly dimming back to black...
The boys' trance was broken, as slowly, the statue's jackal-like jaw dropped open.
-"Hey! It opened! I wonder what's inside..."
The big boy crawled in first, followed by his smaller friend.
---
The power surge from some kind of aural discharge was enough to awaken Horus. He slept for so very long, such a long time away from the Crimson Emperor. The last thing he remembered was fleeing the all-consuming vortex, then his power running low... then... just darkness.
He was mildly surprised to find out that the juicy little humanlings would crawl inside him as soon as he opened his mouth; he would've devoured them either way, but there was just too little power left. In fact, a simple jaw movement was all he was good for. At least now, though, he had some nice tender food in the Converter... His sensors detected their distorted voices, coming from the hollow Converter.
-"Huh? Wha...? Why is this thing closing? AAHHH!!!"
Slowly, Horus felt his strength coming back to him as the Converter devoured the young flesh. The Kao glyphs lit up, slicing the twilight around him like a knife. He tried to move his hand a little. It wouldn't budge at first, due to the long period of inactivity. Applying lots of effort and recieving lots of creaking, though, the limb slowly rose the gigantic maul up in the air...
--- --- ---
-"Wow. Arlin's gone. Well, this is just grand, isn't it?"
The group, having looked all over for Arlin, did not find a trace of him. Roland and the Elder quietly shuffled to the side of the group.
-"Roland, you do realize what this means, right?"
-"Yes, master. The Black Dragon are still alive, despite all expectations. Alive and active, it seems."
-"The damned heretics... in either case, our goal is clear. We must find the tome that the wretches are hiding, and bring it back safely."
-"Well then, let us not waste time."
Roland came back to the rest of the Kandarinians, announcing:
-"This is just a minor diversion! The Black Dragons have Arlin. They have the Necronomicon. Let's go! FOR THE MARSHAL!"
--- --- ---
At last, Iban has decided on the conduit. He will have to transfer some of his essense into an inanimate object, which will later have to be directly next to the conduit for Iban to be able to channel his power. The object has been decided upon as well, and it was being forged in Hell's hottest pits...
[charging 3 out of 25]
-
Alex was motionless as he lay unconscious in the crater resulting in his thousand-foot fall from the Kandarinian citadel. His energy rifle had shattered into thousands of pieces after impacting the ground. Midna drifted down to his side, worried for him.
?Oh, Alex?? Midna said softly. ?I never meant for you to get in this deep??
Despite his horrifying defeat, Alex himself seemed untouched. His armor had taken much of the impact force of his fall, breaking only his legs. However, he had received an innumerable amount of electricity across his chest. It was a wonder his heart didn?t stop.
Midna remembered what Caulus had just told her. Alex was alive, perhaps only in a state of deep unconsciousness, similar to a coma. Caulus had also told her Alex was not merely human. But what did that mean? She was at a loss as to how to resurrect the rebel, as his spirit had not appeared from his body. All she could hope for is that Alex would regain consciousness on his own.
Unfortunately, for him, that would be easier said than done.
Suddenly, Midna heard approaching rebels. She hid behind a wrecked wall so as to not scare them.
?He?s over here!? one rebel called. ?I saw him fall over here!? Standard attire for rebels was their street clothing underneath, wearing Asgarnian combat vests over them, gloves with the fingers cut out, and usually some type of headwear, such as a knit winter cap.
?My God?? a second rebel sighed. ?Will he be okay??
?Well, I see no exterior damage?? the first rebel said, running his gloved hand over Alex?s armor. ?Though his armor?s a little hot. I would say he was struck by some sort of energy attack, but that would at least result in charring on the armor??
?We should get him back to Dr. Kleiner,? the second rebel returned. ?Maybe the medics can help him.?
?All right then,? the first rebel replied. ?Get a stretcher out here, ASAP!?
Midna watched as they loaded the unconscious metal man onto a stretcher and took him into the tunnels, back to the rebel headquarters. Right before the doors closed, Midna floated through and stuck to the shadows.
Alex was still comatose two hours after he was found. Dr. Kleiner paced back and forth as he thought what he could possibly do for a condition like this. White mages stood at his command waiting to administer healing magic.
?Great Scott, I?ve never seen such a severe case of energy scarring? All we can really do is administer the white magic and hope he improves.? He motioned to the mages.
In their hands bright incandescent spheres of white energy began to glow. As they set them free, they lazily drifted down to Alex?s stone-cold body and were absorbed. He promptly glowed shortly as they did.
?That is all we can do for now. We had best leave him alone.? Kleiner and the mages exited the room. Midna drifted in through an air duct and sat at his side.
?I feel ashamed of myself,? Midna complained. ?I had no regard for his safety when I dragged him into this. I owe him.?
Suddenly, as if by a miracle, Alex began to stir. Inside the helmet, Alex opened his eyelids, heavy as stone. He emitted a moan and actually managed to sit up. Midna was speechless. He took off his helmet, revealing his sweaty face and matted-down hair.
?Urgh. Wha?Where am I? Midna? The last thing I remember is that guy?he choked me, fried me, hurled me from the citadel.?
?Alex!? Midna cried, overjoyed. She floated over and hugged his heavy metal frame. ?For a minute there, I thought you wouldn?t make it.?
?What the hell happened??
?Since you?re in this deep, I guess I owe it to you to give you a full explanation. That hooded man in the throne room, his name is Damien Roth. The Marshal of the Kandarinian Sovereignty, Kronos, sent him to take control of Asgarnia after the Seven-Hour War. That job was originally meant for High General Zjott zu Heltzer, but after he went out of contact of Kronos, the Marshal became suspicious. Kronos then sent Damien Roth to monitor the High General, and also to take his place. The High General is right now only led to believe he controls the city. Rather, it?s Damien calling the shots. As you have seen, he?s an extremely powerful sorcerer, who has managed to take control of any region he wanted. What you saw was only a fraction of his power, next time he sees you he won?t hesitate to kill you. It seems to me that we can?t take him as we are, we need a more powerful weapon.?
?But what?? Alex asked. ?I don?t do magic. I only know extremely rudimentary spells, like a basic fireball, and I can?t even get that right half the time.?
?That?s good enough,? Midna replied. ?Air elementalists like Damien are adverse to fire magics. A fireball is the most basic spell someone can learn. Anyone with a clear mind can cast it.?
?Well then, I guess we know what we?re going to be doing,? Alex mused, getting up from the table.
?Alex?? Midna asked, before he made his way to the door.
He turned around to the floating imp.
?Thanks for helping me out with this,? she said, sincerity filling her voice.
Alex walked out of the room, Midna taking his shadow. The group of scientists gasped at seeing the rebel so?alive.
?Alex?!? Kleiner cried, surprised. ?Great Scott! I never expected you to make such a quick recovery! The white magic was more effective than I thought. Pray tell, Alex. What in the world happened up there??
?It?s a long story,? he replied. ?I?m not sure you?d want to hear it.?
?Oh, but we do,? Kleiner replied. ?We need all the intelligence we can get on that tower so we can attack again.?
?All right,? Alex began. ?When I got in there myself, I saw the Kandies working with the shield generator. It seems they might be making some sort of massive weapon to use against the city. I don?t know what it?s going to do, but I have a feeling it?s bad news for all of us.?
?My goodness,? Kleiner said. ?That shield utilizes pure Borderworld energy. If that were turned into a weapon, the results could be disastrous! We have to bring it offline immediately! Alex??
?I?m sorry. I have more urgent business,? Alex replied, climbing up the ladder to the city?s surface.
?A-Alex? Is there something wrong?? Kleiner was suddenly worried.
?Something happened up there I?d rather not mention,? Alex said. ?I have a score to settle.?
He climbed up the ladder and closed the manhole. Midna promptly came from his shadow.
?Why didn?t you tell them about Damien?? Midna asked, obviously a little irritated.
?If they knew a mere mage defeated me, that would shoot down their morale, and that?s the last thing they need right now. They can go ahead and attack that weapon, but I want to finish Damien myself.?
?I hate to say it, Alex, but you seem to be far from using magic effectively. You said it yourself, you don?t get it right half the time. If you went up there now and tried to challenge him, he?d kill you in a second.?
?Ugh, I wish Caulus was still here!? Alex shouted. ? When I was a kid I had rejected learning magic, thinking it to be for wimps. I can see now I was wrong.?
?Don?t beat yourself up about it,? Midna said, trying to console him. ?You were a kid, you couldn?t have known you would be in this position. If you want, I can teach you the basics.?
Alex thought silently for a moment before coming up with a reply. ?Very well then.?
Midna flew out to a vacant lot where a building once stood. She motioned Alex over.
?If you want to learn this stuff, I suggest you take the armor off. It?ll inhibit your movement.?
Hesitantly, Alex cast off his metallic outer layer, revealing for the first time since Midna met him, his human form.
?What?? Alex asked, noticing Midna was staring at him.
She shook her head. ?Nothing, nothing. Let?s get started.?
-
//What would that mean? want me to get ein?\\
"Yes M'Lord.." Nick said as he disappeared into the shadows. He ran swiftly for the coast. He knew he could not screw up, not like last time. As soon as he'd reach the coast he'd take a small boat to the main land. From there he'd go to Asgaria. He had the whole plan in his head.
-
Druid had a ball of shadow energy behind his back. When the pillar came at Druid he stuck out his hand catching the blast and cancelling it out. The blast was more intense then he thought so his hand flung around behind him, but that was the only part of his body that moved.
"You shouldn't be so arrogant. Because you have nothing to back it up. I can taunt you because I took over my entire world by the age of 28, and what were you doing then? Playing with your little friends? I mean you're just a common demon. Whats your specialty, what can you even do?"
While Druid was talking he had his hands behind his back and was walking forward. He was charging up a ball of shadow energy. One he was only a metre or two infront of Boron he stopped and asked the final question. Then once he was done he launched a massive wave of shadow energy at Boron. Then as the blast was flying at Boron he launched himself up in the air a bit and and arched back down towards Boron with his staff now pulled out, ready to smash it down upon Boron.
---
Coriko was a top the tower and was looking for any sign as to where the demon was now.
-
Ace, still standing in the field watched the Aspyes and armed civilians mount their pitiful defence against him.
"Tsch, I at least wanted a challenge on my first day." The cocky Devil mutters to himself.
He summons up a small fireball and throws it into the air. It explodes into a rain of sparks all over the town doing little more than make a cool effect. After a little chuckle he summons up two more and tosses them directly at a few Aspy militants.
"All right you worthless pinkies, prepare... no... Stop, human scum..." He practices his words wile he makes his way into the battle, smiting a few Lizard men on the way.
-
Coriko saw someting in a field to his left. It was fairly big and look demonic. This thing definitley wasn't on their side because it just sent a fire ball towards a couple Aspyes. The demon looked full of himself, why did everyone who was evil think they were incinvible. Oh well no matter for Coriko. He pulled out two arrows from his quiver and launched them through the air. They whistled as they went. He did this to get the demon's attention. Because Coriko then fired 7 arrows straight at the Demon. So when the Demon looked up, he would be skewered from the side. Coriko got down, waiting for what happens next.
-
Marshall continued to summon the large creature; a giant misty figure began to take its shape in front of him.
It had been a wile since he'd summoned one of these bad boys; he was already getting excited about this.
A few lizard men had spotted a few people escaping the village.
"Ssstop them!!" One shouted, chasing after them. Just then a group of Aspyes hiding behind a building the lizard men were passing, opened fired their machine guns on the lizards.
As the bullets tore through them, it was too late for them to retaliate as the constant stream, was too much for them to handle, and the mighty lizards fell lifeless to the ground.
----
"So uh, Brice where da ya think this dude is?" Scrums asked the Ice Warrior.
"Well, let's see. According to the wanted poster, they said he was last seen, moving north from the Vandrin County." Brice replied.
"And?" Elliot inquired.
"Well, there isn't much else around Vandrin, 'cept for Asgarnia and a couple of docks at the shore." He answered.
"Me, think he at Asgarnia." Rufokanno stated. "Population high at Asgarnia it is. Likelihood of him being at Asgarnia quite high. Meet friends he may."
"True, or maybe he's leaving Terian." Elliot said. "That seems like the smart thing to do."
"True that may be." Rufokanno replied. "But Asgarnia closer then any ship docks. Likely he stop there to rest before going to docks."
"I agree with Rufo." Brice said. "I say we check Asgarnia first. Besides it's pretty close for us anyway."
-
And they were at it again?
Virmir blurred as he shot at the fire mage, the two magic swords clashing once more in rapid succession. Though now with Draven?s much longer blade, he was keeping the Velken at a distance as he swung the sword wildly about. Virmir was unable to get close enough to score a hit, however the fox was much too fast for Draven to strike as well?
----
?What about these? Would these help??
One of the boxes contained a multitude of jagged metal swords, and Henri began taking them out, tossing them on the floor.
?HYAAH!!?
With a blinding flash, Ven disarmed the lizard, his blade radiating a bright white light. The lizard man reared and hissed before realizing he had lost a hand. Ven was quick to capitalize, and stabbed his glowing blade through the lizard?s side. The huge beast fell over in a lifeless slump as the light elemental spell on Ven?s sword faded. The knight threw up the sword in triumph as he realized it was over.
?Oh YEAH!?
Just then two more lizard men entered through the doorway?
?Oh, crap??
Ven took several steps back.
?Uh, guys?? Better hurry it up??
----
Renard mumbled something incomprehensible as he was carried off.
Argh, he was sick of being so dependant on others. Even his training required him to be part of a team. His magic was meant to be cast along with the other mages in his unit, weaved together as a whole. Alone his spells left something to be desired, as he hadn?t completed the individual course yet. When the madness was finished here and he got back to Welkin, he would request to take the course. This would never happen again. If he was lucky, Lord Virmir himself would train him. That would be nice. He really respected that fox.
If he ever got back home?
The injured silver fox closed his eyes, just for a second he told himself. But he quickly drifted off to sleep in the human?s arms.
----
?WHAT?!?
Boron thrust his hands forward, meeting the intense blast of shadow, though it pushed him back, his heels tearing through the ground. But Druid?s staff was too quick in coming, and it slammed into the demon?s head, sending him tumbling some ten feet away in a crumpled mess.
?How DARE YOU!?
Dizzily ascending to his feet, he drew the katana blade at his side, which began to burn with a violet flame as soon as the metal hit air.
?For that, I shall consume your liver and use your spine as my toothpick!?
He dashed forward, the blade before him blurring as he slashed it forward, at Druid?s stomach?
-
Duilin noticed Renard fall asleep. He smirked. How cute. He flapped his wings faster to pick up speed, but he was careful not to wake up Renard.
He was a bit surprised with himself on helping a complete stranger, but he realizes that he's not heartless. Ever since Abodahon convinced him to turn on his friends and that fight against Draven, he has been a little more selfish and battle hungry. He was worried himself about becoming corrupt, he thought to himself what he would do to Renard if he just sprung out and attacked him.
Like say, he just tried to take a bite out of his neck, wile he's flying, he'd grab his jaw and remove the weak animals mouth off of him and then slam him down on the ground, and then dive down feet first on his chest and knock the wind out of him. Or maybe right down on his neck and break it. Then burn up the body with his magic.
Duilin rapidly shook his head. He told himself to clean that image out, he convinced himself to hope that won't happen. Yet he realized he could destroy this wounded little creature in a matter of seconds. But Duilin wouldn't, only if Renard tries first. Not that he will. Hopefully. Right? Of course. Now enough think about something else.
He thought about where Rink, Zeros' and the group are. Hopefully they are okay. He'd like to join up with them again, but maybe it would be nice to spend some time alone, he could probably use it. He needed to work on his independence. Having Rink and Zeros' supervise him all the, wouldn't be good.
He then thought about that bounty that Vandrin promised would be on him. Likely there will be people coming after him sooner or later. But he was ready. He could use a good fight against some decent and evil opponents. Maybe Draven will take the bounty, now THAT would be interesting. He longed for the day when finally he'd defeat Draven in combat, have him on the ground. To have Draven's life held in his hot sweaty hands and ultimately decide whether or not to give it back to him.
He wasn't totally sure why he wanted to defeat Draven so badly. He already has his revenge on Darion, Nex and Abodahon. But Draven hasn't even killed anyone close to him. He always knew Draven thought of him as just the weakling of the little group of heroes, the loser. But Duilin almost had him at North Point, he almost proved his power to him, but that damned protective aura he has just pissed away his victory. He knew that Draven doesn't fear his power, but he wants him too.
It's too bad he didn't get a chance to fully prove he was stronger then Valos. It would have been great to ultimately kick his ass. But in the end he didn't have too. Valos found out by himself. He was too weak to hold his power he had so he destroyed himself. Suicide is the ultimate sign of weakness.
Yet Draven, oh he'd never do something like that, he'd probably combust on his own energy before committing suicide. Draven clearly had a very high opinion of himself, that damned smirk he had on his face, he's probably fighting somebody right now, got his big ass fire blade out, swinging it around, with that damn smirk on his face. It pisses him off that it was the last thing Duilin saw before he got sucked into Retan's vortex.
Now that he thought of it, maybe if he defeats the Retan or the ruler of the Kandarinian Sovereignty, he'd prove himself worthy of the big book of ass-kicers. He'd need to do it himself however. Not with Zeros' help. Yet he couldn't even imagine having Retan fall without the help of Draven. That bastard Retan, killed Iduran. It'd be selfish to hog the defeat of Retan. Zeros' deserved a piece.
He looked forward. The city wasn?t too far now.
//Now, that is a fine example of how to increase a one liner! Smile I rule.\\
-
Druid tried to deflect the blade but was a tad slow. He knocked the blade so it avoided his organs, but the blade stabbed him in the side and went right through his body. Druid grabbed Boron's wrist and held it tightly in place so that he couldn't pull away.
"You're quick," Druid took a deep breath in. "I'll give you that." Druid said this through gritted teeth. Trying to ignore the pain.
With his free hand Druid wound up. His hand started to glow a deep, deep red. He charged it up with shadow energy. Druid then swung his fist forward, hoping to send a devastating punch to his opponent's face.
-
(Very nice character development, DM.)
Virmir was blasted back by another explosion, his feet sinking in the sand several feet away from the maniacal mage as he landed. He brought his lengthy blade crossways before him, pressing the flat side against his left palm so that he may block any additional attack. None came, and there was finally a lull in the battle.
The silver fox straightened out, his bushy tail slowly flicking to and fro like a predator.
"I concede that you are the stronger of us."
Draven's aura dimmed as he relaxed a bit, bringing his overgrown sword up to his shoulder and tapping it.
"Good. Kneel down so that I can kill you honorably then."
Virmir bore his teeth slightly. Gods, was this man arrogant.
"I still have my job to do..."
A flash of light from Draven's rear. He turned. The five Velken blade knights stood at the edge of the crater looking down upon him, their swords now glowing a bright cerulean. The mages enchanted them with water magic during their break... Draven's eyes widened.
With no warning, all the Velkens descended upon him at once. The five blade knights, the four mages, and Virmir himself... Draven had just enough time to grab his sword in the middle, splitting it in half so that he wielded two normal sized crimson blades, one in each hand.
While the highly coordinated Dual Attack could possibly be described as a thing of beauty to the more sadistic, that which followed could only be described as pure chaos. The Velkens swarmed the Crimson Emperor like angry wasps, their blades nicking his armor and cape as his he flailed the two burning blades about, spinning round and around madly to deflect the massive multitude of onslaughts...
----
Renard mumbled something as he slept, his ears twitching occasionally. His sleep seemed distressed, as if he were dreaming...
----
Boron smirked at his scored hit, but scowled as he tried to free himself from Druid's death grip. The blasted human-like man was strong!
"ARGH! Let go!!"
The verbal retort was cut short by a devastating fist to the forehead. Boron's sword fell lose in his hands and he was the one to let go, flying backwards some twenty feet and slamming into a tree. His left shoulder gear flew off as the bark shattered, the tree falling over in the opposite direction. He was down for a few seconds before he staggered back up, both hands clutching his head just in front of his horns, cursing incoherently.
"AAARRRRGGHHHH!!! I'LL KILL YOU!!!!!"
Thrusting both hands forward, he sent forth a volley of demonic plumes of flame. Though each tiny fireball was rather weak in potency, there was a huge number spread out in a widening area as they traveled farther from his palms. Grasses withered and died as stray plumes found earthen targets...
-
Zeros' tilted his head and looked around the room. noting all the various items scattered around the room. He then looked over at the anti-magic release switch. He grinned. If he could get there, this would be a joke to defeat these lizard men.
He shifted on his feet. placing one hand on the hilt of his sword. "Well, well... How are you doing, gentlemen? I trust you're well this evening?" he asked quizically. Then, he shifted again, unsheathing his sword, it transforming - without the use of magic - back to it's larger, scimitar-like form. He hefted it and rested it on his shoulder, shifting his stance again. He was relaxed, open, but ready to strike at the moments notice.
It was then...
That he disappeared.
He used his speed - pure speed, no ki or magic enhancement - and ghosted around all the lizard, slashing them with teasing cuts to their skin, trying to rile them up, but also test the skins toughness. While also doing this, he made his way towards the anti-magic release switch, which, he reached with little resistance, due to his intense speed.
He grinned, his sword resting on his shoulder and threw it.
---
Allen nodded.
"They will. It's still metal..." he heard Ven's cry and gritted his teeth. He wiped his forehead. This should be enough. He closed his eyes and pressed his hands down on the circle. In his mind, he imagined a glider... one big enough for three people... sturdy, with a firm, but light metal frame.
The transmutation circle glowed a soft whiteish-blue, the air filling with a gentle hum. The parts started to glow white before a flash emminated from them.
The mess of spare parts slowl changed shape, until sitting in front of Allen, there was a sturdy, three-man glider with a shining, but light, metal frame, designed to be aerodynamic. The sail was big enough to propel them through the air, but not so big as to catch more air then was needed.
There were two places in the front of two people to hang onto, while one in the back.
In short, the glider was just what they needed.
"Whew..." he wiped the sweat from his brow and called it. "Ven! It's ready! Let's get moving!" he cried out to the knight. After he said that, he quickly moved around towards where the docked bay release switch was, motion the two over. "
You two have to carry the glider. I'm not strong enough," he said loudly, hoping that the lizardmen would be too stupid to react. He turned again and drew a transmutation circle on the ground again, this time much quickly.
He pressed his hands against it. The circle glowed before thousands of two to three feet metal spikes rocked through the ground at the lizaedmen, traveling towards them like a shard through water, jagged, metal spikes jutting out of the ground.
(Basically, a wave of spikes is flowing at them through the ground.)
-
The broken city of Asgarnia conquers Duilin's field of view; he slowly comes to a stop and lands at the main gate of Asgarnia. He notices Renard mumbling in his sleep. "Hey, Renard wake up, we're here." He said, gently shaking him, and tilting him a bit so he can easily get his feet on the ground.
-----
"Well, well, well." Gorus said appearing from the staircase after the other two lizards.
The lizard men warriors looked at Gorus as he spoke and then at were Zeros' was, clutching their weapons.
Gorus stepped through the group, the lizard warriors stepped back as he walked forward. Gorus flexed his huge muscles and looked at Zeros' in the eye.
"How did a shorty like you make it into hear." Gorus said sizing the intruder. Gorus was nearly double the size of Zeros'. "You some sort of angel, boy?" He asked. "I suspect you're a friend of the little imp we've got."
"I've actually been expecting one of you freaks to show up. This is most interesting." Gorus said, licking his teeth after words. "Once I destroy you, you'll make a good meal, I'll send the leftovers to my emperor, he will be most pleased to see I already got rid of a you before he even knows that you got back."
He lifted his left hand, and motioned towards the elite and robbed lizard. The two stepped forward. "Let's see what you can do, shorty."
Gorus stepped backwards and his two elites came forward. Both of them were around seven feet tall and had pitch black spiked armour, with dark green trim around the shoulder pad and the Dark Empire symbol over the heart. The lizard men were probably of the B-Class They both wield large broadswords, yet by the lizards' size it looks as if they could swing them with ease. As soon as the gas wore off, Zeros' would be able to sense that they have a minor magic ability.
The rest of the lizard warriors stepped forward and lifted their weapons. Yet Gorus lifted his hand again.
"Let them handle this. If they fall, dive in." Gorus ordered. He then crossed his arms, holding the demonic mace by the pole, and his grapple blaster was strapped to his belt. He stepped back to the other end of the room. The lizard grunts they stepped back and began cheering, and rooting for the two lizard officers.
"Letz get thiz on!" One of them said, the dashed towards Zeros' and swung his sword at him. The other one stood in a defensive pose.
-
?All right then,? Midna said as she set up a few targets for Alex to blast. ?An essential rule of thumb to any magic is that you eliminate all outside distractions. If you become distracted, the energies forming as a result of your concentration will disperse and the spell will fail. Some spells tax the mind more than others, but for the purposes of your training, we?ll begin with a simple fireball, the most rudimentary of all battle magic. Simply form your hands into a loose ball and focus on it.?
Alex closed his eyes and obeyed. He had taken off his jacket, revealing a white undershirt. He cupped both of his hands and held them, palms facing each other, one on top of the other. He thought long and hard about fire, heat and burning forming into a tight ball between his hands. After a while, his hands tingled with the sensation of heat. Strangely, the forming fireball seemed incapable of burning his bare hands. As he continued his concentration, the ball got larger and larger, until it was about the size of a baseball.
?That?s good,? said Midna. ?Keep at it too hard and it?ll keep growing. If it gets too big, you won?t be able to control it, and it?ll backfire. Now, to launch it, simply force it away in the direction you want it to go. The strength you force it with will determine its speed.?
Again, Alex followed the imp?s instructions. Opening the palms of his hands, he extended his arms quickly and forcefully towards a tree Midna had found to use as a target.. The fireball raced away from him, leaving a burning tail behind it. Within moments, the flaming ball of magic struck the tree and promptly ignited it. As Alex regained his posture, his hands smoked a little bit.
?So there you have it, it?s as easy as that!? Midna giggled. ?Of course, there are more powerful fire spells, but try to master this one first. It?s a start!?
?Yeah, thanks,? Alex said, dusting himself off. ?Had I known it was this easy, I would?ve considered it twenty years ago.?
?It?s actually very simple once you get the hang of it,? Midna replied. ?A second technique is to try to form one in each hand and fire them individually. You can go ahead and try it if you like. Instead of cupping your hands together, keep them apart and close them about a third of the way.?
Alex, holding his hands about two feet apart, closed them slightly and thought hard. Before long, two separate fireballs found themselves forming in each hand. Once they had reached the size he wanted them to, again baseball sized, he forced one away, followed through by spinning, and swinging his second arm as he finished the spin. One flew straight toward a second tree and incinerated it, and the other followed a curved path into a wall, detonating with the force of a six-pound cannonball. When the smoke cleared, an eighteen-inch hole had appeared in the brick wall.
?Wow, now I know why these Asgarnians used magic to make their lives easier,? Alex said, astounded at his feat.
?Yes, magic is a very effective means of combat,? Midna went on, ?but it is important not to grow dependent on it. There are sometimes certain things you just can?t force out of your mind, and that can disrupt your concentration. It?s always helpful to keep a sword or something on hand.?
?A sword, eh?? Alex was intrigued. He had been well-versed in using his scimitar, but he had since left it at rebel headquarters. He had also lost his rifle in the fall, its delicate components shattering upon slamming into the ground from a thousand feet. Thankfully, the rifles were in plentiful supply, he could always pick up another.
?Well, I guess that?s it for now,? Midna said. ?We ought to get back to that camp those rebels set up.?
Alex put his jacket back on and re-donned the P.C.S. He could?ve sworn he heard Midna sigh as he did. Was she annoyed that he hid his humanity behind a cold, hard outer shell? Thinking nothing of it at the moment, Alex proceeded back to the base, Midna taking his shadow as he did.
?Alex, we need you to investigate some activity we?ve picked up in the Residence District,? Kleiner briefed Alex as he stood in front of the city map. ?We?ve picked a Kandie supply convoy moving in from the city?s south gate in order to render aid to the citadel. We need you to raid that convoy, bring it to a halt, and see if you can salvage anything. Whatever you can?t bring back, destroy. The less those Kandies have, the better. Got it??
?Of course, Doc,? Alex said, shouldering a new Asgarnian Energy Rifle. ?Out of curiosity, how many are in this convoy??
?Our scouts have counted at least thirty. The majority of them are simply armed soldiers, but we?ve received confirmed reports of Kandie vanguards. I would suggest you exercise caution.?
Vanguards were the Kandie heavy soldiers. They were often armed with magic mortar launchers stolen from Asgarnian weapon stores. They were shoulder-fired tubes that launched arcing balls of explosive magic energy. They were roughly as powerful as a medium- or large-sized cannon. They were also plated with thicker armor than their infantry comrades. While the heavy equipment slowed them down, they could fire off a shot once every fifteen seconds or so. If one were to hit an unprotected person, they could very easily be disintegrated.
Alex stood atop one of the residential complexes as he watched the convoy come in through the gate. He stood silently, planning his strategy.
?Well?? Midna asked, coming out of his shadow. ?This seems like the perfect time to try out your new magic experience. Why not give it a shot??
-
Druid saw the blast coming and new he couldn't roll out of the way. He did see a way out. Druid fell on his back so the bals flew over top of him and fired a heavy blast of shadow energy at Boron's Stomach. After he fired the blast he then rolled over and hopped back up. Druid then pulled the sword out of his chest. He then stood facing Boron, staff in one hand, the sword in the other.
-
Ven did a graceful flip backwards, vaulting himself over the incoming jutting spikes as they surged forward, impaling one of the lizards with a scream. Two spikes wedged around the other?s left leg, drawing specks of blood as the beast struggled to free himself. Bounding off his left hand, Ven landed on his feet with a clang and began running back towards the others.
Henri clenched his fists.
?Yes!?
But then he turned and realized he still didn?t get that door opened?
?No!?
Running to the crank, he tried to turn it, but the older man was having some trouble. Ven was there quickly and his youthful muscles made short work of it. The large bay door slowly opened from the bottom up, a vast suction of air blasting through the room as the doorway gaped wider, revealing the red and black skies outside. The winds became so fierce that it was difficult to stand.
?My liege,? Ven yelled over the noise, ?you and Allen position yourself in the glider. I?ll handle taking off??
Henri nodded and jogged back to the glider as Ven was finishing up turning the crank. The injured lizard man was now free, and snarled as he hobbled towards his prey, jagged sword skyward?
----
Renard yawned, but then clamped his muzzle shut embarrassedly as soon as he realized he dozed off.
?Oh, sorry??
He set his feet on the ground running his right claw over the longer tuft of silver fur on the top of his head. It was a little like human hair. The nap did good for him and he was feeling a bit better. But the burned patch on his left arm was still dreadfully painful.
Asgarnia looked very different from the ground. His squad had passed through on a Dark Empire cargo vessel to trade some materials with the Kandarinians about a month ago, but he had stayed on the airship, so never got a chance to look around. Apparently the city was still rife with rebellious activity, which is why the Velkens were assigned to protect the ship on that particular mission. Shameful the Kandarinian Sovereignty was so sloppy?
There was a convoy of some sort making its way through the gates; he and Duilin had arrived just in time to see the tail end go through. Finished flagging the convoy on, one of the Kandarinian soldiers noticed the two mismatched travelers and walked in their direction, reciting protocol from memory in a bored tone:
?All right you two, what business do you have in Asgarnia??
Last Renard heard, Asgarnia was allowing people to enter and exit the city freely, thought it was still under martial law. They shouldn?t have any trouble getting in, especially since he was visibly injured. Renard could try and use his pull as an upper ranking warrior of the Dark Empire, but the Kandarinians had no idea the Velkens even existed, save for perhaps their highest officers. So he thought it best to keep his mouth shut and let Duilin do the talking.
-
"Uh, yeah." Duilin said looking at the Kandarinian soldier. He looked at him in the eye, he just stared blankly back at him. He supposed that the trooper didn't know about the bounty on him, or perhaps Vandrin didn't even issue it yet. "This guy here, he got attacked by a um, rebel. He needs an elixir to help heal his wound, do you think you could let us come in?"
"Yeah. We normally allow people to come and go." He replied, still with his bored tone. "However we've been having a few troubles with the rebels."
"Well, this guy right here was just attacked by one." He said pointing to Renards wounds. "He'll likely die soon if he doesn't get attention on them."
The soldier yawned, and stared blankly at Duilin. "Well, I suppose we could let you in. I can clearly see you're unarmed. Just stay out of trouble. But if you do try anything we'll have to terminate you." He yawned, and then smiled to show he meant no offence.
He looked at Renard. "Alright, we're going in." He said tilting his head a bit. The two of them then walk through the main gate of Asgarnia...
-
"Not bad."
Renard didn't exactly feel like he was going to die anymore, but he certainly looked like it.
Asgarnia was quite the run down city. Signs of former wealth and prosperity were evident, but the current decay was visibly taking its toll, though Renard did not know if this came about before or after the Kandarinian occupation.
Though it looked like a residential district, there were a few shops strategically positioned near the outer gates and the fox pointed out a general store. A hospital is really where he needed to go, but again he did not know how well he would be received. Especially given that this place was swarming with violent militants. So he thought it safer to pick up some basic medical supplies and just get a good rest discretely at an inn.
The shop wasn't large, but had variety, especially in curative items. Probably a testament to the violence wrought in this city. Most importantly there was elixir behind the counter. The haggard looking fox asked for three vials while he shopped around, eventually picking up some white bandages and some salve.
The shopkeeper looked hesitant to deal with this strange looking animal until he plopped down several outlandishly large gold coins on the counter. The large man's eyes widened and he smiled with glee, treating the foreigner with sudden friendly professionalism.
Done shopping and exiting the building, the sliver fox offered one of the expensive elixirs to Duilin.
"Take it. I owe you. I can tell you're a warrior; you'll need it someday."
It was the least he could do. He couldn't down them all safely at once anyway.
Outside the shop was a wooden bench. Renard sat down. Ouch. Blasted human furniture... He shifted his tail to his right side. Setting his supplies beside him, he applied the salve to his left arm and wrapped it tightly with the white bandages, leaving just his fingers free of the wrap. He then placed his spare elixir in his cloak for later and popped the cork in the last one, thirstily drinking the sweet liquid.
Elixir was amazing stuff. The energy provided was spectacular, enough to give a buzz. It also could heal light flesh wounds and bruises instantly, though Renard's were much too deep for it to do much, as well as partially restored one's magical reserves. Of course you couldn't drink too much. The result would be similar to getting drunk, though much worse, and death wasn't uncommon for those who overdosed on elixir. It would be safe for Renard to drink the second vial tonight, though he possibly might save it for the morning.
The fox leaned back and relaxed, sipping the remaining half of the magical drink.
"Ever been here before, Duilin?" The fox inquired. "I'd like to find an inn and crash..."
He watched that convoy beginning to disapear around the far corner of the street before him, moving further into the city. His eyes darted to some sort of movement he thought he detected on the rooftops across from where he was seated, but shrugged it off as his tired eyes playing trick on him. (Or the elixir.) Strange through, he thought he sensed a magical presence. His heart skipped a beat as he initially thought it was Velken, but no, this was different... an imp or something...
He shrugged it off as he took another swig. Maybe not.
----
Boron took the hit straight to the gut.
"Ooof--"
He flew backward, again smacking into another tree. Blast it! By now his armor was cracking and falling off. He stood up again, clutching his stomach, a bit of blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth, enraged at the man now wielding his very own weapon.
"Blast you little man, BLAST YOU!!!"
He lowered his shoulder and began what looked like a mad football tackle, barreling right at Druid. Reaching behind his back, his right hand produced a second sword, though this one was much shorter-- more like a long dagger-- and he held it with the blade down. His left hand began to crackle with the now familiar demonic energy as he dove towards Druid...
-
"Thanks." Duilin said, taking the elixir. He was pretty starved so he popped the cork, and took a sip. He nodded, when feeling the effects. He then sat next to Renard on the bench, folding then stretching his wings behind it.
"No, I haven't actually been here before." Duilin replied. "I've spent most of my life in Helternia, but I've made a few visits to Terian, lived in Laus for a couple months."
He looked around at the town surrounding him. "Likely there is an inn somewhere around here. Perhaps we could go look for one." He then noticed Renard's eyes darting. He didn't make much note on it, he then thought he could pick up an aura or two somewhere.
"I could help you find an inn. If you want." Duilin said. "I'm kind of trying to get adjusted to this place."
-
Midna had a point. If Alex was ever going to be able to challenge Damien Roth, he needed practice. He shouldered the rifle and freed his hands. Casting magic would be more difficult with armor on, but Alex wasn?t about to take his chances with the vanguards. Unsuspecting, the Kandie convoy continued through the main thoroughfare leading to the citadel.
?Now?s your chance!? Midna whispered. ?Charge up a blast and nail that group of vanguards down there!?
Alex brought his metallic hands together and charged up a fireball. It took slightly longer to form, due to the armor, but it reached ideal size eventually. He fired the sphere of flame into the center of the group of vanguards accompanying the convoy, and he saw about two or three spontaneously ignite. As they scrambled to extinguish themselves, one accidentally misfired his mortar, causing the majority of the group to go flying. Through hollering and cursing one vanguard was able to get a bead on Alex. He let fly with his mortar launcher, producing an arcing ball of crimson energy that drew ever closer to Alex. Though nearly panicking, Alex was able to roll out of the way in time, as the mortar obliterated the archway he was standing on only a few moments ago.
As he picked himself up from underneath fallen rubble, he withdrew his rifle. The Kandies were well aware of his presence now. The convoy stopped, and a few infantry soldiers stepped forward.
?Don?t move! We?ve got you covered,? one Kandie shouted. ?Drop the weapon and surrender.?
Alex hid behind the ruined arch. ?Over my dead body,? he whispered. He broke from cover and fired off three shots, eliminating the three leading Kandies. Two others stepped forward and fired spears in his direction. One nicked him across the shoulder, but bounced off without much damage. The other lodged itself in a wall inches away from Alex?s skull. How could he possibly take on all of them at once?
?Midna!? Alex cried. ?I need some help here!?
The imp floated down in front of him. ?All I know to do is to perform a fire wave.?
?A what?? Alex said, ducking to avoid another spear.
?A fire wave is a wide-spreading fire attack, though considerably more difficult to cast. Start with charging a fireball, but then part your hands to disperse the attack.?
Alex shouldered his rifle and began to charge another fireball. To provide better coverage, he charged it up longer than normal. Finally, he stepped from behind cover. At the moment of critical mass, Alex brought his hands apart, the fire racing towards the Kandie soldiers in a shockwave of heat. When the smoke cleared, one lone Kandie was left guarding the convoy. He dropped his speargun in fright. Alex walked towards him.
?If you want to live, you?ll tell me what you know,? he threatened the soldier, grabbing him by the chest. ?What?s in this convoy??
?Err, um, it?s supplies and weapons for the citadel!? His voice quavered. ?Three weeks of food and water as well as three tons of stolen Asgarnian weapon technology!? He was terrified of his attacker. ?Please, don?t hurt me! I don?t know anymore than that!?
Alex scoffed and tossed the soldier aside. ?Now get out of here and don?t ever let me see you in this part of the city again, got it?!? The soldier dashed away, yelling and screaming in terror. Alex made a motion towards some dark corners, and Asgarnian scouts revealed themselves.
?Very well done, Alex.? One scout said. ?These weapons will be quite a step forward in the uprising efforts. We?ll take it from here.? He motioned his mates over to assist in pulling the cart full of supplies back to headquarters.
Alex shouldered his rifle, a sense of confidence filling his mind. Midna followed him.
?You scare me sometimes,? Midna said. ?I?ve never seen anyone cast a fire wave successfully on the first try!?
?Eh, the mission had to be done,? Alex said, feeling a little modest.
?Caulus was right,? Midna continued, ?you?re no mere human.?
Alex stopped in his tracks for a moment. ?What??
?When you fell from the tower,? Midna started, ?Caulus came to me in a vision, reassuring me you would be all right. He said you weren?t merely human. I?m not sure what he meant by that, but whatever the case, you survived.?
?Was it really that bad?? Alex asked.
?Alex, Damien electrocuted you across the chest with who knows how much voltage, and then hurled you off the top balcony of the citadel, which is a thousand feet off the ground. Even with that suit you have on, no ordinary human being could survive that kind of thing.?
?Okay?? Alex replied, a little confused. ?If I?m not just human, what else am I??
?I wish I knew,? Midna replied. ?If we knew your other side, it might give us a huge advantage against the Kandies. If Caulus was still here, we could ask him, but??
?No. No way. I?m not nearly dying again. Twice in twelve hours is enough.?
?I?m not asking you to do that. I just wish we had a lead.?
?All in due time, I guess,? Alex muttered.
As Alex rounded a corner, he could?ve sworn he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye. When he looked again, it was gone.
?Something wrong?? Midna asked.
?No, no,? Alex replied. ?I just thought I saw something.?
?ALEX!? a voice hollered up ahead. A rebel came running up to him, panting.
?Is there a problem?? Alex asked.
?Hurry, follow me! The Kandies have found one of our underground access points!?
Suddenly things were far more serious. If Kandies were to reach the headquarters, the entire rebellion could be compromised. Alex followed the frantic rebel to the source of the problem.
?Excellent,? Damien Roth muttered, watching the performance from his balcony. ?Everything is going according to plan. We lure Alex back to headquarters, capture him, and bring him back to the citadel. That whelp will think twice when he tries to stick his nose where it doesn?t belong. I shall finally get the chance to do away with him once and for all. After all, the last one to try to help Midna cross me wasn?t so fortunate.?
He watched as Alex and Midna did away with some Kandie soldiers, and charged into the underground tunnel network.
?And as for that wench, Midna? well, let?s just say she could benefit from a vacation?to the Borderworld.?
-
A Kandarinian officer walked into the shield chamber, seeing Damien at the balcony.
-"SIR! There has been a lot of activity in the city lately. We have reports of winged humanoids and foxlike creatures entering the city! Shall we send squads to apprehend them?"
-"No. Watch them, and meanwhile request six smaller Atronachs from Kandarin, as well as reinforcements in soldiers. Make sure to note that they are live soldiers, not undeads. Hate the stink."
-"YesSIR!"
The soldier ran out. Soon, Damien thought, so very soon... Soon they will have forces unmatchable by the rebels, and with the location of their underground hive known, it will be so easy to wipe them all out...
---
Meanwhile, Kandarinian soldiers took positions at rather high houses across from the tavern where Duilin and the Velken were positioned. There were only five or six, as they were not meant to take the targets out - just keep tabs on them. They attached scopes to their spearguns and began watching.
--- --- ---
Hell's armies continued to grow at an alarming rate. Iban thought to himself, isn't it so damn ironic that it takes such a short time to grow gigantic armies, but it takes so long to create a competent soldier to go to the mortal realms? Then again, the soldier being created was beyond anything else that Hell had to offer. He had to be strong enough to survive the voyage to the world above; cunning enough to mix in with the population, all the while looking like them; and smart enough to actually find the target once he is ready. What a bother, Iban thought.
[charging 4 out of 25]
--- --- ---
The Black Dragon assassin brought the struggling Arlin to the priest at the Dragon Chapel, where the captive was to be sacrificed. However, the priest stopped Grief with a motion of his hand.
-"No. We need this one alive. Father requests that we bring all nine of them in before... before they make the voyage."
-"I understand, brother. What is my next target?"
Without any words, the priest lifted up his hand, which seemed to flare. The assassin's dagger started to burn his thigh, so he took it out. The name "Arlin" was gone, and in its place, there were new glowing letters.
-"Zjott zu Heltzer?"
-"Yes. You are to take him away from the main group by any means necceseary, and then bring him here.
-"Understood, brother."
--- --- ---
Horus creeped up to the fight taking place in a lizard camp near him. Mmm, so many fleshy targets... and the nice aural cloud hanging all around them was giving Horus additional energy. Perhaps it's time to stock up on flesh for the next little while?
Remaining hidden, Horus began charging his black glass cannon. It was unlikely that the lizards would see him right now. However, what Horus didn't realize was that his cannon was creating quite a hum, and will continue to do so until it is discharged.
-
"Well, that was... interesting..."
Renard commented as he watched the remnants of the fire spell flicker out well down the street, idly scratching the back of his ear. The convoy had been hit hard, their Kandarinian guards totally routed. The silver fox quietly watched far away from the sidelines, obviously not wanting to get involved. "None of our business," Virmir would have said.
He didn't want to admit it, but amongst all of these violent humans he was afraid... Ridiculous, he told himself, a warrior such as he. But he was away from his squad and very much alone... He hated it. Not so much the being alone, but that he was so vulnerable alone... He didn't want to trouble the winged human anymore, but he did feel safer around him, even if he wasn't one of his own. He did owe Duilin his life, after all.
"Hmm, yeah. I'm sure there's an inn around here somewhere. Assuming it hasn't been firebombed or whatever."
He smiled lightly, hiding his nervousness.
"Might as well take a look around."
He tossed the empty vial at a large cylindrical can positioned at the street corner. It looked like it was going to miss, but at the last second the glass bottle changed trajectory, hovering over the garbage receptacle and falling neatly into it. Not that it made a difference, as the streets were already lined with filth.
Standing, he flexed his bandaged left arm, wincing slightly, then began to make his way down the street, taking a left turn to head away from the chaos associated with the decimated convoy.
-
Duilin stood up off the bench, he still had a bit of his elixir left, and so he continued sipping it. "Okay, well let's get going. Sure it won't be too hard to find one."
They then walked through the messy city. Duilin looked around, he felt like he was being watched. He shook it off and paid it no mind and continued walking about. After walking a couple blocks they arrived at an inn. The sign appeared to have had a blood stain hastily wiped off, the door had a small blade stuck in it, which looked like it was attached to a spear of some sort at one time.
"Well..." Duilin alleged, shrugging. "I guess it's better then nothing." He looked at Renard. "Or do you want to keep looking?" He asked.
---
The Malefactors were walking through the streets of Asgarnia, they just arrived after a good few hours of travelling.
"Allright boys." Brice said, while chewing on a piece of beef jerky. "Look sharp..."
-
Ace looked up at the two arrows. 'Man this guy has terrible aim.' He thought, not noticing the other seven. Then they caught his eye. Ace loudly cursed in demonic and quickly made a fire wall to block the arrows. Unfourtunatly he didn't have enough time to make a hot enough flame.
"Great, now there on fire..." Ace moaned just before two of the seven arrows stab into his thick devil hide, again he curses even louder.
"I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch!" Ace roars as he pulls out the arrows. Ace starts glowing red and gysers of flame burst off his furius body. He begins to run into the heart of the battle hoping he might get close enough to get a clean shot at the ranger.
-
The giant Minotaur took shape. The beast stretched his arms and flexed it's large muscles.
"Alright boy." Marshall said. He jumped from his hiding spot, and into the main view of the city. "Got get 'em!" He said, pointing towards the village.
The minotaur stomped into the village. Several Dark Empire troops spotting the large beast.
"No way am I fighting that!" One of the cowardly troopers yelped. They dropped their weapons and dashed away for their lives.
Marshall laughed in amusement. He wiped the smile off his face and tried to hold back the laugher and give more neutral tone to his voice. "Okay, now let's find that devil."
The minotaur scanned the area and spotted the Ace, the devil. It narrowed its eyes and clutched its hammer and then stomped towards the devil...
-
Ace, still in his angry dash into the city, noticed the gigantic beats stomping toward him.
"Ohh, finally. Something that can at least put up a fight." Ace was merely amused by the minotaur.
The beast smashed it's hammer down at the ground in front of him causing him to lose balance. Not to be shown up he blasts a stream of fire at the minotar and it lets out a menacing roar.
"What's the matter ugly?" Ace taunts.
He shoots it with another two fireballs. The minotar doesn?t take it lightly though and readies a swing of his hammer. Whack! Ace is knocked a quarter mile if it was an inch right into the side of a house.
"Okay... That's IT!" Ace blasts in fury "Now it's party time!"
(I'm probably not gonna post tomorrow, but i can't say the same for my nerd brother Dudeman. Merry Christmas! Very Happy )
-
//Probably won't post tomorrow for obvious reasons. Merry Christmas!\\
Steam rushing from a broken pipe fogged Alex?s visor. The headquarters had been ransacked. Scientists and rebel leaders were being led out and towards the citadel for questioning. Among them was Isaac Kleiner.
?Doc!? Alex cried, seeing his colleague clapped away in chains.
?Alex! You mustn?t let them win! Fight as hard as you can, for all of us! For the good of Asgarnia! For the good of--?
A Kandie clubbed Kleiner in the back with his speargun. ?Shut up and keep moving,? he barked.
Strangely, the Kandies leading the rebels away made no effort to restrain Alex, nor did any who were rushing in or out of the hallways honeycombing the underground of the city. It was as if he did not exist.
?I don?t like this,? Midna said, emerging from his shadow. ?They?re not paying us any mind. Damien must want to have the pleasure of fighting us himself.?
?I don?t think so,? Alex replied. ?I haven?t seen any trace of him since we got in here.?
Soon Alex reached the rebel war room, the nerve center of the uprising operations. When Alex surveyed the damage, it looked like a hurricane had torn through the tunnels. Tables were overturned, weapons were stolen, and maps were torn up. The rebel plans were, at this point, unsalvageable.
?This is bad,? Alex muttered. ?They?ve stolen our plans. They knew we were going to hit the citadel?s primary weapon. Without those plans, the attack would be fruitless.?
?Don?t give up yet,? Midna pleaded. ?Your friends may be captured, but as long as you don?t go down, the rebellion still has hope! The fact that their leader has so far avoided capture could be a great boost in morale.?
?Morale seems to be the least of their concerns,? Alex shot back. ?They?re being taken to the citadel for questioning. Who knows? They might even be executed!?
From the shadows something lurked. Alex felt a shiver go down his spine and turned around.
?What is it?? Midna asked.
?Nothing, n-nothing. Probably just the wind.?
He kept making his way through the ruined war room. Whether he liked it or not, something was in here with him. As he kept walking, he heard a telltale chattering sound.
?O-Otis??
The headcrab leapt from behind and clamped onto Alex?s back. He crawled up Alex?s head to sit down on a table. He shook his body in excitement.
?Otis! Am I glad to see you!?
?Is that a headcrab?? Midna asked, a little worried.
?Yep, I found him during my trip to the Borderworld. Little guy decided to follow me back home.?
Midna got a little closer to the alien, looking him over. ?Actually, I think I recognize this crab.?
?Wha--?? was all Alex could say.
?Yeah! I remember you. You helped me escape the Borderworld as soon as Damien banished me there.?
?What?? Alex turned to Otis. ?You never told ME about this.?
Otis simply chattered in reply.
?Okay, you got me.? He turned back to Midna. ?How did HE help you??
?Otis is a unique headcrab, Alex,? Midna started. ?He?s able to open small dimensional portals for brief moments, just long enough for someone to travel through. He sacrificed his escape from the Borderworld to allow me through.?
?But why would he want to escape?? asked Alex. ?Isn?t he native to the Borderworld??
?That?s what I was wondering too. He wanted out for some reason, and it turns out when you came, he was freed. I don?t know why, because I don?t speak his language, but for whatever reason, he really likes you for it.?
Otis swayed his body back and forth.
?Otis, listen,? Alex began. ?The rebel base has been compromised. I want you to get out of here as fast as you can, find someplace safe to wait out this whole ordeal. When it?s over, I?ll come find you, got it??
Otis chirped and leapt up into a culvert, scampering to safety.
Before Alex or Midna could say another word, a Kandie grabbed Alex by the arms and pulled them behind his back. He affixed some kind of wristband to each one. Though the two were not connected, Alex felt his small magical prowess become suppressed.
?That?ll teach ya,? laughed the Kandie as he made his escape.
Alex brought his hands back in front of him. ?What the hell??
?Anti-magic binders,? Midna answered. ?Whoever wears them has their magical abilities suppressed. Meaning you can?t cast those fire spells anymore.?
?Can?t you unlock them??
?The binders only respond to the magic that locked them in the first place. In other words, this is Damien?s doing.?
?Knock me down and kick me,? Alex muttered under his breath. ?He doesn?t want ANY threat of opposition from anybody. ?He was aware I was practicing fire magic to resist him.?
?But how did he find out?? Midna asked.
?Beats me,? Alex said, reaching for a nearby crowbar to try to pry off the binders. Unfortunately, the crowbar bent in protest as Alex forced the binders.
?So much for being a free man,? Alex said.
?This doesn?t make any sense,? Midna went on, ?Why would the Kandies let you in here, restrain your magic abilities, and simply let you go? It would seem to me that Damien would want to take on the thorn in his side at full power??
?He wants to test us,? Alex said. ?He wants us to fight up to him the hard way, so he can judge if he wants to actually deal with us or not. He?s messing with our heads.?
?You might be right,? Midna said. ?But there?s only one way to find out.?
Alex pulled the rifle off his shoulder. ?And I know what it is.?
A Kandie addressed Damien.
?Sir, we?ve located the Insurgent and have attached the binders. He?s approaching the citadel now.?
?Well done, lieutenant,? Damien said. ?Give him no mercy.?
?Sir.? The Kandie walked away.
?I?m disappointed as to how easy this is becoming. At this rate, it won?t be worth my time to deal with that rebellious little fool. No matter. He?s had the pleasure of my company once, I?m sure he wouldn?t mind it again.?
-
Druid saw the desperate demon charge at him, and he was preparing for it. His hand was still glowing and he then charged up the sword. Also the ruby on his staff turned a deep blood red. When the demon was a closer to Druid, he hurled the glowing sword as hard as he could over his shoulder at the demon. As soon as he had released the sword he dropped down on his knee ready to fire a blast incase the sword didn't kill Boron.
---
Coriko saw his arrows hit the demon. His plan worked, but he only got 2 out of 7. Coriko was mad, because that was terrible for him. He stood up on the edge of the tower. Coriko jumped of the tower. He hit the ground with a roll and bolted forwards. Coriko saw the demon fighting a minotaur.
"Must be Marshall's work" he thought.
Coriko climbed up top of a nereby building. He had clear shot of the demon. Coriko pulled out his bow and had an arrow ready. Instead of firing though, he stood there watching the two creatures fight. It looked like the minotaur was going to loose. He fired a rapid stream of arrows. He fired about six or seven flamming arrows at the demons various body parts. Most were at the creature's head.
-
Zeros' sighed and shook his head, but he could feel the magic gas slowly retreating. He brought up his right arm and simply grabbed the sword.
The lizardman blinked and struggled, trying to remove the sword, trying to rip it out of Zeros' iron grasp. As soon as he strated tugging it away from Zeros', Zeros' released the sword, causing the lizardman to tumble backwards, falling on his butt. The lizardman growled and scrambled up, retaining some of his dignity.
Zeros' shook his head and held out his right hand, flexing his fingers before grinning. He could feel his magic and ki coming back.
"Well now..." he said, flexing his fingers once more, turning his palm upwards. A ball of ki slowly started to form in his upturned palm. "It seems that the magic gas is finally receeded," he grinned.
---
Allen nodded and scrambled over towards the glider, taking a position at the back, turning his head to try and get a better view. He grinned, seeing the lizardmen slowed down by his efforts.
"VEN! Let's get moving once you get that hatch open!" he called out.
-
The lizards seemed to have noticed that too.
The second lizardman grinned, he then sidestepped to get a clear shot. He then arched forward his lizard claw and aimed his hand towards Zeros'. The lizard warrior hissed as his hand was surrounded in a plume of flame. Then from his palms shot forth a high-speed ball of fire towards it's target...
-
Ven stopped turning the crank when the door was open just high enough for the glider to slip safely though. Looking over his shoulder, he gasped when he saw the lizard man almost upon Henri and Allen. He dashed back to the glider, beating back the lizard with one arm while hanging on the railing Allen had provided in the rear position.
?All right, let?s GO!?
He summoned the gust of wind like he had done before to ride below his feet, but this time directed it to the flaps around him. The glider blasted forward with ease as the lizard angrily followed, stopping short of the edge as the three took off into the dark skies.
?Whoa~!?
The turbulence was heavy as Ven?s spell propelled them along and King Henry was hanging on for his life with gritted teeth.
?Gods, Ven, not so strongly!?
?I-I-- can?t! There?s some kinda updraft or something!?
They blasted forward, cutting through the thick black clouds, the airship disappearing behind them within seconds. After careening blindly through the fog for a few moments, they cut down trough the cloud barrier, the darkened rocky landscape coming into view below them. By down Ven hand ceased his spell, but there was a strong natural gust pushing them along.
?Blast it, Ven! Can you not slow us down!?
?I, uh, only know how to cast wind forward!? Ven yelled back.
In the distance some sort of mountain fortress came into view, and they were headed right for it?
----
Renard ran his right claw though his ?hair? as he leaned over the wedged spear tip. The scent of human blood hung in the air.
?Gee, I don?t know about this...?
He turned to look at the sign. Underneath the word ?INN? was affixed a second smaller sign that read ?Not Dangerous?. The fox shifted his eyes.
Blast it. He was too worn out to think.
?Let?s just run with it??
The lobby wasn?t quite as bad as the outside. A small room with an old man behind the wooden counter. The Velken paid for a room before Duilin could say anything and ran up the stairs with the key, looking better than ever. The room was small and barren, but it had two beds and a window. A tad dirty but good enough. Renard dove into the bed closer to the door face first.
----
?Hrr-QHKK!!?
The sword pierced Boron right through the heart? He fell to his knees, eyes and mouth gaping?
?Im? pos? i? ble? !!?
Then the blast slammed into him, his lifeless body spiraling backwards and landing in a crumbled heap, a black flame consuming it as it crumpled away?
There were cheers from the cliff top. Obviously it was an entertaining match.
Melface held out his hand expectantly.
?I? uh? left my money in my tent??
?Then get it!?
Jayce clapped calmly, the metal clang of his dark gauntlets ringing dully through the clearing turned battlefield below. A dark chuckle filled the air.
?Not bad??
-
Druid levitated off the ground up to the height of the cliff. He then stepped slowly onto the edge of cliff. He looked at the spectators and then turned his attention to Jayce. Druid walked up to Jayce and looked him in the eyes.
"Well, Jayce, am I in?"
-
"Whoa, what's his hurry?" Duilin asked himself, he then took some coins from his pocket.
"Uh, what is this?" The Innkeeper asked.
"Oh, sorry." Duilin said, he remembered that these were angelic coins. "Yeah, these aren't normal coins, but they're pretty rare, only a few of them left on Gaian."
"As far as I'm concerned you just forged those yourself." The innkeeper snapped.
"Well, come on, these is legit gold, it's worth quite a bit."
"I'd bite it to see..." The old man said as he grinned and showed his teeth. "But these can barely peirce an apple in my day. So I'm only excepting Kandarin or Dark Empire currency."
"Well, maybe I can borrow some money from my friend." He went to walk past, but the old man stopped him. "No going past without paying your money!"
Duilin rolled his eyes, he had a good mind to knock the guy out, or at least threaten him, but it looked like the old guy stopped caring about anything except money. Why couldn't have this guy been a coin collector like the clothing shop manager.
----
"Hey, I thought I just seen him go in ta dat building!" Scrums said, pointing down the block.
"I as well." Rufokanno added. "Let us go."
The four then walked down the street towards the inn...
-
Renard appeared at the top of the stairs.
"Oh! Uh, he's with me..."
He produced another one of those large gold coins and tossed it the innkeeper's way, who caught it and accepted it with a grin after a brief inspection. He smiled down at Duilin.
"Uh, sorry about that. Got a little ahead of myself. Room's on me."
Shoot, that was rude. But blast it, he was just so worn out. He had intended to pay for Duilin on the way over but somehow forgot when a rest was finally within his grasp. The guy did save his life and all!
Hmmm, at this rate he was going to run out of money very quickly. But after a good rest he should have enough of his strength back to go looking for the others himself anyway.
----
Jayce nodded once, still leaning against the rock.
"Impressive. You'll fit in nicely here..."
He paused, reflecting that he didn't catch this warrior's name yet.
-
?Alex, I hope you know what you?re doing,? Midna said, floating alongside the armored rebel.
?He?s had this coming,? Alex replied coldly.
Somehow, it had started raining. Strangely, the clouds grouped around the citadel only, leaving the rest of the city untouched. Raindrops pattered and bounced off Alex?s smooth outer shell. Thunder echoed through the ominous skies, and lightning illuminated the landscape, causing Alex to appear as a dark silhouette when the bolts played through the clouds. An ill wind was blowing.
?At least they were nice enough to leave the door open,? Midna muttered, noticing the citadel?s primary drawbridge was lowered, and the portcullis raised. Alex heard the clattering of equipment and shuffling feet behind him. When he turned around, he laid eyes on an expansive legion of rebels, following him.
Sergeant Sven of the Asgarnian Guard stepped forward. ?Alex, we want you to know that we?ve got your back. This is your city, too. It?s about time we got it back.?
?Thank you, Sven. That means a lot.?
?I understand you have some unfinished business with the current ruler, Damien Roth. You go on ahead. I?ll lead the teams to attack the weapon.?
?Did you ever find out what it was for?? Alex asked.
?Unfortunately, yes. They?ve converted the emitter systems to project a huge wave of Borderworld energy. We?ve observed the energy levels in this system, and we?ve measured them to be at least ten times as powerful as the initial shield spire explosion. If this weapon is activated, a fifty-mile radius will be saturated in Borderworld energy. The dimensional instability of this weapon is unimaginable. If it doesn?t wipe Asgarnia off the map, it would forever lock it into the Borderworld.?
Upon hearing this, Alex?s blood ran cold. The thought of the city he and his allies had fought so hard to protect being annihilated was too much. The emitter had to be stopped.
?You have your objective, Sergeant,? Alex ordered.
Sven turned to his vast ranks and addressed them,
?Listen up. We?re about to make a last-ditch attack directly on the Kandarinian citadel. Hopefully our vast numbers will be enough to overwhelm them. It is important that you all understand that some of you may not survive this. Should this be the case, the citizens of Asgarnia, and those of Terian, greatly appreciate your sacrifice. Should you survive, you?ll be rewarded with a prize greater than any medal. Now, who?s with me?!?
The ranks cheered thunderously, rivaling that of the thunder booming above.
?Prepare yourselves,? Sven continued, ?for this is our judgment day!?
A soldier reported to Damien.
?Sir, the rebels are preparing to attack!?
?I see. Lieutenant, gather your men. Do whatever you can to repulse them. Protect the Borderworld emitter at all costs. And should you see a black-armored rebel, hold your fire.?
?Sir??
?I want to have the pleasure of destroying him myself.?
?Yes SIR!?
The Kandie lieutenant reached his platoon.
?Listen up, men! The rebels are coming! PREPARE YOURSELVES!?
?ATTACK!!!? cried Sven, motioning the ranks forward.
The massive army flooded over the immense bridge connecting good and evil. In a thunderous wave the wrought iron gates of the citadel warped and bent out of shape, finally rocketing off their chains. Almost immediately Kandies and rebels engaged each other indiscriminately. Soon bodies on both sides began dropping, surviving soldiers paying them no mind. The crackling of energy weapons and the whooshing and ringing of spearguns and shotguns filled the air with a deafening cacophony. Through the smoke and blood, Alex had managed to force himself into a side passage, which lead directly to the shield chamber.
?This isn?t a war, it?s a slaughter!? Midna cried as Alex roadie-ran through the tight catacombs.
?It should be right up ahead,? Alex called as he bashed down a grate, revealing the massive emitter some twenty meters across an enormous chasm between it and the catwalk Alex was standing on. Even here, the rebels coursed through the doors and windows like leaking high-pressure pipes, erasing any Kandies they could find.
?So what do we do?? Midna asked as a rebel fell to his death immediately in front of Alex, making a sickening sound of shattered bones. Nothing could be done to help him.
?Sven said we had to overcharge the weapon,? Alex replied. ?The surplus magic energy would cause it to shut down.?
?But how do we do that? Your magic abilities are locked!?
?The energy rifles emit a small amount of magical energy with each discharge, we?ll have to use it.?
High-tension cables launched onto the emitter, and soon rebels rappelled from the ceiling and affixed themselves to the weapon?s armored hide. One rebel knocked an access plate off, the resulting gush of heat causing him to lose his grip and fall. The opened port revealed a blinding magical furnace deep within the weapon?s core. Huge plumes of dark smoke choked from vents on the side of the massive cylindrical weapon and its spherical center. A voice came over the citadel?s klaxon.
?Attention. Borderworld emitter is now charging. Eight minutes until firing.?
Alex now had to work quickly. In eight minutes Asgarnia would be wiped from the face of Gaian unless he did something. A rebel ran up to him.
?Sir! You?ll have to board the weapon in order to disable it! Here, take my clawshots and grapple your way to the weapon?s core! Hurry, you don?t have much--?
A spear rocketed through his skull before he could finish. Bleeding and lifeless, his body slumped over the guardrails and plummeted.
Alex shouldered his rifle and slid a clawshot onto each hand. A clawshot was a mechanical device that could shoot a chain out at high speed with a grappling claw on the end. It would then retract and pull Alex to whatever he shot at, providing the claw could get a solid grip.
?Hey, there he is!? a Kandie screamed as he spotted Alex.
?Alex, are you sure you can do this?? Midna asked.
?Not at all,? he replied as he cocked the clawshot and fired onto one of the handholds on the weapon?s core.
The Kandie?s spear just missing his boot, Alex was yanked hard across thin air, towards the weapon. Upon arrival, Alex clamped to the weapon?s ball-shaped core and detached the clawshot. Carefully gripping the handholds, he began to shimmy his way around to one of the weapon?s primary exhaust vents.
An off-angle spear nicked the back of his armor, causing him to lose balance. He reached for one of his clawshots and fired directly onto the grated surface of the emitter?s exhaust vents. He pulled with all of his might, and the vent tore off, sparks flying. Regaining his equilibrium, Alex reached for his rifle and brought it to bear directly into the glaring furnace within. Alex pumped a few bolts into the furnace until a white-hot jet of flame rocketed out of the vent, slightly damaging the rifle?s barrel guard. There where two more vents. But could his rifle stand up the repeated exposure to plumes of fire hotter than the sun?
It would have to, as another rebel clamped to the core soon found a spear impale him through his midsection, falling to his death. His rifle?s strap, however, had become caught around a handhold.
Not taking any chances, Alex set his rifle to overload and hurled it away from him, landing on a catwalk below. The rifle detonated, eliminating a squad of Kandies and knocking the catwalk off the wall. Alex reached for the new rifle and continued climbing. He reached up with his clawshot and ripped open the second vent. The infinitely hot gases and flames churned within, drawing ever closer to doomsday.
?Attention,? the klaxon rang out, ?Three minutes until firing.?
At the rate Alex was going, he would not be able to stop the weapon in time. He had to speed things up. He pulled his new rifle up and fired in. The weapon?s core belched white smoke for a second before launching out another flare, destroying further components.
Alex had not drawn his hands back in time, and his bound wrists are subject to the intense heat. The anti-magic binders exploded off his wrists in a shower of metallic shards. He pulled his hands back and inspected them. Once again he felt his meager magic energies return. In the thrust of the flare, Alex had been hurled from the core, his rifle falling down to the growing pile of bodies below. Alex pulled his clawshot and grabbed onto the final vent. He rocketed back up to the core and hung on. He had no weapon this time to destroy the final vent, and so he would have to rely on his own power to sabotage it.
?Attention. One minute until firing.?
Sixty precious seconds and counting. Alex quickly scrambled up and ripped the final vent from its hinges. He looked deep into the fading core that was losing power, but still was powerful enough to destroy the city.
?You don?t have long!? Midna cried. ?Hurry, before the weapon fires!?
Forty-five seconds.
Alex brought his hands up and began charging the largest fireball he could muster. A Kandie rappelled down behind him, preparing to finish him, only to be cut down by a rebel on the opposite catwalk.
Thirty seconds.
The fireball grew larger and larger, as Alex reached his hands deep into the core?s final vent. The energy within was gathering to fire.
Twenty seconds.
The citadel began to shake noticeably as an enormous set of blast doors at the top of the shield chamber, nearly two hundred meters above, slid open, and the weapon itself began to rise.
Ten seconds.
?HURRY!? Midna hollered over the deafening roar as Asgarnia?s ruined cityscape soon came into view thousands of feet below.
Five seconds.
In a wordless holler of force, Alex thrust his hands as hard as he could, the magical energies coursing deep into the core, charring it horribly. Pipes burst. Cables snapped. A final jet of flame erupted from all vents on the weapon?s spherical core, including the one Alex was in front of. He gripped his hands onto whatever surface he could as the emitter went into its death throes, and finally shut down. The raging fire subsided, the steam from the pipes stopped gushing.
One second. That was once the time until doomsday. Alex?s intervention had prevented the city?s Armageddon. The chamber stood in silence for a few moments. Both Kandie and rebel alike stood in awe of the cataclysm that had been averted.
All Alex could do was dangle hundreds of feet above death. He finally found it in him to reach for his clawshot and grapple back to the main catwalk system.
Suddenly, both the Kandies and rebels noticed that the fray had stopped. Without so much as a word between either side, the titanic battle continued once more. Alex silently opened the double doors leading up to Damien?s balcony and passed.
Midna was speechless. She had just witnessed one solitary being halt the destruction of millions. ?Alex, I??
Her words were cut short as two Kandies cracked Alex over the head with the butts of their weapons. Midna was also forced to the ground by a third Kandie.
?Damien said he wanted to see the Insurgent, right?? one Kandie asked another.
?Orders are orders,? he said.
Saying nothing more, the soldiers dragged the rebel and imp up to the throne room of the tyrannical ruler, Damien Roth.
-
Duilin really didn't seem to notice Renard's rudeness for not paying for him, he was too busy being ticked off at the innkeeper. Plus he's never expected somebody to be kind enough to pay for a room for him, since most people that are kind to him tend to be poor or mysterious rouges, like Zeros'. Now that he thought of it, Zeros' actually would qualify as poor, but it's not like the guy needed money. Crazy immortals. Duilin shook his head to get out of thought and then went up stairs.
"Thanks, that innkeeper wouldn't except my coins." Duilin replied, sitting on the bed. He opened his coin pouch and took out one of the coins. It wasn't nearly as big as one of the Empire coins, but it was very shinny and had a beautiful angelic design on it. A work of art, really.
"I don't know why he wouldn't. I mean, gold is gold. Plus take a look at this coin." He handed the coin to Renard. He was about to tell him an angel gave him the coins, yet generally angels are never seen at all on Gaian, and it was quite the rarity of him actually meeting one. "A, uh, friend of mine gave them too me. They were used in ancient times, people say they're actually angelic."
-
Renard plopped down on the other bed, inspecting the coin. It really was a work of art, containing a degree of intricacy he?d never seen.
?Angels? You mean like, from Asgard??
He?d heard of that place. A world in the clouds, much like his own. Only his was shrouded in darkness, the other in light. Welkin wasn?t always like that. It used to be blue and bright as well, or so they say. That changed well before he was born?
Welkin? home?
?I like it? wanna trade??
He tossed Duilin one of his gold coins from his dwindling supply. It was larger and more valuable by it?s size and weight, but the engraving was less impressive, stamped on with less attention to detail. Upon one side was engraved the insignia of the Dark Empire, that four winged dragon against a diagonal sword. Upon the other were five elemental symbols arranged in a circular pattern. A plume of flame for fire, a crystal for water, a bolt of lightning for the air, a planet for the earth. The topmost one, resembling shadow, was larger than the others, a sort of vortex with lines drawing inward. The six element, light, was missing.
Renard made his way over to the window, resting his arms and chin on the seal as he gauzed out, running his thumb over the grooves of the coin. The sky was that same shade of black and red as was across the rest of the Dark Continent. Slowly this world was being reshaped by the Dark Emperor Retan?s will, that darkness spreading outward from this continent as he extended his reach outward across new lands, the light dying and decaying in his wake. Welkin had no choice but to accept the Dark Emperor, but this world was different. He was conquering it. The fox remembered coming into this world and feeling the warm sun on his fur. It was pleasant. But now it was a rarity, only existing in those far off lands, but even there the dark are clouds follow. Why does Retan hate the light so?
-
"Sure, I've got a quite a few of them so yeah." Duilin replied catching the coin. He examined the detail, he lifted his left upper lift in disgust of the stamping. He was half demon and this coin looked evil to him. Yet the coin was worth more and I guess that?s what?s important in this day.
He looked up at Renard, who was looking out the window. "So, uh. What's your opinion on the Dark Empire and Retan?" He finally decided to ask.
----
The door of the inn was kicked open.
The innkeeper looked frightfully at the four malefactors that just stepped in.
"Wh-what do you want?" He asked stuttering.
"Where is he?" Brice snapped.
"Who?"
"The winged guy! He came in here? Where is he!?"
"Oh yeah, uh, he's upstairs. Um, you're not gonna hurt me are ya?"
"No, just as long as you don't get in our way." Elliot said, grunting afterwards. "Let's get em."
The four then stomped upstairs...
-
"Why, why, oh why are Asgarnians so damn protective of their filty hole that they affectionally label a city? They are the definition of "poor loser": they cannot see that I have won, and they have lost. Why can they not simply accept the fate that is upon them? Their city is beyond saving. That will be proved to them. By me.
The loss of the Borderworld Feedback Device was a heavy one, indeed; but it was not the main reason for my anger towards both Asgarnians and Kandarinians in the occupied city. It is the unacceptable amount of deaths my troops have suffered. Why is it that me, a humble Lich, must always clean up their act, whether their deaths be the result of heretical Aspyes or the wayward Asgarnians? Why, oh gods, why do my blinded eyes see more than theirs?
When fuelled by my anger, I sometimes make rash decisions. Such is the case now; whether it is fortunate or not remains to be seen. I quickly headed down to the throne room, and from there, towards Sizri.
Upon arriving there, I found an absolutely nil amount of work done by my good-for-nothing mages there. Instead of either charging golems or doing research upon the blighted eleven orbs of Nightshade, they were chasing skirts and stuffing their faces. As I arrived, of course, this has changed; but the point was taken. I descended to the central tower built inside the ruined Enigma complex, looming over the rest of Sizri.
Inside, I found the head wizard, Balathazdrar, chewing on a chunk of bintmeat. He quickly hid it, hoping I wouldn't notice. I suppose he was relying on the blindfold.
I turned my head in disgust, and was very close to turning Balath into a small smoking pile of electrified ashes. Just at the right moment, though, my objective side got the better of me.
-"Balath, don't pretend I didn't see that. Anyways, I want you to gather 500 slaves in one of the golem pits at Xim, as well as three fully charged Atronachs."
-"Sir?"
-"Mass sacrifice. Ask no more, and comply."
--- --- ---
All in very odd situations, the members of the Necronomicon crusade disappeared one by one. Eventually, all that remained were the Elder, Victo, and Jacob. Despite the events, they simply quietly marched on and on and on...
---
The lack of speech greatly unsettled the assassins. Arlin was the only one talking; the rest sat quietly in their cells, making not even an attempt to escape. Something was very amiss.
--- --- ---
Horus continued charging his cannon, now a little more aware of the noise it was making. He slid closer to the ground to dampen the hum.
--- --- ---
Ein suddenly stopped walking towards the central Asgarnian spire. The air was crackling with energy he has encountered before. It was on the tip of his tongue... where did he feel this energy before?
--- --- ---
The live part of the conduit was finally completely trained and adapted to both the hellish environments and the mortal realm. He was made to look somewhat like an average human, though his inner anatomy was drastically different from that of a man. Now it was time for the inanimate part of the conduit to take its form; the forges in the hottest depths of Hell were already finished creating a metal specifically suited for that function. Now it must be forged into an approperiate shape; Iban was unsure of the form just yet.
[charging 5 out of 25]
-
Zeros' shook his head at the pathetic double attack. Instead of moving, he simply ducked his head to one side, avoiding the claw. Then, he simply moved his shoulder, causing the plume of flame to reflect off of the swords large blade.
He turned himself back into the poistion, the two lizardmen retreating to regroup. While they were doing this, he shifted ever so slightly and slashed down with his sword, blades of ki rippling from the edge of the blade. Five long, deadly beams of cresent energy tore through the air, heading straight for the lizards.
---
Allen gasped and looked on in fear. Multiple alchemic formulas ran rapidly through his head, trying to think of one that could help him...
He then nodded and reached behind him, barely taking out his small, curved dagger without dropping it. He leaned forwards and started to carve a transmutation circle into the frame of the glider. He should of thought of this earlier!
"Get ready, Ven!" he cried out.
He closed his eyes, resheathing his dagger and concentrated. The frame of the glider started to glow. Suddenly, they seemed to be rocked directly to the left.
If either of them looked on the right side, they'd notice that Allen had all, but removed the gliders wing on that side, making the air catch the left and propel them that way.
-
One of the lizard warriors was sliced across the torso by two energy beams and the creature fell to the ground bleeding. The other one dodged two of the energy crescents but was forced to block one with his sword, damaging the blade, yet not fully cutting it.
The lizardman looked at his fallen comrade and then glared at Zeros' and hissed. His left claw was engulfed in flame, which he splashed down on the blade. He then violently chucked the burning sword at Zeros'...
-
Another explosion. The Velkens shot away from Draven to avoid the flame, many of them now sporting minor injuries. Draven looked much the same. Virmir held up a claw.
"Enough."
Another lull... the silver foxes slowly began to circle Draven, eerily drifting through the air...
"What's the matter freaks, had enough?"
Virmir stiffened up.
"A stalemate. This is a battle we cannot win."
Draven's smirk widened. He was loving it.
"Aw, too bad."
"But you are alone. We will simply return with more allies. You have no chance, Draven. We will meet again soon."
With that, all ten of the shot skyward before darting off into the distance as blurs... They were so fast...
Draven's eyes widened.
"Hey! You can't DO THAT!! GET BACK HERE!!!"
Another explosion ensuing from the burning man as his aura intensified, he soured through the air in raging pursuit like a fireball.
"DO YOU HEAR ME!?!? BLAST IT!! YOUR HEADS ARE MINE!!!"
It was no use. They were way ahead of him and rapidly gaining distance...
----
"Whoa!"
Ven and Henri held on tightly as the glider veered.
"Are you sure that was a good idea?!"
Henri pointed to that structure formerly in front of them.
"Better than crashing into that... fortress?"
Lizaberg loomed to their right now, scaly lizard men scurrying about the tops of the walls. They've been spotted...
Suddenly explosions ripped the air around the glider.
"They're SHOOTING at us!!"
"Ah crap..."
By now they were close to the ground, and the right wing clipped the edge of a rock formation. They were spun about, and forced in a rather ungraceful landing among the flat stones below...
----
Renard's right ear turned towards Duilin. He was sort of surprised by the question. He turned his head to look at the human.
"... Retan will control this world eventually. There's no use fighting it. I wish people wouldn't... they're only killing themselves..."
He turned to stare out the window again, his tail drooping somberly.
"First to go will be the nations that resist. I hear he used to enslave the populace, but not anymore... Something happened that caused him not to trust humans. So now he kills them... Every last one...
"Then there're his 'allies'... Right now they're independent nations... but that won't last long. He'll infiltrate their governments with his agents. Either that or bribe them. Eventually they'll just be a shell with a name, just another extension of his empire..."
His ears swiveled again as he picked up some stomping of people coming up the stairs in the hallway. They did that a lot, his ears, making him seem a very alert, if not jittery, creature.
-
In the chaos of the battle ace regains his balance after the stunning blow from the minotaur. He lights up a fireball in each hand and throws them at two lizard men. Then an Aspy solider fired a bullet at him but missed. Ace winked at the lean man and snaped his fingers like he did on his first moments on Gian and two streams of fire blast the man to ashes.
"tsch... Guns." He mutters.
The minotar smashes through a few lizard men and stares at ace, he seems to really want to kill him.
"Wow, big guy. I am two things right now: A devil and pissed off!" Ace blasts two fireballs at its face causing it to roar in pain.
He charges up a bigger one and throws it at its chest knocking the beast to the ground.
"Ha ha!" He gloats.
Then he sees in the corner of his eye a blue glair. It is coming off the neck of an Aspy.
'Hey, thats a blue minotaur cystal, he must have stolen it off one' he thinks 'He probably summoned ol' ugly over there.'
"Hey! You with the fruity necklace! Bring it on!" Ace taunts and moves in for the kill.
-
Duilin felt kind of offended with Renard response. "That sounds rather pessimistic. Retan may be powerful, but he is evil. He may have massive strength, power and intelligence, but he doesn't have one thing..."
He paused for a little bit.
"...Karma, and destiny on his side. This may sound kind of silly but, those who become that powerful eventually become overthrown. Maybe it's by another evil, but that just starts everything over again. Like, Retan was defeated six years ago and Draven took his place. He ruled then Melkoth and his Grey Empire took him down, then the Aspyes wiped the Grey Empire out, yet then Retan came back."
He thought for a bit, as his point wasn't exactly clear.
"Um, here is a better example. Just before I was born there was the war of Helternia. It involved a few nations clashing war; the Dark Empire and the Helternian Armed Forces. The Dark Empire was trying to expand at Helternia, yet a group of seemingly harmless townsmen were able to drive them out. Helternia didn't even have a major kingdom defending it like Tjed did, yet they were unable to take the place over."
His father once told him about that battle. Although it wasn't a large force lead by a High General like the War of Romme, but regardless, evil failed that day.
Suddenly the door was kicked open. And four men stepped into the room.
Duilin turned around and looked at the men, and raised his eyebrows...
-
Alex?s head cleared up as he found himself restrained by heavy chains. From his suspended position he saw a magical barrier confiscate not only his energy rifle, but his clawshots. A Kandie soldier promptly took them from him and placed them on a table behind the dark, robed figure, Damien Roth.
Alex, suspended on a large mechanical board, was swiveled around on a rail and brought directly in front of Damien. The dark lord chuckled a little bit.
?Well, well, well. If it isn?t the rebellious little firebug. I thought I did away with you. It?s a shame. In my old age my aim must be going bad. No matter, I shan?t miss this time.?
?Where?s Midna?? Alex demanded.
?The girl?? Damien quipped. ?Well, let?s just say she?s bound for an extended leave.?
As the restraint mechanism rotated Alex, he saw Midna bound to a magical energy cage, in front of a portal leading to the Borderworld.
?As you know personally, Alex, interlopers are not welcomed in our affairs. I?m afraid your sweetheart there is going for a little trip. You yourself might take the same voyage if you refuse to comply with me.?
Alex was appalled. Sweetheart? He thought to himself. Hardly. ?And what would this request be?? He asked aloud.
?Alex, I look at you and I see more than just a human being,? Damien continued, ?If you are strong enough to withstand my power, imagine what others would do to prevent facing you. With you as leverage, I can negotiate any terms I desire with any powers that oppose us.?
?Please,? Alex said, ?I?ve got more worthy causes to be part of.?
?Like what?!? Damien bellowed. ?That RABBLE in the streets? You may have been able to sabotage the Borderworld emitter but let me tell you here and now. The idea of Asgarnia being wiped off the map is still very real, my friend. And there?s nothing you can do to stop it. Now, I?m being lenient and giving you a choice in this.? He motioned the Kandie to release the chains holding Alex. He dropped to the ground with a thump. ?Either join me, or join Midna in that empty world.?
?That?s not going to happen,? Alex said sternly, standing his ground.
?Very well then,? Damien sighed. ?You have forced my hand. If you will not willingly join me, I suppose I shall have to force you. The rules are simple. If you win, my Kandarinian soldiers will finish you off. If I win, I gain the ultimate weapon.? He cast off his cloak, revealing a tall, slender man with unnaturally grey skin, as if he had not seen sunlight for decades. Glowing red marks ran up and down his arms, and under the cloak he wore simple black robes, and some charm around his neck.
Alex, realizing that Damien specialized in air magic, hit a button on the wrist of his armor plating. Heavy as stone, the armor shed itself from Alex?s body, clattering to the ground in a loud assortment of clanging and ringing. Below the armor Alex simply wore his jacket and slacks. He hardly looked worthy of fighting. Somehow, he had hidden his crimson scimitar within his jacket. The Kandies approached him to confiscate it, but Damien motioned them away.
?Stop. It would disappoint me to gain an ally so easily. Let him keep his blade.? The Kandies backed off.
?Alex, don?t do it!? Midna cried from within the cage. ?You can?t fight without any protection! It?s suicide!?
?I know what I?m doing,? Alex said coldly. ?It?s time to settle the score, Damien.? His hands smoked with fiery energy. ?Your move.?
Damien took no time at all to bring a massive bolt of lightning to bear, and to bring it down upon Alex. Though the bolt traveled at the speed of light Alex was amazingly able to sidestep it.
?Hmm,? Damien mused. ?Perhaps you are more skilled than I thought you to be. Let?s see how you like THIS!? The air within the chamber began to swirl as gale-force winds mounted, nearly ripping chandeliers off their hooks. Alex planted his scimitar into the floor and braced. What Alex failed to notice was that his immense concentration had shot his sword with the power of elemental fire. As it shot out in all directions, the cyclone became a burning vortex. When the flames cleared, Damien stood, smoking.
?Well, my child. You seem to be aware of the weakness of an air elemental. It?s a shame you won?t live long enough to exploit it.? He cast yet another lightning spell, which struck Alex straight from above. However, he had not yet removed his scimitar from the floor, and the lighting coursed through the makeshift conductor without any damaging effects. He withdrew his scimitar from the ground and twirled it through the air, causing it to ignite again. He had an idea.
?Alex, please! Save yourself and get out of here!? Midna pleaded. ?I can find my own way from the Borderworld!?
?No way,? Alex replied. ?You helped me, so now I?m returning the favor!? He grunted as Damien swung his staff at him, nearly lopping off his head. Alex brought his sword to bear and brought it down in a vertical attack against Damien?s staff. The two weapons created a shower of sparks that flooded the room as one tried to force the other.
?Give it up, Alex!? Damien growled. ?It?s no use, you?ll never be able to save this wretched city! Your cause is just as lost as your parents.?
Suddenly something snapped inside of Alex. In an amazing feat of strength he forced Damien to the ground, his staff breaking in two.
?Yes, that?s it,? Damien continued, ?Let the anger consume you. Soon you will be an empty shell of your former self, ripe for the picking.?
?It?s not how angry I am,? Alex said. ?But it?s how I USE THAT ANGER!? He screamed, impaling Damien through the chest.
Nearly in shock, Damien stumbled back, trying to gain equilibrium. Alex grabbed onto the handle of his sword, and, with a clench of his fist, ignited the blade while it was still embedded in his foe?s body. Damien?s wordless scream of agony pierced the city air, rebels and Kandies in the lower levels of the citadel looking around to see what the noise was about.
Satisfied, Alex ripped his serrated blade from Damien?s chest and sheathed it. Where he had impaled him a coal-black scorch mark was apparent. The defeated tyrant fell to his knees.
?You?? he coughed violently. ??may have won the battle?but you have NOT won the war! You think you have defeated me, but let me assure you, this is a minor inconvenience for me. One day, I shall return, and on that day, I WILL get EVEN!? His body seemed to fall into ashes, which a sudden wind gusted out of the window and out into Terian?s winds.
Alex picked himself up and cracked his neck. He turned back to Midna. ?No, THAT?S how it?s done.? He walked over to the binders that restrained Midna, and with a few quick cuts of an ignited sword, freed her. Seeing the opportunity, Alex also severed the cables powering the Borderworld portal. The swirling purple vortex faded into nothingness, only showing the opposite wall through its circular threshold.
Midna was at a loss for words. ?Alex?? She tried to gain her composure. ?I?can?t thank you enough? I?m dreadfully sorry I?ve dragged you into this? But until we defeat Damien once and for all?the curse still stands??
?I understand,? Alex said. ?We?ll find him, and we?ll finish him once and for all, the both of us. ?But what was that he said about Asgarnia?s destruction???
?I couldn?t tell you,? Midna replied emptily. ?But I do know this. Our job here is done. We need to leave the city.?
?Perhaps you?re right,? Alex mused. ?Though, I want to help them see this through to the end.?
Out of nowhere, the citadel?s klaxon erupted through the corridors. A nameless Kandie made an announcement.
?Attention,? the voice rang out. ?The citadel has been set to a self-destruct cycle. All personnel still inside will have ten minutes to evacuate. The use of deadly force for all interferences is authorized. Should you encounter the man known as ?Alex,? you are hereby ordered to kill him on sight. Failure to do so will be considered an act of treason, punishable by death. Please note that the citadel?s primary power plant will yield a fifty-megaton Borderworld-inversion detonation. It is advised that all evacuees seek underground shelter or clear a fifteen-mile radius. Ten minutes until detonation.?
?Don?t let your guard down,? Alex said, reclaiming his rifle and clawshots from the table. ?We?re not out of this yet.?
The citadel rocked violently. Self-destruction was definitely on its way. The Kandies had gone out of their way to, one way or another, wipe Asgarnia off the map.
-
"I don't know, Duilin, that just seems like a bunch of wishful thinking to me..."
Renard's thought was interrupted when the four men burst into the room. He turned to face them; two looked human, the other two not quite...
"Uh... friends of yours?"
Definitely not freindly looking...
There was something else wrong too... some sort of power emanating from the center of the city that weighed sourly in his stomach... Blast it! All he wanted was a nap!
-
The four people were defiantly NOT friendly looking at all. The one who kicked down the door was an orc, with a large stomach and he was holding was appeared to be an automatic shotgun.
Duilin stood up and the orc stepped towards him, pointing the gun at his chest. "Sit back down!" The orc demanded.
The one wearing black metal armor with white trim stepped towards Duilin and adjusted his gauntlet.
"So, Duilin Talonscar I presume?" The armored man asked.
"What's the meaning of this?" Duilin asked hastily.
"It seems that you haven't been behaving around some towns..."
"Let me guess." Duilin said with a smirk. "You're here for Vandrin's bounty?"
"Heh. Yes, indeed."
The other two, were guarding the door, one was a young looking man, holding two daggers, and the other was an elf, with patterns tattooed on him, looked like a tribal.
"We'll tell you what Talonscar." The armored one said. "If you just come with us back to the county, then we won't have to kill your friend here."
The orc then pointed his shotgun at Renard.
Duilin stood up. "You leave him out of this!"
"We, will. If you just come with us..."
-
//Been so long..\\
Nick was near the mainland. Mist sprayed in his face as he looked down into the sea. He wiped away the crystaline water with the sleeve of his shirt. He sent a message to kronos; So whos this guy you want? He waited patiantly for a reply he passed the time with thoughts. Thoughts of happiness.
-
//Burton, he meant anyone in general, a slave. And besides, that was supposed to be for a matter at hand, it's too late now. You can have Nick forget about it, if you like. Hell, I don't even remember now why I had Kronos do that.\\
-"Damien, dead? Already?! The idiot..."
Once again, I am disappointed by my servants.
-"Well, you can't really kill him like that, and he isn't really dead, so I can't resurrect him. Looks like he's on his own for now."
The messenger who brought the news was twiddling his thumbs behind me. I handed him a silver coin.
-"Here's for your pains. Now, please, go to Xim and report on the status of the sacrifice."
The messenger bowed and left. I was still in the Sizrian tower, although now I was at the top floor, observing the work being done at Sizri. They have really disappointed me with their... for the lack of a better word, lax effort to get things done. Perhaps there will have to be some kind of measure put in place to make sure that they aren't slacking off while there is work to be done. Overseers... Why didn't I think of that before?
Just when I was exploring the possibilities of having overseers control the work being done at Sizri, I heard a quiet "whoosh" behind me. Without turning around, I said:
-"Hello, Damien."
-"We appear to have an... issue at Asgarnia."
-"Of that I am aware. You were taken down by some whelp brandishing a toy too dangerous to be kept by children like that."
-"Yes, but there were special circumstances."
Like a twig, something snapped inside of me, and I bellowed right in Damien's face:
-"WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES ARE SPECIAL ENOUGH THAT YOU CAN'T TAKE A PATHETIC, DUMB REBEL OUT WITH YOUR OWN FORCE?! I don't keep you for dying, Damien, and you had BETTER clean up your damned act if you want to remain in command!"
-"He's not just a rebel. There's something different about him... His easily-learned abilities in magic are not something any normal human being could master."
-"He's shaped like a human. He bleeds. He can be killed. What more is there to say?"
-"That's just it, he seemingly CAN'T be killed. He survived an electrocution AND a thousand-foot fall."
-"Well... I can see now that you've at least tried to do something about him... I will have to look into the matter myself, then. Meanwhile, there is a convoy containing six golems on its way to Asgarnia. If you wish, you may assume command over them."
-"Knowing those incompentent soldiers I have there, they probably started the self-destruct cycle. Sometimes protocol is not meant to be followed to the letter."
-"Hmm, yes... and knowing most Kandarinians in general, I'm sure one of them probably ended up somehow screwing up the cycle and preventing it. Go check it out anyway."
-"Yes sir. I will take the golems immediately and be on my way. And, this time, I WILL NOT FAIL."
-"Good. Don't disappoint me, Damien."
Without a reply, Damien turned to dust once again and dissipated out of my room. Let us hope, then, that he will be successful this time."
-
Renard drew his lips back in a snarl as he stared down the barrel of that gun, the fur on the back of his neck sticking out straight. Bounty? Just who is this Duilin guy anyway? Blast it! If his squad were here he would have nothing to fear at all. The Blade Rush, the Dance of the Winds, the Climhazzard? all of these techniques were lethal against an unorganized group of foes, but alas, all of them required one or more partners to execute.
What to do?! Was there nothing he could do? All of his spells took too long to cast. Blast it! He would have to make something up? But what? It was a total breach of protocol. Stick to what you know, follow the given formula and use the techniques that have been proven to work?
But blast it, his friend was in trouble. He was in trouble!
?Hrarrghhh!!!?
The Velken suddenly shot through the air as a silver blur, right over Duilin?s head, then the orc?s. He slammed into the wall just above the door frame, planting his feet firmly there as if the wall were floor, and remained floating there over the four intruders? heads.
?Duilin, run for it!!?
The sleeves of his robe opened more widely as he outstretched his arms, revealing his right claw and his tightly bandaged left, cerulean sparks shimmering from each. Thrusting his hands downwards he sent forth a shower of brilliant blue jagged icicles down upon the bounty hunters. It was a malformed spell. He simply did not have the time to cast it properly. It would look impressive, but the effect would be lacking, possibly harmless. Hopefully the targets would not realize that?
-
Brice's head darted as the Velken jumped across the room, he shielded himself with his arms to block the icicles. Scrums was about to fire his gun, but as the icicles flew down at him he found it would be better to avoid the attack, so he rolled through the door way. Elliot also slipped through the doorway to avoid the attack, yet one of the icicles pricks him in the arm. Rufokanno, simple lifted his hand and waved it across the room, the icicles flew away from him.
Meanwile Duilin had jumped through the window, feet first smashing the glass. He landed outside, on his feet, crushing the glass under him, some of the shards stuck into his boot.
"Elliot, come with me. Rufo, stay with Scrums and deal with freak." Brice commanded. Brice jumped through the broken window, as he passed through he performed a wall jump on the building behind the inn and landed on the floor. Elliot followed, jumping out the window, yet simply landed on the ground beneath. The young man clutched his leg in pain.
Duilin faced the Ice Warrior and his young friend. He thought that maybe he could run, but from what he could sense of this guy's aura he wasn't too much stronger then Count Vandrin, if at all. The younger guy looked like an easy target, Duilin could already see this basically being a one and one fight with the Ice Warrior.
Brice then casted an icy blue aura in his hands and spread them apart making a long blade of ice.
"Of course, I was wondering if you were going to do that." Duilin said, almost laughing.
"I can do a lot more, demon boy!" Brice then chucked the large blade of ice at Duilin. The half demon then jumped to the side, completely avoiding the blade.
"You're kidding right?" Duilin taunted.
Inside Rufokanno, looked at the Velken. "Me can tell from here you power is weak. This no be a hard victory for Rufokanno."
Rufokanno then waved his hand at the broken shards of glass that landed on the inside of the room and then waved his hand towards Renard, the shards of glass then flew towards the Velken...
-
Again the citadel shook as Alex and Midna proceeded to make their escape from the thousand-foot tall structure. Why the Kandies were going to proceed with the destruction of Asgarnia was questionable, as the city?s benefits hardly seemed harvested. Perhaps there was a miscommunication. Regardless, no regular means would be able to stop the chain reaction.
?What about the rebel leaders?? Midna queried, floating out of the way of a falling girder. ?We can?t just leave them here!?
?One of these corridors has to lead to the cellblocks,? Alex called over the blaring klaxon.
Soldiers were trampling over each other to get out of the ticking time bomb they once called their home. Eventually, one or two found themselves accidentally pushed over the guardrails, falling to their deaths.
A vague idea began to form in Alex?s head. If he could somehow stop the chain reaction, he could have time to liberate the rebel leaders. But first, he would have to find the citadel?s power plant. Going entirely on a hunch, Alex began spiraling down the helical stairwell leading to the levels below ground.
?Wait, where are you going?? Midna asked.
?Even if we find the cellblocks,? Alex said, ?We wouldn?t have time to bail them out and escape. We have to stop the countdown.?
?But how? We don?t even know how the power plant works!?
?Trust me. I?ve been winging it for 28 years,? Alex said confidently.
Soon, the two found themselves at the top of a large chamber, though smaller than the shield chamber. In the center was a massive Borderworld portal with an assortment of conduits, cables and pipes hooked up to it. The intelligence WAS true, the Kandies drew their power directly from the Borderworld itself. Though, cutting the power here would not be enough to halt the detonation.
?Seven minutes until detonation,? The voice on the klaxon echoed.
On either side of the portal there were large tank-like structures, catwalks crossing the tops. Upon climbing the stairwell, it was seen that within these tanks were a great number of long thin rods submerged in pure Borderworld water. Some were extended, others retracted. These rods were lined with an unknown crystalline substance that seemed to absorb the energy from the portal. Alex noticed that most of these ?control rods? were retracted, and so Borderworld energy was flowing into the systems unregulated. An overload would result in detonation.
?I think I know what we have to do here,? Midna said.
?Well, the way I see it, these rods prevent too much energy from powering the citadel. Most of these rods are retracted. All we have to do is extend them again, and then lock it so no one can start this cycle again,? Alex replied.
?Sounds good, but how do we do that??
As they spoke, another rod rose from the tanks, sparking with energy until it dispersed. As it did, the conduits leading up to the ceiling and the rest of the citadel surged with purple lightning bolts. Every minute another rod was retracted, and so Alex could use them as a clock. Each rod he could extend would add another minute to their time.
?I don?t see anyway to lower these rods automatically?? Midna mused. ?You?ll have to force them down. I?d also stay away from that water if I were you. Though normally it heals, when it becomes oversaturated with dimensional energy, it can have the opposite effect.?
?Noted?? Alex said. He positioned himself in front of one of the control rods, and tried to force it down. Surprisingly, it didn?t budge. He searched the sides of the rod to find some kind of unlocking mechanism, but to no avail. Seeing no other option, he withdrew his scimitar and sliced the clasp off. The rod clunked into the water and began absorbing energy. The lights flickered slightly, showing a reduced power flow. Another minute had been added to the countdown.
?I see five pairs of rods,? Midna said. ?Though I?m sure with that rod being slid down, the Kandies know something?s up. You?d better work fast.?
Alex noticed that the control rod he knocked down could no longer rise back up. He had damaged the mechanism in doing so. However, a certain amount of rods needed to be raised in order for the system to go critical. Of the other ten rods that remained, eight were risen, and the ninth began to move into position. Alex inched his way over to the incriminating rod, and forced it down. Just as he did, another raised, all the way across the tank. Surely the Kandies had some way of repairing these rods? Alex only needed to activate a few more control rods to halt the detonation entirely. It seemed like such a flawed mechanism, but, then, the Kandies never did anything right?
Alex nearly lost his footing on the slick catwalks, stumbling forward and his blade slicing the rod. As it fell, he caught himself on another rod, which too was forced into the solution. That was four. Six remained.
As Alex lowered the rods, they began to glow brightly. It was anybody?s guess how long they could withstand continuous energy exposure before finally failing, but with all ten lowered, it should take a considerable amount of time, at least a few days. He lowered the eighth rod, slightly alarmed at how easy this was. Apparently the Kandies were unaware of the gradual defusing of the reactor, and most of the Kandies were probably out by now. Rescuing Dr. Kleiner and the others would be much easier.
The ninth rod clunked down. The citadel lights nearly blinked out into darkness. Alex realized this: one rod had to be left raised, or the citadel would not receive any power at all. He left the tenth one up, to allow for lighting and such. Still, most of the citadel was cast in darkness, and Midna?s shadow cloak effect on the P.C.S. had not yet worn off.
?That?ll do,? Midna said. She floated back up to the door. ?Come on, we have to save the rebel leaders!?
Alex hoped that Kleiner and the others were still alive, and hadn?t been tortured for intelligence. He would soon find out whether he was right or wrong.
-
Zeros' looked at the incoming sword and titled his head to the side, making the flaming blade inch by his head, making it impale into the wall beside him, the flames licking at the side of his face. He stepped away from the flaming sword.
"Well... That was amusing..." he said. Then, he disappeared. He reappeared behind the remaining lizardman, his sword slashing down towards his head, the blade shining.
---
Allen groaned and crawled out from the glider. He rotated his arms and ran a hand through his graying hair.
"Well... That wasn't what I was expecting to happen... but, it worked, didn't it" he asked, rolling his shoulders.
-
The lizard warrior then sidestepped, to avoid the swing, yet his large size and slowness wasn't much of a match for Zeros' rapid speed. He avoided the blade getting at his head, yet his arm was sliced clean off. The lizard grabbed the bloody armless socket and hissed. He backed away from Zeros' and snarled.
"Tisss but a sscratch!"
He then weakly pointed his other arm towards Zeros' shooting a fast moving ball of flame at Zeros' aimed for his torso...
-
"Blast it! BLAST IT! BLAST IT!!!"
Draven screamed at the horizon. It was too late. His adversaries were gone. Aura flaring, he threw his clenched fists to the clouds above cursing the skies.
"Fight me!! Blast it!! FIGHT ME!!! RETAAAANNN!!!!!"
His echo sounded across the empty dead desert. There were no ears for it to fall upon. His cry was only answered by the distant cracks of thunder.
Seething with rage, he clenched his fists before his face as they glowed an ethereal crimson, the flame swirling around him.
"That's IT!!!"
He threw two open palms to the sky, an orb of blinding crimson materializing above his head.
"EVERYONE'S GONNA DIE!!!!"
The orb swelled, doubling in magnitude with blinding flashes.
"I'll rip this entire continent in half!! Don't think I won't!! Do you hear me RETAN?!?!"
A tornado engulfed him, swirling the sands beneath upward and outward. The orb doubled again, crackling with vermillion flame.
"I will tear a hole in Gaian so big, all the planet's life will bleed out. I will turn it into a dead shell that even YOU cannot USE!!"
The ground below tremored. Still nothing. No response, no sign of life...
Breathing heavily, Draven finally slowed down. The tornado subsided, the flames faded... The crimson orb which had climaxed at over fifteen feet in diameter began to shrink, sparks of red returning back into Draven's essence as it faded. He let his arms down and slowly returned to the ground, setting foot in the center of the crater of sand his rage had wrought. His aura faded and dissipated.
The Crimson Emperor brought a gloved hand to his chin. Hmm. Though he didn't do anything, he actually felt a whole lot better. Yes, best to save one's energy for where it counts. Sometimes you just gotta yell.
----
Shrouded in blackness, the Dark Emperor leaned back in the throne as the images from the glowing sphere subsided, his burning red eyes narrowing into slits... He touched the tips of his gloved fingers together in the most brooding of manners.
Interesting...
----
Virmir suddenly stopped in mid air once the entourage of ten Velkens had put so much distance between themselves and the pursuing Draven that the burning madman was no longer visible upon the horizon. The nine students hovered around their master in a circle.
"The airship, can we catch up?"
"We'll have to meet it at it's next port."
"What about Renard?"
Virmir held up a claw, silencing the hushed conversations that sprung up before addressing his warriors.
"Renard is now our number one priority."
"What about the ship--"
"Don't we have to protect--"
The older fox hushed the comments with a claw.
"We find Renard first. For better or... worse..."
----
Blast it! Floating in the air, Renard covered his face with his arms. Shield!! It had been like an involuntary reaction. The shards of glass tinked off of the translucent green half dome that materialized before the silver fox, breaking further as they slammed into it with force. When the attack subsided, the Velken dropped to the floor, landing nimbly on both feet.
Good gods was he huge! To the much smaller Renard anyway. His adversary looked roughly human, but not quite, not with those strange stripes and pointed ears.
He was going to pull this off... one on one without anyone's help. Blast it, too bad he didn't know why he was fighting. He never did. Although this was the first battle he had ever stepped into of his own accord...
But how to take him out? Use your own strengths, he told himself. Your speed, agility, and... ease of flight...?
The sliver fox suddenly clasped his hands before him, wincing slightly as his right claw struck his bandaged left. He then drove both hands down to the wooden floor, the very foundations of the old building rumbling as the earthquake spell manifested. It was a minor spell, but it wrought havoc when applied to mere wooded frames holding up the floor. The wood paneled ground in the entire room splintered and cracked, falling apart in a manner of seconds. Everything plummeted, the beds, the nightstand... Everything except Renard, who remained floating where there was solid ground a mere second ago. Hopefully his opponent could not fly!
----
"*Cough* I suppose, so..."
Ven was in the middle of uncovering himself from the torn sails. He then rushed to King Henri, who was thankfully unhurt.
"So, what now?" The knight ventured as he dusted himself off...
"We still haven't found Zeros', Duilin, or the others. But perhaps it is best we returned to the Posidon X..." Henri commented glumly.
"Hsssaa!!! HOLD IT!"
Ven turned, though he didn't really need to, because they were all around. The three of them were surrounded by lizard men... Ven's blade was out in a flash. But there were some two dozen by his count... way too many for him to face. And to make matters worse, he was the only fighter in the group...
"Great..."
"Drop your weaponsss!"
After a moment's hesitation, Ven's silver blade clanged upon the smooth rocks below. Henri complied as well, unbuckling the longsword strapped to his waist.
"Good good... Take them to Lizaberg. And inform Lord Gorusss of my catch!"
-
As the derbies of the inn flew across, Rufokanno a skilled telepath, focused his mind towards his energy and pushed away the derbies flying towards him.
However, the orc was covered in several planks and bricks. He weakly pushed over the derbies. He dropped his gun, he got up and looked around, if he could find his gun then it would be easy to take this guy down. Hopefully Rufo, would be able to hold him off, plus it would also be good if Brice and Elliot were able to get Duilin.
"Hmm, skilled you are young animal." Rufokanno said looking up towards the Velken. "You know levitation." He then pointed towards himself with his thumb and then leaned his head closer to Renard. "Rufokanno no afraid."
The elf wasn't. In fact he could do some sort of flight himself, it was hard for him to move himself like he does objects, yet that doesn't stop him from being on objects that he's moving around...
Suddenly one of the beds lifted up from the ground, as Rufokanno lifted up his hand. He then jumped up onto the floating bed, and assumed a fighters stance...
----
"Lemme at 'im obviously magic won't work!" Elliot said swinging his daggers and running towards Duilin.
Brice rolled his eyes and sighed, but he thought he'd let him try it out.
Despite him being rejected as a soldier, Elliot's really full of himself, he believes that ever since he got rejected he's become a much stronger fighter better then the average Kandarian Warrior...
"Die you demon scum!" Elliot taunted jumping in the air towards Duilin, swinging his daggers down.
Duilin stood there and scratched under his chin, as the man landed on the ground four feet away from him, bashing his daggers into the pavement below.
Brice groaned and rubbed his temples. "Brice...you can't jump that far, please stop trying. You're embarrassing me."
Elliot got back up. "I 'aint done here yet. Ima just...warmin' up ya see." He twirled his daggers. "Come on man, gimme your best shot, man."
Duilin yawned. "I take it, this guy's the tag along kid" Duilin said to Brice.
"Don't you frigin' ignore me!" Elliot yelled. "Ima cut you up so bad that...that you're gonna wish...you're gonna wish...that I hadn't cut you up so bad. Yeah!"
"Elliot, just let me handle this!" Brice yelled.
"You...you...shut...I mean...no...I mean...I can do this!" Elliot stuttered, still looking at Duilin.
Duilin snapped his fingers, and flicked a small fireball at Elliot's mouth as he was talking, the fireball went right in and burnt his tongue.
"Ahhh...you...fakging azzole!" Elliot shouted wile grabbing his tongue, yet wile talking he inhaled to much saliva and began coughing.
Brice then sat down on the ground, if he didn't know Elliot he'd probably be laughing his head off, but all he was doing was making a bad image for his bounty hunter team. He didn't want to get in the way, one time Elliot accidentally stabbed Brice, when they were going after somebody. Their target would have escaped because of that if it weren't for Scrums and his shotgun...
Duilin almost pitied this pitiful little jerk. He was probably THE weakest opponent he's fought so far, and that includes that fist fight with the late Pophin...
Elliot then dashed towards Duilin, swinging his daggers several times, each swing either missing or being avoided completely.
After Elliot's little rain of death was finished, Duilin then kicked the childish man in the chest knocking him to the ground. He really didn't want to have to kill this guy, he was just too pathetic.
-
(I think you want Rufo to specialize in "telekinesis", rather than "telepathy".)
Ah crap! Renard backed away through the open air as the odd man bed-surfed towards his position. Cupping his claws to the right side, he conjured a small fireball and thrust them forward hadoken style, sending the plume of flame surging towards the projectile his opponent was riding.
"Animal? Is that what you think I am? I could say the same for you!"
At that moment, the innkeeper appeared in the room below, finding it to be in shambles, the ceiling to be twice as high, and two flying mages flinging magic at each other above.
"You dumb kids!! What do you think you're doing?!?!" He screamed, yanking his graying hair out.
-
(Whatever. Telepathy, telekinesis, same shit different pile.)
Rufokanno swiftly shifted the bed he was riding to the left, avoiding the fireball.
"You have fur, you resemble fox. You are animal. Perhaps Rufokanno add your hide to my wardrobe after me skin it from you dead corpse!" He threatened pointing at him, although it probably didn't sound to threaten considering his terrible grammer.
He ignored the old man yelling at them. Keeping his mind focused on the Velken. He pushed the bed forward towards Renard at a high speed. He shifted himself and the bed on a near 90-degree angle as he passed by his adversary and swung his fist at his face...
----
Elliot got back up and shook his head. "I'm good. I'm good." He glared at Duilin. "That's the best you got, kid?"
"Kid?" Duilin said. "From what it looks, I'm like twenty years older then you. Yet from how you act, it seems more like thirty."
"Thirty? You're like old, man." Elliot sneered. "Go home old man go play with the--"
Suddenly he was cut off with Duilin's fist right in his face, again knocking him to the ground. Causing him to drop one of his daggers.
Brice noticablly laughed, at the sight, but covered his mouth.
"The wind shifted..." Elliot went on, recovering himself again. "That's all...that was a cheap shot anyway." He went to pick up his dagger, he Duilin kicked him in the back, and again he met the ground.
"Don't turn away from your enemy!" Brice shouted.
"Yeah, I know, I know." Elliot said, as he got back up. "I just expected him to be too stupid, 'cuz he's a demon."
Duilin didn't even take offence, this guy was too stupid to be offensive.
"Yeah, you stupid demon!" Elliot sneered again, reading his daggers.
"Spell it." Duilin said.
"Wha?"
"Spell demon."
"Uhh...." Elliot shook his head. "'Nuff o' you!" He then thrust his dagger in his left, then followed by his right, yet both attempts were dodged.
Duilin then stepped forward to punch him to the ground, yet Elliot made a surprising move, he shifted himself to the side, and then swung his dagger into Duilin's side, cutting deep into the skin on the side of back.
"HIIYYAAA!" Elliot called in triumph. "Give up yet!?" He said as he hastily stepped back away from Duilin...
Duilin clutched the small wound on his back. "Not bad, not bad. You've forced me to use forty percent effort!" He chuckled.
"Oh you ain't seen nothing yet." Elliot said, as he rushed towards Duilin, arching back his daggers, as he came closer to Duilin, the half demon then grabbed him by the arms and then flipped him over and the man smashed onto the ground.
"No, I haven't." Duilin commented mockingly as he turned around to see his nearly knocked out enemy.
-
Renard clenched his teeth. What was this nutcase babbling about? He must resemble some sort of Gaian animal. There didn't seem to be any sentient creatures with fur on Gaian after all. The tattooed man probably would make good on his threat too, considering the skins he was wearing...
Pausing to think was generally not a good thing in battle, and Renard felt the fist graze his nose. The silver fox flew backwards snarling, planting his right foot upon the wall behind him. Blast it! His turn...
His image blurred as he sped towards the vile elf, hooking a quick right just before impact with the floating bed. Around and around he sped, circling Rufo as gusts of wind billowed upward. The spell intensified as the Velken became a gray blur, the forming tornado beginning to blast the already airborne bed upward and contributing even more to the torn up inn. He was going to blast this guy right through the roof...
-
Rufokanno attempted to fight off the mighty tornado, but the force was too strong. He was blasted right through the roof, just as Renard intended. The bed was tossed into the air and smashed into a building across the street. Rufokanno was nowhere to be seen...
Then, almost suddenly Scrums, the orc emerged from the dust left over from the damage. He found his Automatic Shotgun.
"Now, now, now." Scrums snarled. "Where were we." He then aimed the shotgun at Renard. "Oh yeah, that's right. I was about to kill you!" He then fired two shells from his shotgun, as they were fired the shells exploded releasing a large spray of small burning pellets all over the place...
----
"Okay, so are you don't getting the life beating from you?" Duilin asked.
Elliot made some grumbling sounds and weakly got back up on his feet, only to fall back down again.
"Well, that's one down, then." Duilin said with a smirk.
Brice then jumped into the air pointed his hands down at Duilin and blasted two beams of ice right down at him.
Duilin turned around and created a shield out fire energy, blocking the ice blasts coming at him. "What the hell? Attacking me from behind? You're so cheap."
Brice gracefully landed on the ground. "With a three million bounty on you. Can ya blame me?" He replied.
Duilin shrugged. "Guess not." He then swung his hand forward arching his fingers in Brice's direction and fired a bolt of lightning at him.
Brice jumped out of the way and then pressed his hands together and then swung them forward shooting a large high pressured blast of water at Duilin, hitting him directly and knocked him several yards back and stopped when he smashed into the wall of a building...
-
Zeros' twisted to the side, but, at a close range, he couldn't completely avoid it. He grazed his chest, barely touching his, skin, but it was enough to burn a hole through his shirt. He scratched the spot where the fireball hit.
"Hmm... It seems you're compitent... but..." he disappeared again, directly behind the lizard, a swirling ball of ki in his free hand. "But... You're not good enough..." he murmured and shoved the ball at the lizard's back.
---
Allen peered at them and frowned. Hmm... He raised his hands in the air like the other two, but he wasn't going to give up. He stepped close to Ven and Henri and whispered them.
"On my command... get ready to run..." he said quietly out of the corner of his mouth. He closed his eyes and sighed, making himself look defeated.
He waited for a few moments before suddenly slamming his hands in the ground. There was a great rumbling and before long, a giant stone wall errupted from the ground, sliding up between the two parties.
"And now, would be the time to run," he said, promptly turning in the other direction and dashing off.
-
//Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I'm totally addicted to Gears of War right now. Hopefully I make up for it with this 12.5 kb post.\\
Precious little light shone through the windows as Alex crept through the citadel?s shadowed corridors. He kept to the darkness as much as possible, utilizing Midna?s shadow cloak spell to its fullest. Despite these efforts, the citadel seemed utterly empty.
Most of the citadel?s soldier compliment had evacuated in the imminent danger of self-destruction. Now that the cycle was halted, they would be forced to spend time and resources repopulating the tower. Alex had a few hours at best. He had to find the cellblocks, hopefully with Dr. Kleiner and the remaining rebel leaders still detained. Alex would bail them out and get them out quietly. Alex had been roaming around for the past twenty minutes or so trying to find the prison blocks.
He moaned in exasperation. ?This is the fourth time we?ve passed this stairwell. I know it?s on this level, but where the hell is the corridor??
?Are you sure you were looking at the right floor of the map?? Midna asked.
Alex had previously broken into an intelligence room which contained a full floor plan of the citadel?s hundred-something floors. To search every room of every floor would be like attempting to find a needle in a thousand-foot tall haystack. Alex reached into a pocket on the P.C.S. and withdrew the map. In a stroke of seemingly coincidental convenience, the prison was clearly earmarked on the map. It was on the 42nd floor.
?Know which floor we?re on?? Alex asked. Most of the room layouts for a lot of the floors looked alike. Standing near the stairwell, he looked around for sign or plaque or something denoting what floor they were on. He found it. Etched on a brick near the stairway?s threshold was the floor?s number in Roman numerals.
?XLII.?
?Forty-two,? Alex said to himself. ?This is the right floor. So where the hell are the cellblocks??
As Alex leaned back against the brick wall, he felt some of the bricks buckle under his weight.
?What the??
He pushed against the bricks. The entire wall crumbled to the ground. When the dust cleared, he saw barred cells.
?Well then,? he mused. ?That?s?clever.?
As Alex walked into the cellblocks, his metallic footsteps fell hard against the floor. The prisoners began to rouse from their sleepy states.
?H-hello?? called a clearly terrified voice. It was higher-pitched voice, with a little bit of inflection. It was Dr. Kleiner.
?Doc?? Alex called back.
?My goodness! Alex, how did you get here, and when?? He walked to the front of the cell, looking worse for wear. His lab coat was torn in several places, and covered in dust from the dingy cell. If Alex had not seen him before, he wouldn?t have realized it had once been white. One lens in his glasses was cracked, the other had fallen out.
?Doc, sit tight,? Alex said. ?I?ll get you out. Who else is here??
?I believe the other leaders are here as well. That means you should find Vance, Savant, and Fenix in those cells.?
Sure enough, they were. The locking mechanisms on the doors were strangely simple for a Kandarinian installation. With little effort he busted the locks.
?Izzy,? Alex said, handing him a Kandigun, ?I hope you know how to use one of these.? ?Izzy? was Alex?s nickname for Kleiner, whose first name was Isaac.
?Oh my,? Kleiner complained. ?Is there no other way to get out peacefully??
?This is just for precautions in case we do get confronted,? Alex said. ?The rest of you, pull a Kandigun off the wall and follow me.?
Obeying, the frail and wiry scientists armed themselves reluctantly. It had seemed that none of them had combat experience. As they returned to the stairwell, Alex disappeared into the darkness.
?Dear me!? Kleiner cried. ?Alex, where did you go??
?Take it easy, Izzy,? Alex said coolly. ?I?m still here. The P.C.S. turns invisible when I step into the shadows.?
?Interesting,? Kleiner said. ?I don?t remember adding that feature.?
Alex stepped into the dim light, and became visible again. ?Quick, I can get us out of here before the Kandies come back.?
Alex led the scientists down the spiraling staircases, occasionally stopping behind a wall or two to check if the area ahead was safe, and then motioning them on. In half an hour?s time, they had covered thirty floors.
?Sit tight guys,? Alex said. ?I?m gonna scout ahead.?
As Alex ran ahead and around a corner, Midna emerged from his shadow.
?Alex, this is too risky,? she complained. ?Even if you get them out of here, the headquarters is too unsafe to head back to. Where will they go??
?The rebels always have redundancies,? Alex said. ?There?s a secondary base on the north side of the city, a mile or so from here. It?s in the commercial district, which is essentially a maze of buildings. It?s very difficult for even me to find, much less those Kandie bastards.?
?If you say so,? Midna said. ?Also, the bald man, Kleiner??
?Yeah, what about him??
?He?s not like the others, he actually has a brain. I?m a little concerned that he might find out that you?re doing all this for someone like me.?
?Why would that concern you??
?What if they thought that you had no interest in their affairs? I mean, I know you do, but you put forth so much more effort helping me. Why??
?Well, I guess it?s because you saved my life,? Alex said. ?Also, you?re the only one I?ve ever known to willingly help me. I guess it?s because of my past.?
?Oh really?? Midna said. ?What happened??
?I?m not sure you want to know.?
?Now that you?ve said that, I do want to know. Please tell me, I promise not to judge.?
?Very well then. Eight years ago, there was a huge war, far larger than the one now. I was hired by multiple sides as a hired gun, though when I finished serving one party, I immediately went over to the opposing party and destroyed what I had created for the side I had been on last. I did this a number of times, garnering huge amounts of money, and I had to keep my identity secret. I was never found out.?
?I can see that your past is not one you?re proud of,? Midna said. ?What motivated you??
?I guess just to be wealthy,? Alex said emptily. ?I didn?t really care who won the war, just so long as I was paid. To this day I haven?t spent my vast earnings. I try not to. That would only confirm how wrong rigging the war was.?
?Don?t beat yourself up about it,? Midna said softly. ?That was long ago, and now you?re a different person. I look at you and I see more than just a human being. I see someone who?s willing to risk life and limb to help someone, and you definitely show it. What happened in the past can be forgotten. When I revived you from near-death I knew that you would be a trustworthy person, someone I could look to for help. You?re a unique person, Alex. Not many people are as selfless as you are. Many people come from checkered pasts, and they simply learn to jump the pieces that get in their way. Alex, I--?
?Alex!? Isaac called, ?Are you there? Is it clear??
Alex turned back in their direction. ?Yeah, move on up!? He turned back to Midna. ?Sorry to cut this short.?
?I know, I know,? Midna said, becoming Alex?s shadow once again.
The scientists ran up behind Alex. ?Let?s go,? Kleiner said.
?Are you sure they?re headed this way??
?Positive. The citadel?s self-destruct sequence was stopped by someone. Probably Alex. He?s most likely freed the prisoners and is on his way.?
Two rebels conversed in the underground bunker that was the secondary base. In comparison to the first one, it was smaller and more unkempt. Equipment was strewn every which way as other rebels scampered around the base. Amazingly, both Lamarr and Otis, Kleiner?s and Alex?s headcrabs, respectively, had managed to survive the ordeal by hiding in the pipe network.
The doors above slid open, followed by those telltale metallic footsteps. Alex and the other rebel leaders had reached the base safely.
?Alex!? A rebel stepped forward. ?We?re glad to see you and the other leaders made it.?
?Yeah, so am I,? Alex yawned. He hadn?t slept all day. ?Tired.?
?Perhaps he?d like some off-time,? Kleiner said.
?Are you mad, Izzy?? Dominic Fenix piped up. ?We?re in the middle of a war and you want our most capable fighter to stop fighting??
?Oh, look at him, Dom,? cried Ilia Savant. ?He?s faced far more in one day than any of us have our whole lives! Let him take a break.?
?Yeah,? Samuel Vance spoke up. ?He?s earned it.?
?Fine,? Dom said begrudgingly. ?But only for a few hours.?
As Alex stood, watching scientists argue back and forth over him, he finally got a good look at the other scientists he had saved.
Dominic Fenix was a large-built tall man. He was a man of about fifty, with relatively short grey hair that had white streaks running through it. His face was chiseled and hard, its features greatly standing out.
Samuel Vance was calm-natured black man of about seventy, his scalp dominated by snow white hair, and his chin ruled by a ruffled beard. His left leg had previously been amputated below the knee after a poisoned Kandigun spear skewered through it. In its place was a crude prosthetic that allowed him to walk.
Ilia Savant was a beautiful, slender young woman, far younger than the other scientists, but just as intelligent. Across her shapely body her white lab coat simply hung off her shoulders. Her black hair flowed down to her neck, and her icy blue eyes pierced through many of the rebels who approached her with flirtatious moves. She herself was a flirt, though not to the extent of how the rebels attempted to flirt with her.
?You three can keep quarreling if you like, I?m going to show Alex to the scrapyard,? Ilia said, tugging on Alex?s arm for him to follow. In front of Ilia Alex was a little uncomfortable, and didn?t say much. As she led the armored rebel to the set of double sliding doors to the scrapyard, they were scanned up and down by salvaged Asgarnian scanners, ensuring no hostiles were present. As they waited for the cycle to complete, Alex was still quiet.
?You?re a man of few words, aren?t you?? Ilia finally said after about half a minute.
?Sorry,? Alex said. ?I suppose it?s my combat attitude getting the best of me. I try to be quiet when I sneak around and stuff.?
The cycle was complete, and the large metal doors slid open. On the other side was a large lot full of junk and scrap.
?Here we are,? Ilia said. ?The scrapyard.?
?It?s, uh, very nice,? Alex said. The sky was a deep blue as the sun went down. Lamps began illuminating the yard. ?So what are we here for??
?They say you ought to take a break,? Ilia replied. ?Why don?t you? You can toy around with one of our experimental weapons.?
?Oh, really?? Alex said, suddenly curious. ?What?s that??
Ilia opened a large compartment on the wall, and produced an interesting looking device. It looked like a clawshot to some extent, but various tubes and other odds and ends were attached.
?A clawshot?? Alex asked. ?I already have two of those.?
?Not quite,? Ilia said. ?Put this on your arm.?
Obeying, Alex took the strange weapon and applied it to his right arm. ?Okay, now what??
?Focus a little magic on it,? Ilia replied, ?And point it towards that box.?
Alex put forth a little magical effort, and, amazingly, the box sprung off the ground and hovered in the air.
?Amazing!? Alex cried. ?It?s like some kind of?gravity gun!?
?It amplifies a user?s magical energy tenfold and turns it into psychokinetic energy, allowing the moving and throwing of inanimate objects. We originally designed it for the handling of dangerous materials as well as heavy lifting, but we believe you can put it to better use. Just surge the gun with more energy to launch the crate.?
Alex did so. The crate rocketed across the scrapyard and smashed into tiny wooden bits against the opposite wall.
Alex chuckled a little bit. ?This is neat.? He didn?t care how it worked, just that it worked.
?You can also pull things over from a distance,? Ilia tutored. ?All you have to do is make your energy reach out further, and that barrel over there ought to slide towards you.?
Again Alex followed instructions, and again they yielded a favorable result. The barrel found its way over in front of the gun?s claw, and was hovering.
?If you cut off power to the gun,? Ilia continued, ?You can just drop the barrel gently.?
Alex released his magical grip on the barrel, and it fell softly to the ground.
?See? You?re getting the hang of this,? Ilia said. ?You can stay here and play around with it some more if you like. I have some things inside to take care of.? She went back through the blast doors.
Midna immediately burst from Alex?s shadow, examining the weapon.
?Interesting?? Midna said thoughtfully. ?Why don?t we see what we can do with it??
-
//Sheesh, second longest post. I can't believe I was able to read that...\\
The severely wounded lizard was smashed into the ground as the ki blast was shoved into his back. He lay on the floor motionless...
Gorus laughed. "Not bad." He then put his hands together and cracked his knuckles. "Then again, that's not saying too much. They may have been elite, but they're literately nothing compared to me." He stepped closer to Zeros'. "I think I've heard some stories about you. People say you're the leader of this little band. Some call you the Gaian Defenders, or the Romme Avengers."
Gorus then made a bit of a smirk (I guess as much as a lizard could make). "I prefer the Band Of Freaks if you ask me." He looked a bit away from Zeros'. "Demonic half breeds and...humans...I hate every facet." He then looked back towards Zeros'. "Well none of this impresses me! If you want your imp back you're either gonna have to surrender yourself to Emperor Retan, or defeat me in combat!"
-
Renard was dizzy from spinning around like that and stopped to rest about in the center of the smashed out room, floating somewhat uneasily. He was almost pelted by the bullets, as he wasn't paying attention to his second opponent, but managed to thrust his claws downward just in time to re summon that translucent half dome. The shrapnel ricocheted wildly across the disheveled inn. By now the innkeeper gave up, and was fleeing the crumbling building for his life.
The floating silver fox recognized this gun touting monster as an orc. Some of them were employed by the Kandarinians, though this one was probably a renegade of some sort. Needing a quick counter, Renard launched the translucent half dome straight at the green man. As it flew downward, it would continue to deflect the bullets and hopefully smash apart his weapon if it connected...
----
Ven and Henri's mouth were agape for a second.
"Sounds like a plan!"
Both recovering their weapons, the two dashed off after the alchemist, who was heading into a gap between the higher rocks. Ven dashed ahead of Allen just as a lizard made himself visible in the way, smacking him across the side of the head with his sword. The lizard stumbled aside just enough the three to slip past, and angrily began pursuing after they did so. By now the other lizards had found their way around the artificially created wall and were perusing at full speed.
Continuing down the jut between rocks, the three soon found themselves running through a very narrow and steep canyon of some sort. On both sides the walls rocketed twenty to thirty feet high, composed of a yellowish rock too steep to climb. There were twists and turns in the crack they scurried through, giving it a maze like quality. Their pursuers weren't visible behind them, but the echoes of their angry hisses and curses resonated through the walls.
Henri seemed distracted as he ran, constantly looking up at the rocks above.
"Allen, if you have it in you, an avalanche might help..."
He turned and looked at the narrow pass they just wedged through...
-
Zeros' righted himself and turned, facing Gorus.
"I think I'll take what's behind door number two... I rather don't like surrendering," he said, tapping his sword on his shoulder. His stance shifted and he made a 'come-hither' motion with his fingers.
---
Allen panted, as they ran and then blinked, from Henri's request.
"An avalanche... huh?" he looked up and around and then nodded. He took out his small dagger and began slashing the alchemic circle pattern into the rock face. He finished and resheathed his dagger, closing his eyes. He took a deep breath and placed his hands on the circle.
Immediately, the canon above them started to rumble and then, the sides and walls started to collapse in on themselves, creating a huge avalanche, which, successfully blocked off the three's path. Angry hisses and spitting could be heard from behind the rocks.
Allen groaned and wiped his forehead.
"Damn... My old age is catching up to me..."
-
As Scrums sees the translucent half dome flying towards him and he braces himself and puts his weapon in front of him. As the half dome smashes into him his weapon breaks apart and he flies back several feet and lands on the ground grunting in pain as it made contact with him.
The orc gets himself off the ground and sees the pieces of his gun over the ground, he growls and snarls and leers at Renard in rage. "You damned demon lover! Ima gonna rip yur arms out and beat ya ta death with them!" He shouts. He then dashes towards the Velken and dives at him attempting to tackle him onto the ground...
---
Brice walked up towards Duilin, who was sitting nearly out cold against a building. It worked, he usually lets Elliot fight them first, just to lower the enemies expectations.
"You're such a moron. Now let's cool you down for shipment!" Brice said chuckling evilly afterwards. He points his hand towards his downed opponent, and rapidly cooling water energy begins to gather in his hand.
Duilin then suddenly sprung back up on his feet, he swung a kick right at the bounty hunter's hand. Brice was swung back and his energy explodes in his hand freezing it solid. He howls in pain, as the shock from the freeze flies through his hand.
"You're dead!" Brice shouts in rage. With his other hand he swings his fist at Duilin, yet the half demon catches the fist and twists, getting his other hand pretty hurt. The bounty hunter then swings his frozen fist at Duilin, yet it was also caught, yet the force of his other punch was much stronger, straining Duilin's wrist.
With his opponent in a lock, Duilin lifts his feet into the air and begins delivering a series of rapid kicks into Brice's chest. He then lets him goes, swinging a final mightily kick into his torso knocking him to the ground. As his enemy is laying on the ground he swings his hand towards him and begins shooting lightning at him delivering a shock through his body...
-----
"Have it your way." Gorus says. He lifts up the mace which he his holding, and he swings and twirls the weapon. It seems like quite a small weapon, compared to when Duilin used it. Zeros' would most likely recognize the distinct weapon, it might be a good idea to get that back as well, Duilin liked that mace.
Gorus then roared, as he dashed towards Zeros' he then swung the mace at a high speed, on a downward angle upon Zeros'...
-
The Velken simply darted backwards in evasion. Luckily this orc was rather rotund and sluggish. But unfortunately he was beginning to wear out himself...
Renard zipped around the right side of the orc until he was near ground level and at his adversary's back. Holding out his two claws, he forcefully caused them to glow with amber sparks.
"Harrrgh!!"
With a mighty push from the small fox, a sharp stream of electricity shot forth, snaking towards the orc...
----
Ven wiped the sweat from his brow. Henri took the time to lean against the canyon wall, even as the dust still settled, quite out of breath.
"So, what now?" Ven ventured.
"We obviously need to move away from here..." The old king replied.
"Right. Where is here, anyway?"
"Judging by the terrain and that fortress back there, which I believe may be Lizaberg, we're likely smack dab in the middle of the Dark Continent..."
"Great..."
"It's going to be a long trek to get back to the Posidon X, which we left in the shallows on the north eastern coast..."
With that, they began to venture deeper into the twisting canyon. They were down deep enough so that they were constantly covered in shadow, the dark skies not giving any hint as to the direction they were going, although Henri judged they were likely headed north.
-
The orc was stunned by the electrical magic attack. Orcs were not mages in the least bit, however they were resistant to all elements, so the magic attacks weren't too damaging. As he recovered from the electricity he didn't show much wounds.
The place was quite messy and cluttered with derbies. The orc then picked up a plank of wood and then violently chucked the object at Renard.
---
Meanwile the rubble of the building which Rufokanno smashed into was pushed away and the telekinetic tribal elf stood up after moving the derbies off of him. He looked very annoyed.
---
Duilin stopped pumping Brice with lightning. Surprisingly, Brice was not dead, yet he was highly damaged.
"Don't mess me." Duilin boasted. He then walked off towards the remains of the inn.
"Hey! Where do ya think you're goin'!?" Elliot's voice shouted.
Duilin sighed. "Haven't you had enough of me mopping the floor with you? A man can do only so much cleaning." He said turning around to face him.
"This ends here! Only one of us is walkin' away." Elliot twirled his daggers. "You ready!?"
Duilin blinked, as he stared bored at Elliot. He just wouldn't give up. Elliot dashed towards him swinging his daggers about as he reached closer to him. Duilin jumped into the air over the wannabe and landed back on the ground back faced towards his enemy's.
[slowmotion]The two turned around to face each other. Elliot glared at Duilin in rage and dashed once more at him. He jumped in the air and as he was up he threw one his daggers like a dart at Duilin. The half demon caught the weapon, but waited Elliot to land down at him. The young bounty hunter held his single dagger with both hands and lifted it above his head and harshly and crudely swung the dagger downwards reading to stab the dagger right into Duilin's skull. The half demon did the obvious and shifted his body to the side, folding his wings around himself, so they wouldn't get harmed. Elliot's lack of combat skill, was unsurprisingly to be the end of him, as he landed on the ground, he slipped, and due to the speed of his swing he stabbed himself in the liver...[/slowmotion]
Duilin almost felt sad for the pathetic death of the fighter. Elliot's body was laying in a pool of blood.
"Sweet dreams." Duilin said, trying to hold back a little chuckle.
-
//Damn! I took two spots on the Top 10 Longest Posts. Neat. Unfortunately, this one isn't as long.\\
Alex chuckled to himself as he picked up another crate with the telekinesis gun and stacked it on top of what appeared to be a tower of boxes.
?You about done?? Midna asked, slightly impatient.
?Gimme just another sec,? Alex said, completing the box tower he had made. He stood back and lit up a fireball. With the launching of the crimson sphere the entire pile of wooden boxes ignited in a bright pyre.
?Impressive,? Midna said, her impatience subsiding a little bit. ?Hey, you think you could use that thing as a weapon??
?I?ve always wanted to throw a crate or a barrel at one of those Kandies,? Alex muttered. He was surprised how easily that amused him.
?Here, I have an idea,? Midna replied, going through the junk pile. She produced a strange metallic sphere that rolled out of her small hands and to Alex?s feet. It made some kind of warbling noise as it did.
?Is that thing alive?? Alex asked, stepping away from it. The strange ball followed him around the junkyard.
?It looks like Kandie technology,? Midna said. ?Though usually that kind of stuff hurts people.? She took a closer look at it. ?A-ha! I know what this is.?
Alex had climbed on top of a large tank to get away from his metallic follower. ?Yeah? Humor me.?
?This is a rollermine. The Kandies use it to flush out infantry. Normally it?s energized and will give a jolt to whatever it rolls into. This one?s apparently not charged up, which is why it didn?t electrocute you.?
?Huh. One of the scientists must?ve fooled around with it or something.? He was forming an idea. Round things are usually good to play catch with?
He stood up and grabbed the mine in his TK gun?s invisible clutches. It warbled in protest as it floated off the ground.
?Hey, Midna!? Alex hollered. ?Catch!? He punted the poor rollermine across the yard, it beeping in terror all the way. Midna reacted quickly and used her own telekinetic powers to catch the ball and hold it in her glowing orange hand that seemed to replace her hair.
?So that?s your game, is it? A game of catch? Sounds like fun.? She whirled her hand back and catapulted the grey sphere again across the yard. Rollermines had basic intelligence, but they were smart enough to know when they had become someone?s toy. Alex caught the mine with the gravity gun once again and punted it back. This cycle repeated for some time until something caught Alex?s attention, and the mine knocked him on his chest, sending him falling unceremoniously off his perch on top of the tank and onto the ground. His heavy body landed with a THUNK.
Midna giggled a little bit. ?What?s wrong, Alex? Can?t keep your eye on the ball??
He got up and picked the gun back up. The mine rolled over to him and appeared to emit a warbling laugh.
?Oh, ha-ha,? he grumbled as he delivered a swift kick to the rollermine, sending it careening across the yard and back into the receptacle Midna had found it in.
?Alex?? Ilia called as she came back through the blast doors. ?Alex, dear, are you out here??
?Crap, hide!? he whispered to Midna. The imp took refuge behind a stack of barrels.
?Alex, I was just going through some things and--?
She saw the smoldering stack of ash that was a few boxes minutes ago.
?My goodness, Alex. I had no idea you were such a?firebug.?
?What can I say? It was fun.?
?Alex, I can see you like that device. Would you like to keep it??
?Err?what about the other scientists? I don?t think they?d like that. Besides, didn?t you say this thing was experimental??
?Now, now, sweetie. There?s no need to worry. The other scientists are well aware of your prowess with weaponry. They, as well as myself know that you could put it to good use.?
Alex was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable again. Though it was obvious to him that she was trying to flirt with him, he tried to not make that apparent. Thankfully, his full-face helmet prevented anyone from seeing his blushing face.
?Don?t you ever take that suit off??
?Not really, always gotta be ready for combat.?
?But Alex, you?re on R & R! Why let the constraints of military duty interfere with your leisure? Surely it must be stuffy in that old suit. Wouldn?t you at least like some fresh air, why not remove the helmet??
?Um, I?m okay for now, thanks. I-I have no p-problems with recycled air??
?Nonsense. A breath of fresh air will do anyone a world of good. Now please, Alex? Take off the helmet? For me??
Now he was DEFINITELY sure she was flirting. He didn?t want to seem too obliging. What would Midna think? He heaved a sigh. ?Fine.? With a hiss of air, he removed his helmet and let it clatter on the ground. Underneath was a human being, his hair matted down.
?Now, isn?t that refreshing?? She said in a heavenly voice.
?Err, I think I hear Dr. Kleiner calling me?? he approached the airlock, only to be cut off.
?Oh, please Alex!? she begged. ?Please stay and chat??
Damn, she was good. Alex now began to feel bad for thinking of deserting the gorgeous scientist.
Midna watched from behind the barrels, not seeming to be too worried about what Ilia?s motives might be.
Luckily, Ilia seemed to only be interested in asking Alex where he came from, how he got here, and so on. Satisfied, she again left the scrapyard, leaving the unmasked rebel.
Dr. Kleiner was heard coming through the airlock.
?Alex?? he asked in his elderly voice. ?Are you finished out here? It?s getting late.?
Midna became his shadow one again. As Izzy came out, he saw Alex using the gravity gun to levitate a box.
?Hey there, Izzy.? Alex said in a casual tone. ?What?s up??
?Oh, I?m sorry. Where you doing something? I hope I didn?t interrupt.?
?No, not at all,? Alex lied. ?I was just finishing up here. I?ll come back in now.?
The two returned to the airlock, as the cycle scanned the two.
?Well, well, Alex! It would seem our colleague, Ilia, seems to think highly of you.?
?You don?t need to tell me twice,? Alex replied. ?I think she likes me.?
?More than that, you lucky old chap. It would appear she might be smitten.?
?I wouldn?t go as far as to say that?? He almost told Izzy he was spoken for, but restrained himself.
?Nonsense, Alex. You?re a likable person, even with the ladies. Ah, the cycle?s complete.?
The two returned to the common area in the lab. As they did, Dr. Fenix walked up to him.
?I hope you know what you?re doing with that,? he said in his gruff voice. ?The Psychokinetic Energy Field Manipulator is no toy. It can be a very dangerous weapon if in the right hands.?
?Don?t worry, Doc. I?ll be careful with it.?
The ground shook violently.
?What was that?? Ilia said in a nervous, but still charming, voice.
?Ah, shit!? Fenix growled. ?The Kandies must be passing through here.?
?Alex, you can?t stay here,? Dr. Vance said. ?You can take that tunnel down there to reach the Mining District. No one goes there anymore.?
?Why not?? Alex asked.
?Immediately after the resonance cascade, a large amount of headcrabs were released into the town. From what we know, there were no survivors. There might still be some crabs there, so I?d watch out if I were you.?
?Noted,? Alex replied.
The ground shook once more.
?Dammit, Alex! Get out of here before they find us! We can handle ourselves!? Fenix hollered.
As Alex made his way to the tunnel, Ilia stopped him.
?Alex?? She asked in her sweet, alluring voice. ?Be careful.?
?Don?t worry,? Alex said. ?I haven?t met a crab yet I couldn?t crack.?
As he walked through the dank tunnel, Midna emerged.
?What?s with her?? Midna asked. ?You save her, and get to know her for five minutes and suddenly she likes you.?
?Must just be her,? Alex muttered indifferently.
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>?I just wish I had the guts to be that open,?</span> she said to herself, under Alex?s level of hearing.
As she thought about her feelings for Alex, the two continued into the dark tunnel.
-
Huh? Why didn't it work? He put so much effort into that last attack... Blast it! If only he had gotten that rest he so needed. Renard was really feeling drained at this point...
So it came as no surprise that he got hit with the sudden plank of wood turned projectile, the blunt object striking his bandaged left arm.
"OWWW!!"
Not there!! Blast it! He floated backwards, his feet landing on the ground as he clutched his left arm, snarling. He then extended his right claw as it began to glow with a crimson hue. This one has to work...
-
Zeros' grinned. Finally... Maybe he would be smarter then his lackeys. His sword was brought up in an instant, locking his sword with the orcs mace. He noted what mace he was using and silently told himself to return it to Duilin.
While his sword kept the mace steady, his other hand curling into a fist, launching a high-speed punch at Gorus' livers.
---
Allen nodded. He looked around and wiped his brow. He followed the two and stuck to the shadows as well. He was becoming exhausted from the constant, big-scale alchemy.
-
"So Jayce what excatly do you do here." Druid walked around Jayce and looked at the camp. It was small with a lot of lizard men. They looked very unfriendly. Oh well he would handle it if someone tried something violent. Druid turned back to the party of spectators. "You may want to introduce me to everyone."
-
//Gorus is not an orc, Zeros'. He's a lizard man.\\
Gorus lifted his weapon and jumped backwards avoiding the comparatively small fist coming towards him. He didn't even find the need to avoid it, but why hold back?
The Lizard High General, arched back the mace and then smashed it forward, blocking the hit would probably deliver quite a shock wave of pain through the weapon, due to the massive force of the swing.
------
Scrums looked at Renard oddly. "Crazy, magic! Go ahead, gimme your best shot, ya weakling! It's free!" He then spread his arms out, and looked at the Velken mockingly...
---
Brice then sprung back up from the ground. "You're gonna pay for killing him, you little freak!" He growled in rage.
"Hey, he messed up, it was his own fault. Really, I didn't do anything..." He then lowered his eyes. "Wait, I don't need to defend myself to do. Bring it on punk!"
They dashed towards each other, Brice swung a fist full of ice magic at Duilin, the punch was blocked by Duilin pressing his hands together and quickly creating a small shield bubble.
Brice then swung a kick across Duilin's torso, striking him. The half demon stepped back and shot forth a small bolt of lightning, pushing Brice back a few feet...
-
The nerve! Renard clenched his right fist tightly as he brought it closer to his chest, the red hue glowing more fiercely, indicating an increased influx of magic. If this guy wants it so badly?
Suddenly he thrust his right arm forward, extending two claw like fingers. Rather than a wide blast of flame, the Velken sent forth a thin concentrated beam of crimson energy a mere inch in diameter. The piercing laser sliced the air, raging toward the orc?s prone chest?
After loosing the attack though, Renard's knees felt very weak. He crumbled to the floor in a crash, totally exhausted...
----
The trio continued on through the winding canyons, going deeper and deeper into the dead rocky terrain. Canyons were carved by water of course, but there was no sign of it anywhere, save for the dry river rocks crunching at their feet.
?I?m sorry, but might we rest a bit?? Henri finally called out. The old king was looking tired.
Ven turned around. Being much younger than the other two he of course had recovered much more quickly from the run, but he realized the older king and alchemist very much needed a break, judging by their tired glances.
?Of course.?
There was no immediate threat from the lizards and there were plenty of flat stones to sit down upon, which Henri quickly took advantage of.
Ven?s survival instincts kicked in. There was a fair chance they would have to spend the night out in the wilderness, possibly in these very canyons. He started to pace around, looking for signs of something to hunt for food possibly, keeping his liege in his sight at all times of course. Alas, there was no sign of life anywhere. Not even any dead shrubs to use for firewood. Of course, building a fire probably wouldn?t have been a good idea anyway. Not in such close proximity of a Dark Empire fortress, at least.
Ven rested his right gauntlet upon the monolithic stone that was the canyon?s wall, glancing back upon Henri, Allen, and the path from whence they came. He pressed his weight against the stone, relaxing for a bit, when it suddenly gave way. Startled, the knight pulled back. The stone where he had placed his hand receded back into the rock in a perfect square with sides of a foot and a half. Years of yellow dirt fell from the cracks of the stone, revealing symbols hieroglyphic in nature along with intricate circular patterns and such. Ven wiped a bit more of the dirt off to get a better look.
?Uh, guys? You might want to take of look at this??
(Do feel free to take this in any direction you want. I?m sort of running out of ideas here. Heh?)
----
The burly Jayce smiled a sinister grin, falling in step with Druid, touring the camp.
?As I mentioned, I?m putting together a small group of elites to gauge the defenses and ultimate usefulness of lands. Your duties will mostly involve mindless destruction??
He stopped, resting his hands on his belt.
?Melface, show him.?
Melface didn?t come walking or appear in a puff of smoke or anything. He was just there. Standing to Druid?s left as if he always was. What looked like a sliver haired twelve year old boy stepped in front of Druid, bowling lowly and holding out his arm.
?A pleasure to have you aboard, Sir Druid.? The boy spoke in an incredibly low but refined voice. When he looked up again his eyes flashed red and he smiled through fanged teeth. His robe was an off white, or a very dull yellow perhaps.
?Melface, Nightmare Demon from the dark land of Thanatos, servant of Iban. Mortals call my homeland ?Hell?, but I assure you, the weather is actually quite pleasant this time of year.?
He turned, flipping his cloak in a flourish. There were some gold coins in his hand which his quickly pocketed. The demon child then extended his now free hand out towards the open space before which the three stood. A sort of translucent map materialized in the space there, displaying a large green island.
Jayce explained. ?This is the land of Rygar, upon which we stand, well off of the southwestern coast of the Dark Continent. The government here has not submitted to our? messengers, and has been flagged as an enemy. I am here to decide if there is anything to be gained by pillaging its resources, or possibly enslaving the populace? or if it they should be totally annihilated??
The map fizzled away as Jayce folded his arms.
?Though I?m personally leaning towards the latter. We?ve wiped out three pathetic villages already and found nothing of interest. We will be staging a foray into what appears to be their capital next. Then I will make my decision??
-
Instead of parrying the mace like his last attempt, he dodged to the lizardman's right side. Then, he ducked behind him, his slimmer body being much more agile then the lizardman's larger form. He grinned and feinted a blow towards the lizards left side before immediately ghosting towards the right, stabbing towards the lizards exposed side.
---
Allen nodded and rested on a rock for a few moments, wiping his brow. Then, he heard Ven's statement and stood, streaching and walked over towards the much younger man. He peered down at the symbols and frowned.
"Hmm... I can't ready any of these... It's way too dark outside, but... I've seen similiar figures somewhere else..."
-
Gorus was actually pretty agile for a lizard man, his build was far more human like then the normal lizardman. He slid himself back completely avoiding the first strike. However Zeros' ghostly move was too fast for him to avoid.
The cut wasn't very deep. Other then a small grunt of pain he didn't show much. He still didn't like getting hit. The mighty beast then swung his spiky boot across, whether it hit or not he then quickly smashed down the mace on to his enemy.
------
Scrum's eyebrows raised, as he saw the oncoming projectile. The crimson blast was direct and the orc was blown to the ground...
//Too tired to update others. Maybe tomorrow.\\
-
Renard was spent. He drifted off into blissful unconsciousness for a while. In his dreams, he heard voices. Familiar, comforting voices? He felt himself being scooped up off of the cold ground, warm claws gripping him in stark contrast to the callous rubble he passed out upon. He blearily forced his eyes open, blinking as that gray, black, and, white visage came into focus.
Virmir was a hardened Velken warrior but his hazel slitted eyes were deep windows to his soul, displaying a tender kindness towards his fallen student.
?Renard. Welcome back. You gave us quite the scare??
Renard would have hugged his master if he could have moved. The faces of the other Velkens hovered over their comrade. His squad, his friends?
Virmir handed the limp body over to two blade knights, who took their comrade with the utmost care.
?Everything?s going to be all right now?? Virmir whispered quietly?
The High General spun on his heels, the vulpine mages and knights parted out of the way, forming a clear path to that felled thing on the other side of the torn up building? The Wind Serpent was out in a flash, an invisible stream of air cycling an inch around the obscenely long thing blade. The kindness in Virmir?s eyes was gone, replaced by an icy detachment?
The silver fox simply walked towards his prey, that hateful orc, his tail flicking to and fro?
(Is he dead? Can I kill him? Hehehehe?)
----
?Really? Can you remember where?? Henri seemed intrigued.
Ven began to wipe more of the layers of sand from the edifice, revealing more of the odd shaped circles and runes. Blast it, if he had some dead branch or something, he could make a torch by casting fire on it.
Henri was a step ahead though. A small white orb appeared in his hands, casting illumination upon the runes. More shapes were revealed, including circles that seemed alchemic in nature, through the king was no professional in the subject.
----
(Chapter 11 ends in 3 days, unless there are objections. Kind of burned out myself. The break will be short, though.)
-
//I don't have any objections, but I'm gonna wrap things up in this post. School starts tomorrow and my computer's having a little bit of trouble with its sound card and stuff. I might as well finish things up. I just wanna know how long the time lapse will be between chapters?\\
?Why do you think they don?t go to the Mining District anymore?? Midna asked.
?Beats me. All I know is that I could really use some hot food,? Alex said, his stomach protesting.
?Kind of bad timing,? Midna replied, ?Considering you had a chance to get food back there.?
?Don?t remind me,? Alex grumbled, forcing himself to press on. ?Izzy said that the mining district was infested with headcrabs.?
?Yeah, and??
?I?ve never had to fight one before. I don?t know how they attack.?
?Headcrabs try to leap at someone?s head and take control. Once they do, the victim is turned into a shambling zombie.?
?Nice,? Alex quavered. He climbed up a ladder and kicked down a door. He was once again on the surface, the full moon illuminating the streets in a ghostly bluish glow. As Alex continued walking, his footsteps echoed hard against the cobblestones of the street. The gaslights had long since burned out. Alex stopped for a moment as he saw something speed across the roofs, leaping with incredible speed and height. It emitted a heart-chilling howl as it did.
?Did you see that?? Midna said, herself a little worried.
?Yeah,? Alex sighed. ?I did. Kinda wish I hadn?t.?
The two kept going. Soon corpses littered the streets, some half-eaten. One in particular caught his attention.
?What?is THAT?? Alex said, shocked at the state of the corpse.
The corpse was indeed human, with a headcrab resting over the victim?s head. His clothing was violently bloody, as if he had lost most of his blood already. His hands were elongated and bony claws. Down the middle of his torso was the most disturbing feature. From neck to groin an opening was present in the chest and abdominal cavities, cracked ribs protruding and internal organs clearly visible.
?Oh no?? Midna despaired. ?This is a zombie.?
?Wha??
?The victim of a headcrab attack. When the crab takes control, it horribly mutates the victim into a form it can use for combat. Judging by the blood, I?d say this man?s a fresh victim.
The zombie began to stir. With clumsy coordination he soon found himself back on two legs, approaching Alex.
Though that was not what made Alex?s gut churn.
Underneath the headcrab Alex thought he heard the cries and screams of the poor man, begging and crying for help.
?Alex?there?s nothing you can do. The best thing to do is to put him out of his misery.?
Reluctantly Alex leveled his rifle and pumped a shot into the zombified man. The body flew back and slammed against the wall, while the headcrab popped off and approached Alex.
Confronted with an alien creature, Alex waited for the crab to attack. With a high-pitched shriek the crab leapt off the ground toward Alex?s head. Alex caught it in mid-jump and held it by its two front legs. With a grunt he hurled the headcrab against the opposite wall, it falling limp as it let out one last death cry.
??.Nice?.? Alex muttered, wiping the blood off his visor.
?Okay, that?s quite disgusting,? Midna protested. ?Let?s just get through here as quick as we can.?
?Why the rush?? Alex quipped. ?These things aren?t exactly a threat. We might as well see what?s here.?
?I don?t see it,? Midna replied. ?This place hasn?t been inhabited for at least a year. Last contact I heard from this place was one survivor who had escaped the headcrab attack. He told us that the rest of the town had become zombified. Then he went BACK into the district!?
?Why?? Alex asked, perplexed.
?How should I know, he was a religious nut. Though he did have a shotgun with him when he came to us.?
?Who was he??
?I think he said his name was Grigori.?
Alex heard the same howling sound he had before, this time behind him.
?BEHIND YOU, BROTHER!? A gruff voice shouted, followed by a shotgun blast. As Alex turned around, he saw a zombie on the ground. This one was different.
It had been stripped of almost all of its flesh as well as internal organs, exposing the skeleton within as well as muscular tissue. The head was nothing more than a skull. The headcrab on the ground next to it was leaner than the standard kind, lacking the beak that normal and poison headcrabs had. However, it did have long spindly legs with sharp claws at the end. Perhaps, Alex thought, that was how it gained control.
Alex turned back to where he had heard the voice. On a balcony above stood a bald man of at least fifty, wearing a ragged jacket and pants. He wore a religious symbol around his neck.
?Ah, what is this?? He asked. ?Another life to save? I will keep my eye on you, more than that, I cannot promise!? He went back inside, chuckling in an almost insane manner as he did.
Alex turned back to Midna. ?Was that the--??
?Yeah, that?s him. Father Grigori he calls himself. When he came to us for help, he wasn?t this insane, but he was well on his way.?
?Wait, so you KNEW he was cracked??
?Yeah, and because of that, we didn?t render aid to the Mining District. Seems it was in our error.?
?I?ll say,? Alex grumbled.
?So what now?? Midna asked.
?Well, he might know the way out of this place. I say we follow him.?
?You sure? He seems a little off-kilter.?
?Okay, think about it for a moment. Wade waist-deep through zombies, or ask the psycho with the shotgun for help.?
?You raise a good point. We?ll follow him.?
And so they did. Though the buildings in the district were tightly packed, making most zombie encounters unavoidable. Soon they came to a large graveyard.
?We should be safe here,? Alex said, taking cover behind a tombstone.
?Clearly. What zombie would set foot in a graveyard?? Midna retorted.
Before long, legions of shambling mutants were soon approaching the rebel and imp. More than outnumbered, Alex began blindly firing into the group. In a cascade of body parts and fire, the zombie numbers began to fall.
?I?m surprised this is actually working,? Midna said, taking cover.
?Of course! Why wouldn?t it??
Fast zombies were why it wouldn?t. With the fifty or so zombies that made up the first wave dead, a group of the terrifyingly fast skeletal monsters dashed towards Alex at a disturbingly fast gait.
?Fear not, brother! I have come to save thee!? Father Grigori kicked down a door and began firing at the lean zombies, delivering a shell into each head. Finally, the undead hordes were laid to rest.
?So you are the one I have heard so much about!? Grigori chuckled. ?As you can see, my congregation has grown rather unruly! I am sure you are wishing for a way out of this unholy place??
?That would be nice,? Alex replied.
?My apologies, brother, but the only escape is through the mines! I myself have not ventured in there, though you seem more than capable of laying the dead back to rest.?
?That?s all right,? Alex said. ?Any help at this point is good.?
?I will show you to the mines, but it is here I must stay. The shepherd must tend to his, err, flock!? He chuckled again.
The shotgun-toting monk wasted no time leading Alex to the entry to the mines.
?It is here that I must bid farewell to you, brother! I wish you luck in the mines ahead!? As he waved to Alex, a final horde of zombies converged on him. He turned around and began firing, knocking one lit gaslight to the ground, surrounding him in flame, laughing insanely all the way. Forcing himself to look away, Alex looked down the dark shaft leading to the Asgarnian mines.
?Alex?? Midna scolded. ?I hope you?re not thinking what I think your thinking.?
?What?? Alex said. ?Unless what I?m thinking is jumping down into the shaft, and landing in the deep pool of water below??
?Exactly!? she cried. ?I won?t let you.?
?If you see another way down, be my guest. I myself can?t float.?
Midna sighed. ?Fine.?
Alex positioned himself on the ledge, and looked down. He could see water in the bottom, but he had no way of gauging how deep it was. ?I got it. How about you go down and tell me how deep it is??
?It?s better than you taking a chance.? Midna drifted down into the tunnel and hovered above the water. The pool was about ten or so feet deep, just barely enough to cushion Alex?s fifty-foot plunge.
?Go right ahead,? she called back up.
Alex strapped his rifle onto his back, and stepped into thin air. He plunged like a lead weight into the water below, and splashed down. His splash echoed throughout the cavern as his picked himself up on the side of the pool.
?Well?? Alex said. ?That was fun.?
?He said that we wouldn?t have to go far into the mines to find a way out. He told us that one of the catwalks leads to a ladder that would get us back up to Asgarnia proper. Question is, how do we find it? It?s pitch black down here.?
?Don?t worry,? Midna said, holding her hand up and casting a strange spell. A bluish sphere appeared in her head-hand, casting the cavern in a soft blue glow. ?I?ll light the way.?
Unfortunately the mines were just as infested as the town itself, sans zombies. All that was down here were headcrabs, all three flavors. Normal, fast, and poison. Defeating them wasn?t too much of a problem, but their numbers were. The normal kind, without speed or poison, were merely a nuisance. The fast ones, Alex had to chase down and kill, and the poison ones he tried to avoid completely. At the end of the tunnel the moonlight cast down from a large opening where mining carts were rolled through.
?Finally, out of there!? Alex said, taking off his helmet in relief. He turned back to Midna. ?Now we just need to get back to Rebel HQ and see if the Kandies found them out. Hopefully not.
As the two made their way through the wrecked streets, one wayward poison headcrab from the mines stalked Alex.
?Oh, hang on, gimme a moment,? Alex said, as he checked his gun. ?There we go.?
The stop had given the crab enough time to reach Alex. It emitted the spine-chilling hiss that Otis made those eighteen months ago when he stalked that bird.
Unfortunately, this wasn?t Otis.
With an ear-piercing scream the headcrab launched forward and clamped down on Alex?s exposed neck, injecting massive amounts of the deadly toxins into his bloodstream.
?Alex!? Midna cried as she pried the crab off and zapped it with a fireball to ensure its death. Alex had lost his footing and slumped to the ground.
He moaned as Midna examined the clear bite marks on his neck. While the poison was rarely fatal, it would seriously inhibit Alex?s health. If a Kandie found him in this state, he would be as good as dead. The neurotoxin immediately brought Alex?s body functions down to bare minimum, the absolute least exertion he would need to stay alive. In this state, his was immobile, weak, and incoherent. Midna drifted down to his side and embraced his cold metal body.
?Don?t worry, Alex. I?ll find a way to help you, I promise. I won?t let you die. Not after all you?ve done for me. Not after all you?ve worked for. We made a promise to defeat Damien, and we will. Together. Alex??
She paused for a moment as a tear sprinkled in her exposed eye.
?I love you??
//End Chapter 11 for Alex and Midna.\\
-
//I'm not too sure about 3 days. I don't know how long the fight between Gorus and Zeros' will take. Can we wait until the fight is done?\\
Scrums got back up, he spotted the Velken with the long Wind Serpent sword. "What da hell is this!?" He orc sneered. "More a you freaks!? I'll teachya a few things!"
The orc picked up another plank. "I may not have my gun. But I can swing this pretty hard. I once killed a draken wit my bare hands ya know!" He boasted. (Which was obviously a huge lie).
He dashed towards Virmir. "Chew on 'dis scumsucker!" As he reached closer towards the Velken he clutched the plank with both hands and smashed it down towards his head, hopping to crush his skull...
//Yeah, go ahead kill him. By the way, did you get Wind Serpent from FF3? I recently got the game for the DS and I noticed a sword of the same name in it.\\
---
"Time to finish you off!" Brice yelled. "If I have to kill you, by the name of Gaian I damn well will!"
"I thought Vandrin wanted me alive? You gonna risk loosing the money." Duilin snickered back.
Brice growled. "It'll be more then enough of a reward posting your ugly demon head on pole outside my house! I'd serve you right, for what you do in your little hell pot, you demonic son of a bitch!"
Duilin glared at Brice. "Don't you dare say that." He clutched his fists and fire began to swirl around his locked hand.
Brice spat. "Or what? You're just a stupid manipulative demon. A weak demon at that!"
Duilin roared and then shot forth his hands and they began to spew flame out like a flamethrower. As the flame flowed the hue of it became a darker orange, almost brown.
Brice smirked and did a similar technique, but shot high pressured water to fend back the flame. "Heheheh..."
-
Even with his uber fast movement, Zeros' wouldn't be able to completely dodge the attacks at such short range, especially with how small this room was. Instead, he twisted and dodged the spiked boot.
Instead, he reached up with his hand and grabbed the mace, by the large ball. He winced, feeling the spikes drive into his hand, but he didn't let go. He sheathed his sword and quickly reached up to the mace, grabbing the shaft near the head, grasping the mace in both hands.
He started to push against the lizardman with both of his hands, putting his demonic strength behind the weight of his body. He felt warm drops of blood starting to trickle down his hand, but he ignored them, focusing his strength in overpowering the lizardman.
---
Allen nodded and started to examine the symbols closed, adjusting his glasses. He rubbed his hands over the symbols and frowned.
"This is... some kind of opening key..." he murmured, placing both of his aged hands on the symbols. He concentrated on the symbols, trying to siphon his power into them. He symbols started to glow softly and he could swear he heard something moving nearby...
-
(I was going to do the standard one night break storywise, but there doesn't have to be any time lapse at all. In fact, it'll probably be better that way. Let's start 12 as a night chapter.
I thought up the Wind Serpent myself, but I was going for a Final Fantasy-ish name. So I guess I got it. (Heh...))
----
Virmir flicked his wrist up, sending the long blade diagonally to his left. Even with the insidious length of the sword, it seemed to be a miss because the orc was too far away. But then the orc dropped the vile plank of wood in mid stride, both his hands cut cleanly off... It was the very air that sliced his hands, the invisible stream sent forth from the blade...
It took the orc an instant to realize what had happened, but it didn't matter, for the Velken's next move was a vertical slice downwards. Scrums managed a few steps forward, then fell in half. The two pieces falling left and right... But that was not enough. An act of indignation, the silver fox's final motion was a horizontal slash, so forceful that a massive gust of wind burst forth seemingly out of nowhere. The broken orc was slammed through the far wall, which was torn apart itself from the violent blast of air The frail inn could take no more and began to collapse upon the Velkens...
All of them shot out at once through the opening in the roof and into the black night sky with the injured Renard in tow. They congregated above the building, watching it crumble as it billowed great plumes of smoke...
----
There in fact was a rumbling. A very deep one, that shook the very ground, growing louder and louder... Far to the right the rocks seemed to move, collapsing inward and sideways. It was a massive door, some fifteen feet high, built into the canyon side...
Henri watched in rapt fascination.
"My word..."
He wondered over to it, holding out the light in his hands. The darkness was impenetrable, the light only revealing that it was a deep tunnel of some sort.
"My liege, I don't think you should..."
"Come now, Ven, have you no sense of adventure?"
Ven's eyes widened.
"Adventure? Well, I, uh, I mean, we've been doing quite the bit of adventuring already..."
Blast it. Him and his big mouth. Really, they needed to get back, and now he's gone and distracted his liege. It was of course impossible to turn the king's attention back once he stumbles on something remotely magical and/or mysterious.
"I don't know. Allen, what do you think?" Henri asked as he turned to the alchemist with a slightly mischievous smile.
(Chapter 11 ends tomorrow. Unless Zeros' and Dude Man want to keep at it. I need a break though. Heh...)
-
//Well, maybe we could end it. I mean tons of shows have a To be continued... right in the middle of a fight. I suppose if Zeros' is cool with it then yeah. I just don't want Gorus to be knocked out so quickly. Or maybe Zeros' could escape.
And Zeros' if you saw the picture on Duilin's DALpedia page, you'd notice the mace isn't the typical ball with spikes. It has a sort of blade thing going on (one of those maces) but I suppose the same effect would happen, if he grabbed on.\\
Gorus was surprised by the small being's sudden strength. The sudden burst of strength from the noble half demon pushed the mace right from his hand. The weapon hit the floor and slid across the room, a couple of lizardmen backed away as the weapon neared them, bumping into the wall.
Gorus jumped back, so he was a couple yards away from Zeros'. The weapon was out of his reach, and going to pick it up would leave him open for an attack, luckily he had his grappling blaster. The lizard general took the grappling hook off his belt.
All of the lizard warriors backed up right to the wall or left the room, he was really dangerous with that thing. The head of the hook had four prongs at the end, Gorus held it under the prongs, and lightly pulled the trigger of the blaster, and reeled it out, until there was a good four feet of chain. He let go of the head and then spun the chain around, like a flail.
"Okay, now put up a real fight." Gorus snarled. "I want to start trying now..."
The lizardman then swooped the hook over his head and then slid forward towards Zeros' and swung the hook with strong force downwards at his foe...
------
Brice was winning the magic force blast contest...
"You're out of your element demon!" Brice sneered. "You're super flame is no match for my water attacks!"
"I can't believe how stupid you are." Duilin laughed. "I guess my previous shock messed up your brain."
"What?"
"Unlike you, I took my time mastering two elements. Fire and Air, which includes lightning!" //Cheesy lines FTW!\\
Duilin then jumped up and arched himself on an angle, keeping his force pushing back on the water blasts. From his readied hands he shot bright yellow lightning blasts with full force pushing through the water blasts and right to Brice...
As any magic user would know, water and ice mages are weak against lightning attacks. Since Brice was already weakened by Duilin's previous dose, he couldn't handle Duilin's second stronger blast.
Brice shuddered like a jackhammer as the lightning flowed through his body, just as Duilin stopped. His smoking body fell to the ground lifeless...
---
Rufokanno had recovered from his little crash landing in his fight with Renard, he stood on the top of a tall building to get an over view of the combat against Duilin and Renard. He got up just in time to see the violent death of his allies, Scrums and Brice...Revenge will soon be his...
-
Drew left the pub in a hurry. His hair blew as a small gust came. As he walked through the town people stared at his insignia. Everyone in the town knew what luna was and most where part of it. He knocked on a house casualy. *knock* "..." *knock* "..." "..." *knock* The door opened slowly creaking with every inch. He strolled in and the door closed behind him. A lantern lit and banished the shadows in his path. He walked up a spiral staircase. There was the sound of chatter above Drew. As he rose into the attic it became silent. It was time for a meeting.
"So, why did you call us here, Drew?"
"No special reason..."
"What!?"
"This may seem crazy but I think its time we take a side in this war." The crowd talked amongst themselves.
-
The dark robed man spat the stew out as if it were poison.
"Bah! This is perhaps the worst food I've ever consumed."
The waitress was visibly annoyed.
"Worse than the other three you sent back?"
"It's even cold!"
"Here, I'll set it over the fire."
The black cowled man waved his hand as if he were swatting an insect.
"Pah, screw it. Go away."
She left to tend the other customers, rather indignantly.
The man grabbed the side of the bowl, and the stewy contents suddenly began to steam and bubble. He took another taste. Edible now, at least.
Draven of course did not belong with the commoners, eating their wretched food. But it would be a temporary sacrifice. For his time would come once again...
To be continued...
-
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Chapter 12</span>
Draven promptly shut and locked the door, leaving him alone in the dimly candle lit room. There were of course noises all around, but this was unavoidable in a dank inn such as this. So long as he was undisturbed, this should work just fine?
He flipped his cloak, the illusion spell cast upon the robes quickly fading away to reveal his standard black armor and cape, the crimson trimmed edges and all. Silently he removed a small pouch from his belt and spilled the contents into one gloved hand. He frowned slightly at the result, as there weren?t many Black Crystals left, however it was enough to get the job done. He took one of the larger ones, most of the others being smaller and less neatly cut, and replaced the others into the bag. This was a long shot, he knew, but a worthwhile risk, considering who he was up against?
He placed the Black Crystal in the center of the wood paneled floor and stepped back. Satisfied that he had enough room, he removed a small piece of chalk and drew two circles around the stone, one slightly larger than the other. For a moment he considered using more than one crystal, which would render this cumbersome part unnecessary, but it would be a waste and he was running low, so he continued. He scribbled on the ground for a long while, making elaborate arcs and runes with the chalk that circled the entirety of the dark glass. When he was finished he stepped back as the lines erupted in a crimson glow.
Quickly the floor within the circle vanished, leaving the stone floating above a fiery pit, tendrils of swirling orange flame occasionally licking upwards through the portal. By now Draven?s smirk had returned. He cracked his knuckles and his neck a few times, then jumped in?
----
The ten Velkens brought their injured comrade down to the ground, setting his back against a wooden pole that supported the awning of the building across the street from the collapsed inn. It was night by then, although the crimson and black clouds seemed to give off just enough illumination to see. The battered and exhausted Renard was given water from a canteen before he was berated by questions.
?What happened to you?? It was the concerned voice of his friend and fellow mage Helix. He was a bit taller than Renard and the fur at the top of his head stood up in long strands.
?I? was attacked on the airship? That winged human saved my life. His name is Duilin.?
He pointed a claw tipped finger toward the man who saved his life. Duilin had just finished off Brice in a rather shocking manner, and they watched the mercenary?s body lifelessly drop to the ground. Virmir was in the back of the group and began to make his way over to the stranger. Odd, humans don?t have wings?
Before he could make it, the entire group was suddenly surrounded by a small hoard of Kanarinian soldiers, all bearing spear guns. Some held torches in an attempt to bathe the streets with an orange light. Humans can?t see very well in the dark, after all.
?Hold it! Just what is going on here?!?
He motioned to the collapsed mess that was once an inn. His eyes widened as he suddenly realized the figure he was addressing was far from human.
The short silver fox, who was also a High General of the Dark Empire, flicked his tail once indignantly, his eyes narrowing to slits that bore coldly into the human?s soul. He promptly opened the flap of his cloak, on the inside of which was sewn a number of insignias. Of course the Kandarinian officer did not recognize the Velken heraldry, but the red four winged dragon insignia of the Dark Empire was plain as day, even in the dim torchlight.
?Your security is lax,? Virmir spoke in deep smooth tones, ?If we must defend ourselves from vagabonds in your cities, then we shall. And if we must continue to do so, then we will request that our Emperor rethink our alliance with a crumbling nation such as yours. Leave us.?
By now all of the other Velkens were staring at the soldiers with the same coldness in their eyes. Except their bodies were largely hidden by the darkness, so that all that was visible to the soldiers were those eyes? flashing in the reflective light of the torches?
The Kandarinians backed off, for they knew not to mess with the agents of the Dark Empire?
?My apologies, ambassador. If you need anything, let us know??
With that, the Kandarinians left the way they came. There were much bigger issues on their minds, after all.
Virmir turned to Duilin and then offered a low bow, his tail curling upward into the air as he did so and the swords strapped to his back clanking slightly as their weight shifted.
?Our sincerest thanks, Duilin. Whatever you did for Renard we are most thankful for.?
----
Henri started into the tunnel, the white light glowing from his palm cutting into the darkness before him, though not by much. With a heavy sigh Ven went in after him.
?Come now, Ven. Have you even been in a mysterious underground tunnel that didn?t have something wonderful hidden at the end?? The old man said, chuckling.
Ven brought his gauntlet to his chin.
?Well, I uh??
?Good!?
Blast it. Ven resolved to following his king, though he didn?t quite trust the surroundings. Ven then noticed that his king?s third eye was now visible and open, a dim green light upon his forehead.
?You sense something, don?t you??
Henri nodded, smiling lightly. ?Yes.?
Well, that was a good thing, at least. Although all of Ven?s previous experiences with things ?sensed? turned out to be either gargantuan monsters or bombastic wizards with apocalyptic powers?
----
Jayce stopped. A darkness was about the camp, casting it into an even greater blackness than even the night sky bore upon it. The few remaining lizards that walked about were already on the ground, heads held low as if they were worshiping the dark smoke that was beginning to form in the center. Melface, who was by Jayce?s side, saw this and immediately bowed as well. With clenched teeth, Jayce ran his black gauntlet through his hair.
?Ah, great.?
Jayce fell to his knees as well, though not bowing quite as low as the others. The blackness swirled and congealed, becoming a horned shadow with two burning crimson eyes?
?Father, my Lord. You?re looking pleasant this evening??
Jayce held his head up slightly, his eyes penetrating his thick locks of hair with a smirk on his face.
Retan?s eyes narrowed. Jayce?s head bowed back down quickly.
?Your objective has changed. There is an island nation that I desire. You will obtain it.?
?Oh? And what nation is this??
?Tjed.?
Jayce frowned, looking up once more. ?But that is on the other side of??
?Then you will hurry.?
The shadow vanished without a trace.
Jayce stood up. Blast, that was far away. Although his smirk returned to him when he thought of guaranteed battle.
?Return to the ships. We sail east??
-
Elphos sighed. Staring at the night sky, it seemed to him as if only yesterday he left his burning village...
"Hey, boy, what are you doing there? Counting the stars?"
It was none other than his master and Mentor, the enigmatic Indher, though she called herself Lerfina and he called her Fernis. Whichever name of her was true, he didn't know, nor did he care much.
"No, master, just staring and thinking..." Elphos answered softly, as if not really paying attention to her.
It has been 2 days and a night, not counting this one, since they both set sail from the mainland. Although Elphos wasn't sure what to expect, he knew he could trust his master not to screw up.
All of a sudden, Elphos felt a tingling sensation at his side. He jumped away, cousing the boat to rock and his master to laugh mischivously.
"Fernis! I thought I asked you to stop poking me!" he stated angrily, trying to get back to his original position.
"Ooh, but it is so much FUN!" she said happily, sounding like an innocent little girl who doesn't know any better.
"I can't help myself!"
Elphos always thought Fernis' attitude doesn't fit her. Her strange looks, the black armor she wears, her knowledge of runes... Elphos always thought a more fitting personality for her would be the dark, silent type.
"I'm going to...ugh...get some fresh air." Elphos whipped off some of the dust on his simple, deep-blue shirt and got up, stretching his limbs.
"Well all right, just don't catch a cold..."
His master seemed to already be occupied with some old texts, cousing Elphos only to hurry.
Upon leaving the boat's small cabin, the night sky suddenly seemed clearer, as if it became more real than it was through the roof-window in the cabin. He took a deep breathe and took a moment to enjoy the vast ocean breeze.
Turning his head over to the horizon, he smiled to himself.
Although the trip was strating to get on his nerves, he kind of enjoyed it, not having to look for-
Suddenly, his jaw dropped and his eyes widened.
"Master, you better come out to see this..."
Abandoning her book, Fernis crawled out of the boat's cabin.
"What, did you catch a fi-"
Her eyes then widened as well, but her jaw didn't drop. Instead, she proceeded to smile.
"Land! Well, even if we found the place late, we still found it!"
----
((I HATE COMPUTER ERRORS. At least half the post was saved... BUT I STILL HAVE TO RETYPE PART 2))
-
//Wow, I've had so much time between Chapters that I've been able to write up my first two posts. Here's number one, the second one will come tomorrow.\\
Darkness.
Though a full moon had risen, Alex was still unconscious. The headcrab?s toxins were spreading through his veins like a plague. If Midna did not do something soon, he could very well die.
Though Midna did not know a cure.
Unfortunately, neither did the P.C.S. It had expended all other methods of healing white magic, yet all had failed. He did not move. He did not speak. His breathing and heartbeat were extremely faint. It was as if the poison was not destroying his body, but rather put him into a deep sleep, almost comatose state. As Alex?s spirit had not yet emerged, Midna could not resurrect him. All she could do was wait.
She wiped a glistening, moonlit tear from her eye. Despite her best efforts, the rebel had fallen again, and there was nothing she could do about it. He would have to rise on his own. Unfortunately, he seemed to be in no condition to.
Despite her concern, Midna was sure Alex would pull through. She looked up at the bright moon. She loved the darkness, far more than the daylight. Her people, the Twili, lived in a dimension of perpetual twilight, between light and darkness. However, darkness was more prevalent in Twili affairs. Light had its shining moments, but rarely. Midna hoped the darkness would give her the strength she needed to help Alex in any way she could.
Though the rebel still laid motionless.
What more could he do? He could not move. The tough outer shell of the P.C.S. was all that held him from death. His attitude towards Otis would surely be changed.
Midna sighed in frustration. ?How can I help him?? she asked herself. ?He?s helped me, I need to help him. The question is, how??
Midna remembered very little about what she had heard about Alex before she met him. Her Twili advisors had mentioned a young man who had seen both sides of the war, someone who was once cold and calculating. He was effectively a Spartan, a soldier from ancient mythology bred and trained solely for war. They were emotionless, hard, and relentless. However, Alex had since lost those traits in his leave of the war. Nevertheless, Midna was convinced he was the one her advisors had told her about. She delved into her mind to try to remember more. She remembered the advisors explaining his origins, who his parents were. Though that was many years ago, and those secrets had since been lost to time.
Alex?s mind once again swam in a limitless void. Not feeling his physical form nor his spirit form, there was little he could do to commune with the living?or the dead. All he could do was emit an extremely weak and raspy moan.
Midna turned back towards Alex, who was trying desperately to move his limbs, to let her know he was still there. Unfortunately, his limbs did not comply.
?Alex?? Midna asked, hopefully. ?Can you hear me??
Somehow, Alex found strength.
?Yeah.?
Midna?s one exposed eye suddenly widened. She watched in total astonishment as the ebony metal man found the power to pick his heavy frame up from the ground.
?Urgh?? he moaned, holding his head. ?Care to tell me what happened??
?That poison headcrab?when you took your helmet off, it just leapt at you and bit you?though the poison is usually debilitating. How did you fight it??
?I dunno,? Alex said. ?Is there anything that would cause an immunity to headcrab poison??
?Not that I know of,? she replied. ?Wait, there is one thing. No, no, I must be losing it.?
?What?? Alex asked, curious. ?What is it? Tell me.?
?Well, I remember when I was banished to the Borderworld by Damien. I was attacked by a few poison headcrabs, and I recovered easily. But??
?But WHAT??
?I?m not human.?
?Yeah?? Alex replied. ?I got that much. So what ARE you??
?I?m part of an ancient race called the Twili. We originated from an rather unknown part of the Borderworld, the Twilight. In this realm, the Borderworld and Gaian cross with each other, combining light and darkness, forming a perpetual twilight. In this realm our kind lived and thrived, until??
?Until what??
?The Kandarinians took interest in our natural adeptness in both light and dark magic, and so tried to take us by force. It was many years ago that the Kandie-Twili War began, and it still rages. Since then, I?ve kept a low profile by ruling Asgarnia. Previously they had no reason to come to Asgarnia, until the unprovoked Seven-Hour War. I guess they found me. There were two key Twili. The princess, and the warrior. The princess brought balance to the light and the dark, and the warrior defended the princess. Alex, this is something I?ve hidden from you up to now, and I apologize.?
Alex waited with bated breath.
?Alex. I am the twilight princess.?
Alex thought hard for a moment. ?If you?re the princess, then who?s the warrior??
?I remember being told who it was, but Damien?s curse has fogged my mind. I can?t remember. Though I do remember what would indicate who it was.?
?And what is it??
?The twilight warrior will be revealed when such a man is found who cannot be slain. He has but one weakness, and few know what it is. It is a closely-kept secret.?
?Wait a minute. The halting of the portal storms?the exploding cannon?the confrontation with Damien?the headcrab bite??
?It all makes sense now. Alex, you are the twilight warrior.?
Alex?s breath was sucked from his lungs. ?But?I?m not a Twili?am I??
?This is true, the prophets proclaimed these two beings were at least part Twili. I?m pure Twili, and you?re human. I remember something about your parents??
Alex?s eyes suddenly widened. ?My?parents? Caulus told me??
?He never got the chance to before he died. I?m trying hard to remember, Alex, please bear with me??
Alex was surprisingly patient with waiting for her to recollect the lost knowledge.
?I remember now! It?s clear as crystal! Alex! Your father was Twili. Your mother was human. They since died in the war, and the Twili advisors deemed it best to hide you from the Kandies. So they handed you over to Caulus. They thought it would also be best if you grew up not knowing, until you were ready for the position you would serve??
?So much about my past, so much about my parents?? Alex said quietly, ?I never got to know them. I don?t even know what happened to them.?
?They died in the Kandie-Twili War, apparently. I?m sorry, Alex.?
He heaved a sigh. ?There?s not much to do about that now, is there??
Alex noticed the night sky. Ever since the radiation from the shield spire?s explosion those many months ago faded, the starry sky was all the more amazing. The moon was noticeably brighter though. He felt strange.
He shook his head, trying to clear the odd sensation.
?Something wrong, Alex??
?No?nothing.?
Suddenly, a surge of power coursed through Alex?s veins. Overwhelmed, he stumbled to his knees. As if some invisible catch on the armor had been pulled, the metal plates of the P.C.S. soon shed themselves from his body, revealing the human within. Illuminated in a bluish glow by the moonlight, Alex felt pulsations in his extremities, and he was becoming lightheaded. Within a few seconds, the skin on his arms and legs became dark, his face became pale save around his eyes, which were also dark. Before long green markings began running up and down his limbs and finally ending in a pattern surrounding his left eye. His eyes, which had closed blue, now opened blood red. He now looked very much like Midna, except for his human body. His hair retained its black color, though. When he was finally able to get back up, he saw Midna looking at him in pure awe as a small smile began to form on her lips.
?What?? He said, his voice now having a quick echo behind it.
?Alex! It?s true! You are the twilight warrior.?
?What are you talking about--? He snatched his hands over his mouth, realizing the ethereal nature of his voice, similar to Midna?s. He looked at his arms, dark and covered with the same glowing green marks. His worn leather jacket had since been replaced with a black vest, and his denim pants with dark leggings of some other material. He had been completely transformed, but not of his own will.
?Midna!? he shouted. ?What?s happened to me?! I don?t feel human! What the hell is going on?!?
?Alex, it?s your Twili side. It?s finally come to the surface! Why it hasn?t before is a mystery, but now there?s reason for hope!?
?You?ve completely lost me,? he muttered. ?Enlighten me.?
?The prophecy proclaims the princess will find the warrior on a night such at this, when the moon is at its absolute brightest. The complete absence of daylight triggers the Twili magic residing within the warrior, superseding his human form, but only during the night. Once day breaks, he reverts to his human nature, to become Twili the next night.?
Alex was still shocked in his inhuman appearance. ?So if this is true, so is what you said before, regarding my parents? My God. I had no idea.?
?Alex, I?m afraid I have many things to show you, and those can only be revealed in a travel to the Twilight. First, I must be sure you will want to leave Asgarnia behind for just one night.?
?Sure?but what about the suit??
?No problem, I can hang onto that for you,? Midna replied, her spirits suddenly lifted. She pointed her finger at the limp metal suit, and gave it a jolt with some unknown magic. The suit promptly disappeared. ?I can keep this in a sort of magic storage for you.?
Alex surveyed the terrestrial Asgarnia one last time before turning back to the imp. ?Very well then. Seeing as I won?t be seeing humanity for another twelve or so hours, go right ahead.?
?Good choice. Bear with me, dimensional portals take a lot of power.? She closed her eyes and began chanting in some other language that Alex was suddenly able to understand. As she did, a large portal appeared in the sky, a black vortex with blue outlines running from it.
All Alex could do was stand there as the dimensional rift took form. Once it was fully formed, Midna took Alex?s dark hand, and the two were disassembled into black particles which soon raced through the portal.
On the other side, these particles reassembled themselves into Alex and Midna. As he came into form, he looked around. This section of the Borderworld was different from the main region. There were no swirling vortices, no harmful radiation, no low gravity. The entire landscape, which was one enormous island-asteroid, was shrouded in a vermillion glow, as if the land had experienced a perpetual sunset. Ahead was a large city, or what appeared to be one.
?My God,? Alex whispered. ?It?s?beautiful.?
?And that?s not even the half of it,? Midna exclaimed, definitely excited to once again be home. ?Come on, I?ll show you around.?
-
"General Wilham, are you sure this is a good idea?" Ask a man dressed in white robes.
"Of course I am!" Wilham Wolfe replied. "I'm sure we'll be able to find quite a bit around here."
"But, sir, it's just a moutain. What makes you think there would be any settlement around it?"
"Well look, see how unnaturally placed and shaped it is? I've heard of some strange terra former abilities these imperials have. I have a hunch that this mountain may perhaps be a fortress."
"Uh...very well sir."
--- ---
(This is just a re-post of my last update for Gorus.)
Gorus was surprised by the small being's sudden strength. The sudden burst of strength from the noble half demon pushed the mace right from his hand. The weapon hit the floor and slid across the room, a couple of lizardmen backed away as the weapon neared them, bumping into the wall.
Gorus jumped back, so he was a couple yards away from Zeros'. The weapon was out of his reach, and going to pick it up would leave him open for an attack, luckily he had his grappling blaster. The lizard general took the grappling hook off his belt.
All of the lizard warriors backed up right to the wall or left the room, he was really dangerous with that thing. The head of the hook had four prongs at the end, Gorus held it under the prongs, and lightly pulled the trigger of the blaster, and reeled it out, until there was a good four feet of chain. He let go of the head and then spun the chain around, like a flail.
"Okay, now put up a real fight." Gorus snarled. "I want to start trying now..."
The lizardman then swept the hook over his head and then slid forward towards Zeros' and swung the hook with strong force downwards at his foe...
--- ---
The village had been liberated, and the Minotaur had been able to distract Ace enough for the Aspyes to escape.
The group of rebels had chosen to continue on foot, since Marshall would be unable to summon enough flying creatures to transport everyone, due to his magic energy was a bit low.
"We're almost home guys. Don't worry." Marshall called, leading the group, charring a torch. He then spoke to the fighter next to him. "We should still be really careful. I hear those Dark Dragons are crazy hunters during the night..."
--- ---
Duilin looked at his magic smoking hands, ripe with the tingling after effects of electrocuting the life out of that bounty hunter.
He put too much anger into it and as he finished off his enemy he felt his demonic blood rage rising yet when just when he fell to the ground and stopped, he could feel the balance returning. Before whenever his blood rage rose, his demonic side would become larger then his human. Such as after he fought Valos he nearly started to grow horns and his skin began to turn a bit golden, like Abodahon's, and it wasn't until, well after Abodahon died that it began to clear up. Although he didn't have as much rage and hate put into that as when he battled Valos, or even Draven for that matter. But he's regained balance pretty quickly.
He noticed the group of Velkens had arrived; one of them approached him and spoke. He examined the Velken, he was taller then Renard, but Duilin was still almost a foot taller then the fox-man.
"Oh it was the least I could do." Duilin replied to Virmir. "So, I assume you're part of a group with Renard. May I ask your name?"
//Ophelia will come in later.\\
-
"Kendo Virmir, High General of the Dark Empire, Skyward Division."
Virmir rose from the bow. He then removed a small silver pendant that was hidden inside his cloak and tossed it to the human. It was round like a small coin with a simple profile image of a fox head and some other lines etched into it.
"Should you ever require a favor of our people, show that pendant, and we will be glad to offer our services."
With that he turned and headed back towards the group. By now Renard was back on his feet, supported on each side by another vulpine mage and a knight, and they were all murmuring softly amongst themselves.
----
Henri and Ven began descending stairs cut from stone, each step not quite the same size as the previous. Ven was becoming more nervous, his eyes darting around in the pale light his majesty was proving via his spell.
"Uh, we're sort of leaving Allen behind..."
The old king had a spring in his step and was moving faster and faster, waving his hand.
"Oh, he'll catch up."
At the end of the stairs as a wide open room that the king's light failed to illuminate. The stone floor extended forward, yet there appeared to be a drop off on each side, as if it were a bridge.
----
Three black warships waited silently off the coast, unmoving in the waves... Each gave off a slight crimson glow in contrast to the night, radiating from the torches that lined their decks...
Two were standard war vessels, emblazoned with the four winged dragon insignia of the Dark Empire upon their flags and sides...
The last, though, the last was no mere war vessel indeed. For it was the personal sea faring ship of the Prince of the Dark Empire.
The Jagahn...
It stood there, over twice as large as the others, as if mocking their petty insignificant existence. Its spiky protrusions stabbing towards the stars, challenging all to face it. The twisting skulls and demonic visages, statues and gargoyles, laughing at the weakness of the world. The cannons of all sizes, jutting out and pointed in all directions, waiting impatiently for the chance to kill again...
The ships were already loaded, for their target was no longer the land of Rygar. No, it was Tjed. Small boats went out to sea, returning the lizard men back to their vessels.
Jayce smirked as he watched the sight, standing upon the rock with the waves crashing about, surrounded by his entourage of evil. They did not need to ride the petty boats to reach the ships. No, for they began to levitate, surrounded by auras of hateful blackness. They cackled maniacally as they flew, returning to the Jagahn so they might begin their journey.
Come morning, blood will be spilled...
-
Dark Empire?
Duilin cursed under his breath. Duilin caught the pendent, and clutched it in angry. All this time, he's been helping out a member of the Dark Empire. Now they congratulate him. He felt disgusted. He reminds himself that he used to be part of that empire, but that only makes me feel even more coverer in filth.
How could he have not of figured it out himself. Renard seemed so loyal and bent over for the Dark Empire, only somebody who was a part of it, would be so favourable for them. Duilin bet that even the Kandarin were disgusted by the empire's evil. Retan didn't even try to hide the fact he's evil, he shows it off.
He felt like tackling that animal man, when his back is turned and break the little thing's neck. Why would the Empire want to employ something that small, as a High General? Then again, from Draven he learned not to judge power by age, so likely it wouldn't be to smart to judge by size. He should just lay low.
What also got on his nerves is that they didn't even notice it was him. If it were Zeros' then likely they would have attacked him on sight. Duilin was getting a little tired of living under his shadow. But he'll make his mark.
Duilin gave a sort of half smile to the Velkens. He waved his hand holding the pendent and then walked off. He was sick of this place. There has to be somewhere that wasn't either under the control of the empire, or cooked up on some viking's bullshit...
-
?You think Alex is okay??
?Why wouldn?t he be? He?s hardcore.?
?I dunno, those headcrabs in the Mining District can be deadly. Especially the poisonous ones.?
Two rebels were conversing in the common area of the Rebel HQ as they waited for their scout to return from the mines.
Ilia was looking over a clipboard as she overheard the conversation. She walked over to the two rebels and joined in.
?What?s this about Alex?? she asked.
?Well,? one rebel started, clearly distracted by the woman, ?we, uh, sent a scout out to the mining district to make sure he?s okay?and he hasn?t come back yet.?
?Neither has Alex?? she asked again, this time with a concerned face.
?Well?no.?
?Oh dear, I hope he?s all right??
?Hey, what?s going on?? Dominic Fenix soon found himself in the middle of the group.
?We?re waiting on Alex to come back,? Ilia said.
?Bah, he?ll be fine in the mining district. If he?s survived as much as you say he has, then what reason is there to worry??
?Dom,? one rebel piped up, ?have you heard of poison headcrabs??
?Yeah, I have,? Fenix replied. ?Doesn?t Alex keep one as a pet??
?I don?t know about that, but I?ve heard stories about people who?ve been attacked by them,? the rebel replied, ?and it?s not pretty.?
?Oh?? Fenix said. ?Humor us.?
?The poison is fast-acting and powerful. It basically paralyzes the victim while the headcrab takes control, the victim?s body bloats up into this hunched over, freakish thing, and it basically acts as a carrier for other poison headcrabs, and--?
?Goodness!? Kleiner cried. ?That?s quite enough. See here, Alex will be fine. The day he is defeated by something as trivial as a headcrab is the day we surrender.?
?Besides,? Fenix went on, ?he?s in that tough old armor, and what headhumper can bite through that??
The rebel scout returned from the surface, breathless.
?Lieutenant,? Ilia asked, ?did you find Alex??
?I?m afraid not, ma?am,? the scout said somberly. ?I had a bead on his magic signature, but then it just vanished. From what I?ve ascertained, Alex is no longer in this city, on this continent, planet, or even in this dimension. Though I did see something else. A portal in the sky. A swirling black-and-blue vortex reminiscent of twilight magic. I also found a recently deceased poison headcrab on the location.?
?You don?t think?? Ilia said, worried.
?Nonsense!? Kleiner replied, trying to reassure the gorgeous young woman. ?I?m sure Alex is well out of harm?s way by now, even if he is in another dimension.?
?Lieutenant, do you have any idea where that portal leads?? Fenix asked.
?Sorry, Dominic. I?m not well-versed in twilight magic. Though if I had to take a guess, I would say the Twilight.?
?I?m sorry?? Kleiner said, perplexed.
?The Twilight is a rather unknown region of the Borderworld that slightly overlaps with Gaian. It?s here that an ancient civilization, the Twili, was rumored to live and thrive, and still exist today.?
?So you?re saying a Twili might?ve taken Alex back there?? Ilia asked.
?Strong possibility,? the scout replied. ?Though who do we know that?s Twili??
?Wasn?t the princess of Asgarnia before the war a Twili?? Fenix asked. ?Now what was her name?Midnight? Minda??
?Actually, Midna, Fenix,? the scout corrected him.
?But all intel suggests that she was killed directly after the Seven-Hour War?s conclusion!? Kleiner cried. ?How is she still alive??
?Our current ruler, Damien Roth, had other plans, Izzy.? The scout continued. ?Rather than go through the trouble of killing her outright, he simply cursed her with the form of an imp and was then able to take the throne from her. Perhaps that?s why Alex has been behaving so strangely lately.?
?So this Midna character has enlisted our dear Alex?s help in reclaiming her throne?? asked Ilia.
?As far as we know,? the scout replied. ?Though I see nothing wrong with it. Though there is reason for concern if she took him to the Twilight.?
?Why?? Ilia said, concerned.
?Alex may know more than he?s letting on, he might have business there.?
?Why is that reason for concern??
?Because we need him here! How can we fight without a leader??
?Look at ourselves,? Fenix protested. ?We?ve become so overconfident of Alex?s abilities that we?ve become totally reliant on him! If he?s gone, the Kandies could run roughshod over us. We have to learn to fight for ourselves. Just because one man isn?t here doesn?t mean the whole rebellion can be allowed to fall apart.?
?You mean?? Ilia trailed off.
?That?s right,? Fenix said. ?We have to continue with or without his help. It?s the only way we can get the city back.?
?And what if he comes back?? Ilia said. ?Will he think he abandoned us??
?Nonsense,? Kleiner finally piped up, who was watching the argument up to now. ?Alex has always trusted us! If anything, I?m sure he?s confident we can deal with this ordeal ourselves while he?s off on personal business.?
?If you say so, Isaac?? Ilia said reluctantly.
?Alex? What?s wrong??
?Huh? Oh, nothing. Still getting used to this form is all. It feels weird.?
?You?ll get used to it,? Midna said reassuringly. ?A lot of first-time transformers feel weird being stripped of their humanity. But just look at your new body. Deep-rooted powers are now at your fingertips!?
?Why are we here?? Alex asked. ?We should be back at rebel base.?
?Alex, there?s a lot you need to know about the ongoing conflict between the Twili and the Kandies. If we are to ever stand a chance against them, we need your help. Please.?
Alex ran his blackened hand through his hair. ?Where do we start??
?The city up ahead. There the Twili elders can fill you in.?
As the two approached the city, Alex noticed the landscape was mystifying. Unlike the rest of the Borderworld, the Twilight had a terrestrial landmass, due in part to its overlapping with Gaian. However, day and night were nonexistent in this realm, the world was bathed in a permanent dusk. Gravity here compared to the rest of the Borderworld was significantly higher, being about two-thirds of Gaian. A breathable atmosphere was maintained, and the overlapping with Gaian shrouded the realm from the harmful Borderworld energy.
And then Alex saw it.
The Twilight City. The largest city in the Twilight. It was at least twice Asgarnia?s size. Yet just as beautiful as it was before the Seven-Hour War. Here the Twili lived and thrived, fortunate that the Kandarinian Sovereignty had not found their beloved city yet. However, that did not mean the Twili were not afraid.
As Alex and Midna walked the streets of the city, various onlookers noticed the new man. One stout Twili found his way over to Alex.
?So you?re the one the elders have been preaching about. You?re Alex, aren?t you??
?Um, yeah?? Alex said, a little unsure of himself.
?Oh, happy day!? the portly being cried. ?We have no need to fear those despots, the Kandarinians!?
?Hold up, sir. I?m not even sure why I?m here. I?ve come to see the elders.?
?Well, if that?s the case, you want the Temple of Dusk, up ahead.? The Twili turned Alex?s attention to an enormous building up ahead, dwarfing the Kandarinian Citadel. ?You better get a move on. The elders have been waiting.?
?Waiting?? Alex asked. ?For how long??
?Twenty-eight years.?
Alex and Midna soon found themselves at the base of the Temple of Dusk. Looking up at it Alex was definitely intimidated.
?Alex, I?ve been noticing you?re rather nervous about this.? Midna said, putting her hand on his shoulder.
?Well, if you just found out that you?re supposed to be the savior of an ancient race, declared at birth, wouldn?t you be nervous, too?!?
?Calm down, everything?s going to be okay. I know it. I?ve spoken with the elders before. Trust me, they are welcoming, especially to a man of your status.?
?Great,? Alex mumbled. ?I?ve been here for forty-five minutes and already I have a status. I liked it better when I was taking speargun shots.?
?Now, now, Alex. I?m sure with a little bit of adjusting you?ll grow to like the Twilight. It may not look promising, but I?m sure with your help we can destroy those Kandies once and for all. However, our first target is Damien. The elders know far more of your hidden abilities than you do. Once you can unleash them, Damien doesn?t stand a chance.?
?Anything for you, I guess. I just have one more question.?
?And what would that be??
?What about the rebels? Without me, how will they fare against the Kandies? We?ve got to get back there as soon as possible??
?I understand your concern for your friends, and that we are all fighting a common enemy, but first things first. We must see the elders. Even if we got back there, you would still remain in your Twili form until dawn.?
Alex heaved an echoing sigh. ?Very well then. Lead the way.?
Midna now leading, Alex followed her into the mysterious Temple of Dusk.
-
Renard watched Duillin walk off into the night. The Velken could tell from the winged human's posture that something did not quite sit right. He made a brief movement as if to run after the man, but his comrades restrained him, misinterpreting the jerk as a stumble due to his weakness.
"Easy there, Renard. We're gonna head back to the airship now."
There was a knot welling deep down in his stomach, an emotion he couldn't quite place a claw on. He finally managed to yell out,
"Goodbye... Duilin..."
He was then lifted into the air, and he watched the city disappear into the darkness. Yeah, he knew what that emotion was. The next time they met, it may no longer be on friendly terms...
----
Ven and Henri continued down the stone bridge, or whatever it was. It was too dark to see what lay beyond the drop off on either side. Every so many feet there seemed to be two other smaller bridges that jutted off left and right, though they simply remained on the main one. Henri was totally enraptured, while Ven walked with his teeth clenched, hand upon the blade on his back.
Eventually on the right side, a dark looming outline became visible. Closer and closer they moved, until very faintly a bow, mast, and wings became visible...
"... An... airship...?"
-
Duilin grimaced as he heard Renard's voice. He didn't even turn around; he said nothing and continued walking. He'll remember him; he'll slaughter him and his group of freaks. Cruelty? More like justice. They don't the innocent people any different...
He supposed it would be best to walk alone. The eastern coast wasn't very far from here. Perhaps he should actually go to Helternia. It was the closest place, and it was usually independent. However, he worried that it'd be most likely that the Empire found it as a good seaport, because, well it was. From what he knew, it was right in between Terian and Kandarin. Besides, it'd be best to check up on Rivertown, see what happened to his old house. He hasn't been at his own house for a good year and a half. Most likely his landlord rented it out to somebody else.
--- ---
The sky was dark, but it didn't bother Ophelia. She was allowed to travel with a scouting squad, the group was her, four lizardmen and Captain Rex Vondran. He was golden skinned demon lord. He wore a full suit of black armour with jutting spikes on his shoulder. His hair was short, spikey and black, and he had a pair of medium sized horns on his forehead. They had been assigned to scout the zone around Asgarnia, as they had been suspection with Kandarin and the Asgarnia Rebels...
--- ---
Duilin had exited Asgarnia and continued his venture. He didn't feel like flying, so he jogged. He still had some elixir left over so he should be good. He wasn't tired yet. 18 months of sleep is more then enough to pull and all-nighter. He had too much on his mind to sleep anyway. He was sure Rink and Zeros' were back, but he had no clue where he'd find them. Besides, Zeros' and Rink could probably find him. Even if he was out of aura range, Rink would guess that Duilin would go back to Helternia. He hopped they would, he'd need more then just himself if he wanted to end this dark age...
-
"Wretched quill, at last I found you! I suppose it is true, then. Much of mankind's problems root from the lack of organization. I suppose I'd better write about what happened in the gap, then.
The group did, in fact, make it back safely with the Necronomicon. After being captured off one by one, they confronted the Black Dragon from inside, effectively ridding the world of half of the sect. Their being captive was a part of an exquisite plan, made by me. Through the Elder and Roland's eyes (by now, I had fully mastered the druidic "eyeless sight" technique), I orchestrated the plot until the Necronomicon was safe in their hands. I waited for them to deliver it to me. As I placed the period after that last sentence, I heard the door creak. It was Victo, carrying a burlap bag.
-"My lord."
-"I suppose you have it, then?"
-"But of course."
-"Give it to me!"
Victo bowed, and brought the bag to me. I reached down, and felt the book's leathery surface, studded with metallic clips. I slowly drew the tome out of the bag....
The Necronomicon. At last, in my hands. The deepest Necromantic secrets written in but one book, secrets so dark that they had to be locked away under the protection of an insane homicidal sect... The tome's cover was decorated by the ancient symbol of Necromancy - two crossed skeletal hands, with a skull in between the palms. The symbol was pressed into the surface, and the resulting groove was drenched with blood. I reached to open the book...
...when a guard ran into the throne room.
-"My lord! My lord! The golems! Something's making them crazy! We can't stop them, and they've been overcharged with power! They're on a killing frenzy, destroying everything in sight!"
-"Guard, you're THIS close to sending ME on a killing frenzy. Where are these golems?"
-"They've broken the Qim perimeters... They made their way into Jovil! Here comes one now!!!"
True enough, I felt the stomping of the golem's giant legs. By the magnitude of the steps, I judged my attacker to be an atronach. I heard the booming footsteps race past the palace, the ceiling crumblets falling on my head.
-"Well then... I suppose we'd best take care of it."
I stepped out of the palace doors, and spied the atronach running down the stone street, its shining white axe annihilating the smaller houses on either side of the street. Perhaps this is fate's way of letting me know of my own powers... I will take this one out without it knowing it.
I quickly formed a lightning bolt in my hand powerful enough to blast a small house to bits, and threw it at the atronach. The massive creature stopped, then exploded in a shower of sparks and stone fragments, raining down on Jovil. I blew the remaining smoke off my hands.
-"It would seem as though these golems are overcharged with volatile energy, which accounts for their frenzies... It also explains that explosion... When the bolt struck the golem, it overloaded with energy, and... what's that?"
Just then, I became aware of more thumping, right behind my back. I slowly turned.
Behind me, there was a huge stone golem, about to smash its enormous fist on me. Obviously, thinking fast was imperative, but somehow, I couldn't move... I just stood there, paralyzed, watching the rock falling on my head...
What happened after that was beyond my comprehension. Somehow, I felt my body become lighter than the air itself, and there was some sort of a blueish glow around me. I felt massive shock through my body, as if I had been struck by a powerful lightning bolt, and, moments later, I found myself staring at the golem's hand, stuck in the stone. Within an eyeblink, I managed to move several meters, and I cannot even recall how it happened. Nevertheless, I used the opportunity to climb onto the golem, who was still struggling free from the earth. I aimed another hastily charged bolt at its neck, where charges kept zapping between the head and the body. The head proceeded to fly off, with me on it. We both landed safely next to the guard.
-"Where's the rest of them?"
-
//Arg! Where is Zeros'? I could have knocked him out twice by now.\\
"Yep, that's defiantly a fortress." Wilham said with a grin. "So, you cowards ready to see if we can get inside?"
"Sir, are you sure that's wise?" One of the mages asked.
"Hmm...Guess not." Wilhman muttered.
"Thank you sir."
"No, by 'guess not' I was referring to that you're not ready to go inside."
"Well, sir." The other mage spoke. "the Elders said that the forces here are hostile. They could attack us on sight."
"Listen, we were sent here to find out who the force is, why they are here and how much power they have." Wilham snapped back. "Now, if you guys are too damn chicken to come with me and see why there is a mountain fortress here, then go back home."
The two mages looked at each other.
"Oh and by the way." Wilham added. "As Grand General, I'd reject any promotion requests for you too." He then turned around and looked at the two. "So in other words, get off your lazy asses and follow!"
--- ---
A Dark Dragon flew across the sky, over Ophelia and Rex's group and then off into the distance. Only the shape of the flying lizard could be made out in the night sky...
Rex had some great eyesight. His home world Thanatos was also literately really dark, so nighttimes on Gaian seemed just as clear as day. The demon scanned the area, mostly around Asgarnia, he then noticed somebody exited the city. It appeared to be a human with wings. Which was odd, because he knew for a fact that humans didn't have wings, however half humans did. Judgeing by how the wings looked, he could come to the conclusion that it was half demon.
"Ophelia, do you see that?" Rex said, pointing in the direction of the stranger.
"No..." Ophelia said softly back.
"It's a human and demon crossbreed, from the looks of it. Or...maybe it could be one of those mutants that Vandrin guy has."
"Maybe..."
"Well, we're going to check it out."
-
The lulling hum of the airship all around him was comforting, but Renard couldn't sleep.
He was told to stay in bed, but he couldn't do that either, so he just sat at the table provided in his private dorm, watching the lone candle burn up it's wick. At least the furniture here was properly made, as the chair had an opening for him to slip his tail through.
There was a knock at his door.
"Come in."
Helix, his fellow Battle Mage, poked his head in, those long strands of silver fur sticking out of the top of hid head reflecting the candle light.
"... You okay, Renard?"
"... Yeah, just tired..."
"Too tired to sleep?" The taller silver fox shut the door quietly behind him, chuckling slightly. Renard didn't make any effort to smile. "You sure about that? I mean, the mental energies you're throwing out are enough to keep me up next door," Helix said as he slipped into the chair opposite Renard.
Renard's eyes widened slightly. "Oh, sorry..."
"No prob. You need to talk about something...?"
Renard just shrugged, folding his arms and looking away.
"No."
Helix leaned back and waited a moment before talking again. "One of those wraith things delivered a message to Lord Virmir just a little while ago... I think we might have another mission."
Renard looked up as his friend finally. "Any idea what?"
"No, Virmir didn't say."
Another silence. Helix's eyes turned to the sheet of parchment face down on the table.
"Hey, what's this?"
Renard's pointed ears shot up. "Uh, nothing..."
Helix grabbed the paper before Renard could and turned it over. He pursed his lips as he studied the image there. It was a charcoal sketch of some odd buildings, definitely not of Velken design. Renard lowered his eyes again. Helix finally recognized the architecture. It was Asgarnia. But not Asgarnia as it was now. The city in the picture was not run down, its buildings not crumbling, and no litter in the streets. It was a nice piece of work, though a little rough around the edges and only halfway done.
"You're really getting good at this, Renard."
"... Thanks."
Another silence. Helix replaced the parchment back on the table, though face up this time. Renard shifted his weight, running his right claw over the freshly changed bandages upon his left arm.
"Hey, Helix..."
"Yeah?"
"Do you ever get the feeling..."
Helix leaned closer, his ears angling towards his comrade. Renard paused, lowering his eyes again.
"... that... maybe... maybe we're not doing the right thing...?
----
Henri moved closer to the ship, holding his light as high as possible so that he could see better.
"This insignia..."
It was a four winged dragon painted on the side...
"The Dark Empire?" Ven ventured.
"No, look, this is a solid red. This is the insignia Draven used for his Crimson Empire."
"Hmm, don't you think they would have changed it back?"
Henri looked around.
"We are near where the once mighty fortress of Bandervil stood. As far as I know, it was completely destroyed, though I imagine it could very well have had underground bunkers. Perhaps this is a dock they simply had forgotten about?"
"Or one the Crimson Empire built, so the Dark Empire doesn't know about..." Ven smiled, pleased at his reasoning.
"Indeed."
-
Zeros' grimaced and quickly stepped to the side, watching the weapon slam into the ground beside him. Before Gorus had a chance to retaliate, Zeros' grabbed the chain and started to pull it towards himself, with surprising strength. His hands were cut, blood dripping out from the sharp wounds the mace inflicted.
---
Allen frowned and wiped his forehead. He silenty followed behind the two from Tjed. He was still recovering his energy.
"What do you sense, Henri?" he murmured, low. He wasn't sure what was down this tunnel.
-
Duilin spotted the strange group of scouts coming towards him. He could see the hulking mass of the lizard warriors and he could see two human shapes with them. He assumed they were with the Dark Empire. He could make out a few faces from the light of a torch one of the lizard men was holding.
"What do you want?" Duilin asked. He wasn't in the mood to give an appropriate greeting.
"What are you doing traveling around after hours?" Said the deep voice of what appeared to be a demon. He stepped towards Duilin. "You're lucky we found you before the dragons did, now what are you doing outside city limits? Lone travel is not permitted for commoners. I suggest you go back into Asgarnia."
"I'll go wherever I want to. I'm not afraid." Duilin sneered back.
"I don't like your tone. What's your name?"
"Who's asking?"
The demon glared at Duilin but he decided to play along. "Captain Rex Vondran, of the Dark Empire. Now tell me your name."
"Duilin."
"Duilin...Talonscar?" Ask a strange masked woman, in jester-like clothing.
"Uhh yeah. How'd you know?" Duilin replied back to the woman.
"I don't know...But you seem familiar...sort of...My name is Ophelia...just Ophelia."
Rex looked oddly at Ophelia and Duilin. "Have you two met before?"
"No. I'd probably remember somebody like her." Duilin said. "Anyways. Can I just go now? I can take care of myself."
"I cannot allow you go. There have been too many rebels out and about. And I've got a feeling you're one of them."
"Rex...do you have to do this?" Ophelia sighed. "...I'm sure this man is of no harm?"
"Well...he looks human. And he doesn't have anything or anyone that proves that he authorized to go about free."
"Uhh..." Duilin extracted the pendent from his pocket. "I uh...have this..."
"What meaning does this have?" Rex asked, sounding irritated.
"The Skyward High General gave it to me, Virmir."
"That..." Rex looked closer at the pendent. "That means nothing to me. I only take orders from the generals under Jayce's division, and Jayce and Retan themselves!"
Duilin pocketed the pendent. "Well, that's all I have. I'm sure Vimir wouldn't be too happy to see a hero of the nation get attacked by you."
"I don't care about Vimir. All I see is a human rebel who is likely plotting a rebellion on one of our fortresses!"
"Well, what I see is some stupid moron looking just looking for a fight. Can't say I blame you, a good fight is hard to come across these days."
"Well, that sounds like an invitation!" Rex smiled and then drew his sword. The demon growled and swung his blade at the half human, which parried back avoiding the swing.
"Rex! You don't need to do this!" Ophelia yelled. The two lizard men pushed the woman aside and drew their large blades, and stomped towards Duilin to join the fight...
---- ----
//Ah, there you are Zeros'!\\
Gorus snorted. "Don't even!" He snarled. He then clicked the trigger of the blaster again and the chain began to whirl back with great force, either slipping free from Zeros' pull or dragging him closer.
(If the later was successful he'd attempt to grab Zeros' with his free hand, lift him up and throw him...)
-
The right thing? Helix's ears shot straight up.
"What do you mean?"
By contrast, Renard's fell back tightly against his head, his tail curling around his legs as he touched his fingers together nervously.
"Well... I... uh..."
"By preserving our people?" Helix's voice fell to a whisper as he leaned over the table. "You know what will happen to our families if you talk like that..."
Renard nodded slightly. Helix leaned back. He didn't mean to scare his friend like that. After all, he was the one who asked Renard what was wrong.
"I'm sorry..."
Renard could only look at the ground. Helix continued after a moment.
"Without the Dark Emperor we wouldn't exist. The raging flame would have consumed our parents decades ago, and Welkin would have been no more. It is Retan's darkness that saved us... We are eternally indebted to him. We belong to him... We don't need to make such judgments on our own... We're creatures of darkness now..."
Renard only nodded dumbly at the words that have been drilled into his mind since his youth.
----
Henri turned around to Allen.
"I sensed this airship standing here before us, probably it's magical core. Do you think it still runs?"
"Ven's eyes widened."
"You can't be serious. I mean, how can we even get it out. We're underground!"
"Pah, let's take a look."
Henri lead the way right up to a ramp leading to an open door, holding the light up so that all could see their way, though just barely. It was not a huge warship, but rather a smaller transport vessel. A fast one, judging by the sleek design. The whole thing was probably 70 feet long or so. They would be able to get back to Tjed fairly quickly in this, Henri surmised.
The inside was pitch black, save for Henri's light, which illuminated the halls a bit.
"Any ideas?"
"I would assume we have to activate its core or something."
-
Rex gave a rapid series of swings and slashes towards Duilin, but the half demon was too quick for the slow demon. Duilin then swung his palm forward and blasted a fireball at Rex, pushing him back.
"Hah! Hah!" Rex laughed as Duilin's flame struck him. "You call that pain?"
"No." Duilin replied. "It was more of an insult. Where the heck did you learn to fight? You're terrible with the sword."
Rex growled. He then pointed at Duilin. "Kill him!"
The two lizard warriors dashed towards. One slashed down his sword at Duilin, who jumped backwards. The sword was stuck in the ground; Duilin then jumped up and kicked the lizard under the jaw. The creature dropped its blade and clutched its strained jaw.
The other lizard warrior swung its sword at Duilin. The half demon back flipped away and landed next to wear the first lizard dropped its sword. He picked up the weapon just in time to block a second swing coming at him. Duilin pushed back the sword, surprising the lizard with his demonic strength. Duilin then enflamed the blade with his fire magic and then flurried his sword at lizard, delivering several strikes. The warrior was able to block the first few, but was struck along the upper torso, then across the face, and a final stab in the chest finished him off, the burning corpse then fell to the ground. The jaw strained lizard then recovered and dived at Duilin grabbing him by the shirt, and then tossed him a couple of yards.
Duilin tumbled on the ground, landing back up. He dropped the enchanted sword and the flame extinguished as it hit the ground. The lizard then dashed towards Duilin, and then brought up it's foot right above the half demon's head ready to stomp on it. Duilin then rolled over and grabbed the lizard foot and pushed him back. The lizard lost balance and fell to the ground like a tree. Duilin picked up the sword, and twirled it around just before stabbing it down on the lizard man's chest.
Rex laughed. "Well, I guess you're not just a commoner then, you're probably even comparable to those rebel leaders the emperor got rid of a year ago."
"Oh I'm more comparable then you know." Duilin hissed back.
"Ophelia, Help me with this tough guy! That's an order!"
Ophelia tilted her head. "As you wish, Captain..." Ophelia then lifted off a large maul from her back. The weapon was about six feet, bigger then her. It was interesting that she was able to use it. The mysterious woman then held her maul forward and her and her weapon glowed in a white aura. She then jumped up several feet in the air and flew above the two demons and landed before of Duilin, smashing her maul right in front of him...
-
Renard spoke after looking at the ground for a while.
"It's just that... these humans... they're kinda like us..."
Helix folded his arms.
"Renard, they're just animals..."
"But they have culture... and society..."
"So did the Rrathians. And the Urkans."
"..."
"If this is about that human that saved you, I'm sure Lord Virmir can offer him asylum."
"... But we're still killing his people..."
Helix sighed. "The Dark Emperor decreed that humans are inferior, below the Lizard Men even. His order is absolute. We simply cannot coexist."
----
"I'll take a look at the core. Ven, see if you can find the bridge or something."
Another orb of light appeared in Henri's hand and he offered it to the knight.
"But, my lord! I don't think that's a good--"
Henri was already down the hall, waving his hand behind him.
"It's fine. Nothing else alive is on this ship. Go on, now."
Ven sighed and turned around. He could be so stubborn some times... Using Henri's light, he wandered the halls for a bit until he came to a larger room with windows on all sides except the back wall. There was a nautical type wooden steering wheel in the front center and odd navigational instruments, levers and such on all sides.
-
At last, the two reached the shores of the forest-covered land.
"Fernis, are you sure we have enough supplies?" Elphos asked as he carried a light bag out of the cabin "We DID arrive late..."
In the meantime, Fernis appeared to be running around from side to side, trying to figure out the land.
"Nonsense, Elphos! We can actualy COOK here! We can always hunt or forage if we run out!"
Sighing, Elphos proceeded to leave the boat with the small bag of supplies on his back.
He was wondering what their next course of action would be, when suddenly the large grin of his master appeared before him.
"Eeeeak!" Elphos almost dropped the bag "Fernis, don't sneak up on me like that!"
His master giggled as mischivously as ever.
"Theres a peninsula nearby. We should be able to accomplish everything there..."
She then began walking in a hurry, not hiding her enthusiasm.
Elphos hurried after her.
Walking through the woods, Elphos decided it would be a good time to bring up an old question.
-"Hey, Fernis, will you tell me already why you wanted to come to this...place? What are you planning on?"
-"Oh, you'll see. Let's just say it involves the circle of recall with a built-in spirit sign...And a flesh rebuilding rune, I guess."
-"Wait, won't using a circle of recall with the spirit sign couse you to summon a ghost or something?"
-"Well, yeah, I guess."
-"Why would you want to do that!? And why here, of all places?!"
-"Were you listening? A flesh rebuilding rune is also involved!"
-"Are you trying to create a flesh golem??"
-"No, I'm going to use the flesh rebuilding rune INSIDE the circle, understand?"
-"What!? But won't that couse the ghost to become whatever it believes it should look like??"
-"Exactly!"
-"But isn't that dangerous!? What if we end up not having enough materials around for the flesh rebuild, and an undead dragon missing half it's torso attacks us!?"
-"I doubt that would happen! Rather, think of the possibilities! A person who has undergone a journey to death and has no remains in this world, a person who has experienced eternal rest first hand-"
-"Bbbbut that's necromancy! NECROMANCY!"
-"Will you let me finish? A person like that, suddenly reappears...Given new life and a youthful body. Might he not return with some sort of amazing powers gained in the afterlife??"
-"But Fernis..."
Elphos' expression turned grim. It was obvious to him what Fernis wants-
To be the first to discover an amazing new source of power and be the only one to control it.
-
Duilin was shaken a bit by the shockwave from the maul smashing so close towards him. Duilin then arched his left hand forward, pointing his fingers. He shot a bolt of lightning at Ophelia pushing her back and forcing her to let go of the maul. Duilin jumped on the sledge of the giant weapon and then jumped up and jump kicked Ophelia, pinning her to the ground.
Rex then dashed forward with his sword and slashed it forward at Duilin, who grabbed his sword with both hands and arched it to the side blocking the oncoming blade. Duilin then pushed Rex's weapon back and spun around to his opponent?s side and swung the blade and stuck Rex's back.
The demon then tumbled forward, but was able to keep him off the ground. He then turned to face Duilin, just in time to see himself kicked in the chest and hit the ground.
Ophelia got back up and then took out a strange deck of cards. The box opened and she tosses several cards at Duilin, the cards had a strange dark glow.
Duilin blocked a few cards with the blade but was struck across the cheek and leg by two of them. "That hurt a bit..." Duilin mumbled. He then dashed towards Ophelia, jumped in the air, performing a front flip and smashed the blade downwards upon Ophelia. The woman however blurred back a few feet, and then around Duilin, until he was at the man's back and swung a speedy kick at his back, pushing him forward. Duilin assumed she must be using some type of speed spell. She was clearly a user of white and or black magic.
Suddenly, Rex had shot forth a blast demon flame at Duilin, striking him at the side. Duilin yelped in pain as the flame hit him. Ophelia then jumped over to her maul and picked up the giant weapon and swung it at Duilin, who jumped backwards and out of the way. Duilin then flapped his wings to gain some height. He then charged up an orb of lightning energy in his left hand and began crafting the energy into an orb. He then focused on the electric current of the lightning orb and then threw the orb at Ophelia. The stun orb was a direct hit, and the woman was motionless...
Duilin then landed on the ground, and twirled his sword. Rex readied his blade; he was ready for a final strike.
"I'll admit something kid." Rex said. "You fight well for a half human. Perhaps you'd like to end this fight and join us in the Dark Empire?"
"Pah!" Duilin spat. "I've been there, done that. Worst years of my life! You imperials make me sick to my stomach."
"You shouldn't back down, half-breed!" Rex said, pointing at him. "You have any idea, how powerful our emperor is? No matter how hard you try to fight us, you will be killed eventually."
"I'd rather die then go back to empire anyway." Duilin sneered. "Everyone in the Dark Empire deserves to die painfully."
"Well, we will just have to find out your fate now, half-breed!"
The two demons charged their demonic energy into the blade. Rex's was a blood red, wile Duilin's was a golden yellow. The two then dashed closer towards each other. As they were six years away from each other then jumped in the air, Rex made a vertical swing as Duilin came near, but Duilin spun himself, avoiding the blade and delivering a mighty swing of his sword right across Rex's waist.
Just as the two demons landed on the ground. Rex's upper half fell off and plopped to the ground, his lower half followed...
-
Upon reaching a clearing, Fernis stopped.
"Alright, this is a good place." Fernis said seriously and bent down, putting her left hand's palm on the soft dirt. "We have a clearing on a peninsula... Which means easier flows of magical energies... Don't you feel excellent here, Elphos?"
Elphos did not reply. Instead, he put down the bag and began observing the nearby trees.
For a few moments, the only noise was the rustling of leaves.
"Fernis" Elphos spoke suddenly "You want that power for yourself don't you?
That's why you came here, the place where there is nobody to notice or stop you..."
He turned to her, his tone getting darker.
"That is it, isn't it?"
Fernis giggled.
"Oh, silly boy, you really think I'd be satisfied by that?" she said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world "No, that's not it at all..."
"Then how do you explain our condition?!" Elphos shot at her angrily.
"Calm yourself, boy. You will see...Trust me, not I'm doing something that will be an amazingly awesome thing, but I'll be doing the world a favor, too!"
Fernis winked at him and grabbed a nearby stick.
She turned to face the dirt, still on her knees, and suddenly frowned and sighed.
"That's is, IF it works..."
Quickly returning to her enthusiastic mood, Fernis began to feverishly work on drawing runes in the dirt. Elphos watched her draw a large circle of recall, estimating it to have a 10 meter radius at least.
Taking a deep breathe as to not get angry of suspicion again, Elphos took a step towards his master.
"Umm, Fernis, why the hell are you making it so big? What are you planning to summon here, a kracken?"
The face of the usualy cheerful Fernis was completly serious now.
"Do not underestimate the dead. The cricle is big so I could channel more power into it...Who knows how much power will one require to summon anything from a distance greater than gaian itself, maybe even a thousand fold greater...?"
That which Fernis and Elphos called "Circle of Recall" was in fact two circles, one inside the other, with various simple runes between them. As Fernis finished it, she added a few other runes around it, apperantly ones that direct the circle's power. However, Fernis was yet to draw the runes inside the inner circle, the ones which will only activate once the circle itself complete's it's function...
-
Renard didn't reply, but rather ran his claws over a crack in the table for a while. The candle was nearly burnt out.
"Hey, Helix..."
"Yeah?"
"You ever wonder... what the sun looked like? On Welkin, I mean..."
Helix was silent, just staring at the flicking flame of the candle thoughtfully. Renard finally spoke.
"It's so nice here... the places we didn't conqueror yet, without the black clouds... The sky is so blue and the sun so warm..."
Helix waited a moment before speaking.
"Yeah, I guess."
There was another silence before Helix stood up, making his way to the door.
"Good night, Renard."
"Good night."
----
As Ven studied the odd controls of the room, he suddenly felt a rumbling from deep withing the bowels of the ship. Suddenly the deep black cracks along the walls filled with a golden yellow light, and the airship sprung to life. Ven could hear his majesty cry out from far down the halls.
"I got it!"
Ven smiled to himself. Though Henri was old, he was constantly trying to learn new things. Magic had been his focus for the past several years, and it was starting to show. Ven certainly wouldn't have had any idea how to activate the core at least.
Henri triumphantly entered the control room.
"Now we just have to figure out how to get it off the ground."
-
Zeros' quickly let go of the chain, reaching down and wiping his bloodied hands on his coat. He reached inside of his pockets and took out a few bandages, wrapping his hands tight and quick. The bandages were immediately stained red from blood, but, no more blood dripped from the wounds.
He turned and looked at the device Gorus had and tilted his head.
"Hmm... Interesting weapon you got there..." he said, but he could see a weakness. The large, heavy weapon took time to be effective, which meant, if he got inside of Gorus' defenses, he wouldn't have time to swing the massive flail-like weapon around.
He bobbed his feet for a moment before dashing forwards, ghosting. He reappeared behind Gorus in seconds, his palm raise, with a ball of ki in it. He wasted no time, rearing back his hand and slamming it forwards, hoping he could at least hit or damage the massive lizard.
He had a feeling this would be an endurance fight...
---
Allen nodded and stepped forwards, titling his glasses and frowning.
"Yes... The only way we can get this airship turned in is if we activate it's core. If it's a magical core, we could jump start it - us three - with magic and alchemy," he said, gesturing to the sleek ship.
"Do you want to venture a try?"
-
Gorus was pushed forward as the ki energy was slammed into his back. He nearly fell to the ground but managed to keep his balance. He then saw that Zeros' figured out that he should be close, in order to avoid his chain. Perfect.
The mighty lizard then spun himself around, wile swinging a speedy kick towards Zeros' face. The force of the swing, plus the steel toes would be enough to at least knock him to the ground...
----
The A-Class lizard had the imp locked up in metal box, with only a few air holes in the lower floor of Lizaberg. He was carrying the box to be locked in a small room used to store random bits of junk, Gorus collects.
"So, who are you, exactly?" Rink asked.
"Sshhut up." The lizard hissed.
"Aw, come on. What's your name?"
"General Sssobra."
"How many S's is that? It's hard to tell with your 'accent'." Rink laughed.
General Ssobra tossed the metal box in the small room and locked the door.
-
(Zeros', I was implying that Henri activated the core himself in my last post. Although we can assume your post happened just before and Allen helped out. Heh... We need to move on to more exciting stuff, anyway!)
Ven turned around to see Henri and Allen entering the bridge of the ship.
"We've activated the core. Now all we need to do is figure out how to fly it."
Ven placed a gauntlet on his head.
"Uh, that still doesn't solve the problem of..."
Henri was already at the nautical steering wheel. After a moment of observing he finally pushed a lever forward. The hum from deep within the ship intensified, and the vibration grew slightly.
"Allen, if you would be so kind as to man the navigational instruments."
Ven walked up behind his liege. The two older men seemed to have it together, so he didn't want to get in the way. He didn't have any idea what was going on, after all.
Henri pushed another lever forward slightly and turned the wheel. Ven was suddenly thrown off his feet with a large crash. The ship had slammed into the side of the stone port. With much clanking of his metal armor, Ven struggled to stand up again.
"Ughhhh..."
"Oh, yeah. You might want to hold on to something..."
"..."
Henri finally managed to move the transport vessel back out of the port. The ride was smooth from then on, but they were still flying underground in a tunnel. The yellow light emerging from the cracks around the black airship illuminated the stone walls on either side outside the many windows of the bridge.
"As I was saying, that still doesn't change the fact that we're underground..." Ven said as he rested a gauntlet on his hip, the other firmly holding on to a handle of course.
-
((Throwing my guy somewhere so it doesn't look like I'm uninterested in participating. =D ))
Tosoto let out a sigh, things always seemed to take a turn for the worse. Lost in some forest, alone, nothing to build a fire with. Where the hell was he anyway?
He leaned back against a tree, laying his large sword on his lap.
"Guess I have no choice but to keep moving and find a town or city somewhere. " He stated as he relaxed his eyes and shoulders.
"I sure wish something exciting would happen...Get's awfully quiet by myself...." He whispered as he began to doze off.
-
For quite a while, Elphos silently watched Fernis draw and draw.
"Hey, Fernis" he suddenly bent down "What's that othere circle you are making? You didn't mention that..."
Fernis sighed.
"Hey, boy, get over here." she pulled him by his shirt "Can't you tell what this one does?"
"Yes, but..."
"And this one?"
"Of course! B-but..."
"And those two?"
"Yes yes b...Hey!"
"Now you see?"
"Y-yes, but won't it just delay the the activation time between the outer circle and the rune?"
"Only if the summoned instinctivly rejects the core, thus giving us a chance to exchange a few words and convince him otherwise."
Elphos nodded and Fernis let go of his shirt, putting the finishing touches on the core rune.
"Hey, Elphos...Gimmie the ingridients..."
Elphos pulled out of the small supply bag and even smaller bag, about the size of a fist, and handed it to Fernis.
"Fernis, if you use what's in the dirt here and this bag alone, you can create 20 human bodies." Elphos stated curiously "Why do you need so much?"
Getting up and brushing the remains of dirt of her pants, Fernis turned back to Elphos and gave him her usual devilish smile.
"Do you really think my goal is the discovery of powers gained over time in the real of death?"
She gave him a slight snicker and continued to give further hints.
"You see, that is why we came HERE, of all places. And yet, we only specificly know of two people, one of which is a king. And I don't want to bring back the king. You know I don't like kings...But, do you realise what will happen once the one I bring back tells us of the people he knew, and then those people will tell us of the people they knew...? 20 people is enough to help us gather more ingridients, you know..."
She pasued, and drew closer to him.
"My aim is the complete ressurection of the land, a founding of a base where no one expects it... And with prowess great enough to change the very course of history!"
It seemed as if a flame appeared in her very eyes as she spoke out those words...
Elphos was speechless. He didn't know if what she just said was morally fine or not.
A pause.
"I'm with you." Elphos finaly said.
"I'm glad." Fernis replied and her smile simplified "Now whip off that doomsday expression off your face."
Fernis turned back to the circle and bent down again, placing both of her palms a few inches outside it.
"Elphos, when you are ready, place the ingridients in the circle."
Fernis' words were silent. Right now, her eyes were focused on the runes before her, and her expression was dead serious.
"Fernis," Elphos' voice wasn't too loud, either "Are you sure about this? If you fail, you might harm yourself...And even if you do succeed, it might not go as planned...You might have some sort of necromantic demigod standing before you, or even a rampaging headless wyvern. Messing with the world of death is not something to be taken lightly..."
Fernis did not respond, nor did she move.
Sighing, Elphos took the small ingridient bag and spilled what seemed to be a handful of dust into the circle, backing away from it as soon as he finished.
As soon as Fernis decided Elphos was far enough, the outer circle lit up in a shade of bright violet.
"Come..." Fernis started chanting, as she began reffering to an exact person within her mind, transfering it to the circle...
"Come...Return to your once scroched homeland, Romme! Return, help your nation return to it's rightful place on gaian... Help us save this world from the shadows of old looming overhead... Come, come before me, ye mighty knight...
Iduran!"
The inner circle flashed blood red.
((Alright Xorlak, I'm leaving the outcome to you.))
((Oh, and another thing. I felt like it, so I made a drawing of what the circle she drew looks like))
(http://http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/587/circleofmelnicsrq9.gif)
-
Wilham and his two mages came up towards the main gate of Lizaberg. The fortress was surrounded by dark black stone walls with pikes all over the top, almost half of them with human heads jabbed onto the top of them. The walls were coated in large long tiles with a design of a large burly bi-pedal semi-humanoid lizard. The gates was a thick grids of rusted black steel, which would prove to be difficult for somebody wearing any foot wear to climb, because of how tight the grid was, and painful for somebody without footwear to climb because of the sharpness of the bars...
"I don't like this place." One of the mages shivered.
"Yeah, maybe we should get out of here." The other one added.
"Oh, lighten up. I've seen scarier places." Wilham groaned.
"I'd be surprised if Thantos would be as scary as this place!"
"Shut up." Wilham ordered. He then walked towards the gates and knocked on the steel grid with his gauntlet. "Hello?"
A massive lizardman standing at nine feet tall stomped towards the gate. He had several piercing on his face. He then glared at Wilham. "I'll give ya ten seconds ta explain why you're here human. But if I were you I'd use that time to run." He said in a deep voice.
"My, my. Looks like you people aren't ones for warm welcomes." Wilham chuckled. "The name's Wilham Wolfe. Might I come in? We've been traveling the land for a good day. I've got a few questions to ask you?"
"Ya tryin' ta be wise with me human?!"
"Wise, yes. With you? Well that'd hardly be a challenge, but I assure you I'm not intending to offend you on purpose. I'd simply like to ask your leading officer some questions. You see--"
"No humans allowed! Not even those under protection of the Dark Empire are permitted to be allowed in Lizaberg. By orders of High General Van'deln. Now leave before we kill sick the dragon-hounds on you!"
"I think we better do what he says General." One of the mages shrieked.
"Your lack of bravery will be the death of you one day. I know it." Wilham stated.
The lizard growled. "One..."
"Sir, with all due respect, I think it would be a HIGHLY wise move if we got the HELL out of here."
"Two..."
Wilham rolled his eyes. "Fine, you two leave. I'll stay. I'll meet you back at the dock.
"Three!"
"Thank you sir." The mages said.
Suddenly a group of four dog-like lizards jumped over the walls. They stood in front of the two mages that were about to leave. The mages yelled in terror, just before they were tackled and ripped to shreds.
Wilham turned around just in time to see his comrades die. He then assumed a fighter's pose. One of the lizards ran up towards him, as soon as he was foot away from him, Wilham arched back his fist and then slammed it down on the dragon dog's nose and then uppercut with his other fist right under the beast's jaw, knocking it out cold...
"Who's next!?" Wilham taunted.
--- ---
Ophelia was then released from her paralysis and then placed her hands on her hips and breathed deeply.
"You okay?" Duilin asked.
"What do you care? Go on, finish me."
Duilin considered it, but chose not too. "No. I can't. You didn't want to fight me. So, Ophelia is it. Why are you with the Dark Empire?"
"Don't even."
"What?"
She then stood up and shook her fist. "This has happened a couple times before. My squad gets killed, yet I'm left to live. Only because of my gender. Then they start talking to me, trying to redeem me. Can't they see that I'm comfertable with my alliance. The Dark Empire is the authority of Gaian, to resist them is asking for death."
"You said this has happened before? How did it turn out?"
"I just get left. Too weak to chase them. One time, I actually did, killed them too. Jayce was proud. He still won't promote me." She then stepped closer to Duilin. "I suppose if I could kill somebody as strong as you, and bring back your dead body I'd get a promotion."
"You'd be kidding yourself. I'm seriously, a really powerful person."
"But you're part...human. That'd weaken your power."
"Imperial propaganda." Duilin spat. "I don't know why the Dark Empire doesn't like humans, we're clearly more intelligent." He sized Ophelia. "You know, who are you to talk. You look human. Unless you're a...draken?"
"I don't know. A few of general have had some arguments against me being a human. Nobody is too sure."
"I think you are. Your aura feels like it. Then again, I've never been to good at this. So, uh, what's with the get up and the mask? Were you like, burned or something."
"No...it's a long story." Ophelia said. "I don't wish to talk to you anymore. But I will remember you, Duilin." Ophelia then stepped back. "You won't chase me will you?"
"No, just leave. But wait, one question before you go."
"What?"
"You said, there was something familiar. Are you sure we've never met before?"
"I...I..I don't know. Now leave me be." Ophelia turned around and began running at rapid speed, she quickly disappeared in the distance.
Duilin didn't know why she spared him. She was with the Dark Empire, and normally he'd kill somebody like that. He could have. Maybe Ophelia is right, people, like Duilin, avoided killing women.
-
(Dude! Send me a PM or something before you do crazy stuff like that! Heh...)
A darkness formed about the center of the blinding violet hue, a darkness so great that it was impossible to see through. Slowly the shadow formed, growing in size until it took a humanoid shape as it rose from the ground. The runes' radiance shifted to a crimson glow, burning as the figure took on color. A tall figure with peppered hair, gray armor, and a cloak of cerulean. By now the runes had become a blinding white, the fury of their glow piercing the dark skies above. Then with a sudden snap and a shockwave strong enough to sway distant trees, the light vanished and the figure was thrown upon the ground, the very runes erased from the dirt.
The old knight staggered to his feet slowly, his eyes darting about him in the most confused of manners. Then they spread open wide in horror, and he thrust a gauntleted hand out before him as if to shoo away some impending danger...
"No... NOOOOO!!!!!"
He was not looking at the brown furred cat-like woman nor her assistant, but past them rather, for his gaze was locked upon some invisible horror that lied in the distance.
"NOO!!! GET AWAY!!!!!"
He tried to run, but only succeeded in stumbling upon the ground, crashing upon the dirt with a metallic clang. Even then he tried to crawl, but did not get far before proceeding to clasp his head within both hands and scream violently. He fell completely down again, his body twitching and spasming for a while before he lied still.
Then, after it all seemed to be over... he moved...
But it was not in a natural sort of way...
"Heh heh heh..."
First his knees straightened so that his feet were firmly planted upon the ground. Then his upper legs and waist followed, the rest of his body bent backwards. By the time his was fully standing, he was laughing maniacally, a crimson glow in his eyes and his hair standing up in spikes.
"HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!"
Clenching his fists, an aura of blackness darker than the night engulfed him, blasting away the dust upon his heels with a violent gust of wind...
-
//Yay big long post! =D\\
As the enormous Temple of Dusk loomed ahead, all Alex could do was remain silent in complete awe. Not even the Kandarinian Citadels were this massive. The temple could best be described as a sort of combination between a cathedral and a castle. Enormous steeples reached out from the main building, linked to it by huge arches. Alex noticed that the temple itself was established on another mass of land, almost like an enormous island-asteroid, an infinitely deep void separating it from the mainland. However, a gleaming bridge connected the two. Alex noted that the bridge itself was not solid, but made of light.
?It?s beautiful, isn?t it?? Midna asked him as they crossed the light bridge.
?Yeah, it is.? Alex replied back. ?It?s terrible your people are at war. Such architecture like this could never be replaced.?
?This building has stood for thousands of years,? Midna went on, ?And shall stand for thousands more if we prevail in this war.?
Upon arrival at the enormous wooden doors that allowed entrance into the temple, two guards stood at attention.
?Halt!? one guard barked. ?Identify yourselves.?
?At ease,? Midna said. ?He?s with me.?
?Princess Midna!? he bowed in her presence. ?Please forgive me, head on through.? He motioned the other guard to open the door.
As the enormous wooden barriers parted, Alex laid eyes on the mystifying mezzanine of the Temple.
?My God,? he said. ?This is amazing.?
?The architects who designed this temple were geniuses,? Midna explained. ?Every feature, every column, arch, and door in this temple is designed to flow with one another.?
?It?s absolutely incredible,? Alex said, having to crane his neck to look to the ceiling.
?We can sightsee later,? Midna said, tugging on Alex?s pale blue arm. ?We?re here to see the elders. They?re at the top of the Temple.?
?Damn, how are we going to get up there?? Alex asked. ?This temple must have hundreds of floors.?
?Traveling between floors isn?t hard,? Midna said coolly. ?Most of us simply teleport ourselves to the floor we want to go to.?
?So if you teleport between floors,? Alex went on, ?what are the stairs for??
?Artistic effect mostly,? Midna replied as she opened a portal. ?Though more people use the stairs than you think. Take my hand.?
As Alex did, his vision was filled with a blinding flash, which subsided at the very top of the Temple of Dusk. The Twilight City below gleamed like thousands of twinkling stars.
?Come on,? Midna urged him. ?The council chamber is just ahead.?
The council chamber was enclosed behind enormous black doors, on them traced various patterns and designs Alex had seen elsewhere in the Twilight. As these doors were pushed open, three Twili were seen sitting in the center of the chamber, around a glowing fire.
One of the Twili, a dark robed male wearing a sort of hood that covered his ears and the top of his head, leaving his face exposed, stood. ?Ah, Princess Midna. Welcome back. I see you have him with you. Please come in.?
Alex felt like a young child being introduced to total strangers. He stepped into the chamber hesitantly at first, but eventually worked up the courage to meet the standing Twili face to face.
?You must be Alex.? He bowed his head. ?It?s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. We are the three Twili elders. I am Equinox. The other man there is Eclipse, and the lovely young lady is Solstice.?
Eclipse and Solstice stood and bowed to Alex. Eclipse was a tall stocky male Twili garbed in the same flowing robes as Equinox, as well as the same hood-like headwear. Alex silently mused that his large girth was how he got his name. Finally, Solstice was a lean female Twili with long flowing purple hair, again clothed in the elder robes, but sans the hood.
?As Midna has already explained to you, Alex,? Equinox continued, ?we are in a dire situation. The war with the Kandarinian Sovereignty has reached a deadlock. One side is waiting for the other to make a move. Naturally, we?re waiting them out, no matter what. However, the temporary defeat of Damien Roth will mean their forces in Asgarnia are in disarray. I?ve heard your actions delayed their counter-attack against your rebel uprising you had there, as well as routing Damien for now. Well done.?
?Thank you,? Alex said.
?However, your Twili side has only recently come to you for a reason,? Eclipse spoke up in a deep voice. ?It seems fate choose this time to reveal your destiny to you. Alex, you must use your deep-rooted abilities to defeat Damien Roth once and for all. Despite his prior defeat, the Kandarinian Marshal, Kronos, will resurrect him upon death. Damien is a considerable asset for their control over Asgarnia. If you can remove him permanently, the city will be yours once again.?
?Though you can?t do this without those powers of yours,? Solstice spoke up in a soft voice. ?You must awaken these abilities, or Damien will prevail in his occupation of your beloved city, and ultimately, the Twilight. We have been aware of your destiny since you were born, and we understand what must be going through your mind right now.?
?It?s almost overwhelming?? Alex replied.
?Rest assured, Alex,? Solstice continued, ?You will find that once these abilities are revealed, they will become second nature to you. The challenge is revealing them.?
?And how would I do that??
?The Twilight is bathed in an ambient field of Twilight magic that gives its inhabitants strength. As you have never lived here, you must spend one night here for your Twili side to strengthen. At this point your hidden powers should be easier to awaken.?
?But I turn back into a human at morning!? Alex protested.
?Now, now,? Equinox reassured him. ?No need to panic. We?ve seen your adeptness in fire magic as a human, one could only imagine the power you could wield in your current state. You just need to allow it to surface. Simply put, you must spend the rest of the night here if you hope to awaken your abilities.?
?Seems easy enough,? Alex mused.
?I advise you not to become used to it. Later tasks will not be so easy. That aside, you have been allowed full access to the Twilight City as well as the Temple of Dusk. Seeing as this is your first visit it might convenience you to visit the historical archives of our people.?
?Thanks, I?ll check it out later.?
?In the meantime, please make yourself at home in the Temple of Dusk, as we are arranging for your accommodations here??
?What do you mean?? Alex said. ?It?s only for one night, isn?t it??
?This is true, but we want you to feel as comfortable as possible. I can understand that being pulled into this role is pressuring, and we want to allay any worries you might have. Simply relax and leave the rest to us.?
?Thank you, Equinox.? Alex bowed his head. ?I?ll try not to be a burden.?
Alex had spent hours wandering through the massive Temple, itself seemed like a city within a city. There were living quarters, shops, and a central forum where Twilis could congregate and converse. Alex had inadvertently made his way into the Twili archives that Equinox had mentioned to him.
Contained in the chamber was books upon shelves upon walls of Twili history, spanning thousands of years, up to now. Perhaps within one of these books would lie the secrets that would allow Alex?s deep-rooted powers to surface.
?Doing some research?? Midna appeared next to him.
?Just trying to learn more about what I?m supposed to be doing,? Alex sighed. ?This?ll be like finding a needle in a haystack.
?Actually, there is one book I kept aside just for this occasion,? Midna replied, reaching high up behind other books, bringing a large antiquated book down, and blowing the dust off of it. ?Here, give this a read.?
Alex opened the aged book and ran his red eyes over the lines?
??The Twilight Warrior is the accomplice to the Twilight Princess in any peacemaking affairs. The Twilight Warrior mysteriously disappeared twenty-eight years ago around the beginning of the Kandarin-Twili War. Legend has it that despite the embodied Twili?s death, its soul was passed on to the next in line, who has not yet been revealed??
?Not revealed?? Alex muttered.
?Keep reading,? Midna motioned.
??The Twilight Warrior?s magical abilities are unmatched by any other Twili in the realm, the only other Twili to parallel his power is the princess. Both magics go hand in hand with each other, certain feats can only be performed when the two combine their energies. This text entails the legend-held abilities of both the Twilight Warrior and Princess, and how to perform them, should this tome ever be found by either one??
?That?s ridiculously coincidental,? Alex said. ?Regardless, I think we found what we?re looking for. All I need to do now is read this book and hopefully that?ll give me some ideas.?
?Not to mention the Twili magics your body is exposed to now,? Midna replied.
?Well, if my sense of time hasn?t deteriorated any since we got here, I judge it to be about nine hours until the sun comes back up. Gah, if only I didn?t revert back at sunrise??
?Who knows?? Midna said. ?Maybe the book entails the preservation of your Twili form if you?re under such a spell. Maybe you could lift it. You could transform back and forth at will.?
?I like it,? Alex smiled, the first time he had since he arrived in the Twilight. ?All right, Midna, we?d better get cracking.?
?But where do we start?? Midna asked. ?There must be hundreds of spells and abilities in here.?
?Let?s just start at the beginning and work from there,? Alex said. ?Makes sense, doesn?t it??
?Yeah, it does,? Midna admitted. ?There?s a training arena a few floors below that we can use. Grab my hand again.? She created another portal, this time leading to the training room.
As the two Twili materialized in the arena, Alex laid his eyes on an enormous chamber, reaching almost infinitely out in all directions. The room itself was perfectly round, with a central fighting area, and rows upon rows of benches above for any who would be so inclined as to watch. Most of the time this room was empty, but sometimes a few Twili would be sitting up in the upper stands, often talking amongst themselves, just to have a quiet place to have a conversation. Alex noticed a few Twili up in the benches already. They hadn?t noticed the two?s entrance.
?Don?t worry,? Midna assured him. ?They often ignore what?s going on down here anyway.?
?That?s a relief,? Alex sighed. ?I?d hate to screw up in front of more people than this.?
?Well, we might as well get started,? Midna said, taking the book from him and beginning to flip through the pages until she found one she liked. ?Like you said, we only have nine hours, and then we?d have to wait all day.?
Alex cracked his knuckles?and his neck?and prepared for the marathon of practice and training to come.
-
The group of peasants and Aspyes were able to make it back to the underground base. Most of the people were quite tired or still scared from all the action and danger that happened at the village, but they had finally made it to safe place.
Marshall took a rest at one of the benches in on the second floor. He was then greeted by Firstman.
"Hey, Marshall. Glad to see you made it back in one place. How'd it go?" Firstman asked.
"Oh, just glorious." Marshall replied, half-jokingly. "There was this strange devil like person, but I was able to fend it off. He somehow knew I was with the Blue Minotaur."
"Odd. You best not think about it. But are you ready for another mission? I really recommend you take a break. But Kropotkin has another job for you and Coriko. Where is he anyway?"
"Oh he wanted me to come down first. Something about 'needing an opening' I don't know. That man confuses me sometimes." //Heh\\
"But yeah. You really shouldn't overwork yourself. I think you should get some sleep."
"You know what I think?" Marshall said. "I think you should get me an elixir. Physically, yes I'm tired, but my mind for adventure isn't ready for sleep yet!"
Firstman sighed and then walked over to an open crate and took out an elixir. "You really shouldn't rely to much on this stuff. It's not a substitute for sleep you know. Remember that one time you nearly passed out, when you were awake for an entire week, because of this stuff. It ain't good for you." He reluctantly handed Marshall the vail. The summoner took it, popped open the cork and started drinking from it.
"I'd say you'd be sounding like my mother but...you know." Marshall said.
"Yeah. But seriously man. Cut down on that stuff, you almost got addicted to it a month ago. Like, I never heard you curse so much during that one time you drank two full vails of it."
"Yeah...I know. I'm still embarrassed about that."
"Ah, don't me. You're honest way to clean mouthed. But you made up for it that one day." Patrick laughed.
Marshall got back up. "Well. I assume you're going to stay behind again?" Marshall asked.
"Yeah. This next one sounds really...well...out of my league. I'm no magic user." Firstman replied. "Well, I'll tell Coriko that you've gone down to see Peter."
"Good, good then." Marshall said. He then headed down the stairs...
//Coriko, if you want. You can make up the next mission. Just keep it around the lines of commi-anrachist type.\\
-
Crud.
Fernis watched, unfazed, while Elphos hid behind a sturdy tree.
She knew something was not right...But she only cared about finding out if it was her fault or otherwise.
That...Strange behaviour...Maybe he was being demonized...?
Fernis took a step closer, and turned back for a quick look at Elphos.
By his expression, she realised they were both thinking the same thing.
She nodded to him, and he ran off without saying a word.
Turning back to the one before her, she streightened her posture and looked him directly in his blazing crimson eyes.
"I am Indher, the last master of the runes." she said, in her most formal tone possible.
Well, there may be plenty others, but I don't know, don't care, and frankly, he doesn't need to know that now
"I have summoned Iduran to this place in hope of assistance in rebuilding Romme and saving this world from the shadow known as the Dark Empire."
Well, I doubt we can ever defeat them, but it sure WILL be fun if we attack one of their main forces from the rear whilst they least expect it...
She stepped closer, and her gaze narrowed...
What should I say next? 'Will you help me?'? No, that won't do, not in this situation...I'm not even sure...Oh, right. I'll ask exactly THAT.
She closed her eyes and sighed.
"Are you him?"
-
The figure that was burning black stopped his chuckling for a brief moment, repressing it through clenched teeth. He spoke in high tones.
"Myeh heh heh... So is that what this sap's name is? Iduran? I really must thank you then, for calling such an excellent transport!"
The blackness about him swirled more intensely, and a red glow appeared about his chest, the same color as his burning eyes. It began to pulsate in brightness, at regular intervals...
"It has taken me too long to find my way back to the living... No I am not him. You may call me Mavas!!"
<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>DUN!</span> <span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>DUN!</span> <span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>DUUN!!</span>
"And I shall have my REVENGE!!! on those who sent me THERE!!!"
He stretched.
"This body is old and creaky... Mind if I borrow yours?!?!"
As he said the last word, he began a mad dash for Indher, extending his hands like claws...
----
"What's the matter?"
"Oh... nothing..." Ven replied... He just got a bad feeling, that's all...
"Hmmm, we've appeared to have come to a dead end..."
Through the darkness before them, they could barely make out a collapsed section of the tunnel right in front of the airship. Henri guided the humming ship to a stop, right before the massive boulders.
"What now?" Ven asked as he ran a hand through his hair.
Henri pointed to a crank a few feet away.
"Turn that counter-clockwise, would you?"
"Like this?" Ven did as instructed. Through the window, he could vaguely make out some sort of cylinder mounted on the deck rotating, though he played it no mind.
"Yes. There, that's enough. Now pull that lever to your right."
Ven nodded and did so.
*KA-BLAM!!*
Ven stumbled from the vibration as he just realized he fired the cannon.
"Holy crap!!!"
Ven braced himself as he fully expected the violet-black orb sent forth to cause a total cave-in upon impact...
Indeed, there was a violent explosion before them, but the resulting blast actually absorbed the bulk of the obstructing boulders into nothingness, though there were a few jettisoned their way, clanking off the black metal hull.
"Excellent." Henri smiled as he navigated the transport vessel through the newly created path. Ven needed to sit down...
----
Further and further the trio of dark ships went, into the night...
The sky was clouded in dark red and black clouds, for they were just south of the Dark Continent, sailing eastward, the fearsome Jagahn at the lead...
Jayce was at the very bow, staring into the blackness before him. Of course, he could see just fine. It was light that blinded him.
"How much longer?" He growled.
Melface was simply there, floating to the dark prince's left so that his head was even with the much taller high general. The child-like demon bowed politely, as if he were standing on solid ground.
"After sunrise, my Lord. A mere half a night away."
Jayce frowned. He wanted to get there before sunrise, since it was a more fitting time to attack, but transporting massive numbers of soldiers required sturdier sea faring vessels such as these.
"Sunrise, and no later. Or I will have the head of the captain."
The nightmare demon spun in the air.
"Of course, my Lord. I shall inform him personally."
By then of course the demon was simply no longer there, as if he never had been.
-
//Uh-oh! Mavas!!\\
Duilin continued on his way. He could see a bit of the shoreline in the distance, not too far away now. He was getting a little impatient and started flying, but only about six feet above the ground.
That Ophelia woman was rather strange; he wanted to figure out more about her. Perhaps Ophelia isn't truly loyal to the empire. Like Duilin knows, from experience, that prisoners and slaves eventually build loyalties to the empire in an attempt to gain more freedom by being a soldier. It's happened often. Like, Valos was slave before he became a soldier and even moved up to the rank of General. He had a feeling that maybe the same thing is going on with Ophelia.
--- ---
The dragon-dogs began to circle around Wilham, who just stood there with one of his gauntlets up, the one with the diamond...
One of the lizards jumped at him, hopping to tackle him, yet the general jumped in the air, above the creature. He then lifted his fist, and his gauntlet began to glow. As he fell towards the ground he swung his fist downwards and large glowing white spectre shot forth from his gauntlet and formed into a dragon wasp, right under him. He then stood on the giant insect and the dragon dogs looked in confusion at the wasp suddenly appearing.
The lizard dog that attempted to tackle Wilham came back for another strike, but as soon as he got close to the dragon wasp, it was impaled with a mighty thrust of its giant stinger on its tail...
-
((Sorry about not updating. My internet is wonky lately...))
Zeros' winced. He knew the lizardman had much more strength then him, at least while he wasn't 'demonized'. He had just enough time to brace himself before raising his arm.
CRACK!!
He gasped and winced. He felt his arm breaking under the force of the kick, plus the weight of his boot. He managed to redirect the force of the kick, keeping his arm intact. He gritted his teeth, feeling his shoulder sliding out of its socket. He fell to the ground and rolled with it, sweeping a kick under the massive lizardman. His dislocated shoulder pulsed with pain, but he ignored it.
He used his non-occupied leg to launch a high-powered kick at Gorus' lower legs, hoping to make the massive lizardman fall, or at least be knocked off-balance.
((So, he has Zeros' trying to knock out his legs and sweep him off his feet. Heh))
---
Allen blinked, standing over to the side. He had read about technology like that before (the cannon), but he never imagined it would actually exist. He frowned, but continued to man the navigational controls, as instructed by Henri.
"Hmmm... This is a highly advanced ship... I've only read about weapons like that in books and tomes. I've never seen it in action..." he said, observing the effects of the cannon.
-
Fast! Think fast!
Fernis held up her left arm and her custom barrier rune began to shine.
He'd have to attack me from two directions at once if he hopes to even touch me, heh heh heh...
She rose into the air, but only because the barrier worked in all directions.
It's function was to repel and tranfer force from where the barrier is touched to the other side, and since the barrier touched the ground underneath Fernis, that was repelled as well.
The one drawback of this is that the rune crashes if too much force is applied from opposite directions simultaniously.
Still, I gotta talk him out of it before he pushes me into the sea in attempt to grab me
Relaxing and deciding that while the barrier is on, it's best to ignore what 'Mavas' does and just speaking.
Still, she needed something plausable to say. Something which this 'being' that appeared before her will find pleasing.
He said this body isn't good enough. I can use the same method I used to restore Iduran to create him whichever body he wants, as long as it's not too large...
"Look," she said, ignoring the high probability that her surroundings are changing due to barrier movement "I need my own body, and I need the guy whose body you have. If you really don't have a body of your own, I can make you whatever you like."
However, deep within her heart, she knew she might have to use the back up plan...The one Elphos fled to make preperations for earlier.
-
Iduran-Mavas was suddenly blasted backwards some five feet by the barrier, kicking up dust he rolled on the ground once before propping himself on one knee with a snarl.
"Make me a body huh?"
He brought a hand to his chin.
"I'll believe it when I see it! Something strong! With wings and claws and stuff!!"
----
Henri nodded. He knew Allen didn't specialize in weapons when he was with the Crimson Empire, so it was understandable he didn't know about it, although what he did know had proved invaluable so far.
"That sort of weapon is similar to what the Dark Empire employs now actually, I've seen it before with my own eyes..."
He trailed off as if remembering something unpleasant. But then snapped back to it.
"It's powered by shadow magic, so the blast consumes much of what it hits, rather than blasting it apart like a normal fire-based explosion."
Ven was staring out the windows ahead. The tunnel seemed to be widening.
"Hey, is that... light up ahead?"
The dark night was only marginally brighter than the blackness inside the tunnel, but indeed, the dark red and black clouds through the opening ahead were unmistakable.
"We did it! We made it out!"
-
Duilin arrived at an old seaport, the buildings were made rotting wood. Mostly covered in moss and the docks were covered in seaweed. He could see a few fishing boats tied up on the docks, which looked as if they hadn't have been used for months.
Duilin walked through the area, looking around at the damaged buildings.
"Well, hello there youngster. What brings you here?" Said the voice of an old man. He emerged from one of the smaller buildings. He was an grey skinned, white haired drow. He was wearing old tattered brown clothing, and had a light brown coat over his shirt. "Haven't been anyone here for a few months."
"Um, hey. I need to get somewhere. Do you have anything that travels overseas?" Duilin asked.
"Actually yeah." The old man said. "Follow." He then began walking over to the docks, Duilin followed. As they arrived there Duilin could see a fair sized ship, it looked strangely familiar.
"We found this ship a year ago. It was over at one of the ports down south." The old man said. "It looks like it was made in Tjed."
"I think this might be my ship." Duilin stated. "I was over at Tjed, and helped them out with a problem and they gave me and my friends a ship." Duilin reached in his pouch and then extracted a peice of folded paper. "I even have the deed for it here."
"Well, I'll be damned." The old man says. "Well, I ain't got much use for it. Nobody wants to buy a ship 'round here anyways." He looked at Duilin. "But...uh, would it be too much to ask for a docking fee? It's only like twenty five gold coins."
"Uh, yeah okay." Duilin took a handful of coins from his pouch, counted them, and put a couple back in and then poured them into the old drow's hands.
"Oh, my. Thank you very much. I needed this."
"Yeah, don't mention it. Hey can you do me a favour?" Duilin asked.
"Sure, what do you need?"
"If anybody asks. I wasn't here. Unless he's some scared up guy with big wings and wears a trench coat, or a small imp dude."
"Uh...okay." The old man replied. "You got it."
--- ---
Gorus leg's were struck and he finally lost his balance and fell to the ground, he landed on the ground infront of Zeros'. He then pressed his hands on the floor and quickly recovered, getting back on his feet. He picked up his grapple blaster and then started growling angrily. Since he saw he was a good enough distance away and his foe was on the ground. He aimed his grapple blaster at the half demon on the ground and fired...
---
Rink noticed something. The anti-magic gas was off and he was starting to feel more restored.
'Time to take action.'
He focused himself and tried to sense a place were he could safely teleport. He then disappeared from his metal box in a puff of smoke and in front of the door, outside of the junk room. He then saw the lizard wizard walking out of the room. He scanned the area and noticed a large stack of wooden crates in the middle of the room.
Rink then snapped his fingers and lit a plume of flame in hands. The lizard wizard turned around and spotted the imp at the other end of the room. He hissed and then dashed towards him. The imp then shot forth the fireball at the bottom of the crate pile, causing it to explode, and the entire series of crates to fall to the ground.
The lizard man looked up and braced himself as he spotted the crates falling down on him. However he was totally piled and knocked out cold...
-
"That's right..."
Fernis lowered her left arm and the barrier went off, cousing her feet to slowly return to the earth.
Feeling reassured, she stepped closer, a devilish smile covering her face.
This slight 'miscalculation' might be fun after all...
"I can get you any kind of body you like...As long as it's not too large..."
She stopped and look directly into the eyes of Mavas-Iduran.
Indeed, he seems crazed enough for that...
Yes...
Another weapon to unleash upon the world... That will prove quite the distraction... Heh heh heh...
"It's not hard at all... Didn't I say I'm the last master of the runes? I can construct you a body using the same method I used for constructing his..."
I think. With even the best runeset, the circle will not be able to tell Mavas from Iduran. I might end up pulling Iduran out instead and creating him another body... Heheh, wouldn't that be funny..."
"Now, since whatever you did blasted the extra ingridients away, we need to burn a tree or two. After that, I'll draw the runes for seperation,body reconstruction, and finally, spirit binding..."
She held up her right arm and turned to her left, pointing at a tree there. A fireball came out of her finger, blasting the tree and cousing it to fall. Another tree nearby picked up the fire as well, but otherwise the two seemed too far away from the other trees to start a forest fire.
"Of course, if you can seperate and bind willingly like I think you do, I can finish twice as fast. Now why don't you tell me more about yourself, how'd you get here, and your plans, while I...prepare?"
She took out a small leather bag and approached the mostly burnt out parts of the tree. tearing off a branch, she started grinding it into the bag,
-
Coriko breathed in the crisp mountain air. He really enjoyed the quite period between missions.
"Oh well." Coriko headed inside. "Hey Firstman, whats new? Any new missions up? Hey, where did Marshall go?"
---
Druid was leaning against the rail of the ship. This ship was a new thing to him. On his world people walked or flew themselves. He looked down in time to see a massive rock fly up at him. Druid pushed himself off the rail so he slid backwards. Just after he had moved the rock crashed into the ship rocking it severly. Druid stayed planted so he didn't fall over. He heard someone yell behind him,
"What the hell was that?"
Druid simply responded, "It doesn't matter who it is because no matter what they are going to die." With that Druid ran to the edge and dived off the ship towards the attacker on the ground.
-
"Oh, he went downstairs to see Peter. He has another mission for you guys." Firstman replied. "Go down and see him if you want to."
---
//Actually I've got an idea. If you want Coriko to be in this, assume he's here.\\
Marshall arrived at the planning table, were Kropotkin was waiting. "Ah, it's about time. I assume your last quest went well?"
"As well as it could have." Marshall replied. "So what do you have for us today?"
"The Kandarinian Sovereignty is starting to build another fortress, in the location of a small village called Lawessov. All of the humans living there are being put into slave labour. As the Aspyes, we will NOT stand for this. This task is simple, go to Lawessov, free the slaves and burn all the sovereignty buildings to the ground!"
--- ---
The Dragon Wasp continued to fight off the dragon dogs. Wilham then moved the dragon wasp up into the air. It was clear that here wasn't a good place to be. He then started flying east...
-
"Well make it as big as you can, and hurry it up!"
Iduran-Mavas began pacing around. If he was going to get back at those two winged freaks and Ven, he'd need something strong. And that little red gremlin too. And King Henri... Hmmm, he wondered if his powers worked as before. It would be difficult without the pendant, but its power was essentially bound to his soul, so he should be able to copy forms still. Yes, perfect. He'd copy this new body and keep this old man's as well, since it might be a useful form in the future, especially if the new form didn't look human. He probably should kill the strange cat woman and take her form as well, though he needed to wait for her to finish.
He stopped for a moment... Iduran... Iduran... where had he heard that name before...? Bah, it didn't matter.
He snapped out of it when he realized he was being spoken too.
"I'm looking for a few individuals... payback, you see. First is man, a tad on the short side, with silver hair and wings... He was wearing a black trench coat last I saw him..."
Blast it. If he still had the pendant he would be able to take that form even through that man was still alive. But as he was, he didn't even have his old body as an option. He was starting completely anew.
"Then there was a taller man, about average height, with black hair, also with wings."
He didn't remember too much about him. Ven of course was easy to describe.
"Finally there's a guy with brown hair and a thin beard who wraps himself in a black cloak and carries a silver sword on his back. Under the cloak he wears fine polished silver armor..."
Ven used to be very easy to track. He wondered if without his old body, that would still be the case.
----
(Coriko, you of course realize the ships have been out at sea for a while now. Heh...)
Jayce looked up as the clouds began to break apart, revealing stars above. This of course meant they were leaving the vicinity of the Dark Continent, for the lands which Retan immediately controlled were always shrouded by the thick clouds. He smirked (again). They were off the continent's south-eastern cost, and their destination of Tjed was not far off. It wouldn't be too long now...
-
Deciding enough ashes were ground inside the bag, she smirked and got up.
"There. Now to start drawing..."
She bent down to the ground and started making yet another circle in the dirt.
"Right, so you a score to settle with 3 guys who probably died by now...Sound fun..."
Cripes, should I warn him?
Oh well, in case anything goes wrong, I have my back-up nearby.
She paused and licked her lips.
"Mmm...It would be interesting to see what you turn yourself into..."
Hmm, he will probably be confused by this. I should explain.
Returning to drawing, she continued.
"You see, inside this large circle, there will be two smaller ones. Once I'm done preparing, you will have to stand in the smallest circle and imagine yourself having the body you want. Yup, all you have to do is picture it, and let the magic do the rest. Oh, and I suggest not trying to morph into anything larger than twice my size, you might end up missing a foot or perhaps even a whole leg. And if you mistakebly think of yourself as a gigantic dragon at that moment..."
She paused again, and looked at him directly, licking her lips again.
Am I hungry? Or do I smell blueberry? Heh, I'll worry about that later.
"Well, let's just say I'd have a pretty cute disembodied dragon head for a trophy."
Again, that's assuming YOU get pulled out.
Returning to drawing she quickly finished making all circular shapes. She was getting truely excited, and it showed. Her eyes were widening wildly, and her sharp teeth were exposed as she smiled broadly. It looked as if she was about to lose control and just finish the job by forcefully ripping apart the earth with her claws.
"Alright, the runes are all that's left. Gimmie five minutes and I'll be finished. Now why are you hunting these freaks again? Whatever the reason may be, it would be very probable that it is within my best interest to help you..."
-
Mavas sat down on a rock, drumming his fingers impatiently.
"Because they killed me! Blast it."
Hmm, this sounded interesting. What sort of body would he need to fight them? Probably something with wings, to match those two... Claws likely, since he no longer had his sword... Hmmm... He continued thinking anxiously.
----
Henri found himself navigating the airship over a dark barren rocky landscape. Unfortunately without the stars, it was difficult to tell which direction they were headed.
"I don't have any idea where we are... Will have to move away from the Dark Continent if we're to have any chance of determining our direction. I just hope we're not heading inland..."
"What is that?"
Ven pointed out the forward window, his mouth hanging open slightly. Up ahead was some sort of structure, surrounded by dark clouds and sitting at the peak of the highest mountain.
"A... tower...?"
Indeed, that was what it appeared to be. It was barely visible in the distance, but it was definitely some sort of narrow structure. It started at the very peak of the mountain and soared skyward, piercing into the very black clouds above. The top was not visible, so the height was not discernible. But even if it ended right there in the clouds, it was massive...
Things could be seen flying around it...
"Uh... I don't think we want to go there..." Ven stammered.
"Right."
Henri banked a hard left. That's when the screech of the flying beast pursuing them could be heard.
"Dark Dragon!!"
The dragon was dead on, right behind the ship. It was a big one, almost one third the size of the vessel.
"Blast it! Hang on!" Henri pulled a lever all the way down and the ship shot forward in a burst of speed. Ven hung on for dear life.
-
Fernis giggled.
"Killed you? No wonder you are so full of anger. I never thought the dead would dwell on them being killed!"
But perhaps that means my last circile opened too wide of a door, allowing another spirit to get sucked in... That is definetly not good news...
She finished with the outer circle and proceeded to the smaller inner circle.
"The great probability they have died by now aside, what will you do after you've killed them all?"
Maybe I should make my offer...?
Bah, I have nothing to lose by asking.
"Hey, why don't you join me? My goal is to rebuild a kingdom from less than ashes, then letting it's people know the true meaning of 'refusing to stay dead'..."
Her devilish smile widened.
Having finished making the runes for the smaller inner circle, she proceeded to start with the bigger inner circle. She scribbled a few runes, paused, then whipped away the dirt she drew on with her hand.
What...Why am I doing it THAT way? I should use my own mark, this would be much better of an insurance...Heh heh heh...
If he truely wishes to betray me, he would never see that coming...
But I will only reveal that to him after he gets it. Yes. Perfect.
She started scribbling again, this time in an even greater haste.
Soon enough, Fernis finished. Whiping the dirt of her hands andknees, she stood up.
"Alright, ready when you are. Just step into the smallest circle..."
...and become MINE! HAHAHAHAHAHA...!!!
-
"Hmm, you know I'd probably need more people to manage this boat." Duilin said to the old drow. "Do you know anyone who would be willing to travel with a mysterious stranger?"
"Well, no. Not really. But if you're willing to walk back to Asgarnia, then maybe you could find somebody there." The old man laughed back.
"How'd you know I came from Asgarnia?"
"I assumed, since that's the closest city near here. Back when this place was more stable, just about everyone was either coming to or from Asgarnia."
"Okay, makes sense. I guess. So do you know anyone willing? Like a ship requires more than one person, I'm sure you'd know."
"I might be able to help." The old man suggested. "I mean, it ain't like anyone else is gonna come by. And it was only a matter of time before I just took one of these fishing boats and just sailed in to middle of the sea and let myself die." He chuckled.
"Uh sure. But I think we need at least a third person." Duilin stated.
"Maybe we could help." Said a female voice, from the distance.
Duilin turned to see a pair of newcomers. "And you are?" He asked.
"What's wrong Duilin? You don't remember me?" A woman dressed in a brown hooded robe emerged from the darkness and removed her hood.
"Belle!" Duilin said, in surprise.
"Oh, so you remember my name. That's good. It's been about two years since we last saw each other. You just running off to Laus not even saying good-bye. I thought you were dead."
"Hey, you're exaggerating. It's only been 18 months." Duilin replied. "Anyways. I thought YOU were dead. Haraldur attacked the Crimson Palace and I don't know what the hell he did, but it got sucked into a vortex of some sort from what I heard. Sorry, I never tried to look for you."
"Sorry doesn't cut it. For an entire month I couldn't keep you out of my mind. And then me and my buddy Lagart, spotted this winged guy from a distance. So I thought it was you. So yeah. So what the hell have you been doing!?"
"Sleeping."
"For 18 months."
"Yeah, I know. Or maybe I was in a coma. But I apparently got sucked into a vortex by Retan. You know about him right? Yeah, now I'm back."
Belle rolled her eyes. "Well, I did hear about a group of rebels getting sucked into Retan's banishment vortex, and I actually could see it. So I suppose I can believe you. So you really thought I was dead?"
"Yeah. If I didn't I would have gone looking for you." Duilin said sincerely.
"Well..." Belle turned her head. "Okay, then. Well what happened was I got transferred to another fortress, the day after you left. Well, and when the Grey Empire came, I was moved around a lot. I don't know, I think they were running low on servants, because of the Aspyes pointlessly killing them all. So after a day when the Dark Empire came back, I worked at North Point for awhile...as a slave, some crap about me being an unworthy human. So yeah, then I met Lagart."
A large lizard man stepped towards, Duilin. He had two horns, yet one seemed to have the tip broken off and a bandage rapped around it. Rather then the traditional armour, he was wearing brown and beige robes, of similar colour to Belle's.
"He not like the other lizard men. For some reason he likes humans, especially me." She then cupped her hand beside he mouth and whispered. "Sometimes I think a little too much." She then moved her hand down and spoke normally. "But yeah, he helped me escape and wile we were traveling he saw something that looked a bit like you."
"Interesting." Duilin replied, he then motioned to the old drow next to him. "Well, this here is my very good friend umm...Drow Oldmen..."
"My name's Goldolf." The old drown snapped back.
"Whatever." Duilin then looked at Lagart. "So uh, you know how to manage a ship at all?"
"Lagart, doesn't really talk much." Belle said. "But yeah, he knows a little. More then me at least, but I guess that's not saying much since I don't know anything about boats."
"So uh, where do you say we were headed anyway?" The old drown asked.
"I'm thinking Tjed." Duilin answered. "I've got some old friends down there. I've got a feeling I'll be warmly welcomed."
"Sure, sure." Belle said. "I guess I'd be willing to see Duilin Talonscar in action."
"Didn't you already?" Duilin winked back provocatively.
"Shut it, Duilin." She snapped back, looking rather embarrassed.
"Whoa, whoa, did you too like..." The old man said pointing back and forth at Duilin and Belle.
"Enough!" Belle shouted. "Can we just go? I don't like it. Here, besides they might send somebody looking for Lagart."
Duilin chuckled. "Yeah, yeah. Sure. Let's get going."
-
Zeros' thought furiously for a moment. He had a huge chain coming directly at him. With his downed position and his dis-socketed arm, he couldn't do much.
Putting his mind into overdrive, he barely rolled away, the mace smashing into the edge of his right wing. He winced, but bore the pain and quickly hoped onto his feet. He reached over with his right arm and slowly, agonizingly, popped his left shoulder back into it's socket. He didn't scream, only wincing once again.
He rolled his shoulder and grinned. He flapped his wings. All limbs were go.
"Well now... It seems I should get serious now, hmm?" he said before he disappeared. He used one of his oldest techniques, but also one of his favorite. He made himself disappear from the spiritual and retanal vision, making him invisible.
"Now, now... Can you find me?" he echoed into the room, setting himself up southeast, in location ot Gorus.
---
Allen gasped and quickly held on. He hadn't been expecting this either, so, it was quite a surprise.
"What can we do?" he said to his companions, keeping his voice calm as possible.
-
Iduran-Mavas brought a hand to his chin.
"Hmmm, I might just consider that offer."
He had a necromatic slave before, Degz-whatever, and he was fairly useful at times. Of course, his mind had been ensnared by the pendant, so he was 100% loyal. Blast it, he needed to get that back. If it wasn't destroyed...
He carefully stepped into the circle, careful not to smear any of the drawn lines. Yes! Something draconic, he thought, but relatively human sized. Scales tough enough to withstand a blade. Razor sharp claws, wings...
(You can do whatever you want to him. Heh...)
----
"Maybe we can outrun it!"
The airship rocketed forward with Henri at the helm. Suddenly a black-violet plume of flame seared past the ship.
"It's... shooting at us?!?!" Ven tried to look behind.
"Blast it, if this were a warship, we'd have plenty of cannons back there to fire back. But this transport vessel only has the one... Wait! That's it!"
Henri thew a lever back, and Ven was tightly pressed against the rail as the flying vessel skidded to a near halt. The dragon rocketed past, right in front.
"Ven! Shoot it!!"
"ME?!?!"
"Yes, YOU!"
Ven fumbled with the controls before him and the cannon sent off a blast, nowhere near the dragon.
"Blast it, Ven! Use the controls to AIM!!"
The dragon seemed to have become annoyed, and returned with another blast emanating from its mouth.
Henri thrust the lever forward and turned the wheel hard. Ven was nearly swept off his feet as he hung on to the rail and the ship banked sideways, veering to the right, the dragon's shot another miss.
-
Swiftly, Fernis clapped her hands together as she stood before the set she drew.
The outer circle activated, and the runes lit up in bright purple.
Shortly after, the smaller inner circle lit up in deep blue, cousing the body of iduran to light up in blue itself.
Suddenly, that which appeared to be dark fog came out of iduran. It although it's shape was not clear, the core was crystal clear-
Shining brightly within the darkness.
The inner larger circle lit up in a bright violet color, and the dark fog was pulled unto it, as if it was pulled there by force of gravity, sucked inside by a voilent wind.
Iduran's body dropped unto the earth., whilst a strange figure was being formed inside the violet light. Sucking in dirt, ashes and air in order to form itself, it soon took a the shape of a robust, winged humanoid.
And then, as if it never existed, the light show just stopped. A lot of dust was still kicked up in the air, and it was hard for Fernis to see anything more than the figure's outline.
"Well, congradulations, you two are now seperate."
She was smiling happily, as if she had just recieved charity and was saying thank-you.
Hmm, I can't tell him the truth about having him bound to me as a precaution...
I guess I'll have to make up some lie, huh!
"Oh, and, uh, just so you know, since my magical energies were a main component in the process, your body will deteriorate if something really bad happens to me!"
Fernis scratched the back of her head.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get Iduran up. Without him, my plan will either turn filthy or impossible."
Hurrying over to Iduran, she realized Elphos was still out in the forest waiting to ambush.
No biggie, I'm sure he would rather just wait than meet ANY form of excitment...
(Was that good enough? Laughing )
-
"aahh i believe the time is write " said canal as he looked upon the small farming city of zexreiphanel he jumped down from the cliff upon which he was perched when he landed he drew his scythe and the crimson metal shone. he walked towards the town he walked through the gates holdin his scythe against the ground a man walked in front of him and asked if he needed some help with anything canal repilied yes and lifted the man by his shirt and said yes i need to find the leader of this town the man pointed to a large domelike building canal smiled at him and the man disengrated
-
Gorus sniffed and darted his eyes around the room. "An invisibility spell eh?" Gorus said loudly. "Cute."
By now all of the lizard warriors had left the room in fear of being accidentally hit by Gorus. He once killed several of his own men, due to his negligence. His motto was: 'If they don't want to get killed, then they should just get the hell out of my way.'.
"Well...I'll be damned before I waste time looking around for you, and if the magic game you want to play...Heheh..." Gorus then flexed his muscles and began to glow in green-cyan aura, which consumed his entire body, and his began to flow across the room, and his shape began to change. His neck became longer, his arms and legs became one, his body became more rounded, and his energy became darker. The room then started to get darker and the walls began to crack...
---
"Holy shit!" Rink exclaimed. "I just felt a massive aura burst..." He felt it coming from the main barracks area of the mountain. The room were Gorus said he'd meet Zeros'. He recognized the aura as a more magically enhanced version of Gorus' also feeling similar to a wyvern's. Rink better find Zeros' and just get out of here!
---
Gorus had taken the form of wyvern, with pitch black scales and glowing green eyes and an aura of darkness surrounding him. He had turned to his strongest and most prized form, the DEATH Wyvern.
The Death Wyvern shrieked loudly and then swung open its wings and bolts of black-violet coloured lightning began to shoot everywhere across the room...
--- ---
Marshall got his gear, and met Coriko outside of the hidden base (we'll assume). "Okay, so you ready to go? We've got a few miles to travel, a village of slaves to free and whole lot of Kandarins to kill!" He said, with a bit of a battle ready grin. Marshall's wyverns were still there, so they wouldn't have to go on foot again.
-
canal walked into the building where the man had directed him he looked around and saw the man who looked like the mayor of this village it as soon to be his village canal raised his hand the man barely had a chance to look up as a ball of dark energy engulfed him the man was no more. "this village is perfect. huh whats that extreme power i must have it this town can wait"
-
"Sure let's go, I'm itching for a fight." Coriko said to Marshall
-
"Myeh heh HA HA HA HA HA!! The power!! The POWER!!" Mavas bellowed as dramatically as possible.
A green scaled beast stepped forth from the mists, looking something like a cross between a lizard man and a dragon. He stopped suddenly when he realized what Fernis meant.
"Wait... What did you say?"
Before even waiting for an answer, a huge claw lashed out at the cat-like woman's face. But Mavas jerked it away before it could come close, red hot pain shooting deeply into his new arm. He knew exactly what that meant...
"You!! You wretched b-b-b-- f-female dog!! I mean cat! ... I mean ? !!! BLAST IT!!!" He was unable to curse her, let alone lay a scratch on the woman.
"How dare you trick me!! Release me at once!" He could do naught but shout at his 'master' irately, though a set a menacing white fangs.
Meanwhile, the old knight lying on the ground stirred slightly.
"Uhhh..."
-
Zeros', seeing this transformation, stood by in his invisiblity. He smirked. He knew something wasn't right with that lizardman. And this, was, apparently why.
He put up a reflective magic shield, making the bolts sail harmlessly away from his body.
"Well, well... This is an interesting development. So, this is why you were stronger then most other lizards," he said, eyeing Gorus up and down.
-
Fernis sighed, stopped and turned back at the draconian being calling himself Mavas.
"Look, it's not like I had a choice..."
OK, so I did. At least I can rest assured it was the right one.
"The bond should wear off on it's own in, say, a year's time..."
No, it won't, but I'm supposed to be comforting, right?
"I believe you can speed up the process if you acquire a powerful magical artifact, if it bothers you THAT much..."
Now either help me or get out of my sight.
"Besides, it's not like I'm one of those stinky bastards who would use the bond to make you into my puppet slave... Go ahead, return to the dark continent if you like, wreak havoc like no tommorow... Why should I get in your way? If you don't want to aid us, I don't want to force you into it."
She turned back to Iduran and bent down, looking into his face.
"Alive? Good..."
She took a closer look at his face.
"You don't look too good. Nauseous? Here, drink this."
She took out a small glass bottle from one of her pockets and handed it to Iduran, who was still lying on the floor.
Drat, I was hoping to save this for later. I can't make those myself... But I can't risk losing my main source after I got this far!
-
"Excellent. Now let us go." Marshall replied. The two got on their wyverns and began to fly towards Lawessov. Marshall had a bit of a feeling that this mission would lead to something.
--- ---
Wilham was rather down about his progress on his mission. He already lost his troops and he hasn't made enough progress. So far all he knows is that the empire on Terian is very violent and hates humans. Or least the division of this Van'deln guy doesn't like humans.
--- ---
So Duilin and his new party boarded the ship and began to make sail towards the Kingdom of Tjed.
"So Duilin?" Belle asked. "What else have you done since I last saw you?"
"Well, why don't I tell you about my fight with Draven." Duilin suggested. Likely not his most prideful moment, but it was a hell of a lot less embarrassing then his encounter with Abodahon and he wanted to save his fight with Brice and Rex for later.
"Ooo, the Crimson Emperor himself eh? Sure, let's hear it."
"Okay, so Retan's preparing to cast me and my friends into a vortex of banishment and then Draven comes towards us and demands that we become his slaves or die. So, obviously I refuse, and as do my friends. So Draven tries to attack them but I step in and force him to a one on one..."
--- ---
The Death Wyvern hovered in the air, facing Zeros' looking him in the eyes. He spoke, but his voice just entered into Zeros' mind like a telepathic message...
<span style='color:red'>"That's correct shorty. And from this form you will learn that not only am I the strongest of the lizard men, but next to the emperor himself, I am the strongest being alive."</span>
Time to warm up. The Death Wyvern arched back it's head and fired a large blast of black-violet energy from it's mouth straight towards Zeros'...
-
?So what?s first??
Midna flipped through the book, looking for descriptions of the Twilight Warrior?s spells. Thankfully, they were near the front of the book. ?Found the first one,? she said. ?And what a coincidence! It?s the transformation spell.?
?Really?? Alex asked, with a hint of hope in his voice. If he could perfect this spell, he would not be constrained to the night as the time he could remain a Twili. ?What?s it say??
Midna squinted her exposed eye to read the text. ?It says you can perform this spell as you are, but it will require a lot of concentration to do the first time. If you can perform it at least once, subsequent times will become easier??
?All right then,? Alex said. ?Let?s do it.?
?Give me a second here,? Midna replied. ?It says and I quote? ?Should the Twilight Warrior not exist as Twili pure, a spell can be cast that can allow him to return to his former self, and vice versa. While a relatively simple spell, the Twili Transformation can be difficult for someone not previous exposed to the Twilight magics to perform. If he can successfully transform once, later transformations will become progressively easier to the point that he can transform by giving it a fleeting thought. To perform the Twili Transformation, clear the mind, filling it only with thoughts of the form you wish to become. The intensity of these thoughts may vary, though usually the level of undying desire is enough.??
?Undying desire?? Alex mumbled. ?He writes it like it?s something I can do easily. Regardless, here I go.?
He forced all other thoughts from his mind. Thoughts of his home at Glacia, his lust for vengeance against Damien, his concern for the Asgarnian rebels, all gone. He just wanted to be human again. His natural-born form. Before he knew of his Twili self. With some concentration, a glowing black ring circled his midsection, traced over in blue Twili patterns. The ring split into two, one going up his body, the other going down. As the rings traveled over his body, they left his human form in their wake until they ended at his feet and the top of his head. When the ordeal was over, Alex had only the strength to fall to his knees. Midna watched in silent awe.
?Alex?you did it! You?ve returned to your human form!? she floated down to him and embraced him. ?This is just the first step! Imagine what more we can unlock!?
Alex opened his now blue eyes, seeing the tan jacket he treasured so much, his blue slacks and leather shoes. His skin had returned to its normal color, no sign of glowing markings.
?My God,? he said. ?That was actually sort of easy. I wonder if I could transform back.?
?You might as well,? Midna said. ?You can?t practice Twili magic as a human, now can you??
Alex shunted his thoughts away again. This time, his mind swam through the thoughts of the Twilight. The people he had to save, the people he could not let down. Midna. Before long, the rings emerged again, returning him to his Twili form once more.
?This is amazing!? Midna exclaimed. ?Never before has someone mastered the transformation spell so quickly! Alex, now there?s no hurry. We can take all the time we need to ensure that you are at your peak when we strike back.?
?That time it required even less effort,? Alex said. ?Though I?m sure there?s far more difficult spells in that book. Let?s move on to the second spell.?
Midna consulted the book again. ?Here it is. Spell number two is the Solburst. It?s a light magic spell, one of several included in here. ?The Solburst is a powerful, but slow moving, sphere of pure light that detonates several seconds after being created. The light is intense enough to burn creatures of the shadows, as well as various flammable materials. Experience in fire magic is recommended for the casting of this spell. To cast the Solburst, begin with forming a sizeable fireball, preferably a meter or so in diameter, and then applying Twilight magic to it. Upon this, the fireball should change color from red to blinding white. Continue charging as needed until desired size is reached. Launch like a normal fireball. Repeat until target is completely combusted, if necessary.??
?Nice,? Alex replied. ?Let?s give it a go.?
Alex proceeded to form a flaming sphere in his hands, pouring the power on until it reached the desired size. Quicker than normal the fireball expanded to full size.
?Okay,? Midna said. ?Now it says apply Twilight magic to it.?
?How would I do that?? Alex asked, straining under the power it took to maintain the fireball.
?That?s where your instincts as the Twilight Warrior come in, according to the book. Each Twilight Warrior in the past has had various ways of empowering the fireball. You?ll just have to find your own.?
?Okay?? Alex said. He allocated his thoughts a third time. He thought once again of the Twili. They were counting on him. They needed his help. Without him the Twili race would crumble. But mostly, he thought of Midna. She was always there for him, always helping him. She was the Twilight Princess, after all. With those thoughts, the fireball changed its hue to a bright white, as bright as the sun.
?Now, Alex!? Midna shouted over the roar.
With all his might he hurled the sphere from his hands. It traveled slowly across the arena until it exploded in a blinding flash of light. Even the Twili up in the stands seemed impressed.
?Alex, you?re making excellent progress,? Midna said to him. At this rate, you might be able to face Damien yet. On to the third spell, which is the?what the? This is strange. The page is missing.?
?So? We can just skip over to the next one.?
?No can do,? Midna replied agitatedly. ?All of the remaining pages about the Twilight Warrior are missing!?
?Great,? Alex sighed. ?Now what do we do? I can?t take on Damien with one spell. We need to find those pages.?
?But where could be?? Midna drifted above Alex and pondered. ?We?d have to consult the elders about this.?
?You think they?d know??
?Of course. They know all there is to know about the Warrior. Surely they know where the missing pages are. If not, hopefully they can point us in the right direction??
Sure enough, the two soon found themselves before the elders once more.
?So, you say this book is missing pages?? Equinox asked, thumbing through it, coming upon the areas where pages had been torn out. ?You?re right.?
?Any idea what happened to them?? Midna asked.
?Before Alex was revealed as the Twilight Warrior we?d be afraid that this book would fall into Kandarinian hands, and they would learn to counter the Warrior?s powerful spells. So we removed the pages and hid them all across the realm.?
?Can you show us where they are?? Alex queried.
?I?m afraid the exact locations have since been lost to time,? Solstice muttered. ?However, I think I remember the general spots where we hid them.?
Alex?s eyes widened. ?All right. Shoot.?
-
(Apologies for the neglectivity this week.)
The draconian Mavas was settled a bit, but he still grumbled under his breath, flexing his large wings.
The old knight took the bottle and drank a bit. Feeling a warmth throughout his body he sat up and looked around.
"Uh... where am I?"
Suddenly his eyes widened.
"Retan! Where is he?! Did the others escape?!"
He then realized he was no longer in that dark ship, with that fiendish crimson-eyed emperor... He remembered the blow... everything went dark... He was so overwhelming... could he have been saved...? Just how long had he been out?
"Oh no! The sword! Where is it?!"
He was on his feet by now, but he didn't recognize the one who offered him the drink. In fact, she didn't look quite human at all...
"Who... are you...?"
----
Further exploits with the cannon proved unsuccessful, and the dragon was on the tail of the fast flying ship once more.
"Blast it!" The king was visibly irritated by now. He banked the ship hard to avoid another onslaught of dark fireballs.
Eventually they made it to the sea. Flying over the waves, the dragon only pursued for a short while before turning back. The two men from Tjed breathed a sigh of relief.
"I suppose it is hesitant to stray too far from land." Henri commented.
----
"We are but a few hours from landfall, my Lord..."
"Excellent..."
-
"So yeah, as we both were in the air I swiped my sword right across him cutting him in half. Kinda messy, but it was the best shot I could make." Duilin said finishing his story.
"Wow, you're amazing." Belle commented
"You're rather different you know." Duilin stated.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, most women don't like this violence stuff. It's interesting. I've only seen about three female fighters."
"Well, I'm not a fighter mind you?"
"Yeah, but you sure do have the spirit for it." He then looked back into the control deck of the ship. "Well I should get back to manning the ship. I think Lagart or um...the old guy could use a break."
Duilin got to where the captain's well was, Lagart the lizard man was steering the ship. "Hey, Lagart take a break. I'd like to give it a go."
The lizard man shrugged and backed away as Duilin took the controls. "So, Lagart you feel like talking?"
"Okay..." He mumbled back.
"I've actually got a question for you. Like, before I sucked into Retan's vortex I noticed the Dark Empire had some lizard men warriors, like a lot of them. I've heard of you guys before but I didn't know there were so many."
"The Dark Empire has a hatchery." Largart replies. "Most are genetically engineered to be serve the empire, some are natural born."
"I assume you are?"
"Yes. I am called B-Class, we are the most common of natural born."
"B-Class?" Duilin inquired.
"Yes. Lizard men are divided into classes, S-Class strongest, A-Class weaker but smarter, B-Class stronger then A-Class but not more than S-Class. Not much smarter I bet you can tell."
"Uh, yeah." Duilin replied. He then noticed Lagart dip his head. "Oh, sorry I didn't mean to call you stupid or anything. Actually you seem rather smart for a lizard."
"That okay. I take no offence. Me know I'm not that smart."
"So, do any of these lizard men know any magic?"
"Yes. Some do. High General Gorus Ven'deln know most. He very strong, strongest of lizard men most say."
"So, is this Gorus guy, like Jayce strong?"
"Not think so. Jayce is a draken, drakens just better then all of us."
"Pah. They may be stronger and smarter then us, but we all have something they don't." Duilin stated. "We've got the luck of the draw...the uh, eye of the tiger."
The lizard man cocked up one eye brow as if to say 'What the hell are you smoking?'
"Well what I mean, is that like yeah they've got everything, but in the end, we win."
The lizard kept his facial expression.
"Well, you know like if they were so strong then how come I'm still alive, like I fought Jayce once and I met Retan face to face and I spat at him. If they had the luck of the draw I'd be dead. But I'm not!"
The lizardman shrugged and looked back forward into the sea ahead.
"Well, I mean even you should be able to agree with me. Like why else would you have betrayed them?"
"I dunno. Sometimes me act before thinking. Gets me into a lot of trouble. Belle just good with words I guess, convinced me. More than often I think me made a dumb choice to go with her, but I no think the empire should treat human like this. They living things to, they seem smarter then us lizard men."
"So, do you think that humans are better than Drakens then?"
"Better people yes. Humans nicer than drakens. Humans are not as smart or strong however."
"Well, we've got the luck of the draw, Lagart."
"Me no know, that sounds just like wishful thinking to me..."
Duilin glanced at Lagart, as he spoke that recognizable sentence. "Well...that just sounds like a bunch of negative thinking to me."
-
Sighing a sigh of relief, Fernis smiled warmly.
"First of all, calm yourself."
She noticed a figure hiding between the nearby trees. She signaled for Elphos to approach without turning her face away from the knight on the ground.
Saw the tree burn and realized it's safe, huh? Well, good for him.
"I am not sure whatever you are talking about, but whatever that is, it happened many, many, many years ago. Retan and his dark empire now rule most of the known world, and I have no idea what of the sword you are talking about. Romme itself, the earth you stand on, has been destroyed and then brought back to existence after many calamities, but it was forgotten and now remains the only known part of the world unclaimed by the dark empire."
She got up, and whipped the dirt off her pants once again, her expression still friendly yet now somewhat more serious.
"I am Indher, the last Runemaster."
Yeah, that sounds much more awesome!
"You have died, and I have brought you back to life this day. This... gentleman...somhow returned along with you..."
Fernis gave a quick glance in the direction of Mavas.
"Anyway, I brought you back because I need you as a base to return Romme to life with newly found power beyond the imagination of the dark empire. You see, I can only return a person to life if I know who I'm returning specificly, and I only know of you..."
And the king, but let's pretend I can't revive him.
"Erm, due to various reason, I can't bring back the king, so he doesn't count. Sir Iduran, I need your memory of your fellow comrades and various other people of Romme so I could revive them as well, and from their memory revive even others... With your help, we can rebuild Romme from scratch and free the world of the shadow called the Dark Empire!"
Phew, I feel as if I have just gotten better at giving speeches!
Elphos approached from behind Fernis, looking somewhat weary, but his eyes were now full of hope.
However, he remained silent.
Hmm, doesn't seem to be any special powers gained beyond the realm of death...
Perhaps they lie in a bubble deep inside his soul?
I'll have to search later.
"Will you help us?"
-
//Jenai, I don't think 6 years counts as 'many, many, many years ago'. You make Romme sound like during the dinosaur era.\\
Lawessov was just as Kropotkin said. It was over run by the Kandarin. Soldiers armed with spear guns and zombie ogres roamed the village. Why do they want such a remote place? Why conquer a small village?
The two land their wyverns behind a small hill near by Lawessov. The village was about twice the size of the last place they were, but much lower tech. Rather that actual buildings, Lawessov has small huts all about.
But the villagers were being put into slave labour; they were being forced to construct infantry barracks and guard cannons. It was an awful and upsetting site for any Aspye to see...
-
"I... I..."
Like a tidal wave, Indher's words flooded the old knight with memory of his death, and half remembered images of what lie beyond...
It hit him like a rock. Romme was no more.
But to rebuild? Is that possible? Could this woman actually bring everyone back?
His thoughts were interrupted by the darkness behind him... He turned to look out into the ocean. They were invisible. Far away... But he could feel them... In fact, he saw them during his return... Read their thoughts... their awful horrible thoughts...
Then he knew why he'd been allowed to return.
"I would want nothing more than to rebuild Romme. To return lives stolen long ago. But the truth is there's another nation just like we once were, right across the sea. The Dark Empire is about to wipe them out, just like us... Please! We must warn them! Though they were once our enemies, they do not deserve such a cruel fate! We are closer than the warship headed their way. If we hurry, we may be able to warn them in time!"
The draconic Mavas stepped behind Indher.
"What sort of pansy did you summon back? Who gives a blaze about them?"
Iduran shot the dragon man a steely glance, to which the beast shrunk back. He then turned back to the cat-like woman and continued.
"I fear I have not been allowed much time here. When the sun sets after it rises, I will be no more. If I see another nation destroyed before then I will not be able to rest! Please, we must do something!"
(Do force Mavas to submit and cooperate. It will be most entertaining. Heh...)
----
Melface was to Jayce's right again, standing in mid air. Though now with the moonlight dully illuminating the seas, the child-like demon was translucent, his off-white robes flowing around him.
"My Lord..."
He bowed lowly.
"Speak."
"May I ask what land lies southeast of our current location?"
"Romme. But there is nothing there anymore."
"Oh, but I smelled some delicious necromancy being preformed there... I oh so wish to see it with my own eyes. Might I be allowed to investigate?"
Jayce waved a gauntlet as if shooing away a fly.
"Go on, go on. Do not miss our landing."
The demon was gone, a child like laughter echoing across the waves.
"Oh, but I won't..."
-
Zeros' tilted his head, but instead of standing still, he sidestepped (a rather big sidestep) the lightning heading for him. He grinned.
"The strongest person alive, hmm?" he pondered something for a moment, then shook his head. "No. I don't think so. Why would you be the strongest being alive? If you are, why do you follow the rule of a Draken, who is much weaker then you? Why don't you gather your lizardmen and overthrow the Dark Empire? Surely your combined might could overthrow those Draken," he said, as if contemplating the situation.
He knew Gorus was bluffing about being the strongest being alive. If he was the strongest, he would have Retan under his command, not being under his command.
He smirked up at the wyvern, as if daring him to reply.
---
Allen gasped and grabbed hold on something quickly, as Henri banked the ship. Thankfully, it only lasted for a few moments. He then breathed a sigh of relief and righted himself, seeing as the dragon wasn't chasing their ship anymore.
"Now what?"
-
"Home... We're going back to Tjed..." Henri glanced back at Allen.
"Look, the clouds are breaking up."
Henri noted a few stars over the ocean ahead.
"The southern constellation... Good, just a slight left turn and we're headed east."
Henri made the adjustments, and the ship turned much more gracefully than when the dragon was chasing. The airship rocketed over the sky, above the black waves.
"At this rate we'll be home in no time." Ven noted.
"Indeed."
-
//I'm back!\\
Nick reached Asgaria only to see that Kronos' soldiers had already taken care of the job. Nick just casualy strolled by and went to search around. He walked into a small town. The homes were shuttered and locked off, everthing but the pub was open. Nick walked into the pub to see that not one person was there.
"Oh My God!!! Wheres the money" A sound came from downstairs.
"Sorry boss i lost it.."
"How?"
"Those Luna people attacked me after i stole it."
"Oh My God. Did they follow you?"
" I don't Know." There was a thud and a man started walking up the stairs with five other feet following.
Nick hid behind the bar as the men walked out.
-
<span style='color:red'>"I said OTHER then the emperor you brain dead demon!"</span> Gorus' voice growled in Zeros' head.
He then flapped his wings which began to glow in a dark-green aura.
<span style='color:red'>"Yet you do make a point. But nobody is stronger then Lord Retan. Not even me and especially that stupid Jayce."</span> Gorus' voice growled in Zeros' head.
The Death Wyvern then violently swung its wings forward blasting two blades of dark green energy towards both sides of Zeros'...
--- ---
Goldolf and Lagart then switched shifts. He was nearby Duilin, so he thought he'd get to know him.
"So, kid." He started. "I assume you're a half demon, right?"
"That obvious eh?" Duilin replied, half rhetorically.
"Well, you can't easily hide those wings under your hair now can ya?" Goldolf chuckled. "Well, it's kinda funny. Most of them demons aren't nice folk, I tell ya. Back in when I was a kid, there were a bunch of stories about demons being the warriors of hell and servants of Qor. Now they're friggin' walking on land, breedin' with humans and talking about this Iban guy."
"Oh yeah, apparently Qor, died." Duilin replied.
"Well, anyways. It's just that I see that you're a fairly nice guy. Only reason I trusted ya, was because I could sense your feelings."
"What? You mean, you can do that crazy 'sensing' crap too?" Duilin asked.
"Well, us elves and drows are practically born with it, I tell ya. But yeah, I can usually sense the evil or good in people when I see em."
"No kidding." Duilin laughed, he then looked forward into the sea. He could spot Romme and Tjed up ahead.
Duilin then sensed something coming from Romme, something familiar. However he did have a similar feeling when he saw Jayce there, just not as strong. I guess it's just because he thought of Romme as his starting point of his 'big quest'. It was where he learned a lot about his past and where he made some big steps.
He then looked forward towards Tjed. He then noticed a large group of warships (or just one I don't remember) which seemed to be heading in the same direction. The ships were too far away for them to see Duilin's small ship.
"Holy crap. I just noticed those." Duilin said.
"Ya, did. I was gonna say something about them." Goldof replied.
"Yeah, I guess my mind must be somewhere else."
"What the heck have you been thinking about?"
"Oh, you see that one island in the distance."
"Yeah, Romme. What about it?"
"Oh, that's the place I was at when chose to fight the empire. I met a few good friends there. Zeros', he's a great guy, a half demon like me. Well he's not like me; he's like half angel or something. But yeah, he's been like a mentor to me, I still spend time with him. Another good friend I had there was Seth, he was a drow. I never saw him after I left; I assumed he died...so I never looked."
"You must have been in the big War Of Romme."
"That's right. Anyways, another friend I had there was Iduran. He was an old knight. He was one of the noblest people I've met. He however died, but he died protecting us, everyone. If it wasn?t for him, the Empire would likely have this world under a much stronger clutch then it is now."
"Well, I hate to burst your bubble," Goldolf spoke. "But the Empire has a pretty big influence on Gaian. Heck, even the damn Kandarians are taking stress and sorrow from the empire."
"Yeah, but they lost a good five years. You have any idea how much can be done with today?s advancements in magic. This one guy, Haraldur, built an entire city in like, two minutes."
"Bullshit." Goldolf snapped. "I've heard tons of stories about that Haraldur guy. He's a myth. Nobody can be THAT powerful. Like I heard he made an explosion the size of Helternia just by pointin' his finger!"
Duilin shrugged. "You'd be surprised. So anyways...those warships. It looks like they're heading towards Tjed."
"Yep. Maybe it's an invasion army."
"Sure as hell hope not..." Duilin said. "I'm just one man. I can't fight an entire army alone. I'm not a Haraldur."
//Too tired to update others. Tomorrow.\\
-
The small airship shook the waves as it rocketed overhead. Henri regretted it being too dark to see anything below, but at least the strange yellow glow emanating from the cracks of the black ship provided a bit of close range illumination.
Finally, Tjed was on the horizon. Flying the ship to the capital city would be too dangerous because of the jagged mountains surrounding it and not to mention the fact that they were in a Crimson Empire ship and the capital city was on high alert. So Henri steered the transport vessel to the lights on the ground he knew were from Kesnar. He landed in a field near the ship docks.
A couple dozen knights in sliver armor barring touches immediately surrounded the vessel. All were surprised to see King Henri emerge from door and walk down the ramp.
"King Henri! Sir Ven! Sir Allen!"
Ven staggered down dizzily after his liege.
"Ugh... that is the last time I ride in an airship..."
A night with a green cloak bowed in front of Henri once the group made it completely off the ship.
"My liege, how went the mission? Are you all right?"
"Quite so, Sir Gander. I'm afraid our mission was only partially successful. We did manage to bring them back, that I'm sure of. But where in Gaian they ended up, I have no idea."
"I see you have commandeered a fine flying vessel! No doubt our Ven has lead you on quite an adventure!"
Ven placed a gauntlet behind his head.
"Uh... well, I-uh..."
Henri waved his hand.
"We will need to move this airship to the capital once day breaks. I take it the evacuations are complete?"
The knight captain, Gander, nodded. "Indeed. Most have moved to the safety of the caves. Though there are a few citizens who insist on staying here in Kesnar. Speaking of, I will have my men escort you back to Tjedon. These lands are unsafe, my lord."
-
As the two flew on Wyverins Coriko wondered what was waiting. He wasn't properly briefed on the mission. So he was flying blind, not literally of course. Coriko was also twitching for a fight. He had been doing a lot of target practise lately and he has perfected a new talent. He has made exploding fire arrows. Originally the arrow tip ould just ignite because of his fire bow, but then he discovered he could completley engulf arrows in flames by firing a small firebolt out of his hands as he held the arrow. This new technique was he held a small amount of gun powder in his hand while he enflamed the arrow. Then the arrow would crackle and as soon as it made contact with something it exploded. Coriko looked forward to a masssive brawl this time.
"So, how far to are destination?"
//sorry if there are any spelling mistakes\\
-
"Stale. That was the closest word I have found for my current state of affairs.
It's strange, really. One would think that I have everything I have ever wanted, and more... A huge chunk of land under my control, and advancements such as golems, all ready to destroy cities, given the word. And yet, I can't help but somehow feel worn, old even. When everything is readily available, there's only so much to do with anything else. I can send armies of undeads to rip people to shreds with a mere thought, but then I think: why bother? Ripping people into tiny bitlets is fun, but only if I do it myself, and truly, I just can't be bothered to do so. Thus comes a new thought, something I tried to avoid and hoped would never come: what purpose is there to continuing?"
---
As Kronos was writing his manuscripts, Ein swiftly picked off the Kandarinian guards outside. The soldiers barely even made a sound, as Ein's enchanted crossbow bolts pierced them. Taking the bolts out of the guards' bodies, Ein looked up. Kronos should be just up there, in the top palace tower. A thought struck Ein: if Kronos is as powerful as people claimed, then wouldn't he notice the death of his guards? Unfortunately, Ein's thought came too late. He barely had time to hide, before he saw Kronos poke out of the window, no doubt to see what happened below. Seemingly satisfied, he retreated back into the tower, and resurrected the two guards. Ein hid before then, and the undead guards didn't seem to notice him. He deftly climbed into a nearby window, and continued up the spiral staircase leading to Kronos' private chambers.
The door to the Marshal was just ahead of Ein now. Thinking of all the possible precautions, Ein scribbled a small, but immeasurably powerful sigil on the door, denying the use of magic everywhere in the palace but the room beyond the door. It is unlikely that Kronos keeps corpses in his own room (then again, who knows?), and he can't do much else, other than Necromancy, so Ein's victory is pretty much assured. He busted the door open.
-"Ah... Good Ein... I have been expecting you."
Kronos' words caught Ein off guard. Kronos was sitting facing the window, he had no way of knowing that it was Ein who entered the room. How could this be?
-"Er... you have?"
-"But of course. You really think I wouldn't notice the use of astral magic on my guards? You're the only one to ever use it, after the Aspyes stopped their activity."
-"I don't care! You die anyway! Murderer..."
-"I see you're distraught over someone's death. You'll have to be a little more specific, though, for I have killed quite a lot of people. Oh, and just in case if you were thinking that you somehow have some sort of an advantage over me: I know that there is an anti-magic barrier around this entire palace. You really shouldn't expect to get away with cheap parlour tricks like that, especially with someone like yours truly. Oh, and did I mention? Right now, there are eight golems around the palace, ready to smash anything that comes out or tries to get in. There's nowhere to run, Ein."
-"Oh no? And I think you're bluffing."
Ein quickly kneeled to the ground and sent a diamond-headed bolt right for Kronos' head. It, however, didn't quite reach its target: it froze in mid-air about an inch from Kronos' head, slightly sparking. Finally, Kronos turned around. Ein noticed the blindfold and... smiled?
-"I see you've been busy training, Kronos."
-"Yes, and I suppose you've had lots of luck with the ladies, Ein."
-"Of course. One has caught my eye, even."
-"Really? Does she like animals? Rodents, perhaps?"
-"Well, you know girls. They'll set eyes on anything that's furry."
-"You're funny, Ein, you know that?"
-"I'm hilarious. Takes a moron to see that."
Kronos slowly rose, and reached behind his head, undoing the blindfold.
-"Just for your personal information, Ein - I'm not really blind..."
The blindfold was off, and Ein made the immense mistake of looking Kronos straight in the eyes, or rather, what looked like his eyes. They were still there, but they were all entirely pitch black. Unable to resist, Ein fell to his knees. Everything was becoming blurry, the colours fainted. Somewhere beyond, there was a great thump, and sounds like rock shattering. With whatever was left of his strength, Ein turned to the door to see a great yellow statue-like machine, with some sort of a black rod over its back. The rod produced a black lightning bolt, and everything went black.
---
The rest of Kandarinian Islands instantly vanished in a huge black orb. The orb stayed there for a few minutes, then dissipated into nothingness.
-
//Well, I guess with the loss of Kronos, it will probably make the Kandies more of a crumbling nation. I've actually got an idea, but I should talk it over with Ein, next time I see him at school.\\
Marshall and his wyverns landed behind the hills of Lawessov. Marshall already got a good look from when they we closing in. (See couple posts back.)
Marshall took out his magi-pistols. "Okay, so we need a plan. I've got a suggestion, now what I'll do is summon an ogre or two and send them into the village and get them to start smashing things up. The Kandies will get distracted and start attacking the ogres, so then we run in and take out the slave guards and get them to run. Any of the troopers who then chase after the slaves, will shoot down. How's that sound?"
---
Wilham then noticed a village in the distance. "Ahh...finally...somewhere to rest."
--- ---
"Hey Lagart, let's turn up the speed. Those warships aren't going that fast. Maybe we can beat them to Tjed."
"How the heck do you think we'd do that?" Goldolf said. "They're way ahead of us. And this ship hasn't been taken care of for over a year."
"Well, I'd like to hurry. I really don't like the look of those warships. At all." Duilin commented.
--- ---
Rink headed his way up the stairs to reach the main floor. He could feel Gorus' and Zeros' auras in combat. He hopped that they could get out of here and find Duilin. He had a feeling he was walking into a lot of trouble, alone.
-
//Wonderful, coming up on 5,000 posts.\\
?SHIT!?
A rebel complained as he reloaded his lever-action shotgun; this had been the third time in five minutes he had jammed the damn thing. Finally, he managed to force the shells into place and close the lever. He was taking some potshots at hay bale targets he and some other rebels had set up, as target practice. As they did, the four scientists still argued over what to do in Alex?s absence.
?What CAN we do but wait?? Ilia said. ?He?s by far the most capable of us, we should wait for him to come back so he can lead us!?
?And what if he doesn?t come back?? Fenix retorted. ?That Midna girl could?ve banished him to some other dimension, we might never see him again!?
While all four scientists were into the argument, the true conflict seemed to roil between Ilia and Dom Fenix. All Kleiner and Vance could do was sit aside and mediate.
?Izzy,? Vance asked, standing up on his prosthesis, ?What if Dom?s right? What if Alex doesn?t come back??
?Nonsense,? Kleiner replied. ?I have confidence in him. We all should. He?s gotten us this far, hasn?t he??
?I still want to know where he was taken,? Vance replied, stroking his snow-white beard. ?You think he?s all right??
?I know Alex better than anyone, I know he?s okay,? Izzy replied, a little nervousness finally beginning to show.
?You can?t hide it any longer,? Vance replied. ?Admit it, you?re just as worried about him as the rest of us.?
?Oh, you?re right,? Kleiner cried. ?I guess none of us can help it. We?re a little lost as to what to do??
?Just have faith, Izzy,? Vance said. ?He?ll be okay.?
In the background the rebel once again jammed his gun.
?SHIT!?
?The first page should be across town. If I remember correctly,? Equinox continued, ?It should contain the scriptures on how to cast the Umbraburst, the exact opposite to the Solburst you just learned.?
?Got it,? Alex said. ?Any other advice??
?Use your senses,? Equinox said. ?In your Twili state your hearing and eyesight are many times more powerful than in your human form. Tune your senses and you could be led directly to the first page. Once you?ve found it, you can master the spell and begin looking for the second one. Once you?ve mastered the spells, you?ll be one step closer to being able to face Damien. We have prepared for you the implement of the Kandarinian demise, but you must fully understand yourself as a Twili first. Now go find those pages!?
?What do you think he meant by ?the implement of the Kandarinian demise???
?The Twilight Warrior did not act on magic alone in his servitude of the princess. He wielded a special suit of armor and a blade whose power is unmatched by any other. The armor itself was an amazing spectacle, combining the utmost in Twili magic and engineering. The blade, known as the Shadeblade, balances the armor?s light properties, creating perfect conditions for extremely powerful Twili magic.?
?Amazing,? Alex said as the two strolled down the road to the Twilight City, ?and they expect me to use this??
?And to master it,? Midna replied. ?Please forgive me, this whole thing is by their design, not mine. I?m just as worried as you are. I can?t really do you much good until I can regain my true form, I?m sorr--?
?No, no, don?t say that,? Alex reassured her. ?You?ve taught me so much about this world so far, and what I?m supposed to do. I?d be totally lost without you.?
?We need to work fast. Just because we?re in another dimension doesn?t mean the sun will come up any slower in the world of light. We need to find those pages. Try right here, do what Equinox said, tune your senses.?
?All right,? Alex closed his eyes and imagined himself as knowing where the pages were. As silly as it felt, Alex soon felt a vague idea as to where to go. ?I think I know where the Umbraburst page is.?
?Really?? Midna asked, hopefully. ?Where??
Alex opened his red eyes and looked to the top of the Twilight City skyline. He raised his pale arm and pointed. ?Up there, at the top of that spire.? He was of course pointing to a very tall tower in the center of town, at least a few hundred feet up.
?That?s ridiculous,? Midna said, putting her hands on her hips. ?How will you get up there??
?Well, you?re the one who supposedly knows so much about the Twilight Warrior. Isn?t he known for acrobatic ability or something??
?Of course he is! As the Twilight Warrior, no practice is really necessary for you, it should be second nature.?
?Well, I had a feeling the Asgarnian Industrial District wouldn?t be the last jumping puzzle I had to do,? Alex sighed. ?But two hundred feet up? One false move and??
?Don?t worry about that,? Midna replied, clearly having confidence in her Twili accomplice, ?surely you?ll be able to land safely if you do.?
Alex took a deep breath. ?All right then,? he said. ?Let?s get that page.?
He looked at an awning he could use to spring up onto the rooftops. If he could force enough power into the jump, he would easily be on the roof within moments. He first crouched down, and with all his might, forced his body away from the ground. To his amazement he rocketed up into the air and onto the awning, which he used as a springboard to flip up to the roofs above. After performing a few flips in midair he came down on the roof and landed. He stood back up with little effort.
?That?? Alex said, standing up, cracking his neck, ??was satisfying.?
?Keep going, Alex!? Midna shouted from below. ?That page is bound to be up there!?
?What do you MEAN YOU CAN?T FIND HIM?!?
?Sir, I told you six times already! Alex and Midna are no longer in Asgarnia, or even in this dimension as a matter of fact!?
Damien threw the Kandarinian commander aside in a fit of rage. ?I don?t care if you have to use every Goddamn man you have at your disposal, Commander, I want those two! As long as they?re still out there, they pose a threat.?
?And how do we do that? They?re not even on this plane of existence anymore!?
?Commander, you?re obviously not understanding, so let me sum it up for you in a way you?ll be able to comprehend. Alex is no ordinary man. No ordinary man could defeat me so easily. There?s something about him. He?s part Twili.?
?I?m sorry, sir??
?The Twili are the main cause of this conflict with Asgarnia. They?re an ancient race adept in the magical arts, though they isolated themselves to a region of the Borderworld called the Twilight. In those thousands of years since their migration there they?ve lived in peace, and more than once we?ve tried to trounce them, only to fail. And do you know why we failed, Commander??
?Why, sir??
?Two Twili stood up and decided to oppose us. They called them the Twilight Warrior and the Twilight Princess. Their magics combined were enough to level our entire legions of men we sent in. It was a disgrace to the Sovereignty.?
?Why haven?t they launched another attack, sir??
?Legend holds that the Twilight Warrior was killed by another Kandarinian sorcerer twenty-eight years ago. The prophecies proclaimed that the first-born son of the reigning monarchs at the time of the old Warrior?s death would be imbued with his power.?
?And you?re saying that that?s Alex, sir??
?I KNOW it?s him! His mother and father I know were the king and queen during that time. Of course they didn?t want to jeopardize their only link to survival, so they handed him off to the wise mage Caulus Zalridge. I was always aware that Alex was the Twilight Warrior, though how to do away with him was another story.?
?If you killed their only son,? the commander asked, ?couldn?t they just have another child??
?Clever thinking, Commander,? Damien went on. ?That?s why I killed them.?
?You?killed Alex?s parents??
?Exactly. In their utter disarray they had not selected the next king and queen. As of now the three elders take care of affairs. If Alex dies, you see, the Twili are doomed.?
?And what of the Twilight Princess??
?Midna was always a thorn in my side,? Damien complained, ?but once I learned that she had taken up the role of ruler of Asgarnia, I saw it as an offer that was too good to pass up. And so here we are in this damn city, Commander, and I still don?t have Alex and Midna on their knees before me. Now why do you think that is??
At this point the commander began to grow very nervous, knowing Damien could snap. ?Uh?because we aren?t trying hard enough??
?I?m glad you see it my way, Commander,? Damien said in mock appreciation. ?Hear me out now, Commander,? he continued, his anger escalating. ?If you so much as fail me one more time, I shall have the personal pleasure of eviscerating your internal organs through the openings in that empty shell of a head you have, and then feeding the carcass to the zombies in the Mining District! Now, GET OUT THERE AND BRING ME THOSE TWILI!?
Almost losing his composure, he saluted Damien. ?Err, yes sir, right away sir.? The commander wasted no time in escaping his confrontation with the choleric sorcerer.
As the door slammed behind him, Damien heaved a sigh. Freshly resurrected as a favor from Kronos, he knew he could not fail again. Those two meddlesome Twili were ever the keys to taking over the continent. But first he had to deal with this nuisance of an insurgency occurring within Asgarnia?s walls.
?Soon,? Damien snarled to himself, ?soon I shall show them that good and evil are two sides of the same coin.?
He walked out to the balcony that looked over the city a thousand feet below.
?One cannot exist without the other.?
-
Zeros' grinned and rubbed his ears in a mocking fashion. He then bowed, low enough, so he hit the ground, causing the crescent blades to harmlessly pass over his body. He sensed Rink nearby and sent a message.
Ahh. You finally got out, huh? he telepathed before standing up.
"Well, well... That was a pathetic try. Try again," he yawned, purposely trying to aggrivate the drake.
---
Allen didn't say much. He mostly followed behind the two and nodded silently to his name. His mind seemed to be elsewhere.
-
"My Lord... he is ready..."
The smallish lizard man bowed lowly, his tail flicking back and forth... Grav held the position for a long while, until the dark horned figure finally took note of him...
"Excellent... just in time..."
A shadow appeared, a third figure, this one a featureless humanoid...
"I exist only to serve the Dark Emperor in all his glory..."
"Very good... Show me your form Zefnario..."
"As you wish, my Lord..."
The shadow stepped towards the dim light of a blue torch. But when the light was cast upon him, he was no longer a black mass, but rather he was wearing flowing beige and red robes that waved as if under water. Upon his short black hair was a band of feathers...
It was Kronos...
Except his eyes were burning with a crimson fury, much like that of the Dark Emperor.
Retan nodded in approval.
Grav rose from his bow, lifting his staff up into the air.
"What a success! He looks exactly like the Marshal! Your prowess knows no bounds, my lord! Eee hee hee!!"
The short lizard man began dancing circles around the dour Dark Emperor, until he strayed too close to Retan's black gauntlet. In which case Grav was promptly smacked in the muzzle and sent flying. Retan spoke.
"You will need this."
In his other hand was a blindfold. Zefnario fell to his knees and accepted the cloth from his master, quickly tying it around his eyes and thus hiding the crimson glow.
The Dark Emperor Retan observed his creation.
"Excellent. I christen ye Kronos Z. Go. Take the lich's place. Prepare my nation for the time when they will accept me as their one and only master."
"Yes my Lord. I shall do as you command..."
----
Sunrise at Kesnar was normally a beautiful experience.
On a typical morning, crimson hues that painted the sky over the eastern mountains inspired artists, writers, poets, and the like with messages of calm serenity, peace, prosperity, and most importantly, hope.
Yet just as the sky began to brighten in that pre-dawn hour, the soldiers stationed at the once peaceful town could not help but turn their eyes to the dark west... To those three black specks upon the ocean horizon...
"Heh..."
"Something amuses you, my Lord?"
Melface was standing on the ship's railing. Jayce turned to the child like figure, a sinister smile upon his face.
"I just realized I attacked that town before, a year or two ago, but I was interrupted. For that, I cannot let it stand... What did you find on Romme?"
Melface sighed, waving a bored hand.
"Pah, nothing at all. A dead island, as you say."
"Very well, the time has come... Unload the troops and storm. Nothing is to be left alive... no building is to be left standing... This town shall be a sacrifice to my name as I start my campaign upon Tjed..."
Great compartments opened up in the fronts of the sea faring vessels, and many smaller landing boats spilled forth, rushing the waves towards the shores of Tjed, overflowing with scaly lizard men brandishing weapons and armor of all types...
And thus it began...
-
//God damnit! Post #4999. I hate life! *cuts wrists*\\
Gorus' eyes narrowed in rage. He then flapped his wings and moved backwards. He then lifted his head upwards and opened his mouth and began gathering dark energy...
Rink stepped into room, where he saw Zeros' and the Death Wyvern. He assumed that the Death Wyvern must be Gorus. Interesting, he didn't know there were lizard men gepardis.
Rink scanned around the room and spotted Duilin's mace on the floor. If he could get it maybe he could actually help fend Gorus off...
--- ---
Duilin's ship began to pick up the pace and move at a much greater speed. The wind was blowing through Duilin's hair, swinging it back. "Whoo-hoo!" Duilin cheered. "Those Tjeds weren't joking when they said this ship was fast."
"I've been on faster me boy!" Goldolf called back.
Duilin's facial expression lowered when he saw that the warships had already made it.
"It looks like those are Dark Empire ships." Goldolf said. "Only the empire would make a warship like that."
"Yeah, I think you're right." Duilin then cursed under his breath. Images of the gruesome battle in front of the Romme Castle with a field of dead bodies flashed through his mind. He wasn't going to allow another peaceful nation go down like Romme did. "I let Iduran down, but I won't let Henri and Ven down. Not wile I'm alive..." He whispered to himself.
-
"Holy... Captain!! Come take a look at this!!"
The smallish solider handed the spyglass to his elder, who regarded the sea with interest... then shock... then horror...
"It... it's... an invasion..."
They all knew this day would come. It was only a matter of time before that black empire set its main forces upon them...
"Invasion!!"
"INVASION!!!"
"INVAAAASION~!!!!!"
The bells of Kesnar rang loudly. The solders, knights and even some young squires ran to the flimsy walls of the city that faced the sea.
The boats... there were several dozen coming... and more on the way, each crammed full with snarling beastly Lizard Men, thirsting for human blood.
And on the horizon the three black warships loomed, as if mocking the petty city. The skulls etched upon the sides of the Jagahn seemed to laugh particularly loud.
The catapults lining the walls were readied... Soon the first of the Dark Empire boats would be in range...
"WHAT?! Now?!"
King Henri tried to lunge back towards the city, to follow the wooded path back to the few knights that were almost certainly doomed.
"My liege! You must return to the capital! You are needed!" Ven said as he held his king back.
Henri hesitated. He knew he could not fight, he had no delusions about that... But he desperately felt he needed to see them... Oh gods, they weren't ready!
Ven continued.
"You must meet with the war concil and prepare! My leige! Please!"
Henri turned to the High Knight Ven, who continued still.
"I will take charge here. We will hold them for as long as possible, then we will retreat. You have my word I will return."
Henri didn't say anything for a moment. Then the two embraced, a brief hug like a father and son would share.
"Don't do anything drastic."
"Says you." Ven waved dismissively at the king and smiled. Henri returned it. Ven was rational in chaotic times, he knew. His finest warrior would make it out of this, he was sure of it.
Then Ven departed alone, running back down the path, back to Kesnar, to the battle ahead...
-
//5,000 posts. Wow. That's neat. Though I wanted to be the 5,000th poster. <_<\\
?Found it yet, Alex?? Midna shouted up from below.
Alex leaned back against the tower wall he was on, inching his way across the narrow lip. ?Not yet!? he shouted back.
?It should be up there,? she shouted up again. ?Your senses detected it!?
Finally Alex got onto a flat rooftop. ?Urgh,? he moaned. ?Never again! That?s what I said in the Industrial District.?
From Alex?s view he saw the entire Twilight City below him, roofs and windows glistening in the never-ending dusk that shrouded the land. Two hundred feet below Midna stood on the cobblestones, watching Alex perform his acrobatic act to find a ripped-out book page.
Finally something caught his eye.
Resting draped over a wire connecting two buildings, Alex saw a white sheet of paper. He had done it!
?Here it is!? He shouted back.
?That?s great!? Midna hollered. ?But how are you going to get it? It?s all the way out on the middle of that cable!?
How was a good question indeed. The wire itself hung slack two hundred feet above the hard street below, preventing Alex from walking out onto the wire. He could dangle down off the wire, but he would risk jostling the page and it flittering away carelessly into the wind. Though he had no choice.
Alex knelt down near where the cable was secured to the tower, and affixed his hands around it. Taking a deep breath he hurled himself off the edge, allowing his hands to suspend him. To his fortune, the cable did not shake much, and so the page rested happily where it had been for who knows how long. Slowly but surely Alex hand-over-handed towards the page.
?You?re almost there, Alex!? Midna yelled up.
This act reminded Alex of his days back in the Glacia mountains, grabbing onto unstable rock holds in order to cross chasms ten times deeper than this. But now at the end lay a prize. Within inches of it, Alex reached out his arm and grabbed the page in his hand.
?Got it!? He shouted.
Naturally things could not be so easy. As soon as he was center stage, the cable moaned under Alex?s weight. With little give, the wire snapped, sending Alex earthward.
Shit, he thought to himself, seeing the street approaching fast before him. Better do some of that acrobatic stuff she mentioned!
Almost by instinct, Alex, who at this point was falling head-first, began to roll. If he could hit the ground rolling, he could minimize his injury. With the forward momentum given by the cable, he figured this to be easy. Alex landed on the top of his back, rolling down the cobblestones before coming to a stop on his back, the page still clenched firmly in his hand. When Alex opened his eyes, Midna was hovering over him with a beaming smile on her face.
?Alex, you did it! You got the first page!? Midna took no time in hurling her tiny arms around Alex?s body as he got up.
?All right then?? he said, looking at the page as Midna hugged him. ?Let?s see here.?
?I grow impatient,? Damien mumbled, still looking over the ruined city below. ?Kronos is getting restless with the incompetence of these blasted dogs he calls soldiers. If I do not attain absolute control over this city soon he will have my head. But what can I do? It would be far more sporting to allow those two to come here themselves only to be destroyed, rather than cut their cords short now. The sun will rise soon, and I cannot wait much longer.?
?Ilia, please, it?s the only way.?
?I wish it wasn?t,? she said sorrowfully. ?Sending those men out there is suicide without Alex to back them!?
Dom gritted his teeth. ?Ilia, face facts! We don?t know where he is! We don?t know if he?s ever coming back, or if he even cares about us anymore!?
?Dominic!? Vance hollered. ?That?s quite enough! Don?t try to hide it, you?re as worried as the rest of us. You may not believe this, but sending our soldiers on a suicide attack of the citadel will NOT bring Alex back any faster! All we can do is wait!?
?Sam, we?ve been waiting for almost a day now,? Dom replied. ?Alex surely would?ve given us some sign as to where he is. It?s not like him to disappear without a word.?
?What about this Midna character, Dom?? Ilia shot back. ?You ever think of that??
?What does that have to do with anything?? Dom said.
?Midna could?ve taken him to the Twilight,? a voice across the room spoke up. It was the scout who had gone looking for Alex those hours ago.
?Sergeant, you have our attention,? Izzy replied.
?I know far more about this affair than any normal man should,? the scout replied. ?I suppose you could say that in a previous life, before Asgarnia fell under attack, I was one of Princess Midna?s personal bodyguards. And so as a result I overheard a lot about who she was and what she did.?
?Care to share?? Ilia asked.
?Fine, but you didn?t hear this from me,? the scout cleared his throat. ?Princess Midna is a member of an ancient race, called the Twili. She once lived in the Borderworld and ruled over the Twilight, but relocated to Asgarnia once the Kandarin-Twili War began to escalate. She wanted to keep a low profile and avoid detection until the Twilight Warrior revealed himself.?
?Twilight Warrior?what the,? Dom asked, confused. ?Are you just making shit up now??
?Let him talk, Fenix,? Vance bit back.
?That?s right, Twilight Warrior. He one part of a two-Twili group, consisting of him and the Twilight Princess, who in this case is Midna. It?s the Warrior?s job to combine his power with the Princess to slay the greater evil. In this case, it?s our good friend, Damien Roth.?
?If what you?re saying is what I think you?re saying?? Ilia went on.
?Unfortunately, you?re right. It seems Alex was bestowed with the Twilight Warrior?s power after the previous one was killed. The legend says the first born son of the ruling king and queen of the Twilight are granted his power, to be revealed at a key point in his life.?
?Oh, man,? Fenix moaned. ?I always knew Alex had some kind of issue with Damien, but never one as deep as this. I guess the fate of Asgarnia is still up to him then. But where is he now??
?Chances are Midna took him back to the Twilight to better acquaint him with his new abilities that he is expected to master. The sun will rise within hours, so I?m sure we can expect Alex to return then.?
?Dear me,? Kleiner sighed. ?I suppose Alex didn?t want us to worry for him. But we did anyway? I can only imagine what?s going through his mind now.?
?Though there?s no reason to fear,? the scout replied. ?If the legend is true, Damien, along with the rest of the Kandie occupation in the city, will be routed. But then, Alex must pursue them elsewhere.?
?He?ll leave us?? Ilia said.
?I?m afraid so,? the scout said. ?The two cannot stop until the greater evil that caused the ancient war is put to rest, unfortunately, that task has been unaccomplished ever since the first Twilight Warrior thousands of years ago.?
?So there?s a perfectly good chance Alex could die like the rest of them?!? Ilia cried.
?Now, now, Ilia, there?s no need to worry,? the scout replied, trying to allay her fears. ?I know Alex will pull through. He has in the past.?
?If you say so??
Before long the sun would once more find its way to shining on the once-utopian city. Now questions lie in its downtrodden inhabitants? minds: Will their saviors appear before them? Will they be successful in destroying the greater evil? Will Asgarnia be restored to its former beauty?
Of these many uncertainties, there lies one truth. Light will once again shine on the city of Asgarnia, in more ways than one.
-
Duilin's ship closed in towards Kensar. They were only about a five minute walking distance away from the warships.
"Okay, I'm going out there. If you guys just want to sail back, go ahead. I'm not leaving until empire is out of here." Duilin said.
"Duilin? Why are you so determined to fight?" Belle asked in concern.
"I tried to save Romme, but I failed. I can't let that happen again. I'm more then five times stronger then I was after I left Romme, so these Lizards are in for one hell of a fight!"
"Don't underestimate lizard men." Lagart warned. "They very strong race."
"Well...so am I." Duilin said heading towards the edge of the boat. "So, any of you in?"
"I help fight." Lagart said. "You may need it."
"I guess I'll help." Goldolf said. "I've got some basic elemental magic skill, but it's probably nothing compared to you."
"I'm not a fighter." Belle stated. "But I'll try and help in the best way I can. Plus, I don't want you too run off on me again."
Duilin nodded. "Okay, just be careful. I don't want any of you to get killed."
"I won't make any promises." Goldolf chuckled. "I could kick the bucket any minute at my age."
Duilin then jumped off the ship and flapped his wings pushing himself forward and landed in the shallow water of the beach.
Lagart and Goldolf tossed down ropes and slid down them. Lagart had his broadsword out, which seemed like a smaller weapon in his large hands. The three then rushed towards the ports ready to surprise the lizards...
-
"Sir Ven! Glad you could make it!"
"Glad to be here, Gander. What's our situation?"
Ven leaned on the flimsy stone wall that surrounded the town, facing the beach. Blast it, the ports were the weakest point. Fortunately there was a flood gate, which was slowly closing even now as Ven looked to his right. This was a small wall that shut off the water from the sea from flowing into the short canal that lead to the ports. It would stop those boats from coming directly in at least, but the lizards wouldn't have much trouble getting out of their boats and climbing over it. Several men stood on top of the flood gate with long spears, ready to beat back any that tried.
The rest of the wall facing the ocean on either side of the flood gate was stone, about ten to fifteen feet high, depending on the drifting of the beach sand. From the walls, there was a good fifty feet of sandy beach the lizards would have to tromp through after getting out of their boats. Archers lining the walls would take their advantage then, if they are capable of piercing the lizard men's thick hides that is...
(http://http://darkagegames.net/dal/kesnar_battle.gif)
"Another minute and they'll be in range of our catapults..." Gander replied.
"Hey! There's a group of people running along the beach! One of them's a lizard!"
Ven strained himself to see.
"Hold your fire! That... that's Duilin!! Lower the ladder!"
"But sir!"
"Do it!!"
Before the rope ladder was even lowered, Ven hopped off the tall wall and landed in the sand.
"Duilin! Am I glad to see you!!"
He trudged through the beach, running towards the winged half human and his crew.
"Are the others all right? How about you?"
"They're in range!" A voice echoed from the walls. With a loud SNAP, all five catapults loosed their rocky projectiles, and they flew high over the group's heads. A moment later huge splashes of water ripped through the otherwise serene water, dislodging some of the oncoming boats.
Ven held his head low. "Listen, we have to get out of here. Come with me up on the walls." He then hurried back to the rope ladder thrown down.
-
"Ven!" Duilin called. "I'm glad to see you too." As Ven said they should head inside he called over to Belle. "Belle, come on. You'll be safer behind the walls!"
Belle slid down the rope off the ship and then ran over to catch up with the others climbing up the rope ladder. After the five got over the wall Duilin spoke to Ven.
"So, you haven't seen the others have you? Damn. I was kind of hoping they'd be here. I have a feeling Zeros' is here, and I can bet Rink is around too. But I don't know about Xenai and the others, I fear the worst for them."
He turned his head up towards the sky. "I met this one fox-guy who looked like he was attacked by fire mage. I'm almost certain it's Draven."
He looked back at Ven and motioned to his companions. "Okay, so these guys agreed to join up with me. The old drow is named Goldolf. The woman is Belle and this lizard man, has left the empire because he disagrees with their views on humans. His name's Lagart." He looked at his companions. "This is Ven. He's a High Knight with the Kingdom Of Tjed. I met him a wile ago." He looked back at Ven. "Okay so let's get back to the point. I want to help you fight; the only thing I ask in return is for you to take care of my friends. Lagart and Goldolf want to help fight. So, find safe place for Belle to stay."
He then cracked his knuckles. "Okay, so you got a battle plan? 'Cause I'm ready to bust some skulls."
-
"Fernis, you are officialy bad at navigating."
It has been quite a while since Indher finally agreed to go to Tjed, despite wanting to stay at Romme to try a few more things. She was still bitter at what the old knight told her-
Anyone would be if they knew their masterpiece would break apart by dawn.
Though not doing so bluntly, she ended up forcing Mavas to come as well, saying he would probably find his targets there anyway, et cetra.
"Bah!" Gernis shot at Elphos, too lost in thought to consider anything he has to say "so what if we were supposed to be at Tjed a while ago already? It's a pathetic little boat for crying out loud! Heck, were it to be a little smaller, we'd all sink due to sheer weight of Iduran's armor! We are damn lucky the sea isn't story today!"
Elphos apperantly shot something back at her, but she didn't even bother responding. What bothered her was the reason for the time limit on Iduran's renewed existence...
She assumed Iduran himself wouldn't know, and acknowledged it being her mistake a possibility.
Not being able to think of any possible mistake she made, she went on to trying to find a solution.
She quickly dismissed all ideas thought of at first, except the "bind soul to gem, embedd gem in body" idea, which was too costy and complicated and thus was left for a last resort.
Suddenly, Fernis got up, almost hitting her head against the boat's cabin cieling.
Having realized stress was being build up by all of this, she decided to find something to occupy her for the time being. She could poke Elphos and laugh at him or torture Mavas by tying him to the boat and making him fly them all the way to Tjed, but a better idea came to mind.
"Excuse me, ugh, sir Iduran?" she approached him "May I have your outer armor and weapon for a while?"
She scratched the back of her head.
"It's just that, I thought... Since we might encounter hostile forces when we arrive there, it would be better if I use the free time I have on this boat to upgrade your gear..."
Making Iduran a flaming blade sounded quite fun, though engraving runes on a metal would take more time than it would take to draw them on dirt...
-
Zeros' looked up at Gorus, his stance relaxed, his arms crossed, impatiently tapping his foot.
"Well, hury up, would ya? I have better things to do," he said. He sent a telepathic message to Rink, though.
When he fires, make sure you get out of it's range. I have a feeling something big is going to happen.
---
Allen sat ontop of the wall, near the company that had just came up. He narrowed his eyes and adjusted his glasses. He wasn't a fighter. He was a scientist and alchemist, but, he was also a strategizer. That's why he was on the front lines.
He was leaning over the walls, observing the ships. Lizardmen weren't known for their magically capacity. Plus, it didn't look like they had many magically fighters. He scanned the many ships and narrowed his eyes.
"It looks like this crew is made of mostly lizardmen... Ven, do we have any mages or any sort of magical forces? If so, put them on standby... If the Dark Empire forces are mostly soldiers and melee fighters, we can blockade them at the beach and the floodgate..." he said, pointing towards the beach, where a good distance stood between it and the walls.
"If we could somehow ignite the beach with fire, making it burn, it could temporarily stop the forces coming towards us. Or, if we have mages, they could make the beach erupt with flames... or even ice. I'm not sure about this, though... What do you think, Ven?" He then looked over at Lagart.
"Lagart was it? How are your kinsmen resistances to fire and ice magic?" he said, quickly formulating plans in his head.
He relayed this all quickly, using gesture to imply what he wished.
-
Armand Cross hurried across the deserted Asgarnian streets. That Damien makes himself out to be bigger than he actually is, he thought. Larger or not, though, he is right: something has to be done about Alex. This was not the first time Armand got in trouble with Damien about him. Alex keeps proving himself just a little more than a worthy adversary. Every time he's cornered, somehow he saves his sorry hide, and this keeps on happening. Well, it's time someone put a stop to it.
Armand finally made it to a Kandarinain control outpost, where officers met up to discuss further strategies of bringing down the resistance. He sat down next to another commander.
-"Heh, look at that. Armand is back. Did Damien spank you?"
Others laughed. Armand simply scowled, and turned to the commanders across the table.
-"Gentlemen, I think it is time for that annoying fly Alex to finally learn his place. However, no matter what we try, he always seems to survive. Do you have any suggestions?"
A rather thin commander spoke.
-"Sometimes, when an enemy knows he's cornered, no amount of small assaults will bring him down. We need to finish this with one quick, decisive blow. The question is, what do we use for the said blow?"
-"De Sade."
The name was said by a lower-ranking officer standing at the door. It appeared as though he just came in. Everybody looked at him.
-"De who?"
The officer sighed.
-"You, sirs, should study your nation's history. Oftentimes, it can give you valuable insights into an otherwise hard situation. The Lilithian sorcerer known as de Sade was the one who originally brought down the Twilight Warrior. Ratrix the 2nd, the then-Marshal of the Sovereignty, awarded de Sade with retirement for his great service to Kandarin. He now lives a hermit's life, ironically not too far from here. I suppose you could try to talk him into helping you."
The officer proceeded into the further halls of the outpost, most likely filing a report. He left the commanders speechless. Armand quickly hurried after the officer, and asked him of the precise location of the sorcerer.
---
Several hours passed. Armand finally found the sorcerer's hut, hidden deep in the forest next to Asgarnia. He carefully knocked on the door.
-"Who disturbes me? Show yourself, intruder!"
The door burst open, with no one behind it. Armand walked in, and just then he saw the Lilithian.
De Sade was sitting in a large armchair facing a hot fire. He was completely hidden by the chair, save for his hands, which were resting on the chair's armrests. From the look of the hands, de Sade had green leathery skin.
-"Archmage de Sade, the Sovereignty needs one last service. There is another Twilight Warrior, and he is wrecking all sorts of trouble in Asgarnia, a city we recently took over."
The sorcerer sighed heavily.
-"Again I am summoned to show insects the way to perfection."
De Sade finally stood up, and Armand nearly sat down. This guy didn't need magic to kill, his looks did the job perfectly. The Lilithian was dressed in black robes streaked with dark green lines, with a hood covering an inhuman face. His skin was very tight on his head, baring his teeth and giving it an overall appearance of a green skull. Though the eye sockets were there, the eyes were nowhere to be seen. The sorcerer also had a pair of small scaly wings, not large enough to be of any use. However, they seemed to have been cut from their original size.
De Sade seemed to look directly at Armand, and he felt a chilling cold creeping over his insides.
-"The Twilight Warrior is Alex. Barely enough for a decent challenge. Tell me, would a dragon swat a fly just because he could?"
Armand did not find the strength to answer.
-"Think about that. But now, the wind sings a strange melody... Someone is approaching."
The Archmage, nearly hovering over the ground, left the hut. Armand did not come up with anything more original nor useful other than to follow.
De Sade was right. There was a rebel walking through the forest. He did not appear to have sighted either de Sade, Armand, or the hut. Finally, Armand found strength within him to speak.
-"A-a-a-archmage, that there is a - a rebel, from the city we are occupying..."
-"His lesson today will be pain."
De Sade extended a razor-sharp talon towards the rebel, and the Asgarnian cringed, then fell down. There was a visible black pentagram on the ground around him, and it appeared to be drawing the rebel to it. Finally, the movements stilled.
-"But... but you didn't give him a chance! He didn't even see you!"
-"Sometimes, it is best preferable not to hear the serpent's rattle, young one. Now, Alex, was it?"
-
?So is what I hear true??
?Yes, Lord Roth,? Armand replied. ?De Sade has decided to open up his amazing talents to our extinguishing of the Twilight Warrior.?
Damien groaned. ?You disappoint me, Commander. You mean to say that you and your men are so horribly incompetent as to call on the retired Archmage to do your dirty work for you??
Armand didn?t have the stomach to make a rebuttal.
?That?s what I thought. You sicken me.?
?Sir, we see no other alternative--?
?NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE?! DO YOU LACK GRAY MATTER?! Surely Alex is a formidable opponent, make no mistake, but calling on someone such as de Sade is a step too far.?
?Lord, is there a problem? Alex will finally be brought to his knees!?
Damien moaned again. ?Commander, I fear I may have made a mistake putting you in charge of controlling that rabble below.?
?Lord, those are merely mortals with weapons! Your vendetta entails a near-immortal being granted the power of the gods!?
?Armand, your excuses are wearing on my last nerve. Unfortunately, de Sade lost his sanity years ago. It pains me to realize what he will do to our dear friend Alex should he find him.?
?Sir, you appear to have personal objections to this action?may I ask why??
The Lord could only sigh. ?If you keep this from those cretins in High Command, yes. If you recall properly, Commander, Archmages lie one rung up on the chain of command from Lords, and de Sade is one Archmage I never want to experience again.?
?Sir--?
?If de Sade found out it was I that had made such a blunder, I may follow the same fate as the first Twilight Warrior. That is why I want to destroy Alex myself.?
?Sir--!?
?Commander, it is not anything personal against you, but I have warned you in the past of your penultimate failure. It seems that by calling in de Sade, you?ve spared yourself a horrible death. Perhaps I should reconsider your assignment.?
?Sir??
?These rebels I once thought of as sniveling cowards, finally willing to fight for their city, have managed to wipe out a third of our forces in Asgarnia. Why is that, Commander??
?Sir, I--?
?I will tell you why. It is because you are not down there to command them.?
???
?Yes, Commander. You are now re-assigned as commanding those damned soldiers below. At least if you die that way, it will be less tortuous.?
?Sir, I--?
?And still you protest? I have done you a great deed, you thankless whelp. Get out of my sight!?
Defeated, all Armand could utter was a dejected ?Yessir? before exiting Damien?s chamber.
?De Sade,? Damien muttered to himself, a grave fear entering the sound of his voice. ?If he rears his ugly head I fear we are all in for suffering. I must defeat Alex myself! As the gods as my witnesses, I shall destroy him, regardless of what stands betwixt.?
---
?Alex, the rate you?re mastering these spells is unnatural.?
?What can I say? I was always a quick learner.?
In the course of forty-five minutes Alex had perfected the Umbraburst. A swirling vortex launched from his hands and out into open air, away from anything it could pull in. The portal opened wide, revealing the empty black void within, purple bolts of lighting arcing to and fro the clouds it pulled in. Within a second the deafening roar was once again replaced with silence.
?Alex, you?re actually scaring me a little bit,? Midna admitted, drifting over to him. ?No Warrior previous mastered such spells so quickly!?
?I guess I?m just lucky,? Alex said. ?Past experiences have taught me that a lot of things boil down to dumb luck.?
?Not this,? Midna said. ?What I saw was skill, and it?s exactly what we need.?
Alex cracked his knuckles. ?So, should we begin looking for the second page??
?I guess so,? Midna replied. ?If I remember correctly, the fourth spell is The Parasite. It paralyzes your target and drains their vitality, adding to yours.?
?Neat stuff,? Alex said, himself a little perturbed about his increasingly morbid sense of humor. ?I just wish I knew the vague direction to begin looking.?
?I think I overheard Equinox mention something about the Glacia mountain range??
?Glacia?? Alex asked, suddenly reminded of his homeland. ?I used to live in Glacia.?
?It seems we might be heading back there pretty soon,? the imp replied.
?I had a lot of friends in Glacia,? Alex recollected. ?It would be nice to see them all again.?
?You might get that chance. Come on, we need to go inform the elders that we?re leaving.?
---
?Lamarr? Otis! Please come down from there!?
Kleiner had once again become dominated by creatures lesser than him. In this case the two aliens had clambered onto a shelf and refused to move.
?Dear me,? he sighed. ?The poor things are terrified. Otis hasn?t seen Alex in a long while, neither have the rest of us.?
Ilia could only hope Alex would return safely. ?The Kandarinian High Command is getting skittish,? she said. ?And our scout we sent out to the forest hasn?t come back yet??
?It could be worse,? Dom muttered. ?We could have some immoral sorcerer to deal with.?
?Thankfully such is not the case!? Kleiner said, finally lifting the two headcrabs down. ?I have a feeling Alex will be back before we know it.?
?I sure hope so,? Ilia replied. ?I?m worried sick about him.?
?No need to worry,? Vance consoled her, putting his hands around her. ?Before long Alex will be back, and we?ll win this war once and for all.?
However, Vance had no idea how wrong he was. Alex would have far more on his plate than he ever did in Glacia. In eighteen months the snowy province had been forgotten by the Sovereignty, deemed a waste of time and resources to take over, and so Glacia remained untouched. This slight tactical miscalculation would eventually wind up causing the Sovereignty far more trouble than it would have by merely taking over the commonwealth.
-
As Armand left, de Sade resumed walking through the forest. The plants on either sides of him seemed to die as he passed by them. Soon, he heard an odd smell - the stench of weapon oil, a smell near forgotten by him. Seems the rebel he struck down had friends that were expecting him, and were now coming to check up on him. De Sade did not even bother concealing himself. He continued walking.
-"Holy crap, what is that thing?!"
-"Kill it! I found Rufio, he's dead!"
The air was filled with the clicking of spearguns. The projectiles, however, didn't make the full voyage to their destination - they slowed to a crawl as they approached de Sade.
-"The spirit is strong, but the spears are not enough... I beg of you, do continue firing. Your silent terror makes music for my mind."
Soon enough, the rebels were out of ammo. Most of them took out their bladed weapons and rushed for de Sade, who did not move. Even though the Asgarnians were roaring with rage, inside they were shivering with fear. What was this thing?
Just like the spears, the rebels didn't make it to de Sade. The projectiles fired at the sorcerer turned about in mid-air, and soon each rebel had at least three spears sticking out of him. Most were killed instantly; only one was left clinging to his life. De Sade approached him, reaching for his chest.
-"The touch of Death. Cold..."
The talons shred through the flesh, and de Sade felt the rebel's heart in his palm. He swiftly severed it from the body, and tore it out.
-"Your corpse is little more than a nesting place for maggot egglings. I hope you do aspire to greater things in the next life than fighting battles you cannot win."
Of course, the rebel heard none of this. He died before de Sade even touched him.
---
?Lieutenant, I have an assignment for you.?
Lt. Carmine had never been directly addressed by the Lord before. Surely he must?ve had a mighty task to ask of him.
?Yes, O Mighty Lord? What do you require of me?? Carmine was always eager to please.
?Lieutenant, I have someone I want you to keep an eye on. Since I know you are new to these ranks I am sure you will not recognize him. His name is de Sade. He was a former Archmage many years ago. High Command has seen fit to ask one last favor of him. I won?t go into details, but I have personal history with him, and I want you to merely keep an eye on him. Think you can handle such a menial task??
?Yes sir, of course sir!? The gung-ho lieutenant saluted the mighty Lord and departed.
?Oh, that poor soldier,? Damien sighed. ?If I never see him again it will be too soon.?
---
The Lilithian already knew that he was assigned a convoy, and was waiting for him at the northern Asgarnian gate. With a slight feeling of disgust, he saw the Kandarinian sentries throwing careful glances at himself. If the pathetic pests only knew what they were looking at...
Finally, he sighted the convoy. He appeared to be a brisk man in his twenties. With but a hint of surprise, de Sade noted the complete lack of fear for his frightening appearance.
-"You, sir, bear a striking resemblance to Death, if I do say so myself!"
-"Hmmph. That vermin Damien is insecure about himself, so he sends a spy? You are a worthless rat, Roth! No, less than worthless!"
-"I'll be sure to quote you on that, sir! By the way, I am --"
-"Lieutenant Carmine. The question is, do you know who I am?"
-"You, good sir, are Archmage de Sade!"
-"So he has told you."
-"Yes, gentle sir!"
De Sade couldn't help the feeling that he was being patronized.
-"Wasting time is for fools, and I cannot be classified as one. Let us depart."
-
Rink begins sneak across the room towards Duilin's mace. He knew it was just a weapon, but it was Duilin's. He'd want it back, plus if Duilin is gone, then he'd have something to remember him by, yet he probably wouldn't need it to.
The energy in Gorus' mouth tripled in size. He then arched his head forward and then shot the blast, but not at Zeros', rather at the cave wall above him. A large explosion then destroyed the upper half of the wall, and the entire interior began rumbling. From the other sections of the mountain the lizard warrior's could feel it. Rocks began falling from the roof.
Rink then grabbed the mace. "Got it." He then covered his mouth, why'd he have to think out loud?
Gorus turned his head. <span style='color:red'>"You little runt. You shall die now!"</span>
Rink then disappeared in a puff of smoke along with the mace. The imp then appeared right behind the Death wyvern's head. Rink had the mace in his hands and then swung the mace at the back of it's head, knocking him away.
"Let's get outta here!" Rink shouted.
-
"Of course, Duilin. I will ensure her safety."
Ven pointed at two soldiers.
"You two, please escort the lady to the caves."
"Yes, sir!"
Ven brought a hand to his chin. Did he just say fox-man? A chill went down his spine. Could he possibly be talking about those horrible little gray demons? No, he shouldn't use the word 'demon'. Duilin was half demon after all, and there was no bit of malice in him. These things were simply pure evil.
"I think Draven did us a favor, then. He's on our side, as far as I can tell. He was the only one to come out of the portal opening where we expected, though Henri and I certainly didn't expect to see him. I think it's safe to say he's quite angry with the Dark Empire for banishing him like that, and was pretty set on revenge when we parted ways. Where he went I have no idea, though."
He then turned an leaned on edge of the wall, overlooking the sea and the giant boulders being hurled out at the incoming boats while listening to Allen's suggestions.
"That's our problem, Allen. We've never had much in the way of magic. We've recognized this weakness when they first started sending Lizard Men down here, so we have a few training at the capital, but we're lacking down here. I can channel light and some other elements into my sword, and cast a few wind spells, but not much. I think Duilin is our strongest mage here. Other than that... how many mages do we have?"
"Uh... three sir."
"Three? We only have THREE mages?"
"Y-yes, sir! Journeyman rank, so not really finished with their training..."
"Well, blast. Bring them up here."
The three green and teal clad mages came up the ladder from the Kesnar side, all young men with a glint of fear in their eyes. The center one spoke to Allen.
"We're elemental mages, at your service. Though our training is not complete, we do know most basic elemental spells."
Ven turned to Allen.
"They're at your command, since I don't really know how to fight magical battles. Good luck Allen."
He then spoke more generally to the surrounding soldiers.
"Remember, we just need to hold them off for as long as possible. No heroics. When things turn bad, we make for the caves. Got it?"
"Yes sir!!"
(Feel free to control the mages from this point on, Zeros'. Also, Lizard Men are weak against ice.)
----
"What is THIS? Are they throwing ROCKS at us?"
Jayce grabbed the top of the head of the lizard captain of the Jagahn, peering out the massive windows of the control bridge at the massive onslaught of lizards heading to the island on boat, and the boulders dropping down upon them.
The Lizard Man captain was shorter than Jayce, and had a scar accross his left eye with a complementary eye patch. His other eye bulged under the presure of the dark prince's grip.
"Aarrr!! That be the case, me Lord..."
"Then throw some back..."
He let the captain go with a push, and the lizard stumbled to the side, using his tail as balance.
"YAARR!! Ye heard the man!! Spin the wheel! Turn sideways an' blast 'em with the right side battery, mateys!!"
"Aye, cap'n!"
Jayce covered his face with a black gauntlet. Gods, he hated sea faring Lizard Men...
The Jagahn slowly rotated so that it's right side was facing the island, the fearsome sculls and statues hatefully mocking the town of Kesnar from a distance. The ten cannons mounted on the side aimed and fired. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Deafening black explosions, one after another, ripped through the skies above Kesnar. One hit close to the wall, and a few men were knocked off and killed before even getting the chance to fight...
----
(Iduran has until sunset, not dawn. Likely the rest of the chapter. Heh...)
"Well of course, I certainly wouldn't mind."
He unhitched the latch of his gray metal chest armor and pulled it off along with his cape, revealing a simple light blue tunic beneath.
"Problem is, I no longer have my sword."
He motioned to his empty sheath.
"The Dark Empire sought it desperately, and I had to give it up so that they would not obtain it. I'm proficient with most any blade, though, if we could find another..."
Mavas was outside, running his new claws along the wooden railing. Blast it! He didn't want to go back to Tjed, of all places. Of course, he was unrecognizable in this form, but still...
Then a devilish thought caused a smile to creep upon his draconic muzzle. Ven would probably be there... He'd be able to get the jump on him easily like this... Of course, that blasted cat woman would forbid it, but as long as she didn't know, she couldn't give the command not to...
His attention was immediately caught by explosions upon the island ahead, much more easily visible in the morning light. Warships were assaulting Kesnar, he could see. He turned and walked back to the cabin, his claws clicking on the wood floor, and he poked his head in.
"If we don't want to get blown away by a war fleet, we might want to make our landing some distance away, my lady..."
Iduran's head shot up. "They're attacking already? Blast it!"
-
"A favor?" Duilin questioned. "Perhaps. I guess I'd rather have Draven fighting against the empire rather then for it. But..."
He thought about Renard. He wondered if he was just as bad as the rest of those empire guys, same with that strange Ophelia woman. Something was odd about her.
"Lizard men don't like ice." Lagart said. "Use ice attacks. That should hurt them."
Duilin looked at Belle and touched her shoulder before she left.
"Belle." Duilin said.
She turned to look at him.
"In the unlikely event of me not surviving this. I'd just like to say..."
"What?"
"It was great to see you again. I'm really glad your okay."
Belle giggled. "Thanks Duilin. Sorry I was so misunderstanding about you dissapearing on me, earlier." She kissed Duilin on the cheek. "Good luck." She then went with the guards towards the caves.
"Okay. Well, yes I guess I would be the strongest mage here, but there are so issues. I'm really not to big in the ways of ice magic. I never practiced it. Another thing is that I'm more of a front line battle mage, rather then a back line range-mage, or whatever you call 'em." He then looked towards Goldolf. "Hey Oldmen, you said you knew some magic, ever practiced the water element?"
"Yeah, it's my favorite actually. Or was it fire? Ah heck I don't know." Goldolf replied.
"Uh yeah, well since they only have three mages, maybe you could go with Allen. Just hold them off, remember that."
"Yeah, sure thing kid." He replied.
"Ven." Duilin said. "I assume that they have a High General, with them. Likely Jayce or that Gore-ass guy."
"Gorus." Lagart corrected.
"Anyway, maybe we should be ready to combat him. Those mages won't be able to hold him off, so we would likely have to physically fight him." He turned to Lagart. "You think you'd be ready for that?"
"Yeah." Lagart answered. "I help fight."
(Zeros' you can do some stuff with Goldolf just don't fully control him. Like having him make drastic choices or killing him off. I don't want that to happen just yet.)
-
(Aww... I feel so special. Heh.)
Zeros' sighed and shook his head, but nodded at Rink words. He dashed over to the imp and grabbed him. He reached to his side, grabbing his sword. Transforming an in instant, the holy form came to life. He slashed upwards, a crescent blade of energy cutting through where Gorus had blasted the wall. It made the cave to start collapsing faster.
He sheathed his sword, spreading his wings, wincing slightly, but he immediately flew towards where the hole was blasted. He did a quick teleport, making him and his imp companion appear outside. He did waste a moment before quickly flying away from the area with Rink and Duilin's mace.
---
Allen blinked, having not expected to be given this much command, but, he quickly composed himself. It wouldn't do good to get shakey now. His face hardened and he looked down at the ships, now blasting cannons at them.
He pointed at two of the mages. "OK. First, I want you two to use your fire element on the very beginnings of the beach," he said, pointing towards the areas where they would likely land, but not now. Wait until they land," he ordered. Two of the novice mages nodded and waited for the queue.
Allen then turned to the last journeymen mage and Goldolf. "I want you two to stand by with ice spells. The second you see lizardmen coming off the ships and storming the beach, immediately start firing off any sort of ice spells you have," he said. The two he spoke to nodded.
He peered down at the ships and adjusted his glasses. He just hoped this would work.
"Also, when the flames stop working, switch to ice spells and slow them down... Duilin, I also know your proficent with fire and other sort of magic. If yuo can do anything to assist, that'd be great."
-
"Blast it." Ven ducked a bit as an explosion hit nearby, shaking the walls. "If there is indeed a High General, then indeed we'll have to rush him... or retreat..."
Ven drew his blade and crouched, just peeking over the edge of the stone wall. He'd need it soon. Real soon...
"Archers ready!!"
The sound of a hundred arrows being knocked...
"FIRE!!!"
Shafts of wood tore through the air as the boats carrying the Lizard Men arrived in the shallow water, almost to the beach. A few shots were lucky and hit a couple in their soft necks, staining the water red, but the majority bounced off their armor or even their thick scaly hides, if they didn't plunge harmlessly into the water...
One boat, filled with seven lizards brandishing huge blades, began its way through the canal as archers on top of the flood gate harmlessly rained them with arrows...
-
The entire room crumbled and Gorus was buried in the rocks. As soon as the dust settled a blast of black-violet flame shot from the north corner of the rubble and the slim robed lizard jumped from the hole it made. "Goruss?" It called, trying to find the High General.
Suddenly the massive green fist smashed through the broken rock and the damaged Gorus stood up. "Damn you rebel scum! DAMN YOU!!!"
--- ---
Duilin crouched down next to the stone wall with Ven. Lagart nearly had to lie down, because of his large size.
"Damnit...wish I had my mace." Duilin muttered.
"I have extra sword." Lagart said. "You want?" He said handing him a simple looking sword, which was a little more then half the size of Lagart's broadsword.
"Sure, it'll do. Half of my techniques need some sort of metal weapon." Duilin replied.
-
Zeros', flying high in the air, holding Rink, sighed in relief and slowed his flying speed, slowing down to a realitively normal flying speed (for him, anyways).
He looked down at the imp and grinned.
"Well, we're out." he said, looking back to where they once were.
---
Allen narrowed his eyes and made a gesture with his hand, towards the lizardmen.
The two mages - the two instructed to use fire - held their hands high, their palms glowing a deep red. Then, they threw their hands forwards, making the fire rush forwards, a huge wall of fire appearing in front of the advancing forces, which made them suddenly stop and blink at the wall of fire that suddenly appeared in front of them.
(I hope that wasn't too bad.)
Then, he waved towards the lizardmen with the huge blades with his other hands.
THe other mage and the drow nodded and raised their hands, the palms glowing a deep blue. Ice suddenly started to rain down from the sky, the two mages combining their magic powers to create a psudeo-blizzard to rain down upon the whole Dark Empire forces, but more focused upon the lizards.
Allen grinned and waited to see the results.
-
Hmpf. What's with the "my lady", Mavas? Were I not such a nice person, I'd accuse you of mockery.
Elphos was instructed to turn the boat. The island could now be seen in the distance, and Elphos was entrusted to choose a safe landing point based on his own judgement.
Fernis took Iduran's armor with a somewhat grim expression.
No sword, you say...
She gave out a sigh and continued to etch down runes unto the plate with her nails.
Though they were of demonic flesh in source, it was still no simple matter to do this right -
The steel wasn't too tough, but runes were delicate, and a simple mistake, like an extra line, could couse a total spell reversal.
"Alright, Iduran. I should be done by the time we reach Tjed."
Although the main runic "patch" would be a recharger/overcharger for strength and stamina, she started off with the shoulders, putting a simple barrier on the left shoulder plate and a simple strengthening rune of the right one.
She was about to start etching the main runes, but then paused.
Maybe I could tatoo a celestial sword generator on his arm...?
She took a glance at his arm, but then shook her head. She knew she was no good in tatooing.
But even with the main runes, there was still a lot of space.
What else could she put in?
Then it hit her, and she began etching eagerly.
-
"Could it be?" Wilham said. As he spotted two humans. "Finally some human life. I'm already sick of all the damned lizards lurking about." He then jogged towards the two humans."
--- ---
"So I hear you're a bounty hunter?"
"I was. Not much sure me want to continue."
"Well, the word around the street says you know somebody..."
-
The men walked out of the pub and Nick peered out the shutters of the window. Some men with stars on there shoulders came before the two horrible men. One of the luna opperatives started grabbing his throat as if he was chocking.
"Why are you wasting your powers?" The skinner on of the two asked.
The Luna operatives attacked seeing there fellow friend was in danger. One slowly pulled a MagShot from his jacket pocket and the other a Magnade. The choking opperative fell numb to the ground. A Magnade was thrown and a punch came lightning fast knocking luna opperative number 2 to the ground. The last opperative fleed for fear of being killed.
The men started walking away.
-
"Hmm, oh sorry Marshall. I was thinking of some old things. Yeah that sounds good. Alright lets get started. "
---
"Let me Jayce."
Druid ran and jumped over the edge. The ground and the attacker were coming up to Druid really fast. When the two parties finally met, a sickening crack was heard by the people in the ships. Druid stood up, however the attacker did not. Druid turned around and looked up at the ships. A loud grinding sound erupted behind Druid. He turned around and was slugged in the face. Druid staggered backwards.
?Son of a bitch!?
Druid sent a beam of shadow energy at the attacker. Again he heard the grinding sound, but this time he saw where the sound was coming from. The man he saw had greyish brown skin which was cracked. He looked like he was made of stone. The beam Druid fired had hit the creatures arm and blew it to smithereens. The grinding sound came after. The creature rammed its hand into the ground and the grinding started. The creature pulled his arm upwards and the earth moved with it. The whole hillside moved up with his arm. The grinding sound got more intense as the earth chiselled away to form a new arm, and once his hand was finished being chiselled the earth fell back down in its new form.
?That?s an um? interesting power you got there.?
For the first time in a long time, the witty and powerful ruler Druid was speechless for a good retort.
?Well this is going to be interesting. Lucky for you I have been perfecting this new ability, and this is the perfect opportunity to try it out.?
Druid raised his hands from his side with his palms up. His hands started to glow a deep red. His eyes turned the same colour and seemed to smoke. He started to lift off the ground as a circle formed around him. The circle was the same colour as his hands. The creature back away and then stopped unsure of what was happening. Slowly wisps from the circle flowed upwards and started to take the form of a creature. Then more of these creatures started to form. Two of the creatures that had formed had massive shoulders and were large in size. A third one was the same type of build as Druid. The shadow warriors had no detail and were the same deep red colour as Druids hands. Their body seemed to pulsate with shadow energy. Druid stopped after three of these creatures. He slowly lowered to the ground. Once his feet hit the ground his hands and eyes stopped smoking and he collapsed down to his knees panting. Summoning once was an effort, let alone three.
?Alright,? Druid took a deep breath in ?go tear him up.? Druid breathed out in a much laboured way.
The shadow warriors launched themselves forward. The rock creature raised its arms to protect itself. The warriors tore into the rock man. The people on the ships leaned over to see what these creatures were capable of, but there wasn?t even time to see how the shadow warriors killed the rock man because in seconds the rock monster was totally destroyed. The creatures swooped back to Druid and lifted him up to his feet. They let go but Druid collapsed. So the creatures carried him up to the ship. They then dropped him on the ship. The people on that ship took a step backwards. The creatures flew backwards and dissipated into the air. Druid was resting on his knees with his head down. He slowly raised his head upwards and saw that all the ship?s passengers were starring at him.
?What are you looking at??
//Xorlak, here was the post i wanted to do before. Thanks for fitting in the rock throwing thing for me. Does this post fit in now?\\
-
(Coriko, the rocks I was referring to are from Tjed's catapults. I suppose it is entirely possible for a random golem to attack at the same time, though. Heh... Just be mindful that the main ships can't get close to land because they are too big, and that they are in the middle of launching a full scale assault upon the beaches of Tjed.)
Two random knights upon the walls of Kesnar, brandishing long spears, watched as three shadowy creatures utterly destroyed a golem upon the beach.
"Whoa! Did you see that?"
"Yeah, it would, like, totally suck if that guy sent those things after us."
"Indeed it would."
----
A few of the Lizard Men stopped as they ran into a wall of flame. Though it was long enough to buy the archers upon the walls a few precious seconds to reload, the lizards began to jump through it one by one. The first few were burned and staggered about, but more kept coming, and the effect was diminished too much...
With closer targets, the yeomen launched arrows into the creature's soft necks with increased precision. One by one the fearsome beasts fell, but for every one that dropped lifelessly into the sand, two took it's place, climbing over their fellows as the small boats washed ashore...
Then they were slowed a bit from the ice storm, but the effect was too wide and thus too diluted to strike down any lizard entirely, only serving to elicit serpentine curses from several members in the front ranks...
----
Iduran nodded. Were she to try that on his sword, he wouldn't be so comfortable, as it was his family heirloom. But he really didn't have any special connection to that suit of armor, other than it was a good set. He watched in fascination as she scratched runes right into the metal with her bare claws. Impressive as it was, he doubted she would be able to do that with his sword. It seemed unbreakable after all. Blast, he missed that blade. Almost as much as he missed living...
-
//See, Coriko? I have no regular access to the computer and yet somehow even I find the time to post once in a while. Don't be intimidated by Xorlak, he doesn't bite...last time I checked, anyway.\\
The strange duo made their way towards Alex, with de Sade in the lead. Carmine didn't quite understand how the Lilithian knew where to go. Then again, Carmine's words could penetrate any armour and stop any sword. Would it not be easier if he just asked?
-"Goodest sir, you continue to absolutely astonish me. May I inquire how is it that you are so indeed truly powerful?"
-"Stars."
-"Astral magic, sir?"
-"Yes."
-"But how did you..."
-"Is this the life you have chosen, Carmine? Slaving your life for Roth? If so, leave me out of it. I will not be spied upon."
-"Yessir."
The important thing about overpowered madmen, Carmine thought, is the golden rule of all word warriors - the art of silence, the science of knowing when to stop talking. This seemed like the perfect time.
-
?Well, Alex? Are you ready??
?As ready as I?ll ever be,? he replied.
?This portal will take us back to Asgarnia, and we can get to Glacia from there.?
?It?s at least a day?s walk to Glacia,? Alex said. ?So I?m going to have to load up before we head out. Still have the P.C.S.??
?Of course,? Midna replied. ?I?m still holding on to it. As soon as we return to Gaian, you might want to revert to your human form so as to not draw attention. I?ll give you your suit back on the other side.?
?Sounds good,? he said. ?Make it happen.?
With the flick of her wrist Midna formed a portal back to the lands Alex called home. The swirling black-and-blue vortex opened in the ground, beckoning them to step through. She floated over the portal.
?Take my hand,? she said.
The same way they arrived here, the two Twili were disassembled into glowing black particles which were promptly sucked into the vortex. To them it all appeared to be a blinding flash?
The sun was rising on the Asgarnian cityscape. It was an average morning fitting of the summer months, warm and moist, storm clouds roiling off to the west, which would soon find themselves descending upon the city late in the afternoon. But now, the skies were clear and navy, becoming ever bluer as the solar disk rose above the horizon. In the clear skies the dark Twilight portal formed, a few hundred feet off the ground. Doing its job, it deposited Alex and Midna precisely in the same spot where they had left the night before. Even the same poison headcrab corpse remained, slumped in a corner. Alex, fully reassembled, shielded his eyes from the bright light.
He moaned. ?Now I see why you hang out in the shadows so much.?
?Quite so,? Midna replied, also shielding her eyes. ?You might want to change back to human now.?
Naturally a good idea. Within moments Alex?s Twili garments were replaced with his jacket and slacks, his skin color normal, his red eyes cerulean once more.
With a flick of Midna?s hair-hand, Alex soon found himself shrouded over the P.C.S. Mark-II tactical system again. The ebony metal shell encased him as it did those many hours before, hiding his face and body from those who never saw it.
?Come on,? Alex said, his voice filtering through the helmet, ?we should head back to the rebel camp and ensure them we?re all right.?
?Right with you,? Midna said, taking the form of Alex?s shadow as he began his dash to the camp.
?Oh dear, Sam, I?m at the end of my rope!? Kleiner complained. ?I don?t know what to do!?
?It?s all right, Izzy,? Vance assured him. ?I?d bet my other leg that Alex?ll be back any moment.?
?Sam, you?ve been saying that for the past three hours now,? Dom said. ?To be honest, it?s starting to get annoying.?
?Dom, hush,? Ilia scolded. ?We?re all hopeful, don?t ruin it.?
A rebel came running in from inside, out of breath, but obviously excited, as evidenced by his cries:
?He?s back! He?s back! Alex has returned! Here he comes!?
All through the compound it felt as if a heavy weight had just been lifted from the rebels? chests.
?Alex is back?!? Kleiner cried. ?Dear me, I knew he wouldn?t forget us!?
?Thank God!? Ilia sighed. ?I was worried for him!?
?It?s about time,? Fenix said.
With the greetings fitting of a saint, the armored rebel stepped through the doorway, rifle strapped onto his back, looking like none of it ever happened.
?Alex!? Ilia nearly burst into tears as she threw her arms around him. ?We thought you were never coming back!?
?It?s good to see you again, buddy,? Fenix gave him a playful punch on the arm.
?Yes indeed,? Kleiner replied. ?We had given up hope of ever seeing you again! Pray tell, Alex, where were you??
?It?s a bit of a long story,? Alex replied. ?Sit down and I?ll tell you. Just give me a sec over here.? He stepped out into the hall, knowing Midna wanted to talk to him.
Midna emerged from his shadow and faced him.
?We might as well tell them the whole story,? she replied. ?No sense in keeping them in the dark any longer.?
?Agreed,? Alex replied. ?For the meantime, let me do the talking.?
She took Alex?s shadow as he re-entered the room.
?Get comfortable,? Alex said. ?I have a lot to tell you.?
?So I heard Lieutenant Carmine was assigned to de Sade during his job??
?That?s right,? Commander Armand replied. ?Though I feel sorry for him. Poor bastard was just transferred from Kandarin a month ago and now he?s going to up and get his head blown off. De Sade never was one for anger management, if you know what I mean.?
Commander Stroud stroked his bearded chin. ?You think we did the right thing, calling de Sade back to help??
?Who gives a shit about doing the right thing,? Armand sneered. ?As long as Alex is dead, what difference does it make??
?But Damien wanted him alive,? Stroud noted. ?If de Sade kills him outright, Damien will have all of our heads. Bear in mind, Armand, that de Sade is not technically part of the Sovereignty anymore, and hence, does not possess ranking priveleges.?
?That doesn?t mean he won?t rip us apart limb from limb for trying that technical shit on him,? Armand shuddered. ?I?ve heard that whoever he touches collapses into a pile of ashes, nothing more.?
?I wouldn?t be surprised,? Stroud replied, shuffling his cap. ?That guy has a past I don?t even want to think about. They say it gives you nightmares just to talk to him.?
?I think I?m going to get nightmares from talking to you about talking to him. Stow it.?
?It all started back in the Industrial District,? Alex began, narrating the events leading up to now. ?When a misfire with a cannon brought me dangerously close to death. My vitality fading, I had some kind of hallucination where my old mentor, Caulus Zalridge, came to me in a vision.?
?And what did he say?? Ilia asked.
?He told me to seek out Midna. You may know her as Princess Midna, ruler of Asgarnia before the Seven-Hour War. Once I tracked her down, she offered me a deal. She would resurrect me back into my body if I helped her with her task. At the time, I had no idea what I was in for, and blindly accepted.?
?Dear me,? Kleiner said.
?Then she told me to infiltrate the Citadel and take on Damien. Unfortunately, I was less than prepared, as evidenced by what you saw yesterday afternoon. Luckily, it didn?t take long for me to recuperate. As for the rest, I?ll let Midna herself tell.?
The imp emerged from Alex?s shadow on cue, much to the shock of the others.
?Goodness!? Izzy cried. ?P-Princess Midna.? He bowed, along with the others.
?As you were, Isaac,? Midna said. ?Anyway, I knew Alex couldn?t take on Damien in his current state, so I passed my prowess in the magical arts along to him, which he picked up quickly. With his help, we were able to temporarily cripple the Kandarinians in Asgarnia, and defeat Damien?for the moment.?
?For the moment? What does that mean?? Fenix asked.
?You see, as long as Damien survives, so does the curse he placed on me. That dark magic is what shrouds me in this imp form. As soon as the curse is lifted, I can take my spot alongside Alex as the Twilight Princess.?
?The prophecies proclaimed that the first-born son of the ruling Twili family would be imbued with the power of the legendary Twilight Warrior,? Alex went on, ?who, along with the Princess, would eventually destroy the greater evil. Seems that I managed to fit the bill pretty well.?
?You mean?? Ilia gasped.
?That?s right. I?m the Twilight Warrior.?
Suddenly aware that two powerful beings were in their presence, the scientists bowed once more.
?Please,? Alex said.
?Alex, this changes everything?? Izzy replied. ?You have our word that we will do whatever we can to help you. Anything in the world, just name it.?
?A generous offer, Izzy,? Alex said. ?Right now, the most helpful thing you could do is allow me to leave for Glacia. Torn pages from a Twili spell book have been spread across this continent, and we need to collect them to prepare for the confrontation with Damien to come.?
?I understand,? Izzy said. ?We?ll hold Asgarnia while you complete your mission. You have our word.?
?We can do it,? Ilia said happily. ?Sam? Dom??
?You won?t be disappointed,? Vance replied.
?You?ll have a city to come back to,? Fenix assured.
?Much obliged,? Midna said. ?Alex, we really need to get going.?
?We?ll be back hopefully within a day or two,? Alex said. ?Just keep the city safe.?
?We won?t let you down,? Izzy said, shaking Alex?s hand.
After saying their goodbyes, Alex and Midna soon were bound for the mountainous Glacia Commonwealth. One Twili portal later they found themselves at the snowline. It was a nostalgic feeling for Alex.
?Something wrong, Alex?? Midna asked, noticing he was faltering.
?You know, I walked this path eighteen months ago,? Alex said, ?in hopes of finding a way to make a living. Glacia just wasn?t doing it for me. Now I realize all of those I left behind, friends I deserted, loved ones I forgot about, drowned out with obsessions of war.?
?I know it?s not easy,? Midna replied. ?But despite it all, it?s important to keep on pressing on, regardless of what happens. I?m sure your friends are all safe and sound. There?s nothing of interest in Glacia to the Sovereignty anyway.?
?Despite the fact they know the great Twilight Warrior originated there,? Alex mused. He looked up the mountain range to the glowing lights of Glacia City. ?The city itself remains untouched??
Alex remembered everything about his past life, his past existence in Glacia. He remembered why he had gone there in the first place. To get away from the war, the violence, the hell. Now he would be returning for the very reason he left. As the two climbed, the never-ending snow once again fell gently on Alex?s metal shell, covering his shoulders and head with a fine white powder that dispersed when he jumped across thousand-foot deep crevasses. There was no denying it. He was heading for home.
Though he would realize a lot more had changed than he thought.
-
Elphos poked his head inside the cabin briefly.
"We are approaching the shore..."
Fernis waved at him without turning her head.
"All right, all right, I'm almost done..."
With that, Elphos went out of sight. A brief moment afterward, Fernis grinned and raised the plate above herself, as to observe her own work of art.
"Alright, I believe it's finished." she said, handing it back to iduran.
"Most of it will activate automatically, giving you some more strength whenever you feel you need it and keeping you from getting tired, but theres one that needs manual activation... It's one interesting idea I had while working on it."
She scratched her head and kept grinning. She was obviously proud of this new 'trinket'.
"Yup, this now acts as a teleporter! All you have to do is envision yourself in a new location, and you'll be there... Just note that since this is plain steel plate with no stones of power embedded into it, it doesn't have much power. Don't try to teleport too far away or too many times at once. And never, EVER try teleporting yourself into a location you cannot see! This is likely to couse the runes to overload. They won't explode ot anything, but I don't think you like becoming dizzy."
Elphos poked his head in once again.
"Are you getting out or what?"
Fernis sneered angrily and got up.
"Coming!"
//For future refference, the max distance is around 20 meters with a max rate of 1 teleportation every 10 seconds. This might seem like a lot, but try to imagine this in real combat.\\
-
Finally, de Sade and Carmine arrived to the mountain hamlet. Everything around was snow-white, except for de Sade himself - somehow, when the snow landed on his robes (?), the flakes simply vanished.
-"Glacia, was it? This place looks too familiar."
-"I believe that this is where Alex is from, sir."
-"I hadn't asked for your input, mortal."
There was nothing here to suggest that Alex was present. This, however, didn't seem to worry de Sade.
-"Unless you have the fur of a bear, Carmine, I suggest you find yourself a place to keep your blood warm."
-"And you, sir...?"
The Lilithian grunted something incomprehendable. Carmine decided to give him the benefit of doubt, and headed for the closest hut. The hut's chimney was smoking, doubtlessly indicating warmth. The lieutenant took one last glance at de Sade, who looked like some grotesque statue. Strangely, when Carmine looked at him from the distance, for a minute he thought he saw an angel in de Sade's crooked shape... no, it was the same as before.
---
De Sade himself turned around, facing the direction Alex would be arriving from.
-"Run faster, Twili. My wings do droop in anticipation."
-
Wilham arrived and approached the two people. One was a man wearing thick dark blue clothing and had blonde hair and the other was a man dressed in strange red and yellow clothing. "Greetings fellow humans."
Marshall turned around. "Shush. You'll give us away." He hissed.
"I beg your pardon?" Wilham snapped back.
"Who are you?" Marshall asked.
"I am Grand General Wilham Wolfe." He replied. "Who might you two be?"
"Marshall Royle. This is Coriko."
"Marshall eh? I sense summoning magic from you."
"That some talented senses you have. How could you tell?"
"I have those same abilities my young friend." Wilham showed the two his golden gauntlet with a white diamond. "By any chance are you a survivor of the Blue Minotaur?"
"Why?"
"I was the only summoning faction still around to my knowledge. You wiped out the Red Cyclops a decade ago, and they cleaned out the Green Wyvern twenty years before that. The others I think were destroyed by the Dark Empire."
"Others? I didn't know there were more summoning factions. Where are you from?"
"I'm trying to keep it on the down low. Perhaps we'll talk later."
"Sure, actually could you help us out here?"
"Okay. What do you need?"
"Just summon up something big and mean, and then run into this town with us. How strong are those gauntlets?"
"Pretty damned strong actually. I've cracked open a few skulls with this."
"Goodie. Let's get started."
Marshall then held his amulet and then his other hand out and Wilham simple held his gauntlet forwards.
Two spectres emerged from the mages, one white and one blue. The blue one formed into an ogre wile then white one formed into a green dragon about the same size as a dark dragon.
"Whoa. That's great some skill!" Marshall commented.
"Grand General, boy." Wilham smirked.
The two creatures then charged into the town. The ogre began smashing away at buildings and the dragon flew about spewing flame from it's mouth at the military buildings below. The Kandarin warriors then began to organize and attack the two monsters.
"Now's our chance! Let's go." Marshall ran into the town. "Remember; get the slaves out of the town, alive!"
-
Coriko ran in after Marshall.
"Hey," Coriko yelled to a group of cowering slaves "you want freedom? Me and my friend are here to liberate you."
The cowering crowd of people look at him blankly.
"This is gonna be harder than i thought."
-
Ven peered over the wall as he heard several scraping sounds.
"Blast it. Here's where we come in. Ready!!"
Holding his blade skyward, Ven's sword suddenly bust into a blinding white light. At the bottom of the wall, several lizards were using claw like extensions to scale the stone, straight up. The knight waited for the first scaly hand to reach over the top blocks...
"Hya!!"
With a flash of white, Ven severed the limb from the lizard, and the creature fell the full fifteen feet downwards into the sands below, screaming all the way.
"Attack!!"
With a rush, all along the walls the knight took their long spears and swords and jabbed down at the climbing beasts, pushing them off as each nearly made it over.
Yet more and more still came...
----
Iduran took the armor from Idher, putting it back on with practiced ease.
"Why, thank you very much."
He wasn't quite sure about the teleportation though, as his last encounters with similar spells left him queasy and disorientated, not to mention the time he was teleported away from Romme and stranded. Ugh...
It looked like he was going to have one last battle, though here on his former enemies' lands he would feel very out of place. He got up and followed the rune caster out the cabin door.
-
Almost by magic. That was the radical change in environment Alex and Midna experienced in their upward trek to Glacia City. From balmy temperatures to near freezing, and still several thousand vertical feet to go. Down below Asgarnia looked disturbingly ruined. Alex had never seen the city from so far since he traveled there eighteen months ago. Now he saw the true extent of the Kandarinian Sovereignty?s damage. All the more motivation to remove them, he thought.
Despite what Alex had been through, he was slightly alarmed at how easy the journey to Glacia was. Sure enough he would find some obstacle to slow him down.
?So you said you once lived here?? Midna inquired.
?"Yeah,?" Alex replied. ?For about seven years I did.?
?"So what'?s it like? In all of my Twili affairs I never had the time to come up here.?"
?"Well, it?'s pretty much cold year round, but the sights are amazing. I just wish we were coming up here as the sun was setting. The nights here are absolutely beautiful. It almost never stops snowing, and the Glacia folk are some of the nicest you'?ll ever meet.?"
"?Sounds like paradise,?" Midna said. ?"Why did you leave??"
?"Well, there just wasn'?t anything I could do to hold a stable income,? Alex complained. ?So I left for Asgarnia in hopes of finding a job, being fed up with the war and all. Though, as soon as I got there, the portal storms flared up, and one thing led to another."
?"I see,?" Midna replied. "?So is it good to be finally heading back?"?
?"I?'m sure the people I left behind were worried about me, yes,"? Alex noted, "?they probably think I'?m dead. They know me."
?"Alex, this trip up to the top is taking way too long. Maybe I should just teleport us to the top."?
?"So why didn't you before??"
?"It helps to see an area for myself first before I can start casting portals within it. Now that I can see the top, I could take you there now.?"
?"Fair enough,?" Alex replied. "?Do it."?
And so she did. The black portal once again formed, letting out directly outside Glacia City?s wooden walls.
"?Let me do the talking,"? Alex said, motioning Midna to take his shadow. She obeyed promptly.
Alex made three hard raps on the wrought iron gates. "?Anyone there??" He called.
A guard brandishing a crossbow stood up in the tower overlooking the gate. ?"Identify yourself!"? he shouted.
?"It'?s Alex. I?'m finally back, Seth."?
Seth could hardly believe his ears. "?A-Alex?? You?'re back? After eighteen months? We thought we?'d never see you again! Welcome home, Alex."? He motioned the guards to open the doors.
The huge iron gates swung open, revealing the same little town he had left behind a year and a half ago. Little had changed. Busy folk were milling about, working, having fun, being happy. It was truly a paradise.
Alex stepped through the gates and onto the town?s main thoroughfare. The market was still here, as were Sefl?'s Pub, the general store that Jen ran, and Harik'?s smithy. All was as he left it. It seemed unnatural about how little had changed.
?"Hey, Alex!"? Seth called back. ?"I?'m sure you?'ve got business to do here, and I?'m still on my shift. As soon as that?s over I'?ll come find you and we can catch up!?"
?"Sounds good,"? Alex replied, and shook hands. He then continued down the main street.
?"So, where do we go from here??" Midna asked.
?"Well, my old cabin is a nice place to stay. Let?s get there and work from there.?"
"?Sounds like a good idea,"? Midna replied, and followed him.
?"At last, my prey has arrived,?" de Sade hissed. He looked at the hut Carmine had wandered into to warm up. ?"Mere mortals,"? he muttered. ?"Always tending to basic necessities.?"
Across the thoroughfare he laid his eyes on the ebony man. He was in a prime state of vulnerability.
Carmine had just returned from inside the hut. ?"There he is,? he said. ?Why not attack now??"
?"Silence, fool,"? de Sade commanded him. "?Hunting prey is an acquired skill. You need to toy with your prey first, lull him into a false sense of security.?"
Once again, Carmine knew when to shut his mouth.
?"Very soon,?" he said to Carmine, clenching his fist, ?"the prey will slip up, and the trap will be sprung. Up to now you?'ve been dead weight, Carmine. Now you?ll finally be able to serve that Sovereignty you so foolishly conscripted yourself into.?"
That made Carmine?'s blood run cold. ?"Uh, sir?"?
?"Carmine, if he doesn'?t do away with you, I will. Now, present yourself as the lure.?"
?"Err, Yessir?"? he sighed as he jogged up the road, speargun in hand.
?"Now, my little Twili wolf,? de Sade said to himself, ?you shall die like the dog of war you are.?"
-
Allen frowned, but waved his hands. The mages ceased their attacks. He then pointed downwards, over the wall. The mages nodded in understanding and once again raised their hands.
Instead of the scattered ice storm, each mage concentrated their powers into a concentrated blast of ice, the balls of ice rocketing down towards the oncoming lizardmen scaling the walls.
-
Soon there was a constant stream of lizards simultaneously crawling up and falling off the outer walls of Kesnar, knocking each other down and using fallen bodies as stepping stones as they thirsted for the human blood just out of their reach...
Spears were jammed into them, as well as rocks and boiling water. Sword points even when they got too close. Singular icicles were effective, impaling the creatures as they fell, but more and more simply came...
Finally there was a scream at one section of wall, a lone Lizard Man turning back the spear of a knight and knocking him down. He was up, on top of the wall at last. Three men rushed to knock him down, but in doing so they had to abandon their own posts, and thus, more smiling fanged faces appeared over the ridge, and the knights began to panic, their forms sloppy...
With a burning white blade Ven ran up and down the walls.
"Hold them back! Hold them BACK!!"
He brought his blade down hard upon the arm of one of the lizards that was teetering over the edge of the wall, then followed with a swift upward slice, casting the creature down upon several more climbing reptiles below...
-
Duilin lifted his sword in the air, and concentrated his demonic and air magical energy into the blade, giving it a golden-orange glow. He then rushed towards the edge of the walls, where two lizard men had gotten up. As soon as the two lizards climbed over the wall, a glowing blade was slashed across both of their chests, and their armour and hide began to burn. Duilin stood in front of the two wounded lizards. He then pointed his left hand forward and shot a barrage of fireballs from his palm, which collided with the lizard men knocking their charred bodies over the wall and towards the ground below.
Lagart was a little bigger than the average lizard man, plus he was a lieutenant before he left so he had a fair bit of and edge of strength and experience over the attacking lizard men. One of the lizards Lagart spotted coming over the walls made eye contact with Lagart.
Lagart flourished his blade around and advanced towards the attack.
"Hsss!! Traitor!" The Imperial Lizard hissed. He swung his blade at Lagart, but it was blocked by his sword. The two lizard men clashed swords a few times before Lagart gave a mightily slash knocking the sword from his foe's grip and then gave a second horizontal slash across the neck slicing the creature's head off...
-
Nick walked out of the pub. "Hey!"
The men turned around and stared at the teenager. "You want to die too?"
...
"Try me..."
The man put his hand up trying to choke Nick. His attempt was hopeless. The other man grew spikes from his back and arms. He charged to tackle Nick.
Nick unseathed his blade and with a few flashes of an attack the men fell.
the spiked man tried to speak. " Freak."
"Heh. Your telling me.."
//Heh (c) Xorlak, xavier and other people.
-
(What, Xavier is using "Heh" now too? I swear that guy is such a copycat. Heh...)
"Back! BACK!!!"
Knight Captain Gander plunged his broadsword into the neck of the mighty lizard as it loomed over the edge of the wall, netting a warm spray of crimson upon his face. With the help of two other men, the trio heaved and pushed the thing backwards over the edge as the beast flailed.
He took a few seconds rest. The walls were on the verge of being overrun, but still they were hanging on...
"We can do it men!! For the King! For Tjed!!"
"YEAH!!!"
Gander brought his sword up, ready to strike down another beast that was nearly over the edge of the walls. As he jogged, he noticed everything around him getting dark...
"Why hello hello hello... there...."
"Who... said that?!"
He slashed his sword in the air threateningly. He was still in his place on top of the wall, yet there was suddenly no one else up there. No soldiers, no Lizard Men... and it was dark like night, with the skies churning black and crimson...
"Gander, Gander, Gander... a mighty Captain of Knights... What is it that makes you... afraid...?"
Gander could not tell where the voice was coming from until the last sentence, where he suddenly was able to follow the sound to the edge of the wall to his left. Snapping in that direction, he could see a lone boy, barely 10 or 12, with silver hair and an off-white cloak standing upon a raised stone block.
"Who are you?!"
Melface grinned...
"Is it darkness...? You don't care for darkness much, do you? You don't like invisible dangers, huh?"
Gander's eyes twitched around nervously, as indeed the darkness was swelling.
"Stop it! STOP IT!!!"
With a mighty heave, Gander brought the sword down upon the boy. But he simply wasn't there, as if he had never been. The sword struck the stone with so much force that sparks flew, and a slight gash was left upon the wall.
He then felt something coiled around his left leg.
"You don't like snakes either..."
Gander's eyes shot down in a panic, for there was a cobra wrapped around his leg, smiling.
"GAHH!!"
With a flash of steel, he slashed down at the thing. But it wasn't there. Instead, he put a deep gash in his own leg. He didn't seem to notice it though, but his rather his head shifted around in a panic.
Suddenly he felt a sting upon the back of his right arm.
"Heh heh heh..."
A snake had latched on to him! He tried to grab it and wretch it off, but another one came, biting his other arm. Then more and more... his legs and body and neck... dozens of them...
"NOOOOOO~!!!!!"
Then a giant snake loomed over him, flicking its tail and grinning. It spoke with Melface's voice.
"Oh my, you're a tasty one! I can tell..."
The knights got out of the way as Gander slashed around franticly, seemingly at nothing, screaming all the way.
"Sir! What's wrong?"
"He's gone crazy!"
"Look, he's injured himself!"
Suddenly Gander's stare went blank, and his eyes widened as he looked up. He dropped his bloodied blade and fell to his knees. His flesh began to burn, wrapped in a black flame, and crumbling away as ashes... The corpse then fell over, nothing but an armored skeleton...
As the distracted knights watched this horrifying spectacle, ten lizard men breached the walls and charged the group from the back. Most were killed within seconds...
"Heh heh heh..."
-
"What the hell was that?" Duilin asked wile looking in the direction of a strange demonic aura. "That aura … it's familiar."
Lagart fended off a lizard man with his broadsword, kicking it back and it was then ganged up by a trio of knights. "Duilin, what wrong?" He asked his half human friend.
"I sense a demonic aura. I felt something like this five years before the Asype Revolution." Duilin stated. "I'm going to check it out. Be careful Lagart."
"You too." Lagart replied.
Duilin jumped into the air and spread out his wings and glided towards the area of this strange aura. He remembered how dangerous that strange entity was before, he was afraid this one might be a threat to him and his friends...
-
Drew and Company talked for hours about the uprising problems.
---
Nick started walking Back to Asgaria. He thought now that Kronos was back together he might pay a visit to find out what was happening.
//Wow DM he remembered that long.. Razz
-
Nedham, a young knight, barely 22 years of age, turned and gasped in horror as he saw the lizards spill over the walls some 200 feet down the line. Soldiers from his company began to force their way in that direction, hoping to put a stop to this leak before it became a flood. He began that way as well, but stopped when he heard a voice to his left.
"Heavens, what a hapless turn of events this is. Wouldn't you agree?"
He spun on his heal, even as knights moved around him. Sitting on the stones of the edge of the wall, on Kesnar's side, was a young boy with silver hair, draped in an off-white cloak.
He kicked his feet childishly as he sat there, since they were not long enough to touch the ground, and spoke in a sing-song voice:
People live
and people die
Lizards come
and humans fry.
"Kid, you shouldn't be here..." Nedham spoke as he took a few steps towards the child.
Very suddenly, the knight felt as if he were hit in the stomach with a ton of bricks. His eyes opened widely and his mouth went agape. The child had quite effortlessly pulled a scythe out of thin air and impaled the man though the middle with the wicked curved blade.
Melface leaned in close.
"Oh, how unfortunately right you are..."
Nedham fell over dead.
"Nedham! What's wrong?"
His comrade turned over the stiff body but jumped back when he saw the gaping hole in the man's stomach, still warm blood spilling through the hole in the metal armor. What possibly could have caused such a wound? Clearly there was nothing around...
-
Fernis was too busy standing on one foot while pouring the sand out of her shoe to notice the battle going on in the distance.
"Where is Mavas!?" She shouted at Elphos, putting her shoe on "I'v sent him to scout ahead, not explore the dark continent! Why isn't he back yet!?"
Elphos sighed, wondering what has he gotten himself into.
"Fernis, do you intend to interfere?"
"Well DUH, of course." Fernis replied, puzzled why would Elphos ask such a question "What fun is sitting here and watching?"
Elphos backed away and begun to mutter under his breathe, but Fernis did not seem to notice. The beach they landed on was quite a distance away from all the excitment. Or, as Elphos would put it, a 'safe distance'.
Fernis was quite annoyed by the smounts of sand constantly getting into her shoes, but she tried to remain calm, telling herself getting angry would do her no good now.
Suddenly, she walked up to Iduran.
"Well, sir knight? What do we do now?"
She was obviously expecting him to somehow know everything, just as he had seen things from the realm of death, she fully expected him to do the same now.
-
Duilin approached the dead Nedham and his comrade, who then looked at him. "Sir Duilin, do you know what happened?"
"I might." Duilin looked around. "I sense a demonic aura. I know it's demonic, simply because I can sense auras which belong to demonic beings, better than others." He kept his sword drawn, and focused with golden demonic-lightning magic energy. "Come on. I know you're around somewhere. Quit picking on these soldiers. I'm ready for you."
-
“So where do you think the page is?”
“Probably in the mines,” Alex commented. “Mines honeycomb the mountains, as they’re rich in minerals. It was how I made a living before I left.”
“Were you any good at it?” Midna asked.
“I nearly put the native smithy in town out of business,” Alex chuckled.
Carmine looked around the corner from where Alex was entering the mines. If he could signal to de Sade now, they could be done with this and return home. Carmine didn’t like the cold.
Finally, he took his chance.
“Excuse me, sir!” Carmine shouted with all of the authority he could muster.
Alex turned around, clearly paying attention to the holler. Midna took his shadow.
Carmine, speargun in hand, walked up to Alex. “Sir, state your business.”
Alex could barely suppress a laugh. From the armor he knew this stranger was a Kandie, but decided to give him an easy time…he could always hurl him from the cliff edge a few feet behind them.
“I’m up here to investigate the mines,” Alex replied. “I heard a new vein opened up, and I have a lease inside the mines.”
“What is that?” Carmine asked him, pointing to the energy rifle slung across his shoulder.
Suddenly Alex realized that this man might know who he was. He tried to devise a ruse to fool the soldier. “It’s a little thing I cobbled together in my spare time,” Alex lied. “It’s kind of a hobby.”
“Call me crazy,” Carmine replied, “but that looks like Asgarnian tech. Pray tell, how did you acquire such parts?”
“I’m not at liberty to disclose that,” Alex said, beginning to back away.
“I insist,” Carmine replied, reaching for his speargun. “Otherwise I’ll do away with you and find out myself. Now hand it over.”
“I’m not giving you a goddamn thing,” Alex bit back, now reaching for the rifle.
“Truly a sad decision,” Carmine sighed. “For I was not trained to take ‘no’ for an answer.” With a nearly inaudible click the spear launched itself from the gun and towards Alex. With a swift roll the spear whizzed harmlessly past him.
“Carmine, hold your fire,” a commanding voice thundered. A figure in black robes revealed himself behind Carmine, his ghastly green hands the only feature of his body not shrouded in darkness. “I want to extinguish this one myself.”
“As you wish, sir,” Carmine stepped back, allowing the Lilithian center stage.
Alex stood his ground. “And just who the hell are you?”
Midna revealed herself. “Alex, that’s de Sade! He was the former Archmage of the Sovereignty. You can’t fight him, he’s a hundred times the sorcerer Damien ever was.”
“Midna, I thought you had more worthy endeavors to pursue than attempting to hone this pathetic excuse of a warrior’s skills. It almost disappoints me as to how easy this will be.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Midna hissed back. “Alex is the best Twilight Warrior of them all, and he can prove it.”
Alex remained speechless as the imp seemed to do all the talking for him.
“The only way to better oneself is through learning,” de Sade said. He cracked his skeletal neck. “Let the lesson begin.”
-
"Ready? No, you are obviously not ready..."
Duilin quickly found himself alone on top of the walls, the raging battle that was going on around him just a moment ago nothing but a dull clatter, far in the distance...
The sky suddenly churned with a vile read and black, and a tangible fog filled the air...
"You are not ready at all, my son..."
The towering figure of Abodahon was then upon him, towering over the half-demon, massive gauntlets on either side ready to crush him like an insect...
"... for you have failed in every way conceivable... You are a disgrace and a weakling..."
"Look out, Duilin!!"
A fist slammed into the massive demon's face, sending him tumbling over the wall. Shaking his hand once from delivering the punch, Zeros' turned to Duilin, looking down upon him with half lidded eyes.
"You're too weak, Duilin. I'll handle him. Stay here."
With that, his wings unfurled, and two more sets grew underneath those, yielding a massive wingspan, far larger than Duilin's. A sickly green aura engulfed him as he drew his blade, which in turn magnified in size. Without warning, Abohodon, jumped back over the wall in a single bound, and Zeros' flew skywards to meet him...
----
Mavas stuck his head out from a bush. From the overhanging cliff, he could get a fair glimpse of the battle raging on below. He watched as those scaly green creatures scampered over the walls of Kenar. Most were being thrown back, but some were getting through. More and more with each passing moment. Soon they would be overrun. He remembered when he fought for Tjed, very long ago... and could not help but feel a tinge of anger at the lizards invading his home of years back. But no! It was his no longer, and he did not care! His body resembled the Lizard Men more now, anyway. Pah!
He tunned around and snaked through the trees to tell that vile sorceress what he'd seen.
----
Iduran blinked at the question.
"Well, I uh... I'm not sure..."
He paused and stroked his chin. The dragon-like Mavas appeared out of the forest and waded through the thick beach sand, looking like a predator. He bowed mockingly to Indher.
"There is indeed a huge battle going on just up the beach, my lady. Lizard Men are storming Kesnar. Hitting them pretty bad. I saw it from the cliffs just back there. The whole town will be overrun in a few hours, maybe less."
Iduran snapped his fingers.
"That's it!"
The dragon-man looked at him with a scowl.
"Those cliffs back there. Long ago I lead an assault on Kesnar, but the Tjedians repelled it with a rock slide from those cliffs. Maybe we could do the same against the lizards? Surely it would help gain their favor!"
-
//all Alex's actions were discussed in real-time with Dark Spartan while I was writing the post.\
Alex drew his weapon.
-"What are we waiting for, then?"
De Sade cackled menacingly.
-"You really think you will impress me with a weapon?" He folded his arms on his chest. "Heretic."
Alex scoffed and pointed the rifle at de Sade's head. The latter had not moved a muscle, once again reminiscient of a grim statue. Alex, aiming directly at the unshielded face of the Lilithian, fired the rifle.
The blast split into two separate ones, making a circle around de Sade, and burning down a tree behind him. He looked lazily at the pile of smoking ash, then back at Alex.
-"You ungrateful whelp ought to learn to respect your elders. I told you that I won't be impressed by a mere hunk of conductive metal."
However, Alex was not yet done. Just prior to de Sade turning his head, he unsheathed his scimitar. De Sade turned around to find the blade in his face, though not even scraping his skin. The scimitar made a strange noise, and Alex was blasted away from the Lilithian into a nearby tree, falling limply on the ground.
-"The mewling child dares swing at the father?" A previously hidden energy wrapping around de Sade made itself visible, and, with a weak flash, vanished. "Hmmph. Hmmmmph. This must be what you call "humour".
The sorcerer was now looking at Midna.
-"Midna, you know better than to send... " He paused for a second. "...insects like that my way. Do me a favour, and help the kitten find its claws. I give you six hours to prepare, and after that, there will be no more mercy."
With a quiet "poof", both de Sade and Carmine vanished into thin air.
-
Meanwhile, the real Zeros', with Rink in tow, was flying towards where Tjed was, as he had sensed the strange energies coming from that direction. He felt the need to investigate them.
---
Allen frowned. He didn't honestly know what to do. It looked like someone was using a form of magic on his commrades, making them completely vunerable. He glanced over at the man who had gone crazy and looked around at the others, trying to disconcern if any of them would also go crazy.
In th meantime, the mages were still raining concentrated blasts of ice down upon the lizardmen, but the ice was slowly growing weaker, as the mages reserves slowly ran out.
-
Half-buried in the snow, Alex opened his eyes, to find Midna hovering over him.
“Alex, are you okay?” the imp seemed concerned.
Alex pulled his metal frame up from the powder, feeling various parts of his skeleton crack along the way. Wincing in pain, he nodded.
“I’m sorry, Alex,” Midna replied sorrowfully. “I didn’t expect de Sade to show up so soon…I figured we’d have more time to get you ready.”
“Well, you heard his ultimatum,” he moaned. “Six hours. That’s how long I have to strengthen myself…I’m dead.”
“If we could find that third page,” Midna replied, “surely we could take on de Sade in the way he’s used to.”
“The Parasite is truly a powerful spell if it leeches an enemy’s life force,” Alex noted, “but maybe de Sade has no life to leech?”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Midna said, helping him up. “Now, into the mines.”
Under the majestic Glacia mountains existed the endless cavernous catacombs of the Glacia Mines. Searching for one page would be like trying to find a needle in a mountain-sized haystack.
The clock was ticking. Six hours would flash by in an instant, a blink of an eye in de Sade’s lifetime. He had no problem in waiting a quarter day for his quarry to return once more for another fight. Hopefully next time he would pose more of a challenge…
-
Fernis sighed.
"And how, sir knight, if I may ask..."
Her tone was almost sarcastic this time
"...will we couse a rockslide? We'd have to damage a pretty large part of the cliff to do anything serious, and the best weapon we have is my thunder-throwing armlet."
She turned to look at Mavas, examining him from feet to head.
"Unless Mavas made himself somehow so overpowered he can couse a rockslide by slamming the cliff, I doubt it can be done."
Elphos interrupted.
"But, can't we usem the runes of distortion on the earth to...?"
"NO!" Fernis quickly silenced him "If we do that, we risk destroying Kensar's construction as well!
Elphos nodded but did not step away, signaling Fernis he still had something to say. She raised an eyebrow, as if wondering if he would ever suggest something useful.
"Erm...Why don't we just create a selective thunderstorm?"
Fernis actualy pondered to consider that one. Attacking Tjed's enemy with thunder that only hits lizardmen would seem like a natural phenomenon, lessening the chances of their detection. However, to create such a large scale spell, time is required...
"I believe it's possible, but it would take me at least half an hour to create the rune set, and even then I can probably keep it active for no longer than an hour. Compared to that, I believe Iduran's rockslide idea is easier to pull off and better."
Both of them turned to the knight, obviously waiting to hear his opinion as the final desicion on the matter.
-
//Now this is way better then what I was thinking of.\
Duilin looked Abodahon in the eyes. "Father...How did you...I thought you were..."
What's going on? Is this truly his father...it feels like it's him. Dear lord, it is. How did he gain the ability to do this? Why is he helping the Dark Empire? He hated the Dark Empire!
"A weakling!?"
Then he saw Zeros' sweep in and start fighting him. "I'm too weak!? Screw you Zeros'! This is my fight! I thought you had more honour then that, bastard!"
Duilin's mind was moving too fast for him to keep up, his thoughts were moving quickly and very clumsily. What is going on? His father has returned and his mentor is stealing the battle from him, it's a nightmare come true.
"I won't let you take this fight from me!!" Duilin clenched his fists and flexed his muscles, causing a golden aura of flame and lightning to surround him. He jumped in the air and flew upwards. "THIS IS MY FIGHT YOU GLORY HOG!!"
What's happening to me? I need to calm down...No...I won't I refuse. It's time to prove myself!
Duilin's right hand was surrounded in lightning began to glow yellow, to green and then to blue. As soon as he caught up to Zeros' he grabbed him by the shoulder, and pushed the stunning electric energy into him, and then threw him back. "I can handle this! I am NOT weak!"
"My son, yes you are." Abodahon stated as if delivering a blunt fact. Duilin glared at his father, just before being punched right in the face by the massive gauntlet fist, and shot down to the ground like a bullet...
-
There was a massive explosion as Abodahon struck the ground, plumes of brown smoke billowing into the air. Duilin was no longer upon the walls of Kesnar, but now in the midst of a barren wasteland. The earth was dry and cracked, and small brown plants that had lost the fight for life occasionally reached for the crimson and black skies.
The image of Zeros' expanded his wings fully, casting a shadow over the half demon.
"You shouldn't have done that, Duilin," he said calmly with narrowed eyes, "your place is in the back row. You must always be weak, because you cannot handle strength. I will have to destroy you before you turn on us again."
With that, the demonic blade shifted again, growing even larger, a wicked sword over fifteen feet in length. With a mighty heave, he split the very air, aiming to cleave Duilin through the middle...
----
Iduran through for a moment.
"If we can get a few rocks large rocks moving, it may be enough to start a chain reaction... Indher, can you cast the thunder spell by yourself? The rocks will only hit the southern end of the beach at best. If you can hit the troops attacking the northern end at the same time we cause a rock slide, then surely we can cause some damage!"
He seemed excited, like a kid. Clenching both fists, he shouted to the dragon-man and Elphos. "Mavas! Elphos! Come quickly! I will need your strength!"
He ran off in the direction of the forest, which began a steep incline to the cliff's edge.
Mavas grumbled, but found the stupid dead knight better company that the necromancer cat woman, so he followed.
-
Elphos was at a loss. He was counting on doing what he is best at - helping Fernis.
He then noticed her waving at him.
"Go." She told him "I'll handle by myself. By the time I hear your rocks tumbling, I'll be ready."
Elphos nodded and ran in Iduran's direction, leaving Fernis alone to do a lot in little time.
"Alright. I can do this." she told herself as she bent down and began scribbling on the beach sand.
The circle she was working on, if to strike a large area with heavenly lightning, had to be quite large itself. Not as large as the one used to summon Iduran from beyond, as this one was simpler and required less power.
She hastly scribbled runes, which, if an attempt to translate them into normal language was made, would sound along the lines of "Strike by chain lightning from clouds to scales on base level around the army-containing area trice (per activation) in far apart locations".
Of course, all the non-exact phrases such as "army-containing area" or "far apart" were actualy long chains of runic numbers.
As Fernis scribbled this, she realized she wishes the runes themselves to be sentient and cooporative...
-
Duilin rolled to his left, barely avoiding the blade. "You can't be the real Zeros', he's not like this!" Duilin got up, quickly recovering. "Mavas!"
"No, Duilin it is me." Zeros' said, arching back his sword. "Ever since you lost that fight with Draven, you went too far to your demonic side, but you still lost. You'll turn on us again."
"Go to hell Zeros'! I guess Abodahon was right about you!" Duilin shouted.
"Be that as it may. You will die, weakling!" Zeros' swung his sword, at Duilin, yet the half demon blocked it with his sword, yet Zeros' demonic blade sliced right through the blade and the the hilt shattered into dust, in Duilin's hand.
"Weak. Weak, weak, weak, WEAK!" Zeros' hissed, swinging his sword again.
Duilin parried backwards avoiding the swing. "I am not week!!" Duilin shouted, clenching his fists. "If I have to kill you in order to prove that, goddamnit, I will!" Duilin hovered in the air and roared. His eyes began to get more yellow and darker and his aura expanded. "DIE!!" He pushed forward his hands and shot forth a stream of demonic orange lightning towards the fake Zeros'...
--- ---
"Zeros'." Rink said to the real one. "We have to hurry. I sense Duilin is in a lot of mental harm." He looked forward towards where they were going. "I think I'm picking up the begining of a bloodrage..."
-
The blast of lightning snaked through the air before boring into the image of Zeros' chest. His massive wings curled up around him as the blast threw him backwards, faster and faster. His eyes bulged and he writhed in pain before the explosion overtook him. With a reverbing scream, he burst into a million tiny specks of light, which thrust outward amongst a circular shockwave...
For a brief second, the barren wasteland amongst which Duilin stood flickered, the solid ground waving as if water. But the effect was over quickly, and the abysmal solitude was restored.
"Good, good..."
Another shadow now loomed over Duilin, this one much larger than the one cast by the wings of Zeros'.
"You have become your true self at last..."
It was the Dark Emperor Retan, his burning crimson eyes the only distinguishable feature amongst that horned black form.
Then suddenly, he reached up and pulled the helmet off of his head, slowly... His face was not visible at first as he discarded the black metal upon the ground, but it faded into visibility quickly enough as he grinned a maniacal smirk...
It was Draven.
"Well now, I really must thank you for all you've done," he spoke with a sinister glint in his eyes. "Especially near the beginning. Why, if we hadn't agreed to work together that fist time, none of this glorious war would have happened!"
Still dressed in Retan's attire, he held both arms skyward.
The ground burned. Everywhere. Villages burned. People screamed and fled in terror. But escape was impossible, as they melted in twisted agony...
Duilin now wore armor of a spectacular black, the four winged dragon of the Dark... no Crimson Empire emblazoned prominently upon his chest.
"But now it's all mine... All thanks to you..."
----
Iduran looked down from the looming rocks upon Kesnar.
"Hmmm, this is bad..."
He watched for a moment as the Lizard Men scaled the walls, like hundreds of tiny ants, overwhelming by sheer numbers. The Tjedians were starting to loose this desperate fight...
With renewed determination, and additional concern, the old knight leapt backtracked off the cliff's edge and down closer to the base of the rocks.
"This way, hurry!"
He followed the path down the cliff's face a bit, for the mountain edge was not quite a vertical drop off. It was quite treacherous, though, and he was forced to climb on all fours at some points.
The draconian Mavas seemed to be having less trouble. Though he was much larger than the knight, his feet were shaped like massive green scaled talons, and he was able to grab onto the jagged rocks without much difficulty.
Finally Iduran made it to the base of a cluster of rocks overlooking the sandy beach below. Warriors from the walls of Kesnar would be able to see them as tiny specs upon the mountain if they looked closely, yet with the raging battle going on, no one of either side would have the time to even consider looking.
"There."
He pointed to the largest one, a monolith some fifteen feet high, though slightly less wide.
"If we could dig into the rocks far enough, the ones above will topple over."
Mavas sneered and clenched his right claw into a fist. With a mighty punch, he slammed his fist deep into the stone, sending chunks spewing outwards in all directions. One nearly hit the knight. The dragon smiled a toothy grin. It seemed the cat woman came through after all.
"No no NO!!" Iduran interrupted Mavas' first pleasant thoughts after his change. "More gently!"
"Gently? You want me to gently cause a massive bone-crushing avalanche?"
He rolled his eyes. Soon. Oh, soon...
-
((That last thing Mavas said should definetly enter his quote record XD Oh, Xorlak? Feel free to control Elphos. He is an NPC, not a character, in case you didn't notice :p))
"Eep!"
Elphos just barely dodged the flying rocks coused by Mavas' punch.
Having barely climbed down, he had to catch his breath after such a tedious task, and here rocks suddenly started flying at him, scaring him almost out of his wits.
This was rediculous. Why'd he have to come? The words of the knight and the fists of the monster are more than enough to complete the task.
--------
With the circle unfinished, Fernis rose her head in suprise as she heared the blast. It almost felt as if the ground below her was shaking.
It's too early, damnit!
She slapped herself as she realized she stopped working and returned to the feverious task.
-
Duilin looked at his clothing, and ran his hand across the insignia; he then lifted his head and looked around. "What?" Duilin stepped forward and walked past Draven. He scanned the burning chaotic area. "I helped you do this?" He helped Draven, the man he truly hate do this.
But of course, it made sense actually; when he killed Zeros' he knew that only Draven could help him defeat the Dark Empire, his true enemy, the planet would have to go into darkness. But then and only then would he be left alone with Draven, give him his final battle and then he gain the title of the most powerful being on Gaian.
But no, this isn't what he wanted! He can't allow Draven to take control over Gaian, because then this exact thing would happen. Him and Zeros' are supposed to defeat Retan, with the aid of Tjed and the Dark Empire and Draven would be forced to surrender, because the mighty strength of Zeros' and his group proved that nobility and justice would prevail over evil in the end.
Then again, he would still live under the shadow of Zeros'. This must be why he chose this dark path. Duilin turned and faced Draven. "Now that I have helped you get this, I will take it from you." Duilin arched back his hand creating an orange horned skull made of his raw demonic energy. His hair grew a bit longer and started to whiten at the tips his muscles became bigger and his skin became more of a golden colour, visible horns grew on his forehead and a second pair of smaller wings sprouted under his older ones. The insignia on his armour turned to a golden colour and changed to the symbol of the Talonscar. He became the true spawn of his father the new Demon Lord.
He could hear his voice screaming in his head "NO! THIS ISN'T WHAT I WANT! MAKE IT STOP!" but he ignored it.
"And now that I am my true self, I can finally end my biggest problem...you." He tossed the demonic skull which doubled in size and it seeked its way towards the Crimson Emperor...
-
The image of Draven's eyes widened.
"Huh?!"
The massive searing skull slammed into him, and he flew backwards uncontrollably, his arms flailing about wildly.
"What is THIS?!?! THIS IS'T sup--POSED to HapppENNNN!!!!!"
Then the barren wasteland illusion cracked like a shattered pane of glass.
Melface rode the edge of the demonic skull attack, flying backwards until he hit the stone edging of Kesnar's wall. A massive explosion ensued, sending large stone boulders flying in all directions, raining down upon the oncoming stream of lizards from the beach. Both Lizard Men and Tjed Knights alike were thrown into the air like rag dolls as a hole twenty feet wide was punched into Kesnar's wall, replaced by nothing more than a hill of rubble...
The child-like Nightmare Demon was flipped further skyward by this, landing some thirty feet off of the shore, right into the water with a huge splash.
Bubbles ensued from the drink for a moment before he finally surfaced, his silver hair matted over his face and his arms flailing about to stay afloat.
"Gah! A... a... demon lord?! Here? This is not possible...!!"
He went under again, then rose and coughed the water out of his lungs violently. He then weakly swam to the sandy beach and fell to his knees and hands, breathing and coughing heavily as the water lapped around him.
"Well well, Melface is looking scared. That's a twist."
A figure fell from the sky, his boots landing in the water next to Melface and splashing him in the face.
"Silence, drow! Or I shall make you wet the bed at night! Again."
The newcomer's eyes widened a bit. But then they resumed their cold gray professionalism. He ran his right hand trough his bright cerulean hair.
"So... what happened anyway?"
"I tried to eat the soul of a demon lord. Though he was disguised as a commoner."
"And... that's a bad thing...?"
"YES!" the child screamed. Suddenly he felt himself lifted out of the water. "GAH!!"
The hugely rotund Lizard Man studied the flailing child as he dangled above the water, the lizard's grip on the demon's collar.
"Did somebody say EAT?!?!"
"Unhand me!!! You... fat... thing!!!!"
"Bloat just want to help..."
"You are not helping my situation!!!!"
"I'm sorry..."
Melface was released, and he fell down into the water with a splash. The fat lizard resumed eating the large piece of meat that he happened to be holding in his other claw.
Rosario folded his arms, the sea breeze blowing his bright cerulean hair.
"Hey, Bloat. Someone's giving Melface here trouble. Perhaps we show this guy who's boss?"
"Can... I... EAT HIM?!?!?!"
"I... guess..."
The rotund lizard smiled a toothy yellow smile, and began to waddle after the pointy eared warrior and head for the opening in the wall.
Melface crawled out of the water, then shook himself off like a dog before scampering after the two like a child throwing a tantrum.
"Idiots! Wait!"
After recovering from the explosion, all the lizards looked upon the hole in the wall with jagged smiles. Climbing over a few dead bodies, they began charging the critical weak spot...
----
Iduran heard an explosion behind him, turning around to look at the town below, his eyes widened.
"Blast it! They've knocked down a section of wall! Hurry!"
Melface tossed an offending boulder away. With enough cleared, the huge rock above would fall right over, though they still had a long way to go.
"Heavens! But if we do that, then this might actually work! Are we sure we want our plan to work?" He grinned sarcastically, a frightening expression on his draconian muzzle."
"Blast it! Stop toying with me!"
"Now now, you're not being gentle!"
Elphos sighed. Surely if this battle didn't kill him, one of these crazies would. Why hadn't he just stayed with Fernis? He looked at the huge boulder, and noted the small hole they had dug underneath it.
"If only... we had some sort of... wedge..."
Iduran brought his hand to his chin.
'Hmmm, yes... we could stick it underneath the rock and pry it up, using a smaller stone as leverage... And since we'd be off to the side, we'd be in less danger. But blast it, we don't have time time to cut down and strip a tree..."
Mavas nearly pushed the old knight off the cliff walking past.
"Move it."
As the other two watched, he backtracked up the path they came, stopping at the base of a tree that was growing diagaonally out the mountain side, overhanging the sandy beach below. Wrapping his claws around the trunk, he ripped the thing right out of the ground...
-
Duilin's grabbed his head as a large jolt of pain flowed through him. His Demon Lord form had become, true. Fortunately for him his Talonscar/Crimson Empire uniform was gone, however his grey custom combat suit changed, his orange belt was now red, and the suit was now black, it was reacting to his demonic energy.
"Duilin. Don't won't." Said a calming voice in his head.
"What's...what's happening?" Duilin groaned, his voice was much deeper then before.
"You've been attacked by a nightmare demon, he was feasting on your soul and making you believe your worst nightmares became true. As a result, you have experienced a full blood rage. Tell me, do you remember anything that happened between when you were sucked into the vortex and when you arrived in the Vandrin County?"
"Nothing." Duilin replied. "I have a craving to kill...to feed..."
"Don't be afraid Duilin. During the time you were away, you and your friends went to different dimensions; you went to Asgard, my home, the final resting place of the noble and the dwelling of the angels. I was chosen by the gods to be your guardian and help you be the first demon to go through redemption."
"Aegidius? How can I be redeemed?" Duilin shouted. He jumped forward onto the beach, where several lizard men were. The Demon Lord smashed the ground with his fist causing a shockwave or golden energy to break through the ground and push away the lizards, the energy splashed onto them and their skin burnt away. He continued to smash through the lizards showing no mercy, killing any of them who stood in his way.
"It is true much of your father's evil blood runs through you, so you will have to kill a lot of people in order to regain control, but I can help you."
"How!?" Duilin roared as he continued slaughtering lizards.
"Let's just say, I can make you kill the right people. Although I am against killing all together and against the concept of hate, but it's the only way to protect the innocent. Duilin, channel all of your anger and hate towards this attacking force, keep in mind who is friend and who is foe. When most half demons go through their bloodrage they loose total control and kill everyone in sight. It is a shame that you have to go through this now, but if focus yourself solely on your enemies. Everything will be okay."
"I...I am having trouble keeping myself controlled!!" Duilin yelled. He then raised his hands rapidly creating a giant fireball almost twenty feet in diameter. He then tossed it towards a group of Tjed warriors causing a large explosion burning away the poor fighters. "Zeros' will be angry."
"Duilin do not worry yourself. If you do, it will only cause you to loose more control. Listen to me Duilin, you are lucky. During your visit to Asgard your human blood too gained strength."
"What do you mean!?"
"You are correct of what you said about Humans. Those who are truly noble, have a light inside of them. With your blessed human half, you can regain balance after your blood rage."
"Will I go back to normal?" Duilin asked, looking at his enlarged and golden arms and hands.
"Yes, Duilin. You won't have to worry about your demonic appearance too much. Now Duilin, remember how the Dark Empire destroyed Romme, remember how they enslaved you. They are the ones who must be punished. Tjed, may have been an enemy of Romme, but they are a noble nation and perhaps Gaians only chance to free themselves from the Dark Empire."
"Yes...the Dark Empire must be stopped! I will bring them judgment!" Duilin roared again and raised high into the air. The Demon Lord then spotted a fat lizard man, a drow and a strange child. "That child! That is him!" He then flew towards the group. "Come get a piece, boys!!"
--- ---
"Zeros'..." Rink said sounding somewhat worried. "I sense a bloodrage. Yet something is different about it. Something has happened to Duilin."
-
CRACK!
A loud noise of a small tree being uprooted reached Fernis, cousing her to turn her head from the runes befroe her and look in the directions the others have gone.
What the... What are they doing down there?!
She began wondering why they haven't toppled the cliff yet.
Maybe I should have given my armlet to one of them... Elphos could've been of more use that way...
Fernis then realized she let herself get distracted, and returned to work.
She was now close to finishing...
-
Zeros' nodded. He sensed it too, but now, they were only a few moments away from Tjed. He could even see the outline of the city on the horizon.
"I sense it too, Rink.... I hope we're not too late," he murmured and sped himself up once again, propelling himself forwards, fast.
The final burst of speed made his journey go faster, but it would still be a few moments before he reached Tjed.
---
Allen watched all that was happening with a grim, set face. He waved his hands. The mages stopped their assult and collapsed down to the ground, panting and gasping for air.
Allen crossed his arms and looked around before spotting Duilin ripping through the Dark Empire's forces.
"Well, that wasn't quite what I had in mind..."
-
The dark elf Rosario walked confidently towards the demon headed their way.
"This the guy?"
"Yes! Now hold on a minute."
"Looks... kinda freaky..."
The child-like Melface caught up to his fellow.
"He's a Demon Lord. They generally freak people out."
"More than you?"
Melface merely raised an eyebrow at that.
"He shouldn't be a problem if divided amongst the three of us. Your attacks should be most effective on him."
"Right. 'Cause I'm the coolest..."
"If you do not stop. You are going to get a--"
"All right! All right!"
Rosario quickly removed a long slender sword from his back, cerulean sparks flying from the tip of the light blue blade. He held out his left palm straight forward, and pressed the flat edge of the blade against it. A cold wind immediately emanated from his body, and more so the blade, which began to glow a bright blue.
"Five gold says I kill him in one shot."
Melface rolled his eyes as he folded his arms.
"Deal."
Rosario took the blade in both hands and pointed it skyward as a bright cyan tornado engulfed him, shouting in some strange language:
"????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??????!!!!!!!!"
("Super crazy hyper killing slash of intensely frigid cold!!!!!!!!")
With a flash he brought the blade down, cleaving the air and splitting the sands. The ground parted, mammoth icicles surging skyward and raining down upon Duilin along with a bright blue crescent of surging energy...
----
Chaos was everywhere.
"Blast it... we cannot hold them any longer!!"
Ven gritted his teeth as the captain yelled at him.
"Sir...? Sir!!!"
Ven finally turned his attention to the man.
"Listen, you get everyone out of here! Retreat to the caves! Hold them back there. Do you understand?"
"Y-yes sir. But what about you?"
"I'm going to help Duilin. Now get out of my way!"
Ven nearly toppled the knight as he pushed past.
----
After stripping off the branches, the draconian Mavas jammed the tree trunk right underneath the rock.
"There. Now what?" he growled.
"Push down on it. We should have enough leverage," the old knight replied.
Muttering, Mavas pushed down on the giant tree lever, but after heaving and even bending the thing slightly, the rock refused to move. Soon, Iduran and Elphos joined in, putting all their strength into it. Finally with a large jolt, the gigantic boulder dislodged. Iduran let out a triumphant cry as he watched it roll down the mountain.
"Yes!!"
He threw both hands into the air. And remained that way for several seconds.
Then he realized that none of the other boulders above were coming loose, despite the gaping hole left by the missing rock...
Iduran stroked his chin in his hand.
"Huh..."
Mavas clenched his claws and slammed his thick tail on the ground.
"You IDIOT!!!"
"Idiot... idiot... idiot... idiot..." The echo bounced off the mountains...
Suddenly there was a deep rumbling, and pebbles began to fall from above...
"... We should probably move."
"... Right."
All three frantically ran back up the path and out to the side, away from the massive avalanche as the entire side of the mountain seemed to fall apart...
-
Deep under the Glacia mountain range enormous caverns stretched for hundreds of miles below the peaks, allowing any brave miner access to a plethora of minerals, ores, and in Alex’s case, a page to an ancient spellbook.
Finding the page would be a task in itself. Through the thick rock and geology of the mountain Alex was unable to use his senses to locate it directly, only getting a vague idea of where it was. To make matters more difficult, the mines were still actively worked by thousands of dwarves. The three-foot tall bearded men often did not mind the occasional outsider trying to come in and strike it rich, just so long as they did not make a mess. Alex was well-liked amongst the dwarves, hopefully they could help him find what he was looking for.
“Goodness!” Midna cried, gaping at the sheer size of the subterranean caves, “This place is huge! We’ll never find that page in six hours.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Alex replied coolly, “I know of some help we can enlist.” He pointed to one dwarf in particular, who had just driven his pickaxe into a rock to take a break. He wore red coveralls and a metallic mining helmet with a candle-lit headlamp. He took a swig of his pint of beer and wiped the sweat from his great brows.
“Excuse me, Barnes?” Alex called over to him.
“Yes, what is it?” the annoyed dwarf turned around, to see a large metal man twice his height standing before him. “Hey! I don’t know who you are, but I don’t like the looks of you! How did you know my name?”
“Barnes, it’s me, Alex,” he took off his helmet, revealing the familiar face Barnes knew.
“Good God, man! You gave me a scare! How ya been, Alex? Haven’t seen ya in a while.”
“I’ve been busy,” Alex replied. “Liberating a once-utopian city from enslavement.”
“Do tell!” Barnes exclaimed, sitting his rump down on the rock. He looked over to Midna. “And a fine hello to you, ma’am. Say, you’re a fine-looking little lady. What say you and I get together later?”
“Perhaps another time,” Midna retorted, taking her spot at Alex’s side.
“Barnes, we have a favor to ask of you,” Alex said.
“After you saved my life all those years ago from that rockslide, I don’t think I can do enough to pay you back!” Barnes chuckled. “Shoot.”
“Well, you see, we’re kind of looking for something.”
“Can you be a little more specific?”
“Sure. It’s a page out of an old book that I’m trying to put back together. I know it’s within these mines, I can feel it. Have you found such a thing in your mining?”
“Well, we did find something strange up that tunnel a few miles,” he pointed to a large opening in the cavern leading north. “Though for some reason we can’t proceed any further. A rockslide collapsed at the end of the tunnel and none of our equipment can dislodge it. You can try your hand at it if you want but you would really just be wasting your time…”
“Can you take me there?” Alex asked.
“I would,” Barnes went on, walrus mustache twitching atop his boundless beard, “but the steam carts were put out of commission when the rocks fell. It also trapped some of our miners behind it, and we can’t get them out. If you want to head up there, I’m afraid you’ll have to walk…”
“That suits me just fine,” Alex replied. “Though you got anything I could use to try to dislodge those rocks?”
“We’ve tried everything,” Barnes said. “We’ve tried pickaxes, drills, all manners of explosives. Not even our cannons can move the rocks. In fact, the cannonballs shatter!”
“God,” Alex said, astounded. “What the hell are those rocks made of, then?”
“Some unknown material,” Barnes noted, “stronger than that runite stuff. We even tried a few runite cannonballs, but they shattered like glass.”
Alex winced. Runite was expensive stuff.
“We’re not sure what caused the cave-in,” Barnes went on, “the area’s been geologically stable for the past eighteen months…why it’s acting up now is anyone’s guess.”
Though Alex had a pretty good idea of what might be causing it. Bet anything it’s de Sade, he thought to himself. He’d do anything to impede my progress. That son of a bitch.
“So are you going to head up there and check it out?” Barnes asked.
“Doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice,” Alex said. “If I help your miners out up there, I might also find what I’m looking for, so everyone wins.”
“Good to know,” Barnes said, shaking Alex’s hand.
As Alex proceeded to the tunnel, Barnes shouted to him one last time.
“I’d be careful if I were you!” he called. “Ever since that last cave-in the whole mine’s been kind of unstable! Don’t set off any huge explosions or stuff like that!”
“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind!” Alex hollered back as he continued up the tunnel and disappeared from view.
Alex turned back to Midna as they kept walking. “Was he hitting on you back there?”
“Oh hush,” Midna snapped back, crossing her arms as she drifted alongside him. “You’ve got six hours to find a book page, not figure out love triangles.”
“Hey, you said it, not me,” he replied as the two kept walking in silence, Alex’s metallic footsteps echoing throughout the cavern on for miles and miles…
“Sir, it seems like your rockslide worked perfectly!”
“Such trivialities,” sighed de Sade, “I honestly thought he would be more of a challenge than this. I’m disappointed.”
De Sade and Carmine stood over a massive ravine that had once been part of the mountainside, now the collapsed region that impeded the dwarven mining ops.
“So what do we do now?” Carmine asked.
“Why bother asking,” de Sade replied, “when you clearly know the answer?”
“Err, we wait out the six hours you designated, sir?”
“Carmine, you disappoint me,” de Sade sighed. “All of this military training and you have naught to show for it?”
“…”
“Of course, Alex will acquire that page, make no mistake about it, but he will not leave these mountains alive.”
“So we track him down and destroy him inside the mines.”
De Sade sighed once more, annoyed with the lieutentant’s naïveté. “Just come with me,” he finally hissed to him. Carmine, being the word warrior he was, followed behind the sorcerer without so much as another aggravating word.
-
//Oblivion, Jenia?\
De Sade stopped at a small plateau on top of the mountain.
-"Carmine," he whispered coldly. "I need your blade."
Without any comments, Carmine unsheathed his sword and handed it to the sorcerer. De Sade struck the weapon into the frozen ground beneath. The structure of the weapon slowly turned translucent, and soon, completely see-through. A second later, an image of Alex appeared over the blade, which was now faintly glowing green. The image also appeared to have a green tint to it.
-"I am really disappointed in your superiors, lieutenant. Who was the fool that taught you to rush recklessly into the opponent's lair? Why even bother fighting the enemy yourself, there are others to be persuaded into doing so?"
-"Uh...?"
The projection of Alex vanished, and turned to an image of a black-armoured warrior walking through the mine's passage, balancing a giant single-bladed ax on his shoulder. His armour was dark brownish-green, and had occasional bone spikes sticking out of it. His face was covered by a horned full-face helmet, with a T-shaped crack for breathing and seeing.
-"Behold, the champion of Lilith, my home dimension - Ix. I have encountered him... on many an occasion... we have a history, but that will take a long time to tell."
-"Well, sir, it looks like we have a lot of time to kill."
-"The story alone is enough for two of your miserably short lifetimes, Carmine."
-"Oh..."
They sat for a minute, looking at the warrior.
-"Sir... if I may so inquire... How did you shift a full being from a different dimension into this one without as much as a spell?"
De Sade was ready to snap at the foolish mortal vexing him with dumb questions, but decided not to. Odd... He did not feel the same feeling of absolute superiority over Carmine anymore.
-"I never shifted anything, lieutenant. The whole thing is an elaborate illusion, chanelled from me into the mountain, through your blade. Midna might feel it, but I doubt she really knows what it is."
--- --- ---
Finally, Alex and Midna came up to the wreck. Even from a distance, it seemed clearly unnatural, and up close, it did not look like a collapsed tunnel at all. It was more of a large chunk of runite, still in its crystalline form. A crystal of such purity and in such amounts never occured naturally.
Alex and Midna, however, didn't need much time to figure out how to dispose of the wreck. Just as Alex touched it, the crystal vanished. The duo came into a large room with a stone pedestal in the middle, with the coveted third page lying on it.
-"Too out in the open," Midna mumbled. "I doubt that whoever hid this would hide it like this."
In the end, Midna was right. Alex's hand passed right through the page when he made a grab for it, and, with a deafening explosion, the crystal behind them rematerialized. There was no way back.
-"I can always count on inferior species to do exactly as I design, it seems."
Behind Alex was de Sade himself, but a little more menacing than usual.
-"Do I hear a sharp intake of breath, Alex? Were you not expecting me?"
-"You..."
-"Observant as the previous Twilight Warrior, I see. Pity it did not help him much." De Sade remained still, though his wings were twitching slightly. "But, we are wasting time. Alex, within these corridors, you will find your exalted page. I do warn you, though: there may be... other things that you may encounter, perhaps less pleasant than you'd expect them to. I'd wish you good luck, but not even your diety's intervention will save you now."
With those words, de Sade disappeared (in his usual fashion - into thin air).
-
(("Oblivion"? What are you talking about?))
Fernis just put the finishing touches in her circle as she felt a loud rumbling begin to shake the ground below her.
Ah, that must be my que.
Fernis then moved a little further away, knelt down and put both of her hands within the circle.
Now...To unleash the the heaven's fury, as they say...
Fernis let out a soft laughter as she tried to contain the maniacal one. The runes first lit in yellow light, cousing the clouds to darken, then in green light, cousing the darkened clouds to gather and be condensed above the field of battle.
Then, finally, the runes began to shine blue. That was when the lighting started mercilessly striking the poor lizardmen. Rather than appearing like a natural lightning storm, there were always 3 bolts that kept striking at set intervals. Those intervals were so short, however, that even an idiot would realize the storm is an assault of magical nature.
Oops. Guess I miscalculated a bit. Oh well. At least I'll get a nice lights show!
-
As Duilin saw the glowing blue blade coming towards him, he focused his energy into his hands he then swung his hands forward and summoned a large shield of demonic flame around him. The mammoth icicles were melted by the extreme heat of the flames from hell. After the icicles seized Duilin banished the flame and then stepped forward.
"It's time for you to be punished for your mistakes." The Demon Lord stated pointing forward. "Now you face your damnation!" Duilin roared as he lifted his arms into the air and then smashed his fists into the ground, cracking the earth below. From the fissures several flying demonic skeletons came from the fissures and then swarmed towards the dark elf, reading to rip him to shreds...
-
"Holy crap!!"
The cerulean-haired warrior was taken aghast by the skeletal attack and his feet left the ground. He soared backwards as the things reached for him with bony hands, his blue blade slicing the nearest one in half. But there were two more quickly upon him, and his blade blurred as he struggled to repel the things' slashing motions.
"Blast it, Melface!! What's with this guy?!"
The child-like demon dodged with a back flip.
"I told you! You inept elf!!"
Melface held two small hands towards the oncoming skeleton and the air waved as if water, but whatever spell it was had no effect on the skeleton thing. Blast it!! No mind, no dreams! As the skeleton's claw came down upon the child, Melface simply vanished, his face contorted into a scowl.
Then the fat lizard stepped forward...
"Huuuuungryyyyy..."
A skeleton slashed at his rotund yellow stomach, yet the thing's bony arm merely stuck into it as if the Lizard Man were made of butter...
"He he he he... TASTY!"
With a giant CRUNCH, Bloat's crocodile-like jaws bit right through the skeleton's head, the rest of it crumbling to nothing...
Ven finally made it to Duilin's side, and looked upon him in quite a startled fashion.
"Duillin... is that you?"
Had he really just cast those dark skeletons against the invading force?
----
And thus, rocks hailed down upon the Lizard Men from the mountains high above...
Those arriving on the beaches near the south-western corner of Kesnar were instantly crushed by the landslide, many of the gargantuan stones flying into the sea and causing great waves.
Many of the lizards fled for the hole in the wall created up north a little ways, despite the enemy Demon Lord near it, but then great bolts of lightning came from the skies and struck them down. Chaos ensued amongst the Dark Empire ranks...
The wounded and retreating Tjed army continued out of Kesnar, now free from attack from their vulnerable rear due to the mass confusion.
----
"YES!!"
Iduran held his arms high has he and the others rejoined Indher further up the mountain.
"Take that!! Oh yeah!!"
He watched as rolling rocks and lightning bolts claimed still more victims down below.
"I think just that was worth coming back for..."
Mavas rolled his reptilian eyes.
"So, what now?"
"Why we must capitalize, of course! ATTACK!!"
Iduran made as if he were going to run down the now less steep incline.
"With what? Just us four? The army's freakin' retreating, and you don't even have a sword you senile old man!"
-
De Sade’s illusion was complete. From what Alex and Midna saw, they had been dropped into an extensive labyrinth. To make matters worse, de Sade’s summoned armored abomination would be actively hunting them.
“What the hell just happened?” Alex said. “One moment we’re in the tunnel, and then de Sade comes…and now we’re here?”
“I don’t get it either,” Midna replied. “I’m wondering what he did…”
“Whatever he did, it’s real,” Alex said back. “That giant armored thing could be anywhere, and I’m not looking forward to him finding us.”
“I’m with you on that,” Midna said. “We need to find that page and get out of here.”
The page itself rested on a stone pedestal in the very center of the maze. However, high walls obstructed view, so solving the labyrinth would be a matter of trial and error. De Sade’s sick game would for sure test Alex’s nerve, as well as his blade.
Through the halls and corridors of the maze the duo could hear the thundering shifting and clanking of the warrior’s armor. The bloodthirsty fighter would have loved nothing more to have Alex’s head and Midna’s helm as a trophy. He would soon get his wish of fighting them.
“Do you have any idea where the exit to this place is?” Alex asked.
“Beats me,” Midna replied. “Though I can’t help but think that something isn’t right here.”
“Of course something’s not right,” Alex shot back. “An evil sorcerer teleported us into a maze with a huge armored fighter that can rip us limb from limb. If that’s right I don’t want to know what’s wrong.”
“No, no, I mean, something’s not right with this maze. There’s something wrong here…”
“Obviously,” Alex said. “You’re repeating yourself.”
“Let’s just keep going,” Midna finally sighed, giving up explanation.
“Hey!” a seemingly innocent female voice called. “Over here!” When Alex turned his view towards the sound of the voice, he saw a young girl garbed in all white robes, waving her arm. “You’re trapped in this maze, are you?”
“I guess so,” Alex replied, not seeing an obvious way out.
“Would you like to get to the maze’s end?”
“Err, sure,” he replied again.
“I know the way out. Follow me if you want to escape.”
Before Alex would follow the girl, Midna stopped him.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked. “Why would someone just conveniently appear to help us out of this?”
“Any help at this point is good,” Alex said. “If she can help us out, I’m not complaining. The sooner the better.” He turned back to the white-garbed girl. “Please, lead the way.”
As the three were exploring, Alex decided to break the silence with some conversation.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before…what’s your name?”
“Aurata,” she said softly. “And it’s no surprise you’ve never seen me before. I don’t even live in Glacia.”
“Oh, really?” Alex inquired. “So where are you from?”
“A different dimension, from a race called the ‘Prayer People’.”
“Interesting,” Alex replied. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of them…what do they do?”
“Our entire populace believes in a divine magic that increases in power when its followers have faith in it, hence the name ‘Prayer People.’ I myself am a normal Prayer Person, I pray to the magics so that our great elders can shine prosperity back down upon us.”
“Curious,” Alex said. “That’s very--”
His thought was cut short by the shadow of the heavily armed brute around the corner that was hunting them. Alex drew his rifle. “Shit, it’s that warrior de Sade put in here with us.”
“Oh dear,” Aurata replied. “What can we do?”
“There’s not much room to maneuver here,” Alex said, “so we’ll just have to fight him.”
Aurata gasped. “You think we can?”
“I know we can,” Alex said, raising his rifle and peering down the scope.
Without delay, the giant thundered round the corner, brandishing his terrifyingly large axe in his hands, emitting a war cry and then charging at Alex.
In the short time he had, Alex lined up the money shot and unleashed a bolt of energy from the gun directly towards the assailant’s armored head. The bolt sunk into the helmet, seeming to be relatively ineffective, merely enough to stop the knight for a moment for Alex to see an open spot.
“There,” Midna pointed. “Chinks in the armor!”
Without pause Alex drew his blade and leapt towards the stunned warrior, in hopes of removing some of his armor. Unfortunately, the dazed knight regained his posture and deflected Alex’s attack with a brutal swing of his huge axe, sending him to the ground.
Himself now dazed, Alex barely managed to roll back away from the axe as the warrior swung down in his deathblow. His enormous axe, now buried a good six inches into the rocky floor, would be a chore for him to uproot.
Alex lined up some more shots, only to have them all deflected by the warrior’s superior viridian shell. The rifle was useless, the sword was useless, what could he do?
Eventually the knight managed to emancipate his bludgeon from the earth, and delivered a swift and crippling blow to Alex’s body, sending him slumping into unconsciousness.
“Alex!” Midna cried as she flew over to him and tried to get him to snap out of it.
Aurata was all left standing. As the dark-shelled warrior approached her, she mumbled some words almost incoherently:
“Let the faith of the many fight the follies of the few!”
Within moments, the dark warrior froze in his advancing stance, bright rays of light emitting from his blackening body. When all was done, the warrior was as stone as a statue, which promptly detonated, hailing the surrounding area in gravel.
“The folly is fought,” she closed. She walked over to Alex. “Are you okay?” She asked.
Alex had won the fight in his battle with death. Soon enough he was back on his feet. He moaned and finally found the strength to bring forth the words, “What the hell did you just do?”
Aurata was silent for a moment. “The power of my people,” she said, “is not to be trifled with.”
“Okay…” Alex replied. “You said you were a Prayer Person. I see now that you’re more than that…”
“Now is not the time to be asking questions,” Aurata replied adamantly. “The exit is right around the corner.”
Knowing when to stop talking, a judgment analogous to Carmine’s, Alex followed this mysterious girl to the end of the infernal labyrinth, and to his reward.
Midna’s exposed eye darted around the ever-suspicious scene. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” she said to herself…
-
Elphos cought his breath and shook off the dust in his hair.
"Drat...Her, Fer-"
He then noticed she was still absorbed with the circle. To interrupt her would not only stop the still continuing lightning, but it would probably end up jolting her as well.
"Right..." Elphos scratched his still dusty head "So, ugh, Iduran, I'll have to go with Mavas on this one. I don't think we can take on an army, even if we get you a sword..."
He paused for a moment, considering the option.
"Well, sure, I can conjure a simple steel longsword right now, or wait for Fernis here to get you something more sophisticated..."
He sighed.
"But we are still just four... Even if we count Mavas as a hundred, which isn't too hard considering he has a custom body, we'd still only be able to barely push through. Heck, the only way the four of us could make some serious difference is if we assault one of their leaders directly rather than engaging in pointless combat with the lizzies."
Turning his head skywards, Elphos closed his eyes, apperantly losing himself in thought.
"Ah, truely, it would be nice if we could just take out the leader of the assault... He doesn't have to even die, retreating is enough... This will leave the lizzies here trapped and abandoned... We might even get them to surrender and avoid more of this nonsense..."
-
Duilin turned his head and looked down at Ven. "Yes..." He simply replied. He could kill him, Ven wasn't as strong as these three and he could use the energy to fight them.
'I know what you're thinking Duilin. You have to fight it. Ven is a good man, although he has killed. But like you, he has saved many more lives doing this, and for this he can be forgiven. Don't go down the path, fight your hunger.'
Duilin shook his head and turned away from Ven and then stepped forwards toward the three. He examined them. "Ven, would you like to help me? I think you're strong enough to take the dark elf. I'll take the nightmare demon...the possessed child..."
Duilin pressed his hands together and began to focus his energy and an orange glow emanated around him...
Lagart was a little slower than Ven but was able to catch up. His sword was stained in blood and he has a few cuts and scratches over his face and hands. "Duilin...changed..."
-
Zeros' was floating above the battlefield and caught the tail end of the conversation. His eyes scanned Duilin's aura and frowned.
"Hmm..." he thought for a moment before he flew down towards where Ven was standing, reaching him in a matter of moments, Rink in tow.
"Hey," he said lightly, to Ven and Lagart, as he landed.
---
Allen sighed and closed his eyes. The captain beckoned him to come, but he shook his head. The captain let out of a frustrated sigh, but he continued evacuating people. Allen slumped down against a wall and leaned his head back. He might be an old man, but his battle was here, on the battlefield, at least for now.
-
Ven brought his sword before him as it began to glow an etheral white.
"Right. But remember, we only hold them back until the rest of the army gets back to the caves. No heroics, and no one's dying today. Got it?"
His voice was stern, his experience as a military commander showing through just then, though he was still fairly young.
Then he saw Zeros', and his expression softened. "Zeros'! Am I glad to see you!"
"I think not!!!"
The dark elf Rosario was dive bombing them diagonally from the sky. Ven held his sword high, then leapt into the air, right in front of Duilin.
"HYAAAAHHH!!!"
The two blades met, white and blue, and each man was violently thrown backwards, their boots digging deeply into the sand as they landed.
"Just who do you think you are?!" Rosario demanded, snarling.
Ven smiled, his attempt to getting the blue haired warrior off of Duilin having succeeded.
"Your end."
"Really?"
Rosario dashed forward, his form disappearing, and small explosions of sand kicking up in each place his feet fell. Ven's eyes widened, but he had no time to be surprised as he brought his sword up to block the slender blue blade.
The child appeared in front of the rotund lizard man and faced Duilin, his fists balled, clearly irate.
"Oh!! You think you're so smart don't you?!?!"
He turned.
"BLOAT!!"
The fat lizard, who was busy licking his claws, turned his head suddenly.
Melface pointed. "EAT HIM!!!!"
The lizard's eyes widened, and his muzzle cracked open in a fang-ful smile.
"I... I can EAT HIM?"
"Yes, you mindless lard heap! EAT HIM!!!"
"He he he he he...."
Bloat then began to excitedly waddle towards, Duilin excitedly...
----
Iduran stopped completely, his expression turning dour as he ran a gauntlet through his hair.
"No... I don't think we want to attack their leader... not just yet..."
He shuddered as he remembered the burning man who attacked his homeland, and how powerless he and his friends were against him. He could only hope there wasn't someone like that leading this escapade here...
"Though your words ring true..."
He paused for a moment as he studied the army retreating out of Kesnar. A retreat made much more possible through their intervention.
"I think our best course of action, then, is to join with Tjed's army. You are right, there is only so much we can do separate. Come, let us make haste."
Mavas opened his mouth to say something, but then quickly shut it, suddenly realizing the implications of this plan. Ven would likely be down there with that army... Then he could have his revenge... How perfect!
"For once the old man speaks sense. Let's... meet up with this army..."
The draconian grinned, expressing an impressive set of jagged teeth.
----
The two lizards mulled around the golden cabin door. The gentle sea waves slowly rocked the boat...
"I... I think we should tell him..."
"Yeah... go on ahead..."
"W-wait. Why don't you tell him...?"
"M-me? You mentioned it..."
"Well... I-I... uh..."
-
Duilin continued to focus his demonic energy; he then noticed that the fat lizard man was waddling towards him. They think this tub of lard could take me down? This is an insult!
Duilin, with his hands still pressed together lowered them till his fingers were pointing towards Bloat. "Eat this fat boy!" He snarled, as he opened his hands. Orange demonic energy began flowing in a stream towards the fat lizard, his target's life energy would be drained from him and transfer towards Duilin...
-
Elphos nodded.
"Yes, we should-"
He was suddenly interrupted by Fernis, who seemed to be done with the circle already. It was off, and half the drawings were smeared to prevent reactivation.
"No. Not as long as Mavas is with us."
He voice was concerned and commanding, as if she expected something bad to happen soon.
"This would be a great tactical error, since Mavas has made himself into a reptillian being. Were we to approach Tjed's forces, we would be labelled as enemies as soon as we are spotted with him. We would need to be extremely lucky to actualy come in contact AND avoid casualties at the same time."
She stepped forward and crossed her arms.
"Iduran, if you believe making contact with them is so important, then we will have to leave Mavas behind. If you would still insist, I'd say Mavas should go ahead and infiltrate the enemy army rather than do nothing. Being the reptillian he is, he can simply claim to be a very strong lizardman granted wings by the dark emperor for valor in battle, or something..."
Elphos scratched his head.
"This is all so complicated..."
-
//your previous avatar with the demon-thing, Jenia, that looked suspiciously like a Dremora (http://http://2.forumer.com/uploads/byblos/post-21-1144687868.jpg) from The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.\
The new room that Alex, Midna and Aurata entered was strikingly reminiscent of the group's previous encounter with the third page: a plain cave-like cavity, with an altar of sorts in the middle, the page floating a few centimeters from the top of the altar. Aurata stopped and pointed at it.
-"It's done, I suppose," she sighed. "I think that that's the key to getting out of here, as well as the object you came here for originally."
Alex carefully felt the page, checking if it is real. The papyrus was there, and Alex could feel its texture between his fingers. He lifted up the page.
-"Let's see what it says, then," he said. "The writing, it looks very old... Midna, mind taking a look?"
Midna took the page from Alex.
-"That's strange," she said. "It only says one word: eternity... Alex, this is not the real page!"
-"It seems as though I have overestimated you, Twili."
This time, the cold voice was everywhere.
-"You inferiors simply fail to realize that there is no way out. You will not find the real page, no matter how long you may look for it. However, I am growing weary of your stupidity. This time, there will be no more knights to impede your... your progress, if you wish to call it thus. Instead, I have conjured up the vilest species of all dimensions known to me. If there are any affairs to be brought in order, I suggest you tend to them now."
In confirmation of de Sade's words, an unnatural scream filled the cave, followed by dozens of whoopings, growls, and all sorts of other strange guttural sounds.
-"No matter what he says," began Aurata, "there is always a way out. We just have to look for-"
She was interrupted by a blow in the back. A large, very muscular batlike creature grasped her - and promptly exploded in an astonishing lightshow. Aurata got up, dusted herself off, and continued.
-"As I was saying, there's always an exit. We just have to look for it. By the way, that creature that attacked me is called a madness devil... don't ask. All that you need to know now is that de Sade wasn't joking when he said he was wretching creatures from other dimensions. If that is true, I fear for us all... I don't have that much strength left, and most of those demons would have to be at least twice as strong as any humanoid. I hope you have some useful tricks up your sleeves."
-
The rotund lizard merely opened his mouth wide, his massive teeth jutting out like so many jagged nails. In an instant the streams of energy were sucked into his mouth, the tendrils of power slurped up like spaghetti noodles. His frame seemed to increase slightly then, his lard bulging.
"Tasty!!"
He then continued his advance upon the demonic Duilin, slowly moving closer and closer...
----
Mavas' draconic smile disappeared. This blasted cat woman! Argh, at the very least he would be rid of her for a while...
He turned and bowed slightly.
"Very well, my lady... I'll be off, then..."
With that he spread his wings, and the green scaled dragon-man glided off of the mountain, flying lowly.
Iduran nodded.
"All right. Let's go then. We'll simply explain that we want to help, and perhaps mention we caused the avalanche and thunder rage once we're sure they accept us."
He then began the trek down the slope. They would have to go completely around the walled Kesnar, to the east to meet up with the forces that were congregating on the other side.
-
"Pfft... Again with the my lady crap..."
Fernis sighed and waved at Elphos and Iduran, signaling them to start walking...
Walking by the walls of Kensar, Fernis suddenly realized this is a chance to start asking Iduran questions. She decided to start with what bugged her most.
"Hey, Iduran..." she said, turning to the knight "You said you have until next sunset in this world. Do you have any idea if it's possible to postpone your departure, or perhaps even keep you in this realm?"
She paused to think for a moment.
"Oh, and Mavas arrived by sticking himself to your soul... Will he disappear along with you?"
-
Duilin gave a surprised and an annoyed expression. "Well, well. It appears I underestimated you." Duilin then pressed his hands together and spread them apart making a glowing orange blade of energy. The Demon Lord then dashed forward with the energy blade pointing forward aiming towards the huge stomach of the fat lizard...
-
"He he he he he..."
The fat lizard made no attempt to move. He simply stood there as the blade plunged deeply into his belly and his flesh rippled as if gelatin. Then the blade began to move inwards, as if he were some amorphous blob sucking it in.
Then his fangs flashed in a smile, and with a giant gaping mouth that seemed to suddenly double in size, he attempted to bite the demon lord's head clean off...
"Hyah--! Arg!!"
Ven found himself parrying a dozen shards of glowing ice. Rosario was relentless, and the human was having trouble keeping up. With a flourish, the dark elf stabbed his blue blade into the ground, causing a massive pillar of ice to erupt from under the knight's feet. Ven leapt out of the way, though just barely, the end result being him thrown backwards against the outer wall of Kesnar. He staggered forward as he fought to regain his balance.
"Ah... great..."
----
Iduran rubbed his chin.
"Hmmm, to be honest, I really can't say. It's almost as if I'm not supposed to be here, yet a great exception has been made. A deal that I cannot dishonor. It's strange. It's like I remember what it's like on the other side, yet I only cannot remember while I'm here... As for Mavas, I really have no idea."
He glanced upward at the sun. It was well past noon.
"Speaking of... we'd better hurry."
He stepped forward more quickly then. After all, there was so much more he wanted to accomplish this day...
They rounded a corner of wall, and the flashing of many suits of armor could be seen far in the distance, up an incline and surrounded by trees.
-
Fernis increased the pace to keep up with Iduran, as did Elphos, who didn't seem to be too happy about it.
"You know, I haven't given up on keeping you in this world for good..."
And now she has come to notice the shiney suits of armor herself. Kind of hard to miss them with the light being reflected off them like that.
Ugh... "Not supposed to be here" he says... "An exception has been made"...
Fernis was soon lost in her thoughts, not really thinking about where she is going.
It must mean that my complex runic structures were not enough...
They definetly opened a gateway, but acceptance from a greater power was needed...
What sort of power could it be?
It's not demonic, otherwise I could have completed his transfer and made it permenant with my own power...
Perhaps it is...
Divine power?
Ah yes, a god of death, that would make sense...
I would then need some sort of divine power to make sure he stays, but...
Fernis' expression suddely went angry.
"Where in all damn am I supposed to find somAAAAAAAH!?!!"
She tripped and only barely managed to avoid hitting her nose against the rocky earth.
Drat! Why...
She suddenly noticed some of those so called "suits of armor" were right before her, staring in confusion.
-
"Had a feeling that might happen..." Duilin mumbled. He then parried backed as the fat lizard's giant mouth tried to bite him and the lizard only got a bite of air. He then arched back his fist and then swung it right under the creature's jaw...
Rink's eyes widened and his jaw dropped as he saw Duilin. Was this actually him? What happened to him?
"Don't worry my friends. He's in the good hands." The voice of Aegidius said to Zeros' and Rink.
"Aegidius? I thought you were..."
"Only my body was destroyed." The ghost of the angel replied. "But do not worry about Duilin. I've made an attempt on keeping him in control wile he's in his bloodrage. He will be in this state for awhile. When his thirst seizes and he reverts he might pass out, so get him to safety when he does."
-
(Chapter 12 ends March 21st. I.e. DAL day.)
The demon lord's fist connected square under the fat lizard's jaw and the creature was sent soaring. Bloat flew some ten feet in the air before he arched downwards, landing on his back with an explosion of sand.
Waddling to his feet in rage, he began a mad dash at Duilin, his jaws open wide...
----
Iduran turned around quickly and offered his hand to the fallen Indher. The waning sun was behind his head, silhouetting his face and giving him a sort of halo effect.
"Hey, are you all right?"
He paused for a moment.
"Don't be so hard on yourself. I mean, without you bringing me back for the day, I never would have been able to help pull off that rock slide, eh? But really, I'm just a normal guy, despite any blown out of proportion stories you may have heard. I don't deserve a second chance any more than the guys who are fighting the war right now..."
"Hey, who are you folks?"
Three soldiers were quickly jogging in their direction. One of them let out a sort of gasp when they saw the strange creature that was Indher, but Iduran quickly spoke.
"We were wondering if we might join your cause. We all have skills that I'm sure you'll find useful."
The knights looked at each other, then the one that was obviously a higher rank spoke.
"That is for our Knight Captain to decide, though you should come with us anyway. It is much safer in the caves, and I'm not sure how much longer they're going to be able to hold them at the beach..."
-
Alex sighed. “He can never make it easy.”
“Though Aurata does have a point,” Midna said. “There’s always an exit.”
“But finding it will be a challenge,” Aurata replied. “We currently have no way of finding it. And to make matters worse, we have to find it while avoiding those abominations of nature de Sade summoned.”
“I guess we’ll just have to take our chances,” Alex said, picking a path to follow. “Let’s go this way.”
After walking through the seemingly-endless maze for who knows how long, they came to another split in the path.
“So which way to we go?” Midna asked.
“I have a good feeling about this way,” Alex said, pointing to the right.
“I think we should go left,” Aurata said.
Just then, the echoes of their voices in the caves fell dead silent. An ominous quiet hung in the air for a few seconds before they saw further down the corridor what could best be described a sort of cross between a man and an insect, but with far more legs. As it skittered around on the wall, a long ebony shroud larger than the creature itself extended from the upper part of its body beyond. In comparison to a human being, it was slightly smaller, being about four feet in length. Long antennae protruded from its head, purpose unknown.
Alex took cover behind the wall. “What the hell is that thing?” he whispered to Aurata, his fear beginning to show in his quavering words.
“Dream seeker,” Aurata said, beginning to lose her level-headed temperament, “a somnambulist’s worst nightmare, if you will.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Definitely,” Aurata said, visibly shaken by the bug, looking around the corner, and hiding once more, “you see those antennae? It uses those to put its victims to sleep, and then travels into their dreams to kill them from within.”
“That doesn’t even sound possible,” Alex said, slumping down onto the ground.
“Trust me, it is! They don’t know for sure how they die! They say the shock of seeing such a thing in your dream makes your heart stop, and they also say that thing feeds off your soul!”
“So how do we kill it?”
“I’m honestly not sure,” Aurata admitted, rubbing her palms together.
Alex peeked around the corner to check if it was still there. It had appeared to vacate the premises.
“I think it’s gone,” Alex said, raising his rifle and dashing around the corner. “Let’s go!”
“Alex, wait!” Aurata cried. “The cloak makes it invisible, it could still be here!”
Unfortunately, Aurata’s paranoia would soon become reality, as the dream seeker revealed itself before Alex, training its psychic antennae on the Twili in armor, and delivering a prompt wave of sleep-inducing power. To Aurata’s horror, the black-armored man fell on his back unconscious, the rifle still in hand. The insect positioned itself over Alex’s unmoving body, and touched its antennae to his temples. With an arcing of what seemed to be electricity, Alex’s life energy, as precious as the blood in his veins, was leeched. The entire process took but a few moments, as the bug worked frighteningly quick.
Midna, watching only in horrified silence, finally said, “Is…he…?”
He couldn’t be. As the seeker finished the leeching, Alex’s cerulean eyes suddenly sprung open. With the speed of the best Kandarin quick-draw, he grabbed his rifle and squeezed the trigger. When all was said and done, the insect had received a smoldering hole through its head, and fell on its back, legs curling up in its death throw.
Aurata sprinted to his side to help him up, promptly losing balance and needing to lean against the maze’s rock wall.
“Alex, that was incredible!” Aurata cried, dumbstruck with the man’s inherent immortality, “no one has ever survived that before. How did you do it?”
Alex shook his head, his ears were ringing, his brain was aching, his eyes only allowed him blurred vision. “I…” he groaned, “don’t…know…”
“Check this out,” Midna said, poking around the dead body, paying special attention to the cloak. “I bet we could use this to get through the rest of the maze unseen.”
“Great idea,” Aurata said, ripping the shroud from the corpse. In her soft hands it felt like fabric, despite it being an obvious part of the creature’s anatomy. “We could both fit under here.”
“Alex, let me take your shadow. I have a feeling I’ll do you some good there.”
Alex could only nod as his regained his stamina.
As the imp took his shadow, Aurata draped the cloak over Alex and herself, soon vanishing from world perceived by the naked eye. Under the cloak Alex and Aurata had to stay close, as the cloak itself was rather small.
“Alex,” Aurata addressed him as they walked, “I’ve noticed something about you.”
“Yeah?” Alex said, finally regaining his ability to form coherent thoughts, “What is it?”
“De Sade seems to know you from somewhere. Pray tell, where?”
“Well, I can’t say he knows me exactly, but he used to know someone a lot like me. In fact, he killed that person.”
“Oh dear,” Aurata sighed, “whatever for?”
“Because that person was a member of a race being oppressed by the faction de Sade used to be part of, and that person tried to fight back, and lost.”
“So would you lose if you fought him?”
“I hope not, as fate of an entire race counts on my victory.”
“Is that why you need these pages, to prepare yourself?”
“Yes. You see, I’m--”
“I already know. You’re the Twilight Warrior.”
“What? How did you know?”
“I could sense it. My people are closely attuned with magic, to the point where by being near someone, such as right now, they can tell who they are.”
Alex looked upon the girl. She was a magnificent one to behold, a beautiful young woman with long, flowing black locks, innocent brown eyes, and pale skin, almost the same hue as her white robes.
“Is something wrong, Warrior?”
“No, not at all,” fighting back his emotions. “Nothing.”
As Midna monitored Alex’s thoughts within his shadow, she became less and less satisfied with this mysterious young girl.
Who does she think she is? I don’t like this girl at all, I think she has something planned. And Alex? Urgh!
For a brief moment, fortune seemed to replace fate, as the page they had been seeking for so long appeared before them on a stone pedestal.
“Alex, it’s the page!” Aurata said.
Alex threw off the shroud and secured the page in his hands. Scanning his eyes over the lines, he found the ancient Twili scriptures he desired so much. He heaved a sigh. “Finally,” he sighed, securing the page in a pocket.
“Congratulations, Alex,” Aurata said to him, “but I’m afraid your test is not quite finished.”
“What? What are you talking about? We have the page, we should be able to leave.”
“Alex, there lies one final obstacle that you must overcome. It is right before your eyes.”
“You mean…”
“That’s right. I’m sorry Alex, but the Twili cannot be allowed to prosper.”
Suddenly it all clicked together in Alex’s mind. Aurata was never here to help him. She was sent by de Sade to ensure his defeat. As much as he wanted to perish the thought, Alex would have to dispose of this girl.
“So be it,” Alex said coldly. He raised his rifle. “Necavis.”
The two stared each other down, each silently daring the other to make the first move, and possibly, their last.
Aurata chanted some incoherent speech, and was surrounded by a field of magical energy. “You will only pass if you deem yourself worthy. Now come at me!” She formed a ball of light in her hands, and launched it through the shield at her opponent.
The ball itself moved rather slow, but Alex knew it could very well pack a punch. Thinking fast, he drew his blade and swung at the ever-approaching white sphere. To his astonishment the ball deflected off his blade and back towards its origin. Aurata swatted her hand, deflecting the ball once more. Alex would have to continue until one mistimed the swing, and would take the full brunt of the blast.
Perhaps deflecting the ball at her would get rid of that shield, Alex thought to himself, and then leave her vulnerable…
Alex deflected the ball once more. Aurata put more power on the ball with each deflection, growing faster and larger each time. Eventually, Alex swung back, and Aurata fatefully mistimed the swing, taking the full power of her own spell. The spherical shield flickered out, revealing the young girl within. From nowhere Aurata spread her hands, launching a blinding circular wave of light that filled the whole chamber.
Alex did his best to prepare for the attack, only to be knocked to his feet by the wide-reaching spell. Aurata walked up to him and charged another energy ball. Alex rolled out from under her and began unleashing slash after slash with his blood-red blade. Strangely enough, the girl did not appear to bleed. Winded, she forced him away and reinstated the shield around herself once more.
“You are stronger than I give you credit for, Alex,” Aurata said to him in a coldly alluring voice. “De Sade was right when he said you must be eradicated. So wonderful he bestowed that honor upon me, hmm?” With the wave of her hand, three light balls appeared before her. “You are very capable of focus, but can you multitask?” She launched the spheres of light at him once more.
Alex, winding back, unleashed a gale-force spin on his blade, deflecting the three balls, two exploding harmlessly on the walls around them, which brought rocks from above crashing down. Distracted with the quakes, Aurata once again took the hit from the remaining energy ball. In her stunned state, a hefty boulder crashed down upon her.
Alex stood his ground, staring at the boulder, expecting it to blow.
And that was just what it did.
The explosion’s force rocked the whole room as Aurata freed herself from under the rock. Alex, thrown against the wall, had the sword wrenched from his hand by Aurata, who brought it to bear on his neck.
“And so the second epoch of the Twili comes to an end,” Aurata said, confident in her seeming victory.
“Every epoch dreams of its successor,” Alex retorted.
“De Sade will be disappointed to know your death was swift, but death is death nonetheless. So long, Alexander.”
“NO!” Midna shouted, suddenly emerging from Alex’s shadow on the wall, ripping the blade from Aurata’s ghostly hand with her hair-hand. When that was complete, she brought the glowing orange hand to the girl’s neck, placing her in a perfect spot to be strangled.
“You impudent imp!” Aurata hissed. “You know not what power you trifle with!”
“I know enough to realize we should have never trusted you all along!” Midna tightened her grip.
Aurata gasped for air. “Perhaps…it’s time…you saw the LIGHT!”
As soon as Midna’s hold reached Aurata’s fatality, the chamber exploded in blinding light. All that was heard was the wordless screams of the two.
Alex came back to consciousness to see Midna lying motionless on the cavern floor, and a portal on the other end of the room.
“Hurry…Alex…” Midna gasped through labored breaths, “Get us…out of here…”
Saying nothing, Alex picked the imp up in his arms, and escaped de Sade’s twisted trap once and for all through the portal. Within moments, he had returned to where he had met Barnes the dwarf.
Aurata had scored a devastating hit on Midna in her death throws. Now Midna was dying in his hands, what could he do?
“The Parasite,” he murmured.
-
-"So the whelp has some rudimentary potential... Most interesting... maybe this one will be a challenge."
The glass sword in front of de Sade shattered. The illusion was completely over now.
Kronos... It has been a long while since de Sade spoke to the Necromancer. In fact, the last time de Sade saw Kronos was when the future Marshal was just a small child, showing absolutely no signs of becoming a tyrant he was rumored to be now. Oddly, Kronos almost forgot about the Twili oppression, it seems: otherwise, the whole situation with the Twili warrior and princess would not arise at all, and de Sade would be left alone to his own ponderings. Perhaps it would be best to contact the Marshal, and have a little talk with him. On the other hand, Damien's spy isn't aware of the disaster in Kandarin, and, apparently, neither is Damien himself. The event unfolded too quickly and suddenly for any news to get out. It is possible that not even all of Kandarin knows what happened.
With these factors in mind, de Sade grimly turned to Carmine.
-"Sir?"
Without any further words, de Sade snapped his fingers... and Carmine vanished. In his place there was a floating orb, somewhat similar to the M-Grid terminals in Kandarin. The sorcerer's skeletal hands grasped the object. A heavily distorted image of Kronos appeared in de Sade's head.
-"The fabled Butcher of Kandarin has taken the long road to descention, has he not?"
Kronos visibly flinched at the message, but soon regained his stature.
-"Who is this? How did you reach me?"
-"Don't you know who I am? Don't you remember me? I am de Sade, the--"
-"Oh, yes, you're that freak that Father fired for being incompetent and killing the Twilight Warrior, instead of bringing him alive for interrogation. Because of you, the KandarinTwili war is prolonged indefinitely."
-"Were I you, I would not be talking, O High and Mighty Marshal. Right now, you are a forgotten king without a throne, and your empire is being pulled apart by scavengers. You should be thanking me for offering my aid in crushing the Twili. However, the real reason I contacted you is because now there is another Twilight warrior on the loose."
-"So? Why don't you kill this one as well?"
De Sade sighed.
-"My talons once raked through stone. The stone is harder now, I fear. The current Twilight warrior is still nothing compared me, but he is progressing at an alarming rate. He is--"
-"Alex, yes, I know. I knew that a while ago, O High and Mighty Sorcerer. Right now, I recommend you dispatch Alex, and then..." Kronos paused, and, with a sigh, added, "...and then the rest of Kandarinian isles. I would rather have them destroyed than return to find them under the control of some foreign king. When I am back, I will base a new empire! I shall crush all those in the way of my mission! I SHALL TAKE OVER GAIAN!!! Bwahahahahahahaha..."
De Sade let go of the orb, and Kronos' image faded and vanished. The Marshal seems to be doing well, considering that he is stranded in a separate dimension with only two other entities, both hostile. That fool Horus never really realized what his black glass cannon did...
The sorcerer snapped his fingers, and Carmine reappeared once again. He looked quizzically at de Sade.
-"Sir... why did you just snap your fingers like that...?"
-
((Drat. Over in, like, a week? Bah. Where is Mavas, by the way? Xorlak, you didn't mention him in your last post...))
Fernis got up and brushed the dust off herself. Was it just her or was Gaian getting dusty?
She pushed the rediculous thought away and just followed the soldiers before her.
"Don't deserve a second chance"...
Bah! I'm not giving him the chance...
It's just that...
She spoke silently, making sure the soldiers ahead don't hear them, but Iduran does.
"You know, my aim was not to give you a second chance. It was to give ROMME a second chance. Even by theory, I can only revive a person whom I heared of, and you were the only one..."
She placed her right hand on her forehead, thinking back...
"I was hoping I could pull you out for good and get you to tell me about the people of Romme, so that I can bring them back too, and they will tell me of those they knew, and so on and so on, until I bring back EVERYONE... Although I could not bring back the king since royalty always turns troublesome when it comes to magic, the rest of Romme would return to life... Life would suddenly spring up in a place where the Dark Empire would never dream of looking, and with the power of my runes shared among the people, Romme could have struck it down by surprise..."
She took a deep breath and lifted her head to stare into the distant sky ahead.
"That is why I refuse to give up. This is much more than a project of some fan to bring an idol back to life. Although I respect you as the knight I heared you were, I do not care how normal you are. You come from Romme, and that is all that matters."
Suddenly, she had noticed something wrong. Looking down, she saw a rock-solid ground. Looking ahead, she realized they had just arrived at the cave's entrance.
Elphos quickly approched Fernis snickering, then whispered in her ear-
"Nice speech!"
-
'So that's what hurts this guy, hand-to-hand combat. Lucky for me, I'm now a hell of a lot physically stronger.
The Demon Lord then gave a menacing smirk and dashed towards the obese lizard. When he was just a few feet away from bloat he jumped in the air performing a front flip, landed on the ground behind the slow fat lizard, and swung a powerful kick at the back of his head...
-
"Wait, so why are we supposed yo follow you again?"
"Oh, for fu..." Coriko put his head in his hands. "Alright, people in this town are invading and want to killl you. you want to follow me so you will continue living."
"So what is or motivation?"
"Thats it, Marshall! Where are you i could use your help over here. Unless you know i could come and help you, and leave here."
---
Druid slowly walked forward towards a small group of knights.
"Hello there, now I am still tired from attacking that rock creature. Yeah that was me, with the shadow warriors. Anyway I am tired and really dont want to have to annihilate you. So you can walk away or die here and now." As druid was talking he was leaning with one hand on his staff and the other hand was behind his back. This hand was forming a ball of shadow energy. "You know what," Druid fired the blast at the group killing them all. He walked forward and looked down at their bodies "you never really had a choice." Druid then walked forward to Jayce.
-
Alex ran his eyes over the ancient Twili scriptures entailing the art of the Parasite, a Twili spell that sapped someone’s life and added to the caster. Or perhaps the other way around…
Midna lay on the ground, bundled tightly in Alex’s jacket, gasping and huddling for warmth in what she thought were her final moments of life. Alex studied the page carefully, ensuring he got all the details on how to cast the spell, backwards no less.
“Alex….” She wheezed, “what are….you doing….?”
“If I can learn how to use the Parasite effectively,” he explained, “maybe I can give some of my power to you.”
“No….you’re hurt…as well…if you die…Twili…doomed.”
“The prophecies say we both need to survive in order to succeed…but that’s not the only reason I want to do this.”
“Alex…no! You can’t…take the risk…!”
“I don’t have a choice.”
Alex held his hands outstretched toward Midna’s frail and dying body, and concentrated on transferring his own power to Midna’s life. His fingertips, glowing emerald, each transmitted a small stream of energy which converged on his palm, and out toward Midna. Once the connection was made, Alex felt precious life depart him. He was unsure of how much would be necessary, but continued to pour it on.
“It’s too great a risk!” Midna continued to protest. “If you don’t leave yourself with enough…”
Midna began to feel the strength return to her, as she floated up into the air and landed down on her feet, only to find Alex kneeling down on the ground, panting.
“Alex! Are you okay?”
“Midna…I…can’t do this without you…”
“I know, but now you’re the one in bad shape! What can we do?”
“Rest…energy….Twilight…”
“I’m afraid I might still be too weak to create another portal…I’m sorry, Alex.”
Alex managed to crawl over to a cave opening, safe from the icy wind that bit at him, and sat down against the wall to catch his breath.
Midna sat down next to him. “Alex, about before…with Aurata… I just want to apologize.”
“For what?”
“Under that shroud, you two were close together…and I guess I got a little jealous. Now that I realize she was the enemy…”
“No problem,” Alex coughed. “I had a bad feeling about her anyway.”
“Alex, I also want to thank you…”
“Think nothing of it…” Alex wheezed, “you’re more to me than an accomplice.”
“So what do we do now? We can’t get back to the Twilight until we recover.”
“We could investigate the mines anyway, see if we can help them in any way we can.”
“Good idea,” she replied, “maybe we can get something else out of this whole mess.”
“That’s it, keep going!” Barnes hollered over the roar of drilling equipment. “Ever since that last quake a half hour ago the rocks seem to be weaker! Get the explosive teams in here, stat! We need to reopen the mines as soon as possible!”
“Barnes!” a nameless dwarf came up to him. “We’ve had no sign of Alex for the past few hours now. Should we keep looking?”
“Absolutely!” Barnes ordered. “Perhaps it was him that loosened up those rocks!”
He was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder.
“What do you want?” Barnes turned around, to see the metal figure of Alex once more. “Alex! How’d you get out of the caves? And what happened in there, you were gone for hours!”
“It’s a long story,” Alex replied. “Need some help clearing the rocks?”
“I dunno, you look kind of beat-up. You sure you’ll be okay?”
“Positive,” Alex said, raising his rifle.
“If you say so,” Barnes said. “Come with me, I’ll let you into the mines.
“Sir?”
“Yes, Carmine, what is it?”
“It seems Alex escaped from your illusion.”
Carmine was a professional at pointing out the obvious, but de Sade would not allow him the time of day.
“So he has, Carmine. So he has. This only means we must pursue them in other endeavors. Though he is still no match for me, he is proving himself to be a worthy opponent. It will be all the more satisfying when his downfall finally comes.”
“But sir, how will we confront him next time?”
“Very simple. By getting to the fourth page first, and it just so happens I know exactly where it is.”
“Where is it, sir?”
“Always with the questions, Lieutenant. It is deep within the old Nightshade fortress deep below Glacia’s peaks.”
“Nightshade, sir?”
“Imagine a man infinitely more powerful than myself, and then, imagine his appearance on Gaian. Doubtless, such an appearance would attract attention, and that is exactly what Iban, the cult subject of Nightshade, did. He gathered a rather large following, feeding his disciples the darkest secrets of the arcane. Unfortunately, the Nightshade caves collapsed... or fortunately... That we might never find out.”
“Sir, what of the last earthquake? Could it have opened the tunnels?”
“Unlikely, the rubble was too minute to be shaken free. Then again, I will not be stopped by mere earth. I would not be so sure about Alex, though.”
“And the dwarves, sir? If I recall correctly they have access to high explosives…”
De Sade this time ignored Carmine’s pestering questions. With a mere flick of his wrist, the mountain rocked with the force of a blast, but not of the dwarves. “Carmine, the path is open. We must go and bait the trap once more.” With another flick of his wrist the two vanished deep within the bowels of the mountain.
As Barnes coordinated charge placements, he felt the mountain tremor all around him, causing a small rock to conk his dwarven friend on the helmet.
“Hmm, the other blasting teams must’ve already started,” Barnes said, stroking his walrus mustache. “We’re all set here. Alex, whenever you’re ready.”
Alex gave the short man the thumbs up. “Go for it.”
With the push of the plunger, another series of blasts echoed through the caves, filling the air with dust, and replacing what was once a solid wall with a pile of rubble.
“The other teams should be finished by the time you show up,” Barnes motioned Alex through the new threshold. “Just one more bit of advice. With so much blasting going on, the last thing we need are rogue explosions, so please be careful. If there’s another cave-in, we might not have the equipment to get you out.”
“Duly noted,” Alex replied as he entered the dark tunnels ahead.
“Déjà vu,” Midna replied, appearing at his side once more.
“Tell me about it,” Alex said. “As soon as we make sure these tunnels are clear, we can get a move on to find the fourth page.”
The two Twili continued on in speculation of what lay beyond in the tunnels ahead. Little did they know that deep, dark secrets rested in the caverns below, begging to be revealed.
-
//Coriko...? Sounds vaguely familiar... no, I lost it. Must be a new kid. New kid, go post your character signups on the signups page.\
The newly formed tunnels had some sort of a crystalline structure supporting them, as the original wooden supports have been crushed. Carmine was looking around wildly. There were strange symbols carved on the walls, as well as ancient bookcases, half-ruined. Around were lying strange red clothes, but... no corpses... strange. Where did all the corpses go?
-"Kronos," whispered de Sade. "Kronos was quick to seize the opportunity after the collapse. He came here and resurrected as many Nightshade followers as he could, to add to his army. I still smell the stench of death all over these walls..."
-"Sir, how come is it that you know of this place?"
Again, no reply.
---
They've walked for quite a while before they reached the sealed room, wherein was the fourth page. The room was protected by two enormous-looking doors, with no clear indication as to how they opened. This didn't seem to worry de Sade, though, as with a snap of his fingers, the doors groaned open. As soon as he walked inside, he was greeted by a large morning star to his head. The mace caught the sorcerer off-guard, but it bumped off of his shield spell harmlessly.
-"I err. This is a new experience."
-"But it dealt you no harm!"
-"Observant as always, Carmine. However, I know these caves well; I know every bump and every stain. What happened now was not my doing, and should not have happened..."
Then came the voices.
They were very quiet at first, but they caused de Sade to stop talking, and Carmine to look up pointlessly at the ceiling. There was nothing to see, but both could hear a choir of female voices. De Sade was the first to speak again.
-"I don't believe it... Impossible. But how? Here?"
-"S-Sir?"
De Sade stood still for a moment. The voices stopped getting louder, but were now singing something, and singing it so well that Carmine almost fell down to his feet.
-"Yes... yes, it is true. Carmine, what you are witnessing right now... Hearing, rather... is an event so impossibly rare that not even I have observed it before. Kronos must've resurrected all of them, but couldn't get all of them out... and now, with their souls still being kept in this world by Lich energy, they've become fused to the cave. Carmine, this is heaven for a magic user! Let me put it this way, so that your mortal brain can comprehend: One powerful attack charged here is enough to wipe out three cities in a rapid succession."
-"But wouldn't that mean that the Master had nearly infinite power all along? Why didn't he just... wish for the continent to be his?"
-"He controls their souls, but he doesn't wield their power... A fitting comparison is a farmer directing a bull... Forget it. Mortal minds are not meant to understand. You are forgiven."
-"Er... as you say, sir..."
De Sade approached one of the walls, and began scribbling something on it, muttering strange incantations at the same time. The end result was a circle with many odd lines inside of it.
-"This is one of those rare times that I actually do astral magic in the fashion it is supposed to be always performed... My knowledge of it basically eradicates the use of sigils, but this is a special case. Such incredible amounts of magic are not to be trifled with."
The circle was now glowing a deep green colour.
-"Let us see that whelp get through this..."
And, with a snap on de Sade's side, both vanished into thin air.
-
"Coriko!" Marshall called; he dashed towards Coriko, shooting away at the Kandarin Warriors, while Wilham and his monsters were smashing a few away trying to protect the freed slaves. "Wilham, get the people out of here to safety. Just go north!"
Marshall then fired away at the foes surrounding Coriko. "Okay, we should get out of here, the monsters me and Wilham summoned should be enough to destroy the rest of this place."
-
"Hmm..." Zeros' murmured and looked around. Seeing as how everyone was pre-occupied, he decided to go look for someone. He let go of Rink, placing him on the ground and spread his wings. He opened his senses and smiled. He then turned and flew up to the wall, reaching it in moments, standing behind the old Alchemist, Allen.
"Allen," Zeros' acknowledged with a nod. Allen opened his eyes and glanced up at Zeros', giving him a tired smile and a nod.
"Zeros'. Long time no talk. You've been gone for eighteen months," he said, as Zeros' stepped off the wall and stood next to the aging alchemist.
"So I have..." he glanced around at the area. "Care to tell me what happened?" he asked and Allen gave him a very brief description of what happened.
Zeros' nodded.
"So, the true Dark Empire is trying to invade Tjed, eh? And you say you've been helping out Henri for eighteen months now?" Allen nodded.
"Noble choice, yknow. Any idea where Draven is?" he asked, glancing around. He could feel two farmiliar auras nearby, but he shook it off. There was no way those two were back... He knew he shouldn't doubt himself, being as old as he was, but what reason would those two have for coming back from the dead?
He sighed.
"Tired?" Allen asked, glancing at the man beside him. Zeros' only shrugged and streached his wings.
"You try breaking your friend out from a jail that's commanded by a dragon, disgused as a lizard..." he said, as if it was an everyday happening. Allen blinked.
"You met one of the Dark Empire's generals, then?" he asked. Zeros' nodded. "That's... interesting. You haven't even been here a whole day!" he chuckled and Zeros' cracked a smile.
"Do you think Draven will go back to the Dark Empire?" Zeros' asked the aging alchemist. He picked up a broken off piece of the wall and sighed. He hoped not. He rolled the piece of granite and stone over in his hands.
Allen shook his head. "I doubt it... Lord-" "Still calling him lord?" "-yes, Lord, now, as I was saying... I don't think Lord Dravne would return willingly to Retan, when he has his own empire," he said, gesturing in the general direction the Dark Empire was setup in.
"If you say so..." Zeros' shrugged and threw the rock over the wall. "I'll be back," he said before taking off again, back towards the battle. Allen sighed.
He had a feeling things would get even more interesting, now that the 'Romme Defenders' were alive and kicking - not that they were ever dead.
-
By this Time Nick was near the coast of the mainland and was ready to set sail to His new home.
"I hope master kronos has something...Fun for me.." He whispered as he tried to catch his breathe.
-
-----------------------------------------------
"Hmph... so this is Tjed... Well, let's see if my holy magics can track this... Doriana..." muttered Justin, a young Gepardis monk in a white robe. He closed his eyes and held his two front fingers to his forehead, right between his eyes, and slightly above them.
He saw images rushing through his mind of the lands of Tjed, and finally, he saw a dark shadow on a wall... but nothing to cause it.
'This must be her,' he thought.
She was standing near some sort of grey building, possibly made of stone. He opened his eyes.
"REVEAL YOUR PATH!!!" he shouted, removing the hand that was on his forehead and slamming it to the ground. Rubble crashed around his arm and flew up all around him. Lifting his hand, he exhailed his breath, and out came a white aura. The white aura had marked where his hand had been, and followed an invisible trail, which Justin began to follow.
"None can hide themselves from me," Justin repeatatively murmured under his breath as he followed the white aura, which was slowing down continuously. He constantly watched the white aura as he followed. Suddenly, it stopped, as did Justin. He halted his constant repatition of words. The image he had seen was now staring him in the face.
"Return, Deciple of Holiness," Justin called as he held his hand a few feet away towards the aura. It quickly raced through the air and atracted itself to his palm. Slowly, it faded away, and disappeared.
"Hidden, I am... Yet found me, you have," said a distant voice, one of stunning beautiful pitch, "What do you need, Monk?" the voice continued.
"I have saught you out, Doriana! I seek to join the Holy Republic, so that I may end this fued... and return to my monistary." There was a moment's silence, then Doriana's voice followed.
"Fued? The war, you must mean by this. Very well. If assistance you seek, granted it shall be. Brace yourself." Soon, a white flash shrouded the shadow on the grey wall, and out of the shadow came a young, beautiful, dark blue Drow with glowing red eyes, long, smooth black hair, and a thick purple robe with an assassin's claw attached to her hand.
Taken aback by Doriana's stunning beauty, Justin stared dully at her. "My... I uhh... haven't seen anything like you before, Doriana-"
"Please, call me Dori," she interrupted, "Now then, persue the pressing matters at hand, we must. What type of plan have you, then? Thinking about these matters before you met me, you must have been... Well then, come up with anything, have you?"
"Now that you bring that up, I must tell you of the resistance of darkness I have sensed on my travels to Tjed," Justin went on, "An incredibly strong force of dark energy has been darkening my veiws and misleading me. I'm actually surprised I was able to find you."
"Hmm..." Dori responded, "This energy you speak of... Strong, is it? And misleading...? Very dangerous, this is. Now, we must move. Follow me, and stay close behind, would you?"
Dori began to walk north, in a direction opposite from the grey building. She had a troubled look on her face, and something made Justin feel that this adventure the monks have forced upon him is going to get a lot worse before it gets better...
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-
"Alright, but only because I hate seing innocent people die."
Coriko turned back to the group of people who were not cowering anymore but standing looking dumbfounded.
"Alright get your freakin' asses north. NOW!"
The people stood still. Coriko fired a blast of fire at their feet.
"MOVE NORTH NOW!"
The group started to walk forwards.
"Finally. Marshall I got them moving north, lets go."
Coriko ran after Marshall.
-
The plump lizard was sent spinning forward, gaining only a mouthful of sand. He struggled back up but then his eyes rolled back in his head and he clumsily tumbled over, unconscious.
“Argh!!”
Ven flew back another ten feet from the kick delivered by the dark elf.
“Shoddy footwork, human.”
Rosario ran full throttle as Ven struggled to stand up in a daze. Ven barely had the time to glance upwards as the blue blade was baring down upon him. With all his might, Ven jerked his body out of the way, and the blade slashed open his right arm instead of his neck, as was intended.
“Ahhhhhh!!!!”
The knight screamed as the blood sprayed forth. Rosario did not follow up on his attack, instead letting the scream fill his ears. He closed his eyes as he listened to that blissful melody, until the sliver knight collapsed backwards.
“Well, now, what’s the matter? Not so heroic now, are we?”
Rosario stepped forward, placing a heel on the felled warrior’s foot and leaning over him, waving his glowing blue blade over his opponent’s face. This was his favorite part, taunting the wounded. It was so satisfying, and it made him feel so much better. Ven could feel the cold emanating from the vile sword as he scowled back at the elf.
“I’ll tell you what,” the drow began, “beg for your life and I may spare you. Beg to me with heart felt tears!” He of course intended to do no such thing, and that made the deed all so much more delicious.
“Never!”
Ven spat a bit of blood on the blade before his face, with promptly froze and fell off, pinging on his silver chest plate. Rosario frowned.
“Beg, insect!”
With a swift kick to the side, Ven was sent airborne, landing three feet away in a crumpled heap.
“Don’t you know when you’ve been bested, human? And here I am giving you such an undeserved chance!”
Another kick sent Ven rolling. Still Ven said nothing. The cerulean haired Rosario then turned the knight over and grabbed him by then neck. He would crack this one yet!
With a single hand, the drow lifted Ven in the air, his feet hanging in the air.
“Look! Look at how insignificant you are! AH HA HA HA HA--OOOF!!”
Rosario looked down to see Ven’s sword sticking into his stomach, glowing a dazzling white. With another press he felt it piece the other side… Eyes wide in horror, he tired to crush the human’s neck, but all his strength and awareness disappeared as he fell backwards.
Ven fell as well, but he was the one able to sit up. Clutching his bleeding arm, he merely sat there for a moment to catch his breath.
----
(Characters running off and disappearing mean it’s time for a break. Heh…)
Iduran stroked his chin with a gauntlet.
“Listen, Indher. Your intentions are noble and your heart is true. But resurrecting the dead is not something to be taken lightly. For every good spirit out there, there is at least one evil one to match. Suppose you resurrected the entire nation, yet one evil spirit followed each soul back? Suppose some or all weren’t as easy to bargain with as Mavas was?”
He glanced up as the sun as it began to crawl over the ocean to the west. Soon it would be painting the sky red, and his time would be up. He turned back to Indher.
“Forgive me if I’m skeptical, but calling me back was a dangerous thing.” He paused for a moment. “That doesn’t mean I’m not thankful for it, though. Just… some things aren‘t meant to be trifled with… There is a whole nation here that could use your other skills right now, though. A great deal, by the looks of it.”
They slowed down as the soldiers filed through the smaller entrance way, and the trio found themselves shoulder-to-shoulder with warriors in various degrees of armored states.
Suddenly, panic broke loose.
“HSSSSSSSAAAHHH!!! DIE HUMANSSSS!!!!!”
Five Lizard Men fell from the mountains, hundreds of feet up, landing right in the middle of the mass of warriors, crushing several with their talon-like claws. Though the lizards were vastly out numbered, they were huge... With great sweeps of their scaly tails, dozens of men were thrown backwards, armored bodies clanging against the vast stone walls. With huge maces, swords, and halberds, they struck down handfuls of men at a time...
-
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"Soooooo......... Uhh... Dori?" Justin said dumbly in midwalk towards northern Tjed.
"Yes, Gepardi?" Responded Dori, "Require something of me, do you? Please make a mental note, Gepardis; make haste we must."
"Yeah, about that... *how can I put this...* oh, right! why are we traveling north? Is something going on there, or are we just getting away from here?" As Justin stopped, Dori turned around, and Justin bumped right into her arm as she was turning. He fumbled backwards and fell on his back. He looked back up at the face of anger staring him in the face.
"Watch your step, Gepardi! If pay attention you will not, then fall, Tjed will! You have been acting ever-so strangely since you've seen me! WHY!?" Dori grabbed Justin's robes by the collar and yanked him back onto his feet.
"Calm down!" Justin demanded, "It's just... hard to focus while you're around, that's all... and stop switching your speech! It's hard enough to pay attention to what you're saying while-oh... nothing. Nevermind." Justin caught himself before he said too much, but to his disfortune, Dori understood what he was going to say before he even spoke. She reached her hand way back and stopped.
Justin continued, "Dori, what are you-" SLAP!!! Soaring through the air with incredible force, Dori's hand came racing back towards Justin's face. She nailed Justin right smack on the side of his face and sent him spinning backwards.
"Next time you look at me wrong... I'll use my claw. NOW GET GOING!!!" She was furious. Justin got back to his feet again and stumbled forwards. Since Dori was mad, she stormed off a few feet forwards, and at a steady pace. He quickly regained his fatigue and raced forwards.
*Must've broke a mental nerve... I should watch what I say when I'm around Dori...* Justin thought, *Wait, why am I calling her Dori? Her name is Doriana uhh... somethin'... somethin'... ahh, who cares, I'll just caller Miss... crap... I'll just have to make due with Dori for now.* He finally caught up with Dori, who stopped running off, and just started to walk.
"Dori..." Justin blurted. His response was a rolling of eyes, a sigh, and a rude "UGH!!! WHAT!?!?!? Can't you see we have something to do!?"
"I just wanted to appologize for saying too much. *crap. please don't slap me...* I feel like an imature fool. *IMATURE FOOL!? Smooth, pal.* In any case, I'm sorry. Please, will you forgive me? *Classic. 'will you forgive me?' Ugh! you could've done better... what's happening to me!? Am I going insane!? I should have never let the monks do this to me...*"
"You know," Dori began, trying not to laugh, "as rude and mean as this may seem... this is all quite entertaining... *pervert*"
"HEY!!! You do realize that I can read another persons mind, don't you?" Justin blindly stated.
"You do realize that I can, too, don't you?" Dori was now slowly striding forward. she couldn't help but let out a slight giggle or two, but she continued forward north... for the fate of Tjed... and possibally the world... depends upon her and Justin...
-----------------------------------------------
-
Duilin laughed as the fat lizard was tumbled away from his strike. The Demon Lord then stomped towards him.
"Duilin!" Rink called over towards the demonized Duilin. "Duilin! It's me Rink! You need to help the soldiers! They need your aid!"
Duilin turned around and looked at the small imp.
"Duilin, you've defeated him. You need to focus on defending Tjed. Isn't that why you came here?" Rink said. Although he wasn't fully sure why Duilin was here, he knew that he would want Tjed to be defended. "Come on Duilin, you're doing so well controlling yourself. It's amazing actually."
Duilin continued to breathe deeply and stare at the imp.
"But you still need to keep yourself in focus. Don't loose control. You and I both know that Zeros' is likely upset." He stepped towards Duilin. "Quick, go fend off the lizards. I'll see too Ven."
Duilin nodded. "Good idea." The demon lord then jumped into the air and soared towards where the giant lizard men where and also unbeknownst to him, that where his old friend Iduran is… (Right?)
Rink then fluttered over towards the wounded knight. "Ven! I saw how you handled that guy, great work. Are you alright?"
Lagart then pushed off some rubble that he was buried under. "Why nobody care about me?" He then shook himself off and then stepped over to join Ven and Rink. "Me Lagart. Who be you, imp?"
"I'm Rink." The imp replied, sounding a bit curious of the friendliness of the lizard man.
-
-----------------------------------------------
A great darkness began to slowly cover the land. The sun faded away, and the sky turned a dark grey. Justin stopped and looked up.
"Black cumulonimbus clouds... a storm approaches. Dori, what should we....... Dori?" But she was gone. All that could be seen around was a glade of a forest straight ahead, and mountain to the right, streaching across the side of the forest.
A white flash covered the horizon. Thunder struck a mile and a half in front of Justin in the forest. Rain began to poor out of the sky, drenching all in water. Justin looked more closely at the mountains, and noticed a black sort of opening.
"A cave, eh? Well, what other choice do I have?" He looked back north to the glade, then again at the cave. "Yeah, let's stick with the cave. I'll come out when it stops raining... AND thundering..." Justin ran over to the cave for a good thirteen minutes-or-so until he finally hit the enterance. Glancing inside, he noticed there wasn't any type of light around anywhere.
Justin held his hand in front of himself. "Holy light of Drannica, purge this darkness with you ever-growing might and holiness!"
FLASH!!! A grand white light purged through the cave and lit it with a strange glow that was soothing to a person's eyes. Justin walked in and made himself comfortable by sitting down on a great boulder that was somewhat strangely shapped like a bed. He grabbed another much smaller boulder and placed it under his head.
"Wow... this is extremely convenient... ahh well. I'm too tired to whine about anything right now. G'night!" Justin relaxed his body and soon fell into a dark slumber, undisturbed by anything or anyone... but to his disfortune, something had already made it's neast in these caverns... Something strangely familiar...
"GGRRRAAAHHHH!!!!!! WHAT A FOOLISH MORTAL, WHO HAS BEFILED MY SACRED SHRINE!!!!!! YOU WILL FACE MY WRATH, YOU MORTAL FOOL!!!!!!" Justin was now wide awake, and standing up with his hands reaching behind his neck for his blade, the demon fang. as he unsheathed the demon fang, he felt a soothing, but sharp, shiversome chill fall down the back of his spine. His right hand, weilding the demon fang, felt much warmer, as if he were wearing three pairs of mittens, and each adding a thick layer of heat.
The cave began to quake as the great beast encroached onward to Justin's area. Justin, however, had already made the decision to leave. He began sprinting with all of his might out of the enterance. The beast followed, and grabbed Justin. As he caught sight of Justin, the beast quickly let go in shock.
Justin landed perfectly on his feet, although he had dropped the demon fang. He raced away from the beast and picked up the demon fang, but before he had a chance to run, the beast called his name.
"Constantine, is that you...?" The great beast walked forward and stood behind Justin, who was dead in his tracks. He slowly turned his head and caught sight of the creature that had left the cave to follow him. It was not even a creature at all. A white aura surrounded the giant beast, and slowly, it shrank and took the form of a human. It was a monk similar to Justin's height, with blonde hair tucked into a ponytail, tan skin, and wearing dirty, torn white robes.
"Tiberius?" Justin gasped, "Is that really you, Tibbs!? Where the hell have you been!?" Tiberius, another Gepardis from the same tribe as Justin, walked forwards. He stopped in front of Justin.
"What in Dran's name are you doing here, Justin? Can't you sense the terrible danger that awaits you!? Can't you feel the dark presence that has been pulsating through these lands!? Return to the Monistary, Justin! You must!"
"I've been exiled, Tibbs," Justin began, "for not paying enough attention to the gods... the monks aren't as they were, Tibbs!" Justin looked down at his feet and sighed. "I wish Thand Yug-dizer was still a monk. He was the best white mage I've ever seen, and yet he was expelled too! Something about not giving a reasonable enough donation to the Monistary."
"Hang on a sec, Justin. I've come to believe the monks up north have allied themselves with the dark lord..." Tiberius stared Justin in the eyes, a more serious look catching hold of him. Justin only looked confused and perplexed.
"Who do you mean?" Justin asked. He then thought for a moment, then he realized who the dark lord really is. "Do you mean Retan?" Tiberius closed his eyes and shook his head. "Well, then who is it?" Justin finally asked, at last giving in to the strange mystery.
"HIM... the darker one..." Tiberius said, pointing a single finger towards the ground. This confused Justin even more. He thought again, a hand placed on his chin, slowly rubbing his fingers back and forth to indicate thought.
"I have it!" Justin shouted, "It's the devil! Oh yeah! I'm totally right, aren't I......... aren't I?" Again, Tiberius shook his head, and put his hand to cover his face, looking annoyed by Justin's false answer.
"It's HIM!!! The DARKER ONE!!! SPEAKING HIS NAME IS FORBIDDEN!!!" This hit Justin like a 'slap-in-the-face' kind of reality. He now knew the answer.
"Umbranthos! oh crap..." Justin had coverd his mouth in shame of what he had just said. This was the dark lord; king of the demons. Umbranthos' fang is the one Justin has. "Anyways, how can Umbran... 'HE' harm us? Didn't Drannica seal him off in the underworld dimention by addamantine gates!?"
"CAN'T YOU FEEL IT!?!?!?" Tiberius shouted, "HE'S ALREADY HERE, IN MORTAL FORM!!! WHY DO YOU THINK RETAN IS STILL ALIVE!?!?!? IT IS BECAUSE 'HE' HAS ALLOWED IT!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS DARK ENERGY IS FROM!?!?!? IT'S HIM!!!!!!" Tiberius was breathing fast after shouting at Justin.
*Gulp.* "H-He's-s h-h-hea-r-r?" Justin shuddered... His world seemed to have come to an end. He could hear his heart smashing against his chest. He fell backwards on the wet ground, the rain splashing on his face. All that was a colorful world in Justin's eyes had slowly faded to black... fading forever away. The dark one... has come...
-----------------------------------------------
-
Fernis let out out a slight giggle.
"Now that I know these things can happen, I'll come ever so prepared. But please, Iduran, at least allow me to attempt calling you back again in the future..."
Then, suddenly the lizards came falling down, making Fernis stop and move to her right to dodge a falling soldier.
"Why, you stupid little critter..."
She suddenly turned her head to Elphos, who just stood there, staring in horror.
"ELPHOS! GET OVER HERE AND GIVE ME A LIFT!"
Elphos' face turned from horrified to sour as he ran in front of Fernis and bent down to all fours. Fernis quickly climbed on his back.
Now I can actually AIM with all those friendlies about!
Fernis pointed the palm of her hand at one of the lizards, cousing the runes on the bracelet on her arm to shine in blue.
A powerful lightning bolt was suddenly shot from her hand unto the closest lizardman, cousing it to fall down, dead and fried, without even a chance to cry out in pain.
"I hope Tjed troops like eating THUNDER-FRIED LIZARDS ON-A-STICK!"
-
-----------------------------------------------
"Justin...?" A strange, muffled voice was calling out to him... pitch darkness was still all Justin could see. "Hey, Justin!" the strange voice called again... No response. "He's still out of it, I guess," the voice concluded. This voice sounded like a man. Justin could still feel his heart beating, but instead of wet, coldness, he felt warmth, a bed, and soon a fat finger placed on the side of his throat.
"Is he still alive?" asked another voice, sounding more like a woman, "Please be okay, Justie..." The girl hung her head down and covered her face with her eyes.
"It seems he is still alive," said the first voice, "but in some sort of trance. His eyes are open, but he sees nothing. He opens his mouth, but not a sound leaves his throat. It seems our enemy had something to do with this..."
"Enemy?" asked the second voice, "Who? Is it a man? Oh, if I find out who did this to my Justie... Pain... Thank you for sending the letter, Doctor. I'll wait in the front." the woman got up and slowly walked out of the warm room. The man, however, continued to examine Justin. He grabbed a needle off of a silver table and took a sample of Justin's blood. He then covered the point where the needle had entered with a bandage and tape to stop the blood. Soon the man left as well.
*Where am I?* Justin began to ponder, *What's happening? How long have I been here? Why can't I see? Why can't I say anything? Am I dead?* Justin laid on the bed for three days wondering the same things over and over, day in and day out. When the fourth day had finally come, Justin regained his sight, but his eyes were heavy with drowziness. He sat up, putting his hand to his hand.
"Ah, my head... What the hell happened?" Justin looked around. Apparently, he'd fell into some sort of poison-enduced coma. Suddenly, he felt a slow pain in his other arm. The head of a ninteen-year-old girl was on his arm, sound asleep.
Justin's head felt heavy and warm. He just sat there with his right hand on his head, and his other slowly and carefully moving out from under the ninteen-year-old-girl's head. finally, he was out, and the girl was still out. He placed his hand gently on her head, and just sat there, staring at her smooth, forest-green hair.
About two hours later, the girl opened her eyes, and quickly closed them again. Justin quickly but gently moved his hand away. The girl sat up in the chair that was next to Justin's bed and started rubbing her eyes. A few moments later, she opened them to find Justin staring back at her with a smile. She screamed and jumped into his arms, crying on his shoulder.
"JUSTIN!!! YOU HAD ME WORRIED SENSLESS!!! I WAS HERE FOR THREE DAYS!!!" She gasped in a great breath of air for a while, and then caught her breath.
"I'm fine, Jannie," Justin retorted. He held her in his arms and stroked her hair. She still held on, crying away on his shoulder. Another ten minutes passed, and she let go of him, rubbing the tears from her eyes.
"What happened to you?" asked Jannis, still sitting on the bed, staring at Justin. Justin simply shook his head and replied, "I haven't the slightest idea. My guess would probably be as good as yours... Ohh man, my head!" He reached his hand up to his head again.
Soon, in walked another familiar face. He stopped and looked at Justin. "Hmm..." He began, "I won't want to bore you with the details, so I'll just tell you right off the bat. You were poisoned with an ancient elven dart. It was well cloaked with an illusion spell, but my medical sensors detected it right away. In any case, it was a minor poison that posed no major threat, but it's very dangerous to a certain list of races, and it could have killed you, had I not removed it immediatly. So, are you feeling a bit heavy?"
"Now that you mention it, my head feel like it's on fire... ugh! You got any medicine, Doctor uhh..."
"Thand," he interrupted, "Thand Yug-dizer, at your service. So what have you been up to all of these years, Justin? Been messing around in that Dran-forsaken Monistary... Hmph... I don't even want to think about that place right now. Here's a small dose of menill neul electicide. It should give you a boost, Justin." Thand threw a large, wrapped box with a few needles inside. He unwrapped the package, opened it, and took one of the needles with the M.N.E. out and injected himself with one.
"I'm so glad you're alright again, Justin!" Jannis blurted, "You still haven't forgotten me after ten years, have you?" She took out a small package from out of her pants pocket and handed it to Justin. he opened it up and looked at what was inside. It was a case with an assortment of labled herbs and ingredients for various cures. He closed it and put it in his pocket.
"Wait a moment..." Justin raced through his mind. He forgot what he was doing *Let's see here... I was walking north, then I saw rain... Headed to the cave and met Tibbs... who was the person that was with me...? Oh no... crap...* "I have to leave, now! I'm sorry to be rude, but I have to head north. It's for the sake of Tjed... uhh, which way's north?"
"Well, Justin, you're in luck," Thand stated, "We're in the northern fringe of Tjed. The only place of real importance 'HERE' would be a bit farther north, to the dock. I can't see why you'd want to go there, but there's a market to the east of the dock if you need to stock up your supplies... or there's the Dark Camp to the south of the market, but uhh, heh... that's not a very nice neighborhood."
"Dark Camp? What's that? And how can I get there from here?" Justin dumbly asked. Thand sighed and looked down.
"The Dark Camp is really not the place to be, son. It's the Crimson reinforcement; they'd kill you and take your stuff clean... but if you really want to get there, I suggest you head to the docks first. There's a friend of mine up there that can take you there through a secret underground waterway. If you take that route, You'll end up under the Dark Camp's dried-out well. If you climb that, you'll end up in the middle of the Dreaded halls, in a locked room."
"Sound's easy enough," said Justin, "So then, how do I get passed the locked room, Thand? Some kind of riddle I bet..."
"Yep. You got it right on the dot," Thand continued, "Once you get out of the well, knock three times on the door. A Lizard-man will ask you the password. You must simpley Reply 'If my enemy's blood is not crimson, my blood be spilled for the empire'. You got all that?"
"Yeah. I got it. So who's the guy I have to meet at the docks who'll take me through the underground waterway?"
"His name is Zenthak. He'll probably be wearing a black robe to cover his skin and face. Don't get too close to that man... He's a vampire, bit by Umbra himself, they say."
"Which Umbra, the darker one, or the bloodier one?"
"Bloodier," Thand replied.
"Okay, I'll see you again some time soon." With that said, Justin got out of his bed and stood on his feet. A few moments later, he fell over on his face. "... crap... Could one of you help me up?"
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"Uhh, Dr. Thand?" Jannis began, "Could you accompany Justin to the docks? I don't think he can make it on his own..." Thand sighed and looked at the mass still on the floor that was Justin.
"I'm being serius, guys! Help me up! Now! I feel like I broke something... ugh..." Justin placed both his hands on the ground shoulder-width appart and pushed off with all of his might. He groaned a little, too. Finally, he was able to sit himself up with his back against the bed, still on the floor, though. Jannis raced to his side and grabbed under his arms. She pulled him to his feet and sat him down on the bed.
"Justin, that injection you took may take a while to kick-in," Thand said after a few moments of thinking, "It may be another four hours or so, but you'll be able to walk by yourself again. In the mean-time, what do you intend to do?"
"What do I intend to do!?" Justin retorted, "I INTEND TO SAVE TJED, THAT'S WHAT!!!!!! What the hell do you think I came all the way out here to do!? I need to go, and now! If I don't-"
"Then your master may think twice before letting you in the order." Dori was standing in the doorway, one hand on her hip, "What happened here? Why did you leave?"
"Leave!? LEAVE!?!?!? ARE YOU FRIGGEN MAD!?!?!? YOU LEFT ME!!! Where did YOU go, miss 'I'm so friggen great because I lead a resistance'! What is you PROBLEM!?" Justin was seething with anger. He could have punched Dori, if not for his weak constitution at the current moment.
"I went into the forest and passed through. When I turned around, loan behold, you were gone. Care to tell me what happens next?" Dori's hand came off her hip and stayed at her side, her fists clenched.
*The forest...? Oh for the love of Dran! I could have just saved four and a half days if I just continued north... Way to go, me. I am dumb... 'sigh'* "The forest, you say? what about that great flash of lightening? You must have seen that. What was that all about?"
"That wasn't lightening, you idiot!" Dori yelled, "That was a flare. My illusion magic isn't just for show, it's supposed to help... for the love of the lord, why didn't you-"
"Illusion magic, you say?" Thand interrupted, "You know, I found a poisonous dart on Justin, and it was cloaked in an invisibility spell. Try to explain that, missy!" Thand took the dart and dipped it in a vile of paint, then he threw it on the floor. It was a simple, unfeathered dart with a tripple-bladed tip.
"What are you talking about!?" Dori blurted, "I only use my magic for the good of our people, not-"
"And just what do you mean by 'our people', miss? You probably knew that Justin isn't from Tjed already, so you would have no regrets for using such a thing on him!" Jannis walked towards where Dori stood, picked up the painted dart, and handed it to her. "I believe this belongs to you. Now get out, or I'll make you!"
"Are you trying to tell me that you'll force me out if I don't leave? Is that it? I'm telling you, this dart is not MINE," Dori plainly stated. She threw the dart on the ground and stepped on it, crunching it into tiny pieces. "Okay!? Is that getting to your puny little brain!?"
"Insult her again," Justin butted-in, "And I'll have your head on a PLATTER!!! GET THE HELL OUT!!!" Justin stood in a perfectly composed stance. He unsheathed his demon fang (which was still on his back this whole time) and pointed it at Dori. He then pointed it at the door. "OUT, NOW!!!!!!"
Dori looked at the fang and swallowed hard. She backed up a few steps and reached to her side, grabbing her assassin's claw and placing it on her knuckles. This only angered Justin even more, and he finally snapped. He lunged forwards, slashing at Dori, just missing because of her assassin's claw being in the way. She could barely hold Justin's might as he forced his blade towards her side. Soon it reached Dori's flesh and started to burn her skin. She screamed and turned invisible.
"Where'd you go, assassin?" Justin snarled. His fury was unleashing itself on his physical characteristics. His hair turned jet-black, his eyes darkend to a bloodish-red color. The door slammed shut, and he heard another slam across the hall. He bursted through the first door and belted down the hallway, crashing through the next door.
"REVEAL YOURSELF TO ME!!!!!!" Justin held his hand to his forehead the same way he had last time, and then swirled it around the air. Soon, he brought it back to his forehead, and then, next to his head. Soon, a white aura in the shape of a person appeared near by, crouching down, the head looking back at Justin.
Justin ran around the Aura and then behind it. It looked around itself, and then started to sneak back to the house. Justin ran up to the aura had whispered next to the side of it's head.
"Boo..."He had plunged his blade through the aura, and it made Dori reappear. He had stabbed her right in her kidney. She screamed. Blood poured out of her wound and out of her mouth. She coughed on the blade, leaning her body forwards, trying to push it out. It was no use. All it did was burn her hands.
She readied her assassin's claw and Jabbed it into Justin's forearm. He removed the blade from her kidney which hurt her more than it did when she was stabbed. Afterwards, he dropped his blade and used his other hand to try and pull out the assassin's claw. He succeeded, but crimson red blood gushed out of his punctured forearm.
He fell to his knees, as did Dori. Bloody redness covered their sights, and both fainted into a painful oblivion...
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"Leaving so soon Marshall." Said a familiar voice from behind him. (NOT Roland)
"Raymond?" Marshall said, turning around. It was his old friend he met in the remains of the Blue Minotaur Temple. "What are you doing here? I haven't seen you for over a year."
"Oh, well I was put in charge of this operation." Raymond replied.
"What? But Peter put me and--"
"No, no. You misunderstand me, Marshal. I was put in charge of the operation from the Kandarin."
"You mean you're...?"
"Yes, the all along sadly. How do think those zombies found out where we were hiding? It was me who informed them. I even gave them inside information on Gief, so Roland and his forces could crush the pathetic Aspye city."
"You...you..." Marshall pointed his magic pistols at Raymond, ready to fire.
"Yes, I'm one of the key reasons your barbaric nation is nothing but a pathetic third-world party." Raymond lifted his hands which gave off an eerie beige glow. "Now I will crush what remains of it!"
Before Raymond could pull off any fancy tricks, Marshall blasted a fireball and an ice shard right at his head, blowing it clean off. Yet, that didn't stop the undead summoner! He smashed his fists together and two beams of beige energy shot to the ground to his left and right side, summoning two ogre zombies. Raymond then picked up his head. "Are you ready to die, Marshall!?"
-
"I'm fine, I'm fine..."
Ven stumbled a bit as he rose to his feet, clutching his bleeding arm as he waved the imp off.
Melface appeared floating over the waves, his tiny fists balled in anger and rage and his eyes wide.
"You-you..!! ARGH!! I will kill you all for this!! Mark my words! YOU WILL ALL DIE!!!"
He flew backwards a bit as some knights advanced towards him menacingly. Then he turned tail and flew back towards the ships in the distance, vanishing into thin air.
Ven smiled at this, his confidence fully restored. Two of the fiends were felled, and the third chased away. It seemed the entire tide of battle had turned with the avalanche and thunder strikes. He would find whoever coordinated that attack and award him a medal. And Duilin's transformation topped it all off.
"Here sir, allow me to dress your wound."
Ven sheathed his blade and allowed the solder to apply some salve and wrap his arm tightly. It would need to be dressed better when he got back, but this would do for now.
The lizards arriving from the ships had died out, and Ven knew wave one was over. Kesnar technically still stood, but it would be a lost cause with the wall mangled as they were. Retreating to the caves would still be their best course of action. The main army should already be there now. Those twisting passages would be easier to defend. Most of the population had retreated into the capital of city, Tjedon, located in the center of the ring of mountains past the maze of tunnels anyway. It was the people that needed to be defended, not the land.
His wound wrapped, Ven stood up and looked at the three menacing ships upon the western horizon... Just sitting there, waiting... Especially that one in the center... with it's jagged protrusions and other things that were too tiny to make out in the distance... He knew right there and then that the next wave would be far more brutal...
----
Iduran leapt back as he avoided the swing of a mighty sword. Indher had managed to fry one lizard, but there were four more left, and these huge things seemed to have the strength of twenty men...
Just then a knight was ripped in half, his upper body thrown toward Iduran. The Tjedian knight's sword fell right at the former Knight Captain of Romme's feet. Iduran reached down and picked up the dead warrior's weapon.
He looked to the west and saw something flying his way. Though it looked like a demon, he somehow knew it to be no threat, so played it no mind. The sun was beginning to wane, and the western sky grew red. He had but a few moments left. And nothing to loose.
Wielding the broadsword in both hands, his form blurred as he dashed madly at the lizard who cut down the Tjedian. The B-Class Lizard Man had a huge jagged blade, and swung it towards the old knight in a wide arc. Iduran simply leapt over it and slashed his own weapon though the air as it glowed a bright blue. The lizard's feet were instantly frozen with a cerulean flash. Roaring, the thing slashed his sword straight down upon the human. Iduran blocked with his blade, sheer determination in his eyes. The flimsy thing should have snapped right then, but it did not. Instead the old knight's feet were pressed a foot into the rocky ground as a crater formed, the runes etched upon his armor by Indher glowing brightly.
Iduran pushed up on the lizard's mighty sword, and the Lizard Man lost balance, bringing his sword into the air. Iduran brought his broadsword sideways, then with both hands, cut the air with a horizontal slash. The lizard's blade fell apart, in two halves...
The Lizard Man snarled loudly then, baring all of his 135 pointed teeth (he was missing one). He threw the useless stub of a sword away, and slashed the air with his long claws. He did not need a weapon, after all.
Iduran danced around the green scaled monster, dodging slash after slash. The beast's low strokes clipped the rocky ground, sending chunks flying into the air. Finally Iduran found himself cornered with his back to the great mountain wall. The lizard smiled menacingly before charging and slashing with his right claw. There was suddenly a bright flash, and his arm was then a bloody stump, his claw twitching upon the ground...
The Lizard Man threw his head back and wailed loudly. Yet the scream was cut short, for Iduran drove his blade deeply into the lizard's chest, piercing through his black armor. The lizard's eyes rolled back lifelessly, then fell back in a crumpled mess...
-
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Thand rushed outside to Dori's side, and Jannis ran to Justin. They both had a pack of bandages and wrapped their wounds. "How could this have happened!?" Jannis cried. She tried to carry Justin in her arms, but she didn't have a good enough amount of body strength for it, so she left him on the ground and dragged him back inside down the hall and just barely lifted him to the bed. She covered him in the blanket that was on the bed already.
"I had no idea Justin could get this blood-thirsty... but he's always gone out once or twice from the monistary before. Never came back for days at a time. Mabey this is why he was...? No, I'm just breaking down to conclusions. I'm sure they were just jelous, like they were with me." Thand finished wrapping Dori's body in an anti-burning solution and a tight bandage. He picked her up with ease and walked back into the house to another room.
"Uhhnn..." Justin moaned, "Oohhh...... uhhnn...... so close......" Jannis sat down next to Justin and observed his wounds. She then wondered after making a careful observation why Justin was unconcious. He held a minor wound in his forearm, and nothing else. She also remembered he was poisoned earlier, so that might have had something to do with it.
"Hey Jannis! Get in here! I found out who this woman is!" Jannis gave Justin a pat on the head and left down the hall to the door on the right of the entrance, which was smashed open because of Justin. She walked in the room and looked at the lifeless Drow wrapped all around in bandages.
"Well, who is she?" Jannis asked in a sort of I'm-in-a-hurry attitude. She looked at Dori with little initiative as to whether she even cared.
"You shouldn't talk like that when someone is near death," Thand mentioned, "especially a total stranger. She may have attacked Justin, but only because-"
"She deserves to be in prison!" Jannis interrupted, "She had no right to attack my Justie! If you'll sit here and do nothing, then I'll.. I'll... I"LL KILL HER MYSELF!!!" Jannis took a pocket knife from out of her pants pocket and raced at Dori. Thand quickley pulled a sedative needle out of his lab coat and injected Jannis with it directly into the side arterie on her neck. She stopped in mid-rush for a few moments, then rolled her eyes backwards and hung her head back as well.
"This is going to be an eventful reunion, huh... Jane." Thand took the lifeless Jannis into Justin's room and laid her next to Justin. They looked so dead to him, he had a hard time looking at them. He walked back to the room where Dori was lying on the bed.
The sun had lowered almost completely to its final descent down the horizon. The sky was a dark purple haze and stars were visible around to the south. Black was the color of the moon as it rose high into the sky. The new moon was a great sight around the stars, as it held a strange, mischevous glow around it's outer-most layer.
As the night began to reach down on Tjed, Dawn slowly approached the dark continent. It was useless to have dawn in the west anyways, as no rays of light had never shown on the surface of its malevolent landmass. An even still, a Tall Lizard-man in crimson-red platemail stood facing the east to look out as if he could see the bright glory of the sun, his black eyes forever seeing...
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"Well, it looks like the fighting is dieing down." Rink stated. The imp then closed his eyes and gave an aura scan. "I sense that Jayce guy is near by. The one who attacked Tjed last time..."
He then looked to Lagart. "So, are you a friend of Ven or Duilin?"
"I friend of Duilin. I left empire, didn't like their thinkings." Lagart replied.
"Hey, um. Could you do me a favour then?"
"What?"
Rink hopped over to where he had Duilin's mace laying on the ground. "Could you give him this?" The imp then picked it up and then flew back over to Lagart.
"How somebody so small able to pick up such huge weapon!?" Lagart asked in surprised as the imp handed him the mace.
"Same reason an imp is talking to a lizard-man." Rink replied.
---
Duilin swooped in slamming his feet into one of the large lizard men, knocking it off its feet. Duilin then landed on the ground and roared "Who wants a piece of Duilin!"
The lizard man who was knocked over got back up and picked up its mace. "DIE FILTHY DEMON!!" It hissed as he charged towards Duilin. Just before it could swing its weapon, the demon lord jabbed the lizard in the face with his left hand, then with right, left again and then gave a jabbing upper cut right under the jaw with his right, forcing the creature’s head to snap back, and drop its weapon. Duilin snagged the mace, as it was in mid fall and then gave a quick swing across the head of the already concussed lizard man, breaking its neck.
Another lizard man was charging towards him. Just when he was a few feet away from Duilin, the demon lord enchanted the mace with his raw demonic energy and then threw it at his advancing foe, smashing him right in the stomach knocking the wind out of him as he fell to the ground.
"When will they learn to not attack me one at a time?" Duilin commented.
-
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"Rise may you, sun of the crimson. Fall nought beith for the new moon, but for the only sun's islands... how unfortunate, though it may be..." The poetic lizard-man waddled back to his small base near the edge of the dark continent. As he found his way inside, there sat a piece of parchment.
"And what might this be? On-lookers to my background, looking only for gossip? Never will I let it, I say! Never will I lead my holy bretheren to their demise. Read this parchment I shall..." He waddled inside his tent and picked up the parchment, sitting on a little table next to a bedroll on the floor.
The message read as follows:
Dear Jacobie,
How's the army been treating you? We of the high order of priests of the Arctic tribe of Drannsmire bade you to follow these instructions. Consult with the one who carries the soul and teeth of our lord, and his misstress as well. He will be near Tjed. Do this, and we will accept you into our order as an ambasador of the Reptilian races.
With due concern,
Lord Valimore VIII, founder of the Holy Drannic Republic of Knights.
"Hmm... Valimore requests I go to Tjed and find this... man with the soul of the darker one... and his misstress. Whom might be this haveth I not a single clue. Strange, this all seems to be."
The Lizard-man took the peice of parchment and lifted his bedroll, which had five other letters. He took them all and put them on top of the bedroll and rolled it up. He then stuffed it into a bag on the floor which had an enchantment that could fit inside itself fifty times its normal maximum size, and stay almost weightless as well. He took the table and a few stands that kept the tent from collapsing and threw them into the bag. Then, He folded the tent up and threw that into the bag.
"If Tjed I must go, then so be it that my soul shall not rest easy until I find this man and his maiden!"
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"AHH!!!" Justin leapt out of bed and ran back outside, looking around for something, panicing horribly. Akwardly, Dori did exactly the same. When she got outside, she stared into Justin's eyes, shattering them both into nothing with fear.
"You saw him...?" Dori asked finally, after about ten minutes of staring, "Saw that... THING!?!?!?" Justin nodded, not taking his eyes off of Dori, both of them paralizing eachother with their horrified stare.
Jannis bolted out of the house, the pocket knife still in her pocket, although she had already forgotten about her incident with Dori. Thand rushed out as well.
"What in Dran's name is going on out here? What's with the screaming? It's in the middle of the night! Can't you see we're trying... What the hell's gotten into those two? First, they were friends. Then, they fight eachother... and now THIS!?!?!?"
"What's going on!?" Jannis looked from Justin to Dori, then back and forth a few times. She waved her hand in the middle of their eyes, but not one of them blinked of moved.
"Jannis, get back inside!" Thand yelled, "NOW!!!" Jannis belted back into the house and hid under the bed she was in before. She started to shiver in fear.
"D-do y-y-you think-k he's-s r-r-real-l!?!?!?" Justin studdered to Dori. Shivering intensly, she slowly nodded. Fear had somehow seeped its way into their souls.
After another thirty minutes, Dori looked around her self. "What will we do? What CAN we do!?" Dori ran back inside to the bed she was in before and sat on the bed, chattering her teeth. Eventually, she fainted back into sleep.
"Looks like she's got the right idea, Justin," Thand said after Dori had fainted, "you should get yourself some rest. When you're feeling better, I'll take you and miss Dori to the docks. Go back inside and get some rest. I'm headed that way to do the same."Justin and Thand went back to their rooms and laid down on their beds.
"You can come on out now, Jannis." Justin said. She got out from under the bed and stood, looking back at Justin. He motioned for her to lie down next to him. She walked around to the other side of the bed and laid down next to Justin.
"Are you okay?" Justin asked her. She looked back at him with a fearful face. Clearly, she was not as good as can be, but she was feeling better now that Justin had regained thought. After a moment of silence, she broke out wailing on Justin's shoulder with her arm wrapped around him.
"It's fine, okay?" said Justin, putting his hand on her head, stroking her forest-green hair, "I'll be okay. Nothing is going to happed to me or just 'anybody' for that matter. You'll be fine. I'll be here if you need anything." Jannis stoped crying, but she sniffled a bit. Clearing his mind, and still holding on to Jannis, Justin slowly fell back into a deep slumber...
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As Fernis recharged her bracelet for another shot, she watched how Iduran skillfully dispatched another lizard.
And he calls himself normal? He could open a fencing school, dammit!
"Iduran! Hey, Iduran! Try using the teleport thing!"
She then heared strange noises sounding awefully like constipation below her.
Looking down, she saw Elphos, who seemed to be doing his best holding her up, but he was already sweating.
"F-Fernis," he tried speaking, which sounded awefully hard for him.
"You are hea-"
"SHUT UP!"
Fernis let out another jolt at yet another lizard, who skillfully dodged it, but it didn't matter as it hit it's companion right behind it, frying yet another reptile.
Fernis seemed somewhat angry at Elphos now.
"Keep comments such a these to yourself!"
-
Just as it seemed all five lizards were felled, two more dropped from above, landing in the midst of the knights with bestial roars.
As the western sky was painted crimson with the setting sun, the old knight knew he had only seconds left on Gaian. Taking advantage of his distraction, one of the massive beasts swung a thick mace down upon him. Iduran was snapped back to reality by the word 'teleport'.
"Right!"
In a blur he disappeared, his foggy image hanging in the air just long enough for the massive mace to drive through it. The lizard was thrown off balance by the miss, and stumbled forward. Iduran instantly appeared behind the beast and with a mighty slash raked his blade across the thing's armored back, splitting it open. It was not enough to kill the beast, though, and it spun around, flailing its weapon about. The old knight was quick to react, though, and bore his blade deeply into the monster's scaly stomach...
-
"Iduran! Hey, Iduran! Try using the teleport thing!"
"Iduran?" Duilin then noticed the old knight, his old friend fighting off one of the giant lizards.
The second lizard then took his battle axe and readied to slash it downwards at Iduran.
"NO YOU DON'T!" Duilin roared as he bolted forward and tackled the lizard man to the ground. The lizard dropped his axe as he was taken down to the floor. Duilin got back up and then slid his hands from each other quickly making a blade of demonic energy. He then plunged it down on the lizard, before it could reach its weapon, right through the chest.
Duilin then started to breathe deeply, his power was so much for him, and he could barely handle it. He then turned his head and looked at him. Iduran, the old knight from Romme. The very man he saw dead in Retan's Dark Vessel. His first friend he made, the man who actually trusted him, when he turned from the Empire.
"Hello...Iduran. It's me...Duilin..." He greeted, still in his deeper demonic voice.
-
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The mysterious Lizard-man began to walk east a dock on the dark continent. Everyone in his camp was most-likely to be sound asleep. He tip-toed over to the docks and grabbed hold of a rope on the dock attached to a cargo frigate. Slowly, he let the frigate drift out. When it was thirty feet-or-so away from the dock, he swung from the rope in his hands an flipped onto the deck.
"Small, though this ship may be, to my likings, it is... Mehhehheh! I will find this soul of your lord, yes indeed. He will not expect hospitality from me, will he now? I shall make this one my friend, and together, we will travel to the arctic tribe of Drannsmire!!! MEHHEHHEH!!!!!!"
The Lizard-man was now well on his way to Tjed. He tightened the rudder a few times to make sure it would stay in place over night. Then, he went down a deck and into a chamber with a nice bed that was in front of another chamber with a load of cargo and a few bedrolls.
"I intend not to amass an army now, but this ship will come in handy once I come around to Tjed! Best get some well deserved rest had I..." He waddled to his bed and laid down on his side, his dorsol fin down his back wriggled and stretched along with his tail. Then, he relaxed, and fell at rest.
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Deep in the frozen wastes of the Arctic region in a white-brick monistary, A tall man with a white robe and a blue cape rested in a large throne. "Bring me what news you have of Thommas! I wish to know, for when one finds himself torn from his master, might he seek new apprenticeship?"
Another monk in a white robe greeted his lord and knelt down to bare a blank letter in his hand with a quill and a capped ink well. "Should you wish to write to Lord Jacobie, I have your things, master. I shal get a block of wood for you to write upon!"
"Then fetch me that block, for I wish not to write upon it, but wish to write to my only apprentice," Answered the lord, "Go on Then! Fetch me that block!" The monk left the monistary and found a warehouse out in the severe cold. He entered, found a long, fat block of wood and grabbed it. He left the ware house, reentered the monistary and gave his lord the block and his writing utensils.
"Very good, my minnion!" said the monk's lord, "A bonus I shall request from your superior to bestow upon to you, my faithful minnion. Leave me to my writings, then, my dear minnion! I shall see to it that you be sent to Tjed to send this letter. Leave me then!" The monk left the monistary.
When the lord was sure nobody had been listening to him, he began to murmur to himself. "Finding you be the easiest task for me... but to convince you of my loyalty to the darker one... that may take some swift talking... or forced persuasion! MEHHEHHEH!!!!!!"
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Well well, who do we have here?
With the (hopefully) last lizard defeated, Fernis jumps off Elphos and approaches the knight and demon, ignoring the many stares of the Tjedi knights.
((ignore the T for a moment. LAWL XD))
"Ah, a friend of Iduran, are you?" she asked, as politely as she could, ignoring the sheer energy being emitted by the demon lord...
"I'm afraid you won't have time to catch up on old times. Iduran's time... Is almost over..."
She then turned to look at Iduran. Her smile was forced, but it's kindness honest.
"I was glad I could meet you, Sir Iduran. Next time we meet, I'll have you stay longer..."
-
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|HOLY DRANNIC CHAPTER PROLOGUE ENDED|
THE REAL LEGEND BEGINS
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The sky was a dark and warm color. The sun had began to set itself down to greet the shine of the new moon, which had already drifted into the sky. The smell of dead lizards hung high in the air. This, however, had no effect on Jacobie as he got out of his bed and grounded the boat to shore.
Scailing the mountains to get to the Tjedian capitol would be no easy task for a regular lizard man, but Jacobie was different. He was to simpley walk up the mountains, for he could walk on walls and ceilings. He ran swiftly across the land and leapt into the sky with great force. Going at an incredible force of 20 miles a second, he landed on a mountain wall and ran up its great hights.
"Hmm... The soul is near by!" said Jacobie, "I can feel it! I must make haste!" He ran up the wall on all fours, brutally exhausting his strength, but still he ran. Finally, he jumped off the peak and landed on top of a dead lizard-man. There, he saw another lizard-man, an imp, an army of soldiers, two demons, and a few other people.
"Where is this place?" Jacobie asked himself, "Eh!? The soul! I felt it a few seconds ago! It's gone! NO!!!!!!" Jacobie raced around the area, trying to sense the soul, but failing. The others gave him curious looks. He looked down at his feet and sighed.
"Does anyone know where I can get to the northern fringe from here?" Jacobie asked. The only response he got was shock, and four soldiers raced after him. He held out his arms, his hands turnd out with his plams inwards. The soldiers froze.
"I have no intent to harm any one of you. Please, take me to the north of this island! I am serching for a lost friend... *Sigh* Let me guess... You are all surprized that I can speak in full round-about sentances, am I right?" He walked forwards, unsheathed his two katanas and threw them on the ground, hoping someone would take this as a gesture of kindness. They did nought but stare...
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"MY LORD!" yelled a white monk who came bursting into the white-brick monistary, "My lord... *Huff* *Huff* He's been *Huff* sighted sir!" The monk bent downwards to catch his breath.
"WHAT!?!?!? Where hast you'd seen him last!? Uhh... I mean where hast he been sighted, minnion? Please let me know... I wish it to be known that my apprentice is still okay." The monk took out a news-letter from his robe pocket and threw it up to his lord's throne.
"What's this, a news-letter? Hmph, what's it say... Let's see." The news-letter read as follows:
FLYING LIZARD-MAN SIGHTED NEAR WESTERN TJED!!!
A Tjedian farmer reports that a flying lizard-man in crimson armor and two katanas attatched to his belt had flown over his farm and towards the mountains of the Tjadian capitol.
The lord crumpled up the letter and threw it back at the monk's face. "Get out of my sight! I needn't known that he'd been seen by a peasant FARMER!!! LEAVE ME MINNION, OR DIE!!!" The monk ran tremendously fast out of the monistary. He found his way into the warehouse and hid behind a few crates.
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Justin rolled over to his side. He couldn't stop thinking about his strange dreams he shared with Dori. *Who was this 'Jacobie' fellow... and what did he want with me...?* He rolled over again and looked at his friend Jannis, who was now sound asleep. She looked at peace again.
*What the hell was all of this about...?* Dori thought to herself, *Who in Dran's name is that Lizard-man in the crimson armor? How could he speak so well...?* Dori could not stand this insanity anymore. She got out of bed and went into the hall. Justin was there as well, which surprised her again, but less than it had before.
"Saw it too then, did you?" she asked Justin in a mellowed-out tone. "Yeah. We should leave now," He answered, "Best not to bring danger to my friends..." They both agreed to leave the north in search of this Lizard-man whose name was Thommas Jacobie. They planned to start by searching the mountain-side, then the Tjedian capitol. So begins their journey...
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-
"Hold!"
Ven pushed through his knights as they surrounded the red armored Lizard Man, and they lowered their weapons slightly. His right arm was wrapped in a white bandage and a bit of blood was leaking through, though the flow seemed to have stopped.
"He appears to mean us no harm."
The High Knight Ven was slightly leery, since it was odd to see a Lizard Man not in service of the Dark Empire and wondered if this could be a ruse. But Lagart had proved himself trustworthy, so perhaps this one was as well.
"You intend to go to northern Tjed? It's not that easy of a path from here in the southwest. The entirety of the center of the island is covered in tall unscalable mountains."
In order to get to northern Tjed, the lizard would have to traverse the complex system of tunnels through the mountains which lead to the valley capital city in the center. From there more tunnels bore through the northern mountain faces, eventually making it out to northern Tjed. Ven didn't quite want to give this information away so freely. Perhaps a test would be in order.
"We know a route, though. In fact we are headed in that direction now. However we are in the midst of a great battle and I fear the enemy will be striking back shortly. We must hold the enemy back at the caves just north of here. I see that you are a warrior. If you do not mind helping us though this upcoming battle, we would be glad to help you reach your destination.
Some of the knights looked shocked by this proposal, but Ven nodded. The enemy outclassed them by far. They needed all the help they could get...
Ven then looked back at the ships on the horizon.
"Hurry, we must get to the caves. You can take your time on your decision."
With that, Ven and the small handful of knights jogged through the mighty hole blown in the walls of Kesnar and began their way towards the main army which should be waiting for them in the caves by now.
----
(Tjedi! Yes!)
Iduran smiled softly as his body began to fade, becoming translucent. He nodded once to Indher and then to Duilin, apparently recognizing him completely though his form had changed. Resting the tip of his sword on the ground, he simply gave the two a "thumbs up".
Then his body disappeared, cast into a million specks of white light. The specks swirled around the sword as it balanced there for a moment, brightly illuminating the rocks around the cave entrance. All the soldiers watched wide-eyed as the particles of white light twirled around that blade.
The tiny stars did not disappear, though. They remained for a while, dancing in the night air, for the sun had set just at that moment. Then one by one, they went into the blade as it rose into the sky, each speck making the steel shine brighter. Each time a speck merged with the sword, the white-blue aura emanating from the blade glowed more intensely. When all the points of light were gone, the sword was a blazing beacon. Its form had changed slightly, the hilt becoming a bright gold with ornate curves. The blade itself was like a dazzling mirror, tiny silvery runes etched upon the edges.
Then at once the glowing stopped, and the sword fell to the ground, piercing through the rocky ground and remaining suspended there.
Thus on that night, a new sword of legend was born.
The Iduran.
-
"Capitol!" Jacobie exclaimed, "Then lead the way, knight! I shall follow you all galliantly behind, blade at the ready." Jacobie picked up his two katanas that he had thrown on the ground and returned them to their sheaths at his side. He still held on to one of his katanas with his right hand if need be they enter a combat situation.
"I will indeed assist you, but when we reach who I am looking for, I must take my leave. If you need anything beyond that point, contact me with this." Jacobie handed the wounded knight an orb that glowed blackly as did the night sky.
"The reason for this glow, though I cannot be certain, is probably because of my lord... he has escaped the undercroft of my leader's monistary and has made his way here. I search for him in the form of a man whose name I have not yet discovered. He travels with an assassin as his maiden... her name I know not as well. Anyways, if the orb's glow is green, then I will be speeking through it. If it is blue, you are speeking through it. Let's be off then!"
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"Ugh!!!" Valimore retorted, "He gives this knight our sacred locating device!? What treachery is this!? *sigh* I believe I must find a new apprentice... for my old one has fallen with the enemy. Draconis!!! Come forth!" Another monk in a white robe entered the monistary... although he had a dark blue face and dark red hair. He was a drow, unlike the humans at the monistary.
"What is your wish, Lord Valimore? Have you come to your decision on when we must make our attack on Tjed?" The drow knelt down and looked up at his lord.
"No... not just yet, Draconis... but I fear your second has fallen in the enemy's hands... Hence forth, I grant you full apprenticeship! Your training starts tomorrow, and when I feel you have trained enough, you will take down your broth-uhh... second... He will not be an easy kill, mind you. You will need a plan. In any case, get some rest at your mother and father's house... I have eager plans for you in the morning, Mehheh-uhh *cough* ahem *cough*."
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Justin and Dori were well on their way to the dock in the north. Amidst the travels and walkings, they came across an old rune lying on the ground. It was black, and had a red flame symbol carved on the side.
"I wonder where this came from... though I don't think we should keep it, Dori... uhh, Dori?" Justin's words were meaningless as Dori glanced within the rune, bedazzled by it's red and black glow.
"I'll keep it. Who knows? It might as well come in handy one day..." *heh heh heh! I wonder what the street value of this thing is! I'll be rich I tell ya! Gold will be over-flowing my house!*
"Dori, have you forgotten already? How can someone forget something that dramatic? Oh, forget it, just keep the thing. We have to keep moving, anyways..." Dori pocketed the rune and they continued along thier route to the Dock.
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-
Duilin stepped towards the sword. "Iduran..." Once again he was gone...
He stepped closer towards the majestic blade. Duilin started to feel his demonic energy fading, and as he stepped closer towards the sword he began to change back to his normal self, before he even had his wings, he was now a full human. Duilin knelt before the sword, and reached his pocket taking out the shard of metal, with Romme insignia engraved on it.
"I know, I barely got to know you that much Iduran, but you inspired me to step up against the empire and show them that Gaian doesn't belong to them, or anyone. You may have been old and little skilled in magic, but you kept fighting. And until you died you were still going strong. For awhile I felt what I was fighting for was to get stronger and gain more power, mostly to defeat Draven. I don't even know why, I want to defeat him, I should let it go. But you're brief return has reminded me, that I should keep fighting but not for myself but for the liberty of Gaian. The Dark Empire will be defeated, I promise..."
Duilin then wrapped his hands around the hilt of the sword, yet before he could pull it out...he fainted, returning to his half demonic self…
//God, was that was cheesy...\
--- ---
Marshall continued to rapidly fire at the zombie Raymond.
"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Marshall shouted as he gunned down on him.
The zombie ogres advanced on Marshall, however Marshall's ogre and Wilhem's Dragon came to fight off the zombies to protect the summoner.
The body of Raymond was scorched and signed and blown into to many pieces in order to be useful, Raymond apparently wasn't much of a fighter.
The zombie ogres however continued out their last orders. Marshall's ogre continued to swing his club and smash away at the zombie, but the undead proved to be stronger. With a single mighty swing of its club across the neck, Marshall's ogre fell to the ground lifeless...
Wilhem's dragon on the other hand was more than a match for the undead ogre, with only a single wide blast of flame, the zombie ogre was burnt to a crisp. It flew towards the other zombie ogre, as it was getting ready to strike and blasted a large ball of flame at the ogre, and it met a similar fate as the other one did...
-
He... Is fusing... with the sword?
Fernis raised an eyebrow as she saw the particles of light dazzle around a floating sword, and was somewhat startled when it fell down.
Interesting...
I bet this so called "greater power" which allowed me to bring him back had this planned from the very beggining!
Well, at least talking to him again would be much easier than I thought.
Fernis devilishly smiled to herself, but then realized the demon lord next to her turned completly human and was giving a speech as he picks up the sword holding the knight's soul.
Man, you are TOO cheesy...
wait...
Did he just...?
As the man who was a demon lord a moment ago finished giving his speech, he dropped flat on the cave's floor, chaging again, this time to something in between both his previous forms.
Elphos, who was complaining about his sore back rather than paying attention to what is going on the whole time, now approached Fernis.
"Hey, Fernis, wheres Iduran? And who... What the hell is this winged man on the floor?!"
But Fernis ignored him completly. She bent down, looking all over the body of the half-demon.
Upon noticing a bare graze, she carefully removed a single drop of blood with one of her claws without further wounding him, and then took out a tiny salve, into which she dropped the tiny amount on her fingernail.
This will be enough...
I'm not good enough with alchemy, chemistry or anything like that...
But I know someone who is...
-
Zeros' and Allen both watched the scene between the two, Zeros' smiling and Allen shaking his head.
Zeros' turned and started to walk towards the castle in Tjed, glancing back at Allen, seeing him struggle. Zeros' stopped and backtracked, slinging his arm across Allen's shoulders and supporting him, the 'older' man looking up at Zeros' and smiled gratefully.
Together, with Zeros' half-carrying the old man, they walked back towards the center of Tjed.
-
(Chapter 12 ends in two days.)
Ven took the black orb in his gauntlet.
"Hmmm, interesting."
He knew such devices were in use. The Crimson Empire used to use orbs to communicate, though he'd never seen one up close.
"Very well, I understand you have obligations. The name's Ven. Yours...?" he said as he pocketed the orb.
Just then though the group made it to the cave mouth. Ven gasped as he saw fallen knights scattered about, along with some huge dead Lizard Men. The majority of the knights were alive and well though, thankfully, and were spread out in a wide circle, looking at something in the middle.
"What is going on here?"
Ven pushed his way past some knights to see Duilin lying on the ground, reverted to his old self.
"Duilin!"
Kneeling next to him was some strange creature. Immediately, a flashing image immediately stabbed through Ven's mind...
It was some sliver-furred thing with a large bushy tail, flying through the air, an insidiously long slender blade in it's right hand (claw?). Three knights, good honest men with families... ran from the creature in panic... It was if they were moving in slow motion, yet the silver demon did not. The thing tore through their bowels with a single slash, slicing through their heavy armor like paper...
Ven snapped back to reality when he realized he had stopped and gasped. All eyes were on him now, and he shook the image out of his mind. The creature next to Duilin looked nothing like those demons, after all. Her fur was brown, and she didn't even have a tail. And obviously she was taking care of Duilin, bent over him like that. He continued his jog over.
"Is he all right?"
-
"Hmm..." Jacobie had seen this Dulin Character and sensed his demonic powers, although they were faded away. Jacobie ran up to the three and looked at Dulin.
"This one will be okay. There is much power radiating from this area, though. Is it this...?" Jacobie grabbed hold of the Iduran and pulled it out of the ground. Just then, he was shocked and flopped over sideways. The blade fell out of his hands and Jacobie fell to his side. A few moments later, he got back to his feet.
"What is this thing? Such power it has... a fallen soul within, perhapse?" Jacobie shifted the blade over next to Dulin with his right foot and knelt down to see Dulin's face. For once, it looked normal.
"This one is your friend, is he not? I shall help him." Jacobie lifted Dulin to his feet and put his arm on his left shoulder. He draged him around the cave and sat him down against the wall. Unfortunately for him, five more Lizard-men droped down from the mountains.
"HHIIIIIISSSSSSS!!!!!! DIE, HHUUUMANNSSSS!!!!!!" The Lizard-men had not expected Jacobie to be helping the good guys. He unsheathed his katanas and slashed like crazy. A few minutes later, Jacobie let down his katanas to his side. The Lizard-men fell down backwards into chunks of bodyparts. Blood sprayed everywhere.
"They did not see that coming, I bet!" Jacobie exclaimed. He went back to Dulin's aid. Holding his hands close together, Jacobie made a ball of basic energy (green) and put it next to Dulin. It glowed a green light all around the area and lit the cave as well.
"No more time must we waste!" Jacobie exclaimed, "I must get to the north. I will wait a few moments for your friend to restore his strength, but no more than that. As soon as the moon is down, I go my own way if you will not assist me.
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After a few hours of madening walking, Justin and Dori finally made it to the docks by 9:45 pm. The moon shone high above them, along with a strange glowing force field around the mountains. Justin and Dori looked at eachother.
"Good god... could this be... HIM?" Dori asked, "He's really here?" Justin grabbed Dori's arm and pulled her forwards towards the dock. "We have to keep moving. I'm sure he'll find us anyways. Let's go!" They both continued forwards, sure enough, to see a man in a black robe with a hood covering his face.
"Hold," Said the demonic voice, "state your purpose..." Justin stepped forward. "We come from the south. We are here to by passage underground to the dark encampment. Thand Yug-dizer sent us."
"Us?" said the demonic voice, looking behind Justin, "Ahh, a Drow... fine one at that, too. You a slaver? Or is she just passing by with you as well? Fine, then. If Thand has sent you both, I'll take you along. Come to my ship. We won't reach our destination until morn, unfortunately... sunlight... ugh. Anyways, follow me to my ship."
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-
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(Note: you may want to read the topic I posted earlier, about the Holy Drannic Republic of Knights among other things. Otherwise, you'll be confused, but okay.)
*FLASHBACK*
Lark readied the assult on the monistary, cutting down several monks in his path. "Come on, my men! We must show these fools what the Republic really is!"
Charging behind Lark the Drow was Katterina the Warlock, Daniel and David the Gepardi Twins, Gabrina the Angel, Nelldor the Elf, and Doriana, a paid, Drow assassin.
"Let's give 'em hell!" Yelled Katterina. She took out a fire rune and blasted a hole in the monistary, killing quite a few monks as well. The two Gepardi Twins changed into Fire Dragons and scorched the monistary with their fire breath. Monks came racing out, being incinerated by the intense flames. Chard monk dust blew in the wind.
"Come on, then!" screamed Lark. He took out his bow, enchanted with cold ice, and shot many monks that made it out of the flames. Gabrina grabbed Nelldor and Doriana and placed them on an invisible platform in the sky. From there, they armed their crossbows and shot down monks leaving the surrounding buildings.
"I hope blood doesn't stain my robes," Katterina uttered to herself, "Although I suppose some sort of combination of water and healing magic could demolish the stains..." The Gepardi twins lowered from the sky and transformed then into wyverns and flew into the monistary.
"Need a lift?" Gabrina asked the two that were still on the platform. They jumped on her back and she flew in the monistary. Lark and Katterina raced in close behind.
"Give up, Valimore" Lark demanded, "You're out-matched! You cannot hope to defeat us!" Lark took out one of his arrows and shot Valimore in the leg. Katterina flung multi-magic spells at him as well. Standing on the side, Nelldor and Doriana shot a continuous stream of bolts.
"Hmph... how pitiful." A great explosion occured after the devistating attack. Still in his now-broken throne, Valimre sat, laughing at the attack force assembled against him.
"Hold him off," Doriana told Lark and the others, "Nelldor and I will go below to the undercroft! I'll be back in a few minutes." Nelldor and Doriana raced to a trap door next to a wall where they had been standing. They opened it up and jumped down.
The twins swooped in on Valimore, slashing thier claws at his chest. He groaned at the pains it had caused him. Then, Daniel stuck his claw in Valimore's chest, nearly piercing his heart.
"Ugh... No..." Valimore gasped for breath. Soon after, he fell over and crumpled into ash. Gabrina flew forwards and collected his ashy remains into an urn blessed with the power to capture the soul of an undead creature.
"Lark, go check on Dori and Nell, would ya?" David asked as he and his brother transformed back into Humans. They joined up with Gabrina and Katterina as they awaited Lark's return with the others. Lark went down the trap door and found Doriana and Nelldor staring at an inscription of a large, gold chest.
"No, don't open that! Do you know what's in there-" but it was too late. Nelldor had lifted the golden chest's top. Out swirled two translucent spectral beings. They flew past the trap door and out of the monistary, bumping into Gabrina as they passed. She let the urn fall, and it shattered into pieces.
"Not the urn! What will we do!?" The ashes lifted into the air and reassembled into the form of Valimore. Soon, his pigments and features returned.
"You little wretch!" He screamed, "I'll kill you all... You're first."
SWISH!!!
He dissappeared and then reappeared in an instant, striking Gabrina's head with such a force, it flew off, soaring out of the monistary.
SWISH!!!
This time, he appeared behind Nelldor, coming out of the trap door, punting him across the monistary and into the ceiling. His guts decorated the ceiling and then splatered all over the floor.
"Time to DIE!!!" Valimore grabbed the twins' heads and crushed their skulls with a great force. he threw what remained of the bodies at Lark and Katterina. As they fell to the ground, he grabbed their leggs and smashed their bodies on the floor. He took his right hand and raised it well behind his back.
"By the name of the greater lords, I send your souls to the crushing forces of OBLIVION!!!!!!" He brought his hand down, dragging slowly a great ball of purple and black energy, greatly increasing in size as he brought it down upon the two on the floor. All that could be seen from there was a great purple flash that soon transfered to pure white, blinding any on-lookers.
*FLASHBACK ENDED*
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-
Fernis was startled by the man who approched her and his sudden question.
She was even more startled when a friendly, katana-wielding lizardman stepped out of seemingly nowhere and begun dragging the half-demon about, making strange-looking light-shows.
Then, when more lizardmen dropped down and slashed into pieces, all she did was stare.
This lizardman, friendly as he was, was moving too quickly...
What a hyperactive little... BIG reptillian...
"Ughm...Hello?"
By the voice behind her, Fernis realized Elphos was about as confused as she was.
-
//We'll assume Rink and Lagart were following Justin and Ven.\
"Duilin back to normal." Lagart stated.
"Yes, but it looks like he's still alive. Thank the gods." Rink added. "Hey buddy, be careful with him!" He warned Justin as Duilin was being carried over towards the cave wall.
"...Iduran..." Duilin groaned.
"Iduran?" Rink whispered. The imp then looked towards Fernis and Elphos. "Hey you two, mind explaining what happened here with my friend?" He questioned the two.
"...Rink?" Duilin groaned again.
"Duilin! Are you okay, can you walk?"
"Yeah...I'm fine..." He said getting up on his feet, and rubbing his forehead. "Just a little dizzy that's all...What the hell happened? Who are all these new people?"
-
(Note: The Lizard man is Jacobie, not Justin. Just F.Y.I.)
"Awake then, are we? Good! The glow did the trick then I suppose." Jacobie held his hand out infront of the green orb, radiating furiously, then slowly moving back towards his arm. Jacobie placed it back into his hera. Even though the orb was gone, the glow was still present in Jacobie.
"A good thing this effect doesn't wear off for twelve hours, huh?" Jacobie mentioned, "Now, we'll easily move about the cave. Let's move then!" Jacobie headed over near the cave, but stopped a few feet behind the mouth.
"I sense another presence near by... Be cautious. This scent is familiar, but not friendly." Jacobie wiped the blood from his face and walked forward to the opening of the cave.
"Come out, Draconis... I can smell you." Out of the shadows of the cave, appearing in a flash, a Drow with dark yellow eyes and dark red hair walked towards Jacobie. "What do you want, brother?"
"Brother!?" the drow spat, "Though we may have the same parents, no traitor is brother to me. Up with your blades, then! I will fight-ugh" Jacobie stabbed his right blade into the Drow. He suddenly burst into a black smoke and floated away.
"We must move... I had a feeling I was being watched." Jacobie sheathed his katanas and walked forwards to the mouth of the cave. "Oh... I appologize for the rude introduction. Where are my manners? My name is Thommas Reincover Jacobie. Good to meet you all, but we must hurry north... The area is infested with the enemy, and is likely already under attack."
"Another injury I must heal... This world is a wounded one, mark my words. Ah yes, I forgot about you, general... If you are indeed the general of this force. I have something for your wounds as well." Jacobie reached into his armor and grabbed a pack of herbs from it. Inside the pack beheld red herbs, green herbs, and yellow herbs.. He tossed them to Ven.
"It's a growth pack, which will help you regrow your arm. The yellow herbs should do this alone, but the red will stop the bleeding and reduce the pain of re-growth...... *shivers* Ugh... Nasty that, unfortunately. Oh, and the greens are for the taste. I don't much care for them, but they say stronger Humes that can bear pain LOVE them. You will have your arm back in three days."
-
(His arm's just cut. Not cut off. Heh...)
Ven caught the bundle of herbs with his good arm.
"Thanks, but the wound's not THAT serious." He smiled at the Lizard Man, amused by his energy. "But he's right, we should get moving into the cave. Lest we find more adversaries standing around here..."
We that, the knights began to move into the darkness. Ven stooped down to pick up the strange sword that was sticking into the ground, and Jocobie dropped because he couldn't seem to handle it. It pulsated with a intense aura that while invisible, he could clearly feel throbbing in his hand... It almost seemed alive. Ven fell in step with Duilin.
"I'm rather confused as well. Is this your blade? You were passed out in front of it."
He then turned and nodded at the crimson armored Lizard Man now leading the group.
"We met the lizard a short while back. He's agreed to help us fight our next battle in return for an escort up north. As for the others, I'm not sure... Hey Turstin! What in blazes happened here."
The young knight Turstin jogged over to Ven and Duilin, black hair hanging in his eyes.
"Well, sir..." He then described how they found the old knight, the cat-like woman, and the other man and how they offered their services. And then how Indher and Iduran fought back the lizards, along with Duilin. And then how the knight disapeared into the sword...
"I see..."
Ven rubbed his chin as he regarded the blade. This was quite a day indeed...
(Chapter ends tomorrow.)
-
"Hold!" Jacobie stopped and looked behind him. He looked around the cave, all people seeming accounted for. He unsheathed his katanas and started to walk faster.
"There is danger ahead," Jacobie remarked, "ready your weapons!" everyone unsheathed their blades. They began to move at a more swift pace, keeping high aleart around the cave. Soon, Jacobie broke out into a sprint. Strait ahead of them was a cave in.
"NO!!! What is this!? The path is blocked off? INCONCIEVABLE!!!!!!" out of mad rage, Jacobie continuously pounded away at the giant boulder that blocked their path. Soon, he began to leave large cracks.
"What the...?" Jacobie stopped and looked up at the boulder. It furociously began to crack up. He looked back down at his fists. "Did I do this...?"
With more intense power and speed, Jacobie began to smash the boulder away. The cracks soon became more apparent, and almost in an instant, The boulder crushed down into smaller boulders, rolling on top of Jacobie. He could not be seen, but a larger path above him could. Moonlight shined across the path.
Echoing through the cave was a crushing noise, and soon, a shifting of rock. Jacobie managed to move the rock around and poped out his body. He jumped over most of the path and made it out on to the great valley plains, only to find three waves of a full regiment of dark legionaries.
"Stay in the cave!" Jacobie ordered, "And keep out of sight as well! I need to make a few... adjustments to this regiment." Jacobie raced out of the cave into the open field. All of the regiment could see him.
"Hello, fools!" he shouted across the valley, "Tch. what a waste of a fine army. It's really too bad. MEH!!!" Jacobie crouched down into a deep power stance.
BANG!!!!!!
Jacobie zipped through the air into the sky. he held his arms back and charged a great black and purple ball of dark energy. "In the name of the great lords, I send all of your souls to the crushing forces of OBLIVION!!!!!!"
BOOM!!!!!!
He let fly the giant ball of energy, now three yards in diameter, on to the unsuspecting regiment. It crashed down into the earth and sent chunks of gravel flying into the air. Soon followed a blinding white flash that was more extreme than the sun.
Jacobie landed back down on both feet, then fell forwards, flat on his face. One of the knights in the cave signaled that it was clear to come out. They army of knights raced out and gathered around Jacobie.
"That pack wasn't for you... BUGH!!! It was *cough*... for me-ugh." Jacobie was out cold. Both of Jacobie's feet were dismembered from his body after he landed. Blood surged out of them.
-
"Oh this sword." Duilin said, as he looked at the Iduran. "Well. I don't know if it is mine, but...I suppose I might be the closest thing this weapon has to an owner."
"Well, I don't know what I saw was true, due to me being drunk on my demonic energy, but I thought I saw my old friend Iduran from Romme. He then disappeared and well, turned into this sword. It might have been a weird mental image, but stranger things have happened during the last decade." Duilin stood above the majestic blade. "I think it might be intended for somebody, or maybe some people." Duilin pondered a bit. "Perhaps Iduran wishes this blade to be in possession of the people who tried to save Romme, like me and the little group of Heros. Which would just be me and Zeros' now..." He cracked his knuckles. "Only one way to find out..."
He then placed his hands around the hilt of the sword and pulled it from the ground...
//I guess Xorlak should choose what will happen...\
-
The sword pulsed with a delicate warm energy in Duilin's hand, as if it were a living being...
"It looks good on you."
Ven smiled as he tapped the blade on his back.
"I'd want it, but I already have one."
It was an interesting thing. Ven had never heard of a man merging with a sword before, though it did irritate him a bit that that man was from Romme. Though Tjed and Romme were technically allied when the later nation was wiped out, they still had some bitter memories. Iduran... he'd heard that name before...
Suddenly, the clamor of explosions echoed through the rocky tunnels.
"Sir! The Lizard Man in red armor! He's..."
"Blast it!" Ven began running. "That lizard is too rash. He's going to get himself killed."
Ven exited through the side tunnel that Jacobie had taken, and pushed through the gaggle of knights that had gathered around him.
"Oh confound it! Tie his wounds!" He then fumbled through the pack at his side, and removed the bundle of herbs the lizard had given him.
"Here. He obviously needs these a lot more than me."
Two knights with medical training began working on the lizard. Oh, how Ven wished they had a good white mage or two, but they would have to do...
"The Dark Empire will begin their second wave soon. Get him back into the caves where it's safe. We must prepare for the next assault."
He then turned around and made his way back towards the maze-like caverns. There were multiple entrances that opened to the southern side, as Jacobie had just discovered, but only one real way through to the capital to the north. Only the Tjedians could navigate the tunnels with ease.
"We must hold them back in these caves for as long as possible. It would be a disaster if they found their way to the capital..."
Ven paused for a moment to look at the new moon in the sky before reentering the cave. A disaster indeed...
To be continued...
-
Chapter 13
The door opened with a slow clank, forming a short ramp to the landing pad. The pale gray light emanating from that open door did nothing to illuminate the dark interior of the ship.
As soon as that door was open, Renard felt a chill rush though his bones. Not that it was cold outside, but there was something else in the air, something else he didn't care to think about...
Virmir began walking forward, out the door and into that cold air. Renard followed, arching his head upward to look at the swirling black and red clouds above.
And the endless spire.
The black tower surged upwards, defiant of all physical laws. It tore right through those clouds above and disappeared, endlessly rising upwards...
The Tower of Heaven's Bane.
The capital of the Dark Empire...
Renard and the Velkens had landed on the airship dock fifty floors up. From his vantage point on the exterior platform, the silver furred fox could see the black mountains all around and below. And still he could not see the top of the tower, even when they were flying in. How such a massive structure was constructed in a few short months he could not imagine, though he was certain some sort of black magic was involved. The Dark Emperor himself was up there, somewhere...
Renard finally turned his eyes from the twisting dragon statues above as the group approached the doors leading inside, rubbing his now sore neck with his right claw, and looked straight ahead at the back of Lord Virmir. His master was always loaded with equipment, and he could see the crimson gems glistening slightly in the hilt of the Flamberge strapped to Virmir's back. The other sword was the Wind Serpent, and though it looked less impressive, he knew his master favored it more. Those enchanted weapons were an alluring mystery to Renard, and he had no idea how they worked. There was a lot he didn't know...
Under Virmir's left arm was their prize. A long cylinder wrapped tightly in cloth. Renard was glad he wasn't the one that would have to present that to the Emperor. Though it was rare that he ever saw the Dark Emperor in person, whenever he did he was filled with a deep dread. As if some long dormant instincts within him were telling him to flee as quickly as possible.
If Virmir was weighted down by either his duty or all of his cargo, he did not show it. The short fox strode through the entryway with his nose held high, his tail swaying back and forth calmly. Though Renard felt completely safe among his fellows, he could not help but cower slightly under the gaze of the massive reptilian guards positioned on either side of the doorway. The beasts were four or five times larger then any of them. Renard wished he would become as confident as his master one day.
After following Virmir down long dark hallways for a while, the ten Velken warriors finally stopped at a stairwell. Virmir turned and nodded at Renard and the others, then he was off up the stairs by himself carrying the long package under his arm. Virmir was never much for words, but all the Velkens knew that the gesture meant they were dismissed. Renard breathed a sigh of relief. He had no desire to go any higher in the tower, though he did worry for his master a bit.
They would be staying here for a short while, and each Velken was given a room in the tower. Looking up at the faces of the twisting serpentine statues that lined the dark hallways and the ominous glowing torches, Renard wasn't sure what to expect... He broke away from the group as soft idle chatter began to emerge. He didn't feel like socializing right now. He just wanted to get some rest.
The conversation he had with Helix still weighed heavily on his mind. The two hadn't spoken since then. He kicked himself mentally over and over for saying such things about their duty. What if he were to report that to Lord Virmir? No, his friend would never do that. Virmir, even, would never do that...
As he rounded a corner, Renard felt another aura had broken off from the group and was following him. It was Helix. Blast it, what could he say? He quickened his pace, to try and make it to his room, but there was no way he could do that without running. So he slowed down and tried to act casual.
"Hey, Renard."
Renard's ears turned as he heard the friendly voice behind him. He stopped just outside the room designated to him and turned, rubbing his right claw over the bandages on his left arm, and nodded a "hello" back.
Helix slowed his pace as he approached, his ears alert and his eyes cast upwards, looking at all the snarling demon and dragon statues affixed to the walls. His tail thrashed around behind him, as it often did when he was bored. Renard loosened up a little at that, as Helix was clearly not here to discuss serious matters.
"So..." the taller sliver fox said as he stopped. He clasped his hands behind his back and looked around a bit more as a mischievous grin slowly crossed his muzzle. "... think this place has a restaurant?"
Renard raised one brow. "A restaurant?"
Helix raised his arms defensively.
"What? I'm kinda hungry!"
----
"IDIOT!!"
Melface was immediately smacked in the face. The impact was so great that he was instantly sent hurdling into the black metal wall. The wall collapsed when his tiny frame struck it, and he continued flying through into the next room, crashing into a group of scaly Lizard Men. They all landed in a tumbled heap, dropped swords and armor clanging about.
Jayce clenched his right fist, black flames swirling about the gauntlet as he menacingly advanced upon the hole in the wall.
"You insolent cur! How dare you loose so many lizards in such a minor siege!"
Melface climbed out of the pile of bodies. His child-like face was bleeding profusely from the strike, though it was quickly healing. He did not expect the blow. In fact, a physical strike like that would not have hurt him at all had he phased out, but the burly Draken's immense speed caught him totally off guard.
"Apologies, my Lord..."
The child-like demon tried to compose himself, straightening out the folds in his off-white cloak. He continued.
"The Demon Lord... I have no power over him. Evidently the others did not as well..."
Melface's eyes widened in horror as Jayce was upon him. The prince of the Dark Empire wrapped his hand around the top of the nightmare demon's skull and lifted him right off the ground. He wiggled his legs slightly when lifted, as he was raised to over twice his height. He gulped as Jayce brought his face near his, eyes seething with rage, and fangs showing themselves through clenched teeth. Perhaps he would have been better off with the Demon Lord, Melface thought...
"Demons are inferior, weak, pathetic pieces of scum." Jayce glowered into Melface's face, "I shall find this so called 'Demon Lord' and dismember his arms and legs and any other sort of bodily extremities he may have. I shall then proceed to cut them into tiny cubes and allow my lowly Shadow Beasts to feed upon them. Then I will chain his remaining carcass to the hull of The Jagahn and throw him overboard, dragging him around wherever I choose to go."
With that, he tossed Melface over his shoulder like a rag doll. The child-like demon was aware enough to phase out of existence before he struck the wall again. He appeared on the ground to Jayce's left, bowing lowly as if he were there the whole time.
"Y-yes, my Lord..."
Jayce ignored him and proceeded to storm out the door, a few of the lizards following him. The dark prince wasn't quite paying attention to where he was going, though, and his left shoulder armor blade slammed into the doorframe as he exited, ripping the attached door apart as if it were paper.
Melface slowly rose, his tiny fists clenched tightly. The wound on his face was gone now, although a bit of the black blood had stained his robes. What a mockery! He would torture these miserable humans of Tjed a thousand times over for this embarrassment he has suffered... He clenched his teeth tightly as he seethed...
----
"Perfect!"
Ven flashed the knights a 'thumbs up' as they finished their routine. The tunnels of Tjed were cut many years ago with the intention of defending the capital city beyond. Part of the defense was a multitude of confusing passages, many leading in circles or simply dead ends. The other part was a large number of hiding places cut into the sides from which soldiers could easily ambush their enemies from behind, as well as a few falling rock traps.
Of course, there were a few disadvantages as well. The tight corridors weren't exactly the best place to fight in, although there were a few room-like caverns scattered about. If the knights got scared or confused, they might be given to turn around and trample each other trying to escape. Then of course there was the fact that their enemies weren't exactly human, but humongous snarling beasts... The High Knight of Tjed could only hope that the tunnels were too small for them to move effectively in.
Ven wiped his brow and rested against the cool rock wall. The black cloak that he always wore was thrown open, so his armor underneath reflected the orange torchlight as he looked down the corridor from which the enemy would shortly emerge. There were only a few more preparations left to be made, but he knew time was running short. Luckily Duilin was with them, and he saw Zeros' around as well, though he didn't know where he was at the moment. Suddenly remembering the injured lizard Jaocobie, he thought he would go check up on him. He turned and made his way deeper into the rocky network.
-
//pardon in advance for the huge post\
The deathly shround in the middle of Kandarin slowly began to fall. The unpenetrable mist, which seemed to be miles thick, was now vanishing. A faint outline of Jovil began to appear... what was left of it, anyway. No building survived. Pebbles and larger rocks were scattered everywhere, and the once magnificent main palace was without its towers. The island was also littered with the corpses of the recently deceased Kandarinian citizens. Among them, a clouded figure was walking towards the shore...
---
"That fool Horus never realized what he did. The idiot created an implosion in this dimension, throwing me.... well, somewhere else. After dismantling the thrice-cursed machine, I took a closer look at its insides. Though many things were unfamiliar to me, I figured out that time inside the implosion was accelerated beyond rational belief. After using the machine's spare parts to trap its essence and that bumbling moron Ein into two little bits of dark glass (which I now refer to as "Soultrap amulets"), I was stuck in a world only 3 kilometres across for a very, very long while. I passed time by slowly killing my good citizens, just out of spite. Creating minions out of them seemed illogical at this point. I simply kept the germs off of their bodies using my Lich power for later use.
With so much time and so little to do, I decided to explore the ruined remains of my palace. After long months of trying to make something out of the rubble around me, my armour was damaged beyond repair. Inside the palace, I found my old Lich robes folded nicely in a magically-protected chest. Thank heavens I didn't throw it out. Pays to think ahead.
I can't say the break from cruel reality was unwelcome, though. So it is perfectly understandable that when I realized the remains of the dark glass inside the machine's body could be used to reverse the implosion, I did nothing at first. I decided to think of it as an extended vacation... A helpful one, at that. Within three months, my little eye "problem" was gone, and I had my old harmless eyesight back.
What I did not count on, however, was that even though time outside was drastically slower it was still running. With the help of my newly reacquired Lich robes, I decided to check my remaining citizens' loyalty by sneaking around them through the help of phase shift. Seems much has happened in my absence. A preacher from other lands somehow leaked into the isles, converting most of the population to his religion. He was now the leader of Kandarin, and the heretic weakminded simpletons hailed him as Marshal. How... disappointing.
Some relief was to be found in Undecimus, where a small group of dedicated loyalists were resisting the grasp of the false religion (which was called the Manifest). In fact, just when I had arrived, they were battling off a wave of Manifestian zealots. This particular pocket of followers was using the standard-issue Kandarinian spearguns and wristblades. There were only about twenty of them, though, and the attack force appeared to have had a head count of about fifty. I threw myself out of sync with reality even further, almost completely vanishing from view, and watched.
The resistance was doing good, at first. The sharpened spears easily pierced the badly armored zealots at a distance. But when the attackers came closer...
Their abilities were nothing I had witnessed before. Somehow, the heretics gained the ability of teleportation, vanishing and appearing right behind the defenders. I tacitly watched as they sliced the resitance members' throats, until there were only five left. That's when I came out of phase shift.
The effect was rather powerful, and left me with a nice fuzzy feeling in my stomach. The attackers and defenders alike stopped what they were doing and all stared at me in silence. With a jeering smile, I cast a nice little chain lightning spell. As my arm went up, the zealots fell down. In less than a blink of an eye, a surge of raw power ended all their lives. Unable to wipe my stupid-looking smile off my face, I came closer to the defenders.
-"M-M-Marshal? But... the dark... disappeared... ahh..."
The soldier talking to me rolled his eyes and collapsed on the floor. The other four dropped down to their knees. My smile vanished.
-"For crying out loud, get up. You're not impressing anyone."
-"Yes, Marshal..."
-"And quit with this Marshal business! I am no longer in control of my country, as I'm sure you've noticed. From this day on, I will be referred to as "Kronos" or "Sir". At least until I get enough followers to make up stupid rules like condemning the mention of my name."
-"Yes... sir. But sir, there's only five of us..."
My smile returned.
-"Don't you know who I am?"
The other fifteen began to twitch, and slowly rose to their feet. Their gashing wounds slowly disappeared. It took them some time to come back into an acceptable state of mind to realize that I was now present. As expected, they dropped whatever they were holding, and stared at me in silence, jaws wide open.
-"Heh... You look like you've seen a ghost. Come now, it's rude to stare."
Only then it came to my realization that I only resurrected fourteen of them. The fifteenth one came to life on his own, oddly enough. I looked carefully at the force lines in the area, and my suspicions were confirmed. Fourteen lines extended from me to the fallen Kandarinians... and the final one connected the last Kandarinian to one of the original five remaining defenders, a woman of about my age. A Necromancer...?"
---
"After some time, my followers became used to the idea that I was back. The woman, whose name I found to be Eve, was indeed a Necromancer. A rather weak one, at that. She could only support one undead, as opposed to my known limit of 30,000. Ironic that I used to think that that number was rather modest. Through some small talk, I also uncovered her age to be 26 (what a miss! I'm 35!), and that she learned the Dark Art from an ancient book. The book was apparently passed down as a family heirloom, though no one before her read it. It didn't make much sense to me either, but there were more pressing matters at hand.
-"My Marsh- er, sir, the Manifest grows more powerful each day," a soldier informed me. "We and two other groups are gathering forces for an all-out assault."
-"Hold it! You said there were other groups remaining?"
-"Yes, sir."
-"Is there a central authority about them?"
-"Well, sir, we're mostly following the orders of a man named Hannibal... uhh... Hannibal Roth."
-"Ah, yes. Damien's little brother." Damien Roth almost lay forgotten in my memory. I should check on him later. "There's one more thing that interests me. Who is this... preacher?"
-"He is called Necirrejel, sir."
Ah... so the bastard returned as soon as he got the word that I was gone. Smart one, he is. Best if I draw his brain from his lifeless corpse for some use later on. Stuffing for a celebration pie, perhaps...?"
---
"The three rebel groups were now assembled and ready to take on several hundred zealots, along with an undoubtedly more powerful Necirrejel. I was pacing around them, watching them ready themselves for the upcoming battle. A soldier came up to me and, with a slightly confused look, asked:
-"Uh, sir... don't you need to get ready?"
-"Oh, I'm not going."
-"...sir?"
-"You see, my faith in you is very strong, and I believe that with a final blessing from your master, you will be able to take on Necirrejel and the Manifest without breaking a sweat."
-"But sir..."
-"Surely you don't doubt my faith?"
-"Of course not, sir, but..."
-"Then go, and may, uh, the blessing of Kronos be upon ye... you all. Yeah. Now get out of my sight."
Even more confused than before, the troops left, leaving me alone. When they were out of sight, I put on the two soultrap amulets around my neck. With a sly smile, I blasted a black lightning into the sky."
---
"It is very hard for me to describe the level of cofusion the soldiers returned me with, but I shall leave the matter with this: it was undoubtedly much greater than it was when they just left. They found me sitting on top of a short crumbled wall. I jumped down and asked:
-"So, how was the battle?"
Eve replied:
-"They're all... uhh... dead, sir."
-"So it was successful?"
-"Sir, they were dead before we got there. Only Necirrejel was still breathing, and we finished him off pretty quickly."
I summoned my most innocent tone:
-"Oh?"
-"Yes, sir... Are you sure you didn't, uh, do anything?"
The innocence was gone. I looked directly into Eve's eyes.
-"Let me quote myself. Don't you know who I am? Have I been gone for so long that you have forgotten the true definition of power? They didn't stand a chance. None of them did. You just don't understand... The might of a mortal to me is as dust is to the sea."
-"Y-Yes, sir. What do we do now?"
I sighed.
-"Well, I need to rebuild my empire to its former glory. As much as I wish the opposite, it will take some time. After all, you know what they say: Romme wasn't built in a day. I'll need you to send someone to Asgarnia, and see if we have any friends left there. Also, dispatch a messenger to the Dark Empire, inquiring about the status of the alliance."
-"Consider it done, sir."
Eve went off. As I was about to return to the ruined military complex, I stopped to think. Reflecting somewhere in the past, I compared myself back then to right now. I'm going soft with these soldiers... Where has my iron hand gone? No matter. I will need as strong of a personality cult as it is humanly possible. This should help me with rebuilding, and perhaps speed the process up a little. Once my following grows large enough, my old self will be back. It will be back...."
//Some notes: first, let me apologize in advance for the hugeness of the post. Since Jenia wanted Kerig to interact with Kronos, and I didn't want to be disturbed until I was done all the stuff I wrote up above, I just decided to post all of it in one go. Secondly, Kronos is effectively back to his old appearance (with the translucent cloak and no blindfold). Finally, Kronos will likely be the only character I'll use in this chapter with the possible exception of Ein.\
-
"So you are sure this is where they are?" Rufokanno asked his new employer.
"As sure as you are that the Velkens know about him." Ophelia replied.
"Me want to know why you want to find him so greatly."
"You don't need to concern yourself with that. I just want you to help me fight him when I find him."
"Fine."
Ophelia and the drow continued to walks the hallways of The Tower of Heaven's Bane.
"Yes, I am certain the Velkens are here." Ophelia said, as he spotted two in the hallways.
Rufokanno thought he recognized one of them. "Ophelia--"
"Not now." She interrupted as she approached the two Velkens, Helix and Renard. "Greetings my friends. I assume you're enjoying your stay at Bane?" She looked the two in the eye, although it would be hard for them to tell with the shading mask she wore. "My friend here says that one of you was spending time with a man named, Duilin Talonscar..."
//Update others later\
-
//Not sure if this is too long, or too short... but I'm posting it anyways.\
It was dark. Not the traditional dark, but a eerie dark. There was an uttermost lack of light in the cave, as was part of the training. Jareth did not think much of Tysid’s training methods, though he had to admit they worked.
He slowly backed away from the center of the room, at which he would guesstimate it at about 18’ wide, 20’ long and 7’ high. He felt the cold cave wall against his back, and started to circle around the room as quietly as possible. The sheathed Drayfear in his hands, he started to advance on his masters last known location.
Jareth had to win this. This was his final test. After this, he believed he would be ready- for finding his past. He heard something, off to his right side. He swung Drayfear with all his might in that direction, and was shaken by the impact on his master’s sword.
“Blast.” Jareth muttered under his breath.
“Come on, kid. If you want to defeat me, your going to have to do better then that!” Tysid said ferociously.
Jareth backed away, and feigned a downward swing, but changed and swung at Tysid’s feet. He knew his master could see well in the dark, so he was at a disadvantage. He just might have to…
“Unsheathe the sword, boy! Don’t fear its power. You must feel it in order to understand why I gave you that sword!” Tysid said, interrupting Jareth's thoughts.
That means I didn’t hit him. Jareth thought, taking 2 steps backwards.
“Alright, here it goes, old man!”
Jareth pulled the sword out of the sheath, taken aback by the dark metal of the long one edged sword. For a moment nothing happened, then he started to feel a power overwhelm him…
-
//Well, in response to Ein's post, I'll lengthen Kerig's and Weloss' post\
Back in the, now stranded, main island of Kandarin, a small pile of dry ground began to move...
It twitched a little at first, and suddenly, a somewhat large hand erupted from it.
A gray-haired head followed shortly.
"Pfft!" Kerig spat some of the earth in his mouth out "That was one nap! I feel great!"
A familiar voice echoed in his mind...
"About time you lazy bum woke up" Weloss told him, appearing to be quite displeased.
"Do you even know what was going on?"
Kerig scracthed his forehead, and decided it would be best to get up first.
He whipped the dirt off his clothing, not minding the little remaining on his gloves.
"So..." He said, seemingly blissfull as he started walking in a random direction "Why don't you tell me what was going on?"
If Weloss had physical hands, he would have used the chance to slap Kerig. As smart as Weloss considered Kerig to be, such attitude would have earned at least a slap and a random insult. He decided to skip both.
"You were sleeping." he said, at first, calmly, and then suddenly his tone became furious "FOR A WHOLE YEAR! At least that is what it seemed like, you hibranating little... And as for you being underground when you woke up, well, some local kids just found you and thought it would be funny to bury you under the castle walls."
Kerig stopped. He just realised the castle had mostly disappeared, save for the main building. The village around it had completly disappeared as well, leaving nothing but rubble behind.
"Yeah, well, that necromancer made short work of those kids" Weloss added "So I guess we could thank him when we meet him. And yes, he got rid of all which seems to be missing, numbskull."
Kerig suddenly remembered he was supposed to meet the said "necromancer".
He smiled happily as he rose an inch above the ground and began gliding away.
"Let's find Mistah Crow-Nose!"
A while later, after gliding over water for some time, Kerig came upon another battered landscape. He wasn't going in a straight line, as he wasn't sure where to go, but he was certain he will find what he was looking for.
He noticed a crumbling wall nearby, and ruined millitiary complex in the distance. Around it, he noticed, some people were granted artificial life, leading him to believe the necromancer he was looking for was there. He hastened on, increase his glide's "pace", if one could call it that.
He admired those around him as he went by them.
"Aww, look, Weloss, they are so cute, it's like he keeps many happy string puppets together as friends!" he said, as if it really was the nicest sight to behold.
Weloss didn't reply, as he only wished they would get there sooner...
-----
Fernis was bummed. She was stuck in a series of caves. With Tjed's millitiary. Carrying out a request for a person who turned into a sword. And for what? To get names.
Finding the very thought of her situation disturbing, Fernis hurried over to the winged man calling himself Duillin, as he held on to Iduran.
Having earlier left Elphos behind to help tend the wounded (since healing runes was what he made most progress with), she had to go through the soldiers and their many stares alone.
In her hand, she was carrying a strange looking metal sheath. It was completly and throughly etched with runes, both inside and outside. Fernis had been working on this for several houres, and she knew it still had the chance of not working.
She still had to try.
Finally, she found Duillin. She didn't even bother to check if he is busy. She just turned to him and flatly spoke out-
"You. I need to have Iduran. Or, prefferably, just take him and come with me."
-----
Yaaaaaaawn.
Iskatyl began stretching as he woke up from his sleep.
Those port inns of Tjed really were nice. Much nicer than the wilderness, at least.
He pulled on his clothing, wrapped himself in his indigo cloak,tucked the knife in his belt, and left the room.
He politely said goodbye and thank-you to the innkeeper as he left, worried of his big brother. He heared that recently an entire ship's crew was recently killed and the killer's identity was unknown, so he automatically assumed it to be his brother's doing. He knew his brother came to Tjed.
His brother was definetly here...
Somewhere...
He left the port and began walking, following the road, hoping to run into Zakon...
-----
Ah, the night sky. Barely clouded, and the moonlight was so very pleasant.
A perfect night for the joy of cleansing.
Zakon's cloths gently waved in the cool night breeze as he stepped on several unsuspecting daisies, approaching a local farmhouse.
It has been several days since he massacred an entire ship's crew just as it arrived at it's destination, Tjed, and he already felt the familiar tingle called bloodlust.
Although somewhat disappointed in himself for being so impatient, his steps toward the dimly lit farmhouse were light, silent and steady.
By the snoring and talking coming from the old wooden shack, he assumed there was a rather young family living there.
A young couple, not yet in their thirties, and their two sons, to be exact.
Zakon found the very thought of cleansing such juicy targets very delightful, and proceeded to approach the door.
It was locked. How typical, he thought.
Taking out a knife strapped to his belt, he began to closely observe the lock. After a few moments he apparently found what he was looking for, as he smiled lightly to himself and slashed the lock, splitting it clean into two smaller pieces.
Opening the door was no feat now. All left now was to make sure all is cleansed.
Inside, in a candle lit, small and undecorated room, was the entire family-
The red-nosed father, whom Zakon assumed to be drunk, and a baby wrapped in plain cheap cloth, were sleeping together peacefully on a simple wooden bed, without even a pillow or a blanket to cover them.
Nearby, on plain round wooden stools, by a fireplace charred black, sat the two remaining family members, apparently having a conversation before his arrival, now staring in horror.
He noticed how they were both poorly dressed in rags, but each one was holding a candle. He thought it to be stupid, to waste candles when one is poor and cold, when one can use a nearby fireplace instead.
Suddenly, the woman screamed. How unpleasant. The baby soon joined the mother by crying, almost causing Zakon a headache.
The red-nosed man rolled off the bed lazily, almost causing the baby to fall along with him, and uttered a curse as his face hit the hard, wooden floor.
However, the man's nose quickly lost it's red color when he became pale, and whilst the baby's screaming stopped, a small leg and a kidney rolled down before his eyes.
As pale as he was, he did not have a chance to join the woman's screaming in the baby's place, as the only thing remained connected to his head was his left, bulky arm.
The crimson color of blood painted the floor as Zakon sliced through the bigger child's head with one hand and grabbed the woman's neck with the other.
She struggled, trying to free herself. To run. To scream for help.
But it was of no use. She choked, holding both her hands against the arm lifting her into the air by her neck.
No, the death of this one would be special. One like never before.
Zakon didn't care both candles were now on the floor, that the plain wooden shack would easily catch fire...
He threw the woman into the air, and, in that instant, his image blurred.
As he reappeared behind her, bent down on one knee and crossing his hands before his face as if in self defense, the woman burst and fell apart, like an old, broken doll.
No joint was left connected, and yet her internal organs fell on the floor being completely intact, as if all he did was take her apart. Barely any blood actually spilled on the floor, even though there were over a dozen pieces.
Zakon smiled to himself, feeling pleased and fulfilled. He indulged himself in the excitement he felt as he stared at what was left beginning to burn...
A while later, Zakon decided that it was enough watching for one night, and left the burning, crumbling shack.
As he walked away, he noticed the daisies he stepped on earlier. Tsk, such cruelty. To kill, but not to do so absolutely, is plain cruelty.
He stopped and pondered as to whether he should take the time to slice up the flowers as well, and noticed his shirt caught some fire. He quickly put it out, as it wasn't too serious.
Truly, tonight is already pleasant. But the night is not over yet...
-
//Akura, your post is just fine. It's too small if it contains less than 3 sentences. Razz\
"Now that the immediate threat surrounding my followers is gone, I decided to get to slightly more important but less urging matters. I quickly assembled ten undead wyverns, and assigned each to two people. One spotter and one courier. The wyverns took off, each to a destination of a former (and current, as I hope) ally. One was sent to the Dark Empire, one to Asgarnia, one to Vandrin's county, and the rest to the minor houses under my protection.
I've long ago noticed the presence of two beings nearby - a humanoid and a non-corporeal one. Strange how they remained hidden from me for almost a year... The implosion must have had unforeseen effects on magic. They are not much of a threat at the moment, so I decided to ignore them for now.
-"I see you have returned, Kronos. Were you enjoying yourself? Even Death needs a holiday."
There was no need for the classical double-take, as I recognized the cold voice almost immediately.
-"Hello, de Sade. That's a nasty habit you have, sneaking up on evil overlords without making yourself known first."
-"Overlord? Gloat not, puny one. 15 minions and five dozen followers is not much of an accomplishment."
De Sade was really getting on my nerves now. The sorcerer was definitely past his expiry date.
-"It's funny, de Sade. With all your fancy Astral business, you keep forgetting just how vulnerable such overuse of magic leaves you."
I finally turned around, and, with a menacing grimace, pulled out a shard of dark glass. De Sade glanced at it indifferently, obviously not realizing what it does. I held up the shard by the string sewn through it, just in front of de Sade. He waited, likely for me to make the first move. Which I did.
As I expected, de Sade was maintaining his ever-present life sheath spell on him. The dark shard drained the barrier around him like a whirlpool, and by momentum, began pulling his very essence into the shard. De Sade flinched, and took on a defensive spell. Didn't help him much, though, because all of his magic power was now contained in the dark shard. Without it, de Sade was just a wrinkly old Lilithian.
With a ceremonial look, I swung a punch at de Sade. The punch nearly cracked his skull, even though my physical strength was no more than that of a common man. It's a relatively known fact that Lilithians survive only through their extensive use of magic. Their bodies are as weak as insects. I looked at the ugly pile of skin and bone lying at my feet. De Sade was managing to say something.
-"Rejoice not, Kronos, all victory is but temporary. If only you understood the truth... that I let you win...."
-"Kill him before he gets all weepy."
With those words, I walked away. De Sade's astral power was now encased in my soultrap amulet. Not that I myself will ever use it... I'll need to find a decent application for these amulets sometime."
-
-----------------------------------------------
"Well, here we are, Jackie, Gaian! I told you my airship would hold together." Jelka turned the airship down to land in an air dock somewhere along northern Tjed. It seemed like a dark encampment dedicated to the Crimson Empire. It looks like these people followed Draven's rule rather than Retan's.
Jackie looked off the starboard side of the airship as it docked. She could've sworn she saw a small ship go under water near the horizon. Then again, this was a land she had never seen before, nor even heard of, so she ignored. The only thing she came here with her sister to do is to join the Dark Empire.
"Come on, Jackie, we have to hurry! I set up a meeting with this guy scheduled for a half an hour ago." Jelka stepped out of the airship with her sister Jackie close behind. They paid the docking fee and entered the camp.
"I don't think this is the right place, Jelka... are you sure about all this? I mean, I don't want to fly all the way back now, but are you sure we're on the right side?" Jackie walked closer to her sister, who was browsing the tents to find number 646. At last, she came upon the tent and walked in, her tail holding the flap open for her sister. She followed.
"State your names," said a man sitting in a chair across the room. He looked a bit odd for a person who is supposed to be evil. In fact, he had a strange light blue aura about him that made him look angelic...
"Jelka Loronnas Viperdale and Jacklyn Loronnas Viperdale," Jelka ststed firmly, "We've come to-"
"See what this is like." Jackie interrupted, "I don't know if this is the right choice, you know? Our lives are just... going a bit off... if you know what I mean."
"Of course," the man said, "I completely understand! In fact, I was like that when I first came here. You'll have to watch your voice, though. Most people think I'm with Draven, but Retan's the guy. Calls gods inferior, don't 'cha know? Pretty strange fellow, he is... Anyways, we're taking a secret route outta here. Most people think it's a secret way in. Won't they be surprized, eh? well, let's go! Follow me."
They walked out of the tent and passed all of the others until they got to tent number 666. The man opened the flap. Inside was a black-brick well with a pole going across it and a fat rope going down the well. The well it self was empty, and looked like it had a light illuminating the bottem.
"By the way, my name's Bjendell Mjord. It's a norse name from a rather... nothern family. Just call me Ben like everyone else. I know this might not be the time to ask, but what brings two Velken here, of all places?"
"We recieved a summons from the Dark Empire to lead a few troops to Tjed," Jelka said, "There seems to be a great war going on there, you know? I heard a little bit from where I lived that the Tjedians are the good guys, and my sister thinks we should join up with them instead..."
"Hmm... that's a bit strange..."
"Why do you say that?" Jackie asked, "What, are you going to agree with me?"
"Actually, yes. That's why I made the summons for you to come here. I need two expert Velkens to help with a small resistance group in Tjed. In fact, they are at this moment excavating the caves to get to the capitol of Tjed."
"What!?" Both Jelka and Jackie stared forward, jaws dropped. They turned to face each other, then back at Ben.
"Well, let's not waste any more time! Down the well, then!" The three of them climbed down the rope and hit the bottem of the well. They found a locked door, and a few minutes later, after Ben pulled out a key, they heard a knock.
-----------------------------------------------
"I feel another pressence... I can smell... Oh no... What do you want, m'lord... No, I'm fine..." Jacobie muttered sensless words in a sort of trance-like status. The medical unit that Ven assigned to Jacobie was working on his wounds with the herbs. Jacobie, not thinking straight, ate them all at the same time, not knowing that it may have a side effect of trance for about an hour.
"Who's this guy talking to, Edd," the first medical knight asked the other, "He looks like he's out of it. Must be the stuff he ate. He was in so much pain, he just ate them all with out thinking. What does the medical exam on this guy say?"
"He's goin' ta be fine, he's juss a lil' loopy," the other medical knight told the first, "So how's the family, Hans? Hopin' ya don' die out here?"
"Oh, shut up about that, Edd! I told them all there's a possible chance of that happening. Seroiusly, knock it off. It's making me worry what will happen to them if I DO... uhh... die."
"Well, ah' leass ya have people ta care about ya. I gots nobody but me wife, and even she can be a lil' harsh from time ta time. I still don' wan 'er ta feel miserable when she find's out I'm gone... Sad stuff, really. I toll 'er when I geh back I'd quit the army."
"Fat chance of that happening, Edd," the first knight said to the second, "Anyways, I'm probably going to quit, too. I can't let the wife and kids worry about me all the time... It's not good for anyone to worry so much as they do, especially my wife, Verronica."
"Woah, Hans! Ven's commin' this way! Prob'ly want's ta see thah' Lizzard Jacob, or John, or whaddeveh his name be. His trance shoul' be wearin' off by now, too. Thah's convinient... really, thah creeps me ouh' when thah happens."
"Uhhnnn... What happened out there? Wait a minute... Where's that general. Is that him up there? General! Could you please tell me what's going on here?"
-----------------------------------------------
-
Duilin continued moving along with Ven and the group examining the sword. The weapon was so majestic and almost felt like it was alive. He quickly gained a sense of value to this blade. He should defiantly take good care of it.
He then noticed that one strange furry woman had come to talk to her. "You want my sword? Um, I'm actually going to have to say no. I'm sorry." Duilin replied. "Who are you anyways!?"
"Duilin, don't be so rude." Rink warned.
"Well, it's my sword, and she's a complete stranger. I think I have every right to be rude, it's rude of her to want my sword." Duilin snapped to the imp.
"But you just got it." Rink said.
"You don't understand, Rink." Duilin said, lifting the sword. "This sword is what remains of Iduran. This sword IS Iduran. This sword is also all that is left of Romme, that place marked a point in my life where I finally stood up to the Dark Empire, when I finally learned that I don't have to serve their corrupt ways and that I can finally make Gaian a place that isn't one big hellhole." He lowered the blade and then looked at Fernis. "The answer is no. I need this sword and I need to use it to help defend Tjed." Duilin then sped up his pace to catch up with Ven...
--- ---
Marshall and the group had just arrived at the Aspye Hideout. Wilham has been taken in to be questioned by Peter Kropotkin.
"Marshall, you look like you've been through Hell. What happened?" Firstman asked his friend in concern.
"Met up with an old friend." Marshall replied. "So, what happened wile I was gone."
"Actually, quite a bit. You know the Vandrin County, right?" Firstman asked.
"My memory isn't that bad, it has only been around a day since we last went there. What about it?"
"Well, apparently we've been finding a lot of mutant activity going about. We're getting worried that they might find us out. You and Coriko are our only mages, with the leaders fighting the Zhao Chin Empire in Amantan, so we don't have much to defend ourselves against the mutants."
"Well maybe this Wilham guy might want to help us out more."
"I was meaning to ask, who the hell is that guy? Where is he from?" Firstman asked.
"No idea, he's been pretty cryptic. I'm not even sure if I can trust him."
"Me neither..."
-
Coriko followed Marshall into the base. Firstman refered to Coriko as a mage. That was a step up. Wilham was brought up.
"C'mon guys," Coriko jumped in to the conversation trying to liven it up "We can take take them right, besides what do you want us to do with this mission? And Wilham, I don't know but I have a feeling he may be helpful to us. At least for right now."
---
Jayce entered the room taking half the door frame with him. He looked pissed off beyond belief. Druid was leaning against the wall. He was playing with a ball of shadow energy. It pulsed in his hand as he opened and closed it. Druid had a sinister looking grin on his face.
"So, why did you have me join again?" Druid said as Jayce passed in front of him. "I mean besides saving your ships from that rock creature, i did very little for that invasion. I want earn my keepand i am more than capable of it. I have powers that can be invaluble to you. Send me and some of my shadow warriors out, and we'll take a town,city or country for you. Because sitting around here is not working for me, I'd rather be out there killing some people who are preventing me from getting back to my own dimension."
-
Nick stopped for a moment. He sensed something. Something that was gone for a short while. Was it Kronos. He would have to find out. He sent an telepathic message, Kronos are you there? He would wait for a response before moving from his posistion.
---
Drew pounded his fist on the table. There was nothing but silence. " So back to what i was saying." He played it out casualy. " If we're going to get out of this never ending war we must join a side. The only question is what side?"
The crowd pondered.
" The Dark Empire?"
" Hm."
" Err.."
" If we do not come to a conclusion by sometime this week we may not be here by the end of this thing." Drew said confidently.
//hm? Didn't know we started.
-
Fernis twitched.
"No"!? I didn't ask you, idiot.
She hurried over and grabbed him by his arm.
"Look, Iduran is a person. Saying you own him is a disgrace!" She insisted "If you won't hand him over, then come with me. I'm not telling you not to fight for Tjed with him. It's for your and, especialy Iduran's, good."
-----
Kerig had at last reached and entered a large ruin.
The entrance was unguarded, and the structures didn't seem to be manned at all.
Well, it WAS only a ruin, after all. It barely had any cielings left.
Here and there, Kering noticed what seemed to be a lone person either walking or sleeping in the distance. Kerig wondered why would someone be sleeping on the floor, but the Weloss enlightened him about those being corpses.
Eventually, after passing about half the length of the ruins, Kerig came upon what seemed to be the countryard.
He looked around. There were tents, people walking around and more corpses here and there. When the fact was pointed out by Weloss, Kerig noticed some people were living on energy tubes coming from one place. Kerig hastened his glide in that direction, and soon he noticed a dark figure.
"That must be him!" he exclaimed happily and hurried over. He passed what seemed to be an old man lying on the floor, but he didn't care much. Probably was another one of those creatures Weloss called 'corpses'.
He approached the dark figure from behind and paused.
"Well?" Weloss started inquiring "Say something!"
"Hi! I, err..." Kerig was embaressed, as he wasn't sure how to speak to a lich (or a necromancer, for that matter).
"Hello! Are you, umm, mister Crow-Nose?"
-
-----------------------------------------------
"Hey, Dori, do you remember what I was supposed to say?" Justin looked back behind himself at Dori, infront of a large door that the man in the black cloak took them to.
"Hmm... Somethin' somethin'... blood somethin'... Crimson... yeah, I have no idea. Just make something up! It'll be fine. If it doesn't work, I'll just bash the door in for you." Justin rolled his eyes and sighed. At this point, Dori was of no help at all. He stepped back a bit, ready to say something he'd just made up.
"Uhh, if blood isn't blood... then what is it? Yeah, you might as well just bash the door open, Dori. I really should have wrote that down instead of compleatly ignoring Thand." After Justin spoke, Dori readied her claw, but it was of no use. The door was opened by someone else. In the doorway stood an angel-like figure and two Velken females.
"That won't be nessecary, I can assure you. My name's Bjendell Mjord, but just call me Ben. I might as well ask you for your help. I need to get out of here, but the only way out is if I go with someone who's trying to get in."
"No, I don't think so pal," Dori rudely shoved Justin out of the way, "We came here to buy passage into the Dark Camp, and we're not leaving until we get what we want! No, if you'd be so kind as to get the hell out of my way!" Justin got back to his feet and yanked Dori's shoulders to pull her back.
"Sorry about that," Justin began, "Dori's got a real temper."
"Justin, you'd better shut-"
"Yeah, she can get like that a few times. There was this one time where she got me so ticked, I stabbed her in the kidney."
"Justin, I'm not playing around. STOP IT RIGHT-"
"But most of the time, she's a sweet girl. I'm sure she'll come around to that side more often."
"SSHHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTT UUUUPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Everyone was silent for almost a whol ten minutes until Ben spoke again. "Anyways," he continued, "I heard you mentioned Thand. I asked him to send you to me, actually. He's a friend of mine. Used to work with him on healing arts back at the monistary. He's a great medic now, I heard."
"Well in that case, lets just go. I forgot what we were supposed to be doing here anyways." They continued back down the dark tunnel to the 'under-water cargo freight that the man in the black cloak used to sail down. He was waiting for Justin and Dori to return, but not the others.
"More slaves, is it? Ya got Velken twins now, did ye? A fine catch if I'm able to say so to ye, sir. Heading back up, are ye? You know the drill. Stay below deck until I tell ye.
-----------------------------------------------
"I don't think he can hear me..." Jacobie said aloud, "Hey! One of you get the general's attention! I'm sure he's headed this way anyhow... The orb!" Jacobie pulled out his orb which was in his armor. He spoke into it and turned it green.
"General. Are you there? Is this thing working? I haven't tested it for a while. In any case, get down here. I need some help as to what's going on. Jacobie greens, out. Remember, say your name, then say Blues... Hah! Blues! That's funny... sorry, I'm still a bit out of it in the head right now... Oh yeah, right, uhh, Jacobie greens out."
-----------------------------------------------
-
One could hear the chanting of monks in the air, though it was likely just the wind...
The room was black, except for an eerie pale blue that emanated from the cracks in the walls... No illumination was provided from the four large steepled windows, one upon each wall. Only black clouds were visible in the night sky, rotating around that room as if it were the center of the universe.
The black throne near the northern window rotated silently, as if were floating upon air. In it sat the Dark Emperor Retan, uninterestedly leaned back, his left gloved hand fingering the top of the golden dragon scull that formed the arm rest.
The short lizard Grav paced back and forth in front of him, nails clicking upon the hard metal floor. In his claws were an unfurled scroll and a quill.
"We've made contact with a new nation in the south, your Lordship... Hragvien. They wish to form an alliance."
"Kill them."
Grav nodded and scribbled some on the parchment.
"... They've also have a neighboring collection of city states... Ghestern."
"Kill them."
"Uh huh..."
Grav wrote some more.
"Oh, hmm... The kingdom of Prek has sent us a message. They are dissatisfied with the way we've been sinking their ships, and have declared war on us."
"Prek? Why do they still exist?" The Dark Emperor's burning eyes narrowed.
The reptilian eyes of the short Prime Minister widened, and he began to nervously fumble thorough the papers.
"Apologies, my Lord. They were eradicated the other day. Their letter simply took that long to arrive.... heh..."
"Do not bring outdated trifles to my attention, lest I become irritated..."
"Y-yes m-my Lord..."
Grav fumbled through the papers some more.
"Finally, we've received a message from the Kandarinain Sovereignty. They inquire about the status of our alliance..."
"They are still around? I take it their ruler has returned before our fake has had a chance to position himself."
"It would appear so, your Masterfulness."
Retan drummed his fingers on the golden dragon skull for a moment.
"Their hold has slipped much. Inform them that the alliance remains in tact."
"Yes, my Lord."
"Then immediately issue an edict. All their claims within the Dark Continent now belong to me."
"Yes, my Lord."
"Should they disagree, gently remind them of my unbounded generosity in allowing them to exist in my lands in the first place. And in my unbounded generosity, I shall allow their current overlords to remain in control of their lands, though they will now be under my flag and pay me tributaries. I do not feel like issuing new Lords at this time."
"You are certainly most generous, my Lord. And if they should resist?"
"Inform High General Gorus that he may raze any and all Kandarinian outposts at his leisure."
"Yes, my Lord."
Grav finished writing and the bowed lowly before leaving the room. The Dark Emperor's chair turned to face the window as he steepled his hands. Grav returned a few moments later and bowed on the floor again and waited their silently for five minutes before Retain acknowledged his presence, though the chair did not turn.
"Speak, Grav."
"The High General of the Sky has returned."
"Send him in."
----
Renard's ears shot straight up. Did she just say Duilin?
What is this? Some sort of inquisition? No, he hadn't done anything wrong. That human saved him after all. And then Virmir himself thanked him.
Then Renard recognized the man standing next to the jester-like woman. The mage! That guy who attacked him in the inn! But those guys were just street scum. What in blazes was one of them doing here?
Renard took a step back, his tail pressing against the door to his room as he tried to keep it from tucking between his legs.
"Y-yeah. So?"
Helix stood perplexed at his friend's behavior. What was he so freaked out about? The woman was kinda hot, but nothing to get all jittery about. Helix folded his arms and leaned against the wall.
----
Jayce turned suddenly, seeing Druid standing there for the first time. He stormed over to the man, placing his left hand on the wall and leaning over him. His breath stunk of something like fish.
"Yes, you didn't do very much at all did you? I suggest you head out as far ahead of me as possible and destroy as much as you can before I arrive. You wouldn't want me thinking you useless..."
Jayce flipped around, storming out of the room.
----
The gates in front of the menacing sea bound ship, The Jagahn, opened widely. Hundreds of boats spilled out, one after another, each filled with snarling Lizard Men. Some even did not take to the boats, but instead swam deftly like fish. A similar scene errupted at each of the other two warships, all surging through the dark waters, heading for the beaches of Tjed...
----
"Relax, I'm here," Ven said as he walked into the room like opening in the cave where Jacobie was recovering.
"You seem to be doing better," he said as he leaned over the injured lizard. "But stop with the 'general' stuff. 'Sir' will do if you insist, as I'm just a knight. Or you can just call me Ven."
"Sir Ven!"
Another knight ran into the room, a young kid with yellow locks. It was starting to get crowded. He was out of breath and took a moment to compose himself.
"We-- we saw. In the ocean... Hundreds of boats, coming this way..."
Ven clutched his fists.
"Oh, blast it! Are we ready? It's not going to take them long to figure out we're in here."
Ven clenched his teeth. They would likely destroy the evacuated city of Kesnar first. Blast it. A huge shame, and a terrible loss, but with the walls in such bad shape it was no longer defendable. At the very least the distraction would buy them some time..."
-
"The Dark Empire messenger has returned with some rather unsettling news.
-"All my current fortifications in the Dark Continent, eh... Mmmkay, not like I had anything there in the first place. I'll let my messengers know to modify the message they are carrying. Everyone is to leave the premises at once and meet us at the southeasternmost corner of the Continent. We'll figure out what to do from there."
I noticed the humanoid creature calling my name.
-"Yes, what?"
-
-----------------------------------------------
"Well then, I guess this orb is useless then. I can get up and help with the preparations for defense, uhh... sir Ven, was it? Right then, help me up, one of you." The first medical knight helped Jacobie up to his feet, which now seemed to be in perfect condition and fully reattached. He pocketed the orb that was now letting go of its green glimmer.
"I'll follow your lead, sir Ven. I must warn you though, I felt some strange, godly presence comming this way as I was knocked unconcious. It wasn't Retan, although I felt he was comming here anyways. No, this is something far beyond his power, nay, far beyond even his hopes of more power. It's a group of six people, and they're traveling by sea..."
-----------------------------------------------
"Oi! You can come up now! I've reached the surface." The mand in the black cloak turned the ship's sails, spinning it to the direction of the south. Around one third of a mile out was the dock and another secondary dock with airships.
"Hmm... I think we may have to steal an airship. Well, it is night, and it should be simple enough. Jelka, you'll fly it up to the mountains where the group is. Another friend of mine is there... well, more of an enemy I suppose... so watch out for him. He seems to be tailing his brother, though, so we should be in the clear."
Everyone boarded the airship and Jelka started to take it off. After a good twenty feet-or-so in the air, shouts could be heard to bring the ship back down. Nothing was going to stop them though. Jelka turned on the booster engine and the airship zoomed off into the distance.
"At this rate, we'll be there in an hour. I hope you're all in good stride for the battle yet to come..."
-----------------------------------------------
-
Rink caught up with Duilin. "See, that's what I was telling you. Just go with her."
"Sheesh..." Duilin rubbed his forehead head and looked at Fernis. "Fine, sorry. Lead the way."
--- ---
"I want to know where he is. My friend Rufokanno said you were traveling with him for a short wile." Ophelia answered. She then shifted her eyes and gave a quick glance at Helix leaning on the wall and then looked back at Renard. "I don't care why you were with him. I just want to know if you have any clue where he could be heading. Did he say anything about where he wanted to go? Where you even think he might be going?"
Rufokanno didn't even look at the two Velkens or at Ophelia, he simply just scanned his eyes around the building.
--- ---
"Helpfull or not. He hasn't given us much information about himself." Marshall said pointing at Coriko. "I learned from the past actions not to trust people I just met." It was true; when he just traveled off with Zeros' and his crew he got banished from the Blue Minotaur. He didn't want something like that to ever happen again.
Wilham and Kropotkin entered the room. Kropotkin seemed rather pleased with what he was told by Wilham.
"Thank you very much Grand General Wolfe." Kropotkin said. "Marshall, you don't need to worry yourself. He can be trusted." The two men then joined the others. "In fact Wilham has a very interesting story, which I'm certain you will want to hear..."
--- ---
Count Vandrin really needed a way to cool off after being held hostage by Duilin. He found just going for hikes and explorations to be quite a good way to cool off. He had a group of his mutants with him, for protection.
Vandrin had found this strange ancient underground temple made with strange bricks of stone. It appeared to have scraps of a thin reflective material left on, which much have been chipped away over the years. He walked down the staircase into the darkness. "Flaze, light up a torch." He said to one of his mage mutants.
The thin mutant grabbed an unlit torch which was hanging by the stairway and snapped his fingers over it, lighting it up with a small flame.
"Flaze, come with me. The rest of you stay outside."
Vandrin continued his way down until he made it to the bottom of the stairs which led to a room. "It's still to dark, light up the torches on the wall." The mutant scaled along the walls, lighting each torch in a similar motion as he did last time. As the torches began to light, a small altar with a stone tablet on it was revealed.
"My, my. What do we have here?" Vandrin said to himself as he stepped towards the altar. "An ancient tablet written in old Terianian." Vandrin was quite an educated person; he found much interest in ancient history and studied a few old languages. Vandrin then scanned his finger across the ancient text as he read. "White Chimera...people broke off to several different groups...only few of original remain..." He then stopped reading. "This looks more like a diary entry rather than a religious tablet." He picked up the tablet. "Who writes a diary on a stone tablet?"
--- ---
"High General Goruss!" General Ssobra (small Mage lizard) said entering a room with Gorus on a large bed, with several female Lizard Men.
"Make it quick. Ssobra. I'm busy!" Gorus grumbled.
"The mountain basse is almosst fully repaired."
"Almost isn't done. Now get out of here!"
"Wait, that'ss not the main reasson I'm here!"
Gorus sat up began to growl.
"Umm, well that half demon that came here. Jaysse's legion ssays they have had a few troubless with demonss aiding Tjed. He has reassonss to belive that one of them might be the one that attack uss earlier."
"Really?" Gorus sat back down and rubbed his lower jaw. "Leave me."
The female lizard man then got up. "No, not you, Ssobra."
Ssobra rolled his eyes. "But ssir, we can't just let him get away."
"Ssobra, I actually already knew he was going to Tjed. I sensed his aura going towards their. In fact I already have one of my ships going to Tjed to help in battle."
"Don't you want to go there yoursself?" Ssobra asked.
"No not really. Lately we've been having trouble with the Vandrin County. Apparently that egotist Vandrin thinks he has more power than Empire. He's not even as big as Kandarin for Gaia's sake. Anyways, leave Ssobra."
Ssbra then turned to leave the room.
"Oh wait, actually one last thing, Ssobra. Make sure Retan hears the news that there have been a few sightings of Aspye Revolutionary flags, with the black, grey and the red and all that..."
"Yess ssir..."
-
Druid stood up and straightened his cloak.
"You heard the man boys."
As Druid said this three shadow warriors flowed off of the wall and took on their form as his warriors. They had the shape of very skilled and fit warriors. Their black bodies terrifyingly dark. The type of darkness that destroys souls. The red pulse was very dark and slow. When they got excited, angry or had a blood lust it speed up and became very erratic. It also changed in colour to look more like blood. These creatures were born and bred to kill. Druid knew denying them this was cruel, and he was more than happy to allow them to run free causing hell on earth. Druid picked up his staff and balanced it in his out stretched hand. he then pulled the gem out of the staff and rested it in his other hand. He then snapped the staff in half.
Back in his own dimension we never used a staff. But when he was attacked by Silas and the other traitors he put some of his energy into the staff. In case Silas stole his powers he could reclaim some of it, or if he was transported somewhere (like he was) he would probably be safer if he didn't have all his powers, in case he blew up where ever he landed. You know somehting like that.
Druid tossed the broken staff on the ground and focused his attention on the gem. This is where his powers were and he wanted them back. The gem started to glow and then it spread to the rest of his body. The gem then was absorbed into his hand and he was re-united with the rest of his powers. Druid took a few deep breaths and then turned to his warriors. They stood ready for any order their leader gave.
"He wants destruction, lets give him some!"
Druid then turned and walked after Jayce, his warriors following closely.
---
"Alright Wilham, lets hear it" Coriko said to the two new arrivals.
-
With Duillin following closely behind, Fernis hurried to the place in the cave used a supply storage room. She dug a tiny hole in the center of the room and placed the sheath on it, allowing it to stand.
She carefully backed away from the sheath and took a deep breath.
Alright...
But I guess I should give him a little more information first.
He must be confused out of his wits.
She turned to Duillin, and suddenly remembered she had not introduced herself to him yet.
"I am... Indher, the runemaster. Call me Lerfina, if you like." she began what seemed to be a lecture with a most serious tone.
"I will spare you the smaller details, but I believe you should know...
I am the one responsible for Iduran's appearance here. I attempted his complete resurrection, but there were many things I did not expect. For one, I did not expect his very being to shatter within a day and be absorbed into the nearest foreign object. Second, I did not expect him to drag me all the way to Tjed. In other words, I'm helping the soldiers of Tjed because it's Iduran's will, not mine. Which brings me to what I have brought you and him, mostly him, here for..."
She turned to the sheath, standing stiff on the ground like an altar.
"My business with Iduran is not finished, and so I've made this. In theory, it should allow him to communicate with us if you place him into it..."
Fernis shrugged. The runes didn't exactly let Iduran speak as he pleases. She didn't know any other way, so she made a series of runes that lock onto a consciousness and translate it's thoughts into sound. Of course, having been a soul for a while, Iduran should have mastered thought-control, but there was still a risk of invoking an Iduran who is simply unable to shut up...
-----
Kerig was somewhat startled.
The response seemed too... Simple.
"Umm, hello..." he said in response "We have been looking for, uh, you, for about a week now..."
"That was aYEAR you boot-brain" Weloss reminded him.
"I-I mean year! Right!" Kerig corrected himself and continued.
"You see, my little friend here..."
Weloss pointed out to Kerig that he was huge, but Kerig decided to ignore that one mistake.
"...Claims that you, uh, mister Crow-Nose, have the power to get a certain thingy..."
Weloss angrily told Kerig to call it 'Etherium', as 'thingy' sounds stupid.
"...A thingy he calls 'ethnenyum' or something like that, from souls, and uh, if you get it..."
Weloss urged Kerig to use the word 'power', even though he was hesitant.
"...If you get it for us, we, uh, will let you use our new power as you please..."
Kerig paused to sigh.
"He just wants to use the power, he doesn't really care how, and frankly, I think accesing the physical realm when you are indestructable is pretty rude..."
This was another one of those times Weloss would have sighed, had he been able to.
"That was the most pathetic speech I've heared during my eternal and boring existence." He told Kerig with a tone of disappointment.
-----
After several houres of travel, Iskatyl reached a fork in the road. Looking in the distance, one road seemed to lead to shore, while the other seemed to lead towards a mountain.
After a minute of standing and thinking, Iskatyl decided to head towards the mountain, since there are bound to be more people inland, and hence, there was a greater chance to run into Eranor...
Iskatyl began to quitly and clamly walk towards the mountain, not knowing about the attack of the lizards and that which awaits him...
-----
Having easily ended the story of another family of farmers, this time without burning anything, Zakon enjoyed the calming sound of his own, steady steps on the damp grass.
He walked and walked, staring at the moon as he slowly licked the blood off his knife.
Which direction was he walking now? He didn't notice, nor did he care.
However, something seemed to be getting on his nerves, even though the night was peaceful.
Yes, while the night was peaceful on the outside, deep within Zakon, an argument was taking place...
Someone claimed that cheese is irrelevant to pitfalls, someone else laughed at him, and another claimed that one by the name of "third person" was lying and should be hanged as soon as he recieves his neck for his eighteenth birthday.
These arguments, though not uncommon, greatly annoyed Zakon. He repeatedly told them to shut up, and they did...
For about ten seconds.
The voices then continued to chat about roses, violins, cooked rice, bubbles, clouds, frogs...
And various other irrelevant subjects.
Zakon was especially annoyed when one of the voices suggested him to be renamed "Moza'ovolkillaz", and almost attempted to stab the voice, but then he was reminded that he would have to split his own head open to do that.
The voice that suggested the name apoligized, and suggested the name "Mastah OVCHEEZ", and upon not recieving any response what-so-ever, it finally decided to shut up.
BANG! Zakon's concentration on shutting up the foolish voices in his head has led him to running face-first into a boulder.
Annoyed even more at this turn of events, Zakon split the boulder open, and sat down on one of the formed halves.
It was time for a rest.
-
//2nd post. Hope it's not too bad... heh.\
Floating. He could only feel a strange floating sensation. Then, a tingling feeling started creeping up his arms. In a matter of seconds, it was over….
Jareth opened his eyes, and found himself sitting on the cave floor. How did I end up here? He thought, looking around. The torch on the wall was lit.
“You…. *cough* did well. *cough* At least…. You still knew your… *cough* limits and sheathed the sword, boy… *cough*” Came a rough voice.
Jareth looked in the direction the sound came from. There, propped up against the cave wall, was Tysid. But something was wrong. He looked… different. Then he spotted it. There was a large gash across Tysid’s chest, and his left arm was disconnected, lying on the ground in front of him. Blood covered Tysid, and the floor around him. Light danced off of the crimson puddles, and the blood glowed faintly. I knew he wasn’t human. Jareth tried to stand and felt a sharp stab of pain in his left leg. Looking closer, he noticed he had a small cut across his leg. It must have been an intense battle.
“What happened, old man?” Jareth asked, using the cave wall behind him to help him stand.
“The power over whelmed you… *cough* this power… you must *cough* you must use it… under stand it… *cough* and you will find your past… and more. Leave me. You have passed my final test.” Tysid said, in a calm voice.
Suddenly there was a loud scraping sound. Cave dwellers. Grotesque things that are attracted to blood. The have small bodies, and skin made as tough as rock. Most are naked, and they all have very good sight in the dark. They eat anything that’s meat, alive or dead.
Jareth could tell Tysid was struggling with the pain. “I just can’t leave you here, to die! The cave dwellers will eat you!”
“GO!” Tysid’s voice boomed. Tysid reached out, chanting something like an incantation. The light flickered out. Jareth felt a pull, as was suddenly ripped backwards, in to the depths of the cave.
-
Zeros' shifted himself, Allen walking along with him. He stared over at the old man, sighing and glancing around. They were in the middle of Tjed now, which was realtiviely undamage, althought shaken by the assault.
"Allen?" Zeros' inquired, worried about the old alchemist. Allen blinked and turned his head towards Zeros'.
"Hrm? What's is it?" he asked, wiping his forehead and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Are you *sure* you're ok?" he asked, worried about the other mans health. Zeros' glanced around, the streets deserted, thanks to the attacks. All the windows were boarded up, closed tight and it didn't look like they'd be open anytime soon.
Allen nodded. "I'm sure. Don't worry about me," he said quietly and breathed in and out, abit heavily. Zeros' sighed and nodded, continuing his walk forwards, the old man accompanying him. He knew about the tunnels that Ven and Duilin were in, but he didn't think it'd be best for Allen to talk that way.
"If you say so..."
-
//I'm assuming Kronos was talking to me...
"M'Lord, Is there anything I can assist you with? Or do you want me to return to you?" Nick sent another telepathic message.
---
"Well Drew, What is your say in this matter?"
"I was thinking of going towards the stronger of the Empires." Drew folded his arms. It made the insigna on his shoulder more out there. "I say we should set up a meeting with one of them soon..."
The crowd made a clammor...
-
"Lerfina, alright." Duilin replied upon her greeting. "So I'd finally be able to talk to him again eh?" Duilin thought for a bit. That would be interesting, it would almost be like having Iduran with the group again.
"So it a sheath for the sword as well? I assume it'd be fine if I used it. I've got another weapon that's even bigger which I've actually enjoyed using." Duilin stated. He almost felt like a weapon hog, I mean he had two majestic weapons, then again Zeros' had that Demonic/Angelic sword, which was comparable to this one, and it could change so maybe it would count as two weapons. Also Xenai and Zion had those metal beasts that transformed from those crazy-big swords.
"So yeah, anyways. Sure, let's try it out." Duilin said holding out The Iduran. "Oh, uh, by the way. Sorry about what I said earlier...I've just, um, been kind of stressed ever since I transformed into that big demon form. I've never had that happen before, so it was kind of mind scrambling..."
Duilin took the sheath, and strapped it around him. He then slid the majestic blade into the sheath...
---
"With Zeros' and Duilin here I'm sure they won't let anything happen. They're amazing fighters." Rink assured Ven. "But perhaps it would be wise to better the defences here. Is their anyway we can quickly increase the fortification of this place?"
--- ---
Wilham sat down and clasped his hands. "Well, I'm going to share with you some lost ancient history. You see about 1,000 years ago, before the years were even recorded, most of Terian was populated with a vast and flourished republic. A group of summoners, known as the White Chimera were guardians of this republic, and keepers of global peace. They constructed several small temples across the continent, where they stored tablets recording our history, and teachings of our code and magic. The White Chimera had many people with them and admiring us."
"However like all groups, they had their problems. They had corruption, people didn't agree with their leaders so...they broke off, into the Black Dragon, who eventually went corrupt into an assassination group. They in fact were the ones who began to break the White Chimera down, and kill off their leaders. They forced them to then split apart. A few people suggested an interesting and creative way to do this. Since the group of traitors chose to name themselves the 'Black Dragon', the White Chimera chose to make it look like this happened again but several times. They based their new groups off of what happens when you split the color of white light. The groups were..."
"The Red Cyclops, the Orange Wasp, the Yellow Albatrash, the Green Serpent, the Blue Minotaur and the Purple Nymph..."
Marshall gave a wide look of interest. "Yes...that must explain the close similarity between Blue Minotaur and the Red Cyclops. But why did some of the new groups go corrupt?"
"It's just how time goes. Nations can change a lot over a thousand year period." Wilham replied. "But as you may have already guess as I was telling the story. I am part of the remnant of the White Chimera. You see some of us stood with the main group and build a secret hideout on a remote south-western island, which has by now been flooded over with water."
"How could you have survived so long indoors, without proper resources?" Firstman asked.
"Not only did the White Chimera practice summoning magic, but many of us practiced other arts, such as alchemy. We have plenty of stone and sand, which our most skilled alchemists can transform into the resources we need."
"Amazing." Marshall commented, just amazing. "But, one question remains. How did you get from their to here, teleportation, magical underwater-breathing?"
"No, actually. Teleportation can be dangerous if you don't know what the land is like, and nobody has enough mana to maintain breathing, protect against the extreme temperatures, and defend themselves against the sea creatures. We got here by building submersible ships."
"You mean boats that can go under-water?" Firstman asked. "How is that possible?"
"Well, people have made boats that can go in the air. So why not?"
Wilham grinned. "Anyways. Now that I have explained this to you, I want to explain why I am here. You see we have been studying the surface for the past few years, to learn about the current events and learn your new language. We have noticed these empires have enslaved Gaian. We dislike this, and we believe that it is time for us to rise and help overthrow them. We've been watching your liberty revolution, the Aspyes and we like your style. We want to help you. But first we need you to help us."
"With what?" Marshall asked.
"A couple people in this Kandarinian Sovereignty may have discovered us. We need to make sure we aren't found out, else we will defiantly be overthrown."
"How, you're underwater." Firstman replied.
"If we can travel in great distances underwater, than so can today’s nations. What we need to do is travel across Terian and remove tablets from our old temples. As we went to retreat some planning on our movement to the new location may have been left over. So, will you help me do this?"
-
Virmir silently strode into the dimly lit room, surrounded by the blue iridescent hue, and bowed lowly in the central circle, holding the cloth wrapped cylinder to his left side. Though his ears were laid back, the Velken refused to show a hint of fear, his icy eyes focused upon the ground.
Retan remained seated with his back turned to the silver furred fox.
"Virmir."
"Yes, my Lord."
"I have selected your race because of its impeccable speed and precision."
Virmir did not move. Retan continued.
"Yet, I am displeased with the amount of time it has taken you to perform your task..."
Virmir twitched slightly.
"My apologies, my Lord. One of my men was wounded, and we were diverted for a short while."
The chair began to spin around slowly.
"Need I remind you that if not for my intervention, not a single one of your kind would be alive? That it is by my grace and generosity that you and every single one of your men breathes? That your very home world still exists?"
"... No, my Lord. This we all know and are eternally grateful for..."
Retan's burning eyes narrowed.
"The life of one of your men is insignificant. Your priority remains the mission. Always. Should your men die, more will be fetched from your homeland and they will be replaced. It is that simple. Is that clear?"
Virmir shut his eyes tightly as he listened to the Dark Emperor's words. They seemed to hang in the air, the echo pounding in his ears for a moment after they were spoken. Finally Virmir responded.
"... Yes, my Lord..."
Retan rose to his feet, his black cape flowing behind him.
"Excellent. Return to me what is mine."
On both knees, Virmir took the cloth-wrapped cylinder in his claws and held it above his head, as if making an offering to a god. Suddenly the object floated into the air and towards the Dark Emperor. As it did the cloth fell off, revealing a brilliant long spear...
... with a fiercely glowing blue gem just under the blade...
A dark aura seemed to flow around the weapon and stab at Retan's gauntlet as he plucked it out of the air. Retan snapped the fingers of his other hand, and immediately the aura shattered like a pane of glass, the gem growing dim.
"Excellent..."
Retan released the spear and allowed it to float in the air, rotating around him. Along with the other weapon. The sword with the red gem in the hilt...
----
Renard narrowed his eyes slightly. Why are so many people after Duilin? What could the winged human have done? She obviously wanted to kill him, as she was with that mercenary. It made his fur bristle just thinking about it.
"Sorry. I don't have any idea where he is," he said as he shrugged slightly.
In truth, he really didn't have any clue. The two had parted ways with few words, and Renard suspected the man was upset with him, since the fox had not mentioned the fact that he was a specialist mage in the Dark Empire...
----
The outer cabin doors atop the Jagahn flew open. Jayce stormed onto the deck, an entourage of lizards following. He'd had enough. If you want something done right...
With a mighty leap he bounded straight off of the ship, flying high into the night sky as a black aura engulfed him. He soured over the hundreds of tiny boats filled with Lizard Men below, parting the waves as he flew. He gritted his teeth as Kesnar came into view just past the sandy beach, a blackness concentrating among both his clenched fists...
And the winds began to pick up...
----
Ven chuckled slightly at the lizard Jacobie's premonition. He must still be woozy, under the effects of the medication, he thought.
But that did not change the fact that there still was something very bad headed their way. Very bad indeed. Ven broke into a light jog, his metallic boots clanking upon the cavernous floors as he headed back to the main stretch of tunnel.
"Look alive, folks! They're coming!"
At this, the knights began to scamper around, climbing up into little nooks and crannies amongst the walls so that they might get a jump upon their adversaries. Traps were set up. Wooden thresholds that would spill rocks from the ceiling with the pull of a rope. It wasn't much, but they needed every little bit they could grab...
-
-----------------------------------------------
"We're here!" Jelka yelled to the others. The night air was damp and silent; the smell of blood drifted through the air like a dark shroud. Everyone in the airship jumped out as Jelka landed on a peak near a cave.
"I know the way from here," Ben stated, "Follow me, and stay close. I can fell something strange..." Ben entered the cave and lead the party through a bunch of twists and turns along the black caverns. Orange tourch-light glimmered off of the party's armor. Ahead, they could hear clanks of metal scraping the ground.
"The souldiers are ahead!" Justin called out, "Unsheath your weapons!" Another scraping of metal echoed against the walls as the party readied their weapons. They all broke out into a sprint until each of them came upon Jacobie and Ven, standing in the middle of the cave.
"You..." Jacobie looked at Justin, "The soul... of my lord... I will not let you fall, my lord!" Jacobie Unsheathed his katanas at a blazing fast speed. Something about Justin made the Lizard snap back into reality.
As he rushed to the front of the army in the cave, a weird, dark purple glow emmited off his crimson armor. It seemed as if nothing would be able to stand against him... not even Retan himself...
-----------------------------------------------
-
Druid watched as Jayce took off. What arrogance he thought as he looked around at the crew. All viscious looking and yet Jayce goes solo. Druid ran to the edge of the ship and lunged over the edge. His warriors sprinted after him. Druid free fell for a moment and then a blast of shadow energy propelled him up into the sky. Jayce came into view and Druid flew faster. The warriors hovered over the edge as Druid fell and then followed after him when he launched upwards. The red pulse quickened because they knew something was coming, something big.
---
Coriko listened to Wilham's story. It was a little far fetched, but still in the realm of belief.
"You know what, I'm in. I mean so far these missions haven't ben much of a challenge. What do you say Marshall? A real chance to test or abilities."
Coriko looked over at Marshall looking for reassurance. He didn't want to do this with out him. Coriko enjoyed working with Marshall. He could depend on him in a tight spot, and going at this with out Marshall was not going to end well.
"Well, what do you think Marshall?"
-
-"Nicholas, come to the southeasternmost corner of the Dark Continent. Once you are there, rally everyone to one location. I will be coming to pick you up shortly."
I opened my eyes, closing the telepathic channel. For now, I will need all the help I can get. First, though, a good means of sea transportation needs to be created. I believe I know just the thing.
-"Hannibal! Come here."
Hannibal Roth, a tall blonde man, was instructing some soldiers nearby. Once he heard his name, he rushed over to me.
-"Yes, sir?"
-"As soon as Damien arrives, I'll need the two of you to go and find me a nice big carcass. Considering your brother's specialization, I don't imagine that to be too hard for you."
-"Air magic, sir?"
-"Precisely. The carcass should be large enough to house... I don't know... about 3-4 thousand people."
-"That's a large carcass, sir."
-"Be a problem solver, Hannibal. Find two smaller ones."
-"Yes, sir."
Hannibal returned to the soldiers, muttering something under his breath. Now, to the matters more at hand...
-"Etherium, huh. The soul fabric. That's quite a lot you're asking for. What might this new power be? Would I have an application for it that would be handy in my situation? Such as, say, instant, unbound, unlimited teleportation of five thousand people from one side of the planet to the other?"
-
//Haha! Nice one Ein!\
"Well, actually this doesn't seem like too much of a challenge to be honest. Then again it does seem rather peaceful, and I could use a good hike." Marshall replied. "So yeah, let's do it."
"Ah, hell I'm in too." Firstman grinned. "I've gotten enough rest."
"Excellent. But there is one thing, we were only able to figure out the general locations of where the temples were, and secondly, some of them seem rather dangerous locations." Wilham explains. He then reaches into a pocket in his robe and removes a scroll of paper with a map on it.
(http://http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/1231/wctemplemapqn6.gif)
"Well, one of those places is actually not to far away from here." Firstman said, pointed at one of the marked spots (the blue one).
"Wait, hand me that map." Marshall said, taking the map. "Actually, I think this is it."
"You sure?" Firstman asked.
"Yeah." Marshall answered. "I mean, this place is mostly just an upgrade from a former underground bunker."
"Then we're a quarter done." Wilham said.
"Don't we need to find the tablet?" Marshall asked.
"I'd be nice. But that’s not important. Maybe Kropotkin can look for it."
"You know." Kropotkin began. "I think there may be a few crates of stuff we found here, when we discovered the place. I'll go look for it, in the mean time. You kids go off, and find the rest of the spots."
"We'd best start with this place then." Marshall suggested pointing to the red dot.
--- ---
Vandrin had returned back to his castle, he was talking to one of his servants, as he usually does.
"So apparently the tablet is from an ancient group of guardians known as the White Chimera. It mentions a little bit about the group moving towards a southern island." Vandrin told.
"Yes, lord Vandrin. Very interesting, Lord Vandrin." He said, as he adjusted his lord's suit.
"I find this rather interesting. I've uncovered a piece of lost ancient history. This could make met quite famous, and perhaps improve my already great image." Vandrin said sounding rather snootie.
"Lord Vandrin!" Called one of his messengers entering the room.
"Do you always have to yell whenever you enter a room!?" Vandrin shouted.
"Sorry, my lord. I just like to make a notably entrance."
"Well nobody cares about your entrance, you're lowly messenger. Nobody cares about messengers. They care about important people, important people like me!"
"Sorry, my lord. Anyways, I have an important message from Kronos, Marshal of Kandarin."
"Oh yes, I was wondering about him. I heard he got killed by a gaint metal dog wearing a hood, or something like that."
The messenger handed him the note.
"Well, yes of cource I'm still loyal to him." Vandrin said, as he read. "Sign over to the Dark Empire! To Qor with that!" Vandrin tossed away the note. "That damn empire has been on my nerves for the past year. I favour Kandarin over them."
"But my lord. If we don't then we may be in threat of a large attack." The servant warned. "You have any idea how strong the Dark Empire is. Starting a war with them would be suicide."
"Pah! Their febble dark side is no match for my skills!" Vandrin sneered wile pointing towards himself.
--- ---
"I hope Zeros' and Duilin hurry back." Rink said, giving a deep breath.
Lagart tightened his grip on the Talonscar Mace. Rink thought it looked a bit odd not being used by Duilin, but it was a mean weapon and it was good that at least somebody was using it.
"Hey boys, sorry about the delay..." Said the voice of an old man.
"Goldolf." Lagart called seeing the old drow enter.
"Had a bit of a scuffle earlier, but I'm still breathin’." He coughed a bit. "Don't know for how long though."
"Are you hurt?" Rink asked in concern for the stranger.
"Nah, I'm just old. It was joke...Hey what the heck are you anyways?" Goldolf said looking at the imp.
"I'm Rink, an imp."
Goldolf rolled his eyes. "First lizards, then demons now imps what next? Angels!?"
--- ---
"It's uhh..." Duilin said looking at the sword in the sheath. "Not working..." He looked at Lerfina "You sure you did everything right? I mean--"
Suddenly he heard a rumbling throughout the cave. "Damnit, looks like they're coming. Lerfina, you going to help? Because I'm gonna go."
Regardless of her answer Duilin dashed off towards where Ven and the others had grouped...
-
//Note: The spelling mistakes in Kerig's post are all done on purpose\
Kerig was quite confused at all this.
Weloss was expecting this, however.
He began explaining to Kerig what he should tell to the lich, but on the outside, it seemed as if Kerig paused to think.
"Err..." Kerig began his attempt to explain "Well, tepwerorteshon is not our forte..."
He looked left and right, as if thinking to himself for yet another moment.
"But if you can cast a normal tereplot spell, then, umm, we could simply lend you our raw energy... Except I don't know how to tranfer it to other people... Well, if Weloss gets enough erthyum, I guess he could somehow create a way for us to share it... I mean, we DO have enough to traspnort at least quadruple, if not more, of the amount you asked for, but most of it is stuck at pure spirit phase... I mean sure, the Etheyurm would remedy the probelm, but even if you seperate a hunwed souls from ther bodies, We could still only barely acess a little more than a single percent of Weloss' engery..."
Kerig suddenly realized he had been talking for a while about the teleportation thing, rather than getting to the point of the power.
"Or, well, he can just fuse with a person or object to make it indersuctable and maybe add a few extra celsetial body parts...That was the orignial idea, anyway..."
Weloss seemed to be disappointed again.
"The more you talk, the more you get tongue-tied, you know?"
-----
Fernis sighed. No, she wasn't going to go. The last thing she wanted was to openly oppose the dark empire. Now, the lizards from before were not a problem, since they were few.
They perished quickly, and even if they did remember her, they wouldn't have lived to tell their commanders the tale.
This, however, was different. There were many lizardmen out there, and if even one tells about her to his commander, her freedom will come to an end.
She hurried out of the room, grabbed the confused Elphos on her way and headed for the back exist, the one leading to Tjed's capital.
-----
Iskatyl was quite surprised as he saw a band of lizardman dash towards the mountain.
He thought it was an odd day for mountain climbing, and continued aloing the road.
During his walk, he went by two houses. One contained dead bodies, and the other one, which was burnt to a crisp, contained nothing but charred bones.
Knowing he was on the right track, he pressed on.
-----
Zakon was surprised enough by the band of lizards dashing into the cave, right in front of his face, not noticing him, to suddenly ignore the voices in his head.
How interesting. What an odd day it is for a band of armed green men to go cave-exploring.
He chuckled and waited until the last of the lizardmen entered the cave, and then leapt from his location and split the last lizard to enter the cave in two.
The lizard didn't even let out a single cry as it's upper body fell forward. It's lower body shortly followed.
He safely landed behind a whole rock, large enough for the other lizards not to notice him unless they approach.
Sure, this wasn't as fun as, say, slaying a squirming pig, but it would serve as a fine dessert from him after the two farmhouses he dealt with.
He inserted his pinky into his mouth in anticipation.
-
-----------------------------------------------
"What have you to tell me, my apprentice? What news have you? And what of the shade you sent; did it's job, then?"
"Not quite, m'lord. He was unable to stop my brother. I told you, I need much more training before I can match his strength!"
"NOT WITH THAT ATTITUDE!!!" Valimore stood up from his throne and lifted his arm towards Draconis' neck, slowly lifting him upwards by the throat, strangling him. "If your next two plans don't get me a dead lizard, I won't let go!" Valimore relaesed his grip and flung his arm outwards, sending Draconis flying off to the side, hitting a wall with great force.
"*cough* I'm sorry *cough* m'lord! It shall not happen again. I promise!"
"It had better not... Bring forth the creature... I wish to speak with him about his fickled 'single-god' belief. NOW!!!" Draconis raced towards the back of the throne down a trap door, pulling a keychain out of his robe pocket. He picked out a golden key and climbed down the ladder to the trap door, opening a cell next to it. Inside ravaged a red-skinned demon with two great horns and fangs.
"RREEEAAAGGHHHH!!! WHO IS IT THAT WISHES TO SPEAK WITH ME, MORTAL!?!?!?"
"My lord seeks an audience with you. It's very improtant, so shape up, you foul creature. MOVE!!!" Draconis and this strange demon climbed up the ladder and out the trap door. As Draconis closed it, he placed the keychain back in his robe pocket.
"WHAT NOW, VALIMORE? I TIRE OF THIS, I HOPE YOU KNOW..."
"Yes, I know very well. As do I, Grogg. I just wanted to let you know that your 'god' still sleeps. His angelic form, however, is about to ruin everything! Is there any way you can awaken his so-called 'god form' so that he is distracted?"
"I'M AFRAID I CANNOT DO THAT, VALIMORE. YOU SEE, THERE IS A PROPHECY THAT TWO LOYAL SERVENTS FROM DRANNIVILLE WILL AWAKEN HIS TEMPLE DEEP WITHIN GAIAN. HOWEVER, I AM NOT FROM DRANNIVILLE, THEREFORE I DO NOT FIT THE PROPHECY."
"I can't believe you! You've been no help at all! If I didn't know better, I's say you're keeping close to the vest... but I cannot just let you alone... If I did that, your father would surely kill me. He is probably the only one in this world I fear... except one other. But that does not matter. What does is the fact that you are of no use at this time. Perhapse I may call upon your services again to locate the ones from this 'prophecy' of which you speak. Until then, back to the cells with you. Draconis!!!"
"I'm on it, m'lord! Back down the door, demon!"
-----------------------------------------------
-
The burly Jayce touched down in front of the ruined walls of Kesnar, pounding a crater two feet deep into the sandy beach as he aura dispersed, though a thin veil of blackness remained about his huge form.
Behind him the lizards landed, hundreds upon hundreds, rushing into the doomed city with hissing war cries. The walls were completely overrun within moments...
Yet there was no one there...
"Hsa... my Master... the humanss of Tjed have fled. They have abandoned their city..." a larger armored Lizard spoke. He was taller than the High General and hung over him, though there was still a timidness within his demeanor.
"I can see that, wretch."
Jayce pushed over a crumbling section of wall with his left hand as he stepped into the city proper.
"Find them! Find them now!!"
Lizards scampered about, ducking this way and that at the dark Draken's orders. Kesnar was entirely swarmed by the scaly men, and the streets packed nearly shoulder-to-shoulder. Jayce pointed to a group coming in behind him, then to the buildings before him.
"Torch it."
Windows were shattered and burning torches thrown in. Within a few moments a few houses were up in flames, and the fire began to rapidly spread...
----
Near the outskirts of the abandoned city, a reptilian officer thought he saw some movement to the north, although his eyes weren't well suited to the dark. A small scouting party returned shortly.
"Cavessss. There'ss cavess up there..."
"Hiding placess... inform the High General at once!"
----
Ven's sword was out in a flash, and it began to glow a bright white, bathing the dark cave in a soft glow.
"Blast it! Who are these guys?"
They certainly didn't look like members of the Dark Empire. This was a bad turn of events... They couldn't afford to wear themselves down fighting unknown enemies before the lizards even arrived! Still, they had no choice but to defend themselves.
With a rush, some fifteen knights charged though the tunnel behind Ven and Jacobie, rushing to meet the mysterious attackers.
"HYAAAAHHH!!!"
Ven split the air in a diagonal slash, sending forth a crescent shaped surge of wind at his unknown adversaries...
-
Along with the group of knights Lagart was with them (so 15 knights plus Lagart). The burly Lizard Man would ready to strike once they charged forward...
Duilin arrived at the scene, and was on the opposite side of as Ven and Jacobie were; therefore he was behind the new coming enemies.
"Who are these guys?" Duilin questioned. "Why must so many people want to attack us?" He groaned. Not yet ready to try out The Iduran he opened his hands and pointed them towards the unknown foes, two bolts of lightning then shot towards them...
--- ---
One of the ships began to spawn out more shoreline boats filled with Lizard Men, they bared the symbol of the Dark Empire. However their colours were Dark Green, indicating they were part of Gorus Van'deln's forces.
A group of Lizards arrived into Kensar. It was lead by a lizard man with slightly dark bluish hue to his skin. He wore metal shoulder and kneepads, over his simple black clothing. He was brandishing a large sabre.
"Greetings Prince Jayce." The blue skinned lizard man said, with a tone of limited respect in his voice. "I am General Xarn. High General Gorus has sent us here, to hunt down a criminal as well assist you in your attack, with Retan's permission of course. If you don't want to fully co-operate then don't get in my way and we won't get in yours." Just before he turned away he spoke again. "The criminal has been identified as a half demon that goes only by the name of Zeros'. We have reason to believe you are an acquaintance with him..."
-
-"KHAKH! KHAKH! Extra body parts? That's MY forte, child!"
Just then, I heard the whole sentence.
-"Wait, did you say... indestructible? Now THAT is interesting... Hmm......."
Still, though, I'd need some way to transport all those people from the Continent to... someplace else... Damien could... yes, a conduit... Kronos, you have the mind of a genius.
-"Well then, the pact is sealed. Here."
I threw Kerig the soultrap amulet containing de Sade's essence.
-"That's a good two hundred souls for you right there. That guy sure knew his magic... though in the end, as you must understand, that was his downfall. You go run and play somewhere else, while I need to do some important... business... yes... Anyways, tell your friend that he can have the amulet if he helps me out with a few rather annoying problems... Otherwise, you'll have to, ah, give it back..."
A loud thunder crash behind me interrupted my chain of thoughts. Grand, Damien makes a flashy entrance as usual. Another thunder crash informed me that he and Hannibal departed to search for that carcass I requested.
-"Am I talking too fast for you, child?"
-
"Stop! We've come to help! Ugh, what does it matter, I have to stop it." Ben ran forwards infront of the group and grabbed at the slash Ven made with his sword. He dragged it around the air and flung it around, disentigrating it into tiny pieces.
Jackie and Jelka held their arms out and countered the bolts of lightening with a combined, super-strong wind blast. The blast swarmed around the bolts of lightening and absorbed the power from them, disolving into thin air.
"HYAAAH!!!" Justin raced forwards at a blazing speed, passing around the knights, avoiding each of their swords and blocking all attacks thrown towards him.
"Justin, no," Ben called out, "Those are 'our' troops! They're allies, you idiot! Go past them to the Lizards!"
"What do you think I'm trying to do!? They came at me! Am I supposed to let them kill me, is that what you're saying?"
Jacobie sheathed one katana and held Ven back with his free hand. "These are my friends! They mean you or any of us no harm; they'll help us defeat the enemies ahead!" He let his katana back out of it's sheath and ran to stop the knights and Justin from fighting each other.
-
Kerig easily cought the amulet.
"Err, no, Mister Crow-Nose..."
He turned to look at the amulet...
"So, can we use this?" He said out loud to himself more than anything.
"No! You imbecile, will you just let me speak to him myself!?" Weloss was apperantly running out of patience.
"Fine, fine...Talk to him yourself..." Kerig sighed as he placed his free hand on his face, hiding one of his eyes between his fingers.
His eyes slowly closed, as he was apperantly putting himself to sleep.
But just as they closed tight, the eye not hidden between the fingers opened wide, and it was blood red.
His facial expression suddenly changed into a bloodthirsty, furious one.
He sharply removed the hand from his face, leaving one eye closed.
"Look, this is stupid!" he said angrily, waving the hand holding the amulet.
"This contains spell power, not a soul! You saw him... He still talked back to you AFTER you filled this amulet with his power!"
He stepped forward, his foot sinking into the soil despite it being rock-hard.
"You see... Your made a common misconception by dwellers of the physical realm... Etherium is not the only thing forming a soul... It is what BINDS it to it's physical form! In other words, it's the only material which is both physical and astral! Now tell me, would a man who lost the connection with his body be able to use it to talk back!?"
He didn't wait for the answer.
"No! He wouldn't! Sure, etherium's 'glow' is like a sun to your spirit sensing... It makes the rest of the soul pale in comparison, so you think only etherium is there... But for fact, it's not! What I need is to assimilate..."
Suddenly, with his free hand, he grabbed his face again and closed his open eye, as if in pain.
"Don't be..." his voice seemed to return to it's regular tone "...so...rude..."
//Meh, will do the others later...\
-
"Are you sure my friend?" Ophelia asked Renard. "He didn't say anything."
"Maybe he lie. Perhaps he want to keep half demon safe." Rufokanno stated.
"Shut it." Opehlia sneered. "You sure, he didn't hint at anything? Did you see which direction he went too when he left?"
--- ---
Marshall and the gang make their way west to find the next temple.
"So, any idea where this temple would be around?" Firstman asked.
"Well..." Marshall said looking at the map. "It should be around the ruins of Bandervil."
"Woo...isn't that where Haraldur defeated Abodahon and the Grey Empire?" Firstman asked. "I heard Haraldur made this HUGE explosion and turned the entire fortress into dust."
"That's impossible." Wilham said. "Nobody has that much power in a single attack. It's just not logical. It would have taken him all day to make a blast so powerfull it would destroy an entire fortress. They would have taken him down before he could have fired the attack."
"Oh..." Marshall began. "Haraldur, he was beyond impossible..."
"Was?" Wilham asked.
"Yes, sadly that was also where he died. It's rumoured that he died in an attempt to kill both Abodahon and Melkoth in one strike. He succeeded...but...well you know." Firstman explained.
"Actually, I think what happened is that he allowed himself to die, so he could start a revolution in the netherworld." Marshall replied.
"I don't doubt Haraldur's motivation and abilities..." Firstman said "But I hear it's impossible for somebody to be free in the netherworld. The Dark God of Hell's powers are limitless, even compared to Haraldur's, in the netherworld. He'd never be able to pull it off."
"I just like to keep my hopes up. Some day, he will return." Marshall said with hope.
"So uh, how long until we get there?" Wilham asked.
"At this rate, it'll be awhile, actually. Maybe a day or two, heh." Marshall chuckled. "It'd be best if we had a ride. Want me to summon up some Wyverns?"
"No, I'll take care of it...." Wilham responded. He held out his gauntlet and spewed out a large fog of white mist, which began to take form. "Something we can ALL ride on..."
-
Renard's ears laid back and he touched the ends of his claws together. Half demon?
"Well, I-uh..."
"Hey, look. He said he doesn't know," Helix quickly interjected from the side. The slightly taller and lankier sliver fox pressed his way in between Renard and Ophelia.
"We found the poor kid beat half to death. I'm surprised he remembers his own name. Now if you don't mind, we're kinda busy here."
Helix flicked his tail once and gave Ophelia a sort of sneer, while waving his right claw in a 'shoo'-ing motion.
----
Jayce turned and growled at the newcomer General Xarn.
"This is my island, General. I will be the one taking it. Yes, you would do best to stay out of my way..."
Jayce turned and stormed off into the increasingly burning city. Now here comes Gorus to try to steal some of his glory. How irritating...
... Zeros'... The winged one with the white hair and sword? Ah yes, now he remembered. But he was sealed away... perhaps he escaped? That must be the one who attacked Melface and the others. Jayce grinned. As he recalled, he owed him a match... This night was starting to turn delicious...
"My Lord!"
A lizard bowed before him.
"There are caves in the northern mountains... That is where the humans have fled..."
Jayce's smirk grew more insidious...
----
Ven lowered his sword, then stood there blinking for a moment.
"Oh... Well, I suppose this is good news then! ... Just be careful not to burst into caves with waiting armed soldiers next time... We're a bit jittery, you know."
Ven didn't quite have the time to consider his new allies, for his attention immediately snapped to the opening of the caverns ahead. Through the darkness, he could see a spray of tiny orange lights drawing up the mountainside...
Torches...
Then came the hissing sound of hundreds of lizards, their war cry... The rocks rumbled slightly under their heavy footfalls.
Ven took his sword and held hit vertically before him, the white light emanating from it glowing anew.
"This is it..."
-
"Urghhh!!! So THAT'S what he's after?!
-"Look, I don't have time to be chasing after people to fetch their souls for you. Here, how about you have five of these amulets, and you can do the rest yourself. Now, you can either help me after that or just do whatever, I don't care. I got plenty left. Those five should hold a good dozen souls each, so go and play. I have to take care of the really important things now."
Stupid, pathetic little people with their selfish minute obsessions....
I was slightly cheered up by a thunder crash somewhere to the left, and noticed Damien with a gigantic whale skeleton over him. He was holding it up using his air magic. Hannibal was already standing next to me.
-"Your skeleton, sir."
-"My skeleton is inside my body. This, however, is good... Oh yes, and Damien, I'll need you to hold it up for a while longer... a long while... along with many other people."
Damien's eye twitched, and turned away from me. Well, screw him too.
By my command, the bones of the gigantic skeleton all separated, then reconstructed. The creature's skull was now inside its ribcage, serving as the main carriage. The rest of its bones were arranged outside of the skull, providing protection from whatever harmful sources we may encounter. Thankfully, the gargantuan creature's carcass was bleached, so I would not have to bear the rotting death stench. I waved my hand up and down, signaling Damien to lower the "transport". He complied, and all of the remaining Kandarinians quickly rushed inside the skull, finding a comfortable place somewhere in a mess of jaws, teeth and miscellaneous bones. I entered last.
-"Take us up, Damien, and off we go to the Dark continent... Southeasternmost corner, please."
The bones crackling occasionally, the abomination rose in the air. I suppose I'm the captain, and Damien is the helmsman. He made himself a convenient hole in front of the skull to peer through. Meanwhile, I searched for Eve.
-"You there! Yes, you, the necromantress. I want everyone in here to be able to raise at least one corpse before we land on the continent, is that clear?"
-"Well, sir, I'm kind of not in the corpse department..."
-"Then what the hell kind of a necromantress are you?!"
-"Ah, the cursing kind, sir."
Curses...? Hexes and the such? Most interesting... Perhaps even more useful than death magic in some cases.
-"Cursing, I see." I quickly created a bone minion out of a pile of bones nearby. The creature shambled towards Eve. "Show me what you can do."
Eve extended her hand towards the undead, and a strange wreath of leaves appeared on its head. The same kind that high-ranking officials wore in Romme. What is she doing, decorating my minions? They're meant to shred people to pieces, not have plant life over their heads! Slightly annoyed, I forced my minion to swing at Eve.
The skeletal arm made a crushing blow, staggering and tripping the necromantress. Instantly, the wreath of leaves turned to metal and crushed the minion's skull. Of course, the minion was still standing... but a normal person wouldn't be... Very, very interesting...
-"I see... Well then, go teach them whatever little you know about death magic, then move onto curses. Don't move too fast, though. Their puny little brains need time to process information that complex."
-"Did I do that right?... oh, what? Yes, sir."
//the comparison with Romme served as a placeholder for Rome... The thing looked like this (http://http://www.liza-kliko.com/laurel-wreath/images/iamgesss.jpg).\
-
"No time to loose! We must break the army!" Jacobie Raced through the opening of the cave and shocked about a fourth of the lizard army. Many of them dropped their weapons in surprise.
"My fellows, I'm afraid your siege ends here... Time to die! ATTACK!!!" The lizards gasped and picked up their weapons, surprised by this traitor that came upon them. He flung his blades out there like a mad man... or mad lizard-man.
"You heard the lizard! Destroy them all!" Ben let off his cloak and burst it off of him with great angelic wings. He flew up in the air and readied an attack, flapping his wings to keep his balance in the air.
"Well... this is it. Nice knowing you, Dori. I won't go down without a fight, though!"
"You're not going to die out there, Justin! Remember your powers! Didn't that lizard guy say that he found the soul of his lord in you? Think! You have Drannica in your guts. Put him to use..." Dori ran out in the valley to attack lizards at will as did Jacobie.
"Maybe she's right... I am a gepardi, after all. Time to see if this works..." Justin held his hands near his waist. His shape grew with a bright white aura. He transformed himself into a giant half-breed between dragon and human. Fangs sprang out of his mouth; large wings sprouted out of his back to resemble a dragon's. He was about the size of a full dragon, but still possesed human form.
*What is this inside me...? How is this happening? Where am I? Did I die already?* Justin's soul rested in a dark void as the soul of the great god Drannica resides within him.
"I HAVE COME UPON THE EARTH AND WITH MY TWO FEET TAKEN POSSESION! DIE, MORTALS!!!" The great half dragon came down upon the army and picked off Lizards at random. He grabbed a few of them and ate off thier heads, flinging the bodies to the ground.
"What is that thing out there? I think we should have just stayed home at Dranniville... In fact, I'm glad we're up here defending this place rather then trying to defend home... Let's get em, Jackie!"
"Right, Jelka! Should we give 'em the gale, or even the tornado? Yeah, let's do that!" They went out and formed a power stance, charging wind from around them, forming balls of wind in their hands.
-
Ven nodded in approval at the newcomers. It seemed they might have a chance after all...
Yet the lizards kept coming. As soon as they were felled more rushed in to take their place, brandishing their heavy swords, maces, and axes. They were like fearless drones, totally oblivious to the destruction around them, and capable of only one thought... Get into the cave and kill...
Ven held his sword horizontally to his right and rushed madly at the lizards, his entourage of knights behind him.
"FOR TJEDDDD!!! HYAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
He met them just outside the mouth of the cave. With a bright white slash he severed the arm of the lead lizard. These were the slightly smaller and more manageable C-Class lizards, yet he knew the fearsome B-Class would likely come later on...
Steel met steel in a massive array of sparks and noise as the lizards and humans fought. The humans were unfortunately out matched and out numbered against the gigantic reptilian beasts, yet Ven's blasts of wind magic helped even the odds slightly as great slashes of his glowing sword set blades of wind through the enemy ranks, maiming their tough hides.
A dark figure stood at the foot of the incline as lizards rushed around him, scurrying up the hill... Behind him, the former port town of Kesnar burned brightly...
"Heh..."
A thick haze of blackness engulfed Jayce and he rocketed into the air, stopping some twenty five feet high. He floated there for a moment as the blackness danced around his already dark armor. An inky mass swelled in his right palm.
"Pitiful creatures. Come out and fight like a dragon! Oh, wait. You insects don't qualify..."
With that, he thrust his right hand forward, the orb of shadow tripling in size. Streams of dark violet danced around the pulsing sphere as it seemed to absorb any light available in the already pale night sky.
"Sorry!"
With that, the orb was shot forth like a cannon ball. Then another, and another... The three spheres of blackness surged overhead, striking the mountainside above the cavern entrance in three locations. The very mountain shook with each blow, and boulders began to rain down. Inside the tunnels vibrated, knocking waiting knights down as bits of ceiling began to collapse overhead...
----
In the darkness of the northern night sky...
... something large approached...
-
"Our orders come from High General Gorus." Xarn growled back. "Therefore you have no legal power over us."
Xarn overheard the mention of the northern cave. If the humans fled their likely Zeros' has too. He then turns to his squad. "After Jayce's army runs through, rush in and seek out and kill any winged humanoids." He ordered.
As his army marched towards closer towards the caves, Xarn took out a communications orb from his pocket. "Thogus. We've met with Jayce's group and the shoreline city is barren. We overheard they're going towards the northern caves, meet us there in ten minutes..."
--- ---
"Watch your tongue fur-ball!" Ophelia sneered towards Helix. "I may not be very high ranking..." She then stepped forward. "But I could break you, so watch it."
She then looked back at Renard. "One last question...What did you and Duilin talk about? Remember you're not in any trouble. Relax, think hard and try to remember..."
--- ---
"Holy crap, do those guys ever move fast." Rink gasped as he saw Jacobie and the rest zoom off.
"Oh, tryin' to out stage ole' Duilin are they?" Duilin said, half jokingly. "I'll show them."
The half demon dashed towards the oncoming group of lizard men he lifted up his hands and an orange glow emitted around them, he then jumped in the air and performed a flip and then landed in the middle of a group of lizards. He swung his arms out, summoning a Demon Flail (http://http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia/index.php/Duilin#Demon_Flail) in each hand. He then swung the demonic energy-weapons about smashing away the Lizard Men, leaving melting wounds on their bodies...
"That's six..." Duilin said announcing his current kill count.
He then looked and saw a large figure come through the black haze, which shot a large ball of shadow magic.
"Jayce..." Duilin said. With Zeros' away, he'd have to take him. He cracked his knuckles and then walked towards him. He put his hand over the handle of The Iduran. No, not yet...
Duilin pressed his hands together flowing demonic and lightning magic together and spread his hands apart creating a golden-orange blade. "Come on, princeling." He taunted towards Jayce. Duilin arched the energy blade back and swung it forward increasing its size as it zoomed down towards the Draken...
-
Renard opened his mouth but before he could say anything, Helix pushed his hand into his chest and the shorter Velken fell back against the door. Helix then rose into the air several inches so that his eyes were slightly above Ophelia's, and he looked down at her, his teeth clenched and a feral growl emanating from the back of his throat.
"Did you just threaten me?"
"Helix!"
Renard was ignored. Helix extended his claws to his sides as he floated a few inches higher, the fur on the back of his neck standing straight up.
"Just who do you think you are?!" He paused to sniff the air, taking in her scent, "... Human! You or your brute lay a finger on us, and we'll flay you open!"
"Is there a problem here?"
The voice was from down the hall. A Velken Blade Knight, with his sword drawn... The other seven Velkens behind him took to the air and flew down the hallway, some zipping over Ophelia's head as gray blurs. In but an instant they had formed a half circle around the four congregated in front of Renard's door.
Another Velken Blade Knight spoke, floating about a foot off of the ground. "I suggest you leave..."
-
Kerig took a deep breath and took a look at the five other amulets he was given.
"Can we use this?" He asked Weloss.
"Mmm... The souls are trapped... Completly... " Weloss began pondering "As long as you hold unto these, I believe I can take them apart and assimilate the etherium... But it will likely couse the amulets to fall apart... Bah, nevermind that! All I need is a little. Once I have any at all, I can assimilate raw souls as much as I like."
Kerig smiled at it and put on all five amulets, just so he wouldn't have to hold them and yet Weloss' access to them would remain easy.
He then turned to hurry after the lich.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-it!" he yelled out "Mistah Crow-Nose, we are coming with you."
Weloss was suprised. "He gives us what we need and doesn't ask us to stay! Why don't you just ditch the place, goddamnit it!?" he inquired angrily.
"I...It is only proper to repay favors!" Kerig said to both Kronos and Weloss.
He then fully turned to Kronos.
"Weloss will need a little while to absorb...These... I don't know where you are going, but wherever that is, I'm sure we can help in some way... Once we get there..."
He ignored the fact Weloss accused him of being a softy, as this wasn't the first time.
"We might be stupid, pathetic little people-" Kerig added, but his string of thoughts was interrupted by Weloss (who told him to speak to himself) "But...At least I'm definetly not selfish..."
-----
Fernis, having left the caves, took a good look at the sky. It was quite starry, and it seemed so peaceful. Looks can surely be decieving...
Elphos was still confused.
"Hey, Fernis, why are we in a hurry?" He asked, confused.
"Do you, little pulpy unarmed human who cannot defend himself in any given way..." Her tone was almost angry "...want to get cought up in fighting off GIANT LIZARD MEN holding all kinds of SHARP OBJECTS!?"
Elphos seemed to mumble something, but Fernis didn't really notice.
She simply assumed the answer to be 'no'.
"So there!" Her voice was more of a commanding one this time "Not only I'm doing you a favor as your beloved master, but I'm saving the butt of my puny little appretince."
She smiled devilishly at him, and he couldn't help but smile softly back, though incencirely.
"Alright then." Fernis spoke more calmly now "We are heading for the capital. I'll deal with Iduran and his problem... Later."
The two slowly paced toward the city.
-----
Iskatyl hurried down the path has he saw another group of lizards head towards the mountains. The group was too small to be an attacking force, so it was probably just a second scout group.
He soon came upon a cave entrance. What he saw had shocked him, and he froze for a moment.
There, Zakon was fighting off, all alone, what seemed to be two forces of lizardmen.
Some were coming out of the cave, and some were the group Iskatyl just saw passing by.
"Eranor!" he cried out to him "Brother! What is...!"
"I told you..." Zakon replied angrily as he sliced off a lizardmen's arm, from which he proceeded to slice the neck "NEVER call me by that name!"
The lizard he sliced dropped dead, and as he turned 180 degrees to parry an attack from a second lizardmen, he sliced open a a third one which happened to be standing between the two.
"My name is Zakon now." he said, slightly annoyed, but only at being called 'Eranor' "And can't you see I'm busy now?"
Iskatyl shrudded as Zakon coused the blade of the lizardman's sword to fall on the floor before he proceeded to swing at the lizard himself.
"But...Brother!" Iskatyl sounded more worried than terrified "You can't take them all by yourself! Please stop and run, or you will die!"
Zakon began to laugh wholeheartedly but his laughted was interrupted by another slicing motion.
"I've already taken down at least a dozen." Zakon said confidently "They are big, but they are slow... They are inexperienced, weak minded fools. This... Is nothing more than a warm up..."
Zakon turned to face another lizardman rushing at him
"DIE HUMAN!" the lizarman cried out.
"Heh..." Zakon sighed before leaping right under the lizardman "You're more human than I am."
With that, the lizardman fell down, it's upper body seperated into three pieces.
He then turned to Iskatyl.
"Join me, little one. Perhaps you could learn something by practicing on them." he said it calmly, as he was doing no more than enjoying a nice cup of tea "Otherwise, do stay away, brother, I'd hate to see you hurt by someone as incompetent as..." he noticed a lizardman swung an axe at him, and he nimbly dodged, slicing it's head (and apperantly the skull as well) open.
"...These greenhorns."
While Zakon smiled and plunged his free hand into the now open lizard's head, throwing something which seemed awefully pink and gooey at another approaching lizard, Iskatyl suddenly noticed one of the lizardmen was aiming for him.
"AAah!" Iskatyl yelped as he ducked to dodge the incoming blow from what seemed to be some sort of a halberd.
Out of pure survival instinct, his eyes suddeny recieved a white sheen, and as he grabbed the knife strapped to his belt, not a moment seemed to pass as the lizardman's upper and lower body fell down, each in turn.
Zakon had the time to see this, and smiled.
"See, brother, you can do it if you try..."
Iskatyl was almost panicking.
"But... I didn't control it, brother... I was afraid, unlike you..."
Zakon turned to him, ignoring two more lizardmen approaching him from behind. He gave his little brother the warmest smile.
"Then come, aid me, brother." Zakon's voice was filled with honest good will "Be afraid..."
He turned around, slicing both approaching reptillians.
"...That your brother might fall!"
Shaking, Iskatyl nodded, but removed and threw his cloak away, rushing to aid Zakon.
Neither of them noticed the crashing and rumbling not too far off...
//Note: this was done assuming theres more than one cavern entrance, and both of them approached a less known one... Solve's drannic's problem, anyway.\
-
"WHO IS THIS FOOL!? WHO DARE ATTACK ME, GOD OF THE LAST REALM!? DIE, YOU FOOLISH MORTAL!!!" Drannica held his hand out by his body and a great, white blade of energy raced out. It was incredible in size; about ten times the size of a normal blade of energy like that. He held it back with two hands and brought it forwards with a great, mighty slash towards Jayce, tearing the fabric of time itself around him it was so powerful...
"How would you like a taste of your own medicine! You ready down there?"
"Almost! Just give us a few more seconds, Ben... There! Let 'er rip, Jackie!"
"I'm already on it, sis! Let fly the tripple combo tornado!" Ben reached his hands out as did the Velken twins standing below him. An enormous flash of energy covered the lands, and for a moment, all that could be seen was white. Immediately, the light rushed towards the winds that stirred around in the air. A giant tornado began to ravage the Lizards on their side of the battle field. Lizard-men were flying out of the skys left and right, pumbling other lizard-men as they fell downwards.
"Now then, I'll take care of Jayce. You down there, demon! I'll assist you! Blade of Fury!" Ben crafted an energy sword with half wind magic and half angelic magic, similar to that of Dulin's. He flew forwards with great speed and zipped through the air to where Dulin was.
"Feathers of the angels, I grant your power on this being! Give him speed amongst the skys!" White feathers circled around Dulin for a short few seconds, disolving infront of him. The power had worked, but it looked like Dulin thought of it as a flight spell, and not one of speed. Ben looked down at him, expecting to be insulted.
-
"Oh wow!" Duilin said sarcastically. "You're a real sport. Thank you for that VERY necessary enchantment spell." He groaned and rolled his eyes. "What are you blind!? I have these huge WINGS. What do you think, they do? Look pretty? They make me fly."
//Okay Drannic, if you even looked at my character page you'd see a picture of Duilin with wings. Wings usually give people the ability to fly. Also, with any spell you have to let the other player choose if it works or not.\
--- ---
Rufokanno stepped forward and cracked his knuckles, but Ophelia stopped him. "Not here." She said. He looked at Renard. "Maybe we'll talk later when your friend isn't being so pushy." She turned to Rufokanno. "Let's go."
Ophelia then scratched her neck with her middle finger, directing the action towards Helix and then continued moving.
--- ---
The white fog then formed into a fair sized green dragon.
"Wow, you're good." Marshall commented.
"Grand General, my friend." Wilham grinned.
Firstman rolled his eyes. "That's just...werid."
"Why?" Marshall asked.
"You know...white fog shootin' out a people's hands and turning into dragons. Seriously, the gods must hate us." He said, half jokingly.
Marshall smirked. "Oh, Patrick..."
The group then climbed onto the dragon.
"This should speed us up..." Wilham commented.
-
//Note: that was a boost. You'll need it to stay in the air for longer periods, rather than what anybody's wings are used to. I should have posted this before... sorry 'bout that...
"That should help you stay in the air for a much longer time. Sometimes, I need a boost myself. Also, It'll make you faster while in the air. Anyways, let's continue; I'll need your help, and quickly, by the looks of it..."
-----------------------------------------------
"Draconis, I feel it's time. Our forces are degrading amidst the battle. Unfortunately, this is because of Justinian... What a fool, Constantine is. I have therefore decided to let you kill them all, even our troops if you get bored. Think of this as a gift, or a promotion."
"My lord... how will I get there in time; when I arrive, the battle will most likely be over!"
"Here, take this." Valimore tossed him a black rune with a fire symbol on it. It glowed with a black aura. "That's a teleportation rune. There are only so few left in this world, so use it wisely. It will take you to the second rune, but it is not instantanious. It will take time to recharge when it's finished taking you there as well..."
"How long should this take then, m'lord?"
"About a half an hour, by the looks of it. Touch the fire sign and hold on to it tightly. I will see you when you get back. To do that, you'll have to figure that one out for yourself..."
"Yes sir, m'lord! I'll be back with their heads on a rope!" Draconis did as Valimore instructed, slowly disolving him into a red mist, then disappearing completely.
"That took 'much' sooner than expected... That's not going to be good..."
-----------------------------------------------
-
Coriko watched in amazement as a white fog formed. He knew some creature was being summoned and he had seen variations of this summoning before, but it still amazed him. Slowly a shape started to form and a dragon formed. Coriko was taken back by the creature. The others made banter while Coriko starred at the creature. The others climbed on him while Coriko was lost in the creatures eyes. He broke the gaze and climbed onto the dragon.
"Alright, lets head off."
---
Druid touched down on the beach with a smooth drop and the warriors descended after him. The beach was already swarming with lizard men. Looks like flying here had no advantage. Druid walked up the beach while loads of lizards scrambled around following orders. He didn't like the lizards. He found them contumelious and abhorrent. Druid walked further up the beach when he spotted Jayce. A lizzard was talking to him, probably telling him about their recon. He walked up to Jayce.
"So, what do you want dead?"
-
Nick made his way towards the southerned end of the continent. He passed many glorious wildlife and some old 'places' He made his way through the ruins of bandervil and the crater of haruldar. He would be at the pick up point in no time.
//short sorry guys.
-
// Well, you have two lines in that post Burton. So you're good! =) \
The green dragon spread its wings and soared off into the air, flying through the sky above.
"Wilham." Marshall called, wile keeping his balance and grip. "We should try to make haste, this dragon here isn't much larger than the average Dark Dragon, and we might get spotted out."
"Well..." Wilham called back. "If we speed up, we might go too fast and one of us will fall off."
"Yeah, why don't we just fly lower? I'd like to avoid getting ripped to shreds by hungry lizards." Firstman suggested. "Flying or otherwise, mind you." He mumbled afterwards.
-
"Helix, you're all fuzzed up. What was that all about?"
Helix landed on the floor, his teeth and fists clenched.
"That woman just threatened me! The nerve!"
"Why?"
Helix was starting to calm down. "They just came outta nowhere and started harassing Renard about some guy he met. He said he didn't know but they didn't believe him, so I told them to buzz off."
One of the older Blade Knights turned to Renard.
"Is this true? Who were they?"
All eyes turned to Renard, and he shrunk back.
"Well, I... uh..."
"C'mon, Renard. It's okay."
"Yeah."
Renard ran a claw over the back of his head.
"I never saw the woman before... but that guy..." Renard hesitated and looked at the nine sets of eyes and ears expectantly pointed in his direction. "That guy with the tatooed skin... He was one of the guys who attacked me in Asgarnia."
"WHAT?!"
Helix turned and immediately broke away from the group.
"That's it. They both die right now!"
"No, wait!" Renard reached out and grabbed Helix's black robe with his left hand. But a sharp pain from his wound stabbed through him and he let go. "Just drop it, alright?" He said as he clutched his arm.
"Why? That guy tried to kill you, right?"
Renard sighed. "Just forget the whole thing ever happened."
Renard quickly turned and slipped into the door behind him, with many wide stares from the others. Once inside his assigned room he threw himself upon the bed. Blast it. He hated Gaian. He hated killing. He hated fighting. All he wanted to do was go home...
----
Still flying high in the air, Jayce twisted his body and flashed a sneer at Duilin and his impending blade. Immediately his right hand was upon his own sword strapped to his back. With a gargantuan diagonal slash, he deflected golden energy with the massive scimitar, sending sparks flying in all directions.
Flicking his wrist, he then preformed an upward arc with the mammoth sword, smacking Drannica's white energy blade into oblivion as a pitch black shockwave spred forth. The resulting tremor was massive, and shafts of darkness and light scattered everywhere, boring deep holes into the ground where they haphazardly struck.
Jayce threw his head back in laughter.
"HA HA HA HAA!!! YES! This is more like it! Come, peons! I shall slay you all!!"
The very air seemed to wave as a deep black flame burst forth from his body, swirling around him and his sword rapidly. He paused for a moment to consider Druid's question, though, placing his left black gauntlet on his chin.
"Hmmm, very well Druid, I shall let you have one."
He scanned his opponents, then pointed to Drannica with the huge blade.
"There. The one who has delusions of god-hood. Kill him. Considering how you've handled Boron, he should be an appropriate match."
Jayce then immedately switched back to battle mode.
"Now the rest of you DIE!!!"
His form blurred as he fell to the ground, performing a huge slash all the way. When the scimitar struck the ground, two massive crescents of black energy burst forth, tearing the air and ground alike as one raced for Duilin and Ben each...
----
A group of two dozen soldiers were walking down the path Indher and Elphos were on, and parted ways so the two could get past. Obviously they were going to reinforce the front lines.
"You two should hurry inside the capital. No telling when lizards may be showing up this far north."
The soldiers suddenly stopped and cast their eyes upwards.
"What is THAT?"
A huge shadow was moving overhead. It was too dark to descern form, yet it was certainly large enough to block out the stars as it moved past, moving southward...
----
Ven and the knights had to dodge the raining lizard men, who hit the ground with muffled groans. With a renewed vigor, he rushed the next group, sending fort a white blast from his blade which impaled the closest armored lizard...
-
Duilin jumped in the air, floating a bit due to the crazy enchantment spell. "Interesting." He then pushed himself upward, and blocked the oncoming dark energy crescent by creating an air shield around his hands and smashing away at the dark energy.
"Come, on. I thought you darkens were supposed to be cream of the crop here!" Duilin mocked Jayce. Duilin then pressed his hands together making a gob of bright yellow energy in his hands he then pushed his hands forward and small bolts of lightning then sprayed from each of his fingers towards Jayce (Palpatine style!).
--- ---
"That wasted time." Rufokanno mumbled.
"Perhaps, but if that little fox was telling the truth, that means that Duilin doesn't want anyone to know where he is going. If he did lie that confirms that Duilin's been spreading his propaganda on other people. He tried to spray some on me…"
"He killed Brice." Rufokanno added.
"What about your orc friend? Wasn't he slain by the Velkens?" Ophelia asked.
"Me cared little for orc." Rufo replied. "But who care? How we find Duilin?"
"I think I might already know."
"Then what point of this?"
"Mostly, I was just seeing how the Velken was, what effect Duilin put on him. I think he made have made a big influence."
-
"HMM... THIS ONE IS STRONGER THAN EXPECTED. I'LL HAVE TO CHARGE MORE ENERGY FOR THIS. I DIDN'T THINK I'D HAVE TO FIGHT!" Drannica flapped his wings twice before taking off into the air and beamed upwards, a great white aura showing his path. He placed two hands near his stomach and began to charge a white orb, slowly gathering strength, but brighter than the sun. It seemed like daylight now... but something strange passed by, in the air, infront of him... a Drow...
Draconis fell downwards slowly with the rune tight in his grip. Soon after, he landed behind Dori and put the rune back in his pocket. grabbing both his hands back, he formed a dark blade of energy with a great speed and rushed towards Jacobie with it, blood-stained after killing so many of his own...
"Jacobie, you will die! Take this!" He slashed the blade of dark energy down at Jacobie. Having just enough time to react, he blocked it with both katanas in his grip, slowly moving Draconis backwards. Soon, the katanas were placed across his neck.
"I shouldn't have shunned you out long ago, Draconis... I'm sorry, brother, but you're putting my mission in peril!"
"Mission!? What mission!? You have been exiled from the order and I have been sent here to kill you!"
"No... I thought I was... My lord... NNOOOOOOOOOO!!! YOU LIE! I'LL KILL YOU NOW!!!" Jacobie slashed both of his katanas across the Drow's neck, his head falling backwards. Blood drenched the lizard-man as he stood infront of the headless Draconis.
"I HATE YOU!!! DIE, ALL OF YOU!!!!!!" The Lizard-man began to glow a dark red glow. He raced around at ten times the speed of before and started to kill off many more Lizard-men. "DIE!!! YOU WILL ALL DIE!!!" He got so blood-thirsty, he came up to Ven and slashed at him with intense power. "DIE!!! RRRRAAAAAAAAGGHHHHH!!!!!!"
"No... Jacobie, no! Don't give in! Hold him off, demon, please! I have to deal with something." Ben stretched his wings and glided down to the ground behind Jacobie, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back. "No! Don't give in to your hate! You're a good guy, remember?"
"Jacobie no good! Jacobie want kill! WANT KILL!!!"
"He's your friend, remember? He saved you from not being able to walk! Stop this, Jacobie! He's with us! I can't hold him back much longer, Ven! You have to fight him, but don't kill him! Ahh!"
-
-----------------------------------------------
"*Sigh*, I'll have to find another new apprentice... What a waste. I cannot stand this, I'm going over there to end this... this nonsense. I'll just grab the third rune and take them all down!" Valimore got out of his throne and walked forwards to the door, grabbing a rune that looked the same as Draconis' and Dori's off a desk.
-----------------------------------------------
A bit sooner again, he was teleported to the great battle that raged on. However, he was standing next to the cave, behind Dori. "Hello there, Nymphadora! Did you miss me?"
"AHH!!! You! Run, run! All of you, get out of here!"
"WHAT IS THAT DARK STENCH? IT SMELLS LIKE... MY BROTHER'S SON!!! WHAT IS HE DOING HERE? COME TO END THIS MINOR SCUFFLE, HAS HE? HEH... FULLY CHARGED! YOU'RE GOING DOWN, MORTAL!!!" Drannica shot a giant orb of energy that soon transformed into a beam as he fed more of his power into it. It was headed for Jayce...
"They all think I'm dead... what a bunch of idiots..." Draconis stepped out of the shadows in the cave. His shade appeared to have done it's trick in making Jacobie crazy. Behind him inside the cave came out around five hundred more shades, looking exactly like him.
They rushed behind the front lines of the knights of Tjed and wildly attacked them with standard steel cutlasses. The real Draconis, however, held his trusty blade Tyrr, a sword enhanced with extremely powerful black magic. There was a fall-back to the blade as it did not work on the pure of will and heart. It was still a powerful weapon, none the less...
-
"How dare you! Demon wretch!"
Jayce spread the fingers of his left hand and cast forth a stream of Dark Thunder. The black lightning raced from his fingertips, twisting and bending around the bright snaking light Duilin was sending his way. The two forces battled, the bright flashes casting long shows across the battlefield. Larges chunks of dirt and stone dislodged from the very ground and flew skyward around them.
Then Jayce lifted a brow as saw a second beam of energy headed his way.
"Blast it!"
Jumping backwards away from the lightning stream, the dark Draken took his gigantic blade in both hands and cleaved downwards upon the energy. A shockwave burst forth, splintering a set of nearby trees and crumbling some boulders into dust as the blast split into two. One thundered into the forest, immediately igniting several dozen trees and adding to the crimson glow thrown off by the burning Kesnar. The second spiraled straight into the mountainside, tremoring the earth and shaking loose more boulders from above. The tunnels suffered, and more debris rained down inside...
----
Ven quickly raised a blade to defend a strike from the mad Jacobie.
"Blast it! What's gotten into you?!"
Ven nimbly sidestepped again. All around strange shades were attacking his men.
"Fall back! Into the caves!"
"But they will collapse upon us!"
Ven gritted his teeth, not quite able to heed anything but the lizard who had gone mad in front of him. Blast it, what to do? Perhaps if he hit the lizard bluntly, it would knock some sense into him without killing him.
Arcing his sword to the side, Ven leapt backwards as it glowed brightly. With a mighty slash, he summoned forth a gust of wind to blow from the lizard's left. Rather than cutting blades, this was more of a wall, intended to knock the lizard clean off his feet...
-
Duilin lifted with hands cutting off his lightning stream and zoomed to the side totally avoiding Jayce's dark lightning.
"Oh am I getting the prince-ling upset?" Duilin taunted again. The half demon's hands began to glow an orange-red as flames surrounded them, he then clapped his hands together and spread them apart, increasing the amount of flame and rounding it into a large orb. He held the ball of flame as he continued to expand it...
---
Lagart continued to fight off the Lizard Men using the Talonscar Mace. Him being a B-Class lizard, he was able to best the lower C-Class warriors. Rink was hovering above and around Lagart giving the occasional support, by shooting a few fireballs at them.
---
"Allright boys." Xarn growled as he arrived a few twenty yards outside the battle. "Once Thogus gets here, we charge in." He looked at the angry draken price. "And try not get hit, by any of Jayce's attacks by accident..."
-
Ven's wind attack did just the trick. Jacobie was knocked forwards, face planted on the ground. A second later he got up and looked around. "What in the... Unnghh, my head... What happened?"
"No time to explain, Jacobie!" Ben yelled, "We have to defeat these shades... huh?" Jackie and Jelka were already half way finished with them. Ben raced into the air to find Dulin and Jayce. He found Dulin on the ground, charging some sort of fire ball. He flew next to him and started to charge a ball of white flames.
"Let's combine the attack! I'll shoot when you're ready, just give the word!" He charged faster and faster until he was about leveled with Dulin's orange-red fire ball.
The beam Drannica shot had missed. He started to decend down to the ground, loosing his form and energy. Thet beam really took it out of him. Drannica's sould had left Justin, and his soul reunited with his body. A few moments later and he shrunk down to his regular size, face first into the ground.
-----------------------------------------------
"Heh... what a great battle! Such entertainment! But I'm getting hungry... I haven't fed for years... ah! A nice meal awaits here!" Valimore raced forwards with his thunderous vampiric speed. Dawn glistned in the air, but it wasn't enough to hurt Valimore, as he was immune to sunlight. He grabbed hold of a knight and tore out his throat, drinking the blood from him.
"Very well..." Dori though, "If nobody will stop him, then I'll have to!" She sped forwards, her assassin's claw stretched outwards infront of her. "This is for the Republic! Eat Metal!" Dori slashed at the air around Valimore, creating great waves of metal energy. Valimore, too busy feeding, was hit twice in the back.
-----------------------------------------------
"I'm sorry, sir. I'll try not to let him do this to me again. What's your plan of attack, sir? My katanas are ready for anything!" Jacobie stood infront of Ven, readily guarding him with his katanas drawn out.
-
//It's Duilin not Dulin.\
Duilin nodded towards the newcomer, who appeared to have a similar magic technique as he did. He continued charging his fireball, he knew this wouldn't kill Jayce, or even scare him off, but it would get him riled up. Duilin shot lightning into his fire orb making it a more golden colour. The orb was a ball of flame with sparks of lightning shooting around it.
"Not yet...just a little more..."
--- ---
The Green Dragon soared only ten yards above the ground towards the ruins of Bandervil. The dark taint the demonic evil was still fresh among the place.
"Where do you want to land? On top of that hill?" Wilham said.
Marshall grinned "Yeah, that might be fun."
The dragon landed on the hill, this was where Haraldur and Abodahon both died. The place was still charred and burned the entire location has been highly neglected, due to the infamous history that was here. Many people say it's haunted aswell, by the ghosts the dead followers of Melkoth and Abodahon, though their reign was short lived, they are still marked as two of the most powerful people in history, as their reign was much larger in ancient times and the fact they nearly had global control in less than a day.
The group hopped off the dragon. "So, where do you think this temple would be?" Marshall asked.
"We marked it a bit more south, but it could be around here for all I know." Wilham answered.
"This place got totally hammered a year ago." Firstman said. "I'll be damned if a temple that's over a thousand years old would have survived."
"The temples were all buried underground, mind you." Wilham stated. "It very could be have been part of the empire's structure."
"Well, maybe the Crimson Empire kept the tablets. Where would they take them?" Firstman asked.
"Let's not jump to conclusions so fast." Marshall pointed to Firstman. "We should try and find the place first."
--- ---
"So what we do now?" Rufo asked, walking along with Ophelia.
"We find Duilin." Ophelia replied.
"Where is he?"
"I'm not sure yet."
The two arrived on a balcony, with a wide view of the darkened landscape of Gaian.
"But you said, you already know." Rufokanno groaned.
"What I ment, is that I can find out..." Ophelia closed her eyes, for some reason she felt a strong connection with that man, something about him. Duilin made her start to think deeply about her past, the past she so egarly tried to forget, but the sudden appearance of this one man made her remember. That Black Mage that mysteriously appeared after her home was destroyed. He took her away...
"He went to Tjed." Ophelia said opening her eyes.
"How you know?" Rufo asked, rather confused.
"Let's go."
-
"Right! I'll keep charging! Just give the word." Ben started to copy Duilin's technique by putting a white lightning into his fire ball, making it even brighter and stronger.
Meanwhile, Jacobie stood near Ven, killing any lizard-men that came near him. He slashed off their heads and kicked them at other lizard-men coming near to back them off. "What's the plan, sir?"
-
Druid smiled knowing that with his shadow warriors this was going to be way too easy. He lifted off the ground and rose up till he was level with Drannica. He raised his hand and a small burst of shadow energy came out of his palm and exploded. Druid smiled at his opponent. The Shadow warriors were behind Druid ready for the fight.
"Alright, so you’re 'god-like'? You just look like another self proclaimed lunatic with delusions of grandeur. I am going to slaughter you in such an agonizing way the hell I send you to will seem like heaven after what I have put you through!”
With that Druid fired a large blast of shadow energy at Drannica.
---
Coriko listened to Marshall and Firstman. He scanned the area trying to find remnants of the temples sticking out of the rubble. He didn’t want to have to go to the Crimson Empire.
“Hey,” Coriko yelled pointing towards a hole in the ground. “Look there are stairs leading down. Maybe we could start there? It is leading underground.”
-
"I doubt it, Coriko." Firstman said. "Those are likely remains of a dungeon left over from the fortress."
"Well, it wouldn't hurt would it?" Marshall said.
"I guess not." Firstman shrugged.
The group went down the stairway into the dark underground building.
"It's pretty dark down here." Wilham said.
"Coriko, light some of your arrows. Maybe we can use them as torches for the time being." Marshall suggested.
//I'll wait for Xorlak to post, before I update Duilin again.\
-
Jayce flipped his sword once, smirking at Duilin and Ben. He'd take the both of them out at once...
KA-BLAM!!
A violent explosion slammed into the burly Draken and he was sent tumbling, though he was quick to regain his balance some twenty feet away from his previous position. He clenched his fist and slashed the air.
"What the--?! Who dares strike ME?!"
His eyes darted around, finally catching a huge object floating above...
Jayce's eyes narrowed and he snarled. Suddenly the object was bathed in a crimson light as hundreds of torches upon it were ignited...
It then began to rain fire... Explosions ripped through the lizards as they stormed the caves. Great fireballs stormed down, pummeling the scaly forces as they confusedly ran around in circles. More were directed towards Jayce, who began to nimbly jump around and dodge the blasts that tore deep chunks out of the ground...
Through the smoke, the mammoth object above began to take shape... It was a floating island, the underside like a great upside down pyramid. And upon that island stood a mighty fortress, with hundreds of cannons, all pointed downwards, blasting everything to oblivion...
----
"Glad to have you back." Ven nodded to Jacobie. Suddenly, bursts of fire began to explode all around, and he was forced to take cover behind a large set of rocks. He looked up at the thing in the air, eyes wide...
"I know that floating fortress... it is... it is the flying capital of the Crimson Empire..."
----
Standing upon the very highest tower of the Crimson Palace, Draven threw his head back in laughter. Though he was very high up, it was loud enough so the menacing echo could be heard across the battlefield.
"AH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"
He flipped his cape and it caught in the wind. The sun was rising to his left. He pointed a gloved finger down at Jayce, who was just a tiny black speck far far below.
"What's the matter? Didn't invite me? Tch! Rude."
The ground under Jayce disintegrated and he was engulfed in blackness. A vein throbbed on his forehead as he clenched his teeth. He was off into the air in a second, souring upwards at the floating fortress, a long tail of blackness trailing behind him.
"DRAVEN!! I will chew on your bones, human!!"
Draven folded his arms and smirked.
"Bite me."
Immediately the cannons opened up. The sky around Jayce was ripped open and hundreds upon hundreds of blasts tore through the air, painting it a bright crimson with the brilliant flashes. Jayce brought his mammoth scimitar above his head and began madly slashing, deflecting fireballs this way and that, sending them smashing into the ground with huge explosions. His advance was greatly slowed, but he still inched his way upward, despite the intense rain of fire...
Draven threw his head back and laughed again.
-
"My god..." Duilin whispered as he saw the floating island. "...Draven."
"Okay, after this attack, you're going to have to fight Jayce yourself. I'm going to confront the man on that floating island, Draven. Maybe I won't need to fight him."
Yet I'd like to...
"Okay, buddy...ready and...NOW!" Duilin then released the giant fire-lightning ball and it flew towards Jayce. However, he kind of had his mind set on Draven. Normally Zeros' would handle this sort of thing, but he's been rather inactive, perhaps he's testing Duilin. But why?
-
Coriko pulled out a couple of his thicker and longer arrows from his quiver.
"These arrows are meant to be on fire." Coriko pointed to the lenghtened tip. "These should burn for a long time so until we find real torches, these will do nicely."
Coriko caused the tips to light up and handed one to each person.
"Alright, let's continue on."
-
"HYAAAH!!!" Ben flew his white ball of flame right beside Duilin's. they swirled after Jayce in the sky, distracted by Draven. "I hope that puts a dent in him. If not, then I hop this will!" Ben flew into the air and rushed towards Jayce.
"Angels from above give me your blessing! Bestow upon me equal power!" Ben's form began to change. He grew larger and larger until he was the same size as Jayce. Forming a white energy blade, he dashed towards Jayce with it pointed forwards.
-----------------------------------------------
"How dare you! It's rude to attack someone whilst their back is turned! Taste this!!!" Valimore threw his hands forward and shot a red beam at Dori, hitting her in the forehead and knocking her unconscious.
"Hmph... there's nothing I'd like better than to rip off your head, Miss Nymphadora, but I have more pressing matters to attend to. I'll see to your death in due time though, so please my dear, just be patient..." Valimore jumped into the air with great force and grabbed onto the floating island, jumping again in the air.
"Good day, Lord Draven. I would just like to ask you to save someone for me. I'll greatly assist you if you would honor my request... or is it immortality you seek?" Valimore bore his vampire fangs to Draven. "It's a simple little process, really. Quick and painless. What say you, crimson lord?"
-----------------------------------------------
"What is that island up there? I've... never seen anything like this before... What should we do? Wait a moment. That's... DRAVEN!!!" Jacobie placed his hands on the ground and lifted the earth surrounding him and Ven.
"Should I take us up to the island? What's your say?"
-----------------------------------------------
-
((Sorry. My internets been crapping out.))
Zeros' and Allen arrived at inner Tjed, away from the battle that was currently happening. He dropped Allen off at a doctor, wo had gladly accepted the old alchemist into his care.
((Allen's now inactive until further notice.))
Zeros' frowned. He had to find out where the battle was. He knew there was a battle nearby, he could sense and 'feel' it. He sighed and shook his head, heading the direction he sensed Jayce's aura.
-
Draven leapt off the tower and flew down to the edge of the floating island, where he landed near the shady newcomer outside the walls of the thick wall surrounding the Crimson Palace. The entire outside of the structure was marred and burnt, as if it had been through an oven... He held out a gloved hand as if stopping the figure's advance.
"Put your fangs away, Vampire, I am familiar with your kind's tricks and have no desire to submit myself to such degradation. So long as the one you speak of isn't of the Dark Empire, our paths won't cross. However, if you're seeking employment, I am looking for a few good men..."
He folded his arms and smiled maniacally at the last part...
----
Jayce was too busy dodging the cannon blasts to notice the twin balls of energy headed his way...
The sky flashed a tremendous white as he was struck in the back, the shockwave from the blast ripping apart a grove of trees underneath. He spiraled downwards and crashed head first into a pile of rocks, digging down several feet and becoming buried in the mess.
There was silence for a moment...
"ARRRRGHHH!!!!"
The pile of boulders exploded, shards of rocks flying in all directions. Jayce flew upwards from the crater some ten feet, his long black hair a disheveled mess. He slashed his sword once and clenched his left fist, spotting a larger Ben headed his way.
"You!"
Blackness engulfed the mighty blade. With two hands he took it above his head and slashed diagonally, meeting Ben's white blade with a thunderous clap. Another shockwave burst forth, carving more scars into the land as tendrils of black and white from the two weapons violently clashed...
----
Ven regarded the island above, then looked back at the lizard.
"No, Draven is on our side."
Ven stumbled as an explosion from a stray cannon blast tore a hole in the ground nearby, spraying the two with sand.
"... At least, I think..."
Ven did not like relying on the so-called Crimson Emperor one bit. However, he had to admit he was relieved to see his arrival... He just hoped the madman didn't destroy Tjed in his rage as well...
The silver knight then stood up, peering over the rock at another explosion in the distance.
"There!" He pointed to a vile black warrior battling another with a sword of light in the sky. "The one in black, that's their leader... If we can take him down, we might have a chance... C'mon!"
Ven leapt from the rock and began to jog down the shallow mountainside. The huge man in black armor radiated pure evil. It was one of those fearsome High Generals, he knew it... Of course, he knew he didn't have a chance on his own, but maybe if they all worked together... just maybe...
-
"Hmm... I accept your offer! The one I wish not to be harmed is named Jacobie. He's a lizard, easily recognizable by his crimson armor and dorsal-spined fin. Well then, waht can I do for you, my lord?" Valimore grinned viciously, bearing his fangs, having even more menacing look than did Draven.
Meanwhile, Jacobie rushed behind Ven and Justin, regaining his power, followed as well. They came up behind Ven and jumped forwards, dragging their blades togrther in an awkwardly unison sort of way. Jacobie and Justin looked at each other and nodded, then looked forwards at the dark figure. They crossed their blades to form an 'X' and slashed downwards at the High-commander.
-
Duilin swooped up and floated in the air only a few meters away from Draven. "Well, if it isn't my good buddy Draven. How's rebuilding the Crimson Empire going?" Duilin greeted with a sneer. "I hope you're not here to suck up to Retan and attack Tjed, because you especially won't gain anything from trying that."
Duilin looked around, and spotted the vampire nearby. "New friend of yours?"
---
Lagart dashed towards the Vile Black Knight, as Rink flew along, delivering a series of small fireballs to distract him...
--- ---
The underground bunker, was pretty much just empty space, save for a few pitch black metal bars which isolated a quarter of the room. Behind the bars were dead bodies which had most of their guts and flesh rotted away, it looked like the dead bodies were there for over a year. (z0mg it's Abodahon's Dungeon from Chapter 9!)
"Man, it stinks down here." Firstman groaned, plugging his nose.
"Yeah. I think I also smell a small bit of anti-mana gas, not enough to fully disable magic however, this place must have had vents for the stuff." Marshall said pinching his nose with his pointer finger and thumb. "I assume this was a dungeon that was supposed to hold mages, like the one in Kandarin."
"You think this could be the temple?" Firstman asked.
"Could be." Wilham replied "Perhaps this dungeon was built upon the temple. But that means that the tablets might not be here. I'd actually feel safer if we could find them."
"Well, I don't see them around." Firstman said, walking around the room. "Man, it smells. Can we make this quick?"
Marshall observed the room a bit more. "Perhaps they were stored away, somewhere."
-
"Well now, what do we have here? It's fly-boy junior! I'd explain my plan to exterminate the Dark Empire from the face of the planet once and for all, but it'd likely go over your head."
Draven folded his arms, waving to tips of his right fingers upwards.
"Best to stay out of the way. Wouldn't want to get hurt now, would we?"
Draven turned his glint towards the vampire, then pointed down below.
"Come, Vamps, we've a dragon to slay..."
With that, a crimson glow engulfed the man and he leapt straight off the floating island, a trail of red tailing him as he glided down towards the battle below...
----
"Arghh!!!"
With a mad flurry of slashes, Jayce blocked all the blades sent his way along with a few fireballs.
Ven was right up behind him with a bright glowing sword.
"HYAAAAAHHH!!!--oof!"
The dark Draken's elbow connected with the knight's chest, and Ven was sent flying backwards, back into the ground.
"What is this? Lizard Men dare stand against me?" Jayce indignantly growled as he regarded both Lagart and Jacobie among his adversaries. There were a total of five on him now, and though he had yet to break a sweat, he had little room to strike back as he was busy deflecting all the attacks...
-
"Damnit." Duilin groaned. "I hate it when he does that." Draven was never much for conversations. 99% of all of all conversations Duilin had with Draven, were mostly them exchanging one sentence, including an insult or two, and Draven flying off.
Duilin allowed himself to fall back first towards the ground and pushed himself faster, zooming past Draven, due to his enchantment spell. He stuck his tongue out at Draven as he zoomed past him. Just before he hit the ground he stopped floating a few feet over the ground, and a bit behind Rink and the others. He then rotated himself until he was right side up, over the ground and landed.
"Duilin! Quit showin' off and help us fight this guy!" Rink snapped.
"Yeah, yeah..." Duilin mumbled back to the imp. "Lagart, let's rush 'em!"
The lizardman nodded and ran towards Jayce with Duilin. The half demon jumped in and leaped over Jayce, blasting a series of lightning bolts, alternating with each hand as he flew over. Lagart dashed right towards the High General and smashed his mace at him.
And Rink continued to annoy the draken with a sequence of fireballs...
-
//Damn it! Sorry guys, I've just been so swamped with schoolwork and stuff these past weeks, I haven't had time for DAL. However, I did manage to write one post. I'll be posting a lot more this weekend, you can count on that.\
“…Sir?”
Carmine had turned his attention to the howling of a wolf amongst the Glacia mountains, only to turn around and see de Sade absent.
“Hello? Sir? Where are you?”
No reply.
“He’s always doing this, I’m sure he’ll be back.”
Twenty minutes later, still no sign of the Lilithian.
“Oh dear,” Carmine sighed. “Seems he’s vanished into thin air! I must tell Damien Roth immediately!”
Through a fissure in the rock below, he saw the silhouettes of Alex and Midna.
“De Sade would want me to finish his work, but those two are just too powerful. I should return to Asgarnia and request reinforcements!”
Turning around on the heels of his feet, he began dashing back towards the thousand-foot tall Asgarnian Citadel that lay in the distance.
The two Twili found themselves probing deep into Glacia’s depths through the complex network of mining tunnels that honeycombed them.
“So why are we heading further into the mines?” Midna complained.
“We promised Barnes we could ensure that the tunnels up ahead haven’t collapsed.”
“Alex, we don’t have time for this! De Sade could already have beaten us to the next page, and here we are wasting time clearing rocks!”
“Relax. Like he knows where it is.”
“Do you?”
Finally defeated, Alex sighed. “Not really, but I have a good feeling.”
“Oh, really?” Midna turned towards him, hands on her hips. “Where?”
“I could swear I feel something within these tunnels…”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the page…it could be some other residual aura you might be picking up. How can you be sure it’s the page?”
“It’s the same feeling I’ve gotten picking up the last few pages. It’s down below, I can feel it.”
“If you say so,” Midna said, rolling her exposed eye. “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
“If I didn’t know what I was doing, would we be this far?”
Midna had talked herself into a corner. “Well, I suppose not. You’ve proven yourself to be a pretty formidable fighter…”
A sound echoed within the cave.
“Did you hear that?” Alex asked.
“The dwarves are probably blasting again,” Midna replied.
“No, this is different. It didn’t sound like an explosion, but more like--”
Without warning, the rocks under Alex’s feet gave way, sending him plunging down into the mountain depths. With a sharp scream he fell and hit the cave floor some fifty feet below. Midna, floating this whole time, simply descended into the hole.
“Alex, are you okay?”
Alex picked himself up, rubbing his back. “Yeah,” he grunted. “I’m fine. What happened?”
“Seems the rocks collapsed under your weight. It’s not a total loss. You said the aura came from below anyway.”
“True…true…”
Finally turning his head up from the ground, he saw off in the distance something that caught his eye. For a minute he stared at it in awe. “What is that?” he asked, pointing in the direction he was looking.
Midna turned her eyes towards where he pointed, and also stared in awe.
What they saw was a geological impossibility. This deep below the mountains there was an enormous open cavern, spanning at least a mile wide, a thousand feet up, and a thousand down. A rocky bridge connected the outer rim of the cavern to the center, which housed a huge flat spire of rock protruding up from the floor a thousand feet below. On this spire sat a temple.
“Holy…” Alex gasped. “What is this place?”
“If I remember correctly, it’s the most holy, or in this case, unholy, temple of the Nightshade people. They were a reclusive race that shunned the daylight, never venturing above the surface, keeping to themselves.”
“Why unholy?”
“As a race that could not live with sunlight, their desires turned their prayers to the dark gods of the underworld. The Nightshade, thousands of years ago, waged a holy war on the dwarves, who had recently moved from above ground.”
“What happened to the Nightshade?”
“They died out, probably because of their defeat at the hands of the dwarves. That’s not to say that the dwarves also suffered heavy losses, though. Nightshade technology is some of the most advanced in the world, and few people have ever found any relics proving so.”
“I’m definitely feeling it now. The fourth page MUST be in there.”
“You want to go in there? No telling how dangerous it’ll be.”
“Why? You said they were extinct anyway. What’s the worry?”
“The Nightshade, in their twilight hours, were terrified of any outsiders getting hold of their technology who were intent on destruction. Nightshade beliefs hold that if the underworld gods are appeased, they will be resurrected to rule another day. The Nightshade did not want to take any risks that would prevent that from happening. The Nightshade people were masterminds of engineering, they could secure anything within or behind some deadly trap or puzzle. Chances are that temple is trapped from top to bottom. If you wanted that page, you would be in for some challenges. Still up to it?”
“I made a vow to your people, Midna,” Alex replied. “I’m not going back on it now because of a few traps. Plus, de Sade and his little soldier friend seem to be leaving us alone for now. We might as well take advantage of this window while we can.”
“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Trust me, I’ve faced worse.”
Without another word from either, they proceeded onward to the Nightshade temple.
-
Fireballs singed his sides and blades nicked his armor. A deep blackness surrounded the irate Draken and he threw his head back and screamed.
"INSECTS!! DIE!!!"
With that, he slammed his blade into the ground, which promptly disintegrated into a mass of inky darkness. The rocks ruptured as the wave of black expanded, digging a deep crater as it shot outwards in all directions...
Jayce shut his eyes when he preformed the attack. When he opened them, he saw Draven with his fist reared back.
*WHAM!!*
With a super-heated punch, Draven smacked the dark prince right in the forehead. Jayce flew backwards ten feet, leaving his sword stuck in the middle of the crater, until he dug his black metal boots into the ground to stop his rearward motion.
Draven smirked, bringing a gloved hand to his chin.
"My my, a tad overwhelmed, are we?"
Draven's aura was burning brightly now, and he widened his stance and arms, looking ready to perform either a projectile or physical attack, whichever the situation called for.
Jayce angled his head forward, back to the correct position, and cracked his neck once. It was a loud popping sound.
"Shame that you have fallen so much as to... side with this pathetic hovel of a nation..."
Draven was unfazed. "Tch! Shame my trust was betrayed. And I've only picked the side that irritates you the most..."
The Crimson Emperor's hands began to glow a bright red just then, as twin spheres of flame appeared within them.
Jayce brushed a strand of black hair from his face.
"Fitting, then. I'd be rid of all my problems at once..."
An eerie wind then began to blow. The burly man brought his arms to his sides, an even deeper blackness emanating from him than before... The very ground shook as chunks of rock were lifted skyward before being reduced to pebbles that swirled around him... He widened his stance and opened his hands like claws, a bright crimson burning within his eyes...
-
//note: I'm not gonna be able to post as much. My computer crashed and I'm using a friends.
"I'll take out the other problems we face." Valimore began to charge a dark orb of energy in his hands and constantly threw them forwards at all of the knights gathered about. More and more orbs flew out as the vampire's power increased with each death. Soon, his power consumed him and he charged bigger and more powerful orbs to throw.
-
"You wish prince-ling!" Duilin shouted. "You'll be rid of us the day Draven finds a lover!" He insulted. He smirked a bit, since that was mostly a shot against Draven.
"Something big coming. Jayce is much powerful." Lagart stated. //engrish ftw!\
"Don't worry." Duilin assured, his hand then glowed yellow. As the glow faded a yellow bubble of air grew around his hand, he then arched his hand towards Lagart and Rink and tossed the bubble, creating a shield of air magic around them. "That should protect you, for the most part. I think it's stuck to your aura, so you guys should be able to move wile the shield bubble is around you."
The half demon looked towards Jayce as he was charging his dark attack. "Two can play at that game..." His hands then started to glow a dark orange and he spun his hands around, summoning a demon flail. He spun the demonic spinal cord faster and faster as the energy aura around it started to get stronger...
--- ---
"I'm not finding anything." Wilham said. "I don't think this is it."
"Yeah, me neither." Firstman said.
"You sure?" Marshall asked. "Coriko, have you found anything?"
-
The change happened very quickly once the dark man gathered the desired energy. Ignoring the snide comments shot his way, Jayce began to float a few inches above the ground as he crossed his arms. His muscles bulged, his arms, legs, and neck growing longer. Twin gleaming white horns protruded from his hair, which in turn took on a goldish tint. His black armor changed shape along with his body, becoming the thick ebony scales of his skin. Two wings spread from his back, and a long thick tail grew. He then touched the ground, his feet now massive claws, as were his hands spread out before him... The shadow elemental dragon opened his maw and roared, towering over Draven and the others at twenty five feet tall...
The force from the roar blew Draven's hair back. The orbs within his hands doubled in size.
"Tch! Bring it!"
Thrusting both hands forward, Draven shot forth an intense beam of blinding red light. The dragon Jayce in turn dove right at the burning man, allowing the blast to strike him square in the chest. If the resulting explosion phased him, he did not show it, for he drove right through the flames, disappearing for a second before his massive black form appear on the other side, looming upon Draven.
Draven's aura doubled in size and he began floating a foot above the ground, bringing his left hand up as a translucent red half-sphere shield began to materialize before him. But the black dragon's claw was already blurring as it raged forward, striking the human with a thunderous blast. Draven was violently thrown backwards, smashing through the inner wall of the crater the two were fighting in. The ground cleaved under the force of the blast, creating a canyon some fifty feet long that promptly tumbled upon the Crimson Emperor.
A moment later a dusty gloved hand reached up from the hole in the ground.
"... ouch..."
----
Ven watched the transformation wide-eyed. Every bit of common sense within him told him to run away, but no, Duilin was facing that thing. And he had to help. Ven pointed his silver blade skyward, the reflection of the rising sun beaming off of it. The blade began to glow a bright white once more...
----
A small animal covered in off-white fur watched Draven get pounded into the ground from the safety of a copes of trees halfway up the mountain. From here, the arctic fox could see everything without making himself conspicuous. No, Melface didn't want to get involved just yet. Not until he knew where that Demon Lord was...
The nightmare demon leapt up on top of a small boulder and sat down, flicking his tail about idly. He could smell the Demon Lord, but didn't have any idea where he was at. Quite strange. He certainly wasn't involved in the battle. Oh well, at least it was entertaining watching his master totally annihilate everyone.
-
"Holy..." Duilin's jaw dropped as he stepped back, his demon flails slowing down slightly in their spin. Alpha Retan was bigger, but it was still awhile since he's seen a monster of such size. He watched as Draven was smashed away.
"Bah. I got him!" Duilin jumped into the air spreading his wings, and flapped them down, pushing himself thirty feet into the air. He began to twirl his demonic flails like a buzz saw, and they were glowing a deep golden colour. "Chew on this!" He then swept his arms and let the flails fly towards the Shadow Dragon.
-
"Yeah, I think I have."
Coriko was running his fingers around a wall. It felt wrong, it felt out of place. He looked at the brick work. The other sides seemed to continue past it. He placed his hand and ear on the wall. He could hear a rustling of air that seemed unsettled behind the wall.
"Hey, I think there is something back there. Help me brign the wall down."
-
"I will handle this." Marshall said, proudly. He held his amulet and his hands began to glow blue, and he brought forth his right hand and summoned a blue mist that transformed into an ogre. Marshall then waved his hand towards the brick wall. The ogre stomped towards the brick wall and then brought back it's fist and then swung it forward with immense force, and the wall was smashed down...
-
"So, this is the full force of a Draken in transformation, huh? It just looks so... weaker than I had anticipated... Ah well. I guess I'll have to use my 10,000 years of knowledge to figure out a way to destroy it."
Valimore leapt higher in the air and began to charge a black ball of both dark and vampiric power. It grew massively with a potential to kill 50 humans in one blow. after it's radius reached a massive 25 feet, he began to put more vampiric energy into it. It seemed to suck out all light around until all that could be seen was pitch darkness.
---
"What is this!? I can't see! I'll have to make some light." Ben curled his head back and pushed his hands out forwards, creating a large beam of light energy. It pulsated as the battle raged on. All could now be seen more clearly. "I'm gonna have to sit this one out, guys. I have to keep this light from going out, or that vampire is going to kill us all!"
---
"What is this? Some mortal fool disturbes my darkness?" Valimore could now be seen... but he had dramatically changed since there was last light. His orb had disappeared, but he gained an immense amount of height. His form began to change as he took the shape of the Draken. Around two minutes later, he looked exactly alike, except he was pure black.
Flapping his wings twice, he rose into the sky and zoomed downwards towards Jayce, claws out and forward. "How do you like my vampiric deception? It decives the mortal mind and forces false immages into it, except the pain is still the same, and so is the power! MEHHEHHEHHEHHEH!!!!!"
-
//BOO!\
"Turning around, I saw the diminutive figure running after the transport.
-"With me? Very well... get in."
I ordered Roth to lower the transport a little. Kerig safely climbed inside.
-"Alright, Damien, resume course."
//Huge posts FTW. I just need to get this transport thing over with. By the way, looking at the amount of posts that were made in my absence: two pages? Come on. I'm not that important. The RP pretty much came to a grinding halt.\
-
Jayce turned a burning crimson eye towards the fake image of himself.
"What mockery is this?" his voice was a low rumbling that shook the very foundation of the island. He spread his wings out widely and ducked low, burning eyes narrowing. With a flick of his right clawtip against the ground, he blasted grains of dirt at the fake, which promptly melded together to form razor sharp obsidian ice-like shards...
With an indignant roar, he snapped his attention towards Duilin, slashing the whirling flails in half with his left claw. They disappeared in a flurry of golden points of light, which clashed against the black aura forming around him. He promptly spun around, spinning his wide tail at the half-demon, a blast of black wind following in its wake...
Draven climbed fully out of the hole with his teeth clenched and eyes twitching. His armor and cape were torn and nicked. Blast it! His plan to corner Jayce as he attacked the so-called 'heros' was working perfectly. But the inhuman beast had so much power! No! If he was unable to take him down, how could he possibly hope to face Retan?
Draven exploded in a fury of flame as chunks of rock were blown away from him. Clasping his hands together, he slowly pulled them apart as a shaft of fire formed between them. Grabbing the end of the crimson blade with his right hand, he cleaved the air, sending a rush of super-heated air into the ground, which split open a gap about a foot deep.
Duilin and the vampire were providing an excellent distraction. On the opposite side of the crater within which the black dragon was fighting, Draven could see Ven charging white light into his own blade. The knight was pathetically weak, but at least he had the right idea... Draven held his own crimson blade up into the air in a similar manner, and it began to swell with it's own light, this one a bright red. Ven nodded to him from across the ravine...
-
//HEY! j00 c0ntr0ll3d k3r1g! n0 f41r! Well, fine, I guess it IS what I would have done anyway...\
After Kerig was safely on 'thing', he bowed to Kronos.
The bow was more an expression of politeness rather than respect, and so he proceeded to the back of 'transport' , where he sat down on the floor and closed his eyes.
For some reason he couldn't help but giggle quietly a little, as he felt as though the back of his hand was somehow being tickled.
Then it hit him. He opened his eyes and looked at the back of his hand.
Large, obvious black spots were beginning to cover his hand, and they seemed to be slowly spreading. He heard a deep, extremely silent voice coming from them.
"Unghh.... Buwaaaahh....ghnnnaaaaghrrrr..."
Kerig looked at his hand, wondering what this could mean.
"Calm down, featherbrain." Weloss attempted calming him "It's me. I'm... Making progress. Rather than watching me, why don't you pay attention... That woman is telling a very interesting story right now."
Kerig didn't see the need to object. He got up and ignored the tingling on his arm in favor of listening to the woman's 'story'...
-----
They walked for a while. Fernis heard several explosions in the distance, but she kept walking.
"Ugh... Fernis...?" Elphos seemed worried "What if... What if Tjed loses? What is the entire island is suddenly destroyed? Will we make it?"
Fernis was silent. She just kept walking, apparently ignoring Elphos and his questions.
Just when Elphos felt like giving up, she suddenly stopped.
"You... Are right." she said, as if surrendering "We will have to use our orb, then."
The expression on Elphos' face grew sour. Sure, he didn't like being so close to danger, but leaving your condition at the whim of lady luck wasn't exactly something he could recall as being a good thing.
He remembered the last time they used it. They first fell into swamp, full of leeches, and then transported right into between a large shark's jaws. By the time they were anywhere near their destination, they were wet, stinky, and covered in leeches, not to mention had to get new cloths.
Fernis had already taken out the orb.
"Come closer and grab on tight."
Elphos nodded and placed both his palms on the orb as it begun to glow and the mist within began to roll.
Soon enough, they were surrounded by what seemed to be a cloud of dust and disappeared.
-----
The last of the lizardmen fell.
Iskatyl inhaled deeply, attempting to calm his storming mind. He was too shocked facing the vast amounts of creatures he had just now killed so easily to notice the tremors, thunder, or even the appearance of the large object in the sky.
"B-brother... Please, let's stop... Just..."
"Come home?" he was suddenly interrupted by Zakon, who seemed not only unfazed, but downright unsatisfied "I think not, little one. One does not retreat to the shack when there are pests on the field..."
Zakon obviously took the time to actually notice what was going on not too far off.
The appearance of the fort in the sky seemed to especially... Intrigue him.
"Neither does one stay put when a large fly buzzes into their face." he added as he started running towards the direction of the commotion.
His intention was all too obvious.
"W-wait! Brother! Don't go!" Iskatyl grabbed his cloak and hurried after him.
//PHEW! These posts feel SHORT...\
-
The half demon, was surprised at how little his demonic spell did against the mighty dragon. Duilin pushed himself up and over the oncoming tail, performing a flip. As he leveled himself he noticed Ven and Draven, charging their blades with light. He supposed that he'd have to be the distracter, again.
"Is that all you got!?" Duilin called, shouting another taunt to the dragon-Jayce.
Duilin focus his Air-Elemental energy, and a yellow aura of lightning began to surround him, he then shot his energy into the air and then focused it down to the dragon-Jayce, by pushing his hands towards it, and down rained a series of lightning bolts upon the dragon.
-
"Hmph! Dodged me, did he? I'll show him who the better one is here!" Valimore brought his wings high into the sky and made a great flap, causing a great, black wave to purge the earth surrounding Jayce. "This black sonic boom had better work." He uttered under his breath.
---
"I see what's going on! Very well, then. CHARGE!!!"Jacobie yelled, his katanas forced in the air. He began to charge them with light energy as did Draven and Ven. His charge speed was faster, but his blade was a bit weaker. White ripples of light energy swirled around the blade and were soon absorbed. His charge speed slowed down and more and more light energy poured into the two glowing katanas.
"What is he doing down there? Ahh!!! My energy! He's using MY energy!" Ben's light beam was being absorbed by Jacobie's katanas. They glowed with power, almost full of light energy.
---
"Oh, come on, guys! You didn't start without me, did ya? I guess I'll have to kick into overdrive! HYA!" Tiberius, stepping out of the shadows from the cave after tailing Justin, Finally got up to leaving the cave and starting his fight in this epic battle. He sped out into the open valley.
"What in the...? Is that a... DRAGON!?!?!? I can play that game too, buddy. Get a load of this!!!" He leapt into the sky and surrounded himself in a great white aura, taking the shape of a Dragon. The aura glowed, focusing more and more size and detail as it charged. "Just a... few... more... minutes..."
-
Hannibal Roth was walking on the ribcage frame and inspecting the integrity of the transport. Everything looked normal, other than a few cracks here and there - but those healed instantly, as Kronos was continuously channeling his power through the bone. Looking down, Hannibal noticed the transport's massive shadow being cast down onto the sea. It was somewhat blurry and moving at the same speed of the transport, but something seemed amiss... Looking up, Hannibal found his answer. The sky was pulled over with clouds, and there was no visible sun to create this shadow.
Confirming Roth's suspicions, the shadow seemed to become starker, until it was clearly visible that it was a completely different shape. While the transport was somewhat of an oval, the shadow was perfectly round. It continued to get starker until a large metal frame finally showed...
---
"With all the protection around the central skull, I barely noticed as the entire transport shook with an explosion. Something was attacking us from outside, it seems. I looked through one of the empty eye sockets. At that moment, I understood where the factories from Xim had gone such a long time ago.
Below us was an enormous metal ship, with catapult-like weapons all pointed at the transport. Everything about this ship - the rusty, but thick iron it was made of, occasional gears showing here and there - suggested clockwork craftsmanship. The real question is, though, why is it attacking us now?
Damien was looking at me intently.
-"What will we do, sir? That explosion kind of worried me..."
-"You, Damien, worry too much. I don't pay you to worry. Well, as a matter of fact, I don't pay you at all... but that's besides the point. Just get us to where I told you to get us." I turned around at some nearby soldiers. "Can someone go get Hannibal for me?"
One of the soldiers ran off, no doubt to fetch Hannibal. Sure enough, soon, Hannibal was standing next to me.
-"Hannibal, as I am aware, you are an assassin, no?"
-"Yes, sir."
-"Like a ninja?"
-"Yes, sir."
-"With smoke bombs and all that rot?"
-"Er, yes, sir."
-"Well, show me what you can do."
In less than a fourth of a second, Hannibal swung his hand in a particular way - and teleported to a few meters away from me.
-"Neat. Go down into that ship and shut it down."
-"Yes, sir."
-
The mighty black dragon flinched as he was pricked by lightning bolts. Clearly annoyed, he opened his toothy mouth and let loose a stream of bright violet energy, crackling with tendrils of blackness. The blast raged towards Duilin head on, smashing through several of his lighting bolts on the way...
Just then a black shockwave slammed into his side and he stumbled. The dragon Jayce craned his head around and glared at the impostor version of himself who threw the sonic boom, eyes burning brightly. He slammed his thick tail into the ground and immediately large jutting rocks burst forth from under Valimore, looking to impale him...
Draven brought the flaming crimson blade to his side.
"Now you DIE!!"
The ground behind him gave way as he exploded, sending chunks of dirt streaming away. He shot forward like a cannon ball, straight at the mammoth black dragon.
On the opposite side, Ven did the same, summoning a bright green gust of wind to ride on. He sped forth, his white blade at his side streaming through the air...
Draven arrived first and performed a giant diagonal slash upwards against the black dragon's golden chest. The distracted dragon let out a scream of surprise as the ground underneath erupted in a pillar of flame. Meanwhile Ven flew right behind the beast, ducking under a wing and slashing against the back of the neck. As his sword connected, there was a bright flash of light and a thunderclap.
Draven and Ven then circled around, ready for a second strike. Draven dove deeply towards the chest again, this time aiming to plunge his sword into the beast's heart. Ven went for a slash against the front of the neck this time, spiraling towards a spot halfway up...
Until he was plucked from the air like a children's toy. Ven felt a large claw wrap around his legs, and he was immediately disorientated as he was pulled through the air. Using the knight as a sort of bat, Jayce smacked Draven away with Ven's body. The burning man flew downward and bounced off of the ground once before he too was plucked out of the sky. With a warrior in each claw, the black dragon smacked them together once, twice, three times. He then began spinning them around, faster and faster while both of them screamed. Finally he threw them up into the air, and as they began to fall back down, smacked them with his tail. Both of them flew like cannonballs, straight toward the mountains to the north...
The vulpine-form Melface was very amused at the proceeding of the battle. Suddenly he realized that those two men-turned-rag-dolls were headed right his way. The white fox's red eyes grew wide and he blinked out of existence without so much as a puff of smoke. Draven and Ven hit right above where he was, cutting through a few trees in the process, and slammed right into the rocky facade of the mountain. Immediately the ground shook and great boulders became dislodged, rolling down the hill as the two were cover in debris and dust.
After a moment a gloved hand reached out from under the rocks. An irate Draven climbed up, looking haggard and dirty. Looking around with teeth clenched, he reached down to the rock and pulled Ven up by the collar, who was looking much more starry eyed.
"B-b-bad...i-i-i-idea~..." Ven managed to splurt out.
Draven smacked him in the back of the head.
"Idiot. I only tried it because you were."
-
//Fernis and Elphos are out for a while. Kerig and Weloss are skipped, as Kerig does nothing but watch Kronos's necromancer underling, if you can call her that\
Zakon swiftly skipped from rock to rock as he went up the mountain.
Not too far behind him was his brother, barely managing to keep up the pace.
"W-wait, b-brother!" he called out to Zakon, hoping his brother would slow down "Why are you climbing the mountain? Wouldn't it be easier to get there by..."
"Coming through here..." Zakon interrupted with his usual, peaceful demeanor "Is not only excellent excirsize, but is also a good way not to waste the warm up I just had."
Suddenly, just on the other side of a large boulder standing before him, something smashed into the mountain. Zakon slowed as strange, dusty-looking fog appeared there.
But Zakon didn't want to wait. Ignoring Iskatyl's calls, who was still had quite a distance to cover, he slowly looked at what lied in wait on the other side.
"Idiot..."
Zakon suddenly realized two people were there, speaking. Although he only cought one word of their conversation, or whatever it was, he didn't care for the rest. He quickly glanced at them, nothing they were both fully armored.
How annoying, he thought, realizing he would have to destroy their armor first, as battered as it may be. He noticed the man with the black, red trimmed armor was not only closer, but his back was turned to him, too.
The course of Zakon's next action was all too obvious - he lunged, aiming at the line easiest to aim at running across the man's plate armor.
-
"Oh sh-" Duilin exclaimed as he saw the stream of shadow energy flying towards him. He held his hands forward and created a shield bubble around him, he had to give it a continuous stream of his energy in order to hold back all of it.
He noticed that Draven and Ven were just tossed away. "Okay...that's it!" Duilin focused his fire, air and demonic energy causing bolts of red-orange lightning to shoot around him, and pure red flame to spin around his aura. Hopefully the fake draken could hold Jayce off, while he was charging up his attack...
--- ---
Rink and Lagart were near the inside of the cave, Rink was safe behind Duilin's Wind Barrier, but Lagart was fighting off some of the remaining lizard men with the Tjed knights.
"They're getting hammered out there!" Rink exclaimed in anguish. "What in blazes is Zeros', doing!? I think we should just help him..." Rink jumped up and went to move through the barrier...
"No!" Lagart shouted, after smashing away another lizard warrior. "Jayce is unstoppable in dragon form. We better use staying here. Little guy like you, not make much difference."
Rink stepped back. "Yeah, I guess you're right..."
-
As Draven scowled upon him, Ven's eyes widened and he pointed.
"Uh... behind... behind...!"
"What are you--?"
Draven's eyes suddenly narrowed, and they slid to his right. He suddenly snapped around, extending his right open palm as a bright crimson flash emanated from it. It was like he was holding a bomb in his hand that just went off. The wave of flame was intense, and the surrounding foliage withered away from the blast of super heated air, a loud cracking sound echoing off the mountains. Ven covered his face from the unexpected blast, though thankfully none of the flames were directed his way...
"Who dares distract me?" Draven challenged through clenched teeth as he walked through the dying flames to see who he might have blasted to oblivion.
----
"Piteous humans..."
The black dragon grumbled as his long neck turned, deciding which of his play-things he should destroy next. His crimson eyes settled on a half-demon putting on light show as he powered up. That's the one... He flicked his tail once, cutting a hole in the ground as a large rock shot up into the air.
Jayce began to trudge to Duilin, hanging high over him, shaking the ground with each step...
-
Coriko moved backwards as the musty dead air filled the cavern the party was in. There was a lot of dust. Coriko peered throught the dense dust that must have been at least a decade old. The outline of a podium or plinth could be made out, with difficulty, through the dust.
"Hey guys, umm... whats that?"
-
"Forget something, Draken? How 'bout you take two of these and call me in the morning!" Jacobie shot two beams of dense light energy out of his katanas, aimed straight for where the Draken was trudging. "Oh, one more thing! Try dodging this, you pitiful excuse for a Draken!" Jacobie mocked the black Draken. He put his two katanas together and fused them to make one giant dai-katana, throwing it right at Jayce.
---
"Hmph... This form is boring. I'd rather just like to suck his blood dry. Come and face me, Draken! What's the matter, you big, fat, pompus, over-sized piece of trash? Had a bit too much to handle!?"
*I hope that half-demon hurries up. I'm running out of taunts to say at this worm. Even I'm not as powerful as a Draken in a full fledged Dragon form...*
---
The beam of light surrounding Tiberius focused fully into a giant red Dragon. He flew high in the air and looked back down at Jayce. He inhailed a great deal of air, preparing a fire blast. *In just a few moments, this guy'll be toast!* Tiberius thought. He was quite a bit over his head and much too over-confident...
---
"Ouch... that long fling had to hurt. Jackie, do you think we should go over there to help?"
"I guess... Okay, let's go..."
"Right! I'll call in the airship!" Jelka took out a weird device from her pocket and dialed a bunch of random numbers on it. The airship came out from the sky and down infront of them as Jelka put the device back in her pocket. "Let's go!"
Jelka piloted the airship to where Ven and Draven stood. The stopped it out infront of them and Jelka hopped out. "Need a lift, guys? It's porbably only a matter of time before that Draken-thing is out cold..."
-
BANG.
Although Zakon didn't realize it yet, he was lucky he lunged at such great speed. The part of his cloths that he put out earlier was no completly burnt off.
Fortunately for him, the rest of him wasn't close enough to the blast to be seriously harmed.
Zakon smiled to himself in delight.
Not only did his target dodge, but it also fought back.
The only thing bothering Zakon at the time was the fact his target attacked him with magic, and Zakon hated magic attacks with a passion, as it was the only thing he could never just cut through.
Unfazed, he took the split second of confusion to ponder his next course of action. Should he indulge himself in this "challenge" which has presented itself to him, or should he strike at the other one?
"Stop, brother!" his pondering was interrupted by a voice that was no longer so far away "Don't do it!"
That moment, Zakon made his desicion. He lunged at the man wearing silver armor, aiming to cut his plate rather than run his knife through the line across the man's face.
He had to try them both, at least, before Iskatyl stood in his way...
-
"Looks like somebody already got here before us, eh, gentlemen?"
"I don't fink oi loik the looks a dis, mate. Ever'thin's on foia!"
"Calm yourself, Barbadose! I didn't make you my first mate for absolutely no reason. Let's just walk around the port and make for land. Tell the fleet to make port; We're here for Tjed."
Aaron Grey... Same sensation as any kind of mad man. 'Rule the world! Let not a single person live', that whole deal. Problem for him is he's only 17, yet his determination sends him ever-forwards. He Leapt out of the ship he was on out by the port, along with his crew and his first mate, Barbadose, also his childhood friend.
Behind him was a massive fleet of 200 ships holding an army of 2,000 men all in grey chainmail and dark grey capes. The army was closing around the area and setting up camp for conquest. The set out thousands of tents. Each tent was able to hold in it two soldiers.
"Right! Call for the general! We're making out stand for this little island today..."
-
//If you're going to attack with 200,000 men, prepare for a few posts, as stated in rules. Which I'm sure you read Wink.\
Duilin's fire-lightning aura had doubled in volume and he continued to gather his magic and demonic energy around him. He wanted this to count, he needed a bit more time...
--- ---
"I think you found it, Coriko." Wilham said. He then stepped towards the podium. "Yeah, the tablet is still here. Odd" The stone tablet was resting on the podium. "Hmm, it looks like this was the official announcement for the movement to the island. It's a good thing we found this."
"So, shall we get moving to out next location?" Marshall inquired.
-
Hannibal fastened the belts on his assassin gear, which was oddly enough all white. He liked the colour; it reminded him of the blankness one experiences near death. He's been there too many times to count.
Slowly, Hannibal walked out of the central skull piece of the transport, and looked below. The ship below was reloading its weapons, reminiscent of the clockwork scorpion tanks that Kandarin used to have. Strange... Where would they get such technology?
The weapons were almost all loaded, and aimed at the ship, while Hannibal was trying to figure out a way to get down to the ship without breaking both his legs. However, as the ship fired its salvo, he got an idea. Keeping the speeding projectile in his line of sight, he threw a small canister from his belt down onto the ground. A black fog surrounded him, disrupted only by a sharp purplish flash coming from within. In a blink of an eye, Hannibal vanished from the transport and reappeared on the incoming stone projectile. Dashing around wildly, he jumped off of it, and hopped onto the next charge. Using the salvo as a ladder, he swiftly got down to the cold metal surface of the ship.
Roth looked around. He was on the surface of the gloomy ship, the catapults firing its shots at the bone transport. There was a metal spire in the middle, possibly some sort of a ram or an energy weapon (or both!). There were absolutely no openings of any sort on the ship, save for the holes that supplied the ammo to the catapults - which were too small to fit through. Hannibal walked around a bit, when he noticed an inconsistency of sounds that his footsteps were making. Could there be a hollow space below his feet?
Now treading carefully, Roth sampled each area he stepped on. Some sounded more hollow than others, possibly indicating a bigger space. Slowly, Hannibal lay down on the rusted iron, his ear and his palms pressed against the hull. There was a slow throbbing sound from within the ship. Closing his eyes, Roth became one with the metal... and fell right through it.
Looking around, Hannibal found himself in a dimly lit hallway. There were many sounds surrounding him - metallic clunking, hissing of pipes, the occasional electrical discharge - and, of course, the deep pulsing coming from the depths of the ship. Finding it very odd that the hallways were completely devoid of any people, he continued walking through the corridor.
Suddenly, and at last, he heard footsteps nearby. The assassin quickly leaned to the nearest wall, his suit camouflaging to the texture and colours of the metal behind him. He was practically indistinguishable from the wall.
The two men passing by were chattering in some foreign language:
-"...apocrypham necavere audes? Caudessimus est! Ego enim non... Tacite!"
Both of them stopped and cautiously looked around.
-"Noliquid erat. Vale!"
The other man left, and the first one remained in the hallway. He was studying a panel on the wall, while Hannibal was studying the man himself. He was dressed in all black clothes, with a black-against-red circular insignia on his back. The insignia looked like a very thin dragon tying around itself in a knot. It absolutely didn't make any sense to Hannibal, who has never seen this symbol before. Nevertheless, in order to move anywhere, the uninvited guest must be disposed of. Very slowly, and very silently, Hannibal drew two long blades hung on either side of his belt. Creeping like a spider, Roth sneaked up on the man, and slashed his blade at the person's neck.
What Hannibal thought to be a move to scratch one's neck was actually a defensive maneuver. With a start, the assassin noticed that his blade was blocked by another one, one which he swore was not there a second ago.
-"Necavo tuum... FURCIFER!!!"
Shouting some other incoherent garbage, the man whipped around, sending his empty open palm at Hannibal's stomach. The powerful strike knocked Roth back and down onto the corridor. The dagger was no longer there - somehow, the defender was holding a maul now...
-"Quam stultus es... Quam... parvus... es..."
Panting from effort, the black-clothed man swung the maul right at Hannibal. The weapon struck the the floor below Roth, who was no longer there. Rather, he was behind his victim, holding a blade to his throat.
-"Die..."
The death was quick. Not at all how Hannibal wanted it, but it did justice.
---
Hannibal's opponent was quick and skilled, features that Roth noted for future encounters. Instead, he decided to attempt to avoid any further confrontations. Surprisingly, there didn't appear to be that many people within the mammoth ship. Hannibal scaled entire empty corridors before the came to the core of the ship. What he saw nearly knocked him back as hard as his opponent.
There was a giant beating heart in the middle of the room, blood from it seeping through a grate the floor. The heart was pumping blood ferociously through vein-like tubes protruding from either ends of the room. This must be what makes this thing tick, Hannibal thought.
Treading carefully to avoid the blood, Hannibal crawled up to one of the tubes and sliced an opening in it. Immediately, the heart began to pump faster, probably to compensate for the rift. In response, Hannibal opened up the wound even further, and a large stream of blood was now seeping through the opening. The heart continued to beat at a steady, unchanging rate. Eventually, the blood will seep out... time to get out of here.
Hannibal rushed through the door, and headed for the point of entrance, where he infiltrated the ship. After teleporting outside, he noticed the catapults still firing. Thinking quick, Hannibal jumped onto one of the projectiles. He rode it to the transport, which was still holding. As soon as he was within range, he teleported inside the skull. The ship beneath was already losing buoyancy.
-
(Drannic: Change 200,000 to 2,000 and you're set. Heh...)
Draven turned and watched the tall black clad man go after Ven.
"Tch, I've more pressing issues to deal with."
A red flame engulfed the man as he flew a few feet into the air, suddenly finding himself blocked by an airship.
(Please provide a bit more detail about what things look like in your posts, Drannic.)
"No, I do not need a lift! Blast it! Get out of my way!"
Draven clenched his fists and scowled. With another fiery explosion emanating from his body, he was off, winding clean around the flying ship and back towards the battle, towards the crater with the huge black dragon within...
----
"Huh?!"
Ven was startled, as he hadn't seen the black clad man come at him. With a whirl, he twisted out of the way of the man's knife, allowing it to strike the metal plate that protruded from the top of his right shoulder, and bringing his sword up in response. Ven took a full leap backwards, blade at the ready.
Suddenly that plate split in two and fell off, leaving his right shoulder exposed with only thin cloth to protect it.
"What the...?!"
Ven widened his stance. There was certainly some foul magic at play here if he was able to crack plate metal in two with only a knife...
"Who are you?"
He brought his sliver sword up, not about to let that knife near him again.
----
Jayce found himself struck in the side by beams of light and he stumbled, flalling to one knee. Flames from a red dragon licked his hide, but he was able to compose himself to block the sword thrown his way with the tip of his tail.
Back on his feet, he stretched skyward and roared a deafening screech. Rocks cracked and boulders split, and the very crater he stood in seemed to deepen, flecks of stone spinning into the air and disintegrating. With a quick serpent-like twist, he spun around, running his wide tail across the ground to strike the crimson armored lizard Jacobie. At the same time he opened his mouth, spewing forth a black mist at the red dragon that blew flame on him.
-
Duilin had seemed to tune out the Draken's screech as his magic aura was acting as a barrier around him. Duilin's irises began to glow as his aura expanded and the occasional spark flew off of it to the ground. Duilin really wanted to leave a mark so he kept on pedaling to the metal...
---
"It looks like Duilin's got something big coming." Rink commented. "With Duilin's strength increasing so much, who knows how this could turn out..., I hope he doesn't go fully demonic again, that was scary."
Lagart nodded, as he watched the battle, with Rink...
-
"I wonder what his problem was." Jelka leapt back ont the ship. "Hey, look! That knight's getting attacked! We should-"
"Good GOD!!! Why is everyone attacking every living thing we have out here. An army has amassed on the shore!" Jelka quickly took the airship down to distract the army and flew above them, landing on top of a few soldiers.
---
Jacobie flew backwards a few feet, hitting the ground next to Duilin. "I hope *cough* you're... CHARGED *Ugh*" With that said, Jacobie fell unconscious for the moment, bits of blood leaking from his mouth.
Valimore ran out towards Duilin and Jacobie, appearing there in an instant. "Hurry up, will you!? I've already lost two of my apprentices to the war, and I'm not ready to see another one die... not after how long I've been caring for him. I guess we may be allies, as long as you do not oppose the Crimson Emperor. I must get Jacobie to a safe area. I will see you in due time."
Valimore picked up the life-less Jacobie and in an instant, he disappeared. Reappearing near the caves, he put Jacobie on a wall of rocks near the cave entrance. "Look's like I'm going to have to tend to these wounds... I hope that demon kills that Draken in cold blood... He deserves nothing better."
---
The red dragon's flames met evenly with Jayce's, but it slowly died away, and he was burned up a bit in the face. He flew back a bit in pain, then flew higher in the sky. His shape started to change to an even larger creature, resembling much of a golem. A white aura began to surround the dragon and his shape took the form of the golem more and more every few seconds.
---
"What's this? A cat-like... thing... landing on MY minions!? Your time is up, you foolish girl!" Aaron brought his metal fists up to his face and punched Jackie out of the ship. After which, he pounded Jelka to the ground, smashing her to death. She screamed, crying out for help, but none could hear her cry, and alas, she died. He threw her corpse near her sister's. Jackie was knocked out on the ground beneath the airship, so he left her there with her sister to die. "I don't know if you two are related, but you can die together all the same. Ignorant little..."
-
Tsk. The black-armored mage has left. But at least the man before him wasn't too boring either.
Zakon gazed upon him with hungry eyes.
Should he talk, to scare him? Or perhaps, this will reassure him...
Perhaps he should just attack again, without saying a word?
And yet, the temptetion was too great. Zakon smiled at him as one would smile at a long lost friend.
"Surprised?" he asked, his tone signaling he wasn't anything more than interested "With my eyes and this knife...I can cut through anything."
His eyes then suddenly widened, his smile turned diabolical.
"ANYTHING." his tone made him sound like a savage beast now "That includes that puny sword you're holding!"
And then, he lunged...
...Or so he thought. Someone seems to have grabbed his shoulder, preventing him from proceeding.
"Cough... I finally...cought up... with you..." Iskatyl's voice was weak, and his breathing was fast. It was quite obvious he wasn't used to dashing like he just did.
"I...I won't let you kill people who did nothing to you..." He said, cousing Zakon to shake his head and sigh.
"I guess I have no choice, little one." Zakon finally gave in to Iskatyl's shoulder-pulling "I mean, he DID only have only his shoulder plate destroyed when I aimed at his chest... Having you stand in my way now might actualy be risky."
Iskatyl's grip loosened. Zakon turned his head to look at the crater below and several thoughts crossed his mind.
"I can still beat you to that crater if I hurry." Zakon breathed deepely, enjoying the fresh mountain air, regardless of the traces of smoke. It was as if he was not in any fight a few moments earlier.
"But I'm not that mean. In any case..."
Zakon turned to the man holding the sword.
"As you can see, my little brother convinced me not to fight you. I suppose I should answer your question... I am Zakon."
He bowed slightly.
"I see the lines where things end. With this knife, I bring these things to the lines where they end. Me and my little brother have been given this power, but he doesn't seem to enjoy cleaning up as much as I do."
He slid his knife back into his belt, the old friendly smile returning to his face.
"And who might you be?"
-
---
"Skirmishers! Follow me! We're going to send a message to Tjed. The rest of you, continue to set up camp. And send a few of the slaves to clear out the city's rubble. Here, we begin anew!" Aaron began to lead 250 men from his military force. These are the skirmishers. They had plain steel spears with golden tips and Legion shields to boot. Their march was perfeclty syncronized; not a person out of place.
//Keep in mind, these are skirmishers. Their armor and weapons suck, along with there tactics, but they do look good... Hehehe...
---
Justin put his right hand infront of his face extending his index and middle fingers, placing them on his brow and closing his eyes. After a few seconds, he opened them, looking up at the mountains. "There you are. Hope you can help me out." He began to sprint at a speed of ten miles per hour, but tripped over a rock and smashed his face into the mountain wall.
"Ow..." He said in a high-pitched voice, "that hurt rather... well a lot." He got back up on his feet and began to climb the mountain wall, finding loads of rocks to grab hold of. Rock after rock, his speed increased, and he sped up the wall like a professional rockclimber. After two minutes of scaling the mountain side, he was about one foot away from the peak where Ven, Zakon, and his little brother Iskatyl were standing.
"Hey! One of you up there! I can't get up this spot right here, as there appears to be no rocks around. Could one of you help me up?"
---
Ben hovered down to the ground, as he didn't need to keep his beam of light anymore. The vampire was gone, to the caves by the looks of it. He could begin to help out the defense. He flew over towards Duilin and landed about two feet next to him. Blood was stained on the ground. Lizard blood. Ben ignored this and held out his hands towards Duilin.
"I give this demon my power. RECIEVE!!!" A blue beam of pure energy shot out of Ben's hands and towards Duilin. It was a bit slower than an ordinary beam, but it was packed full of magic energy. "Duilin, take this and use it well. This is every single piece of energy I have left."
---
-
//Green energy would actually be earth magic. But it doesn't really matter what colour basic energy is, just depends on the person, I guess. Check the specializations page.
Oh and Duilin's floating in the air BTW, but I guess that doesn't really change anything.\
Duilin nodded towards Ben. "Thanks." He absorbed Bjendell's (that's Ben right?) energy into his surrounding glow of magic. His aura was massive, glowing between, yellow, orange and red. The half demon then raised his arms and the glowing magical energy flowed towards his hands, and pressed them together. He then spun the magical energy with his hands into a red-orange coloured orb the size of a softball and then held the small orb of energy out. The orb expanded into 40 feet in diameter he threw the orb high into the air.
'Dear Gaia, make this work...'
The orb then exploded into several smaller ones, and began raining down a series of lightning shaped bolts of golden magic energy at Jayce. The orbs themselves zoomed down at bullet speed towards the draken...
//This attack is kind of like an uber charged up combination of Demon Flame, Thunder Rage and Stun Orb.\
-
Ven ran his thumb over the hilt of his blade and rotated it once. But it was a double edge sword, so it didn't change it's position.
"My name is Ven Hyul, High Knight of Tjed. If we weren't in a state of crisis right now I'd arrest you myself for such a show of violence. But as it is now there's a huge dragon I must help slay immediately."
Ven slashed his blade once, kicking a bit of dust up with the force of the wind.
"I'd leave this land now if I were you. We don't take kindly to those who attack knights."
With that, he jumped over the side, landing an a lower cliff near Justin, who he just realized wanted a hand in getting up where he'd just been.
"I'd be careful. There's an assassin up there."
Not willing to waste any more time, Ven leapt into the air as a gust of wind congealed into a rush of golden energy beneath his feet. Blade held to his side, he began to fly south to resume his battle with the great black dragon, riding the wind beneath his feet.
----
Jayce turned towards the forming golem, ready to snap it in half with his jaws. But just then he was surrounded by golden light. Orbs began slamming into his back, causing him to stagger and lose balance, each letting lose a blinding explosion that ripped away large sections of ground. As the stream of blasts intensified, the dragon was tossed into the side of the crater, the earth around breaking up as he slammed into it, burying him deeply into the side and as a second, even greater hole was torn into the ground adjoining the first. He bellowed as he was blasted by golden flames, the rock walls around him shattering. A thick cloud of dust rose, and when it settled, the dragon lied buried under a mound of rubble, motionless...
Throughout the course of the battle the terrain of southern Tjed had been transformed from a serene hilly grass and forested landscape to a wasteland of deep craters and jutting rocks, this last attack making it more so than ever.
Draven arrived on scene just then, a light flame surrounding him and looking quite haggard as he flew some fifty feet above the fallen dragon.
"Perfect!"
He clenched his right fist as he sneered down upon his incapacitated foe.
"Bind him! Bind him right there! Quickly!!"
With that, his aura exploded and he blasted upwards into the sky, spiraling until he was parallel with the looming Crimson Captial, which remained floating in place the whole time.
Crimson aura flaring, Draven stretched both arms to the sky and held his palms upward, a tiny point of vermilion light appearing above them... Tch, sacrificing the entire island of Tjed is a small price to pay to rid the world of the vile Draken...
Crimson-Death Annihilation Attack!! (CDAA): 10%
-
"How was that prince-ling?" Duilin mocked, as Jayce lay motionless on the ground.
He then saw Draven swoop over and order him and the golem to bind him. Sounded like a good idea until...
"Wait...is that...NO!!" Duilin shouted. Draven was insane; the CDAA was the attack that killed Alpha Retan and probably the entire arctic region if it wasn't for Zeros' barrier. If he used it here, Tjed would be destroyed. Duilin wouldn't allow that to happen, not after his failure to save his home town and then his failure to save Romme, he just couldn't let that happen again.
'I'll need your help on this one, old friend.' Duilin unsheathed The Iduran, the blade glistening as he rose it up. He dashed through the air towards the burning mad-man. He then stopped only a couple feet beside him and pointed the blade only inches away from the head of the Crimson Emperor.
Duilin gave Draven a deathly glare. "If you don't stop, I swear to god I will kill you." Duilin said with total seriousness.
-
"The ship below sank, and Hannibal was back - we were almost at the shore, in fact. Even from here I could see masses of people, many wearing the colours of Kandarin.
Soon enough we landed the gigantic transport, and my officers began loading people inside. There were two thousand people here at least, and they were taking a while to move, sadly... I ordered my officers to hurry up. People passing me by weren't looking at me, but I could see that they were doing that with great strain. Oh well."
-
---
"Hmm... Looks like I did this for no reason. Confoundit! Looks like a big fall... I've survived worse." Justin leapt off the wall and headed straight up to the Floating Island. holding both his hands out, he just barely made it on the island's edge. He began to climb up to where Draven was. "Great... more climbing."
---
Tiberius had taken the form of a golem and walked towards the great crater and pile of rubble Jayce was in. "I've got a better way to kill a Draken. Just let me rip off his head!" Tiberius jumped down into the crater and shifted through the rubble until he could see Jayce's head. He grabbed the sides and began to yank it back. "This may take a while..."
---
"That power... I have to protect us all. We musn't let Tjed fall to anything! We've come too far!" Ben held his hands up above his head. "I know I gave away all my energy, so I'll have to take some back. Drannica, hear my plea! Give me your blessing, and I shal protect this world from darkness. Give me your energy!"
A great beam of light began to come down to where Ben was standing. "Is it... working?" The beam came down into his hands and fully recharged his energy. Just as his energy was fully charged, the beam shifted its position. Soon, it broke into smaller waves of light and focused on the defenders. All of the Tjed knights started to glow with a birght purple aura. A darker purple energy swirled around their swords. Their morale was restored and increased ten fold.
---
"Aaron! Sir! What is that that's swirling around those soldiers?"
"It's favor. Favor from the gods. They seem to have the divine intervention that's missing in our army. Perhapse if we can just rebuild here, we could make peace with them. They could be a part of my empire!"
"That's a grand idea, sir!"
"Quit sucking up, Barbadose. I hate it when people do that. Anyways, I have to find the leader of this army. Tell the skirmishers to stand their ground; I'll be right back." Aaron raced out into the field of craters, searching for anyone who might be with the other army. Just then, he stumbled upon Duilin in the air, pulling out the Iduran.
"Excuse me, good friend. Do you happen to know the head knight of this army? I wish to have a-WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS THAT ISLAND!?!?!?"
-
"What is this? Tch! Get out of my way, half-demon, or I will obliterate you along with the dragon!"
Draven lowered his left arm and swung his hand through the air as if swatting away a fly. A wave of flame came forth blasting in Duilin's direction.
The pin-point of light above Draven's other hand grew slightly.
CDAA: 15%
(Drannic: Duilin and Draven are floating rather high in the air, above the battlefield.)
----
Suddenly, all the knights of Tjed stopped and rose their blades to the sky, shafts of light penetrating skyward as they all shouted,
"Ooooooh!!!"
in unison, their moral increased.
(Kessen 2. Heh...)
----
The cloud of wind Ven was riding disappeared and he fell, deftly landing at the northern edge of the larger crater. It was a sight to see, the great black dragon buried in stone and the golem trying to remove its head. Above, Draven and Duilin were in the sky bickering. Though he didn't know the reason, it didn't surprise him. He heard some newcomer shout out his question to the warriors above asking about the leader of the Tjed army, and that was his cue.
"These knights are under my command, sir," Ven shouted, "What business do you seek?"
----
In the golem's hands, Jayce's burning crimson eyes suddenly snapped open. His maw opened with an angry roar, spewing forth a vile black mist from it...
-
Kerig was paying close attention to what was going on around, but he wasn't bothered by any of it. Since at the moment ntohing too interesting was being said, he was playing with his pinky, trying to bend it in various strange ways.
His right hand was completly black already. The blackness, like a stubborn stain, was spreading to his arm...
-----
"Can I kill him now?"
"NO!"
Zakon laughed. But he was unsatisfied, for fact.
And his brother was in the way.
-"Hey, Tyl, he said he has a 'dragon' to deal with..."
-"Yes, I think he did..."
-"I'm still hungry. You won't mind me getting us some steak and ridding them of a problem while I'm at it, right?"
-"I...I guess so..."
-"Good. Stay here. Wouldn't want you burnt by that dragon!"
-"Y-yes, brother..."
Zakon smiled to himself as he took quick leaps down the mountain.
He had gotten what he wanted... And obviously, he planned to do much more than just keeping his promise.
//Sorry guys, in a hurry\
-
"Don't you just Tch at me!" Duilin shouted. "Has your ego gotten in the way of the fact that if you release your attack then you'll destroy Tjed?! Jayce deserves to die, but not at the cost of all these people!"
The half demon gave even more sternness in his voice. "I'm dead serious Lars. If you don't think I will, just try to obliterate me along with him!" He narrowed his eyes, and his iris darkened. "Because I would love it..."
--- ---
Wilham, Marshall and the group beginning to head their way out of the dusty dungeon, when suddenly the entire room begins to shake.
"What's going on?" Marshall asked.
"Maybe its an earth quake." Wilham replies.
Then in the middle of the room an orange glowing circle appears on the floor, as if being projected by an amplfier of some type. The design of an inverted pentagram then appeared in a similar manner in the circle, flame then sprouted from the projection and trio of people appeared from the strange pentagram.
"We are the Talonscar Elite (http://http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia/index.php/Talonscar_Elite)! Our master's resting place has been disturbed! DIE MORTALS!"
"Uh..oh..." Firstman gulped. "Looks like I'm gonna need more than just one of Coriko's fire arrows...."
-
"On it!"
Coriko yelled to the others over the sound sound of the Talonscar Elite. He rolled over summoning his bow. He already had one of his special arrows that explodes on impact firing shrapnel everywhere loaded and ready to be fired at the leader's head. He held it there not moving a muscle, barely breathing. Coriko locked eyes with the leader of the Talonscar Elite.
"Your move tough guy!"
-
---
"Right. Name's Aaron of the Ario empire. I was hoping to make some sort of treaty, if you don't mind. I will need your assistance in an upcomming battle. I offer you 2,000 of Ario's finest, but I need some help with something in Ariosis, my homelands, about 75 miles south of here. If you help, my soldiers will gladly join you in combat."
---
The golem was not phased by the Draken's dark fire. He merely resumed to try and pull off its head. "What's the deal with this thing anyway? Rockgolem is my strongest form, and it's barely doing a thing against this neck. It's like the thing is made of steel!"
---
Justin reached the top of the floating capitol and took a great leap into the air, grabbing hold of Draven's legs. He took out his demon fang and slashed upwards at Draven, aiming for his hands so that it might stop his magic attacks.
-
"You miserable ingrate!" Draven was clearly irate now. "Do you have the slightest idea what a draken truly is? The lives of a few rejects are well worth the death of this abomination! If you think you've hurt Jayce with your pathetic attack, you are sorely mistaken. This is the only possible way. He will not allow himself to be hit again. Ever.
"By standing in my way, you are ensuring the death of every living thing on this planet. They will enslave everyone of use and then kill the rest before moving on to the next. That is their way. Now move it!!"
Suddenly, he felt someone grab a hold of his legs.
"IDIOT!"
Draven faltered in the air, trying to kick Justin off. Dodging the blade, Draven held his right palm right before Justin's face.
"If you fight against me, you fight for the Dark Empire! DIE!!"
It was like looking down the barrel of a cannon. A blast of flame burst from Draven's hand with a thunderous boom...
Above Draven's head, the brightly glowing orb shrank slightly.
CDAA: 10%
----
Ven ran a gauntlet under his chin.
"I don't quite have the authority to aid you, however if you do help us, I'm certain King Henri will grant you aid as soon as this crisis is over."
Ven gave a warm freindly smile and extended his right hand to shake, resting the tip of his silver blade on the ground with the other.
"So then sir, consider it a deal."
----
The black dragon smiled a devilishly toothy grin, his crimson eyes narrowing. He spoke in a surpsingly deep eloquent voice...
"My hide is much tougher than the flimsy metal you call steel, I assure you..."
With that, Jayce arched his neck back, a few of the boulders falling off. Suddenly his right claw burst forth from under the rubble, the massive blade-like claws slashing down at the golem...
Two of his appendages were free now, his head and claw...
-
Zakon let out a devious snicker as he had reached the battlefield.
As much as he would have liked to start with whatever was closest to him, a promise held greater priority.
He will start with the dragon, and just kill everyone else afterwards. Except maybe the guy with the glowy orb. Magic users were annoying.
He dashed across various corpses, some human, some lizard, some disemboweld and some just had limbs burned off...
The land, as scorched as it was, was perfect for moving around. Kicking up dust behind him, approaching the dragon.
Should he jump on him as he dashes? No, that would be too risky. The wisest move would be to approach from behind and catch the first limb flying in his direction.
As he increased speed, he readied his reflexes for sharp, scaly things to burst from under his feet...
As confident as he was in his ability to grab whatever goes at him, he didn't realize there was a difference between the dragons and the draken...
-
---
"WWWAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!" Justin couldn't manage to avoid the blast. He fell down at a great speed, but fortunately for him, Ben was in the air near-by and picked him up. He flew over towards the ground and placed him down.
"No, no, no! I need to fight that guy up there with that orb-thing above his head. See him?"
"Alright. Here goes." Ben kicked off the ground, holding under Justin's arms. As soon as he was at a regular height with Draven, Ben threw Justin forwards. His fang was closing in infront of his right hand. He slashed forwards, hoping for a hit.
---
"Jolly good, then!" Aaron grabbed his hand and shook a few times, then he cupped his mouth to shout. "BARBADOSE!!! SEND THE MEN TO ATTACK THAT BLACK CREATURE AND THAT MAN UP THERE!
"AYE, SIR! MEN!!! Our allies are the knights in plate armor. Our enemies, that guy up there," he pointed towards Draven, "and that thing down there." He pointed to Jayce. "Archers, follow me! The rest, attack that thing down there." Barbadose took out his bow allong with half the army.
The army's weapons was evenly seperated with 500 crossbowmen, 500 longbowmen, 250 skirmishers, 250 short swordsmen, and 500 broad swordsmen. The archers followed Barbadose to an edge of a crater where he settled them in and prepared their arrows and bolts alike.
"ON MY MARK!!!" he screamed back, "READY! AIM! FIRE!!!" 1,000 bolts and arrows flew in the air, ripping up the clouds. Their target of attack was Draven and the floating capitol.
"Let me ask you something, knight. I know there has been an attack on the Arctic Region before this, and that man up there was the attacker. If the Arctic Region is still standing, then how did they divert the energy from the land? Was there someone who used some sort of barrier, or did he just hit what he wanted to and there just so happened to be minimal damage on the land?"
---
After being out for a while in the dusty cave, Jacobie came back around. He stood up and wlaked forwards. "We cannot just let him destroy this island! We have to do something!"
"I'm afraid I can do nothing, but you probably could, Jacobie."
"Why not!? Nothing has stood in your way before, so why now?"
"I have made peace with the Crimson Emperor."
"SCREW PEACE!!! When has peace ever solved anything!? It might be a relaxing thing, but it's only just delaying another war!"
"How true... Fine. I'll assist you, my apprentice. If we are to strike just this last time, know that even if I die, I will be reborn again, and I will restore you as well, Jacobie. Let's go." Valimore and Jacobie raced back out of the caves. Their targets were different, but both were evil enough to be destroyed. Jacobie headed for Jayce, where as Valimore was headed for Draven.
"How'd you like this!?" Valimore took a great leap in the air and began to hover for a moment. Merely seconds later, black bat wings shot out from his back. He flew forwards, baring his fangs, ready to destroy and mabey devour Draven.
"Get a load of THIS!!!" He stuck his hand out and 6 giant, sharp pins nearly 3 feet appeared out of his palm. They grew more and more until they reached 8 feet. Each took the shape of swords. He flicked his hand forwards and a sword headed for Draven. He flicked it four more times and all headed his way.
"Sorry old mate, but I can't let you blow up anything anymore. This is gaian! It's where I keep all my stuff, so you can't do anything anymore. I hope you like the present I just gave you. Enjoy fighting the blades of Vampiric eternity! MEHHEHHEHHEHHEH!!!!!!"
---
Meanwhile, Jacobie was headed for the Draken. He noticed that a huge number of troops were headed that way as well. He though if he couldraise their morale, they might have a fighting chance. As they marched forwards he yelled out "Let's kill this thing! CHARGE!!!" They all started running out at the Draken. It looked like it had just thrown back a golem, but this hadn't moved any of them spiritually. They headed in berserkly, ready to kill anything in sight, and their sights were set on Jayce.
---
As stated before, Tiberius was thrown backwards by the Draken. *I have to get this guy killed! If he's dead, I can capture his essence!* "Is that all you got!? Come on, fight, weakling! Take this!" He lunged forwards at the Draken, hoping to make a hit in the jaw, possibly disabling his black fire breath.
-
//How does everyone automatically know that Draven's CDAA will destroy Tjed? Duilin only knows from past experience.\
Duilin was silent and he just watched Draven get yanked down. He noticed an entire army just started to attack Draven and Jayce.
"Holy crap!!" Duilin shouted, he lowered himself towards ground level to avoid the arrows. "This is going too far." He looked at the dragon, being feebly attacked by a large amount of people. Jayce just wasn't going down...
Draven was right; Drakens are the strongest being, period. They are a hell of a lot stronger than humans and even demons. If Draven doesn't use his CDAA against Jayce, the draken would just move on and destroy every other nation. But is there another way to defeat Jayce? Fighting Draven is pointless, but if he followed his way, then it would mean the death of everyone in Tjed, the last free nation. No, Draven is wrong; Tjed is needed to help fight the Dark Empire, and if Tjed is lost, then that just brings Retan closer to dominating the world.
"There has to be another way to kill this thing..." Duilin said to himself.
---
Suddenly two legions of Lizard Men began rushing in; lead by a blue skinned lizard man and a large brown skinned one. They charged towards Aaron's army. Their armour was strong, and these lizard men seemed to slightly larger than the ones before.
---
The Talonscar Elite shrugged and spoke to Coriko in its deep echoing voice "Okay." He then shot a flaming horned skull towards him.
Marshall shot a lightning bolt at one of the others, with his MagiPistol. The elite simply blocked it with his gauntlet. "Bad move." The elite roared. He then shot two balls of black flame at the summoner, who sidestepped to avoid the shots...
Wilham dashed towards the third one and swung his fist at its head. The elite grabbed Wilham's gauntlet with his own and twisted his fist. Wilham then swung a kick smacking his foot to the side of his foe's face, forcing him to let go of his fist and step back a few feet.
//Coriko, you can control the Talonscar Elite that you're fighting, since he's an NPC. But put into consideration that they are 'elite'.\
-
---
"Blast! Shortswords, skirmishers, attack those blighted creatures! Broadswords, fall back and defend the marksmen squad! I'll handle this Draken... personally." Aaron tightend his metal gloves. They were made of the second strongest material in Gaian, dragon hide. Dragons and Drakens are two different things, he realized. They'd have to make at least a bit of a difference against that draken, he thought. He charged in and flew at Jayce, hoping to make somewhat of a dent.
---
"Uugghhnnn... What the...? Woah, lizards! Big ones! Got to act fast!" Doriana was lying behind a crater. She got back up and prepared her assassin's claws, flying out like lightning and ready to cut through steel. She ran out and slashed wildly at the lizards, hitting one after another. It didn't seem to affect them that much, though.
"Uh oh... this can't be good. I NEED SOME HELP OVER HERE!!!" She continued to try and slash at the lizards, hoping for reinforcements. Just then, men with long spears and short swords started to engage the front lines of the lizards, making more of an impact. More and more men attacked the lizards until it seem like everyone had atleast two opponents. It mattered not to them as they were the finest of the Ario Empire. Skirmishers threw their spears at the lizards. If one broke, they would take out a secondary short sword to continue the onslaught. Mabey they'd have a chance against Jayce... Just mabey...
-
"The people were all loaded now. The transport slowly rose up into the air once again, and set off way north. The cities of Kandarin will soon rise again."
-
"What the?! What in blazes is wrong with all of you?!"
Draven dropped his fists to his sides, his aura magnifying intensely. He literally exploded, a great blast of fire emanating from his body in all directions, wrapping him in an scorching ball of flame several feet thick. Any such arrows headed his way burst into flame well before coming close, turning around and raining back down upon those who shot them. Justin would be scorched before he could get close...
"He's reviving! HE'S REVIVING!!"
The black dragon far below was stirring...
Wrapped in the bright flame, Draven looked up at the vampire with narrowed eyes.
"What is it so impossible to find a competent underling?! I realized undead were stupid, but you a clearly a reject amongst ingrates. Very well, if you wish to be a slave to Retan by attacking me, you shall be removed!"
Draven pointed a single finger at the vampire, a mammoth plume of flame blasting forth with a brilliant crimson flash. The fire pillar decimated the oncoming swords, vaporizing them into tiny black particles as the blast raged on, headed straight for the vampire...
Draven turned to Duilin as he shot the beam, clenching his other fist.
"Duilin! You fool! Call them off right now! Stand down and allow me to strike down Jayce, or I WILL KILL EVERYONE IN MY WAY!!"
Above his head, the orb dimmed to a tiny glimmer due to neglect...
CDAA: 5%
----
Ven clutched his head with both hands.
"NO!! Not Draven! Blast it, why does eveyone always attack him?! He's on our side!!"
Ven brought a gauntlet to his chin.
"Hmm, well, I suppose that black and red getup he wears doesn't help. And then there's that grin of his..."
Ven raised an eyebrow at the allied commander.
"Attack on the Arctic region? Why would anyone do that? There's nothing up there but snow and ice, as far as I know."
He held out a finger as-a-matter-of-fact-ly.
"I wasn't there, but I did hear Draven, Duilin, and some others fought a giant evil dragon there, much like this one."
He waved his hand, indicating Jayce in the crater below as he was being assaulted.
"And it was so powerful, that Draven had to use an attack that nearly... destroyed..."
The knight blinked twice.
"... that nearly... destroyed..."
He looked at the dragon below, then up at Draven, then at the surrounding land of Tjed. Then at all three one more time. Suddenly he put two and two together and clutched his head with both hands again.
"HOLY CRAP!!!"
----
Jayce grinned more widely.
It was a devilish thing, a black dragon grinning like that, mouth full of teeth and burning crimson eyes...
All projectiles sent his way turned to black ash before they could strike him, crumpling and turning to dust before they could strike him. It was like the very air around him repelled anything and everything, crushing it to the vile nonexistance that the black dragon represented.
Raising his right claw into the air, Jayce smashed down burying it deeply in the rocky terrain. The ground shattered, a huge fissure appearing before the onslaught of attacking men. And the fell in screaming all the way... At the same time, the loose rocks began to spin around in a gust of violent wind, smashing into armored men from the sides...
With a tremor, the dragon's left claw broke free from the rubble...
He was nearly halfway free now, and not looking the least bit worried...
----
"Duilin, you must contain the blast like Zeros' and the others did years ago. It's up to you now."
The old knight whispered into his ear...
-
"Ack!" Zakon nibly but barely dodged a large rock flying at him during his dash.
He placed his right hand on his knife and swiftly pulled it from his belt.
Just as he was thinking how stupid those people were, to attack a dragon head on, another rock came his way. He wondered what kind of wind favors dragons as he dodged it, not bothering to assume it could be a magical one.
He was having trouble running straight because of the flying rubble, but he continued nontheless.
All of a sudden, right after dodging a rock, the dragon's left claw burst from the ground, right in his face. Zakon nearly staggered, barely managing to avoid having his face's right and left seperated, but he was ready for this.
With a snicker and a whispery "Gotcha!", he sent his free hand to grab the dragon's arm.
-
"Huh?" Duilin looked around, as he heard the old knight's voice. He then grinned and looked at the sword in the sheath. "Well what do you know...it works."
He looked at Draven, giving him a thumbs up, almost reluctantly. He has got to create a barrier to block the CDAA, like Zeros' did five years ago. Zeros' had a technique called Fusegu Ankokujidai that formed a barrier of earth and rocks around Draven's CDAA. However that ability was earth elemental, yet Duilin practices only Air, Fire and his natural demonic, and demonic won't work. Duilin could create air bubbles, but that couldn't block a CDAA, perhaps if he could build on it. He was pretty good at improving spells...
Duilin closed his eyes and sat on the ground, focusing his energy. "I can do this...My strength has probabbly almost doubled over the past two days already..." He remembered Aegidius told him something about his human side was enhanced, and grew strength off his nobility and awareness, wile his demonic side simply fed off his rage.
He nearly became human again when his demonic rage settled, and he briefly saw Iduran. Maybe he can push his new human strength to the limit. "Let's save Tjed."
The half demon began to let off a light golden glow, his clothing lightened and his orange belt became a shining golden yellow, his hair colour became lighter revealing a dark orange. His wings disappeared and his scratches on his face and body healed. He floated above the ground; an aura of light was shining around him.
He then sent a few telepathic messages...
To Ven...
'Don't worry Ven. I've got in under control.
To Aaron's Army...
'Don't attack that man in the black and red armour; he needs to use his attack to defeat the dragon.'
...And to Rink
'Hey Rink look at me, haha!'
Duilin floated higher into the air until aura began to glow brighter. He then was at the same height in the air as Draven.
"Go for it Draven. But there is no way; I'm letting you destroy Tjed. Just watch..."
An orb Yellow-Green energy began to glow in between his hands as he brought them together, and a faint glowing gold ring appeared around the area of the Draken...
Duilin's Uber Shield: 5%
-
Coriko raised his bow to deflect the arrow. His bow didn't break, it exploded and the force sent him flying into a wall, hard. The elite warrior slowly walked over to Coriko, who was slumped against the wall. The warrior leant forward to grab Coriko by the throat when Coriko "woke up" and delivered a painful flamming upper cut to the elite's jaw, causing him to stumble backwards. Coriko Jumped up and enflamed his entire arm. He then jumped forward attacking the elite, punchi ng his arm right into the elite's face. The elite's chest armour was on fire and he ripped it off in act of self-preservation and anger. He looked up to see an arrow flying at his chest and before he had time to react it pierced his heart. He clutched it and feel to his knees, dying.
"Wow, these guys sure no how to throw a party."
Coriko then ran off to help the others.
//how many off the elite are there?\
-
---
"No..." Aaron held on to a sharp cliff inside the fissure, "My men... all of those poor people. They have never fallen in battle... They were the top class..." He lifted himself up to the edge of the fissure and climbed out. "Ariosis is not going to want to hear this... Ah, but what does that matter now? There's nothing I can do against that thing... Unless..."
---
"BOO!!!" Valimore reappeared behind Draven. "I was merely testing your... capabilities. You seem to be well enough into a class of your own. More to the point, seems like it's okay for you to blast that thing to bits, so I'll lend a hand." Valimore floated back a bit from behind Draven and held his hands up. "This might pacen things up a bit, but nothing will go in until I have to word. "
---
-
Wilham continued to fist fight with the elite, wile Marshall was having a 'gun fight' with the other one, Wilham seemed to have the upper hand in his fight but Marshall looked like he could use a hand.
Wilham blocked another punch from the elite and swooped his foot across his foes legs tripping him to the ground. The summoner general then slammed his elbow down on the elite's chest, he then grabbed his head with one hand and his neck with his other, ready to break his neck, but the elite had a sudden burst of strength and grabbed Wilham's hands and ripped them away from his head. The elite then sprung back to the ground and delivered a pummelling towards Wilham, only a few strikes were blocked. Those gauntlets were pretty strong, and Wilham had a splitting head ache from all the punches. The Grand General has been through worse so he shakes it off and delivers one high speed punch right towards his enemy's face, knocking him again to the ground. He then gets back into the 'neck break' position and a snapping sound in heard, and the demonic elite's body stops moving...
-
Coriko saw his two commrades fighting. Wilham looked like he had his elite under control, Marshall looked like he could use a hand though. Coriko took a run at the elite. He leaped forward towards the guy yelling out a battle cry to get his attention. When the elite turned to look at Coriko that is when he swung his flamming fist down into the elite's face, who let out an agonizing scream. The elite's eye was spurting blood everywhere. The elite swung his powerful arm and it connected with Coriko's ribs. He was sent flying across the room into the marble podium where the tablet was. The podium shattered as Coriko crashed into it. He stood up, slightly hunched over clutching his chest. Blood was dripping down the corner of his lips down his chin. He smiled an almost sinister smile showing his blood soaked teeth. The elite turned his attention to Coriko.
"Oh man, you so just made a big mistake. Marshall NOW!"
-
Draven began floating higher, arms stretched skyward.
"Do what you please. I don't care what happens, as long as that thing is wiped out..."
Draven's eyes narrowed, as Valimore was still lurking around.
"Vampire, you wear my patience very thin... I don't take kindly to 'tests'. I suggest you flee for your life as quickly as possible while I'm concerned with more pressing issues..."
The tiny speck of light above his head swelled, becoming a deep red orb a foot or so in diameter...
CDAA: 15%
----
"Huh?"
Ven blinked twice before realizing the voice came from Duilin, high above. Perhaps they were working on some different, less destructive spell?
"Uh, right."
He looked down at the dragon, which was stirring quite a bit. Blast it, whatever Draven and Duilin were doing up there probably required the dragon to stay in place, something that he wasn't likely going to do in just a few short moments. Ven held his sword to his side and slid down into the crater on his boots. He hated just standing and watching...
----
The half-buried Jayce felt something catch his left arm, but paid it no mind as it weighed nothing at all. Instead his head was turned to the onslaught of men rushing his way. The winds had died down by now, and the fissures stopped growing larger, humans scurrying around them like ants. He allowed many to draw close with a vile grin, opening his maw at the last second and spewing forth a series of black orbs. They struck the ground with shattering explosions that rumbled rocks free from the crater walls. Yet rather than spew debris into the air, wherever they struck was left with a black hole in the ground, as if they disintegrated whatever they touched into nothingness, rocks or men alike...
He shifted his weight some as he spewed forth orb after orb, his right wing becoming dislodged from the rubble and unburying itself...
-
"Goodnight!" Marshall said with a smile, he then fired a single lightning bolt at the elites head, knocking it lifelessly to the ground.
"Well, I guess that answers that." Wilham said, taking off one of his gauntlets and rubbing his wrist.
Marshall let out a deep breath. "Yeah."
"So, who were those guys?" Firstman asked who sat out of the fight, due to his lack of any special magic (and a character shield).
"They must have been left over minions of the Grey Empire." Marshall replied. "I never really fought against the Grey Empire before, but if this is what their warriors were like, they must have been strong."
"Well, they did say they were the 'Talonscar Elite'." Wilham said. "What does that have to do with the Grey Empire?"
"Oh, one of the rulers of the Grey Empire was named Abodahon Talonscar. Perhaps they were his elite guard." Marshall replied.
"Well, let's get outta here, before more of those guys show up." Firstman said. "Their entrance is scary enough..."
--- ---
Duilin continued to charge energy into energy shield, the orb was getting larger, forcing Duilin to stretch his arms skyward as well. Normally Duilin would be feeling uncomfortable and out of place, hovering next to Draven, but at least his technique was only being used to keep Draven's CDAA from destroying anything. In fact, it might even help keep Jayce from, fleeing away after the CDAA is released, because the shield he was making was going to be both blocking physical and magical matter.
Duilin felt so much more in focus and at peace, he didn't feel hate for Draven anymore, or even Jayce. All he felt was the need to protect Tjed and the people of it, from getting hurt by Draven's attack.
"What I'm doing is making a shield Jayce, like what Zeros' did last time, but this one will be made of energy. I will release it right after you release your attack and it will block the explosion of your Annihilation Attack, from damaging anything outside of it. Not that you'd care." He then grinned a bit. "And probably, it will make your spell more concentrated, plus it will bind Jayce there, perhaps making it more effective. Just for you, Draven."
Although what he latter stated, was not his primary goal, as he was mostly just wishing to keep the CDAA from blowing up Tjed, but he his second point would inspire the crazy fire mage to be a little more co-operative with him. Nevertheless the noble super human continued to bring more energy into his shield, making sure it was at level with the CDAA...
Uber Shield: 15%
---
"Is that...Duilin?" Goldolf, the old drow said approaching closer to the crater, along with Lagart and Rink.
"Yeah, it is." Rink replied.
"What's he doing with that Fire Mage?"
"I think the Fire Mage is charging a very dangerous spell to kill that dragon and Duilin is creating a shield to make sure, it does only that." Rink replied. "Hope it works..."
-
"Ignore me, will you?" Zakon snickered, thinking this was too easy "Big mistake, pal."
He knew he could just use the dragon's foolish ignorance to approache the neck and attack that, but that would be no fun at all. Instead, without letting go of the dragon's arm, he aimed and swung his knife at a line he saw crossing one of the arm's joints.
-----
"Aaaand... STOP!"
From a whirling light, Fernis and Elphos appeared near an abandoned fort.
The earth was damp and gloomy, with no trees being seen in the distance.
"This certainly looks better than the swamp we landed in earlier." Fernis commented, pulling off the last leech attached to her "I hate leeches."
Elphos nodded, but continued to stare at the large ruined fort nearby.
"I have a bad feeling..." he said, sounding like some old prophet.
Fernis scarcthed her head in response, but decided to suggest they go inside the fort.
Inside, several campfires were lit up along the walls. In the center of what seemed to be the remains of a large hall, a small midget stood near a table of fitting size and a large pile of what seemed to be black boxes.
The said midget was talking to several shady-looking people, though Fernis didn't really bother listening.
She was far more interested in the pile.
"Hey, Elphos..." she whispered in his ear "You said you have a bad feeling, right?"
She then pointed at the large pile of boxes -
"You know what these are, don't you?"
"Those are..." Elphos fell into deep thought for a moment, but then his jaw dropped.
"That's right." Fernis said, nodding "Bombs. You know what I'm thinking, don't you?"
Elphos nodded in response, and they both began sneaking towards the pile.
Just when they were close enough to almost touch one of the boxes, the midget seemed to notice them, as he pointed at them and yelled out something they couldn't understand.
"JUMP!" Fernis grabbed Elphos and jumped into the bomb pile while activating her orb.
With a flash, Fernis, Elphos and the bomb pile disappeared, leaving the strange group in the abandoned fort both shocked and annoyed.
-
---
//Not much to post... meh...
"Meh... don't you like tests? espesially when you can prove you're the greater? Ah what ever. Take this!" Valimore blasted a dark red beam of energy into the CDAA. "This'll give it a kick." He forced more and more energy through his arms out his palms and up into the CDAA.
---
-
Draven rolled his eyes at the vampire, but an extra power source was useful none-the-less.
His expression became stern as he looked down upon Duilin.
"This is going to kill you, you know. You'd be better off running away so that you might face Retan. It's pointless to risk your life for those of little use..."
Above his head, the brightly burning orb swelled to over five feet in diameter...
CDAA: 27%
----
"AHHHH~~!!!!"
The sound of the Tjedian knights' screams was cut short as the dark blast engulfed them, as if their very voices were crushed and ripped away.
"Blast it! Fall back!" Ven shouted to the knights. They had the black dragon loosely surrounded, but none were able to go near, lest they were vaporized into nothingness by the vile orbs of darkness spewed forth from the monster's mouth.
Ven held his sword high, charging it with light energy once more. He certainly needed another plan of attack this time, as he had no intentions of trying dashing madly at it again...
----
Suddenly Jayce felt a sharp pain in his left arm. Gritting his many teeth, he craned his neck up and over it, glaring down at Zakon who was still holding on. There on his arm was a small nick in his scales, a trickle of dark blood bubbling out, hissing as it dripped onto the stones below. The human managed to cut a hole in his scales?! With an indignant roar that tremored the ground, he lifted his right claw and smashed down at the little man...
-
"I'm surprised you're warning me of that, Draven." Duilin replied, using a more calm and kindly tone than usual. "But I'm not running. Tjed is not useless nor is the life of any living person. It's something you probably don't understand."
The ring around the area of ground that Jayce was on began to glow slightly brighter, and the orb of shield energy expanded in size.
Duilin noticed that the vampire boosted up Draven's CDAA, that would cause a bit of an imbalance because of that, hopefully he can speed up the charging of his shield...
Uber Shield: 25%
---
Rink, Lagart and Goldolf rallied closer with Ven, the drow and the lizard switching their focus between Draven, Duilin and Jayce.
"Ven, maybe if we circled the dragon we might be able to distract him with some distance attacks of some sort, or perhaps if there are any mages left we could bind him?" Rink suggested to the knight.
"Well, I dunno any binding spells, just like shootin' fireballs and frost shards n' such..." Goldolf said to the imp.
"Well, clearly we need to find a safe way to distract the dragon, if we want him to stay put, and not kill people..."
-
"The weather outside was almost scary. The transport was ever so faintly swinging back and forth in the raging wind, and the waves below were reaching 3 or so meters. The whole sky was pulled over with storm clouds, but it wasn't completely dark. The occasional beam of light cut through the thick haze.
I left the ''bridge'' to go check on Eve. She was teaching the troops inside to raise corpses en masse, and they seemed to be doing pretty good... considering there were no corpses around. Looking closer, I noticed Kerig among the soldiers. So the little one came along anyway, did he...
I leaned against the bone behind me, and observed the lesson."
-
Marshall and the crew exited the dungeon.
"So, where is our next location?" Firstman asked.
Marshall looked at the map. "Hmmm...south of North Point. We might have some encounters from the Dark Empire. We may be attacked by a Dark Dragon or two, because I hear the Dark Dragons like it around there...."
"Well, we've got our, dragon." Wilham said. "I'm sure we'll be fine."
--- ---
The mountain fortress of Lizaberg was almost fully repaired, and Gorus' room was being renovated.
"High General Goruss!" General Ssobra called, wile entering Gorus' temporary dwelling. "The mountain fortresss interrior has been repaired. Tomorrow, we sshould have all of the roomss fixed up. We're also renovating your room as requessted."
"Excellent." Gorus said, changing his shirt, and then strapping his pickaxe on his back. "Any other good news?"
"Well, we've disscovered that Count Vandrin hass refused to leave Terian. Retan'ss orders ssay you're allowed to attack them."
Gorus smirked. "Excellent..." He cracked his knuckles. "I'll lead the attack myself. I want you to organize an army of one thousand lizard men, no make that five."
"Five thoussand...yess ssir..."
"We will attack them in ten hours. Give them no warnings."
"Oh, I forgot to mention ssomething about Vandrin, ssir."
"What?"
"Vandrin hass actually declared war on you. Apparently he belivess he is a match for uss."
Gorus let out a laugh. "That is hilarious. I'm going to enjoy crushing that old fool's bones between my teeth..."
-
Coriko smiled. His chest hurt really badly, but these guys were so optimistic.
"Alright, so what are we waiting for?"
-
"Tch, reason and common sense are all that are required to understand."
Draven cast a glance as the floating Crimson Capital nearby, and the floating island began to slowly move away to the east. As it was, it was way too close to where the blast would hit, and the Crimson Emperor didn't want to risk his newly re-obtained base of operations.
The sphere above Draven's head was pulsating brightly now, swelling to over ten feet in diameter. A fierce wind was beginning to blow around him, the soon-to-be-massive globe the center of the storm...
CDAA: 37%
----
"I know how to distract him."
Blade gleaming brightly, Ven brought his sword high and then cleaved the air, a crescent shaped blast of light materializing from it. The energy blade sliced through the air and smacked the black dragon in the side of the muzzle. Turning his attention from the little man upon his left arm, Jayce's eyes narrowed upon seeing Ven... Without any effort, the dragon simply stood up, rocks falling off of him completely, and took a few steps over to Ven, who seemed to shrink as the dragon's massive shadow loomed over him.
"Ah crap..."
-
"Then clearly you don't have either." Duilin said back to Draven, keeping a calm tone.
He then noticed Ven shoot a blade of light magic at the draken. Duilin rolled his eyes as Jayce got up and began to move. Hopefully Ven will be able to hold the draken off.
Uber Shield: 35%
---
"Way to go Ven." Rink said half jokingly. "Well, we need to find a way to keep him from moving to much." He looked to Goldolf and Lagart. "We need to split up, maybe surround him. Lagart do you know any magic?"
"No. I just mêlée weapon fighter." The lizard man replied.
"I got an idea." Goldolf said. "Hand me yer mace." The drow then took the Talonscar Mace and held in. Goldolf's hands began to glow blue and the glow then flowed into the mace.
"There, now you should be able to shoot frost blasts from it for a lil' while." He handed back the mace, and the drow and the lizard then dashed off to opposite sides of the dragon.
Rink fluttered up into the air and lifted his hands upwards summoning a spiral of flame around his hands. He then pointed his hands forward shooting a barrage of fireballs at the draken.
Lagart and Goldolf shot a few frost shards at its sides...
-
While enjoying an entertaining lesson in necromancy, Kerig took a look at his hand from time to time, curious about his partner's progress.
The last time he looked, kerig's entire arm was now completly black and had a clear "border", showing weloss was now progressing towards fortification and strengthening rather than spreading of greater space.
"Buuuugh....ghuuuuuununghaaaaaa..." a quite humming came from within his hand, quickly replaced by the familiar voice coming from inside his mind.
"Bah!" Weloss appeared somewhat angered, despite having what he wanted "I forgot you use a stupid thing called 'languege' out in the physical. Stupid sound-based communication... This is too complicated!"
Kerig laughed softly at his partner's comments on speech, but then noticed Kronos was in the room.
"Hey, hey, let's go brag about what you can do to Kronos already!" kerig happily whispered to his black arm.
Weloss approved, but was quite disturbed Kerig would speak to his arm...
Kerig popped up in front of Kronos.
"Hey, mistah Crow-Nose!" he said happily, showing his arm. Only now he noticed the arm was bigger than it was before...
Besides being pitch black, it looked oversized for him, it was sturdy, and it had three large demonic claws.
"Weloss made progress and I thought we might show it to you!" Kerig said placing his arm in between him and Kronos.
"Try smashing something into it! Or Slicing it with something! Or blasting it, or something!"
Kerig sounded very enthusiastic.
"And I'll be damned if whatever you throw at it doesn't break, bend or bounce off!"
-----
"Oof!"
Zakon let himself go and rolled in the rubble, getting dirty to avoid the dragon's other claw.
The experience was quite unpleasant, and he was no longer in a good mood.
Some of the black, bubbling draken blood was still on his hand, mixed with mud. He licked it off, savoring the spicy taste.
"That dragon is evil." a voice in his head stated to him.
"Tell us something we don't know." another voice responded to the first one.
"That dragon likes cheese." the first voice added in response.
"Oh great." a third voice interrupted "Why does everything you say has to do with chee-"
"WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP!" Zakon cried out, trying to figure out how to put the dragon into as much pain as possible.
The voices were obidiently silenced, and Zakon watched the dragon stand up, and do what appeared to be...
"He is...walking away?" Zakon whipped off some of the mud on his forehead "How very...rude..."
He began to dash towards the dragon's right foot, quickly noticing a line not to far from the foot's base.
"I'll teach you... Not to walk... Away from..." he came close and immedtiatly began waving his knife madly at the foot, as if trying to cut it more than once.
"I'LL JUST TEACH YOU NOT TO WALK!"
-----
In a whirl of light, Fernis and Elphos appeared in a raging battlefield, along with their large pile of black boxes.
"I knew I should trust my gut on this." Elphos said just before Fernis pushed him away from a place where the dragon was about to put his foot in.
"Run now." She said, activating the orb again "Nonsense later."
With that, that two disappeared again, leaving behind a medium pile of what appeared to be black boxes right next to the Draken's left foot...
//My connection is out, peeps. I should have it back by monday.\
-
"I looked at the outstretched abomination of an arm.
-"That's... interesting, Kerig. You tell your, ah, friend there that he's making good progress. Just as long as you don't suddenly break out in a rampage, I'm fine with it. Otherwise, I'm afraid, I'll have to show you to the door... in a manner of speaking."
Content with the necromancy progress, I left the cavity, and returned to the top of the skull. There, through an eye socket, I saw the approaching frozen desert... Beautiful."
-
Draven's right eyebrow rose at that.
"Petty insults now, eh?"
Ugh. Maybe he'd angle the attack and hit the missing-wings half demon too.
Above, the orb was swelling in size, becoming a raging globe over twenty five feet in diameter. The sky was turning red, and the clouds began to circle about...
CDAA: 57%
(Double time from here on. This is taking too long. Heh...)
----
Jayce's large draconic foot crushed some boxes that were not there before. They immediately exploded, a fireball coursing up his leg, blasting apart the ground. The dragon let out a shriek and stumbled, effectively moving out of the way of Zakon's attack.
"ENOUGH!"
Regaining his footing, he spread his wings wide, sending an intense gust of wind outwards from his body in all directions.
Ven brought his sword and arm across his face, bending over slightly to avoid being knocked backwards.
Flapping once, the dragon lifted off the ground a few feet, in inky blackness forming about his mouth as he prepared some evil attack.
Ven gritted his teeth, noting that if the dragon were to look up, whatever those two were planning up there would be spoiled.
"We must keep him on the ground!"
Ven charged, holding his sword high, slashing at those mighty claws as the hung above him...
-
Duilin smiled, but his expression went back to neutral. "Well, it is common sense to know that it's best to access you allies. And perhaps keeping them alive better helps the both of you. Despite what you may think of this little kingdom, I find that they will be key allies in defeating Retan and the Dark Empire."
He then smiled again. "Also, if you're going to call my insults 'petty' perhaps you could think of a better insult to call me, then half demon."
The glowing energy in his hands grew brighter, and the ground around Jayce even began to glow...
Uber Sheild: 56%
---
Goldolf was barely able to keep his balance from the gust of wind, but Lagart seemed to be barely be affected due to his massive size compared to the drow, but only slightly over average compared to the other lizard men.
"Guys I've got an idea." Rink called to the two, a he floated high in the sky. "Maybe, try and freeze his legs. Goldolf charge your magic, you know how to do that?"
"Yeah, think so." Goldolf said, he then emitted a chunk of ice magic in his hands, and the icy matter began to glow blue. "Oh I've got an idea..." The drow charged more energy into frost blast, when it reached a size of three feet in diameter; he blasted the freezing energy towards Jayce's hind legs...
-
Across the giant stone bridge the two Twili crossed, the ever-present Nightshade temple looming in front of them. Its gloomy, yet magnificent architecture was a beautiful and intimidating sight to behold.
Upon pulling open the massive double doors, each of which easily weighed over a thousand pounds, the two found themselves in the palace mezzanine.
“This place is huge!” Alex cried. “We’ll be here a while if we want that page. What does this fourth page grant?”
“If I remember correctly, it allows the Warrior the Aura of the Juggernaut. This ability grants the warrior near invulnerability for a limited time, but at a cost. After its effects expire, the warrior falls into a state of unconsciousness for several hours.”
“Hmm. Seems like a rough deal,” Alex said. “But then again, you said invulnerability. Let’s get on it.”
The Nightshade temple would prove to be Alex’s toughest challenge yet. Every room, every corridor and chamber had some kind of trap rigged, all perfectly capable of ending his life in an instant. He would need the Aura of the Juggernaut to survive here.
Being the fast runner he was, Carmine had returned to the gates of Asgarnia, only to see other Kandies loading up countless crates, barrels, and other equipment onto carts. Thankfully, he saw the stocky bearded figure of Commander Stroud overseeing the activities.
“Commander Stroud, sir! What’s going on here?”
“Lieutenant Carmine? You’re alive? We were certain that you…never mind. Where’s de Sade?”
“Strangest happenings, sir. We were in the Glacia mountains tracking Alex, I turned around for one moment to get a better look, and I turn back around, and he was gone!”
“Hmm.” Stroud adjusted his belt. “Do you know where he might have gone?”
“No, sir. He hasn’t returned since then either.”
“How long ago was this?”
“I would say at least three hours ago.”
“Three hours? Son, how in the hell did you make it back here so quick?”
“Very determined, sir.”
“Well Carmine, I’m certain Damien won’t be pleased with your failure…then again, he has been acting strangely ever since he sent you on that assignment. For now, let’s keep this between us.”
“Yes sir.”
“Son, you made it back here just in time. We’re pulling out of Asgarnia.”
“Why, sir?”
“The higher-ups want us somewhere else. They haven’t told us yet, but I don’t suppose we can do anymore damage here. We’re losing too many men to the rebellion. I say, let them have their damn city back. We’ve nothing to gain here anyway.”
“What about de Sade, sir?”
“He’s one of those mumbo-jumbo Archmage fellows. I’m more than certain he won’t need military assistance to get him out of whatever situation he’s in. Now, I want you to holster your speargun, give me a salute, and board that cart to a fresh campaign.
“Yes sir,” Carmine saluted, climbing aboard a personnel cart which promptly rolled off, out of the city gates.
Stroud sighed. “Yeah…let them have their damn city.” He stepped onto a passing cart and departed as well.
Hearing the news from above, the deafening roar of cheers and joy flooded the underground tunnels.
“It’s finally over…” Isaac Kleiner sighed. “We have our city back.”
“Won’t Alex be happy,” Ilia said.
“Speaking of Alex, when is he coming back?” Fenix said. “He’s been gone for most of the day…”
“Well, regardless,” Vance said, “he’ll be pleased to know that the Kandarinian influence in the city is gone. We’d best get to rebuilding.”
Alex picked himself off the ground after nearly avoiding a trap including two logs which swing toward each other, which would have easily crushed his skull had he not ducked.
“You weren’t kidding,” Alex said, pulling the rifle off his back, “when you said this place was trapped.”
“Getting to the final page is going to be difficult,” Midna warned, “but it’ll be even harder to get out of here. Chances are there’s some kind of elaborate trap guarding it that will trigger when you grab it.”
“We might as well keep going then.”
“The Nightshade were also big on self-harm to escape some of these traps. In order to survive, you would walk away from the trap injured in some way.”
“That’s kind of…demented…” Alex said, “Why?”
“The Nightshade were torturing professionals. They would leave these traps for their victims to endure, sometimes connected to the reason they were arrested. For example, a murderer would have to dig through a pit of bloody knives to find a key to the next room.”
Alex winced. “Thank God for the armor then. Hopefully injuries will be minimal…”
Alex opened the door into the next room. In the center of the room was a large furnace, and on the other side was another door. As much as he pulled or pushed, Alex couldn’t make the door budge.
“Maybe the furnace holds some clues…”
Alex pulled open the big hatch on the giant furnace, the space inside could easily hold a person. At the far end of the chamber hung two keys on chains.
“One of those keys might unlock this door,” Midna said. “But which one is it?” She floated around the furnace. “This furnace is ready to be fired,” she noted. “Fuel is stocked and everything. All it needs is an ignition source.”
Alex put his hands on his temples. “Wait, I hear something.” A voice inside his mind echoed. It was one of the Nightshade executioners.
“It appears that you have come across our sacred temple,” the voice began. “Only the most formidable and purest of soul will be able to survive. You will see before you a large furnace, with a locked door on the other end of the room. Within the furnace are two keys. If you will note, the hatch is too small for you to climb in while wearing any sort of armor, so you will have to shed your protection. Also note the keys are far back in the interior of the furnace. One has a weak link, and the chain will break when you pull it. This is the correct key. However, if you pull the wrong key…once you’re in Hell, only the Devil can help you escape.”
Alex sighed. “Figured as much.” He pressed a button on the wrist, and suit parts came clanging to the floor, revealing his jacketed self within. He took off the jacket, and climbed into the furnace chamber, inching his way back ever slowly to the back of the infernal device. Before him hung two keys. But which key was the right one? He could not examine the chain for the weak links, as the furnace chamber itself was not tall. Taking his chances, he pulled the left key.
The key did not break from its chain. The furnace hatch slammed shut, and the front of the furnace ignited, slowly making its way back to Alex. In his adrenaline surge, he yanked the other one, which snapped right off the chain. The fire, however, was relentless.
“Shit!” he hollered. “Midna, do something! Open the hatch, destroy the damn thing if you have to!”
The imp pulled as hard as she could on the hatch, but it was locked fast. “The hatch won’t open!” Midna cried. “Cover your ears, Alex! I’m taking this thing apart!”
Using her hair-hand, she began grasping at pipes and panels vital to the furnace’s forging operations. As she pulled them apart, smoke and flames gushed from the pipes, filling the air with a noxious drape of smoke. The fire continued.
“Hang in there, Alex!” Midna screamed as she pulled the panels of the furnace chamber themselves apart, fighting the incredible heat that emanated from them. Finally, she pulled the one up that Alex was underneath. With no hesitation, Alex climbed up and out of the furnace just as it got to his boots, which ignited.
Jumping into the floor, he stomped out his flaming feet and turned to Midna. “Thanks for the help,” he said. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” she coughed, “I’m fine. But we won’t be if we stay here. There’s enough smoke in the air to kill us in minutes. Unlock the door!”
Alex re-suited up and jammed the key into the lock, turning it. Hearing that satisfying click, he opened the door. The two rushed to the next room, slamming the door behind them.
“Alex, this is already maddening,” Midna said, fanning her hair-hand to ease the pain.
“We’ve got to keep going,” Alex said. “God knows what the next trap holds for us, but we’ve got to be more careful.”
As the two recovered, they wondered what infernal puzzle awaited them in the next room…
-
//Welcome back, DS.
Xorlak: How many DBZ characters does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Razz\
The solemn temple, undisturbed for over a year now, has been awakened. Strange clicks and shuffles were heard from behind the walls, as if some sort of a gigantic mechanism was beginning to work...
Deep below, the ancient doors to Iban's sanctuary slowly creaked open. The sanctuary looked like a very big room, but there were no walls, no ceiling, nor floor. Everywhere one would look, he would see nothing but the black abyss. The only detail was a long narrow stone passageway, leading to a floating chunk of rock with a throne on it. On the throne lay a small tied up scroll...
--- --- ---
"We were already landing when one of the couriers came to me.
-"Sir, someone contacted us through the M-Grid. It is the Asgarnian division. They've just arrived."
-"About damn time... We'll have to come for them later. Meanwhile, concentrate on getting the people out of here. We'll need to set up a camp or something. Not many people can survive in the cold."
-"Also, sir, there is some evidence that there was a war here nearby. There's still corpses remaining. Just thought you'd like to know, sir."
-"Good... good."
-
(Over nine thousaaaand!!!)
"You are a half demon, are you not? You consider that an insult? True... I suppose demons aren't the brightest of races."
Draven's maniacal glint had returned now. At the very least the half demon was keeping him entertained while pouring energy into the spell...
A whirl of flashes engulfed the crimson sky, as the orb grew and grew. It was now a massive surging globe, well over fifty feet in diameter...
CDAA: 77%
----
With a flick of his talon-like hind-claw, Ven was sent souring backwards. He slammed into the rock wall of the crater-- hard-- and fell forward on his face, still clutching his blade.
Jayce flapped his wings once more, kicking forth another gust and giving him a good several feet more altitude. The ice blast missed him completely, passing right under him. He looked about to expunge the caster, but something else caught the dragon's attention... The dark Draken's neck craned upwards, and he grinned widely.
"Petty humans and their spells..."
Another blast of his wings, and he was souring skyward, straight up at Draven and his raging, incomplete spell...
Draven's eyes widened as he looked down.
"Oh, blast it!!"
-
The black figure felt pain, felt fear, felt hate. Pain. The pain was unbearable. The pain was agonizing. The pain was gut-renching. This type of pain destroys your soul. Luckily this creature had no soul. But his master did. Fear He never felt fear, he was trained not to. The fear wasn’t for him. Fear for his master. Hate. Hate for the man who did this. Hate for the man who lifted then from battle. Hate for the man who is causing his master pain. Hate in its purest form.
He looked around. Black. Nothing. Except. A figure. His master. Twisting. Convulsing in pain. His cloak rippling in the contained wind of their prison. Wind, the black figure felt wind. It was comforting, reminded him of flying beside his master. Comforting yes, but it didn’t ease his pain. Pain, back to that feeling.
The warrior looked at his master. Body guard. Only job. Trained. Breed. Born to protect and kill. Failing. Ashamed. The strongest of the shadow warriors. Survived the worm hole. Survived the beatings. Survived the revolt. Protected. Served. Saved. Till now.
Ripping. Pain. It’s started. The final death. He looked at his master again. Save. Protect. One last time. Not going to let his master down. Fighting by his master’s side was an honour. And dying for him was an even greater one. Won’t remember me. Another soldier he just summoned. But I will remember him.
Save. Protect. One last time. But how? Reach out. Walls burn. Destroys. But fade. Take the burn. End the pain. Pause. For my master. Not me. The supreme sacrifice. Pause. It’s worth it.
The warrior thrusts his arms outwards, right into the portals walls. The energy drained from the walls into the warrior. He wanted to scream in agony, but couldn’t help smiling. It would be over soon. He would die and his master would move on. To live another day. To exact revenge. The prison walls faded, winked, fluttered and then exploded outwards, ripping the shadow warrior apart as it was destroyed.
-
"No, that's not what I mean." Duilin retorted. "You use half demon, like it is an insult. It is true, that demons aren't the brightest, then again I don't belive any race is inheritably smarter than another."
Duilin went double time as he continued to push more energy into the uber shield. the ground began to glow more and more. It was almost ready...
Uber Shield: 79%
---
"Ven!" Rink exclaimed as he zoomed towards the knight.
"Dang nabbit! He's gettin' away!!" Goldolf growled as he stomped his feet. "Get back down here, ya stupid reptile!" He yelled as he shook his fist at the dragon flying away.
Lagart lowered his head, they were failing, but then noticed that under Jayce' shadow there was a sparkling lime green glow...
---
As Jayce swooped up towards Draven and Duilin, he super human noticed the dragon as well...
"Great..."
//Overused lines used by Brash ftw!\
-
Zakon was sent flying away like a rag doll by the relatively close blast.
For a moment, he lay still, but then he began to rise up.
His expression was blank, his eyes seemed hollow. Never, not one time, has he been blasted away like he was just now.
The confusion and anger he felt have combined together and exploded, resulting in him losing his sense of reality.
"You did it..." he muttered, making a few steps foward, his eyes focused on the dragon.
"You made me fail...TWICE..." the world around him began spinning and whirling. Bright spots of various colors appeared in his field of vision. He saw nothing and heared nothing -
Except for the large Draken, flapping it's wings.
"I will..." Zakon's own words echoed in his head surpressing all of the voices within, as he stomped upon a large corpse and took a huge leap off it's head.
"I will... I WILL..."
Though he was at a loss for words, his leap was so high, that even if he were to slip trying to grab into the Draken's scaly back, he will have many chances to grab unto the tail.
He had no idea what he was doing or will do. But he did know it must be as painful as possible for the Dragon.
-
The dragon blasted upward, its maw cracked open in a wide grin. A mammoth blast of shadow energy billowed from Jayce's mouth, surging upwards straight at Draven.
Draven clenched his teeth and lowered his right hand, immediately summoning a bright red orb of flame. The fireball blasted downwards, striking the stream of darkness head on and lighting the sky with a brilliant crimson flash. The dragon tore through the explosion though, the flames wrapped around his body for only an instant before they were replaced by a black fire that trailed behind the beast...
Draven lowered his other arm, summoning a translucent red half-dome shield under him. Jayce was upon him quickly, slashing his multi-bladed claw at the Crimson Emperor. Sparks flew as he hit the shield, and Draven was thrown backwards, streaming upwards, right into the fifty foot orb of raging fire floating directly above him...
"Ahhhhhhhh~!!!"
He did not fly into the flaming globe, but rather was forced against it. Draven held his arms to his sides, using all of his might to keep the delicate balance of energy from backfiring. The gigantic ball of flame warped, becoming more of an egg shape than the sphere it formerly was. The ground below rumbled and the sky turned black, red flashes of lightning spinning around. The attack was unstable and faltering... The clouds that once spun clockwise around the orb shifted in an instant, spinning in the other direction with increasing speed, along with the surging wind that blew about...
CDAA: 72%
-
// CPU crashed... again...
// Still not too much to write...
---
Aaron looked out at the battle raging on. He looked around and noticed his men were finished, and heading towards him. "What's our status, Barbadose? How are the men holding up?"
"They're heading back. We've done as much as we could here. Let's-"
"No. We have to let them stay, they're no longer part of our army. They're staying here in this colony we've established on the port. By the looks of it, it's almost ready. These people will have their port back and also more support."
---
-
//Only 1, but it takes him 17 episodes - like Draven's CDAA Razz \
The transport has landed, and the majority of the people were let out. Immediately, they started to construct small temporary shelters out of the chunks of the disassembled transport, fortifying the walls with packed snow. The occasional trees were used for firewood to keep the people warm. Scouts were heading out in all directions, looking for more trees, and possibly, a rocky outcrop to make more permanent shelters out of. Meanwhile, Kronos was making his way to the closest of the numerous battle sites.
---
"Very soon I was at the battle location. I whiffed the rich, potent air, which was full of the delicious smell of death. Yes... many have met their end here. Preparing to awaken my first minion, I interrupted myself, as a brilliant idea crossed my mind. Instead, I sent a missive back to the camp requesting about half of the current populace. They need practice, and all of us need extra forces to help with the rebuilding... What a perfect coincidence..."
-
Getting off the transport, Kerig yawned and stretched his arms.
"Don't you dare fall asleep now" Weloss warned him, remembering how he slept for months in the past.
Kerig nodded, calming his partner by saying "I'm not tired, really."
As he walked around looking at the people work feverishly, he noticed the lich wasn't there.
Just as he was about to ask where he had gone to, he noticed several people started walking off somewhere.
"Follow them" Weloss told him, letting Kerig realize they were all going to see Kronos.
All of a sudden, Kerig noticed one bit which he should have noticed earlier-
His hand wasn't black anymore.
"Don't worry, I'm just finished." Weloss said "You can throw away what's left of the amulets."
-----
Fire. Fire. Light, scales and flames.
Zakon barely noticed all the flames he was surrounded with as he climbed the draken's back, and didn't even bother to consider that he can easily die by being slightly cought in any of these.
He climbed and climbed, holding unto the scales so hard his fingers bled.
When he reach the neck, he grabbed it with his left hand and drew the knife with his right.
Quickly finding a line, he slashed, but was not to be satisfied...
-
"Good thing Draven's drawing more attention than I am." Duilin said to himself as the dragon swooped at Draven. He did however keep his eyes fixed of Draven and Jayce, he chose to keep a closer eye on Draven, as since he's being attacked by Jayce he might release the CDAA at any time. He noticed that Draven's attack was weakening but he still kept up the pace...
Uber Shield: 85%
--- ---
Wilham's dragon flew the group towards the estimated location of the hidden White Chimera temple. The green dragon swooped past a cave in a small mountain, a pair of glowing eyes opened from within the cave. The swooshing apparently woke up a dark dragon sleeping in a cave. The dark dragon then glided out from the cave, turned in the direction the green dragon was flying and flew towards it...
--- ---
"Tonight, I will make my first strike on Lizaberg." Vandrin said to his servant.
"Shouldn't you be rallying troops then, Lord Vandrin?" His servant asked.
"No, I'm having my commanders organize my mutants for me." Vandrin said. "I will only have my mutants on this attack. These lizards are about twice the size of a human, and most of them know magic. None of my human followers are mages, however I have my mutants. Plus I also have my mutants which could match most of these lizard-men in physical strength. I also have my flying mutants, they have wyverns, which are just dumber lizards."
"I see, Lord Vandrin. Very good, Lord Vandrin." His servent said, sucking up as usual.
"Indeed." Vandrin said, grinning his dirty teeth. "Heheh, yes indeed."
-
(Of course. Heh...)
Draven managed to get the massive spell under control, yet just barely. His teeth were clenched and droplets of sweat formed on his brow, despite the aura of flame surrounding him at all times. He knew well what happened to Retan's MDAA when that spell was interrupted so many years ago, and was not about to let that happen to him...
Jayce knew better as well.
So with a sneer, the mighty black dragon shot in the opposite direction, performing a flip in the air before blasting upward. Higher and higher he went, flying well above the mammoth orb that glowed like the sun. He spread his wings wide, arriving some hundred feet above Duilin and Draven very quickly, and very much out of range of their attacks...
"You thought you could bind me..." He indicated the human form Duilin below. "And you thought you could hit me..." his attention now on the burning man with his hands out toward the red sphere. "Utter failures. How does it feel? To have your very lasts hopes dashed? To see your very last chance of survival ripped away from you?"
He flapped his wings. They seemed to cut through the clouds that were rotating around the orb, the clouds dispersing as if they were repulsed by his very existence. Lightning struck around him, but all seemed to bounce away, the blackness burning about him far more menacing...
"And now you are trapped, unable to move without destroying your pathetically crafted spell weavings... What will you do? Abandon the spells you've wasted so much time building? Or die as you cling to your feeble plan? Either way is equally entertaining..." He smiled a devilish grin at the last part, opening his mouth wide as a deep black energy began to form within.
Suddenly, his crimson eyes went wide.
"... AHHHHH~!"
The dragon roared a deafening screech, throwing his head back in pain.
"OFF!! GET OFF!!"
He bellowed as his huge claws dug behind him, trying to rend free whatever caused that sharp pain at the base of his neck.
Draven's eyes went wide at this. The dragon twisted and squirmed high above, performing sharp turns and twists in the air. Draven could just barely make out a man clutching to the dragon's back. He shook his head, as there was no time to gawk. He focused his full attention on the burning sun he held in place with his palms above. It must be complete. It must!
The orb was now over eighty feet in diameter. The ground rumbled and the sea on either side of the island was cast back and forth in large rippling waves.
CDAA: 92%
-
---
"You fool! Hurry up, Lord. I cannot wait to taste his blood..." Valimore licked his lips and poured more and more of his energy into the CDAA, until he gave it all. His form started to grow back to normal. His features returned to him in a flash, and he suddenly looked like... a normal human.
"HURRY UP!!! AAGGGHH!!!" He pushed more and more of his energy into the great orb, and as he did, he felt more human. "No... NO!!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" As Valimore put his last bit of energy back into the CDAA, he fell back. For once in his life, he looked young again, like a mere 20-year-old. Before he hit the ground, Jacobie came in and caught his falling master.
---
"What in god's name... happened? Master, what's wrong with you; you look even younger than me!" Jacobie placed the young form of his master down on the ground. Valimore opened his eyes and looked back up at Jacobie. His face caught a glimps of shock. "Get away from me, you beast!"
"What the hell's the matter with you!?"
"Ahh! S-s-stay away! G-g-go!"
"Master...?"
"Who are you calling master, you fiend!" Jacobie let go of Valimore and backed away slowly. He took one last gaze at the man who yelled in his face. He raced back out and took a ferocious leap upwards, grabbing hold of Jayce's tail. He took out one of his katanas and battered away at the Draken, thinking that this monstrosity... was his fault.
-
"Ungh...!"
Zakon rolled to the side.
Although he wasn't trying to dodge the claws, he rolled to the side, almost falling off the large scaley being. He wasn't fast enough, however, and was slightly wounded to the right of his stomach.
He did not feel the pain, however...
With one hand using to hold himself unto the draken and the other to hold the knife, he began to laugh and whisper various things about socks and cold coffee.
In the midst of all this he attempted to get back up. At first he pulled, but decided that it was just to slow, so he used the neck as hold to swing himself back up, still laughing for no apperant reason.
He began to do what appeared to be sniffing as he further climbed the draken's neck in search for more lines.
He soon found one and grabbed his knife in both of his hands, as if trying to put more force into it. Not that it mattered. Using only his feet to hold unto the neck, he swung his knife.
However, due to bleeding quite badly, he slipped right after swinging his knife, resulting in him hanging upside-down the draken's neck, knife in hand, still laughing.
-
"This is gonna to be big." Goldolf said, looking at the massive crimson orb. "I think we should leave the island."
"I don't think there enough time." Lagart stated.
"Don't worry guys." Rink assured. "We've got to have faith in him. He can do this...I know he can."
---
"This is gonna to be big." Goldolf said, looking at the massive crimson orb. "I think we should leave the island."
"I don't think there enough time." Lagart stated.
"Don't worry guys." Rink assured. "We've got to have faith in him. He can do this...I know he can."
---
Duilin noticed the large black dragon fly above them.
"Definaly going to have to change the location of the shield." Duilin said to himself. He ignored Jayce's words trying to bring him down. He didn't need them; his new power didn't come from hate and rage.
He noticed the dragon was then attack, by somebody on his back. "Who is that?" Duilin asked. He was a bit worried about the person, but then again, he must be willing to die, if he jumped on the back of a monstrous dragon.
The glow on the ground disappeared as Duilin moved his hands skyward. The crimson in the sky was being countered by a pure white light at the bottom of the horizon, and the water below him began to glow white. This shield had to be at least just as powerful as Draven's attack. He looked at Draven, he seemed just as, if not even more stressed then he was, despite the fact, that he had a orb with the power the destroy the entire island. It is a lot of power for Duilin to compete against, will his shield even work?
'You can do this Duilin. Don't give up.'
Duilin nodded, and began to charge more energy, the orb turned to a pure white and the size increased, yet not as big as the CDAA, the orb was still impressive at a 30 feet in diameter, and the power inside was even bigger...
Uber Shield: 92%
-
Draven clenched his teeth (again) as he watched the dragon flutter about. The spell was nearly complete but there was simply no way he would be able to hit the black Draken while he was moving around like that. He had never considered using the attack against an airborne target, but he supposed it would work well enough if it were a direct hit. That opportunity was not presenting itself, however.
He turned and flashed Duilin a quick glare. Had that stupid half demon not interfered when he began constructing the spell, he would have been finished before Jayce got off the ground and this whole mess would have been over. That idiot's ridiculous ideals may very well cost Draven his life, as well as the lives of every else involved. And that thought made the burning man seethe.
Of course he didn't have the time to dwell on it. Right now he needed to figure out a way to actually hit the beast...
Above, the raging sun-like sphere was a gigantic one hundred feet in diameter. The clouds raged around violently, crimson lighting streaking about...
CDAA: 100%
----
(That is one huge jump. Heh...)
Jayce flipped his tail around, trying to dislodge the lizard that had latched on. The pain in his neck was lessening, and he began to regain control of himself. Alas, the first uninvited rider's knife did little more than a mark this time for the black aura around the dragon intensified three fold, threatening to rot away the flesh of any touching him...
That man did accomplish one thing, though. The Shadow Draken was now ANGRY.
With a deafening roar that laid trees upon their sides, the dragon opened his maw wide, spewing forth countless orbs of blackness. Each ball of black flame seemed to draw the light around it, as if it were stealing it from the very air itself. Stealing it and destroying it. The shadow orbs flew in all directions as the dragon lashed his head around. They slammed into trees below, splintering them into nothing, while the near-misses merely withered away, dying instantly and turning to dust. They slammed into the mountains to the north, reducing surrounding circles of vegetation to much the same state while boring deep craters into the rock, though it was not evident where the debris went. Some errants were strewn far back into the still burning town of Kesnar, and before they struck the burning buildings, the flames seemed to leap into those black orbs, forever disappearing into that darkness before they struck, obliterating solid structures into nothingness. And some flew as far as the seas on either side of the island. The water boiled where they hit, giving way to heavy columns of thick black smoke surrounded by rings of jagged ice...
And several of those orbs were aimed directly at Duilin and Draven...
-
//Whoa, Xorlak, did you completly ignore the second attack? Oh well, no matter. I was planning to let him drop when either ability reaches 100% anyway\
Zakon still hanging upside down from the dragon's neck, somewhat like a necklace, came to realize the neck is too slippery with his own blood to swing himself back.
Snickering, he found a line at the front part of the dragon's neck.
He managed to lift himself up just enough to swing, but that swing had cost him his hold.
Mere moments afterwards, one of his legs slipped and he began to fall.
-
Duilin noticed Draven glare at him, but paid it no mind. He continued to focus his energy into his soon-to-be shield, until it could (hopefully) be strong enough to stop both a CDAA and an enraged Draken...
"Aw, shoot." Duilin groaned, as the shadow orbs flew towards him and Draven. Duilin flew from side to side avoiding the orbs of darkness that smashed into the water below...
If Duilin wasn't so close to having his shield fully charged, he'd likely have to continue, after dodging the shadow orbs. Duilin simply finished off charging the shield, until it was ready for launch. Now just to wait for Draven to attack...
Uber Shield: 100%
--- ---
Meanwile back in Terian both the armies of Lizaberg and the Vandrin County began to prepare, yet unbeknownst to either of them, they both plan to attack each other, and the question is who will attack first?
Count Vandrin was fitted with his own armour, coloured lime green and crimson. (See his face shot). He kept his current cape, and had his lost katana replaced with a new one. He didn't wear a helmet of course, as the tradition for all military leaders to never cover their iconic face (unless their icon is having their face covered, ie: Retan).
--- ---
"Umm...Wilham." Firstman, said sounding rather worried.
"Yes?" Wilham responded.
"Uh, I think I see one of them, dark dragons."
"Oh, great!" Marshall exclaimed sarcastically. Marshall turned himself around, so he could see the black scaled dragon flying towards them. "Yeah, it saw us. Maybe we should speed up."
"But if we speed up, we might fall, off. We don't really have to best grip on this thing." Wilham stated. "Maybe we should slow down, and fly right towards it. At least we'll have a fighting chance."
"No, I have a better idea." Marshall said. "I'll summon a wyvern and try to distract it."
"Good idea. Unless, you have a better one?" Wilham said looking to Coriko.
-
Coriko was thinking for a seond. He was thinking fast.
"Get me on the Wyverin. If you summon one I'll ride on it and distract it. It won't follow the wyverin unless something draws it. If I'm on its back firing arrows at it, it is bound to follow. C'mon we don't have time! Either I do this now and catch up to once I've dealt with this beast, or we all die! Just tell me where to meet you and I'll be there. C'mon what is it gonna be!?!?"
-
---
Jacobie sitll held on the draken's tail with all of his might, slipping just a little, but still having a firm grip. He began to climb the draken's scales like a mountain, using quick thinking to speeden his pace. "I'll kill you if he doesn't..." Jacobie muttered under his breath, "know this while you still can, death will bacome you this day, foul beast..."
He climbed higher and higher until he reached a bloody spot. He stood and leapt off higher into the air, landing on the draken's head. He pulled out one of his katanas and held it up, blade facing down. "Take this!!!" He thrust his blade down with all of his might. "Valimore's spirit, make this work..."
---
"No one is to touch what's left of that thing until me!" Tiberius yelled, now in human form. he dashed over and jumped into the sky, slowly taking form of a wyvern. As he did, Tiberius flew up in the air and made for a fierce bite towards Jayce's neck.
-
(The second swipe did not get through due to his increased evil aura.)
Draven's arms were becoming very heavy, and he was exhausted from gathering energy for so long.
And then the black orbs came his way.
"Blast it!!"
He lowered one gloved hand and shot forth a few plumes of flame, destroying the errants before they came within striking distance of the giant globe of flame that he so painstakingly crafted. He was hunched over in the air now, trying to keep the massive energy stable. Blast it! He couldn't hold it much longer...
Jayce's movement was no longer erratic. In fact, he was headed straight for the Crimson Emperor and his giant sphere of flame. More warriors were hanging on the dragon, feebly beating on his hide with their weapons. But it seemed none of them could pierce the aura of blackness that surrounded him.
Draven considered throwing the attack right then and there, but another issue immediately presented itself...
The energy above him suddenly became extremely volatile, as if he were holding back a dam of water that suddenly bore hundreds of cracks. Looking up, he could see a black hole forming in the center of his burning sun-- one of those black orbs had hit!
The clouds spun faster, and the ground rumbled anew. It was now or never. The attack could not be held together in this state...
"You're on your own now," he said to Duilin though with the intense winds and noise he doubted his voice carried.
Draven then clenched his fists in the air, as if grabbing onto some invisible handle, then pulled them forward. Slowly at first, as if moving a great weight, then with the speed of a heavy heave.
And the gigantic ball of flame moved forward...
The black dragon ignored it, opening his maw wide and continuing on his path as he raged through the sky, mere feet from meeting the ball off flame. It was like a mountain of fire was thrown on top of him, and he intended to cut through it...
Draven turned tail and ran, blazing eastward through the sky. He had no intentions of seeing how this turned out first hand...
-
//It's just Wyvern, no I.\
"Alright." Marshall said. He held his sapphire on his amulet with one hand and pointed his other hand to the left of the dragon they were flying on. A concentrated blue mist shot from Marshall's hand and formed into a wyvern. "Good luck." He nodded to Coriko. "We'll meet you just a few miles south of North Point. Stay safe, friend."
---
Duilin was suddenly struck with total nervousness, he began to shake and tremble. What was he supposed to do again? What if he misses with the shield? What if the fireball explodes after his shield wears off, somehow? He closed his eyes and his jaw was trembling as he felt the weight of the lives entire nation of people on his back...
'Duilin! Don't quit now! You can do this!' Rink's voice said to him.
Duilin opened his eyes, he saw the CDAA only feet away from Jayce. Duilin then shot the orb forward at Jayce and the CDAA. As the orb of light got closer to the burning globe and the dragon, it seemed to crashed against an invisible wall and spread across it, creating a massive light-yellow sphere, that contained both Jayce and the massive fireball inside, where they would hopefully stay...
-
---
"What!? NO!" Jacobie jumped off of the Draken's back and landed on Tiberius, whose attack had failed. "Let's get out of here before we're trapped!" Jacobie said in the Wyvern's ear. Tiberius nodded and flew out of the great shpere that contained them with great speed. He flew down to the ground and dropped off Jacobie, then transformed back into his human form.
"Thank you, uhh..."
"Tiberius. Jason Tiberius, last known Gepardi to have been born in the arctic region."
"Right. You're from the arctic region as well? I was created by my master, Lord Valimore, which reminds me. I could use your help. He seems to have changed form... and he's lost his memories. Could you please help me prove to him that I'm not his enemy?"
"I suppose I could... What did you say his name was?"
"Lord Valimore, master of the Drannic tribes to the north. Please, we must hurry so that I may continue to serve my master! I fell useless to him now." Jacobie lead Tiberius to Valimore... or atleast what's left of him. Tiberius walked infront of Jacobie and shook hands with the human Valimore.
"Hello," he began, "I'm Tiberius. I think you've already met Jacobie. He saved you from falling to your death, so you should probably thank him. He's also-"
"Thank that thing!? Are you out of your mind!? That's a fiend! He's tricked you! Oh no, I won't fall for this ruse, so just leave me!" Tiberius slapped Valimore in the face and grabbed his shoulder so he wouldn't fall to the ground.
"Quit being a rude little idiot and thank your servant! He's been with you all his life, and if you keep yelling at him, you're going to put him through depression!"
"I... guess you're right. You must accept my dear appologies, for I had no idea that this lizard was Valimore's lackey. I am Lord Dranniconias, alter ego of Lord Valimore."
"Alter-what? I've never seen you like this before, master!" Jacobie said, "What's happened to you?"
"Heh. You still call me master. Very well, I guess I can explain. When Valimore was born, I was assigned to take over his personality so that his evil mind would not corrupt everything it saw... Indeed it was sort of like taking his life, but Drannica had no choice. Unfortunately, his dark powers were too powerful, and I was locked away in his soul for almost an eternity. Now that he has wasted all of his vampiric magic and his rage magic by helping that Draven character, I was freed from my cage."
"I... I can't believe what I'm hearing... My master was evil?"
"I'm sorry to break it like this to you, but his power was even greater than that of the dark god Umbranthose. You must understand."
"I do. Well, now that you're here, what should we do?"
"Well, my mission was to use another emperor to bring peace to this plain, but also to gain the help of a creature, a Drow, a knight, two Gepardis, a Velken, and a halfbreed. I must search now for these adventurers, for the fate of Ariosis rests in their hands.
"Hey, I'm a gepardi!" Tiberius told the prophet, "and I know that Jacobie must be the creature. Doriana is the drow, Justinian is another Gepardi, and there was a Velken that came here as well... two of them, I think."
"Hmph," Jacobie remarked, "There's an emperor that just came here by ship, and there's also a knight and a half-demon here. I think the emperor killed one of the Velken twins, though."
"Really?"
---
-
//Sorry DM i will spell it right next time. Note: DM gave me permission to say the one line for Marshall. Sorry if there are any words spelled wrong as well\
Coriko climbed onto the back of the Wyvern.
"Alright, so... OH GOD!"
The dragon came up behind Coriko and bit off his legs. Coriko screamed in pain and fell off the Wyvern. As he fell through the trees he saw the Dragon attack and maime the rest of the team.
"Coriko, Coriko wake up."
"Hmm." Coriko was shaken out of his trance. Picturing the worst wasn't the way to go. Without wasting anymore time he jumped on to the Wyvern. "Go now!" The Wyvern flew forwards at the dragon. He locked eyes with the dragon and fired a blast of fire at its face. It recoiled a little but kept on coming. When the Wyvern was about to crash into the dragon it swerved to the left and Coriko fired a fire bolt at its eye. The dragon roared and whipped around after Coriko. "Beautiful, now just to hold off the creature till they are far enough away."
-
There was a tremendous white flash.
Everything was utterly engulfed in the light, a light so intense that the shadows cast by the still standing structures of Kesnar were burned in place forever.
Then came the BANG. A single thunderous blast that shook the very foundations of Gaian. Across the mountains to the north, every single window in the capital city of Tjedon instantly shattered.
But the majority of that force was contained, ebbed within that yellow sphere in the sky. At least for the one second that had passed. The sphere was bulging under the forces within, expanding under the great pressure of the bomb that had gone off within.
Ven was unable to open his eyes for several moments it was so bright, but when he did, he saw that sphere and understood what was happening. He was no mage, only a fighter that knew a few spells, but he knew for sure should that sphere break it would be the end of them all...
Sword sheathed, Ven limped to his feet and held out his hands. A weak trickle of energy began to flow from them, upwards to the sphere above ready to pop at any second...
"The shield! We must reinforce it!"
-
Duilin kept pushing himself forward, his eyes shut from the huge flash of light. He had to make sure the shield could hold, but the massive force pushing against him made every muscle and joint ache. As the blinding light settled, he could see the explosion still rumbling inside the sphere, it wasn't going to hold...
---
"My god!!" Belle shouted, from in her room, within Tjedon, she shielded herself from the shattering glass, yet a few pieces spiked her arms. She looked out the broken window, and saw what was happening. "Duilin!"
---
"You heard him!" Rink shouted, as he was pushed against a rock. "Everyone who knows magic, transfer your energy into that shield or we're all dead!" The little imp held out his hands and a beam of energy flowed towards the shield.
Goldolf who was pushed to the ground limped up, and held out his hands, also releasing a beam of energy into the shield...
---
But it has to; Duilin could then see that a few people were reinforcing the shield. Rink and Ven, no doubt, he could only assume that more people would help. Duilin's part still wasn't over. He pushed more energy into the sphere. He was feeling weaker and weaker, but he had to keep it up...
-
As the blast occured, Zakon was still in the air.
He was completly dazed, and hadn't realized he was falling yet.
While the blast was mostly contained, a great force was still unleashed.
Zakon was still close enough to the shield to have his falling body take the force's full effect, cousing his plunge's direction to change into a horizontal one.
He flew far away from the battlefield...
-
The rate at which the shield was expanding (and thus thinning) slowed with the additional energy sources, but continue to expand it did... It was perhaps a five hundred foot wide sphere of rage at this point, the fiery explosion within multiplied several orders of magnitude due to the immense compression...
It began to lose its shape, becoming longer and taller like a cylinder. The bottom bore deeply into the ground, vaporizing it into nothing while the top stabbed deeply into the sky. The shield held, but continued to expand, taking more and more of the ground with it...
----
An aged hand rested firmly on Belle's shoulder. It was king Henri, flanked by two green caped knights. All stood wide eyed gaping at the open window, watching that distant crimson and yellow cylinder beyond the mountains grow wider and wider...
"By the gods..."
-
Belle continued to look at the small floating figure in the sky, near by the giant glowing cylinder. She knew the man in the sky was Duilin, even though his wings were gone, she could recognize him. It's almost as if she could feel him from all the way over there. She could feel Duilin's fear and worry but also his determination...
---
"Look at it!" Goldolf called. "It's diggin' into the ground!"
"Could that be dangerous?" Lagart asked.
"I don't know. I've never experimented with shields and giant fireballs before." Rink answered.
-
The mist dissipated, and Fernis found herself standing in snow.
"Oh, look, we are on a mountain." Elphos informed her, looking somewhat happy as he began to shiver.
Fernis humpfed at him, but was quickly distracted by something not too far above...
"Smoke?" she pondered out loud.
"This shack looks familiar..." Elphos pointed at the smoke's source.
A minute later, Fernis approached the door and knocked trice.
A old looking, gray haired man opened the door. He looked through a pair of glasses at the furry woman before him and his jaw dropped.
"L-Lerfina?" he finally said, cleaning his lenses with a simple napkin "What are you...? No, nevermind, come in first."
He stepped aside, allowing Fernis and her apprentice to enter what appeared to be more of a lab than a hermitage.
Elphos closed the door and, having escaped the cold, took a deep breath.
"Long time no see, Doctor Vrach." Fernis finally said, a devilish grin covering her face.
Over a cup of tea, Fernis briefly described her exploits to the old man, who listened quietly, intrigued, as he sipped his tea.
"...And then, when the light disappeared, his soul was carved into a sword!"
She sipped some of the tea. It had no sugar mixed in, but it was warm and enjoyable nonetheless.
"The next part will especialy interest you, dear doctor." she said, her eyes sparkling "You see, the one to barge in was a half-breed... A half human, half demon to be exact... In front of my face, he was transformed from a demon lord to a half demon, then to a human, then back to a half demon..."
Now Vrach's eyes were the ones sparkling.
"'Transformed', you say?" He asked, curiously. "Ah, I wish I could have seen it. At least a small sample to study would keep my interested for a whole-"
He suddenly stopped.
He was mesmerized as he noticed Fernis was waving a tiny vial of blood before his glasses.
-
"Panting with effort, the settlers struggled to raise the dead. Struggled a lot, I might say. Each was only able to raise one minion, but nevertheless, it was all good. Quickly, each one had at least one minion. The ''prodigies'' could support up to three now. Still not a lot, but better than just one. Once I made sure that the Kandarinians were unable to raise a single other corpse, I simply resurrected the rest, and began heading back to the settlement, a fair-sized undead armada following us in our footsteps.
Delighted, I noticed that a very large camp was built. People were still building bone-reinforced igloos, all in a circle around a huge fire in the middle of the settlement. The fire helped the ice melt a little, further strengthening the walls of the shelters, and warming their inhabitants a little.
Soon afterwards, I was greeted by a scout.
-"Sir, we've found a rock! A huge, huge rock! It's a mountain, sir!"
-"Eeeexcellent. Tell everyone to send their minions there, and I'll send mine. We'll have them gnawing at that rock in no time. Hopefully, soon, we'll have a decent village built. After that, we can start talking about a city. Even further on, I'll have myself a nice palace. Oh, yes, a palace indeed... I wonder..... Never mind. Anyways, go. Shoo now. Go do something useful."
-
---
"Trouble? Not while I'm here!" Aaron ran over towards Ven and held out his hands. "I'm no mage, but I do know that every living thing has atleast a bit of magic in them." His energy added to the power of the shpere, but it affected it only slightly.
---
"What is that thing doing? Why's everybody standing around with their arms out? Oh well, I guess I'll play along." Doriana ran to where everyone was standing to reinforce the shield. She mimiced their arms and held hers out. She knew quite a bit more along the lines of magic, but it was still not enough to hold the shield back.
Flying overhead, Ben had already held out his hands, adding as much as Doriana. "We need more people! What are they doing over there!?" He forced more magic from his hands. "By the gods, I command this sphere not to shatter!" The sphere was gaining it's form back, but it was still shifting from here to there.
---
"Hey, what's going on over there?" Justin said, about a half a mile away, looking out to see this great sphere. "Wait a sec... Draven threw a red orb... then Duilin must have... Oh no." Justin sprinted over to his friends as fast as he could. He leapt a few times to speed himself up. When he got there, he threw his hands out, and out shot a white beam. He was giving his life energy as well as his magical energy. It appeared to work, as the yellow orb thickened and grew stronger. It just needed one more push...
-
The column of light's momentum slowed, its rate of growth diminishing. Tjed rumbled under its fury as the light continued digging into the ground.
Ven clenched his teeth, his stance faltering. He fell to one knee with his arms still outstretched, beads of sweat dripping down his face.
And then it stopped.
The shield simply stopped growing, the fury inside contained.
The light began to dim, evaporating gently into the wind. Soon all that remained was a gigantic hole in the ground, right in the middle of southern Tjed. The crater spanned nearly one mile wide and was so deep the floor was not visible from anywhere along the jagged edges, only a deep blackness below...
Ven fell backwards on the dusty ground, shutting his eyes in exhaustion. When he opened them, the sky was blue and the sun beat down on his face.
"We... did it..."
----
Draven landed upon the highest tower of the Crimson Palace. He had set it in motion when he began his attack, so by now it was quite far away from the island of Tjed, floating a few thousand feet above the sea to the east. With hands clenching the railing, he watched as the great column of light disappeared after struggling so.
"Huh... well I'll be..."
----
The off-white fox's eyes went wide, and his ears shot up, his fur bristling.
No.
Freaking.
Way.
That did not just happen...
Disguised as a simple animal, Melface watched the empty crater for several moments as absolutely nothing more occurred...
He was hidden safely in a thicket of bushes, halfway up the mountains just north of the crater. Not that that demon lord, wherever he was, would be able to recognize him in his animal form, anyway. He briefly considered shifting to human form so that he could hurl an obscenity into the wind, but that probably would not have been a good idea.
So he just remained there. The sky was a sickening blue, and the birds slowly began their infernal tweeting again, now that the racket was over. He felt as if he would vomit. Ugh.
Time to leave.
-
Gorus' elite guard had retreated when they saw the CDAA...
Rink exhaled. "Finally..."
Duilin slowly lowered towards the ground, totally out of energy. As he came closer to the ground of Tjed, his glowing aura dimmed away, the colour of his clothing went back to grey, his wings started to grow back and his hair darkened to its normal black. He slowly stepped towards the group of people who helped him reinforce the shield...
Goldolf slowly stepped toward Ven, and held out his hand, to help him up. "Eh, lad. Come on, the ground ain't a good bed."
Lagart jogged towards Duilin, followed by Rink, ready to congratulate him.
"You did great, Duilin." Rink said, with a smile.
Duilin rubbed his forehead. "Uh..uh..." He then swirled his head around, and put his hand on the hilt of the Iduran, which was in the sheath, but then passed out. Lagart caught him before he could hit the ground.
"He need bed..." The lizard stated.
"Yeah, looks like Ven does to. Hey, how come Goldolf isn't tired?" Rink asked.
"How come you aren't?" The old drow asked back. The two shrugged at each other.
-
Kerig laughed as the corpse he raised twisted and turned in weird ways.
"So, you have been paying attention, it seems..." Weloss commented, looking at the corpse still twisting and turning, obviously raised inappropriately.
"W-well, I have, I'm just trying things differently!" Kerig claimed, still laughing as the corpse grabbed it's foot from behind.
"Look..." Weloss said, impatiently "If you want to have a stupid doll, theres an easier way to control it. you can do it LIKE THIS!"
That instant, a black thin wire shot itself from Kerig's shoulder. It wrapped itself around a nearby corpse and then began puppateering it.
Two other similar wires shot out and did the same. A fourth one did shoot out as well, but it never reached it's intended corpse.
"Shoot!" Weloss seemed angry "Out of etherium! I need more if I am to expand further..."
Kerig laughed at his partner, but decided to get closer to Kronos and see what he is doing.
-----
While enjoying their ninth cup of tea, Indher and Elphos jumped when they heared the good old doctor suddenly scream "EUREKA!"
"What is it?" Indher inquired curiously as Vrach put in his final mishmash of ingridients into five seperate bottles.
Vrach didn't answer, but rather signaled fot them to come over. What he showed them was a small chicken running around in the cage. It seemed to be quite hyperactive for a rooster.
"Now watch." he said as he took out one of the five bottles he filled earlier and poured several drops from it into the chicken's bowl of water.
The chicken drank from the water, had another lap around the cage, stopped, and began pecking at it's own feathers.
"It... grew fleas?" Elphos asked, not one bit of sarcasm in his tone.
However, before Vrach could say anything, another pair of wings suddenly burst out below the ones the chicken already had. The chicken's white feathers darkened, and appeared to sharpen, to become blade-like. It became angry, and started ramming at the cage's bars. It's beat grew longer, sharper, darker. Elphos fell over when it started breathing fire at him.
"Now, calm down. I gave him a few drops, not the whole bottle..." Vrach tried to calm him "It will stop in a minute or two."
Several minutes later, the three were enjoying a TENTH round of tea-cups.
"Vrach, you are amazing!" Indher claimed, obviously impressed "How did you do it!?"
"Well, you see..." Vrach scratched the back of his head, probably preparing to run his mouth "I noticed strange enzymes when I looked at the blood through my magnifying lens. They were turning off - and on, some of the cells in the blood. While I couldn't find how they turn them off, I figured they do so themselves when they become 'worn out', you know? But I did manage to mimic the way they make them turn on! Apperantly, the enzymes have the same properties as the boiled extracts of the verbena when turning on. My biggest problem was making it work for anything OTHER than the demon lord cells. The activation doesn't seem to occur without those around, and it only occurs for them! However, by observing the human cells coexisting with the demon lord cells, I figured out the most brilliant way to make the shift universal! You see, I added in some aloe vera extract. Did you know aloe vera makes your skin smooth? Anyway, with the aloe vera extract the activation enzymes activate ALL types of cells! But they still need the demon lord cells around to work at all, because-"
Vrach stopped. While Indher was listening curiously, Elphos has fallen asleep and was drooling all over the table. Fernis realized this and shook him awake.
"Put simply," Vrach said, sighing as he placed four of the five bottles on the table "These will make any latent, untapped and untappable abilities you have work for a while, as well as grant you a little demon-lord type power boost."
Several minutes later, Fernis already had the strange crystal ball ready.
"Thanks again for letting us have all four of these..." she said, smiling at Vrach "You sure you don't want to keep at least one more?"
"No..." Vrach nodded, smiling back as he removed his glasses and stepped away to avoid being cought in the teleportation "After all, it was you who got me the sample."
And with that, Fernis and Elphos vanished yet again, leaving behind an old, tired doctor to wash cups and spoons overused for tea.
"I really need to resupply my tea-leaves..."
-----
Whoosh
When Zakon regained his senses, he was still in the air.
He was flying towards the sea at great speed, head first, but was still descending slowly.
Whoosh
He looked around, the beach's sand whirled into a collection of bright colors before his eyes.
He could easily just reach out with his hand and touch the sand, probably leaving long straight marks.
Whoosh
The wooshing was now getting louder. As Zakon pondered what was cousing it, he was suddenly hit water from above.
Finding himself drenched in sea water, Zakon spat out a curse and realized the wooshing was coused by waves. He lifted himself from the water to finally be on firm ground. Well, as firm as beach sand is.
Still drenched, he began to steadily walk towards the mountains, as if nothing had happened...
-
Ven shut his eyes and stretched, sprawled out on the dirt.
"I don't know, feels pretty nice to me."
He gave a quick smile before he clasped the old drow's hand and pushed pulled himself up. Dirt clung to the back of his black cloak, but considering he was already a mess, it didn't make much difference. He'd need to return to the capital and procure a new set of armor anyway, considering this set was missing a shoulder plate.
Once again he found himself totally indebted to the kindness and strength of other warriors. True, everyone had played a part, himself included, but if it were not for the combined efforts of Duilin and Draven, it was clear they wouldn't have had much of a chance at all. Where did Draven fly off to, anyway?
Ven strode up to the mammoth crater and tried to look down, but he was unable to see the bottom. The battle had not been without costs. Much of southern Tjed was ruined and Kesnar was destroyed, yet that was a small price to pay for the lives of the people safely evacuated to the capital city, hidden deep within the mountains. But of course he had to wonder, how close were they to the end of the war?
Ven brought his gauntlet to his chin as he stared into the black void carved deeply into the middle of his country.
"So... think he's gone for good?"
----
Pah!
Those sickening creatures with their high pitched songs were driving him insane. How could he possibly think with this miserable racket? It had nothing to do with him taking the shape of a fox, for Melface had sensitive hearing anyway. A red chested robin landed on the branch directly above. The off-white fox stared at it, and the two animals locked eyes for a short moment.
What is it that you fear, little creature?
Melface licked his jowls and smiled. The bird instantly died of a heart attack, landing on the ground with a dull thud. The fox trotted over to the carcass and bit it in half, blood smearing over his chin. Empty calories, of course. Flesh was so less satisfying than the spirit. Most animals had such tiny spirits, they weren't worth devouring at all. No, humans were his game. Their souls were so tender... So succulent...
Melface realized he was drooling, which was quite rude. He tried to wipe his mouth with a paw, but probably only ended up smearing the blood. Not that it mattered. He hadn't eaten since yesterday, and was desiring a human soul again. Blast it. He had become spoiled working for Jayce. Now things might get tough again.
Hidden behind the bush, he sat on his haunches and considered his options. With Jayce apparently gone he might have to go back to living in the wild again. Ugh. That meant his human meals would be few and far in between. Only the occasional child or farm worker lured away from their village, lest he risk some bounty hunter tracking him again and trapping him in the underworld for another two hundred years. Ugh. No, he had no desire to return to that type of life.
His other option would be to return to the Dark Continent and serve Retan. Of course, being the sole survivor of Jayce's personal elite meant he would likely have to deliver the news personally. Melface did not relish that thought at all. He didn't know Retan very well, but if Jayce were his son, then the father must be a hundred times worse...
But of course, he didn't quite want to get labeled as a deserter either. It was only a matter of time before Retan had the world in his grip, anyway. So yes, it would be safest to return to the Dark Empire. With his mind made up, the off-white fox began ducking through the bushes, making his way down the mountain.
-
"I sure hope so." Rink replied to Ven.
"Maybe, we be best gettin' back to Kensar?" Goldolf suggested.
"No, we'd be better off getting to Tjedon. I'm sure we all need some rest. Especially Duilin, he was pretty close to that contained blast."
Goldolf and Lagart nodded at Rink. Duilin was still unconscious in Lagart's arms.
--- --- ---
Marshall, Wilham and Firstman arrived at their location. It was in the middle of a rocky desert like area, a perfect hiding spot for a secret temple. In the distance they could spot the ghoulish castle at the end of North Point. Marshall felt a shiver run down his spine. "I don't like this place. I'm worried more Dark Dragons might find us, or worse."
"Worse?" Wilham asked.
"Well, not exactly worse, but say if we were to be found by Dark Empire soldiers, they would regonize me and Firstman as Aspyes and perhaps take us into captivity, rather then kill us on the spot. I've heard that their tortures are even worse than the ones I've endured at Kandarin."
"Well, those are rumors. I'm sure Kandarin has the worst. Their leader gets off on torture. It's disgusting..." Firstman stated.
"Yeah. Anyways, maybe we should try and find that temple now." Marshall suggested.
-
The mist dissipated. Indher and Elphos found themselves standing on something white.
"MORE SNOW!?!!" Elphos sounded quite annoyed, which Fernis noted to be typical to humans.
"No..." she said "This is ice. I think we are in the pole. Either south or north..."
And with that, the orb was reactivated, and the two disappeared, leaving a thin layer of mist behind.
-
Ven shook his head once.
"No, I doubt there's anything left of Kesnar. We should regroup at the capital. It's a much longer walk but our forces are totally spent and we've healing facilities set up there. Plus I need to speak with his majesty."
He took one last look around, noting the torn landscape. Most of his men had been killed during the intense battle. The few battered men that survived were regrouping around him. With a wave of his hand he motioned his men towards the caves up north. They may have won the battle, but it was clear the Dark Empire would try to pay them back in spades...
----
Melface peaked through another set of bushes. The smoldering smell of that town they torched was thick in his nostrils, so he knew he was in the right place. This was about the area where he met the Demon Lord, though, and even through he knew he wasn't around any more, he was still extra careful. Instead of walking, he phase-shifted from bush to bush. It was times like this that he wished he could change colors, as red or gray fur would have been more appropriate, but off-white was his bound color, and it marked him no matter what form he took.
Eventually the Nightmare Demon made it to the edge of the overgrowth and stuck his head out from under a branch. The beach where the battle had taken place just yesterday was before him, littered with the bodies of lizards and humans. Finally... The fox trotted out of the forest, kicking up dust as he ran out onto the sand. Now all that was left to do was to cross the short stretch of sea and return to The Jagahn, which of course was an easy thing for him to do.
But he stopped halfway to the water, his ears standing straight up and his eyes wide... The ships!! They were not there!! Did they sink? What is going on?!
They left without me!!
Oh, confound it all!
Melface could not take it anymore. The growling fox was instantly replaced by a sliver haired child draped in an off-white cloak, his tiny fists clenched tightly into balls. He threw up his head and screamed.
"BLAAAAAAAAAST IIIIIIIIIIIIIITTT!!!!"
He fell to his knees and began punching the sand, sending the grit flying everywhere.
"Blast blast BLAST!!! How dare they!!! HOW DARE THEY!!!!!!!!"
----
The giant door slammed shut behind Grav with a loud BANG.
The Dark Emperor was ANGRY about something, and the short lizard did not care to find out what it was. He was glad to have more mundane tasks to attend to at the moment. Perhaps his vile evilness would be in a better mood during their next scheduled meeting that evening. So, the robed lizard continued down the halls to the grand staircase, leading away from the Great Chamber of Darkness, his claws clicking on the black metal as he strode on.
As he rounded the corner, he noticed a large group ascending the stairs and blocking his way. He paused and leaned on his staff as they approached him. The black and silver figures were all short like him. The Velkens...
Ugh. He didn't quite care for furry mammals, even if they were of the few underlings that were his size. High General Virmir was at the front of the group. Of course, the sliver furred fox wasn't really a High General. It was a title Retan bestowed upon him so that the Velken could do anything he wanted without the possibility of being questioned or hindered by any other officer of the Dark Empire. They were Retan's personal assassins and elites. At least they were good at what they did... Commanding the skyward division was like a side job to them.
"I'm sorry, The Dark Emperor is not seeing anyone at the moment," Grav announced, fighting back a yawn.
Virmir considered him with a cold gaze. A few of the other Velkens had it was well, but none as intense as Virmir. His eyes were like twin daggers piercing into Grav's soul.
"We've been summoned," the fox stated tersely.
They all stood there looking at him, their tails idly waving back and forth. They looked looked like a pack of predators, ready to kill at any second. He could have sworn one licked his chops just then, but he could have imagined it. Though Grav didn't care for them, he could see why the Dark Emperor favored them. That and the fact that they were slaves.
And of course it all clicked right then. Retan wanted someone dead right now.
Grav stepped aside, forcing forward a reptilian smile, and nodded once. Virmir returned the nod, but without the smile. And so the entourage of eleven Velkens stepped past, onwards towards the huge black and gold doors, and the Great Chamber of Darkness beyond. Though the intensity varied, all of them had some measure of determination in their eyes. All but one. That one looked scared to death...
-
Rink and his group followed along with Ven towards the cave. Despite the fact that Duilin was passed out, he wasn't that worried about him, for once. He noticed that Duilin was a lot stronger than he was before their 'banishment' by Retan. He was quite impressed with what Duilin just did, if it hadn't been for him then likely Tjed would be completely gone.
Rink however was a bit curious of why Zeros' seemed to have disappeared. He'd think that he'd at least make an appearance to reinforce the shield. But, everyone was able to do it without him. He did remember the time, where Zeros' did mostly everything himself, but maybe now Zeros' just wants to sit back and watch, seeing how Duilin seems to be getting almost just as powerful as Zeros' now.
He was also a bit worried about Zion and the others went too. Maybe they were still bound to Retan's banishment spell? Rink hoped not, he wasn't sure if Duilin could fight off the rest of the High General's himself. Then again, there is still Draven, but he knows how Duilin feels about him. Although when he was charging that shield he seemed pretty calm around him, he'd almost think that Duilin would resort to fighting Draven, before making the sphere around his attack.
And another thing that worried him was how Jayce died. Or if he even did. Rink felt uncomfortable, that he didn't actually see the mighty dragon fall to the ground dead, and the deep pit just made him even more uncomfortable. What if Jayce is just buried deep into that hole and is climbing out, and is going to eat him. The little imp shivered for a bit, before speeding up, moving quite fast for having such small legs.
//Expanding one liners FTW\
-
---
"Hmm... The deed has been done. Men, follow me! We make haste for the castle. As of now, you are under the service of Tjed. Do what needs to be done, and you will prosper." Aaron's army joind up with the Tjed knights as they grouped behind Ven. Aaron himself was exhausted after putting his energy into the shield. None the less, he ran to Ven.
"There is still the matter of my problem back at Ariosis... I was wondering if you could take me to see your king. The matters at hand are pressing, and Ariosis is in disarray... My men are now yours to command. Make use of their power."
---
"Whew! I'm beat. I think I'll take a little... nap... now......" Justin fell backwards. His life was wearing thin, and if he didn't get medical attention soon, he would surely die. Lucky for him, Ben was in the air near by, and he swooped down, grabbing Justin. He then flew over to follow the others. Where they were going had to be better than here.
---
The Velken twins have still been out cold for a while, and one wasn't getting back up. Jackie, finally waking up, stood on her feet. Once up, she made for the airship that she believed her sister was in... she was in it, but not her body. Her spirit was on the deck of the ship, body on it as well. When she looked over at her sister, she got up.
"Hmph... I could've used your help back there, Jackie. Well, it would have been nice. Well, let's make for home so we can preform the rituals... *sigh* again..."
---
-
Coriko swerved left and right avoiding the dragon's attacks. He was losing ground against the beats and would soon be eaten if he didn't act fast. Coriko saw a drop in the landscape and decided what his next move was. Coriko dived down towards the earth along the valley's wall the dragon went after him. The dragon was a metre away from his wyvern. Coriko sharply pulled up and leaped off of his creature onto the back of the dragon. The wyvern was bitten by the dragon and fell limp.
"You're mine now."
Coriko grabbed the horns of the dragon and pulled up. It followed and moved back up the valley wall. The dragon resisted so Coriko had no choice but to put it down. He pulled out one of his stronger arrows and lit it. He then plunged it towards the dragon's skull. But it splintered on impact. Coriko then put his hands on the dragon's skull and fired a blast of fire from his hands. The dragon roared and plumeted towards the ground. Coriko ran up the dragon's body and leaped off the head towards the valley wall. Unfortunatley he was a little short and plummeted, along with the dragon, to the valley's floor.
-
Ven nodded at Aaron.
"Yes, I will make your deeds known to King Henri, and I'm sure he will grant your country aid. However you must understand we are still at war, and quite weakened at that. It may be some time before we are able to make good on our deal, but trust me, King Henri will not let you down."
Ven took a look around as he directed the limping army back into the caves. They truly were a mess. Half of the heroes that had fought the dragon were down, Duilin included. He couldn't help but think that if the beast suddenly sprung up from that hole in the ground, they would all surely perish. But no, he reminded himself, that thing was dead. It was dead...
-
Turning from that black crater, Ven joined his remaining men as they marched into the caves. Though they had won a great victory, there was still a solemness in their step. The group weaved through the dark passages without exchanging words and after a long walk, light became visible at the end of the tunnel.
----
Renard wasn't sure what to think.
Lord Virmir was summoned before the Dark Emperor all the time, but it was rare that the rest of the Velken squad joined him. The very thought of that black shrouded man sent shivers down his spine, and Renard was trying his best not to show it. Would he be receiving orders directly from the Emperor himself? Would the Emperor split them up? The thought was nerve racking.
As usual, Renard was in the first row directly behind his master as they walked. Oh, how he wished he could have been placed more nondescriptly in the middle or end... The huge doors began to slide open with a loud CLICK. Everyone on Gaian was so big... Virmir strode confidently forward. He truly was an amazing leader. Renard couldn't recall him ever displaying a hint of fear. Ever.
The room beyond was dark, the walls lined with a blue iridescent hue. Large steepled windows dominated each wall, black clouds furiously swirling about outside. Renard couldn't help but turn his eyes to those menacing clouds outside. Underneath the far window was a black throne, turned away from the entering group.
When they reached the center of the room, Virmir lowered his gauze and bowed on the floor. Renard quickly followed suit, trying not to be the clumsiest in the group. He remained groveling there for a few agonizing moments, his heart thumping heavily in his chest.
-
"Hey, how's he doing?" Rink asked Lagart.
"Still asleep." Lagart replied.
"Yeah, that must have took a lot out of him." Rink shrugged. "We definitely need to get him a bed."
"We should tell Belle, what happened." Lagart suggested.
"Belle?" The imp asked, remembering the name.
"Yeah. She came with us. Duilin wanted her to be safe."
Rink remembered Belle; she was the servant at the Crimson Castle. Duilin seemed a little upset to learn that she may have died. It was a good thing he didn't get too attached to her. He remembered breaking the news to Duilin about Nevina's death, he slept an entire day because of that...
-
Melface smiled, ever so slightly...
Humans were easy to find. They had the most repulsive of stenches. Who could tell they hid such succulent souls underneath their repulsive flesh?
The Nightmare Demon waited a while after the last of them disappeared into those caves. So these must be what they were fighting so fiercely to protect. Then, in the blink of an eye, there was no longer a child hiding in the bushes. Instead a tiny white bat fluttered into the cave...
----
Ven covered his eyes as he exited the northern end of the cave. Though the sun was beginning its descent into the western horizon, it would be still a good couple of hours before it fell far enough so that the high jagged peaks would block its light.
Before the exiting soldiers was a sprawling valley, surrounded on all sides by impeccably tall mountains. Thick, lush vegetation encompassed both sides of the shallow sloping path that poured down into the center of the valley. And there, right in the middle of it all, was the capital city of Tjed. Tjedon was composed mostly of white stone buildings, and at this distance the entire city seemed to glow because of it. There were plenty of towers peaking up from the great walled town, but the most prominent structure was the castle with its wide spires located at the far northern end.
"Come now, were almost there!"
The wounded and battered soldiers seemed to regain a spring to their step as they caught sight of that city, as if their hearts were filled with hope once more. Together they began the final leg of their journey. Down to the city.
----
The throne rotated. None of them moved.
The Dark Emperor Retan slowly stood up, towering over the tiny warriors. Crimson eyes burning, he clasped his arms behind his thick cloak and merely observed them for a moment. After what seemed like an eternity, the shadowy figure finally lifted a gloved arm, gesturing into the air.
"Arise and observe."
His voice was deep and commanding, with an angry impatience. Renard shuddered.
At once all eleven Velkens stood up, their arms to their sides at attention. They didn't dare flick their tails about, as was their unshakable habit. The ones who had managed to mimic their master's icy stare seemed to have lost it that moment, instead looking forward with nervous empty eyes. Virmir was the only one who remained impassive.
Suddenly a mist began to materialize between the Dark Emperor and his warriors. The swirling cloud began to take shape, full of translucent colors. Renard thought some evil demon was being summoned, his eyes going wide and his fists clenching tightly. But he soon recognized it as an illusion. It soon took the shape of a quarter sphere, as if someone had taken a large ball and cut it in half, then split that half as well. The slice was covered in blue, with white specs floating a mere inch above its surface. Below, globs of brown and green dominated spaces, but most the rest blue. One mass was covered in thick black smoke, as opposed to the white specks elsewhere. Renard suddenly realized he was looking at a map, and that mass was the Dark Continent. But it was so lifelike... He could see the clouds moving and twisting... The water was shimmering... This was no map. This was a view of Gaian from far, far above...
The surface of the quarter sphere rotated, islands disappearing as they rotated off of the edge of the section of Gaian made visible. To the southwest of he Dark Continent were two islands. The rotation slowed...
"The northern island is where I sent my son, Prince of the Dark Empire and High General of the Gaian Division."
All eyes were fixed on that tiny island. The mountains were just barely visible and they all watched the tiny clouds swirl about for several moments. It was as if some god of the sky had allowed them to look downward upon his domain.
Then there was a bright flash of light. A red pillar shot outward from the island, growing more and more intense. It burned like a torch, stretching several inches outward from that illusion. And then there was that aura. That horrible burning aura... Renard cringed as it all came back to him. His arm began to throb under his bandages as he remembered how much it hurt... the sneer, the fall... Draven. That aura was unmistakable. It was Draven...
Renard noticed his fellows flinch as well. They knew him too. Retan was truly a master of illusions to summon a projection that could emulate personal auras.
But then there was a second aura. It also seemed familiar... Duilin?!
"That is what happened to him," Retan said, as the pillar of flame finally dissipated. "There are two directly responsible. One is Draven. The other you will find out. You will kill them both and bring me their heads. You will then kill all the others who helped them in their battle. When you have completed that task you will kill every single living thing on that island..."
-
//Man, where is everyone?\
"The battle has seized..." Said the voice of Ophelia.
"Where is Duilin?" Rufokanno asked.
"There" She pointed towards the caves.
Rufokanno shrugged. She seemed to have such a strong connection with this, Duilin for some reason. Or maybe she's just crazy. He just hopped he would get paid.
--- ---
"I'm not finding anything..." Firstman groaned.
"Me neither." Wilham replied. "What about you Marshall?"
"You think Coriko is okay?" Marshall asked.
"I'm sure he's fine." Firstman replied. "So, did you find anything?"
"Nothing."
Wilham let out a sigh of disappointment. He then leaned his right arm on a pile of rocks; suddenly a grouping of the rocks seemed to shift away revealing the staircase leading down. "There we go..."
--- ---
"Ah finally..." Rink said. "I'm so thirsty, I haven't had a drink for over a year."
"Yeah, my legs are achin'. Ain't workin' like they used ta..." Goldolf added.
Lagart just continued to carry Duilin, remaining silent.
Rink stopped for a moment.
"What's wrong little fella?" Goldolf asked the imp.
"Oh nothing...I've just got a bad feeling about something. Let's just keep going..."
-
The gates of Tjedon were a sight for sore eyes.
"Sir Ven!"
A black bearded knight climbed down from the guard tower, and began to jog over to the weary army.
"Sir Lymbart! Good to see you!"
Ven clasped hands with the slightly older man, who abruptly turned around and yelled.
"Open the gates! Sir Ven has returned! They've wounded men! Quickly now!"
Promptly the lumbering metal gates were drawn aside. Sir Lymbart turned and looked Ven in the eye, and the silver knight knew the question before it was even asked.
"We won," Ven said with a light smile, "we slew their dragon. Well, some of our powerful allies did. One of them is with us and has passed out. We'll have to see to it that he is made comfortable, and have a healer check him to make sure he's all right."
"Yes sir," Lymbart said as he nodded. The two fell in step and began to stride into the gleaming city with the rest of the entourage. "I don't recognize some of these heraldries."
"A number of allies have joined us in our fight," Ven said as he nodded towards a group of Aaron's men passing through. "Many of them need medical attention as well. See to it that all get what they need."
"Of course, sir. Do you require anything?"
"No, I must see the king. If you'll excuse me."
"Of course."
Ven separated from the group and began to head towards the white castle in the distance. It looked close because of its size, but it was still a good distance all the way on the other side of the city.
Sir Lymbart and a number of other knights began to help the wounded, directing them to the large hall set up for victims of the Dark Empire. The city streets were extremely crowded due to the fact that everyone from southern Tjed had been evacuated there, including the residents of Kesnar. Makeshift tents lined all sides of the streets and people were scurrying about, a look of uncertain loss upon their faces.
The hall set aside for the wounded was in fact the same hall that was set aside for victims of Mavas' plague years ago. It was one of the few buildings left in that central section of town that did not get destroyed in that battle. Of course the rest of it had been rebuilt. Men were escorted into empty cots lined row after row in that large stone building, and healer mages and doctors wandered from patient to patient, applying medical salves or even spells in the more extreme cases.
-
Coriko groaned. He raised his hand to his face. The left side of his face was swollen, and he had blood on his shirt. He pulled his shirt off and saw he had several lacerations. He put his hand on his leg to stand up but felt a branch. He looked down to see a thick branch sticking through his leg. Coriko stared wide eyed at it. He wanted to pull it out. When he gripped it the pain was so bad it made his eyes water.
Immobile Coriko sat thinking. He looked at his surroundings. He landed in a forested area. "Not so bad". He looked to hsi right. A small pond. "Can work with that." He looked around to his left. A very steep valley wall. "And there lies the problem". How to get out.
---
Druid awoke not in battle but in a swamp. He was laying on his back on what he thought was hard ground. He turned over and face planted in the mud. His clothes were soaked and dirty. He stood up and was dripping wet and cold. He looked around his surroundings. He was in a deep valley with a forest to his right. But how did he get there? Last thing he remembered he was fighting some self proclaimed "demi-god" and then a white light. Something with his shadow warriors. Druid took off his shirt and cloak. His pants were dry to he didn't have to strip completley. He lay down against a tree and waited for his clothes to dry. "I may be here for a while." Druid heard something shuffle in the forest. He stood up on guard. Slowly he walked towards the sound.
-
"The undeads were mining rock, the civilians were looking for supplies, I was resurrecting and controlling the prementioned undeads... How utterly boring.
Though that was nothing compared to the boredom that ensued after the corpses had all been resurrected. Desperate for a distraction, I went into the central shelter and grabbed the M-Grid orb. With it, I walked outside, hoping to use it as a prism to burn some wood with the sun. Yes, I was that bored.
I found that most of the wood had already been taken by the Kandarinians; looks as if I'll have to settle for a small stump. I brought the orb close to the stump's surface, concentrating the sun's rays for a nice little spot of infernally hot light. Soon enough, the stump began to smoke, and I moved the M-Grid orb to change the light's focal point. An idea enlightened me; I started tracing out letters. K... R... O... N... O...
As I was burning the final S into the stump, I noticed that the snow was crackling, as if someone was walking behind me. Oddly, I didn't feel the presence of life anywhere around me. Slowly I rose to my feet, looking around, and finding nothing; but the snow was still crackling, and I was standing still. That's when I realized that it wasn't the snow. The sound was coming from the orb!
I have never witnessed this effect. I amplified the energy within the orb with my own, making the sound a little louder. Bringing the orb closer to my ear, I listened carefully.
Indeed, the sound which I at first thought was like crackling snow was not like that at all. It was more like... many twigs snapping in a hollow tree. It was a sound hard to describe. Listening even closer and further amplifying the orb, I was now hearing some sort of a background din as well, like a low humming noise. Where could the signal be coming from...?"
-
This temple was a bit bigger than the last one. It was about the same size as the one that was made for the Aspyes' hideout and might actually make a good vantage point as a new hideout. Although, it would be dangerous for anyone less powerful than Nik Tesla to stay there, as it was pretty close to North Point. This temple however, was just as dark as the last one, and with Coriko gone, they didn't have any torches.
Wilham however was able to spot a switch in the corner of the moonlight, at the bottom of the staircase, which the group had walked down earlier. "Ah ha." Wilham said, as saw it. He seemed to know what the switch was for. He pulled the switch and the torches in the temple automatically lit themselves, through some sort of gas ignition tubing in the walls, (most likely).
"Etiam is officina!" Wilham exclaimed.
"Huh?" Firstman asked, confused by Wilham's gibberish.
"Oh, that was just ancient Terrianian for, 'Yes,it works!'" Wilham replied. "Which is actually my natural language; it took me about a year to learn your current language."
"I see..." Firstman replied.
"Well, let's see what we can find." Marshall suggested to the two.
//Excuse, my lame attempt at Latin, D.Ein...\
--- ---
Lagart placed Duilin on one of the cots, as gently as possible. Goldolf was getting a few bandages to seal his cuts. Rink hopped onto Duilin's cot, and sat next to him on the right.
"Just tell me if you need any further assistance." One of the knights said to Rink and Lagart.
Duilin groaned a bit, and then rubbed his forehead. "I'm awake...I think."
"Duilin!" Rink called in joy.
"Gah!" Duilin grabbed his head with his other hand as well. "Don't yell..."
"Sorry. You okay?"
"I've got an elixir in my pouch." Duilin replied.
Rink opened up Duilin's pouch and extracted the small vail of elixir. He then handed it to Duilin. "Make sure you don't drink too much...That stuff is kind of dangerous, you know."
Duilin took a swig of the elixir leaving only a little bit left over. He then rubbed his eyes and then sat up on the cot, and looked around. "Um, where did Ven go to?"
"To see the king." Lagart answered.
"Good. Do you know if Belle would be in the castle? I want to see her." Duilin asked.
Lagart simply shrugged, in response.
"Regardless, I kind of want to see King Henri. I just want to get caught up on what happened while I was gone. I assume the king of Tjed, would know the most."
"Maybe you should get some rest." Rink suggested.
"Don't need any." Duilin replied, lifting up the elixir vail. "This stuff is enough for me."
"I hear that elixir can stress out your body, however." Rink stated.
"Yeah, but that's only for those people who don't use potions regularly. I used to carry no less than, like, twenty potions and ethers, with me when I went on missions." Duilin shook his head after that, he still didn't like thinking to much about his days with the empire. It sickened him.
"Anyways, you too can mingle, or whatever. I want to see the king."
"Duilin!" Rink snapped. "Slow down, you just transformed twice, into different beings, killed Jayce and saved an entire island. Don't you want to take a breather, maybe at least talk a bit? I felt that you were stressed out a bit when you were up there enforcing the shield."
"What's there to talk about?" Duilin said lifting his shoulders and turning his wrists out. "I just did what I thought was best. I couldn't have let Draven's Annihilation Attack destroy Tjed, so I just made a shield around it, nothing to it." He was about to turn around and leave. "And it wasn't me, who killed Jayce. That was Draven."
"Regardless, you did an amazing thing! You deserve a little break."
Duilin gave a bit of a half smile, but it seemed more like an 'annoyed smile'. "No, what I deserve is to have you stop telling me to take a break. I also deserve to see Belle. I'm sure she's worried." He then walked out of the tent and towards the castle.
Rink followed him for a few steps but then stopped, and watched him walk off. "I'm worried..."
He was. Duilin has just learned to transform into a 'Demon Lord' and a 'Super Human', that's a big jump for his magical power. He could feel the strength of his aura was much stronger than it was before Retan's banishment spell. What also worried him was his almost total personality change he had when he transformed...
-
---
"Very good, my friend." Aaron was close to follow Ven as he made way to the castle. This king Henri fellow... seemed to him like an alright sort. Aaron pulled out a bottle of blue liquid and took a few glugs, after such regaining great amounts of fatigue.
"This stuff's quite there, if you know what I mean. It's an Arian ale, blue to the color, strong to the taste, and definately revitalizing to the sip. We'd be seeing lots of this around Ariosis, as it's remarked as one of the greatest ales in all of gaian. Alas, it still doesn't beat the ever-renowned classic ale. Only Arian ale isn't for taste, although it's pretty good to most. It's main purpose is to regain fatigue and magic energy. Would you like a taste?" Aaron held the bottle out towards Ven. It flickered with a magical blue light.
---
Ben flew to the ground and found a nice cot for Justin to lie down in. He placed him gently down on the cot and held his hand to his forhead. His hand glowed white twice, then stopped. After Ben was done with Justin, he walked around and performed more healing on other injured soldiers.
---
-
//That translates roughly into "Itself is the workshop!" ... Did you steal my textbook?\
"The sound was getting louder, but ever so slightly. Whatever was emitting the signal appeared to be approaching me... or getting stronger. Sure enough, soon, I felt it myself. The energy I felt seemed to be vaguely familiar, but I just couldn't put my hand on it. It was like when you forget a word and it is on the tip of your tongue, but no matter how hard you try, you can't figure out what it was.
But after thinking about it, I decided not to pursue the subject. My underlings have obviously done something horribly wrong in my absence, and I must be present to correct mistakes. No rest for the wicked, as they say..."
-
Dragging several corpses behind him on thin strings of blackness, more for kicks than for actual use, Kerig approached Kronos.
"Umm, mistah Crow-Nose?" he asked, holding out several rusty chains "Weloss is finished. D'ya want back your amulets? Oh, by the way, he is getting bored. Need help with something?"
-----
Indher and her apprentice appeared not as mysticaly as mistily not too far from Tjedon castle.
"Oh great, Tjed again..." she groaned, ready to activate the ball again.
Suddenly she realized nothing was in flames.
The battle was over. And a figure seemed to be approaching...
"Is this... Duilin?" Elphos asked what Indher thought to be a dumb question.
"Right. Maybe we should try asking Iduran to talk again?" Indher said more to herself than as a response to her apprentice.
And then it hit her.
"Wait...." she placed a finger in the middle of her face, apperantly as a gesture for thinking "If Duiling knew Iduran in person before his death, perhaps he knew other Rommean people by name...?"
She nodded to herself and began walking hastly towards the half-demon.
"Hey! Du-Duilin! Wait! I need a sec with you...!" she called called out as her confused apprentice just stood in place, probably not yet realizing what was going on.
-----
Sitting by a small campfire, Zakon enjoyed a pleasant outdoor meal.
Grilled lizards on-a-stick.
"Those are pretty good..." he said as he bit off the head of one and swallowed it without chewing.
"Well, I did try..." Iskatyl smiled at him "But you aern't eating them right..."
Zakon laughed at him as he licked his stick clean of the lizard. He then found a crawling nearby spider and decided impaling it would be fun.
After he did, he threw the stick into the fire.
"I wonder how long will it take to cook the spider..." he said in a completly honest tone as he watched flames dance before him.
Iskatyl shook his head and sighed.
"You already overcooked him, brother."
-
Ven was exhausted himself, so the blue liquid didn't seem like a bad idea.
"Hmm, don't mind if I do."
He grabbed the bottle with a nod and took a swig. Immediately he began coughing.
"*COUGH* Wow... *COUGH* Pretty strong stuff..."
He hit his chest once with a fist, trying to recompose himself.
By then the two made it the outer gates of the castle.
"New friend, Sir Ven?"
Ven pointed to Aaron with his thumb over his shoulder.
"This is Aaron. His army helped us fend off the Dark Empire."
The guards bowed slightly.
"A pleasure, sir."
Ven turned back to Aaron.
"I must speak with King Henri now, so we must part ways. I'm sure he'll want to speak with you soon though, so don't wander far. You and your men are welcome to explore the lower levels of the castle, as well as the town. When his majesty is ready to receive you, we will send for you via messenger."
Another guard came over and whispered something in Ven's ear, and the two began conversing in low tones as Ven walked off into the open halls of the white stone castle.
----
"What was that?"
"I don't know, looked like some rustling bushes to me."
"Do you think we should, like, check it out?"
"Dude, it's just some rustling bushes. What makes you think rustling bushes are suspicious? I mean, there are a number of perfectly natural things that could move bushes like that."
"*Sigh* ... Fine, I'll do it myself."
The Tjedian guard stepped out from his post near the outer walls of Tjedon, peering into the thick underbrush. All of the men from Ven's army seemed to have made it in, but he wondered if it could have been a straggler, or perhaps some villager who had responded to the evacuation call late. The bush seemed empty enough when he arrived, so he called out.
"Anyone out there?"
More rustling farther out. He caught a glimpse of someone running away, disappearing into the thick growth..
He turned back and glanced at the other guard, who didn't seem to be paying attention, so he turned back to the woods and stepped in, pushing away the foliage with his spear. After a minute he saw a glimpse of the figure again. A lost child?
"Hey kid, relax. I'm not gonna hurt ya."
What.
Do.
You.
FEAR?
The guard jumped back with a yelp, brushing the spider off of his arm. Blast it, he hated spiders. Good thing no one saw him flinch like that. He continued on after the kid.
After a few moments he realized he lost him, whoever the child was. He turned around abruptly.
And screamed.
A seven foot tall spider stood before him, his panicked reflection cast in its multitude of eyes. He instinctively slashed at its face with his spear, but dropped the weapon in response to the spiders crawling on his hands. He fell backwards, trying to brush them off, but there were far too many upon him. His armor dematerialized piece by piece, changing into more and more crawling spiders. Everywhere. He screamed as he rolled upon the ground violently, the arachnids crawling into his mouth.
----
Mmmm... delicious.
He loved it when they screamed. It made their souls taste oh so much better...
-
"Alright. I'll wait out here. Come get me when you're done." Aaron waited outside the castle walls. He strode around for a bit, admiring the stonework of the castle. Sure, it was basic, but there weren't too many stone castles from where he hailed.
"Hmm... hey, what's that over there...?" Aaron walked away from the castle and looked down on the ground. There was a shadow, but nothing to cause it... what could this be? It had a similar shape of a human, but looked a bit stranger. It looked like it hadn't skin, but scales.
Without warning, a black hand reached out of the shadow, grabbing on to the land around it. The creature pulled himself out. He was no creature at all, but a scaled human, pure black. He had on some sort of evil armor... it was all too recognizable. He was a general of the dark empire. on his back was a great claymore. He took it out and looked up at Aaron.
"Heh... Aaron Grey. It will sadden you to find that the empire crumbles. The Ario empire, atleast. Ariosis is in the grasp of the dark empire. There's not but a matter of time before-"
"FOOL!!!" Aaron lunged forwards at the black-scaled man in dark armor. His attack was deflected before it was even able to hit the man. Aaron spun backwards and hit the ground.
"Listen up, Grey!" the dark one said, "It's pretty rude to interrupt." Now, he grabbed Aaron by the throat. Aaron grabbed at his arm, but he could not pull himself loose.
"Now that I have youyr attention, and I'm sure you won't... complicate things any further, Ariosis is in ruin. What's left of your kin is your wife, your brother, and youre one child. That will soon change, however-"
"DIE!" Aaron let go of the man's arm and punched him in the face. His throat was released as he fell to the ground, gasping for air. As he caught his breath, he grabbed the man the same way. "You hurt any of them, and I'll make your life a living hell! MARK MY WORDS!!!" He threw him back into the shadow on the ground. A few moments later, it disappeared.
"I need to speek to this king... Right now!" Aaron burst into the castle and ran around until he found the route to the throne room. On that route, he found Ven. "I cannot wait. I need to see him now! Please, it's much worse than I feared. My family lies on the brink of death. You must take me to your king NOW!!!"
---
-
Duilin arrived at the gates just in time to see some guy yelling about needing to speak to the king.
"Hey man." Duilin said, to Aaron. "Calm down." He then looked at the guard. "Hey. I'm looking for Belle, she's this one woman who I had sent here to be protected. Where is she?"
Then he heard somebody call his name. He turned around to see who it was. It was that one strange cat woman. He forgot her name, already. "Oh, hello. It's um...you...What do you need?" He asked.
-
Indher smiled. One would find it hard to tell if the smile was innocent or mischivous...
"You...You knew Iduran before he died, right?" she asked, trying to sound as convincing as possible "You have been to Romme before it's destruction, right?"
She breathed in deepily as Elphos approached, carrying their small leather bag of supplies, however Indher ignored him.
"All I need is a name..." she said. She was panting, as if she had just finished jogging for several houres "The only one I knew was Iduran. So I bought him to life. But I missed my chance to ask him for more names of the people of Romme..."
Her smile faded. Her expression became somewhat sad.
"Please! I really, really need at least one name!" she begged as she held her hands together.
-
"Well, I knew a solider named Patrick and a Wind Mage named Scorch." Duilin replied. He then rubbed his chin. "And I remember there was some big loud drunkard named Skippy, but he seriously wouldn't be worth anyone's time."
He thought for a bit more. "I was only there for three days, but I believe that Scorch was pretty mean fighter. I'm not sure where his body is, or even how he died." He lowered his hand from his chin. "But I did actually witness Patrick getting killed. His head was shot off by some crazy assassin kid. And actually, I did see his ghost. He just wanted to know how he died, and why. It was pretty confusing, and I never figured out if that was the real reason. Maybe his ghost is still there, but I don't know."
He shrugged. "Hope, I was at least some help."
-
"Patrick...soldier...Scorch...Windmage...Skippy...Unworthy..."
Indher hastle scribbled it down on a piece of cloth, smearing something with a finger rather than using some sort of pen.
"Yes, that is most excellent!" she turned to Duilin himself, smiling cheerfully now "I can progress now! I won't hold you any longer then - no, wait..."
She stopped and grabbed the small leather bag in Elphos' hands, taking out one of the potions given to her by Vrach.
"A part of these rightfully belongs to you, so I think you deserve having it..." She said, throwing the small, fragile glass bottle to Duilin, honestly expecting him to easily catch it.
"Use it... Or have a friend use it... When you feel that your power is insufficient..."
She then rushed to take out her crystal ball and activate it.
The usual sight of Indher and Fernis disappearing with a thin trail of mist followed...
-
A group of guards followed Aaron down the hall, ready to take him down. Ven turned and waved them off, seeing the desperation in Aaron's eyes.
"Hmmm, well if you say so..."
He turned and began walking briskly, motioning for Aaron to follow. A few guards stepped aside as he walked. None would ever stand in the way of Ven Hyul, after all. The interior of the castle was simple, only a few decorative banners and carpets to signify it was the house of royalty. Ven eventually lead the man to a set of wooden doors, the two guards on either end nodding to him as he opened the doors.
As he strode in, Ven realized he had just interrupted a meeting. He bowed slightly.
"Apologies for the interruption, my lord."
Henri was seated at the head of a table, flanked by several finely dressed nobles, some of which seemed slightly agitated by the intrusion. King Henri's smile was warm and relieved, however.
"Ven! How wonderful to have you back!"
"It's good to be back sire. I have much to report, but there is man here I would appreciate you to take the time to listen to. His army has aided us against the Dark Empire's black dragon and I promised him a favor in return."
"Of course, of course."
Ven waved his tattered cloak and stepped aside, revealing his guest behind him.
"Enter, Aaron of Ariosis, and make your request heard to our king."
-
Duilin caught the glass, and looked at it. "Uhh...thanks..."
"Duilin!" Shouted the voice of a woman, sounding very happy to see the half demon.
"Belle!" Duilin called back, as she ran towards him. The two hugged. "Well, I'm alive."
"I saw what you did, up there. There was that huge glowing ball in the sky, I was so worried, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Duilin replied.
"What's that?" Belle asked, looking at the vial in Duilin's hand.
"No idea, to be honest. This one cat-woman, gave it to me." Duilin replied. "Maybe, Rink or somebody might be able to figure it out." Duilin put the vial in his pouch, and then looked at Belle. "Anyways, let's go do something."
-
"Thank you. I have just recieved a message from the dark empire. He's told me that my kingdom, Ariosis, is in ruin, and... and the last of my line is being hunted down like animals. Please, you must help my people!" A tear ran down his cheek. He fell to his knees, still glaring at the king. His expression changed not at all, but in his eyes, anyone could see his sorrow, his agony, his depressive state. "Please, I beg of you!"
Behind them, the doors burst open. It was the dark messenger. "How rude, even for an emperor. I just came by to tell you who it was that destroyed everything. Behold, your new lord, BELROK!!!" He took one bow and then burst into flames, disappearing into thin air. There weren't even ashes.
"New lord? Ariosis... kneels to... him? Please, king Henri, just send a few of your heros with me. I'll be able to take care of it all! Just a few higher-ranked knights, or battle mages. I also come to you offering our alligence. If you do this, I will forever be in your debt. The Ario empire will appear at any and all occasions, and we will make sure that Tjed will forever stand!"
---
Justin woke up and slowly arose from his cot. His form was changed slightly. He had a small white aura around him. "What is this...?" He began floating a few inches off the ground. Was this some kind of spell or trick? On the table next to his cot, he found a letter. He hovered to the ground and picked up the letter. It looked like lyrics to some kind of hymn, although it wasn't written in basic. It was some sort of wierd language, but for some reason, he could still read it. It was titled the requirum of darkness.
Where once was light, now darkness rules.
Where once was heart, there is no more.
Don't say goodbye. Don't say I didn't try.
This blood we give is fooling us.
This darkness in the end of all.
The dawn of war has reached it's noon,
and all will fail. All will fade.
We are lost, we can never go home.
So in the end, I'll be what I will be.
No loyal friend was ever there for me.
Now we say goodbye; we say you didn't try.
These tears you cry have come to lay.
Take back the lies;
the hurt, the pain.
And you will weep to be so alone.
You are lost, you can never go home.
"It's written in some sort of language..." and that's when it dawned on him. This language was what they used 10,000 years ago. It's from his birth mother, it says on the bottem; Jeniva Constantine. It was the writting of the gods. What did all of this mean? So many questions would go unanswered, but only one will have to be. Where is Jeniva Constantine?
---
-
The swirling stopped, and as the orb deactivated, their feet once again rested on firm ground.
"Lucky!" Indher sounded happy, looking at the scenery around them.
It was a peaceful, untouched forest, and the beach nearby was quite familiar.
They were back in the island of Romme.
"Let's get crackin'!" Indher said, obviously excited as she looked down her tiny list.
"Hmm...Skippy the unworthy... I'll start with him, sounds that sounds like the simplest task..."
Elphos wasn't paying attention to her. He was staring at something, jaw-dropped.
"Ugh... Fernis?" he stopped staring to turn her attention from her list.
"What is it?" she asked, uninterested.
Elphos pointed at a large, dark cave entrance. It was within a large boulder, and seemed to lead deeper underground. It's surface seemed rugged, as if it has several pick-axes dragged along it.
"Hey look, theres a mountain behind that hole." Indher said, not noticing anything special about the cave. She simply assumed Elphos wasn't used to staring into dark holes.
Elphos shook his head.
"No, no, look at these..." he turned her attention to the marking on the cavern's surface.
"These are claw-marks, Fernis! This cave could be a monster's lair!"
Indher sighed.
"Bah. So something DOES live here. Big deal. We will just tame it when it comes out."
Elphos was bothered by how Indher didn't seem worried at all, but came over to her and watched her start drawing a new, improved circle.
"Ugh, Fernis?" he asked, surprised to see her doing what she was doing "Why are you drawing it on a piece of cloth? Aern't you supposed to do it on the ground...?"
Indher, however, did not answer. All she did was smile.
-
"I will go," said Elroy, standing next to the door, wearing white armor and a closed helm, "My king, I shall be one of the few to help. My skills are limited, but I cannot just sit idly by while a kingdom is under attack!" The demon walked up to Aaron and held out his hand to help him back to his feet. "What say you, Aaron of Ariosis? What say any of you? Will you not help fight when so many has helped you?"
-
"Now just a darn minute here."
The one who spoke up was Baron Alphonse, the nobleman who governed much of the northern reaches of Tjed.
"We cannot simply divide our depleted forces up to aid foreign nations! The Dark Empire will strike again at any moment. We need all of our men here! Not to mention our own countrymen are suffering."
The mayor of Kesnar sat back in his chair.
"My own city has been leveled..."
Ven stepped forward. "Lord Aaron here has done just that. He has sent his own men here to aid us against the Dark Empire and their black dragon. The very least we can do is return the favor."
"But!" Alphonse snapped back, "Look what happened when he did! His country has been overrun when while his men were out. True, we must repay his kindness, but now is not the time! I certainly cannot lend any of my knights."
"That is not your decision." King Henri's voice was sudden and hard. "Your men simply live on your lands. They have sworn fidelity to me."
The Baron opened his mouth as if to sputter a retort, but it died in his throat. It was rare for the King to remind his subjects of his authority, but when he did, it was harsh. There was a moment of silence before the debate continued.
"He is only asking for a few men."
"Our elites, mind you. Our very best."
King Henri leaned forward, cradling his forehead as if he had a pounding headache. "Ven, before you returned, we were discussing the possibility of a counter attack, assuming that you were able to repel the invaders, which you clearly did..."
Ven's eyes widened. Fending off the Dark Empire was one thing, but attacking was sheer madness. But of course he saw wisdom in the old man's words. They may never have such a chance again. Ven brought a gauntlet to his chin.
"The black dragon we killed was one of their High Generals. It will likely take them time to reorganize to strike again. We may have a brief window of opportunity..." Ven mused out loud.
Henri nodded. "Suppose we send a small force to aid Ariosis. This will create a diversion, while at the same time pay back our ally Lord Aaron's favor." He leaned forward, steepling his hands under his chin. "Then we send a second group into the heart of the Dark Empire... to confront the Dark Emperor himself..."
Many of those present gasped. King Henri sat back.
"Of course. We will have to ask Duilin about this. I sensed that he weaved a large part of the spell against the dragon from here."
"And Draven..."
"True. We will not be able to do this without Draven's help..." How to get him to cooperate was another matter altogether... Henri waved the thought off. "Anyway, the second group will not be ready until tomorrow. The first group we can assemble now."
Ven nodded. After a long moment, he looked up.
"I will go with Aaron. I was powerless against that dragon. Perhaps I will be of more use fighting lesser enemies."
Henri nodded.
-
"Ssir..." General Ssobra said entering Gorus' room. "The legions are ready."
"Excellent." Gorus replied. "Now crush them."
--- ---
Vandrin was standing up in the tallest tower in his castle, viewing the horizon. Suddenly from behind him a ghostly figure faded in.
"What's the news?" Vandrin asked, still looking towards the horizon.
The shadow mutant handed the count a scroll. Vandrin unrolled it and read it.
"Blast!" Vandrin crumbled the paper. "They're attacking too!" He turned around in rage, shoving the mutant out of his way, before going down the staircase. Despite the fact, that the mutants were all physically and/or magically stronger than Vandrin, they all treated Vandrin with the highest respect.
-
While Fernis continued to work on her complex glyphs, Elphos still seemed disturbed by the large hole nearby.
"There!" She stood up "The plans ready! So, my little apprentice, what do you think of-"
She was interrupted by a loud snore.
A sudden breeze seemed to blow from within the cavern...
"I don't like this..." Elphos was shaking. Fernis sighed and started walking towards the cave.
"Wait!" Elphos hurried after her "Where are you...?"
"To find out what is going on."
Although Elphos thought it to be rash, he followed her into the darkness...
After walking aimlessly for sveral minutes in the darkness, Elphos decided to ruin the peaceful silence.
"Umm, Fernis?" He asked innocently "Shouldn't we use a torch or...?"
"No need." She whispered and silenced him. She knew the only reason Elphos can tell where she is is by following her footsteps, which weren't that loud anyway, but she knew that light could alarm whatever may lie in the cave.
"But, Fernis..." Elphos continued his nagging.
"Shhh!" She silenced him again, but then they both froze.
A plume of flame shot down, almost hitting both of them. They could easily feel it's warmth.
But that was not what worried them.
Before them stood a large, red, sleepy dragon.
-
Aaron looked at the knight in white armor, and again at Ven. He then saw the friendly hand that lay before him, to help him back on his feet. He grabbed it and was pulled up. "thank you... both of you. I shall never forget your help to save my people. Hence forth, I shal swear my people's alligence to you," Aaron looked up at the king, "King Henri of Tjed."
In a dark shadow in the corner of the room, hidden in darkness, was Doriana, who followed Aaron into the castle. She was able to sneak by because of her illusive magic, combined with her skills as an assassin. She let go of the spell and stepped out of the shadows.
"I shall go with them as well. I may be but a freelance assassin, and at times my purse is greater than my heart," she began, walking towards Aaron, "but more people need my help. I do this not for coin, but to strengthen the alligence of Ariosis."
Aaron was once again taken aback by the help, and was ever more greatful. He walked forwards towards Doriana and held out his hand. "May we forever be remembered in the history yet to come not just for Tjed or Ariosis," he began, "but for all of Gaian."
-
//Dran P.M.'ed me and it's okay to say this.
"May the Dark Empire rue the very day they set foot on Ariosis!" Elroy looked back up at king Henri. He was confident that Ariosis would be taken back, and that he would be a big help, but four people wasn't good enough to retake a nation as big as Ariosis. They have need of many more people!
"My lord," he began, "this is a very strong attack force, but we'll need plenty more than this if we are going to retake Ariosis. I have visited the nation atleast once in my old days as an adventurer and a sailor. I can tell you that it's a long journey south, around three hundred-fifty miles or so off the coast of the dark continent, and about two hundred miles east from there. What's the plan?"
-
King Henri shook his head. "I'm afraid we cannot offer an army. We simply do not have the men. Those that are uninjured must stay here lest the capital comes under attack. As Aaron suggested, a small group of finely trained warriors would do best in this situation."
Ven frowned, but nodded. "Yes, my lord. So are there any others? We've four..."
"Make that five."
Heads turned to hear a refined voice from the back. A black clad man strode through the congregated knights, a trench coat and wearing dark sunglasses. His black hair was long and tied back in a ponytail.
Ven had never seen the man before, and he looked odd amongst the knights and other warriors. But help was help.
"Excellent. Sir...?"
He trailed off, expecting the man to give his name, but instead the man simply folded his arms.
"Right."
Ven turned to Aaron.
"We should prepare. It may be a good idea to go down to the barracks and pick up a few good soldiers, unless you think we should travel small and quick. I've never been to your country so I have no idea what to expect. I will meet you in at the castle entrance in an hour, as there are some things I must take care of."
He bowed slightly before walking out of the throne room. Blast it... how was he going to pull this one off? The things he managed to get himself into never ceased to amaze him...
----
"Who disturbs my slumber?"
There was another plume of flame blasted before Fernis and Elphos as the dragon snorted in disgust, the entire cavern illuminated in orange light for a brief second. The red dragon was lying down, his massive body coiled around the cave wall. His long neck craned down, deep yellow eyes regarding the two morsels before him as he sniffed once.
"Thrice in a decade. I am becoming annoyed. Explain yourselves before my mood bitters..."
-
"Once again, you have my thanks, Ven. I expected as much, so we'll meet here in an hour. The rest of you, let's just head out and wait in the castle courtyard. That's no command, just a suggestion. I'll be waiting there, so if any of you wish to do something here in Tjed, before we leave that is, now'd be the time."
Aaron bowed to the king and then left the room. Doriana followed close behind, and they left the castle to find a bench out in the courtyard near a small fountain. "So, what made you decide to help me, Drow?" Aaron said as he seated himself.
"Oh, none really. I'm just getting bored again. There's nothing for me 'here', so hopefully battle will be a bit more enjoyable then calm aftermath... It's actually quite anoying, actually."
"Heh... well I never thought I'd reach the point in my life where a female Drow came out of the shadows and offered me help. And what's more, just because she want's to fight?"
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? You think I'm one of those pittiable women who just sit around all day doing house-hold chores!? Forget that!"
"No, I'm just glad is all. You just so happened to be bored at the perfect time. It's going to be atleast a two day trip, but I'm sure you won't be too bored, what with the frequent water dragon sightings being reported at the northwestern coast, particularly the western coast."
"Water dragon, huh? Well, knowing Jason, he'd probably want to tag along just so he can get the creature's essence."
"Which is why I'm going to," said a voice from behind. Standing behind the bench in his white robes was Jason Tiberius. He was leaning on the bench with his hands grabbing the edge. "And I won't be going alone, it seems..." Behind him stood Jacobie and Dranniconias, ready to join their party and increase their chances.
"We're going to Ariosis, right?" Jacobie asked, "I've heard that they have very few stone castles, and that their cities are made of crystals and silver."
"Tis true," Aaron began, "our capitol is the most splenderous sight a mortal's eyes could ever see in their life time. The crystals have cursed all of Ariosis to remain on the island, except if the emperor says otherwise. And the castles we do have were crafted by the woodland elves in the great forests of Nurngar."
Aaron slowly spoke himself back into another reality where he was still at home, away from war and peace. It seemed as if time had stopped, and with good reason... It had stopped. In this imaginary world, Aaron saw all of his cities at peace. All was calm until a dark shroud began to cover the lands. The cities began to burn, innocent bystanders slaughtered, men women and children alike. Then all went black, as if the shroud had won its battle.
Suddenly, a circle of grass became visible, with him and Dranniconias standing on either side. "This is what will become of your homeland if Retan succeeds in his plot to rule everything. After the war has been won, you must immediatly bring up your army and lead them to Dranniville. That's where you'll find another high general."
Time began to flow again, and Aaron looked back at Dranniconias. He stared deeply in his eyes, seeing once again the blazing cities. "I have a map of Ariosis if you'd like to see it, Lizard-man..." with that, Aaron took out a map and showed it to Jacobie.
(http://http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia/index.php/Image:Ariosis.jpg)
-
Fernis was quick to push Elphos out of the way, completly ignoring the fact that he was shaking in his boots.
A dragon. She had to use this chance...
"Why, dear dragon, theres no reason to be bitter..."
The smile on her face was snide. Of all the things her blood was composed of, red dragon blood was quite a major part. She knew it, and she expected the dragon to notice it soon enough.
"I must admit..." She continued, as if to make pleasant conversation "That I did not expect to meet anyone here. After all, this land was but recently wiped out and restored..."
She brought her hand to her chin.
"In fact, I'm surprised you had enough time to fall asleep... Oh, how rude of me. I didn't introduce myself..."
She brought her hands to the sides of her head and removed her circlet, and her eyes flashed golden almost immediately.
"I am Indher, the last Runemaster, at your service..." she bowed slightly. It was quite obvious that the darkness didn;t bother her at all, as her direction was percise toward's the dragon's face. She tilted her head slightly to left.
"And the little man behind me? Just my apprentice."
She straightened her posture, but didn't put her circlet back on. Instead, she just held it in her left hand.
"Now, why don't you enlighted us with your name?"
-
Belle and Duilin were sitting at a table on the patio of a Tjed tavern. Belle was drinking some red wine, while Duilin had large mug of ale. It's been a long day for him.
"So, where did you get that sword? I don't recall you having that earlier." Belle asked, looking at the Iduran.
"Crazy story really. You probably wouldn't believe it." Duilin replied.
Belle leaned in and smiled. "Try me."
"Well, my old friend Iduran, I told you about him..."
"Right, continue."
"Well, apparently some crazy cat-lady brought her back from the dead. I only saw him for a second, but he seemed to have merged with his sword. Everyone else was trying to pick up the weapon, but it seemed to have some crazy magical aura around it, that repelled them all, except for me."
"Wow, you must be really proud of yourself." Belle teased.
"Damn right." Duilin shot back, smiling and taking a sip from his ale. "Well...not really. I'm sure Zeros' would be better off using the sword then me, plus he probably deserves it more than I do. I only knew the old guy for a couple of days, but I still liked the guy. He was really heroic."
"Yeah, I know..." Belle said, as if hearing the same thing for the umpteenth time.
"Heh. Sorry." Duilin said, remembering he's told her about Iduran before.
"That's okay. It's nice to meet somebody who actually looks up to another person as a hero, who isn't some blood thirsty emperor, like Draven or Retan."
"Or, Melkoth or my father." Duilin added.
"Your father?" Belle asked.
"Abodahon." Duilin answered.
"He was your father?" Belle seemed a little surprised. "I mean, he was so...evil...and you're so heroic."
Duilin shrugged. "Our reunion wasn't so great."
"I heard it was Haraldur that killed him, how did that make you feel."
"Don't care really. Can we change the subject?"
"Oh...sorry..."
---
Goldolf walked outside the medical tent, and took out a cigar and a box of matches. He put the cigar in his mouth and opened the box of matches, seeing that it was empty.
"Gosh dangit." The old drow thought for a second, and then made a face as if to say "Oh yeah, I forgot about that."
He snapped his fingers and summoned a started a small plume of flame in his hand with his magic. He fit the cigar with it, and shook away the flame. He then coughed loudly a few times.
Rink came out of the tent and spotted the old drow. "Hey, you know that isn't healthy."
"What do I care? I ain't got much time left at my age anyways."
"How old are you anyways?" Rink asked.
"Heck if I know, lost count after like two hundred, or somethin'."
"Two hundred? I thought humans only lived until they were like, eighty?"
"Yeah HUMANS. I didn't get grey skin and pointy ears from smokin'."
"Oh yeah." Rink chuckled. "So, anyways. Why did you and Lagart join Duilin?"
"I dunno, about the lizard man, I just met him. Belle knows 'im more than I do." Goldolf replied, coughing a few times after. "Man, she's a bewt. If I were in my prime time again I tell ya-"
"Uh, stop. I seriously, don't want to hear the famous 'prime time' story from another old man." Rink interrupted.
Goldolf laughed, before coughing a few times and dropped his cigar "Aw dang...Meh, I was done with it anyways." He looked back at the imp, while he crushed the cigar out with his foot. "So, what's the deal with Duilin? He seems the have a lot attitude and emotional changes when he, ya know, changes into that freaky demon and that glowing super human."
"How could you tell?" Rink asked.
"Sensed it. I have the ability to detect the emotions of people and if they're like good or evil. Can be dang annoying at times, people auto-matically think I'm some sorta wise-man. They come to me, fer advice on relationships. Heck, the whole thing is a bunch of bullsh-"
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Rink interrupted, before he started rambling. "Anyways, to answer your question. I'm not sure, really. But before I noticed that his demonic blood is kind of tied to his emotions, he tend to get 'more demon' when he gets angry, or when he starts craving fights. But when I saw him as a 'demon lord', I noticed there was almost an essence of..."
"Evil?"
"I don't want to say that, but it almost seemed like that. But I did notice that he was able to control himself for the most part, but I could feel that there was struggle..." Rink thought for a moment. If only Zeros' was here...
-
"Duilin!"
A waving Ven appeared on the tavern patio. His armor caught on the edge of a chair and nearly knocked it over, but he grabbed and righted it before it could fall.
"Good to see you're doing better!" he said as he made his way over to demon hybrid, dodging around tables. Most were full considering Tjedon was over packed with refugees from all across the country. Ven was looking quite refreshed from the previous battle and his brand new set of armor a shiny silver as usual, though he kept most of the brilliant gleam hidden under his black cloak.
Suddenly he saw Belle and embarrassedly rubbed the back of his head.
"Uh... I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
----
The man in the black coat and rectangular shades simply followed Aaron without so much of a word, keeping his distance from the rest of the group. When they stopped to converse he didn't seem to pay much attention. He merely found a wall to lean on, fumbling in the inner pockets of his coat to find a long thin cigarette to place in his mouth before folding his arms and waiting.
----
"Heh..."
One man clapped after Aaron, Ven, and the rest of the entourage left.
"My my, a counterstrike against the Dark Empire. How cute..."
The sinister voice was all too familiar. Draven pushed a few guards out of the way as he stepped up behind the king, the black shroud illusion surrounding him disappearing to reveal a fresh suit of red-trimmed black armor and cape. A few guards rushed up to him, starting to draw their weapons, but the Crimson Emperor merely gave them a glance and they removed their hands from the hilts as if they were scolding hot, nursing their palms in pain.
King Henri turned halfway, regarding the new arrival with a dejected stare.
Draven swept his arm from under his cape. "You really don't have any idea what you're doing, do you?"
----
The red dragon flicked his tail, slamming it into the ground with enough force to shake the cave.
"Your tongue is too soft to pronounce my name, child."
He leaned over and gave her another sniff, the pulling wind so intense it ruffled her fur.
"Though you smell... interesting. Like a mix of creatures. Why have you come here? Speak quickly. I agitate easily..."
-
Indher humpfed.
My tongue is "too soft"? What a snob...
Indher didn't waver. She kept looking directly into the dragon's eyes.
"If by here, you mean this cave, then it is because my apprentice is a cowered who jumps at the slightest noise."
She sighed deeply and started searching for the piece of cloth she used earlier with her free hand. Elphos, on the other hand, shrugged.
"If you mean this land..." Indher found the piece of cloth and unfolded it, showing a complex, partialy incomplete drawing to the dragon "Then this, besides hiding where the dark empire won't find me, is my reason."
She gave the dragon a moment to glance at the unfolded piece of cloth. It was large enough to make at least four sets of daily clothing.
"You aern't too well versed in runes, are you?" she asked, doubting the dragon would attempt mastering runic magic "Well then, let me explain what it does..."
She spread the cloth on the cave floor. It wasn't flat, but one could easily see the shapes IF they could see in the pitch blackness of the cave.
"This..." She pointed into a simple figure at the very edge "Is what starts it all. It basicaly attempts to pull a soul of my choosing from the realm beyond. Through experience, I've learned that there are... Side effects... And thus, I was forced to make this ten times more complex than I first planned."
She began moving her arm from different parts of the cloth piece as she explained.
"You see, when the soul is pulled out, it is melded with another soul of a negative karmic polarity that completes it... In other words, if I attempt calling the best of the best, the worst of the worst will be called as well. Not only that, but if you try putting them into a body in molded state, the evil one shall be in control. That is what THIS is for. It forcibly seperates the two, sending the good one HERE and the evil one HERE. Now, an even WORSE side effect is that the good soul couses whatever vessel it has been sealed in to disitigrate within a day, and is then absorbed into a nearby object. Because of that, I have put down THIS - It creates a gem, each made specifically for each soul called. The good soul will be absorbed into the upper layer of the gem, which will be put into the forehead of a body created HERE, according to how the soul sees itself. Now, that only means the good soul will be absorbed into the body it creates a day after the calling, when the gem shatters, leaving a gaping hole in it's forehead. That's where the evil soul comes in. THIS couses it to be absorbed into the same gem's core. When a day passes, the good soul will escape and be absorbed into the body, while the evil soul will expand to the entire gem as the good soul leaves. This process will not only subdue the evil soul by the disintigrating power, but it will also prevent the gem from shattering. The general result - a complete revival of any dead person within a day, and with a pretty, magically empowering gem on their forehead to boot!"
Indher rolled back the piece of cloth.
"I believe you noticed how an entire nation was wiped out around here...? Well, I was planning on bringing each and every one of them back to life like this."
Elphos swallowed his spit. What bothered him was that the dragon has just asked to speak quickly, and yet Indher followed with a long explanation.
Indher, however, was certain it would pique the dragon's interest.
"It's good that we've met, actualy." she said, scratching her forehead. "Retan and his men would come here eventualy. If we were to never notice you, it would be quite the discomforting surprise to suddenly be waken from your sleep by THEM rather than us..."
She put her circlet back on, her eyes becoming more human-like again.
"So, how about, dear-dragon-whos-name-we-don't-know? How about you help us with my contraption? Even if avoiding the dark empire is not something you'd care to do, surely I can pay you in some other way..."
Yeah. Like sealing your cave after we finish. After all, you don't like being woken up...
-
Druid slowly walked towards the sound. He crept silently through the forest. His feet were charged with shadow energy so it dissolved the twig rather then snapping it. He saw something move so he ducked behind a tree. Looking around the tree he saw a figure holding a branch. Druid summoned balls of shadow energy in his hands and walked forward towards the figure. He put one of his glowing palms against the figure’s head.
“Put down your weapon.”
-
"No, not really" Belle replied to Ven. "We were just talking."
Duilin slightly shrugged after Belle spoke, he took another sip of his ale and then looked to Ven. "So, what do you need?" He asked, assuming he wasn't here for just chit-chat.
--- ---
"Yeah, I'm not finding it anywhere." Firstman concluded.
"Blast it." Wilham exclaimed.
"Maybe somebody already took it." Marshall thought. "What do you we do now?"
"Well, maybe we should just head to the next spot. But I still won't feel like our job is complete unless we find the lost tablet."
"But we can't go!" Marshall shouted. "Coriko is going to meet us here. We can't just ditch him."
"Yeah, like he ditched us?" Firstman laughed.
"He didn't ditch us, you fool! He fought off a dragon so we could escape."
"Oh yeah." Firstman scratched the back of head.
"Well, there is an old saying, where I come from." Wilham stated. "Itself, is the workshop!"
"WHAT?!" Marshall and Firstman both gave Wilham a very odd look.
-
Justin put the note in his robe pocket and hovered out of the tent. He looked down at his legs; it seemed as if they couldn't even touch the ground if they wanted to, as if they're being repelled. He didn't care about that right now. What he needed to do is find where this letter came from... or who it came from.
He burst up in the sky doing a few spins, rather enjoying his enchanted self. He took another look down, and he was about fifty feet up in the air. While flying above the castle, he saw in the courtyard that a lot of people were gathering together... his friends. What were they doing? Why were they all there? Justin was sure that they weren't just there to hang around.
A half an hour passed by and they all began to get up and walk towards the castle gate. Justin, after sitting in the sky watching them, decided to investigate. He slowly decended to the ground. When he was about two inches from the ground, he hovered forwards to the castle itself. "Time to find out what's up," he said to himself.
---
-
"Well, you see..."
Ven took a chair from a nearby table and moved it next to Duilin's, sitting down in it.
"I'm leaving on a journey. So I wanted to say goodbye, and thank you for your help. We're traveling to Arosis to fight off the Dark Empire there, and I'm not sure how long we'll be gone..." If they' were to return that was... Though Ven physically seemed refreshed, there was a deep tiredness in his eyes.
"That and... well... I hate to leave my homeland, but this is a favor I must help repay. That and this is part of King Henri's plan. Anyway, I know you've done so much for us already, but I was... wondering if you'd be able to protect the king in my place? We have knights for that-- good men of course, but I just can't help but feel something bad might happen while I'm gone. Could you keep an eye on him for me?"
----
King Henri's eyes narrowed. Draven smirked, wagging his finger at him.
"That's right," the Crimson Emperor continued, "your freaky eye trick doesn't work any more, so you're just a normal inept old man now."
Henri stood straight up, smacking his frail hands on the table.
"Blast it, Draven! What would you have us do then?! I suppose you have a better plan!"
Draven folded his arms.
"Well, I don't particularly approve of committing suicide, like yours."
Henri clenched his teeth. Draven continued.
"True, I did manage to kill Jayce. And I would have considered him the strongest opponent next to Retan if not for his blaring stupidity. But that does not mean the Dark Empire has been sufficiently weakened at all. Quite the contrary. His old man's real ticked off about now, and he's got plenty of evil things working for him. There's an oafish lizard with a massive army running the shots on the ground all over the Dark Continent. Then there's these silver demons, flying furry things that exist only to kill humans. They'd butcher any pathetic army you sent their way. There's free roaming massive Dark Dragons by the hundreds. Scaly wyvern riders. Wraiths and shades that bask in the eternal night of that land due to those thick clouds. Entire cities populated by mindless Lizard Man slaves. Servants of the underworld of all shapes and sizes. And plenty more I'm sure I don't know about yet. And you think you're going to send a little squad of sappy heroes in there to confront the Dark Emperor and make things all better..."
----
The red dragon's long scaly tail coiled around a stalagmite, snapping it off.
"Why should I care about a locust race such as humans? This is my island, and I am better off without them."
He stretched and the spines upon his back scraped against the cavern wall, dislodging large bits of stone.
"And I've lived through scores of empires and their reigns, both light and dark. One more is insignificant. Go away and do not bother me again, or I shall consume you as my snack."
That seemed to be the end of it for a moment, but the gigantic red lizard seemed to catch something in the air, as if he noticed a subtle yet pungent scent. Ignoring the two trespassers, he suddenly stood on all four feet, his wings scraping across the ceiling and freeing more rocks.
"By Gaian..."
With a slow lumbering gait, he made his way towards the cavern exit...
----
A sleek black ship dislodged from its dock halfway up the Tower of Heaven's Bane. As it floated upwards it rotated slowly until it faced eastward. Then with a mighty thrust, it tore through the sky with blazing speed, yellow plumes of light emanating from its rear and wings as it tore through the black clouds...
-
Elroy waited at the castle's front gates as did all his other companions. Just then, he caught some sort of stench... it was his own kin. It was another demon, and a very powerful one at that, too. He ignored it, though, as it has often happened in recent months. Nothing ever happened, except when Kesnar burnt to the ground. Still, he waited with the others in front of the castle, expecting Ven to show up in around ten or so minutes.
-
"Me look after the king?" Duilin thought for a moment. "Well, I guess so. Tjed, has likely not seen the last of the Dark Empire, and I'd like to perhaps get some more information on what's happened to Gaian over the past year." He then looked at Belle. "And I'd also like to stay here, with Belle, for a little while." He looked back at the knight. "Sure, I'll do it."
-
"Great! We're going to find a way to pay you back for all your help some day," Ven said with a light hearted smile. He stood up and took a look at the sun, which was beginning to disappear behind the high ridges of the mountains to the west. "I must make my leave, farewell!" He bowed once to Belle. "Always a pleasure, my lady."
With that he trotted off in a light jog, his armor clanking all the way.
It took a few minutes to reach the castle gates. When he did, he found Aaron, Elroy, and the others waiting there. The group looked a bit larger then when they left the throne room.
"Are we ready to go?" He asked as he adjusted his gauntlets.
-
"Nice meeting you, Ven." Belle nodded to the knight
"Good luck, friend" Duilin waved as Ven jogged off. He looked back at Belle "I'm sure he'll be fine. I'm more worried about Tjed, itself getting attacked again." He took another sip of his ale.
"What makes you so sure, they'd attack again?" Belle asked.
"Isn't it obvious? Your friend Lagart told me, just about all of Gaian, except for Tjed is under control of either the Dark Empire, or the Kandarinian Empire. Correct?"
"Yeah." Belle replied. "But I think it's the Kandarin Sovereignty. But yeah I understand. But I'm not one hundred percent sure, that Tjed is the only place free from the Empire."
"Well, what do you know? Like, what places are under rule of Kandarin or the Empire?" Duilin asked.
"Well, other then the obvious places, I don't know much. I hear that Helternia doesn't have too much occupation, under the Empire. But the entire continent is really poor and lacks resources. Other than a few seaports, and maybe Kandarin 'recruiting stations' I don't think the place has changed to much. Then again I could be wrong."
"Well, perhaps the king knows more. Perhaps we should go to talk to him, now." Duilin suggested.
"Sure. I actually got to spend some time with Henri. He's a pretty nice guy. I wish more monarchs were like him."
Duilin finished his drink and the two headed towards the keep...
-
Indher shook her head.
Theres more than one way to convince a dragon...
Her ears suddenly stood up, as if she noticed something out of the ordinary.
She began to silently follow the dragon, ctaching and dragging Elphos (who was still dazed) by his ear on the way.
-
It took a few minutes for the dragon to snake through the winding tunnel before stepping into the sunlight in the outside world high atop the mountain. He stood there on four legs for a moment, seemingly contemplating the rolling valleys below. The day seemed nice enough, birds singing, a cool breeze flowing from the east. To the west the sun was nearly setting, its rays casting the dragon's body in a brilliant red sheen. Yet he frowned as he pointed his muzzle upward.
"The stench of death hangs in the air..."
Steadying his front two claws on a large bolder, he craned his neck towards the northwest. A blackness hung over the horizon there... the Dark Continent.
"The world... is dying... Drakens are here, sucking out all of it's life..."
He slowly turned his head back and regarded Indher.
"Your ramblings about bringing back the dead... This is part of your plan to fight the Dark Empire?"
(Chapter 13 ends in five days.)
-
((5 days? Hmm... Wait, 5 DAYS!? Xorlak, I might need you to scrape me one or two more for the scenario that we planned to take place!))
As indher stepped into the sunlight, she stopped. Elphos almost bumped into her, but managed to stop on time.
The dragon asked an interesting question.
"Why, yes." Indher said, quite confidently "Yes, it is. You see, I have a three-stage plan..."
In truth, she was making it up as she went. But it didn't matter.
"The said dark empire is currently at war. Once the war reaches it's peak, the dark empire's important facilities will be less tightly guarded. Their flanks will be especialy exposed from this side of the world, as they expect no one to live here."
She stepped towards the dragon, raising her head.
"I believe that by bringing back that which they least expect to face, they can be surprised. But that is not enough. The last stage of my plan is the most crucial one..."
She was kind of lost at that point. What CAN help the people she will return from the dead, and be as a finishing blow upon the dark empire...?
And then it hit her.
"I will..."
Her expression didn't waver the whole time, as if she knew what she was talking about from the very beggining.
"...Call upon... A power, beyond their greatest imagination..."
Yes. She was thinking of the god of death she had theorized about. If it truely exists, such a being would be powerful enough to smash through the dark empire's forces easily...
But talking about it was dengerous. The being could be listening, plus the dragon might not like it...
"...I cannot say any more."
She had finished by lowering her head and closing her eyes, as if humbled by her very thoughts.
-
//Xor Guy: Will we return to the traditional, all main characters go to bed? There's a big enough break in action for that.\
Gorus stood at a stone balcony on his mountain fortress, viewing over the army of lizard men. General Ssobra was to his left, looking at the army and then to the High General.
"When will the attack sstart ssir?" General Ssobra asked.
"Either tomorrow..." Gorus replied. "Or in five hours. Whatever I'm in the mood for."
//AKA, I'll have the battle of Subterranean Division Vs. Vandrin County, next chapter, whether it takes place immediately after or the next day.\
--- ---
Duilin and Belle entered the castle, when they bumped into Lagart, Goldolf and Rink
//Man, I use Lagart and Goldolf too much.\
"Hey, Duilin. Going to see the king?" Rink asked.
"Yeah, Ven asked me to protect him, while he's gone. Some trouble in, uh Arosis." Duilin replied.
"Arosis?" Goldolf asked. "Never heard of it."
"It's some southern continent. Keeps pretty much to itself. I'm surprised it wasn't on Haraldur's hit list, back when he was pillaging."
"Well, anyways. You boys going to join us?" Duilin asked.
"Sure, why not." Rink replied.
And the group went off to the wizard...erm...king...
--- ---
"You guys hear something?" Marshall asked.
"Yeah, sounds like...oh no!" Firstman shouted.
Suddenly from the darkness a shadow mutant appeared and zoomed past Wilham close-lining him to the ground.
Marshall immediately began shooting fireballs at it, with his MagiPistol, but the mutant doged them all, by strafing to the side, and doing a flip off the wall. The mutant then fired a shade blast, at Marshall, hitting him the chest knocking him the ground and pushing him back a few feet.
Firstman drew his sword and ran towards it. "Gnnn!!"
The shadow mutant however, shot another shade blast, knocking away Firstman in a similar fashion...
-
"Yes, let's just be on, then... oh blast, which way to that port... Ah yes, this way." Aaron lead them to the caves south of the city. From there, he walked out to the field of battle where there was a great crater... where the remains, if any, of Jayce lie. There, he saw that some of his men were beginning to build a bridge across, but it wasn't complete. However, the port was rebuilt, along with some repairs on Aaron's great galleon, the White Tidian.
"Hello, sir!" said a villager from ariosis, "The port's finished just like you asked. We're also rebuilding some homes and farms that have been demolished during the attack."
"Very good!" Aaron began, "Send a messanger to the king of your great work." The port now looked like one of the great cities of Ariosis. It was made of crystals and silver, greatly crafted with beauty, and even stronger than masonry.
"I shall do so right away, sir. And one more thing, your ship, the White Tidian, has been repaired. It's cannons can now blast with ten-fold power."
"Yes, yes, the cannons. Just bring it back to the docks, and quickly now. I haven't got all day." The port was a bit crowded with markets, houses, and smitheys alike, looking even better than its old self. Aaron walked the party down a long silver bridge lined with shards of white crystals.
"This is only a taste of the great craftsmenship of my people. They're very cheap, fast, and detailed... Ah, never mind that. Here she is, the White Tidian. Aaron walked aboard his ship.
Justin and Tibbs stepped on, followed by Dori, Jacobie, and Dranniconias. Each gazed at the giant ship, admiring its size and beauty. The mast was pure gold, the sails were trimmed with elegant silver thread, the deck made of pure Nurngar wood from the woods at his homelands, and around the rails of the giant white ship were more silver trimms spotted with white crystals.
Aaron walked a ways back until he hit the back of the ship. He opened the door to the cabin and awoke the crew that was on board. "Oi! On deck, you lazy sods!" around ten men came out of the cabin with Aaron, each having a job to do. The sails were lowered as he looked back on the pier. "You comming then?" he asked Ven, Elroy, and the other man.
---
-
-"Bored, is he, now? Well... Let's try to make him un-bored, shall we? Do ask your friend to kindly cut up that mountain over there - " I pointed to a mountain - "Into manageable bricks. I can see my minions are making good progress, but it would be a whole lot faster if he did it. And please, do it in a nice shiny way... I really need a distraction."
When I was done instructing Kerig, I headed off to the little square in the middle of the settlement, where the fire was burning. The static was long gone from the M-Grid orb, but... it seems... not for long. As soon as I arrived into the immediate area of the fire, the crackling resumed. Now it was different, though... somehow, it was much more menacing than before. However, there were things more important than this. I put the orb back into the main hut. Did they use wood for the fire? I could've sworn I saw them put regular wood, but then, why would the flames have the occasional burst of... blue?"
-
The shadow mutant was then tackled from behind and taken to the ground. Wilham dusted himself off. "Not smart." the white robed man then rolled over the mutant, so it was facing up, he then grabbed the creature by the throat and lifted it up. The mutant grabbed the golden gauntlet fingers trying to break itself free. The mutant then narrowed his eyes, and his hands began to glow with a black-violet aura. Wilham clenched his teeth and then his hands glowed in a white mist, suddenly a clashing explosion pushed the two fighters and forced them to the ground. A white coloured nymph bursted from the mutant’s throat, oddly enough it was not covered in blood. The nymph was summoned right inside the mutant and the explosion was caused was a shadow spell from the mutant.
Wilham was wounded from the dark explosion and was breathing heavly on the ground. He saw that Marshall and Firstman were also wounded. The Light Nymph then floated over to the two Aspyes and casted a cyan mist around them, instantly curing their wounds. The two men got back up and noticed Wilham on the floor was injured.
"What the heck is that thing?" Firstman said, pointing to the nymph.
"It's a white nymph. I've heard of nymphs being of different elements than earth, but I've never seen one." Marshall replied, as the nymph fluttered over to Wilham, and casted a cyan mist on him.
"Bah!" Firstman gasped. "What's it doing to him!?"
"Don't worry." Wilham replied, as he got back up on his feet. "It was curing me. I saw you two were wounded, and I also wanted to kill that demon, so I summoned this Light Nymph right into it's throat."
Firstman coughed a bit, and rubbed his own throat feeling uncomfortable. "Owch..."
"Do either of you know where this demon came from?" Wilham asked. "Is it related to those demon-men we fought earlier?"
"No. It's one of Vandrin's mutants." Marshal answered. "He apparently discovered this ancient formula, and found a way to turn humans into...well these."
"Wait, an ancient formula?" Wilham asked, seeming shocked.
"Yes, why?"
"Oh my. I believe this might be the same mutation potion, which was used back in the old Terianain Republic war. It was a potion that was made by a man named Theodore Vandrin."
"Wait, Theodore Vandrin!? That's the count of the count of the Vandrin County, some miles east of here." Marshall interrupted.
"Could it be the same guy?" Firstman asked.
Both Marshall and Wilham gave him an odd look.
"Oh yeah...guess that wouldn't make much sense now, would it. Heh."
"ANYWAYS." Wilham continued. "When the Black Dragon split from the White Chimera, they hired an alchemist named Vandrin to create a potion to transform their prisoners of war into able fighting warriors on their side. There wasn't much information on it, and I think the project wasn't totally finished, but it does say in our texts that some mutants were successfully made...I never thought that the formula still existed."
"Well, can I say something?" Firstman said. "I mean, isn't a coincidence that somebody who made a mutant making potion thousands of years ago has the exact same name, as the person who is using it, today?"
"You know, I don't think it is. Perhaps our Vandrin is a decedent from the ancient one." Marshall replied. "Hmm, you know what I think. I think Vandrin might have the missing tablet. I mean, one of his mutants is here. Perhaps he himself was here, or another mutant found it and brought it back."
"Perhaps. Maybe we could go to the Vandrin County and look for it." Wilham said, rubbing his chin.
"Well, I don't think we will be so welcome. The entire county is built like a huge fortress. Nobody can get into any of the towns, unless they are with Imperial or Kandrin military personnel. Even the Dark Empire has trouble getting in, with them and the Kandies having a few disagreements."
Wilham thought for a moment. "Perhaps we could sneak in, or maybe disguise ourselves."
"But what about Coriko?" Marshall asked.
"Damn, you're right. That does kind of weigh us down a bit."
"I hate to say it, but I think we should just go. I have a feeling he might be dead." Firstman said, reluctantly.
"I don't know. Maybe one of us could stay and wait for him. Firstman?" Marshall suggested.
"But I'd be sooo bored. It's not like I could summon a friend, like you and Wilham can. Plus, what if another mutant comes? I'd be smoked!"
"Well, it's probably going to be even more dangerous at the county. You said it yourself."
Firstman groaned, and put his hand to his forehead.
"I've got an idea." Wilham said with a smile. "I'll leave my light nymph here with you, and send another nymph, back the hideout with a note asking for them to send assistance, here."
"I guess that will do, but why can't one of you stay?" Firstman asked.
"I'll need Marshall's summoning skills. Although he's not a quick and controlling with his creatures, having two summoners can be pretty handy. And no offence, but he's better than you. So far, you haven't done much to impress me."
Firstman gave an offended look at Wilham. "Oh gee! Thanks, thanks a lot!"
-
“Put down your weapon.”
Coriko was caught off guard. Where did this man come from? He had been listening and watching the surrounding area ever since he woke up. There’s no way he was quiet enough to sneak up on him.
“Now sir,” Coriko wanted to be polite as possible seeing as this man could kill him with a twitch of his hand. “I would put down my weapon if I had one. If you are talking about this branch, well that’s another story.” Coriko moved a little and showed the figure behind him. “Now sir lets be civil here. I am stuck in this valley, and I assume you may be as well, and have a branch stuck in my leg. So I propose we set aside any differences we may have so we can get out of this valley.”
---
The man was offering him a truce. But was he trustworthy? He could be a high general of his enemy army. Then again these were Jayce’s enemies not his. He was a mercenary in Jayce’s army. Besides Druid fought with honour and killing an enemy while they were injured by something else was indeed the lowest of the low.
“Alright, what’s your name?”
---
“Coriko, and what do you call yourself?”
---
“Druid. Now do you want me to do something for your leg?”
---
“If you don’t mind.”
---
Druid slowly walked forward towards Coriko. He put his hands on the branch. Slowly it started to turn black. Then the branch dissolved and shot up into Druid’s hand. He then threw the energy away where it crashed into the valley wall. He looked down at Coriko’s leg. Out of the hole where the branch was flames were spurting.
“What is that?!?!”
---
Coriko felt a searing pain in his leg and also saw the flames.
“Geez! That is new”
The flames were spurting out of his leg and slowly the hole in his leg was healing.
“That has never happened before.”
---
Druid stepped back and re-summoned the balls of shadow energy.
“Are you a mage? Show me any weapons you have or you won’t ever make it out of this valley.”
-
(Yes, let's do the everyone-get-some-rest thing this time. Heh...)
Ven scratched his head as they walked through the port. What the heck was going on here? It looked like Aaron's men were rebuilding things on their own accord, but there was no way they could have rebuild so much mere hours after it had been destroyed! The majority of Tjed's population was walled up in Tjedon, and likely wouldn't leave until the king felt it was safe. And rightly so, considering the Dark Empire would likely strike again in the near future. It didn't make sense to rebuild until then, especially in such a valuable location. Then Ven noticed the shimmering docks were actually made of what appeared to be silver and jewels. The High Knight smiled then. It was obviously a decoy, made to distract any attacking army. Ven wondered if it was all an illusion of some sort.
The silver knight didn't pursue the questions on his mind. Instead he followed the party up the ramp and onto the glimmering deck of the ship. Arosis was obviously a very rich country, as even the Posidon X, Tjed's flagship, did not look so glamorous.
Behind him was that silent man in the black coat. Ven felt like asking his name one more, but decided to wait until the crowd of adventurers had dispersed a bit.
----
(Can't we pick it up next chapter? Heh...)
The red dragon lowered his head as he listened to Indher. When she trailed off, his gauze drifted to the setting sun, contemplating it for a moment. Finally he spoke, in softer tones this time.
"The night will be cold. If you wish, you may take shelter in the cave whilst you consider your plan."
Without another word, the dragon slowly lumbered his way towards the yawning blackness of the cavern.
-
"Woah... look at this place!" the demon thought, "It's beyond my very beliefe as to how much these people have in their stores..." Elroy continued with his party onto the White Tidian. Even more so than the city, the ship was a sight so beautiful, Elroy had to admire it, no matter how stubborn he was.
"Well then, I guess we'd better set sail, eh Aaron? This is quite a fine display of craftsmenship... and I wonder... how did they do this in such limited time?" Elroy walked around and looked at the great ship. He found himself lost in amazement. The ship's crew began to start the ship on it's long journey to Ariosis, its great sails taking with the wind.
-
((Well, we can, but the timespan thing... I thought it would be easier to use the break between chapters and assume that Retan's men already had their trips of back and forth...))
Indher's expression turned sour.
"What? The night will be cold?" She muttered, more to herself than back at the dragon.
Elphos, on the other hand, seemed relieved.
"Well, at least he won't eat us..." he said, placing his right hand on his chest as he sighes.
The two followed the dragon back into the cave.
Maybe I can set up the glyphs in the cave itself?
That way I won't have to worry about them being destroyed as much...
---
Kerig raised an eyebrow.
"Cut the mountain..." He questioned "...Into bricks?"
"The sounds hardly fun." Weloss admitted up front "Plus, I don't think I can stretch further enough to do it."
Kerig shook his head as he turned away from Kronos and began walking towards the mountain.
"Let's try anyway, Weloss. We promised to repay Crow-Nose, remember?"
Weloss grumbled something about not promising anything, but decided to cooporate.
As he had reached the mountain, he stopped to stare at it from it's base to it's top.
"Hmm...Weloss?" he said, ignoring the many stares in his direction "Please create as many blades as you need to cut into bricks like theirs..."
As kerig pointed at some random bald man carrying a cart of ready bricks, Weloss interrupted.
"But I told you, I can't extend so far."
Kerig shook his head yet again.
"I asked for quantity, not quality."
"It's unusual for you to be so whimsical." Weloss said, as several hundred tiny, black needles raised from Kerig's shoulders.
Suddenly, with a flash, each needle burst into what appeared to be a gigantic, golden blade-sharp tentacle. Their bases remained tiny and black, however.
It almost seemed as if the needles were... Inflated.
"I don't have amazing ideas often, either."
"I see..." Weloss said, after all the workers stood back as they were told "You simply overpumped my appendages with our energy, thus making them something bigger. While these cannot cut living flesh due to the spiritual pressure of all living beings, any non-magical object will simply be cut due to the nature of my being..."
Kerig nodded, and hundreds of shining blades dropped down , slicing the mountain into as many pieces as there are blades ((+1 for you math freaks)) vertically.
"I wish I could get ideas such as these more often..." Kerig said, turning around as the very same blades slice the mountain horizontally.
The mountain didn't move through the entire process, so it seemed like the blades simply passed through the mountain like ghosts twice, so some people were actualy surprised when they started moving pieces of the mountain and they 'came off' in pretty shapes of blocks.
Kerig walked away, heading yet again for Kronos.
"Can't we go yet?" Weloss asked him.
Kerig did not respond. He did, however, seem pleased with himself.
-
Duilin and the group arrived at the door of the king's room. //or whatever 'room' he's in. I don't know what the castle is like...\
"Greetings, Sir Duilin." The guard greeted him, as the half demon approached him. "How may I help you and your friends?" He asked.
"We're here to see the king. Is it okay if we see him?"
"I will check, and see if it okay. One moment sir." The guard then entered the room, and saw the king and Draven talking. "My lord, Duilin requests to see you, shall I let him in?"
//Sorry, if that post seemed rather bland. I had a long tiring walk home, today...\
-
(We'll work it out. Heh...)
The dragon simply took his spot at the rear, in the largest opening. There were plenty off off-shoots and sub rooms branched off the main cavern so that his two guests could settle in without so much as seeing the beast.
----
Draven and Henri were in the midst of an argument, Draven's finger's shoving into the old man's chest.
"... think about it, for a while," Draven closed with one of his smirks. He turned slightly and saw Duilin in the doorway. Keeping his expression, he simply flipped his cape and promptly left via the rear exit. The nobles sitting around the table seemed at a loss for words, and Henri was no exception. Finally the king took his place, a warm smile slowly replacing his wary frown, though not entirely.
"Yes, let him in. Duilin, good to see you've recovered. Please enter. What is on your mind?"
-
"Set sail! We make for Port Sarkanndis in the eastern coast of Dranniville." The men began to shove off from the dock. The ship's sails caught wind fast, and off it went, much faster than a regular galleon.
"Well, I'll be up here, stearing the ship if anyone needs me. If you want, there's a bar down under the deck. Oh, and Ven, you might want to have a look at this. It's a map of Ariosis, sout of the Dark Continent." Aaron took a small map out of his right shoulder pauldron and tossed it to Ven.
(http://http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia/images/a/a0/Gaian_and_Ariosis.jpg)
"The reason I'm heading to Dranniville first is because there's a secret hideout in the center of the island. If anything were to happen to my empire, my family would flee to the hideout in Dranniville. None know of it's location, and even if they find it, they have to have a key with them. It's a giant cave that's immune to magic and physical attacks, and there's a great big stone door with a circular hole in it. It's the key hole."
"So, I presume you have the key?" Justin began, "Can we see it?"
"Yes, there's another problem with that as well. The emperor cannot use the key. Only one of his royal guards may, which is where you all come into play. Down in the ship's bedroom area are a few crates full of elegant swords. They are very sharp to the touch, and when you strike an enemy with one, they either freeze, burn, or are paralized. Wielding one of these allows you to use the key. You are all welcome to have one."
-
Indher escaoes into one of the larger 'rooms', which she begins carving her complex glyphs unto the floor.
She didn't seem to want to sleep, even though Elphos begged her to do so.
And since the master did not sleep, Elphos had to stay up as well, watching and observing...
-
"What in god's name..." Duilin muttered when he spotted Draven, he was nearly about to chase after him, but forced himself not to. He simply stepped into the room, and looked at the king.
"Greetings, King Henri. I just stopped by to thank you for taking care of Belle, while I was gone. She told me you were very kind to her." Duilin said, bowing his head. "That means a lot to me."
The others entered. "I suppose it wouldn't be too much to ask, that my friends here could stay here for the night. They have fought hard, and they have earned a good rest. Also, Ven has requested that I fill in for him, while he is on his trip to Ariosis, so if you need anything done, that he would normally do just ask."
Duilin stepped forward. "I'd also like to inform you, that Zeros' has gone missing. I'm sure he's fine, but I don't know exactly where he is, or why he chose to leave. So it's mainly just going to be, I'm afraid." He smiled and looked at the imp. "And Rink, I guess." He looked towards Henri again.
"Now, I also want to inform you, that I plan to defeat Emperor Retan, if I have to fight him alone or not. I believe in order for the Dark Empire to be overthrown and freedom to be restored to Gaian, Retan must be destroyed."
The others seemed rather surprised that Duilin was willing to fight Retan, alone. Belle and Rink thought it was brave, Lagart and Goldolf thought it was stupid.
"I of course will need your help in defeating the Dark Empire, as you will most likely need mine. I'm not saying I want to become a knight or anything, I'm more of a freelancer, you understand. But I'm no mercenary, so I don't ask for any money. I only ask for your help and the protection of my friends." He stopped for abit, trying to figure out why he ISN'T asking for money, but deep down he really didn't want any.
"Anyways, my friend Lagart here has told me a few things about the New Dark Empire. He told me of the High General Gorus Van'deln who is a lizard man, with the abilities of a Gepardi. He might be able to help you out some, since he recently left the Dark Empire. I’ll warn you, his *English* isn’t that great."
"And, might I also ask, what was Draven doing here?"
"Duilin..." Rink groaned in annoyance.
//By *english* I mean, whatever the language that just happens to be exactly like English is. (I'd suggest Basic(Star Wars rip), International, Terianian or maybe even Gaianian. I don't think English would make sense, since there is no England (unless we make one, heh)\
-
Ven nodded while giving the map a good glance over.
"Hmm, I've never used an enchanted blade before. I'll be sure to check one out."
He fought back a yawn. The general weariness built up from the past two days seemed to try to crush him all at once.
"Tomorrow, though. I'm going to get some sleep, if you don't mind."
----
"Hmm, yes," Henri replied, nodding his head, "we were just going to ask you if you could stay, actually. We certainly need all the help we can get. And of course, you and your freinds are welcome to stay here as long as you want."
He leaned his head back, trailing off a bit.
"There is much to discuss... but I am tired. We will resume this tomorrow. As for Draven..."
He looked back and forth at the nobles uncomfortably, many of whom returned the glance.
"... he just suggested that Tjed become the fist province of the new Crimson Empire..."
The nobles began murmuring again.
"There's no way we can do this without Lord Draven..." one said.
"That man is insane," came another.
Henri rubbed his temples. "He's given us 24 hours to decide. I have no idea what he plans if we refuse..."
(Chapter ends tomorrow.)
-
"Kerig entered the main shelter just as I was admiring the smooth stump that was left of the mountain. All minions were now redirected to actually building rather than mining the rock.
-"Very nicely done, I must say. Though I did expect something with a bit more bang, if you know what I mean... After all, your friend there, as I gathered, is a spirit. His power should be... What's the word I'm looking for... more impressive?"
I circled the room, and returned to my seat. Just then, I got an idea.
-"Say, those blades of yours... could you perhaps make something like that, except maybe more clawlike? I was thinking a final favour... you'll help me build my palace."
-
"What!?" Duilin was shocked to hear Draven had the nerve to suggest such a thing. "Okay, don't worry about him. If he tries anything I'll handle it."
"Duilin. I think King Henri, deserves to make his own decision." Rink informed.
"Yeah, but he should know that I'm here to protect them." Duilin looked at the king. "I shielded Draven's strongest attack, with the aid of my friends. As long as you have me and the others, Draven won't be able to hurt you. Draven's just a crazed man, who lost his Empire."
"Duilin, I think we should get to bed now." Rink suggested.
"Yeah, fine." Duilin replied.
"Goodnight King Henri." Rink said. He looked to the other nobles and nodded "Goodnight gentlemen." The group exited, Belle gave a friendly wave as she exited. Duilin was the last to leave.
"Don't let Draven push you guys around. He needs you more than you need him." Duilin said, giving his final words of the day to the king and the nobles. The group was guided to their rooms by the guard outside.
They came to a hallway with the guest rooms about it. They were reserved for the more honorable guests, equivalent in comfort as the bedrooms for the high ranked knights. Since these five people helped save the entire kingdom, they have earned the high quality of rooms.
"G'night folks." Goldolf said to the others as he entered his room. "Hopefully, I don't kick the bucket in my sleep. Heheh."
"See you in the morning, guys." Rink said, entering his room. He smiled at Duilin, before closing the door (which was much bigger than him). "Good work, today. I'm proud of you."
"Thanks, Rink." Duilin smiled.
"Good night Belle. You stay safe." Lagart said to his friend.
"I will, Lagart." Belle said back to the friendly lizard man. "Have a good sleep." Lagart nodded back and then entered his room. Belle went over to Duilin. "So, are we going to share a room?"
Duilin yawned. "Yeah, if you want. I'm pretty tired. The elixir didn't have much effect on me other than speeding up the healing of my wounds, it appears." Duilin opened the door to his room and sat on the bed and took of his boots.
"Is Rink okay? I've noticed he's had quite a worried look on his face, sometimes." Belle asked.
"Really? The little guy worries so much, I barely notice. I never asked him, to much about it. But he admitted to me, that it was because of my apparent anger problems."
"Well, I've noticed you get a little worked up over Draven..." Belle said. "I know you hate the guy, but is it that personal?"
"Not totally. It's just he didn't even care that the last nation free from the Dark Empire, was going to be destroyed because of his attack." Duilin untied the pouch of coins form the strap on the leg of his pants and placed it on the drawer next to the bed. "And then he has the nerve to show back up, and then act like he owns these people."
"Yeah, but he can't be all bad. Didn't you tell me he said that he needed to kill Jayce because he was a threat to the entire world? I think that does show, he does have some care for the lives of others."
"Oh he does value to lives of others, but he doesn't value them like a parent does his kids, but like a merchant does his money. He cares about them being alive, but he doesn't care about their feelings. He just wants to control everyone. That's why I hate him."
"Well, isn't there anything about him that you like?"
"Maybe his humorous obsession with fire, I suppose it does have the optional to solve everything." Duilin laughed. "But in all seriousness, I don't think so. I might be able to tolerate him, if he didn't think he was destined to be the king the world." He yawned and then lied down his bed.
"Well, if I may play devil's advocate, do you think you're destined to be the savior of the world?"
"Nope, that's Zeros'." Duilin joked. "But really, I don't think that I am at all. It's just I've realized, I have been gifted with the demon's ability to have a huge amount of magic power compared to normal humans. It's not like I think I am the 'savior of ultimate destiny', it's just with my power I have the responsibility to protect the world from creeps like Retan and Draven." He then yawned again and spread his wings across the bed and closed his eyes.
"With great power comes great responsibility." Belle said as if saying an over used line. "But, don't worry; I don't think you're full of your self or anything. I kind of like how strong minded you are. It's quite heroic. It's actually why..." She turned around and then saw Duilin, sleeping peacefully. She smiled and then sighed. "Oh…Goodnight Duilin..."
(That's my final post of the chapter...)
-
Kerig let out a laugh.
"A bang, you say?" he asked, still barely holding his laughter "He is a pure spirit who can barely leak his power into this world through the etherium he currently has! Those blades? Merely several needles he managed to grow out which I inflated with our pure power."
Kerig calmed down. A strange aura surrounded him, as if he had made a choice of some sorts, and was planning to stick to it.
"If you want impressive, you'll have to get us more souls. 'Course, we could get them ourselves on the battlefield... And about make these things claw-like? No problem, just note that while they can cut through steel, they can't move anything heavier than a cup of tea."
He looked directly into Kronos' eyes and gave a warm smile. And yet, within his eyes, lay a hint of determation...
-
"Hmm..." Aaron listened to the open sea. It didn't sound as calmly as it had when he traveled to Tjed. He made nothing of it, as the open water was always changing.
"Lord Aaron," one of the crewmen said, "shouldn't you be seeing to your cabin? Night draws nigh."
"No," he replied, "something tells me that I should stay up here. I don't know why, though."
"Probably one of those days that's just gotten to your head. You don't need to worry, though. We know what we're doing. You can just head off to your cabin and get some rest, my lord."
"As I recall it, I'm the one making the orders around here, not YOU! I'm the emperor! ME!"
"I-I'm s-sorr-ry, my lord! I just wanted to h-help! I s-swear!"
"Oh my... the night rises, and with it brings rise of the full moon. I'm sorry, lad. I'm beginning to change form, is all."
"Oh, right. That wolf... Well, I'll just head off to my bunk, then. G'night, lord Grey." With that, the whole crew decided to call it a night as well. The headed for the back of the ship. Al though Aaron began to transform, his mind would stay with him. However, he was right in hearing the sea differently. A water dragon had been tailing them since the boat passed around the Dark Continnent.
-
Ven found his cabin easily enough. Even the interior of the ship was highly ornamental, his room laced in fine carpeting and a landscape painting on the wall. Ven wondered how such a lavish country as Ariosis could need the help of a smaller nation like Tjed, but then again it was probably higher on the Dark Empire's list for that same reason. The knight sat down on the bed in the corner of the room, the wood creaking under his weight as he set his sword off to the side. Of course there was no reason to remove his heavy metal armor. Ven leaned back on the pillow and allowed himself to drift off.
To be continued...
-
Chapter 14
From the ground, they looked like tiny specs in the air.
The Velken squad hovered high above the black crater, the five Battle Mages spread out in a circle, ready to perform the scrying spell. Renard wasn't too worried about leading the casting. It was a simple procedure after all. He seemed to be the one it came easiest to at least. That's way Lord Virmir chose him. He didn't mind leading spells like this so much, when there was no chance of instant death or gargantuan explosions or the like. The five Blade Knights floating idly around the black clad mages with their arms folded, ever on the lookout. Not that anyone would be mad enough to attack them.
Renard looked down into the black crater below. It was so deep that he was unable to see the bottom at all, even hovering directly above it as he was. By the gods, what a horrible, horrible spell that must have been... The silver fox wondered if he was going to get out of this one alive. How on Gaian would they be able to fight, let alone kill whatever force it was that defeated the unstoppable Jayce, prince of the Dark Empire?
Of course, Renard knew one of those involved already. He'd played dumb the whole trip, but the rest would find out in a few moments once the scrying was over. It was Duilin, the human that had saved his life. If it weren't for him, Renard would have been a carcass rotting in the desert. It made him sick that Duilin would be labeled their enemy. By order of the Dark Emperor Retan, the Velkens were ordered to kill everyone involved in the battle with the prince... then move on to slaughter the rest of the inhabitants of the island...
What was he going to do? The uneasiness in his stomach returned just thinking about it. Could he possibly kill the man who saved his life? When he first came to Gaian, he thought all humans were just disgusting animals. They were ugly, stupid things, without fur or even a tail. That's what he was told, at least.
And they died by his hands. By the thousands...
He felled hundreds at a time with his squad. Not once in the past year and a half were they able to keep up with their intricate attack patterns. Humans were so clumsy and slow, and like methodical killing machines the troop of eleven Velkens slew each army that stood against the Dark Empire.
But slowly he learned about them. At first it was the raw fear in their eyes, seconds before flame born from his claws incinerated them. Renard knew fear too. He was afraid a lot. Then they ventured into Kandarinian outposts, guarding their ship as cargo exchanges and trades were made. The Kandarinain Soveregnty was mostly human, and for the first time he saw that they too had a society. People. Just people trying to survive.
Then Draven blasted him in the face, and he fell off of the airship. His left arm still hurt from the burn, tightly wrapped up under his black robe.
Duilin helped him to reach Asgarnia, and for the first time he had an inside look at a human city. It reminded him of Welkin, his homeland. A once beautiful place, hollowed out and choked to near death. And for some reason Duilin cared. Not only about him, but life itself. About other people. It didn't make sense at the time, but now he thought he knew...
Of course, that didn't matter.
The Velkens were bound to the Dark Emperor. They were but servants of Darkness, now and forevermore. The Dark Emperor had saved them from The Cursed Sun so many years ago, and now in retribution they were nothing more than his slaves. Could they say no to this mission? Impossible. If Retan even remotely suspected a hint of disobedience... then... then he would...
"You okay, Renard?"
Renard felt a claw on his shoulder and jumped. Helix flew around to his front, leaning in as he bit his lip. His ears were perked and worry was plain on his face. In the morning sun the strands of sliver fur hanging over his eyes were cast in a golden sheen.
Renard blinked and immediately wiped the tears from his eyes. "Yeah... fine. Just some sand blowing around or somethin'..." He covered his eyes again to avoid his fellow mage's gaze. Helix didn't say anything, instead staring at his friend a moment before slowly pulling away and flying back to his place in the circle.
Renard pinched the bridge of his long snout. Blast. It. He hated being so weak...
Virmir floated into the center of the circle, his eyes impassive and cold as always. He flicked his tail once as he extended his hand, a black object clutched in his claw.
"We will bind the scrying to this stone."
The High General of the Skyward Division, ambassador of Welkin, and leader of the Velken squad released the black gem. Rather than fall it simply floated there, perfectly positioned in the center of the circle of mages. They were well over 2,000 feet in the air, above that bottomless crater.
"Once the spell is cast, we will know exactly what took place here, and who was involved. We will be able to follow their energy signatures wherever on Gaian they may be and... enact the Emperor's will..."
His left ear turned to the side, and his tail stopped moving. He seemed to be distracted, looking over his shoulder towards the ground far below.
Virmir was the only member of the group that displayed prominent weapons. The five Battle Knights each had their short swords, but Virmir's two blades were so much larger they appeared cumbersome for the relatively short fox to wield. The thin Wind Serpent in particular was longer than he was tall, and it was a wonder he didn't cause injury with the ungainly thing strapped to his back.
Anselm, a Blade Knight, floated by his master's side after a moment. They all knew what that look meant.
"My lord?"
"Demon," was the curt reply. Virmir turned his head more fully toward the ground then, taking a whiff of the cold air. His eyes scanned over the impossibly small terrain below before his lips curled in a snarl.
Like a rocket, he was gone.
The fox blasted straight down, cleaving the air as a black and silver blur. All Velkens were masters of the air, but the way he moved surprised even his students.
In a mere few seconds he was a foot above the ground with the Wind Serpent drawn. The wind behind took a moment to catch up, and a sonic boom shattered the serene landscape surrounding the crater, splitting two cracks in the earth on either side. The tip of the blade hung an inch underneath the neck of an albino snake, which regarded him with wide red eyes.
"Explain yourself."
The snake didn't move, apart from the trembling. It flicked its tongue once, and its form slowly melted away, becoming a soupy fog. Then in a blink, a human-like child stood some ten feet away, wrapped in an off-white cloak. Virmir didn't bother moving. The child-like demon wiped sweat away from his brow, continuing to rub his hand through his white hair.
"Apologies." He bowed with a slow flourish, grabbing one side of his cape to wrap around his front. "I am Melface, Nightmare Demon of Thanatos. I was with High General Jayce's party, you see..."
Virmir regarded him with a cold stare for a moment before sheathing his blade. The fox and child-like demon were about the same height, though Virmir remained floating a foot above the ground and therefore looked down his long nose upon the demon.
"We saw the Jagahn fleeing. Why were you not among them?"
Melface frowned. "They left me."
Virmir brought his hand to his chin. "I see." He regarded the demon for a moment before continuing. "You may come with us... We will have... questions for you."
"Of course."
Virmir spun around and blasted skyward, streaking through the air like it was nothing as he headed back towards his waiting apprentices. Melface followed, though at a slower pace. Pompous fool. All High Generals were such haughty jerks. And now that he was free of Jayce's brutish tirades, he was immediately thrust into the service of another.
A grin drew itself upon the child-like demon's face as he followed the Velken up. He didn't know much about their race... but they smelled delicious... They were almost creatures of pure magic... their souls must taste a hundred times better than a miserable human's! He tried to keep his fantasy under control, as now certainly wasn't the time. But maybe... just maybe later he'd find one all alone...
----
*SLAM!* *CLANG!*
Ven clenched his teeth as he heard the noise and felt the vibration from whatever it was he hit when he threw his cabin door open.
"Ooops... you okay?" He timidly called out as he peeked around the door. In the hallway he immediately recognized that mysterious black clad man bent over and picking up... a metal tube, or something... and sliding it back into his trench coat.
"Here, let me help you."
"I'm fine, I'm fine." The man growled, finishing replacing the items and buttoning up his coat. He then walked around the sliver knight and continued on his way. Finally, this was the chance Ven needed to talk to this guy. He fell in step by his side.
"You know, I haven't caught your name yet..."
"Uh huh." The man merely adjusted his rectangular shades. It must have been difficult to see in the dark bowels of the ship wearing sunglasses...
Ven folded his arms. "I was just wondering... who you are, considering I've never seen you before, and then suddenly you are in our leige's throne room. And now we're journeying together to vanquish evil in a far away land and all..."
"Don't worry about it."
Ven clenched his teeth.
"Look, if we're going to be fighting side-by-side, I'd like to have an idea of who you are. At least give me your name."
The man waved a hand. "Ned."
"Ned?"
"Ned."
"That is... the most unoriginal fake name I've ever heard."
"Take it or leave it."
Ven stopped as the man started up the flight of wooden stairs towards the ship's deck, placing a gauntlet behind his head.
"Well, uh, nice meeting you, Ned..."
He was getting somewhere, at least.
----
"I do say, Beazlebubudel, that that was a very provocative and informative essay indeed!"
"Quitely so, Luciferairion! But I must confess, I did not think it quite as compelling as the good ol' days, chap."
"Ah yes. That fellow sure could write essays. On walls."
"In Hell."
"Truly!"
"Indeed. Of course, it is unreasonable to expect superior work to originate from a non-underworld source."
"Quitely so. Quitely so. You dropped your monocle."
"Oh, heavens! Thank you."
"You know, Beazlebubudel, I am beginning to doubt the viability of your plan here on this dead island of... what was it... Romme? We've been searching for days, and, alas, we have found naught."
"Oh! Luciferairion! Your words hurt me deeply, like pointy knives."
"Forgive me, I mean them gently."
"With great risks come great rewards! If we are to find and capture this rumored Dragon of Romme and present him to the great Dark Emperor Retan, then we shall rise greatly in the ranks of respect!"
"Respect! That would be so new and different! And possibly exciting!"
"Quitely so! In fact, I happen to smell dragon in this cave at the summit of this climb, which so happens to be the only place we've yet to look!"
"By Qor's grave, I think you're right! Though ironic. Considering this would have been the most obvious place to start..."
"Nevertheless, onward!"
-
Alex slammed the heavy door behind him as he and Midna sat to reel from the hell they had faced in the last room.
“You okay?” Alex asked Midna, finally catching his breath.
In Midna’s freeing Alex from the searing furnace, she had burnt her hands in the process, sending her reeling into pain.
“Yeah…fine…healing will take care of the rest,” she moaned.
As Alex got back up, he took a look around his surroundings. It seemed the room they were now in was a sort of mezzanine for the temple, the furnace room merely being the entryway. He had to crane his neck to see the ceiling, some hundreds of feet up, counting at least nine floors between him and it. Intricate obsidian spiral staircases connected the tiers. Pure white light shone in from the skylights above, contrasting the coal-black stairs, shrouding the entire chamber in a ghostly shine.
“And to think people built this…” Alex murmured. “It’s amazing, really. I never expected to see something like this in my lifetime, it’s absolutely breathtaking.”
“The Nightshade were also accomplished architects,” Midna explained, “as you can obviously see here.”
“Despite this spectacle, how will we ever find the last page? The Aura of the Juggernaut could be anywhere in this place. Can’t you sense it?”
“I do feel something, but it’s faint. It’s coming from the top of the temple, so at least we have a vague idea of where to go.”
“So, what are we waiting for?”
Carmine couldn’t help but think of de Sade as the personnel carrier whisked him off to his new campaign. Where was he? When would he come back? Would he be angry? Even for a soldier in the Kandarinian armed forces, Carmine believed he had seen far more than any soldier could expect to in life. He was a lucky one to survive, to not be flattened, rolled up and tossed aside by the Twili that plagued him and de Sade at every turn. What about Damien Roth? Would he be infuriated at poor Carmine for “misplacing” the Archmage? He had a feeling he would find out soon enough.
He had no idea where he and his comrades were being transported to, told only that the new location would be more active than Asgarnia, and more beneficial as well. Regardless, Carmine knew that he would see Alex again, and would be prepared to take him on given the chance. But the longer it took, the greater the chances are Alex would be far too powerful to confront. Without the Archmage tracking their every move, he had no idea where the two Twili were, or where they would go next. All he could do was wait. It was on that bumpy cart ride that he began his wait, his military discipline surpassing his eagerness to locate and confront the two.
It wasn’t long after the Kandies pulled out that Asgarnia put forth the effort to rebuilt their fair city. There was much to be done, repairing walls, rebuilding houses, and tearing down the Kandarinian citadel to replace with a new shield spire were only a few of the paramount items. Now that the uprising had triumphed, rebels could finally step above ground without fear. Asgarnia once again knew the meaning of peace, but was forced to reflect on the price paid for it. Reconstruction would take months, and cleanup of the pollution would take years, even after the eighteen months of radiation decay after the original spire’s explosion. With everyone’s effort put in, the glassed wasteland could once again become a utopian paradise in the midst of viridian fields.
Though the peoples’ minds still turned to the one man that had motivated them, the one man who made them believe they could prevail. Where was that man now? Would he return to a proud city once more? Had fate struck a mortal blow on him? Would he ever show once more? Only time would tell, and they had all the time in the world.
Isaac Kleiner still remembered the fateful day eighteen months ago, when he was merely a scientist who met Alex as a passing adventurer. It was that day that changed Asgarnia’s fate forever, as portal storms soon ravaged the city. Anyone else would have believed the city was lost, but through Alex’s good willed and selfless actions the city had been spared. However, during the hero’s absence the weakened city fell like a ripe fruit to the oppression of the Kandarinian Sovereignty. Isaac would never forget the day he saw the spire fall…
But now a brighter future lied on the horizon, not too far off. Within months all parts of the city could be habitable once more, and the construction of a safer Borderworld portal would still permit Asgarnia its boundless power.
Dominic Fenix, however, had different thoughts of the savior. Alex appeared to him at first as a stranger, though gained a grudging respect after Alex’s near-death at the hands of then-Lord Damien Roth. Up until then, Dom viewed the man as a sort of suicidal man who viewed honor over his own life. Now he saw him as a stoic young man, resilient to hardship, almost as if he was born to fight. Alex reminded him of the ancient Greek Spartans for these reasons.
Ilia Savant, the beautiful young woman who found herself a rebel leader, thought of Alex as Asgarnia’s last hope, a person whom the city’s fate depended on. Alex had taught her that nothing was written in stone, that fate could always be changed by believing in what you wanted to change it to. Now her dreams were being realized, the city and all of its folk given a second chance, thanks to the kind-hearted hero.
Surely Alex would return. They all believed it to be true. He would return, and he would return a hero.
-
((Invaders, in the way of my plans?! I did not expect this!))
Ah, what a night.
Not a moment of rest.
Elphos sat in the corner, thin blue lines are visible under his eyes.
Fernis, however, worked feverishly.
With the circle complete, she decided the perfect candidate for resurrection would be the "Skippy" Duilin mention.
Everything was in place. With her hands down (literally), Fernis activates the circle.
Various lights spark and shadows darken, followed by more lights sparking.
Soon after, a bearded man with a simple round garnet stuck in his forehead appears on the floor.
All of a sudden, the burly man opens his eyes.
"By Jimmy! Where is this be?"
Fernis sighs.
"Tell me who you are."
The burly man hesitates, lifting his head slightly, he tries to get up but slips and falls back down.
"M'names Skippy...!"
Fernis sighs yet again.
"I am indher. Romme is dead. I will revive it. I need your help. Tell me the names of everyone you know."
The burly man seemed somewhat confused at this.
"Well, I be knowin' the good ol' bartender an' his wife..."
---
That has been quite some time ago. After getting several names and making her apprentice write them down, Fernis left the cavern, telling her apprentice to keep using the runes in the cave to revive more people while she is gone. She then used her magic ball, and after almost drowning several times in three different-colored seas, Fernis was convinced she stood on the surface of the dark continent.
It was a rather grim-looking forest, composed mostly of dead or dying trees with a small hill of surviving oaks to the west of her location.
"I do hope that dragon will aid Elphos, the stupid klutz will surely do something wrong in my absence..."
Fernis proceeded towards the hill, as she believed that which was obvious -
The chances of finding hidden caves and such private locations is much greater in high places...
To her surprise, the cave she found between several oaks on the hill was quite large.
It led quite deep into the earth and was quite hard to get into, which led her to assume it was a naturaly-occuring cavern.
When finally arriving at the bottom, she reached a large, hall-like place. The cieling was high above her and the walls has quite a lot of distance between them.
"Indeed, this is a good place..." Fernis muttered silently to herself, gazing upon the dry blue rock of which most of the walls consisted.
She then bent down, on her knees, and began scribbling.
Several houres later, the complex runeset was done.
It resembled an astrological piece of sorts more than anything, consisting of many oval circles with many round ones attached to them, various lines going in weird mishmash shapes between each other.
A drop of sweat fell from Indher's chin on the caven floor.
"And that's the easy part... I should rest but, if I can't do it now, I won't be able to do it when well rested, either..."
Fernis sat down and concentrated, activating the cirle. A ghastly blue flame appeared, tracing the lines in the runeset from Indher's hands and onward.
Once the entire runeset burned blue, the glow changed to deep bloody red, cousing the cavern itself to appear purple.
All of sudden, the red glow turned to a blazing bright violet.
"Ungh...!"
Indher was clentching her fists. The strain on her mind was greater than she had anticipated, but she refused to stop.
"Ughn..."
The violet glow strangthened. The cavern wals began to shake. Rocks began falling from the cieling...
"Ugh...Unghaaa...!"
A shockwave spread all across gaian. A wave of absolute despair, a feeling so mortifying, as if the world itself is about to end.
And just as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished.
Fernis dropped to the cavern floor, her eyesight fading as the cavern walls cave in upon her...
-
The army of lizard men had been marching all night towards the Vandrin County. The walls of the district were finally in their sight. The inconsistent terrain was murder on their feet, so it was about time. The lizard troops had heard rumours of invisible mutants, which the count used as assassins. The lizards had seen the odd winged mutant flying by and the scouts confirmed that the twisted count and been doing experiments on humans. Good, is what they thought, Gorus believed that the only purpose of humans was to be used as experiments, and his soldiers agreed with him.
The lizards however, were very happy that they were finally going to bust in to that county and crush some skulls; they have been itching for battle for ages. This was going to blow off a lot steam for them, especially Gorus. The high general always went to almost every battle he could, his kill count was defiantly comparable to some legions’ totals.
Gorus was actually flying above the army in his Doom Serpent form. He likes to travel in that form, mainly because it was faster to transform to and it was better than walking. Gorus, could have probably made it to the county himself and probably have blown up a lot of stuff, already but he was actually generous when it came to fighting with his soldiers, despite the fact he’s been know to accidentally kill his own men in battle. In the back of a few lizard trooper’s heads they though Gorus might even like having his own men die in battle, even if he has to up the lizard men casualties, but they never dared to spread such rumours about their praised High General.
The walls of the county were in running distance now. The doom serpent landed on the ground as it formed back into Gorus and the army stopped marching as soon as his feet touched the ground. Gorus then raised his arm and then shot it forth towards the county walls. “ATTACK!!” He roared. Suddenly all the fatigue the lizard men had was suddenly gone and a surge of battle ready energy rushed through them. The army lizard men charged towards the walls, giving their reptilian battle cries and roars.
The lizards then rushed to the walls, a few of the magic trained ones shot a series of fireballs at the wall to weaken the structure. Gorus then rushed towards the weakened wall and performed the mightiest of all jumps ever done by a lizard man and arched his foot to smash down the wall. Obviously even somebody of even his physical strength couldn’t jump kick down the wall, so as he shot through the air he transformed into his massive ogre form and the wall was no match for him. The huge chunk of the wall was smashed into the ground and the lizard warriors began pouring into cities and attacking every peasant and foot guard in sight…
---
“What in blazes is going on here?” Wilham asked Marshall as the two where sneaking around in one of the Vandrin County buildings.
Marshall went over to one of the windows. “By the gods…Lizard men! Apparently the Dark Empire isn’t on good terms, with the count. We better hurry up.”
“How many of them?” Wilham asked.
“Too many. Let’s hurry the heck up, shall we?” Marshall recommended
“Can’t we take them? I think I can call my dragon here, she’s only a few miles away.” Wilham suggested
“True, but I think it would be best if we tired to keep ourselves quiet, don’t you? I think if we get involved in the battle, they might start suspecting something about us. I’m actually assumed dead, by the Dark Empire.”
“Oh right.” Wilham smacked his forehead. “What am I thinking here? Yes, I think it would be best if we did hurry. I’m sure we’ll find the missing tablet in the top floor.”
“I’m still surprised we got into Vandrin’s tower, much less his castle, so easily.” Marshall commented.
---
The battle was a slaughter, so far only around five casualties on the side of the Lizard Men. Yet then, something seemed different, all of the sudden a rain of arrows came shooting down, at the armies of the lizard warriors. In the skies winged mutants were seen armed with long bows. The lizard men were forced to lift their shields above their heads to protect themselves from the rain of arrows, but then from the streets came stomping down an entire army of brute mutants. The lizard men snarled and growled as the large enemies came towards them. The two armies clashed together, the mutants were lightly armed, usually with some sort of wrist blade. The brute mutants seemed to be just as physically strong as the lizards, which was a surprise for them, because they were so used to fighting humans, who were much smaller then them. With the brute mutants and the winged ones shooting arrows it seemed like they were actually in some trouble, until a few lizard mages made to the tops of some buildings and began shooting fireballs and frost shards at the winged mutants, taking them out of the sky. Then came the giant lizards, the ones who where nine feet tall and had strong as hell armour and weapons bigger than any human being. The lizards again had the upper hand. Until suddenly explosions of green gas started appearing shortly after these glowing greenish projectiles hit the ground. The lizards that were unfortunate enough to get caught in the explosions started coughing and their skin started burning off, within a few seconds their contaminated corpses fell to the ground.
Gorus caught on with what was going on, and he looked real pissed. Death by the blade was fine, but watching his fellow lizard men going down like that, was just sick. The Lizard General started to glow a dark violet and soon he took the form of the black scaled Death Wyvern. Gorus flew towards the mutants shooting these poisonous projectiles, who were cowardly hiding in their buildings. He then shot forth a dark violet-black beam of shadow energy at the building that housed the camping mutant spell casters and the building collapsed. That however didn’t finish the mutants off, which he knew; the death wyvern swooped down towards the debris, and picked up one of the semi conscious mutants from under the wreckage with his mouth and smashed them down on the ground. The wyvern then began to break every limb in its body, using his teeth, and left it there to its pain. A few of the other mage mutants where able to recover themselves from under the debris and spotted the Death Wyvern, which turned and began stepping towards them, giving intimidating roars to them. The mutants however didn’t show any fear and each shot forth a poisonous blast at the wyvern, which exploded on contact in a cloud green smoke. The gas settled just in time for the mutants to see the Death Wyvern’s wounds be instantly healed. Gorus then shot a large purple blast at the group of mutants making a huge explosion of energy blowing the mutants in to air and then down into the crowds of lizards and mutants fighting several meters away.
--- ---
Lagart had been up but just laying down in his bed for about half an hour. He finally got out of bed and exited his room, and arrived in the main guest hall. He looked side to side and around. He was really impressed with how pleasant looking the place was. Places like North Point, were rather ugly, and seemed to be designed to scare people away, as were most of the buildings that the Drakens, Demons and Lizard men made. But these humans, made such welcoming places, it was almost as if they put the need of having friends before fighting enemies. He supposed to himself, that's why he seems to have a fondness for humans. The big lizard then began to wander in the hallways, looking around at the pretty interiors.
---
Duilin rubbed his eyes before getting out of bed, Belle had already gotten up and was sitting at the writing on the other side of the room.
"Good morning." Belle said sweetly, as she heard Duilin wake up.
"Good morning." Duilin yawned. "What's that you're writing?" Duilin asked.
"Oh, I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd start writing this story I've wanted to start doing. I can't belive I've actually started, I've wanted to start writing this for quite some time."
"How long?"
"Just after I met you actually. The main character is kinda based on you."
Duilin smiled. "That's nice. I guess I'll leave you to your writing, I'm gonna go stretch my legs and maybe get us some breakfeast. What do you want?"
"Bacon and eggs." Belle replied.
"Heh, same here." Duilin replied. "The breakfast of champs. Okay, see ya in a bit." He then opened the door, and suddenly stopped. He sensed something. "I might actually take a while." He then exited the room and began to speed walk towards the exit of the castle...
--- ---
“Lord Marshal, a winged creature gave me a note. It has just been brought here, from the Vandrin County, I believe. It’s tagged with an ‘SOS’ and a ‘Read ASAP’.” A messenger said approaching Kronos’
Dear Kronos, Marshal of the Kandarin Sovereignty
Due to my refusal of moving from Terian, Gorus Ven’Deln of the Dark Empire has sent a very large attack force on my county. I realize that I may have brought this on myself, and I respect if you refuse to aid me, however I believe I should tell you this. The Dark Empire has no right to do this, I have studied their history and am aware of the fact that their emperor is of the Draken race, which is in fact not even from this world! Retan’s kind has invaded our world and believes that he is rightful owner of it. I do agree that the more powerful should lead the weak, but the Drakens are not of this world which rules them out as the most powerful of ours. If they were native to Gaian I may have a bit more respect for them, but they aren’t so I don’t. I say if we don’t make a stand against the drakens now, when they are on the rise to power it will be too late. Kronos, you are powerful and a former human, from what I know so you are native to Gaian so I think you should agree with me. Don’t allow them to do this. Help me fight back against this Empire.
Sincerely, Theodore Vandrin, Count of the Vandrin County
--- ---
"Why don't we just attack him already?" Rufokanno asked sounding rather annoyed. "When are we?"
"Soon." Ophelia replied. "Very soon."
The two were walking through the woods of Tjed, suddenly they both stopped as they sensed something.
"It's the fox men. They here..." Rufokanno said as he turned his path and pushed aside a few branches, spotting the group of Velkens in the sky.
"Indeed, I also sense...Melface, a demon I met once when I was with Jayce's division. Perhaps we could check on them, maybe they are planning an attack. Maybe we could cooperate with them, to avoid any further conflicts..." Ophelia suggested. "Then, we will find him..." She took out a small amulet, which was metal with a hollowed design of a bird talon making cut...
//Talonscar theme(non existent music) plays\
-
And there it was at last... The small island of Dranniville in flames and ruin, not but five miles now. Suddenly, the ship was launched into the air and smashed into the beach of Dranniville's north eastern shore. "Damn that water dragon! Uhh... Woah..." Aaron began to glow in a silvery white light. His form was changing, and his werewolf was coming out.
"What the hell did we hit!? Why are we so far inland?" Jacobie hopped out of the wrecked ship and looked around. They're finally in the reaches of the Ario Empire. He raced out and looked around, but not a single dark soldier was about. He looked back at Aaron, who now changed form completely.
Cracking his neck, Aaron looked back at Jacobie and nudged his head in a motion that signaled for him to follow. The others all rushed out of the ship, but when they saw nothing but Jacobie and a werewolf, they decided to just follow.
Aaron lead them towards the center of the island where the smoke and ruin were very thick. Many dead Drannivolkan and lizardman corpses were scattered about. The Dark Empire had definately come here alright, but Aaron pressed on. Underneath a ruin of an old church, He lifted up a trap door. When darkness surrounded the adventurers, Aaron changed back and took something from his pocket.
"What the hell? I can't see! We'll have to change that a bit." Justin held out his hand and pushed out a small orb of light. He smashed it against the ground and the darkness faded. "This'll last a while... I hope"
"Well, here we are, the secret tunnel. You there!" he pointed at Jacobie, "Take this great stone and place it in that circle."
"What? I don't see any... oh. Nevermind." Jacobie walked forwards to find a giant wall ingraved with ancient runes used 10,000 years ago by the pure race. He placed the stone into a hole on the wall and the runes flashed a bright white. Soon, dust spread everywhere as the wall slowly lowered.
Something was inside this secret room. One could hear a pitter-patter of soft feet, most likely a womans. It was Aaron's wife with his one year old son in her arms. She was a Drannivolkan, which wasn't surprising, considering that this was the main race of Dranniville. She was about 5 feet, 8 inches, exactly even with Aaron. Her fur was soft and orange with large white spots, and her tail stayed still as she saw him. She raced after him and looked him over.
"Verronica...? Is that you...? Aaron looked shocked to see his wife standing before him; a sight he never expected to see in his life ever again. She let herself fall into his arms, and she cried for a long while. "Where were you all this time! I've been looking everywhere for you until I just came here; until I just gave up..."
"I told you I'd be here." Aaron helped his wife back to her feet. He looked down at his son. "Hello there, little Aaron," he said in a soft voice that seemed unlike him. A tear slid down his eye to know that his wife and son were both unscathed and unharmed.
"Don't you EVER give up!" Aaron said with a heavy heart, ready to cry himself, but resisting, "Don't you ever say anything like that... ever Again!" Suddenly, a loud clash from behind them could be heard, and the clank of metal hitting the cavern floor in a soft and steady pace.
"They're here! You've got to get out of here, Verronica! Take little Aaron and go! We'll be right behind you." Verronica raced deeper into the cavern until there was a tourchlit area with a door and a cut out in the wall. She put little Aaron into the hole and lowered a piece of the wall above the hole so that it looked like an ordinary cave wall.
"Let's take this route to Ariosis! It's the fastest way to the great palace." Aaron waited until all of the party had entered through the door, then closed it and boarded it shut.
"It's a long walk to the mainland. Let's go."
-
A rift opens in the sky, far above the tiny continent of Romme. Two figures emerge... Those of the scientist Dr. Drake Genais, and the wicked Bijuu, Zerobi no Anti.
"We're here, Anti. The first planet to go. Gaian. Is there any sign of those fools from the test?"
Anti remains silent, deep in concentration.
"Anti? Please answer me."
"Shut up, Drake. I'm... reveling in it."
"Reveling in what?"
"There are much stronger warriors here than those fools from before."
"..."
"I'm reveling in their energy. I can't wait to fight them. They might actually... pose a threat to me."
"Okay... Where's the closest one?"
"Will you give me a moment, damn you?!"
"...Fine."
-
Coriko sat across the fire from Druid. He was the fire mage, and it may just have been a trick of the light, but the dancing flames of the fire were reflected in Druid’s eyes.
“So let me get this straight. We’re fighting on opposite sides of this war. And you are what again?”
“I am mercenary, although I hate that label.”
“Ok, free-lance warrior. You were in the middle of a big battle when your nemesis, who is in a different dimension, pulled you out of the battle and placed you into a prison.”
“I assume it was Silas. No one on this world seems to have that kind of power.”
“Okay, and while you were in that prison one of your ‘bodyguards’ gave their life to save you?”
Druid looked down; the fire seemed to fade in his eyes. “Yes,” Druid looked up at Coriko. Their eyes met and Coriko could see the fire burn more brightly. “And his sacrifice will not be overlooked.”
“But if you summon them why does it matter?” Coriko tried to keep eye contact with Druid but the dancing flames were piercing and evil. They needed each other at the moment, but Druid scared him. He was in the presence of such evil, but Druid seems to have a high level of honour and reason, and therefore he had nothing to fear, for now.
“Because I summon the same three until one falls. They fight in trios and not until all three have fallen will I summon new ones.”
“So, why don’t you just fly out of the valley?”
“The prison drained a lot of my power so I have to wait a day or two for it to recharge completely, but I still have most of my energy.”
Coriko looked at Druid. “So why shouldn’t I kill you and rid this dimension of your evil.” He was trying to be intimidating.
Druid didn’t look at Coriko. “Because I could kill you several times over before you landed a blow on me.” He didn’t need to. The two sat quietly watching the fire. The wood was cracking and popping. Coriko sat there waiting for Druid to make the first move, and Druid sat there enjoying the silence. “I’ll have enough energy to fly us out of here in a few hours.” Druid stroked the dying fire.
“I thought you wouldn’t have your powers back just yet?”
“I lied.” Druid shot a bolt of shadow energy out of his finger at the fire starting it up again. Again a quiet settled over the two.
---
Druid picked up his cloak and put it on. He was a lot leaner then usually, probably the fact that he hadn’t eaten for a good few days. It didn’t matter to him though. Food on Gaian, he was still unsure of the name, was horrendous. “All right lets go. How is your leg?”
“Still painful, but thanks for asking.”
“I’m merely offering the minimal in courtesy. We are advisories and always will be, but I see no reason to be rude.” Druid grabbed Coriko’s arm and flew up and over the edge of the Valley. It was really deep so it took a minute to get over the top. Druid let go of Coriko’s arm after they were over ground. Coriko turned to look at his advisory. “You would be wise to hope we never meet in battle Coriko.” Druid then blasted across the sky towards Tjed.
-
As Duilin was speed walking to the exit Lagart was turning the corner and the two bumped into each other.
"Ooff..." Duilin nearly fell over as he bumped into the giant lizard. He then suddenly yelped in fear and the lizard man yelped as well. Duilin then shook his head and looked at Lagart "Sorry, I actually wasn't scared of you." He then rubbed his forehead and exhaled. "For a second I..uh, thought the world was ending..." He said like it was the strangest thing in the world to say.
Lagart nodded back. "Yeah. Me too."
"Really? Odd..." Duilin replied. "Anyways, I need to get outside, I sense something out there."
"You just going to leave?" Lagart asked.
"No, I'm just going outside, to see if anything is out there." Duilin replied.
"I sense something as well." Rink's voice said as the imp fluttered towards them "Shall, I join you?"
"Yeah, let's..." Duilin then lead the two outside.
--- ---
Gorus felt like all was lost for a second, strange he never felt that in battle, but the feeling passed off in a second. In his Death Wyvern form he continued to fly across the battle field shooting down large blasts of shadow energy down upon the armies of mutants. The battle calls and death cries were music to the general’s ears.
The mutant's numbers were decreasing rapidly; a large section of the county had been crumbled to the ground, by the end of the day the entire county should be destroyed.
The wyvern swooped down to a large crowd of mutants; the wyvern began to shine with a light cyan glow, until its form changed into the giant green ogre. His ogre form though not as powerful, it was physically stronger than his death wyvern, yet not pound per pound. His ogre form was much larger, but if his Death Wyvern form was the same size, it would be much stronger than the ogre. He sometimes dreamed of being able to have his wyvern form get bigger.
Regardless, the ogre began stomping down on the mutants and picking them and smashing them against his fists and tossing them away. It felt a bit awkward, because the mutants were much bigger and stronger than the humans, they took more hits, they were more of a challenge, but he didn't get the same satisfaction killing these...soulless creatures. A few of the flying mutants began to swarm around circling around his face like giant flies shoot their arrows at him. They felt like toothpicks, but toothpicks still hurt, especially if they got in ones eye. He swatted away at the mutants, grabbing one of them and crushing it in his palm.
More and more of the flying mutants began to come near, where the heck was his cover? He continued to swat away at the mutants as he turned his head to see behind him, apparently he wandered to far away from his troops. He'll have to do handle this himself. Good, more kill count.
The ogre then dashed forward through the road ways of the city to escape the swarm of flying mutants, but another swarm came at him. How many of these guys are they? How many humans did he harvest to make such an army? He started to wonder if he was out numbered or not. He knew he could win, he just didn't want to loose too many of his soldiers.
Gorus then realized he was too big of a target in this form, so he decided to change back to his natural one, he glowed with a light cyan once more and his form shrunk down to his regular lizard man self. The mutants were still shooting arrows at him, but they weren't hitting him. Gorus actually found himself running into a near by building for cover. It was NOT escape. He kept himself visible for a few moments, so the mutants would know where he is. He then kicked down the door of the building and walked in. One of the mutants then began to swarm down into the building, just what he wanted.
One of the mutants entered the building with its bow aimed; he turned around to see where the lizard was. Suddenly a giant pair of jaws snapped down on his neck. Gorus tightened his bite on the mutant until it stopped breathing. Gorus then snagged the bow from the dead mutant, and sidestepped to the doorway and shot an arrow at one of the mutants, hitting it in the leg.
"I've got no aim with these things." Gorus snarled as he tossed the bow away and whipped out his grappling blaster.
He shot the chain at the wounded mutant and the grapple link hook right through his chest, he then swung the dead mutant around at the others, smashing away at them and knocking them to the ground. He stepped back inside the building away from the arrows and reeled back the chain of his grapple blaster and ripped off the dead mutant from the hook. He continued to shoot the mutants down, like this until they got the point, it was repetitive for him, but fun. He was amazed at how stupid these mutants are.
-
"I wonder what's going on with all those guys going to Ariosis... but I fear something else might be causing more trouble over here than out there. I can feel something strange..." Ben flew out of the castle and began to ponder this new dark power whilst flying.
"It's not Retan...... Nor is it any Draken......... hmm...... I sense... another presence. One of more purity than evil. I'm going to have to investigate this, though. Perhapse there is someone left here that can assist me." Ben flew back towards the castle and spotted three small figures from in the sky.
As he flew lower to the ground, he recognized one of them as Duilin, the half demon that assisted him in the field of battle; another as Lagart, a lizardman against the Dark Empire... but the other wa unfarmiliar to him. He recognized it as an imp, but had no relations.
"Hello there, friend," Ben said as he landed, "Good to see you again! Where might you three be going...? Actually, what I'm trying to say is that I'm bored. Could I possibly tag along?" Ben held out his hand infront of Duilin to shake.
------------
"Hey, V! I think I can hear him talking to a... demon!? From here, it's hard to tell, but I can also see a lizardish guy... and a flying red midget... that's about it."
"Malokand, you're such an idiot... That's a half demon. Behind him is a lizardman and an imp. Next time, please study your races more."
Valencia, a thity-year-old angelic priestess, was flying behind the castle, spying on Ben with her brother Malokhand, a twentyeight-year-old angelic priest. They came from the heavens to bring him a sign, but are not to be seen. They have neither the skill nor the knowledge to perform a sign without Ben noticing them.
"So how are we going to pull this one off, V?"
"I haven't the slightest clue how... why couldn't we have been assigned to another poor sap rather than the supreme divine? I mean... He looks so innocent... and so-"
"Can we please stay focused here for atleast five minutes? Thank you. Let's try sneaking up on him with masks on, then we can get him by surprise!"
"Okay, appart from that being the dumbest thing uttered from your mouth, one, he'll know right away it's us. Two, He probably knows that one of us is here already. Three, even if we get down there, I just don't think we'll be able to get him."
"Well then, I'm beat. What's your plan of action, V?"
"As of now, keep tailing him until we think of something..."
"Yup. We're boned..."
------------
-
He suddenly got it.
Fudge the spell...
He could distort Duilin's energy signature in the scrying... Then his comrades wouldn't be able to track him... If he could save one human on Gaian, it would be him...
Renard couldn't believe what he was thinking.
Would that be treason? Could he pull it off without the others realizing it? The other four mages in the casting-- his close friends-- were by no means fools. But Renard was leading the casting, and the others were mostly providing energy. It could work...
But what if Virmir found out? By the gods, what would he do to him...? Renard never heard of a Velken betraying his own kind. It just never happened...
But he wasn't betraying his own kind. In fact, if he didn't do this, he would be betraying a friend. Velkens never did that either...
Melface caught up to the group of floating foxes and began idly flying around them. They turned and regarded him with predatory stares, clearly uncomfortable by his presence. Animals, the lot of them. Tasty animals, though...
The child-like demon stood on an invisible floor and bowed with a flourish, spreading his cloak wide.
"Pardon the intrusion. Don't mind me. Carry on..."
Lifting his head up from the bow and smiling, he locked eyes with one of the Velkens arranged in a circle around a floating black rock.
That's the one...
The small one, with the scared eyes... The nervous, insecure one... Delicious...
----
"You okay?" Ven shouted as he jumped off of the shipwreck and next to the black clad man who called himself 'Ned'.
"Stop asking me that."
Ven ran a gauntlet through his hair.
"That was... some landing. Any idea what's going on?"
"No. But I think the man who hired us is a werewolf."
He pointed to a rather lupine shaped creature leading several others from the ship. The crowd was racing away very quickly inland into smoky ruins. Ven had heard tales of werewolves, but never actually seen one.
"That's bad... right?"
"Depends. He seems to have kept his mind, so I wouldn't worry about it much."
The stranger followed after in a jog. Ven blinked once before pursuing himself. "Uh huh..."
Death was everywhere the further inland they went. Ven shuddered when he saw the Lizard Man corpses, almost expecting them to leap up and snatch at him with those fearsome jaws... Or worse, they would run into a live regiment just around the corner... The silver knight didn't recognize the orange-furred creatures strewn about, so he assumed they were the natives of the island and the targets of the Dark Empire's attack.
The two followed the group into a run down church and then through tunnels. Aaron directed them into a large door, which he promptly shut behind them.
----
The red dragon craned his neck around the corner, seeing the little man carrying out the multi-blooded woman's rituals, though the woman had apparently left. The cave was becoming crowded with people, and he didn't like that.
He snorted once, a plume of flame rising high above the startled resurrected citizens' heads.
"You toil in dark magics, human. Things that beckon trouble. Be mindful of your toilings, lest you unleash some unseen evil upon this world..."
The people parted ways as he slowly lumbered towards the cavern exit.
----
"I do say, Beazlebubudel, that I am now totally and undeniably convinced that the dragon, and thus our ticket to fame and possibly glory, resides in this very cave!"
"Quitely so, Luciferairion!"
"But yet remains the burden of capturing said beast."
"I'm afraid I would have to disagree with your choice of terminology in naming our potential future captive, my good sir. 'Beast' is a rather derogatory appellation when applied to a sentient and likely highly intelligent organism such as a dragon."
"Unless, of course, this dragon is of the non sentient, and therefore, rather bestial type."
"--Of which we have no evidence of. And therefore, by using said term, paints us in a rather unattractive light as stereotype branders."
"Of course, of course. Forgive my narrow-mindedness. You dropped your monocle again."
"Oh, heavens! Thank you."
"Back to my original inquiry, Beazlebubudel, how is it that we intend to capture this potentially intelligent creature?"
"Observe!"
"That is...!! Words fail me!"
"I know!"
"... What is it?"
"'Tis my spheroid capturing device!"
"Two joined hemispheres, one white, one red. Marvelous! Pray tell, how does such a magnificent piece of engineering such as this work?"
"I merely need throw it at my future captive, and he/she will be reduced to a state of concentrated energy and vacuumed inside!"
"Genius!"
"Indeed! And I fully intend to catch 'em all!"
----
"HRRAAGH!!"
The shadow's fist smashed the falling bolder just before it fell on the prone woman. She was an odd one. They'd never see anyone like her before.
The larger shadow folded his arms.
"What in Iban's name did she do?" His voice was deep and rugged.
The smaller shadow held up a black stone, dripping with a sickly black oil.
"The aura from her summoning has utterly corrupted my scrying stone," he replied in a much higher, screeching voice.
"Why did you tell me to save her?" He turned and then a smile crept along his face. "Can I... have this one...?"
"He he he he he... oh, no no no, Irchan," he squeaked as he regarded the dripping rock. "This is just the break we've been looking for..."
The larger shadow gritted his teeth. The smaller began hopping from stone to stone, towards the exit.
"Bring her. And be gentle..."
The larger shadow picked up the cat-like woman and threw her over his shoulder. He followed the smaller shadow outside, where the cracking thunder constantly sounded and the black clouds corrupted the sky...
-
Elphos was worried.
About a dozen people have already been resurrected, and he was exhausted.
A young, blonde and blue-eyed woman in a simple attire of brown clothes approched him.
"Excuse me sir, but is... Something the matter?"
"Yes." Elphos turned to her, noticing the bright sapphire on her forehead "Mister Dragon here doesn't seem to be used to being friendly... It worries me."
The woman proceeded to humm for a moment.
"But, maybe it is because he has been lonely for nearly all of eternity." she then said.
"I would probably be grumpy too, if I were him... Oh, sweety!"
The woman turned to call a large, burly, red-headed man.
He practically came running.
"Yes, my sugarlump?" the blue eyed man said, a ruby sparkling on his forehead.
Elphos couldn't help but notice the oversized axe the man carried on his back.
"You are... Balse, correct?" Elphos hesitated to the man's name.
"Aye, that's my name." the man replied.
"I thought we'd go watch the dragon..." the woman suggested "Maybe he would like the company after all?"
"Aye, honeydrops, tis' a brilliant idea!" The man didn't seem as if he would argue in any case.
Elphos had nothing left to do but not, and the three started walking toward's the cavern exit...
((Indher is unconcious, so I won't make any moves for her. The other characters are... Waiting.))
-
"Yeah sure I guess you can tag along." Duilin replied shaking his hand. "I sensed a group of auras...familiar ones actually, and I want to make sure nothing dangerous is heading this way."
"You were the one who helped me fight Jayce, aren't you? You're an angel correct? I'm Duilin Talonscar. A uh, half human." He motioned to the imp. "This is Rink, he's an imp, but strangely not one of evil incarnation." He motioned to the lizard man. "This is Lagart, he left the Dark Empire, due to him disagree with their ideals." He then looked back to the angelic looking man. "I don't think I caught your name..." He paused, waiting for him to introduce himself.
--- ---
"Well I thought I'd meet you here." Ophelia said as he approached underneath the circle of Velkens and the nightmare demon.
"Hello, Melface. I assume the battle of Tjed went well?" Ophelia asked mockingly. "So, what brings you here?" She scanned her view along the Velkens pausing at Helix and Renard.
Rufokanno, stood a few feet back and crossed his arms. Fox, so inferior to Wolf.
-
"My name? It's a little hard to pronounce, but it's Bjendell Mjord. Just call me Ben, as it's faster and easier. And yes, I am an angel. Half angel, actually. I'm not quite sure what my other half is, but it resembles human. I just know that I'm not a pure breed..." Ben looked back at Rink and Lagart, then again at Duilin.
"So... If you're only half human, then what's the other half?"
------------
"Alright. We made it back, Jelka. Let's hop out and find home..." Jackie looked at the carnage that was everywhere. They left the airship and found their house... in cinders. Jelka's spirit grabbed her body, but quickly dropped it when she saw what had happened.
"W-wa? What happened!? Jackie, do you think the Dark Empire-"
"Now I'm sure it was them... Don't just look at our own people's corpses, look at the lizards!" Everywhere, there was pile after pile of corpses. Angels, humans, lizards, and drannivolkas laid across the plains of Dranniville. All of them slaughtered eachother.
------------
"Screw this, man. I quit. I'm done with trying to figure out a way to capture your angelic friend. I mean, what's the big deal anyways? Why are you trying to pull this off?" Malokand looked hard at his sister. She had no response for a while.
"I'm not really trying to capture him. I'm looking for a way to persuade him to return to us without really going up to him."
"Why not!? What's the point of all this secracy? Just go up there and tell him you want him to come back up with us!"
"It's not that simple..."
------------
-
"Well, it's good to meet you Ben." Duilin started walking along with the others (I suppose I can safely assume that Ben is following)
"So my other side...It's, uh, half demon. But don't take it like I'm evil or anything." Duilin answered. "I'll admit I had to fight my demonic rage over the past years, but I've managed to control it now. I think you might have seen me change my form earlier, which is actually something I never did before that. Nor do I know, how I did it, or if I can do it again. But I assure you, I'm quite loyal to these people and those who need to free from the Dark Empire, which is mostly everyone." Duilin paused for a moment. "Sorry, if I rambled a bit, it's just I need to be a little defensive, most people assume the worst from me, because I'm half demon. I can't blame them however; demons are a pretty nasty breed."
"So, Bjendell..." Rink said perfectly pronouncing the name. "If you're an angel that must mean you were born in Asgard, from what I know. Do you happen to know anybody by the name of Zeros' or Aegidius?" He asked.
-
"Of Zeros' you say...? Why yes, I have heard that name before. He's a half demon as well, though his half god form makes up for that. He's a bit short, though. Around five-four, I think. He's a protector of Gaian, like his mother before him." Ben tried to trace his memory banks of him hearing about Zeros'. He pondered as he followed behind Rink, Lagart, and Duilin.
"Zeros', as I recall, is an un-named hier to some sort of martial arts school. A training incident more then four or five years ago claimed the life of his master, an I think he's searching for some sort of weapons his master left behind in this world." Ben pondered more and more. He knew a lot about the famous heros of Gaian, as he watches over them from time to time.
"The memory's fuzzy, but I think he was with a group of people called the Romme Avengers. I think what they were doing, as the name states, was to avenge the fall of Romme, though I'm not quite sure. However, this Aegidius you speek of... I've seen him once as he returned to the realm of our kind. A strange man he was, wearing a white toga and a leaf ring around his head." As Ben continued to think about the names mentioned by Rink, he was caught by a memory of a prophesy.
"Hmm... Duilin, do you happen to know of the prophesy of the one half demon who was believed to bring control to the demon world?"
------------
A ways along the secret pass were Aaron and his wife, followed by his party of royal guards, as he so claimed them to now be. They were now passing through the borders between Dranniville and Ariosis. He lead the party further and further along the tunnels, until the clanking of armor got louder from behind.
"We're going to have to hold them back, Aaron." Justin began, "There's no other way we are going to escape this area."
"We cannot fight here! This place is too small for a battle to start!"
"Battle is upon us weather you know it or not." Jacobie snapped, behind Justin, "There is no way we can avoid it." A loud scraping metal echoed through the dark tunnel. The dark soldiers and lizards unsheathed their blades, preparing to fight. They drew nearer and nearer until they could be seen a few hundred feet away in the long tunnel.
"They're comming!" Aaron's wife pitched in, "Draw swords!"
"NO! This area is much too small! A few more feet ahead, there's another opening. We'll fight them there." Aaron began to run for the opening that he spoke of. Sure enough, just a few more steps and he was there. He raced out into a long valley surrounded either by trees, mountains, or water.
"Spellcasters, destroy that opening if you can! This one's weak to magic! We need to avoid battles as much as we can until we reach the great palace!"
------------
-
"Those old weapons? Heh, that's old news. But I see why some people might remember him as a guy searching for them, since he spent a few months looking for them, and on average he only spends a week in Gaian." Duilin chuckled.
"Romme Avengers eh?" Rink asked "Yeah that might be referring to our little group. I heard some people have been calling us that. They have also called us 'The Flyboys' and 'The Supurb Six', which I assume they left Aura out, because she only traveled with us for a day."
"Or maybe they left you out because you're so tiny." Duilin teased and the two laughed.
//The longest lasting and most famous party members were, Zeros', Rink, Duilin, Zion, Xenai and Tsu.\
Duilin pondered for a second when Ben mentioned the prophecy. "Yes, I do recall that. I think Aegidius and this um, other demon, Abodahon told me about that..."
"Yeah, apparently there are a couple sides to that story. One saying he'll bring the demons to peace with mankind on Gaian, and one saying he'll bring demons to rule over mankind on Gaian. What do you think of it Ben?"
-
"I try not to pay them any mind, but you do seem to fill that prophesy, Duilin. You bring balance to your demonic side, a feat that goes beyond even my own power. I could never control such a fierce rage, yet you manage to do it with ease. I don't really care about the evils that the other demons talk about. I am not a part of mankind, therefore it is none of my business."
Ben started to notice another aura drawing near to the group he followed. It wasn't after them, but him. He could feel the farmiliar energy of Valencia and Malokand, two angels with which he had relations in the past. "Hey, Duilin," Ben asked, "Do you feel that energy behind us? It's been tracking us since we were in the castle. Do you want to quicken our pace a bit?"
-
//This one's a doozy.\
The personnel carrier’s doors finally opened, illuminating the dark interior with blinding sunlight. As the soldiers stepped out and reported for duty, Carmine recognized where he was. He was on the Arctic Continent.
Through the armor he felt the biting wind chill. Despite its remoteness, it appealed to the Sovereignty as a new place to build, free of pestilence or war, a clean slate.
Carmine stepped onto the snowy ground, struggling to see through the near-opaque blizzards that sometimes shrouded the continent. The conditions here would make habitation and occupation a grim business, an all the better defensive measure. Hopefully this new capital would not fall like the old one did…
“Fall in, men!” Commander Stroud barked to his ranks, which promptly lined up in formation. Stroud stroked his thick walrus mustache as he paced up and down the rows of his men, giving one of his famed pep talks.
“Men, while we may have met an untimely end in Asgarnia, do not take the responsibility upon yourselves as individuals. While discipline is a key trait to any soldier, losses can be expected to happen. Now, however, is the time to rebuild. You will see we’ve arrived in this icy hell, which we’ve deemed ideal for our new capital. Your skills not as soldiers, but as Kandarin patriots will be put to the test in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of our proud nation! Within no time at all we will once again be a force to reckoned with! Am I right, men?”
The ranks responded with a unanimous and thunderous “Sir, yes sir!”
“Move out, men, you’ve got jobs to do!”
As the soldiers vacated the area to take up jobs rebuilding, Stroud approached Carmine.
“Except for you, Lieutenant, I’d like to have a word with you.”
“Sir?” Carmine replied, wondering what he could have possibly done this time.
“Carmine, I understand Roth’s boat is missing a few paddles, am I right?”
“I wouldn’t personally know, sir.”
“After he sent you on your way with de Sade he blathered on and on about past rivalries with him, and how he doesn’t exactly trust him. During your time with de Sade, did he ever mention anything about Roth?”
“No sir, not to my knowledge…”
“Regardless, I believe you should continue your campaign against those troublesome two with or without his company.”
“Sir, are you suggesting--”
“You’re damn right I am. I want you to continue in your search for Alex and the Twilight Princess.”
“Sir, I know from first hand experience it will take more than one man to stop them…”
“Which is why the Colonel suggests a platoon of men at your disposal, Lieutenant, or should I say ‘Captain?’”
“He’s…promoted me, sir?”
“That’s right, which means you finally outrank me, Carmine. Who would have thought?”
“Sir, this is all too kind, but…”
“Are you insisting against the Colonel’s suggestion, Captain? After all, he was the one who coordinated the Seven-Hour War!”
“No sir, but I know that these two are not to be underestimated, especially not Alex.”
“You can take it up with the Colonel if you have any objections. With that said, my jurisdiction over you is limited, sir.”
“Either way, send my thanks to the Colonel.”
“Yes sir.” Stroud saluted and walked off.
Just like that, Carmine went from Lieutenant to Captain. Captain Carmine. He liked the sound of that.
He reported to the Colonel as ordered to be briefed for his mission. The Colonel, as he was known (very few knew his real name), was an elderly man in his sixties, with a military history doing any veteran proud, serving for over fifty years in the Kandarin Armed Forces. Having retired from front-line duty, the Colonel lived and worked in the new Capital Citadel already established on the Arctic Continent. It was from here that he coordinated the massive ranks of the KAF. Carmine entered his chambers escorted by one the Majors, which promptly left Carmine and the Colonel alone. The Colonel stood at the top of his penthouse estate at the top of the Capital Palace’s spire, which overlooked the entire snowfield.
“I take it you’re enjoying your new promotion, Captain?” the Colonel spoke up in his gruff voice as he stood looking out the windows.
“Yes sir,” Carmine replied, his own voice sounding meek compared to the Colonel’s. “I wish to express my gratitude…”
“Gratitude can come later, Captain. I have an assignment for you.” The Colonel turned around, revealing his likeness. He was a tall, large built man, seemingly born out of war. “It seems we might have some problems with two specific people, am I right?”
“Yes sir. Alex and the Twilight Princess were last seen in the Glacia mountain range, just a few miles from Glacia City.”
“Then, Captain, I believe you already know what your mission is. If you like, you can report to the armory to view some new weapon technology our group of steadfast scientists have been developing. Then, a personnel carrier will deploy you and your mean at the Twilis’ last known location.”
“Yes sir.” Carmine saluted and left the penthouse for the armory.
“Ah, yes! Captain Carmine, Willkommen, Willkommen!” one of the lead weapon scientists greeted the man in his thick German accent. “I would imagine you would like to see the fruits of mien labor, ja?”
“Sure,” Carmine replied, a little unsure of what to expect. “What have you got?”
“If you’ll turn your attention to our new speargun, you will see. Soldat, feuer am willen.”
Carmine assumed that was German for “fire at will,” as the private pulled the trigger, letting fly a half-meter long shaft with a barbed obsidian head, which passed through the training dummy like a hot knife through butter.
“Impressive, doctor. What else do you have?”
“Our newest melee weapon will do our soldiers fine in the battlefield. Soldat, if you will show him, bitte.”
The soldier nodded, withdrawing his kamas, and making a lightning speed lunge for the dummy’s neck, sinking the blades in, simulating a deadly hit.
“Incredible.”
“We have one more weapon for your mission. Soldat, show him the mortar, bitte.”
The soldier nodded once more, and backed up a few steps before leveling a shoulder-fired tube to aim at the dummy. A red burst of energy charged up on the barrel, and fired at high speed at the dummy, annihilating it.
“The magic mortar obliterates the target in ein single shot, ja.”
“Amazing…” Carmine said in awe, well aware of what these pieces of equipment could do to his quarry. “Load the men up as soon as you can, doctor. I’ve got a schedule to keep.”
“Alex, have you ever heard of the Shroud?”
“The what?”
“The Shroud. It’s an ancient and malevolent force that manifests itself in a human host and feeds off the darkness to survive.”
“Is it something the Twili mastered?”
Midna got a worried look on her face. “While there are records of Twili use, the practice and mastery of the Shroud, it’s often avoided…”
“How come?”
“The Shroud itself has a will of its own, its own conscience. Often times it will overpower its host, turning them into mere vessels for the Shroud to use for its own purposes…”
Alex thought for a moment. “Has any Twilight Warrior used the Shroud?”
“Only once, and it wasn’t pretty…the Shroud delves deep into the use of the dark powers, and are exceptionally difficult to control. He wasn’t ready… I don’t want you to follow the same path…forget I said anything.”
“Okay…” Alex sighed, wondering what Midna could possibly be hiding from him…
“The last page should be just a few more floors up,” Midna said. “This has been uncomfortably easy.”
“I hear you. I was expecting a little more obstacle…”
As the two continued, Alex ran thoughts of the Shroud though his mind. Would it make defeating the Kandarinians easier? Would it help him win the war? What risks would channeling the Shroud pose to him? He wasn’t too sure of what to expect around every corner…
As Alex opened the next large door, they came into a large vertical room with a dizzying spiral staircase corkscrewing all the way to the top, presumably to the very top of the temple. If Alex could retrieve the final page, he could be on his way back to Asgarnia… He began the long trip up the stairs. As he did, he heard the executioner’s voice once more.
You make a grave mistake in believing this is so easy…the greatest challenge lies ahead still. Overcome it and the treasure is yours…but fail, and darkness will fall over you like a Shroud…consuming…be wary…the last Twilight Warrior was not so lucky…will you fare the same, or will you break the mold? Prove to me you deserve this treasure. Prove to yourself that you deserve it.
Gradually, but eventually, the top of the tower was reached. Upon opening the massive doors, Alex and Midna found themselves atop the spanning roofs of the temple. The cavern ceiling, however, still reached hundreds of feet up. At the end of the roof, a lone box sat, no doubt containing what they came here for.
As Alex approached the box, the voice overcame him once more.
Very good…your final challenge is about to begin. We will see how strong your will truly is. The will to survive, the will to remain your own master, the will to protect those you love, will all be tested. The test is simple. The box before you contains a page from a Twili spellbook, a book you have been adamant to complete. Scribed on this parchment are the words for a powerful spell, again, that you feel you have a dire need for. If you want it, simply reach in and take it. Before you do, however, consider your other options. You could choose the Twili magic, as powerful as it is, or forsake it for the godlike powers the Shroud could drape over you. If you feel you have the free will to control the Shroud, simply kneel down and utter from your lips, “I accept!” If not, take the page and be on your way. So, Alexander, what will it be? The time for deciding is now.
“Alex, don’t listen to him. The Shroud is a terrible force that must never be forced upon a being as powerful as you. Take the page and let’s go!”
Alex reached for the page, as a cold, hissing voice invaded his conscience, coiling him in a black mist.
You know not what power you are passing up! Let it be known this may be your only chance to accept the Shroud…accept me, and I will make you everything you have dreamed of. I will become you, you will become me. You will be a god among men!
Alex clutched his temples. “No! I’m here for what I originally came here for!”
It cannot end for me this way! The necessity is mutual. I need you, and you need me. Simply accept me and we shall both be saved!
“What about the Twili, and the innocents of Terian! Will they be saved?!”
For the time being, yes. I understand you have a burning passion to destroy a powerful enemy…I can help you snuff those flames by killing them all!
“You cannot bend my will….it is not yours to bend! I am my own master! I will always be! Midna, create a portal to Asgarnia, now!” Alex thrust his hand into the box, grabbing the page of the Aura of the Juggernaut.
You fool! You have forgone the greatest power this world will ever know! Still, I will be persistent. I do not doubt a second meeting between us…until then…consider your decision. Until the time comes, only I know when you will change your mind… You are your own master…for now…
The rift to Asgarnia shone through the ebony mist, burning it away. “Alex, we need to go, now!” Midna shouted.
Alex stepped through the portal, blinded by the change in light levels, and, as soon as the portal had been made, he was in Asgarnia once more. He knelt down to the ground, panting in disbelief at what he had just seen. He turned up to Midna. “THAT’s the Shroud?!”
“Now that it’s decided it wants you,” Midna replied, “it’ll take an absolutely strong will to resist it…the last Twilight Warrior failed in that endeavour…perhaps you will succeed.”
Alex stood up. “I don’t doubt it’s gonna take a lot to hold that thing back, whatever it was…”
Finally catching his breath, he looked around Asgarnia. The ex-rebels were hard at work at reconstruction.
“They’re putting their city back together,” Alex noted.
“It looks like they could use some help,” Midna said, taking his shadow. “I’d say you’ve earned a rest.”
As Alex approached Kleiner’s lab, the Shroud’s words echoed in the back of his mind…
You are your own master…for now…
-
//Argh. I need to stop missing two days at a time. I'm glad my three guy protagonists got famous, though. Laughing
"I'm going to make them notice me."
"...What?" Drake slowly turned his head toward Anti.
"I'm going to make them notice me."
"How so?"
"Move. I don't want to knock you out of the sky just yet."
Drake cringed a bit and floated several feet away from Anti.
It crossed its arms, and then flung them outwards Super Sonic-style, letting out a thunderous yell. It flared its aura as strongly as it could. Anyone on the planet capable of feeling auras would be able to feel it, though of course, if you were on the other side of the planet, it would be pretty faint.
Drake's eyes widened. It scares the hell out of me... every time I feel it...
"Someone will come. If they don't, I'll just go after the closest person."
"F... Fine by me."
"Hmph. You wuss."
"I'm not nearly as strong as you. I'm only decent, at best. Barely above Omega and Ultima's level. Your energy... Is quite possibly the strongest, most frightening thing I've ever felt in my life."
"...There's probably at least one person around here who's almost as strong as me."
"What?!"
"Do you see now why I picked this planet first?"
"..."
"Honestly, Drake. Spending all your time in that pocket dimension, working on that foolish doomsday whatever."
"The New Forever Machine."
"Big deal. You just want to destroy with it. Just like me. It's a doomsday whatever. Get your head out of your ass."
"..."
"Now we wait."
--- --- ---
// The only reason I'm doing this part here is so that he can react to it. He can't go anywhere. Useless guardian complex, y'know?
Seijin felt it, from high up in his cloud. His eyes widened, really huge. "Oh... my... god..." He scrambled to the wall of his cloud, poking his head out. "...It's finally here. I hope Gaian can take care of it... I'm not yet authorized to leave again, and probably won't be for quite a while. Although... I'm not sure I'm strong enough to beat it, even if I could leave."
-
"Renard, you may begin.... Renard... RENARD!"
Renard snapped out of it at hearing Virmir's voice. That child-like demon's gaze made him uneasy...
"Y-yes sir."
So this was it... He'd rub Duilin's aura out of the scrying before it was recorded into the stone...
Waving his claws in the air, he activated the invisible runes etched into the air, a green grid of complex chevrons and symbols appearing in the space surrounding the stone. Images of the battle, taken from the magical reside of the mammoth black crater below, began to fill the five Velken mages' minds. And those images were recorded into the stone. Images just slightly different from what actually happened...
Who the--? Melface looked down and spotted two forms standing at the edge of the crater. The girl had quite the lungs for her voice to carry 2,000 feet up. He vaguely remembered the jester's name... Ophelia? Some lower ranking ruffian. Human at that. Very few actually knew she was human, but he surmised it based on her scent. He'd considered eating her soul once, but she was less prone to panic so she wouldn't taste very good. She was a clown, anyway, evil and fear inducing on her own.
"Well enough. I survived, after all." Melface responded from directly behind the black-and-white-clad jester woman, as if he were there the whole time. It was a subtle implication that he was superior to Jayce because he made it out alive that few would catch. Outright criticism of superior officers was condemned, but the more witty of the lower ranks often got away with their subtle jibes. He stood shorter than her, of course, but the way he looked up at her face was mocking.
"We ran it a bit of opposition... Gallant heroes, gargantuan explosions... all that rot." He looked at his nails, casually reflecting upon the horrific events as if he were talking about the weather. "And what brings you to this lovely..." he paused, his eyes trailing skyward as he scowled, "though far too sunny island?"
----
"I'll handle this."
It was the black-coated stranger that spoke as he calmly stepped towards the entryway. Ven wondered if he was a mage. He would have to be, if he intended to collapse the tunnel in time to stop the advance of those Dark Empire troops. The silver knight gritted his teeth. He'd better hurry!
The man who called himself 'Ned' clapped his hands together and drew them apart, a blue crackling of energy appearing around them. He pressed them against the tunnel wall, causing bright lines to dance around the edges and fly around to the rocky ceiling. Then the stone above seemed to melt, becoming a paste that dripped down in all due haste, just as the lizards were upon them. The menacing army screeched to a halt as the gray paste sealed the tunnel, and metallic weapons could be heard clanging on the once again solid rock in frustration.
The stranger dusted his hands off and then returned to the group.
Ven drew his head in close and whispered, "That was alchemy, wasn't it?"
The man grimaced.
----
The red dragon peered out of his cave. Funny... something didn't smell right...
----
"I do say, Beazlebubudel, that our dragon appears to be staring us in the face this very instant!"
"Quitely so, Luciferairion! And he appears to be a charming and convivial fellow!"
"Indeed! Especially if the snarling fanged maw and smoke pouring out his nostrils are indications of friendliness!"
"My good sir, what are you waiting for? Employ your spherical capturing device!"
"Spheroid Capturing Device! GO!!"
"... It appears to have harmlessly bounced off his elbow like a tiny insignificant pebble..."
"Hmmm, apparently we must... OH GODS!! HE IS BLASTING US WITH FLAMES HOTTER THAN THE SUN!!!"
"MY FACE IS MELTING!!! GRAAABGHRERGHHH!!!!"
"NO!! MY MONOCLE!!! GRAAGHHHHHHGHGH!!!!"
---
"I do say, Beazlebubudel, it appears we are in Hell once again..."
"Quitely so, Luciferairion. Hmmm... this is rather unfortunate."
"Oh! Look! Someone has written on this smoldering stone wall!"
"Of doom!"
"Indeed, and it spirals down the tunnel for eternity!"
"What is this magnificent work titled?"
"'Two Treatises of Government', by John Crocke!"
"How totally relevant!"
"Brilliant!"
----
"Is she tied down?"
"Yep. There's no way she's escaping when she wakes up."
"Excellent..."
The door flew open, casting the dark room in a pale red light.
"You two better explain yourselves. I am a very busy Lizard..." Grav strutted into the bare stone chamber, his oaken staff tapping against the hard floor. In the center of the black room was a lone altar with an unconscious cat-like woman strapped to it. A dull smoke hung in the air. There were two other figures shrouded in darkness in the opposite corner of the room. The larger shadow stepped forward and bowed, the light revealed him to be a huge demon in the shape of a bull. The minotaur snorted, his large horns reflecting the light of the fiery torches cast in from the hallway.
"My Lord, we bare a gift."
Grav smacked Irchan on the kneecap with his staff. The bull, who was at least four times larger, yelped in pain. "Get out of the way and show me, blast it!" Grav snarled. Doing all the dirty work left in running the entire Dark Empire along with the Mizar province left him with no time for peons and their antics.
"I think you will have use for this one, my Lord." The smaller shadow said as he stepped into view, the claws on his feet clicking on the stone. He most resembled a skunk standing on two legs, a white stripe splitting his otherwise black fur all the way from his nose to his large, bushy tail. His eyes were twisted as he maniacally grinned, and a long cigar hung out the side of his muzzle, filling the room with vile smoke. He stood about twelve inches taller than the short lizard Prime Minister.
"We believe her to be a summoner. And as I take it, the Dark Emperor has quite a need for those..." Kelmar said.
"Well! What are you waiting for?!"
The two stood their for a moment, blinking before the lizard sighed and pointed to the altar, which was taller than his head. "Get me a soapbox, or something!"
Irchan turned around and lifted a wooden box with one hand, setting in next to the altar. Grav hopped on and gave the woman a quick look over before waving a claw.
"Nothing special. You have wasted my time. You will both be punished for this."
Kelmar's eyes widened and he clenched his teeth, biting the cigar in half and causing it to fall to the floor. His tail flinched back and forth in agitation. "Now wait a second. We were just tailing her, and look what the residual from one of her spells did to my scrying stone."
The skunk held out the black rock that was now oozing with a vile oily substance. Grav took the thing, but dropped it on the altar when the oil began to sting his thick skin.
"Hmmm, perhaps it will be worth asking her a few questions once she awakens..."
----
"Well well now, what do we have here...?"
Draven floated some fifty feet behind the demon, Zerobi no Anti, with his arms folded and a half smirk upon his face. It was an odd creature, emanating a sort of dark violet glow. He paid no mind to the bookish looking man floating along with him.
"I can tell you're not one of Retan's slaves. That's good... I'm looking for a few good men. Have some... issues that need to be dealt with... and it seems you just might be able to fit the bill."
His cape blew in the breeze as his smirk widened. "That is of course if you're up to the challenge... Obviously it would be made worth your while..."
This was a fortunate turn of events. He'd beat up this lowly demon a bit and show him who's boss. Then allow him to serve him, and pay him in kind. It had worked dozens of times before. And as an added bonus, this one seemed fairly strong, though Draven still hadn't mastered reading energy auras. If the demon refused he'd have to kill him before he slid off and joined Retan...
-
"Amazing..." Aaron gasped after viewing such magic he'd never seen before. He knew of alchemy, but he did not think of it to be real.
"Look's like we've got more company," Justin began, "Ten lizards, five human soldiers, and... *gulp* five velkens..."
"This battle will be unavoidable, Aaron." Verronica made for her weapon, as did the others. Velkens were going to be very hard to fight. If only it were just the five... but no. These guys looked like the elites from the Dark Palace it's self. They're strengths will all be evened out.
"Jacobie, Justin, and Dori, make for the lizards. Ven, you and uhh... that man will take down the Velkens with myself and Verronica. Elroy, you and Valimore, or whomever you are, take out those humans. DRAW SWORDS!"
-
"Ungh...My...Head..."
Indher slowly regained her senses.
She tried to lift her arm, but realized something is keeping her down.
She opened her eyes...
"...Rocks...?"
She looked around. Nothing but stone.
"...Rocks..."
She tried lifting her arms, hoping to free herself by force. She felt something oily near her legs, and the chains broke.
"...CURSES!!!"
She pounded angrily, a blast of lightning was released from the bracelet on her arm, destroying a set of chains. The other arm simply broke free, as her strength was enough to overpower it.
She raised her upper body to look around, as her left leg was still chained.
To her surprise, before her stood a large bull-like demon, a skunk's shadow and a tiny lizard.
Her expression was quite furious.
But wait, wasn't I in a crumbling cave earlier...? They must have...
Her expression calmed.
But why am I in chains, then...?
She took a deep breath.
"What do you want...?" she asked in an inquisitive tone, her expression unchaged.
-
Anti turned around, looking at the man floating behind it. It gave a low whistle. "Check this guy out, Drake." Drake turned around too, and looked him over a bit. "Well well well. You weren't shitting me, Anti. This one's pretty high up there."
"I'm not looking to join anyone on this planet. My sole intention is to defeat every warrior on this planet, and then blow it to smithereens. However... If there are more like you around here..." It chuckled. "...Then it will be incredibly difficult. Just how I like it. Anyways... I'm not going to join you. So why don't we just get this party started?" It raised its fists, starting to glow more intensely.
Drake, however... Had a different thinking process going on. I wonder what kind of... issues... he's got. If this guy's as powerful as he feels, then it might be worth our time to tag along for a little bit.
// Drannic... This is really offtopic. I like the quote in your signature, but Battousai didn't say it (to my knowledge). Hiko Seijurou said it first.
-
(//Ack, I feel like I entered too late. Seeing as my char is living in his own little world though, I guess it don't matter)
Taking a step into the sunshine, which is rare for a person who lives in the constant darkness, he carries a green sword. He does not know where it came from. It feel from the sky. Yes, this is no jest. The green sword fell from the sky. The green in question is not known. The man who discovered it, Quadricentennial, does not wish to collect it for he mainly collects helmets. Living alone in his forest Campaign, he leaves the fores for this moment only to remove this sword that is of no use to him. It is very heavy and he must use both the strength of his arms to carry it about. "Blasted blade", he exclaims, "Do you come to me to make me labor? Then off with you". He drops it on the floor. He could carry it no longer. He heads back to the forest when his foot steps on something. "What is this?" he asks. He looks on the ground and sees a blue plant. He finds it particularly interesting. He snatches it from the ground when suddenly a puff of smoke comes out of it. "What is this?" The smoke suddenly takes the form of a man. An old man with a long white beard speaks to him.
"Are you the one named Quadricentennial?" the old man asks.
"Yes. Who be thee that thine sees?"
"Call me Aurnaugh."
"Aurnaugh? What are you?"
"I am an entity. What kind of entity I will not reveal."
"How do you know my name?"
"I have been watching many people and you are very interesting to me. Unlike any other person, you forsake the world by cloistering yourself to the darkness of the Campaign forest Quadricentennial, or should I say Valentine."
"NO!!!!!" Quadricentennial screamed. "Do not call me Valentine. WHO ARE YOU??? How did you know that?"
"That is not important. What is important is that you return to the world that you've abandoned. Quadricentennial, do not tell me that you plan on living all your days in this pitch black forest."
"Why not?"
"Because even if you decide to stay in this forest, it will eventually die."
"The forest is already dead. Do you not see the dark trees? They have done many days ago."
"The forest will soon be in flames. Leave while you can."
(//I'd like to read some of the RP I've missed so I'll leave it like this for now and finish later.)
-
“Uh no, I don’t sense anything…” Duilin replied.
“I actually do sense something. Seems angelic…” Rink asked.
“Interesting. But sure, let’s speed up a bit. I don’t think we will be able to go through the tunnel way, because I don’t remember they way through, we’ll just have to try and detect what’s out their without actually leave Tjedon…”
---
“Well, my little friend…” Ophelia replied, returning the mocking tone. “I’m looking for something.” She could sense that Duilin was here, she could sense that he had gotten stronger since they last met. She seemed to have a very strong connection to him. She then kneeled down until she was at eye level wit the short nightmare demon. “You wouldn’t have happened to have seen a big bad demon lord have you?” Ophelia asked as if talking to a young child. “Maybe you even wanted to play a game with him? But he was a little too rough for you?”
---
Gorus finally rallied up with his troops and he was really ticked off when he saw that they were sitting around not doing anything. An entire section of the city had already been leveled, but it wasn’t enough for Gorus, he wanted the entire county destroyed. He climbed up on top of a crumbled building that was still considerably a high off the ground.
“What are brainless morons doing!!?” Gorus stepped roared as loud as he could and every single lizard man turned to see their enraged general. “I leave you twerps for not even half a damned hour and I find you sitting around here with your thumbs up your asses!!”
Gorus had always been the most foul mouthed and most easily enraged of the High Generals, and his section knew that. Yet he was also the friendliest with his lizard men, but not at this particular moment.
“I ordered you people to destroy this entire county, by sun down! This is not moving at a good rate! Now, from what it seems the mutant army as seized attacking us, which either means they are dead, or hiding. But seeing how stupid these creatures I assume they’re dead. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find a few others sticking around, and I want them ALL dead. Vandrin has failed to make any use for these pathetic humans. His mutations may have increased their strength and giving some wings and poisonous spells, but they’re even dumber than before! Fear was the one thing that kept those humans living longer. But Vandrin has removed their fear, in hopes of making better warriors! Fear is for the weak, because they need it! These mutants are still weak! Now I want to be able to water my plants in the morning with every human in this county’s blood and use their bones to make new cages for my prisoners! NOW GO! BURN THEIR HOUSES! KILL THEM ALL!”
The lizard army then continued to give their war cries as they went back to destroy the rest of the county….
---
Marshall and Wilham continued to look through the castle.
"Vandrin must have it in his room." Marshall concluded. "I noticed it has been pretty quiet."
"Yeah, a little too quiet. Maybe they’re on to us."Wilham thought.
"I think they’re more focused on the lizard men." Marshall replied.
"Well, yeah. But I think think it’s odd that their isn't even any security around. Don't you?"
"Yeah, it is a bit weird. But let’s not worry too much. Come on…"
-
“Blast you, Lamarr!” Kleiner complained. “Where the devil did you go?”
“Here she is, doc,” Alex handed him the errant headcrab.
“Alex! My God, I was wondering when you would be back. Did you do what you needed to do?”
“Yeah, doc,” Alex replied, “I did. I see that you might need some help putting your city back together.”
“It’s certainly been tough going,” Isaac replied. “While we’ve cleaned up most of the pollution and toxic pools around the city, we’ve still yet to rebuild most of the districts. If you’ll remember, the Industrial District was waist-deep in waste. We’ve managed to drain that off, but the buildings there are still dangerously unstable.”
“I’ll do what I can to help,” Alex replied, “but within a little while I’ve gotta get going again.”
He heard Midna in his mind…
We’ve got the Kandarinians on the run, you know, they’ll no doubt spend a good while rebuilding…
Alex replied with a thought of his own.
What about that Carmine guy? He didn’t seem too happy that de Sade was gone. What if he’s looking for us now?
You’re awfully concerned over one soldier, Alex. You would be able to take him, no doubt about it. Now come on, you’ve been gone for a while, you’ve been through a lot of action, can’t you just sit down and take a rest?
Not while there’s a war going on. Even if the Kandarinians are rebuilding and on the defensive right now, it’s the perfect time to strike. If we find de Sade, wherever he is, he’ll lead us to Kronos, and finally, the downfall of the Kandarinian Sovereignty.
Alex, I insist on you resting for now. Please, for me.
Okay, but for no one else but you.
“Alex…?”
“Sorry, Isaac, I was just thinking about something else. I’d be glad to help.”
“Excellent, I’ll task you on--”
Isaac was interrupted by Dr. Fenix’s grinding voice. He sounded frustrated.
“DAMNIT, Isaac! You told me the power nexus would hold for another week! Come down here and lend me a hand!”
“Oh bother…Dr. Fenix and Dr. Savant are trying to reconstruct our Borderworld portal so we can draw power once more…I’ll be but a moment, Alex. In the meantime, feel free to look around.” Kleiner climbed down the ladder into the basement to render help.
With that, Alex was alone in the lab’s main room. Midna continued prodding at him in his head.
Why are you so anxious to leave? Out away from safety is exactly where the Shroud wants you, so that it can easily force your decision. At least here, you’re safe…
Midna, you and I both know we have a job to do. The Twili elders are without a doubt waiting for our return, so that I can be taught the Aura of the Juggernaut…they mentioned that once that is mastered, they had something for us…
One day of down time is not going to lose us the war, Alex. You’re not a mercenary anymore, you know. You can’t just run the war the way you want it to be run…
Any time spent here is an opportunity for the Kandarinians to rebuild, which means every second we don’t put forth to bringing them down makes them stronger. We don’t even know where their new capital is, and so we have to find that as well.
Alex, please…you’re blowing this out of proportion. It seems to me you only want to destroy the Kandarinians, even more so than you want the innocents of Terian to be safe.
Why in God’s name would you think that?
I’m afraid that exposing you to the Shroud may have clouded your purpose…
There’s nothing wrong with me! Everyone wants those damned Kandies reduced to smoldering ash, and they know only one force can do it, and that force is us!
Alex, I’m just worried for you, is all. The last thing I want is for you to get hurt because of something I may have brought you into…
Wouldn’t be the first time.
I know you think you’re the only hope for our race, and many others think that, too. But the last Twilight Warrior fell because his motives fell solely on just destruction of the enemy, rather than safety of the innocent as well. If you only destroy the enemy, you will become the enemy.
I can’t believe this! The elders themselves wanted me to do this, and all you’re doing is holding me back!
Now, Alex, calm down! I only have your best interests at heart!
Well, I know what’s good for me, and sitting here on the sidelines isn’t it.
Kleiner began his climb back up the ladder.
We’ll discuss this later, Midna scolded.
“Well, that little matter is taken care of. …Alex? Are you okay?”
Alex shook his head, trying to clear his mind. “Uh, yeah…I’m fine.”
“Perhaps if you went out for a walk you could clear your head. It’s a wonderful night out. Go on, take a walk and I’m sure you’ll be fine in no time. Well, off with you, go!” Kleiner shooed him out of the lab and into the night air.
Despite torches and gaslights lighting the streets, it was a moonless night, so the darkness still hung in the air, worrying Alex even more the Shroud might take this opportunity to warp him. Finally away from anyone else, Midna took the chance to try to reason with Alex again.
Alex, what’s gotten into you? You weren’t like this a few days ago…I was right, you’re thinking about the Shroud again, aren’t you?
I’m just worried that what it told us was right. It said I would change my mind eventually, but the question is when? I would never doubt anything you say, but is the Shroud all that bad?
It’s bad enough that it could overpower you if you weren’t careful. Like I said, I don’t want to say or do anything that could hurt you. By telling you about the Shroud, I opened your mind to it, and that’s exactly what it wants. It needs a human host to survive…it’s desperate for you.
Desperate enough to force me to let it in…if it does, it’ll eventually control me. If that happens, God knows what. I’m afraid.
Alex, as long as you keep a clear head, the Shroud can have no power over you. In order for it to take control, you have to want it to. Do you?
No…but what if it forces my decision, like it said it would?
A strong will, Alex, that’s all it boils down to.
Sorry about what happened back there…it’s a tough time for everyone, not just us. I’ll stay here like you wanted. But as soon as the time comes, we’re out of here. Deal?
Deal.
Captain Carmine closely inspected his hand-picked soldiers to assist in the hunting and killing of the two Twili. As he walked down the line, he took a close look at each one. He had four men under his control, forming the Scarlet Commission.
Lieutenant Odessa Hoffman. A soldier for fifteen years past, he was a by-the-book soldier who bled in the trenches with his men. He was loyal to the KAF, and Carmine, to a fault. Hoffman had met Carmine a few years ago as his training officer, and the two became friends. Once again he would be called on to help Carmine complete his mission.
Sergeant Victor Sig, a loud- and foul-mouthed officer who pushed his men hard, and would soon realize what being pushed hard meant under Carmine’s commission. Carmine chose him over others for his excellent marksmanship. He could hit a grape with a spear from three hundred yards if he wanted to.
Corporal Les Grylls, who had, up to now, served for five years in the KAF, as a scout and recon agent. If he didn’t want to make a noise, he didn’t. He had previously been conscripted to scout Asgarnia prior to the Seven-Hour War, making note of defensive emplacements and weaknesses.
Corporal Adam Estacado, the squad’s vanguard, armed with the heavy magic mortar cannon. Estacado had taken up a liking to blowing things up, using whatever explosives on hand to do the job. This earned him the moniker, “Boomer.”
“Okay men,” Carmine addressed his squad, who stood aptly at attention, “our squad was formed for one reason, and one reason only. We are charged with the task of pursuing, subduing, and eliminating the Twilight Warrior, Alex. If we succeed, we will be doing the Kandarinian Sovereignty a great service, and will be remembered as heroes down the centuries. You’ve all been chosen for the abilities you possess, abilities that I feel would be great assets for getting the job done. You should be honored, no, privileged with the opportunity to take on a target this great. But it won’t be easy. Completing our mission could take months, years even, and some of you may not survive to see the end of it. Alex is a formidable opponent, but what is one man versus five? A dead one. Am I right, guys?”
“Yes sir!” The soldiers shouted. Give Carmine a promotion and suddenly he’s the new Stroud.
“Before we set out, I want to see that you’re really up for the task of what lay ahead. There’s a village not too far outside these walls that resists the Kandarinian Sovereignty. While this is no Asgarnia, they are proving to be a nuisance. So we shall go quell the riots. Move out, men!”
Within the hour the squad had loaded up and moved out into the freezing cold that gusted through Gros Morne, the new capital of the Kandarinian Sovereignty. A few miles outside the city’s outer walls sat a backwater town that had rejected Kandarinian emissaries that tried to make assimilation quick and without bother. Seems that the Scarlet Commission would complete its first mission quickly. Before long, the squad was on the other side of the hill.
“All right, boys,” Carmine started, “the town’s just over that hill. The mayor’s called a meeting to reject any Kandarinian rule. It’s our job to go down there and disperse that meeting.”
“Uh, sir?” Hoffman queried, noticing something Carmine didn’t.
“Let me finish, Odessa. There should be no armed men in that town, so forcing them to obey Kandarin law should be no problem at all.”
“No armed men anymore, Carmine, look!”
Carmine peeked over the hill and saw the town was already in ruin, homes burning, corpses littered through the streets. In the midst of it all a lone man stood.
“And just whose doing is this…?”
-
"We could always fly over the caves. I could help Lagart over as well. But for now, I'll follow your lead." Ben quickened his walk speed, trying to sense what was on his two old friends' minds. He could feel in one mind an ignorance that was uncommon in an angelic mind. In the other, he felt sorrow... and fear. Once again, something uncommon in an angel, but more common than ignorance.
"What is it that's tracking me..." Ben said aloud, not knowing he did. He pondered for a while on the energy source he could feel, "It can't be an angel... has to be... evil." Ben seemed to look strange as he spoke to himself. Then, he felt something unexpected. An extreme source of evil that was angelic. Again did he see something that surprised him. He looked up in the sky and saw a few arrows raining down at where he and the others stood.
"Arrows from behind! Watch out!"
------------
"I'm telling you, this has to work. Even if he'll detect us, I'm sure we'll gain some experience in battle if we just fight."
"But it's wrong! We're angels!"
"And just who or what's going to stop us!? Just keep shooting, V. We'll get him when he's dead." The two tracking Ben were high in the air firing enchanted fire arrows, shooting one after another. Arrow after arrow, the quivers on their sides seemed to refill themselves. It seemed as if the sky was raining fire from the angle where ben stood.
------------
"Gugh!" Ben was shot with a few arrows in his shoulders. He pulled them out and looked back in the air. He aimed his hands forwards and produced a small light-purple block of energy. He threw it out and widened his armspan, expanding the block and providing a shield.
No more arrows could get through the wall Ben conjured behind them. He then held his hands close together and began crafting a blade of energy. "You guys'll have to help me take care of this, I'm afraid. We'll get a chance to find out whose behind this after we've killed them..."
Ben seemed much darker and evil. His blue aura turned red and his wings dulled down to a dark grey. Even his energy changed from white to black. His energy blade was an obsidian dark.
-
//ok, guys, this is taking WAY too long - I'll speed up the building of the city a little bit. Assume that by now, the main citadel is completed, and there's a relatively large city around it. It's about one-tenth the size of the first capital, Jovil, and is located close to the border of the Arctic Region, so that the shore is easily seen from any point from the city. The houses are dominantly made of stone, however, showing many organic components - now most of the citizens know at least basic necromancy, and, essentially, everyone controls a little "bit" of the town. Xorlak, if I broke any major rules by this, please do tell, and I'll revert the condition of the new capital back to the way it was in chapter 13. By the way, the "empire" is still called the Kandarinian Sovereignty, but the capital is now named Gros Morne. Also: Lilithians (http://http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia/index.php/Lilithian)\
-"My brother, Damien, insisted that I come along with you. I hope that now I need no introduction, sir."
Hannibal was wiping his long blades with a piece of cloth, probably torn from a victim's garb.
Just when Carmine opened his mouth to say something, a large ice brick fell down from the sky a few feet from Hannibal. The commander and the Scarlet Commission, taken by surprise, drew their weapons, though Roth simply looked up from his blades. The ice brick stood still for a few seconds, then began to crack. From it emerged an odd-looking man with blue scaly skin, clad in a mix of chain and plate mail. He approached Carmine with a strange smile.
-"Lieu- eh, Captain Carmine, I see... No doubt de Sade was a powerful asset the last time he was around?"
-"Yeah. What of it?"
-"No doubt you would like that kind of power to aid you again?"
-"It would be... a powerful asset, yes. But first, you will tell me who you are and what you're doing here. Otherwise, there may be consequences."
-"Hush now, little cricket. I want you to see something."
The little patch of icy ground that the intruder and Carmine were standing on suddenly tore from the ground, and, at a speed surpassing that of sound, zoomed to Asgarnia. The city was shrouded by night.
-"This is but a projection of actual events taking place - in truth, we haven't moved. However, nevermind that. Take a look at Asgarnia, if you will."
The chunk of rock made a wide circle around the city. Structures could be clearly seen being rebuilt, and the Kandarinian spire was no longer there.
-"Stroud said it himself, let them have the damn city. It's not like we were gaining anything from it anyway. Besides, I have a new, more important target now."
-"What if I said that, say, by capturing certain individuals within the said city, you may well draw your... more important target right to you? Admit, it eliminates the pesky task of looking for him yourself."
With a puzzled look, Carmine scratched his head.
-"It's too well fortified now, we'd never get in with five people... wait, what's that sound?"
Indeed, the air was filled with faint clicking and rustling.
-"Asgarnians seem to have forgotten who they were dealing with. I'm just sending them a small reminder. As for the sound... let's just say that the night beckons, and her children are coming..."
The stone floated to a slightly lower angle, just above the ground. The passing citizens went right through both the panel and Carmine, as if they weren't there. Suddenly, every single torch and lamp in the city went out, and the faint rustling turned into deafening screaming. The air filled with the noise of thousands of small objects hitting the ground, not unlike a heavy hailstorm. In a few seconds, all noises stopped, and the torches were lit aflame again. The ground revealed to be covered in many small, razor-sharp obsidian shards. Few perished; many were wounded. However, a "small reminder" was all that this was: no structural destruction could be seen, other than some pieces of walls here and there chipping due to the obsidian slicing the thinner bricks off.
Once again, Carmine was back at the village. The strange man smiled broader than before.
-"The obsidian may grow bigger, if you do so desire. All I need from you is a tiny little gem. Get me the soul stone containing de Sade's essence from Kronos, and you can have that, and so much more..."
The stranger drew a sword from behind his back. Its blade appeared to be made of ice, with clouds of cold vapour descending to the ground.
-"Here's an incentive. When you made up your mind, simply hold it up straight in front of you and say "Amon, come to me." That's all. So very simple. Very, very simple... You may find the blade to be a useful weapon, too."
Uttering his last word, Amon became encased in ice again, and vanishing with a deafening crack. Carmine noticed him doing so in a similar fashion that de Sade used to. Perhaps Amon too was a Lilithian...?
--- --- ---
-"He wants WHAT?!"
The messenger carrying the letter almost fell back as I finished reading the letter.
-"So the little scum bucket refuses to help me base my new capital, and now he... he has the audacity to ask ME for help?! Worthless filth..."
I ripped the letter in half and threw it behind me in rage.
-"Ugh, then again, he does have them mutant-y potions... Those could help. Sigh. YOU !!"
Now the courier definitely fell flat on his spine.
-"Y-yes, sir?"
-"Get a message to the Colonel, tell him to assemble a squad of vanguards with a speargunner convoy, about a hundred men in size. Oh, and throw in some bladesmen, too. Herr Doctor von Göth was itching to try out the new obsidian trims on the wristblades. We'll humor him. MOVE!!"
-"Sir!"
The courier scrambled to his feet and began running down the stairs. Just then, I remembered to write a reply.
-"HALT! Get the hell back here! I forgot something."
-"Yes, sir!"
I took out a piece of paper and a quill, and started to write.
My dearest count Vandrin,
It appears as though you've ran into some trouble which could have been avoided altogether had you decided to come with us. However, due to my exquisitely generous nature, I grant you this squadron of our finest men armed with the best known technology to Kandarin. In return, I expect a shipment of your most potent mutagenic potions as soon as the conflict is resolved. Some lizard corpses wouldn't hurt, either, but this is a rare case when I would prefer them alive. Try to capture at least five and keep them alive. Also, see if you can find members of any other races - I will like those, too.
Eternal forever in his grace,
Kronos
-
Darkness will fall…like a Shroud…over the Bearer…
Constant pings from the Shroud coursed through Alex’s mind, relentless and persistent, waiting for the perfect moment to strike and take over. Though Alex did not want to admit it, he was truly afraid, unsure of how much longer he could keep his free will. He was afraid of the dark.
The Shroud’s not about to give up on me, he thought. It’s pushing and poking and prodding…until I reach my breaking point and finally accept it. I fear that point in time is not too far off…
Midna filled his conscience. Alex, are you okay?
I’ve been better…
Perhaps I may have made a mistake. I should never have kept you from what you’re supposed to do. I’m sorry for what I said before.
It’s not your fault. I accused you of things out of anger, when in reality, you’re really my only ally in all this. If I turn you against me, I’ll be all alone…
Don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s a long road to victory, and you’ve just got to follow the twists and turns…and then there’s the forks in the road. You’re at one of those now, with the Shroud prodding you. Take the right path, Alex.
Suddenly, all of the gaslights illuminating the streets went out. The air was then filled with whooshing noises, followed by bloodcurdling screams as a hail of obsidian spikes rained down on the streets.
“Son of a BITCH!” Alex screamed as he ducked under a cart, the spikes just missing him. When he got back up, several citizens lied in the streets, bleeding and screaming in agony, others deceased. Within moments, people were out to help them.
“I can’t take this anymore!”
Is something wrong, Alex?
You’re damn right something’s wrong! The innocent deaths! No provocation! I’ve had it, and redemption must be had!
Alex, you’re losing control! That’s exactly what the Shroud wants! Don’t let it take you over! Please…
The Shroud’s voice drowned out Midna’s in the back of his mind.
Yes…lose yourself…it’s only a matter of time…just say the words and you will be mine…
Alex, NO! Think of what you’ll give up! Think of what will happen! Would Caulus want you to become Shrouded?!
Midna…I’m…sorry…
Alex once again became coiled and entangled in the black mist, waiting for him to utter the two words to make it all happen.
“I…”
Alex, NOOOOOOO……!
“I…accept!”
As soon as he had uttered the words, everything changed…his skin appeared to pale, his eyes glowing a blinding white. From behind him ebony tentacles slithered and crept, two serpentine Demon Heads full of teeth slinking out from behind, taking up positions on either side of him, eyes and markings glowing bright orange. They opened their fanged maws, sucking in black tendrils of energy from the shadows…the markings on the sides of their heads lengthened, and finally flashed bright orange. It had happened. He was Shrouded.
Good, GOOD! The Shroud hissed inside his mind. Lose all control…you will be my puppet…together we shall eviscerate those who have wronged you…
As the Shroud filled his mind, the Demon Heads snapped at the air, at each other, and at Alex. They hungered. They had to be fed.
As the Shroud overcame Alex, memories of Midna were fleeting, and this, the Twilight Princess forced out of his conscience. As she took her appearance outside his body, a tear welled up in her exposed eye.
“Alex...I’m so sorry…I should never have brought it into your mind…”
As the Shroud forced Alex to feed it, one of the Demon Heads snapped harmlessly at Midna, missing her by mere inches.
“I should tell the elders about this…”
With no further word, Midna created a portal back to the Twilight, to inform the elders of the alarming news.
While Alex retained control of his body and thoughts, those thoughts were constantly interrupted by the Shroud.
Despite my presence, you remain in control…interesting…we will see how long it takes for the servant to become the master…until then…I will allow you to enjoy your newfound abilities…no doubt there is someone in particular that you wish to exact your vengeance on?
“All of those damned Kandarinians...”
Good…good…you know your target…where is this quarry?
“That’s just it…I don’t know…they moved elsewhere to rebuild...”
In due time, you will find them, Alex. Until then, I hunger…
-
“Yeah, I guess we could try that.” Duilin replied. He was about to ask Lagart if he wanted to come or not, but all of the sudden a barrage of flaming arrows came down at them.
“What the hell” Duilin exclaimed, as he turned around. He narrowly dodged the ones that came near him. “Some of them must have already gotten inside. Dang it, I left my weapons inside. Guess I’ll just have to use my raw spells here…” He then crossed his arms and a golden aura glowed around him. “I’ll take care of ‘em….” He then uncrossed his arms and then floated a few feet in the air and then flapped his wings pushing him upward until he was flying as high as the roofs of the houses. “C’mon…Where are you…” He muttered, as he scanned the area.
---
A pair of lizard men were walking through a dusty street way. They found a few human guards running around so they were chasing them around. Gorus didn't want any survivors and it was fun to hunt down the humans so it was a win-win situation, except for the humans.
"C'mon out magotss..." One of the lizard men hissed.
"Yeah come one." The other one snarled. "Come out and play. We're so lonely..."
One of the guards was breathing deeply as he leaned against a wooden pillar that was formly holding up a building. He held his crossbow close to him. The lizard men were just passing by, maybe if he just stood quiet enough he could just run off, and out into the wasteland and never return.
One of the lizard men started sniffing. "Human flessh..."
"I hear breathing."
The two lizard men, knew where he was. No point in running, those lizard men where too fast to out run. He jumped out from hiding. "FOR VANDRIN!" He shouted as he fired a bolt at one of the lizard men, yet the bolt missed by a hair. The lizard men started laughing as they came closer. He panicked and his shaky hand went to get another bolt out of his quiver. The lizards were mocking him, by not running at him. The guard put the bolt into his crossbow, pulled back the cord and took aim. He pulled the trigger and the bolt shot towards the closer lizard man, yet he blocked it with his jagged bladed sword.
"Hehehe..." The lizard men quickened his pace as he came closer.
"Oh god...no!" The guard panicked and dropped his weapon and started running.
"Ooo!" The lizard man licked his lips. "I just love it when they panic!"
The two lizard men then bolted after him. The guard looked back and saw them gaining on him and started running faster as he yelled. One of the lizard men jumped in the air and then landed on him tripping the man to the ground.
"No! No! Please no!" He shouted. The lizard man lifted up his sword and then stabbed it down right into his back. The two then started laughing.
"C'mon we gotta go. There are sstill more."
"No, first let me have a bite. These humans taste quite so good. Plus I haven't eaten in hours!" The lizard lowered his mouth down the dead man's shoulder.
"Gak, hurry it up then!" The lizard man turned around and scanned the area. He sniffed the air a few times. "Something else is here."
Suddenly a shadowy figure blurred towards the lizard man, and stopped right in front of him. Suddenly the lizard man was pushed to the ground. The blurry figure then took shape to a dark grey skinned mutant.
"Well what do we have here?" The lizard man said getting up. The other one turned around, just in time to see the grey mutant shoot a shade blast at the lizard's face killing it in one shot.
"Why you little--" The lizard man got up to engage the mutant but was stopped as a shade blast shot from the grey mutant as he pointed his finger at him like a gun. The blast struck his chest as he fell lifeless to the ground.
The shadow mutant then turned to continue to regroup with the other mutants when suddenly a group of lizard men came at him, one wearing 'mage like' armour. "There's one! Spread out, it looks like one of them invisible shifting ones!"
The shadow mutant then phased himself, and he was but a blurring spectre and dashed off, he remembered the colourfully armoured lizard to be a spell caster and more dangerous. His mind was simple, but he could remember that much.
Just then a rain of small smoking shells came down at the moving lizard men they dropped to the ground making an explosions all around blowing the lizard men to the air and their dead bodies plopped to the ground. The mutant looked confused for a bit but then saw a group of humans. Some men armed with spear guns walking with and some heavily armed warriors with them as well.
"Hey, what's that?" One of them asked.
The mutant recoginzed them as Kandarin. When Vandrin taught them, he told them: "Kandarin friend, you can trust Kandarin. But Vandrin is best."
"You Kandarin." The shadow mutant said approaching the group of warriors.
"Looks like one of them mutants." One of the vanguards said. He approached the mutant. "Yeah, we're with Kandarin. We were sent here to help you guys out with the attack. Could you take us to your count?"
"Too many..." The mutant said rubbing his head.
"Too many what?" The vanguard asked.
"Too many...words...speak less..."
"Aw son of...." The vanguard shook his head and the others noticeably laughed. "We help." He said pointing to himself. "Take us to Vandrin."
"Two Vandrin?" The mutant lifted up two fingers.
"No! You go where Vandrin is! We come with! Damnit."
"Me go where Vandrin is. You follow?"
"Yes, we follow! You go where Vandrin is. Good. Yes?"
"Yes."
The vanguard turned to the others. "I think this count Vandrin needs to work more on his mutations..."
//I knows this is a little speedy that Kronos’ men arrived so soon, but they’re only NPCs plus this only directly affects mine and my Ein’s characters. So, Xorlak, I hope their nearly instant arrival can be over looked. PS. You rule.\
-
Now, Carmine was at a loss as to what to do. On one hand, he had a potential ally, possibly measuring up to de Sade himself. On the other, there was the cost... Stealing from Kronos? No matter how he viewed it, that was high treason. Couldn't there be a compromise?
-"Hannibal, what are the chances of Kronos noticing a soulstone gone?"
The assassin sighed.
-"Pretty high. He only has three of them right now. One with that blabbering idiot Ein, the other with that robot thing, and the third is the one you want. It's also the strongest one, so he'll keep it around him at all times. Your best bet, really, is just ask for it. The elimination of Alex is a high priority task. I'm sure he'll let you borrow it."
-"I see. Want to go ask him for me?"
The assassin waved his head in disappointment, and disappeared in a purple flash.
--- --- ---
"The soulstones were shining particularly bright in this light... They were all lined up nicely. I looked at each separately.
Inside the first one, I saw Ein. As a little amusement, I threw in an "evil twin" version of himself, and I could see the two copies fighting each other.
-"Heheheheh. Why can't you see, Ein, you are your own worst enemy? Bwheheheheh."
Inside the next one, I saw an average-built man sitting on the non-existing floor with a sad expression. I guess that's what the soul inside that machine viewed itself as. I flicked the gem a little with my fingernail. The man turned around to me, sighed, and stared back at the floor.
My chance of looking at de Sade, of course, was ruined, as soon as Roth Jr teleported right inside my personal quarters. This got me a little angry.
-"I should have you hung, drawn and quartered for that, Roth. However, I assume that you have a good reason for barging in like this. Do share."
-"Well, sir, Captain Carmine sent me to you to deliver a message of the utmost importance. There is a possibility for recruiting another Lilithian for our cause, but he wants de Sade's soulstone. What are your orders?"
-"Hmm, two Lilithians for the price of one, quite literally... Then again, what will the other one do with this power?"
-"I assume he'll use it to help us, then make away with it."
-"Ah, hell. If it helps me get ahold of that Alex scum, so be it. Take it and give it to the good Captain."
-"As you wish, sir."
Hmm, now that I have my city built, I should start making up stupid megalomaniac rules again. Boy, were those fun. I think that now, my title will no longer be Marshal. I'll make it... hmm... Kaiser... yes, sounds good. Kaiser Kronos. I'll also have the no-Kronos-naming rule, and... Oh! Perfect. Anyone who goes to bath with an orange on a third Sunday of the month is to be thrown to the vultures. Genius!
-"Roth, let everyone know - I am now called Kaiser Kronos, not Marshal."
-"If I may so suggest, my lord - I think you should be called Sovereign."
...
-"Never came to my mind. Good idea."
-
Druid had only started his flight to Tjed when he wondered why. He had no real allegiance to this Jayce or his empire or army. Every time he was in a fight something happened and Druid couldn’t fight, either Silas pulled some stunt or something happened to his opponent. He slowed his speed down a little. Taking his time would be better. He could sight see, not that there was much to see.
Druid looked around at the ground. He hadn’t realized at what great altitude he flew. Everything was so small. It was such a regular thing he didn’t even look and admire the little things. Back on his home dimension Druid loved to discuss Philosophy with his mental superiors, not that there were many, but with the rebellion against him and now this unfortunate trip to Gaian he hadn’t had time.
From behind something or someone ploughed into Druid. He couldn’t see because it was clinging to his back propelling them both downwards. He tried to fight it but couldn’t manoeuvre and the ground was coming up quickly. The figure pushed off Druid, propelling him even faster towards the ground. With a horrible thump sound Druid crashed into the ground. A small crater was formed with the impact.
---
Slowly Coriko was making his way towards the meeting place with Marshall and Firstman.
"It has been a little long, i hope they are still there."
with that thought Coriko picked up his pace.
---
Druid lay in the crater and he started coughing up blood. He tried to sit up but couldn’t. He definitely had a few broken ribs and possibly a broken arm. When he tried to move it he realized it was definitely broken. With his non-broken arm Druid summoned his two remaining shadow warriors. It took a lot longer because he had to concentrate to block out the pain plus he didn’t have his whole body. Slowly the two warriors were summoned. “Help me up.” The two warriors picked up Druid and put him down on his feet. Druid collapsed because he seemed to also have a broken leg. His fall was worse then he thought.
The two warriors lifted Druid up and sat him up outside the crater. Druid head was slumped downwards because he was in such pain. As soon as the warriors set him down a figure attacked the warriors, destroying them. Druid looked up to see who did that. Then it grabbed Druid’s neck and lifted him up off the ground. “Silas!” Druid said through gritted teeth. The two mortal enemies stared at each other.
-
"Man, I'm surprised Kronos even cares about this Vandrin guy." One of the vanguards said.
"He doesn't." Replied one of the spear gun warriors. "He just wants to test you guys out."
"Wow, I feel so important. My first real mission is a test run." The vanguard said jokingly, but he laughed a bit at his own joke. "Meh, figures. Count Vandrin has been pretty selfish lately, he doesn't to anything to help out our Marshal, it's a wonder he didn't just kill him."
"Indeed. But Kronos still wants us to help Vandrin, apparently he still has a bit of a use for him, he wants more of his mutation chemical."
"Why? Did you see how stupid that guy is?" He pointed to the shadow mutant leading the group to the castle. "I'd be surprised if this guy even knows where he's going."
"Dude, he's right their!"
"So what? The guy's as dumb as a rock, he ain't gonna hear anything."
"Wait...I think I hear something." One of the other spearmen said, lifting up his hand motioning for the others to stop. "I think more of those lizard men are coming at us. Vanguards and Bladesmen get behind us in a circle formation. They could be coming from anywhere."
The vanguards and bladesmen nodded and the troops made a circle formation, with the vanguards on the inside. The shadow mutant the phased out into his blurry mode and sped off behind the rubble of a building.
The Kandarin warriors could hear the sounds of reptilian roars, sounding like battle cries.
"They're comming..." One of the troopers whispered pointing east. "Quick, reform." The troopers then made more of a wall formation the vanguards and bladesmen at the back, a row of spear gunners at the front kneeling down and another row of them behind, standing up.
Then a group of five lizard men came towards them, they were a bit smaller then average but they were still big. They heard these lizard men were really strong, but their previous encounter didn't show them much.
The spear gunners fired their weapons. One of the lizards, the biggest one, seemed to have gotten most of the attention and was taken down. The warriors quickly reloaded their weapons and fired again, yet most of the spears missed, as the lizard men quickened their pace.
"They're moving to fast split up! Split up!"
Suddenly the shadow mutant shot across their path running and was able to trip all four of the lizard men.
"They've been knocked down! Bladesmen take them out!" The bladesmen then pulled out their wrist blades and rushed towards the fallen lizard men, and started jabbing them with their new improved obsidian trimed blades. The lizard men, had never seen humans fight this well, and they'll likely never see it again, as within a few moments they were killed.
"Good work men. That was probably the smallest group of them, so let's hurry to the castle." One of the vanguards said. "Now where is that damned mutant?"
The shadow mutant revealed itself.
"You tripped them didn't you?" The vanguard asked, and was responded with a nod. "Good work." He grinned.
-
"What's this you speak of old man?" Quadricentennial asked with a stern tone. "Why do you say such a thing?"
"This forest will soon be struck down by fire. You will be targeted."
"I don't believe you."
"This is a warning. Do not take light of it."
"Who are you to say such a thing?"
"I told you, it is not important who I am. Just believe my words."
"I cannot believe you unless you tell me who you are."
"All I can tell you is that I am not from this world. I come from somewhere else. The natural order of things are to let things progress but this time I had to interrupt and tell you of it. You cannot die so vainly."
"If it's the natural order of things, why not?"
"Because you are not worthy to die desolate. Rise up and enter the world you forsakened. Use the inner powers you possess. Do not get caught up in the flames that will soon abolish this forest."
"I'm getting sick of this. I'm going." Quadricentennial turned around and was headed back to the forest.
"Do not do this Valientine."
"I SAID DO NOT CALL ME THAT!!!" he screamed as he turned around. "I don't want you to call me that."
"You must believe me. This is not the life that was meant for you." Starring at the old man, Quadricentennial received a strange feeling, perhaps a feeling that there were answers for questions he wished answered. "Old man," he said, "you don't know me do you?"
"Yes I do."
"Then WHO ARE YOU!?"
"I told you I cannot reveal myself."
"You came from a plant and a puff of smoke, know my name and claim that the forest I live in shall be burnt unto the ground. You must be someone or something important."
"Yes but I still cannot reveal myself. I can tell you this: If you choose to go out into the world, only then can you can truly be worthy of living on this world."
"I don't care." The feeling Quadricentennial had left and decided to go back into the forest. Though he stopped for one last time. "By the way old man, is this green sword yours? Did you make it appear?"
"I have never seen this blade before."
Quadricentennial resumed to enter his forest again.
-
(No problem, Ein.)
Renard floated over to the black stone and took it in his claws. It was warm with the residue of magic. The other four Velken mages floated around him. Did it work...? They didn't seem to suspect anything...
"Hey, where'd Virmir go?" Came a voice behind him.
"Down there." Helix turned and pointed.
"Hey... aren't those the two clowns that were messing with you and Renard?"
"Yeah!" Helix's fur bristled. "Kept askin' about the guy who saved his life! Wouldn't stop pestering him!"
Renard gulped.
----
Melface's eyes widened and he clenched his fists into tiny balls.
"Why you--!! Don't toy with me, you you--" He began flailing his arms in a child-like tantrum. "-- you... pompous female!!"
Demon Lord! Blast! Just when he got that awful thing out of his mind. He looked around nervously, as if expecting him to jump out of the ground and tackle him.
His demeanor became more sheepish, and he touched the tips of his fingers together.
"Why... yes... actually... I did happen to see a Demon Lord. A loose cannon, and threat to the Dark Empire that needs to be extinguished."
"Pardon the interruption..."
Melface spun around. Behind him stood the Velken High General, Virmir, who seemed to have appeared as nondescriptly as Melface liked to do. His arms were folded and his cold eyes bore into the Nightmare Demon's soul. There were few that could match gazes with him, and this irritated the demon to no ends.
"We will begin your inquisition now."
Two Blade Knights formed the other corners of a triangle surrounding Melface, the human woman, and the elf. Melface clenched a fist, becoming irate at the rude interruption.
"Why do you need to ask me questions? You're performing a scrying up there. You know everything that happened."
Virmir didn't skip a beat. "Different angles provide different clues. And you are not the only one we wish to talk to. Do not speak again until I give you permission."
The child-like demon felt his face redden in rage. High Generals... were such pricks!! And he couldn't say a thing back! Even though he was not of the fox's Skyward division, he still had to obey his every word unless if conflicted with the Emperor or the High General of the Gaian division, who was of course dead. He folded his arms and gritted his teeth. He was glad the only other High General alive was Gorus. Although Retan would probably name a successor to Jayce within a month. Meaning there'd be another egomaniac running around with way too much authoritative power.
Virmir shifted his gaze to the jester-like woman, his eyes now boring into the black sockets of the mask she wore. They betrayed no emotion whatsoever. No malice or kindness. Simply cold duty and protocol.
"Madam, if you and your companion would state your names and ranks, then please tell us the reason you are here, and what connection you have to the events that occurred here yesterday, if any."
----
"Right!"
Ven silver sword was out in a flash. The mysterious stranger flung his trench coat open, revealing a long golden barreled weapon with odd metallic attachments on one end. The man flung the weapon out and cocked it was a resounding *click*. Was that a shotgun?
The silver knight had no time to ponder it, for his attention was immediately drawn to the five gray blurs rushing towards him. Velkens... were those the names of the things that had ambushed his men? So many were killed by so few... Those awful, horrible killing machines...
Ven felt a blood curdling cry rise to his throat. He would have his revenge. Right now.
The five Velken Blade Knights surrounded them in a heartbeat, brandishing their short swords as they floated a foot above the ground. Before Ven could even raise his blade, two were on him, and he frantically waved his sword around as he tried to deflect the blow. They were so fast... Panic began to well in his heart as his arms and legs became serrated from nicks and cuts... By his side, the stranger shot aimlessly at thin air, trying to hit one that was spinning circles around his head.
Suddenly, the black clad man was kicked in the temple by the much smaller flying fox and he rolled on the ground. The silver-furred Velken held his blade high, aiming for a swift slash to the neck of the downed man. Ven ignored the stabbing blades of the two upon him, jumping to cleave that hateful monster with all his might.
The fox split in two, and disappeared...
"Huh?"
The other four Velkens faded into smoke.
"Illusions," the stranger stated, standing up. He removed a rectangular cartridge from his inner coat pocket and jammed it into the top of his weapon.
Ven couldn't believe it. His injuries certainly weren't illusions... If they were the product of a spell, who was the caster?
"He he he he he..."
Ven and the man turned, seeing a blue robed man with pointy ears standing atop a rock.
"Oh my, oh my! If you don't like those, try these on for size!" The drow cackled. He slammed the tip of his staff into the ground, and a black portal opened upon the ground, dark shapes slowly rising from within...
(Virmir's squad are the only Velkens on Gaian right now, remember. Heh...)
----
(Will come back and do others in a few hours.)
-
(Also, no problem, DM. Heh...)
----
Grav seemed to have disappeared entirely for a moment until he peaked out from behind the massive minotaur's leg, shaking. He snapped out of it after a moment, stepping forward and commandingly smacking the tip of his staff into the stone floor.
"Right--"
The skunk creature immediately bent into Indher's field of vision. He was wearing leather armor with a great deal of daggers strapped to his hips and chest. He smiled widely, revealing a set of yellowed pointy teeth and breath that reeked of smoke.
"Darling, I couldn't help but notice what beautiful eyes you have..."
Grav jumped up and smacked him in the head with his staff, sending him flying into the wall. The short Lizard Man hopped onto the soapbox and straightened his black robe, looking all the personal henchman to the Emperor that he was.
"You are located deep in the dungeons of the Tower of Heaven's Bane, my dear," the lizard said. "You'd best behave yourself, as there's twenty floors of elite guards between here and the surface..."
He tapped the wooden box beneath his feet once with the staff.
"All we want to know is what this is, and how you did it..."
He dropped the oozing stone back on the altar with Indher, which was knocked off during her tantrum. The black substance that dripped from it reeked of the foul aura of the underworld...
----
Draven idly scratched an itch on his chin with a gloved hand.
"Tch... if you are looking to defeat the strongest, my purple friend, then I know just the opponent for you... Of course, I hoped you wouldn't come along so easily..."
Without warning, Draven extended the hand full length in front of him, a violent blast of flame exploding from the palm. Within an instant a sweltering orb of crimson energy materialized, and it rocketed through the sky towards the violet aura-ed demon, helixes of fire spiraling in its wake...
-
As so he did see him, excellent. Apparently this is a legitimate connection she has with Duilin. She was about to question the nightmare demon further, but then the High General came down. She had never met him in person, but knew of him. He noticed that he was trying to intimidate him, yet she didn’t seem to react to his fear inducing glance.
Rufokanno however looked a little uncomfortable; he saw this very being slice his friend in half. Scrums was a very skilled bounty hunter yet he was tossed around like a rag doll by this guy. He still gave a bit of a glare at him, the other members of The Malefactors were his friends, and he wanted revenge. Yet Brice was his closest friend, and if he had to ally himself with this Velken, to kill Duilin, then he would.
Ophelia bowed before he replied to Virmir, may as well show some respect to the High General, to get some cooperation. "Greetings, High General. I am Lieutenant Ophelia. And this is assassin I hired, Rufokanno. We are searching for a man named Duilin Talonscar, who we believed was involved in the battle that took place yesterday. We only got here around last night, so we didn’t witness the death of High General Jayce, but I was able to sense that he died earlier, with my aura detection abilities."
"I was wondering if Rufokanno and I could possibly join you. I need to find this Duilin Talonscar, and question him. I'll hand him over to you right after so he may be killed."
Rufokanno stepped forward. "Rufokanno, would like the honour of killing Duilin. You not mind this, do you?" He asked the Velken.
-
It grinned... The kind of insane grin that lusted for battle. It smacked the blast away with one hand, and with the other, fired a blast that was about 1.5x as big.
Drake frowned a little bit. It better not get reckless. It can't fire blasts wildly, or spend a lot on big ones. Granted... it needs very little time to charge, because it itself IS energy. But for that same reason, firing too many big blasts will drain its strength, and it takes time for its energy to return to it. It's a mammoth where raw power is concerned, even if it does drain itself a bit, but if it does shoot too much, it could become VERY vulnerable.
//I'm probably going to give Anti a gender soon for the sake of simplicity. I edit way too much as it is now, forgetting to put "it" rather than "he".
-
"I'm afraid your time on this realm ends here, fools!" Ben made a violent jerk upwards while holding his darkly-powered energy blade. He flew up into the air, rising the blade and making a horizontal wave of dark energy, followed by one straight across where the two angels were. They're forms disentigrated into a black mist, and then disappeared.
Ben floated back to the ground, landing a few feet in front of his wall of energy, which was now a dark purple. He held his hand back behind him and quickly absorbed the energy he used to create the wall. It now seemed where ever he stepped, he created a dark red aura that sparked around him.
------------
Aaron focused his gaze on the new man that appeared. He ran forwards and prepared a fireball in his hands. He then threw himself forwards with an extreme force that made him fall to the ground. A greatly sized fireball could be seen racing towards the man who conjured the illusion.
"Let's take the other ones out!" Justin pulled out his demon fang and slashed it at a human soldier that came near him. His slash missed and he was punched to the ground. Behind the human soldier, Jacobie was fighting four lizards at a time. He was handling them pretty well until another one jumped in, giving him more of a challenge.
The last five lizardmean headed for Tiberius, obsidian longsword at the side, ready for a fast and powerful slash. Tiberius took out his blade and started combat with them, followed by Valimore, or Dranniconias as he calls himself now. Doriana was fighting the four other human soldiers along with Verronica, Aaron's wife.
------------
-
Indher looked at the skunk creature as he jumped upon her platform.
"A real charmer, aern't we?" she managed to respond sarcasticly before he was sent into a nearby wall by the tiny lizard's staff. She didn't bother assuming he was able to see the true form of her eyes...
She kept staring at him the entire time he talked appearing bored and uninterested.
She took a look at the orb.
"Hmm... Well, I can't really tell what this is." she said hesitantly.
She tried bending down to take a closer look, but her still chained leg was in the way.
She sighed, and pulled it and the chains broke away, proceeding to take a closer look at the orb.
"...Corrupt,corrupt indeed...I guess it would make sense..." she muttered to herself for a while, and then turned to the lizard.
"It was close by, wasn't it? Meh, in any case, I tried summoning a godlike being, and I didn't have enough energy to drag something so powerful into this world, but his presence was here for but a moment... I think that's what corrupted it."
-----
As Elphos, Balse and the woman left the cave, they noticed a small object bouncing off the dragon as he begins to breathe flames in a furious manner.
The three hurried in his direction.
"Sir Dragon...!" The woman spoke, a hint of worry in her voice "...Is everything all right...?"
Elphos stepped away from the two, as he observed the tiny object still lying on the ground...
"Two joined hemispheres... One red, one white... Intriguing..."
He picked it up and tugged it into his shirt.
"...Might be usefull... I'll show it to Fernis when she returns..."
-
“…And so that’s what happened,” Midna sighed.
“Dear me,” Equinox muttered, “this is most unfortunate news…the last Twilight Warrior, if you will remember, succumbed to the Shroud’s control quite easily…”
“But there’s something about Alex,” Midna went on, “his will is stronger than the last one…I noticed the Shroud had yet to take full control. Alex could still think for himself…”
“Then the Shroud will take over gradually,” Eclipse replied, “until then, Alex has a limited control over the Shroud’s powers, being able to choose whether or not to manifest it when he wants to, which makes perfect for the situation he’s in, with that Kandarinian squad hunting him down. However, it’s only a matter of time before he loses all control…”
“No, I believe in Alex,” Solstice spoke up. “He’s shown time and again how resistant he is to anyone forcing his will. I have no doubt he’ll resist the Shroud enough to entice it to leave…”
“On the other hand,” Eclipse said, “the Shroud is just as stubborn, so extracting it from him will not be easy. But that’s for another time. Midna, I want you to follow him, see what he does, see what kind of control he has over the Shroud. Perhaps some good can come out of this mess…”
“As you wish,” Midna replied, bowing to leave.
Yes…there lies the meal…
From behind a tree Alex saw a Kandarinian scouting party, sent ahead to look for Alex. Carmine wasn’t present, neither was de Sade, but to the Shroud, one meal was as good as any.
“Normally I wouldn’t hesitate to kill them, but isn’t this a little over the top?”
Nonsense…these are your enemies! Who better to kill than your enemies? Allow me to have the first strike.
One of the Demon Heads slithered out from behind, down onto the ground, and began slithering towards the scouting party, which sat around a glowing fire. One of the men noticed something.
He stood up. “What is that?” he asked, pointing toward the Demon Head slithering toward them. “Some kind of snake--”
The head lunged upward, snapping through the poor man’s armor and into his chest, right at his heart. The man fell backwards with a scream, and soon died from the loss of his blood pump. The other men stood up and drew their spearguns, firing at the head.
“What the hell is that?!” one of them cried.
“This can’t be real!” another one shouted.
The head retracted back to Alex, who manifested the Shroud and stood out in the open. The remaining soldiers began firing wildly at them, the spears being deflected by some unseen force.
“This isn’t working!” the third soldier screamed.
The markings on the sides of the Demon Heads then changed to a glowing blue color, the markings forming a spiral. As they continued firing, a bottomless black hole opened behind them, which proceeded to suck them in.
“What the hell is this?!” a soldier screamed, resisting the intense pull. Finally, all three of the soldiers lost their fight against gravity, and were pulled into the hole, whirled around violently and flung out into the ground, obviously dead. When all was over, the two Demon Heads drew power from the darkness.
This is merely a fraction of the powers I offer to you…it is time to find those who have wronged you…until then, you will appear as normal…
The Demon Heads and tentacles retracted, leaving Alex alone in the forest. He fell to his knees, at a loss for words.
I can see you are not like the last warrior…you have a pure heart…a pure will…during the day you will be normal…but at night…in the presence of evil…the Shroud will take over…for this one night I will offer you a reprieve…unless you go out looking for trouble…
“I need to keep looking for that Carmine guy…he’ll lead me to the others…”
Then it shall be a night to feast.
Within moments of leaving, Hannibal Roth had returned to Carmine and his squad, de Sade’s soulstone in hand.
“I believe this is what you will need, Captain,” holding up the stone, then passing it on to Carmine, de Sade sitting silently inside.
“The Sovereignty thanks you,” Carmine replied, accepting the stone. “Just one question though.”
The assassin sighed. “Make it quick.”
“How do I get him out?”
“The answers are in your hands, Captain,” Hannibal replied, pointing to Amon’s icy blade Carmine held.
“I don’t exactly follow…” Carmine admitted, feeling a little oblivious.
“When Amon came to you first,” Hannibal explained, “this gem was what he asked for. I suppose he'd know how to get de Sade out, especially if Amon himself is a Lilithian.”
“Gotcha,” Carmine replied, “and thanks again.”
“Glad to be of service,” muttered the assassin, though not exactly looking glad. “Well, Captain. This is your mission, what is the first order of business?”
Carmine pondered for moment, realizing his squad just gained another member. “Well…I suppose we return to the mainland and search for Alex…”
“I heard from some of the off-duty intel officers,” Odessa spoke up, “that Alex is still hanging around Asgarnia. Maybe we could find him there?”
“Good idea,” Carmine replied, “that’s our route.”
-
Duilin looked at Ben. "That's some rather dark looking magic you have their. Well, for an angel that is. I've got scarier spells than that."
He hovers around in the air for a bit before landing back on the ground next to Ben. "I don't see them Ben. Any idea what that was? I don't like leaving, with arrow shooting people here. We should do something them..."
--- ---
"Castle!" The shadow mutant said pointing towards Vandrin's Castle which was in plain view for about five minutes.
"Thanks, now get outta here." One of the vanguards said waving his hand, motioning him to leave.
The mutant gave a low growling sound but then jogged off.
"Okay, it looks like the Lizard Men haven't made their way here yet. But we can bet they'll get here soon enough."
The troops then approached the metal cage gates of the castle. A servant of Vandrin jogged over to the gate and began to unlock it. "Thank the gods you're here." He said. "We had no idea when the lizard army would get here. They've almost destroyed half of the area already. Very few people remain."
"Yeah, yeah. Listen were just here to test out our new toys. But our Marshal does have a message for the count. Take us to him."
The servant looked at them with wide eyes, and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Come on." The gates opened and the servant ran to the main door of the castle and opened it up. "Hurry, hurry!"
The Kandarins looked at each other and shrugged and jogged to the entrance. Why were they so afraid? These lizard men weren't THAT strong. So far they haven't even lost any men. I guess time will tell.
---
Gorus came across the dead bodies of a group of five lizard men. He noticed they had been stabbed repeatedly, by some sort of blade. He was a bit confused here; the mutants didn't have weapons like this. There must be other people out there.
Suddenly a blurring figure shot by Gorus, the lizard general turned around to see what it was. "It's an invisible mutant..." He snarled.
The shadow mutant then shot towards Gorus, noticeably dark violet glowing orbs appeared where his hands appeared to be. It shot forth two shadow orbs at Gorus who simply blocked the shots with his fists, receiving only minor burns to his hands.
The shadow mutant continued to dash towards Gorus, the mutant was ready to aim a jab right at the lizard's left eye, but as soon as he got close enough his neck got grabbed by the giant lizard. The mutant's invisibility shield dissipated and the creature was revealed.
"Gotcha sucka!" Gorus laughed. The lizard man, keeping his chocking grip on the mutant, spun around a few times and tossed the mutant several yards away. The mutant landed on the pavement head first breaking its neck...
-
//Final change to Kronos' title. Edited my previous post, check it out - he is now called Sovereign.\
Pub. Two Kandarinians are having a conversation.
-"So, Andre - I heard there's a new order for an academy of some sort."
-"You heard correct. The Sovereign ordered its construction a few hours ago. I don't know where we're going to get the unlife for it, though."
-"But they're just carcasses... Shouldn't be that hard to find, considering the amount of wars that occurred here in the past."
-"Another problem is the fact that we're running out of stone to build new things. I mean, that's one of the reasons they started using unlife as a building material in the first place. Now we've gotta have over thirty percent of fleshy materials in our buildings in order to have a solid rock base. I mean, on one hand, this makes the city nearly impervious to attack - the city itself can fight back, or just walk away to someplace else. On the other, even though we ourselves support the unlife, it will wear down eventually. Where will we get new shipments from?"
-"That's why we go to wars, isn't it? Many corpses, many captured resources. What I really want to know is why the Sovereign is building an academy."
-"I was charged with making the architectural blueprints for it. Looks like he wants some sort of an arena in it as well. I could honestly not begin to guess. Then again, who are we to doubt the Sovereign's motives?"
-"Oh, stop being such a Kandarinian. It's not like he can hear you over here or something."
-"Oh yeah? I dare you to say his name out loud."
-"..."
-"That's what I thought. Anyways, there's also rumours that he ordered mutagenic potions from count Vandrin, and that he's bringing back live specimens of lizards. Even though the academy isn't built yet, he's also got a new type of troops in training. Stalkers, they called them - elite lone soldiers put through grueling training with an estimated forty-two percent fatality rate and a ninety-seven dropout rate."
-"Good God... Maybe he wants to create a new army entirely, engineer it in the academy, and test it out in the arena."
-"Maybe he's building the arena purely for the convenience of building two things at once, and it will be used only for entertainment?"
-"Unlikely, but possible."
A third Kandarinian in battle armour enters the pub.
-"Andre! Jorge! The Sovereign just issued a salvage party to the old capital at Jovil. We've gotta look for some machine that's lying there, and you are needed as the science experts."
-"Got it. Let's go."
The three men exit the pub, and mount a large undead wyvern built specifically for transport.
-
“Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise! Here I was wondering if we would ever see you again and we run into each other! Well this is a happy coincidence.” Silas tightened his grip on Druid’s neck so he couldn’t speak. “Aw, I see you are so happy to see me you’re at a loss for words, touching! Now young man you and I have some unfinished business. But since I have learned to be so kind and generous over the years we’ll play a game. If you win this game you get a prize! This will be exciting?! And you will never guess the prize.” Silas pulled Druid up close so that he was speaking right into his ear. Silas then hissed into Druid’s ear, “You get to fight me.” Silas through Druid on the ground, who let out a painful groan.
As soon as Druid put his hands on the ground he started to summon any residual shadow energy on Gaian. Any expended energy stays around because energy cannot be destroyed. It was a simple trick of tapping into this power. This would give him a significant energy boost. Plus the overload of energy would go towards healing his wounds. His hands sunk into the ground. This would allow for the process to go a lot faster because of the direct contact. The whole trick happened quickly and as soon as Druid was topped off he launched at Silas.
Silas leaped backwards up into the air. Shrieking with laughter. “The games haven’t started yet my friend.” The border world bog really screwed up Silas thought Druid. When he was flying backwards he clapped and out of the sand and ground a coliseum structure rose. Silas flew backwards and landed in what would be the king or emperors chair. All around the coliseum an army stood with primitive looking guns from their dimension.
“The rules are simple. There will be one round where you fight five of my personal champions. If all the champions are defeated successfully then you get to fight me. There is no point in attacking me until then either because my guards will kill you. Don’t cheat and have fun!” Silas let out a menacing cackle and yelled, “BEGIN”.
---
Coriko reached the meeting point and looked around. He saw no signs of lifes but thought he might try calling out for his comrades.
"MARSHALL? FIRSTMAN?"
-
"What's this?" Quadricentennial noticed light within the forest, which is strange for a forest that is extremely dark. "Why is there light here? What's going on?" He ran towards the light. "FIRE!!!"
The trees were beginning to burn down the forest. Yes, the tree's themselves have lit themselves up and destroy. "Mal Paugh?". In one story Quadricentennial read, there were legendary trees that obeyed their leader Fauxlo Scarrabarry. The trees were capable of using powers of earth, water, and fire but only earth and water were mostly used. Fire would sometimes literally back fire on them. But the book stated that the trees were long gone. "Could these trees be Mal Paugh? What is this?" Smoke was started to be visible. Quadricentennial had to leave immediately. He assumed his owls escaped so he left off. He ran towards a trail but a tree suddenly crashed in front of him. The flames were rising up. He ran to the left but another tree fell but this one had little flames on it. Quad quickly jumped over it only the surprised by another tree falling over. He was quick on his feet and jumped out of it's way. Another tree was ready to crush him and he jump out of it's way. Another tree and another. Every single tree he faced was falling. He was quick on his feet and was managing well but the fact remained that the trees were starting to pile up. He had to escape before he was trapped. He took a swipe from the claws on his hands but to his surprise they melted. The heat was immensely hot and the metal could not handle it. The knife on his feet too were starting to melt. He looked up and saw more and more trees falling on top of each other. No, the trees were not tall. All of them were equal in height. "What is this? How can these trees pile on themselves like so?" He jumped up and with his legs and feet repeled himself from a wall of black trees to the other, and another. Thinking he made it to the top, a giant tree smacked him to the ground. He fell hard and hurt his head but was still conscience. The smoke was starting to get thick. He was having trouble breathing.
-
Virmir's ears twitched forward when she mentioned 'Duilin'. He brought his claw to his chin and stroked it for a moment.
"Yes, I have met this one called 'Duilin', though he has not committed any crimes against the Dark Empire as far as I know. This was before the events of yesterday, mind you..."
He didn't bother looking up. He just waved his hand behind him.
"Renard, come here."
High above, Renard felt as if his heart had been stabbed by an icicle. Clutching the scrying stone in his hands, he meekly flew down to Virmir and the others. The remaining Velkens simply floated there watching until Helix dove after with an indignant growl. The others shrugged and followed, and after a moment all eleven Velkens were on the ground next to the great black crater, or floating close to it.
"The stone," Virmir held out an open claw. Renard handed it over, desperately trying not to shake. Did he know? Would he figure it out? Oh, gods...!
Virmir took the black stone in both hands then slowly separated them as the stone remained afloat. It began to spin in place, a blue aura surrounding it.
"As you may know," the vulpine High General explained, "whenever a spell is cast, the residual magic leaves its mark on the surrounding landscape. A fingerprint, of sorts, though much, much more detailed."
He raised his hands, and the stone followed suit, moving over their heads. A fog began to form above.
"Normally the residual fades quickly, yet stronger spells have stronger residuals that last longer, and also overlay smaller ones, preserving them as well." His eyes motioned to the gargantuan crater behind him, then back to Ophelia. " Not only do the residuals provide information about the caster, but also a great deal of information about the environment at the time of the casting-- including who else was present."
Above their heads, images of the battle played out. Jayce and Draven both sneering. Fireballs flinging about. An entire army trying to tackle a massive black dragon... Blinding explosions every which way. An image of a Lizard Man in red armor, a traitor that would be dealt with. Some angelic figures. Another Lizard Man traitor. An old drow. A silver knight. Many more faces flashed by at blinding speed. And then there were two figures in the sky, preparing two separate spells. One was Draven, laughing maniacally as he held a burning sun above his head. The other was another human, wearing white. Virmir paused to consider the figure for a moment and Renard gulped. The image zoomed in on his face, revealing an unfamiliar man with spiky black hair and a large curling mustache.
"Duilin was not present at this battle," he said with finality. "Our missions do not correlate. From this point on this island is restricted from all access unless I explicitly give permission. Please leave immediately."
Melface, quite bored with the whole spiel, suddenly became animated again.
"What about me?"
The image above paused upon an arctic fox hiding in the bushes, watching with wide eyes as the whole battle progressed.
"We have no further questions for you."
"But you didn't even--"
"Leave. Now."
The child-like demon began flailing his arms around.
"You can't just kick us off!!" He desperately needed vengeance to help save his image. He kicked the ground and sent a plume of dust into the air. "Blast it!!"
----
The dark elf illusionist mage took the fireball to the chest.
"Ahhhhhh~!!!!" He feebly screamed as he was engulfed in flames.
Blast, they were still outnumbered... Ven took up his sword and charged one of the lizards that surrounded Jacobie. Good thing the Lizard Man wore that bright red armor, else he'd be pretty difficult to pick out from the enemy. With a mighty slash he chopped off the tip of the black armored lizard's tail. It quickly turned at screamed unintelligible obscenities, and the silver knight was quick to capitalize, driving his blade into the thing's neck...
The stranger allowed a group of lizards to approach him. He smiled at the last instant. As he pulled the trigger of his aimed weapon, an intense burst of flame streamed forth, utterly engulfing the reptiles. They screamed as he torched them, waving his flamethrower back and forth in wide arcs, his shades reflecting the red light.
----
Grav's eyes were wide. The Dark Empire was in need of summoners. If he could present someone who knew how to call forth demons with such intense auras to his Emperor, then surely he would get that raise he so justly deserved!
"My dear, how would you like to perform your summonings with proper materials? Surely you cannot hope to work in dismal caves all your life," the lizard said. "A summoner of the Dark Empire is a respectable position, and one I offer you should you pass a few... examinations..."
He leapt off the box, tapping his staff on the ground.
"Or do you prefer living amongst... humans...?" He spat out the last word distastefully. On the other side of the room, the skunk lit another cigar and winked at her.
-----
The dragon bowed his head low, so that his eyes were only ten feet above the small human woman's. There were some blackened spots on the ground, and the air smelled faintly of a barbeque.
"'Tis nary a thing to worry about. They're gone now..."
His head craned up to look at the three figures floating high above. A red fireball streaked through the sky, then a violet one.
"... But more will come..."
----
Draven dodged to the right, just barely moving in time to avoid the intense blast of energy.
"Not bad, not bad..." He smirked as he slowly floated sideways. "Let's dance."
He brought his arms to his sides, clenching his fists and a violent burst of flame burst from his body, painting the sky with a crimson flash. His muscles seemed to bulge slightly as he was wrapped in a burning aura of flame, and his black hair waved on end.
He leaned forward and shot towards the demon, the air parting before him in a sonic boom. He drew his fist back and aimed a burning punch square towards the thing's missing face...
-
Ophelia's jaw dropped and then shut back and she gave a very cold and angry glare at Virmir yet this was all hidden behind her mask. "Very well, High General, we will leave."
Something is not right here. He could tell Melface suspected something as well. She made a quick decision, and sent a telepathic message to Melface. "Meet 5 miles over the water just north of here."
"Rufokanno is not happy with this General." The elf said pointing his finger at him.
"Let's go, Rufo." Ophelia ordered, before he started anything.
Rufo then turned away and pointed his hand at a wooden plank that was on the shore, which apparently he brought with him. The wooden plank floated towards the elf and then rotated and lowered untill it hovered a few centimetres off the ground, he hopped onto the plank and Ophelia stepped onto it after him and stood behind. The plank then hovered forward and off into the ocean.
"Go north and pick up the speed." Ophelia ordered.
The plank then pushed northward and gained speed, after a few minutes, Ophelia motioned for him to stop and they waited...
--- ---
"Hey I hear somebody." Firstman said to one of the Aspyes who was waiting with him, he climbed up the stair way and looked to see who it was. "It's Coriko!" He then waved towards him. "CORIKO! OVER HERE!"
-
Indher sighed. As promising as the idea of using the dark empire's resources for her own needs sounds, this will probably not work.
"What's the point? I can't summon that thing unless I get at least a hundred expreienced mages to aid me in the summoning itself..."
She leapt off the altar, landing softly on the cold stone floor.
A thought occured to her, and she forcibly avoided grinnin, keeping a straight face.
"That, and the being is so powerful we will probably need the dark emperor himself present when the summoning takes place, you know, you prevent it from destroying everything in sight as soon as it appears..."
She gave the skunk a quick distastful look.
He should quit smoking.
She turned back to the lizard, sighing.
"Unless you can promise me all that, I won't be of any real use..."
-----
The woman seemed relieved.
"Al-Alright..."
She spoke as if she was used to having dragons for conversation partners.
"We really should go back, just to be safe... Sir Elphos, are you coming?"
Elphos turned around, appearing confused.
"Oh? Uh, yes, yes, of course..."
He approached the group just as Balse opened his mouth.
"Y'know, lad? This smell makes me think of some good chikeen... Which reminds me of our chikeen, Dolly. Aye, she was a wonderous fowl, a golden one, she was... Hey, ya think ya can reevive our Dolly?"
Elphos sighed. This is going to be a LOOONG time without Fernis...
-
"I guess we'd better get moving, Duilin. There's bound to be more angels chasing after me. I'm wanted for my intervention down at Tjed. It sparked a war off between the gods..." Ben's form changed back to normal. He looked more holy then dark now, his aura returning to a light blue.
"I'm sorry if I've gotten you in this mess. We'd better hurry out of here. I think we'll have to fly away from Tjedon and lay low for a while... unless you'd like to take them head on..." Ben smirked at that last remark. He cracked his neck a few times and bendaged his right shoulder, which had two burn marks in them where the arrows once were.
------------
"Blast it! They just keep coming!" Aaron said after he beat down two humans with his great metal fists. More and more human and lizard soldiers came from the hills, along with two wyvern-riding demons with obsidian greatswords. They flew towards the ground, wyverns shooting fireballs, greatswords flying through the air.
"Die you fools!" Verronica jumped forwards and caught blades with a demon, flinging him off of his wyvern. As the wyvern fell to the ground, she stabbed it through the heart and blood spilled through the air. She began combat with the other demon.
"I need some help over here!" Jacobie yelled as more lizards came his way. he was now fighting against ten lizards, only managing to kill three from before. He took out his second katana as they surrounded him. He spun around creating a red and blue energy wave, killing off five of the lizards. He stopped and continued to sword fight the other lizards.
"I can't take this much longer! Some one, help me out here!" Jacobie was once again surrounded by lizardmen, who for some reason only went after Jacobie. Tiberius and Justin jummped in and helped Jacobie fight off the lizards. Blades clashed together and sparks of metal flew through the air.
"We cannot hold off much longer like this! We need reinforcements." Aaron yelled as he was in combat with two more human soldiers.
"Reinforcements!?" Dori yelled, helping Aaron fight more human soldiers as they came his way. "Who's going to come to our aid? The Dark Empire has killed everyone here!"
"Not everyone." Said a distant voice. A stampede of horses could be heard from behind. Arian riders from the south had come to aid the heros in battle. One of them dismounted and slashed open three humans at a time with his longsword.
"We have three hundred strong and able, ready to fight for you, my lord." The soldier said as Aaron and Dori killed the last dark empire's human soldier.
"It would have been nicer had you'd shown up earlier. Still, we could use a hand."
"We have horses to spare, my lord."
"Finally, some good news." The last of the attackers were killed. Aaron made for one of the spare horses the riders had. "Mount a horse, all of you! We ride north for Azzkan Endor, the capital of Ariosis.
The last demon escaped on wyvern, not doubt flying off to tell of the emperor's return...
------------
-
Jorge and Andre's wyvern was soon joined by three more. Two of them were carrying vanguards for heavy labor duties, and the third one, a smaller one, was occupied by only one person. Although it was obvious that this one was a soldier, neither Jorge or Andre ever saw such a warrior in Kandarinian ranks before. The only two things he had in common with the rest of KAF were the red gloves and the mask. His armour consisted of a simple cloak and hood, not large enough to cover his entire face. He had a hatchet attached to his belt, as well as two kamas. The strange soldier was staring ahead blankly.
-"Excuse me," began Jorge. "But who are you?"
The soldier turned to the scientist.
-"Hypnos. Stalker."
-"Wow, I didn't know that the Sovereign already had a legion of you guys."
-"First one."
-"Oh."
The rest of the relatively short flight was done in silence. I suppose the Sovereign is taking them out for a test drive, thought Jorge to himself. Maybe he wants to see how successful he would be before training a whole squad of them. Then again... what could they possibly encounter at the place of a ruined, disabled machine?
The wyverns landed on the ground; everyone got off. In total, there was one Speargunner, two Vanguards, Jorge and Andre, and Hypnos. Old Kandarin looked nothing like it used to: the thick mist covering the island changed into dark brownish smoke. The once-majestic buildings were mostly reduced to ruin from the implosion at Jovil. The group proceeded through the ghostly streets, finally reaching the half-crushed palace. There it was... just near the entrance, there were clobbered pieces of a yellowish humanoid machine.
Andre was about to go directly towards it, as Hypnos stopped him with a hand motion.
-"Stop," he whispered. "Steps."
Neither Jorge nor Andre could hear any, but in a few seconds they saw a strange human-like creature crawl over the machine. The poor soul had most of its skin burnt off, but was somehow still lingering to life.
-"It's the air," hissed Jorge. "I bet that machine there also has something to do with this."
The mutated Kandarinian crawled somewhere inside the machine, coming out with a large circular object. The object was almost a meter in diameter, and was clearly made of either metal or stone - but the creature was carrying it in one arm.
-"Stay. I'll deal."
Before Jorge could object, the Stalker was already gone. Without as much as a rustle, Hypnos made his way up the citadel's wall using his kamas to climb it. His cloak seemed to mirror the surface under him, making him nearly invisible to a normal eye. Soon, he was so high up on the wall that the scientists completely lost sight of him.
Meanwhile, the mutant clawed the round object open. Massive cracks in it gave way, but it appeared as though the cracks were a part of the design - they would normally open mechanically. The device was glowing from within, its core visible through the cracks. The creature leaned close to it, sticking its hands in front of it, as if in front of a fire.
-"Look," muttered Jorge. "that thing's burning the ground, and the mutant is just sitting there!"
Indeed, the glow from the orb was melting the ground into a glass-like surface. The mutant didn't seem to mind.
Just then, Hypnos leaped off the wall. Like two black lightnings, the kamas struck the mutant's skull, immediately cracking it open. The Stalker jumped to his feet, and ran towards the scientsits' hideout. He dove towards the ground, striking it with his weapons for leverage, and projecting himself right into the pit. The kamas, attached by a chain to his hands, followed. The entire event happened in a mere three seconds.
-"Whoa," commented one of the Vanguards. "Why'd you run? It's clear, there's nobody else th-"
-"HUSH!"
With one swift motion, Hypnos pushed the entire group down to the ground. For a good reason, too. In a few seconds, the remains of the machine were covered with hissing and spitting mutants. A few of them began to rip apart the slain mutant and consume what was left of its flesh.
The Stalker's eyes thinned. Using his kamas in a similar maneuver that he just performed, he shot himself out of the pit. His foot struck a mutant's head, sending it flying right off. By the time it hit the ground, Hypnos already silenced four more mutants, striking his kamas into the neck of the fifth one. He somersaulted over his head, keeping the sickles lodged deeply in the creature's body - then forcing the whole mutant forward, propelling it at two more, who were still gnawing off the arm of the first mutant. The Stalker was moving so fast that few mutants noticed his presence at all, before it was too late. Finally, there was only one mutant left. This one was rather big, with most of his body still intact. Hypnos looked at him through squinted eyes. He let his kamas hang down freely from his hands, chained to his wrists. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then, in a matter of a quarter of a second, he unsheathed his hatchet. An eyeblink later, the mutant fell down headless. The hatchet returned back to Hypnos, attached by another, much smaller chain.
-"Clear now."
-
Alex had managed to make his way back into Asgarnia’s gates. Oddly enough, the Shroud seemed intent on keeping its promise to him.
“All right then,” he muttered to himself in a hushed tone. “The less often that happens, the better…if I don’t go looking for these guys, it’ll leave me alone, hopefully into the daytime, where I’m safe…”
It seemed easy enough to Alex. Lay low all night, and move out in the daytime, when the Shroud had no power. He first had to make amends with Midna, though, which would no doubt be no easy task.
For once, he could finally hear himself think without the Shroud’s constant chatter. It had been a good hour or so since it had said anything. For what sinister ideals it had, it at least had a good faith when it came to promises. For now, anyway.
He had to find Midna, but he had no idea where to look. No doubt she had traveled to the Twilight to tell the elders of the unfortunate news…regardless, she might be looking for him now.
The streets had finally recovered from the surprise attack earlier, most of the mess had been cleaned up, the spikes disposed of.
“Alex?” a feminine voice called out. He turned around, revealing it to be Ilia Savant.
“Oh, hello Ilia,” Alex greeted her with all the innocence he could muster, forcing recent events to the back of his mind.
“Isaac told me to come out here and ask you if you were okay,” she said. “He told me you were thinking about a lot. How do you feel?”
“Well, this isn’t the best I’ve felt in a while,” he replied, “but I’m pulling through however I can. I, uh, got into a little fight with a friend, and now I need to find her and apologize…”
“That’s unfortunate,” Ilia replied, trying to console him. “I’m sure she’ll understand what you have to say Alex. People say you have a heart of gold, you know.”
Then why does it feel like stone? He thought to himself.
“That’s an awfully generous thing to say,” he replied out loud, “considering what I’ve seen over the past few days…I can’t say amiability’s been on the top of my priorities.”
“The war’s taken a toll on all of us, some more than others,” she said, “and in different ways for different people. I hope you can work it out.”
“Thanks,” he muttered. “I hope so too.”
She began to walk back to the lab. “We’ll be in here, feel free to come back in whenever you like.” She left him alone once more.
A heart of gold. He wished that was what he had right now. Why did he want revenge in the first place? He wasn’t dead. None of his close friends were. Just a underlying grudge against Roth perhaps? Perhaps it was just the drive of helping out people in need, and right now, the Twili needed his help greatly.
He heaved a sigh. “I wish you were here,” he spoke softly. “I could explain everything.”
“I am here,” Midna replied, tapping him on the shoulder. “You’re a lot tougher than most, you know?”
“So I’ve been told,” Alex replied. “I just want to say sorry for what happened before. So far the Shroud’s been behaving kind of strangely. It offered me this night to myself if I didn’t go looking for Carmine.”
“That’s strange,” Midna mused. “It must sense your will is stronger than the last Twilight Warrior it possessed, and is probably not taking any risks. Has it said anything at all recently?”
“No, it’s been quiet,” Alex said. “At times I forget it’s even there.”
“You can bet though,” Midna kept on, “that whenever the going gets tough, it’ll rear its ugly head to protect you. It needs you to survive, Alex. It won’t allow you to die.”
“That’s probably the one good that comes from this,” he said. “That, and I can only manifest it in the dark. In the bright sun of tomorrow, it’ll be like it’s not even there…”
“That’s for the best,” Midna said. “That is, until Carmine and whatever tricks he has up his sleeve realize that and decide to attack during the day. Perhaps I was wrong, Alex…”
“How so?”
“Maybe you can be the one person to control the Shroud…maybe you can take it over, rather than the other way around. But it fears control. Eventually, it might be terrified to the point of departing entirely.”
“Something tells me that time is far off,” Alex said. “It seems adamant about being manifested by me whenever possible. It’s just a matter of trial and error I suppose, until I learn what actions set it off and what actions cause it to leave me alone, and right now, it’s working.”
“That’s great,” Midna replied. “Because you have to learn the Aura of the Juggernaut.”
“What about the elders?”
“They also believe you can take control of it, but are well aware what could happen if you fail…they haven’t given up on you, Alex. Know that much.”
“Good to know...” he muttered. “Now about this page…”
“Why did Kronos order everyone to learn this necromancy shit?” Sgt. Victor Sig complained as he rode one of three wyverns across the icy northern seas.
“They say that if everyone learns it,” Odessa explained, “it would make a better defense overall.”
“That’s bullshit,” he sneered. “Just because I control one little part out of a huge wall that’ll win us the war?”
“It’s not meant to be an individual effort,” Odessa tried to reason, “but as everyone does it, it’ll make an elaborate defense.”
“Bah…”
“Sir?” Corporal Les Grylls called to Carmine, who sat in front of him on the wyvern they rode, “how much further?”
“It should be another few miles or so before we make landfall in Vandrin,” Carmine explained. “From there we’ll make our way to Asgarnia, looking for Alex all the way.”
“Of course, sir.”
Carmine thought his mission through. It seemed easy enough, six men against one man and an imp. Even if Alex had Twili magic on his side, he could easily be overwhelmed by them. Unless Carmine was overlooking something…was he? It all seemed too easy. Surely Alex had some sort of secret weapon which he would whip out right when they got on the offensive. He must, it wouldn’t be like him otherwise. He prayed that his men would be ready for whatever trick Alex had to throw at them, but for all he knew, he was looking at a relatively easy mission…
…For all he knew.
-
//Retcon time. I keep forgetting to put "it", so I'm referring to Anti with "he" now. He still has no actual gender, but it's simpler this way.
He raised an eyebrow. Well... No he didn't. He doesn't have any. He was pretty impressed by the powerup. His power increased a bit... "...Dance? I prefer moshing." Within a few instants, Draven was right in front of him. Fast! Excellent! He barely brought his hand up in time to catch the punch, and as such, it was pushed back a bit. He attempted to return the favor in the same way with his free hand.
-
Druid stood in a fighting stance. He was still a little achy but he was better then before. The kinks will be ironed out during the fight. Two warriors walked into the field through the gate. Druid stood and watched the two grotesque figures. One was pale white and about seven or eight hundred pounds. He was around seven feet tall and carried a very large cleaver. He wore no armour but his skin looked like thick and would do just fine. The other was again around seven feet tall. He had gray skin and was wearing an intense style of armour. He wore a spiked helmet as well as a jet black chest plate and the same coloured armour for his legs. His hands held a circular device with three spikes sticking out. So far they both seemed like close up fighters so Druid would have no problems.
Druid started to summon a blast of shadow energy. Behind the two warriors a figure leaped over them towards Druid, kicking him in the chest. Druid flew backwards into the wall. Two hands phased through the wall grabbing his neck. The gray warrior in armour threw one of his spiked weapons at Druid. It hit him in the shoulder. Then the chain attached to the weapon started to pull the spike, with Druid attached, back to the warrior. He realized that this wasn’t the warrior’s weapons, they were his hands. Things were going badly for him so Druid needed a plan.
The pale fat warrior moved his blade back to go for the kill. Druid coated his arm in shadow energy and solidified it. As the fat warrior swung his blade downwards Druid lifted up the encrusted arm to block the shot. It was his only chance. The blade clashed against the arm but his arm was still one piece. Druid then exploded the casing sending shards at his attackers. The fat and gray warrior flinched to protect themselves. Druid then blasted the spike in his shoulder and it released. He shot an intense blast of shadow energy at the two propelling them backwards.
Druid turned to see the leaping man flying at him. He went to duck but the man flew right over top of him, knocking the phasing warrior down who had snuck up behind Druid. “I’m sorry for attacking you earlier my liege. Not all betrayed you during the rebellion. There are those who remained loyal to you. We try to help you return. I got into this battle to inform you of this and the fact that AHH!” One of the soldiers fired their weapon at the leaping man incinerating him.
“Dreadfully sorry about that. We tried to weed out all the whackos, but sometimes it’s hard. Please continue the fight.”
Druid looked back to the battle from Silas. The phasing warrior was right in front of Druid and punched him in the face. Druid stumbled back.
“Is that the only way you freaks can land a blow? Sucker punching me?! Every single battle some freak has done that. I am so tired of it!”
With that Druid fired a massive blast of shadow energy at the phase warrior ripping him apart at a cellular level. He was breathing very heavily now. One of the armoured warrior’s claws was flying at Druid. He saw it in time and caught it. He then sent a large pulse of shadow energy through the chain exploding the warrior. The fat warrior was charging towards Druid. He dived out of the way and the fat warrior missed. Druid spun around and fired a blast of shadow energy at him. The fat warrior’s skin cracked and burned but it didn’t stop him. Druid then summoned a circle of shadow energy around the warrior. Slowly the circle enclosed destroying the fat warrior. The battle ground was empty so Druid looked at Silas.
“Well, is that it?”
Silas cackled, “Why of course not, that was four. The fifth champion is my personal favourite. You met him earlier when he sent you crashing into the earth.” Silas pointed behind Druid.
Druid spun around to see him self standing there.
---
Over a mound Coriko saw Firstman waving him over. "YES!" Coriko was happy and ran over to meet his allies.
-
"It's good to see you Coriko." Firstman said. "But uh, Marshall and the other guy, Wilham had to go. Apparently Count Vandrin stole on of the tablets. Oh yeah, and he might have a connection to the defeat of the old Terianian Republic! But anyways, did anything interesting happen?" He then walked down the stairs back into the temple. "Come on, it's safer down here, some of my other buddies showed up."
--- ---
"I gonna need to take them head on, Ben." Duilin replied crossing his arms. "I made a promise to Ven that I'd look after the king while he was gone, so I've got to stay here."
"Good idea Duilin." Rink said. "You want me and Lagart to go get your weapons?"
"Sure." Duilin replied and the imp and the lizard men headed back to the castle. Duilin then looked at Ben. "So, since I'm apparently involved in this now, you suppose you could tell me a little more about what's going on? So some angels are pissed that you came down here without permission and now a war has started between the gods? How can this be, I thought Asgard was a Paradise that no wars happen in. Or are these gods from another place?"
-
"They aren't from Asgard. Oh no, they are from the dark reaches of the underworld. They've lived at peace for millenia, never intervening with human affairs directly. However, everyone knows I am a faithful servant of the patron god, Drannica. I believe you may have seen him once, when young Justinian the gepardi summoned him. All of the gods saw this as an act of Treason, and not just the gods of Asgard..."
Ben's mind was overflowing with the histories of the gods. His body was straining under all that knowledge. Letting it out felt good to him, as if he was teaching someone. He continued, "The gods of the underworld arose from the depths and challenged the gods, mainly Drannica. Umbranthose, however, did not take part in this attack. His mind was filled with reason more than foolishness. He is also Drannica's twin brother, and the patron god of the underworld. Those who are tracking me... us... aren't quite angels. They may appear to be, but they are indeed darkwings. They resemble angels, but they have the ability to kill..."
-
//Sorry if I haven't posted in a long time.
Elroy pulled himself up on a horse and was ready to ride. His great blade was sheathed, tucked away for now after killing many lizards and humans in the fighting from before. He hadn''t rode a horse since he was a lad, but he'd have to remember quick. It was sure to be a long ways up to the northern region of these lands...
-
Coriko followed Firstman down the stairs.
"Oh it is so good to see you too! Well, I killed the dragon but fell down into this valley and couldn't move cause a tree was stickign through it. Then this warlock named Druid ran into me. He was a merc for the Dark Empire. And he helped me out of the valley but then threatened to kill me in battle. Enough about me, how did you guys find out that the Count stole a tablet? And what do you mean a connection?"
---
“Like him? I knew we would meet again and I figured what better way to die then by your own hand.”
Druid knew it was just a copy of him but still it was scary. The figure fired a shot of light energy at Druid. This caught him off guard. Druid was thrown backwards into the coliseum wall. Druid’s chest burned from the blast and his shirt was on fire so he ripped it off. Druid saw his copy flinch when he saw the war torn chest.
The copy recovered and fired another blast of light energy at Druid. Druid dodged it and sent a blast back at the copy. The copy didn’t expect Druid to be so quick and the blast caught him in the gut. The copy bent forward and grabbed its stomach, Druid took advantage of this. He launched forward at the copy. He swung a fist down on the copy’s skull causing him to collapse. Druid peeled him out of the ground and placed his hand on the copy’s stomach blasting a hole right through the copy. The copy twitched and went limp. Druid tossed the lifeless body away and turned too looked at Silas.
“You of all people should know Silas a copy is never as good as the original.”
“What are you waiting for!!?!? Fire at him!!!”
All the guards lifted up their weapons to fire at Druid. They turned the same colour of Druid and disappeared. Then the guards opposite Silas started to be ripped apart like the phasing warrior. It went on either side back towards Silas until there was no one but them in the coliseum.
“You’re alone now Silas, I’m waiting.”
Druid then shot blasts of shadow energy at either side of the coliseum. The coliseum collapsed in form and returned to being earth and sand. Silas fell down and landed in a pile of sand. Druid grabbed Silas’s neck and lifted him up. He then delivered a devastating punch to Silas sending flying back several hundred feet. Druid launched after him.
-
With the trees continuing to smolder and the smoke continuing to block out any oxygen, Quadricentennial was starting to get dizzy. Very dizzy. "Is this how my life ends? Dying in the place I called home? The only place I call home? Then let it be. I rather die here than be forced to live outside into the world." The smoke was getting thicker and thicker. Nothing could survive with such so much smoke, and with the fire around him, it was a guaranteed death trap. He closed his eyes. There was nothing he could do. He then noticed something: he was not coughing or hacking. In fact, he wasn't even holding on to his breath for his last remaining ounce of oxygen. He got on his feet. He was still a bit dizzy but for some reason was still able to stay erect from the ground. "What is this? Why am I not dying?". The smoke which he thought was to kill him was entering his body. He was still alive but more so, he now had more strength than before. He felt vigor going through his body as if he consumed a magic potion that gave him even more strength. "The smoke does not harm me and now I possess new strength." His body felt like it was gaining new power. As if he could destroy the world if he wanted to. He wanted to see just how strong he was. He looked in front of him, a wall of dead black trees burning with fire. He lunged his fist at it and a giant explosion immense forth. The trees broke in millions of pieces and pieces flew of into the distance. Quad was surprised by this new yet strange power.
He continue to run on the path, avoiding the falling trees when all of a suddenly his foot got caught in something. He couldn't see because of the smoke but it dragged him to the floor. He had a quick glance and saw that it was a tree branch. The tree's were starting to become alive. Another branch grabbed him by the arm and another by the stomach. They held him still and tightly. They were planning to burn him along with them. Quad made a slicing motion but no good, his weapons attached to his shoes and gloves were melted. His weapons were no good so he decided to use his newly found powers and break free. He struggled to clutch his arms together to break off the branches that were clutching on him. He struggled very hard but it was starting to pay off for her heard cracks from the branches. Another tree grabbed hold of his neck. Now he was being chocked to death but he was not stopping from breaking off the branches holding him in bondage. With all his might, he garnered his strength and finally broke free from the branches on his arms, grabbed the one on his neck and broke it like a twig. The ones on his feet suddenly let go. He couldn't see well but he swore he then saw it run off. He got up and saw his arms, which were now big and bulgy. His entire body was now full of muscle. He was stronger than he ever imagined. His attention suddenly changed to the tree that was falling on him. He quickly grabbed a hold on it, pulled it out of the ground and tossed it. It was now obvious that the trees were trying to kill him, even if it meant sacrificing themselves. He had no time to question it. If they were seeking his death, he best to run off outside the forest.
-
Silas crashed into the ground tumbling backwards. When he stopped rolling backwards he looked up. He saw Druid arching upwards and the down towards him. A loud boom was heard and Druid rocketed down towards Silas. He rolled out of the way before Druid crashed into the ground. Silas flipped over and looked at where Druid hit the ground. He saw a small hole about a foot in diameter. Suddenly a massive explosion sent Silas flying backwards. He saw that where the hole was Druid stood, he had expanded the earth causing the explosion. Silas landed on his feet.
“You’re in trouble now!”
-
A Kandarinian scouting party was observing the area when they noticed a man mount a horse, with some difficulty. The party, consisting of four speargunners, one Vanguard and one bladesman, approached the person.
-"And who might you be?"
//That's you, Elder\
--- --- ---
-=Recovery and Repair Report=-
By Jorge Torstensenn
9:00 - The machine was successfully recovered from the old capital, and delivered safely back to Gros Morne.
9:20 - Pieces are sorted and labeled; the overall architecture seems somewhat similar to old Xim construction protocols.
10:30 - The machine is put together, though not responding to any outside stimulus. The overall appearance is humanoid, but with a distinctively canine head. There are also markings on the hull, purpose unknown at this time.
11:00 - After the removal of the left arm, attempted chanelling lifeforce through the two strange glass-like protrusions sticking out of the center part, where the bone is normally located. The appendage twitched.
13:30 - All parts confirmed to run on some sort of lifeforce. The round stone mechanism assumed to be some sort of a power source. At recovery, it appeared to be activated, but it shut down once we brought it to Gros Morne.
14:00 - Located input pipes in the orb in the form of seemingly disorganized cracks. Device confirmed to be able to fit the shape of anything placed inside it, despite its stone walls.
14:09 - Power source activated once a live prisoner was placed within. The prisoner was dissolved. Power source is now glowing slightly, and is placed back inside the main mechanism.
14:10 - The machine appeared to activate after the introduction of the working power source, and its markings are now filled with unidentified purple liquid.
17:00 - The mechanism just stands there. It still does not reply to any stimulus at all, shutting down occasionally. The problem was solved once a prisoner was thrown in every hour or so. There appears to be a part missing... Mechanism deactivated and taken apart again.
19:32 - Found empty space inside the cranial cavity. All of the glass connectors seem to end up in here eventually. Possibly a nerve center? Part assumed missing. Contacted the Scribe of Undeath to attempt to fix the problem by introducing undead flesh inside the mechanism and reactivating it.
20:04 - Though the machine still fails to display any intelligence, it occasionally moves its limbs at erratic periods. Flesh appears to react violently with the purple liquid, and infested the entire mechanism faster than it could be removed.
21:30 - The mechanism is exhibiting signs of dim intelligence. An inspection revealed that the intruding flesh continued to react and evolve, eventually growing into a brain of some sort. Small appendages discovered on the machine's back, just to the sides of a strange closed door. All attempts to open the said door failed.
22:00 - Many growths are found all around the holes in the machine's hull. The appendages at the back appear to be manifesting into... wings?
=== END OF REPORT ===
-
"Oh, well we got attacked by one of his mutants. Marshall and Wilham went on about some mumbo-jumbo about in the old republic somebody named Theodore Vandrin was making mutants and it just so happens that a few centuries later somebody with the same name is making the same mutants. Quite a strange coincidence 'eh?"
Firstman then motioned to the generic looking rebels that were with him. "Coriko, this is Edmundo, Bernie and Yuri. Guys this is Coriko."
The three men gave Coriko a generic nod.
"Anyways, so you said you met up with an imperial merc?" Firstman asked "He could be dangerous. We better not let him find the main hideout, or else we'd be in big trouble. What did he say?"
--- ---
"Lord Vandrin, the Kandarin troopers have arrived." The servant said entering Vandrin's room. The count was now in his armour, just sheathing his katanas.
"Excellent." Vandrin walked towards them and one of the vanguard came up to him. Vandrin went to shake his hand, but was left hanging. "Um, yes. I'll assume you'll do your best to help me, correct?"
"Whatever." The burly man replied. "Here, our Marshal has a note for you."
(Obviously, they couldn't have gotten the word that he's called Sovereign now, could they?)
Vandrin took the note and started reading it. "Okay, some of my most potent chemical...fair enough...What? At least five living lizard men?" He rolled back up the note and handed it to his servant. He looked at the vanguard. "I don't know if that can be done. These lizard men are five times stronger than the average warrior."
"Well, we aren't the average warrior and there are more than five of us. But we are only here to protect you, if you want us to help you with your mission then...it'll cost you a little extra."
"How much do you want?" Vandrin asked.
The Vanguard turned to the others and there was a few mumbling and then he turned back to the count. "Ten thousand for each lizard man captured, and one thousand extra for every man we loose."
Vandrin groaned. "How about seven thousand?" He asked.
The vanguard glared at him and cracked his knuckles. "You know, we could just say we found you dead. You want our help or not!?"
Vandrin's eyes shot up. "Okay, okay. Ten thousand it is! Are gold bars fine? They're worth 1000 each."
"Yeah. Alright, you boys ready?" The vanguard asked the others, who nodded back. The group then began to head back outside. "
"Wait. I'm coming along, I want a few of you to stay here and guard the castle."
"Fine, me and the other vanguards will stay."
Vandrin nodded. "Excellent. Now let us go." Vandrin along with the speargunners and bladesmen headed out...
-
They waited for the demon to leave before anything else was said.
"Rufokanno is not happy with this General," Helix muttered in a mocking tone, sticking his tongue out at the end.
"Shut up, Helix," came the larger Blade Knight, Anslem, from behind.
"What now?" Another asked.
Virmir began floating upwards.
"Now... we begin..."
----
"I take it you are also dissatisfied with the vulpines..."
Melface's voice came from behind the two. He stood balancing on the very edge of the plank of wood, as if he were there the whole time. Any hint of mockery in his tone was gone, instead replaced with a deep irritation also plain in his face. The nerve of those haughty foxes, casting them out in the ocean like this. Without even a ship! His arms were folded under his off-white cloak, which did not ruffle despite the sea breeze...
----
Ven jumped on one of the horses and began speeding away with the others. Being a knight, he was decently skilled on a horse. However the jagged mountainous terrain of Tjed offered little opportunity for riding, so it was not a major part of his profession. Holding out a gauntlet, he scooped up the black clad stranger and the two of them rode off.
"I suppose I should thank you," the stranger said.
"For what?" The silver knight asked.
"Well, you did save my life back there with the... fox-ghost-things and all..."
Ven waved his hand.
"Think nothing of it."
They rode on for a moment without saying anything. "Tell me your name, then."
"I already told--"
"Your real name. Come on now. You trust me with your life, but not your name?" Ven looked back to see the man grimace.
He contemplated for a moment before removing his shades, revealing them to be magnetic clip-ons that fit over his rectangular eyeglasses.
"Vincent," he said, "Vincent Elridge."
----
Grav's eyes widened and his teeth clenched. "One hundred?!" He imagined the Dark Emperor raising an eyebrow under that mask and his body incinerating into a thin goo if he made such a insane request.
"That's too bad..." He turned towards the door, waving his staff in the air. "To the dungeons with her!"
Four excessively large Lizard Men lumbered through the door just as Grav exited. He turned back at the last moment to flash a devilish grin at the cat-like woman...
----
Draven brought his hand up and caught the demon's punch in the same manner, a huge shock wave rippling through the air as a result. The thing seemed intent on copying his every move... He held the pose for a moment, pushing back against the demon's hands as their auras violently clashed and crackled. He tried to leer into his face, but considering he had none, it was less entertaining.
Suddenly the Crimson Emperor fell back, separating from his opponent and spinning around 360 degrees. He held his hands together, and at about the 180th degree, a blinding crimson blade burst forth from them. He continued the spin, bringing the burning sword down at the thing's neck from the left...
-
The wyverns set down in Vandrin, offloading the Scarlet Commission on their mission.
“So boss,” Cpl. Estacado spoke up in his gruff voice, “where to now?”
“It should only be a few hours’ walk from here to Asgarnia,” Carmine replied. “I have no doubt we’ll find him on the way there.”
“Gotcha,” he replied. Estacado was a KAF vanguard, which was formed up of only the physically strongest soldiers. Near-superhuman strength was needed to move in the heavy armor, as well as to carry and wield the KAF mortar, a massive explosive weapon which by itself weighed over fifty kilograms. When unarmed, a vanguard had no other weapon but his own two fists, which suited them just fine. Vanguard punches were bone-cracking, often killing a man punched in the chest.
As the group began down the road, it wasn’t long before military titles were dropped in small-talk, often referring to each other on a first-name basis. Hannibal Roth, however, refused to participate in conversation.
A while down the road, the group encountered a lone traveler who was coming from the direction of Asgarnia. Not taking a chance at missing an important lead, the commission decided to stop and ask him some questions.
“Excuse me, sir!” Carmine shouted to the traveler, who appeared to be a hiker. “Perhaps you could help us?”
“Depends,” the man replied, leaning on his walking stick. “What for?”
“We’re looking for someone. Take it easy, we’re not after you. We’re looking for a man by the name of ‘Alex.’ Maybe you’ve seen him? A tall, thin man, black hair, blue eyes? Wears a tan merchant coat?”
The man thought silently for a moment. “Well,” he started, “I did see someone fitting that description in the woods surrounding Asgarnia…he seemed to be confronting some guys that looked a lot like you…”
“That’s all the information we need, sir,” Carmine replied. “The Kandarinian Sovereignty thanks you.”
“Wait!” The man cried. “Are you considering taking him down? Because if you are, you’re in for a hell of a fight.”
Carmine stopped in his tracks. “What are you talking about, old man?”
“This’ll no doubt sound strange, but the guy looked like he had evil black tentacles coming out of his back, two of them appeared to be alive! Within moments he mauled those guys, they were nothing but bleeding corpses…”
Carmine thought for a moment. He didn’t remember that as part of Alex’s arsenal…maybe he had learned something new at the Nightshade temple? “Thanks for your help anyway, old man, we’ll take our chances anyway.”
“Better call your Kandie pals back home,” the old man called, continuing on his way, “tell ‘em to send body bags!”
Carmine ignored the man’s comment and waved to his group to keep going.
Odessa caught up with him. “Carmine, a word?”
“Shoot,” he replied.
“What if the old man is right, and Alex learned something new? I think I’ve heard of something like this before, and, needless to say, the casualties aren’t pretty…they say the last Twilight Warrior fell to this force because he couldn’t control it…”
“As long as we have something working against him,” Carmine went on, “it’ll make our job all the easier. Unload a few mortars on him and he’ll be as good as dead,” he finished confidently.
“If you say so…” Odessa replied worriedly.
“Alex….Alex! Wake up! You’re fine.”
He rubbed his head as Midna hovered over him. “And that’s what happens once you stop using the Aura.”
“Urgh…” He stood back up and shook his head. “Hardly seems like a decent tradeoff.”
“For a spell that offers you superhuman strength and near invincibility,” Midna explained, “I think it’s reasonable. Alex, these spell will allow you to shatter boulders by flicking them with your finger. Not only that, but the Shroud should be totally suppressed when you use it…”
Finally, the first bit of good news he had heard all night. As long as he was under the Aura’s influence, the Shroud had no control. Then again, Alex had little control over his Juggernaut anyway. The spell would cause him to fly into an uncontrollable rage, granting him strength beyond all belief, far surpassing even a KAF vanguard’s strength. As a tradeoff though, for however long he remained in Aura mode, once he powered down, he would slump into a comatose state. One hour of Juggernaut equaled one hour of coma once he powered down…he would have to remember that.
“You seem to have the Shroud situation under control,” Midna noticed. “Perhaps I underestimated your willpower…”
“Don’t think it’s all will,” he replied. “The Shroud’s left me alone for a while now. It said it would as long as I avoided going out looking for them…and I intend to stay right here.”
“Don’t you think you should get some rest?” Midna queried. “I can’t remember the last time you slept.”
“With all that’s happened,” Alex replied, “I haven’t been able to sleep soundly for days now. I remember when I used to live a carefree life up in Glacia…until that one day when I decided to come to Asgarnia in hopes of turning a profit. That’s when it all went to hell…”
“It all would have eventually,” Midna said. “Nothing could protect you from this, even if you wanted it to. You have a job to do, Alex…they chose you for a reason…”
“What great timing,” Alex scoffed. “I’ve got an army out looking for me, and let’s not forget manifesting a dark and malevolent force that wants to use me as a vessel for its own gains. Great, just great.”
“Oh, calm down,” Midna sighed. “Does it really feel that tough to deal with? I mean, as long as the Shroud leaves you alone, what have we got to worry about?”
“I’m worried when it’ll actually surface,” Alex replied, “and what’ll happen to me when it does…”
As Alex’s mind wandered, free of the Shroud for now, he could only form one thought...
In the silence of the darkness, I scramble for the light of day, but the journey never ends.
-
"Correct. I suspect they're hiding something." She replied to Melface. She motioned for Rufo to raise the wooden board a bit, so she could sit down without getting her legs in the water.
She sat down on the board and looked towards the island. "Earlier I questioned one of those Velkens about the demon lord. I even tried to be as kind as possible, but they wouldn't tell me anything. I think they're protecting him." She paused for a bit and stretched.
"I met this demon lord a couple days ago. Ever since I met him, I think we had an some sort of aura-bond, I can sense where he is and I can tell when he grows stronger or weaker." She paused and looked at the nightmare demon. "That's how I know he encountered you. You tried to consume his soul didn't you? Yet all that did was make his soul angry."
"That is also how I know for a FACT he is here. That spiky haired man with the moustache was not a real image, it was modified by one of those foxes. One, if not all of those Velkens apparently has a soft spot for this person and doesn't want him to be found. The Emperor himself wouldn't approve of this, but what can we do? We are only warriors; would he take my word over a High General's?"
She looked back towards the island. "I think I can tell you're not fond of these Velkens. But first I must ask, do you wish to help me obtain this demon lord?"
--- ---
Marshall and Wilham started to hear voices, one of them sounding like Vandrin.
"What are they saying?" Wilham asked.
"I think Kandarin warriors are here. In this building." Marshall said.
"So?"
"Well, before that wouldn't be much of a problem, but I've heard that lately the Kandarin Armed Forces have become a lot more skilled. They perhaps have the most skilled non-magic using human soldiers in the world."
Wilhams eyebrows rose. "Impressive. We should take caution then..."
-
Indher couldn't hold it. What started as a light chuckle soon burst into hysteric laughter.
"You... You intend to... throw me in...in the dungeon...?" She had hard time talking, with the laughter taking up most of her oxygen.
She then calmed down with a deep sigh. She was confident no confines can hold her.
"Hah! You would be wasting a cell and manpower. In any case, before you put yourself into an ebarassing situation by putting me in your dungeons, you could let me make the request before the dark emperor myself..."
She removed her circlet, her eyes regaining their true golden color.
"I'm sure he will understand if I explain the situation... In detail..."
-
"He didn't say much actually. He told me why he was in the valley and that was it really. He had an evil surrounding him like I have never seen. I am worried he'll become a great danger and threat to everyone very soon. I just hope we don't meet in battle because he called me out!" Coriko shuddered at the thought of fighting Druid. "So what now are we going to go meet up with Marshall and Wilham?"
---
Druid stood inside the earth. A small hole chiselled into the ground. He missed Silas and was about a few metres below the surface. Slowly Druid took a deep breath in. He then rapidly breathed out, thrusting his elbows into the surrounding dirt. It expanded with him rocketing outwards. Druid saw Silas get caught in the blast and fly backwards, and like expected he landed on his feet.
“Good he has his wits about him,” thought Druid “I was starting to think this would be over quickly. I want to make him suffer.”
“Took you long enough,” Druid yelled at Silas! “I was worried you were going to be a pushover. All those years my servants catered to you I was worried would soften you up.”
Druid launched himself forward to punch Silas. This time Silas was ready though. He slid out of the way and grabbed Druid’s neck and slammed him into the ground. Silas then started to punch Druid’s face repeatedly. Druid caught one of Silas fists and twisted it back. Silas screamed in pain and yanked his hand back and cradled it with other hand. Druid lifted up his legs and kicked Silas in the chest knocking him backwards. Druid then put his hand on the ground and summoned a pillar of shadow energy to hit Silas before he hit the ground. Silas was knocked up into the air. Druid then jumped up to the same height as Silas and kicked him in the chest send him flying backwards. Silas rolled and then leaped to his feet.
Druid then shot a blast of shadow energy at Silas, who ducked out of the way. Silas then melted into the ground. Druid tensed up preparing for an attack. Silas shot out of the ground in front of Druid upper cutting him. Druid was knocked backwards. Silas then summoned a blade of light energy.
“It ends here!” Silas plunged the blade down towards Druid. Druid moved his body so the blade avoided his heart, instead piercing him just above his right hip. He groaned loudly and grabbed Silas’s hands. Silas twisted the blade laughing maniacally. Druid gripped Silas’s hands which were on the hilt of the sword with one hand and moved the other hand down to where the blade entered his skin. With a swift motion Druid snapped the blade, leaving half the sword inside. Silas fell backwards in surprise. Druid stood up clutching the wound, towering overtop of Silas. Druid lifted up his foot and then slammed it down. A shockwave of shadow energy caused a ripple propelling Silas backwards.
Druid collapsed onto his knees. He coughed up some blood. Silas stood ready to attack. Druid looked up at Silas and smiled with his blood coated teeth. Silas was truly terrified at the moment and knew who would win the battle. Druid then shot a blast of shadow energy at Silas. It hit Silas in the shoulder knocking him backwards. This gave Druid enough time to stand up. Silas leaped up and fired a bolt of light energy at Druid, who returned fire.
The two bolts clashed fighting for supremacy. Silas started putting more force in his blast. Druid was tired from the previous fights and was running low on energy. He was also in a lot of pain cause of the light energy sword embedded in his shadow energy body. Silas started to walk forwards, forcing Druid to drop to his knees. Silas was almost right on top of Druid, the light energy completely encircling Druid. A boom was heard and Silas was propelled several feet backwards. He looked up and saw Druid had changed. He was completely encased in shadow energy, similar to his shadow warriors. The light energy blade embedded in Druid sparked and was crushed by the pressure of the shadow energy. Silas tried to crawl away. He even jumped up and started to run away in fear. Druid slowly walked towards it. Silas turned and started firing blasts of light energy at Druid but the darkness and intensity of the shadow energy just absorbed it and he kept walking. Druid stopped and stood in front of Silas, who was on his knees cowering.
A new and terrifying voice echoed out of Druid and it was nothing Silas had heard before. It was deep and seemed somewhat cosmic. “Silas Firesen, you have committed numerous acts of treason and heresy against the ruler of your world. You have raised a rebellion and banished him from his world without the authority of us, the Divinity Counsel.”
“Oh god, I thought the divinity counsel was an old myth told by our elders to keep us in line!”
“Silence, the Divinity Counsel is the all mighty court, overseer of all matters, the supreme judge and jury. We restore order to the original plan. Those who deviate feel our wrath. We have warned you before for the wrongful acts you have committed but you have ignored all of our warnings! You, Silas Firesen, have been found guilty of the criminal acts previously mentioned. Your punishment since you did not hold fast our previous warnings will receive the ultimate punishment, DEATH! First all your powers and abilities will be transferred to the victim of these acts. Participate in this un-intrusively and your death will be quick and painless. Hinder this process and you will incur a death only bestowed upon the ultimate criminals!"
“Yes, of course.”
Druid placed his hands on Silas’s head and his eyes seemed to have a black smoke emit from them. Silas screamed in pain as his energy was drained, but did not resist. As the power left Silas and entered into Druid, it was converted into shadow energy. This transfer gave Druid a significant increase in power. Once the transfer was complete Druid lifted his hands off Silas, who collapsed. Druid blew out a small cloud of shadow energy and smiled.
“Well thank you Silas. Your power will be a welcomed addition to my own.”
“But… but the Divinity Counsel... I heard them speak through you…they condemned me to death!”
“Oh don’t worry your still going to die, but I figured for all the inconvenience you have caused me I wanted restitution. And you wouldn’t have done it willingly unless there was something that benefited you. So I used those old myths from our world to scare you into doing it. Otherwise it would have been very cumbersome. Now to deal with you, Silas Firesen.”
Druid summoned a small amount of shadow energy to encase Silas. Silas then hovered up in the air and was stretched out by the shadow energy.
“Now, this may hurt just a little.”
Slowly at the tips of each limb Silas started to dissolve into the air. Screaming in agony Silas started to disappear into the air. Druid stood and watched the entire time, not taking his eyes of Silas once. He had waited a long time for this and would be a shame to look away now. Once Silas had completed dissolved into the air Druid turned around. Behind him he saw a group of about twenty individuals all bowing down to him.
“Aw, now this reminds me of home.”
-
"My lord, I'm sorry to disturb you, but lord Aaron has returned to Ariosis."
"I know."
"What? Aren't you going to send a strike force there, my lord? They could be on there way here as we speek! Would you like me to gather your army?"
"I did send a strike force. You were a part of it, don't you recall?"
"Yes, but you must send more men after him! He's gathered the riders from the south and plans to recapture the palace of the emperor! You must-"
"I MUST WHAT!? Shut you ignorant mouth, you idiot! I will kill him myself if he so much as swings a sword in my direction!"
"... Sir"
"WHAT!?"
"He's on his way here... I could assemble the army if you like..."
"Yes, yes, why don't you go ahead and send a few more forces after Aaron. It's only a matter of time before I get the chance to see him in person... as I sit in his throne! MEH!"
------------
The horselords brought their army across a few villages that were still loyal to Aaron and sent off soldiers as they passed by. His army grew and grew until he finally decided to make camp at Vol Duria, an elven city deep within the forest to the west, the forest of Nurngar. He lead the small party into the woods. Vol Duria is a bit of a walk...
-
The academy was nearing its completion. It was a vast building, located somewhat to the west of Gros Morne. It appeared to be of a coliseum-like structure: the actual building was surrounding an inner arena. The building itself had several mammoth bones sticking out of the ground in a claw-like fashion, supporting the rest of the stone and flesh. Many Kandarinians were putting the finishing touches on the structure, while the academy itself already began operating...
---
Jorge and Andre stepped back, with a full squad of Vanguards behind them.
-"You! Heed!"
The mighty machine finally stopped evolving. It had a pair of large fleshy wings, and small pieces of bone filling in every crack that the armour had in it before. Despite this, it appeared to move better than without the flesh infestation. Now it was just wandering around the lab aimlessly.
-"Creature! You are a Kandarinian war asset! Stop! We are your lords! You are under our control!"
The mechanism appeared to pay no heed to the scientists' preaching. It continued to move about, destroying much of the lab's equipment in the process. Jorge finally gave up screaming at the monolith.
-"Andre, I think it's a dead try. We need to put some intelligence inside there. That brain that it has grown doesn't do much other than body control. I don't think it can actually really comprehend anything..."
-"I guess we'll have to call the Scribe of Undeath back, then. Maybe there's some extra soul collecting dust in a soulstone, which we could use to control that..." He waved his hands. "That."
-"Good idea. Go ask her."
-
Taking large steps, Quad continue to run through thick, black smoke. He recognized the forest in his memory but thinking that the trees could move could jeopardize his memory. He continued to run, avoiding anything he could manage to make out through the thick smoke, which was no easy task. The trees made no noise themselves and the sounds of steps and creeks were drowned by the burning flames consuming the woods. Quadricentennial thought nothing of it and continued to run. It wouldn't be long before he reached the end and with his new strength, trees could be smashed down easily. He continued to run when suddenly the smoked cleared. He was outside of the forest. He looked backed and saw fire burning terribly the black forest Campaign. The trees were on fire but they continued to chase but were confused and could not find Quad. Yes, he was targeted just as the old man said. The trees were trying to kill him. Quad caught his breath and sat down, watching the trees thrash around in flames as if they were in eternal damnation.
-
//Drannic, did you forget to update Ben? Or are you just thinking of what to do with him?\
The vanguards were set up in the towers of Vandrin's castle. They would use their mortars at any lizard men that tried to get near the castle.
Meanwile Count Vandrin and the Kandarin soldiers exited the castle, and began to start hunting down lizard men.
"So they're needed alive. Luckily I have learned a sedative poison spell..." Vandrin said.
"Good for you." One of the speargunners retorted.
"You know, you could treat me with a little more respect!"
The speargunner smirked "I could now, couldn't I?"
---
Marshall and Wilham went up a set of stairs, when the got to the top, they could hear people speaking in the other room.
"So, uh these mortar guns, how strong are they?" One of the voices asked.
"Would you stop asking me that?" A deeper voice snapped back.
"Must be a servant and a Kandarin trooper." Marshall whispered. He then took out his MagiPistols. "I'll take care of them."
Marshall sneaked to the door way, he saw a large burly man, with some sort of big weapon. He aimed his magic pistol with the blue gem at him and fired. An ice shard then shot out and struck the burly man in the back. He yelped in pain and then turned around, angrily.
The servant then stepped backwards and shielded himself with his arms. "Please don't shoot me!"
The vanguard stomped towards Marshall. "You're gonna pay for that pipsqueak!" He growled.
Marshall aimed his guns at the big man, but he dashed towards him and grabbed his wrists, throwing off his aim and Marshall shot an ice shard and a fire ball at the roof. The vanguard pushed Marshall down on the floor, through the door way making Marshall drop his weapons.
The vanguard stepped through the door way laughing. He then noticed a man in a white robe, with two golden gauntlets. Wilham then dashed towards him and swung a punch at the vanguard's face, yet his fist was knocked off course by the vanguard's larger hand. With his other hand, Wilham swung an uppercut straight at the vanguards jaw, knocking him out cold and into the wall behind him.
Marshall got back up and picked up his weapons. "Tie him up." He said motioning to the vanguard. "And the servant too. I'll look around for the tablet."
--- ---
"Well, I'm not sure." Firstman said. "But it's either that or waiting here. The guys did bring some wyverns, however. We could ride them over to the Vandrin County, but it's a long trip. You up for it?"
-
He saw the incoming blade of fire, and brought... an arm up? Well, it wasn't an arm anymore. It had changed into a blade of sorts, and the energy looked to have become more dense in that area, while less dense in the rest of his body. It was sufficient to block the blow. "You're good... but I'm better." The hand he still had was pointed at Draven's torso, and it was used to fire a large energy blast at him.
-
"Hmmm, interesting..." The child-like demon put a hand to his chin. "So this Demon Lord's name is Duilin? I know for sure he has at least one other form-- that of a half human with wings... I suppose he would be able to blend in with the humans easily... Yes, I will help you. So long as his death is slow and painful..."
A maniacal glint glistened in his eyes.
"Now if those haughty foxes are conspiring with a Demon Lord not in the service of the Dark Empire, they may be organizing a rebellion... If we could uncover this ploy, then surely we will be rewarded beyond our wildest dreams..."
He turned to look at the island in the distance.
"We'll likely have to sneak back in... Problem is, the Velkens have sensitive noses... they'd be able to pick me up a mile away..."
----
"Looks like our werewolf friend has quite the connections," Vincent said as he dismounted, "we're amassing quite an army."
"A fair fight might be possible at this rate. Just the way I like it," Ven replied as he joined Vincent at the back of the party. It seemed they would be walking a bit through the forest. "So, why all the secrecy?"
"You're full of questions, aren't you...?" Vincent removed his glasses and gave them a quick cleaning with a cloth. "I was a general of the Crimson Empire."
"Really?" Ven seemed aghast."
"A colonel in the Dark Empire before that too, ironically."
"So... change of heart?"
"Not quite. You see, my latest alliance was with the Grey Empire. I turned traitor. Thousands of Crimsons died because of me."
Ven didn't say anything.
"Some... things... happened... and I found myself without a nation long after the Grey Empire fell... I fled to Tjed. I would have stayed there, had Draven not shown up again..."
"I see... the mighty Crimson Emperor returns... without an empire no less."
"I'm not sure if he knows what I've done, but I'm not going to take any chances. He doesn't take kindly to traitors..."
Ven frowned. "Well, then. I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I just thought you had something to fight for. Kinda depressing. Instead, you're just running away-- ... I apologize. That was rude of me."
"Think nothing of it."
Vincent's shoulder twitched. He gripped his arm. Blast it. He hoped it wasn't coming loose again...
----
"Oh... you think that's FUNNY, huh?" The short black robed lizard puffed himself up. "Beat her up first." He pointed at her with his staff. The four gigantic Lizard Men smiled, surrounding Indher and extending their claws.
"Why is there a disturbance in my dungeons?"
Everyone froze.
Grav's eyes went wide and he began shaking. He slowly turned.. craning his head to look at the massive shadow behind him.
"D-D-Dark-k-k...Em--Em--"
"If there are problems dealing with prisoners in a quiet and efficient manner," the Dark Emperor Retan boomed as his glowing red eyes narrowed, "then changes will be made."
Everyone bowed, groveling on the dirty floor at his sight.
"Who is this?" He demanded, looking straight into Indher's soul.
"A mighty summoner, my liege!" It was the skunk, Kelmar. He jumped up and bowed on one knee in front of the woman, spreading one arm to his side.
"She is capable of summoning demon gods from the underworld!" He said with dreamy eyes. "We've brought her here in your exhaled service!"
Grav's jaw dropped.
The Dark Emperor looked down at him.
"Who are you?"
The skunk flinched. "Captain Kelmar, ground scout 3rd class, Gaian divisiOOOONN!!"
He was suddenly sent flying through the air and slammed against the far wall.
"Do not approach me unless I give you permission."
His eyes shifted back to Indher...
----
Draven suddenly found himself blasted backwards, rocketing towards the ground. With a mighty heave he pushed the energy blast to the side, sending it careening into the ocean. Blast it!! Clenching his teeth he slashed the air in two with his burning blade, sending a crescent shaped wave of fire rocketing towards the demon. The energy blade grew as it distanced from him, becoming over fifteen feet long. As soon as the first was loosed, he brought the blade up and sent another... then another...
-
//To those whom it may concern: My computer has been struck down by the mighty Chernobyl virus, and my hard drive is officially slain. This being said, I won't be able to get onto MSN for the nearest few days, but my posting will be consistent - I can use my mom's laptop.\
Meanwhile, a squad of KAF was fending off the lizards at the gates of the Vandrin castle. Even though speargunners and Vanguards were doing quite well, and the lizardmen were forming a rather large pile in front of the gates, ammo was running thin. Several lizardmen managed to breach the defense, and kill a few unsuspecting Kandarinians by a stab in the back. The infiltrators were quickly put down, but it was clear that the defense would not be able to hold for long. In desperation, the commander of this particular regiment pulled out his M-Grid comm orb and targeted the Gros Morne citadel...
An image of him appeared in the middle of the subterranean bunker located beneath the main citadel, built for planning military attacks. Apparently, there was a council in progress - Kronos himself was present, as well as the two scribes, of Undeath and of Unlife. The commander also felt Damien lurking behind him. The Marshal was the first to speak.
-"Yes, of course it's alright for you to interrupt a meeting concerning the matters of life and death... heh. Life, death," he said, looking at his two scribes. "Anyways, I'd like to hear a good reason for interrupting your Sovereign."
-"Mar - er, Sovereign, we are under heavy attack here at Vandrin County. Request immediate assistance!"
The Sovereign appeared to smile a little.
-"I believe he's already there, commander."
-"HE?! My lord, we're getting overrun here! We can't hold out much longer! We need ammo and at least another squa-"
The commander's figure bent, as if from an explosion, and the image vanished. Kronos turned to Damien Roth.
-"The last field test, I suppose. I want to see how they fare with large amounts of enemies."
-"My lord," whispered Damien. His voice was audibly bitter. "That commander was right. No matter how powerful the Stalker might be, he is not made to take on armies."
-"Well... We'll just have to see what he does in an unknown situation then, won't we?"
--- --- ---
//by the way, this is just a small group, separate of the main reinforcement squad. Those guys are busy guarding Vandrin and the rest of the premises.\
The lizardmen were relentlessly pushing on forward. The defense squadron at the gate had lost at least half of their men, but they continued to fight. The speargunners whose quivers were now empty charged at the lizards, getting killed rather quickly, due to their ridiculously small wristblades compared to the lizardmen's swords. After finding their backpacks to be empty of ammo, Vanguards too ran into the frontline. Surprisingly, they were more successful than speargunners. Even unarmed, their brute strength surpassed that of lizardmen. However, they were substantially fewer, and soon most of them were gone, too.
And then, he arrived. At first, the Kandarinians saw some sort of a disorganization in the lizardman ranks. Then they saw what appeared to literally be a pathway being cut through the lizard army. At its frontline, they saw a wildly spinning whirlwind of flashing blades, half-masked by the chameleon cloak. When the flailing mass approached the walls to a distance of about ten meters, it stopped just long enough for the Kandarinians to see what it was. It was one sole man in a full-body cloak and two small scythe-like weapons...
Moments later, the Stalker performed his familiar move. He stuck his kamas into a burly lizard's shoulders, and threw himself up onto the wall, landing perfectly on his feet. His cloak was soaked with blood and the occasional chunk of misformed flesh. Baffled by their near-invisible enemy, the lizards backed away from the walls, giving the Kandarinian task force some space to breathe. The commander approached the Stalker.
-"Guh," he coughed. "Thanks. Are you the reinforcements... er, reinforcement?"
-"Yes."
-"I see...How did you get here? What exactly did you do?"
-"Wyvern. Kill their lieutenant."
The commander gasped.
-"What? A lizardman lieutenant?!"
Every single soldier, be it Vanguard, speargunner or bladesman, always failed in a battle against a lizardman lieutenant. These have been known to take ten people on at a time... and win.
-"Yes. Seventy-six lizards dead."
-"You counted...?"
-"Yes."
The tired Kandarinian sighed.
-"Well, at least they'll back off for now, without their commanding unit..."
-"No. They'll send another one."
-"That will take some time, though."
The Stalker leaned to the wall, bending over it slightly.
-"Cut the head off the snake, and the body flails around, all crazed-like. Watch."
The lizards, managing not to break ranks, charged at the castle. Fortunately for the defenders, another squad just fended off their share of lizardmen, and came to help.
-"Well, now we can hold our own ground... Hey, I didn't catch your name, by the way --"
The Stalker was already gone.
-
Indher did not move. She didn't even fully turn towards the dark emperor, but rather only turned her head, keeping her eyes focused on the bright red inside his helmet.
So... This is Retan... The dark emperor...
She remained in her position, moreso not knowing how to react than fear.
Indeed, just being in his presence, I can feel his power... But... Is it really enough to put down a god of death...?
A sparkle of doubt became visible as she kept staring at the dark emperor, waiting for him to ask her something...
-
//Chernobyl virus? Your computer has a nuclear reactor? Razz Anyway, that sucks. Your HDD is completely gone, or were you able to salvage anything at all?\
The impending confrontation drew ever closer. Confronted by the Kandarinian Sovereignty on one side, and the Shroud on the other, Alex felt like he had it all to lose…
Sitting on one of the benches under a gaslight, Alex pondered his next move. While he wanted to remain here until morning, he felt Carmine and whatever force he had at his disposal would reach him long before. Now that Alex had a new Twili weapon to use, hopefully he could fight both Carmine and the Shroud with it…
It was a moonless night, allowing the stars to prevail, but even the thousands upon thousands of stars in the sky could not drape the land in the ghostly blue aura a full moon could. All the better for the Shroud. Morning was still countless hours away, and waiting for it seemed like an eternity and a half.
Alex could admit to himself, but no one else, that he was scared out of his skull. He tried to allay his fears by saying he had fought hundreds of Kandies before, but never something like the Shroud. But then again, he had only heard what everyone had told him to avoid…by suppressing the Shroud, it would become far more zealous to gain control. If Alex could bait the Shroud little by little, maybe he could beat it, and ultimately, master it. It didn’t come without risk though. Give too much and the Shroud could take it all from him.
You are troubled…you fear my mastery of your body? Perhaps your fears are mistaken…you would not have accepted me unless you wanted something to gain, correct? Perhaps you have more to gain than you believe… The last Bearer was of a dark faith…he was not pure…he was an easy vessel to corrupt…he was selfish. My observations tell me you are his polar opposite…perhaps some good can come of this. If you can prove yourself a capable host, I will be at your mercy without objection. Fail however, and pay the price. This is your test. Are you afraid of the dark?
Alex couldn’t help but consider what it was saying, despite his feelings of it telling him what he wanted to hear. Would it lie to protect itself?
Do you not trust me? You forge alliances on trust, and enemies on paranoia. Fear me, and I will betray you. Accept me, and I shall be your greatest ally. Everyone must overcome their fears sooner or later…your time is now.
Why did it sound so sincere coming from such a sinister entity?
Fear leads to corruption. Corruption leads to defeat. Defeat leads to suffering. Do you want to suffer? No one wants to suffer. Then why do you resist this gift? This power can be either a curse or a blessing, it is what you want it to be. The last Bearer wanted it to be a curse, and so it became. You are a clean slate, however. If you wish for it to be a gift, so shall it be. For it to be a gift, you cannot suppress it. Suppressing leads to cursing, and cursing leads to fear. Fear leads to corruption, corruption to defeat, and defeat to suffering. It is what you want it to be. What do you want it to be?
He could only whisper, “a gift…”
You are of pure faith and heart. You are the true Bearer of the Shroud. I am at your control, your mercy. I am your sword to wield. Overcoming a fear is the greatest trial of man, and the sole reason to live. You have overcome your fear. You have passed my test.
Just like that, a demonic tentacle, willed by Alex, impaled the gaslight above, draping him in darkness. The Shroud emerged, snapped at the air, hungry for vengeance fueled by Alex’s burning passion. He was in control. He had succeeded where the last Bearer had failed. He had turned the Shroud from a curse into a weapon. As soon as it had emerged, Alex thrust it back, the Shroud willingly obeying his commands. As the it slunk back, he smirked. Carmine was in for it now.
“Alex?” Midna asked him, who had just return from elsewhere, “Are you okay now? Why are you smiling?”
“I did it,” Alex replied, his voice quavering. “It submitted to me. It wants me to control it.”
“I can’t believe it,” Midna said, shocked. “No one’s succeeded in that venture before. Now that it’s yours to command, there’s no telling what could be done with it. You know, Alex, maybe you gave it its own test, too. It wanted you to overcome your fear of it, but you forced it to overcome its fear of your control over it first. Since the overcoming was mutual, peace has been reached. It’s at your command now. Use it as a weapon.”
“I intend to,” Alex replied. “But what about the Aura of the Juggernaut?”
“It was only intended as a last resort,” Midna replied. “The Shroud feeds on the darkness, and won’t be able to help you in bright light. Incidentally, Twili magic is partially fueled by light, partially by darkness. It could save your life.”
“You might wanna relay this to the elders,” Alex replied, “and tell them they were right to have never given up on me. I owe them a thanks.”
“Will do,” Midna replied, readying another portal. “Will you stay here?”
“I’ve gotta be ready for whatever tricks Carmine has,” Alex said. “I’m sure they’ll understand.”
“I do, anyway,” Midna replied, disappearing through the portal.
Once again alone, Alex opened his mind to what the Shroud had to say.
Only a matter of time before those who have wronged you are shown justice…you are the judge, Alex, and it is time to hear the appeals.
Carmine sniffed the air. It was growing more humid. Asgarnia couldn’t be too far now. As he walked, Adam Estacado walked by his side.
Vanguards were a soldier to admire, at least in Carmine’s eyes. It took a special kind of strength to be as effective as they were expected to be. The equipment, designed specifically for Vanguard use, was incomprehensively heavy. He figured the mortar and armor combined weighed over a hundred kilos. Even though Vanguards had no speargun or wrist blades as backup weapons, brute force was often a Vanguard’s greatest weapon. Otherwise rendered useless to a speargunner, a Vanguard could use the mortar cannon as a bone-shattering bludgeon once drained of power. They were not to be taken lightly. Most Vanguards however, lacked tactical intelligence that other, specially trained soldiers had. Estacado was a different case however, he was as bright as an Asgarnian gaslight, often targeting key parts of a large target to destroy first, so as to make the fight easier for his allies. Carmine liked him, and believed him to be a valuable asset.
Finally, Asgarnia could be seen as dim splotches of light on the horizon, far down the forested path. The spire however, made an excellent landmark. They couldn’t have been further than ten miles from the city now. Finally, Carmine would have the chance to give Alex what he deserved.
But Alex knew what Carmine deserved.
-
A squad of five Lizard men were hunting around for some mutants and humans, when the came across Vandrin and the KAF Troops.
Vandrin grinned. "How convenient."
The spear gunners aimed their weapons.
"Try not kill them." Vandrin commanded.
"We'll do what we can." One of the spear gunners said, with some reluctance.
Vandrin's hands were then surrounded in a cyan fog which then began to surround his swords, the count then dashed towards the lizard men.
"Hey! Over here, cretins!" Vandrin shouted to get their attention; the lizard men dashed towards the count, and were then hailed by a barrage of spears, stabbing in their limbs and legs. However that wasn't nearly enough to take them down, except the count swung his blades shooting a misty cyan projectile at one of the lizard men. The projectile was a dead on hit, as the mist settled the lizard man was knocked out cold. The cyan mists around Vandrin’s weapons were gone and the other four lizard men surrounded the count.
"You ready to die, human!?" One of the lizards hissed.
"Help me you fools! You want to get paid don't you!?" Vandrin shouted.
Eight of the bladesmen nodded at each other and dashed towards the lizard men jumping up on them and stabbing them. A few bladesmen were thrown off and stabbed before they could finish their kill however, the lizard men were so strong only two of them were killed and only three bladesmen survived after the heat of the action was done. The two remaining lizard men and the living bladesmens and the count sized at each other and circled. Vandrin spun his katanas.
"Come on you scaled freaks." Vandrin taunted, he stepped towards them. One of the lizard men chose to engaged the old man, and smashed down his huge broadsword, the agile count however rolled out of the way and tossed his katana right into the lizard's right arm joint. The lizard squealed in pain. Vandrin dashed towards the injured monster and jumped into the air reading to jab his sword into his neck, yet with his good arm the lizard man smacked the count back to the ground.
"Why you..." Vandrin growled as he got back up, the other lizard men went to attack him, but the injured one lifted up his hand motioning him to stop.
"He'ss mine!" He hissed with his lizard voice. The lizard man removed the katana from his arm, grimaceing as he plucked it out, he tossed the weapon on the ground. He then held his sword with his left hand. "Time to die!" He hissed he then dashed towards the count ready to slam his sword down on him, yet the count slid towards him, rather then roll away until he was right underneath him, he then jabbed his sword right into the creature's belly. The lizard man gargled and fell over to his right as the count got back up. The other lizard man was shocked as were the bladesmen.
"This old guy's good..."
//I'll update the others later.\
-
// I'm waiting for you to reply to what he said, DM! FTW!
Aaron and his party ventured deep into the forest. They finally came upon a larger path made of quality stone, most of which none have ever seen before. Up ahead of the path were great wooden gates, surrounded by a marble building and silver walls with crystal walls.
"Well, here we are! Vol Duria... I need to see an old friend of mine before we retake the Palace. Come on in, I'll show you around." The great city within the forest held a sense of magic beyond any other. One who had no magical power could even feel a sense of a magical charge in the air. There were Drannivolkan knights weilding and practicing with Dai-katanas, along with the native elves.
"Aaron? By the gods, it is you! How've you been all these years, you old sod?" A abnormally large elf came out of the marble building behind them and greated Aaron.
"Anaxese! I'm surprised to see you still drawing breath!"
"The Dark Empire's hounds keep trying my friend. Who'd you upset to get sent so far from home?"
"Well, some one had to help all of us put an end to this... Anyways, I'd like you to meet the newly founded Arios Royal Guard. My good friends, these people behind me, are from all the way up north, to Tjed! Justin and Jason hail from the arctic continent even!"
"By Dran, such a far away place... Well, how's about you come on down and take a look at the elven army I've been training! We've even been the host of the Drannivillian Elite! They've made quite an improvement to my army."
"So that's what's going on with all of the Drannivolkans training those elves... I'll assume they've come to help drive out the Dark Empire?"
"Yup. I hope with our combined strength, we'll be able to defeat the Dark Empire's army here, and drive them back. I've gathered 10,000 elves from the neighboring forest villages and cities. They've all come to the great city to gather up for an attack. I've also counted heads of the Drannivillian Elite, which is 5,000 more good soldiers, men and women alike! They've all come to fight for they're empire, and now that you're here, their morale will be ten times stronger!"
"That's the best news I've heard since I got here. Job well done Anaxese... I'd like you to meet my own elites! Justinian Constantine, Jason Tiberius, Doriana, Dranniconias, Thomas Jacobie, Elroy, Ven, and uhh... another lad we picked up. He's an alchemist, though, and a good one at that."
"Alchemist? Never thought alchemy was real. Alright then, make yourselves at home! There's a great manor up the road that you can all stay in for now. I fixed it up a few days ago, looking to sell it soon. But now that you guys are here, you need it more. Enjoy your stay in Vol Duria!"
-
//I could have sworn that I already replied to that. Sorry.\
"Interesting." Duilin replied. "So are all the gods involved in this? Like the ruling dark god of hell, Iban and the ones from Mount Olympus? I actually had an angel friend from Olympus."
He paced back and forth for a bit. "Anyways, we need to find these fake angels and take them down. If they're looking for you, then it would be best to perhaps both stay here and maybe find some secluded area, so no innocents get harmed. Perhaps we could wait for them to come and get you, in the castle court yard."
Lagart and Rink came back, Lagart was actually carrying both The Iduran and the Talonscar Mace, and he handed both of the weapons to Duilin. The Iduran was still in its sheath and belt so he simply strapped it around his waist; he then held the mace by the handle and right under the blades.
"So, what's the plan?" Rink asked.
"I'm suggesting we go to the castle courtyard and wait for these false angels to try and attack Ben, again. Then we take them head on." Duilin then looked at Ben. "You think that will work?"
--- ---
//Blast it! I have too many characters!\
Ophelia nodded. "Yes, however I do have my friend Rufokanno here." She said. "He is skilled in telekinesis, and can block out people from sensing his aura. However he has told me, his aura block doesn't work all of the time."
Rufokanno shrugged.
"Luckily, Rufokanno isn't officially part of the Dark Empire." Ophelia added. "Therefore neither of us would be in any danger, if he was caught."
"What about Rufokanno?" You-know-who asked.
"You would likely be killed on the spot." Ophelia replied.
The elf replied with a frown.
She continued to talk to Melface "And there is also the matter of Rufo sneaking into Tjedon, and even getting in. Not very many people can get in. I suppose he could fly over the mountains, but then he would easily get spotted out by the Velkens. However...I may actually be able to cast an invisibly spell on him. My old master taught me, but I've never tried it before. Yet even if I did try that, would he even be to get Duilin out."
"Now before we try anything I want you to know one thing first. I want to talk to Duilin, before we kill him." She said sternly. "There is something I need to know from him."
-
//for more information about what exactly is the "unlife" and the two scribes, look up unlife on DALpedia.\
"The council was once again assembled.
-"I think that Stalkers will be an excellent addition to the Kandarinian Armed Forces. They could be used for stealth missions quite perfectly," I said. "The new twist that you added, Damien, at the end of the Stalker training program will help us weed out the unsuccessful attempts. I think that even though the success rate is less than two percent, the end product justifies the means."
Cain Ryleh, the Scribe of Unlife, objected:
-"The costs are enormous, my lord. Stalkers won't make us money - just enemies. Besides, they cannot down a large creature, which would be good for precious unlife. In fact, they can't kill significantly large amounts of enemies either, as they work alone. They are a resource drain with no up-side."
-"What about countries?", parried Damien. "I mean, we can use Stalkers to eliminate targets of importance and weakness. As even you yourself know, Cain, if you strike something in the weak spots long enough, it will collapse. Our target will be ripe for the taking. That's where we'll get your money and your resources from. As for unlife... We can just perform a mass sacrifice of the still-alive inhabitants, can we not?"
-"And besides," the Scribe of Undeath cut in. "A war will have losses on both sides. My lord's power can easily turn those losses into gains."
That's the kind of comment that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
-"Now, now, Eve, calm down. I didn't appoint you to be the Scribe of Undeath to be sucking up to me. It is a known fact that I make life where there is death, and you don't need to point that out. I think that no matter how you look at it, we can all agree that the benefits from Stalkers greatly outweigh the resources spent on making them."
There was a quiet murmur of "yes, Sovereign."
-"Therefore, I announce the Kandarinian Armed Forces Academy's Stalker training program officially open. Now, next item." I scanned the scroll I was holding in my hands. "Ah, yes. The KAF itself. We are in a dire need of raw recruits. Our current population of eight thousand people is barely, if at all, cutting it. We must find a source of fresh meat for the Academy."
Of course, when it came to KAF matters, Damien got the first voice.
-"My lord, we can try another attempt at taking over Gaian. We can start out small, recapturing random villages and settlements. I mean, so what if it takes us 20 or more posts to do? The benefits are endless. Once we've gathered a sufficiently large mass of slaves, we can start training them to fight for us. Of course, there's also the matter of large cities... When our army is vast, we will rule the old capitals of the world. Resources will no longer be a problem. I vote for."
-"I can see income and real estate. I vote for," announced Cain.
-"I can see potential for minions, as well as more people for our cause, I vote for," said Eve.
-"And I can see my advisers ganging up on me. I don't see how I have much of a choice... So be it. Let this be known as Operation Dawnbreak. We will build and hone our army, and Gaian will be ours again. This council is now dismissed."
--- ---
-"The Scribe herself couldn't come up, because she's in a council right now. Her assistant did, however gave me this soulstone. No one knows whose soul is in it, so it was free for the taking. Here you go."
Andre took the little purplish-black gem, and looked at it through his glasses. He could see a dark mass swirling inside.
-"In-te-re-sting... I'll take it," he said. "We'll have to send her our thanks sometime."
Jorge returned to his position.
-"Anyways," he began. "Did you make any progress?"
Andre scratched his head.
-"Well, not much. You see how it's barely moving now?" - Jorge nodded. - "That's because we took out the power source. It kept overturning my table, I think just out of spite. I told you, no intelligence. Even then, though, the flesh still appears to ripple every now and then. I suppose it stores energy."
-"Alright. So now, do we just... kinda shove the soulstone somewhere in there?"
-"I actually think that will do it. The soulstone matter should react with the flesh, and, specifically, the brain, and release its contents inside. The soul will find its way to the brain itself."
-"Well, in it goes... then we can ask it who it is!"
-"Good idea."
The scientists opened the cranial case of the barely-moving machine, and carefully inserted the soulstone in between the two hemispheres of the brain. The little gem appeared to glow a deep purple. Quickly, as to not damage the fragile organ, the scientists closed the cranial case and sealed it to prevent further attempts to open it. Slowly, they placed the power source back into the belly of the beast, so to speak. The hatch to the machine's innards closed by itself, as the orb powered up from the flesh surrounding it. The dark red eyes slowly lit up.
-"Beware...", came a deep, raspy voice from inside the machine. "I live..."
-"Uh, sir, who would you be?"
The machine's head slowly turned with a grinding noise.
-"I am... Skorn..."
//hint: look up "skorn" Wink \
-
Quadricentennial stood up. He looked at his massive arms filled with muscle that were not there before. "How did this happen?" His muscles were very large and strong. He was trying to make sense of it all but could not figure how this happened. Suddenly he felt his muscles twitching. They then started to shrink, from the arms to to the legs, his chest, neck and torso. His body soon went back to his old self. Once more he was confused at what happened. "What is going on?".
The trees were now lying on the ground, all smoldering and decaying. The black ash spilled the ground. Nothing had survived. It was all pitch black. Quadricentennial did not know whoat to make of this. It looked like his life was starting to take a new turn. He looked up in the sky. His owls managed to escape the inferno and returned to him. "I guess we have no choice but go somewhere else." He got off the now black plain and headed for somewhere else. He then spotted the green sword that was on the floor. His helmets that he collected are now melted and gone. He had nothing for his collection so he decided to take the green sword. He picked it up but it was not heavy as it was before. Another strange occurance. He put it on his back and headed down a road.,
-
(DM knows what I'm talking about. Heh...)
Melface nodded, then smirked.
"The caves... I followed them in once. Had a few meals in the city..." He licked his lips. "I'm sure I could remember the way back..."
He held his cloak open, as if preparing a bow.
"If you can ensure my scent is masked, I can disguise your physical appearances..."
He then finished the bow. And after doing so, a tiny off-white colored bat stood in his place, striking the same pose.
"... if you don't mind being animals," he finished, speaking into their minds.
----
A black shrouded figure was slowly making his way to the caves.
"Who's that?"
"A kid?"
"Or a midget. Hey, you! Halt!"
The two Tjedian guards took a few steps down the path to approach the figure. A half dozen more waited at the mouth of the cave.
The short figure was draped entirely in black, a hood covering his face. On his back was strapped an ornate sword, a tad large for his size. In his left hand he also was carrying a much longer thin sword by the sheath.
"Hey kid, it's dangerous here. You should--"
The guards stopped about five feet away when they saw the black nose sticking out of the hood.
"Who are you?"
The figure didn't say anything, but angled his chin up a bit, allowing the sunlight to sneak in, reflecting off of his cold, hazel eyes. The hood pressed against Virmir's ears, making them seem like pointed horns underneath the cloth.
The guards put their hands on their sword hilts.
Sliver blurs fell from the sky. All of them died in but a few seconds.
Virmir threw the hood back, then walked around the corpses.
And sighed.
----
"Vincent," the alchemist nodded at the large elf. "A pleasure." He had the detached air of one who'd met with important figures all his life and was no longer impressed with them.
"Are you okay? You're really sweating a lot. Hurt your arm?" Ven asked softly into the black-coated alchemist's ear.
Vincent blinked at Ven and then wiped the sweat from his brow. He was looking fairly pasty.
"Quite all right," he replied. He then unbuttoned the top of his coat and removed a small tube. He opened the top and poured a few white pills into his hand, which he promptly swallowed. "Though, I could use a break. The manor is this way?"
A random Drannivolka pointed down the road, and Vincent politely nodded in thanks. He quickly scuffled off, with a bit of a limp.
Ven shrugged. Probably had to use the restroom.
The silver knight took the time to glance around at the magnificent forested city. The crystalline walls were particularly striking. There were more of the feline people here, along with a good deal of elves. He'd had experience fighting along side non-humans before, but he'd never been in an army in which humans were the minority. How differently would they fight? He smiled in anticipation, almost looking forward to the battle...
----
The Dark Emperor took a few slow steps towards the girl.
"What is it that you can contribute to my already invincible forces? What can you pull from the depths of the abyss that my servants have yet to produce? Tell me how you will impress me, and perhaps in my boundless generosity, I will allow you to serve..."
-
Indher now fully turned towards Retan. Eventualy she ceased focusing on his crimson eyes and closed hers, lower her head as she sighs.
"I have discovered... The god of death."
A shudder run through her body as she said it.
"It is a being which, from what I understand, absorbed the power of all dying souls during their journey to the afterlife since the dawn of Gaian. As invincible as your army is, this being is so powerful it could probably wipe it all out on it's own and still have enough power left to remove the dark continent from the face of the planet. I was obnoxious when I tried to summon him on my own... It drained my power to the point I collapsed."
She raised her head, looking back at the emperor.
"If, however, I am to recieve enough aid in the form of magical energy, I would certainly be able to summon him. All that would remain is for the way to subdue it into the Dark Empire's service, and that is one thing I do not have a solution for."
-
"There's that blue tan again in a fire. What the HELL??? Why is the fire behaving like this here, in the Arctic region? I have GOT to find time to find out about this..."
--- --- ---
-"I'm sorry, who?"
Andre encountered the name before, but he could not bring himself to remember who exactly it was. For now, the machine works - that's the most important thing.
-"Do not worry about that now. Where did you put me? Where is my soulstone?"
-"You, sir, are inside of a large machine that we found in Old Kandarin."
-"A machine..." Skorn was inspecting his limbs once the sense of the sentence fully got to him. "Are we no longer in Kandarin? Are you not one of the Sovereignty?"
-"We are, sir. Old Kandarin was severely damaged, and we fled here, to the Arctic Region."
Skorn paced around a little, making his first attempt to walk in his new body. He noticed his wings, probably due to their weight on his back, and flapped them a little.
-"Arctic Region... What generation is the current Marshal?"
-"Seventh. He is now called Sovereign."
-"Sovereign... Sovereignty... Why didn't I think of that?"
-"That is what he said, too, sir. Could you tell us now who exactly you are?"
The mechanism let out what sounded to be a sigh.
-"I suppose they don't teach you your history, then... I created the Sovereignty."
Jorge slapped his head.
-"Oh, you're that Skorn!"
The lack of respect towards Skorn seemed to pass him by completely. He appeared to be completely apathetic to anything but his new body.
-"I knew preserving my soul within a shard of dark glass was a good idea. I sense more of the glass within this creature. It is spread all across my body... but the most of it is in my back."
The circular hatch on the mechanism's back opened. Jorge and Andre gasped in unison, as they could not open that very hatch every time they tried. A broken-off stump of the dark glass cannon showed itself from within the creature's depths.
-"I can feel the energy from all over my body poised to be channeled into that rod upon my back. I think I'll try it..."
-"Sir, don't! It seems to be chipped off. We must first repair your new body fully before you can start to use it to its full potential."
-"Very well. Repair me."
The mechanism lay down on the floor, and shut itself off. Skorn was asleep.
-
The great manor was now fully in view. It was all pure silver with crystaline shards poking out, and chrystal windows with golden trimming. It was amazingly large as well. It held four bedrooms with three beds per room. It's grand hall was especially spectacular with two grand stairways leading up to the bedrooms. It had a training area to the right, and a kitchen and dining area to the left.
"I can't believe Anaxese would let us use this! We'll, I bet you all would like a bit of shut eye. Tomorrow, we'll plan our attack. Oh, there should be some food in the kitchen, if anyone's hungry, along with some meds in the training area." Aaron couldn't hold his stance for much longer. He headed upstairs and ploped down, falling asleep immediately.
------------
"They won't likely attack me if I'm in the castle courtyard... too many people. It's worth a shot, though. I'll follow your lead, then." Ben waited for Duilin to go, standing right behind.
------------
-
//Uh, Drannic you're talking about 'tomorrow' when really in the DAL universe right now, the day actually just started, and it's assumed to be a chapter lasts 'a day'. Just thought I'd clear that up.\
"Well, it's pretty early. So not a lot of people would be out." Duilin replied. //I'm assuming it's like sunrise right now, correct?\
The group then headed to the courtyard of the castle; there was a statue of the king in the middle of a grassy yard, with four stone paths connecting to it.
"It's pretty nice here." Rink said.
Lagart nodded. "Tjed is so pretty." He said, giving a lizard-like smile.
"Well, hopefully we can keep it that way. I've got a bad feeling that we'll have to deal with a lot more than just evil fake angels." Duilin said to the group.
--- ---
"No...I don't mind." Ophelia answered.
"Make Rufokanno a wolf. Rufo's tribe loved red wolf...." Rufokanno stated.
"So, Rufo, you're sure you'll be able to block them from sensing us." Ophelia asked, trying to reinsure.
"Yes. Use telekinetic shield, blocks mostly anything. Yet warn you, shield may flicker, or even ware off in worst case. But if we quick, they no detect us." Rufokanno replied.
//If you didn't get that, because of his terrible English, he said that he creates telekinetic shields that blocks stuff, including people trying to sense out auras. But it isn't perfect, as it might 'flicker', or ware off.\
-
//Graduation party kept me away from here.
Anti quickly caught onto Draven's shenanigans, and started to fly around Draven, in a spiral. Starting far away, he would slowly close the distance as he circled around. As he flew, he started to rapid-fire small energy blasts towards the man in the center of his spiral.
-
The other lizard man glared at the count and then lifted his weapon and ran towards him. Vandrin then raised his hand and pointed it towards the oncoming enemy and shot a cyan cloud from his hands, towards the lizard men. With his sword the lizard blocked the projectile, and it exploded in a puff of blue-green smoke on his blade.
The bladesmen then drew out their swords and charged at the lizard man. The beast swung his blade at one of them slicing it across the chest. The rest of the warriors continued to swing their weapons at the lizard, which was able to block a few hits, and kill another bladesmen, but was soon knocked down to the ground, they pinned him to the ground, and Vandrin stepped towards him. "See you in morning, my reptilian friend!" He then shot another cloud of 'sleeping gas' at the lizard man, and it fell asleep.
"Tie him up, with the others." Vandrin ordered. The bladesmen nodded, they seemed to have a new found respect for the count, when they saw him actually fight a lizard man by himself and win.
-
In the blink of an eye, there were three off-white furred wolves sitting on the floating plank of wood in the places of the three former figures.
"Apologies," the smallest one said. Melface appeared as an adolescent, not quite fully grown. Rufo was the largest of the three, and Ophelia was slender and lightly built. "I cannot do colors. And we'd best be the same species, lest they think we're some sort of traveling ring of circus pets." He paused and picked his paw up, examining his claw.
"Though wolves are a good choice. Pack animals. Villagers will stay away. Guards may want trouble, but I will take care of them if any approach." He grinned, revealing a set of fanged yellowed teeth and licked his chops. He stood up on all fours. "I will be waiting for you near the beaches north of Kesnar. From there we sneak through the caves..."
With that, the wolf leapt into the water. Before his paws hit the liquid he seemed to vanish, and trickles appeared over the waves heading back towards Tjed.
----
"Vincent? Are you in there?"
Ven knocked on the door. There were only four rooms, with three beds each, so they would have to share rooms unlike their trip over on the ship. What could he be doing in there?
----
That idiot knight again... Vincent ignored the knocks.
His left hand was useless now, and it hung limply like a noodle. The fingers were starting to melt, drips falling onto the wooden floor... Blast it. He was cutting it too close.
Sweat pouring from his face, he feverishly drew the alchemic symbols on the floor with this good hand, sketching out the wide symbols and circles in chalk. At first he only had to perform the reconstruction once a month. Then in became once every few weeks... More and more it lost its potency, and he now found himself having to perform the ritual every single day... He'd need to find another solution. Soon...
----
The Dark Emperor Retan seemed to chuckle. Slightly.
"Every single Demon Lord thinks himself a god. I've bounded over a dozen to my service. They are effective Generals... if properly conditioned. The underworld remains untamed and unclaimed, and it too shall bow before me. Come then, Summoner. Call forth this so called 'god', and I will teach him his place."
He turned and strode out the door. "Give her what she needs. Immediately," he coldly said as he passed Grav. The lizard looked at Indher with wide eyes and blinked.
"Y-yes my Lord..."
After the Dark Emperor left, Grav stood, dusting off his robes. "Well then, come on! Blast it..."
The rest of the room filed out to follow.
----
"Blast it!!"
Draven slashed and slashed as the thing spun around him, sending searing energy cutters flying into the sky, but the demon was a step ahead of him. Soon he gave into deflecting the oncoming onslaught of blasts sent his way with his crimson blade.
He was reactionary. The demon merely waited for Draven to strike, then capitalized on any opening. It was infuriating... Draven brought his arms to his side, his flaming sword disappearing, and his aura flared brightly. He'll fix him..
Thrusting his arms outward, the burning man exploded. Scorching flames were sent in all directions as his aura expanded rapidly as a thundering wave. The incoming spheres of energy were shattered as the distance between the fire wall and Anti's spiral was very quickly shortened...
-
Indher chuckled as the dark emperor left.
"Oh, uhm, lizard, or whatever your name is..." Indher shot at Grav.
"I also need a room as big as that cave I was found in. It was about..."
She paused, turning towards the bull and skunk creature.
The bull didn't seem up to measuring.
"Hey, skunk boy, you tell him how big it was. I can't remember."
((I assume we shall arrive in our destination the next post?))
-
Not far from the coast of Tjed, a small fishing ship was nearing the coast. The old wood was dark, and covered in green slime looking water plants. Were a white sail used to be, only an old wooden stick can be found. A normal human would say that this boat would be unaible to move, and that it was a wonder that it didn't sink yet.
On the boat a few small bags were lying, once filled with all sorts of foods, they were now empty, except one backpack, this one looked very expencive. The beautifull leather from an unkown beast was decorated by red looking crystals.
There was also a young man, sitting on an a box, with a cat on his legs. The cat was sleeping and had light green eyes just like the man she was sitting on. The man had very light hair, and his clothes looked very tidy, even new, completly unfitting the boat. With a kind smile on his face the man petted the cat and said;
- "Finaly we arive somewhere, however I have no idea where. I realy suck at finding the way.." The man made a tired smile, but he didn't look tired at all.
The sound of the people around the beach was louder, and the man looked toward the coast. - "This realy doesn't remind me of anything... I gues this is a new adventure isn't it, Nina?" - The cat yawned.
The man took a small notebook, clapped with his arms, when a small writing feather apeared. It was shinging and almost fully white as light. He started writing in the notebook, and on the crimson cover, white on red, "Diary of Shuichi" was written.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
"My leg is still a little soar from the way I landed on it in the valley but i'll be okay. I'm sitting he whole way there. Just, can i get some food first?" Coriko looked at Firstman.
-
//Too tired to make a big detailed post right now.\
"Yeah. Sure go a head." Firstman said, he put his pointer finger on his lower up and scanned the room, and stopped when he spotted an opened crate, he then pointed at it. "Yeah, we have some food over there."
--- ---
"Excellent." Rufokanno commented. "White not Rufo's colour, but it do."
Ophelia simply nodded her head in reply to Melface before he disappeared.
Rufokanno then pushed forth the board across the water towards Kensar...
-
Whoa, that's hot! He quickly accelerated backwards, away from the fantastic explosion. "It seems I've struck a nerve." He smirked. "It's my turn. Allow me to strike a few more." He pointed his hands at Draven, and converted to the offensive. To avoid consuming too much of his own being, he charged up a bit, a large ball of energy building up in front of his hands.
-
Walking down the path, away from his now charred down home along with his owls, he continued to think to himself of what happened all of a sudden. Is his life changing right before his eyes? It was 5 hours before when everything changed ever since he discovered that green sword. Does the sword contain answers? What of the old man who proclaimed the premonition to him, if you can call it a premonition? Why did he garner more strength after inhaling smoke? Why did the trees aimed to kill him? He was beginning to believe he is a enigma more so than he believed before.
It was dark. The moon shone outside but with a blue hue on it. The area was covered with a faint blue mist. It wasn't like the black fog he was use to but it would do. Quadricentennial figured there was a town not long from here. He decided not to stay the night but what of the continuing of the journey? Would he stroll through it? He hated people because they all seemed the same: greedy, self-centered, arrogant. But what could he do? If he had to pass through it, he'd figure out a way to stay behind the shadows.
(//I haven't caught up with the RP. It is dark here but incase it's still daylight somehwere else, don't let it bother you since it's not really important to the story, it's just to show you were exactly he is, whic his prob in the middle of nowhere.)
-
Two Tjedian guards walked side by side, patrolling the beach.
"Hey, is that a dog?"
"Huh? Looks like it."
A small white wolf sat several feet in front of them, wagging his tail and panting.
"Looks freindly. Here boy!"
What.
Do.
You.
FEAR?!
...
*FLASH!*
The man on the left was consumed by a flock of rabid ravens, picking apart his flesh as he screamed ghastly symphonies. The man on the right? Giant cockroaches.
"Mmmm... delicious..."
(More later.)
-
// Too lazy to write a bigger post. More maybe later.
A flutter of wings sounded behind the party in the castle courtyard. "Duilin, do you hear something? I think more of them followed us into the courtyard... I'm not sure though." A few more arrows slid just past Ben's face. "Yup, it's them."
------------
"I'm beat. I could use some sleep." Justin walked up a set of stairs and headed into a room with Doriana. Jacobie took another room with Tiberius and Dranniconias, and Aarons had his own room. Not too much rest could await them...
------
-
Coriko looted through the box. It looked like a lot of stale bread and such. Coriko found a red, round, and somewhat fuzzy object. He took a bite out of it and it was a whole new flavour. It was juicy and sweet and like nothing else he had. Coriko wolfed down the food. On top of another box was a rook sack. Coriko grabbed it and put it over his shoulder.
"I'm stocking up on these things whatever they are." Coriko shoved as many as the bag could carry.
"Alright lets go, I'm all set."
-
"It was massive! Spectacular!" The skunk creature held his arms wide, fluttering his tail. "A gargantuan chamber, hundreds upon hundreds of feet wide with a dizzying ceiling!"
Grav rolled his eyes.
"The primary summoning chamber will suffice. Come, we will get you your support mages." He shook his head and muttered something under his breath as he continued down the hallway, looking quite annoyed.
Kelmar stepped along side of Indher. He was lighting his third cigar.
"Darling, I don't believe I've caught your name yet. Also, I would be delighted to serve as one of your support mages."
"You're no summoner, Kelmar." The minotaur shook his head.
"Of course I am! Do you remember the netherworld insect?"
"It was a gnat."
"A doom gnat!"
----
Vincent opened the door and Ven almost fell in.
"Apologies. I fell asleep and forgot I locked it." The alchemist looked perfectly normal now as he adjusted the buttons on his coat.
"No worries." Ven waved it off. "Looks like we'll be bunking together, the other rooms are filled up. Hey, what's all this white powder on the floor?"
"Beats me."
----
"HAH HA HA HA HA!!!"
Draven threw his head back and laughed maniacally as the demon's blast struck his expanding aura of flame.
"You'll have to do that, you miserable insect!"
He threw his arms skyward, and another surge of power rippled throughout the flame. The burning sphere around him grew bigger and bigger...
-
Indher sighed.
"Do you really need my name? Fine, call me Lerfina, skunk-boy."
She hurried away from him, disgusted by the stench of the cigar.
As she walked closer to Grav, she turned to the minotaur.
"Pah, he can be an extra, I don't need the help of summoners anyway, just skilled mages..."
-
//Still pretty tired, I was up until 11 AM so yeah...\
A pair of two off-white wolves came walking from the shore.
"So you have the aura shield on."
"Yes."
"Excellent, now where is that Melface? Likely eating souls, or something..."
--- ---
"All righty then!" Duilin then unsheathed The Iduran, dramatically lifting the majestic blade in the air.
Lagart took out his large broadsword, it was a much bigger weapon then The Iduran, but didn't look nearly as majestic as it. Rink floated a bit higher in the air.
"Let's hope these guys will show themselves this time." Rink said.
Duilin spun the sword around. "If they don't, I'm thinking I might chase them down, or at least scare them out of Tjed."
-
He continued to accelerate away from the flaming sphere. "Miserable insect, huh?" This time, it was his nerve that was struck. "I'll show you who the real insect is!" He pointed his hands out... The blast he was charging up last post was ready now... But that obviously wasn't going to cut it. He pushed half of his own being into the attack. He didn't lose any limbs, but his purple was less intense, and the energy didn't look as dense inside him. "Take this!!!" He fired a massive wave of energy forth. Hopefully, the blast would stop that fire sphere shenanigan and hopefully also injure Draven a bit... He did just pour half of his strength into an attack, and if Draven comes out of it unscathed, the tide will turn.
-
Walking his way through the burning and crumbling streets of the Vandrin County, Gorus sniffed the air trying to catch the sent of any living humans. He had a B-Class lizard man, with him, who was trained to use low level magic attacks and also a few C-Class lizards with him; he actually almost had as much respect for the synthetic lizards as he did for the natural ones. He oversaw a lot of the growing of the lizard men, and actually had quite a say in what they were to be like. Yet the synthetic C-Class ones weren’t as strong as his officers in the B-Class, they were always more obedient.
Gorus sniffed the air, but still only inhaled the stench of dead humans. He never minded the smell of dead humans, actually. It was a smell of victory. He continued to walk through the dieing streets.
“So, sir. I heard that the Kandarins sent some shock troops in. They actually killed a few of our men.” The lizard officer said, trying to start a conversation with his General to pass time.
“Yes, I’m aware. I found some corpses.” Gorus replied blandly.
“Not that I’m scared or anything. But I think these particular humans may be somewhat of a danger.”
“No they won’t.” Gorus said back instantly, almost insulted with the fact that one of his warriors would even think that. “Some humans get lucky and kill some of our less skilled lizard men. They are weak and pathetic compared to us, but we have to understand that we aren’t immortal, despite the fact we are the second strongest race.” Gorus didn’t even need to mention the Drakens, obviously being stronger.
“I don’t know, high general.” The lizard officer replied. “What about the Velkens?”
Gorus let out a quick laugh. “They have better speed and agility, but they are are physically weak and frail, compared to even the humans. Plus, I am overall stronger then Virmir, therefor lizard men are supierour to Velkens, period.” Gorus boasted. He then stopped. “I hear and smell humans.” Gorus cracked his knukles. “Let’s kill!”
---
Vandrin and the KAF troops continued on with their lizard hunting mission. They already lost about 10 troops, so this was going to be a heavy cost for the count. He was getting really worried, almost his entire county was destroyed, and it would cost him his entire fortune to rebuild. And probably after that, the lizard men would attack again, likely before he could finish rebuilding. He was at loss, and getting a little ticked off thinking about it. He still felt quite proud of himself for killing that lizard man, he started to think about that again, and then got back to his content mood. Yet then he was struck again with worry, when he started to hear the reptilian voices of the lizard men. One of them sounded rather deep, he could pick the deep voice, saying something about being superior to some ‘Ver-meer’ guy. And then some lighter mumbling, he thought he could hear the word ‘humans’, assuming that he must know he’s near. He worries were confirmed when he heard the word ‘kill’ shortly after.
“Lizard men, are coming at us. Take a defensive position.” Vandrin said softly.
A huge hulking lizard man then emerged from the fog, he had a rather unusual build for the lizard man, looking almost more human like. The giant creature made eye contact with the count. He then lifted his hands up, he seemed unarmed, but he still felt worried. The lizard man then gave out a monstrous roar, as he had his fists up in the air. He then pointed towards Vandrin and his squad.
“Kill the humans!” High General Gorus commanded, and seven more lizard man then rushed towards the group.
Vandrin then charged his magic into his hands, and shot forth a few poison blasts towards the lizard men, one poison blast struck a lizard man in the belly and he squealed in pain as he fell to the ground and his skin began to corrode.
The counts internal mana supplies were running low and he started to get tired. He mouthed a curse and started to step back. The bladesmen started defending themselves as well as possible from the lizard men and their giant weapons. They still had them outnumbered, but not by enough, another lizard man fell, but five more Kandarin warriors had already been taken down.
Gorus simply laughed as he watched the battle, he noticed the old man, in the ugly coloured armour behind the fighting. He seemed to be clutching his chest, must be having a cramp. Gorus started walking towards him.
Vandrin noticed this, the lizard general seemed to be underestimating him, so he maybe he could catch this one. Vandrin lifted his hand towards the lizard man and shot forth a foggy, cyan tranquilizer blast. The projectile hit the general square in the torso and he stopped moving.
Vandrin stood up straight and grinned. “Sweet dreams.”
The fog cleared up and Gorus stood there wide awake smiling with his huge reptilian mouth. “Sweet dreams eh? If this is a dream, it is a sweet one indeed.” He continued to step towards him, he wanted to savour this moment.
Vandrin’s jaw dropped, and shot forth another blast, that the lizard man seemed to be unaffected by. The count realized this must be the famous High General. “Gorus is it?”
Gorus’ grin continued. “Indeed.”
“I’m Count Vandrin.” He replied.
“Did I ask for your name? To me, you’re just another human added to my kill count. Now that I’ve been keeping count anymore. Lost count after 85 I think…That was oh so long ago.” He quickened his pace towards the count, ready to attack
Vandrin gulped. “You’re just trying to scare me aren’t you.” He said swinging one of his katana at Gorus and stepping backwards.
Gorus back stepped avoiding the blade “Not even. This is probably the nicest I’ve ever been to a human.” Gorus replied. “Actually you know what?”
Vandrin noticed that only five KAF troops remained and five lizard men also remained. He started to get that ‘Great, now we’re f***ed’ feeling. The count shook his head, trying to focus again, and looked back at the lizard man. “What?”
“I kind of like your style, your scared, but you’re not running. You know you’re going to loose this fight, but you have the guts to fight back. If you’re the count of this place and seem to weakly manage this entire place you must be pretty smart. Therefore, I think I’m going to give you the honour of thinking you of only mildly pathetic. Congratulations.”
“Don’t insult me, you ugly lug!” Vandrin snapped.
“I’d call you ugly, but all you humans look the same to me.” Gorus retorted.
“I’m surprised you haven’t attacked me, yet. Are you afraid of me?”
“No. I just like to see how people act in this sort of position.” He stepped closer, and Vandrin took another swing of his katana at him, he grabbed the blade with his claws and ripped it out his hand and tossed it away. Vandrin then gave a forward thrust with his other katana, but Vandrin shifted himself to the left avoiding the attack, and then swung a punch at the counts head knocking him to the ground.
“All too easy.” Gorus laughed, expecting to have crushed the counts head. Yet Vandrin oddly got back up. “Impressive.” He then dashed towards Vandrin and dived to tackle him, but the count jumped higher then he has ever seen any human do before, right over him and landed on the ground behind him. Gorus turned around. “Most impressive…” He then stepped towards Vandrin. “Okay, now I’m going try…”
-
"Ah, glad you could join me."
The smaller wolf sat on the sand next to the other two as if he were there the entire time. He trotted off towards the underbrush lining the beach.
"Come now, the cave is this way. We will be skirting around the edges of a hamlet called Kesnar, which the humans are trying to rebuild for some reason..." He flashed a grin back at them, as if some devilish thought came to his mind, but he shook it off. "There are some rules that need to be followed if we are to pass as animals. Obviously don't try to talk to any humans. They won't be able to understand us like this, anyway. If we see any, appear skittish and try to avoid them. And most importantly, don't appear as if you understand what they are saying."
He began nosing his way through the thick underbrush, flashing another grin at the two other temporary wolves.
"I used to do this all the time. An excellent way to go hunting."
----
The minotaur leaned down and whispered into Indher's ear. "He's latched on. You're going to have bunches of trouble getting rid of him now."
"As an extra then, I will serve you with the utmost diligence, Lerfina my dear." Came the skunk's voice from behind.
Grav's teeth were clenched the entire walk, and he muttered something to the effect of "I hate mammals."
After a walk through dismal torch-lit hallways emblazoned with draconic sculptures and a ride on a large circular slate of floating stone that served as an elevator, the short lizard threw open the heavy metal doors of a gargantuan hall in which hundreds upon hundreds of black-robed figures darted madly about. The room seemed a gargantuan library with bookcases stories high and a ceiling that was not visible through the blackness. Hooded figures of all sizes careened about the gray stoned room, which seemed to span on for at least an acre. A few of the dark wizards were clearly Lizard Men, given their stature and large green tails, many of the shorter type as was Grav. However most of the figures' forms were totally unrecognizable, lost completely in their dark robes. Some did not have legs, and merely floated about as spectres...
"Attention!" Grav commanded, slamming his staff into the stone floor, sending a dull echo throughout the mammoth room. Everything stopped, and all attention focused on him. The entry way to the room was a sort of balcony, so Indher and the others could see most of the room from just behind the railing which the lizard Prime Minister stood in front of. On the left and right two curling stairways went down to the library below. The entire place was decked out in more grotesque statues and torches.
"A Class S summoning will be preformed in one hour." The lizard announced. Grav turned back to Lerfina and raised his staff over the crowd.
"Pick your hundred."
----
Draven continued the maniacal laughter, mocking the giant blast of energy spiraling towards him. Thrusting his hands forward, the giant sphere he was encased in moved towards the blast, leaving his body behind and continuing on its own. The two forces of energy collided with a deafening explosion, and the sky was painted red. The shock wave splintered a large circle of trees directly under the warriors into nothing, and Draven was sent hurdling backwards. Like a comet he crashed into the island of Romme, boring a deep hole into a rocky foothill as boulders crumbled upon him...
-
It was virtually no time at all before Carmine and his group reached Asgarnia’s outer limits. Still clear out of sight, they lied in wait for the right time to strike. The dead of night made an excellent cover, and Carmine intended to use it to his advantage.
Unfortunately for him, so would Alex.
In all honesty, Carmine had no idea what to expect. What if Alex had picked up a new weapon between their last encounter and now? He could only expect the unexpected. Unfortunately, he would never expect what Alex had up his sleeve.
“We’re here, guys,” Carmine said to his men.
“So where’s Alex?” Odessa asked him.
“We have to draw him out somehow,” Carmine replied. “But how?”
“Boss, practical question: Why don’t we just go in and get him? It’s not like the Asgarnian army’s back up to snuff yet anyway, we’d be unopposed,” Adam suggested.
“I don’t think we have any other choice I guess. The Colonel did say to use whatever means were necessary…okay. Estacado, see if you can knock a hole in the wall we can get through.”
“Gotcha,” he replied. He brought his mortar cannon to bear, which began to charge a shot. A few moments later, a bright crimson energy ball raced through the air and slammed into the city walls. Brick fragments hailed everywhere, and when the dust cleared, a gaping hole had been made into the wall.
“Nice aim,” Carmine said. “Now let’s get what we came here for.”
As the squad advanced on the city’s exposed wall, wandering citizens soon began running around in panic.
“Aaugh! They’re back again!”
“When will it end?!”
“We’ll die for sure this time!”
The air became filled with cries for help and panic as the squad moved in, intent on finding their target. Adam Estacado picked a man up by his shirt and held him in front of his face.
“Listen up. We’re looking for a man named Alex. Tell us where he is and we won’t hurt you badly.”
“I have no idea who you’re talking about!” The man sputtered, terrified. “Please, I have a wife and kids!”
Annoyed, Estacado tossed him aside. “See him yet, boss?”
“Not yet, but something tells me we’ll know him when we see him,” Carmine replied, scanning the streets for any indication of the prey.
“Look, over there!” Les pointed, having spotted him with his scout eyes.
“Nice call, Grylls,” Carmine said. “All right men, load up. Alex’ll no doubt be a tough fight, so expect things to take a turn for the unexpected.”
Alex heard the commotion in town. “What the hell is going on?”
“Something tells me,” Midna replied, “that things are about to get rough.”
Alex looked ahead, and soon saw Carmine’s lean figure, and helmeted head. Behind him he saw five more men. “Aw, hell no…how did they find us so quickly?”
Soon Alex and Carmine stared at each other, about fifty feet apart. “You’re like an item on a scavenger hunt, Alex,” Carmine taunted. “Always hiding in the most unexpected places, only to realize that it’s absolutely obvious where you are…”
“Well, well,” Alex replied. “I see you’ve made some new friends. And what bullshit mission are you on now?”
“Isn’t it obvious, with six men pointing their weapons at you? I’m here to take you in.”
“Over my dead body.”
“That can be arranged quite easily. As you can see, if you resist, you’ll be in for quite a fight. Surely you’ve heard of Hannibal Roth?”
The name sounded familiar. Well, the last name did, anyway.
“And even our good friend de Sade has been so kind enough as to join us today,” holding up the Lilithian’s soulstone. “All it takes is one call to set him free, and then you’re proper screwed. If you surrender now, it’ll minimize the amount of injuries and wasted ammo.”
“You know, when I first met you, you were a lot meeker than you are now. You riding high on some promotion that your guys gave you just to get you out of their hair? You think it means anything?”
“It means enough that they want you dead.”
“Did you by any chance call them and ask them to send bodybags?” Alex asked, preparing to manifest his secret weapon.
“The only one needing a bodybag around here when this is all over is you! OPEN FIRE!”
The squad followed orders, and soon quite a few spears whizzed through the air, but all deflected by some unseen force.
“Oh, you don’t know, don’t you?” Alex said, approaching the squad. “I picked up some new tricks during this little hiatus, and I think you’ll be pretty impressed. Well, as impressed as a dead corpse can be.”
Within seconds, the Shroud’s dark tentacles and Demon Heads surrounded him. One head slunk right over to inches in front of Carmine’s face, and snapped its maw harmlessly, but frighteningly.
“Jesus!” Grylls shouted. “What the hell is that?!”
“Probably some sort of dark creature,” Carmine said, his voice noticeably shaking. “Adam, hit it with a mortar, NOW!”
Another mortar shot charged up, fired, and exploded right on Alex’s vicinity. When the smoke cleared, the two Demon Heads just shook off the blast like it was nothing.
“Keep your distance!” Carmine shouted. “Maybe it can’t reach far!”
Spears again filled the air, some of the soldiers taking cover.
Through you, I display my power…
Alex sent one of the Demon Heads slithering around the corner, where it encountered Les Grylls. Scared out of his mind, he tried running, but the head lunged out with its fangs, and sunk them into his left Achilles tendon.
“DAAARRRGGGGHHH!!!!” He fell to the ground, his foot badly mutilated and bleeding uncontrollably.
“Adam, FIRE AGAIN!”
Another mortar fired out, with similar results to the first.
“What now, boss?! This isn’t working!”
A tentacle picked up a fruit cart and threw it through the air, right in front of Estacado. Despite his Vanguard strength, he was knocked onto his back, and the mortar out of his hands.
One by one his men were falling.
“What do we do, Cap?!” Victor Sig shouted, unaware of the Demon Head creeping up on him.
“Victor, behind you!” Carmine screamed.
“Oh shi—AAAUGHH!!!” The head bit right into his gut.
“Captain, we’re taking too many losses!” Odessa hollered. “What do we do?!”
“Fall back!” Carmine yelled. “I’ll get us some backup!”
Odessa and Carmine ducked back out of sight behind a house.
“So, what’s your plan?”
Carmine pulled out the ice blade and de Sade’s soulstone. “We’ll fight darkness with darkness.” He held the blade straight out in front of him. “Amon, come to me!”
Within moments, a large block of ice descended from the sky, slamming into the ground. From the shattered fragments, Amon emerged. “You called?” he said coyly.
“Now’s the time,” Carmine said, handing him the soulstone.
“Of course,” Amon replied, taking the amulet and draping it around his neck. “What needs to be done?”
“Wait, what?!” Carmine cried. “Aren’t you supposed to get him out of that stone or something?! We’re getting screwed to the wall here!”
“All in due time, my impatient little cricket…all in due time.”
“That time is NOW!” Carmine complained once more. “Things will get a LOT worse if something isn’t done!”
“Okay then,” Amon sighed, “what exactly is it you want done?”
“THAT,” he said, pointing to the man with flailing tentacles and demonic serpents around him, “needs to be killed, or at least subdued!”
“Are you sure? Oh, haven't I told you? This may or may not be the only time I'll help you...”
“You won’t have the chance to help us again if we’re DEAD!”
“Hah! Well, I suppose a promise is a promise.”
Hannibal, in the meantime, had managed to keep most of Alex’s attention focused on him while Carmine formulated a plan. A Demon Head lurched at him, baring fangs, when he camouflaged himself, confusing the head. Even with Alex’s Shrouded Eyes, he couldn’t see the assassin at all.
He’s confusing you, Alex! See through his ruse!
Finally, Alex was able to pin down his location, and launched one of the heads at him. The bite forced him out of his camouflage, and sent him into reeling for a few seconds, before cloaking again.
Such play. I do hope you’re enjoying yourself…
“Time of my life,” Alex hissed.
Your proficiency with the powers I’ve granted you leaves something to be desired…a little bit of practice will fill those gaps.
Amon stepped out into the open, as if having a death wish, and simply held his hand out at Alex.
“Poof,” he said, sadism filling his voice. A tremendous blast wave emanated from his hand, and raced toward Alex at blinding speed. It slammed into him, overpowering the Shroud, and sent him flying back, slamming into a far wall some fifty meters away. Stunned, the Shroud left him, blinded by the huge wave.
“Urgh…” he moaned, climbing out of the rubble. “What the devil’s piss was that?”
He is a Lilithian, Alex. They wield great power…one of the many past Bearers was a Lilithian…some say their dark power descends from one mastering the powers you currently wield…It is not safe here, we must retreat, go into hiding. Use the shadows as your ally, and they will serve you well.
As quickly as it had all started, it was over. Alex leapt into the dark shadows behind a house, safely out of sight for now. Even Hannibal lost his position.
Carmine stood, dumbstruck, mouth agape, and turned to Amon. “Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“Hey Carmine,” Odessa spoke up, “we’ve got some casualties here. Estacado, Grylls and Sig are injured. Let’s get out of here and help them.”
Annoyed that he had missed his chance to waste Alex, he sighed. “What choice do we have? Let’s get the hell out of here. Go help the injured. Hannibal, we’re leaving!”
“Carmine…”, he hissed. “The prey is on the ground, bleeding to its death. Finish it…”
“We’re down three men! If we keep going at this rate, there will be no one left to finish him.”
The assassin said nothing, and proceeded to tend to the wounded.
Concealed in the shadows, Alex waited out their departure.
This is the first battle in a long war. While the outcome now seems uncertain, it will soon be decided…
-
Indher shook her head at the minotaur.
"Doesn't matter. He, for one, will not survive being in the vicinity of the summoning."
Indher observed the walls as she walked past them.
Tsk, wasting time to decorate their headquarters? How foolish...
As the group finally reached the gargantuan library, Fernis smiled.
"Well..." the decorations could use some work, too. "Let me see here..."
She went down the stairs, walking between the black-robed figures, observing them from top to bottom...
"Hmm..." she paused for a moment as she walked, and then began pointing her finger.
"You... You... You..."
She seemed to favor picking the gliding ones over the lizardmen, but there was more to it.
"You... You... You will do..."
She continued to walk between the robed figures, picking them out.
This will take a while...
-
“Understood, Melface.” Ophelia replied. She then looked back at Rufo. “Now make sure you can keep us undetected with that shield. I don’t want this plan getting messed up.” Ophelia then followed Melface, she was almost excited that she was going to finally be able to find Duilin.
As for Rufokanno, he started getting more and more curious about why Ophelia wanted to find him so badly. Mostly he just kept quiet when he was with the Malefactors, but he felt more attached to this job. Mostly because he wanted to avenge Brice’s death by killing Duilin, despite the fact that Duilin was only protecting himself from him. Plus it was Brices idea to go and hunt down Duilin, so really he brought it upon himself, but that never even crossed Rufo’s mind. He simply only thought, that Duilin killed his friend, so he wanted vengeance. Another typical bad guy, one would assume Rufokanno is.
--- ---
Gorus then dashed towards Vandrin, who attempted his levitation jump again over the lizard general, yet the count’s feet were grabbed and he was thrown to the ground.
“Owwcch!!” Vandrin groaned painfully as he tumbled across the ground, dropping his katana. He then weakly got back up to his feet.
“Had enough yet?” Gorus asked rhetorically as he stomped towards the count. “Too bad, I’m not finished. But don’t worry. I’ll make sure you don’t die until I’m done.”
Vandrin gave an enraged look at Gorus, and clenched his fists and they began to glow with a lime green aura. He then assumed a fighting stance and began to rapidly shoot a series of toxin energy shots, in the form of punching. The lizard man quickly wiped out his pickaxe and bated away every shot as well as he could with the head of it. Gorus stepped closer and closer as the count delivered the seemingly endless number of toxic blasts. Yet the count didn’t seem to be able to keep it up and stopped but just in time to be punched in stomach. Vandrin was forced to the ground from the mighty fist.
Gorus let out a laugh, and slid his pickaxe back underneath the straps on his back, where they were. “Wow, this is fun.” He then stepped towards Vandrin who was down on his stomach, whining in pain. He lifted his boot. “Now to crush you, like the insect you are.”
So much was going through Vandrin’s head as he was down on the ground and time seemed to slow down to a crawl, if he didn’t move he was going to die, his legs were hurt and he couldn’t get back up. He questioned why the gods would allow such powerful beings to live, it was unfair. Maybe he deserved this? Maybe the gods were punishing him for being such a tyrant, for taking out his anger and hate for his parents on the world. He wasn’t even considered a world leader, but he was being punished for being such a tyrant. Vandrin wasn’t even a religious man, but now he was thinking a lot about the gods. More and more things began to pass through his head, mental pictures of his past passing through and through. Was he going to die? He closed his eyes, he was starting to wonder if he had already died, and what was going to happen, not only to him but to the human population. He was one of the few powerful humans and he was letting down mankind by allowing himself to die. He started to feel guilty, for dieing. He then opened his eyes, to see if it was over, and to see if he still had a chance to stop it. He rolled his eyes upwards and saw the giant lizard’s steel toed spiked boot coming down on him. He noticed that he actually had rather shinny feet for lizard man. He then quickly realized that his focus of thought was getting ‘off-topic’ he needed to act quick if he was to live, but he just couldn’t move. He noticed his sword wasn’t too far away from him; it was in arms reach, its funny how his body felt to be moving so slowly but his mind so quickly. If he could just switch the speed for but a second and get that sword, then his life could be saved. He closed his eyes, and everything seemed to stop in his mind, and the count’s arm just seemed to move, and in the blink of an eye the katana was grabbed and then slashed across Gorus’ leg giving a rather deep cut.
Gorus lost his balance as the foot he was standing on suddenly had a massive gash, and he fell to the ground. The lizard’s blood started dripping out from the gash on his leg and he sat up and looked at the cut. “You arrogant little maggot!” He roared, looking back up at the count “Now dare you interrupt me while I’m trying to kill you!?”
Vandrin got back up, and smiled. He looked at the lizard man and started giving out a laugh of joy which quickly turned into a more mocking laugh and he pointed at the lizard general as he was down on the ground.
Gorus then got back up. “You’ve honestly found a way to tick me off.” He growled sternly. “Once again congratulations. But your little stunt isn’t enough to save your life.”
Gorus once again took out his pickaxe. “Now I’m going to mine out your insides! Maybe I’ll even sell the extractions to Kandarinians…”
He lifted up the pickaxe above his head as he stood over the count weakly trying to get up. He then started to swing down, but suddenly an explosion pushed him forward, making him drop his weapon and fall over the count.
As the explosion settled, Gorus rolled over on his back. He then noticed this big grey blurry figure swoop from the explosion and stopped where Vandrin was laying for less then a second and then disappear. Gorus groaned and then rubbed his eyes, before he realized that the miserable human just escaped. He quickly stumbled his way back up and rapidly looked back and forth and side to side. “No…where is he!?” He then grabbed the horns on his head and shook his head rapidly. He then lifted his hands in the air giving out a roar of anger that could be heard throughout the entire subsection of the city...
---
Vandrin woke up; he was lying in a bed. He looked around it seemed that he was in one of the buildings in his county. Last thing he remembered was looking up at Gorus’ pickaxe coming down at him, ready to impale his insides. He lied back down on the bed. He was very happy that he survived that, and laughed to himself, when he was thinking of changing his ways for a second.
“Glad you got up so quickly.” Said a mysterious voice from the other side of the room.
Vandrin looked to where the voice came from, but saw nothing. He then noticed the wall move, and then shot back almost falling off the bed.
“Don’t worry I won’t hurt you.” The moving wall then revealed itself as a man in a camouflaged cloak.
“I didn’t see you there, your cloaked blended in with the wall.” Vandrin said realizing what was going on.
“It’s a chameleon cloak, it blends in with the area I’m near.” The cloak man replied. He then looked at Vandrin. “I’m Hypnos, a stalker of the Kandarin Armed Forces.”
Vandrin got up from the bed and decided to introduce himself to man who just saved him “Good to meet you, I am Count--”
“Vandrin of the Vandrin County.” The stalker finished for him. “I know who are. If you were just a basic warrior, I probably wouldn’t have saved you.”
“Oh, well thank you then.” Vandrin replied.
“Don’t take it to hart; I only saved you because I know our sovereign needs you to finish his mission.” Hypnos explained.
“Oh.” Vandrin replied realizing he still wasn’t getting respect. “Well, it’s getting more and more difficult. I thought I was going to die right there so, I’m still thankful.”
“That was nothing, Vandrin. But you’re old so I guess you’re not strong enough to defend yourself against things like that.”
“I’m plenty strong, did you have any idea who that was!?” Vandrin retorted.
“Some giant lizard man, it looked like it.” Hypnos replied broadly.
“It was High General Gorus. Perhaps the roughest lizard man, in the world.” Vandrin went to the window to see if he was out there.
“Don’t worry. We’re pretty far away now. He shouldn’t be able to find you, as long as you don’t head to close to back to where he was.”
“Okay then.” Vandrin sighed in relief. “So you think you could help me?”
“I suppose. I haven’t gotten much else to do. Don’t worry about paying me.” Hypnos replied.
“You’re too kind. Thank you.” Vandrin grinned. “It’s just I’ve been having such a terrible day and all, and you saving me and all is just--”
“Don’t…please. I don’t want to have to save your life and end it in the same day.”
Vandrin rolled his eyes. “Very well.” Vandrin looked back out the window. “Okay, so I was able to get two lizard men so far. I am able to sedate the lizard men, with my magic, yet I’m feeling rather weak and tired right now so--”
The Stalker handed him an elixir. “Here.” The count took the item and opened his mouth to speak. “And please don’t thank me. It’s getting annoy, and plus stop talking so close to me.” Vandrin was about to ask why, but was interrupted again. “You probably have the worst breath I have ever had the shame to inhale. It smells of poison and rancid meat. The lizard men have better oral hygiene then you, honestly.”
Vandrin back away lifting hands giving a very offended facial expression. “I have never been so insulted.”
“Good for you.” The stalker retorted. “Now drink that elixir, maybe it’ll clear your breath. And now we can get going, and get this mission over with.”
-
Deeming his role finished, Amon vanished - with a deafening crack, of course. Within a few moments, he appeared in his own sanctuary - a home cut deep in a gigantic iceberg, with the only exit being a hole cut in the bottom. It was a 3 mile swim in frigid water before the shore would even be visible. Amon's eight human acolytes nodded upon his enterance.
-"Well, well, well! Ladies and gentlemen, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I have it!", he announced, holding up the soulstone. "Here we can clearly see my most kind father, Leopold de Sade... locked up! HAH!"
He trotted over to a large ice table, with a near-frozen man on it.
-"How considerate of you," purred Amon. "You brought me a snack before my most important deed."
-"Amon!", interjected a nearby acolyte. "That IS the body we're going to be using!"
Amon's light-hearted smile changed to a more bored look.
-"Oh. Well, in that case, shall we begin?"
The acolytes quietly nodded, and went to their positions in a pre-drawn circle. They began chanting quietly, apparently reading a passage from the books they were holding. Meanwhile, Amon was hovering the gem over the frostbitten victim.
-"Begone, ugly human skin... Begone, you repulsive human face... Begone... Begone..."
Indeed, the man's skin started to grow small scales, growing progressively larger in size. He gasped and opened his eyes, struggling for air.
-"What's this...? You need air? No, you don't. Lilithians don't need air, do they? You don't need it either, then."
The scales finished growing and flapped a little. Suddenly, the man stopped choking.
-"Thaaaat's more like it... Now... my dear mortal friends, are we ready?"
The acolytes did not break their chant.
-"I take that as a no... Well, let's do some more terraforming, then, eh?"
What little of the victim's fat still remained began to vanish, turning the skin a dark green colour from his already unhealthy frozen-blue. His eyes and cheeks dropped in, until he was almost completely skeleton-like. His gray robes almost seemed to deflate. At that point, the acolytes stopped their chant.
-"Commence when you wish, Amon," said the one closest to the man's head. "The barrier is ready."
-"Absolutely great. Well, let's do it, then."
Amon squeezed the gem in his fist, which started to emit a soft green glow. His hand was shaking... it was obvious that the Lilithian was struggling.
-"Ugh... hrrn... you want... out, don't you... old scum... You're going to want... back in... once I finish with... you...."
Gathering his strength, Amon raised the gem high above the ex-human's chest. The latter's eyes opened widely, and the scales on his body flapped frantically.
-"Grr... hurrn... HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
With a near earth-shaking force, Amon jammed the gem inside the chest of the limp body. The victim's scream filled the cavern, eventually turning into a hoarse old man's groan. Finally, his scales wavered in a more natural fashion, and he was completely quiet. With a triumphant look, Amon hopped off the table.
-"So, you're back. Scum. Thought you could hide from me, eh? Thought you would find peace in such a backwater dimension as this, eh? I'll rip you apart..."
Suddenly, Amon rushed to the edge of the table, to the shriveled ear on de Sade's head.
-"...and I'm going to eat you."
//DM, shut up.\
-"But before we get to that, let's take up a couple of issues. First off, why did you leave, dear father? To be a little more specific, why did you leave me HALF-DEAD, relying on PATHETIC MORTALS to support my very existence?! Lilith is looking for you, you know. I found you first. Finders keepers, eh? Heheheh." Amon was giggling madly, his face full of insanity. "However, I already told Lilith that I looked here. Nothing here! BUT I LIED! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Just then, a small yellow orb flared directly above de Sade's head. It hit an invisible barrier, dispersing in a hemisphere around Amon and de Sade. Amon let out another giggle.
-"You fool. Your magic won't work here. You honestly thought that I was that stupid?"
Another orb flared, now opposite of de Sade's feet.
-"I don't think that your hearing came back to you, old man... I said, " Amon screamed, "YOUR - MAGIC - WON'T - WORK - HERE!"
Three more orbs hit the barrier. Four more on top of that. Twelve more... A hundred more... in a mere five seconds. The barrier, unable to withstand the pressure, collapsed. The acolytes, caught off-guard, were knocked back.
-"What? How?! But... HOW?! I had it all figured out!!"
De Sade's body sent out a wave of purplish energy, as if shedding an outer layer of magic. The ice binding him to the table shattered.
-"You are no son of mine," came de Sade's hoarse voice. "You are... pathetic. Now, die."
Amon's body rose to the middle of the room.
-"NOOOOOO!!!"
De Sade looked up at the squirming figure. Amon's forms appeared to soften, and his body began to twist in a spiral. It continued twisting, until the Lilithian skin burst under the pressure of internal organs. A large bubble of contained gore and flesh spilled down onto the ground. De Sade slowly looked around at the acolytes, who were standing in a circle around him. After getting back to their feet from the initial knockdown, they didn't appear to move an inch. De Sade appeared to be disgusted.
-"That... is not even bravery. That is stupidity, no doubt rubbed off upon you by my retarded apeling of a son... Pity. You would have made good practitioners."
Still, the acolytes didn't budge.
-"Very well. May you stand upon your very spots until your death."
A loud, unmistakable crack... and de Sade was gone.
Several seconds later, one of the acolytes broke the silence.
-"Is he... gone?"
-"I think so. Go check Amon's body, maybe we can put it back together."
The acolyte just rose his foot, but stepped back down. His face was instantly twisted by a grimace of pain and terror, eyes bulging. He tried to jump up, but fell back down - and the other acolytes saw two disembodied legs lying on the ground. Streams of blood began to flow into the hole in the middle of the room. The others stood on their places and watched....
-
The boat neared the coast of Tjed. Shui already casted a low-level spell on the area, that other people wil sub-cousiously avoid this place. Except if they realy intend to go there.
When the boat hitted the beach, the man jumped out of it with the cat on his shoulder. The momemt he left the ship it fell apart. The wooden parts broke, and fell into the water with an plusking sound.
Shui made a sad look when he heard the parts fall in the waters.
- "I forgot to expand the spell.. now I have to search for a new boat when going back.."
His sad face showed a small smile though.
- "This means that I won't be going back soon! I can treat this like a vacation!"
Smiling brightly, he turned toward the beach.
It was deserted, just as planned, and where the beach ended some small rocks began.
The smell of salt water filled his mind, and the cold wind was hitting his face. His long clothes were constant moving.
Shui sighed.- "It's kinda hot here... I guess I should head toward the main city for some lighter clothing.." He touched his tummy.- "Some food would be nice to.."
He imagined the cake his old man alwats made him when he came back from his sword trainings.. The nice smell of it, and the great taste. He could eat it forever.. the nice soup added to that made the meal his favourite food of all time. To bad his old man only cooked it on is own birthday.
- "I guess I won't find here that sorts of food.. Oh well, aslong as it is tasty!"
He headed forward, not knowing where the city could be, assuming stupidly that by going forward he would get to one eventually..
~
~~
-
The trio of white wolves skirted the northern edges of Kesnar, the smaller one in the lead always keeping his nose towards the ground. Upon nearing the higher foothills where the foliage began to grow sparse, his ears suddenly shot up and he froze in place sniffing the air. After a moment he continued on at a slow stalk, coming up to the rocky path before the cave mouth.
A body lay on the road.
Melface approached it cautiously, giving it a few good sniffs from afar. It was a Tjedian guard, a puncture wound just under his ribs. A precise, quick kill. Up towards the cave entrance several more corpses lay in rows, as if they were killed before even breaking formation.
"They were here..."
----
"I don't know if I'm comfortable with it." Henri sighed as he walked down the hallway. A green robed adviser strode next to him.
"Yes sire, neither am I. But the Dark Empire is sure to return, and young men with swords will fare better than those without."
The old king sighed again. "Very well, see to it that their training begins as soon as possible."
"Yes, my lord."
The adviser bowed and turned the corner. Henri continued on to the conference chamber, nodding to a passing guard. He placed a wrinkled hand on the door latch and pushed, stepping into the room like so many times before.
The first thing he noticed was that it was darker than normal. The servants always opened the shades each morning, but for some reason they were drawn shut.
The door closed behind him.
"Good morning, you majesty."
Henri froze, paralyzed with fear at the deep smooth voice. The figure seated at the opposite side of the table was not one of his vassals as he had expected to meet. Silver and white fur covered his fox-like face, contrasting his jet black robe. Two large swords of different designs leaned against the chair. The old king's eyes widened in terror. The demons of the Dark Empire had come for him...
Virmir extended his claw, indicating the empty throne opposite to him. "Please, sit."
Henri's eyes darted back and forth in a panic. The two guards that had been positioned on either side of the door he just entered lay on the floor dead, small pools of blood under their armor. The guards at the other side of the room fared no better. In their place, more of the fox-like creatures stood along the walls staring forward, their hands behind their backs and their tails moving slowly. He was utterly surrounded and alone...
He turned and dove for the door latch, but a foot from reaching it his frail hand was frozen in their air, and nothing he could do could move it forward. He looked to his left and saw another of the silver demons standing there with his claw outstretched. They locked eyes for a moment and the fox simply shook his head 'no'.
"You are King Henri, correct?" Virmir spoke, still seated at the table. "Please, do not do anything rash. We have very important matters to discuss."
Henri slowly turned and faced the head intruder, and likely his assassin. With a calm resolve he strode to his throne and sat, two Velkens following on either side with their claws clasped behind their backs.
"If you're going to kill me, do it now."
"Whether you die here today will be your decision, your majesty. Listen to what I'm about to say carefully." The chair he was sitting in was obviously not made for Velkens, so his tail snaked around his back and rested over the right armrest. Though his face remained perfectly resolute, the tip of his tail flicked up slightly when he spoke.
He placed a scroll on the cherry-wood table, unfurling it as he continued. "We have been given two orders in coming here. The first is to hunt down and exterminate those involved in the assassination of the late Prince Jayce of the Dark Empire, wherever they may have fled." He waited a second to allow that to sink into the king's mind. "The second is to exterminate all life on this island."
King Henri held back a gasp. Beads of sweat fell down his forehead and he clenched his fists into balls.
The silver fox continued. "However, I have the authority to bend my orders if new situations arise that were not taken into account when the original orders were given." He held up the unfurled parchment. "I am asking you to unconditionally surrender the entire nation of Tjed to the Dark Empire. Furthermore, I ask that you aid us in tracking down all of those that battled Prince Jayce. We know that many have left the island. Should you cooperate fully, I will petition the Dark Emperor to spare your life and the lives of the innocent civilians in this city on the grounds that you were a helpful asset in completing our primary objective and you are no longer a threat to us."
"And what? Become your slaves?"
Virmir's ears flinched back slightly at the word 'slave', and his eyes fell to the table for a brief instant. But it was fleeting, and he looked the human in the eye once more.
"Please do not consider this offer lightly, you majesty."
----
"Well, see ya around." The minotaur slapped the skunk on the back.
"What? You're not gonna stay around for this?"
"Nope, have fun," Irchan said, hastily leaving out the door.
Kelmar shrugged and lit cigar number five or six.
Grav directed the mages Lerfina picked up onto the balcony in rows, giving them a final inspection and yelling at the occasional one that did not stand straight or for other reasons.
-
//Where the devil is Drannic? I'm waiting for his anti-angels to attack...\
Ophelia walked towards the dead guard and sniffed it and looked at Melface and nodded.
"Who was here?" Rufokanno asked.
"Velkens." Ophelia replied. "Perhaps they may have already made their way into the capital."
"What now?" Rufokanno asked.
"No idea, we could just continue, if we can be swift enough we may be able to capture Duilin, before the Velkens notice." Ophelia replied. "I'm not going to give up."
--- ---
"Where are they!?" Duilin flapped his wings and floated higher in the air. "Show yourselves cowards! I'm loosing my patience."
"Calm yourself Duilin." Rink fluttered upwards, until he was a few feet lower than Duilin. "If you show too much rage, you might scare them off and send them back into hiding."
"Well, maybe they'll hide somewhere off this island. It'll be just as good." Duilin replied
"Perhaps, by they're determind to face Bjendell. You said it yourself, it'd be better to take them head on now. So relax yourself."
--- ---
"Yep, this looks like it." Wilham said, holding the lost tablet.
"Good, now to sneak back out of this place." Marshall said almost in relief, but his relaxation was soon ended when he looked outside the window. "But it's becoming more of a massive war zone out there. It'll be extremely dangerous."
--- ---
"Okay, so Coriko." Firstman asked. "You ready to go? The others said they were ready. We have the wyverns ready outside."
-
//Forgot to say I left for a day. Sorry.
They dark angels came out of the shadows and flew straight for Ben. Quite a few more were there than last time, around fifty or so. They seemed to be preparing this ambush for a while. Some of the angels attacked Duilin and Rink, while a full ten attacked Lagart, and thirty attacked Ben.
"This doesn't *uff* look good!" Ben prepared an energy sword and slashed wildly at the air around him. These angels were more difficult than the last two, that was for sure. Perhapse they were decoys... but for what? Had something gone on in the castle that they didn't want known?
"Duilin! Go inside the castle and protect King Henri! I've got a bad feeling that these dark angels are distracting us!" Ben slashed down five more in a row, madly swinging his blade, greatly tiring himself out.
------------
"I wonder what Aaron's up to..." Justin pondered aloud, "Don't you think he should get to the great palace as fast as possible?"
"He's been going under a lot of stress lately, Justin," Dori replied, "Can't you see that he's straining himself to even get here?"
"I know," He continued, "I know... I'm just getting a bit tired of traveling long distances all the time. I came here to fight a war. All we've done cannot possibly be considered a war..." Justin let himself fall back into his bed, his head slamming down on his pillow.
"I'm just getting bored, that's all... I wish we could do something, besides train."
"I'm pretty sure the war will find it's way here, Justin. For now, just be patient."
Doriana was indeed right. The war had already found its way into Vol Duria. A dark shroud began to cover the forest. It was naturally dark in the forest because of the canopy above, but this darkness was unnatural. It was a black mist that began to frighten even the most brave of soldiers.
"Captain Anaxese! The forest is getting darker! What's going on?"
"It appears the Dark Empire has brought the fight to us... Send a Drannivolkan messenger to tell the army outside the forrest to make all haste for Vol Duria. The revolution begins now..."
"Yes sir! I shall go myself, sir."
"Very well, Fervose. Be careful and swift; danger has entered this forest."
The messenger made all haste for the glade that lead into the forest. He knew very well that these men could tip the balance in the fight for the elven city. As he passed more and more oaks and willows around the forest, he noticed the density of the forest was getting thinner. He was getting closer to his destination.
At last, he reached the glade. To his fortune, he found the commander's tent with ease. He entered.
"Commander! I have a message from Vol Duria!"
"Yes, courier? What news do you bring from the elves?"
"The war, sir. Anaxese wishes for you to send your army into the forest and into the elven city of Vol Duria."
"Hmm... Who is this Anaxese character? Is he the leader of your contingent in the forest?"
"Aye, sir. He is there captain. I am also a captain, but I am captain of the Drannivillian Elite. Lord Aaron resides within Vol Duria as well. He is a good friend of Anaxese."
"Lord Aaron, you say? Fine. If this captain wishes it, then I will make all haste with the army of Ariosis to Vol Duria."
"Very good, sir. I'm sure lord Aaron would like to see you as well."
"Right then. Oh, and one more thing, courier. Could you lead us through the forest?"
"Of course. Right this way." Fervose the messenger left the tent and made slowly for the glade. The commander had his men follow on foot, and left the horses behind.
As an hour passed, they reached Vol Duria. "Open the gates, Anaxese! The army of Ariosis has arrived!" The gates were quickly opened, and then shut behind. It seems the Dark Empire must have been near for the gates to have been opened so quickly, and shut right behind.
"The Dark Empire is near. Fervose, go get Aaron and his royal guards. They will be needed. Also, send a word to Emond Gemzly. He's going to be a bit surprised when he finds out that his brother Elroy is here to defend Vol Duria..."
Fervose reached the manor down the road and quickly entered. He raced up the stairs and blasted into Aaron's room.
"My lord! You must get up!"
Aaron awoke and rose swiftly, surprised by the Drannivolkan messenger befor him. "What's the problem?"
"Be ready for war, my lord! The Dark Empire's main forces are approaching!"
"WHAT!? BLAST!" The messenger took a slight bow in front of the emperor and took his leave, and Aaron readied his armor and Addamantine Gloves. He left his room and knocked on each door, starting at Tiberius' room.
"Be ready for war! The Dark Empire's army approaches!" Aaron left and knocked on the other door, Justinian's room.
"Be ready for war," he repeated, "The Dark Empire's army approaches!" He made for the last door, knocking and waiting fot Ven or Vincent to open.
------------
-
//What weapons are these guys armed with? Bows? Swords? Spears? AK47s?\
"Holy mother Gaia!" Rink shouted as three dark angels flew towards him. The imp disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared behind Duilin, who still hovering in the air and was slashing away at the dark angels. "Where could they have been hiding?"
"No idea." Duilin replied. He then heard Bjendell. "I can't just leave you guys, here. I don't know if you guys can handle all of these guys."
"If you're worried about me, I'll come with you. I won't be much help here anyways." Rink said.
"Okay, but what about Lagart." Duilin asked.
"I think he's fine..." Rink pointed to the lizard man.
Lagart was swinging and slashing his sword away at the dark angels, fending them off. One of the dark angels shot a fireball at his back and the lizard man turned around, dashed towards it and gave a mighty swing of his broadsword cutting it across the chest, taking it to the ground. A three other dark angels came behind him but he turned around and gave a massive horizontal slash taking all three out.
"Lagart, no know how long he keep this up." He panted, as he continued to swing his sword warning them off.
"Bjendell!" Rink shouted. "If you can, use some white magic enhancement spells on our friend Lagart. He doesn't know any magic, so he might be at a disadvantage." He then looked at Duilin. "We better go."
"Yeah, but first..."
The six angels surrounded Duilin and Rink, and readied to attack. The half demon's golden aura glowed brighter and he spread out his arms and shot two arching lightning bolts that traveled through the dark angels, and knocked them to the ground. "Still alive?" Duilin asked himself as he lowered to the ground, and dark angels weakly got back up. "Damn. Well, if you're going to be like that." The half demon then charged up lightning in his hands and then clapped them together and crafted an orb. The lightning shifted from yellow, to green then to cyan. "Hold on tight Rink, I'm gonna go this really quickly."
The imp grabbed tight on Duilin's shoulder, as he zoomed high into the air and then zoomed back down after he reached twenty feet. He then stopped and hovered in the air when he reached about seven feet and then smashed the orb into the ground creating an explosion of lightning energy, which stunned the group of dark angels.
"I don't know how long they're going to be numbed, but it should hold them for a little bit." Duilin then stretched his arms. "Okay, let's hurry..." He then jumped and spread his wings open and then started low flying towards the castle...
-
After a while of walking between bookcases and picking out mages which Indher believed to be cut out for the job, she stood before a trio of lizard mages trying to decide which two will be number 99 and 100.
"Hmm... Let's see... You are obviously of pretty much the same skill level..."
She observed their faces, but instead, something in the middle one's hand cought her eye.
" 'Magical circles... And other funny shapes... for Dummies'..." Indher read the book's cover out loud. It wasn't written in any common language, but Indher managed to read it anyway.
The lizard gave a confused look and turned to look at the cover of the book.
"No, silly. It doesn't say 'for dummies', I was joking..."
The lizard rolled his eyes.
"In any case, you will do. You to the right... No wait, you seem preoccupied. YOU will have to go, then."
With two of the three lizards behind her, Indher slowly paced back towards the balcony...
Upon reaching it, she gave a quick glare towards Kelmar, rolling her eyes as she does.
She turned to Grav.
"This is enough, I'd say... "
She sighed.
"Alright, where is the summoning chamber? I want to begin immediately. Oh, and it better have chalk unless you went me to etch the runes unto the floor."
-
//Blast! I guess I forgot to say they were attacking with all sorts of weapons. They attacked a warning shot with arrows, and have secondary iron shortwsord.
"Lagart!" Ben shouted, "Take these!" Ben shot five white orbs at Lagart. It was a speed and strength charm, and would help Lagart stay energized. Ben cast a few of them at Lagart, as the enhancement was ment for a human. A Lizardman would need at least three, but he cast five anyways.
"They're coming from the skies!" More angels flew from above and made for Ben. He was already finished with the angels that attacked him and was assisting Lagart. Apparently, they were weaker while near the castle, or they were just plain weak.
-
The trip through the caves was uneventful for the faux-wolves, and the three soon found themselves looking down upon the capital city of Tjedon from the exit of the caverns. It had been too easy...
Melface's eyes went wide when he saw the dark angels swarming the city. "The city is... under attack?" He paused a moment. "I doubt this is the work of the Velkens. Or even the Dark Empire..."
----
"We're under attack!"
A group of knights training in the castle courtyards took up their blades and rushed to the aid of Ben and the lizard man. Soon it was a giant melee.
"Sound the alarm!"
Shortly the bell in the tower was ringing loudly, and Tjedian warriors of all types piled into the courtyard and atop the walls, rushing to meet the threat from above...
----
"Of course we have chalk! Blast it!"
The short robed lizard threw his hands into the air grumbling as he lead the procession of mages down the hallway. The skunk tethered along, totally enraptured in the moment. "Hey, you're probably going to need more than one extra, right?" He rubbed a claw under his chin, not quite putting things together yet.
After another floating-rock elevator ride and another long walk through endless hallways, it became evident that the group was no longer in the main structure of the Tower of Heaven's Bane, but likely in an underground off-shoot. The hallways were less ornate here, and resembled natural stone, tunnels bored through the rock with brick supports and torches every few hundred feet.
The large black gates before them flew open, and the entire procession spilled out onto a massive auditorium. Huge spires held the walls at regular intervals all the way around the circular room. The smooth stone floor was completely level and free of dust. High above a balcony overlooked all, two four-winged dragon statures flanking either side. Hundreds of torches bathed the room in an orange glow, nearly all the way to the black domed ceiling...
Grav pointed to a table with various colors of chalk lying in a box near the wall. "There. Now get to work!"
----
Ven ran a gauntlet though his hair.
"You ever get the feeling something bad is happening?" He sighed. "Something you're needed for, but you can't control?"
Vincent finished polishing the long metal tube of his Auto Shotgun, and began screwing it back in place. "All the time."
There was a knock at the door.
"That's us."
Vincent nodded.
The time for battle had come. One quick equipment check later and they were out the door.
----
King Henri clenched his teeth as he looked at the paper. Suddenly Draven's offer didn't seem so bad...
The old king ran his hand through his graying hair as droplets of sweat dripped from his face. After a moment, he brought his gaze up to meet the Velken's cold stare with a chilled gaze of his own.
"No."
"Don't be rash. If you don't comply we will have to--"
"I said NO!!"
The dull echo of the king's fists slamming on the table thundered through the chamber. He was standing now, veins tense in his forehead.
No one said a word.
Finally the king stood up straight. "We will fight you. Every last one of us. If you kill me, then the next will stand up. Every time until there are none left. If we don't succeed then we will die free men. You can never capture the freedom of Tjed."
Virmir simply stared at him, at a loss for words.
Suddenly, the old king drew the ornate longsword at his hip and took a mad slash at the Velken to his right. "You will NEVER enslave us!!" The Blade Knight's feet simply lifted from the ground, and he hovered backwards some ten feet out of the sword's range. Henri immediately turned and tried to sever the head of the one to his left, but his blade hit no where near his mark.
With wild eyes, King Henri of Tjed turned and met the cold impassive stare of Virmir, still seated at the end of the table. He lifted his blade and screamed. "AAAHHHHH!!!" He madly dashed at him, nearly kicking over the chairs in his wake. With a mighty cleave he brought his ancestral sword right down into the head of that horrible inhuman monster...
And it was all over.
Henri's sword clanked upon the floor in two pieces, cleanly split halfway down the blade. The silver fox removed the Wind Serpent from the human's chest, and he lifelessly crumbled to the floor.
Slowly the other Velkens gathered around. No one spoke for a word for several moments, instead bowing their heads for the defeated king. Regicide. They tried to show respect for a noble enemy whenever possible.
Helix was the first to break the silence, running his claws through the long strands of fur atop his head. His normally fiery and lively voice was subdued. "He'd rather die as a free man, than live as a slave."
They all seemed to shudder.
Anslem spoke from the edges of the group, his claws still clasped behind his back. "An honorable death."
Virmir wiped the blood from his sword with a cloth. "There is no such thing as an honorable death."
They left through the windows, flying out as black and silver blurs. Renard was the last to leave. He took one last look at the room filled with death and sighed before joining his comrades.
So much more would come.
-
"Thank you!" Lagart replied as he was given a burst of energy. The lizard man gave a mighty and speedy swing with his broad sword at one of the dark angels, who attempted to block but his sword was broken in two as Lagart's sword came down on it. The lizard man then gave a second swing smashing the blade down onto the dark angels head. He then noticed the reinforcements and smiled.
---
Rufokanno and Ophelia nodded.
"It seems that a lot is about to happen." Ophelia stated. "Maybe being stealthy will be the least of our worries." She looked up towards the castle. "I have a feeling that Duilin, is in the castle. Likely going to protect the king."
---
Duilin and Rink entered the Tjed castle, all seemed quiet for a few seconds, but then he could hear yelling, but the silence.
Suddenly a cold feeling shivered through Duilin. "Oh no..." Duilin said to himself.
"What's wrong?" Rink asked, but Duilin dashed off leaving the imp behind.
He kicked open the door to the kings room and noticed two dead guards at the end of room. He then noticed the king’s dead body on the floor. "Oh no..." Duilin kneeled over the dead body of King Henri. Who did this? I couldn't have been the dark angels. He first thought that maybe it was Draven, but he was clearly killed by blade, Draven only used his fire magic spells.
Rink entered the room, and gasped. "Duilin...he is?"
"Yeah." Duilin sighed. He got back up and clenched his fist. "Damit!" He pounded the table. "I promised Ven I'd look after him and I could even do that!"
"There was nothing you could have done. You didn't detect any auras or anything." Rink said. "Not even I did, they must have been either low in magic, or had aura cloaking."
"I could have stopped this! If I just stood inside the castle! Did just wander around like some bumbling moron! Now we have murders loose and an army of dark angels swarming around!" Duilin yelled in frustration. "I...just...Who, could have killed Henri!?"
Rink hopped into the air and fluttered around the room. "Hmm..."
"What are you doing?" Duilin asked
"I’m examining the area. From what it looks like..." The imp fluttered over the kings chair, the king was either dragged away or he ran from his chair and..." He then made his way to where the dead body was and noticed the cut weapon. "He must have tried to attack somebody with a very sharp and speedy sword. Must have been a master of speed to cut a sword like this."
"So...he was likely killed by some assassin, what does that tell us? You have any idea how many assassins there are?" Duilin retorted
"Duilin, calm yourself and let me finish." Rink ordered his enraged friend. "There is likely a connection between those auras you briefly sensed outside, the death of the king and perhaps even the death of Jayce."
"Where are you getting at?"
"This is a shot in the dark here, but..." Rink lowered down and stood on the table. "I think Retan found out his son is dead and got angry. So then he sent an assassin to come and kill king and likely whoever is involved with this."
"Virmir." Duilin said, as if reaching a conclusion.
"Who?"
"The other day, I met some fox guy, named Renard and helped him get to Asgarnia because he was attacked. He turned out to be with the Dark Empire, serving under High General Virmir. I noticed he had a pretty long and slender sword...."
"You sure?" Rink asked. "I mean, I was only making a guess."
"Well, I'm pretty sure you're right Rink." Duilin said back. "The Dark Empire has got to be involved with this. But regardless I bet whoever killed him has got to be here. The king was probably only killed a minute maybe even less than that, before I got here."
Rink shrugged. "So, you gonna go look for him?"
"Bingo." Duilin then climbed onto one of the window sills. "Tell Goldolf and Belle about what happened, and tell them I'm going off to find whoever did this..." He then hopped out and flew off, to search the area. "And kill him..."
-
"Alright..." Indher grinned devilishly, rubbing her palms.
She grabbed a piece of chalk and ran to the middle of the room, beggining to draw a straight line from it.
"Radius... 150 feet..." she muttered, measuring the line as she draws.
"Good, now for the circle..." she continious to go around the room, drawing an accurate, large circle.
After a while she began drawing detailed runes within the circle, including funny-looking letters, various geometric and non-geometric shapes as well as what appeared to be a mock-picture of the a random king.
As she drew several letters inside a hexagon, she suddenly stopped and got up.
"Curses! OUT OF CHALK!"
She hurried away from the circle...
-
“Aaugh!”
“Hold still, and I’ll bandage it.”
“Oh dear God…it hurts!”
“I’d imagine. That damn thing nearly bit your foot off!”
Odessa bandaged up Les’s mutilated foot, compressing it to stop the bleeding.
“We need to get you out of here,” Odessa said to him. “Though how will you walk?”
“With his feet,” a hoarse voice hissed.
Odessa turned around to see an extremely aged man, almost appearing skeletal, garbed in a gray robe. His skin was a mottled green color, and the hood hid his facial features.
“Dear God in Heaven!” Odessa exclaimed. Les had passed out at the sight of this man. Either that or from blood loss. “Where did you come from?”
“Around,” the robed man said. “It truly is a pity.”
“What is?”
“The dear human body. Such a frail vessel, no? Yet so many continue to push its limits to the breaking point. This poor fellow here, however, suffered something different, I see.”
“Well, yeah… This black snake thing with huge teeth snuck up behind him and bit him right in the back of the foot.” The fresh white bandages had already turned deep red, saturated with blood.
“Like I said,” he replied, “he shall walk with his feet.” He waved his hand. “Remove the bandages.”
Deciding he would humor the eccentric old man, Odessa obeyed the his wish. To his surprise, the bite wound was completely healed, as if it had never happened at all.
“My God, that’s amazing,” Odessa said. “Who are you? What are you?”
“All in due time.”
Carmine was taking care of Estacado’s injuries. From what he was able to see, Estacado had several broken ribs from taking a direct hit from a fruit cart earlier. Alex had really wore them down.
“Adam, you still with me?”
“Yeah, boss,” Estacado grunted. “That Alex is nothing to sneeze at.”
“Agreed. I think I’ve found something out though. He’s always in the dark when he’s using that demon shit, so if we can get him into the light, he’ll be out of luck. Thing is though, morning’s too far off… We gotta bring daytime to him. Question is, how?”
“It’s truly a wonder how one promotion can change a man, isn’t it?” the same hoarse voice whispered, behind Carmine.
“What the…” Carmine turned around. “Do I know you?”
“Possibly. The real question is, do you know yourself?”
“…de Sade?”
“Riding high on a promotion, I see,” de Sade hissed. “So predictable, you humans. I was never a fan of military pride.”
“My God,” Carmine said, “where have you been? It’s been days…”
“There were greater mountains to climb than the defeat of Alex. I almost found a challenge.”
“De Sade, Alex is still out there. He’s got a new weapon, possibly several. We could really use your help.”
“Alex...? He can barely stand in a gentle breeze, and yet I am a hurricane. You almost surprised me by letting him live for this long. Mortals... I suppose Alex is ready for his next lesson: humility.”
“They’re not coming back…I guess they learned their lesson.”
Do not underestimate the enemy, Alex…they may exploit your greatest weakness. Overconfidence has felled many warriors in the past. Do not fall victim to it.
“They’re down three men,” Alex said. “It would be suicidal to attack again.”
War is not just statistics. Every warrior has his purpose. Theirs is to eliminate you. Yours is to survive. Which has the upper hand? Which will emerge victorious?
All Alex could really do was wait for the next attack. If he tried to flee, they would find him. If he stayed, he would be forced to endure another duel. Could he? Between a rock and a hard place, was an undesirable spot. In that spot sat Alex, torn on what to do.
At your fingertips is great power. You have just yet to master it. Mastery comes from experience, which comes from practice. What better way to practice than on your foes?
If Alex got on the offensive too much he could find himself in a much harder place.
Lying in wait like so many other predators. The night is your playground, the dark your home. Embrace it, and it will embrace you. Don’t you see, Alex? You have the upper hand.
The Shroud was under his control, not the other way around. He intended it to remain that way.
I see you have different strategies in mind. Very well. It is your gift, after all. Do with it what you will. Just remember, the warrior always adapts. Should the time come, will you be able to?
He would have to. Chances are the next attack would be in broad daylight if they had learned anything from the debacle they just suffered. Aware of his situation, he proceeded to return to the lab and gear up. The Shroud would do him no good next time.
-
"I feel naked without my katanas..." Vandrin commented.
"Yeah, you should just stop talking." Hypnos groaned in annoyance.
"What's wrong?" Vandrin asked, almost sounding annoyed, as well.
"Okay, I had to go through the most torture filled and gruelling training to get to my position, and the visualization of you naked makes me want to die."
Vandrin clenched his teeth. "Out of all the people I've me you, by far have to be--"
The stalker interrupted him, by lifting up his hands. "Shh...I hear something coming." He whispered. "It's a lone lizard man. Hide, I'll take him down to the ground, then you sedate him with that spell of yours..."
Vandrin sneaked off and hid behind a pile of rubble, and Hypnos leaned against a nearby building and his cloak blended in.
The lizard man was walking along by himself; he was carrying a fairly large axe. He seemed to be humming some sort of odd and terrible sounding tune. He then stopped and sniffed the air. He noticeably mumbled the word 'human' and then quickened its pace closer to where Vandrin was hiding. Before it could find the poorly hidden count, Hypnos jumped out behind it and slashed his kamas at the lizard's ankles.
The lizard man squealed, and fell forward on its belly, and dropped its weapon. Vandrin then jumped out from hiding, with the sedative magic already charged in his hands. "Back up." He told the stalker, who followed the order. Vandrin then shot two blasts at the lizard man and it was covered in a short lived cloud of cyan gas.
"Okay, do you have rope or something?" Vandrin asked.
"Surprisingly, yes." Hypnos replied.
"Okay, we'll tie a rope around this guy and drag him along." Vandrin said. "I don't think the castle is too far away."
"I know the Kandarin's made up a camp, not too far away. It would be better to stop there, unless you want to go to the castle. I'm sure that Gorus character is going to there."
"Yeah...let's find the camp."
-
Aaron gathered all of his comrades before the front door of the great home. He arranged them in a line and looked every one in the face... Not a speck of fear... Not even in his wife's face.
"Listen up! We're here to end this. Once this is over, you're going home. All of you..." He lead them out the house and down the road to the gate. His army was there, waiting for him to lead it.
"Sire, you may want to stay behind a bit for this attack... Our scouts have spotted the main army's advance. We know it's them... This shroud has their evils written all over it."
"Stay back? You must have me confused with an old and weak man. I am NOT weak!"
"But sir-"
"I will lead them myself!" Aaron raced forwards near the front of the gates, looking back to the city where his army, and his royal guards stood. "There may be a time when the strength of men fails and we all doom ourselves to the darkest void... but it is not this day. There may be a time when all hope is lost and death takes us... But it is not this day! This day is another chapter in our nation's history! This day, WE FIGHT!!!" He threw his right arm up as he said those last words. His army was ready. They shouted back with great morale.
Silence befell the field. The blade knights gripped their swords tightly; Archers readied an arrow in their bows; mages prepared their staffs and scrolls and readied their hands for spellcraft. Aaron thought he could hear the life in the forest, spirits of the great oaks behind him. That and something else...?something continuously growing louder and louder. It was like an earthquake, only much more organized. The Dark Empire's forces had come for the city of Vol Duria.
A monstrous sound of metal was heard scraping through sheathes of all different kinds of blades as thousands of swords were unsheathed. The sound echoed through the forest in an almost painful pitch, and soon faded. From the other side of the wall, a yell could be heard, and then another, much louder yell from the army.
"Archers, ready your bows!" Anaxese yelled behind. They pulled the strings on their bows back, loaded with arrows as they pointed up at the sky.
"Draw swords!" He shouted through the air. A softer metal sound could be heard as the army from behind drew their blades. Aaron pulled his gloved down and clenched his fists.
Another yell could be heard from the other side of the wall, although there was no reply from the army behind. Instead, a great, rolling could be heard. What on earth is that sound, Aaron wondered. Just then, it hit him, as it did the gates. A battering ram. The smash echoed through the forest, but it was softer, and not so painfully loud as the swords.
A second smash followed quickly, then a third. The battering ram was repetativly smashing against the gates.
"FIRST VOLLEY!" Anaxese yelled. The archers let their arrows fly up into the sky, killing a few unprepared soldiers on the other side of the wall. The archers readied their bows again.
"SECOND VOLLEY!" Anaxese yelled again. More arrows filled the sky as they came down upon the enemies. This time, it only killed a few enemies.
"Just a few more hits with this ram and that gate's toast..." Aaron said to himself aloud.
"Gee, that sure is a nice way to think at a time like this," Justin replied from behind.
"I was only just mentioning... that's when the real fun begins!"
--------------------
-
"I would agree."
In the blink of an eye, the wolves were no more, replaced by the three humanoid figures as if they were standing there the whole time.
The child-like demon ran a finger under his chin. "We'd be less noticeable to panicking humans like this anyway. Keep the shield up though, Rufo my good man. Who knows where those Velkens are..."
Melface began jogging down the path towards the capital city of Tjed.
----
The sun was still low in the sky, and many long shadows were cast from the castle walls and the surrounding mountains. The eleven Velkens congregated in a circle in one of these such shadows, floating a few feet above the grassy plane just north of the castle spires.
"Who is attacking?"
"They are not of the Dark Empire."
They turned their heads above as a swarm of dark angels flew past. Virmir folded his arms and flicked his tail indignantly. "They are ruining our plans. We may have to fall back and see what part they play."
Helix clenched his teeth and growled, blue sparks crackling in his claw. "Or, we can make them leave."
Virmir shook his head. "No. They are not our target. We will watch."
----
By now Grav had moved up to the balcony overlooking the runes drawn on the floor, bored-ly drumming his nails on a table.
"Blast it! Hurry it up!"
His voice echoed throughout the massive chamber as he shouted from above. The mages had taken up positions on the sidelines, silently waiting with their cowls over their heads and hands hidden in their robes before them. The skunk had donned a similar black robe as well, his bushy black tail sticking out the rear. He paced back and forth impatiently, wondering if there was some sort of bench the "extras" needed to sit on during the casting.
----
Ven was ready. It was these types of moments he excelled in. Although he half wanted to be up there with the wolf-man giving the speech himself. But he new he'd have his chance again when he went home. The silver knight drew his blade with the others, and it began to glow with a brilliant white light. His eyes turned upon the failing doors and he clutched the hilt of his sword with two hands, ready for anything.
To the knight's left, Vincent jammed a rectangular cartridge into the top of his weapon, which resounded with a satisfying *click*. He cocked the shotgun once and directed it at the gates.
"Let's get it on."
-
The gates were shortly destroyed, and in poured a large number of Lizards and Humans. Not just from the gates, but from the walls as well. They brought ladders... Clever...
"ATTACK!!!" Everyone rushed madly for the wall, slashing left and right, the Drannivolkans showering blood from their opponents; the elves shooting arrows at rapid-fire. Spellcasters were behind the archers, flinging fire frost and shock attacks above and at the walls.
------------
More dark angels swooped down from the sky. They flew down and readied longswords to meet the Tjed defenses, as well as Ben and Lagart, who seemed to be handling the angels quite well on their own.
------------
-
Indher turned up to look at Grav as she picked up another piece of chalk.
"Well SO-REE for not winning this or any year's fastest rune-drawer contest!"
Though I probably would have won it, considering the amount of rune-users around...
She continiued to draw various lines and strange letters.
Soon, there were so many of them, one could not step inside the circle without smearing a line. Indher anticipated this, and planned ahead -
She finished it on the outside.
"Alright, I'm done..." she got up, dusting off the chalk powder from her hands.
"I can begin summoning as soon as whoever is supposed to bring the thing down gets here."
-
Rufokanno nodded, in reply to Melface.
"Perhaps, it would be best to search the castle. I think we'll be able to easily get in, with all the commotion about." Ophelia suggested. "Perhaps we might find some of Duilin's friends..." She started her way towards the keep. "In fact, if we can find out if anyone is close to Duilin we could use that person as bait."
---
A soft knocking was heard from the other side of the door.
"Belle?" Rinks voice came from the other side.
Belle opened the door, but saw nobody there. "Hello?" She asked confused.
"Heheh, down here." Rink said, tugging on Belle's leg.
"Oh, Rink. Come in. Is everything okay? I heard some noises and I was going to go outside but the guards told me to stay in. What's wrong?" She sat down at her chair on the desk, and Rink hopped up onto the bed.
"Uh, can really put this in a better way, but King Henri was murdered."
Belle gasped. "What? How? By who?"
"We aren't sure. I have a suspicion that the Dark Empire is involved."
"So, what about the attack?"
"An army of dark angels are here. Weither they have a connection to the murder of the king or the empire I'm not sure."
"Is Duilin okay? I don't what I'd do if I lost him..." She asked, sounding a bit worried.
"Don't worry. He's fine. He's just a little angry. He promised Ven, that he'd look after the king."
"My god. Poor, Henri. I talked with him a bit, when you guys were fighting in Kensar. He was so kind. He told me how you guys saved everyone from Mavas." Belle walked over to the bed and sat next to the imp. "I can't belive he's gone. Where is his body?"
"I had Goldolf put him in his bed. Nobody else knows yet, I don't think the Tjedi are ready to know, with everything going on."
"How did Goldolf take Henri's death?"
"Pretty well. Luckily, he never knew him."
Belle let out a sigh. "Well, are you going to help fight the dark angels?"
"No, I think it would be best if I just made sure everyone was safe in the castle. Do you want to stay here, or come with me?"
"I'll come with you. I need a walk, we'll just stay inside."
---
"Blast it!" Duilin snapped, he couldn't find anything except dark angels flying around. It couldn't have been any of them, could it? Duilin was too ticked off. He needed to fight.
He looked down at Tjedon, and the dark angels. He can't just float here, and let them go around. He needed to clean out this infestation. The half demon's golden aura then burst into a flame as he shot down towards the ground, he smashed into a group of dark angels creating an explosion of flame blowing them away, leaving a small crater in the ground.
A single dark angel came at him with his sword and swung it at him, but Duilin smashed the sword out of the dark angel's hand with The Iduran, and stabbed the blasphemous being in the chest. He held both of his weapons, the Iduran in his right and the Talonscar in the other. Another duo of angels then dashed towards him, the half demon simply swung his sword across one of the dark angel's neck cutting it's head off, and smashed the other in the chest with his mace, knocking it to the ground, he continued to walk forward, as he passed the semi-conscious dark angel on the ground he gave another smash with his mace down on the dark angel's head.
-
//I'm really sorry for the extended absence, guys. I got a new computer and have had some troubles with it...
Anti was sent back by the explosion, by quite a distance, but managed to turn a backflip in the air and right himself, though he ended up quite a distance back. Drake, meanwhile, had gotten a safe distance away from the explosion. He was now floating over toward where Draven impacted the ground, where only boulders were visible. He was shaking his head as Anti flew in relatively quickly. They soon arrived at around the same time, and Drake looked at him. "Good lord, Anti."
"Yes?" He was now pulsating in color, with a bright purple. The energy he had expended was now gradually returning to him.
"Ha ha, very funny." He looked at the boulders. "He really could have been useful to us. Yet, I'm sure the feeling's mutual to him."
"He's not dead."
"?!"
"That guy is the persistent type. I bet he's 'died'-" He took it upon himself to use quote bunnies here, "-several times already."
"Is that so...?"
"Besides, he's powerful. He'll get out momentarily, and probably brush it off with a word like 'troublesome'. I like this guy. I think I might tag along with him for a bit."
"I was about to propose that to you."
"Well, looks like you're in luck, buddy. Let's wait for him to come out." He wasn't positive that he was alive, but he had a good feeling that he was.
-
Melface darted from shadow to shadow in between the buildings of Tjedon. Other than the occasional knight rushing past to aid in the battle going on in the castle courtyard, and a villager rushing in the opposite direction, the streets were relatively deserted.
"Hmmm, a delicious idea. Even if we cannot find anyone close to him, a random chamber maid would serve as an excellent hostage."
He licked his lips.
"Or lunch."
They came to the edge of the castle walls. The nightmare demon waited for a group of guards to run past before leaping the whole twenty feet straight up and landing where they just trod. He pressed his back against a wall next to a door that lead to a spire, shrinking into the shadows to wait for his comrades.
----
"Then we shall begin."
The voice came from behind Grav, who startled-ly turned to see the Dark Emperor stride though the door and onto the balcony that overlooked the arena.
The mages took their positions around the circle, and as they silently walked/floated, the two massive doors on either side of the arena rumbled as their gates were pulled up. Shadows emerged, the dim torchlight revealing them to be a handful of elites entering from each side. They were a brutish lot, a Demon Lord, two S-Class Lizard Men, several burly fighters of various species. Then came two Dark Dragons, their dragonmasters dressed in pointy black armor and helmets, and a handful of green skinned ogres, standing twelve feet high with massive clubs.
Last came the enforcers. They were black-cowled like the summoning mages, but these had a red stripe down either side. The twenty of them worked independently from the summoning, and would serve to subdue the beast and enslave its mind as soon as it began to cross into the Gaian plane.
Once the massive assembly was positioned around the circle, all eyes turned to the lone summoner woman...
----
As soon as the doors burst open Vincent let loose an intense spray of flame from his weapon, bathing the forerunners of the assault with a crimson glow. The humans were repelled very quickly, but it took several seconds of a concentrated blast to slow a Lizard Man down, and the alchemist found himself having to slowly back up.
"I'm surprised to see humans still fighting for the Dark Empire." Vincent yelled to his side.
"Depends on whoever the general is, I suppose." Ven shouted back. The silver knight's blade was glowing brightly, and he cleaved the air to send shock waves of the light element hurdling into his foes. Still they were loosing ground, and close combat would come in seconds...
----
The pile of boulders did not explode, but rather the ground twenty feet directly behind Anti and Drake erupted like a volcano, a geyser of magma shooting skyward as Draven punched through the earth. Balanced before his forward-aimed right hand was a surging sphere of crimson some five feet in diameter.
"Troublesome... die!!"
With that, the orb launched forward like a ballistic missile.
-
One of the Tjed knights was tackled by one of the dark angels. The evil being lifted it's sword ready to stab the knight in the chest, but he was grabbed by the neck, by somebody from behind. It was Duilin, he tightened his grip and pulled the dark angel off of the knight and tossed him on the ground, he then smashed the evil sprite with his mace a few times until it stopped moving.
"Thank you sir Duilin." The knight said in gratitude getting back up.
"Don't mention it..." Duilin replied modestly.
"Do you know what these things are?" The knight asked, assuming he'd know.
"Nope." Duilin shrugged. "But I intend to make sure they will leave." He jumped into the air and spread out his wings and soared off. Duilin was pretty sure he'd find those fox-men somewhere
---
Ophelia and Rufokanno speed their way through the shadows at a blurring speed. Ophelia had cast a speed spell on the two, which obviously made them run faster.
"Hey, what's that?" a Tjed guard asked himself as he spotted the two moving blurs. He jogged towards where he saw them stop. He could see two figures in the shadows.
"Hey, you two! What are you doing? Get inside, its danger--" Suddenly he felt the top rims of his armour being crushed into his neck, causing him to choke. He started struggling to breathe, and he was trying to squeeze his hands under the neck rim so he could pull them away from his neck, but it was too tight, in a few seconds he passed out, just as Rufokanno stepped from the shadows, with his hand out as if he was crushing something with his hands.
"Enough, he is dead. Let's go." Ophelia ordered.
Rufokanno nodded and the two zoomed towards where Melface was waiting in the shadows.
Melface was completely visible to Ophelia "You ready? We search through the castle, and we'll try to find somebody who Duilin may come to protect. He seemed to have some sympathy for even me, so perhaps somebody of the female variety will work best."
She opened the door, of the spire. "And try not to eat her soul until we've lured Duilin."
---
Goldolf who just exited the king room where he had put Henri to temporally rest, approached Rink and Belle.
"Hey there feller." He said to Rink. "Ma'm." He nodded to Belle.
"Hi, Goldolf." Belle replied.
"So, did Duilin come back, or is he still out there?" Goldolf asked Rink.
"He's still outside." The imp replied. "He's likely seeing how the dark angels are rampaging all over the place and he's venting out his anger on them."
"So, what do we do now?" Belle asked.
"I dunno, wait here and if anybody wants to know about the king then we can explain what happened, perhaps sugar-coated at the least."
-
Suddenly the man fell. The cat jumped scared of his shoulder while the man fell on his back. Blood came out of his chest, and right hand, it was crimson blood, it was beautifull blood. The man muttered some spells, and the blood stopped flowing but the wounds weren't healed.
- "I guess she will be here soon.. And this must be the price for my last stunt.."
The man closed his eyes and a white aura covered him.
"If I'll keep this position for a while, nobody will find me.. nor hurt me."
~~~~~~
((I'm going for 2 weeks))
-
Indher smiled, her grin slightly devilish.
She spread her arms.
"All right, mage lot! Transfer your power either to me or the runes. Either will do, as long as you hold nothing back!"
Some of the lizard mages nodded, and while the others remained still and silent, Indher assumed it to be a sign of agreement.
She bent down to her knees, placing her hands on the floor just outside the drawn circle.
"Haaaah..."
She took a deep breath, and violet light began to spread across the runes, from Indher as well as several of the mages, following each line to the exactness it was drawn in.
"...Hmmm..."
The circle was now brimming with pulsating violet light, which suddenly turned ghastly blue. The torches began to flicker and the chamber began to shake lightly.
The air was filled with dust from the cieling, and Indher's expression made it obvious that keeping this up was not easy.
"...mmmHAA...!"
The familiar feeling of impending doom spread once again across the surface of gaian. The runes changed quickly to a bright crimson and then to a deep, bloody red.
The shaking grew violent, and several mages collapsed, either from the great strain on their bodies or the inability to withstand the mental shock. Or perhaps even a combination of both.
"...AAAGkhth...!"
All of a sudden, the torches went out. The only source of any real light were the runes themselves, now burning in grayish flames.
A green ball of fire appears not too high above the runes, and a loud CRACK is heared.
The cracking noise continues as small fissures spread from underneath the green flame in all directions, stopping after soon after they reach all four walls.
A shadowy figure slowly becomes visible within the green fire.
It appreas to have wings, and isn't much bigger than a class S lizard.
The atmosphere it radiates is not even demonic - It holds no Malice.
Only a deep, hollow feeling of everything of everything being plunged into oblivion...
...It... It must be it...!
Silence. The being did not speak, and yet it's words were obvious to anyone with the slightest bit of a sixth sense -
Why am I here?
-
Melface kicked an imaginary stone with his foot. "Drat."
He followed the two into the building, except he melted through the wall instead of taking the door. Keeping to the shadows, he followed the corridor to its end where it intercepted a perpendicular hallway. He pressed his back to the wall when he heard voices.
"We cannot find the King anywhere."
"Did you check the council chamber?"
"Not yet. I will see to it immediately. But we need immediate orders, Chancellor, and the tasks falls on you."
"Very well, but keep this quiet..."
The knight and robed man continued down the passage, out of earshot. Melface grinned.
"It seems we have come at the best time possible."
----
One of the red-striped mages jumped out in front of the beast.
"You will bow to your master, The Dark Emperor Retan!" he hissed, as he pointed a bony gray finger. The other enforcers lifted their arms as a cage of glowing red bars formed around the summoned creature, which slowly began constricting.
The mage made whipping motions with his arm. "Bow, bow, BOW!!"
Retan merely sat on the throne with his head resting against his hand, looking only mildly interested in the spectacle from the balcony high above. Beside him, Grav stood with a wide sneer, leaning forward on his staff.
-
Alex struggled to keep himself awake in the dead of night. It seemed like he hadn’t had sleep in days. Staking out a location was easy enough…with plenty of sleep beforehand. With no sleep for at least two days, it was insufferable.
The fact that the P.C.S. had a cushioned interior that acted as ballistic padding made him more comfortable, which he didn’t need right now. Any sense of comfort would make him fall asleep in his state. His stomach rumbled. He was hungry, too. He had forgotten the last time he had a good meal.
Biological necessities aside, sheer boredom overtook him. What else could he do but sit and wait for the attack? If he went out looking for him, he could fight himself into a corner. The Shroud was being quiet, and he and Midna separated when she ducked into cover during the fight. He was all alone.
He sighed. He hadn’t been this bored in years.
“Wish I at least had someone to talk to,” Alex complained.
“Why not talk to me?” Midna said, appearing from around a corner.
“Thank God you’re okay,” Alex sighed. “They ran off after I whipped their sorry asses.”
“What if they come back?”
“Doubtful. I got at least three of their guys in the fight. Unless they acquire some kind of magical prodigy that can heal wounds in moments, we’re fine.”
“What about de Sade?”
“Wha?”
“De Sade. What if he’s back? That blue guy WAS a Lilithian, after all…”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t de Sade…he attacked in very much the same way, though. Maybe he’s family?”
“Possibly. Whatever the case, he was powerful. I hope we don’t run into him again.”
“You and me both. One Lilithian is bad enough.”
“So, what, are they going to wait until morning?”
“I guess so. The Shroud can’t be used in bright light. They don’t have any artificial way of making sunlight, so we should be relatively safe until then…”
“I don’t like this, Alex. It seems like they might be setting us up for something.”
“The only thing that’s being set up is their downfall,” Alex said. “They’re on the run and down to three.”
“Three? I thought you said there were only five of them…”
“One of the other guys wasn’t a KAF soldier,” Alex explained. “He looked like some kind of assassin. Fought like one too. He could teleport short distances quickly, which made him rather hard to hit.”
“That worries me even more,” Midna sighed. “With an assassin on their side, the next attack could come from anywhere.”
Alex yawned. “On second thought, underground or at least inside seems like a much better idea.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Midna said, taking his shadow.
Saying nothing more, Alex returned inside to the safety of Kleiner’s lab.
“Alex, did you find them?” Izzy asked.
“Not yet,” he replied. “I think I’ll wait until morning to go looking.”
“Very well,” Kleiner said. “I can’t imagine who would be after you, and why. You’re such a likeable fellow!”
“Apparently they don’t think so,” Alex sighed, taking his helmet off. “What I don’t understand is why they, who outnumbered me six to one, ran from the fight. They could’ve easily killed me there, but they didn’t. They’re setting us up for something, and I’d like to know what.”
“Just be careful,” Isaac said, taking out a clipboard, “and you’ll be fine, I have no doubt about it.”
“Hey, what’s that for?” Alex asked him.
“Oh, this? It’s a checklist for the Borderworld portal, just to make sure everything is running properly.”
That was it. They couldn’t track him down in another dimension. If he hid out in the Borderworld until morning, he would be safe. But the dimension’s deadly aura would no doubt have an adverse effect on him long before then. The Borderworld was out. The Twilight, perhaps?
“Izzy, you’ve given me a great idea. I know exactly where I can rest until the time comes. Thanks a lot, Doc, you’re a genius!” Alex went back outside.
“Goodness me,” Kleiner chuckled, “no one’s ever said that to me before, and I’m a scientist!”
Midna immediately emerged from his shadow. “I think I know what you’re thinking.”
“Hide out in the Twilight until morning and we can move safely?”
“I’ll cast the portal. While we’re there you can assure the Elders you’re okay.” Midna flicked her wrist, and like that, the portal opened.
On the other side, the Twilight was bathed in perpetual dusk, which suited Alex just fine after a long night. Finally, a safe haven in which to hide. He breathed a sigh of relief. Amazingly enough, the realm was completely untouched by the war with the Kandarinian Sovereignty. Not even the foremost Kandarinian sorcerers could determine the proper spell to get there.
Safe and sound finally, he headed toward the Temple of Dusk to speak with the Elders.
-
Goldolf took out a cigar and lit it up, by casting a spark of flame in his hands with his magic. "I dunno, I think we should just tell everyone in the castle about the king getting killed. What if they suspect us?"
"I don't think they would. We kind of are regarded as heroes to the nation." Rink replied. "But I see where you're getting at."
Belle leaned against the wall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor, she wrapped her coat around herself. "I'm feeling kind of scared about everything going on."
"Why?" Rink asked.
"I dunno, suddenly I don't feel like wandering the halls. Like if I'm moving whoever killed the king is going to sneak up behind me and attack." Belle replied, shivering. "I'm sorry, if I'm being a pain, but can you guys just wait here with me, until Duilin comes?"
Goldolf noticeably rolled her eyes. "I ain't seein' what the big deal is. However killed Henri is obviously gone, they'd be stupid to stick around 'ere."
"Goldolf, Belle's scared." Rink said sounding annoyed with the drows rudeness. "Unlike you, she hasn't been alive for over a hundred years and hasn't accomplished everything she has set out to do. She's young and has a lot to live for."
Goldolf shook his hands. "Sheesh, sorry then." He took a puff of his cigar and leaned against the wall "Who'd think an imp would have such compassion for humans..."
"It is weird actually." Belle said looking at Rink. "Like, Duilin's half human so that explains how he's a nice guy, but you were born and raised in hell, how come you're so nice?" She then coughed.
"No idea." Rink then fanned away some of the cigar smoke with his hand. "Goldolf, you mind putting that out?"
The old drown sighed and pinched the end of the cigar with his fingers.
---
Ophelia nodded in agreement with Melface's statement. "This will make finding a suitable hostage easier, with all the knights out of the way." She then started to walk through the hallways. "But we still have to be careful. If Duilin finds out we are here, before we find a hostage, then it will likely encourage him to get the innocents to a safe area. He's too powerful for us to fight directly."
Rex Vondran's death at the hands of Duilin was fresh in his memory. Such a powerful warrior, Rex was, he was even being considered for promotion to a general, but Duilin just ended his legacy with that encounter.
"Come now, we still shouldn't waste too much time." Ophelia ordered as she continued moving the halls.
---
Duilin and Lagart met up with each other and started fighting side by side with the oncoming dark angels. With Ben's magical boost, Lagart's fighting skill was greatly increased making him more than a match for one of the dark angels. However, he was still out shined by the half demon.
Streaks of flame glided through the air as Duilin swung his sword at the dark angels clashing swords with him. Shockwaves of golden lightning shot from his mace as he smashed into the dark angels.
Duilin was clearly trying to make up for failing to protect the king, by making sure non of these dark angels could harm anyone on Tjed. Inside he could feel his anger being stirred up. A lot of the anger was towards himself, yet a lot of it was for the Dark Empire. Ever since he was banished from Gaian, by Retan to when he found Henri's dead body on the floor, he been given more reasons to hate the empire.
He thought back to helping Renard, and then finding out that he was with the Dark Empire. And not just a member, but one of the personal warriors of a high general. He probably insured the deaths of hundreds of people by allowing that fox man to live.
Next time, he won't be so lucky...
-
The dark shroud thickend as the battlefield swelled with more and more dead bodies of the Dark Empire, along with a few elven bodies and very little Drannivolkans. A horn sounded outside the walls as a dragon flew down towards the gates. He clenched his red fists and pounded the wall down to nothing.
"MEH! You are such a fool to oppose the Dark Empire, Aaron Grey! Now, you will face my true power..." Belrok sat atop the Red Dragon, steering the mighty beast with a glowing red crystal shard.
"What the... Oh god, no!" Aaron raced out to attack the dragon, but it merely flung him aside with a flick of it's giant claw.
Behind the walls, Justin and Tiberius were taking the shape of a dragon to fight back at the enemy, but they would need to buy time. Aaron got back to his feet and saw what they were trying to do.
"Attack the dragon! Distract it!" Thousands of arrows ripped at the sky and flew towards the Dragon. He ignored them and continued his assault.
------------
The last of the Dark Angels retreated to the skies, and the land reobtained some sort of peace... at least for the moment.
"Duilin! Lagart! We should head back inside and rest... Unless you'd like to stay out in front of the gates and keep those safe from further attacks...
------------
-
Indher quietly back away towards the wall...
I'd like to watch, but I wouldn't want to be cought in this...
In the meantime the cage of red bars steadily constricted.
The green flame inside continued to burn.
... Foolish ...
Suddenly, the bars turned bright blue, hardened into ice, and then fell apart.
The green flames wre no longer as concealin and the figure within appeared as a mishmash of black and megnta, but was still not clear.
The ice floated helplessly in the air, only to suddenly shoot at the red-striped mage who stood before him, piercing several body parts as he is hit against the wall.
It did not seem like the intention was to kill him...
The being rose into the air, stopping in front of the balcony, and appeared to have turned in Retan's direction.
... You must be him ...
The creature spread what appeared to be long, thin arms.
... You are already powerful enough to rule this pathetic world ...
The bony wings were stretched, making the already large wingspan appear greater.
... You do not need me, so I will give you this one chance to tell your slaves to unbind me from this world ...
-
"Tricky little sneak..." He could feel the ground behind him vibrating. Something not so good was bound to happen. He whirled around to see what was up. Hmm, big red flaming sphere of fire. As Draven's words floated through his hypothetical ears, he pushed Drake away, then immediately bent over backwards, smacking the ball upwards as it passed over him.
He snapped back to an upright position, but decided not to counter. "Tell me more about your... issues."
Drake halted himself in the air, a few feet away from Anti. Thank the gods... Well, Anti. If it weren't for him... Actually, it might not have been so bad. Is that demon actually... concerned for me?
-
The child-like demon trotted down the hallway, stopping suddenly with one foot in the air and turning his head. He jogged over to a heavy set door and pressed his pointed ear against it, smiling widely. Voices rose from past the door. One distinctly feminine, one an old man, and the last higher pitched. The glint in Melface's eye returned, and he pointed to the door as his traveling companions caught up. This is the one.
With that, he was gone.
----
The room became different.
It would have been the type of thing Goldolf only could have noticed had he been paying careful attention to whatever it was that changed. Perhaps it was a chair in the corner. Perhaps it was the grain on the stone wall. Perhaps it was a different temperature, or humidity.
It was certainly darker, however. Not in the immediate vicinity of him, the woman, and the imp, but windows at the far end failed to cast their light, and the flames of the torches muted.
But Belle and Rink were still with him.
Of course they were...
Belle folded her hands, her bright eyes looking upon his in awe. "Oh, Goldolf," she sighed seductively as she threw her arms around him in a tight embrace. "You're so strong and... fearless... Are you afraid of anything at all?"
She paused.
"What do you fear...?"
----
"Oh, no missssy..." A huge Lizard Man clasped Indher by the arm. "Yer not going anywhere until thisss iss over..."
"W-w-well my duties as an 'extra' seemed to be complete! By doing nothing." Kelmar began to scurry towards the exit, but another Lizard Man stepped in front of him.
"But I must use the restroom!"
The lizard shook his head, and the skunk was sent back to the sidelines.
Grav took a few shaky steps back, before hiding behind the Dark Emperor's throne.
Retan didn't move, but remained leaning his head against his arm, his eyes burning red slits.
"You fail to grasp my intentions. I do not seek to subjugate only this realm, but all planes of existence. Those realms that I do not deem worthy will be expunged, such as the miserable plane I just pulled you from. You have been brought here because, in my infinite generosity, I have decided to allow you to continue existing. As my servant. I do not need you in the slightest."
Those burning embers glowed with a crimson fury.
"Now bow. Or there will be consequences."
Kelmar began biting his nails.
"Holy crap!"
The yellow-skinned Demon Lord threw off his cloak, revealing a massive toned body that stood at 13'5" and weighed over six hundred pounds. His golden hair stabbed skyward in large spikes, his two gleaming horns protruding from under the mess. With a permanent scowl etched across his face, he unfurled his wings slightly and floated up behind the summoned entity, his pupil-less white eyes fixated on the monster.
----
"HYAAAAHHH!!!"
Ven raised his glowing sword high and charged the red dragon head-on.
"OOF--"
With a flick of its tail, the beast sent Ven spiraling into a group of Lizard Men, knocking them aside, before slamming into a pile of boulders from the collapsing wall. He dizzily pushed the rock off as he rubbed his head.
"Probably should stop doing that..."
Vincent threw off the top cartridge on his weapon, replacing it with another larger silver one. No, fire won't work against a red dragon...
He attempted to flank the monster aiming his weapon at it as it began to hum loudly, but at the last instant a horde of Lizard Men appeared in his path, and he was forced to point his weapon at them.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! A series of explosions ripped forth from the shotgun's nozzle, tearing deep holes in the lizards' armor as they flew back and fell in the mud. He stood his ground, spraying them in a wide arc as they tried to break his wall of explosive force.
----
Draven grinned, attempting to brush off the dust amassed all over his cloak.
"I suppose you passed..."
He began floating skyward, his arms folded before him.
"Follow. I'll fill you in on the way."
With that, a crimson aura engulfed him, and he blasted northward...
-
Indher nearly spat at the lizard, but held herself back.
"Look..." she whispered "Either let me stand in some corner where it's safer but I can still see, or YOU go stand in front and act as my shield!"
Indher shook her head.
"It's not like I'm leaving the room..."
Meanwhile, the figure inside the green flame did not seem too impressed by Retan's little lecture.
... How very typical ...
The green flames began to fade, and the room began to tremble once again.
... In your eternal folly, not only have you sentenced yourself to a life of ultimate dissapointment ...
What was green flame before was now thin, green mist, revealing the being's true form -
It's skin was pitch black and appeared somewhat like rubber. Various pointed magenta-colored shapes were drawn all over it's body, all pointing at the face.
The thinckness of the limbs was not much greater than the thickness of human limbs, but each was at least three times longer. The face itself had two bloodshot-red eyes with tiny black pupils, a mouth so thin it could hardly be seen and no nose.
It's head - covered in thin, blue jetting spikes, each pointed backwards in a slightly different angle. Together, they almost looked like hair...
The wings were nothing but purple-colored bones, and seemed completely useless when it comes to flying.
The trembling grew fierce, and pieces of the cieling began to crumble off.
...And now, you have challenged a god. Your stupidity has brought about your end...
A large, black dent scythe formed in it's hand, which was pointed at Retan.
At that moment, a great shockwave spread across the room, causing all of the mages still standing to be flattened against the walls. But the shockwave's force was almost completely directed upwards, resulting in the roof being blown off and the once-underground chamber to be exposed to the grim, cloudy sky.
...YOUR CONCEIT SHALL BE YOUR UNDOING!!!
-
Justin and Tiberius had taken form of much larger Blue Dragons. They shot greatly sized ice shards at the Red Dragon, some of which pierced through his scaled and caused him to bleed. The Red Dragon colapsed and fell on the Dark Empier's forces, crushing a few lizards and humans.
"How dare you! You ignorant fools!" The black-scaled man leapt from the dead dragon and threw himself at Justin, still in dragon form. He merely grabbed Balrok and held him away from his head, looking into his eyes.
"How dare I? Pathetic for such a stupid little human like you to say..." He reached back, wound up his arm, and threw Belrok with full force. It sent him flying with a thunderous speed as he sped across the reaches of Ariosis. Finally, he crashed into a lava-crusted landmass... It was the Dark Continent.
The others continued to drive off the Dark force that attacked them, and they were soon finished, with their morale lowered greatly after their leader was easily taken down.
-
Duilin let out a sigh of relief but then shook his sword in the air. "That's right, you run!" He shouted.
Lagart sheathed his sword, and Duilin followed sheathing The Iduran.
Duilin looked up towards Bjendell. "If you don't mind, I'd actually, like to talk with you and Lagart for a moment."
"Duilin?" Lagart asked.
"Yes?" Duilin replied.
"What you want to talk about?"
"Um, just follow me over here; I don't want to have to say this too loudly and to many times. If people over hear it might cause panic." Duilin replied, walking over to the statue of the king in the middle of the court yard. There were a few steps leading up towards it, and he sat down in the middle one. He looked up at Bjendell. "Coming, Ben?"
---
Goldolf suddenly felt extremely confused. "What in blazes is going on?”
Suddenly Belle's skin paled and her teeth became sharp and pointed, with two long fangs. Goldolfs first reaction was to push her away, but Belle had too strong of a grip around him.
"Rink! Help me out 'ere buddy! C'mon!" Goldolf shouted, getting in a panic.
Suddenly the room was filled with people, pale skinned with blood shot eyes, and sharp vamparic teeth.
"Don't fight it Goldolf…" Rink smiled floating towards him, exposing his vampire fangs. "There isn't anything to fear, you won't die."
But that is what he did fear. Goldolf didn't fear death; he feared a cursed immortality, like that of a vampire. Having his soul consumed and being only left as a shell of the man he once was, was the only thing the old drow still feared. Goldolf's worst nightmare started to come true as Belle dug her teeth into his neck. He shouted in terror as his grey skin brightened to pure white, his eyes bleed over. Belle let go of the drow and he slowly fell to the ground…
-
//@Xorlak's last post: Retan rocks.\
"Well, the first step to an invasion: collection of information.
I was lounging in my throne room, as the servant I summoned half an hour ago finally showed up.
-"You... called, Sovereign?"
-"Damn straight I called. What were you doing all this time, exactly?"
-"Uh, lord Damien Roth called me after you did... I told him you called me but he just said "oh well, come here anyways"... Then lord Ryleh called me, too... I told him that you called me as well, but he just said "well, be quicker, then..." Sorry, Sovereign..."
-"Fine," I groaned. "I'll deal with those later. Anyways, what did I call you up here for, again...? Oh, yeah. Summon Damien to my chambers. Off you go."
The servant bowed and left. I stretched, accidently knocking something off of my table out the window. Turning around, I obviously missed the object that fell down. Oh well. Probably nothing important, anyway.
Another half an hour later, Damien finally graced me with his presence.
-"ROTH! What took you so long? I wasted an hour trying to get you up here! Have a seat."
Damien complied, sitting down onto a nearby bench.
-"Anyways," I began. "We need to do something about this invasion other than talking of it. Obviously, first, we need to inspect the land carefully. What do you suggest using? I'm thinking small parties of soldiers, wyvern-mounted... They all know Necromancy, don't they?"
-"Yes, sir. However, such a massive amount of soldiers abroad will leave us vulnerable. I have a different suggestion."
-"Oh?"
-"Our first full Stalker batch is ready, sir."
---
The Colonel was instructing a squad of newly-recruited Vanguards in the academy:
-"...and LIFT! Not like that, you idiot! Put the mortar on your RIGHT shoulder, not your left one! That's 20 with me on your back!! And you...!"
That's when four cloaked Stalkers entered the arena. The Colonel, having heard them, turned around in rage.
-"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO INTRUDE DURING A LESSON?!"
One of the Stalkers came forward.
-"Aether, Colonel. We are departing for --"
-"That's Colonel, SIR!!! Drop down, give me 20!"
The Stalker lay down, and began doing pushups. The Colonel began counting off.
-"1, 2, 3..." Suddenly, the Stalker put away one of his arms, and continued the pushups with the same ease on one arm. "4, 5, 6, 7... Quit showing off!" The Stalker stopped. "Did I tell you to stop? DID I?! That's another 5!" With these words, the Colonel took a mortar from one of the Vanguards, and put it on Aether's back. The Stalker did not appear to notice the change, doing pushups on one hand with a 200-pound hunk of metal on him. "8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24... 24, 24, 24, 24, 24... 25." Remaining on the ground, the Stalker took the mortar off of him with his free hand, while keeping himself up with the other one, and jumped up to his feet.
-"30 pushups, sir. Anyways, we were told to report to you."
-"Report to you, SIR! Do you want another 30, soldier?!" Without letting Aether answer, the Colonel continued. "Anywho, the three of you - Aeganon, Ophion, and Aether - you are to scout the Dark Continent, and make notes of all potential targets. Do not engage. If you didn't hear me, that's DO NOT ENGAGE! This is a recon mission ONLY! If you are attacked, flee. Do not let the enemy measure your strength in any way."
The Colonel turned over to the fourth Stalker.
-"And you..." He took out a scroll, and quickly scanned it. "...Antaeus... you are to go to the kingdom of Tjed, and locate major strongholds and points of defense. Same applies to you, soldier. Do not engage under any circumstances."
The Stalkers saluted the Colonel, and left, in silence.
-"Damn showoffs...", the old soldier muttered, and turned back to the Vanguards-in-training. "DID I TELL YOU TO TALK? DID I?! Pick a partner, 40 pushups with your partner on your back! Rotate four times! NOW!!!"
--- --- ---
A thin, robe-clad teenager was running through the streets of Gros Morne. He appeared to be muttering something to himself.
-"...damn flesh golem... Why won't it move? Why, goddamnit?! If the Scribe fails my Necromancy class, I'm screwed! Grounded for 2 months from the M-Grid! Urgh... I gotta find a way to make that thing think for itself... So good now... wings, claws, fangs, talons... It's got everything... other than brains... goddamnit...."
Just as he was passing under the main citadel, something painfully hit him on the head. He yelped, and stopped to rub his head, picking up the object that fell on him. It appeared to be a relatively small black stone, with a hole for a string to wear around the neck. Inside the stone was what looked to be a person in a cloak and hood.
-"Wait... what's this? Isn't this a soulstone? Hmm... maybe I can use this for my project..."
He put the little gem in his pocket, and continued running.
--- --- ---
Carmine continued to care for the wounded, while Hannibal was out hunting food. De Sade stood at one place as if rooted to the ground. This seemed to annoy Carmine a lot.
-"De Sade, you healed Les, and didn't have much trouble with it. Why can't you heal the other guys?"
No answer.
-"Hello...?"
No answer.
-"...de Sade?"
No answer. Carmine came up to de Sade, who seemed to be either sleeping or dead, but in a standing position. Very carefully, Carmine tried to touch the Lilithian... and was blasted two feet back by his life sheath.
-"Don't touch me, insect! I am trying to see beyond sight, a concept not even comprehendable by your inferior species. I will find Alex. Do not disturb me."
-"De Sade, sir, can you heal our wounded first?"
The Lilithian, finally moving, appeared to sigh.
-"Frail... so frail..."
He almost glided to over to Victor Sig, who was groaning in pain. When the latter saw de Sade's fear-inspiring talons reach for his stomach, he groaned even louder.
-"Silence," de Sade snapped. "The code of honour demands that you fall on your blade for making a whimper like that."
The archmage's clawed fingers took off the bandage. The wound was all but gone.
-
Vandrin and Hypnos had arrived at a small base camp set up by the Kandarin soldiers that arrived. Vandrin noticed some of his County Guard near by, they seemed to be getting a lot fairly well with each other considering most of the county guard were former Kandarinians. The unconscious lizard man was dragged away by a couple of vanguards to be stored in one of the metal cages brought with them. Hypnos then led Vandrin into one of the tents where there was a table, with a pot of tea and tree cups on it. There were three chairs, around the table one of the chairs was occupied by a man in a blue uniform, with a cape of a similar colour. His attire was untraditional for a Kandarinian, yet on his cape there was Kandarin symbol, which seemed to have been added on, along with a badge of the Kandarin symbol on his shirt.
“This is General Roland. One of Kronos’ undead officers.” Hypnos said introducing the count to the man.
“Undead? You mean he’s a zombie?” Vandrin asked seeming puzzled, by the man’s life like appearance
“Indeed.” Roland said responding to the count. “Please take a seat. I’ve been wishing to talk to you.”
“You have?” Vandrin asked, as he sat at the table, Hypnos sat at the chair next to him.
“Tea?” Roland asked.
“Yes, please.” Vandrin replied, and the general poured him a cup. Hypnos shook his hand, denying the tea. “So, what is it that you wished to speak to me about?” Vandrin asked.
“Lord Vandrin, I have been talking with a few of your County Guards, and they have told me that you have found a few artefacts that belonged to the ancient group known as the White Chimera. Is this true?”
“Yes.”
“Well, before I was upgraded to my undead self, I was the general of the peace keeping force for this group known as the Blue Minotaur. I have very little memory of it, but I do recall that I was once given the knowledge of the origins of my group. I too have found an old temple of the White Chimera, which I believe you also found and took a tablet from.”
“I did take a tablet from a temple true. What does it matter?”
“I want it.”
“Why?”
“I believe this group; the White Chimera may still exist, and may have summoning mages with power comparable to our Sovereign. They were a group devoted to an old Terian Republic with beliefs similar to those of nations like Tjed and even the Aspyes in some ways. If they still exist, then they are perhaps a large threat to the sovereignty.”
“What makes you so sure a group that disappeared over a thousand years ago would still exist?” Vandrin asked.
“A hunch.”
“A hunch?”
“Well maybe more that a hunch, more of a feeling. Perhaps based on visions I’ve or maybe remembering things before my evolution. So, let me continue here. From what I know, one of these tablets has information on where the White Chimera fled towards. It’s written in ancient Terainian.”
“I know the scripture of the ancient Terian, and I’ve read the tablet, it has little useful information to what you’re seeking.” Vandrin said finishing his tea.
“Regardless I still want the tablet. If the White Chimera still exists, then the tablet probably will help us in some way found out where they are. Even if the White Chimera doesn’t exist, then that would make the tablet rightfully mine, as I’m the last member of the branch the Blue Minotaur which was part of the White Chimera.” Roland stated sternly.
“Very well, the tablet is yours, but there is one problem. It’s left in my castle, which is being guarded, but area round it has the majority of the lizard men there, including their high general.” Vandrin rubbed his beard on his chin. “And in case you don’t know their high general is perhaps the most dangerous warrior in the dark empire, next to the Dark Emperor.”
“Well, I’m one of the most dangerous warriors in the Kandarin Sovereignty, and our friend Hypnos is a Stalker, which is our most skilled class.”
“Well, even then, he has an army of lizard men with him. Just one of those lizard men can take about five of your warriors, and the lizard men outnumber us.”
“You sound as if you’ve lost hope, lord count.” Roland grinned. “I am a summoning mage, does the lizard army have dragons in it?”
“No, but their high general can transform into a black wyvern with shadow magic.”
“Pardon? Wyvern with shadow magic.” Roland asked, sounding a bit worried. “You mean a DEATH Wyvern?”
Vandrin nodded. “I’ve never heard of the term, but yes.”
“Oh my.” Roland sat back. “A Death Wyvern is by far the most powerful breed of wyvern. If their high general has the ability to transform into one, that makes him almost comparable to maybe even a draken.”
“I hate drakens.” Vandrin groaned.
Roland smirked. “I still think we can take him. I’ve heard a rumour that a group of mortals were able to kill a draken during the Fall of Romme about six years ago.”
“I still wouldn’t plan on killing their high general. Avoiding or distracting him would give us the lowest chance of getting killed.” Vandrin suggested. “But before we get to the castle, I have two more lizard men that I need to capture for your sovereign.”
“Very well.” Roland replied “I will accompany you, along with Hypnos.”
//Ein, if you want to get in on this and control Roland and/or Hypnos for our little venture then feel free.\
-
Anti grinned in return. Though he had no real mouth, energy condensed in that area in the shape of a grin. He and Drake blasted off northwards, keeping pace with Draven.
-
Goldorf's body began to burn with a brilliant white light, his flesh crumbling away in chunks as he wasted into a mere pile of ashes. Melface flickered into existence above the blackening soot, wiping his mouth with with a white napkin.
"Mmmm, drow... delicious."
His eyebrow shot up and he flashed a wild grin at the imp and woman.
"Unfortunately, imp is quite disgusting, so you get to die a physical death. As for you, my pretty..." He tossed the napkin at Belle's face, and it tightly wrapped around and gaged her mouth, preventing her from screaming. "You will be coming with me..."
----
It began to rain rocks. Huge boulders blasted off from the explosion rained down upon the now open-air arena. The mages and lesser trained of the Lizard Men panicked, running around as many were crushed.
Retan leaned forward. Just slightly.
"I so enjoy taming gods."
He leaned back, waving the air once with his heavily gloved hand.
"Punish him."
With that, the burly Demon Lord behind the summoned deity exploded, screaming at the top of his lungs as a golden flame consumed him-- a massive aura of intense yellow light. Rearing his hand back, he punched the air so hard it seemed he shattered a brick wall. A white shock wave burst forth in all directions, and the remnants of the arena merely crumbled to dust with a flash of white. Every pillar. Every brick. Every tile upon the floor disintegrated to nothing from the fierce blast, as a pillar of light cut deeply into the dark clouds above, illuminating the impossibly high Tower of Heaven's Bane along side it.
The Lizard Man guarding Indher dissolved, his flesh rending from his bones before his body hit the floor. Something black and furry slammed into the summoner woman as a giant boulder fell from the heavens, blocking the intense light. Whether Kelmar intentionally leapt to push her out of the way or was simply thrown across the room was anyone's guess.
The skunk, who was shorter than the cat-like woman, looked up at her with intense fear in his eyes.
"I think... we should go."
As the smoke began to clear, the Demon Lord's golden aura became visible floating above the crater that used to be the summoning arena. He did not wait to see if his opponent met the same fate as most everyone else in the room before speaking.
"I was once Apollo," his growling voice rumbled through the soul, not seemingly coming from one particular spot. "I used to own the sun. But now I serve the Black Dragon. The Dark Emperor Retan is my master, and I do as he bids."
----
Ven drove his blade into the ground as the last of the army could be seen scurrying into the bushes in a full retreat.
"Phew."
"You okay?" Vincent asked, his shotgun slung back on his shoulder. The barrel was smoking heavily.
"No problem. I... kinda get knocked into walls a lot."
----
Draven lead the faceless demon and the other guy-- he wasn't exactly sure who that tag-along was-- across the ocean. Tjed was visible on his right, and it clearly wasn't his destination as he blasted northward. His aura trailed him, leaving behind a long red tail like a comet as he sped high above the waves.
"If you're looking for a challenge, then I know just the opponent for you. Dark fellow, like yourself, severe case of red eye, and is so ugly he has to hide his face under a helmet at all times."
Draven was suddenly distracted. He slowed down and then stopped, looking over in the direction of the Dark Continent, although it was too far away to see the land mass. His face contorted and he clenched both fists.
"... Blast it!! What is he doing?!"
He pondered for a moment, before flipping his cape. His aura exploded again and he was zooming northward again.
"Anyway, he is trying to take over the world and all that rot, which is likely interfering with why you're here. So if you're looking for the battle of your life, then follow me..."
-
The Temple of the Dusk loomed ahead, gleaming in the forever sunset that the Twilight basked in. It was never nighttime in the Twilight, but never day, either. Everything was always cast in a warm, but dim, vermillion glow. Alex seemed to enjoy it, despite the situation he was currently in.
Starting up the massive steps to the temple’s mezzanine, he had forgotten how truly enormous the temple was, rivaling Kandarinian Citadels. What Alex failed to understand, though, was the serenity the Twilight’s inhabitants always seemed to experience. Just by looking at their quality of life he found it hard to believe they were in the middle of a war. The isolation had been for the better.
“The elders will be thrilled to realize not only have you gained control of the Shroud,” Midna said, “but you have also learned the Twili spells they sent you after. You just might get your reward, Alex.”
“What exactly is the reward?” he asked.
“I myself can’t remember, it was a weapon of some sort…a very powerful weapon that could turn this war in our favor.”
“Here’s hoping,” Alex sighed.
After warping to the top of the temple, the two stood outside the elders’ chambers. A Twili guard stopped them.
“Halt,” he said. “Identify yourselves.”
“You know damn well who I am,” Alex said, “I’ve been here before.”
“Oh! My apologies, Twilight Warrior, and Princess. Please, please, enter.”
Upon laying their eyes on the Warrior they had put so much of their hopes and dreams into, the elders could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Equinox approached him.
“Alex! My gods, Midna was right after all. It’s quite a relief to see that you’re okay. She had told us you had manifested the Shroud. Is this true?”
“Every word of it,” Alex replied. “Though, I was able to gain control over it…”
“Yet another relief,” Equinox said. “The last Twilight Warrior fell to the Shroud. I am glad to see the trait has not been passed on.”
“You’ll like this news even more,” Alex said. “We collected all of the pages from the missing spellbook.”
“The gods have smiled on us today,” Equinox chuckled. “We knew you would not disappoint us, Alex. Seeing as you have mastered these spells, I believe I speak for the other elders when I say you are worthy of possessing the Twilight Warrior’s main weapon. Am I right?” Equinox turned to the other two elders, who smiled and nodded. “So shall it be. Alex, if you would come with me, please.”
Alex followed him into another chamber, adjacent to the one they were in. In the center was a large cylindrical vault, encasing the prized weaponry in gilded glass. Equinox waved his hand, and the glass lowered, revealing a large blade and a puck-shaped trinket.
“Alex, these two items will be the key to the Twili’s victory. I bequeath to you, the legendary weapon of the Twilight Warrior, the Shadeblade.” Equinox extracted the sword from the vault, and passed it to Alex.
The blade itself was black and serrated toward the bottom. The hilt seemed to be made from a gray material, with the texture of stone, but lightweight. All across the hilt were traced glowing green Twili patterns. Encrusted in the center of the hilt was a deep purple jewel. The blade seemed to shimmer, in much the way a heated object would, but it was not hot to the touch.
“Also passed on to you is the Twilight Warrior’s armor,” handing Alex the trinket.
“I’m sorry, but this is just a pendant…what could it do?”
“Let me show you,” Equinox said, taking the pendant and pressing it into the P.C.S.’s chestplate. The armor’s appearance began to change entirely. Black metal was replaced with the same lightweight, green traced stone which made up the blade’s hilt. The forearm scythe became serrated, and the “claws” on the other forearm were replaced with a second scythe. On the suit’s back two rods extended partially to the sides, cylinders on the end, with some kind of vents pointing downward. Pivoting fins protruded from these, suggesting some kind of flight mechanism. The helmet all but vanished, replaced with some kind of hood. He felt power surging through his veins, and was thrust up into the air by the jets on his back, where he hovered, powered by Twili magic.
“My God…this is amazing.”
“It is up to you, now Alex, to finish the fight that was started so long ago.”
“You can count on me.”
“You might wish to return to your world now. However, I would advise getting used to your new weaponry.”
“Makes sense.”
“And remember, if you ever wish to use your old suit, simply remove the pendant and store it somewhere safe. Your suit will revert to its technological state shortly afterwards.”
“Words can’t describe my gratitude, so I guess all I can really say is ‘thank you’,” Alex replied.
“You’ve earned it, Alex,” Equinox smiled. “Use the gifts that fate and luck have bestowed upon you, and you will go far.”
“I won’t fail you,” Alex said, leaping from the temple’s balcony, and landing softly on the ground with the hover powers. Midna followed close behind him.
“You’ve received quite a prize, Alex,” Midna said. “I’m sure you’re clear on what your objective is…”
“Damn right. The Kandarinian capital is no doubt heavily defended…it’ll take some breaking into to bring it down.”
“But first we have to find it,” Midna said. “Perhaps one of Carmine’s dogs will talk.”
“Let’s go pay our friends a visit, shall we?”
Victor Sig was up and around, hacking down a nearby tree with an axe for firewood, as if his near-evisceration had never happened. He whistled a tune to himself as he did so.
Carmine and Estacado sat down by the already glowing fire. Carmine just stared into the flames. Finally, Estacado worked up the courage to speak.
“Something wrong, boss?” Adam asked him.
“How the hell does he do it, Adam? We outnumbered him six to one. We should’ve easily been able to waste that piece of shit, Alex. How’d we get screwed over, Adam?”
“Well…he was using that demon shit,” Adam said. “Something to do with that?”
“Even so, it’s like we were no challenge for him. Hopefully with de Sade on our side, that’ll all change.”
“What if he pulls something new on us?”
“What else could he have? He’s got the Twili powers, that battlesuit, the demon powers, what else could he possibly have?”
“God knows,” Adam said. “Like you said, all we can really do is wait.”
“I don’t like this,” Carmine said. “Sitting out here in the middle of the night like this makes me feel vulnerable, despite the fact we’re a squad trained for combat. I guess it’s just a residual feeling from what happened back there.”
“Things might take a turn for the better in the morning, ya never know.” Adam got up to go help Victor chop wood.
“For the better…” Carmine murmured. “Or for the worse. Ya never know.”
-
Indher pushed the black-robed skunk off her.
"I'll be fine, run if you must."
She stood close to the crater's edge, her ball ready to be activated at any time...
"I have... Insurance." She snickered.
-----
A large chunk of dust began to form above the blazing demon lord as he spoke.
... Forgive my rudeness ...
The chunk began to take the black creature's shape, and slowly materialized into it's very being.
... But your personal background is of no interest to me.
The being materialized the dent scythe in it's hand, and brought it high above it's head.
... You, however, are more than better off as part of me than this fool's servant ...
The scythe's edge was thrust down towards the demon-lord's body...
-----
Kerig ran into the throne room, a tiny black orb floating above him.
"Sir Crow-Nose!" he inhaled and exhaled, obviously he had just exhausted himself by running a short distance.
"Sheesh, why did I run? I should have levitated here! Anyway, sir Crow-Nose!"
Kerig smiled widely at the lich, sitting on the throne.
"Look at our progress!"
The orb above kerig spread, becoming black fog, and then recompressed, forming an arrow pointing downwards and the word "fool" floating just above it.
"We have gotten enough etherium for Welly to visibly influence reality without my aid!" Kerig continued. He then turned around to point at the black fog.
Just above the black arrow pointing at Kerig, was obviously written "mAh Fr3nD".
As Kerig turned back to face Kronos, the comical phrase returned to being just 'fool'.
"You see, mistah Crow-Nose..." Kerig kept talking, not aware of the 'fool' above him changing to 'numbskull'.
"We were walking around, and this place had looooooooooots of spirits who can't rest! So..."
The 'numbskull' changed into 'dumbass'.
"...So we just ate them! And that was plenty extra etherium! But really..."
Some distance above 'dumbass', the word 'My' appeared, also appearing as compressed black fog.
"...I hoped we could find some magically inclined dead person, as those have a WHOLE LOT! Oh, and I heard that..."
Between 'My' and 'dumbass', more black fog gathered. The word which appeared was a fully capitalized 'FAVORITE'.
"...We are going to war soon! Really? When? Hey, Mistah Crow-Nose?" Kerig waved his hand in front of Kronos, thinking that something has distracted him.
"Are we goin' to war soon? Cos me an' Welly need more etherium."
-
“G-Goldolf?” Rink asked seeing the drow crumble into ashes. “What did you do to him!?”
The door slammed open and a tattooed elf and a strange jester like woman came in.
“Hey!” Rink shouted. “You can’t do this! Leave the woman alone!” He gave an angry look, but likely would fail to be intimidating. “Get out of here before I call the guards!”
“Shut him up, Rufokanno.” Ophelia ordered.
The elf stepped towards the imp, and went to grab him, but he disappeared in a puff of smoke and appeared right behind his head and shot a fireball point blank at the back of his head.
The elf barked in pain and a small spark of energy appeared briefly around Rufokanno, Ophelia and Melface.
“Rufo! Fool, keep the aura shield in focus!” Ophelia snapped. She then shot a series of golden rings of energy at the imp, which wrapped around him.
Rink could feel his physical mobility slowing down and his magical reserves decreasing, he needed to send a message to Duilin before it was too late.
--- ---
Firstman, Coriko and the four other Aspyes then hopped on their wyverns and started their way towards the Vandrin County.
“We should be their in a few hours or so.” Firstman said, as his wyvern flew next to Coriko’s.
“How far is it?” Coriko asked.
“Not too far, we’ve been there before. So you’d know it’s got some pretty tight security however, so it’ll be tricky for us to get in.”
“I think I can handle it. It wasn’t too much of a problem for me to get in last time.” Coriko replied.
“Oh the ego on you, well you do have your fire magic and all, so I can see how you’d have an edge over a basic grunt, like myself.” Firstman replied.
“Oh, don’t be like Firstman. You’re a good fighter too.” He complemented.
“Yeah, I guess.” Firstman shrugged. “At least compared to these guys.” He motioned to the other four Aspyes.
“Hey, did comrade Firstman just make fun of us?” One of them asked.
“Silence comrade. We aren’t supposed to talk, we’re only extras!” One of the others shot back.
“Well, we have names!”
“Yes, but our writer didn’t even care to look back at his previous post to see what our names are, much less remember them.”
“Oh, the life of a non notable NPC…”
--- ---
“Well, anyways. I guess I’ll just say it.” Duilin began. “When I went to see King Henri well he…”
Suddenly he received a telepathic message, which sounded like it was from Rink.
‘Get inside. Me and Belle in danger…Goldolf dead…Hurry.’
“Lagart, Ben we need to get inside now!” Duilin then made a mad dash towards the castle.
The lizard man saw that this must be urgent so he followed him.
-
"Right!" Ben flew behind the castle with great speed. He then looked through a window, and saw Rink... but there were four other figures as well. He burst through the window and readied an energy sword swiftly.
"It would be wise for you to get the hell outta here before I kill you..." His form changed once again to his more evil self.
------------
"What do we do, now that the empire's retreating?" Justin asked.
"You go home, now," Aaron answered, "I'll call for an airship to take you home." The tired human walked over to Anaxese, who'd just cleaned the blood off of his sword.
"We can handle things from here, lord." He said with a grin on his face.
"I know... I want you to round up an airship and take these people home..."
"I'll send for Barbadose," he replied, "He's the only one here with a working airship."
------------
-
He looked long and hard to try to find a spot he could use as a shadow but everything seemed out in the open. The walls were for decorum and were mainly fenced. Not much use for hiding. Quad arrived at the conclusion that there was nowhere for him to sneak in and decided to just walk casually by. It was mid-day. The sun was shinning brightly. It wasn't a desert but the heat was undesirable. The town was called Peterré. They specialized in food, that was the reason why there were so many shops and inns. There were no restaurants of any sort though. Quad strangely only ate once a month. He could not explain why he was capable of living a whole month without a meal but water was still require at a daily base. He found a fountain in the middle and decided to get a drink. He cupped his hand and scooped up some of the water when someone grabbed his hand forcefully.
"EY!!! What are you doing?" It was a guard. Obviously he was a guard for he had his sword in the other hand.
"I wanted a drink."
"A DRINK!? From the fountain? Are you some kind of nomad?"
"Nomad? Your mad."
"What's this now? A ruffian punk? Why I'm going to lock you up, yes sir."
"Lock me up? In hell you will." Quad made a swish motion with his hand but nothing. He then remembered the head melted his only weapons that were attached to his shoes and gloves.
"Trying to be funny ey?" The guard placed his sword on his neck. "Come with me now or die where you stand." There wasn't much Quad could do without his weapons and the bright light from the sun, which he wasn't use to, was getting on his eye. Looks like he didn't had much of a choice.
(//Sorry I haven't been around for a while)
-
Duilin’s heart was racing as he dashed towards the castle, he could feel something bad was happening. Maybe Rink found the killer and he was after him. He prayed that Rink and Belle were okay. Loosing the king was pretty bad, but he didn’t know what he’d do if he lost either of them.
Duilin caught up with Ben just in time to see him break through the window and unleash an energy sword. He jumped into the room after him, and there he saw, her…Ophelia.
Her face turned to Duilin, he thought he could hear her whisper the word ‘finally’. Duilin’s eyes darted around the room, a pile of ashes was on the floor and Rink was being pinned by a tanned tattooed elf, he recognized him, it was the same person from Asgarnia that jumped him with those three other people. And at the end of the room, he saw a small pale child in an off white cloak. But what mainly caught Duilin’s attention was Belle in his hands, she seemed to be struggling but couldn’t break free.
It was strange he couldn’t sense any of their auras. Was this an illusion, or are they using some sort of aura signal blocking spell? Regardless, Duilin couldn’t just stand there and not say anything.
“Don’t you dare hurt them!” Duilin shouted, waving his mace in the air.
Ophelia grinned under her mask, so apparently this has worked, perhaps even the imp is a friend of Duilin, this may come in handy. “Yield your weapons, both of you.” Ophelia commanded.
“Let them go.” Duilin narrowed his eyes.
Ophelia lifted her hand and snapped her fingers and Rufokanno then started to twist Rink’s arm.
“No!” Duilin shouted
“Yield!” Ophelia shot back.
Duilin dropped his mace, and unbuckled the sheath of the Iduran from his belt and it fell to the floor. He then looked at Ben in the eyes, who could probably see that Duilin was worried. “Do what she says!”
--- ---
Burning flesh and screams of pain were all that was heard; then again it was completely normal environment deep in the dark and evil world of Thanatos. A small temple was set up, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, about thousands of miles away from any other ‘life’ in Thantos, but the huge towering building where Iban lived was still visible in the distance, but luckily for the people in the temple it was small and remote enough to not be noticed.
The temple was constructed of orange bricks and seemed to have received heavy damage from fire storms over the years. A pale skinned humanoid wearing a robe with golden trim was walking through the rooms of the temple carrying a glass orb with a golden smoke and burning flames inside.
Another humanoid looking exactly the same as the other man approached him; he then spoke in a raspy voice, sounding as if his voice box was burnt.
“The regeneration mixture is complete, shall we test it?”
Oddly enough the human like being wasn’t speaking to his identical counterpart, but rather to the item it was holding.
Slowly the golden smoke took the form of a horned skull and lowered its jaw and spoke, but not in words but they sounded like screams of people and monsters in pain. This seemed to be the strange smoke skull’s language.
The humanoid being seemed to completely understand every ‘word’ the skull of smoke in the glass orb was ‘saying’.
“Yes, master Pheonix…” The pale being bowed and then exited into another room.
-
"Rrrrr..." Ben let the energy sword return into his hand, but he kept his fists clenched incase something may happen later. He was ready to shockwave the whole room. It wouldn't hurt anybody, just knock them down to the ground. But a quick glare from Duilin, and he let go of the thought.
"Know that if you harm any one of them..." Ben's aura was now a blood-dark crimson, his wings black as charcol, "I'll crush you all..." Even his eyes were turning a darker shade of blue... then to purple with black lines through them. Anybody in the room could tell that he was angered greatly. He had never been commanded to yield by an enemy, and then ordered to do so by a friend.
"Just exactly what in gods name do you - wait... You're here for Duilin, aren't you? I see now... Your mind is clouded, but don't think I can't read... Ophelia... Hehhehheh..."
------------
A great oak ship floated down from the sky and landed in the general area. There stood Barbadose, but another person. His magic was of great intensity...
"Well then, hop on! I'll get you back to Tjed in no time!" Barbadose motioned for the others to climb aboard the ship, but Aaron backed away from it.
"I'm sure we'll meet again some day, my good friends. Fare well..."
------------
-
"Oh my, oh my..."
Melface grinned widely, floating up behind Belle and pulling her hair so hard with his left hand that she was forced to look up. He flicked his right arm, and as it pointed to the ground, a huge scythe was simply in his hand. The wicked blade was larger than his head, and the handle taller than he stood. He held the weapon just under the blade and hooked the sharpened weapon around his hostage's neck.
"A Demon Lord that cares about life? How perplexing!"
He then flashed a sneer at Ben. Might as well gloat at that guy too.
----
"Hmmm, interesting. The dark angelic warriors appeared to have retreated."
"Hold." Virmir rose a claw, and all attention diverted to him. He pointed his nose to the air for a moment. "This way."
----
When the dust settled, the section of balcony that Retan was seated on simply floated in mid air, the wall it was attached to long gone. He remained upon his throne, leaning upon his arm as if he were casually watching an uninteresting sparing match.
Grav peaked out from behind the throne, suddenly realizing his predicament and looking quite freaked out.
Kelmar reached out after Indher, but fell on his tail instead. "Lerfina, no! You're going to get yourself killed! Blast it!" He struggled to get up, then darted after.
The Demon Lord Apollo crossed his arms before his face, a translucent yellow half dome appearing before him. The dark deity's weapon stabbed into it, and he was sent flying backwards and crashing into the bottom of the crater. Plumes of smoke rose as he jumped up.
"Fool! I am Retan's strongest!"
He opened his left fist and a basketball sized globe of brilliant yellow swelled above it. The sphere grew rapidly, crackling with energy until it was some seven feet in diameter. He reared his right fist back and punched the burning orb, sending it souring up towards his opponent...
----
"That's it?" Ven stepped up behind Aaron. "Is their general dead? Won't they come back?"
He rubbed his chin for a moment, considering the thought of returning home. "Hmmm, actually I do feel as if I should return home. It has been a pleasure fighting along side you." He extended a gauntlet to shake the wolf-man's hand.
Vincent stood by Ven's side. His weapon had apparently become jammed, and he was working something out of the barrel case.
"I'll be seeing you around, then, Ven."
"You're not coming back to Tjed?"
Vincent shook his head. "No. Not with you-know-who running around. I'd rather stay here for a while, at least until I find a place of my own to fight for."
Ven smiled and nodded. Of course, he understood Vincent's concern if Draven was still in Tjed. "Well then, it has been a pleasure fighting by your side."
Vincent waved him off. "Yeah, yeah."
-
Drake and Anti both halted as Draven did, looking off in that direction. He was curious about what the problem was, but they took off as he did.
"I don't care if he takes over the world. I will destroy the world regardless of who rules it. But I suppose that someone like him would get in the way... He wouldn't want his world destroyed. The fight of my life... most certainly sounds fun. So..." He thumbed to Drake. "What can this geek do for you?"
"Hey~!"
"His name is Drake Genais. He is a scientist, and my partner. He has an incredibly intelligent mind, and create weapons, the likes of which you have never seen before. If you know about Zion Ultima and Xenai Omega... Theirs pale in comparison to what he can make."
Drake smirked, rather proud to be praised by Anti.
-
The man's fingers were all sliced off, his right eye appeared to be recently cut out, and streaks of blood were running down from behind his ear. His mouth was grotesquely enlarged through two long cuts on his cheeks. His tattered shirt had holes in some places, which revealed skin burnt as if by an acid. He wasn't moving.
Ophion was cleaning his kamas from bloody stains, and wiping them on the man's clothing. Ariosis, he said... The Sovereign was unaware of this continent. He took out a small, portable M-Grid terminal, and clutched it in his hand.
-"Gros Morne, the Academy... the Colonel's private quarters."
The Colonel's rough face floated up above the glass orb.
-"Report, soldier."
-"Sir, after a... chat with the locals, I have determined another potential target - Ariosis. It's supposed to be either a continent, a large island, or an island chain of which Kandarin has made no plans as of yet. Please advise, sir."
The Colonel rubbed his chin.
-"Hmm... Ariosis. I've never heard of it, which is alarming. Soldier, you are to disembark on your wyvern immediately and scout for potential threats. We will not consider it a target... yet. However, its threat level must be evaluated right away. Am I making myself clear?"
-"Crystal, sir."
The Colonel's face vanished, and Ophion put the orb back into his cloak. Taking a last look at the mutilated body, he spat on it, and went outside. His undead wyvern was waiting for him, wavering its wings slightly. Ophion mounted it, and led it high into the skies.
--- --- ---
-"Magically inclined, hm? Well... I do know this one place with lots and lots of magically inclined people... It's a cave, used to be home to the Nightshade cult. Here, I'll mark it on the map."
I took out a small piece of paper, and drew two large shapes on it.
-"That," I said, pointing to the top one. "That is where we are now. That's the Arctic Region. This, down here, that's the Dark Continent. Now, you see this mountain range to the east? That, right there -" I circled a location on the range. "- that's where you want to go. They had quite a few good mages, they did. Kinda stupid, though."
I recalled the time I went there to get some information about the gravity orbs. The man I resurrected was quickly convinced by me that he did not, in fact, have a gaping hole in his chest.
-"Anyways, have fun. Do ask your spirit friend - Willie, was it? - if he is kind enough to help us out in the upcoming invasion."
--- --- ---
Andre and Jorge finally finished repairing the shattered glass cannon. It was a lot sharper now, and the coil was a little shorter. After putting on the finishing touches, they reactivated the machine.
-"Is it done?", came Skorn's voice from within.
-"Yes, sir.", replied Andre, holding a ratchet and a filing blade. Whoever made this mechanism certainly knew a thing or two about this dark glass matter....
-"Good. Now, I wish to test this new body out. These chambers, within which I currently am are too small. Let me see the sun."
-"Yes, sir. Are you sure that, as the founder of Kandarin, you won't have any problem with the Sovereign or whatnot?"
-"The torch must be passed. I came to terms with that."
-"I see, sir."
Andre led the machine to a bone platform. The platform was moving very slightly side to side. Skorn came down to his knee to look at it, and without finding anything interesting, stood back up again.
-"What is this?"
-"Elevator, sir. Stand on it."
-"Will I break it?"
-"No, sir. Back when you... your body didn't have your soul, sir, you tried punching it several times. After... minor touchups, it's made to survive the toughest pressure known to us."
-"I see..."
Skorn carefully treaded onto the large bone platform, followed by Andre. Seemingly out of nowhere, the platform produced spider-like legs, and began climbing up to the surface. The occasional streak of sun sneaked down into the elevator shaft. Skorn watched the platform make its way to the hatch overhead.
-"What is this creature?"
-"That's called "unlife", sir. It's pieces of dead creatures assembled together to perform some sort of function, as opposed to undeath - which is a creature fully brought back to life."
-"Kandarin uses the Dark Art?"
-"Yes, sir, since our Sovereign relocated us to this place. He used to be the only Necromancer in the nation, but he and the Scribe of Unlife later taught us the ways of the Art. Now, every citizen of Kandarin can perform basic Necromancy... Ah, here we are now."
The hatch, made of half bone and half stone, slowly dragged itself aside. The bone platform stopped, and once Skorn and Andre came off, it creeped back into the shaft. Skorn stretched, finally unbound by the tiny interior of the lab.
-"I want to fly."
With awe, Andre watched as the large fleshy wings unfolded, turning at least three times their previous size. The evolution appeared to be more advanced than he first assumed. After three or four flaps, the wings managed to get the heavy machine into the air. Skorn climbed up into the sky, and then dove down to the bottom, folding his wings. He unfolded them again just prior to reaching the ground, and glided harmlessly over Andre, who was knocked over by the turbulence. The mechanism finally landed itself, folding its wings back to their original size.
-"This is amazing... however, why can I not feel?"
-"You are in a mechanic body, sir. The only two feelings you have left are hearing and eyesight."
-"No... there is something else. This body has a whole new spectre of feelings, impossible to describe... I can feel this whole city, I know where every bump and every stain is already. This cascade of feelings is simply astonishing. I do not think I would even need my other senses having this..."
--- --- ---
Hannibal came back to the group, dragging two dead deer by their hands. Carmine already started a fire. Everyone was back on their feet, and de Sade was doing his statue thing again. The assassin threw the deer down near the fire. Les smiled.
-"An assassin, Roth, and this is all you've caught?"
-"I actually caught three."
-"Where'd the other one go?"
-"Ate it."
-
... The mere problem here is ...
The black one's scythe reformed in his hand once again.
... You are not your own ...
With a simple wave of his arm, the brilliant yellow dissipated into nothing.
... Thus, to me, you are insignificant ...
He brought his scythe before him and closed his eyes.
... However, as an obstacle, I am forced to remove you, one way or another ...
The creature's body burst in brilliant green flames, and it's mouth opened for the first time.
Strange, whisper-like words started coming from it, the flame growing brighter with each vowel.
"...Ani, erza, otheh, ve'eth, mishphe, theha..."
-----
Indher sighed and took refuge behind a rock, watching closely.
"I hope Elphos is alright..."
-----
Kerig examined the map closely.
Meanwhile, the words above him scrambled, as if shocked, and then formed the phrase 'For the last time!'.
"Umm, I think I see... Yep, yep! Thanks, mistah Crow Nose!"
The phrase changed intself into 'My name is WELOSS!'.
"A-ha! Welly an' me will be happy to help you!" Kerig smiled from ear to ear "Fwends help fwends, after all!"
The phrase changed itself into 'show some respect, will you!' but was quickly scrambled when it noticed Kerig was leaving the room in a hurry, and compressed itself into the dark orb it was before...
-
Vandrin, Roland, Hypnos and a squad of ten KAF Troopers were traveling there way through the streets of Kandarin. With them they had a carriage being pulled by some sort of four legged zombie lizard. The carriage had an empty cage, taking up most of the space on it, which was intended to hold the lizard men they were going to capture.
Four speargunners were walking ahead of the group to alert the others of any camps or enemy squads nearby. After about half an hour, the spearmen ran back to the rest of the group.
“A small camp, is ahead, it’s got a few lizard men there. If we can catch ‘em all that should be enough for the Count.” The spearman said speaking to Roland.
“Excellent.” Roland responed. “Lord Count, get your sleep powder attack ready.”
“Venonat.” Vandrin replied.
“What?” Roland gave an odd look at the count.
“I got that.” Vandrin said, rubbing his jaw after that.
--- ---
As Bjendell attempted to continue to read Ophelia’s mind the entire signal was cut off and he was unable to read anything more.
“If you’re attempting to intimidate me with your mind reading and your fancy coloured glow, you’re trying it with the wrong people, now shut it! This is between me and Duilin, and we have no problem killing you along with his other friends.”
Duilin clenched his teeth and glared at Melface. “Listen wench! I don’t what you’re doing here, but you better let my friends go! The entire Tjed army will be on your ass, if you try anything.”
“Watch your tone, Duilin.” Ophelia hissed stepping towards him. “Or else, your friends will be killed, then what?”
“Enough! Just…just tell me what you want.” Duilin started to get very angry and worried.
“Well, first let’s start with, Rufo. He wants his revenge for his friend Brice, which you killed. Also my friend Melface also wants you to die, for that stunt you pulled during the Battle of Kensar.”
“What stunt?”
“Enough, questions. I will be asking them for now on.” Ophelia pointed her finger at Duilin, then lowered it and started pacing back and forth. “You had a nightmare hallucination during the battle, when that happened you were brought into a hate filled rage, believing it was true. You then transformed into a form that was your full demon, a form that you had be trying to avoid changing to ever since…the fall of Romme…after your battle with the possessed Pophin.”
“How do you know this?” Duilin asked, he then smirked. “Valos?”
“Enough!” Ophelia shot back, she then snapped her fingers and Rufokanno twisted Rinks arm again and he wailed in pain.
“Leave him alone!” Duilin shouted.
“Until I can say you can speak, your imp friend will get tortured every time you open your mouth, so please keep it closed.” She then continued her pace. “Anyways, apparently when you transformed you were able to balance yourself, due to some angelic enhancements that you had in you. Now to answer your question, how do I know this?” She stopped. “I don’t know, yet. But first, you are indeed the son of Abodahon Talonscar correct?”
Duilin nodded.
“And you were raised in an isolated village in Helternia, correct?” Her voice seemed to crack up a bit, like she was upset.
Duilin nodded.
Ophelia took a deep breath. “Okay…I guess you are who I think you are. Now make your choice, surrender yourself, or your friends die. Speak.”
“What will happen to me?”
“Torture, then you’ll be killed. Right here in this very room.”
Belle tried to look at Duilin in the eyes, but her head was tilted to far back and her tears were blurring her vision.
Duilin looked at Rink, his arm must be broken by now, poor guy. The imp looked back and nodded at Bjendell.
“Well, your death or your friend’s death? You die, we leave and everyone else leaves.” Ophelia asked again. “I’ll make the choice for you if you don’t hurry and I can see it in your eyes that you’re not going to like it.”
Duilin ran his hand through his hair, he was sweating and he felt at loss, but he had to do the noble thing…He couldn’t live with himself if he just stood by and allowed his best friend and his girl friend to be killed. “I surrender…my life is in your hands…” He kneeled down before her.
Belle tried to shout out, but her voice was muffled by the cloth around her mouth.
“That’s a good boy.” Ophelia smiled. She then extracted a deck of cards from an invisible pocket somewhere around her waist. The deck of cards began to glow in a dark purple. She took a look at Ben. “If you interrupt my torturing of him in the blink of an eye Belle and Rink will be killed, and Duilin’s sacrifice will be in vain.”
She then opened the box and began throwing the cards like ninja stars at the half demon kneeling on the floor, the glowing cards stuck into his back and wings. Duilin clothed his eyes and clenched his teeth, and just took it. He needed a miracle…
Suddenly the door smashed open, and a lizard man in brown clothing stood in the door way. “LEAVE FRIENDS ALONE!” He shouted. He was holding a large brick over his head which he threw at Rufokanno. The brick caught him by surprise and he was hit in the chest and dropped Rink.
Ophelia turned around and saw the lizard man. “Kill the girl!” She ordered.
“Noo!” Duilin and Rink both yelled, however Rink quickly disappeared in a puff of smoke and then reappeared holding onto Belle’s leg. Both the girl and the imp disappeared again reappearing behind Ben.
Lagart drew his broadsword and pointed it at Rufokanno, who was stumbling to get back up.
Duilin was given a rush of relief. Everyone had just been saved, by the lizard man, who would have thought. He felt like he was the luckiest person in the world, he wanted to just go up to Lagart and kiss him, but that would be totally inappropriate now, he needed to act fast. Duilin then jumped back up and shot a fireball at Ophelia, pushing her back.
Belle who was still crying held onto to Duilin. “I’m scared Duilin, don’t let them hurt me anymore!”
“Calm down, Belle. It’s okay; we’ll look out for you.” Duilin patted Belle on the back and kissed her on the cheek. He then looked at Lagart and nodded, gesturing a thank you. Rink hovered up until he was at eyes meet with Belle.
“Come on, we need to back out of the way. This isn’t over yet.” Rink said, guiding the shaking Belle to the end of the room.
“Damn you Duilin!” Ophelia shouted. “I’ve had it with you! If it’s a fight you want.” She then lifted her hands above her head and a large maul materialized in her hands. “Then so be it.” The enraged woman then went into a fighting stance.
“Melface, deal with the fallen angel boy. Duilin is mine!” She then jumped in the air ready to smash her maul right onto the half demon, yet Duilin quickly picked up his mace and jumped into the air, with his mace ready to strike Ophelia before she hit the ground, the moment seemed to last for a whole minute as the two glided through the air towards each other…
-
"RRRRAAAAHHH!!!!!! I'LL KILL YOU FOR MAKING ME HOLD BACK!!!" Ben's aura exploded and sent and extremely powered shockwave towards Melface. He then readied a bigger energy sword and swung for Melface with the intention of killing. He would not stop until he had blood on his hands...
------------
"We should be able to take care of Ariosis now, Ven." Aaron shook his hand, and then turned off, disappearing in the distance... The others waved them off as they climbed aboard the ship.
"I can't wait to get home..." Justin began, "Hey Ven. Do you think there's an open possition for a knight in Tjed?"
------------
-
"Argh! Blast it!!"
Melface swore as he threw his arms before his face. The shock wave hit him full force and he was sent tumbling right through the stone wall directly behind him. He stopped mid-air in the next room as bricks tumbled around, and slashed his obscenely long scythe just in time to block his adversary's blade, recoiling back from the impact.
"Blast you! Blast you all!! I'm so sick of this!!!"
Hovering a foot above the ground, the child-like demon brought his scythe up high and then drove the blade deeply into the stone floor. Immediately tendrils of black lightning snaked up and around, and a destructive Dark Thunder spell was cast at the fallen angel, bolts of blackness tearing up the stonework above and below.
"Die! Die! DIE!!!"
----
Apollo's pupil-less eyes widened and he clenched his teeth, his eyebrow twitching.
"C-could it be...?!"
----
Ven nodded as he climbed aboard the airship, running his hands along the wooden railing on the deck. "We most certainly could use another fine knight! You will have to serve as a squire for a time, but I'm certain that time will be short given what I've seen you capable of doing. I'd take you myself, but as a High Knight, I no longer have the privilege of a squire. There are many fine knights who will be eager to train you, though."
He sighed, remembering quite a number of those fine men had died. He couldn't wait to get back and check on King Henri. He knew the king was fine, but there was still that nagging feeling in the back of his mind that would not be satisfied until he saw it with his own eyes.
----
"Hmmm, interesting..." Draven rubbed his chin. They were really tearing it up now. Long waves were left in their wake as they rocketed over the ocean. "I do know of the weapons you speak of, and would be very interested in hearing more... I don't quite have resources available at the moment, however... Which is one of the reasons we'll be paying a little visit to someone who may be able to help us sow the seeds of chaos more quickly..."
Draven really didn't know much about the Kandarinians, despite them literally being a neighboring nation back when he ruled the Dark Continent as the Crimson Emperor. The two nations simply stayed out of each other's way. Had Draven been able to properly build his demonic army as planned, he probably would have invaded them first, but that was never meant to be.
The only time he'd seen Kronos was during that banquet. The very same day the Dark Emperor stabbed him in the back... He gritted his teeth at the memory... but smiled knowing he'd already gotten Jayce back. It's daddy's turn now... He knew Kronos allied with the Dark Emperor at that time. But knowing Retan, the "alliance" was probably perverted to the point that either Kronos was wholly fed up with Retan by now, or the alliance completely shattered. Then there of course was the chance that Retan decided to erase them altogether...
-
"Guh!" Ben was hit a few times with the dark spell, but he was able to gain focus and continue his part in the fight.
"Let's get this over with!" He let his blade return to his hand and clapped his hands together. In an instant, he disappeared and left behind a black feathered mist to surround Melface. Soon after, he reappeared and thrusted his energy sword forwards behind the child like demon.
------------
"Do you think Henri is okay? Do you think the Dark Empire may have attacked while we were gone?" Justin asked.
"I wouldn't count on it," Tiberius mentioned, "but it is possible. Retan would throw a tantrum if he discovered Jayce had been killed. He'd probably hold a grudge against Tjed and destroy it, just like... Oh no... We have to get back there as soon as possible!"
"I'm workin' on it, alright!" Barbadose sent the ship back into the air as the last of the passengers boarded. Justin and Tiberius waved back at the land as they flew at a blazing speed away.
"I wonder what's happened with Duilin and the others... I'm sure they're... fine..." Doriana took a seat on a bench on the deck, next to Justin and Tiberius.
"Hey Ven!" Jacobie ran across the ship and held out his hand, "Aaron told me to give this to you. He said you'd know what to do with it when the time came." In his palm was a large crystal, which glowed as it got closer to the silver knight.
------------
-
The mace an maul clashed together, and Duilin and Ophelia lowered to the floor with their weapons pressed against each other. Ophelia had Duilin in speed, but her weapon was bigger. However Duilin had her in strength and magic power.
"Come, it's too dangerous in here." Rink said to Belle. "I'm going to teleport us again, but it's only going to be right outside, when I let you go run as fast as you can. I have a feeling it'll even be dangerous outside." The two then disappeared and reappeared outside the room, leaving puffs of smoke. Rink then let go of Belle and she started running off. "Quick, warn everyone. I'll inform the knights..."
'Probably, I should recommend them to actually stay out of their way. It'll just get them hurt. I'm especially worried about that Bjendell, he seems to have a temper that would even put Duilin's to shame. He should probably see a shrink about that, sheesh...
Ophelia felt that she probably dug herself into a deep hole with this plan. If it wasn't for those damn Velkens and if Duilin didn't have these friends with him, this would have gone much easier. Ophelia was filled with rage; her large weapon was weightless in her arms.
Duilin was convinced that Ophelia was responsible for Herni's death. What they did to Belle and Rink was more than enough for him wanting to crush these three invaders. He was angry but not angry enough. As the fighting continued Duilin enchanted his mace and it was surrounded with an aura of flame.
Lagart raised his broadsword over his head before swinging it down ready to slice Rufokanno down the middle, but the elf flung his hand in the direction of the blade knocking it out of his hand, Lagart growled and then picked up the elf and threw him into the wall. The sword however lifted up in the air and flew towards the lizard man; Lagart noticed the weapon flying towards him. He simply punched down his fist into the tip of the blade flipping it around and he caught the handle of the blade once it pointed towards him. He turned around to continue his beating to Rufo but as he turned around, he saw the elf right in front of him.
The elf gave a solid kick to the lizard man's stomach, Lagart flinched a bit, but the elf's attacks seemed feeble. Lagart then swung down another slash towards the elf yet he started to push the blade back with his telekinesis, yet the lizard man was ready and started to tighten his grip, with both of his hands on the sword...
Ophelia and Duilin continued their fight, swinging their own weapons and avoiding attacks from each others.
"You can't win Ophelia, face it." Duilin stated, not even bothering to try and sound intimidating.
"Don't mock me, Talonscar. You're not the only person who's gotten stronger over the past day." Ophelia was then surrounded by a dim aura, yet the glow went all the way through her body, she then gave a forward push with maul butting Duilin square in the chest knocking him through the window.
She then bulleted forward smashing away a good chunk of the wall, and the both of them were outside.
Duilin jumped back up and shot a lightning bolt at the masked woman. As the bolt arched towards her she blocked the bolt with her hand which was giving off an errie black void around it, the bolt bounced diagonally up into the sky.
"Don't insult me with your simple magic attacks." Ophelia growled. "Show me your best!"
"You got it!" Duilin then shot a fireball into the ground leaving a small crater and then snugly put his mace into the crater. He then held back his right hand and started winding his fist, his hand then started to glow orange and a demon flail was formed in his hands, he let the flail spin around a bit to charge speed and then let it fly towards Ophelia.
Tossing her maul on the ground she then readied to block the attack with both hands. She was taken off guard by the amount of power in that attack and was pushed back to the ground. She then pushed herself up and laughed. "Good, but I know that's not your best." She then whipped out the box of cards from her invisible pocket and tossed a barrage of cards at the half demon.
Duilin smirked and simply placed his hands together with open palms and blasted a fireball at the oncoming purple glowing cards expecting them to burn but the cards flew right through it forcing the half demon to create air magic shields around his hands knocking the cards away, which disappeared shortly afterwards. Meanwhile the fireball was caught by Ophelia and then fired back, wile Duilin was busy blocking the cards. The fireball hit him directly in the chest and knocked him back yet the flames themselves had little effect on him.
Ophelia laughed. "This is actually cheering me up!"
-
((Kerig's post is delayed till tommorow... I'm in a hurry...))
The creature continued to whisper strange words, the green flame intansifying.
The sky grew darker, and orbs of blue flame began to appear in mid-air.
Soon, the sky was filled with them.
... And now, your pitiful soul will be mine...
The scythe was pointed forward and, as if obeying an order, the orbs instantly lunged themselves at the amazed demon lord.
-
"Gah!"
Melface dropped his weapon as a blade of energy burst from his stomach. His eyes widened and twitched as a black liquid poured from the wound. Ben had just impaled him.
"Blast it!" He clenched his teeth and curled his tiny fists into balls. "I hate you! Hate hate HATE!!"
His body turned to mist and reformed on the other side of the room, doubled over with one hand clutched over the slowly shrinking hole in his stomach. He glowered at the angel warrior for a moment, the black liquid dribbling from the corner of his mouth. He wiped it with his sleeve and grinned.
"Heh heh heh heh..."
He leapt up and darted across the room, disappearing out the door and into the stone hallway beyond, his dark laughter beckoning the angelic warrior to follow...
----
In a flash of blue, the orbs struck the Demon Lord all at once, and a pillar of light blasted into the sky, radiating in all directions. The crater was widened significantly as boulders flew into the air, disintegrating into dust.
"AHHHHHHHH~!!!!!!!!" The scream echoed upon the distant mountains...
Retan shifted his weight.
"Excellent. You have proven yourself worthy of my service. Now you only need be broken."
The Dark Emperor extended his hand, and a tiny flash of light seemed to escape from it, disappearing straight up into the sky.
"Vraigus. Come."
Nothing seemed to happen for a moment...
Then two burning orbs appeared above, hateful eyes upon an invisible body.
The stench of death hung in the air...
"What is thy bidding, my master?"
Something large slowly faded into existence.
"Beta Vraigus, this non-dragon begs for his place to be taught."
"It shall be done."
A two-winged bronze-skinned dragon faded into view, at least thirty feet from head to tail. His jagged scales glimmered despite the dismal lighting, and his maw cracked open in a mirthful grin.
----
Ven took the crystal, studying it as it radiated in his hands. "Uh, thanks." He tried to remember if Aaron had said anything about a crystal, but nothing came to him. Hmmm...
Pocketing the stone in his sack, he turned to the others.
"I doubt the Dark Empire could have launched a counter strike so quickly, but you never know. We'd best get... back...?" His voice trailed at the last part, as something clearly had caught his attention in the sky. What in blazes were those? Ven pointed to the sky as his eyes widened. He knew very well what those were. He'd seen them before...
"Dark Dragons!" the sliver knight bellowed. A half dozen dark specs became visible on the northern horizon, quickly closing in on the speeding airship. Ven held onto the railing as violet balls of burning light flew overhead. "Blast it! Can we outrun them? Does this thing have weapons?"
-
//Yes Beta Vraigus!!\
As the struggle between physical and telekinetic strength ensured, it seemed Rufokanno had the upper hand the sword once again flew out of Lagart's hands. The lizard man hissed and kicked the elf to the ground he turned around expecting the sword to come back at him, it seemed like a repeat of what happened last time, but the this time the sword dodged the lizard man's hands and slashed at him across the shoulder.
As the lizard was occupied Rufokanno then jumped at him from behind and wrapped his arms around his neck. Lagart slipped his left claw underneath pushing away the elfs arms from his neck, while he batted away at the floating sword with his left.
Lagart wasn't to smart but from what he could guess it seemed like his enemy had to power to move objects without touching them, but not to power to move him without touching. He was a bit confused because it seemed that he was physically stronger than the elf but when he used his magic to move things it seemed that it was stronger than him. Regardless of his confusion he continued to fight, finally he ripped the elf off of him and threw him forward onto the floor, yet the sword was still floating in the air.
Rufokanno was much smarter than the lizard man, he knew that they weren't very smart and likely unaware of his uncommon type of magic. Also he assumed that he could probably do best if he didn't try to fight the much larger creature himself, and perhaps use his telekinesis to fight it with his sword. However near the broken window he noticed that the half demon forgot his own sword. He needed to keep focus on the lizard man’s weapon however, so it would be tricky for him to get at this one. Also he found it difficult to focus on to many objects and his telepathic aura blocking shield that he was using was hindering him a little bit.
--- ---
Back in the lost temple in Thanatos, the pale robed humanoid continued to carry around the glass orb of Pheonix through the temple, until he entered an unlit room. The flames in the orb were the only source of light for the being carrying it, yet he walked his way to end of the room, were a short pedestal was. He placed the orb on the pedestal and the room, and its glow expanded until the entire room was lit up, revealing the entire room be composed of skulls. The smoke inside the orb formed into its horned skull shape and opened its jaw.
The horrific sound of death and pain screams came from the orb until it closed its jaw. The pale being bowed and exited the room.
He walked through the temple into a room, similar to the others, with the orange stone. But this room had several tables with vials of chemicals like a clichéd mad scientist room.
“We are ready to start the regeneration.” Said the one already in the room.
“How many test subjects do we have?” The other one asked.
“Two.”
The man walked to end of the room were there were three large cylinders composed of a black metal, the cylinders each had a clunky heavy metal door. They were all hooked up to a large glass container of a glowing yellow liquid. The cylinders were lined up in a row, to the right of each of the cylinders was a big pull switch, sticking from the ground. The two pale beings each walked towards a switch, leaving one alone. They pulled the switches and from inside the cylinders there were flashes of light and explosions of glowing yellow liquid, and then smoke and the doors opened.
Exited from the chambers were two humanoids in full black suits. They wore masks covering their entire face, except their eyes, which were glowing red. They were also wearing black metal gauntlets with orange diamonds on the back of them.
“Report to Lord Pheonix, now.” One of the pale beings said. Oddly enough the shadowy humanoids knew exactly what they were talking about and headed towards the room were the glass orb was.
As they entered and saw the glass orb they kneeled to the ground and bowed their heads. “Greetings Lord Pheonix …” They both said in their deep voices, as they bowed to the orb.
More of the terrifying speech echoed from the orb as its jaw opened, the suited beings kept their bow, listening to the screams. Its jaw finally closed, after about a 30 whole seconds of the horrific sound.
“Yes Lord Pheonix. We will not fail you; we will guard him with our lives.” They both said getting back up and exiting the room. The two pale beings were waiting for them.
“Is he ready?” The shadowy humanoids asked.
“No, not yet. But soon.”
“Very soon…”
--- ---
Duilin recovered himself from Ophelia's counter attack picked up the Talonscar Mace. Just now realizing that he should have probably picked up the Iduran, which was still inside. He'd have to message Rink and get him to pick it up, so he sent him a telepathic message...
"You already done with your spells, Talonscar?" Ophelia asked.
"Trust me, you ain't seen nothing yet." Duilin retorted.
"Sure I have. During the battle at Kensar you were able to change your forms. That's were everyone got to see your best...and well I've seen better." Ophelia laughed and picked up her maul which started to be surrounding in a black voiding aura.
"Was that supposed to get me angry?" Duilin said giving an unexpected reply. "Normally I don't like being put down about my strength, but considering I was fighting a draken, I'm sure anyone who was in that fight saw better." Duilin gave a mocking smile. "If you're going to insult me at least get your facts straight."
Ophelia tilted. "Oh, learning to control your rage now are you? Congratulations. Fine then I'll turn it up a notch..." She slamed down her maul not fully expecting to hit the half demon, who back fliped a couple yards back and landed back on his feet.
"Do your worst, Ophelia. Your fighting skills aren't very good, so hopefully you'll have some talent."
Ophelia laughed. "Okay then, Draven is clearly stronger than you. With my honest belief he is. His attack was the only thing that caused Jayce death and your shield that you put even more energy into was barely enough to hold it in."
Duilin's lip twitched. "So what!" Duilin's mace was then covering in an aura of lightning. He pointed the mace forward shooting a large bolt of lightning. Ophelia swung the gigantic maul at the oncomming bolt knocking it into a near by tree splitting it in half.
Ophelia smirked underneath her mask. She then slid her maul back and arched her left hand towards the half demon shooting a series of energy rings at him. Duilin recognized the rings as a slow spell and with his off hand he created an air magic shield and blocked the rings. "I don't see why you're pushing me to do better when clearly you can't stand up to it."
"I'm pushing you to do better because I know deep down you don't want to hurt me." Ophelia replied.
"Why wouldn't I?" Duilin snapped back.
"Because, you're afraid to hurt a girl!" Ophelia laughed.
"Oh is that what you think? You wanna get hurt?! So be it, wench!" Duilin then dashed towards Ophelia and arched back mace ready for a massive swing, Ophelia lifted her maul ready to counter the attack, but Duilin smashed his mace into the handle of the maul breaking it and pushing the weapon from her hands onto the ground. Duilin then kicked Ophelia in the stomach pushing her back a few feet and then front flipped forward and swung his mace right across Ophelia knocking striking her across the torso and knock her to the ground. Ophelia whelped as she hit the surface and lay still.
"Is THAT good enough!?"
Ophelia weakly moved and started to laugh.
"Stop laughing damnit! Why do you always laugh? I just broke your weapons, not to mention your ribs. What the hell is wrong with you?"
Ophelia weakly got back up. "Duilin, Duilin, Duilin...haven't you figure it out yet?" She then lifted her right hand in the air and sword materialized in her hands, one that looked surprisingly like the one Valos used. "I'm invincible!!"
-
"A visit, huh? So..." Anti was kinda curious. "...where the hell are we goin', anyways?" His head turned toward Draven, and he waited for a response.
-
“Open the gates the hunting party has returned.” The sentry yelled down to the main guards. The doors opened slowly and a fog started to seep in through the gates. A small group of guards walked to greet the party when a smouldering body flew into them knocking them down. A tall figure in a black outfit walked through the gates. Everyone stopped and looked at him. He lifted his finger, which was smoking, to his face and blew away the smoke.
“Who’s in charge?” Druid yelled this out but didn’t get the response he wanted.
A large group of guards rushed out with spear guns. They all fired and a wave of spears rained down on Druid, who simply smiled. He summoned a wall of shadow energy which dissolved the spears on contact. He then summoned an orb of shadow energy underneath the fences. They slowly lifted out of the ground. Once they were out, Druid flicked his hands and the fences flipped up in the air. The guards all looked up and watched them flip and then fall on top of them. Druid stepped up and over the fences. He looked around at the fallen guards.
“I know you practice shadow energy here, I can sense it in the air, in the ground. Where is your leader I will kill one person for each step I take that you don’t show yourself, and to show you I'm not kidding around...” Druid flicked his hand upwards and a cowering guard dissolved into the air. Slowly he took another step forward and waited… and nothing. Druid flicked his hand again and a hunter dissolved into the air. “What kind of leader sacrifices his subjects so easily?” Again he took a step forward, and again nothing. Druid sighed and did the same hand flick at an elderly trader who peered through his window. “I will find you eventually; it is just a matter of who dies before we meet.”
“Alright!” The leader came out of a house.
“Let us talk, what is your name?
“Gonen… the protector.”
“The protector? What about the people who died for you? Oh, and you will address me as lord.”
“Yes, my lord.”
-
"Patience. We're nearly there..."
The flight was long, but up ahead loomed the Kandarin islands. They were always shrouded in a thick mist, though today the veil seemed thinner than normal. Heedlessly cutting through the fog, Draven drove forward, expecting some sort of welcoming committee for sure. Instead he found... barren wastelands?
He flew over scorched fields. Crumbling remnants of cities. Black forests of ash.
"Blast it!" He clenched his fists in rage. "There was a country here a minute ago!"
-
"Gah!" Indher yelped out as the boulder in front of her fell apart.
"Gotta find another one..."
At first, the being did not even bother listening to Retan's words or even noticed the bronze dragon.
In seemed to be concentrated on what appeared to be a tiny orb of dazzling light, floating and shimmering at the place Apollo was.
... May he find peace within my being...[/i]
The dazzling light blasted itself in the black creature's direction, and then disappeared.
The creature then turned to Retan.
... You really are a fool ...[/i]
Completely ignoring the bronze dragon, he moved himself towards Retan.
... You obviously have no idea who you are dealing with ...[/i]
He raised his dent scythe above his head, his eyes widening.
... Else, you would not be feeding your subordinates to me ...[/i]
Indher already found a large, sturdy new rock and proceeded to observe.
"That light..." she muttered to herself "... A god of death ... Did the demon lord's power get added to his own...?"
-
"Hey!" Rink shouted. As he saw a Tjed soldier walking through the hallways.
"Sir Rink, is something going on? I heard shouting and sounds of struggle." The soldier asked.
"The castle was infiltrated by imperial agents." Rink explained. "Duilin, Bjendell and Lagart are handling them. I suggest you secure the area, perhaps get all the citizens into the safe house."
"If you say so." The soldier replied. "But I'll have to make sure it's fine with high knights first. We don't want to cause panic."
"Whatever, just hurry. People might get hurt!" Suddenly the imp received a telepathic message from Duilin. "Okay, I have to get back there. Duilin needs my help." The imp flew back towards the meeting room...
---
Ophelia slashed her sword downwards at Duilin who back stepped out of the way. He swung his mace in a horizontal motion at the opposite side where he hit her last time. Ophelia blocked the half demon's weapon with her sword, and pushed it away and countered with slash moving downwards on a slight angle. Duilin gave a forceful smash into his adversary’s weapon as it was coming towards him, nearly knocking the weapon from her hands. Duilin continued with another downwards swing, but the speedy woman parried backwards avoiding the attack. He continued giving swings, but Ophelia was too quick for him to hit again. It seemed that knocking her down to the ground only gave her a rush of adrenaline.
Finally Duilin got sick of missing and finally starting blasting lightning from his hands at Ophelia, who was unable to dodge the attack and saw caught in the electric circuit as Duilin continued to flow of lighting. He flowed his demonic energy through the electric bolts flying towards the magician...
-
Melface melted through the castle roof and remained perched above a window, waiting for Bjendell to enter the hallway below. Oh, how delicious this angel/god/whatever would taste! Magical based souls were so delectable. He licked his lips at the thought, tingling with excitement. Whenever he consumed a soul, he needed to be out of his target's field of vision. And now up on the roof, he'd only need to wait for the fool to pass directly underneath.
The child-like demon removed his hand from his off-white tunic. The wound had disappeared now, and the fabric was busy stitching itself back up. Blast it, that hurt! Oh, but that infernal angel-man would be in so much more pain in a moment. He gritted his teeth and sneered, ready to enact his revenge.
"What are you doing here?"
Oh... Crap...
Melface slowly brought his head up, finding himself surrounded by Velkens. At least a half dozen stood in a circle around him on the roof, and A few more floated over head.
"I... uh..."
He spun around and looked Virmir straight in the eye, who coldly stared him back. Before he could utter another syllable, he felt the fox's claws digging into his neck.
"I told you to leave," the silver fox growled. "We are conducting a systematic takeover of this island. Every detail has been planned, every possibility mapped. And then you return, against orders, stir up trouble with our targets, and throw off our process. This is unacceptable."
Melface tried to gulp, but the High General's grip on his throat was too tight.
Virmir let go, and and spun around as a blur, tail-smacking the demon in the chest. Melface went flying in a daze over the rampart. Virmir vanished in a silver blur and reappeared directly in the demon's flight path with the Flameberge, his secondary sword, extended. Melface fell backwards on the blade and was instantly impaled, his eyes wide as he watched the silver metal stick out of his chest. Immediately his body and the blade burst into flame. Then with a thunderous *BOOM* and a flash of red, he was ejected as if he were shot out of a cannon, disappearing as a fireball over the horizon, screaming all the way.
Virmir re-sheathed the still smoking sword horizontally across his back.
Helix leered and elbowed Renard in the ribs.
"Told him."
----
Retan's burning eyes narrowed.
"Of course I am feeding my rejects to you. If they fail, then they are unfit to serve."
The larger bronze dragon hovered behind the so-called god of death, his muzzle clenched in a jagged smile. His arms were folded, and his tail idly lashed the air.
"So you consume the souls of the demon planes... I prefer the draconic planes..."
Retan waved at the death god as if shooing away a fly. "If you can injure him, then you might earn my respect."
-
"Where are you, pitiful demon? Uh... where did he go?" Ben couldn't sense Melface's energy anywhere. He must have fled. Ben headed back into the room with Lagart and Rufokanno were fighting. He saw that Lagart was having a bit of trouble, so he stepped in and blasted a large bolt of white thunder at Rufokanno.
"Lagart! He's using telekenisis! It's allowing him to move that sword!"
------------
"Oh blast! I'll try to shake 'em!" Barbadose put the ship's engine to overdrive and it sped swiftly across the sky, ripping up the clouds as if ripples in the ocean. He finally sighted Tjed and made for a fast landing.
"Jump out, everyone! I'll distract them while you run for the Capitol! GO!" He landed just a few feet in front of that great crater that bore the mark of Jayce's death. Everyone hopped out and ran for the caves to the south.
------------
-
//Back to Tjed that quickly? Bleh...whatever...\
"Teleka-whatis?" Lagart asked, turning around to see Ben.
Suddenly the sword dropped to the ground as Rufokanno was struck by lightning and fell to the floor.
"Rufokanno, does not like this!" He shouted standing back up, he then attempted to get a telekinetic grip on the Iduran but nothing happened. "What is this!?" He then went to pick up the sword but a huge shock ran through his body and he was flown across the room. He rubbed his eyes to see the giant lizard man standing over him.
"Lagart does not like Rufokanno!" The lizard man growled and he stomped down on the elf's head.
Rink flew into the room. "The sword? Duilin, needs the sword...." He said to himself, he then saw Lagart smothering the elf with his foot. "Oh...well look at this." He fluttered over, to the elf trying to push Lagart's foot of his head. "I guess I have enough time for this...Lagart, lift your foot and grab him by the arms."
Lagart did as the imp said, the elf was exhausted and was unable to keep focused, and the aura blocking shield faded away.
"Not so tough now are ya?" Rink laughed. "Lagart twist his arms for a bit." As Lagart started to do Rink's payback on his behalf, he sensed the elf's aura. "Telekinesis eh? Hey Bjendell, you think that you could find away to block his signal, telekinesis is more of a mind run magic, from what I know. Just don't kill him. I think if we can just prevent him from using his magic we can hold him prisoner. He likely hasn't fully mastered telekinesis since from what I can sense he does not have the ability to control living things, or large objects such as buildings." Rink realized that he almost forgot what he was doing. "Oh yeah! I've got to get this sword to Duilin." He fluttered over to the Iduran.
"What out! That sword hurt people who touch!" Lagart warned, while he was still twisting Rufokanno's numbed arm.
Rink picked the sword up, which seemed like a heavy object for him, but he's lifted heavier. "What's the problem?" He then flew towards where Duilin and Ophelia were fighting...
--- ---
Ophelia suddenly sprung back up her feet, with the constant stream of lightning still being shot at her; she lifted up her sword surrounded in the black aura, which started to absorb the lightning.
Duilin stopped the stream of lightning. "You just don't give up do you?"
"Not until you die!" Her sword then blasted a bolt of lightning as strong as all the bolts absorbed by the sword, knocking Duilin back a few yards onto the ground.
"What the hell is your problem!? What did I ever do to you?" Duilin snapped getting up.
"Duilin!" Rink shouted.
"Silence imp!" Ophelia shouted shooting a series of black energy rings at him, which seemed to have no effect.
Rink dropped the Iduran and the blade stuck directly into the grass, and dirt underneath. "Ooops..." Rink exclaimed, he then swooped down to catch the blade, but on his way down a large crow flew at him and started attacking him. "What the hell?" He released a plume of flame from his hands and the crow was scared off. "Duilin, get the sword!"
"What did you do to him?" Duilin asked angry and he ran towards the Iduran, digging the sword out of the ground.
"It's just a curse spell. It might not have any harm on him..." She replied.
Duilin stormed his way towards the woman. "You've got some crazy spells lady." Duilin then swung down the Iduran, but Ophelia lifted her sword to block the weapon.
"I could same the same for you, demon! So go to hell!" She shouted back.
"I'm going..." Duilin lifted the Iduran up, and smashed it against Ophelia's sword. "...to ask you..." He then smashed again trying to smash the weapon out of her hands, forcing the woman to the ground. "...one more time..." He then gave another mighty swing and smashed his sword right onto the hilt of his enemy’s and the weapon was knocked from her hands. Duilin then pointed the blade right at Ophelia and finished his sentence. "What is your god damn problem with me!?"
Ophelia sighed. "Do you really want to know?"
Duilin rolled his eyes in annoyance.
From the castle Belle came out and saw Duilin with the Iduran pointed at Ophelia down on the ground.
Ophelia spoke. "My name is was not always Ophelia...I was once known as Sienna."
"My god...You're my baby sister. I thought you were dead."
"At times I wished I was." Ophelia stepped back up. "After our home village was attacked, a man named Valos found me..."
"Valos!" Duilin growled.
"He claimed he was my long lost brother, only until a year ago did I learn that he was indeed telling me the truth. He secretly raised me, and taught me my skills in magic. Soon I was found and thrown into a prison but was soon realized and was allowed be an entertainer. I chose this outfit and this mask to let me escape my former life that I loved so much."
"I'm sorry...if I knew you were still alive I would have done something."
Ophelia turned away. "Don't apologize. I thought you were dead too. But around a year ago, when the Grey Empire took over. I met their leader Abodahon Talonscar....and once again I crossed paths with the mutated Valos. Neither of them recognized me..."
"Abodahon was not your father, Sienna. Nore is Valos truly your brother. We share only the same mother."
"I know that now..."
"So why do you want to kill me?" Duilin asked.
"When the Talonscar returned I started to feel the pain of loosing my family again, and I felt it until you and Haraldur finally defeated them."
"Please don't group me with that guy..." Duilin interrupted.
"Let me continue." Ophelia looked at Duilin again. "When I met you I started to feel that pain again. When I first met you I actually wanted Rex to kill you, but you defeated him so easily, so I knew you had to be dealt with immediately, in order for me to feel better again. I can't hurt like this anymore."
"What!?" Duilin said. "You can never forget your past by putting on a mask and killing everyone who is apart of it! Frankly doing that is not only stupid but it's selfish!"
Ophelia kneeled down and started to cry. "I'm sorry!"
Duilin sighed. "No, no...Don't be. It was hard for me when I was forced into the empire. A decade of slavery, but I guess it's nothing compared to you've endured. Listen, me and my friends are strong enough that we can defeat the empire and you can live a happier life again. You can even join us...The first step to getting over this pain of yours is to not forget about your past but to embrace your memories of it."
Belle stepped forward. "Ophelia...er...Sienna?" She said to her. "Maybe what you should do is apologize for what you did here...like killing Goldolf and the King."
"Yes...I am indeed sorry for the death of your friend Goldolf...but...I had nothing to do with the death of the king. In fact I knew nothing of it until now." Sienna replied.
"Then who did?" Belle asked.
"Not now, Belle. I need to help my sister here." Duilin sat next to Sienna. "Listen...maybe it would help if you took off that mask."
Ophelia nodded and placed her hands on the mask, slowly she pulled it away revealing the face of a young woman. Duilin then showed her the Iduran, but not the sword itself but her reflection on the blade. She started to cry again, and Duilin pulled away the sword.
"Oh, come on. You're pretty good looking." Rink said stepping towards the group. Yet he tripped on his way, due to the curse spell still in affect.
Sienna stood back up, and took another item from her invisible pocket, it was the Talonscar medallion. "I don't know why I kept this when I found it. But I want you to have this." She tossed it to Duilin who was stil sitting on the floor.
Duilin caught the medallion. "I'd like to...but do you know what this symbolizes? This medallion represents the evil and terrible things my father did. To keep this is just..."
"Maybe you to need to embrace your past."
"MY past?" Duilin stood up "It's father's past, we're talking about. If you knew about some of the things he did, you would..."
"Duilin...you too are trying to forget something about you, as I did. And look where it got me? You need to embrace your demons as well, else they take over...right?"
"Yeah." Duilin then pocketed the medallion, and smiled. "You're right. Actually a good friend of mine told me that once."
"So, what now Sienna?" Rink asked.
"I will go to Helternia..." She said. "Duilin, I may never see you again if I fail at redeeming myself, I still have a lot to deal with so I believe it is best if I leave, before I cause further harm."
"Wait, one last thing." Duilin said. "You came here with two others. Was there anyone else?"
"Yes...the Virmir and the Velkens, whom I believe you met in Asgarnia. They may have killed the king and left, but perhaps they are still here. Be on the look out. Now I leave, may my final words be I am sorry for all that I have caused and I hope you will all forgive me."
Ophelia then disappeared into the darkness.
Duilin then looked into the air. "Well, that was a whole lot to take..."
Belle gave Duilin a hug. "Are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Actually it's kind of nice to know that I still have a non-demonic family member out there. Even though she is a little nuts."
"You think she'll be okay? Like what if the empire goes looking for her?" Rink asked.
"She can take care of herself, hell she defended herself pretty well from me. But on top of that she knows where to come if she needs help." Duilin seemed like he was bottling up something inside as he stepped back into the breezeway out side the castle.
"Duilin its okay if you're upset. Just let it out." Belle said.
"I'm...fine...Just, don't get too far away from me, at least until we get everything back in order. Now if the Velkens are here then-" Suddenly he stopped and opened up his pouch and dug through it taking out the one Velken medallion Virmir gave me and violent threw it one the ground. "I helped you damnit! I saved your freaking life! Why, did you stab me in the back Renard!?" He yelled at the medallion.
Belle backed away from Duilin.
"You just laying there helpless and I saved you! If it weren't for me you'd be dead! How do you pay me back!? Killing the king! The one guy I promised Ven to specifically take care of! First I was angry at myself, but now I'm angry at you!" His voice calmed down slightly. "Well...I'll do you one better, once you come back, I'll kill you and your stinkin' general. And then I'll hunt down and kill your god forsaken emperor. How about that?" He then walked at a fast pace back inside.
"Rink, keep an eye on Belle. On a second thought I need a quick a rest." Duilin called as he was walking back inside. "Maybe bring me some ale while you're at!"
//Ophelia is now in active\
-
Druid walked through the town surveying what he was going to do with it. He was definitely going to summon his own fortress, but where? The town was small surrounded by un-inhabitable forested land.
Gonen and his generals fell in step with Druid but still kept their distance.
“What do you plan to do, my lord?”
“I will summon my army, my people, and my fortress from my own dimension. I will guide the entire ritual but I will need you as backups since this will be a difficult ritual.”
“Well you have my services as well as my generals and anyone else in my entire village.”
“You will all be there, now I need your town’s summoners.
“We will be there?” One of Gonen’s generals spoke quietly to the others. “I will not be pushed around by this chump! I mean what’s stopping us from killing him right now?” Then the general screamed and dissolved into the air.
“That’s what’s stopping you," Druid stood with his hand twitching, ready to kill them as well. He stared at the other generals who all looked down because the didn't want to look Druid in the eyes. "Now, are the summoners just up here?” Druid pointed to a hut where lights were flickering and he walked in.
Inside there was around ten mages. Druid almost laughed at their level of skill. They even dared to call themselves shadow mages. Then again, they were better then any other shadow mage... besides himself, of course.
“Alright, all of you, follow me. We're going on a trip to the west coast.”
-
Draven's boat appeared to alarm a flock of birds resting on some cliffs up ahead. The snow-white birds, contrary to all expectations, flew away from the main island - somewhere to north-west...
Meanwhile, some heavily irradiated zombies appeared on the cliffs overhead. They were staring at the distant spark of a boat blankly, limply hanging off the high cliff...
--- --- ---
//postponed AGAIN, Jenia?\
"Sitting at my throne, I couldn't help but wonder - why am I so... absolutely perfect? I mean, I have armies of undead ready to obey my most whimsical thoughts. My Lich powers allow me to be completely unphased by any physical attacks. Even had all these powers been stripped from me, I still control an empire, soon to outgrow the Dark Empire itself. If I weren't me, I'm sure as Skorn I'd wish I was me.
Speaking of Skorn, my scientists finally finished repairing that damn machine. I don't suppose I can call "it" Horus now, for a different soul inhabits its, ah... body? The fleshy mutations appear to be nothing but helpful - the wings allow the creature to fly better than anything I've seen, and the mechanism no longer needs to be fed. The machine does look a little amusing in flight, though - seeing a large, bulky humanoid object on non-proportionally large wings is awfully comical. Nevertheless, I can see it wreaking havoc already... though I'm still unsure of the creature's real identity. It can't be Skorn, and these are not wishful thoughts - for Skorn's soulstone is with me at all times. Even now do I feel its cold surface on my chest..."
--- --- ---
//gah, sorry for the lack of posts - but I think that the time that I wasn't posting could account for one or two during which Ophion traveled. Having to restart now seems like quite a bother.\
The undead wyvern landed on the ground of Ariosis, and fell to bits, having served its purpose.
Ophion kneeled down to the ground, whiffing the barely-detectable vapour rising off of the surface. He closed his eyes, as if enjoying the flavour.
-"Ahh... crystalline-based dust of unknown origin. No good, no good..."
The Stalker continued further into the landmass, as he heard some footsteps. He immediately ducked closer to the ground, his cloak melding in with the ground colour. He carefully looked up at the passer-by...
It was a man around his thirties. The best detail that Ophion could make out with his sand-filled eyes were black hair... however, the most noticeable detail was the clear-as-day (at least to Ophion) stench of some...thing, faintly resembling death rot but to a much lesser extent than a full zombie. Odd indeed.
Ophion stood up, the sand noiselessly sliding down his cloak. He took off his hood and facemask as to not look as intimidating, and approached the stranger. Was he just a normal inhabitant of this land, or something else? In either case, he didn't look too tough. The Stalker decided to try his chances.
-"A horribly wild guess, bear with me here... but you're not from around, are you?"
-
The big troop was walking towards the upper west coast of the Dark Continent.
“Now what we are going to accomplish is summoning an island from my home dimension. This will bring my army and civilians and my city. This will give me a main base of operations.”
“What about our current village?”
“I will still keep it as an out post. Once you have acquired a piece of land, you do not give it up. I will fortify and make it more secure. I will most likeley be sending over a small force of my warriors to help secure it.”
“What about our families and possessions?” Gonen asked quietly.
Druid didn’t say anything for a moment and then changed the topic, “Hurry up, we are almost there.”
---
Coriko looked around at his allies. He saw Firstman was a few metres from him so he moved his wyvern closer. Coriko yelled over the wind to Firstman, "this is taking a long time, are we almost there?"
-
Ben held his hand in front of the elf and cast a light purple spell at him. This would render all of the elf's magic inert, but only if Ben was able to keep it that way. If he lost his energy, the spell would surely fade. He took out a red vial from his pouch and handed it to Lagart.
"This should help you recover some of your wounds" he said to the lizard, "and it will also help calm your nerves a bit... Maybe we should go see if Duilin and the others are okay. We can drag him along, too." Ben pointed at Rufokanno and motioned for him to follow them. If he didn't, there would be hell to pay.
-
"Yeah, Coriko. It's just over these hills..." The wyverns flew faster and finally the county was in sight. "My...god. It's been attacked."
They flew closer until they could get a better view.
"It seems that the alliance between them and the Dark Empire has fallen." Firstman said. "Lizard men are all over the place...I hope Marshall's okay." He looked at the crumbling cities for a little while. "Come on we better land before they see us."
The wyverns landed just behind the hills, and the group hoped off. "Okay, everyone it'll likely be easier to get in that normal, but traveling around will be dangerous. These lizard men are five times stronger then us, so we need to make sure to not engage, or else we'll get killed. Anyone want to turn back?"
He turned to look at the others, who nodded.
"Oh come on! Let's turn back!" Firstman begged loosing all the courageousness in his voice.
The other Aspyes laughed.
"Oh fine. Let's go, Coriko..." Firstman groaned.
--- ---
Lagart dragged the elf away, and met two Tjed Knights who approached the room, just in time to see the fight's end.
"This guy hurt my friends. He broke into castle." Lagart explained. "Rink say put him in dungeon."
"Very well." The knights replied, taking the elf and dragging him away.
"Rufokanno no like what is going on!" Rufo slurred in a dizzied voice.
--- ---
Vandrin, Roland, Hypnos and the KAF troops engaged the camp of lizard men, which immediately sprung into action and started to defend themselves with great force. Most of the bladesmen were the first to go down, the spear gunners climbed up onto one of the near by buildings and started to fire down at the lizard men below.
The count had a sedative poison blast charged up which he shot at one of the lizard men knocking it out, and two troopers quickly wrapped a next over it and dragged him towards the carriage.
There were a couple B-Class lizard mages you were showing the troopers a lot of trouble, one of them was had magic, and we fending off troops with his fireball attack. Roland came in riding on a dinox. The dinox rammed into one of the officers smashing him into the group, Roland then jumped off the lizard and unsheathed his sword and stabbed it into the lizard man's neck. The mage lizard then shot a fireball at Roland, but the zombie general was quick to retaliate by pointing his staff and shooting a gel monster from it which hit the fireball.
"Hahah!" Roland laughed. Gel monsters were such pathetic beings, and the fact the ones summoned were just soulless replications of the real beings made them even more worthless, Roland wasn't the first summoning mage to use a gel monster as a weapon or to block an attack, it was actually something he trained others to do back when he was weaker living human in the Blue Minotaur, yet he had little memory of it.
He then charged towards the lizard man, to continue the fight...
-
“Now that we are here, all of you summon shadow orbs.” The group did as they were told. The summoners did this first and their shadow orbs were pale and translucent. Next were the generals. They had a more impressive level of shadow energy. Druid then walked out in front of the group. He put out his left hand palm up, and then the right. With a slight flick in his hand a massive flash ignited and two beautiful yet terrifying orbs of shadow energy were summoned. “Let us begin.”
[Charging: 125]
-
"There he is." A big guy suddenly walked up to the cell where Quad was put into. "Your right, he is suspicious. Leave us alone." The guard walked off. "I've never seen you before. Who are you and what is your name?"
"Quadricentennial?"
"What's that now?"
"You can call me Q if you want."
"Fine, I'll call you that. I'm Johnny Breakheart Q, this is my town. You were seen drinking from our fountain. Why?"
Quadricentennial didn't like the way this Breakheart character spoke to him. He had an arrogant tone in his voice, as if he believed he had the right to push somebody just because they were behind bars. He had a strong chin and curly, brown hair. A fancy boy he though to of himself.
"I thirst."
"What? You drank from the fountain because you were thirsty? Borish response. You could've easily grabbed a drink from the local kiosks."
"I have not a single gold to spare." He lied. Quad had plenty of gold for a good hardy meal hidden in his scarf, which they did not remove because they guard who put him in the cell somewhat feared this strange scarfed man. The scarf had a pocket which he kept small items, one of which happens to be his nana in a bottle.
"So you are a bum yes?" Quad did not answer. "Tell me, are you a warrior."
"Definitely not."
"Then why did you carry that heavy green blade around?"
"I'm starting a new collection. I collect blades now."
"Rubbish. For a collector, you only have one sword." Quad was starting to get disgruntled. He felt that Breakheart was just irritating him. He spoke, "Do you have a point to all this?".
"Yes I do. We need your help. How strong are you."
"Enough."
"Good, you got spirit. You'll need that for your mission."
"Mission? I agreed to no such thing."
"Oh you will if you want to live, lest I kill you right now."
-
A screaming fireball fell from the sky, landing into the ocean off the coast of Tjed with a tremendous splash. A second later, Melface emerged, choking on water and flailing his arms. The smoldering child-like demon's skin was charred to the point of falling off, and his robes were burnt black. He stopped waving his arms long enough to throw them into the air and scream the F-word as loudly as possible before sinking under the waves.
----
"I don't like this... so many innocents..." Anselm flew along side Virmir.
"No one who takes up a blade is innocent." Virmir replied. All eleven of them ducked into a set of three open windows like the wind. "We will remove all authority figures and the military first. Perhaps then the populous will surrender."
"But our orders were to kill everyone." It was Helix who spoke. The thin Battle Mage flew on the other side of the High General as they zoomed down the hallways.
Virmir shot him a steely cold glance, and Helix immediately shrunk back.
"My lord chancellor, we've found the king. He's... he dead..."
The chancellor gasped. The tables in the large banquet hall had been set aside and the room now served as the primary deployment point for the Tjed knights and lower ranking soldiers. No less than two hundred armed men were gathered here, and everyone fell silent at the word "dead".
"D-dead?" The chancellor's eyes went wide. "How could this be?" The chancellor was shocked. Suddenly his eyes rolled back and blood dribbled from his mouth. The chancellor fell forward, quite dead himself.
Anslem removed his short thin sword from the chancellor's back. All the warriors' mouths dropped at the intruder, paralyzed in disbelief. The Velken seemed so tiny compared the the bulky knights, but his silver and white face was fearless and unshakable. Everyone drew their weapons.
"Drop your weapons or die." Virmir's voice boomed from above. The silver furred fox floated just under the chandelier hanging overhead, the light from the candles casting his body in a black silhouette. The remaining nine Velkens were spread out in a wide circle near the vaulted ceiling.
Chaos broke out. Those nearest to him slashed at Anslem, who simply jumped out of harm's way twenty five feet straight up. Virmir pointed a claw downward...
Anslem and the other four Blade Knights instantly dropped to floor level, landing in between the mess of panicking soldiers. They ducked and weaved through the crowd, knights slashing fruitlessly at their blurry forms, often hitting each other by mistake. Each miss was punished with a quick stab to the side, a thin blade under the ribs and an instant death...
As the Blade Knights sowed the seeds of chaos and destruction below, Renard, Helix, and the other three Battle Mages formed a circle high above the exact center of the room. A multi-layered blue pentagram formed between them, crackling with energy. After ten seconds the Blade Knights zipped out of the crowd and out of the way as lightning began to rain from the airborne shape. Then fire. Then ice. One, two, three. Scores of men died...
The newly trained Tjed mages burst onto the scene after the spell was over, quickly preparing shields against the next attack. But the Blade Knights were on them, flying around their shields and stabbing them from behind...
Thus the bloodbath continued...
In less than two minutes, every single human in the room lay dead, the stone floor awash with crimson blood. Virmir slowly floated down, remaining a foot above ground, and the other Velkens congregated around him.
----
A fair ways away from the city, Vincent sat down on a large rock next to the road. He removed his golden Auto Shotgun from his black trench coat and opened a compartment, tinkering with the insides using a small thin screwdriver. Ariosis seemed a pleasant enough place to hang out for awhile.
He didn't seemed surprised when he heard the man approaching, and only offered him a cursory glance from over his rectangular glasses.
"You don't appear from this region either," he replied after nodding at the question.
----
(Caves would be north of the crater.)
"No! Blast it!"
Ven gritted his teeth as the airship skyrocketed straight for Tjed.
"You'll lead them to Tjed!"
He held his sword high as the airship made its landing. He shook his head. "I'll stick with you. There's no way we can chance even one of them finding its way to the capitol."
Ven gulped. He remembered that one that chased him, Allen, and his liege down when they commandeered the Crimson Empire ship. They hadn't been able to do anything against that one. And now he was up against six. Blast it!
The ground around them exploded as streaks of violet flame tore through the ground, spewing from the creature's mouths. Southern Tjed was already a wasteland due to the battle with Jayce. But should the dragons move farther north, particularly over the mountains and to the valley where the capitol resided, the damage would be devastating.
Two of the gray and black dragons seemed interested in the party fleeing towards the caves, and flew off to harass them. The remaining four took delight in raining destruction upon the parked and very prone airship...
----
(Draven would be floating several hundred feet in the air. On fire. No boat. Heh...)
Draven folded his arms. "Tch. Nothing but zombies..." He lifted a brow as he watched a flock of birds take off to the northwest. On nothing more than a whim and a hunch, he followed, rocketing through the sky once more.
-
"I'm getting worried again." Rink said crossing his arms. "Sienna said those Velkens who killed the king might still be here. Though I've never seen these Velken things before, I assume they must be strong if one of them is a High General."
"I'm worried about Duilin. He's really angry that one of them betrayed him." Belle said.
"It wouldn't be the first person who betrayed him." Rink said. "Six years ago, Haraldur kind of turned against our group and started the Aspyes."
"That was scary. I don't see how anyone could have trusted him." Belle commented.
"Yeah, anyways. He also kind of had to deal with being betrayed by his father and he even once betrayed himself by following his father with the Grey Empire."
"Really? He never told me about that..."
"He doesn't like to talk about it. He apologized like a hundred times when he did that however..." Rink sighed. "Come, let's find Lagart. If those Velkens are still out there it would be best if we had him close. He's a pretty big guy..."
---
As Duilin was walking through the main hall of the castle he heard the sound of a battle coming from inside the banquet hall. He dashed his way towards the hall, but as he reached the doors the sound stopped.
His teeth clenched, and he unsheathed the Iduran, holding the weapon in his right hand and the Talonscar Mace in the others. Those fox men are here...
He then kicked open the doors and stomped in...
-
"Alright, we're on Tjed... Now, we just have to cross through those caves... Wow, I really don't remember the way." Justin made carefully to avoid the crater around which the ship had landed.
"Hey Ven! You'll have to lead the way once we get to the caves." Jacobie helped up Tiberius, who'd fell after he jumped ship. Ven was still on, so he'd have to jump down too, from where he was on the ship.
"Come on, Ven! We need you to lead the way!" The others motioned for him to jump off the ship. Just then, four dragons flew down from the sky and started tearing Tjed apart. Justin looked at Tiberius. They had the ability to transform into a much larger, violent Dragon than these. Tiberius looked back at the party.
"We'll distract them. Go, now!"
-
The being seemed quite annoyed, and did not respond.
Instead, with a silent humming, he raised the dent scythe and slashed at the dark emperor.
Indher, who was still hiding behind the rock, was confused at this.
Is it just going to ignore that bronze dragon...?
-----
The vast ocean came to an end.
Land was visible not too far off. The only thing Kerig was concerned about was the terrible weather...
"Hey, Welly, why is the sky so dark?"
"It seems that a being that possess a little less than one tenth of my power has somehow made it to this world."
"Wow! That strong?!"
"Yes, and it's fighting right now. In any case, that is none of our business. Look for the cave, numbskull."
"Sure thing! Now where do we go from here..."
Kerig, now gliding slightly over the shore, looked left and right trying to remember the map and instructions given to him by Kronos.
-
Marshall and Wilham made their way to the entrance doorway of Vandrin's castle.
From the towers of the castle the two could see projectiles falling to the ground and exploding.
"What is this?" Wilham asked.
"Look kind of like bombs. So we should be careful not to get caught by one of those."
"Well…obviously."
--- ---
The two pale beings approached the ones in the black suits.
"He is ready." One of the said
"Are you?" The other asked.
"We're ready." The black suited ones both replied.
"Excellent, prepare yourselves…"
"And remember all of your objectives."
"Who is the transporter?" The black suited beings asked.
"Lord Xnhrthsnhz." One of the pale beings replied.
"We have sensed his arrival." The other one added.
-
//Sorry for the inactivity, just been kinda busy the last few days.\
“I see them.”
“See who?”
“Carmine and his goons. They set up camp just outside the city walls. I’m surprised the guards didn’t kill them already.”
Alex and Midna surveyed the surrounding areas from atop a large tower, Alex hanging onto the sloped roof’s spire with one hand.
“Anyway you can get a better look?” Midna asked. “I see something strange out there.”
“One sec,” Alex said. He squinted hard. Surprisingly enough, he was able to get a good enough focus on them from far away. Had his vision always been that good?
“I see…four, five, six, seven of them out there. Carmine and his guys, that assassin guy, and some guy in a gray cloak.”
“Gray cloak?” Midna said. “They picked up another guy?”
“Apparently, lemme see if I can get a better look.” Alex jumped ahead a few buildings, this time on a considerably higher building. “Okay, and…got ‘em. He looks skeletal, almost. Kinda like…”
Alex nearly lost his grip when he put two and two together.
“De Sade?!”
“It’s worse than we thought,” Midna replied. “Last time we saw him was in the mountains, right? And he disappeared.”
“What I wanna know is how Carmine brought him back. Unless…he had someone do it for him?”
“That other Lilithian. He channeled de Sade’s power and brought him back!” Midna realized. “But what happened to him?”
“Who cares? We’ve got bigger problems now that de Sade is back in action. We’re outnumbered by a large margin here, I doubt even with the Twili weapons we’ll stand much of a chance.”
“What about the Shroud?”
“I can’t manifest it through this thick armor. I’d have to take the P.C.S. off to use it.”
“Great,” Midna sighed. “Between another rock and a hard place.”
“Maybe we should get out of here for good,” Alex said. “Leave Asgarnia so more people aren’t killed. I know of some shortcuts through the mountains that’ll take us to Glacia City, and we can possibly hide out there for a while.”
“It would help to know where the Kandarin Capital is,” Midna said. “That way we can plan our route.”
“If only we could steal one of the Commission’s maps,” Alex said. “Then at least we could have something to go on.”
“You know,” Midna said. “That shadow cloak on the P.C.S. never wore off. Combined with the Twili armor, you could just as easily become perfectly invisible for a short time.”
“That gives me an idea,” Alex replied. “But we’ve gotta be careful. Chances are that Hannibal Roth guy, being an assassin, will probably hear us before he sees us, and the last thing we want is de Sade on our asses. We’ll need to lure them away from the other guys. But how?”
“If I can set up some kind of distraction,” Midna said, “you could sneak up and take the maps. I could create a brief, but no doubt attention-grabbing, portal that leads to nowhere. It would draw at least one of them away. How about it?”
“Let’s do it.”
Alex positioned himself behind some trees, well out of the Commission’s sight, and Midna on the opposite side. The soldiers were in the middle of indulging themselves on some deer that Hannibal had trapped. Roth sat motionless and silent, watching the darkness around them, but facing away from Alex. De Sade stood like a statue, obviously in some meditative state. He was facing toward Midna. Hopefully the portal trick would distract either Roth or de Sade and get them to walk away from the campsite for a few precious seconds. He signaled Midna to cast the diversion, and within moments, a roaring vortex appeared a few hundred yards outside of camp, swirling and tossing loose rocks and branches around noisily.
“What the hell is that?” Carmine inquired, sitting up, visibly annoyed by the din. “De Sade, would you go take a look around?”
“Would a dragon swat a fly just because he could?” De Sade hissed, having lost his concentration.
Carmine sighed. “Just go take a look, damn it.” He was in no mood to put up with de Sade.
“Why do I still tolerate you... Very well.” De Sade walked slowly out of the camp in the direction of the portal’s location.
Carmine went back down on his back. “Jesus, it’s like trying to babysit a dragon, all right.”
Alex didn’t bother waiting for Hannibal to leave before he became invisible. He crept as silently as he could into Carmine’s tent, and carefully rummaged through his backpack. Luck smiled upon him, as drawings of the continents and oceans on paper were soon found. His treasure secured, he crept back out of the tent, but not before stepping on a twig.
Hannibal immediately stood up and looked around, his eyes darting all around the campsite. “Something’s here. You hear that?”
“Heard what?” Estacado said in between chewing and swallowing his meal. “I didn’t hear anything.”
“You wouldn’t,” Victor chuckled, “the way you eat.”
Estacado ignored the wisecracking sergeant and went back to his food. Hannibal walked towards Carmine’s tent, where he heard the sound. Upon looking carefully, he found a broken twig, and matted down grass.
“Probably some animal who wandered too close,” Carmine said. “Whatever it was, it’s gone now.”
Hannibal sighed, wondering where Carmine suddenly got his heightened senses, and sat back down in his original spot.
De Sade returned to camp, and went back into his meditation.
“Well, did you find anything?” Carmine asked.
No answer.
“Glad to know you’re so talkative,” Carmine sighed.
Alex ducked behind a large boulder, and unrolled the maps. Midna joined him soon after.
“Score,” Alex said. “Take a look at this. This is where we are now.” He put his finger on the dot about a hundred miles southwest of Vandrin. “And from what this map says, the new capital is…in the arctic region?”
“They’re certainly taking impregnability to a new level,” Midna replied.
“How the hell are we going to cross the ocean? That water’s gotta be below freezing.”
“Let’s worry about that when the time comes,” Midna said. “In the meantime, if we could get towards Glacia, the sea would be just on the other side of the mountains. Now let’s get out of here before we’re spotted.”
“Gotcha,” Alex said. “I know of an old underground entrance near here the rebels used to use. If we can cut through the city to the north gate, they’d never see us.”
“Good idea, but be quiet about it.”
The two didn’t share another word until they were safely on the other side of the city.
“The Glacia mountains are that way,” Alex pointed. “It’s about a day and a half to Glacia City, so we should be there by tomorrow night.”
“All right then. Let’s get moving, we’re burning moonlight.”
-
Slowly the orbs began to pulse. As this was happening the sky began to darken and the clouds began to shift.
[Charging: 225]
---
"Alright lets take Firstman's advice and lets be careful." Coriko followed after Firstman.
-
He was unlocked from his cell. Johnny preferred to talk to him freely as a way as to not make him seem malevolent. He also wanted to use this as an excuse, incase the prisoner should runaway, to kill him with a reason.
"Alright, I'll be frank." said Johnny, "You are aware of the state this world is in?"
"No."
"No? What do you mean no?"
"I just don't."
"Such an attitude. Well there are many things happening in this so-called warring era. We got armies fighting each other, monsters coming about eating citizens, the undead rising, humans flying about, all that sort of thing. Well the town of Peterré has now followed the times." He pointed to a lone mountain in the distance. "There is a beast, a red falcon like creature. It breathes fire hot enough to fuel a million suns, or so it's legend is told. Its natural island where it lives is gone they say and it came to find it's new home here. Problem is that beast can destroy this town with it's heat. Q, you must defeat the beast."
"I need not do a thing. I'm not here to do anything for anybody."
"Why not? Wouldn't you like to be a citizen in my town?"
"No. I'm just passing by."
"Alright, if that is your attitude, you can stay in your cell forever then."
"To hell with you then." Quad grabbed Johnnies neck in an attempt to chock him to death but it was too thick and rough. "Come now. Where is my former strength that I once had?" Johnny grabbed Quad and threw him to the floor. Quad fell face down.
"Well..." Johnny said. Quad got up and stared and Johnny. "Mmmrrr..."
-
//Sorry bout that. Got Draven confused with Ven.\
-"I am not," replied Ophion. "I am Ophion. I serve the Kandarinian Sovereignty, who are scouting this island for potential threats and targets."
Behind Ophion, his wyvern rematerialized back into its somewhat reliable form. Ophion wasn't worried about giving away any military secrets, as it is all too likely that this man won't live long enough to tell anyone about them.
-"And you, my friend, whomever you may be... You'll be telling me everything you know about this land. Otherwise... you just may be all over it."
Ophion's right hand slid down from his kama to his hatchet.
-"But first, I want to know who you are yourself."
-
All the Velkens spun around instantly, each floating a foot above the blood soaked floor. Bodies were strewn about everywhere. It was a catastrophe... Droplets of crimson dripped from the five Blade Knights' swords, blood speckled upon their black cloaks and silver fur.
Five Velkens immediately shot up into the air at Duilin's arrival in what only could be some defensive aerial formation. The other five remained congregated around Virmir in the center of the room. Renard was among them, his ears flattened and his tail between his legs. Oh, gods... not now... not now... He halfway hid behind the larger Anslem.
Virmir spoke, his deep smooth voice betraying his small frame. His cold eyes were as impassive as ever. "Greetings, Duilin. It is... unfortunate that we meet under these circumstances. Forces beyond our control have sent us here to perform a task. One that we intend to carry out to the fullest. Know, however, that you are not our enemy. Step aside now and we will bring you no trouble."
----
The Dark Emperor Retan flicked the wrist he was resting his head on slightly, catching the blade between two fingers. It did not budge. A blackness crept up the blade... A horrible, impenetrable blackness wrapped in an inky smog. Up the blade it crept, then down the handle...
"It is unfortunate that you do not wish to play by the rules..."
His eyes burned with a crimson fury.
"You lose."
Blackness everywhere. Retan was gone. The rocky crater was gone. The churning sky was gone. Just blackness. A constricting, condensing blackness that wrapped eternally around the deity of death...
Retan extended his palm as the tiny black crystal floated down, landing in his glove. It sparkled once.
Grav timidly stuck his head out from behind the throne. "I-is it o-over?"
----
Vincent didn't seem to particularly concerned about this fellow. Instead he continued tinkering with his weapon.
"The name is Vincent. Vincent Elridge. I was a Colonel of the Dark Empire long ago. I served as General in the Crimson Empire. I oversaw the fortress of Redvik. I lead the airship research and development facilities and was classified as a battle-grade alchemist. I then forayed as a High General of the Grey Empire."
He popped a golden part into the side of the shotgun with a click, fiddling with the screwdriver one more. He pushed up his glasses better on his nose, still not looking at the man. "And blades won't hurt me. Not quite anymore..."
Having finished screwing something back in, he slid a cover over the latch and quickly propped the weapon up, looking down the sights. His back was almost turned to the man. "As for this island. Haven't the foggiest."
----
(Good! Much better, Drannic.)
Ven yelled back, "I can handle myseeeelf--!!"
A huge plume of fire ripped a hole in the airship deck right behind the silver knight, and he was catapulted over the edge, landing in the dirt. He quickly rolled to the side as a Dark Dragon landed almost on top of him.
"Back! Back!" He slashed and nicked the vile thing's nose, which responded with an indignant shriek. The dragon hopped back a few paces, and Ven was able to return to his feet. But no sooner that he did, he was knocked flat on his face from behind by the spiny tail of a second dragon that made his landing. The first dragon, still quite perturbed, grabbed Ven in his talons and took off towards the sky.
"Oh, blaaaaast iiiiiiiit!!!!" the silver knight screamed as he was carried off into the blue. He tried to slash at the dragons' gray scaly legs, but he sword was quite ineffective. The Dark Dragon rocketed back west over the ocean with Ven in tow, two of the other dragons joining him. The remaining three spiraled the airship, bombarding it and those that had jumped off with violent balls of destructive energy...
-
Tiberius changed his form to a great Green Dragon and blasted off into the sky. He sunk his claws deep into the dragon that held Ven in his talons, and blast fire from his mouth. Justin Flew into the air in the form of a Red Dragon and sent a great shockwave at the Dragons attacking the airship. The ship itself flew out of their range and blasted for Ariosis with great speed.
-
For but a moment, the crater was in silence.
No... It cannot be...! Indher stared, horrified.
But then, the crater began to tremble yet again.
...FOOL!!!
The green ball of fire reappeared in it's very center, this time the flames were much more intense.
...You can take as many bodies of mine as you want, it does not matter...
The shadow of the black being began to materialze within the fire.
...I will simply create another again... And again... And again...
The fissures in the ground began to smoke.
...Until you end.
The flames began to spread in all directions, slightly burning the edges of the crater as they dissipate, revealing the one calling himself a god of death to be floating yet again, despire having disappeared a moment ago.
...And in case your playthings interfere, I shall give them a distraction...
The smoking fissures burst as hot magma erupted from them, a thousand screams following...
-
From the fissures two deep voices started to speak above the screams...
"Stay where you are…"
"Or you will be destroyed…"
The two black suited beings, from Thantos rose from the fissures.
Another voice came, higher than the other voices but with a more intimidating tone, like he was mocking somebody.
"A storms coming…but it's okay to be a little scared, kiddies...It's probably for the best…But it doesn’t matter to me, run, hide or just come on out and play…"
A black shadowy figure then whooshed from the fissures and hovered in the air. The screams from the fissures started the scream louder as if they were feeling much more terrible pain; voices of people begging for death could be heard underneath the harsh screams. The figure hovering in the air looked like a ball of tattered black rags but suddenly it sprung to life revealing another humanoid in a large tattered robe, wearing a helmet on his head with a peace of metal that covered his face, with two horns like spikes eroding from it pointing upward. The robed figure was wielding a strongly built scythe with the design of a skull were the blade and the pole met.
The being laughed beginning with a lower pitch yet it heightened near the end.
"Oooh it's so good to be back. Now…which one of Retan's playthings needs distraction? Because ol’ Nex is ready!" The robed demon then continued its laugh as it lowered down twirling its scythe.
--- ---
"Don't you feed me that crap Virmir." Duilin said still keeping his battle ready stance. "You've already caused me trouble! Listen shortie, your little scheme is up!" He scanned the room looking at the corpses. "First you kill the king…now this…You make me sick."
He narrowed his eyes, he spotted Renard, but he was hiding. He then shot his glare back towards Virmir.
"Listen. I gave a promise to a friend that I’d keep an eye on this island. So far I’ve done a terrible job at it. But I'm going to avenge every person you killed today. I have no problem with killing all of you because you guys are just as sick and twisted as Retan to kill butcher all of these people. You think I'm bluffing? Try me, just try me. Fight me one at a time or all at once, it doesn’t matter because one way or another to me…" Duilin's yellow irises started to glow as he continued his glare.
-
Vincent... Vincent, Vincent...
Ophion heard the name somewhere before.... But of course! He was the general who was allied with Kandarin so long ago! Ophion remembered his name from the tactics lessons at the KAF Academy.
-"Vincent, hmm? Aren't you supposed to be... you know? Dead?"
The Stalker remembered Vincent's demise, as written down by the Sovereign himself. He envied the cruelty of his killers, and was infinitely disappointed once he found out that he couldn't stand the flavour of human flesh. 'Tastes like chicken', they say. It doesn't. Not in the least.
-"In any case, I don't believe our leaders' alliances were ever officially ended. The Crimson and the Grey empires are no more; judging by you not particularly hurrying anywhere, I deem it safe to assume that you've nowhere to go. I think that my Sovereign would find a half-invincible alchemist quite useful, and there's always a place to stay. You'd get used to the smell eventually."
-"Also, I don't recall ever telling you that I use my blades to do the killing. Perhaps I just like to carry them around as decoration... or for deception of those who assume too much."
--- --- ---
"The preparations for war are once again underway, and once again do I find myself with nothing to do. History is doomed to repeat itself, so they say. This having been thought, I decided to read a book. I didn't bother labouring myself with the deed, so I called a nearby servant girl over, who was dusting my throne room.
-"Slave!", I snapped my fingers. "Go down to the library, and bring me something to read."
-"Yes, Sovereign. What would you like to read?"
-"The first thing you pull out."
-"Yes, Sovereign."
The serving-girl left, and I remained in my throne, bored out of my mind. That book has better be good.
Indeed, when the servant returned, she managed to surprise me. I don't suppose she bothered reading the title before she brought it to me. With a slow motion, I showed the book cover to her. The title made her scream and run from the throne room.
"Being an Evil Overlord 101"
Chuckling, I opened up the book to the first chapter.
"To start this book, you must first complete the Evil Overlord necessities list: the eight things that ALL Evil Overlords must have. They are as follows:
-A massive empire
-Some sort of a power, natural or supernatural
-A cult of followers who exhibit your own power but to a lesser extent
-A great palace to command your armies from
-Personal bodyguards, or ''goons''
-Overly whimsical rules for your empire
-A snappy outfit
-A gigantic pipe organ - no tyrant is complete without one."
A massive empire, eh? Well, it isn't much to write home about yet, but it will be rather massive soon. We're expanding, aren't we? A power: well, no comment. A cult of followers, though, hmm? Never thought of that, I could see that as being useful. Necromancers but not quite as powerful as me... I will call them... Necrolytes. A great palace? I'm in one right now. Goons never struck as a requirement, but I suppose I can get some Vanguards to hang about. Overly whimsical rules? Been there, done that, sent the postcard. My outfit? What is this "snappy" that this book speaks of? Now, a gigantic pipe organ...
The servant returned to her work, having calmed down a little. I snapped my fingers again.
-"Slave! Bring me a pipe organ, and make it quick."
Her jaw dropped.
-"...Sovereign?"
-"Just kidding. Do inform the Scribe of Unlife to get me one, though."
-"Yes, Sovereign."
-
Ben heard the clamour from behind the castle that the Velkens had caused. He was quite slow, however, to find that all in the room were dead. He simply pushed the banquet hall door open gently and entered the room where Virmir and his squad of Velkens, along with Duilin, had remained.
"I'll hope you know that the penalty for murder is death, Velken. What are VELKENS, of all beings, doing on Tjed? Oh wait, let me guess. Retan got a little peeved that we killed Jayce, am I right? Does he want to destroy the island, or everyone on it?" Ben knelt down and saw quite a few knights and lowly soldiers on the floor of the hall. He observed the type of wounds they all had; stab wounds, of course.
"Well then. I have no choice but to lay down the law for you... Time to DIE!" Ben flung out his hand and a burst of white light rushed out of it. It condensed into an energy sword, but none have seen such a white energy sword before. It was his best sword, the Blade of the Farmiliar.
"What are you waiting for? Attack!"
-
//I need to make some alarm or something. "Check DAL!" A pop-up box or something. I just left a note in my to-do list, on my sidebar, to get into a more regular habit of posting here. I'm really holding Draven and maybe a few others back here. I hope no one else has tried to interact with Drake or Anti... I have only read Xorlak's posts. :/
Anti stared over the wasteland. "A country here, you say? Whoever destroyed it did a pathetic job. The land is still here."
Drake pondered it, looking over the wastelands. He then looked at Draven. "Hmm... If this was done recently... I could probably get a sample of the trace energy here, and then transfer it over to you so you can figure out who did it. That is, if you can't already feel it."
-
Virmir simply nodded at what Duilin said as if it were the truth.
"Very well. If fate has deemed we fight, then fight we shall." He then turned his eyes to the angel Ben. "It seems we have a reputation building. I am surprised you know our name. Your challenge is accepted." In a flash he drew the long slender Wind Serpent from his back, the thin sword that was longer than he was tall. His feet still hovered a foot above the ground, and he sliced the air, resting the tip an inch above the crimson-stained floor. A cool breeze blew through the room at that moment.
"I will test these two warriors. All of you fall back."
The surrounding Velkens immediately darted off to the edges of the room. All but one...
Renard floated there, wringing his claws. His eyes moved from Duilin to Virmir, then back again.
Virmir didn't look, he seemed to simply know Renard was still behind him. "Renard. Back." His voice was stern.
"No..."
The High General's left ear swiveled around. "What?"
"No..." Renard began shaking his head. "I will fight Duilin."
Virmir turned his head now. "You will do no such thing until you are ordered to. And then you will do so in tandem with your squad. Get back."
Renard floated closer to his master. "Lord Virmir, please. I... I must do this..."
Helix grabbed Renard on the shoulder and tried to drag him back. "Renard! Are you nuts?"
Renard brushed him off, and his dark eyes pleaded with the general. Virmir glanced at Duilin for a moment, then back at the Battle Mage. "... Very well."
Virmir floated to the other side of the room and landed on the ground. Holding his sword to his side, he bowed once to the angel that was his opponent. The room was certainly large enough for two battles to go on at once.
"You may make the first move."
Renard floated to the opposite side of the room as Virmir and Ben, landing and extending his claws. It was strange. He had just helped kill two hundred humans, but he felt so small and insignificant against this one. He was such a weakling when he stood alone... He hated it. "I... understand you probably want to kill me now, Duilin." he said meekly, "so here's your chance." A crackling of energy appeared in his hand. "No regrets. Come on, come at me with everything you've got!"
----
"I congratulate you." Retan stood from his dark throne. "You have vexed me."
He pointed at Nex, his thick black cape waving. "Eat him."
Beta Vraigus grinned, a horrible expression involving hundreds of pointy teeth. The 25 foot long bronze dragon disappeared in an instant, a circular shock wave exploding from his previous location by the Dark Emperor's side. With his gargantuan wings fully extended, he blasted right over Nex's head in full flight. As his shadow passed, the burning magma instantly froze, long jagged spikes of ice ripping through the ground. The dragon spun around in mid air, whipping at Nex from behind with his long scaly tail...
Retan extended his right palm and the black hilt of a sword detached from his belt and floated to it. The weapon was simply a handle with a large hand guard and no blade. Grasping the hilt, he leapt forward with a suddenness that betrayed his formerly relaxed posture. As his feet left the ground, the floating balcony that carried his throne crumbled to dust and Grav was ejected, screaming all the way as he flew towards the crater's edge.
The Dark Emperor held the sword hilt high as a thick bright red blade materialized upon it. With a fluid motion, he cut the air in two, sending a crimson crescent of searing energy so tall it sliced the clouds above and bore into the ground below, racing towards the death deity's middle...
----
The Dark Dragon let Ven go, and he spiraled downwards until a second grabbed him, speeding off towards the Dark Continent. The Dragon that originally had Ven screeched as he was burned by the flame, and the third dragon fired off a shot of shadow energy straight at the green dragon from behind.
Ven turned upward in the Dragon's talons and managed to stab his blade into the tender spot between the vile flying lizard's toes. It squawked in surprise and the silver knight was instantly released. He suddenly realized that wasn't quite a good idea, as he was now falling several hundred feet straight towards the ocean.
"Ahhhhh~!!!"
----
"Right, right."
Vincent stood, flipping his weapon over and resting it on his shoulder. "And I don't use this for killing. It's just my walking stick."
He turned his head and looked the man in the eyes for the first time. "And you have yourself a deal."
----
Draven shook his head. They were flying north again, after those birds now...
"Who did it doesn't quite matter. I want to know where the former leader of this nation is now. That those zombies back there are still moving suggests he is still alive, and I think I'm picking up a connection this way..."
Blast it. Draven didn't quite like traveling to the poles. He'd been to the Arctic region once before. Had Zeros' and the others not meddled with his blowing the whole place up when he annihilated Alpha Retan, the planet probably would have been a whole lot warmer and nicer. Of course, it also would probably be entirely underwater as well, which probably would have been a bad thing.
After another long flight, the white ice caps became visible. Draven's eyes widened as he noticed snow covered structures that didn't quite look natural.
"What in blazes? There are people living here?"
Draven's aura of flame disappeared, and he dropped some two hundred feet straight down, landing on the frozen snow. The very ice seemed repulsed by his existence, and melted away in a circle around him.
A half dozen Kandarinians jumped out of the snow drifts outside the settlement walls, aiming their spear guns at the Crimson Emperor.
"Halt!"
Draven smirked and folded his arms. "Take me to your leader."
-
-"You're talking to him," replied one of the Kandarinians, with a sergeant's insignia. "We do not take kindly to people who ask for the Sovereign the second they set foot upon our territory. Especially the kind that arrives on a flaming cloud. Spear guns, attack!"
The clicking noise of the spear gun mechanisms letting their spears loose filled the air, five spears heading for the Crimson Emperor...
--- --- ---
-"Then we have a deal, Mr. Eldridge. I need to remain on this island and find out about it as much as I can. You can take my wyvern over there. It's instructed to take you directly to the Citadel in Gros Morne, our capital."
The undead creature shambled to the alchemist.
-"Don't worry about getting noticed or shot down. This particular wyvern still has a lot of charge in it, meaning that it will regenerate itself upon being hit or losing one of its limbs."
-
"Good, just what I wanted." Duilin smirked but it quickly faded. "So I'm glad you understand me."
'Don't do this...' Said his own voice from inside his head. '...Can't you see he didn't mean to do this?'
'Shut up.' Another voice shot back, also sounding like his. 'There is no excuse for what these...animals have done today, it is time to slaughter him just as he did to these people.'
With his weapons still in his hand he jumped in the air front flipping towards Renard. As he moved through the air, his mace started to glow with an aura of flame, and the Iduran began to glow with a light golden glow of lightning.
As he fell towards the ground he swung both the weapons down at the same speed, despite their different weights. As the weapons swung down at Renard the aura around them increased almost shooting towards the Velken...
--- ---
"Eat me? You dragons are all alike, next time just do me a favour and eat each other!" Nex retorted laughing slightly afterwards.
"Protect!" The two Talonscar Elites shouted as they began to fire a barrage of orange energy projectiles at Beta Vraigus as he moved through the air. "Nex must not be killed! Destroy the dragon!"
As the dragon's tail whipped towards Nex, he continued the twirling of his scythe but then whooshed the scythe downwards at Vraigus' tail as he pushed himself upwards in the air...
-
Justin bashed the shadow energy away from himself, but burned his hand in the process. He shot a flury of fireballs from a distance, each of them seeking out a dragon. Tiberius was quick to react and grabbed Ven before he hit the ground. He placed him slowly on the ground and then flew back into the air. He too began to shoot fireballs.
------------
"You do me too much honor..." Ben bowed back to Virmir before he began to calculate his next few moves. He knew very well that the Velkens were much faster than angels, but Ben was an exception. Still, his speed would not match his opponent's. He put his other hand on his blade, extending it to a much longer structure. It was about six feet long. He might not be able to swing faster than the Velken, but he might be able to hit him.
"Well then... LET'S DANCE!!!" Ben raced forwards toward the Velken, swinging his hardest to try and match Virmir's speed should he flee. The horizontal stroke created an energy wave and was sent spinning in Virmir's direction. Should he choose to block, it would push him back.
-
((Did you notice the god of death's name has not been mentioned ONCE? XD))
The black one did not even bother dodging Retan's cleave.
He stayed in place, his body sliced in two as the crimson cresent passed through him.
The body turned to ashes and crumbled away, a green flame erupting in mid air yet again and the deity emerging from it.
...Are you daft?
The being raised it's hand, an orb of shimmering green light gathering into it...
...Damaging me... Is pointless...
The orb grew ten feet in diameter, but then suddenly compressed into a white, tiny pebble, hovering slightly above the being's hand.
The hand was lowered and pointed at Retan, at which moment it hurled itself towards the dark emperor at immense speed.
-
The journey didn't took long before Quad was standing in front of the mountain. There was fire rampaging about near the top, encircling the mountain. "How has my life changed so dramatically?" His four owls happen to be circling around the mountain to see if they saw anything of the likes that was described. They returned but made a sign that they did not see a giant firebird. "The he must be within the mountain. I'm going in." Quad had not set foot on the mountain when a monster suddenly popped out of the brushes. It was a hybrid of a tiger and a lizard sort of creature. "What is this thing suppose to be?" It lunged out and tried to bite him in the face but Quad managed to get out of the way. He drew out his green sword since it was the only weapon available to him at the moment. He ran and slashed the beast but it was too cunning and backed away. It then bounced back for a pounce. Quad got caught by surprise and got scratched on his arm and he fell to the ground. The beast went for another attack and it grabbed him by the leg, biting it down with it's ugly teeth. Quad, ignoring the pain, grabbed the sword and struck it down on the horrid beast's skull. The monster screamed from pain, staggered about, fell, and died. Quad got up and looked at the body. It was disgustingly opened with the brains splattering everywhere. Quad looked stunned. "How the hell did I do that?"
-
Renard leapt straight back. Blast it, that was close... The weapons tore into the ground where he was standing, sending shrapnel of stone in all directions. One hit like that and it would all be over...
But Renard couldn't die just yet. He had to make Duilin understand. He just had to... He didn't care what happened to himself afterward. The silver fox clasped his hands together as he weaved his very last spell...
Like lightning he zipped overhead, flying around back the empowered human, dodging those deadly weapons. He spun around and outstretched his left hand, which was glowing an ethereal white, and lightly touched Duilin on the shoulder...
Flash of white.
The world faded around them and a new one emerged from the darkness. A world of endless blue sky. They stood upon a floating island with a gleaming silver temple upon the center. Small buildings popped up all around. There were more islands floating in mid-air in the distance, simply hanging among the clouds.
"This is an illusion," Renard said. His ears fell low in shame. "I'm sorry. I'm not very good at it..."
Despite what the fox said, the reality of the world was stunning. A cool wind blew around them, and the bright sun above was warm and inviting.
They were surrounded by Velkens. They did not wear their characteristic black, but rather the short silver foxes were draped in all sorts of colors. They dashed around. Giggling children zoomed overhead, tackling each other in mid-air. Merchants levitated their wares through the marketplace. What could only be Blade Knights zoomed out of the palace towers in tight formation. It was a world in which gravity was simply ignored.
Except they were all translucent. Like ghosts.
"We can talk here in the space between our minds without anyone ever listening. Not even the Dark Emperor can hear us." His tail seemed to droop at that thought as he wringed his claws, seemingly not entirely sure of the truth of what he said and looking quite frightened.
He turned and looked up at the sun. "This is what my homeland used to look like. Before I was born... Everyone is taught this spell, so we can all remember what life used to be like... Everything we needed was on these few islands. We grew our own food, and created our own materials. We never killed unless we had to." His ears drooped and he looked at the illusionary floor, twisting the toe of his boot on the swirling tile. "Bad people came for us many times throughout our history. But we killed them every time. We had to..."
He sighed. "Then one day," he threw his arms up into the air for emphasis, "the sun began to grow. It just got bigger and bigger, and the elders didn't know what to do. The sky turned red, and it got very hot. All of the mages of Welkin could not stop it. Soon, no one could venture outside without intense cooling spells, and even those were eventually rendered powerless. We were being cooked alive... Most of us died... Burst into flames in our very own homes..."
Renard shuddered.
"Then he came. He was like a shadow. With a horned helmet and crimson eyes... The flames could not touch him. He promised he would save us if we served him..." The Velken started to break down at this point, fighting back tears. "We had to, Duilin, we had too... We were all going to die...
"Virmir was there. He was very young, but he remembers. He won't tell us how Retan did it though... Retan killed the sun, Duilin. He killed the sun. Welken was thrown into chaos. The sky turned black. Lightning rains from the heavens. The Pull drags anyone who ventures to close to the island edges into the infinite abyss below...
"But we were alive... our souls bound to The Dark Emperor. He saved us when annihilation was certain. But if he even thinks we are disobeying him, or if he dies, the spell will be lifted and Welken will disintegrate into nothing. Everyone back home will die. I have a little sister, Duilin." He clenched his fists tightly, tears streaming from his eyes. "If anything happens to her I will kill myself. I swear it. And my parents... oh, gods...
"So few of us are actually fighters. The rest are all hostages. And we kill others when we are told to so they might survive. And I will kill a thousand more humans to save my family!" He was shaking now, and he suddenly opened his eyes wide at what he just said.
"No no no no no..." He clutched his head. "Humans have families too... They're just trying to survive, like us... Is one life worth more than another? Is my sister's life worth more than some random human I never met? I don't know, I don't know..." He shook his head violently... "I can take this anymore, Duilin. I can't... I can't..."
He shut his eyes tightly as a calm serenity overcame his face. He spread his arms wide and simply stood there. "Just kill me, Duilin. Kill me and get it over with. All of us fighters are going to die. I'd much rather die by an enemy I consider a friend, no matter what you think. You saved me once. Please... save me again..."
----
Virmir shot into the air, flipping completely upside down. The very tip of his sword hit the shock wave, and the energy was cleanly split in two, boring deep holes in the walls with the resulting blasts. The silver fox continued his flip and landed several feet behind his opponent. His face was expressionless, and he simply gazed at the angel with those cold battle-hardened eyes, the black tip of tail waving behind him. Long-tailed predators waved their tails to draw their victim's eyes from whatever attack they were planning. Velkens were no different.
He was bent forward slightly, his sword to his side as if he anticipated another attack. But other than that he seemed to have no interest in preparing a counterstrike of his own.
----
"Impressive."
The Dark Emperor pointed up at the entity, and the speck of light slammed into the tip of his finger. A furious explosion followed, and the ground was ripped asunder yet again, tremendous boulders flinged skywards like pebbles. The gash upon Gain's face was now over a thousand feet deep, and the planet seemed to groan in pain.
Retan calmly released the glowing sword. The blade disappeared and returned to his belt. He lifted both hands to the churning black clouds above, and a tiny spec of blackness appeared above his head...
The scythe hit the dragon's tail mid-way, and a small chunk of bronze flesh flew off. The wound did not bleed, nor did the dragon seem to notice it. Bone was visible through the small missing piece.
The great Beta Vraigus landed upon the rocky ground and spread his wings and claws wide. Orange orbs slammed into his flesh, but the resulting explosions did not seem to bother him. With a wide maw, he lashed out and tried to snatch up one of the elite with a single bite...
----
Vincent flipped the shotgun and it neatly compacted, folding in half with a click. He stored the device in his trench coat as he gave the zombie wyvern a look-over.
"Hmmm... interesting." He he shrugged and hopped on. It wasn't quite as repulsive as he would have imagined. He gave a quick salute to the man on the ground. "Very well. I shall see you again, then."
They wyvern did not wait before pumping its wings and taking off.
----
Ven slowly sat up after coughing a few times. He was a little well squeezed, but he was okay. He'd need to change his armor, though, as he now bore several dents. "Thanks. I owe you guys. Again."
He stood as he watched the remaining dark dragons flee. Hopefully they wouldn't come back.
"I for one, could use a nice long break from adventuring... I'll lead us back to Tjedon."
Rubbing the back of his head and limping a bit, he began to make his way north to the caves.
----
Draven swiped the air. Hard. The force from his palm resulted in a fiery explosion just before him that utterly consumed the projectiles. The blast was V-shaped, the point emanating from his feet. Therefore it completely missed the sergeant who was standing in the middle. On either side was a small trench filled with steaming water that used to be snow. It took about ten seconds for the flaming corpses to hit the ground.
Draven smiled insidiously and directed his left pointer finger at the man's head. A tiny speck of crimson energy materialized at the tip of his glive, glowing brightly.
"Let's you and I have a little chat about etiquette."
-
Duilin watched in amazement with the illusion. He kept mostly silent during Renard's story. At first he thought that Renard was lying to him, about this but as the Velken continued his speech he felt the truth of Renard and he started to feel sorry for him. He started to regret being so angry at him, but what he still did was wrong. But, Duilin would likely do the same thing in his position. In fact he's done worse. He served the empire just to save himself. Although he has saved many lives, and if he had died back then, the Dark Empire would likey have gained full control much more quickly, so he doesn't regret his actions. But Renards' entire race was at stake, even though he was helping to destroy the human race Duilin would likely do the same thing, he wouldn't be able to sacrifice every human being in the world. What the Velkens are doing is still wrong, but they only had one choice.
"I understand, Renard." Duilin replied, he sheathed the Iduran and rested his mace on his shoulder. "The things you have done are wrong, but I see why you can't rebel. I'd likely do the same thing. I know what it's like to loose family members, my mother and my two younger brothers are dead. In fact I have two older brothers who were corrupted by evil, I feel sorry for them..."
Duilin closed his eyes tight for a second, but then opened them and kneeled down towards Renard and put his hand on his shoulder. "But me killing you isn't going to help anything. I understand your pain, and when I was younger, I wished someday that would happen to me. But trust me Renard, I thank the gods each morning that I'm still alive, here to protect people, despite my terrible job. At least I'm doing something, at least I can do something, and I'm thankful for it. Trust me Renard, maybe not now, but someday you can escape this. Earlier I told you that if the people of Gaian, fight hard enough then the Emperor can be stopped."
"I understand you think it's too late, and you just want a release. But how would your little sister feel? Wouldn't she be as grief stricken as you? From what you're telling me, it seems that it is too late for Welken, but that doesn't mean it is too late for your people."
Duilin sighed, and stood back up looking at the illusions of the wonderful world and the Velkens about.
"I was so wrong, at what I thought about your kind, Renard. I thought of you as soulless monsters, but you're not. What you've shown me has taught me that I shouldn't be so prejudice, I thank you for this. It seems that humans and Velkens are very much the same, as are all races." Duilin paused for moment "Maybe even Drakens..." He shrugged.
"The Velkens are in peril and I won't allow your people to be treated like this. But I will defend people from your group, and I swear Virmir will not succeed in another mission. But I made a promise to myself and everyone else that I won't let Retan enslave anyone, any longer. And I also promise you, I will see to that Velkens will be saved too. I don't know how it could be done, but it I know that it's possible..."
He looked Renard in the eye, and waited for his reply.
--- ---
The elite attempted to jump out of the way but he was caught in the monster's jaw. Yet the elite was still alive as it was caught in Beta Vraigus' mouth. The elite began to enhanced his strength and it's muscle mass began to increase as it attempted to stand up in the creatures' mouth and push the two jaws apart.
The other elite pointed his hands towards Beta Vraigus' and shot forth two ropes from his palms, appearing to be an orange-red semi translucent spinal cord. One of the demonic ropes attached onto his upper jaw and the other onto the lower, he then pulled the two cords to help release his captured comrade.
"Quit bothering yourself with the hors d'oeuvres!" Nex sneered. "Why don't you try the main course?!"
Nex's scythe began to glow red, the demon then slashed forward the scythe shooting a vertical line of four red electric bolts towards the dragon...
-
Anti and Drake had landed and witnessed the entire thing go down. Anti gave a low whistle upon witnessing the explosion. "Your moves have style. That I'll definitely give you." The snow seemed repulsed at Anti's existence too, but then again, he was pure energy. Drake was normal, though. The snow held no fear for him. And he held no fear for the opposition either. He whipped out a handgun-looking device, pointing it at the same spot as Draven. Anti followed suit with a finger.
Drake smirked and spoke up. "Is this really any way to treat guests?"
-
"Due to the lack of death in my land, I almost flinched when I felt five souls released from their bodies at almost the same time. Concerned, I turned my attention to the south-eastern wall of Gros Morne, where the deaths appeared to originate..."
--- ---
The sergeant was visibly shocked, but he stood his ground. He pointed a shaking finger towards Draven.
-"Y-you... you're gonna pay for that, you know..."
Then the four smoking corpses stood back up, shook cinders off of their bodies, and pointed whatever was left of their spear guns at Draven. They didn't appear to be aware of what happened to them. Finally, the fifth corpse arose, but it was different - its eyes were glowing a purplish colour.
-"Hello, Draven. Interesting how the second I feel your aura, five of my soldiers die. Five of a non-replenishible 8,000. Explain yourself. Now."
The corpse slowly turned to Drake, then concentrating on Anti.
-"I see you've brought your pawns with you as well. Was it something I said at that banquet?"
--- ---
"So Draven himself pays me a visit, hm? Most interesting. I wonder what he wants... must be serious, if he bothers to bring those two freak-shows with him.
Then it hit me. That's DRAVEN I'm talking about here, not a worthless peasant... and I don't even know about the other two. My nation is equipped to take on armies, not ridiculously powerful psychopathic pyromaniacs. What to do, how to control him! Curses!!!
Then, once again, it hit me. Curses... That's exactly how. I just remembered that my Scribe of Undeath, Eve, was almost right next to that location. I took out my M-Grid orb.
-"South-eastern wall... defense bunker... The Scribe of Undeath, Eve."
Eve's face appeared over the orb.
-"Yes, Sovereign?"
-"Eve, there's some visitors almost next to you. Give them a special welcome for me."
-"I just sent six guards to check them out, my lord. What happened?"
-"It's Draven, the ex-Crimson Emperor. He's also got some henchmen, by the looks of it. I don't want them to be causing trouble around Gros Morne."
-"Understood, Sovereign. I know just the thing."
Her face vanished."
--- ---
//Xorlak+Trent: it was only at the time of writing this post that I realized I had no efficient way to fight Draven & Co., so I didn't have time to send you guys both PMs and read the replies in time for this post. If you've any problem with the following actions, please don't hesitate to tell me, and I'll be sure to put something else.\
Somewhere behind the sergeant, a tall woman in a long black leather coat and an ushanka hat (http://http://www.ushanka.net/images/s_01172006_174152-PC290013.JPG) emerged from seemingly beneath the snow. She approached the commotion, throwing disgusted glances at the charred zombies. Without fully approaching the dangerous party of three, she took out a small tome from her pocket, and opened it at a seemingly random page:
-"Ilon erecon iuqouq ni maniradnak!"
As soon as the strange words were uttered, two wreaths of two olive branches appeared above both Drake's and Draven's heads. An almost translucent layer of energy manifested around Anti.
-"For my more human guests, I'd highly advise against taking any offensive action towards a citizen of Kandarin, unless you want your pretty skulls crushed to bits. Oh, and don't try to remove the circlets, either - they have a rather annoying habit of turning to metal and tightening around your heads if they are attempted to remove..."
She turned to Anti.
-"Your power is simply blocked, for now."
The corpse with glowing eyes spoke again:
-"Both of these hexes require tremendous amounts of energy to sustain. If you leave Gros Morne, they will dissipate. For now, I am willing to overlook your rather rough entrance. All three of you are now guests of Kandarin. The Scribe will show you to my citadel."
--- --- ---
Ophion looked at the wyvern in flight, and waited until it was out of sight. When that happened, he took out his M-Grid orb.
-"Gros Morne... the Academy... the Colonel's quarters."
The Colonel once again appeared over the orb.
-"Sir, sorry to disturb you. I have just sent a possible impostor to Gros Morne, claiming that he is Vincent Eldridge. Please advise either the Sovereign or one of the Scribes to check him out. He could be the real thing, but I doubt it."
-
Ben turned around and looked at Virmir, his tail waving back and forth. His eyes were caught up for a moment, but he then regained focus. He poured a bit more energy into his sword to make it wider, much like a broadsword, but very long. He held his blade to his side and spun his body around to make five shockwaves at once.
------------
Justin and Tiberius both changed back to human form. It was easier to change back than it was to change into a dragon. They both exhausted much of their energy doing this, and needed a break.
"Alright then. Lead us to Tjedon. I hope we'll be able to find some sleep there..." Justin and Tiberius caught up with the rest of the group. However, there was a man in black robes following them. Jacobie saw him first.
"Hey, who're you? Have you been following us?"
"More or less... My name's not really all that important. I'm just looking for Tjed's capitol-"
"Tjedon? We're headed that way right now. What's your business there, might I ask?"
"I'm a chancelor from Dranniville. I'm looking for some Velkens in Tjedon. I can feel their presence... quite a few of them, no less." The black robed man stared into Jacobie's eyes. He had a mysterious red stare... He was no chancelor from Dranniville. He'd just made all of that nonsense up!
"Tell the truth." Jacobie put one hand one of his katanas.
"Alright, fine. I didn't want to break it to you, but your castle was attacked while you were away. Can't any of you feel that strong presence? It's the Dark Empire!" Everyone stopped and turned around.
"I can feel a presence," Justin began, "but it can't be!"
"Oh, yes. It's them. They've not been to happy with the death of their most favored minnion... Jayce..."
"How do you know about Jayce? Who are you, really?" Tiberius put his hands on his claymore on his back.
"Who doesn't know of Jayce? Come on! He's a Draken!"
"You keep ignoring that question! What's your name!?"
"Fine. My name's Valiko Vraoumoria. I'm nobody, as of right now, but if you're interested, I'm a Draken, too."
"So that's how you knew Jayce... wait, you're a Draken?"
------------
-
//Well, I think I might as well update Vandrin and company. Forgive me if this post seems lacking. I'm not in the mood to continue the battle scene.\
After about twenty minutes the battle was finally over, other than Vandrin, Roland and Hypnos only a few speargunners and vanguards which were on top of the buildings were still alive. The lizard men were too strong for the bladesmen, so all of them were killed.
The remaining KAF troops carried the unconscious lizard men into the carriage to be carried back to the base camp and then shipped off to Gros Morne.
“Well, we’ve help you with your task, at the cost of many lives. But perhaps they’ll serve just as well as undeads.” Roland said to the count.
“Now, I suppose you want me to help you towards my castle?” Vandrin asked.
“Indeed. It will be just us three. A smaller group will make us less detectable.” Roland said.
“You know; if we want stealth, why not just send Hypnos?” Vandrin suggested.
“Oh, I might as well spill the beans.” Roland laughed. “True, I do wish to find the tablet, but I will also need help in exterminated a specific person here.”
“Don’t tell me you want to kill the High General…”
“No, no. This one is a summoner like me, but he’s been rather tricky to kill. I’ve been hunting him down for over a year now. It’s been getting on my nerves. I want him dead.”
“Oh, so a personal matter? You’re pretty independent for an undead.” Vandrin smirked.
“And you’re pretty co-dependent for a non dead.” Roland retorted.
“Hmph.” Vandrin grunted. “Let’s just go, shall we?”
-
The black being's expression turned awefully sour, as if in dissapointment.
...Tell me one thing...
He raised his hand in front of himself, light gathering into it and darkness spreading around it...
...Why did you command your summoner to bind my location to the place of your being...
The light intensified, but did not grow. The darkness, on the other hand, grew at an alarming rate...
... And to use your own life-force to power up this bind...
The being's pupils seemed to expand as it waved it's tail around like a flail.
... Even if you are so certain I cannot kill you and free myself, why pick a method which limits your use of me...?
A silent groan followed, as if the being questioned his own questioning.
The light in it's hand kept intensifying, and the darkness now surrounded the entire crater.
-----
Kerig moaned.
"Ooh, why do I feel like something bad is going to happen?"
"That's because something bad WILL happen..."
A familiar voice responded
"...if you don't hurry up and get to that cave."
Kerig snickered.
"Oh, you are so funny, Welly... Oh look, I think that's the place!"
Kerig pointed at a rather large hole among several crumbled rocks.
He proceeded to cheerfully glide in...
As soon as he was inside, he encountered a confused mage.
A ghost of one, anyway.
"Ghosty!" Kerig exclaimed happily, waving his arms around.
A bright, celestial aura surrounded his right arms as he grabbed the ghost by the head.
"Bon apetite, Welly!"
The spiritual entity grumbled, but the ghost began to scream as it dissipates, turning to smoke and being absorbed into Kerig...
"...Excellent..." Weloss sounded pleased "This one is as good as about 20 normal, ungifted people."
With nothing but dusty ectoplasm left on the floor, Kerig moved deeper into the damp cavern...
"All-RIGHT!" Kerig's voice echoed pretty deep into the cave "Here we come, ghosties!"
-
Renard didn't say anything for a long while. He just stood there staring at the ground. Finally, he sighed.
"I guess... you're right... Thank you, Duilin..."
He plopped down on the ground, crossing his legs and looking quite exhausted. He curled his tail around into his lap. "But... I just don't know what to do... I don't want to kill any more, but if I stop my family is dead..."
He paused to watch two translucent Velken children running by playing with a ball. They tumbled over each other like squirrels. One of them wrestled the ball out of the other's hands and zoomed into the air, thirty feet straight up. The other followed, hot on his tail.
"I don't even know if my comrades feel the same way, or even if they know what's going on. I'm... I'm afraid... they'll turn me in. I'm putting all of their families' lives at risk just by talking to you."
He shook his head.
"But Virmir is a good man. Please don't hurt him. He appears cold, but he really cares about us. We would all be dead if it weren't for him... He's trying so hard within his authority not to kill, but he can't afford to compromise his loyalty to the Dark Empire. If you continue to fight Retan, we're going to have to fight you. Even if you defeat the Dark Emperor, Welkin is doomed. The spells he has keeping that place stable will fade if Retan dies. I don't know what will happen, but we can't risk it..."
He started clutching his head and shaking it again.
"I just... I just don't know what to do..."
Suddenly his ears perked, and there was a tiny glint of hope in his eyes for the first time. "Unless..."
His ears folded again, and the glint disappeared... No, that would never work... There'd be no way they'd be able to evacuate Welkin without the Dark Emperor finding out.. Much less even break into the impenetrable fortress of North Point, where the only portal to that dimension was sealed...
----
More shockwaves. Virmir stood still until the last instant, then bounded skyward again. He ducked and weaved through the blasts of energy skirting upon the edges of the deadly waves, then bounded far overhead, flipping once more over the angel and landing in the exact same place where he began the duel.
This time he held his long thin blade in both hands, angling it in his adversary's direction. His eyes remained as emotionless as ever, and his tail continued to weave. Still he seemed to have no intentions of attacking just yet.
"Your skills are lacking. I am loathe to strike down a messenger of Asgard, but I will do so if I am forced." His voice was commanding and powerful. "Surrender now and I will petition the Dark Emperor to spare your life."
----
(Can we wrap up the crazy-death-god story arc soon? Retan needs to get back on his throne, brood, and yell at people. Heh...)
The darkness above Retan's head grew shimmered, sucking the light into it like a greedy vortex.
"As I said, I do not need you. As an example of my unbound generosity I have pulled you from a plane I intend to destroy because it is unfit to rule, and offered you a chance of glorious servitude and continued existence. However, you have deemed yourself unfit by refusing to bend to my will. Therefore, you will be sent to the Void. A plane where there is no death. There, in total solitude, you will sit and think about what path you've chosen for the next 10,000 years."
Vraigus spat out the elite like so much chewed tobacco, then flipped his long neck upwards, catapulting the other elite with the rope hundreds of feet into the air like a sling.
He smiled widely at the wraith-like Nex and began gingerly trotting at the demon with open claws. The red energy danced around his body with no effect at all. It was if magic could not touch him...
With a gaping maw, he bit down at the demon...
----
Not now...
Vincent felt that pain again... Flying high above on the undead wyvern, he wondered if he'd be able to find a solution in a nation that dabbled in so much necromancy. It wasn't exactly the solution he was looking for, but some of the principles were the same.
He didn't have anything to loose by trying. At this rate he had only a few days left to live anyway...
----
"Blast it." Ven muttered under his breath. He didn't like this fellow one bit. He drew his blade and listened as the others talked. He wasn't quite ready to lead an admitted Draken through the caverns to the capital. What did this guy want anyway?
----
Draven blinked. He just stood there for a moment before a snicker took control of his face. He threw his head back and began laughing. A haughty obnoxious outburst, the kind that rude fellows perform after someone in the room falls off a ladder or something.
With a sudden flick of the wrist he snapped off the olive branch on his head, the metal melting to a red hot slag in his hands, dripping and sizzling on the snow below. He rolled a bit of the cooling metal around in his fingers, shaping it into a ball.
"That was the lamest, most ridiculous spell I have ever seen." He fought back another chuckle. "And believe me, I've seen lots."
His smirk faded slightly, and he began walking towards the charred corpse with the glowing eyes. "Little hint. Make sure your goons don't fire first next time."
He folded his arms, standing just before the head of the undead.
"And no, I'm not here to conquer your little ice rock... Here's the deal-- and I'll make it quick since you are all so deathly afraid of fire. You hate Retan. I hate Retan." He thumbed back to Anit and Drake. "And these two have nothing better to do." He slammed his fist into his palm. "We're going to go bash the Dark Emperor's face in then kick him out of our freaking dimension. You in or not?"
-
Ben landed after the spin. He turned around and looked Virmir in the eye. He wasn't ready to give up, but he couldn't fight for much longer. He was running out of energy. He threw his arm out and absorbed the energy from his blade. That was more than enough for him to keep fighting... but he didn't feel like fighting another battle. He folded his arms and sighed.
"You're a Velken, right? If you really wanted to kill me, then you would have. I know about Welkin... about the raging sun burning your realm to ash. There is more than one solution." Ben knelt down on one knee and looked back up at Virmir.
"Your kind can live in Dranniville. There are people there like you, people who relate to your race! I have the ability to create a teleportation portal linking our worlds together... And the ability to keep you cool if you bring back your Velkens. But I need ten willing Velkens and a few side mages who are willing to aid me. What do you say, Velken?"
------------
"Blast? What reason do you have to fear me, of all people? I am quite weak, and cannot even take dragon form. Here, take this." the draken handed his sword, sheathed, to Ven.
"Retan probably does not yet know of my existance, but he will find me if we don't save Tjed. I hope that we can put aside our differences and help eachother out... Knight."
-
"The M-Grid orb smashed against the wall, shattering to millions of pieces.
-"DAMN YOU, DRAVEN! DAMN YOU!!! How did he take that spell off so easily? HOW?!"
Nearly blinded by rage, I tried to calm myself down by punching the skull off of one of my undead guards. The guard, taken by surprise, nearly fell down as it began searching for its head.
-"That's it, dammit, that's IT, the second he's off my soil, I will train mages... Mages upon mages upon mages. I want alchemists! I want scientists! I want warlocks! I want everything and everyone that will grant me powerful individuals or powerful machinery. I WANT IT ALL!!! NOTHING - WILL - STOP - ME !!"
The one responsible for this must pay. Eve, you lazy ingrate, you weren't practicing your spells enough, were you? I sense an execution..."
--- ---
Eve's eyebrow raised as she saw the circlet crumble. Well, if that's the case, then there's no point in keeping the other ones up.
-"If you'll just follow me, then."
--- ---
The wyvern was clearly visible from a landing pad near the top of the Gros Morne's citadel. The landing overseer shot a very bright fireball in the sky to signal the wyvern where to land. Near the overseer, Cain Ryleh himself was awaiting the alchemist. The Scribe was there mostly to welcome the newcomer, but also to verify his identity.
-
// If I interpret the curses incorrectly, then I'm sorry. But Anti's supposed to be stronger than Draven (In my opinion; Xorlak might not agree. Razz), and if he can break free, Anti should be able to too. And Drake's not totally incompetent, either. Wink
Drake frowned. He didn't have the strength to snap the wreath off like Draven did. But you could almost see the lightbulb appearing over his head as he suddenly grinned. He pulled another device out of Hammer-space. It looked like a remote with an antenna coming from the tip. He pointed it at himself and pushed the big red button. He suddenly shrunk, to a really really tiny size, causing the wreath to just fall down around him. It would probably detect his shenanigans, though, and end up constricting in response. But he had anticipated that. Right before the wreath started to constrict, he pointed his handgun down at the ground, and held the trigger. He released it just in time, and launched himself out of the deadly shrinking ring.
He pointed his ray back at himself, and pressed the button again. He returned to normal size, and kicked the wreath into the ocean. "Nice try, but brilliance and science prevails this time."
Anti, however, was savoring his future opposition's skill. The curse worked weirdly. He was made completely of energy, but could still move his limbs. He pointed his hand out at the ocean, and tried to fire an energy blast. But nothing fired. "This is impressive. No, srsly //Spelled it wrong on purpose. :]//, this is a pretty good curse." He already had an idea what was up, and what its weakness was, but he just had to confirm it. "Hmm..." He then attempts to use his shapeshifting abilities. He doubled the size of his hand. He predicted this anyways; His movement relies on his ability to shapeshift. He IS a mass of energy, he should easily be able to change his form. He returned the hand to normal size. And his last test to confirm how the barrier worked was an attempt to detach his hand. He failed. "I see."
If he wanted to fight, he still could via physical combat, which he is efficient at. However, energy attacks and magic are a no-go; the energy field is preventing any part of him or his energy from leaving. "It's good, but not good enough. Maybe next time... You should put a little more into it." He stepped back a few feet, to avoid knocking his companions over with his next move. He let out a loud yell and flared his aura as strongly and widely as he could, but it looked different. The aura looked more like an extension of his body. Projecting energy wouldn't work, but changing its shape would. The energy barrier in turn expanded to contain his energy, but at the same time, became less dense as it expanded. With one fierce yell, his aura pierced through many areas of the barrier at the same time, causing the rest of it to dissipate. The aura retracted into his body, and he crossed his arms. He had no intention of fighting at the moment, so he remained in this passive stance.
Drake scratched his chin as he listened to Draven's proposition. "Dark Emperor Retan, huh? I've heard of him. This one will be a good fight for you, Anti." He looked over to Anti, who gave absolutely no response.
-
“I can’t promise you that I won’t hurt him.” Duilin replied. “If I caught him before he attacked an innocent, especially a friend of mine, I would have too. But I pray not today.” Duilin looked up. “Too many people have died today. I don’t think anyone can handle anymore deaths…”
“I’ll admit I’m at loss of what to do, if somebody else tried to use their powers to keep Welken together, Retan would defiantly notice and release the spell before the other person could complete the spell. I could even a guy who would defiantly have the power to teleport into your dimension and evacuate your people, but for the same reasons, I guess Retan would notice…On top of that the guy who I have in mind, I believe is dead and on top of that I really don’t like him.”
Duilin thought for a moment. “I can only think of one way…But it’s a long shot, but it would be the only way to do it…”
Duilin took a deep breath. He wasn’t even sure if this would work, in fact it seemed as likely to work as finding a magic ability an Aspye didn’t know what to do, but it would probably be the most likely to work out of any idea.
“Retan would never suspect I’d be trying to save your world, likely only trying to save my own but…I could confront him, I’d have to fight him, and as much as I’d have to fight the urge, I’d have to let him live, and while he’s begging for his life, I’d force him to allow you to escape. But I would have to let him live…which might not even solve anything for my world, which is why I feel reluctant to do it…”
Duilin put his hand on his forehead. “What am I thinking…I can’t defeat Retan on my own…If I brought others with me, then how can I know they won’t kill Retan? And if I tell them not too…then Retan will suspect something.”
--- ---
The elites tumbled to the ground, in very different spots. They were both on the ground and almost totally motionless, but still alive.
Nex tilted his head, as he saw the two elites tumbling around like rag dolls. He then levelled himself as Vraigus flew towards him. He laughed as he saw the creature’s maw bite down on him. With extreme speed the demon parried backwards and tossed away his scythe which faded away into nothingness and then two cleavers appeared in his hands, just before the creature could snap down his jaw down, he tossed the two cleavers into the creatures mouth which spun and zoomed forward like ninja stars with jet engines attached.
-
All of a sudden, the light and darkness around the deity disappeared.
A smile spread across his face.
It began snickering, and soon burst into mad laughter, echoing throughout the crater.
My my, you really do enjoy wasting time, do you not?
It spread it's arms, as if accepting a friendly hug from the dark emperor.
...Very well then, send me back to place I call home...
It's smile was scary, in it's own special way. The edges of the mouth clearly seperated the face into two-parts, which looked as if they could actually disconnect.
...Send me back to the place from which you dragged me!
Tiny specs of light began to gather around his fingers...
And do hurry up, I tire of this...
-
Renard scratched the underside of his chin in thought.
"I don't know, Duilin, I just don't see the Dark Emperor begging for his life. Ever."
The world began to wave and distort. Renard stood up.
"Blast it... I can't maintain the illusion any longer... We're going to have to fight again after this, or at least pretend to... I'm going to try and get the others to understand you aren't our enemy. We can't openly talk about any of this, even if we think we're alone... There's something dark following us... I don't know what it is, and I think I'm the only one that realizes it. It's like an inky shadow that clings to our souls... it listens to us... It makes sure we're loyal..."
He folded his arms over his chest and shuddered. "I can see it in my dreams... it's terrifying..."
He shook the fear off his face and smiled. There was hope in his eyes for the first time. "But thank you, Duilin. Maybe... just maybe... we can beat this..."
The world faded to black.
There was a bright flash and Renard flew back, landing on the bloodied floor. They were back in the meeting hall once more, the other Velkens surrounding the two battles going on.
Renard was looking worn and haggard, his fur ruffled and his eyes droopy. Totally out of breath, he drew a claw back and it crackled with a blue energy, a wide grin on his face.
----
Virmir lowered his blade slightly and and shut his eyes. The other Velkens all turned to him before he opened them again, a hint of some forgotten emotion there. But he blinked and it was gone, the familiar coldness in its place.
"We are faithful servants of the Dark Emperor Retan, who saved us from destruction." He flipped the blade up as he floated two feet into the air, hovering the long slender sword over the angel's head. He paused for a moment, then lowered the blade to the side.
"But you have knelt to me, so I will see what I can do about sparing your life." He pointed to the kneeling angel. "Restrain him."
Two Blade Knights flew from the corners of the room carrying shackles. The hand braces were made of a thick heavy metal, but instead of a metal chain between them, there was a bright blue stream of energy.
----
The two cleavers went right through the dragon's mouth and came out the other side, huge chunks of flesh sliced away. Again, there was no blood, but large sections of bone were visible inside the dragon's maw.
The view was blotted out by an intense blast of blue flame that the dragon spewed right at Nex...
One of Retan's crimson eyes grew larger, and the other smaller.
"You are from The Void?"
He shot a horrific glance at a pile of rocks a quarter mile away. Grav, who was peeking out from behind them, ducked down immediately, pressing his back against them.
"I was specifically told you hailed from The Underworld."
Grav mouthed the words "Oh crap..."
Retan returned his gaze to the deity of death. "It is no wonder you are so brazen. I would not be surprised if you are some other dark wizard's failed trash. Very well. Be gone."
With that, the churning blackness above his head flew towards the entity, and a darkness began to engulf him. The Dark Emperor turned his attention back to the pile of rock.
"Grav. I will speak with you in my chamber. Bring the summoner."
His body faded away, and he was gone...
Hiding behind the rock, Grav clenched his teeth, his eyes wide in terror.
"Y-yes, my Lord..."
----
Vincent rode the wyvern down to the landing pad, bracing himself as he was nearly thrown off when the thing landed. He pushed his glasses up his nose and jumped down, nodding at the two waiting for him as he fixed the top button of his coat.
"Good day. I take it you are expecting me? The name is Vincent. Vincent Elridge..."
----
Ven took the blade in his free hand, keeping his own drawn in his right. Blast, he still didn't quite trust this guy, and he knew Drakens didn't need a weapon to do serious damage. He just wasn't that comfortable around non-humans, unless they had proved themselves to him. He then thought back to the Drannivolkas, who he thought strange at first, but they turn out to be capable loyal warriors. So he nodded back at the man who claimed to be a Draken, and handed his sword back to him.
"Very well, you may keep this." He sheathed his blade. Blast it, he needed to lie down for a while. His whole body was sore. "We'll be off to the capital then. This way."
He turned and began to make his way up the path towards the caves. The ground was scorched and twisted from the battle with Jayce, but the foliage near the mountains remained untouched, and soon Tjed seemed to have regained its normal familiar beauty.
----
Draven smirked.
"Very well."
Folding his arms behind his back, he followed the female officer.
-
"Shackles? You really think these can hold me? I can help you! I can save your people! You've got to understand, Retan's using you for his own evil! LISTEN TO ME!!!" Ben burst the irons around his wrists and sent shards of metal flying across the room. He made sure none of the shards of metal hit anyone in the room.
"I CAN SAVE YOU!!!" He dug out a scroll from his robes and threw it before Virmir. It was a teleportation scroll, designed to get them to Welkin and back. The runes etched on the paper resembled that of ten Velkens, a few mages, and something that looked like a portal... This had to snap the Velken back into place. The other two Velkens held Ben down too tightly. He had to hope that Virmir would see... or he was doomed to face the wrath of Retan.
"Please listen to me... You have to... Retan was the one who doomed your people. He was the one that caused the furious rage of the sun to destroy your realm. Save your people... I can see you're still in there... Virmir..." Ben did not know this to be true, but that was what he believed, and hopefully he could get the others to believe as well.
------------
Valiko took his sword back and buckled the sheath back on his belt. He observed the knight's distrust, but he knew distrust from where ever he walked. It was a sort of racial distaste. He could see it in people's eyes. Everyone kept their eyes on him, which was something he'd always hated... being watched every moment of his life, expected to be the spawn of Retan, a follower of the greatest Draken's footsteps. His goal is to prove them all wrong; that Drakens are capable of good.
"I'm sorry if I'm not a human... but I'm still damn sure that being human isn't always the solution. You might think of me as evil, but I am just trying to help..." Valiko was getting a bit agitated with these people, but he would soon show them who he really was. His anger kept him from showing his sadness and fear.
"Don't worry about it uhh, Valiko, was it? Almost none of us here are human, and look at what we've done so far!" Jacobie put a hand on Valiko's shoulder, only because he could feel the sadness swelled up within him. His arm was soon pushed off, but Valiko was still glad he got some show of respect...
"Here, knight. Take this. You look tired." Valiko took out an orange vile from his robe and handed it to Ven. "It's an endurance potion. I don't know very much about alchemy, but I crafted it myself. It should keep you on you feet... at least until you get yourself to your bed."
------------
"General Zerkrand, I've spotted a few of them headed in our direction. Looks like they're headed for the caves..."
"So, I wonder what a knight, an assassin, a lizardman, and four mages are doing traveling through the caves..."
"My lord, that man traveling with them is a high knight of this region. His name is Ven Hyul, and he's taking them to Tjedon."
"You are quite a good spy, Vlamose... I am proud to have you under my command."
"Thank you, my lord. They already know of the assault that Virmir and his men have made, but they aren't quite aware of the king's death..."
"Virmir... what a fool. I'm glad the lord sent US to finish the job. Glad that he is begining to distrust that velken trash."
"With all due respect lord, Virmir is quite powerful. It's an honor to have him serve the Dark Empire with-"
"Shut your insolent mouth, you idiot! Velken trash like him should not even be aloud in our realm! He should be VERY glad that our lord is merciful..."
"For heaven's sake, lord! Don't talk down about him! He's higher rank then you are; at least show some respect!"
"Continue your mission, Vlamose. I will have a strike force ready in the caves."
"Yes my lord, I will get right on it!"
"They're going to pay for killing Jayce..."
------------
-
The area was dark as night at the moment. One of the summoners looked away and could see off in the far distant the sunlight beaming down. The clouds started to spiral and twist.
[Charging: 325]
---
Coriko looked at Firstman, "Alright, lead on."
-
With nary a word, Drake and Anti followed Draven and the officer to wherever they were going.
-
//*boos at Trent's lame one-liner post*\
Duilin's eyes shifted as he heard Ben blathering on about saving the Velkens. Virmir would likely ignore his suggestions for aid, yet it does seem odd that Ben knows about what's going on. There was something strange about that person. Anyways it’s time to 'finish this fight', and try and warn out these Velkens somehow, it was the only thing he could do. Duilin grinned back at Renard.
"Let's see how quickly you'll fall!" Duilin shouted trying to resemble his former state of mind. He’d have to make an attack that could look like it would knock him out, but actually won’t hurt him. Duilin still had his weapons in his hands, despite him lowering them in Renards illusion, he kept his fighters stance trying to look as convincing as possible. How could he make his attacks look like they’re hurting him without actually hitting him, but how?
Air bubble shields! That's it, he'd create a shield right in front of Renard and strike it, if he could make it look real enough and hopefully Renard would get the idea and fall back to the ground, he might have to do it a couple times in order to make it look convincing, if necessary.
Duilin dashed towards Renard the magic auras around his weapons increased their glow as he moved towards his 'enemy'. Just before he got in front of Renard he created a dim yellow squashed sphere of energy in front of the Velken, likely before anyone could notice, Duilin smashed the shield with his mace causing a small explosion of flame, which conveniently hid the wind bubble as he struck it, the flame was mostly pressed against Duilin, but had an abysmal effect to him. Yet it still appeared as if Duilin gave a very powerful strike upon the Velken, who would hopefully get the idea.
--- ---
Firstman and the group entered the Vandrin County. Smouldering buildings and dead bodies were the only things left in sight.
"I'm sure Marshall and Wilham would be around the castle. I guess we outta go there." Firstman suggested.
--- ---
"Ooof--"
Nex was pushed back by the sudden blast of flame and tumbled to the ground. He quickly jumped up on his feet, yet his robes were on fire! He placed his hand on the burning cloth and tore off his burning robes revealing…another robe underneath, just like the previous one.
"Tada!" Nex chanted as he tossed the flaming rags aside, then lifting his hands proudly in the air. The demon took a bow. He then looked back up, and started talking as if to an audience. "And now, for my next trick! The good ole' saw in half! But I will need a volunteer." He then pointed at Vraigus. "You, the big fellow, with the wings and the bad case of gingivitis how about you?"
He then laughed maniacally before jumping in the air and flying up. The demon stopped flying and then began a free fall, as he neared the ground his scythe reappeared in his hands, but the blade was five times its previous size. Nex then rocketed downwards and swung down his scythe at the dragon's back…
-
The clouds twisted into a spiral. Lightning bolts could be seen crackling in the cloud formation. Druid saw this and smiled. “Alright, we are making progress.”
[Charging: 425]
---
"I remember where that is, alright troop follow me and stick close."
Coriko started off in the direction of the castle.
-
To a newcomer, Gros Morne would smell quite bad, due to the fleshy parts of buildings and the undead guards patrolling the streets. The streets themselves were thin passages in between tightly packed stone houses, some showing the flesh and bone sticking out. The Citadel in the middle was so tall that it was seen from any part of the city. It appeared to be of a spire-like structure with a pyramidic shape, but inversed - the thin part pointed to the ground, and the wider top contained the landing platforms. The structure kept itself upright through four massive bones sticking out of its sides, almost like legs. In fact, the bones were holding the building about six meters (=20 feet for you Americans) above the ground. Just below the tip there was a large glyph inscribed on the ground, emitting a cool blue glow. It was heavily guarded by a patrol of 10 undeads, and four Vanguards with deployed weapons.
Eve led her guests directly to the glyph, and stepped on it. She //and the rest, assuming they follow\ appeared inside a spacey square hall, probably in the upper parts of the citadel due to its relatively large size. The hall was made of the same morbid rock as the rest of the citadel, with a large, gothic chandelier hanging off the ceiling. The candles in the chandelier were made of black wax. There were niches in the walls, containing statues of gargoyles. Each of these also appeared to hold a black waxed candle. The figures occupied three of the walls. The fourth wall had a single passageway with a staircase leading upwards. There were black banners with the red Kandarinian insignia on them on both sides of the passageway. Curiously, there was almost no noise in the hall - not even the expected whooshing of the wind, in a large stone building such as this...
-"The Sovereign is just one flight up. Wait down here, and I will alert him of your arrival."
---
"The sealed door to my chambers opened as I heard the bricks shift. I did not bother looking about.
-"Your spell was too weak, Eve. I'm sure you figured that out by now."
-"Sovereign, the guests are here. Besides, it is just four people - what could ones as insignificant as those possibly do to us?"
-"Oh, I don't know. Something like this, perhaps."
The lightning bolt cleaved Eve's head right off her shoulders. The lifeless body stood on its legs for a few seconds before falling down as well. My previously instructed servant picked up the remains and disappeared through a side portal, which also vanished. A few seconds later, she reappeared.
-"Slave, go invite my guests to my chambers. I will leave the door open for now."
---
The servant girl descended down the stairs into the hall, where Draven was waiting with his entourage. She gave them a quick bow.
-"Please, come upstairs. The Sovereign is expecting you."
She led the guests to the room above.
The Sovereign himself was lounging in his throne made of black oak and trimmed with ivory. The ivory decorations included, once again, a gargoyle at its summit. The gargoyle was holding a glowing red gem.
Before the throne, a small table was prepared, with three chairs. There were some wine glasses on it, as well as two bottles - one of red, and one of white.
-"Hello, gentlemen. Have a seat, and help yourselves."
--- ---
Cain extended his hand to the newcomer.
-"Welcome to the Kandarinian Sovereignty, Mr. Eldridge. I am Cain Ryleh, the Scribe of Unlife, and, as modest as it is, your welcoming committee. Please, follow me."
The Scribe went down a flight of stairs, ending in a dead end. He applied his hand to the wall, and a glowing glyph appeared. The bricks themselves moved out to the sides, creating a passage - which revealed a wide office.
//Assuming Vincent follows...\
As soon as Vincent went through the passage, the bricks slid back into their original positions, sealing the doorway off. The office was lit by only three candles - which were placed in strategic positions around a wall-wide symbol of solid gold, resembling a circular spiral with two arrows pointing out of its center. The candlelight was somehow amplified by the reflective surface of the gold, bathing the room in a deep golden glow. Cain sat down at a chair opposing a table, with another chair on the other side. He gestured Vincent to it.
-"I'll be quite frank with you, General. It seems rather clear that you are who you appear to be, but that doesn't answer the question of exactly what you are. Your life force is not like a normal human's, nor is it like an undead's. Will you be so kind as to grace me with an explanation?"
-
//*Return boo at DM.* At least I'm not having 2 day delays between my posts. Come on, gimme a break. Razz
"Hey, why do I feel like someone somewhere just mocked us?" Drake looked to Anti, who simply snickered at the thought.
"Well, whoever it is, I'll simply pound his or her face in. It's not my concern what this planet thinks of us." Drake snickered in response.
They followed Draven into the room and took a couple of seats. Anti had no use for the wine glass before him, he didn't have a mouth to drink wine with. He simply touched his glass and disintegrated it to amuse himself. Drake, however, had already poured himself some red wine and started on it. They then waited for some kind of meeting to begin. Draven would probably do all the talking. Neither of them needed to. They were just along for the ride before destroying said ride.
-
Renard lifted up his boot and kicked off backwards from the air bubble, performing a few tumblings in mid-air to make the hit look authentic. He braced himself before striking the wall, then floated down to the floor quickly and landed on his hands and knees.
"Argh... you're just too strong..." Crap, that was lame. He'd gotten beat up plenty times before, he should know how to make it sound authentic by now.
Just then Helix dove in front of him, his claws crackling with crimson energy.
"That's enough, Renard!"
Anslem flew down and landed next to him, his sword draw, poised to strike.
"We will not idly stand by why you get yourself killed."
Renard's ears shot up. "NO!!!" The two silver foxes looked back at him, and his ears fell. "Uh... I mean..."
He suddenly stood and leapt in front of them, heroically pointing a finger at his adversary. "Ha! If you think you can hurt me, Duilin, you are wrong! Surrender now, or you will face my wrath!" He cupped his claws to his sides, and a blue energy began to condense between them. "Since we found you haven't been involved with the assassination of Prince Jayce, if you surrender we will let you go to worry about other things. But if you don't, you will face my ultimate power!!"
Anslem and Helix scratched their heads.
The five Velkens that weren't watching the fight between Renard and Duilin gasped. Virmir quickly slashed the scroll in half, and the two pieces of paper fell to the floor. All of then glared at the angel, even the High General. His eyes were livid...
With a flick of his wrist, he brought the tip of the Wind Serpent an inch from the angel's neck.
"You will get our families killed." he snarled quietly, a rage building within him. He blinked it away, and resumed his normal cold, calm, and impassive stature. He sheathed his sword upon his back. "Bring stronger shackles for our prisoner." He turned to look the angel in the eye. "You understand that if you break these, I will have to kill you."
----
Beta Vraigus beat his wings once and he blasted skyward, twisting in the air until he landed upon a large pile of rocks. The ground trembled upon his landing, and he extended his claws and wings wide, his long tail flicking in the air.
"The Dark Emperor has banished your master. You have lost. I would suggest waiting in line at the recruiting offices to see if you can find yourself a decent position within the Dark Empire. There is nothing else for you in this world. I have no further reason to deal with you."
With a mighty flap of the wings, the bronze dragon took off skyward once more, his body glowing before disappearing with a violent shockwave.
----
Vincent took his seat next to the scribe.
"Thank you Mr. Rlyeh. Forgive me if your position demands a title. I'm unfamiliar with the rules of etiquette of your nation."
He seemed to be sweating a bit, and unbuttoned the top of his coat.
"Some time ago, I worked on an alchemic healing potion of sorts. It was specifically designed to repair damaged tissue, puncture wounds from swords and the sort. It was a side project of mine while overseeing the fortress of Redvik, and I never finished it, though I made several untested concoctions.
"Ironically, I was injured in battle, and the wound seemed it would prove fatal. I took the potion, and it made me very ill. In bed I was attacked again. The next thing I remember I awoke in some sort of meat locker. Apparently I had been cut into pieces, but my parts had reformed. I suspect a transmutation I attempted to perform on my body during the final attack brought out some sort of adverse effect on the potion."
He slipped off his left glove, revealing a yellowed, slimy hand. His fingers were loosing shape and melting, dripping onto the table top.
"My cellular structure has been altered to the point that I am nearly amorphous. Unfortunately I am breaking down. My solution for the past year and a half has been to simply re-transmute my body into its correct shape. This becomes less and less effective each time I do it, though. I used to have to perform the ritual once a month. Now it is every day, and very shortly will be twice. In fact, I will need to do it again in a few hours if you have spare room with a clean floor I could use. I doubt I will be able to survive another week."
He slipped his glove back on.
"I have come here since alchemy is obviously not the solution to the problem. This nation excels in bringing the dead back to life, so I am curious if there is a solution for someone with as unique a problem as me. Should you succeed in saving my life, I will offer you my experience in airship design and airship weaponry."
----
Ven took the yellow potion from the man. He did have an honesty about him. He shrugged. What the heck.
"Thanks."
He did feel a bit better after sipping the beverage. He had to admit, it would be nice to have a Draken on their side. If he really was a Draken. And not evil.
Ven paused at the cave mouth, looking around at the group following him. "You guys ever get the feeling you're being watched?" He glanced around the surrounding shrubbery, not quite seeing anything unusual...
----
Draven took a seat and waited for a glass of red wine to be poured. As he did so, he looked around the palace.
"Not bad, not bad... You may want to look into getting some air fresheners or something, though."
He took the glass and swirled it around.
"I don't get it though... why dead animals? I know you're all necro-obsessed and all, but that'd be like me building fortresses out of blocks of fire."
He shrugged and sipped the wine. He suddenly realized he did not introduce his two tag-alongs. "Apologies. These two are my associates..." He thumbed in their direction, realizing now that he never bothered asking their names. Or he forgot. "Faceless and Dr. Labcoat."
-
"No, Virmir. You've spilled enough blood on behalf of the Emporer... I'll go quietly, but I want that scroll." Ben picked the slashed scroll back up. He could repair it with ease, but he hoped that the Velkens didn't know that. He shoved the two pieces back into his robes.
"I'm sorry it has to be this way, Velken. I stand by with my offer, if you change your mind..." Ben was a bit anoyed with Virmir's response, but he knew there were other ways of convincing the Velken to save his kind. For now, all he could do is just play along...
------------
"Hmm... Hold on, there's a strike force in those caves." Valiko stopped everyone from continuing.
"Huh? How can you tell? I can't sense anything!" Jacobie put one hand on one of his katanas again, waiting for an attack to just happen.
"Use your eyes, not your magic!" Ahead, there were Dark Empire soldiers mobilizing in the caves, the strike force approaching the party.
"In the name of Emporer Retan the dark, I command you to lay down your arms. If you comply, we will ask the Emporer to spare your life."
------------
-
//Nice to see you're familiar with your Lovecraft, Xorlak - but the guy's name is Ryleh, like Rylee - not Rlyeh, after the mythical city. Takes an obsessive maniac like myself to spot that (I specifically checked the way you spelled it)\
Cain scratched his head.
-"That's a very... interesting problem you have, Mr. Eldridge. However, they who will search will find what they need, am I not correct? There's always a solution. In your case, we must first find a suitable body. Due to the advances in both the science of Necromancy and magic in general, you can choose any body at all. For scientific matters, though, it is best to remain in human form. However, we do have several bodies at our disposal. Here's one, hauled in from a place called Vandrin County just several hours ago."
The Scribe pulled a stack of papers from a cabinet below the table. The papers landed on the table with a loud thud.
-"This is what we call the Varanus hominidatus C - an unique beast, gathered from the Dark Empire. They refer to them as 'Lizard Men', probably grown en masse in hatcheries. Their digits are thin enough to operate fine machinery, while their strength surpasses that of five humans. They also proved resistant to most venoms and poisons we attempted using on them. This particular strain appears to have been created for a shorter duration, but lifespan will not be a problem due to the Necromantic magic you'll have in yourself. Take a look."
Cain handed over a series of detailed drawings of a Lizard Man, from every side and dissected. He shuffled through the papers some more.
-"There's also the possibility of encasing your mind within a golem, though we have not begun their mass construction yet, due to the lack of raw materials. I'm sure we'd be able to get some for your own body, though. The good thing about golems is that they're completely customizable, and have some magic conduction capability. The bad thing... well, they need a charge. While it is possible to put all sorts of glyphs on the golem to extend the charge, eventually you'll need to come back to Gros Morne to replenish your power supply. The benefits are endless, though. Golems can be created out of any material at all, any size you want them to be, and so on. They're also quite hard to kill - not only because they are built of a sturdier material than flesh, but also because if they do happen to be defeated, all that needs to be done to revive them is to replenish their charge - and you're good to go again. This would be my personal pick, were it up to me."
Taking a pause, the Scribe put away the papers back to where he took them.
-"Finally, you have the option of becoming one of the Sovereign's undead human minions. I'm sure that with your intelligence and importance, the Sovereign would have no problem with leaving your free will intact. The benefits: you become practically indestructible, you never age, and, if the Sovereign desires so, your flesh will not deteriorate. The catch: You are ultimately completely dependable on the Sovereign; therefore, in the highly unlikely situation that the Sovereign dies, so do you."
-"Anyways, I will leave you to your decision. See that glyph over there, by the wall?" Indeed, Cain pointed to a glowing sigil etched in the stone floor. "Step inside, and you will be teleported to your room. Since we don't have much unoccupied space without any unlife to discomfort you, your quarters are located within the Citadel itself. You may notice the lack of a door - but instead, you will find a glyph like the one over there. In its middle, there's an empty space. Chalking a destination in the center will redirect the portal to that location, so long as it is in Gros Morne. Meanwhile, I will consult the Sovereign on your situation. Remember, though, that your new form is entirely up to you."
--- ---
-"Given enough imagination, one can find many uses for unlife as a building material. For example, if my city was under attack, the buildings themselves can retaliate. Or, if I choose so, they will run to a new location."
I suppressed an urge to flinch when the energy entity made my wine glass vanish. Note to self: train mages to do that sort of thing. Pouring myself a glass of white wine, I eyed the creature. The energy barrier was still intact, but it might be able to perform physical attacks. Good, because those can't hurt me.
-"Pleasure meeting you, gentlemen. I am Kronos, the Sovereign of Kandarin."
I wonder if Draven remembered me as Marshal? Probably not.
-"Anyways, Retan." I ceremonially put my glass back on the table. "You are right, he's becoming somewhat of a mild obstacle in the way of my conquest of the world. Mostly because I really don't have much to fight him with. As you can imagine, swarming a Draken with even hundreds of thousands of undeads won't solve much."
-"On the flip side, I don't see him as a threat right now. So tell me - why do you want him dead?"
-
Just as Indher thought all is lost, and the dark emperor has began to leave, a familiar green flame appeared above the battered battlefield.
...As I thought...
The green flame dissipated, the black deity floating in the air of Gaian once again.
...And I almost changed my mind about you, Retan...
The being shook it's head, but suddenly turned around, grabbing Indher in it's long-fingered, rubbery hand.
...A user of runes...?
Indher didn't really seem surprised, and replied in an almost bored tone.
"Look, I used an inciniration type sealer in the runes. If theres a way to undo it, I don't know about it."
The being's eyes widened, apperantly in anger.
... You knowingly had Retan's goons aid you in my dragging here, when you knew full well the only way for me to return would be to kill him...!?
Indher shook her head. In fact, she would expect the dark emperor to hear the very conversation.
"Well, duh..." she said, shrugging "How else am I supposed to make sure you kill him?"
The deity clentched it's free hand into a fist.
...How very manipulative of you. However, it seems your plan has failed, and I demand compensation for my troubles...
The furry woman nodded with absolute confidence at the black one.
"Very well. How much time do I have?"
...I tire of this, so I expect it to be ready by the time I awaken from my rest...
The being rose high above the crater, then arched it's head a bit as if to avoid a passing cloud.
...So will I expect to be rid of Retan and free to go back. But first, I will find a place to rest...
Indher smiled at this. The extreme height was unnerving, but her idea was more than enough for her to retain her composure.
"This is a bad place to look. Shall we go somewhere else?"
With that, Indher took out an orb, and the two disappeared...
-
The clouds completed its spiral. Once this happened the middle slowly moved downwards. As the clouds moved and changed the water start to spiral as well.
[Charging: 525]
-
'Oh, I see. He needs to keep this fight going.' Duilin realized. 'I really wish he was a better actor though.'
"Ultimate power?!" Duilin said as convincingly as possible. "Hah. I call your bluff!" Duilin then started to glow with a golden aura of fire and lightning around him. "I'll charge my energy all day if I have too!"
'That has to be the second cheesiest thing I've said all day.'
--- ---
"Pah!" Nex slowly lowered to the ground and the blade of his scythe went back to normal. He walked towards the closest elite and nudged him with his steel toed boot. "Get up, grunt."
The elite slowly got back up.
"You sure you're an elite? That was perhaps the poorest display of fighting I've seen since...well last time I was here. Well anyways apparently that dragon took our black rubber friend as our lord."
The elite shrugged in response.
"Oh, I see you need to both talk at the same time, in order to keep up your 'cool and epic image'. Just go and get him, I'm sure you'll both be fine."
The elite walked weakly over towards his counterpart.
"That dragon did suggest I join the Dark Empire..." Nex thought out loud. "That would be interesting, but it might hinder our plans, seeing how poorly the emperor's attempt at controlling my apparent 'master' turned out. Besides joining the Dark Empire would draw to much attention to the Talonscar. Perhaps there is a smaller nation...perhaps one that may even be able to help more so then mister black rubber!"
-
As the water started to twist and spiral, the centre of this movement moved downwards. The cracks of lightning in the clouds began to increase. Then the water started to flash and crackle.
[Charging: 625]
-
//Anti destroyed the barrier by expanding his aura, as an extension of his body, so much that the energy barrier lost its density, and he punched through it. If you really need the barrier on him, I don't mind, but I'm just sayin'...
"...Faceless?"
"...Dr. Labcoat? ...Urk! We never introduced ourselves to him! Well... you introduced me, but you never introduced yourself!"
"Oh my. Even someone like me shouldn't forget his manners. I'll go ahead, then. I am the Zerobi no Anti. I have come from the astral plane, and I have... plans... for this world- no, this universe."
Dammit, does he really have to be so open about it?! "And I am Dr. Drake Genais, a scientist of metaphysical warfare. And cool gadgets."
They then listened to the conversation, Anti not bothering to take note of anything. Drake, however, was quite attentive. I remember now. Dark Emperor Retan... One of the most powerful Drakens in existence, if he doesn't already top that list.
-
Druid watched as his ritual was underway. The clouds had spiralled and lowered and so had the water. The lightning bolts were a good sign of the connection and flow of energy. This ritual would hopefully be over soon if all went well.
[Charging: 725]
-
"How entertaining..." Ben said as he watched Duilin's and Renard's fight. It was hard to conseal his laughter, but he was able to keep from even smiling. He was still angry at Virmir, and had something in mind that would probably get the Velken even more riled up than before... Ben had finished picking the lock on his shackles, but he kept them on so that the Velkens wouldn't notice. He walked behind Virmir and threw his shackles in front of him from over his head. He then readied another energy sword and readied himself for combat.
-
Renard clenched his teeth. Holy crap! He's powering up! He tried not to be intimidated by the much more impressive display of power, but his eyes widened anyway.
Blast it! How in blazes was he going to get Duilin to run away? He couldn't hold his friends back much longer, and if they got involved, someone was certainly going to get hurt or killed on one side or the other. He had managed to slip that note in the winged human's pocket right after the illusion spell faded, but there was no way he'd look at it in battle. Blast it, if only he hadn't broken down when during the illusion, he would have had the time to tell Duilin... So stupid, as always...
"I-I'm serious, Duilin!" His voice faltered. "If you don't get out of here right now, I-I'm going to have to d-destroy you!"
He thrust his claws forward, sending a bright blew stream of energy straight at Duilin. It was mostly smoke, a sort of dry ice effect, so his target wouldn't feel much more than a cold breeze if he got hit.
----
(Apologies if I'm interpreting this incorrectly, but I read that as Ben trying to slip the chains around Virmir's neck. Your pronouns were a little ambiguous. Heh...)
The silver fox's ears shot up as the angel was nearly upon him, and he bounded straight up into the air, spinning around and floating an altitude of ten feet. He eyed the energy blade in Bjendell's hand.
"I see you do not have any honor."
The other Velkens knew what that meant, and got the heck out of the way.
With a fluid motion, Virmir drew a sword from his back and angled it straight down at the angel. This time he wielded the slightly heavier but shorter Flamberge, and the blade glowed a fiery red. Without so much as a warning, a crimson blast of light burst forth from the sword, and a pillar of fire was sent raging towards the angel...
----
Vincent pondered over the drawings for a moment, stroking his chin.
"Hmmm, I'm hesitant to take a... non-human form. And I'm not sure I would be able to perform alchemy in a metallic body... Although all of these are better alternatives to my current situation. If you don't mind, I will need some time to think about this. I will have a decision for you tomorrow at the latest. Thank you, Mr. Ryleh."
He nodded politely and made his way towards the glyphs, disappearing with a flash.
(If you don't mind, due to MASSIVE character overload I'm going to pick up with Vincent next chapter.)
----
Ven gritted his teeth. Blast it, he knew this couldn't be easy. He couldn't quite tell how many there were standing in the mouth of the caves, but he estimated his chances to be reasonable. He was with a group of fairly strong warriors, after all. Hopefully the Dark Empire had gotten lost in the maze-like caves trying to find the capital city, and needed him to find their way through. He wasn't about to let that happen.
The silver knight drew the sword upon his back.
"I don't think so!"
With a quick slash, he send a surging crescent of blinding white energy at the attack force...
----
Draven set the glass down and smirked.
"You don't see a megalomaniac who grabs every single landmass in sight just because he can as a threat? Don't think because you have claimed the worst location ever as your home base, that he will overlook you. Of course, if you're not that interested in a slice of his empire, I suppose I could just take it all for myself..."
He took another sip, then cracked his knuckles.
"Other than the obvious, he has stabbed me in the back. And I don't like that."
-
As the centre of the spiral descended it opened up like a mouth. It started to open slowly making way for the second part of the ritual.
[Charging: 825]
-
//Xorlak: Pretty sure you got it right. Meh...
Ben cleaved upwards, slashing the beam of fire in half. That did take a lot out of him to do it, but he still held his ground with a few burn marks on his hand that held the sword. He then flew up in the air and thrust his blade forwards with much power and speed. He wasn't sure if it could hit a Velken, but damnit, he'd try.
------------
Ven's slash blew through the messenger as he was cut in half. He fell back to the ground, gasping for air before he died. The two other soldiers that were with them slashed forwards at Ven, but stopped dead in their tracks. Valiko held his hand forwards and clenched his fist. Both of the soldiers appeared to suffocate as they grabbed their throats. It was only a matter of time before they fainted.
"The strike force looks pretty weak," Jacobie took out both of his katanas and stabbed the two on the ground. "Do you think-"
"Don't even worry. We can handle them." Valiko cracked his knuckles a few times and then unsheathed his sword. It was a crimson red with a black trim, almost as if it were from hell itself. He started to walk a bit faster, then broke into a sprint. The others kept up, and soon they were at the mouth of the caves. Ten more soldiers rushed out of the caves. Two of them ran after Ven, while another five ran out after Jacobie, Justin and Tiberius. The last three attacked Valiko, Doriana, and Dranniconias.
There was another soldier in the caves that was overlooked. He looked like their commander, as he just sat there an watched the on-going battle. Valiko slashed at his opponent, but he was a bit more skilled, and he caught the blade with his own. A flash of sparks was sent around them as they were locked in combat.
------------
-
It was very hot in this mountain. Steam was in the air and it was stagnant but Quadricentennial didn't mind. He was used to such an enviroment. He kept climbing about and found a opening in the mountain. It was a cave. He went in but decided to leave his owls outside, for who knows what force is in the cave. He stepped in but it was not dark. It glowed red, probably from fire. He crept in the cave closer and closer, not knowing what to expect. He progressed until he stopped. There was a giant hole in the way which was another path he figured. It wasn't so big so he jumped over it. The cave seemed like it was constructed from some kind of animal and it was probably the fire beast he was sent to kill. As he went further in, smoke started to come out. He saw no creatures in sight but was not surprising since it was started to increse in heat the more in he went in. The cave was fairly large with the walls shining as if they were in a furnace. Quad did not know where he was going. He was aimlessly just going in without any direction whatsoever. He must've traveled for 5 minutes when he hit a dead end. He retraced his steps but there was another dead end, and another.
He was lost.
-
Just as the opening was wide enough, it suddenly started to close and the spiral ascend.
“What is going on here?”
Druid spun around to see summoning mages had all stopped what they were doing. Five of them summoned orbs of shadow energy to fight Druid with, and the other six was un-doing what they had all just completed. The generals and Gonen stopped continued to summon the spell, but dropped their level of power down. This way they were still doing what Druid commanded, but the mages could easily undue what they were doing.
“We will not stand and watch you bring our world to rubble!” The five shadow mages then moved into a fighting stance.
[Charging: 925]
-
Aeganon was busy collecting rock samples in a cave system of a very interesting volcanic formation, as he heard someone walking in the caves with him. He quickly put his tools away, and wrapped himself with his cloak. Soon, where Aeganon stood, only scratch marks on the rocks remained.
He quietly crept along the stone walls to check out the noisemaker. It turned out to be a man with odd-looking hair, dressed in a long trenchcoat. The Stalker also heard faint sounds of owls coming from outside...
The man didn't appear to be armed. Aeganon unveiled his cloak, becoming visible to the stranger.
-"If you like to keep all of your limbs where they are at right now, I highly suggest telling me who you are and what you're doing in a place like this."
The Stalker's right hand slid down to his sheathed hatchet...
//GB of the TK, that's your guy.\
--- --- ---
//As long as you don't completely get rid of Vincent, and as long as the chapter break is not ridiculously long, like the last one.\
-"I don't recall asking for your opinion on my choice of location, Draven. Moreover, you sound awfully sure of yourself while not being able to down his... spawn... without outside help. More wine?"
I gestured the servant-girl over.
-"Besides, even if you could take the Draken down yourself, why come to me? You strike me as a man of common sense. Why share when you can take all for yourself?"
The slave, along with another bottle of red wine, brought some thinly sliced cheese on a silver plate, bowed, and left.
-"No matter, though. Even an obstacle as mild as Retan removed is still an obstacle removed. Very well... you will have my help. What exactly do you want?"
-
“Alright, if you want to do it this way.” Druid relaxed and stood with his arms crossed. He and the five shadow mages locked eyes. Druid lurched forward to scare the mages and they all flinched. Druid stood back and laughed. The five were confused and this is when Druid launched forward. He knocked over the middle three. Then Druid slid backwards onto his knee and fired a blast of shadow energy at the two standing mages on either side. Druid stood up and looked down at the mages. They were crippled but not dead. Druids figured he would get rid of the challenging mages, and then finish them off the other attackers.
[Charging: 1025]
-
//I'm lazy, a Duilin only update for now.\
Duilin was getting confused, what he got from Renard’s hints he apparently had to leave the room. Well I suppose he could, but Renard knows that if he still won’t stand idly by if the Velkens try to hurt any innocents. Renard still seemed scared of him, for some reason. Well, he couldn't blame him; Duilin can be a pretty intimidating person at times.
"You're not to make me leave that easily!" Duilin shouted. Suddenly he was stricken by Renard's attack, he didn't know exactly how to get react, so he improvised. Duilin’s aura dissipated as he felt the cold breeze around him, and he fell down on his knees, and gave a wheezing sound. Man, this was the most embarrassing performance he'd done since he fainted from Draven’s smoke attack.
"You're stronger than you look, Renard…" Duilin groaned. "Demons are... weak against cold attacks…I can't believe you figured out my, um, weakness…Very well, I'll leave but you haven't seen the last of me…"
He performed and weak and shameful crawl towards the doorway.
'I think I’m going to need to drink a lot of ale now...'
-
The snowline was within sight. Despite temperate latitudes the snowline on the Glacia mountains was relatively low when compared to the rest of the land. Alex had probably ascended only about a thousand vertical feet before reaching snow. Soon after came the cold, dry air and biting winds.
A fragile landscape…picturesque and untouched by war…that may soon change.
“Alex, how long do we plan on staying here?” Midna asked. “We’d want to get a head start on getting to the capital before Carmine finds us, right?”
“The way I see it,” Alex said, “they don’t have any idea where we’ve gone or how to track us. They’ll probably assume one of the animals in the woods got into their tent and chewed up the maps.”
“You really think they’re that dim? Come on, Alex. They’re soldiers. The first thing they’ll assume is that the enemy took their maps, and, now knowing where the capital is, would make a beeline straight for it!”
“Then let’s take a detour. If we take a route they don’t predict, we’ll throw them off track long enough for us to get to the Arctic Continent without them getting in the way.”
“They’ll realize something’s up before long, and go looking for us.”
“But the trail’s cold. How will they know where we’re going and where we’ve been? You’re worrying too much. We’re fine.”
“If you say so.”
These humans are evil…hunting for the wrong cause. They are the purveyors of war, bringers of death and pestilence…they must be punished for these sins…
The dark clouds above the mountains soon blotted out the moonlight, plunging the slopes into an even deeper night.
Yesssss…sweet darkness…
Something within Alex urged him to bring forth the Shroud. The pitch black, no doubt, gave it the nourishment it so desired.
Display your power. Let it be known that you are not one to be trifled with!
The black tentacles and serpent heads sprung forward, feeding off the blackness. They snapped at the air, the heads’ eyes glowing bright.
Such a wonderful feeling, isn’t it? I can feel your satisfaction, and you can feel mine…
“Goodness, Alex,” Midna said, startled by the sudden manifestation, “maybe a little warning next time?”
“It wanted out,” Alex said. “So I let it get some air. Besides, it’s not hurting anyone.”
Not yet.
The heads kept themselves “entertained” by snapping at each other every now and then. For whatever reason, Alex noticed the right head was far more aggressive than the left…perhaps just a detail only he cared to notice. For dark serpent heads, they seemed rather tame when not fighting. The left one stopped bearing its teeth after a while.
Malevolence is merely an state of pathos, like any other emotion. Peace is not beyond my reaches, as you can see…perhaps my calm state of mind is unfamiliar to you?
Unfamiliar, indeed. Almost suspicious.
You are wary of my serenity? I can assure you, your suspicions are unfounded. I am yours to command, if you will not forget. I can only plot against you if you wish me to.
Alex was too tired to care at this point, and let it go.
Peace, serenity. Certainly a pleasant change of pace from recent events, to be sure…
“Alex? Are you okay?” Midna asked. “You’ve been kind of quiet…”
“No, no,” he said. “I’m fine…just a little sleep-deprived is all.”
“Maybe we should find someplace to spend the night. Perhaps a good night’s sleep will make all the difference.”
“The nearest cabin is halfway up the mountain,” Alex said. “Old Jack Smithy’s blacksmith shop.”
“That may be a little too far,” Midna replied. Are there any caves or something of the sort nearby?”
“None that I know of,” Alex said, “but if we take some of the shortcuts, we could get to Smithy’s, err, smithy, in no time.”
“Well then,” Midna said, “lead the way.”
“Hey, Estacado!” Carmine shouted from inside his tent, “have you seen the maps?”
“Can’t say I have boss,” Adam said, just now finishing up his meal. “Why?”
“When I went into my tent, my pack was strewn all over the damn place, and the maps are gone.”
“Why does it matter? We’re not lost, are we?”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. What if Alex somehow got his hands on them? He’d know where the capital is.”
“What’s one guy gonna go against thousands?” Les asked. “He’d be killed miles from the walls before he ever had a chance.”
“Unless he pulls that messed up shit with the demons again,” Victor said. “He’d screw ‘em over good.”
“Enough,” Carmine said. “We can only assume the worst. Alex has probably stolen our maps and is heading for the capital now.”
“If you had your maps stolen from right under your nose, Carmine, then the fates have deemed you unworthy.... obviously,” de Sade hissed.
“Like Les said, he’s only one man, against thousands…could he be THAT much of a threat, even with the powers he has?”
“‘He is but one man...’ Famous last words of the many. If only I had a blade of grass every time I heard that uttered at me, I would rule the worlds.”
“Time to break that tradition. I’m sick of that little shit thinking he can mess with us and get off scot-free. It’s time to break camp. We’re going hunting.”
-
//I was hoping to develop more of Quad before entering the fray of the world but I guess theres no escape.
"WHAT?" Quadircentennial was stunned to see a man appear in a cave full of smoke and heat. "Who be thee that thine see? Be you human to walk into this hell or one of the devils?"
-
“So,” Druid walked over to the mages. He could see they were getting nervous but didn’t want to stop and break concentration. “You six think you will stop me?” Druid put his hands on one of the summoners. “Not going to happen.” Druid then fired a blast of shadow energy, killing the mage instantly. The others kept chanting.
[Charging: 1125]
-
The banquet hall'd doorway opened, and in the dorway stood a female Velken, around four feet and eight inches tall. She had a silver scimitar on her back, with a light blue dagger on her belt. Obviously, she was a blade knight. She hovered forwards and grabbed Ben's energy sword.
"Lower your weapon, or I will for you." She pushed the weapon away from her and dug something out of her blue vest. It was a scroll, with an insignia from Welkin. She floated towards Virmir and handed him the scroll.
"I am now under your command, Sir." She floated a few inches back to the ground and knelt before the Velkin, her purple eyes upon his.
-
Ben was pushed back by the tiny Velken before his thrust could even hit Virmir. He was confused by this new Velken female. Who was this? What was she doing here? perhapse the dark emporer Retan thought Virmir would need assistance, but it did not appear so...
*Great... another Velken. If Duilin isn't going to help me out on this one, then I'm toast...* Ben absorbed the energy sword back into his body. He was definately done fighting, and was ready to give up. His body became too weak to take much more of this battle...
-
Anslem and Helix's mouths dropped.
"Holy crap, Renard! What did you do to him?" Renard's fellow Battle Mage asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah! You better run!" Renard cupped his hands over his muzzle and yelled.
Anslem began to float in the air, extending his blade.
"We should kill him immediately."
"NO!!!" Renard grabbed the Blade Knight by his tail before he could fly off. "I-I mean, I said he could run. Besides, we found out he wasn't involved in the battle of Jayce, right?"
"I suppose."
They turned their attention to Virmir and the angel, who were still battling... Renard kept an eye on the retreating human, though, and mouthed the words 'Good luck.'
Whenever Duilin got around to checking his pocket, he'd likely find a note:
North Point. Portal.
-R
Virmir seemed at a loss for words for a moment as he eyed the scroll case. He landed upon the ground and motioned for Ben to be restrained again. Five Velkens surrounded him this time.
"This is... unexpected." He said as he eyed the Velken vixen. Normally he would be cross for his battle to be interupted like that, however the contents of the scroll seemed to distract him.
From the other side of the room, Helix whispered to Renard. "Man! She's hot!" Renard promptly clamped Helix's muzzle shut.
Breaking the seal, the Velken high general found two messages inside. The first was obviously an official document. He unfurled it and read:
Lord Virmir,
I realize I have broken my promise to you, but I could not hold my finest Blade Knight, Ko'ji Riuki back any longer. A warrior's fire burns within her soul that I fear I do not have the experience to properly train. She has insisted that she join you ever since your squad left 18 months ago. My efforts to keep her here in Welkin were in vain. She is a good kid, and with proper discipline will prove to be an exceptional warrior. I realize you have carefully chosen your ten, but I beg of you to take this one more into your squad. Prime Minister Grav has approved my request to open the gates to allow her passage into Gaian, and I know she will serve you and the Dark Empire with the utmost dedication.
Regards,
Iaido Rikarl
Virmir slowly rose his head. Blast it, Rikarl, he had no idea what it was like out here... The High General didn't have a choice. Velkens weren't even allowed back into Welkin... She would be killed by the guards at North Point if he sent her back.
"Very well. You may join."
----
Great, Ven thought to himself. The guy starts starts to win his trust and then he whips out a freakin' hell-sword and starts force-choking people. The sliver knight didn't have any more time to ponder Valiko's choice of weapons, as two burly solders were charging his way.
Ven took the initiative and slashed at the first one's blade in a wide arc, his own sword beginning to glow a more fierce white. The attack caught the dark soldier off guard, and the last High Knight of Tjed was quick to capitalize with a swift armor-piercing stab to the stomach.
The second warrior was right on him though, and Ven had to hastily block a downward slash with his gauntlet, sending a spray of sparks upon them both. The sword was stuck in the dead man, blast it, and Ven had to let his weapon go to deliver a spinning roundhouse kick to the other offender's chest with loud clang. Spinning around and grasping his weapon with both hands, Ven ripped it free and proceeded to lay a flury of quick slashes upon his adversary. Each was blocked, but Ven drove the soldier back and back towards the cavern mouth...
----
"I am not claiming to be capable of being able to take on Retan myself, merely affirming that I have more than one plan. Yes, please." He nodded to the servant as she filled his glass. Blast it. All of his servants were dead. He'd have to scrounge up a couple hundred rejects to fix up his palace again. At least he'd been able to recover that. Wine pour-ers were the next more important, naturally.
"Although I will admit, you are part of my best one. And I am more concerned with seeing Retan fall than my Empire restored." Plus the Lich and his undead minions would fall like flies to his flames. He'd just wipe them all out next when all's said and done. He could probably take the entire nation out right now if he wanted. The thought made the corner of his mouth twitch in a smirk. That'd be fun. Stupid, but fun.
He took another sip of wine.
"Okay, here's the deal... You have a map or something? Some magically rotating projection of the Dark Continent? Anyway... The Dark Emperor his built a giant energy conduit... It is basically a gigantic spire that siphons Black Magic or whatever nonsense from at least five different netherworlds... He calls it the Tower of Heaven's Bane, and it sits roughly south-easternly on the Dark Continent. The spire soars so high into the clouds that the top is impossible to see, and I have no idea how far underground it burrows. This thing, which also functions as the capital of the Dark Empire and an impenetrable fortress of death, acts as a sort of lighting rod for whatever dark arcane forces he wishes to draw from. Standing inside or within reasonable proximity of this tower, he is practically untouchable..."
-
-"Impenetrable fortress, eh? Sounds like a fun place to run over with hordes of undead."
What a cocky bastard. I bet he's making up plans to double-cross me after I rule the world even now. Look at these three... Pretty faces, all lined up...
...and that's when an insanely good idea for a next-generation solo trooper came into my mind. I'll have to tell the Colonel as soon as I can about it.
-"Before I can assault that place, though, I'll need a large army. And, if you want my help, that's where you come in.."
I put the wine glass down onto the table, and looked right into Draven's eyes.
-"I want you to kill. Kill as much as it is humanly andor inhumanly possible. Kill. All of Retan's outposts must fall. This will give me a nice, well-sized army of about 100,000 and, at the same time, cut off any reinforcements. 100,000 is the size of the unstoppable threshold - which means that the army can only grow from then on. No matter how you turn it, the undeads will be killing much more than getting killed. Even then, I have the abilities of mass resurrection, as I'm sure you're aware."
-"Why do I need you to kill for me? Mostly because right now my army is limited to live flesh. I mean, I know I can send them to their deaths and make minions out of that, but that is neither cheap nor efficient. Besides, I'm sure you can kill much faster than a regular troop."
Note to self: train ice mages. Lots of ice mages."
--- --- ---
//Didn't know you were on a quest of your own, TKGB. Sorry bout that.\
Aeganon rubbed his chin before answering. With strict orders not to engage, would it really hurt to kill just one person?
He flinched at the word "hurt". Images of bladed whips appeared in his mind. Tests of faith to the Sovereignty... He suddenly felt nauseous.
-"You know what...? I'm feeling generous today, so I might as well let you go. Doesn't look like I can extract much information out of you anyways."
Wrapping his cloak around him, the Stalker vanished, probably to collect rock samples elsewhere...
//if you still want contact, the dude will be in the cave. If not, just continue on your own thing.\
-
Duilin continued his act and he weakly got back up, and saw Ben yield his weapon. He was a bit worried as what would happen next, he faked his limp towards Ben, Virmir and some newcomer. He had a look of worry. What's going to happen now? Will the Velken's leave? Renard said that even Virmir was a good person, so hopefully he'd able to get them to leave without anymore fighting. He wasn't sure what to do or say right now. So he stood there faking some sort of shiver, to respond to Renard's cold attack. He wanted to see what Virmir was going to do, before he left to group up the others.
--- ---
Nex and the Talonscar Elites started to wander the dieing continent of Terian. Nex was whistling some cheery tune and the elites walked along with him. Nex stopped whistling and then started to speak something that was on his mind.
"You know what upsets me? Ole' Retan didn't even seem to recognize me! Over five years I spent guarding his sorry hide and what did I get in return? A few extra gold coins and the title 'general' stamped on my personal file, and I then I get sent on a suicide mission to Romme."
He paused his speaking for a moment and continued walking.
"You know. I don't even think I like Retan anymore. I see why Abodahon always hated him." Nex continued. "You know what? We might actually be best to join one of these smaller nations of one of the freedom fighter groups and help fight this Dark Empire. I never liked serving under a dark ruler, a demonic[/o] or one of true thantanic evil are always best."
//thantanic = satanic\
"And they're not even really evil, they've only become twisted by their shadow magic, plus they don't even believe what they're doing is wrong. I know what I do is wrong, that's why I do it."
The two elites nodded.
"So, what do you say? Shall we find an alliance to help us rinse out this empire? Then we can show Gaian what true evil is!"
Nex made an insane laugh, and bats suddenly flew from the trees and flew off as he made his twisted cackle...
-
"Our job is to kill, huh? Wonderful. Though I can't wait to get my hands on this Dark Emperor himself. He sounds powerful... He'll make me fight for my hypothetical life." Anti was anticipating it already.
"Kill, in order to create undead... This would require that the bodies remain intact, correct?" A sidelong glance to Anti, almost as if to say, 'don't go overboard.'
-
"I've been trained to do well in solo combat, but I'm sure I'll be able to handle the dicipline of a squad." The Velken's purple eyes seemed to glow with elegant beauty... and also something else... something dark. She pulled her scimitar from its sheath on her back and kept it near Ben. She wasn't ready to let him escape... not while it was her first time in a real squad of Velkens.
"I'd watch yourself this time if I were you." She observed him for a moment. He was a giant compared to these Velkens, but that did not seem to bother her in the slightest. After a few moments, she sheathed her scimitar on her back and walked back to the other Velkens.
"Hey," she began to whisper to Helix, "do you think you could show me some formations later?"
-
"I don't think so!" Valiko made a horizontal slash and cut down three dark soldiers at once. The blade he wielded seem to rip through their flesh... He didn't seem very powerful himself, but his sword was very strong.
"Holy crap!" one of the soldiers remarked, "We should get outta here!" The last of the soldiers retreated to the caves. Luckily, Jacobie and Dranniconias were right there, and they cut down the last of the ones retreating.
"Hey Ven, back up!" Justin held his hand out and quickly made a small ball of white energy, It began to expand until it reached 6 inches. He blasted the ball at the soldier attacking Ven and it sent the soldier flying to the caves, smashing a wall, then falling to the ground. the recoil sent Justin back a few inches, but his form did not change.
"We should get going! This means the Dark Empire is definately here..."
------------
Ben caught Duilin's eye as he was shackled down with much bigger irons. He sent some sort of message through his eyes... *Duilin, I could really use some help over here!* He was held down by another chain that connected another set of shackles that tied his legs together. Nothing could have made Ben feel more like he was being imprisoned. He hated the feeling, but realized that if he fought back, he would loose his energy... or what's left of it.
"You win, Velken... I'll go with you..." a tear slid down the angel's eye as he was taken by the five Velkens that held him down. He thought that he would soon be consumed by madness, if Duilin didn't hurry up and get them out...
------------
-
"I smell something…" Gorus stomped through the smouldering dust of a recently destroyed building, there he spotted a man in a white robe and a man dressed in black and blue, he was holding some sort of tablet underneath his arm.
"Get them!" Gorus growled.
"Oh no!" Marshall yelped. "Run!"
Wilham and Marshall started to flee as Gorus along with a few lizard warriors started chasing him.
--- ---
Duilin watched Ben in pity as he was being taken away. He didn't want him to freak out again, and start fighting, so he needed to find a solution to this, peacefully.
Aw...jeez. Look at him, I can't let them take him like this...
"Virmir, release him. You owe me favour for saving Renard, so perhaps you should live up to this." Duilin said loudly, to the Velken general. "From what I understand you're here to bring justice for the loss of Jayce. Me, and Ben aren't the ones you want. The man you seek is Lars Draven, the Emperor of the now dead Crimson Empire. He was the one who killed Jayce."
-
Quad suddenly was shocked that the stranger vanished. He got up and started looking around him but was nowhere to be seen. "Men appearing out of nowhere in this god forsaken place? Why has my life lead to this?". He then remembered he was still lost within the cave. "HEY! WAIT!!! How do I get out of here?" No use, he has departed. Quad was on his own again. He then heard the screaming of a bird. It was very loud and it shook the walls of the cave. "I must be close." He continued to seek a path, hoping he wouldn't get stuck.
-
Virmir shot a glance at Duilin, then slowly moved his eyes toward the angel. The angel deserved to die. Not only was he without honor, attacking from behind after he had already given up, but he was without dignity as well, breaking down in tears like that. The High General of the Skyward division growled under his breath.
But Duilin had his word, and he had one favor to grant.
"Release him."
The Velkens surrounding the fallen angel perked their ears in surprise. But they complied immediately, and the defeated celestial warrior was set free.
Virmir turned to Duilin and bowed slightly, still holding the scrolls in his claw. "Your man for mine. We are now even."
He then eyed the angel coldly. "Flee for now. If I ever see you again, I will kill you."
Helix was more interested in the newcomer than the proceedings around. He shuffled over to her nervously and bowed. In fact, they all seemed a little nervous. They hadn't seen another of their kind for 18 long months, and each Velken was terribly homesick. What news does she bring?
"Of course!" Helix beamed. "I'm Ryle Helix. Just stick with me, you'll get along just fine!"
Riuki was surrounded quickly, and each began to anxiously shout questions.
"How are the skies back home? Are they still gray?"
"Are there more initiates like you coming?"
"How is --" and then they would rattle off names of family members, hoping she might know.
Any hint that the Velkens were cold blooded killers melted away at that moment. They seemed more like excited children, their tails wagging as they anticipated news from home with hopeful eyes. Of course they already knew the answers. Welkin never changed, and their family members were safe so long as they served the Dark Emperor with the utmost dedication. Before she was berated too much, Virmir intervened, and everyone fell silent.
"Riuki," he began, addressing her using her last name as was customary. Normally the first name was used only among family. Though he always retained a professional exterior, those that knew him well could see the kindness in his eyes behind the cold veil. "By becoming a member of this squad, you must be prepared to do anything and everything I ask without hesitation. There will be times when I ask you to do difficult things. Things that will revolt you. But things that must be done without question, for the path of darkness is the one we now tread. Furthermore, you must trust all of your fellow squad members with your life, and all of us will trust ours with yours. Do you accept this?"
----
By now, rumors were hitting the streets of Tjedon. What were those explosions inside the castle? Where had all the soldiers and knights disapeared to?
Then three large shadows loomed over the mountains to the west...
----
"Indeed." Ven sheathed his sword. Blast it, he could only hope that they did not make it to the capital. That they were actually waiting in the caves was not a good thing at all.
They could be walking straight into a trap as well. Ven advanced into the darkness slowly, unsure of whether to sprint or tip-toe, so he settled for a fast-paced walk. He would not be able to forgive himself if anything happened to the king... But he knew Duilin was there protecting him, so his buzzing mind could rest a little easier.
----
Draven smirked. He liked that plan.
"Consider it done. Retan has hordes of outposts all over the Dark Continent that won't be expecting flaming visitors. Or faceless demons and... er... " he looked at Drake for a moment "... scientists. Or whatever." He waved his hand and took another sip. "I must caution you not to rely solely on an army of Retan's resurrected minions. He has a power over them already. I would hate to find out at the last moment that you simply made his army stronger..."
He leaned back in his chair and pointed to Drake.
"This man claims to know the secret to building giant weapons. Huge automatons that obey spoken commands and fight on their own. I have seen such things before and have fought both with and against them, and can assure you they throw a wrench into any well thought out defensive plan. I assume you have a technology center here. It would probably be in our best interests to let him have a look around."
He folded his arms.
"Anyway, as I was saying, no matter what we throw at him, I doubt we will be able to take Retan down while he sits on that miserable tower, commanding near-infinite reserves of energy. If we are to take him down, we must lure him away... hundreds of miles away..."
-
"A smile somehow found way to my face.
-"Dear Draven, I don't think you really realize exactly how strong the bond with my minions is. While your concern would be valid in a different situation, it is completely unbased in this one. Unless Retan can directly control the Lizard Men's limbs through telekinesis, he will not be able to do a thing after the lizards become my minions. Think of a minion as a sword - if you pick it up, there is absolutely no way that it will somehow turn on you and cut your throat open. Those creatures are dead, Emperor - and my power is the only thing keeping them in this world. Much like your hand would be holding the sword."
-"In the extremely unlikely event of your concern coming true, I can simply drop the sword - that is, retract my power from the undeads. We won't have to worry about that, though, as it will never take place."
I took hold of my goblet once again, and took a sip. The wine was quite refreshing after such a speech, more so than when I first tried it.
-"Anyways, back to the matter at hand. I do have an idea of how to draw the rat out of his hole. Do you think that perhaps the sight of, say, his undead son will be enough?"
I paused for a second while calculating my odds.
-"If I can pull it off, it will have to be done before the main invasion. I will not be able to support a Draken at full power and 100,000 undeads, as well as half of the city here, all at once. I suggest the following plan of action: I will give you several of these -" I pulled out a few soulstones "-which will act like a sort of a beacon to me. You will go and take down the outposts, while dropping one of these gems in the general location. Meanwhile, I will attempt to resurrect Jayce - well, resurrection isn't exactly the proper term here, as I will be sure to wipe all of its free will - more like zombification. If all goes as planned, we will use it as a distraction to draw Retan away from his lair. Once that's done and Retan slays the haunt, the main invasion force will be resurrected. That's when the undeads can overrun the central fortress, without Retan there to protect it - and you, perhaps even me in person, and ... that, whatever that is, can take Retan head on, without any minions around to aid him."
I called the servant girl over again.
-"You! Show Mr. Science here to the laboratories below the Academy."
-"Yes, Sovereign. By the way," she added, turning to the scientist. "I'd recommend putting on some warm clothes. I don't know how you went through the bitter cold outside in that..."
I turned back around to Draven.
-"Of course, if you have any better ideas, I'd be interested in hearing them."
-
// Something is going wrong with my computer... I made a post, but it wasn't shown quite right... EDIT: fixed it.
Ben left the company of the Velkens with great relief. He walked over to Duilin and asked quietly, "How are we going to get the Velkens to play along?"
------------
The others followed allong behind Ven with a fast pace. The caves seemed to be getting darker as they ventured deep within them...
-
"I will not fail you." Ko'ji looked more serious than most of the other Velkens. She did not know much happiness in her life... She was overwhelmed with all of these questions, and answered most of them to the best of her ability.
"Well then, what do we do now?"
-
//Sorry, I just don't have the endurance or any ideas for what to do with updating my other characters so again this will be a Duilin only update...\
Duilin raised an eyebrow he was nearly stunned at how he could possibly know how Ben could know about the problems the Velkens are having. But now was not the time to talk about this.
"We'll speak latter, Ben. Just go. I need to convince the Velkens to leave." Duilin replied.
He then stepped towards the high general. "Virmir, if you want to bring justice for Jayce's death, this isn't the place to be, Draven has left Tjed." Duilin stated. "And the longer you waste your time here, the further away Draven gets. He will likely be trying to rebuild his empire. Your best move would be to get him now."
-
“Alex, is this safe?”
“Absolutely not,” Alex replied, “but it’s fast. These hairline cracks run all across the face of the mountain, and sometimes climbers use them to reach the top within hours as opposed to days.”
Alex had his fingers locked into the inch-thick cracks in the ice, and his feet on the larger crack below. Every now and then he drove a Shroud tentacle in to keep his balance.
Weapons become utilities in times of peace…
With one final hard pull, Alex forced himself up to the next ledge, and, amazingly enough, the billowing smoke from Glacia City’s chimneys could be faintly seen, several thousand feet further up.
“We’re getting closer,” Alex said. “Not long now.”
“I only wish I had the power to create another portal,” Midna sighed. “I hate for you to expend energy you could use in a fight if we were jumped.”
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Alex replied. “Carmine’s miles away, and he has no idea what direction we went in. He’ll probably assume we went through Vandrin.”
“Alex, Glacia is your home! That’s the first place he’d want to look!”
“Then you better be grateful there aren’t any gaslights up here,” Alex shot back.
“True, true…”
The two had taken shelter within a cave after a particularly severe blizzard kicked up, as they often do on Glacia. The Demon Heads, no longer quite so aggressive, actually set themselves down on the ground for the first time.
Surprised? I would assume so. Comfort is seldom an attainable commodity, so it is vital to improvise…are you comfortable?
Truly a peculiar sight! These demonic manifestations showing compassion for the bearer of their power? One head shifted position to lay near Alex.
The true comfort is that of confidence.
Midna had since drifted off to sleep. The cave was unusually warm.
The girl…so delicately innocent…you two are bound by legend, but something more lies within. Love, perhaps?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alex denied softly.
Come now. I know all of your secrets, and some that even you yourself may not know. Your feelings for her are to me as obvious as your qualms with my serenity. Why do you hide it so?
“I can’t afford for feelings to get in the way of keeping her safe…it’s my job. My destiny.”
Perhaps she may feel the same way?
“Then it’s mutual. She’s done so much for me, things so great no amount of gratitude would suffice.”
Gratitude is one thing. Compassion is another. What does it feel like to have someone care for you?
“It’s something everyone needs, I suppose.”
Does someone care for you?
“I’d guess so. Kleiner and the other scientists want me to end this war, so do the Twili elders…Midna knows what we have to do.”
Does any one person care for you even more? To an extent to call them a loved one?
“…I can’t really say…I never knew my parents, and the old man who did bring me up died before I could really get a chance to know him.”
Do you care for anyone?
“I’d say I do.”
Why is compassion or caring important?
“Because…well, what confidence would anyone have if no one cared about them?”
Are you confident?
“Yes.”
Then you are indeed comfortable. You are the personification of tenacity, yet persistence can only go so far. Rest is vital. I will be waiting for you when you awake.
Finally, for the first time in ages, Alex felt like he could sleep easy.
And so he did.
“Hey, Carmine,” Hannibal said.
“What?”
“Remember when that Amon guy did the thing to Asgarnia? Where there was obsidian everywhere? That wasn't magic...”
“So what the hell was it?”
“I picked one up to take a look at it. They were shaped like feathers, and judging by the size, from a pretty large bird. There's only one creature I know of that grows feathers that big - I saw them once on the west coast of Kandarin.”
“What beast could grow something like that?”
“I don't know what they're called, no one believed me when I told them. Amon referred to them as ‘Children of the Night’... I guess we could start there.”
“So what exactly does this mean for us?”
“Creatures which come during the cover of the night, bringing about a hail of razor-sharp obsidian, then vanish as mysteriously as they enter. Do the math.”
“Excellent. Where do we start?”
“I saw them on the west coast of Kandarin. Asking the locals would be... difficult, as you can imagine, but I think that if we go west of Kandarin, we should hit the spot.”
“Then that’s our next stop.”
Carmine turned to his men.
“Okay guys, we have a new objective. I’ll tell you about it on the way. Let’s break camp and load up.”
-
Drake grinned. He would finally be able to put his scientific prowess to use. "I'll be fine in these clothes." He opened the shirt under his lab coat, revealing small, flexible, lightweight, yet at the same time, ridiculously sturdy armor. He closed the shirt and followed the woman to wherever she was leading him.
Meanwhile, Anti listened in on the strategy. "I can't wait to get started. You've certainly got a good strategy worked out." Though I much prefer mindlessly charging in for the kill... his plan is fine too. You could almost see a most evil grin forming on his hypothetical face.
-
"I really don't have anywhere to go... I guess I'll take my leave back to Asgard. I will tell many tales of your deeds, friend. I take my leave now, to tell Gaia and Drannica what has aspired in Tjed." Ben left the castle and flew high into the skies, soon passing out of sight, towards the heavenly paradise, Asgard...
-
Gorus continued to chase the two summoners through the broken streets of Vandrin and was quickly gaining on them.
As he continued to run Marshall placed his hand on his amulet and the sapphire began to glow, barely keeping his balance with the tablet under his arm and his hand on his amulet. Soon enough two rays of blue fog shot from the amulet and stopped a few meters away from they took the form of wyverns. Marshall and Wilham each jumped on one of them and they began to fly off in the air. But that didn’t make Gorus give up just yet, he jumped in the air as he glowed a bright lime green and then changed from into a winged Doom Serpent. They wyverns flew faster as the Doom Serpent continued the chase; shooting threw the air like an arrow.
---
“Wait a second…” Roland looked up in the air. “I think I see him, he’s with a friend and they’re being followed by a Doom Serpent.”
“Are you sure it’s them?” Vandrin asked.
“Positive.” Roland replied, still looking in the air.
“What’s with the Doom Serpent? Did Marshall summon it?” He asked.
“No idea, but I sense that creature is very strong. Doom Serpents are already fairly powerful creatures, but this one…” Roland rubbed his chin. “I’m sure if this could be killed, the Sovereign would find this a fairly powerful minion.”
“Maybe it’s the lizard general.” Vandrin thought out loud.
“What makes you think that?” Roland asked.
“I think I’ve heard that he can transform. If you’re correct about the power of that Doom Serpent, then maybe it’s him. I think we should just continue to the castle…”
“No.” Roland stamped his staff on the ground and the sapphire on the end glowed as three rays of fog shot towards the ground, and formed into three brown skinned wyverns. “Get on them. We’re going to fight!”
Vandrin gulped, yet Hypnos jumped onto one of the wyverns, following Roland.
“Come Vandrin, you owe it to us.” Hypnos said.
“Very well.”
---
Gorus continued his chase on the wyvern riding summoners
“He’s gaining on us! What do we do?” Marshall asked.
“Shoot it!” Wilham called back.
Marshall took out on his MagiPistols from its holster and shot a fireball at the Doom Serpent behind them, missing terribly.
“Aim you fool!” Wilham shouted.
“Well, sorry! I’m under a lot of pressure here, carrying a tablet and trying to hold onto his wyvern at the same time.” Marshall defended.
Wilham moved his wyvern to fly forward and then backed up beside Marshall’s. “Hand me the tablet.”
Marshall began to hand the tablet to Wilham but lost his grip and it began to fall to the ground.
“Idiot!” Wilham whooshed down the catch the tablet before it hit the ground, he’d like to get more than one of these back home.
The Doom Serpent finally caught up Marshall and bit the wyvern on the wing, and started to shake it about causing the wyvern to loose control. Marshall fired a few fireballs right at the Doom Serpent, only causing the creature to grunt in annoyance. Suddenly a flash of violet light came from the Doom Serpent. As the light settled it took the form of a black wyvern with glowing green eyes. Marshall’s jaw dropped.
The DEATH wyvern, with its mouth still on Marshall’s wyvern’s wing fired a blast of shadow energy and the wyvern’s wing was burned up and it began to free fall towards the ground. Marshall fell off his wyvern and began to think that it was all over for him…
Luckily and surprisingly not at all predictable to Marshall, Wilham on his wyvern swooped underneath him and caught him.
“Oh thank you…” Marshall said with gratitude.
But it wasn’t over yet the Death Wyvern continued it chase after them. The regular wyvern lowered until it was only about ten feet above the ground and flew its way through the streets, with the Death Wyvern following it, shooting beams of black-purple shadow energy, barely missing its target.
After about a minute of the chase the tree brown wyverns caught up with them.
Roland pointed his staff forward and shot three gel monsters at the death wyvern, Vandrin joined the barrage with a few poison blasts. The gels attached themselves onto the death wyvern, but they were then burnt off as the death wyvern increased it’s aura of darkness and the poison blasts seemed to barely have any effect on it at all.
Hypnos sped up his wyvern and was right next to Gorus. He then jumped onto the death wyvern, as he took out his kamas and stabbed them right into the death wyvern, causing it to shriek in pain, and loose it’s coarse. It started to do barrel rolls in an attempt to get the stalker off on his back.
Vandrin and Roland now had Gorus distracted so they continued the chase on Marshall and his friend. In less than a minute they caught up with him.
“Roland!” Marshall said in surprise to see him. “So you survived?”
“It’ll take more than a four winged rainbow wyvern to kill me!” Roland laughed. “This is Count Vandrin…”
Marshall looked to his other side to see the count riding on a wyvern.
“We’ve met.” Marshall replied. “So Roland, what do you want?”
Roland reached out his hand. “The tablet! Give it to me and I might consider letting you live.”
“Never!” Wilham shouted.
“A detirmed one, your friend is, who he is he?”
“Grand General Wilham of the White Chimera.” Wilham introduced himself.
“Lies…” Roland narrowed his eyes. “Give it up, now hand me the tablet, before the count gives you the worst skin infection you’ll ever have.”
Vandrin lifted his hand and lime green energy began to charge in his hands, emitting green bubbles as he charged.
Wilham smirked. “Fine.” He started to hand Roland the tablet, but then he tossed it in the air and jumped onto Roland’s wyvern and punched him in the head knocking him off and caught the tablet before it hit the ground.
Vandrin growled and shot forth the poison blast at Wilham, but Marshall rammed his wyvern into his, causing Vandrin to loose aim and shoot the blast into the side of a building instead…
//I’ll continue this next post. I’m kind of making this up as I go along and I’ve run out of ideas\
-
"How'd I end up doing this chore?" Quad asked himself, as he struggled to get through the tight passage ways. The heat increased for every foot he managed to get in. The humidity was unbearable for a regular person but for Quadirecentennial, who assumed was regular physically, was not affected by it. He was started to question himself again, whether or not he was something completely different. As he continued to progress through the cave, he came to the end of the passageway, where there was a gigantic cave that was empty. "Where is the foul beast? I don't see him." Another screach from the bird filled the air. "He is further down but I can't tell if he is close."
-
Panic engulfed the streets...
"What are those?!"
"Can it be?!"
"By the gods!!"
Three gargantuan black airships slowly rolled in over the skies of the capital city of Tjed, their huge guns turned down upon the buildings below. The deep rumblings from their engines sent vibrations throughout Tjedon and the entire surrounding valley. They hovered directly over the center of town, though they were massive enough so that nothing was safe from the shadow cast by their forms...
----
"They have arrived." Anslem said as he performed a short bow to Virmir's right. The rumblings permeated every stone of the old castle. Virmir turned to Duilin.
"We have our own plan to deal with Draven. Tjed now belongs to the Dark Empire. Leave immediately. Should you attempt to intervene, blood will be shed."
With that, the silver fox shot into the air and disappeared out the window. All of his entourage followed except for Renard, who lingered for a moment. His eyes were filled with anxiety, and he looked as if he had a hundred things to say, but he shook it off and darted after the rest of his squad, through the window high above...
----
The caves began to rumble. Ven paused.
"What could that be...?"
It was too subtle to be an earthquake. Far too long and drawn out to be an explosion. He could only gulp and continue leading the way through the maze-like caverns...
----
Draven leaned forward. Gone was his normal mocking sneer. In its place only a dire seriousness. "I don't think you realize what a Draken is... They are dragons, not mere mammals or lizards. When they perish, their spirits do not descend to the known underworld or some place in the sky... They die differently. And they are so much more than dragons... No one knows what they are exactly, or where they came from. No one."
He finished off the rest of his wine in one gulp and slammed the goblet down on the table.
"Do not try to resurrect a Draken. Ever. It has never been done before, and I do not want to see what happens. They are abominations that are best left dead and forgotten. And your sword analogy is moot. Retan does not play with natural weapons..."
He whipped his lips with his glove, thinking for a moment as his confidence and grin returned.
"Besides, I have a better plan."
He quickly whipped a dagger from behind his back and jammed the blade into the table, producing a dull noise that echoed loudly throughout the chamber. The weapon was beautifully ornate, with a dull yellow gem upon the hilt...
"Once upon a time, Retan wanted Six Weapons... He wanted them so badly, that he left his old cheery capital and personally came to the island of Romme when the last one was within his grasp. This is one of them. He has since lost interest in them because some bearded freak with split personality disorder screwed up their auras or something. What happened to that man I do not know. My only guess is that he confronted Retan and got blasted into oblivion, and the weapons were scatted once more. Retan is currently in possession of two. If we could locate the remaining three, we might gain his interest. Then, of course, we'll be waiting for him..."
-
“Don’t even stop for your fallen comrade? That’s not very nice. I thought shadow mages were supposed to fight together?”
“Then why do you fight by your self?” One of the mages asked trying to be defiant.
“Ah, you caught me. Most shadow mages do fight alone. Thank you for playing, and have a nice day.” Druid then blasted the mage who died on impact.
[Charging: 1225]
-
"Six weapons, eh? Interesting.
-"Good. I can use my minions to scour the land in search of the weapons. I can look through their eyes personally, though looking through all of them at once might be cause for an overload of sorts... I will know when one has found something, though."
Whatever did Draven mean by "natural weapons?" In this world, everything's as natural as it gets, otherwise it would not be here. Hmm... I'll need to conduct research on that later.
Just then, the servant girl returned, and whispered something into my ear. Well, that was somewhat unforeseen.
-"By the looks of it, I wouldn't be able to bring Jayce back, anyways. I was only told that he was slain by two entities using strong spells... I was not aware of him not leaving any detectable corpse, which would make his zombification...problematic..."
-"At any rate, you said that Retan lost interest in the weapons. What makes you think that once we have them, he'll even go for us?"
-
"What?" Duilin asked in worry. He then started to feel a rumble. He dashed out of the banquet hall and through the castle until he came to main door way and exited the castle into the outside. The looked in the air as the shadow was cast over him, along with the rest of Tjedon. "No!!"
He started to run through the city, he didn't know what to do. He nearly panicked as he fell to his knees, he realized he was failing.
"Duilin!" Called Belle's voice as she ran towards him, along with Lagart and Rink.
"I...I've failed..." Duilin started to rub his temples. "Hardly anyone is left as it is and now...soon the entire kingdom is going to fall. I've failed to protect Tjed..."
"Everything isn't lost yet. Don't panic, Duilin." Rink said comforting. "Come on, you can save Tjed. You can transform into a super human again and create an uber shield around Tjedon."
"I...I can't...I don't know how I did it...it's like I wasn't even doing it when I did..." Duilin rolled over and lay flat on his back on the ground. "I'm no hero..."
"Damnit Duilin!" Rink snapped. "Now is not the time to be like this!"
Duilin looked at the imp in surprise.
"There is still a chance to save these people, and you're the only one strong enough to save them!" Rink shouted. "This is a war! People die in war, that's what it's about! You complaining about not being able to save anyone is just going to lead to more people getting killed! Now I'm going to tell you one last time before I make you!"
"Make me?" Duilin raised an eyebrow in curiosity in the imp's intents.
The imp began to charge fire in his hands. Ready to shoot, he aimed the fireball just a little south of Duilin's waist.
"I'm up! I'm up!" Duilin quickly got up onto his feet and Belle and Lagart laughed. Duilin rubbed his head. "Yeah, I guess I am being pretty stupid here. Okay, so if we can't save the castle and everyone's homes we can probably save the people by getting them into some underground bunker or something."
"I suggested that earlier. I don't know if Tjed has one, but if we can find something and get everyone inside then hopeful nobody would be hurt." Rink replied. "Plus, If this place does have any underground shelters then I'm sure any remaining guards will retreat the citizens into them."
"Well, what if there isn't anything like that then?" Belle asked.
"Well, we could try and get everyone into the caves..." Duilin thought.
"No! What if they see the people going in them and start firing upon the caves, then they'll cave in and everyone will be killed!" Rink stated.
"Well, first we need to make sure this place has an underground shelter or something." Duilin said. "And maybe...I could try and disable the airships somehow."
"How?" Lagart asked.
"Well...if I could get on board them, maybe I might be able to either hostage the crew, but they'll likely have a lot of guards, yet I might be able to take them all." Duilin answered. "And if they're automated by magic then uh...maybe I could try and disable it somehow. But I have no idea how to do something like that." He looked up at the airships. "Okay, we need to find out if there is a bunker or something for everyone to hide in, quickly lets go ask them!"
The group then dashed towards the group of panicking citizens.
A man approached Duilin and started to tug on his arm. "Sir Duilin! You saved us earlier, can you save us again! We beg of you!"
"Calm down, sir." Duilin replied. "If the gunships start shooting, you'll need shelter. Tell, me does Tjed have any underground shelters or any place that we can get everyone to hide in?"
//Xor-Guy should give the answer to this, because I have no idea.\
-
Ko'ji raced out of the window with the rest of the Velkens, save Renard. She stayed behind and waited for him to leave, and then followed him as he left the castle. They followed the rest of the group, ready to follow Virmir's orders...
-
"Underground shelters?" The man nervously pondered for a moment. "No, we have nothing of the sort. The chapel hall and inner castle walls are the refuges during war, but I am afraid they may no longer be safe! We are used to enemies from the land and seas. Never had we expected ships from the sky!"
----
Blackwing Commander Vlak Gjinn of the Skyward Division clasped his scaly claws behind his back, flicking his reptilian tail back and forth as he watched the other two airships move into position from the deck of his own vessel. Tjed offered no resistance at all as the mammoth cannons were trained upon the filthy mammals below. He'd only need to give the word and this miserable city would be wiped into non-existence.
He wasn't a large Lizard Man by any standard. Those mindless bruits were given their run as ground generals in Gorus' Subterranean Division. But here in the much smaller Skyward Division his brilliant strategic mind was actually recognized, and he had earned enough respect to control a fleet of airships. Though he didn't quite feel comfortable serving under a non-lizard, a mammal no less, he had to admit he would probably be nothing more than a field lieutenant under Gorus' or even the late Jayce's strength-rules-all doctrines.
"Commander, the High General approaches."
The lizards upon the deck bowed as the black blurs approached, flying right up to the deck. The Commander stooped to one knee.
The entourage of Velkens landed on the ship deck, their glances cold and hard. They were tiny things compared to the massive lizards.
"My lord," Commander Vlak began, "give the word, and we shall be rid of this city forever."
Virmir boldly stepped up to the scaly airship commander, his tail indignantly waving behind him.
"Commander, you will not fire unless I explicitly tell you to. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Furthermore, your soldiers will not attack the humans unless attacked first."
"Forgive me, my lord, I thought we were here for an extermination...?"
"I do not recall giving you permission to question my orders." The fox retorted coldly.
"Apologies... permission to speak freely?"
"Denied."
The lizard's eyes went wide. Virmir ignored him and spun around, pointing to the Velkens lined up behind him. "Anslem, Helix, Renard..." his eyes scanned the stiffened faces for a moment before falling on the newcomer, "... Riuki, you four will guard the south city gate. No one may leave or enter."
"Yes, my lord." the three veterans said in unison. They jumped right off the ship, hooking downwards and speeding towards the front gates of Tjedon.
Virmir turned back towards the lizard commander. "Commander, you will deploy your men and infiltrate every corner of the city. This is an occupation. You will only kill those that resist. Is that understood?"
"Yes, my lord..."
"Excellent. We will be watching..."
The remaining seven Velkens darted into the air, forming a wide circle high above the airship. Vimir extended his hand.
"Give me the ship's voice projector."
One of the lizards scampered off and returned with a glowing green stone. "Merely speak into this, my lord."
Virmir took it and shot 200 feet above the airship, stopping when he could see the entirety of the city below.
"Citizens," the silver fox's voice boomed throughout the whole valley. "Your king is dead, and Tjed now belongs to the Dark Empire." The bottoms of the airships opened, and Lizard Men parachuted out, landing in the streets by the scores. Wyverns emerged from the decks and began circling. "The city is now under martial law. Cooperate, and this transition will be made as painless as possible. Resist, and you will be killed."
----
Draven leaned back.
"I have reason to believe he is gaining interest in them once more. My sources indicate that he explicitly sent one of his High Generals on a mission to obtain the second one that is now in his possession. Perhaps collecting the rest for him will remind him of his former obsession. Of course, he may send minions out to try to take them from us, but Jayce was his strongest warrior, and with him out of the picture, we shouldn't have much trouble beating back whatever he sends until he decides to show his own face..."
-
"Yes, my lord." Ko'ji leapt off the ship and hovered swiftly to the ground, keeping up it the other three. Before she knew it the other three stopped and she was barely able to stop along with them... this must be the gate they were told to protect. Why didn't the emporer do this instead? it seemed to be a more effective way of taking a city, rather than ground troops, who'd likely be met on the field with other ground troops...
"Let's try not to kill anyone... If they get near the gates, shove them far away..." Ko'ji readied her magical dager and her scimitar. The battle wasn't quite upon the city yet, but it was nearing...
-
Voices of fear and panic went through the crowds. Children started crying and asking their parents what was going to happen, even some grown men started to begging Duilin and Lagart for protection. However not everyone was asking for protection, a few men went towards Duilin with angry looks on their faces.
“How could you have let this happen?” One of the men scolded
“You promised to protect us and now we have been captured by the empire with our king dead.” Another man added.
“If Ven or Zeros’ were here, they likely wouldn’t have let this happen.”
“I…I’m sorry.” Duilin said, not even defending himself. “I’ve tried, but I failed. I’m sorry…”
“Don’t listen to them Duilin.” Belle said comforting him.
“Yeah, buzz of guys!” Rink snapped.
“What are you gonna do?” One of the men said. “All is lost, because of your pathetic protection!”
Lagart stepped forward and the three men backed away. “Leave alone!” He growled, and the men continued to back away.
“Thanks, Lagart.” Duilin said. “But those guys are right. If Zeros’ was here, he’d likely not have allowed this to happen.”
“Don’t say that Duilin.” Rink flapped his wings and hovered in the air at Duilin’s eye level. “These ships came out of nowhere; nobody could have stopped this from happening.”
“So, what we do?” Lagart asked.
“I don’t know…” Duilin said unhappily as he looked around at the lizard men guarding nearly every area. “If we start fighting, that will likely put the citizens in risk. There was barely enough room for that fight against those bogus angels and there are way more lizard men. I could try and get into one of the airships and try something, but I’d be too obvious to spot, especially with those wyverns all around.”
“Yeah, you’d be too obvious.” Rink said. “But they might not notice me. I could sneak into one of them, and maybe sabotage them a bit, enough to hinder them but maybe not enough for them to suspect anything.”
“That’s a good idea, but how would that help?” Duilin asked.
“Well, it’s something. If I could maybe disable their weapons that could help, but if I do that too all three of them, they will defiantly suspect something.”
“What good is that going to do?” Duilin retorted “There would still be two other ships, and a bunch of lizard men all around.”
“Well, do you have a better idea?” Rink asked.
A lizard man approached the group pointing at Lagart. “Hey you!”
Lagart noticed the lizard man pointing at him. “What?”
“I didn’t ssee you come down with everyone elsse. You’re not even in uniform? What’ss you’re name, rank and classs?”
“Lagart, Lieutenant, B-Class.” Lagart responded.
“Ssory ssir.” The lizard man replied. “But may I ask why you’re not in uniform?”
“Because generals say I don’t have to. Go away.” Lagart commanded. “I’ve got these people under watch.”
The lizard man nodded and backed away.
“They think you’re one of them.” Belle whispered. “Why did he show you so much respect?”
“He one of those fake egg ones.” Lagart replied. “He know I better.”
“Yeah, but how did he buy such a dumb excuse like ‘the generals said I don’t have too’?” Duilin asked.
“Because they even dumber then me.” Lagart gave a smirk.
“We might be able to use this to our advantage.” Rink pondered out loud.
“Yeah.” Duilin replied. “I wonder if Ven has returned from Arosis yet. I’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”
-
Ben eyed back down at the city just before he was going to make his way into asgard. He couldn't leave without letting Tjed die. Three airships were afloat just under him. He flew a bit higher in the air, and readied his fists, then punched them forwards with blazing speed.
"DAWN OF THE PHOENIX" Ben shouted as he was raging back down. He hit one of the three airships, but it had little to no effect... The magic power on one of these things must have been great. He leapt off, knowing he could do nothing. He flew back down and landed near Duilin, Lagart, Rink, and Belle.
"There's got to be a way to disable those ships. In the mean time, let no harm come to these people." Ben whiped his hand to his side and burst out another energy sword. He took up a fighting stance as he stood near by.
------------
At the end of the cave, there was an opening of light. The party sped to the entrance and finally entered the valley where Tjedon lay within the mountains. Up above were three large airships, casting shadows upon the city.
"What the hell... INVADERS!!!" Justin ran up ahead and gazed back up at the sky.
"Airships... dammit... There's almost no way of stopping those! If only Draven were here. I've seen these in my time working with the dark empire. Powered by magic, yes. just about unstoppable..."
"That's the least of our problems right now. The gates are blocked by four Velkens. Not to mention the sky is filled with lizardmen working with the dark empire. Looks like we're in for a rough time before we even make it there." Dori pulled out her assassin's claws and readied herself for battle.
"A bleak outlook... These are lizardmen. I don't think even half of them can be above B-class." Valiko readied his sword once more. It was still drawn from the earlier skirmish. Lizardmen poured from the sky. the fields were crowded with a scaly green and dark armored creatures.
"This... should be fun..." Tiberius remarked quickly after pulling out his claymore, "Ven, it would be wise to draw a weapon."
-
"Ben! Don't!" Duilin shouted as he saw him in the air. "I don't want anyone to get hurt!"
As he landed near by him, Duilin stepped in front of him, as several lizard man warriors stepped closer towards the group and near by citizens began to panic. One of the lizard men smacked a man who was in his way onto the ground.
"Ben! Cut it out, listen we can't fight here. People are going to get hurt if we start fighting. We need to act quietly and you blazing in here and starting a huge ruckus isn't going to help anything, it's just going to make situations worse."
As the lizard men came closer, Lagart stepped behind Ben and put his hands on his shoulders and Duilin backed away.
"Lower your weapon." Lagart commanded. He then looked up at the lizard warriors coming closer. "I take care of this one."
Duilin sent a telepathic message to Bjendell.
'Please, just play along.'
Duilin sighed and put his hands into his pockets. He felt something new was in there, he took out a piece of paper folded up in his pocket and unfolded it. It was a note.
'North Point. Portal.
-R'
"Hmmm..." Duilin folded the note and put it back in his pocket.
-
*Fine. I don't expect you know how to destroy one of those ships...*Ben said back through his mind. He held his right hand up and the energy lowered back into his body. He lowered his hands and just stood there, waiting for something to happen... something in their favor.
-
The more deeper he went in, the higher the heat rose. It was getting extremly hot. Too hot for any person to survive but Quadricentennial was nowhere near dying. He was, in fact, just as vigorous as when he went in. The heat of the cave was not doing anything to him. This was strange indeed. Now Quadricentennial knew he wasn't a regular human. He knew that no human or animal and few beast could endure this extreme heat that could melt the most well made weapon. No wonder the town feared the beast. With this much heat, the town could be engulfed in flames should the bird rise out of it's cave. Quadricentennial ventured on, still not finding any sing of the beast.
-
“Well this is getting really boring, and you four think you can stop me? The all powerful Druid. You four insignificant mages?” Druid was passing back and forth in front of the mages.
“If one man can change the course of history, we should have no problem with four.”
“A man after my own heart, a man with wit. To bad that’s what I do.” Druid blasted the mage who spoke up.
[Charging: 1325]
---
Coriko ran towards the castle, well at least where he thought the castle was. This was the route he took the first time. Coriko looked back for his allies.
"Firstman, how you doing back there?"
-
(You! INVADERS! Get you the hot bullets of shotgun TO DIE!!)
Three spires rose like masts from the black flying ships, one from each, and they began to crackle with a green luminance. With a flash, a translucent green half-dome spread over the entirety of Tjed like a blanket. The shield would prevent anyone from entering or leaving the city via the skies... The only practical way in was through the front gate...
----
"We may be lucky," Anslem mused to Ko'ji and the others, "their military is in shambles, it doesn't look like they have the strength or will to fight back."
The gate was built into a solid stone wall and was wide open. Atop the wall was a small stone gatehouse with a wooden door. Renard and Helix landed on either side of the door and pressed their claws against it. Immediately the protal turned red hot and blasted open.
A single Tjed guard in the room spun around, his eyes wide in horror.
"Drop your weapon! NOW!" Renard screamed. He pointed a claw tipped with a wisp of crimson flame at the human. Behind him, Helix had his hands spread before him, electric-like streams of light dancing between them. Helix was acting as an Amplifier to Renard's spells, giving them a significant boost in strength. A common tactic in paired Velken Battle Mages.
The human guard took a single step back and drew his sword. Immediately a silver blur whooshed around Renard and Helix and slammed into the soldier. The human gagged blood and fell over.
"Anslem!" Renard cried. Anslem removed his short sword from the man's side-- a clean stab wound right through a tiny soft spot in the armor. "You didn't have to kill him!"
"Yes, I did." the silver furred Blade Knight retorted, flicking his tail. "He drew his weapon." The human lying on the floor gaped a few times before his eyes glazed over.
With that, Anslem flipped the large wooden lever in the middle of the room up and a mechanical grinding noise could be heard. The heavy metal gate below fell, sealing out the city's only exit.
With the gatehouse captured, Helix strode outside and sat on edge of the stone wall, letting his feet dangle over the edge. From his vantage point right above the gate, he'd be able to see anyone coming down the cobblestone street that might be trying to leave the city... No more Tjed guards were anywhere to be seen, though there were an increasing amount of Lizard Men organizing in the streets below.
Helix patted on the stone wall for Ko'ji to sit next to him. "Well, that's that... Probably four hours of sitting here doing nothing now..."
He looked up at the airships above and the green shield. The Lizard Men were still parachuting down, though their numbers were beginning to slow as the city was becoming quite flooded with them. "Hey, I said I'd tell you some stuff." He looked up at the newcomer. "The four of us here make up a Mini-Unit. A Mini-- two Battle Mages and two Blade Knights, is the smallest 'safe' battle configuration we have, but I'm sure you already knew that. The idea here it to make a very fast moving attacking and defensive unit. Basically, most of the time you and Anslem just need to make sure nothing bothers me and Renard while we cast our spells."
He stroked his chin for a moment, thinking. "Unless we do a physical formation-- that's when we need some serious non-magical attacking power. If that's the case, then the two of us will enchant either you or Anslem with some boosting spells to go attack, and the other one of you will circle us and keep us safe."
He gave the female Velken one more look over. "Say... you've got a pretty weird weapon for a Blade Knight. Where'd you get it?"
----
(The Lizard Men are landing in the city itself, not the surrounding fields.)
Ven didn't say anything.
He just stood there at the cave exit, mouth agape, his body trembling as he watched the green shield cover the entirety of the city in the valley below.
Finally, he dropped to he knees, threw his hands up into the air, and screamed.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~!!!!!!!"
After he was out of breath he collapsed in the dust and began beating the ground, grabbing fistfuls of sand and sifting them through his gauntlets.
"Why...? Why...? WHY?!"
He simply lay there for a while, sobbing, before he pulled himself together and stood.
"Okay... okay... Fighting would be reckless... they have the entire city under their control... There is a small sewer outlet some distance from the north wall. Maybe... just maybe we can sneak in..."
He breathed for a moment, trying to regain his composure.
"We should stick to the bushes, lest they see us from the walls or those infernal flying ships..." He began to trek his way down-path and downward into the valley. "Henri... Duilin... everyone... please be safe..."
-
Ko'ji back-flipped upwards and landed acurately on top of the wall, next to the Velken, Helix. She yawned lightly. "Looks like this could take a while. I made this silver sword in a forgery with my father a long time ago. I guess I messed up, because the sword didn't hold together. It kind of curved, but my mistake actually boosted the efficiency of the weapon. It's pure silver, by the way. It's a long story actually... Well, I actually used to be a battle mage until I found out I could use a blade. My skills as a mage were quite well, but they lacked in power. I could enchant weapons though, top in my class." Ko'ji took out a glowing blue magical dagger from her belt and held it out, showing it to Helix.
"I made this one with my father, too. It's actually supposed to be steel, but I enchanted it with a pure magic spell. The purity of the magic then made the weapon's destructive effect to be random... I don't really remember why I enchanted it to do random things... probably because I couldn't choose just one area of focus." Ko'ji sheathed the dagger back on her belt.
"I can only use it thirty times, then it needs to be recharged with a pure magic rune... You don't see many of those now a days..." The young Velken yawned again and looked down. She seemed to be very tired. Just then, she reached in her blue vest and pulled out two small viels, about three inches tall.
"Here, take one of these. I'm sure you can remember how good the ale tasted back home." She handed Helix a viel, poped open hers, and drank it all.
-
Both Valiko and Dori turned invisible, and followed closely behind Ven, along with Jacobie, Justin, Tiberius and Dranniconias. They treaded slowly behind the trees and bushed of the surrounding fields, checking around if anyone could spot them.
-
"Lagart." Belle whispered. "You probably won't be able to fool everyone. Maybe you could try and steal a uniform from another officer."
Lagart grunted and nodded in acknowledgement. "Follow." He started walking through the streets, with the others following him (hopefully Ben as well) trying to avoid being spotted by any of the more intelligent lizard men.
The area was getting quite flooded with lizard men, and people were going inside, to be away for the lizard men.
"This is terrible." Rink stated. "That Virmir is going to pay for this." He sneered.
"Uh yeah..." Duilin mumbled.
"What?" Rink asked, sounding curious. "Didn't you want to kill Virmir and his group?"
"We'll talk later." Duilin replied.
From inside a house the group heard the sounds of a panic.
A woman's voice came from inside. "We aren't resisting! Leave alone!"
"Shut it!" Retorted a deep voiced lizard man.
"Lagart." Duilin said, to the lizard man. "Do something."
Lagart opened the door to the house and entered.
"Stop!" Lagart growled, and the imperial lizard man turned around and spotted Lagart.
"What are you doing out of uniform?" The lizard officer hissed. "I didn't see you coming down with the others."
Lagart stomped towards the lizard officer.
"Yeah, you're one of them traitors!" The lizard officer drew his blade and swung it down at Lagart, yet the burly Lagart grabbed the officer's wrist before the blade could reach him and with his other hand he punched on in the side of the head, knocking his back with his tongue hanging out. Lagart let the lizard man go, and the officer fell unconscious to the ground.
The rest of the group came in and the woman started to look less scared as she saw the national heroes, Duilin and Rink.
"You're the ones who saved us from that plague. Come in, come in." The woman said to the group, as they sat outside.
"Yeah, sorry if we're just barging in." Belle said, to the woman. "We need a place to stay. Oh yeah, and don't worry about our lizard man friend here, he's cool."
The woman nodded. "I caught on, when he knocked the other one out."
"I need to change into uniform." Lagart said.
"Oh yeah, go ahead." The woman replied, she then looked at the others. "Well yes come in. I assume you've been avoiding conflict with the empire."
"For the most part." Rink said.
"Well, I'll get you all some water, it's all I have." The woman said as she went into the kitchen."
"So, Duilin is there something you want to talk about?" Rink asked.
"Yeah, I'm kind of worried to say too much. But Ben is already aware for the most part of this." Duilin sat down and began to speak lower. "You see, these fox men, Velkens...Well they've been forced into the empire. There world is being held together from be destroyed, by the emperor."
"I see." Rink sat down on the table with his legs crossed.
"Apparently there is a portal at North Point. I think if we can get there, we might be able to save these guys. If we save the Velkens, Virmir won't have any use to serve the empire and Tjed will be saved."
Rink nodded. "But with the energy shield up, how can we to get out?"
"Well, first we need to decide whose going. I think it would be best if just me and Ben go, while the rest of you stay here. Besides, now that Lagart has a uniform, he can guard the house. If you want to come, Rink, you can."
"I'll stay. I can trust you'll be able to take care of yourself without me for awhile."
"Okay then." Duilin smiled. "But, now we need to think of a way out. The front gate is no good, since it's too heavily guarded, and fighting our way though will bring too much attention to what we're trying to do, and we need be very sneaky with this."
"I noticed Tjed has a sewage system, make you could sneak through that." Rink suggested.
"Good idea." Duilin replied, he then looked to Bjendell. "Ben, I want you to come with me, because from what I can tell, you're a pretty powerful guy. But I can also tell you have a few overly aggressive traits, pretty uncommon for an angel, but I think I might need your help on this one. Just try to remember we need to do this unnoticed, so don't draw too much attention. I also noticed earlier, in the banquet hall, you had some sort of scroll with you, which I recall you were saying that it could help free Welken. But, if you don't want to come then that's fine. But I could probably use an extra hand. So what do you say?"
--- ---
"Me? Fine." Firstman replied.
Suddenly a pair of wyverns swooped by the castle.
"Was that Marshall, on one of them?"
-
"Of course I'll go, Duilin. I can't let you take all of the glory for your self, can I?" Ben smiled lightly, then looked back at Lagart. He pulled out two silver viels from his robes and handed him two orange looking potions.
"These are endurance potions. I knew an herbal scientest by the name of Thand a while back and he taught me a bit about the trade. Drink them whenever you feel exhausted. They'll make your fatigue disappear immediately with just a sip, although for a lizardman, I reckon two or three should do." He reached in his robes once again and pulled out another two for Rink.
"I've only got three more left, and these are for myself and Duilin. I hope nothing bad happens while we're away. So then, what's the plan, Duilin?"
-
"You seem to have a potion for just about every little thing." Rink stated with a smirk as he took the potions.
"I used to be like that." Duilin laughed. "Okay, well a plan for rescuing the Velkens? Well, the thing is, I don't fully have a plan just yet. Retan has a strong connection to Welken, and if he notices that we've broken in, then the Velken home world is gone. I don't know what will happen to Virmir, Renard and the rest of them, but we will need their help if we want to ultimately defeat the empire."
Lagart was suited up, and then went outside the guard the house.
"Do you still have that scroll?" Duilin asked Bjendell. "Maybe it might help."
--- ---
The Death Wyvern did barrel rolls and swung side to side, to try and get the stalker off of his back, but he had his weapons dug really tightly into him. Gorus continued to speed his flying; he then came close to a building and then flew to his side, intending to bash Hypnos of his back by smashing him into the building. However the quick stalker jumped off of the wyvern’s back and grabbed the creature’s ankles, and only the weapons were knocked out of his back. Gorus then started to swing his legs and smashed Hypnos onto the building, but he wouldn’t let go.
Finally Gorus got annoyed and then surrounded himself in a light green glow as he transformed back into his more agile self and landed roughly on the ground, causing the stalker to loose his grip at last. Gorus somersaulted after times, as he landed, but regained his balance and climbed back on his two feet.
Hypnos was already standing up he had his obsidian hatchet out, ready to make his move. Gorus simply crossed his arms and laughed.
“You pathetic human, think you’re a match for me?” Gorus taunted. “Despite whatever heavy training you’ve gone through I doubt you’ll be able to beat me.” He then cracked his knuckles. “That little fly around I just had, woke me up. So that would make you the first guy today to feel a true Van’deln styled ass kicking.”
The two fighters sized each other, just waiting for the other to make their first move…
//But I'm too tired to continue this, so I try to squeeze in more next post.\
-
"Yes, I have the scroll." Ben took the scroll out from his robes and showed it to Duilin. Amazingly, it was repaired; intact to the fullest. Even the runes fixed themselves.
"We wont be ablt to use the scroll unless we have ten willing Velkens. The portal will then last ten hours... but if we had just one, and lots of mages, it might work... but it would only last a measly hour." Ben then pocketed the scroll back in his robes.
-
“Three mages down and three more to go. This is quiet an intense game of cat and mouse but,” Druid looked back at the sky. The spiral had almost completely ascended. “I need to summon my island.” Druid walked towards two of the mages. He put his hands on their head and sent a pulse of shadow energy through their body. Their limp bodies fell to the ground.
[Charging: 1425]
---
"Damnit, I think it is!" Coriko watched the Wyverin pass. "We need to follow him in case he needs help. Alright who is up for a run?"
-
"Do I ever!"
Helix accepted the vial of liquid with a big smile on his face, and he drank it a bit more slowly than his partner, as if savoring the taste.
"You two aren't drinking, are you?" Anslem stood behind them with his arms folded.
"Well... we're consuming liquids..." Helix retorted. "You're too uptight, Ans."
"Don't let your guard down, we're not here to have a good time." If anyone, Anslem resembled a Virmir Jr., always stiffly following the rules. He even had the cold stare down, although his wasn't quite as piercing as the master's.
Helix waved him off and turned back to the lovely female sitting next to him. He was obviously enthralled by her. "Wow, a Battle Mage turned Blade Knight. That's pretty amazing! I'll bet you'll make squad leader in a few years."
Renard was off by himself with his arms folded and leaning against the guard house wall, looking outside the city rather than in like the others. His eyes trailed upwards and fixed themselves on the clouds above, which looked green from underneath the shield that capped the city.
"The same goes for you."
He jumped at the sound of Anslem's voice behind him. "Oh, sorry..." He turned to look at the larger squad member, but his eyes fell to the ground.
"There's something bothering you, isn't there?"
"N-no... not at all." Renard shook his head violently. "Just... thinking about home, I guess..." His eyes trailed upward again.
"We all are..." Anslem leaned on the wall next to him. "Just be careful. And be alert. We are in a war zone here, despite how peacefully the city has surrendered."
"Yeah, sorry..." Renard scratched behind his right ear, thinking back to the time he was blasted off of the airship by Draven's fireball... He still had a few bandages on his arm hidden under his robes, though the burns didn't hurt any more. Ever since then Virmir made it clear that no one was allowed to do anything by himself, even deep within Dark Empire territory.
"Looks like Helix made a new friend." Anslem changed the subject and his voice lightened, seeing Renard's troubled face.
Renard smirked as he looked at the two Velkens' backs as they sat on the wall's edge talking. "Yeah, she seems nice."
----
Ven peeked out of the bushes. "That's it..." he whispered back to the others. "Come on..."
It took them a while to inch all the way around the city, but they apparently hadn't been seen. Some distance away from the northern walls with the gleaming white castle in the background, a long ditch-like ravine split the relatively flat land around in two. At the end of that ravine a large brick pipe protruded from the rock.
It stunk.
Luckily the ravine was deep enough so the group could stand upright without fearing being seen from the castle walls in the distance, which was a good thing since most of the bushes had given way to merely tall strands of grass. But the odor protruding from the tube as they approached was not pleasant.
The pipe was large enough for a man to walk upright in, though they'd have to walk single file. Normally a thick metal grating would cover the entrance to ward off would be invaders, but apparently the Dark Empire had come so quickly the castle guard did not have time to bother with it.
Ven looked in for a moment before pulling his head back and wafting the smell away.
"Well... if anyone has any better ideas, I'm all ears..."
-
"Heh... I can hold my breath for hours... I'll be good." Justin followed Ven to the disgusting brick pipe. He wondered why there was no metal grating, but paid it no mind, as the smell distracted him.
"Well... let's... go, I guess..."
-
"Heh... Squad leader? I doubt it..." Ko'ji leaned back against the wall and clasped her hands together, putting them on her lap. She sat down, foldin her legs in a crossed possition. A somewhat small trickle of electric energy could be seen swirling around her hands. She then opened her eyes.
"There are other ways to charge an elemental weapon, even if it doesn't have a specific element." She took out her dagger, and it floated in the electric energy she'd created. Soon, the dagger's color changed to yellow as it absorbed the energy around it. She grabbed the dagger and sheathed it on her belt.
"This dagger has another special ability. I can select a specific element and embue that element's energy into the dagger. It takes the energy and stores it as the main element. I could do this with all six elements, and the dagger's effect would be randomized, but I have to use an even amount of energy with each element. This is how I keep training my magic power... That and meditation."
Ko'ji stood back up and looked at Anslem. "So, when do you think this will stop? Will we be able to leave sooner or later, or will we be stuck guarding this rock for another few days? Oh, forget it, I'll just... what...?"
Ko'ji looked out in the open fields, her ears twitching a few times. "I thought I heard something... Tell me one of you heard that, right? It sounded like... a group of people... outside the walls..."
-
The floor must've increased in head for his shoes were starting to melt. Now for the first time since he entered the cave, or ever in his life for that matter, he was starting to sweat from extreme heat. The heat was too much for anything to even live in and yet Quadrientennial proceeded with no problem. He reached an opening and gazed in it. He saw it. He finally found it. A bright red falcon stood before him, with bones all around it, chared in black ashes, probably from its victims. The bones were huge so this monster must have been at least 100 meters tall. It was a giant living deep within the bowels of a mountain with heat hot enough to melt the moon. "Now how am I to kill you?" He took out his green blade and proceeded with caution. He took slow steps as he looked up at the brilliantly lit bird who was sleeping. He was injured from some battle. He thought this might be an opportune time to remove this beast and get back to town to figure out what the heck he did this all for anyways. The question was still in the air of how to defeat him. He didn't had a clue how he was suppose to get near a bird that had flames all about him. If he was enlightened during his sleep, surely being awoken would arise even more flames that are hotter than it is right now. Quadricentennial was close enough to feel it's heat. Very hot indeed. "What now?"
-
Druid walked towards the final mage. He was sweating and looked very nervous. The ritual was slowed so he could have fun.
“You sure you want to continue? You saw wat happened to your friends. Five other mages were killed in a matter of moments. Before them the five mages who attacked me. Speak of the devil.” As Druid was talking one of the surviving attacking mages crawled towards Druid and clutched his leg. As soon as the contact was made the mage screamed and dissolved into the air. “Now think, do you want to end up like him, or will you stop and help me?”
[Charging: 1525]
-
-"I see."
He must want them for a purpose. Well, I'll get to that later.
-"You have yourself a deal, Draven. I'll collect the weapons, and we'll rid of Retan together."
What I decided not to mention is that anything after that will be fair game."
-
"Excellent. When do we start?" Anti brought his fist to his palm, anxious to start. His bloodlust was rising by the second. He wanted to destroy so badly. Well, he couldn't destroy. He'd have to settle for kill, though that would be enough for him.
--- --- ---
Upon arriving in the laboratory he was guided to, Drake gave a low whistle. "Oh, this will do nicely." He immediately started to work...
//Drake will be inactive for a while, to work on his new weapon. I'm thinking 10-20 posts for now, though this can change depending on how long 20 posts actually ends up taking.
-
Anslem's ears were perked as well, and he turned around. "Indeed, there's someone out there."
"Our orders are to guard the gate. They can walk around out there as long as they want, so long as they don't try to come in," Renard reminded the others.
"Still, we should inform Lord Virmir."
"I'll go." Renard said as he stretched.
"No, we're not allowed to separate. We'll flag down one of the lizards."
"It'll only take a minute. He's just right up there." Renard pointed to the massive black ship hovering above. Anslem simply shook his head 'no'. Renard shrugged. "Okay, then." He hopped up next to Helix and Riuki and looked down the street. There were a few Lizard Men congregated near an inn.
Renard's eyes moved up as he noted four black specs falling from the airship and moving towards their location. "... Although looks like we've got company headed our way."
In but a moment the Blade Knight Bryce and three other Velkens landed on the wall in front of Anslem.
"Good afternoon, Anslem." He nodded to the others. "Renard, Helix, Riuki. I take it things are going smoothly?"
"If by smoothly, you mean bored-ly, then yes, we're fantastic," Helix shouted over his shoulder. He then waved his hands in the air. "Bring on the epic nothingness!" He finished with a smirk flashed at Ko'ji.
Renard shook his head. "I prefer it this way..." he mumbled, though no one would likely pick it up.
"But we can plainly detect footfalls from outside the walls," Anslem finished.
Bryce nodded. He was a tad shorter than Anslem, but a bit more burly. Which isn't saying much for a Velken. The silver fur on the top of his head was pointed. "Yeah, there's a lot of people wondering around outside, and our Lord thinks it's a bit too much for a city that's supposed to be sealed. He's thinking there are leaks, possibly underground."
Anslem nodded. Bryce continued, "Our orders have changed. There's a group of Lizard Men that are coming over here to guard the gate. Our two teams are to split up and see what we can find. My guess is a sewage or drainage system."
Helix groaned.
Anslem nodded. "Right. We'll scout around and seal off any passages we find. Meet back at the ship in say... two hours?"
"Sounds good," Bryce replied. With that, he and the other three Velkens darted off into the sky. Anslem leapt clear off the wall and landed in front of the sealed gate. Renard floated after.
"Just great," Helix groaned as he flew down to the cobblestone street. He landed behind the other two. "Now we get to wade around in sewers." His fluffy tail hooked upwards, and he grabbed it with his left hand as if to make sure it didn't touch the ground. "If I get human crap on my tail I'm gonna be really p--"
"Shut up, Helix," Renard said through clenched teeth as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
Anslem levitated a foot above the ground and began to fly down the street and deeper into the city, the others following suit. "We should be on the lookout for any openings underground..."
----
Ven paused at the drainage pipe entrance and took a look behind him. They only would be able to move single file, and things were going to get cramped real quick.
"Hold on a sec..."
He rubbed a gauntlet over his chin. "Maybe some of us should stay out here? A party of three or four could move more quickly. Right now our priority is getting to the king and getting him out, along with a few others. A huge group is much more noticeable. Also, if we get captured, then the party that waits outside can come in and look for us... Make sense?"
He adjusted the straps of his gauntlet. "I will go in of course, since I know the way. But only two of you should come with me. The rest should hide in the bushes and wait just in case things get nasty... Which of you thinks you'd be able to hold your own in tight spaces best?"
----
"Excellent," Draven said over steepled fingers, "then we will head south and begin killing some fodder to add to your undead legions. Hopefully by tomorrow we will be able to put this plan in motion. Do you have a spare communications orb? I think it best we stay in touch... Also, when you do find the weapons, keep them as separate as possible until the time is right. Their aura magnifies in proximity of each other."
He pulled the dagger from the table and slid it behind his back before standing. He turned to Anti.
"We'll get started right now..."
-
"Hmm..." Justin looked back at the party. It would probably be best if Doriana and Valkio stayed out, since they can hide themselves... He would go, along with Jacobie. It would be a good Idea for a Lizardman to go into a city filld with more lizardmen, especially with his captain's armor.
"I'll go. Jacobie and I. Valiko, you and Doriana can stay invisible for quite a while, and Tibbs... Well, you could transform into a Wyvern and fly around south for a while. We shouldn't be long... say, five hours, at the most." Jacobie stepped forward behind Justin.
"I've got some bad news. This armor is from back when I was with the Crimson empire... not the Dark Empire."
"You're an A-class Lizardman. I wont be that tough to talk to the lower class lizards in the city."
"True enough. Let's go."
"Well what about me?" Dranniconias asked.
"Just stay here with Doriana and Valiko. We'll be right back, so just chill for a few moments."
------------
-
The remaining mage slowed down his chant. He was considering what to do. He knew beating Druid was a not possible, so he lowered his hands and stopped chanting.
“Good boy.” Druid put his hand on the mages shoulder. The two made eye contact and then Druid sent a large pulse of shadow energy through the mage killing him instantly.
[Charging: 1625]
-
"Excellent..." He rose and headed for the exit. He was probably getting ahead of himself, but he didn't care.
--- --- ---
//I hope you don't mind me using your soldiers, Ein. Razz
A hooded being has arrived in the icy country. He's here... This time... I'll get him! The hooded being removed a scimitar and headed towards the mainland. It was soon stopped by three soldiers.
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
Words were spoken, without any voice. "I'm not here for you. Get out of my way."
The soldiers were obviously frightened out of their senses by that little show. "You won't harm this country!"
"Fools..."
The hooded being glowed a bright purple. A surge of energy shot through it as it became incredibly pissed at the soldiers.
"If you insist on fighting... Then I'll stop you here! Indignation Judgment!!!"
A huge sword shot straight down from the sky, piercing into the icy ground, separating the soldiers from the hooded being. A large circle of bright purple runic glyphs appeared on the ground around the blade, glowing fiercely. Lightning shot down from the sky multiple times, surging through the sword and fiercely electrocuting everything in the circle. The sword and circle then vanished completely, leaving only a trio of dead soldiers.
The hooded being walked by the corpses and headed toward the capital. "Forgive me. I will not let anything get in my way. I will destroy the Zerobi no Anti."
--- --- ---
Anti had suddenly come to a halt...
-
"Well, I'm afraid that scroll is of no use. None of the Velkens can betray Retan, if they do then he'll lift the spell keeping their world together and it'll be destroyed. Also, it's not a portal we need it's a way to get the Velkens through the portal without Retan noticing, and that Velken told me that the emperor has a very strong connection with their world, because of that spell."
Duilin rubbed his lower lip.
"Maybe if we worked together we might be able to either make a spell that's strong enough to hold Welken long enough for them to escape. Then again, I'm sure Retan must be using a lot of power to hold that world together, so that wouldn't work at all. Well, unless we found a way to like, take control Retan's spell or something."
Duilin shook his head.
"I think the best way would be to perhaps just go in the portal, the emperor will hopefully won't suspect anything from us, since he doesn't know we know about the situation with Welken. If worse comes to worse we can lead him to belive we either stumbled upon the place or perhaps we heard from intelligence reports that the 'fox-men' came from North Point and we think it's the 'source' of were they're coming from and we want to 'exterminate their source'."
Duilin smirked. "Or something to that affect. Besides unless Retan or one of his personal officers are hanging around there and want to interrogate us, then we won't need to explain anything." He then stretched his arms. "Okay, so you ready to go?"
-
//No problem.\
A soldier was watching the hooded creature intently from a nearby bunker. Another one came up behind him.
-"What do you figure that was?"
-"No idea. It killed Luke, Frank and Nick like they were nothing. You think we should try our luck with it?"
-"Hell no, I don't get paid enough for that. Why don't we just tell someone?"
-"Good idea."
--- --- ---
-"Well, that's that, gentlemen - the exit is just downstairs, the glyph on the floor. It will teleport you right below the Citadel. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have certain matters I must attend to."
Two of my undead guards escorted Draven and Anti to the portal room.
I left the throne room, and went into the portal below. Recognizing me, the glyph teleported me not to the portal outside the fortress, but one below that, to an underground bunker. Damien Roth, the Colonel, and Cain Ryleh were all waiting for me.
-"Let's get started. First order of business: our magic power. Or rather, the lack thereof. I want mages in training as soon as we can get them. I'm mainly looking for strong, advanced Necromancers. Astral mages couldn't hurt either, and make sure to train some ice warlocks as well. The cold atmosphere of Gros Morne should be helpful to them, and they could act as a safeguard against Draven."
Cain took out a little book, and scribbled something in it.
-"Noted," he said.
-"Alright. Next item: KAF equipment."
-"I'm listening," said the Colonel.
-"Good. I was thinking - right now my powers and the KAF are way too separated. What if I could create military-oriented unlife constructs, such as a heavily armoured crawler-type thing, from which your troops could fire? Another idea was to put Necromancers with bodyguards into Marcher constructs, creating a way to quickly resurrect both allies and foes on the battlefield."
-"A list of suggestions will be ready for you by tomorrow, Sovereign."
-"Excellent. Now, the last thing I had in mind. Damien, right now the Stalker program only trains melee troops, correct?"
-"Yes, sir. We have a total of five Stalkers deployed, and another one just finished his training."
-"The next batch of Stalkers will be armed with spear guns. No ordinary ones, either. I want you to think up something so unfairly powerful that our enemies will hang themselves if they realize what they're up against. The batch after that will be magic-oriented. Am I making myself clear?"
-"Of course, sir."
-"Good. Everyone's dismissed."
-"Uh, sir," Damien interjected. "Just prior to my coming here, I was informed of an unknown entity entering Gros Morne. It killed three of our soldiers."
-"*groan* Three more? What the hell is this, a meat storehouse? Damien, go put it back in its place."
-"Yes, sir."
The shape of the High General blurred, and he turned to dust."
--- --- ---
Damien rematerialized in front of the hooded being.
-"Listen, buddy - you don't just waltz in and start killing people just because you feel like it. I don't care if you're on some crackpot mission to bring down the Sovereign or whatever it may be. Surrender now, or die."
Three clicks marked spear guns being loaded. The three recently deceased soldiers arose, and were pointing their weapons at the intruder.
-
The hooded being stared the man down. The voiceless words emerged again. "I'm not here for any of your country. I apologize for the-" It glances back at the resurrected soldiers. "-not loss of your three soldiers. They freaked out and charged me. So I dispatched them, admittedly a little excessively. To get back to the point, I am here for the Zerobi no Anti. Though I mean no harm, I will not hesitate to knock down any barrier that prevents me from getting to the Zerobi."
--- --- ---
Anti was suddenly snickering. "One of the flyboys came back. May even be the flygirl. They're probably here for me." He looked to Draven. "Go ahead and head for our destination. I'll catch up with you after I crush a pair of wings." Anti walked onto the glyph and was teleported outside. He then took his time walking in the direction of his soon-to-be adversary.
-
"I'm ready... one more thing before I go. Rink, give this to the owner of this household." Ben took off his pouch of coins and tossed it at Rink. It was pretty big, and there must have been over 200 pieces.
"Tell 'em thanks for the trouble. Right, shall we be off?"
-
(Lizard Men were never part of the Crimson Empire. During that time, they were all in Mizar, a.k.a. The Lower Dark Empire, growing the bulk of the Dark Empire's current reptilian forces and awaiting Retan's return.)
Ven lead the two warriors deeper and deeper into the drainage pipe. After a while the smell became bearable. The water trickling past wasn't wholly repulsive because it was treated with some sort of chemical (or perhaps magic) before being dumped away from the city. Ven didn't really know the details.
After a fair amount of walking in the cramped pipeline, the passage opened up to a larger underground brick room with a stream flowing through the middle. If it weren't for the occasional torch, they'd be in complete darkness. Suddenly, a pair of glowing white eyes flashed across Ven's path. He stopped.
"Oh, blast..."
His blade was out in an instant, and he cleaved a blurred form that attacked from his left. Two dead lumps of meat fell to either side.
"I forgot to mention the giant sewer rats..."
"SQUEEEEEE!!!" The noise came from all around. Dozens of dirty gray furred rats scurried from cracks and pipes in the walls, moving around the trio. Some were as long as four feet from head to tail...
----
Draven exited the glyph and folded his arms as he watched Anti walk off.
"Tch, suit yourself."
'Flyboy'? Did it really catch on? He smirked.
With that, a dim red aura surrounded him and he blasted off though the sky southward, towards the northern reaches of the Dark Continent...
-
"Alright, let's get going." Duilin said clapping his hands together. He had his mace strapped on to his back so he wouldn't have to carry it around in his hands and the Iduran was in his sheath. It would take a little while for him to get used to the slight extra weight.
"Oh and thank you kind sir for the money." The woman said to Ben. "Hopefully you guys will be able to free us from the empire so I'll actually have a use for this."
"Okay, well let's go then." Duilin said to Bjendell. "Wish us luck." He said to the others.
Belle went up to Duilin, hugged him and have him a kiss. "Good luck."
"Thanks." Duilin smiled.
Belle went up to Ben. "Oh, and I'd like to thank you for helping Duilin save me and Rink, earlier." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Good luck."
Rink fluttered over to Duilin and Bjendell. "Good luck guys. Don't die on us." He said with a smile.
"Hah, we'll try." Duilin laughed back. "Okay let's go Ben."
The two exited the house; Lagart was standing outside looking up at the airships in the sky.
"Me and Ben are going out for awhile. Keep an eye on everyone, while we're gone."
Lagart nodded, and the 'flyboys' made their way through the town.
"So yeah, I guess the sewage system would be our easiest way out." Duilin said, as he led Bjendell towards a quiet roadway with an opening to the sewage system, covered by a metal plate. Duilin lifted the metal plate and slide it aside. He grimaced and drew back his head
"As smelly of an idea that is..." He then looked around to see if any lizard men or anyone was watching.
"Yeah, the coast looks clear." Duilin then folded his wings around him as he slipped through the hole and landed in the smelly drainage pipe, it wasn't nearly as roomy as it was smelly. He stepped forward to not be in the way of Bjendell when he came down; he looked up and waited for him to come down.
-
"Ugh... as rotten of an idea this is... it'd better be worth it to get out from down here..." Ben slid down the sewage hole and placed the metal grate back on top of it.
"Well... after you..."
------------
"Sewer rats?" Justin managed to stab about four or five of them before more of them scampered from the darkness and attacked. Of course, they were only rats, and most of them were cut down easily.
------------
-
“Sure.” Duilin replied. He started trudging through the sewage. He lifted his shirt over his nose the stench was nearly unbearable, but he grew up in a village without a sewage system. One could image how bad that place smelled.
In the distance he could hear the slight sounds of rats squeaking, he rolled his eyes he never liked rats that much, especially the big ones that bite people.
“If any rats come and bite you just try to not use any attention drawing spells, we don’t want anyone to figure out were down here. Those Velkens have pretty good hearing.” Duilin warned. He then thought he could hear voices. “I think some other people had the same idea, because I believe I hear the echoes of people speaking. Hopefully they aren’t with the empire.”
--- ---
“Hey they’re coming back!” Firstman called as he saw the wyverns fly back towards them.
Suddenly the two wyverns crashed into each other and Marshall and Wilham fell off one and the count fell of the other, they all lay on the ground and the wyverns flew back and started clawing at each other as they circled twenty feet over them.
Firstman went over to Marshall who was on the ground. “Hey, kid. You alright?” He asked shaking him.
Marshall groaned. “Quit shaking me, I’m fine.” He then got up. Wilham also got up, but Vandrin was still on the ground. The three of them then stepped towards the count laying on the ground.
“Is he dead?” Firstman asked.
“No.” Wilham replied. “He’s just unconscious.”
“No you are!” Suddenly Vandrin sprung to his feet and shot a barrage of small sedative magic blasts, there was a cloud of cyan mist surrounding the entire group and when it settled Vandrin was standing over three who were unconscious. The count then glared his eyes as he looked at Coriko.
“Let’s see how quickly you’ll go down.” Vandrin hissed he then shot a poison blast from his hand at the archer.
-
Coriko saw the dart flying at him. He slid to left of the dart so it missed him and then fired a ball of fire at Vandarin.
"How are your reflexes old man?"
Coriko then summoned his bow and pulled out a shrapnel arrow from his quiver.
---
“You said you would spare him!” A general yelled at Druid.
“No I didn’t! Now continue the ritual or you will suffer the same fate as your fallen allies.”
The general stopped and returned his attention to the ritual.
“Good, and pick up the pace. I know what you were doing earlier.”
Slowly the spiral descended at re-opened.
[Charging: 1725]
-
-"I don't see what Kandarin has to do with the being you're hunting down. If it is inside these walls, you are not to engage it until it leaves our premises. Otherwise, I will be forced to kill you, and trust me - I will."
Damien took out his staff.
-"Even then, think about it logically: outside of Kandarin, it is only the two of you. If you will try to attack it inside, you will have it to deal with, as well as me, the Kandarinian Armed Forces, and the city itself. The buildings aren't what they appear to be, you know."
-"Now," Damien drew a line in the snow with his staff. "I suggest you leave. If you cross this line, you will be declared a trespasser, and you will be put down accordingly."
-
(Elder, if you're having trouble keeping up let me know and we can work something out.)
Anslem hovered over a metal grating in the city's center square. A group of Lizard Men were busy tying up a mob of humans who didn't want to go so quietly. Everyone cleared away when the Velkens floated onto the scene, though.
"This looks large enough for a human to fit through." Anslem mused, rubbing the underside of his long chin.
Renard landed next to the drain and extended his hands. The metal began to bend upward, as if drawn to them. He clenched his teeth. "You wanna give me a hand with this, Helix?"
Helix landed next to Renard and performed the same gesture. "Ugh. I can already smell it..." The metal grating warped quickly and the bars snapped, then folded outwards.
"It's just a water drainage pipe, Helix."
"Yeah, but you know they're connected somewhere down there. I mean, if it smells this bad at street level..."
Renard shrugged. "Humans just stink, Helix, they can't help it. I guess that's why they have such underdeveloped noses. They smell better than Lizard Men at least, I think."
"Heh, I guess so."
Anslem pointed to a group of passing Lizard Men. "You there. No one enters or leaves this hole but us. Understood?"
The lizards nodded and Anslem leapt down, followed by Renard and Helix, who held cupped a hand over his nose.
----
"Hyaahh!!"
Ven's blade glowed a bright white and he slashed a giant rabid rat with so much force that his blade continued until it hit the stone. A brilliant flash bathed the entire room in a intense glow, revealing no less than a score of eyes. This startled the creatures, and the retreated back to whence they came.
Ven stood up straight as the light from his sword faded. "Huh. Scared 'em off."
He sheated his sword and continued walking. "Be on the lookout though. They'll probably be back to harass us again."
They were leaving the collection chamber and approaching the city limits now. The hallways becoming narrow once more with large pipes connecting them. Many pipes had water rushing out of them so they could not be walked through, but Ven found a dark corridor for maintenance access that seemed to lead towards the center of the city. If he wasn't lost, that was...
-
Vandrin wiped out his katana and slashed at the oncoming fireball knocking it off course. He grinned showing his poison stained teeth.
"They're perfect." The count retorted. "Let's see how yours are." The count dashed towards Coriko and swung a horizontal slash aiming across his waist...
--- ---
"Yeah I definitely hear other people." Duilin stated. They continued their way until they reached a dark corridor, where Duilin saw a group of other people. It was a little dark, but it seemed that Ven was leading the group.
"Ven? Is that you?" Duilin asked as he stepped forward at a slightly quicker rate.
-
The clouds started to flash again and lighting could be seen. However this lightning was red, dark red, against an almost black sky. The bolts started to get quicker and more prominent.
“Only a few more moments now.”
Druid re-summoned the shadow energy orbs and joined in the summoning.
[Charging: 1825]
---
Coriko dropped his arrow and used his bow to block the count's attack. In close proximity Coriko could smell the noxious odor wofting from the count. Coriko grimaced and moved his head back.
"Man, it's called a breath mint."
Coriko then pushed his bow forward to knock the count away and give himself some space to breathe.
-
The hooded being was silent. After a long pregnant pause, it finally spoke. "Looks like you're lucky. Here he comes now."
The Zerobi no Anti was still taking his time walking towards his opponent. He soon started to pick up pace a little bit, speeding up more as he approached. He held his left hand out to the side, and a swirling ball of energy appeared in it. A giant leap, and he flickered out. A moment went by before he flickered back into existence right above the hooded being.
"Spiral Sphere!"
The hooded being leapt backwards, narrowly escaping the attack as it drilled into the ground. "That's MY move, you bastard."
Anti stood up straight and snickered. "Well, well, well. To come and face me alone... You've certainly got balls..."
"...for a woman."
The hooded being's words now had a voice. It was a feminine one, confirming Anti's revelation. "I'll make you eat those words." She flung the hood off, revealing...
"Aurelie Lynn Hikari..." Anti smirked. "There's no way you can defeat me alone, when even the four of you together couldn't."
She was wearing the same attire she did before her disappearance. The same black t-shirt, the same black shoes, the same long black circle skirt, but the fanservice-denying pants underneath the skirt were gone (Not as if Anti gave a crap about fanservice anyways). They had probably been worn out, and Xenai probably grew up. You could tell that she had been training if you could sense energy, but she didn't look like she had been training. "I'm still going to try."
"You're too young to die. Honestly, wouldn't you rather wait to be destroyed?"
"As if." She spun her scimitar around in her hand, sliding into a ready stance.
"Where's Tsunan?"
"None of your business."
"That's too bad. I'd much rather kill you two together."
"If you think I'm going to die, you're sadly mistaken."
"No, my dear." He pointed his hand at her. "You indeed will die."
An invisible force shot out from his hand, slamming into Aura, launching her backwards off of Kandarin. She flipped a few times and halted in the air, just to see that Anti was charging straight in...
// The fight will occur tomorrow morning. For now, I have revealed the identity of the hooded being for you guys. Smile
-
Ko'ji followed the other Velkens down the entrance. Helix was right, it did kind of smell, but Ko'ji was able to ignore it.
"Do you think they might be hidding?"
-
Damien slapped his head.
-"OH! Yeah! Aura, right. That one. The one that tried and miserably failed against Arlin. Hmph, and I thought Arlin was a failure. This ought to be an interesting show."
--- --- ---
Kandarin began undergoing preparations and changes as new undead beings were assembled, and new prototype weapons were built. New Stalker program was also in effect.
//777th post! Whoo!\
-
//Okay, then. Since both of these are my characters, I'm gonna go ahead and get this done in one post, since I don't have to wait on anyone. I don't want to drag out a fight between my own characters. It doesn't do much for the interaction aspect of RPing if I do. I hope it's alright that I get it done in one post.
Anti was charging straight in. Aura kept her cool though, and waited. When Anti came in range, he fired off a fierce upward kick at his opponent's jaw. And it missed, dramatically. She had gracefully swayed off to the side, leaving Anti way open. Anti already saw his folly. Shit, I badly underestimated her.
Aura was not going to let this opportunity pass. She unleashed a fluid slashing combo onto him with her scimitar, of about 15 hits or so, then stopped for a moment. A surge of energy shot through her... "Final Fury!" A much quicker, more furious flurry of slashes was unleashed on him, ending with a fierce uppercut. She shot up above him, raising her scimitar. "Dying Moon!" And one powerful downward slash shot Anti into the water.
She panted heavily, waiting for his next move. She didn't have to wait long. "GRAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" Anti created a crater in the water as he furiously flared his aura. "You won't make an ass out of me!" He threw his arms out to the side, then pointed his hands up at Aura, a surge of energy shooting through his body. "Final Flash!!!"
"Crap!" Was all she could say before she was engulfed by the energy beam. When the beam evanesced, she was flying up through the sky. Anti took off immediately to intercept her, and it wasn't long before he was right above her. Another surge of energy. "Razing Phoenix!" His body seemed to catch on fire. He formed his arms into a large sword and smacked her down into the ocean.
He pointed a hand down at the water. "This one's going to be... shocking! Indignation!" This was the normal form of Indignation Judgment that Aura had used before. A purple circle of energy appeared at the water's surface. A purple bolt of lightning shot down and struck right in the center of that circle... in the water. And as we know, water conducts electricity. The lightning discharged into the water...
He waited. He knew that didn't kill her. And he was right. A hand came out of the water, grabbing onto the large chunk of ice that was Kandarin. She pulled herself out of the water and stood up, panting a bit. She then yelled up at Anti. "Are you stupid or something?!"
He shouted down in response. "What the hell do you mean?!"
"I know your weakness! You used two hi-ougis in a row, and then you used Indignation, one of the most powerful spells in the book! If you keep using that much energy, I WILL be able to take you!"
"So you do know my weakness. You won't be able to take me if I kill you first! ...Hm?" A shimmer in the distance. Suddenly, the shimmer was right in front of him! Another hooded being, wielding a golden katana. This one did not bother to mask his voice, it was that of a young man.
"Majin Messatsuen!" The man slashed down, and a small field of dark energy lashed up several times at Anti from right below him. The man then pulled his katana back... A surge of energy. He unleashes a flurry of slashes...
Blood rejects blood... "Majiwara zarishi inochi ni..."
Heart breaks heart... "Ima mo tarasaren setsuna no kiseki!"
Miracles aren't coming. "Toki wo hete..."
This is why dreams... "Koko ni yuugou seshi..."
...do not come true. "...mirai he no taidou!"
You resist?! "Gishouken!!!" A fierce downward slash, and another surge of energy. He turns around for a moment... "Boku wa... Kako wo tachikiru. Chire!" He turns back around and slashes upwards, followed by a fierce thrust.
"Majin Rengoku Satsu!!!"
"URGH!" Anti, caught off guard by the man's sudden appearance, could do nothing against the combo, and was sent flying back. The man then flickered out of existence, only to reappear by Aura. He grabbed her arm and took off as fast as he could. Anti halted himself in the air, and watched the man fly off with Aura. "Hmph... Stupid pests." He then started to fly off towards the Dark Continent.
--- --- ---
"H-hey! What gives, Tsu?!" Aura was trying to pull free from the man's grip.
"You overdid it a little."
"Hmph. Fine." She finally broke free of the man's grip, and flew alongside him. "Take that hood off. I hated wearing that. It's obvious that we're back now, there's no need to hide it."
"Alright." He flung the hood off. It was indeed Tsunan Nami. He had managed to retain his appearance as well, wearing the same jeans, shoes, and t-shirt as before. "Tell me about him."
"Well... we were right about him. His energy source is himself. So he can dish out hi-ougis like they're nothing. Me... I only had one shot. I won't be able to use another for a while, not until I see some more combat. And neither will you. That was your best one."
"I was saving that for a good use. Saving you was a good use to me."
"Thanks, sweetie." She smiles at him. He smiles back, then returns to seriousness.
"So since his energy source is himself..."
"The more energy he uses, the weaker he gets."
"I see. We'll have to tell Zion and Xenai..."
They continued their course, flying toward Romme...
-
"They're probably not hiding. I'll bet they're trying to either leave or get in," Helix explained to Ko'ji.
The Velkens began floating down the underground drainage pipe, hovering inches above the grimy water so their boots would not get soiled.
"If we split up, we could cover more ground," Renard suggested as they passed another open pipe.
"Absolutely not," Anslem retorted.
"Look... that happened when I wasn't expecting it. I'm on my guard now. Really..."
"Your reasoning doesn't matter, Renard. Lord Virmir said no groups less than four, and that's that."
"AHHHH!!!" Helix screamed from behind the group. Suddenly a fiery explosion burst from his hands and the water below splashed everywhere. He floated there for a second panting with his claws smoking from the fire spell he just cast.
"Helix! Way to blow our cover..." Renard said through clenched teeth as he floated over to his friend.
"That thing... scared the ffff-frack outta me... Look at the size of it!"
Sitting in the water was the charred corpse of a giant rat...
"That's a big rat," Renard observed.
"I swear, every single sewer has to be infested with giant rats..."
----
"Duilin?" Ven's eyes lit up. "Duilin! It really is you!"
The silver knight jogged over to him, sloughing through a small stream of murky water that divided the room, but paid it no mind. They were in another larger chamber, open pipes lining the walls big enough to walk in.
"I am so glad to see you're safe!" His smile faded a little when he noticed that the other figure, Ben, was not the king. "Where is King Henri? Is he all right?-- Hang on a sec..." He interrupted himself as a strange rasping sound filled the air. "Did you hear that?"
The ground began to rumble...
Ven quickly drew his blade. "Blast... we'll talk later..."
Just then, something huge burst out of one of the pipes and bellowed a screeching roar. At first it resembled a smaller wingless dragon-- large ears and a long tail. But when its snarling form stepped into the dim light, it was none other than a 12 foot long rat with burning crimson eyes...
Ven took a few steps back and stammered, "I-I really had no idea all these monsters were down here!"
----
It was dark.
Of course, it was the Dark Continent.
Draven lowered his power level significantly enough to dim his aura upon approach, and now he floated thirty feet above the ocean with his arms folded, observing the black fortress cutting into the churning gray skies before him. Beyond that, a rocky peninsula connected to the Dark Continent mainland.
North Point.
It was just south of here where the Dark Emperor betrayed him a year and a half ago, banishing him into that portal with the other rejects. The memory did not put him in a particularly good mood.
There were much easier targets up and down the black rocked beaches, but no, this was the big one. How fitting this place would come into play as an instrument of Retan's downfall, however insignificant-- as the fodder for Kronos' army he would turn the soldiers into. But still, it'd be fun.
Of course, there was the matter of it being one of the most indestructible fortresses on the planet. But he estimated security to be down since Retan moved shop to that infernal Tower of Heaven's Bane and the fact that there was simply no war front to the arctic north (that Retan knew of, at least).
Then of course the fact that he personally reviewed the structure when it was part of his Crimson Empire...
Draven cracked his knuckles.
-
Duilin was pleased to see that it was indeed Ven. "Yeah it's a long story, but yeah I'm okay." He started to feel a bit worried when Ven started to ask him about the king, but then the ground started to rumble.
"What the?" He then took out his mace when he saw the shadow of the creature.
But then it revealed itself in the dark light to be a giant rat. Never before had Duilin ever seen a rat that big.
"Great..."
--- ---
Vandrin parried back as Coriko pushed him away. He rolled his eyes at his adversary’s comment.
"You'll smell a lot worse than my breath once I'm done with you." Vandrin quipped. He then lifted up his katana and its blade began to glow green. He then slashed his katana forward shooting forth a blade of poisonous energy...
--- ---
Nex and the elites had been traveling across the Dark Continent for quite a while, after several hours. They passed Sigmund on his travels as nothing seemed to be of interest to Nex. Something seemed to be drawing him to this place. He could feel something here. He had all the time in the world to waste so why not?
Less than a mile in front of him was north point. The elites were unsure why Nex had lead them here, but they didn't question his motives. Their orders were simply to follow him.
-
The black soul gem dissipated in the golem's skull. It turned into a black mist, which crawled across the creature's head, and seeped into the holes it came upon. The flesh golem's right claw twitched.
-"Yes!!! Come to life! Awaken, my flesh golem! Mwahahaha!"
Indeed, the flesh golem got up, and shambled to the teenager. However, something was wrong... the golem's outline started fading, and turning into something else...
-"What? Noooo! Golem, come back! Come baaack!"
Soon, in the place of a flesh golem, there was a man standing. He was completely naked. The necromancer backed away.
-"Er... hello?"
-"Hello. It's rather cold here, would you happen to have pants?"
-"Yes...here..."
-"Thank you. Do tell, what am I doing here?"
-"Ah, I tried using your soul gem for an experiment with an undead creature."
-"Rather young to be resurrecting, aren't you?"
-"The Sovereign requires everyone of all ages to know at least basic Necromancy."
-"So he's Sovereign now, eh..."
The man rubbed his chin. He looked at the curtains in the house. They were black on one side, and red velvet on the other.
-"You don't mind if I borrow your curtains, do you?"
-"I guess... What's your name, anyway?"
-"I'm Ein. Who are you?"
-"Mark..."
Ein took the curtains off of the rods, and wrapped one around himself like a cloak. The other one was used as a hood to cover his white hair.
-"Well, see you later."
-"Uh..."
Ein simply walked out through the doors.
---
What an interesting turn of events. He was deep in enemy territory, with no weapon, and no one to help him. Ein walked through the streets, looking about. The houses were mostly made of stone, some partly composed of living, pulsing flesh. Many were held up by gigantic bones.
The skyline was dominated by an incredibly tall upside down pyramid, rather thin for its size. It appeared to have four unnaturally large bones supporting it from the ground. That must be Kronos' hideout...
Suddenly, Ein noticed a large banner on one of the houses, probably a government-related building:
"The Stalker program is now recruiting. The Sovereign is looking for talented marksmen, agile warriors, and adept mages. Apply to the Academy."
What better way to learn of the changes in Kandarin, all the while picking up a few tricks to kill Kronos with later on? The banner included a map on it, showing the Academy's location. Strange... the islands weren't shown, and the city itself looked different than any of the four districts of Kandarin. Did the Kandarinian plague spread out of its islands? All will be revealed, Ein thought, when he entered that Academy. He headed on the path that the map pointed out...
-
//I'll let Draven and Nex have their meeting before Anti shows up.
Anti was taking his time with his flight... Indeed, using two hi-ougis followed by Indignation... he was very sapped. Normally, you would have to build up power for a hi-ougi during combat. His power was slowly returning to him... But he wanted to be at least 80% power when he arrived at the Dark Continent.
--- --- ---
Tsu and Aura arrived at Romme. There didn't seem to be anyone to meet them there.
"...They're taking their time, aren't they?" asked Aura.
"They'll tell us why when they come out."
A hole opened up in the sky. Out jumped Zion Ultima and Xenai Omega. They too had retained their original appearance, except the gems on their swords had returned. The Eternity and Zero Weapons... They had been rebuilt.
"What took you so long?" asked Aura.
"After Tsu took off after you," said Zion, "which wasn't very long after you first left, we noticed an anomaly of sorts... It looked like a dimensional transfer so soon after another before it might be damaging the fabric that separates them."
"Yeh, so we decided to test out our new weapons for a bit. Get warmed up with 'em, y'know?"
"Alright, then..." said Tsu. "Now what do we do?"
"We need to find our friends. Probably Duilin is our best bet. I don't know why... but I can't sense Zeros' ridiculous aura. I do sense other trouble, though, in the Dark Continent. We'd best shy away from there until we know what's up."
"Yeah, if we do run into trouble, though," said Xenai, "we don't have our Breaks to use."
"You mean your hi-ougis?" asked Tsu.
"Yeh, those. We, uh... used them in a little sparring match."
"Wonderful. We should probably get going."
"Indeed," said Zion.
With that, the four flyboys (+ girl) took off.
//I'm implementing the limiters like before, though I'll need some time to figure out how to go about using them. I should figure it out before any of my protagonists get into any fights, though. As for the villains? You don't put limits on villains. Razz
-
"I don't like the sound of that..."
"What, the bestial roar echoing in the distance?"
"Uh-huh..."
Helix rubbed his nose. "Well, it might just have found whoever it is we're looking for."
"Indeed," Anslem agreed. "Even if not, we should exterminate any threats to order. By the sound of it, such a beast could cause mayhem if it made it up top."
"Ans... we always have to do extra work with you around..." Helix groaned.
The Velkens glided down the dismal damp underground passage, turning a corner and running straight into a dead end.
"Oh, great!" Helix threw his hands into the air. "Hey, guys! I have an idea! Let's build our sewers into a giant maze!"
Renard rolled his eyes as they turned around.
"... And, then we'll put giant rats in it!"
"Shut up, Helix..."
----
"You took the words right out of my mouth..."
Ven leapt backwards as the thing took a giant claw-swipe at him, baring its massive protruding incisors. The mutant rat stooped forward and lashed its tail, and Ven felt a red hot flash of pain across his left shoulder.
"Ah!"
He retaliated with a slash of his own, swiping the monster in its cheek, causing it to rear back in a scream. Ven caught a glimpse of the creature's tail that had nicked him. It was tipped with a long blade-like protrusion that dripped some sort of liquid... The silver knight brought his blade up to deflect another blow from the lashing tail, but in doing so left himself open to be pushed over by the rat-monster's front claw, sending him reeling on his back. Before he knew it, the thing had him pinned and leered over him...
----
Draven stealthily moved over the water and then over land, circling the mighty black fortress from a distance. Wyverns fluttered about in the dark skies. He didn't quite want himself to be discovered just yet....
He landed on small plateau that overlooked North Point from a distance. Below he could see the outline of a Lizard Man army practicing their drills or whatnot at the mouth of the fortress' peninsula. Perfect. They'd be first...
-
Duilin noticed the strange blade on the rodent of unusual size's tail. He'd have to watch out for that. Before he could make his move after Ven made his strike the beast had the knight pinned down.
"I don't think so!" Duilin flung his left hand forwards shooting a fireball at the mutant rat hitting it on its side. The beast then turned towards the half demon and flung its blade-like tail at him. Duilin blocked it by smacking it away with his mace. He then dashed towards the monster and swung his mace smashing it on the side of its head, causing it to squeal in pain...
--- ---
As Nex walked through the plains and the fortress of North Point was closer, Nex recognized something.
"Hmm, boys do you feel that?" Nex asked, the elites.
"We can feel many things. The taint of shadow magic is strong here." The elites both replied.
"I feel a presence, a presence I have not felt since..." Nex then stopped as he remembered. "Oh? Goodie, the he ole' flame-boy is still cooking! Come on boys, I want to say hello to an old friend of mine." He then started to dash forward his feet barely even touching the ground as his cloak flowed with his movement.
Due to his high skills in aura detection, he was able to locate Draven hiding on a small plateau. Just near a peninsula was a group of lizard men he seemed to be eyeballing. Likely he was going to attack them; he may as well join the fun. Nex raised his right hand as his scythe materialized in his hand. He then held the scythe backwards as he continued his dash. The elites then began to fly along side him; their gems on their gauntlets began to give off a dim orange glow...
-
The building was certainly massive. There was a glowing aura around almost all of it, save for the entrance. It was made mostly of brick, but many areas were dominated by flesh. The Academy enjoyed a classic Gothic architecture on the outside, but through the aura a more Roman style was observed.
Ein approached the entrance. He could already see several other hopefuls entering the Academy. From the looks of it, he'd have competition: there were people who appeared to be at least half the size of a mammoth. The other extremes also looked dangerous due to their potential speed.
The building inside was just as magnificent as outside. The walls were covered in writings in Kandarinian, probably from some training manual or their holy book. The recruits were urged to sit on a series of benches, all facing a central stage. When all the benches filled up, an older man came onto the stage.
-"Greetings to you all, Kandarinians. Welcome to the Academy. I am Kragos, the Headmaster. All of you are here for the Stalker program." He scanned the public with his eyes. "There are many of you, and almost as many won't make it. The place you are about to enter is final for at least several years. I'm sure you've noticed the time dilation aura around the building. To those outside, less than a day will have passed - while for you it may be up to five years, if you live that long. Should you decide to discontinue your training at the academy, you will be provided quarters until the next ready batch leaves. I'm sure I don't need to point out that our program leaves almost half of the recruits dead."
There was a murmur in the hall. Ein's bench suddenly didn't feel as comfortable.
-"Now, your future instructor: the Colonel."
Kragos left the stage, as another, rougher soldier-looking man came on.
-"ALL RIGHT YOU MAGGOTS! All softies, leave NOW! The rest of you pathetic scum, get through the doors on your left hand side! Don't make me repeat myself!"
The crowd rushed to the left, in almost the full entirety. Only a few people decide to leave. Ein continued through the passage, watching the time dilation aura reactivate...
-
"Let's finish this!" Ben threw his hand to his side and created an energy sword, then flung his body forwards and curved his wrist, trusting forwards at the beast. It was jabbed directly trough his forehead, searing the beast's head. Blood poured out of the giant rat like a continuous fountain.
-
//Oh come on, we just started the fight. You can't kill a boss monster that easily.\
Suddenly the blood stopped pouring from its forehead and the wound started to heal over. It didn't full regenerate, but it was still able to fight. The mutant rat then made its monstrous growling and snapped its jaws down at the aggressive angel...
--- ---
Hypnos then dashed towards the lizard general and slid across the ground as he swung his hatchet aiming at his shoulder. Gorus however, was pretty quick himself and shifted himself to the side avoiding the swing. The stalker however gave a quick kick right at Gorus' back as soon as he passed him, but Gorus just too big to be hurt much by it. The lizard man spun around and swung a punch at Hypnos yet the stalker swiftly leaned backwards avoiding the lizard's claw/fist. He then swung his hatchet at Gorus, yet he was able to knock away the blade from hitting him, by clawing at it. Gorus then swung a kick at Hypnos but he jumped backwards performing a flip, completely avoiding the attack. As the stalker landed on the ground he tossed his hatchet which flew like a boomerang towards the lizard general. Hypnos assumed that would kill him, yet the hatchet was again smacked out of the way by the lizard man.
"Hahah." Gorus laughed. "You humans are all the same, pathetic."
This was not good; he had already lost his kamas. So now he was unarmed, unless he could get his weapons back. He was sure his kamas weren't broken from when they were smashed against the building, since they were made out of reinforced obsidian. But he needed to act fast. Fortunately that was one of his specialties.
-
Ven rolled to the side and stood, brandishing his blade with both hands.
"Hragh!!"
With a violent thrust, he plunged the sword deeply into the rat-monster's side before it could descend upon Ben, and the thing sidestepped as it squealed. The silver knight jerked the blade out and backpedaled, watching the blood gush out of the wound and then... stop? The thing's forehead head stopped bleeding as well. It shook its head and the flesh flew right off, revealing a yellowed rodential skull with bright red glowing eyes within the its sockets...
"Oh, blast!"
The undead giant mutant rat charged and bashed Ven in the chest with its head, sending the knight souring backwards into the brickwork of the sewer walls with a loud clang.
----
Draven leapt off the cliff and landed in the rocky valley bordering the Lizard Men standing there in formation. Although it was dark, he was certain they could see him by now, and walked briskly towards them. There were at least twenty of the heavily armored reptiles, and they broke up at his intrusion, one of the larger ones beginning to walk towards him... Perfect... North Point was hidden behind a large protrusion of black rocks... This group wasn't in the line of sight of the fortress.
"Who are you?" The scaly warrior demanded. He was a good nine feet tall, his hulking black armor protruding in spikes at the shoulders. Draven kept his arms hidden under his cloak until the last instant...
The Lizard Man hissed as the man ignored him and continued his walk. He drew his long jagged blade and raised it to the clouded sky, ready to smash this puny human in one blow...
Perfect. Draven's cape unfurled and he drew his right fist back, the edges growing with a brilliant crimson sheen. With a quick dash he was just under the lizard's face, and he punched his target square in the exposed armored chest. The lizard's eyes bulged and he doubled over completely, his scaly feet leaving the ground. Draven's fist cracked and bent the black armor, and a bulge formed on the creature's back...
Draven looked his much larger victim square in the bloodshot eye and smirked deeply. He opened his fist inside the Lizard Man's chest and a blinding blast of flame burst from the creature's back, flying above the overhanging cliffs. The Lizard Man flew back some five feet and then toppled lifelessly to the rocky ground, a gaping hole in his chest...
Draven stood there for a moment with his outstretched palm smoking, a maniacal grin across his face. The other Lizard Men stood there wide-eyed for a moment, before angrily drawing their blades and rushing him. Draven spun on one heel and dashed through the air, the sandy ground parting in his wake as he dove right into the heart of the angry mob. With a brillaint flash, he was engulfed in flame, and a blazing sword of crimson burst from his right hand. All the lizard madly bore down upon him, but he smacked away their weapons with shear force, sending the much larger creatures teetering and limbs flying...
-
//good usage of the Stalker there, DM\
The Colonel lead the recruits into a wide chamber with several other instructors standing there. One was an extremely thin and pale man, whose bones could clearly be seen jutting out of his skin. He was wielding a bow. The other one was an old, ancient almost, woman, in ripped and damaged rags. The third was none other than Cain Ryleh himself, the Scribe of Unlife. There was also an immensely huge man in an executor's coif, with a long, metal-studded, painful-looking whip on his side. The thin instructor spoke.
-"Now you will be divided into groups. Those of you that wish to be trained in the way of the bow and arrow will come with me, instructor Aahzmandius. If magic is your forte, you are to come with Instructor Gamall." He pointed to the hag. "The Colonel will be your instructor if you want to train with melee weapons. This time, however, we have another addition to the training course. If you want to be an elite Necromancer - a Necrolyte - go with the Scribe of Unlife."
The group divided into four parts. Instructor Gamall appeared to have the most recruits with her, oddly. Ein went with Aahzmandius, the ranged weapons teacher. The group passed through a hall with tall arches, through which the blood-stained Arena outside was seen. It was covered in an eerie blue glow from the time dilation aura. On the other side of the hall were the occasional doors, some leading to sleeping quarters, others to training rooms. The group walked all the way around the arena, and entered a very large, closed room. It had all sorts of ranged weapons in it, as well as ammunition, training dummies and the such. Ein noticed another gigantic man with a whip and executor's garb.
-"Now then," Aahzmandius began. "We will determine what sort of a weapon you will be using. The main difference is the size, power and range. For this, you will be put through tests to determine which one you like best. You!" He pointed to Ein, whose stomach just sank. "You will be first. Take this."
Aahzmandius handed Ein a gauntlet-mounted crossbow. It was laughably small, but armed with menacing-looking short bolts. They were jet black, yet reflective - Ein saw his reflection in one. At least five of them were lined up in a chain-like fashion along the side of the gauntlet.
-"The trigger is located within the gauntlet. Now, you see those dummies to your right?" Aahzmandius pointed to several wooden bodies strung up from the ceiling. "Hit them, before they hit you."
As Ein opened his mouth to say "What did you just say?", he noticed from the corner of his eye that the dummies dropped down from their strings, and were now moving. One of them shot a spear at Ein from its hand. He barely rolled out of the way as the spear impaled the wall behind him. Not able to think straight, he pointed the gauntlet in the dummies' general direction and squeezed the trigger. The crossbow fired with unexpected force, recoiling his arm way up, as another spear came flying from the second dummy. That one directly hit his gauntlet, and nailed it to the back wall. Ein yelled in pain, as he was hanging off of the wall by his hand.
-"Well, looks like the agility based weapons won't do for you - the one shot you manage to fire ended up stuck in the roof. Enforcer, please take the pupil off the wall."
The executor-esque brute ripped the spear out of the wall. Ein fell down, his hand bleeding all over the place. He clutched it, with a grimace of sheer agony on his face.
-"In that case, let's see if you're better with a more... calm weapon. Here."
The instructor handed Ein a pill. He obediently swallowed it, and the pain from his hand was gone - though the wound was still there and bleeding vehemently. Aahzmandius picked the gauntlet crossbow up from the floor, and handed Ein a different weapon. This one was truly awe-inspiring - it appeared to be three crossbows combined into one, the actual bowheads forming a triangular shape at the end. All three crossbows were loaded. Ein also noticed a scope with a glyph scratched onto it on the weapon's side.
-"This is a heavier, more powerful weapon which requires careful aiming. This time you're far away, and the dummies still haven't spotted you. Once one of them is hit, however, you will have to deal with the other one quickly. The trigger is on the handle just in front of the shoulder mount."
Ein took the weapon. Indeed, it appeared to be shoulder-mounted - that's how large it was. He put it on his right shoulder, and found the scope to be resting comfortably against his eye. With his free hand, he twisted the lens to focus in on one of the dummies' head. Once he was sure that he could hit it, he pulled the trigger.
The weapon reacted unexpectedly. The bottom crossbow fired, and the bowheads automatically rotated and fired again, throwing Ein off aim. The dummy's head was impaled on the wall, cut clean from its base by the long projectiles the weapon fired. Regaining control quickly, Ein turned the weapon towards the other dummy and fired. Before it could react, its head was mounted on the wall right next to the other one.
-"Well done. Keep your current weapon, student."
-"Sir, my name is--"
-"Your name is not important. We will get to that later." Aahzmandius turned to a different student, a frail-looking girl. She was looking at Ein with sympathy. "Now that you've seen how the weapons perform, you are free to choose the one you wish to try first. You! Come up here."
The girl took the gauntlet weapon. She put it on her left hand, and fastened the belts around the weapon to match her thin wrist.
-"Begin."
The dummies came back to life, both firing simultaneously. The girl dove down to the ground, and before the dummies reloaded, fired the gauntlet with a steady hand. The weapon appeared to be extremely quick, and fired in bursts of three. Both dummies fell down with six bolts sticking out of each.
-"Well done. Next!"
A rather fat man with a moustache was up next. Instead of picking either of the two weapons already tried, he picked up a generic speargun.
-"Just a speargun? Hardly worthy for a Stalker, but if you know how to use it, then go ahead. Begin."
The recruit shot the weapon at one of the dummies, cleaving its right appendage off. It fell down harmlessly. The other one, however, managed to shoot a spear at the man's foot. Pinned to the ground, he wailed in pain. The dummy took the opportunity, and fired a spear directly into his mouth. The concussion shot beheaded the recruit. The rest of the students gasped.
-"Silence! These things are to be expected. You knew what you were going up against. Next."
--- --- ---
The first lizard man arose almost instantly. His eyes were glowing a deep purple, indicating Kronos' direct control of the creature.
-"Nice start, Draven. Keep it up. However, I'd rather resurrect a mass of opponents, instead of getting one by one. Kill at least four hundred, and you'll have reinforcements."
The glow faded as the lizard fell back down...
-
"What the...?" Ben pulled his sword out of the undead rat's forehead and pulled the nergy back into his hands. he then prepared a large, white fireball and threw it at the beast's head again.
"It doesn't look like normal weapons will have any effect!" Ben said back after launching the fireball.
"Right! These aren't normal weapons, you know." Jacobie rushed forwards and slashed his two katanas at the great beast's side, where Ven had just slashed at.
"Nor is mine!" Justin took out his demon fang and lunged forwards with a fierce trust. The combined effects of all the enchanted weapons burned off the side of the rat's flesh. It's bones were visible, but the creature was still fighting. It squealled after having a side of his body singed off.
"Uh oh... duck!" Justin slid under the giant tail that was slashing towards himself and Jacobie. However, Jacobie was unable to evade, and he was sent flying backwards, crashing into the wall with a loud "clank." He fell to the floor and held his wrist, which was slashed with a deep cut, straight through the black bracer.
------------
"So, do you think they've got to the king yet?" Tiberius asked Dori, "I mean, the sewers have rats and all that, but-"
"How do you know if the sewer even has rats? What if there are none to be seen? What if they just have to tred through the murky sewage?"
"Trust me, nothing's that simple. Besides, all sewers have rats! I just hope they don't have to face any mutated rats... those guys are the biggest rats I've ever seen."
"Yeah, well thy're warriors. I'm sure they can handle themselves."
"If we can't even go in the sewers, then why are we standing near them? This smell will never get out of my robes..."
"Good point. Let's get away from this pipe. How about those bushes back there?"
"How about 'I don't care'? Let's just get the hell away from here."
"Yeah, let's" Valiko added.
------------
-
"I'm sure normal weapons will have an effect on it." Duilin said as he ran towards the giant rat and smashed his mace onto it's side. "You'll just..." He gave another swing. "...have to use them a lot."
Duilin then gave another swing but this time his mace was empowered with his fire magic and he smashed with great force, smashing out a bone from his ribcage, and the beast started to catch flame. Likely the flame wouldn't be of too much help, but it looked kind of cool.
--- ---
//I assume Draven just killed and or highly wounded all the lizard men, it wasn't 100% clear.\
Nex and the elites arrived as the fire mage stood surrounded by the wounded/killed lizard men.
"Well...it's nice to see you've still got your spirit after all these years." Nex said with enthusiasm to Draven. "I'd say I'm surprised to see you still kicking but I suppose you could say the same for me..."
-
//I'll try to get the Ein thing over with as soon as I can. He's in "time dilation", so I guess it wouldn't affect anyone if time's going much faster there. I'll have several months pass in the next few posts, if not a year or more (but only for Ein)\
The next few months were focused mostly on perfecting aim and reaction time, as well as strength, agility and stealth ability. During this time and the rest of the tryouts, Ein's group was reduced several people. Whenever someone misbehaved or did something out of order, the enforcers, as they were called, punished the rule breaker with a swing of their whip. One swing was enough to rip off a sizable chunk of skin from a body, if the person was lucky. If not... one of the recruits hand their arm twisted off. The possibility of attaching a mechanic arm was there, but the instructor decided not to waste a perfectly good arm on what he described to be "a complete failure like that."
Another major death contributor was the reaction time development exercise. It took place in the arena. On one side, there was a cannon - on the other was the student. The cannon fired large cannonballs repeatedly, and the person in question had to dodge them. This process "weeded out" twenty people, and Ein witnessed several of them smashed into bits, decorating the rear archways of the arena. He, however, didn't have to perform the exercise, as his weapon did not require agility. He was timed on his firereload rate, and an unsuccessful time would've resulted in a whipping. Thankfully for himself, he was busy learning the weapon and practicing with it in the time allotted to him, allowing him to pass.
One day, at the meal hall, Aahzmandius interrupted during breakfast - something that never happened before.
-"Students, I believe it is in your best interest that I tell you this - tomorrow is your final test before being open to the full Stalker program. Prepare yourself as much as you possibly can. I promise you, the challenge will be tough; but if you succeed, you will be a quarter of the way of becoming a true Stalker."
The mysteriousness of the statement did not prepare Ein for the next day as he would've liked it to. The students were taken to a portal glyph along with the other two groups - the first time Ein ever saw them after the first day at the academy. Their numbers appeared to have dwindled, as well. Many of the melee stalkers had numerous scars covering them, and the mages were burnt in many places. The Necrolytes were the only ones who weren't present.
The glyph portal led to an island. Once everyone passed through, Kragos greeted everyone.
-"Today is a big day for some of you, and last day for many of you. I will not speak much, so listen while you have the chance. Your objective is to kill another stalker -" There was a unison gasp from the crowd, including Ein. "-who isn't from your group. That is, mages cannot kill mages, rangers cannot kill rangers, and so on. Once you kill a recruit, collect their head. Those who attempt to strike a head-bearing student will be turned into an undead minion."
The headmaster paused, adjusting some small device on his wrist. He then looked up.
-"You have 30 minutes of immunity. After that, the hunt is on. Good luck."
---
Ein managed to find himself a high spot up in a tree on a hill. The branch he set up on was large enough to support three of him - and the tree canopy hid him well from the hostile eye. Now all he needed was to find a target...
He scanned the visible area with his scope. After a few touchups, the glyph on the scope allowed him to see through thin solids, such as leaves. The coast seemed clear... for now, at least. He moved further to the left...
...Bingo.
There stood a glyph user, next to a wooden house. He looked as if he was about to enter it. Ein aimed carefully, zooming right into the man's head, and pulled the trigger.
The spear hit bare wood. The illusion of the man vanished, leaving a dimming glyph on the wall. Damn, Ein thought. They really do teach something here in Kandarin about glyphs... Very well. Next target.
It was a good while before Ein found another Stalker. He was already on way too high of a zoom, so he adjusted the scope to focus better by zooming out a little. That's when he noticed that the Stalker was already carrying someone's head.
What the hell. Maybe just kill this one? No... Being turned into an undead minion didn't appeal all that much to Ein. He was sure that the Kandarinian instructors were watching. Very well...
The Stalkers were definitely running out now. Only after 30 minutes of watching did Ein notice another, melee-based Stalker. He decided not to take any chances, aimed right for the heart and fired.
Unfortunately, the melee Stalkers were way too well-trained. The trooper was able to hear the spear coming, so he turned... Bad idea on itself, it was, as the spear was lodged deeply in his right shoulder. Clutching the wound, he fell down on his knees. Ein smiled, and pulled the trigger again.
Click.
That's all that came. Just then, Ein noticed that all three of his spears were already fired - he needed to reload. Damn! However, just as he was about to turn away from the scope, he noticed the Stalker spin his head wildly somewhere above, to his left. His neck was subsequently impaled by a barrage of six small black bolts, and the frail girl he saw a while earlier hopped out of a tree. With a smile, she cut off her victim's head. Ein decided not to watch, but as took out the spears to reload his weapon, he could've sworn he saw the girl turn in his direction and wink...
Well, third time's a charm, right? With his weapon fully loaded, he scanned the area once more. Surprisingly, he noticed another target very soon - the same glyph user that he failed to kill earlier. The mage appeared to be drawing another sigil on a large stone. Now he'd definitely not take any chances, Ein thought. He aimed right for the eye, as he saw the figure look up...
-"I have you now."
A strong blast of flame from beneath Ein knocked him off his branch. He fell down painfully on the ground, right on a large binding glyph, making him unable to move. Above him stood the mage Stalker he was just aiming at, in flesh and blood...
-"You really thought that I would let your kill attempt just pass me by? I was watching that illusion, you know. I saw the spear strike the wall. It was pure luck that when I came out to investigate, you tried to aim at something else, and it was pure skill that I calculated from the spear's angle where you were. A carefully cast spell tricked you nicely into triggering a portal glyph, teleporting me right below you... I took the time to etch that glyph, you know. My first kill... oh, I'm going to get your head off of you while you're still alive."
Somehow, the mage didn't do a very good job on his glyph, for all the training he was offered, and for all the time he had to make it nice and proper. Ein could still wiggle his fingers. Using that, he began to trace a sigil of his own in the sand, while the other Stalker took out a knife.
-"...hmm, yes... How would I go about making your death nice and slow? I know... I'll cut from the sides, first. Then from behind. Only then will I cut the throat."
The mage approached Ein, the knife poised at his neck. Almost there...
-"I'm going to enjoy this..."
Ein could feel the steel on his throat. Out of time, damnit... he put the finishing dot onto the sigil.
A swirling green portal opened below the mage. His hand slipped, and the knife struck Ein's eye, plucking it out. Ein squealed in pain as the vortex sucked the mage in. It closed midway down the mage's neck, severing his head off.
-
Somewhere on the beach of Tjed, and white figure was lying.
He couldn't hear anything.
He couldn't see anything.
He couldn't smell anything.
His mind flew off to an other dimension.
"Master..."
"Master...."
Shuichi couldn't see... Only feel.
"Yes my friend?"
"It hurts.. so much.. even more than ever.."
"I know my friend"
"Please master.. do something.."
"If I could I would my friend."
"You know she's following us, right? She will find you soon."
"She'll find US soon."
"Sorry my master.."
"Don't worry my friend."
"Please master, don't call me your friend."
"Then you stop calling me your master."
"I will stop my lord."
"Thank you my Companion."
"..."
Shui heard a sight that echoed a few times.
"If she will find us what will you do?"
"Fight her."
"Will you succeed? Will you survive?"
"I won't if I won't try."
"I will help you."
"You don't need to."
"That wasn't a proposition."
Silence..
And then a strong pain is felt over his whole body..
"Master you should leave, you are already at full powers.. this chat is unneccesary"
"Agh... I... You.. feel this pain all the ti-
But the meditation ends, as if someone forced it to end..
Shui wakes and stands up.
"I probrably am okay right now.. but what about our friend?"
Shui turned toward the cat that was next to him all the time.
"If you could only talk..."
The wind blowed once again.
-
The flames consumed the undead creature quickly and it writhed in pain, chunks of flesh and bone simply falling off. Ven stood but was extremely dizzy, the burning creature appearing as an orange blur before him... Blast it, what was wrong?
Ven gritted his teeth and dizzily charged, his blade gaining a brilliant white luminescence. Bringing it above his head he slashed down, sending a bright white arc of energy souring across the room. The crescent of light cleaved the beast's torso and it roared, nearly causing the knight to lose his balance. The flames died and the undead rat monster tumbled to the floor as a charred mess. The crimson eyes flickered for a moment, then died.
Ven tried to stand up straight, but he couldn't. The world spun around him. Teetering around, he touched the bleeding wound on his left arm where the monster's bladed tail had slashed him.
"Erg... pos...ion...?"
He collapsed on the floor, his sword clattering next to him.
----
Draven spun a full circle, deflecting the blows of five angry lizards. He clenched his fist and the crimson blade disappeared within it, his entire glove glowing red as a result. He slammed his fist into the ground and a tremendous explosion lit the sky, the flames blasting the charred corpses of lizards in all directions.
He stood there, on fire, as the demon approached.
"Well, well, what do we have here? I'd recognize that voice anywhere... Still slaving for Retan? Oh, that's right, you and your pals got your own club. Clawscratch or something. Whatever."
He folded his arms.
"So tell me, Nex, are you the same thing that screwed up Valos' mind? You have no idea how hard it is to find a good man, and then you worthless demons step in and screw everything up. Or are you something else now? Wait, you know what? I don't care..."
He held out a palm, and a brilliant crimson orb swelled before it, growing by the second. He smirked.
"I think I feel like melting your face either way..."
-
"Ven!" Duilin ran towards the knight as he fell to the ground, and picked him up. "Ven? Are you alright?" He then looked at the others. "Guys, I think he's poisoned. Do any of you conveniently have a high strength antidote on you?"
--- ---
"Oh yes, that's right, Valos had to die, pity that." Nex laughed and then spoke in a mock-pity tone. "It was nothing personal, I know how hard it can be to loose such a good soldier." Nex then twirled his scythe. "But hey, keep your chin up, I want to make a clean cut around your neck."
The demon laughed manically as he dashed towards the fire mage spinning his mace as he advanced forward. He then slashed his scythe aiming across Draven's neck...
-
//I think I'll have Anti step in now. :]
Anti was now within eyeshot of the Dark Continent, having recovered enough so that he was up to 90%. He would be there in a few seconds. He went ahead and started to charge an attack in his left hand... Chidori. Even though he planned to destroy Draven all the same when the alliance had worn out its usefulness, he was still an ally at the moment. He was gonna have his back. Whoever that was... They would now have to deal not only with Draven, but the Zerobi no Anti as well.
--- --- ---
Zion was trying to find someone... anyone he knew. Well, in the direction of the Dark Continent, he could feel Draven. Yeah, that wasn't gonna work, especially since he could feel Anti going in that direction, and fast. He continued to scan the planet, and eventually found Duilin's distinct half-demon energy. "We're going this way." He pointed in his direction, and turned off that way. The other three followed.
-
"I'm afraid I have nothing..." Justin began, "What about you, Jacobie?"
"Hey, don't look at me! I fix wounds, not infections..."
"Ugh, stand aside! I'll take care of this." Ben ran over to Duilin and Ven. He held out his hand to where Ven was wounded, and there seemed to be a light blue glow around his hands. He moved it back and fourth over the wound, and the light soon faded.
"This technique is one I don't... quite favor... but it is useful for poisons and extreme cases of damage to one's ally. It takes part of the caster's life energy and gives it to the other to heal a wound, or in this case, cure a poison... the most it could do to me is exhaust me to the point where I would fall down and could not move, but luckily, I happen to have a potion for THAT." He pulled out a silver veil with orange water inside and drank it all down. His feeling had been restored.
"Ven, are you feeling better?"
------------
"Man, it's really taking them a while... I'm seriously beginning to wonder if they've gotten hurt somewhere in that passage..."
"Oh, quit your whining, Jason. They'll be back soon."
"Jason? The last time anyone called me 'Jason' was two years ago at the monistary. Just call me Tiberius."
"Why do you prefer to be called by your last name, 'Tiberius'?"
"Why do you prefer to be called by your first, 'Doriana'?"
"Forget it... Just quit whining, I'm trying to concentrate..."
"Tippical of you to try and 'concentrate'... and what would you be concentrating on?"
"What do you think? I'm looking for any kind of flaws in their magically-powered airships..."
"What kind of flaws, a leak in their magical flow or some sort?"
"Something that could not be breached by physical means... something hidden from us... and possibly, the passengers are blind to it as well."
"Great. More cryptic phrases. Care to explain?"
"No, but it does not matter now. I do not care to grant your request. Sleep..." Dori threw her hand forwards towards Tiberius and he fell to the ground, unconcious.
"You know, you didn't really need to do that... Unless your concentration is THAT important..."
"Oh, but on the contrary, I did. I need to focus, and shutting out an idiot was required."
"Oh Really? It would be nice of you to use his name once and a while."
"He is an imbicile and a fool. I don't even know why he is here..."
"He's here because he chose to be, as did I."
"Is that what you think, Draken? Did any of us really intend to follow him, even if it costs our very lives? Think about that while YOU rest..." Again, Dori flung her hand towards Valiko, and he fell on the ground, unconcious, next to Tiberius.
"I hope that's the last of the fools..."
"As do I." Dranniconias didn't look as normal as he once had. His youth was beginning to leave him, and he was changing back into Valimore.
"Ah yes, Valimore... Had a nice rest while your... friend... was out and about, did you?"
"You could say something like that, yes. Had any luck finding the temple?"
"Are you kidding? We haven't even gone near where it's said to be."
"That's quite a shame. And what of those up there, those airships. Have any luck finding the draw-back to those machines?"
"Not a one, but we shall see... I was also wondering if I could get some information on the one we travel with, on Constantine."
"Oh, do you now? Very well, I will tell you what I can."
"Why is it that where ever he walks, people around him are inspired to follow? It's strange, his connection is to magic, to the holy element."
"Well, that's quite a good question you pose. Quite unique, his influence is. Either it's a tool he uses... or a weapon he most powerfully weilds."
"Just tell me this... Why did you cast him out of the order, have him exiled, and then send him to me?"
"Heh... It's a long tale. I wouldn't want to bore you with the details..."
"Go ahead. We've got time, and who knows, it might even be interresting."
"Very well... I shall start from the beginning."
"Please do."
"There were certain complications with in the order, of which I had assembled. And they weren't quite pleased with my direct presence... certain members with ambition... and lust for power. You do know that there are techniques within magic... against where there is no defense..."
"Quite. Continue."
"People I trusted... people I relied on for assistance... betrayed me. They all attacked me, without warning, and for a time, I was exiled from my own order. I was cast out, stripped of my power... exiled..."
"YOU were exiled? Interesting... I had not known. You mentioned stripped of your power? How so?"
"The betrayers held magic techniques in their power that destroyed magic itself. My dark powers were... severed, in a way. However, they all had that same ambition, that same lust for power... they all fought for the ruling position of the order in my absence. I returned to them with my power restored from my father, but found that they had all killed themselves, and those that survived died of their injuries. Curious... or convenient, perhapse..."
"Convenient without a doubt. What did you do after you regained posession of the order?"
"I began to exile those that became too powerful... those whom I saw as a threat to my power, and to my possition of office."
"Was there anyone whom you kept that somewhat matched your strength?"
"Of course I did. I am not such an idiot to leave my army in shambels by removing those too powerful for it. I made sure all of my remaining minnions were a reflection... of myself. Cruel, corrupt, and obeying. I did have four others that resembled my power greatly... after I united the tribes of the north, of course."
"The tribes of the north? How did you manage to do that?"
"It is another tale for another time, I'm afraid. Besides, you should still have some work to do in finding that breach in defense."
"I'll be looking forward to our next session, then."
"As will I be."
------------
-
A cold wind began to blow in the land of Tjed.
The feeling of something ominous approaching was quite clear, and several people around the harbor began to scan the area with an expression of worry.
To their dismay, a blast of black lightning shot up from thin air, scaring several into running and paralyzing others into staring into what appeared to be a black hole.
The hole soon dissipated, revealing a furry woman held within the hand of a towering black being.
"Well, I never expected the orb to react to your power, of all things..."
Indher didn't seem too worried about the red-pupiled deity holding her within the very palm of his hand.
...I have consumed it's crafter's soul. It would be strange for it not to react to it's creator's being...
The black being did not move it's mouth, nor the voice seemed to be coming out of him.
Rather, it felt like an echo from far away...
Indher easily lifted herself from the long, thin arm and skillfully performed a backflip as she jumped down to the ground.
"Anyway, since you need to sleep and you can't leave this world, how about you sleep inside a human?"
Indher smirked.
"You get plenty of time to sleep without any chance of being disturbed that way!"
The black being did not respond. It continued to slowly lower the arm which held her earlier as he stares at the woman with a blank expression.
Indher took the liberty to look around.
The harbor was pretty much empty by now, as most people have regained their senses and left in a hurry.
Not too far away, however, a small figure was seen sitting on the beach.
"How about..." Indher proceeded to accusingly point at the not-so-distant figure "HIM!?"
-
Shuichi looked up. He felt a presence. Two of them.
"How could they come here?"
He turned toward them, and saw a weird creature holding an weirder creature.
"I can't rate them of their looks, maybe they are just weak people.. or powerful enemies."
He looked at his cat and mumbled something to him in an other language, the cat jumped on Shui's shoulder, and sat on it.
"Be prepared." Shui warned his cat and walked toward the weirdos.
We walked calmly toward the pair, while the wind was blowing in his clothes making him look like a anime cliche.
"Hi there!"
He turned a bit forward, smiling akwardly kind.
-
As the spell was cast upon him, Ven's breathing stabilized and he seemed to sweat less, though his eyes remained tightly shut. The spell had stabilized his condition and had stopped the spread of the poison throughout his body, although it seemed something more was required to cure him...
----
Draven didn't budge until the demon was at point-blank range. By then the burning orb was some three feet in diameter.
"Worthless peon."
The explosion was massive. He detonated the orb as he held it, and a brilliant pillar of fire blasted outwards from his palm, tearing through the ground and throwing boulders into the air...
-
"Okay, he's looking better…but...It looks like he stills needs more help. I'm not a healer so I don't know what to do." Duilin looked at Justin and Jacobie. "Guys, you think you could take him back up to the surface? Me and Ben need to leave Tjed. Just find a big slouchy lizard man guarding a house, his name is Lagart and he'd likely recognize Ven if you just walk near him."
Duilin thought for a moment.
"I have a friend who is this little red skinned dude, a not-so-evil imp. Maybe he might be able to help, the guy reads a lot of books so maybe he might have read something about curing poisonous infections."
--- ---
Nex was pushed back a few yards by the massive flame but then he stepped forward his cloak covered in fire and he stepped forward and began speaking in a deep raspy voice.
"It is now your time Lars Draven. You have plagued the world far to long and therefore you must be damned." Once more Nex started to spin around his scythe. "Now you will be damned."
With his free hand he ripped off the burning robes and threw them away. "Ahaha! I've always wanted to do that." The demon laughed. He then continued stepping towards him.
"You know I think I've figured out you hate demons so much. You've spent your whole life practicing your fire magic, seeing it as the one thing that can kill anything. Then an entire race comes along that has a near immunity to it, so you start tempering tantruming like a little boy."
The cloaked demon points his hand at the 'flameboy' and begins to gather red lightning energy in it. //Not shooting it yet.\
"Must be such a bummer to be you." Nex says mockingly.
-
The purple blacklight demon pierces through the smoke. He arrived just in time. "Chidori!!!" The lightning covered hand is thrusted out toward Nex's head...
--- --- ---
La la la, stalling for time... la, la, la, stalling for time! //It's a one-liner, but it's an Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog reference. :]
-
"What is this?" Nex asked, as he narrowly dodged the oncoming fist by leaning backwards, his scythe disappeared as he let it go and his hands hit the ground as he did a couple of flips, his hand still glowing red. He then landed on his feet.
"Not even man enough to fight me alone?" Nex sneered. "I'm disappointment in you flameboy." He continued charging his red lightning energy in his hand as he looked at strange creature. "I have no idea how I can give any offensive comments about your appearance so I think I'll just have my elites kill you."
The two Talonscar Elites jumped in front of the glowing dark energy being.
"DIE!" They both shouted as they shot forth a barrage of energy blasts at the being.
"Don't you think I've forgotten about you." Nex said bluntly to Draven.
-
Indher smirked.
"YOU!" She wagged her finger at the man greeting her "Yes, you there! How would you like craploads of power to be stored within you?"
The large black being seemed as if it had just rolled it's eyes without actualy doing so.
It was quite obvious that Indher sounds silly...
-
Shui raised one eyebrow.
"Craploads of power? Tell me first who wouldn't?"
Shui laughed silently, the cat however made himself bigger, as cats tend to do when they are scared.
His eyes were printed in the Black.. thing.
"Tell me first how you came here and who you are. I was sure I made Cabrial Barrier around this part of the beach, no-one should see, feel or find this place." Shui asked with a tone of interest.
-
Indher cocked an eyebrow.
"Tell you first... What?" She sounded confused "Will you make up your mind what you want me to tell you first? Oh, forget it, I'll just ignore the first question..."
Rubbing her forehead, Indher made two steps forward.
"I'm Indher, and this is the extremely awesome deity of absolute and utter death from beyond this world, etcetra etcetra..."
...My name is Xnhrthnhz, mortal...
"Oh yeah, he can't talk so he just projects the meaning of things using his unlimited reserves of infinite power..."
...Stop that, woman...
"Alright, alright..." Indher shook her head angrily "Anyway, mister whoeveryouare! We teleported here randomly by using the power of my RANDOM DISPLACEMENT DEVICE! It ignores all sorts of barries. This also means it can teleport me to a pond of leeches. Which it once did. But that's not the point. The point is, will you lend your body to lord Xnh..."
Indher seemed to be getting tongue-tied.
"Xeth... Xuhthusz... Xothros... The black guy!"
...That sounded very racist...
Indher turned to the deity.
"Oh, you know I meant no offence!"
The black one nodded, and Indher turned back to face the (probably confused) man-
"So, will you do it?"
-
"The first question didn't need a anwser.."
Shui rolled his eyes.
"You want me to offer my body, to an creature that looks like demon, but what will I get back for it? I have no need of powers, I have enough myself to cover my needs."
Shui waited a while, like he was thinking about something and continued.
"However, you seem like a.. magic person? I mean all that fur on you makes you looks magical you know. Anyway, if you can do something for me in return, I can offer you a body.. Not mine ofcourse. It's a body of a normal human with the name Reigratto. He's normal except for the fact that he has a nasty virus in him, but if it would be removed he would be normal again. That's where you come in the game, if you will be able to remove the virus from him, I will allow you to make him the host for your black friend.
Ofcourse he won't become your slave, and he'll continue to serve me, but if you want you may keep him at your side, I see no problems with that. And I would follow him then."
Each time Shui said something he was moving with his hands, as if he was expressing it also with them.
-
"How ever, Doriana. I'm confused. Why were we having this conversation. You don't seem to see eye-to-eye with myself at most times. Have you got a sudden gain of interrest? Perhapse it is YOU who hungers for more power, more strength, yes?"
"One could say that, yes. But not now, I'm trying to focus..."
"Oh, really? Because I've already found the breach. Are you sure you're focussing on the airships above?"
"..."
"Or is it something else? Is it someone else?"
"..."
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. Did I strike a nerve?"
"Hold your tongue, Valimore, or loose it."
"What? I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that?"
"Shut up..."
"And do YOU intend to do so if I don't?"
"I'm warning you, Valimore, shut your mouth..."
"Such anger... what a problem with you, Doriana. You may want to see somebody to get that fixed."
"Valimore, shut up!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that. There's something that still drives me to ask you a few questions of my own."
"What? If you'll stop bothering me, then do it."
"Very well. What is it about Constantine that would drive you to ask questions about him, and at me, of all people?"
"..."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"..."
"Strike another nerve, did I? There are ways to overcome this, you know. Techniques that can be used to shut out all life around you, mostly to just ignore those that anger you."
"And what about it!? You're saying you'd teach me? Bah! Don't make me laugh!"
"Yes, I can teach you."
"... what... did you say...?"
"I said I can teach you all you need to know."
"Why?"
"Why, you ask? Because I am in need of more minnions like yourself. You know, when you didn't quite like me before, you do recall that you killed almost all of them?"
"Heh... those were the days..."
"Yes, but I'm talking about now. Join me, follow your true path! It is your greater calling!"
"... I... don't want... to leave Constantine behind..."
"It's either your friends, or yourself. Pick one."
"......"
"Still, more silence? Perhapse I should pick for you, hmm?"
"I'll go..."
"Good. Follow me." Valimore and Dori walked away from Tjedon and to the caves, headed for the northern region..."
// will reactivate next chapter.
-
//Three day rule.\
The blade of poison struck Coriko and he fell to the ground unconscious. It seems that the poison strength was messed up and was only able to knock him out.
"Hah. Too slow." Vandrin laughed.
Suddenly he heard a bunch of clicks behind him and he turned around and saw three rebels pointing their guns at him.
"Blast!" Vandrin exclaimed. He knew those machine guns shot very fast moving projectiles, and Vandrin's armour wasn't strong enough to deflect the bullets. "Very well. I surrender."
Just then a blast of green flame was shot down at the three rebels incinerated them. Roland on his brown wyvern then landed on the ground where the burnt corpses were.
"Excellent work Vandrin." Roland said. "I underestimated you. You were able to defeat all of them."
"They're just unconscious." Vandrin stated.
"Just as well. But it isn't very sportsman like, to kill somebody who can't fight back." Roland jumped off his wyvern. "Perhaps well just take Marshall and this Wilham character. Leave the other two." He went over to pick up Wilham but as he stepped over him, the white robbed summoner swung his legs tripping the undead general to the ground.
Wilham then recovered himself to his feet. "You thought it would be that easy did you?"
"Bah! Die cretein!" Vandrin shouted as he slashed his katana down at him. Wilham blocked the blade with his left golden gauntlet and then punched the count square in the stomach with his right, knocking the wind out of him. Marshall and Firstman then slowly got back up.
"What happened?" Marshall asked.
"It seems there was some fighting, Coriko got knocked out." Wilham explained. "We should probably leave now. The final tablet waits."
Suddenly Roland stood up with his sword out and sneaked behind Wilham and brought back his sword before he stabbed it downwards.
"WILHAM!" Marshall shouted he then fired his magi-pistol hitting Roland in the face with a small fireball before he could stab him.
Wilham turned around and saw Roland's motionless body on the ground.
"Nice shot." Firstman complemented.
"Is he dead?" Wilham asked.
"For now, but he should regenerate soon enough. He can't be killed trust me. We should probably pick up Coriko and leave as quickly as possible." Marshall replied.
"What about Vandrin?" Firstman asked, as he looked at the wounded old man.
"Leave him. He's the lizard men's problem now. Likely that big transforming one will eat him." Marshall answered. "Now let us get out of here."
-
Anti gave a huge, incredibly evil laugh. "Like you can talk! Summoning these peons to try to deal with me?" He phased out, appearing once in a while as he dodged between all the energy blasts, approaching closer to the elites. He appeared behind them, and attempted to smack their skulls together.
--- --- ---
*sniff.* "EW! Can't he find somewhere more sanitary to hang out?!" Xenai was complaing about the sewer entrance they landed near.
"Ven's here too, guys," said Zion.
"What, can you feel him?"
"Yeah, I think... My smell sense is overriding the others a bit."
"Hey, let's not go in." :]
"Hey, let's get over it and go find our friends." >:|
The four then made their way in...
-
(AoStH wins.)
Draven raised an eyebrow.
"Forgive me. I didn't remember you being so... lame."
He ran a hand through his hair.
"Seriously, 'plagued the world'? What are you, some kinda two-bit hero boy now? And come off it, I've killed hundreds of your class, slave."
He cracked his knuckles, and his aura exploded, large chunks of rock blasting into the air.
"Just because you take a little longer to kill doesn't make you special." He grinned. "A bit more fun, though..."
He clenched his fists and brought his arms to his side. His blazing aura of flame grew smaller, but also brighter as the blaze condensed. The fire seemed to absorb into his body, and his muscles began to expand and bulge as the flame drew into them. The ground cracked and splintered under his feet, and after a moment he was a hulking mass, his armor stretching at the seams.
"I'm disappointment in you too, kiddo. Now stand still while I take off your zig."
With that he blasted forward, the ground cleaving in two in his wake and spouts of magma oozing though the crack. In an instant he was upon the demon and he drew his bulky arm back and aimed a thunderous punch straight at the demon's metal face, a sonic boom ripping the air as his fist split space...
-
"I think I hear them now... I can see them, too. In that clearing, over there! Next to that uh... big rat, I think." Ko'ji remained with the group and awaited further orders, keeping off of the ground as to not get touched by any part of the area she was in.
-
//It's one thing to make fun my bad grammar in comments but actually having characters acknowledge it just hurts man. Razz
Oh and Drannic you going to update your other characters?\
The two elites then faded away avoiding Anti's hands and reappeared, one at each side. They both swung their fists right at his head.
"Well what do you expect?" Nex retorted to Anti. "You expect me to fight both of you by myself when I have two minions willing to fight?" Nex shook his head, and then tilted his head as Draven made his comments.
"God I forgot how much I hated you." Nex sneered to the fire mage.
He simply shifted to the side, leaving a blur as he moved, avoiding his fist.
"Well excuse me if some of my taste in humour seems so lame to you."
Nex then lifted himself in the air and floated a few away, still gathering the lightning energy.
"And just so you know, that was supposed to be my Dark God of Hell impression. I thought the flames on me would make it obvious. No matter."
Nex lifted his hand the red lightning in his hand began to shoot around in a circle at an increasing rate.
"You know what? Just die!" Nex then pointed his lightning filled hand in the air and a right stream of energy shot into the dark cloudy sky and then hundreds of lightning bolts began raining down upon Draven's location.
-
"Here, I'll carry him." Jacobie picked Ven up with ease and held him with one arm over his shoulder. "Problem is, I don't really know how to get to the surface..."
"Here's the solution. Look up." Above was a metal grate and a metal ladder connected to the brick walls that lined the sewers. Jacobie started to climb up the ladder and threw the grate open, jumping out, followed by Justin. Luckily for them, no lizardmen seemed to be in the area.
"Where do you think that house is?"
"Is it that one over there, maybe?"
"No, that doesn't look like Lagart."
"Are you kidding? You all look alike to me!"
"Funny. Now shut it."
"Oh, sorry..."
"Over... There! I think that's him." Indeed, Lagart was standing outside a house, in Dark Empire armor. Justin and Jacobie walked over to the house.
"Hey Lagart, is a little red Imp there?"
------------
"Well that was strange... Anyways, we should probably find a way out of here. I think it's this way, though I'm not sure... What do you think, Duilin?"
------------
-
"Yeah I guess." Duilin said. "I assume it would be the way out of here, since it looks like Ven and the others came from that way." Duilin continued his way. He seemed to look pretty worried as he continued his way. He didn't like just leaving Ven like that, he was sure those guys were trustworthy, but Ven seemed so glad to see him. But Rink was up there, as he thought more about that he started to worry less.
---
Lagart recognized the lizard man who approached him "Jacobie?" He saw that he was carrying Ven. "Yeah, Rink is inside. Come in. Ven okay?"
He opened the door and Rink saw the wounded Ven being carried inside. "Ven!" He fluttered over. "Is he okay?"
Belle and the housekeeper woman stepped towards to greet the newcomers and see the wounded knight.
"My, my. The poor soul looks flushed. Get him to the bed, he needs rest." The woman said.
-
"Ven seems to be overexhausted by some kind of poison. Rink, do you know a cure... oh, right." Jacobie walked further into the house with the woman and placed Ven on a bed.
"Right, like Jacobie said, Ven was hit with a poisonous slash. The wound itself was stabilized, and the poison dulled slightly, but if Ven really intends to recover fully, he'll need much more help. Do you know anything about curing poisons, or anything about making an antidote?"
"I'm gonna go outside with Lagart and stand guard for a while. If you guys need something, let me know." Jacobie walked outside and pulled out one katana, letting it drop to the ground, holding it by his side.
-
Indher tilted her head.
"Huh? Virus? I'm a runemaster, not a healer, but..."
...I will be sleeping. A sleeper needs no servants...
"...Right. Anyway, show me this person and I'll see what I can do..."
Indher began to formulate plans in her mind.
What sort of 'virus' could this be? How dangerous is it? Might it be a useful weapon?
These are only a few of the questions floating around in her mind.
She allowed herself to drift away from reality for a moment...
-
"Okay, then!" Shui looked very happy, as if he was a small child that just got a great gift.
He looked around himself, and found a nice open field, he ran toward it and began drawing some things on it. After he was finished he began to meditate...
"I think I know someone who can help you..."
He waited like that for a few minutes, and then the sand where the runes where drawn on began to move, and a red colored man came out of the sands.
Shui standed up, took the man by his hand, and drew him to the pair. The man was red, and had horns.
"Well here is Rosuto!"
"My name is Reigratto." The man barked.
"Sorry, sorry! Well don't be afraid by his looks, since they don't have anything to do with him. It's just that he looks like that!"
"Hmpf!"
"He's a nice guy deep in his heart, I think. Well can you look if you can do something about it? I collected allot of data about the virus. It transmutated him, but if the virus will get out of his body, he'll lose this mutation.. except his red skin colour and horns on his head. Also the virus will die after it leaves his body.. but you may see yourself!"
Saying this he "handed" actually more pushed in the hands, of Indher some old pieces of papers, with allot of tekst on them.
-
// LMAO. That was a CATS-level epic burn, Xorlak. XD
Anti, without looking, caught the two incoming fists with his hands. Since they were on either side, counterattacking would require creativity. Well, he had that. He performed a split in mid-air without letting go of the fists, and then extended his legs in order to kick both of the elites in the gut.
--- --- ---
// I'm trying to get a sense of where Duilin is, and I'm having a little trouble doing that. I'm not gonna update my flyboys until I do. DM, help me. Razz
-
//Duilin and Bjendell are just wandering around somewhere, I have no idea what the geography of the sewers are so just go ahead and have them randomly bump into them. Then maybe they can lead them out, since the sewers are like a maze and all.\
"Okay, so if they came from here, then they either made a turn this, or this way." Duilin said pointing in to opposite directions. "But they obviously came from outside Tjed, so they would have come from this way." He then made a turn and then came two an intersection with three pipes which all seem like where Ven would have come from. "Okay, of all the crappy things that have happened today, I think THIS at least makes number three."
--- ---
The two elites were both hit in the gut, they were able to pull their hands away from Anti's grip. They both stepped back a few feet and then they each fired two golden coloured projectiles of energy at Anti.
-
Anti didn't need to look with his hypothetical eyes, he knew what the elites just did. He could still see it. You've got to be kidding me. This is an epic comical failure. He simply dropped down... Hopefully the elites weren't super excellent marksmen... 'cos if they weren't, they'd just end up hitting each other.
--- --- ---
The group was wandering around aimlessly... "Crap, what kinda maze is this?" asked Aura.
"Who knows? Who gives a sh-" Xenai turned a corner. WHAM! A collision. "Hey buddy, watch where the 'ell you're- Hey!"
The unlucky sap that he ran into was Duilin.
// How's this? :]
-
"What the...? Who are you guys? How did you get in here!?" Ben put on hand to his side, and alowed a small magical current to form around his hand.
"You'd best start talking, or... wait... you're not with the empire...? Who are you?"
-
//Good enough. Oh yeah, I knew Anti was going to do that when I was writing that attack, just so you know.\
The elites' blasts flew to each other however they caught them with their gauntlets and the energy blasts grew larger, as they transferred more energy into them. They both jumped a few yards in the air (with the aid of levitation) and then threw down the increased energy blasts down at the crouching Anti...
--- ---
"Ooff--" Duilin nearly lost his balance as some guy just bumped into him. "Me!? Watch where you're going, you..." Duilin rubbed his eyes. "Well, son of a draken. Xenai." He noticed the others shortly after.
"You guys! I was starting to think that you were trapped in limbo or somewhere." Duilin said with excitement to see his friends. He then noticed Bjendell was likely confused, as were the others with who he was.
"Oh yeah, this is Ben he's an angel apparently." Duilin said introducing his friend.
"And Ben, these are my companions. This clumsy oaf here is Xenai." Duilin said teasing. "The guy with the black hair is Tsu and the guy with the teal hair is Zion." He looked at Aura. "And this is Aura. I haven't really known her for very long."
Duilin rubbed his chin. "Come to think of it, other then Rink, I've only spent like ten days worth with most of my friends." He shrugged. "Anyways, I assume you guys picked up my aura. So that's why you're here. Me and Ben are off to North Point. Want to join?"
---
"Well, I might be able to cure him." Rink replied. "But I first I need to know what caused the poison? I've read some things about viper poison and a few things about mammal poisons. But first thing we need to do is clean the wound. Belle get me some water, please."
Belle nodded and went to the kitchen.
//I guess just to speed things up we'll assume you'll tell me what caused it.\
"So a giant undead rat, eh? Well, I guess if I ground up a parassita herb it might be enough to cure the poison but he'll need a night's rest." Rink explained. "I think I remember seeing a few herbs in the garden in the castle's courtyard. I think as long as you don't bother any of the lizard men you should be able to get it without any trouble. They agreed that as long as we don't resist they won't attack us."
//I assume Xorlak gave Ven this poison in an attempt to inactivate him for awhile. Right?\
-
(Of course. Although I have a cooler cure planned. Heh...)
"Looks like we just missed them," Renard said as he floated into the room, energy crackling on his claw tips. He landed in the relatively clean center and looked around. There was definitely a battle here, as there were cracks and indentations on the walls, and many bricks were scorched. To top it off there was huge charred carcass of a... something lying there. The humans were nowhere to be seen.
Renard lifted his nose to see if he could catch their scent, but immediately covered it. "Ugh... bad idea..."
"What is THAT?" Helix said as he approached the carcass. "Oh, great... it's another frickin' rat." He kicked it once and a rib disintegrated.
"I'd be careful with that," Anslem said from the rear of the group. Renard and Helix turned their backs to the giant skeletal rat.
"They couldn't have gone far," Renard mused, rubbing the underside of his chin.
Helix suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his back and fell forward. "AHHH!!"
The giant necro-rat drew its blade-like tail away from the Velken and roared, those two hallow eye sockets glowing crimson once more.
"Blast it!! Helix, are you all right?!" Renard zipped across the room.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Helix said as he got airborne just in time to dodge another swipe of the thing's tail. The monster continued snapping its jaws at the two Velkens as they flew a wide circle around the room.
"B-Class, non-sentient, independent, undead automaton," Renard analyzed as he shot Helix a glance.
"Two-tier White Banishment," Helix yelled the name of the most appropriate spell back. The silver fox-mage was looking a little tired.
"Right," Renard said as he made a sharp turn in the air. The two Battle Mages parted ways and began circling the monster clockwise, perfectly opposite each other. "Twenty seconds, Anslem, Ruiki!"
"On it." Anlsem zipped through the air as a blur, arching high in the air then planting his short blade into the monster's skull with a fierce stab. The undead rat roared in pain, taking a large swipe at the fox before he removed his weapon and shot straight up in one fluid motion. He kicked off the ceiling and began to fly erratic circles around the monster, dodging its swipes and keeping it generally in once place.
While Anslem and Ruiki were doing their thing, Renard and Helix's hands glowed a bright white. They were like streamers moving through the air, and the light hung wherever they moved their hands. Soon a bright white circle in the air surrounded the monster along the mages' flight patterns...
----
Draven never really understood Nex's jokes, or that one just flew over his head entirely. Not that he would have cared. He threw his arms before his face in an X and allowed the lightning to strike him, pushing him back several feet as his heals dug up earth. The jolts bounced off his buffed arms and tore up the ground. As the last stray bolts singed around him, he threw his arms to his sides as a translucent red shock wave expanded from his body in all directions. Raising a fist to the sky, he slammed it right into the ground, which promptly fissured all the way to the demon's position. A huge boulder thundered out the ground right under Nex, surging upwards, propelled by a geyser of molten lava...
-
//Xorlak, bring Vincent back <3 \
Ein awoke in a somewhat well-lit room. There were people around him in hard suits made of some sort of a metal with a coif on. He wriggled around - his left eye felt a little itchy. He rubbed it, and his fingers came across a... scar?
Then he remembered. He remembered the mage, the knife, the portal...
-"You were the last one out, pupil. You lost your consciousness, and we dragged you back here, clutching the Stalker's head by the hair. It took quite a bit to pull it out from you."
The words came from an especially thin man in a hard suit. Aahzmandius?
-"You were judged worthy of an eye replacement. You have a bit of a scar on your face, but it's nothing serious. It will not impede your training, and your new eye may offer some interesting abilities, so long as you find them yourself. Now that it's done, you are to resume your learning."
All of the people left the room. Ein got up and followed Aahzmandius back to the meal hall. He noticed that only a third of the people remained, only about 20 or so from the original amount of around 100.
Oddly enough, not many people were as injured as himself. That particular stage of Stalker training was designed to eliminate the weakest, and the strongest usually got out without as much as a scratch. He did notice a few people brandishing mechanic arms and legs, though. The Headmaster was in the room again - what the hell was his name? Kogos? Katos? Kragos?
-"The next 18 months of your stay here will be spent perfecting your combat skills. You will be responsible for this yourself. However, there will be lections held on the matters of techniques, tactics, history, and such subjects every day. During this time, you are free to use all and any of the facilities here - including other professions' training halls." The Headmaster paused. "After this meal, you are to go to the Arena."
---
All of the remaining Stalkers were summed up in the Arena. The Headmaster was there, as well as some sort of a scribe with a closed book in his hands.
-"Welcome to the Ceremony of Names, recruits. Here, those of you who succeeded will have their name recorded into the Book of Names... so that your real name may never be spoken again. You are no longer a normal human. You are Stalker, one who is above normal humanity. A special, new name for you will be decided here."
The line began moving, as the pupils proclaimed their real names, and received a new one. Finally, it was Ein's turn.
-"What is your name?"
-"Ah.... Garrett."
-"It is no longer. Your new name is Einherjar."
Shocked
-"What?"
-"Einherjar."
-"I see... Alright..."
-"Go now, Einherjar, and continue your path towards being one of Kandarin's most elite."
-"Yes, sir."
-
//Oh, do you now? Well I guess this could just be some sort of treatment or something.\
Nex allowed himself to be pushed up by the massive boulder, be he simply rode it upwards as the geyser of lava started to push it up. His metal boots started to steam as he stood up on the boulder. He jumped off the boulder and started floating forwards, a gob of lava dropped on his shoulder yet it trickled off like water. Nex yelped as if having hot tea spilt on him, and he rubbed his shoulder as he advanced forward.
"I'll admit you'd make a good demon." Nex stated. "Maybe one Abodahon's elites or something."
He then whipped out two sickles from his invisible pockets and twirled them around as he hovered with his back to the lava geyser.
"Not that I would allow Abodahon to recruit a pig like you!"
He then flew forward and tossed the sickles which arched to the sides and zoomed towards Draven at bullet speed, equally as fast he materialized his cleavers and fired them from his hands one going straight towards him and the other went right over Draven and went right towards his back...
-
"Nice to meet you all... but we must be moving, quickly. I fear the enemy has picked up our trail, and they are a few sewage sections behind us. There is probably only one solution in leaving this place, and that would be from where you came. Tell me, did one of you leave some sort of trail?"
------------
"I think we should have Lagart or Jacobie get it, just to be on the safe side. What I'm saying is what if they aren't allowing any humans in the castle at this point? What if they're stationing all of their guards inside the castle, and preparing the... nevermind, I just worry too much. I'll go, but be careful. Anyways, what does this thing look like?"
------------
"Oh man... ugh, my head... What the hell happened there? Hey Valiko, you okay?"
"Ugh...... I'll be fine... just a minor headache. And yourself?"
"Same here. Oh, you are clever, Valimore..."
"Huh?"
"Oh, that's just something between our group. I'll have to tell Justin later. Right now, I fear our friends might be in danger. Let's go in the sewers and find them."
"Agreed." Valiko and Tiberius both ran through the maze-like sewers, leaving behind a glowing wihte trail so they could find their way back. After a few sections, pipes, and clearings, they found the others.
"Duilin! Ben! Man, am I glad to see you guys!"
"Is your destination out of here? If so, we've laid out a path for you."
"Hey... who are those guys?"
------------
-
"It's nice to meet you too." Zion nodded to the guy, speaking for the rest of the group. "North Point, huh? We'll come along... But we have kinda been in a limbo of sorts for a while. We'd like to be filled in on the latest happenings. And also... There's trouble brewing near there. I'm not exactly sure how close, 'cos the geography of the Dark Continent escapes me at the moment... But Draven's there. And so is our current objective... a massively powerful astral demon known as the Zerobi no Anti."
And another group seemed to stumble upon them. Xenai gave an uncharacteristically meek wave. Probably in comic effect.
--- --- ---
// Heh... predicting my moves ahead of time? For that nice display of skill, I'll gladly take that hit.
Anti looked up to see the result of their... idiocy? Clever bastards. Before he knew it, the improved blasts were upon him. He didn't really have any choice but to take the hit.
"Heh heh heh... Come on. Can't you do any better than that?" He was still standing there after the smoke cleared, and he looked only slightly fazed. About 5-10% of his energy had been dispersed from taking the attack. If at any point, for any reason, his energy gets to be 0%... He will cease to exist, as the dispersed energy will no longer have a core to return to. "It was impressive... But it will take more than that to defeat me."
He held out a hand and taunted them... Morpheus' "come get it" gesture.
-
Indher appeared impressed at how the man used runes.
"Oh, a fellow rune mage? That's uncommon..."
She then proceeded to approach the virus-infected being.
She eyed him closely, observing him, completely ignoring the pack of papers in her hand.
"Alright, I think I can do it..."
As she shoved the papers back to the man who gave them to her, Indher began to draw a runic circle in the sand...
And then, another cirle which partialy overlapped the last one.
"OK, please stand HERE..." Indher pointed at the space which the two circles shared.
"This one will allow me to remove any foreign objects from your body... So ugh... It might remove more than just the virus, but I'm sure you don't have anything important in there!"
She then took a simple nearby rock and placed it at the edge of one of the circles.
"All of it will be transferred into THIS rock as soon as the runes are activated. Will YOU do the honors?"
She turned to face the man, eying the kitten near him suspeciously.
-
//Anti takes a hit! That's why I like you Trent. You're one of the few people who isn't paranoid about his characters getting attacked Wink\
"We do intend to do more." The Talonscar elites both said together, they then both zoomed downwards with their gauntlets glowing a blood red colour as they smashed down their fists into Anti.
--- ---
Duilin saw the two newcomers he recognized one of them, but never recalled catching his name.
"Ah yes, I recognize you, from the battle with Jayce." Duilin said to Tiberius. "Forgive me; I don't really recall getting your name." He then looked to the other newcomer. "I do not believe I recognize you...May I ask your name?" He asked. He sensed something strange within him, his aura had a slight feeling to it, he recognized it, but couldn't recall where he felt it from. His aura detection and analysis wasn't that strong.
"Oh yes, so these are my friends. Xenai, Zion, Tsu and Aura." He said motioning to them. He then thought he may as well answer what asked Zion asked and fill him in.
"Okay, so in case you haven't noticed the Dark Empire has successfully conquered Terian, while we were gone. And now, as you can see they have chosen to spread into Tjed. I traveled around the north-east of Terian and it seems pretty terrible, with what happened to the place. You know of that one city Asgarnia? It's been turned into slums, and it's probably the nicest place on that continent. There is, or at least was this entire county where humans were able to live in decent homes, but it was ruled by this pretty tyrannical Count. Anyways..."
Duilin lowered his voice.
"Apparently there is this one race of fox-men from another realm, called the Velkens, who serve Emperor Retan. They have assassinated the king and the entire counsel of Tjed, as well as many other people. At first I thought they were evil...but apparently the emperor has their world held together by some sort of spell and if any of them betray him, he'll let go of the spell and their world will be destroyed. One of them was able to tell me this, but only under a spell that was able to block out anyone being able to hear or sense we were talking. The Velkens have been forced to conquer Tjed, but it seems that they are only holding us hostage. Now, there is a portal at North Point to the Velken home world. If we were able rescue their world, the Velkens would no longer have to serve the emperor, thus saving Tjed."
Duilin paused.
"But one last thing. The emperor's connection with the Velken world is so strong that even if the Velkens began talking about trying to betray him, he'd lift the spell and their world would be destroyed. And if we went inside, and tried something, he'd likely do the same. I'm not totally sure how we can save the Velkens, but I have a few ideas. But saving them is our only chance we have to rescue the people of Tjed."
-
"Oh, yeah. I'm Tiberius by the way, and this is Valiko. He's a, uh... unique fellow. Not evil, but strangely good."
"Oh? And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, you're a Draken."
"So? What of it? Let's just get going, shall we?"
------------
-
Blast it, there was no way he could dodge that. Draven quickly spread his arms to his sides and released the energy contained in his pumped-up muscles. His aura of flame returned with a violent blast, sending the bladed projectiles spinning away as his body decreased to its normal size. On fire once more, Draven slowly floated skyward.
"Frankly, you're starting to irritate me."
Smirking, he spread his arms wide and his palms began to glow, crimson sparks swirling about them...
----
(Blargh.)
The glyphs began to glow as Vincent's form became visible, and the black-coated alchemist stepped out of the light. He seemed much more refreshed than before, his hair neat and trim and even his coat clean and smoothed. He nodded to the Kandarinian guard.
"If you would, please inform Mr. Ryleh that I have arrived at a decision."
-
// <3 \
// I don't need much from Vincent, all I wanted to do was to get his form over with, and start him on building my new airships to lay ruin to all that is Dark Empire. >:[ Then you can go back to regularly not updating him. \
-"Yes, sir."
The guard took out a silver orb, and whispered something into it. Moments later the Scribe appeared from the wall, using a previously dim glyph. The sigil was now glowing from its recent use. Cain was beaming.
-"You couldn't've come at a better time, Mr. Eldridge. I suppose we'd better get you a new avatar first, and then discuss certain things the Sovereign requested of you. So, what will your new form be?"
--- --- ---
"After wasting a sufficiently long amount of time, I finally decided to get to business regarding Draven's weapons. Being the careful-" Here, the word "careful" was scratched out, and, in someone else's writing, corrected to "paranoid." "overlord that I am, I set up a multitude of recording and measuring devices around the throne room prior to Draven's arrival. The devices were particularly effective in breaking down his own dagger's aura, giving me an idea of what to look for. Sending out a mild jolt of Necromantic energy through my tower, which, after modifications, acted as a resonator, I took control of about 300 weakling zombies on the Crimson continent. They had a simple order - follow the aural patterns of the weapons and bring them back if they find any."
//this means that your characters can encounter a random undead or two crawling about. They aren't tough at all, but they will try to escape if attacked. Note: not all of these zombies are in one place, they're spread out evenly around the northern coast of the continent. They will be making their way further in as my posts continue, though.\
--- --- ---
...and thus passed two more years. Ein followed the advice of the headmaster, and used other Stalker class training halls. During the lectures, he learned quite a bit about Kandarin. He finally realized that he wasn't in the Kandarinian chain at all, but rather in the Arctic Region. Odd how he didn't notice the lack of water around the city - though he really never went out of its premises.
The training halls required quite a bit of resilience. Ein was most interested in working with instructor Gamall, who taught the usage of glyphs. If those could be used to enhance his old crossbow, they should do miracles for the new spear gun. However, as the instructor went on about all the different types of glyphs and how to use them, Ein realized that he would not likely have the time to draw them during a battle.
One day, during his practices in the glyph users' seclusion chambers, he noticed that he wasn't alone. The thin girl with the gauntlet-mounted bow was there as well. She was enchanting a batch of her bolts.
-"Ein! How bes you?"
-"..."
-"Eris."
-"Right. How are you then, Eris?"
-"I bes well. Bes them glyph hard to make. Bes you here for them glyph drawingses as well?"
-"...Why are you talking like that?"
-"All woodsie peoples talks like me. Bes you not know them woodsie peoples?"
-"No..."
Eris removed a lock of hair from her neck, revealing an intricate, Celtic-looking tattoo. It started at the base of her shoulders, going up all the way to the temple. Ein has never seen anything quite like this before.
-"That still doesn't tell me anything."
-"*Sigh* Cityfool... Us woodsie peoples was taken by them Kronos, as slaves. Bes our wish to slays the bloody snake. Bes them rotted minions of Kronos then fall lifeless, so wes can get back to them woodsie. I was birthed here, so I bes unknownful of them leafies, but Grans and Granps says it's the best place on earth."
Ein stared at her blankly.
-"What?"
-"Bes you still not understandsie me?"
-"No, I mean, why are Kandarinians letting you into their academy?"
-"Oh. Them Granps has... how he saysie... "connections" in them academy. Bes he the cousin of them Kragos, I don't know. He made them screening process make me pass through. Bes not ask how. Bes I not have them answer. Anyways, you still bes a cityfool. Helpsie me with them bloody glyph drawingses."
Ein rubbed his chin.
-"Making glyphs is one thing, and an easy one at that... you just have to remember them. However, right now, I'm trying to figure out how to decrease the time required to make a glyph. Still blank on ideas."
-"Bes easy. Them Grans did glyph drawingses as well. Bes she put them more-often used ones on her skinsie."
-"You mean she carved the sigils directly into her skin?"
-"...yes, that bes a way of putting it. When she was making them jokeses, she made them glyph on her skinsie turn thingses into gold. So when she touched something, bes that thing turn into them gold version of itself. It was funsy for a time, but then she bes turn my cat to gold."
-"Did she get rid of the glyph, then?"
-"No, bes chopp'd off her hand and made her turn Fluffsy back to animal."
-"I see... well, thanks, Eris. I've gotta get running."
-"Wait, cityfool! Helpsie me with them glyph dra-!"
Ein, however, was already gone.
-
//It's been too long, sorry. All this stuff with my grandmother and just overall being busy. Finally got the time to write a post.\
Why do humans dream? Is it lingering memories that penetrate the unconscious mind? Why do they allow themselves to have nightmares? Underlying fears they are unwilling to overcome? This one has no nightmares. He has no fear. If only the last could have followed his example… Is it human nature to fear the unknown? If so, why do they allow the unknown to exist? I was unknown to him. But then he realized what I was, and overcame that fear. His dreams are pure and innocent. He has no fear of death, as he knows it is inevitable. How can they fear the inevitable? I fear I may never know the answer…
--
Cold shock swept over Alex. Midna had thrown snow on him to wake him up.
“Gah! What the hell—Midna!”
“Sorry, but it was the only way you would wake up. We need to get a move on, the sun comes up in only a few more hours.”
The blizzard had finally subsided, and unfortunately, so had the dark clouds. Moonlight cast the familiar pale blue glow on the landscape. Reflected off the snow and ice, it seemed bright as day.
Ugh…daylight at night. A considerable inconvenience.
The Shroud finally retracted, leaving the two to themselves.
I shall rejoin you when conditions are more…suitable to my liking.
Alex took out the Twili pendant and cradled it in his hands. “Your people certainly have a lot of faith in me,” he said. “I’m still not sure exactly what I’m supposed to do once we get to the capital…”
“All in due time, Alex,” Midna said. “And once we get there, hopefully I’ll be far more useful to the cause.”
“Still, we’re two beings against thousands. Could we possibly win? The odds are overwhelmingly in their favor.”
“I will admit, the last Warrior failed for a number of reasons. He was a Warrior, but he was flawed. He was selfish and fearful, and for that, his enemies consumed him. But you’re different. You’re not like he was. You can win.”
“Here’s hoping,” Alex said, digging one of his armored forearm claws into the ice. He pulled up, and soon ascended the vertical ice face. The serrated claws provided a substantial amount of traction. “But first we’ve got to deal with those dogs dogging us.”
“As long as we keep moving we can stay ahead of them, but once we reach the capital, they’ll be the least of our concerns.”
“Figured as much. Glacia City is just up ahead. We can warm up there.”
--
The Commission was about to break camp, headed for their next destination.
“So boss, where we headed?” Estacado asked.
“Back home, I guess,” Carmine sighed.
“What? Why?”
“Well, think about it. How much are we going to get done if we follow him around, only for him to move again? To me it seems logical, since he’s headed for the capital anyway, to just wait for him there.”
“But what if he doesn’t come?”
“Oh, he will. It may just take longer than we thought. Still, the more time we have to prepare for his arrival, the better. It’s his ass getting kicked, so he can take as much time as he wants.”
“What about the Colonel?”
“You let me worry about the Colonel. He seems to like me, I’m sure he’ll understand.”
“I dunno, boss. The Colonel can be a real hard-ass at times.”
“Good point. I just hope he’s in a good mood when we get there.”
Les limped up. “What’s the plan?”
“Les, we’re headed home. We’ll wait for Alex there. Tell the others, and tell them to have their wyverns ready in fifteen minutes.”
“You got it.” Les limped off.
“What should I do, boss?”
“Help Sig load that heavy stuff onto the wyverns. We need to be out of here before the sun comes up.”
Indeed, morning was not too far off. A new day would no doubt mean new threats, for both the Commission and Alex.
-
Nex's weapons flew back towards him, but faded away into the air before they actually touched him. The demon clenched his fists; he was starting to get angry. Sparks of red electricity started to rapidly spew from his hands, and an eerie blood red coloured glow came from underneath his helmet-mask.
"To be good, your annoyance as for ridicule! It has started to make me be irritated!!"
An aura of red lightning surrounded him and his cloak began to flow as he floated higher in the air...
-
The red man went to the showed him place.
"Me?" Shui pointed at himself supriced.
"I never worked with THAT kind of runes.. I may make a mistake. That could cost my friends life, I would prefer you to do it, as you are more expierienced with your kind of runes..."
Shui laughed nerviously, and looked at his kitten. The cat just kept looking at the woman.
-
Indher spat.
"Bah! Theres really no room for mistake. All you do is activate them, like this..."
Indher bent down, the runes lit up faintly.
"You could say all I did was push a button, really."
The red skinned man was surrounded by purple light, which then became mist, and then turned blue as red mist was released from it.
"Theeeeeeeeere you go...""
The red mist hurled itself at the rock, first surrounding it.
Soon, the rock turned bright-crimson as the mist was absorbed into it.
A few moments later, the blue mist began to dissipate...
-
No screaming. Reigratto couldn't hear anything.. He didn't feel or smell. He only saw.
"What's happening..." He wanted to say, but the words didn't come out of his mouth. He only saw himself. And he was feeling more empty and empty...
"This needs to stop.. This is going bad! Master! Master! SHUICHI!"
But no words came out of his mouth.
But also when he felt so empty.. he didn't feel the pain he used to feel. He was free. But not only of the pain. He was free of hisself to.
" ....craaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaa-aaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaa-aaaa-aaa-a-a-a-a---a----a---a--------------a---a-------------------------a---------ap"
Then he got himself back. He felt alive again.
It could feel again.
He was the person who he was before.
It felt great.
-
//Well Anti can afford to take quite a few hits. Razz
He was about to catch the fists in his hands, but... that's what they wanted him to do. He simply dropped backwards onto his hands, in effect dodging the punches, and flung his feet upwards in an attempt to kick 'em in the jaw.
--- --- ---
"That's terrible," said Zion.
"I remember our first encounter with Retan," said Xenai.
"You know, that's probably what Anti's after," said Aura.
"Huh?" "Huh?" "Huh?"
"He probably just wants to fight Retan. I had to go to Kandarin in order to lure him out. Why he went there and the country's still intact... He's probably allied with someone there, who has something against Retan. Draven is probably in on it too, since you were able to sense Retan and Draven near each other."
"And if he offs Retan..." started Xenai,
"...He'll start to off the rest of Gaian," finished Tsu.
"Y'know, Anti might work in favor for your guys' objective, though," said Zion. "That's really ironic."
-
"Well, I'm worried if we ask for Draven's help, he'll probably try and make Retan destroy the Velken world, since it’s an easier and quicker solution." Duilin said solemnly. "This Anti guy you're speaking of seems just as nasty as Draven. If their world was destroyed, it would probably have the Velkens loose all their loyalty to the emperor, but they would likely be pretty angry at who ever lead Retan to dropping the spell."
Duilin dropped his head.
"The one that told me all about this said he would kill himself..."
He lifted his head, and ran his hand through his hair.
"Anyways, we should probably get going now." Duilin said. "We can follow Tiberius' and Valiko's trail."
Duilin then started following the light trail they left, assuming the others were coming. He overheard Tiberius mention that Valiko was a draken. So that is what was familiar about his aura. This might also mean he was right about that theoretical comment he made about not all Drakens being evil. But of course, he can't assume that he's a ‘good guy’ right off the bat, he'd just have to watch and see.
Then again for all he knew Bjendell could be evil. Yet his un-angelic outbursts and death-threats he gives to his foes might show that he might be a fallen angel, which are usually nasty fellows, from the stories he's heard. However he had to remember he was a half-demon, and could transform into that demon lord form. That even freaked himself out. He actually didn't like his Demon Lord form so much. But man was he one hell of a fighter in that form.
--- ---
The elites' jaws were both kicked, causing them to fall on the ground. Yet that didn't finish them off, they simply got back up. One of them started to glow in a flaming golden aura and then flew himself forward like a rocket hopping to smash right into his target and make a point blank explosion attack.
The other one stood back and began to start focusing his energy...
--- ---
"Well the herb looks like..."
Rink fluttered over to a writing desk in the room and drew the outline of a strange looking plant, and then fluttered over towards Justin and handed it to him.
"It looks like this. If you're too worried, I could just go if you want to. In dark areas I'm often mistaken for a large bat, and even when I'm seen they sometimes don't even care. I just need to make sure Ven's wound doesn't get over infected."
-
//ACK! I dunno what happened to me but I kinda forgot about this RP. OI! Well I'll try to make it up
The light was dim but it soon got brighter and brighter. It was a torch light. Quadricentennial got up. He looked around and saw that he was in a room. He was lying on a bed. He smelled of burnt and ash. "Ah, you've awoken." It was Johnny's voice. Quad tried to get up but he felt really exhausted as if all his stamina was drained from him. "What...happened?" he asked.
"You did good Q. The beast is gone, we won't have to worry about it ever again."
"It is?"
"Yes."
"But I don't remember a thing. It's all a blank."
"You don't? Well that's peculiar. Regardless you have accomplished the feat." Quad felt really tired and drained. "I'd like to rest now."
"Oh yes. Of course." Johnny left to have Quadricentennial to his rest. Quad rested his aching body from a fight he could not remember. He closed his eyes, unaware of what had happened.
******************
Slow steps of caution were best used right now. Who knows what would happened if he awoken the large beast. The rubber of his shoes were gone and the metal plate on the soul were all that were left to protect his feet. He was sweating but not by alot. Looking up at the massive beast made of fire, Quadricentennial got closer and closer. He finally got close enough to have it's flames right on his face. It was burning furiously. The flames were like a part of this birds body for it flowed like it was sensing danger. The light illuminating from the beast was very high and brighter than the sun itself. Quad was not blinded nor could he see. He did not know how far was the flames. He could only see the monsters skin through it's damaged area which was around it's neck. All others were extreme heat. He took no chances and decided to hurl the blade towards the exposed flesh. He grabbed his blade and took aim straight into the neck where the scar was. He hurled it as strong as he could. The blade went flying, like an arrow shot from it's bow. It hit the bird but it did nothing. It bounced off and hit the floor. It's skin was damaged but not pierced. Quad now need a new idea.
The bird flinched. It's eye opened as it got up. The attack must have awoken it. Quad now had to figure out what to do fast. The bird spread it's wings. The flames grew higher and wider. It was a magnificent creature to behold but he bet that all who looked at him would be the last thing they ever saw. The bird spotted Quadricentennial and it gave a loud, hard, hollering screech. It apparently didn't like company. Quad ran for his blade but the bird stomped his enormous foot in the way to keep Quad from getting to it. Quad was unarmed and had nothing to defend himself from this beast. What could he do now? The bird lifted its foot once again and aimed it at Quad. It quickly raced it's foot to grab Quad but he was not as quick for Quadricentennial dodged it. He landed on the hot floor with the blade facing him. He quickly grabbed it but the blade was stuck on the floor. He attempted to pull it out but was no good for the bird snatched him. He still held on to the blades handle and would not let go. The bird was desperately trying to pry him off but Quadricentennial was holding on to it. Quad was amazed. He didn't knew he had such strength to keep a tight grip while his life was being crushed away from a beast. The fire falcon decided to change plans and slammed Quad to the floor. He pounded the floor with his foot. He grabbed him again. This time Quad was not stuck to the floor and proceeded to eat him whole. He tossed him in the air and the Facon quickly made a meal of him.
Now with the unwanted guest out of the way, the falcon resumed it's rest. He layed down, comforted himself, and resumed his rest. The falcon was then interrupted. His throat was starting feel a bit uncomfortable. It was a bit itchy. The feeling turn from itchy to painful as a giant hole was made in the birds throat. Red smoke, assuming it was it's blood vaporated, arosed. There rose Quadricentennial within the gap of the beast. With his green blade in hand, he jumped out while the falcon was in tantrum. It was too tall to survive the fall and saw a cliff. As he humped off, he targeted at a jagged edge of the cliff within this massive cave. The bird was in very much pain. Red smoke was filling the air and the bird could not handle the terrible stench it was making. He was flying about, smashing into walls, the ceiling. Quadricentennial grabbed on to the ledge, only to be caught in one of the falcons barbed feathers. It's flames were gone and he was now exposed. He had black and red feathers with a bit of yellow around it. It was a magnificent bird indeed but there was no time to enjoy the sight of this bird for it broke through the ceiling. Screeching loudly and horridly for the pain. It kept crashing the ceiling of whatever room it was on. It finally rose into the sky, screeching all the way. Quadricentennial unhooked himself and started fall on the ground. He suddenly realized he was too far off the ground. Probably 40 feet or so. He looked about and saw the gigantic fire bird, without the flames now, fly away before he heard a hard smash. All suddenly went dark.
-
Having distracted the monster for exactly twenty seconds, Anslem zipped out of the way.
"NOW!" Renard yelled. The two Velken Battle Mages thrust their hands towards the zombie rat creature, and the white circle tightened around it like a noose. The thing threw its head back and squealed, a brilliant flash of white engulfing the entirety of the room. Bit by bit, the creature's bones flaked off, disintegrating into nothing, the light dying as the last specks of dust disappeared into thin air.
Anslem floated down next to Renard. "That was... rather unexpected."
Renard nodded, lashing his bushy sliver tail around in thought. "It's amazing the humans lived with it under here. I wonder if it was some sort of guardian?"
Anlsem began floating towards a large sewer pipe. "Well, we should be off."
"Guys..." Helix moaned. Both turned to see him wobbling in the air, as if he were having a great deal of trouble hovering. His feet touched the ground and he took a few uncertain steps. "I don't... feel very good..." With that, the fox crashed upon the floor face first.
"Helix!" Renard was at his side in a heartbeat, trying to lift his friend's limp body from the grimy floor. He withdrew his hand when he touched Helix's back, finding the crimson blood staining his fur much more visible than on the black robe. "Oh... gods!"
Anslem's calm façade broke immediately. "Oh, blast it!" It was obvious he had less training than Virmir. He landed by the felled fox's side and pryed his eye open, watching the pupil. "That thing poisoned him. We must get him back to the ships."
"R-right," Renard said uncertainly, fear laced in his eyes. The two picked up the unconscious Velken by the shoulders and flew back the way they came as quickly as possible.
----
=NEX used CONFUSION=
The auras around Draven's palms doubled in size and brightness, and the flames magnified.
He raised an eyebrow.
"To be... wait, what?"
=It's SUPER EFFECTIVE!=
----
Vincent smiled.
"Actually, my good sir..." He extended his right hand, and it began to loose form. "My last transmutation... didn't quite go as planned. But I've discovered something... interesting."
He whole arm, clothing and all, took on a metallic sheen, and solidified into a very sharp spike, the fingers melding together at the point. The blade of liquid metal extended twice the length of the original arm and continued extending as he spoke.
"I believe I will be keeping this body. Although I am still quite interested in joining the Kandarinian Sovereignty regardless."
-
"We're almost out... I can see light at the end of the tunnel!" Tiberius started to walk a bit more faster and faster. Finally, he ereached the outside of the castle walls.
"Well, that was a lot shorter than I had expected... But who cares. We're out. Now we just have to find our way through the caves... heh."
"Oh crap. I forgot about that..."
"Well, let's not waste any more time. Come on!"
------------
"No, I think I can handle it. Thanks." Justin headed out the door and saw that Jacobie's wrist was wounded. He'd forgotten... and yet he was not poisoned...
"Where are you off to now, Justin?"
"Just getting this plant for Rink. Hey, how come you're not poisoned?"
"I'm resistant to most poisons. most A-class lizardmen are."
"Here, let me patch up that wound for you." Justin took out a long, white bandage and wraped it around Jacobie's wrist. A small bit of blood trickled down Justin's hand as he finished clipping the bandage together with a pin.
"Thanks! It feels much better now!"
"Glad I could... help... what the...?" The small amount of blood on Justin's arm started to swirl around his hand, and a small incision was made in his skin. The blood poured itself inside his veins, the slit in his hand sealed itself, and Justin's form changed... into Jacobie. He backed up and looked at his hands.
"What the hell!? How did that happen?"
"It must have been the blod from my wound. You are a Gepardi, right?"
"It's been so long since I captured a creature's essence... I'd forgotten how it worked."
"Well, this might be more convenient for you to walk around the streets. However, those white robes... might give it away."
"Blast... Oh well. I'll just act like a lizardman. They'll never see this comming!" Justin walked calmly down the street and to the castle courtyard. It wasn't that far away. As he passed through the castle's gate, two lizardmen, C-class, stood at his side.
"What white robes for? You some kind lizard mage?"
"Yeah! Tells us now! No wait, teach us!"
"Relax, I am no mage. I am just an alchemist, looking for a flower. Perhapse, if you helped me, I'd take oyu on as my apprentice..."
"REALLY!? What flower look like!?"
"Yeah, what flower look like?"
"Like this." Justin took out the drawing Rink made for him and showed it to the lizardmen. They seemed to know exactly what it looked like, and they both picked a bundle for Justin.
"Thanks... I'm sorry, do you want something?"
"Apprentices!"
"Yeah!"
"Oh, right... here is your first lesson... could I ask you how you feel about the Dark Empire before we continue?"
"What you want know?"
"Just how you feel abouit being in the Empire." Both lizardmen looked at eachother with much confusion, as if they had not understood the question. Then, one of them looked back at Justin.
"Emporer Retan big meanie!" The other lizardman looked at the first, and then looked at Justin, nodding.
"Yeah! Big, BIG meanie!"
"Okay, next question. Do you like being under his service?"
"What that mean?"
"Do you like working for him?"
"No."
"Me too say no."
"Wow, that was easy."
"Apprentice!"
"Yeah, apprentice!"
"Alright, alright. your first lesson will be to resist the powers of the Dark Empire. You no longer work for them, but for me. Understood?" The two lizardmen followed Justin back to the house where Lagart and Jacobie was standing.
"Hey, Justin! You returned so quickly... and with company?"
"My apprentices. Could you two play along for a little bit? They don't even like Retan, let alone like working for him."
"Oh, right! Hello, my name's Jacobie! I'll be your instructor while Justin's away."
"Yeah!" both the lizardmen cheered. Justin walked in the house. Everyone looked confused, or shocked, but then Justin remembered he was a lizardman.
"Oh, right, this... Well, I cabn change into a Lizardman now, I guess... Anyways, I found more lizardmen who're against the Empire, and Jacobie's outside with them, and Lagart, I guess. Oh, and here are some plants. I hope this will be enough..." Justin took the large bundles of plants he was carrying and set them on a table.
------------
-
Lagart gave a grin, as he saw the other lizard men. "Hello, I am Lagart." He greeted to the newcomers.
Meanwhile inside, Rink took the herbs from Jason. "Alright, now I forgot to mention something. This herb might not be enough to cure him, but I'm certain it should be a good enough treatment until we find out a cure. It's just depending on how big this rat was, and considering it was undead, this might be a more violent poison then I know how to fully cure." Rink explained.
Rink already had a grinding bowl set out, he put a few of the herbs into the bowl and started grinding them up. "Sprinkling some of this on the infected wound should fight the poison." After grinding the herbs into a dust, he fluttered over to the stove. "I'll need to light the stove and leave this on for a few minutes. It's best if they're warm and dry."
A few minutes later Rink took the bowl off the stove, not even burning himself from the heat. Belle and the housekeeper assumed it was some imp thing that prevented that, as did Rink. He then stood over Ven, and sprinkled some of the grinded herbs onto the wound.
"He'll need some rest, for awhile." Rink said.
---
Duilin tried to remember the way through the cave maze as well as he could, but he'd only been through twice, and one of those times he was unconscious...
"Man, this is gonna be a pain." Duilin groaned. "Plus, I hope nobody sees us leaving."
--- ---
"That's right! You heard me!" Nex laughed.
The glowing under his helmet and the amount of lightning energy shooting around his aura began to increase.
-
"That poison... I know a way to cure it, but we should leave this place first." Ko'ji flew over to the others and followed them through the sewers, hopefully out as well.
-
"The Zerobi no Anti is far nastier than even Draven and Retan," said Zion. "His sole purpose is to destroy anything and everything that exists. Anyways, I think I missed something. You're saying that the Velken world is destroyed if for any reason, Retan is unable to cast his spell?"
--- --- ---
Anti, seeing both the incoming rocket dude and the guy in the back focusing his energy, devised a plan. He already knew at least, how he'd deal with the rocket dude. He waits until the guy is really close, and jumps into the air. A hand is pointed straight down at the ground. "Grave!" Several large chunk-spikes of earth shoot out of the ground right where he was originally standing, and 5% of his energy is knocked off. He continues to ascend as he shifts attention to the other guy...
-
"Yeah. If he dies, then so does their world." Duilin replied. "He's using a spell to keep it together."
"So I guess it would be best to keep Anti away from this place, seeing how fragile it is." Duilin added. "Seeing how he wants to destroy everything."
--- ---
The rocketing elite then released an explosion around himself destroying the earth-spikes before they could impale him. He then flies upwards casing Anti, with his fists glowing...
The other one continues to focus his energy; the ground around him began to burn...
-
The ship smashing into a giant rock was the first indication to Xivilai that he had reached land. Being thrown into the wall of the ships cabin confirmed his suspicions. Xivilai rummaged around the ships hold until he found some rope. He then tied the rope to the side of the ship and rappelled down.
Once off the ship, Xivilai surveyed the area. He saw mountains.
Big surprise, this is Tjed after all.
Xivilai vaguely recognized a peak and headed in that direction. It led to Tjedon. He needed to find out what happened while he was trapped on Romme.
Besides, it might give me a chance to kill something.
The thought cheered him up considerably as started picking his way towards the mountains. His spirit was dampened, however, when a bird, with a bolt sticking out of its eye, bounced off his head and fell at his feet. Xivilai picked it up and looked at it distastefully.
“Hey! That’s my bird” A voice yelled. Xivilai looked in the direction the voice was coming from and saw an old man running towards him, reloading a crossbow. “Give that here or I’ll put so many holes in you tha-” He stopped in mid-sentence when he saw Xivilai’s face. He froze.
Xivilai slowly walked towards the man, who started gibbering slightly. Xivilai grabbed the crossbow out of the man’s quivering hands and smashed the stock of the crossbow into his head. He dropped like a rock. Xivilai briefly examined the injury, the skull had been cracked, but the man was still alive. He reached for his sword, but then stopped.
I wonder what kind of carrion animals Tjed has
Grinning, he kicked the unconscious man once in the side and walked off to find a good vantage point.
-
Anslem and Renard burst from the sewer opening carrying Helix and shot straight up towards the nearest black airship hovering over Tjedon. The three warships hovered just under the translucent green dome that cut off the captured city from the outside world while martial law was enforced.
"Looks like team one is returning," a Velken Blade Knight noted from the ship's deck. A black robed Battle Mage stood next to him.
"Are they carrying someone?" the other fox asked.
"Go get Lord Virmir!" Renard screamed from way down below. They had just cleared the rooftops and were zooming up towards the ship.
"He's meeting with Commander Vlak," said the fighter.
"Yelling at him, more likely." The mage mused, folding his arms.
"There's no time!" Anslem retorted as they cleared the railing on the side of the ship. Carefully, Anslem and Renard set the injured Helix down on the smooth black metal that comprised the airship's deck. He was completely unconscious and his short breaths were haggard.
Both of the other two Velkens' eyes widened and their tails frazzled. "We're on it." With that, they flew down a flight of stairs and disappeared into the ship's bowels.
"Hang in there, Helix," Renard said as he held his claws over three inches over his poisoned comrade's chest. A light blue trickle of energy began to flow downward into the poisoned Velken.
"Don't kill yourself, Renard." Anslem said joining in and offering some energy of his own.
Renard clenched his teeth, clearly upset. "We can only fight it back so long... Ruiki, did you say you knew a cure?"
Anslem shook his head before she could answer. "This is the poison of the undead. It's not that simple..."
"But Lord Virmir will know... he has to..."
----
"Ah, screw it."
Draven glowered as he thrust both hands to his sides and a brilliant ring of flame spread outwards around Nex with a diameter of twenty five feet or so. The ring widened upwards and downwards until it expanded out to a burning hollow sphere with the demon in the middle.
"Let's just see how much heat it takes to make you crack..."
Draven thrust his fingers forward and curled his fingers as the fiery sphere began to shrink in size, with Nex in the middle.
-
"Yes, I know of one. I'm going to need a plant from the castle's garden. In the mean time, cast as many healing spells as you can on him to stabilize his breathing. I'll be back with the plant." Ko'ji leapt off the ship and flew straight for the castle. She entered the courtyard and looked for the flower.
"Usually it would be right there... Why is almost everyone of these picked? Aha! There's one." Ko'ji grabbed the flower and uprooted it, flying back to the airship with the other Velkens.
"I've got the plant. I just need a clear area to grind the plant." Ko'ji wiped the dust away from the ground where she was standing and sat down, crossing her legs. She took out her dagger and started to chop up the flower, even the roots. As she was chopping with one hand, she took out a large veil filled halfway with water, about the size of an avarage healing potion. She placed the veil down next to the chopped flower and flipped the dagger over, grinding the flower into smaller bits.
"This ought to help him swallow it better." Ko'ji took out a small packet from her blue vest and tore open the top part, pouring in a white powder into the veil. She then took as much powder from the flower as she could and poured it into the veil. She then took the cork from the veil, placed it back on the veil, and shook it for a few moments.
"Here, have him drink this. It will cure most of the poison, enough for him to move, but he will need a day's rest for it to fully take effect." Ko'ji handed the veil to Renard.
-
"More than even you can handle..."
Nex clenched his fists and slightly braced himself as the flames crushed into him. The attack clearly hurt him, but did it have any long-term permanent affect?
Nex begam tp laugh and he was still glowing red from his attack he was charging. He lifted his smooth pale hands in the air and clapped them together. His entire visible aura moved to his hands and he spread them apart to his sides.
"I enjoyed that Draven." Nex laughed. "Now it's my turn."
Nex thrust his glowing hands forward and shot a stream of red electricity into the ground right below Draven. As he lifted his hands up red lightning began to shoot from the sky as the clouds turned red and the sky turned black. Then a massive tornado formed right at Draven's location...
-
"The four of us together can't beat Anti," said Tsu.
"If he's fighting anyone," said Aura, "He's probably toying with them. When he gets to Retan, though..."
--- --- ---
These guys are troublesome. It almost makes me want to release my true form. But that would be a waste of energy. I'm putting way too much into attacks that aren't doing anything to them, trying to finish them off quickly. I way overspent on Grave. I need to tone it down. "Gallic Gun!!!" He pointed his hands down at the guy right below him, firing a pink beam of energy down at him. 2% of his energy was spent...
-
//Vegeta FTW\
"Well, if he tries to mess with Retan, I'm sure he'll be killed." Duilin replied. "I'm sure no single person can take on Retan. Probably not even Haraldur, or Abodahon could." He added.
"But if you have to fight this Anti guy, I'm sure you four won't have to fight him yourselves. As you can see we've got a lot more people helping us now." Duilin said, looking at the others. "There are a few more friends we made who are back in Tjed. A couple of Lizard Men actually left the empire, and are helping us."
"Oh yeah, I actually thought I should show you guys something." Duilin unsheathed the Iduran, the reflective blade shined as he displayed it to his four friends. "Now, I'm not sure if you remember or even knew Iduran. But he was the high knight of Romme. He returned not too long ago, but only briefly. He transformed into a sword. I don't know how. But apparently the old guy still has a lot of energy left in him, even after he died." Duilin smiled. "Not to mention the sword looks pretty cool."
--- ---
The pink gallic energy hit the elite dead on in the chest knocking it to the ground. It laid motionless, with smoke emitting from where the blast hit. Was it dead?
The other elite finally released its attack, it fired eight small energy bolts that shot directly from its aura, and at the end of these bolts was the image of a skull. If one had encountered Abodahon, or one of these elites before, they'd know that these energy beams actually seek the target until it hits it.
Four of the demonic seeker blasts flew past him and then zoomed back to hit him from behind, the other four went straight ahead. Two of the front ones aimed for his knees, and the other two went for his shoulders. Two of the back ones aimed for the head, while the other two went for his back.
-
//So sorry about tha, my internet crashed and i was unable to fix it till today\
The lightning terrified the generals. The lightning started to strike the water.
“Oh gawd!!!! I can’t do this!”
One of the generals screamed and started to run away. A bolt of lightning flashed down and struck the general killing him instantly.
“Uh uh uh.”
Druid turned around, his eyes were glowing a dark red that matched the colour of the lightning. He was wagging his finger in displeasure.
“You’re into the end men.”
The remaining generals looked at each other and continued to chant.
[Charging: 1925]
---
Coriko awoke and saw Marshall first. "What happened? Is everyone okay?"
-
Renard nodded and nervously took the vial of antidote from Ko'ji and poured it into his friend's mouth, trying the best he could to keep him from choking. After a moment, Helix's breathing seemed to stabilize and he appeared to be in a restful slumber as opposed to excruciating pain.
"Did it work?" Renard whispered.
"Normally, it should have..." Virmir's deep voice resounded from behind. Anslem was walking next to him and apparently had filled the High General in on the details. "... but this is not a poison of the body." Virmir stooped by the fallen mage and tenderly felt his forehead, then lifted his eyes to look at his pupils. The then waved his hands over his body a few times as they glowed a pale blue. Finally he shook his head sadly.
"His soul has been poisoned." There was a muted gasp. The normal cold demeanor of the silver fox melted a bit. By now all the Velkens had gathered around, save for Bryce's party of four which were apparently still patrolling the city. "It's deteriorating. This undead held a nasty curse..."
Renard bit his tongue and tried to fight back the tears that wanted to well in his eyes. Who on Gain could possibly perform a soul cleansing? Humans hadn't even grasped the concept yet.
Virmir stood and sadly looked down at the Battle Mage. "Ruiki's medicine will keep him alive for a time... but there's a chance he'll become undead." They all knew what that meant. They would have to banish him. There wouldn't even be a soul left to save. Oh, gods...
"Lady Urocy..." Renard suddenly said. The name made Virmir flinch. All eyes turned to the short black robed Battle Mage. "Lady Urocy could save him... couldn't she?"
Virmir looked at him for a moment before closing his eyes and sighing. "Clearance would take too long... and she would be unable to return to Welkin. She is needed there... badly..."
Renard looked at his dying friend and shook his head. There had to be a way...there had to...
A stretcher was brought and they took the doomed fox down into a lower cabin of the ship.
----
Draven threw his hand before his face and blocked a stray bolt of lightning, a translucent red half dome appearing before him absorbing the impact. The force was great enough to throw him backwards though, and he was quickly cought up in the wall of the tornado.
"Gaaahh!!"
Spinning around and around, he was ejected at a speed of 150 miles per hour, and thundered downward into a cliff's edge with a tremendous plume of smoke. The ground rumbled as he flew into the rock, and boulders tumbled down upon him...
----
Virmir waited until everyone was gone, then walked to the end of the airship, resting on the railing and looking at the sky that was painted green under the shield dome that covered the city. It should have been windy this high up, but the shield seemed to deflect even that. He wondered if it was kept up long enough, everyone inside would suffocate.
When Ruiki had handed him the message, there were two scrolls in the case. The first was an official document requesting Ruiki join his squad. But the second he recognized as a personal message and put it off. He removed the smooth paper from under his robe and unfurled it.
Dearest Ken,
It has been a while since we’ve heard from you. Why don’t you write back? Please do so. We are all very worried.
Life goes on as normal here at Welkin. Archmage Jensen says he has discovered a way to reduce the vile pull that emanates from the abyss. It would be very exciting if we could all freely fly from island to island again. But there is much doubt placed on his methods.
The tower is well and the people are strong. Life is a little dull here lately, but I should be grateful for that, I know. Please respond. We are all looking forward to hearing from you.
Love,
Lucile Urocy, High Priestess of Welkin
-
"Anti most definitely stands a chance against Retan, at the least," said Zion. "But most definitely... thanks for having our backs." He smiles at Duilin. //I want him to at least stand a chance against Retan. He doesn't have to be truly capable of beating him, I just want him to put up a good fight.
His attention was diverted to the sword. "I heard a few things about Iduran. So now he's a sword, huh?" //Looks like Iduran has the Masamune (or Grandleon) complex. Razz
--- --- ---
He couldn't help but notice Draven get buried. Again. He didn't care enough for it to distract him too much, though. My, he must really like having rocks on top of him. He returned focus to the fight. It looked like one of them was out for now. But this next one... He will have to spend a good amount of energy to keep this from devastating him too badly. He observed the skulls... I think they might be targeting certain parts of my body. He waited for them to come in close.
Once they came in close range, he started to process the situation. It looks like... two headed for the knees... two for the shoulders... two for the back... two for the head. I know what I'll do. Most of Anti then vanished. Most. He left about 10% of his energy behind, in the form of... his knees, his shoulders, his back, and his head! He reappeared on the ground as a blob of sorts. Within a brief period of time, he'd regained his humanoid form. He looked up to see what happened to his partial clone...
//This is my last post of the night, probably. Tommorow, I start college! ^_^
-
Cain smiled, and gave Vincent a fat stack of papers.
-"This is a project our technicians, chemists and scientists have been working on for a while now. It is for a device called the "Sovereign's Hammer"... a large crystal prism which will be delivered into a place beyond the sky using these objects we found earlier - gravity orbs. Its function will be to focus sunlight into a deadly beam. However..."
The scribe's smile faded.
-"After research and small experiments, it was discovered that the concentrated beam is quickly scattered and dispersed in the dampness of the atmosphere. Upon your arrival, however, this gave me an idea. Among these documents you will find unfinished plans and sketches for a rather large airship, with a crystal core in the middle. It must be able to soar high in the sky while withstanding moderate to heavy damage. Its purpose will be to catch the focused light and amplify it with the crystal core. There were also plans suggested for having reflection prisms to fire smaller, more precise beams of sunlight, but you will find all the details enclosed within that pack of papers. I must warn you, though - you must cherish this project with more tenderness than your own child. The crystal prism in the sky will burn out after only a few minutes of usage, and the Sovereign does not like mistakes. In any case, I suggest you get started. If you find you need something, please, do not hesitate to contact me."
--- --- ---
Another day, after day, after day... The torment never seemed to cease. It was a whole year before Kragos showed up in the meal hall again. Now, in Ein's group, only four others remained. The same went for the other two groups, give or take a person. Oddly, the Necrolytes were never seen by Ein, or any other of his groupies, so he couldn't judge their size.
By this time, Ein has mastered his spear weapon to a point almost beyond his own limbs. The weapon was covered in numerous glyphs and inscriptions, as Ein's knowledge of glyphs expanded. As inscribable space on the weapon ran out, he started using his own skin as a drawing board. His chest and back were covered in the demonic-looking sigils, many providing a local function for the body itself - for example, several increased his speed, strength and dexterity, while others provided resistance against fire, lightning and cold. Others still allowed him to breathe underwater and in hazardous gases. Ein was still extremely prone to mistakes when creating the glyphs - so before etching one into his weapon or his skin, he would have to practice that precise etching several times before getting it right.
Now, however, a final task was ahead of Ein, before completely graduating from the Academy. He and the other recruits were sent to the Arena preparation chambers. There stood Kragos, with all of the other instructors around him. The headmaster spoke.
-"Well, you've made it this far, and it's a lot further than a vast majority of recruits. One final task lies ahead of you - the Arena trials. Pass and leave. Fail, and die."
Without any further words, all of them left, other than instructor Gamall.
-"First up," she screeched. "Is Eris."
The aforementioned was ready ten minutes in advance, but obviously not expecting it.
-"Bes insane, hag? Me? Ugh... Fine... Insie I go..."
The heavy doors closed and locked after Eris went inside. For about an hour, Ein listened to various sounds coming from the combat grounds, many of which were creatures' groans. Finally, the blood-covered Eris emerged from the Arena.
-"Nasty blood... ew. Bes gross."
From the way she acted, Ein noticed no injury - however, it was difficult to tell, as her body was covered in blood.
-"Con-ugh-ratulations," coughed Gamall. "Now go see the Colonel. Next up is... what's your name here... Njord! You're up."
...and so it went on. By the time Ein got his own turn, it was evening - and neither of the other two ranged Stalkers returned from the Arena.
-"Einherjar! You're last. Go in."
Ein complied, and was let inside the vast dome.
It was quite awe-inspiring. The Arena was exactly that - a huge circlet of land, lit by nothing more than barrier-filtered moonlight. There were gates opposing Ein - from which came growling, roaring, cackling, and other mixed sounds.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Ein lit up, the light forming a gigantic "5" on the arena floor. The light vanished as suddenly as it appeared, and the gates squeaked open. Ein dashed to one of the arena walls, hiding beneath his chameleon cloak.
The opening round was probably nothing but a warm-up, because the creature from behind the gates was just a simple wyvern. Ein smirked, and fired his weapon, which was aimed directly at the wyvern's head. Nothing to write home about: the wyvern fell down and vanished in blue smoke. The ground flared again, this time with a "4".
Heh, so they're counting off the rounds, Ein thought. This means that there are four more to go.
The sound of grinding metal warned Ein of another newcomer. This one was a man-lizard hybrid, much larger than Ein himself. It looked to be semi-intelligent, because it was holding a sword. Another warm-up? Wasn't one enough?
This time, Ein amused himself by aiming at the heart. The spear weapon clicked...
...and after a squeal, hit the ground at the lizard man's feet.
-"Ha! Ha ha! Puny ranger this time! Ha! You no match for me, worm, and you arrow no match for metal shirt! Cor-nel train me hims-self. Come out and die like man! I find, you die like worm!"
The lizard scattered around the arena, searching for Ein, who lay motionlessly on the ground. For the time being, the lizard shouldn't notice him. The armour, whose luster Ein dismissed as moonlight reflecting off of the creature's scales, was indeed quite thick. Seemed as though he would need to use the overcharge...
Like a ghost, Ein followed the lizard around the arena, always behind his back and cloaked. The lizard, managing not to notice Ein, continued circling around the arena, as Ein hid in another shadow. Using the time, he took out the two remaining spears from the weapon, and slid one of them into a hole in the middle. He's never had to use this slot before...
Putting his weapon on the ground, Ein pulled up the bowstrings from all three of the crossbow devices forming the triangle around the slot. They were all empty, and all of their combined power would be concentrated into that one slot, for just one spear.
-"Hah! I hear you toy winding up, worm! See you, catch you, skin you, eat you! Hahaha!"
The lizard rushed towards Ein, who was drawing back the final string. He only gave the lizard a quick glance, who appeared to be very angered by the gesture.
-"Die, puny human! Feel the power of the DRAGON SLASH!!!"
From a good ten meters away from Ein, the creature leaped towards him with its sword pointed right at him. Utilizing his agility glyph, Ein ducked, and as the lizard went over him, he shot his weapon at its armoured chest. The tremendous shock power from three over sized crossbows fired at the same time threw the creature high up into the air. The spear, although highly deformed from the magnitude of the impact, was stuck deep in Ein's opponent's chest.
-
"We're fine." Marshall said. Coriko was laying on a bed in some sort of old run down cabin.
Firstman was sitting on a chair that looked in as good condition as the cabin did. He was reading a book he usually kept with him titled "The Conquest of Bread" which was written by Kropotkin.
"You must have passed out when you got poisoned by an attack the count hit you with." Marshall explained. "You should be fine now. So, we've arrived where we believe the last hidden temple is. Wilham is out looking around the island trying to find it. He said we can stay here and rest. If you want to go out and help him, you're welcome to. Firstman and I require some rest however."
--- ---
"Well, he's more than just a sword, Zion." Duilin replied. "He's still alive; his spirit is in this sword. I'm just the guy carrying him around. Strangest thing, is when he transformed into the sword, I was the only one who could pick it up, without getting shocked from the life-force. I believe Iduran only wants me and the others who tried to save Romme, but who are now avenging it."
He sheathed the sword.
"Or...something like that." Duilin smiled.
//Trent or Drannic should decied when we get through the maze cave since Duilin doesn't remember the way through.\
--- ---
The demonic seekers crashed into Anti's clone and destroyed it. The elite believing he has won but then saw his foe seemingly reappear a few feet infront of him on the ground.
Meanwhile Nex crossed his arms and laughed manically as Draven was tossed around by the tornado, which continued to rip a part the area.
"Oh come on, buddy don't die on me now, I haven't even finished killing you yet!"
-
"No I have to and help. After what happened when I fought the count. I could have beaten him but that poision it got to me. I have to go and help the team rather then take a back seat. Where can I find Wilham?"
---
Soon the lightning bolts started to touch the water. When this happened the water would shimmer and crack but nothing bigger. Druid stood waving his hands around almost like he was trying to control the bolts. Druid’s right hand pulsed and the sky did as well.
“Ah, I’ve finally got one. Now the show will begin.”
[Charging: 2025]
-
"Nobody's ashamed of you for not defeating the count. He's a skilled warrior." Marshall assured. "But yeah Wilham's just out somewhere." Marshall replied. "I'm sure you can find him, this island isn't very big, and the empire doesn't seem to pay much attention to it."
Outside the cabin was a small island, the sky was still tainted by the darkness of the Emperor, but the island itself was like a peaceful beach. The grass was clear, the sand on the shore was smooth and clean and there were waves splashing against rocks near the shoreline.
The cabin was positioned near by a hill with trees around it. The top of the hill however seemed have a dark taint about it, nothing was growing on top of it, and the dirt was dimly coloured as if a permanent shadow was above it.
Wilham was on a peak in the hill, but not at the top. He was moving some rocks trying to find a passage way or something.
//The island they're on is marked by the violet dot on this map (http://http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia/index.php/Image:WC-Temple_Map.GIF).\
-
"Young man, I am dazzled." proclaimed Johnny with a smile. "I don't know what kind of magic you used to survive that heat but it must be powerful to have survive such an inferno that bird created."
"Johnny," asked Quad, "Did you know about the conditions of that cave?".
"Yes."
"YOU BASTARD!!! You sent me in that dreaded cave knowing it could of killed me?"
"Relax Q."
"NO!!!" Quadricentennial felt very angry, more angry that he has ever before. He never felt like this before. He never thought that he would get so upset and mad before for anything in his life. "You seriously sent me there knowing I could of burnt up."
"But you didn't."
"Well you couldn't have possibly known I would survive it."
"But you did." Quad then launched towards Johnny, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up.
"You bastard. You think this is some sort of game for you? Sending in people to their deaths on a cave that is hotter than a million suns?" Johnny was struggling to get some air but the grip on his neck was overwhelming. Quad dropped him to the floor. Johnny started coughing and hacking. "I'm getting out of here." Quad said as he was starting to leave. Johnny sat on the floor, gasping for air. Quad continued to walk off into the now setting sun.
His life has definitely turn changed. He didn't knew what he was anymore. Was he even human? He couldn't figure out what was his life about now? He looked at his hands and pondered "What am I?", "What has become of me?", "What is the fate of my life?". "I need answers. I need answers to who I am." He wanted an easy solution but he was sure he wouldn't find it just wandering about. As he thought to himself what his purpose in life now is, he then remembered in the cave, a man approached him. Deep within that cave that burned hotter than anything in the world, a man stood before him, threatening to cut his limbs. "That man. He was in the cave that would of burned his flesh. He must know something."
Quad ran back to the cave to see if there was signs of the mysterious man.
-
A huge explosion burst from underneath Nex and Draven soared skyward, wrapped in a raging inferno as boulders were strewn about. He rocketed just behind the demon and reared back his fist, delivering a thundering punch towards the back of the demon's helmeted head...
----
"A place beyond the sky... Interesting."
Vincent thumbed through the papers.
"I can tell you right away that some of these sketches are infeasible. I am going to rework some of this... Have my team ready for me in the morning..."
His eyes never left the papers, and he continued flipping through them as he disappeared back into the glowing glyphs...
----
Lucile,
Been busy. War is hectic, but we are all well.
Kendo Virmir, High General of the Dark Empire, Skyward Division
-
Anti shot forward at a blinding speed. Within mere milliseconds, he'd come into range and pulled his fist back. He then cut it loose with an intensely powerful force, right toward the guy's face.
--- --- ---
//Okay... what does the exit look like? Is it the same way my group came in?
"Avenging Romme?" asked Tsu.
Xenai was the only person who seemed concerned about making like a tree and getting the fuck out. He was leading the pack, it seemed. So he paid attention to where he was going. Hopefully he'd find an exit...
-
//It's make like a tree and LEAVE. You know, like leaves on a tree? Heh. But yeah, the exit would be like a cave, it's the only way in or out of Tjedon, I belive.\
"Uhh yeah." Duilin replied still smiling, but then went to a more neutral expression. "Well, you know what I mean. Retan destroyed Romme, and his generals lead armies that slaughtered the entire kingdom, all for a sword. When I truly saw what was going on, I knew I had to make sure nothing like this happens again. I'm sure you guys must have made a promise to yourself or others, or something like that, else you wouldn't have been fighting alongside me and Zeros'."
--- ---
The elite was blown back several yards as Anti's fist smashed into his face, he hit the ground leaving skid marks as he tore the ground. He stopped moving...
The other elite with the big hole in his chest got back up, and aimed his charged right gauntlet very carefully as his opponent had his back turned. He didn't care about the lack of honour; the Talonscar had been backstabbers since Abodahon made his first steps on Gaian and started the group.
The elite then fired an orange laser, moving at light speed (since lasers are light) right at Anti's back...
---
"Ooff--"
Nex was pushed forward as Draven's fist smashed into the back of his head. He regained his balance and turned his head, seeing the enraged man behind him.
"As always, you're so touchy." Nex derided as he whipped out his scythe from nowhere and turned around to face his foe.
He flipped the scythe around, with the blade pointing upwards and gave a downwards swing with the blunt metal skull at the end coming down to hit him on the head. I was a sign that Nex wanted to beat him up before he killed him. He liked to see their pain, before he ended it for them. It reminded him of the good old days when he was torturing souls in Hell.
-
"About time... There's the cave's exit. Let's go." Tiberius lead the party out of the caves and into a new valley outside of Tjedon.
"The cave was just the least of our problems... I assume we want to get to North Point, correct?" Valiko stepped infront of Tiberius.
"What are you getting at?"
"Well, the fact that North Point is in the Dark Continent... And seeing as how we're in Tjed, we'll need some sort of method of transportation."
"Damn... should've thought about that... what about that port?"
"I'd rather not go back... best just press forward and hope for a boat."
"Best damn idea I've heard all day. Let's go."
"Hmm... It just so happens that we're greatly in luck. Look."
"Wow a boat! Uh... that's a pirate ship..."
"You have any better ideas?"
"Guess not. Let's go." Tiberius lead the way down to the coast. After about a mile or so of walking, they found a great ship. However, the company on board, or one might say the current tenants, weren't taking a fancy to new passengers.
"I swear, if da cap'n doesn't give us our fair share of da haul..."
"What're you gonna do 'bout it? Da cap'n's a mage! He'd burst your very bones into dust!"
"I'm just sayin', if we don't get our fair share, we'd probably be better off on a'nover ship... Hey, who be dem people?"
"I don't know... prob'y lookin fer a ride... Great. More bleedin people on dis bleedin ship means less food. Why don't we jus gut 'em now? Entertainment might pull my mind off the sicha'machin..."
"You talk funny, mate, but yeah, I'm game. Let's gut the blighters!"
"Gentlemen." The two pirates sitting on the railing of the ship were both stunned, not by magic, but of fear.
"Cap'n...... Viskis?"
"What are you just sitting around here for!? Get your ass in gear and swap the deck, or I'll have your head on a platter!"
"Yes, cap'n!"
"......"
"And you too, Joel! Get back to work!"
"No."
"What!?"
"You 'erd me! I sai-gguughh...... cap...n...?" Captain Viskis stabbed his magical sabre straight through the pirate's stomache, then pushed him overboard. The pirate puked blood as he fell from the great ship into the shore water.
"Hmm... Seems we've got company. Keep the anchor down for another few moments, and throw down a board!"
"Yes cap'n!" Two other pirates grabbed a large board and hooked it to the railing of the ship. Captain Viskis walked down the board and stepped on shore.
"Many greetings! My name is Jorran Viskis. What may we humble sailors do for you this most fine of days?"
"We're seeking passage to the Dark Continent. Could you help us?" Tiberius grabbed his coin pouch and threw it to the mage. He caught the pouch and opened it. There were more than a few glimmering silver and gold pieces.
"Hmm... Decent quality... I think I might abide to your request. Welcome aboard the Black Haven!" The mage captain took a bow and turned around, walking up the ramp back aboard his ship.
"That was a bit easier than I had expected... after you."
------------
"Hmm... let's see... Do you guys know how to cast fire yet?" Jacobie wasn't as overwhelmed by these two lizardmen as was Justin. He found out that they were only mere trainees, and that this was supposed to be their first mission. Surprizing that the Dark Empire would let soldiers this young join the Empire. They were mere teenagers, both about seventeen.
"Me first! Me first!" The first apprentice was jumping around slightly, quite excited. However, so was the second.
"No way! You go already! I go now!" Both the lizardmen stared at eachother.
"Calm down! A true mage does not care about petty squabbles such as this." After Jacobie had said this, both the lizardmen looked immediately at Jacobie. This had seemed to calm them down a bit.
"Okay... You go first then."
"Thank you! I go now." The young lizardman held his hand up in the air. It began to let off a small trickle of smoke, then it slowly started to spark around, soon casting fire around his hand.
"Very good! You guys learn fast. Now, can you put it out?" The lizardman widened his hand, and the fire slowly died down into a small puff of smoke. Then, nothing remained.
"Excellent work! Alright, your turn. Actually, before we continue, I'd like to know your guys' names." The first lizardman jumped forward.
"Me's Borom! He's Gogron!"
"Borom... Gogron... Hang on a second..."
------------
*FLASHBACK*
"Come on, Thommas! If you swing like that, you wont hit anything!"
"I'm trying! Father, I'm exhausted! Can I take a break?"
"Alright... We've been out here for ten or so hours... Go ask your mother for supper. I'm heading off to bed. Oh, and don't bother Drake... He's sleeping."
"Thank you, father!"
"I'm your dad, Thommas. Just call me dad."
"But mother said that's rude."
"Did she? Heh, those Drow sure have weird customs..."
"Drow...?"
"We'll talk later, Thommas. I need some sleep now..." The old lizardman walked back into a large home, trying not to get snow in the home. Jacobie walked back along side him. As they both walked to the house, a beautiful Drow woman opened the door.
"Come on you two! Dinner's ready!"
"Not so loud, Rei! Draconis is still sleeping, right?"
"No, he's up. He's in his room, playing with those toys you made him." The two lizardmen entered the house. It was a greatly wealthy home, with a lush red carpet, oak walls and ceiling, all painted a dark brown. There was much open space, and a stairway on the left of the home. Two grand windows let the sun light the room, behind two white couches.
"I'm heading off to bed. Please watch Thommas... He'll make a fine soldier yet." The old lizardman walked up the staircase and down a hall, past which Jacobie never tred before. The Drow walked with Jacobie into another room. The walls in there were the same, but the flooring was tile, hand crafted, with a strange insignia on each tile. They looked silver, but were just colored that way.
"Come on, Thommas! Let's get you something to eat." In this room were two smaller windows above a counter and a strange looking counter. It had symbols drawn on it, which look similar to the insignias on the floor. The Drow opened a drawer from under the oak counter and pulled out two small, silver bowls. She then placed them both on the counter with the symbol. The bowls filled with water.
"Wait here, Thommas." The Drow left to room and entered another. Soon, she returned with a few ingredients that would fit a nice stew; beef, carrots, peas, cellery, and something else... It was a strange, blue plant. She placed all of the ingredients on the other counter top and pulled out a knife from the drawer under the counter, cutting the food into smaller slices, grinding the plant into dust.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. "Could you get that, hon?"
"I'll get it, mother." Jacobie walked out of the room and into the other, opening the front door of the grand home. In the doorway stood two odd-looking men, hooded in white robes. Their hoods stretched over their heads, and all that could be seen of their faces was shadow.
"Hello, little one. Is your father home, by any chance?" The voice of the first robed man was quite low. It sounded quite dark; quite evil.
"Father... He's asleep. What do you need him for?"
"We're here to give him... a present of sorts. He need only sign a few forms, and it's his."
"I'll tell him you were here when he gets up. What are your names?"
"Just tell him that Borom and Gogron stopped by... He'll know who we are."
"And just who are you?"
"I gues you could say we are... parents of a sort. Masters of an academy, full of students. I believe he wished to enroll you... are you Thommas?" The second man's voice was as fierce as the first, if not even more terrifying.
"Yes..." Jacobie was stricken with fear, his heart racing. Something about these people made his blood feel... cold... dead... even merely being in their presence.
"Then we will be seeing you shortly, I assure you. We will be taking our leave. Oh, and give your father this package whne he gets up. Good day, Thommas." The two men in white robes left the house. Jacobie felt a sence of relief as they walked out and shut the door. He then turned his attention to a package... He slit the tape holding the box together with a stroke of a claw, and opened the box. Inside lay a set of Crimson armor, along with a red katana, and a blue katana...
*END FLASHBACK*
------------
-
//Not according to the Tourette's bartender in Boondock Saints. Wink
Xenai whipped around, though continuing to walk backwards. "That kinda shit pisses me off, man!"
Zion gave him a weird look. "Hey, watch where your going."
"It's stupid and wrong and no, and-"
"D'oh!"
He'd fallen out the exit onto his behind. Zion snickered. "I told you to watch where you're going."
--- --- ---
"OW!" A stinging sensation on his back. "Asshole!" He whipped around. You could see the shapes where his eyes would be had taken on an angry shape. "That hurt, damnit! You're gonna get it now." He pointed a finger towards the man's forehead and shot a laser of his own forth.
-
Druid raised his hand above his head and the spiral cloud raised up slightly. Swiftly Druid moved his hand downwards. As he did this a fierce bolt of lightning came out of the center of the spiral and crashed into the center of the waves. Druid raised his hand up and the pillar of lighting seemed to connect the sky and the water. For when he did this the cloud formation rose and so did the water.
[Charging: 2125]
---
"Alright, I'll get some stuff and head up the mountain. If for some reason I encounter trouble on my way up or when i find Wilham I'll fire a large blast of fire into the air, like a flare. Is that okay with you two?"
-
"Well, we're gonna be inside, so I don't think we'll see it." Firstman replied to Coriko.
"I'll be outside." Marshall said to Firstman, and then looked to Coriko. "There's some other stuff I want to do. Plus it would be best if one of us stays and looks out. I have a feeling something is weird about this island."
--- ---
"Uh, I was thinking we could fly. I have wings." Duilin said to the others as they boarded the ship. "Well, I guess you two guys can't fly. Besides, it takes a lot of energy to fly from Tjed to Terian, I remember Zeros' made me do that twice in a row, was that ever annoying."
I have a bad feeling about these guys, however. Duilin thought to himself about the men on the boat.
--- ---
The elite's head was hit by the laser, and he seemed to fall back, but he head was simply pushed to the side, he survived. The elite then summoned a fireball in his hands and then threw it at Anti...
-
"Oi, you lot! The Cap'n wishes us ta give ya a'nover foine welcome to da Black Haven. For some, it is a sanctuary amongst da seas, and for others, a watery grave. Your quarters'll be down bellow, first deck under. Enjoy your stay!" These pirates didn't seem to be as bothered as the other two. infact, they seemed to go on about their captain as being a sort of god of the seas. It was all rubbish, but then again, it does help to have a loyal crew, especially as loyal as captain Viskis' men were.
Tiberius boarded the ship along with Valiko. They didn't like the idea of going on this boat just as much as Duilin, but they really didn't have any more energy left, and needed sleep. "I'll check out our quarters." A pirate came up to Tiberius and led him down to a room full of nice beds. These pirates must have plundered quite a bit to have such nice quality items in their possesion. Tiberius hit the first bed he saw and fell fast asleep. Must have been very tired...
------------
-
Scowling, Draven threw his left hand up grabbed the blunt end of the scythe, pulling the weapon towards him, and in a quick defensive-turned-offensive maneuver, sent a burning fist right towards his adversary's metal face...
----
A figure wrapped in black peeked out of the bushes, eying the pirate ship as the crew made their preparations to leave. It deftly leapt off the small cliff and glided over the water without so much as disturbing it. It circled around the base of the ship and hid in the long shadow cast by the setting sun, pressing its back against the damp wood...
----
Dearest Ken,
Thank you for replying; it means a lot to us. I read your letter to the people before services and we all laughed. Your reply is shorter than your title!
I am sorry to keep bothering you with our trifles. It's just that we would like to bring some small bit of home to you. You are our strongest beacon of light in this dark world. The people all look up to you and your men, Ken. I couldn’t possibly fathom what would happen if word came home that you were struck down.
Please be safe. I won't send as many letters from now on. I promise.
Love,
Lucile Urocy, High Priestess of Welkin
-
Ben stepped aboard the ship after everyone else boarded it. The ship's captain came out from his cabin and stood before his men on deck. "Raise anchor! We set sail for Terian!"
"AYE, CAP'N!!!" the crew shouted as they lowered the sails and raised the anchor to the ship. Wind caught the sails of the ship, and soon, it was set in motion.
"Something's not right here..." Ben observed the ship for a few more seconds, then just laid his thoughts to rest.
-
The scythe disappeared as Nex let go of it, in order to block Draven's punch, by crossing his arms in front of his face.
"You sure weren't kidding when you said you wanted to melt my face." Nex laughed.
Nex then brought his fist back and then swung it forward leaving streaks of lightning, aiming for the fire mage's stomach...
--- ---
Duilin decided to stay on deck and watch their progress in travel. Despite what he's been through today, he's been able to keep his energy.
-
"Hey, you! Angel! The captain would like to see you in his cabin." Ben gave a confused look, but just went along with the pirate to the captain's cabin. The pirate lead him to the front of the ship, past a few crates and barrels marked with the jolly roger.
As Ben stepped into the captain's office, he saw something that he didn't expect to see for many years. It was Thand, an alchemist and a doctor from the northern reaches of Tjed.
"Thand!? By the gods, is that you?"
"Bjendell Mjord! Just what have you been doing all these years? More so, I'd like to ask what your doing on this ship."
"I see you two have already had a proper introduction... Yes, I thought as much. Master Thand is the Black Haven's resident alchemist and physician. I'll leave you two alone for a moment." Captain Viskis left the cabin.
"We uh... got caught here at a bad time. We're buying passage into Terian. We 'bought' passage into Terian..."
"Terian!? What on Gaian could you possibly want to go there for? They've unified the place since you've last been to the temple, you know."
"Yes, I suspected as much. I'll probably find it under enemy control... or in ruins. I can be rebuild, with ease, mind you."
"So, what business have you up in Terian?"
"We're headed for North Point, actually, also looking for passage into Welkin."
"God's blood!!! What's worse than going to the Dark Continent is going to that fortified fortress of evil! You must be suicidal, friend."
"Heh... Same old Thand. Always worrying about others more so than himself. Is your daughter here as well?"
"Yes, she's down below deck, checking up on wounded sailors."
"By 'sailors', you mean-"
"Yes, yes, you know what I mean. These aren't bad people, you know. There methods of making a living are... questionable at best. We only prey upon Dark Empire vessles."
"Only Empire vessles... I'd say you're more Crusaders than pirates!" Both Thand and Ben laughed at this comment.
"Ahh yes, well, we sure did spend some good time together, huh?"
"Sure did... I'm going to head under and check up on those wounded."
"Still practice that fancy healing stuff, huh?"
"Yeah. It was nice catching up, Thand!"
"Likewise, although Terian might take another day or two to get to by ship. Just be patient..." Ben walked out of the cabin and below deck, into a room filled with beds. Tiberius was in one of them, sound asleep, along with a few more pirates, some of them badly injured. Ben pulled his black robe hood over his head, just enough to cover his face in shadow. He walked over to one bed with a woman sitting next to a pirate, with a mortal wound.
"Mind if I have a look?" He said, keeping his voice deep and unfarmiliar.
"Go ahead... He might not last, though. It looks pretty bad..." The woman stepped out of the way and Ben placed his hand an inch over the pirate's wound. A blue light appeared over his hand and the wound started to seal itself, the veins inside reattaching and closing off. There was nothing left of the wound but dry blood on the pirate's side.
"What the...... How did you......?"
"How did I what? I'm a cleric by nature."
"But not even the mage-"
"Could use angelic healing techniques?" Ben unmasked his voice and lowered his hood.
"......Ben...?" Ben smiled as she guessed his name correctly. She leapt into his arms.
"BEN!!! IT IS YOU!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THESE YEARS!?!?!?" Ben held the woman in his hands, then placed her back down.
"I'm glad to see you to Jannis!"
"How's Tjed?"
"Not so good. It's been put under occupation from the Dark Empire..."
"DARK EMPIRE!?!?!? THOSE BASTARDS!!!"
"That's one of the reasons why I'm on this ship. I'm headed for North Point."
"That sounds very dangerous!"
"I know, but if we want to save Tjed, that's our only hope..."
"......"
"Something wrong?"
"You could use a hand, you know..."
"I'd be glad to have you tag along, Jannis."
"I've told you before, just call me Jannie!"
"That's the way you say thank you?"
"I couldn't care less. I was going will you anyways!"
"That's the Jannie I knew! Nice to have you along!"
------------
-
// Sorry for not posting for so long, things have been hectic. Anyways, I should be posting more \
Xivilai was extremely disappointed. Several rats had gathered around the unconscious form he had been observing, but they didn’t get more than a few nibbles in before the man regained consciousness. The nibbling must have woken him up.
The man sat up, groggily, looked very confused, and gave a start when he saw he was being eaten by rats. He quickly jumped up, and promptly fell down again. He got up again, slower this time, brushed off the rats that had refused to let go, and started limping off in a direction that lead him away from Xivilai’s. Xivilai toyed with the idea of actually killing him this time, and decided it wasn’t worth the time.
With a sigh, Xivilai turned and continued onward to Tjedon
-
Nex's punch hit square on, the force so intense it sent a circular shock wave out that disintegrated large rocks that flew off the ground below. Draven doubled over in pain as the demon's fist bore into him, his armor cracking. His shocked expression quickly turned to one of seething rage, as he grabbed the demons' arm just above the elbow, then attempted to launch Nex straight into the ground with an over-the-shoulder throw with enough force to blast open a crater the size of an airship...
----
A circular porthole in the side of the pirate ship slowly opened, and the small black shrouded figure quietly slipped through, shutting it behind him. Hovering in the darkness for a second, he listened to the sounds of moaning in the sick bay, and the soft murmuring of voices on the other side of the room. Staying in the shadows, he floated behind some crates, and then down a stairwell that lead into the storage hold of the ship. It was completely black down here. The figure wedged himself in between a series of metal boxes.
----
Lucile,
Apologies for the curtness of my previous reply. There has simply been a lot on my mind lately and dwelling upon thoughts of home only brings a deep longing to my heart.
I will be honest. There is great danger here. There are many who wish us dead, more so now than a year ago now that rumors of our exploits have had time to spread. I cannot blame them.
One of my men was struck down. His outlook is bleak, yet he is a strong young Velken. Do not worry, I am confident we will find a cure to his ailment soon.
Remember that though these magically sent messages are faster than standard letters, other eyes may fall upon them.
Kendo Virmir, High General of the Dark Empire, Skyward Division
-
Nex was thrown to the ground at rocket speed, he smashed into the ground creating a huge crater (of an airship size). Nex way laying on his stomach in the centre of the crater, after a few moments he got back up, dusting himself off. The horns on his helmet were bent backwards, out of shape. He put his hands on the horns and bent them forward, they didn't look quite as new but his helmet seemed to repair itself until it was as good as new. Oddly enough he didn't seem to have too many serious injuries from that crash. Yet it was clear that it hurt, considering how much he was laughing.
Nex was laughing hysterically, for a straight fifteen seconds. Once he stopped he crossed his arms and looked up towards Draven.
"That was good, have a freebie." Nex said scornfully, waiting for him to make another move.
--- ---
//Might as well get the Hypnos vs. Gorus fight over with.\
Hypnos was able to get past Gorus, by performing a flipping jump over his head and dashing towards the building to where his kamas were. Gorus however was charging at the stalker like a bull once Hypnos picked up his weapons.
Hypnos then jumped in the air and pressed his feet on the wall of the building and pushed himself forward to avoid Gorus as he smashed a hole into the structure with his body. The stalker landed on the ground weapons ready. Gorus turned around. He had collected a few noticeable cuts and bruises from breaking a hole in the building.
Gorus picked up a rock from a pile of rubble left in the building, and threw it with great force at the stalker, who was able to easily dodge it. The stalker zoomed forward at Gorus and jumped in an attempt to dig his kamas into Gorus' skull, but he was head butted in the gut before he could make his attack and landed on the ground. Gorus stepped over the stalker and grabbed his right fist with his left hand and smashed it where he head butted him. The stalker's eyes rolled back as he heard his ribs crack, but he was able to jump back up and he started to weakly move away in an attempt to escape.
But then he felt the pain of being whipped, the punishment in the academy when you showed cowardice. Therefore, despite his wounds he turned back to face the lizard general, who seemed to be enjoying the sight of the wounded stalker. He slashed down his kamas but Gorus backhanded his wrist holding the kama, knocking the weapon out of his hand. Hypnos made another attempt with his other kama, but Gorus backhanded it out all the same. Hypnos' ribs were crushing into his lungs he was feeling more and more drained every passing seconds.
"Now, you die...human." Gorus said as if delivering the worst insult ever.
He then kicked his steel spiked boot into the stalker's chest. Gorus seemed to give a look of dissatisfaction as he noticed the human did not cry out in pain, as he expected. He gave his foot another shove, trying to pierce an organ in there, but the stalker didn't make a sound, he simply fell limp against Gorus' leg and quietly died.
"Bleh." Gorus kicked the dead human off his leg, and the bleeding corpse plopped on the ground. "Just another dead human."
It was a pity, he would have made a good enhanced minion, Gorus thought. But a dead human is just as good. But this might be one of his last kills today, as the entire county was quickly becoming a ghost town. Victory was imminent.
-
Ko'ji was inside the airship, sitting next to Helix. Once in a while, she would check his tempurature with her hand and see if he had any feverish qualities. Not a one. Soon, she realised that if Helix did not see a priest, he was doomed by this curse. The only way to save him from an undead state, if his soul left him, would be necromancy, to find his soul and return it... hopefully to his original body.
The small Velken backed up and took one last look at Helix, then turned heel and walked back up some stairs to the ship's deck. "Lord Virmir..." Her voice was cold once again, like the time she arrived.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but... if there's still any way to save Helix... I would take my own life so that he could still have his. If there is any way, please, tell me. Please... Kendo..." She walked up to the high general and knelt down on one knee, looking down.
-
Druid then plunged his hand downwards. The sky dropped so that it was almost touching the water. Druid lowered hand looked like it was grabbing something. He started to raise his hand but he was very strained. The lightning bolt started to crack and fade in its intensity. Druid put his left hand over his right shoulder and flexed his hand into a claw shape. Five additional lightning bolts came from the sky down into the water. They were smaller then the initial bolt, but they did their job stabilizing the first.
[Charging: 2225]
---
"Alright that is a good idea. I've got some food in that rook sack I grabbed." Coriko tapped the bag that hung at his side. "So i'll be off." Coriko headed to the hill. It was grassy and steep. "Well, here we go." Coriko started his climb up. At first it wasn't to difficult but he hit a steep patch of ground. Coriko grabbed on to the long grass to help climb. "Wilham, you there."
Coriko reached a peak and saw Wilham moving some rocks. "Hey, I came to help."
-
As soon as Draven released Nex, he cupped his hands to his sides and summoned a sphere of crimson energy between them. The bright ball of light grew immensely, engulfing his forearms in crimson flame as rays of red shot out in all directions. His aura swirled madly about him, and the black clouds in the sky parted and circled, as if upset by his very presence...
"Gladly."
With that, he thrust his arms straight down and the world flashed orange. A shockwave of fire burst in all directions in the wake of the intense crimson blast sent straight down. Like a comet the fire pillar raged ground-ward, its head over twenty feet in diameter and it's tail connected to Draven's hands as he pooled more and more of his energy into the blast, his face painted completely red, his eyes wide and his mouth twisted into an insane sneer...
----
Virmir shut the book he was flipping though while standing on the deck and placed it under his arm. He slowly walked toward Ko'ji as she kneeled. Most commanding officers would take insult to being addressed by their first name by a lower rank, yet the High General did not seem to mind or even notice.
He bent down in front of her, resting his left hand on her shoulder. He placed two fingers of his right under her chin and gently lifted her head up so she was not looking at the ground, but into his eyes. The cold veil over those twin orbs was gone, instead replaced by a deep yet sad kindness, as father to a daughter might display.
"Ruiki," he said softly, "sacrifice without meaning is never acceptable. Never offer your life so freely. Your life is just as valuable as the next..." His eyes and voice trailed off, his tone becoming considerably darker. "Life is not a thing to bargain..."
He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, his claws digging into the fabric, then stood and turned. He clasped his hands just under the two swords strapped to his back and walked towards the end of the ship, looking up at the sky painted green by the shield that trapped the humans in the city, his tail flicking back and forth.
"Do not worry for Helix's life. It is my concern, and by all means necessary, I will see to it that he lives... I swear it."
-
"I... I mean not to burden you... but if there's any way I can help, I want to. Just tell me, anything I can do, I'll do it!" Ko'ji stood up swiftly.
"Please, I need you to tell me what I can do..."
-
//I less-than-three college. Razz
Xenai was lying down somewhere on the deck, asleep. He didn't care if he was in the way. Zion was keeping watch on things nearby. Tsu and Aura were in their quarters. There wasn't much to talk about that was really eventful.
--- --- ---
You must be kidding me. This is too easy. Anti turned around, catching the fireball in his hand as he did. He turned a full circle, and flung the ball back at the guy who made it.
-
The elite caught the fire ball right back, yet he nearly fell over. The elite shook his head at Anti, making the fireball bigger. He then jumped in the air and performed several flips to gain speed and the fireball rocketed forward at his foe...
---
Nex was buried into the ground, as the first head of crimson energy smashed into him. Several of his seemingly infinite layers of robes were incinerated on contact, but Nex thought it would be best to defend and counter the attack as Draven continued to pour more of his energy into the stream.
He pushed his hands into the stream of energy and started to push it back by summoning demonic flames and pushing them forward. Nex was surrounded with an aura of orange flame and started summoning more and more hell flames. Several plumes of flame sparked off from his aura and burnt inverted pentagrams into the ground.
Nex summoned more and more fire and pushed it forward until his stream of fire had matched Draven's.
//DBZ KI BEAM FIGHT!!\
-
Anti jumped into the air, pulled his leg back, and lashed forward with it at the fireball, kicking it like a soccer ball, sending it flying back faster than it came. He would scream "GOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!" if it connected.
-
(Rotate control stick!!)
Draven began cackling manically. Nex's demonic imitation flames couldn't hold a candle to the real thing, and he knew it. Thrusting his hands further down, a bulge of crimson energy traveled down the trunk of the beam, causing it to swell significantly and the head to explode with destructive force. As the two opposing energies pushed against each other, an intense wind blasted in all directions, smoothing out the terrain and parting the clouds as the two giants fought...
----
(Blast! I'm sorry, I totally forgot she had nothing to do. Heh...)
Virmir turned half way and smiled, flicking his tail once. "Well, there is one thing..."
He looked back at the sky. "I have a cure in mind, but still, we need more time... As he is, his spirit is vulnerable to the unseen... Invisible demons that aren't part of this plane and never could be, yet are a serious threat because of his soul's weakened state..."
He looked down and shuttered. "Should his soul be consumed by one of these, he will become undead instantly... or worse. Possessed..."
He turned to her, baring an air of utmost importance. "Will you travel to the cleft-between-planes and guard his spirit to buy us as much time as possible? There is huge danger in this, as you will leave your physical body behind. If your soul is consumed by the unseen, you too will become undead...
"I do not ask this lightly, and you may refuse if you wish. But I have confidence in your abilities..."
(Chapter ends in one week.)
-
Ko'ji's ears percked up as she heard the words spoken from Virmir. She looked at his half smile, and for some reason... it was comforting. It was something she had never felt before.
"I will guard his soul. Not a single demon will touch him while I'm there! I just need time to prepare... I will need as much spiritual energy as I can get." Ko'ji pulled out three necklaces. One was a cross, platinum, designed to strengthen the spirit. The other was an unholy symbol, a circle with a demonic sign inside, used by most demons to absorb power that threatens them. The last was another cross, golden, designed to be able to access spirit energy faster. She hung the three necklaces around her neck.
"My body will want to keep these on at all times. Just let me charge them with my spirit energy, and they should be able to work properly. I'll go downstairs, to Helix's side." Ko'ji walked calmly down into the ship's interior and sat down next to Helix, who was still in bed. She cupped both her hands near the necklaces. They began to move back and forth, then violently around in circles. She was changing most of her air magic into energy. The golden cross began to glow.
[1 of 3 trinkets charged]
-
"Ah, good to see you Coriko." Wilham greeted, as he continued moving rocks he pulled one rock and the rest tumbled down catching him by surprise he stepped back to avoid getting hit on the foot by any of them. As the rocks fell down they revealed a tunnel.
"Hmm, what could this be?" Wilham asked semi-rhetorically.
//Me and Coriko already planned this out and since we're short on time, I'll go ahead.\
Wilham and Coriko walked through the tunnel.
"This doesn't look like one of the temples, but maybe this tunnel will lead us to it." Wilham said.
Part way through the tunnel was a strange field of energy, it looked like a very shallow pool of water, but it was lit with a blue light.
"This is odd. The water seems to be flowing, rather than streaming down like a water-fall."
Wilham stuck his hand into the water-like field and his hand disappeared. He quickly pulled it back out, and all was normal again. He then decided to try it again, he dipped his hand in, and then took a step forward; he slowly peeked his head through, and then pulled it out.
"Wow. Come in, Coriko, this is amazing!" Wilham said, and then stepped all the way through...
---
On the other side of the field, was a very strange and outlandish interior of a building. The walls appeared to be built of metal. The floor was clean and flat. On the ceiling were these strange flat light sources, they seemed to be part of the ceiling itself, it made the place seem as bright as being outdoors.
Wilham stepped around for awhile, then suddenly a man in a black suit who was patrolling the halls spotted him and looked shocked.
"Who are you?" The man asked, speaking in a British accent. "How did you get here?! Start explaining or I'll call the guards!"
Wilham put his hands up. "It's okay, there is no need. I mean no harm." He said in defence. He turned to look behind him to see if Coriko was coming.
--- ---
The elite was smashed by the fireball and was knocked to the ground rolling several times before he stopped moving. He slowly and weakly got back up. He lifted his fists and the gems on his gauntlets began to glow as he charged his energy.
---
Nex noticed Draven was pushing more and more energy, so he thinks he can out do him? He started to summon more and more flames, and the crimson fire started to get pushed back as Nex spread his arms across making the stream of flames wider but narrowing to met his foe's attack. Screams of pain started coming from Nex's location. But they weren't coming from Nex, Nex was summoning so much flames that the sound of screams of the tortured souls of hell were coming through. It still wasn't enough for Nex's tastes. The orange flame started to turn a blood red as streaks of the coloured lightning started to flow through and began pushing away at Draven's beam of energy...
"Black Magic...gotta love it..."
//No, I didn't rip off Kronos' line. Shut up Ein Razz.\
-
"Wow... Tiberius fell asleep pretty damned fast."
"Tiberius is here, too? I would have liked to know you guys were here... where's Justin?"
"He's back in Tjedon, probably looking for a way to stop those airships..."
"AIRSHIPS!?!?!?"
"SHH!!! You wouldn't want to wake Tiberius, or the rest of these injured pirates..."
"Oh, they've all been given sedatives."
"What? Why?
"Why don't you tell me the hell's been happening first!?"
"It's alright. No one's been harmed, but the Dark Empire has assumed control over Tjedon."
"Gee, isn't that great news... damned Dark Empire bastards..."
"Jeese! Calm down a bit, will ya?"
"I missed you, you know..."
"Huh...? What are you talking about?"
"When you went away, back up to where ever that place is called..."
"Asgard?"
"Yeah, that's the one. I was only a little girl when I first met you. I was around nine, about ten or so years ago..."
"Jannis, why are you-huh?" Jannis fell into Ben's arms, holding tightly. He was confused, not knowing what to do. He just stood there, looking back down at Jannis
"Don't ever go away again! I wanted to see you again so much! It was as if tearing my heart out, knowing I'd probably never see you again!" She broke out into tears, her face pressed against Ben's chest. Ben put one hand around her, and one behind her head, stroking her hair.
"I'm here, now, it'll be alright... I'm not going anywhere for a long time... I'll be here for you..." As he stroked her soft hair, she backed her face away from his chest for a moment, then looked up at him.
"A... long time...? You'll be here... for me...?" She sniffled once or twice as she looked up at him.
"I promise you... nothing can stop me from keeping my word, especially not when I'm with you."
"... thank you..." A tear slid down her soft cheek. She held on to him again, the side of her head agains his chest.
"I'll never let go of you again... I love you so much..." She held on even tighter as she spoke. Love? This was something Ben had not felt in such a long time. The only other times he'd felt this was the last few times he was with her, ten to five years ago. He'd almost forgotten what it felt like, being shrouded in darkness, battle after battle, with the Dark Empire.
"I... Don't know... what to say... Have you... always...?" Ben felt the side of her head as she nodded in response. Now, he really couldn't say anything. He was petrified. He was clueless, to think that someone had loved him and he hadn't known about it this whole time. What was he supposed to say? He wasn't really good at saying what he feels... not with love, anyways...
"You have...... always. I didn't even know..." She backed away from his body again, her watery eyes piercing his. It was calming, though, peaceful, affectionate. She smiled lightly, still looking into his eyes, slowly putting her arms around his neck.
"I-I... I can't-t-" She put a finger over his lips, and pulled his head down, slowly, so that it was level with hers, and gave him a soft kiss. Her hands reached down to his face as she held on to him, Although she no longer needed to.
After a minute or so, they broke off. Ben's cheeks turned red as he looked back at Janis.
------------
-
Indher didn't seem very impressed. The light show seemed even usual for her.
Holding the small and, now red rock in her hand, she appeared to be examining it thoroughly.
"Nope, this is useless."
With that, she threw the rock upwards and blasted it with lightning, causing it to shatter...
"So..." she turned to the now normal man "...Ready?"
-
Draven's beam was pushed back as Nex supplemented his own with black magic.
"Blast it!!" he bellowed as his aura exploded, a tremendous mass of crimson energy massing around his body. His eyes began to glow red as he snarled, coursing more and more power down the shaft of light.
The world around flickered red and white as the bright flashes rapidly interchanged like a strobe light, painting the sky a deep crimson. The crater Nex stood in deepened by an order of magnitude as the fierce winds blasted away boulders...
----
Anslem slowly opened the door to Helix's room and peered inside. Seeing that Ko'ji was there meditating, he quietly entered and bowed before her.
"Riuki, allow me to accompany you on your quest."
"I was looking for someone to accompany her..." Virmir said from behind as he entered the room. "There is much danger in this, do you understand that?"
Anslem nodded. "Yes... it is my fault, anyway... as a Blade Knight, it was my duty to protect him... I was standing right next to him when it happened... I should have..."
"What's done is done, Anslem."
At that moment another Velken Battle Mage entered the room, wearing the usual black robes. Anslem expected to see Renard, but instead recognized the silver fox as Gaston. He was clutching a tome in his claws and was wearing rectangular glasses. Obviously they did not fit over the ears as human glasses did but instead perched atop the base of his muzzle.
He bowed briefly to all three (conscious) Velkens in the room, his tail waving nervously from under his robes. "Lord Virmir, though I am no priest, I have some experience in soul separations, and can provide the services you require..." he flashed a glance at Anslem and Ruiki, "... provided the parties involved are willing..."
Virmir nodded. "Excellent. We will begin as soon as these two are ready."
-
"I just need a few more moments to charge my equipment." Ko'ji blasted away at her wind magic, changing it to spiritual energy. The room caught a slight breeze, and the platinum necklace glowed faintly. The unholy symbol, however, shattered. She did not need that last symbol, but it would have been useful.
"Alright, I'm ready. Thank you for going with me." Ko'ji stood up from the ground and dusted off her pants. She then looked at this Gaston Velken and walked towards him.
"Let's go. We've got to protect Helix as much as we can!"
-
Nex noticed he was getting Draven angry, and that smirk on his face was finally gone. He liked this. He continued to pour more energy into his stream. An orange glowing inverted pentagram appeared underneath him and spirals and helixes of flame began to swirl around him. Nex levitated himself, to avoid getting pushed away by intense winds. However he took them as an opportunity.
Nex chuckled lightly. He absorbed the wind pushing against him and started to push it along his stream, giving it a slight physical boost, also the mighty gusts of wind began pushing at Draven...
--- ---
"It doesn't seem that this antidote is working at all. Ven seems just as ill as he did before." Rink said solemnly. "Something's odd about him, it seems like this poison isn't really damaging his body, but something else." He looked at the others. "Maybe there is somebody else in Tjedon, who has better knowledge about such things."
-
"Not damaging his body... what on Gaian could you possibly mean by that!? If it's not damaging his body, then the only other thing it could be damaging is-- oh... oh no..." Justin looked at the lifeless mass that was Ven. Apparently, his fears had been realized.
"His... soul... Rink, I do know how to cure an undead awakening. I used to be a monk over at the monestary in the Arctic Region. I will need time, though. Ven's soul is being threatened by all manner of invisible creatures and demons. If just one of those creatures were to attack his soul in it's weakened state, he may not have any soul at all, or worse, be possesed by one of those creatures' souls."
"What do you propose we do, Justin?" Jacobie asked from the doorway.
"You need to guard his weakened soul. I believe that if you pass into the next plane of being, then you will be able to meet his soul. You might even be able to talk with it, of course, if it isn't already fighting back creatures..."
"Is that even possible? To ascend into the next plane... one would have to die... or leave themselves in a coma..."
"I know the propper rituals of ascention. In fact, I have the rune with me, right here." Justin pulled out a rock with glowing, cyan symbols and letters. It seemed to have its own magical aura. He placed the rune on a table in the house.
"Ma'am, do you have any clear rooms, like any empty bedroom areas or anything?"
------------
"Ugh... I haven't sailed anywhere since I was young... I bleedin hate ships..."
"Hey you! Cap'n says we're gonna reach land at around dawn. You might wanna git some sleep..." The pirate returned downstairs. Valiko took his advice without hesitation.
"Hey, Duilin! Morning's not for another ten hours or so! You could get some good sleep in... or stay up here if you like." He made his way down some stairs that took him to a lot of beds, some of which had pirates, and a few farmiliar faces. Tiberius nearly looked dead; he was sound asleep. Ben was in a bed with another woman, her head on his shoulder. Valiko took a bed at random, plopped down, and tried to get some rest.
"Hmm... I feel strange..." He thought to himself, "Like we're being... hunted... Oh well. I have been getting really tired. Time to sleep..."
------------
-
"I'll go to sleep when I get tired." Duilin replied.
He didn't like how slow this ship was, if the Dark Empire didn't smash up his old ship after they left it, they'd probably be there by now. Then again, that was a pretty fast ship.
He leaned against the dock. Ten whole flippin' hours for them to get there? He could get out and swim faster than that. He never thought he'd see the day when he was annoyed by commoner's vehicles in comparison to his magical strength.
--- ---
"No, but there is only a bed and dresser in the bed room, you guys could probably just move it out." The woman replied.
"So, Ven's soul is in danger?" Belle asked.
"This seems pretty deep. I'm going with you." Rink said to Justin.
"Are you sure?" Belle asked the imp.
"Duilin wouldn't want to loose Ven. He's put a lot into protecting Tjed. So I think, as his best friend, I should try and do something on his behalf." Rink said to Belle, and then looked at Justin. "I know I'm not much of a fighter, but I am small and quick, which would make me a tricky target. Plus, I know my way around an immortal realm or two."
-
"I don't know... I guess you can help. I'll need as much as I can get, because I'm no priest... at least... not any longer. First off, make sure all of Ven's wounds are closed. I'll prepare the runes and the runestone for the ritual." Justin walked over to the bedroom and pulled out the dresser, and then the bed. He then set the runestone on the floor.
"Hmm... I guess this will have to do." He took out another runestone, but this one had no runes on it; it glowed blue on the tip, however. He took the tip of the runestone and began crafting the runes for the ritual. It was a circle and some wierd symbols surrounding it, and then another circle around that.
Justin left the room, and grabbed Ven, placing him in the center of the circle, then placing the runestone with the symbols on him. "Rink, get in here. If you have anything left to do, get it done now; I'm going to start the incantation..."
Justin sat on the ground around the rune circle. He clapped his hands and placed them on the ground infront of the runes inscribed on the floor. He began the incantation. "Umika no innose zumo beliar anak myrthose." He repeated this constantly, and the runes on the ground began to glow faintly...
"Umika no innose zumo beliar anak myrthose! UMIKA NO INNOSE ZUMO BELIAR ANAK MYTHOSE!!!!!!" The ground began to shake inside the room. The runes glowed brightly, and started to flicker, sending a bright white flash every other time.
"GET READY!!! HERE WE GO!" The room turned white, and there was nothing inside, but Rink, Justin, and Ven. Ven was standing up, looking somewhat transparent. They crossed over into the next realm. His spirit looked like it was indeed injured. The old injury that the undead left was still apparent on his soul. It bled slowly.
------------
-
The man looked at her.
"I'm ready for everyth-"
Then a short scream was heard. There where Indher threw the rock, something began to scream. A small red.. ball?
It was to quick to see, and already hid under the ground.
Reigratto looked at Shuichi, who had a bright smile on his face now.
Shuichi jumped one step back, and revealed the reason he didn't want to help.
While standing he was secretly making signs in the sand with his leg.
He crouched on one leg and threw a small amulet in the middle of the circle.
It flashed, it became red and it changed into mist.
At the same time he took a small flask, and the mist was absorbed into it.
When he saw that the man was looking. (And maybe the woman), he quickly said with a smile;
"Don't worry.. continue with your beast sealing!"
-
Coriko saw Wilham step through but was still unsure of what a waited them on the other side.
"Hm, I'll show Marshall and Firstman where we are in case something is a miss."
Coriko summoned a ball of fire in his right hand then grabbed the orb with his left. He then made a throwing motion with his left hand so that the ball of fire stretched out into the sky. Coriko made a fist with his left hand and the end crunched up. Then he opened his hand as wide as he could and the end exploded. This was to get Marshall's attention. And the stretched fireball would show them where they were, like an arrow pointing to their location. Coriko let go of the fireball in his right hand and it hovered in spot.
"Alright this line should stay put for a few minutes, plenty of time for them to reach this point. And now," Coriko turned and entered the water like field.
---
Once through the field Coriko bumped into Wilham.
"Sorry about that I..." Coriko stopped when he saw the man in the black suit. "Um... what now?" Coriko whispered into Wilham's ear.
-
Xnhrthsnhz did not seem pleased.
..."BEAST"!? I am the great deity of death. Watch you tongue, human...
Indher shook her head.
"Calm down, blacky. They are humans. They act before they think."
..."BLACKY"...?
...I suppose you have the same problem...?
"Why yes, sorry for being part human."
She turned to the person still standing in the circle.
"Alright, let's get this over with..."
Having erased some of the old runes and replaced them with new ones, she proceeded to add another circle. She signaled the shinigami to step inside.
"Alright, ready, GO!"
The runes flashed blue, the giant disappeared, they flashed green, and soon all the light was sucked into the lone human remaining among the runes in the sand.
"Congradulations!" Indher smiled "You now have a god sleeping in your belly! Have fun and make sure to be best of friends!"
With that, she turned around and activated her orb, disappearing from sight.
-
"Who are you two?!" The black suited man. He pulled out a black objected that resembled a handgun, but it looked much more advanced, like Marshall's MagiPistols, but it was a dark black rather than a silvery grey (it looks identical to a modern day Colt 9mm). "Start answering!"
"It's alright. My named in Wilham Wolfe, and this is my companion Coriko." Wilham answered. "We were just searching the area for artefacts."
"Artifacts!?" The suited man replied, in disbelief. "This is the Kaled Home Base! This is hardly the place to find artifacts!"
"Kaled Home Base?" Wilham asks in confusion. He figured the field they went through transported them into a base of some empire. "Well, just a moment ago me and Coriko were just in a--"
"Enough." The suited man interrupted. "You're coming with me. Resist and you will be exterminated!"
Wilham shrugged and looked at Coriko. "We may as well play along." He said softly.
---
Wilham and Coriko found themselves in a cell room, made of metal with two cots on the opposite sides; Wilham was walking back and forth in the cell.
"I'm sure there isn't anything to worry about." Wilham assured. "If they don't allow us to explain and choose to keep us here, we can fight our way out. They probably don't even know magic, or know we know it."
Suddenly the door opened and a man wearing a similar black suit as the guard who arrested them entered. He looked like he would be an officer as he was being escorted by two other men carrying weapons that looked like advanced machineguns.
"So, how did you get here and who sent you?" The officer asked them.
//I'll either continue this next post, and maybe give Coriko a chance to speak.\
-
"Blaaaasst yoooooou!!!!!"
Draven's aura swelled even greater as he screamed, the burning man becoming a sun in the sky below the black clouds, bathing the entirety of the mountainous lands south of North Point in a crimson glow. He was seethingly irate, and he poured more and more of his strength down at the demon. The ground was in utter chaos. Earthquakes cleaved the mountains in two. Gysers of magma bellowed from the depths of Gaian. The howling winds sputtering around the colossal beam spun downward as a cyclone of superheated air fought back against the winds that Nex sent upwards. Gigantic boulders flew skyward and rained downward like hailstones...
With one mighty push, Draven sent a gargantuan surge of crimson energy down the beam's shaft. The cylinder of flaming death and utter destruction bulged as the mass thundered down at Nex...
----
Anslem wondered if he too should be preparing some sort of spiritual charm like Riuki. The newcomer seemed to be well versed in a lot of things while Anslem had devoted his whole life to speed and the sword. Would his skills even do him any good where they were going?
Wait... was he actually afraid? No, he wouldn't let this get to him. This whole mess was his fault. He would do this and help set things right...
But he was still scared.
Where was Renard, anyway?
"Very well," Gaston said, clearing his throat and opening the tome. His glasses slid down on his muzzle slightly as he flipped the pages. "If you two would lie down." Helix had the only bed in the room, but there were blankets and pillows spread out on the floor for the two plane-walkers-to- be. He lay down on his back and tried to relax, which was rather difficult.
Gaston began chanting something unintelligible, but it was a long while before he felt any different. Gradually he felt a pulling sensation, then he felt like he was floating. It was different from when he levitated his body, as he had complete control then. Now he felt like he was in free fall, and that sensation gradually increased until he was flying wildly out of control.
Then everything stopped, and he was standing in a sea of gray fog... The fog was dense up to his knees, his feet barely visible, then the mist tapered off above that. Looking down at his silver furred hands, he could see that they were translucent with a blue tint, as was the rest of his body.
"By the gods..." he muttered. Now he was really freaked out.
The sky above was a deep black, and the clouds a misty blue. That was it. Nothing else in all directions... Darting his eyes about, he saw Riuki standing next to him, also looking quite translucent.
"Ruiki! Are you all right?"
"...all right... all right... all right..." his voice echoed across the nothingness...
----
After sitting in the darkness for a long time, the black cloaked figure finally decided that there was no one else in the cargo hold of the pirate ship, and he was safely alone.
Removing a pack from under his robes, he quietly opened it and ate a minimal meal of dried meat. It would be a long trip apparently. And time was not on his side, especially now...
-
There's not really a lot to say about what followed his cry of "GOOOOOAL!!!"... except that it was accompanied by massive showboating... an obnoxious, retarded dance, paying no attention to his opponent. At least it seemed...
-
Ko'ji's body glowed with a faint blue aura, and she too appeared as a spirit in the next realm over. "Ugh... feels like my last time in this world." Her calm voice echoed in the distance. Everything in this realm did.
"I have to tell you, Anslem, you cannot keep blaming yourself for Helix. I even thought that rat was still dead. It's not going to matter, anyways. Once we get Helix all fixed up, he'll be good as new, as if none of this had ever happened!" Ko'ji smiled at Anslem, trying to calm him down. It made her feel better as well.
"Now then, where's Helix...... wait... is that...? Dear god, I think I may have found him. Follow me!" Ko'ji raced forwards with intense speed. She stopped a few feet away, and before her was Helix, lying on the ground, asleep. His glow was faint, and did not look as powerful as it should.
"Helix!" She knelt down next to the fallen battle mage. His wound from the rat looked like it barely healed.
"Let me patch that up." Ko'ji reached in her blue vest and pulled out a bandage. It looked like she did, it was transparent. She wrapped the bandage around Helix's wound and tied it off.
"That should help the healing process... at least a little bit from what I know... What's that... oh no, Anslem, behind you!" A large demon burst from the shadows with two giant blades, and it looked like it had two smaller minnions to aid him. He looked at Anslem and lunged his blades forwards.
-
Nex's jaw underneath his helmet dropped, how could a human, much less a human so young be this strong? But he still knew that nothing that Draven tossed at him would be enough to kill him. Nothing from no one...
Nex put all of his energy into his stream to fight back the force of the gargantuan energy surge. His head tilted to the side as sparks and fireballs shot from where he was fighting back. It was a huge bright crimson light right in front of Nex, likely Draven would be unable to see Nex behind the blinding light. The superheated air was pushed away and a huge shockwave shot from Nex breaking the mountains around them. The firey pentagram underneath Nex expanded to 30 feet in diameter, and began to crack the ground. In the middle of the pentagram was the symbol of the Talonscar.
Two raspy and ghostly voices started to pass through Nex's head...
'Don't come home yet...'
'You haven't finished...'
'Do not fail our master, again...'
'Don't ruin your second chance...''
Nex was never able to open a hell gate before, but it almost seemed like he did now. Yet not big enough for a person to go through, the voices were able to pass. But Nex wasn't the only person to get messages...
A ghostly but deep voice passed through Draven's head.
'You'll never be able to get rid of them...'
'They'll always be somewhere...'
'Just stay out of their way...'
Then another ghostly voice passed through, it sounded like a man with a slight Russian accent, but he sounded like he was in terrible pain.
'Save me...'
Nex began to laugh harder and louder than ever, the energy he was fighting back exploded and the energy beams broke off. Nex hovered in the air as crimson energy burned through him. But he continued to laugh.
The pentagram underneath him broke the ground and spread into a pool of lava. It looked as if hell itself was leaking into Gaian. Nex fell down into it back first, as he fell into the lava the Talonscar Elites both got up and flew towards the lava pool and dove in.
Erie screams started echoing all over the place, orange skeletons could be seen trying to swim out the pool, trying to escape. Nex slowly sank into the lava, still laughing even when his head was underneath it. Nex's hands were the last thing to go down, but before they sank each finger, except the middle one lowered down. The hands stood like this, until they were totally under the lava. A few seconds after he sunk down, the lava started swirling around like a whirlpool and Nex's laugh could be heard echoing out from it...
'Run away Draven....'
-
The man, changed, not really much, but he got all kinds of lines on him, and his eyes changed colour.
"It seems.. I have a lord of darkness in my belly.." The man murmured, as if he couldn't believe himself.
Shui walked toward him, and spoke.
"It seems you have no reason to be my servant anymore."
"It seems so." The man replied.
"Well then our ways will part here?" Shui asked.
The man looked with amazement at Shuichi, and grinned.
"I still have some business with you. I won't "serve" you anymore.. but accompany.. yes."
Shuichi seemed relieved and sighed.
"God I though for second you would kill me.."
The man laughed silently. "Why would I do that?" he asked.
...
...
A silence.
...
Shui didn't answer.
...
His look was serious.
...
Reigratto eyes sharpened.
...
The atmosphere is becoming heavy..
Their bodies feel like being torn apart..
And they just stare at each other.
...
Like any second you EXISTENCE could CEASE.
Then Shui smiled.
"It's just a joke."
Reigratto did too.
"I new that."
The atmosphere is normal again, like this never happened. Shui walked toward the sea and his cat jumped off his shoulder into the water. Taking an red pencil into the water, he began drawing in it, no, he was splitting the upper layer of the water.
Reigratto just watched, and Shuichi took a few steps back. The water began to golf.
The smell of blood.. The water changes color.. red.. crimson.. EYES.
For a short while EYES were seen in the water. Crimson eyes.
And then a huge white statue comes out of the water, but it feels like it was there already. Because it did, it was here since the beginning, with the cat sitting on it's head.
Shui looked behind him, and asked Reigratto.
"Will you fly?"
"This time."
The answer was short, but Shui could hear without problems that there was stress in it.
"Let's go then."
Both jumped on the statue of the statue of a bird. It was not much bigger than an regular horse, much wider though because it had it's wings extended. Shuichi "crawled" more on it than jumped, while the cat was looking at him.. like he was laughing.
When Shuichi finally got on it, he took out an piece on paper, with signs on it, and rubbed it on the head of the bird.
The runes disappeared, and the beast started to move. Upwards that is.
They began to fly, and the beast looked each second more and more like a real bird.. After a few minutes it was like a enormous eagle.
It flew southwards.
-
Draven fumbled in the air for a bit, totally out of breath. His aura disappeared entirely and he floated towards the ground as a disheveled mess. There was a huge lava flow beneath him and he landed upon a large boulder sticking out of the fire river and fell to one knee, totally exhausted and unable to move. Bite me, he thought back at the last voice in his head. Freaky demon things...
What in blazes was that all about anyway? Maybe Nex was sucking power from dead spirits or something. That'd explain why such a demon wimp like him was able to stand up to his unstoppable might. These claw-scratch freaks or whatever-they-were were perhaps the third most irritating bunch of scrap pile low-lifes that dared thrust their faces in his business. He'd probably have to take care of them next...
Odd. One of those voices was almost familiar...
He tried to stand, but instead crumbled down on the rock, supporting himself on two hands. Ugh... maybe just a five minute break...
----
(Blast it... I suddenly realized I've been spelling Anselm incorrectly for the past several weeks... Heh...)
"Huh?!" Anselm snapped around and shot into the air as a translucent green insectiod creature twice his size slashed down at the foggy floor where the stood. Flying felt strange... everything did. Before he could feel gravity tugging his body down, but now he felt nothing, not even wind resistance. He spun a half circle and drew his blade. It too was translucent... Odd that he would have his physical weapon when traveling outside his body... perhaps it was merely how he thought his power looked, so that's how it manifested itself? But would it even hurt the thing?
One way to find out...
Anselm zipped through the air as a blur, finding he could fly much faster outside of his physical body. Snapping the blade to his side, he slashed the creature's left blade-arm clean off, the dismembered appendage disappearing in a flurry of bright green sparks that faded as they flew about...
-
Nex's voice echoed through the fire mage's head.
'Draven...'
The lava started bubbling, and Nex's voice entered Draven's mind again, but it was soft calm whisper, which barely sounded like him.
'You're not listening...'
Once again Nex's laugh started echoing through the air, but stopped after awhile.
"Hey...boss..." Said a voice from behind Draven.
"We going to start...icing people?" Another voice spoke.
There were two men, wearing steel armour with light blue trimming; one of them was carrying a pickaxe and a frozen sword handle, where it looked like the blade was melted. The other one was holding a large metal gun. There faces however, only had bits of melted flesh stuck to their bones. It seemed that their feet were on fire, and it was gradually spreading upwards.
-
After climbing a particularly high peak, Xivilai looked down and saw Tjedon. One thing was different though; there was a large green dome around the city. That could be problematic. The airships above the city could also prove troublesome.
Well, now what?
Xivilai took stock of his surroundings. A ways to his left was a road leading down to the shielded city. The road curved slightly until it was hidden behind a hill. Deciding that the road should lead somewhere, Xivilai started picking a path down to the road.
The thought of patrols briefly crossed his mind, but he decided he could deal with those if he happened upon any.
-
"General Gorus, the castle has been destroyed." A lizard man officer said to the High General as he arrived in the camp, after saluting.
"Has the count been found?" Gorus asked.
"No, we searched all over the place, it appears he's escaped." The lizard officer replied. "But we did find these." He handed him two katanas. "They were separate from each other, but they look very similar so I belive they are a set. They both have the initials T.V. on them. I believe they belonged to the count Theodore Vandrin."
Gorus took the katanas and observed them. "Interesting, but I don't collect 'human' weapons. I despise their craftsmen ship." He handed them back to the officer. "They still look like good weapons, I'll admit. Gut some humans with them or something."
"Yes, High General." The officer saulted and then left.
Gorus looked up in the air and crossed his arms. That was a good battle, the best he's had in months. He then walked up onto a nearly levelled down building to give him some more height over his fighters. He raised his arms and quickly the lizard men gained his attention.
"The humans and their mutant army have been slaughtered!" Gorus yelled. "The castle is destroyed and their homes are levelled to the ground! We are victorious!"
The lizard men began cheering and chanting "Van'deln" which was traditionally chanted whenever an army of the subterranean division has a victory in a battle.
Gorus pumped his arms up and down to continue the chant. After about a minute he raised his arms as high as he could and spread them apart and gave a slow but loud roar, and the lizard man roared along with him...
--- ---
Two groups of four undead wyverns’ arrived at Grosse Morne. They were flying in a square formation and each had ropes tied to them attached to a large crate in the middle. The wyverns landed and the crate was placed on the ground.
The other four wyverns were used as transports. Only a few KAF troopers returned, along with General Roland and a shivering man covered in a blanket.
A few servants greeted the undead General.
"Inform the Sovereign that Vandrin's shipment has arrived." Roland ordered. He then shoved the shivering man towards the servant. "And give the count a warm place to stay."
"I've lost...everything...it's all...gone..." The count said mostly to himself.
Roland rolled his eyes and headed towards his quarters. He needed to document a few things, especially about this White Chimera group. They could be a threat to the Sovereignty...
//End Chapter for Gorus and Count Vandrin.\
-
//Forgot about Rink.\
"Well, I'm off." Rink said to Belle.
"Good luck." Belle said to the imp.
Rink nodded and then ran into the empty bedroom. The room then went bright white and Rink along with Justin and Ven were transported...somewhere...
He looked at Justin and Ven and say that they were blue and translucent, he looked at his hands and saw that he was also.
"Hmm..."
-
"Well we were just looking for some antiques per-se and we stumbled upon this..." Coriko paused un-sure of what word would be safe to use. "this... doorway and it lead us to where you found us."
-
"Well, we're here now... might as well get to work." Justin threw his hands forwards in Ven's direction and began to incant some very strange words. Ven's glow seemed to be getting brighter, whereas Justin's seemed to fade. He did this until they were about even.
Just then, four demons approached them from behind. They all bore striking resemblance to Rink, only they had no wings. They all had tiny pitchforks, however, and began to make their move.
-
//I'll assume they're the same size as Rink.\
"Stay back, fiends!" Rink shouted, shooting a fireball at the ground in front of them.
The wingless imps stopped as a small explosion of flame went off in front of them, but just as soon as it settled they continued moving.
One of them made a thrust with his pitchfork at Rink.
"Have it your way." Rink said as he moved to the side and grabbed the pitch fork right under the prongs. And was able rip it from his hands, much to his foe's surprise. He smacked the pole of the pitch fork at the demon's head nearly knocking him to the ground. Another demon came at Rink, who flipped the pitch fork to its correct side and stabbed it into the demon's chest, and it fell to the ground. The one who had it's weapon taken away from him attempted to tackle Rink, yet the imp disappeared in the puff of smoke and reappeared in a similar fashion behind the demon, as it tackled nothing and fell to the ground. He then stabbed the pitch fork into the demon's back.
The other two demons gave an astonished look at the imp's fighting might, but continued to advance towards him...
--- ---
The officer gave a look of disbelief but then crossed his arms and thought. "A doorway you say? What did this doorway look like?" He asked.
"It looked like a pool of glowing blue water, yet it was vertical like a wall." Wilham replied.
The officer nodded. "Ah I see. You're not the first to encounter this, but you are first people to cross over in to here from the other side." The officer explained. "So you're looking for antiques. We did find a bunch of things from that 'doorway'. But I'm afraid whatever you're looking for; you won't be able to obtain from us. We've had a lot of problems with the thieves, with the Thals and those damned Mutos."
"Thals? Mutos?" Wilham asked.
The officer rolled his eyes. "I'm the one asking the questions here...but I can assume you're of no harm, since..." The officer closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "But yes, the Thals are our sworn enemy we have been fighting for generations upon generations. The Mutos are simply exiled mutants, from the war. You don't have to worry about them. Anyways, let me ask you something from what planet are you from?"
"From...what planet? Gaian obviously, what do you think I'm some sort of...space-man?" Wilham replied as if answering one the most ridicules questions ever.
"Indeed. I do. But I have never heard of this planet Gaian. Then again, I've lived my entire life on Skaro."
"I assume Skaro is supposed to be this planet we're on."
"Well...yes...I see this 'doorway' as you call it must be a transporter to another world. Come with me to the conference hall. I'll explain more when we are there. I'm sure the other officers would like to hear about this."
-
"Of course I'm not listening!" Draven yelled aloud. He stood and pointed his finger at the swirling pool of lava. "If you don't shut up, I'm gonna jump in after you and shove those tin horns up your--" He stumbled and almost fell right over the edge, still way too tired to stand properly. Where in blazes had he heard those voices before...?
He spun around and curled his lips in disgust at the two disfigured men before him. Still, they did seem familiar... He vaguely recalled enlisting the service of two low leveled ice warriors back when he was under disguise the first time Retan fell and before he set up the Crimson Empire... Many years have passed since. They were both morons, but decently loyal... In fact, they both died in his service.
Draven clutched his arm and allowed him self to recover a few breaths before speaking. "The dead shouldn't walk these planes..." he growled, "state your names... and your loyalties..." He eyed the strange flame crawling up their legs...
(Chapter ends in 3 days.)
-
//Holy crap. The Sovereign's Hammer weapon is completely ripped off from GoW, as I was told by Dark Spartan. Apparently, GoW has a similar weapon called "Hammer of Dawn", and it's a bunch of satellites that fire laz0rz. Well, I'll be damned... This was not done on purpose, as I haven't even touched Gears of War... I don't have any consoles.\
Now the floor glowed with a large "3". Ein smirked as he pulled out the spear from the lizard man, and collected the other spears stuck in the floor and the walls.
Once again, the glow vanished as suddenly as it appeared, and the spine-shaking metal grind of the gates heralded the coming of a new opponent. Ein looked about, and found his target to be a human this time... though a really big one. He was a warrior clad fully in horrifyingly thick armour, which looked like it weighed several hundred pounds. His weapon of choice was an enormous battle axe.
-"I've seen you fight the last round," the giant thundered. "I know you use a hyped-up spear gun, but that won't do you much good, as I'm sure you've noticed." Ein kept his silence. "The strong and silent type, hm? I'll make sure they write that on your gravestone, wretch!"
The titan charged at the cloaked Ein, which greatly surprised the latter. How could he see him?
-"DECAPITATE!!!"
The battle axe cleaved Ein's cloak off, just at the point of his neck where it was attached to his clothes. If he hadn't ducked in time, it would've been his head gone instead.
That's when Ein noticed that his cloak was shining in the blue moonlight. No wonder the giant saw him - he was glowing brighter than Kronos' ego.
Suddenly, a cloud pulled over the moon. The arena was covered in total darkness.
Fortunately, as Ein discovered long ago, his mechanical eye made up for the darkness. At a low level of zoom, the image in his left eye became monochromatic and distorted, but it allowed limited night vision.
The giant continued taunting Ein, as the Stalker circled around him. At some point, the giant noticed an ever-so-faint flash of light around him.
-"There you are, scum... DECAPITATE!!!"
The axe whizzed past Ein's throat, as he fired the spear on his spear gun's full power, hoping to pull the same maneuver as he did with the lizard man.
The kinetic force of the impact turned the spear into a pancake, but without penetrating the giant's armour.
-"HAR HAR HAR!! You really thought that would work? Fool! This armour is indestructible! Now die! DECAPITATE!!!"
Crap, Ein thought.
This time, the axe swung uncomfortably close to Ein's throat, but just a little lower, on his chest. The blow nearly severed the top half of Ein off, had he been an inch closer to the axe. Fortunately, he was able to duck away from the speeding weapon in time, getting away with but a scar.
-"You're clumsy," said the warrior. "You made my finishing move miss three times now."
-"ME?! You're the one who missed, oaf!"
Ein dashed back into the refuge of the darkness. Thankfully, the light that alerted the giant previously wasn't entirely pointless - Ein enchanted one of his spears. The magic spear was in his spear gun now. Unfortunately, the soft orange glow gave Ein away. As the giant charged at Ein again, he fired the spear - with little success. It hit the armour and simply jumped off of it. Ein, however, was smiling.
The second the giant took another step, his armour shattered into dust.
-"Rust, my friend. That's one thing your armour didn't account for."
Another merciful spear finished the giant off.
--- --- ---
"Snore. If I was made to name one thing more boring than those horribly slow war preparations, it's watching minions stumble their way about the Continent. So far only the halberd was recovered. Terrible, just terrible...
Well, at least the Stalker program is moving along nicely. I read the reports about the Necrolytes, and those seem quite satisfying. An army of 200 Necromancers, each skilled enough to support a hundred minions at once. It's quite the achievement, considering that the best a normal citizen is able to support is 3. Hmm... I'd even go as far as saying that they're almost powerful enough for me not to immediately burst into laughter if one of them tried to oppose me.
...I'd probably snicker for a few seconds, and then begin cackling uncontrollably. Eh, not like that's going to happen, anyway."
-
"Frost..." Answered the one holding the pickaxe.
"...and Bite." Answered the one holding the empty gun.
It seemed like it was almost a strain for them to speak.
"Last thing... I can clearly remember is getting stabbed to death by some scared up freak..." Frost said, pointing to a hole in his armour which appeared to be made by a sword.
"I got burnt to death by some... freaky Viking." Bite said looking at his hands which were mostly just bare bones. "Dude...I got no freakin' skin." He looked at his brother. "Holy crap dude...neither do you?"
"Dude...I think I remember where we just were!" Frost said putting his hands on his brother's elbows.
"Bro...me too!" Bite replied.
They both said together. "Hell!"
Despite the fact it was a strain for them to speak, it didn't stop them from speaking. After about a minute of them pointing out each other's wounds and saying how 'awesome' they looked and how 'wicked' those 'demons dudes' were, they finally turned back to talk to Draven, who was likely giving them an irritated look.
"Hey...boss...you asked something about loyalties?" Bite asked, semi-rhetorically.
"Well we found some new loyalties dude...like dude...this guy, he like burnt us and stuff, but he was awesome." Frost said.
"Totally, dude." Bite added.
"Yeah, he like this fire skull in a glass ball, and he had this awesome voice, sounded like people were all burning and getting killed, we had like no idea what he was saying, but it was like all demonic...it was non-bogus, dude..."
"Yeah, totally awesome dude."
"So yeah, then we met this dude we was like all in these robes, and had this awesome helmet and a pretty rad voice too. He like, translated what the dude was sayin' and he asked us all this stuff about like...life dude...we told him about you dude."
"Yeah and there's like this whole group of 'em dude... They like totally hate you. They also don't like this Retan dude and somebody named Duilin..."
"Oh yeah, so anyways...these guys were like totally rocking. So we liked joined them, and agreed like hunt you down, so they like gave us our bodies back."
The both looked down at their feet.
"But they're like...burnin' up or something..." Bite stated.
"Dude, I think it's because we're like...standin' near lava." Forst said to Bite.
"Why isn't he burnin' up then?" Bite asked pointing to Draven.
"Dude, he's like the Crimson Emperor, dude. The king of flames, remember?"
"Nah, dude...we died before that. We shouldn't remember that."
"Oh yeah..."
"Dude, you think we can take our old boss?" Bite asked.
"I dunno dude, he's got like fire and stuff...we don't have much...Ya think this was a suicide mission?" Frost responded.
"Isn't that a rock band?"
"Nah dude, rock doesn't exist yet, man."
"What about that?" Bite pointed to a rock.
"Whoa!!"
The two undead Ice Warriors seemed to forget about their mission and continued to talk about more pointless things...
-
//Going on break before school starts. Just ignore my stuff until I get back
"Wow, you fight most profesionally, Rink." Justin said as he stabbed another wingless imp headed for Rink. Three more of the creatures came Justin's way, but he merely kicked them back when they got close. He flung around one of them and stabbed him with his blade, throwing him back at the other two. He then made another slash and the other two were sliced in half.
-
//I think by the time you get back, the Chapter will be over.\
"Thanks." Rink said. "I'm not nearly as good as any of my friends that I fought with before the Empire took global control. But I can hold my ground, come times like this."
Another demon came towards him, with his pitchfork pointed forward running forward ready to try to impale the imp.
"Here, catch!" Rink threw his the pitchfork he snagged earlier right at the small demon coming at him, the two of the prongs of the pitchfork impaled the demon through the neck and he fell down gargling.
"Who am I kidding? I rule."
-
Draven stood there with a raised eyebrow, still out of breath and obviously not in a good mood. He flipped his tattered cape and put a hand on his hip.
"Listen, you morons. Just because you died doesn't mean you're off the hook. I did not give you permission to listen to some miserable flaming skull, so shut your faces and come with me."
He trudged right up to them and walked between the two, nearly knocking them over with the wide pads of his shoulder armor.
"You screw up again, and I'll make sure there's no souls left to condemn..."
He leapt some twenty feet over the lava flow to another boulder, then to another, moving towards stable ground.
-
Wilham, Coriko and the officer arrived in the conference room. Many other officers were sitting at the chairs, around a table. Five chairs were free, and our heroes and the officer sat down.
"So, Captain McNeil, why have these people intruded our base?" One of the officers asked.
"Well...apparently they stumbled here upon accident through the mysterious trans-dimensional field that has been appearing around the base. They came across it when they were looking for antiques; I suspect they're likely looking for something in particular however."
"What is it that you're looking for exactly and why?" One of the officers asked, Wilham.
"We are looking for a tablet, written in an ancient language that my ancestors used." Wilham explained. "We already have several of the tablets in our possession but there is one left."
"We may have what you're looking for, but we cannot give it to you." The officer stated. "The things we have extracted our legally ours."
"I see." Wilham replied. "Is there any possible way we can get it? It's rather important."
"No, I don't think so." The officer replied. "Besides...I don't think we even can..."
"Why?"
"Mind your own business."
"Sir, maybe they can help." Officer McNeil suggested.
"I don't see how they could...but I'm up to anything. Very well, I'll explain what our problem is. If you wish to help, and then do so as a reward we'll give you your tablet. If you don't want to help, then you'll have to leave, and go back to wherever you came from."
The officer took a deep breath.
"A few months ago, our head scientist, did a few experiments on Kaled mutants. We are the Kaleds, just to let you know. But some of us have been heavily mutated and rendered nearly useless; however Davros was able to re-write their minds making them perfect fighting machines. He built a traveling unit that was made of extreme strong polycarbonate, and was equipped with a mind reading device and a high powered energy beam weapon, that was able to kill a target with a single shot. At first they were extreme loyal but then..."
"They rebelled?" Wilham asked assuming the near obvious.
"Yes, they began to belive that they were the superior beings and all other things much be exterminated. So we fought them and well, they were too strong for us to fight, we just couldn't kill them. We had over a thousand men killed by them, and there were only three of them! More then half of our entire population were killed; they even killed the head scientist who created them!"
"My god..." Wilham's jaw dropped. "So...you want us to destroy them?"
"Well, if you want your tablet back."
"I think we can do it." Wilham replied.
Several of the officers started laughing, but the head officer and McNeil were silent.
"Are you sure?" The head officer asked.
"Well, of course. You'd be surprised at what we're capable of." Wilham stated.
"Well...As much as we need your help, I'm curious why you're willing to risk your lives, for something that might not even be what you're looking for."
"Well, if you're in need of our help, and I'm part of a group where it is my duty to help save people from creatures such as these."
"Well, thank you then."
"So, what did you call these things?"
"Well, our head scientist named them Daleks..."
--- ---
The bubbling and whirlpool in the lava began to speed up.
"Uhh...you think we should listen to him dude?" Bite asked his brother.
"I dunno, bro. They both make some pretty good points." Frost replied.
"Uh...what were their points again?"
The speed of the whirlpool continued to increase.
"Uh, that we should join them if we don't want to be killed."
"Oh yeah, so what do we do?"
"I dunno, dude..."
'Go ahead kids...Follow the Crimson Emperor...you'll meet the same fate as we have planed for him.'
"Awesome dude!" The two Ice Warriors then went the climb up the boulders to catch up with Draven.
'Get ready boys and girls...Another storm's coming!'
Just then the earth began to shake and Nex's laugh started to echo through the air. Suddenly the centre of the lava pool erupted, and something was in the middle of the huge lava geyser...
-
//Sorry about not posting for a while.
"Take this!" Ko'ji grabbed her scimitar and slashed down at the large demon. She slashed the thing in half, and it shattered, disentigrating into small bits.
"I hope there aren't too many more..." Just then, more creatures came out of the shadowy fog from below. They joined with the other demons and attacked Ko'ji. She raced around them, holding her blade horizontally, slashing them all and dismembering their legs.
"These demons are considerably weak." She stopped immediately and took a defensive stance. Two other demons were getting close to Helix. If they injured him even more... She wouldn't let that happen. Ko'ji blasted off and thrusted her blade forwards, stabbing one of them right in the neck. This shocked the other one, and he dropped his sword. This gave time for Ko'ji to spot the demon, so she brought her sword around and slashed off it's head.
Unfortunately, there was plenty more for them to fight. Around twenty smaller shadow-like creatures with small horns appeared from under the fog. Ten of them each raced after one Velken.
"I can't take much more of this... I'm getting a lot more tired in this plane than on gaian." Ko'ji still managed to hold her ground, slashing at the creatures, holding them off for the most part. Two of them snuck through, but she slashed off their heads. The other creatures were starting to get anrgy that they could not defeat Ko'ji. They ran forward from all directions, without thinking. She merely jumped in the air and they all collided into eachother.
"HYAAAHH!!!" Ko'ji flipped the scimitar downwards and smahsed it into the ground, creating a small explosion around the creatures. One of them managed to avoid the attack. The others were flung backwards and destroyed. Ko'ji wasn't paying attention to the area around her and the creature that avoided the blast stabbed his shortsword into her side.
"Gaaghh! You'll pay for that, you little beast!" Ko'ji slashed the creature off of her. Now her energy was really starting to run low. She fell to the ground.
-
//Long-ass post.\
-"Vandrin, huh? Fine, give him a room in one of the houses below. I'll deal with him later."
-"Yes, Sovereign."
Meanwhile, my good Stalkers and Necrolytes are finishing up the academy... I'll go pay them a visit."
After being informed by the arena floor that he has two more rounds left to fight, Ein prepared himself for his next opponent. However, as he was getting his spear gun ready for another fight, he noticed something odd - the arena was being flooded with water. It rushed in from the sides, swiping Ein off his feet. He barely had time to activate a glyph scratched into his skin to allow water breathing, as the water completely covered him.
The moon was out of the clouds now, and shining down into the pool that is the Arena. The underwater landscape glowed, leaving little possibility for stealth. The gates, silenced and lubricated by water, noiselessly swung open.
What Ein saw come out of the gate surprised him more than anything he's seen and experienced in the other two rounds. Wow, this shouldn't even be close to a challenge... It was a boy of about 13, in swimming shorts. The only thing that set off Ein's alarm bells was the cold, lifeless stare the kid was piercing him with.
The child assumed the lotus position, floating about a meter above the underwater floor. His curly hair was undulating in the currents, and his eyes were locked on Ein in the same chilling come-hither look.
Well, no use wasting time now... One advantage the spear guns had over other weapons is their effectiveness under water almost surpassing that of land. Without much more thoughts, Ein fired the spear.
At first, it all seemed to go perfectly well - the spear zoomed to the youth faster than Ein could blink. However, then, something odd happened - the spear turned to the boy's left, and circled around him, coming back right at Ein. The latter barely jumped out of the way as the spear struck the wall behind him.
Damnit, Ein thought. This kid has a complete field advantage. Ein could not move as fast under water, nor could he fire safely. This is cheap, not fair at all...
Before Ein could formulate another whine, a small distortion from the boy's side tipped him off that something was wrong. Indeed it was - the Stalker was hit by a massive water blast, smashing him against the wall. The water darkened with blood from a wound on the back of his head, and the reopening scar from the previous match. Just then, the thought hit Ein as hard as his head hit the wall. If the kid has a home field advantage, why not take it from him?
Ein scuttled upwards, above the water level. He reached the blissful air just in time - another jet stream crushed the wall below him to pieces. Scanning the underwater surface, he aimed for the kid's head, and fired.
As to be expected, the spear came flying back at Ein, clipping his earlobe. The projectile tumbled back into the water, from which it was again promptly ejected. This time, it struck Ein in the leg. He screamed, and pulled the barbed tip out of his skin, ripping more flesh as he went along.
-"That's it, kid - playtime's over. Die, bastard."
With the remains of the spear, Ein scratched a glyph into the walls, this one slightly C-shaped instead of a full circle. With a ceremonial look, he activated it.
The air was ripe with the odour of burning flesh, as two-million-volt lightnings rippled through the water. Unable to hold on, Ein fell into the shining death pool, just after the glyph ran out of power. The water was murky with blood, and was quickly drained through large gutters on the sides of the arena. Ein found himself looking exactly like Eris - covered head to toe in blood.
Finally, the floor lit up a gigantic 1...
-"Ugh. Figures."
Thus was Ein's reaction when he saw a cloaked and hooded figure pass through the gates. Of course they'll send a rival Stalker against him. Of course.
Deciding not to waste time, Ein fired his full volley of three spears directly at the Stalker. Avoiding the top one, the enemy Stalker sliced the other two up with his kamas. Then, before Ein got a chance to rearm, the silvery lightning of a hatchet split the wall right next to him in half. Just as fast, it retreated, pulled by the minute chain that it was attached to the Stalker by.
Finally, this gave Ein a short break. He loaded a spear into his gun, and ducked aside, as the Stalker whizzed past him. Realizing he'd missed, the assassin leaped off the wall he landed onto, right onto Ein. Another roll to the side, and the kamas hit bare ground. The still-wet turf grasped the kamas, which allowed Ein to load another spear into the weapon.
The Stalker was clearly getting agitated now. This time, he threw both Kamas at Ein, as well as the axe, in one fluid but scarily swift maneuver. Ein managed to avoid the two kamas, but the axe proved to be a problem - it nearly cut his right hand off, putting a deep scar into the shoulder. The assassin leaped to his weapons, as Ein loaded the final spear into the spear gun.
Yet another quiet whizz alerted Ein of an incoming projectile. He ducked, while opening some sort of a winch on his weapon. The gear expanded, and Ein spun it, which caused the triple-crossbow head of the weapon to spin about wildly. Carefully taking his aim, Ein fired all three spears at once.
The Stalker didn't appear to notice the spinning weapon, so he took the normal procedure to try to avoid the spears. Unfortunately for him, they were spinning in a helix instead of flying in a straight formation. What could've been easily avoided otherwise struck the Stalker in his face. Ein grinned as he saw two spear sticking out of the man's eyes, and one from his wide open mouth.
At last, the gates behind him opened - his own gates - first time in these several hours. Exhausted, he walked out.
---
Inside, Aahzmandius was waiting for him with a vial in his hands. For the first time Ein remembered, the teacher was broadly smiling.
-"Well done, Einherjar! Well done! Take this, drink it, and follow me."
Ein complied, and felt his wounds close.
---
The place they arrived at was the meal hall, but visibly transformed - instead of the gloomy, prison-like interior, Ein found it to be richly decorated with candles in huge golden and crystal chandeliers. Those were casting light down unto more food that Ein thought was in all of Kandarin at the peak of its power. Five other Stalkers were led into the room at the same time as him, probably also having finished the trials earlier. The Headmaster was also present.
-"Well done, my friends! Well done! Now, you are officially Kandarin's most elite troops. I know that watching your comrades die was difficult, but everyone knew of the risks involved. The ends more than justify the means, I'm sure you would all agree. To celebrate the second batch of successful Stalkers, our Sovereign will be joining us shortly as well. Now eat. This will be the first of the nearly limitless rewards to come in the service for Kandarin."
What? Kronos is coming here himself? Goddamnit... Ein was not comforted by the thought at all. It would seem strange for him to leave now, so he decided to just enjoy himself.
Others, however, did not appear to be fully doing that. The Stalkers' minds were visibly harshly strained - some sat looking at the food with a blank stare, and others were engorging themselves to ridiculous lengths. The only ones who appeared to be untouched by this were Eris and Ein, who happened to sit together.
-"So, Ein... Bes you likesied the Sov'reign's playsground?"
-"Playground? What do you mean?"
-"Bes you not knowledgeable of that? Them Kronos had them rotted undeads fightsie each other down at arena. Bes not tell me, pleases, you not have noticed them stench?"
-"Uh... I guess not." He was too busy in his studies to notice, he figured. "Then again, they do smell pretty bad, stinkin' zombies... Or, as Marshall would've said, malodorous necrotic entities. At least, I think he would've said that."
-"Who bes them Marshall?"
-"Just a friend. Anyways, what are you going to be doing after we get out of here?"
-"Serve them Kronos for a shortsie while. Bes good profit, and good ways to get close to hims. Then, when serpent vile bes not expecting it, I'll sticks his eyesies out. With them bolts."
-"That would hurt..."
--- --- ---
"The academy was a pretty neat place, I finally noticed. The time distortion dome, courtesy of my scientists, truly served its purpose. Six stalkers in a matter of hours...! I'm the best.
In any case, after a brief falling-to-the-ground-in-infinite-respect session by the lobby guards, I and my handsome entourage of eight undead warriors entered the academy proper. We were shown to the very back, where the surviving Stalkers were seated for a final banquet.
...
*ink droplets*
Ein?
Well. Well, well, well.
-"I see you've made use of my facilities, Ein."
-"Yes, I have, rat-face. What are you going to do about it?"
-"Probably execute you. Anyways... Guards! SEIZE HIM!"
Come now, tell me that's not fun to say.
Without really watching for the success, or rather, miserable failure of my undead minions to capture Ein, I made my way out of the fortress. I'll let him roam the lands for now. Maybe he'll be useful to me later. In any case, I decided to return back to Vandrin. I've really got to show that stinking, rotten...
*skip ahead a couple of pages full of puerile insults aimed at Vandrin*
---
-"So, my dear count," I said, towering over the figure lying in the bed. "I've been hearing that life was somewhat tough for you."
I took a pause to get seated. The count coughed in reply, which made my eye twitch. Nearly losing it, I regained control of myself after a deep breath, and summoned my calm voice back.
-"Yes, tough indeed. Let's take a little time to summarize your ventures to this point, before I will express my message. First, you arrive to my then-grand palace in Kandarin, a mere fledgeling, but loaded with money. I'm a sucker for things golden, see. So, in a temporary fit of insanity, I allowed you to buy my land."
I took a sip from a wine glass conveniently placed on a table near me.
-"Thus to your land you travel, barely heard from until much later on. I won't lie, your... karma somewhat reassured me that you would be a worthy candidate for that land, so I let the little things such as lack of tax shipments slide. Further demonstrating my infinitely vast patience with you, I decided not to destroy you when you sent me a malfunctioning tribute of your potions, two of which turned my best scientists into ruined corpses. Ruined, Ted. Ruined. I couldn't resurrect them."
I let a sigh out from my chest, which has been accumulating there for some time.
-"But still, still, I had some faith left in you. You were forcing my hand, much like an insolent spoiled child forces his good-hearted father's. Being the patient father that I am, I resisted. But for what, let me ask you? For what?"
-"I'll tell you what. Absolutely nothing. When Horus decided to pay me a visit, a feat he might not have succeeded performing had my scientists not been slain, my nation was in ruin. Once again, like a good father to his children, I fought my way through troubles and deceit that followed the crumbling of an ever-great nation. All for my people, Ted, and that includes you."
-"So how do you pay me back? Why, no way other than by crawling unto my doorstep the second someone starts knocking at your county. This time, I thought about my decision - I thought long and hard before sending you a squadron of my most elite soldiers and the prototypical doomsday weapon, the Stalker. All for the people, I reminded myself. All for the people."
-"And now, what do I see? My elite squadron is eight times smaller than when I sent it to you, and my prototypical Stalker is dead. The damndest thing, though - all I asked in return was five or more lizard men. With losses as vast as yours, I expected you to be drowning in sweat dragging me an unconscious lizard man army. Sigh. So what is the result, Vandrin? What do I see you pay me with?"
The calm expression turned to a scowl, as I felt something snapping inside of myself.
-"FIVE freaking lizard men, FIVE!!! And HALF OF THEM drugged OUT OF THEIR MIND!!! Probably with perma-freaking-nent BRAIN DAMAGE! Was this SO MUCH TO ASK, Vandrin? WAS IT?! ANSWER ME, DAMNIT!!!"
With great effort, I once again claimed control of myself.
-"My nation is in dire need of unlife, Count. That's a part of the reason I wanted you to get me lizard men. They would make great manual workers. Then again, I could always use your lifeless corpse for it, to repair the nation you so kindly showed yourself into without permission."
Gulping down some more wine, I felt my mind clouding. Looks like I don't have much of a tolerance for spirits.
-"I will come back to you tomorrow. By that time, I expect a full plan of action from you on how you will regain control of your land. You see, my friend," I said, getting up. "I still haven't completely lost faith in you. May you find your way safely."
-
//Guess I'll update Vandrin one last time, or a few more if need be...\
Vandrin laid on his bed, barely moving, he didn't even make eye contact his Kronos, he just stared at the ceiling and flinched each time he yelled. He was just so afraid that he was going to get zombified by him, when he was done yelling.
He hesitated to reply to Kronos when he asked him for an answer.
"I...I tried my best..." Vandrin said, as he sat up on the bed, shaking. The sovereign could probably kill him in the flick of a wrist, if he wanted to, and he was looking good for it. He should probably apologize. He was normally not intimidated by younger people, but this is a necromancer that killed himself and brought himself back to life at the same time!
"Listen, your worship...I know I haven't been helping you very much, but I belive I can still be a large help to you." Vandrin looked at the Sovreign.
"The chemical I made and sent you was a prototype. But I had about 170 sucessful mutants out the 200 humans I made, I assumed it would be enough...but I guess I was wrong about that and I'm sorry. To make it up to you. I'll help your alchemists work on the mutation chemical, you won't have to pay me a thing. I promise you, we'll have full control over the outcome of the mutants. We, could mutate your human zombies and make your cannon fodder be titans on the battle field!"
"But thank you Sovreign for keeping some faith in me. I promise you I will not let you down, again."
-
Xivilai kept a careful eye on the road as he walked toward it. There was no movement. It made sense. Why would you waste troops patrolling the road if people can’t even get into the city?
Keeping this in mind, Xivilai slowly stepped onto the road. He paused, no one shot him. So far so good.
Deciding that it would just be a waste of time to go up to a city he couldn’t enter, Xivilai turned his back on the city, and started walking deeper into Tjed.
-
Blast it!! What now?!
Draven spun around at the edge of the lava lake, his teeth clenched and eyes twitching as he watched some figure emerge from it. How in blazes could the freak come back after that? Blast it! He was totally exhausted, and metal-face decides he wants round two...
----
As soon as Ko'ji's ethereal body hit the floor, Anselm fell from the sky and hovered over her.
"Riuki!"
With a wide slash he cleaved two of the smaller shadow things in half, their bodies turning into sparks and dust. He looked down to his fellow Blade Knight. Blast it! What should he do?
Normally in the heat of battle his heart thrashed against his chest. It reminded him he was alive. But as a spirit fighting outside his body in another plane of existence, he could not feel the familiar beat... just a fluid emptiness...
And that scared him to death.
No... protect her first.
He danced around the shadows, circling in between them, stabbing through their translucent bodies. In less than a minute they had faded into nothing, and there didn't seem to be any more coming... For the moment at least.
He too was becoming wary. It was a different sort of wariness than what he was used too. More like a drowsiness covering his entire translucent "body".
He floated over to Ko'ji and sat cross-legged next to her, wrapping his tail around his lap. He had been trained not to show fear, and thus tried to keep his ears perked and face rigid as possible, though it was a losing battle.
"Are you all right?"
-
Anti sat down and rested for a bit, waiting for his energy to come back. He ignored everything that was going on around him. He had about 90% total by the time that Nex returned. He looked at him... and then looked at Draven. He sighed, got to his feet, and looked toward Nex... These distractions from our primary task... How annoying.
-
The lava geyser seized and there floating in the middle was Nex...but he looked different, he was at least three times bigger and was wearing gauntlets that looked surprisingly similar to Abodahon's. The two Talonscar Elites were gone, perhaps they merged together with Nex. He floated in the air, his arms and head hanging downwards like a rag doll's...
From the still swirling whirlpool in the lava, flew out several ghostly figures...
'Save me...' Said a voice to Draven, the same familiar voice from before...
--- ---
Duilin looked in the ocean water. He wasn't even tired but he wished he was, it was so boring. He closed his eyes.
"Duilin." A voice said from behind him.
He opened his eyes and turned around, and saw that we was at a very different place. He was on a boat that looked just like the one he was on before but burning skeletons replaced the ship's crew.
"What...what is happening?" Duilin asked.
"Fear not young Talonscar...for this is only a vision." Said the same voice as before.
Duilin stepped forward and drew the Iduran out. "Who are you!? Show yourself!?"
Maybe it was that thing he encountered earlier, that thing that made him belive his nightmares were coming true.
"Duilin. It's me. Don't you remember me?" It was Pophin, but his skin was burnt off and it sounded like it was a strain for him to speak and move. "He's back Duilin."
"Who? It better not be my father..."
"No. It is Nex...but he became stronger." Pophin replied. "Just stay away from him. I don't want that THING he had in him, to make me come back and have to expirence that pain I felt again."
"What are you talking about? What is going on!?" Duilin asked getting in a panic.
"Nex has opened up a rift between Hell and Gaian...I was able to sneak through..." Pophin smiled as well as he could, but it wasn't able to show very well. "I'm sorry I had to make you see this, but the only way for me to talk to you was for me to talk to you in an illusion."
"Yes, I'm aware of this sort of magic. How did you learn it?"
"I...stole the ability Duilin...I don't remember how, but I remember I stole this. But let me finish, Duilin...I know you're starting to gain some balance over your demonic and human side now...so it will be easier for you to resist the evil of your father's followers. But I'm afraid they might just wish to kill you now...I don't want this to happen...You're needed to help save Gaian from the Dark Empire."
"Well...thank you. Do you know if anyone else was able to get through?" Duilin asked.
Pophin was about to reply but then fell to the ground and cried out in pain.
"It's all over for me now. My afterlife is over, no chance of bringing me back."
"Pophin..." Duilin knelt down next to him and held him.
"I'm...sorry for all the trouble I caused you...back on Romme..." Pophin said. "I hope you will forgive me...brother."
"I do. I forgive you."
"Good bye!" Pophin yelled as he was sucked into a black void as well as the entire scenery.
Duilin then sat down on the ground, he felled exhausted, he ran his hand through his hair...suddenly he felt he needed some sleep now...
--- ---
Back at the lava pool, the mutated Nex was still floating motionless in the air, until he slowly lifted up his head. A black void surrounded the demon as he lifted his head and then he spoke...
"Come on out boys and girls!" Nex's voice said still echoing through the air. "DEATH has come out to play!"
As soon as he spoke his final line he spread his arms apart and monstrous scythe like blades slid out from his fingers. He swung his arms at amazing speed for having those gauntlets on, the blades cut the air. Nex's laugh echoed throughout the area and into Draven and Anti's ears...
(Uh oh...)
-
"Alright. So these Daleks," Coriko stumbled over the foriegn word. "What weaknesses to they have? Anything we can use to our advantage?" Coriko asked the men around the table.
---
Druid started to pull his arm upwards. He started to groan and his arm flexed. There was something big below the surface, and Druid was dragging it up. The water started to spin faster and every so often would spurts would shoot up out of the hole. The whirpool had expanded. The tops of the island’s buildings could be seen. Druid stood with a sinister smile on his face.
[Charging: 23/25]
-
"Nothing." The head officer replied. "At least to our knowledge they have no weaknesses. They can kill a man with a single shot, and they have an energy field around them that dissolves bullets when they come at it. And if we touch them, then our hands are burnt."
"Have you tried using energy weapons of your own?" Wilham asked.
"No, our ancestors used energy weapons, but we've been at war with the Thals for so long that we keep loosing resources."
"So you're going backwards in technological advancements." Wilham concluded.
"Our head scientist did find a new way to make energy weapons, but they had to be mounted on the Daleks. They were support to help us finally win the war, so we didn't think that we'd ever need weapons to fight them."
"Hmm...Well, what about things like fire, or extreme cold temperatures, or perhaps even electrical shocks?" Wilham inquired.
"I'm sure fire and cold won't work on them, but maybe electricity. I'm not sure how shockproof those travel units they have are. Maybe also big explosions might work, or maybe even their own weapons. But look luck trying to get them to shoot each other."
Perhaps if I summon some Lightning Nymphs and Wisps they may be able to hurt them. Wilham thought to himself. "Well, I'm sure we can find a way to defeat them."
"Well one last thing the head scientist--" Suddenly an alarm went off.
"What's that strange sound?" Wilham asked, hearing a sound he's never heard before.
"That's our alarm system!" One of the officers said, getting up with the rest of them. "Someone or something has come through the main entrance."
"Could it be...?"
"I hope not." The head officer went to the back wall, and was holding a strange device in his hand with several buttons on it; he pointed the device at the wall and pressed one of the buttons. What looked like a magical communications orb image appeared on the wall, but the picture was very clear and was coloured. "My god...It is!"
A strange tank like being was driving through the hallways. There was a Kaled trooper firing his machinegun at it, but the bullets seemed to have no effect. A harmless looking eggbeater like object on its right side pointed at one of the troops, and then a bright blue beam shot from it at the trooper. The entire room was distorted by an inverted colour and you could see the man's skeleton through his body he screamed in pain as the energy went through his body. As the beam seized he simply fell lifeless to the ground.
"ALL NON DALEK BEINGS MUST BE EXTIRMINATED!" The tank being said aggressively, in a rasping staccato voice. "EXTERMINATE!! EX-TER-MI-NATE!!!"
//I guess this will be continued next chapter, this is a good cliff hanger to be continued point for my characters.\
-
Ah, Romme. It took quite a few warps, but she was finally back here.
It is a pity I'm far away from the dragon's cave, though...
Sighing, Indher began walking.
The trees and chirping of the birds, all made the land seem peaceful.
It was as if the conflict never was...
She passed by a few burnt trees, but dismissed them as fire started by a lightningbolt.
Indher did stop, however, when she noticed the stumps.
Someone... Has been cutting trees!?
She increased her pace. Soon enough, a white pattern came into sight, as well as what appeared to be a few lumberjacks...
"ELPHOS!?" she yelped out in surprise, noticing him in between the trees still standing.
"Oh, master! You are back! How was it?"
Indher was annoyed at this. She returns to find the forests being destroyed, and for what?
"It was fine! Now hurry up and tell me what is going on!"
Elphos seemed innocent and confused. Soon enough, it became apperant that he only did what he thought was right...
"Umm, we have been busy building the village..." He muttered with a tone of worry.
Indher took a good look in his eyes, more for the mastery it symbolizes than anything. She then turned away, and walked past a few trees...
To her amazment, before her stood a half-built village with buildings of white polished stones. Only one house was actualy complete, but about a dozen others were under construction.
"I..." Elphos approached from behind, hasitantly "I did my best to get materials from the runes you tought me, Fernis!"
Indher smiled. The sight of all these people...
Men and woman, old and young...
All, working together, smiling happily as they do...
It gave her a warm feeling in her chest...
"Elphos, you did great. Your management skills were underestimated."
...Especialy since all those people are her own creation.
Her smile turned devilish, but then she remembered one little problem...
"Hey, won't the dragon get angry that we are building the village so close to his lair?"
Elphos shrugged.
"Well, the townspeople sure look up to him... No one appears to fear him, but they all seem to look up to him like some sort of father figure..."
A chill ran down the furry woman's spine.
I hope he appreciates that...
-
What in blazes was this?!
Blast it!! Now Nex was going into blasting last-boss-mode. Argh!! Draven clutched his head with both hands and scowled as droplets of lava splattered around. He should have killed that miserable demon all those times he screwed up back on Romme.
'Save me'? And who in the nine molten underworlds was that? Draven tried to peer at the spectral figures through the thick smoke the billowed from the magma flows, but was unable to discern their forms. Nex, on the other hand, was quite visible in his distorted, enlarged form, raising higher and higher over the lake of fire.
Draven clenched his fists and threw his arms to his sides. Despite being totally worn out, a dim aura of flame engulfed him. Ugh, this blasted demon was ruining the plan...
Things had gotten interesting, at least.
To be continued...
-
Chapter 15
Night fall.
Virmir walked down the stone corridor, the soft soles of his boots making not a sound. Tjed castle had been completely cleared out, the remaining government officials locked in the dungeons and the rest sent to their homes to be guarded under martial law. All that roamed the halls, the courtyard, and the inner fortress wall were scaly Lizard Men-- a lot of them.
Sighing, he thought of Helix's poisoning. He wanted to be the one guarding the Battle Mage's soul from corruption while... well while the plan was underway... But alas, his duties were far too great. Not that he didn't trust Ruiki and Anselm to do their part. Ruiki was unnaturally knowledgeable for her age, and Anselm was severely dedicated to any task given to him. He didn't quite like the idea of two of his finest warriors' souls being separated from their bodies, but he knew Gaston knew what he was doing.
Two Lizard Men in clanking armor approached, each easily four times larger than the short sliver furred fox. They froze and saluted. He ignored them entirely.
Shifting his eyes about, he found it. There. Sitting in the open window seal, silhouetted against a dark sky...
A Watcher...
Virmir adverted his gaze, keeping his eyes forward. He didn't want those things to know that he could see them. He was pretty sure he was the only one that could. Well, he suspected Renard could scent them. Renard was picking up on the true ways on his own, which was very impressive. But he would never teach the true ways to his students, not as long as they were all creatures of darkness, and slaves to Retan...
The Watcher resembled a jet black raven with crimson eyes. They were everywhere. Everything they could see, Retan could see. Three of them had followed his squad to Tjed, and a fourth one had come after they claimed it. Now that Tjed was claimed by the Dark Empire, the black clouds that covered the Dark Continent would soon trickle over and cover the skies, and then the island would be filled with them... watching... waiting for any signs of deceit...
The High General of the Skyward Division cringed when that angel had made him that offer to stab Retan in the back. A Watcher was perched up in the rafters, invisible and sneering, waiting for his answer... How that angel had gained that information was a mystery to him. Most likely when Retan was through with Gaian, he would invade Asgard itself...
He stepped through the large doors and into the darkness, shutting them tightly behind. Here in what used to be the king's audience chamber he would make the contact. Indeed, blackness was already swelling in the center of the empty stone-faced room.
"My Lord..." he said as he bowed lowly, his two swords clattering on his back.
The shadow emerged from the ground, becoming a translucent black mass with two horns and burning crimson eyes... "Why is there still life upon this island?"
"The humans surrounded with the utmost haste. Rather than destroy them, I saw them fit to be captured presented them to you. I am confident they will make upstanding citizens of the Dark Empire."
Retan's eyes narrowed. "That is not what I commanded."
"My Lord, they were so willing that--"
"But nothing. When I give a command, it will be followed exactly. You do not think. You do not compromise. You simply do. You have failed."
Virmir's ears laid back, but he otherwise remained emotionless. Until he saw something emerge from the corner of the illusion...
A translucent image of the lizard Prime Minister Grav's head entered the picture from the side, smiling with dozens of shape pointed fangs. He leered at the Velken High General for a moment before pulling something from off screen into view.
It was a little Velken girl...
Her hands were tied behind her back and tape cruelly wrapped around her muzzle, clamping it shut. Her eyes were wide open in sheer terror, the fur lining them soaked with tears. With his other hand Grav held a knife to her throat...
Virmir's calm demeanor cracked. "No..." He threw himself to the floor, begging "Please... I am your slave. I will do anything!"
Grav shook his head. Then cut.
Blood flowed everywhere.
"NOOO!!!"
"What are your orders?" Retan demanded.
"To... to kill all the humans..." Virmir was visibly shaking.
"And?"
"To kill those involved in the prince's assassination..."
The Dark Emperor folded his arms. "Those objectives will be complete by this time tomorrow. Before I decide to kill two more."
The illusion faded...
Virmir simply sat there upon the floor, mouth gaping, staring into empty space for several moments. He drew the Wind Serpent and stared at his reflection in the long thin blade. With a sudden burst of rage, the silver fox struck the hard stone floor with the flat edge. Again and again sparks flew from the ground, but the vile weapon, that hateful bringer of death would not break. Finally, out of breath, he dropped the weapon and silently wept, alone in the darkness...
(No interactions with this story thread for a bit, please.)
----
Dr. Smizlworf was not a happy man.
He did not work his rear off just for fun. He deserved respect for all his hard work. He spent two consecutive all-nighters on the Sovereign's Hammer design and at last won the attention of Cain, but now, now this young nobody comes out of nowhere and redesigns everything!
And this 'Vincent' was a young cocky punk, to boot! Never had he been so insulted in his life! Who cares if this guy worked for the Crimson Empire in the past? Blast it!
The old man took his seat, staring contempt at the empty head chair-- the one he should be sitting in! He adjusted his perfectly circular oversized glasses as he waited. To his left was Frank, a mechanic and artisan. He was also ten years his junior and treated him with respect-- like he should!
The main doors to the lab burst open and the black trench-coated Vincent entered, carrying a multitude of rolled up blueprints under his arm. "Good evening, gentlemen..." he said as he unfurled the parchments upon the table. "Let us begin..."
-
"Emporer Grey!" a soldier shouted, carrying a crystal sword and a letter, walked up the great palace steps, "Emporer Grey! It's a message of Tjed!" The soldier had finally reached the top of the palace. There sat Aaron Grey in his throne with his wife and child. It was dark out, and Ariosis was lit by torches, the orange light reflecting off the crystaline walls of the cities, and especially the palace.
"Tjed? I don't think I'm going to like this..." The soldier handed Aaron the letter and waited. It read:
Emporer Aaron,
Our scouts report that Tjed has come under siege from the Dark Empire once again. Unfortunately, they have captured the city. They had sent some of the finest warriors to aid us before, so we thought you might like to send some of your men.
"Damn it all..." Aaron muttered under his breath. The scout then took out the crystal sword and handed it to Aaron.
"We had one made of your crystals, just as you have ordered. It's finished, and the elves said that it was their finest piece of work yet!"
"Good. I'm taking my leave. My army's already at the port, I presume?" Aaron observed the crystal blade. It glowed a faint blue. He made his way down the palace with the soldier.
"What do you suggest we do, sire?"
"I'm going with the soldiers of Dranniville on this one. Retan won't know what hit him!" Aaron reached the bottom of the steps. There, a white horse waited in silver armor plating. He climbed the horse and set off for the docks.
------------
As the ship got closer to land, the sky began to fade. Black clouds surrounded the lands ahead of them. It appeared that Ben was awake, along with Tiberius and Valiko.
"It appears the ship has reached Terian. Let's go." Ben walked up the stairs that lead to the deck of the ship, being followed up by the other two.
"Agh!!!" Valiko fell to the ground, holding his sides.
"What's wrong!?"
"S-so... c-cold... s-so cold... He's here..." Valiko got back to his feet, shaking a bit.
"We have to hurry! I've been spoted..."
------------
-
"I"m tired..." Ko'ji got back to her feet; she was leaking a blue light from her side, from the stab wound. She held her hand next to it and another blue light appeared around her hand. This light looked different, and appeared to have a healing force. The light faded soon after.
"I don't know how much of this I can keep up... It doesn't look like there are too many more of them left, though." She took a few more steps forwards, then nearly fell back to the ground, putting her hands in front of her before she fell, breaking her fall.
--- ---
"I wonder how many more things I can kill here... I hope that city up there has a bit more people. Hah! They'll soon know the name Arata Etsuko, and cower in fear as it's spoken..." Arata leaped off the small boat he was on and landed on the ground to the front of the boat. He was in port Kessnar now, ready to kill all in his way. He ran out into the destroyed field with the crater. Two others were walking near him. 'This should be fun,' he thought.
-
"Swim faster. Fly higher. Dig deeper."
"Why can't I leave? I was sent here so unfairly."
"Emperor? Can you hear me emperor."
"Gotta watch out for those steamons, they'll get-cha!"
"He thinks he knows me so well? No he doesn't."
"I still hail thee and your crimson glory..."
"Elite-elites? How much more elite can they get?"
"I don't know why he didn't just leave me alone."
"Save me..."
--- ---
Doctor Schabbs and Doctor Giftmacher where both assigned to work on a new project. They were told to meet in Bio Chemical Genetics Laboratory. After about half an hour of waiting Scabbs stomped his foot.
"What the devil is taking so long!?"
Suddenly the door opened and Theodore Vandrin ran in, nearly tripping on his way inside.
"I know, I know, I'm late, I'm late."
"You're damn right you're late." Scabbs yelled. "We've been waiting for half a f--"
"I just had a rough night. Didn't get any sleep, had my house blown up and my soldiers eaten by lizard men. So please excuse me."
"Oh great." Giftmacher rolled his eyes. "The Sovreign gave us Vandrin, to help us work."
Vandrin gave a mock laughing expression without making any sounds and then put his bag he was carrying on one of the tables. "Get over here; we need to double time this thing."
The two scientists went over to Vandrin, as he took several things out of his bag. "We're going to upgrade my mutation chemical. The Sovereign wants it to be twice as good. We need full controls over the outcome, no random crap. And we want this chemical to work on the dead, so our sovereign can have 100% control over them."
"How long do we have?"
"A day." Vandrin replied.
"And how long did it take you develop the old chemical?"
"A year."
The two scientists looked at the count blankly. Who only shrugged in response.
--- ---
Duilin was flushed. He was so confused about what just happened. Was that actually real? Duilin was sitting on the ground, we he noticed the ship arrived at Terian and Valiko fall to the ground.
"Whoa what the hell? How long was I out." Duilin got back up and joined up with the others. "You've been spotted? By who?"
--- ---
"We have to go. Now." McNeil said, heading over to the door on the opposite side labelled Emergency exit.
"Shouldn't we get weapons?" One of the officers asked.
"They're useless against those...things. Let's just get out of here!" McNeil said in a panic as he opened the door. "Let's go."
Wilham (and I assumed Coriko) went along with the officers through the emergency exit, and shut the door behind them.
"Won't they be able to open it up?" One of the officers asked worried.
"It has a dead lock seal. But they'll probably just blow it open, but it'll buy us some time. We should get moving!"
"I think I'll stay here and wait for it." Wilham stated. "I'm going to take it out."
"Are you nuts?!"
"Let's just trust them." McNeil said. "We need to get out of here."
Meanwhile back in the meeting room the door was opened up, and the Dalek drove into the room. The Dalek seeing that nobody was in the room assumed that they went through the emergency exit.
It placed it's plunger onto the panel next to the door.
"I am unable to open the door. Deadlock seal detected. Must result to destroying the door."
The Dalek backed up and shot it's death beam at the door, giving it some hefty damage, not quite ready to ram through just yet. The Dalek gave another shot, and then drove into the damaged door smashing through.
"EX-TER-MI-NATE!!"
//Coriko, feel free to take control of the Dalek.\
--- ---
The gigantic Nex was hovering over the lava pool, the voice of some strange creature could be heard weeping, and a few deep raspy voices could heared laughing. From withen the lava pool moving skeletons could still be seen trying to swim out, but they burning up and sinking far too quickly. The glow from the lava reflected off the sycthe-like blades on Nex's gauntlets.
Nex actually opened a hell gate, sort of. Not a lot would be able to happen with it, unless he was able to temporally open it more with his magic. Yet only a strong minder reader would be able to tell, Nex was a little worried Iban would find out about this. He however could feel the auras of a few strong souls trying to escape. But they couldn't escape unless he let them...or somebody else tried to...
Nex didn't pay much attention to the trapped souls, what he wanted to do was to shove Draven's corpse down into the hell pit. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with humanoid energy-mass creature the flame boy was with. He could swear he recognized him; perhaps he was a demon of some sort...
"Now where were we gentlemen?" Nex's voice said echoing through Draven and Anti's head.
"Ah yes...I was about to kill you..."
-
"Retan... He knows I'm here. We might want to be extra careful..." Valiko dusted off his clothes an jumped of the great ship, landing on two feet.
"Ben!" Jannis ran over to him from under the ship's deck. "You weren't thinking about leaving me behind, were you?"
"Grab my hand; I'll fly you down." Jannis did as he asked and ben flew down to the ground where Valiko was standing. Following behind, Tiberius leapt off the ship.
"Let's go! North point should be somewhere around here..."
------------
Aaron reached the port on his steed and climbed off. He stroked the horse's hair a few times and walked off to the port, where his men were already on ships, waiting for their general. He found his new ship and walked up to the wheel.
"RAISE ANCHOR AND SET SAIL!!!" he commanded. His army was off, and bound for Tjed...
------------
"Well, look at this! Another human... perhapse we could use him. Be on your guard, Doriana, This one seemes... violent." Valimore backed up a few steps as Dori flung out her iron claws, ready for battle.
-
"A weapon? This should make things rather more interesting. Take this!" Arata unsheathed his katana and slashed it out, brought it back to his side, and then thrusted forwards.
-
... Deep inside the laboratory ...
... cackling. Intense cacking.
"It's finished." Drake Genais had a wide grin on his face...
// Next time we see him, he'll pop up somewhere. He will be heading there covertly. Just wanted to state that so that I'm not accused of instant transmission.
--- --- ---
Xenai yawned and got up to his feet, waking up. Zion woke up too, after having fallen asleep nearby. Tsu and Aura came out of the cabin. "Have we arrived?" asked Aura.
--- --- ---
"You? Kill me?" Anti cackled. "Don't make me laugh!" Anti started his assault on Nex right away, flying up to him and unleashing a flurry of punches at his face.
-
As Anti's punches smashed into Nex's metal covered face it seemed that despite his immense strength it did nothing to harm him. (I'm assuming Zerobi is uber strong.)
"Well, your cute little move there seemed to make me laugh, so why am I not allowed to return the favour?" Nex asked mockingly.
The gems on his gauntlets started to glow a bright red, and the blades began to glow in a similar fashion. He floated backwards, and slashed his 'claws' across shooting several blades like energy projectiles that flew towards Zerobi at almost every angle around him.
--- ---
Duilin glided off the dock of the boat and landed on the ground with the others.
"If Retan knows you're here that's going to be a serious problem." Duilin replied. "In fact, I think we should keep our mouths shut about what we are doing."
Duilin rested his mace on his shoulder, while the Iduran was kept in its sheath, as he walked along with the others at a steady careful pace.
"We can't have the emperor knowing what we are doing. If he finds us out..." Duilin stopped, not even wanting to think about it. To much negative thoughts got him upset. He just had some sort of demonic vision, which if true means that there is the Grim Reaper's scarier looking cousin coming after him.
"Anyways, nobody do anything to drastic. This entire continent is plagued..." Duilin could feel the dark energy lurking throughout the place. It gave him the creeps...
-
Everything was blurry and hazy. The stench of vomit filled the air, contrasted against the smells of cheap perfume. The little tavern was deafingly loud, or so it seemed.
Hannibal's clothes seemed to have been used as makeshift napkins, judging by the dirty smears over the snowy white armour. Pushing away a coyly laughing prostitute, he tried to get up, only to fall back down onto the floor. Somewhere to the left were the blurry silhouettes of Carmine and Sig, slouching over the tavern's bar. Amazingly, de Sade was there as well.
-"*hic* Alcohol, what a vile substance... Best th-th-*hic*-thing you m-mm-mammals came up with..."
Finally, Hannibal succeeded getting up, leaning against the bar for better balance.
-"Guysh, shouldn't we - *hic* - be - *burp* doing shomething right now? How'd we get here anywaysh? Carmine? C-carmine?"
Carmine appeared to have passed out. Sig was still moving.
-"Ah, what the *cough* hell. Barman! Another ale!"
-"This is your thirtieth, you pig, and you still haven't paid for any of these! Antonio, throw these idiots out of my fine establishment!"
Glass shattered, and doors were slammed - and Hannibal felt himself on cold, hard ground. Soon, the rest of the Scarlet Commission was lying next to him.
Then, as if from a distance, the tavern went up in a roar of flames. Out of it came de Sade, laughing.
-"Oops... Insect mortal set off the life sheath. Hee hee..."
--- --- ---
-"WHAT IS IT, CAIN?! You're interrupting me!"
-"But... Sovereign, you're not doing anything."
-"EXACTLY! You disrupt my activity of doing absolutely nothing. What is it?"
-"Well, my lord, we've decided to let a few other scientists in on the Sovereign's Hammer project from the general populace. The current task assembly isn't performing a fast enough job. We told the newcomers that they're working on the project code-named "The Blunt Tool of the Reigning Monarch of Kandarin."
-"Very creative. On whose authority did you take this action?"
-"Ah... my own, Sovereign."
I sighed.
-"I'm too busy to yell at you, Ryleh. Just... no. Don't do that. Now you have to kill all of them."
-"Yes, Sovereign. I was actually kind of hoping you'd say that. We needed a few corpses for the Necrolyte exercises."
...
-"Get out of my sight."
-"Yes, my lord."
Why must I be surrounded by these idiots?
After the brief encounter with Cain, I looked at the report he dropped off before leaving. On it were statistics of several of the projects we are currently running.
Sovereign's Hammer: Blueprints in revision. Still required: the hive ship schematics from Eldridge, the material to make the crystal prism from. Suggested purified dark glass.
Mutagenic potions: Work is yet to begin.
Army upgrades: All spear gunners' weapons have been upgraded with detachable scopes, tips upgraded to obsidian. All KAF face masks upgraded with gas filters and underwater oxygen collection mechanisms. Mortars: increased range, lighter weight. The Bladesmen section of KAF has been dissolved, and all soldiers were sent for Stalker training. Another batch of about six is expected soon.
Arcane matters: Ice mages trained and ready. Necrolytes now capable of sustaining up to 60 thralls each. They are currently assembling giant beasts in the far northeastern Kandarinian outpost (Kuomintang) 100 km away from Gros Morne.
The city: Population grew to 15,000. Army percentage: 20%. Upcoming plans to bore down deep into the ground to extract minerals for a possible golem building project. Additional uses include dungeons, living quarters, and tea shops.
Tea shops?
Other: Increased sightings of strange blue lights in many burning fires. Occurrences are sporadic, not seeming to concentrate in any particular area. Reports about blue figures moving about the city at night are growing in numbers.
-
Bryce frowned when he saw the dark clouds rolling in. It was a beautiful night, stars glistening in the sky, visible even through the translucent green dome that covered the city. But all that would be gone in a few hours... this would be Tjed's last clear night ever...
He rested one boot on the short wall at the end of the battlements atop Tjed Castle, flicking his tail back and forth. The dark city below was quiet, hundreds of Lizard Men patrolling the streets below. After the short battle in the castle, it had been a quick and easy takeover. Now he merely waited for orders with the rest of the Velkens who were not given some specific task.
Virmir approached and he snapped to attention, as did the group behind him, each giving a short bow of respect. In the pale green light emitted from the dome above... he seemed different somehow... The fur atop his head was unkempt and haggard, and he looked like he hadn't slept for days... His eyes were always the same though... cold and unfeeling.
"My lord?"
Virmir turned from him, running his claws atop the stone bricks as he looked out over the city. "The humans..." he said quietly after a long pause, "they all must die."
----
"Hyah!!" Anselm dove in front of the fallen translucent Ko'ji, slashing some centipede thing in half. "I know..." he said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "this is somehow more exhausting, even though we're not even fighting with our physical bodies..." How much longer could they keep this up? He knew Virmir had a plan, but what? How long did they have to do this?
The monsters shrunk back for a bit, and he was given time to try and catch his breath.
----
(Blargh... this is seriously the worst weekend ever for the RP to start on my end... more later on.)
-
"Okay, so do you have all of these ingredients?" Giftmacher asked Vandrin, reading off of the old scroll.
"Yes, but not nearly enough. And we need better quality of them." Vandrin replied.
"Well, upon reading this, I can already point out a few problems with this." Giftmacher went over to Vandrin and pointed at a few of the ingredients. "You see that right there is actually used for killing this, while this has actually been proven to do nothing."
"Actually that, I figured out it was highly necessary. At first I ignored it, and the chemical just worked as some odd sort of poison, but when I added that it actually started mutating people."
"So, did you make this formula recipe on your own?" Scabbs asked.
"No, I think it's pretty obvious. That scroll is over a thousand years old." Vandrin stated.
"Okay.." Giftmacher interrupted. "Okay, a few of the poisons I think are what's making the low success rate, and some of the others are what's making it only work on humans."
"Well, those poisons are what give them their magic."
"But yeah, if we could perhaps say use some more magic enhancements rather than injecting them with poison, we could have mutants of different elements, and that might also get rid of our death rate entirely."
"Okay, that's one problem down. What about fixing the outcome?"
"Well, I think if we spilt the elements of this right here." He pointed at one of the ingredients. "And make separate chemicals for our types then that might work. But doing that may be tricky."
"Alright."
"But one thing that puzzles me, are those shadow mutants. There isn't a single ingredient here, that would make something have shadow magic."
Scabbs rubbed his chin. "We the ingredients taken from the Dark Continent."
"Some of them." Vandrin replied. "Actually a few of them were from the south west, around Bane's Tower, or whatever they're calling it."
"Well there have been some people who have reported a extremely high amount of shadow radiation in that area. Perhaps that might explain it."
"Hmm..." Vandrin crossed his arms. "It just occurred to me, that some of my old shadow mutants might still be alive. And if they were tainted by Retan's power...maybe they might join him."
"Well, the Sovreign's Necromancy will prevent that from happening. He should have full control over the new batch. Assuming we're able to finish this." Scabbs replied.
"Vandrin." Giftmacher called. "Did you notice this?" He showed him some worn out text on the scroll, only a few letters could be made out.
"No, I didn't." Vandrin replied. "We should find out what it is."
"Indeed, we should." Giftmacher said back.
-
The stench of bear wasn't still quite gone from its skin, but Ein didn't mind. He finally tired of hauling his weapon over his shoulder, and decided to make a sheath for it. It just so happened that a bear was passing by when he got the idea. Now, Ein was full with bear meat, and a decent-sized pouch for his weapon. He didn't like to think of himself as a resource waster, so he made himself a pair of gloves from the remaining skin. They kept his hands nice and warm, which would probably help once he's back in the Arctic Region.
Now, to find Marshall...
-
//Yeah, the Zerobi no Anti is extremely powerful. Acknowledging that fact, but then taking no damage? Ho ho, this fight is interesting. Something's going on with Nex. I like it. >:D
Anti was taken aback by the fact that he didn't seem to be doing any damage at all. "What the hell?!" The attacks that came in on him next struck him quite squarely, and sent him back a few feet. He turned a backflip and skidded to a stop on his feet. My attacks had no effect at all. I'm at around 95% too, so that makes no sense. There's something weird going on here. He created a ball of energy and flung it at Nex, just to see what would happen.
--- --- ---
The four got off the ship. Zion had a frown on his face. "Man, I feel it everywhere. You could probably cut through it with a knife."
Xenai wore a similar frown. "And the Zerobi no Anti is nearby. I can feel that monstrous energy... But it feels like he's fighting. So he shouldn't notice us."
Aura nodded. "Yeah, Anti seems to be pretty focused when he fights. He didn't even notice Tsu coming in to take me away from our own fight."
Tsu looked to Duilin. "So what now?"
-
Grav cackled manically as soon as the transmission faded. That was so much fun! He tossed the bloody rag doll onto the ground. The illusion spell cast upon it faded, revealing it to be nothing more than a stuffed animal only vaguely resembling a Velken. Obviously they would not have opened the gates to Welkin just to sacrifice one miserable little girl! When the gates did open it was going to be for something significant-- more troops flowing in, or an actual meaningful sacrifice...
----
The small cloaked figure dashed down the side of the ship and disapeared amongst a copse of shadowy trees. Blast it... there were just too many of them! No, this wouldn't work at all...
Zipping amongst the dead branches like a wraith, he watched the group from the relative safety of the thick darkness that enveloped everything-- if one could actually call that safe. He recognized Duilin near the lead. There was also that angel-- Ben or something. That one could be problematic, as he was way too rash for his own good. The rest were but shadows in the darkness, as even his night-adjusted eyes couldn't discern their forms. It was mostly in their hands now. At this point, he couldn't do much other than wait for the right moment... He pulled his cowl further over his face. Hopefully it would come...
----
An intense fireball curled around Anti's form, destroying one of the energy blades with a blinding flash. A rather irritated Draven followed in its wake, ducking in front of Anti and destroying another of Nex's projectiles as he crossed over to the astral demon's left. Cupping his hands to his side, a brilliant ball of crimson materialized within.
"Flattering. Really..."
Thrusting his hands forward, he sent forth a spiral of raging fire much like a drill, surging right for the oversized Nex's chest...
-
The sea was very quiet as the ships made their way to Tjed. There were about five ships, each carrying around one thousand drannivolkan foot soldiers and twenty captains. They were a bit crammed, but the size of the ships helped greatly. They were all quite large, and had giant sails that would quickly catch wind if not anchored.
"LAND!!!" A soldier shouted, "TJED!!!" All of the soldiers were now very eager to get off the ships and fight the lizardmen. They leaned forward as the ships neared land. At last, they reached Tjed, with some sort of green dome above the mountains. The army would have a long ways to walk before they all made it to Tjedon.
------------
"Hah! Too slow!" Doriana pushed Arata's attack back and flipped backwards. "Come on! You'll have to do MUCH better than that if you want to hit me!"
------------
Ben glanced around the area with a sort of cold feeling; like something had been watching them. "Hey guys... do you think we've been followed?"
"What do you mean?" Tiberius asked, "Like somebody followed us from Tjed or-"
"Like someone else grabbed a ride from that ship... and is following us now as we speak... watching..." Valiko had lost the feeling of Retan, though a new one had been erplaced, as if showing which direction he was.
"Yeah," Ben continued, "That. I'm not sure, but I think we're being tailed. I sense a faint presence, though I'm not sure what to make of it... What do you guys think?"
------------
-
"A faint presence?" Duilin asked. "I can feel a few auras around...But I've never been to good at that sort of thing." He said as he continued moving.
"We should just keep going. We need to get to north point."
But I have a bad feeling about who we're going to meet there...
--- ---
The oversized Nex seemingly embraced the two attacks which smashed into him. Nex started to laugh, but just like his speech it seemed to enter into their minds, and even start tormenting their souls. The laughing seized.
"I was able to survive my little 'tumble' into the lava pool by merging myself with the two elites. You see, they are further enhanced from the previous ones with the Grey Empire. But let's just say they can't die. And now that they have fused with me, neither can I."
But something within him seemed to be weakening, when the moment the mutated Nex raised up from the lava pool there was a feeling in his aura that was added to his, it was from the elites. But it seemed to be slightly shrinking...
Nex's voice deepened and seemed to change into the voice(s) of the elites.
"Now your souls will burn in Hell!!"
The giant Nex flew towards Nex and Anti, and swung his giant scythe claws down at his two opponents.
-
Blast... could they be talking about him...? The cloaked figure slunk further back as he listened to the angel Ben talk from afar. This would screw up everything... especially out here. But he knew how to hide himself, they couldn't possibly be picking him up. That means...
"Eeeeeeee~!!!"
The trees all around splintered as if it hit with cannonballs. Screaming black wraiths burst from the holes, brandishing large scythes and rushed at Duilin and the other intruders...
----
Draven wasn't quite tormented by the laugh. He just found it blatantly annoying.
He shot diagonally upwards in avoidance of the scythe, feeling a surge of wind from where it split the air. Blast it all! It was going to take forever to put a dent into this muto-demon-freak's armor. He looked down at the... things that seemed to be trying to escape the lava pool. They didn't seem to be enjoying themselves. Some even seemed to be crying to him for help. Hmmm...
Smirking he extended both hands as a faint glow surrounded them. Cleft to the underworld that it was, it was still lava, and still his element. Turning it into a simple magma geyser should be no problem at all. He didn't quite like the idea of underworld freaks roaming Gaian, but if it would annoy Nex, it'd be worth it.
The sea of fire underneath Nex surged, and with a mighty flash, began to flow upwards-- along with the trapped souls within.
-
"Great..." Duilin groaned as he readied himself in a fighter’s stance with his mace ready.
"Haven't even been here for a bleeding minute and we've already got freaks with scythes coming at us." Duilin lifted his mace up and it was engulfed with flame, he then pointed his weapon at one of the wraiths coming at him and shot a rocket of fire at it, just to test this guy's magical resistance.
--- ---
"What the devil are you doing!?" Nex shouted as the lava pool began to geyser upwards, crashing into him.
"You're...getting...on...my...irritation!!"
---
In Thanatos the two pale skinned humanoids were watching an inter-dimensional vortex in the sky over their temple.
"He is about to escape."
"We can not let this happen."
"Send our warriors to crush them."
"And to further help our leading warrior."
---
"So much is happening...Fighting, Hiding, Following, Hunting, Cowering, Failing, Dieing, Falling, Running, Screaming, Burning, Crying, Digging, Flying, Swimming, Begging, Pleading and finally it's over but it can all start again. Please no more."
---
"You stupid ape!" Nex's voice shouted into Draven's mind "Do you have any idea what you've just done!?" Nex's gauntlets started to glow red, as he emerged from the lava geyser, with skeleton like beings and the undead pouring out from them.
"You've just allowed a hell gate to open up. More of my enemies are now in Gaian." But then Nex laughed."But more of yours are too..."
Several undeads were tossed and tumbled onto the ground.
“We’re free!” Shouted one of them!
Not a second after the freed soul cheered out, several large globs of lava crashed into several places around the lava pool which was now nearly empty, with most of the land around charred and deformed. The globs of lava revealed to have large metal capsules inside of them, as the lava flowed off of them. Their were doors on the capsules, which slowly opened, and steam shot out. One of the capsules that landed closest to Draven, Nex and Anti had a metal hoof step out of it. Emerging from the steam clouding the area around the capsule was a large demon, with iron plated bull horns and a grilled helmet covering the entire top half of it’s face, it’s entire body had sheets of black metal which appeared to be nailed onto his body. On it’s back were pipes, which were shooting steam, four pipes pointing downward and three pointing diagonally upwards. And it’s tail appeared to be a pipe of some sort as well resembling a modern day shower hose, but made of the same black coloured metal as his plating. One of his arms seemed to more metal then the rest, it’s hand seemed to have every joint broken, as it was just dangling there.
The Steam Demon, was at least seven feet tall, it was almost amazing how a beast that size was able to fit inside the capsule. The steam demon’s arm with the broken hand pointed towards the two fighters near by Nex, who by now was floating motionlessly inside the empty pit that was once the lava pool. The steam demon’s broken fingers snapped backwards until they were firmly placed against it’s metal arm. It’s palm burned open until it was a large circular hole. It’s arm now resembled a cannon.
“Do you like them?” Nex asked. “I designed them myself.”
From every capsule came another one of those steam demons. The tortured souls around them began to back up and began to cry in fear, as they approached them. The steam demons began gunning them down by shooting hunks of flaming metal from their arms, in three round bursts. A few of the tortured souls tried to fight back, but it was no use.
The steam demon in front of Draven and Anti then fired three hunks of flaming metal. One of them was clearly going to miss while the other two were heading towards them...
Meanwhile Nex noticed somebody in the pit next to him, laying motionless on the ground. It was a well built man, with long white hair; most of his flesh was burnt off. He was wearing black pants, yet no shirt. He noticed something on his shoulders; it seemed that perhaps horns were ripped off from his shoulders, by either himself, or somebody else. The giant Nex got up onto his feet.
"Well...well...well."
-
"What!? Damn you!" Arata was taken aback by the female Drow's abilities. From behind them marched an army. They would have to postpone this battle and continue later.
"I'll get you back!" Arata darted away and began to climb the mountains, looking for some sort of cliff to rest on as he waited for the army to pass.
--- ---
Two more dark figures rose from the mist that covered the ground. Both of them were holding a longsword. They did not appear to be violent, though.
"How much longer do you intend to keep your friend safe from us?" The first dark figure asked, "His soul is strong with magic blood... delicious..." The figures held their swords out a bit further and stepped into what looked like a battle stance.
"You wont be able to protect him much longer from us," the second dark figure added.
"Damn it all..." Ko'ji readied her scimitar, "These guys are stronger than the others... Take THIS!" Ko'ji leapt forwards and thrusted her blade into the shadowy figure. He managed to get his sword up just in time to deflect the attack.
"I could use a hand here!" Ko'ji shouted.
-
The Dalek's eye piece shivelled around looking for inferior life forms.
"EX-TER-MI-NATE!!"
It shouted and shot a lab technician who was running away with McNiel. A scream escaped the dead mans lips as he glowed green and his bones black as if he had his insides looked at through an x-ray!! The corpse fell to the ground.
"What the hell?!?!" Coriko yelled causing the Dalek'e eye piece to swivel in his direction.
"You are inferior to the Daaa-lekk. EX-TER-MI-NATE!!"
As the creature's gun pointed at Coriko, he jumped out of the way. The bolt missed and Coriko fired a mortar arrow at the Dalek. Just before it hit the creature an orange glow appeared and the arrow vanished into nothing.
"Oh for the love of god!"
Coriko jumped out of the way as another bolt was fired at him.
"Wilham help me out!"
---
Druid glided accross the air, over the water. He looked at his work of art, his masterpiece, his home. The city was almost as he remembered it and little had changed besides a few new building which were erected. He scanned from the north of the island to the south. And his eyes landed on it. The middle of the island, in the most fortified and secure place. His jet black place. He looked back over his shoulder.
"Thank you for the help gentleman."
The still smouldering bodies of the remaining summoners.
"It was a pleasure."
Druid continued forward focusing his attention on his island. He out stretched his hands and summoned to orbs of shadow energy. The cracked and flashed, causing everyone on the island to look at him.
"I am back." This was said in a loud, booming, and certainly terrifing voice. He said only these words. A respectful silence passed and a equally loud cheer erupted from the island. Druid made the orbs crack again and the cheers ended. "Good, i see you did not lose all your manners under that boorish Silas." A boo echoed from the island as this name was uttered. "Now," the crowd quited down. "I promise you this world will be ours!" A louder cheer exploded from the island. "But," again dead silence fell upon the city. "I have some buisness to take care of." With that Druid moved towards his now reclaimed palace.
-
Answers? Answers were the only thing he didn't need. He spent all his life not bothering with questions, but alas, all was different now.
The wreckage proved nothing of the man that once appeared before him and thus left. That was days ago. Now what? Quadricentennial now had to live among 'those who burn with the sun' as he called them since he always lived in darkness. He was used to the cold but the sun was just fine. He yet again tore up his shirt again from the last battle. He needed a new one. He went about, to search for something to cover himself with. Maybe hunt some wild animal for it's fur. He didn't knew what to do exactly, he never ventured outside. He was truly lost. He didn't knew what to do. Where to go. What his life's purpose was. He figured he'd just find a dark cave and forget the whole nonsense about the mysterious old mad that appeared from a plant. Yet he felt something strange whenever he thought of the old man. As if he knew him. That would be impossible since he never knew anyone but his owls and his little nana Sweetness. Whoever this old man was had a hold on him. So he would figure he would just aimlessly walk around and let the purpose come to him.
And so he does.
-
"You got it." Wilham said to Coriko. "Hey!" He shouted to the Dalek.
"EX-TER-MI-NATE!!" The Dalek fired a death beam at Wilham, but he was able to brace himself, as the robot shouted exterminate.
"You draw way to much attention to yourself you know that." Wilham quipped.
"The Daleks have no need for stealth!" The Dalek screeched. "EX-TER-MI-NATE!!"
It fired another beam at Wilham but he put his gauntlet covered hands in front of him, and the beam only singed Wilham's gauntlets.
"IM-POSIBLE!" The Dalek screeched.
"Welcome to the big leagues, can head." Wilham's hand then glowed white and he pressed them together summoning a light elemental nymph.
The nymph shot a beam of light at the Dalek, but the beam seemed to have no effect.
"Inferior tactics detected!"
"Did that robot just taunt me!?" Wilham asked.
He began to circle around the Dalek, with his nymph in front of him shooting lasers.
The Dalek fired another beam, but narrowly missed Wilham, the nymph shot a laser at the exact time the Dalek did, and the laser hit right on the grill part underneath the head section.
"Scanners have sustained damage!" The Dalek droned in its raspy voice.
Wilham noticed something. Normally any attack coming at it was blocked by its energy shield, meaning that it needs to turn it off in order to shoot his death beam, that's why his nymph was able to hit it.
"Coriko, shoot at the exact time, it does!" Wilham shouted to his comrade.
-
Coriko waited for the robot to fire another shot at Wilham. The shot missed but killed the light nymph. When the Dalek fired Coriko summoned and fired a fire ball. The fire made contact with the robot and its head blew off. The blue light emitted from the eye piece died and the body stood still.
"Wow that was close, sorry about your nymph. You think its dead or just disarmed?"
-
"Nice shot." Wilham complimented. "But yeah, don't worry about the nymph." The dead creature turned into white light and then flowed back into the gems on Wilham's gauntlets. "The creatures I summon aren't actually alive. They're just replications of life forms."
Wilham noticed that the officers had all ran off, leaving them behind.
"Well, they'll be glad to know we figured out how to kill them." Wilham said walking over to the headless Dalek. He leaned against the empty shell. "Heh, they aren't so tough are they?"
Then suddenly a small green squid like creature jumped out from the Dalek casing and latched onto the back of Wilham's neck. "Arg!!" He tumbled to the ground. "Get it off! Get it off!" The mutant Kaled's tentacles then started to dig into Wilham's ears. He grabbed onto the creature, trying to pull it off. "It's trying to get into my skull! Quickly! Help me get it off!!" He shouted.
-
"Right.
Well.
Looks to me like hiring eccentrics to do scientists' job wasn't a completely dull idea. After sleeping through 4 hours of a lecture by one of these individuals, Ryleh informed me that, in short, the pseudo-scientist found evidence of a near-indestructible metal deep beneath the planet's crust. Unfortunately for us, the metal stays strong only as long as it's heated to ridiculous temperatures - but those eggheads from the subterranean labs told me that they'll think of something. They'd better.
A nice muscle-stretching walk is all I need, I thought to myself, as I left the lecture hall.
It was still pleasantly cold outside, and the city still slept with activity. The mountains encircling us from the inner continent looked particularly distant this morning, an effect to which I could attribute no cause...
...curse Draven! Why must my minions be so weak to fire? After Retan's fall, quite naturally, I'm planning to double-cross the damn vermin. But how? With what? What will be the device of Draven's downfall? Plague upon your house..."
-
"Blast it! Wraiths!" Ben flung his hand to his side and burst out a blast of white energy, condensing and taking the form of a sword. He grabbed the blade of energy with both hands and thrust it forwards at one of the creatures with the scythes.
"I hope this isn't a sign of what I'm thinking." Valiko unsheathed his demonic sword and threw it into the air. A blast of red energy surrounded it and two more swords came down. Valiko held his right arm out, directed at the dark figures; they started to float in front of him and swung at the wraiths, or so Ben had called them.
Tiberius began to transform into a Wyvern; his body disappeared and was replaced with a bright light that started to take the shape of a small dragon like creature; a wyvern no less.
------------
"Hmph. We'll want to leave, and quickly." Valimore lead Dori out of the field and behind an area near the port. There were still people from ariosis there, trading and such as if nothing was happening around them. As the army marched across the fields and to the caves, the over all expression of the port changed.
------------
"I forgot how long a walk it was through the caves..." Aaron though aloud. He lead his men into the caves and had them light a few torches, telling the mages to cast light around themselves. The caves were lit with a bright glow as the soldiers of Dranniville marched through.
Some of the Drannivolkans that fought in the earlier war were there, ready to pay back the Tjedians for their help. The clearing was nearby, glowing a strange green. "Put out your tourches!" Aaron shouted through the caves. They were shortly covered in darkness.
"Draw blades!" He shouted once again. The caves echoed with the scraping "sching" that probably alearted the lizardmen. They weren't very bright, however, so they might not have noticed. The definately would soon enough, however.
"CHARGE!!!" Aaron rushed out of the caves followed by his men, pouring into the fields just in front of Tjedon. The city was covered in a translucent green dome. The men behind Aaron all shouted as they raced out into the field and soon the city gate.
------------
-
Nex stood over the unconscious man.
"He's still alive. He was able to protect his himself and stay alive, even in death. Such a strong spirit in this one..."
The man slowly started to move. "Where...am...I..."
"You're alive..."
"Who are you?"
"You don't recognize me? I haven't changed that much."
"Nex..." the man began coughing and wheezing. "Why won't you leave me alone!?"
"Because I just love annoying people. Yet I don't like being on the receiving end, so much. Heheh..."
"Your voice..."
"I can't speak in this form, so I result into sending telepathic messages. Thanks for asking. Now if you don't mind, I think it's about time you..."
"Emperor!!" The man shouted, but then started coughing and wheezing, and passed out.
"Hmm...it appears I'm running low on energy. I need to keep this form up until at least I kill these two fools."
Nex floated high into the air, and was surrounded by a spherical aura of red energy around him. Several of the Steam Demons then fired at Nex as if they were specifically told to. That slowing weakening energy inside him, started to regenerate as the protectiles were absorbed into Nex...
"Nyahahah!!"
-
"Oh geez!"
Coriko made his hand searing hot and put it on the squid creature. It wiggled and squirmed and then fell off of Wilham. The creature hit the ground and started to try to move.
"Oh, that is just gross."
Coriko fired a blast of fire at the squid, vapourizing it.
"Are you okay there Wilham? Did it break the skin?"
-
"Ape? Bite me, metal-face."
Draven's aura exploded in flame as he circled around the chaos that was the battlefield, weaving around projectiles of molten metal. Just as one of the tin-demon-things was about to destroy what appeared to be a writhing soul, he sent a tremendously high speed orb of crimson energy into its metal-grated face.
"Lost souls, behold!" he bellowed as he flew skyward, "for I have come to deliver you from these wretches!" He pointed at Nex, his whole body wrapped in flame. "Fight back, and together we shall rule Gaian!"
Draven heard the word 'Emperor' shouted at the point, seeing a familiar body lying upon the charred, steaming ground. Was that... Valos? A gring crossed his visage. This whole pulling minions out of the underworld wasn't part of his plan... but it might actually work. He zipped down and hovered several feet above the body, to protect it. As he saw the steam demons regenerate Nex, a devilish grin crossed his face.
He threw both hands up into the air...
----
The wraith took Duilin's fireball head on, and screamed wretchedly as flames engulfed it. Another wraith approached unseen from the half-demon's left, and rose its blade to cleave his head. However, a shadow zipped out of the dark forest and, flying through the air as a blur, circled the spectre once and disappeared back where it came from. A glowing red circle appeared above the wraith as it wailed, and then its body disintegrated into nothing...
----
When the warriors of Ariosis where halfway out of the caves and running down the incline towards the domed city, they were suddenly very violently hit-- from behind!
A huge onslaught of snarling Lizard Men poured out of the many side-crannies throughout the tunnel, trapping the tail end of the army in the dangerously cramped tunnels. At the same time, a complement of some 800 large lizards began their charge up the hill, brandishing gigantic swords, maces, and mauls-- not to mention razor sharp teeth and claws. In addition to this, another group of lizards was positioned closer to the city walls, but they seemed to be waiting for orders rather than joining in on the fray.
Commander Vlak cackled as he watched those foolish Ariosians walk right into his trap. Perched high above Tjedion upon the highest command tower of his flying ship-- The Death Evan-- he had a positively wonderful view of the battle. And of course, there was no way he could lose. Even if things turned sour, he'd just order The Sinistral, the second of the three airships under his command to break away from its position over the city and freaking carpet bomb them to death. Oh how hilarious that would be!
He wondered what sort of weakling Retan sent to conquer Ariosis in the first place. It did not matter, now they would taste the true might of the Dark Empire-- The Skyward Division! He was certain his performance here would gain him the favor of the Dark Emperor. Recognition, at last!
Of course, that was if those blasted Velkens didn't interfere. Cursed flying mammals... He grinned. No, High General Virmir was taking care of the inner city. Vlak was to watch the outside by his order, and that was where the action was!
-
(Forgot about these two... blast it!)
Before Ko'ji could finish the sentence, Anselm had his sword buried deep within the spectral demon's prone side. It gaped once, then fizzled into nothing.
But somehow the second one made its way around him-- perhaps because he was so tired-- and lifted its sword up... Suddenly it exploded with a violent shock of lightning. The creature faded. Anselm was about to thank Riuki for the save, but then realized she was in no position to cast the spell. But then, who..."
Helix stood there, right claw extended, crackling with electricity. "Anselm...? Riuki...?" His eyes widened as he looked at his hand, which was even more translucent than his squad-mates. With a gasp of terror he looked down at his feet, which were completely gone, as were most of his legs. Half of his tail was missing, and his translucent body seemed to be very slowly fading away... He clutched his stomach as if in pain and leaned foward. "Wha... what's happening to me...?"
Anselm stood by his side, fighting back rising panic... He clutched his squad-mate by the shoulder. "Helix... your soul has been poisoned... We're here to help keep you in one piece until help arrives..." He just wished he knew how long that would take...
-
"Yeah, I'm fine." Wilham said rubbing the back of his head. "I think he was trying to eat my brain or something..."
"Quick let's catch up with the others..." He said, as he started to head through the hallway.
--- ---
"Yes listen to him, you post-mortem-atic fiends! Nex's voice cheered. "My Steam Demons love it when you put in a fight."
The lost souls were far too weak in comparison to the mighty steam demons. The ones fighting back, even the ones who could even use magic, couldn't do enough to take them down. Body parts were flying all over the place, but none of them were dieing. It's almost as if they couldn't. Disembodied heads were shouting in pain, and crying for help.
"Pathetic. Even when immortal, humans are nothing but cannon fodder."
The man slowly got up. It was indeed Valos, at least what remained of him. His body was covered in scars and burns, chunks of flesh were missing from him, his eyes were blood shot and every limb in his body seemed out of shape as if they've been broken many times over the past. But he was alive. He held his chest, as he spoke.
"My lord...General Valos...is reporting and ready to serve..."
He lost his balance and fell to the ground exhausted.
"Or...order...orders sir?" He mumbled weakly as he was on the ground with his eyes facing towards the sky. He was so dizzy he couldn't tell where Draven was, but he saw him a second ago, so he knew he was there...
-
"Coming back to my palace, I couldn't be more bitter. What the hell: everyone's busy, and I'm the only one that has nothing to do.
Unless...
Ahh, yes. The ultimate boredom-killer and adrenaline-rusher.
Quickly grabbing a small commorb from a table nearby, I rushed to the top of the citadel. There, an assembled wyvern was already waiting for me..."
-
"Come on, then!" Aaron shouted as his men slashed through the lizardmen onslaught. The field was evenly matched as the lizards strength appeared to match the army's intelligence. It was just a matter of numbers, and the army's over all morale.
Some of Aaron's men were able to escape the caves, but a few remained trapped by lizards. Without warning, the caves blasted open with a blaze of lightning, throwing lizardmen back as far as fifty feet. In the enterance to the caves stood a Drannivolkan spellsword. He was an elite, along with nine other Drannivolkan attackers. If the army did not survive, they would.
The other nine bolted out of the caves and slashed a group of lizardmen who were about to get up. There speed was amazing, similar to that of a velken, but they could still probably run circles around the Drannivolkan elite. Their build was also quite large for their race. They just about looked like the lizardmen that attacked.
"Hah! What kind of army is this? To not even know magic defense?" The first elite pulled his blade out of a fallen lizardman.
"It appears that the Dark Empire isn't quite ready for the advanced tactical training it once had ages ago," another elite said after slashing through a few more lizards.
"Please, for the love of Dran, don't lecture us as we fight!" a third elite merely stepped over a few corpses of dead lizards and Drannivolkans.
"It appears that general Virmir is here. I can smell his scent... I'm going to enjoy gutting that bastard for what he's done to the humans!" A fourth elite charged further into the field followed by his commrads. He wielded a giant hammer, plowing through the smaller lizardmen.
"I believe the skyward division is going to make this harder for us. The army will fall..." a fifth elite shot energy blasts into the air that landed in the middle of the charging lizard force.
From behind, more lizardmen poured out of the caves and attacked the Drannivolkan army. The armies weren't getting anywhere. If the Drannivolkans tried to enter the gates, more lizardmen would keep them at bay. It the lizards tried to gang up on others, the Drannivolkans kept them off.
"This is fun!" a sixth elite yelled as he swung his sword through planty of lizardmen throats. He looked like a child paying, as if ripping the wings off of an insect. The last of the four elites fought to protect Aaron. This battle would last quite a long time...
------------
"What the hell?" Ben saw as the wraith vanished into nothing, as well as the blur that had appeared to have caused it. He ignored it for the moment and thrust his blade of energy through the wraith. It screamed as the blade of light pierced it's black heart. The light stretched from around the blade on the wraith, and soon, it exploded into a white dust of light.
Valiko began moving his arm in fast motions and began making weird symbols in the air. The two ghost blades went back into the first. He grabbed the blade from the air and cleaved the wraith that was attacking him. It was cut in half.
Tiberius finished transforming into a black wyvern. This would probably help the group blend in. He was still able to talk in this form, so they would know it was him. "We should probably try not to get into battles like this until we get to North Point. Let's move on."
------------
-
"Helix, don't waste your energy!" Ko'ji raced over to Helix's side along with Anselm. She held her hand out towards Helix and a flash of blue light appeared. She'd taken some of her spirit energy and gave it to him. This left her extremely exhausted, however.
--- ---
"Damn this blasted army!" Arata thought to himself as he scaled the mountain. Doing this in daylight was much easier, he thought. The wind didn't seem to be in his favor either, as it was faster this night, and it continually pushed against him.
He made it to the peak of a mountain near Tjedon and saw the green dome covering the entire city. Right outside the city, the army he'd seen earlier was fighting lizardmen. This had excited Arata greatly.
He slid down a steep slope and leapt off, rolling on the ground to break his fall. He unsheathed his katana and slashed apart anything that got in his way. His bloodlust would not be settled until all were dead...
-
"What the hell was that?" Duilin asked. "Somebody up there likes me. Or at least just doesn't want me dead..."
Duilin blocked the scythe blade of one of the wraiths with his mace, knocking it away. With his free hand he shot a fireball knocking it to the ground, burning it up. He looked about and saw the others wraiths were dead.
"That's all of them? Heh, okay then." Duilin made a brief grin and then rested his mace back on his shoulder. He noticed that Tiberius was talking in his wyvern form.
"Wow. I was under the impression gepardi's couldn't talk in their animal forms."
He remembered his old gepardi friend Cheetah, who he traveled with at Romme. He remembers how awkward talking to him when he was in the form of a wyvern or a cheetah.
"But I don't think we can do anything to avoid battles like that. Those guys came out of nowhere for no reason." Duilin replied. "But if anything we should make sure we avoid battles when we are at north point. I think stealth may be the key for when we get there. But who the hell knows?" Duilin continued moving. "I'm just guessin' stuff..."
-
A sigh.
Several houses were already finished.
For recently resurrected people, these guys sure work fast she thought.
But all was not meant to be well.
That much she has already learned from life. Her birth, her path, her plan...
All went wrong at some point. So far, she had managed to deal with every problem, but how long will she last...?
"Feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrniiiiiiiiiiiiiis...!"
Indher was startled by the distant, familiar voice calling out to her.
She recognized the approaching man as her apprentice, Elphos.
Her thoughts began to float...
She remembered the day she met him...
That day, she found an entire village drowned in human blood. Back then, she didn't much care for it, but now that those beings are her responsibility, shouldn't they be under her faithful protection, as well...?
"Fernis! Hey, master, stop daydreaming!"
Being shaken by her apprentice brought her back to reality.
Alas, he was right. This truly was not the time to get lost in old memories.
"What is it, Elphos?"
She was quite curious as to what was the commotion all about.
It has been a while since she saw him in such a hurry, but she couldn't quite pinpoint that last time it happened...
"Err, I... WE have a problem!"
A sigh.
Now she remembers.
Last time it happened, Elphos tried turning a piece of wood into a piece of meat - using the standard rune for dealing with metals. The thing exploded in his face and started a forest fire.
He was lucky he wasn't scarred from the incident...
"So, what happened this time?"
Indher then noticed a couple approaching from behind her panicky apprentice.
One of them was a gray-haired, old and wrinkled man who wore simple farmer's clothing consisting of a striped green shirt, tattered gray cloth pants with many stains of mud and wooden sandals. By his side was a black haired young woman, no older than thirty by appearance, who the very exact same set of clothes the man did.
Occupied by the couple's odd fashion sense, it took her a while to notice that the woman was holding a strange, feathery creature in her hands. It seemed to be sleeping, and quite peacefully, too. Nearly wondering off to her own world again, Indher managed to retain the grasp on reality and proceeded to ask the obvious question -
"What is this...?"
The face of her apprentice went bright red. She never really understood it-
Why do humans try to hide their most obvious emotions?
She noted to herself that she should ask Elphos about it later, and proceeded to await a response from her (apparently) embarrassed apprentice.
"I, erm, they asked me for a chicken..."
The rest was obvious. Indher didn't teach him much about the runic structure of living beings, and only made him memorize the basic structure of a roach and a rat.
Since only the world's biggest idiot would try to make a living avian in the form of an insect, the problem became all too obvious...
"A rat shaped chicken? That's a first. Let this one be, it might actually be productive."
The couple seemed to be delighted at this.
This was another thing Indher found to be puzzling -
If they wanted to keep it, why did they come to her?
If there's no problem to complain about, there's no need to complain. Do humans not understand these simple things...?
A sigh.
After telling Elphos to go back to what he is best at (that is, shaping existing matter) I began walking up the hill knowing the newfound village's material supply won't run out anytime soon.
It is sad how the only being on this island intelligent enough to talk to is the same one who doesn't want to talk...
-
Well blast, that is one dedicated solider. He should probably give him a raise. Or something.
"Just lie there and not die. That'd be it for now," Draven replied to Valos, smirking slightly. With both hands to the sky, he turned and sneered at Nex. "You, on the the other hand..."
As if grasping an invisible force, Draven threw his hands downward. "Meteo!!"
Giant holes burst in the clouds above, gigantic burning boulders hurtling downward from the heavens. With quick flips of his hands and some mad cackling, he directed the monoliths not at Nex, but at the freaky metal demon things, intending to smash them like children's toys...
----
The dark cloaked figure breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the last wraith that was attacking Duilin's group fade away. Blasted random encounters... time was of the essence, and he hoped they'd be more careful next time.
Southward, the sky was red instead of black, and he knew something bad was happening there... He floated to the treetops and stuck his head out just in time to see fireballs rain from the sky far over there. Looking forward, to the west, his excellent night vision allowed him to make out the pointed black spires of North point. Something seemed to be moving in the sky, away from the fortress... wyverns? They were likely going to join in whatever mayhem was going on down south. Good... the less troops there, the better...
----
"Careful, Riuki... don't use up all your strength." Anselm said to the girl as she attempted to reinforce Helix's spirit energy.
Helix was still staring at himself, clearly disturbed.
"Where are we?" He said as a groan. He couldn't stand up anymore (his legs seemed more invisible, than missing) so he sat on the misty ground.
"We've left our bodies... Lord Virmir has sent aid for you, and we will protect your spirit until it comes..." Anselm looked around. "Although thankfully I think we've seen the last of the demons for a while..."
----
After a long pause, Virmir looking at the city below, Bryce finally spoke up. "How will we do it?"
"... As quietly as possible." He turned, the familiar coldness in his eyes. "We will take a handful at a time. The mages will cast a sleep spell on them. Then they will cast a poison gas spell. They won't feel any pain when they die..."
Bryce gulped, his ears folding back against his head.
He had quite a bit of human blood on his hands. But that was all from battle... This was the first time they actually had to kill civilians... But humans were just animals... right?
He shuddered, a knot welling deep in his stomach.
As if seeing the uncertainty in his eyes, Virmir continued. "This order is directly from the Dark Emperor."
Bryce slowly nodded. It was all he could do.
-
"Wyvern's aren't so dumb as not to be able to communicate verbally. We were taught how to talk back up in the arctic region. I'm sure there are actuall Wyverns who can speek human languages."
"Enough. North Point is west, and that's where we're headed. Let's hurry up and finish this so we can get the hell out of here!" Valiko seemed very eager to leave Terian as fast as possible. If the Dark Emporer were to find him, it would surely be his end...
"Calm your ass down! We're nearly there. I can see the gates from here." Ben wasn't quite sure how they were going to get in. "So... any ideas on how we bust in there?"
------------
"We are perhapse better off leaving Tjed. I'm returning to my people in the Arctic Region... Perhapse things might not be as violent as I assume they've become. If you really wish to learn more of the past... You will follow me." Doriana followed without a word. The two walked over to the port that was nearby, and decided to board a ship from Ariosis.
"Raise anchor. We're leaving for the north..." Doriana did as Valimore requested. She lifted the anchor of the ship and the sails caught wind. The ship blasted out of the port with great speed. One thing the Ariosians knew how to do was craft fast ships.
"What about that human... from before?"
"What about him? He'll find us if he takes the right path. If not, then I don't suppose why we should really care that much. He was quite a bit violent, though. A good quality in a dark minion. Heh..."
-------------
-
// >_<!!!! I hope this isn't totally f'ed up. >_<!!!!
Anti jumped out of the way of the scythe and shot into the air, quite a distance away from Nex. He panted up there in the air, trying to think. He put way too much time into thinking, though. He came up with that the only way to do something... is to hit 'im with something really strong. A hi-ougi.
"Eat this, you inferior being!"
"Fragmented End!"
Six red and blue balls of oppositely charged energy appeared in the air in front of Anti, forming a circle with its opening pointed down toward Nex. They seemed to react with each other, and shot a huge beam of energy down at Nex.
35% of his energy is used up instantly...
--- --- ---
Zion shook his head and looked at the commotion that just happened. "What just happened?" From what he could tell, a bunch of wraiths attacked, and for some reason, all four of them were out of it and couldn't help.
-
//I think you're moving too fast Drannic.\
"Okay, uh guys..." Duilin saw something in the distance, it looked like Hell had just opened up and dumped it's hellish remains upon the ground. He couldn't make out every detail, but something big and robed was floating over a pit, and there were things not as big things marching around fighting what looked like people. "What is that?" He asked pointing at the demonic scene.
---
//Uh, Trent have you been skipping my posts?\
"You're kidding..."
Nex embraced the blast, it was a huge amount of energy, it was sucked into his aura and his energy was nearly just as high as it was before.
"Why thank you."
However he noticed fireballs were raining downwards at his Steam Demons.
"Draven, Draven, Draven..."
Most of the meters smashed into the steam demons knocking them to the ground, but not fully killing them, a bunch of them however were just missing them. There were explosions, but the steam demons just walked right threw them, unaffected by the flames or even the shockwaves...
"One of the people I knew who would be a large obstacle in our plans, was you Draven. Lucky for you, super skilled water mages are of very short supply in Thanatos, so I thought why not fight fire with fire? Or at least something immune to it."
"Plus explosions won't due much either. Nyahaha!"
Only a couple of the steam demons seemed to have suffered any major injuries. And most of them got up and continued to advance towards the pit. A few of them continued moving around hunting down the remaining lost souls...
Nex's gauntlets glowed again and he fired a thunderous red lightning bolt from each hand, one at Draven and one at Anti.
//Might as well keep track of some stuff to help you guys out.\
Giga Nex's Energy: 85%
Steam Demons: 33 + 2 severly injured and unable to fight much
-
"Aah, nature!
Nothing quite like it. The chunks of the dead wyvern behind me dissipated into the ground, just after hitting the rocky terrain of Terian. The sounds of the raging ocean beating against the monoliths was reverberating between the trees just up ahead. So loud, so annoying... I almost wished to be back in the citadel, but that's no fun.
The device disguised as a commorb was actually a shape-shifting stone. I smashed the orb onto the rocks, revealing a gold pendant with a large jade in the middle. Without further ado, I put it on.
Quite obviously, I didn't see myself changed, as that's not how the amulet worked. Unfortunately, I had no mirror to look at, so I had to resort to water. The damned amulet crafter didn't tell me exactly what the stone turned me into by default, so I had to check it out myself.
The reflection of the water revealed a morbidly obese, opulently dressed merchant. I suppose that's better than nothing, though something a little less flashy would've been a lot better. Ah well, I guess that's life.
Looking about, I noticed a detail that I missed before - there was a small pier some distance away, with a ship docked at it. Perhaps someone there could tell me how to get further into the mainland? Or... maybe, it would be better to commandeer the ship... Bah. I'll figure it out once I get there."
-
"Yeah, we should. I do not want to be here when the rest of tho creatures come and find their ally dead. Here," Coriko pointed to a steal padlock door on the far side of the room. "I think they went through there."
---
Druid slowly descended onto the palace's front step. It was unlike any palace one had ever seen. It had a long open corridor with rooms branching off. These were offices for the high ranking individuals in the society. There was a total of six. Druid did not believe in spreading around the power. At the end of the corridor was a giant room that acted like the senate/throne room. Druid moderated sessions while others would pose questions and opinions. The final room to this building was Druid's ensuite. It was modest for a supreme ruler but extravagent for an aristorcrat.
"Ah, I'm home. I see one thing stayed in tact while i was gone."
"Yes sir." A gruff voice was heard to Druid's left. It was Onan, one of Druid's warlords. "We protected this building with our lives after you left." The figure walked up to Druid and stuck out his hand. Druid shook it. "It's good to have you back sir."
Druid never fraterneized with his underlings but the six who occupied these rooms were an exception. "I'm glad to be back. Where are the other five?"
Onan reclaimed his hand and looked down. "It is just Kane, Yuri, Baird, and myself now sir. Saar was killed by Silas. He got past our defences to steal your treasure and take over the final obstacle that defied him."
"I am sorry to hear that. He was a fine and trusted warlord. What about Nim?"
Onan looked up with hate in his eyes. "He was there when Saar died. He helped silas get in."
"WHAT!?!" roared Druid.
"Yes, he betrayed us because Silas offered him power. We captured him after Silas announced he was leaving to finish you off. He is being held in a guarded cell."
"Where!?!"
-
What in blazes?!?!
He knew flames wouldn't hurt those blasted tin things much, but he dropped freaking giant rocks from space on them!!
"Arrgh!!!"
Draven's aura exploded and he surged downward around Nex's blast of energy, down towards the nearest tin-demon. He blocked a swipe from its huge hand with his fist, a red shock wave disintegrating nearby boulders. He then noticed steam bellowing from the nearest pipe-things on the monster's back. Hmmm...
Jumping over the creature, he turned and grabbed the two of the pipes that were sticking upward. Pumping crimson energy into his hands to increase his strength, he pinched the metal tubes shut and then bent them downwards almost in a knot, preventing the flow of steam...
-
"The ship's captain was a rather pleasant person. Let me stress the key word here: was. Not pleasant enough, unfortunately.
I don't know whether or not he was surprised to be stabbed in the back by a skeleton of the fish he was gutting. I mean, back stabbing isn't exactly my style (hehe, or it just may be), but... baaah, I just didn't feel like giving him a chance. I ask pleasantly, ladies and gentlemen, I ask quite pleasantly of his boat - what do I get in return? Not his boat, that's for sure.
The crew that followed was just a matter of method. Wielding the fish skeleton as a dagger, the captain (now undead) went about methodically slaughtering each one of his crew mates. It's difficult to find a crew so obedient as to the point that will die for you... all the better for me, though, right?
Sadly, I knew that I had to have my minions look and behave human(esque). While my adoration for people with open, bleeding wounds in them is rather great, not many share my idealist view on life. So, I had them repair their clothes, and steer the ship as if they were still alive. As if. Hehehe.
The one setback we experienced, however, was that ever-present, terribly uninterested blank gaze from the zombies. This quickly proved to be a problem with the first pirate ship we encountered. Normally, I suppose, the pirates expected the crew of the other ship to be surprised, scared even, of the merest sight of the black cross-bone flag. All they were met with, though, was a blank stare."
-
The steam pipes were hot, extremely hot enough to melt the skin off a persons' hands. But Draven (likely) we more than able to withstand the heat.
The steam demon attempted to reach behind and grab Draven, but his mobility was noticeably slower. Before he could get a hold on Draven the 'engine' on it's back exploded in a huge gust of steam and fire and the demon fell to the ground. But it was still alive, its cannon arm wasn't able to move, nor where his legs, however his other arm was enough for him to tug himself along. Blood was gushing from it's back, and it turned it's head and gave a mighty roar at Draven.
Meanwhile another Steam Demon sneaked behind Draven and gave a three round burst of flaming metal at very close range at the fire mage.
'Oh for the love of all that is impure and unholy! I have to think of EVERYTHING when dealing with this guy.'
Nex's Energy: 83%
Steam Demons: 32 + 3 severely injured and unable to fight much
-
Phew. Man it had been a long trip of hiding and sneaking around. Sneaking around on a ship that you didn’t have a clue to where it was going. Akran shifted his bow from his shoulders. He let it slide to the ground along with his quiver of arrows. He lifted his right arm, absentmindedly, and rubbed his scar. The scar was huge. It looked as if his arm had been almost sliced in two. The scar started from his thumb joint, ran down through is palm and went up almost to his elbow.
With a heavy sigh, Akran sat behind a tree. He never liked to be spotted anywhere so, he created his usual protection. Without really concentrating on what he was doing, Akran used his power to recreate the already existing shadow of the tree so that it covered more of the ground than it was already. This power, which he took for granted now, didn’t come to him naturally. A long time ago, he acquired it from his brother, but that was always a painful topic.
Suddenly, he heard something. It was the sound of glass breaking. He stood up quickly, drew an arrow from his quiver and held it ready. He wiped his black greasy hair from his eyes and very carefully, he looked around the tree.
A merchant stood there. He was quite big and seemed to be confused. He was touching his face as if he was remembering where his features where. The merchant waddled over to a patch of water and knelt down to admire his reflection. Akran never liked to introduce himself, so he watched this odd man from a distance. The merchant stood up and looked around. Then something caught his eye. Oh no, was it Akran? No, it couldn’t be, thought Akran. No one ever sees him unless he wants to be seen. He crouched down as the fat merchant waddled right past him. He turned around and saw that the merchant was heading for the docked ship Akran had left just a little while ago. With absolute and complete silence, Akran followed this strange man.
-
"Blast it! There's like, 32 more of these freaking-- GAH!"
Draven fell forward as the blasts of molten metal struck him in the back. Pushing himself up and sneering as the liquid dripped off his cape, he shot into the air with a bang.
Two guyers of molten lava followed his assent, bursting from the ground. The bulk of the lava formed into spheres and rotated around him as if he were the center of an atom.
"I hate things that take forever to kill..."
With a flick of his wrists, a few spheres shot downward, embedding themselves in the steaming pipes of the beast, where they solidified and cooled into solid rock. By this time several more tin-freak-things were aiming and firing at him, so he spun around and flew in a wide arc behind them, dropping the magma bombs in a spray at the monsters' tubes.
-
//You might want to say exactly how many you attack Xorlak, just so I can keep track. I'll just assume you attacked four plus the first one you attacked in your post.\
As its steam tubes turned to rock it's back engine exploded, rendering it immobile.
The group heading towards Draven continued to advance as the lava orbs smashed onto their steam tubes turning them to solid rock, and their backs exploded shortly after. One of them however shot down the lava orb, with its fire-metal cannon as it came towards him. The lava and the molten cannon ball smashed into each other creating a small explosion in the air.
Nex's laugh then echoed through the air, and he shot forth a large black-red bolt of dark energy at Draven.
At nearly the same time, as Nex fired his shot, the Steam Demon fired a three round burst of flaming metal chunks at Nex.
Nex's Energy: 75%
Steam Demons: 28 in fighting condition
-
//Ooops, forgot about Wilham.\
"I don't blame you." Wilham replied, rubbing his neck. He walked over to the padlocked door.
(I'd assume the padlock would be on the other side, since one of them locked it, from the other side)
Wilham banged on the door with his gauntlet. "Open up. We got him."
From the other side a muffled voice was heard.
"I don't know if I should let you in. What if it's forcing you to do this?"
"Trust me it's dead." Wilham replied, speaking loudy.
"Well...okay." The person on the other side said reluctantly. The sound of a lock opening was heard and the door slowly opened. "Hurry! Hurry!"
The two then quickly got through the door, and he closed it behind them.
"So...you killed it?"
"Well, yes." Wilham said. "Well, apparently shooting fireballs at it's head at the same time it's shooting it's death beam is how it's done."
"Really? That's...that's great! We might actually be able to beat these things now." The officer said.
"So, where's McNeil?" Wilham asked.
"He, went ahead, with the others. I was told to stay here." He explained. "If you want to talk to him, just keep going down this hallway."
---
Meanwhile in as isolated area of the base, which was mostly cut off from the rest of the area was a libratory. With several Daleks, about, there was one Black Dalek, with gold bulbs on its armour and a golden eyestalk. He was next to two pure black daleks with an extra gun piece in place of their plungers.
"Communications have been lost with Dalek Vann!" A Dalek said to the gold trimmed one.
"Impossible the Kaleds must have found a weakness." The gold trimmed Dalek.
"We belive these were not Kaleds, but people of a similar and possibly superior race to the Kaleds."
"They are still inferior to the Dalek race. Set them to a higher priority of extermination!"
"I obey."
-
Coriko started down the hallway after McNiel.
"C'mon I want to find out more about these robots. That was unlike any other MagiPistol I've ever seen!"
---
Druid shot out of the palace entrance and flew across the island.
A stone building stood alone on the far side of the island. It was about three stories high. On the ground floor was a cavernous room with a fireplace by the stairs. On the top two floors were the cells. The guards sat infront of the fireplace. Two of the guards played a game of cards called Dorrika. The other guard sat with his feet up asleep infront of the fire.
A loud crack was heard and the wooden door exploded, splintering into several hundred pieces. The two guards who were playing cards ducked behind the table to protect themselves from the splinters and the sleeping gaurd toppled backwards. The three guards leaped up but then immediatley dropped to their knees after they saw who broke down the door.
"Where is he?" Druid demanded
"Third floor my lord." One of the guards replied. Druid walked past them and glided up the stairs. Druid reached the third floor quickly. It was dark and quiet. Druid stood perfectly still at the entrance to the cell block.
"Nim, I've come for you."
Druid started to walk slowly forward. The floor creaked beneath each step. He didn't look left or right, just walked forward very slowly. After he reached the third cell he stopped. Druid slowly turned his head to the left. He had a soul destorying look on his face. Huddled in the farthest corner from Druid was Nim. No words passed between the two but a lot was said by Druid's face. Their eyes met for the briefest moment before he killed Nim. Druid turned and walked back down the stairs. He passed the guards who were still kneeling.
"Now, I can set about completing my goal."
Druid started off towards the palace.
-
"Arrgh!!"
Draven was hit by the blast while his attention was diverted upon the annoying metal things. He tumbled through the air and crashed into a pile of half-molten boulders, ash spewing up into the air.
Blast it! Were he at full power, he'd be able to crush these tin cans with his little finger. Curse that miserable demon and drawing out his death for ten hours!
He pushed a few large rocks off his dented armor and stood, glancing up into the sky...
His mouth dropped.
He was facing southward, with the giant-freak-Nex in view, the steam things coming at him. But his eyes were to the sky... For the dark clouds parted and revealed a black airship...
It looked like three ships combined, two smaller bodies connected on either side of a third. Gigantic fins protruded from the rears, two mammoth cannons on top, and a score of smaller ones protruding from the sides... Slowly the black airship descended...
"You... stupid MORON!" Draven screamed, pointing at Nex. "Look at what you've done!!"
The airship stopped several hundred feet over the battle field. A hatch opened on the underside, and slowly floated downward...
"Did you actually think you could open a gods-forsaken hole to the netherworld here without getting HIS attention?!" the Crimson Emperor screamed.
Blast it! He was no where near ready for this! Though he was several hundred miles away, Retan was still way too close to the Tower of Heaven's Bane to be vulnerable... And to top that off, Draven was exhausted from fighting metal-face and his freaks all night. Argh!!
Crimson eyes burned brightly through the darkness...
"Ah, Draven..."
The platform the Dark Emperor floated downward upon seemed to have no means of propulsion at all.
"... how delightful for you to join us once more. Although, it seems as though you have caused mischief since we last met..."
----
They're watching something else...
He's watching something else...
Now is your chance...
Your only chance!
...
Indeed, it was... and he knew it...
"Pst... Duilin! ... Duilin!" The cloaked figure whispered, just loud enough for the half demon to hear. "Over here!" He didn't quite want to atract the attention of the others... not yet, anyway.
Peaking out from behind a tree, the black cloaked figure waved at Duilin and motioned him towards the dark forest. He needed to speak with Duilin in private, away from the others...
----
Commander Vlak snarled.
What were those? Giant cats? Ugh. There were a bunch of small ones too.
The battle raged on in Tjedon Valley, Lizards and Drannivolka and humans slashing each other to bits. The lizard fleet commander watched from the safety of his airship, high above the captured city, and behind the protective shield, no less.
"Pah! I tire of this! Captain!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Order The Sinistral to break formation and blast the entire enemy army straight to Thanatos."
"But sir," the lizard captain hesitated, "can they do that without hitting our own lizards?"
Vlak thrapped him on the head. "You idiot! Those are C-class. We'll just grow more!"
A rumbling emerged over the city...
One of the three black airships floating above, The Sinistral broke formation and started moving away, through the green shield like it was water and over the city walls. The massive cannons upon one side turned downward, and it began humming, a blackness engulfing the barrels as it slowly moved towards the battle raging hundreds of feet below...
----
Virmir turned an ear upward. On of the airships was flying away...
"What is Vlak doing?" He asked, flicking his tail in agitation.
"... No idea..." Bryce scratched the fur on the back of his head.
Virmir turned to the Blade Knight. "Send a messenger to find out."
Bryce bowed quickly and flew off. "Yes, my Lord."
Virmir sighed, his duty of setting up the human extermination program delayed for just a moment. Good. He needed every last minute he could buy...
-
"What the hell is that?" One of the three airships parted from the other two, lowering its cannons, ready to demolish the entire field. Aaron was well aware the capability of airships.
"Damn it all! Elite! Back to the caves!" The elite warriors, after hearing Aaron, looked up and saw the Airship. All of them made a run for the caves, along with Aaron.
------------
"Ugh... I hate traveling by sea."
"Well, in our favor, this ship is quite large, and it should be able to withstand a storm out in the open water. I don't think we have to worry about that, though. The air around us is getting colder, if you catch my meaning... hehhehheh..."
"At least we're 'almost' there. Ugh, I'm starting to feel woozy..."
------------
-
Nex absorbed the flaming metal chunks the Steam Demons shot at him, and restored his energy.
"Excellent! Good as new!" Nex laughed.
It was a good thing Draven wasn’t clever enough to think of shooting down the Steam Demons' projectiles before he could absorb them, or else he’d start running low on energy, and that would lead to him reverting back to his previous form…
His attention slightly drew to the black Vessel above him. He used to be drawn to the Dark Emperors power. That’s what made Abodahon infect him with the spirit demon, that’s what gave him that sharp pain in his insides whenever he felt any doubt to Abodahon’s loyalty. Betraying Retan leads to death, betraying Abodahon leads to things beyond death, beyond pain and fear. He couldn’t let that happen again. He could not betray his master who still lives in death…
Valos slowly got up. Was Nex insane? He wouldn’t be any match for Retan. If Nex was indeed invisible, he was sure Retan would find some way to kill him…
"You're a fool Nex!" Valos shouted. "You can't survive against the Crimson Emperor, much less the Dark Emperor! Why do you even try!?"
"Why?" Nex looked below him, down at Valos. "Because this world belongs to the true species of superiority, demons, and it sure as hell doesn’t belong to these two freaks!" He said referring to Draven and Retan.
Nex couldn't do anything to harm Retan. He knew of Tower of Heaven's Bane, which gave the dark emperor his power. Might as well go for the easy target…
Nex used a big chunk of his energy to send a telepathic mind affection wave at the fire mage, if he was able to break into his mind, then he would start to feel as if all his limbs were broken. Regardless if his mind affection spell was successful he then blasted a series of red lightning bolts down at him.
--- ---
Duilin couldn't believe was he was seeing, but mostly because he wasn't able to get a good enough look at it. He needed to get closer...
But then he heard someone whispering to him. He held out his mace, he wasn't going to be too careful around here. But it was somebody who knew him, and was following him.
All he could make out was a black figure behind a tree. Who was it? Was it Renard? But why would he follow him here? Maybe it was Ophelia, who wanted his help. Or maybe it was some stalker, who overheard his name. Guess he'd just have to find out.
Duilin walked over to the near by dark forest, and then he stepped behind the tree where the person was whispering to him...
--- ---
"I'll say." Wilham replied, walking along with Coriko. "But I think this world we are on is actually ignorant of magic. They don't seem to have a single mage here, and it's a military instalment."
The two continued moving.
"But their technology is clearly was surpass our own. It's quite a grand display of non-magical ability."
-
"I have noticed that as well."
The corridor opened into a room that was quite similar to a bomb shelter. McNiel was sitting at a table talking to some scientist. As soon as he saw Coriko and Wilham he stood up.
"Dear lord you're alive! How did you escape the robot?"
"Wilham figured it out, when they shoot their gun they have to lower their force field. Hiting their eye piece will blind them and their shield will be down so weaker weapons can finish them off. If you have a kill shot the first time aim for the seal between the head and the body. Thats correct, right Wilham?"
-
Draven wasn't quite paying attention to Nex, who had quite suddenly become the least of his worries. Thus he was smacked by the lightning head-on and sent tumbling down a hill, dust kicking up in his wake as the red electrical discharge wrapped around him. At the bottom of he hill he tried to crawl to his feet, but an odd pain in his legs kept him on the ground. He snarled, his hair beginning to wave in his rage...
"Cur. I did not give you permission to strike him," Retan's deep voice boomed throughout the wasteland.
His eyes flashed crimson and the ground split in two, a huge fissure rumbling across the rocky field. The crack in the ground split right between Draven and Nex, just barely missing Valos' head (and leaving him on Draven's side) and separated the two combatants by a chasm several hundred feet wide. Deep below was nothing but blackness... an endless void...
Seven of the steam demons simply lost their balance and flew right in as it formed. When they fell far enough into the blackness, it seemed a hand grabbed each greedily took them under, and they existed no more... Even the steam they emitted as they fell was sucked into the void.
"Demon slave, you will bow to me and beg for mercy," he said to the much larger Nex, "I will not tolerate interruption. Should you comply, as an example of my unbounded generosity I will allow you to continue existing-- as my slave."
----
The cloaked figure lead Duilin a short ways into the forest. Here the dead tree limbs eerily snarled around, and the dim red light from the black clouded sky made only the faintest of outlines visible.
"We don't have much time," the much smaller figure whispered, a vulpine muzzle protruding from his cowl. Renard drew the cloth back just enough for Duilin to see his face. "And this is our only chance..."
He turned and pointed to the spires of North Point in the distance, away from the chaotic battle to the south... Something bad was happening there... "His attention is diverted... All of theirs are... We have to do this right now..." He looked at the ground. "But your party is way too big to travel through the portal. We dare not open it wide enough to let more than one or two through... Maybe the others can set up a distraction."
He looked up at Duilin, a sense of urgency in his eyes. "My best friend's life depends on this... All of our lives do now... But if you can free us, then I promise you...
"... you will have an entire army of pissed-off Velkens on your side."
----
The Lizard Men knew what those cannons meant...
As Aaron's army ran towards the caves, the lizards fled back toward the city. After only a moment's more humming, the ship turned its flank completely towards the cave entrance and let loose upon the fleeing army...
By then Aaron's men were almost completely withdrawn, soon only a few were killed in the gargantuan black explosions that ripped through the battlefield. The blasts were loud and vibrant, shaking the very cores of the mountains that surrounded the city, yet little rubble was expelled from the terrible bursts of blackness-- rather they simply left gaping holes upon the landscape. Within seconds the stress was too much for the mountain the cavern bore through, and the cave exit collapsed in the ensuing avalanche just as the last of Aaron's men skittered safely through.
-
"Well, shit..." Aaron put his crystaline sword back into its sheath on his belt. A few of his men lit tourches in the blocked passage. They were forced to withdraw from Tjed. At least for the moment, they began to make their way out of the caves and back to the port city.
------------
"AHH!!! I can feel him! It's only a matter of time before he finds me! Get out of here, all of you!" Valiko held his hands on the sides of his head. Retan's power was crushing the light in side him.
Ben walked forwards. "But Valiko, we can't just leave you-"
"I SAID GO! DO YOU 'WANT' TO DIE!?" Valiko ran away from the party and headed south. He could feel a dark pule in his heart. For some reason, it felt good. It felt like he wasn't holding back anymore, as if all this time he had been. It began to frighten him, but it sunk in deeper and deeper.
"Damn, this isn't good," the light side said to itself.
"Hah! Your power was never as strong as mine, infirior being," the darker side said.
"I've not much time left here! Valiko, snap out of it!"
"No, embrace it." Embrace it... this echoed through his head. He stopped to find Retan in front of him.
"Heh... So, you're the 'Dark Emporer' huh? I just might enjoy serving under you."
------------
-
Keeping the merchant in sight, Akran went from tree to tree staying in the shadows as much as possible. As he neared the docked ship, the merchant stopped to talk to the captain. Akran leaned against a tree and watched. He was so very experienced at following people.
When Akran was a boy, he and his brother, Kraaz, liked to chase each other around the forest. It wasn’t quite like tag though. One of them pretended to be an unaware civilian, and the other practiced to follow them by keeping silent in the shadows. Sometimes, especially when they got older, the ‘hunter’ would become so quiet; the other didn’t know he was still following him. It was all fun and games, until they were both around seventeen; then it got to the point where they watched each other almost constantly.
That was around the time when Akran saw his brother kill another human being.
Anyway, the merchant was moving again. It seemed as though he had lost some sort of argument with the ship’s captain, and was now moving slowly towards a pail of gutted fish. With a surprising swift maneuver, this obese merchant grabbed a skeleton fish and thrust it into the captain’s back. With a slight squirm, the captain slid down and hit the deck with a thud.
Ok, thought Akran, I didn’t see that coming. But it wasn’t over. The body moved. Did an arm twitch? To Akran’s astonishment, the captain stiffly rose to his feet, and slowly pulled the fish bone from his back. What the hell? The previously dead captain wielded the fish as a weapon, charged up the pier and onto the ship.
Akran whipped his head back around the tree, his eyes frightfully wide open. Can this obese merchant raise dead? After a few seconds Akran shook his head to organize his thoughts. He had seen something like this before, so long ago… but that was different. This guy could literally bring the dead to life. Amazing. A thought suddenly struck him, Wait. Maybe he can help me find what I’m looking for. It was worth a shot. Akran adjusted his bow on his shoulders and disappeared behind the trees.
Shortly afterwards, Akran had found a different route to the side of the ship. In no time at all, he was hidden safely down in the hold. This ship was surprising easy to board. All of the crew members had these blank, inexperienced looks. Oh well, better for me.
-
"Renard! It is you." Duilin smiled.
"I saw what was going on, down there." He said stepping next to Renard. "It also had me fully distracted." He looked down at the ground. "I think these guys..." He shook his head, he shouldn't think about that now.
"But yeah, I'm ready. We can do this." Duilin said, looking at Renard smiling. "So are you going to come with me?" He asked. "I think they'll probably trust me more if you come with."
He sent a telepathic message to the others.
"Make sure nobody gets into North Point, but remember not to draw to much attention."
--- ---
Nex was shocked as we witnessed the steam demons getting sucked into the black nothing ness. Twenty-five left, it was still more than enough, and he could keep this up.
"Your slave?" Nex floated higher so he could get closer towards the black vessel.
"You're insane Nex." Valos sent a telepathic message to Nex. "Just give up."
"Don't you talk to me!!" Nex's voice shot towards Valos. "How dare you even think about talking...human."
"Am I suppost to be offended!?" Valos retorted. "I am a human, who has survived hell. I have survived death."
"Tch. You only survived death because you never died in the first place."
"True, but I still made it out. Those demons couldn't catch me. They failed."
"While you prevail at being a coward."
"Let's see you talk like that to Retan." Valos needed to push Nex, to fight him. Deep down inside he new Nex had become to strong for him and Draven to fight, especially with those steam demons. But now that Retan is here, he can do the job for them...
"I don't fear Retan. I am fear!"
---
Valos smirked as he saw Nex fly up towards the Black Vessel. He then went to the aid of his Emperor.
"Lord Draven, don't worry." Valos said, kneeling down. "It's just in your head, just block it from your mind and it will pass."
He then looked at Nex who was now in the distance.
"Nex's about to get himself killed. Maybe he might be able to distract him so we can get out of here." Valos said, with a smirk.
---
Nex continued to fly towards the Black Vessel, but as he got closer he began to feel doubt...
When the Dark Empire first arrived on Gaian, he was drawn to his power and felt like betraying his master, Abodahon. He remember the punishment he gave him, those giant gauntlets smashing into him, crushing him, and his very soul being tortured by his puppet like minion, Pheonix...
But again, there was the fact at how easily Abodahon agreed to let him join the Empire, as long as he kept the Talonscar with him. He claimed he wanted to take it out from the inside...but maybe he too was afraid. Did Abodahon feel fear? Did Retan? Maybe he should obey?
But the way Retan's kind enslaved his kind. Drakens were worse than demons. They were worse than demons, who were synonymous with the words evil, and cruel. No, he can't let Retan do this.
"Why would I ever serve you Retan? Your life, the things you've seen, the things you've lived through, is but a speck of dust compared to what I've seen. You my friend are a child. So let's play a game. It's called...Go to Hell."
-
"What in the... Airship... uh oh." Arata fled from the nearby area and hid behind a large boulder that was sturdy enough to protect him... for now.
"Why does this always happen when I get into battle?"
--- ---
"Ugh... I feel so... weak. How long does Virmir intend to have us trapped in this world?" Ko'ji felt dizzy. She was wobbling back and forth until she fell to the ground again.
"So... light... headed..." She shut her eyes in hopes to regain some of her energy. It was running out, and fast.
-
// I've been reading what I thought is only enough to keep me updated. I'm going to put a reminder system into Thunderbird to keep me up on this. This is BS. I'm pissed at me now. >:( *Sigh.* Let me know if I mess anything up with this post.
Xenai had his head in the clouds, while the other three seemed to be fully attentive. Yet he seemed to be the only one who noticed Duilin wander off with the dude in black. "Hey, where's he going?" The other three looked. "Let's just wait for him," said Zion.
A shooting sensation through his mind. "What the-?!"
Tsu and Aura caught it too, and Xenai was the last. They all looked toward North Point.
"...Retan..."
--- --- ---
Anti stayed high in the air, re-absorbing his energy, feeling like an idiot after having wasted all that energy with that hi-ougi. And it was a good one, too. He looked down and watched the commotion that unfolded with... Retan. That was the only reason he came on this journey. He wanted to fight the strongest being on Gaian. He slowly descended to the ground, landing gently. He still didn't have all of his energy back, so he figured he'd waste some time DBZ style, with a talking standoff.
He shouted at Nex from far behind him. "Stand aside! I'd like a word with the emperor."
-
Akran had been hiding in the hold of the ship for quite some time now, surrounded by shadow. No one could see him. Sometimes a crew member would fumble down the steps to get something, but they never saw him. Encased in his curtain of darkness, not even an owl; bird of the night could find him. He was invisible. So he thought…
Akran had gone without barely any food or water. In the entire time he was below the deck, he had never once heard the sound of food being prepared or eaten. Not once have they stopped to refill their water barrels either. He hadn’t even heard the crew talking much. They seem to just do everything mundanely, as if they were all just puppets. How odd.
Something occurred to him. When he snuck on to the ship, no one seemed to notice him. The crew was all silent. When the merchant killed the captain, Akran saw the merchant somehow bring him back. Did the merchant kill the entire crew? What was this man capable of?
Still, he had to feed himself. Akran started to look around for some bread crumbs or something. BANG! Someone was coming down the steps. Akran hurriedly doused the lamp that hung from the ceiling and sucked the light into his cloak where it was safely unnoticeable. Prepared, Akran waited in the darkness.
Suddenly he heard an amused chuckle from behind him. The deep sound made his hair stand on end. Was it that merchant?
-
-"Hur, hur, hur," I heard myself chortle. "If it isn't our little stowaway."
Extending a thick finger decorated with a great big diamond ring, I pointed to the kid.
-"You'd be sadly mistaken if you assumed that I was not aware of your presence on board." A little lie never hurt anyone, did it? "So I will give you a choice, and please, do choose now: you stay with me and serve me, or you join my... friends... over there."
The white-eyed crew took a step towards the man.
-"Please don't be alarmed by their unorthodox appearance. You see, I'm a Necromancer - or, rather, a Lich - and I have the ability to resurrect the dead. Necromancy is often misunderstood, you see, even though all it is is a way of asking someone to stick with you... permanently."
-"So, what will it be?"
-
"Yes it is." Wilham replied. "If we are able to attack it with multiple people, and have a combatant with skilled enough aim and sense of timing, you'd be able to take it out. But you'll need some big guns."
"What weapon did you use?" McNeil asked.
Wilham looked at Coriko. "He used a weapon from our world, magic."
"Magic? You mean he just shot a like, a shooting star from his hands?"
"No, a fireball."
McNeil rubbed his forehead. "You didn't even kill the Dalek did you?"
"Well of cource we did. Or else it would have killed us. You said yourself that they won't stop until they kill you."
McNeil sighed. "But it's still hard to believe that you people know magic!"
Wilham smiled. "Hand me that glass." He said pointing to a beaker on the table next to the officer. He took it from the table and handed it to Wilham. He held out the beaker, next to the wall. "Show him, Coriko."
-
Coriko put his hand underneath the beaker. He quickly snapped his fingers, he could have just summoned it but this was cooler. Out of the top his index finger a small flame appeared. The members of the room gasped and moved backwards. Coriko moved his finger underneath the beaker. The flame then turned blue and the water started to boil rapidly.
"Now hand me the beaker please Wilham."
Coriko took the beaker from Wilham and set it on the ground. He then fired a fire ball at it. This vapourized the entire thing. All that was left was a black ash stain on the ground.
"Yeah so that is about it. Still doubt us?"
-
"Back off!" Draven snarled at Valos. He didn't seem quite in the mood to be helped. He stood, dusting himself off. By now his armor was dented and he was looking rather haggard.
Run? No way! He took a step forward... Ugh... Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea... Best live and fight according to their original plan. He wondered if that goofy necromancer found those weapons yet.
He looked up and watched Nex about to get himself killed. If they took off now, Retan would stop them. Best wait for the right moment.
"We'll wait until the time is right..."
----
"You make unreasonable assumptions and take them for truth. How unfortunate."
Retan's eyes flashed. The closest steam demon flew off the ground as if it were plucked by a gigantic hawk, then simply exploded, tiny shards of metal blasting in all directions in the wake of the thunderous boom. Then a second soured into the air, its body writhing and twisting in pain before it suffered the same fate as the former, a second huge blast echoing across the rocky wasteland.
They continued flying off the ground, one by one, detonating in mid-air with no signs of letting up. In but seconds ten of the creatures had been erased from existence.
----
"Shhhh..." Renard whispered, lifting a finger to his black nose, "we still need to be quiet." He spun around as he pulled the cowl down over his head better, the tip of his tail just peaking out from under his robe. "Yeah, I'll take care of things once we get in. But I need you to open the portal. It's configured so none of our kind can do it..."
With a blurring leap he dashed through the woods, towards the spires of North Point in the distance, and away from the battle with Retan to the south. He moved animalistically from tree-limb to tree-limb, landing on all fours then pushing off with his hind legs to the next branch hundreds of feet away.
----
Vlak laughed hysterically as the airship blasted the mountains to ash.
"Congratulations, sir."
"Thank you. I am quite the strategic genius, I know." He sneered, waving his scaly tail around.
The Sinistral ceased its fire when the entire area that used to be the cavern entrance was nothing more than a pile of rubble. The black airship then slowly turned around and made its way back towards the shielded city to join the other two.
Blast... He would need permission to order it to pursue... Curses!
"Captain!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Send a message to the High General requesting permission for one airship to break formation and pursue enemy army."
-
McNeil looked amazed.
"Glad you're on our side..."
--- ---
Valos stepped backwards, feeling a little offended with Draven's snappiness. He's gone through probably ten times worse then what Draven went through, but he thought he'd keep it to himself. He was probably still worried that Valos had that spirit demon still in him.
"Very well, Lord Draven." Valos said plainly.
He still had a lot of the wounds from that. He could remember everything, that Pheonix when he was controlling his body and even his spirit. It was like a dream, but he knew it actually happened.
He observed his shoulders; there were still those circular wounds. He'd have to get them stitched, and he'd probably have to go through some heavy regeneration spells, as he could still feal the burns on his skin. He looked at his hands, and felt his face. It was disgusting; those demons were going to pay for what they've done to him.
He officially hated demons, he hated them all. He wanted every last one of things and their entire world to be wiped from existence...
---
Nex saw his steam demons getting destroyed. He could feel his energy was running low.
"Don't do that Retan." Nex warns. "You don't want to get me angry."
Nex floated closer. "Trust me. When you least expect it, the Talonscar is will sneak up and claw you in the ass, and it'll be all over. Your ancestors knew better, you should to."
"You can even kill me now, but I'll be back with an army so big even you'll be weeping into your cape. And if by some chance you beat that, we'll just keep coming and coming getting stronger and stronger, until you die. We are everywhere at all times. And we will kill you, that's what happens to everyone who ticks us off."
Nex spread open his arms.
"Think I'm bluffing? Try me, just try me."
---
Valos could hear everything Nex was saying.
"It's amazing how easy it is to hate that guy." He commented.
--- ---
Duilin covered his mouth. "Ooops...sorry." He said softly.
He then spread his wings open and started gently flying, following the Velken's path. But open the portal? He had no idea, how he could do that. He assumed Renard would show him, however.
-
"My lord! It appears one of our ships has gone missing from the dock!" Aaron was in no mood for bad news, but fortunately, most of his army had been depleted. He'd only had about five hundred men left, along with his elite.
"Captain Zethose, take the men back to Dranniville. I'm staying here with the elites."
"But my lord... the men need you with them!"
"DO NOT QUESTION ME!!! JUST DO IT!"
"Y-yes, my lord! Immediately! MEN, BOARD THE SHIPS AND MAKE FOR DRANNIVILLE!!!"
"Well, that takes care of the unessentials, my lord," an elite said.
"Yes, that was the plan," Aaron began, "We need to find a way to liberate the city, or perhapse stall them for a time...
"What's the plan, my lord?"
------------
"Ahh... It's been forever since I've been here last..."
"Believe me, you haven't the faintest clue as to what forever means if you say that." The great Ariosian ship docked in a frozen port town. By the looks of it, the subjects were glad to see their leader return.
"Although it does seem like it's been a while, yes. Of that I'm sure. I'm glad to be back, at least..."
------------
-
Anti watched as the steam demons were dispatched without any effort by Retan. "Hmm... impressive." His entire being started to glow a little bit. His anticipation was rising so much... "Even with Omega Fist, I probably won't be able to beat him. And then I'll have to revert to my true form to have any chance of surviving. ...I can't wait." Oh, my! Omega Fist? True form? It seems this whole time, he wasn't putting his all in!
-
//I know that D. Ein told me not to say anything, but I’m sorry for speaking for Kronos (the chuckle). It won’t happen again.\
A single bead of sweat slowly made its way down Akran's nose. It frightened him that he was so easily found. He was better than this. He must be out of practice.
The voice behind him spoke. It sounded strange, not something Akran would expect to hear from a merchant. The voice spoke of something called Necromancy; something to do with the blank look on the crew’s faces. The voice also told him that he must choose between - What was it? Serve him or die?
Akran had to act quickly. Serving someone did not sound very appealing, but neither did dying. He had to see who or what he was dealing with. His fingers tightened upon and arrow. In the blink of an eye, Akran spun around, latched an arrow, and pulled the bow string back. The light from the lamp he was storing in his cloak fused with his bow, creating an arc of shining white light that lit up the entire hold of the ship. Greasy black hair was covering one of his eyes, but the other met a pair of glistening, blue eyes.
“Who are you?” demanded Akran.
-
-"There's an ancient saying among my people. Translated, it sounds roughly like this: The answer to your question isn't that hard: I have a weapon, and you are unarmed! In other words, it would be in your best interests to do what I tell you."
I glanced at the arrow drawn at me.
-"So you're going to shoot me for not giving you my name? That's not very guest-like of you, is it? But then again, as a good host, I suppose I should've introduced myself."
Dramatic pause.
-"...which, incidentally, I don't feel like doing at the moment. If, however, you are so bent on piercing my heart with that little stick of yours, then by all means, do. This is not an act of suicide: my intention is nothing more than to show you the futility of physical weapons against me."
With those words, I shifted phases..."
-
Druid walked up the steps to te palace, his palace. It felt good to be home. Inside Onan had gathered the other three warlords. They all walked up and shook Druid's hand.
"Sir, it is wonderful you are alive and well!" Baird said as he shook Druid's hand. He was a very strong man. Baird often lead Druid's armies ito battle. He believed in one thing, first man in last man out. He moved onto Yuri. This man was a tactitional genius. Druid had won more battles then he could count based on this man's advice.
"Alright Sir, when will take this world for ourselves?" Kain asked this.
"Soon, but first I have a job for you Kain. You need to go to the artic region of this world and convince the Kandarinian Sovereignty to join our cause. They are lead by a powerful Necromancer called Kronos. You are our most diplomatic warlord and you can take care of yourself. I trust you with this."
"I will not let you down Sir." Kain turned and left the palace.
"Now, lets start thinking of protecting our island."
---
"We are as well. Now where is the main base of these robots? Let me and Wilham lead a team in and we will wipe them out, we are more then capable!" Coriko said to McNeil.
---
Kain looked around once outside of the palace. He was told his destination was north of their island. Kain headed towards the harbour.
-
Anselm wasn't feeling that great either.
A shimmering light appeared before the rather drained trio of translucent foxes and Anselm had to shield his eyes for a moment. Fearing yet another of a long string of attacks by unholy netherworld demons (or similar), he drew his blade once more and braced himself for what couldn't possibly end in a good outcome...
Much to his surprise, the familiar triangular ears and large furry tail of his race framed the silhouette that appeared in the bright white tunnel.
"Ah! There you are!"
"... Gaston?"
The Velken Battle Mage pushed his rectangular glasses up his long nose and folded his hands under his sleeves. "Yes, of course! Do you know any other Velkens who can soul-walk?" He chuckled at his own joke, or lack-there-of, as no one else found it funny.
"Listen, Helix," he continued. Helix's fading ears perked slightly, but he seemed to be in too much pain to fully appreciate the newcomer's company, "I have found a way to return you to your own body. It won't stop the deterioration of your soul, but at least you won't have to worry about your spirit getting eaten by netherworld-beasts."
"That means we can return to the real word as well?" Anselm asked, hopefully.
"Well, this world is just as real as the other, but yes, as I can see you are all quite drained. Now follow me, if you will."
Gaston turned and walked back into the light, his tail flicking behind him. Anselm stood, and offered a hand to Riuki and to Helix to help them up.
(Due to massive time constraints, others will be updated tomorrow.)
-
"Thanks..." Ko'ji was pulled back to her feet by Anselm. She was still a bit dizzy, but was able to follow the Velken Gaston out into the light.
--- ---
"Hmm... I wonder what the hell's gonna happen now..." Arata sheathed his katana to his side and snuck behind a few bushes around the city. The dome would keep them from invading from the sky... but perhapse if he were to scale the wall and climb in...
"The hell with it, I'll give it a shot!" he thought aloud. He was able to find many bricks to grab on to, perhapse jutting from a balcony of some sort. Arata climbed up the bricks to find a railing above him. As he assumed, a balcony was protruding from the castle walls. He decided to sneak in the city from here.
"I'll be damned if there's a guard in here..."
-
Akran eyed the merchant suspiciously. Akran needed help to find something. This person seemed to know a lot. Slowly, he lowered his bow; only just so it wasn’t pointing between the merchant’s eyes. Akran needed a companion, and a merchant might not be of much use, but he was pretty sure that this wasn’t an ordinary bloke. Maybe he could trust him.
Slowly, he said, “My name is Akran. I have traveled from a place that was very far away. It was a place where every man had a purpose. It was a place where everyone had their own path. The people there were blessed at birth by Majeuri Spirits. Mine, was The Spirit of Light. My brother was given The Spirit of Shadow. When we got older, we grew restless with the seemingly perfectly safe land where we were told to practice our Majeuri skills. Kraaz and I often snuck out and journeyed to a forgotten island where it was said that the dead never die. Enchanted with these tales, Kraaz and I grew bold. We started to conduct experiments with the peaceful animals that roamed the forest. With our powerful skills we killed a dozen creatures, and from their ashes, red-eyed, demonic monsters rose. It felt wrong to me, but Kraaz was captivated with this power. He began killing and resurrecting more and more creatures. They obeyed him and he created an army. With his head filled with power, Kraaz attacked his own people. I managed to escape, but in the end, the power drove him so crazy that he ended up killing himself.
“My birthplace is in ashes now. I have no home. I am looking for someone who might know about the Majeuri Spinel. It is important, but I have trouble trusting people. I never tell anybody my story. Wait a minute, why the hell am I telling you? Hell, I don’t even know who you are. You won’t even say your name, you kill random people, and you raise the dead.”
Akran tightened his grip on his bow and raised it again. “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? WHY WON’T YOU SAY YOUR NAME?”
With a twang and a flash of light, Akran released an arrow. The arrow whizzed by the merchant’s ear and sunk with a thud into the skull of a white-eyed crew member. Just as soon as the arrow had left the bow, Akran had drawn another. He held it steady, breathed in and out, and tried again, to find out who this man was.
“Please, tell me who you are.”
-
"What is the status of our army?" Druid asked Baird.
"We were 50 000 strong. Then the revolt happened and over two thirds of our army joined Silas. You wiped out most of the when they stormed the castle and Silas wiped out a lot more when they reportedly failed. When Silas left to'finish you off' the rest of the army disbanded."
"I see, how many can we re-assemble?"
Baird thought for a moment. "About 10 000, all impecible warriors."
"Alright Baird, you go organize our army. Once you have them take them to the training barracks and come get me."
"Sir." Baird turned and headed out of the palace.
Druid then turned to the reamaining warlords. "Now Onan and Yuri..."
---
Kain had commandered a boat in Druid's name, one of the perks of working directly under the leader. He was stearing the boat towards the north. He could see a large landmass in the distantance but it was still a ways off. The temerature was dropping and Kain gripped his cloak tighter.
---
Baird walked down one of the main streets. People kept walking up to him and asking if Druid was really back. He merley nodded and kept walking. He was looking for the Drachedge Inn. Drachedge was a tavern where all the tough ex-soldiers and militia reside. Baird headed in the direction he remembered it to be.
-
"For some odd, unexplainable reason, the sound of the arrow flying by my ear made me burst into a violent fit of laughter. Perhaps it was the fact that it knocked my minion's head clean off its spine, or the sound itself, I don't know. Wiping a tear from the eye, I regained control of myself.
-"Well, look who's the master ranger here. You can't hit me from a point-blank range? HAH! If my only interest in you was your archery skill, you'd be dead by now."
At right about this point, the meaning of what Akran said finally sunk in. Oh, dear... this would be a great advantage indeed...
-"Wait, wait, wait. Rewind for a second here. Did you say that you can summon demons from ashes? Alright, kid, you now have my attention."
The zombie crew returned to their posts on the ship. I drew up a chair, and sat down.
-"I don't believe I properly introduced myself yet." I took off the amulet of disguise, revealing a semi-transparent me. "I am Kronos, the Sovereign of Kandarinian Sovereignty. You are to address me only as Sovereign. Few have broken this simple request, and none lived to tell about it."
I fiddled with the amulet some more, before putting it down onto a nearby wooden table. The potential advantage here is simply staggering... the one weakness which my minions exhibit is a high vulnerability to fire. Once they are burnt to ashes, resurrecting them is quite difficult indeed, but this here... This ability just might be the safeguard against that pest Draven...
-"I would like to hear more about your gift, Akran. Have you ever studied the ways of magic? Do you know exactly what it is that you do to spawn demons from ashes? Oh, and please, put that bow down. It won't do you any good against me, and it's beginning to irritate my eyes."
Although now he didn't exactly look hostile, I decided not to come out of phase-shift just yet..."
-
"Heh... Demons. Pathetic creatures." Valiko grasped the handle of his blade as two steam demons flew towards him. As he unsheathed his dark sword, he slashed the being in half, and then again upwards. He flipped backwards and stabbed the other steam demon that ran towards him.
"Isn't this fun... Meh, I rather like clean-up duty." Valiko threw his blade out in front of him and held out his hand, his palm stretched open. There was a quick flash of red light around the blade and out came two more, looking exactly alkie. The dark swords floated around Vraoumori, circling him. He folded his arms and merely waited.
------------
"Lord Valimore has returned!" a peasant in the snowy field shouted, echoing in the distance. The people all blasted from there doors and raced to their old leader. He looked just as he had so long ago, except he was a bit wiser and a bit less intimidating. They all got to one knee in the snow and bowed their heads as Valimore stepped off the ship with Doriana.
"Heh. At least you know they still love you, Valimore." Doriana laughed slightly at her own joke.
"I guess you could say that, yes. RISE!" The people gathered around Valimore quickly got to their feet. They seemed afraid of what their leader was about to do.
"I appreciate the welcome, my subjects! You may go about your normal lives and continue whatever it was you were doing before. AS YOU WERE!" The people leered in confusion, then ran back to their duties as Valimore shouted those last words.
"Quite a nice and loyal city you've got going on up here. This could do without snow, however; this weather is bloody obnoxious."
"You'll have to get used to that fact, I'm afraid, for you are now my new apprentice."
"Apprentice is such an overused term. Perhapse I could be a mercenary instead, or possibly even an assassin, as was my job before?"
"No, that makes you sound dim-witted. You wouldn't want that, would you?"
"Then how about a student of certain lore?"
"Certain lore...? Interesting choice. It sounds good enough, I guess. So be it."
"You'd have to admit, it's better than being an apprentice of some sort, as your past apprentices either died or switched sides."
"Gee, thanks for reminding me. Let's just get to the blasted citadel and scour the library for any 'lore' I kept alive during those wretched times before..."
------------
"Hmm... We'll have to find another route into Tjed. Start thinking, men; that's what you're good at!" Aaron folded his arms and waited for the group to brainstorm infiltration ideas.
"Hmm," an elite began, "If one of us knows a group cloaking spell, couldn't we sneak up the mountains and enter the city from behind the castle?"
"I'm not so sure that would work, Daniel," another elite protested, "Don't you think the airships have heat sensors?"
"No way in hell, Runde," a third elite stated, "only we have access to that sort of technology. We're the only ones with the most up-to-date airship tech. I highly doubt the Dark Empire has heat sensors. Just take a look at the size of their cannon guns. You can tell they're out of date!"
"Excellent work," Aaron interrupted, "We'll sneak in behind the castle. But we aren't cloaking ourselves; the mage running it all would be flat-out dead if he tried to use that much energy. We're going to scale the mountains. Does one of you know how to create an air bridge?"
"Yes sir!" a battlemage elite soluted, "I've been making them since I was young, sir!"
"You're still quite young, Toddel..." The young battlemage paid no heed to his emporer. He was confident in his own abilities.
"Are you sure you can do it?"
"I'm damn-near possative, sir!"
"It's one hell of a long-shot, but go for it. Let's move out!"
------------
"You hanging in there, Rink?" Justin said as he tore appart the remainder of the netherdemons, "I think I've gethered enough energy from fighting to revive Ven! Please, watch my back!" Justin raced over to the spirit Ven and held his hands up. A great white portal started to open. It slowly grew into a larger circular portal.
"Alright, let's go back. I'll get Ven." Justin put one arm around the soldier and walked him through the portal.
------------
-
The steam demons continued flying up into the air and dying.
"Your emotional state is of no relevance, cur. I tire of the persistence of demons. I will simply wipe out the dimension that your untrustworthy race hails from as soon as I am finished with Gaian."
The last metallic demon flew into the air, the chunks of metal from the explosion embedding themselves deeply within the rocks.
"And I do not intend to simply kill you. Death is far too light a punishment for a insurgent slave.
He extended his hand as three orbs of blackness materialized over the battlefield...
----
"Oh...BLAST!"
Draven's eyes widened and he turned to Valos.
"We leave... NOW."
He floated up into the air about a hundred feet, a dim aura of flame returning. He saw Anti standing there as if he were waiting his turn. Blast it. Faceless didn't have clue who he was up against. Although he didn't quite care what happened to the astral demon, he knew it'd just be a waste to fight Retan while he was still within close range of the Tower of Heaven's Bane...
"Yo! Anti!" He thumbed behind him. "This way. Right NOW!"
He exploded in a burst of flame and took off eastward.
----
Renard shuddered, digging his claws into the ground as he crouched behind the dead bush.
Something really bad was happening to the south... It hurt to even breath... as if everything was tainted. A burning pain in his heart. One major disadvantage of being a magic-based creature. Duilin was lucky, as demons could tune this out and humans would only feel a slight discomfort.
He heard Duilin swoop in behind him, so he didn't bother looking around. He peered out over the chasm, and looked at the sea below. North Point was located on a peninsula overlooking the sea, and anyone who traveled the narrow land mass would instantly be seen by the sentinels upon the walls that could see in the blackest of night. But he had a different way in mind...
"This way," he whispered. He leapt over the edge and flew about halfway between the sea and the top of the cliff, following it as it snaked around towards the fortress. His speed increased dramatically has he followed the peninsula's curves, and he zipped right under the overhanging rock that North Point rested upon.
-
"Hmm... I wonder if we should provide a distraction for Duilin... Ahh! What the hell is happening down there?" Ben felt like his magic was ripping at him. He could feel it start to peel off to the south, as if ripping the skin off a live human. Ben was fully in tune with his magic, as he did not have any other means of fighting.
"OW! Damn it, we have to move away where it doesn't affect us that much!" Tiberius ran over next to Ben. Jannis followed slowly.
"Oi! You guys gonna come or what?"
------------
Valiko looked above his head as three black orbs of darkness materialized above his head. The evil aura drifting off the orbs was strong and dark. "Uh oh... that can't be good..." The three blades around Valiko stabbed into the ground around him, an even distance appart. He raised his hands in the air and a dark red cylindrical shield formed around him. It was very dense, and seemed to be empowered by the darkness all around.
------------
-
McNeil let out a sigh. "The thing is, we don't know exactly where their base is. But what we did is seal off one of our main doorways, to the old part of the base they took over, so they couldn't freely come in and kill us. But apparently they found a way into our base, as you just saw. If you're going to in, you'll have to find a way in to the old base yourself."
"Where their any other ways into the old part of the base, you didn't seal off?" Wilham asked.
"Not that any of us knew of. But maybe there is a way through it, from the outside. But I must warn you, it's highly radiated."
"Radiated?" Wilham asked.
"Yeah, like it's poisonous outside. Not to mention there are mutants that pretty much kill anyone that moves. But oddly, enough they don't seem to kill each other..."
"Think we should try getting into the old base from the outside, Coriko?"
--- ---
Nex laughed, was he serious? Passing on killing him? Nex was confident that this was going to be a huge mistake for Retan. "Then whatever you have planed, do it, draken. Make. My. Day."
If he could just hold his energy for a little longer...
---
Valos' jaw dropped. "Good idea." He said to Draven. He then surrounded himself in black-violet flame like aura and floated into the air along with Draven and then flew off following not too far behind him.
--- ---
Duilin continued to follow Renard. He was both excited and worried. He believed he could actually save the Velkens and finally take out the Dark Empire, once and for all. But we were worried to death that if he failed, then he'd be unable to defeat Retan. These Velkens were good fighters, very good. He'll need their help. And of course he felt sorry for them, and they needed his help so badly, he couldn't just leave them to continue on like this.
He wondered how Rink, Belle, Ven and the others were doing back at Tjed. He hoped he would see them all again soon. It's only been an hour or so since he left Tjed, but it felt like so much longer...
-
The door came apart, revealing an angered Cain Ryleh.
-"Eldridge!", he barked. "Where the hell are those schematics? Same goes for the rest of you! Hurry it up on the project, will you? The Armed Forces will not wait for much longer!"
One of the scientists, distracted from his papers, looked up at Cain.
-"But, sir...!"
-"NO! No excuses! I want to see at least the basic sketches! You have ONE HOUR! Don't mess this up!"
-
ZBANG!
With great annoyance, Indher shot bird which dared do it's thing at the wrong time over the wrong place.
The pidgeon didn't stand much of a chance against a magical ball of lightning, leading to it's eventual impact against the brand new paved stone floor.
"Serves you right!" The normally cheerful woman pointed furiously at the bird "I have to take a shower because of you!"
Elphos, who seemed to have come from nowhere and yet was fully prepared, handed his master a wet towel.
"Theres a lake down south, and..."
He was interrupted by the grabbing of the towel.
"That won't do! Now turn what's left of this pitiful avian into something useful, like food!"
Elphos shook his head and realized most people around them stopped all work to watch him get yelled at. He sighed, lifted the feathery corpse and walked away.
The population was increasing steadily, and with it, the rate of progress and development.
Already the village had several complete houses (one of which was a two-story house) and a paved road between them. There were foundations for a fountain at what was meant to be the town square, but it was far from complete.
All of a sudden, Elphos felt something pulling him down.
He turned around to see two kids, neither of them was any older than 8.
"Mister Elphos!" Said the one on the right, pulling his brown hair from his eyes and revealing a blue jewel stuck in his forehead "Me an' Phillip need to ask you a QUESTION!"
Elphos bent down curiously, trying to smile. He wasn't sure how to act around kids, but he tried his best to be nice to them.
"Mmm? What is it?"
"Well..." the kid on the left scratched the back of his head impatiently, his black hair and crimson stone gleaming in the sunlight "We were wondering which name you think is best for the town."
Elphos stood up. He certainly didn't expect a question like this, nor did he have an answer ready. Fortunately for him, the blue-jeweled kid stepped in.
"Tell him! Novik is a much better name thank Hadash!"
The red-jeweled kid's face grew red.
"No it isn't! Hadash is much better!"
"Wowowo, stop right there!" Elphos silenced the two "We won't name this town Hadash OR Novik! In fact, Fernis already had a name in mind."
The kids turned to stare at him in amazment.
"Really?!"
"Um..." Elphos backed off in embarassment "Yeah! But I can't tell you, it is a secret!"
The kids turned to stare into his hand. Only then he realized he was still holding a crispy pidgeon.
"That? Oh, uh... Wanna see something cool?"
He bent down and took out a piece of chalk, with both kids watching intensely.
Carefully, he drew various shapes on the floor tile. When he was done, he placed the crispy pidgeon into the runeset.
"And now, I will turn this bird into ICECREAM!"
The eyes of the kids widened.
"Shoudn't... " the red-jeweled one seemed hasitant "Shoudln't we do this on a plate, then?"
Elphos waved his hand at him in response.
"Don't worry, the plate is part of it."
He placed his hands on the floor tile and the runeset began emitting a faint light which soon enveloped the crispy bird.
Soon enough, before their very eyes, the said bird was replaced with a cold, colorful rat-shaped lump safely resting in a ceramic bowl.
"A... Rat...?"
"Bear with me, the only other shape I can make is the roach!"
-
The Dark Emperor's eyes flashed crimson as the trio of orbs ignited in a black flame. Darkness extended upwards and downwards from them as they spun a perfect circle around Nex. A loud crack shook the foundations of the mountains as the sky and earth were torn open. A black pillar of nothingness appeared where the orbs spun...
The pillar was infinitely high, the clouds split in twain , and seemed to bury infinitely deep, a circular hole cut through the rocks. Whatever matter was located in the area it appeared was instantly eradicated. As soon as it appeared, a violent gale rushed towards it from all directions, to fill in the gaping void left behind...
(Blargh... others updated tomorrow...)
-
He looked at Draven and smirked. "What, leave? This is the moment I've been waiting for." He watched Draven blast off like a bat out of hell. He looked toward Retan. Draven is a respectable fighter. For him to fly off like that... This attack. He studied it. It reminds me quite a bit of Fragmented End... As he dissected the specifics in his mind... Shit! I see why he ran off! He then took off in the same direction that Draven went, but stopped when he was a good several hundred yards away. A safe distance for him. He then watched what occurred. ...He did that with relatively little effort...
...Wonderful.
He had a little bit of trouble holding his position against the black hole's force, but not too much. He decided that he would stick around until Nex got owned, of course if it's not already over, then he'd take a crack at him.
-
Can't fail...
Nex was noticeably not enjoying what was going on. His arms were spread apart and the gauntlets were ripped off. Nex floated in the air as bits and pieces were ripped off. He then braced himself, until he looked like a large mass of robes, which rapidly shrank to a third of its size, and the remains of it started to implode until a bright red flash of light blinded all that were around, for brief second. And Nex was gone...
-
Akran tried to hide his surprise as the merchant turned into this cloaked being. The merchant (or Kronos now that Akran had found out his name) looked as if he was underwater, with his clothes moving slightly and his subtle transparency. Akran decided to do as Kronos suggested and lowered his bow. He let the light dance away back to the lamp.
“You must have misunderstood me, Sovereign.” Akran stated not bothering to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. Who does this guy think he is? A god? Yeah sure…
“I only manipulate light and darkness. The island of the Majeuri spawned demons from ashes, but like I said, the island was destroyed.” Akran walked over to the head of the zombie, which was groaning and rolling around, and picked it up by the arrow which was stuck in his skull. He slammed it against the wall to free the arrow and wiped it on his robes.
Sliding the arrow back into his quiver, Akran continued. “If you really want this… gift, then you must find the Majeuri Spinel. It is a small stone that is embedded into a -”
Akran stopped. Maybe he shouldn't tell Kronos anymore. But... He'll need my help if he wants to get to the Spinel.
“Okay, I’m not sure where this Spinel is exactly, but if you want to know more, we must travel together. The Majeuri Spinel was stolen by my brother and he hid it. You see, if I ever got to it, he felt that I could possess the power of all the Majeuri spirits combined and defeat him.”
Akran looked at Kronos and thought for a second. Maybe traveling with Kronos is a bad idea. I don’t really want to fight him over the Spinel because we both want it for different reasons. But then again, Kraaz kept telling me that the only way that I could ever get the stone was to possess the power of both light and shadow, and possibly necromancy since he probably hid the stone by using the demon minions he created. Maybe it’s a good idea after all.
“So, how does traveling together sound to you?”
-
"This isn't good, not one bit!" Valiko tried to hold his possition as much as he could as he saw Nex, the astral demon, being torn to shreds by Draven's attack. The red shield surrounding the Draken was starting to flicker and pull off into the giant, black void, summoned by Retan
"Damn it, stay together!" Valiko's shield was definately loosing power. Pretty soon, it was almoste completely transparent. He bashed the ground with both his hands, palms extended, getting down on his knees. The shield barely kept power.
"HYAA!!!" He yelled as the shield sustained its possition. Color began to return to it, and it held together, but barely. It was beginning to loosen up, and shards of black energy scrapped Valiko's arms and sides.
And then, it shattered. "NO! I'M SO CLOSE!!!" He then grabbed a sword in the ground and the other two returned swiftly behind, following him in the air. The Draken then bolted away from the scene, exerting much force as he dashed along the ground... just about even with Anti in yards...
------------
"Ah! Home, sweet home! Well, at last, we come upon the citadel. Once we get inside, I'll show you where you'll be staying. Then, you may explore a bit on your own to find the library." Valimore and Doriana both treded up the snow-covered path and into the great castle like citadel that lay perched atop a mountain side. It somewhat resembled North Point, and all of the bricks that the castle was built of were of black color.
"A neat sort of get-away. When did you have this constructed?"
"Well, a lot of it was built while I was still hanging around the monistary, as well as when I took off."
"Good idea. And how, might I ask, will you know your way around this fortress?"
"Let's think about that for a moment, shall we? Maybe... it might have been ME who drew up the damned charter for construction!"
"I see. Show me to my room, then. I'm tired..."
------------
A somewhat transparent bridge appeared around the mountains of Tjed. It was broad and thick, swirling with air magic. Apparently, the young mage's confidence was well-placed. The group of elites traveled across the air bridge and around the mountain side, comming upon the back of the castle. The three airships were still in sight.
"Alright men, this is it! We'll take this two at a time, and I'll head up last."
------------
-
As Nex was torn to shreds, Retan turned a crimson eye to the east.
"Dear Draven, I did not permit you to leave..."
The Dark Emperor began floating, an invisible aura of power disintegrating the boulders around him. He began flying to the east, hot on Draven and Valos' tail.
"You," he said to Valiko, "you will follow, and you will prove your worth..." He blasted right past him and Anti, kicking up a tremendous amount of flying rocks as his aura split the wasteland.
"Vraigus. Come."
Two crimson eyes floated next to the Dark Emperor. "What is thy bidding?"
"Lord Draven is... disobeying..."
The eyes seemed attached to an invisible head that nodded. They disapeared in a blink. A gargantuan roar resonated across the wastelands as the crimson eyed bronze dragon appeared a few hundred feet above and in front of Retan, its cutting shriek stabbing the ears.
"Blast it!!" Draven clenched his fists as he flew at breakneck speed, his aura of flame burning brightly in the black sky. "He's sicking his dragon-cretin on us. Argh!"
He flipped around so that he was flying backwards, splaying the fingers of his right palm. A multitude of balls of red light burst forth, scattering through the sky and exploding into smoke. In but a few seconds he had built a smoke-screen of sorts.
----
Anselm gasped when he woke up in his own body. Back in Helix's cabin... Back in the airship...
His heart... he could feel his heart thrashing against his chest. When he had walked the other plane, he felt nothing... like he wasn't even alive. Now he breathed a great sigh of relief, taking in the cool air that blew in from the airship's window.
Battling outside of his body had taken its toll. Not physically, he just felt tired. Turning, he rose from the bed and stepped towards Helix. Gaston was hovering over the poisoned Velken, washing his furry forehead with a damp cloth.
"Glad you're back with us," Anselm said.
"Glad... to be..." Helix tried to say through clenched teeth. He was obviously in a lot of pain. "Where... where is Renard...?"
Anselm's ears folded as he looked to Gaston and Riuiki. He certainly had no idea. Renard and Helix were so close. Where was he, anyway?
Gaston pushed his glasses up on his nose leaned closer. "On a very special mission... to find your cure..." he whispered.
----
Renard waited a bit underneath the rock, waiting for Duilin to catch up. Here the fortress jutted up over the edge of the ocean. Above his head was solid rock, below him several hundred feet down was the black sea...
He floated there for a moment feeling the stone, looking for a crack of some sort. Sticking his claws into just the right spot, a click resonated and a square trap door opened. He floated up the shaft with ease, although the larger Duilin might have a bit of trouble.
He opened another trap door at the top and slid away a floor panel, making sure that his cowl still covered his vulpine features. He poked his nose out and looked down the dark hall... nothing. He turned around to check the other--
"Hey!" A Lizard Man shouted.
Blast it!
The black cloaked Renard zipped straight into the air like a specter. The clumsy Lizard Man slowly drew his bulky blade, but by then Renard charged him, flying through the air as a blur. The lizard gagged and died as the tiny-by-comparison fox drove something into the creature's scaly neck.
The lizard's dead weight clamored upon the floor and Renard pulled the icicle he had summon out of the soldier's neck. He stood there transfixed for a long while, watching the blood drip down and cover his claw.
"I... I just committed treason..." he whispered, barely audible.
----
"Mr. Ryleh, do enter. I take it you are not a man of science?" Vincent sneered as he looked up. Over his right eye was some odd contraption, something like a magnifying glass with red lens. The device fit over his glasses and right ear. "Surely you understand such delicate procedures cannot be rushed..."
Upon the table stood a model of The Sovereign's Hammer, some three feet tall. Circling the base were three things that looked vaguely like airships, but they were cut in half and pointed upward. Many bars stretched from these points upwards, swirling and interconnecting to a lens in the center.
"Should you have the time to stay for a moment, I will explain exactly why your demands are quite impossible."
-
"Heh... no problem." Valiko sheathed his sword back to his side and burst into the air, following close behind the Dark Emporer, Retan. Up ahead, he could see some sort of fog... as he got closer, it appeared to be smoke, from a magic fire, no doubt caused by Draven.
"That bastard... What now, my lord?"
------------
-
"UHH!!!" Ko'ji gasped in air as she awoke from some sort of sleep. She began breathing quickly, then slowed down as she caught her breath... which was something she'd now had. It felt awkward in that realm, not being able to breath, nor actually needing to breath.
"Helix... hang in there, okay?" Ko'ji put one arm on the poisoned Velken's shoulder and smiled at him. She then took her arm off and wen outside the cabin. "I'll be right back," she said to the others, "I just need some air..." She stepped up to the front of the ship and inhaled. She felt a cold calm across her body. Perhapse it was from walking through dimensions. It was like a type of training; you enter unprepared and leave with a new experience.
"Huh... what's that?" Now, for some strange reason, she could see what wasn't there before. Something that looked like a bird, with black feathers and burning crimson eyes. With out even trying, she saw across the whole entire field, the mountains, the rubble near the cave. This weird sensation was something she'd never felt before... and she didn't like it.
Virmir was there, on the ship. She decided to ask him for a bit of help. "Virmir, sir," she began, blankly, "something strange is... happening to me. I can see things... things that weren't there before. What's happening to me?"
--- ---
"Well, that was quite easier than I'd thought. Time to rough me up some prey... Hah!" Arata unsheathed his katana and held it to his side, pointed to where he was walking. Inside the castle, a group of lizardmen were standing, arguing over someone, over what to do with a prisoner they found in the dungeon.
"Why don't we just fry him and eat him!? My belly aches, and this human looks nice and tender..."
"Quit whine! You shut mouth!"
"Idiot. You could do with a few lessons in human. No one likes to hear a language get slaughtered, especially not by a lizardman."
"Go easy on him! He's just a B-class, you know!"
"What are you going all on about?"
"Shut mouth! Prisoner belong in prison, not in stomach!"
"He's got a point there."
"Here's another idea," Arata interrupted, "how about you, dead? That sounds like a fine idea to me." He slashed off the greater class lizardman's head, pulling his blade back, and stabbing straight through another.
"YOU!!! DIE!!!" The lower class lizardman pulled out his great broadsword, but before he could swing, his head was cut clean off his body. Blood soaked the floor.
"Heh... primative lizards... Come on! Bring me a challenge!"
"Hey, buddy! Let me outta here, will ya?" A man was in a cell near the massacred lizardmen, clutching two bars of the cell door.
"Hmph... I don't see what I get out of it."
"Please! Come on, I'm not that bad a fighter!"
"Why were you locked up anyways?"
"... Murder..."
"Murder, you say? Hah! That's my kind of crime! Alright, I'll let you out." On one of the fallen lizards, there was a ring with a bunch of keys. Arata grabbed the ring and tried the keys until he found one that fit the lock. The door swung open.
-
//I'm really not up to par at all right now, so this is going to be really short.\
"That won't matter soon enough." Duilin said catching up to Renard. "Trust me." Duilin stepped closer to Renard. "But if something goes wrong, we'll try and make it look like I killed him." He said assuring his friend.
-
Anti watched the Dark Emperor shoot past him. "I'll just get his attention really quick... Kienzan!" He created a sharp disc of energy and flung it towards Retan at an incredible speed. Go ahead and get out, Draven. I will distract him for you.
--- --- ---
The flyboys had switched their efforts to finding out where Duilin went. They were flying now towards his energy signature. Zion was noticeably distracted... He was tracking Anti's and Retan's energy, trying to figure out what they were doing. Xenai piped up. "Dude, what's with you?"
"I'm concerned about that brawl that Anti's involved in."
"..."
"Look, if things start getting heavy, I want you three to go after him."
"What about you?"
"I want to find out what's up with Duilin."
"Alright..." Xenai glanced toward the location of the brawl.
"From the feel of things... It won't be long until that happens."
-
"Yeah, I think we can handle it. I assume we can borrow some radiation suits or something to get through it? Or...."
Coriko trailed off looking out of a small circular window in the room.
"Sorry," seemily pulled bac to reality. "How are we going to cross the open vacum of space and trudge through the radiation field?"
---
Kain hit land. He pulled his boat up on shore so it wouldn't float away. Kain then summoned a wall of transparent shadow energy around his boat. It was a patch job but it would do. He didn't tend on spending much time up here.
"Now, to find our soon to be allies."
Kain looked around and then headed off towards the east.
---
"Ah, the Drachedge Inn." Baird had arrived. He knew if he was to assemble an army of 10 000 in as little time as possible, these men were the people to see.
Baird pushed open the door, greeting him was the mixed smell of blood and alcohol. The light from outside cast a light on the floor.
"Hello gents. Whose up for a little scrap?"
-
The destructo-disc tore through the air and split in half some ten feet from the Dark Emperor, as if striking some sort of invisible shield. He paused, turning livid eyes upon the astral demon below.
"Valiko," he said, knowing his name without even have heard it, "there is your prey..." He pointed at Anti.
Without anything else as a word, he burst through the air once more after Draven.
The gigantic bronze dragon, Beta Vraigus, began spewing orbs of blackness from his mouth.
"Blast it!" Draven began flying backwards once more as the orbs tore through the smoke, picking them off with his own crimson fireballs. He had changed his course slightly, but it seemed as though the dragon hot on his tail was not affected by the smokescreen in the slightest.
----
"Yeah... thanks..."
Renard seemed very nervous, shaking slightly as he stood there. He continued on, but floated down the hallway rather than walk, appearing skittish at every little noise.
They came to an overpass-- a bridge in the middle of a large room with gargoyle statues on either end. Renard peered over the edge of the railing to look down upon two massive Lizard Men that guarded a set of wide oaken doors on the floor just below. These were not simple soldiers, but rather fully armored elites with spiny armor covering the entirety of their scaly hides.
Obviously those doors were where they needed to go.
He turned to Duilin, just the tip of his nose poking out from under the cowl. "Any ideas?"
----
Virmir's ears perked at Ko'ji Riuki's voice.
"Really?"
The two were immediately interrupted as Bryce and four other Velkens landed on the deck and bowed.
"My lord, we've found a room in the castle we may be able to... use... It has vents that lead outside, but they can be opened and closed."
The High General frowned, his ears falling slightly. "... Very well, Bryce, I will inspect it myself. Go on ahead."
"Yes, my Lord."
The Blade Knight bowed and then the half-squad of six took off into the skies, arching around and flying back down to the castle.
Virmir looked around, and seemingly seeing something, he turned and walked towards the edge of the ship.
"Let's take a flight, Riuki."
He jumped off and slowly followed the other Velkens, though at a fraction of their normal speed. He waited for the newest member of his squad to catch up to him by his side.
"So you see... things? What sort of things?"
-
The town was finally complete.
Well, the part they had planned out, anyway.
The fountain on the terrace at the town's square didn't have running water yet, but it did have various buildings made of polished stone blocks built around it in a quite spacious manner.
In fact, there was enough space between the buildings that four people could stand in the said space, spread their hands and, without touching each other or the buildings, and still not fill it.
The building material - polished stone - was plentiful.
Carving a runeset to create stoneblocks and polish them was something even Elphos could do, and anybody with a bit of understanding of the arcane could activate it.
But more planning was in order. The people kept pouring in as everyone resurrected wanted all their loved ones resurrected as well. Every person joining resulted in three more later.
Had the resurrection runeset been instantanous, the population would have been quadrupling each time it was activated.
Even the people who did not experience the fall of Romme -
Those who died earlier from sickness, old age or an accident...
Even those were being brought back to life in order to join the effort.
Elphos paced back and forth. He didn't know if their state of affairs is a good thing.
They were removing the boundary between the afterlife and gaian completely rather than repairing damage.
It is as the dragon said - they are now stepping into territorry no human should step into...
But then again, Fernis was far from human.
"Ah, sir Elphos, my good man!"
Elphos turned around. It was a bearded midget wearing a cilinder hat and a pair of glasses who starled him. His attire would have looked formal had it not been tartan.
"My curiousity was piqued when I heard that no beurocratic has been constructed yet!"
Elphos cocked an eyebrow. This really wasn't the time to be complaining about things like lack of beurocracy...
"We don't need it yet anyway. Romme will be fine for now without any-"
The midget spat.
A round aquamarine stuck in his forehead gleamed brightly as the sunlight fell upon it.
"Pfft! Romme he says! My good man, this land is longer Romme! The nation has been destroyed! Caput! Nada!"
Elphos sighed. The idea of being lectured didn't appeal to him.
"So, if this is not Romme...?"
The midget did not hasitate. His fierce, brown eyes gleamed as strongly as the blue jewel in his forehead.
"We were the people of Romme, yes... But, we have risen from it's ashes, not restored with the land. The lands should be given a new name... A name befitting that which was not meant to be, but was!"
The midget was about to say something else, but then a slightly wet Fernis came into view.
"Huh? Baurus? Are you complaining about the lack of beurocracy to my apprentice too, now?"
Elphos blinked. His gaze shifted from the midget to his master, and back to the midget.
"You two... Know each other?"
Fernis shook her head, albeit she did it to throw water around rather than signify a negative response.
"Duh, of course we do. This here's Baurus, former elder of one of the bigger villages in Romme."
Elphos, who was slightly wet now, began to run his face with his sleeve.
"Uh, and did he rant about renaming the land to you to?"
Indher's stare sharpened.
"Rant? It was I who told him that this land can no longer be named 'Romme', for these people have risen from it's ashes... To call it Romme would be the same as to call a man by his father's name!"
Elphos disregarded the fact that people actualy DO name their sons after themselves.
It was all too obvious where this was going.
"So, what is the new name for this land, then?"
Indher chuckled.
"I decided to leave the naming to the people. But now, we have much more pressing matters to discuss."
She placed her hand on Elphos' shoulder.
"No one - especialy not the dark empire - will sit idly by if they discover what we are doing.
I need you to follow the coastline and set up a barrier along it."
Elphos backed away, his mouth wide open.
"WHAT!? That would take weeks... A month or more if I keep coming back for sleep and supplies!"
Indher shook her head, this time without spraying water at everything around her.
"Doesn't matter. It has to be done. You can be slow if you have to, just start as soon as possible."
Elphos stood there for a moment, his mind taking a while to comprehend the workload he has been given. He then turned around and left, muttering something about evil ferrets.
"So, Baurus..."
Indher turned to look at the midget, onlt to realize only his hat was left.
"Huh? Baurus, where did you go?"
A voice came echoing from inside the round cilinder hat.
"You #$%^&*, my hat expands when it contacts water!"
Fernis giggled, muttering a silent "Woopsy!" as she lifts the hat and sets the midget free.
-
Ko'ji followed them off the ship and flew up next to Virmir. "I can see these... black crows... everywhere. The'r eyes are dark red, and glowing... as if they're the emporer's. There's one now." She pointed to one of the watchers on the castle.
"And I don't even need to strain my eyes to see far distances anymore... It's not just that, I can smell everything, too. All of the lizardmen around, all of the Velkens, I can make out every last one of them... I don't want to. What's happening to me?"
-
"Hmm... Yes, my lord, of course." Valiko lowered himself to the ground, unsheathing his sword without the use of his hands. He pointed the sword at Anti and held his hands forwards.
"Chew on THIS!" A giant red beam of energy blasted out of the tip of the dark blade, aimed directly at Anti. The ground rippled after the beam had been cast out of the blade, the wind seeming to cut in half.
-
Valos had to do something. He stared at Beta Vraigus as he flew towards him and Draven. Valos has battled creatures similar to this before, in Hell. In fact he's endured things twice this things size before. He was never able to kill any of the larger demons, but he needed to do something.
The mage clenched his fist, and pumped his right arm, it seemed that he gained some muscle since before. This was almost a daily routine for him.
Valos' right hand was then coated with an icy gauntlet, with a large, sharp icicle spike at the end. All fear and fatigue was gone from him.
"Die demon!"
He flew towards and barely even slowed down as he reached towards its head and smashed his ice gauntlet into its eye.
--- ---
//Wait, Coriko, how could Coriko know about the dangers of outer space, when he's from a medieval area dimension?\
"It's not 'open vacuum space'." McNeil said. "But we don't have any radiation protection suits left. They've pretty much been worn out, and pretty much resources have been put into making weapons. But we do have these which will get you through."
He walked over to a locker cabinet and opened it up, taking out two gas masks and pack of hypodermic needles.
"Put these masks on, and inject yourself with these, before and after you go outside." He explained.
"Uh, what are these?" Wilham asked looking at the futuristic pen like items.
"They're needles, you poke these into your arm and press down on this thing at the end untill the pressure dial hits here." He continued explaining.
Wilham rubbed his head. "Alright...I guess we can do that. So why do we inject them before AND after?"
"They're a temporary repellent and a cure for the radiation poisoning. You still get poisoned a bit so you'll need to inject yourself to clean your system. Or else you'll either die or mutate."
"Mutate?"
"Yes. Then we won't allow you to come back. Mutos as we call them are people how have been mutated and exiled. They give off heavy radiation and spread it to other people. If you see any of them, run."
"Why? We have these needles."
"Yeah, but they're still dangerous. They living dead, that's what they are." He said, sounding rather prejudice.
"Have you ever met a muto?"
"Err...no, but trust me, they're bad news. No better than the Daleks. Trust me."
--- ---
"Well, they're covered from head to toe, so you can do another quick kill." Duilin said, to Renard. "And, if we just run in all gung-ho we'll likely draw to much attention, and we don't want that."
"Hmm, I do know a technique that can temporarily stun a target." Duilin suggested. "I haven't been able to get it work all of the time, but these guys don't appear to know any sort of magic, to protect themselves from it. Yet it involves me charging lightning magic, which might draw attention." Duilin rubbed his chin. "You think I should go for it?" He asked.
-
Anti's eyes narrowed. "I hate distractions." He held out one hand and caught the beam, letting its energy gather before his palm. Once it had gathered into a good-sized ball, he smacked it back down at Valiko.
"This is my chance, wretch. I'm going to plow through you and head straight for the prize!"
He crossed his arms... "Omega...!!! FIST!!!" ...and flung them out to the side, a huge shockwave of energy spreading out from him in all directions. He started to transform. The particles of energy that composed him started to shake frantically... thus creating more energy and increasing his power... "HAAAAAAAA!!!!" He was creating a feeling that could be felt around the world... a massive, horrifying power that was continually increasing.
--- --- ---
"WHOA!" Xenai came to a dead stop. "He's powering up!"
Zion and the others stopped too. "Well... you guys know what you need to do."
Tsu, Aura, and Xenai nodded.
"Omega..." "...Fist!"Tsu and Aura powered up, their wings shooting out and causing their bodies to glow with that same color; teal for Tsu, and pink for Aura.
"Zero Weapon!" A bright flash of black light, and Xenai had become Omega Zero, going straight into the fused form.
Xenai, Tsu, and Aura shot off towards Anti, wile Zion continued flying toward Duilin's energy signature.
--- --- ---
"GRAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
The transformation continued. Anti was changing color, going from dark purple to a dark crimson red. The powerup was causing all sorts of environmental reaction, the most noticeable being heavy winds shooting out from him, and a huge crater in the ocean underneath him.
And finally, it stopped. The winds ceased, and the water underneath him slowly fell back into place. He was now colored crimson red, pulsing with an eerie blood red light. His humanoid form had become more built, and his features were a little more defined and more visible... and he also had "hair", a mass of energy on the top of his head, spiked upwards and backwards.
He smirked at Valiko. "Prepare to die."
-
//Sorry DM, I wasn't thinking Sad Please forgive me\
"Alright, let's head out. No better time then the present right? McNeil, do you want to show us how to do it before we go so we know how to afterwards?"
McNeil took the needle and stabbed Coriko in the arm.
'OW, you son of a ...'
"I'm sorry i didnt tell you it was gunna hurt, but you may not have done it. Coriko is done, Wilham shall i show you?"
---
Kain had been walking for only a short time when he saw what could possibly be buildings to the east.
"Well I'm at least I am on the correct path."
Kain continued towards the buildings.
---
"Why whose asking?"
"Yeah, you looking for an early death buddy?"
Five guys emerged from the shadows in the rooms left corner. A total of twenty people were in the inn. The others remained in their seats, but shuffled around to see who had disturbed the dank and dreary hangout. One of the big drunks charged at Baird. The drunk swung a heavy fist at Baird. He easily ducked the blow, and then Baird punched the man right in the gut. The man gasped as Baird's hand passed through his stomach and then spine. The other four stopped dead. Baird stood up lifting the man off the ground and flung his corpse into the wall. Baird looked at the other men in the tavernish inn. He picked up a cloth from a nearby table and casual wiped the blood off his hand. Still looking down and very casually Baird said, "Now, who wants a job?"
---
Druid was sitting on his thrown, with Onan standing guard on his left. He had sent Yuri to think of strategies for war. He was not going into battle unprepared.
"Now Onan, what do you wish to do?"
-
Valos' punch hit the dragon Vraigus square in the nose. The blast was so intense, the flesh was blown clear off his face, revealing a sneering draconic skull with crimson orbs deep within the pits of its huge eyes...
"Demon? Oh dear... you are very, very mistaken..."
He flapped his wings back one huge stroke, and Dark Thunder began to rain from the clouds, tearing the terrain to shreds.
Retan flew right under Beta Vraigus and Valos, a sonic boom in his wake. Pointing one finger forward, a trio of black orbs appeared before him as he flew, circling slowly. Shadowy bolts of lightning congregated about the orbs and swelled in the center of the three, and a huge blast of snaking shadow magic flew at the fleeing burning man in the distance.
"Blast it!" Draven swore, ducking and weaving as blast after blast was fired at him. He surged ahead, rocketing through the air. Up ahead he could see the cliffs where the Dark Continent ended, and the ocean began. If, perhaps he could lure Retan off the continent, he would be far enough away from The Tower of Heaven's Bane to actually hit the freak...
----
"If you can do it while I distract them, then yeah, go for it," Renard replied to Duilin. He looked around. "Maybe charge in that corner over there, so the lightning isn't in their line of sight. Then you can drop down behind them..."
Renard grabbed the railing and jumped off the bridge, landing a few hundred feet in front of the guards.
"Hey!" Once hissed. "Who are you?"
Renard brought the cowl closer down over his face. If he revealed himself to be a Velken, they would kill him anyway, as the portal room was off limits to them. So he just stood there.
"Answer!" One of the two huge lizards lumbered over to him.
Blast it! Only one! The other stayed put right at the entrance. Shoot... they were smarter than he thought. He had hoped they would both approach him, so Duilin could jump down behind and take them both out. But now one was leering over him, right under the bridge, and the other stood a hundred feet back at the door.
He braced himself as the lizard rose his gigantic sword...
----
"Don't point!" Virmir whispered. He immediately grabbed Riuki's hand and pulled it down-- not with his hand, though. He used a form of levitation, an invisible tendril of magic which he could use to move things with his mind.
He leaned in close, beginning to fly faster. They overshot the meeting spot with the other Velkens on the ground and began a wide circle around the castle. "Don't let them know you can see them... You have the Sight... and you can learn to control it with time. But I cannot teach you-- not just yet. I do not wish... certain individuals to know that we have it. For now, simply focus on what is in your immediate vicinity."
-
Valos was blown back several yards from the gust of Vraigus' wings.
"Mistaken!?" Valos sneered. "I am not mistaken! Demons are freaks, just like you. So back to hell with you, demon!" It was almost a strain for him to say that word 'Hell' the word brought back so many painful memories, and he's been so happy to be out already. But happiness is for the weak, he needed to get angry.
Valos clenched his other fist making another gauntlet of ice. He gave out a loud roar as he flew forward avoiding the oncoming dark lightning. He zoomed over the dragon's skeletal head and slightly slowed down over the dragon's back and smashed both of his fists onto its back.
--- ---
Duilin swiftly floated over to the obscured corner, and began to charge up an orb of lightning energy, which began to make some slight crackling sounds as it grew bigger. He leaned his head around the corner to see if it was time to throw it.
Duilin gave a looked of unpleasant surprise as he saw only one of the lizards walk towards Renard with his sword ready. It didn't look like the Velken was prepared to block it so Duilin dashed towards the lizard man, holding the stun orb in his left hand, he jumped over Renard and landed in between him and the lizard man and blocked the sword with his mace.
"What the?" The lizard man snarled seeing Duilin jump out of nowhere.
As quick as can be he smashed the stun orb right into the lizard man, who was completely motionless for several seconds and blue streaks of electricity shot through him. Duilin pulled his hand away and the lizard man fell onto the ground, motionless.
"Okay, that didn't go totally to plan..." Duilin said softly, noticing the other lizard man was still there...
--- ---
It was quite and calm in Lizaberg, save for the grunts and yelling of lizard men fighting over food and other random things.
Gorus was outside, using his pickaxe to smash away at the outside of the mountain. Since he was young he enjoyed doing commoner work, despite the fact he was always with the upper class. He spent a lot of his life with the lower class lizard men, his other generals and the Prime Minister were the only higher class lizard men he ever spent time with.
A couple of his generals had just returned from a few short battles that had trouble co-operating with the Empire. Gorus had just got back from the Vandrin County, and felt like he needed a short break. There was something bothering him, that human he fought earlier, he wasn't weak. He a human, no magical enhancements, just a human. But he was actually able to harm him. And how the Count was able to get away, likely still alive. He was convinced that he just got lucky, however. He continued picking away at the rock with his axe, trying to get his mind off of it.
"High General Gorus?" A lizard man said from behind him.
Gorus stopped, and looked at him, it was Xarn.
"What?" He asked bluntly.
"May I have permission to speak freely to you about something?" Xarn asked.
"Granted. Speak."
"Earlier, when you were telling me about Vandrin escaping you and that Kandarinian human you fought, are you...well...Is it bothering you?"
Gorus grunted. "No." He then continued smashing away, with his pickaxe.
Xarn could tell he was probably hiding something, he knew Gorus a lot better than the other generals did. He was in fact on a 'best friend' basis with him before he became High General.
"Well, I was thinking. Perhaps if we requested that we attack the Kandarinian Sovereignty, we could prevent anything like that every happening again."
"Prevent what? We won that battle." Gorus replied.
"Listen Gorus, you got wounded." Xarn said stepping closer. "And you had a human get away from you. That's never happened before. It's either you or these Kandarinians."
Gorus snarled and stepped right in front of Xarn, pointing at him. "Are you saying these 'humans' pose a threat to the Empire?"
"No, I'm saying they're a bit more difficult to kill. Listen, I know you Gorus. You've always been used to running into battle and slaughtering your enemies without even taking a breather. These humans weren't even as strong as that army of mole people we fought back in Mizar, except the Kandarinians. Frankly, Gorus I'm worried about you."
Gorus growled. "Xarn, please...Don't get all caring on me. I hate that, and my father hated that. It's a sign of weakness."
"Well, all I'm saying is that we need to attack the Kandarins."
"Well, perhaps. But I'll think about it, before I approach the Emperor about it."
"Good, because I don't want you to get too unhappy."
Gorus roared. "Xarn! Shut up and go to your quarters, or else I'll shove my arm down your throat, grab you by the inside of your tail and turn you inside out!"
"Uh, y-yes sir..."
-
"Heh. Don't worry, I'm prepared for whatever the hell you've got. Nice hair, by the way," Valiko said, smirking as the dark Anti blocked his attack. He shifted to his side, grabbed his sword, and pointed it at Anti.
"Bring it the hell on, fool..." A small area around Valiko turned pitch black. It was as if he was absorbing the light around him, as if fueling him. A ball of pitch black energy formed around him, holding him within, and as soon as it completely covered him, it exploded with an extremely violent force. Black surges of energy could be seen flying around the Draken as he readied his blade. "Your move," he said, almost insultingly.
------------
//Not much to say about the three whom I haven't updated until now... but it'll get better soon... hopefully.
"Where the hell are you guys going!?" Tiberius asked as the three shot off in Anti's direction.
"Hmm... Something big is happening. Let's follow them and see what's going on." Ben, Tiberius, and Jannis all followed quickly after Xenai, Aura, and Tsu.
------------
"Alright sir! What's the plan?"
"Well, now that we're in... Hmm... you five! Take up defensive formations at that balcony! I want three of you guarding the door! John, Marrik, you're with me." Aaron lead two Drannivolkan elites through a door that lead to some sort of dungeon area. The stench of dead lizardmen begin to creep upon them.
"What do you think happened here, sir?"
"I don't know, John, but who ever did it is long gone."
"Yeah, they've got to be. Look at the bloody footprints on the floor!"
"Something isn't right here... the cell door is unlocked, and one of the lizards is missing a weapon."
"Yeah, and there's also two sets of footprints! Somebody must've armed a prisoner down here. I hope he's with us..."
"Good thinking, Marrik, but don't keep your hopes up. Let's follow these prints and see where it takes us. MOVE!"
-
Xenai looked back towards the three following them. "Thank god you guys decided to come; We'll need all the help we can get! Can you feel that hellish energy? The Zerobi no Anti has powered up. Who knows what he's going to do in this form? We're going to do all we can to distract him! Hopefully, we'll stall him long enough that Retan gets away and isn't worth chasing after. He should, at that point, power down, say something badass to us, and take off." He'd thought this through, obviously.
--- --- ---
Anti smiled. "Thank you. You yourself look like you're going to be a fun opponent."
Faster than a blink of the eye, he'd appeared directly behind Valiko, and he was swinging a kick up at the back of his head, while meanwhile charging a ball of energy in his opposite hand.
-
//@Jenia: Baurus? heheheh. \
-"Traveling together? Like, you, and me?"
Who does this child think he is?
-"It would appear that you didn't quite grasp what I told you before. I'm a ruler of a nation, Akran; I have no time to be running across Terian with would-be adventurers. In fact, the only reason you see me now is because I was out on a stroll, taking a break from ruling Kandarin."
The advantages, though... the advantages...
-"However, I suppose I could get an extended vacation for now. I'm sure that my Scribe of Unlife is handling things well back home."
--- --- ---
-"Impossible, Mr. Eldridge? They said that bringing back the dead was impossible, and yet, there's our Sovereign and you yourself. However, I think of myself as a man of reason; and this project just may be the key to bringing Gaian to its knees. There can be no mistakes made in its production."
Cain pulled up a chair, and seated himself opposite to Vincent.
-"So what obstacle is so thoroughly daunting to make such a simple request outright impossible, especially for a man of your talents?"
--- --- ---
"I scratched my chin. Funny; even in phase-shift, basic bodily irritations often took place.
-"I suppose I can allow you to stay with me... for now, at least... I do have one question, though. You said that you were born infused with the power of light. Tell me, then: how is it that you control both light and darkness?"
-
Valiko didn't even move at the sight of the kick. The Zerobi hit the back of his head, but did no damage. "Nice kick. Unfortunately, you're dealing with more than you can handle... TAKE THIS!!!" The Draken thrusted his blade forwards at break-neck speeds at Anti, stabbing thousands of times in the air. The question was... did it hit?
------------
"Wow! You two learn pretty fast for lizardmen. I had to go to an academy for some years before I was able to cast anything! I'm going to head inside. Lagart, see if you can teach them some attack moves or something." Jacobie opened the door to the home and walked in. On the floor, he saw Rink and Justin, lifeless. Just then, Justin gasped, apparently awakening from that trance... as did Rink.
"So... Did you cure Ven yet?"
------------
-
More of the dragon's flesh blasted away with the punch, but the yellowish skeleton underneath was unharmed.
"The Thanatos plane is merely a collection of weaker souls. Celestial leftovers. A place where inferior, non-draconic entities attempt to convince themselves they have power by torturing things that have already died."
A dark surge of blackness emanated from his body, stabbing in all directions. The mountains below trembled as chains of Dark Thunder raged across the landscape.
The half-skeletal Vraigus wrapped around Valos in an instant, his tail and limbs forming a cage around him. He lowered his huge skull-like visage into his face and sneered... "You have no idea what the true hell is like..."
----
Retan missed as Draven ducked away. The shadowy blast struck a cliff and the mountainside that was once there was no more, a huge plume of ash rising to the heavens like a volcano had just erupted.
Blast it... almost there... Draven ducked low in his mad dash towards the ocean, the waves splitting in half as soon as he blasted over the water.
----
"Shoot." Renard's ears perked under the cowl. The bulky lizard charged, screaming as he raised his mammoth battle axe. The Battle Mage zipped straight at his adversary and flew into his chest, stabbing the creature with another quickly forged icicle in the neck. The lizard gagged and keeled over and died quickly as the first one.
"I hope no one heard that..." The cloaked fox said, hopping off the monster's chest. Not wasting any time, he floated over to the doors and pushed them open, revealing a room cast in a blue iridescence.
In the center of the room stood two pillars, rising some twenty feet into the ceiling. On either side of the pillars stood what looked like golden orbs attached to posts rising from the ground. Renard landed before the pillars, casting away his cloak to reveal his silver furred head and tail. It would do him no more good.
"I think..." he scratched behind an ear, "those orbs need a power source... I know the protal's programmed not to react to my aura, though..."
----
"Calm now, Mr. Ryleh. I was talking about your ridiculous time constraints and deadlines, not the limits of my genius," Vincent took the odd device off his head and set it upon the table. Dr. Smizleworf, seated next to him, buried his face in his hands. Vincent was plainly irritated.
"Look." Vincent pointed at the model upon the table. "It is perfect. It will fly. But these..." He pointed to one of the three smaller structures circling the base that resembled half-airships. "These will be modified airships of my design. They run on a power core-- a flight crystal that gives them lift. However, the crystal works by distancing itself from the planet. The effect is weaker the further it gets from the ground. This thing will not reach 12,000 feet.
"According to my calculations, we will require some sort of downward thrust to break this barrier. Something huge. Explosives maybe, but at a constant rate of fire. Airship technology is not applicable. In fact, I doubt there is any air at all where we intend to send this thing...
"So, Mr. Ryleh, unless you have a ready-made propulsion system in mind, we will have to design our own. And that is going to take a bit longer than an hour, I'm afraid..."
-
Cain wiped his palm down his face, looking to the heavens.
-"The propulsion system... Gaargh! Couldn't those idiots come up with some magic trinket to fly the damn thing?!", he yelled, shaking a gnarled finger at the other scientists.
-"However," the Scribe said, after pausing to calm down, "the deadline was not the only reason I came here. There are several things I have to make sure are completed."
Ryleh got up and came closer to the table, gliding around it and studying the contrivance residing there.
-"First, you have to make sure that the ship is as stable as a rock. An altitude, latitude or longitude variation in as little as five meters risks the whole craft being obliterated by the Hammer.
"Secondly, the projector prisms themselves must be many, and must be able to rotate. While the weapon itself is powerful, it lasts for a mere ten seconds; twenty if we are blessed with a solar flare. After this, it needs to cool down from the intense heat. However, even though the beam is less powerful after being scattered, the individual rays are still hot enough to vaporize almost anything in moments. If the turrets are fixed, then nine out of the ten seconds of the Hammer's duration will be wasted scorching empty ground. I'm sure you already compensated for the problem, though.
"Thirdly, keeping in mind the short duration and the long cool down of the Hammer, it would make sense to put additional weapons on board. If I insult your judgment by asking this, then do tell which ones you already included in the design.
"Finally, I hope you understand how important your creation will be, Mr. Eldridge. Our Sovereign would definitely not be happy if it was gunned down by a rogue spear thrown by a primitive savage. Coat it with the toughest compound you can concoct, draw wards on the hull, put magical stones inside to shield it from the elements, and so on. In fact, don't worry about the stones - I'll get our mages to work on that."
-
"I could say the same to you!" Anti grinned maniacally while dodging all the thrusts with little effort. When the last one had past, he pointed the energy ball he'd been charging up at Valiko's face and cut it loose, firing it at point-blank range.[/RonWhite]
-
Valiko's head was thrown bac a bit after taking quite a bit of damage in his face. The hit sent him back with a large force, causing him to stumble backwards a bit before catching balance again. A red mark appeared on Valiko's face as he placed one hand over it and rubbed it slightly. "Meh, not bad at all."
Valiko didn't even show any sign of pain, though it did take him by surprise, which was something he hated. He took his sword and threw it into the distance. "Well, since you have no weapon other than yourself, let's just make this a bit more... honorable."
The Draken folded his arms and rose up into the air, staring at Anti. He then held both his hands above his head and prepared a small orb of dark energy. He knew he could only pull off this move if he was on Terian, for some odd reason. "Soon, you will feel the wrath of my power!"
- Blood Cannon, 11% charged -
------------
"What's going on over there...? I can feel a great deal of evil. Ben, are you sure about this?"
"I'm possative. It's partly the Draken we all thought was on our side. Turns out he was just playing us for saps. He's a clone... of Jayce."
"WHAT!?!?!?"
"Yes, it's true. Down in that crater, some crazy alchemist must have created another Draken. He's considerably weaker, and cannot even go into dragon form... yet."
"That's bloody insane! I can't believe I trusted that guy!"
"Hey, you guys! Could one of you tell me about this Anti-guy?"
------------
-
Valos glared right into the dragon's eyes "I'll give you true hell!!"
He was going to kill this thing. He knew the odds were against him, but he was determined. He knew a few things about these types of dragons, he believes that most magic projectile attacks couldn't harm its skin, but then there was the bone. He wished he studied more about dragons, and less about demons.
There was no way he could beat this thing without his sword. He hated that sword now, but he needed something. Draven could probably beat this thing, normally Valos was physically stronger than Draven, but he had his strength enhancement spell.
His ice gauntlets then became thicker and covered almost a fourth of his arms. He smashed his fists all around him at the dragon's tail and limbs hopping to nearly fully skin the parts of Vraigus caging him.
--- ---
"Sure, go ahead." Wilham said. McNeil rolled up Wilham's sleeve and injected him. "Doesn't hurt that much."
"You've probably had worse then."
"I have." Wilham replied. "I'm a Grand General, back home. I lead an entire army. It's not very big however, a bit over three hundred I think."
"That's more then we have left." McNeil replied. "Well, enough chat, you two better get going."
McNeil lead them down a short hallway with a large metal door at the end. It had a pannel with a few buttons on the end, he pressed a few of them and the door opened, revealing a small room with another door on the end. Wilham (and probably Coriko), put on their gas masks.
"Okay, wait in there, until the other door opens up."
The two went into the room, and the large door closed behind them. After a few seconds the door on the other side opened up.
The outside of Skaro was grey and rocky and all around was a multi-coloured fog. There were ruins of advanced looking structures that looked like they have aged hundreds of years.
Wilham stepped forward and into the wasteland, he looked behind him and upwards and saw the entire Kaled base was inside a mountain, reminding him of the Dark Empire's mountain fortress back on Gaian.
"Well, let's get going." Wilham said to Coriko.
--- ---
Duilin followed Renard into the building. He remembered he was once here, but it has entirely changed since then.
He looked at pillars and the golden orbs, automatically assuming that was the portal into Welkin. He set his mace head down on the ground and lightly leaned on it, to take a second to look at unopened portal.
"Hmm. Well, I guess I'm going to have to charge them then." Duilin stepped towards one of the golden orbs, and set his mace on the ground. "Well, I'm just gonna go ahead."
He was pretty good at 'charging' magic into objects like his weapons, so he assumed it would be the same thing. He set his hands onto the gold orb and then pushed his magical energy into the orb.
-
“Yes, very observant,” Akran grimaced. “I do have the power to manipulate both light and darkness. The only way someone who is born with a Majeuri spirit can gain two, is by killing another with a spirit. As you may have guessed, I did kill my brother, but that was because he was turning insane!”
Akran sighed and sat down. He hated to talk about this. The act of killing his brother tormented him. Many nights he could not sleep, for it gave him nightmares. Akran wiped his forehead with his hand and leaned forward on the chair. There were more pressing matters.
Ruler of Kandarin eh? I guess this Kronos character is a big cheese after all. Why are they always so self centered? Akran was annoyed.
“Oh, and I guess traveling with a lowly Majeuri Spirit Bearer like me is unfitting for such an important person?” Akran shook his head. He realized he had had just about enough. “Well listen for once. If you want the Majeuri Spinel so much, then you’ll need me. Kraaz obviously hid the stone with the power he had at the time.”
Akran stood up again and absentmindedly scratched his scar that ran from his right thumb all the way down to his elbow. Akran cleared his throat and continued, “So let us think for second. What powers did Kraaz have at the time? Oh yeah! He had the power you’re so desperately lacking. What was it? Creating demons from ashes? Is that what you’re missing out on huh? Well, you will probably need your necromancy skills to get to the Spinel. Also, Kraaz specialized in manipulating darkness. Guess who’s got that power now? And it’s different than dark magic by the way.”
Akran smiled and calmed down a bit. “So, basically you got this choice: treat me as a companion, not as a slave, and we can find this Spinel together, or forget it and try to find it yourself. I’ll be gone in a flash. So, what's your choice?”
-
Anti crossed his arms, smirking... and WAITED.
//See the signup thread, Drannic...
-
-"I see. That's how it's going to be, hmm?"
I looked straight at Akran.
-"Fine. I'll do it. However, I would still like at least a general idea of where to go or what to do with my Necromantic powers."
-
"Being patient, are we? How nice..." Valiko poured more of his power into the orb above his head as it grew larger and larger. Black zaps of lightning could be seen going around the orb.
"Why don't I just hurry this up then? HYAAA!!!"
- Blood cannon 33% charged -
------------
-
Valos' blows removed the remaining bits of flesh from the dragon and the monster released him, reeling slightly in the air. But still the ice did not harm the moving bones. The gigantic skeleton flapped his wings a few times and roared. It was his turn-- Vraigus opened with a mad flurry of blade-edged swipes from his skeletal claws, each slashing downward with the force of a guillotine. The final strike was eclipsed by a bite from a huge maw of pointed teeth...
----
Draven kept flying over the ocean until he was a good deal away from the mainland, the blasts of shadow endlessly coming. Suddenly he saw glimmers of light overhead...
Stars?
The clouds... he had flown out far enough that he had escaped the clouds... This area was not Retan's yet... could he still draw energy from that infernal tower, so far away now? Sneering, Draven spun around to meet the Dark Emperor face-to-face.
This is where the final battle would begin...
Retan stopped, and they both stared at each other for a moment, standing on thin air a few hundred feet above the roaring black waves.
"If you believe that making your stand under the starlight will give you the advantage, then you are sorely mistaken," the Dark Emperor spoke in this eloquent deep tones, "by fleeing from me, you have in fact followed me exactly into my snare."
Draven breathed heavily for a moment, his aura dim. Then he smirked. He removed a small bottle from his cape and drunk the liquid. Immediately the elixir refreshed him, and he crushed the glass in his gloved hand as his renewed muscles bulged.
"We'll see who has who."
He threw his arms to his sides, as a thunderous explosion engulfed him. Like the sun, he painted the sea and sky red, a tremendous blast of heat surging from the inferno he wrapped himself in...
-
Valos flew at rapid speed side to side avoiding the oncoming claws. It was a bit of a good thing he didn't have that big sword weighing him down right now, since he didn't have the blackstrap for it anymore. He then flipped backwards barely avoiding the giant maw snapping down at him. He was gaining a bit of confidence in himself almost feeling a bit stupid for having doubt.
"Is that all you have, dragon?" Valos sneered, as he slowly floated backwards.
His ice gauntlets then melted as they were replaced with flames, he then flew forward, roaring and he smashed his fiery fists into the exposed bone on Vragius' skull.
-
Xivilai ventured off the path he had been following, and shadow stepped into the shadow of a tree a few feet away.
Walking was too slow. Besides, shadow stepping was fun. Always a slight feeling of disorientation.
I need to find a boat to get off this island
Xivilai picked a random direction and started walking.
Anywhere was better than where he was now.
-
Anti was tapping his feet. He wanted to show off his ridiculous power by taking that hit full on, but at the same time... He was getting impatient. Retan was getting away. He was very tempted to just take off. But he still wanted to show off his strength. A conflict of interest was raging inside him.
--- --- ---
"What the crap is that?" Tsu's eyes widened upon feeling Valiko's energy building.
"I bet that bastard intends to be all cocky and take that attack head on," said Xenai.
"Not surprising," said Aura.
The three increased speed...
-
The area was dark and foggy, completely void of sound and life. The remains of the buildings had decreased after the years. The logs used to make the houses had begun to rot, and there wasn’t a blade of grass left.
In the middle square of the dead village there was a dark hair woman, wearing dull coloured clothing, she had black and white armour next to her, as well as a jester hat. She sat on the ground cross legged, not even making a sound.
Duilin's words of advice were helping a bit. But she still felt very sad, but she didn't need to kill anymore.
---
A pack of wolves were running through an open field, they didn't look like they were hunting, but it looked like they were going somewhere...
-
In all the darkness something in the ground began to shine. It was a warm shine, and just looking at it would make one more happy, and he would wish for it to continue forever. The light was coming closer to the woman who was alone in a death village.
The light shined brighter each second, and when it was close enough, she saw that it was a golden kitty running alone in the night. Once it saw the woman it stopped to shine, looked at her and sat, making a silent "myuu~". That moment the kitty poofed, and in its place 6 more kitties were sitting.
They began to walk around, and play, apparently ignoring the aura of the place they arrived. This continued for a while, when all of them made noise similar to "myuu~" and also they poofed away.
This time in front of the woman a weird symbol appeared. It was black, but it wasn't depressing black. It was special.. but it was hard to describe what it was.
Then out of nowhere, a huge impact. Something fell on the sign. It was a enourmous impact, nothing normal could survive such a thing. When the clouds of sand wear off, a small girl was sitting there in a small hole, where just a few moments ago a sign and 7 kitties were.
"Meeeeh~!" The child yawned, rubbing her head. "That.. hurt.. nee.." She looked really young, she had crimson hair, black cat ears and a tail. She had purple eyes, and was wearing maid-battle clothing.
She stood up, gaining energy from nowhere, and happily yelled in the nothingness; "Prepare yourself what-who-where-ever world! Because Puco has came!"
Laughing hard, she turned enthusiastically and noticed the woman.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!" She screamed, after finding out that someone stood behind her all the time.
She fell on the ground, and hid her face behind her small hands.
"Who are you, neee!?"
-
Akran was waiting for this moment; the exact moment when Kronos would ask where to go now. And he while he was conversing with this powerful necromancer, Akran formed a question in his mind, and possibly a destination.
Akran, relieved that Kronos decided to travel with him, said “The Spinel is embedded into a sword. If you want the power of the Majeuri, you must either take the sword, or take out the Spinel. I don’t know the whereabouts of this sword, but it’s most likely still hidden by Kraaz. The sword is not very long, it is quite light, and it has this funny little red and black symbol - I think there’s some gray too actually - on the hilt of the handle.”
Akran scratched his ear, thinking back to when he last saw it. “Yeah. I think that’s it. The Spinel is embedded on the blade near the guard too. Am I any help? I was thinking about traveling back to the place where I was born,” Akran flinched at the idea, but continued. “It might be a good place to start. Or if you know where the sword came from, that might be a good destination as well.”
-
Renard folded his arms and idly flicked his tail as he watched Duilin charge the orb. Hmmm... it didn't seem to be working... He hadn't actually seen it done before, so he didn't really know how it worked...
After a moment though, a point of light burst forth from between the two pillars. As if invisible doors were opening, the light spread until it engulfed the entirety of the distance between the pillars. It was too bright to see anything beyond the portal.
"You did it!" He suddenly covered his muzzle and embarrassedly looked behind him, hoping that little outburst didn't attract any reptilian guards. Seeing that the coast was still clear, he turned back to the portal. "We must hurry."
He walked up to the edge of the light, fixated by it. Home was right beyond there... And he knew this was the last time he'd ever see it. He had to get his people out before it was too late...
He took one step forward...
--and was nearly knocked on his tail by the gust of wind that blasted from the light.
Eleven sliver and black blurs burst from the portal, zipping though the air and stopping in the exact center of the room, hovering some fifteen feet in the air. Renard gasped when he saw the Velken in the center of the circle...
He looked similar to Lord Virmir in that he wore the same black coat and had two blades strapped to his back. His were of different design, though. The fur around his eyes was darker too, and his ears were nearly black.
"Sir Iaido Rikarl?"
Rikarl pointed to Duilin, a snarl upon his muzzle.
"Demon."
In a flash, Duilin had five swords pointed inches from his face, each of the five black-clad Velkens with a cold impassive stare in their eyes. Above, five more hovered in a circle, multicolored energy crackling upon their extended claws.
"WAIT!" Renard screamed.
Rikarl, floating above the smaller Velken's head, looked down at him. "You! Identify yourself."
"Galry Renard, Battle Mage, training under Lord Virmir!"
Rikarl's ears perked. "... Renard? I... I didn't recognize you. Did you brainwash this demon?"
"No! He saved my life! And he's not a demon!"
The Velken squad leader turned and waved a claw. Immediately the ten Velkens lowered their weapons and flew to the other side of the room. "Apologies, sir. I'm sure you know what it is we're up against..."
"How..." Renard looked at all the other Velkens. Faces he had not seen in over a year... He trained along side some of them. "How did you know the gate was opening?"
Rikarl landed next to Renard, a smile upon his muzzle. "Lord Virmir and Lady Urocy have been exchanging letters. They've been trading information right under the Dark Emperor's nose via the use of a secret code. Virmir said he was sending someone to open the gate and get everyone out."
Renard's mouth dropped. "But... I came here against his orders! I told him I was collecting herbs to save Helix!"
Rikarl ruffled the fur atop Renard's head. "Of course you did! You came to get the priestess, right?"
Renard just stood there blinking for a moment.
"CLEAR!" Rikarl shouted at the gate. Some more figures began to emerge from the light.
Renard's ears perked. "You mean you have everyone ready to evacuate?"
"All 237 of us." He looked up at the silver foxes floating above. "Velmont, Garan, Jeele! Head count!"
An ensemble of "Yes, sir!" rang out over head.
Renard looked down at the floor. 237... Fifteen more had died in the past year and a half...
Rikarl noted Renard's reaction to the number. "The air... it's not very good..." he said in a somber tone, his ear falling.
Renard shook his head. "It's not much better on this side... But at least there's some untainted places left... for now."
-
Duilin took half a step backwards when the Velkens pointed their swords at him; he remained mostly silent, as he was pretty surprised with what he did.
"Wow, so you guys are all ready set to go?" Duilin asked seeing the crowd of Velkens. "This is pretty remarkable. You guys are a lot more...well human then I expected. Well, excuse my use of the word 'human' as it must seem a little odd for me using it." Duilin snickered a bit. "But it's a compliment, trust me."
Duilin looked at Renard.
"But anyways, I don't want to sound to demanding here. But we need to get to Tjed as quick as possible."
"Which is kind of going to be a little irritating seeing how I just got back from here." He added mumbling. "But you think there would be a way to get there really fast? Like I was able to get to North Point via a ship and that took us like several hours. I'm worried that maybe Virmir and the others might have...well." Duilin stopped himself.
"Well anyways. Are we ready to go now?" Duilin asked, he then remembered something. "I can wait a bit if you want to find your sister."
//I'll update others later.\
-
"Sorry... I'll... I'll try my best, Lord Virmir!" Ko'ji straightened up a bit and gave a small bow to the High General. She then joined the rest of the Velkens, though she could not help but give the watchers a small glance every now-and-then. It was unnerving to know that there were beings out there that she could not see before... disturbing, to know that they were once watching you from the darkness...
--- ---
"What the hell's that racket!? You! Find out what's behind us, now!" The prisoner didn't like the idea of being ordered around, but he still had quite a debt to pay Arata for freeing him. He walked back a few steps to see down the hallway a bit more easily.
"What the hell...?"
"What? What is is!?"
"Soldiers. Not ordinary ones, either. Big, furry-lookin guys with swords and really good armor."
"Damn! Let's get the hell out of here before they-"
"YOU THERE!!!"
"Shit..."
-
"While my annoyance for this vapid waste of perfectly good flesh was great, I easily contained it. After all, the first art any monarch learns is acting. Being able to tell someone with a straight face that you accept their proposal (several hours before crushing them) is not only entertaining, but also quite helpful. The sword Akran described is certainly interesting, but the unfortunate thing is that he has next to no idea where to look for it.
-"My friend, I am not being rude - merely inquisitive. Is it really not so painfully obvious that I did not know of the Spinel before you told me of it? How would I, of all people, know where it is? Do you think I would have asked you if I knew where it was? In fact, if I were to possess that knowledge, we would not be having this conversation. I'd probably be watching your corpse dancing like some puppet. Actually, if I had the Spinel, I would not have come here wasting time like I am now in the first place. I'd be busy bending the Continent to my will."
Speaking of bending things to one's will, I should probably check up on the Mists sometime. Meh, I'll do that later.
-"In any case, since it seems that I need to restate everything for your feeble brain to comprehend, no, I certainly do not know of the Spinel's whereabouts. However, your birthplace does, in fact, sound like a good place to start looking."
-
Akran shook his head… Why doesn’t Kronos listen to what I’m saying?
“Okay, calm down. All I’m asking is if you might know where the sword came from.”
Then Akran realized his mistake. Oh great. I’m an idiot.
“Okay, sorry. I realize that I forgot to tell you something. The Spinel wasn’t always in the sword. It used to be on a golden staff that was planted into the ground on Majeuri Island. When Kraaz stole it, he hid it. The only piece of information that I know is that the sword Kraaz embedded the Spinel into had a symbol on its hilt. Like I said, the symbol was black, red, and grey. I remember seeing that symbol before… maybe on a flag? Anyway, if you don’t know what any of that means, then let’s go to Majeuri Island. There is bound to be something there that’ll help us find the Spinel.”
Akran shifted in his seat. His face flushed and he scratched his neck. “Uhhh, yeah. So, do you have any idea where we are? Where is this ship go--”
BANG!
Akran was suddenly thrown from the chair as the ship violently shook. The lamp on the ceiling fell down and smashed on the floor boards.
“What the hell is going on? Is it more pirates?”
-
"I could ask you the same question, young one." The depressed woman snapped, looking rather annoyed with being disturbed.
She got up and looked at the strange girl who literately came from nowhere.
"Now leave me before I make you."
---
The mysterious pack of wolves continued moving onward. A strong wind blew and several black rags fluttered through the wind...
-
Vincent rolled his eyes as the man prattled off. "Yes, yes, yes. The design is structurally sound, and the shielding triple-ly reinforced. It needs to be in order to suffer the harsh climates above our world. Weapons will consist of standard cannon-fare, though. It is pointless to over-equip something with short-range weaponry that no one will ever be able to reach, especially when the resources and space can be better spent on other things.. I would expect the military to protect it as we launch it and during its ascent. After that, it will be beyond the reach of anything of this world."
He pointed two fingers at the table, which melded together into a sort of knife with a curved edge, elongating slightly. "The projecting mirror has 50 degrees of movement on both axis, and and can turn quite quickly during the ten seconds we have..." He jammed the blade into the wooden table, and drew it towards him, creating a long gash. "Like a surgeon's scalpel, it will cut a deep scar across the planet, several miles long..."
----
Virmir landed alongside Riuki, in front of the other Velkens. Bryce stepped forward and bowed slightly. "Right this way."
The group made their way into the dark corridors of the castle, passing the much larger Lizard Men that patrolled the halls. Of course, it was the lizards that stepped out of their way. After descending a flight of stairs, they entered an empty dungeon with a large chamber branching off a moldy stone hallway to the side.
"Here." The Blade Knight Bryce said, waving his hand into the dark room, gulping. "We can instruct our mages to cast their poison gas spells, then exit via the vents at the top." He pointed to the holes in the ceiling. His voice cracked slightly, though it was evident he was desperately fighting to remain collected and calm. "And close the vents as they leave..."
Everyone, the two mages in the group especially, was looking rather blanched, despite the fur covering their faces. They nervously stood there shifting their weight, flicking their ears and tails. This was the most heinous thing they had ever been commanded to do... eliminate an entire city of defenseless civilians... But it was an order from the Dark Emperor Retan, and one they could never disobey...
Virmir sighed, looking over the dismal chamber. But still he held that detached coldness in his eyes. After a long moment, he finally spoke. "Then let's begin."
-
"We must escape encounters with any of these soldiers as much as we can. MOVE!!!" Arata and the prisoner ran quickly down the dark corridors of the castle, the soldier staying behind. Finally, they got to a mysteriously empty area of the castle. There was a door that lead down a flight of stairs, guarded by two lizards, holding weapons similar to the prisoner's.
"I think we've lost him-"
"Shh!!! Up ahead, look! We'll take them out silently, you hear?"
"Right... Silently..." Arata unsheathed his katana with little noise an crept forwards in the darkness of the wall next to the door. He held his blade back, ready to stab, then lunged forwards and hit the side of one of the lizards, twisting it upwards and slashing back, cutting his upper body in half.
"What in the...! Intrud-"
"Shut it!" The prisoner brought his broadsword up and cut the lizard's head off, spilling more blood on the floor.
"Good job... Now then, let's find out what they're guarding, shall we? Oh, and one more thing. What's your name?"
"My... name?"
"Well, yeah. I never got the chance to ask. You do have a name, don't you?"
"Of course I do! It's Jackwell Richend, and I'm damn proud of it!"
"Calm down, now, I was just askin'. Alright, let's go." The two entered the door that lead down a flight of stairs, but unknown to them, at the bottem waited Virmir and his Velkens.
--- ---
"Hey, what's that?" Ko'ji's ears perked up as she heard a racket up the stairs. She walked over to Virmir. "Sir, I think someone else is here. They're on the stairs..."
-
"Nyeee~!" The small girl crawled a little back. "Wh-what is this for greeting, muuu.."
She stood up still trembling a bit, and slapped the dust of her clothes. "Don't be such a meany.." She mumbled.
"You are totally alone at such a scary place, and aren't happy to see someone else!?" Her ears moved a little, and she looked a bit upset now, resembling a child changing her emotions this quickly.
---------
Still among the skies, a giant white bird was flying. A blond haired man and a more demon-looking fellow where sitting on it.
On the shoulders of Shui a small cat was sitting.
They weren't talking, they just sat, and waited until they would reach their undefined destination. Then suddenly, the bird began to crumble a little. Shui looked back, and saw the look on Reigrattos face, and immediately without speaking, he bit his thumb, and began to draw on the Statue. Slowly it began to reform, but also it lowered.
"We are going down, just look at him.." Shui said seriously, pointing at the cat on his shoulder. "He's all trembling." Indeed, the cat was trembling, looked around him like he thought something would attack him.
"Maybe too much strain.." Reigratto mentioned.
"Yea that's probably it.." Shui mumbled. "It can't be.. no.. I would feel it then too.. but still.. I cannot risk."
After a few minutes the stone statue landed, and once Shui and Reigratto stopped touching it, it crumbled away into sand, that disappeared in the grass in a few moments.
"Reigratto how do you feel?" Shuichi asked.
"Heh? I feel.. good. Good first time in a few years.." Reigratto responed.
Shuis frowned face disappeared. He looked really happy now.
"Very well... then it's time for you to get sealed."
-
She glared at the young girl. "I came here to be alone." She stated.
This was great, she thought, she had spent the entire day trying to redeem herself and some young brat comes around and starts calling her a 'meany'. How old was this girl?
"I don't want to be with anyone else right now. I have enough problems as is, so do not continue to bother me further."
-
The little girl began swapping her arms around.
"Why would you want to be alone?! It's just plain boring and sad! I don't understand!"
She pointed at the woman.
"At least tell me your name! You have that don't you?" she asked still a little angry, tilting her head to the right.
-
Valos' fiery punch hit the dragon's skull dead on. With an earth-shattering roar the thing's head exploded, bursting into a thousand shimmering pieces. The skeletal dragon spiraled to the ground, crumpling into a lifeless heap.
----
"Should you have begged for mercy when you returned, rather than insist on stirring trouble, then perhaps I would have shown you leniency and, as an example of my infinite generosity, would have offered you a minor officer's position within my legions." Retan remained floating above the waves.
Draven sneered, holding his hand out and summoning a bright red orb. "Instead I killed that cretin you called a son. Lot more fun."
Retan's crimson eyes narrowed. "He had made too many mistakes. He had what was coming. Much like you."
The orb doubled in size. "Resorting to threats now? Of course you are... I killed one draken... what's one more? Seems you tossed away the prime member of the human race a little too early..."
"You had help, if I recall. A great deal. And I am surprised you still consider yourself that, elemental."
Draven's eyebrow raised. "What?"
"I hand selected you because you are a fire elemental. The fire elemental. But it seems you are trapped in that body, and thus your strength is severely limited. You have reached your peak. A pathetic one. I thought you might free yourself, but you cannot. You are useless to me."
Draven scowled. By now the surging fireball was over five feet in diameter. "Tch! We'll see." With that, he let loose the flaming sphere upon Retan. The Dark Emperor removed a hand from under his cape, and a furious explosion rocked the air between the two...
----
Velkens flooded in through the gate now and quickly filled up the room. The chamber became so crowded that it was difficult for them all to stand, so many took to simply floating around in the air. Only a few of the short gray fox-like people bore weapons, though. The rest wore simple robes and really didn't look like they had a clue how to defend themselves.
One of the Velkens floated up to Duiln's face. "Human?" He looked smaller and younger than Renard. He sniffed the half-demon a few times. Well you seem... Velken-like I guess. Maybe a little..."
"Right!" Renard turned to Rikarl. "We need to get to Tjed. Helix is in trouble... We need the Priestess'--"
"What is this now?"
A white clad vixen stepped through the crowd, closely guarded by four black clad Velkens baring spears as long as they were tall. Her soft blue eyes fell upon Renard, though they were full of worry. "Galry Renard. It is wonderful to see you again. What has happen to your friend?"
"Lady Urocy..." He bowed on one knee respectfully. Please... my best friend has been struck down by some undead... we don't know what's wrong with him..."
"I see..." She brought one hand to her dainty muzzle.
"Renard," Rikarl placed a claw on his shoulder, "this Tjed... Is this where Lord Virmir is stationed?"
"Yes." Renard's ears perked, and he stood. "Oh, no..." He looked at Duilin and then back to the black-eared squad leader. "Our orders were to kill all the humans... There's a huge city there... I fear if we do not make it back in time..."
"These humans. You think they will ally with us?" Rikarl brought his hand to his chin.
"They don't deserve to die, regardless." The priestess shot Rikarl a stern glance.
"Of course, my Lady."
"Every one is accounted for!' A voice said from up in the rafters. The portal's light faded away.
"Excellent... then we will find refuge in this Tjed. After escaping from here, of course..."
"Mwa hah hah hah hah..."
The doors suddenly shut, locking them all in the room, and it slowly grew very dark...
"You've broken the rules. Those that do not play by the rules... D I E !"
Two burning crimson eyes appeared over the sealed doorway, revealing them to be part of a large draconic head that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. An impossibly long, thick black scaled serpentine body melded out of the walls, surrounding the entirely of the room several times over. The entire room was in fact coiled around by a giant snake...
(Yar. Others tomorrow.)
-
Another day, another rune, another cow...
Indher's stretching didn't help her sore muscles much.
When some of the townspeople asked for livestock, she felt obligated to answer their 'plea' by creating a cow-spawning rune.
While creating nonintelligent animals was not a problem as long as one knew what they are made of, scribbling on the ground all day isn't exactly a good thing...
As she pondered the matter, an old man's voice voice had reached her ears.
"Well, lookie here! This one's white! Maybe it's vampiric?"
Indher's eyes went wide and her pupils shrunk.
Expecting the worst, she hurried back to the place where she scribbled to cow-spawning rune only to find a midget dressed in tartan.
"Baurus, you again?"
Her tone was quite inquisitively at first, but then her jaw dropped.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!?"
She grabbed the midget by his jacket and carefully placed him not too far from his original position. The midget appeared furious.
"Am I crazy!? What do YOU think you are doing, picking me up like that!?"
Indher said nothing. She pointed at the runeset, or rather, a single rune which has been smeared off.
"You idiot... You stepped on it! This one gives the cow a pigment!"
Baurus' face went pale. He looked from the rune to the nearby cow, which seemed to do nothing but stand around merrily chewing on the grass.
"Oh! Well... I'm sorry... Does that mean we have an albino cow now?"
Indher sighed at Baurus' pitiful attempt at changing the subject.
"Look, why don't you go do your thing... Like preach or criticize?"
Baurus humpfed and turned around, slowly walking away.
Indher was now left alone with a pure white, red eyed cow.
A while and a rune amending later, Indher was back at the square.
The engineers already had the pump running, so the fountain and all the complete houses had running water.
She thought it strange...
The pipes - most of which were as high as the common houses' roof - did't fit the town's Marble Cubes design.
Well, the houses were obviously not made of marbles - just polished stone. It was pretty much marble in appearance, though.
At first she thought that rounded roofs would do the trick, but she quickly shook off the thought as this was not the time for decorations.
It has been a while... Elphos did not yet return. Then again, she couldn't expect him to, really. He did say it would take several weeks, after all.
A young man carrying a report ran to her.
"Where are you getting this paper, anyway?" she asked him as he handed her the report "Not to mention the pens and ink..."
The man scratched his head.
"Erm, Elphos tought me how to create paper and ink earlier... As for the pen, I found a shark piece of wood..."
Indher slapped her forehead. So they are using pencils now?
Why wasn't she informed? Then again, maybe teacher the civilians the art of runemaking wouldn't be such a bad idea. After all, it would allow them to come this much closer to independance...
She hastly snatched the report from the man's hands and sent him away.
Skimming it, she realized that most of the core town was complete.
A good number of houses, several worshops, a public school, the square and a library building (which was literally empty at the time).
Several farms on what was supposed to be the outskirts were complete as well.
And yet, the people-to-houses ratio didn't look good at all.
The rest of the information on the report was useless.
Indher finished reading it, crumpled the piece of paper and threw it away.
"Now, I believe I earned some rest. I haven't slept in a while..."
She walked outside of the town and climbed up a sturdy looking tree.
"...Will do..."
Having kicked off an angry squirrel, she descended into a deep sleep...
-
Valos raised his arms in the air and roared in victory. He then looked down at the corpse of the dragon. He gave a crazed grin and then started shooting a series of fireballs down at the dead creature. After a few moments he stopped and then took several deep breaths. He did it, he slew a dragon. Humanity has once again prevailed. Now it's time to catch up with Draven, he might need help...
--- ---
"Heheh." Duilin snickered as the young Velken sniffed him. He then started to look rather worried when the others mentioned that it might be to late to save those at Tjed.
"We need to go as fast as possible, then." Duilin stated. "Like, really. I already have the guilt of failing to save one noble kingdom, I just can't let that happen again."
"But yes, the humans will alley with you. A lot of them might be a little uneasy however..."
Duilin started to cool himself off a bit, trying to relax. However, once the lighting went out, he started to get more uneasy. His eyes widened as the image of a giant black snake appeared in the room.
"Great..."
-
"My expression went blank for a second, as I scouted the area outside and above the ship through a minion's eyes.
-"No, there's no pirates. We've arrived to some island, by the looks of it. We've bumped into a rock."
The ship was incapacitated - the rudder was completely broken. Looks like I'm stuck here on this island with that... that.
I sent a few minions out to land to scout the island. It was inhabited, but the shelters built on the island were temporary, at best. My minion also made note of many ships at anchor in a small bay on the other side of the island.
-"Well, then, time to explore," I said, grabbing the shape-shifting amulet off the table. "I will play my part as a merchant, and you will be my slave. My minions will stay here and guard whatever is left of the ship. We might be able to salvage it later on."
Of course, all this was hardly necessary, for I could easily construct a wyvern out of any bones that can be lying around this island. But where's the adventure in that?
I climbed out of the ship, and put on my amulet. Nothing changed, in my perspective: I still had gray skin, dark red and beige robes, detachedly wavering in the wind. The feathered crown on my head was still messing up my hair, but no one but me saw any of this. Shapeshifting - truly a work of a genius.
-"Akran, get out of there. We'll be heading over to that settlement over by the shore. Other than getting a place to stay and a way to get out of here, they'll serve as a potential target for my invasion. I best investigate exactly what I will be subjugating. Hurry up!"
--- --- ---
Meanwhile, deep below Kandarin in a secret laboratory...
-"Herr Orff! Ve haff compleeted zee faynal piece of zee Khammer!"
-"Perfekt, Herr Bauer. I was just showing Herr Doktor Von Göth here our full project. Show him the piece you have just completed, danke."
-"Ja, Herr Orff!"
Doctor Bauer pulled a lever somewhere to the left of him. The eastern doors in the massive subterranean labs screeched open, revealing a gigantic crystal ring. The ring, which resembled a human iris, was at least twenty meters in diameter. Von Göth was watching the contraption, visibly unimpressed.
-"Herr Orff, please don't tell me that this is the Hammer itself. A prism of this size will never gather enough power for the Sovereign's requests."
-"But Herr Doktor Von Göth, have you not been listening? This is but one piece of the Hammer. We have nineteen other pieces, some larger than this one!"
Von Göth's eyes widened.
-"Now I'm interested. Show me the blueprints."
Orff gave Von Göth a blue-coloured scroll. It depicted a roughly circular device, somewhat thicker in the middle, with eight spider-like appendages around the center. Indeed, right in its middle was the relatively insignificant piece that was just shown to the Doktor.
-"Well, I'll be... Orff, you've outdone yourself. Do tell, how does the device function?"
-"The device will be in close proximity to our sun. Not too close, because the temperatures might melt the crystal. The lens that you see right up there will adjust the focus of the prism, and aim it at the ship that Herr Eldridge's team is working on. The ship will reflect the beam, and --"
Orff made an explosion gesture with his hand.
-"I see... What are those leg things for?"
Herr Bauer, who returned from the lever, cut in:
-"Ach, ja, zee leg sings. Zee leg sings are used for cooling zee devais, Herr Doktor. However, vhen zee devais is firing, zee leg sings bend a littel tovards zee beem, making it schtronger."
-"An ingenious touch, Bauer," said Von Göth. "So the crystal will not burn after one use?"
-"Nevarr! Me, Herr Orff, und Herr Pfitzner made zee crystal near impossibel to melt!"
-"Very, very good... Herr Scribe will be pleased to hear this..."
--- --- ---
-"Impressive. Now all you have to do is get it to stay in the air. At that point, I will be glad to discuss your reward for this service."
With those words, Cain disappeared in the dark doors...
-"Eurika!", yelled Dr. Smizlworf, seconds after the Scribe left. "I think I have the solution to the flight problem, Mr. Eldridge."
He hurried over to Vincent, with a crude sketch he was clenching in his hand.
-"It is possible to use a Nightshade Gravity Orb as a propulsion device. The vortex that the NGO creates closes after a certain amount of air has been sucked through it. Since there is no air in the Aether, as I'm sure you are aware, we can (in theory) keep it open at all times. Its sucking property will be gone, due to the absence of air, so there is no threat to the ship. However, increased gravity pull is a natural property of the vortex. So here is the plan: we use your airship crystal to push us above the clouds, and at that point, we activate the NGO. The vortex will be enclosed inside of a cage-like apparatus, which in turn will be attached to a series of beams outside of the ship, much like an orrery's rings (http://http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Wright_of_Derby%2C_The_Orrery.jpg). These rings will allow us to move the vortex around the ship, changing the direction of flight. The only problem is positioning the rings so that they will not interfere with the firing trajectory of the Hammer. What do you think?"
-
Anti had gotten sick of waiting. He could feel many energies coming toward him too. They'd be there soon. The flyboys were among them. That would be troublesome. Dealing with this guy, and then the other people coming? He didn't have time for that. Anti smirked up at Valiko. "Screw you, buddy! I'm going for the prize!" He took off then, towards Retan, flying at an incredible speed.
-
"Who is that?" Valos asked himself seeing the Zerobi no Anti flying towards Retan and Draven's aura signature. He then flew following Anti's direction. When he was peaking through the Nex's hell gate, he saw what he believed was the same being aiding Draven, perhaps he is an alley of him? He didn't like that, his aura felt demonic. Obviously can not be trusted, but for now he'll need him as an ally. Valos then flew faster, trying to catch up.
"You, demon!" He shouted to Anti trying to get his attention.
-
"Hrrrraahhh!!!"
Draven burst through the explosion, body in flames, ans surged a fiery punch straight at Retan's face...
The Dark Emperor blocked the attack with his left pinky finger, and Draven was sent spiraling backwards 50 feet. Scowling, Draven struck again and again, and each time was thrown back, the deafening explosions from the blows illuminating the night skies over the ocean...
----
"Galry~!"
"Sis...? Sis!!" Renard turned as a little Velken flew out of the crowd and into his arms. He hugged her tightly just as the chaos broke loose...
Explosions and screams ripped through the room... Black tendrils of Dark Thunder pulsed from the snake-like body that surrounded them, striking down Velken after Velken. Rikarl drew a sword and dove straight at the monster's face. "Shadow-fiend, drake, A-Class!! Theta-1B, NOW!"
A huge circle of black-clad Battle Mages surged around the serpentine head. Renard's eyes widened as a circle of magic lines appeared in the thin air between them. A twenty-point star? Holy crap!! "Get down!" he screamed as he pushed his sister to the floor. A translucent shield appeared over the two Velkens and Duilin.
A white flash utterly engulfed everything. Several seconds passed before the blinding glare subsided enough to see. Huge chunks of debris flew up into the air, along with the dragon, into the dark clouds above.
They had blasted a hole 1,000 feet wide in the fortress of North Point...
Like angry wasps, Rikarl and a troupe of Velkens followed the black serpentine dragon as it flew skyward, still reeling from the intense explosion. They swarmed around it, stabbing the scales with their short swords, blasting fireballs and lightning bolts at its head. It writhed in pain, but then recovered and began spewing black masses of energy of its own, swatting at the tiny flying foxes like flies.
Renard flew out of the hole in the fortress in utter shock, his trembling sister in his arms. All around him, reptilian wyvern riders dove around, swinging their huge halberds at they relatively small gray creatures. But the Velkens were much too fast, and spun circles around them before giving their clunky foes a quick stab to the neck or other exposed area. Fireballs, lightning bolts, blasts of wind, icicles... everything flew around in every direction as the aerial battle raged above the towers of North Point. It was utter madness...
"Renard!" Lady Urocy flew next to him, her white dress almost glowing among the dismal surroundings. Her four black clad guards circled around her as she approached. They would never enter the battle unless it meant protecting the vixen priestess. They would die before leaving her side. "Sir Rikarl will take care of things here. We must hurry to Tjed to save Helix, and meet up with Lord Virmir."
Renard nodded. "R-right." He looked around and spotted a sleek airship parked at the top of a tower down below. He then shouted down at his half-demon friend, "Duilin! Will you come with us, or will you stay and fight?"
----
Virmir's left ear turned toward the stairwell. Wordlessly, he pointed a finger up. All the other Velkens disapeared, flying up to the ceiling and the corners of the wall above the stairs in the blink of an eye, leaving he and Ko'ji standing alone in the center of the room.
He waited for them to reach the bottom of the stairs and enter the room. He did not draw either of his swords or take up any offensive position, but rather kept his arms hanging loosely to his sides as his tail flowed slowly behind him.
"Gentlemen," at that word two Velken Blade Knights fell from the ceiling and crossed their blades over the exit to the stairs. The other fell to the left, right and front of the escapees, surrounding them. "Please drop your weapons upon the floor and place your hands atop your heads."
----
"Hmmm..." Vincent nodded as he looked over the schematics. "This... may very well work... The rings will get in the way of the triple-flight-crystal propulsion we currently have set up, but we can merely modify the design to drop them after they've maxed out in altitude. The NGO should have enough power to do the trick, as one nearly brought down the Crimson Capital as I recall, and that island uses the largest flight crystal in existence."
He took the sketch and scribbled over it, adjusting some things. The team of scientists began hacking away at refitting the existing diagrams, and then began work on adjusting the model they had build upon the table. After a few hours of work, some arguing, and only two dead ends, an agreement was reached. Vincent leaned back in his chair and sneered.
"Send a message to our dear Scribe and inform him that the design is ready to send to the construction team..."
-
"NO!!! DAMN YOU, GET BACK HERE!!!" The air around Valiko was swirling around him, picking up chunks of gravel and spinning around the intense orb of power, which was now almost nine feet in diameter.
"DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!" Out of rage, Valiko raised himself up to grab the orb, put a last bit of energy ito it, and pulled it forwards. It was very condense, moving barely an inch, then Valiko put more force into it and it blasted across the sky, aimed at Anti. The recoil threw him back a few feet in the air.
Just then, he could feel another presence approach him. Perhapse he would toy with them for a while, until his rage was satisfied. He dropped to the ground and folded his arms, waiting for the party to get close enough. Now, their energies could be felt a bit more easily, so he decided to charge them.
"Heh. These fool had better not run. Eat this!" He held right arm up and supported it with his left hand, aiming it at those approaching him. He charged his dark energy and channeled it through his body. His aura began to increase, and raged all around him like a black inferno.
"Here's a little gift from me to you. EAT THIS!" Just then, all of his power diverted to his hand, and he shot dark beams of energy at an insane rate, about three per second. They weren't as powerful, but could still be devistating if one was hit with enough blasts. The Draken laughed maniacally as he shot the dark beams of energy at rapid fire, like a machine gun.
------------
"Watch out!" Ben grabbed Jannis and flew out of the way, pulling her from the blasts of energy. The others would see this, and probably have enough time to evade, he thought. He then got a safe enough distance back and set her on the ground. Tiberius, still in death wyvern form, flew out of the way as well. As he landed on the ground, he changed shape again, back to human form.
"This doesn't look to good. He's reopened his connection with darkness! Keep your guard up. He seems to be much more powerful in this form!" Ben threw his hand to the side and blasted out a white beam of energy. He grabbed the beam, put more power into it, and shaped it into a sword.
"How are we supposed to fight a Draken!?" Tiberius grabbed his claymore and took up a defensive stance, near the others.
"With help... We can ask those that are with us to help."
"Gaia knows we need it..."
"Gaia? Heh. The gods have inferior power, and cannot hope to mach mine!" Valiko finished his attack and stood before the three of them. He slowly raised his hand and blasted the ground around them to shreds. He laughed insanely as he tore the ground apart, chunks of earth flying in all ways around him... but they were gone. They fled out of range. Valiko stopped.
"Damn you! YOU WILL NOT RUN FROM ME!!!!!!" He charged up his power again, letting off another menacing aura of black and purple energy.
------------
"Xenai, Tsu, Aura! We need help! Valiko is--"
"Right behind you!" The Draken raced up to Ben and smashed him with a back fist, right in the face. It sent him flipping around in the air, crashing down into the gravel.
------------
"They got away...? Keep following them! They might lead us to the enemy's main force! We'll crush them from the inside!" Aaron lead his men after Arata and that other man who was with him. The group of soldiers raced down hallway after hallway, following the bloody prints on the floor. They stopped at another group of dead lizardmen.
"They must have passed here already!"
"Not quite. That door is open." The group stood near the stairs that would lead them to Virmir. All of them passed through the door and walked quietly down the stairway.
------------
"How's it going?"
"Not so good. I can't find any books at all."
"You looking in the right place?"
"I'm not sure. Your library isn't very orderly when I got here..."
"Did you not check the back shelf where I keep all my books of old lore?"
"No, I'll check there now."
"Please, do tell of your progress. When you find the ancient tome of Gaia, seek me out. It's written in Geocian."
"Will do. Good day, master."
"Master? No, I am but a teacher, don't you remember? And you are my student."
"Very well... Teacher."
"Quite. Now get going. I have matters of my own to attend."
------------
-
Duilin was awestruck. These Velkens were amazing! He was getting more and more grateful that they were on his side now.
He really wanted to join in the battle, but he needed to get back to Tjed, he needed to make sure his friends were okay. Once everything is done there, then he needed to get ready to defeat the Dark Empire.
"I'm going with you." Duilin shouted back. He jumped in the air, flapping his wings several times before he soared off through the battle, avoiding any oncoming enemies and projectiles as well as he could. He then landed on the ground next to Renard. "Wait, hold on one second..." He put his hand of his right temple; the others were further away then before, except Zion was closer, hopefully he'll be able to receive a telepathic message.
'Zion, the Velkens have be rescued and they're on our side. But right now they're in a huge battle at North Point, you might be able to see it. I'm going back to Tjed, via airship. If you want to come with me, hurry because we aren't waiting. But you can help the Velkens fight, however.
"Alright." Duilin said to Renard. "You ready?"
--- ---
At the Tower of Heaven's Bane (or wherever Grav may be), a lizard man messenger approached the Prime Minister holding a formal request note form High General Gorus Van'deln.
Dear, Grav Hen Li'hik, Prime Minister of Mizar
I am aware that Emperor Retan is out at the time (don't ask how, I just do), so I thought I'd send this to you. My generals have asked me if I could request permission to invade the Kandarinian Sovereignty. They have officially declared war on us, during the battle of Vandrin County. It's likely they are planning something against us, so I believe it would be a wise move to take them out with one swipe as they are currently a small crumbling nation.
Sincerely, Gorus Van'deln, High General of the Dark Empire, Subterranean Division.
-
Zion recieved the telepathic message. Going back to Tjed? What for? He looked around, and he did indeed see the battle. Yeah, I'll help out. Good luck with whatever you're doing.
"Eternity Weapon!"
Ultima Eternity shot down towards the battlefield...
--- --- ---
"Whoa!" Xenai, Tsu, and Aura swooped out of the way of the blasts and looked toward Valiko. Xenai couldn't help but notice Anti off in the distance, though...
Anti had stopped and turned around. "Finally...! GAH HA HA HA HA!!!" He opened his arms, and took the blast head on.
"Sweet holy shit!!!" Xenai's eyes widened. Tsu and Aura saw it too, and they were in awe as well. When the dust had cleared... Anti was unharmed.
"My god," said Aura.
"The Omega Fist... Is considerably more effective on him," said Tsu.
"That's 'cos he's all energy," said Xenai. "Omega Fist uses energy to raise power."
They could hear Ben yell out to them, and looked off in that direction. Too late. Xenai got pissed, and fired off a Breaker attack right there. "Final Fury!" A greatsword appeared in his hand. He swooped forward and started slashing at Valiko like crazy.
Meanwhile, Tsu and Aura were some distance behind, preparing a Rasengan Chidori. They were currently in the phase where Aura causes the Chidori to swirl... But something was different. Tsu was wielding two Chidoris, and Aura was merely pointing her hands at them rather than striking them. It seems all that time apart had created an improvement!
Anti looked toward the fiasco and cackled. "Have fun with your battle, fools!" He started off toward Retan once more, but found himself being called to. He halted and looked toward Valos. "What do you want?"
-
-"It is ready? Beautiful. Thank you, doctor. Please summon Mr. Eldridge to my chambers."
The scientist nodded, and left. Cain looked at the finished blueprints for a minute, then, seemingly satisfied, grabbed ahold of a nearby M-grid orb.
-"Yes; Foreman Kampard, yes, the final design is complete. I trust you have all the necessary materials ready?"
A highly distorted voice came from the orb, without an image: the recipient must have been really far away from Gros Morne.
-"The raw goods are all prepared, lord Scribe. Awaiting transfer of documents."
-"One minute, Foreman. Prepare to receive."
Ryleh put down the orb, and picked up a nearby chalk. He quickly scribbled a glyph on the wall, which resembled an H with three circles over the middle line, and a "^" over the left vertical line. The two vertical lines glowed, and transformed into a circle, which, in turn, transformed into a hole. The Scribe put the scroll of documents inside, and the hole vanished, along with the glyph. His M-grid orb lit up again.
-"Foreman Kampard here - documents received, lord Scribe. Both dead and live crews are already busy at work. Expect results within several hours."
--- --- ---
Meanwhile, deep below Kandarin in a secret laboratory...
-"Ah, yes, good of you to come, Herr Doktor Von Göth. All stations ready for dispatching the Hammer to the sun."
Von Göth and Orff, as well as Bauer and several other scientists were standing in a shielded room up above the main cavity below. The enormous eastern gates were open, revealing a row of crystalline shapes lined up in a corridor of sorts. Large undead abominations were busy creating some sort of a circular barrier in the middle of the room.
-"So," said Von Göth. "Exactly what are you planning to do?"
-"Well, Herr Doktor, it was really Herr Bauer's idea. You see, the NGOs which our Sovereign found in the Nightshade hideout work by opening a portal to Aether. We found a way to designate the opening coordinates, and that's how we will deliver the Hammer up there."
-"As I see it, the Hammer is in pieces right now. How are you planning to assemble it once it's out there? There isn't nearly enough space to send the whole thing up in one go."
Orff smiled, and another scientist, a short and chubby one, stepped forward.
-"That was one of our tougher problems," answered Orff. "Herr Pfitzner here managed to solve it. Each piece is inscribed with several sigils. Once all of the pieces are in the Aether, we will use a magic apparatus known as the Binding Glyph to make the sigils stick to their opposites. Thus, the Hammer will assemble itself. It will also become very tolerant of any impacts that the weapon may have to endure. Unfortunately, the Binding Glyph must remain active for the Hammer to stay in one piece. One could say that the Glyph is the key to compromise the entire project... Although on the bright side, it is also a fail safe, in case if the Hammer becomes under someone else's control."
-"That's hardly unfortunate," replied Von Göth. "A fail safe must always be in place no matter what. We have to be prepared for any and all emergencies. The key here is simply to hide the item so that only we may have access to it. What does it look like, anyway?"
-"It's right here, Herr Doktor."
Orff came to an opening in the wall, and whispered something into it. In the empty space appeared a small square frame, housing a crystal tablet inside, which appeared to hover right in the middle of the carcass. The tablet indeed had a glyph inscribed on it, but one of bizarre complexity. Many of the lines were so fine that at a distance of a meter they blurred into one dark area. The tablet also had many hair-thin black glass wires coming out of its sides, and disappearing in a near-invisible portal at the top of the construction. The crystal composition was unlike anything Von Göth had seen before - the light filtered through it appeared blue, though no blue was to be found in the tablet itself.
-"It is beyond beautiful," he whispered. "It would certainly be a shame to have to break that if something were to happen to the ship."
//Xorlak, a few questions: Will the ship have a name? Does it have a large enough space in it to accommodate passengers? Maybe a cool idea would be to control the Hammer from inside the ship, rather than from the ground.\
-
"Fool!" Valiko blocked the attacks with a single finger as each slash came down upon him. He flipped backwards, then unsheathed his sword and met Xenai head on, blocking with the sword instead. As the last slash came down, Valiko evaded and flew back into the air.
"You'll pay for that, Draken!" Tiberius was just as angry as Xenai. He threw his claymore into the ground and jumped on it, leaping up to Valiko with a punch. The Draken grabbed his arm before he could reach him. He swung him around a few times, then launched him into the ground with thunderous speed. A small crater formed in the earth beneath him.
"Who's next?"
"ME!" Ben came from behind, sword at the ready. He cleaved it upwards and met Valiko's blade. They slashed at eachother in the air, Ben going all out. Valiko made short work of him and kicked him back, in the same place he punched him before. Valiko lowered back to the ground.
"DAMN YOU!!! RRRAAAAAAAGGHHHH!!!" Ben was changing form again. His wings darkened, his eyes changing to a dark shade of purple, his aura changing to crimson. He let his energy sword back into his body and held his hands next to his face, clenched in fists. He then flung them downwards, creating a surge of power.
"Heh, did I make someone angry? Good... anger is power. I like a good fight, except this is a bit far from good." Valiko threw his blade into the air and shot it with dark energy. He then raced up and grabbed it, now glowing with dark power.
Jannis took her bow off her back and an arrow from her quiver. She aimed it at the sword in Valiko's hand, pulling back as far as she could. As soon as it was pulled back far enough, she let go of the string, the arrow zipping threw the air. It hit the Draken right in his hand, forcing him to drop his empowered sword.
------------
"Hey Ven! Yo, Ven, wake up! He's not moving..." Jacobie sat in a chair next to Ven. His breathing was harsh as the human struggled to survive.
"Jacobie, don't you have any stamina potions? Anything to stabilize his breathing!"
"Oh right! I do have one, but it's pretty powerful."
"Hand it over." Jacobie pulled out a silver vial of orange liquid and handed it to Justin. He then took the vial up to Ven's mouth and poured a small amount in. It appears Ven was able to swallow it, as his breathing returned to normal.
"How long do you think he's gonna stay like this?"
"I haven't the slightest clue... if only I had some ground onyx and dragonstone... If I took the powder and mixed it into a solvent, it would cure him without a doubt!"
"Dragonstone? I don't know about onyx, but I have a dragonstone in my pocket. I was going to save it, but here, you have it." Jacobie pulled out a red stone from inside his gauntlet. The stone glowed with a faint red aura. He handed the stone to Justin.
"Wow... this is perfect! Where did you manage to find this?"
"Terian, back when I was a soldier."
"Oh, that makes sense then. I just need some quality time with a motar and mix this up. I suppose I can substitute onyx for another herb of some sort."
"Are you going to be able to grind that? Dragonstone is one of Gaian's hardest minerals!"
"Believe me, if I can grind dragon scales, I can grind dragon stone. It's gonna take a while, but I'll be able to get it into powder form within at least a half hour."
"Well that isn't so bad, I guess... I'm gonna go outside and check up on Lagart."
"Right. Won't be long in here!"
------------
"Ah! My hand!" The arrow went straight through Valiko's palm, bleeding it slowly. His sword spun to the ground, piercing into the earth. He grabbed the arrow head and pulled the arrow through. His aura was then focused on his hand, and after a short moment, it healed.
"Direct hit! Uh oh... He's flying this way." Ben finished charging and flew towards Valiko as he flew after Jannis. The two of them met eachother in the air and Ben grabbed Valiko's arm. He kneed him in the gut and punched him in the face, letting go of him and watching as he fell to the ground.
"Guh... Heh... Angel fool. Your heaven is next when I'm done with Gaian." The Draken got back to his feet and picked up his dark sword, still purged in black flames.
------------
-
//Sorry about delay in posting\
Coriko surveyed the outside. It had a dark poetic grace to it.
"You know this isn't so bad. it is kinda nice, still creepy but nice. And then comes the unpleasantness."
As Coriko was walking he saw over a mound two thingly shaped figures.
"Wilham, we got company."
---
Baird told the patrons of the inn of Druid's return and the need for a new army.
"If you are interested meet at the army barracks, and spread the word."
Baird left the tavern. Baird went off towards another inn. This was going to take a while.
-
"Hey, do you think he's...?"
"Yes, he is." Arata sheathed his katana and walked into the room where Virmir and the other Velkens were. The prisoner followed shortly after.
"Drop your weapon, Jack." The prisoner, Jack, did as he was told and placed his broadsword on the ground.
"Okay, you caught me. Now what? Am I just delaying your plan to wipe out the city? Or... maybe you want me to. You know that deep down, you don't want to do it, am I right?"
"Hey, you might want to-"
"Shut it, Jack. I know you're with the dark empire, that's for damn sure. Otherwise, how would you get past the lizards? What are you doing here, really?"
"This doesn't look good, maybe we should-"
"I SAID SHUT IT!" Arata took his sheathed katana off his belt and threw it on the ground, in front of Virmir. He held out his hand, hoping to shake as a sign of his honorable capture.
"Well then, I won't get very far without a polite introduction. I'm Arata Etsuko, and this is Jackwell Richend. And you, might I ask?"
"My Lord, I don't sense any deception from him. The other one, behind him, looks a bit nervous, however..." Ko'ji stood next to Virmir, observing the two humans in the room. She didn't trust Jack, but Arata looked honest enough.
-
Wilham turned around battle ready as Coriko warned him of the 'company' "What is it?"
--- ---
Lagart had been training the two lizard men some better close ranged combat skills, they were fairly decent learners. It was becoming a bit clear that these lizard men weren't stupid, just uneducated. He did some sword fighting with them, for a little while.
"Good work. I take break now." Lagart said sheathing his sword. "You two practice now. Make sure you not hit each other to hard."
The two lizard men both nodded in responce and then continued practicing. Lagart turned to Jacobie as he came outside.
"They catch on quick. Make them fine fighters we will." Lagart said.
---
Belle and Rink had been rather quiet lately. Rink was pretty tired out, he had never fought so hard before, and so he was taking a nap. Belle was a little worried about Duilin and even more worried about what was going to happen to everyone in the city.
"So, Justin..." Belle said, trying to start conversation. She overheard the conversation about the dragonstone. "Have you been, um, grinding things for a while?"
-
"I guess. Every monk in the Arctic region had to learn several potion and elixir formulas. They're not that hard, but aquiring the ingredients is most o the work. I'm surprised Jacobie suddenly happened to have this on him... Wow, almost done!" Justin took the powdered dragonstone and poured it into a glass he'd got out earlier.
"I just need some stoneflower pedals... or perhapse Willow Anther." He then took out a small, cloth bag and tossed it on the table he was working on and opened it by pulling the thread. Inside was a bundle of black sun flowers, blue rocks, and black roses. He took some pedals from the sunflowers and choped off a piece of a stem, and did the same with the roses. Then, he took a few of the blue rocks and smashed them into powder. They were softer than rocks, more like hardened dirt.
"I just need some water and a spoon. Miss, could you fill this with water?" The woman inside the house took the glass from Justin and went farther into the house. She returned a few moments later with a spoon and the glass, half-way full with water.
"Thanks." Justin took them from the woman and put them on the table, stiring the ingredients well in the glass with the spoon. It started to get a bit thicker and foamed a bit off the top. Then, the reaction stopped and the foam died down. He walked over to Ven with the glass and poured a bit of the solution into his mouth.
"That should be enough. I'd better save some of this for later." As he finished, Justin took a vial from inside his robe pocket and poured the contents of the glass into the vial. It glowed a dark red.
"So... How did you end up with Duilin and Rink?" Justin asked, trying to further a conversation.
------------
"Hey Lagart, do you see that over there? It looks like a soldier's comming this way. Stay sharp. You two, enough for today! You could use a break. Back in the house." The two young Lizardmen went into the house. Just as Jacobie suspected, a soldier was approaching them.
"You! Why you next to door? You go to castle, now!"
"Excuse me!?" The lizard soldier must not have noticed Jacobie, for his armor showed he was much higher in rank than the soldier.
"I said... Commander Jacobie? That you?"
"Well I'll be damned! Higgens! What in god's name have you been doing?"
"You know. Same old, me going off on mission now and then."
"You haven't changed in the slightest!"
"What you doing out here? We ordered to go to castle long ago! Prison break, me thinks..."
"Really? Well, I was ordered to guard this house from others. High general's orders."
"Right! Me on patrol! Nice catching up!"
"Same here. See you around, higgens."
------------
Valimore sat in his throne once again, as usual. The entire fortress was kept warm with a magic heat system. There was a limited supply of entertainment, with the exception of the pipe organ behind the throne room every now and then Valimore would play, or force one of his servants to.
"Blast, I forgot how boring it was up here. Where's the bloody action!?" As the vampiric king adjested himself in his chair, Doriana came back into the room, holdin two books.
"About time! What bloody took you so long?"
"The disorder of your books, that's what. I didn't find these in the area you said to look."
"Then they are no doubt useless."
"Not quite. I found a book entitled 'The Ancient Mikkatosi.' I haven't the slightest clue what it's about, but it recalls your name in here a lot."
"That would be the name of my race."
"Oh... Well, I found another one about the formation of Gaian. Looks like it's just a ref book, but who knows?"
"Hmm... I think I recall that name... Ah yes! I wrote that myself about five thousand years ago when I was bored and had nothing else to do!"
"Interesting. I'll study these up a bit in my room. Oh, and when's dinner? I'm starving..."
"Go ask one of the servants to get you some food. I think I'm going to play my organ for a while."
"You have an organ?"
"No evil dictator is fit without one."
"Funny... I'll be going, then."
"Right then. Return to me when you have questions."
"Actually, there was one that I've been meaning to ask you since I found the first book. Who is Sierana?"
"Sierana...? Where does it mention that in the book!? Quickly now!"
"In the first few pages... why? Who was she?"
Valimore sighed with great sadness. "That was the name... of my daughter..."
------------
-
"Yeah!" Renard nodded. Still carrying his little sister in his arms, he shot off towards the airship. It was one of the smaller, sleeker models, which meant it was built for speed. Perfect.
"Galry...?" The little Velken girl asked.
"Yeah?"
"Who was that... monster you were talking to?"
"Monster?" He landed by the side of the black vessel alongside Lady Urocy and her four guards. "You mean Duilin...?" She nodded and clutched his robe as the winged human neared. "Emile... Duilin is no monster. He's a friend, and he's going to help take us to safety. Now say hello to him."
"Uh... hello, Duilin..." She said timidly as Renard set her down.
A lizard emerged from the airship's side door and two of the Velken guards stabbed him in the neck at the same time. Renard grabbed Emile and turned her around just in time, shielding her view from the gore.
Three of the four black clad Velkens flew into the ship, the fourth stayed by the priestess' side, ears twitching at every explosion or fireball that zipped over head. After a moment one of the Velkens stuck his head out the door. "Clear!"
"Right. Let's go..." Renard took little Emile by the hand and lead her up the ramp, Lady Urocy and Guard #4 close behind. Guard #3 bowed as they passed. "Lady Urocy, Sir Duilin, Sir Renard, right this way."
"Sir?" Renard's ears perked. "There's no need for that. I'm just a Battle Mage. Same rank as you."
"Sir Rikarl made you squad leader for this mission, sir." All four of Lady Urocy's guards gave him a quick salute. #1 and #2 then zipped off to fumble with the controls in the tiny airship.
"But... I'm not even old enough! I don't know what to do!"
"Relax," Lady Urocy said in her soothing voice as she placed a claw on his shoulder. The door shut behind them and the engines began to rumble. "You've completed a vital mission already. You've saved us all, and your competence has been proven."
Renard placed a claw behind his ear, not sure what to say.
The priestess turned to Duilin. "Of course, we have you to thank as well... Sir Duilin, was it? I am Lucile Urocy, High Priestess of Welkin." She looked like any other Velken-- silver furred, triangular ears, pointy snout, long fuzzy tail with a black tip. She stood shorter than everyone except Renard and his sister Emile. Her robe made her stand out, though, as the dazzling white was a stark contrast to the dismal dark colors most of the other Velkens wore. Even little Emile was in a dark brown robe.
The ship shook as it levitated and took off, and the seven Velkens and Duilin were off to Tjed...
----
Virmir didn't seem impressed. He didn't seem to have any reaction at all. The other Velkens followed the escapee as he moved and tallked their blades pointed at his throat.
"If you insist, I am Kendo Virmir, High General of the Dark Empire, Skyward Division." He ignored the hand stretched in a friendly gesture. One of the Velken Blade Knights grabbed it and forced it behind his back, along with the other.
"If you think I intend to do anything but what I was ordered, you are mistaken Mr. Estuko. But since you surrendered civilly, I will ensure your imprisonment is comfortable." He turned to Ko'ji. "Riuki, please escort the prisoners to... a more secure cell. Don't harm them unless they struggle."
----
The glyphs on the far wall glowed and Vincent entered, looking rather smug. He adjusted his glasses and fixed his trench coat.
"Ah, Mr. Ryleh. You wanted to see me?"
----
Grav bit into another huge slab of beef, sinking his jagged teeth deep into the rarely done flesh. Delicious!
Mounds of food were stacked high over his head upon the table. Of course he couldn't eat it all, but who cared? He loved it when he was in charge.
He read the letter quickly and with disinterest, his reptilian legs dangling from the tall chair he needed to sit properly at the table.
"Kandarinians? I thought we were already at war with them..." He scratched his scaly head with a long claw trying to remember. Blast it! He took a couple more swigs of wine.
"Bah! Whatever!"
High General Gorus of the Subterain,
Kill those freaks and bring their leader's head to the capital on a pike, so that we might dance around it and sing praises to the glory of the Dark Empire. Also, bowl with it.
Grav, Prime Minister of Mizar and Gaian
-
"Kendo... Uh, I mean Lord Virmir, I will right away!" Ko'ji was still getting used to calling her fellow Velkens by their last names. She took the scimitar off her back and pointed it at the two humans. "Well, I guess I'll have to escort you to another cell..."
"Hmph. How rude of you, even if you are a high general. Still, I do respect your mercy. Not every day is one shown such from one of the dark empire scoundrels." Arata dusted his hand off after the Velken bladeknight pushed it back, as if he had dirtied it by touching it. He clenched his left hand in a fist and covered it with his right, brining it up to his head and bowing to Virmir.
"Let's go then. Jack, that means you too." Suddenly, the door burst open as three orange-furred Velken-like creatures entered the room, almost matching the speed of a normal Velken.
"WAAHH!!! Who are you guys!?" Ko'ji held up her scimitar.
-
"Do not point your weapon in the presence of his majesty!" A Drannivolkan unsheathed a sword quickly, but as Aaron entered the room, he placed a hand on his shoulder, and the soldier quickly sheathed his weapon.
"Calm yourself, Marrik. Uh, Lord Virmir, I presume? Right then, my name is Aaron Grey, Emporer of Ariosis. I've come here on behalf of my alliance with Tjed, and I'm afraid I cannot let you do what you're about to do." Aaron drew his crystal sword and held it tightly in both hands.
"If I have to lay down my life in order for Tjed to be free, THEN SO BE IT!!!" Aaron thrusted his blade towards Virmir, and the Drannivolkan elite quickly started a fight with the other Velkens in the room.
-
"Oh well..." Bell began. "I first met them around five years ago. During the time I was servant with the Crimson Empire. Emperor Draven invited Duilin, Rink and several others to a banquet, so they could talk about the situation with the Aspyes Revolution. I talked to Duilin a lot; he was really different from his friends, or pretty much any other man I met. I fell for him, pretty quickly. But a couple days later I was shipped off from the Crimson Capital and I didn't see Duilin around year and half later."
She sighed, and then rested back in her chair.
"But yeah, Rink and Duilin have apparently been best friends for about six years. So I met Rink through Duilin, pretty much. For a demonic being, he's really nice. It's kind of made me question if he really is what he is. Like he himself isn't even sure about his past, because of his amnesia."
She looked back at Justin. "So what's your story?"
---
"Higgens?" Lagart mumbled. It's too bad he didn't recognize any of the other lizard men. Then again he never had any friends, when he served the empire. Jacobie may have been a good friend of his, but he likely was in a different division then he was.
He looked at Jacobie. "Hmm, no know him." He said referring to Higgens. "Were you in lower sub-sections of Mizar division? I served directly under Gorus' section. He trained me himself."
--- ---
Gorus was sitting on a lifting a dumbell made of rocks. One of the C-Class lizard men came in carrying the reply note from Grav. Gorus set the dumbell down and took the note out of the lizard man's hand and he left him. Gorus unfolded the note and read it, smirking as he did.
"I love that guy. He never fails to crack me up. I need to hang out with him more." Gorus said to himself. He then shouted loudly. "Xarn!!"
In a few seconds Xarn came jogging towards him.
"Yes...yes General?" Xarn asked, panting a bit.
"You got here fast. Anyways, gear up solider I'm takin' you, your squad and my squad to go take out the Kandarinians."
"Yes sir!" Xarn replied, with enthusiasm.
-
The glyphs merged back into the wall, isolating Ryleh and Vincent in the small room. Without much hurry, the Scribe picked up a globe of Gaian standing on his desk. He caressed it with a look of utmost love.
-"Beautiful, isn't she, Eldridge? So much land, so little time."
He put the globe back onto the desk. Now, Cain's attention was turned to his guest.
-"Luckily, we don't need the time. That's one of the benefits of living under a powerful monarch's wing. Another little perk is the occasional bone the master throws to his obedient dogs, such as, say, a piece of land... Maybe an entire continent...
"So how unfortunate is it that our leader's mind was touched during his time in the dimension hole that he had to survive in? No man's sanity could survive several months' worth of isolation, all alone in that little world. Even now, he is up in his chamber, whispering words of utmost madness to himself. It was I who was pulling the strings behind every single operation you may have heard of, while he remained the purely symbolic leader of Kandarin. If you do not believe me, ask anyone on the street - the Sovereign has not been spotted in a while, even at public executions - one of his favourite pastimes.
"One thing that remained intact appears to be the Sovereign's eternally quenchless blood thirst, though. He is as eager to take over the world as he always has been, driving his armies of undeath before him. I'm sure you know what happens when a man with power has an... an exhaustive desire for something - that man gets what he wants. It is simply a matter of time.
"I can see that you are a man of opportunity, Vincent. I plan to strike the Lich down once the subjugation of the world is complete. If you happen to help me, perhaps we could split the land he has taken in half.
"If, however, you decide to decline... Well, that is your business, really. If you start asking questions, word will spread, but no one will believe you. Moreover, I might take that as an act of hostility, and, say, announce you as the public enemy of mankind...
"Choose now, Vincent. Simply think of the possibilities that my proposal will open up for you. I'm sure you've controlled your share of power as a general in the Crimson Empire, but it is next to nothing when I speak of controlling half of the known world!"
--- --- ---
Meanwhile, deep below Kandarin in a secret laboratory...
-"AACH!!!! SHE'S BLOVING UP, HERREN!!!"
-"Herr Bauer, calm yourself! The portal's simply opening up, nothing has gone wrong!"
-"But look! The NGO vortex, she isn't closing!"
-"Yes, Herr Bauer, YES, that's the point, it's not supposed to close! That's the way we're taking the Hammer out to the Aether!"
The circular barrier in the vast space below was holding against the powerful tides of gravitation coming from the NGO vortex. One by one, the mammoth pieces of the Hammer were lowered inside, helped by the undead creatures immune to vacuum. Several hours later, the Hammer was entirely in space.
-"The work is not finished just yet, gentlemen," said Von Göth. "It almost is, but not quite yet."
All four senior scientists - Orff, Von Göth, Bauer and Pfitzner - approached the Binding Glyph. They proceeded to take off a small stone from their necklaces. The gems appeared to have been sliced off from a whole - and when the scientists united them above the Binding Glyph, they formed into their original self. It was an almost perfectly smooth, round orb the size of a grape. Once its pieces fit snugly together, it gave off a light static shock, just enough for the scientists to draw their hands away from it. The stone, as if propelled by some invisible force, lowered into the tablet. In a flash of blue, it vanished upon touching the sacred glyph.
As soon as that happened, a large panel made of all sorts of coloured tubes, static charge capacitors, and gauges suddenly sprung to life with activity behind the scientists. The tubes channelled some sort of blue liquid, the capacitors buzzed with electricity, and the gauges raced around their scales.
-"It is done," announced Orff. "The weapon is activated."
--- --- ---
A guard approached Kain.
-"You don't look like you belong to the general populace," he said grimly. "Unless you have important business here, I suggest you make yourself scarce."
-
"Me? I was exiled from my order, and came here to help people. My family is still up north, I guess. Well, what's left of it. My parents were killed in a bandit raid, and my brother and sister... we all parted ways. I used to live here, actually, when I was three, along with the rest of my family. When my parents died, I headed up north, my sister Lucia headed to Terian... and I never really knew what happened to my brother." Justin recalled the note he'd recieved when he was injured and in a tent somewhere near Tjed Castle after the battle with Jayce.
"I'm not sure, but I think my mother might still be alive. I recieved a note a while back, written in Geocian, a tribal language, from the north. It was adressed to me from my mother, but she still might be dead, as I've no idea when it was written." Justin sat back down and placed a hand on his forehead. He smiled, though it was small, and somewhat sad.
"Another woman lived with me when I was taken up north, and I fell for her. Her name was Sierana, and like me, she wasn't quite human. She had feelings for me too, wheather she would admit it or not. In the end, when I left, she was there, watching me as I boarded the last ship out of the Arctic. I could hear her, crying. She looked like my mother, just then..."
"I can remember her face again, her green eyes... she was killed, right in front of my eyes. The guard didn't quite make it in time. She held me in her arms as she lived out her last breath... and... she died, holding me in her arms. Ever since then, my brother and sister were never the same. My father fought to protect us until the guard could arive, but he was no fighter. He was stabbed, straight through his heart." A small tear slid softly down his cheak as he relived his past in his mind. He quickly wiped it away, though, and stood up.
"I'm sorry... I'm going to bed, I don't quite feel well." Justin got up from his seat and walked into another room, one with a bed. He shut the door behind him and laid down in the bed.
------------
"Your daughter? You have a daughter?"
"I think the correct term would be 'had' a daughter."
"What happened?"
"She fell in love, that's what. And it was with your friend, the Gepardi."
"Who, Tiberius?"
"No, you fool! Constantine! That's why I hate that man..."
"Because your daughter... fell for him?"
"It wasn't just that. I exiled him to keep my daughter safe... and she turned away from me. She left me as a daughter, and never forgave me..."
"If you wouldn't have exiled him... then maybe-"
"I've heard enough. I wish to be alone."
"I'm... sorry, but I still think-"
"LEAVE ME ALONE, DAMN YOU!!!"
"Y-yes! Right away!"
------------
"Me served in skyward division all of life! Well, since I get to be old enough."
"I met him when he was a trainee. I'd just made my way to captain, and he was under my command for a few weeks to get the hang of things."
"Yes! That how I know Thomas!"
"Just Jacobie, Higgens. Just call me Jacobie."
"Me get going again. See you!"
"Alright. Maybe I'll see you again later!" The lizard soldier waddled off beyond sight, into the city, headed for the castle, no doubt.
------------
-
"Shit! Frickin' Draken!" Xenai cursed at Valiko as he found his attacks to be mostly ineffective. He took off straight up into the sky... //He's readying the attack he used on Anti in the gaiden.//
Meanwhile, Tsu and Aura were ready to launch their new and improved attack. Rather than grabbing Tsu's arm and spinning around, which would provide fanservice since Aura's not wearing pants under her skirt anymore, and possibly injure her anyways due to both of Tsu's hands wielding Chidoris, Tsu kicked up with both feet toward Aura. She caught his feet and and pushed him as hard as she could towards Valiko. He ended up taking off at incredible speed.
Tsu rocketed towards Valiko, both hands full of compacted swirling balls of lightning energy.
"Rasengan Chidori Nirentotsu!!!"
Twin Spiral Sphere One Thousand Birds
As he came into range of Valiko, he thrusted both hands towards him...
--- --- ---
Anti was still waiting for Valos' response...
--- --- ---
Zion commenced his assault on his new enemies with a bang. He focused on the most dense area of enemies. There didn't seem to be any Velkens in the area, so...
"I call upon thee in the land of the dead, show mine enemies what true power is!!! Indignation Judgment!!!"
A large circle appeared on the ground where the enemies were. They looked down, puzzled. Then a huge lightning-charged sword shot down from the sky, striking in the dead center of the circle. Many, many bolts of lightning followed suit, electrocuting the entire area of the circle.
Most of the enemies near the circle shot a glare at Ultima Eternity, who simply smirked. "Come and get it!" And it was on.
-
//Gah, that's the last time I skip a day.\
Bell felt really sorry for Justin as he was telling his story. He remembered Duilin telling her a similar story, about how his family was killed. Yet Duilin was much older then Justin, so he's been able to get over it for the most part. Yet, Justin was so young; all of those memories must still be fresh in his mind. She didn't really know what to say or do when Justin got up and left, in tears.
---
Lagart watched Higgens as he walked off. He then looked up at the energy shield surrounding the city, and then around at the quiet city. Everyone was locked up in their houses totally silent.
He looked at Jacobie. "What you think the fox-men are up to?" He asked.
--- ---
Valos caught up with Anti. "I'm aware that you've made some sort of alliance with my lord but I want you to know, that I've got my eye on you, both me and Lord Draven do. So don't try anything funny that might harm either of us." Valos sized Anti and his massive aura, but still refrained from being intimidated. "I don't trust demons."
He looked forward and continued his way but then turned his head back at Anti. "Out of curiosity, what's your motive siding with Draven and not Retan?"
--- ---
Duilin smiled and nodded at Emile. "Hello there." He greeted back. He noticed she was very timid.
He didn't blame her for being scared, she likely hasn't even seen a human before, much less a half breed demon with wings carrying around a blade mace the size of her. He was surprised he didn't scare himself sometimes. The dark coloured clothing he always wears usually added to his scariness, he should probably start wearing more cheerful clothing, or something. Maybe dye his hair blonde, red or maybe blue. And then wear a sweat band and trade in his mace for a longbow crafted by Holy Jinn Elves of the Ancient Romme. And then maybe change his name to something like Arthur or Vance or Mark or Brash or some other good-guy name that was already becoming clichéd. He smiled a bit at the thought of that, finding some humour in the entire situation.
Duilin shrugged the thought of when he realized somebody else was talking to him. "Don't mention it. I'm just doing what any decent person with super-powers would do." He replied to Lucile, with a smile.
"But yeah, nice to meet you."
He stood up and rolled his arms, and stretched his wings out and then folded them back in. "Aw man, I need a rest or something." He put his mace down on the floor, along with the Iduran in its sheath and sat back down. He looked at Emile and Luclie.
"Hey can I ask you two a question? You don't need to answer this, if you don't want to. But, do you find me, well, a bit too scary? I won't be offended or anything if you are." Duilin laughed a bit, after asking that.
-
"Hah! What's this, a light show?" Valiko did not move as Tsu blasted towards him, hrms extended. He stood there, waiting fot Tsu to get closer enough. As soon as he was, He disappeared and reappeared instantly behind the attack. It missed as Tsu flew off behind him.
"Nice, but not good enough. Let me show you what powerful is..." Valiko grabbed his glowing dark sword with both hands and prepared to strike. He held it back from himself and drew his aura into the sword. As if shredding the sky around him, He let of a fury of slashes and thrusts, bursts of energy flying in all directions around him. The dark energy was mostly focused towards Aura and Xenai, but it was still blasting from everywhere.
"What is that!?" Tiberius picked himself back up after he was thrown on the ground and raced towards his claymore, pulling it out of the ground.
"A lightning blaze! We've got to move out of the way! If one of those hits us, our power will be crushed by it!" Ben flew after Jannis and Tiberius, grabbing them both and throwing them near Aura and Xenai.
"SPIKE SHIELD!!!" He yelled, and bright yellow spears shot up from the ground, forming a tall enough energy sheild to protect them against the attack. The darkness energy slashed at the shield, bashing into it with great force. The shield was almost destroyed, but as luck would have it, Valiko's sword ran out of darkness energy.
"DAMN SWORD!!! WORK!!! ARGH!"
------------
-
Akran lifted himself up and followed Kronos off the ship. Broken rudder? Great, that’s just what he needed.
Akran tried to hide his surprise when Kronos transformed back into the merchant using a sort of amulet, but a thought occurred to him. I wonder if I could obtain one of those things. The advantages if I changed my shape… to think, I wouldn’t be running away anymore.
There was one rather large detail Akran did not tell Kronos, and it was that he was being hunted. Back on his home island when Kraaz was on his murdering rampage, Akran got in his way. Kraaz hired an assassination group, The Malanos, to hunt down and kill his brother. Ever since the island burned Akran had been followed. He only just managed to give them the slip when he stowed away on this ship. He had to keep a low profile even here. After all, this island might not be quite deserted, and Kronos’ idea wasn’t quite to his liking.
Akran frowned and said, "I'm not going to be your slave. I'll be following you in the shadows. Don’t worry, I won’t loose you. And besides, I’ll be out of your way.”
With that, Akran drew up his hood and spun away into the shadow of the trees.
-
Aura caught the two guys and held them safely behind the energy shield, watching Tsu carefully. He'd thought he was gonna hit, but he had a feeling he'd miss anyways. He turned a flip, and shot some energy to the ground underneath him from his feet to propel him back towards Valiko. "One more time-!" He thrusted his hands out again...
Xenai, meanwhile, had reached the top of his ascent, and was close to leaving the atmosphere. "This is high enough. Don't wanna lose any air..." He built up as much energy as he could...
--- --- ---
"...I don't care if you trust me or not. I will tell you my intention outright, in fact. I intend to destroy Gaian, as well as the whole universe. And I believe Draven knows that as well. Retan is my biggest obstacle. The reason I sided with Draven and not Retan is simple: Retan is stronger."
-
"HRAAAAGH!!!"
A circular bowl a half mile wide vanished from the ocean as the water instantly evaporated. Draven scowled as he thrust the massive blast straight at Retan's helmeted face.
The Dark Emperor reached and grabbed the brilliant red explosion with his left hand as the flames totally engulfed him. He thrust his arm straight down and a bright white pillar of light burst forth from the ocean floor.
A tidal wave formed from off the north-eastern coast of Terian, expanding like a ring in a pond. The mushroom cloud would linger for another hour.
When the blast faded, the ocean under the two flying warriors simply wasn't there anymore. Instead, a crater stood several miles in diameter, with edges so high the ocean waves could not spill back down into the gaping hole.
Draven was looking quite exhausted...
He floated there, several hundred feet above the crater, bent over with his arms hanging limply to his sides. His aura burned a dimmer shade of red than usual.
Retan stood straight, as if he were standing atop an invisible platform. "Unfortunate."
Slowly, the Dark Emperor reached into his cape, removing what resembled a gleaming black sword hilt. Pointing it diagonally downward, a brilliant flash burst forth from the handle, and a vibrant blade of crimson energy materialized, roughly scimitar in shape. Unlike Draven's, it did not burn.
Draven's eyes widened, and he clenched his teeth.
Retan moved as a black blur, the edges lined with the bright crimson blade. Draven barely had enough time to form his own sword of fire, and threw it up barely in time to avoid decapitation. Again and again Retan struck and Draven madly blocked, driven backwards by the Dark Emperor's blows. Each time their blades clashed, a thunderous *boom* resonated through the heavens, and blast of superheated wind burst forth from their location.
----
Emile huged Renard's waist when Duilin asked the question and Renard laughed.
The interior of the ship had several seats lined up with windows on either end. Clearly a transport vessel. Lucile took a seat opposite Duilin, two of her guards staying close on either side.
"Well, you certainly look a lot different than us," the silver fox said, chuckling. "The wings are very stately though, I think. And you're a heck of a lot better looking than the Lizard Men."
Outside the windows, the barren landscape blurred as the ship thundered towards Tjed.
----
"Who is that?"
"Upper B-class human, sir, possibly an A-minus. Aura enhanced by an unknown entity."
Rikarl scratched the fur under his muzzle. "Thank the gods. They weren't kidding when they said the humans would ally with us."
The gigantic serpentine dragon screamed, and swatted at the two Velkens. Rikarl and the Blade Knight zipped 300 feet straight up to avoid the claws. The dragon retaliated by shooting black bolts of lightning in all directions.
"Blast it! Maybe we can get him to give us a hand with this thing."
----
Virmir's eyes narrowed when he saw the Drannivolka. "Felines..." His eyes shifted to Aaron. "If you choose to forfeit your life, then so be it."
A thunderous fight broke out, the mad clanging of blades buzzing through the room. In a fluid motion, Virmir drew the Flameburge and split the air from top to bottom. A blast of flame cleaved the stone floor as it surged straight for the Arionian Emperor...
----
Vincent placed his arms behind his back.
"Mr. Ryleh, I have never seen the Sovereign in person, and as you say, I am indeed a man of opportunity. As far as I'm concerned, you've been running the show from my point of view anyway. Should you require any assistance in your deed, merely give me a call and I will see what I can do. Your secret is safe with me."
He adjusted his glasses. "But I am no fool. Prove to me you will succeed, and when the time is right, I will aid you. If you cannot... well, let me put it this way. There are two men upon Gaian I would never mess with no matter how high the gains. I haven't seen what the Sovereign can do in person, but from what I hear, he's close to becoming the third."
-
Zion looked toward the gigantic serpent thing. "That looks problematic... I should get rid of it." He charged up a lot of energy inside himself, slowly floating towards the monster.
-
//REALLY sorry to do this this way, as there simply isn't enough time (and enough Kronoses) for me to do anything else.\
The titanic waves finally calmed, leaving nothing but smooth sands behind. Several skeleton trees still stood in the distance, naked without their leaves and branches. Some poor fisherman's hut was completely blown away before the water even touched it - by the terrible shockwave the tsunamis chased before them.
After the mist settled, a small gust of wind appeared to bring about a cloud of dust. The dust spun in a twirling vortex, solidifying into a man. Finally, the gloomy silhouette of Damien Roth showed through.
Carelessly, apathetically almost, he rose up into the air, carried by the wind to the monstrous battle between Retan and Draven. From his belt shone two blades - an axe, and a halberd...
--- --- ---
-"You're not going to be my slave? Trust me, my friend: it is better to surrender your will now rather than have it be torn from you by me later. Besides, this was supposed to be nothing but a pretend show. I simply do not want to scare off the inhabitants, as, I'm sure you've noticed, my true appearance is not exactly easy on the eyes...
"But as I said, this is only a pretend show. Fine, follow me in the shadows, if you're going to be so picky."
A short walk later, we finally entered the settlement. At first, I suspected that I was looking at a fishing village - however, a closer study told me that this was not so. For one, a normal fishing village might be centred around fishing, but not... to this extent...
I was surrounded by buildings made entirely from parts of ships, or at least what resembled parts of ships. I beheld tall edifices that seemed to be sawed off ship bows; lank towers resembling masts; small tent-like structures made from pieces of broken dinghies.
Another detail that caught my eye was the appearance of the inhabitants. Their clothes seemed to be more suiting to caravan guards than sailors. Many didn't wear shirts, preferring instead to show off their elaborate tattoos on their chests. The rest of their clothes was quite baggy, and quite colourful: I felt as if this was some sort of a human zoo.
The other, and possibly most disturbing thing I noticed was a strange symbol seen all over the place: a shield-like mask, of sorts, with six eyes on it. It was on people's tattoos, it was on their flags, it was on their standards hanging over their homes. A few of them were scratched directly into wood with great craftsmanship. Obviously, whatever this symbol may have meant, it was of great importance to them.
One of the natives finally noticed me, and emitted a short, shrill two-note whistle. At once, I was surrounded by several heavy-built men with their heads veiled in bright scarves, wielding great marble hammers. The hammers had the same symbol engraved on them (they want to beat their enemies with the face of their deity? Rather odd, if you ask me).
-"You! Fat one! Who are you? How did you get here?"
-"FAT one? I'll have you know that--"
I quickly caught a hold of myself.
-"Excuse me. I am... uhm... Dronos, a travelling merchant. My ship has crashed, and my slave was killed. I have nothing to eat. If you get me back to my lands, my reward for you will be great."
The guards lowered their weapons, probably discouraged by my somewhat non-intimidating appearance. I took a sigh of relief; if one of them decided to swing that hammer at me, I'd have to drop my disguise and kill them all. I really prefer to draw my fun out instead of having it done all at once.
-"Really? I think you're lying," said a taller one, the one who whistled at me. "But no matter. You don't look very strong, anyway. Maybe we should cut that fat gut of yours to pieces and roast it."
-"Nah," another one interjected. "The fat ones' meat is all greasy. Runs down your mouth like slime."
A roar of laughter nearly knocked me backwards. Whoever they were, they certainly laughed loud...
-"Please," I squeezed through my teeth. This was the first time I've said that word in months. "Let me stay. I promise, I'll reward you with gold, wine, women, or whatever else you may desire."
Men, maybe? Heheheh.
-"Fine, fine... I guess we could find you a place in a pig sty or something. You'd fit right in."
Another burst of deafening laughter. How annoying.
-"Thank you, kind sir... May I know who you are, though?"
The native pulled his chest up, with a smug expression on his face.
-"We are the Margonites, after our leader, Elder Margo. I myself am called Mikhalos, and this is our town of Boreas. We're only staying here for two or three months, before the chilling winter winds begin to blow."
What the hell ever, I don't care. I pushed myself through the guards, who made no attempt to stop me. Now everyone was back to work, looking at me casually, at best. I hid behind one of the buildings.
-"Akran! Akran, you worthless pile of albatrash refuse! Show yourself!"
--- --- ---
Cain clearly looked agitated.
-"It really would be for the best if you accepted now, Mr. Eldridge, but I cannot force your hand. Know, however, that--"
The M-grid orb lit up.
-"Yes? Foreman Kampard? The weapon is completed?"
-"Yes, Scribe. We're sending it off to you right now. It might take a while to arrive, it is rather slow."
-"Excellent... Mr. Eldridge, you are dismissed."
-
//This one's a biggie...
"Ugh!" Aaron was knocked back off his feet as the surge of flame blasted him to the ground. He quickly regained his stance as he held his blade close, guarding himself from any further attacks that might be made.
"Elite, keep at it! These ones are faster..." Aaron made another swipe for Virmir, clearly knowing that he would miss. He'd hoped he would miss, for he had a ball of energy in his other hand. He threw it at the ground where he suspected the Velken to move towards.
------------
Justin pulled the letter from his pocket. He'd remembered that he'd just shoved it aside, never opened it to read. He unfolded the piece of parchment, and what he saw had shocked him. It wasn't from his mother...
Dearest Justin,
Please, don't just throw this away. I''ve made my way to Tjed a few years back, but never remembered to send you a message. I've managed to escape my father's dark grip, and I sensed your presence in Tjed. Alas, it is the only free kingdom on Gaian, besides the Arctic, but that vile place is out of the question. I wish to be with you again soon. Please, come find me. I'll most likely be in Tjedon. Oh, and your sister will be with me as well. She came here to find you, or so she says. I'll be waiting!
Stay safe,
Princess Sierana Valimore
He was crushed. How could he have made such a mistake? The message was written in a code that only his mother and himself knew. How did she know how to write in it? Whatever the reason, he knew he had to find her. Justin got up from his bed and left the room.
"Something's come up. I need to leave for a moment. Stay here with the others, I'll be back shortly." Justin left the house and told Jacobie and Lagart the same.
"How will you pass up the other Lizardmen?"
"Easily, that's how. Remember your blood?"
"Oh, right. I nearly forgot why I was wearing this bandage! Hah, well good luck. Be sure to come back ASAP, alright?"
"I will..." Justin's body lit up for a brief moment as his shape changed into a larger creature, his lizardman form. He then raced off into the city a bit further.
"Where would she be? She never told me where she was... wait a moment, I might be able to sense here, just like I did when I first got here! Alright then... REVEAL YOUR PATH!!!" He slammed his hand into the ground. Rubble crashed around his arm and flew up all around him. Lifting his hand, he exhailed his breath, and out came a white aura. The white aura had marked where his hand had been, followed by a trail that hadn't been there before, which Justin began to follow.
"Heh... reminds me of those moments not too long ago." He continued along the trail, curving every now and then around buildings and foliage. The trail eventually lead to a small house, near the castle. He knocked on the door, waiting for a response... nothing.
"Hello? Hey, anyone there?" The Gepardi looked around the house to see if someone was possibly outside, but saw not a single person. All but a few lizardmen here and there, patroling the streets. He decided to knock once more, three times against the oak door. This time, he heard voices, sounding like two women.
"Lucia, could you get the door?"
"Why me? The lizardmen!"
"Ugh, fine. Stay there, I'll get it!" Several clicks could be heard as locks were undone and pushed to the side. As the noises stopped, a woman's voice could be heard again.
"Who is it?" Justin had just remembered he was in lizard form still.
"Jacobie," he said, trying to think of something. The door slowly opened, and there stood a beautiful-looking woman, and a little girl waiting near by.
"Oh, a lizardman... whatever you want, get on with it. I've got things to do."
"Heh. Thought you might say something like that... princess." The woman at the door was taken aback. Could this lizardman know her, she thought.
"What in hell's name is going on here? Who are you really?" A bright, white light surrounded Justin once again, and he changed back to his human form.
"I was looking for-"
"JUSTIN!?!?!?" The woman was awestruck at what she'd seen. "No... it can't be, my mind must be fooling me... it really is you, isn't it?"
"Justie? Brother...? Say something!"
"So, where did you find Lucy?"
"Terian... oh, Justin!" The woman threw herself into Justin's arms. He'd just enough time to hold her before she forced him to fall down.
"I knew I'd see you again! I can't believe it's only been a short time! It's seemed like an eternity as we were apart."
"Don't worry, I'll be around just yet. I got the letter, by the way."
"Justie!" The little girl in the room ran up to the both of them and hugged around the two of them.
"Haha! How've you been, Lucy?" The girl did not respond. They were both very excited to see Justin standing before them.
"Oh, sorry. Please, come in!" Sierana let him into the small home and shut the door behind them. There were two chairs at a table.
"Lucy, it's long past your bed time."
"But Justie! Brother... please? Please?"
"No, Lucy! You'll wake up sick tomorrow!"
"No fair! Brother here!"
"There will be plenty of time tomorrow, now hurry off to bed!" The little girl walked away, deeper into the house.
"Sorry about that... well, have a seat."
"What happened to Lucy? Why does she tak like that?"
"Do you really need to be reminded of what happened to you?"
------------
"Heh, back for more? I'm getting bored with this." Valiko lowered himself back to the ground to avoid Tsu's second attack, but he was too late. The attack hit him in his chest, sending him flying a few feet back into the air. He was a bit shaken after the attack, but regained his power quickly and went back to his spot in the skies.
"You ACTUALLY hurt me... I'm impressed. But you should know this won't happen often." Valiko held both his hands back next to his side and began charging residual dark energy from the area. It flowed into his cupped hands as an orb started to form, his aura increasing in size and power. The orb began to gain more and more size until it was about a whole foot in diameter. He then pressed his hands together and formed a dark energy disk from the orb. The disk was much larger, reaching three feet in diameter. He held the disk above his head and blasted it after Tsu.
------------
-
Tsu whipped out Kuon Yaiba and deflected it upwards, over his head. He turned around and looked at it, knowing that it would probably just come back towards him. But knowing what Xenai was going to do, he chased after it... And flew past it! Aura looked up and got the message. She flew a safe distance away from Valiko as well.
Meanwhile... Xenai finished charging.
"Okay, take this! One of my best moves!"
<Insert awesome cut-in of Xenai here>
"Super Omega Striker!!!"
Xenai shot down to the earth then, at lightspeed, perhaps faster, closing in on Valiko's energy signal. If something didn't mess him up, he would slash through him as he passed by, and slam right into the ground, causing a glorious, catastrophic explosion of earth and water. The force and speed of his descent would cause incredible gusts in every direction, down the entire length of his descent.
--- --- ---
Zion had arrived in front of the serpent, gazing upon it. At that moment, he finished charging up, and was now glowing with a bright golden light. A longsword appeared in his hand.
-
"Waah! What's going on!?" Ko'ji, along with Arata and Jack, stood aside as the battle raged on. She needed to get the humans out of the castle and to safety, or so she had thought.
"You two, we've got to get out of this mess! Follow me!"
"Best damn idea I've heard all day. Jack, follow!" The three of them left the battle via the stairway the strangers had used before. Up the stairs, one could smell the stench of dead lizardmen. It nearly made Ko'ji puke, but she held her nose atop her muzzle and clamped it shut with air magic.
"Alright... um, this way!" Suspecting that the other two would follow, Ko'ji hurried down the halls in 'human speed' to have the others keep up. They did indeed follow, but one might ask, why couldn't they just escape?
"Here's a window, now get out of here before you get hurt..."
"We can't do that."
"What!? Why not!?"
"Because, we are prisoners." Arata got down to one knee and grabbed Ko'ji's hand.
"We are also in your debt. You saved us, where no other would have." He kissed her hand and looked back up. She blushed slightly.
"I will make sure you stay safe!" He got back up from the ground and put a hand on her shoulder. He was a fair bit taller than her. "Where to now, my lady?" My lady? Ko'ji was beginning to like this, for some odd reason.
"Okay. I guess you're with 'US' then, huh?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, we're with the dark empire. I managed to grab your weapons before we left the room." In her hands was a long, thin blade, Arata's katana. In the other, a broadsword, meant for Jack. They both took their weapons respectively.
"Hmm... That's twice, do we owe you... Could I get your name?"
"It's Ko'ji Riuki. Just call me Ko'ji, as I'm more used to that."
"Yes ma'am!"
-
Duilin smiled. "Well, thanks I guess." He said to Lucile, he looked at Emile as she hugged her brother's waist, in fear.
"But I see, you likely don't share the same opinion as Renard's sister." He looked back at Lucile.
"But that's alright, really I'm not surprised. Hel..." He stopped himself to watch his language around the kid. "Heck, when I was a kid, I'd be scared sh…senseless if I saw myself today. I actually wasn't born with these wings."
--- ---
"Xarn." Gorus said stepping towards him. Xarn was rallying up his troops, making sure the attendance was all set up.
"Yes, High General?"
"We're going to be traveling in airships, so get your troops into the docking bay." He stated.
"Yes, High General."
"Eh, cut the 'High General' buff for now." Gorus said with a grin. "Let's have the battle to be an ode to the good ole' days."
"You got it!"
-
"I'm here on behalf of the shadow empire. I wish to speak to who ever is in charge."
Kain took a step forward to show the guard he meant buisness.
"This is a diplomatic visit sir. Now, show me to whoever is in charge."
---
Yuri was in his office, scribbling down mad notes. To anyone else this would be incoherent scribbles but to Yuri and the only other genius on the island, Druid. These were amazing plans of attack and strategy for their army. Yuri took a step back from his work and examined his latest plans.
"This battle is already won."
He then dove back into adjusting and modifying his plans.
---
Baird had now visited a good number of slums and taverns, inns and bars. The word was being spread and burly men were rushing around the streets passing on the word. The men were gathering weapons and such and he could see his army. Baird walked through the hustle of soldiers. He was making his way towards the army barracks. He was gunna have a well trained army, that would make this world crumble under the Shadow Empire.
---
"North-east, two of them. Skinny figures, no apparent weapon. You take left, I'll ta..."
Coriko stopped talking. He pointed to the North, West, South. These creatures, things, monsters were coming from almost all sides. There were a lot of them now.
"Okay Wilham, there is a lot of them now. Any battle strategies? 'Cause there is more then two of those things now. C'mon they are getting closer."
The things were only a few meters from them now. Coriko summoned his bow and pulled a bunch of arrows from his quiver. He was ready to shoot, but was waiting for Wilham. They were still unsure these things were harmful, but then again the way they were advancing proved to be pretty malicious.
"Wilham?"
-
Akran crouched in the bushes just at the edge of the village. He peered through the trees and watched the colourful tribal men welcome Kronos with their loud laughter.
Crack.
Akran whipped around. No one there. He thought for sure he heard something. Meh, probably a rat or something. He continued to watch the village. It looked like everybody went back to whatever they were doing before. Where did Kronos go?
The he heard Kronos call out to him. Where was he? Akran slowly moved through the trees towards the Sovereign’s voice.
Crack.
There it was again. Akran turned around and scanned the bushes again. Nothing. What the hell? He took out his bow and drew an arrow just in case. Akran turned back and carefully stepped through the trees. Finally he saw Kronos. He looked like he was hiding behind a building on the edge of the village.
Akran was about to call out when suddenly a black furry creature sprang out of the bushes in front of him. Akran had barely enough time to react. He threw up his arm to protect his face as the creature lunged. Its sharp teeth sunk into Akran’s arm. He let out a cry of pain and shook his arm to free himself from this… thing.
Akran stood up and kicked the creature off of him. In one fluid, lightning quick movement, Akran pulled back his bow string and let loose and arrow. It caught his target in the shoulder. The creature fell down and writhed on the ground in agony, but then did something he did not expect it to do. The thing rose to its knees and ripped off his head. Or at least it looked like it at first; actually it seemed to be wearing a sort of mask, and when Akran had a chance to see what was underneath, he gasped. It was one of the tribal men.
“Ayi, ayi!” the man cried, calling for help.
-
"What's this? Holy crap!" Valiko flew out of range from the thunderous Xenai, raging down at him with his attack, though he didn't quite make it out. The attack hit his foot, smashing into it with such power, the foot was punched off his intire body. Valiko screamed in pain.
"AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!" His aura focused around his foot, and slowly, his body began to regenerate the broken limb. Another foot soon materialized where the old one was, blood still dripping from where the attack had hit.
"You little son of a bitch. TAKE THIS!!!" Valiko grabbed his still-empowered darkness blade and raced forwards at Xenai, sending one shockwave after another at him. His rage was giving him more and more power, almost causing him to overflow. He was using his energy at an intense rate, though it just recharged itself because of the darkness that surrounded Terian.
------------
"I thought she'd be over that by now..."
"Are you kidding? You still aren't, are you."
"Well... I've mostly forgotten about it... but no, not completely."
"You never will. It's a life-changing experience, and it effects us all to have to see others suffer."
"So, just one question... how 'did' you manage to escape Valimore?"
"Damion, you mean?"
"Well, yeah I suppose."
"I'd rather you call him by his first name than his last. That's my name as well, you know."
"Oh, right... well?"
"Okay, okay. I had to smuggle myself out. A freighter was headed here, so I snuck on board. I found your sister on there, shortly after. It appears the ship had come from Terian."
"You what!? But... you're a princess! How could you do that to yourself?"
"Nothing mattered to me at that time, except... finding you."
"I'm sorry I had to leave you like that. I know that was the first time you'd ever cried about something."
"You... saw me...?"
"Well, yeah. You were standing in the middle of the harbor, a bit in front of your father."
"Oh my... I didn't know that." Her face turned bright red.
"Don't worry about it. It happened all the time to me whenever I thought of mt parents... hang on a sec, what was I just doing before I got here?"
"Hmm?"
"Oh blast! My companions... I have to leave-"
"Not without us, you're not!"
"It's too dangerous where I'm going, and-"
"Don't give me that load of crap! I've saved your skin plenty of times over in the Arctic Region!"
"Fine... you can come, I guess..."
"I wasn't asking."
"What about Lucy?"
"She's probably asleep by now. If she's awake, then I suppose we can take her with us... otherwise, one of us is going to have to carry her. I'll go get her." Sierana left the room for a brief moment, and returned with Lucy. She was indeed awake.
"Alright then, let's go."
"Where we going?"
"Nowhere special. Just follow me." Justin opened the door to the house and waited for the others to follow, closing it behind them. He then walked down the road silently as he could, the others doing just the same. At last he came upon a house with two lizardmen sitting out in front; Lagart and Jacobie."
"Oi, who are they?"
"I'll tell you later. It's getting cold out here, you might want to pack it in soon..." Justin walked into the house.
------------
-
Blow-for-blow, the battle raged on between the emperors of Darkness and Fire, though Draven was doing a lot more blocking. Despite Retan's bulky black armor and apparent age, he slashed his crimson blade with amazing fluidity and quickness, and each block from Draven's fiery sword only served to push him back and back as the two fought hundreds of feet above the crater.
Thier focus was only on each other, and they ignored the warriors that seemed to approach from all around...
----
"Whomever you are, kind sir, you have our gratitude." Rikarl said as he flew a half-circle around Zion. The human certainly had an interesting head-fur color. Could they all grow wings like that?
The Velken Squad Leader dove straight towards the black serpent's face. The monster snapped at him, but he flew straight up at the last second and nicked the monster's nose with his blade. It screamed in fury.
Meanwhile, five Velken Battle Mages, clad in black robes, circled Zion. A pentagram appeared in the air underneath him, the the golden glow that the warrior gave off suddenly doubled in magnitude. His next blow would be amplified in power 300%.
Rikarl spun a figure-8 around the monster's snake-like body and rushed back towards the human with the charged attack ready. At the last moment, the silver fox dropped straight down, and the pursing dragon flew smack-dab in Zion's line of sight...
-
Anti could see the two fighting now. "Finally... My true power shall be known!" He accelerated forward...
--- --- ---
"No problem guys. Thanks for the buff." Zion smiled at them. The Eternity Weapon he wore glowed an intense amount more. He pulled the sword back... "Take this!!!"
<Awesome cut-in of Zion.>
"Super Ultima Striker!!!"
This one operated upon the same fundamental element of speed that Xenai's did, however, it was different in its execution: Rather than relying upon one colossal blow, he delivers an incredible amount of smaller ones. He swooped past his target, slashing it as many times as he could in one second... which, as Ultima Eternity, turned out to be around 72 or so (would probably be closer to 45-ish with Zion alone). He ended in the same spot in which he started, his back turned to the monster...
--- --- ---
Shit! Well, at least I got his foot! Xenai frowned as he swooped past, managing only to lop off a foot. He slammed into the ground as planned, creating the aforementioned catastrophic explosion of earth and water. Wind raged out in all directions. Tsu braced himself and covered his eyes, slowly being pushed back by the sheer force of the attack. He was the closest to where it hit the ground. Aura shut her eyes and gripped Ben's two companions tightly, holding her position as best as she could.
The cataclysm eventually ended, and Xenai looked up at Valiko to find... His foot was back. "Son of a monkey smacker!" He started to block the incoming shockwaves the best that he could, but he was having difficulty. Tsu was about to charge in towards Valiko, but Aura phased in before him. "Let me do this one." She handed the two guys off to him, pulled her scimitar out of hammer-space, and charged in, swinging at his head upon coming in range.
-
"OUT OF MY WAY!!!" Valiko blasted an over-powered beam of darkness energy at Aura and continued his assault on Xenai. He wasn't going to stop until he had vengence. Sending more waves after him, he'd finally realized his disk had missed Tsu, its target. The Draken ascended into the air and held his hands up, preparing some sort of dark spell no doubt.
"Now, you will taste my real POWER!!!" A tremendous thunder could be heard from the skies above. He was conjuring a storm, creating a super cell with his dark energy. Hot winds gusted around him in an upwards direction, creating a tornado. Valiko was centered inside the massive gust, and he was nearly finished with his spell.
"YOU WILL SEE!!!" He shouted again. Valiko threw his hands down next to his sides, and as he did so, the sky above began to blast dark lightning all around the area within a half-mile radius. The blasts came down and as they hit the ground, they created miniature earthquakes. Some of the blasts sank deeper into the gravel, bursting into a raging inferno when they'd hit the ground. It was hailing large chunks of ice as well. He'd fused nearly all elements; earth, water, fire, air, and darkness. The destruction was insane, and Valiko began loosing his strength. The only thing that could destroy him now was the final element... light.
"Protection of divinity!" Ben brought his hands into the air, creating small shields around everyone but himself. He'd only had enough power left in him to do this. Alas, he could do nothing to protect himself against the destructive rage of Valiko, and he was torn apart by the destructive force of the super cell.
"This is my final wish," he told the others, "Kill that maniac." Several bolts of dark lightning hit Ben where he stood, electricuting him and forcing him to the ground. As they erupted into flames, so did he. Great heaps of ice fell down upon him like spears and swords, stabbing into his flesh. He had his last breath drawn, and one final spear of ice struck deep into his heart. Blood poured from his mouth and body, his flesh searing from the inferno. The angelic warrior was dead.
-
"Hey! Don't move so fast!" Valos shouted at Anti as he zoomed ahead. He flew faster trying to keep up...
--- ---
"I got an idea." He held out both of his hands and shot two white fogs at the same time from the diamonds on his gauntlets. The white fogs took the shape of green nymphs, which then flew towards the mutos.
"They might not be hostile, so they'll find out for us." Wilham said. "If they get attacked they'll likely attack us."
-
"Good idea Wilham!!" Coriko said. He was wishing that these 'mutos' were friendly.
---
Baird walked the streets. Almost at his destination, he stopped. The army barracks was on one of the island's coasts. This would allow soldiers to swim in the water building strength and stamina. Baird looked out over this new, and strange water. It wasn't as blue or clear as the water on his world. But those days were gone. This was his world now. Baird moved on towards the army barracks.
-
"When the savage jumped out at Akran, he attracted the attention of several Margonites, who drew close. With their hammers at the ready, they eyed Akran and the man.
-"Who are you? Nagi, lay off him. I repeat, stranger: Who are you?"
--- --- ---
The guard threw a sour look at Kain.
-"Yeah, they all come on diplomatic visits... Our leader? Do you have an appointment with him? If you do, I'll gladly show you in."
-
For a few hours, the airship silently hummed over the ocean as it sped toward the island of Tjed. One of Lady Urocy's guards took the helm and guided the black vessel though the night sky with Renard hovering over his shoulder, giving suggestions on how to fly the thing. Renard never actually piloted a Dark Empire vessel before, but he'd ridden in several, and seen the lizards as they moved the various levers in the cockpits. The concepts were similar to various flotation devices back on Welkin.
He wondered if he would ever see home again. Or had Retan already destroyed it? It didn't really matter, as long as his people were safe...
For how long was another story. Retan still lived on Gaian...
After a while, the dark shape of an island loomed ahead, and beyond the mountains a faint green glow.
"Shoot... I forgot about that..." Renard clenched his teeth. "The dome. I'm not sure how we'll be able to get in. We've got three destroyer class battle ships hovering over the city..."
"It will work. Our rank trumps the lizards." The impromptu pilot said.
"Yeah, but I'm bringing six Velkens they've never seen before with me and Duilin. They're probably gonna get suspicious."
"We only need the ruse to last long enough for Lord Virmir to get the message that we're free. He'll take care of the rest. Trust me..."
----
Virmir dodged the strike with a wild spin and a slash of the blade. He started to fly in the direction of the blast Aaron threw, but instead shot straight up into the air at a right angle, defying all sense of gravity. He flipped completely upside down and pressed his feet against the ceiling, bending his knees as he waited for a brief moment to spring. Taking the Flamberge in both hands, he kicked off from the ceiling right at Aaron and jammed the blade a good foot into the solid stone floor, which cracked apart as pulses of flames surged outwards from the fire-enchanted sword.
-
"I'm sure they'll get the idea." Duilin assured. "I just hope Virmir is outside and is able to see." He rubbed his lower lip in thought.
"Well, maybe if I could send a telepathic message to Rink he'd be able to get Virmir's attention." He suggested. "But I don't know if that shield blocks telepathic messages or something. I've heard some can. Plus I'm not perfect in doing that."
-
"Blast..." Aaron leaped away from the surge of fire erupting from the enchanted swoer and rolled forwards. He turned to face the Velken that managed to shove his blade into the stone floor and swiftly reacted by slashing horizontally.
------------
"Hah!!! You cannot possibly hope to defeat me!" The super cell subsided and the thunderous rage had come to a hault. There was so much ice on the ground, it looked like it was snow, crushed into smaller perticles by the earthquakes and the infernos, which had ceased as well.
"I've got a gift for you, Draken... before I go." It appeares Ben was still alive, but brutally in pain. It's a wonder why he didn't just give in when the pain made him suffer so much. The severly injured angel extended his arm slightly off the ground and pointed it towards Valiko.
"From me... to you... choke on it." With his last power, Ben shot a beam of light at Valiko. It shot a hole straight through his right arm. For some reason, his aura did not respond. In fact, it had died down right after the shot. This must have meant he was vulnerable.
"Alas, my father calls me to his realm. Ado, until we meet again, my friends." The soul of Ben had left its body and said a last farewell. It then blasted skyward, ready to return to his realm.
//Bjendell Mjord is now Inactive
------------
-
Aura was blasted back by the beam of darkness, caught totally off-guard. She turned a backflip and halted herself, while Xenai continued deflecting shockwaves... until the super cell started. The three cried out in unison upon seeing their companion struck...
"Ben!!!"
The three watched, stuck inside their energy shields, as Ben gave up his last amount of life force. All three were overtaken with feelings of sadness and rage... One warrior, though, due to not having any experience with death... Was completely and totally enraged...
"You... BASTARD!!!"
"Aura!" Tsu and Xenai switched their attention to the raging femme. The energy barrier around her shattered, and energy was building up inside her like crazy. Huge gusts shot out in every direction from her. "What power!" Xenai was almost scared of it.
You could tell that traces of the Zerobi no Anti that had been left behind had activated in her upon such a heavy emotional response... amplifying her power like crazy, and even modifying her personality, making her much more brusque and aggressive. "Ben gave us this chance... I'm not gonna fucking waste it!!!"
She held her arms out to the side, gathering energy in each hand.
"That's way too much energy!" exclaimed Tsu. "How can she handle that much?!"
She then connected her wrists, aiming up at Valiko.
"Go to hell!" <Awesome cut-in.> "Final...! FLASH!!!" A gargantuan wave of energy blasted forth towards Valiko...
--- --- ---
Anti slowed down a tad, feeling his own energy activate. He soon came to a halt, and turned around, looking in the direction of the battle he'd left behind. "... I suppose that since I've powered up... the scraps that they forgot to clean out when they exorcised me... They've powered up too." He sighed, and turned around. "No more wasting time." He took off toward the battle he was headed towards. He was almost there.
-
"What's wrong...? Why won't you regenerate! Damn it all, that angel fool!!!" The Draken then saw the intense energy coming from Aura. She blasted a mamoth beam of energy that would surely destroy anything that got it its way, and there stood Valiko, completely vulnerable to the power. His aura gone, he was now doomed. The blast consumed him and tore his body to shreds, leaving absolutely nothing behind... except his sword. A black escence swirled around and entered the dark blade, and it resonated with an evil force.
"BEN, NO!!!" Jannis cried as she saw her love die and ascend into another realm of being. She was torn, but unlike Aura, she'd turned her energy into sorrow rather than rage. Grief would soon consume her, should she sit still and let it.
"Let it be, Jannis. He'll be back, but it will take time. Us monks know how the angels work. They're always back, and just at the right time. He'll come back. I know he will..." Tiberius put his unruly manner behind after seeing the angelic warrior obliterated. He walked forward and stared at the evil sword.
"What do we do with you now, Vraoumori...?"
"Use me..." The sword seemed to call out as a faint whisper. Was it only Tiberius? No, the others could hear it as well. The voice echoed through their minds.
"No... NO! Get out of my head!"
"Use me... and 'gods' will envy your power."
"NO!!! Damn you, Draken..."
"You can make the world crumble at your feet... make the dark emporer bow to you, beg you for mercy."
"RRRAAAAGGHHH!!!" The sword was corrupting his mind. Tiberius, knowing that it needed to be destroyed, could not bring himself up to the task. The sword lifted itself into the air, floating in front of him.
"Use me, and I can end your nightmares. Don't you want to have revenge on that vampire?"
"What...? How do you...?" This time, only Tiberius could hear the voices. It chose him to be its pawn.
"He killed your family, did he not? Sucked their blood dry, did he not? BANISHED YOU FROM YOUR RIGHTFUL HOME, DID HE NOT!?!?!?"
"What... what are you saying...? What should I do?"
"You know what must be done, child. Take up the sword, and slaughter them all. Every single tribesman from the northern Arctic Region... Must. Die." Tiberius, now attracted to the power of the sword, reached for it as it floated in the air.
"Yes..." He could hear in his mind, "Good... Good..."
"I won't use you, but I won't let anyone else either!" He pulled out what looked like a blue stone, glowing with an enchanted, magical aura. He grabbed the sword and tapped it against the stone. The dark blade dematerialized and was absorbed into the stone. It changed from blue to dark red and a few stretches of black and purple. The aura was the same color as Valiko's; purple and black.
"It matters not, child. You and I both know you can still use my power..."
"He's finished. Now what do we do?"
//Valiko Vraoumori is now Inactive
------------
-
"Well..." Omega Zero reverted. Now only Xenai remained in his normal form. "Let me think on that one."
Aura fell to her knees, floating in the air. "My god..." Tsu floated over to her, embracing her. "What did I do?!" By now, her rage had worn off. "It seems that when we exorcised the Zerobi," said Tsu, "some traces were left behind, and they empowered you."
"That demon... is still inside me?!"
"Just little parts of it. I think maybe we should take advantage of it. We can use his own power against him. We should start trying to learn how to control that power as soon as possible."
"I guess... it makes sense."
"Are you sure you wanna do that?" asked Xenai.
"Yeah... why?" asked Tsu.
"You noticed how she changed, didn't you?"
"Yeah..."
"Just make sure you don't lose yourself in the power."
Xenai stroked his chin. "Now, as for what to do... I seriously don't think we should chase after Anti now. I think that by now... He's made it to Retan."
--- --- ---
"How are you, gentlemen?!?!"
The Zerobi no Anti had finally arrived at the battle. He grinned evilly toward Retan and Draven, though he was obviously focused on Retan.
-
"Blast it!" Valos increased his speed. "He better not try anything." He continued moving, faster and faster but he wasn't there yet.
--- ---
The woman hesitated. "I want to be alone." She thought for a moment and sat down. "But...well, maybe talking to somebody wouldn't hurt." She took a deep breath. "My name is Ophelia...No it's, Sienna. Sorry, um..." She cleared he throat and was silent. Her mind went blank.
-
"Of course it won't!" The girl looked all happy now, it could make even the darkest soul smile.
"My name is Puco! I came from a place faa-aar faa-aar away!" She looked pretty fond of herself.
"I'm really strong you know? I even got some meanies chasing me! But I'm waaaay stronger than them!"
Puco was hopping happily around.
"I jump from world to world, and have fun everywhere.. I make everyone smile, and I fight those who make people cry!"
The true innocence of a child, and fragile but unbreakable thing at the same time. Not knowing the pain of loss, just the joy of having, this child, looked really happy..
-
Ophelia smiled a bit, this was a pretty cute kid. She suspected she's probably just making up stories, but she nodded a long. "Thanks, I feel a little better."
---
The wolves that have been running were getting close to their location. One of them started sniffing the ground and started following a trail of scent.
Another spontaneous breeze blew by, carrying a tattered black rag, which flew through the pack of wolves...
--- ---
Xarn met up with Gorus in the hanger, inside the mountain fortress. A large amount of lizard men were marching in, following Xarn.
"How many men did you bring?" Gorus asked.
"One thousand four hundred." Xarn replied. "You?"
"Just one hundred, but they're good. A few of them are B-Class and magic trained."
"Awesome." Xarn smiled.
"Alright, load 'em up into the ships!" Gorus commanded.
-
Akran did not answer right away. Instead, his attacker spoke wincing with the arrow in his shoulder.
“S-sorry Sir-y,” he said in a high voice addressing the guy with the hammer, “He looky sus-i-spicious-y. Uhh, yea.” He winced again and stumbled away into the town.
Okay… thought Akran. He put up his bow and raised his hands half way to show he meant no harm.
The man with the hammer spoke, “That was Nagi, the village idiot. Sorry about him, he is retarded. I am second in command here. We are the Margonites and may name is Mikhalos. Another stranger entered the village just moments before we found you and Nagi. Would you of any chance be with him?”
Akran shook his head. He also pointed to his mouth and grunted.
“You can’t speak. Well, fancy that. I guess you will have to come with us.”
Two guards grabbed Akran’s arms and followed Mikhalos who was leading him into the town. He followed willingly enough, but kept on looking around to see if he could spot Kronos. Probably hiding… oh yeah, that’s right, he looks like a merchant to them. He scowled. Coward.
“Looking for someone?” The guard to his right sneered. “How'd you loose your speech? Did your husband cut your tongue out?” The guards burst out laughing.
Akran rolled his eyes. Oh my god these guys are a joke.
The Margonite guards took him to a strange building that stood out from the others. It was an entire half of a ship standing on its end. Windows and doors were crudely cut out of the wood and it had a giant mural painted on the side (actually the bottom of the ship). It was a painting of a mask with six eyes. Kinda Creepy.
The front door swung open and a fat, tiny man, only about 3 feet tall, came out. Akran would have laughed if he didn’t see what the man was holding. Instead, Akran had to stop himself from gagging, for the man was carrying a severed human arm.
“So what do we have here?” the midget asked with the tone of someone important.
“Elder Margo,” Mikhalos said bowing, “This kid was found on the edge of our village in the bushes. He got into a fight with Nagi and claims he cannot speak.”
“Is that so,” said Margo chuckling, “Take him to Madame Gwenivere. She’ll know what to do.”
Akran eyed the human arm. What on Earth is he doing with that? As Margo turned away back into his house, Akran heard him call to someone inside. “Is dinner ready yet, Elly? I’m starving.”
After the very disturbing incident with the Elder, Akran was lead to a decorative tent. Inside held strange fragrances that made him feel woozy. At a table in the centre was a young woman dressed in silks and she gazed deeply into a crystal ball. “I saw you coming Mikhalos,” she said without looking up.
“Madame Gwenivere,” said Mikhalos stepping forward, “A man is here who thinks himself a mute. Find out if he’s lying.”
The woman eyed Akran and gave him a little smile. “As you wish.” Gwen looked into the crystal ball while moving her hands in over it.
“This man is from far away. He has no home and no family. He is searching for a lost stone that he can never reach without the help of another…” At this point Gwen looked up to Akran and winked. “He is indeed a mute and is traveling alone. Do not bother with this young man, he is no danger to us. Let him go.”
Mikhalos shrugged and nodded to his men. “You heard her, let him go. He’s wasting our time.”
Akran was released and Mikhalos and his men ducked out of the tent. Akran stood there and rubbed the bite marks on his arm. He stared at the woman. Something about her…
“So,” she said sitting back in her chair, “Where is Kronos? I’d very much like to speak with him.”
-
//Wow, Ted, nice job on that last post. Loved it.\
"I stood there, waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting and waiting. Waiting.
But noooo, he decided to run off without me.
Idiot.
Well, then, looks like I'm going to have to find him, doesn't it? Why, why can't I have any servants here, even if they were depressingly incompetent? Sometime I'll need my eggheads in Kandarin to invent me some device to carry servants with me anywhere I go. Hmph.
In any case, I looked around a little, following the trail of the guards leading Akran into that other building. I sneaked a peek at the dwarf, fighting back an urge to make that hand of his slap him in the face.
There were several guards outside the tent, but there was no way I could sneak past them. Well, like this, at least... Ah, I ought to count my Lich blessings sometime.
I carefully took off the amulet, and put it into a fold in my robe. Thence, I jolted my physical being further out of sync with this dimension, throwing me deeper into phase-shift. My transparency increased to the point of being near-invisible. I snuck around the back of the tent, swiftly avoiding the guards. Now, for the actual idea I had in mind... To test my theory, I slowly reached toward the tent.
The theory worked - once I touched the fabric, it didn't stop my hand. I pushed myself through the wall, then, and found myself inside the pavilion. Akran was standing in the middle, next to some wench seated at a circular table.
-"And there he is... I'm glad I didn't have to send my scouts to look for you, Kronos."
I flinched. What the hell? How can she see me with me at her back, making no sound and being almost completely see-through? And how dare she utter my name?!
-"Listen, miss," I said, returning to my normal state. "I don't know who you are or what sort of magic art you're playing at me with, but believe me when I say that is not wise to anger me."
-"You don't know who I am? Have you looked close enough?"
Utilizing a recently learned air magic skill, I zapped from my current position to the chair opposite of her. Mwe he he he...
What? She didn't even flinch? That's not fair!
-"I know every move you pull before you do yourself, Sovereign. Now, look at me. Look into my eyes. Do you not remember me?"
I stared, and squinted, and blinked...
-"Sorry. Memory's completely blank. Your face doesn't ring even the vaguest bell."
-"That's unfortunate. My memory is quite clear. Don't you remember the black chalice?"
I felt my eyes widen, and my jaw drop. How......?
-"That's right," she continued. "The black chalice. That was his favourite wine cup, wasn't it?"
-"Shut up. Who are you."
-"...and the Jangerberry root extract..."
-"Shut up."
-"...the argument over the crown... and finally, the jade dagger..."
-"SILENCE!"
Unbelievable, simply unbelievable. No one knew of these details... No one was around his throne when he and I argued over who was to take the crown... unless...
-"No."
My voice was simple and final, somehow reassuring.
-"No. It's impossible. You are not her."
-"I can see that the transformation into a Lich - the walking corpse that you are now - has changed you much. So much, it seems, that you can't even remember your own sister, Kronos."
My body simply sank. I lost control over my voice, unable to make a sound. In fact, I don't think I could move any part of my body at that point.
-"I was only five years old, but that's old enough to understand when your parents are being poisoned by your brother. Old enough to comprehend that when your dear brother sits you into a little dinghy and pushes you off into a violent storm, he doesn't want to show his sister the brittlefish, like he promised - rather, he commits her to the sea, never wanting to see her again.
"And then, the brother blissfully buries the - bitter, I'm sure - memory, thinking that he got rid of the last witness who may challenge his right to the throne of Kandarin. It was me that the crown was meant for, wasn't it, Kronos?
"As I grew older, I understood the difficult position you were in. Hormones raging, father's hatred... The feathered headband just didn't sit right on your father's head, did it? It was meant for your head. Not your pathetic sister, as charismatically gifted as she was... Kandarin needed a masculine leader, someone with a vision, you told yourself. Well, I'm happy to say that if your vision was to put together a power-hungry, blood-thirsty bully of a nation, you have more than reached your goal."
-"You are not pathetic."
Yes, those were the best words I could come up with in response to that..."
-
"Hmmm... interesting." Retan stopped entirely, his blade hovering over Draven's head, and his attention turned entirely toward Zerobi no Anti.
Draven was entirely out of breath, having not a single chance to lay a blow upon the Dark Emperor... And now he ignores him! Draven's blade glowed a fiercer shade of red, and he drew a horizontal slash right at Retan's back...
The Dark Emperor turned his helmeted head slightly, one crimson eye larger than the other. He thrust a single palm towards the raging Draven and a pillar of blackness emanated from it, blotting out all light the burning man produced. The pillar surged straight down, pummeling the crater below like a drill, boulders flying into the air. With a thunderous *bang* another crater tore lose from the already deep pit and a violent gale sucked loose rocks into the hole to fill the vacuum created by the displacement.
When the smoke cleared, Draven was gone...
A glowing dagger with a gem upon the hilt rose from the hole and floated upward a few hundred feet to Retan's waiting hand. He took the dagger and looked at it for a moment, before placing it behind his back.
"You... astral demon... You are a different sort. I can tell it is not why you came, but it would be wise for you to bow now. And do it quickly, for I have thinning patience for insurgents..."
-
Valos finally arrived at the scene, about several meters away from Zerobi. Valos was a little tired out from flying so fast, but he'll be able to gain his energy back quickly enough. He arrived just in time to see Draven get blown away and disappeared.
"No..." Valos panted, he honestly didn't believe that Draven was destroyed. He stood his distance, likely Retan wouldn't worry about Valos. But he still needed to think of something.
--- ---
"Um, Justin." Belle got up from her chair. "You going to introduce me?" She noticed Lucy.
Meanwhile Lagart was still outside; he was completely zoned out looking into empty space. His mind was just wandering about. He was mostly thinking of what was going to happen, and how Tjed would be freed. He looked into the sky, and noticed something. "I think I see a new airship."
-
"Oh, right. These two are Sierana," he pointed to each as he introduced them awkwardly, "and this is my little sister Lucia. I'm still not sure how this all worked out..."
"And... Justin?"
"Yeah, sorry. This is... Belle, was it?"
"Nice to meet you. I'm princess Sierana Valimore, though I think you might've figured that one out already." She laughed a bit as she said that, and reached out her hand to shake with Belle.
------------
"Hang on a moment... I thought there were only three airships... hey Lagart, you don't think...?" Jacobie caught his fellow lizardman's eye. They both knew something was going to happen, just not when the time was to strike. Jacobie unsheathed both his katanas to prepare himself.
"You might want to get ready, I think the fighting's about to start!"
-
Puco was even more happy now she saw the woman was smiling. "Great! I already made someone smile!, Yaaay~~!"
She was performing some awkward happy dance, and stopped suddenly and looked questionably at the woman.
"But why?. are YOU in such a place?"
A child's curiosity knows no limit.
-
"It's Bell, actually." Bell said laughing a bit.
//Long story on the spelling change, I did a similar thing with Marshall, which used to spelled with only one L.\
She shook hands with Sierana. "Nice to meet you Princess Valimore." She thought she recognized that last name before, but didn't pay it much mind. "Oh and this is Miss Egal." She said motioning to the middle aged woman who owned the house.
"Hello there dears. Would you like anything? Water? Tea?" Miss Egal asked.
"And that little red guy sleeping on the chair over there is Rink." She said motioning to the imp.
Rink opened one eye. "Huh? Oh." He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "People are here. What's going on?"
"Justin brought over some company. This is his little sister Lucia." She pointed to Lucy. "And this is Princess Sierana Valimore."
"Sorry, Valimore did you say?" Rink asked, remembering that name.
"Yeah, what about it?" Bell asked.
Rink rubbed the top of his bald head. "Uh, never mind. Probably nothing." He got up and hoped on top of the table and sat down at the edge to be more at eyes level with the rest of the group. "So, any word from Duilin and the others?"
---
Lagart put his hand on the hilt of his broadsword sheathed on his back, but didn't make any sudden movements.
--- ---
"It's a long story." Sienna replied. "But let's just say this used to be my home." She took a deep breath and sighed. "My brother, well half brother is the only other person from this village who is still alive. Right now he is fighting the Dark Empire, which I have just left. Hopefully for good."
-
Puco tilted her head.
"Why won't you help him them? Sitting here looking at something that doesn't exist anymore doesn't help at all!"
She pointed at herself.
"Look at me! I'm jumping from world to world, and never look back! See how nice it is!"
-
"I will bow not to pledge my allegiance to you," Anti said with an earnest smile, "but only to proclaim how honored I am to fight you... the strongest being in Gaian!" And with that, he took his bow, and then assumed a fighting stance.
-
Akran stood there, motionless, and quiet. He was aware that he was staring, but he felt no desire look away from the fortuneteller’s face.
All of the information that was spilling out of her lips… abandonment, betrayal… and family? Did she say she was Kronos’ sister? And what Kronos said… “You are not pathetic.”? Well, Akran would have reacted differently if it were any other time. Kronos sounded totally out of character, even vulnerable at the moment. All of his mightiness looked as if it had sunk down, through the chair and into the floor.
In the silence that followed, Akran felt as though he should leave. They should be left alone. He tore his eyes away from the woman’s face and ducked out of the tent. Outside, the town was busy moving about and working; totally oblivious to what was going on behind him right now.
What had he heard? Well, much more than he knew just a few minutes ago. It was strange though. Out of all the shocking news he just witnessed, he couldn’t focus on it. The perfumes from inside the tent still clouded his mind. All he could think about was that woman.
Enough, thought Akran. He took a deep breath and let the chilly air fill his lungs. He tried to shove everything out of his mind: the Sovereign, the elder, the town, the woman…
“Damn it.” He cursed to no one in particular and strode back in the direction of the ship.
-
The tiny airship slowly approached the translucent green shield surrounding Tjedon.
"I don't like those guns..." One of the Velken guards said though clenched teeth, warily eyeing the massive cannons of the three airships that hovered over the city.
"Relax... we'll be fine..." Renard said, swallowing hard. He was beginning to feel rather nervous himself.
The small transport vessel stopped just outside the shield and just waited for several tense moments. Renard took his sister Emile by the hand and two of the Guards stood close to the priestess. If those cannons made any sign up powering up, they would have to jump out the window-- and fast.
Finally, the crystal in the center of the control room flickered to life and a reptilian figure translucently floated above it.
"This is The Death Evan. Identify yourselves."
"Galry Renard, Battle Mage of the Skyward Division, returning from classified mission. Ask the High General for clearance."
"The High General is not on board. I will clear you with Commander Vlak."
Blast it... Virmir wasn't on the ship... Could they possibly know? Renard sucked it in, despite how much he was shaking. "Our mission is classified to Vlak. And you're delaying us, lizard."
The lizard flinched, then scowled. "One moment..."
Renard's tail twitched back and forth nervously as he waited. He just starred at the cannons pointed at them outside the window... One hit would vaporize the lot of them...
Finally, a small hole opened in the shield, and he breathed a huge sigh of relief. They all did.
The airship maneuvered in through the hole and the opening closed off behind them. 'There." Renard pointed to the largest of the three airships. "The Death Evan. That's where Helix is." The pilot nodded and steered the ship towards the larger ship's expansive landing dock.
Renard turned to Duilin. "Sorry... my friend Helix was struck down by some undead monster, and the only one who can heal that sort of thing is the High Priestess here." Lucile gave a nod. "I don't want to delay. We'll make contact with Lord Virmir as soon as she sees him."
----
"Hmmm... unfortunate." Retan's blade flickered away, leaving just the hilt. He folded his arms as he remained floating above the crater, black cape flowing around him, edged by the pale moonlight.
"It is a shame, and a waste." His crimson eyes turned to Valos, and then in the direction of a third warrior, one floating towards him with a sword and axe. "You... human, you... astral, and you... Lilithian... None of you are of the correct alignment to strike me down. You should serve, and yet you struggle. A waste. I tire of insurgents. My army is complete. I have acquired all that I desire. The rest is trash."
A dark mass began to form above his head...
"Up until this point I have been exceedingly generous. It is time I withdraw my offers and wipe clean so that I may build anew."
----
Virmir balanced on the sword-in-the-floor with one hand on the hilt. When Aaron's horizontal slash came, he floated up in the air so the blade went under him and over the sword.
On the downfall, Virmir drew the much longer and thinner Wind Serpent, a gale bursting from the sheath as he whipped the blade above his had. With a downward slash, he fell next to the still burning sword he stuck into the ground and struck Aaron's weapon with a resounding clang.
"You're not human, are you?"
----
Zion's attack seemed to have zero effect on the monster. It scowled and lurched at the man who turned his back to it. But then suddenly the creature fell apart, diced into hundreds of tiny black cubes. Each piece flew a few yards away before disintegrating into tiny particles that fizzled into nothing.
-
"Sorry, but I don't think so... but something feels odd, I can kind of sense his presence. Hey Rink, can you feel that, too? It's demonic, but not entirely... it has to be him."
"Justin, your sister needs to get to bed soon, remember?"
"Yes, of course. Here, I'll get you to bed Lucy." Justin walked further into the house away from the others and found a small bed; perfect for his little sister. As he put her to bed, she gave him one final hug, and he left to join the others.
"So, you say you've heard the name Valimore before, have you?" Sierana was now getting a bit concerned. Not too many people who haven't been in the Arctic region for long enough would know of her father's name.
"It may be possible that you've met my... father... King Damion Valimore. He's not quite... human. Well, nor am I, I suppose, but even still, he's something else. He's a vampire." She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth as she said father.
"Yeah, Valimore... uh, I mean 'Damion' was here before. I think he was looking for me... hey, do you guys hear that?" The smaller airship that docked with the Death Evan, though being a smaller model, still made quite a racket.
"It's another Airship... Hey, Duilin's on board!"
------------
"Hey, you guys... thanks." Tiberius said, walking towards the three; Aura, Tsu, and Xenai. "We owe you more than enough thanks, but there is one thing I'd like to ask... do you think we could travel together? There really isn't much for us to do anymore... I understand if you don't want us to."
------------
"No, I'm not quite entirely human!" Aaron said as he held his sword against the windserpent, a wild clang noise as the two enchanted metals slashed together.
"I'm part wolf. In a way, we're both distant cousins from the fox, aren't we?" Aaron then twitched as he heard an airship pull into the air above them.
"This duel has lasted long enough. MEN, HAULT!!!" Aaron slowly let his sword return to its sheath. "I tire of fighting. It seems you have me at every move; older, faster, stronger... And more numbers. I surrender, High General, just please don't mistake me for a coward. I have an empire to lead, and if they loose me... they're bound to share the same fate of this island... imprisonment."
------------
-
"Wait, you had a friend who was struck down by an undead creature?" Duilin asked. "Was it a giant rat by any chance? A friend of mine was struck down by a giant zombie rat, he seemed pretty ill. If it's needed, I'd appreciate it if you could heal him."
---
"Not quite demonic?" Rink asked. "Yeah, that's probably Duilin." He turned to Sierana. "King Damion Valimore. I definitely recognize that name. I heard that name before my amnesia." He rubbed his head.
"Yeah, I don't know exactly how long ago it, fifteen years ago I think, but I apparently hit my head really hard or something, I dunno. But yeah, amnesia. Things come back to me every now and then however."
Rink rapidly shook his head a couple times. "Anyways. If Duilin is here, in an airship then that might mean he just rescued the Velkens." He smirked a bit.
"I bet his being all modest and crap. He's like that." He lays back and rubs his chin and lower lip in a similar fashion Duilin does.
"Hell, it was nothing. I'm just doing, what I do." Rink said imitating Duilin's voice.
Bell gave out a hard laugh, and Rink smirked again. The imp exhaled, and then looked back at Sierana. "But, yeah I think there's like some legend about guy named 'Damion Valimore' who was like born from 'darkness' and 'destruction' and like populated the world, ten thousand years ago. I don't remember where I heard it however. But I used to live in the demon's world, Thanatos, so maybe a demon told me or something. Some of them know quite a bit, but most of them are just dumb brutes."
--- ---
Valos couldn't believe what he was about to do. He was probably kidding himself more then anyone has ever in his life but he wasn't going to back down. And if he's going to get killed, he's going down with a fight.
"Make my day O' mighty Emperor Retan of the Darkness..." Valos lifted up his fists and created another spiked ice gauntlet on one, and held a fireball in the other. "...I just went through hell and back, so I could really use a nice walk in the park."
-
//Forgot Ophelia/Sienna\
"You don't understand." Sienna replied. "When I lived here, it was the only time I was actually happy. I avoided this place for decades so I could forget about it. If I could forget about it, then maybe I'd be happier with my current state. But that didn't work out, it leads me to do things, anyone that reminded me of my old life, I killed them." She shed a tear from he eye. "I tried to kill my own brother. I am thankful that he was stronger then I and I was unable to kill him. I am also thankful that he was so understanding. He's truly a great person."
She rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have opened up to you like that. You're so young and I don't even know you."
---
"Look at this, so pathetic..."
-
Jacobie opened the door to the house, still holding his katanas. "There's another airship up there. You might want to keep your guards up. Justin, Rink, get ready to fight."
"Yeah, we noticed, what with the noise and all. I'm pretty sure Duilin's up there, but we should still be prepared, or whatever." Justin pulled out his demon fang and had it at his side, making sure to keep it out of the way.
"Hmm... I don't think whatever's up there is on our bad side. Still, if they are our ally, then we should help them." Sierana sat down in a chair next to the table. "By we, I mean you guys, of course. I'm no fighter."
"Well put. Lagart and I will warn you guys if we see anything unusual going on." With that, Jacobie shut the door behind him and watched the sky again.
------------
-
Zion didn't even so much as look at the monster that had tried to attack him. He simply grinned upon hearing the monster's discomboobulation (Yes, I AM using that word). "Now, for the other guys..." And with that, he got started on fighting the other enemies.
--- --- ---
"Hah! You must be kidding me!" Full of overconfidence, he just floated there, willing to take that dark mass head-on (and apply it directly to the forehead).
-
"Giant rat?" Renard scratched his head. "Yeah, that was it exactly, actually..."
"Of course I will help whoever needs it," the priestess smiled, but then it faded. "But we must hurry..."
The transport vessel quietly landed atop the Death Evan and the door opened, Renard leading the group out while holding Emile's hand. Lady Urocy's guards surrounded the priestess with their hands on their weapons, their eyes and ears darting about.
Most of the Lizard Men atop the deck stopped to watch them. Especially Duilin.
"Helix is two levels down..." Renard said through clenched teeth as they made their way towards the lift. "Just... look like you're an officer or something, Duilin."
As they approached the rectangular section of floor that lowered down into the bowels of the ship, a single lizard rose from the opening and walked past the group. "You there!" Renard shouted, trying to sound authoritive, but it wasn't really working. "Send a message to the High General. Tell him Renard has returned and needs to speak with him..." The lizard nodded and went about his business.
When they were traveling down the lift, Renard quietly said to Duilin, "We're going to have to try and fit in for a while... there's way too many of them to fight... Lord Virmir will have a plan. I know it..."
----
Retan remained floating there with his arms folded, the darkness swelling above.
"Very well. I shall grant your wishes. Let us make this entertaining, at least..."
The blackness exploded into a vortex, with swirling winds pushing outward instead of in. Two shadows leapt from the portal and blazed right at Valos and Anti. The crimson-eyed creatures looked nearly identical to Retan, complete with cape and armor, except they were but detail-less silhouettes.
A burning red sword appeared in each's hand, and the Shadow-Retans lunged through the air at the demon and human...
(The Shadow-Retans are medium-high powered NPCs that you may control. Have fun!)
----
Virmir held the tip of his blade to Aaron's throat for a long moment. Finally he lowered it and sighed.
"You... probably shouldn't have told me that much... With you in our custody, we will be able to subjugate your nation much more easily..." By now the Velkens had the Drannivolka's arms tied behind their backs and their weapons confiscated. "Although I mean you no disrespect. I merely do as my liege wills... we all do."
He turned and pointed to the door. "Take them to the lower dungeons, along with those other two... Where did they go? Where is Riuki?"
-
Aaron lowered his head and sighed. As Virmir had mentioned, he probably said too much. He lifted his head and looked the Velken straight in the eye. "I... beg your pardon? My nation, you say? Please, more than enough blood has been spilled, and on my own account as a bad leader! Spare your lord this information! There is no need to know every detail!"
"Enough, my lord. They are of the Dark Empire, and know of no peace. Do you not see the coldness in his eyes?" The three Drannivolkan Elites' hands were bound behind their backs.
"Marrik, you don't know what you're talking about!" Aaron gave him a stearn look, and the Drannivolkan merely looked away, flicking his tail as he did so.
"He has a point, Emporer. We're outmatched by a worthless scumbag from the dark empire. They know nothing of honor, or mercy for that matter."
"If they didn't know honor or mercy, then why are YOU still alive? SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" A window lit the room with the light of a full moon, shining into the room, and increasing Aaron's breathing. His chainmail started to stretch out as he began to slowly grow in size.
"You remember... when I said I was part wolf, right? Part werewolf... to be exact." Fur started to grow all over his body, his head changing shape, growing wolf-like ears. The transformation was complete within a matter of seconds after the moonlight shone upon him. He looked like a wolfman in armor and a cape. A velken came near him, blade drawn.
"No, don't! He's perfectly calm, just don't hurt him! He won't fight you! Lord Aaron, down! See!?" The Emporer heard the words of his commrade and lowered to the floor, like an animal responding to the call of its master. The Velken still kept his blade drawn, and pointed it at the wolven Aaron. After a few moments, he sheathed it.
------------
-
Kronos came almost right after Akran.
-"Let's go. We're leaving."
--- --- ---
Cain stood at the summit of the mammoth Citadel, looking at the workers below. Since Eldridge was so kind to introduce the flotation crystals to the Sovereignty, Ryleh took initiative and installed them into the fortress. Now the four bone legs which used to support the structure were no longer needed, so they were salvaged for their unlife. In their places, there were massive chains extending from the top and to the ground. They bound the Citadel to the ground, not allowing it to float away into the sky.
Suddenly, the Scribe felt a deep rumbling. It wasn't even a rumbling, as such - more like a strange feeling of having your insides shaking as if from a very loud sound, but it was deathly silent. He looked around, finding no apparent source of the disturbance.
And then, he saw it.
The grey, starved clouds rushed to the sides, revealing the metal sky overhead. At first, nothing could be seen through that hole - but then, a circular shadow revealed the ship which has finally arrived to Gros Morne. The design changes were immediately visible - the three carcasses which sheltered the crystals were now chained to the hull, pulling the whole contraption into the skies. Instead of being located at the sides of the ship, the carcasses floated a good fifty meters above the ship itself, attached by the long chains. They appeared to form a sort of a three-pointed star, joined in the middle by a suspiciously bulky sphere. The main ship itself consisted of a relatively thick and wide ring, encircling a massive lens in the middle (which was slightly elevated above the rest of the ship). The lens itself had a smaller ring around it, which was almost touching the delicate glass. There were many glass lines attaching the two rings together, squirming over the metal hulls like tentacles, eventually vanishing inside. The lens was not attached to the ship at all, probably for the ease and speed of rotation. Cain also noted with delight that the whole vessel had a barely visible shimmering blue aura around it.
The ship continued descending until it was right over the Citadel. A walkway extended from the ring, revealing a beaming Foreman, who dashed over to Cain.
-"I present to you the Enlightenment, Scribe, a name we thought to be rather fitting. All she needs now is a crew, but I'm sure you already have that planned out."
-"Yes... I do. Thank you, Foreman. Perfectly done. I will inform the Sovereign of your deeds."
The Foreman nodded, and disappeared in the Citadel's trapdoor. Cain followed afterwards. He'll need to contact a few people...
-
The airships took off, two large transport ones and a smaller one used for carrying Gorus, Xarn and the elite guards.
The smaller one was Xarn's airship, he called it the Lightning Wyvern. It was a dark green and had large wings and could move really fast. And he also decided to add lightning cannons onto it, it was a fairly decent fighter ship.
Along with the airships were Albatrash riders. They were scouts that flew far ahead of the fleet. They all had communication orbs so they could contact their general if anything of interest came up.
Xarn was piloting, one of the elites was co-piloting, and Gorus stood over him with his arms crossed, tapping his left pointer claw on his arm.
"Incoming transmission." The co-pilot stated.
A translucent image of a skinny lizard man's face appeared over a glowing orb in the middle of the pilot seats.
"High General Grouss ssir. It sseemss that the Kandarin Nation is misssing from itss island."
"Impossible." Gorus snarled. "Are you sure of this?"
"Yess, possitive ssir."
Gorus rubbed his lower jaw. "I know they're out there. I can still sense their presence. Xarn can you?"
"A little bit." He replied.
"Keep moving north-ward." Gorus ordered.
--- ---
"Excellent." Duilin replied, in response to Lucia.
Duilin felt a little uncomfortable boarding onto the ship, and even more uncomfortable when the lizard men leered at him as he walked by.
Duilin whispered back to Renard. "I actually think now might be a good time to mention I'm on a few most wanted lists. Remember those bounty hunters that came after me?"
--- ---
The shadow Retan flew towards Valos swinging its fire blade. Valos blocked it with his ice gauntlet, causing the ice to smash apart and melt.
Valos countered by punching the shadow Retan in the stomach with his fireball fist knocking it back a few feet...
-
Xenai shrugged, with a smirk. Tsu translated, "That means yes. Or you're welcome. Or maybe both."
Aura added, "Please do join us. The more help we can get, the better."
"Yeah, but we still don't know what the hell we're doing next. You guys have any ideas?" He asked to Tiberius and Jannis.
--- --- ---
//Yay, a dummy to play with!
"Ugh! You're making me play with some dummy?! Fine then! I will expel you of your flaws!" The shadow Retan charged in, as Anti gauged its power. It's about 60%-80% as strong as I am, in this form. At least it won't be boring. The faux Retan swung its fire blade downward at Anti, but he suavely slid out of the way, sending a kick to its helmeted head, sending it flying away upwards.
"Hellzone Grenade!!!" Anti fired a volley of energy blasts out past the clone, who'd halted in the air. The blasts flew past him as he started charging a dark-element spell. "No chance!" The energy blasts that missed were all surrounding the shadow clone. "BOOM!" And they all collapsed in on it. It fell from the sky, and Anti swooped in. The clone flipped around and slammed its foot onto the top of Anti's head, sending him crashing into the ocean....
-
Renard placed a palm over his forehead. "Aww, nuts. I forgot about that..." Then of course there was that time that freaky lady harassed him about Duilin within the capital itself. Shoot, they better make this quick...
Renard lead the group down some dark hallways into the sick bay of the ship. His ears perked as he recognized the Blade Knight Anselm and the Battle Mage Gaston quietly slipping out of Helix's door.
"Anselm!"
"... Renard?"
Renard ran up to his comrade. Anselm seemed generally confused. "Who are..." His eyes widened. "High Priestess Urocy? But... how...?!" He then saw Duilin and his ears flattened as he fought back a snarl, reaching for his weapon. "HIM?! Renard! What is going on?!"
Renard grabbed Anselm's muzzle and clamped it shut. "Shhhh!! Back into the room!" Renard pushed him and a confused Gaston back into Helix's room before motioning the others to follow. Once everyone was inside, one of the Velken guards shut the door.
With nine Velkens, a half-demon, and one Velken-in-bed, the room was utterly packed. Lucile immediately pushed over to Helix, who was under the covers and obviously in a lot of pain. She made some hand gestures over his body and began to whisper an unintelligible chant.
Anslem just stared at Renard dumbfounded. "Renard, what did you do?"
Renard grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Anselm, everyone's free."
"Free?"
"They can't touch us anymore. Sir Rikarl is leading everyone to safety as we speak."
"Safety? Are you telling me you evacuated Welkin?"
"Yes! They can't hurt us. We don't have to live like this anymore!"
"B-but... this is treason!"
"No it's not! We were subjugated against our will! We're slaves, Anselm, slaves!"
"Renard... this is madness..."
Renard gave Anselm a good shaking. "We've been spoon-fed nothing but lies all our life! Rikarl has rallied everyone back home, Anselm. We're moving on..."
----
"Leave us."
"... My Lord?"
Virmir shot the Velken a cold stare that could kill. The Battle Mage nodded and bowed, and the Drannivolkan Elites were lead out of the room by the remaining Velkens with swords at their backs. The door shut, leaving the silver fox Virmir and the wolf-man Aaron alone in the room.
Virmir's feet left the floor, and he floated up to the window, folding his arms behind his back after he sheathed both the Wind Serpent and the Flameburge.
He just hovered there, staring at the moon for a long moment. Finally he spoke. "It is a shame a world exists in which Canids must kill each other..." His tail flicked behind him. He paused another moment. "Tell me... is there anything in the world you care for? Something you love so dearly you will do anything to protect? Something you will protect no matter how many sins you must commit? No matter how many innocents must suffer?"
----
Valos' kick knocked the blade out of the Shadow-Retan's hand, and it reeled in the air for a moment. Suddenly it snapped his head up, its two burning crimson eyes glaring at the human, and two additional appendages grew out of its sides, looking like black blades.
Resembling something more like a giant spider made of an inky darkness, it flew above Valos' head and slashed at him with its left blade...
The Shadow-Retan that hit Anti stood in the air a moment, looking quite the bad dude as its adversary crashed into the waves. It placed two fingers upon its forehead and a crackling of energy buzzed around its hand. After a moment's charging, it thrust its fingers down, and fired a spiraling drill-like blast of energy that cut through the water and bore straight for Anti's body...
-
//Sorry I haven't been on in a while... please don't kill me. ^_^
"Oh shoot! Lord Virmir!" Ko'ji's new ability allowed her to hear Virmir call her name. She zoomed back to the room at an insane speed, the two behind her (probably now FAR behind her) ran to catch up. She entered the room.
"Sorry about that... now, what did you-eep!" Her eyes shot from Virmir to the werewolf in the room.
--- ---
"Why don't we just make a break for it?"
"No! I freed you, and you owe me, correct? She freed us, and now we owe HER!"
"I'm just saying, think about what they could do to us. They're dark empire troops, you know?"
"I see your point, but there's something different about them... her in particuliar..."
"What? I don't see anything special about that girl... besides the fact that she's fast as lightning. And she's a bit more nice than the rest... oh, and them weird weapons she's got... Yeah, I see your point, I'll shut up now."
"Good. We'll just wait up here for her to return, though. No sense in getting in her way."
"I don't know, mate, but it does seem you like her a bit."
"WHAT!?!?!? Uh... What makes you say that? Don't be rash, now, Jack."
"Heh... you're in denial. It's pretty funny, seein' you this way, though!"
"You'd better shut he hell up Jack, if you know it's good for you."
"Oh, sorry. Yeah, I'm quiet now."
"And not a word of it to her, got me?"
"Does that mean you DO like her?"
"..."
"Thought so. Not a word, though. I'll keep shut... for now."
-
-"Claus Orff, General Environment Doctor!"
-"Present, Scribe."
-"Hans Bauer, Lens Design Head!"
-"I am here, sir!'
-"Otto Von Göth, Project Leader!"
-"Here, Mr. Ryleh."
-"And everyone else appears to be here," finished Ryleh, referring to miscellaneous men in white lab coats. "Well, gentlemen, you have been elected to be the crew of the Enlightenment. This is a heavy responsibility, and as such, any forfeit notices will be accepted right now."
The Scribe waited for a few seconds, and continued:
-"Good. Now, as I'm sure you are all aware, the ship has already arrived. In fact, it is directly on top of us, ready to be raised into the Aether. We would like this to happen as soon as time allows. There are, however, certain things you need to know before crossing that drawbridge between the Citadel and the ship. First of all, the ship will be captained by our dear Colonel himself, with Herr Orff as second in command. Another issue is the provisions, which will be taken up to the ship through a carrier glyph. However, such operation takes many days to complete, and, as such, a transaction will only be available monthly, and only for several minutes at a time. This means that you will need to be responsible with the supplies.
"Finally, please, keep in mind at all times that you will do as you are told from Gros Morne. Contact will be maintained indefinitely, and you are to follow every direction given to you without question. I urge you not to forget that the Binding Glyph remains here, and therefore, so does the Enlightenment's life. Is this clear?"
There was a murmur of agreement in the crowd.
-"Good. Now, get on board."
-
Something in this world... these words ran through the emporer's head. The werewolf got to his feet, his cape fluttering as a small breeze blew through the window. For a small moment, all he could do was sit there. Soon, he remembered his voice, though it was a bit different in his wolven form. "That is," he said in a very deep, somewhat chaotic voice, "what I would protect. My nation... my people." The wolf shifted his gaze from the moonlight, then back to the Velken's face.
"Tell me, high general... how many innocents have you gone through to uphold whatever truths run through your mind? Think of them for a moment. Did you ever think that maybe they love something in this world as much as you do? That they would die, give the ultimate sacrifice, just to keep it safe?" The emporer walked slowly towards a wall, turned around and leaned on it.
"You haven't the slightest clue how valuable a life is... Even a man with nothing left still has something, and that can make the greatest difference. Do you know what it is? It's his life. Taking life is the most evil thing a mortal being can do to another. It is because of our own mortality that we strive to live on." The wolf man simply sighed and dusted his armor off a bit. He then stood up as straight as he could and walked up to the Velken, who was two thirds his size.
"But no... that answer is not quite good enough. I live on because I have to; because if I die, then others will suffer, and it causes them to regret... forever. A real answer to that question would be something like this; I would rather die than kill an innocent, to commit such an atrocity... I have answered my part. What of you, general? Why do 'you' do it?"
------------
"We... really have nothing left to do. Immense demonic enery isn't far away, though. I can hear the ice bolts and lightning waves of a raging battle not far away. It looks like what we came here to do was accomplished. We'll go where ever you go now, I guess."
------------
-
Puco sat down.
"Your story sounds really sad, nee.." She sighted and looked at the dark air.
"I was in a very sad world once too.. They had to kill each other to feed their children.. .."
Then she suddenly began to smile.
"But I made food for them, and I gave them hapiness with my powers!" She laughed, and showed her "Muscle".
"Feeding those people, and killing those who were meanies.. it wasn't really fun.."
She sighted.
"But after those children grew older, they could rebuild the world, and everything would get good!"
She put her finger in her mouth.
"Oh, for some reason I don't get older too.."She looked at Seinna and suddenly frowned.
"You don't believe me do you! Wait! I'll show you!"
She looked around, and saw a dead flower, in the dry earth. Running to it, she clapped her hands a few times, and touched the ground were the flower was growing.
First.. speed the natural rebuilding of the earth..
Slowly but sure, the earth around the flower began to be more wet, and lighter. Some small green plants also appeared.
Now to extract the water, and food from the earth, and the light from the sky.
She raised the right hand, while her left hand still was touching the earth.
And focus it in the leaves of the flower.. and speed up the process of photosynthesis..
She put both her hands near the flower, and slowly it began to grow.. with the nature around it.
Puco stood up, and showed the small area of nature surrounded by dry earth.
"See what I can do?" She said, with a happy voice, expecting a praise.
--- ---
"What!?" Reigratto responded.
He jumped back a little, apparently being very frustrated.
"Where did that come from?!"
"Don't panic, sheesh. It's only for a period of time.. it seems that the prey is here.."
Shuichi answered calmly.
"It's only in case that "she" is here too.."
Shui made a gest with his hand showing Reigratto to calm down.
"You're trying to do it by yourself aren't you? Nope, I will help you, and I don't care what you think!"
Reigratto was pretty angry now.
"And why do you think that Puco actually is here?!"
"Shut up!" Shuichi hissed.
"You never now who's listening.."
Reigratto sighed. "Fine, fine,.. anyway, how are you so sure about it? Maybe the cat has only some -"
Then the cat suddenly began to hiss and cry, rolling around.
"It's okay! Calm down.." Shuichi quicly ran toward the cat, and tried to take him in his arms, but he ended only getting bait and cut.
Shuichi turned his head towards Reigratto, holding his hand, which the cat just bit.
"Is this enough?"
Reigratto gave up. "Well maybe you are right.. but how are we gonna find her?"
-
Duilin thought Renard could use a little help convincing Anselm.
"Listen, Retan and his dark empire are evil. The humans you have been forced to kill are innocent people, with feelings and emotions just like the Velkens. Retan cares for nothing but himself, and he lives only to conquer and destroy everything. He didn't save your world, he held it hostage. He likely would have destroyed it eventually, just out of spite."
Duilin stepped closer.
"I wouldn't be surprised if Retan was the one who made the sun expand and start burning up your city, just so he could save you."
--- ---
//Wait, Valos' kick? I'm sure I typed 'punch'.\
Valos shifted himself backwards avoiding the blade coming towards his head. He created another pair of ice gauntlets and then smashed them right into the Shadow-spider-Retan's face.
--- ---
Another message was sent to the Lightning Wyvern's communications orb.
"High General. It appears that the Kandarinians have moved towards the artic regions."
"Interesting." Gorus replied. "Alright, continue scouting the area, we're going in."
--- ---
Sienna's jaw dropped.
"That's amazing. You really don't just have an over active imagination." She smiled, and began to observe the reborn land. "This is...wonderful."
She picked a flower from the ground, and looked at it, she started to feel happy.
"Thank you."
Suddenly the flower rotted and turned into a dust and the reborn land started to rot away. Sienna looked around, she didn't understand. She wanted it back.
A pack of wolves then arrived on the scene, and Sienna yelped in shock. The wolves slowly walked towards them. A very warm breeze blew by and a black rag floated through the wind. But then hovered in front of the wolves. The black rag then expanded and grew bigger until it was a large pile on the ground. The wolves' eyes began to glow red and they growled at Sienna and Puco. The pile of rags then moved and then revealed to be a large cloak belonging to a human-shaped being, with a horned metal mask.
"My, my, my." The cloaked being said in a mocking tone. "Has she finally came back, to shed another tear for her past? Why don't you just suck it up. I know you're a woman, but your over grieving is just childish."
"Nex..." Sienna glared. "So you're alive? What do you want?"
"Oh, I just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing." Nex stepped forward.
"I was actually doing a lot better until you showed up. Just leave me be. I'm sure the emperor doesn't want you here."
"I no longer bow down to that lizard, anymore."
"Yes, now you're a pet to demon that isn't even smart enough to manage an empire for longer then a day."
"The quick fall of the Grey Empire, was Melkoth's fault. I assure you if Abodahon had more control he would have this world on its knees. In fact that's why I'm here. The Talonscar is taking back this world, and I thought I might offer you the chance to join me."
"Join you? I don't think so. I will no longer kill innocents."
"Well...I don't really need you, so if you don't want to..."
Nex turned around and the glowing eyed wolves stepped forward and continued to growl.
"So, are you sure? Think quick, my puppies here are getting pretty hungry." Nex stated.
-
Akran turned around and saw that Kronos had exited the tent and was following him. So soon? I thought they were going to talk.
He looked at the Sovereign and asked, “What’s going on with you and the woman in the tent? If she can actually see stuff in that crystal ball of hers, then she might be able to help us find the Spinel.”
Akran jogged up beside Kronos. “Wait up, what’s going on? Why are we leaving?”
-
-"Silence, fool. You ask too many questions." I paused. A thought that perhaps I'm being too tough on the kid crossed my mind for a split second. "Your questions will all be answered in time. The one calling herself "Gwenivere" will definitely be gracing Kandarin with her presence... soon enough."
I leaped up onto the ship, and quickly summoned the bones of the fallen crew members to help propel the craft, as well as repair the rudder. Wyverns would help, but they're too much of a luxury, I suppose. In any case, the ship sped faster than an enraged shark after I boosted it with a taste of my own power."
--- --- ---
Warm convection flows caressed the body, just like water. The glowing red lava left nothing but an orange blur in the eye. He could almost taste it - a savoury, hearty flavour blessing the mouth with a warmth spreading around the head and spilling down unto the chest. There was no need to move in the tiny space that he was crammed into, nor was there any desire. The lava flows were so good to him, so sweet... His mind was in an ecstatic state almost all the time, a quarter of him dreaming, a quarter of him conscious, and half of him completely dead. There was nothing else there, other than him, his little shell, and the lava streams...
But then, something changed. Did he see something? Did he feel it? Did he hear it? He didn't even know entirely what it was, but it was there, and it was not making him feel good. The atrophic body finally moved uncomfortably, for the first time in many years. The mind slowly began resurfacing from the depths of the soothing delirium, jerked awake by the abnormal feeling. Yes, there was definitely something there. The sweet lava flows seemed colder than ever now, and he was barely moving. There was something else, though... A presence? Could it be? Or is it just another way of the mind keeping itself sane?
Now he was sure: he heard something. Muffled voices were coming from outside his secluded world, his sanctuary.
-"Whhts thaa?"
-"Somm kind o'oaa?"
-"Waa wo'ouuaah..."
The voices were getting clearer... they seemed to close in on him.
-"Don't touch that!"
-"...missed me..."
-"This is a reconnaissance..."
He tried to go deeper, he tried to go back in - but his body was being ripped from his shelter, and he knew it. His time almost came. Why? Why now? Why couldn't he have his shell back in the molten heaven, carefree, careless for his whole life? The thought of coming out scared him, it appalled him, he had to try to go back, he had to - so he pushed his whole body back down into the earth, his mother's womb. They will not take me, he thought, I must return!
The voices outside hissed loudly, and became garbled again. For a moment, it was all quiet, just like he wanted it to be - and then something loudly hit his shell. Somehow, that enraged him beyond all comprehension. His metal fingers pierced the feeble inner layer of the shell in a frenzied fit of madness. He violently raked through the transparent barrier between him and the outer world with his claws. The orange liquid he so placidly floated in several hours ago spilt all around him, as he stood up. His limbs were shaking, fuelled by the rage that consumed his entire being. His eyes fell onto a group of three... creatures, small, and disgusting in every single way. Several layers of dead skin was draped over them, perhaps their body parts. One of them had a hand longer than the other, which ended in a long, two-edged claw.
All his senses exploded, as he let out a blood-curling shriek. Two of the ugly shortlings dashed away from him, and the one closest to him dropped the claw-like appendage on the ground, shaking, but not running. Too late, too late... The dwarf awoke him. The dwarf must pay.
--- ---
"Dear Mrs Lundgren;
We regret to inform you that your husband Simon Lundgren perished while serving Kandarin. He was involved in an accident in the newly dug shaft, but a full-scale investigation and interrogation of his surviving colleagues, Mauritz Hallstrom and Erich Aswaldu is underway. Your husband's contributions to the field of geology will not be forgotten.
Sincerely,
Nils Larsson
P. S. A service will be held this day of the following week."
-
"The arctic region, I've never been there before." Gorus stated. "But I know it's the coldest place in Gaian, which might lower our mobility a little bit, us being cold blooded and all. Perhaps one of the reasons the Kandarinians chose this place is because of that."
Xarn shrugged, in response.
"They're scared, Xarn. I can almost smell it from here. Fear is their only defence, but it won't be enough, not at all. I'll hunt down their bloody Marshall, or Sovereign, or whatever the hell he's called now, and kill him myself. I want to smell his fear."
"You sure do like it when they're scared. Don't you?" Xarn asked.
"You just figure that out?" Gorus sneered.
"Sort of. You weren't always like that." Xarn replied softly.
Gorus growled in annoyance. "Xarn! Stop trying to analyse me! You're a freaking soldier. You're not paid to think, you're not paid to care about feelings, and you're not paid to care about what goes on in my mind."
Xarn sighed.
Gorus kneeled down and put his head next to his. "You're paid to kill and to follow orders, such as orders from me. My orders are for you to pilot this ship and to shut up. Got it soldier!?"
"Yes sir."
Gorus stood back up and started pacing across the room. What was Xarn's problem? Was he jealous of him? Or was he simply just angry because he was now his boss and now he acts different? Yes, it's true his attitude changed a bit when he became High General, but that's what's expected, that's what is required when you're leading an entire division of an empire. You need to toughen up, you need to clear your mind and focus on battle. Xarn needed to learn that, or else it would get his army and likely he killed in battle.
"The Kandarinian city is in view, High General." The co-pilot stated.
Gorus turned to view outside the window. "Wow. Such an amazing city, and it was built so quickly...I'm really going to enjoy levelling it to the ground."
The airships were in clear sight at Gros Morne, already wyvern riders started to spew out of the ships. Large crowds like buzzing flies, zooming towards the city...
-
Anselm folded his ears and looked at the ground, suddenly forced to question everything he had been told in life. Gaston seemed more collected, but remained quiet none-the-less.
Helix suddenly sprung up from the bed as the priestess waved her hands over him mid-chant. "Let's kill the lizards," he growled.
"Helix!" Renard's eyes widened, relived to see his best friend awake at last, "you're in no condition to--"
"Like the blazes I ain't!" He threw the covers off and gave a short bow of respect to Lady Urocy before turning and sputtering at Renard. "We hit them hard and fast, right now." He slammed one fist into his palm to emphasize his point.
"We really need to consult Lord Virmir..." Renard said quietly. He bent over his little sister. "Emile, you wait here with Lady Urocy and these nice men, okay?" She seemed timid once more, but nodded. Lucile took the little girl's hand. "I take it you won't have any trouble watching her?" Renard asked.
"Not at all, Sir Renard." One of the priestess' four guards saluted him. "We will guard her as we will the priestess. Our sincerest apologies. We would love to help, but we can do naught but guard Lady Urocy, and there is no way we would allow her anywhere near a battle of any time."
"I understand. Pay it no mind, you are excellent soldiers." The four Velken guards' chests puffed slightly at the complement. "Take care."
"You too, Renard." Lucile smiled at him and Renard returned it, although a bit more sheepishly.
Renard waved a claw at the door and it opened without a touch. "Let's go," he waved at Duilin.
Anselm, Helix, and Gaston followed, shutting the door behind them.
"Where's Riuki?" Helix asked as the five-some made their way down the dark corridors of the airship.
"She left in a hurry after we brought you back. I think she joined with Lord Virmir down at the castle," Anselm replied.
"Oh..." Helix seemed a little disappointed she wasn't there, looking around the hallways as if he would spot her.
"We're headed there right now, anyway," Renard said, "and we don't do a thing, 'till we talk with Lord Virmir about this, got it Helix?"
"Yeah yeah..." Helix rolled his eyes, his tail thrashing about as he folded his hands under his robe.
----
"Because, lupine..." still floating before the window, Virmir slowly turned around. "... we are selfish." He paused for a moment, tail flowing behind him as he eerily stood upon the thin air. His cold eyes bore down upon the far larger wolf man. "Perhaps we will not survive much longer. Perhaps we are doomed to extinction. If that is our fate, then so be it. But until our final hour arrives, we will do whatever it takes to survive..."
He reached behind his back and slowly drew the long slender Wind Serpent, its blade cast in a pale lime-green glow within the moonlight. He brought the tip of the blade to the unarmed Aaron's neck.
"We do not run from our sins. We are creatures of darkness. There is no turning back now..."
He stopped as Riuki entered, looking in her direction. He remained motionless for a moment as a lizard guard poked his head in from behind her.
"Message for High General Virmir..."
"Speak."
"Renard has returned and wishes to speak with you."
Both of the silver fox's ears shot up. "Renard...? Was he alone?"
"Uh... no..."
"Who was with him?"
"... More Velkens, my Lord..."
Virmir looked at him for a long moment then looked at the wolf. Finally he waved at the lizard to shoo him off. He landed before Aaron and sheathed his blade, just staring into space. Finally he stepped towards the wolf man, and whispered into his ear:
"If you hear an explosion in the sky, take your men and kill the lizards..."
He grabbed the wolf's much larger claw and placed a key into it. Then spun around, "Come, Riuki. Quickly."
With that, he shot out the window in a single bound.
The Velkens that had put the Drannivolka into their jail cells were waiting outside for their master.
"My Lord?"
"Something has come up. Back to the airship."
With that, they sped off towards the Death Evan above...
-
"Yes sir!" Ko'ji leaped out of the window and followed the high general to the Death Evan above. In a part of the castle above, one could see the two that were supposedly following her. They watched in awe as the two Velkens shot into the sky, defying all sense of gravity.
"What... in the... hell...?"
"Damn! What the hell was that!?"
"Must be some sort of racial trait. None the less, we should wait here, until she returns at least. The lord and I both know I can't bloody fly!"
"No... but I know someone who does!" Jack ran off, Arata following close behind.
"Where are you going?"
"You'll see!" They reached the cells where the Drannivolkas were kept. They were simply waiting there... waiting for something to happen. And so the two of them decided to wait as well.
-
"See you later Lucile." Duilin said waving. He decided not to bother saying goodbye to Emile, since she always flinched whenever he looked at her. It was blatant racism, really. But she was just a kid, so he doesn't blame her.
"But yeah, glad to see at least one of your friends is willing enough to help." Duilin said in regard to Helix. He followed along with Renard. "My name's Duilin, in case you didn't catch it earlier." He said to the three Velkens.
He then looked back at Renard as they continued walking. "So, uh. What's the deal with you and Lucile?" He said with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood. Although he may have just brought up something he shouldn't have.
---
A couple of lizard men were wandering around in the Tjed castle dungeons.
"You sure we should be here?" One of the lizard men asked another.
"Whatss the worsse that could happen?" The other one replied.
A low growling voice could be heard from the corner.
"Wha? What was that?"
"Letss find out."
The two lizard men walked towards an unlit holding cell in the corner, where a tanned and tattooed elf was sitting. He seemed to be under some sort of spell.
"Whoa, it's an elf."
"Perhapss we sshould wake it up."
-
"So... there is hope after all... thank you. You aren't as cold-hearted as you make others believe." Aaron gave a quick bow as Virmir and Ko'ji both headed out the window. He then decided the true liberation would begin. He walked back towards the door and opened it, leaving the small room to find the holding cells. As he roamed the halls, he spotted a lizardman.
"You there!" He tried to sound demanding, and supposedly did quite a good job at, "By the command of the high general, you are to take me to the holding cells immediately, or you shal suffer under penalty of death!" The lizard, apparently unknowing, did as Aaron willed him to do. He was escorted to the cells, and just as he made it there, he was slashed down, his head falling to the floor, soaking it with crimson blood.
"My lord! You... defeated the abnormal Drannivolkan?"
"No, he is not our enemy."
"THE HELL HE ISN'T!!! He had us thrown in here!"
"If he was, he wouldn't have given me the key to your cells, now would he have?"
"That's because - huh? ... he did what?"
"Let me show you just how merciful they can be, gentlemen." Aaron took the key and unlocked all the cells where the Drannivolkans were being kept. Their weapons were sitting on a table nearby. Just then, he noticed the two standing next to the cells.
"If you can handle a blade, then we would have you with us..." the wolfman boldly stated.
------------
-
The wolfs didn't scare Puco, she had confronted all sorts of animals in her life, and she was quite good at communicating with them. But when a skeleton looking creature appeared out of nowhere, she yelped.
Sienna and the skull-man began to talk about stuff that Puco didn't get. But she was smart enough to understand that skull-head was someone who wants to kill innocent!
He must be erased..
Puco jumped next to Sienna, and pointed at the robed man.
"I don't know who you are, and why you are here, skull head! But Sienny doesn't want to join someone who is evil! You and your wolves aren't scary at all! Leave us alone!"
Even if she looked like child, the words that she said came straight from her heart. But that wasn't the most interesting part, some weird powers began to leak from her. The air and ground around her began to deform, and the feeling around her wasn't pleasant, but not evil either. It was something weird.. something that wasn't felt on this world before.
"If you won't stop bothering us, mister skull-face, I'm gonna to kick your ass!"
Her face showed determination, but also a soft feeling of excitement.
This was no normal child.
--- ---
Shuichi raised his head. Even he could feel it now. The cat cried in agony, and Shui quickly drew something in the earth around the cat, and it disappeared in a poof.
Shuichi stood up seriously.
"Did you feel that too?" He asked.
"Yes, I did." Reigratto confirmed.
"Finally, we found her.. now to actually catch her.. "
Reigratto didn't say anything, and Shuichi was thinking deeply.
Then Reigratto interrupted the silence. "Maybe that other rune user can help you finishing your information circle?"
Shuichi slashed his fist in his open palm. "You are brilliant Rei! Let's do it!"
Then he looked at Reigratto in silence. "But ... for this I need utter concentration.. and that other person may not..-"
"Fine fine, I'll let you seal me up, but when "she" will appear, summon me back master!"
Shuichi raised his thumb.
"That's a promise, comrade!"
"..."
After a while, Shuichi drew something around Reigratto, and the man disappeared just like the cat did.
Shuichi looked around him, and took out a piece of perkament out of his bag.
"How else am I going to find that person.. I'm lucky he uses runes too. But if he wouldn't I wouldn't search for him in the first place! But I'm lucky he's using them anyway!"
He was confusing himself now.
"Anyway, let's rumble."
Rolled the perkament out, in huge circle, almost filling the whole open field in the forest.
He ran to the center of it, and took out a small sword, which was covered in crimson. Apparently it worked like a pencil, because he began to draw various things in the center.
"This bird means the move of information, and there should be written "Lost, but not forgotten in the encrypt.." Shuichi mumbled to himself while drawing.
When he finished, he ran towards the side where the perkament ended, and started, and began pushing in his soul energy.
Slowly the drawing in the middle, began to reform, and fill in the huge space which the perkament covered. A whole new rune appeared, and it was way more complicated than the other one.
"This is one of my better runes, hmm.. I guess this will be enough!"
He ran toward a part of the rune, and began to draw something with his sword. This continued for while, until Shui took out a small flask out of his jacket, and dropped a little on the drawing.
"This should do.."
I had that rune under me when I was trying to capture the virus.. the information capturing rune..
Thanks due that I have that runecasters information. This bigger rune is a existence processing rune.. I should be able to find him without any problems..
Shuichi jumped back, out of the drawing and the rune began to shine.. and suddenly it stopped.
"Hmm, so you are there.. hiding in that island aren't you?.."
He took the perkament from the ground, and the same moment he touched it, the rune disappeared with the wind.
He drew something in the air with his finger, and slowly everything around him began to dissort.. then it reformed, into something completely different. He warped into an other place..
Shuichi stood in front a huge tree. "Hmm.. so the woman I search likes ... trees?"
He looked carefully at the tree, and snapped his fingers. A high pitched scream appeared out of nowhere.
"This can wake everything, hmm."
He looked in the tree, and yelled.
"Hello, runecaster, maybe you remember me, maybe you don't, but I came here to visit you!"
-
"Ooo, how cute." Nex retorted to Puco's threats. "Well, I think I'm gonna to see how my pets here will handle you then." With that, he snapped his fingers and he rapidly burned away in flames. Sienna knew Nex didn't just kill himself, it's was just some fancy trick.
The wolves then stepped forward and roared. Suddenly humanoid creatures seemed to explode out of them. They had pale rubber like skin, and were covered in slime; the skin on their faces was tight enough to show almost the entire bone line. Their canine like jaws had full sets of sharp teeth. They had short pointy ears, and a very small flat nose. Their fingers and toes had dangerously sharp nails, but their armour was very light, to fit with their slim bodies...
"One of the many demonic minions I've created" Nex's voice said, from nowhere "They steal people's and animal's bodies, usually while they're still alive. I call them Gleepers."
Two of the gleepers jumped in the air and pounced at Puco and Sienna.
Sienna was tackled to the ground, and the demon's slime started dripping on her...
-
Puco screamed when she saw these awful things coming at her.
"NOOOOO!" She didn't want them to come closer, and pounded the ground out her reflex. Huge pieces of rock were blasted out of the earth, and they split the Gleeper from Puco. Both being hit by the rocks, they rolled a little backwards, but the Gleeper quickly stood up, and attack again, while puco was still lying on the ground.
She looked above her, and saw a huge, close, slimey, ugly, scary, nasty, glooper. Some of the slime already fell on her face.
"..."
"IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The girl screamed her lungs out.
Puco quickly rolled back, and kicked the Gleeper in his chest., who was just about to impact in the place she was a second ago.
"DON'T-TOUCH-ME!" Her kick wasn't aimed, but because of the fierce power behind it, she heard some bones breaking when she kicked the chest of the slimey beast.
The Gleeper fell back a little holding it's chest, while Puco looked at what she had done.
"Nee.. don't come nearby.. or I'll do it again.." She said with a scared tone. She touched the earth once again, with her open palms.
Change the position of earth.. make pressure to blast it out..
Some spikes made out of rock flew out of the earth like lave does out of a volcano.
They aren't pointy, but with this speed!
-
The inky black spider creature, which no longer resembled Retan at all, took Valos' hit head on and spiraled downward into the rocky crater below, kicking up dust with its impact. It reeled as it crawled back to its six feet, which all resembled blades now. The monster itself was entirely black, but each blade-foot was glowing a different color: one a burning red, one a icy blue, one yellow with energy crackling about it, one a phosphorous green, one a bright white, and the last a churning black.
The thing struck the ground with the lightning-appendage, and a blast of electricity surged upwards at Valos...
Meanwhile, Retan simply floated there uninterested, the dark portal still spiraling above his head.
-
"Hmm..." Valos noticed the elemental legs the spider had. Lucky for him he practiced all of the elements himself, except for light, but only wimps used that. He could likely counter every attack with a different element, as well could the spider, but this was just a stupid shadow minion.
Valos summoned a vine of foliage in his hand. He wiped the foliage line at the lightning bolt cancelling it out. He empowered the foliage, giving it a green glow and he flew down towards the ground and slashed the empowered vine at the glowing yellow leg in the ground.
-
"Can I handle a blade!? Of course I can! I've bloody got a katana!" Atara unsheathed his sword and held it up to show the wolf emporer. He then let it drop to his side, still keeping it somewhat ready.
"Jack, might I ask what was the point of coming down here?" Arata turned to face Jack.
"If I'm not mistaken, I could have sworn I saw them flying in here not to long ago, just like those other, silvery ones. I'm sure they can do it, too!" Arata observed the Drannivolkans closely, noticing that they shared a near-perfect resemblance to the Velkens, except their fur was a different shade, and they were a bit larger in build.
"Fine... I'll fight with you if you can get me to the large airship over Tjed. Please, I need to get up there. There's someone I must keep safe!"
-
"That's probably where Anti is," said Xenai. "We're in no shape to fight him right now. Let's just go find Zion."
"He said he was going after Duilin," said Aura.
"We don't need to connect dots here. After all, we can sense energy signatures." Xenai started searching Gaian for his buddy.
"Y'know," said Tsu, "with how much we all seem to depend on that ability... It would really suck if something took that power away from us."
"Yeah, really bad. But we'd manage somehow." He soon found Zion. "Let's go. He's this way."
The three took off toward Zion.
--- --- ---
"Outburst!!!" A huge amount of energy shot outwards from Anti, revealing his location in the ocean as the water parted around him. "You annoying little fool!"
The Retan clone snickered. It charged up a dark spell, and unleashed it as Anti came in range. "Bloody Lance!" Four dark spears pierced him right there, halting him. The clone swung its sword down at Anti, and slashed right through him. "Got you. Very Happy"
Anti simply came back together. "That hurt, asshole. >:(" Anti connected his wrists, pointing his hands at the clone. "Indignation Wave!" In a few moments, lightning energy gathered in his hands and bursted forwards at the clone. It sent him flying.
Anti then gathered all the energy he could, and fired it up in one fell swoop. "Lightspeed Attack!" He shot up to the clone, kicking it in the face and sending it downward. He then shot down, intercepting him with an uppercut, sending him upwards. He phased in near the clone and kicked it, sending it forward. He continued bounding it back and forth...
-
Kain looked at the guard. He knew if he lied it would come back to bite him, maybe kill him. But if he said no he may not get in, and in that case Druid would most likely kill him. Kain couldn't lie but decided to word it so he could still get a meeting. So he took a stab in the dark and hoped to hit his mark.
"No, but i assume you already knew that since your leader is indisposed. Is the next ranking official present and able to make decisions?"
Kain awaited the response, pleading to himself it was positive.
---
The mutos watched as the summoned creature flew closer to them. They watched with amazement, almost terror. The creature landed on the ground in front of a muto. It bent down to be eye level. The creature tilted it's head slightly and looked at the muto. Who in return lunged forward and bit off its head.
"Of course," Said Coriko really sarcastically. "When can we ever get a fucking break?"
Coriko aimed his arrow at the once again advancing onslaught of mutos. He let loose his arrow. It made contact with the mutos who seemed stunned, yet it still advanced almost un-impeded.
"Oh for the love of God!"
Coriko un-summoned his bow and instead summoned fire balls in either hand. He summoned a barrier of fire around himself and Wilham to protect them, at least for the now, from the attacking Mutos.
"Any ideas?"
---
Baird had been at the army barracks for only a short time but he had already done most of the administrative crap he needed to. In this building was a Coloseum for training and tournaments. Then building off of the arena was barracks. He sat in the leaders chair of the stadium and the soldiers all congregated on the arena floor. Like he predicted they were about fifty-thousand strong.
"Alright," Baird announced in a loud booming voice. "Shall we get started?"
---
Druid sat with Onan in his office. They were going over political matters. They were important issues that would help to rally the people for their cause as well as make the country better. Druid thought to himself how he would unite this world for the better under his rule. People would still retain most of their inalienable rights and would celebrate him. The Shadow Empire would be marvelled, not as a victor but as a liberator. He would destroy the tyranny that plagued this world and would create a fair and just one, of course with him at the helm. When thinking about this, Druid couldn't help but smile.
-
-"What are you talking about?", replied the guard. "The Sovereign is in his fortress, planning the invasion of Gaian, as I'm sure you knew, and..."
The guard paused.
-"What... on Gaian... is THAT?!"
His outstretched finger was pointing to several enormous airships approaching from the south.
-"Look, mate, I don't really care at this point who you are, and besides, you wouldn't do much harm in either case. Just get the hell in. You've probably noticed the Citadel in the middle of the city - the big floating upside down pyramid with four chains at the side, and a big ring over it. Just go there, say that Rudger sent you, and ask to see either the Scribe of Unlife, or the Sovereign himself, though I doubt you'll be able to catch a glimpse of the latter. Now, go! Get in there!"
The city line appeared to shift a little. All houses containing unlife turned their tough stone sides toward the incoming airships, sticking out several pointy bones in their direction. At about the same time, the city horn sounded - alarm was officially raised.
--- --- ---
//actions by Akran were discussed with Ted Der beforehand.\
"There she is, Gros Morne in her full beauty... something wasn't right.
Then I noticed the ships, eerily creeping toward the city - my city. Tsk, tsk, tsk... Who's this idiot to try and oppose me? Looks like my minions haven't been doing a good enough job of keeping the locals in my grasp of terror. I smell an execution coming up.
Soon enough, the little ship rammed into the metal port of Gros Morne. I mercifully took the unlife out of it, letting the boat retire to the bottom of the ocean floor. Noticing Akran making it out in time and following me, I continued toward the Citadel. Best if I ask someone who has any idea what those ships are doing up there.
Entering the city, I noticed a wide state of alert. All of the Unlife houses were turned to the attackers - good - and the KAF was scrambling its troops across the city to form a defence line. Not fast enough, I'm afraid... I'll have to work on the troops' discipline.
Some man just passed the front gate guard. Wow, so it is true - people just walk into my city randomly without any obvious need to do so. Who hires those retarded guards? I definitely smell an execution coming up...
Okay, so that's that. I ran past the houses, blah blah blah, boring stuff, yeah yeah. In fact, I don't even remember entirely the panorama outside. Why would I need to? It's just my city, I see it every day, why would I need to describe it further?
What's important, however, is that after I entered the Citadel, I found my dear Scribe snooping around in the throne room. That's not like Ryleh, to be dusting my seat of power instead of lording his position over some miserable slave...
-"RYLEH!!!", I snapped. "What are you doing in here?"
-"Oh, Sovereign, you've returned! I was looking for my quill, which I left here at the last meeting. Perhaps you've seen it?"
-"You know, not many people talk to their monarch like that. No, I haven't seen your goddamn quill, now go get a slave to bring you a new one and get out of here. While you're at that, please summon Mr. Eldridge to the landing pads on the Citadel. Wait there yourself - I will be joining you shortly, with that walking pile of trash."
I threw a negligent look at Akran standing behind me.
-"Now, get lost."
-"Yes, Sovereign."
After the Scribe left, I looked around the throne room. It feels so long since I've been here, though only several hours passed. There's no place like home, they say...
-"Now, Akran, join me at the summit of my fortress, won't you?"
-
"Yeah, I got one." Wilham's gauntlets glowed white again and he summoned two giant green coloured wasps.
"We'll ride these dragon wasps and continue moving." Wilham said. "Or we can stay around and fight, I'm actually game for either. Heheh."
--- ---
Wyvern riders dropped started dropping firebombs onto the buildings, unlife ones and otherwise. Lizard Men landed in Gorse Morne, with their weapons drawn, greatswords, maces, battleaxes, mauls and all sorts of big weapons. The lizard warriors then began to engage to KAF already rushing in to defend the city.
Back up in the Lightning Wyvern, the co-pilot handed Gorus the orb for the ship's speaker.
"Care to say anything, sir?" The co-piolet asked.
Gorus shook his head. "I'll speak to their intestines with my boot."
"So you're ready to go down?" Xarn asked. "Do you wish to send the elites with you?"
"They can come down, but tell them to stay the hell out of my way." With that Gorus turned around and exited the cockpit...
-
(Velkens are foxes, Drannivolka are cats. Not quite the same. Heh...)
"A pleasure, sir." Anselm returned Duilin's greeting, bowing stiffly, trying to mimic his master's level of formality.
Duilin's jab went right over Renard's head. "Oh? Lady Urocy is the spiritual leader of our people. Without her, I don't know what we'd do..."
Helix caught it though, and flashed a sneer at both him and Duilin. The taller, thinner Velken was obviously the most rambunctious of the group.
The doors flung open and Renard lead the entourage to the outside deck. "We'll have to fly down--"
Black shadows zipped overhead. In an instant, Virmir and the other Velkens landed just a short distance away with a series of soft thumps. The squad leader turned, his black coat flapping in the breeze and the two swords strapped to his back clattering softly. "You've returned."
Renard and the others snapped to attention. "Y-yes sir."
Virmir stepped towards the group, his hands behind his back, giving them a slow lookover. "Helix is healed, I see. How are you feeling?"
"Well, sir." It was always a struggle for Helix to remain at attention, as he was always prone to fidgeting, and his tail lashed about after a moment.
Virmir's eyes fell on Renard. "There is only one person I know who could heal him that quickly... where is she?" His impassive eyes seemed more concerned at the moment.
"She's in Helix's quarters, sir. She's well guarded."
"I see... and everyone is safe?"
"Sir Rikarl organized everything on the other side, sir... I... I had no idea..."
Virmir smiled slightly and placed a hand on Renard's shoulder. "You did well, Renard. You did very well..."
It was of course impossible to tell under the silver fur, but Renard was likely blushing. He looked at the ground and grinned.
Virmir turned to the half-demon, who seemed rather large standing amongst the short foxes. "Duilin, I am glad we have the opportunity to meet once more. I believe I owe you a favor..."
He spun around and flicked his hand, motioning the others to follow.
"My Lord...? What is going on?" Bryce ventured.
"Gamma X five."
The squad members not originally with Renard gasped at the code word.
"Where... are we going?"
"We are going to be civil about this and offer Commander Vlak a choice," Virmir said as he lead the original squad of ten Velkens plus Ko'ji and Duilin towards the large doorway that connected to the command center of the airship...
-
"Nice to see you again to, Virmir." Duilin replied, yet his voice didn't have a lot of enthusiasem. He still wasn't too one hundred percent on Virmir, he'd just have to see how things will go.
"I assume this Commander Vlak isn't one of the Velkens?" Duilin asked.
--- ---
The gleeper was impaled by the spiky rocks and fell to the ground.
Sienna kicked the Gleeper off of her, and took out a deck of cards from her pocket. The gleeper squealed at Sienna and then jumped at her again, yet she took out a card from the deck and threw it at the creature's throat. The card was enchanted with black magic and it stuck right in. The gleeper gargled a bit holding its throat before falling lifeless to the ground.
Nex's laugh echoed through the air and two more Gleepers jumped at Sienna and pinned her on the ground.
"Help!" Sienna cried out.
-
"Oh no! Sienny-chan!"
Wha-what should I do!! Having those bleepers so close.. it must be awful!
She quickly ran toward Sienna, and in her sprint she began to create a long spear from all sorts of dust of the ground. The Gleeper raised his hand, and was about to pierce Siennas breasts, when he got pushed by a giant spear off her, tackling the other Gleeper away too.
She jumped over Sienna, picked up the spear, and made it sharper. She threw it at the Gleeper, who wanted to catch it since it was a easy throw aimed at his head, but before the spear reached him, Puco already head butted him in his belly. Catching his belly the spear directly hit his head.
Puco was already running at the second Gleeper then, however this one, instead of defending began to run at Puco with a beast like speed. Because Puco had no weapon anymore, before she would hit him, she would be already cut up badly by his claws. She made in her run a small spinning jump, and stamped in the ground just before the gleeper, breaking the earth, and she jumped back, and the Gleeper was caught off guard because he couldn't move properly on broken soil. Puco used this quickly at jump kicked in his chest, and spinning she made several more follow up kicks, these were all aimed, and the Gleeper was kicked into two pieces.
Using the power extract.. and inversing time on my muscles, making them fifty times stronger..
She jumped back, and sighted. Then she realized that she did all of this actually to safe Sienna, and she run quickly towards her to help her stand up.
After all of this blood shredding work, no single drop of blood hit Puco.
-
Sienna got up, gasping. "T-thank you..." She then noticed two more gleepers coming at Puco from behind.
Sienna took two cards out and threw them like ninja stars at the gleepers. The cards slashed right across their throats, quickly killing them. The gleepers were all dead.
"Weak at the troat. They're always weak there." She stated. She took a deep breath. "That was pretty good fighting Puco."
"Yes I'll admit you both surprised me there." Nex said appearing from nowhere.
Sienna turned and saw Nex walking towards them.
"Now, I could ask you again to join me.." Nex said "...but to be honest I'd much rather have you as meal then as an ally."
Ophelia grimaced. "You sick cannibal."
"I'm not a cannibal! Cannibals eat people of the same species."
With that Nex lifted his hands and his scythe magically appeared in hands.
"YEEHAA!!"
The demon then made a made dash towards the two and then slashed his scythe down at Sienna, who jumped to the side avoiding the scythe.
The blade stuck into the ground, but it quickly disappeared as Nex let go of it. He then shot a fireball from his right hand at Sienna, and knocked her to the ground. His scythe then reappeared in his hands and he slashed it down at Puco...
-
"Ieee---EH!" Puco not knowing what to do, jumped forward, evading the deadly scythe itself, but she got hit by the handle.
"Ouchie.." She rubbed her head, and grabbed the scythe with her left hand, and with her side of her other arm, she pushed with lots of strength at the wood just in front of the blade pushing the blade away with her right leg at the same time.
If I'll break his weapon we'll win! Being pushed from 3 different directions, and weakening the wood were I hold it.. how is a scythe gonna survive that!? Eat that Mister Scythe!
-
//Xorlak, could you get Vincent up to the top of the fortress? Kronos sent for him the other post, so I apologize if that wasn't clear.\
"I arose to the top of the Citadel. Looks like Gros Morne is taking a beating... I decided to watch the KAF troops fail miserably to defend the city from the Lizard Men. I felt nothing but contempt for my falling warriors, not even bothering to resurrect them. That tag of theirs should be removed and replaced with big shiny badges with the words "I SUCK" on them. Seriously, who aims like that?
In confirmation of my thoughts, I barely phase-shifted in time for an incoming spear from a spear gun. It harmlessly passed through me. Needless to say, I lost what little respect I had remaining for my army.
A slave ran up to the top of the fortress, carrying an M-Grid orb in his hand. He clearly looked agitated, and was headed toward me. Just for the fun of it, I decided to ignore him, and see what he did.
-"Sovereign! SOVEREIGN!!!"
Ugh. There goes my ignorance.
-"Eh?"
-"Sovereign! The Stalker Corps are requesting advice on how to continue!"
-"How many Stalkers do we have in Gros Morne?"
-"Nine out of fifteen, sir."
-"I see."
I took the crystal sphere from the servant, who promptly bowed and ran off. A small hologram of a male Stalker mage sprung up in front of me as soon as the glass touched my palm.
-"Sir!", the hologram declared. "Should we engage the army?"
I was about to snap at the Stalker for not doing so earlier, when I noticed an especially large Lizard Man running about Gros Morne. Squinting my eyes, I noticed some familiar details... Interesting. He must be someone of importance. Even if he isn't, he'd make a fine addition to my zoo.
-"First of all, tell me exactly how many of what kind of Stalkers am I dealing with."
-"Three melees, two rangers and four elementals, Sovereign."
-"I see. I want two melees, one elemental, and one ranger to engage the main force. The third melee, as well as one ranger and the three other elementals are to seek out the pack leader and bring him up here - alive."
-"Yes, sir!"
The image faded and vanished. I neatly put the orb away into my cloak. Who knows when else I'll need it?
I immediately saw the effects of my conversation with the Stalker. Nine figures exited the Citadel from below, splitting into two groups of four and five. The four charged straight for the front line of the invading army, engaging it as they went. I quickly sensed a sharp decline in the Lizard Men's souls. Pop, pop, pop - the souls were being released from their bodies at a very pleasing rate. A definite step up from maybe two or three "pops" from when the KAF were left to their own devices. In fact, my soldiers were out-dying the Lizard Men at a rate of six to one, even though they out-manned the lizard army two to one.
The rest of the Stalker warriors went for that big specimen over there. Damn, should've told them not to injure him too much - wouldn't want his blood splattering all over my snow-white Moa bird I got the other day. Note to self: move his cage away from the more expensive animals. I didn't exactly enjoy the idea of a big ugly hunk of green skin sitting next to the fragile white Moa, marring the view..."
-
"Fine then. Marrik! Help out this man! The rest of you, follow me. We need to find the others and get out of this castle." One of the elites walked towards Arata and Jack.
"After you," he said, somewhat coldly. The others were already on their way down the castle halls, just about to reach the door to the area where they came in. "I think this one's it, my lord."
"Yes, I'm nearly sure of it." He opened the door, and there stood the seven other Drannivolkan guards. They straightened up when they saw Aaron come in.
"Get in gear, men. We're leaving the castle."
------------
-
(Post was clear. Free time wasn't.)
"Ah, a pleasure to meet you in person at last, my dear Sovereign."
Vincent approached the lich from behind, idly tinkering with his bright golden shotgun. Blast... this guy was at least a big a freak show as Draven. The alchemist eyed the crown-like feathers in his head, and the way his robes flowed around when he became translucent. Vincent needed to meet him in person, though, to decide if he wanted to betray him or that dufus Ryleh. Maybe both. Depended on the potential earnings, and if it was worth the risk.
An explosion rocked the side of the fortress, which he ignored entirely as he snapped some odd cartridge onto the top of the weapon. A frigid arctic wind followed the blast, blowing his ponytail around his shoulder. "At least the weather is pleasant."
He stepped up to the side of the Sovereign and grasped the railing that lined the fortress overlook with one gloved hand, tapping the gun upon his shoulder idly with the other. "Hmmm, troop deployment vessels," he nodded at the airships, "not much in the way of firepower compared to some of the other ships in the Dark Empire's possession, but extremely tough armor and plenty of room on board for ground troops..."
-
//The Velkens are on the deck of the Death Evan, right? Not inside?
"Right, uh... let's take the window, then." Arata leapt down the window and onto a bridge already created by Marrik. It looked more like a set of stairs than a bridge though.
"Wow, this is amazing!" Jack hadn't seen anything like this before. Arata didn't either, but he wasn't so impressed. They climbed the air-staircase with Marrik at the rear as it stretched from the castle window to the Death Evan. When he finally reached the top, he noticed that the stairway didn't quite go over the railing. He'd have to jump up. This would be no problem for a Drannivolkan, but for a human, there's a bit of a difference.
"Well then, throw me up."
"I'm sorry, what!?"
"THROW ME UP!" Marrik grabbed Arata's back and launched him above the railing. He landed neatly on the deck. Jack was thrown as well, landing next to Arata in a not-so neat fashion. He fell on his back, but quickly regained his stance. At last, the Drannivolkan Leapt up and landed in between the other two, the air-stairway fading as he did.
Arata, ignoring the others, walked up to Virmir and sheathed his katana. He looked down into the eyes of the small Velken. "Well, you've got another blade under your command, High General. Three, actually. That wolven guy has already told us of your good intent. How 'bout it? Will you have us?"
Meanwhile, Ko'ji was standing next to Helix. She was still a bit worried about him, but he seemed fine. She was glad, and smiled knowing that he was okay. "You look like you've seen better days! Still, I'm really glad to see you again! I kept you safe from those other worldly things, but you know that already... so, how do you feel?"
-
Kain entered the city, startled by the attack going on.
"Just my luck."
He continued on towards the citidal.
---
"I don't know Wilham, i feel something bad will happen if we fight. But then again these guys dont look so tough."
Coriko tossed a fireball at one of the mutos who screamed and twitched with pain until it collapsed.
"We can fight for a little while, but summon those things now in case we need a quick get away."
-
Okay… Akran was lost. What is going on? Akran gazed out at the strange lizard people fighting Kronos’ army. This was too much for him. He didn’t even know if he was now officially on Kronos’ side. Akran’s allegiance stood with the people who he could benefit from the most. So far, he had only seen a little of Kronos and what he could do. Still skeptical… still uncertain…
But what mattered at the moment, was what Akran should do. He couldn’t fight anyone without knowing who he was killing. I have to get away, he thought.
Akran turned to leave, but something stopped him. A strange sensation ran down his spine and he turned back and looked at Kronos. The way he treated the people he commanded was terrible. Like slaves, he thought. And that led him to ponder why Kronos was treating him differently. Sure, when he met him, Kronos expressed that he wanted Akran as a slave, but he didn’t insist. Did his people have any choice? Why is he treating me differently?
“I have to get out of here,” Akran suddenly said, “I don’t belong in this battle. I’ll be making my way back to the Margonites to find the lady who said her name was Gwen. From there I’ll hopefully have some lead to where the Majeuri Spinel is.”
Akran turned away. Over his shoulder he called out to Kronos as he was walking away, “If you want to find me, ask you sister, she seems to know those kinds of things.”
Akran ran down the steps and hurried towards the port to find some sort of vessel. Hopefully, there won’t be much trouble to leave and not too many of those freaky lizard things in the way so that I can’t sneak by.
-
-"Leaving? So early? That's unfortunate."
I took out the M-Grid orb and quickly found the coordinates of the closest Stalker. It was a Ranger. A cold whisper resounded in my head:
-"Tethys here, Sovereign."
Really, I could care less what his name is.
-"Follow the target leaving the Gros Morne Citadel."
-"Shall I leave my current task, sir?"
-"Yes. As of this point, he is your priority. How are the other Stalkers doing?"
-"They are fending off quite well, sir. One is wounded; they will not last for long."
-"I see. Go now. Find Akran, but do not engage. Follow him... Stalk him, if you will."
-"I understand, Sovereign. I shall keep in contact."
The channel between me and the Stalker vanished. I turned my attention back to Vincent, who was observing the airships.
-"I can't risk him making off with the loot, especially of such great value. So if he happens to find the Majeuri Spinel, I won't have to hire some hot-headed adventurer to recover it for me in exchange for half my kingdom, infinite wealth, and a beautiful princess. Them Stalkers are quite the asset, you know?"
I paused for a second, letting the cold fragrance of death fill me from top to bottom. It wasn't oft that so many died in my immediate vicinity - I had to soak in the pleasure while it lasted.
-"It's all quite strange, if you think about it." I continued my speech, ignoring another foundation-shaking explosion. "My Stalker finds you and you build me a super weapon - just as it is completed, an army attacks me. Fate?
"The damnedest thing, though - of all these people, these soon-to-decrease 15,000 people, you have been in my service for the longest period of time. In fact, I believe I proposed an alliance very long ago - when I was still... human...
"At the same time, you are the one of the few I know next to nothing about. Looks life fate is not without its own curious sense of irony."
I paused again, this time to watch the Enlightenment break its bond with the Citadel, and rise up into the sky."
---
The Stalkers communicated with a series of clicks and whistles, deftly dodging incoming projectiles and incoming Lizard Men. The melee Stalker, Donthel, occasionally dispatched his lead-core hatchet at an unfortunate Lizard Man's skull. Their aim, however, were not the Lizard Men - it was the fat green obscenity that the Sovereign dispatched them to capture.
Making their way through the city, they finally caught sight of the lizard shouting orders and wreaking general havoc in the city square. Almost unseen, the Stalkers swiftly assumed their positions all around the monster. They prepared their weapons - Donthel sharpened his kamas, while the Ranger, Eris, made sure that the obsidian darts were in place. She fastened the mini-crossbow gauntlet on her arm, and adjusted the power to accommodate for the lizard's tough hide.
A shrill whistle from one of the hidden elemental Stalkers meant the beginning of the attack - and Donthel, like a lightning, dashed right at Gorus. Altering his course in mid-air, he landed on the ground in front of the lizard. Just before landing, he launched his hatchet into the air up way over Gorus. In less than a second, the hatchet stuck in a wall in front of the Stalker - and the latter used the advantage to pull himself up while jumping. At the same time, he threw one of his kamas right on top of the General's head...
-
Nex's scythe was broken into several pieces.
"Oh no! My scythe! My ever shall I possibly do!?" Nex said in an over dramatic tone. The pieces of the scythe then disappeared and his scythe reappeared in his hands, good as new.
Nex laughed and then made another downwards slash at Puco, but his scythe was stopped.
Ophelia had grabbed the end under the blade. Her hands were glowing with a dark red.
Nex sighed. "You never learn do you?"
Nex's scythe faded away and back again, free from Ophelia's grip. With the blunt skull behind the blade, he rammed Ophelia in the chest knocking the wind out of her. He twirled his scythe with one hand, feeling almost sorry for the woman. He then turned around to deal with the young girl, who appeared to actually be strong. With his free hand he then shot a powerful red lightning bolt at Puco.
--- ---
"What the..." Gorus looked up and saw a partially invisible human flying towards him slashing a blade at his head.
He ducked down avoiding the blade from gouging him. He looked up at the wall to see what it was. It appeared to be the same type of human that he fought in Vandrin. The human that actually put up a fight.
"More of them?" Gorus asked himself. "Well, more guts, more glory." The lizard general then took out his grappling blaster and shot it at the stalker.
-
"Hmmm..." Virmir scratched the underside of his muzzle as he observed the newcomers. "Very well, but you must do exactly as I say. Otherwise the situation could get out of control very quickly."
Standing in front of the door leading inside the ship, he scanned the group of humans, Velkens, and the half-demon. "My squad will come with me, except for Renard, Helix, Anselm, and Riuki. You four will remain here with the humans. If blood must be shed, you will know it in a few minutes..."
Renard nodded. He knew what that meant...
With that, Virmir entered the door and disappeared, followed by seven Velkens.
Helix scratched the back of his head as he talked with Ko'ji. "Yeah... thanks. I... uh... I really appreciate you looking out for me like that..." He seemed a little nervous and he shifted around, balancing on his heals as his tail flicked about. "But, I don't know what I'd do if you would have gotten hurt in there..."
----
"Commander Vlak! Emergency transmission from North Point!"
"North Point? Why would they contact us directly?"
Vlak shifted over to the magical orb in the center of the control room, tapping his claws together as the translucent image of another Lizard Man formed in the air.
Suddenly the orb exploded in a burst of flame, and the image vanished.
Vlak covered his face and swore. "Who cast that spell?!"
This lizard commander snarled as he looked around the room. The guards reached for their weapons, but suddenly stopped and stood at attention.
Virmir stood opposite the orb, hands behind his back, his eyes a deathly cold stare... Above, Velkens floated in a circle, just inches away from the ceiling...
"Commander Vlak, I hope this day is treating you well."
Vlak snarled, but then forced a level response. "Well enough, High General. To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Drop the shields and recall all your men to the airships."
"Wh... what?"
"Are you questioning my orders, commander?"
Vlak took a few steps in reverse, his toeclaws clicking on the metal floor.
"No... of course not..."
"Excellent." Virmir strode to the wide bridge window overlooking the deck. "Prepare for immediate departure."
"My Lord...." Vlack stood next to the much smaller Velken, observing the view of the green-tinted mountains (due to the shield), "forgive me, but does this not contradict our orders?"
"Your orders are simply to obey me without question, commander. If you fail to accomplish that, then I will have you removed. Do you understand?"
Vlak sneered an enraged frown. "... Yes... sir..." He pulled his head back and studied the Velken for a moment, watching the silver fox as his tail swayed to and fro. The lizard commander turned, but suddenly stopped and clutched his head, pain lacing across his face. He shut his eyes tightly.
When Vlak opened them, they burned crimson...
Vlak immediately drew his blade and brought it down at the fox's head while his back was turned...
Virmir flicked his wrist. The Wind Serpent sung through the air, and the commander had a head no more. With a thump and a crash, the body and head clattered to the ground.
In but three seconds, the reptilian guards were but carcasses, and the other Velkens removed their bloodied blades from their sides and necks.
"Alas. He chose the uncivil way..."
Virmir sighed as he scanned the room and the dead bodies. Suddenly his eyes widened in terror...
"My Lord?" Bryce probed his master, not understanding why the extremely calm Virmir would display such emotion...
Virmir was the only one who could see them. Like ghosts, black figures rose from the dead bodies-- all of them. Ravens with crimson eyes... The Watchers flew every which way like specters, escaping through walls, some flying deeper into the ship, some flying away...
Virmir snapped out of it, his lips curling back as he emitted a feral growl. "The lizards... all of them must die..." He bolted for the door. "Immediately!"
----
Unfortunately for Valos, flora elemental attacks negate water, and not lightning, which would be negated by rock or ground based earth attacks. The tendrils of plantlife disintegrated as they touched the bright yellow leg. The spider monster snickered, seemingly saying "Heh..." and jumped some fifty feet straight up as it let loose a burning blast of flame with the bright red spike upon one of its legs...
After the six or seventh pong-bounce, the Shadow-Retan Anti was wailing on threw its arms up into the air and exploded in a fury of dark power. Its cape and helmet seemed to fly off, revealing a spiky-haired silhouette with crimson eyes that was obviously rather irritated.
It crossed its arms in an X motion and its body blurred, splitting in two, then splitting again to reveal four shadows. They disappeared in a flash and materialized on each side of the astral demon. With insane speed, all four let loose a flurry of punches, their fists but streaks in the air...
----
(*Smacks forehead* *Re-reads posts from May 2006*)
Vincent brought his hand to his chin. Indeed this was the same man from that long ago. Interesting he put it that way, as it really was just a small alliance or an exchange of favors more like. Kronos looked somewhat different since he rejected his humanity, but upon closer inspection he did recognize his features. He wore the same crown of feathers, after all.
"Indeed, much has changed since our last encounter. And I wouldn't call it fate. It was merely a matter of time before the Dark Empire found this place and struck. They have hit every nation on the planet, by now..."
A snarling lizard suddenly poked his head up and screamed at the two, having somehow scaled the side of the semi-floating fortress. Without missing a beat in the conversation, Vincent stuck the barrel of his shotgun in the thing's mouth and blew his head off, sending the body hurdling backwards to splat on the ground hundreds of feet below.
"And yes, it seems I don't know you very well either. Perhaps we should remedy this?"
Vincent bent over and slammed his free hand into the ground, a crimson circle of light appearing below him. A disk cut from the fortress roof levitated under his feet, forming an odd propeller that propelled the black trench coated alchemist a few feet into the air.
"Those airships have flight crystals which would be very useful, considering they are extremely expensive and time consuming to make. Would you care to join me in sabotaging the ships? Surely watching the battle from up here must bore you..."
-
"Mother of ass!!" Valos growled in rage. "God damned flora and earth being different fucking elements. I officially hate magic. Fucking demonic witchcraft, is what it all is!!"
Valos who was deathly pissed off surrounded himself in an aura of dark flame and chased after the spider monster. It seems that one thing he 'kept' after his stay in Thanatos was his short temper. He always flipped out in battles, sometimes over the littlest things. Sometimes this helped him however, when fighting one on one. Despite what Valos just shouted he didn't hate magic. He needed it, and he wouldn't be where he is without it.
The angry warrior summoned a fireball in one hand and coated his fist in ice with his other hand. He then caught up with the spider and then smashed both of his fists into the green leg, ignoring the burning on his hands from the fire shooting out of the red leg.
//I'll update Duilin later.\
-
"Shall I be caught doing a slave's work, with a slave along? No; this man wasn't a mere slave. No matter how hard I may try to deny it, I know that a person who built me a superweapon is not a slave. Besides, it would be helpful to acquire the crystals, as well as see Vincent in action.
-"I don't see why not."
I opened the gate in front of me, clearing the way for a death-plunge. I stepped off, and right onto a wyvern which I previously built from the unfortunates below and summoned up to the fortress.
-"In that case, let's get moving."
-
//I assume Duilin, Renard and co. are still on that one balcony thing.\
Duilin leaned with mace the on railing of the balcony and put his hands on the railing and looked down at the city of Tjedon. He needed to contact the others so they would know he's alright, he was sure Bell and Rink might be a little worried.
Suddenly a strange bat-like figure started flying towards Duilin.
"What the..."
Suddenly a red creature landed on the railing startling Duilin, almost causing him to loose balance and fall on the floor.
"BAH!" Duilin yelped, he then lightly shook his head and noticed that it was Rink.
"So, I assume things went well at North Point?" Rink asked.
"As well as they could have." Duilin replied.
"So, you going to introduce me to your new friends?"
"Uh yeah." Duilin looked at Renard, and the others. "Guys, this is Rink. And Rink, this is Renard and that's Renard's friend Helix."
Rink noticed Helix was busy talking, so he nodded to Renard. "Nice to meet you, Renard."
-
"Heh... well, I'm pretty capable! I did save you, well... Anselm helped me quite a bit... still, I'm a part of the squad now, and that means I must look after the team. I'm sure you would have done the same... but anyways, you're welcome!" She smiled as she spoke to Helix, but stopped just barely in time to overhear Virmir from within the ship; his clear order, to kill all of the lizards. She then remembered that her hearing was exceptionally better than before. Perhapse she'd ask someone else if they heard. "Hey, Helix... did you hear that...?"
Meanwhile, Arata was simply sitting on the railing of the Death Evan. He observed the quiet city below, the green shield illuminating it in the darkness. Even though the dark empire was here and the shield covered the capital, the natural order of things still somewhat continued. The birds flew through the air, chirping as if nothing was going on. The fauna all around dashed off freely in the space between the city and the mountains. It looked too peaceful to be true. Arata hated it, the sense of peace and quiet.
"Damnit, when can we kill already? All this sittin' 'round is gettin' on my nerves..."
"Calm down, mate! Seriously, it's quite peaceful up here."
"That's the damn point, idiot! It's too peaceful, too quiet... and it's pissing me off. Where are the lizards? What's taking that man so long!?"
"Seriously, calm down. Nobody needs to hear this."
"Oh, shut up, Jack. You know you want to kill something. Hell, you were in prison because of murder. Oh, how lovely it would be just to get bloody again. Shouldn't be too much longer, just have to wait it out, I guess-woah!" As Rink flew in, Arata fell backwards and onto the deck of the airship. He cursed as he got back to his feet.
"What in the hell was that? I just saw some red blur and then... oh, what in the bloody hell... an Imp?"
-
"Hmm... what am I to do now?" Marrik wondered, "I wish John was here, then I'd atleast have somebody to talk to." Out of boredom, the Drannivolkan got out his broadsword and twirled it around using his air magic. It spun around himself, doing a series of twirls and flips and figure eights in the air. If a person was holdin it, it would look like a form. As it finished its last twirl, the blade flew back to its master and sheathed itself.
Marrik didn't quite feel comfortable around anybody on the ship. He sat himself down on the deck and placed his hands over his knees, feeling the energy around him. The combination of power aboard the Death Evan was astonishing.
-
"Oh, uh, hello..." Renard bowed slightly to Rink. Imps were from the underworld like demons, weren't they? He knew he shouldn't be nervous around them, but still demons put him on edge. Duilin was half demon, he told himself, and a great guy. He understood why Duilin lied about his demon heritage when they first met, though.
"Hear what?" Helix's ears perked and he angled one towards the control deck. He could of course hear several times better than a human, but still Riuki's level of hearing was beyond him.
He flinched when the window above exploded, a massive fireball surging over the deck.
Virmir shot out of the opening, the other Velkens following as blurs. "Kill all the lizards right now!" he screamed as he flew overhead.
Helix didn't know what was happening, but when Lord Virmir screamed an order, let alone used the words 'right now' he knew it absolutely had to be done this instant. He flashed Riuki a quick glance, his face full of shock and worry, then dove right over the side of the airship after his master.
Renard and Anselm followed suit, diving off the ship and descending faster than free-fall until they caught up with the formation as the others rocketed towards the sleeping town below...
Virmir hoped that explosion was enough to get Aaron's attention. He told the wolf-man an explosion in the sky would be the signal for him to attack the lizards... He had hoped to avoid doing so. He wasn't sure, but he felt the lizards were as much as slaves to Retan as the Velkens were. Their situation was far bleaker, however. Many of the Lizard Men were genetically engineered and grown simply to serve the Dark Emperor. He wondered if they all possessed a Watcher inside, ready to take over their bodies if too much free thought crossed their minds...
Two burly Lizard Men stood guard outside the house, keeping watch to ensure no humans ran the streets at night, as they've been ordered. Suddenly they clutched their heads, writhing in pain as they shut their eyes tightly. When they opened them, they glowed crimson...
The two trampled down the door as if it were cardboard and stormed into the dwelling admist the screams of the human family. They rose their blades, one taking the mother by the collar and the other lifting a small child...
Two figures burst through the windows, zipping through the air as silver blurs. Virmir impaled the first lizard with the Wind Serpent, driving the beast back into the wall and pining him there. The Blade Knight Bryce stabbed the second under the ribs as the creature rose his arm. The humans screamed in horror again at seeing the two foxes carrying bloodied blades, but the Velkens ignored them.
Virmir pointed towards the next building and zipped out the window, Bryce following suit as they raced for the next dwelling.
----
The propeller-driven-flying-disc-contraption Vincent stood on rose a few feet higher, then sped him in front of the lich sovereign. He reached into his inner coat pocket and withdrew shaded lenses, which he clipped on over his glasses. With a shotgun in his hand and trench coat blowing in the breeze, he looked absolutely insane riding on the flying disc. Yet despite this he kept a calm placid expression on his face.
A squad of reptilian wyvern riders dove at the duo. With the silhouette of the Enlightenment rising to the heavens in the background, the alchemist held his golden shotgun at his waist and let loose and intense stream of rapid-fire shots. The air exploded around the wyverns, tearing them apart as their riders plummeted. Expelling the entire round, he removed the cartridge from the top of the weapon and deftly replaced it with another, sending another volley forth as he tore a hole high above the city, soaring straight for the central airship...
-
"What!? An explosion? That must be the signal he mentioned before, ATTACK!!!" Aaron burst into a mad rush, his wereform enhancing his speed and power greatly. He burst into the town from outside the castle gate and began to kill as many lizardmen as far as the eye could see. More and more, his furry fists drenched themselves in the blood ofthe lizards as he punched the unruly, crimson-eyed beasts. As they went into the homes, the Drannivolkan elite saw to it that not a single human family would be harmed.
"JOHN!!! Marrik was falling from the sky and landed next to his fellow elite, seemingly 'John,' as he was called.
"Marrik? Right then, blast 'em to shit!" The two Drannivolkans dashed off farther into the city at lightning speeds, slashing up the lizardmen, green chunks of scaley flesh flying in all which directions. The streets soon filled with blood.
------------
Jacobie dropped his blades in pain. Something inside of him was calling to him, something evil. It was a watcher that made its way into his soul. Kill, it told him. Kill, kill, kill. All humans of Tjed must die, must die now.
"RAGH, NO!!!" The lizardman resisted extremely well. Most would have began the spree. No, Jacobie found the source, a black bird on his right shoulder. He grabbed it and squeezed it until it exploded, black feathers flying around it. He picked up his blades as he saw three lizardmen running towards the house Lagart and himself were guarding. Taking both blades in hand, he slashed down the three c-class lizards in one blow. They all fell, mortally wounded, to the floor, unable to move.
"Lagart, they're attacking! Prepare yourself!"
------------
"Sierana, stay here with Lucy and Bell. I can hear them attacking." Justin left the house to find that Jacobie was already under attack. He decided to hold the position with the other two lizardmen at his side.
------------
-
"Let's go." Duilin said to Rink. The imp grabbed on to Duilin's shoulder as he jumped off the edge of the ship and flew towards the ground, and landed on his feet.
"I hope Lagart and Jacobie won't get mistaken for lizard men still with the empire." Rink stated. "I better go and get them, probably should tell them to stay out of the way or something."
"Well, we might need their help." Duilin replied. "So at least tell them to loose their disguises."
"Alright." Rink flew off back towards the house, while Duilin went off with the Velkens to fight.
---
Lagart stood infront of the door, blocking two lizard men trying to get into the house.
"No one go in house!" Lagart growled.
"Traitor!" The lizard warriors hissed. One of them took his sword out and slashed Lagart across the chest, making a mildly bleeding wound.
Lagart drew his broadsword and slashed down at the lizard man's skull vertically splitting it. He kicked the other lizard man in the chest knocking it to the ground, he then jabbed the blade into its stomach.
"Bell! They attacking!" Lagart shouted inside. "But you no need worry. I guard house! Lagart won't let no one in!"
--- ---
//Ein are you going to update the Stalkers? Or do you want me to?\
"Commence field bombing." Xarn ordered, speaking into the communications orb.
The two larger airships began raining down cannon balls of shadow energy on to the ground, destroying many of the buildings below...
The Lightning Wyvern began flying at a quicker speed, heading towards the heart of the city.
"General Xarn!" An image of one of the scouts appeared on it's communications orb.
"What is it?" Xarn barked.
"There's something big near the city’s main building. It looks like some sort of airship."
"Interesting..."
//Must. Have. Airship battle.\
-
//D. Ein, what exactly are the stalkers? Do you think Akran would be able to catch Tethys following him?//
It was a small vessel, but that suited Akran. He didn’t want to attract too much attention anyway. It wasn’t docked at the port, but was a bit further down the ocean near some Lizard Men who seemed to be guarding it.
They hadn’t seen him yet, so Akran crouched down. He couldn’t shoot an arrow from this position, and even if he could, the others would surely notice and sound some kind of alarm. There were only three of them and he didn’t want any more to show. Hopefully they weren’t great fighters.
Akran could only think of one thing to do, and he didn’t like it. He’d have to swim. That way he could sneak past the guards and take them out from behind. He reluctantly put down his bow and quiver which was hidden underneath his robes and kicked some dirt over them. He also lightened his clothes by stripping down to his leather vest and shorts. He took his knife too.
Akran waded through the pebbles and seaweed and dove into the water. It was very cold, but it refreshed him. He made his way over the boat and circled around it to avoid detection. Soon he was sneaking up behind the guards making barely any noise. The lizards were facing away from him and he heard two of them talking.
“God this sucks. I wanna kill something. Why can’t we just ditch this thing?”
“Shut up fool. You know we have to make sure no one escapes.”
Akran noticed three guard helmets on the ground beside the third lizard who was taking a nap on a rock behind the other two. Apparently they didn’t expect to be attacked. He slowly snuck up on the sleeping one.
“Where the hell is Serg, anyway,” the second lizard continued, “Is he sleeping again?” He turned around and walked over to the sleeping lizard and kicked him. “Wake up you idiot! What the hell do you think you’re do-”
Akran leaped out from behind the rock and stabbed the Lizard Man in the throat before he could finish his sentence. He made a gurgling sound and flopped over onto the ground. Akran grabbed the fallen soldier’s sword and before the other lizard could react, he threw it at him, separating the reptile’s head from the rest of his body. Gross.
Akran stood up and retrieved his knife. He jogged back along edge of the water to where he dropped his quiver and clothes. They were gone. No! Akran searched the ground desperately. Argh! They were right here! Akran slumped down to the ground. Someone must have been following him and saw him place his stuff here.
Bitterly, Akran forced himself up and walked back to the boat. He turned back around and saw that the battle was drawing nearer to where he was. No time to lose. Now that he no longer had a weapon, he picked up one of the lizard weapons. Close hand combat wasn’t quite his style, but it was better than nothing. He jumped into the small boat and pushed himself away from the shore in the direction of the island he and Kronos only just came from.
-
"This boring charade has gone on long enough!" Anti kicked the Retan clone into the ocean. "I'll show you the difference in our power!"
<Cut-in...>
"Indignation Judgment!!!"
A huge sword of thunder shot down from the sky and into the ocean... right through the clone. As the blade discharged, multiple bolts of lightning struck in the water, electrifying it as well.
The clone was dead.
-
"Ah!"
Puco tried to jump away, but the bolt hit her in the air. She was knocked back, and rolled a few times on the ground.
"Nyoaran~.. " Puco stood up, being a little dizzy. "Electricity isn't that bad if it doesn't FLOW through my body.. And since it had nowhere to go while I was in the air.. " She grinned a little, but she had to hold her head because she was dizzy.
"Still the amount of whirling electric thingies does hurt! Well mister, if you gonna keep doing such attacks, maybe I must take you more seriously!"
She dashed at the skully person, and when she was near him, she jumped spinning. However the jump was way to big to reach Nex, and she floated above him and fell into an old broken house.
The building slowly began to break.. Then the earth beneath Ophelia pushed he away from Nex. The same moment the wood that remained from the house was shot of at Nex. It weren't large pieces, but hundreds of small wood spikes flying with the speed almost of a bullet.
The wood is old.. so it's easy to split it. Putting the little "strong" wood into a crowded place, and breaking the other wood abruptly.. this will give a similar effect as one of those "guns"! However now it's a whole rain of spikes!
Sorry mister house for hurting you..
-
Nex lifted his free hand and pointed it towards the wooden spikes heading towards him. He made a spinning motion with his hands, and summoned a spinning gust of wind in front of him. The spikes were caught, and began spinning around in front of him.
"Spin it right round, toots." Nex sneered at Puco, as he spun the gust around faster and faster, creating a small tornado, and tore up the ground below it. He then pushed his hand forward and the tornado the spun towards the young girl.
-
Wind.. a strong element if used correctly.. but wind alone is nothing to be afraid of..
She moved her hand in the air, and slowly began to control the wind particles around her. She made an emptiness which pulled the air, and that air pushed the other air away making an another emptiness, and with Puco's control this would go on.
She gave it a small push, and her tornado went straight at the tornado of that the skull person created.
In normal means the tornado's would disappear with a small poof. But both tornado's were manually controlled, so this would be a push battle. In the end Nex's tornado would win because he controls it manually all the time, while Puco just gives it a small push and it goes further on its own. However before that would happen several minutes would pass... that was enough.
Puco moved her leg slightly on the earth, controlling it. Now there were Sienna was a small text appeared in the earth, so that only Sienna could see them.
">XD Attack now his back with full strength! <3<3<3."
-
Something flashed in front of their cells and slashed open the locks, then disappeared.
The few remaining Tjed soldiers peeked out of their cell doors to find all the Lizard Men dead, and their weapons lying on the floor.
"Let's go!"
With that, the warriors of Tjed took to the streets to join in the chaos.
Above the city, the shields flickered and died, leaving Tjedon open once more. Villagers heard the battle cries in the streets and took up arms.
It was time to take back their city.
----
Valos' attack blew the monster's green leg off and it shrieked in pain. It fell backwards all the way to the crater below, landing with a dull thud.
Floating under the surging blackness, Retan angled his helmeted head towards Anti. "It seems your are worthy of my personal punishment."
-
Lagart was fighting off several lizard men who were rushing towards him. They were all of the smaller C-Class, but it was still a challenge for him to fight them off. Lagart had several cuts along his body and his armour was getting shredded. But Lagart didn't give up and he continued to smash away at the attackers.
It seemed though, that they were no longer trying to get into the house, they just wanted to take out Lagart. But it was amazing how many enemies he was able to take, already seven C-Class lizard men were killed by Lagart. But he wasn't sure if he could keep it up as he was loosing breath, and his vision was getting a little blurry...
Rink arrived to see Lagart battling his hart out, and he saw Jacobie standing around. "Hey! Go help him!" the imp shouted.
---
Duilin made his way towards the castle. The Talonscar mace had a golden glow with the mixture of fire and lightning enchantments. The lizard men had realized that the Velkens had betrayed the empire and were going to start killing the humans. Duilin would see none of it.
The half demon dashed towards a crowd of lizard men, smashing one of them with his mace in the head, and then swinging it again into another lizard man's chest. He then blocked the sword of one of the lizard men with his mace and then shot a fireball from his weapon hitting it in the face and knocking it to the ground.
Another lizard man came up from beside him with his weapon ready, but he smashed it from the lizard's hand. The giant reptile then kicked Duilin in the chest knocking him to the ground, causing him to loose grip on his weapon and it hit ground and slid several feet away. Duilin quickly made a shield of air energy, to block another lizard man's weapon coming down at him. He then released the shield and then summoned a fireball in each hand and threw them at the two lizard men attacking him. He then shot a couple streams of lightning at them to finish them off.
"That's one group down." Duilin said, as he walked over to his mace and picked it up. "Let's see how the others are doing at the castle..."
--- ---
After a few moments of struggle the two tornados merged together and began to tear apart the land.
Sienna got back up and then took out her deck of cards, and then took all of them out, the cards glowed an eerie red and she threw them at Nex's back.
The cards shredded right through the cloaked demon, who growled in pain. Nex's tornado then faded away as the demon kneeled to the ground. He started laughing again, which made Sienna sick to her stomach.
Nex got back up and turned around to face Sienna.
"Nice. Now it's my turn."
Nex lifted his hand and summoned an orb of demonic flames in his hand. The orb made the shape of a skull and then shot from his hand and flew towards Sienna smashing her in the chest knocking her to the ground. She just laid there motionless...
"Nighty, night."
-
Jacobie madly rushed out infront of his fellow lizardman and slashed at the ones attacking Lagart. After enough were dead, Jacobie sheathed one of his blades so he had a free hand. He placed hi hand on Lagart's shoulder and began to cast some healing and fortification spells. A bright blue aura surrounded Lagart as his energy was restored, and his cuts and slash marks quickly sealed themselves up, leaving no trace of blood or injury to be found. the aura then focused on the lizard's hands, giving them a power enchantment.
"You should be able to control the energy now. Right then, I'm with you all the way! CHARGE!!!" Jacobie unsheathed his katana once again and slashed them swiftly from one lizard to the next, making carefully sure that he didn't mistake Lagart for one of them.
Justin was behind them both, casting a few boost spells that would give them both speed and toughness fortifications. The auras of the two lizardmen resinated nad flickered brighter and faster. It appeared as though a translucent sheet of magic armor surrounded them.
------------
-
"Thank." Lagart nodded at Jacobie and then continued fighting.
He blocked the sword of one of the dark lizard warriors, and then smashed him across the face with the handle of his sword and then slashed him across the belly with the blade and then jabbed in into his chest to finish him off.
A lizard man armed with a flail came towards Lagart, smashing it around wildly. He blocked the flail with his sword, forcing the chain to wrap around the blade. He then violent swung his sword upwards breaking the chain, he was about to stab his sword forward, but another lizard man smashed him in the back with a hammer knocking him to the ground but it didn't take him out. He rolled over and slashed his sword at the lizard man with the hammer's legs, taking him to the ground. He then made another slash at the unarmed lizard man's throat killing it, and then brought his sword back and stabbed it down at the lizard man on the ground.
Meanwhile Rink snuck into the house, to talk to Bell.
"Rink!" Bell called, glad to see him. "Is Duilin okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, he's fine?"
"What about Bjendell?"
"No sign of him."
"I hope he's alright. So where is Duilin?"
"He's fighting." Rink then sat down on the table. "Everyone else is too. Lagart and Jacobie are kicking a lot of ass out there, it's pretty impressive. Hopefully none of the B-Class officers will start coming at them."
-
A mass of a dozen lizards surged towards Lagart, Jacobie, and the others, but before they could descend upon them, a brilliant blue flash flooded the streets. The cobblestones ruptured in a multitude of long jagged icicles that impaled the enemy Lizard Men, killing them instantly.
The five Velken battle mages hovered above, a blue magic circle fading between them. In a flash they were gone, flying down the streets and blasting a hailstorm of pointed ice lances in all directions.
----
High above Gros Morne, a fireball rocketed into the propeller of Vincent's flying-disc contraption, and he leapt into the air as it exploded. After flipping several times he landed on the deck of the Lightning Wyvern and squeezed off a round into a jagged-sword brandishing Lizard Man's chest, the resulting explosion blasting him clear off the edge of the airship.
More advanced. He could not bring the shotgun up in time, so he lifted his left arm to block the blow of a mace. Before the blunt metallic weapon struck, his arm morphed into a sliver blade. He parried the blow with a clang and slashed back at the snarling beast.
-
"Whoa..." Lagart's jaw dropped as in the blink of an eye a dozen of lizard men were killed. He looked down the street to see if he could see what did it. But he didn't see them.
--- ---
"General Xarn." The scout said through the commutations orb.
"What now?" Xarn asked.
"There's somebody on the deck of your ship, sir. A human or near-human by the looks of it."
"Blast it." Xarn, spun the communications orb, changing the connection. "Elites head to the deck, we've been breached. Repeat head to the deck we have been breached." He continued piloting the ship, but looked a little irritated. "Nobody's taking my ship."
---
"You heard 'em boys." A short lizard man stepped into the bunk room. "Some punk thinks he can take out the ship. Let's show him that...uhh..."
One the elites got already gearing up with weapon. "...that we'll take him down?" The elite suggested.
"Uh, I guess that'll do." The short lizard man replied. "Okay, let's make a mess outa things."
"But don't we have to make sure the ship doesn't get destroyed?" Asked one the other elites.
"Okay, let's prevent there being made a mess outa things." The short lizard man grumbled. "Let's just go."
All the elites were of the B-Class except for the short one, which was an A-Class. They wore the standard lizard man armour but with different coloured trim and less common weapons. The short one had white trim and was carrying a large firearm of some sort, two of the B-Class ones had brown trim and were armed with dual bladed swords and the other two B-Class ones had grey trim and were armed with metal tridents.
The elites made their way to the deck of the ship to engage the intruder...
-
Tiberius put two fingers on his forehead and sent a telepathic message to the four from earlier; Zion, Xenai, Aura, and Tsu. 'Sorry, but something's come up. We gotta go.' Tiberius' form changed slowly into a large, magnificently cerulean wyvern, his robes forming into a white saddle. He straightened his back out to let Jannis climb aboard. As she leapt onto his back, he turned his head to the side, to somewhat be able to speak to her. "If anything comes at us, shoot at them from my back. Also, hang on tight. I'm going to be quite a bit faster5 than most are used to."
The wyvern Tiberius lifted from the ground with a great flap, Jannis holding tightly around his neck. He then blasted forward at a blazing speed, the human upon his back barely able to hold her grip. In a matter of minutes, however, they were flying above Tjedon.
"Hey, look at that! The shield is down!" Tiberius flew slowly towards the ground and landed on his four dragonic feet. He then walked the rest of the distance, as there appeared to be hardly any more lizardmen left to deal with. The human girl got off at the sight of Justin, and tiberius quickly changed back into a human. The stone he'd got from defeating Valiko seemed to boost his magic power.
"Hey Justin, we're back." Tiberius said, somewhat coldly.
"Oh, hey. There doesn't seem to be that much battle going on anymore. Let's go inside then." The three of them went into the house, Jacobie and Lagart assuming guard duty outside, incase there were any more of them left, which there probably were.
"What the...?" As Tiberius entered the house, immediately he got to one knee. "What are you doing here, your highness?"
"Relax, Tiberius. Rise to your feet, Gepardi." Tiberius did such, and behind him came Justin and Jannis. They seated themselves around the table.
"I thought there was someone else with you guys... wait a sec, where's Ben?" Justin folded his arms, still standing, along with Sierana (mostly because of the lack of chairs).
"He's... gone... dead..."
"WHAT!? That can't be right! You guys are just messing with me! Seriously, where is he?"
"GOD DAMN IT, HE'S DEAD!!! Tiberius' eyes glowed slightly crimson. He clenched his fists in rage. A result from the stone, no doubt. He merely sat down and folded his arms.
"No..." Justin left the house and ran off into the street, away from everything. His anger surged through him as he recalled his terrible past. He could remember one of the last things his mother told him before she died. *When you do get strong enough, protect as many people as you can. Too many people have died already because they weren't protected. Someday, you'll grow up to be a defender, I just know it. You won't let anyone under your watch die, will you?*
"I failed you, mother... One of those last few things you wanted, and it's dead to you now..." He fell to his knees, holding the sides of his head with his hands. Pain was jabbing his head as the traumatizing events related themselves once again. He could do nothing to stop the dark images as they tore through his head. Finally, they got the better of him, and he blacked out, unconcious, his frail body falling to the floor. Lagart and Jacobie were near by, however. Perhapse they'd seen him...
------------
-
Anti grinned at Retan. "You, sir, have just made my day." He fully turned his body to face him... and waited.
//Sorry I don't have anything more than this. Neutral
-
Puco noticed that he was doing something very bad..
She quickly dashed sideways around the demon towards Sienna, catching her. While her tornado was right behind the demon now, since he apparently forgot it when his own disappeared.
The tornado's way stronger now he over won his!
//This happened in a few (3) Seconds. You just forgot my tornado >D
-
Sienna coughed and gasped for air, but was still able to stay awake.
Nex laughed, but then noticed he forgot about the tornado which was now coming towards him.
"Oh... Hehehe." Nex didn't seem to mind so much as he was sucked into the tornado and was spun around. Parts of his robe tore off, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference to their already tattered appearance. After a few seconds Nex was able to thrust his hands down and the tornado died out, yet Nex still floated in the air.
Nex lifted his hands in air, as they glowed with an errie red lightning aura, a loud clash of thunder was heard and the sky flashed red. Then a series of red lightning bolts began raining down upon Puco and Sienna...
-
Indher groand and grabbed the branch with her feet as she let herself slide.
Hanging upside down and with a sleepy expression, she gave the man who disturbed her a pretty distrought look.
"What..." she muttered "Can this wait? I need sleep..."
She obviously didn't like being disturbed and appeared quite uneasy.
-
Electricity.. it hits the highest thing! Metal is nice too!
She slowed down time, and took a small ball of light metal out of her pocket, reformed it, and made it a long staff. She pierced it horizontally in the earth, and lied down together with Sienna who was still holding it.
Now lets hope that the thunder will act normally, and it will hit the metal..
--- ---
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Shuichi bowed in a sign of excuse. "But I'm in a hurry.. I'm tracking someone down which I don't know nor ever saw. I have a way to find that person, but that needs help from someone who knows runes.. good. Someone like you!"
He smiled brightly.
"If you want, I can erase the feeling of being tired.."
-
Brrr! It was cold in the boat. Akran had barely anything on and the inside of the boat was pretty much empty. The wind slapped against the canvas. It was a strong wind so he was going pretty fast. He should be there soon. He had made a mental note of the direction of the island as he and Kronos were travelling away from it. He was sure he was going the right way.
----- -----
“Did you lossse the trail? Idiots…”
A thin, snake-like tongue flicked through two slimy lips in obvious distaste.
“Sssorry sssir,” came a reply from the shadows in the corner. “He met thisss Kronosss… he travelled too quickly, sssir.”
“FOOLSSSS! Go out there and get him. He knowsss! He knowsss aboutsss the whereaboutsss of our preciousss Majeuri Spinel, I’m sssure of thissss…”
“Yesss my lord.” hissed a third voice.
-
//Roar. I don't like faulty ISPs.\
"Phah! Never trust them magic trinkets! They always mess up, one way or the other. That is why I use a nice, old fashioned wyvern. Yes, it was quite old, by the looks of it: a hundred, maybe two hundred years since its decomposition. Now that I think of it, the bones are starting to crack suspiciously... Bah, no matter.
I landed the wyvern on top of the airship, and some imbecilic Lizard Man made a lunge for me. Obviously, his hand went right through me, causing him to lose balance and fall of the ship... yes, right through me. Felt like a cold shower, it did. No wonder they call them "cold-blooded".
Now, however, I was facing other problems. There were several other Lizard Men who were picking on Vincent. Now, I'm all for bullying, but not when it is administered against a person of such value. I also noticed that I no longer needed my wyvern, so...
Putting the two together, I dismantled the wyvern, and sent the individual bones flying at the lizards. The sharp ends of the bones immediately pierced the leathery hide, and the blunter ones struck the lizards in their heads, falling off with a clunking noise. In a few seconds, most of them lay either dead or out cold.
-"You've been cut into pieces, Vincent," I remarked coolly. "Cooked, served extra spicy, and you still manage to come back. The fact that your self-preservation instinct is still working amazes me."
//DM, feel free to take charge of the GorusStalker battle. Just make sure that the outcome is that which I asked\
-
Indher blinked at the man.
"What good is coffee when you have no energy left?"
Indher allowed herself to drop down from the tree, gracefully performing a backflip as she does and landing on her feet.
"Well, you've never met said guy, so I'm sure this can wait... In the meantime, why don't you make yourself useful?"
She turned around and started walking towards the settlment.
"Mmhm... I have an idea... Yes..." she strode slowly among the trees, muttering to herself...
-
While Kronos was using the crazy-bone-shard-attack, Vincent bent over backwards to dodge some of the dead-matter spikes. He snapped back up into position as his hand turned back to normal. "'Tis nothing." He waved it off.
Stepping at a quickened pace towards the center of the ship, he snapped another odd cartridge to the top of his gun as fiercer, more elite-looking lizards came spilling through the central door. He moved in front of the Sovereign and pulled the trigger, sending an intense spray of liquid flame surging from the barrel, totally engulfing the two leading lizards in flames. The rest of the troop backed off yelping, and he moved the flamethrower left and right to maximize the area of the flame waves as the elites fell back in either direction. All the while he kept walking towards the now cleared door.
-
At the end of the hallway was the squad of five. The A-Class stood in front of the group.
"You're not taking this ship!" He shouted. He took out his gun and began firing shells at a semi-automatic rate at the Sovereign and the Alchemist. As the shells flew through the air they were ignited in a green-blue flame and began to speed up. One of the shells hit the wall and exploded spraying a green-blue liquid on the floor which started to burn, but not damage the interior of the ship itself.
//It's like plasma flame or something.\
---
"The Kandarinian Airship is in range, General Xarn." The co-pilot announced.
"Group up the other two airships, and concentrate all fire on it. And let's fire our Thunder Cannon. Lets make this quick!"
The two airships then moved towards the giant Kandarinian Airship, not aware of how powerful it was. They began fireing their shadow cannons at the ship, the Lightning Wyvern then blasted a thunderous bolt of Lightning, cracking the air between it and its target.
---
The stalker fighting Gorus jumped off of the wall to avoid the grappling hook. Gorus simply pulled the chain back and ripped the chunk of the wall out and swung it at the fleeing stalker, but missed. Gorus retracted the hook and removed the piece of rock attached to it. Yes, the grappling hook is that strong, that's why Gorus loved it.
Suddenly Gorus was barraged by a volley of fireballs, ice shards and lightning bolts. Gorus took all of the hits, and dust and smoke clouded around the lizard general. Before it even settled Gorus jumped out of the cloud, and began running, trying to find out where the attackers were.
The mage stalkers were moving around after they fired a few times, and were able to remain hidden from Gorus due to their chameleon cloaks.
"Grahh! Fight me face-to-face you cowards!" Gorus roared.
"You got it..." Said the whispering voice of the melee stalker, who jumped up from behind him. And jabbed him kamas into Gorus' shoulders.
Gorus snarled, not even yelling out in pain. Gorus grabbed the stalker and smashed him onto the ground. However after that move he was stricken with a sharp pain. He could barely move his arms, so he stomped his foot down on the stalker, but he rolled out of the way.
The lizard general continued to be barraged by magical attacks. They didn't even hurt him much, but they really pissed him off. Gorus was taking a lot of head shots and it was difficult to keep focus. He needed to transform, but for some reason he couldn't, the cold and the kamas stuck in his back were slowing him down.
The melee stalker came up towards him with his hatchet ready to smash Gorus in the face, yet in the corner of his eye he spotted him.
"Gotcha."
Gorus shot his grappling cannon, and the hook impaled the stalker, and smashed him right into the wall. Gorus retracted the hook and extracted the dead stalker from it.
"No fear. If he was afraid he wouldn't have tried that, and he would have lived." Gorus said to himself, chuckling a bit.
Gorus pulled the kamas out of his back; his shirt was dripping with blood.
"'Tis but scratches."
He then scanned the area, trying to find the mages. He stepped towards where he thought he could sense them, but he wasn't too sure.
"Come on out..."
The mage stalkers were waiting, they had to make the right move at the right time. They already lost one man, they can't loose anymore.
Meanwhile in one of the nearby buildings Eris, the stalker was loading up her crossbow with some special bolts. She then exited the building where he could see Gorus.
"My, my, my. What do we have here?" Gorus licked his teeth. "Don't you look tasty. Let's have bite!" The lizard then dashed towards Eris, but was then shot in the leg by several frost blasts, from the mages, he fell to the ground and tried to get back up, only to see that his boots were frozen to the ground. The lizard general was then shot by a large barrage of bolts.
"Gah, you think that's going to kill me!?" Gorus laughed, he gave a forceful tug with his feet, breaking away the ice from his boots, and then stood up.
Eris shook her head, as if to reply with a 'no'.
Gorus raised one of his eyebrows, and then plucked one of the bolts out of him. He then noticed they were dipped in some sort of liquid. He licked the bolt, he recognized the liquid has a heavy form of tranquilizer.
"Oh, cute. Very, very cute." Gorus then fell to the ground, out cold...
-
"Harken to these words, my son, for they are what will carve your destiny into anew. Your death was... aninevitable loss, but fear not. My deploy of physical forms is nearly endless... however, the wars of mankind are exhausting them quite vigorously, especially that of the dark empire. The Draken gods from the other realm are all too powerful for us, but they are peace-loving people... all but one. Drakose, the father of the Drakens."
"What do you expect to do about it, my lord? If the Draken gods are too powerful for the human gods, than what of their mortal subjects, the Drakens?"
"Hmm... you bring up a good point, but enough of that 'my lord' stuff. I'm your father, so adress me as such, please. That, or dad, or something of that nature; I rather like being called father at this point."
"Oh yes, sorry father."
"No need to appologize, Benjamin."
"It's actually Bjendell, father."
"What? I don't recall naming you this, Benjamin... but very well. I will still adress you as my son, however, if you will allow it."
"Right, but what of the Drakens? How much power do you think one has?"
"It's far too powerful for one lone god to destroy, unless they are considerably untrained or duplicated."
"Hmm... that would explain Vraoumori... or should I say Jayce?"
"Yes, that one rests in his own realm's hell, along with his duplication."
"You avoid my question..."
"What? Ah yes, I appologize. What of those Drakens... well, if all of the gods combine their power, then I believe we could defeat him. We cannot directly influence, however, as that would spark off another war... there have already been too many casualties. Speaking of which, your new form is waiting behind you."
"What is that...? Is that a... demon form?"
"Only part demon, and part angel. I'm still working on another form. You are free to use this one for the time being."
"I think I'll just wait."
"That's not an option. They need you down there, and they have called to me again and again. This is somewhat an answer to all of their prayers. Now go, my son."
Ben's vision faded as his physical form materailized up near the mountains of Tjed. His body was both demonic and angelic, and to prove it, he had one demon wing, and one angel wing. He awoke as his spirit entered his physical shell. Strangely, he had the same apperance as he did before, except half of his body was a dark red color. He had a long, black horn jutting out of the left side of his head, where the demonic energy resided. All in all, though, he pretty much looked just like he did before.
"Heh... for better or for worse, I'm back!" The halfbreed took to the skies as he saw Tjedon below, the shield gone. Blood filled the streets like small rivers and streams, along with green chunks of flesh. Ben flew into the cityand landed right in the midst of the crimson river. He could see nothing alive for quite some time, until his eyes came upon a familiar face... Lagart.
------------
-
The red lightning shot through the metal staff and began shooting into the ground.
"That's no regular lightning, Puco..." Sienna warned.
The ground underneath Puco and Seinna started to get hotter and red lightning then shot from the ground and through the dead gleepers. The corpses then slowly got back up and started to lurch towards the two.
-
The stars in the sky seemed to move, though Retan and Anti were floating in the same place.
The ground rumbled and the sea groaned. The Dark Emperor extended his left hand. The star-field above blasted by quickly and silver mists covered the sea and island-crater below, though it was some sort of illusion giving the appearance that the two were rocketing through space.
Blackness engulfed Retan's palm and surging Dark Thunder raged from the mists below and the stars above. The black bolts connected in a circle around the astral demon, and then flooded the interior of the magically enclosed space, hundreds of jagged streaks stabbing through the air.
-
-"Mmm, flames! I can't say I am much fond of the element, but it is effective nevertheless. As I'm sure you can tell, a mere dislike of something will not stop me from using it. They do remind me of Draven, though..." I shook off the unpleasant memory. "Damn showoff..."
I followed Vincent further into the airship.
-"So, do tell: how was it? The afterlife, I mean. From what I've been hearing, it's different for every person. When my human body was deceased, I was sent to the Realm of the Second Insanity. A bloody pleasant place, believe me. Large, green, moss-covered Cyclopaean buildings superimposed against a grim black sky, almost welding to the horizon in the distance. Between the stone towers - pools of glowing, delightfully acidic slime, in which one can relax and listen to the soothing sounds of wild shoggoths feasting upon their terrible prey... I really ought to visit it again sometime."
Another lizard, probably feeling awfully heroic, swung his sword at me. I dismissed him with a half-hearted lightning blast.
-"The realms of the afterlife - subsidiaries of Thanatos - quickly became my hobby after that most excellent experience. There are so many down there that it is quite fascinating. Priests and shamans recorded their otherworldly experiences, and I happened to find their writings. I don't even think that I have all of them..."
---
The lightning blast hit the shimmering blue shield, largely dispersed by the barrier. The fearsome attack was reduced to little more than a static charge once inside of the shield, but it was more than enough to do some damage. The charge disrupted several glass tubes, which were mended by some sort of a magic force. The mending process went awfully slow, though - the tubes were fragile. The Enlightenment began slowly creeping upwards into the sky, firing off its defensive cannons through the shield barrier...
---
Retan and that other thing were completely out of sight now. Did Damien really lose them? He hoped not. The weapons were glowing strangely for a while now, probably due to their close proximity to each other. Most interesting... Very, very interesting...
-
Ben flew up to the two lizards standing before the house; Lagart and Jacobie. He landed in front of them both. "Man am I sure glad to see you guys! Oh... if you're wondering about the demon thing, I can explain that later; first off, where are the others?"
------------
There was a great unrest inside Justin's mind, though he remained unconscious. The two forms within himself were fighting over his body. The darkness counterbalanced with the light, therefore all he could see was a severely dull grey. Grey, everywhere. His mind felt empty. Again and again, he could hear the two souls inside his body, fighting like children over a toy. He could hear a faint sound, like a raindrop falling in a pool of water, or a broken sink leaking drops of water, slowly down into a larger tub of water. The sound echoed thgough his mind and tormented him like a raging fire. Death wasn't quite near for him, but neither was life; his body in a state of coma, caused by tragety.
"Wake up, don't be afraid. Wake up, save another for a day. Enjoy the morning fresh air, for warm love is everywhere." It was a song he didn't quite forget through all these years. When he was feeling sad, his mother would sing it to him. These were her very last words as well; the absolute last thing she uttered out of her mouth before she died. The sound was almost like the song, but in one quick drop; sometimes it hurt, sometimes not...
------------
-
Puco gulped.
Bringing back the dead?
"Sienna why didn't you tell me that he was very strong!" Puco said with a crying voice.
She needed to get quickly away from those gleepers. Or they should get away from her.
Puco punched the earth, and a small hole under Sienna and puco began to form. All the earth that was there was pushed aside into many big spikes around Sienna and Puco. Some gleepers were pierced, others were just bashed back, however none did reach the girls. Puco quickly turned and kicked one of the spikes, immediately all of the spikes broke, and those who were pierced were shredded into pieces and the others were killed by the rocks shooting away.
"Quickly Sienna! Let's kick this meany!"
Puco dashed point-blanc at Nex, maybe he did, maybe he didn't know, but infact that was just a clone made of earth. Puco was now above Nex falling at him with high speed with a giant earth spike in her hands.
---- ----
"Err.. sure?"
Shuichi was a little confused, so he just followed the woman.
He saw a nice white settlement build around a single fountain. There were some people walking around, and most of them were working. Childs played in the fountain, to be scolded by their mothers and forgiven because playing in the fountain could give them the flu.
This kinda reminds me of the small towns in Edharm.. It has a nice aura around here, maybe I can stay a little longer.
He turned his head towards Indher.
"Nice village, it's really peaceful in here.. do you live here?"
-
Indher approached the fountain and splashed at her own sleepy expression, only to shake it all off soon after.
"Bah! Live here? I live nowhere yet. Not officialy anyway."
She sighed and blinked, removing her circlet to shake off more water.
The sudden change in her eyecolor caused some of the children to back off...
Except one. A brunette, blue eyed boy with an azure gem in his forehead approached her.
"Miss Indher, what happened to your eyes?"
She turned to look at him, confused at first. Reality soon struck her however, and a blunt strike it was.
"OH! Don't worry kid, these are my REAL eyes. This circlet makes them look normal so people wouldn't think I'm scary."
The children who backed off whispered among themselves, but then began to approach.
Before she knew it, a whole bunch of kids surrounded her.
"Hey, what's the big idea, kiddos?"
Silence.
She raised an eyebrow and returned her circlet to it's rightful place.
The gathering of kids soon scattered, leaving Indher alone again.
A sigh.
"Humans are so odd... And to think that we've built this entire city from scratch in less than a day!"
She turned to the mysterious man, chuckling.
"The former dead sure can be dedicated! Anyway, would you like a tour? I've worked enough for one day, but a walk will be nice."
-
Heh.. former dead? Built in one day? This place is getting more fun with the moments!
Shuichi didn't look surprised, in opposite, he smiled when he heard those words, and looked even more interested.
"Hmm, a tour sure would be nice.. I have been working without break for some time now.. May I ask you what kind of "work" you do? And if I may; what kind of "work" do you do?"
-
"It's firing back!" Xarn's co-pilot shouted.
Xarn clenched his teeth as his ship was struck by the cannons, suffering moderate damage.
"The ship has been damaged!" The co-pilot announced.
"Why thank you, Captain Obvious!" Xarn snarled.
The co-pilot's facial expression dropped to one of mild embarrassment.
Xarn then throttled the Lightning Wyvern forward and then made a wide turn to avoid any continuing shots...
---
An army of lizard men began rushing the Gros Morne Citadel, trying to see if they could take out the hart of the city. The lizard men however had a lot of trouble getting to close as Vanguards were positioned inside and were constantly shooting their mortars at the oncoming enemies.
However, a few of the veterans recognized these tactics from the Battle of Vandrin, and were and were able to take cover before the mortars landed near them and exploded.
--- ---
Nex summoned a fireball in his hands and punched 'Puco' who was running towards him. The earth-based clone was thrown back and burnt up from the flames.
Nex looked up at just right time to see Puco with a stalagmite in her hand falling towards him. Nex then rolled out of the way to avoid Puco landing on him. Just as he got up on his feet Sienna shot a series of dark energy rings which wrapped around Nex.
"You think your little 'curse' trick will work on me?" Nex sneered, breaking the rings. He then laughed and his sickles appeared in his hands, and he moved towards Sienna...
-
The Enlightenment rose further up into the sky. The cannons stopped firing, and retreated back inside the hull, to avoid depressurizing the hull. Suddenly, the clouds cleared for a minute or so, allowing a sun burst strike the prism in the middle of the ringship. The scientists on board of the ship quickly seized the opportunity, firing a somewhat weak solar pulse at the Lightning Wyvern. Meanwhile, the ship continued to rise, and the air continued to thin...
--- --- ---
The Vanguards continued raining death on the Lizard Man army. Soon, however, even the somewhat dim Vanguards realized that many of the Lizard Men were hiding behind the buildings and effectively shielding themselves from the mortar blasts. Jameron, the leader of the Vanguards, used his M-Grid orb to contact the Stalker Corps:
-"This is Vanguard Squad Six. Can you guys spare a ranged Stalker?"
-"Yes," replied the creepy whisper. "Paris is not doing much right now; he can be spared. Expect him in a few minutes."
The Vanguard put away the orb and packed his mortar away. Without hurrying much, he drew up a glyph on the wall of his fox hole in the Citadel, and left...
--- ---
The message hissed through Paris' M-Grid orb. Goddamn, he thought. Those Vanguards can lift 200 lbs with one hand, and they can't take on a bunch of stupid Lizard Men? He had more important tasks than going all the way up that Citadel, hiding out in their little fox holes and shooting Lizard Men from a distance, possibly injuring his perfect vision. Who was he to argue, though? He was just a humble Stalker, after all.
Paris took off from his hidden post in a half-ruined building, putting away his bow. He sprinted over to the Citadel, which was just a short distance away. The guards were missing from their posts, leaving the portal completely unguarded. Well, screw them.
The portal immediately took him to a foxhole, in which a Vanguard was already positioned. The brute noticed Paris, and grunted:
-"You're the help, huh... Certainly don't look like much."
-"..."
-"The quiet type, too?"
-"..."
-"OK..."
That Vanguard was not worth his speech. Paris tacitly took out his weapon - the Iron Wingbow - and his quiver. The Wingbow was a technological miracle, it seemed. In the Stalker Academy, when he was first shown the weapon, Aahzmandius decided to make a point with it. He invited a girl - a little, five-year-old girl - to try the bow. He held it up for her, and she pulled the string, with an arrow nocked in place. The bow was aimed at a dummy made fully of metal. The string itself pulled almost effortlessly, even in the child's hands. Once it got to a certain point, however, something inside the bow clicked - just clicked - and the arrow was released. The bolt pierced the dummy completely, through and through, and even damaged the wall behind it. In the hands of an expert, which Paris was, the weapon was beyond deadly. It could hit a squirrel's eye from a distance of three miles, not even fully notched.
He carefully held the weapon horizontally, in a true master's way, and aimed for a large lizard man crowd.
Click.
Several Lizard Men were impaled by one small, two foot-long arrow, falling to the ground immediately.
-
"Afterlife?" Vincent raised a brow and looked at Kronos as if he were nuts, then quickly realized who he was talking to. "I don't remember much at all besides waking up in someone's meat locker. It wasn't quite dead, anyway..."
Before he could say another word, the ship rocked and shuttered. It was evident the ship was taking some hits from The Enlightenment, which while a good thing, wasn't so good with them in it. "Blast. They'll ruin the core."
He dodged as a series of blasts whirred over his head, and the ground erupted in a green flame. He ducked behind a pillar jutting from the side of the hallway as the lizards shot their explosive weapons, peeking his head out and drawing it back multiple times. He managed to squeeze a few shots back at the Lizard Men, but for the most part the reptiles had him and the Sovereign pinned.
Gritting his teeth, he collapsed his shotgun and returned it to the interior of his coat. He leap out from the safe spot into the middle of the hallway and slammed his hands into the ground. Immediately the metallic floor surged upwards like a wave in a like, and at the crest a multitude of gleaming sliver spikes jutted out, quickly growing for the firing lizards...
-
//Forgot to mention, Dori and Valimore are inactive, for the time being. Will get to that on DAL pedia, just give me a sec.
"Hmm... that's odd. I can't feel any residual energy from the battle outside... maybe it's over?" Sierana got up from the table and walked outside. The fighting outside indeed seemed to be quelled, for the moment. She also noticed Justin, unconcious in the street. Ignoring everything else, she ran up to him. Being a lot stronger than she looks, she lifted him up and held him on her shoulder. Lucy left the house and followed her.
"I guess this is it for us here... He's breathing. A magic-induced coma, no doubt. Come on, Lucy, we're leaving Tjed for now. Back to Terian."
//Justinian Constantine is now inactive.
------------
"Heh... they have the general idea. I'm leaving, probably not gonna be back for a while, say a few years or so." Tiberius walked out the door to the house as well. He left for the Arctic Region, as the stone had told him to do. It's dark secrets still lingered in his head, whispering to him the ancient knowledge. It had completed its task, which was to corrupt the one that bore it.
//Jason Tiberius is now inactive.
------------
-
(Sorry I haven't been on in a while.)
Ko'ji followed the others into combat, racing into the houses to save the families from the lizards. Unlike the others, after she defeated the lizards, she gave a quick bow to the family. Hopefully, she thought, that would give them the idea of who the good guys are! She then zipped off form house to house, doing the same thing over and over. The lizards varried in size and strength, but that usually mattered not, for she would give them a quick three or four stabs in the neck and they'd be down.
Arata leapt off the ship with Jack, landing on a nearby roof of a house. He then jumped off that and rolled to break the impact of the fall. Jack did the same, though not as good as did Arata. The house was near the castle, however, and loads of lizards were merely waiting there for them. They all rushed the two, wielding broadswords and maces. "This might be a bit of trouble..."
"Trouble!? More like fun as hell! BRING IT!!!" Arata whipped out his katana and slashed left and right, easily dodging the blows form the larger lizardmen. Jack, on the other hand, was having a bit of trouble dealing with the broadsword against the lizardmen. Seeing as how they all had a broadsword or a mace, the only thing different was size and power, and the lizards won by that measure, twice over. He didn't fight back, just blocking the attacks of the lizards. He'd let Arata do all the fighting, or so he thought.
-
//I forgot were Valos and Spider Retan were? Who's turn is it to attack?\
"Oh two can play at that game!" The A-Class elite shouted, as he stopped firing. The spikes moved towards him an he held his gun with one hand. With his free hand he held one of the shells and then slammed his fist on the ground, and the floor stopped moving, but was now totally deformed, and looked like a frozen wavy lake.
"Suel, Gumbo." The A-Class said to two of the other elites. "Rush in there, and bring back their heads."
"With pleasure!" The two lizard men with the doubled bladed swords then rushed through the hallways, the wavy floor didn't seem to bother them that much.
Suel rushed towards Vincent and spun his blade around making a series of showy moves. "Show me what ya got, human!" He then leaped towards Vincent and slashed one side of his sword down at him...
---
The Lightning Wyvern was struck by the solar pulse and almost fell off balance but was still in fighting condition.
"Gah! Charge up another thunder blast!" Xarn commanded.
-
…Damn! Must have missed it. Just great. Well, Akran was making quite a fool out of himself. He thought for sure he was going the right way. Standing up, all he could see in front of him was endless blue water. Akran shivered and sat down again. He rubbed his hands together and tried to think of what to do.
His thoughts were interrupted. What’s that noise? It sounded like something flying through the air. Akran turned around.
“What in the world…”
A monstrous beast was flying towards him with scaly, ugly wings. The creature’s mouth blew a cloud of fire and on top of the dragon was a figure - still to far away to see. It shouted something that sounded a lot like “…get himsss!” followed by a crackle of laughter.
The dragon dove towards the boat at an incredible speed. It’s going to hit the boat! Akran grabbed for the wheel, but not in time. The dragon flew down and with its claws, ripped the small vessel in two. Akran was flung from the boat and he hit the water.
He wasn’t expecting the sudden change in temperature so, he lost his breath. Akran couldn’t move. He was sinking… down, down…
Was a hand pulling him up? Everything went dark.
-
The spider monster, now only five-legged, crawled up from the dent its impact made in the bottom of the crater. Angling its blue leg up towards Valos, it blasted a volley of icicles at the man.
(Just kill this thing already, blast it. Heh...)
----
After the casting the insane Dark Thunder Rage upon Anti, Retan turned his attention elsewhere as the distorted stars seemed to move more slowly, the illusion cast by the cataclysmic spell fading, the night sky and misty ground returning to normal. He paused upon a spec in the distance. Immediately the three weapons he was carrying-- the sword, the spear, and the dagger materialized in the air surrounding him and began to circle slowly.
"I believe you have something of mine..."
With that, his black cape unfurled like the wings of a dragon and he sped through the skies, straight for Daimien Roth...
----
Virmir landed on the deck of the Death Evan, the rest of the Velkens filing in one after the other.
"How goes it?" he asked.
Anselm saluted. "The main reptilian forces are in shreds. The rest are confused at best. The humans have been released and should be able to take the rest of their city themselves."
"Good..." Virmir placed his hands behind his back and turned to look at the mountains.
The sun was beginning to rise over the jagged peaks, and the sky was painted breathtaking crimsons and violets. He stood there brooding for a moment as his tail slowly waved behind him.
"We've one task left, then..."
"Kendo!"
His ears perked as his thoughts were interrupted. The white-clad Priestess Urocy came flying across the deck, her guards and little Emile chasing after. "Thank the gods you're all right!" she yelled.
Virmir took a timid step back before she fell upon him and gave the vulpine squad leader a tight hug. "Lucile... you shouldn't be out here..."
-
"I had a horrible, terrible heartburn on that ship, I'll say. I wasn't exactly in the best of moods.
-"For the love of anything, Eldridge, can we just get a move on? Cast one of them spells and kill everything in radius. Honestly, I have absolutely no desire to be staying on this ship any longer.
"Bah, you know what? I've had it with this little skit."
The recently deceased Lizard Men rose up again. Curious... something was tugging at my control over them. I don't trust them. Of course, at a mere thought, they fell back down. I came over to one of the fallen ones and picked up his blade.
-"This is a sword." I looked dumbly at it. I had absolutely no idea how to swing one of those oversized knives properly. "I shall now commence in killing Lizard Men with it."
I swung it in a rather amateurish way at an incoming lizard. It bounced off, dealing the Lizard Man no harm. Ah, well... I flicked a whooshing electric arc toward the reptile, killing it instantly and several others around him.
-"They yell to me, CONSERVATIVE! CONSERVATIVE! Bah! The old ways are old because they're CRAP, I tell you. Liberalism is the way to go. See, that's why they barely use swords anymore. Swords suck. Magic, on the other hand, is amazing. Then in a decade or so, they'll discover something new, transcending magic. Are they still going to swing their little butterknives? Haven't you heard the quote, "It's just a flesh wound"? I mean, that's proof enough right there. Nothing like a third-degree burn to the brain to finish someone off, rather than cutting them and having them still screaming - still screaming, yes, still screaming, while they should already be dead - for an effective killing method."
A few Lizard Men later, we finally made it to the chamber containing the flotation crystals.
-"...and that is why I think that corpses are more attractive than the living. Their calming sky-blue tone of skin... The glossy eyes... the... stiffness... You ought to take up Necromancy, really. It is so thoroughly insinuating to make pretty corpses dance like puppets!"
Of course, the word "insinuating" comes rather naturally in a casual conversation.
-"So, what shall be done about that door there? I'm sure you can make a limb of yours into one of them thingies to open doors. Get to it, if you will."
//of course, Kronos could be wrong about the designation of the chamber - it may have been the cockpit, or some other place.\
--- --- ---
The Enlightenment kept rising, increasing its speed. The clouds pulled over the sun again... Unfortunate. They had no more weapons to defend with, and the enemy ship looked like it was charging another shot. Suddenly, one of the damaged glass tubes ruptured.
Air rushed out of the hull, wildly throwing the ringship to the side. The inner ring groaned in its place dangerously, perhaps endangering the precious lens in the middle. Finally, the rupture was sealed - but not before the ringship changed its course, just enough to completely miss the arrival point... They had to steer while they were in the atmosphere, and at a significantly lower altitude. The ship descended, and then re-deployed its cannons, opening a circular volley at the ship below. The cannonballs were fired under a very particular angle, so that once they reached the Lightning Wyvern, they would condense into one tight spiral, definitely crushing some bone...
--- --- ---
Tethys followed Akran at a safe distance, always out of eyesight and earshot, but never out of his own. He was itching to use his new weapon - a shortbow known as the Heartstopper - but orders were orders. Strict ones, at that. A flicker of a bladed whip eviscerated his mind like a thousand razors...
--- --- ---
Damien noticed the black figure coming down for him with somewhat of a start. He expected to find Draven here, but he was nowhere to be found. An unfortunate turn of events... A thought of fighting the Draken off by himself did cross his mind, and he actually thought it might be a good idea. Then again...
Roth rose a little bit into the air, spreading his arms as if in a welcome towards the dark silhouette.
-
//Ein, Vincient is in the middle of fight with the elite group? Or are you getting sick of it? If so, just kill them all off then.\
Valos created two fireballs in his hands and then smashed them together and then shot it at the ice spikes heading towards him. The two fireballs split into several smaller ones, and most of the ice spikes melted before they got towards him.
He wasn't sure if the blue leg was mostly ice or water, so he shot both a fireball and a lightning bolt at it, and blew it off.
"Had enough yet!?" Valos taunted.
The shadow spider continued to move towards it, with its four remaining legs.
"Guess not!" Valos then pointed his opened hand at the spider and aimed for its white leg, and shot a shade blast, blowing off. Half of the spider’s legs were gone. The fire, air and shadow one. Unfortunately, he didn't know any water, earth or light attacks.
"Screw it, I'll just blow its friggen' head off." Valos pumped his arms, and clenched his hands into fists. His right hand glowed red with fire and his left hand sucked in light with its shadow energy. "Open wide!" Valos growled as he ran towards the limping shadow spider.
He then smashed his fists down onto its head and there was a large explosion of fire and shadow energy. The smoke settled, and Valos stood over the shadow spider which was dissolving away.
"Humanity prevails."
--- ---
Duilin came towards the house, were the group was staying. Bell and Rink came out of the house to greet Duilin. Lagart was panting, as he was pretty tired out from all the fighting.
Bell gave Duilin a hug. "I'm so glad your safe." She said.
"It'll take more than that to take me out." Duilin said, half jokingly.
"So, I see you saved the Velkens." Bell said with a smile.
"Yeah." Duilin replied.
"I bet they're pretty greatful."
"Actually, not as much as I thought they would be. It's fine, they aren't completely free and I haven't finished helping them yet."
"What do you mean?" Rink asked.
"Well...I need to face Retan now." Duilin stated.
"Now? Like, right now?" Rink asked sounding a little worried.
"Well, not right now. But soon."
"But...you're not strong enough."
"I'm not weak. And who else is going to do it?"
"The Velkens or maybe Draven." Rink stated.
"The Kandarinians." Bell added.
"Yeah, but they'll need help. I just...feel like it's my responsibility to try and do something to stop him." Duilin said, not making eye contact with anyone. "If I don't I feel like I haven't done enough. And don't say I need a rest. I'm fine."
"Well, let's just talk about this for a little while. There is still a lot to do. Ven is very sick and needs aid."
"The Velkens have somebody who can cure him."
"Well, let's go talk to them then." Rink said.
"They're on the airship."
"Maybe they come down here." Lagart suggested. "Me no fly."
-
//I seriously don't feel like updating anyone else at the moment, and in all honesty, I didn't even skim through very much. Neutral I'll only do Anti for now.
Anti grinned as the final boss-esque environment came to be around him. "Oh, you're good! Powerful and flashy! Let's see what you've got!" He watched the black bolts connect around him, and prepared for what might come. He expended a lot of energy right there and then, as the stars shooting past him started to slow down dramatically. The first black needle shot towards him... He pulled his body out of the way. Another one came in, and he dodged it as well. As more and more came, he found himself having to deform his body in order to prevent himself from getting skewered, but when the last several ones came, even that wasn't enough. When the black sphere vanished, a red blob was visible in its place. Anti reformed himself, panting heavily. Incredible. He did that, without even trying! I need to put him on the defensive, like now!
"Flame Lance!" A large sword of fire shot diagonally down from the sky toward Retan....
-
- Inside the Lightning Wyvern, above Gros Morne -
Vincent simply stood there as the lizard showed off his blade. As the creature leapt at him, the alchemist brought his shotgun to the reptile's muzzle and blew his head off.
The second lizard proved more tricky, and Vincent had to leap back to doge the thing's sword. He pressed his hand against the wall to his right, and a serious of spike jutted out where the creature was standing, impaling him from the left side.
By this point Kronos was getting annoying, so he jammed another cartridge in the top of his gun and lead the sovereign down the hall, blasting the lizards left and right with a constant spray of fiery explosions, the bright flashes reflecting in his sunglasses as he walked forward.
Just as all the lizards had been dispatched, the gun made an empty clicking sound. He ripped the cartridge out of the top and opened his coat.
"Blast... out of Auto Shells..."
He replaced another sort of cartridge on top, this one with a flame emblem, then inspected the door Kronos was yapping about.
"Yeah, yeah..."
He tapped the golden gun on his shoulder and looked the giant reactor door over. It was well over a dozen feet tall and obviously made of a medal at least a foot thick. He pressed his hand on in, then felt the lock hole. His fingers melded into a metallic sort of pick and flowed into the key hole. After a moment the door clicked, and began to swing open, a bright yellow light emanating from within...
(DM, if you rather the airship not be disabled next turn, send a sign. Heh...)
----
- Death Evan, deck, above Tjedon -
"I know... it's just that... I was so worried about you..." Lucile said, still clutching the silver fox general, who was looking like he was getting squeezed to death. "And there are humans down below who need my help. I'm going now."
"Absolutely not," Virmir said as he pulled away. "You will not be putting yourself in any danger."
"I won't be, I promise." With that, Preistess Urocy took to the skies, closely followed by her four Velken guards.
Virmir looked like he was about to take off after her, until Anselm put a claw on his shoulder. "She'll be fine."
Virmir shot him a glance that made him remove his hand as if it were on fire. He turned and looked up at the sky, then the Velkens around him.
"According to the last intel I received, the Dark Emperor has left the Tower of Heaven's Bane on an errand. Furthermore, the final High General, Gorus, is not stationed anywhere near the tower..."
"You mean..." Renard's ears folded back. Emile had found him and clutched to his side once more. The little fox girl looked very out of place amongst the black clad and somewhat bloodied vulpine warriors.
Virmir nodded. "The tower is his primary power source. It will not be unguarded, though..."
Anselm folded his arms and scratched his chin. "But we do have three destroyer class airships in our possession..."
"True. But we only have the manpower to crew one."
"Couldn't we teach the humans to fly the others?"
"There is no time to teach. We must move immediately. The humans have suffered enough and I'm loathe to involve them in this... There is a fair chance we may not make it back..."
"Where are you going, Galry?" little Emile said, looking up at Renard with big blue eyes.
Renard picked her up off the ground and carried her away from the dismal meeting. "It's going to be all right... You're just gonna have to stay with Lady Urocy for a while longer..."
"What about Sir Rikarl and our families?"
"We will have to trust him to get in contact with us. There is no way we can afford the time to send a messenger all the way to North Point. We have a very narrow window of opportunity. If Retan is not struck down, then there is no point in bringing our families to Gaian..." Virmir said.
They all nodded solemnly.
"My lord?" Bryce had also separated from the group and was leaning over the railing of the airship, pointing to a neighboring war ship that was pulling away from the group. "Uh... The Sinistral is flying away..."
They all turned. "Blast it!" Virmir snarled. "Who cleared the lizards from The Sinistral?"
The Velkens all folded their ears and looked at each other.
"We have to stop them. Right now!" Virmir's deep voice boomed.
They scambled, flying over the deck and into the door which lead to the control room.
The engines rumbled and The Death Evan began to move, pursing The Sinistral as it fled, leaving the third and final airship, The Dhaos empty and waiting high above Tjedon.
----
- Above the ocean, northeast of the Dark Continent -
Anti's burning sword cut straight though Retan and the Dark Emperor flew backwards and exploded in a flurry of bright flashes...
Or rather that's only what it looked like. It was indeed another shadow, as the true Retan took off after Damien Roth a few posts back. (Heh...)
----
- Above the ocean, north-northeast of the Dark Continent -
Retan stopped, folding his arms as the three weapons floated around him. By now the sun had risen, and his black armor and cape bore a stark contrast to the glistening sky and sea.
"The weapons that you hold belong to me. If you return them, I shall demonstrate my generosity in kind..."
-
- Above the ocean, north-northeast of the Dark Continent -
-"To you? Haven't you ever heard of the expression "finders, keepers"?"
Damien mocked Retan, and then rose one of his hands.
-"But if you insist. I am, after all, simply a humble servant..."
His palm began sending out sparks, and he curled it in towards himself. Then a few seconds later he uncoiled his arm towards the Draken, sending out a pebble-sized lightning orb. The orb blew up right before reaching Retan's face, doing absolutely no damage, but creating a very bright, blinding flash.
Retan's accuracy sharply fell!
(Heh...)
"...to the Sovereignty! So come and take them from me, snake!"
With those words, Damien sped off somewhere to the west...
--- --- ---
- Above Gros Morne, inside the Lightning Wyvern -
"I eyed the gold light seeping out from the widening fissure.
-"I believe that I am done telling you about the very important things, on which I will, quite naturally, quiz you later to see if you were paying attention or not. I shall move on to more current matters."
Judging by the light, this was indeed the crystal containment room.
-"Keeping mine and the Sovereignty's interests in mind, what do you think such crystals would be useful for, other than building big things that float? Do they exhibit any properties that could somehow be used to create something else? The thing that's been bothering me a lot is the NGO device. They are truly incredible marvels of magic and engineering. We've only got five or six left, from the eleven that I brought back from the Nightshade temple. For what I found out, there were only twelve of them in existence, and one was used by the Nightshade's elite squad, the Iron Wing. I believe you would be familiar with that encounter - it was used against the Crimson Capital fortress.
"In any case, these devices are close to becoming the very centre of our technology. My scientists found a great many uses for them, and are finding more now. I fear that the Sovereignty will not reach its full potential without more NGOs."
-
- Above Gros Morne, inside the Lightning Wyvern -
The A-Class lizard was shot in the liver and was starting to loose contiousness, and would soon die.
"Human...has gun..." The elite draged himself along and moved to where he saw the two intruder go to. He pulled out a communications orb from his pocket.
---
The main communications orb flickered on a ghostly image of the A-Class elite.
"They're heading towards...engine room...they got me. Man down sir..."
The ghostly image faded and Xarn grinded his teeth.
"They'll pay." Xarn got up, he looked a little upset. "This...isn't good."
The co-pilot looked at Xarn. "General, we need to do something. What are your orders."
"Continue fire. Try not to get hit."
"What about the saboteurs sir? We need to do something about them."
"I'm going to deal with them myself. I do not want this ship to fall. We will win this!"
Xarn then exited the cock pit, and summoned one of the spare pilots to take his place. He then ran towards the engine room to deal with the saboteurs.
--- ---
- Above the ocean, northeast of the Dark Continent -
Valos floated up towards Zerobi No Anti.
"I don't think that was the real Retan, demon." Valos stated. "If you want, go chase him. I'll admit you have a better chance then I do."
Valos turned around and scanned the area.
"I need to find Emperor Draven."
--- ---
- Tjedon, Tjed -
Duilin noticed one of the ships flying away.
"That's odd, I thought the Velkens were in the other ship." He rubbed his chin. "Yeah, something's not right here."
-
- Above Gros Morne, inside the Lightning Wyvern -
Vincent stepped through the door into the reactor room. A bright yellow crystal floated in the center, some four feet high, surrounded by wires and tubes. Under the flight crystal stood a metallic cylinder with glowing runes all around the base, and a translucent shield extended from this to the ceiling, entirely encasing the crystal.
The alchemist just rolled his eyes (the gesture disguised by the sunglasses, of course). Kronos would not shut up.
"Flight crystals merely distance themselves from the planet's core, varying by the magical current passed through them. That is all they do."
He knelt down in front of the glowing runes. His right pointer finger formed into a metallic pick and he began scratching additional scriblings over the glyphs.
"It will take a moment to disable the flight crystal's power so we can remove it safely. Cover me, if you will."
Crystal disablement: 33%
----
- Above the ocean, north-northeast of the Dark Continent -
Retan's crimson eyes narrowed. A blackness engulfed him, and he sped off through the air, hot on Roth's heels. Two black orbs materialized above him as he flew, and snaking bolts of black lightning streamed out of them towards his prey. He fired the bolts one after another in a relentless stream...
-
- Above Gros Morne, inside the Lightning Wyvern -
Xarn continued running through the airship. Whoever these people were, they killed Gorus' elites so clearly he'd have to deal with them himself. He reached the reactor room, kicking the door open and drawing his sword. His sword would be fairly large in the hands of a human or one of another race of equal or lesser size, but it was a perfect size for the lizard man. One the bottom of the hilt was a gem, the type which were usually put at the end of mage staffs.
The teal scaled lizard man glared at the two men who dared to board his ship. He twirled his sword around as he stomped towards them. He spotted one of them who appeared to be doing something to the flight crystal.
"Alright, I'm going to give you five seconds to stop whatever you're doing and get off my ship." Xarn snarled and the gem on the hilt of his sword glowed red, and flame shot through the blade. He slowly stepped forward and started counting. "One..."
---
The Lightning Wyvern continued to zoom around the Enlightnment. It's Thunder Cannon was charged to it's limit. It then slowed down and faced the giant airship and then fired a thundering bolt of lightning at it.
--- ---
- Tjedon -
"Ben?" Duilin said finally noticing that it was him that was there. "Is that you? There's something different about you. Are you alright?" He asked with some concern.
"But yeah." Duilin looked back up at the two moving airships. "Are the Velkens leaving us or something?" He narrowed his eyes trying to focus on the airships. "Rink, Ben can either of you sense what's going on? Like any odd aura signatures or something."
Rink shrugged. "I think I sense some lizard men, but I dunno."
Duilin rubbed his chin. "Hmmm..."
-
-Tjedon, Mountainous Region of Tjed.-
"Right, I was... killed, sort of, back on the Dark Continent. This is a new body, but with the same sort of set up. Actually, my father insisted that I be part demon for a while. I've lost some of my powers and have to regain them while I'm here, or at least get used to my new form. My angelic part seems to remember all that it's learned, but that doesn't appear to be enough." Ben's hand flickered with a white light. It was very small, though still noticable.
"I still don't think anything good will come of those two ships persuing one another... I can't really sense anything 'for sure' anymore, though. I need more power in order to do something like that again... Speeking of which, do you think you could teach me something about demonic magic, Duilin?"
------------
"Put your blades away, men. We're done here. All that is reptilian is dead on this land... that's hostile to us, at least... Well, this is your new home now, as you now serve Tjedon as the Tjedi elite. Get used to it." Aaron's form was changing back to 'normal' or so he called it.
------------
-
- Above Gros Morne, in the Lightning Wyvern -
"Now the damned heartburn was gone, so I felt more or less like myself again.
-"Do tell, o fat ugly green one - how do you figure you're in any position to make demands? I mean, yes, we're on your ship - but you're in my land, so I'm right where I belong." I paused. "Hmm... Say... you look a mighty lot like that hippo that was running down there in Gros Morne, which my dear Stalkers put low, but you are a little bit smaller than him, and wimpier. From what I saw, he wouldn't hesitate to smash my skull open the second he'd seen me.
"OH! You must be female! Why, how good of you to come! Now the hippo won't be alone, and will have a lady friend to entertain him! Now, if you'll be so kind, lie down on the ground there so I can have my undead thralls carry you to my zoo."
--- --- ---
- Above Gros Morne -
The Enlightenment was hit harshly in the side, blowing off a cannon. The ship, however, regained her direction, and continued ascending to the top, raining heavy cannonballs on the Lightning Wyvern below it.
--- --- ---
- North-east of the Dark Continent, over the ocean -
One of the dark blasts hit Damien behind his neck, vapourizing him into a small cloud of dust. The dust quickly rematerialized into Roth again, who turned over on his back, still going forward, but facing the Dark Emperor.
-"Hmm, and I thought that a practitioner of Catastrophic Shadow Elemental Magic would pack a harder punch..."
Damien proceeded to fling a whole fistful of the little flash-orbs, creating a wall of light between him and Retan. Although he wasn't sure of its effects on Drakens, it would definitely confuse a normal person...
-
-Tjedon, Mountainous Region of Tjed.-
"Ooo..." Duilin tucked his hands in his pockets. As soon as Ben asked him that question he immediately, thought about his father teaching him demonic magic, and how he was going to use it to harm his friends. He came so close to having that take him over, hopefully Ben wouldn't have that happen to him. Yet he is half angel, so he would be able to combat it better.
"Demonic magic is a dangerous art to learn Ben. If you're not strong enough, then you start to crave more of it, and it starts to lower your judgement. It can make you do some stupid or even evil things. Lucky for you you're half angel so you'll probably be able to control yourself better than I can. It took me awhile, and I even had to get light magic enhancements to combat it for me."
Duilin took his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms.
"But, I don't want to offend you but I've seen the way you fight, the way you act in combat. It's over aggressive. You lost your temper way too quickly in that fight against the Nightmare demon, and you tried to strangle Virmir with a chain by sneaking up behind him. That's not healthy at all, Ben."
Duilin looked up in the air and took a deep breath and looked back at Bjendell.
"I'll admit I've done some pretty bad things. I've been over violent in the past, yet that is the intended point of demonic magic. Demonic magic isn't even for directly killing, because that's too clean. When you use demonic magic, they don't die cleanly. But at the same time it's a strong type of magic, and those who have the ability to learn it, can learn it and master it easily. I don't like to use it too much anymore, but it's the strongest type of magic I know and there are some enemies that I need to use it on."
"So, yes I can teach you some, but you need to also learn how to control yourself and learn how to use it correctly. So think about it for a little while."
"Nice speech Duilin." Rink commented quietly with a smirk.
--- ---
- Above Gros Morne -
The airship started taking the heavy fire, and began to shake in the air, but continued moving to avoid any further damage. The Lightning Wyvern then fired back at the Enlightenment with a series of smaller lightning bolts compared to it's Thunder Cannon.
---
- Above Gros Morne, in the Lightning Wyvern -
"Pah!" Xarn snarled. "You clearly know nothing of my kind. I am no female. And if you think my FIVE seconds I gave you was a serious offer of pity you're clearly oblivious to my insults."
He stepped closer to Kronos.
"But this isn't your land at all. This entire world belongs to the Dark Emperor Retan."
"But I'm sure Gorus would be able to take your little band of Stalkers. Gorus is a High General, he's the stronger lizard man in the world, making him the second strongest being in the world. Me being close friends with him, I'd know how strong he is. And take my word on this, he looks like he could smash a brick wall with his claws and he's stronger then he looks."
He then arched back his blade.
"And I'll gladly lay on the ground once I stain it with your blood!" The lizard man then slashed his burning sword down at the sovereign's head...
-
- Death Evan Bridge, Skies above Tjed, west of Tjedon -
An explosion rocked the airship and the Velkens scrambled around.
"We're hit!"
"They're shooting at us!"
Virmir clutched the railing, looking out the forward window and growling. "Destroy them."
The Death Evan opened up a full volley of cannon fire upon the fleeing Sinistral, which returned the attack in kind with its rear cannons. The sky lit up as the two flying ships blasted each other to doom. The thunderous roar of two destroyer class airships battling in the skies echoed throughout the entire island.
An explosion rocked the side of the fleeing Sinistral, and the airship began to smoke. Still the chase was on, and the two made way for the ocean to the west...
----
- Above Gros Morne, in the Lightning Wyvern -
Vincent smirked. At least Kronos was directing his irksome banter at the enemy for a change. He continued working, ignoring the fight behind him. The translucent cylinder containing the crystal dimmed.
Crystal Disablement: 67%
----
- Above the ocean, north-northeast of the Dark Continent -
Retan seemed to vanish behind the wall of light. All seemed quiet for a short moment, but then the sea underneath Roth exploded. A screeching roar sounded and a giant black serpentine dragon burst from under the waves, surging upwards at the Lilithian with a gaping maw over ten feet wide. The dragon's length was impossible to tell due it is lower body being under water, but over three hundred feet in length were visible as its jaws moved to snap down on the tiny man...
-
//Xorlak: Damien's human. :P De Sade and Amon are the only Lilithians in DAL \
- Above the ocean, north-northeast of the Dark Continent -
-"Mother of...!"
Damien just barely escaped the great beast's maw, fleeing somewhat upwards and then to a safe distance a few hundred meters away from the Draken.
-"So, you have some skill after all, do you? Say, I haven't tried what these beauties here do yet, but I'll be saving that for later. Instead..."
The mage drew out his left hand behind him, with a small, swirling vortex inside of it. He continued his flight...
Damien's super-secret mega-ownage attack: 20%
//what exactly would the weapons do anyways?\
--- --- ---
- Above Gros Morne, in the Lightning Wyvern -
"No sense arguing with an idiot, I thought. The blade, quite naturally, went through my neck without much effect. I shifted back into my normal form, while gathering lightning energy at my palm. As soon as I was entirely materialized, I thrusted my hand at the Lizard Man, aiming for the chest. At the same time, I wretched some Lizard Men's skeletons from our previous encounters, and summoned them to my position."
--- --- ---
- Above Gros Morne, in the Enlightenment -
-"Captain! The lightning strikes have penetrated the aft shielding!"
-"Re-route forward shielding to aft sections!"
-"Rerouting, Cap-AAAH!!!"
Another jolt from the lightning cannon overloaded the shield controls, blasting a scientist backwards on his spine in a shower of sparks.
-"Mr. Laris! Evasive pattern Delta-4! Mr. Bauer, is the NGO engine ready yet?"
-"Yes, Captain! The air is sufficiently thin to open both vortex engines at the same time."
-"Make it so, Lieutenant. Engage the twin vortex engines !!"
---
Something strange started happening to the Enlightenment. The three airship hulls at the top containing the flotation crystals suddenly broke off the ringship, slowly descending back down to Gros Morne. The sphere in the middle which used to join them burst, revealing two smaller, cage-like hemispheres. The cages slid down the metallic beam used to support them, landing on either sides of the ship. They latched in place with a loud grinding noise, and then both slid back up in unison. Then whatever was in those cages opened up - the cages suddenly started emitting sparks, and the Enlightenment shot up at an amazing speed, like something just jolted it higher through the atmosphere...
-
"Hey! Where are they going!?" Ko'ji looked up to the skies and noticed the airships took off without her. She took to the skies and blasted for the deck of the Death Evan, and just made it before the ship took off after the sinestral (sorry if I spelled it wrong).
"You weren't about to take off without me, were you-woah!" The second airship atempted to blast at the Death Evan with its rear cannons. Ko'ji jumped up to the front of the ship and readied a great fireball. Her hands swirled around several times as the ball grew in diameter. It was about 1 whole foot, roughly the size of one of the cannons aboard the Death Evan. She blasted it forwards with an intense force that she was thrown backwards with recoil. She blasted up then back and hit the deck in a belly-flop kind of way, only with her back.
"Ow...ch..."
-
Puco response was quick, when Nex was going towards Sienna, she roll jumped back kicking the rock spear horizontally towards Nex. It looked like Puco jumped back, but she actually was hiding behind the stalagmite and when it reached Nex, in the confusion she quickly jumped on it and double jumped again, and she was above Nex.
"Three sided attack!" She yelled enthusiasmly and punched downwards towards Nex's head.
-
- Above Gros Morne, in the Lightning Wyvern -
Xarn was a little confused when his sword went right through his foe. "A ghost...?" He asked not exactly expecting an answer. Suddenly he was punched right in the chest.
"Oof--"
It wasn't enough to take him down, but it was enough to get on his nerves. Xarn growled, and slashed his fire blade at one of the zombie lizard men's heads, decapitating it and setting it on fire. He then held his sword with one hand and pointed his free hand at the sovereign and shot a lightning bolt from his hand at him.
--- ---
- Tjedon -
"Look, the airships are shooting at each other!" Bell said pointing to them.
"Yeah, okay something is definitely going on. I'm going up there." Duilin jumped in the air and flapped his wings and hovered in the air. "Ben if you want to come, there may be some fighting to be done, if you can prove that you can fight a little more cleanly I'll teach you a demonic spell."
He then flew towards the airships.
Rink noticed that one of them was unpiloted. "Hey maybe later we could take that and go somewhere."
"Where?" Lagart asked.
"Maybe Kandarin." Bell suggested. "They're a very strong nation, they have more military power then Tjed does. So maybe if we could convince their Marshal to help us kill Retan. He might actually be coming up with something on his own actually and may need our help."
"Kronos is not a nice person, but nicer than Retan." Lagart said to Bell.
"I know that Lagart, but I'm sure he'd see at least Duilin as a person of use, besides Duilin can't kill Retan on his own, even with Ben's help he couldn't."
"Maybe Draven make another giant fireball. Worked on Jayce."
"We can't rely on Draven." Rink stated. "He's probably got himself killed by now or something. It might not be such a bad idea to check out Kandarin."
--- ---
- South East of Helternia -
Nex grabbed the stalagmite before it could stab into him. With his immense demonic strength it was barely a problem for him, however Puco's punch hit him square on in the head.
"Off--"
Nex dropped the rock spear on the ground and it broke apart.
"That's it. It's killing time now."
Nex floated high into the air and began glowing with a red aura and the sky around the area began to darken.
Sienna's jaw dropped. "This is too much. He's too strong for us. We need to get out of here!"
-
"I'll be right behind!" Ben could barely craft an energy sword, but he did. It was very weak, but strong enough to stop a regular blade. He flew close behind Duilin and had his energy sword at his side.
"Hmm... I think my senses are somewhat growing back! Either that or we're getting closer... one ship is full of Velkens, and another of Lizardmen..."
------------
//almost forgot Jacobie! (Heh...)
"Indeed, Rink is right." Jacobie sheathed his bloody katanas and cuaght his breath, "Draven could betray us in an instant. After Retan, who's to stop him, if he isn't dead already? It would probably take every single worthy fighter across eight whole realms in order to defeat him... something like that anyways..."
Jacobie walked towards the house and leaned agains the outside wall. "We do have yet to see the Draken's Dragon form... Therefore, might I rephrase, we have yet to see the worst that is to come."
------------
-
(Blast it! I got Roth confused with De Sade somehow... Heh... never mind. The weapons do something fun only Retan can use...)
- Above Gros Morne, in the Lightning Wyvern -
The shield around the flight crystal faded, and the bright yellow light flowing from the stone dimmed.
"Done."
Vincent grabbed the huge crystal and pulled it from its suspended flotation above the metallic rings protruding from the floor. The thing was at least half as tall as him and over six inches thick. "An A-class crystal, and a beauty too. This would take a good couple of years to grow..."
Immediately the ship began to vibrate. In just a few moments it would loose all upward lift and drop out of the sky, likely with explosive results. There was a chance the ship had a backup crystal on board, but it would be smaller and much less powerful. Vincent wasn't going to stick around to find out, anyway.
"We'd best be on our way, Sovereign," he yelled over the din of the skeletal lizards attacking Xarn. Tucking the obsesenely large yellow crystal under his arm, he bolted for the door as the ship groaned...
-
"Nee..."
Puco moaned.
I didn't expect THIS strong people appear the moment I arrived.. If I had my circle.. but I don't!
"No! We couldn't really damage him, but we can still fight! Don't give up so easily!"
Puco sat on the earth and she looked like she was meditating.
"This earth has allot of spiritual meaning for you, hasn't it? I bet it was something special for more people too. The earth here is old and sad. But it is really friendly, all those feelings makes it strong... I'm going to lend its powers!"
Slowly the earth began to deform. Not as before, when the mass just changed its location, but this time it looked more like a spiral of energy.
Something began do raise from the mud like substance, it had no real form, but it looked like a enormous lizard with some fantasy.
"This.. this is the power that strong feelings can create! Believe in this Sienna!"
-
- Above the Ocean, north-northwest of the Dark Continent -
Roth continued fleeing from Retan, while holding on to the orb.
Damien's secret attack: 40%
--- --- ---
- In the Lightning Wyvern, above Gros Morne -
"The lightning attack hit me, serving a mild jolt. I shuddered, and summoned a few more skeletons. Of course, the crashing ship wasn't going to wait for me...
-"Vincent, if you don't want one of your toys to fail again, then follow me. I have a Winged Messenger at the ready, outside the ship."
-
(Hmm, you updated Roth twice before I could do Retan. Heh...)
- Above the Ocean, north-northwest of the Dark Continent -
The shimmering black serpentine dragon dove under the waves, disappearing entirely. After a moment it appeared under Roth again, bursting upwards and soaring higher than before, just missing his feet as it snapped at him. It slipped under the ocean once more and continued disappearing and reappearing under the man, snapping at him each time...
Then the clouds above him parted, and a second dragon dropped down upon Damien, snatching at him with scaly talons. This dragon was smaller, but had two massive wings that blasted the human every time they flapped. It was more the classical type, with two gleaming horns a long, thick tail, and the same black scales as the sea dragon below...
-
- South Eastern part of Helternia -
"Pah!" Nex sneered as he saw the mud creature. "Just more wood for the fire!"
Nex summoned a fireball in each hand and then shot them at the mud lizard...
--- ---
- Above Gros Morne, in the Lightning Wyvern -
"Don't mock me by sending your... bone fiends at me!" Xarn snarled slashing his sword at one of them. Suddenly he was attacked from behind as a skeleton wrapped it's arms around the lizard man's neck.
"Ackk--"
Two more skeletons came at Xarn but he slashed his sword again at one of them.
More of the undead minions started to pile on him, and it was too much for him to handle....
---
"She's goin' down!" The pilot said. "What do we do?"
"Uhh...wanna go out in a really cool way and crash our ship into theirs?"
"Sure, why not."
With the last amount of its energy thrusters it pushed forward towards the Enlightenment.
--- ---
- Above Tjedon -
"Alright, let's board the lizard man's ship and take them out." Duilin said to Bjendell.
He quickened the pace and reached the enemies' ship. Duilin landed on the ship's dock, he was able to keep his balance, despite carrying around his heavy mace. The dock was empty of any lizard men on it so he sprinted towards the door, and smashed it open with his mace. Not even bothering to check if it was locked...
-
Puco smiled.
"What weirdo sends fire at mud?"
She still was sitting, and the earth like hands "catched" the fire. Some of it began to burn, but the deeper earth was wet, and the fire was surrounded by it..
At the same time from the same hand, eight sharp tentacles grew out of the left palm, and were rushing with hight speed at Nex.
-
"I'll try to take out their weapons!" Ben flew to the ship Duilin just had and landed behind the cannons. He slashed at the base of the cannons and started to undo the mechanisms with his sword. Part of the aircraft's weaponry was starting to disable, but not fully. It was still firing upon the Velken vessle. He then began punching it and kicking it, but to no avail, as the machinary just hurt his hands and feet,
"Hmm... I suppose I'll just follow you then." Ben flew back to the deck and followed Duilin inside the ship.
------------
-
- South Eastern part of Helternia -
//Mikado, maybe we should hurry things up and finish this fight soon.\
Nex made a twirling motion in his hands and two cleavers appeared in them.
"Chop, chop!" Nex slashed the cleavers at the tentacles cutting off the tips that were rushing towards him. "I'm sick of toying with you, now it's time to die!"
Nex then cast a tornado spell by shooting a gust of wind at the mud monster that shot right into it, but didn't kill it. He then began to spin his hands and attempting to magically create a tornado right inside it.
--- ---
- Above Tjedon, in that one ship, whatever it's called -
"Alright, I'm sure these things have communications orbs, that we can use. So we can tell the Velkens that we're helping them. Unless they saw us get inside." Duilin replied.
-
(Drannic, Duilin just landed on the totally empty, and thus free to steal, third and final airship, The Dhaos, which is still above Tjedon.)
- Over the ocean, west of Tjed -
The two airships, The Death Evan and The Sinistral continued their assault on each other, leaving a trail of smoke and falling debris behind them as they flew over the ocean, the lizard-manned Sinistral desperately trying to escape the Velkens and their Death Evan.
The battle mages lined up on the ship's deck alongside Riuki and began lending a hand with random fireballs of their own. As the Velkens began to catch up, they moved their hands in intricate circles and a blue star-like pattern formed in the space between the two black flying ships. Much of the enemy cannon fire was abruptly deflected, allowing the Death Evan to come in close...
Then, at point blank range, the right side cannons of the Velken ship tore into the left flank of their enemies. Within moments The Sinistral was in flames, and the mammoth ship slowly fell back and crashed into the sea.
Virmir watched the destruction from the well-windowed bridge, his hands behind his back, his tail swaying slowly as the fireball sunk into the ocean.
"Continue present course. Straight for The Tower of Heaven's Bane... We are going to end this."
Silence overcame the bridge. The Velken squad lowered their ears and looked at the ground at the sharp words of their mentor.
"But sir..." Renard broke the silence. Virmir turned to see him holding the hand of the little fox girl-- Renard's sister. "We... I mean... Emile is on board..."
Virmir's eyes widened in understanding, and he scratched the back of his head for a moment. "Take her back to the humans."
Renard's ears perked. "But sir... I... if I do that, I won't be able to catch up..."
Virmir stepped up to the battle mage and tenderly placed a claw on his shoulder. Emile shrunk back from the former High General, clutching her big brother's waist once more. "Goodbye, then."
Renard's mouth dropped. There... there was no way he could leave his squad behind! He looked down at his timid little sister, who stared back at him with big blue eyes, silver ears twitching, tail tucked between her legs... No, there was no way he could bring her into battle either...
What was he going to do?
"I... I..."
"Take her out of here. That is an order," Virmir stated plainly.
Renard's heart sunk. Helix patted him on the back. "It's okay. We'll catch you later, alright?" his best friend reassured.
Anselm soften his stiff at-attention stance and gave Renard a reassuring nod. Gaston pushed his glasses up his muzzle and smiled. Bryce offered a small salute.
"R-right..." Renard nodded. "I'll see you all again..."
"When the skies are blue. Everywhere." Helix said.
Renard smiled. "Yeah. Everywhere." The two patted each other on the back. "Let's go, Emile," he said somberly. With that, Renard left through the door, crossing the deck to fly his sister back to Tjed under his own power.
Virmir waited a moment after the fox left, staring at the looming dark clouds on the horizon. "Anyone who wishes to join him, or otherwise leave my service, do so now... There is a fair chance we may not return... ever."
(Elder, just so you know, I only plan on updating the main Velken squad sporadically from this point on for a while. If you want to update Riuki more often, she should follow Renard.)
-
//Don't worry, I pm'ed Xorlak before I did this.
- Tjedon, Mountainous Region of Tjed -
"Hmm... Well, the lizardman I was supposed to deliver this to is dead... Ugh, and he's starting to smell, too. Heh, come to think, they're all dead. Wait, there's one!" The mysterious-looking figure walked toward Jacobie from the shadows of the dark city streets, being somewhat filled with a barely visable light from the sun, the tourch posts still lit.
"Here you are Mr. Lizardman. It's a message for you from Lord Marcinious. Good, good, just take it. I'll be off then!" The cloaked figure then disappeared into the shadows. Jacobie, being as confused as ever, simply opened the letter. It wasn't quite adressed to him, but he continued reading.
Dear Elite,
Welcome to the big games. You have been given a contingent of lizardmen to command outside of the Arctic region. They have already set up camp, and await your arival. Before you can command them, however, you must be promoted. I hereby grant you the title of Commander! Make good on your oaths to the empire and show us what your made of. I will be waiting at the camp for you to fill you in on the details. Then I will take my leave, and you will begin the assault into enemy lines. Make us proud!
-Commander Varosi Marcinious, Arctic Division -
The Dark Seal was stamped at the bottem of the message, and had the emblem bearing resemblance to a dragon with four wings. A Draken in full form, no less. The courier was indeed from the Dark Empire. Jacobie had to obey orders, or they would find him, like they did his father. He folded the letter up and stuffed it into his armor.
"Lagart, I'm taking my leave. Tell the others." Jacobie then walked off, or rather leapt off, into the mountains, sustaining his fatigue with magic. From peak to peak, he flew across the sky, just as he had when he came into Tjed. He then took a great leap and crashed down into the port city. It was full of Drannivolkans and elves, and a few human merchants, trading with Tjed.
A sign hung over the entrance to the port, and etched into the fine wood was "The Crystal Port." Indeed, Aaron's men were fine in their craft, for the port was almost as big as the city of Tjedon, without the walls. He could make out a few familiar faces, Aaron and his men. They appeared to have taken residence in one of the homes of the port. There were more than enough Drannivolkan females to keep the elites trying, and they did. Aaron, however was ready to leave Tjed for home, to restore what little order was left in his kingdom most likely. Jacobie walked down the streets of the dock, and surprisingly, he found his ship anchored to one of the harbors. A merchant was sitting next to it.
"Excuse me, sir, but that's my ship."
"No it ain't! I founds it meself, I did! Just off the coast there."
"That's where I left it. I'd like it back."
"Finders keepers, mate, finders keepers."
"Hmph. How do you find this blade!?" Jacobie unsheathed the burnermaul and pointed it at the old merchants throat. "Perhapse you'd like to keep it inside your head, you worthless thief!"
"Ugh... now now... let's not do anything rash..."
"Then let's give me my boat back."
"... Fine... take it. I have no use o'da thing anyhow." Jacobie boarded the small boat and cut the rope anchoring his ship with his katana. He sheathed it and kicked off the harbor. The boat then took off. Once he was a fair enough distance away from the harbor, he took both his hands and placed them into the water. The boat then blasted off with a great speed, as Jacobie's air magic sent it off like a motor. He'd reach his destination within a few hours, perhapse...
------------
-
"I'm going with him!" Ko'ji walked forward to Virmir at a fast pace and gave a quick bow. "None of us are to be alone, sir... Just following orders." She turned around and patted Helix on his shoulder. Once she caught his eye, she gave a smile and a quick wink, then pounced into the air and pushed some magic energy behind herself in order to catch up with Renard. "I'm going with you, to keep you safe! Nobody is to wander off on their own!" Ko'ji flew by Renard's side. She was a bit taller, but still kept up with him.
--- ---
"Well, now that they're all dead... there really is nothing to do."
"Correction: there really is nothing for me to do. You, on the other hand, are a free man. Enjoy the world... while I try to save it."
"Wait, you're one of the good guys!? You're joking, right?"
"Meh, I might be a bit violent, but somebody needs to lead these people! I'm probably gonna join the guard. Before you know it, I'll be a captain."
"In that case, I'll stick with you."
"No, Jack. I have to do this on my own. Please, go fend for yourself. You are now free to forge your own destiny. I hope you do so without making the same mistake that lead you into jail in the first place."
"Good bye, then..."
"Good bye, Jackwell Richend."
-
(Drannic, you did not mention in your PM that you wished to use a boat that traveled tens of thousands of miles per hour. Please go back and read the rules on travel, especially the one about leaving one place and arriving at another in the same post.)
- Above Gros Morne, in the Lightning Wyvern-
Vincent pulled his lip up on at the remark, but wasn't in the mood to argue. "Right." He tucked the giant crystal under his arm and ran after Kronos, struggling to stay on two legs as the ship began to teeter. He followed the Sovereign down hallway after hallway, through hordes of irate and confused Lizard Men.
-
- Above Tjedon in The Dhaos -
"This ship appears to be empty." Duilin stated.
He walked through the ship, nobody was inside.
"Heheh, I think the other ship, was the one with the lizard men in it." Duilin chuckled.
The two, headed their way towards the cockpit, where there were the pilot seats and the communications orb. Duilin had no idea how to work it, since he wasn't ever trained in how to use airships, back when he was with the empire. He didn't see any sort of manual so he would be unable to do anything.
"Hmm, they're too far. What are we going to do?" Duilin asked. "Hmm..."
Duilin walked back to the deck of the ship.
"Ben, do you know much about airships? I know how to use a boat, and they're somewhat similar in controls. We might want to get the others." Duilin rubbed his temples. "I should have thought this through." He mumbled.
---
- Tjedon, Mountainous Region of Tjed -
"Okay." Lagart said nodding to Jacobie. "Bye."
Lagart walked back into the house were Bell and Rink were, they appeared to be in the middle of a conversation.
"I don't know. But I'm worried that if he goes through with this, he'll get hurt...or killed." Bell said pacing back and forth.
"You'd be surprised at just how much he's lived through."
"But all those stories he's told me. He was with other people doing them. But with Zeros' gone and the others who've seemed to be lost, it's almost like he's on his own."
"He has Bjendell, he seems talented enough."
"Yeah...I guess. But I'm still worried; I can't stop worrying about him. I don't know, what if we both go with him when he tries to face Retan?"
"That'd be too dangerous Bell." Rink said. "You'd just get in the way. Me and Lagart can fight, but let's be honest, you can't."
"No...I can't..." Bell sighed. "It's not like I want too, it's just that...I care a lot for Duilin..."
"Yeah, yeah. I get it." Rink noticed Lagart was standing in the doorway. "Wow, for a big guy you sure are quiet. What's up?"
"Jacobie left."
"Did he say where he was going?" Bell asked.
"No."
"Did you bother to ask?"
"No."
Rink rolled his eyes. "Ack. So any word from Duilin or Bjendell?"
"No."
"Okay...I'll see if I can contact him."
"How?"
"Telepathic mind powers." Rink said in a joking voice, despite the fact he was totally serious.
-
- Above Tjedon in The Dhaos -
"Hmm... I do recall helping a man named Thand repair a few air-ships, much like this one. I guess I could give it a try. I'll head down to the cockpit." Ben walked into the ship and began to mess around a bit with the control system. A bunch of green and red lights flickered as his hands moved around the control system. (I'm going to assume Duilin will follow)
"Apparently, this ship is named the Dhaos. It shows our current location in relavence to the location of some sort of tower on Terian... I belive this is where Retan normally resides." Ben used the controls again and got the ship to turn around, in order to follow the other ships in the fleet.
"The resinator emmiter on one of the two ships is under water... one of the ships must have crashed into the ocean. There appears to be another ship, the Death Evan, that is in the general area, a few miles to the west. I've turned the ship to follow the Death Evan. It seems that the Velkens may have defeated the Lizardmen or may not have. Point is, I'm not so sure what to do next. If we're heading after them, merely push this button."
------------
- Tel Vos, Arctic Region -
"Uhhh... I'm running out of mana. Gonna have to stop blasting this thing off." Jacobie took his hands out of the water and grabbed the paddles that were inside. He could see the shore of the Arctic Region, lined with giant war galleons and fast fire ships. Snow fell down from the skies around all the ships.
Jacobie paddled slowly, as he was running low on energy. In a few moments, however, he reached the shore. He placed both the padles back into the boat and got out on the snowy land. The earth was very strong in this region, and very cold. It was nothing more than an ice cap. The lizardman walked out into the land a bit more and saw a large colony of pavillions. The biggest one was in the center, and the flap was open.
"Hello? I'm here." To his surprise, Jacobie was confronted by a female lizardman captain, A-Class. He was surprised that there were females of that class.
"Commander! We have long awaited your arrival. Our lordship has already left and told us all that we are now under your command. How may I serve?"
"I need detailed information on the general area... and why I'm here as well."
"Ah yes, of course sir. Our scouts are on patrol as we speek. And why you are here? To quell a rebelion that has started. The king of this area has returned to the lands from being away aftetr a while. Some of his subjects felt rather less... intimidated while he was away, and are trying to get him out again, hence the rebelion. Unfortunately, the rebels outnumber us five to one, but we have much stronger weapons, armor, and soldiers. The royal guard of the fortress nearby has also offered their help, as the king is allied to the Dark Empire."
"Hmm... thank you for the report. Anything else I should know?"
"Though the rebels are quite weak, they do have powerful mages. Also, a few bandits have taken to their side as well. They will have a nice enough stock of bows and arrows, so the men are prepared for a ranged attack."
"Make sure to keep their armor thicker around the joints and the neck."
"Yes my lord. You may use this tent as your personal quarters, and feel free to call upon the slaves for anything you need."
"Slaves...... Uh, yes, I will. Good day, captain..."
"Captain Zabel, sir."
"Right. I'll try to remember." The femal captain left the tent, and Jacobie was alone with five slaves, all chained to eachother. The key to the shackles was on his desk. Jacobie walked over to the desk and picked up the key.
"No slaves on my watch." The lizardman then unlocked all of the chains of the slaves and all left the tent... all but one. A young human woman.
"What's the matter? Leave! Get out of here while you can!" The woman did not budge. Jacobie put a hand on her arm, but she shrugged him off.
"Are you crazy!? You've got to get out of here! You're free!"
"None of us are free," at last she said, "even if we were to leave, we would die on our own. With no food, water, or way to defend ourselves, we would die..."
"*sigh* I suppose so... but you still have a better chance if you're free."
"No... I will die, like the others."
"It can't be helped then. You can stay here for now."
"Thank you."
------------
-
- Above Tjedon in The Dhaos -
"Um, I'm not totally sure if we should go after them just yet. Like maybe we should talk to the others before leaving just like that." Duilin replied. "Maybe you could try and get this thing started up and maybe see if you can use the communications orb thing to contact the Velken's ship."
Duilin put his hand on his head.
"Wait, a second I think Rink is trying to talk to me. Hold on a second." Duilin took a few steps backwards, and then sent a telepathic message to Rink.
"Hey, is everything okay down there?"
"Jacobie took off, he didn't say where he was going.' Rink replied. 'How are things up there?"
"Could be better, but still not that bad. This ship is empty, maybe we could take it."
"Bell suggested we go to Kandarin, and try and form an alliance, at least a tempoary one."
"You mean the Sovereignty? I don't know, aren't they like some death cult worshiping their ruler?"
"I'll admit they're not the best bunch, but if we're going to defeat the empire we need all the help we can get. The Kandarinians apparently have the strongest military in Gaian, next to the Dark Empire."
"Well, I guess it's worth a shot. But I don't think they'll be too thrilled to see a Dark Empire ship coming towards them, they'll likely open fire or something."
"We'll fly some white flags or something. They'll think we're a ship surrendering. They might buy it."
"Okay, but I'm still a little iffy. Me and Ben are gonna try and get this airship figured out and try to move it a little closer so you and Lagart can come aboard."
"Bell actually wants to come along."
"Really? Well, if we're going to Kandarin...then maybe. But I don't know. It's too dangerous. Why?"
"She's worried about you Duilin. She says she'll feel better if she comes along. I told her it'll be too dangerous, but it's your call."
"I'll think about it."
Duilin then turned and looked back at Bjendell. "Hey, can you move this a little closer to the city? Like say, around the yard outside of the castle. I want to pick up the others."
-
"I'm on it!" Ben flipped a few switches and grabbed another control mechanism. He pushed it forwards and down, flying the airship lower to the ground. He then flipped around the controls and hovered it on over to the castle courtyard, as it was the only place with enough space for a ship this size. The ship slowly descended to the ground, and the motors stopped running as it hit the surface of the earth.
"Alright, I'll get her up and running again once we get them all aboard. Oh, and Duilin, a word of advice. I know that there's another person that you don't quite want to leave behind. Hell, I wouldn't feel well with myself either. If you really want them to come along, but still keep a distance from battle, give them a bow." The ship'd boarding ramp automatically fell to the ground as the ship docked into the courtyard.
"Go get your friends; I'll wait here"
------------
"I'm not so sure it's a good idea that you remain a slave, though. I suppose I could try to get you to do something else... to make you look like a soldier, or something..."
"..."
"You don't talk much, do you?"
"... No..."
"Hmm... Oh, look at that! There's a suit of armor! Perfect for a human, too. Throw that on and tell me if it fits."
"Um... Could you...?"
"You want help or something?"
"... leave... for a minute?"
"Oh, right, sorry. Yeah..." Jacobie walked outside the pavillion and waited in the cold snow, his back against the pavillion flap. A few moments later, he felt a cold metal tapping on his shoulder.
"Does this look good enough?" The woman looked almost like a perfect knight in silver armor. It was indeed made for decorations, but Jacobie paid no mind. He took a katana sheath off his belt, the chillmaul, and handed it to the woman.
"This is... for me?"
"When we enter combat, which is most likely to be soon, you'll want this weapon. It has a cold enchantment on it. Here, let's get you back inside, I can see you shivering." The woman went back into the pavillion, along with Jacobie. Probably out of habbit, the woman sat on the ground next to the shackles.
"You're not going to get any warmer like that. Here, the bed's got some open room. Rest there for now." The woman got up softly, still in the bulky armor, and laid down on an elegant bed in the back of the giant pavillion.
"... Thank you again..."
"I didn't catch your name."
"Um... Ka-ka... I can't remember..."
"Let me see if I can figure it out." Jacobie walked over to the bed and put a scally hand on the woman's helmet. He took it off and put it next to the ground, then placing his hand on her forehead.
"K-A-R-M-A-N-D-A-L-L-A... Karmandalla?"
"Um, yes... I think..."
"Did you have a nickname your friends used to call you by or something?"
"What's a friend?"
"Nevermind... did you have a nickname? A shorter version of your name, I mean... something the other slaves, or slave masters knew you by?"
"Karma..."
"Hmm... I probably wouldn't want to be called that, seeing as how that was your slave name. What do you want me to call you by?"
"Karmandalla."
"Your full name?"
"Yes, please."
"Okay, if you say so. I'm sure I'll be able to come up with something later though!" The lizardman smiled and removed his hand. This woman appeared to be devoid of life away from the empire, and a bit under-educated. Seeing as how Jacobie was an A class lizardman, nearly an S class just for his intelligence, He might want to take her on as an apprentice. Yet something felt odd about this human, he told himself.
"I... forgive me, but I've always thought lizardmen... were evil creations... made by the dark emporer."
"Not me. I was born a halfbreed. I'm actually half dark elf, or drow in their native tongue. That's why my spells are much greater than the other lizardmen. My father was an S class lizardman, and a former general for the dark empire... but I don't like talking about him much."
"... Why are you...?"
"Why am I what?"
"Being... nice to me?"
"Because I feel sorry for you. I try to stop slavery wherever I can find it. It's just inhumane."
"Spare me your pity, lizard."
"But also because I think you've got potential."
"... what?"
"I'd like to take you on as my apprentice, it that's okay with you."
"Potential... to be what?"
"Exactly. What. Whatever you want."
"Ever since I was young, I've seen mages try to buy me from the Dark Empire. I think now they were just trying to free me... like you were. I think... I think I want to be a mage!"
"Then as of this day foreward, You are a slave to nothing but the knowledge you crave. I hereby grant you the title of mage, and as my apprentice, you shal grow strong in the field."
"What do I call you, master?"
"Jacobie. That's what everyone calls me."
"But what about your full name? I want to know it, please!"
"I see little harm in telling you... very well. My full name is Thomas Reincover Jacobie. They all call me Jacobie for short."
"Can I call you Thomas?"
"You can call me whatever, but right now, you need practice." Outside of the pavillion, an alarm was sounding. The rebels must have been attacking.
"Put your helmet on. This will be a good way for me to view the way you fight. I wont let you die out there, so don't worry." The woman put the helm back on her head. It was open, so she could see. Probably a bad idea as the other lizardmen might mistake her for a rebel or bandit. Just then, Jacobie got an idea.
"Here, eat this." The lizardman took out a green, squishy sort of substance and handed it to the woman. She ate it quickly... must have been hungry. Suddenly, all of her features grew and changed color... they turned a scalley green. She even grew a tail.
"That will make them think you're a lizardman, but it only lasts for a short time. I gave you a lot, so you should last the battle. If you get hurt, call my name right away. Let's go!" Jacobie opened the flap from his pavillion and walked out. Sure enough, the woman followed.
"Alright men, what's up?"
"Sir, the rebels are attacking the barricade!"
"Right. Men, CHARGE!!!" The lizardman unsheathed his katana and motioned for Karmandalla to do the same. She did, and held it like he had, with two hands, close to her side. The lizards raced out of their tents and pavillions with large broadswords, maces, cleavers, greathammers, and greatswords. Each of them held their weapons with ease, and sped up to the barricade across the field of tents. Indeed, there were rebels waiting for them.
"I want all fast weapons to outflank them if they get close. Archers, to the barricade! Mages, blast 'em all to hell!" The lizardmen followed the orders given by Jacobie. All of the men were huddled near the barricade. Every single lizardman in this platoon carried both a bow and a melee weapon. Quite an intelligent stradegy. There were few mages, though. An unfortunate turn.
"I sssee themss!!!"
"Hold your fire until I give the word." Rebels with longswords and maces charged into the front of the barricade.
"Let loose your arrows! Fire at will!" The arrows from the bows of the lizards made sure not a single rebel made it into the camp. However, that did not stop them from comming in. More of them charged the gate.
"Aim! Fire!" The wave was a bit less successful this time, as a few rebels made it in. They were quickly cut down, however.
"We Hasss no more arrowsss!"
"Ready your melee weapon!" The lizards then got out the weapon assigned to them. Just then, an army of rebels, this time more organized, marched along the snowy paths to the barricade.
"Ready... Set... ATTACK!!!"
------------
-
//Okay, here I go.
Drake phased in behind Anti.
"...You're late," said the astral demon.
"I do apologize. But... it's time."
Anti turned around to look at him. "You're serious?"
"That's right... We will fuse right here and now, and immediately lay waste to this pathetic planet!!"
"Alright!" Anti seemed fired up now. He powered down, his faux-hair disappearing, facial features fading, and color returning to purple. He shot forward, and slammed into Drake, starting to enter his body. Drake started to laugh maniacally, and a sphere of darkness appeared around him, concealing the transformation that was occurring.
Zion was panting heavily, at the battlefield where the Velkens' battle took place. He had powered down to his normal form due to fatigue. Xenai, Tsu, and Aura had arrived near him. "So," asked Xenai, "How'd you do?"
"Really well, I think."
The energy then hit them like a train.
"Holy shit!!! What the fuck?!?!" Xenai was literally freaking out.
Aura could detect energies with more delicacy and finesse, and thus could tell what was going on. "The energies of Zerobi no Anti and Drake Genais are... fusing..."
"Fusing?!" Tsu could barely believe what he was hearing.
"We have to get over there, now!!!" Zion took off, and the other three followed.
"Haa...
Haa...
Haa...
Ultimate power..."
The being that stood there now largely resembled Drake Genais. He had slightly tanner skin, and completely white hair (and facial hair). His clothes had been replaced with a skintight black bodysuit, with full black armor, black gauntlets, and black boots. Zion and the others, who had kicked it into hyper overdrive... arrived just in time to see it. "Welcome, inferior beings! I have become the ultimate power. You may call me Void."
Zion was shuddering. "It's... immense..."
Xenai was sweating like crazy. "My god..."
Aura was hiding behind Tsu, who was visibly scared.
"Look how you fools tremble. You can feel it... I'm superior to you in every way." Suddenly, a being shot in extremely fast from behind Void... slashing through him. It was Mugen Seijin... with his sword, Transcender. "UGH!! You! That cursed sword!"
"There's no way I can just sit back and watch now, especially knowing what's going to happen next! I'm supposed to be the guardian!"
"What's going to happen next?!" Zion looked at him with widened eyes.
Void cackled. "Now to use that weapon I'd spent all that time working on! Come, Doom Weapon!!!"
The ground shook like crazy, and some... thing started to emerge from the ocean. It didn't look very humanoid, but still had the basic shape of arms, legs, and body. It was pure black, all over, and had an opening in the center of its body for Void. Oh, and last but not least - It was fucking huge.
Void floated over, inserting himself into the weapon. The weapon then started to move around, responding to Void's will. "Excellent... Works perfectly. Now... Time to destroy the world! Omega Fist!!!" The entire weapon started to glow with the same blood red energy that Anti was. And it was a heavy glow. The weapon shot high up into the air, connecting its wrists.
"Shit!" Xenai had snapped out of his terror, as well as the other three. "After him!" They all shot up towards him, along with Seijin. The Doom Weapon was charging up an inconceivably powerful wave of energy in its hands. It would easily destroy Gaian.
Seijin looked around at the four fighters, then back at Transcender. He floated over to Aura. "Take it."
"Seijin... you're giving away Transcender?" Zion was puzzled.
"I would do this myself if I could perform New Forever. But I can't."
"Wait, New Forever?" Tsu was curious. "You want us to use New Forever?"
"Yes. Put all the energy that you can into Transcender. Use it against the energy wave!"
"I see..." Aura grabbed the sword and looked it over. She no longer needed her scimitar if this was hers... She dropped the obsolete sword into the ocean. "Zion, Xenai! Let's go!"
Zion and Xenai appeared next to her, and started to build up energy. "Hey, hey," said Xenai. "Let's not sacrifice our weapons this time. We don't need to, since we're dealing with Transcender. Just put all the energy you can handle in it."
"Got it." Zion nodded at him.
"Say goodbye, Gaian!!!" Void cackled maniacally, and pointed the weapon's hands down at the group of fighters.
"Here it comes! Do it now!" Tsu yelled to the others.
"Alright..." "...Take this!" Zion and Xenai then forced their energy into Aura, who felt its effects immediately. "Holy crap! This is... amazing!"
"What are you waiting for! Do it now!" Seijin yelled at her.
"It's over! Everything is over! DIE!!!"
<Awesome cut-ins>
"Armageddon Wave!!!"
"New Forever!!!"
The gargantuan wave shot forward, just as the tremendous energy shot into the sword. Aura posed like a batter, waiting for the wave to come in range. "Now! Transcender!" The sword glowed heavily, as she swung and made contact with the wave. She started to push... but she was being pushed back!
"No!!! Omega Fist!" Tsu pointed his hand at her, and sent all the powerup energy he could into her. "Divine Fist!" Seijin did the same thing. Zion and Xenai were totally spent, though, and could do nothing. So it was two waves of energy being shot into a girl who was pushing with a glowing sword against an energy wave that could destroy the world. They were now neck and neck.
"Inconceivable..." Void's eyes widened. "How could they do even this well against the Armageddon Wave?"
Suddenly, something happened. Something... went wrong. The energy from the wave began to implode. Transcender's reaction should have been to send it away, far far far far away. But it malfunctioned, due to how powerful the Armageddon Wave was. Seijin noticed it. "No.... This can't happen!"
The energy wave imploded and created a black hole. Before the four fighters could do something about it... they were sucked in. The Doom Weapon fell apart, and was sucked in as well. "No! This can't be happening! No! NOOOO!!!" And Void was last to go before the hole closed off... Leaving a stunned, horrified Seijin.
"...No... I can't believe it... I saved the world... But lost my friends!"
"Seijin..." Gaia had appeared a few feet behind him. Seijin turned to face her. "...I take it you know what happened."
"Yes. You're... so much like a human. It's what makes you an excellent god. But you know well... You are forced to make a decision. These decisions that hurt you, they are what make you stronger. I am sorry for your loss. I truly am. But you had to make that choice. It was not wrong to choose the world over your friends. It may have been the only choice anyways. But you will overcome that pain and become a stronger god... no, a stronger person."
"Gaia... Thanks." Seijin floated over to her and hugged her, while she merely smiled.
"Besides... You gave away Transcender, to a woman with much potential. With that, your friends may be able to come back someday."
"You're right... I never thought of that."
"Come... We'll return to your cloud." Seijin flew back with her to the sword cloud...
And just like that... It was over. The flyboys were gone. Zerobi no Anti was gone. Drake Genais was gone. Would they be back? Who knows. Only time will tell.
//And thus, I make my leave. Thanks for being so awesome, guys! Very Happy
-
(Awesome outro. Take care, and do return!)
- Above the ocean, west of Tjed -
"Oh... uh, thanks."
Renard nodded at Riuki as they flew back towards Tjed. Behind them the dismal skies of the Dark Continent loomed, and ahead the jagged green peaks of Tjed cut above the horizon.
To be honest, he was hugely relieved to see her. The majority of Renard's spells required multiple casters to be effective. Alone, he was practically worthless... He hated being so dependent on others...
Riuki, however, was talented in many fields. Though she was officially a Blade Knight, she also knew a good deal of spells. And she fought with that strange, exotic sword... She could hold her own in battle by herself, and he envied that. She'd probably make a fine squad leader like Sir Rikarl some day.
If Retan didn't destroy them all and enslave Gaian...
Little Emile was old enough to fly on her own of course, and she held on to her older brother's hand as they soured through the air. He could see her ears shrink back as the blue-vested Velken approached. "It's okay, Emile, this is Riuki, a friend. Say hello to her."
"... Hello, Riuki..." The little fox girl timidly said, waving her free hand.
Renard smiled. "She's a little shy."
He turned his attention forward again. Soon the beaches of the island passed beneath and they made their way over the mountains, back towards the capital city...
----
- Tjedon, house -
Ven wasn't feeling all that well...
His head swam, and he saw splotches. He vaguely remembered being in a cold, dark place, but he knew the memory was merely the remnants of a mostly forgotten dream.
The shapeless masses before him melded together into somewhat coherent forms. He lay in bed, rather comfortably, as the sounds become clear voices and the splotches became faces...
... of... gray... foxes...?
"GAH!!"
Ven shot up in bed and pulled him self back against the headboard. Demons! Those... silver... blood-thirsty demon things!!
"Shhhhh..." The one hovering over him put a finger to her muzzle. "You must take it easy..." The gray vixen had an unexpectedly soothing voice. She literally floated above him, clad in a bright white robe. Was this a demon... or an angel?
"Lady Urocy, we'd best get going." Ven followed the voice to his right, finding another one of the creatures-- this one black clad like all the others he'd seen and clutching a spear in his inhuman hands.
The female brought a claw-tip to her chin. "Hmmm... humans seem to have a harder time recovering... but you will be just fine. Stay in bed for at least a full day, though."
She floated over to the window, he black tipped tail flowing behind her. "And drink plenty of fluids. Also, chicken soup wouldn't hurt."
"Uh... yes, ma'am..."
With that, all the creatures zipped out of the window, closing it behind them. Ven fell back into the bed. Ugh. He was having a very bad day indeed...
-
- Tjedon, house -
"Ven, you're awake." Rink said with relief as he jumped over to the bed. Bell and Lagart followed.
"It's a long story, but the fox-men are on our side now. I can explain now if you want." Bell said to the knight.
"You were out for a really long time. We were starting to think we lost you." Rink said. "Duilin and Bjendell, that one angel dude, have just gotten an airship." Rink realised just how much Ven had missed. "Yeah, you want us to tell you what happened?"
---
- Above Tjedon in The Dhaos -
"Wha?" Duilin gave Ben an odd look. "You mean Bell? I can't have her fight, she can't. She's never been in combat ever, if I brought her along to fight Retan she'd be killed. I definitely, definitely cannot let that happen."
"Rink said that she wanted to come along and I don't think it's a good idea, especially bringing her into battle." Duilin rubbed his chin. "Well...maybe she can come along to Kandarin, but I don't know enough about the Kandarinians, so I'm not totally sure if we can make an alliance with them. But, I'm positive that if we do, it won't be permanent."
Duilin then walked off of the boarding ramp, and started to head towards the house. He was wondering if Renard and the other Velkens were going to be okay.
-
- On the Lightning Wyvern, above Gros Morne -
"I mounted the dragonesque contraption clinging onto the sides of the ship, waiting for Vincent to come up. At last, I heard shuffling coming from the hatch.
-"There you are, Eldridge! Finally, I th- what?"
It wasn't quite Eldridge there... it was a bunch of my minions, dragging the larger lizard man's limp body up to me. Well... Well, well, well...
-"Why hello there, beast. Tsk, because of you, I have to order a new cage. Ah well."
By my command, the skeletons reformed themselves into a bone cage, and attached to the bottom of the Winged Messenger..."
--- --- ---
- North-northeast of the Dark Continent, above the sea -
Damien continued evading the snapping jaws behind him, but only partially successfully. The last bite took off half his hand, thankfully, not the one in which the winds were amassed. Drat... now he'll have to die completely before he can get a new hand. Meanwhile, the orb in his other hand grew larger, consuming most of his forearm...
Damien's secret attack: 60%
-
- Above Gros Morne, Lightning Wyvern-
Vincent scratched his head as he watched the huge lizard become ensnared in the self-moving bone cage. It seemed Kronos wanted that one alive for some reason. He couldn't be dead at least, otherwise the necromantic Lich would have resurrected him.
He didn't really care either way. He hopped on back of the undead monster, keeping the giant yellow crystal tucked tightly under his arm.
----
- Tjedon, House -
Ven ran a gantlet through his hair, throwing the covers off and revealing himself to be in full battle armor, gleaming its usual bright silver sheen.
"Yeah, you better bring me up to speed..."
Ven listened to Rink's story about the whole Dark Empire occupation of Tjed and the Velkens' betrayal. He nodded the whole way.
"I must join Duilin and the others..."
He stood, a little wobbly and feeling sore all over. That... fox lady, the one who apparently healed him, told him to stay in bed, but this was far too important. He wasn't quite sure he could trust them yet, anyway. He'd have to talk to Duilin about it.
He made his way to the door, despite the dizziness. "The king... where is King Henri?"
----
- Above the ocean, north of the Dark Continent -
The two black dragons continued their pursuit, the sea dragon snapping from below, the flying one swooping from the sides.
A third shadowy form manifested itself, coming from behind a wisp of clouds directly above Roth.
Retan folded his arms as he watched the two creatures of darkness nearly engulf the human time after time. He seemed content in merely observing the chase from above, his black cape flapping behind him like wings. "I often wonder why it is lower life forms such as yourself struggle so. Then it occurred to me that if you are unfit for servitude, then it is your destiny to make yourself useful as proper entertainment."
-
- Above Gros Morne, Lightning Wyvern -
Xarn flailed around roaring and snarling, but he was unable to escape. He was starting to get dizzy, they must have drugged him or something as he was starting to loose consciousness.
--- ---
- Tjedon, House -
Rink and Bell looked at each other when Ven asked him.
"Well...I'm sorry to tell you this, Ven, but..." Rink sighed, and then looked at Ven. "...He was killed."
"But he died a hero. His sword was with him. But, unfortunatly, it was the Velkens who did it, but remember they were forced to. It really wasn't their fault."
"Right now he's on his bed. Maybe it would be best to give him a burial or a cremation."
There was a knocking on the door, and Bell walked over opened the door.
"Ven's awake." Bell said. "We just told him, about the king."
Duilin's facial expression lowered. "Oh..." He was sure Ven must feel very upset loosing his king. Duilin and Bell walked back to the bedroom to see the knight.
-
- Tjedon, Castle Courtyard -
"Hey, I think my energy is returning... I can sense another person now... awake in a home not far from here. Must be Duilin, getting the others." Ben merely laid back in the cockpit chair and stared at all the buttons and gizmoes. There were plenty of switches, and Ben barely knew enough of them to know how to fly and land, as well as track other airships in the Dark Empire. There are plenty of things he doesn't know how to do.
"Hmm... it might be a good idea to fiddle around with this someday, just to see how everything works."
------------
-Tel Vos, Arctic Region -
The brutality of the lizardmen was shown in force against the bandits and rebels as they attacked the well-defended barricade. Human and Lizard blood alike spilled across the soft, white snow. The rebel force died down more and more, and the lizardmen made sure they killed at least five of them before they died, to even out the scores.
"Blast, the lizards are too strong! RETREAT!!!" The rebels pulled out of the barricade formed by the lizards and ran off into the snowy wastes ahead.
"Captain Zabel! Send your squad in persuit of the rebel force. everyone who isn't doing anything, I want the dead lizardmen burried, and the wounded in tents. MOVE!"
"But sir, what of the humans? The rebel corpses that line the barricade?"
"Have the mages... incineraet them. This will show them who they deal with."
"Yes sir! First flank, you're with me!" The captain took her troops off into the wastes, after the rebels that attacked the lizardman encampment. Karma was still behind Jacobie.
"Can we... leave? I feel weird..."
"Oh, the effects must be wearing off. We'll head back to my pavillion."
"Um... which way is it?"
"Just follow me." Jacobie walked through the snow and next to the pavillion. It was the largest one in the camp, and directly in the center, so it was easy enough to find. He opened the flap and walked into the giant tent. Karma followed him in. Again, out of habbit, she walked over to the shackles and sat down.
"*sigh* We're going to have to break you of that habbit." He walked over to her and held his hand out in front of her. She merely stared at it, confused.'
"Grab my hand. I'll help you up." She reached out her arm, hesitated, then grabbed his hand. Jacobie lifted her to her feet.
"Why didn't you fight?"
"What do you mean?"
"You hid behind me all the time. Why?"
"I'm... scared... I don't like war."
"Believe me, none of us really like war, but it is unavoidable. It has to happen, wheather we want it to or not. As a mage you have to be fearless."
"But I've seen mages before who aren't!"
"Then they cannot truely call themselves a true mage."
"I'll... try harder."
"Don't try. Just do, or do not."
"I understand."
"Good. It's nearly dawn. We should get some sleep."
"Where? There is only one bed."
"It should be more than big enough."
"You're not saying... that we sleep in the same bed, are you?"
"No. I'm sleeping there, because I have to. I invite you to sleep there to stay away from the cold. You can either sleep with me, or with the firece clod outside."
"I'll stay inside... Um, what about my armor?"
"Change out of it. I'll wait outside." Jacobie walked out into the snow again. After another few minutes, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"I'm done. How is this?"
"Are those... my clothes?"
"I found them on the drawers over there."
"*sigh* It can't be helped. Still, they're a bit big on you. They'll work for now." Jacobie unstrung and removed his breast plate and pauldrons and threw them near the armor Karma took off. He was wearing a common, brown shirt under the crimson armor. He left his leather greaves on. He then headed to the back of the tent and laid down in the bed. Karma followed him and laid next to him.
"I feel wierd... ugh, my stomach..." Karma shrunk back to her human form. She held both hands on her stomach. and winced in pain.
"Here." Jacobie put a hand on the painful spot and emited a small, blue glow. In mere seconds, Karma felt much better.
"Um... Thank you... being so nice, I mean..."
"It's nothing, really. Still, you're welcome."
"And uh... just... thank you again. You really aren't a part of the Dark Empire, are you?"
"No, I am. Retan is the evil one; we're just stuck following his orders, as well as prime minister Grav."
"Who's that?"
"He's minister of Gaian and some oter place; Mizar, I think. Supposedly the homeworld of the Lizardmen, but I'm native to the north; here, actually."
"You mean this is your homelands?"
"Yes. One of the reasons I came up here. Not why I stayed, though."
"Why did you stay?"
"For you."
"..."
"There's something special about you, Karmandalla. It's odd; I think it's Karma that we met."
"What do you mean?"
"Karma... Destiny... That's the meaning of your name. I sense great magical energy in you. It's been untapped for far too long, however... how old are you?"
"Seventeen. I was ten before I was taken up north. It's been seven years since then.
"Seventeen years, huh? That's way too long. I'm going to have to spend a lot of time with you in order to bring you in touch with your magical self."
"That sounds like an excuse."
"What if it is? Is it a bad thing that I want to spend more time with my apprentice?"
"Um... no, I guess not..."
"Are you okay? You're shivering?"
"It's this bed... It's just so... comfortable."
"Heh... yeah, it's pretty nice... So, where are you from?"
"I was born on an island... Before I left, it was with war with another island..."
"Hmm... do you remember the name of your island?"
"Romme, I think. It was destroyed; I heard that from a Lizardman officer.
"You were... born on Romme? I'm so sorry... It was destroyed around six years ago."
"Yes, that's what I heard."
"What about your family?"
"They sold me... so they could survive. I didn't mind it, though. Not at first. I really didn't like them anyways."
"Perhapse I should stop. I don't want to hurt your feelings..."
"No, it's not that touchy a subject. It's kind of relaxing, actually."
"What is?"
"For me... to talk about my past."
"We'll talk later, in the morning."
"It's just about morning."
"When we wake up."
"We... I'm still so greatful, even though I might not look it. Thank you very much."
"Seriously, it's no problem at all."
"No, it really is. I'm sorry for getting in the way of your duties."
"You haven't even gotten in the way once! Relax, it's REALLY no trouble at all."
"..."
"Let's just get some rest, okay?"
"Of all the lizardmen I've met... you are by far the kindest..."
"Heh... well, thanks." Without warning, Karma put her arms around Jacobie and her face fell into his chest. She cried.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
"Jeese!" Jacobie was taken aback by this sudden outburst. I guess it can't be helped, he told himself. He put an arm around her and she calmed down a bit, still shaking slightly.
"Thank you... I can't tell you how much this means to me."
"It's fine. You don't have to worry anymore. Now get some rest, okay?"
"Okay... Thank you again..."
"You're welcome."
------------
-
- Mountainous area above Tjed -
"Hello there! Don't worry, I won't bite!" Ko'ji waved at Emile. She noticed that they were getting closer to Tjedon.
"So... what are we gonna do once we get back to the capital?"
--- ---
/// Xorlak, could you control the guard, please?
"Right, excuse me, sir. Yes, you." Arata walked up to one of the guards.
"Could you tell me where I might find the guard captain? I'm looking for a job."
-
- Above the Mountains, west of Tjedon -
Renard turned to Ko'ji, shouting a bit so his voice would carry over the winds as they flew. "Well first we'll have to take Emile to Lady Urocy and her guards. They'll take care of her."
He turned to look at the glistening white-stone city of Tjedon as it came to view over a mountainous pass. The first thing he noticed was the final airship was no longer hovering above the city.
"... Then we'll have to find Duilin... He'll know what to do..."
They flew over the flat planes comprising the valley the city rested within, and Renard and Emile landed on the top of Tjedon's outer curtain wall. Signs of battle were everywhere in the streets below, the corpses of lizards and humans being the most evident. He scratched the underside of his muzzle, trying to figure out where the Priestess might be as he scanned the stone buildings.
----
- Tjedon, House -
Ven grew very quiet. "Oh... I see..."
He strode over to the window and rested his gauntlets on the ledge, gazing out onto the now serene city street with a blank expression on his face. He simply stood there for a long while, watching villagers slowly emerge from their dwellings to inspect the damage done to their city.
"Please leave me... I need to be alone."
----
- Tjedon, Streets -
The passing Tjed guard, in filthy dented armor, gave Arata a quick look over.
"Job? You're hired. Take this." He pointed at the man and another guard handed Arata a long spear and a helmet. "The military's totally spent. I have no idea how we just survived that. Sorry for the lack of armor... we'll see if we can get you some proper Tjed wear soon."
He ran his head through his hair. "Problem is we can't find Sir Ven anywhere, and rumor has it the King is dead. Things aren't looking good at all..."
-
- Tjedon, House -
"Come on." Duilin put his hand on Bell's back. "Let's go..." The couple, along with Rink and Lagart exited the house.
"He looks totally crushed. I hope he'll be okay." Bell said sadly.
"It will definatly take him a while. But I'm sure he'll be feeling well enough to join up with us." Rink stated.
"I just hope he'll be able to fight any hatred he has for the Velkens." Duilin said. "I wouldn't blame him if some dark things start going through his mind. But Ven's a good guy, I'm sure he'll be able to keep his mind straight."
Duilin looked back into the house. "Maybe we should go for a walk for a little while."
-
- Tjedon, Outer Wall -
"Okay. Lady Urocy should be in one of those houses if I recall... wait..." Ko'ji's extra senses started to pick up. She found Lady Urocy, or at least her smell. It was of purity, no doubt her. She leapd off the wall and looked back.
"I think I know where she is. Follow me!" Ko'ji then maved towards the house where Lady Urocy was.
--- ---
- Tjedon, City Streets -
"Righto! I don't really need the spear, but I'll take the helm." Arata grabbed the helmet from the man and put it on. It was a good fit, and his eyes rested just under the top.
"Okay then. I'll head on over to the castle armory. I'll just wait there for the smithy." Arata made his way to the castle. Once he reached the courtyard, though, he found something he didn't expect; the Dhaos.
-
- Northern Wastes, northwest of New Kandarin -
"Blast it... where did those bloody rebels go?" Captain Zabel placed a claw on her chin and scratched.
"They run away?"
"No, I still have their scent. They're not too far ahead of us."
"Hmm... Maybe they do run away to secret hideout."
"I don't think so. This blasted snow is blurring my scent, but not completely. If it were a secret hideout, only way to be secret is to be underground, and that would kill my senses."
"Okay. Maybe you sense something else?"
"Maybe... doubt it..." The captain pulled her sword from it's sheath. "The scent is really picking up now!"
"SAVAGES!!!"
"Damn it all! Outflank them!" The captain headed towards her men and started to slash up the hostile natives. They were a quick and easy kill, as they merely wore fur armor, and their weapons weren't small enough to swing faster.
"Damn... lost the scent."
"Should we go back now?"
"That would be best. Besides, we're getting awsfully close to Kandarin, and I hope you all know that Kronos is a force to be reckoned with."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Right. MOVE OUT!" The force headed back the way they came. It wasn't too hard, just follow the footsteps. Besides, it was also nearly morning"
-----------
- Tel Vos, Arctic Region -
"I.. can't sleep..."
"I don't know what it is, but me either. Let's get up then."
"Okay." Karma got out of the bed first, followed by Jacobie. Since she shrank from lizardman form, her clothes were practically falling off.
"Here, let me help you with that." Jacobie shot a green ball of energy and Karma's clothes shrunk. Soon, they fit her nicely.
"That ought to be better."
"What do we do now?"
"I don't know." Jacobie walked over to the pile of armor on the floor and picked up his breastplate. He strung it back to his chest over his shirt. He then strung the pauldrons over the plate.
"I suppose we could talk more; there are still a few things I wanted to ask."
"Okay... I guess."
------------
-
- Tjedon, Streets -
Renard took a long whiff of the human-stenched air. Wow. She was right. Riuki had a phenomenal sense of smell to pick that up. Holding Emile's hand, he followed the Blade Knight deeper into the city . He trusted her nose, as it was clearly better than his. Blast... he couldn't even track worth anything...
He followed her through the twisted streets as they lead into a dark alley...
----
- Tjedon, House -
Ven waited a moment after everyone left the room, listening to muffled voices as they faded behind the door. He turned, stumbling a bit due to the effects of his recently cured illness, and grabbed his black cloak strung on the bed rail.
He threw the garment over his silver armor, then strapped his sword to his back. Throwing the cowl over his head, he resumed the same cold placid look he had taken years ago when he was forced to roam the countryside in search of his insane brother.
He carefully slid the window latch open and peered outside at the streets below. The sun was still rising, so it had not cleared the taller buildings and much of the city was still cast in shadow. Ensuring no one was looking, he deftly leapt out onto the cobble stone street and looked around. He then made his way to a nearby dark alley...
-
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
"The Messenger swiftly landed onto the pads on top of the Citadel, lowering the caged animal down with a clunk. Several thralls were already waiting for me there, in order to carry the cage about the fortress.
-"You know what? I'm not sure if I like to keep this one. Gentlemen, carry the cage over to that observation post there, please."
Obviously, the zombies didn't need my voice to comply, but it isn't like I had someone better to waste my breath on.
Ah, yes. Let's take a look, now, shall we?
-"Hoy! Eldridge! Come over here. Need a second opinion."
Meanwhile, a rather large trapdoor slowly opened a few metres away, revealing another quartet of undeads carrying a massive cage. This one contained the toad my Stalkers brought in earlier. The corpses dragged the bone cell over to the observation post where the second one was.
-"Come here. Take a look at these two. Which one do you think I should keep for my private zoo? I think that-- wait a minute..."
I took a closer look at the behemoth in the second cage. Well, what a pleasant surprise...
-"Look who's here... If it isn't the infamous High General Gorus... My, forgive my manners. Gentlemen, let our guest out of the cage, please, and sit him right over here."
The skeletons struggled with the gigantic body, finally getting it out from behind the bars and sitting him onto the stone bench carved into the rocky material of the Citadel. He had a dazed look - didn't move a muscle, but twitched his eyes occasionally. Damn, the brew that Vandrin made really does work - called it by some weird foreign name. Can't recall it exactly... Something like... "Grib"?
-"Welcome to my arena of pain, my little amphibian. Welcome to the palace of fate. I kindly reserved the best seats for the three of us here... Ah, before I forget: mind telling me who the other snake is?"
I slowly extended my finger toward the other cage..."
//DM, I don't think Gorus can speak at the moment - you can have him mouth something, if you like, or perhaps thin (or widen) his eyes at the sight of Xarn. Up to you\
--- --- ---
- Above the ocean, north-northeast of the Dark Continent -
-"What the hell? How many of these things are there?!"
Damien continued flying through the air, raining blood onto the ocean below. Suddenly, he changed direction, and headed straight for Retan, hoping that the dragons around him would keep going due to momentum of their massive bodies at high speed...
Damien's secret attack: 80%
--- --- ---
- In a beautiful blooming spring forest -
-"...for the LAST TIME, Sun, NO, I do NOT want you anywhere NEAR my hair! It is fine the way it is!"
-"What, so you'd rather walk around all ugly like that?"
-"No, I'm just not comfortable with a GUY DOING MY HAIR!!!"
Sun sighed.
-"Well, my beauty can make up for your face, Stormy, so I suppose that's fine."
Stormy (whose actual name is Hallstrom), a rather muscular man with baggy black clothing and a white overcoat, paid no attention to Sun's comments. They couldn't be helped...
-"Whatever. By the way, have you any idea where we are at the moment?"
-"We are in a repulsive forest, surrounded by ugly trees, with all these birds singing so horribly out of tune that it makes my ears bleed. That's all I can tell you."
-"Idiot, where's the map?"
-"Like you're a genius yourself." He paused, completely unphazed by Hallstrom's piercing stare. "I threw it away."
...
-"WHAT?!"
-"What do you mean, what? What else could I do after you stained it with your food! Should've thought bef-"
-"YOU COULD'VE CLEANED IT, IDIOT!"
-"Hmph. Besides, what did we need that stupid map for anyway?"
-"Oh, I don't know, find a city?"
Sun let out another sigh.
-"Look at the road... the tracks on it. A cart passed by recently. Kandarinian, judging by those revolting wheel lines. They're bent. Works of a Kandarinian blacksmith, obviously..."
-"Sun, if someone were to take those brains away from you, you would fail at life."
-"That would be most unacceptable. Taking my brains out would require splitting my skull, which would definitely ruin my face."
-"Ugh..."
-
- Tjedon, Castle Courtyard -
"What in the hell is this airship doing in the courtyard? I don't see any lizards on board... Must have been cleared. I'm just going to sneak around and make my way to the... castle..." Arata did as he said and carefully tip-toed around the back of the airship, then into the castle. All he had to do now was find the smith to forge him a new set of armor. He was probably asleep or dead, so there was little chance of getting him in a good mood, if any mood.
--- ---
- Tjedon, Dark Alley -
"Where is this? Lady Urocy?" Ko'ji sniffed around for a bit; this was definately the place. But why would Lady Urocy be here, of all places?"
"Renard... I'm not so sure about this. Keep on your guard."
-
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
"Take this to the lab." Vincent handed the giant crystal over to a zombie, who grunted in response before disappearing through a set of doors. The alchemist removed the shaded coverings from his glasses and replaced them inside his coat as he strode next to the Sovereign, placing his hands behind his back. He stood there silently, looking much the high ranking henchman while Kronos went on his tirade on the giant captive Lizard Man.
----
- Above the ocean, north-northeast of the Dark Continent -
The two black dragons collided into each other as Roth quickly changed directions, the both of them slamming into the sea.
Retan seemed to not mind at all as Roth sped towards him. He extended a gloved hand, the three weapons still rotating about him. Damien's weapons seemed to pull toward the Dark Emperor as his eyes narrowed...
-
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
Gorus was feeling so dizzy, he could barely processes what was going on. But he knew he was loosing and that made him angry.
He looked around the room, to try and recap what just happened. He was fighting and then he got shot by a poisoned bolt and then passed out. Now he's in a cage and has been brought inside, what he assumed to be the Citadel. Was that their Sovereign or whatever who was talking to him? He noticed he was pointed; he bobbed his head to the side to see what he was pointing at.
Gorus' eyes widened as he saw it was Xarn.
They captured Xarn too, but he was supposed to stay in the Lightning Wyvern. He must have left the ship or maybe...no. They couldn't have taken out Xarn's ship? He loved that ship and he was very skilled pilot.
What were they going to do? Gorus looked back at the Sovereign and his eyes narrowed into a glare. He had a tough immune system, he could probably fight off this poison or whatever it was they got him with and rip apart everyone in this room. Xarn however he was a little worried about.
-
- North-northeast of the Dark Continent -
Damien's secret attack: 100%
Damien continued flying toward Retan, feeling the weapons tug at his belt a little.
-"You want them this much, eh? Come and GET THEM!"
With a struggle, Roth stretched out his arm, which was completely consumed by the vehement winds. He suddenly took a sharp dive right under Retan, and aimed his hand at the sky, finally letting go of the power he accumulated.
A sharp, whistling sound pierced the air, accompanying what appeared to be a black projectile. The oval-shaped missile left a trail behind it, which seemed a lot like some sort of a tunnel right through air.
-"Be seeing you."
Roth dove into the corridor, which collapsed right after he entered it. His figure was barely distinguishable from the atmosphere, as he sped through the air at the speed of sound, right to Gros Morne...
//This was charged for five posts, so this technically isn't instant travelling.\
--- --- ---
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
//Also, DM, just to make it clear - no one's in a room. They're at the very roof of the Citadel, in the open air.\
-"Ahh, it opened its eyes! How cute! Has the poison started to wear off? Someone get Vandrin up here. //DM, that's your clue for what we were talking about in school...\ Anyways, as I was saying..."
I sighed and looked down onto what was left of Gros Morne. Homes were burning, people were getting killed, and everything was in a state of general discord. The streets were littered with rampaging Lizard Men. The Citadel was safe for the time being, as it floated off the ground. The Stalkers faithfully defended the massive rings in the ground, to which were attached the fortress' chains.
-"There are many reasons which may have prompted the Dark Empire to attack my city, but the question must be posed, nevertheless: Why now? There was plenty of time to attack Gros Morne while it was weaker and being rebuilt. Besides, I only had about 15,000 people here. Aren't there bigger fish to fry?"
I turned around to face Gorus, leaning on the short metal fence on the edge of the Citadel.
-"I am not even going to start talking about me and Retan being allies, as it has become quite obvious that he plans to double-cross every single person that comes along. Not that I have a serious problem with his woeful tactics, but wouldn't it make more sense to destroy the enemies first? Unless, of course, he's gotten careless about whom he attacks, and has simply sent task forces to annihilate every city out there... He must be going senile.
"Then again, he did manage to crumble this city's defence, I suppose I have to give him that. Not to say that the situation is hopeless, of course. As dark as times may get, there is always a light of hope, of providence looking down from above at us."
A small point of light far away from the city slowly manifested.
-"Only in this case, it is not a deity saving me... it is me myself."
I approached Gorus, and kneeled down to his level.
-"The time is nigh, High General... Hurry up and recover. You won't want to miss this."
-
- Tjedon, dark alley -
Renard scratched his headfur. "She must have just gone this way. I think she said she had some humans to heal..."
The sliver furred fox clenched his left fist, then opened it, an orange ball of light appearing in his palm. The orb floated into the air and followed them like a ghost, illuminating the dark alley between the tall buildings. Emile held onto his other hand.
A tall figure dressed in black approached from the other end... who drew a bright silver sword as he stepped closer at a rapid pace.
Renard stopped. "Hey, relax... we're on your side," he said to the human.
"Oh?" The human replied curtly. He showed no sign of slowing his pace. Renard pushed Emile behind him. "Then why did you kill our liege?" he spat with acid...
Ven's blade glowed an ethereal white, and he cleaved the air in twain. A surging crescent blazed through the air, barely missing Renard and his sister as he pulled her straight up into the air.
"Hey! Wait!" Renard growled, clearly upset that the human had taken a swing at little Emile. The blast of energy crumpled several bricks along the walls below. Ven paid him no mind, instead responding with another slash and another wave of bright white energy, this one surging upwards at the vulpine siblings.
Renard was forced back to the ground to dodge, the energy slamming into the side of one of the two buildings bordering the alley and sending a hail of debris upon them...
-
- Tjedon, Castle Courtyard -
"What the hell!? That energy that just appeared not too long ago... it's turned into darkness. I must seek it out." Ben left the airship and flew up into the sky, with his one demon wing and one angel wing. He scanned the area and realized a familiar aura as he got closer. It was Ven, and he was out for vengence.
Ben swooped to the ground in the dark alley and drew and energy sword. He then forced it upon Ven's blade and met the blade with full force. He put all of his energy into his sword to make it as strong as it could be. It had the strength of a thick, steel blade, but this would be good enough.
"STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!!!"
------------
-
//Haven't posted in a while. At Drannic's house.
- Tjedon, Dark Alley -
"Wahh!!! Emile! Renard, I'll take her out of here!" Ko'ji grabbed Emile's hand and flew out of the alley and on to the roof of the house. She grabbed the little girl's other hand and looked her straight in the eye.
"I'm going to keep you safe, okay? Don't leave my side!"
-
//Wow, I thought Ben's senses were dulled in his new form. How the heck could he have sensed Ven getting angry when he couldn't sense lizard men on an airship, earlier?\
- Tjedon, Dark Alley -
Duilin, Rink, Lagart and Bell who were on their way back to the house from their walk, passed by the dark alley.
"I'm sure Ven's feeling better now." Duilin said, just before he saw what was happening.
"I think so spoke too soon..." Rink stated with despair.
"Oh...crap." Duilin ran down the alley way. They shouldn't have told Ven about what the Velkens did.
"No! Ven! Don't!"
--- ---
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
Gorus tried to say something, but only gargled on his own words. He needed to break free but he was feeling so weak.
Vandrin arrived at the roof, with several servants along with the two scientists Scabbs and Giftmacher.
"Ah, so you caught the beast!" Vandrin said with a grin exposing his greenish teeth. He started walking towards Gorus' cage, but stopped as the giant lizard made a quick twitch but then growled a bit as if he strained his muscles and fell back down.
"Hmm...I see the Grib is wearing off on him. No matter, we can just apply some more." Vandrin stated. "But there is actually something I wish to show you Sovereign."
The count snapped his fingers and the servants brought up a table and a wooden crate. They opened the crate and took out several jars, vials and such filled with various chemicals. Vandrin walked over towards the table and sorted out the vials.
"I have been able to greatly improve my mutation chemical in just one night, when it took me a month to make it how it was before." Vandrin began, sounding like he was hosting an infomercial. "You see, the sucess rate is now 100% and we have been able to divide the chemical into three chemicals where you can choose the outcome. All subjects are put into a 'zombie-like' state, and are as fully controllable as undeads. Yet they also have enough independence to have more intelligent tactics yet not enough to question orders, making them the ideal super soldier."
"Now before this could only work on living humans. But now, we have mastered it to work on living or dead. But not just on humans, but tons of other species. Humans, elves, drows, orcs, drannivolka and even lizard men and demons can be mutated! So you could barge into some scum town with a bunch of non-humans kill them all and then make them into zombie-mutants that you could fully control. Much better than your basic zombie, trust me."
Vandrin lined up three vails, one with a red liquid one with yellow and the third with blue. He also had several empty vails.
"Now before, the outcome was pretty much one of the random three, with the occasional odd ball or super-mutant, but now we've divided the three outcomes into three different chemicals. The three chemicals have been coloured like so. Red for a super strong mutant, yellow for a winged/super agile mutant and blue for a mage mutant. But wait, what if you want a mutant with two or all of the powers?"
Vandrin lines up three empty vials and then pours some of the red chemical and the yellow chemical together, making it orange.
"Not a problem. You can make super strong winged mutants, or winged mages etc. However, it's sometimes best just to have them focus on one area, but having combined mutants can always be good too, so have as much fun as you want. Oh yes, also we've calculated the exact amount it takes to mutate, for each race. Humans, elves, drows and drannivolka require about 1 and a half quarts of chemical to fully mutate, while orcs, small lizard men and most human-sized demons require 3 quarts, and the larger demons and lizard men require around a gallon. We have designed containers of the exact sizes so you don't need to fuss over the measurements yourself. Oh yes, and if you don't like mixing we also have orange, green, purple and brown chemicals containers, I'm sure you can guess what mutant types those make."
"So are there any further questions or are we ready to try it out?" Vandrin asked the Sovereign, with a smile.
-
- Above the ocean, North-northeast of the Dark Continent -
"Hmmm... Mildly amusing..."
The Dark Emperor simply folded his arms and watched his prey escape to the north. "If you prefer," he said to the long gone man, "I will simply remove your nation with a single spell, then collect my prizes from the rubble..."
With that, he sped off in the direction Roth went...
----
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
Vincent grabbed one of Vandrin's vials and held it up to the sun, looking at the red contents within. "Hmmm... seems like a lot of work, just to claim a few new, and by your descriptions... odd soldiers..."
He grabbed a yellow one, not being very careful and clinking the vials togther. "Must this be injected? It seems a gas would be more efficient..."
-
//Mikado hasn't posted in a long time, I had a plan that involved Puco doing something. Blast it.\
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
Vandrin didn't seem to mind too much that Vincent was just grabbing his vials and might accidentally spill them. He had a lot stored away.
"Odd, yes. But they are far superior to human soldiers, and perhaps even lizard men. An army of these could wipe out...Well the lizard man army that we are currently fighting. In fact if we mutated one of these lizard men here, who appear to both be generals, I bet they could probably do a fine job at cleaning out these pests who have invaded us."
"But yes injected or even ingested or poured on a wound. In fact you might want to avoid spilling it on yourself, especially if you're sweating and your pours are open." Vandrin replied. "But making a gas would have a few drawbacks, there would be a lot of gas leftover making it potentially dangerous to go in that area and also potentially dangerous for the gas being obtained by enemies. Making an antidote would remove the risk of allies getting mutating but that would also put our mutants at risk if enemies could get the antidote. Plus I'm not sure if an antidote is even possible; if you looked at how we made it you'd understand it more. An antidote would only kill the mutant, if did anything at all."
Vandrin then looked back at Kronos.
"So Sovereign, would you like too the effects of the mutation chemical on one of lizard men?" Vandrin asked, shifting his eyes at Gorus and Xarn. "We already do have a few examples made, but actually seeing them mutate is just so...satisfying to watch."
-
- Tjedon, dark alley -
Ven's sword glowed an even brighter white, and he pushed Ben's sword back. "What is this?" the silver knight said as his cowl flew off his head. "Your form has twisted. Has the Dark Empire claimed you as well?"
He brought his blade to the side, the white light surging though it, looking as if he were ready to cut the man's head off. But then he heard Duilin. He turned and clenched his teeth, then calmed slightly as the power left his sword. He hesitated for a moment, then sheathed his sword and ran towards the opposite end of the alley...
----
- Tjedon, rooftops -
Emile clutched the side of Ko'ji's blue vest. "Humans... are scary..."
Renard appeared from the alley, flying into the air and landing next to the two, looking rather spooked and out of breath. "Thanks, Riuki..."
Something caught his eye, and he turned away from the tiles on the top of the building. There beyond the outer wall of the castle, the black protrusions of what appeared to be the upper portions of The Dhaos were just visible above the wall.
"You should be careful."
Renard's ears swiveled. He recognized the voice of one of Lady Urocy's guards. He turned just as all four guards and the fox priestess herself landed on top of the building.
"There are many humans still mistrustful of our kind..." The Velken guard looked at the ground.
Renard nodded, then bowed at the priestess, who returned with a polite smile.
"You've come back because you're going away and you'd like us to look after Emile, correct?" Lucile asked.
Renard nodded again. "Yeah..." He turned to his sister. "You be a good girl for Lady Urocy, okay?" Emile wasn't afraid of the priestess at all, walking right up to her side. "What will you do here?"
"There are still humans to heal. Perhaps with our help, they will come to trust us. Either way, it is the right thing to do."
Something below caught Renard's attention, and he recognized Duilin's voice. "We should be off then. Farewell."
"Farewell, Renard and Riuki. Lord Virmir is very proud of you two, you know."
Renard's ears folded in a sort of blush and he scratched the back of his neck. Then he turned and leapt off the side of the building. The irate human seemed to be gone, so he deftly landed behind Duilin and Rink with barely a sound.
-
- Tjedon, dark alley -
Duilin watched Ven walk away; he didn't even look at Renard when he landed.
"You have to remember that you kill their king." Duilin said trying not to sound too much like he was scolding him for doing it; he was more so trying to justify Ven's actions.
"He was a great hero to these people, so it's going to take them a long time to forgive you. I thought Ven might have taken it a little easier then how he did. I knew he would take it harshly, but I never knew he would try to kill you. Let me apologise on his behalf. I'm sure you understand how he must feel, or at least respect the fact that he filled with grief." Duilin then looked at Renard.
"Henri isn't the first person close to him he lost. He had a brother too, he turned evil and me and Zeros' had to help Ven kill him. He didn't take it so badly, but I guess the loss of his king just through him over the top."
Duilin sighed. "I was hoping Ven could join us, but he probably just needs to clear his head." Duilin smiled a bit.
"It's a good thing I've gotten this kingdoms respect or else it would have been a lot harder for me to stop Ven." He then looked at Bjendell. "Don't worry about him not respecting you to much Ben. You just look too different and everything."
Duilin's smile faded, he looked at Bell, Rink and Lagart who walked towards them.
Lagart eyed the Velken, feeling a little uneasy. He heard those things were really quick, they'd be a dangerous to big slow lizard man such as himself.
"Duilin, is Ven okay?" Bell asked.
"I don't know. I'm sure he'll be fine soon enough. He probably just needs some time alone." Duilin replied. He then looked back at Renard.
"We're going to go over to Kandarin, and try and see if they'll help us kill Retan. They apparently have a very strong military, comparable to the Dark Empires. They're a weird bunch, but if we can get them on our side at least for a little while then we might be able to defeat the Dark Empire. Would you like to come with us? We've got an airship and we'll need all the help we can get."
-
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
"I looked at the vials indifferently.
-"Feed the thin snake that one on the left," I said, pointing to the vial. "The super-strength one. I want to see how effective these are."
A thunderclap, and then a whoosh behind me heralded the coming of Damien.
-"I have not seen Draven, your deadness. I returned to Gros Morne instead."
-"Being pursued by a certain Draken, no doubt?"
-"Yes."
-"Excellent..."
-
- Tjedon, dark alley -
Renard folded his ears and his tail slipped between his legs. "Yeah... I know..." he said, looking much like a scolded dog. His ears perked slightly when Duilin mentioned for him to come along. "I'm with you all the way... though I'm not very strong away from my squad, I'm afraid..."
He looked up to see if Ruiki was coming. "This is Riuki, my squadmate. Ruiki, this is Duilin and... uh... I'm sorry. I'm not sure I met the others yet."
----
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
Vincent shrugged and replaced the vials back in the holder. This... oddly dressed man was a little too goofy for his tastes. He obviously was no scientist, as he was just making shots in the dark without fully knowing the results.
It didn't matter much to Vincent anyway. He adjusted his glasses and placed his hands behind his back.
-
Ko'ji was standing beside Renard just after he came down from the roof of the house. When Renard introduced her, she took a quick bow and looked up at Duilin. "Ko'ji Riuki, Bladeknight. As of right now, I'm working with Renard as a sort of mini squad. It's also against regulations if a squad member is on his own, so... heh, you can call that an excuse for tagging along!" She then held her hand in front of the much larger Duilin, waiting to shake.
-
- Tjedon, dark alley -
"Nice to meet you Riuki." Duilin shook her hand. "This is Rink and Bell." He motioned to the imp and the woman. "And this is Lagart and Ben." He motioned to the lizard man and the angel/demon.
"Nice to meet you." Rink said to the two Velkens.
"Alright then." Duilin put his hands together. "Ben, do you have the airship all already to go. We're planning on going to Kandarin. Which I believe is just north of Helternia. It's a bit further away then Terian is, but airships can go pretty fast, right?"
"So...Duilin?" Bell asked.
"Yeah?"
"I don't want to wait here for you. I'd really like to come along. I'll try not to get in the way or anything, I promise."
"Yeah...I guess so." Duilin replied. "Don't worry about getting in the way. Maybe you being there might motivate me or something."
Bell smiled, and Duilin smiled back.
"Alright then." Rink said fluttering up in the air so he was at eyes level with the rest of the group. "So, are we going to leave without Ven?"
"If we have to. I don't want to waste time." Duilin answered. "A lot has been going on that has thrown Retan's attention off. If we're going to try and stop him, we've got to do it soon. So if everyone's ready, we can get going." He looked at Ben. "You can lead the way to the ship."
--- ---
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
"Very well, Soverigen." Vandrin bowed his head. He snapped his fingers at one of the servants and he handed the count a large container of red liquid, with an injector at the end.
He walked towards the cage where Xarn was being held. Several undead minions opened the cage and helped drag him out.
"Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit." Vandrin said soothingly to the lizard man. He kneeled down to the barely conscious creature and then injected the liquid into its chest. "It will hurt a lot."
He backed away and the lizard man stood up and started yelling in pain, alternating between grabbing his arms and legs. Soon the lizard man fell back over on the floor and started growling and yelling as his muscles began to grow and his skin began to turn yellow and started to crack like dry mud.
The lizard man's eyes went totally blank as he stopped moving, and then exhaled out a plume of green smoke. The mutant lizard's muscles were monstrously huge, his shirt was ripped apart, and his sword holstered on his back fell on the ground. The mutant then stood completely still, staring at nothing.
"There you have it my lord." Vandrin said to Kronos. "A general of the Dark Empire has just turned into a loyal soldier to the Sovereign."
-
//Xorlak and DM, move your characters to GM quickly please. This is dragging on.\
- Gros Morne Citadel, top-
"I saw the mutant's spirit ribbon slowly rise out of the ground in front of me. I picked it up, without much haste, and connected it to my knot of the other 7,294 spirit ribbons, which hold my children bound to me. At that point, the ribbon dissipated, and became a power line stretching from me to the mutant - just the way it must be.
I casually kicked the newly created mutant beast. Well, it wasn't falling apart - that's a good sign.
-"Vandrin, please inject the High General with some sort of an antidote for the Grib. I wish to see the effects of this mixture."
At that point, I turned around to face Vincent.
-"Is there something particular in my clothes that you're eyeing me like that?", I remarked. "Of course, these robes were made by the master weaver, Jakarta Tenpin - and are still marvellous, if one disregards the burns and holes. As little as a scarf made by him is worth more than three large palaces."
There was something about that expression of his - I know it - the expression of a man with no mission, one ready to seize any opportunity coming his way. I'm going to keep tabs on that man..."
--- --- ---
- In a blooming spring forest -
-"Say, Stormy, have you seen the blue moon the other day?"
-"No, what of it?"
-"I don't really know... It just seemed odd. The moon is normally reddish, isn't it?"
-"Yes. What are you getting at?"
-"Stormy, what force do you know of which is powerful enough to make the moon itself turn pale?"
-"Well..."
-"Nevermind that! Quiet!"
Sun and Stormy ducked into bushes. There was a large Kandarinian armed force approaching...
-
- Tjedon, dark alley -
(Blargh.)
Renard nodded. "All right. We'll meet you there. Let's go, Riuki."
With that he took off into the sky and zipped across town to the airship.
----
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
Vincent pushed his glasses up on his nose, rolling his eyes. "Indeed, a very fine work." At least he was dressed better than that goofy count wearing fusha and bright green.
(He was referring to Vandrin in the earlier post. Heh...)
----
- Frozen beach, South of Gros Morne -
Dark clouds began to form to the south of the Arctic Region...
The Dark Emperor Retan landed on a sheet of ice, the walls of Gros Morne visible in the distance. There were of course two ways to go about this. Very quick total annihilation, or very slow total annihilation. He wondered for a moment if in fact the undead knew fear. Particularly liches. Seeing as this knowledge would potentially be useful in the future, he chose the slow way.
He began walking towards the city, his black frame a stark contrast to the white frozen wasteland.
-
//Yeah, fine Ein.\
- Tjedon, dark alley -
"Actually, screw it. I know where you landed the ship. I'll lead the way." Duilin said laughing a bit. It's not that he was trying to mean to Bjendell or anything it's just as if somebody who was controlling him just wasn't around at the right time, and Duilin just felt like rushing things for some reason.
The group then made their way towards the airship.
"Oh, Rink. I just remember there was something I wanted to show you." Duilin took out a tiny vial of blood red liquid from his pouch. "It was given to me by that strange cat-lady, who made The Iduran's sheath." He handed the vial to the imp, who took it.
"What is it?" Rink asked looking at the liquid inside.
"No idea, but she said it was some sort of enhancement." Duilin replied. "You're a smart guy. Think you can figure it out?"
"Yeah, maybe."
--- ---
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
Vandrin's eyes bolted wide open. Inject the antidote for the Grib into the High General? That would wake him up, and then they'd all be in trouble. He wasn't sure if the mutant lizard man would even be enough to defeat him. Then again...
He looked at the mutant lizard man's muscles, they were actually bigger than Gorus', plus that lizard man knew magic before he was mutated so he may still have some magic knowledge buried in there, if Kronos can dig it out that is. Vandrin shrugged, this might actually work.
"Very well, lord Sovereign." He smiled, and then had his servant hand him an injector with the grib antidote in it.
He walked over to Gorus' cage, which was opened by the undead minions. Vandrin hesitated a bit as he looked into Gorus' eyes, which shot thousands of threats at him. He shook it off and then he injected the antidote into the High General's arm. He quickly backed away, before he fully woke up.
Gorus closed his eyes, and didn't move for a few seconds but then slowly got up on his feet. Vandrin and the servants began to back away a bit as he looked around.
Gorus looked at the mutant lizard man in front of him.
"Xarn? What did you do to him!?" Gorus growled. "Xarn! Speak!"
The mutant Xarn stepped towards him.
"Xarn! I order you to help me kill these humans! Turn around and attack their sovereign! Now!"
The mutant Xarn then swung his fist into Gorus' stomach and he fell to the ground.
"...Xarn?" Gorus sounded upset, but then his face grew to one of great anger. "I am going to kill all of you." Fully recovered he stood back up. And then charged at the mutant lizard and started smashing his fists into it, which didn't seem to do as much damage as he'd expect. Xarn was...stronger than him.
The mutant then punched Gorus in chest, forcing him back a few steps.
Gorus looked stunned; he couldn't believe what was going on. Xarn was his best friend, and now he's become a zombie under Kronos' spell. He started to regret treating him different after he became a High General. Any sadness he felt he quickly turned into rage, which he transferred into his fists.
He rushed back at the mutant and the jabbed it in the face with his right fist and then his left. The mutant lizard began to loose balance. Gorus then swung a kick at the mutant, but it caught his foot and then twisted it and the High General fell onto the ground.
Vandrin and the others cheered.
"So far so good, lord Sovereign?" Vandrin asked.
-
(Ein, please post quickly please. This is dragging on.)
(Heh...)
----
- Tjedon Castle, courtyard -
Renard waited a few moments infront of the airship. The stair-door was down, and the engines were humming. It was all ready to go when he arrived.
Some figures approached him from around the side of the ship. The one in the lead in particular made him nervous, as it was that hooded man who attacked him...
"Crap..." He bit his tongue, thinking of a good spell to use in self defense. The human was going to try and run him through again... At least out in the open, the Velken could escape quickly. He tail darted between his legs as the human stopped some ten feet away and through back his cowl.
"I... apologize for attacking you." What? Renard's ears stood on end. "I still don't trust you, but we're on the same side at the moment. And in order to win, we must fight together." The human held out a hand. He'd seen this gesture before. Humans clasp hands and shake as a gesture of friendship or an alliance.
Renard timidly extended his gray-furred claw and clasped the human's. The human's hand was very smooth, and the fox imagined he could use a wide assortment of meticulous weapons.
"Ven."
"Renard."
-
//ZUH?! HE'S BACK FROM THE DEAD?! Yep, it's me. I've finally managed to get enough time (I'm on Thanksgiving break right now) to get a short little post in. Tomorrow I'll write a much longer one, but for now, enjoy this little snippet. No Commission update, sorry.\
“Son of a bitch!”
The Colonel was incensed. As to why he was anybody could say, but it would be unwise to be the bearer of bad news when talking to him.
“Sir?” one of the Majors asked. “What is the problem?”
“What isn’t the problem, Mr. Gordon? That’s a better question. It’s taking too damn long to get this ice block battle-ready. Those damned commissioned officers are too green to know what they’re doing. And no word from Carmine about this Alex man. I feel like I’m being left in the dark, Gordon!”
“Sir, I have no doubt that the Commission is doing their utmost to defeat him…he IS a powerful man after all.”
“But he’s ONE MAN,” the Colonel bellowed. “One man against five? Do the math.”
“Sir, with all due respect, they may not succeed.”
“Well then, if they don’t, then hopefully Alex will save me the trouble of executing them myself.”
“It’s only been a day, Sir. Give them time.”
“Oh, Gordon. If only you knew the basics of warfare.”
Flurries scattered through the cold air as Alex followed the worn stone path to Glacia City.
“Here we are,” Alex said, brushing the accumulated snow off of his jacket. “And ahead of schedule, too.”
“Great,” Midna replied. “I’m freezing out here.”
As if sensing their arrival, Glacia’s double gates opened, revealing a totally different world beyond the rock walls. The town bustled with activity. Revelers caroused from pub to pub making their nightly runs. Merchants stood at apt attention at their stalls, peddling the goods and services that Glacia used. Horses drew large carts carrying cords upon cords of firewood, ensuring every fireplace in Glacia would burn with warmth. Everyone was busy with one task or another.
Alex had a feeling of nostalgia returning here. This place was his home. So remote and serene from the rest of the world, happily living and working in isolation.
“We can rest here for a while,” Alex said. “We can lay low here as well. Kandarinian forces very seldom sweep past here.”
“That’s good news for us,” Midna sighed, taking his shadow.
Alex continued through the town, into the outskirts, and toward what looked like an old smithy. He pulled open the door and passed through.
“Well, this is it. Home sweet home.”
Midna left his shadow. “This is where you live?” She looked around. It was a home on one side, and a workshop on the other. “Not much for luxury are you?”
“I live with what I can,” Alex said.
“This should be good for a few days,” Midna replied. “But then we need to get back on the road.”
-
//I thought I made a post yesterday... Apparently I didn't...\
"I pulled the spirit ribbon back, as if a leash.
-"Well done, Vandrin, on an entertainment well delivered. Shoo now, and go make me more."
Unravelling the ribbon once again, I urged:
-"Sic, hound! Sic! Kill that fat hippo!"
-
//Sorry I haven't been on in a while
"Alright, we're ready to go. I'll get this bird off the ground." Ben walked up the ramp in front of Duilin and co. and readied the engins once again. The ship's controls were up and ready to blast off the ground.
"Ready when you are."
//DM, in your next post you can do the taking off bit.
-
- Tjedon Castle, courtyard -
Duilin smiled, as he saw Renard and Ven shake hands.
"Alright, there we go." Duilin's mindset was getting much better about this. If Ven can forgive Renard, then probably the Kandarinians would be willing to help them finally defeat the Dark Empire.
Once everyone was aboard and settled in. The airship then took off and flew northward towards Kandarin...
(Gorus will be updated later)
-
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
"Very well, lord Sovereign." Vandrin replied. He then bowed before exited with the two scientists and the servants.
The mutant lizard man then smashed his fists down on Gorus, as he was on the ground.
Gorus growled in pain, but was able to get himself back up. The mutant swung another punch at Gorus' head but he ducked and then swung an uppercut at right on the mutants jaw.
The mutant gave out a monstrous roar and then tackled Gorus and began grabbing him around the neck.
Gorus wasn't going to allow himself to loose. He started kicking away, digging the metal spikes on his boots into the skin on the mutant's leg, but it wasn't enough. He then noticed that Xarn dropped his sword when he mutated, and saw it on the floor not to far away, he reached out, but was loosing breath rapidly and couldn't quite make it.
He then dug his claws right into the mutant's hands and then pulled back, and forced the mutant's hands to open. The High General then weakly climbed over to the sword and picked it up. The mutant the dove at Gorus and readied for another tackle. Gorus stuck the sword up and allowed the mutant to fall on him. The sword dug right through it's chest, and it stopped moving. Gorus was able to push the massive creature off of him, and then weakly got back up, he then plucked the sword from the mutant's dead body and then pointed the blade at Kronos.
"Your turn..."
-
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
Vincent took one step forward, removing his golden shotgun from his cloak and pointing it at the giant Lizard Man in one fluid motion.
He wasn't stupid. He knew a weakened foe and an easy kill when he saw one. Of course he wouldn't attack without permission. But the chance to gain brownie points was too obvious not to try.
-
//happy thanks giving, peoples!
- Northern Wastes, Arctic Region -
The small forces of lizardmen decided to press back to the south. The leader, however, was having difficulties with directions. "Hmm... I forgot which way was south."
Captain Zabel walked to the front of the group and smacked the lizardman beside the head. "You can't be serious! Damn it..."
"Ow! What the hell!" Stumbling from the backhand to the head, the lizardman slipped on the snowy ground and fell on his back.
"Shut it. I'll grab my compass." The captain pulled out a compass from her belt pouch and pointed it in their general direction. The needle on the compass spun slowly to the north, but the compass appeared to be facing the east.
"Damn. Just as I's suspected. We've been walking the wrong way. Everyone face this direction and MOVE!" The captain tunred her men to the south as they started to march.
------------
-
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
-"My turn? Well, you got that right."
I waved my hand in a dramatic fashion, as if summoning a great beast from somewhere. A cascade of bones rose from below, escaping the bodies of their slain owners. They circled around me in a swirling vortex, and then began to settle down around me. In a few seconds, I was encased in armour made entirely of bone. Two grand spikes protruded from my shoulders, and my head was now protected by a bestial skull, in a helmet-like fashion.
-"Behold, the Soul Cage of the Lich..."
Another burst of bones materialized a large shield over my left hand. The shield had many bones sticking out from the sides, with a lizard man's skull in the middle.
-"...the Aegis of the Lich..."
Finally, the remainder of the bones combined to make a lordly sword, its length twice surpassing my opponent's height. The hilt and guard consisted of a human skull with many rib bones stuck through it, and the blade was made up from a great many of miscellaneous bones, making it quite jagged. At about halfway down the sword, the blade broke into two separate ones - giving the weapon a somewhat fork like appearance.
-"...and finally, the Ripper of Heavens."
The sword was lying in front of me. I knelt down, sampling the texture of the handle - and effortlessly lifted it up, throwing it over my shoulder.
-"Don't be amazed," I said, seeing the surprise in Gorus' eyes. "This weapon, this armour and this shield are all a part of my soul. They weigh nothing to me. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for you..."
I swung the behemoth blade at Gorus. There was no chance of a miss, as Gorus was too close to me for him not to get hit by the swing. Meanwhile, the minute dot of light on the horizon sliced the sky in half, appearing right above Gros Morne. The light cut through the metal clouds like a knife through hot butter, sending bright rays down onto the burning city..."
-
//Thanksgiving was in October for me, eh.\
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
"Holy...crap..." Gorus was indeed amazed. He never knew mortals could do such things. Then again, he belived that he had to give up his humanity in order to get his powers. Thus proving his theory that humans could be used like a canvas. But the rumours about Kronos are that he did this to himself. So does that mean a human does have this sort of power?
For some reason Gorus started to worry a little bit. He used Xarn's sword to block the giant bone blade smashing down on him. Gorus was very strong and was definitely able to block it much better then any human and most lizard men could. Despite that, he fell to the ground from the weight of the blade, and was barely able to keep it from crushing him and then slicing him apart, as he held Xarn's sword at the handle and at the end of the blade. It was cutting his hand, but better his hand then his entire body.
With all his strength he pushed the sword to the left and rolled to the right and jumped up back onto his feet, and threw the sword like a dart at the bone armoured Lich.
-
- Gros Morne, Outskirts -
Before the Dark Emperor Retan lay the burning city of Gros Morne, still protected by walls of bone and frozen flesh. It appeared Gorus had already begun his siege upon the lowly Kandarinians, though he did not see the airships they would have attacked with in the skies.
He had to do everything himself.
The sword, the spear, and the dagger floated around him, rotating slowly. Through them, he felt the three other weapons in the heart of the city.
They were hungry.
He extended a gloved hand, and the portion of the bone wall around him turned black. Like a porcelain vase, it shattered to tiny pieces and the black ash floated away upon the breeze, leaving a hole in the defenses.
A soldier stood directly on the opposite side. He yelled in alarm, then pointed his speargun at the black armored figure that slowly advanced toward him.
As he pulled the trigger the weapon turned black, a dark flame engulfing it. He tried to drop it, but the blackness quickly took his body. He screamed in terror as his flesh was rent from his bones, and the black burning skeleton that was left disintegrated into dust upon the icy ground, leaving absolutely nothing left.
Slowly, the Dark Emperor walked towards the breech in the wall, the weapons that rotated around him gaining speed...
----
- The Tower of Heaven's Bane, Dining Hall -
Gav leaned back and patted his stuffed belly. What a delicious meal!
"My lord!"
"What?" Grav snapped, wiping cranberry sauce off his scaly muzzle.
"We've located the one of the lost airships of the Skyward Division..." The armored lizard said, nervously.
"Oh?"
"They're returning, and will arrive in a moment."
"Have they retreated from battle? What are they doing?"
"They will not respond to our summonings..."
Grav thought for a moment. Then his eyes widened. "You moron! It's those traitorous furry mammals! Kill them! Kill them!!" He grabbed his staff and hopped up and down on his chair, screaming.
----
- Death Evan, Bridge -
Virmir clasped his hands behind his back as the Tower of Heaven's Bane came into view, a thin spire that stretched so high into the black clouds, its top was impossible to see.
"Here they come..." Anselm said.
The sky before them opened up in a swarm of wyvern riders, all blasting various elemental spells at the black warship. The cannons opened fire in all directions, and explosions rocked all aorund as the warriors were picked out of the skies.
Virmir squirted and made out the forms of two airships hovering near the tower, though which types were difficult to discern through the hazy darkness.
"This is it..."
----
- The Dhaos, Bridge -
Renard had a bad feeling about this.
Ven kept giving him stares from across the room, but he tried to pay it no mind. He knew the human had every right to be upset. Maybe through battle he would gain his trust.
But what really bothered the fox was where they were going. He remembered the Kandarinian city of Asgarnia, and how run down it was. It didn't seem like they were much better than the Dark Empire at all...
He sighed and stared at the clouds passing by though the window, resting his muzzle upon his arms as his tail curled around his angles. He was worried. Worried about his squad. Worried about Emile. Worried about the Velkens' future. Even in the million to one chance they did have at defeated Retan, where would they go? Surely the humans would not accept them living amongst them... No one would. Not after the hideous crimes they've committed.
He shook his head, trying to focus on the upcoming battle.
-
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
-"Damnit... He's here..."
What a terrible sense of timing, I must say. Further proof of this thought was offered to me as a flying sword thrown by Gorus, which struck my shoulder. A few bones here and there chipped, but otherwise, the armour remained intact.
Mildly surprised at the lizard man's ability to block the Ripper, I withdrew the sword back onto my shoulder.
-"In either case, Gorus, I fear as though I will not be able to teach you the pain of life with my blade, after all. Quite sad, really, but you will be overjoyed to find out that I have an even better lesson for you..."
With another dramatic movement, I smashed my sword into the ground in front of Gorus. The individual bones composing it came apart, as is expected - with the force of an explosion. I specifically targeted Gorus' arm and leg joints, as to incapacitate, but not kill, him.
-"Oh yes, so much better," I remarked venomously. Unfortunately, my planned long line of evil taunts was interrupted by a transmission from my pocket M-Grid orb. I listened to the voice in my head intently, and, with a heavy sigh, walked over to the edge of the Citadel.
At that point, the light shining from beyond the clouds ceased, and the clouds turned back to their old grim metallic self."
--- --- ---
- Gros Morne, city -
It was the trumpet, everyone assumed, that stopped the fighting. Whichever KAF members were still alive came outside bearing the white flag, leaving their weapons behind. The Stalker squads were nowhere to be seen - dead, presumably. Perhaps their deaths had something to do with the surrender act?
Meanwhile, General Roland shambled across the belittered land, scorched by the Dark Emperor's mighty spell. He kneeled before the black figure.
-"Gros Morne is beaten, my lord. Please have mercy on our poor state. We surrender."
-
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
"Don't spew your mockery on me!" Gorus roared to the Lich.
Gorus then jumped back expecting the sword to hit him, despite what Kronos had said. The explosion however threw him completely off guard.
He gave out a roar of pain and he started to feel sharp pains in his joints.
"You're not even going to kill me!? This is an insult. You humans and near-humans make me sick!" He growled. He then forced himself forward with all his strength; he was going to rip him apart like a paper bag. The pain in his joints was too much, and he was paralyzed.
"Oh, go to hell..."
Gorus then fell to the ground, unable to move a muscle...
--- ---
//Now this post is going to involve rapid movement. I'll apologize in advance for this, and I hope this can slide, because of time restraints. I really need to hurry things up a bit here."
- The Dhaos, Bridge -
"So, any luck on finding out what that chemical does?" Duilin asked.
"Well, I tried scanning its aura. And well, I'm getting a feeling very similar to how your aura was when you transformed into that demon lord." Rink replied, holding the vial.
"Really?" Duilin seemed a little confused. "So does that mean it's like my blood or something? Or just demonic?"
"Well, I don't know many demon lords. And the two demon lords I do know are you and Abodahon, and your auras are very similar."
"Yeah...right. So you're saying you don't know?"
"Well, I think it might have some blood in it. Do you remember that cat-lady getting any blood from you?"
"I think, I remember she was there right before I passed out after changing back. Why would she give me a vial of blood?"
"Well, I'm making a few wild guesses here, but maybe it's a potion for perhaps boosting or restoring demonic abilities, maybe even gaining demonic abilities to the consumer. But I'm guesses it's only temporary. Because, when you're in your demon lord form it's only temporary."
"But...you don't know for sure."
"No. But I wouldn't be surprised if I was right."
"Right, okay then, well I'm gonna go see how the route is going. You keep...making guesses and stuff about that." Duilin laughed a bit after saying that and Rink laughed back.
Duilin then went to where Bjendell was piloting the ship.
"This ship sure goes fast." Duilin said.
Eventually the Kandarin Island came into view yet something was wrong. There was nothing there. Duilin looked at Ben. "Did you go the wrong way or something? This island is totally empty. Is it the right place?"
Suddenly the communications orb need the captain's seat started to glow, as if receiving something.
"Hey, uh this thingy is getting something." Duilin wasn't sure if he should answer it. "Wait, I got an idea." He turned around. "Hey Lagart! Get over here!"
The lizard man waddled over to the cockpit area and looked at Duilin. "Yeah?"
"We're getting a message, and it's probably somebody from the Dark Empire, it might be the Velkens, but I think it'll be safer if you talk to them, since you're a lizard man. You understand?"
"Yeah. I'm not that stupid." Lagart replied. He then walked over to the communications orb and touched it. A blurry image of a slim lizard man appeared.
"Are you the reinforcements?" The lizard man asked.
Lagart nodded. "Yeah."
"You're a little late, we've got the Dark Emperor here, but if you want to join in and help us slaughter these runts, feel free. I've been stationed here to guide any reinforcements coming to the new location of the Kandarin Sovereignty at the Arctic Region."
"Okay. Thank you. Signing off." Lagart taped the orb and the image disappeared. He looked at Duilin. "Retan is at Kandarin."
Duilin looked a little worried. "Crap." Duilin started to feel nervous, he was shaking a little bit, but then shook it off.
Duilin then went back to the bridge to announce this to the others and Lagart followed.
"Okay everyone. The Kandarinians have moved to the Arctic Region and Retan is attack them. Probably they're getting ripped a part right now."
He could tell that everyone was looking a little nervous. Moral boosting speech time.
"Okay, you're probably all scared. I'll admit I'm getting scared myself, but fear never held me back before so it's not going to now. I've done a lot, these past few days. I blew up a military building; I saved a Velken's life and then the rest of his species. I also got reunited with Bell and found out my little sister is still alive. And on top of all that I realized I have two other bodies that I can change into. Now I know most of you guys aren't as well able to fight as I am, but I want you to know that I still believe we can do this. I love all you guys and I won't allow anyone here to die. And you know what, if you don't believe me then think of this. Would you rather run now only to be killed later on, and only be remembered as another coward? Or would you rather go down in history as people who stepped up to Retan and said 'No! You are NOT taking this world Retan!'"
Duilin took a deep breath and rolled up his sleeves, much like he did with his previous style of clothing. Regardless if the others were ready or not, he was.
Soon enough The Dhaos came near Gros Morne, the new capital of the Sovereignty and where the final battle would take place.
-
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
Vincent took a few steps back. Blast it... never mind then. Kronos had some serious power... when his guard was up, at least. He lowered his weapon. He was content to watch the Sovereign take out the weakened lizard from the sidelines.
He idly looked up at the flashing lights in the sky.
----
- Gros Morne, city -
Retan's crimson eyes narrowed. "Cur. How dare you approach me, you rotting death-stenched carcass."
He extended his left hand, a swirling orb of blackness some two feet in diameter immediately forming out of nowhere. Like a cannon, he blasted the undead man at point blank range, the aftershock from the explosion cutting huge cracks into the city street.
"I tire of being generous."
He flipped his cape with his right hand. The white flags the soldiers carried caught ablaze with a black flame, which quickly spread to their bodies. They writhed in agony as all around they withered into nothing.
"I give nothing but opportunities and second chances, paths to fame and glory."
The Dark Emperor walked through the crowd of disintegrating men as they flailed upon the ground. An aura of violet blackness engulfed the three weapons that circled him, and they began to rotate at an insane speed.
"And what is the thanks I get? Thieves who take my property. Incompetents that fail. Traitors abound..."
The radius of the weapons' orbits increased greatly, and at the same time they began spinning like buzzsaws. They spiraled around Retan like the nucleus of an atom, slicing through buildings like nothing, toppling unlife structures, boring into the street and surfacing dozens of feet away, along with a boulder-sized hole, the debris scattering everywhere.
The Dark Emperor continued slowly walking through the chaos, towards the citadel in the distance...
----
- The Dhaos, Bridge -
Renard had a sinking feeling in his stomach the closer they got to their destination. Duilin's mentioning of Retan confirmed it...
"Yeah... I'm with you..." he said timidly. He was the first to speak, and all eyes seemed to bore into his soul. He felt so small and out of place...
"As am I." He heard a much deeper voice behind him and above. He turned to see Ven towering over him.
The silver knight nodded once at the Velken and drew his blade. "Let's do this..."
-
"I... I wont let any harm come to you, Renard. I'm with you where ever you go!" Ko'ji grabbed her scimitar and her enchanted dagger. They both glowed white, a sign of purity. "Let's do this!!!"
-
- Kandarinian Skies -
"Landing the ship now... It's on auto pilot, so it'll take us to the right area to land. I assume it ought to be bumpy..." Ben stood amongst those gathered on the deck. He then began to laugh at Duilin.
"Hah! Have we ever not been up to par when it comes to war? We'll handle our selves ten-fold!" The angelic man's aura seemed to get bigger and bigger. His power was comming back to him.
"So begins the war of Man versus Draken... the first era of men is comming to an end."
------------
"UGH!!!" Karma fell to the floor, her hands clutching her stomach.
"What's wrong!?" Jacobie immediately bent down to catch her before she fell, and as he caught her, he felt it... It was a wound, in magic itself. One he had not felt since he'd been close to the dark emporer. He was very close. Jacobie would have to get out.
"Sir, I'm back with the men!"
"You're in charge now captain... or should I say commander?"
"What!?"
"I take my leave, with her at my side."
"Sir, that's crazy!"
"I must. There is something I must do to redeem my terrible deeds. Take care of these petty rebels."
"Uhh... yes, sir."
"Let's go, Karma."
"You're taking the slave girl!?"
"Correction. I'm taking my apprentice. Back off."
"Sir, are you barkin' MAD!?
"I SAID BACK OFF!!!" Jacobie pushed the female lizard to the ground.
"Y-yes sir!" The lizardman left the camp with Karma and into the wastes of Vos, then slowly pushed through the winds to Kandarinian territory.
"We'll be there soon, Karma"
"Before we go farther, there is something I must tell you."
"Hmm? Uh, sure. Go ahead."
"I... I love you."
"What!?"
"Master, I... I've never felt compassion my whole life, yet you've shown me so much."
"I said call me Jacobie. Master's a faint title."
"Don't you see? Already, you try to claim me as an equal!"
"Because..."
"Why? It's not bad, but why do you keep being so nice?"
"Because I love you too." Jacobie then stopped walking in the snow and grabbed on to Karma. She grabbed him back and held him tightly.
------------
-
- The Dhaos, landed on Gros Morne -
Duilin smiled and nodded at Ven, Renard, Ko'ji and Bjendell as they agreed to stay in the group.
"I with you." Lagart said to Duilin, proudly.
"You know what? I'm gonna fight too damnit." Rink pounded his fist down. "I know I should be. But I ain't scared."
"That's the spirit!" Duilin said with a smile.
"Well, I guess I'm the only one who probably can't help fight at all." Bell said sounding a little regretful. "I'll be okay alone, don't worry."
"Well...wait." Duilin walked over to a footlocker at the other end of the room "I was routing through a few boxes here and there earlier and I found a couple of these thingies." He then walked back over to Bell and handed her a glass orb. "I found a couple of these communication orbs. If you're in danger just give me a call and I'll see what I can do."
"Well, you're needed to right Retan, and I don't want to hold you back."
Duilin smiled. "Well, I'm sure Lagart would be more than happy to do that for me." He looked at the lizard man who nodded back, in agreement.
Bell and Duilin gave each other a hug and kiss, before they went off.
Duilin had the Iduran in it's sheath, which was around his belt, and he had the Talonscar mace in his right hand and rested on his shoulder. Lagart had found a freshly sharpened steal broadsword on the ship, which he swamped for his old rusted and blood stained one he had before. Rink was sure he could find some use with this vial, and he was thinking he'd test it out; he just needed to decide if it would be safe to drink.
The group made their heroic march through the war torn city, and headed towards Retan's massive aura. They were all ready, Duilin was feeling ready. He didn't care if he was the one to kill Retan, he just wanted to make sure the world was safe from him.
As Duilin walked, his aura glowed a bright gold and his entire clothing began to lighten to a white colour, his belt became a golden yellow and his hair became a dark orange. His wings were gone and his scars healed.
The Dark Emperor was in view. Duilin didn't think it would make a difference on how they approached him, so he just continued forward. Lagart and Rink noticeably began to slow down a bit. Duilin looked scared, but he kept moving just as fast.
-
The giant mud like creature rose again, and flew towards Nex. Nothing was spared, it was like a giant tsunami of mud.
Puco quickly cought Ophelia, and both disappeared in the mud that actually hit Nex too.
"Don't be scared! We will go.. to.. an... other... place, .... neeeEEE!"
Something began to pull and bite Ophelia and Puco.
Something went wrong.. they were pulled away, but Puco hold her firmly.
"Close.. your.. eyes!!!"
With that both lost their feelings, and everything else. It was as if they stopped existing..
The did.
Or did they?
-
- Gros Morne, near the Dhaos -
"We're nearly there, Karmandalla. How's your stomach?"
"It's fine now. But I can still feel it... It's him sin't it?"
"*Sigh* Yeah, it's him alright... Hey, is that... Duilin and the others?" Jacobie, still holding Karma by her waist, walked over to the group. They were on there way to the cataclysmic battle that no doubt lay ahead. The lizard rushed to the group while still giving Karma time to keep up.
"Karmandalla, see that ship over there? Head on inside. This battle is for us alone. You'll be safe there." The girl did as Jacobie said and rushed over to the ship, the Dhaos, and greeted Bell.
"You guys here to finish this? Great, I'll need all the help I can get." The lizardman smiled as his pace slowly adjusted to match the group's.
------------
"Umm... Hello... I'm Jacobie's servant--er... apprentice. He told me it would be safer if I stayed on this ship. I guess you're with those friends of his."
------------
"It appears fate has played a big role in this. We're going to need you on this one. Join in, why don't you?" Ben was flying above the group and kept their morale high with some spells. He flew to the ground where Jacobie was and started to walk next to him.
"You ready to do this?" The lizardman unsheathed his katana burnermaul, as chillmaul was still with Karma.
"I've been witing to do this for a lo---ng time. I'm sure as hell ready, friend." Ben focused his aura around his right hand and poured energy into it to form a magnificant white blade of energy. It far surpassed anything he'd ever done before, and his demonic side started to focus it's energied into it as well, as the blade's edges were all a blood red.
*The blade of the familiar has changed shape... I'll have to think of a new name for it.* Indeed it did. It was massive this time, looking like a greatsword. The blade, being made of energy, was light as a feather. But if it were of metal, it would be a burden for the strongest of knights to carry. He held it to his side with two hands, just like a greatsword. Apparently, his energy was at full power.
*Thank you for this gift, father...*
------------
-
//Blah. So much for the "awxxm post on wednesday." Oh well. This is better than nothing, I suppose.\
Carmine frowned, and looked at his map again. The route to Vandrin was supposed to be here. Instead, he saw it as five kilometers behind them.
“Damn maps are outdated,” Carmine complained, rolling it back up. “Estacado, did you see the sign to Vandrin?”
“Uh, nope.” Estacado said. “We should’ve by now.”
This was embarrassing. A group of elite soldiers who couldn’t even find their way back home.
“Let’s just ask someone for directions,” Grylls said, trying to be helpful.
“Probably not a bad idea,” Sig said. “What about you, old man?”
De Sade remained silent.
“How talkative,” Sig sighed.
“No,” Carmine said. “We find our own way home.”
“I dunno Cap,” Estacado said, worried. “The Colonel’s known for getting pissy about bad news. What if word gets out that Alex hasn’t been captured yet?”
“Estacado,” Carmine replied, “look at it this way. The worst he can do is yell and bitch and moan, and tell us to look harder, making some sort of empty threat. If we don’t catch him on the way home, we’ll sure as hell get him by the time we get there.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Estacado uncertainly said. He heaved his two hundred-kilogram mortar and kept walking.
“So, how long did you live here?”
“About five years,” Alex replied. “I just decided I was tired of the merc life for a while, and settled down.”
Midna looked at the various items adorning Alex’s walls. Medals and honors from both sides cemented his past as one of the most influential mercenaries in Terian’s history.
“This place certainly isn’t opulent,” Midna said. “Didn’t they pay you well?”
“They did, but materialism was something I never really had time for. I did my job, they paid me, I moved on. I’m sure there’s tons of money in this house that I’ve never touched. Probably never will, either.”
Midna looked out the window, which overlooked a massive canyon. Asgarnia was at the very bottom, where snow met grass. “What made you decide to leave?”
Alex struck a flint, and a few logs inside the fireplace ignited, washing away the cold. “After a while I guess I got bored. I went out in search of an adventure.” He looked at the Twili medal around his neck. “Man, did I find one.”
The other side of Alex’s home was strewn with all sorts of smithing and forging tools, as well as a furnace. “You were a blacksmith?”
“Not quite,” Alex said. “The man I bought this house from was a blacksmith, and he didn’t like the fact that the native smithy in town was taking his business. I guess he just decided to leave his tools behind. The smithy in town, after promising I wouldn’t jeopardize his business, taught me a few things. Since then, all of my weapons, I made myself.”
Midna looked to the north. “How long should we stay here?”
“A day at the most,” Alex said. “The sooner we get moving, the sooner we get there.”
“Well, we still have some time,” Midna said, taking his shadow. “How about you show me around the area?”
-
- Gros Morne, Streets -
Holeee crap...
Renard was scared to death... That was him. The Dark Emperor himself.
He composed himself as best as he was able, trying not to fall behind the rest of the group. They were all so calm and confident... He was nothing but a coward...
Retan continued walking until he was in the center of the city, the three weapons spinning wildly around him creating a total disaster area of the scene. He paused with the citadel behind him, turning to look down at the motley crew of adventurers from atop a pile of rubble. The weapons slowed, still burning black as they revolved close by. He folded his arms.
"Excellent. The you have all come to die at once."
----
- Death Evan, Bridge -
Gaston tapped the orb again, trying to get it to work. Suddenly a hazy image appeared in the crystal.
"Hmmm... I think I have a visual on The Dhaos, but I have no idea where it's at..."
The Velkens that weren't busy madly firing the cannons at swooping wyverns gathered around the Battle Mage and they crystal ball in the center of the airship control room.
"That's... definitely not Tjed..." Anselm said, running a finger under his chin. "Hello? Can you hear me?"
Gaston shook his head. "It won't work. It's broken on our end. They can't hear us, let alone, see us..."
"What... are they doing...?" Helix said, squinting at the small image. It appeared the group of heroes were walking away from the airship... towards some black figure.
"Oh, no... they're attempting to face Retan..."
At the front of the room, Virmir's ears perked. He turned his head. "If we do not bring this tower down, they will all surely die..."
Helix's mouth went agape... "R... Renard's with them! And Riuki!"
"You mean he can access the tower's energy flow from that far away?" Anselm asked, panic rising in his voice.
Virmir nodded. "He is invincible, as it stands..." He spun around, pointing a claw towards the Tower of Heaven's Bane in the distance. "Full speed ahead. Open all cannons!"
The Death Evan surged forward, pelted on all sides by magical explosions as it ripped through the flying forces of the Dark Empire...
Ahead, two black airships opened fire upon it...
-
- The Dhaos, landed on Gros Morne -
Bell was pacing back and forth, he looked fairly worried. He then noticed a woman came aboard the ship.
"Oh...hello. Sorry, I'm just a little worried right now. I'm Bell, what's your name?"
---
- Gros Morne, Streets -
Duilin stared at Retan in his burning crimson eyes. His piercing glare struck fear in him, but he continued moving, he just hoped that all the others had the bravery to continue on with him. Bjendell was clearly willing and Rink was extremely courageous for somebody of his size. But he still wasn't too sure about the others.
Duilin then saw Jacobie approach them.
"If you're here to help us fight Retan, do it." Duilin stated bluntly, because there wasn't any time to waste.
Duilin's grip on his weapons tightened as he flowed his energy through them. A white flame burned around both the mace and the sword. Time to do this.
He charged towards the Dark Emperor, he noticed that he had a few of the weapons with him. He never got to see the full power of those things, thanks to Haraldur.
He felt a little more confident, he was in his Super Human form, and he felt like nothing could stop him or hold him back. The super human made a mighty leap towards Retan and then smashed down both of his weapons, with the sacred fire still burning through it.
-
- The Dhaos, Deck -
"Uhh... Karmandalla. Nice to meet you." Out of Habbit, the girl sat cross-legged on the floor. It appeared comfortable to her, though this may have confused Bell.
"Do you think... do you think Mas-uh Jacobie and your friends stand a chance against him?"
------------
- Gros Morne, Streets -
"Uhh... this is definately not going to be good..." Jacobie pulsed all of his energy into his hands and charged up his enchanted weapon, burnermaul. He flung a great wave of fire from the blade in a horizontal slash at Retan, the wave surging like a small inferno. This took a lot of his power.
"Taste this!" Ben came around Jacobie and performed a similar tactic, this time creating a vertical wave that combined with Jacobie's horizontal wave. It formed a shinning cross, partly enhanced with light and fire. The cross blazed toward Retan's direction.
------------
-
- Gros Morne, Streets -
The Dark Emperor did not move until Duilin was nearly upon him. Then his cape unfurled like the wings of a dragon, sending a tremendous blast of wind in all directions. He extended his black-burning arm up and delivered an uppercut as he flew into the air, letting the surging cross attack from Ben and Jacobie fly under him and meeting Duilin's white glowing weapons head on with the punch. An explosion ensued, disintegrating a nearby building from the shockwave.
He flipped and landed, just as Ven thrust his own glowing blade at Retan's back. The Dark Emperor sidestepped, thrusting his armored knee up into the sword, snapping it clean in half before backhanding the sliver knight in the face. Ven spun around thirteen times as he soared twenty feet in the air before crashing into a burning heap of rubble.
Renard zipped around Retan in a wide circle, conjuring a fireball in his claws. Sheer terror crossed his face as crimson eye-beams nearly shot through his temple, and he paused for a split second too long. A residual explosion sent him spiraling out of the sky and into a heap of snow.
The totally unscathed Retan folded his arms, the smoking wreck of a city all around him.
"Look at how you wither and die. I control the black nexus of three netherworlds, and link that energy directly to me. Gaian is already mine. I need merely clean it."
He extended his right hand skyward, and a tiny point of darkness appeared above his head.
"Let us see what happens to the planet when the polar icecap is instantly vaporized."
A faint tendril of blackness appeared from the southern sky... From the Tower of Heaven's bane it cut through the clouds arcing over the Dark Continent and over the ocean... and into the Dark Emperor's open hand...
The black point of mass exploded. Instantly becoming a swelling sphere fifty feet in diameter...
Mega-Death Annihilation Attack EX!! (MDAA-EX): 50%
----
- Death Evan, Bridge -
"He's using it..." Virmir said through clenched teeth. A thin veil of shadow engulfed the entirety of the structure, which had just become visible through the thick haze.
Another explosion. The ship shook.
"We're going down!"
"We're on fire!"
All the windows shattered as a plume of red laced through the front of the ship.
Virmir took the steering wheel from the ploting Velken, trying to keep it steady. "Divert all the power from the cannons to the flight crystal. Full speed ahead." He had that cold, calm expression on his face, despite the wailing winds and flying glass.
"My lord, there's nothing more we can do..." Bryce said, shielding his eyes.
"I want all of you to abandon ship." Virmir said, his icy gaze affixed to the tower in the distance.
"But... sir..."
Virmir unstrapped The Flameberge and shoved it into Bryce's arms. "Take this." He did this same with the sheathed Wind Serpent, and handed it to Anselm.
"Now do as I say."
The two Blade Knights stood there with their mouths gaping.
The burning airship rocketed across the dark skies as it was pelted on all sides by fireballs and cannonfire, straight towards the Tower of Heaven's Bane...
-
- Gros Morne, Streets -
"Cocky bastard." Jacobie put more energy into his sword and charged it so that it was fully enchanted once more. He then directed the tip of the glowing red blade towards the beam of energy going into Retan's MDAA (EX). *Maybe, if I can sever the power, he'll be too weak to fully charge his attack,* Jacobie thought. All of the energy in the flaming katana then rocketed out the tip and towards the river of dark energy above.
"Ven!" Ben zipped across the sky and landed where Ven now was, in the smoldering pile of ruble that was probably once a large house. The half angel dug through the rubble and found Ven. He held his hands towards the knight and a light blue beam of energy left his open palms. "You'll be back up in a jiffy!"
------------
-
- The Dhaos, Deck -
"I don't know." Bell looked down at the floor, she looked so worried. She almost looked like she was going to cry. "Sorry...I don't really feel like talking."
---
- Gros Morne, Streets -
Duilin flew back from the explosion and smashed into a small building which fell apart as he hit it, due to the shockwave Retan made. Duilin lost grip of his weapons, and dropped them as he fell down. He slowly got back up from the rubble, he closed his eyes and his cuts and bruises around him began to heal. He still looked a little worried however; he dug around the rubble and found the Iduran. Now where was his mace?
Duilin then looked back at the Dark Emperor, and saw him instantly create an MDAA.
"No..."
But this was different, it was much stronger and if they're in the arctic region, then the entire world would be affected. And if he could barley even block a slowly charged CDAA, how could he stop this MDAA?
"Noo!!!"
He burried his face in his hands. He started to loose hope. What's the point? The world is about to end now, why waste time trying.
"Wait...exactly." He said out loud. The world is about to end. Give it your all! It's worth a shot. "I don't think so Retan!" Duilin stood back up pointing the Iduran at him. He stepped forward. He got his rush of courage back.
"You know what? I'm not giving up. I love this world too damn much to let it go, and I hate you too much to not do anything. So, fuck you, this world doesn't belong to you no matter what you think. If I don't stop you, I am going to annoy the hell out of you while you do this, to make it as unpleasant as possible for you."
Duilin lowered his sword, and then pressed his left over his heart, and a shining white spark glowed around his hand (DA2 magic casting style!). Suddenly a series of white fireballs began to rain down on the draken.
-
- Gros Morne, Streets -
Ven slowly got up and dusted himself off. "Ergh... I'm fine, I'm fine... happens all the time..." He held his sword up and looked at the broken blade, frowning to see that it was snapped in half and less than two feet long. "Crap..."
The brilliant blasts of light exploded all around Retan, boring deep holes into the ground. Jacobie's energy blast merely passed through the stream of darkness in the air, as if there were nothing there...
When the smoke cleared, Retan stood there with a translucent gray shield around him, the surging sphere of shadow still swelling above his head.
"Excellent. Do struggle before you die. It makes the experience so much more satisfying..."
With a pulse of crackling blackness, the sphere above his head swelled enormously...
"Goodnight."
MDAA-EX: 100%
----
- The Tower of Heaven's Bane -
The burning airship rocketed through the skies, blasting past hundreds of wyverns and other ships that mercilessly pelted it.
An orange glow spread throughout the chamber. Grav looked up from his snack and glanced out the window.
"Oh sh--"
The fireball that was The Death Evan pierced through the translucent shield and slammed right into the side of the tower, a tremendous plume of flame cutting through the thick clouds above. The structure groaned a deep rumble that permeated the mountains. Lightning flashed through the sky, and the ground split open as the structure toppled in a massive column of smoke.
----
- Gros Morne, Streets -
Just as Retan began to bring his hand down, the obscenely large mass of darkness above him faded, and the stream of energy coming from the south disappeared. In a moment, there was nothing above but sunny skies...
He turned, glaring silent rage in the direction of the Dark Continent before turning his burning eyes upon Duilin and the others.
"If you think that will help you, then you are gravely mistaken... For that, I will make you all suffer..."
-
- Gros Morne, Streets; Dawn -
"The sky... the beautiful sunlight... that's what I'm here to fight for. THE SKY!!!" Ben's demonic half faded down into nothing but light blue illuminating mass. Soon, this took over his whole body. His mass faded into nothing but blue light, though his form is still intact.
(Angelic Lord Form, 20%)
Meanwhile, Jacobie stood under the dark figure, his crimson eyes glaring at Duilin and the others, including himself. Fear very quickly took his body, but he shook it off. He then saw Renard, just as afraid, if not more. He walked over to the small Velken and placed a hand on his shoulder. "He has weakend. We'll beat him, don't you worry. He'll die before we do, I promise you that."
------------
- Gros Morne, the Dhaos; Dawn -
"I can't bear to think what would happen to us both should we fail... well, I'd just go back to my ordinary slave life." Karma got to her feet and still grasped the chillmaul. She could feel its icy powers in her hand. Her magic was comming out, tuning it to herself.
"I... feel strange. Maybe we should rest. Best not to think... about what's going on."
------------
-
- Gros Morne, the Dhaos -
"I can't sleep." Bell replied. "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't feel like talking and I'd like to be left alone." She had her jacket off and she was holding it close to her chest, and occasionally wiped her tears away with it.
---
- Gros Morne, Streets -
Duilin smiled and laughed. "Do your worst! Oh wait, I forgot. You just failed at doing that."
Duilin lifted the Iduran back up. Lagart stepped next to Duilin with his giant broadsword. Duilin nodded at Lagart, it's good at he was feeling ready, Rink however seemed to just be standing behind, unsure what to do.
Despite that he felt this was actually going somewhere, the little imp still felt useless. He looked at the vial of blood red liquid in his hand. "What the hell..." He popped off the cork and then took a gulp of it. He swallowed it and put the cork back on, for a second he felt no different but then his entire body began to ache.
"Uhhh..."
He then fell to his knees and grabbed his head and yelled out in a massive adrenaline rush. His muscles and his entire body began to grow, his eyes began to burn and spikes grew on his shoulders, elbows and knees. As he continued to scream his voice deepened. Finally he stopped and buried his face into the ground. The imp grew to over six feet tall; he was actually a little bigger than Duilin now. He finally stood up and looked at Duilin and Lagart.
Duilin and Lagart's jaw dropped.
"...Rink?"
Rink stepped towards them but stopped not too far from the rubble of the house Duilin crashed into. He picked up the Talonscar mace which was burried under a few planks and then continued his way forward. And stopped next to Duilin, on the opposite side of Lagart amd he looked at Retan, with a facial expression of total seriousness.
"Let's rock."
The three then charged towards the dark emperor. Rink and Lagart ran straight forward, Lagart then took a swing of his sword at Retan's right and Rink swung the mace at the draken's left. Meanwhile Duilin jumped in the air and glided diagonally upwards and then flew down slashing his sword down, right on top of Retan.
-
//I highly recommend against charging long attacks here.\
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
"I could really care less if someone was fighting in my city, quamdiu se bene gesserit. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the people down there weren't doing. As little as this shows, I do, as a matter of fact, care about my people to a certain extent. As such, when a lizard army attacks and destroys my city, I can't help but feel responsible to bring down the hand of punishment. I believe it's about time..."
---
Suddenly, the skies above Gros Morne became incredibly clear - every single cloud was chased away by the sun. The rays of the star seemed not only brighter, but also a lot hotter. The snow and ice covering Gros Morne began to melt away rapidly, sending puffs of water vapour upwards. Soon, the whole city was covered by a large cloud of evaporating ice...
-
- Gros Morne, Streets -
The Dark Emperor threw his arms to the side and a black aura engulfed him, as well as the three weapons rotating around his body. The weapons-- sword, spear, and dagger-- rushed to meet the attackers' as if they were wielded by invisible men. A furious high-speed battle broke out.
"Haaaaaa!!!!" Ven dashed madly in, his half-sword glowing a bright white. With a slash he managed to nick the black cape of his adversary before dodging the floating sword that nearly took off his head.
Renard nodded at Jacobie. "Right." The Velken zipped skyward, then spread his claws before him, a circle of crimson lines appearing in the air. After a moment, crackling fireballs began to rain down on Retan. He knew they were weak, but blast it, every little bit helped...
During the chaos, Retan turned his head to the side to launch an enormous swirling mass of darkness at Rink. When he turned his head back, he got a face full of the Iduran.
Duilin's blade slashed him diagonally across the face with a reverbing clang. It was if time stopped. He staggered back a few steps, his eyes shut...
The black helmet obviously absorbed the impact. But the weapon still scarred the metal-- a huge gouge carved from the upper right to lower left... When he opened his crimson eyes, they screamed murder...
"How dare you..."
His aura exploded, a violent blast of blackness forceful enough to send all flying back. Ven tumbled on the ground, rolling a few times and covering his head.
Only Renard continued his attack... a relentless barrage of fireballs that dissipated into nothing against the Dark Emperor's power...
Retan's burning eyes shifted, falling upon the Velken. He floated some five feet above the ground, the fox's eyes filled with a familiar cold determination...
Suddenly Renard froze and his tail-fur frazzled... he couldn't move at all! His determination melted as he looked into the crimson eyes, feeling the effects of the paralysis spell all too late to do anything about it...
The Dark Emperor extended a gauntleted hand, a swelling mass of shadow crackling upon his fingertips... "One by one, you all fall..."
With that, Renard stared death in the face...
"Nooooo!!"
In a mad rush, Ven leapt and plucked the Velken out of the air, the Shade spell slamming into his back. He screamed as he fell to the ground, shielding the fox from the attack.
Renard couldn't believe it... the very man who tried to kill him. The man whose king he helped kill...
Ven merely smiled weakly before passing out. Renard, lying on his back, had no time for words as he noticed something else... Something very bright in the sky...
----
- Gros Morne Citadel, top -
Vincent began to sweat.
He was seriously going to use it?
Right here?
So close?!?!
Well, he was absolutely sure he calibrated it correctly... Mostly sure, at least...
He let the air out of he collar and blinked a few times...
Fairly sure...
Kronos had his back to him, looking out of the the ruins of the city. Vincent slowly took a few steps in reverse, then carefully opened the door leading back into the citadel interior. Once he was through, he quietly shut it, then ran like mad down the stairs.
-
- Gros Morne, Streets -
"Whoa---" Duilin flew back several yards in the air, but was able regain his balance, blasting his light golden aura around himself, and lowered himself onto the ground.
Rink and Lagart also flew back several yards and fell on their backs and slid on the ground but were both able to get back up on their feet, with only a few bumps and scratches.
Duilin then witnessed Ven get hit, protecting Renard. He watched the knight fall to the ground and pass out. "Ven!!" He started to run to his aid, but Rink stopped him.
"He'll be fine Duilin, focus on the task at hand..." Rink said in his deepened voice. The High Imp then looked back at Retan. "...Which is destroying Retan!"
"Alright." Duilin said in agreement. Yet he still had still had some worry for his friend and he seemed a little surprised at how battle hungry Rink was, it was more than likely that demon juice talking however.
The super human, the lizard man and the high imp spread themselves apart.
"I got an idea..." Rink snickered and then disappeared in a small explosion of smoke.
Duilin got the idea and then flew towards Retan at the front and then stabbed his sword straight forward.
Rink then reappeared behind the draken, laughing mischievously as he smashed his mace at his back.
-
- Gros Morne, streets -
"What's happening to me...? I can feel a weird sensation... I... I can't see anything! Where is everyone!?" Ben's own power began to thicken around him to such an extent that his magic began to solidify and materialize.
(Angelic Lord Form 45%)
"YOU BASTARD!!!" Jacobie flew into a raging fury at seeing Ven pass out after Retan's shadow attack. The Lizardman leapt towards Retan with great speed and intensity. He thrust his blade forward in mid jump, sending his momentum forwards even faster.
------------
-
- Gros Morne, Streets -
With a flick of the wrist, the Dark Emperor produced a black sword handle from within his cape. A bright red beam burst from the blade-less hilt, forming a burning scimitar-like weapon.
He sliced the air, smacking Duilin's weapon away with a crack and an explosion. At the same time the flying spear rushed to protect his back from the giant imp, while the floating sword blocked Jacobie's blow.
He twisted his crimson blade and stabbed it into the ground, tearing it apart as the resulting earthquake dislodged whatever few structures were remaining in the vicinity.
Renard struggled to get up. The unconscious knight's arm was over him, and the armored human was very heavy... He finally squirmed free, though he immediately fell over due to the tremors from the earthquake.
Chaos lay before him. Everyone was attacking Retan, and that frightening monster was holding his own with floating weapons and terrifying streams of black magic... This was insane... He wondered if he should run away.
No... he was no coward. He looked down at Ven, who just saved his life. A stray bolt of Dark Thunder whizzed by, knocking him over again as it tore a crater into the ground just a few feet away... Ven was in trouble lying this close to the battle...
He grabbed the knight's arm. "Come on..." He said through clenched teeth, trying to be careful not to dig his claws into the human's skin. He folded his ears and pulled with all his might. Blast, this man was heavy...
He put his levitation ability to it and tried again, lifting up off the ground a few inches as he struggled. At last Ven began to move, his armor scrapping across the cobblestone street as the Velken slowly but surely pulled him to safety.
-
- Gros Morne, Streets -
Duilin quickly pushed his left hand towards the explosion and fought it back by shooting a glowing sheet of light energy with shielded him from the flames.
Rink stepped backwards when his attack was stopped by the floating spear. "These weapons are going to start pissing me off." The imp sneered. "Where's Haraldur when you need him!?"
The imp then shot flame through the Talonscar Mace, much like Duilin does, and gave a full forced smash at the spear.
Duilin and Rink then started to loose there balance as Retan created an earthquake with his crimson blade. Duilin started to fall backwards and was getting further away from the foe. He regained his balance and then pointed his right hand at Retan and shot a trio of smooth glowing orange-yellow comets of plasma energy.
Meanwhile, Lagart made a mad rush forward with his sword above his head. The large reptile dove himself forward putting his massive weight into a mighty slash down at the Dark Emperor...
-
//Need to post more. Bleh...
- Gros Morne, Streets -
Ko'ji raced to help Renard carry the human out of the battlefield. With the two of them working on it, they were able to pull him out of danger. When at last the human was at a safe enough distance away from Retan, or so they thought, Ko'ji helped Renard place him on the ground. Without warning, the Velken girl threw herself into Renard's arms and began to cry.
"I'm so afraid! I can't do anything to help! I'm too weak; I don't know what to do! Please, you have to help me, Renard! I'm so afraid..." The area around Ko'ji's eyes became damp and wet as she cried.
"Please... I don't know what to do..."
-
- Gros Morne, Streets -
Holy crap... Renard nervously held Riuki up after she collapsed in his arms. He thought he was afraid... but she was totally freaked out!
"Riuki! ... Riuki!" He shook her gently. He couldn't believe it. She was so much stronger than him, but the madness of battle had finally gotten to her. "Snap out of it! We need to help the others, okay?"
He looked her in the eye. "I'm going to cast an enhancement spell on your sword, and I need you to go straight in without looking back. Can you do this? Don't worry, I'll be right there with you... I promise."
-
- Gros Morne -
The skies were really turbulent now - hot vapour was everywhere, decreasing one's vision to no more than a few metres in front of oneself.
Through this mist, a dark figure approached Retan...
-"Generous as you may be, Emperor, the Sovereign does not approve of your being here. Ten minutes ago, a mutual cease-fire would have sufficed... Unfortunately, too much damage has been dealt now. We will have no choice but to retaliate."
The figure's features cleared up some as it got closer to the Emperor, revealing itself to be Roland - in one piece and good health....
-
- Gros Morne -
"Oh Renard... you promise to be with me...? Okay. I can do this." Ko'ji Heald her blade out for Renard to enchant it. Once he was done, the vixen blazed past the others, only keeping her eye on Retan. She flung her scimitar forwards and pointed it at Retan.
*If not for all of Welkin...* she told herself, *for Renard...*
-
- Gros Morne -
Retan crossed his arms before him as Duilin's blast struck them with full force. Largart's blade slammed into his gauntlets at the same time, chipping off some of the onyx black metal along with a series of sparks. He thrust his hand into the lizard's face, but his head-explosion spell was interrupted by Riuki's presence to his right.
He angled his head just enough to see the circles of light forming around her blade as she pointed it at him. A bright blue flash burst from her sword and spiraled towards his prone chest. Renard appeared by Riuki's side, claws extended and guiding the spell.
With a brilliant cerulean explosion, the Dark Emperor staggered backwards a few steps. But did not go down...
Renard floated between Riuki and Duilin, his mouth gaping. "He won't die... he just won't die..."
His tongue lolled out of his mouth and he started panting... And why was it so hot...? He squinted to see through the mist. Who was casting this spell?
The Dark Emperor righted himself, standing up straight with his arms to his sides, the crimson blade still burning brightly.
"I tire of this."
He clenched his free fist, and a deep rumbling permeated the skeletal remains of the city. The bright light faded slowly as a darkness emanated from his body and spread outward... The effects of his aura negated the heat and produced a bone-chilling cold that spread further from his being with each passing moment. His eye's burned hatred, and his body burst in a deep black flame that distorted and destroyed all light around it.
Obviously he was too busy to pay the lone undead any mind, and likely didn't even hear him due to the intense fighting. The sword with the red gem in the hilt, which was flying around like a buzzsaw, changed course and went for Roland's head...
----
- Dark Continent -
The land was literally flying apart.
Anselm clutched the sheathed Wind Serpent tightly as he shut his eyes and folded his ears. The sand blowing around stung even through his fur.
"What is going on?!" he screamed through the wailing winds.
"That tower was the focal point of an energy nexus!" Gaston yelled back. All the Velkens were huddled together in a sandstorm of flying rocks and debris.
Anselm opened his eyes to give the Battle Mage a blank stare, obviously not having a clue what that meant.
"Big boom, Anselm," Helix yelled into his ear. "It means big boom."
"Shut up, Helix."
"Where is Lord Virmir? He didn't just--"
"No time! Let's MOVE!"
All holding onto each other, they attempted to fly a few hundred feet, narrowly avoiding a falling rock the size of a whale. Crimson lightning crackled all around, and it seemed a massive vortex of dark clouds swirled above where the Tower of Heaven's Bane stood a moment ago. They were forced to land by another burst of intense winds.
A shadow suddenly flew overhead, and a dark shape fell in front of them.
"Get in!"
It was a small airship. The voice was vaguely familiar, so he dashed forward, gritting his teeth as a small flying rock just missed his head and dented the side of the ship with a resounding clang.
-
- Gros Morne -
"This guy really knows how to piss me off!" Jacobie placed his katana over his shoulder and slashed down then up in a curve like motion. The resulting attack was a shockwave of fire energy headed straight for Retan.
"I'm starting to regain control... I feel more intunre with my powers..." The light blue glow solidified more densly and created a more human-looking shape, with two feathery wings on the back. Ben's face was also taking shape again in the blue mist that was his essence.
(Angelic Lord Form 70%)
------------
-
- Dark Continent -
Anselm didn't open his eyes until he made it inside the cramped airship. He smiled when he did so, for several Velkens from Welkin were inside.
"Are you all right?" One said, extending his hand to help him up the stairs. It was the black-eared Sir Rikarl, a respected squad leader and former student of Lord Virmir.
"Quite all right... thank you."
Anselm stepped aside to let the rest of the squad in, and had to hold on the railing on the walls, the vibration was so bad when they took off. At least inside here they were protected from the stinging sand that storm the vortex or whatever was blowing around.
He looked at the jeweled pommel of the Wind Serpent in his hands and sighed. "Lord Virmir... I don't think he--"
"Don't think what?"
His ears perked. On the other side of the crowded ship, Virmir stood with his arms folded, leaning against the wall with his arms folded. The cold stare in his eyes was gone, replaced with a smirk across him muzzle.
"You did well," he said, as he walked towards Anslem. The smiled disappeared suddenly and he extended his hand. "Now give me back my sword."
Anslem's ears fell back. "Y-yes sir."
A series of chuckles rang out through the crowd.
-
- Gros Morne -
Jacobie's blast of flame fizzled away in the Dark Emperor's aura, as if the very light were stolen from it. Retan's form grew, the black plates of his armor fusing to dark scales, the horns upon his helmet extending outward. Four sprawling wings, razor-sharp claws, and a thick tail... His eyes burned a crimson brighter than the sun. The black-burning dragon opened his maw, billowing smoke through his jagged, yet perfect teeth. His voice was a rumble that stirred the bones.
"The end is nigh."
-
- Gros Morne -
Duilin, Rink and Lagart stood back in awe with their jaws dropped as the witnessed the transformation of Retan...
"He...changed." Lagart stated.
Duilin sighed. "Great..."
"Rink." Lagart said to the imp.
"What?" The imp said back.
"Give me demon potion." He requested.
"You...sure?" Rink asked.
Lagart nodded.
The high imp then picked up the vial which was still on the ground, he handed it to the lizard man.
"Lagart." Duilin said, putting his hand on the lizard man's arm. "You need to be careful with this. Rink can handle the mind effects, but he's already a demon. You're not so it will be harmful to you."
"Retan is in dragon form!" Lagart stated. "I need to do this if we are going to defeat him!"
"But this could be REALLY dangerous. You don't have any way too combat the demonic effects and you'll loose control, and you might even attack us. And look at you, you're a friggn' beast as it is."
"Rink said it only temporary!" Lagart replied. "I can't stand here and let Retan kill everyone."
"We'll be okay, you don't need to anything." Duilin tried to grab the demon potion from Lagart, but the lizard man tugged his arm away, out of his reach.
"Lagart!"
"Guys! We don't have time for this!" Rink snapped. "Just let the lizard drink the potion!"
Duilin took a deep breath. "Just think about it, Lagart."
He then held the Iduran in a battle ready stance, and white flame plumed around the blade and was then surrounded in a golden aura and flew off towards the black-burning dragon.
Rink followed, and enchanted the Talonscar Mace with fire magic.
"Hey Retan!!" Rink shouted, trying to get his attention. "Catch!" He then pointed the mace forward and shot a large fire-rocket at the dragon.
Meanwhile Duilin hovered over the opposite side of Retan and then slashed his sword several times in the air, shooting blades of sacred fire...
-
"Trying to think of the ultimate one-liner to throw down at the light-absorbing Retan and the army below, I instead took out my M-Grid orb and dialled The Enlightenment, specifically, the Hammer's control centre.
-"Sovereign! The Hammer is fully armed and powered! If we wait any longer, it will melt!!"
Somebody else interjected over the M-Grid orb:
-"Also, our brilliant scientific minds slightly underestimated Sol's power, Sovereign. The beam is expected to last as long as thirty seconds, and the surface temperature will soar seven times above what our calculations. You'd best get inside the Citadel to avoid accidental burns."
-"I see," I muttered, heading toward the sealed door. "The final word, I suppose... Fire."
---
Whatever was left of the clouds simply vanished as the pillar of light came down. Those who didn't die of the initial heat shock slowly melted into an unrecognizable puddle, the latter evaporating momentarily. The ice below Gros Morne quickly ceased to exist as the divine beam drilled through the frozen mass. The city had a huge, gaping hole smack in the middle of it in a matter of five seconds.
However, that wasn't enough, it seems. The shining tower was still only gaining energy as it began to slowly creep down the middle of the city, literally splitting the land in half. The vast amounts of vapour rising into the atmosphere gave birth to atmospheric super cells, creating two massive hurricanes on either side of Gros Morne. The Hammer's beam continued to advance, accelerating as it went - right onto the diminutive silhouette of the Dark Emperor...
-
- Gros Morne -
Velkens tended to express their animalistic instincts better than humans. Renard was a prime example of his race. When everything went bright white, he only knew one thought. One primal emotion.
Run!!
Tail between his legs, he turned and grabbed Riuki by her collar, then zipped out of there with ungainly Velken speed. On his way past, he nabbed Ven's hand and dragged him through the sky with strength he did not know he had. (Or perhaps Riuki was merely helping him.)
Everything around him burned as he succumbed to the raw primal fear that made him flee. He shut his eyes and clenched his teeth and just went straight the fiery air. He didn't know how long or how far he ran. He just ran.
Eventually rational thought returned to him and he opened his eyes. The fire was gone, and a cool ocean mist blew in his face. The knight was far too heavy, and he slipped out of his claws, falling onto some flotsam in the ocean. A piece of a building, perhaps? He fell down by the human's side, utterly exhausted.
He tried to comprehend the image of the mushroom cloud far in the distance through blurry eyes. In the distance he could hear the cry of seagulls as the floated atop the wreckage in the middle of nowhere.
What had happened...?
"Duilin..."
Tears began to streak down his face, and panic rose in his voice. "Duilin~!"
----
"Insects."
The Dark Emperor snarled, extending his claws at the lowly forms trying to engage him. Blackness crackled around his body, and orbs of shadow swirled around. He opened his mouth to obliterate them all...
And then the heavens opened and light engulfed all.
Direct hit.
He had no reaction to the blast. He was simply gone, amongst the massive incinerating fireball. The three weapons he held flew skyward as the city exploded, taking an aura of bright white and scattering to the far ends of the globe.
Meanwhile the beam cut deep into the planet like a surgeon's knife, the resulting storms and tidal waves heading for the continents to the south...
Gaian groaned.
(Chapter ends in 5 days.)
-
//Here we go. I think I'm finally able to get back into the swing now.\
The wind howled outside, sending temperatures well below freezing.
“So much for going anywhere now,” Alex said. “We’re snowed in. To leave now isn’t smart. Once the blizzard lets up then we can move out.”
“Very well,” Midna said, reclining on thin air. “You know, we’ve always been so busy to really talk, with all the conflicts between the Kandarinians and the Twili. Why not tell me a little about yourself?”
“Probably because there’s so much to say,” Alex said. “Lemme start from the beginning. I don’t remember much about my childhood, but I do know I never met my parents. Caulus was the closest thing I had to a father.”
“He was a mage,” Midna responded. “I’m sure he wanted you to apprentice under him.”
“That’s pretty much the gist of it, but I never took too much of an interest in magic. I always wanted to fight for myself. I wanted to be a soldier.”
“And what did he think?”
“Despite respecting my decision, he insisted I learned at least a little about the magic arts. As the years passed, his physical condition worsened. He was edging close on being a hundred years old. He died when I was about seventeen.”
“That must’ve been hard,” Midna said.
“It was, for a while. Since Caulus had passed on, I didn’t know what to do with my life. I wandered around for a few years, trying out various things to get by, until one day, I was sitting in a bar, minding my own business. A big tough guy comes up to me and tells me he doesn’t like me. I told him I was sorry, and that there was nothing I could do about it.”
“So what did he say?”
“Nothing. He drew a pistol and told me I had three seconds to leave before he blew my brains out.”
“What did you do?”
“I did what I had to do. I drew my sword and cut his hand off. Then I took the pistol and shot him square between the eyes.”
“You killed him?”
“He was threatening me, I couldn’t do anything else.”
“What next?”
“Some of the other guys in the bar noticed what happened, and told me he was one of the most notorious bounty hunters on the continent. It took balls to do what I did. It was then and there that I knew what I wanted to do with life. I obviously wasn’t afraid of death, so I became a mercenary.”
“Judging from what I see around your house, it looks like you were good at your job.”
“You could say that. Full frontal assaults, recon and sabotage, assassinations, you name it, I’ve done it.”
“So you just hired yourself out? You didn’t support any faction?”
“Not really. At that point all I cared about was getting paid. Often times, as soon as I finished work for one group, I was hired by their enemy, and I destroyed what I had done for the other side. To keep from being found out by either side, I changed my identity a lot.”
“You’ve had an extensive run. Any jobs that stand out in particular?”
“There was one job, where I had been hired to protect a diplomat. What an ass.”
“You didn’t like him?”
“I tried to avoid him as much as I could while still doing my job, which wasn’t too often. He was paranoid as hell that someone was out to get him, probably someone I knew, and he would never leave his house without me escorting him.”
“What happened to him?”
“Some of the other mercs who were out of a job at the time saw this as an opportunity. Fortunately for me, this guy paid in advance for my protection, and I decided to turn a blind eye to his untimely demise. As soon as questions of his death came up, I disappeared.”
“You deliberately let him die?”
“If you had seen this guy, you would too. He wouldn’t get out of bed without knowing I was there to protect him.”
“Whatever works, I suppose.”
“Hey, I didn’t say it was the job I was most proud of.”
“So what made you decide to quit?”
“After a few years the war conflicts died down, and a lot of the other mercs were out of a job. I decided to settle down here in Glacia, safe from anyone who might have questions for me. This place is so remote, that nobody knew I lived here.”
“Truly a fascinating life story,” Midna said. She looked out the window. The snowstorm had died down from whiteout to flurries now. “We should get going. The capital’s not going to destroy itself.”
-
- Gros Morne -
Duilin saw the dragon open his mouth, completely oblivious to the giant beam of light coming down, he pointed the Iduran at the inside of it's mouth, ready to shove his blade into the inside of the beast...
Rink looked up, noticing what was going on and then disappeared in a plume of smoke...
And then everything stopped, and there was a dead silence.
---
Lagart ran away as fast as he could from the blasting beam of light, he jumped and dived for cover. He dropped the vial of liquid and it rolled off out of his sight.
The lizard man shielded himself, dust and heat brushed against him. He could feel the burn on his clothing and his skin. He hopped it would heal, he doesn't like skin burns.
He looked up and saw the Velkens and Ven were safe. But what about Duilin and Rink? He was still too afraid to get up.
---
That light, the blinding light. What just happened? It looked like the gods just stomped down, and crushed Retan. I could have done it myself, why couldn't I?
Did I just get killed? Did I just allow myself to be killed, for nothing? After all that determination, after everything I put in. Some huge beam of light just rips him apart, and I was too close to get away.
What about Rink? He was pretty close too. Is Rink okay? I don't even know if I'm okay and here I am worring about Rink.
I love that guy, I really do. He's done so much for me. I don't know what I'd do without him.
I hope I'm going to be okay. Bell, loves me so much, I barely even know why, but I can't die happy knowing she'll be stricken with such greif. And not just Bell, but everyone. Rink, Ven, Renard I'll bet even Ben will be pretty upset. I haven't known a lot of them for very long, but I love them all so much...
---
Bell was running from the ship, into the destroyed Gros Morne streets. Her face was drenched in tears. She hear Renard cry out Duilin's name, and she assumed the worse.
"Duilin!!"
Lagart got up on his feet and limped towards Renard and Bell, but nearly fell on his face after a few steps.
"Where is he?"
Lagart looked back, at the huge burning crater, which looked like it had completely nothing left alive in it. He looked really worried as he turned back at Bell. "I..uh...don't think he..."
Bell then held the giant lizard man in a huge and started crying. "No..."
Lagart gently patted her on the head. "It be okay." He held out his other arm, inviting the Velken for some comfort, who looked grief stricken.
-
- Gros Morne Ruins -
"Duilin!"
Renard raced through the air, back towards the city, or rather where he thought it once was. There was nothing left. Even the thick layers of ice the capital was built upon was blasted away, leaving a smooth sheen that grew steeper and steeper towards the impact point. He recognized the human woman Bell and the Lizard Man Lagart consoling each other, and he absolutely knew the worst had happened.
Or had it? Had Duilin just sacrificed himself to destroy Retan? Or was that light something else? Was there any other way he could possibly had been defeated? He floated there for a moment, a myriad of questions racing through his mind. One thing he was sure of, and that was the sick feeling in his stomach.
Victory shouldn't have felt this awful.
He landed next to the two and turned at the rumbling sound behind him. Perking his ears towards the distance, he spotted a small black airship headed their way. Panic filled his heart for a moment, as he tried to discern who was aboard the ship by feeling their auras. But he could not. It was as if the very polarity of Gaian had been disturbed by the blast so greatly that the normally readable stream of energies had turned into a violent confusing waterfall...
-
/Sorry I'm having trouble keeping up. Work is hell right now.
- Gros Morne, rubble -
"Damn it all. I was able to deflect the blast from myself, but now I'm powerless." Ben fell to his feet. His color returned to normal, except that the demon side of him was gone, along with his wings. He heard the other's grieve for Duilin, then looked back at the battlefield... or where it once stood.
"Rest easy, Duilin. My the gods find you worthy of a better place than Gaian." A few small tears trickled down Ben's face. He limped over to the others. His head was severely messed up with all of the energy that surrounded the destroyed Gros Morne. It was as if it blocked his senses; and apparently all the others' senses as well.
"He's in a better place, Bell." Jacobie appeared under a pile of rubble near by. The entire city was utterly lost to the power of the divines. But was Retan really defeated?
"I'm going to return to my love and get outta here. Good luck, guys." Jacobie headed for the airship. In some of his time working with the empire, he'd been around a few people who worked in the skyward division. Hopefully, he'd be able to pilot the ship back to where ever they wanted.
// Jacobie is now inactive.
-
- Gros Morne -
"Don't say that Ben!" Bell cried. "He's not gone! He can't be gone!"
Lagart patted her on the head, as Bell still hugged him, not saying a word.
Bell opened her eyes, and noticed something; it looked like a cyclone of smoke swirling together. She let go of Lagart and stepped towards it. The lizard man turned to see what it was.
The smoke then started to take a familiar shape. Swirling together, faster and faster. Then finally there stood Rink, still in his high imp form, holding Duilin's motionless body, in his 'half-way' form.
"Duilin~!!"
Rink then put Duilin on the ground and then nearly passed out, falling to his knees and then rested his head on the ground next to Duilin's body. He then shrunk back to his normal form, and opened his eyes, and started breathing deeply.
"Rink..." Bell said to the imp, almost smiling.
"I used my teleportation spell..." Rink said gasping after speaking the words. "But...it was distorted by that beam."
Bell went down to Duilin's body and held it. His skin was mostly burnt on his right side; his right wing seemed to be fine, likely because he got harmed in his human form. "Duilin...please don't die..."
"It might not be too late to save him..." Rink assured. "...He was able to regenerate most of the damage he got in that millisecond before I grabbed him when teleporting..." Rink coughed a few times.
"Will you be okay?" Bell asked, not wanting to sound like he was ignoring him.
"I'll be fine, don't worry about me." Rink closed his eyes and took a deep breath and then opened his eyes again and looked at the others. "But you need to do something quickly. I'm not sure any basic healing spells or potions will work. But he still has some life left in him. We've just got to spark it back up before we loose him..."
-
- Gros Morne Ruins -
"Spark it back up?" Renard looked perplexed. He scratched the back of his head. "How do you suppose we do that?"
"By giving him some of our own energy." Ven snapped from behind. Somehow he had stumbled all the way back to the ruins, looking like he was going to fall over any minute. Hunched over, he tripped and the Velken rushed to catch him.
-
- Gros Morne -
"I feel so weary... Ugh, my head." Ko'ji stumbled around a couple of times like a drunkard. She then regained some of her balance and focus, and was able to steadily hold herself still.
"I can give him some energy," she then mentioned after Rink spoke, "I've not much left to give, but whatever I have, I shall." Ko'ji then knelt down by Bell and placed a hand on Duilin's chest. Energy could be seen in all colors as it left her body and entered his.
"I might pass out... but I'll be ok... I just need a place to rest." It was as she'd said. Ko'ji became a lifeless mass and fell on her back. Her breathing was steady though. She was merely knocked out.
-
- Gros Morne Ruins -
"Like I'd kill myself... Honestly. I've faced tough times in life, but I've never even thought of... Bah, who am I kidding. Life has not yet offered a challenge difficult enough for me to even become seriously worried.
I bet the whole lot of them, whoever is still down there, think they've gotten rid of me. Well, they should just keep at it, then."
---
It was unusually bright in the Arctic Region. Even the charred rift in the middle, created by the Sovereign's Hammer, was shining with droplets of water. The clouds retreated far away from the impact site, creating an enormous circle of azure blue sky above where Gros Morne used to be.
Just as it seemed that the tortured land found peace at last, the earth shook again. A terrible sound, similar to that of groaning metal, spilt outwards from the chasm. The triangular shadow engulfed the land, as the Citadel rose above the ground, its earth-binding chains severed from its sides. Once elevated to a certain level, the structure began floating away - somewhere to the North-North-West - while filling the air with the humming of massive flotation crystals and the dull scraping of stone bricks.
//End chapter for me.\
-
- Gros Morne Ruins -
"Heh, it appears he's alive after all..." Ben walked towards Duilin and held a hand out above him. His hand glowed a faint white and an orb shot out from his body. The orb floated down to Duilin and gently entered his body.
"That's all the energy I have left... all that I can spare, in any case."
------------
-
Okay, what's up with all this light? First I was blinded by this huge bright white light and then everything went dark.
Then there was nothing. I think I actually saw nothing. I can't remember it.
But yeah, now there are these colours all over the place? A bunch of colours, all sorts of colours and then some more white.
God, I really hope everyone is okay...
--- ---
- Gros Morne -
Duilin's fingers started to twitch and there was some slow breathing, but he was still unconscious and needed just a bit more energy.
"It's working!" Bell cried.
"We're almost done..." Rink said. "Just a little more..."
Rink placed his hand on Duilin's chest.
"Ven...Renard..." He said weakly to the two standing above him.
-
------------
"Sir, shouldn't we take a ship back to Ariosis? I'm getting rather bored with Tjed. I miss my family."
"Quit whining. You don't think I miss my family, too?"
"I know you do sir, that's why we need to go back! King Henri is dead now, what kind of negotiations could you possibly make with Tjed?"
"I want Tjed to become a part of the empire. We will not have full control over them, but we will be able to command their army in a time of need, as well as force trade. Not quite force trade prices, but trade none-the-less."
"Ah. You plan to destroy the Dark Empire?"
"Indeed I do. With all of our senses fucked up like this, I don't see how conquering a few kingdoms or soverignties without harm could do us any real damage. I need as many people to join the Ario Empire as I possibly can!"
"But sir, wouldn't it be a better idea to use force?"
"The one means that wins the easiest victory over reason may very well be terror and force, but that is not our way. I though I told you this already!"
"Yes, sir, but what of the elves in the forrest? If you cannot even control your own forrest, how can you control islands separated by sea?"
"I do control Nurngar. Let's just say the elf king was... put out of comission."
"You... killed him?"
"Oh heavens, no. I merely persuaded him to let go of his post as king and join the empire. For some reason, he eagerly obliged. Perhapse his rule was wearing him out. You do know that he is five hundred years old, correct?"
"Yes, sir. The elves are immortal, but may still be killed."
"Actually, no. No elf has lived longer than the king. They are not immortal, they just live more than six times longer than humans. He's at the end of his rope, actually."
"You mean... he's going to die anyways?"
"Yes. He has lived quite a very long life, you know. It will be an even longer one should he accept the offer made to him by the Gaian Republic."
"Wait a second, what's the Gaian Republic?"
"It is the name of the Union I've started. While Dranniville may be a part of the empire, the forrests of Nurngar aren't a full part of the empire. The king's son is a minister in the Gaian Republic. If I can get the Tjedian King's heir to become a minister, then Tjed will not be a part of the empire, but a part of the Republic."
"Hmm... sounds crazy enough to work. What about any other places? I know there has to be another area besides Tjed with free people!"
"Yes, in the Arctic region. There are three more kingdoms set up there, actually. One is ruled by a mad liche, another is ruled by an immortal vampire, and the third is ruled by my brother. The names of the kingdoms are Vos, Tel Vos, and Kandarin. Vos should be easy enough, I merely need go there and ask my brother to be a minister. Tel Vos may be a bit harder, but hopefully, I'll be able to pull through. Kandarin will be the most difficult yet."
"How are we going to pull this off without a ship!?"
"You are wrong, my friend. I've had the citizens of this port start building already. I've also got the crystals of lordship. I merely need give a minister one of these and he will be able to control a part of the crystal cave. If they just so happen to need more crystals, they just cast a spell on the crystal and it will duplicate. However, the crystals will respond to me over them. They must ask me first. When I allow it, they will seem more rich than ever."
"All this time you were using enchantments? So these crystals are fake? That sure explains a lot, but what of the duplicate crystals? Do they respond to magic?"
"No, only the original pieces from the crystal caves will respond. That is why I shal give the ministers a piece of the true crystal."
"How will we get Tjed to join the Republic?"
"I haven't the slightest clue, but don't worry. Ven will be back soon. I'll just ask him. The ministers don't all have to be leaders. I'm going to ask a few other fellows as well. Virmir is among them, along with Valimore, Kronos, Seymore, Duilin, Lagart, Jacobie, Galery, and the list continues."
"Who are all those people?"
"Valimore leads Tel Vos, whilst my brother, Seymore, leads Vos. They have an alliance, so it will be an easy cross if I just go into Vos first, then cross over to Tel Vos. Kronos is the Soverign of Kandarin, and the rest are all extremely skilled. We may as well get started. The ship is completed. Gather the Elite."
"Yes sir!"
------------
-
- Gros Morne Ruins -
Renard put his hand on Duilin's chest and Ven followed suit, putting his hand over the fox's.
They were interrupted by a rumbling sound, and the looming shadow of a black airship hovered over them. Ten blurring figures dove down from the open hatch and surrounded the group.
"Renard, if you would lead us in casting an energy transfer circle."
Renard's eyes widened at Virmir's voice, but there was too little time to be surprised. He hovered a few inches above the ground as Helix and the other Battle mages formed a circle around Duilin's body. A bright white star formed in the air, their claws connected by glowing lines. Virmir, Anslem, and the other Blade Knights put their hands into the ethereal shape floating above the half demon. Bryce took Ven's arm and showed him how to donate some of his own power through the circle.
After a moment of bright flashes and sparkly lights, the spell faded and Renard anxiously hovered over Duilin's body.
"He will be fine. Give him a moment," Virmir said, placing a claw upon Renard's shoulder. The former High General of the Dark Empire turned and placed his hands behind his back, staring to the south.
"Our work here is done."
Renard's ears drooped. "Welkin... Our home... it's gone, isn't it?"
Virmir nodded.
Helix and Anselm gently lifted the unconscious Riuki off the ground.
Renard sighed. "Where will we go now?"
"No way the humans will ever accept us..." Helix interjected.
"Or most other races, for that matter." Anselm said solemnly. "Our will or not, we've destroyed a great many lives in this world...."
Virmir folded his arms, his tail slowly snaking behind him. "We will live out of the humans' way. Our paths need not cross ever again." He pointed to the south. "The fire mage Draven had a floating island. Similar to the ones back home. It is uninhabited as far as we know. We will build our new home there."
-
- Gros Morne Ruins -
Duilin's eyes started to slowly twitch, until they finally opened.
"Wha...what happened?" Duilin asked.
"Duilin!" Bell cried in joy and hugged him.
"Whoa." Duilin laughed. "What happened? Did we beat him?"
"Sort of." Rink replied getting up and looking in the sky. "Something, I don't know what it was. But something killed Retan."
"So, we risked ourselves for nothing?" Duilin asked, sounding a little upset.
"Well, I wouldn't say so." Rink assured, looking at the group. "Retan would have likely detected that beam and flew off, if we weren't there to divert his attention."
"Yeah...I guess so." Duilin grinned and then sat up. "Ooo..." He then rubbed his shoulder.
"What's wrong?" Bell asked in concern.
"Nothing, I just need to lay down." Duilin did so, and took a deep breath. "Well...I'm glad everyone's okay. So what happened? Like, to me?"
"You were almost burnt up by that beam." Rink explained. "But I was able to teleport us both out, before it did too much damage. Yet, there was part of a split second where you were exposed to the beam. We almost lost you." Rink then motioned to everyone. "But all of us gave you an energy transfer."
"Well, thank you. All of you." Duilin smiled. "So, what are you guys going to do now?" He asked the Velkens.
Virmir then explained they would make their home in Draven's old castle. Apparently Draven must have been killed by Retan earlier.
Good riddance, Duilin supposed.
Duilin then got Bell and Lagart to help him up. He had his arms around both of them.
"Renard." He said his Velken friend. "I want you to know that I'm not angry at you for what you did. I understand why you and your friends wish to isolate yourselves because it's true that the others won't accept you. But I will, so if you ever need me to do anything in the future, I'll do my best to help."
---
Vandrin slowly and carefully walked through the ruins. It was amazing he just had to see the damage. Many other Kandarins who survived started to crowd around and pick up things.
"By the gods. This is...kinda cool." Vandrin smirked. Then something caught his eye, it was partially burried underneath some rubble. It appeared to be a vial of some sort.
He walked over towards it, and picked it up. It was a glass vial, surprisingly it wasn't fully broken, but it had some chips and cracks on it. It would likely need a new container. He looked at the contents inside. It was an eerie blood red liquid, he looked into it, there was definitely some sort of power inside this.
"Hmm." He looked at the vial a little longer, but then he spotted a crowd of people, he thought he recognized one or two of them. He felt a little uncomfortable. He pocketed the vial and then walked off.
--- ---
- Somewhere in the Dark Continent -
Valos had a shovel and was digging a hole in the ground.
"Lousy demons. Lousy drakens. Lousy everything." He rambled as he dug. "I hate them all. They're all after me. They'll never get me. None of them."
There was a rapid rustling sound, which quickly stopped as Valos looked up where he thought he heard the voice.
"What was that?" Valos asked himself.
"It was nothing, you're just being paranoid." He replied, to himself.
"Fuck off. I'm not paranoid. I've seen those demons. They actually ARE after me damnit."
"They don't care about you. Besides, you are half demon aren't you?"
"No, I'm not! My father was no demon. I have no father."
"Yes you do. Don't deny it."
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!! I HATE YOU!!!"
Valos then chucked his shovel several yards and then grabbed his head and then curled up in the ground. "They can't find me. They won't get me!"
"Well...if they really are coming for you. Why don't you just hunt them down? Kill them before they kill you?"
Valos stood up. "Yes...Yes!" He then climbed out of his hole and then clenched his fists and raised them high over his head. "YEEEAAEES!" He then broke into an insane laugher that echoed throughout the field...
--- ---
- Arctic Region -
A large black scaled wyvern was standing on a hunk of ice drinking the freezing cold water. It didn't seem to even notice the cold. The black scaled beast then lifted its head and then looked up in the air with it's piercing green glowing eyes. The wyvern then took off and flew into the sky...
A tall black robed man was watching the black wyvern and stared at it, as it flew off into the distance.
"Alright, break time's over." The robed man said. "Now let's find this boy the big daddy was talking about..." He then floated off towards the northwest...
--- ---
//A few minutes later...\
- Gros Morne Ruins -
"Well, that sure was educational." Duilin said, still laying on the ground. "I may have almost died and have very little muscle movement left, but I honestly never felt so alive."
"Really?" Bell asked, laying down next to him.
"I just faced Retan. I made that guy know that no matter how big he thinks he is, that people will always step up to him. I think he had a very unpleasant time before he died, and I'm glad to say it's all my fault." Duilin said half jokingly.
Rink, Lagart and Bell laughed.
"Yeah, but as I was laying there. When I thought I was dieing, I felt worried. Not because I was going to die, but well. Because I knew you guys would miss me. Especially you Bell. I couldn't die happy knowing that you'd be upset."
"That's sweet." Bell smiled. "I...I love you Duilin.
"I love you too." Duilin and Bell then kissed.
"Blah. Get a room!" Rink snapped.
The couple laughed. And then looked back up in the sky.
"I don't want to be a downer. But I still feel like we're not just done yet." Duilin said. "I'm not going to retire just yet. I think I'll at least be able to slow things down. Maybe get a nice place to live. Perhaps there might be a place for me as a General or something."
"You going to join Tjed?" Lagart asked.
"Maybe. I'm thinking we might need to start something new. Like maybe some sort of alliance. Like I'm sure there are some other good nations out there. If we can organize everything then maybe that'd prevent more wars breaking out, and massive takeovers."
"We definitely will have a lot of work to do then." Rink replied. "But hey, that's not such a bad idea." Rink looked up in the sky.
"Not such a bad idea at all..."
//teh end 4 me.\
-
- Gros Morne Ruins -
And thus the Velkens bowed to the group and left for bluer skies, but not before Renard promised he would see Duilin and the others again. The sun was bright and birds sang in the distance. All seemed well.
For now...
----
- Some random beach -
Hubert wiped the sweat from his brow. A storm seemed to be brewing to the north, so their trip would likely be cut short. He reckoned they had a bit of time left, though, so he cast his line out once more and watched the baited hook plop into the water.
"Hubert!" Karl cried from behind him. "Come look at 'dis!"
Sighing, he placed the rod down and waddled over to his fishing partner. "What is it, Karl?"
"I found a little kid! Was floatin' in the water down there! Poor lil' guy's half drowned..."
Hubert looked to where he was pointing, but there was nothing there.
"Funny..." Karl said, scratching his head. "He was 'ere a minute ago..."
A chill laced Hubert's bones, and he shuddered as the sunlight seemed to fade.
What.
Do.
You.
Fear?!?!
Hubert screamed like a little girl at the giant fanged fish that leapt out of the water and flew through the air, chasing him. For Karl, it was a long sea snake, with spindly barbs on its sides.
"Mmmm.... delicious..."
To be continued...
-
Chapter 16
- Ye Olde Taverne, South Kalvon, Southern Tjed -
Kelmarr wasn't having a good day...
It was bad enough the blasted humans kept staring at him, but the ale was bland and the creaky wooden chair didn't even have a tail-hole. Bunch of bigots, the lot of them.
He took another swig of the cheap drink and returned a few scowls from his dark corner. And they thought he stunk. Bunch of hairless monkeys never had a bath in their lives...
Of course, being the last warrior of the Skunkular, he was cursed to forever be alone, forever be regarded in disdain in this infernal world run by a bunch of tailless freaks. He thought his life sucked before the Dark Empire fell, but now he was a joke without a job. Running around doing petty tasks for morons who hated him for a few coppers or a night's rest.
He deserved better, blast it! A skunk-mage of his talents should be held in the highest respect. They should fear him! The mighty Kelmarr!
He took another swig, feeling the dizzying effects of the alcohol start to take place. The fat barkeep waddled over to him, a greasy pig of a human...
"Uh, sir... I'm gonna have to ask you to leave..."
"Why's that, huh?" Kelmarr slurred, baring his fangs. He stood and grabbed the man by the shirt. "It's 'cause I'm a skunk, ain't it? Ain't it?!" He shook him by the collar.
"Well..." He wouldn't look the skunk in the eye. "... some of the customers are complaining about the smell..."
Kelmarr folded his ears and growled. He pushed the man away. "Your ale sucks anyway." Told him. He should spray them and see how they like that smell. Bah, next time... He stumbled towards the door, uttering curses under his breath.
----
"I do say, Luciferairion, that this is, in fact, rather pleasant weather we are experiencing right now!"
"Quitely so, Beazlebubudel. And of course it is important to mention the weather to every single person you ever meet during conversation lulls, because, in fact, everyone in the entire world finds talking about the weather an exhilarating and interesting topic that they never tire of!"
"So very true!"
"And indeed, it was a good thing that excessively long essay by John Crocke, written on the cavernous tunnel walls--"
"-- of hell--"
"-- that happened to take the past three years to read--"
"--written in a rather large font on a particularly twisting passage, mind you--"
"-- also happened to lead outside here, where we can experience and enjoy the aforementioned pleasant weather!"
"That everyone finds such an interesting subject to talk about."
"Quitely so. Quitely so. You dropped your monocle."
"Oh, heavens! Thank you."
-
Three full years had passed. Aaron was still alive. He was quite amazed to be both a militant leader as well as a political leader. Sure, he ruled over the Empire in his kingdom, but all of that changed. There are now no Empires or kingdoms to speek of in this age except one... the Kandarinian Soverignity. The Gaian Federation brought together all the infant nations and petty territories to form one great alliance that would stand against Monarchy. It was Gaian's first sort of idea that somewhat resembled a Democracy, ruled by Conculars and Military Generals. They brought peace to the world. Only one thing really stands in their way. Kandarin.
Aaron scratched his cleanly-shaved chin as he sat in a wooden seat in a large room that resembled something of an underground building. A sort of meeting place with brick walls and red overhangs that stretched down the walls with a great big 'G' weaved in golden thread. This was the Federation's meeting place. There was a meeting place in every capital city of the former nations. They were constructed to be secret and hidden from enemy eyes. In the building was a great stone table and a large amount of wooden seats all lined across the table. A few of them were occupied with people, some Generals and some Consulars.
"Welcome, one and all, to the Gaian Federation Assembly," Aaron said after standing up from his char, "I suppose I should start us off since we are in my former Empire. Now that that's been said, I'd like to give the floor to my good friend, Consular Mjord." Aaron then sat back down in the comfortable wooden chair.
Ben stood. "Thank you, Consular Grey. I would like to bring up the matter of Kandarin. They do not seem to be so... Hospitible towards us. It seems as if they are claiming all territory lost by the Dark Empire. Now that the Empire is in shambles without its leader, who is to stop them?"
"The Kandarin are no match for our martial might and brute strength!" Jacobie entered the building, and with him was a small raiding party of roughly 50 lizardmen wearing black Empire armor. "My batallion is made up of powerful A-Class and S-Class lizardmen with outstanding potential in both magic and melee combat. Although there are so few of us, we will surely be a needed addition to the current forces."
Ben nodded. The army saluted in unison, then marched out. Jacobie remained and found himself a seat. Another girl was with him and she sat next to him. "Thank you, High General Jacobie. Well, that is something of a start to our defenses. What about some mages? We'll need more if we're going to stand up to those Necromancer-Cryomancer mages."
"Cryomancers?" the girl blurted, confusedly, "What are those?" Jacobie stood up for a breif moment. "If you'll let me take the floor for a few moments, Consular Mjord?" Again, Ben nodded. "Cryomancers are essencially Ice mages. That's it." Jacobie bowed and then sat down again.
"As I was saying before, we'll need to counter them. Either it's fight fire with fire, or in this case ice with ice, or we counter them with Pyromancers. It would be good to have a few holy warriors when the time comes where we must strike down the Liche king Kronos." Ben then threw the back of his cape behind his seat and sat back down.
At that moment, two beautiful Drannivolkan twins wearing blue mage robes entered the building and made a short bow together. "Consular Jacklyn Varrandel, here." The first one said. She walked further into the room and found herself a seat. "Consular Jelscyn Varrandel, here." The second one said. She walked into the room with her sister and seated herself next to her twin.
"If you would all allow me to take the floor for a bit." A tall man with spiked, cyan blue hair got up from his seat. He had tatoos all over his neck. They were black and appeared to be symbols from some sort of lost civilization... or perhapse just unknown. His eyes were red with an erie, cold stare. He wore dark purple robes with a red inside and black symbols on the outside; ones just like his tatoos. His expression was happy, but calm. There was more to it than that... somehow, beneath the calm and the joy, one could see the sinister Consular standing before them. "My countrymen have learned to adapt to their environment well and are quite 'cold' if you get my meaning. They are very good cryomancers, and know the art well. So either we fight fire with fire, or we just use them to find weakness. Not so much use as ask, perhapse?" The evil-looking consular seated himself back in his chair.
Aaron rose from his chair. "Thank you Consular Seymore. We would be honored for your countrymen to teach us their weaknesses, or if we choose to, have them join the current army of mages. I suppose that settles the matter with the Cryomancers, but what of the undead summoners... the necromancers. What are we to do about them?" Aaron sat back down, waiting for another Consular or General.
-
Three years since the sailor had rescued him from the dpths of the ocean and now...
Ashes. It had been many years since Akran had visited his homeland and now he realized why he procrastinated the journey for so long. This wasn’t home. This was a graveyard. The land was burned and scorned with numerous gaping wounds. The wind whistled through the dry branches and crumbling houses. This was a dead island.
A single tear ran down from Akran’s left eye as he remembered his family. His mother and father … and his brother. His brother! Kraaz was responsible for all of this destruction.
Akran quickly got serious. He flicked away the tear as it were a bothersome fly, turned around and cleared his throat.
“Boris.”
“Sir?” asked the man, stepping forward.
Take your men Northwest. I’ll travel south and we’ll meet back here by midday.”
Yes, sir,” Boris turned to a group of men. “You heard the Captain, let’s move out!”
As Boris’ men started to walk away, Akran stopped one of them.
“You.” The guy stopped. “You stay and guard the ship.”
The man stumbled around. He was drooling and had an eye patch on his right eye. His other eye was wondering around blood red.
“Huh?” the guy said, “I can’t hear no good ‘cause I cut m’ear off last summer. Whadda you just say?”
Akran shook his head and continued, “Okay, never mind. Just get out of here.”
As the retard swaggered away following Boris, Akran Turned to his own group of sailors. They were reliable bunch, about 7 in all. One of them coughed.
“Mr. Garrick,” Akran said addressing the man who coughed. He was a tall, lean man with a big bushy moustache. “Sorry to ask this of you, but stay and guard the ship for me aye? I need a good man to do the job.”
“Yes Captain. I’ll do my best sir.
“Great, let’s get moving.”
Akran motioned for the rest to follow him and they headed south.
A few minutes passed and Garrick stood there motionless and expressionless until a slow grin spread onto his face and he watched the Captain fade into the distance.
Suddenly, he whipped around and ran up the stairs onto the deck. He slowed his pace and walked briskly to the hatch, lifted it open and ducked through into the hold. In the corner of the room, there was a wooden box. Garrick smashed the corner of it with his fist and pulled out a small object and quickly put it into his pocket.
He made his way up the ladder and back onto the deck of the ship to see if anyone was coming back. The scorched landscape held no signs of life whatsoever. He smirked again and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small glass orb. It glowed red as he brought it close to his face. A voice, barely conceivable about the noise of the waves crashing into the docked ship, started to speak.
“Sssso, are they gone?”
“Yes master.”
“Finally … I thought theysss never leavesss.”
“Uh, yeah, me too.” The man stuttered, his moustache quivering.
“What wasss that?” the voice spoke and it started to get louder. “Are they gone or whatsss?”
“Hmmm, well technically, they left a while ago-”
“Then get a move on … Whatsss you waiting for?” The now angry voice interrupted.
“Yes, yes of course … master.” He added.
“USE MY REAL NAME FOOL!” The orb shook violently. Garrick almost dropped it. He looked confused and his moustache quivered even more.
“But you told me not to use your name!”
“Shutsss up …” The orb had calmed back down and continued to hiss. “Get on with itsss. Find the Majeuri Spinel. NOW!”
“Yes … umm, Kraaz.”
On the horizon Garrick could see another ship just barely coming into view. “Excellent,” he said, smiling and putting the orb back into his pocket. “The Gilden Warship is right on time.
-
- Arctic Region, former Gros Morne -
The deep shaft in front of Nils was smoking, as usual - even though located in the Arctic Region, the searing heat coming from it originated from the very heart of Gaian itself. There are just so many things we don't know about the planet we live on, he thought. Who knew that there existed such forms of life that were able to survive temperatures beyond imaginable? Not only that, but they also survived the extreme temperature change - just yesterday, Nils saw one walking in the snow, without showing any signs of discomfort. Very strange, indeed... It is a good thing, then, that the higher-ups from Kandarin decided to ship some of these creatures off to Shuba - the unofficial capital of Kandarin.
It's strange, he thought. The Sovereign is certainly taking very odd actions... Kandarin is, undoubtedly, in dominance of the world, but its leaders are still afraid of something. The Citadel, in which the Sovereign lives, is no longer affixed to one place. Instead, the chains binding it to the ground were severed, and now it floats in between Kandarin-controlled outposts. That's why the first thing done after capturing a town is installing four enormous anchors for the Citadel to attach itself. There is no telling which town it is in - all orders are sent through the M-Grid, impossible to trace, impossible to know...
--- --- ---
- An undisclosed location -
The floors shook - and the light above the rectangular table flickered on and off, briefly exposing the faces of several people. A calm voice broke the short period of silence.
-"We're moving again. The Sovereign is certainly unsettled by something, considering that we arrived here only an hour ago."
Another voice, slightly feminine but unmistakably male, replied:
-"Why, thank you for that very helpful observation, Shen. The fact that you're the captain of the research division doesn't mean that we're all retards, you know. If your ego is in a desperate need of stroking, why don't you concentrate on looking a bit less ugly?"
-"Quiet, imbecilesss!", a voice hissed from somewhere to the far edge of the table. "You are captainss, not ssome new-hatched childrens! Show ssome maturity!"
-"Enough." The statement was simple and final, and came from the very end of the table. The light did not reach the speaker even when it wasn't flickering. "Now, is there anyone here who is not present?"
-"Sun, captain of the Second Regiment, here."
-"Shen Tsoy, captain of the Third Regiment, here."
Silence.
-"Captain Eldridge of Fourth is missing." A deep, rough voice finally spoke. "My own captain, Flora Goethe, is also currently on an assignment. I am filling in. Onwan, officer of the Fifth Regiment, here."
-"Eris Vasburg, captain of the Sixth Regiment, here."
-"Tin Dao Kaineng, captain of the Seventh Regiment, here."
-"Damien Roth, captain of the Eighth Regiment, here."
-"Ssesk, captain of the Ninth Regiment, here."
-"Cain Ryleh, captain of the Tenth Regiment, here."
-"We'll have to work on attendance, then", the darkness spoke again. "Prime matters first. Sun, what is the status of the Continent?"
-"Going along rather well, General! We have gained complete control of over 70% of the land mass now. Captain Goethe is leading a fairly large number of troops, and we are continuing to expand the Sovereignty's borders. At this rate, the continent of Ariosis can be breached within several months."
-"Excellent. Your Sovereign will be pleased. Continue your reports."
The dark silhouette at the end of the table leaned backwards, retreating further into the shadows.
-"I do not have much to report, General," Shen said. "I am expecting several specimens from the Gros Morne Shaft research station. At that point, I will contact you."
-"As captain Sun mentioned," began Onwan. "Captain Goethe is leading the Fifth Regiment - the attack squads, specifically - in further assaults on unconquered land. The Fifth Regiment as a whole is in its best shape. The morale and physical strength are at their peak. Other than that, I suppose, that's it. Captain Eris, please continue."
-"Right. My Sixth's function was diverted a little, as there are no major targets to assassinate. Since wes double as scouting... Well, just recently, one of our scouts reported that all remaining capitals buildings of the legged nations are practically abandoned. This leads us to believe that they carry out their political businesses elsewhere. Scared of the Hammer, no doubt. Everythings elses is trash, really - just small villages, minor townships... I'd say not even worth conquering, but Kandarin must grows, I guess..."
-"Nothing to report from the Seventh Regiment," Kaineng blurted.
-"The Arcane Regiment is also in nominal condition, General," said Damien. "We are training Cryomancers, just like the Sovereign ordered a while ago."
-"The Necrolyte Regiment iss helping Flora on her crussade, General... We have alssso begun to employ the Ssovereign's Marcher creaturess as bases of operationss for Necrolytess...sss."
-"Thank you, Ssesk. I'm sorry, but it seems as though the Tenth Regiment is also at a loss of reports. Everything is fine with the populace, thanks to the new execution methods. The things that scare people are most often quite effective at preventing uprisings, hmm?"
A short silence followed, and then the shadow at the end of the table spoke:
-"Very well. You are all dismissed."
-
Despite all that has happened, the conflict with the Kandarin. Duilin has had a great past three years. He's married, he has made lots of new friends and is very optimistic about the Federation defeating Kandarin. But one thing was bothering him right now...
"Duilin..."
"Uhhh?"
"Duilin! Wake up!" Rink's voice hissed.
- Federation Meeting place, Arosis -
"Huh?" Duilin was laying back in his chair, apparently dosed off from the boredom. He hated these meetings, they were so boring. He was a general, he's supposed to be out killing zombies not talking about them.
"Duilin, Aaron just asked about who is going to handle the necromancers." Rink stated.
"So?"
Rink rolled his eyes. Duilin was such a child at these things. What really annoyed him is the fact that Duilin is 40 years old and he's been getting less and less mature. Rink stood up. "If you would all allow me to take the floor."
The small imp, was barely visible due to his shortness, yet he had a booster seat, which was suitable for him to stand on.
"As part of the Helternia Division, we do have a bit of an advantage being close to the older sections of the Kandarinian Sovereignty. General Talonscar, here..." He motioned to Duilin, who simply waved his hand. "...General Talonscar would like to share us with his plans."
Duilin's eyes shot open. He quickly stood up, appearing caught off guard.
"Okay, so yeah. I've been training a group of soldiers personally, to make them better fighters. You see, before the Federation, I traveled with a small group of very skilled fighters and we were able to battle off armies. You know the stories. Anyways, I'm hoping that my teachings will make them just as good as my old group and one them may even be my successor as high general. They're all good friends of mine."
"Get to the point..." Rink whispered.
"Oh yeah, so uh. I was thinking, since I've got my elite squad, and Helternia is so close to older parts of Kandarin Sovereignty--"
"Kandarinian Sovereignty." Rink corrected.
"Whatever. So yeah, I'm thinking my division would be the best for fighting the necromancers." Duilin finished and then stood in silence for a second and then sat back down in his chair.
//Little short on time ATM, so the rest of my characters will be updated tomorrow.\
-
- Ariosis, Underground Meeting Area -
"Heh... this meeting really has no meaning. If we are to fight them with their own weapons, as Consular Mjord suggests, then everything is all in place. My own minnions, be they rebellious little bastards or not, are rather 'in touch' with the dark arts. Necromancy does fall under that area of focus, and I do happen to have a lot of necromancer alcolytes. They are of novice potential, but they get the job done, none-the-less."
"With all due respect, Consular Valimore, you did not even ask for the floor."
"'With all due respect,' Consular THAND, you didn't either!"
"Aye, but I was correcting your mistake!"
"Be that as it may, you made the same one that I did."
Aaron arose from his seat. "SHUT UP!!!" He slammed his fists on the stone table. Him once holding addamantine gauntlets, his hands are very strong, and they shook the ground all around them. "I will NOT have such god-damned disrespect in my country! Either play by the rules or shut you mouths!" The angry Consular then took his seat.
After a short period, another lizardman entered the building. She was large in build and tall, walking into the room and taking a short bow. "General Zabel, here." She then walked further into the room and took a seat on the other side of Jacobie that was still empty. The woman with Jacobie looked afraid of the new arrival and scooted near Jacobie, putting one of her hands on his.
"Dammit, I'm sick of these late arrivals! Be sure to be on time, people! Are we all here at least!?" Aaron gazed around the room and noticed that all the chairs were full at last. He then rested back in his chair.
"I've got something to say, if I could have the floor." A young drow woman in silvermail and a teal green cape asked. "My army of Paladins could take out all of the Necromancers hands-down. I could join up with General Talonscar, and with our combined force, we might be able to wipe out the dark threat. That's all." The Drow female then sat back down in her chair.
"If I may have the floor, I do happen to have six full regiments of battlemages, shared between myself and my twin sister. We are no Generals, but we do lead them in combat, as we are the ones who taught them to use magic. They are trained in Fire and Ice evenly. With their power, we would be able to blast away all of the Cyromancers. Just give us a General and we'll be able to fight under their command."
Ben stood from his chair. "If I might take the floor for a sec, I do see a fine plan forming. If we do happen to take the offensive, we'll have to strike on Terian. The Kandarinian force there controls almost three fourths of the continent. We control a slight bit over one fourth. If they take over the entire continent, then they'll have the advantage, and we don't want that. The advantage would be to gain speed in training their army to attack one of the Federation Countries." Ben then sat back down.
Aaron stood up. "Okay, so here's a good plan. General Nymphadora will combine forces with General Talonscar and attack the Kandarinians' Necromancers. General Jacobie will combine forces with General Zabel and attack the footsoldiers. The Verrandel Consulars will take their forces and attack the Cryomancers. This ought to be one hell of a battle for Kandarin! Any objections, speak now!"
-
~Former Island of Romme, three years earlier~
The tour was quite long.
Indher walked all over the place, showing the man who popped up out of nowhere around as if he was some sort of distant relative, explaining every structure, field, tree and river.
She told him pretty much everything. About how she got the idea that she could properly revive the dead and resurrect a nation thought long gone.
About how she got Iduran up first, how she went to Tjed, how he proven to a faulty experiment by fusing with a sword at the first sight of dawn's light?About how she returned and met the dragon, about how the people started spawning at incredible rates, about the constructions plans?
"And...That's about it."
She stopped. They were both on the edge of what was meant to be a plowing field.
"I hope this place grows?And I hope the dragon gets along with the citizens!"
She looked into the distance, in the direction of the town, and noticed something wrong.
"Hey, there's a huge thingy over there, where the fountain is supposed to be! What the?
She left the man behind and raced to town.
As she got closer, the object's view became clearer... it was a large sculpted dragon of stone, but it's facial pattern looked familiar... A familiar voice greeted her.
"There you are!"
It was the old man from earlier.
"Baurus.", Indher sighed, "Explain."
The old man smiled, scratching his chin.
"Oh, there's nothing to explain. The people were grateful to the red dragon for protecting them during and after their resurrection, so they erected a statue in his honor."
Indher examined the statue. It looked quite good, in fact, and did well to improve the scenery. She wasn't sure the dragon would appreciate his statue being in the middle of a fountain, though.
"I see... Very well. But next time, try to tell me beforehand."
Baurus raised an eyebrow.
"I sent three people to look for you."
Indher remained speechless.
-----
~Former Island of Romme, two years earlier~
"Is everyone here? Then let the meeting commence..."
Indher and Elphos sat down, along with various other bearded people.
They were all around a large, round table made of the same polished marble-like stone as the rest of the town.
"The first order of business is..."
Elphos was reading from a scroll-like parchment.
"...Is the outer barrier. It is finished. I'm sorry to report, but there has been a slight miscalculation... I ugh... Confused the transperancy rune with the seventh order repellant rune... The island is now invisible."
Some of the bearded people raised their eyebrows at these, but no one was particularily surprised.
"That's fine." Indher nodded "Go on."
Elphos hasitated a bit, but returned to the parchment.
"The second order of business is the current progress of construction... The Capital's core is largely complete, as well as some of the outskirts. Several farming villages to the north and south have been complete as well. We are still missing a working sewer system and the Glimmer Spire is only one third complete."
A bearded person with an opal on his forehead and a monocle raised his hand.
"Pardon me for interrupting, but what is this 'Glimmer Spire' used for?"
Indher took it upon herself to answer.
"The lower floors are training grounds for the school students. The middle area is a power conserver for emergencies. The higher areas are experimentation ground for graduate rune mages. Other than that, the tower will make a good tourist attraction due to it's sheer height and beauty, if I dare say so myself."
"Tourists? Our land is invisible."
"Details, details! That is unimportant. You have to think ahead and see the big picture! Elphos, please continue."
The bearded man rolled his eyes and sighed. Elphos, seeing as no one objected, decided to do as his master asks.
"Next up... A name for the nation. We have gotten numerous suggestions for a name, among which were New Romme, Neoromme, Cukeeland, Errom, Omaggwatoof... Omgootf... Omgwutphbabq... How do I pronounce that!?"
Some of the bearded people hid their smile as Indher took the card from Elphos's hand and threw it away.
"...Right, I'll go on. Let's see... Biggseatea, Necromme, Vitalia, Shizllenia, Belaa, Phoenicia, Majinrengokusatsugekibakoukenzanshoutenhanya, Greenland, Brownland, Orangeland, Whiteland, Made by Paper Towel Industries Co..."
Indher stops her apprentice.
"You are reading from the wrong side. Now, let us discuss which name fits us, why it fits us, and what flag should we make to fit the name."
All the bearded people raised their hand in union.
"I vote for Phoenicia!"
Indher raised an eyebrow.
"Why Phoenicia? All those names were perfectly good!"
Baurus stood up.
"I was the one who suggested it. I have discussed it with the other counselors already as well as with most of the townsfolk. All the other suggestions were sent before I did that, so they are no longer relevant."
Indher smiled.
"Allow me to explain..." Baurus continued "This land used to be called Romme. Romme, however, is long dead. It was burnt down, destroyed, annihilated even. All we did was rise from it's ashes. Romme no longer exists, so using it as a base for our ideals is ridiculous. What I did was using those ashes we've risen from as a base of ideals... You see, Indher, with your power of perpetual resurrection we are able to do it time and time again. It is now who we are. It is what sets us apart. So I named this land after the mythical creature of old lore that does the very same. Do you have any objections, Indher?"
Indher smiled from ear to ear at this. Baurus took the hint and smiled back.
"In that case, I, Third Counsilor Baurus, officialy declare us PHOENICIANS of PHOENICIA!"
The other bearded men stood up.
"LONG LIVE PHOENICIA!"
Everyone was now standing and wildly clapping. Everyone except Indher.
"That is great and all, but the party will have to wait. I believe we have more work."
"No, actualy..." Elphos whispered in her ear "This was the last on the order of business for today."
Indher sighed, but stood up and proceeded to leave the room while stretching her arms. It was a long day, after all.
Just as she entered the corridor, a woman who Indher recognized as a healer ran towards her in a hurry.
"Lerfina! Lerfina!" she called out to her "It's... It's..."
"Calm down..." Indher stopped her, wondering what the fuss was about "What happened?"
"...The firstborn of the resurrected generation..."
Indher's eyes lit up in curiousity.
A birth? This was undeniable proof that her people were very much alive.
But she couldn't even begin to imagine what was wrong.
"Well?" Indher inquired with a snide smile "Show this human to me."
"That's the thing..." The healer muttered "It's not... Human... It's one of us..."
Indher raised an eyebrow.
"One of... You?"
A smiling woman walked towards them slowly, two small hands visible from a patch of cloth in her arms.
Indher walked closer and examined the patch of cloth in the woman's arms.
In there, she saw the face of a sleeping toddler. With a perfectly human nose, a pair of perfectly human ears, a perfectly human mouth...
And a perfectly Phoenician, bright red ruby glowing faintly in his forehead.
-----
~Spire City, Phoenicia. One Year Earlier~
Roughly two thirds of the Glimmer Spire are now complete.
Indher stood on the 36th floor of the Spire and gazed below her, enjoying the white view of the city outstreched below her.
"It's no wonder the city has been nicknamed 'City of White Marbles'..."
Indher turned her head slightly to see who was it that made such a blatantly obvious statment.
"Elphos? What might you be doing here?"
"Me? I came to inspect the spire's new floor. The students of the school are very eager to hear details about the spire since they are forbidden from entering it just yet."
Indher raised an eyebrow at Elphos's warm smile.
"Eager to hear details? Is that what you do during lessons, Elphos? Tell the kids stories?"
Elphos raised his hands as he got on the defense.
"Of course not! They stay after class to hear those. Classtime is classtime! I'm a Basic Runics teacher, after all. In my position, one needs to have a good responsibility!"
Indher chuckled at this.
"It's good that you realize that, but are you keeping up? Are the kids doing their homework?"
Elphos chuckled right back at his master.
"But of course! The kids are all eager to learn and each and every one of them works dilligently! Some kids find it harder and struggle, of course, but their peers usualy help them catch up with the rest of the class. What about your students, Fernis?"
Indher sighed and shrugged.
"Me? All I have is a small class of prodigies who skipped the lower classes all-too-quickly. I'm teaching Advanced Runics to, what, a single dozen people? Elphos, Phoenicia already has all of Romme's people resurrected as well as many others the locals asked for. Our population numbers more than several hundred thousands... That means I have one student for about every dozen thousands of people! You think people THIS special can do anything BUT intense progress? I know your duties as a teacher forced you to progress faster as a rune mage and, in fact, one could say that you no longer need me to teach you. But the people who come to my classroom are almost at your level already, Elphos. Careful, or you might have competition as an instructor soon..."
A cold chill ran down the spine of the apprentice.
"Ah, well... Well how are the guests doing?"
Indher let out a soft laugh at Elphos' attempt to change the subject.
"You mean Shuichi and Reigratto? Shuichi has been teaching in the classroom just across yours! You should know better than I do how his lessons in Alternative Arcana Geometry go about. I heard that whoever does well in your class walks out of his with nothing but a confused expression on his face! I wonder why... As for Reigratto, he opened a bakery at the Red Dragon square. Gotten quite popular, actualy."
Elphos turned around and made a few steps towards the staircase.
"Let's go down, Fernis. We can talk more on the way."
Indher sighed and the two proceeded to descend downstairs...
-----
~Spire City, Phoenicia. Present Day~
"...And that is why you cannot use a core without an outer shell rune. Theres no such thing as a dummy shell, so you should-NARIS!"
Elphos folded his hands and frowned as the 9-year old child drawing birds and clouds in his notebook was cought in the act.
"Naris Schweffleder, I know the lesson is almost over, but you will still be penalized for doing things not relevant to the subject."
The child turned to face Elphos, his teacher and mentor, with pitiful, teary eyes.
He couldn't say anything. He was obviously overcome by shame and became speechless.
"...I will let you off easy this time."
Elphos sighed, thinking he was being too kind for a man who is supposed to be the first step of young minds to scholarship.
"Everyone! The lesson is over. Your homework is to draw a runeset meant for creating an animal-shaped rock. Which animal it is is up to you. Class dismissed! Not you, Naris, I want to talk to you..."
The kids hastly shoved their belongings into leather pouches and left the classroom, leaving a teacher and a child alone in deathly silence.
"So, Naris..."
This time the child interrupted.
"I'm sorry, Master Elphos! I'm just no good at this! I... I become lost in other thoughts and I find myself drawing irrelevant nonsense before I realize it! I can't help it!"
Elphos shrugged. His failure of a student was on the brink of tears...
"Naris... Do you need help?"
"...Yes..."
"Alright then, can you come to my place on evenings, then?"
"...Yes..."
"Good. Then it's settled. I'll see you this evening."
The child bowed, wiped off the tears and turned for the door.
"One last question before you leave..."
The child stopped and turned, full of curiousity.
"...How are your grades in Shuichi's class?"
"Erm, top notch, Master Elphos. It's just... Easier, I guess."
"I thought as much. Oh well, hurry up home, now!"
The child left and Elphos followed shortly.
But Elphos wasn't about to go home just yet.
He hurried to the set of stairs leading up and came upon a partialy closed door.
Inside stood his own master...
"...No, maggot!" Indher exclaimed "When you place a transducer in-between the revolver rune and the core rune, the energy will go to waste and the product will SHATTER!"
"But, what if place a deflectional rune before the transducer?!" Asked a 12-year old student with a pair of glasses on his nose.
"Then theres NO WAY TO THE CORE, doofus! YOU THERE! Tell your buddy what DO we do to seperate leakage noise flaws from the core rune!"
"Yesh ma'am!" a somewhat older, wrinkly student responded "We inshert two amplifiersh! One doublesh, one halvesh!"
"EXACTLY! I expect the reports handed by tommorow! Quiz on tuesday! Test on thursday! Questions!? Good! CLASS DISMISSED!"
Several young yet odd-looking people left the classroom, bowing to Elphos as they run into him at the entrance but not bothering to do anything else.
"So, Fernis, you've got quite a class, eh?"
Indher shrugged. She went out of the classroom and closed the door behind her.
"Well at least they are learning!"
The two proceeded to descend the stairs.
"So, how's life as a teacher?" Elphos asked with a slightly comical tone.
"You're kidding, right? Theres no way I'd get used to that. I want them to take over as soon as possible."
Elphos chuckled.
"I see. So how are they doing?"
Indher raised an eyebrow.
"How'd you think geniuses would be doing? In the name of all flux, I swear, you ask the stupid questions sometimes."
The apprentice sighed.
"I meant for you to tell me about anything interesting that has happened lately, Fernis."
The master rolled her eyes.
"Then you shoulda said so! Something did, in fact, happen. I'm sure you've heard, the Glimmer Spire had it's 104th and last floor finished."
Elphos showed signs of curiosity.
"What's your point?"
He got a chuckle in response.
"A small group of my students had too much free time on their hands, so they went ahead and worked on a really, really big project. They came to me with it a few days ago so that I could point out their errors, help them make it effective and whatnot. Turns out this thing needs 36 of the higher floors to function. Since I'm interested as well... I've arranged for them to have floors 96-66 for themselves..."
By his expression, it was easy to tell that Elphos was quite amazed.
"What... Just what IS it that they are thinking of doing?"
Indher smiled devilishly from ear to ear.
"A world of illusion set in stone with runes. A world where WE decide what happens... And HOW it happens!"
The conversation was cut as the two reached the entrance of the school building.
"Alright, then." Indher waved goodbye to her apprentice "I'm off to congradulate Baurus for having all his students pass his math exam."
Elphos nodded and turned around.
It was time for him to head home.
Like a breeze, three years have passed...
So much has changed... And yet...
Never before he felt so proud to stand under a nation's flag...
Then again, this was his first (and probably only) time of being among the founders of a culture.
Elphos, now a full-fledged master with his own apprentices, headed home, his plans for the next day still taking shape within his head.
"...We have been seperated from the outside world since we came to be... Is that really okay?"
He shook off the thought. He knew that as long as no ship crashes into their land, they shall be safe...
After all, what are the chances anyone would want to visit a dead land?
After shopping in Spire City's Red Dragon square, Elphos headed for his own house, wondering how he should prepare for the coming child...
-
His name was Royen Beastkeeper, Captain of the Gilden Warship. He stood proudly at the mast, enjoying the wind and the spray of the sea. This was his world, none can beat him. He travelled long and far from across the world in search of a treasure beyond any measure; a treasure capable of forming the greatest army known to mankind. The Majeuri Spinel could grant his wish.
Now, he was being lead straight to where it was hidden. Royen chuckled to himself. Who would have known that possibly the most valuable treasure in history lay on a small deserted island off the coast of the well known island called-
“Sir! Sorry to interrupt your thoughts, but the island is in sight.” said the pirate at the helm.
“Yeah I didn’t see that. I guess I’m blind,” Royen answered sarcastically, “Get there today will ya?”
“Okey-dokey!”
Did he just say what I thought he said? Royen slid down the ratlines and strode over to the dude at the wheel. As he was approaching, the guy said, “Hey you…” then waved and winked.
Royen started at him. God, what a fruit.
“First dibs on the treasure!” he joked turning to the rest of the crew. "Swing the lead, lads!"
--- --- ---
- The Dead Island -
The Gilden Warship was drawing closer. Garrick was extremely excited. What would they reward him with for spying? He couldn’t wait. If someone was around (which there wasn’t), they could tell because his bushy moustache was quivering like it was alive.
“Hmmmm’kay!” he exclaimed as the ship stopped and pirates in row boats where being lowered into the water. Soon the boats came to the beach and they stepped out. Garrick gave a little shudder of excitement and sprinted over to the boats just as Royen Beastkeeper himself was stepping out. Royen was carrying a strange looking bow.
“Hi there Garrick, thank you so much for leading us here,” he said politely, “I came here personally to give you a gift.” He held up the strange bow. It was a flatbow, but the odd and wondrous thing about it was that along the limbs were stretched out raven wings. The whole thing was a beautiful piece of art.
“F-for me?” Garrick stuttered.
“Oh yes,” Royen smirked, “This is just for you.” And with that, he latched an arrow in the blink of an eye and shot Garrick straight through the head at point blank range. With eyes crossed and moustache still quivering, Garrick fell backwards as stiff as a board.
Royen bent down, retrieved his arrow and reached into the dead man’s pocket. He pulled out the orb, and shook his head. Traitor.
“Don’t mess with me mate. I know exactly how all this plays out. An old ‘friend’ of mine told me everything”
He stood up and his laugh was echoed by his crew.
“Let’s go find us some treasure boys!”
-
(VERY awesome post, Jenia. Just a note, of you want a nation of a few hundred thousand there, the island is likely going to be almost entirely covered by one huge city, since the island itself isn't that big.)
----
- South Kalvon, Southern Tjed -
Kelmarr lit up another cigar as he trudged through the wide empty streets of this miserable hamlet. He was done with Tjed. No jobs. No money here. There was no way they'd let him near that mysterious capital in the mountains either.
But where to? Certainly not the Dark Continent. That was a mess. Sure, he'd be able to pull a merc job there, but screw that. He wasn't putting his life on the line for the Feds or the Kandies. He thought there was a nation to the south, but he didn't see any other islands on his way in.
That left Ariosis to the west. He heard they had a fair population of non-humans. Maybe he'd get more respect there. Bah... he'd figure it out once he got to the port town, Kesnar.
A grin drew across his muzzle as he bit down on the cigar. Since he was never coming back, might as well rob some humans...
But what? There were too few people to pickpocket. That only worked in dense crowds. He could break into a house or two... But blast it, he'd have to wait for night for that. He wanted out of here NOW.
"Mystical items for sale!"
Hello...
"Discounts on rare enchanted artifacts!" Came the screechy voice of a haggard old woman. Kelmarr's eyes drew to the withered form behind a booth in the middle of the town square, largely ignored by any and all passer-byers.
"Ah! You there, you fine.... young..."
"... Skunkular..."
"Right. Whatever. Would ye like ta take a look at me wares?"
Kelmarr shrugged before walking to the decrepit wreck of a human. That stunk. Worth a shot, at least...
She had piles and piles of junk, claming each one to be "enchanted", "mystical", and/or "ancient".
She thrust a golden apple in front of his snout. "Behold! The mystical apple of Peracles! Will take ten years off ye age. But only if ye eat it at 12:05 AM the day after the winter solstice...."
"I'll pass."
His eyes wondered to a weapon pack on the table. Nothing fancy, except a sword wrapped in a cloth, with the pommel just sticking out... He could tell by that intricate golden handle that the thing was probably worth a few coins...
He knew better than to keep his eyes on it for long.
"Do you buy?" He asked, puffing out a circle of smoke.
"Of course, young man... skunk... skunk-man."
He rolled his eyes and thrust one of his daggers into the table with a *thud*. He had a five or six on him at any given time. This particular one he robbed from a sleeping drunk on the highway. Old, rusty, and useless.
Running his clawtip across the edge where the blade meets the handle, he quickly traced out a rune of light that flashed for an instant before dissipating.
If the old crone really was a crackpot, she wouldn't have any clue what he just did.
"This is the Mystical Dagger of Arubia... forged by the gods themselves. As you can plainly see, it glows with heavenly power."
Sure enough, the blade began to give off a pale green light.
The old woman's eyes brightened. "What do you want for it?"
"100 gold."
"Outrageous! For a glowing dagger..."
Kelmarr shrugged. "Well, what would you offer?" he nearly finished with 'hag', but caught himself. "I might consider a trade for... say... one of those swords over there, if any one of them is sufficiently enchanted."
The old woman refused, and the two began to haggle back and forth. After a moment of getting nowhere, the skunk disgustedly slid the dagger back into its sheath at his belt.
"Very well. I shall take my leave then. Good day." With that, he turned and gave a violent flick of his large, bushy tail, smacking right into the weapons rack. Everything came tumbling down in a heap, and he dropped his pack, losing the contents in the pile of swords.
"OW!! Blast it!!" He screamed, hugging his tail in mock injury.
"You... clumsy animal!! Look at this mess!"
Kelmarr bared his fangs and growled, but then deflated. "I'm sorry. This tail has a mind of its own sometimes. Here, allow me to help you..."
He stooped over and began separating his things from the swords, placing the weapons back in the rack. Quickly, he slid the cloth-covered sword he had his eye on over by the pile of his stuff...
"Good day," he said as he bowed, draping his large tail over his prize to hide it. He spun around and collected his pack, then walked away at a brisk pace.
He slowed after he exited town, pausing to sling the sword over his shoulder. Probably could get a few meals out of it. Not a bad deal at all...
-
- Ariosis, Underground Meeting Area -
Duilin looked at the old drow woman who offered to join with him. He knew of her and saw her a few times, but never actually talked. He remembered that General Nymphadora was in Tjed around the same time he was during to occupation three years ago. He figured she might be kind enough, as most drows Duilin has met have been good friends, yet they have a habit of getting killed.
"So, you listening Duilin?" Rink asked.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm listening." Duilin groaned back.
"Well, good. It's about time. I'm starting to think I should stop bringing you to these things. You never take this seriously."
"Of course I do. I really wanted to make this federation and I helped form it together."
"I'd like to believe you Duilin. But whenever you aren't out fighting, you're with your drinking buddies, getting hammered. You're 40 years old now, you shouldn't be doing that."
"They're not my drinking buddies, they're my team. I try to makes friends with them to boost moral."
"I'm sure." Rink sighed. "Anyways, you better get ready."
"Oh, yeah." Duilin then stood up. "If I may have the floor for a second. I'm all for joining with General Nymphadora, but I'll have to head back to Helternia first to gather my squad. I recommend the two groups will meet at the south-eastern part of Terian. Unless Nymphadora, would like to come with us back to Helternia?"
--- ---
- A random pub, somewhere in the Dark Continent -
A lightly built yellow skinned demon was thrown into a table by a middle-aged but rather well built man, with long white hair.
"N-no. I'm not a bad person! Please! Don't hurt me!" The demon pleaded while getting back up.
There we several wounded people in the bar, with sword cuts across them. Apparently they tried to stick up for the demon, but this crazed man was too strong for them.
"Do you expect me to believe that!? Don't you think I know your kind. Your kind are sick and only live to torture others."
"No. Some of us who live in Gaian aren't like that. I'm different then the evil ones, all I want is peace."
The man stepped forward and brought his sword up, the light shined in his unnatural blue eyes.
"Then rest in it!"
With that the demon's head was sliced off and the man walked to the doors of the pub, he turned around before he exited.
"I am Valos. And I will kill all demons in this world. You can thank me later."
--- ---
- Somewhere else in the Dark Continent -
Sienna had been thinking things over for the past three years. With her new friend Puco, she didn't find it as hard to deal with her problems as she thought it would be. She feels better, but not entirely better.
Her and Puco were laying back on a tree looking, in the forest. Simply relaxing and enjoying the wildlife.
"Puco...Do you think I'm ready to talk to Duilin now?" She asked.
A couple of squirrels chased each other across the path and ran up a tree near by them. The two playfully chased each other all across the tree.
"I know he wants to see me, but would it be healthy for us?" She added. "I mean, he is my brother and I do miss him. I haven't really seen him since he was a child. And now...he's almost becoming an old man now."
"I know he lives in Helternia now. Maybe we should go there? What do you think?"
--- ---
- Helternia, Fort Klawvorn, Mess Hall -
Marshall and Firstman were sitting together at there own table. Seemingly isolated from the troops. They have had trouble making friends, since they were both former Aspyes.
"You know, I think maybe that lizard man might want to be friends with me." Firstman said.
"Why do you care so much? Just let them be." Marshall said to his friend.
"Well, I mean this is boring. I feel so alone here."
"Oh thank you so much."
"Well, man. I always hang out with you, ya know? We need some fresh meat. Whatever happened to that Coriko guy?"
"I dunno. Having some issues with something. He keeps telling me that he can't get on some sort of 'net'."
"Did he join the naval division and is fishing now, or something?"
"I have very little of an idea."
"Well...anyways...Why does that lizard man get accepted better than we do? I mean, he's a god damned lizard man! Blah, they probably only like him because they don't want to look like bigots or something."
"They probabbly like him because he doesn't talk all the time." Marshall hinted.
"Why do you do that?" Firstman asked in an annoyed voice.
"Do what?"
"Do that. You always give hints, or use some big words to slightly cloud what you're saying. Why don't you just say 'shut up' or 'you're an ass' instead of 'secure your oral cavity' or something lame like that?"
"The same reason you're still talking after I gave you a hint to 'secure your oral cavity'." Marshall replied with a smirk.
--- ---
- Terian, A random medium-sized Kandarinian town -
A tall man, wearing tattered robes and a metal mask was walking through the town. People looked at him oddly and children even shouted and ran as he came near. He was used it.
"Yes, yes. Cower in fear, Nex and the Talonscar are here." Nex said as if repeating something he used to enjoy saying a lot.
He was acompanied by two men in wearing full black suits. The Talonscar Elite. Their gems were orange, meaning they were the 'normal kind', but still fairly dangerous.
Nex kept looking up at the floating Citadel, the sky. Untill he saw strolling through the streets was the great god himself, Kronos and all his glory. Yet he wasn't alone. He was with some auburn-haired woman, carrying three swords and had a blindfold on. Interesting. Yet there was some bald, middle aged man. He looked around in his late thirties or perhaps earlier forties. He was wearing a full crimson robe, with light red designs of serpents on them. The man then noticed Nex, and gave him a look. Nex then stepped towards them.
"Excuse me Sovereign, but it appears this...thing is trying to approach you." The captain said, and then approached Nex. "Excuse me, but you're going to have to back away and leave. Now."
"My, don't you look...interesting. What's your name?"
The captain's facial expression changed, to looking rather uncomfortable. What was this guy trying to say. He then changed his expression back to annoyed "I am Captain Tin Dao Kaineng. And I order you to step away from the Sovereign. Such, freaks like you shouldn't even be allowed to be here. I recommend you leave and take your little friends with you." He pointed to the elites.
"Oh? Freaks like me, really? I give you a compliment, and then you just shoot me down like that. Must you be so harsh? I'm hart broken, really, Hart broken." Nex said in his mocking tone. "Anyways, just step aside. I have a few things I wish to say to your Sovereign, an offer if you will."
"I doubt that very much. You aren't the first freak to try and 'offer' something to our Sovereign." Kaineng sneered. "Pah, we're wasting time here." The captain then wiped out a scythe, which was strapped on his back. "I'll make this quick."
"Oh, you have a scythe?" Nex then lifted up his hand and his scythe materialized into it. "So do I." He then held it in a battle ready stance. "And it just loves to spend time with other scythes."
With that, his scythe extended in length, slightly.
"Oh, a fighter now? This should be fun!" Kaineng then slashed his scythe at Nex, but the demon swung his weapon right at his foes' cancelling it out. The captain gave another slash, this time empowering it with energy, giving it a cyan glow. Nex simply gave another slash to cancel it out, but his scythe nearly got knocked out of his hands due to the increased magical force.
"Oh, so you're for real here?" Nex asked. "Good. I honestly love that. You have no idea."
Nex then shot a red lightning bolt at the captain, who was able to summon an energy shield in his hands deflecting the bolt back at the demon, hitting him in the chest.
Nex laughed as the electricity flowed through him. Once it was done, he shot a fireball from the same hand. The captain then slashed his scythe at the fire, knocking it away and then dashed towards Nex and spun around him and made a quick attack at Nex's back. The demon was then slashed across the back, and nearly fell over. He continued to laugh.
"Stop laughing damnit!" The captain shouted.
"Okay, now it's your turn." Nex turned around, his scythe faded away and he then shot a large stream of lightning at the captain, taking him to the ground. Kaineng shouted in pain, but got back up, fighting off the lightning bolts and then shot an energy blast from his hand which smashed right in Nex's face. Snapping his neck back.
The demon seemed stunned, and Kaineng grinned seeing his victory. He picked up his scythe to finish the job and then made a slash across his chest, however the blade was stopped. Nex had a sickle in his hand and had it wrapped around the blade of the scythe which he pulled away, displaying a surprising amount of physical strength.
"How...are you doing that!?" Kaineng shouted, brining back his scythe and then making a downwards slash. Nex then had two cleavers in his hands with he crossed to block the downward coming blade, which he pushed away. The weapons in Nex's hands then faded away and he cracked his head back into place.
"Ooo..." Nex quivered as if he felt an enjoyable sensation run through him. The demon then floated towards the captain at rapid speed and then slammed his fist into the captain's torso, causing him to fly back several yards and crash into a fruit stand.
Nex let out a loud cackling laugh. "Oh, that's a classic one right there!"
The captain got up, and wiped a tomato off of his face and growled in rage. "How dare you..."
//Okay, Ein can continue/finish this. He can control Nex for a bit then.\
-
- Random medium-sized Kandarin town -
The captain's expression of rage, however, quickly soothed - in a generally unsettling fashion.
-"My, my," he growled through his smile. "Looks like we have a real... hmm, I don't want to use the word "fighter", but nor do I want to say "wannabe", because whatever it is you are trying to be is definitely the wrong thing to strive for."
The captain's scythe curled and twisted, appearing something like an Archimedes' screw.
-"Better hope this one doesn't hit you, boy - maybe it will cut your mask to expose whatever ugly face you hide under there."
Like a silver lightning, the scythe crashed down onto Nex. He successfully blocked the attack - or so he thought. The scythe's curled blade unfolded, and, with a devastating force, ripped right through Nex's shoulder.
-"Not crying yet? How about another one, then? Hahahaha!"
The scythe curled once again - but it did not finish. Realizing that the attack is charged, Nex dashed toward the captain's legs, slashing them at the Achilles tendons with his sickle. Kaineng hopelessly fell down. Nex noticed some faint movement coming from Kronos' side - but he was too busy slicing at the captain to pay any real attention. Finally, the time came.
-"It's a pity, really," Nex hissed, "that all this wondrous flesh has to meet such a wasteful end. Too bad it has to belong to you. Otherwise, I might have given you the honour of being consumed like a real man... not like the wimp you are. Die."
-"You're... sick..."
With a victorious gesture, Nex grasped his scythe, gave it a quick spin above his head, and, using the momentum gained, thrusted the edge down at the captain's chest.
Zink. The silver edge was stopped millimetres away from the captain's heart. Looking up, Nex noticed the auburn-haired woman standing sideways - sideways - to the captain, not even looking at him (through the blindfold?), with her scabbard in her right hand, keeping the scythe's blade away from the victim's chest.
Nex pushed further, hoping to either overpower that interfering little wench or just slice through the sheath. However, before he even started to apply additional force, the captain's strange saviour whipped around, revealing a sword - presumably from the scabbard - in her left hand. The movement was so quick that Nex barely even saw the slash, which blurred into a crescent-shaped shadow. Moments later, the blade of his scythe hit the ground to the left of him, bouncing a couple of times from the force of the slash. The elites, seeing this, tried to intervene. However, the Lich's companion proceeded to throw the scabbard at them. Distracted, the elites did not even see her draw another blade. Using the chance, Nex thought of attacking her from behind - but just as that idea raced through his mind, he found the woman's left sword pointing right at his face.
-"You... wretch... how dare you!"
With all his remaining strength, Nex swung whatever was left of his scythe - his staff, rather - right at the auburn head.
Once again, the attack was effortlessly blocked by the dark, thin sword.
-"It's no use," he heard a voice, presumably from Kronos himself. "Be lucky you're alive. Oh, and you, please don't kill this one. I think he's a rather fine specimen to keep in a cage. Entertaining, I'd almost say... just look at the way he enjoyed all those hits. Definitely my kind of toy... oh wait. Look. Heh. You can't. That's a shame, heheh."
The woman turned the sword down to her side somewhat, letting Nex's weapon slide off harmlessly. She retrieved her scabbard, sheathed her swords, and reclaimed her place by the side of the Lich.
-"Anywho," the grey-skinned Sovereign continued, "I think it's worth reiterating how much of a surprise this is for me. The moment I happen to leave my Citadel for a peaceful walk to the execution stands for that idiot bleeding over there, I get a fine young man here so eager to please me that he almost finishes my work for me. Unfortunately, I couldn't let you do that. You see, executions of this manner are quite essential for me, because..."
The Lich coughed.
-"Excuse me, I'm rambling. Although I certainly admire your pious zeal for your Sovereign - either the current one or the future one (probably the future - I don't recall conquering lands populated with such strange specimens as you yet) - I can't let you off easy, see. It's a pretty major flaw in my security if someone were to find out that I enjoy taking the occasional stroll outside the Citadel with no one but my companion here."
-"That companion of yours is a demon," Nex wheezed. "No normal humans move like that."
The Sovereign's face changed from a somewhat amused grin to a cold glare.
-"You watch your mouth, young man, or you may find a sword skewered through it. I do not approve of having fun made of my subordinates." His looks eased again, but they remained a bit dangerous. Best not to set him off, Nex thought. "Anyway, shall we?"
The Lich proceeded to walk down the terrace. Nex assumed to follow, with his elites trailing behind him.
-"Now, tell me your name. What business did you have in a Kandarin-controlled town?"
--- --- ---
- Somewhere in the ocean between the Gaian and the Arctic Region, a boat in a heavy storm -
-"I think it's staring at me."
-"Nonsense. As long as that egghead over there doesn't lose his concentration, these things are as good as dead! Besides, do you even see any eyes on that thing?"
-"I don't think it's a very good idea to call him an egghead... he just might lose that concentration of his."
-"Whatever. Regardless, you hafta admit - these things look damn cool."
-"Yeeeah... At the top, looks like some sort of a bug, but the rest..."
-"I know... Its skin looks bug-ish, but those legs... Lion? No... something else..."
-"Yeah. And are bugs even supposed to have arms like that?"
-"Look at those claws... wouldn't want that ripping my stomach in half... would you?"
-"Scary things. And the weirdest thing of it all... it's completely metallic. However, it doesn't behave like a golem... Wow. Where did they dig these things up again?"
-"Far beneath the ground. There's lava and stuff."
-"Oh, I see, but - hey - did its abdomen just flicker or something?"
---
At last, they captured him. He maimed, and he clawed, and he destroyed - but eventually, he was overcome. Several more ugly dwarflings brandished their blue glowing tongues, and everything stopped. Then... the daggers dug in.
The daggers of bitter chill surrounded him from everywhere, and slashed, and stabbed, and cut, and pierced his very soul. He was in pain, yet he couldn't move. What was this strange prison of glowing, transparent blue substance?
They kept him within the prison for long. During that time, he could see others - others like him - being surrounded by the blue-tongued beasts and imprisoned, just like he was himself. He watched them squirm from the coldness, he heard their horrid screams through the walls of his strange cell, and yet he could do nothing but watch. His soul bled, leaving nothing but rage behind. A fool's rage, it was - for he, with all his anger, could do nothing but watch the torture.
Eventually they loaded him into a half-shell. He did not know what these objects were, but he saw an endless black extending everywhere, in which the half-shell sat. Somewhere in the middle, the black was sliced by a yellow line, and turned into lava-red upwards. The colour reminded him about the sweet convection flows again, and his thoughts warmed his soul through another eternity of torture. It did not hurt as much as it did the first time - the blue-tongues were replaced by only one, as well as two other dwarves with deformed arms: one long, and one short.
Just when he thought he couldn't bear the sight of the short ugly creatures any more, a sudden surge of power shook his whole being to the very foundation. It felt almost like... his home... it wasn't warm, but there was something about this feeling that struck a familiar chord.
The more time passed, the stronger the feeling became. It filled his soul, emptied by rage, with a new kind of strength - one he has not felt ever since the first dwarf with the claw awakened him. He felt his life coming back... the feeling was very satisfying. Encouraged, he moved his finger ever so slightly, and the prison shattered into small stones. The dwarves charged toward him, and he glimpsed another swing of the blue tongue wrapping around him.
No.
None of them were a match for this new strength. They will all... pay.
-
- Ariosis, Underground Meeting Area -
Aaron seated himself back in his chair. "Excellent! Then it shall be done. You may chat among yourselves while I go check if the coast is clear." The Consular then made a quick hand motion towards a young child, perhapse four, to check and see outside if the area was secure; that the Kandarinians or the 'hammer' was not anywhere in the area.
General Nymphadora got up from her seat rather quickly and walked over towards Duilin. She was quite young and agile yet; her long black hair waving a bit from movement. As she reached Duilin, she bowed. "High General Duilin, I have a ship outside that could take us to Helternia. It is rather packed with my paladins, but I suppose you could merely stand aboard the deck while we sail. From Ariosis to Helternia, it would take about one and a half hours or so for my ship to reach 'said destination.' She is quite fast."
--- --- ---
"Let's go, Karma. We're off to Terian. I'm sure General Zabel will meet us on Terian." Jacobie grabbed the young woman's hand and helped her out of her seat. General Zabel arose from her seat. "I remember you from the Arctic Rebellion... yes I remember that well. What's it been, three years or so?"
"Heh... I suppose. I guess I wasn't much help there, but I did at least meet my sweetheart there. Now those were the days... Ah yes, excuse my maners. You remember Karmandalla?"
"The slave girl? Aye, I was looking for her for a while. Please tell me you've found her, I can pay you quite a load of coins to get her services back."
"I'm afraid I can't allow that. She and I are married. I love her too much to let her go."
--- --- ---
The small child returned to Aaron and whispered something in his ear. Aaron then rose from his chair again. "The coast is clear! This meeting has concluded. Please find your way to the exit doors and have a nice stay at Azzkan Endor, Capital of Ariosis!" All of the General and Consulars got up and made their way out of the building.
------------
- Ariosis, Azzkan Endor (capital city)
The capital city outside was magnificently bright and vibrant with color and life. It was beautifully decorated with an abundance of crystals, gold, silver, and oak. The Inns were apparently empty and waiting for some of the Consulars to take residence first before anyone else gets a room.
As Doriana left the building (I'm just going to assume that Duilin is following) she escorted Duilin to her ship. "My ship, the Blue Sancta, is right on the river. The river can take us out of the Continent and then north to Helternia. Let's go then."
//DM, you can finish up the rest of the post.
-
- Random medium-sized Kandarin town -
Nex dusted himself off, he picked up the two pieces of his broken scythe and they faded away. He then followed along with the Sovereign.
"Everyone just calls me Nex. That's been my only name for as long as I've lived. And trust me, I've been around a lot longer then you probabbly assume." Nex said, in a more formal tone. He then went back to his more devilishly cheerful tone of his voice.
"Oh and that demon comment about the lady, that was actually intended to be a positive comment. Where I come from it is." Nex snickered. "Now perhaps later, my dear Sovereign, we could talk about a few matters?"
--- ---
- Ariosis, Azzkan Endor (capital city) -
Duilin followed Nymphadora to the ship.
"Not bad looking, really." Duilin commented. He boarded the ship and looked around, before reading himself for the ship to set sail.
"So, General Nymphadora." Duilin said starting conversation "You were in one the resistances against the Dark Empire, three years ago. Correct? I think I remember seeing you in Tjed around that time. You know Justinian, right?"
--- ---
- Helternia, Fort Klawvorn, Mess Hall -
"Screw it, I'm gonna go and talk to them." Firstman got up from his seat and walked over to the table with the rest of Duilin's Sqaud (which didn't include Duilin at the moment as he was in a meeting in Arosis).
A large heavily tanned skinned man, wearing armour with a blue shoulder pad, got up and looked at Firstman in the eye and stepped close to him.
"Hey, comrade!" The man said, saying the word comrade like an insult.
"Uh. Hey, how about we just cut the crap and sit together? I think you're being pretty unfair just isolating us because of our past. Like, you let the lizard man in the group."
"Why should Lagart be isolated?" The man asked.
"Well because...well he shouldn't and neither should we!"
"Vaughn, just let him sit with us." Said a dark skinned elf. "Then if he gets annoying, we'll tell him to beat it."
"Why should he? He'll probably try and spread his Aspye propaganda on us."
"No I won't!" Firstman sneered. "Listen, we're part of the same squad so we might as well try and get along."
"Or else what?"
"What do you mean, or else what?"
"What are you gonna do, if I don't let you sit with us?"
"That's not what I mean. Are you trying to talk me into a fight or something?"
"I don't even need to. I should just order you to go sit down, you're only a sergeant. I'm a captain."
"Let's not pull rank here." Firstman said pointing his finger.
Marshall got up and went to Firstman. "Come on, this isn't going anywhere. Just leave him."
"Yeah, listen to your friend." Vaughn said.
Marshall rolled his eyes, this guy was such a jerk.
"No. I'm not done here." Firstman said. "Listen, now you can be immature and just bully me when all I'm trying to do is make friends with you, or you can act like an adult and we can work things out like adults."
Vaughn laughed. "Yeah...that's a good point man. You're a smart guy too. I bet those use of words came in handy when you convinced people to go running wild with the animals in the woods."
"That's not what the Aspyes were about damnit. They were better than that."
"Then why'd you leave them?"
Firstman's facial expression lowered and he clenched a fist but then Marshall stepped in between them.
"This isn't going anywhere. Pat, just sit down. Vaughn, you should to. Then let's just ignore this little episode here."
"Oh, what's your problem, Marshall?" Vaughn said pushing him.
"I don't have a problem. But it's clear you two do, so sit down."
"You're damn right we have a problem here. This little wimp won't get the idea we don't want to talk to him. He needs to learn his place."
"I can handle that, trust me."
"Trust YOU? You're an Aspye too. Why should I trust ya?"
Marshall rolled his eyes. "I'm NOT an Aspye anymore. See me, with the federation? I'm here. Not with the Aspyes."
"Whatever man. Just watch out."
Marshall took a deep breath and then dragged Firstman back to their table.
"You know, it's not even the whole group, it's just him." Firstman commented "That Vaughn guy. Man I hate him."
"So do I. I'm sure the others do actually, but he's a captain."
"Well you and Lagart are captains too. So why do they choose to hang out with him?"
"Simply because they don't trust us, Firstman. They hate him as person, but they trust him as a loyal member to the Federation and he's a good fighter, sadly he might even take Duilin's spot as high general some day."
"You see, that's what ticks me off. Just because he's jacked and knows a few magic spells, that automatically makes him better than the rest of us."
"He practices fighting a lot, and it does take a lot of displine to learn magic spells."
"Well, you've got your summoning magic, and in case you haven't noticed you're a pretty bad-ass fighter yourself. Heck, you should take Duilin's spot as general."
"Yeah, except Duilin hates me more than he hates Vaughn. Lagart would be next after me most likely, yet Lagart has stated several times that he does not want to lead, and everyone agrees that he wouldn't make a good leader."
"You'd make a good leader. Hell, you pretty much lead the Aspyes after Haraldur died."
"Yeah, and the Aspyes fell apart. Does that show good leadership?"
"I guess not..." Firstman's eyes then trailed off to the table with the others at them. "You know, I think that one mage chick might like me."
"No."
"You don't even think a litt-"
"No. Don't kid yourself."
"Since when did you become so much smarter than me?"
"Twenty-five years ago." Marshall smiled.
"Isn't that when you were born...Oh I get it. Real funny."
-
- Leaving Ariosis, Azzkan Endor -
"Justinian...?" Dori's mind raced backwards until it hit where she last saw Justin... three years ago a bit before the occupation and liberation of Tjed. She could remember everything as though it had just happened. His thin face, his orange hair, his white robes... everything. It brought tears to her eyes to think about him. She was in love with him, although she never had the nerve to tell him. At least not before Sierana dragged him off.
"I... remember him. He was the first man who ever attempted to get close to me. As I recall, I believe he's dead. Either that or in a trance from which his mind cannot escape. I loved him..." Her eyes watered and glistened with tears. She quickly wiped them away. The Blue Sancta sped out of the river and into the open ocean, on it's way to Helternia.
"Please, let's just drop that subject. If there's anything else you'd like to talk about, you can find me in the captain's cabbin." Doriana entered the ship and left Duilin on the deck of the ship. A few moments later, a paladin in crusader armor came upstairs.
"Hello, mate! My name's Geomarcus. Nice to meet cha! The Cap'n asked me to watch ova ya. She's a bit disdraught right abou' now. A bit sad about her past, I wager. Well, if there's anything you'd like ta ask me, I'm all ears."
-
- Nymphadora's Ship -
"Oh...I'm sorry." Duilin sighed as Nymphadora walked off, but then shrugged it off. He then noticed the crusader approach him.
"Nice to meet you two Geomarcus. I'm General Duilin Talonscar, Helternia division." Duilin introduced himself. "But yeah, Miss Nymphadora seems to be upset about something."
"But yeah, let's just get this ship moving."
-
- Southwestern Tjed, highway -
Kelmarr waited until he was a good deal up the road before pausing to inspect the blade. Unwrapping it from the cloth, he could tell right away that the dingy leather scabbard it was in wasn't its original sheath, as the fit was not quite right. No big deal. Not like he paid for it.
The sword itself was beautifully ornate. A gleaming silver blade with a golden hilt, etched with intricate designs. A blood red gem glowed dimly within the handle...
The skunk mage pursed his lips and whistled. He would get quite a bit more than a few meals with this... He tentatively slashed at the air a few times, suddenly unsure if he wanted to sell such a fine piece of craftsmanship. But no... it was much too heavy for him. Knives were his taste, anyway.
He replaced the weapon on his back and then threw the cloth over it, lest some other bandit see the gaudy thing and try to steal it from him. Blast... heavy thing. Ah well, he'd be weighed down in gold for a while after this. Smirking, he lit another cigar and continued on his way. He probably should wait until he was out of the country to sell it. The old hag probably stole it from someone around here in the first place.
He couldn't help but chuckle at his good fortune today. It was about blasted time.
A nearby bush rustled...
-
- The Blue Sancta, out to sea -
"Alright then, We seem to be pickin' up some speed. Should be there in a matter o' minutes!" The Paladin headed to the from of the ship and looked ahead as the ship picked up it's pace. There was another Paladin atop the mast of the ship with an eye glass, looking ahead of them. A few moments later, he put the glass away and shouted, "LAND HO!!!"
Doriana came back up from her cabin and approached Duilin once again. "Get your squad and load them on another ship. I would take you myself, but as you can see, she's quite full. I will meet you on the southern coast of Terian. Good luck." With that, they sent Duilin off the ship and on to the island of Helternia. The ship turned around and loomed away towards the horizon.
(Way to bored now. I'll update others later.)
-
- The Dead Island -
“Hey, Captain, come and look at this!”
Akran looked around and saw one of his men motioning for him to come over to one of the crumbling houses. As he made his way over, something caught his eye. A piece of cloth was lying on the ground, half buried by ashes. Curious, Akran picked it up and brushed it off. It was ripped so it only showed a small portion of a picture. All that he could see was a red eye staring back at him.
“Sir, what did ya find?” asked the man running up to him.
“Oh, it’s you Martin. It’s nothing… just a bit of cloth,” Akran replied, “But it does look familiar. I just can’t think of where I’ve seen it before.” He put the piece of cloth into his pocket. “Does it remind you of anything?”
“No, never seen it before in my life,” Martin hurriedly said, “but you have got to see this. It might be a clue to your family’s death.”
Akran told his crew that he was looking for evidence of his family’s murderer instead of telling them the truth. He didn’t like to trust people too easily anymore. He thought back to his encounter with Kronos. I wonder if he still seeks the Majeuri Spinel.
“Okay, sure, show me.”
--- --- ---
“I know where I’m going lad,” said Royen Beastkeeper to his first mate, “that gypsie lass told me everything.” He chuckled. “Aye, everything. Har, har, har.”
Royen trekked across the ashes southward.
-
- Someplace at Gaian's south, close to Sovereignty's current borders -
-"Acting-lieutenant Keshel! The town has been taken!"
-"Gooood... Inform the captain, and request that we stay here for the night."
Keshel couldn't believe this. They were on a crusade for the past month, without as much as a two-day break. What's more is that they had practically zero casualties, due to the fact that most of the towns here are peaceful and took almost no effort to capture. They had only encountered a competent military force once, and those were dealt with quickly, anyway. And they call him Keshel the Voracious!
-"Acting-lieutenant Keshel! The captain requested to remind you who was in charge of this operation, and she commands that you collect the forces and move on to the next town."
-"Grr..."
Captain Flora Goethe this, captain Flora Goethe that... so what if she's the captain of the brutal attack regiment? Why couldn't she stay back at the Citadel like normal captains do? Sheesh! What's next, the General herself showing up?
With a heavy sigh, the stocky man headed to the town, and collected his troops for the next battle... or, rather, slaughter... He honestly felt sorry for these little towns.
--- --- ---
- A random medium-sized Kandarin town -
"After this Nex finished explaining his situation to me, I became slightly more interested. It's certainly a challenge to my profession. My "companion", as he amusingly calls her, told me that as of now, he poses no threat to us. Very good... since we need a replacement for a Captain of the Seventh Regiment, anyway, I guess I could stick him in there for now. He almost killed him in a fair fight, anyway... Speaking of whom, Kaineng seems to be adjusting to his new lifestyle as an Augment quite nicely. Since I already have five captain-level Augments with me at almost all times, I decided to donate him to one of my faithful Necrolytes. Which one, though, is another question. Hmm... A contest?
-"M'dear, please take Mr Nex here to the outfitting rooms. Make sure Mr Nex is wearing the appropriate garb, and present him with the Captain's Mark. Thanks."
I think I should stop these unplanned appearances. Such walks with no one but her by my side tend to be rather dangerous, especially if my enemies were to find out about them. Regardless, I'm deep in Kandarinian territory. The chance of attack is quite small... but as long as it's there, I think I'll keep to myself. There won't be much use for this, I suppose... I'll just put the logbook somewhere on a shelf in a library. Good-bye for now!"
---
-"My name is Gwenivere. Learn it now, because this is the first and last time you will be hearing it."
The woman's speech was suffering from a heavy, yet indeterminable, accent.
-"I am the General of the Sovereign's forces, and that is all you will need to know about me. Now, come."
//Assuming Nex follows\
The two entered a small underground warehouse, of sorts. Below were shelves which contained suits - Kandarinian battle outfits - just like the General's. The suit was quite thick, made of some sort of wool. It resembled a trench coat, but it was a little shorter than that, as well as having slightly wider sleeves at the end, while being thinner at the arm. The suits were coloured all black with red trim around the edges.
-"Since you will become a member of the Kandarinian Sovereignty, you will be required to wear one of these. Additionally, you may have noticed that every Kandarinian employed by the Sovereign in some way wears red gloves. Although under special circumstances, the battle suit may be neglected, as a captain, you must always wear the gloves. That is invariable."
There were also stacks of very similar looking amulets on the shelves.
-"Due to a strong demand for precious metals, Kandarin no longer has its warriors wear armour. Instead, these amulets are used."
Gwen took an amulet and threw it to Nex. The ornament was of a triangular shape, with three spikes (or fangs?) at the triangle's points. A dark red gem sat in the middle, with the Kandarinian symbol engraved on top of it. Oddly, there was no lace on the amulet.
-"It concentrates your aura into a shield around you. Naturally, the stronger your aura is, the tougher your shield will be. If you want one, apply it to your chest."
With the slightest hint of a hurry, Gwen made for the exit. However, just before pulling the doorknob, she stopped.
-"Last thing."
From somewhere in her suit, she produced a familiar object - Kaineng's scythe. Without turning around, she threw it in front of Nex. Up close, a few details were revealed - the scythe was made of a dark, almost black material, which glowed with small lava-orange veins.
-"As a captain, you are entitled to a Thoridium weapon - also known as the Captain's Mark. They are nearly indestructible, and, with enough skill, you can unlock the Thoridium's latent powers to create an exceedingly powerful attack. Kaineng's "coiling shadow", as he called it, was an example."
She then continued walking out the exit.
-"Do try and accidentally kill yourself with it. If it were up to me, I wouldn't let scum like you become as much as a lieutenant, much less a captain."
-
- Kesnar, Southwestern Tjed -
Kelmarr never did like larger towns. But since the giant beam of death from the sky started blowing random cities away, he'd gained a whole new reason to avoid them.
It wasn't like Kesnar was large enough to warrant such an attack. But then again, it was a port town, and the Kandies were feakin' insane. He just wanted to get a ship and get the heck out of there.
Besides, it was crawling with humans. Eww...
He wandered up and down the docks for a while, haggling with the merchants and shipowners or whoever sailed in. He just wanted a ride so he could get off this blasted island. Of course, half turned him down on sight, and the others wanted a ridiculous amount of coin. Ugh...
Normally he would just consider stowing away. But with his precious cargo, he figured it best just to pay and avoid infuriating the dimwitted sailors. He'd more than make up the difference when he sold the blasted sword, anyway.
Finally he found a greasy old sailor that let him stay in the cargo hold of some stinking little creaky ship. Ugh... It looked like a shipping vessel with all the nets attached to the sides. He didn't really care. The ship was Ariosis bound, which was good, since he heard that country was a lot richer than Tjed. He'd probably get top dollar for this sword there...
In the dark cargo hold, the only light bore from the many cracks in the wood above and a small port side window. He sat down and leaned his head against one of the boxes, shutting his eyes. Once he arrived, he'd have to find a buyer... he'd have to be careful, but if he took his time, he wouldn't have to worry about meals for a long while...
-
- Small underground Kandarinian warehouse -
"Well, I guess I might try on a new outfit." Nex said, he looked at the battle suits. "Hehehe, these might work."
Nex caught the amulet. "Ah, some sort of protection amulet? Well, I suppose a little more magical enhancements wouldn't hurt." Nex clenched the amulet and it disappeared into his invisible pockets (as some people call them).
Nex then caught the scythe thrown at him. "You know you can just pass things to me. It's not like I'm going to bite you... I've got this mask covering my mouth." Nex examined the scythe, it was indeed some impressive work. He may actually use this.
The demon simply gave an overly friendly wave good bye in response to Gwenivere's exiting insult. "And it was just lovely meeting you too, dear."
Nex then gave the battle suits another look. "Now...let's see here..."
--- ---
- Helternia, River Town -
"Ahh...It's been awhile since I've been here." Duilin said to himself exiting the ship.
"General Talonscar." Greeted a guard at the dock. "It's a pleasure to see you sir. How did the meeting go."
"Not bad. Glad I went, I needed to catch up on some sleep." Duilin smiled.
"Of course sir." The guard replied. "We have a horse cart prepared to take you to Fort Klawvorn, whenever you're ready, sir."
"Oh really? I didn't even ask for one."
"Consular Rink requested it for you."
"Aw, how nice of him. Anyways, I'm ready so let's get going."
--- ---
- Helternia, Fort Klawvorn, Mess Hall -
Lagart got up to get seconds on his food. He ate a lot, even for a lizard man. He just loved to eat ever since he joined up with the humans. They made such great food, most of the other lizard men don't like human food but Lagart loves it.
As the lizard man was filling up his plate with various foods, that didn't exactly fit together he was patted on the back by somebody.
"Hey, Lagart ole' buddy. How's it going." Said a human voice from behind him.
"Firstman! Get back here! You're being a fool!" Marshall's voice shouted.
Lagart grumbled and then growled at Firstman behind him. "What!?"
"Whoa, whoa man. I'm just getting some seconds myself and I thought I'd just talk to my buddy Lagart. What's the problem?"
"You not my buddy."
"Because I'm an Aspye, isn't it?"
"No. Because you annoying."
"Then why don't you like Marshall."
"Marshall fine. He just hang out with you all the time." Lagart finished filling up his plate and then walked off to join the others.
"Oh..." Firstman looked blankly into the empty space that was formley filled with Lagart and thought about that. "Bah, what does he know? He's just a stupid lizard man." He then returned to his spot.
-
- Ariosis, Azzkan Endor -
"Well, well, where the hell did I leave the ship?" Jacobie, followed closely behind by Karma, walked over to the side of the river. His elite lizardmen were waiting for him in a very large, old Dark Empire vessle. He boarded the vessle along with Karma and began raising the anchor. Within moments, the ship took off and left the river.
--- --- ---
"General Zabel!" A low-ranked officer ran up to the General and saluted, "My lady, we've got your ship ready. It is by the river. The men are prepared for combat!" The officer then bowed and ran off to the ship. It was a large, brown ship with small, white sails. On the side of the ship was a thick black line rimming around the rail, and on the rail in white letters, it bore the name The Orion. General Zabel boarded her vessle and rose anchor shortly after Jacobie. She would merely follow his ship as they made their way to Terian.
-
- The Dead Island - In a crumbling ruin of a house -
On the wall that Martin was pointing to, there was a large painting of a symbol that Akran indeed remembered. He took out the piece of cloth and held it up in front of him.
“Ah… yes,” he said, “You see this?”
Martin looked at the cloth and then to the mural on the wall. “Is that one of its eyes?”
“Yes, I think so.” Akran replied, “Three years ago I travelled with a man named Kronos. You probably have heard of him now, since he managed to defeat the Dark Emperor.”
“The Sovereign of Kandarinian? Yes of course I’ve heard of him. You actually travelled with him?”
“Yes, for a while. We went to island and there we saw this symbol. It was their flag. It looked exactly the same; the same black and red six eyes and everything. I have no idea what it is doing here.”
Akran scratched his chin. “Look,” he said, “See the right and left top eyes are missing?” He reached forward and pressed the piece of cloth to the wall where the left eye should have been. Akran quickly withdrew his hand, for the eye started to glow red. The cloth dissolved and left a print of the eye on the wall.
“How did- What the hell?” Martin looked bewildered. The two stood staring at the wall; at the still incomplete mural. “We just need the right eye now.” he finished.
Akran snapped to. “Come.” he said, motioning to Martin.
They ran back to the rest of the crew and Akran started to talk.
“Okay! Everybody!” Everyone turned. “We need to look for a small piece of cloth. It’s about this big,” Akran showed with his hands. “And will probably be buried around this crumbling house. Let’s get moving!”
A voice came from the crowd, “Why? Why look for it if I already got it aye?”
A figure roughly pushed his way through the sailors. He was followed by a bunch of mean looking, laughing pirates.
“I am Royen Beastkeeper,” he growled, laughing, “And I am looking for a stone, Akran, the very same you are I hear.”
Akran stared at Royen. Akran’s crew stared at Akran.
“Har, har, har! Can’t speak? Didn’t the lovely Gwenivere tell you? You need the help of another!”
-
- Helternia, Fort Klawvorn -
Grant Zimmerman was a new soldier in the Helternia division. He just got out of training and was exciteded to get into action, but at the same time he was a little worried that he'd get hurt. He didn't really know anybody in the army, since none of his friends joined. But it's always been his passion to travel the world and have adventures, so that's why he joined.
Grant was about an average height and had clean red hair. He wore the standard armour for the federation soldiers, and currently had a basic sword as his weapon of choice. It was what he trained with.
The rest of the soldiers were all about the fort. Getting briefings for missions and warming up for battle. Marshall and Firstman were walking together, heading towards one of the briefing rooms, where they were to meet up with General Talonscar. The rest of the squad had already left. When the two got there, the rest of the squad were sitting around talking, apparently General Talonscar hadn't arrived yet.
Meanwhile at the entrance to Fort Klawvorn, Duilin's horse cart pulled in and the General exited. He was greeted by the guards and then walked in. Grant was walking along with his face buried in a map of the fortress, when he bumped into the General.
"Oh sorry, sir. I uh..." Zimmerman then looked up at who he bumped into, he noticed the wings and assumed this must be General Talonscar. "Oh, General Talonscar. I'm am terribly sorry, I'll try and watch where I'm going from now on."
"Don't worry about it. What's your name?"
"Grant Zimmerman, sir. I'm a new recruit, just got out of training, sir."
"Nice to meet you. You're doing a brave thing, joining up."
"Oh, well thank you sir. I actually haven't been praised like that before."
"Well, you're welcome. So, where are you from?"
"Rivertown, sir."
"So do you have a position assigned to you yet?"
"Yeah, I've been assigned on guard duty."
"You excited about that?"
"Honestly. Not so much, I'd rather get into action. However they say guard duty is just where I should start."
"That hasty eh?"
"Well, of cource. I mean, I joined the army to travel around and well...battle. Standing around doesn't seem that interesting to me. No offence to the other guards who actually choose to stay."
"I hear ya, kid. I was pretty hasty to get into action myself. I actually fought for the Dark Empire nine years ago, after they released me as a slave. Mostly because of how battle hungry I was."
"Really?"
"Well yeah, that and also because I thought it would be best for my own survival. But I quickly realized it wasn't my place to be with them. I hated the empire way too much to fight for them, so I turned against them and fought for Romme."
"Well that's good to hear, sir."
"Hmm, you know what? There's something about you I like about you, kid. You kind of remind me of myself, just a little bit. Would you like to come with me and my squad on a mission? I'll warn you, it's going to be dangerous."
"I kind of worried about getting killed, but what the hell. Sure."
--- ---
- Small underground Kandarinian warehouse -
Nex had on his new outfit. He kept his mask/helmet and his hood. The robes were slightly different, and had a grey overcoat with red trimming and the Kandarinian Insignia on the back. His gloves were the same, but now red.
He looked at himself in the mirror.
"Hmm...yes...this is indeed...different. I may learn to like this..."
The demon then exited the warehouse and went back into the town. As he walked through he still got a few odd looks, yet he did get a few nods from some Kandarinian soldiers who were already starting to recognize him as one of them. He arrived at a garden where he saw General Gwenivere.
"Oh hello there, my dear General." Nex said in his mocking tone. "So, what shall my first assignment be?"
-
- A random medium-sized Kandarinian town, gardens -
-"Drop the "dear". I have no affiliation to you," the General answered. "If you're begging for an execution, we always could use a few more Captain-level Augments."
She rose from the bench that she was previously resting on.
-"Whether you like it or not, Captain Nex of the Seventh Regiment, you are now a leader. Captains rarely go out in the field themselves - pawns are both more effective and more expendable. Soldier!", she called out to a nearby spear gunner.
-"SIR YES SIR!!!"
-"What regiment are you from?"
-"SIR SECOND REGIMENT SIR!!! SIR UNDER CAPTAIN SUN'S COMMAND SIR!!!"
-"I see. Get my lieutenant, Wing, for me. He should be around the city square."
-"SIR RIGHT AWAY SIR!!!"
After furiously saluting the General, the troop left. A moment of awkward silence followed, though it was somehow dulled by Gwen's commanding presence. A few minutes later, the soldier returned with a ridiculously tall and skinny-looking character. His arms were so thin that even the tight part of the battle suit hung loosely around his elbows. Despite this, he looked almost frighteningly handsome. An odd axe with three blades, resembling a clover somewhat, was peeking out from behind his back.
-"Wing, Three Blade, reporting." The man's voice sounded unusually gentle. "How can I help, General?"
-"Help 'Captain Nex' here get started on his regiment, if you would."
Wing came up to Nex, inspecting at his face - his mask - with a calculating look. For a split moment, his eyes widened - but he quickly regained his posture. He turned around to Gwen, and gave her a warm smile.
-"Of course, General. Anything else?"
-"That'll be all."
-"Yes, General."
Gwen saluted the two and left somewhere toward the city square. Wing looked at her leaving, and then turned his attention back to Nex. His expression, once again, switched from pleasant to shocked in an instant.
-"Nex? THE Nex? As a Kandarinian Captain? Do my eyes deceive me, or has fate smiled upon our forgotten little town, at last? Well... Regardless, now that you're here. Excellent!"
Wing seized Nex's hand, and shook it vigorously.
-"I'm Wing, entitled "Three Blade" - hence the axe. You have absolutely no idea how long I was trying to find you for! Even though all I had were oral descriptions, I still tried, but ultimately failed. Why did I try, you might ask? Well..."
Wing's warm smile turned to a sinister grin.
-"...let's just say that our 'tastes' in the choice of our food is somewhat similar. BUT ANYWAY," he continued, as if he didn't just say anything. "We can talk about that on the way to the local registrar. You will be recorded as the new captain of the seventh regiment, inheriting all of the troops and equipment assigned to that squad. Feel free to add your own conscripts to the list. That's why we're going there, right?", he laughed.
--- --- ---
- Somewhere around the southern border of Kandarin -
-"Shalis, damnit!"
-"Yes, captain!"
-"Where are you going? I haven't even started to annoy you with my tales yet."
Shalis relaxed. Him and Captain Sun were on familiar terms, something that can't be said for most lieutenants and their captains.
-"Right. Where were you, anyway? You left for almost six hours, the regiment started to worry!"
-"Eh," replied Sun casually. "Shen called. He wanted to set up a meeting. It was me, him, and Flora."
-"Captain Flora Goethe?" Shalis was somewhat taken aback. "Her? I've never seen her in person, to be honest..."
-"Really? She tends to be quite sociable, I wouldn't imagine why. Anyway, Shen received them strange creatures from the Arctics - beautiful things - only one shipload instead of two, too... Wonder what happened to that other load? Anyway, he told me that he could try and..."
The two continued talking to a soothing background of a burning town behind them...
--- --- ---
- The edge of the southern Kandarinian border -
-"YES! FINALLY!!! HAHAHA!!"
They finally got a decent task! Keshel was beside himself with joy. Apparently, some foreign ships were sighted off to the south coast of the Continent. The Fifth regiment was sent in to investigate. A decent enemy, perhaps? At last...
-
- Dark Empire Vessle, out to sea -
Jacobie held Karma by his side and held her hand with his free hand. The occasional gentle splash of water from the open ocean was somewhat calming, as well as the slow currency of the waves far below them. How they rose and splashed against the ship seemed to be calm and loving. The ocean was only being kind to them for just today. At the deck of the Vessle lay a blue crystal that seemed to make the waves around it more calm and smooth, rather than rough and vicious.
"Ah, the open ocean is so calming during this time of day. How are you feeling, my love?"
"How serene the waves are... it's like a feather in the sky, falling softly until it hits the ground. What makes this so?"
"It's the ship. I had a very special friend of mine design it for me. The blue crystal below deck keeps the waters around the ship calm and quiet." The burly lizardman began to feel the softer skin of his wife as he caressed her neck with his hand around her back and over her shoulder. The smooth motion of the ship brought her peace, which was all he really cared about.
"You know, when I first met you, I thought you were just another slave girl, yet when you stayed back when I freed you, I knew you were smarter than the others. Just how much you've grown in three years... I'm amazed at your progress as both a mage and a human."
"When I first saw 'you,' I thought you were just another evil lizardman. You proved me wrong in the very instant you got to the camp. Immediately, I fell in love with you." Karma turned around to face Jacobie and put one hand on the side of his face. She brought his mouth closer to hers and her lips pressed against his. She then let her arms rest over his shoulders as he held on to her.
"I'll always be there for you," Jacobie said after breaking off, "No matter what. Death cannot stop our love." The skies ahead began to grow darker as the ship drew closer to the Dark Continent. The lizard did not need the lookout to tell him that land was ahead. He knew already by the sky that they were damn near right in front of Terian's southern coast.
//Blargh, I'll keep going later.
-
- Fishing vessel, sea west of Tjed -
Kelmarr awoke with a start, hearing a blood-curdling scream on the deck above. What in blazes...? He was on a ship full of haggard old fishermen. To hear a scream like that was totally unexpected.
He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and grumbling. Silence. Nothing but the creaking of the ship and the rasping of the waves. The blackness of the cargo hold was all that greeted him. Ugh. Probably some moron fell overboard or something.
He lay back down and curled his tail over his body, shivering. Blast, it was cold down here. He'd better not get sick from this moldy wreck. He hadn't closed his eyes a full minute before a second scream resounded above, this one closer than the first.
He bolted to his feet, swiveling his ears to pick up any semblance of movement around him. Nothing. The waves returned and the saltiness of the crisp ocean air stung his nose.
Snapping his fingers, a small wisp of flame appeared. He normally used the spell to light his cigars, but it served just as well to light the way. Holding his burning fingers up, he surveyed the cargo hold, now bathed in the dim orange radiance.
Boxes, fishing nets, and whatever nonsense the humans carried around with them surrounded him. He was alone, a feeling that both comforted and frightened him.
Something was going on above.
He paused, holding his breath as foot-falls creaked the wood panels above. His dispersed the flame as he eyed the location of the sound, his entire body tense, before it disappeared with the monotonous creaking of the ship. What should he do? What could he do?
Maybe he should just wait down here. The humans could handle it, right? He sat down again, rubbing the fur under his muzzle. Yeah, it was probably nothing at all.
Then he heard the third scream.
He clenched his teeth, his heart fluttering and hackles raised. Blast it. What in blazes was going on!?
He could very well wait in the darkness, but a nagging feeling told him he should at least check. At least peer out the door to see that the humans were doing something stupid that involved screaming...
Or at the very least... if there was a... *gulp* ... something out there... he'd rather meet it in broad daylight, rather than the dark confines of this cursed cargo hold...
He stood, taking up his pack and his stolen sword. No way he'd leave that behind. Carefully, he tiptoed to the hall that lead to the deck and slowly made his way up the creaking stairs...
-
- A random medium-sized Kandarinian town, gardens -
Nex accepted Wing's handshake. He was slightly temped to put some effort into it and snap his twig of an arm off, just because it looked so easy, but he was feeling a little nice today. Plus he wanted to know why he was so pleased to see him. He had no idea he was already famous.
"Well, it's nice to meet a fan of mine." Nex replied.
So this guy has a similar interest in food as he does? It seems surprising that this composition of skin and bone would have any taste in food. It looks like he hasn't eaten a full meal in his entire life. Although despite him being so skinny, he did indeed look quite delicious.
"So yes, lead the way to the registrar." Nex waved his hand.
Wing lead Nex through the town. Nex had trouble keeping his eyes off of him, he was just so skinny, it was eye-drawing. The demon just let his mind trail off though. He was rather surprised at how easy it was for him to join and for Kronos to agree to what he requested him to do. He was already starting to grow fond of these Kandarins, the Sovereign seems like his kind of guy. There is this 'hard-to-get' female general, and this skinny, yet good looking lieutenant who is a big-fan of his. And what makes this sweeter is the fact that he's heard things about him from other people, which means there must be more fans of his. Perhaps they would be ideal for conceptual demonic experimentation? Or perhaps they would also be interested in some other sorts of experimentation? Nex laughed to himself at this exciting thought.
"We're here." Wing said. "Okay, so just sign up."
--- ---
- Helternia, Fort Klawvorn, Briefing Room -
The briefing room was a simple, yet classy looking room, with log walls and with a finely made wooden chair and some cozy chairs.
"Sorry, I'm late, everyone." Duilin said entering the room. "The meeting went on a little longer then I thought it would."
"Oh, it's no problem General." Vaughn said.
"Uh yeah, no problem at all General Talonscar, sir." Firstman added.
The others gave Firstman a look, but then shrugged it off.
"Subtle." Marshall whispered.
"Anyways. You know how a few of said you've wanted some fresh meat on the group? We'll, this is about as fresh as they get. This here is Grant Zimmerman, he's a new recruit who just got out of training."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Vaughn shook his hands and stood up.
"Is there a problem, captain?"
"Well...I mean, are you sure having a newbie on the team is such a good idea? I mean, Firstman barely matches up to us and he's a captain."
Firstman was about to snap back at him but Marshall held him back and shook his head.
Duilin shook his head at Vaughn. "Listen, I'm general, THE general, and I can allow whoever I want in this squad. Now sit."
Vaughn sat down. "Now, let me introduce you to everyone, Grant." He pointed to Vaughn. "That is Vaughn. He's a real tight-ass, so don't piss him off, because he's cocky and macho two."
Everyone laughed, and Vaughn looked around seeming a little insecure, but then laughed along with them, yet a little nervously.
Duilin then motioned to the black skinned elf "This is Hance, he is our ranger." He pointed to a rather generic looking soldier. "This is Ryan." He pointed to Firstman. "That's Patrick, he was with the Aspyes. So was our other captain, Marshall." He then pointed to Lagart. "This lizard man is Lagart. He's actually a great guy." He pointed to purple skinned woman with a dark indigo coloured hair. "This is Zuhani, she is a demon/drow crossbreed. I've been teaching her how to control blood rage and such, she's very controlled." He then pointed to a blond woman is an earthy coloured robe. "And last but not least, is Sheri, who is our elementalist."
"Anyways. Now that we all have that out of the way, let's get onto the mission." Duilin went to the end of the room, which had a map of the known world on it. "Alright, so Aaron from Arosis, has organized us and a squad with General Nymphadora. We are too meet here." He pointed at one of the south-east points of Terian. "And we are to disable any and all necromancers in the area. Any questions."
The group looked at each, but nobody seemed to have any questions. Until Grant spoke up.
"Yeah, um. How dangerous are these Necromancers?"
"Well, they've been dubbed 'Necrolytes' by Kronos himself; probably just meaning they're not fully trained. Unless they have officers there, this should just be a walk in the park for most of us. Necromancers are usually not skilled fighters themselves, but they summon zombies to fight for them. Zombies aren't that strong, unless you get your guard down. However they usually come in groups, large groups. But don't worry, because I've got your back on this one. I wouldn't want you to die on your first mission. The rest of you guys can take care of yourselves, right."
"Of course." Hance replied.
"Right. Alright, so is everyone ready?" Duilin asked the team, everyone nodded. "Excellent. We'll head Rivertown and take a ship to Terian."
-
- Terian, Southeastern coast -
"General Nymphadora, we've sighted land! I believe it's Terian's southern coast!" Geomarcus walked up to the Drow General and saluted. "Should we ungarrison the army?"
"Yes, tell them all to get out there and start killing whatever's there. These undead should be easy enough to handle, even with a single paladin. I'm sure this'll just be another damned cake-walk." Geomarcus left Doriana and went back into the ship to muster up the men. After a few minutes, they docked and landed on the shore of Terian. To their surprise, Jacobie and Zabel were already there, along with the Drannivolkan Firemages. Aaron was there too, with the Drannivolkan Elites.
"Wow, I suppose we're expected." Doriana got all of her troops out of the ship and went down to meet up with Aaron. He merely waited with his company of ten Drannivolkan Elites. As they saw General Nymphadora approach with Geomarcus swift behind, they made way for them.
"High General Nymphadora of the Drannic Republic, reporting." Doriana made a short bow and stepped to the side to let Geomarcus through. "Lieutenant Geomarcus, here, sir."
"Tell me, Geomarcus, why were you not at the meeting?" Aaron placed his hand on his chin as if to exagerate his impuzzlement. The Lieutenatn did not but simply shrug off the question. He made a swift reply.
"I was attending to my men, lord Grey."
"Bah. I am no lord. I merely lead you on this very day because it was my plan. We all agreed upon it anyways. I am your Consular and nothing more. None have lordship these days. All are free, at least from evil."
"But there were Monarchs who weren't evil, such as yourself, my leige!"
"Tell me, Geomarcus, where are you from?"
"Dranniville, sir."
"Hmm... were you not at all angry when I took over Ariosis and Conquered the lands?"
"Not at all, sir."
"Meh, still trying to suck up, eh? Well then, let me ask you this. Why did you join the Drannic militia?"
"To... to fight back the forces of Ariosis, sir."
"Ah, now I get the truth out atlast. And tell me, who was it that ordered the Ariosian force to Dranniville in the first place?"
"Um... you, sir?"
"Yes. Now, one last question. Seeing as how I asked the Ariosians to declare war with Dranniville, what was the king's response?"
"He... left the crown, sir."
"Why?"
"Because he didn't-"
"Want to see his people suffer. Precisely, Geomarcus. Who was to blame for his downfall? Certainly not the people of Ariosis, they were simply following orders. Why would you join the militia if you weren't angry at the war, if you didn't want to stop it?"
"..."
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"I don't know, sir."
"Do me a favor Geomarcus. Next time we talk, don't lie to me. Either way, if you were telling the truth in the begining, you still lied about the story afterwards. See to your men. I would like to have a word with General Nymphadora here." Geomarcus ran off to a bunch of people all wearing crusader armor and bore the insignia of Dranniville; the double star and cross. Those were the paladins of Doriana's ship.
"That was quite entertaining, Aaron. I almost couldn't hold my laughter!"
"Meh, I just love messing with the 'higher-ranked soldiers' from time to time. I was still anoyed at the fact that Geomarcus never showed up at the meeting. Has he any idea of the importance those meetings hold?"
"I really don't think he does. If he did, he would have showed up, but rather than that, he just stayed on the ship all day, readin his books. I swear, that kid just gets on my nerves at times."
"Don't let that happen now, especially not before battle. Besides, I think I can feel those necrolytes comming."
"Feel? You and I both know the column of light blocked all senses."
"I don't know, I just have that weird chill down my spine. Like there's something lurking out there, you know?"
"I get that feeling every time I set foot on this god-forsaken land. It's still bares scars from the Empire days, and the Kandarinians are no kinder to it than the Dark Imperials."
"I suppose you have a point, but I don't want to just sit here and wait for them. The army's getting edgy; they want to destroy them. Almost as much as the Consulars don't want war. Shocking, eh?"
"Not really. I'm kind of looking forward to another battle. Haven't had one in three damn years. We need to fight or we loose our strength."
"True, I guess. Well, that's all. Dismissed."
"Dismissed? What, do you have nothing better to do than dismiss me?"
"I suppose not. Go inspect your troops for combat." Doriana walked off after Geomarcus and Aaron merely resumed inspecting and instructing his elites. They were all blood-thirsty and ready to fight; John and Marrik especially. While waiting, they would wave their swords around and practice sword forms. It could get on your nerves quite easily after a while.
"Consular Grey! I want to ask you something!" Jacklyn Verrandel was running towards Aaron. She stopped directly in front of him, trying to catch her breath. Once she did she stood up and looked him straight in the eyes.
"Consular Verrandel? What do you want with-"
SLAP!!!
Jacklyn had slapped the living day-light out of Aaron. The Drannivolkan Elite quickly surrounded her and drew their swords, but Aaron waved them off.
"It's rather alright... ouch... I probably deserved that one."
"DAMN RIGHT YOU DESERVE THAT!!! I should beat the shit out of you right now, but we're at war. I would have done so before, but we were at the meeting!"
"I'm terribly sorry! Honestly, that was before I even allowed Drannivolkans in the guard. I thought you two had gone rogue. Please, I'm sorry!"
"Yeah, sorry doesn't help the fact that you killed my sister and nearly killed me! Do you know how long it takes to haggle with the Reaper to get a soul back? It was nearly a year before I got Jelka back on her feet!"
"You're both alive and well, though! Nothing's that bad anymore!"
"Bah, you really don't get it, do you? Sorry doesn't cut it when it comes to murder!"
"You killed several of my troops by landing on them! And you tell 'me' that murder is wrong!"
"I thought you were about to attack Tjed! How was I-"
"You thought wrong! And because of it, several MORTAL men were killed, not in battle, honorably, but by a bloody airship landing on them! That has go to be the worst and most dishonorable ways to die EVER!"
"Whatever, just shut up and stay away from me and my sister, you got that?"
"Fah! You're the one who came up to me!"
"WHATEVER!!!" The Drannivolkan Female stormed off and inspected her troops. The battle was about to begin. The only thing left was for the pieces to fall into place. General Talonscar would be there momentarily, though, as would be the enemy.
"This ought to be one hell of a battle..."
-
~-~-~ Spire City, Phoenicia ~-~-~
Shuichi was sitting behind his desk, putting his notes and books carefully in his white suitcase. The class was empty and clean, because Shui spend the last hour cleaning it after the students experimented with the transformation and conversation of cores. It was quite a mess, as most of the students weren't prepared for the practical test Shuichi gave.
"And I was sure that I explained everything so thoroughly. Maybe must I go more in depth.." He thought when packing the last statue that he transmuted, and closed his suitcase.
At that moment a young female student came to him, she was eight years old, but Shuichi wasn't sure.
- "Erm.. Master Yoshi?" The girl asked a little ashamed.
The man in a long and light brown coat, that one could say it was white stood up from his chair, and shoved it under the desk and turned towards the girl with a awaiting look.
A few seconds passed before the girl realized that she should say something.
- "Master Yoshi? I'm ... a little confused about the things you taught us the last weeks. You was explaining-"
Shuichi cut into her.
- "-too bluntly, I know my girl, I'll explain everything in more details next time we have a lesson! Oh, be prepared to learn all those infrastructure cores from heart! Ophinis, Zachnisis, Duxchnis!" He said it with a delighted voice remembering all the things he had to learn in the past.
- "No, no! Master, please that's not it!" The girl quickly cried when Shuichi was passing her walking towards the door. He stopped and turned in reaction, with a bright but surprised face.
- "Master Yoshi, the things you explained to us were TOO complicated, I got everything when you explained how the cores reacted with other parts of their structure, but then you began to tell more and more stuff! I couldn't follow it at all!" The girl said it holding her hands tight in front of her. She looked at her master, and startled a bit, quickly bowing and saying - "I'm very sorry master!" apparently just now realizing how blunt her statement was.
But since Shuichi had finally some free in a long time and he was feeling good today he answered totally opposite of what would be expected of him.
"Lack of detail? Is that what you expect of my teachings? You think that explaining only the basics is enough?" Shuichi sighted. - "Very well then. If you'll come to me after class next time I'll have the honour to teach you and your friends, I'll explain things less thoroughly.. as one could say." He chuckled a little from his own joke, and turned to the again bowing student saying thank you a few times.
- "Don't forget to lock the classroom." He said when he was outside and pointed at his desk, where a bunch of keys lay.
- "Eh.. Yes master! I won't disappoint you!" She took the keys, and wanted to bow once more but Shuichi was already gone, leaving her alone in the room.
"Nice kids are those" He though walking the building out. "A little young to teach maybe.. but hey, maybe it's better that way." He made a tired face now. "But sometimes I feel as if they do not grasp my explanations!"
He sighed loudly and raised his head a little, and saw three kids giggling in front wall of the school.
"What can those do at school after school time I wonder.." Shuichi asked himself, and quietly sneaked up behind the kids. When he stood behind them a huge sadistic grin appeared on his face. In front of him three kids were laughing and writing some runes on the walls, in which names and little drawings of themselves had been craved. A kid put his hand on a rune that he just made and an another text was cut into the wall. "Willy 4 ever" it said.
He put his hands on two shoulders of two children, and they flew into the air like cats when they gets scared and screamed like seeing a ghost. When the three of the kids turned, fear and desperation fell on their faces.
Shuichi could see them properly now. These were HIS students, one of the few who "managed" in his lessons, two boys and one girl. The younger boy brunet and smaller than the other boy and the same age of the girl who was gold haired blond and ten years old. The other student was also blond, and he was eleven, he was also halve a head bigger than his friends. They all had huge crystals in their foreheads.
- "Well, well, well. What do we have here? Students trying to find the border of my patience maybe? I want to say that I'm disappointed in you, but I'm not, noticing the fact that I expected this of you, mr. Walker, Junes and lady Angela." He was saying all with a kind voice, but his eyes were burning with will to punish the kids.
- "Ma-master Naga-ayoshi... we didn't expect you to be here.." The older boy responded, the one that Shuichi looked at when saying "Junes".
Shuichi smile became brighter. "Well of course you didn't, otherwise you wouldn't be doing this here? Or are you implying that you would still do this even if you knew I would come?" His eyes were glowing with satisfaction.
- "Never! Never master!" The girl answered fast. "We only.."
- "Were "stupid". Is "stupid" the word you seek?"
- "Not at all master, we didn't expect you to still be on school!" The younger boy joined their explanation with an eager voice.
Shuichi raised a eyebrow, and then began to grin. He took a pencil from one of the boys, and wrote something on the wall, he touched the runic text while turning towards the kids back, the wall changed back to its original form. Almost however, if one would look with a very sharp eye, or just be experienced with runes he would be able to see something in the small bulbs in the wall. "Shuichi fixed this wall" to be exact.
- "Now lets think of a proper punishment, hmm?" Said Shuichi ignoring the fact that the children were tilting their bodies to see what Shuichi did to the wall. "I know!" He slammed his fist into his open hand.
He walked a little forward, and pulled the girl by her hand. "Follow me!"
After some minutes they found not far from school a small field. It was covered with white solid brick stones. Shuichi faced the students as they walked on it.
- "I have created this just for such a occasion. As you may remember or not, during the beginning of your training you were taught how to change solid with rocks who were already transmuted for some part, this made the runes that you had to write shorter and easier, a great thing for starters, and created by me." He paused to underline the fact that he created it and continued as follow "Now I have made this whole area out of these stones, so if you will transmute these you will see that it will take much less work than in our classes."
The older boy smirked a little to loud.
- "What is it Junes?"
The boy was startled a little by the reaction of the teacher on his smirk, and started slowly.
- "Well.. Master we are good in these things, so we don't need this help.."
- "Good?! I can't see that in your grades, but you'll be thankful later... Because you must make me wet with water or let me trip!
The children looked at their master with a strange look.
- "Come on! Don't be afraid!" Shuichi encouraged them enthusiastically.
- "Alright.. let's do this then.." The smallest guy took out a piece of charcoal out of his pocket and sat on his knees down and began writing runes down. The other two followed his example.
Shuichi looked a little disappointed, and walked to the younger boy, who was concentrating himself on the runes.
-"A little complicated, hmm?" Shuichi said to the boy, and as he looked up Shuichi erased his runes by trapping the charcoal of the ground.
-"Whaa-aaat!?" The kid yelled at his ruined runes. "Why did you do that for?!"
- “If I challenge you, that means we are in a fight, and don't think I'll wait for your runes!”
Saying that Shuichi kicked the kid a little back, but he fell pretty hard. "Ouch!"
- "Show me you're no weakling!"
The boy stood up and pushed Shuichi, but he simply stepped away, and pulled the boy at his clothes and let him fall once again, the other boy made slide aimed at Shui's legs to make him trip but Shui caught the boy at his legs, raised him, and released him. "AAAA! Master!!" The boy yelled before he hit the brick.
- "I got the water!" The girl yelled when she completed her water creating rune, but when she activated it, a ball of water appeared in front of her and fell almost immediately only making a small pool water.
- "You won't defeat me with this! The morale of this training is team work!"
The girl rushed at Shuchi, and the moment before she wanted to kick him, the boys bull tackled him from behind. Shui made a salto backwards making the friends dash into each other, but they quickly stood again determined to defeat their master.
Junes rushed with his fist at Shuichi, who caught his fist, then the other boy jumped on his shoulders and made tried to punch him but Shui responded the same way as before. Then the girl pushed the two standing boys making them fall on Shuichi, who almost fell losing his balance, but managed to take the boys and turn toward the earth and make them fall instead. With this motion he also kicked the girl away.
"Neee~!!! Master th-th-that huuuuuurt!!!” The girl began to cry. Shuichi sighted, and the two other boys ran towards the girl. "This a fight Angela.. you can't cry if I only do THAT!"
The girl sniffed a few times, and the group looked angrily at Shuichi, who stepped away a little. They stood in a circle and began to plan how to defeat Shuichi.
"Oi, you can't discuss like that! I'm still here!" Shuichi whispered when he suddenly stood just next to them. From surprise they all jumped back, and Shuichi pointed at the ground, and the kids looked at it slowly…
A rune was drawn on the earth, and Shuichi's leg was on it and activated the rune…
At that moment spikes came out from the earth around him, the boys managed to evade them, but Angela tripped and.. *Flash*
One of the rocks grew right into her face, Shuichi however made the rocks very fragile and they broke on impact, yet Angela was stunned of the sudden realization that she could died just a second ago.
The boys dashed at Shuichi as if trying to avenge her. Junes made a jump kick and Shuichi caught his leg and used him as a sword to bash walker away, and threw him at Angela. Walker stood up in one motion with falling, and kicked Shuchi in his legs, Shuchi made a dangerous move almost falling, but he jumped on his arms and stood up again, pushing Walker away, but before he could complete that, something pulled him away. A spike.. just like his. He looked at the Junes and Angela, who together copied his rune, smiling brightly pointing at the spike. Shuichi looked at the spike and saw Walker jumping from it at his head.
He fell in his face and held it strongly, while the other kids were drawing more runes. Shuichi bashed his head against the side of the spike, and the boy fell of. He turned towards the others and drew something making a crack in the ground were they were a while ago but only the rune was remaining there.. he turned and three kids were sitting in front of a circle full of runes and forced all with both their hands their energy into the rune. The place rumbled, and from the kids to Shuichi the earth lowered making a huge two metered deep hole.
- "Smart.. smart it is.."
He stood near a wall and across the hole they were running now at him. He took a piece of charcoal out of pocket with his left hand and was writing something behind his back, to Angela looking as if he was just standing because she ran way faster than the boys. When she was just about to attack him, he quickly moved away activating his rune. "WATCH OUT ANGELA!" Junes yelled, but Angela saw it already, at what she was running with full speed, a spike that was growing in her direction. She closed her eyes and punched it with both her hands away from her, at Shuichi. It broke immediately and the pieces flew at Shui's face. He to cover it, which made him open and Junes punched him in his side. "Great Angela, don't repeat a mistake, but use it against your enemy!" He yelled while kicking Junes away, and caught Angela at her legs, throwing them out, making her spin out of the hole. A loud "ouch!" was heard, but Shuichi was already attacked by Junes. Junes attacked with his right hand, but Shui quickly pushed it away with his, and had his left open at Junes and tried to punch him in the face, Junes however quickly ducked, and headbutted into Shuichi's belly, who pushed him away with his leg, and turned looking for Walker.
Walker was sitting writing a spike rune as quickly as he could, but he was alone which made it hard. Shui dashed at him, and tried to kick him in his movement, but Walker simply rolled around Shuichi, and when Shuichi had outrun him and the rune, and turned he quickly activated the rune, even though it wasn't completed yet and jumped back pretty far, expecting something to explode. His expectation came true, and Shuichi was about to jump back too, but he saw Junes rushing right at him, and the rune. So he stepped forwards, over the rune, and pushed Junes away from it, and it exploded. The earth on which the rune was placed exploded right into Shuichi's belly.
-"AH! You IDIOT! I taught you NEVER to activate uncompleted runes, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN OR WHO YOU WILL HURT!" He angrily faced Walker, but he didn't hear him.
He was dashing at Shuichi, and the only thing in his mind was defeating his master. “Showing him that he's not someone to played with!” He ran at Shuichi and wanted to hit him in the belly who was still hurt because of the explosion. "Damn you!" Shuichi yelled, and caught Walkers right arm with his, and pulled him to himself. As Walkers hand was sliding next to Shuichi, he drew with his left arm runes on it, and then caught him at the shoulder. "This rune is incomplete.. want to know what will happen when I'll activate it?" Shuichi whispered, and Walkers eyes were fixed on his arm held by Shuichi, trying to push himself away. Everything froze and stopped moving. Angela who was on the side of the hole with wide eyes, and Junes was sitting and looking carefully at Shuichi, who had just saved his life pushing him away from the explosion. "If I wouldn't interfere... you may have hurt Junes, but you didn't care what would happen right? Well we'll see. Sometimes inactive runes don't do anything… or sometimes they explode or transmute their surrounding dramatically…" Now Walker was looking with deep eyes at Shuichi's face, filled with fear. "We'll see."
Shuichi activated the rune, and Walkers arm began to shine blue. Junes gasped, and Angela screamed. Walker yelled in fear, pushing himself away from Shuichi holding his arm.
Nothing happened.
Walker fell on his knees trembling. "This is what happens when someone will play with runes." Shuichi said coldly. "I know what I do, but you don't." He took Walker and put him out of the hole. He turned towards Junes wanting to say that "it's only us two" but Junes had already a rune created. A water rune that is. Activating it, quite allot water began to flow from the rune. Because it was a hole the water would spread itself quickly and Shuichi would be wet in a matter of seconds. Would.
"Too bad I can also use the fact that this is easy material Junes." And he completed writing something on the wall what he started just before the clash. The water began to come close to Shuichi as the whole area which used to be pulled downwards, was pushed upwards ten meters in the sky. The speed with which this happened blew the water away, and Shuichi was standing in front of Junes on a ten meter height platform.
Junes was looking at Shuichi with unsure look.
-"Master, why are you doing this?"
-"Why? Why you ask? You shouldn't play around with runes. Runes are serious business. It isn't fun at all, just like falling from this platform."
Junes looked confused, but he soon found out what Shuichi was meaning, as he walked towards him slowly.. and unexpectedly kicked him the belly.
Everything happened fast. Junes was pushed backwards and fell of the border, yelling his lungs out. His two comrades drew their runes with great speed like never before. A few thin bars appeared out of the wall of the arisen ground, and Junes fell through them slowing himself down, however getting hurt pretty badly.
-"Still alive down there?" Shuichi's voice came from above. "Maybe we should call it even... or should I say my victory?"
-"N-not yet!" Junes cried from below, because his back hurt him really bad now.
"We'll defeat you for sure!"
Shuichi grinned. These kids were really eager to beat him back. Oh well, he had no plans for the moment so he didn't mind extending their punishment a little longer.
He jumped off the platform on the other side, and sneaked once again up to the kids. There they were again discussing their plans.
"I though they learned..." Shuichi complained to himself.
There he stood behind them again. "Hey guys.. didn't I say not to repeat your mistakes-"
- "-but to use them at your enemy!" The kids continued, and Junes and Angela jumped back, so did Shuichi due his reflexes, but Walker stood still, and pointed at the ground.
There was a rune drawn… an pretty complicated one as one may say. Complicated for students that is.
Four walls of two meters height grew from the earth and surrounded Shuichi, sealing him and Walker in a sort of a room without a roof, because the other two ran away.
- "I'll better follow them after I'll finish you, eh?" Shuichi smiled at Walker.
- "Not if things depend on ME!" He pointed enthusiastically at himself and dashed once more at Shuichi. Shuichi was prepared for an attack in his waist height, but the kid instead of tackling him, just run between his legs. Shuichi turned confused, and Walker ran up to the wall, and took out a crayon from his pocket and began to scrabble something on the wall.
-"I won't let you!" And Shuichi tried to grab Walker, but he slipped once more beneath him away, and smirked triumphfully. On the wall was written: "Catch us if you can masty!" Beneath it there was a drawing of a rabbit. When Shuichi stopped reading the boy was already over the wall.
Sight.
Shuichi Sighted.
- "I guess these kids... oh well, I'll just finish them." Shuichi hated seek and catches. He noted a rune down on the wall, a decomposition rune actually, and the wall broke down.
"!!"
Shuichi tried to jump away when he saw the weird way the wall was falling apart. It was too late. It happened.
Behind the apparently very thin wall, an another thin wall was transmuted, and in between, it was filled with water. So when Shuichi broke the first one down, the water fell on him. Not entirely but he got wet, and that meant that he lost. The second wall broke, and revealed three drowned bright smiling kids.
Shuichi didn't knew what to say at first but then he began to laugh loudly.
- "Hahahaah! I NEVER expected you to actually succeed, and be sure that this victory will be written down as a good note!" He wept some water of his face, and came closer to the kids and kneeled down.
"But the lesson I wanted to teach you... was to never use runes just for fun, will you promise me that?"
The kids didn't answer for a while looking at each other, but then raised their hands as a sign of a promise. "We will never ever again master Yoshi!"
"Perfect! Then you are all dismissed!" Shuichi raised his hand back too.
"I'll have to clean this mess..."
He sighted loudly again today, turned, and took out a piece of pergament from his pocket with pre-written runes...
~~Later~~
Shuichi was galloping on his horse to visit his friend Reigratto. When he had some time free, he rode around the island helping people joining talks, joining funs. He was better known in the area near the school, because he spent allot of time near there. He was treated kindly since he was always ready to help, and could perform some significant things with his knowledge of runes. He also spend allot of his time experimenting around the island, and was a interesting topic around children, who were easy amused, and a hero among ladies for his looks.
Some women smiled and waved to him, and he raised one hand, but didn't look at her. "I wonder how Reigratto is doing..."
Teaching those kids reminded him of his home, and the place where he learned using runes properly. When he was poor and he created coins with runes in them, yea that were the times…
~~Shuichi - 8 years old~~
The sun shone hot on Shuichi's back, and he was pushed around by bigger people who were walking in the opposite direction that he did. The small roads of the city were crowded, and all kinds of shops were placed on the sides in between the houses. Sometimes someone was selling something in small cars or on a small table at the side of the road, or they were showing something like dancing with snakes, or drawing something. Even if Shuichi would care about it he wouldn't be able to come closer and see it, because they were usually surrounded thickly by people clapping every now and often when the show stopped. But Shuichi didn't really bother with these things, he thought that art is a waste of time, the whole world was based on Mathematics, and everything was exact, and not vague and weird like the people on the sides of the streets.
There was no place in the city for a small and weak boy, even if he knew some tricks he would call "transmutation" but the older people called it "rune casting" or "rune magic". Whatever it was, it made the people evade him, and respect him more. He however used it to play, and to "receive". He decided some years ago when he was abandoned and could not find work that he would become a "receiver". He would receive anything he wanted from people and people would listen to him. Things didn't go out as great as he expected and people caught him and hurt him calling him a "thief" whatever that could be.
However these runes helped him in playing the game with the bigger people. He was respected by people a little older than him, but the people who he used where usually mad, and chased him when they saw him. Shuichi began to feel a little hungry, so it was time to "receive" some food. He could smell the smell of fresh made breed, and saw through the clouds of big people a small sign with a bread drawn on it, a bakery it was.
He slowly entered the shop after he had pushed himself through the hordes of people who were staring in front of a yet another show of art. The shop was pretty small but wide, and in the desk was close to the door. The door was on the left side, and on the right of the shop two chairs were standing, with one sleeping old man sitting on one of them. Only he and the baker himself doing something behind the desk having his back to Shuichi and the man were in the shop. Great.
The baker was a little fat for as far Shuichi could see, and he walked up to the desk and his head was a little above it and started: - "Good sir, can I have a bread?" The man turned and was indeed a little overweight. He had a large moustache and a beard, black hair and small eyes couldn't almost be seen because of his great eyebrows. He looked really nice, and Shui regretted that he had to receive from this man.
- "One bread?" The man laughed a little with a very low but sympathetic voice.
- "What kind of "one bread" do you want?"
- "The one that you just made, the one I can smell."
The man looked for a while at Shuichi, but Shui couldn't see what he was thinking because of his thick haired face, and then turned went futher in the shop, and after a while returned with a thick bread and handed it over to Shuichi. The desk was open on one side, so when Shuichi would flee the man would easily follow him, and even thought he was fat, he looked incredible strong.
- "That will be twelve cents then." The man looked carefully at Shuichi, who took out three coins of different sizes. When the man wanted to take them however Shuichi didn't let them go. "Wha-" The man started, but it was too late. Shuichi threw the coins and allot of smoke appeared. In the confusion the man jumped back, and Shuichi ran out of the shop. Outside he didn't rune however. He knew that the man wouldn't follow him, blocked by various weird things that blocked his door by now. He slowly walked away, and took a bite out of his bread...
~~
Shuichi arrived at Reigratto's place. It was a not big but not small building with the shop build into it. It was really nice to live there, and Reigratto lived quite happily. Shuichi always knew that his backing would come in fit one day. He stepped of the horse, and left it. It was not like anyone would steal a horse from Shuichi in this area anyway, and walked to the house. A very well done door was decorating Reigratto's house, and several silver looking objects made it even more pretty. Shuichi knocked two times on the door, and after a moment the door opened.
A short black haired woman wearing a apron was standing in front of Shuichi.
- "Oh, mister Nagayoshi! I didn't expect you to come! I was just cooking, and-" A nice woman, but always a little stressed. At least when Shuichi came, Reigratto swore the she wasn't like this normally.
- "Don't worry Marry. I won't stay long. If I will stay actually, is Reigratto available? And call me Shuichi, please." Shuichi smiled, but he had said that last line over a hundreds times to her.
- "Oh, yes! Of course! Come in, come in!"
When Shuichi walked inside he didn't even wait for her. He walked into the living room and saw what he expected. A demon looking man sitting in a purple robe reading a book in a huge and fine chair.
- "Good to see you again my friend."
The man rose his head, and a huge smile filled his face.
- "Very good indeed my former master."
"I told you not to call me that, it's very crumbling in front of... her." Shuichi pointed with his finger behind him, meaning Mary of course, Reigratto’s wife.
- "Well, what brings you here? You haven't visited us in some months, I though you had forgotten us." Reigratto said with a complaining voice.
- “You know me Rei, I have a busy life and I help lots of people whenever I can help people around me!”
Reigratto smiled.
- “Heh, I sure know, all kinds of rumours go around here about you. People tend to talk allot when buying cakes and pies.”
Shuichi bowed forwards smiling with a interested face but tried to answer with a on interested one, but he failed miserably.
- “Soo… what to these people say about me?”
He big grin flowed on Reigratto’s face.
- “WELL, the do you say you have quite some talent for being a rune master, and some even say you are very good looking too… (He meant Shuichi’s fan girls, as he had some around his age.) However some say that you ride too much around and that you should visit some old friends more often.”
Shuichi let him fall completely in his chair relaxing more this way.
- “Hey, it was YOUR idea to settle down in a far off the center place… like a little crowd is THAT bad.”
- “It isn’t my fault that you wanted to stay with that Indher person so badly. You really should get married too, then you would understand me. Or is this a way of coming closer to this person? Maybe you want Indher to be the lucky one?”
Shuichi blushed a little and sighted.
- “No, no, she’s only helping me with my research, that’s all. And I’m teaching these younglings, if I would go away they would miss a hell of allot, since I’m one of the very few on this island who actually knows runes properly… it would be a too big change for them so suddenly…”
And then something hit him. The thing he needed was so close! Of course, that was the answer!
He was drowned away in his flow of thoughts and only heard Reigratto talking half eared about something with “excuses”.
When Reigratto took out a huge cigar Shuichi stood up, and took it out of his hands before he ignited it.
- “You know that is bad for you. I really need to go now, I have lot’s of work to do!” He put the cigar into one of his pockets.
- “It seems that something crazy hit you again? It’s that isn’t it? I know that look in your eyes whenever it happens… well there’s nothing to do against it once it begins, I’m glad that I could be in help of something.”
Soon he stood outside in front of his horse holding some pies that Marry had handed him, even after he had rejected them. He heard a loud “Come back soon” and he departed swiftly. He was just about to finish his ace.
~~ Night ~~
It was black, the only source of light was the moon and some lanterns who were standing far off by the road. Shuichi walked further in to the park, to a place where he wouldn’t be seen. To a place where he could test his newest experiment. He made sure that no one would find him, by placing some anti discovery measures, and he walked towards a giant rock.
He took out with his left hand a small book, a note book, and pulled his right hand out too. On his right hand he had a hand glove filled with all kinds of weird signs. These were however hard to see and the only good to see things were two circles filled with some signs in them in the hand palm and on the top of it.
He opened the book finding the intentioned page immediately, and touched with his two biggest fingers the page. Something shone shortly, but nothing more happened. He now took a deep breath, and touched with his right hand the rock. Immediately all kinds of sign appeared on it, and with the same speed the rock changed into a silver ball.
- “Great.”
He hid the book, and he had the same, or at least same looking glove in his left hand. He let the centers in his palms touch, and just like the glove took information from the book, his left hand took information from his right. He touched the now silver ball, and something began to shine red, and the ball was back to it’s original state, a round rock.
- “Now for the final test…”
He took both his hand in front of him, and touched the rock now. The light flashed and disappeared, if one had a good eye, he would see the rock changing into a ball and backwards constantly. In instance the rock disappeared. Something blue looking like gas was now floating in between his two palms. It was like fell mist, coloured dark blue.
He closed his palms and opened them again. The mist was gone, but the signs on his gloves seemed to shine… blue.
He could feel a great flow of joy coming, and put his hands into his pocket. There he felt something… it was long, and a little soft…
The cigar he took away from Reigratto.
He took it out and looked at it for a while. Then he put it into his mouth and lighted it.
- “I guess I deserve something sometimes too!”
~~ ~~ Apparently somewhere else ~~ ~~
Puco looked upwards at Sienna.
"Of course you are ready Senny! He's your BROTHER! If I had one I would play with him aaaaaa-aaaaaall the time!"
She stood up and raised her hands. "I would show him everything I saw, and I would be NEVER alone! And even if he did something suu-uuper mean to me, I wouldn't be mad, and I would forgive him anyway!
The fact the she was born alone and lived alone was very outstanding now. She turned to Sienna.
"Let's go and find him! It can't be far away can it?!"
-
// Need to be on more often. Might need your help for this one Xorlak.
Koji floated far above the flying capital, gazing out into the open, Seeing everything around her as if Welkin had never been destroyed. She thought she would never be more happy living on the old Crimson capital, but she was wrong. It wasn't as fun as she hoped it would be. Hence every now and then she floated above, cross-legged, observing the lands below.
The younger Velkens played and chased eachother around in their make-believe Welkin, as if they didn't even care their old homeworld was demolished. "Stupid kids..." Koji thought to herself. She then remembered a time when she was young. Nothing was ever easy back then. She wasn't even 'able' to play with her friends or goof around with them... if she had any, for that matter.
"This is just so boring! I wish I was out there, fighting something! I don't care if I go alone or not, I just want to fight! I've been parched for battle for ages... hang on a sec, I think the sky just got darker... and that smell... oh no." The floating capital was nearing the old Dark Continent. She may have not cared if it weren't for the ships and the people everywhere.
"That can't be good!" She flew back down to the ground and went into the highest tower of the island. Hopefully, she would find Virmir in there. This news was bad indeed. She climbed in through a window and landed on the red carpet of a throne-like room, with no throne. There were plenty of Velkens scattered about in the room, yet it took Koji a matter of seconds to find Virmir among them. She put her first and second fingers on her forehead, in an attempt to telepathically speak to Virmir.
"Lord Virmir, it's Koji. The Island is nearing Terian! Normally I wouldn't care as much, but there are people gathered around the south coast as if they are going to start fighting. It looks like the Federation. Do you think we should help them at all?"
-
- Random forest in Terian -
Sienna took a deep breath and stood up. "I'm a little nervous but excited to about this. Thank you so much Puco, for your help. This will be great."
Suddenly there was a rumbling sound. The trees shook, leaves fell from them and birds flew out.
"What's going on?" Sienna then went to where there was an opening through the trees to outside valleys. There she saw several gigantic spider-like undead monsters. "I think it's a Kandarinian Army. Oh no. We better stay safe..."
--- ---
- Terian, South-eastern coast -
"You nervous?" Duilin asked Zimmerman
"Wha? Oh, no...not so much." He replied with a smile.
"Hahah." Duilin laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "You'll do alright."
"See...look at that." Firstman sneered.
"What?" Marshall replied, while still reading his book.
"Right there. General Talonscar is already treating the new kid better than me."
"Well of course he is."
"What?"
"He's new, like, really new. He's boosting his confidence so he'll do better."
"Yeah...but I mean...never mind." Firstman crossed his arms and looked out of the window of the ship. "How long is this going to be."
"I'm sure we're almost there. Just calm down."
"I'm calm."
"No you aren't." Marshall lowered his book "I haven't said this before, but ever since we chose to leave the Aspyes, you've been acting all well...different."
"Yeah, whatever. It's nothing."
"No, it's something. What is it?"
Firstman lowered his voice to a whisper. "I...don't like the Federation."
"Neither do I, but it's probably the best thing for Gaian right now."
"No, I mean. I hate it, I think this is probably one of the worst forms of leadership we've had. Sure it's working now, but that's because it's new. But it's gonna fall down, and it's gonna make things way worse and the world is going to end in a decade or two, trust me."
"What do you mean?"
"Listen, the only way the world can stay together is with total government or no government. And total government is completely cruel, so that's why leaving the Aspyes was wrong. People just don't understand. You should agree with me on this."
"I understand. It's just that people don't want to be treated equally, or if they are then people won't work as hard. Say if you were given everything you want in life, would you feel motivated to work to get more?"
"Well...maybe."
"You see, you don't know. Now say if you had a neighbour who had a house twice as big as yours and had more stuff and a generally better life than yours. What would you do?"
"I dunno. Steal his stuff."
"Yeah, but with the Federation, we have officials who prevent you from doing that. Well, you are free to go and try, nobody is stopping you. But once you get caught, you can except a good whooping and some time in jail. You wouldn't want that so what would you do?"
"I guess, try and get some better stuff on my own."
"Yeah, and in order to do that you have to work harder. And working harder means you contribute more to society. Envy is just one of the many motivations that help fuel society."
"That sounds kind of blasphemous. Isn't envy bad?"
"So they say." Marshall then continued to read his book.
"Alright, we're almost there." Duilin said standing up. "Okay, we will split up into two groups. Vaughn, Lagart you will lead Ryan, Hance, Zuhani and Sheri. Me and Marshall will go with Firstman and Zimmerman.
Soon enough the ship landed ashore not to far from General Nymphadora's ship.
"Alright, let's go!"
The squad then exited the ship and grouped up with Nymphadora's squad.
//I believe Ein said he'll control the oncoming army, which I think he already started in an earlier post.\
-
- Terian, Southeastern Coast -
"High General Talonscar, nice of you to join us." Aaron walked over to Duilin and his group. "This is your squad...? I thought it would be much larger than this! Bah, that matters not now, I need to tell you something. The battle is about to start and the men look a bit nervous. It's probably because we haven't had a decent-sized battle in three years. I would like to ask you a favor. Battle just isn't for me. Not anymore, anyways. I would like you to lead Alpha Squadron, my Drannivolkan Elites. I'm tired of fighting. I've already told them to listen to your command. Very well, I'll be taking my leave. Good luck."
With that, Aaron walked off to the coast and boarded a small ship. The ship was big enough to fit ten people, most likely the Elite's ship. He waved good bye as he set off to Ariosis. "I sure hope that man knows what he's doing with a small squad like that. I hope I made the right decision in letting ten more join up with him. Meh, I was actually eager to fight. But no, that's not for me anymore."
And then, there it was. The storming feet, the sound of a march off in the distance. They were drawing close to the field. Duilin made good time, as they were almost upon the Federation soldiers.
"Draw swords!" Nymphadora unsheathed a brilliant silver blade. It shined even when in darkness. Geomarcus followed and got out his broadsword. The rest of the paladins then unsheathed their swords in a massive, unorganized scraping sound. At least her army was ready. Now for everyone else.
"You heard the lady, ready your weapons!" Jacobie was in front of his army and awaiting the enemy with an eager thirst for blood. His single katana Chillrend was with him, and Karma unsheathed her katana Blazuken. She'd changed the name from Burnermaul, and Jacobie changed his from Chillmaul. The rest of the lizardmen unsheathed their broadswords and picked up their hammers, maces, and axes. General Zabel ordered her unit to do the same, and they followed in suit.
The Verrandel twins already had their Drannivolkan mages preped for battle a long time ago. Each of them had their hands ready for a fire spell or a light spell, depending on the type of enemy.
-
- Terian, Southeastern Coast -
"Don't worry Consular, my group may be small, but trust me. They're good. Helternia has a good habit of being the homeland for some good fighters." Duilin said back to Aaron.
"But yes. I'd be glad to lead your squad." Duilin nodded and waved back as Aaron left.
He didn't really understand that man. He was half Duilin's age but he already acted like an old man. It was unbelievable. But he guessed Aaron may have been more of a diplomat, or he simply just doesn't know what he wants. Regardless, Aaron was a fine consular and was a worthy addition to the federation and he was glad to have a kid like him on his side.
"Alright, draw your weapons soldiers!" Duilin shouted to Alpha Squad.
"Okay kids." He said to his own personal squad. "Once the kandies start rushing in. Split up into the groups I told you two. Vaughn, I'm going to trust you and your group can come up with some heroic and creative ways of taking out the enemy."
"Yes sir. I've got my levitation ability pretty well. I can make some pretty high jumps and can hover!" Vaughn boasted.
"Wait, till you start fully flying before you start bragging." Duilin quipted with a smirk. "And Lagart... just do your thing."
Lagart smiled and nodded.
"Okay, Marshall, Grant, Firstman. We're going to fight along with the Drannivolka for a little while. Marshall summon something big, like an ogre or maybe a minotaur. Firstman and Grant, you can do some sword fighting. I'll take the middle ground and do some spell casting and sword fighting too."
He unsheathed the Iduran.
"It's been awhile since I've used this guy. I think I might give him another go today."
"Him?" Grant asked. "With all due respect, it's a sword sir. What's so special about it."
"It's a long story. But this NOT just a sword!" Duilin replied back, almost sounding a little offended.
"Oh, sorry sir."
"Don't...don't worry about. Anyways, let's kick some ass!"
-
- Terian, South-Eastern coast: about 10 minutes ago -
-"ALRIGHT, GUYS!!!", Keshel shouted to his regiment's squad of about 100 people. "We don't know how big this force is, or how powerful they are! We'll have visual contact in about 10 minutes, make your estimates then! But even when you do see them, assume the worst! We all know we can't depend on our eyes to tell the strength of the enemy anymore. SO LET'S GIVE 'EM HELL!!!"
The crowd roared. Keshel was pleased with the current turn of events... maybe he'd actually have to break some sweat this time. The best part, of course, will be fighting alongside his comrades in battle, for the first time in a loooong while. At that point, he saw Captain Goethe's messenger push his way to the crowd.
-"Dammit," he muttered, "That can't be good."
And indeed it wasn't. The messenger finally got through, saluted Keshel, and began singing his song about the Captain's orders again.
-"Acting-lieutenant Keshel! Captain Goethe would like to request that you send back your squadron."
-"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"
-"Yes, sir. She, uh, mildly expressed her wish -" The messenger rubbed a large cut on his left cheek - "that you send your troops back for the crusade. She did, however, allow you to keep the squad's Necrolytes, as they have not been tested in the battle proper yet."
-"Damn you...", Keshel growled. He knew there was nothing he could do, though. "Fine, take them. How many Necrolytes that leaves me?"
-"Fifteen, sir."
The acting-lieutenant's jaw dropped to the ground.
-"Wait a minute. Just let me get this straight. Our captain, with a little less than five years of commanding experience, is telling me that I am to defeat a small army with FIFTEEN people?!"
-"She anticipated your response, sir, and told me to tell you not to take Necrolytes lightly. She would like to remind you that they are the Necromancer Stalkers of Kandarin, after all."
-"Whatever," Keshel groaned. "Just make sure to write on my gravestone that I was following orders. Anyone who takes 15 people into combat against a force possibly twenty times bigger than this is an idiot. In this case, blame the captain, not me."
-"Yes, sir. If you'll excuse me."
The two troopers saluted each other, and the messenger left. He shouted something to the squad, but Keshel couldn't hear him. He sat down, and watched his regiment line up and start marching back to the main force, leaving 15 Necrolytes with their Augments behind. He eyed them as they approached him.
-"I suppose this is it, huh... All I've got is fifteen guys and fifteen metal zombies. How I wish the captain was a little more understanding..."
Keshel noted that these Necrolytes were dressed differently from your average Kandarinian warrior. Their battle suit was a lot shorter, ending up looking more like a jacket than a short coat. For casters, surprisingly, they all had short rapiers as weapons. The biggest difference, though, was probably the fact that they had a black hooded cape on them as well.
-"On the contrary, pan," he heard a raspy voice coming from one of them. "I am surprised she sent that many of us to deal with a normal human force. Two or three would have been enough."
-"Yes," another one replied. "Pan Vladimir over there, in protest, declared that he will fight them without a Khodovik."
Keshel looked at the strange mages.
-"What's that?"
-"A Khodovik? Pan Keshel might know them as Marchers."
The rest of the Necrolytes made disgusted faces at the mention of their creation said in normal Kandarinian. It seems as though they had their own language, or at least their own terms for the undead beasts they create.
-"Pan Keshel does not need to worry," added a third Necrolyte. "Under the command of captain pan Ssesk, we sometimes received training from the greatest pan Sovereign Kronos himself."
-"Although," interjected the first one. "Sometimes I got the opinion that pan Sovereign was just bored with nothing else to do. In either case, we're ready."
--- --- ---
- Terian, South-Eastern coast, present time -
This certainly did not happen often. Keshel was pleasantly surprised with the way things turned out. After a few minutes of scouring the land for remains, almost all Necrolytes resided in their tall Marcher creatures. Each of them also had an army of about twenty zombies which they gathered while taking over the towns, along with captain Goethe's fifth regiment. Keshel himself stayed inside one of the Marchers, to get a better view of the battle.
The enemy was finally in sight...
-"Yevgeny, please inform the other Necrolytes that we're a go for attack."
-"Yes, pan Keshel."
--- --- ---
- Random forest in Terian -
An ordinary patrol... so boring...
Konstantin, himself mounting one of his pauks, was told to circle around the forest in this region. It was obvious that this was punishment for his neglect for his vischy guardian, or, as the non-Necrolyte Kandarinians called it, Augment. Well, the vischy was fine now, so why did pani General send him on this boring job? Besides, his guardian is his property anyway, so what business does she have ordering him around with it? Then again, it IS pani General, so he shouldn't be complaining. Instead, he should be thankful that she didn't turn him into a vischy guardian himself.
Suddenly, he felt a jolt coming from his vischy. It must've found something... Wow, maybe this patrol will turn out to be not as boring as he thought, after all. He stopped his pauks, and climbed off the one that he was on, headed toward the direction of the jolt.
---
The spider-like monsters suddenly stopped. In the newly-formed silence, Sienna could hear faint, muffled moaning coming from a few meters away. The moaning got closer, now accompanied with a strange sound reminiscent of metal scraping against metal. It drew closer, and closer, and closer...
-
- Fishing ship, sea west of Tjed -
Kelmarr opened the door slowly. Slowly...
Intense sunlight blinded him, and he had to look away. Once his eyes adjusted, he poked his head out and cautiously looked out onto the open ship deck, his heart pounding with fear.
Nothing.
Phew....
He breathed a sigh of relief. No horrible monsters here. No fish men feasting on human remains or anything. Just an empty deck on a peaceful fishing boat. To think he was so scared...
Wait... empty?
He poked his muzzle out the door, angling his ears around, searching for sounds other than the waves. Where in blazes were all the sailors? The alchohol-stenched humans that tattooed anchors and their skin and crap... Shouldn't they be crawling around the place, tending to the sails? Why wasn't there anyone on that... steering wheel thing...?
He stepped out onto the deck, pressing his back against the wall so he might peer around the corner. No one. Great...
He gritted his teeth and drew two daggers-- one in each paw. He considered drawing the sword, hoping perhaps that the gaudy thing had some kinda fancy magic to go with it, but he figured it better to stick with weapons he knew worked... Blast it.... couldn't he catch one break in his entire life?!
He took another careful look around the corner. There... There was something on the wooden floor close to the edge railing. A burn mark?
He gulped and slinked towards it, ready to be jumped at any side. Holding the twin daggers to his sides, he leaned over the thing on the ground.
A human skeleton. Scorched? It couldn't have been... it was deteriorated and crumbling, as if it had been there for millennia... the pieces flaking off to dust in the brisk sea winds...
That certainly wasn't there when he got on board...
----
- New Welkin, Crimson Palace, Virmir's Chambers -
The silver furred fox's ear twitched slightly at the receipt of the telepathic message, but he did not show it in his face. At least for the moment. His eyes were focused upon a scroll and the quill in his hand flowed across the parchment in fluid strokes. When he was finished, he lifted the paper and handed it to Anselm, sitting across from the desk from him.
"Please, leave me."
Anselm's ears perked in surprise for a moment, but then he stood and bowed. "As you wish, my lord."
He turned, the bright metal of a squad leader's insignia pinned upon his chest. Velkens never wore their ranks in battle, but amongst their friends in times of peace, it was a mark of honor. And Anselm beamed it, a small confident smile crossing his muzzle.
Two younger Velkens followed the recently christened squad leader eagerly, shutting the door behind them. None noticed Ko'ji in the window, and Virmir was left alone at his desk.
Virmir slid another sheet of paper to the center of the desk and dipped the quill in ink.
"Riuki, please enter and sit," he said not taking his eyes off his task.
His movements were slow, suggesting age was beginning to catch up with him. The silver white fur that normally framed the Velkens' faces hid their hairs grayed with age as well, but streaks of white were beginning to show through the black fur that framed his eyes.
"We've been over this before, Riuki," he began, a gentleness still evident in his firm tone, "we will not interfere with the land dwellers' wars, nor will we take any more human lives unless absolutely necessary. That counts for both sides. This isn't our world, and we have no right to judge them. Besides, there is no way they could accept us. Not after what we've done to them..."
He trailed off for a moment, then looked her in the eye. "Should Duilin call, then we shall come, as we are indebted to him. But until then, and I pray that it never happens, then we shall remain in the skies. Hopefully we will never have to draw blood again..."
He looked at her for another moment before breathing a heavy sigh, his ears drooping. "... Although we are also all free to choose our own paths in life. And I can see the one you follow here is not for you..."
He leaned over the desk. "Riuki, I hereby release you from my tutelage. You have learned much over the past three years, and there is nothing more I can teach you."
He opened a drawer and withdrew a shiny medallion of winged fox with crossed swords under its paws. He slid it across the desk. "With skills that outrank both a Blade Knight and a Battle Mage, you are from this point on an Elite. An independent warrior, capable of choosing your own path. If it is your desire to join the battle below, then so be it. Just remember, you will always have a home here."
He smiled a soft, fatherly grin.
-
- New Welkin, Crimson Palace, Virmir's Chambers (above Terian's southern coast) -
Koji slowly entered the room from the window and placed a paw on Virmirs desk, picking up the trinket and placing it around her neck. She beamed with happiness. "Thank you, my lord... my friend..." She bowed to him and walked over to the window, putting a paw on the sil, then looking back, smiling.
"I'll probably be back here after the battle, to look after my siblings and such... but if I'm not, please... send Helix my love." Koji then turned around and leapt out of the window, soaring into the sky like a rocket. She then flew down from the capital and landed on the coast, right near Duilin and his squad.
"I'm here to help you fight," Koji said with a smile, "it would be an honor if you'd have me at your side." Koji bowed, then unsheathed her sword as everyone already has. She then looked forward and picked up a familiar scent. Unlife. The undead would be upon them in a matter of minutes, if not seconds.
-
- South-Eastern Terian border -
Keshel eyed the force. It wasn't very large, but several of the individuals in it seemed a little off... Like the one with the strange sword, or the one that just dropped in, consumed by fire. He will have to take one of them on himself, probably. Most likely the one with the sword...
-"Yevgeny, what's the status of attack?"
-"Right now the Necrolytes are amassing their Mertvetzi in an attacking fashion, pan Keshel."
-"I'm sorry, you'll have to be more general with me... I'm unfamiliar with these terms."
-"This is fine. I am not as piously obsessed with calling things by their proper name as my comrades. Mertvetzi, singular Mertvetz, is the name for any creature we control, undead in general. Peshka is name to the ordinary thralls that we raise. Other, more complex creatures, have their own name. I will tell you when it is needed, pan Keshel."
-"Sounds good. By the way, who's the strongest one of this group?"
-"You, pan Keshel. Necromancy-wise, it is pan Vladimir down at the bottom. I believe he is trying to raise a Pauk, a shorter, but more armoured version of our Khodovik."
-"But how? No one's died yet."
-"You will be surprised, pan Keshel, at how many creatures perished here in the past. Under a short layer of soil there is a fairly large bone field in this area. As such, we have the field advantage in this situation. Captain pani Goethe must have known about this, as usually she would send Stalkers with us to provide usable corpses. Even then, we have our vischy guardians in case if the Stalkers are unavailable."
-"That metal-plated thing there? The Augment?"
-"Yes. Words cannot describe their strength. You must watch, pan Keshel."
-"Alright."
Keshel leaned out of the Marcher, looking at the battlefield below. The clouds were unusually thick today, veiling the whole field in a sheet of blackness. This will probably be an advantage for us as well, he thought, as the undead do not need to see in order to hit their target. They've got some strange way of working...
Suddenly, Keshel noticed the one labelled as "pan Vladimir" in, exactly as Yevgeny put it, a shorter, but heavier-armoured version of the Marcher Keshel was on right now. The spider creature shambled over to the group of invaders. Vladimir stood up, exposing himself outside of his Pauk.
-"We the Kandarinian Sovereignty, Order of Necrolytes demand your designation to coming here. An unsatisfactory answer will result in death... as will a satisfactory one, actually. So choose quickly: death or death. The clock's ticking."
--- --- ---
- A random forest in Terian -
The branches gave way as the scraping of metal reached its peak...
A sight undescribably horrible emerged from the depths of the forest. It looked human... in that, it had two arms, two legs, and a head, but there the similarities ended. The creature's skin was entirely covered in small metal sheets, literally nailed into it. Streaks of caked blood coming from below the sheets suggested that the person was alive when... this was done to it. The face was also covered by a flat piece of metal, with four particularly painful-looking bolts sticking out of the corners. Muffled moaning and laboured breathing were coming from beneath that sheet of metal.
The creature moved. Its movements were extremely twitchy, and were accompanied by the sound of metal plates rubbing against each other. It raised its hand, and then, shaking it, pointed it at Sienna and Puco, emitting a chilling wail.
-"Ah, there you are..."
A man came into the clearing from the same dark tunnel that the metal undead. It was obvious that the sight of Sienna and Puco surprised him.
-"Dear, what do we have here? A pani and a panna lost in the woods... Please excuse my vischy, he has no manners."
The Augment backed off a little, while the Necrolyte offered his hand to Sienna.
-"I'm Konstantin, of the Kandarinian Order of Necrolytes. You must be from one of the villages around here... You know, it's rather dangerous wandering around in the woods like this, especially with the panna there. All sorts of vile creatures tend to be looking for food at night. Come to my pauks, I'm returning from my patrol anyway. I can give you a lift back to your village."
-
- Medium-size Kandarinian Town -
Nex signed himself and the rest of his Talonscar members simply naming them things like Elite 0051, Gleeper 0025 and Steam Demon 0005. He was satisfied with his long list of recruits, yet slightly annoyed with his sore wrist and the massive boredom he’s been enduring. He never had to sign up all of his members like this before, they were simply just members, and were recognized by appearance. They were all one big happy, virgin sacrificing, blood ritualizing family.
The demon handed in the sheets and then went back to Wing. "That was perhaps the most mind numbing thing I’ve done in three years."
"What about before then?" Wing asked.
"Oh, I was floating around in Limbo, pretty much. I hated it. You know what they make you do there?"
"No sir."
"Nothing, they actually force you to sit around and do nothing. At first it doesn’t seem so bad, but it gets boring really quickly. Six years I spent in there. I actually pity those who spend eternity."
"Wait, so you’ve seriously been in Limbo?"
"Yes-sir-e."
"Now, anyways. You were going to talk to me about, what was it? Food?"
--- ---
- Terian South-West Coast, Forest -
Sienna stuttered a bit, she looked still rather frightened by that creature.
"Um...w-we aren't from any sort of village...We are just wanderers." She said.
---
- South-Eastern Terian border -
"Attack!!" Duilin shouted.
Upon his sword, an army of Drannivolka with their swords drawn, swarmed towards the undead army. A large amount of the felines began to fly around Vladimir and dive in swinging their swords.
-
- South-Eastern Terian border -
-"How cute. Panstwo thinks they can use their little butter knives to hurt me. So-wee."
Parrying several strikes with his rapier, Vladimir retreated back inside his Pauk. Some manner of small wings pulled over the entrance to the beast's insides, securing the Necrolyte inside his creature.
-"Heheh," Vladimir chuckled to himself. "Let's begin the fun now, shall we?"
The Pauk seemed to bend forward a little, taking on a definitely aggressive stance. Making several steps backward, it then charged into the bulk of the enemy. Not expecting such speed from such a cumbersome creature, two or three people were caught off-guard by it. They now hung loose on the spikes protruding from the Pauk's carapace.
Meanwhile, Yevgeny and Keshel continued to watch the battle from their Marcher.
-"Idiot," sighed Yevgeny. "Looks like all his talent is going to go to waste at this rate. That is not how one is supposed to defeat foes - by going in straight forward. Pawns go first."
The wavering line of basic undead began creeping forward. They were getting cut down relatively easily, but they certainly did their job of diverting attention. Meanwhile, another Marcher moved in.
-"What's that guy doing?", wondered Keshel.
-"That there is pan Mikola. He developed a curious technique with his Khodovik. Watch him, pan Keshel."
The Marcher certainly looked different from others - on its bottom, it had a short, very thick stump. It seemed to be made out of mushed-together bone and sinew. The Marcher continued walking through the enemy lines...
(Attack: 13)
--- --- ---
- Terian South-West coast, forest -
-"Wanderers? We don't get many wanderers around these parts. Hmm, you're lucky to be found by me, then. Anyone found walking around without a destination is generally thought to be an intruder. After that, you're either killed on the spot, tortured to death, or turned into one of these guys," Konstantin said half-laughingly, patting his Augment on the shoulder. The creature cringed a little. "Depends on how the particular Kandarinian is feeling."
He finally noticed Sienna's scared glances at the Augment.
-"Ah... I see. It took me a while to get used to him, too. That's fine."
The Augment walked away, in those same unsettling, twitchy movements. Meanwhile, Konstantin sat down.
-"I will let you go. However, I must warn you. You are in Kandarin-controlled territory. To reiterate, if you're found by any Kandarinian soldier, you will perish, one way or the other. I am too much of a gentleman to let a pani and a young panna suffer a fate as bad as the Vozvischenie - what others call the Augmentation. Just imagine - white-hot metal plates are applied to your naked body, and once your skin stops sizzling, four painfully long nails are driven into the corners of each plate. This whole time, a Necrolyte is standing by you, keeping you alive and conscious for the procedure. Then comes the worst part... the faceplate."
Konstantin sighed.
-"But enough about that. You've seen the result, and let me tell you, it isn't a very pleasant thing at all. As I said, I can't let that happen. I give you two choices. You can walk free, right now, and stumble into a Kandarinian patrol - and hope that they kill you on the spot, instead of taking you to a town for the Vozvischenie. Or, I can disguise the two of you as prisoners, and get you out of here safe."
Having said all that, Konstantin got up. His spider beasts moved over, and, in a few steps, stopped by him.
-"If I were you, I'd pick the second option. In Kandarin territory, everything has a mind of its own. The Sovereign's Razvedchiks - scouts - are everywhere, and if you happen to bump into one... no amount of running will save you. But either way, the choice is yours."
--- --- ---
- Medium-sized Kandarinian town -
-"Oh, yes. Well, you see... This is the one question that has been bothering me."
Wing stopped to rub his chin.
-"As a non-human, do you get... the feeling? I am talking, of course, about the heart. When you eat their still-beating heart... It feels like their consciousness, their very soul is being added to your own. The effect is such that I cannot resist the temptation of a meal whenever I see it. Good lady General is probably either completely oblivious to this interest of mine, or is simply choosing to ignore it. In either scenario, I must ask you: what is the safest approach to consuming a human... without, say, anyone knowing about it?"
-
-Eastern Gaian Ocean, six miles north of Tjed-
The large, makeshift raft floats slowly south; nothing else can be seen from horizon to horizon. On its flat surface is nothing more then a small simple tent, and a cheap windsail, both of which seem to be made of various patchwork cloths. From beneath the tent folds, an amorphous creature peeks out, his pure white eyes scanning the empty horizon from beneath a worn leather cap. As the membrane below his eyes vibrate, it mimics what sounds like a sigh. The voice it creates is relatively high pitched, sounding not quite alto, but certainly falsetto.
"Are we there yet? I really do not like all this water. I am not comfortable around it. Are we close? I am hungry." As he lets out another sigh, his eyes widen as he receives a telepathic message.
<No, Bishop, we're not there yet. I told you it would take awhile, but we didn't have a choice. From what I could tell, that land held nothing but wilderness and death, and the former was certainly not going to explain the latter... and you couldn't explain either. But, yes, we are close, I can sense land in the far distance. At our rate, we should be there shortly, five days at the most. And no, you're not hungry.>
As his eyes relaxed, the blue gel went about adjusting the sails according to the subtle directions he received.
"...Well, I am bored. And you cannot blame me for not knowing, it is not as if anyone has ever asked me before."
While retreating back into the ragtag tent, the sunlight glints brightly off the emerald hilt of the dagger on the gels awkwardly worn belt.
<I know, Bishop, just be patient. We should just hope that we find someone lucid enough to talk to us. If all we find is more ruins... well, let's just hope we don't.>
The large, makeshift raft floats slowly south; nothing else can be seen from horizon to horizon.
-
~~ Terian South-West coast, forest ~~
Puco looked disgusted at the creature. Hate for it filled her, but sympathy rose too, for the being that it used to be, a normal human. She wouldn't perish like that, but she won't be some kind of prisoner either.
"Well mister Pani, I see you don't like these methods either, but we don't for sure! I don't want to be a prisoner of the death. Death... I never even though about it..." She looked away for a very short while, and returned her look at the man.
She raised one head, and showed her fist.
"Mister Pani, we don't NEED to flee. You see, we'll just fight back! I'm not scared the one that are ALREADY death!"
She touched Sienna in her leg, because she couldn't reach her side without showing it.
"A-are those REALLY d-e-ead?!" She whispered, without any sound of courage, like she just was posing to the man.
-
- Fishing boat, sea west of Tjed -
Kelmarr circled the disintegrating skeleton, dread filling his heart. What on Gaian possibly could have caused this...? He held his daggers to his sides, eyes nervously twitching about.
There... another one...
And another...
The deck was filled with them.
The entire crew?!
"Gah..." He stumbled back, nearly tripping on his tail. It took all his might not to scream like a little girl. And only because he knew that would summon whatever horrible monster did this.
He stood there and breathed, feeling the sea wind kick up. It was cold, even through his fur. Don't panic... Don't panic...
Then he heard a scraping sound...
Panic!!!!!
He spun around, tail frazzled, and slashed at a wisp of wind directly behind him. He charged his right dagger with flame, and the other with ice, totally unsure what he was up against. Mist surrounded him, and the edges of the ship became indistinct. He clenched his teeth and growled, eyes wild with fear.
Fear... the word... the notion rang through his mind. He spun around again and again as the pale grayness replaced every part of the boat, even the wooden deck beneath his feet.
The scraping sound again... a shadow lurching across the ground...
What.
Do.
You.
FEAR?!?!
It caught him by the leg, quickly wrapping around his lower body. Now he screamed in abject horror, dropping his knives as the coils tightened. Off-white scales paralyzed his body, and a huge serpentine head descended from the mists above, crimson eyes glowing as it smiled...
-
- The Dead Island -
Royen Beastkeeper laughed. “Har, har, har! Can’t speak? Didn’t the lovely Gwenivere tell you? You need the help of another!” He held up a piece of cloth.
“How do you know Gwen?” Akran asked, puzzled.
“Well, me and my crew traveled to Margonite Island.” Royen looked at Akran as if to say 'Duh!' He continued, “She told me everything, after a little persuasion, of course.”
“What do you mean by everything?”
“Well, I do know that your name is Akran Drennen and you are searching for a stone,” said Royen clasping his hands together, “And I know that we will fight over it, but you will lose, of course. ‘Tis ‘cause you are weak and too ‘fraid to fight the master of the seas! Har, har, har!”
“Ah,” said Akran, “I see. You would like to get your filthy hands on the Spinel, I presume?” Akran shook his head and stepped closer to Royen. “You really think I’d let a bastard like you steal the only thing that can help me defeat my brother?”
“I have no intention on stealing it, mate,” answered Royen, “From whom would I steal it from? No one owns it, yet.”
“So, what happens now?”
“Well, I says it like it is. We could have a full out battle - my crew versus half of yours,” Royen smirked, “or we can settle this like two pirates and take it out on the open sea, but I know you wouldn’t settle for that either. Gwen told me a lot about you. You fancy her, don’t you?”
When no reply came, Royen chuckled and stepped right up to Akran’s face. “Ah ha… yes of course,” he said seeing the look on Akran’s face, “I know what you want.” Royen and Akran both gripped their bows tightly. Royen had his feathered raven bow.
“What is it that I want?” said Akran through his clenched jaw.
“We’ll play it by your rules.” Royen backed up and addressed both crews. “Everyone back off! This is between me and this kid: a duel between two archers.” Royen laughed at the sound of it. Turning back to Akran, Royen said, “I’ll give you ten seconds head start. Get your ass movin’ chump! Har, har, har!”
Akran glared at Royen for one more second, and then took off in the direction of the nearest crumbling building. Royen did the same, but in the opposite direction.
When Akran got to the house, he spun around the wall, and not a moment to soon, for an arrow came whizzing by him almost taking his head off. It thudded into the wooden wall with a cloud of black feathers. What the hell was Royen’s bow made of?
“So much for the ten seconds,” Akran muttered to himself as he drew an arrow and latched it onto his bow. He waited a few seconds then peeked out from behind the wall. All he could see was his crew running back in the direction of the ship followed by those pirates. “Damn it.”
The house he was in was in better condition than the others, and it even had a staircase leading up to a second floor. Passing the mural, Akran tested the first few stairs. They seemed to hold, but he still climbed the rest carefully.
The second floor had no roof, only a couple of broken walls. Akran ducked behind one that would give him a clear shot of the ruin Royen was in. He tightened his grip on the bow string and carefully peeked over the wall. He quickly scanned the scene.
He saw a faint movement to his right so he got his bow ready and aimed it in the direction, still keeping his body protected by the wall. Akran stared down the shaft, ready to fire at anything that moved.
A few moments passed, and there was another movement. It was by the door frame of the house. Akran could only see a foot sticking out from behind it. He aimed, and fired. The boot was pierced and flung across the room. Oh no, a decoy! Akran felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder as a black feathered arrow hit him. He fell back on his back and rolled over. Grimacing, he ripped out the arrow. Ouch!
Akran breathed heavily. An odd sensation spread from the wound across his chest. He tried to ignore it and he sat up with his back to the wall. He took a chance and glanced around the corner. To his surprise, Royen was standing in the middle of the ashes, totally exposed. Ignoring the pain in his right shoulder, Akran drew another arrow and took aim and fired it below at Royen. He didn’t move, even though the arrow missed by inches.
Royen looked at the arrow that just missed him and then raised his hands and called up to Akran. “Go on! Try and hit me again!”
So, Akran tried again. He pulled himself together and fired another arrow. It missed again. What is going on? Royen was in plain view. Akran’s shoulder was injured, but that shouldn’t stop him hitting an impossible-to-miss target, yet his arrows still missed him. Soon there were several arrows in the dirt around Royen, all just inches away from their mark.
“Give up! You can never hit me now!” Royen yelled up to Akran all the while laughing, but keeping a calm composure. “Don’t you know that ravens are bad luck?” He held up his raven bow. “Your done, matey.”
Does that bow actually make me miss? Akran couldn’t believe it.
“My luck will probably soon wear off, so I guess I should be leaving.” With that, Royen hurried to the building Akran was on top of to claim his prize - the Majeuri Spinel. He had his piece of cloth ready and everything.
Akran groaned and tried to stand up. He was unsteady on his feet. The wound was making him nauseous. Had Royen poisoned his arrows too?
He heard Royen enter the house. No! Must stop him… Akran tried to take a step.
Below he heard a gasp and cry of triumph. Suddenly the entire structure shook violently. Akran stumbled to the stairs, but fell over. He was starting to lose consciousness. Blackness was closing in around him as the house continued to shake.
Akran vaguely saw, through half closed eyes, Royen running away from the crumbling building holding a shiny object in his hand. That was it. Royen Beastkeeper had found the Majeuri Spinel.
The floor collapsed and Akran was sent tumbling into darkness.
-
- South-Eastern Terian border -
"Alright boys." Duilin said to the others. "Let's take out the Marcher."
"How?" Firstman asked.
"I'll fly above it and charge up a large fireball. Marshall, summon up something big to distract it and hold it off from attacking anyone else, then summon a wyvern and start shooting it at, further distracting it. My fireball likely won't kill it, but it will knock it over. The necrolyte will likely still be alive as well. If he's still alive then Grant, Firstman and the big-monster need to rush in and kill him, really quickly. It's very important that he gets killed quickly."
"Why?" Grant asked.
"Trust me. Alright, let's go." Duilin flew up in the air, until he was about 60 feet in the air. Once he reached the height he began to summon fire into his hands to create a large fireball.
Marshall held out his amulet and shot a blue fog that formed into an ogre and then shot another fog that formed into a wyvern. He hopped onto the wyvern and then flew up in the air and began to circle around the wyvern and the ogre rushed towards the marcher. Marshall had a fire crystal loaded in his MagiPistol, he held onto the wyvern with one hand and shot fireballs at the marcher with his MagiPistol.
The ogre ran towards on of the Marcher's legs and then smashed his club right into it...
---
- Terian South-West coast, forest -
Sienna seemed to have noticeably calmed down a bit. She looked at Puco. "He did say that we'd only be pretending to be prisoners. Then again, I'm not one hundred percent sure if it would be the best idea to trust him."
"Although, I don't know what you'd have to gain, to lead us on and then crush us. But a lot of you Kandarin's are a weird lot...No offensence. It's not like I'm a very normal person myself."
--- ---
- Medium-sized Kandarinian town -
"That my friend..." Nex began. "I'm not very experienced with. Because, if you've noticed I am famous for wounding, torturing, killing and then eating my human victims. You see, if I wasn't famous for doing what I do, then I would be the person to ask. But I don't bother hiding what I do from you mortals because frankly, I don't care too much what you think of me. In fact, I act fairly normal for a demon, so people shouldn't even judge me in the first place. It's been a proven fact that human meat is the healthiest thing for demons to eat. They've got a lot more water in them then demons do, and demons come from a hot place. We get humans coming into Thanatos, a world of fire and brimstone, all the time. Where else can we get our water?"
"Yet sadly, you've chosen an odd path for a human. This is something that will make people think ill of you. However, I don't. In fact I praise you. You'd make a good demon."
"But eating somebody with them knowing, well simply you'd have to learn to kill without people learning. Or do you wish to feast on the dead in the battle field? Well, I suppose you could volunteer to manage the dead. Or work at a crematorium perhaps. And since I like your style so much, I'd even be willing to cover for you if necessary. Say, if I know you're in a room having some dinner, I'd advise people not to bother you. Hmm?"
-
- Medium Kandarinian town -
Wing smiled again with one of his warm smiles.
-"Thanks, Nex. While humans are ordinary food for you, I... like to think of myself as a hunter. I pride myself on the very process of the hunt. The food I get is the reward. Just as nature intended, don't you think?"
The lieutenant came to a stop.
-"Unfortunately, duties of Kandarin call me away. I will keep your suggestions in mind. We will meet again, Captain. Meanwhile, I suggest you go and familiarize yourself with your regiment. Get to know the people you'll be sending to their deaths. It's always good practise to comfort your subordinates by letting them place the blame for their deaths on someone or something other than their own incompetence. Bye-bye."
--- --- ---
- South-Western Terian coast, forest -
Konstantin sighed.
-"Yes, I suppose. After all, you and I are enemies, aren't we?"
He got off the ground. At the same time, all of his pauks but one strode out of the meadow, around the forest.
-"I can honestly say I tried to convince you, so if I hear of your deaths, I can still sleep peacefully at night. Although by your looks... Even if you were somehow more powerful than an ordinary pani out for a stroll, I sincerely doubt your abilities when matched against a vischy. Either way, good luck. You're going to need it in this area, especially with the news I heard of captain Eris' punishment squads mobilized here recently."
Utilizing the spines around the pauk's carapace, Konstantin climbed on top of it.
-"Last chance to reconsider before I move off."
--- --- ---
- South-East coast of Terian -
The Marcher shook its leg in annoyance of being cracked by an Ogre. The Necrolyte inside of the turtle-like shell on top of the towering legs seemed to be completely oblivious of Duilin charging his attack. Instead, he seemed concentrated on driving his Marcher into the enemy midst, albeit without doing much damage. The troops easily avoided the towering legs before they slammed the ground.
Something strange was happening to the cylindrical mess stuck to the bottom of the Marcher. The sinew and flesh pulsated once, and began to contract in an odd fashion, slowly rotating around its centre. It looked like a giant spring coiling itself for some unknown purpose.
Meanwhile, the other Marchers started to move in. Their movements were much more random than the one in the middle, trying to trample as many soldiers as they could. Keshel apathetically observed the fight from the only Marcher still standing motionlessly on a hilltop, some distance away from the battle.
-"Hey, Yevgeny - see that guy up there? The one with the cute little sparks in between his hands?"
-"What about him, pan Keshel?"
-"Do you think a fireball like that one is enough to destroy a Marcher?"
-"Difficult to say, pan acting-lieutenant. Firstly, we cannot really know how much energy that pan can concentrate in a fireball of any size, that depends solely on his skill. Second, although pure bone mertvetzi are highly resistant to flame, it is possible that the attack is meant to knock the Khodovik down and not obliterate the cockpit completely... Pity, though, because that is what I would have done in the flying pan's place."
Yevgeny scanned the battlefield for one last time.
-"I will take my leave of you, pan Keshel. If yonder force is enough to kill fourteen Necrolytes, then it is enough to kill fifteen as well. Unfortunately, I cannot be allowed to die yet. I must report to my superiors on the status of this regiment here."
-"Go ahead, Yevgeny. Meanwhile..." Keshel took out an almost one metre-long blade with a sinister-looking serrated section in the middle. "I'm going to decorate your Khodoviks there with that novice's guts. Later."
Keshel leaped off the Marcher, landing gracefully on the ground below, and charging right into the swarm of attackers. Yevgeny the Necrolyte looked at the dark figure.
-"You do that, acting-lieutenant pan Keshel the Voracious." His face twisted into a markedly evil grin. "You do that."
With those words, Yevgeny's Marcher mutated itself slightly. Four of its eight legs dropped to the ground, and attached themselves as extensions of the remaining four, making the Marcher even taller than usual. The abomination turned around, and began galloping away from the scene of the massacre at a ridiculous speed, granted to it by the extension of its already long legs.
---
Keshel's appearance did not go unnoticed. Several enemy soldiers turned around, just in time to see a dark silhouette in an inhumanly high leap, and perhaps the bleak shine of a long blade. Perhaps they were alive long enough to see rays of light illuminating the horrible jagged teeth of the sword's serrated part, ready to rip the flesh of the unsuspecting warriors.
Perhaps.
But the movement of the Kandarinian manslayer was so diabolically swift that the last thing the soldiers saw - definitely the last thing they felt - was the sword sinking its teeth deep into their flesh, just long enough to disrupt all surface tissue. This was the cruelty of Keshel's terrible weapon: it disabled its victims and left them alive to bleed to death.
Of course, Keshel himself did not dwell on the fates of the fallen soldiers. He continued to carve his way through the horde, now in a state unable to tell friend from foe. That's why they called him Keshel the Voracious, after all. The Necrolytes didn't particularly mind, as Keshel created more corpses than zombies he destroyed.
-
- South-Western Terian coast, forest -
"You know Puco..." Sienna whispered. "Even if this guy is just leading us on. We could totally take him. Plus, I don't kind of trust him. I don't know why. And there is a battle going on. Maybe Duilin is in it? I think we should go with him."
"We've reconsidered." Sienna said. "There is somebody who I want to meet. I think he might be in the battle."
//I'll update the rest of my characters later. I'm low on time at the moment.\
-
~~ South-Western Terian coast, forest ~~
Puco took a battle stance.
"Fine... yet I'm not going to change clothes mister Pan! And do not touch me!"
She looked irritated by the amount of dead bodies around her. She was.
---
~~ Some Kadarian coast ~~
Spull was sitting on his outpost watching the clouds above him. "Why... do they put a guy like ME on a outpost like THIS! It's not like those Gaian dorks will ever attack us... or will they?"
He sat up. He was a small rat like built man, with a long grey coat with various bones decorating it. He was completely bald but very light coloured and skinny.
"I heard that there were some battles... somwhere... they could at least place me THERE. I'm not the best, but I can do SOMETHING!" He looked irritated at his hands. These too were skinny and bones could be seen.
"I can remember her words..."
He heard a female voice in her mind.
"You will go watch the coast on a outpost in the east. And do not call for help if you aren't sure of what you saw... if you'll disappoint me..." A pause, but it got quickly followed up by a soft malicious smirk...
"Whoa!" Spull shrugged. "I shouldn't think about her... it's better than being changed into such spider thingy..."
He sighted and looked around out of boredom. He would do anything for something to happen... anything...
Suddenly he stood up, and put his hand above his eyes to see better.
Yep, he was sure of it.
In the sky far ahead, three huge grey looking dots were flying. They couldn't be a building because these were floating above... water. Guessing of their size, and the distance he realized that these were enormous.
-
- Dead Island -
It was Martin who found Akran in the rubble. After Royen took off with the Majeuri Spinel, Akran’s crew went to find their Captain. The half that travelled Northwest met up with the rest to search the ruins. When they found him, Akran was in terrible shape. He was losing a lot blood from the wound and couldn’t be woken up, though he was still breathing. Everything the crew tried to do to wake him up didn’t work. They patched him up and gave him water, but the only thing they could do was to wait.
Martin took command of the ship and set sail for the direction that Royen left in though by the time the crew found Akran, Royen was long gone.
-
~Dark Continent, Somewhere on the northern beach~
A dark figure in leather clothes and blue gloves strode across the beach sands.
One eye was just red. The other was demonic.
A third of the face's skin was black as was the entire left arm.
The rest was pale white.
The hair above the pale skin was even whiter. Snow white, even. It was calmed and oderly-looking.
The hair above the black area was not as such - it was gray and messed up. That side of the head seemed to completely lack any sort of ear...
-"North, doofus."
-"I know. Don't rush me. You already have enough Etherium for me to delve into your mind. Verbal communication is unessecery."
-"Oh, pardon me, smartypants. I have grown used to it. But I presume you know that too?"
-"Obviously. I also know that you only continue prattling because you don't have anyone else around to hurl your insults towards."
-"My my, it appears that my guidance all these years has made you a bit smarter. Let's go..."
The figure began to glide northward, across the ocean's waters...
-----
~Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia~
A gentle breeze.
It's the top. The top of the spire. Floor 104. The one floor with no walls or roof. At the very middly stands a pdestral. Just above the pdestral floats an orb the size of a baby elephant.
Beyond that, a grand visage. All of Phoenicia and the surrounding islands, easily visible.
A pair of large, golden rings powered by runes float around the space just outside the floor.
"With this..." Indher embraced the orb "I can look and listen to any corner of the land I created. And if that is not enough, it allows me to draw runes unto the air between the rings... We could use some heavenly magicks like this! Don't you think it's wonderful?"
"Yes, yes it is..." Elphos replied with a smile, holding a small cat in his arms. The cat meowed passively and didn't seem to mind it's position much.
"But..." Indher turned around "You didn't come here to look at the marvels of the Spire. You came here to talk to me. What is it?"
Elphos blushed and held up the original book of runes he recieved from his master.
"Oh, Elphos!" Indher laughed "You have a question? Don't be shy. You are experienced, but everyone could use advice sometimes."
"Well..." Elphos's face was still red "I was reading through it again, and I realized theres nothing between glyph 136 and 138. Where is glyph 137?"
Indher scratched her head.
"Oh, the eraser glyph. I can teach it to you, I guess, but not to anyone else."
Elphos raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? Why is that?"
Indher shook her head.
"Tch. It's a glyph opposite to the glyph of creation. That means it removes something that exists, turning it into something that does not exist. Don't confuse it with a glyph of destruction... Theres no such thing. This one removes something that exists from existence. Simple as that."
Elphos sighed.
"I still don't understand why you can't teach it widely..."
At this, Indher became mad. She grabbed Elphos by his shoulders.
"Have you lost it?! Imagine what will happen if someone uses it in a form of a ray! We'll have a DOOM BOLT on our hands! Do you know what that means!? DO YOU!?"
Elphos was pale.
"Um... N-No..."
Indher took a deep breathe and slowly let go of Elphos.
"A doombolt is not something we know how to stop. Once launched, it will travel the multiuniverse for all eternity, erasing pieces of reality on it's way. This could literally punch a hole in a planet. The only way I know of handling a DOOM BOLT is with another DOOM BOLT... By making two collide, we stop both bolts which in turn form a DOOM ORB - A permenant scar upon reality itself, one which swallows and erases all it touches."
Elphos grew paler.
"I... I understand now... I don't think I want to study glyph 137 anymore..."
Indher smiled, utterly ruining the mood.
"Now let's check on our students, shall we?"
After descending to floor 85, the two ran into two students from Indher's class.
"Master, master!" one called out "We need help!"
"What is it!" Indher asked, sounding uninterested but going towards the child.
"Take a look at this master..." the student showed her a set of runes on the floor "We can't make powdered materials in the illusory world! It ends up being liquid! It's no good if you sink into earth!"
Indher sighed.
-"You screwed up on the material combination. Add another triangle in there."
-"B-b-b-b-but we don't have any more space!"
-"Use smaller glyphs."
-"We can't write THAT small a letters!"
-"For Red Dragon's sake, you are rune mages! Use runes to shrink a premade triangle and stick it in there!"
And with that, Indher proceded to descend towards the lower floors of the spire...
-
//Really busy, I'll get more in later.
- Terian, Southeastern Coast -
"Charge them! Tear their limbs apart!" Jacobie thrust his blade in the air as he raced forwards, his lizardmen following by blasting their weapons above their heads and darting out into the field to begin battle with the Kandarinian forces.
"ATTACK!" The Paladins began their battle as well, and their holy weapons were a lot stronger against the zombies. The long-sworded Paladins under Nymphadora's command followed behind her as she gave the command; their weapons slaying plenty of zombies.
-
~~ Some Kadarian coast ~~
Spull took out his scope, and put it to his eye. He could see that three silver ships were nearing...
- "What... what is this..."
He quickly put the scope back, and jumped on the stairs of his outpost and ran down.
- "I must... report to my miss...!"
When he was down, it appeared that the hight outpost was placed in a wood alike area, and he jumped on his horce which was standing there.
- "Who knows... maybe I'll even get higher rank..." A bright grin filled his face, and he galloped his horse towards the nearest settlement.
Little did he know, that not only he saw the three nearing ships. These could be seen from almost everywhere, and many people on the outpost were now reporting or heading to report what they saw. Maybe it was something dangerous... or maybe only something new?
~ ~Empty room~ ~
A huge emty room. Only a long desk and chairs across it were in this huge empty room. There was an almost sweet sent in it, but it was dark and red in the room. A small red light was shining on the red walls, on the brown table and on the decorated with read cloth chairs. The room was long, just like the table, but not very wide. A long dark blond haired man was sitting on the farest side of the table, with the door on the other side of the table.
He looked at the empty chairs, and at the papers lying on the table near him. The part where he sat wasn't normal, nor round like the other ending, actually opposite it had a oval hole in it, where a huge comfortable chair was placed, and a man in it. This was his desk after all.
But he didn't like it here. He hated the lack of light. He hated the dark atmosphere in the room. He hated the things he had to decide and discuss here. And he hated the generals that would soon fill the seats on the sides of the table.
Why?
Because the country was controlled by these people. The military shouldn't control such prosperous land, and the council alone wasn't enough to control them.
He wondered what would happen if he wasn't here to lead these men and keep order.
He wondered what would happen if he, Heil, Leader of SrebnyRod wasn't aboard this ship.
-
- South-East coast of Terian -
Marshall continued shooting fireballs at the marcher. "Come on! I'm over here!" He shouted, as he circled around it on his wyvern.
Duilin continued to float in the air as the fireball in his hands became bigger and bigger.
Meanwhile Firstman and Zimmerman noticed somebody (Keshel) rushing through hacking down soldiers left and right as he zoomed through the battle field.
"Look at that guy, so cocky. I say we take him out!" Firstman boasted.
"Um, you sure that's a good idea?"
"I'm a sergeant. I can handle him."
"He looks pretty strong. I think maybe Vaughn or somebody should handle him."
"Pssh. Listen, Vaughn's just lucky. Once I kill this guy then the whole group will be kissing MY ass all the time. Come on, I'll need a witness so I can brag about this."
'This guy is nuts.' Grant thought to himself as he followed Firstman towards the notable foe...
-
- Fishing Vessel, sea southwest of Tjed -
It had him.
Kelmarr could do naught as the giant pearl-scaled snake constricted, squeezing his body tighter and tighter... Oh gods, it had him!
The gaping maw descended from the mists, glistening fangs dripping with a vile clear substance. Slowly, the jaws widened, ready to take his entire head off in a single bite. Kelmarr tried to close his eyes, yet found that even his lids were frozen in abject terror.
Now of course, one must remember that the mighty Kelmarr was a skunk. A civilized and cultured skunk (by his own claim), but a skunk none-the-less. And skunks... well, skunks do certain things when scared to death...
The giant snake paused and sniffed his pray once. Then suddenly jerked back.
*FLASH!*
The sea returned. The boat returned. The sky, the clouds, the hard wooden deck...
Kelmarr fell back on his tail, eyes still wide. What just happened...?
The snake was gone, but in it's place was a silhouette, backed by the sun. A human-looking child floated in mid-air a foot above the ground, rubbing his nose and scowling. His off-white cloak billowed in the building breeze, and his white hair hung in his eyes. "Ugh... disgusting!" he said with an unnaturally deep and refined voice, "... a giant skunk?! I nearly ate a giant skunk?!"
Kelmarr wasn't sure to be relieved or slighted. In fact, he didn't quite know what to think. Was that whole think an illusion? He sat up to a crouching position. His knives were still upon the ground, but the ornate sword was still on his back. He rested a hand on the hilt. "Who in blazes are you?" he demanded through clenched teeth.
The floating child flipped his cape. "Hmmph. I am Melface, Nightmare Demon of Thanatos. Humans call my realm hell, but I assure you, the weather is actually quite pleasant this time of year." He bowed with a flourish, ending with a devilish smile.
Kelmarr found that cause enough to scoot back a few feet. Those twinkling red eyes... "You... served under the great Prince Jayce, didn't you?"
Melface's brow raised. "Ah... so you have heard of me... interesting. Perhaps I won't kill you now." He brought a hand under his chin and contemplated the skunk for a moment.
Kelmarr breathed a sigh of relief.
The maniacal grin returned. "Yes. I will settle for merely watching you jump off the side of the boat."
Kelmarr's ears perked straight up. "W-what?" He blinked. The demon was simply gone, as if he'd never been there. He looked from side to side. Nothing. Did he dream that too?
He felt breathing on his neck. "I said you jump. Now." He turned his head halfway around to see the child-like demon floating over him, a gigantic scythe in his right hand.
"G-g-gah!!!" Kelmarr scooted backwards across the deck. This was nuts! He couldn't even swim!
Melface idly twirled the scythe around. "Do one of those swan-flip things or something," he said, waving the skunk off. Though he was floating, the scythe was large enough that it clipped the wooden deck as he twirled it, sending a spray of splinters through the air.
Kelmarr backed up until he was against the railing... He looked down, seeing the rigid waves pounding against the vessel. He was going to die! Think of something! Think!
"So..." Kelmar sputtered for words, noting the dark clouds behind the demon, "... you-you intend to sail this entire ship by yourself? In a storm?"
Melface stopped spinning the blade. He turned and idly glanced at the rapidly forming storm upon the horizon. Lightning danced around and a fierce wind kicked up. "Hmmm... you have a point, skunk. I will admit, you do have a way with words..."
-
//Stop not posting and start posting, people.\
- South-Western Terian forest -
Konstantin found it difficult to keep his smile on. For people he'd just saved from certain death by the Punishment Squad, they were quite rude to him. And what the heck is that? "Fine"? It's as if they're doing him a favour by letting him save them! Bah!
-"Alright, I won't touch you, panna. Here."
He took out a long chain from inside of the Pauk. It looked a lot like a slave chain, having several openings for heads and hands.
-"Put this on, both of you. Vice-captain pan Incubus is approaching... He's sighted my creatures and, evidently, wants to check up on me. Vice-captains are quite fast! Hurry!"
--- --- ---
- South-East coast of Terian -
A large clearing formed around Keshel, who was completely consumed by his blood rage now. No one dared to approach him. Ripping his sword out of his last victim, he looked around. His sight was darkened by a red fog - he could barely see the enemy. All he saw was a wavering line somewhere a few meters away from him
What's this...? Somebody is approaching to challenge him?
Idiot.
-"Whoever you are," he growled. "I give you my slayer's promise. You will not live to see the light of tomorrow."
With a very deliberate movement, Keshel ripped a fold of cloth from one of the fallen soldiers. He put his blade in the cloth, and slowly pulled it out, leaving chunks of muscle and skin behind. Throwing the blood-soaked fabric away, he turned to Firstman. Keshel's sword, resting on his shoulder, gave off one last glimmer from the clouded sun before once again being plunged into shadow.
-"Die you now, enemy."
Having spoken the almost requiem-like line, Keshel charged at Firstman. In a lightning-quick strike, his sword fell to Firstman's right shoulder...
---
-"Pan Keshel is certainly handling his sword quite well down there, no, pani Cecylia?"
Even though there was no one around the Necrolyte, the soft whisper must've reached its target, for another whisper replied momentarily:
-"He certainly is, pan Mikola. Sort of sad to see a warrior like that in a place like this, don't you think? All things considered, of course... Our true purpose for being here..."
-"Dwell on such things not, pani Cecylia. Pan Keshel is dust to a true vice-captain, and he certainly isn't at a captain's level, either."
-"Speaking of vice-captains... Should pan Onwan not be arriving any moment now?"
-"It is far too early for that. He is probably still more than a fair distance away. Regardless, I charge you to watch, pani... My Khodovik's base reached the maximum number of rotations. I charge you watch."
The Marcher on which Mikola was on began doing something very strange. One by one, it raised its legs into the air and straightened them out. The final three broke, and the whole contraption fell down on the strange mass of tissue beneath the upper carapace. The legs were raised a fair level above the soldiers' heads for now, and they began to rotate slowly along with the carapace, probably pushed by the sinew below...
(Attack: 23)
-
- South-Western Terian forest -
Sienna grabbed the slave chain and, with slight hesitation, slipped it on.
"I can trust this guy. Don't worry..."
--- ---
- South-East coast of Terian -
"Oh!" Firstman sneered "How poetic! Man, how lame are you? You probably spend all your time coming up with artistic lines and then you--" He was suddenly struck in the shoulder.
He looked at the blade and everything seemed to stop for a second.
"Wh-what a...cheap move...you're moving all uber fast, because you're too chicken to get hit. Man you're such a wimp!"
He held his wound, clearly fighting back tears and his dizziness. He felt like he was going to faint. Can't give up though, he always gives up. He's got to show everyone how strong he is.
"You're going down!" Firstman shouted and then ran clumsily towards Keshel and then gave a messy downward slash not directly aimed at any particular part of his body.
"Firstman! What are you doing! Run!" Grant shouted.
---
The fireball Duilin was holding over his head was around 10 feet in diameter, he had to push it double time, because it looks like that Marcher has something planned.
"Just a little more..." Duilin said. He sent a telepathic message to Marshall.
'Come on. You're not distracting it enough, just fly in there and start pissing it off. I don't care if you think it's dangerous.'
Marshall rolled his eyes. It was almost unfair how harsh Duilin was on him. But no time to worry about that. The general is right, if we need to take this thing down, we need to do it now.
With his wyvern, he dived through the air and zoomed towards it flying across the 'base' and began to rapidly shoot at it with his MagiPistol.
--- ---
- Regiment 7 building, meeting room -
This was where the old captain's soldiers were, which were now under Nex's command. This should be fun. Nex stood behind a podium in a large meeting room, with tons of soldiers sitting on chairs listening to him.
"Alright, now that I am your new captain. We are going to make a few changes here. First of all. You must all learn about the Talonscar and be aware of it. Since you are officially followers of the Sovereign, I can't force you to follow these ways, but you must know of them. Second if anyone dies, they must be brought directly towards me. Third, any newcomers will have to go through a painful initiation, involving whips and such. Fourth, any initiation will performed in my prensence so I may see 'that it is done right'. Fifth, there are no exceptions to which newcomers will be initiation." He then picked up a whip from behind the podium.
"And since I am new, I myself must go through initiation. So somebody is going to have to give me a whipping." He said with a complete tone of seriousness in his voice, but then his voice became more joyful. "Any volunteers?"
-
- Terian, Southeastern Coast -
"Blast it, what are you doing, you idiot!" Jacobie rushed to Firstman's aid and leapt out of combat, landing just behind Firstman. He held his left hand forwards and pointed it towards the area where Firstman was slashed. Jacobie's hand then began to glow a light blue as he shot a beam of healing magic towards his ally. After he shot the beam, he turned to Grant.
"Listen, kid, never ever think you're better than an enemy that's ten times your strength and speed. It'll get you killed. Just battle what you can, unlike that idiot right there." Jacobie then grasped his blade in both hands and charged after Keshel, making an oblique flame slash aimed at his neck.
--- --- ---
"Hah, these zombies aren't all that tough! Take 'em all down!" Doriana slashed her blade left and right, hitting a large number of zombies that crossed her path. She mostly aimed for their heads, and when she hit them, she either choped the head clean off or smashed their skulls in.
"That's their *urgh* weak spot! In the head!" The Paladins continued to attack the zombies around them, aiming for their heads. Some of the Paladins threw holy water flaskes that broke on impact at the zombies, making them more vulnerable. As they fought the undead creatures, an aura of light surrounded them. The bright yellow aura seemed to fight with them as the Paladins continued to hold off the enemy.
-
- South-East coast of Terian -
Keshel growled as Jacobie intervened. Healing in the middle of combat? And this guy calls him a wimp? Unacceptable...
He attempted to parry the flame-imbued slash. Although his standard-issue Kandarinian protection amulet dispersed the magical fires, Keshel misjudged the strength of the attack - his blade slipped, and Jacobie's weapon whizzed right next to his face. A small red line appeared on Keshel's face, producing a droplet of blood which trickled down his cheek. So, a decent opponent, at last...
Immediately after blocking the strike, Keshel riposted, using Jacobie's strength as momentum to swing his own sword. The jagged teeth were aimed at the Lizard Man's knees.
---
The MagiPistol shots did little to slow the rotation, or, for that matter, even get the attention of the beast.
-"Here it comes..."
Mikola sat down inside the Marcher's carapace in a lotus position. Time to produce some corpses...
(Attack: 33)
The spinning legs descended down on the attacking troops, taking out tens of soldiers at a time. The sharp ends of the devastating pillars dredged deep ravines in the ground, completely annihilating any living being that came in contact with them.
---
-"Well, would you look at that," said Cecylia out loud, though to no one in particular. "They're actually searching for the Peshkas' weak points. And here I thought that they were easy enough to kill without that... I suppose that is a compliment to me, then. This is just prelude, after all, to a much more devastating finale. I hope the other panowe are ready."
--- --- ---
- North-Eastern Kandarinian Coast -
-"Yes, yes, dammits, I heard already! Three big things floaterin' off the North-East coast! About a billions peoples before you said this to me, um... What's your namer.... Skull? Spull, right. Whatever. Gets out of my sights."
Needless to say, Eris was rather annoyed. As if the General's work assigned to her wasn't enough, now there's this. Black circles begun forming under her eyes as a result of overworking. When she signed up to be the Regiment 6 captain, "overworking" was definitely NOT in the job description. Regardless, a job is a job.
She shadow-stepped outside, and continued to travel in short distance teleports like the first one all the way to the coast. Perhaps those big ships were in a dire need of a welcoming committee...
-
- Terian, Southeastern Coast -
"Wah!" Jacobie quickly hopped over the jagged blade just in time before the serrated sword would have ripped through his lower half. He then used the momentum of the jump to spin around and throw another fire-imbued attack at his opponent, all while yelling at Firstman, "GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!"
--- --- ---
"Uh-oh. That can't be good..." Geomarcus backed up behind the lines of battle to see the soldiers getting killed left and right by some sort of spinning weapon. How in the world were the Kandarinians able to create such a weapon? No matter, he thought. He'd find a way to destroy it; hopefully not alone.
"Take this, vile fiend!" He pointed his silver longsword at the spinning weapon and blasted a beam of light towards it. If it was truly undead, it would have quite an impact, perhapse even disable it for a short time. Geomarcus wasn't as powerful a mage as he was a warrior, but he knew some light-enhanced attack spells.
"I hope that did something," He said to himself under his breath. After the blast, he jumped straight back into battle, swinging his sword eleganly as he fought his foes.
-
- Terian, Southeastern Coast -
"No, damnit!" Firstman shouted back at Jacobie. "I know what I'm doing! Leave me alone!"
He picked up his sword, and then dashed towards Keshel. He lifted his sword and then ran past him while slashing it across his waist, hoping to cut his foe in half...
---
"Marshall get back up here!" Duilin shouted, as he held the giant fireball over his head.
Marshall hoisted his wyvern up and flew away from the Marcher.
Duilin then did a few last minute charging into the fireball. By now it was almost twenty feet in diameter.
"Catch."
The half demon general then gave the fireball a mighty downwards throw and it fell towards the Marcher like a meteor...
-
- Fishing Vessel, lost at sea -
Melface stroked his chin as he contemplated the approaching storm. Kelmarr took the opportunity to fetch his daggers and return them to their sheaths. The sea began to rock the boat violently, and the fierce wind flapped the sails hard.
"Hmmm..." the child-like demon finally said, his feet touching the ground at last, "I'll tell you what..." He flashed the skunk another one of his devilish grins, and Kelmarr could not help but gulp again. Melface pointed a pudgy finger at him. "If you can keep me from getting wet, I won't kill you in a horrible, painful way."
"W-what...?"
Melface sat right in the middle of the deck and folded his arms. "If I get wet, you die. If you keep me dry, well then, we'll see..."
Just then, a wave slammed into the side of the boat, spraying droplets dangerously close to where the demon sat. Kelmarr's tail frazzled and his eyes nearly escaped his sockets until the water settled.
This kid was freaking insane!
Melface's grin grew wider, and his eyes flashed a hint of red. "Better keep the boat afloat..." he taunted. He winked, sending Kelmarr stumbling backwards.
-
Hero's Fall, The City On The Edge Of Forever
The jagged narrow path shoots out from the mountain like a finger pointing accusingly into the nothingness beyond. Below, the clouds swirl along with the twisting winds, masking the further emptiness. The winds emanate from the apex of this terrible cliff, as a man stares out into the distance, his yellow cloak, seeming both tattered and flawless, dancing wildly in the wicked torrents.
"I see you found me Balthasar." As the man in Yellow speaks, the howling winds fall to a whisper. He does not turn to face the finely dressed man, who fights for every foothold as he walks down this oblivious trail. Instead, the man in Yellow looks up, taking in a sky that mirrors the solemn clouds below. "It's a shame to see you like this. More then you were, yes... but so much less as well. Was it worth it, surrendering yourself to that vile leach? To lose your mind and will, your body and soul? Turn back, Balthasar."
The face of the finely dressed man curls in anger at the mention of his name. He continues forward, his steps slow but deliberate. "I've come to put an end to your madness, King. Even now, we are scattering your forces and your false prophets are being slaughtered." Bright green flames rise from where his eyes should be, rising with his anger. His hand draws over the emerald hilt on his side, awaiting his grasp.
"Madness? Dear boy, I see clearer now then you ever will. Even now," The man in Yellow responds, "Your lord lies dead in his throne, and no one in his court lives to mourn his passing. Turn back, Balthasar. Greater men then you have fallen before me, and greater men yet live whose dooms I will seal. Turn back, Balthasar, your weak resolve is not welcome here."
The finely dressed man stops to speak, halfway between the base of the path, and the man in Yellow. "How your delusions got you this far, I'll never know, but this must end! You are treading a path no mortal can handle, and we will all pay the price of your pride. Sweet spirits... YOU ARE NOT A GOD!" At the last word, the finely dressed mans foothold shatters, and, grabbing wildly for a handhold, he dangles from the jagged path.
The man in Yellow is suddenly above him. "And you are no longer a man. You are an empty husk, and you were burning yourself alive long before you were given that parasitic toy. The gods you know are aeons dead, and I will stand on their ashes. No one can save you. You have chosen your abyss, boy, now go to it." The fires fade from the man's eyes, and he falls.
-----------------
Western Gaian Ocean, Three miles North-northwest of Tjed
"... like your opinion on what we should do."
<Wha-what?>
Bishops pure white eyes widened under his worn leather hat as he stood on the edge on the makeshift raft. "OH! You are awake. I am sorry if I woke you up, but I could not understand what you were saying. I do not think you were dreaming well. I recommend you have better dreams. That will help, I think."
<...That's foolish. I don't dream. Now what is it that you wanted my opinion on?>
"If you say so. If you do not dream, I would think it would be hard to tell if you are happy. I like to dream of food. You should try it. But yes! The boat! There was a small boat that came by, and it was heading to that land over there. Also, there is land over there." Indeed, off in the distance the coastline of Tjed peeked over the horizon.
<Wonderful! So there is some intact civilization around here. What did they say, Bishop?>
As the gel went about adjusting the sails habitually, he spoke in a quiet, embarrassed voice. "I could not get you to say anything to me, so I hid in the tent. I was scared, and did not want to be eaten."
Jasper did it's best to sound reassuring, but it realized it didn't know how. <Well, if it happens again before we reach the coast, try getting their attention. ...I promise I won't let anyone eat you, Bishop, as long as I'm around. I won't... sleep... again, anytime soon.>
The gels eyes relaxed happily as he entered the tent once again. "That is good to hear. I am glad to have you as my friend, Jasper."
<...>
Outside, the wind rose softly, and whispered of storms.
-
~North Dark Continent~
A lone figure glides over from the waters of the ocean to the beach.
"He is nearby, I'd wager."
"It matters little unless we actualy find him."
Several houses came into view, as well as a large fortress floating in the sky.
"I doubt that will be a problem."
The figure glides over to one of the townspeople, who turns around and jumps away in shock and horror.
"Where is Kronos?" The figure asks.
"Wh-wh-wha...!?"
"WE WANT TO KNOW THE LOCATION OF THE SOVEREIGN, FEEBLE MAMMAL!"
The man stares at the figure for a bit, and then points at the flying fortress.
"Uh... Throne room?"
"Thanks much." The figure bows slightly and turns away to head in the direction of the fortress...
-
-In the open seas somewhere-
"Gwen!"
Akran woke with a start and sat up. He was alone in his cabin laying on his bed. Somebody had brought him food, but it was cold on the table next to him.
He tried to think back to why he had shouted out Gwen's name. Then it hit him Oh no! She was in danger.
Akran scrambled to his feet. He grabbed his bow by the door and strode outside. "Get to the Kandarinian Sovereignty! Now!" he shouted to his crew.
A few turned around and looked surprised, but the rest continued to work busily. "Hello?" Akran cried, bewildered.
Just then, Martin jumped down from the upper deck and came up to his Captain enthusiastically. "You're awake! Oh thank God!" he said, hugging him, "Just in time too."
Akran tried to pry off his (rather feminine) first mate. "Okay, okay, thank you, I guess. Get off!"
Martin recoiled with a frown on his face.
Akran looked around at the busy people bringing out cannons and preparing for ... something. He asked, "What am I just in time for?"
This made Martin beam again. "We found the Gilden Warship and we're catching up fast!"
Thud. Someone dropped a cannonball. The Captain could see Royen's ship in the distance. There was nothing but blue water in every direction. He already caught himself formulating strategies. Akran realized he would have to put off his venture up North for a while.
//my first post without using MS Word//
-
- Terian, South-Eastern coast -
The flame was again absorbed by the protection amulet, and this time, Keshel was ready for the attack. He blocked and parried, pushing his sword diagonally at Jacobie, in an effort to knock him back. He completely missed Firstman coming from the side, though - noticing him only by a jarring pain from his shoulder down to his hip. The bastard cut him...
It was all over. Everything around him, in Keshel's mind, was dead. Everything.
Without thought, without pain, and without fear, the manslayer swung around for a devastating downward slash. The serrated blade broke Firstman's sword, and continued flying at a superhuman speed toward his chest.
--- --- ---
- A Northern Kandarinian town -
The grim Citadel slowly came to a halt right over the small town's city centre. The imposing structure dropped its chains down to the specially prepared anchors in the town square, which was cleared of all buildings at the time of conquest by the Sovereignty. After the chains were attached by the people below to the anchors, the Citadel lowered slightly, its bottom-most tip floating about three meters above the ground. At that point, a large teleportation glyph burnt itself in place right below the Citadel. Four Augments were the first (and so far, only) ones to teleport through the portal, standing guard around it.
And in a few minutes, all was once again still in the small port town.
--- --- ---
- Shuba, the unofficial Kandarinian capital - former location of the Bandervil ruins -
Ash was very, very confused. He was new to Regiment 3, and it probably showed - because he had no idea what was going on.
The central chamber that he was in contained several long glass cells, in which strange creatures were floating, submerged in liquid. Several people were standing around each - mages, by the looks of it - holding their staves next to the cell walls. The cells were arranged in a circle around a desk, which was occupied by Martin's captain - Shen, the Magistrate. It looked as if Shen was conducting research - but that was very questionable. The captain was just sitting there, staring down one of the creatures in the cell.
-"Um, sir... I'm Ash Archer... I'm new in the Regiment..."
-"Archer?", Martin heard a calm voice. "Shouldn't you be in the Sixth Regiment, if you're Archer?"
-"...Sir, that's my last name..."
-"That was a joke."
Shen paused, and looked over to Ash. The captain was a man in his late 30s. He had a very tired look on his face, which was bespectacled by tinted eyeglasses. His most unusual feature was his hair - it was mostly brown, except for two grey streaks going from his temples backwards to behind his ears and ending at the neck.
-"Ash," he continued. "If you're going to get anywhere in this Regiment, you're going to have to know exactly what you're here for. I assume somebody sent you an invitation?"
-"...you did, sir."
-"Oh? That I must've, then. What, if you care to remind me, was your specialization?"
-"Pyromancy, sir. I was transferred here from captain Roth's eighth Regiment by your request."
-"Ah, yes... the Pyromancer. You'll have to excuse my poor memory. Have a seat, son."
Ash complied, pulling up a chair next to the Captain's desk.
-"You see these creatures in the cells?", Shen pointed to the glass tubes. "We discovered them in the Gros Morne Chasm. The first one was found some time before the Cataclysm occurred, but that was just dismissed as a fluke of nature. The creature killed a Kandarinian crewman, letting two others escape. It tried to climb out of the shaft we dug back then, but it was later apprehended by several of our Cryomancers, which you can see around the cells."
-"Yes, sir, but what do you need me for?"
-"The creatures - which we dubbed Destroyers, because that's all they seem to have a mind for - have a very puzzling property about them. Notice how that Destroyer over there has small veins of lava seeping out of its abdomen, but without warping the skin of the creature itself. The lava comes from within the Destroyer's core, which we haven't, as of yet, studied. Back to the point: the Destroyer's skin is a metallic compound that we've never seen before. It seems to have strange reactions to fire and heat, which is why we needed a Pyromancer to help us."
-"I'd be delighted to help, sir."
-"Good. Glad to have you on board. Now, go talk to somebody else for your task. I'm busy."
With those words, Shen resumed his fixed glare at the frozen Destroyer.
--- --- ---
- Swan Creek, a town South-West of the Tower of Heaven's Bane: Regiment 9 Headquarters -
-"Czernn! Usseless pile of boness, get out of there! Czernn, damnit!"
Ssesk was banging his scaly fist on a heavy wooden door. There was absolutely no light coming from under the door, although it was relatively bright outside.
-"Czernn, I don't care if you don't feel like working today, but there'ss an asssignment that you have to do! As a Kandarinian lieutenant - no, as the Regiment 9 lieutenant - you comply! And don't give me that crap about writing poemss! I read one, it suckss anyway!"
Still no reply.
-"CZERNN! Alright, that's it. I'm coming in."
Ssesk legged the heavy door, knocking it down to the floor...
--- --- ---
- Terian, South-Eastern coast -
The fireball hit the spinning Marcher, completely destroying the top part of the carapace. Subsequently, the marcher's legs ripped off, trampling many more unlucky soldiers. Just after the top half was burnt by the fireball, the bottom was pierced by the light-based attack from Geomarcus. The Marcher was officially in a state of severe disrepair.
Mikola, struggling, climbed out from below the ruins. Well, they certainly did it. They took down the Khodovik, almost killing Mikola himself in the process. Shall he use his vischy? Looks like he'll have to.
A ripping sound just behind Mikola announced the arrival of the vischy from its cloaked state. The creature twitched its head upwards until it seemed that it was looking right at Duilin, and made a loud wail...
---
-"Oh my," Cecylia continued rambling. "Looks like pan Mikola had to reserve to using his vischy. That means that we're going to have to get to the finale fairly quickly at this point."
--- --- ---
- South-Western Gaian Coast -
Konstantin barely attached the chain to his Pauk when a small explosion somewhere nearby heralded the coming of the 6th Regiment lieutenant. The sinister shape appeared some distance away, between the trees, and closed in on the Necrolyte. Soon, the figure exited the woods. The sun shone rays of light on a snow-white suit of armour, reflecting off long dual blades...
-"Pan Incubus...!", Konstantin gasped.
-"How many FREAKING times do I have to tell you, you necrophiliac scum, do NOT CALL ME THAT!"
-"I'm sorry, pan Hannibal! Please forgive me!"
-"You'd better be sorry! And that was just a one-time thing, anyway!"
//If you're confused at this point, look up "Incubus" on Wikipedia\
Hannibal sighed.
-"So anyway," he continued. "I see you caught some vermin sneaking around."
-"Yes, pan lieutenant. They were in the woods, savaging a defenceless... sleeping... Kandarinian citizen, pan Roth."
Hannibal's eyes lit up, but then the insult got to him - and turned him even angrier.
-"HOW DARE YOU TOY WITH ME?! I'll---!!" Roth took a deep breath. "Ugh. Get the hell out of my sight. You're lucky I'm not a captain. Otherwise, they'd already be looking for your corpse."
-"Yes, pan lieutenant. I'll be off now."
The last Pauk set off, with Sienna and Puco chained behind it. Once the forest was out of sight (and, subsequently, Roth), Konstantin spoke again.
-"Sorry about that, it was necessary. I've learned a lot about the KAF staff... You see, Hannibal himself is normally a very placid person. If I got him mad, he wouldn't try to think about where you two came from in the first place, and, as such, we got him off our back. Now we just have to get back to the town I started my patrol from, and we'll figure our way out from there."
-
- Fishing Vessel, lost at sea -
Think... think!
Kelmarr frantically looked around as the boat rocked. The sails! He had to get the sails down or the intense winds would capsize the boat. He scampered to the mast and started fiddling with the overly complex knots. Blast it! A spray of mist slammed over the sides and nearly knocked him off his feet.
"I felt a drop," the demon taunted in the background after another wave slammed the ship. What was he going to do? He had zero sailing experience. How in blazes was he to save the ship, let alone keep giant waves from splashing over the sides?
"Screw it."
He drew a knife and began slashing the ropes, the sails snapping above due to the release in tension. Still the boat rolled, feeling as if it would capsize at any moment. He gritted his teeth as he caught a glimpse of the child-like demon behind him snickering.
That's all this was to that thing. A joke. Just a huge freaking joke. Like the rest of his life...
He ran to the rudder-thing at the back of the ship. He'd seen one of the humans pushing and pulling the huge leaver and figured it must have something to do with the steering. Behind him, the demon was laughing.
He took the rudder in his hands and clenched his teeth. There was no way he'd make it. He was going to either die by the ocean, or by that dream-eating freak. He wasn't about to give the demon any sense of satisfaction by watching him struggle.
A wave approached on the horizon, sprawling upwards and out as it drew near. As it slammed into the ship, he pulled the rudder with the wave, rather than against it. As a result, the boat careened to the side and flipped clean over. Coldness surrounded him as he plummeted into the icy depths...
-
- Terian, southeastern coast -
"NO!!!" Jacobie leapt forward to try and block the attack by making himself a human (or rather lizardman) shield. Keshel's blade hit Jacobie's crimson armor hard and crushed it, forming an opening while the blade still pushed forward at him, ripping at his scaled skin. It tore into his flesh. He used his sword to force off Keshel's and finally knocked himself back, away from the manslayer.
"GOD DAMNIT, RUN OR DIE!!!" Blood poured from the gash in Jacobie's left shoulder, and tears of pain rolled down his eyes. He grabbed his katana tightly and thrust it forward with all his might at Keshel, with the intent to kill him before he can kill everyone else.
-
- Terian, southeastern coast -
"I know what I'm doing, lizard man!" Firstman sneered again. Not even showing gratitude to Jacobie just saving his life. Frankly, he looked rather annoyed that he was butting into his fight.
Firstman shoved the bleeding lizard man out the way. And lifted his now broken sword ready to smash down a quick killing strike with the broken blade on his head
---
"What the hell?" Hance was sniping down zombies from a burnt tree when he noticed Firstman and Jacobie fighting some nasty looking Kandarinian warrior.
"What is it?" Vaughn asked, while slashing away at zombies with a fire enchanted sword.
"Firstman's doing some rather brave fighting, along with a lizard man. But he seems to be pushing the lizard guy out of the way so he can get a hit."
"What a twerp. I outta beat the shit outta that guy."
Lagart sighed and continued fighting off zombies, along with the demon/drow Zuhani while Sheri stood back and shot lightning bolts and summoned chunks of earth to fight off the zombie hordes.
---
Duilin looked down at the vischy, and then looked around for Firstman and Grant. But couldn't see them.
"Damnit. I told them to attack as soon as I took that marcher down." Duilin muttered to himself.
He drew the Iduran and then dove down. On his way down, in the corner of his eye he could see Grant running towards them. Well, at least he's giving in an effort. He can cut him some slack, he's new.
When he got close enough to the vischy he gave a downwards vertical slash at the creature.
-
- South-Eastern Terian coast -
//Post cleared with DM\
A full-strength direct thrust... A very powerful attack, but equally easy to divert. Keshel simply whacked Jacobie's blade to the left of him. The strength that Jacobie put into the attack has a strong potential of backfiring on him, because of the immense momentum with which the blade was travelling - the likeliest outcome was Jacobie falling to the ground, unable to restrain his strength in time.
Having calmed down a little, Keshel regained his senses. With the corner of his eye, he saw Firstman with his broken blade running toward him. Another swift movement later, the same hand soared up in the air, spraying a cascade of blood over both Keshel and his opponent. The shock of losing his hand paralysed Firstman for a few seconds.
-"W..Wh... my hand... where... what...."
A nearby "thud" reminded Firstman of the situation, but that did little to help. Keshel swept his hair back with a heavy sigh, and looked down to the left side of his chest. The wound on his side turned out to be less serious than he thought it was at first, allowing him to continue moving with the same agility and strike with the same strength that he boasted under normal conditions.
-"If you give up now," Keshel said without looking up. "You will spare yourself a lot of suffering."
At that point, Keshel realized something. His body tingled, as if it was submerged under warm water. Although still throbbing, his muscles lost some tension, and loosened up. His mind was now clear of the mindless desire to kill that consumed him only a few minutes ago. Everything was becoming crystal-clear.
It's the promise, he heard a voice inside of him. A slayer's promise is not an empty phrase. It drove him near-insane after he uttered it, but now that the promise was nearing completion, he was entering a state of nirvana. That's the Stalker Academy for you, he thought.
Meanwhile, Firstman caught a hold of himself. He remembered about the dagger he stuffed in a hurry down his sock specifically for these sorts of situations. While Keshel appeared to be distracted, he pulled the dagger out. Although he didn't fight with his left hand that well, stabbing someone in the chest doesn't take much skill, even in his left. With that thought, he charged at Keshel, dagger outstretched in front of him.
Didn't work.
Obviously.
That never works.
Firstman's left arm was cut off almost at the shoulder this time. Keshel looked as if he didn't even move a muscle, standing in the same pose as before, resting on his bloodstained sword. He looked at Firstman with an almost understanding look.
-"I wouldn't want to die here. Fortunately, I'm not you."
Keshel made a final move as if about to stab Firstman through the chest, who, at this point, was barely standing. In mid-air, though, Keshel's stab somehow transformed into a...
...a downward slash.
Firstman's left shoulder, complete with most of his upper torso, peacefully slid down to the ground.
---
The Augment patiently waited until Duilin's attack reached it, and then made a surprisingly quick movement with its hand. Starting at around where its cheek would be, the Augment made a vertical slash down to its stomach. A black fissure appeared in the air in front of it, which instantly rematerialized to show Duilin his own back. If he proceeded with the attack, he would end up stabbing himself...
-
- Terian, southeastern coast -
"You... BASTARD!!!" Jacobie used all of his might to swing his body around and made for a horizontal slash at Keshel. His body was weaker from blood loss, but he gave more strength than normal. His magic likely kept him alive. Fortunately for him, Karma was behind him and cast a healing spell before the arm was lost. "Take this!" Karma jumped into the fight as well, her ice katana slashing from the other side.
--- --- ---
"Hah! It worked." Geomarcus was filled with joy as he saw the marcher had burst into a state of disrepair. He then returned to the battle with the zombies as he struck them down with his light-enchanted silver longsword. Decapitating zombies wasn't really that enjoyable, but he seemed to be glad to rid Gaian of these creatures of darkness.
-
- South-Eastern Terian coast -
Duilin felt that something was up. Was that HIS back, in front of him? He looked behind and saw the Iduran's blade coming towards his back. In a move of both defence and shock he pulled his sword back and held it close to himself.
"Wow..."
Duilin tried a different approach and then summoned a fireball in his left hand and then smashed it into the ground creating a wave of flame that spread in a six foot radius around him, intending to catch the Augment in it.
---
Grant somewhat caught up with Duilin and then turned around to see if Firstman was behind him, but he wasn't.
Marshall landed his wyvern near Zimmerman.
"Where's Patrick!?" Marshall asked sounding worried.
"I don't know...I think I lost him..."
"No...Firstman..." Marshall looked through the battle field, and couldn't see Firstman anywhere.
"What's wrong!?"
Marshall ran through the battle field, dodging any projectiles flying near him. "Firstman!"
And then there he saw him, laying in pieces on the ground, next two a lizard man and a Kandarinian warrior fighting.
"No!!" He then fell to his knees and buried his face into his hands. Firstman was his best friend, he knew him for almost five years. He didn't even know magic or anything too special, but he was able to survive so much, get out of so many battles alive and well. But now he's gone...
-
~~ Swan Creek, a town South-West of the Tower of Heaven's Bane: Regiment 9 Headquarters ~~
~ ~ Emo paradise (Czernn's room)~ ~
A loud bash was heard as the door was kicked in, and a stream of light entered the dark chamber, revealing in the chamber a man sitting with his back to the door at a desk.
There was no light in the room before, and the stream of light that came from outside was the only way to see anything. The room was cold, and vey empty. Or maybe it only looked empty because the light shone only on the desk, and nothing else could be seen.
The man spoke with a sad and soft voice, but very understandable at the same time.
"That... is such a waste of a good door."
His voice echoed in the chamber, meaning that it was big and empty. He slowly turned his pale white face, and looked at the Lizardman. Where he was looking and how he felt was unknown because his eyes were fully black, not showing any emotion whatsoever. Except sadness.
Starting with a deep breath he spoke.
"Sff..., I see..., soo who has the will to call me into action, moj drogy dowodco smierci.[My dear leader of the dead]
He tilted his head slowly to the left, watching Ssesk with his empty look.
~ ~ Emty Room, Silver Root ~ ~
Heil looked at the single, but huge window in the court. It was covered with a thick courtain.
"Why would anyone close the window...?"
Heil stood up and walked to the window, and opened it. He looked outside and he saw two ships flying beneath him.
"Soon... we'll reach this unknown lands... I wonder what we'll come across..."
Someone knocked on the door.
It must be the generals. He quickly closed the window and hid it behind the courtain, and while walking to his seet he yelled "Please enter!" and the big door, or maybe even a small gate opened.
Nine red clothed people walked in, and took their respective seets along the table.
When Heil sat down he looked if all the generals had assembled.
"Well... we all know that we are nearing foreign terrain. This shall be our discussion for today..."
//2 more post to go before Silver Root reaches coast.
-
~Near Kandarinian Citadel, Northern part of the Dark Continent~
The Citadel was surrounded by human guards, and the figure glided over to one.
"Halt!" the speargun-equipped guard said.
He had odd gloves and an amulet worn.
"What is wrong?" the approached figure asked, the eye on the black side of his face closed.
"The Citadel of the Sovereign is beyond here! Unless you have business..."
"We have business, mortal. Now let him through."
The guard took a few steps back, as did a few others.
"Wha-wha-what was that?" the guard asked after coming to his senses.
"Worry not, my dear friend can be grumpy at times. In any case, I must make haste to the fortress..."
"Wait!" the guard stopped him "You can't go just like that! The Augments won't like your smell and attack!"
"Oh, is that all?" the figure smiles faintly "My dear friend... Could you please warp the air around me? I wouldn't want to disturb the locals..."
"Just killing them would have been easier... But, fine."
A small ripple began to surround the figure as it approached the portal leading into the Citadel...
The guards stood by and watched the figure slowly move away...
"Did that just happen?" one of the guards asked.
"No, it didn't." another guard gave him a pat on his shoulder "We really should be getting more sleep if we experience hallucinations like this, fellas..."
Passing four augments which acted slightly confused, the figure entered the portal.
"Why were they running around like that?"
"Hell if I know."
The figure found itself inside the citadel, facing a gray rock wall.
"Seems familiar..."
"It's because we made those stones out of a mountain so that those mortals could gather it with more efficency."
The figure was surrounded by torches and statues of gargoyles. There were no windows, and the cieling was quite high.
The there were two servants running about trying to get the statues cleaned and didn't really notice the new presence.
The figure shrugged and jumped back into the portal.
It reappeared in a large room full of ceramic bathes full of fresh oranges.
"Oh...Kay..."
"Even I have to agree with you this time."
The figure returned to the portal and reappeared in a room with many corpses hanging from the cieling, puddles of blood on the floor and a pipe organ at the very end of it.
"Pipe organ room?"
"That's more pleasing to the eyes than oranges, anyway."
The figure made a few steps, slipped in a puddle of blood and fell back into the portal, reappearing in a completely empty room with polkadot-pattered walls of black background and white spots.
"...Eyesight-torture room?"
"He must've been bored while we were away."
The figure got up, sighed, and stepped back into the portal, reappearing in what appeared to be a toilet. A single guard sat on a wooden pot, apparently answering his call to nature.
"Uh...Definetly not here."
"You sure got him with his pants down..."
Going back through the portal, the figure found itself in a glamourus room full of Kronos's Pictures painted on expensive canvas, busts and statues made in his image and even a rug portraying his face on the wall.
"Hey, why doesn't he place the rug in his bedroom?"
"And have people constantly walk all over his face? Don't be stupid."
The next destination of teleportation was a smaller room with a bed, a schedule of including times and names as well as a collection of pink teddy bears.
"His wife?"
"More like daughter. I bet the names are her dates! Pah..."
The next room was seperated into two parts - One was filled with tiny lungs and kidneys, and the other was mostly empty, except for a few coins on the floor.
"...No comment..."
Another teleportation led the figure to a room full of random body parts with random other body parts growing out of them - usualy tentacles.
"Did he try to reinvent the beholder?"
"I never studied mortal anatomy and somehow I still think that THIS shouldn't stay bent the way it is."
With a sigh, the figure arrives in a room full of white underwear packed into compact lumps by black rubber bands.
"And what might this be...?"
"Is he even aware of what is going on in this fortress?"
With a loud yawn, the figure stepped through the portal again to find itself in a large room.
Larger than the previous ones, anyway.
Atop an ivory throne decorated with a bright red gem sat Kronos looking extremely bored with the two Kandarinian banners on either side of the room.
"Ah, there you are, sir Crow-Nose..." The figure gave a refreshing, kind smile.
The eye on the black part of his face opened up and, with a diabolical flaming crimson gaze, began to rapidly scan the room.
"I should thank you..." a darker voice echoed thruout the throne room "You gave me the head start I so much needed. However, I have passed the point where I can make real progress eating souls one by one. So I realized we should return the favor..."
Dark mist began to surround the one called 'Kerig' and the black side's eye's gaze grew firece as it focused on Kronos himself.
"I can now use him to fuse with any magical or beam-based weapon you have and empower it, or perhaps use it as a large soul-vaccuum. I hope you can see for yourself what good is that for... Lest I'll have to demonstrate."
The disfigured being frowned.
"Stop being so rude, Welly! Favors should be repaid KINDLY!"
The echoing voice quited down and the mist dissipated. The eye on Kerig's black side closed.
"If you insist... Kerig."
-
- Swan Creek, R9 headquarters -
-"That'ss more like it.... I received orderss from the very top, Czernn, for you to train two Necrolytes. DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!"
The Lizard Man's yelling was very strange in pitch. In contrast to his normal deep voice, Ssesk's screaming was ridiculously high.
-"I know it issn't the most exciting job out there, BUT SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT! And that jussst happens to be you!"
--- --- ---
- South-Eastern Terian Coast -
Even though the enemy was killed, Keshel was still in the middle of a battle. He leaped back from the two slashes coming at him, though Jacobie's weapon hit his foot as he was about to retreat. Wincing, Keshel looked up.
There were two of them now... One's a healer. Makes sense to go for that one first.
Using the strength regained from the completion of the promise, Keshel dashed toward Karma, trying to spear her right in the stomach. Unfortunately, once landing on his injured left foot, he realized the extent of the damage - but not before embarrassingly tripping on his own foot and falling down right next to Jacobie.
---
In battle time, the Augment somehow increased its speed considerably. With another movement of its hand, the two portals vanished - just to reappear, with another ripping noise, at the creature's lower torso. The portion of the blast coming at the Augment disappeared inside the black hole, collapsing the portal behind it.
-"Now, flying pan," Mikola growled through clenched teeth. "Time for a counter-offencive."
The Augment raised its hand, and drew it back, as if to launch a Ki attack at Duilin. Thrusting it forward, however, it ripped another fault in the fabric of space. Duilin's attack, concentrated in a crescent, came right back out at him...
--- --- ---
- South-Western Kandarinian town -
-"Well, we're here," announced Konstantin. He hauled his end of the chain off the Pauk, and headed toward a building decorated with the ninth Regiment insignia. "I'll be right back."
He called over a nearby guard to hold the chain while he is gone. Obviously, this was done not to arouse suspicion. The guard threw several cautions glances at Sienna, then at Puco, but other than that, did nothing out of the ordinary. The heavy chain was obviously a burden for him, as he was holding it with both hands. It looked like his back was about to snap from its weight.
A couple of minutes passed, with unintelligible murmuring coming from within the building. Then came the surprised voice of Konstantin.
-"Captain Goethe ordered this?! That can't be! N-No! Stop! Aaaahhh~~!"
A very loud "thump" shook the walls of the small building, followed by silence. Suddenly, elephantine footsteps announced the coming of someone - or something - big...
The mountain of a man that appeared from the comparatively dwarf-sized doorway looked like he could kill with nothing more than a glance. At about seven and a half feet tall, he was easily as high as an ordinary Lizard Man - and certainly a lot more meatier. In addition to his standard battle suit, he looked like he had several thick, flat surfaces stuffed under his clothes - most likely plates of armour. Upon his back resided a truly gigantic single-bladed axe, which looked like it was chieseled out of rough stone. He had a deep tan, as well as a majestic spiked Mohawk.
-"I am Onwan, Lord of the Ntouka tribe, and the Lieutenant of the Fifth Regiment," he said. His voice was deep, but with a hint of finesse - certainly not what one would expect from a massive brute. "My apologies, but my captain, Flora Goethe, asked me to apprehend you."
He took the chain from the trembling guard, who looked like he just made in his pants, and wrapped it around his enormous fist.
-"We must now go. Please do not try to do anything that would endanger your safety - as I'm sure that Necrolyte told you, these woods are not the safest place at this time of day."
--- --- ---
- Northern Kandarinian port town -
-"I attempt to escape from the world, yet the world goes out of its way to find me nevertheless," Kronos moaned. "That is you, Weloss? I assume the beam device you are referring to is my Hammer... Right now, just tell me, what is it that you want in exchange? Regardless of the answer, I will need some time to contemplate the matter. I will contact you when I made up my mind."
-
- South-Eastern Terian Coast -
Duilin moved his arm across himself and created a golden bubble of wind energy, and the flame smashed into the shield, and both the shield and the fire died off.
He then eyed the Necrolyte. It was obvious that the Augment was an undead, and likely being controlled by the Necrolyte, as he seems to commanding it. Perhaps he should take him out, somehow. Doesn't even necessarily have to be lethal.
Duilin sheathed the Iduran and then began to charge lightning energy into his hands. He pressed his hands together and then created an orb out of it, about the size of a softball. He held the sparking blue orb over his head and then dashed around the Augment and then towards Mikola. He was a couple feet away from the Necrolyte when he threw the orb right at him.
--- ---
- South-Western Kandarinian town -
Sienna looked at the giant man in horror. She simply had to get out of here.
"Puco. What do we do?" She whispered.
-
- Terian, Southeastern Coast -
Jacobie backed up as Keshel tripped and fell to the ground. He took his blade in both hands and made a downward cleave as hard as he possibly could, right for Keshel's neck. Meanwhile, Karma backed away from Keshel as he moved towards her. She held her katana close by and backed up into a guarding stance.
--- --- ---
"Oh my... He's dead." Doriana had killed all of the undead around her and finally stumbled upon the scene, blade sheathed, at Firstman's side.
"We'll need to give him a proper burial. Poor human... such a waste of life. Well, these things happen. I have a magic sack of coins that grows as more weight is put inside of it. My money means nothing right now, I'll just dump it out and put him in the bag." She did indeed dump out all of her gold coins, but it was only a few, perhapse ten or eleven. Then, she began to load Firstman into the bag.
-
~ ~ Conventional room, Silver Root ~ ~
When everyone was ready Heil started to speak.
- “Well ladies and gentlemen, today we have came to discuss the newest event, we have arrived at new land. It was a long while since we left Amitri and I suppose I have no need to recall what we did wrong back then…”
He halted his speech, waiting for anyone to object, but as he suspected no one replied so he continued.
- “Mishios spies reported that the foreign country is divided mainly into two pieces. A good one and a bad one as they say. Whether the good one really is good and vice versa is unsure of, but it isn’t relevant as we strive for the good being of our folk. We have prepared our people on both possible outcomes, war and peace, what will happen…” He put his elbows on the table and leaned on them. “… is entirely our choice.”
- “And their of course.” A short haired woman replied. She said it with a polite tone, but everyone knew that she was very disrespectful, even though she wasn’t a full general but only a major general.
- “And their of course.” Heil answered. “However I doubt that we’ll be attacked on arrival. I don’t expect an arriving party either.” Someone smirked. It was a young person, but not much could be seen of him because he sat partially in the shadow., he was also just a major General.
Heil looked at him, and when the person saw that he immediately stopped smiling and sat right up. Now a little of his face was shown. Or the lack of it, for his face was empty, and his head was bald. A little token was seen in the middle of his head.
Heil continued.
- “They sure have noticed of our arrival, it’s hard not see three big ships floating at your country.” Another smirk, another look. “I DO expect some kind of answer from… the Kadarian Sovereignty.”
- “Kandaranian Sir Lord Mocarny, Kandaranian.” A sly voice replied. A long haired handsome man was the one who spoke, it was he Mishio, who was in lead of the spying mission on the foreign grounds. “We know that their technology is far less than ours, however they are more fixed on Mysticism there… Magic in their language.” He looked seriously with his thin eyes at the rest of the generals. “So if they would attack us in the worst case, we wouldn’t have much to fear. For no one can throw from the earth anything up to the clouds, but dropping something from the clouds to the earth is no problem.”
Heil looked at the man, he was a full fledged general, and he was known for his abilities to spy and sneak. He also had allot of won battles in his history as he was a genius tactic.
- “Indeed, and that is not what I fear. What I fear is, that if we won’t make the best contacts, we may end up in war, which always ends in a loss for both sides. My proposition is to keep things silent about our… higher technology, for men fear what is unknown.”
“With all respect Mocarny Heil,…” A blond haired medieval woman spoke. She was a great woman, very loyal AND a great warrior. Something that was rare these days. She was fairly new, and she was only a Major General, but Heil was planning to give her a higher rank pretty soon. “… Mocarny Heil, they already saw our higher technology, they have seen our ships and still do so. We will not be able to keep that fact silent to them.”
- “Pshh, tha was pretty damn obvious feminine human!” The comment came from the farther side of the table, a relative new general, a black haired man with his hair gelled backwards. “Don’t ya think if he’ll say someth’ that he’ll think of tha’?”
- “It did not appear so obvious to me, general Smiech.” The woman tried to say this with a controlled voice, however her eyebrow twitched and Heil could see that she was annoyed.
- “Well, it should be appear’n obvious to ya, feminine!”
- “We should not have be being waste times for not important importantless cases without importance.” A low voice came from a long person, he was the longest in the group and looked really studied. “We are being sorryfull for our interuptions, however we needs to going keep because we can have be hitting the shores every moments now, Mocarnies.”
- “Oh for crying our loud, PLEASE stop talking like that, you stupids! If-”
Heil interupted
- “Don’t start needless wars general Smiech, I fully agree with general Tron, let us continue on our case…”
~ ~ Swan Creek, R9 headquarters, emo room ~ ~
Czernn slowly stood up, and and turned. He wondered why his captain was such a noise, and started slowly.
- "So basicaly, I, a high empowered lieutenant am going to teach some kids how to summon death and learn the paths of pain? Can't you put someone, who wants to do that?"
Czernn sighted and lowered his head.
- "Since when do lieutenants have to babysit?"
~ ~ South-Western Kandarinian town ~ ~
Puco looked at the man, not really impressed by his size, but at his equipment. Apparently she had met more giant alikes in her past.
- "Meee... I... have no idea?"
She raised her hand to scratch her head, but because of her strength she accidentally broke the chains which she didn't put on properly in the first place.
One sweat dropped, and she looked with big eyes at her now free hands, and then at the giant.
- "Eeeeh... we don't have much choice?" She suddenly stood back into her boxing stance.
- "I didn't like that other dude anyway, and aren't we supposed to find your Oni-san? Well I doubt THIS big meany will help us!" She smiled a little now. "Maybe I'll get to test my newest powers out!"
-
- I don't know where -
"My lord... Garrick is dead."
"Hmmm... who killed him?"
"A pirate that goes by the name Royen Beastkeeper, sir. He is in comand of the Gilden Warship."
"Ah,the man who is called 'Boss' by the race of 'Geeks'. Find him and ... bring him here. He might be useful to us."
"Yesss sir!"
-
~Northern Kandarinian port town~
"Pursue?" Kerig looked at Kronos with a surprised right eye "Not at all! All we had to do is turn a little to the-"
"Not now, Kerig."[/b] Weloss interrupted.
"Kronos, it is good of you to ask. I wa-"[/b]
"Hey!" Kerig interrupted his companion just as he was interrupted mere moments earlier.
"We are returning a favor! Asking for anything in return would be rude!"
"Inefficent! I will-!"[/b]
"RETURN! FAVOR!"
Dark mist began to surround Kerig and angry mumbling filled the room.
"...Fine. Kronos! All I ask for is a safe haven for this idiot for as long as I grant you my aid. Is that fine with you, Kerig?"[/b]
Kerig smiled warmly to what appeared to be no one in particular and nodded, then proceeded to stand there and observe Kronos.
-
- Phoenicia (the former island of Romme), North-west coast -
Tweet tweet tweet...
Kelmarr blurrily blinked his eyes open, staring at the blue expanse above him. Above a sea gull fluttered, waving wide circles high in the sky. He watched it for a moment, trying to piece together what had just happened, when something fell from the gull's rear and landed square between his eyes with a splat.
"GRAAAHHHH!!!!"
He leapt to his feet, arms flailing, then stumbled over. He crawled to the ocean's edge just a few feet away and dunked his head in the drink, bubbles rising as he cursed underwater and rubbed his face clean. He pulled his head up, fur soaking wet, and snarled. "Blasted bird!" He found a rock and threw it up into the air, but missed by several hundred feet.
"Ow..."
His arm hurt... Ugh, everything was sore...
Just where the heck was he?
He sat down, trying to get the infernal sand out of his tail. Ugh... It was everywhere. He gave up and proceeded to dunk himself in the cool beach water. What island was this? He thought for a moment it might be Tjed again, yet by the sun he knew he was on the northern coast, and he knew the storm could not have taken him that far...
He shuttered when he remembered that nightmare demon. Folding his ears, he peeked his head above the water and looked around. No sign of that thing anywhere. After a moment he threw both hands in the air and screamed a triumphant "YES!", water splashing around.
"Ow..."
Still sore... He hobbled out of the water, immediately feeling the stolen sword on his back... Phew... His knives were still there too. But his pack? Where was that? Blast!
He looked around in vain. Blast it... How about his coin sack? Blast it! Gone too! Arghh!
He calmed down after a moment. He still had the sword. Perhaps he could sell it here, wherever this was. He'd still make out with a huge profit. And he was still alive, so that was a plus.
Forests lined the beach on all sides, in addition to the occasional display of jutting rock. But in the distance, he could see something jutting above the treetops. Towers, perhaps? It was worth a shot. Fur dripping wet and tail hanging low, he truged into the forest, towards whatever-that-was...
-
- In the middle of the ocean somewhere in the triangle between Ariosis, Romme, and the Dark Continent -
"Ah-" Twack!
One of Akran's crew stumbled back with a black feathered arrow sticking out of his head. He reached up to feel it, but didn't quite make it. He flopped over the side of the ship and hit the water with a splash. All around him there were sounds of a violent battle going on between the two ships. Martin was at the helm making sure that their ship stayed with the Gilden Warship.
Akran's ship, the Shadowshot, had a slim body with a jutting out bow. It's dark gray sails were worn, but still strong and went well with it's maroon coloured body. The ship was definitely built for speed. In fact, Akran had to order that they drop some canvas because they had to stay at speed with Royen's very much larger, Warship.
Martin was an expert at the wheel and skillfully made the Shadowshot swerve back and forth making it harder for the pirates to aim. Meanwhile, Akran was dodging arrows and pirates trying to get to Royen.
Smack! Akran was thrown back as he collided with another man. He quickly drew his dagger, spun around the man and brought the knife to his throat.
"No, please don't kill me!" cried the pirate.
"Where is Royen?" asked Akran pressing the blade into the pirates flesh.
"Ah! N-no, please! He is in his cabin!" the pirate gasped.
Akran threw the whimpering man down on the deck and sprinted to the edge of his ship. He crouched down and waited for Martin to bring the ship back closer so it would be easier to jump. Suddenly, the ship gave a jolt and Akran was almost thrown overboard. The Shadowshot instantly started to turn right for the Gilden Warship. He braced himself for the collision.
CRASH!
The pointed end of the Shadowshot burst through the side of the Warship sending splinters and debris everywhere. Akran was thrown from his ship and sailed right through the opening in Royen's. He hit the floor, rolled and hit the wall. The Shadowshot kept coming so Akran had to scramble to hit feet. The ship jolted again and Akran was flung to another wall, but managed to keep on his feet.
Dust and splinters skewing his vision, Akran stumbled up the stairs to the deck. Somehow he managed to crawl up, but he was coughing and rubbing his eyes. He looked up and saw that the entire Warship was tilted to the side. It was sinking. He could see pirates scrambling to get off the ship. Some just dived into the water, while others jumped on to the Shadowshot. Through all this commotion, there was something that was missing. Where is Royen?
"'Ello Akran," came a gruff voice from above him. Royen put his foot on Akran's back and drew an arrow to his temple. "Good bye, mate. You're breakin' my heart."
-
- Swan Creek, R9 HQ -
-"Since I became captain, and you lieutenant," Ssesk sighed. "Are you forgetting that these people are some of the few you can truly fit in with? We wouldn't want them to die out, just for the sake of.... race diversssity....."
The Lizard Man handed Czernn a map.
-"The location iss marked as "Mournbury" on the map. There will be a small headquarters there. You are to rendezvous with two fairly young Necrolytes - Joseph, a fairly ordinary rookie, as well as Ekaterina - a gifted Necrolyte, as I'm sure you yourself will... disscover...."
Ssesk walked out of the room, pausing at the door.
-"Don't disappoint me, Czernn."
--- --- ---
- South-West Kandarinian town -
-"So," sighed Onwan. "Captain Goethe was right, after all. You are a little something, aren't you? Gentlemen?"
Ten tall-capped Cryomancers made their entrance from the buildings around. Unlike ordinary ice mages, their weapon was a dark blue gauntlet on their left hand. One 6th Regiment Stalker was also present.
-"Looks like your guests of honour will not accompany us peacefully. Could you coerce her to to come with me, please?"
The Cryomancers slowly backed away from Puco, holding their left hands in front of them. Small veins of azure glowing liquid lit up on their gauntlets, and some sort of a dome-like shield made of sky-blue mist appeared around the two captives. Meanwhile, the Stalker sat down on the ground outside the shield, and began charging strange circles in the sand.
-"If I were you, ladies, I wouldn't touch the mist. It is rather cold."
--- --- ---
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
//Footballs aren't orbs, DM. At least your stupid American ones.\
Duilin managed to out-speed the Augment in his movement. The metal zombie already made a move to rip another fault to absorb the sparkling attack, but the movement was too late. Mikola, however, was a little more vigilant. He quickly drew his blade to deflect the orb. The blue energy collapsed when it hit the Necrolyte's sword, albeit with a bright flash. Mikola was staggered by the phenomenon, clutching his face and screaming.
-"My eyes! My eyes!!! Ahh! The facemask, it does nothing!"
Then something strange happened. The Augment stopped midway in creating a portal, and the incomplete fissure slowly rippled back together. It looked around curiously, while producing loud inhaling sounds from behind its mask.
In the newly formed silence, Duilin's hair slightly wavered in the wind toward the Necrolyte's guardian...
With something of a gasp, the Augment spun around, facing Duilin directly. It made a stabbing movement with its hand at the warrior, who was a few feet away.
Rrrrip...
The flying hand vanished in a tiny rift, reappearing right next to Duilin's head. The unhumanly long metallic finger seemed to be heading directly at Duilin's temple.
---
The Lizard Man's attack hit its target a little lower than it was supposed to, but it did the job nevertheless.
-"What a deed you just performed," wheezed Keshel. "Watch your ass, lizard. Just a matter of time before I come back!"
With those words, the manslayer's blade dropped...
---
The message was loud and clear, as it rang through the Necrolytes' minds. Coming from Vladimir, the de facto leader of the task force, it cut through their thoughts, like a cold knife through the fiery chaos:
-"Don't resurrect him."
--- --- ---
- Gros Morne Citadel -
-"I find your request difficult to perform, Weloss," Kronos sighed, without taking his head off his elbow - or, for that matter, looking up at all. "I thought that my fortress was the ultimate safe haven. And yet, here you stand before me."
The Sovereign finally raised his head.
-"As long as Kerig is in the Kandarinian-controlled territory, no live blade will come near him. Here..."
A barely audible rip echoed through the chamber.
-"I've got an Augment following you. This way I can keep my eye on you two, and protect you from harm at the same time. I will also let you know of my reply through him when I have decided. Now, please - leave me to my days of quiet contemplation, which I longed for so long..."
-
//I didn't say football, I said softball (http://http://www.global-b2b-network.com/direct/dbimage/50203318/Softball.jpg).\
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
"Whoaa!!" Duilin exclaimed in shock. He swerved his head to avoid the metal finger. With a look of annoyance he then stabbed his sword right at the Augment's head, aiming between the metal plates.
--- ---
- South-West Kandarinian town -
"Puco. We have to get out of here." Sienna whispered. "Try and teleport us out of the mist. We'll fight our way out."
She was ready, over the past few years she's been training and she even had her skills 'evolved' by Puco.
-
~ ~ South-West Kandarinian town ~ ~
"Neeh~..."
Puco didn't expect THAT. She opened her eyes wildly at the mist that was nearing.
"Miue... !! I don't think I can do that! These guys are in the way!!"
After though of a strategy she touched the earth, letting spikes grow out of the earth, but not in the Cryomancers and neither at her, just in between them right into the mist.
Temperature transfer, this thing should succeed. She could change the temperature of the the mist via the poles... at least that was the plan.
A little longer... done!
"Sienna, I lowered the temperature of the mist, do your thing!"
Saying do you thing, she had no idea what, but she was too busy giving the mist a nice temperature.
~ ~ Swan Creek, R9 HQ ~ ~
Czernn bowed a little.
"I shall not depress you more than myself moj kapitanie."
He had nothing to take, why should he take anything anyway with him?
"EY! Emobait! Dun' forget me!"
Czernn didn't expect that.
He turned and looked at his desk, and the skull that was lying on it... spoke.
- "Wha... how did you get alive?"
- "IDIOT! You're a NECROMANCY! Taking death stuff to life is yer SPECIALITY!"
- "I can't remember having you brought to life..."
- "Hey! HEY! What are youdoingtom-"
Czernn put the skull in a black bag.
He turned and wanted to walk out... but the light was so bright...
"This is a pain... too bad pain hurts."
-
- South-West Kandarinian town -
"Yeeeaa!!" Sienna then jumped forward and then nearly disappeared into thin air. She casted a camouflage and speed increase spells on herself.
At a lightning fast speed she ran in a circle around the Cryomancers throwing the razer-sharp cards at their necks...
--- ---
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
Marshall approached Doriana. He said nothing but helped her put Firstman into the bag. When he was in the bag he took a deep breath and then sighed.
"He was...my friend." He said softly.
-
//DM, Duilin is a few feet away from the Augment. He couldn't've just stabbed his sword at the Augment, he's too far away. The reason the zombie was able to do that was because it can create portals.\
--- --- ---
- South-Western Kandarinian town -
One of the Cryomancers snickered.
-"Heh," he said. "Nice job, Onwan. They fell for it."
Just as the cards reached the mist, a chain lightning united all Cryomancers' gauntlets, and the mist turned into a solid dome of ice. With a "zing", the cards struck the ice wall - but failed to cut through even a quarter of its width.
-"Don't thank me," said Onwan grimly, who was leaning against a nearby house, his arms crossed on his chest. "Captain Goethe was the one who suggested this course of action. She assumed that the captives will attempt to disperse of the mist by using glyph magic, nowadays the most common. However, as glyph magic would require them to be very close to the mist, the resulting ice wall would've captured them inside. As for the earthern spines, which served to reinforce the shield... That was unpredicted by either me or captain Goethe. Deus ex machina, I suppose."
He turned to the sand-charting Stalker.
-"Scylax, are you done yet?"
-"Yes," came the hushed voice. "Secondary protection barrier is in place, Lord Onwan."
-"Good... that should slow them. Begin the third phase."
-"Yes, sir."
The Stalker came up to the outer layer of the ice wall, and began charting another glyph on it. (1/2)
//Considering that the ice shield was set up in two posts, and the secondary shield in one, by logic it should take Puco and Ophelia at least 3 posts to break out\
-
//Sheesh, then just assume he dashed forward or something.\
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
"Whoaa!!" Duilin exclaimed in shock. He swerved his head to avoid the metal finger. With a look of annoyance he dashed towards the Augment, untill he was up close. He then stabbed his sword right at the Augment's head, aiming between the metal plates.
--- ---
- South-Western Kandarinian town -
Sienna clenched her teeth, as she turned back into her visible self.
"Alright, that's it..." Sienna took out several cards from her deck and then her hands glowed with a dark purple aura. She crossed her arms and held them close to her face and the aura around her hands began to glow brighter.
-
- North-northwestern Tjedian coast -
"So... Um... Do we... Do we just leave it here?"
As he speaks, Bishop slowly circles the worn raft, sitting safely twenty feet from the waterline. The gel moves with an awkward grace by quickly compressing and contracting his mass into a rhythmic spasm, leaving a strange trail as it drags over the sand. His pure white eyes furrow quizzingly as his gaze sweeps back and forth, from the raft, to the sea, to a worn road off in the distance. Suddenly, they widen.
Jaspers voice seeps into and through the gels consciousness in an almost chiding manner. <You certainly aren't going to be taking it with you.> Soon, though, the voice softens, returning to the reassuring manner that the gel is more comfortable with. <It will be fine, don't worry. This beach doesn’t look very heavily traveled, and no one would have any need of that raft that I can think of, or even the skills to use it.> Using subtle controls, Jasper directs Bishops gaze to the road a ways away. <We should head that way. Roads are a good sign, following it will take us... somewhere, certainly.>
As the gels eyes relaxed, they took on a hopeful gleam. "I do hope that 'somewhere certainly' has food. And someplace dry, as it is going to rain soon, I think." With that, Bishop faced the road, and super condensed his body. As he released the potential energy built up within........
Hop!
Bishop leapt forward a good two feet before landing and, using the energy of the impact, bounced again. Using this method, he quickly accelerated to a respectable speed, not quite as fast as a run, but more of a 'trot'. With the ocean to their right, the two followed the road westward.
-
~ ~ South-Western Kandarinian town ~ ~
- "Glyph? I don't even know what it means!"
Some meters of the Cryomancers Puco was standing, covered in sand, with a huge (for her) hole next to her.
Smiling brightly ignoring the fact that she ruined a perfect surprise attack she spoke:
- "I look like cat, so I can dig like one!!"
...
Cats can't dig... she forgot that one.
- "Anyway, I don't know what you are talking of, but it doesn't sound good to me!"
She bashed her left feet in the earth, making the ground shake, maybe even someone with weak balance fall, but that wasn't her trick. The upper layer of the earth around her, and around the cryomancers began to break. This created lots of rubble and it flew in the air, and Puco couldn't see her surrounding good, whether it hit the runes in the earth or not, or let the ice break and the cryomacers triple, she didn't care.
She rushed at a ridiculous speed at the nearest shade of an enemy and roll jumped him with full strength (Bone breaking).
-
- Phoenicia, forest -
Something wasn't right. Wasn't right at all...
Just where the heck was he? Kelmarr ran a claw through his spiky headfur. Blast, he needed a smoke. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a soggy cigar. Great. Just fantastic.
Replacing the cigar (who knows, it might dry out later) he sat on a log and curled his tail around his left side. Green boughs shadowed him from above, thick enough to block out all but thin streams of sunlight. Still through those cracks in the trees, those towers... those spires were visible.
Definitely not Tjed. But where else? He'd been in taverns all around, and knew a decent amount of Gaian geography just by listening to drunk morons complain about each other. Ariosis: Rich country. Dranniville: Cat people. (He'd been asked if he was from Dranniville a couple of times... Ugh. Come on, just look at his tail. What an insult. Morons...) Helternia: Birthplace of some sappy hero... Those were all too far away from Tjed for him to crash land after such a short trip. Just how long did he drift in the ocean?
Was there another island he didn't know about? That couldn't be the case. If so, why didn't Tjed trade with it? Why did he never hear drunk merchants talk about it in the bar? It's not like he just crash landed on some invisible island or something.
Hmmm...
In any case, if he did find some backwater hick island, he may be able to sell the sword without any chance of getting caught. Probably not as much as some rich nation like Ariosis, but hey, he had to work with what he had...
He stood and made his way towards the city once more. Hopefully it wouldn't be infested with humans like everywhere else. Blast it.
-
- South-westen Kandarinian town -
Onwan was visibly impressed by the crashed ice wall. He watched indifferently as Puco's foot struck the secondary protection barrier, which also contained all of the raised rubble inside.
-"How's the glyph coming along, Scylax?"
The Stalker was adding finishing touches to his glyph, which was now floating in the air just over the secondary ward.
-"It is done," he said, shielding his eyes from a quick flare from the symbol. "We can begin." (2/2)
-"Make it so."
Scylax bowed his head lightly, and turned to the floating pentagram. It seemed to be glowing around the edges.
-"The ward is completely isolated," he said before continuing. "It's going to take a lot more than a mild earthquake to break something that cannot be broken by physical interference. The destruction of the ice shield certainly threw a wrench in our plan, or so I thought at first. Looks like it won't matter either way, though."
The Stalker brought his face close to the glyph, and, after taking off his facemask, blew lightly on it. On the other side, a cascade of incredibly potent knockout gas flooded the ward-sealed enclosure.
-"Don't bother closing your mouths, ladies," he whispered into the glyph. "This gas is courtesy of our Regiment 4's Lieutenant, Vandrin. That man certainly knows his ways around chemicals... It will take action upon touching your skin. So unless you want to willingly suffocate yourself, don't fight it."
//Notice how I said "knockout" - in other words, I'd very much prefer it if both Puco and Sienna were hit by the attack. I have a cool story thread planned, don't worry, your chars aren't going to die.\
--- --- ---
- South-eastern Kandarinian coast -
-"Heh," coughed Mikola, who was regaining his eyesight. "That, my winged friend, is a very, very major mistake on your part."
The Augment created a portal just in time before Duilin's sword hit it, letting the sword stab the ground a few feet away. Both portals closed shortly, but the Augment was quick to create another one to its right. The initial blackness from the rift soon faded, to reveal...
...Duilin's beating heart.
-"It looks to me as though you've never fought a Necrolyte before, pan," Mikola sneered. "Otherwise you'd know not to get this close to a Vischy. As I'm sure you can see, they have an annoying tendency of opening a portal right inside you in those situations."
With another demoniacally fast movement, the Augment made a stab at the heart.
Then, something went wrong.
Its long claw stopped a mere millimetre from the pulsing flesh. The zombie made another twitch, and fell to the ground in the grotesque fixed position. Slowly, its limbs relaxed, and lowered down to the ground - as if it was being released from some oppressive power constricting it.
The Necrolyte himself was nowhere to be seen, at least in the first few moments. Then, a weak moaning a few meters away announced his presence.
Mikola was pinned to a nearby tree by a dauntingly long, barbed spear. It looked like a very large version of the standard Kandarinian ammo for spearguns, with several strange marks on it. There was something else, though... There seemed to be small white cracks in the Necrolyte's body spreading outward from where the spear made contact. About 30 zombies in the vicinity of Mikola and Duilin dropped dead for no observed reason.
-*cough* "What the hell.... is this...?"
The white cracks seemed to be doing their deed, though - the Necrolyte's head soon limply dropped to the side. Suddenly, his body burst in flames, burning a fiery glyph in the tree. The glyph liquefied the surface upon which it was burnt, turning the tree into a sort of a wavering curtain. Soon, a dark form emerged - a hooded man holding a dangerous-looking apparatus on his shoulder.
-"Hello... bird."
-
- Dranniville, Port Arakissnav -
Aaron found himself a nice bench to sit on as he waited for his guardian to escort him to the stronghold to the south; known as Fort Gadowran. The Drannic port flooded with Drannivolkans and elves trading among the endless rows of markets. The Drannic insignia, the double star and cross, fluttered in the breeze on a flagpole near by. Aaron looked above at the flag, tranced by the beauty of the blue doublestar, the gold cross, and the purple background.
A few moments later, to large-looking Drannivolkans walked up to the former Emporer of Ariosis. They both bowed and greated him.
"Hello, lord consular," the first began, "I am Marrik and this is Bradly. We are here to escort you to your stronghold now."
"About time." The young consular got to his feet and pulled out his sword, letting it sit by his side in his hand. "What manner of creatures are south of here."
"There be loads o' wyverns, me lord," Bradly started, "and tons o' bloody scavenger birds too. We best be careful and be watchin' tha' first step, me lord."
"Very well. I know that the wyverns will not hurt us unless we hurt them first, so just keep your guards up. Meh, you are 'guards' after all."
"Indeed, sir. I'll take point." Marrik walked to the head of the three and Bradly in back. The two guardians weilded large, blade-tipped spears. They set out on the path to the south of the port. After a minute or so of walking, smoke could be seen from above the tree tops in the forested paths. Not a good sign to be sure. Could be the smithy, or perhapse the great hall fireplace. None could be certain.
However, after a bit more walking, their fears had been realized. The fortress was under seige, but not by the kandarinians... but by rebels from the first war of Ariosis. None thought they were even around anymore. The battle was still raging on as Aaron pushed through the gatehouse and entered the stronghold. It was nearly all in ruins, but the guard was still holding up.
"Damnit, I thought I disposed of them four years ago!" Aaron walked into the midst of the battle, and as he did, the rebels fled back to the woods. The main castle was still intact, but the stronghold outer wall was extremely damaged, and rubble was everywhere.
"Lord Aaron! You've come at a rather unexpected time... what are you doing here?" This came from an average-sized Drannivolkan soldier who came up to Aaron and saluted.
"I've made this stronghold my base of opperations. It's all here in my writ. I'll show it to you as we enter the castle. After all, your men could use a break. Have the mages generate a barrier."
"A BARRIER!? But sir! You know how anoying barrier generation can be... and how unstable it is for land AND air units!"
"Of course I do! I realized how unstable they were when the Dark Empire invaded! However, it's time that we errect another one. I feel that our mages have grown more knowledgable after the past three years."
"Hmm... Alright, lord. I'll have the men get right to it. You two!" The Drannivolkan pointed at Marrik and Bradly. "Tell the mages that consular Aaron demands a barrier be errect within the hour." The two Drannivolkans bowed and ran off into the castle, most likely to the mages' quarters. The Drannivolkan then turned his attention to Aaron once again.
"What do you plan to do about the rebels, sir?"
"Absolutely nothing. Nothing can penetrate a barrier... however, the only fault is that nothing can leave it either."
"Indeed sir. It's quite the measure you've taken."
"Rebels are weak. It's not them I'm worried about."
"It's the Kandarinians, isn't it?"
"Indeed. Well, let's start planning on how we'll get my plan into action. I'll tell you all about it after we get inside."
"Of course my lord."
------------
- Terian, southeastern coast -
"I'm sorry for your loss... Geomarcus! Get this back to my ship and place it on the deck. Be careful, I don't want the god-damn Kandarinians resurecting him while he's in there." Geomarcus walked over to Doriana and lifted the large bag.
"Don't worry, General. It's a straight shot to the ship. I'll be back in a jiffy."
"No, you wont. I'm sorry Geomarcus, but I want you to guard it, along with the ship."
"*sigh* Yes, General." With that, Geomarcus was off.
--- --- ---
//Not sure if this'll be okay with Ein. If not, post it as a miss or something.
"I don't think so. You wont be able to come back if you're fried to ash! Take THIS!!!" Jacobie put two hands together and immediately shot a small beam of fire at Keshel's body.
------------
-
~ ~South-westen Kandarinian town~ ~
"Holy..."
Even though she escaped outside the ball of Ice she was struck into an another one!
Things happened quickly, puco let all her power to her fist but the gas already entered.
If only... it wasn't gas.
She tried to freeze the air isolating Sienna and Puco... however it seemed that the gas was very heavy, and it was entering quickly... to quick, to fast to guard.
Puco felt the foreign gas touch her body...
With her last strength she punched the second layer of ice, making a hole into it,
but it was too late,
she breathed the gas, and felt light,
too light,
some gas leaked because of the hole,
did,
it,
matter?
Thud.
~ ~ Swan Creek, R9 HQ ~ ~
Czernn left the room and walked slowly towards the main hall.
"I have to get some kind of transport... it's way to far off to go there on my own..."
He entered the dark hall. All kind of weird objects were making the hall look really obscure, but Czernn wasn't bothered by it, didn't he live in a room without any light?
Some soldiers were walking around, and the hall was more empty than usual because everyone was leaving for some kind of mission. Czernn stood in the middle in search of some... ah, yes. There were two of them.
- "Chodzie wladcy smierci" [Come lords of death] He spoke softly, however the necromancers heard him and quickly walked toward Czernn, bowing deeply.
- "We are in your command pan Manteia!"
He raised his hand somewhat unenthusiastically and began to speak.
- "I need to go to a certain location, and I need a transport... now."
The necromancers looked at each other and bowed once more.
- "We have a carriage that was meant to transport pan lieutenant in command Lokiwa..."
They gulped.
- "It is ready pan Manteia, allow us to guide you towards your destination."
Czernn rised an eyebrow. Or he did do something that looked as if he did, for he had no eyebrows to raise.
- "Necromancer," He pointed at the taller one. "please get some other transport for pan Lokiwa, and..."
He looked at the other necromancer.
The necromancer looked back, and realized he had to say his name.
- "I'm Motylek, pan Manteia."
- "Pan Motylek lead me to this carriage, I have been... asked to leave quickly."
- "I shall pan Manteia, follow me pan Manteia!"
He turned and walked quickly outside while the other one bowed mumbling something with "wish" and "Pan Manteia" and left.
"Sheesh... such stress for them, I guess their still necromancers. Will do them good to actually breath."
He followed his new driver outside... the sun was shining bright.
In Czernn's eyes.
-
~Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia~
"Hey, Indher, take a look at this..."
Indher gave out a loud sigh.
"Are you using the orb to spy on someone showering again?"
Elphos went red.
"D-Don't be silly! I'm looking into the forest."
Indher sighed again.
"Oh, and what is it you see? A bird? A squirrel?"
Elphos grumbled.
"Well... It kind looks like a squirrel... A really big, black squirrel with knives..."
Indher pushed Elphos away from the orb and took a brief look.
"What the... Elphos! Inform the townspeople that theres a stranger on the island! Call Shuichi, too... He'll take care of things by the time I get there..."
Elphos nodded and ran down.
-----
~Gros Morne Citadel~
Kerig nodded with a bright smile and stepped back into the portal.
"Where should I go next? Oh, who cares. Might as well wander around for a while..."
-
- South-Western Kandarinian town -
//I'm going to be a bitch and assume that Ophelia is knocked out as well. I'm sure DM will forgive this minor transgression... He can't post today. Also, amazing post there, Mikado!\
-"Phew," Onwan sighed. "That girl was really something there... Vent the gas if you would, Scylax."
The Stalker tacitly nodded and backed off from the ward, as did all the other mages. Scylax added some small lines to the large sigil on the ground, and the ward seemed to pull itself out a little - as if making a tube. When he finished, the tube erupted on the other end, shooting a concentrated jet of gas into the skies. The ward finished its existence by vanishing into thin air as Scylax wiped the sigil off the ground.
One of the Cryomancers came up to Puco, and poked her with a stick.
-"Well, she isn't moving," he said. "Best if we disarm them while we can... and tying them up wouldn't be a terribly bad idea either."
-"Not necessary," grumbled Onwan. "That gas knocked them out for a fair amount of time, much more than we need to get them to where they're needed. Captain Goethe will certainly be pleased."
The enormous lieutenant picked Sienna up, and threw her over his shoulder. Scylax did the same with Puco, while the Cryomancers wandered off back into the town. Thus, the pair walked off into the distance...
--- --- ---
- South-Eastern coast of Terian -
//That's fine, Drannic. I was trying to get rid of him anyway =) \
Keshel's body burst into flames. The smoke, oddly, had a dark red tint to it - the same phenomenon that Duilin was observing in the dead Necrolyte as well. The strange vapour quickly whithered out of its concentration in the wind...
---
Ein put the large ranged weapon on his back, hiding it below his cape. He looked around, quickly scanning the battlefield, and then shooting another dark glare at Duilin.
-"I remember, back in our first, ah... encounter, I asked you to define evil, bird. Due to the inactivity of the Aspyes, I can no longer safely call myself one... so here we are, stuck in a dilemma. There are undead beings crawling all around us, and I just saved your life from that twitchy freak. Can you still call me evil?"
While Ein was talking, several zombies crept up behind him. He only noticed them when it was too late - when two swords and an axe were already flying at his spine. Contrary to all expectations, he did not panic. He simply held his left hand out to the side, revealing a shirtless chest covered top to bottom with basic glyphs, scratched right into the skin. Several of them on his arm lit up, blasting a fiery wave around him. The zombies were knocked back, and one was set on fire.
-"Those that abuse the very powers of life and death should not be allowed to exist." Ein half-turned to Duilin. "Are you getting all of this, bird? Or is your avian brain too small to comprehend even the most basic of matters, such as this?"
With those words, he clapped his hands together. The glyphs went crazy - every single little line on both his arms burst in a cascade of light, sending a lightning shockwave forward. The zombies were cut clear in half, their remains sizzling with small white sparks.
---
-"Pan Mikola has fallen, it seems..." Vladimir's whisper did not hold even a gram of regret. "Are we ready to unveil our final Mertvetz?"
-"We are ready, pan Vladimir."
A hushed murmur of agreement echoed through each Necrolyte's mind. After it settled down, Vladimir spoke once again.
-"Remember that we are not here to win. We are here to weaken. Once the enemy is weakened, Kandarin will capture his homeland, enslave his men, and reign across all the world. Now then... begin."
---
The chaos at the battlefield stopped for a few seconds - and then everything went even more haywire than before. All of the undead creatures fell apart, even the newly deceased Gaian Federation troops. The Necrolytes also exited their Marchers, using their Vischys to get around the battlefield quickly and defend themselves from attack. Soon, the little group of the 13 surviving death mages huddled below a growing mass of bone - carefully arranged into some sort of structure... or... creature...
(13)
--- --- ---
- Gros Morne Citadel, Northern Kandarinian town -
"Agh. Looks like I couldn't hold off from writing in here, after all. Those two strange, strange fellows just visited me again - Kerig and Weloss. They proposed an interesting offer... to imbue my Hammer with some sort of an enhancement. At first, I wanted to scream, "Why the hell not?! Get to it!!", but then I realized that Weloss might as well just be toying with me. As such, I got several of my faithful Stalkers to create a passive aura around the Binding Glyph, coming from a little soulstone I attached to it. The aura is rather weak, which shouldn't set Weloss off - but even if it does, I can just say that it is a part of the device.
In any case... The purpose of the field is to collect information on Weloss. If anything goes wrong, I mean, I can just pull the plug. If not... well, good for me. The proposal certainly sounds interesting... Now, just to wait until those slow idiots are finished casting the damn thing. Ugh. I should get them to train better Stalkers."
-
- South-eastern Kandarinian coast -
Duilin looked around in confusion, he wasn't exactly sure what happened, but he knew he almost got killed.
"It's...you. I definitely remember you." Duilin said to him, sheathing his sword and crossing his arms. "Yeah, I heard about the little falling apart of the Aspyes." He replied. "What a pity." He added mockingly.
"But yes, I am willing to accept your help. But you better give me more respect than that if you want mine. But you may be glad to know that a couple of your Aspye friends actually joined me. I think you might know one of them, Marshall Royle."
"General!" Called a voice from behind.
"Speak of the devil..." Duilin said softly.
Marshall, followed by Grant, approached Duilin, panting from the run. "General, the zombies, they all just fell apart. Something...odd is happening."
Duilin turned around and saw that some sort of creature was forming together.
"Hmm..." Duilin rubbed his chin.
"What should we do?" Grant asked.
"I'll worry about that." Duilin then put his right middle and index finger on his right temple and sent a long ranged telepathic message to Vaughn.
--
'Vaughn, get your ass to my location. And bring the rest of the group with you'
'Right away sir. But it appears that Ryan and Firstman were killed in action.'
"Damnit..." Duilin muttered. 'Well, you see what's going on? I don't like it. Just get over here now. We'll grieve latter.'
--
"Wait..." Marshall stepped towards the familiar looking cloaked man. "Ein?! Is that you, Ein?!" He said with a lot of surprise. "My god. It is you! It's been...what four years!? Wow, you've changed a little. I thought I got tougher. But look at you, you're as big as a house!"
-
~ ~ Swan Creek, R9 HQ ~ ~
A huge carraige was waiting on the road, it was decorated with red pieces of metal, maybe they were an other colour a long time ago. Other than that the carraige was black but a cean eye could only see that, for the carraige was covered in dust and sand. It was a mighty carraige indeed, one that lost its long glory.
- "I'm sorry for the looks of the carraige pan Manteia, it as war antique as one could call it."
- "Do not feel troubled drogi Motylek, I have no needs for rich looks, in contrary, I dislike to draw attention..."
A silence followed as they entered the cart. Czernn went into the carraige and at the last moment that he turned he cought a glimpse of pan Motylek summoning something like unlife horses and attaching them to the front.
Czernn sat down with his back to the front looking through the back window of the carraige.
- "Where to pan Manteia?"
Czernn gave him the map over his back without turning his head.
- "Please... ride slowly."
-
- Somewhere South of the Dark Continent -
Royen let go of the bow string, but the Gilden Warship was sinking. He missed by a mile as he lost his balance and stumbled back. Akran took advantage of the opening and thrust upwards with his dagger.
"Argh! Wha-?" Royen looked down at the blade sticking out of his chest. He let the Raven Bow drop onto the sloping deck. Royen stood there, staring.
"Akran!" cried a voice from the Shadowshot. It was Martin. "Come here quickly! Your on the wrong ship!" His crew was shoving the last of the pirate bodies off the side of the ship. They had won.
Water was rushing up the stairs and Akran knew he had not much time left. He yanked his dagger back out of Royen, who collapsed on the deck, and shakily stood up.
"Here!" Martin threw a rope at his Captain. Akran grabbed it and let his crew pull his up on to the Shadowshot just as Royen's body slid down the wet deck into the water.
Back on the safe deck of his ship Akran looked around. There were about twenty of his men still left. The seven who had died were nowhere to be seen.
"Lost to the sea, poor blokes." said Martin who seemed to guess what was on Akran's mind. Akran just nodded. Then something caught his eye. The bow that Royen prized was floating on the water just ahead. He walked over to the front of the ship and used a paddle from the rowboat to retrieved the weapon.
As soon as Akran grabbed it his right hand started to burn and the fiery sensation spread up his arm. He was frantically trying to drop it, but he couldn't. Martin came over to see what was the matter.
"STOP!" Akran yelled, "Don't come any closer."
Dark black lines were creeping up his arm - cutting his flesh. They kept crawling up even though his blood was trickle down. His eyes started to burn red and with his other hand he frantically rubbed them.
"AHHHHHH!" Akran screamed.
Then, all of a sudden, the pain stopped.
*Clang*
He let the bow drop. Akran took his hands down from his eyes and looked at his arm. The lines ran all the way up across half of his chest. He could see because the black lines had burned through his shirt, leaving it all ripped and smoldering.
Akran felt a strange sensation of power. He flexed his arm. Man, it was strong! Slowly, he picked up the bow again. He felt a grin spread slowly across his face. He turned towards his crew who were all staring at him intently.
"Let's go North. I feel as though we should have gone a while ago now." he said calmly.
-
- Kandarinian South-Eastern coast -
-"Hello, Marshall." Ein decided to completely ignore Duilin. "Well, fighting off wild beasts and undead monsters for three years does have its perks."
He looked at the creature being build some distance away.
-"Ah, yes... it's one of those..." He scratched his chin. "I've fought those creatures before. Normally, I'd kill the Necrofreak creating it before he finishes the spell, but there's 13 of them - and all with those puppet things hanging around them, there's no way a spear would get close to him."
Another creeping zombie rode Ein's lightning into oblivion, which he casually let off.
-"I'd love to get reacquainted, Marshall, but right now we have more important things to do. Their puppets are on the inside, so there is no point attacking it at this time. I suggest retreating to form a strategy." (2/3)
//I absolutely cannot post anything else right now. Sorry.\
-
"Alright, then. You probably know best." Marshall replied. He then turned to Duilin "You hear that General?"
"Yeah, I got that." Duilin turned and looked at Ein. "I'm going to put my trust in you for this. But I've got my eye on you, so don't try anything funny."
Lagart, Vaughn, Hance, Sheri and Zuhani arrived and joined up with the group.
"There you are. Okay guys, this is Ein." The general said pointing to the cloaked man. "He's going to help us out. But apparently whatever this creature is, it's dangerous. So we need to get out of here and then devise a plan."
-
- The Dark Continent: South-Eastern coast -
The crew was looking at Akran strangely. He would pace back and forth on the deck and feel eyes on him, but when he turned around, the crew would quickly turn away. It didn't matter. Those fools knew practically nothing anyway.
Akran was testing out the strength of his new arm. It did not only feel stronger, but a strange tingling came from the dark lines whenever he flexed. He tried to shoot some birds with the Raven Bow, but it felt strange. He wasn't used to the feel of it yet.
"Um, Captain?" said Martin nervously approaching Akran. This was the first time someone spoke to him since the battle with Royen.
"Yes, Martin?" answered Akran sighing. Just tell me the news already!
"We see land up ahead."
"What? Already?" Akran ran up to the bow and looked for himself. They couldn't be at the Kandarinian Sovereignty already. Martin jogged up beside him.
"Look." Martin pointed to the land. "Is that a fight?"
He was right. It sure looked like there was. There was smoke was rising and Akran could hear the faint sound of a battle. The lines in his arm tightened. He felt burning strength from his fingers to his chest. Hell Yes!
-
- Spire City outskirts, Phoenicia -
Well, blast... he was coming up to a big city... a huge city... Possibly the biggest city he had ever seen. He could see towers and spires and all sorts of white marble structures jutting up to the heavens. One spire was particularly large, a testament to grandeur as it poked at the clouds above. This was major... some massive urban network. He could smell the magic in the air, sustaining such a conglomeration of impossibly tall structures and knitting them and the people together like some well-oiled machine.
Why didn't anyone know about this?
As the forest cleared, he came to a village of sorts set up at the edges of the city. Some refuge for the dregs of society, no doubt. Merchants were in the streets, yelling about their wares and whatever nonsense they did.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared.
Of course, stop and stare at the skunk. Blast it. Wherever he was, the locals were exceptionally rude. Ruder than the average human villages. Children ran, grown men walked away. People whispered and pointed before disappearing behind locked doors. Real nice. Thanks.
He stuck his hands in his pockets and grumbled, ears folded and tail hanging low. Entirely human, of course. Just like everywhere else. Ugh. Never mind not having any money. He wondered if they'd even accept coin from him, or if he would have to dodge old women beating at him with brooms.
Well he was here, and he had to make due. Just sell the blasted sword and get out. Should be able to make a few hundred gold easy on this thing...
-
~ ~ Spire City outskirts, Phoenicia ~ ~
Shuichi was walking the streets again this morning. He got a message that something unusual came to the city.
He didn't see action in three years, and he was quite enjoying it. But it's not easy to turn fate away, and he wondered what it was walking through the crowded streets.
Suddenly people began to move quicker, as if walking away from something. It was hard to pass by, and he couldn't see why but it didn't take long before the street became way emptier.
Shuichi halted.
"Hey... a walking Skunk..."
Was this the thing that the guy that Indher sent to him informed him off? It must be, seeing a walking Skunk IS pretty unusual after all.
Shuichi tried to act casually, but it was hard for he was almost the only one walking in this street now. After looking a little weird and coming close enough he gave up, and faced the Skunk.
- "I'm sorry for the behavior that you just faced," Shuichi bowed casually. "but we don't see Skunks that often, and even if we do not walking ones." He meant this as a joke, but whether it was seen as one was a question...
~ ~ Swan Creek, R9 HQ - Mournbury ~ ~
Czernn felt a little ill from the ride even though they were riding quite slowly.
He wondered what the necromancers would be like and fell a sleep... or something that looked like it.
~ ~South-westen Kandarinian town~ ~
Puco was unconscious.
"Nice to meet you again Catgirl, dying again?"
The voice was silent, almost a whisper but Puco could hear it really well... or rather feel it.
"I'm not dead am I!?"
Her voice was filled with fear.
"You're never dead. You can't die. The cataclysm locked your existance... or not existance should I say."
"Oh, come on! You know what I mean! The pain..."
"Yea... the feeling that you get when your body tries to die, but you can't die by physical means..."
"=D"
"Their only taking you... but do you think they discovered your power?"
"What power?"
"... to nuke down a country..."
"I can't do that!"
"No, but you're a gun loaded with atomic bomb for someone who CAN use you properly..."
"Erm... what are atomic blobs again?"
"Bombs. It are... oh nevermind, you'll never understand it anyway. Just hope the don't know."
-
- Spire City outskirts, Phoenicia -
"Hmmm... if they don't walk, how do they get around... fly?" Kelmarr brought his hand to his chin a moment and smirked at the blond human. Of course, this guy was a total moron (like all humans, basically), but hey if he played him right, he might find a good price for his sword. Judging by his fancy robes, this guy had some money...
Kelmarr flicked his tail and a bunch of dried beach sand fell to the street. Now to make up a quick story...
"The name's Kelmarr, rare weapons dealer. Traveling the world in search of items worthy of adding to my collection..." He praised himself inwardly. Blast he was good. He even got the snooty rich-guy tone down. "Also... may consider letting go of one or two of my personal prizes... depending on the price, of course. Do you know of anyone interested in such things?" He thumbed to the ornate sword sheathed upon his back.
His eyes shifted around a moment, unable to keep them off that huge spire in the background. He couldn't resist asking, "Also... just where am I?"
-
~ ~ Spire City outskirts, Phoenicia ~ ~
Shuichi smiled at his words. "Well I did made one fly one time..., but that's probably not the point."
"So you are interested in rare weapons? Oh, I didn't expect that, no offense, but don't really look like one." He laughed silently.
"Well bad luck mister, the inhabitants of this island are not really interested in any sort of that stuff, for this is Phoenicia a country hidden in the mists." Shui tried to make a mysterious impression by adding the "hidden in the mists" part, and he was quite fond of this.
"Well Kelmarr the collector of the rare weapons, the normal people who live here can be a little suspicious of you, however there are a few people that could be interested in any deals. Selling as well buying."
"You probably would like to go to some kind of magician of sorts. Well here on Phoenicia the art of Runecrafting is honored. You probably would like to sell this to a master, and a not crystal bearer." Shuichi pointed at the foreheads of some people and they had crystals placed into their foreheads. "There are five people on this island that I know of who aren't given such crystal. You are one of them, and a man of red, which is magic enough however I doubt that he'll sell or buy anything.
That leaves three, and all of them are runecrafters. Two masters and one student, the student is well... a student, so I think you would like to meet the two rune masters of this land. One is the mighty Indher, not fully human and part of the council that rules this island. The other master is a humble guest researching the area around."
Shuichi paused.
"I have been asked to recieve you, so I suppose you may want to be introduced to them. Well let's start with the nearest one."
Shuichi bowed once more, and when he rose he spoke with a soft but concluding voice.
"I'm Shuichi Nagayoshi, the second rune master on this island."
-
- Dranniville, The Gadowran Stronghold -
"Everything is in place then?" Aaron waited for the mage to respond.
"Yes, my lord. All is in place for the ritual." The mage placed a Large Blue stone on the ground in the castle building. "One more thing before we start, though. Aren't you on the council of the Federation?"
"Yes, I am. However, that isn't important right now. What 'is' important is that the barrier be set up before the Kandarinians arrive on the scene."
"Oh, yes. Sorry, my lord." With the assistance of nine other mages, the first mage rose his hands high and the blue stone began to glow a darkish blue.
"When is the stone going to form?"
"It will form when it has enough power. At first, it will explode, and in the wake of the explosion, a shockwave-like barrier will appear. The barrier will then spread out and cover everything in the area. We've designed it to just enclose 'round the stronghold."
"Right, continue." This time, all of the mages rose their hands up high and the glow around the stone got brighter and bigger.
(Barrier Stone at 20% power)
-
- Spire City outskirts, Phoenicia -
Hidden in the mists? Great. Just his luck to land on some reclusive hidden peace-loving island. Ugh. Well, still it may play in his favor after all. Reclusive mages may pay a good deal for random artifacts delivered to them. Judging by the nature of this island, they probably didn't get out much...
Kelmarr blinked and tried to mock the bow the best he could, additionally holding his tail out in a wide arc. 'Mighty' Indher, eh? Great. Another full-of-herself mage. He wasn't sure what to think of the 'not fully human' part. He hoped she wasn't half demon. Ugh... he'd had enough of demons for a while... He rolled the name around in his mind for a moment, but no, he certainly never heard of anyone named "Indher" before... Guess he'd find out.
"Ah... I dabble a bit in runes myself. After you, Mr. Nagayoshi," he said, still keeping up the polite charade. He then took to following the robed human. And blast, Shuichi wasn't kidding. They were too far away to notice before, but the entirety of the islanders did have some odd colored jewel in their forehead. What that meant he could only guess. It could be anything form some ancient tribal tradition to some form of maniacal mind control...
-
//Due to the time I've missed, I'll assume that Onwan and Scylax are already at their target.\
- Southern Dark Continent town under siege -
The large wooden gates practically burst open as Onwan smashed his fist on them, letting him and Scylax pass through. The town, although showing signs of recent warfare, was relatively peaceful. It seemed that Kandarin has already taken this town, except for a medium-sized fortress in the middle. It was protected by high walls, which, despite all the Kandarinian attempts, still stood.
-"Oy," Onwan called a nearby soldier over. "We have prisoners here. Captain Goethe wanted them."
-"...right, those two. Load em up into that cart over there. How long are they out for?"
-"About half an hour left. Make sure, though, that you get them to captain Goethe first - they are not ordinary prisoners. A normal prison will not hold them."
-"Right." The soldier made a half-hearted attempt at a salute. "Sorry, sir. I've got to get going."
The troop instructed the cart's driver for directions, and got in the back together with Puco and Sienna.
---
-"OK, thanks. This is far enough."
The cart stopped, letting the Kandarinian soldier out with the two prisoners over his back. Before him stood an imposing black building, which looked more like a brick of charcoal than anything else. The fifth Regiment's insignia was painted just above the door arch. The building alone seemed to be warding people away from itself - there were no idle soldiers to be seen anywhere around it.
-"Screw it," the Kandarinian said to himself. "Facing a captain? That likes a house such as that? I'll let someone else handle this."
He hesitantly walked inside, seeing several other Kandarinians in a lobby-like area. One of them, a rather burly native-looking individual, looked up.
-"Whut?", he mumbled.
-"Umm..." The soldier with the prisoners didn't exactly feel easy inside. "Two prisoners... um... can you manage?"
-"Whuteva. Givem'."
Glad to be rid of the troublesome captives, the troop rushed out of the grim building. At that point, one of the other Kandarinians noticed the burly soldier taking Sienna and Puco over to a row of cells.
-"Wait up, Gornar. Those are the prisoners that captain Goethe mentioned. Here, put those thingies on them."
"Those thingies" were two amulets, much like the standard Kandarinian protection ones - but with a black gem instead of a red one, and much less opulent-looking borders. Gornar placed one on Puco's left arm, and another on Sienna's right. The teeth on the corners of the triangular shapes dug into the soft skin, embedding themselves on their targets.
-"The soulstones in those will be eating up much of their Ki, so they shouldn't be able to use magic while the amulets are on them. Unfortunately, the amulets will eventually fall off... Damn. Useful things, they are. You can lock 'em up now, Gornar."
-"Ugh. Whutev'."
The burly man put the girls behind a large cage, slamming it shut.
//They can wake up at this point. Feel free to control the NPCs, just don't do anything ridiculous - the amulets are there for a reason =P\
--- --- ---
- North-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
Eris looked at the imposing objects flying in the sky, now directly above the land itself. Well, while their flight over water could've been seen as a neutral passage, this was trespassing. Eh, what the hell. She hasn't had much fun lately anyway, what with all the damned paperwork coming with the title of a captain. Might as well...
She felt her protection amulet, and popped the gem out with a single movement. Her gem was purple, and began to glow a little once she removed it from the rest of the amulet. Its glow seemed to stretch out in a thin aura, pointing toward her. Eris threw the stone some distance away, rolling it under a leaf. She eyed one of the ships right over her, and squinted a little. Suddenly, a black cloud of smoke consumed her, and in a purple flare, she vanished...
//Up to you where she appears, Mikado - somewhere in the ship\
--- --- ---
- Mournbury -
-"When is he finally going to get here....?" Joseph moaned. "Pan Czernn is really taking his time."
The other Necrolyte sitting on the bench next to him - Ekaterina - said nothing. She was quietly polishing her nails with what seemed to be a chunk of Lizard Man's skin.
-"Come oooon, pani... You never talk!"
-"Just not to you. Now please, be quiet and wait for pan Czernn. Silence sounds better than your voice."
Joseph could only sigh.
--- --- ---
- Northern Kandarinian town, Citadel -
"At last, the idiots finished casting their spell... Honestly. Who takes this long to perform an action this short? Oh well. Using my ties to the Augment I sent with Kerig, I made it reappear in this world. Unfortunately, the Augment can't talk... the result might be a little funny."
---
Suddenly, with a loud, audible "rrrip", the Augment appeared in front of Kerig. It used its metallic finger to scratch some letters into one of its plates. The finished word read: "Yes."
--- --- ---
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
-"Well, gentlemen," Ein started, "It's a very good thing that we retreated when we did. Why don't you look up to the battlefield?"
The scene was quite desperate, at that: A large beetle-like creature was dominating the field, killing multiple soldiers with single blows. (33) Its most significant feature was probably a prominent crest of spines on its back, which, one by one, was being retracted into the carapace.
-"See what it's doing? If it will suck up all of its spikes, your entire legion is as good as dead. So I suggest moving before a scene of desperate escape turns into a scene of a bloody massacre. At this point, folks, I have no ideas how to defeat it. 13 Necrofreaks together with 13 puppets is a bit much for me, as I've never had to face more than two at a time. Then again, we do have a fine crew here... so long as bird doesn't screw it up. Any suggestions?"
//Good god, Xorlak, I feel your pain with juggling several storylines...\
-
- Southern Dark Continent, Kandarinian Prison -
Sienna rubbed her eyes.
"Wh...what happened?" She slowly got up, something was stinging on her arm. She went to pull it off. "Aaaeekk!" She shrieked from the pain. "Okay, not pulling that off."
She rubbed her eyes again and looked around.
"They, locked us up. Oh no..." She then sat back down. "Now, I'll never be able to see Duilin. This is just great. As soon as I'm ready to give a full apology and ask to join him, these damn Kandarinians lock me up!"
She got up and then ran to the bars and grabbed them and started pulling on them.
"Let me OUT!"
The burly man walked toward the cage. "Hullo pretty lady. You angry?"
"What does it look like muscle face!? Let me out of here!" Sienna shouted. "I'm trying to find my brother."
"Oh that to bad. Lots of people want to meet lots of other people. But they no get to see them."
"Well...it's been three years that I've been trying to come to my senses, and I don't even really mean you guys harm. I just want to see my brother."
"Well, I'd like to help. But I no care." The burly man smirked.
Sienna spat in his face. "Up your's brute!"
The burly man roared and then smashed at the cage, Sienna shrieked and then fell to the floor. "Shut up, wench! Or else I'll eat you!"
"Your mother must be proud." Sienna sneered. She then dug into her deck of cards and then attempted to charge her magic into them, but was unable. "What? Oh great, it must be this thing on my arm. It's draining my magic energy. I'll need to get this off somehow..."
--- ---
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
"I don't like the way this guy talks." Vaughn said, acting tough towards Ein. "Sir, you want me to put him in place? He's not giving you a lot of respect."
"Shut up Vaughn." Duilin snapped.
"Uhh..."
"Ein, I don't think we'll need to run. I'm a High General, so I probably won't screw things up. I've probably got a better chance than you do. But yes, we do have a fine crew here. Vaughn is actually a very good fighter, I think he'll do good on killing a necrolyte or two. Yet, I sense your power is actually stronger than his."
Vaughn's eyes shot wide open.
"So I can put my faith in you, that you'll probably be able to do a good job here. First we need something to face off this thing. So, Marshall start summoning a minotaur. It won't be able to defeat it, but it'll be able to fight it."
"Yes sir." Marshall held his amulet and it began to glow (12).
"So, if those Necrolytes are inside that beetle, we are going to have to get inside it. I don't know exactly how to get inside it, but I assume you do. The best idea I can think of is just simply flying onto it and smashing it up. Have you learned levitation magic?"
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
-"That won't work," Ein answered. "A direct, in-your-face approach never works with Necrolyte creatures. What happens is they simply repair the damage immediately after it was dealt... if there was only one of them, sufficient damage would overload him. But that's the whole big thing - the number - which worries me... there are thirteen of them... Even then, although I can fly, in a way, I don't need to - I am able to open a portal right inside of the bug. The question is, what do we do once we're in?"
He started pacing back and forth.
-"Necrolytes themselves aren't very tough. The most they can defend themselves with their puny poking sticks is from a completely green soldier. Their best - and only - defence is the twitchy creature that almost killed you. They call it the "Vischy". Kandarinians call it "Augment". I, myself, like the name "puppet", because that's exactly what they are - they're metal puppets. You noticed the way they twitch, I'm sure - that's because whatever is inside that metal shell is not completely dead. It takes a Necrolyte a good third of their power to keep that thing under control..."
Ein finally stopped and looked at the rampaging beetle again.
-"And as powerful as my weapon is, it is useless against the puppets. They seem to have an increased sense of space in a two to five meter radius around them. They will sense the spear coming, and open a portal, just in time... and shoot the spear back at me. No good. But... I do have one idea..."
He sighed and sat down on the ground. It was obvious he was debating with himself over something.
-"Through a combination of several glyphs... and a new one that I invented myself... it is possible to shut down all thirteen Necrolytes without worrying about the puppets. Watch."
Ein took out one of his spears, and began tracing the edge with his left hand. A relatively insignificant part of the intricate system of glyphs seemed to flare a little.
-"This one will stop the spear once it touches another portal."
Another glyph went up in a little wisp of flames. Ein cringed, but continued to draw his index finger across the metal shaft.
-"This one gives it an... explosive property..."
The last section was a whole patchwork of patterns right on Ein's chest. It looked like the largest and most complex one of all. The black scars of which the glyph was made filled with a pure white glow, which trickled like a liquid down Ein's hand onto his spear. A large section of the projectile was now made of shining white light.
-"And this here," Ein gasped, "is ol' Ein's home recipe... It will completely lock away the Necrolyte's powers, burning them from inside out... Difficult to explain... just..ah... I need to get it inside..."
-
~ ~ Southern Dark Continent, Kandarinian Prison ~ ~
"Niuuu..."
"Niuu..."
Head. Hurts.
"Niuuuuuuu..."
Puco opened her eyes, however instead of a blinding white light she expected to see her sight is filled with blackness.
She was... somewhere, somwhere dark...
Then she remembered what happened. "Wha-!" She stood up, and felt her arm. "Hurts..."
Yes it hurt, that meant she felt.. she was alive!
"Yay!!" She jumped a little in the air and saw a Sienna being pushed away.
"Sienny? SIENNY!" She hugged her. "We live!!"
~ ~ Mournbury ~ ~
"... pan ..."
"paan...."
"... mant-teia..."
Czern woke up from his dreams.
"Wha..." He said with a sleepy tone, however his mind was as sharp as ever. Or as dull as ever. One of the two.
"We have arrived Pan Manteia, it seems the ones you were to meat were already here."
Czernn stood up and hit his head, for the the carriage was pretty small. Outside the open door his driver stood.
"How do you know about my partners Pan?"
"It... was hard not to pan Manteia, they neared the carriage as soon as they saw it and asked whether pan Manteia was inside."
Czernn rised his hand, he understood.
He stepped out of the cart, and felt the sun shine way to bright and a cold breeze outside.
"You may leave now."
"Yes pan Manteia!"
As the carriage started to leave, Czernn walked towards the pair of necromancers.
"Hello, I'm Czernn or better known among us, pan Manteia."
~ ~ North-Eastern Kandarinian coast / Silver Root ship ( Pistis ) ~ ~
At the table now only five men were discussing for the other generals had left after two hours of a meeting.
Heil was still sitting on his chair, and in front of him two people on each side of the table were sitting.
The blond girl, Mishio, Smiech and the low voices and long black character named Tron.
Some dark fog appeared across the table.
"It seems... it's time to see what our hosts will be like."
~ ~ Spire City outskirts, Phoenicia ~ ~
As they walked Shuichi spoke of various things like the school, town hall, red dragon square and the fountain there.
However he had need to show this guy to Indher. He would love to "examine" him himself... however he doubted that Indher would be happy if he would do anything to her guest.
"... and I guess Rune Magic is the most powerful magic isn't it? I mean... oh, wait you said you knew some of rune magic? So I have no need for explaining its beauty.
Shuichi smiled and looked at the Skunk now walking backwards.
"Maybe once we will introduce you to Indher we can talk about some rune stuff, and you said you are interested in magic stuff? Well I have a small collection if I may say..." He giggled.
"In this island everything is traded with goods for other goods for non crystal bearers... so if you..." He lowered his tone imitating the mystic voice that Kelmarr spoke with "...even want to sell something for the right price..." He giggled and continued on normally. "... then I and Indher are the only one worth talking with."
He stopped in front of a huge Spiral tower.
"Well this is where she usually is, a really nice place to conduct research and spying on people. She probably already saw us coming... oh, there she is..."
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
Akran had the ship stop a little further down the coast. It really wasn't that far away, so someone should have seen it. After all, it was a decent size, but apparently the soldiers seemed more interested in the huge... well it looked like some sort of beetle.
On the shore, Akran took Martin and 15 other crew members with him. He was quite satisfied that the men he picked were pretty decent fighters, some of them knew a little magic, but most of them were very skillful with the sword. All of them were rugged and could easily be mistaken for pirates, but its not like they weren't, for they had all done their fair share of pirating. The other 4 stayed to guard the ship.
The group of 17 in total - Akran leading - made their way to a large group of soldiers who stood away from the rest and that beetle monster. Quite a few of Akran's crew glanced nervously at the creature.
Akran's arm was really tingling now, almost glowing slightly. He had always wondered what it'd be like to work out one arm until it was twice as big as the other, and know he knew.
As they neared the soldiers he noticed that there was a very muscular man showing the others something on his chest. Was he some sort of leader? Akran and his crew carefully approached them.
"Hi there gents," shouted Akran cheerily, they were still 20 meters apart. "May I ask what the hell is that thing?" he pointed over to the giant beetle monster.
-
~Kronos's Citadel~
Kerig was just finished lecturing Weloss on the immorality of harassing gargoyle statues when an augment revealed itself, scratching a "yes" into it's front plate.
Kerig smiled pleasantly at the augment and turned around to a maid which was pretending to be polishing the statues but was warily watching him from the corner of her eye.
"Excuse me..."
The maid jumped, gasping.
"Is...Something the matter?"
"N-Nothing! I was merely surprised!" the maid seemed to have gotten her bearings.
"Alright, then. Could you please, uh help me get back to the throne room? I haven't quite grasped how the portals work and I haven't mastered phasing through walls yet."
The maid gave Kerig a silent stare for a moment.
"Get on with it, mortal."
The maid bower slightly and led Kerig to the portal.
She did something he didn't quite grasp of, and proceeded to step away.
"Please step in." She said with a slight bow. Kerig returned her bow and did as he was told, reappearing in the throne room.
"Yoohoo! I got the message! When and where do we start?"
-----
~Glimmer Spire Base, Spire City, Phoenicia~
-"Is everyone ready?"
-"Yes, Runemaster!"
-"Remember, you don't shoot until I say you do, even if it attacks! Any questions?"
-"No, Runemaster!"
-"Good. This could be a battle or a diplomatic encounter. We cannot take risks, but it might be the latter. Unless it shows signs of harmful intent, I expect you all to be on your best behaviour! Alright, class, follow me!"
Like a millitiary squadron, Indher's class of elites slowly walked out of the Glimmer Spire's large entrance, followed closely by Elphos.
They instantly ran into Shuichi, who was already giving their guest a tour, as it seems.
Indher stopped, and her class stopped behind her. They all stood in an orderly yet bonky manner, as if trying to imitate professional soldiers.
"Shuichi!" Indher called out. "You already met the outsider, it seems..."
Indher's voice was grim. She looked at the skunk and got a certain sense of deja vu, but was quick to brush it off.
"I am Indher, Runemaster." Indher introduced herself in a stern manner "Founder and Head Runemaster of the Phoenicians. You may call me Lerfina if formalities bother you."
Her eyes narrowed. She didn't like the feeling she was getting from the skunk one bit.
"Outsider! I demand to know your intentions and how you found this place. I also need to know if you came alone. Think before you speak, for your future weights heavily on your answers..."
Indher already formulated a simple plan -
If he is caught lying about anything, she will have him executed.
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
"What never seen a giant zombie beetle before?" Duilin asked back with a smirk. "We're trying to kill it, so don't get in the way. You best leave, unless you think you can help." He sized Akran up and down. "You seem like a half decent fighter."
He then looked back at Ein, who finished with his glyph sketches, it was a little confusing for him to pay attention to, he preferred the simple 'create a fireball and throw it' method of spell casting. He nearly felt sorry for those who had to result in glyph writing or summoning magic. Apparently it's actually genetically impossible for most humans to learn most ways of magic without some sort of enhancement. Vaughn was one of the few unaltered humans who decently knew elemental magic.
He wasn't sure how he could help. He scratched his head for a bit.
"I got nothing."
--- ---
- Southern Dark Continent, Kandarinian Prison -
Sienna sighed and knelled down and patted Puco on the shoulder.
"Yes. We are alive. But we're locked in cage. I thought of trying to cast a spell to break the bars, but apparently something is preventing us from using magic. My best guess is that it's these things on our arms." She explained, and then tapped the odd amulet thing attached onto her arm. "I'm not sure what we can do..."
-
"Aye, that's right." said Akran. He looked at the beetle thing. Man his arm was tingling. He could take this thing!
He casually took his black feathered bow from his back and felt the grip with his fingers. He breathed deeply, feeling an energy growing in him and suddenly, quick as a flash, Akran drew an arrow and sent it whizzing towards the beetle. The power of the raven bow and the power of his new arm made the arrow into a blinding white spear of light streaking towards the demonic monster. As it flew it grew... but then...
"What the hell?" Akran yelled, surprised as the arrow suddenly disappeared. "Where did it go?"
Soon he got his answer because it then reappeared out of nowhere and was flying straight toward them, and it was no ordinary arrow.
"Ahhhhhh!" screamed Martin and ducked down to the ground. The rest of the crew followed suit. Akran spun around to where the soldiers were. "Oops." he whispered, shrugging apologetically, then threw himself down on the ground too.
-
~ ~ Southern Dark Continent, Kandarinian Prison ~ ~
"Oooh~, that would answer why I feel a little weird now..."
She remembered her 'dream'. Did they know about her nucly thingy? S
She wondered. "What are we going to do now eh? I hope they will do with us whatever they want and let us go quickly..."
~ ~ Glimmer Spire Base, Spire City, Phoenicia ~ ~
Shuichi took a step back from both wondering why Indher was acting like this. Wasn't this just a normal walking skunk? The chances that this would be anything special were one in the thousand or fewer... but he didn't want to mess with her, he needed her help to catch Puco and no skunk would get in his way.
~ ~ Where you are ~ ~Interact if you want ~ ~
The sky is empty... at least it looks like that for you, but something is odd. A small thing but it annoys you, a black dot filling the sky even though it's small. Small, small, the crow is twice the size of a normal crow and its dark wings stretch out even further.
You see as it flies and turns, it doesn't fly forward like it should, like you want it to, but begins to fly circles... around you.
As its red eyes shine you feel you got bad luck.
-
- Low-Southern Border Town, Prison -
Suddenly, a funnel of flame washed through the streets, getting inside the building as well. The Kandarinians, taken by surprise, were blown to the back wall, and knocked out cold. Some shouts were coming from the street outside.
-"They've activated the weapon!"
-"Run for it!"
-"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"
-"I'm burninging~!!!"
Another wave of smoke and fire pulsed through the town, clearing most of the Kandarinians off the streets. The pulse originated from the fortress in the middle, which appeared to have deployed some sort of a machine - a metal sphere with many pipes coming out of it and leading down to below the walls. Small hatches were opening in the sphere, letting out tongues of flame. Some device in the machine whistled a shrill warning tone...
The walls around the fortress drowned in another devastating fiery sweep, this time taking half the house away with it. The prison doors, too, were cut off by the flame.
However, something strange was happening to the sky - the sun suddenly started shining a lot more through the clouds, making distinguished rays of light coming down onto the fortress in the middle. (15)
--- --- ---
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
-"I could've told you that shooting a projectile at it wouldn't work... say... That's a strange bow you've got there. Last I saw it was in that dolt Royen's hands, when he sold me smuggled Kandarinian spears. What happened to him? And why is that bow covered in feathers, anyway?"
--- --- ---
- The Citadel -
-"Not now, I'm afraid," I mumbled. "A certain town is being quite resistant to our forces. Things that resist too much pose no interest to me. Why don't you go do something else for about ten minutes, and then come back? The Hammer should've cooled by then."
--- --- ---
- Pistis room -
Well... this certainly wasn't what Eris was expecting. She materialized on a table... with people looking at her. Ah, at least that saves the trouble of looking for them.
-"Your ship is being a little bit of a distraction," she said to the people surrounding her. "Would you mind going backs to wherever the hell you comes from? Sovereign isn't exactly seeing guestses right now."
--- --- ---
- Mournbury -
Ekaterina deeply bowed.
-"Yes, pan Manteia. I am Ekaterina. I just finished the Advanced Necrolyte Preparation, and was sent to look for a Necromancy master to learn from in the field."
-"In other words, you're a damn overachiever," Joseph hissed. "I am Joseph, pan drogi. I apologize, for my portfolio is not quite as exquisite as Ekaterina's. I graduated on the top of my class in Standard Necrolyte Preparation. As a mark of honour, I've been sent to accompany you and Ekaterina on the mission assigned to us. I'm sure you've gotten the message about our next destination?"
-
- Glimmer Spire Base, Spire City, Phoenicia -
Blah, blah, blah... the human just kept blabbing on and on about nothing. Kelmarr just kept nodding his head, pretending to be interested, but even his facade was starting to wear thin.
His eyes widened when they reach the spire's base.
"Holy crap... Lerfina...? Is that really you?" His tail frazzled as she started demanding answers from him, and he took as step back. "Gah! Relax! Don't you remember me?" He held his hands out so she wouldn't smite him with some spell, as the cat-like woman looked like she was about to do. "It's me, Kelmarr! I helped you summon the giant-doom-god-thing at the base of The Tower of Heaven's Bane!" He touched his claw-tips together meekly and his tail drooped. "Well... sort of helped..."
It wasn't like he was nervous or anything... Not like he... er... had a crush on her or anything from three years ago... No, not like that at all...
He cleared his throat and ran his hand through the spiky tuft of white fur atop his head. "I thought you were dead! That giant-monster-thing was insane!" He looked at her dreamy-eyed for a second and then shook it off, realizing he should probably start answering questions... "Right. Anyway, after the fall of the Dark Empire, I became a treasure hunter, traveling the world in search of exotic items..." He held his paws wide for dramatic effect. Treasure hunter... yeah, that work. Should impress her.
He blinked a few times, then shrunk back under her gaze... "Okay, okay... I was on a boat, when it was attacked by a demon. Washed ashore here alone. Only survivor. Don't think the demon followed..." He rubbed the back of his neck as his tail flicked around and he did a half-glance back the way he came. "At least, I'm pretty sure..."
-
~ ~ Silence ~ ~
"So the dices are rolled, are they not? What shall follow?"
"The end. Again."
"Indeed my friends, this place will be cleaned, this world, this hell."
"Just like the other ones?"
"Indeed my friends, just like the other ones. The pawns are set, our only enemy is time, but time can also be defeated, just like we can."
"Let us play the game"
~ ~ Pistis (Council Room) ~ ~
"Ey! Fema-"
Smiech didn't get to finish his sentence for Heil raised his hand.
"We have no intention of leaving even if we could. You can't wash away an unwanted island, no matter if it flies or not."
"I guess you are a captain class then, coming like this?" Mishio added.
~ ~ Mournbury ~ ~
Czernn listened to their invitations. "Whether you are a good necrolyte will be seen in the action of battle."
He raised his eyebrows when he heard of his mission. "Wasn't it only teaching stuff to these kids... oh my..."
"I have received no further information except for the fact that I was to meet you here... I must slap my informator for this I guess, at least if I was hight enough." "Tell mnie where and what is destinied to nas?"
~ ~ Southern Dark Continent, Kandarinian Prison ~ ~
Puco looked at the open broken door with big eyes.
"This is nay good Sienny... we better leave..."
She was still chocked. Why not, she was a child.
-
~Citadel~
Kerig paused for a bit.
"We will wait here."
Kerig nodded and stepped away from the portal as to not halt others entering the room and sat down near a corner's wall, the black mist swirling around him.
~Glimmer Spire Base, Spire City, Phoenicia~
Indher raised an eyebrow.
"You...? Helped me...?"
At first, she had no idea what he was talking about.
But then, it all came flowing back to her.
Being captured and questioned by that lizard in the dungeon below heaven's bane, choosing no less than a hundred of Retan's best mages and crafting a runeset so grand and complex that she succeeded in summoning a theory and bind it to this world through the body of the dark emperor...
"...You are that creep who sold me to Retan, aern't you?" she finally said with a sarcastic smirk "...Kelmarr."
According to her memory, he was weak willed and would be easy to keep in place and manipulate. She turned around and nodded to her students, signaling that the skunk was not an enemy. Some gave out a sigh of dissapointment and some wiped the cold sweat from their forehead, but they all gathered around in a curious cirlce to watch what further transpires from the encounter.
"Treasure hunter, you say?" she approached him with a mischivous smile and her hands folded "Attacked by a demon?"
Indher wondered what kind of demon was it. The typical, fire breathing winged humanoid? Or... Something else?
"Alright, I've decided that you will stay on this island until I have guarantee that the demon you speak of really didn't follow."
She turned around and waved her arm ferociously, as if trying to imitate the thunder of a ruler.
"Spread out! Trap any man or woman other than the ones you know who lacks the forehead jewel! If that demon survived, he WILL be dangerous! I don't have the time nor patience for needless revivals!"
The students all bowed, gave a slight yes and an attempted solute and ran to Elphos who proceeded to assign the students search locations.
Indher began walking back into the Glimmer Spire.
"You will be going up there with me, Kelmarr. Tell me about the crew of the boat and the demon. I also need to know how urgent would returning to the mainland be for you."
Her tone was still stern, but wasn't as cold as before. She seemed to be pouting, however...
-
- Southern Dark Continent, Kandarinian Prison -
Sienna climbed out of the cage. "Whatever it was that just did that, I don't want to wait around for it do it again." She picked up Puco and put her up on her shoulders. She then casted a speed spell on herself and then began to dash through the prison to escape.
--- ---
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
Marshall continued to summon up the giant minotaur, it would just be a little longer.
"Yeah, so are we still doing this thing or not?" Duilin asked. "I'm thinking of just flying up there myself and fighting it head on. It's going to come our way soon enough."
-
~ ~ Some deserted island ~ ~
The room was visible, yet empty. It appeared to be some kind of empty storage building with some bad quality hanging lamps hanged on the ceiling.
In the middle of the light there was a triangle formed table. Three people were sitting at each flat side of the table.
Two men and one woman. One man had long dark hair and looked pretty womanly for a man, his companion was clothed in black and wore a large, a really large and long black hat. The woman had long black, or maybe more purple hair and a sinister smile was filling her face.
- "Sooo... are we all set? It seems that Silver Root has made contact with the Kandies..." The woman started while moving a small figure on the table on which a huge map was lain. All sorts of figures were lying on it, indeed everything was set.
- "So who will we infiltrate now? Creating total chaos and Armageddon can be done best from inside of a huge imperium..."
This time the long hat spoke.
- "Hmm... we have better connection in Silver Roots than in the Kandarinian Sovereignty so I guess we'll start with them? Soon the undead will be ours too and massive wars will start... and the rest? Well they are close to corruption without our help..." He smiled.
- "I see... I never imagined that creating the end of a world was this easy..."
- "It ain't. It's just that this world is already covered in blood and war, we need only to push it a little to its end.
Chaos shall reign, and the damned will be sealed by mother earth... just like the beasts of the elder days..."
- "We may even use the most evil of all, for their destination is the same as ours."
- "Aren't we evil then as well?"
- "We don't rule with strength... we rule with malice. Fear is our weapon and the Loyal our shield, we are the only one that... can take this world by the way it should be taken...
With a broken sword and a mind of steel"
- "We may want to reforge that sword. The crow has left its nest."
~ ~ Tjed coast ~ ~
An old fisherman is catching fishes clothed in green looking poor. Probably no children and a death wife, and a golden ring is hung on his neck. Only one with perfect eyes could see the golden shine from the ring under the dirt, lucky or unlucky... crows have good eyes.
You see as a huge black crow nears the man... it is suspiciously huge and really flying close to the earth...
Flying right at the man the man tries to hit it with his fish, however only a fool tries to hit a bird.
The crow rises with furious speed, and descends withing moments. You see the man looking up, and you know that was foolish. The crow pecks him in his face and while the man rises his hand to cover his bloody face the Crow flies further down taking the ring and breaking it of its chain and flies away.
You see the man holding his face screaming in pain... then he falls on his knees apparently noticing that his ring is gone.
He cries.
He cries.
He's miserable.
His only beauty lost... to a crow?
That is foolish...
with that you leave the man in his misery.
-
-Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia-
Kelmarr let out a sigh of relief and took to following Lerfina back into the massive spire. Phew... the way she looked at him, he thought she would summon another gigantic death god or something...
"Er... um... yes, m'am." He followed along meekly, suddenly not feeling quite so sure of himself. Blast it, how did he get into these messes? He just wanted to find a place to sell the stupid sword and get out. Ugh. Now he was going up for some interrogation.
"The sailors were..." NO!! He was NOT sleeping in the cargo hold of a fishing vessel! He cleared his throat. "Well, it was an upper class transport vessel. Of course I wouldn't be riding in anything less... Anyway... While in my... cabin below deck, I heard the crew above screaming." He put a hand on one of his daggers and walked a little taller. "Naturally I went up to investigate, but I arrived too late and found the crew's flesh had all been melted off and nothing remained of them but skeletons...
"The demon itself resembled a human child, at least most of the time..." He shut his eyes and shuddered before shaking it off and continuing. "It conjures up pretty powerful illusions. Naturally I saw through them, and we did battle. Unfortunately a storm capsized the ship before I could kill it and I awoke on the beach front here..."
He thought about her second question a moment, and things started clicking... "Hmmm... Although I am a very busy skunkular, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to stay here a bit. I did loose my money when the boat flipped, though. Luckily I have all my enchanted weapons. Perhaps I will need to sell one to get by for a while. Like, I don't know, this sword on my back. Could do without it, I suppose. Know anyone that may be interested?" The edges of his muzzle curled in a smile.
-
//Wow, I'm gone, and DAL stops. Cool.\
- Southern border town -
The fortress in the middle of the city continued to angrily spew flame over the streets, though no one was present to burn down. All of the Kandarinians left the town, and set up camp around the city's outer walls. A few of them dragged some of the city's citizens out, for the sake of taking their rage out on them. The shine over the fortress increased still, this time definitely cutting through the clouds. (2/5)
--- --- ---
- Mournbury -
-"You were not informed, pan Manteia?", Joseph asked quizzically. "The assignment came from... not our captain, actually... The fifth Regiment's captain, Flora Goethe, requested that we make our way to the South-Eastern coast as soon as possible. There, we are to meet up with her task force, and command them to repel some intruders that invaded the Kandarinian soil."
-"Yes," Ekaterina added quietly. "It is also expected to be a rather large task force... In every manner possible, I presume, as it is Regiment 5."
-"Well done on stating the obvious. Now, pan Manteia, we've prepared three transports..."
Somewhere from beyond the blooming trees of Mournbury, three undead wyverns shot up into the air. They circled the hamlet once, and landed near the Necrolytes.
-"We best get going now."
--- --- ---
- Pistis room -
Eris hopped down from the table, and took on an imposing stance before the council.
-"You seems to know an awful lots about me... Knowing my rank alone without ever havings seen me is too muchs already. You should be awares that at this point yous probably have a powerful weapon aimed right at your armada. Trusts me, it can slice all three of your pretty floating things right in half."
A little more relaxed now, she drew up a chair and seated herself in front of the council table.
-"Now, let's start from the beginning, shalls we? Who are you, where did you come from, and how do you know about my rank?"
--- --- ---
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
The beetle paused for a second, as its last spine was drawn inside of it - and then fired the whole row of spikes right up into the air. They made a long curve before raining down on the remaining troops, impaling many of them on the spot. The Necrolytes inside didn't seem to bother even using their bodies before wrenching the still-bloodied skeletons out of the corpses, and adding them to the creature.
-
~ ~ Some deserted island ~ ~
In a dark storage building only lighted by old lights, a triangle shaped table was placed. At that table three people who sinisterly were planning the end were sitting.
- "I wonder whether the Kandarinian will get along with Silver'Rs?" The sly woman asked with troubled tone.
- "Don't worry Ray, even if they will soon we will have them in our might and then we will decide all. Now the long haired man was speaking, his eyes shining blue.
- "I cannot wait to see this world turn into chaos... and save all worthy." The long hat man had a light and free tone, and his round glasses hid his eyes behind red glass.
- "I wonder, I wonder still, who is that crow that you speak of?"
- "That... crow that you spoke of before, what is it? I know you mentioned it some time ago but I do not remember its importance.."
- "I was wondering too."
- "Well my friends, let me tell you a tale..."
~ ~ Above the seas ~ ~
Its wings are black, its wings are huge. Black feathers fall behind it.
The crow flies with speed unseen, and proceeds to the far away land.
Something shone in the deep, and at that moment the crow dives down as if trying to catch a fish. The golden ring still in its mouth it flies into the water...
A long pause.
Did it drown? You hope so.
However it is just a wish for the foolish.
Soon the crow rises out of the water, with almost the same speed as before, turns and continues its destination. A golden chain was hanging next to the ring now.
~ ~ Mournbury ~ ~
"I see, let us go then panowie i panie." He slowly came closer to the unlife beasts. He sure disliked such creatures... they flew to fast for his taste.
For he didn't mount on such things allot he had some trouble on getting on the beast and felt uncomfortable on it. When he looked at the other two beasts his new pupils were already sitting on them.
"Well..." The creatures stretched their wings, and began slowly to raise.
"Show me the ways to the unznane, and I follow you because I have nothing else that can do...
Niech ogien nas nie pochlonie, lecz smierc go owinie."
[Let fire not embrace us, but let death embrace it]
~ ~Silver Root ~ ~
Heil smiled.
"I see, then we should be careful shouldn't we?"
He raised his hand. "I'm Heil, the Mocarny, or better know for your lands, master of this country named Silver Root. My rank would be something close too... the rank that Kronos has to the Sovereignty?"
Smiech was looking down on the woman who sat next to him, and turned his head with a "Hmpf" while Tron was eying him looking very frustrated by the way that he treated his guest. Heil ignored them.
"Our knowledge?" ROKUSHIO was now speaking.
"We are travellers, a moving island not fools. We will not land on a place if we have no knowledge of it... Our scouts or maybe spies have already scanned your and your enemies lands some time ago."
He looked at her with his handsome face his long blonde/red hair as if sparkling.
"We have no intention of war with your men, however in trade for shielding our civilians we may aid you with your troubles. It is however you want it, but do not underestimate us, for you are alone on this ship now and escapin-"
Heil let him stop by rising his hand again, showing that intimidating the captain was not the answer.
"We came from far bringing things that never have been seen here. However I guess you did not enter this ship with friendly intentions, is the war going dark that you have such a need for violence?
~ ~ southern border town ~ ~
Puco was smiling brightly on the back of Sienna, having apparently lots of fun.
"Yeaeaea! Letsa goo!"
She clapped her hands once, and put them on Sienna's shoulder, she could feel the enhancement on her body for Puco made time go slower for them or them go faster. Whichever way it was done, Sienna gained now even more speed than before.
"We .... are going... faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast!!"
Puco clinged tightly on Sienna to not fall of.
"Let's go Sienny! Jump over the walls! Jump over the houses! Weeeee~!"
-
- Southern Border Town -
No matter what, Sienna could always count on Puco to lighten the mood. Whether they were in a deep serious conversation or running away from some fire-shooting-thing, Puco always had some cute thing to say.
Sienna quickened the pace, realizing that she casted a spell with that thing on her, odd. She jumped over a house, just like Puco wanted and then zoomed up into the air over the walls of the village. Faster and faster she moved until they were fairly far away from the house. She stopped leaving a skid mark in the grass. She turned around and looked at the village.
"You think this is far enough?"
-
They did move incredible fast, however they weren't out of the city... and suddenly something went wrong...
Puco's arm started to hurt. She grasped it screaming... it was the amulet.
She forgot about it? Did it stop her magic... or delay it!?
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
The magic that she cast was now eating her... the spell was reversed! The pain... but she only cast it, but what happened to her Sienny now she had two spells cast on her?
With fear in her eyes she looked crying at Sienna.
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
Akran got up from the ground, a little dizzily. He stumbled forward as a series of coughs hit him. He looked around. What the hell is this place? His crew was rising to their feet too. One of them stepped towards him.
"What are you doing?" asked Martin, "You really think an arrow will do anything to that?" He pointed behind Akran.
Ignoring the question, Akran slowly turned around. "Argh, god!" he cried, seeing the giant beetle thing. "W-what the fu-"
He stopped. His eyes widened even further as he looked down at his right arm. "OH MY GOD! M-my arm..." He was starting to panic. What the hell is going on?
Someone was talking to him. Akran looked up. The guy had a bunch of tatoos on his chest and looked like a seasoned fighter. Was he talking about a bow? Akran looked frantically around and saw the raven bow on the ground. He picked it up.
He took a deep breath and rubbed his face. He tried to keep calm, but a slur of questions just poured out of his mouth, "Where am I, what the hell just happened, and what in god's name is... is... t-that" He raised a shaking finger towards the monster which now looked like it was sucking the skeletons out of the soldiers around it.
-
- Southern Terian -
"It's okay...just..."
Sienna started talking very, very slowly.
"...calm...down...everything....will...be okay..."
It appears that her speed spell was also reversed by the amulet on her arm. But she didn't even notice it just yet.
-
Storage building
- "Gaian is a magical world, a more magical world than anyone now living can imagine, a sin, a scar in the universe. How long Gaian existed is unknown, but I believe that Gaian is the start of all magical source.. To explain to you how great Gaians past is, I dare to guess that it has hundred more past than the Essylian Realms..."
The others opened their eyes brighter listening closer now.
-"To actually remember the tales of origin one must be over hundreds of years old. Only to remember the vague legends, we can only guess how long ago the events happened if we choose to believe them.
Then in those time, Gaians existence was already settled, and the world was a dark place for magic covered it. Creatures of evil lived back then, demons on can call them but the demons of today are angels compared to them. Maybe men didn't exist back then, maybe they did, we don't know, but those creatures surely did.
These times are called the Elder Days, and we call the beasts of those times the Elders. They clinged to their existence based on demonic magic, and when time passed and magic was gradually being forgotten these beast kept holding their ground. Now their are sealed in the earth still holding their secrets and sleeping waiting to be awakened.
Apparantly one... has awakened. I have no idea why, but to be awakened he must be in the later layers, thus closer to the earth waking up easlier but it is still a wonder... I'm amazed. To ever meet a Elder..."
He began to laugh.
- "Maybe he's sealed as a crow which sealed his magic in, making him easier to wake... but when he'll awaken fully... we... will... meet... THE SURVIVOR OF THE CREATION OF MAGIC! Magic that we know now is only an echo of the magic of their times!! It is less than one percent of power!! If he'll awaken... the magic that we damn will raise!! Not only WE but EVERYONE will gain magic skills for the echo will be more powerful! More! MORE! We have to get him on our side... then ... MAGIC WILL BE OURS, AND WE MAY PURIFY THIS WORLD!!"
Muhahahahahahah... a sinister laugher echoed of the walls...
-
- Glimmer Spire hallway, Spire City, Phoenicia -
"Is that the tailed one we were told about?" Francis drew his hood over his head, ducking back into the dark hallway.
"It must be. How many sentient creatures do you know with tails?" Charles muttered, placing his hands in his robe. The two ducked down and whispered in the shadows.
"True. But we were told he would be gray... And his arrival seems early."
"Fool! He's white and black. White and black make gray. It's code!"
"Ah!"
The two paused when footsteps echoed throughout the hall. After the echoes faded they placed the cowled heads together and continued whispering.
"But why would he go straight to the rune master? It's as if he's begging to be caught..." Francis scratched the stubble on his chin.
"No, he is purposely making his presence known to avoid suspicion! There is a higher genius at work here."
"Ah!"
Just then, the jewel stuck to Francis' forehead slipped off and clattered upon the floor. "You fool!" Charles yelled at him as silently as possible.. "If we are to pass as proper Phoencians, we must keep the jewel affixed to our foreheads at all times!"
"I know, I know!" Francis nervously removed a tube of some paste from his robe and applied it to the flat side of the blue crystal. He then stuck it on his forehead and held it there with his fingers. "It just slips off sometimes..."
"Stop sweating so much. Just relax. I will make contact with the tailed one. You return to base and report to Sir Hans.
Francis nodded, still holding the jewel to his forehead. The two stood and parted ways, their robes flowing as they walked.
-
~ ~ Glimmer Spire hallway, Spire City, Phoenicia ~ ~
Shuichi followed silently.
~ ~ Dark Road ~ ~
A clan of occults were passing by, over two hundred black clothed figured slided on the road. Many rises their heads when seeing the weird men pass by, but quickly hid them and walked away almost running, for they felt that the group held no good.
On the front one clothed figure looked bigger, it was probably the leader. One of the lesser ones came closer to him.
- "Far yet?"
- "No, we will arrive within an hour, after walking four days I do not walk anymore."
- "Me neither... and when we'll arrive, then lot's of work awaits us."
- "Yes, but we did ask for help to create the ultimate creature... and the master agreed to help us. I guess that over hundred of his men will be available... that makes quite an army. Summoning hundred demons..."
- "And merging them together..."
- "Creating a creature that can be compared to the Elder... well maybe not, but it will still be uncontrollable."
- "Then his part comes in... making it controllable... I wonder what he'll do?"
- "He said he would make a wischy out of it, whatever it may be..."
As if they didn't have feet, they slided on...
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
"Okay, this is getting boring." Duilin yawned. "Marshall, sick your Minotaur on him."
"Uh...okay." Marshall replied, just as he finished summoning the giant bull-man.
The minotaur roared and lifted it's hammer above his head and then charged towards the giant beetle and then smashed his hammer down on the beetle's back...
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
-"That," Ein sighed, "is annoying. Why don't you prove to me that you're not a Kandarinian spy before shooting another arrow at that thing and having it conveniently rebound back right in my face?"
Regardless, Ein knew what he had to do.
-"I think I know what we can do now. Marshall, summon something for me to fly on. Duilin, go aggravate it so that it fires off another volley of spikes. Oh, and Marshall - be sure that it's something I can etch a glyph on. Thanks."
--- --- ---
- Southern border town -
The clouds completely vanished, revealing what seemed to be a pillar of light, forming right over the fortress in the middle. (35)
Several soldiers who still hadn't made it out of the city rushed past Sienna and Puco. A few of them stopped to take a closer look.
-"Hey," one said. "What the hell're you doing with those protection amulets? Who gave 'em to you? Giver' here!"
He tore the amulet off Puco's hand, while another one took care of Sienna's.
-"Now get out of here! This city is on a trip to hell, and unless you're hitching a ride, you do not want to be near it when it goes!"
--- --- ---
Eris awarded Rokushio with a scrutinizing look.
-"You says you do not want a war with us, and yet you send spies into Kandarin. If yous are here with peaceful intentions, why did you not just come to the Citadel, knock nicely, and ask whatever questions you needed answered?"
She leaned back in her chair.
-"Besides... There's no need for war with peoples like you. As I repeated several times now, one blast of the Sovereign's Hammer will down your ships with relative ease. But even then, right now that isn't necessary."
The captain sighed a bit.
-"The problem with firsts impressions is that you only get one, Mr. Heil, and you aren't making a very good one. I can just stabs you in the throat right now, and do off with those generals of yours here. As you yourself pointed out, I may have entered your ship with hostile intentions, and here you are telling me that you are the Sovereign of these ships. Now, why don't you tell me exactly what I will put in for my report to my Sovereign about this incident? Three ships ruled by peoples hard with logic are invading the Sovereignty with their spies? Help me out here."
-
"Alright, I think I got my head straight," said Akran. He still didn't know exactly who this guy was, but at least he now knew what had happened. "Aye, I guess I should introduce myself."
Martin looked relieved that his Captain started to act normal. His head was resting on an angle and he was grinning stupidly.
"This here," continued Akran, "Is my crew. That there, is Martin."
Martin quickly snapped out of it as he was being addressed. "Hi sir!" he said saluting the stranger.
Akran shook his head apologetically. "My name is Akran Drennen. We just came back from fighting Royen's crew - the, uh, guy you just mentioned actually." He held up the Raven Bow with his abnormal right hand. "...And you were talking about this? This is the bow I took from that pirate after we sunk his ship."
He looked down at the Majeuri Spinel which was roughly carved into the grip. Maybe he shouldn't mention that. Instead he grinned proudly and said, "I thought of the name myself..."
An ugly thought struck Akran and he quickly said, "Wait. You two weren't friends with him, were you?" He laughed nervously, glancing back and forth between the tattooed man and the winged man. They looked pretty tough. "I mean, heh, you knew him, but weren't chummy, right?"
Martin helped Akran to change the subject. "Maybe, um, we can help out here with this, uh, situation with that 'annoying' thing over there?" Martin said pointing to the giant beetle.
-
- Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia -
Just as Kelmarr finished his last sentence in his chat with Indher, a cowled man walking down the hallway slammed directly into him, and the two toppled to the ground. His sword went clattering upon the floor.
"Oh, dear me! Sorry, sorry..."
The robed man helped him up and retrieved the sword as Kelmarr grumbled. The skunk dusted himself off a few times, though it wasn't like the floor made him any dirtier. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine... just watch it next time."
The man nodded and then went on his way, pausing to bow to Indher once respectfully.
Kelmarr *harumphed* as he scratched his headfur. Moronic student or something... Kids were like that, never looking where they were going, blast it. He slung the sword over his shoulder and continued walking.
-
~ ~ Silver Root ~ ~
Even though Rokushio/Mishio had to cover his face with his hand to hide is grin when Eris spoke of defeating them, Heil spoke with a concerned voice.
- "I see. Well I'm sorry for that then, just report to your leader that only one ship is entering his realms, and that we wish, no, I wish to meet him, for leaders speak better with each other than generals with leaders..."
At the same moment the two other ships were sinking... they lowered as if flying inside the deeps of the sea... to be hidden to keep the civilians out of the war...
-
- Pistis council room -
-"He will want to hear my word before yours, Mocarny. And as I said, you did not makes a very good impression. Those two stifling their girly giggles do nothing to help. I can not guarantee your seeing the Sovereign."
Eris swiped her hand over her empty amulet slot, and a dark-purple shadow appeared out of the floor. It grasped the captain, pulling her into the dark abyss, and vanished.
She rematerialized down on the ground, just where she dropped the stone from her amulet. Angrily jerking it out of the soil, she stuffed it back inside its slot, and made away back to her outpost.
-
~Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia~
Indher patiently listened to Kelmarr while trying to figure out what is going on when some suspicious cowled person slammed into him.
She stopped and took a look at the source of suspicion.
"Wait... Cowl?" she muttered at first, but then accusingly pointed at the shady person.
"Hey you! What's up with that cowl!"
She took a moment to think about what she just said.
"I don't remember giving any man obsessive with cloaks premission to come in here!"
Probably a curious child, she thought to herself. It really was the worst time to sneak into the Glimmer spire to check it out...
"I ask that you identify yourself... Unless you want to experience resurrection again, that is..."
Indher didn't really mean any harm in this one case - she would have him sent away with a warning as soon as she has his name.
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
"Finally." Duilin sighed. He jumped into the air and then flew towards the beetle, he slowed down as he shot lighting from his hands at the beetle.
Marshall held his amulet and it glowed as he shot the familiar mist from his hands which formed into a wyvern. "Wyvern's have a fairly strong hide so you should be able to etch some runes on it without causing too much damage to it. It's not actually alive or anything, but it might react in 'pain' just to let you know that it's taking damage."
-
- Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia -
Kelmarr turned around and sighed. Blast it, now she wanted to interrogate the moron who slammed into him. Ugh. He folded his arms and watched as the man spun around, shock on his face as he lowered the hood, revealing a blond haired young man with a green jewel centered in his forehead.
"Apologies, ma'am. I didn't realize... I mean... well... I'm new here..." He bowed slightly. "My name is Charles Vangauld, first year rune student under Professor Hesney."
"Maybe you should watch where you're going, kid." Kelmarr grumbled from behind Indher. He instinctively reached for a cigar, but remembered they were all ruined. Blast it, he needed a smoke! That was gonna be priority two on his list.
The young runecaster looked at Kelmarr with a hint of anger, then it vanished as he bowed to him. "Again, sorry sir, it was my mistake..."
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
-"As I said before, I don't want you interfering before I know you aren't a Kandarinian spy," Ein spat. "Besides, these memory lapses of yours seem a bit dangerous for a combat situation."
He quickly mounted the wyvern, which soared up way higher than he wanted it to. Then again, that did give him more time to spend on glyph creation. Using a dagger he wore on his belt, he began to lightly trace a rune into the wyvern's scaly back, as to not alert it.
Meanwhile, the beetle creature easily snapped the attacking minotaur in half with its massive mandibles. Duilin's attack proved to be a little more effective, but not by much. Its only visible effect were minute chippings of bones bursting in small fountains from where the lightnings hit. The dents were quickly mended by the corpses of the dead soldiers. However, the purpose of the attack succeeded: the beetle's attention now appeared to be focused at Duilin instead of the escaping troopers. Its spines slowly pulled into its body, one by one, preparing for an attack. (12)
--- --- ---
- A fair distance away from the South-Eastern battle -
-"The battle is almost over, pan Manteia," Joseph shouted through the howling winds, while tightly gripping his undead mount. "Captain Goethe asked us to clean up whatever is remaining after the dust settles!"
-"No matter how small the force may be," Ekaterina added, "pani Goethe insisted that we use all power at our disposition. She certainly wants them off the Continent; or so it seems to me, at least. She's a strange one, she is. Come to think of it... have either of you two panowe ever even seen that captain? The mission objectives were delivered through a courier, carrying a signet-sealed scroll..."
(14 posts until arrival)
-
- South Kandarinian Ocean -
The sky darkened around the ruins of the Gilden Warship. A sort of hissing was coming from above. Suddenly, shadows of translucent flying creatures came down from the clouds and circled the ship. They were the Malanos - spies of Kraaz. As they saw the dead body of Royen floating on the water a piercing shreik came from them. The beastkeeper's beasts were angry.
--- --- ---
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
"Well how am I supposed to prove that, eh?" replied Akran, "By just telling you that I am not a spy, will you believe me?"
Akran tightened his grip on his bow. Is nobody ever polite any more? "As Martin just said, we will help fight against this evil. I don't know what else we can do to prove to you our alliances." He watched as the winged man started to shoot lightning bolts out of his hands at the creature. He didn't even know his name.
"Maybe you could tell us your name? ...And then we could help fight this thing." Akran glanced back at his crew. They have never let him down in a cobat situation. He chuckled. "You don't expect us to just watch, do you?"
-
~ ~ Silver Root ~ ~
Mishio sighted.
"I wonder how she could see my smirk trough my hand? It is almost as if this all was a roleplaying game, and someone decided to have his character know everything he reads, and defying with that all sense and logic."
Heil laughed.
"Hmm... that would be really weird wouldn't it? But don't worry, she was just a captain, only Kronos is of our concern."
Smiech tilted his head.
"That feminine crap is not wut worris meh. I wunder about the hammer..."
Heil felt a dislike to him, but he didn't show it.
"Do not worry, maybe we don't have much information about it, it won't take long untill we will. And then we surely will find a defense against it.
//no offense xP
~ ~ A less fair distance away from the South-Eastern battle ~ ~
Czernn looked up to the sky. This was the only thing that didn't move.
"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. However I heard she is quite a pani... unfortunately ja don't fall for people stronger than me..."
He wondered how this battle would look like. Oh, he would be glad to stand on the soil again, oh so glad...
-
//Offence taken. Unless Mishio completely buried his face with both his hands, a grin would still be visible. Next time you're next to a mirror, look at yourself smile while covering your mouth with one hand. The sides of your cheeks go up and your eyes squint, so unless Mishio took extremely drastic measures to hide his smile (which as I gathered from your post, he did not), Eris would have to be blind not to see it.\
- An even more so less fair distance from the South-Eastern battle -
-"You look a bit green there, pan Manteia," Joseph sighed. "I understand air travel is not for everyone, but unfortunately our town is the nearest to this location - so there is no way to use a portal to get here."
-"Bloods and solids," Ekaterina blurted. She had a very glassy-eyed expression on her face.
-"....what?"
She immediately snapped out of it.
-"Wha... huh? Did I say something?"
-"Yes... you said something about blood being solid. What was that?"
-"I... don't know..."
(24)
--- --- ---
- Regiment 6 headquarters -
-"Hello... Yes, this is Eris. Hello, Wing. ... What? I did not takes your axe. Find it yourselfs. ... Stop screaming at me, Wing. I don't want to talks to you. ... What accent? Bes you prefer I talkses this like? Thought so. Get me the General. ... Right. Yes, hello, General. The object over the coast - I've been insides it, talked with some people. They don't seems to be aggressive, but I found them to be somewhat lacking with basic logic. Makes me wonder how they built that ship. ... Yes... yes. Heil, yes, that was his name. How did you...? Right, sorry. In any direction, how do you wants me to proceed? ... Wha...? Hannibal? What's he got to do with this? ... I see. I understand. Thanks."
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
Duilin noticed they were making some good progress. He was wondering if he could actually make a big enough blow to actually do some real damage, since he wasn't going all out right now. But probably whatever this beetle is going to do is going to hurt unless he does something to protect himself, but still keep attention.
"Hmm...I have an idea."
Duilin spread his arms apart and clenched his fists. He began to summon air magic energy around him to charge up an 'attack'. (1/2)
-
Druid awoke to darkness, the same darkness that has plagued him for three years. He closed his eyes but remained awake. He listened to what was happening in the room. There was a liquid, most likely water, dripping from the roof. He figured that there must have been storm last night while he slept. The dripping continued. There was no chance the roof would be fixed since they were prisoners. Prisoners on his own land!
Druid summoned a ball of shadow energy. The binds that held Druid to the wall were almost indestructible and turned his magic against him. They were made out of an ancient material, as old as the universe, common to all worlds. It was used by demon hunters to bind their prisoners while they killed them or "deported" them back to hell. He grimaced as the energy seared his hands. The pain was intense. All the cuts on his hands reopened. The orb of shadow energy vanished as Druid de-summoned them. He couldn’t get angry. Druid took a few deep breathes to calm himself. He then turned his attentions to the other noises in the room. He could hear the inmates of other cells. Some were immersed in a restless sleep while others lay asleep like a log on their stone bed. The heavy breathing of one inmate could be heard above most of the others. He didn’t snore but he was a mouth breather, or so Druid thought based on what he heard. The deep gasps of air in and puffs out. He was dreaming, a man’s only escape from this hell. Druid dreamed. Nothing pleasant. No escape from the current hell that was his life. No, he relived every agonizing moment of the takeover.
Three years he had been in this prison. It all happened so fast too. Druid was amassing his army and planning on world domination. He was the head of his own empire and everything was finally going well. Then it happened. When he summoned his island he brought along a “little” something extra. Druid always wondered how Silas was able to travel from their home dimension to this prison world. Silas was able to manifest all the rage, hatred, anger, violence, malevolence, and loathing he possessed into another body. What he created was an empty shell of pure wickedness and shadow energy. Silas traveled in a weakened state because he was just the mind of the beast. That is why Druid could so easily destroy him back in the desert; he was always smarter and more cunning than Silas. The being of pure malice and shadow energy was trapped on their home world, underneath the capital city, destined to spend eternity there. However that magic only lasted as long as they were on their home world. As soon as the beast realized its bonds were broken because of the change in location, it sprung out of the island.
This creature of pure iniquity destroyed his entire army in a matter of minutes. It quarantined the island as well. This meant that anyone from the island not standing on their native soil was killed instantly. Kain never stood a chance, however his death was quick compared to what Druid and Baird were suffering through. Anyone who tried to leave the island died and no one could travel to the island from the outside world. They were trapped.
Druid tried to fight the beast along with his generals. Both Druid and Baird were beaten half to death. The beast only keeps them around for torture and information. Onan and Yuri fled after Baird was knocked unconscious. Their location is still unknown and for all he knew they were dead. He and Baird were kept together but neither knew why.
A door opened. It was the door. The door which lead to hell, pain, and torture. The screams escaped that door and caused the hair on the back of Druid’s neck to stand on end. The agony attacked his soul like the hound of the Baskervilles. Now there was demon Druid didn’t want to see again. Baird would be returning soon. Every morning they took him in there. Baird was the only person Druid talked to and so they tried to pump him for information. Their captures did this everyday for three years. They had sawed off his arm and he had countless scars. Once Druid was free of his binds and free of this prison, he would replace Baird’s arm and heal him to the best of his ability. That is if he ever got out.
-
// you shouldn't, it was a joke =P yet if you feel offended, sorry
~ ~ End of the black road ~ ~
Somewhere of the road a huge church alike building was placed. It had a cold aura around it, and it felt unholy. All windows were replaced by huge metallic plates. A cold breeze was felt.
"Here... the check point that the master gave us. The necromancers should be inside, otherwise they are late..."
The leader went forward, and the group followed apparently not taken away by the dark aura around the place. There was a small and thin path leading towards the entrance of the church, and red roses grew on both sides of it. They looked like wall, holding all visitors inside, trying to eat them with their sharp spikes...
They reached the entrance.
No sound was heard from inside, but the clouded feagure didn't feel like it was anything unusual for they too, came here without sound.
Slowly he opened the doors...
~ ~ An even more so less fair distance that one almost can't call it a distance from the South-Eastern battle ~ ~
Czernn tilted his head.
"Maybe you feel also troche sick? Necrolytes should be hidden i buried in the earth after all, and nie flying open in the blank skies..."
"Ciekawe, ciekawe... why did you become Necrolytes actually? Have wy any special reasons to do so?.."
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian Coast -
"Hmph. Now what?" asked Martin as the guy they were just talking to flew up into the air.
Akran sighed. "Well, let's see what happens."
"Hey Captain! Look!" One of Akran's crew was shouting and pointing. Akran couldn't see what he was pointing to at first, but then he saw it. A storm was coming from the direction of the ocean. Only one patch of sky was dark and it totally blocked out the sun casting shadows that were creeping along the ground towards them.
The crew was shocked. No one moved. They all just stared as the darkness surrounded them at an incredible speed. Surprisingly, it wasn't even raining. Someone screamed as black figures swooped down from the clouds. The shadowed beasts started to circle the battle field. Flash! Lightning came down and hit the ground sending dirt flying everywhere.
Akran knew who these creatures were. They had come after him now just like they had come after him 3 years ago. This time they came in the form of a rainless storm. Luckily, he knew their one weakness. Their greatest offense - lighting - proved to be the most affective against them.
This was great for Akran. He could use this light to his advantage. It was only going to be difficult when they change into their solid forms.
Flash! Another lightning bolt came down quite near the crew. A few of them who were archers started to shoot arrows at the Malanos, and a the couple who knew magic helped. The familiar tingling sensation rose up Akran's arm as he got his bow ready.
//Feel free to control any of the Malanos. Arrows and lightning will work against them.
-
//Hey Ein, you didn't forget about Kronos, right?\
~Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia~
"Tch, new he says..."
Indher turned away, not really caring if the man lurks around or not.
"Well in case you didn't here, we have an emergency right now. I suggest you go home. Kelmarr, hurry up."
She hurried up the flights of stairs leading up and didn't really seem to get tired.
"We are going for the roof, Kelmarr. I hope you don't have a fear of heights..."
-
(Offense taken in a silly forum RP is, well... silly. Heh...)
- Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia -
"Huh? Me? Of-of course not..." Kelmarr swatted the air, puffing out his chest. What the heck were they going to the roof for...? He thought she just wanted to ask him some questions. *Gulp*... this was some insanely high tower...
He followed, though the gap between him and Lerfina widened a bit. He suddenly wasn't quite so sure of the runecaster's intentions. Well, not suddenly, but still... He scratched the back of his head and fingered the hilt of the ornate sword at this back, flicking his tail back and forth with each step. Geez, what an ordeal...
-
- Southern-boarder town-
Sienna rubbed her arm as the amulet was removed. She then looked around and realized she passed out. "Wha-what happened?"
She picked up Puco.
"Well, thank you stranger. I better get out of here." She then ran off with Puco, using her speed spell, this time without any odd side effects.
She exited the town and kept running until she was a far enough distance from it.
-
- Phoenicia, Forest -
"Mmmm... delicious..."
Melface floated over the rapidly decaying body as he wedged a toothpick in between his teeth. That was quite the tasty soul. In fact, it was one of the tastier humans he could remember for a while. A lot more magic-infused than average... he wondered why. That one seemed little more than a peasant.
The child-like demon leaned over and floated parallel to the ground, his off-white robes flowing around as he studied the skull. There in its forehead was a gleaming yellow jewel. Interesting... With pudgy child fingers, he plucked the stone out of the thing's head as it crumbled to dust. The jewel still kept its yellow sheen it his hand. He turned it over a few times before shrugging and placing it in his pocket.
With that, he vanished.
-
- Far, Far Away From South-Eastern Kandarinian Coast -
In a windowless, very dark room stood a black-cloaked man holding a small orb in his hand. He stood there making absolutely no noise. Then, from under the hood came a contented hissing - much like a cat would purr. The figure was watching something in the orb.
Through the eyes of one of the Malanos, Kraaz could see everything. He watched as his minions summoned up a rainless storm over the ruin of the Gilden Warship. It's dead captain was floating just a few meters away - no Majeuri Spinel in sight. A red flash of anger burst from his eyes as quickly as it faded, leaving the room back in it's darkness.
"Go to the Southern Kandarinian coast." He whispered, irritatedly into the orb.
Instantly, the Malanos obeyed, bringing their storm with them. He watched as they quickly sped North. The coast neared and suddenly Kraaz found himself looking at a battlefield where a gigantic Necrolyte controlled beast slaughtered many of those pathetic humans - the race of which he no longer belonged.
"Find Akran alive ... kill everyone else."
... ... ...
- South-Eastern Kandarinian Coast -
"Ha!" Akran yelled as he shot down a flying shadow creature. He was combining the light that came from the lightning with the Raven Bow to kill the Malanos. It looked as if he was shooting bolts of lightning back at them. Kind of odd looking, but effective.
He saw the creatures fly down and circle the beetle, but didn't attack. He didn't know if it was because they saw no profit in doing so, they thought it was too massively awesome to be destroyed, or maybe they weren't physically capable of defeating it.
Akran was starting to wonder how the two guys he met were handling the beetle, because it was kind of hard to spot them with all of the Malanos flying around. It didn't help that they were both up in the air. Wait just a second... did that mean they were safe from the lighting attacks?
Flash! Another lightning bolt hit the ground, annoyingly close to Akran. He felt it's charge crawl up his spine. Damn it!
"Die!" he yelled and shot another arrow.
-
//Xorlak: that was there mainly to attract attention. Then again, I really didn't believe that something that could've been done in a comment like this one had to be done through breaking character.\
- South of the Kandarinian border town -
There were scatterings of Kandarinian soldiers left and right of Sienna's path. They were setting up camps, regrouping - licking their wounds, in other words. The beam over the city finally began taking shape, and searing some buildings around the main acropolis in the middle. (45)
Sienna and Puco found themselves on a hillock just south of the city. The Sovereign's Hammer was illuminating the area with an intensity very rare for the well-named Dark Continent. The light revealed a lush forest south of the city, made up of tall trees hiding the sky with their canopies. Most of the soldiers remained in positions in the area around the now-burning settlement, although some groups left to enter the forest instead. Those were generally seen with caravans of slaves captured in the city.
- South-Eastern Kandarinian border -
The beetle fired its spikes up high into the air, completely missing Duilin, but instead falling on the retreating Gaian Federation troops. The gaping holes left in the creature's carapace began to close up to form another row of devastating spikes, but not before Ein took the situation in his own hands.
He pressed one of the symbols on his left arm with his right, forming somewhat of a small wave of light around himself, while urging the wyvern down. The summoned beast made a circle in the air and, in a dead fall move, threw itself right at one of the holes in the beetle. The glyphs on its back continued to form, even without Ein - who was right behind his wyvern, also in a freefall to the ground.
Meanwhile, the glyph seemed to form a perfect circle - just as Marshall's wyvern reached the opening in the beetle. The poor reptile exploded violently, and although it didn't deal too much damage to the attacking beetle, it caused a turmoil with the Necrolytes inside. Their concentration was momentarily broken - just long enough for Ein's spear of light to enter the small space inside, shattering as it hit an Augment's portal...
The deadly shards lodged themselves deep in the Necrolytes' flesh, and quickly got to their business. The seemingly small cuts began leaking strange glowing white liquid, forming deep cracks in the warlocks' skin. Just several seconds later, the beetle collapsed to the ground, revealing thirteen motionless, half-dissolved bodies - and their Augments, free from the oppressive grasp of Necromancy.
The silence of the scene of massacre was broken by Ein's wails. The largest glyph on his chest - the one he used to create the Necrolyte-killing spear - was producing a torrent of blood. The disabled Ein tried to crawl toward the small Federation group, but fainted before reaching even half of the way there, with the dark shadows of the Malanos circling around him.
- A completely unfair distance from the South-Eastern battle -
-"Eh, it's the family business, I suppose," Joseph replied. "We were always interested in the Sovereign's Necromantic workings. Unfortunately, he did not grant his gift to anyone before the Gros Morne era of Kandarin. When he did, my entire family became devoted to Necromancy. It was like a religion, almost - with the Sovereign as the patron god.
"Myself, I was a different case. Even though it was clear that I had neither the talent or the interest in Necromancy, they all kept urging me: do it, consecrate your soul to the Sovereign, and you will gain the power to control life and death... Eventually, I gave in for the sake of stopping the nagging. I, however, refused to be turned into a full Necrolyte - like yourself, pan Manteia, or pani Ekaterina there. Unlike you, when I am struck, I will die - die completely. I suppose it's partly because I'm slightly dubious as to why exactly we go through with such a task - killing ourselves and then being reborn through our own power. Sure, the result is near-immortality, but really - who would want to live forever?"
-"My story is not as colourful as Joseph's, pan Manteia," Ekaterina spoke, albeit after a short pause. "Four years ago - when I was thirteen - it was determined that I am a gifted abstract thinker. As everyone knows, the split-personality aspect of Necromancy needed to directly control a Mertvetz is greatly boosted by an abstract mind. Because of this ability - the ability to think for several people, so to say - the creatures I had the potential to conjure were deemed to be infinitely more complex than that of my fellow students. After completely resurrecting a person in my first month at the Standard Necrolyte Preparation course - without absolutely any loss of flesh, blood, or even memories - I was immediately sent to the second year of Advanced Necrolyte Preparation. Completing the four years that were given to me, I am now here, ready to apply the skills I was "taught" by those individuals generously awarded with the title of "teacher" by the Sovereign... It is without an exaggeration that I say I was better than them at everything."
-"But all that, of course, is what I am expected to say, I'm sure. You, pan Manteia, could probably guess all of that after I told you that I am a graduate of the Advanced Necrolyte Preparation. To be perfectly honest, without all the useless information and the icing on top - I like it. I like being able to raise someone's mother from her grave and make her dance like a marionette. The sense of control, it... it appeals to me. Being able to command hundreds with but a thought is, to someone like me, my innermost desire."
-"We're almost there," Joseph informed his companions. "Before we land, though - pan Manteia, why did you become a Necr-"
-"...idiot...", Ekaterina cut him off. "Listen to yourself, pan Joseph. The pan's last name is Manteia, why do you think he became what he is?"
(34)
-
~ ~ Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia ~ ~
Shuichi didn't comment, he just quietly followed. The thing he heard weren't good, apparently the skunk... well... was a little different from what he introduced himself... or maybe not. Anyway Indher made a fuss (like always) so he just would follow, this way the skunk wouldn't be able to do anything funny, if he would of course. Why would he? Only a demon tailing him...
tailing... hehe...
wait...
demon?
...
what kind mess is this...
~ ~ South of the Kandarinian border town ~ ~
"Eeh~" Puco looked at the light.
"It's flashy... Sienny, what is that light..."
She looked like in a trance and the light was reflecting in her eyes.
~ emo ~ under ninethousand... distance from the South-Eastern battle ~ emo ~
Czernn just looked at them, with his face not showing any expression. His empty eyes didn't move during the whole story.
He just wondered... was he really like them? They dead or not... but was he alive? Was he dead? Or was he even less?
Less than dead... his existence was his curse... Manteia... he should be dead one hundred years ago.
Should.
"Yes, just as moja pani said, I'm a manteia.. it's also in my blood to control life. But Isn't it ironic? Even in the end, and I mean the ultimate end, the one who controls so many lifes... not only using spells but i power...
a necromancer nie can't bring himsiebie back."
He paused, sighted and looked down at the earth.
"A curse, or a gift?
Dependant to each other.
Our/nasz bare skin jest shown,
our/nasz bare skin jest touched,
touched by maybe soft hands,
maybe very soft,
but not so soft jest...
ten knife they are holding."
I can see it... I can smell it...
"Let us prepare ourself... how will you fight?"
Maybe an obvious question, necromancy... but the tone he said it in showed that it was a question asking for more... a deep tone, a deep though, a deep strategy... a deep eye.
~ ~Silver Root ~ ~
The two massive ships were now underwater, and inside them portals were opened to let people freely move from one ship to an another... only the gates to Pistis were guarded.
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian border -
"Oh no, not the guy we just met!" shouted Martin.
Akran looked around just in time to see the man with the tattoos fall to the ground. Blood was spurting everywhere making a real mess around him. Worse yet, the Malanos were descending upon him, sensing that their victim was an easy target.
What could he do? There were too many of them to take out even if all of his crew weren't fighting for their lives and could help. Akran started to sprint towards the injured man, but then stopped himself. Something was holding him back. His arm tensed. A brief thought that he should just leave him to the Malanos flew through his mind. After all, he was so impolite ... and, well this made for a great distraction so he could save himself.
NO! What the hell was wrong with him? He couldn't leave him to die! Akran cleared his mind and rushed over to the fallen man.
"Hey! You shadow shit, come for me!" Akran yelled at the Malanos, "Free target here, come and get some of this." He started shooting arrows at the creatures.
All at once the Malanos turned towards him, their red eyes focused on his. Uh oh, bad idea. Thunder sounded in the sky above him and it darkened even further. A wispy, translucent image of a cloaked head appeared above the Malanos. It breathed in and smiled. His brother Kraaz had found him.
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian border -
"Oh, up your's!" Duilin sneered at the beetle.
He then summoned up his air shield, which he intended on using on himself but he quickly flipped around and shot the bubble like shield at his troops, he was unable to protect all of them however and the shield mostly just bought the rest of the troops some time to duck for cover because the shield was broken after the first few spikes struck it.
The half demon general then faced the beetle again, just in time to see it fall apart.
"Well, what do you know. That Aspye did it." He looked around to see where Ein was. "Hmm, where is he?"
He looked down on the ground and saw a fainted Ein on the ground. He landed next to him and picked him up.
"He's officially gained my respect. My trust will be if he keeps this up." Duilin said, as he flew back to the ground.
--- ---
- South of the Kandarinian border town -
"I think that might be the same forest we were in before." Sienna said pointing.
She stepped towards the forest.
"Yeah, alright. It'll be best if we go through here. I don't want us to be spotted by anymore Kandarinians."
With that she entered the forest, still carrying Puco.
-
“Back in your cell you pansy ass mother-fucker!”
Druid heard the cell door swing open. A thud, followed by coughing and wheezing.
“Not so tough any more Mister Grand General!” The guard laughed. “And you!” The guard stepped over Baird towards Druid. “Well, you are just pathetic!” He laughed some more as he thumped his hairy knuckles against Druid’s mask. The stench of his rotting teeth hung around Druid’s face like a relentless thunder cloud bent on destruction. The decaying food and rotting gums was an odor Druid disliked almost as much as he disliked the guard. He was almost glad the masked covered his eyes because he did not want to see this ugly brute’s face.
Druid heard the guard spit, most likely on his mask, before he turned to leave. Baird grabbed his pant leg. Not because he as pleading for the torture to end. No he grabbed his leg as a means of fighting. Baird was weak and couldn’t summon any magic and this was the best he could do. The guard kicked Baird in the face, hard. Druid heard a nasty crack, which echoed throughout the entire jail. The door swung shut and the guard walked away laughing.
“Tomorrow” The one and only word Baird said barley a whisper. He used to share all that transpired with Druid. The guards thought this was them planning their escape and they would just torture him more. So for the last year all he would say was “Tomorrow”. He meant this as in he would muster up enough strength to fight back. After this he would arduously pull himself onto the stone bed and pass out until they pulled him back into the torture room.
Druid hung there and only thought of his tormented friend. He was stronger than Druid. He just hung there day in and day out on the wall. No sight but he could still hear. He could touch anything, but he didn’t need to. Everyday they would pull Baird into that room and drain him of energy and life. Not for information anymore, but to keep him from rebelling and breaking out.
So Druid hung on that wall and waited. He listened to the soft breathing of Baird, he didn’t even have the energy to take deep breathes. Druid slowly drifted off to sleep, to dream. Not of freedom or a daring escape plan but to relive that day three years ago. Over and over. It was killing him slowly from the inside, and there was nothing he could do about it.
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian Boarder -
The image of Kraaz laughed and disappeared. He knew where Akran was now and would send more minions. Akran ran over to the two men. Hopefully no one knew that they were here because of him.
"We gotta get out of here quickly!" he said, "If the Malanos change into their solid forms..." his voice trailed off as he shuddered. "Well, trust me, we do NOT want that. Hey you, winged bloke, is there a healer we can take this injured man to?"
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian border -
-"I'm... I'm fine..."
Ein's chest stopped bleeding. He wiped off the remains of his blood with his cloak, and stood up.
-"This particular glyph is interesting in that it requires so much power to use that I need to sacrifice some of my own life to use it. It is called Mond war lauern - don't ask me what it means, I don't know, I just copied it off the book."
He loaded his modified spear gun with two spears, and pushed them into the bowels of the mechanism. He used another spear to trace a glyph in the earth below, resembling a pentagram with several lines added onto it (http://http://z.about.com/d/altreligion/1/0/5/P/2/necronomicon.jpg). After the image was complete, he pricked his finger with the tip of his spear, and dripped a few drops of blood on the glyph. Having done that, he lowered the spear to about 30 cm off the ground level. The droplets of blood inside the pentagram suddenly spurted several stalks of some red plant, it seemed - which wrapped themselves around the spear, sinking into the metal like it was sponge.
-"That was a technique I picked up after visiting Eris' tribal homeland. Her people practise some sort of nature-magic, which comes in very useful in certain situations. Then again, their most powerful spells require actual human sacrifices - so I decided to learn only the bare minimum."
Ein paused to look at the modified spear.
-"This is one of their stronger spells. That plant - Sanguis Veneficorum, they call it, which, I believe, translates to "The Poisonmaker's Blood" - is some sort of unearthly conscious vegetation that uses living organisms as vessels. I wonder if we could get one of those black things up there on our side..."
He aimed his contraption at the closest Malanos, firing off the two unenchanted spears first. The creature used two lightning attacks to counter the spears, but paused for a second afterward. At that point, Ein fired the hexed spear at the creature.
- Directly in front of the South-Eastern battle -
(44)
-"Well..." Joseph sighed. "My arsenal consists of just a Khodovik and, on top of that, several Peshkas. I don't even have my own Augment yet... I suppose pan Manteia simply doesn't need one."
"I have a different way of using Necromancy in this case," Ekaterina added. "I recall pan Sovereign using it once. As for exactly what it is... well, we're already here anyway. You'll just see for yourselves."
The three wyverns landed on landed on the brown soil, just behind a hill, hiding them from the rest of the battle. The undead creatures whithered into dust as soon as they touched the ground. Ekaterina and Joseph crouched to the top of the hill, and then, lying down, spied the battle from afar.
-"Can't really see much," Joseph complained while trying to make out the battle through a spyglass. "I can see the remains of the Zhuk - I suppose bratja Necrolytes fell already. Doesn't matter, I guess, since Gandara is only a few hundred miles north of here."
-"Blood," Ekaterina whispered after sniffing the air. "A fair amount of panowe died. Good... That means there will be a lot of material to make our Mertvetzi out of."
She crawled back down to Czernn, and dusted herself after getting up.
-"Shall we make our entrance, pan Manteia?"
- Forest entrance -
The forest was, if at all possible, even gloomier than the city. The dark canopies of the trees hid what little sky there was. Even the Hammer's rays barely penetrated the thick cover of leaves and conifer, manifesting only as the occasional streaks of light pouring to the ground and vanishing among the thick trunks. The normal scent of the forest wasn't there - the air was stale with the heavy odour of mould. Upon closer inspection, the lower parts of the trees turned out to be blighted, explaining the brown carpet of leaves on the little forest road. The leaves were disturbed, as if several people had walked through them recently.
A little further down, the disturbance in the leaves pointed to the side of the road, finally vanishing in the darkness veiling the forest. There was shuffling coming from the shadows, as well as grunts, heavy voices, and the occasional whimpering.
-
- Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia –
Kelmarr's mind began to wander as he followed Lerfina. Blast, it was a long way to the top... He took to watching the cracks comprising the block walls as they climbed staircase after staircase. What was such a huge tower used for, anyway?
They passed a huge set of windows, and the skunk felt compelled to pause for a moment to take in the sights below. The city sprawled below, the people moving about like ants. He hadn't been in a structure so tall since the Tower of Heaven's Bane! With that dreadful tower gone, he wondered if perhaps this was the new tallest building in the world...
He turned to follow Lerfina down the windowed hallway before she noticed him lagging behind. That was all he needed, for her to start yelling at him... She got pretty scary when she yelled at her lessers, and he didn't want to find out what it was like to be on the receiving end of her berating. Even now she walked tall with her head thrown back, some sort of big shot... His eyes trailed to her shadow following her. Even it was imposing. Hips swaying, sholders held back...
Wait a second... two shadows?
He blinked a few times. Odd... there was only one light source-- the window to their left... In fact, the shadow directly behind her-- the imposing one-- was blacker, yet he didn't see any other light source up ahead...
He stopped dead in his tracks... He could have sworn the shadow turned its head around and looked at him...
"Uh... Lerfina..." he said worriedly, not quite sure if her response to his interruption or this... whatever-it-was would be scarier... "Your shadow..." He pointed weakly, even then not quite sure what he was seeing...
Like a cat burglar caught in the act, Lerfina's second shadow spread its arms wide and stopped, bending its knees as if ready to jump into hiding. It looked both ways, and then with immeasurable speed, bounced across the floor like a rubber ball.
Kelmarr gasped as the thing drew close and found his back to the window. With a sucking *pop*, the black ooze blasted out of the floor and tackled the skunkular knife mage right in the chest, sending him right through the glass window with a huge crash.
Kelmarr screamed as he fell dozens of stories towards what surely would be his death. The ooze clutching his chest took solid form, an avian head and glimmering crimson eyes boring into his soul.
"Re . . .vIvE . . ." The thing screamed into his mind. A raspy whisper that blocked out all other sound. "rE . . . ViVe . . ThE . . ."
*CRASH!*
Kelmarr and the shadow-thing slammed into a luckily placed cart of hay, collapsing the wagon and sending bits of straw flying across the street. Townspeople screamed as glass shards began to rain from above.
He had no time to ache in misery, lying on his back in the hay. With a practiced reflex, he drew a dagger and plunged it into the thing's neck.
It shrieked so loudly that the skunk man was blown clear off the cart. He flipped on his landing and landed square on his fluffy tail. Ow...
Gods... what in blazes was that?! It took flight, spreading two black wings and spraying feathers everywhere. A crow? A raven? Whatever it was, it dove and tackled him again.
Pinned on his back, he wrestled with two blade-like talons, taking one in each hand. It had four limbs! No, not some bird... it was a griffin!
The thing snapped at his face with its beak. "Re . . . ViVe . . . MaSt . . ." He moved to the side and it struck the handle of his sword. Much to his surprise, it grabbed the handle and began tugging on it. Kelmarr took the opportunity to retrieve his knife from the monster's black feathery neck. Black blood pooled down his hand and dribbled upon the chest of his leather armor. He raked his feet up under the beast and kicked it off of him, sending it flying back into what was left of they hay cart.
Eyes wide and utterly freaking out, he fought back the soreness and stood, drawing a second dagger. Why did it attack him of all people? Blast it!
The black griffin shook off the hay that it landed in, returning to its feet and spreading its wings menacingly. It was about the size of a large dog-- scratch that. Very large dog. It opened its raven beak and let out a blood curdling screech. Nearby window shattered from the soundwave, and townsfolk ran for their lives.
Kelmarr slowly stepped in reverse, tail frazzled and teeth clenched as he held his daggers battle-ready. Only one word could escape his mouth.
"Great..."
-
-Shaad Oenn-
There was no such thing as time in their prison. They did not know when one day ended and the next began. Tomorrow to them was when the guards would cart off Baird and the end of the day was when he got back. There wasn’t anything do except sleep for Druid and so he lost track of the days. He knew only the changes in season because of the temperature in the cell. This allowed him to keep track of the years, and they were currently at three.
Baird had been pulled away before Druid awoke. He wasn’t rested so it must have only been a few hours since Baird got back the first time. The door to hell was opened and Druid could hear Baird being returned to their cell. The guard was laughing as he usually does. He opened the door and threw Baird in. Baird grabbed his pant leg like he always did, however something was different. Druid could sense it.
“You want to dance you cock loving…” The guard never finished his sentence because Baird had summoned an orb of shadow energy and punched a hole right through his stomach. The guard gasped and collapsed. Druid could hear Baird’s heavy breathing because this took a lot out of him. He slowly grabbed the door and pulled himself up. Shouts of other guards and inmates filled Druid’s ears. He struggling to free himself and help his now doomed friend.
The guards rushed in and started to fill Baird with ten thousand volts. These guards were adept at lightning magic and were electrocuting Baird for his little revolt. Druid struggled to free himself of his binds. He knew it would do no good. Baird wasn’t going to die; they weren’t allowed to kill him. However they were going to continue to severely shock him.
“Get that one too, he is disrupting my fun.” Druid heard as the guard came over and started to send the electricity through his body. Druid screamed in agony as the guard laughed. He knew Druid was powerful and sent double the amount into him as he sent into Baird. Druid tried to break free of his binds. The binds restricted his movements and the guard laughed in his triumph.
Druid started to yell in agony, losing his self control. He didn’t care, the pain was too fierce to contain. He summoned orbs of shadow energy but the binds which turned the energy against him only cause him more pain. Druid’s yell grew louder. The guard stopped laughing. The ones torturing Baird stopped and his body collapsed in relief. The guard shocking Druid was scarred and put all his energy into the assault. Druid’s summoned shadow energy orbs grew brighter and the binds were illuminated. A small crack appeared in his left bind. Druid felt it, the escaping shadow energy. He ignored the pain and put all his energy into the orbs. His yell turned into a laugh, this deep blood curdling laugh. The guards recoiled in fear as the crack grew and his laughter continued getting deeper and louder.
-
//I assume Ein tells Akran his name because, quite frankly, I'm tired of trying to find other ways of describing who Akran's talking to.\
- South-Eastern Kandarinian Boarder -
A piercing shriek came from the Malanos that got shot. Akran had to cover his ears. The creature writhed in the air and smoke started to rise from it. All of a sudden it stopped. It turned around to face the other Malanos and started to shoot lightning them. The others, realizing what was going on, fired back. In seconds, the possessed Malanos fluttered to the ground, life energy depleted.
"W-what?" Akran cried, quite bewildered. "Did you make that thing attack the others?" he asked Ein.
If he answered, Akran couldn't have heard him because then, all of the Malanos started shrieking so loud that Akran had to cover his ears again. They must have realized that the humans had a very effective weapon.
To Akran's horror, he noticed that the Malanos were changing. Black pieces of cloth were falling down from each one into little piles on the ground. When there was nothing left except the mounds of cloth on the ground, the screaming stopped, and soon, the pieces of cloth started moving. About twelve, very tall cloaked creatures rose up out of the ground, electricity and sparks zapping around them.
Akran felt his jaw drop. About two years ago he faced one of these things and only just managed to escape with his life. He looked around. Where the hell was his crew? He hung his head in despair.
"Twelve, angry all new Malanos (http://http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia/index.php/Malanos) against... how many of us?" Akran asked out of the side of his mouth to Ein.
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
-"Pfft," Ein snorted. "There's only one dozen of Malanos and there's four of us. We outnumber them four to one! Besides, there are several things I haven't tried yet. First off, that last attack was a bit too strong - I suppose I shouldn't've shot it with three spears at once. Let's try that again."
He applied the Sanguis Veneficarum to another spear, loaded it in and fired it at a Malanos' abdominal region. The spear pierced the creature though without dealing it much harm, and falling uselessly behind the target. The Malanos didn't mind much, but suddenly began to cringe. Its wound closed up, covering itself with red stalks. Another glass-shattering wail came from the dark shape, and some sounds resembling death gasps.
-"Give it a few seconds..."
Sure enough, in a few seconds, the Malanos crawled back up to its knees, then stood up. Red sprouts were grasping the area that it was struck in, more popping out of its skin. It made another strange noise - like the normal Malanos scream, but somehow, sickly-sounding - and shot a lightning attack at another nearby Malanos, who seemed to have no idea what's going on.
-
-Shaad Oenn-
BANG! Druid fell to the ground as his binds shattered. He was resting on one knee as he continued to laugh. The guards slammed the cell shut and locked the door which only enticed Druid to laugh harder.
“I have to admit the magic negating binds were a nice touch,” Druid slowly stood up but his head remained down. “But any material can be broken if it is worn down enough, especially if the person in the binds if as powerful as myself. I will admit it did hurt a little.” With that Druid laughed and raised his hands up for the guards to see. They froze in terror when they saw the bloody and scarred hands. His head remained down as he continued to speak. “Now,” his voice dropped an octave, he was serious which was not good for the guards. “You fellows have been very bad. Treason, false imprisonment, assault, and torture.” Druid wagged his finger at the guards to mock them; the blood was dripping out of his palm and was forming a puddle on the floor. “Tsk tsk tsk! Daddy’s home and he is not happy!” He raised his head. His eyes were mimicking the deep red colour of his shadow orbs. They looked like they were smoking as some of the overload of shadow energy was escaping out of his eyes. He pulled his arms into his chest and pushed out firing a huge blast of shadow energy through two of the guards, killing them instantly. The third guard’s arm was caught in the blast and was ripped of. He collapsed grabbing the bleeding stump.
The jail’s bar door melted open so Druid stepped out and walked towards the guard. The man looked up with tears in his eyes. “I am a compassionate man.” Druid walked forward and snapped the guard’s neck. “What,” Druid said innocently, “I killed him to end his suffering. Now…” He trailed off as he turned to Baird. He felt a pulse, which was good. He lifted Baird over his shoulders but collapsed from the weight. He had been hanging from a wall for the past three years and his energy rush was over. Druid propped Baird against a wall and sat down himself to catch his breathe. He looked around the dank hell hole that had been his home. The ruined state made him smile. “I’m back.” He said quietly but with confidence.
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
"What the hell are these things!?" Duilin questioned. "Whatever they are, I don't like them."
Duilin drew the Iduran and lifted the sword up, and enchanted it with lightning magic. He then pointed the blade at one of the Malanos' and then fired a bolt of lightning at it. With a loud crack and several sparks flickering through the air the Malanos died.
"Heh. Alright, who's next?"
--- ---
- Teh forest -
//Yes, I'm aware I typed 'teh' instead of 'the'.\
"Hmm, there are some odd sounds coming from over here." Sienna said to herself. "I wonder what they are. Maybe I'll go check it out."
She walked over to where she heard the odd sounds, still carrying the sleeping Puco.
"Maybe I could also stop thinking out loud. I'm sure if anyone was listening they'd think I was pretty odd. Oh well."
-
~Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia~
As Indher turned around to tell off whoever was bothering the skunk, it was already too late. The shadowy thing latched onto him and he appeared to have... Jumped out the window?
"...Crap."
It must be the demon that was following Kelmarr, she thought.
No, it had to be. Why else would a black, shadowy thing be around?
"...I'll just revive him later. That is, if I can."
The roof wasn't too far now. She hastened her pace, and found herself on the roof soon after.
She reached out and touched the large ball in the center of the floor, and whispered -
"Where is Kelmarr...?"
She seemed to have blinked, and proceeded with an odd monologue while wearing a mask of conviction.
"I see. So he is alive. I could just use the shortcut down and help him, but this is a good time to test it...Alright! Echo Kelmarr!"
The large orb responded to her last two words with a gleam, allowing her voice to be heard in Kelmarr's general location.
"Kelmarr" she said "I'm going to blast it. Move out of it's way."
She proceeded to place both of her hands on the orb and gazed ominously into the rolling mists within it. The two golden rings floating and spinning just above the Glimmer Spire began to shine. A devlish smile spread across Indher's face.
"Hehehe... Voice command is neat. I'm glad I thought of it. Now... Divine Judgement!"
The clouds above Phoenicia began to gather above the tower, as if pulled into a certain gravitational center. The point of gathering quickly became a black orb with the occasional burst of white lightning lighting up it's surface. Indher's smile grow wider as she let go of the orb and began drawing something with her finger in the air. The lower circle responded, and thin-lined runes of light began to draw themselves within it's limits. The second circle soon followed.
//Note: This would normally take at least a 3 post charge, but in the interest of keeping things going I'm going to fire it now. My condition which causes my infrequency of posting is to blame,\
The cloudy ball of lightning and thunder descended into the top circle and enveloped it. Some of it was spilled, for some reason, and was absorbed into the lower circle. A massive amount of chain lightning was fired all at once into the orb Indher held only a few moments ago.
"Hehehe...HAHAHAHAHA..." Indher's eyes brightened up with an infernal, crimson gleam and her demonic blood boiled as she bore witness to the power trapped within the orb.
"And now, you will feel Indher's Divine Judgement! This is what you get for causing trouble in my house, fools!"
The orb made twizzling sounds, and released all of the energy trapped inside, somehow directing it at the shadowly creature attacking Kelmarr.
With a covetous expression, Indher watched the explosion that followed...
-
Wham! The Malanos that got hit with the lightning was shot back fifteen feet. It recovered, smoking and writhing, but much more aware of what was going on. It tried to glide forward but started to slide down into the ground. It wailed and tried to grab a root to save itself, but it too, just passed through it's fingers. It sunk into the ground, leaving no trace behind, and all the while screaming like mad.
The Malanos with the red plants tried to attack the other ten creatures, but after what happened to the first, they were ready. They deflected the lighting with their hands, making it even more powerful, and sent three streaks of lightning back. The first hit the possessed Malanos making it explode in a puff of smoke and cloth, the second missed Akran by inches, and the third shot straight toward Ein.
The others collectively started to charge some sort of lightning attack up.
(2/12 down)
-
- The Forest -
(55)
The darkness revealed a small clearing in the thickness of the forest. There, two Kandarinian soldiers were discussing something.
-“Whut’r we s’posed to do wit’ that there,” the larger one asked. He was pointing to a girl (a slave, by the looks of it), chained to his wrist by a fairly thick chain. “Sov’rgn prob’ly gets anuff slavegirls anyway, why’d I got to drag her ‘round?”
-“Be quiet, Ludvik,” the thinner, taller one replied coldly. “I hope I do not need to remind you that I am from the General’s own Regiment. I outrank you. Besides, she insulted me – she is getting just deserts.”
-“Guh… You’s call a pitiful attempt at escaperin’ an insult? The way I sees it is you deservesed it. Can’t yer wait to get back to yer wife? Why’d you even go for a civilian? All she didder was try to break free once you grabbed ‘er, don’t see that as an insult, myself. And I thoughts they did discipline there at first Regiment. Yous apparently aint one of them disciplined ‘uns, Sigrun…”
-“I said be quiet, Ludvik. It does not matter what you think or what you do not think. It was an insult, and I say so. Why can you not be nice and obedient and listen to your superiors? Besides, I –“
He was cut off in the middle of his sentence by a sudden gust of wind. The normally placid sky was really getting turbulent now, the clouds almost pulsing to some sort of a grandiose rhythm. The temperature soared – and seared – with another gust of wind. The air was saturated with a low monotone hum. The Hammer’s song in deep bass began – the beginning to the ultimate end for everything in vicinity.
The hum progressively lowered in pitch. One could feel the very waves of the sound shaking one’s organs, and making the loose leaves dance on the ground. A layer of dust about 10 centimeters thick was suspended over the earth due to the strong vibrations. The light, too, grew in intensity. Eventually absolutely everything was shining brightly, reflecting the light coming from the holy pillar – brighter than the sun.
After getting to a certain point, the tone just seemed to… die down. In but a second, the hum simply vanished, leaving everything in dreadful silence. Sure enough, in a few seconds, all hell broke loose.
The super-massive shockwave that followed blew several trees right of the ground, setting them on fire as soon as they rose more than several meters off into the air. The air, though – the air – it was everywhere. Everywhere. It was wailing between every single little piece of dirt, roaring high in the skies, and squealing in everyone’s ears. Sienna was instantly floored by the maelstrom, although the larger soldier remained seated. The taller one took cover as a molten fireball from the annihilated city nearly beheaded him. The entire sky was dotted with the airborne chunks of molten metals and stones, raining down on the forest. Somewhere in the distance, a relatively large piece landed on dry wood, instantly going up in an inferno of flames.
In less than a minute, it was over. But the results were more than visible – the city simply vanished. In its place, there was a smooth layer of glass – the result of tremendous temperatures on the sand surrounding the area.
-“Strong ‘un they fired off this time… Musta bin’ one of dem solar flares. Now… hey, wha?”
Ludvik felt around his belt, looking for something. Meanwhile, the previously innocent-looking girl withdrew her hand from behind her back, and, with a yell, made a stab for Ludvik’s chest. The dagger struck the target, but succeeding in nothing more than drawing a drop of blood – the Kandarinian protection amulet stopped the metal sliver from going any further than an eighth of an inch into the skin. Seeing this, the girl’s expression turned from enraged to terrified – as Ludvik’s shifted from nonchalant to enraged.
-“You… little… BITCH! I can’t damn BELIEVE you woulda done that while I tried to let you off easy! DIE!!”
The Vanguard’s heavy foot crashed into the girl’s stomach, lifting her off the ground and knocking her down backwards. She cringed after the first hit as Ludvik approached her.
-“I sees now why Sovereign wanted to blast yer damn city off Gaian,” he said as he lifted the girl up into the air by her neck. His eyes were fixed on her tear-swollen face. “You just don’t goddamn get the point until sumone like me comers along ‘n’ shows it to you…”
Ludvik proceeded to land hit after hit on the girl, as Sigrun watched quietly. A thin, satisfied smile cracked his face.
- South-Eastern Kandarinian battle -
Ein tried to dodge the lightning, but failed. //one of my pet peeves with this RP - how the hell do you dodge a lightning?\ It struck him into his glyphed chest, sending him back several feet until he hit a tree, and fell down, smoking.
-"Ow... Well, these Malanos certainly know how to make a man angry..."
He loaded his contraption with another spear, this time imbued by lightning. He aimed for a Malanos' head and released the trigger...
The lightning attack being charged in an orb above the group of Malanos suddenly struck a bolt right at the incoming spear, throwing it back at Ein, who barely moved out of its way.
-"What the hell?!?! Now how is that fair?!"
Now extremely angry, Ein quickly sketched a glyph on the ground below. Without waiting much for it to complete, he dipped his hand into the glowing sand, pulling out an orange-sized fireball.
-"Dammit, was going for a lightning orb. Oh well. Will do."
Like a professional pitcher, Ein swung the fireball at the nearest Malanos, adding a nice spin to it. The same thing repeated, though - the lightning sphere deflected the attack with another blast.
-"It's no use. Folks, I suggest we get the hell out of here. In case you haven't noticed - which you haven't, because you don't have a surface-penetrating optic system on your weapons like I do - three very dangerous-looking folks just landed over that hill there. If you don't want your legion to be reduced in half by those floaters over there and then halved again by the three freaks - we have to get the hell out of here. Please tell me you have some sort of a water transport."
-
~ ~Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia~ ~
Shuichi was apparently forgotten...
This... is too weird. He didn't really wonder what happened, but in a few seconds he was left alone. Then again he heard weird noises and all kind of stuff happened. "I'll just follow Indher"
When he reached the roof... he could only see a powerful blast and flash.
"This is too complicated!" He yelled holding himself to not fall from the explosion.
~ ~Ze Forest ~ ~
"NEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEE~ ~!!'
Puco fell of Sienna and screamed loudly. Not a scream of fear, nor one of being amused. Just one of... overreaction? She screamed end fell on the earth, and then she saw a man kicking a younger girl.
"Wha?" She didn't see the lost city, because the chaos around her overwhelmed her enough.
She did know one thing. Kicking girls is no good!
"Hey fatty! Stop kicking her!" She yelled moving her arms angrily around her.
~ ~ South-Eastern Kandarinian battle ~ ~
...What was this? These two knew what they were talking about for sure, and he even began to like them but that wasn’t the problem. He was here to teach them... what did they expect of him, teaching two already good necrolytes while he felt weaker than them?
Czernn as always was feeling his low self-esteem, and he felt unsure however his face didn’t twitch and noone could read his feelings. That was his strength after all, being unpredictable and all.
- “Ooo... an another massacre? Fights only to weaken the enemy, i now we should take care of the rest... okropne...”
He clapped his hands.
“Let nas move... show me what wasze panstwo can do, and I shall cover wy. You kill, kill, zabijaj, kill and kill. Search for the strong and them challenge them. If oni shall fail then nas will finish all of this...
Ja said that I shall cover wy, so do not be worried, the small fry will not leave this place in the radius of...”
With that he halted, stretched his right hand, and held it to his right, and a blue looking bird who was flying above them suddenly landed on it. A normal bird...
On touch with his body the bird began to ... decay and grew. It beautiful blue was now fading towards black and became dim and lost its power. However the bird looked more powerful now, and with a keen eye you could see the lines of the bones, now twice as big, thought its body.
Czernn lowered his arm and the bird flew away, high into the sky. You could swear it shone, it lighted.
He looked upwards. At the sky... I wish I could fly in them now, instead of being tied to these blooded earths.
The bird changed course and flew right at the battle, with speed not seen in a bird, nor in anything else with wings. From where it came couldn’t be said, but it could be said it was dangerous... very dangerous.
A few soldiers looked up at the bird, and tried to run away or guard with their shields but it didn’t matter.
In a few seconds three man had lost their face, being stung by the iron peck of the bird.
“... jeden kilometre.”
They didn’t see it, but in one kilometre radius around Czernn all kind of animals became black and furious... just waiting to tear something apart that seemed but a little suspicious.
~ ~ Black storage building ~ ~
- “Our infiltrators made contact.”
Ray said this with an amused voice looking at the chess looking map.
- “Soon they eliminate our ... enemies in Silver Root.”
- “What about the unlife masters? Have we infiltrated them yet?” The long hatted glassed man asked softly.
“No Chaud, not yet.”
The white suited man answered.
- “We have men plenty on their grounds... but the infiltration of the military hasn’t started yet.”
- “When will it start Frederic?”
Frederic took a cigarette out of his pocket. It was slim, and it looked like it wasn’t packed with nicotine...
- “As soon as Heil is eliminated, and that will happen at a crucial point. We need to make the Kand’s think that Silver Root has enormous power... it has maybe, but not enough. We need them to think that they may be the force that they need to conquer the rest of Gaian. We need to make them believe that making an alliance with them will give them sure success. All hope will be put on Silver Root. The Sovereignty will only this once have someone to rely on. Maybe that moment will be short, for soon they would try to absorb Silver Root or they would just see them as “some alliance”, but there will be a moment that they will feel that with them they will conquer Gaian without problem. On that short moment, on the most crucial day, Heil shall fall. The sovereignty shall trip, and fall on our knifes. At least, that is our plan.”
- “How will we gain this?” Ray asked with a curious tone, but her amusement rose even more.
- “Our men are already spreading the word in the villages that with the alliance of Silver Root things will be better, and that kind of stuff. Maybe it won’t be accepted at first but after a while the whole country will whisper. Whispers and hope is a knife that is overlooked by many and once they pass it to take the sword, it can hit their backs...”
- “The normal people will be easy for their minds are simple...” Chaud continued for Frederic.
“...but the lords of these countries won’t. The influence of the normal people will be small but still will be there, and once the parasite will settle... I personally will convince them.”
Ray laughed.
“Personally? What a ironic way of using that word.”
~ ~Crow ~ ~
A dark night, the sky is deep blue. Some solemn stars flash in the sky, and give a glassy effect over the thick and green wood. Where the wood stops, where an opening lies a castle is placed. Some thumbs of old trees are lying around it for the opening is human made, the castle is build on remains of death trees... and men.
The castle isn’t really that big, or high it’s just that impression that you get when seeing the towers. The stones are light brow, maybe the colour of sand with a little tone of green. It’s almost completely made from towers, standing close to each other with some small buildings in a church form connecting them in between.
The castle is made from stone and the tower’s roofs are brick. On one of these towers you see a black dot... a black crow.
Its red eyes penetrate you confidence and it rises and falls again flying down... and down... ignoring the towers and going to the middle of them, where a huge building is placed, not touching the ground being built into the walls filling the empty space in between all nine of them.
In the huge hall one window is open. A bright light is flowing out of it and noises of dance and laughter escape from it.
Inside a huge ball is held, many dance on the floor and some guards stand on the sides. Opposite of the window the king is dancing. He’s middle aged and has a small beard. You see that he is surrounded by five ladies, however that doesn’t catch you attention. On his left arm he has a beautiful bracelet, it actually resembles a miniature crown, and as you look at the king you begin to feel something... as if you love him, you want to serve him, you want to make him happy...
A loud scream from the crow breaks this feeling, and with rage you turn towards the window were that crow sits. But just like you, everyone around suddenly halts looking amazed at the crow.
Its red eyes shine painfully deep in your hart and around its black neck a golden necklace lies and around its right leg a ring is placed, just like a leg bracelet.
The king suddenly laughs. His laugh is painful, and only to hide his fear. He expected this moment, he expected and feared, ever since he found his bracelet. Someone to take what he had found, the bracelet with the magic power. The power to make everyone love you.
“I knew you came, and from you appearance you have stolen even more Reliqs. However you won’t gain this one, for it’s power is fully active in this hall! I shall slay you, and with that I’ll take your treasures!” His eyes were filled with greed, and the women around him looked at him with faces full of admiration. He raised his palm and yelled something like “Kill!” and you hear people drawing swords.
You suddenly notice that way more soldiers are here than you expected. Actually two third of the guests are armed, and those who aren’t still wish to follow the kings command. All soldiers are equipped with long sabres, except one cloaked figure next to the king holding a equally long gun now pointing at the bird.
“Shoot” You hear the king whisper and a loud shot is heard. But the crow isn’t there anymore, but flies at full speed at the king. In a second it already passed half of the enormous hall but a sword almost hits it. Immediately the crow raises evading the cut easily and with the same speed it pierced the head of the soldier. The crow gets right trough it... however no blood stains on it can be seen. Everything is absorbed in it’s darkness... in the darkness of its feathers.
A yell of rage you hear, a shot twice. But as men try to hit the crow it just evades and cuts them instead. Its peck is deadly and its claws a blades. The crow flies at enormous speed at the guards, penetrating the one after another coming closer to the king.
The king in his fear yells something at his cloaked sharp shooter and an another shot is heard.
That had to hit, it was right into the bird who flew to fast to turn.
But then you see something fearful. The bird is already near the cloaked figure and with its razors it opens his chest holding a bulled in its mouth.
Ladies scream, men yell. Children cry and glass breaks. The bird cut of the hand of the king, and flied high to the roof, now holding the bracelet as a crown on its head. With speed faster than the fastest river you have seen, it slices across the king turns again, and before the king manages the fall into two parts it hits him again. Blood flies everywhere, people panic.
You try to escape but people push you around. You fall on the ground and see someone falling beside you, on the body of a dead child... someone tramples you, but you try to stand up.
The birds penetrates everyone, and just broke some armours cutting across the fragile human bodies. It flies right at you. Blood covers you sight.
The crow slaughters everyone who ever saw the bracelet in the castle, and flies of from the collapsing building in the morning. Blood drips of it, but none can be seen on the wings. Everything is absorbed in the deadly black of the feathers... as if a hole in existence... and in that hole, two red eyes.
~ ~Silver Root; Pistis ~ ~
Tron was walking through the empty roads of Pistis. It was night and moon shone along the roads.
- “We have finally discovered it...” he mutters into himself. “... but Heil must are at the other ships, just great at his nights! We must hurry... who is next... we guess...” He closes his eyes impatiently.
- “...Smiech.”
He quickly walks towards the place where Smiech lived, however he meets him sooner than expected. Smiech was at a nearby park throwing rocks at birds.
- “Stop these! We have important messages!”
Smiech turned his head non-charmingly towards Tron.
- “Wa is ye problem freak?”
- “Do you remember the missions that Heil gave us? To check corruptions in our governments!”
- “Big whut, you probably found some crap. Who gives a nut, it was your job. Just kick the asses out and don’t annoy my face.”
- “You fools! We found something VERY important, just look at these reports!”
Tron gave Smiech a piece of paper with some tables drawn on them.
- “Corruption in yer goverment, so whut? It’s onl-”
He halted looked at the notes more carefully...
- “This!? Is it a joke! No, you are always too serious... “
- “You see? The cases are more dangerous than we expected! The other Generals are busy, or have to low ranks! If these would be announced, then the economies would collapse. We left a massage for Heil, but we should go out as quickly as possible!”
Smiech knew that this was no cause of humour, and that this was the time that he would proof his being a General.
- “To think that our land is being infiltrated... do you have the location?”
- “Ah, at least they are what we think that the locations are. Once we’ll arrive there we will know for sure... these communications if drawn back go back all at one places-”
- “I dun care! Let’s hurry and go! This is a case of hours, I got a special ship home... let’s leave!”
At Smiechs home they found a beautiful, car looking, ship. It was for two people and quickly the left the ship... they flew off the Sovereignty, into the sea, into the sea of islands trying to pinpoint the location of the ones that infiltrated Silver Root... Something was getting big, and it wouldn’t go unnoticed!
-
- Hte Forest -
Sienna ducked down and shielded Puco from the shockwave of the blast.
"What was that!?"
She got back up and then noticed Ludvik and Sigrun. She watched them for a little bit and then noticed the big one hitting some slave girl.
"I can't let them do this."
She cupped her hand over Puco's mouth and ducked back down.
"Shhh...I have an idea. Just stay here."
She then took out the 'Ophelia' mask from her pocket and put it on her face. Maybe she could scare them or something. She then stood up and casted her camouflage spell on herself, making her mostly invisible, and approached the two men. Since their focus was on the slave girl she was able to get very close to them without them noticing.
She then gave a very loud terrifying shriek that echoed throughout the woods.
--- ---
- South-Eastern Kandarinian battle -
Duilin was able to block most of the lightning attacks struck at him, by countering them with Air Shields and lightning bolts of his own.
He then looked at Ein when he suggested retreat.
"What do you mean? I don't see anyone or sense anyone." He then thought for a moment. "Then again, nobody's been able to sense people ever since Retan was killed. So I'll take your word for it. I don't want anymore of my men killed. We've got a ship, it's small but it's fast. The rest of the troops have their own ships, I'm sure they'll manage."
He then cups his around around his mouth to make a loud holler. "Fall back! Return to the ship!"
He then motioned to Ein. "Come on Aspye, follow me." He then took off for the ship.
-
(Undodgeable lightning would be against the rules. Therefore, lightning is dodgeable. Heh...)
- Glimmer Spire base, Spire City, Phoenicia -
Kelmarr's ears perked at the voice seemingly coming out of nowhere. "Huh? Lerfina...? Is that you?" Get out of its... what the heck was she...?" He looked up and his eyes widened. "Holy freakin crap!!"
The rings high above at the top of the spire cracked with electricity. Kelmarr turned tail and ran. The blast from the explosion was strong enough to sweep him off his feet as he made a mad leap for cover (in slow motion), ducking and rolling into a side alley. He cowered behind a dumpster as flames swept past.
When it was over, he meekly poked his head around the corner, finding the vicinity in a charred state of disorder. Holy crap... He timidly stepped out of the alley. To unleash such an attack in the middle of town... she was insane! Do not get on her bad side, he noted to himself. The blast didn't seem to level any buildings, but all the ones facing the street were badly blackened, bits of debris strewn everywhere. As for the monster... it was nowhere to be seen.
What in blazes was that thing, anyway? He rubbed the back of his head as he walked towards ground zero. It couldn't have been the demon that attacked him on the ship, could it? No, that one was sentient... this one had only one thing on its mind... What was it after? Did it actually want the sword?
Nah... probably not... But still he should get rid of the thing as soon as possible, anyway.
-
//Of course. Then again, not everyone can dodge lightning... Also, yes, Mikado. In this mess, he was forgotten - or rather, Indher didn't notice he was following in the first place as she expected him to go with Elphos.\
~Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia~
Indher sighed.
"That was quite... therapeutic."
She calmed and the sky began to clear.
"Alright, now to bring him up here..."
She approached a small premade set of runes at the side of the tower. Within it was a small, empty circle. Carefully, using her nail, she drew another circle within it.
The runes glowed a bit, having been activated.
The runemaster skipped back towards the orb.
"Echo Kelmarr... Kelmarr! A circle on the ground level should light up. It will transport you to the roof if you step inside."
-
- Southeastern Terian Coast -
"Blast it, I was out for a bit... Wah!? My army's nearly gone! Karma, are you alright!?" Jacobie was apparently knocked out of battle by some means, along with Karma. She slowly got up and held on to her forehead. "Ouch..." She said.
"Glad to see you're alright. Let's get with the others. C'mon!" Jacobie grabbed Karma's arm an ran towards Duilin and the others. He gripped his katana more tightly and looked out into the field. "How do you suppose we kill those things?"
//I'm a little confused. For right now, I'll just post this. It should be good enough, at least until I get my head back into the game! Smile
-
(Apologies. That comment was directed at Ein, Jenia. Heh...)
- Glimmer Spire base, Spire City, Phoenicia -
"Gah...!" Kelmarr looked around again. That voice out of nowhere was beginning to freak him out... "Y-yes ma'am." Blast it, what the heck did she want to do up there? And more importantly, why didn't they just use this in the first place instead of going up all those stairs? Ugh. Crazy women...
He stepped into the glowing circle and immediately became disoriented as light flashed around. Sheesh, maybe the stairs were better! With a bright flash, he was suddenly standing in a circle in a different location, Lerfina before him waiting. He teetered dizzily from the teleportation, feeling as if he'd loose his breakfast right there.
-
~Glimmer Spire top, Spire City, Phoenicia~
"Aaaaaaaaall-right!"
Indher rubbed her hands together, mentally preparing to get to work.
She motioned for Kelmarr to come over as the circle behind him had lost it's glow.
"Just a precaution, you see... This shortcut can only be activated from here."
She wasn't about to tell him of her training plan which involved climbing all the tower's stairs once a day.
"See this large globey thing, floating up here? It's pretty much a information gathering center. Well, it is also a tool usable in many ways, but right now we are only going to use the information gathering capability..."
She approached the orb, it's rolling mists peacefully sliding infinitely into themselves.
"Place one hand on this and think of the demon that was with you on your ship. If he is anywhere in the vicinity of the island, the orb will show his location to us..."
It really was a pity the orb's power didn't extend too far beyond Phoenicia, she thought... still, with a radius enough to go half the way to Tjed, it's range should be big enough to find the monster that came with him... That is, assuming this wasn't it.
-
- The[/u] Forest -
Ludvik paused, throwing the unconscious girl down to the ground and taking the metal brace off his fist.
-"'N' who're you to be commanderin' me around? Sigrun, mind if I...?"
-"By all means, Ludvik. I will get the striped one next to her. Just listen - she is practically screaming for me to put her out of her misery. Quoth Malleus Maleficarum - "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"."
The larger Kandarinian drew his weapon - a hammer with four heads, stacked on top of each other, and heaved it over his shoulder.
-"Dun' givva damn if you're small. Dun' intrude. Die."
He swung the weapon down and sideways at Puco, while Sigrun unsheathed his own weapons - a set of Kamas. He leaped at Sienna and slashed the obsidian blades down at her shoulders.
- The Gros Morne Citadel -
-"Keeerig," I yawned. "My Hammer fired off. Get Weloss to do whatever he wants to do."
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
Ein rushed after Duilin.
-"Damn bird," he muttered quietly. "Orderin' me around..."
As he ran, he thought he noticed something in the corner of his eye - something on the ground... right by the wrecks of what used to be the beetle creature. He stopped to look, and found one of the Necrolytes still breathing. He swiftly picked her up, and resumed running after Duilin. Who knows - maybe they'll be able to beat some information out of her?
Meanwhile, just behind Ein, the remains of the beetle began to move...
---
-"Dzienkuje barzo, pan Manteia," Ekaterina said quietly. "We'll get on it. Joseph, shall we?"
-"That we shall, dear pani," Joseph echoed, and began raising the fallen soldiers in the area for cannon fodder. Meanwhile, Ekaterina sprinted over to the remains of the beetle, half-bending to avoid being seen. She leaned close to the bones, putting her entire body in contact with them. The bleached carapace started to crack in several places, eventually breaking up into pieces. The chips adhered to Ekaterina's entire diminutive body, forming a suit of armour of sorts. Even her face was covered by a kind of an expressionless white mask. She ran forward to the retreating Gaian Federation army, and stopped a few meters away from them.
-"Good evening to you, panstwo," she said. "Surely you aren't leaving after killing 13 of my bratja? I thi-AAH!"
Her speech was interrupted by the lightning blast from the Malanos behind her. They fired off their lightning orb right at her back. The attack shattered the bone armour... which instantly regenerated into its former shape.
-"One thing I hate more than intruders... is being interrupted while taunting the said intruders."
With those words, Ekaterina leaned backwards - WAY backwards - while chanting some sort of a spell in tongues. Her spread arms were shaking, almost in a spasm-like way. After several seconds, her entire bent body was raised by some unknown force into the air, while she continued to whisper the incantation. The spell reached its climax, it seemed, as the Necrolyte's body straightened out like a recoiling spring, and she slammed her palms together in a finalizing clap.
The bones scattered all around the battlefield shot up into the air, twirling in a vortex over Ekaterina. After the vortex sucked up every single bone on the battlefield, it collapsed down right on the Necrolyte below, concealing her in a twister of dead body parts. Then, the dust settled...
The layer of bones around Ekaterina grew at least five times, completely hiding her behind the bone armour. Her appearance was now much like Kronos' in his fight with Gorus, except instead of wielding a sword and a shield, she had an enormous three-headed flail. She effortlessly threw it over her shoulder.
-"Now, let's deal with these annoying insects the way they are meant to be dealt with - we swat them."
She raised the huge weapon into the air and gave it a good spin, increasing the momentum. When it was spinning so fast as to form a small twister over her, she slammed the spiked heads right into the bunch of Malanos. Even though they tried to deflect the attack with their lightnings, a mere spark was not enough to ward off such a large object moving at such a speed. Six Malanos perished immediately.
(Malanos left: 410)
- The end of a black road -
The doors slowly creaked open, letting the travellers inside the grim building. Inside, several hooded individuals greeted their guests.
-"Welcome," the closest one said. "I trust you are here for the... Naivischy?"
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian Boarder -
"I'll follow in my ship!" Akran shouted ducking as lightning bolts hit the ground around him, "I have a boat over here."
Akran sprinted East towards the Shadowshot. He saw his crew in the distance waiting for him. "Argh! Cowards. They'll probably have some sort of excuse why they didn't help me out. It better be good."
Martin shouted out to him as he approached. "Akran! Where were you?"
"I was a little busy with all of those Malanos you left me to deal with on my own. Maybe I should be asking you that question?" replied Akran.
"We uh..." started Martin looking towards the rest of the crew for help. All of them shrunk back.
"Never mind," interrupted Akran, "We have to get going." Just as he ran up the stairs and on to the deck, a black squirrel jumped up and bit him on the arm.
"Ah!" Akran cried shaking the squirrel off of him, "Where the hell did that come from?" The creature ran away back towards the battle field. "God damn..." he muttered as he rubbed his arm. "Get this ship moving!" he ordered in added frustration to his crew.
-
- Ye Forest -
Sienna seemed to move like a blur right out of the way, of the kamas and reappeared behind Sigrun.
"Leave this woman alone and run home. Now." She said pulling out a card from he her deck. "You want to try me?"
"You think a girl is gonna scare me!?" Sigrun sneered turning around and swinging his kamas.
Sienna sighed. "Have it your way." She swiftly leaned backwards to avoid the swinging blades, and then swung a kick tripping Sigrun off his feet. Before he fell to the ground, she kicked him again causing him to fly into a near by tree, cracking the bark.
"You little bitch!" Sigrun roared, and then ran back at her.
Sienna's hand holding the card glowed a dark violet, and she tossed the enchanted card at the oncoming fighter, the card shredded right through him.
Sigrun was petrified suddenly blood started to gush out of the left side of his chest, and he fell lifeless to the ground...
--- ---
- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -
Marshall rode toward the ship on a Wyvern he summoned, trailing not to far behind Duilin.
Lagart, Zimmerman, Vaughn and the others ran along with Ein.
"I dunno why we have to run." Vaughn sneered to Ein. "And I especially don't like our general taking advice from some Aspye who just shows up. I got my eye on you, barbarian."
Lagart noticeably rolled his eyes.
Duilin arrived at the ship. "Get ready to head back to Helternia." Duilin hollered to the sailors on board. "We're making a retreat." He stepped onto the ship, he dusted himself off, and waited for the others to catch up.
Marshall arrived quickly, he hopped off his wyvern which returned to it's magical blue fog state and then was sucked back into Marshall's sapphire.
"You're friend seems interesting." Duilin said to him, leaning against the opening doorway of the ship, with his arms crossed.
"Ein? Yeah, he's a pretty great guy." Marshall replied walking up the docking board.
"I'll be the judge of that. He's a very good fighter actually, maybe some day he might get better than me."
"Really?" Marshall stopped beside Duilin.
"Yes. I remember fighting him those few years ago. Although I could have killed him, he put in a lot of effort. He indeed has some of my respect. But I don't trust him."
"Fair enough I guess. He doesn't trust you. I'm sure he hates you actually."
"I don't blame him. I'm not fond of him either. But regardless, I see a lot of potential in him. Perhaps you could persuade him into sticking around with us for awhile."
"Yes sir. I'll do that."
"Thanks. Now get in the ship."
-
~ ~ Tnguasdbge Forest ~ ~
Puco screamed and hid herself under her arms instinctively. The blade hit hit her arms... and shattered. Two of the four blades were in pieces.
- Why you-!?" Ludvik yelled and tried to hit her once more.
"Or right, the powers..." She smiled a little embarrassed forgetting her strength. An another attack flew at her head, but Puco jumped back and countered. She ran along the handle towards the face of the man and caught it with both her hands.
"Now I can test this little new thing..."
She froze all water inside his body... and controlled it. The result was devastating.
With enormous speed hundreds of Ice spikes pierced the mans skin from the inside. They grew around him, changing him into a huge spikes ice rock.
Puco jumped back and looked at the man. "Wha...."
~ ~ South-Eastern Kandarinian coast ~ ~
- "Easier said nisz done..."
Czernn sighted and run higher on the hilltop trying to catch the situation.
So basically on the huge field, remains of dead necromancers were fighting the little bit of soldiers left. Most of them were withdrawing, but organisation of a huge army is hard, so half of the soldiers were being panicked or going berserk.
These soldiers were weak however, at least they looked that way. The strong looking ones were all close to each other, retreating near a ship. Some thunder crap was there too, but that would be taken care of by Ekaterina, so Czernn didn't bother about them.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. So the weak ones are still fighting, while the strong guys are fleeing?
This is one heck of a crappy situation...
Czernn searched his jacket for something, and took out a small bag full of green seed.
Joseph was near so Czernn had a excuse for his loud thinking.
- "This jest Nasienie Martwych, simplified, seed of the death. Moze a obvious and unoriginalne name, but effective, very effektivne."
He raised his hand trying to feel were the wind came from. From behind, into the field. Not bad.
He threw the seed into the field, and the wind let it fly. The seed shone with green light in the air.
People began to get confused, what was this?
- "Anyone who has the nieluck breath it... will change into a unlife under moja kontrola."
Why bother casting spells, when you can use already prepared ones?
On the field, people began to change into unlife, three on five to be precise. Chaos broke out, and people started killing each other not knowing who is who.
- "To takes care of them...ale maybe some unnatural power will let those stronger ones nie sneeze it? Doubt it. But kto knows... ja mean that guy has wings. So... now to destroy that ship then..."
The bird on his shoulder screamed.
"Swietnie [great]"
The bird rose and flew at great speed at the ship. It didn't attack it or anything but it dived into the water...
- "Ja can control undeath with unlife. There must be some death guys pod water..."
Slowly, old slimy tentacle looking things began to rise from the water...
[You can have you character miracously not sneeze the shit, but if you want to kill off someone, go ahead, make them undeath.]
-
- Glimmer Spire top, Spire City, Phoenicia -
Kelmarr timidly stepped up to the large globey thingy, scratching the back of his head as he studied the swirling mists around it. He didn't quite want to touch it, but Lefina said so... He didn't want to irritate her any more than necessary.
He pushed his black furred hand through the mists and rested it upon the warm surface of the orb, clenching his teeth as he tried to focus his attention on an image of that child-like demon on the boat. He wasn't sure how it worked. Probably some residual magic left from the two coming in contact was traceable or something.
Images flowed above the orb, melding together into a bird's eye view of the former island of Romme. The view zoomed in near the central western coastline, off the shore a ways in a thick, lush forest in the shadow of the mountain in the center of the island...
-
- Forest -
As both the soldiers lay dead, the girl finally began to regain consciousness. Tilting her head just a little upward, she mouthed the barely-audible word:
-"Wa...t..e...hh..."
- South-eastern Kandarinian coast -
Ekaterina continued clobbering both the Malanos and the retreating troops while Joseph decided to give up. Ekaterina was using too much unlife for him to get any anyway, so he quietly walked back to Czernn, with nothing to do.
---
-"Okay, guys, seriously, this is no time for heroics," Ein shouted. "Don't try to retreat to fight that thing there. The thirteen Necrolytes combined were nowhere the strength level as the one... the one in the distance..."
Ein felt a chill ripple through his heart as he recalled seeing the accompanying Necrolyte's dead, expressionless eyes.
-"Just get on the damn boat and run the hell out of here!"
-
- Le Forest -
Sienna took off her mask, and returned to normal. She pocket the mask and took a deep breath. She then noticed the girl trying to talk. She knelled down and held her head up, and she began to regain breath.
"Are you okay?"
--- ---
- South-eastern Kandarinian coast -
The rest of the crew boarded onto the ship and it took off, through the water. Back on Helternia.
"General, may I ask you something?" Vaughn said stepping towards Duilin.
"What?" Duilin responded.
"What are you listening to that guy for? How could you even trust him?"
"I don't, exactly. But he's friends with Marshall, and Marshall is with us, so it's clear he's not going to try anything." Duilin answered. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"No sir." Vaughn shook his head, and then went back to the group.
Marshall sat down next to Ein. "It's good to see you're still alive." Marshall said. "I was unambiguously apprehensive about your whereabouts."
-
- Terian southeastern coast -
"Damn, I guess the best thing to do is retreat. Follow along, Karma!" Jacobie boarded the same vessel as did Duilin and his team. He sheathed his katana and ordered Karma to do so as well. She politely slid the enchanted blade back into its sheath and handed it to Jacobie, who then placed it on his tasset.
"So, Duilin. I know this seems a bit forward, but... do you think Karmandalla and myself could join forces with you and your squad? My entire army was killed during the battle before and well... What's a General without an army?" Jacobie then bowed quietly to Duilin and Karma did the same.
"We are both pretty good fighters," Jacobie remarked, "and it would be nice to join up with an elite squad rather than a regular army. So then... what do you say?"
------------
- Dranniville, Stronghold -
"How is the barrier comming, captain?"
"It's slowly starting to form around the edges of the stronghold. In a few more minutes to an hour, it will be inpennitrable."
"Good, carry on then."
"Yes, my leige."
(barrier at 40 %)
-
//Mikado, which ship was being attacked by the tentacle thing?\
- South-Eastern Kandarinian Coast -
The Shadowshot crashed through the waves in its hurried retreat. From the deck of his swift ship, Captain Akran Drennen could see that the battlefield was in chaos. He could barely see who was fighting who as a couple surviving necromancers, soldiers, and a giant bird all fought against each other. Akran considered for a second that he should try and save the last remaining soldiers (they seemed like the 'good' side to be on), but as soon as the thought flickered through his mind, the large beetle creature started to move again. There was no way he was going to try now. His crew couldn't afford any more casualties.
Akran scanned the deck. The few who were injured were injured pretty badly. He had lost two great swordsmen and an archer for their limbs had been shot off with lightning from the Malanos. A harsh as it sounded, Akran had to agree with the rest of the crew: this was a considerably small price to pay for the rest of his crew's lives. They all wondered how they had gotten away so easily with their lives. The Malanos were deadly creatures. It must have been all of the confusion, Akran told himself, that had let them escape.
"Oye, Akran!" Martin called from the prow, "We're catching up to another small ship. I think it's the ship that you told us Ein and that winged fellow escaped on."
"Great, follow it." Akran replied, "Also put up the white flag so they know we are not a threat to them." The young lad up in the crow's nest instantly obeyed.
He had been considering for the longest time which side he should join. While it might be an easy decision for most, he had a difficult time with it. The main reason was because he had met Kronos a while ago and, for some reason, felt a certain connection with him. Kronos hadn't treated Akran with the same disrespect that he treated most people he met. He also couldn't hide the fact that if he joined the Kandarinian Sovereignty he'd be closer to Gwen... (Oh yeah! Hadn't he had a dream that she was in danger? It all seemed somehow less important now.) In the end though, he decided that he had to deal with his twisted brother, Kraaz, and the only possible way he could think of how to do that was to join the Gaian Federation.
Akran paced the deck glancing up at the ship they were following. He wanted to find out if they could help him.
Then something caught his eye. He looked around. Had anybody else seen it? Splash! There it was again! This time he could swear he saw a tentacle of some sort splash in the water ahead of them. Not another monster.
"Signal the ship up ahead," called Akran to the crow's nest, "I think we may have company!"
The young lad in the crow's nest waved a large red flag as a warning. (Or however ships usually communicate. I think smoke signals are a little dated, even for this time period.)
-
// Both >;D
~ ~ South-eastern Kandarinian coast ~ ~
Two ships were remaining... All of the other soldiers were being infected or dead.
So what was left... chasing the other two, right?
- "Hej Joseph, ty see the ship that hasnie went away yet? //Ted der's\ Go near its water... there are allot, and ja mean allot, of unsmierc under the woda (water). Use ich to halt the ship, the statek. Ja will take care of the other statek..."
Right. So the commanders didn't even notice his attack. Leaving the other ship for Joseph to handle, the water around Duillins ship began to move... something was underneath it...
- "Ekaterina! When ty finished the few remains of the field, come i help mnie take care of this statek. Albo help Joseph. Wszystko jedno. [here: it doesn't matter]"
He ran towards the closest coast towards the ship...
Flash.
Suddenly a few green tentacles thick as a tree grew out of the water. On closer inspection one could see that they were made out of ... death bodies. The green was the color they gained when they were rotting on the bottom of the sea.
The skulls and half rotten faces were laughing at the members of the ship, and the ship was surrounded from both sides.
Meanwhile, troops that fled during the battle in other directions were teared apart by several undeath wolves...
~ ~ Church of death ~ ~
"Yes indeed, we have came for your what ever is called..."
The men entered the church. The place had over nine hundred men now.
"Give us... the human offers..."
-
//OK, I'm getting confused. Does someone think that the Shadowshot is a threat? Even with it's white flag? And what is a statek? ...an unsmierc?//
- South-Eastern Kandarinian Coast -
WHAM!
The tentacles hit the side of the ship making it rock violently. Akran had to hold on to the side to keep from losing his balance. Very funny indeed.
Splash! The young man who was in the crow's nest just moments earlier fell from the jolt of the ship. He was now at the mercy of the beast.
Not Jimmy, anybody but Jimmy! "Use your arrows lads!" Akran yelled in frustration to his crew, "Shoot their funny little heads off!"
Akran took out his Raven Bow and started to shoot beams of light and feathers at the twisted smiles. The arrows didn't seem to do much damage, but it make the tentacles retaliate, thus slowing them down. Hopefully this allowed for enough time to escape.
The Shadowshot was a small, narrow vessel, and Martin sure knew how to handle it. The boat dodged in and out between the larger tentacles to avoid damage. Everyone got drenched as water splashed over the sides from the constantly rocking ship. As arrows flew around him, people screamed and water clouded his vision, Akran wondered if the other ship was being preyed upon like they were. Slowly, but surely, he could tell they were getting off track.
"Keep up with that ship!" Akran called to Martin, "We can't lose them!"
"I'm a little busy, if you haven't noticed," came Martin's reply.
-
- South-eastern Kandarinian coast -
"Well..." Duilin looked at Jacobie and his friend. "Well, I've heard some good things about you two. Plus I saw you in battle during the fall of Retan, Jacobie. So yes, you may join." Duilin clasped his hands together. "Now then..."
Suddenly the boat began to shake.
"???"
Duilin then rushed up the stairs onto the deck to see what the matter was. On the deck and all around the ship he saw the strange undead tentacles.
"Tentacles!? Gah, I HATE tentacles!"
Duilin drew the Iduran, which began to glow with a white light. A tentacle then landed near him, barely missing him. A half rotten skull on the tentacle began laughing at him. Duilin gave a horrified looked at it and then slashed the sword down on the tentacle.
"Everyone! Get out here and help me fight some tentacles off the ship! They're slowing us down!" Duilin shouted down the stairs to the others.
-
// Statek = Ship, unmartwy = undead
~ ~ South-eastern Kandarinian coast ~ ~
The tentacles reacted at the moment they would get hit, but it stunned them for a short while... for if you killed on piece of it, an other head came instead of the death one... they looked ... infinite.
Czernn was standing at the coast with Joseph next to him.
"Aha... can ty summon some unmartwi? I'll control te little tentacles some..."
The tentacles bashed at the ships, and they moved dangerously. Now tentacles were blocking of the front as well the sides... the only way out would be the rear, but what ship would possible ever move backwards? The heads began to eat the wood... eat the blades of those who attacked them... eat the men.
The tentacles in front of Duillin splashed in two... or it seemed that it did... quickly several heads connected each other again, and the tentacle flew right at his face.
What wasn't noticed that an another tentacle from behind was about to eat his back.
-
~Glimmer Spire top, Spire City, Phoenicia~
Indher smiled.
"I see... So he made it after all. Perhaps that shadow was his spawn? In any case... Kelmarr, I thank you for your cooporation. Please remain here until he has been dealt with..."
She sighed and began formulating a plan.
Should they move to kill?
No.
Why kill when one can capture and study? And if someone dies in the process, she could just revive them again.
Won't be a big deal.
"Echo Elphos... The thing is near the west coast, in the forest. Do try to bring it alive if it is reasonably practical!"
She snickered at what she had just said.
"Echo Shuichi... A demon thing was spotted near the west coast, in the forest. I know you like to study that stuff, so get to it! Elphos might need help."
She put her hand away from the orb and sat down.
"Now... We wait."
-----
~Throne Room~
Kerig stood up as Kronos had materialized the binding glyph for him.
"Hey, it really is pretty! But there are some many excess parts here that aern't even used for actual binding but-"
"Who cares! Just reach out already!"
Kerig sighed and reached out with his blackened hand.
Dense, black mist began to pour from within his sleeve. It circled around the hand and then floated towards the glyph, eventually enveloping it.
With the mist now connecting Kerig to the now hard-to-see glyph, Kerig pouted.
"...And?"
"I'm done. What did you expect, a light show? You'll get plenty of it when I fire. Speaking of which..."
Kerig turned to Kronos.
"Yes, that's right! When does Welly start sucking the-"
"FIRE! When do I FIRE!"
-
~Glimmer Spire top, Spire City, Phoenicia~
Shuichi tilted his head.
- "Hey, you don't need to use that sphere if I'm standing just behind you! Anyway, why should I go? This is more your case than mine, so you not going must mean it's dangerous. I'm not going if you won't."
Demons... he had enough data on them anyway. Come on, almost everyone is a demon or something.
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian Coast -
Suddenly the Shadowshot halted. Everyone was flung to the floor. Silence followed as Akran's crew slowly got to their feet. A weird gnawing noise was then heard.
"W-what's that?" Martin stuttered. Akran looked over the side. The tentacles were eating his ship!
"Ahhh!" Akran yelled, "Shoot the tentacles! They're eating the ship!"
A bunch of men rushed to the front of the ship and started to hack away at the slimy creatures. They retaliated quickly out of harms way. Fortunately this let the ship move forward a bit. The crew, now realizing how they could escape, all took their swords and waved them from the sides at the tentacles. Many of them were hit, but had to regrow their heads which gave the Shadowshot time to move.
"HA!" Martin shouted in victory as he took the wheel and swiveled it around breaking free from the remaining tentacles, "On our way then, aye captain?"
"Sorry, a little busy at the moment!" Akran countered, shooting away with his Raven Bow. At last! They were finally getting away from the South-Eastern battle. Hopefully the ship ahead knew what it was doing and where it was going.
-
- South-Eastern shore of the Dark Continent -
-"Goddamnit!!", Ein shouted. "Why won't these people just let go?! It's all your goddamn fault for provoking the Kandies! Be thankful they didn't send a captain your way, or else we wouldn't even get this far into the water!"
He threw his weapon on the ground, focusing on his skin-carved glyphs instead. Swiping his hand over several of them, he conjured a fairly well-formed (for Ein's standards) fireball, blasting off a tip of the tentacle. The tip regenerated near-instantaneously, sprouting several other tentacles from the breach.
-"This is going to take forever," growled Ein while tracing his central chest glyph over with his finger. "If we're going to do this at all, we'd best do it right. I'm going to get rid of these things so we can finally move on."
With those words, Ein lunged for his weapon, hastily drawing a spear out of it while narrowly avoiding a squirming tentacle. He fought the perverse-looking thing off, forcing it to withdraw and attack another target. Using the time he'd been granted, he quickly created another glyph on the wooden floor of the ship. After crossing the final circle of the symbol, he collected a glowing orb just off the wooden surface. It looked to have been made of the same substance (?) as the spear he'd inbued to kill the Necrolytes previously. After a quick stretch, Ein threw the orb at the tentacle.
The whole squirming contraption suddenly fell to pieces, releasing the ships - while Ein fell to the ground, bleeding from his chest... again. The bleeding stopped a lot faster this time, allowing Ein to remain conscious. After dusting himself off, he rushed to the back of the ship.
-"Finally! Now, we have to get away from here as far and as soon as possible! They can still send a captain!"
With those words, he leaped over the edge of the ship, diving underwater.
There, he found the keel of the ship. After several minutes' worth of work, and a few quick dives to the surface for air, he covered quite a large area of the rudder with his glyphs - which immediately started taking on the colour of the deep greenish blue, same as the surrounding waters. Seeing this, Ein rushed to the surface, and climbed back aboard the vessel.
A strong jerk from underneath pushed the ship forward at a scary speed, cracking the masts almost to the point of breaking. Quickly, the continent was finally out of the view...
Bit more relaxed, Ein made his way up to the cargo compartment, where he threw the previously unconscious Necrolyte... who was currently trying to scratch her way through the hull with her nails.
-"Alive and awake, I see." Ein's quiet approach made the Necrolyte spin around in surprise. "Good. Don't worry, you don't have to escape like that... We're going to take you back there anyway. Whether it will be in chains or in several boxes is up to you - just answer a few questions for me."
- Forest -
The girl coughed a few more times, gasping for air. From her incoherent whisperings, it seemed like she was asking for water...
- Throne Room -
-"Ooh, heheheh, an active one, aren't you, Weloss?", I giggled in a completely unmanly way. "Unfortunately, I can't fire the Hammer several times in rapid succession. Wouldn't want it to break. Although... We could fire off a smaller beam, just to see how it works... What sayeth thee?"
-
- Duilin's ship -
Duilin strafed to the left avoiding the flying tentacle but was then strangled from behind by the other tentacle. He shot a lightning bolt from his hand at the other one, blowing another chunk off, but again it regenerated into more tentacles. He grabbed the tentacle around his neck trying to rip it off, but there was no luck.
However, Ein's spell caused the tentacles to let go of Duilin and he was safe. He coughed harshly for a little while, but got his breathing back.
"Good work, Ein." Duilin congratulated him. He then noticed Ein had also done some magical enhancements to the ship. "Hmm, I don't recall giving you permission to mess around with my ship." He said to him. "I know you're just trying to help, but I'm sure if any captains come at us, I'll be able to handle him. I'm aware that the Kandarin Captains are very powerful, but I'm the High General of Helternian Army."
He then took a look and noticed that Terian was out of sight.
"Although, this little modification is nice. So thank you anyways." Duilin added.
Not to long the ship arrived back at Helternia. One of the few nice places left. Although it wasn't as nice looking as Tjed or Arosis, it was still a homely place. The continent, or rather island, only had a few settlements on it. At last the ship docked in Rivertown.
--- ---
- Forest -
"She needs some water." Sienna looked around. "I think there's a pond or something nearby. Puco, maybe you could try and heal her while I get her some water."
She got up and then left to get some water.
--- ---
- ???? -
"No! Leave us alone!"
"Never! BACK TO HELL WITH YOU DEMONS!!"
-
- Glimmer Spire top, Spire City, Phoenicia -
The skunk grinned innocently, displaying the tips of his fang-like incisors as he placed a hand behind his head. "Haa, well actually I have a few errands to run, so if you'll excuse me..."
He began to shuffle backwards as Shuichi began to argue with Lerfina. Best to sneak out now while they're distracted. Kelmarr decided that it would probably be safer to get out of the crazy-lightning-strike-death-cat-woman's sight before she started telling him to do more things. He certainly did not want to get caught up in some demon hunt.
----
- Phoencian Forest -
Well now, he was full.
Melface leaned back on the tree branch, listening to the leaves rustle in the wind. Ugh. If only it were dreary, it'd be perfect. Of course the sun had to come out and shine on an otherwise perfect day. Lousy Gaian weather...
He'd probably stay here for a while. He rather liked the taste of the magic-based souls here. He reckoned a few decades of this would evolve him into a rather fearsome demon warrior with catastrophic powers of darkness. And possibly doom. Ohhh... the thought made his body tingle!
Resting his head in his hands, he looked up through the green boughs at some black bird. Some sort of raven, with red glowing eyes...
Well that was different.
"WhErE . . . ?"
Huh? He scowled at the thing and met its stare. "Where what? Are you trying to intimidate me, little thing?"
"kEy . . . ReViVe . . . KnOw . . . WhErE?"
"Tell me what created you and why you were sent, else I shall consume you soul. And speak in coherent sentences, blast it." Actually the thing smelled horrible. It wasn't a mortal, or a demon for that matter. Some wisp of blackness... It didn't have a soul to eat.
The raven opened its maw and cawwed so loudly the leaves from the tree blasted off. Spreading its wings, it dive-bombed the child-like demon. Melface disappeared in a flash and the tree split in half from the impact.
He materialized some twenty feet away, hovering above the ground with a gargantuan scythe slung over his shoulder as the tree collapsed on top of the little monster. "You miserable wisp! How dare you strike at your better!" His face contorted into a scowl. He should be able to see the thing's life energy under the tree, but could not. Definitely not a demon or a spirit...
The branches upon the ground exploded and a much larger creature burst into the air. A black griffin soured skyward, its raven head screaming as crimson eyes bore down upon him. Melface jumped out of the way as the ground exploded from some unseen attack.
Flying upward himself, he brought the scythe to his side as he twisted around an orb of blackness the monster sent his way. Blast! If it had a mind, he could get in it and scare it to death like he did all his victims. But as it stood, it didn't even have that!
-
//My posts might not be as frequent anymore. I'm just super busy again. I'll post when I can though!
- Rivertown, Helternia -
"Is this the place...?" Karma asked Jacobie quietly.
"I think so," He responded, "It's Helternia, alright... I haven't been here before, but it looks like everyone says it does. Nice and normal. Not too many places like this around anymore." Jacobie helped Karma off the ship and onto land. He looked around the coast for a bit.
"Well, it's not as nice as Ariosis, but it's a hell of a lot better than the arctic!" He chuckled slightly at his own joke, then stretched and followed behind Duilin, Karma following behind Jacobie.
"Thanks for letting us on, by the way. I'll do my best, and I know Karma will, too. She's a bit shy, but a damn-good healer. I'm sure we'll make a good addition!" Jacobie bowed, and Karma followed after him, however hers was a bit more timid.
-
- Duilin's ship -
-"My dear friend," Ein hissed with a forced smile. "Have you ever fought a captain before? Have you? Because if you haven't, if I were you, I'd thank me for getting you away from that place as fast as I could. I had the... occasion of training with a person who was recently promoted to a captain rank. Let me tell you this: at the time of our parting, she could single-handedly slay a squad of 30 men without as much as being seen. Her weapon is at least eight times smaller than mine, and yet the gods gifted her with incredible dexterity: she could hit anything eight times over a mile away, while I would strike but once - and after several minutes of careful aiming. Why am I telling you this?"
Pausing for a second, Ein smashed the Necrolyte tied up in front of him on the cheek with the blunt end of a spear he was holding. The force of the impact managed to draw blood, spraying it on the wall behind.
-"Because then, only after two years of nonstop rigorous training was she even considered to be worthy of examination for a captain's promotion. Those ten individuals are not to be trifled with. Trust me. You can pin any rank on yourself, puffing your chest and ordering people around - but that doesn't make you strong. High General, Supreme Marshal, Emperor of Everything Possible - those are just words. The question is -- do you have the strength to back those words up?"
The Necrolyte spat blood in Ein's general direction. That was enough to once again gain his attention. With a brief "excuse me", he turned to the captive, drawing his spear back like for a golf swing - and with a whizzing noise, crashed the metal right into the Necrolyte's temple. This time, the strength of the swing almost bent the metallic shaft of the projectile. The victim's head fell limply to the side. Seeing this, Ein turned his attention back to Duilin.
-"Don't get me wrong: I know all about your successful defeat of the tyrant's hatchling, Jayce. Obviously, I will not idly dismiss you as an incompetent amateur, barely strong enough to swing his own weapon. I never said you were weak, you proved yourself otherwise on that battlefield there. What I am saying, though, is that a captain is simply stronger. Your super-shield that you used to capture the Draken and hold him off long enough for Draven to finish him? Useless. How can you shield yourself against a projectile that doesn't really exist, and materializes only when it is inches away from your throat?"
After kicking the Necrolyte around a bit to bring her back to a conscious state, Ein continued.
-"I'm not trying to be smart here. I'm simply asking you put your trust in me for matters concerning the Sovereignty's inner workings. I spent no less than a year in training there - long story - as well as haunting their captured towns for the last three years. I know my way around their military infrastructure. Anywho... back to more pressing matters."
Ein knelt in front of the Necrolyte's blooded face, slapping her around slightly.
-"Now, do tell that there man everything you've told me."
-"Cecylia," the Necrolyte coughed. "Is name. Sent by captain pani Flora Goethe. Ordered to repel intruders. Pan Ein killed bratja Necrolytes... I wake up in this ship."
With a sigh, Ein stood up.
-"Unfortunately, that's all I could beat out of her. I don't -"
-"Khekh, khekh, khekh..." More blood spilt on the wooden floor. "Pan Ein should know that you aren't going to extract anything out of me like that. Then again... Pan Ein is known among Necrolytes for his exemplary stupidity... You there, pan krilaty..." //krilaty = winged\
She looked at Duilin. Her eyes were stunningly clear, despite her rather grave state.
-"Why don't you come down here for a second? We'll show you a secret that pan Ein seems to have forgotten..."
-
- Duilin's ship, docked at Rivertown -
"I have earn this rank." Duilin stated. "I've been fighting since you were a child, and since most of those captains were too. No, I have not had the honour to fight them, but trust me all I'm worried about is a fair fight. But I won't be mad at you or anything. Just, notice that we 'good guys' have some badasses too."
Duilin then looked at the Necrolyte. "I can barely understand what she's saying." He said. He then knelt down, to eye level with her. "So you have a secret? Well, I would honestly love to know what that secret is. So, why don't you tell me, and then maybe after that you can tell Ein here the information he wants." Duilin gave her a stern look. "Hmm?"
-
~ ~ Island ~ ~
An hard crash.
The enormous doors swung open with a hard crash. In the midst of them a single figure stood, he was a little short with a huge smile filling his face. Two swords were lying on his back, shining in the light that entered the dark building.
A breeze entered.
- "I see. So ya are the dudes that are responsible for the corruption, eh?" Smiech asked with a trembling tone, not trembling of fear but of anger. He was walking closer towards the triangle table, were Frederic was sitting with his back to him and the two others eyed him.
- “Oooh... so a little general found out?”
Ray had a sinister voice, and she held her hands under the table.
- “Indeed it was us, and now you found out we need to eliminate you.” Chaud had a more formal voice.
Frederic didn’t turn.
- “Don’t go being cocky, eh? I’m here to kill you guys, he!”
He began to run, and drew one of his swords with his right hand. A few metres. A few metres were between him and the white suited guy, Frederic.
- “Nah, YOU don’t get cocky.”
Ray put her hands on the table, revealing a enormous gun she was hiding. “Die.”
A ear breaking bang, but Smiech evaded.
He ducked while running to evade several more shots. “You won’t hit my like tha’ bitch!”
But then a black red flame ignited above the table, and disappeared as soon as it appeared. However it left three huge spears flying, and they were pointing at Smeich.
“Pierce.” Chaud’s voice was definitive.
The spears rushed at Smiech with speed of a bullet. Smiech dashed side ways evading one, he heard an another shot and felt and incredible pain in his left foot. Confused and in pain he was hit by both the spears in his right shoulder.
- “This... won’t stop me!!” With rage he stood up, and ran at Ray. He deflected several more shots, and ducked when he saw the flame summoning maces now.
He threw his blade at the table, but it got deflected by the maces and more gun shots.
- “It’s over fool, we’ll kill you sitting!” Ray was laughing but when she looked at were Smiech was she only saw a pool of blood. Here eyes widened, and she looked upwards. There he was, Smiech.
Now only to aim... and shoot. What!? An another guy was there too! He was holding a purple ball... it looked made of electricity.
- “Crap!” Frederic spoke finally when Tron smashed the ball into the midst of the table.
He jumped back and the others followed him. At first it seemed that nothing happened... but then a flash and an explosion.
You could feel the earth around the table rise, and dust was flying everywhere. The flash was eyes blinding, and pieces of the roof were bashed into the earth digging in for several feet.
Pieces of metal were flying everywhere, and the sun shone into the building. It didn’t get lighter however, for the thick dust made the place even more dark.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
More shots, more blood. Tron was gliding backwards, guarding himself against the punches of Frederic. Both didn’t use any weapons nor powers. A high punch from Frederic, but Tron caught it and threw him to himself. With his other hand he loaded a purple ball, and bashed it into Frederic’s neck. Frederic however kicked Tron in his stomach and the attack missed. Then the ground under them exploded and both flied out of each other. Once more. Earth was flying everywhere. Ray was shooting, even though she couldn’t see properly in the dust.
The purple balls were shining bright enough she though.
Tron loaded even more mini balls between all of his fingers, and threw them into the direction of the shots. The all exploded like granates mid way, being hit by more gunshots. Whether Tron was guarding against the shots with the balls or the shots were to stop the balls was unknown.
Explosions filled the room, and darkness was surrounding Smiech.
“Eh...” He cough blood a few times, and looked in front of him. A vague shade of Chaud was moving towards him. “He probably doesn’t see me well too...” But I can use my power...
“This is my chance... the last hope.” Smiech felt his body hurt but it didn’t matter. He sniffed a few times, and drew his blade dashing at Chaud. He could sniff the area around him, his eyes weren’t important as long as he could smell.
The slash was aimed at the head... *clash*
A sword reflected the attack.
- “How...” Smiech was broken. “How could you guard...”
And another sword dashed into his side...
- “I can summon objects as you see... and I can give them a single command. Whether I know what happens or not, they do it. I commanded the sword to “guard” so it guarded. Swords don’t need to see nor have any other senses.”
Smiech felt sudden hotness around him... Black and red flames surrounded him, and revealed twenty swords around him all pointing at his neck.
- “I can summon within two metres... so being a short range fighter is you end. Kill.”
The swords dashed at Smiech.
All of them.
Would he die?
Die? Disappear? So long he fought for safety of his country.. and now he was to die??
die???? die??????????????? DIE?????????????????????????????
He dashed. Rised his hand. His last sword, was infront of him. Flash. Clash.
He smelled blood, he heard flesh. He felt someone being pierced by swords... but was it him? He couldn’t tell. He only dashed forwards. Through the round glasses of Chaud he could see fear.
He couldn’t talk, and just dashed forward. Clash. He didn’t have a leg anymore. Oh well, he didn’t need it to pierce that man. Flash. He saw his hand flying in front of his face. Five swords pierced his bag, cutting it in two.
A little more... only ... a little...
Everything was red. Red. RED. DASH.
DASH forward. DASH forward! FORWARD! FORWARD DASH!
A sword pierce his face. He couldn’t see. He didn’t need to. He fell.. into the body of Chaud...
- “AAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAA-aAAAAAAAARRRGHhHHH!”
Chaud felt the cold of steel in a long time... the death body of Smiech was lying on him with his sword into his stomach.
“No! NO! Nooo-ooh!” He took on of the swords, and cut Smiech of him.
“What... is thiiiiSSSSS!??” The took out the sword, and blood rushed out.
“WhaaaAAA-AAAAAAAA---AAAaaaaT!!!”
Tron could finally see what happened.
He saw Chaud bleeding, and for a short moment a smile was seen on his face. But then he noticed Smiech. Lying in pieces on the earth.
In pieces...
on the earth...
- “Smiech... what... what?”
A Shot it him in his side, and he saw the white suited man in front of him.
Red and black flames appeared around him, and soon he was chained to the earth.
- “You’ll see him in heaven.”
The man began to glow... glow, and grow. He grew and rose. A gaint sword was standing now in his place. It was bigger than the roof and standing in its hilt.
- “Byee~!” Ray said it with a childish voice, and pushed the blade. The blade fell, and even though Tron struggled, and got free... it as to late. The blade bashed him into the earth...
...
Frederic morphed back, and was standing with Ray in front of Chaud, who was looking at his wound.
- “You made a fuss about nothing.”
- “Not nothing... this scar won’t leave me anymore... these generals are worthy of their names. Making me use a object I summoned... what now?”
- “They though they stopped us, but no. I’ll take this as a sign. We are moving out. Let the operation start!”
He walked out, and so did Ray. Chaud only looked at his wound and at the blade that pierced him.
***
That night all over the country rumours were spread. Rumours of Silver Root, both good and bad.
But maybe the versions were different, but the meaning was equal.
The two giant countries fighting... the one who Silver Root would join with would become the winner. Whether this was true or fake was unknown, it were just rumours after all. But fear fell over the peasants of the Federation while the people of The sovereignty felt better.
For the rumors said that Silver Root would join with the sovereignty, and bring darkness on the lands.
Hope and fear. Both were now freely flying across Gaian...
Somewhere... a crow screamed.
~ ~ South-Eastern Kandarinian Coast ~ ~
Czernn sighted and squatted down.
- "If ja counted right, only about fifteen lub something managed to escape. Well if oni came with a huge army here, leaving with these nummers, it seems that they lost."
He looked at both necrolytes standing in a field full of corpses.
- "Now so many died, so few fled, what do my do now?"
With a short breeze all bodies changed into dust. If someone was still alive to see it, he would doubt that Czernn is but a normal person. His empty eyes were deep... and he looked like a statue that was invincible.
At his desk back in his base an another letter of invitation to become a captain appeared. And once again his maid burned it, just like always, as Czernn asked her to...
~ ~ what forest? ~ ~
- "Wait!!"
Puco raised her hands and clapped.
- "Puco can make water out of air!" She frozer the water in the air added some minerals from the earth to it, and soon she had a flying ball of water around her.
- "Here you go Nee-chan! Drink drink drink it!"
The ball flew towards the mouth of the girl who started to drink.
- "And only Sienny-chan can heal!"
~ ~Church of death ~ ~
The robed men went to the center of the church and began drawing a huge circle... soon... soon...
... over ninethousand demons would be summoned.
-
~Glimmer Spire Top,Spire City, Phoenicia~
Indher shook her head.
"Then, I'll go, and YOU watch this guy."
Well, someone did have to do it. Completely forgetting the shortcut and ignoring Kelmarr's words, she dashed down the stairs.
-----
~Forest in the outskirts of Spire City~
Elphos and three of Indher's students jumped as soon as they heard what sounded like a tree falling. They were all carrying handmade charms for negating demonic powers, but they all knew that there was very little they could do about brute force.
"I'll distract him, you draw a seal around us."
"But, Master Elphos! You have never died before! Shouldn't we..."
"I'm NOT going there to die. Now get to it!"
The three nodded and split, beggining to draw a large circle on the ground.
Elphos proceeded to venture towards the noise.
And what he saw shocked him - A mere child wielding a simple yet heavy-looking farming tool against a demonic, winged monster.
"Kid, look out!" he called out as he threw a lightning bolt at the black monstrosity from a rune he had tatooed on the back of his hand.
Something about the child seemed weird to him, but he didn't think now was the time to ponder these things.
-----
~Throne Room~
Kerig smiled pleasantly. It has been a while since he enjoyed conversation with someone other than Weloss.
"Ah, Crow-Nose! Don't be silly. Weloss' energy doesn't heat up things. In fact, it might freeze the-"
"Only at over 1%, Kerig. And I'm not even using 0.01% of my power yet. In any case, Kronos, I can hold back, if needed... Though I'd honestly rather not unless it actually poses a problem."
It was not obvious on the outside, but Kerig could sense it by the rumblings deep within him -
Weloss was growing impatient...
-
~ ~ Glimmer Spire Top,Spire City, Phoenicia ~ ~
Better than dying I guess...
Shuichi miraculously appeared in front of Kelmarr.
- "You are the reason why I don't have to fight, so you better stay here. If you behave properly you won't have to deal with this demon either, mister rare items dealer."
-
- Glimmer Spire top, Spire City, Phoenicia -
Kelmarr sat down on the wall at the edge of the tower and folded his arms. "Fine..." He said, grumbling. At least he didn't have to wait with the crazy cat lady.
- Phoencian Forest -
"Huh?" Melface turned as a bolt of lightning snaked past him. The black griffin was focused on its mad dash, so was promptly struck by the spell head on. It flew out of the sky and crashed into a tree.
"Fool!" The child looked back and yelled with an unexpectedly deep and refined voice. "Mind your own business, humans." With that, he dropped to the ground and ran full force at the stunned black griffin, scythe raised above his head. A downward cleave split the ground in two along with the tree, but by then the griffin soared in the air once more.
The monster screeched again, and a swirling orb of violet energy burst from its mouth. Melface sneered and cut the air horizontally, the impact with the orb sending it spiraling back towards its creator. The griffin flapped its wings once, then smacked the energy with its foreclaw, sending back a second time. The two hit the ball of destruction back and forth a number of times until at last the griffin was struck with its own attack, and crashed into the ground.
With a series of short hops, Melface took the scythe in both hands and jammed the point of the blade square into the monster's head like a pickaxe. A bright flash lit the area and the black monster dissipated with a puff of smoke and midnight feathers.
Melface turned to the human who cast the lightning spell, heaving the scythe upon his shoulder with a single hand. Blast... he was too full to consume them all. And it would be a waste to kill them when he could just eat them later... They would put up a fight, anyway.
The child-like demon grinned, the pupils of his eyes twinkling red. "And now I take my leave. Good day, gentlefolk."
Then he was gone, as if he were never there. In his place sat an adolescent off-white-furred fox, head angled to the side and grinning mischievously. With a serious of short bounds, the animal ducked for the thick underbrush...
-
- Forest -
The girl savagely leaped at the water ball, drinking up nearly three-quarters of it. She took some of the remaining water and poured it over her face, washing off some of the blood and grime. Looking slightly more refreshed, she sat down next to a tree.
-"No words come to mind to express my gratitude to you for saving me... Just... thank you... May I know the names of my saviours? Mine's Lily..."
- Duilin's Ship -
-"Good..." The Necrolyte seemed to smile a bit. "Now, as I'm sure krylaty pan is aware, all Kandarinians have a standard-issue protection amulet to replace heavy metal armour. If krylaty pan wants to find out the secret, then he'll have to take mine off."
This time, she smiled at Ein.
-"Or maybe pan Ein wants to do it?"
-"Keep hissing, snake," Ein spat. "Duilin, don't touch her. That amulet might bite off your hand or something. Let me do it."
He knelt down in front of Cecylia, drawing her bloodstained clothes apart to reveal the protection amulet, with its teeth sunken deep in the pale skin. Ein carefully pulled it off...
...revealing a deep hole in the Necrolyte's chest. Right where the heart should be.
-"Wh-what the hell?!" Ein was visibly taken aback by this apparently new discovery. "They didn't - didn't do that the last time I killed one of you!!"
-"But that's not all, good pan Ein. Why don't you be a man and reach into the hole?"
-"And have something bite half my hand off?! Like hell!"
Cecylia sighed.
-"Honestly, if I wanted something to bite you, I would've done it the second you took that amulet off. Now, put your hand into me..."
With a disgusted shudder, Ein reached inside, pulling out a black gem.
-"This is your secret? What is this?"
-"That, pan Ein, is immortality. Kill me all you want - I will be back, again, and again, and again... Speaking of which - I heard they found pani Amaya's corpse and made a Necrolyte out of her. You ought to come visit sometime, pan Ein--"
The Necrolyte was cut off by a swift sweep of the spear to the head. Ein continued clubbing her until he made sure she wasn't breathing.
-"Damn bitch," he muttered. "Wouldn't've gotten any more information out of her anyway. Wait, wha-?"
The black gem turned to dust in his hand - as did the dead Necrolyte's body.
-"Oh...........kaaaaaaay....."
- Throne room -
-"Alright, Weloss, if you're so itchy to fire it off, shoot it at some small remote farm. I want to see the effects of your proposition."
-
-Shaad Oenn-
Druid waited in the shadows till it was safe to pass by. Thud thud thud thud. The beast’s army marched by. They were on full alert now that Druid and Baird were free.
After Druid had rested he lifted Baird and started to head over to the door. However the door had been barricaded by a large group of guards. One single guard thought that instead of confronting Druid he would go to get reinforcements. The guard had returned with twenty other guards as reinforcements and they blocked the only door out of the jail. They were keeping Druid trapped till the Beats arrived to decide his fate.
Druid was too drained of energy to fight his way out. He sat in that hallway just outside his cell to think, Baird still unconscious beside him. Drip drip drip drip. Druid looked up to see the water leaking through the roof. He saw the pool of water on the ground had not grown at all. Druid tried to think but the incessant drip drip drip.
Then Druid had a brilliant thought. He hurried over to the puddle to observe the habits of the water. From the roof it dripped and collected in this puddle. For three years it dripped. For three years the never ending drip was all that Druid ever heard. So why such a small puddle? He put his finger in it but there was no hole for it to drain out of. He did see a small but steady stream of water flow from the puddle.
He crawled alongside the stream of water. There would have to drain somewhere otherwise the jail would be flooded. He moved alongside this minute rivulet on hands and knees hoping for freedom.
-
- South-Eastern Terian, Forest -
"Oh, silly me." Sienna laughed. "How could I have forgotten about that."
She then sat down next Lily. "My name is Sienna. This is my friend Puco. We're travellers. We're trying to find the general of the Helternian Army, Duilin Talonscar. He's my brother. Well, half brother, apparently we only share the same mother."
She laughed.
"Sorry, I'm rambling a bit. Anyways, you look hurt, let me heal you. Don't worry, just relax. It won't hurt a bit."
She held Lily's hand, and it began to glow a light green and the glow flowed through Lily, healing her wounds. "It's a simple healing spell."
"So, how did you get here? What's your story?" She asked.
--- ---
- Duilin's ship -
"Wasn't that a little harsh?" Duilin questioned.
Marshall sighed, he remembered how hart broken Ein was, when Amaya was killed, and now she's a Necrolyte. He stepped next to his friend "Are you going to be okay Ein?" He asked.
"I guess she must have touched a soft spot there or something, which I understand. But you still shouldn't have done that though, Ein. If she'll be back, killing her just simply let her go, it would have been better if we kept her in captivity. I have methods on interrogating immortals. So please don't do something like that again."
Duilin crossed his arms and paced by Ein, and continued to talk.
"I know you don't have to follow my 'orders'. But if you really wanted to get revenge on her then it would have been best to not kill her."
The general uncrossed his arms, and looked back at Ein. "Well, now that the ship is docked, we should be heading off.
-
- Duilin's ship -
-"Like hell," Ein snarled. "Necrolytes aren't mortals. They also, as you assumed, aren't immortals. They aren't people. Interrogate a chair all you want, it still won't tell you anything."
He sighed, then headed up outside of the cargo hold. He needed some fresh air... and besides, they were already on anchor, leaving the ship. They should be relaxing to mead and song soon enough... for the first time in weeks, it seems. He also needed some new clothes - a bare, heavily tattooed chest isn't going to get him anywhere in a polite company.
-"Come, Marshall," he yelled in the general direction of the ship. "Let's find us a tavern. We need some catching up to do."
- Forest -
Lily relaxed to the pleasing tingling sensation of the healing spell scattering across her body.
-"Thank you once again," she sighed. "I don't have that exciting of a story... Me and my parents are running from Kandarin. We left our town when it was taken by the Sovereign, and we've been travelling ever since. No matter what place we would've stopped at, it was quickly conquered. It's like one of us had a bad star over us - no matter where we went, trouble quickly followed.
"But this time was the worst. I mean, we've seen things... massacres... but it was never this bad. They never used the Hammer on a town as small as that. I've heard... stories about that weapon before... Entire capitals vanishing in a flash of light. But we must be miles away from the city, and it still tore trees around us. That power is just... unholy. It should not exist. Only the gods should be able to control Sol.
"And now I don't know whether to be happy or sad. My parents were taken by Kandarin shortly before the city was burnt down. Are they still alive? I hope so... but the one taking them... the one giving the order... was captain Flora Goethe. I saw several similar orders like that - for taking people into Kandarin against their will. Is she looking for someone?"
-
- Rivertown, Helternia -
"Regardless Ein, you still released a prisoner." Duilin said. "Now you can all take a quick break. I am going back to Fort Klawvorn, I want to all to meet me there in two hours." And then with that he exited the ship and headed through the town.
"Don't worry about him." Marshall said to Ein about Duilin. "But yeah, I'm up for a drink or two...maybe more. I just lost a good friend of mine in that battle." He said sadly, and then lead Ein to the local tavern.
--- ---
- South-Eastern Terian, Forest -
"Oh, that's too bad." Sienna said sympathetically. "So the Hammer? I assume that must be that giant beam of light, we've seen destroying cities."
She looked to Puco. "Maybe we should help her find her parents. I'd like to find Duilin, but she really needs our help."
--- ---
- Rivertown, Tavern -
Marshall and Ein sat down at the bar of the Tavern. Marshall motioned to the barkeep to bring them some drinks.
"So, Ein. What have you been doing these past...what was it, three...four years?" Marshall asked his old friend.
-
-Shaad Oenn-
The stream of water flowed back and forth on the stone jail floor. It weaved in between pebbles and rocks into crevices and back out. Druid crawled alongside it intently for a few minutes. If he ever lost it he would double back and follow it closely. Sometimes it weaned down to just a trickle and Druid had to have his face centimetres from the floor to follow it.
After several arduous minutes of following this rain water Druid found out where it lead. He followed the water till it slipped under a big metal door. Druid raised his head and stumbled backwards after he saw where he was. This huge door had window. It was huge and metal with huge metal bolts and a huge metal door knob. There was rust around the hinges of the door. He studied the door and all the evils that were trapped behind it. Druid took a deep breath and twisted the handle and pushed open the door, entering into the foreboding darkness.
The door opened to horrors of unspeakable evil. Children hung from walls drained of blood, women lay on tables eviscerated, piles of limbs lay in corners. Druid threw up, not from the visual stimulation but the stench. He had to cover his mouth and nose. He felt the little stream trickle against his foot. He knelt down to see it drained into some sort of sewer gate.
“BAIRD!” Druid ran back to his friend. “We’re getting out of here.” He picked up his friend. His legs gave out a little but he was able to stabilize himself before the two teetered over. Druid moved as fast as he could towards the tunnel. He laid Baird down and lifted the gate up. It was very heavy and Druid struggled but finally managed to pull it open. Druid grabbed Baird and they made there way into the tunnels. He couldn’t see because t was dark however he had a feeling he didn’t want to. He trudged through the thick waters that rushed in the sewers.
Druid and Baird emerged several blocks away from the prison. They crouched in the shadows till it was safe to pass by. Thud thud thud thud. The beast’s army marched by. They were on full alert now that Druid and Baird were free. Baird was waking up. Druid knelt beside him in the shadows and explained the situation. Moments later the two huddled in the dark. Another group of soldiers thundered past. Thud thud thud thud.
“What now Druid?” Baird asked his friend perplexed at the spontaneity of his leader.
“We go after the Beast!” Druid ran from behind the shadows to the group of guards. He caught them by surprise and half were dead before they realized what happened. Baird watched as his leader skilfully finished of the battalion of soldiers. Druid returned holding armour and weapons. “This isn’t to hide,” Druid addressed the perplexed Baird. “We are not sneaking into their camps to ambush them for it would be suicide. We are going to find any allies we can and raise a resistance to take down this monster. W may not need it but it is always good to have backup. This armour and weapons will protect us until we are back to full health. Now, we must find you a doctor. Come on.” Druid threw on his armour and ran off behind some buildings. Baird put his on and followed closely after.
-
- Rivertown, Tavern -
"Oi, drink all you want, guys; Drinks are on me!" Jacobie walked into the bar with Karma and took a seat on a stool in front of the bar counter.
"This ought to cover it." Jacobie took his pouch of coins off his belt and emptied around fifty large, gold coins on the counter. "Fifty large pieces. That's more than generous on my part." The barkeep took the coins with a large grin on his face.
"Quite kind of you, sir! I'll keep 'em comin'." He then grabbed a two tankards and filled them up for Ein and Marshall. He left them on the barcounter and nodded at them, then filled up another for Jacobie. He grabbed the tankard and chugged it in less than five seconds.
"Bah, what is this light stuff!? Get me some heavy mead!"
"Right away, sir! The barkeep took the tankard and filled it up with a more orange-gold liquid. It was a fine batch of Northern Mountain Mead. Jacobie took the tankard and sipped it to taste. He then chugged it all down just as quick as the first tankard of ale and slammed the tankard down on the counter.
"Now that's what I was lookin' fer. Great stuff! Give me another!" The barkeep took the tankard from the lizard and filled it again with the Mountain Mead and let him have it again, and again he swiftly glugged down the mead. He put the tankard down and got up, stretching and cracking his back a bit.
"That oughta do fer me. Awrighty! Let's get going Karma." The lizardman bowed and then left the tavern. He held onto Karma's hand and caught Duilin before he reached the Fort; Fort Klawvorn.
"General Duilin, did you happen to catch a glimps of General Doriana's ship? I don't know, but I have that feeling that she might've not made it... Maybe it's just me... or the mead..."
------------
- Terian, southeastern coast -
The army was dead... no amount of holy magic could have even hoped to stand up against the power of the undead and the almighty captains of the Kandarinian Soverignty. The corpses soon began to rise once again as the Necrolytes rose the dead and used their bodies for their own purposes. The only ones who were still alive were Doriana, Geomarcus, and Firstman... atleast he wasn't touched by them. They escaped the continent just after Duilin's ship had. With only ten good fighters left, excluding the leaders, there wasn't much chance left for them...
Geomarcus still held the bag with Firstman in it. "Firstman will have a good burial; I will see to that!"
"Please, Lieutenant... don't talk about burials right now..." Doriana could only look at her feet. Her army was all but wiped out completely, with the exception of eleven soldiers.
"With all due respect, General... these things happen. This is war. You must understand that these men were willing to die for our cause-"
"What is 'our cause' anyway? What does that mean to you, Geomarcus? To me, it doesn't mean jack-shit! I only lead this army because Aaron wanted me to!"
"I understand how you must feel but-"
"Just forget it, Geomarcus. Drop it. You're horrible at making me feel better, alright? Shut up and stear us to Ariosis."
"... y-yes, general..."
------------
- Dranniville, Gadowran Stronghold -
"Alright, now this is more like it. The barrier looks like it's generating quite nicely!" Aaron stood and observed as the barrier continued to enlarge and tighten together like a great blue orb. It shocked around its self like a great big field of energy.
"How much longer, then? Looks damn-near done!"
"We're just over half-way, sir. This is nothing, nor will this barrier hold anything..."
"Bah, whatever. Keep charging, anyways!"
(Barrier at 60% charge)
-
- South-Eastern Kandarinian border -
-"Oh," Ekaterina sighed. "They all ran off. That's no good..."
She jerked her flail from another broken Malanos, and started heading back over to Czernn and Joseph in the distance. On her way, she noticed some movement somewhere to the left... The bulky armour did not allow her to move as fast as she normally would, but with some effort, she turned around to see thirteen people shambling over to a nearby docked ship.
-"What do we have here? Some rats trying to escape? As I said... that's no good..."
Having said that, she charged at the group, swinging the monstrous three-headed flail as she ran...
- The Forest -
-"Oh, no, I wouldn't dream of asking you for doing such a thing... Please, you've saved my life - let me repay the favour. It's unlikely that my parents would be in any danger, because... because..."
She looked around herself, and, after a moment of contemplation, whispered:
-"Eh... I'm afraid... I didn't tell you the whole truth... My parents are... were... well-respected scientists of the Sovereignty. If Kronos were to capture them, it's highly unlikely that he would kill them right away. They're probably held in a comfortable, but locked-down, hole. There's a certain job they were assigned to do, and... well... after realizing the potential of its power, they tried to destroy the project... but they were caught. Before everything else, Kronos will want them to finish that project. He wouldn't dare do anything el--"
Lily was cut off by a rustling nearby. Whatever made the noise probably became aware that it was spotted at the moment, and dropped the hiding act completely.
*Screeeech...*
The too-familiar sound of grinding metal, laboured breathing, and blood-chilling moans ripped the peaceful silence. The branches moved apart, revealing...
-"It's an Augment! Run! Dear god, run!"
- Helternian Tavern -
-"Eh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that..." Ein said casually. "Just generic resistance against Kronos, I suppose. I lurked about their captured towns, managing to snipe a soldier here or there. Killed a few Necrolytes... Apparently, to no effect... Damn, it's the captains I really have a big problem with."
Ein chugged a while tankard of ale, and slammed it back down on the table - finishing the combo with a majestically loud BURRRRRP.
-"Marshall, I shall not be over-exaggerating when I tell you that this weapon here -" he patted his ranged contraption - "can blast through two walls of solid rock, if the spear tip is hard enough. After changing the spring to salvaged Thoridium and putting heaps of enchantments, glyphs, and a whole lot of other magical crap all over the case, it can fire a standard spear so fast that they won't even hear it coming. I'm serious. The thing goes faster than the sound it produces, it's rather incredible."
He signalled the barman for another drink.
-"...And yet, no matter how many times I've tried, I couldn't kill a captain. There were two times when I had the chance, and yet none of them succeeded. The first time was a while ago, about two months after Kronos killed Retan. He was one of the first captains to be put in charge, actually, and one of the most faithful servants of the Lich - the air sorcerer, Damien Roth. It was in one of their captured towns. Apparently, Roth was testing out a squad of his air elemental mages by taking over a small village. I held my breath as soon as I noticed him. It isn't every day that you see a captain crawl out of whatever dark, damp hole they like to hibernate for days in. I picked a good vantage point in a patch of forest on a mountain, lay down on the ground, and waited for an opportunity - actually, one that I myself masterminded.
"Soon, the time came. A message came to his M-Grid orb, telling him to meet Hannibal - his brother - on a thin, isolated forest road. He was to receive top-secret orders from the Sovereign himself. Surprisingly, he took the bait - hook, line, and sinker - and went to the designated meeting spot. With a light heart and a diamond-tipped bolt in my weapon, I pulled the trigger.
"Quite obviously, his entire body was nearly ripped in half. As I said, there is no way he could've heard the spear coming because of its speed. So I wait until his body stops twitching on the tree he was pinned to, and go down to retrieve my bolt. Just as I close to him, though...
"His whole body turns to dust. Just... gone. The wind, it saved him, somehow - I don't know what degree he knows air magic to, but it's enough to pretty much grant him invulnerability. That's not the creepiest part, though: just before vanishing, I could swear - I even rubbed my eyes - he looked up right at me."
He wet his throat with more ale, motioning for yet another one.
-"The other time was a big fish - why, no one other than the General herself. I somehow made it to Shuba, the unofficial capital of Kandarin. Kronos had his ride parked there at the time, and Gwen was giving some inspirational speech to her force of them soldiers... So I was all like, you know, why not. It was dusk, hell if anyone noticed me. And my eye there helped a bit, too." He pointed to his mechanical eye. "Zoom, surface penetration, night vision... Everything a sniper wants. Anyhow, I climb into a tree in the forest nearby - longest shot I've done, it was. Whole eight miles. I scan the area, find the big fish flapping her gaping mouth, waving her arms like a maniac... must've been a pretty important speech. So I take aim... another diamond head, full ice enchantment... and pull the trigger."
Another chugging.
"The damndest thing is that it happened at the very moment that I heard the click. She just... you know... moved out of the way. Just moved. Like a millionth of a second before I put the trigger to the final position, she just took a step to the side. Big deal, I thought, a coink-a-dink. Fine, fine. I wait for her to finally shut up, and she goes into the... *hic* Citadel. I've been watching her for a while, see... so I know that every day at... one, two.... eight... right about eight in the evening, she appears at the very top of the Citadel, looking at the sky. Looking? Blind? Don't ask me. I don't even know myself. Maybe she just like the winds that blow all the way up... you know... there. BARMAN! More beer, godsdamnit!"
The third tankard swiftly slided over to Ein, who immediately consumed its contents in a vibrant display of splashing, missing, swearing, and wiping.
-"So she's all, like, standing there... I load the s-shpeargun... Put them glyphs on the... the... *hic* spear... Whatever, she wasn't moving at all. Wasn't moving, I tell you. I s-s-shwear. Totally still. No co-coin- no, coindefense... coincidence. Right. No coincidence there. So I find her pretty *hic* head, looking to the sky, all sad-like... And I firesh the spear..."
With a *thump*, Ein slammed his elbow on the table, landing his chin down onto it.
-"The damn General, Marshall, the freaking General herself. I shwore I had a clear shot. There was *hic* nowhere she coulda ran, nowhere she coulda stepped... no... no people move that fasht. No normal people ever move that fast. A demon, I tell you! A witch, she is! Burn the witch!"
He half-turned his head, just enough to look up at Marshall.
-"The second the spear went off, I saw her... she blocked it. She blocked the damned thing. Faster than the speed of sound... nobody moves that fast. She blocked it with her little thin butterknife of a sword, like... she knew exactly where it was going to hit. How... I don't know... So she just *hic* makes a look like she's looking right at me, and... she... she...
"She waved her goddamn little finger at me. Bad Ein, she mouthed. Big no-no. So tell me - with a freaking blindfold, how did she see me eight miles away? Eh? Even more important, why was I *hic* fighting off freaking Stalkers and Necrolytes for the next half year? Huh? Why, godsdamnit? Why? Why didn't that shpear hit her?! WHY?!"
After calming down somewhat, he put his hand under his chin, resting it on the table, and looking directly at Marshall.
-"S-Sho... what happenshed to you while I was *hic* running wild, chasing stupid re- res- resurging... resurrecting Necrolytes?"
-
- Helternian Tavern -
Marshall was quite impressed by Ein's story. He noticed him guzzle down a lot of ale, while Marshall nursed through a couple of them, he wasn't a very heavy drinker at all.
"Well, I made a couple friends one of them I came pretty close to actually and well, he died in that battle. His name was Patrick Firstman, he was kind of arrogant and foolish at times but he was my friend."
Marshall then guzzled down the rest of his beer. And motioned for the barkeep to bring him another.
"Anyways! So yeah I also met this fire-shooting guy named Coriko, used bows and lit them on fire with his magic. Quite a remarkable guy, I think you met him once. Oh yeah, and apparently there are more summoners out there like me. I met this General named Wilham, who is now a High General in the federation. So the four of us travelled around the world looking for tablets that held the key to finding their secret hideout and had some ancient history about the old Terian Republic. We fought some monsters and such had a few adventures, nothing too special. And after that we just continued with spreading the revolution until well..."
Marshall guzzled down half of his ale.
"It just got boring! I just woke up one morning and thought, 'What's the point?' I just no longer cared about spreading this new way of life. And well...I don't, I really, really don't anymore, Ein. Firstman he did...but the Aspyes just all lost their motivation or just simple agreed with the federation's ways a lot better so we all joined with them. I do like the Federation though, sure we don't have full freedom, but I got to thinking. If the revolution was successful, we'd all be fully free and have full power over ourselves. And well, wouldn't that just lead to a world full of Retan's pretty much? Either that or we'd all become lazy and unmotivated simply because we don't have the rewards of being better than anyone for harder work."
Marshall finished off his ale. He was noticeably drinking a lot more.
"So that's why I'm with the Federation now! Firstman never got it! He was a fool...but.."
He then buried his hands in his face and started to cry.
"But I m-miss him...He was almost like a brother to me. Y-you know what I'm gonna do man? I-I'm gonna make him proud man...He never liked...uhh...that one tanned guy, Vaughn, he's a jerk you know that? Juss...juss look at him..."
He turned around and pointed in a seemingly random direction.
"Aww...he ain't here. Well, I know he's gotta be here. I'm really smart you know that?" He started laughing. "No, I think I've drank too much that's it. I think you did to. I love you Ein."
He turned to the stranger sitting next to him.
"And I don't even know you, but I love you too."
-
- Helternian Tavern -
Coriko smiled into his glass of ale. He finished his sip and returned it to the bar. He brushed the hair out of his eyes and turned to his old friend.
"It's been a while Marshall, I didn't know you still felt that way about me."
Coriko smiled and watched Marshall's reaction.
---
- Shaad Oenn -
Druid and Baird rushed into an old house. Most citizens were evacuated from their homes and relocated to work camps. It wouldn't be hard to win back their loyalty because the Beast treated the populous horrifically. Baird and Druid sat down at the table and looked around their surroundings.
"We'll camp out here for now, but we must be ready to move at any time. Get some food and rest. We will confront the Beast soon. I'll fix your arm after we've rested."
"Alright." Baird silently grabbed some stale food. It was better than anything he ate in the prison. The two sat in silent contemplating their next move.
-
~Phoenicia Forest~
"Ah!"
Elphos felt stupid and began chasing down the furry thing by jumping into the bush.
...To no avail.
"Darn, I lost it. HEY! Thing! Come back here!"
Elphos begun feeling fear creep up on him - fear of Indher burning down the entire forest just to get rid of this pest.
~Throne room~
"I guess that could be arranged, though I do not see the point..."
The blackness connecting Kerig to the glyph began to glow slightly...
~Random Farm to the South of the Black continent~
Good ol' farmer John comes out on another bright sunny day to till the fields or milk the kangaroos or some other fun pastime.
"Shiver me timbers!" farmer John exclaims "Haven't seen such a pleasant day in a while, eh Mary?"
"Cluck! Cluck!" said Mary the flightless bird known as an chicken "Cluck Cluckity Cluck!"
"I sure do, Mary!" John responded with equal enthusiasm, planting a kiss on Mary's head.
"S'odd, Mary!" John took off his farming hat and placed it in his farming pocket "S'uddenly issa gotten cold, eh? Let's go back... In...?"
A cloud in the sky turned black. The next moment, all of John's livestock (including Rosswell Reinbach XVI the kangaroo) were dropping to the floor with blank expression on what one would call their face.
Farmer John soon followed. His last words were -
"Mary... I knew those vitamin supplements were sleeping pills in disguise...!"
-
~ ~ South-Eastern Kandarinian border ~ ~
Czernn looked at Ekaterina rushing into a few people fleeing.
"Oh... ja see... nas better not leave ona alone... let nas go pan Joseph."
Czernn "dashed" behind Ekaterina. He didn't really move much but for some reason he glided really fast over the earth.
"Let nas bury them so that nas can raise them once again..."
-
- Helternian Tavern -
"Wow! Coriko! It's you! Holy smokes. Well, look who I bumped into." Marshall motioned over towards Ein, next to him. "It's Ein!"
"Yeah, except um, Firstman got killed in battle. So yeah I'm kinda...yeah." He finished off another ale and sighed.
--- ---
- Forest -
Sienna gasped.
"Okay, get back." She said to Lily. "I'll handle this." She took out her deck of cards which began to glow with a dark violet aura. She then barraged them at the augment.
-
- Helternian Tavern -
"Am I late?" Akran sat down next to Ein with a sigh, "God damn, you did give us a hard time following you." The rest of Akran's crew scattered around the tavern looking for single women and card games.
"How did you enhance that ship's speed so drastically... oh." He trailed off realizing that Ein was plastered. "Well, it looks like I have some catching up to do! Barman, how much beer for this?" Akran pulled out a red jewel and slid it down the table.
The barman took it and gasped, "Man, if I can keep this, you and your three pals can drink for free."
"Aye, well give me a beer then!" Akran said and looked down the bar. Three friends? He recognized the old guy, but didn't know who the other guy was. Akran took a sip of his ale and turned back around.
Suddenly, Martin came up to him. "Akran," he whispered, "Should I ask him for his autograph?" He nodded in the direction of the man talking to Marshall.
"Why would you do that?" Akran asked, looking quizzically at Martin.
"Oh my god, don't you recognize him?" Martin shook his hands with excitement, "That is Cliffe Onan! He is totally, like the best actor ever!"
Akran went back to his drink. This was not very interesting, at least not to a straight man, but Martin was his friend so he should show interest. "You mean like a stage performer?" he asked taking another sip.
"Yes of course, silly!" Martin continued, bouncing up and down. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! Doesn't he like have the cutest ass ever?" He cried leaning over to get a better look.
Akran winced and leaned further over his drink. Don't know him... don't know him...
"I'm going to so go over there and ask him. Be right back." said Martin, apparently thrilled about the idea. He scurried over to the 'actor'. "Excuse me," he asked, "yes, um, can I pretty please have your autograph?... on my rear?"
-
- Helternian Tavern -
-"'Scuse me," Ein mumbled. "I'll be right back."
The strange, lurching feeling in his stomach pushed Ein in the general direction of the washroom...
- The Forest -
The enchanted cards vanished in a black rapture, opened by the Augment. It continued hobbling over to Lily, who was hiding behind a tree. Meanwhile...
-"Yeeees, Boris, just a little closer..."
A Necrolyte some distance away was talking, seemingly, to a tree.
-"Portals... good... save those little things up for later. We should have a use for them later on. Now... just get a little closer to her... and bring me her heart. Just a little closer..."
- Throne Room -
-"Looks good," I said. "Now, all I've got to do is select a bigger target..."
-
- Phoenicia Forest -
"Elphos!" Came a voice sounding very much like Fernis. "You failed! AGAIN! What is wrong with you? You can't do anything right!"
Mist surrounded the man, the outlines of the trees becoming blurred in fog. He suddenly found himself very alone.
"Unfortunately, you are expendable. That's why I sent you. I've quarantined the area so the demon can't escape. I'm sorry to say, these demon-scorching flames will burn away your soul as well, so there won't be any chance at revival. Oh well, you were never much use anyway. Ta ta!"
The mists burned orange as the horizon lit up in flames. A circle of fire, rapidly descending upon the man...
-
- Forest -
"Get OUT OF HERE!" Sienna shouted stepping in front of the Augment.
She pointed her hand forward and shot a series of white glowing rings of magic, which should slow down the Augment's movement considerably if it hit.
-
~Phoenicia Forest~
Elphos was startled.
Fire? So quickly?
The flames surrounded him.
No...
Elphos began to sweat. His breathing was heavy from the heat.
This...this can't be happening.
They were coming closer. Soon, they would envelope his body, and there'd be no escape.
Something is wrong... AH!
Just as he felt the tinge of flames, he raised the charm he was given earlier, and the flames retreated, circling around him, as if afriad to approach the oddly shaped talisman.
"Ha!" Elphos called out "I came prepared!"
...Crack.
"...Huh?"
Elphos turned to look at the charm. A crack had appeared on it.
Apperantly, it couldn't withstand the powers of this particular demon for long...
"Damn you, thing! I'll win this still, you'll see!"
Elphos crouched, hoping to draw runes to create a barrier, but then he remembered that runes cannot be drawn in patches of grass.
"...Damn."
Becoming desperate, Elphos removed his robes from the upper part of his body. He took the small bottle of ink he carried with him and dipped his finger in it has he began to draw runes on his own bare chest.
Meanwhile, outside the illusion, the apprentices were working hard (despite generally being klutzs) on finishing the demon sealer...
Demon Sealer 3/5
-
~ ~ Forest, the ~ ~
This was a moment to react quickly. Puco wasn't good at those.
- "IeeeeeeEEE~~!"
The scary-man used portals... how can she defeat that? Nyuu~~...
When in doubt...
Blow the ground into pieces!
Puco punched the ground really hard, and at that instance the whole area rumbled, trees nearby flew into the sky along with tons of sand. Hoping that she didn't hit Sienny she took the girl, and jumped really, REALLY, high.
If you have eyesight over ninethousand you could see a few silver threads made from ice in her hand.
- "Please, chan-chan, don't be afraid! I'll safe you for sure!" Puco was pretty enthousiatly, for the sky was her strong place.
She sure wasn't your average girl.
-
- Elphos' Nightmare -
"Watcha doin'...?"
"Finger painting?"
A small girl from the city stood before him, totally unconcerned of the ravenous flames. The jewel upon her forehead glimmered in the orange glow.
"Can you save us, Mister Elphos? Hmmm?" Another kid just behind her spoke up. Another nodded, and another, and another... a half dozen children surrounded the man, eyes expectantly looking up to him for guidance. The fire closed in...
Suddenly one of them screamed. The flames seemed to envelop her body as she was plucked into the air as if the fire itself turned into a hand and grabbed her. She disappeared, wailing as she kicked about. A gargantuan flaming snake emerged from the inferno, licking its chops at its recent kill.
The fire snake looked down upon the tiny, tiny man, glistling eyes a simmering green. The remaining children crowded around Elphos, tugging upon his arms as they cried. "Save us! Save us!"
The monster displayed its burning fangs and descended...
What.
Do.
You.
FEAR?!?!
-
- Helternia -
"No. I didn't see it now that you mention it." Duilin replied. "Maybe she sailed off somewhere else. I didn't see her ship get attacked or anything. Then again we were in a bit of a rush to get out of there."
"We'll look into that later I guess. Right now there's some stuff I gotta do. Follow me if you wish."
---
//I'm just gonna jump ahead. Things are getting boring.\
- Fort Klawvorn -
Duilin arrived at the fortress, everything seemed to be running normally, except a few people looked a little uneasy.
"Um, general?" A guard said approaching Duilin.
"Yeah?"
"There's somebody here, he claims to be an old friend of yours. He was a little violent earlier around one of our demon soldiers but we separated them and he calmed down a little.
"Really. Did he give a name?" Duilin asked. He was somewhat expecting Draven, he sort of had a bit of racism against demons.
"No, sir. He hasn't talked much, he just wants to talk with you."
"Okay then, lead the way." Duilin was a bit curious about who this guy is.
-
Coriko coughed and almost choked on his ale. He cleared his throat to regain his composure. Coriko then turned to this man.
"Excuse me, you want me to sign where? I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not him, sorry."
---
Baird awoke to some gentle nudges by Druid. He tried to swat him away but he had no left arm, the Beast had ordered it's removal during his torture sessions. He grumbled, swore under his breathe, and then tried to return to sleep.
"Baird get up. I found a doctor. He is going to create an arm for you out of shadow energy. So get up so we can get this over with. I need to jump start the shadow energy in your arm so we can make it. This may hurt..."
-
- Helternian Tavern -
"W-what? But you look just like him..." Martin's face fell. "Sorry, I thought you were that actor, Cliffe Onan." Martin stood there a little awkwardly. He cleared his throat and said, "Um, so you busy, can I sit down?" *wink*
--- --- ---
Akran leaned over towards Marshall filling in Ein's gap. "Hey, you know that winged guy and Ein - they are all part of that Gaian Federation right? Do you know what they are doing here, 'cause I'm interested in joining them."
-
- Helternia Tavern -
"Einz not with tha Federation, but me an' that winged guy are." Marshall slurred. "You bess talk ta him, at the fort. It's about ten miles that way." Marshall pointed north. "Or, about forty-hundred-thousand-million miles that way." He said pointing south. "So, it's your choice really." Marshall burped, and then laughed a bit. "I miss Firstman..."
--- ---
- Fort Klawvorn -
Duilin arrived in the command centre of the fortress.
"Why did you let him in here?" Duilin asked the guard.
"We didn't he just came in. We have him under heavy watch, but he's really powerful, we're worried about fighting him. He might flip out and blow up the entire fortress."
"Hmm..."
Duilin continued to walk with the guard, until they arrived at the door of the High General's Office. Behind the door there was some rambling and shouting.
"My office!? You let him in here." He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm going in by myself. Nobody follow me." He opened the door and stepped in and then closed the door behind him.
The lantern in the room was unlit and the curtains were closed, so it was dark in the room. A few beams of light were shining through the bit of window uncovered by the curtains. There was a figure pacing back and forth behind Duilin's desk. He could make out that he had long hair and was wearing a jacket of some sort. He was rambling in tongues.
"Who are you?"
The man stopped rambling and then looked at Duilin, but said nothing. The two looked at each other for a moment, but it was too dark in the room.
"Open the curtains." Duilin commanded.
The man nodded and did so. The light shined on his face, normally it would burn his eyes for being so instant, but the man didn't seem to even be bothered by the sudden light flushing into the room. He had familiar looking white hair, and was wearing a purple and black coat. He remembered somebody who seemed to like those two colours, and had the very same hair style.
"Valos?"
The man turned around, it was indeed Valos. But his familiar inhuman red eyes were gone and replaced with shiny blue ones.
"Hello Duilin."
"What happened to your eyes?" Duilin asked.
"That's all you have to say? No 'You're alive?' or 'How did you know to find me here?' or anything like that. You ask what happened to my eyes?"
There was a brief silence, as Valos neglected to answer the general's question.
"Pfft. I had them fixed that's what. Had one of the best white mages in the world fix me up, removes the demonic genes that poisoned me. So thus my eyes are better."
"Right. So you mind answering those two questions you expected me to ask now?"
"Not at. So yes, I am alive. In fact, I never really died, I was simply teleported to Thanatos, and Pheonix released my body. I was able to fight my way out, though. That was three years ago. I've been training ever since, and ridding this world of the demons that now plague it."
"Ever met up with Draven?"
"I believe he fell in battle against Retan. So now I'm on my own."
"Oh, poor you. So, why exactly are you here? To try and kill me?"
"Well, in a way yes. But there is another reason. You see, there are greater demons out there, which I can not kill myself as sad as it is to say it. I recently discovered that they have allied with the Kandarinians. In fact, one of them is now a captain."
"Go on..."
"Well, you see. With Draven gone, and the fact that the Kandarins have sided with the worst bunch of demons there could ever be, that leaves you and the Federation as the only possible allies I could have. I may be willing to work with you considering you're half human, which is the true superior race."
Duilin sighed, not feeling like arguing with what seems to be a newly recruited bigot. "Okay, so who are these demons? How strong are they?"
"Many of them are weak: they're human-shaped, generic red skin and horns. Some of them a bit stronger but I'm able to take on one or two at a time, they're also human shaped but wear black suits. There are also ones that steal the bodies of animals and sneak into places. Some really nasty ones are these giant minotaur like demons with metal plates and steam pipes all over their body."
"Sounds like a bunch of freaks too me."
"Oh, I wouldn't be calling them 'freaks' if I were you. Because you see, they're actually all members of your, ahem, family."
"The Talonscar!?" Duilin said loudly, as if a past fear he had just snuck up on him.
Valos laughed. "Yep, and Nex is even leading them. He's the one we need to kill. Not even me and Draven together were able to defeat him. We got close though. But now he's even stronger than before."
"I don't remember Nex being that much stronger than me in the past."
"He's gotten a lot more powerful trust me. He's almost invincible."
"That's ridiculous. I've come to know that nobody is invincible, they just act like they are. Haraldur, Abodahon and Retan had their weak spots and so will Nex. So yes, we will help each other in defeating the Talonscar, but we will move at my pace, I will be in charge of this mission."
"Yes, but don't expect this alliance to last. In fact, as soon as Nex is defeated. You're next." Valos warned.
"I'm actually expecting that. So no worries."
"Excellent." Valos grinned. "I have to say Duilin, I wasn't expecting you to be so willing to ally with me, considering our past rivalries."
"Yes, but you have to remember the only reason we were enemies is because you with the Talonscar. And also, what are brothers for."
Valos glared. "We are not brothers. I refuse to accept that freak, Abodahon, as my father and neither should you."
Duilin sighed. "Valos, you can't simply refuse family. I hate Abodahon, just as much, if not more than you do, but he is our father."
"I only acknowledge my mother's blood line. She was human. We have different mothers and therefore we are not brothers."
"Fine then."
-
- Helternia Tavern -
"Sorry, but I actually want to catch up with my good friend Marshall. I haven't seen him in three or four years."
"Or, about forty-hundred-thousand-million miles that way. So, it's your choice really. I miss Firstman..."
Coriko watched his friend in his drunken stupor. He turned back to this man who insisted on hitting on him.
"Well I guess I can talk to you for a bit, however I must let you know I am in a committed relationship with a woman named Kylessa. She was from an aristocratic family from the same town as me, but she left before it was overrun with the walking undead..." Coriko trailed off for a moment. Coughed and recovered his composure. "So how do you know Marshall and Ein? And what did Marshall mean by he misses Firstman, did he leave the Aspyes or something?"
---
Shaad Oenn
Baird sat in a chair. Druid had his hands on Baird's chest and the doctor had his hands on Baird's arm stump.
"Alvright,” the doctor said with a heavy accent. He was visiting Shaad Oenn from a different country back in their home dimension when the island was transported. He stayed on the island as a doctor healing the sick in refugee camps. More evidence of the Beasts’ destruction. “Drew-weed, send a strung pulse of zee shadoo energee throoogh Baird. I vill den mold zee shadoo energee into an arm. It vill be zee same as your other arm, no extra strength or anyzing of zee sort. It vill conduct zee shadoo energee better thooogh. When redie, vire!”
Druid sent a pulse of shadow energy into Baird he screamed with agony. The doctor guided this energy out of his arm. The energy flowed out of the arm and between the doctor’s hands wildly. “KEEP ZENDING ZEE PULSE!” The doctor screamed. He then started to move his hand backwards, controlling the flow of the energy. A lot still escaped but he controlled enough to make the arm. He smeared some of lotion on the shadow energy which seemed to harden. The doctor then started to slice of bits of the hardened shadow energy and started to sculpt a hand. Druid watched in amazement but kept his distance as to not cause any troubles. Baird had a look of pain and anger on his face. It was excruciatingly painful for him.
“When this is over Druid…”
-
//I'm just going to make a quick edit...
"Right... I'll just head into the fort and check it out myself. I'll catch up later. Karma, let's go." Jacobie walked off and wandered into the fortress. It was quite bigger than a few of the forts at Ariosis, but Fort Gadowran is larger. Still, it is a nice building for defence. He walked further into the building and examined the Helternian achitecture.
"Not half bad. I'll try to make myself more comfortable." Jacobie walked into a room just a short ways into the fort from the entrance. The door was marked "guest dorm" and inside the room was a large matress on an elegant oak bedpost stained to a mahogany color. There was also an empty armor rack and a sword holster that could hold up to five weapons. And last, there was a simple coat rack and a dresser, with a candle lamp on top of it. The dresser was oaken, just like the bedpost, and was quite large.
"Nice pick for a dorm," Karma said as she entered behind. She proceeded to take off her cape and hung it on a hook on the coat rack. Then she took off her boots and placed them on the floor next to the coat rack. Jacobie untied his crimson armor and retied them around the armor rack. It was a bit large, but still fit. He then took off his black leather greaves and placed those around the armor rack as well. Underneath his armor,he had on black mythril, which was as comfortable and smooth as a cotton shirt, yet hard as a red dragon's hide. He also had on black, baggy pants made of cotton.
"*yawn* I'm tired... I hope Duilin knows I'm using this room. Meh, he's more than smart enough ta figure that out. What m'I worrying about? I should get some sleep... I seem ta be ramblin' a bit too much..."
"Heh... you could say that again. Let's both get some sleep." Karma walked over to the bed as did Jacobie. She climbed in first, then threw part of the blankets on the other side so that Jacobie could get in as well. He got in and Karma threw the covers back over him. She then scooted over to him and placed her arms around his scaly neck.
------------
- Dranniville, Fort Gadowran -
"Grr... this barrier takes so long to set up!"
"Just be patient, sir. We're doing the best we can."
"Bullshit! If you were doing the best you could, then it'd be done already!"
"Sir, if I might say-"
"You may not. Get the fuck back to work on the barrier! NOT A SOUND FROM ANY OF YOUR MOUTHS 'TIL IT'S DONE!!!"
*everyone* "YES SIR!!!"
(barrier at 80%)
-
- Taverninn in Helternia -
-"Yesh," Ein sighed, coming out of the washroom. His face was reddish. "Just go ask someone else. I think I need to crash."
He threw a coin to the innkeeper, who took the hint and sent a small key flying toward Ein. The latter caught it, and, with barely a grumble, headed upstairs.
//Ein's inactive for now, probably till the rest of the chapter.\
- Forest -
-"Aaah!", Lily squealed in surprise as she was taken to the skies by Puco. Cleansed by the Hammer, no clouds were to be seen in the stretch of azure atmosphere. It was almost like a fissure in the sky between two walls of dark clouds - or a cut - but in the process of healing itself, it seemed. The dark storms from either side of the rapture once again began crawling to the hole, maybe two hours away from plunging this area of the Continent back into perpetual darkness.
-"I'm not... used... to being... this... high... in the... sky...", came Lily's wheezing voice. Puco must've pushed a bit too hard, and was now flying in the lower stratosphere of Gaian, where the air was rather thin.
Meanwhile, the Augment on the ground hissed at the airborne pair, and appeared to have lost all interest in Ophelia. It turned around with a bit of a spin, opening a portal as it went - and vanished in the swirling abyss.
//Drannic - you do know that my Necrolyte is currently running toward Doriana's group, right? Probably not with the intent to spread the message of love and peace, either. Although you can never be sure anymore.\
-
- Helternia Tavern -
Martin's face brightened and he sat down next to Coriko. "Strawberry cocktail please." He said to the Bartender. The man gave him a funny look, but obliged.
After receiving his bright pink drink and sipping noisily through the paper straw, Martin turned to Coriko. "So, let's start with introductions. I'll start," Martin said, shifting in his seat more comfortably and sipping more of his drink. "My name is Martin, and I totally sail with the best crew In. The. World. And Akran... oh, his such a nice captain. I mean, like, I'd totally do him in a second, but I wouldn't want to ruin my reputation and position."
He laughed and drank more pink drink. "But yeah... I first met him three years ago. Before then I was in a crew captained by a guy named Larry. One day we were sailing just South of the former Kandarinian Sovereignty and we saw a totally, crazy sight, alright. I mean mind blowing!" Martin raised his hands in excitement. "We saw a dragon! It was, like, HUGE, and it was baring down upon a small sailboat. Well, we thought we could save the boat right, but we were so far away. All we could do was watch.
"The small boat didn't have a chance. The dragon plowed it over and the man in it got thrown into the ocean. A creepy hooded figure riding on the dragon laughed and flew away. It took us about ten whole minutes to get to the wrecked boat and another five to get the body up on our deck and... Guess who it was."
Martin guzzled his drink, but didn't wait for an answer. "It was Akran! And I gotta tell you, that guy can't be human. I mean, it was totally like fifteen minutes before we rescued the unconscious man so we assumed he was dead... but he wasn't! I have no idea how, but he woke up."
He put his empty glass on the counter and sighed in disbelief. "Then later, he became captain of the Shadowshot once Larry died in a tragic incident involving the Malanos and ever since then, Akran had been trying to find some sort of stone. Just earlier today we found the man who had it. That's where Akran got that crazy-ass bow" Martin pointed to Akran's back were the Raven bow was hanging. "Something is evil about that thing. I mean, after he took it, Akran got super muscular in only one of his arms, which is a little of a turn off for me. He's also been acting strange ever since."
Martin stretched his arms and ordered a refill to his cocktail. "But yeah, whatever. I don't know much about Ein and Marshall, just that we met them at the South-Eastern Kandarinian battle, which you can probably find out more about from Marshall. I kinda, uh, missed most of it. I think Akran wants something of them... something to do with joining the Gaian Federation, but what do I know? Anyway, enough about me, what's your story?"
-
~ ~ South-Eastern Kandarinian border ~ ~
Next to Doriana the ground exploded... and a white hand rose out of it spurting blood everywhere, and aiming at her neck shot at her.
- "This should take oni down..."
Czernn was standing about ten meters from her.
-
//Sorry Ein, wasn't paying enough attention. Rawr, I need to focus more... Also for time's sake, I'll just say the necrolyte boarded behind the back, so that she wasn't seen.\
- Ocean, East-southeast of Terian -
"General Doriana!" One of Doriana's men came racing up to her, breathing rather heavily, after running from the back of the ship.
"What is it this time?"
"I believe something is chasing us... I can't pin-point it with my senses..."
"No one can, Largo. No one's been able to for quite some time. They can if they're nearby, though they have to be quite near..."
"Even still, ma'am! I think there's something behind us!"
"Damn it, let me go check..." Doriana walked agitatedly to the back of the ship. Sure enough, a Necrolyte jumped up from behind the back of the ship. She was swinging a heavy flail, and in bulky armor.
"DAMN!!!" Doriana, quick as a flash, pulled out her broad silversword and made a downward slash upon the necrolyte.
-
- Forest -
Sienna grinned for a moment as he saw the Augment go into the portal, suddenly it was wrapped around the rings of energy from the slow spell, and it stopped inside the portal and was pushed out.
She then whipped her enchanted cards out again and then threw the entire set through the air, the cards flew in all different directions towards the undead creature, glowing in a dark violet glow and becoming razor sharp. The encumbered Augment was still able to create a portal to protect itself from some of the cards, yet most of them made it to the Augment yet most of those were blocked by the metal plates over it's body, and only a couple were able to dig into the unarmoured spots on it's body. However, while it was distracted by this Sienna, empowered with a speed spell zoomed towards to slowed Augment and grabbed it's arms and legs.
The augment was pretty much damaged all of it's body, meaning that it could be healed if forced too. Sienna's hands glowed white as she 'healed' the augments limbs. She pulled the limbs together and skin and flesh began to grow connecting them.
"Gotcha!"
The Augment was still alive, but it likely wouldn't be able to go anywhere. As the undead beast was mostly motionless on the ground, Sienna held up her cards again, which had regenerated back into a full deck. With lightning speed she threw a series of the razor sharp cards through the Augment's unarmoured neck, until it's head was (un)clean off...
--- ---
- Helternia -
"So, do you know where Nex is?" Duilin asked.
"He's in one of the major Kandarinian cities. I don't know what it's called, but I know where it is." Valos replied.
The two exited the room.
"General Duilin, sir." A messenger came up to them. "Jacobie and Karma are staying in the guest dorms."
"Thanks. Let them know I might have another mission coming up soon." Duilin said to the messenger.
"Yes sir." The messenger saluted and then left.
"So, Duilin tell me. How is it that you didn't know that the Talonscar had returned?" Valos asked.
"I sort of did actually."
"Clarify."
"I had some sort of 'vision' where the ghost of Pophin visited me and warned be about them, and also gave me an apology, before his ghost 'died'. I wasn't sure if it was real or not though. I thought it might have been an affect of my demonic blood taking over."
"Wait, you mean your demonic blood took over? You don't look like a full demon to me."
"My body is able to control it. This angel named Aegidius enhanced my human side with light magic for me to be able to combat my demonic blood. The outcome was me being able to transform into a full demon or a full super human. Both forms are fairly powerful."
"Can you transform at will?"
"No. Although the super human form seems to come when it's needed. I've only transformed three times, twice into a super human and once into a demon lord. I haven't transformed since I fought Retan."
"Interesting, so maybe this time my advice might not be so harsh to follow this time. Remember how I told you how to transform into full demon? Now you have no worries in doing this."
"I guess not. But I'd still like to be careful."
"Pah, I guess you're just too inhertiably good. But remember this, if you think I'm mean just wait until we fight Nex, so don't hold back."
"I won't." Duilin assured. "Hmm, now may I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"Why did enslave my sister Sienna after my village was attacked?"
Valos stopped and smirked. "Oh yes, that crazy wench. She was quite fun to toy around with. How'd you figure out about her?"
"Answer my question."
"Oh, it's just the simple pleasure of taking something so vulnerable and molding it into the most perfect and loyal killing machine."
"You're sick you know that. How could you do that too a little girl?"
"I could probably explain that to you for about an entire hour, but your mind is too weak to even comprehend my motives. And once I'm done explaining it, you'd just say that I'm crazy. So my answer is, I'm crazy."
Duilin grunted in annoyance. He'd get back to this subject later.
-
- Helternia Tavern -
"About three years ago I was on a mission with a man named Wilham. It was a long and arduous one but we completed it and were returning home. Well Wilham stepped through the portal first and I could hear him tell me to come through. Yet just before I went through the portal winked. No one thought anything of it. So I stepped through and ended up on a continent or island called Ctiadyd, which I later found out, was on the other side of the world. And to top things off I was surrounded by people brandishing weapons." Coriko took a breath to take a swig of his ale and then continued his story.
"Well I tried to talk my way out of it but they took me as a prisoner and I was taken to their capital. This is where I saw Kylessa. She instantly recognized me and told them to let me go. Like I said before she was of noble birth and her family left Asgarnia before the town was destroyed. They founded a new civilization in Ctiadyd with them as the rulers. So we instantly hit it off and started dating. She showed me around the island. Oh my god if you could have seen it. Mountains that touched the sky, lakes as clear as glass, and wildlife that I had never seen before. I stayed on the island two years with her and her family. We are engaged as well." Coriko grabbed the chain that hung around his neck and pulled it out so the man could see. There was a ring with a stunning array of colours.
"I carved two of these out off a gemstone I found on the island. I have one and so does she. But I told her I couldn't marry her till I found out what happened to my friends, Marshall, Wilham, and Firstman. So I left the island and sailed to the last place I saw them. However I didn’t find them, which I had expected. So for the last year I have been tracking them down and only by chance did I come into this tavern and there Marshall was. I have also been keeping in contact with Kylessa via messenger hawk. Her father raised many and so we correspond through notes. Oh, how I miss her.” Coriko paused with a sense of longing. “Oh, I’m sorry I don’t mean to bore you with my life story. Can I get you another drink to make up for it?”
---
-Shaad Oenn-
Baird sat in a chair feeling his new hand. He could move the fingers, simultaneously and independently. He could clench into a fist and then release. He could summon orbs of shadow energy. He could also summon the orbs with his other hand too which meant he had his powers back. “This new hand is incredible!” Baird exclaimed to the doctor.
“Yez, I am, vhat you call, a jeneous. Drew-weed come over ‘ere!” Druid went to the doctor’s side as requested. “I must now depart Drew-weed. Pleaze for dee love of dis coontry, KILL ZEE BEAST!!” With that the doctor turned and scurried out the door. Druid watched the elderly man scurry away and then went to his friend’s side.
“How are you doing”
“Energized! Lets go kick his demonic ass!”
Druid smiled, “well you may have energy but I still need some rest. Plus we need a plan of attack. You work something out while I take a nap.” Druid went to one of the bedrooms of the house. It was a dark room. Dust covered everything but Druid didn’t care because it was dark, and that was all he needed. He collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep almost instantly. He tossed with thoughts of the beast’s takeover, but found solace in the thought of that creature’s soon demise.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown Tavern -
"Hey, hey. Coriko." Marshall tugged on his friend's shirt. "Wilham, did you hear he's one of the High Generals in the Federation now? He's got some pretty awesome stuff at his disposal actually."
Marshall patted Coriko on the back.
"Well, I think for about the second or third time in my life, I'm drunk. I'm off to bed before I do anything stupid." Marshall pointed his finger at Coriko and smiled. "Know your limits my friend."
He then got up and staggered towards the room he rented.
--- ---
- Helternia, Klawvorn -
Valos and Duilin were in the briefing room with a map of the known world on the table. Valos was marking the areas of the Kandarin Towns he's been in.
"This one is where I saw Nex." Valos said pointing to one of the marks he made. It was fairly close to the former location of Bandervil.
"Interesting. I think that might be where I confronted our father." Duilin stated.
"You mean, Abodahon the Demon Lord?" Valos snapped.
"Yeah." Duilin paced to the other side of the table. "Okay, now how well guarded do you say this place is?"
"It houses the largest regiment in the Sovereignty." Valos replied. "And well, I'm sure you've heard of the power of the Kandarin captains right?"
"Yes, go on."
"Well, Nex killed the former captain and the Sovereign had him take his place. That means that it's very possible that Nex may be the strongest of the captains."
"Maybe the former one was weak?"
"It's possible that he could have been the weakest of the captains, but regardless all of the captains are very powerful. There is no doubt that Nex may be stronger than both of us combined."
"Well, we'll have to either get stronger or not fully rely on our strength."
"That sounds unlike you. From what I know of you, you're pretty hack and slash brute-force warrior."
"True, true. But I also have my motivational skills and of course I have my own generals."
"Oh yes that's right. You're in charge of an entire army, good ole' High General. One step closer to Draven aren't you?"
Duilin ignored Valos' statement. "Although this guy does get on my nerves, he'd be very useful to plan some good tactics for us." He opened the door, where there were two guards on the other side of the door. "Get me General Chaud."
-
//Sorry Xorlak, I have been out of focus lately... Can't write right =[\
~Elpos' Nightmare~
Elphos shook his head at the sight of the children.
For a fleeting moment he wanted to help them, but then realized that they couldn't be there, and therefore, are not.
Though it pained him to do so, he did his best to ignore their pleas and the snake and continued to paint on himself.
Then it came.
What.
He was startled and paused.
Do.
He shook his head and returned to painting.
You.
He told himself he must'nt listen.
FEAR?!?!
All of a sudden, all the flames and children vanished. And so did the trees and the sky.
Everything was dark and Elphos could see nothing but his brightly illuminated self.
Two large, brightly shining red eyes loomed above him.
Elphos gulped. He knew those eyes. He had never seen them, but deep inside, he knew them. There was only one such pair of brightly shining crimson eyes.
With a shaking hand, Elphos barely managed to finish drawing on his body, which was then wrapped in a bright blue light.
He turned to look at the crimson, sparkling eyes in the darkness. Under them, a toothy grin was visible.
"Theres no mistake... You look exactly how I imagined Retan is."
Elphos trembled. Retan couldn't be here. The hysterical sociopath and winged, black tentacle monster he heard so much about was still in the dark continent.
Why would he run into him here.
Gulp.
Elphos raised his hand and pointed at the eyes. He was still trembling, but he spoke nontheless.
"R-R-Retan! I am sh-sh-shielded! Y-y-you can't h-h-h-hurt me! G-g-g-go s-s-s-someplace else!"
Deep inside, he began praying he won't have to suck his fire breath. Or cold breath. Or Acid breath. Or dark-powered plasma death. Or even minty-fresh breath. He heard Retan has so many types of breath attacks that he lost count of them all.
-
- Waters South-East of the Continent -
-"Alas," Ekaterina said, taking the full hit of the broadsword, "I am no longer on land. This makes things harder for me."
The slash disrupted some of the bone arrangements, but didn't do much other than make a small cut in the thick layer of armour. That event seemed to entertain Ekaterina a little.
-"You're going to use that to cut through this shell? Good luck, pani. When I was still testing this ability, they had to use a cannon repeatedly to crack this. And even if you do have a cannon, you'd be foolish to fire it on a ship... Gods know what a stray cannonball can do."
The flail resumed its path to the side of Doriana's head.
-
Chaud was sitting at his desk when someone knocked.
- "General Chaud? General Chau-"
- "Come in."
A soldier entered slowly the enormous room. The size of Chaud's office always amazed him.
- "What is it?"
- "Er- erm High Genera-"
- "I'm on my way. Sheesh can't that guy just come here? Oh, no. Ignore he fact that my body is older..."
- "Yea..." The soldier was amazed at the disrespect Chaud had. Should he agree or object.
- "Go back doing your job, I'm already going..."
And Chaud left, locking the door behind him. He walked quite a length and finally he arrived in front of Duilins office.
- "I really can't wait until..."
He knocked twice and entered.
- "Hello my High General? How was the battle? Did you take a orphan with you?" Chaud looked at Valos.
--- Puco ---
"Oh? Sorryy!!!"
Puco quickly pulled the threads, and soon they were falling down. From 1000 meters.
"Ooops..."
"WaaaaaAAAAAAAaaaaaa~"
And they were falling, with 100 metres a second.
Quick Puco, quick, think! What can soften the fall? Ice? No. Fire? No. Muffin? No.
Wait. Yes!
Puco took her breath to yell.
"SIENNA!! GET OUT OF THERE!!" Her voice echoed a few times and the leaves rumbled.
And holding Lily in one, she took out a small box with her other hand and tossed it under her.
"Muffin summon spell!"
And with a small "poof" a giant squishy muffin appeared under them. Puco bashed into the muffin as if it was a pillow while the muffin slatted into the ground...
-
- Klawvorn, Briefing Room -
Duilin really didn't like having to call on this guy. He was so rude to him all the time. Yeah he's younger than Chaud, but Duilin's had more fighting experience than him, so he should just accept the fact he's a higher rank. It's not like Duilin is some young kid anymore. He's a full grown middle aged man now.
As soon as Chaud stepped into the room he knew he was going to say something sarcastic.
"General Chaud this is, Valos a member of the formerly existing Crimson Empire. He's informed us of the return of a demonic group known as the Talonscar. This one demon named Nex has become a captain in the K.A.F."
Duilin pointed where Valos marked the city down.
"He's also given us the location of where his regiment's city is. It's apparently the biggest one. If we could take this city out it would greatly weaken the Kandarinians. We just need a good plan, seeing how our army isn't very big. So you think you could work your magic?"
--- ---
- Forest -
Sienna with her speed spell still on dashed quickly out of the way. She turned around and then noticed Puco summoned a giant muffin.
"What?" She looked at it oddly. "That's...weird..."
-
- Elphos' Nightmare -
"Oh? I believe I can. In fact, I can hurt you a great deal..." Tendrils of blackness emanated from the amorphous Retan-thing, encasing Elphos in a small prison. Above, the crimson eyes loomed just above the toothy draconic grin-- the only elements of the face visible in the blackness. Slowly the visage descended, the maw widening in anticipation...
"Surrender yourself to me, little gnat. Reject all you love and become my slave, or I shall devour the flesh from your bones..."
-
~Elphos' Nightmare~
Something just broke within Elphos.
He stopped trembling. His jaw dropped. His pupils shrunk. His face went blue.
"Aaaaaaaaaaand if I become your slave you'll let me go?"
Meanwhile, back in the forest, outside the nightmare...
"I'm done here!"
"So am I!"
"Me too!"
"Let's turn it on!"
"Ooh boy, this is exciting!"
Demon Seal 5/5 - Complete
The darkness around Elphos vanished.
He found himself back in the forest, on sturdy ground, standing in simple grass.
He sighed a sigh of relief.
"Phew. Took them long enough."
He raised his head and took a moment to get his bearings, recovering from his frightening experience. As soon as he was done, he looked around for that child.
"It's no use hiding anymore, kid. This place is sealed. Your powers don't work here and you can't leave until we break it."
Something sounding like Indher calling Elphos' name reached his ears.
"Heh, I hope she won't be an idiot and waltz inside. With her demonic blood she might get stuck inside, too..."
-
-Helternia, Rivertown Tavern-
Coriko smiled at his friend as he staggered towards his room but soon returned his focus back to the odd man who seemed to have a crush on him.
"I'm sorry, what were we discussing?"
---
-Shaad Oenn-
Druid tossed in his stolen bed. He tossed and turned restlessly. The walls shook every time a group of soldiers would march by. After a few minutes of this Druid got up to see what Baird was doing. Druid was just about to enter the main room when the door broke inwards, splintering into pieces. Druid ducked back into the room behind a wall. He slowed his breathing down and strained to hear what was being said.
"I am Jonoton Oburts! I am with the BeastCorps! We know the fugitives Druid and Baird are residing in this hovel. Please give yourselves up or we will be forced to take actions to subdue you!"
Druid laughed at this and had to come out from behind the wall. He put up his hands with a big smile on his face. He didn't see Baird anywhere in the room. The members of the "BeastCorps" turned to him. They pointed their bolt guns at him. Druid looked this Jonoton Oburts up and down. A scrawny, short, pale man looked back at him. He had on the same armour as the other guards and carried a bolt gun along as well. Druid had a huge smile on his face, "Well Jonoton, I must admit I find that a mighty big claim. From where I am standing you are a small boy who wandered into the big boys sandbox. Go ahead and point your rustic weapons at me, but I guarantee that in five minutes you will be dead and I will be walking out that door."
The guards shuffled and looked uncomfortable. Some glanced at the door making sure their escape route was free. Others looked at Jonoton for advice. Jonoton remained firm. "Well," Druid took a step forward and all the guards took a step back "it's going to be a shame killing you. You may have been a good leader in my army."
Jonoton, outraged, charged at Druid. Druid avoided his clumsy punch and grabbed his arm around the wrist. He then slammed his other hand into Jonoton's elbow breaking his arm. The other soldier's charged at Druid at this point as Jonoton collapsed to the ground. The first guard to attack Druid tripped and then flipped him over his shoulder, into the wall. The next guard ran at Druid with a sword. Druid grabbed the soldier's arm and twisted it. The soldier dropped the sword. Druid then used the guard as a shield when the remaining guards opened fire. The body did a good job as a shield. Once the fire ceased Druid picked up his human shield and threw it at the guards. Two of the soldiers were knocked over, the third rolled out of the way. Druid fired a blast of shadow energy at him which blew off his head. He then picked up Jonoton's bolt gun and walked to the trapped guards and but a bolt in both of their heads. The guard from the wall ran at Druid from behind. Druid spun around and delivered a lethal kick to the soldier's head. The rest of the guards had already run off to get reinforcements. Druid turned around and saw Jonoton, who was still clutching his broken arm.
"I didn't realize you were still alive. Well I was wrong, not five minutes, two." After that he fired a bolt between Jonoton's eyes. The body fell limp. Druid looked around at the six dead bodies and sighed. He opened the door to the other room. Baird lay on the bed sleeping. "GET UP!" Druid yelled.
"What? What's wrong?"
"We need to go, you'll understand when you see the other room." Druid then headed for the front door.
Baird jumped out of bed. Ran after Druid but stopped in the main room. "OH! How did I sleep through that?" He then followed Druid outside.
A large group of guards was running down the street. “Secure the fugitives for the beast!”
“Oh CRAP!” Druid and Baird bolted in the other direction.
-
- Gandara -
-"The human offers? This fast? The master will be pleased, then, as to the speediness of your task..."
The priest(?) snapped his fingers. At once, two huge doors behind them cracked open, revealing a mob of people.
People, people, people. Everywhere. All chained together, all confused and scared-looking. People, as far as the eye could see - the enormous building, whose end could not be seen, seemed to be filled with nothing but people.
-"I pray this is enough. Please begin."
- Forest -
The softness of the muffin did slow the fall rather effectively, but left Lily in a state of shock - probably from the sight of an enormous muffin underneath her. Regaining herself, she hopped off, dusted herself, and smiled to Puco.
-"Thank you! That creature there must've been after me. Where did it g-- ah."
The bound Augment didn't really struggle on the ground, just kind of lying there. In fact, since it couldn't use its hands, it wasn't able to even teleport itself out.
-"Shouldn't we... do something... about that?"
-
~ ~ Gandara ~ ~
"It's... enough."
Outside the church several crosses were places by other shaded figures. Each cross looked dirty... and sad. If you listened you could hear cries coming from it, and blood flowing out. The smell of death was surrounding the church...
"We are protected from the demons... or whatever will come out of what we'll make..."
Several shaded men started writing with pure gold runes around the people. The people had fear in their eyes, some fainted and some cried. Panic, panic, panic. You could hear, smell, feel it.
"Isn't this just a great feeling priest? Soon the most powerful will be ours..."
~ ~ te Muffin ~ ~
Puco sharpened her sences.
- "Unless the controller meany is asleep, we shouldn't do nice things."
And she looked around her for the necromancer...
~ ~ Klawvorn, Briefing Room ~ ~
- "Everything is magic compared to you."
Chaud took the map, and sat down.
- "Nex it is?"
- "Yea."
- "So this will be... a stealth mission... great."
He sat quietly for a few minutes there, and then he started.
- "The seventh regiment base is near the walls... I got a plan my friends."
"A sniper will be sniping random soldiers from this cliff here." He showed a small "X" on the map. "He'll snipe soldiers from the seventh regiment, and they will think it's a attack. They probably ring the bells for the weaker soldiers, Nex won't be bothered."
"The gates will probably be controlled, and you and a few soldiers will go into a trade caravan. The other soldiers will detonate a ignition bomb a few meters of the gate and the base. They start attacking and they will take the attention of the guards. I doubt that they'll think that checking the carriage is more important than a plain attack. In the worse case, Sniper will snipe them down."
"Since the direct line from the attacked wall to the gate meets further on the base, it will look as if you are panicing and fleeing, BUT you will be coming closer to the base. Sniper in Kadarinian suit will infiltrate the base and start killing silently from the inside, causing a ruckus."
"Then you start acting. The main hall on the second stage, that is a perfect defense point. Go there blasting things up. Sniper will cause more panic by yelling things like - "A captain level opponent! Flee if you want to live! Only the best will survive." Soon there will be panic, and from what I heard of Nex, he'll come looking what is happening."
"Send you main troops on different points shown by a red "x", since as strong as they are, they don't compare to you nor Nex, and will be useless. They'll secure the area. Maybe your friends here will aid you, or not, but don't underestimate this captain."
He took a breath, and lighted a cigar.
"This sniper that I'm talking about... it needs to be someone you can depend on... and maybe someone who can help you fighting Nex unlike normal soldiers.
It just happens so that in your absence a small genius grew." He took out a small file out of his pocket and threw it to Duilin. "I wouldn't be surprised if he's the best stealth soldiers of the whole military. Look through his file, you'll be impressed. Nobody scored like this in three years."
He took a deep breath from his cigar.
"His name is Repins Tnelis. And the bombs and disguises... he can take care of them. He's great for this mission, and surely for the panic causing part. You would be a fool not taking him with you..."
-
//Sorry for not posting. It's actually harder for me to post on holidays, believe it or not.
-Helternia, Rivertown Tavern-
"Nah, it's okay. I don't need another drink. I think the day's events are getting to me," Martin said while wearily rubbing his eyes. "Thanks for talking with me. Not many people do, because, well... you know."
Martin stood up and stretched his arms. "I should head back to the ship. If you're not busy later, you could always drop by..." he said slyly and smiled. "Well, I'll talk to you later." Martin started to walk towards the door, but stopped and turned briefly before leaving. "That Kylessa... she's a really lucky woman. Hopefully you have found who you were looking for and can return to her soon."
With that, Martin turned, nodded to Akran (who was trying to pay for a room while failing to keep two ladies under his arms) and walked out the tavern door... alone.
-
- Phoencian Forest -
A large number of swear words emanated from a bush near Elphos along with a great deal of rustling. After a moment, the tantrum subsided.
"Clever trick, I'll give you that..." A shadow rose from the bush. "Though you are hardly in a position to issue threats..." The child-like demon strode into view, the scythe dragging behind him. His eyes burned murder. "Release me... now!" He leapt into the air, flinging the sickled blade above his head. "Now NOW NOW!!!" With a sideways slash, he aimed to remove the human's head...
-
-Shaad Oenn-
Druid ran down the deserted street. The sun seemed to be hiding behind the hovels. The steady and unyielding march of the BeastCorps followed closely behind. He and Baird split up a while back and from the looks of it he got away free. Then again why wouldn't he? Baird was a big shot shadow mage and was close to Druid, but why settle for ground beef when you can have steak. Druid ran on.
Occasionally a shot would fire over his shoulder. He would then duck to avoid falling debris and run faster. There was three or four battalions in pursuit. He wouldn't have been surprised if the entire army was back there. Druid took a hard left and then a hard right. He hoped that would throw them off. He ran along the street for a bit and turned right again. He hoped to have lost his tail. Druid turned once more, and was greeted with a dead end. He stopped to catch his breath. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. The soldiers had found him, and were coming to collect their prize.
Druid stood up tall and held his bolt gun out towards the opening. His arm fully extended and his head held high. He stood there and waited. He waited. He waited. Druid's arm stood strong but he was starting to get nervous. The thumps had stopped. All he could hear was his own breathing.
BOOM
Druid was thrown forward, along with the wall from the building behind him. The army had snuck up and blown out the wall he was infront of. He landed and rolled to try and avoid the debris. He spun around, bolt gun ready to fire. However his arms fell and he swore under his breath. As the dust started to clear he could make out the distorted form of the Beast!
-
~Phoenicia Forest~
"Whoa!" Elphos ducked to dodge the scythe "Idiot! We Phoenicians don't stay dead!"
Elphos kept carefully stepping back while dodging the scythe.
"Give up! You are powerless! The worst you can do is make me feel slightly unpleasant!"
Elphos didn't like the idea of pain. Or dying. He was still shaken from the earlier scene, but he kept his wits about.
He then stepped over some writings on the ground...
"Phew! Out of the seal!" Elphos sighed in relief, finally out of harm's way.
A familiar voice reached his ears.
"Hey, I see a demonic seal!"
It was Fernis - his master, who's arrival he awaited for what seemed like forever.
She approached with caution yet curiously and bent down to look at the drawings.
She cackled a smile and stood up soon after.
"A bit rough, but that's what I'd expect from begginers..." she said "They didn't notice they could compress the athemal glyph. Would have taken them four times less time to draw it all."
She then turned around, to face the demonic child still within the barrier. Her eyes lit up. Her smile was vicious. She was obviously plotting something nasty.
"Too bad for you child..." she taunted "...Now that I am here, even if the barrier is put down, you have no chance of escape. I am Indher, creator of the immortal race of Phoenicians, guide to their elders and the Runemaster of the Glimmer Spire. One might say I'm related to you... A distant relative, at best. I've told you my story, now you tell me yours... If I like it, I might give you a range of choices wider than suicide and execution."
-
- Forest -
Sienna returned to the scene. A giant muffin was in the middle of the forest, what an odd sight that would be for any passer by.
"Okay, so do you think we should get moving now?" She asked the others.
--- ---
- Klawvorn -
"Repins Tnelis?" Duilin asked. "Oh yes, I've heard of him. Quite a skilled man he is, I was actually thinking of inviting him into my squad, but I thought I was hogging all of the best guys so I didn't."
Duilin turned to his brother.
"So, Valos. Does his plan sound like it will work?"
"Yeah." Valos nodded.
"Okay well, we better get everyone involved grouped up and work this plan out then." Duilin said. "We'll make our move tomorrow."
"Sounds good. I could use some rest anyways." Valos said. "Do you have a bedroom for me?" He asked.
"Yes I do. But first we have some things to talk about."
"What?"
"We'll talk after we're done with Chaud." Duilin replied, he then looked at the general. "Actually, if that's all maybe you could get this plan on paper or something, and get that Tnelis guy. I'd like to know him a little more before we head out."
//Chapter ends in 3 days (March 15th, Saturday)\
-
~ ~ Klawvorn ~ ~
"Done already."
When the two spoke, he wrote the whole thing out. Formations and plans, plus some extra things. Even a simple soldier could see that if these formations were formed the weakest could defeat the strongest.
Chaud stood up and left the papers on the desk. He walked up to Duilin, took the sheet of Repnis saying: "I'll be needing this."
He walked towards the door and turned his head.
"Well I hope you won't mess up my plans, it would be a waste huh? Valos mister, please keep an eye on him, he tends to fly to high from time to time." With a grin he left.
"If you'll die, you'll suck, so don't." This was his way of showing that he didn't wanted Duilin to die. For whatever reasons.
Somewhere else a message was said, and one received and answered.
"I'll come as quickly as possible!"
And Repnis Tnelis was walking quickly towards the room of the High General [1/2]
-
- Klawvorn -
Duilin rolled his eyes at Chaud's comments. "I won't die." Duilin assured. He then looked at Valos. "Okay, I want to get back on the subject of Sienna."
"Why? What does it matter?" Valos asked.
"Because she went insane because of you. She tried to kill me and my friends. She was helping the Dark Empire."
"Well, it's a harsh world. Lots of people go insane. Take me for example." Valos smirked.
"So, because you had a shitty life, you make sure others have one too?"
Valos rubbed his chin and then nodded "Yeah, pretty much."
"You make me sick."
"Thank you." Valos replied. "Now, if you excuse me. I'm going to get some rest." He got up and left the briefing room.
It looked like Duilin was going to have to give this conversation some time, he really needed to figure out why Valos enslaved Sienna like that. He wasn't sure if Valos answers were truthful.
-
Repnis passed Valos on his way to the briefing room.
He knocked trice.
"Erm, Sir? Was I called?"
-
- Phoencia Forest -
Melface hissed as he floated off the ground, striking at an invisible something in the air with his massive scythe. The runes burned brightly, and he was forced back.
"Tch! You bare no relation to me. A wretch with as impure blood as yourself bares no hope of even causing me harm."
He floated back like a ghost then tried ramming the invisible barrier, causing him to spin wildly backwards. "Out! Let me out! Now NOW NOW!!!!"
-
- Klawvorn -
"Repnis. It's good to see you again." Duilin greeted. "Now, as you probably already know, we're going to be going on a mission tomorrow to attack a Kandarinian Base. I thought I'd just get to know you a little better, that's just the way I am. Plus I'd just like to know your past experience and such. Just give me a brief history on your military carrier and such."
---
Valos entered his room. It was nothing fancy, just a simple guest room with a bed, a desk with a drawer next to it and a wardrobe.
"Nicer then the last few places I've slept." Valos commented.
He sat down on the bed and took off his boots and kicked them off next to the door and laid down. This was a good day, things are falling into place. Soon, he'll get his revenge on the Talonscar and then he'll be able to settle the score with his brother when he shows he's stronger than him. If Valos can kill Nex then Duilin will be no problem.
But should he turn against Duilin?
Yes of course he should, Duilin and his friends have been haunting him ever since they set foot on the Crimson Palace all those years ago. It was their fault all those bad things happened to him, really.
Well enough crazy thoughts, time for some sleep.
//Chapter ends tomorrow.\
-
~Phoenicia Forest~
"It appears this little rat doesn't understand the position it's in..."
Indher laughed softly at the child's futile attempts to strike the barrier.
"Very well. I came prepared. I picked up something on the way..."
She took out a small, round and pitch-black onyx.
"It has never been tested. But I assume the process of being sucked inside is... Painful."
"Wait!" Elphos stopped her "Why don't you employ the spheroid capturing device left by two demons?"
"You mean, the one made of two hemispheres, one white, one red?"
"Yes, that one!"
"I'd have to modify it into a master capturing device first. Until then, these black onyxs will do."
She outstretched the hand holding the black onyx, and black fog began to surround it, slowly expanding around it.
"...Go."
The black fog moves into the barrier, surrounding the child-like demon, and began to close in on him.
"...Soon, everything will turn black for you. Farewell, child..."
-
~~ Klawvorn ~~
"Yes, sir, Yes!" Repins awnsered.
So the powerful high general chose him? He felt very proud.
"Once I entered the military I was placed in the frontal warroirs sir. However they said I was a good for nothing, and the sword was too heavy for me, while a knife too small. I was a below avarage soldier, when I was sent on my first mission. A few riots were going on in the north, and we had to defeat a small group of rebels to silence it. I was only sent because my commander felt bad for me, me not doing anything. I was placed in the back, I didn't need to do anything dangerous, sir."
"But something went wrong, and we were attacked from behind. It was a horror sir. Dead everywhere. It was a Kand's trap! I moved more forward only to meet my comrades as zombies. We had only one fourth of our army left, and no way out. I took a small bow and I decided to kill the necromancer, for then the army would fall. I shot and succeeded. The necromancer fell, and the army too. I was seen as a hero, and it was only a matter of time before I arrived in the assasins team. I've assasined not only high ranked soldiers, but caused whole cities to fall. Not with sheer power, but just with my tactics, sir."
"This is all sir!"
-
- Klawvorn -
"Alright, alright. Sounds good." Duilin nodded. "It'll be a pleasure doing this mission with you. We're gonna be heading out tomorrow morning so get some good sleep, soldier."
After Repins left, Duilin sat down on one of the chairs and looked out the window. He hoped he could get some sleep, there was a lot on his mind. After several minutes of just sitting there thinking he got up and walked through the hallways whistling some random tune.
He was hoping he'd find Sienna soon. He was worried about her, and she's the only person from her old family left. She was a fairly skilled fighter too, she put up a good fight for Duilin and would make a very good alley. He needed more people with that sort of skill now that Zeros', Zion and the others are all gone. He then headed up into his bedroom, which he shared with his wife Bell.
It was going to be an interesting day tomorrow...
-
~ ~ Forest ~ ~
"Ah..." Puco nodded, and took the girls hand and both jumped of the muffin.
"Let's go! We need to help Sienny find Duiy-oniichan!"
And with joy they continued.
-
- Phoencia Forest -
Melface's face contorted in an absolute feral scowl as he repeatedly slashed at the black fog. "You will pay! You will pay!!!" Slowly the fog engulfed him as his eyes burned crimson. After the blackness dissipated, there appeared to be no trace of the child-like demon...
To be continued...
-
Chapter 17
- Beach, Mandaila Island -
Ahh... this was the life.
Vincent leaned back in the folding chair, his multi-colored flowered shirt flapping in the cool ocean breeze. The sunlight glistened off his shades, and the cries of gulls filled his ears.
No mad sovereign. No undead armies. No crazy death machines or death rays. Just the sun, sea, peace, and quiet. He'd have to come back here more often. In fact, with his salary, he should just buy the whole island... yeah, that's what he'd do. Then an early retirement.
"Would you like another grape, sir?"
Vincent opened one eye, which peered over his shades to acknowledge the servant.
"No, Alfred... fetch me some strawberries... and some of that white cream stuff."
"Very good sir." Alfred bowed stiffly and turned on his heel, trotting through the sand dune back up to the shack on the hill. Despite the intense sun and heat, he still wore a black long-sleeved tuxedo.
Vincent doubted he could overheat anyway. Alfred was the alchemist's personal zombie butler. One of the necromancers resurrected the servant and bound him to Vincent. Not a bad deal, despite the slight smell of decay. In fact one would be hard pressed to take the man for a zombie, the only other evidence being his paled complexion and dark circles under his eyes.
The alchemist captain idly turned his gaze down to the golden shotgun and m-grid orb lying upon the blanket next to him. Ugh... he'd have to return to work soon... Luckily, no one had his "number" but the sovereign himself. Otherwise he would be getting a string of summons from the orb from incompetent mechanics and lesser alchemists with questions about his latest design, or frivolous reports of failings or successes.
He leaned back in his chair and began to doze off one last time...
-
~ ~ Phoenicia Forest ~ ~
Somewhere in the huge forest a small salamander hissed. The thick grown trees began to shake a little. Birds flew away, and small animals began to move away, except for the salamander.
The place was becoming hotter and the salamander didn't mind it all. It hissed once more. Its last hiss it was.
As if appearing from the sky, a small spear pierced the ground, but the salamander didn't and couldn't see it, for a huge explosion followed instantly. An loud bang!
BANG! WHOOSH!
The birds that didn't fly away did now, and even of someone had little experience with exploding sounds, he could tell that this wasn't a ordinary explosion (actually none explosions are ordinary) but created by a bomb-or something like that.
The fire rose quickly and disappeared with the same speed. It was so hot that everything that it touched was burned to crisps instantaneously and there was nothing left to burn. Only the spear was standing ... surrounded by a twenty meter radius of black coal. In there somewhere there were remains of our salamander.
Not too far but not too close from this place in the forest, there were a bunch of people standing. The echo of explosion had reached them, and in the sky they could see crowds of birds flying from the direction of the sound.
-
"My pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses man's understanding of life and death. Much of it is self-chosen; my pain is the bitter potion through which knowledge comes. Normal Necromancers, even Necrolytes do not have an idea of how straining it is to live for 9,482 others: is it a curse or a blessing to have this knowledge available to me?
I consider myself an optimist. I believe that paying the price of pain for my abilities is more than acceptable. I wonder if it is this pain that drives me to conquer Gaian? Perhaps it's just greed, I don't know, and truly, I don't care. I won't live with what I have. I need more.
Gaian.
It gives me life. It gives me fire. It gives me more...
Gaian is everything! I want everything! I want it!
...but it isn't coming to me fast enough. No... Not fast enough. In fact, I will speed up the process. Myself. Yes. I will go out into the battle scene myself. The fresh air and sun will be good for my non-existent health, save for the mental variety of such. The walls of the Citadel know how to make me depressed, they do. I've no choice?
Yeah, sounds about right. I'm going out there myself. Not like anything can happen to me, anyway."
---
- The Citadel; Lower floors -
-"But General... shouldn't that title mean that you stay back and command the Sovereign's armies? What if something were to happen to you?"
-"Wing, I fail to see why I must continue to explain this to you. A captain has been killed - and I will not sit back and send progressively stronger henchmen at the Gaian Republic until I run out. I'm going to go there myself, because it is the most sure way to find the criminal that did this."
-"Still! Flora Goethe and Sun together can perform just as well as you, as you've told me yourself!"
-"Look - go eat someone, or catch butterflies with Nex, I don't know. I don't need to explain myself to you. I'm leaving."
-
One thousand seven hundred and sixty four.
That was the number of bricks in the walls of Alex's cell at the headquarters of KAF's Regiment 6. He had checked the number many times -- he had spent two years counting and recounting the stone rectangles which constrained him to this chamber.
It had been a very long and difficult time for Alex. He had resisted the cruel, twisted methods the Kandarinians had used to force vital intelligence out of him, from simple interrogation to agonizing torture. He felt the tight amulet around his neck. He had been fitted with this to suppress his Twili powers, his latent pyrokinetic abilities, and the Shroud. In fact, he had not heard its soothingly sibilant voice for a very long time.
He could vaguely remember what happened those many months ago. His attempted attack on the Kandarinian capital had ended in failure -- Carmine and his goons beat him to the capital and warned them of his arrival. He was swiftly overwhelmed and captured. In the passing time, the KAF had undergone a massive reform, dividing itself into ten, well defined regiments. Regiment 6, where he was imprisoned, was in charge of assassinations, detention, and interrogation and torture.
Alex knew better than to try to escape. The Regiment's Lieutenant (second in command), was none other than Hannibal Roth, the notorious assassin who had cooperated with Carmine to capture Alex. He was not to be reckoned with, and Alex had the scars to prove it.
His thoughts turned to Midna, the young Twili princess who had joined him on his adventure so long ago. From what Alex had been able to piece together from the guards talking, she was taken to a separate regiment's headquarters. At one point, a guard said something about that regiment specializing in magic, with Damien Roth as its leader.
Alex winced at the thought of her all alone, without a protector. Since their meeting, it was believed that defeating the Sovereignty and restoring balance to Gaian would lift the curse that locked her in her imp form, but they were captured before headway could be made to that point. Alex felt terrible for her, and longed to see her again.
Alex looked up to the skylight he had been fortunate enough to have. It was the only view he had of the outside world for the last two years. From the view he could tell it was nighttime, the full moon directly overhead, its pale blue light filtering down into a ghostly circle on the stone floor.
He remembered when his Twili side awakened. It was on a moonlit night just like this. His life completely changed that day, and, given his circumstances, he wondered if it was for better or for worse.
Many times Alex had considered his options for escaping. Upon incarceration his P.C.S. combat suit and his energy rifle were immediately confiscated from him, and he had little hope that over the last two years they were still in one piece, if not gutted and used for some twisted KAF project. The amulet which suppressed his powers was fastened very tightly around his neck, making it nearly impossible for him to remove it without hurting himself. He tried using a brick to grind it down, but the amulet, made of a durable metal, would not comply. He knew the Lieutenant and Captain carried keys to unlock it, but how to procure one was a challenge in itself, considering he was monitored 24 hours a day.
He wondered if Midna had managed to escape somehow. Even if she had, she still may have no way of knowing where Alex was being kept. What if she had given in to the torture and interrogation? What if she was forced to fight in Regiment 8's magical ranks?
No. He knew she was stronger than that. He knew that she would try as hard as he would to find each other. It was time to take action. A thought occurred to him.
Their torture was some of the most agonizing I've ever endured. If I can handle that, I'm sure I can withstand a little missing chest hair...
He gripped the amulet's gem-encrusted center, and pulled as hard as he could. Sharp pain shot through his chest and neck, almost as if the amulet had fused to his skin. Surging with adrenaline and gritting his teeth, he put everything he had into removing the infernal trinket. Finally, he was rewarded with a feeling of pain that felt like every hair being ripped from his body, only ten times worse. With an sharp scream he ripped the amulet from his neck, and threw it to the ground. Weakened from the struggle, he leaned back against the wall and felt the area where the amulet had been. The skin was worn smooth, and was red and irritated. He thought he saw bleeding from several areas.
As he inspected his wound, he felt it all come back to him.
The balanced insight of his Twili power. The powerful consuming nature of his pyrokinesis. The controlled devouring power of the Shroud. It all flooded back to him in a powerful deluge that brought him to his knees. He had never felt a more incredible feeling in his life.
The Shroud's hissing, throaty voice permeated his consciousness.
Yes... at long last, I am reborn... It is time to feed, to enact redemption on those who wronged us.
The Twilight Warrior's presence brightened his spirit.
The abomination of the dark is correct. It is time to reunite with those we love. We must fight for the greater good!
The guard, aware of the commotion from the cell, peered through the barred window, and dropped his speargun in terrifying realization of what was about to happen.
Before he could shout for additional help, a black, razor-laden tentacle shot through the metal door and impaled the hapless grunt, killing him instantly.
The tentacle withdrew, and Alex created a fireball in his hands. Firing the sphere of flame, he blew the door clean off of its hinges.
For the first time in years, Alex stepped from his cell, fueled by a combination of revenge, concern for those he loved, and the knowledge of what he had to do.
He had to destroy everyone who stood in his way. He had to find Midna. It was time they got back on track.
-
- Beach, Mandaila Island -
Alfred woke Vincent from his dozing with a plate of rich strawberries and cream. Grumbling, the alchemist waved the butler off. Alfred bowed and returned to the only building on the island retreat, to stand in the window and wait for his master's hand signal to tell him to return, no doubt.
Vincent pondered when he would have to leave to get back in time. He knew of plans for the conflict in the Dark Continent, which was probably underway right now. He doubted they would need his talents there. He rarely saw field combat anymore anyway, his focuses mainly on designing the crazy war contraptions behind the scenes. A tad boring, but the pay was quite worth it.
He remembered his younger days. Days he dreamed of power he held all himself. But wasn't this the same? Implementing the mighty fist of the Sovereign? He was satisfied for now. But how long that would last, was anyone's guess.
He thought back to his current project. Once the Halberd Airship design was complete, the Federation would crumble to its knees. They'd barely need the hammer anymore under such a crushing fleet of airships... He'd wait until the design was fleshed out a bit more before presenting it. No doubt, the Sovereign would be pleased...
Just then he felt a whoosh of air between his legs and jumped reflexively, rolling backwards into the sand and clutching his weapon. A knife vibrated from where it imbedded itself in the chair. Vincent scowled, looking around, but seeing nothing but sand and surf in all directions. Where?! Looking straight up, he saw a black speck in the clear blue sky. It paused, as if waiting for him to see it, then zipped away.
He returned his gaze to the knife, spying a simple parchment impaled on the blade. He removed the weapon, finding it to be a note.
Your master calls. You will return.
- D
----
- Phoencia, Undisclosed location -
Francis peeled the fake jewel from his forehead, glad to be in safe walls at last. The thing itched like crazy, and he was glad to be rid of it.
"Sir Hans," he said bowing lightly, "we've located the contact."
The tall thing figure in the chair turned, a yellow glint shining from the trim of his exposed armor beneath the cloak thrown over it. "Oh? Where is he?"
"He is... with the female runemaster, sir."
"What?!" Hans bellowed as his stood, the chair falling over. "What's he doin' there? He's gonna get us found out!"
"Calm, Hans," came the figure on the opposite side of the table. He was cowled, and his figure indiscernible, though he seemed a great deal shorter than Hans. "These... tailed ones are a formidable force. No doubt this is part of our lord's plan."
"But he needs to get us the you-know-what right now. And if he's carrying it with him, then..."
The cloaked figure brought up a hand. "You know these creatures can fly through air faster than fish through sea? They can kill a dozen men before they're even seen. He knows what he's doing. Do not break protocol."
Hans sat back down, growling. "James, I'm in charge of the operation here in Phoencia, remember?"
"Yes yes. I'm only here for the package. But remember, I want this as much as you..."
Hans nodded, stroking his chin for a moment. "Fine. But we should at least give 'im a chance to come meet us... Francis!"
Francis stood at attention. "Yes sir!"
"Slip this guy the password and see if you can get him in 'ere. And get some better glue for you forehead-jewel thing!"
"Y-yes sir!"
-
- Klawvorn -
Knock. Knock.
"Go away!" Duilin shouted, rolling over in his bed.
"Get up Duilin! You have a mission to go to soon."
"Uhh...just call it off, we'll do it tomorrow."
"DUILIN!"
Duilin rolled out of his bed, and got up, he was in white cover-all with red poka dots, he oped the door, seeing nobody.
"Down here." Said a voice from below.
"Oh yeah." Duilin looked down, and saw his imp friend, Rink. "Come on in." He turned around and went over to his dresser, which was filled his several sets of the same clothing.
"So, how was the full day at Ariosis?" Duilin asked.
"It was okay. I might tell you some about it later." Rink replied.
"Alright, so you'll never guess who I bumped into here."
"Valos?"
"How'd you know?" Duilin asked, turning around looking at him oddly.
"He's been wandering the hallways since five o' clock. He actually almost attacked me, but I ran away and the guards detained him, and tried to get him back into bed, but he wouldn't."
"I knew he would be trouble." Duilin shook his head.
-
- Ohtoku City, Ariosis -
A soft wind fluttered around the calm city as the continent of Ariosis prospered and continued to bring its rich suplies to the Gaian armies that stood against the Dark Sovereign, Kronos. The brightly-lit city was jam-packed with supplies and weapons, ready to send them off to the ports, where they were to be shipped off to Tjed, the Arctic, and Helternia. It seemed as though the continent was blessed by divinity.
And there he stood, observing all that flowed around him. The flow of peace before war. As they say, the peace before the war was always better than the peace after. Although battle seemed at hand, the largely populated Ariosis seemed untouched. Infact, it seemed that the war was benifitial to the people as industry and agriculture grew rapidly as the growing demand for weapons and food for the soldiers increased.
"So, this is as they say, the calm before the storm?" Bjendell Mjord, now a human because of what had happened before to him, seemed in the least way human. His skin color was a blue-ish tint and his eyes glowed with an erie glint of green. His angelic form may have left him, as well as his demonic half, but he still retained the powers of each, and was still able to draw upon them in times of need. However, there seemed to be no need for them, so they grew weaker and weaker as they were unused.
"Consular Bjendell Mjord?" a man asked, as he approached Ben. He carried a scroll in his left hand and placed his other hand on an elegant, silver blade, sheathed and tied to his belt. He also noticed that the man had a pack-sack attached to his back.
"What of it?" Ben asked, "What do they need me for?"
"I have a scroll for you, sir. It's all in the scroll, if you'd be so kind as to read."
"Yeah, yeah. Quit blaberin' and hand it over already!" Ben snached the scroll out of the messenger's hands and unrolled it.
To the consular of the general public, there is need of your assistance. You will find that a messenger has brought with him a bag filled with unknown items. The port town of Arakisnav has recently been attacked, yet the enemy of the attack has been unidentified. It is highly likely that the attackers are Kandarinian, although we cannot be certain. The battle has been quelled, and the hostiles were eliminated. However, we have found two strange weapons on one of the enemies. We would like you to experiment with them as you are an alchemist. Find out what they are and how they work.
- Governor Nav of Port Arakisnav -
Ben re-rolled the scroll and handed it back to the messenger. He then placed his hand out infront of him. "Let me see the bag, kido."
"Hey! I ain't no kid!"
"Shut up and let me see it."
"Y-yes sir." The messenger then grabbed the pack off his back and handed it to Ben. He took the sack and opened it. Inside were two objects that looked like pieces of weapons. One looked like the hilt of a sword and was awkwardly constructed with a hole where a blade might go. The other looked like a gun with an unattached cartrige, seemingly empty.
"Alright, kid. Scram. Go back to Governor Nav and tell him I'm on it."
"Grr... yes sir." With that, the young messenger ran off into the distance, running down the road that lead to Arakisnav. Ben took the items and headed off to his house, opened the door, and closed it, locking it up with a key. He took the items out of the bag and noticed two more that he hadn't before. There were two white stones that seemed to fit in a socket on each of the weapons. He placed all of the items on a desk and set out to piece the items together.
"These are definately weird. Maybe those guys who attacked were from another dimension. Either that, or the Kandarinians have mad a disturbing discovery." Ben took the cartrige out of the gun, placed the white stone inside of it, and placed the cartrige back into the gun. The chamber of the gun began to glow white.
"Apparently, that stone is a rune. Looks like somebody weaponized it into a projectile weapon. I'll have another look at that hilt." Ben grabbed the sword hilt and placed the white rune into the open hole at the top. The hilt shook slightly, and a blade of white energy burst out of the hilt. It was shaped like a broadsword.
"This is bad... whoever made these must know a lot about alchemic formations of runestones..." Ben took the weapons and left his house, on his way to Arakisnav, taking the two runes out before leaving and placing them in his pocket.
--- --- ---
- An Unknown Island Off the West Coast of Ariosis -
"Lord Kerseline, the attack failed!"
"WHAT!?!?!?"
"I'm sorry, lord. Their techniques surpassed even our own, and we were whiped out!"
"Well maybe next time you should send some better soldiers than traniees!!! IDIOT!!!"
"I'm sorry, lord! We will not fail again, I assure you!"
"You had better not, or I'll have your ass on a silver platter! Now, get out of my sight, Hyuga."
"Yes, lord Kerseline... I will send the order of the dark crescent to attack them once more. Yet this time, they'll send better soldiers. I will lead them myself!"
"You had better hope the alchemists over there didn't find out how to make runic weaponry out of the weapons lost on your men."
"I hope the didn't, lord. If they did, it would sure enough spell out our demise..."
"Did I or didn't I tell you once already to get going!?"
"I'm sorry, lord. I shall go at once."
"Then go already!"
"Yes, Lord Kerseline!"
------------
-
"Hey. Stop fiddling with that."
"Excuse me?"
"Your collar. Stop screwing with it, you might hurt yourself."
The prison guard scolded Midna as she struggled with her magic-suppressing amulet. It was the tightest shackle of them all, preventing her from even levitating. She sat up against one of the corners in her cell, pondering how to escape. For two years she lived in this stone room, inspecting every aspect of it she could use to her advantage.
But to no avail, the regiment's headquarters were built by some of the best architects in the world. Finding a flaw in the structure would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, only to realize that after turning the entire stack upside down, there was no needle. It was pointless.
Midna gazed through the bars into the main training area of the regiment, which sat adjacent to the detention cells. For months she had watched new recruits become molded into some of the best magic-wielding soldiers in Kandarin's armed forces. This came as no surprise to her, seeing as the regiment was headed by Damien Roth, a masterful user of air magic.
Being imprisoned in this regiment had changed both of their egos considerably. Damien refused to cease insisting that he was superior to her in every way, shape or form, something which she learned to ignore after the first twenty times.
Her thoughts turned to Alex, and how they had not been together since their capture two years ago. She had never heard any word of where he was imprisoned, but she did hear from the guards that wherever he went, few survived the brutal punishments which they received. Regardless, she knew that Alex's will was nearly impossible to break, and the only thing that may have changed in him would be his facial hair (they did not allow personal hygiene during detention).
One downside of being held near the training grounds is that inevitable accidents would break out, especially when training rookies. More than once have nearby cellmates been burned (or even vaporized) by a fire blast, or frozen by an errant ice blast. Midna believed it to be some sadistic (but apparently effective) means of capital punishment, using the trainees' inexperience (of all things) as their executioner.
"Hit the deck!" one of the training instructors shouted as an air blast got loose and buffeted the cells with gale-force winds. Midna welcomed the blast, as the cell had become rather stuffy.
A large set of double doors opened on the other side of the training chamber. Passing through the threshold was none other than Damien Roth himself, wearing the black trenchcoat and thoridium staff of a Kandarinian Captain. Twice daily he would make rounds through the training chamber, carefully monitoring his future soldiers.
The instructor paused his exercise. "Captain is now present!" he barked to his recruits. As if it were a knee-jerk reflex, all of the recruits suddenly stood up straight, at rapt attention.
Damien approached the instructor. "Hello, Sergeant."
"Sir," the instructor saluted. "I am sure you will be pleased to see--"
"I shall make that judgment myself," Damien mused, stepping into the group of training recruits. Every soldier knew that Damien could cite them for anything, and be immediately removed from the chamber, so nothing else could be done than to stand as motionless as a statue while Damien scrutinized them. He wove through the rows of men, carefully examining each one. Much to his surprise, this was the first time he found nothing amiss.
"You do an impressive job, Sergeant," Damien said begrudgingly. "Maintain it, and do not disappoint me."
"Yes-SIR!" the Sergeant shouted. "Men, resume your exercises!"
Leaving the training men behind, he passed by the cells, examining all kinds of prisoners, from those who have lost their will to live, to those who clawed at the bars, screaming of their innocence. Then he passed Midna.
"Oh, it's YOU again," Midna sighed.
"This is a regular thing, dear," Damien said. "After two years I assumed you would have gotten used to it."
Damien adjusted his posture, making himself more comfortable. He had a feeling they would be talking for some time.
"Do you ever plan to do anything with me?" Midna finally broke the silence. "For the last two years you've locked me in this cell to waste away. You didn't bring me to this regiment for no reason."
"Look around," Damien explained. "This mighty installation is set on the stormy Redvik coastline. Alex is more than half a continent away. There is no hope of you two ever seeing each other again. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be of use to me."
"Wishful thinking," Midna shot back. "I have faith that Alex will--"
"You keep telling yourself that." Damien hissed. "Faith is meaningless in the face of unadulterated power. Faith cannot kill. Faith cannot burn villages to the ground. Faith cannot change the face of the world!"
"You'd be surprised," Midna said.
"Alex can certainly try to fight his way out, but he will be quickly crushed. His is in the midst of some of the military's foremost assassins and killers. Captain Vasburg is ruthless, and she will not stand for fugitives. She will mobilize every last speargunner and stalker at her disposal to return his head to her. It is impossible."
Midna remained silent.
Damien, satisfied he had won, continued with his rounds.
Midna sighed. The deluded Captain knew nothing of Alex's potential. He would be here in no time.
Her attention turned back to the instructor, who was in the middle of using some rather colorful language to berate a recruit who had not checked his equipment. Frustrated, the instructor threw a punch at the recruit, who flinched. This resulted in a stray fire bolt headed straight for Midna's cell.
Seeing imminent death before her, she scrambled out of the way as the white-hot flame exploded across the metal bars. When the smoke cleared, the bars glowed a dull red.
Suddenly, Midna was struck with a burst of intuitive insight. Thermal shock! If I can get those dim bulbs to shoot an ice blast over here, the bars will shatter! But how do I do that?
She turned her gaze to an ice mage in training, who was laughing at the fire mage's expense.
She shouted to him. "Hey, you in the white robes! What are you, a druid?! I know hippies who can pick more of a fight than you!"
The instructor occupied with the fire mage, the ice mage turned toward Midna's cell. "What did you just say, you little bitch?!"
"You heard me!" Midna grinned. "Go back to cleaning herbs for a living you pacifist!"
Outraged, the ice mage's hands brought forth a massive blizzard, frosting the entire inside of Midna's cell. Although sufficiently chilled, she was pleased to see fractures forming in the bars, as well as the magic-blocking amulet around her neck. The trinket shattered.
"You just made a big mistake," Midna smiled devilishly. Bringing forth her massive hair-hand, she punched through the bars and promptly hurled the mage across the room with her telekinesis. Satisfied, she created a portal and made good her escape.
"DELLEGAR!" the instructor bellowed. "Leave the prisoners alone, do not let them rile you--" He looked in horror at the empty cell. "Do you realize what you have just done! This is treason!"
"Sergeant, I can explain--"
"GUARDS! Take this traitor away! Also, someone who is not afraid of dying needs to tell Captain Roth that the imp girl has escaped!"
-
- Beach, Mandaila Island -
Vincent crumpled the parchment in his hand, gritting his teeth. Who dares?! He was a high ranking captain! Who dares call him to some "master"? Let alone deliver the message as crudely as through a thrown knife!
He stood, forcing himself to calm down. Obviously the perpetrator wanted to rile him, so he would not allow whoever it was that small success. Unfortunately there were a huge number of people he worked for in the past, the majority deranged enough to try a stunt like this. He'd had his foot in the Dark Empire, Crimson Empire, Grey Empire... It even seemed like one of the things Kronos' stalkers would try, but that didn't make any sense. His M-Grid orb was right there. If he had a current "master" it'd be Kronos.
He returned his gaze to the sky, scanning for that black speck in the air. That was obviously the source of the knife. He'd find him, and deliver appropriate punishment...
"Alfred! We are leaving."
"Right away, sir." Came the muffled yell from back in the vacation hut.
Vincent strode towards the water's edge, brightly colored tropical shirt flapping in the sea breeze. He pressed his hands against the fabric and it glowed, shifting and elongating. Soon it was replaced by his familiar black trench coat, long pants and boots upon his feet.
Still wearing the clip-on shades, he folded his shotgun and replaced it in his coat, removing a small black box in the same motion. He pressed the big red button with a click and the ground began to shake...
Waves lapped at his heels as the ocean stirred. A vortex formed as a black object rose from beneath the surface. In a moment, his personal airship hovered above the sea. An advanced prototype, it was unlike any flying structure ever seen. It retained its black airship sheen with glowing yellow cracks, especially on the underside, but that's where the similarities to standard ships ended. This one was very small, without a deck. It was vaguely stingray shaped with a blue window at the front much like a helmet's visor.
Vincent leapt on top in a single bound and disappeared into a circular hatch. As the ship began to rumble, the zombie butler Alfred followed with an unexpectedly deft leap, carrying two suitcases. With that the thing tilted to the left and rose straight up, then rocketed skyward, a ripple surging across the water.
-
- Arcane Grotto, Forests of Nurngar -
And it is here that a young priestess stood amongst the tree spirits and faries that fluttered about the majestic grotto of magic, of the arcane. She bowed her head and knelt down, both hands connected in prayer, hoping that the wood might hear her out.
"Please speak to me, spirits of the forest. What is this strange catastrophy that is pleaguing our people in the east? Are you so against the civilizations that you crumble them? You show anger towards us, yet there is nothing we have done to deserve it! Unless... unless there was something... anything we have done, I gravely appologize for! Please, spirits of the forest, please hear me..." The grotto's pond rippled in response to the young priestess' plea. However, she encountered something that was quite unexpected on her part.
"You wont get far talking to them like that," a strange voice said from deep within the forest. It seemed to come from every direction, all at once, comming in from all sides. "They don't quite care that much for any hume. Well, nor do I, but that is another matter entirely. Still, I am here, and still more and more humes come and ask us for guidence."
"Who's there?" the human woman demanded, "Who are you!?"
"Heh... and almost always, it's the same response. Some call me the woods, others the wind. However, I am neither, nor will I ever want to be. I am a spirit of the forest. A farie, if you will."
"Then show yourself, great spirit of the forest!" As she commanded, so did appear a small, male farie, flapping his wings as he floated above the pond. He seemed to have appeared as if out of nowhere. He appeared right in front of the woman's face.
"Hello."
"WAH!!!" The woman stumbled backwards in shock as the farie backed away from her slightly.
"Scared you, did I?"
"Enough games! Why have there been attacks on the eastern cities of this continent?" The priestess gave the farie a stern look, with a sharp eye as if she were about to spot his next trick. Although the farie was done with his fun.
"To the west of here, there has been a rift through dimensions. Through the rift, every once and a while, there come through weapons, futuristically manufactured and seemingly diliberately thrown in through the portal. A group of humes - such as yourself - barried this portal in a cavern and took refuge there, as if to build up an army. However, they mistake the weapons for runecraft, as do most alchemists."
"What are these weapons then? How powerful are they? Please, tell me!"
"I'm getting to that. Just be patient!"
"Fine." The woman then put her hands on her hips as if to gesture that she'd been anoyed. "Continue then, spirit of this grotto."
"That's more like it. Anywho, These weapons are manufactured by putting a battery stone into a weapon. The metals from the weapon then absorb the power of the battery stone and glow to signal that they have been activated. A battery stone has limitless amunition. However, if it is overused, it can be rendered inert for a short period, atleast until it recharges itself."
"These weapons seem dangerous... This can't be good. I'll have to let Consular Mjord know right away -"
"Did you just say Mjord?"
"Well, yes. Consular Mjord watches over -"
"Is he Bjendell Mjord, by any chance?"
"Why yes, actually. Consular Bjendell Mjord. Why?"
"Heh... could I possibly come with you? It will be better if I explained this to him myself." The farie hovered by the woman's shoulder as he asked his question. He waited eagerly for her response.
"Hmm... Well, I suppose it wouldn't be too bad. Okay, you can tag along, atleast until I reach the Consular. Then I must part ways and be off."
"Thank you, kind hume! By the way, I didn't catch your name. What does your mother and father call you by, hume?"
"My real name is Myrriam Tonkins, but most people call me Marry, or Tonks."
"Very well, Tonks. It is a pleasure to meet such a fine hume maiden!"
"Are you that bored that you have to practice your stupid farie sweet talk all day in the woods here or what?"
"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything better to do..." The farie grinned malevolently as he floated with the woman, walking down a path that lead through the forest.
"Oh please," she began, "if you're even gonna try anything, then you may as well scram right now!"
"You know, it's awfully lonely in the woods here..."
"Be quiet, you little snot."
"Bah! Don't be so rude, I was only complimenting you. Understand that I've done you a favor already, so you owe me to get us to Sir Mjord!"
"Yeah yeah, whatever. Listen right now, farieboy. If I so much as catch you looking at my butt, or so much feel you graze it, I'm throwing you in a jar and shaking it like there's no tomorrow."
"Please understand that I wouldn't consider doing something like that! How could you be so evil as to even mention a jar infront of a farie! Please, understand me when I give you a compliment, and try not to take it as an insult!"
"I understand alright. You're a sucker for a pretty face!"
"Say what!?"
"Bulls-eye!"
--- --- ---
- Ohtoku City, Southern District -
"Damn this giant city! It'll take me at least three days to get to the eastern coast. Atleast I'm not stuck in Nurngar... that would be maybe... five or six days. Then again, there are stables there, it can't be too bad on horseback... Why am I talking to myself out loud? What's wrong with me!?"
"Sir Mjord!"
"WAH!!! By Gaia, you startled me. Yeah, what is it?"
"We're getting reports that maiden Myrriam Tonkins is west of here, passing out of Nurngar. You said that you were looking for her, correct?"
"Damnit... yeah, I was. What about it?"
"She did have a horse. Might as well wait here for the mean time until she arrives."
"Ugh... blasted sister. Right, I'll just head to the Inn... Right then."
"Uh, sir?"
"WHAT!?"
"The Inn is this way sir, not that way."
"Damnit! Just take me there!"
"Yes, sir."
------------
-
- Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia -
Two robed, cowled figures quietly walked the halls, whispering in hushed voices.
"We've been ordered to give the contact the password," Francis said, pushing the jewel more firmly upon his forehead.
Charles nodded. "I have already slipped meeting information into his pack when we crossed paths yesterday... can you make the rendezvous?"
Francis nodded nervously. "I can."
"Good. We will both meet him."
Francis breathed a sigh of relief, likely because Charles was going with him. "Sir Hans will be pleased."
-
- Field in Central Terian -
A lizardman was clutching a wound on his chest, trying to stop it from bleeding, his sword was broken and down on the ground next to him. The lizardman was fairly large and well armoured, he looked like he would have been a captain in the Dark Empire.
His foe was too strong for him to defeat. He was too fast, too powerful, he never seen anyone like this before. He started to accept the fact this was the end for him, like the rest of the lizardmen he was travelling with.
The lizardmen from Lizaberg were being allowed by the Kandarin to live, as long as they remained in Lizaberg. However a herd of them decided to wander off. Nex, being bored volunteered to take care of them.
The robed demon walked slowly around the lizardman, who was gasping for air.
"Just kill me now..." The lizardman wheezed in anger.
"I like my meat, raw and alive." Nex replied. "And I like to let my meat bleed a little bit before I eat it."
The lizardman tried to get up, but Nex shot him with a lightning bolt and knocked him down. The shock wasn't enough to kill him though.
Several Kandarinain soldiers watched. Among the group of soldiers, there were some demons in KAF uniforms. A steam demon was even seen marching through out the field hunting for survivors.
After a few minutes, Nex then grabbed the much larger creature by the troat, and then partially lifted up the facial cover on his helmet, a deformed looking lower jaw was slightly visible and a large scared up tongue wrapped around the lizardman's neck. The lizardman's head was ripped off and then swallowed hole by the demon. He then crouched down and began manically eating away at the lizardman, chunks of flesh were flying over the place, and bloody was starting to splatter over his mask and robes.
Some of the human soldiers had to turn away, from the horrible sight. But the demons and the sadistically normal KAF troopers still watched.
-
- High above the southern ocean -
Vincent scowled as he leaned back in the passenger's seat. Nothing but sky all around. He glowered out the large front windows of his stingray ship. The tiny airship hummed along, driven by the zombie butler in the seat to his left.
"Perhaps we should return to the capital, sir?" Alfred droned. His half-lidded eyes remained emotionless, as always.
Vincent leaned back. Perhaps he was right. He'd have to check the chart to determine where exactly the Kandarinian capital was to be located today. It was a floating fortress in the sky, much like the Crimson Capital once was, so its location was never fixed. Though they did anchor it down on occasion.
Just then he saw it. "There!" He pointed and Alfred backed the ship hard, speeding towards the black speck in the sky. That was it. Or him. Whatever it was. He'd find out who threw the knife between his legs. See how funny it was now.
The black figure in the sky made no effort to move. It just floated there. From this distance Vincent could tell it was relatively man-shaped. Oh great. Another one of those guys. The crazy flying magic-types...
"Pull in close and keep it steady." Vincent said as he unfastened his belt and made his way towards the back.
"Mmmyes sir."
The circular hatch at the top of the ship opened, and Vincent rose from the innards into open air. They were high-- very high. The sea was just a blue pane far bellow, and the wind was intense. Clouds streamed below. Vincent's black trench coat flapped violently in the wind, his shotgun in one hand as he calmly assessed who was floating just a few dozen feet in front of his vessel...
The floating man was covered in black armor with pointy accents. His shoulder pads were most prominent, jutting out like spikes. He was averagely built, with flowing black hair that flapped in the wind. His arms folded before him and he maintained a proud smirk.
Vincent recognized the armor design as one that was popular in the Dark and Crimson Empires, especially before Retan made his return. In fact, he could even see a familiar insignia upon the side of armor's chest. Vincent smiled slightly. "So what color empire are you planning to revive?" he shouted over the billowing gusts of wind.
The man's smirk widened. "So you came. Good dog."
Vincent's smile disappeared, replaced by clenched teeth. "Make no mistake. I've come to punish you for that trick you pulled back there... Do you have any idea who I am?"
"I know a great deal about you, General Vincent."
Vincent chuffed. "An obsolete title, my friend. I am Captain of the Kandarinian Soveriengty, Regiment 4. You do know what it means to cross a Captain, don't you?"
The man laughed. "You've been given more power it seems, and it has gone to your head. You never were trustworthy enough to command beyond your specific talents..."
Vincent pointed the golden shotgun at the floating man and clicked the barrel. "You've already sealed your death. Might as well tell me why you're here."
"You swore fidelity to Lord Draven. I've come to collect upon that."
Vincent raised a brow, looking over his sunglasses. That was indeed the red four-winged insignia upon his chest. "Draven is dead, along with the Crimson Empire. I've moved on."
The man laughed again. "'Dead' is such... an interesting term nowadays..."
-
//Not much for today.
- Ohtoku City, North District -
"Whew, we made it!"
"That sure is a speedy steed you got there... what is it?"
"It's just a horse..."
"Sure... well, whatever. Where's Mjord?"
"Huh..."
"What?"
"He said he'd meet me here."
"Argh! Blast it, I'm done waiting!"
"Just be a bit more patient, will you?"
"Hmph... Fine."
"I just hope he's okay."
-
- Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia -
Kelmarr stretched in bed. He had to admit, it was good having a proper bed to sleep in for a change. But this whole crazy rune-based island city didn't sit well with him. Maybe it was the crazy runemaster cat-woman mage. Yeah, it was the crazy runemaster cat-woman mage...
He sat up, running a claw through his disheveled headfur. Hmm, if he was lucky, Lerfina didn't get back from her outing the previous night when she went to capture the (also crazy) nightmare demon yet. That Suichi guy, the human who like to drone on and on about nothing, should be easier to dupe. He'd just sneak away. Get to blasted Ariosis and sell the blasted sword there like he originally planned.
Flicking his monochromatic tail a few times, he stepped to the other side of his room and began to re-don his haggard old leather armor. (Humans slept with their armor on, he heard. NOT Skunkulars. Bunch of crazies, the lot of 'em.) As he did so, a slip of paper fell out of his pants' pocket and glided to the floor. What was that? Some kinda dry cleaning receipt? He didn't remember...
He picked it up and read:
3rd level. Fountain. 11 AM.
-
- High above the southern ocean -
Vincent sneered. "Normally I would ask what madness possesses you, but frankly, I just don't care."
With that, he flipped his shotgun up and fired at the floating black armored man. A burst of flame exploded in the air, but the flying figure dodged, blazing forward. Explosions rippled in his wake, but at each one he shifted one way or another until he was directly in Vincent's face.
With a chop, he smacked the alchemist's shotgun away with his left hand, sending the weapon hurdling into the abyss off the side of the ship. With the other he clenched Vincent's neck and lifted him clean off his feet. "Not so tough without your toy, eh?" He grinned triumphantly.
Vincent dangled there calmly, swaying in the wind. The only sign of distress was his crooked sunglasses. "Actually..." He loosely raised his right hand and the fingers took on a metallic sheen. They extended in length twenty times, becoming long blades that pierced the black clad man's chest like butter...
"... I just kept it around for old time's sake."
-
- High above the southern ocean -
The black armored man chuckled.
Chuckled? With blades piercing his chest?
"You'll find you can't kill me with... conventional means..." With that, he reared his free hand back and proceeded to deliver a blow to Vincent's face. The alchemist blocked, and breaking free of the madman's hold, flew backwards as he tumbled over the metallic top of the ship.
As Vincent skidded to a halt, he pressed his now liquid metal hands into the roof of the vessel. Dozens of long blades burst forth from where his adversary stood, climbing skyward at jagged angles. The armored man simply flew into the air in avoidance, retaliating with a spherical blast of midnight black energy that flew from his palm with the force of a cannon.
Hands still stuck in the metal plating of the airship, Vincent pulled up an entire metal panel and held it up as a shield, turning his head away as the orb struck. The explosion pushed him back a few feet, and he nearly teetered over the slick edge.
He stood, hands still inside the metal plate he held before his chest. "Who are you?"
"Julian. Of the Shinryuu."
"Draven's personal elites..."
Julian folded his arms as he floated in the air. "The Crimson Empire is on the verge of conquering the world. Just no one knows it, as we have been operating... quietly... We offer you your former position of glory. Do you accept?"
-
- Up in the Clouds -
Day 1
Here I sit in my dark, private corner, recording my thoughts and experiences down so that one day someone might read them and gain knowledge from them. My name is Elisha Drennen and I think you should know that my life has been tragedy after tragedy. My life is barely worth living and I would have killed my self a long time ago if it were not for the one vital piece of information that I know that could help millions of people fight the coming darkness. Keeping this log is the only way I can think of keeping sane.
About 13 years ago, when I was only 4, my two twin brothers Kraaz and Akran ruined my life.
It all started with a fairy tale - a legend passed on among our people. The legend told of a magical stone called the Majeuri Spinel. It's power was too great for any mortal man to possess, but my brothers thought otherwise. They took the tale as the truth and set out to find it. I do not know much of their travels, but I do know that whatever they faced out there changed them.
One stormy night they wandered back to our village, with weak, crazed looks. They told me nothing about what happened. For weeks they kept to themselves, never talking to anyone else. I thought they had found the Majeuri Spinel, but I wasn't sure so I cornered Akran one day to get the truth out of him. Finally he confessed and only said this: "Elisha, Our brother is dying. He found the stone, but it burned his soul."
A week later as it turned out, Kraaz became violently ill. Many healers in the village tried everything they could, but to no effect. It seemed as somehow Kraaz was burnt on the inside. Seeing his brother in this way Akran fled. Perhaps he thought that this was partly his fault, I do not know. I haven't seen Akran since then and I constantly pray that he is alive and well. As for Kraaz, every day he would have convulsions and cough up blood. Black blood. It would have been better for the village if he had died.
We all thought he died. We had a funeral and burial for him as well. But that night the village burned. Flames engulfed everything. There were people screaming and houses burning. Everyone died that night. Everyone except me and Kraaz. He rose from the ashes like some hideous beast and grabbed me by the waist. He was not the brother I knew anymore.
He took me here - wherever here is. It is always dark here. Everyday I am beaten and tortured, not to mention nightly visits to Kraaz's chambers where the hooded creature would have his way with me. If believed that I will be here for the rest of my life, I would cut my wrists and be rid of this nightmare, but something keeps me going.
What I know is this: the Spinel is raw lightning and fire from the sky. I know that Kraaz no longer has the Spinel, but he wants it back - badly. If he touches it even one more time, the power of it will destroy him. My brother is no longer human. Some humans could survive touching lightning, but only for a short time before they turn into Malanos. Kraaz is King of the Malanos, and they will die if they touch the sky.
This one little piece of information I have overheard makes all of this suffering worth it if someone can use it to kill Kraaz once and for all. Please Akran. If you have found the Majeuri Spinel, don't keep it. Let Kraaz have it back.
Please Akran. Save me.
-
//@ Xorlak's posts: great. I leave, and Vincent looks on the verge of deserting me already. You certainly know how to get me back into the RP, Xorlak.\
- Shuba, a large Kandarinian city - Underground labs of the 3rd Regiment -
The clicking of two people's heels resonated through the dull stone hallway, stretching down a seemingly infinite length. The only source of light was a torch carried by one of them - a Kandarinian soldier - shedding a dim circle of light in a mere 2 or 3 meter radius. There was nothing to see in front, save for occasional side passages - the corridor's walls disappeared into a yawning abyss once there was no light to illuminate them.
-"So, ah... General... may I be allowed a question?"
-"You leave me little choice, soldier. Ask."
-"Uhh... well... I assume you had me come with you because of your... err..."
-"Blindness?"
-"Yes... However, you do not seem to be needing me, as evidenced by your... crafty avoidance of walls... for a blind person..."
The general continued walking, without answering. The soldier was about to open his mouth, but changed his mind at the last second. God forbid something sets her off... He still needed all of his limbs, preferably attached.
Some time later, the general stopped.
-"Soldier, we are at an intersection," she said, stunning her accompanying aide - who had just noticed another break-off of the corridor leading left. "There should be a sign somewhere in that branch-off hallway. Read it to me."
The soldier complied, rising his torch up closer to a small panel on the wall. The sign, in Kandarinian, identified the passage as "Containment."
-"It says 'Containment'," the General whispered - strangely, before the soldier said anything. "That is where Shen was seen last. It is also where his subjects for study are kept, but I believe the cleanup teams already discarded any remaining dangerous creatures. Also, I'd advise you to move two feet backwards."
-"Wh- Whoa!"
Two long metal blades struck out from the wall, nearly cleaving the Kandarinian's head off. Having hit empty air, they slid back into the two slots on the wall.
-"The cleanup teams were slacking, it seems... While I am occasionally able to warn you of impeding danger, it would be best if you simply looked where you were going," she said, pointing to a raised platform below the soldier's feet.
-"Y-yes..."
This time, it wasn't long at all before the pair reached a large room - the first one to come by since they entered the labs. The architecture was strictly standard Kandarinian - tough, powerful geometric shapes lacking any sort of support. The most noticeable detail about the room were enormous glass tubes, most of them shattered, extending from the floor upward. Much of the floor was covered in some strange blue liquid - which Gwen proceeded to touch.
-"It's the stone ichor... It's what Shen used to keep the Destroyers dormant. The report I received stated that all Destroyers were accounted for and neutralized with surplus ichor. But... oh, no."
Something alerted Gwen, as she immediately drew two of her swords.
-"Soldier, run."
- Inn, somewhere -
Eye - check.
Real eye - check.
Arbalest - check.
Rope - check.
Spears - eight; check.
Everything seemed to be in order. Ein washed the grime off his face from yesterday, having just woken up. Some dirt found its way onto his snowy hair, and maliciously kept a good, wash-resistant grip on it. Well, that's what the hood is for, right?
He went down to the tables below, hopefully for a drink or two. Finding no one (other than the barman) there, he decided to wait on Akran and Marshall before doing anything.
-
- Inn, Rivertown -
Marshall's rolled out of bed. "What's goin' on...Aw man. I think I might have drank too much last night. Not good."
Marshall barely ever drank, so this was very strange to him.
"Well, I better see how the others are doing. Probably Duilin's gonna be wondering where I am."
He slowly exited his room and headed down stairs to the tables. A blinding light from the window shone in his eyes, he shielded them with his hands and stepped forward until his eyes adjusted to the light. He saw Ein. And waved at him as he stepped towards him.
"Did you sleep well?" He asked. "We should get some breakfast before he leave. I will be needing to go to fort Klawvorn. You wish to join me there?"
--- ---
- Briefing Room, Fort Klawvorn -
Duilin was sitting at the chair at the end of the table.
"Alright, so who do we have checked in?" Duilin asked Rink, who was entering the room.
"Vaughn, Zimmerman, Lagart and Valos are here. They should be arriving soon." Rink replied. "I don't know where Marshall is though." He hopped up into the booster seat at the table.
"I bet that Aspye kept him back in Rivertown. We can wait for him, before we leave, but if he doesn't show he's got toilet cleaning duty."
Rink chuckled. But then there was a bit of a silence.
"Yeah, so are you worried about confronting Nex again?"
"A little. I'm surprised that the Talonscar would want him back, but apparently before he had a lot of power suppressed. Not to mention he had loyalty issues." Duilin replied. "But Nex knows me quite well, and he's probably going to be the toughest opponent I've fought since Retan. But if we can beat him, then that means the Sovereign shouldn't be that much harder."
"I've heard a lot of rumours about his strength." Rink stated. "Some say he's actually very weak. Some others say he has just a lot of hidden strength. I also heard a rumour he killed one of the High Generals of the Dark Empire, Gorus."
"Gorus? Hmm, actually I'm not too sure about him being killed. But it would explain the fact I haven't seen him at all." He looked at Rink for a moment.
"What?" The imp asked, seeming puzzled.
"Oh, just you on that booster seat. It kind of reminds me of when you were human sized."
"Oh yes, that moment where I was taller than you. That was great actually. What about it?"
"We lost that chemical, the same day. Didn't we?"
"Yeah, yeah that's right. Wow, can't believe that hadn't crossed my mind after all this time. Wow. Well, it was probably destroyed, there was a lot of damage going on in that place, before and after the fight. Too bad, I kind of enjoyed that form."
The two chuckled a bit over it, looking back on the 'good times' of what was actually a very dramatic day.
--- ---
- Regiment 4 Building -
Over the past few years the fact that not only was Vandrin older than his captain, but he had also been with the Sovereignty longer than him. It drove him crazy with envy. But by now he's almost stopped caring. Vandrin had studied a lot over the past years, and actually had a much better idea of what he was doing. Soon one day, he knew he'd take over as captain. He had a feeling he'd be able to outlive him.
He stepped through his lab until he arrived in front on small vault built into the wall. He unlocked the vault and opened it up. Inside was a small vial of blood red liquid. For years he had been studying this, but hasn't been able to make a 100% effective replica of it. But today, he felt he might have had it.
He tested the chemical on various animals and people. They turned into various demonic creatures based on their original appearance and he there dark personalities, he's noticed. There was a murder who hunted people at night, who he tested it on, and upon using the chemical on him, he transformed into a werewolf like demon for a short period of time.
He has always been reluctant to try it on himself, despite the fact the test subjects were fine after recovering from the transformation, other than increased stress and fatigue.
But with this chemical he had plans. Dark, nasty, evil plans.
-
- High above the southern ocean -
The metal plate melted over to Vincent's left arm and it became a sort of kite-shaped medieval shield, the rays of the sun brightly reflecting off its slivery surface. His right hand reformed to normal, returning to its fleshy color. "Do I accept? You'll have to make a harder case than a random member of a washed up organization randomly appearing out of nowhere. Is Draven even alive?"
"This is your only chance. If you refuse, I will kill you."
"Is Draven alive?"
"I ask the questions, science man. You will join or die. Do you accept?"
Vincent chuffed.
"So be it." A black flame engulfed Julian and he sped down towards Vincent. The alchemist reformed his right hand into a long sword that shot forward like liquid. Julian dodged and slammed his fist into Vincent's shield, nearly knocking him off the edge.
"You are no fighter, science man." Julian sneered as Vincent faltered.
Vincent slammed the sword-arm onto the roof of the airship, a loud clang echoing above the winds. "Alfred! Now!"
Just then the stingray-ship banked upward in with a 90 degree turn. Both men were jettisoned from the craft, tossed headlong into the wide open skies.
Falling from an altitude of thousands of feet, Vincent's arms took on a metallic glint again. The sword and shield melting, they became like long sheet-metal wings and he glided away
Julian flailed in the air for a moment before his black aura returned and he resumed floating under his own power. Seeing Vincent gliding away, he gave chase, flying much faster than the man ahead who moved using only the wind.
Then a shadow above blocked out the sun. He looked up just as the main cannon from Vincent's ship opened fire. A tremendous explosion rocked the skies and, after the fireball faded, nothing remained as the smoke dispersed.
Vincent looked back and nodded approvingly.
-
Dark liege Ahriman,
As per the instructions, I write this first report. Indeed, it was not very difficult to get into the inner Kandarinian workings, especially with my Tenient's own guidance. Eris of the sixth Regiment caused a slight bit of trouble, but nothing seriously crippling to your unholiness' plans. I have nested myself in the second Regiment, under the captain Sun. Despite being of a semi-divine race, he is not a very bright individual, and is not suspecting a thing.
I had located the sleeper agent you instructed me to seek out, who is now masquerading as my personal attendant. Despite being a completely new recruit, my skills were deemed to be that of the Kandarinian elite troop - the Stalker. This is, no doubt, due to the Brotherhood's training. Although I intend to keep my Convocan abilities hidden to avoid any suspicion, I must reiterate: the Kandarinian captains are not to be trifled with. When installation H3 was breached by a Kandarinian Stalker, our Convocans had trouble with even that. Although your unholiness has no doubt seen and beaten much superior powers, with all humility, I must say that even one as yourself would find himself at odds with a Captain. Therefore, I cannot guarantee that my Convocan power will stay sealed during my entire time here (especially if I will somehow be discovered).
The first task, too, was perfectly successful. The sinner called Shen has been disposed of. Aside from fellow Convocans, the Magistrate was also investigating most curious creatures: the Destroyers. These beasts? demons? are of the fire element, consisting mostly of some sort of volcanic metal, and utilizing molten lava as their flesh. The despicable Shen kept them docile through submergence in a fluid called "stone ichor". From what I gathered, it is an extremely heat-conductive compound, cooling the Destroyers' fiery cores. In the hours following the assassination, the 8th Regiment was sent to clean up Shen's laboratories in order to commence an investigation. I intercepted their report, which cited one of the Destroyers as missing. Having made some corrections to it, General Gwen (who is to lead the investigation) is led to believe that all creatures are found and accounted for. With any luck, the Destroyer will cause enough damage to her so Kandarin will assume them to be completely non-tamable. Either way, she is in for a surprise when she goes sniffing through those labs... If nothing else, the incident will at least serve to indicate how strong she is, as well as falsely implicate the 8th Regiment. Divide and conquer?
The murder of Shen itself was a fairly ordinary procedure. I concocted a poison of Bittersweet and Qor's Shoelace, adding it to his daily medicine. The dog dropped minutes after ingesting the poison, suspecting nothing. It was too quick of a death for that ingrate. No one will defile the Brotherhood of the Black Dragon! No one!
The next report will arrive as scheduled, your unholiness. I will proceed according to plan.
- Shuba, underground labs of the 3rd Regiment -
The soldier obediently dashed out of the subterranean room, while Gwen took on a defencive stance. It was a Destroyer... but how? The 8th Regiment's report clearly said that all subjects were removed from these labs!
There it is - agonizing pain running from the upper right shoulder down to the left hip. Gwen felt three sharp claws dig into her back, rending and burning skin and flesh on the way down... The force of the hit alone knocked her forward, face-first into the stone floor. Paralysed with white pain, she heard the creature approach her - although large and heavy, its feet barely made noise, save for a clicking sound. A terrible clawed hand grasped her off the floor, breaking several ribs in the process - and another one wrapped around her head. It tightened, twisting suddenly to the side and snapping her neck.
Or, at least, this would happen - in exactly ten seconds.
Three...
Two...
Immediately before counting off one in her head, Gwen whirled about, crossing her swords in front of her and forcefully smashing them into the area directly in front of her. Indeed, the blades met the Destroyer's claws, coming in a leap from behind. The parry took the creature by surprise, and it stumbled, falling over on its back. It made an effort to stand - but Gwen already knew what would happen if that creature got back up. She made a lunge for its chest, and felt a drop-chop from a metal hand breaking her back right in half.
No... That won't do. She tried striking the head, instead - but the blade merely scraped the metallic surface covering the Destroyer's core. The clawed hand impaled her from behind this time, and, once again, death.
That's okay, though, since the predicted outcome of the following ten seconds was coming as quick as she was making decisions - meaning that she had as much time as she needed to find a weakness. After about eight attempts, she finally found it: the neck.
This time, moving for real, she leaped right on top of the Destroyer's chest. Before it had time to react, she struck its softer, lava-filled throat. With enormous satisfaction, the blade slid right through the molten stone, striking directly at the destroyer's core in its head. The creature wailed, its body thrashing in pre-death convulsions. Why, that would potentially knock Gwen off and leave a mark on her clothes! Can't have that. Luckily, she already saw this coming - and leaped off the Destroyer immediately after piercing its throat. Leaving the lava-spilling Destroyer behind, she continued walking forward to Shen's desk.
-"Soldier, you can return now."
-"Yes, General. That was...?"
-"A Destroyer, yes. I will enquire about this incident later. Damien best have a good explanation."
- Inn, Rivertown -
-"Why not. Without good leadership, I don't feel like resurrecting the Aspyes, really. Don't know what's gotten into Haraldur, and don't know what hole he's rotting in right now. Seems like forever that I haven't seen or heard of him... Eh, whatever. I'll be outside, packing my things. You should ask that Akran fellow - the more, the merrier, right? Looks to me like a good guy, he does. Especially having helped us with the Kandies. Right now, we'll need all the help we can get."
-
- Glimmer Spire, Spire City, Phoenicia -
Kelmarr found the fountain on the third floor easily enough. It was a gaudy thing-- some human-angelic figure posed dramatically with a pot through which a small waterfall flowed into a pool. The gem in the figure's forehead appeared to be real ruby. As he pondered how much the thing might be worth, as well as what in blazes he was doing here, a shrouded figure brushed against his left side.
"The red dragon flies at twilight," the human whispered as he passed.
What... the..?
The man just kept walking. Kelmarr flicked his tail a few times as he scratched behind his ear. Wait a minute... that was code talk. Could it be? Of course! A thieves' guild... It would make sense for a gaudy island like this to have vast networks of organized crime. And they were very discreet, as that cloaked figure speaking random nonsense certainly wasn't suspicious in any way.
Why would they approach him though? He slammed his fist into his palm. Of course! He was pretending to be a rare arms dealer and toting around a rare sword... They probably wanted to do business with him. Smirking, he followed the shady man after he ducked into a side hallway. Perhaps he could sell this blasted thing after all...
-
- Kandarinain Occupied Retangrad, Western Dark Continent -
"Hey... you feel that?" The Kandarinian guard rested the edge of his spear gun upon the ground. "You had ta' have felt that one!"
"Wot? I ain't feel nothin', bloke. Ye be sippin' on the rum too much, 'fraid."
"Well, that too... but still, the ground just moved. I'm sure of it!"
The shorter guard rubbed his chin as a light breeze blew, chilling the space between the two gloomy buildings. "Nay. Ye be full of it, bloke. Why we been stationed 'ere in Retangrad, this musty half-crumblin' port city for years, and we ain't felt nothin' like an earthquake fer the whole time. Now stop tippin' the cups an' git back ta starin' straight ahead without blinking, you."
"No... 'twas no earthquake, 'fraid... 'Twas more like... I dunno... the ground beneath my feet just... moved."
"You on 'lixir, boy? Ground dun' move unless 'ere's some giant worm or somethin' underneath. An' we all know giant worms aren't real. Geez... Drunk boy on 'lixir dreamin' up giant worm stories..."
The mud puddle behind the guards began to bubble...
"I'm just sayin'..."
"Sayin'? You be tippin' the cups, bloke."
A deluge of mud suddenly burst from the puddle, reavealing a giant hand that wrapped around the second guard's legs. Both screamed, and the free guard shot his rifle fruitlessly into the arm of whatever creature lurked beneath. His efforts were rewarded by a second giant mud-hand that scooped him up, and both were dragged underground.
Shouts of alarm resonated throughout the town as figures began emerging from the muddy earth...
-
- Shuba, Factory of Dark Science (Regiment 4 HQ) -
The doors slid open, revealing the forms of Vincent and Alfred. A blue robed man bowed before them. "Welcome back, Captain."
Vincent largely ignored him, instead offering a brief nod to the younger and less skilled alchemist as he strode down the hallway. "Adept Mikail. Report."
The adept fallowed in-step at Vincent's side, opposite of the zombie butler as his cerulean robes bunched about his feet. "All operations are on schedule, sir."
"Where is Vandrin? Has he attempted any of his tomfoolery?"
"No sir. He has kept mainly to his potions. Though most off the operations you set up were made with little input required from the higher-ups anyway."
"Good. Inform him he is relieved of his temporary duties now that I have returned, and is free to pursue whatever chemical-nonsense he has been studying."
"As you wish."
The trio turned a hall, their boots clanging upon the steel floor as mists rose from perforations in the metal. To one side lay a drop-off to a much larger room within which giant mechanical contraptions were being hammered together, molten metal spewing about from pipes along the edges of the chamber.
"We have, sir, received one interesting tidbit of information..." The cerulean-robed adept ventured, hunching over as he slid his hands into his sleeves and struggling to make himself heard over the clanging of tools.
"Oh?" Vincent replied with disinterest, removing his clip-on shades. It was dark in the fire-lit corridors, after all.
"It seems Regiment 3 is having... trouble with one of their... experiments. This is unofficial, mind you. You know how tight-lipped Three is..."
"And we should care, why?"
"The general herself was seen entering their underground labs. Additionally we have relieved a notice to increase the security alertness level from green to amber."
Vincent rubbed a finger under the stubble upon his chin. "Interesting..."
-
- Regiment 6 HQ (a tall tower somewhere between the tower of Heaven's Bane and Sigmund) -
Life was not treating Eris well.
A prime-grade Stalker is expected to hunt people down and then kill them in the most gruesome way possible. What a prime-grade Stalker is not supposed to do is sit in an office all day filling out papers. Exactly why she had to finish the Stalker academy before being promoted to the captain of 6th Regiment was beyond her.
As if that weren't enough, there's been an influx of newcomers to the Sovereignty recently. A part of the 6th Regiment's duties is finding and eliminating spies, and with this many people, the whole Regiment has been on its feet with interviews. A lot of the newcomers were from the new ships arriving from... somewhere. What's the deal with that, anyway?
Eris' chain of thought was interrupted by the violent smashing of the door behind her.
-"CAPTAIN!!!!"
-"Yes, soldier... what is it..."
-"Something strange is happening at Sovereigngrad! It seems as if it's under attack, but there are no clear reports available!"
Opportunity! But... gwah. Eris still had to sort a pile of immigration papers, sign a pile of execution warrants, and burn a pile of fan mail.
-"Send Hannibal. Give him troops if he needs any."
-"Yes, Captain!"
The soldier saluted Eris and hurried out of the room, while Eris continued procrastinating on her paperwork, choosing to count the clouds in the sky from her window instead.
//Xorlak, could you give me some more description of the scene in your next post? You may as well take control of Hannibal (arrival, walking, etc), since he's an NPC.\
- Regiment 8's HQ, Damien's private study -
Life was not treating Damien well.
He has to make up some far-fetched story for the escape of Subject 3-4-9, Midna, without sounding idiotic andor less than believable. The choices were there, naturally - he could take the easy road and blame the escape on the incompetence of one of his subordinates, but that wouldn't look well on him. Then again, considering that he has to explain himself to the General, she'll probably know the second he lied... a strange one, she is. A sudden burst of power? No... too far-fetched...
The rustling of a portal glyph behind Damien alerted him that someone just entered.
-"CAPTAIN!!!"
-"What is it, Acolyte?"
-"There is an urgent message from General Gwenivere!"
-"...Give it to me, and get out."
"Yes, Captain."
What could she possibly want? Damien took the sealed envelope, forcing a gulp down his throat. His heart sank as he read the heading - Regarding the 3rd Regiment. His men were there to clean the place, so something must've happened. He braced himself, and gave the letter a quick skim.
The note was concise and to the point: A Destroyer escaped and attacked the General. And who is taking the heat?
Yeah...
-
- Shuba, Factory of Dark Science (Regiment 4 HQ) -
As Vandrin was mixing chemicals at his work table, a messenger stepped into his room.
"Lieutenant Vandrin." The messenger greeted.
"Hello, what's the news?" Vandrin asked without looking up from his work table.
"Captain Elridge has returned so you may return to your regular duties."
"Um, yeah." Vandrin replied. "Thank you. You're excused."
The messenger left.
Vandrin picked up the vial of blood red liquid and then the one he was making, he compared the colours by holding them next to each other. They looked the same, but now he needs to make sure they work the same.
-
~ ~ Near Duillin I guess ~ ~
"Sir, we have unpacked all of the equipment."
"Very good, you're dismissed until further notice soldier."
Repins saw how all of his soldiers were working hard preparing for the battle. Next to him stood a Alibaba styled merchant sitting in a huge cart.
"I guess it is time for my ... payment?" - he meant the reward. He did give Repins allot of help getting his hands on merchant clothing, cars and everything else to look like one - the "equipment".
"As far as I remember you just owed me, didn't you? You haven't forgotten have my dead Baggotiniou?" Yes, this man was a old acquaintance of Repins.. and there was no way he would ever be able to demand anything from Repins when you would know of... their past.
"You bring that up!? How dare you... I just shouldn't aid you! Very well, then I shall leave and hope we'll never meet again!"
The man had a frowned face and looked very angry, but Repins didn't mind. He wasn't that useful anyway. Now all preparations were complete, he only waited for Duillin...
-
- Sovereigngrad, Western Dark Continent -
Tall buildings still ravaged from wars long passed framed the horizon, drearily looming over the dank street corner. It was a bustling market at one point as evidenced by the deep ruts left by wagons in the dirt road, but none of that remained. The transformation to lower class slum had engulfed nearly the entirety of the city. A light drizzle hung in the air, making walking without soiling one's boots an impossibility.
Hannibal idly picked his nails with a dagger. "So you don't know what happened, then?"
The dirty guard nodded. "One moment they... they were there... and the next..."
Hannibal looked up as he leaned against the wall, a flash of anger in his eyes. In an instant he backhanded the guard in the chin, sending him spiraling into the mud. "They're gone? You wretch! I came all this way for nothing? I don't have time to play games with rejects!" He punctuated his statement with a swift kick to the ribs. The lieutenant's clean-clothed entourage of six higher ranking men chuckled at the local soldier's misfortune as he gasped in the mud.
He turned and shouted at the group of Kandarinian soldiers standing in the alleyway. "Who knows what happened? Who?!"
They all eyed the ground.
"You flag command that you're under attack? That you lost two dozen men, but you have absolutely no idea how? Idiots!" He marched up to another soldier and slapped him in the face.
At that moment a blood curdling cry followed by a squelching snap from the outskirts of the group broke Hannibal's tirade. All turned just in time to see a carcass dragged into the darkness of the opposing alleyway by a large silhouette...
-
- Inn, Rivertown -
Akran rolled over in bed and yawned. Where was he?
"Hey there baby," said a pleasant voice from beside him. Akran jumped out of bed in surprise and looked down upon the two beautiful women lying there. His brain stalled as the feeling of dizziness came over him from standing up too quickly. He stared at them as his brain slowly shifted into first gear.
Akran scratched his chin for a second and quietly said, "Sweet."
Slowly, he made his way down stairs. Funny. It felt as if he had slept for days. Where was Ein? He wanted to speak with him.
Downstairs in the bar, Akran ran into Marshall.
"Hey Marshall. I just wanted to say--"
Suddenly Martin ran through the door interrupting him. "Hey Akran!" he said greeting his captain. "Ready to set sail?"
"Uh, just a minute Martin. Let me get my head straight." Akran sighed and sat down on a chair. He rubbed his eyes and flicked away a bit of sleep. After a moment, he looked straight at Martin and said, "I am going with Ein and Marshall. You have been a great friend and first mate, so I am giving the ship to you. You are now Captain of the Shadowshot."
Martin seemed unusually calm. "Alright, Captain," he said saluting, "I will continue in your place." He then seemed a little nervous. "You're not by any chance, uh... well you know..."
"Gay? Really Martin. I just woke up with two--"
"Yeah, I figured." Martin interrupted again. "That's fine. Don't worry about it. I'm not worried about it... oh Akran!" he cried and flung his arms around his friend and started to wail.
"Martin," Akran sighed, "Don't worry, we'll always be friends."
"Yeah, I guess," Martin sobbed letting Akran go, "I guess." And with that, Martin wiped his tears away on his sleeve, saluted again, and proudly marched out of the Inn.
Akran shifted in his seat before realizing he'd be more comfortable standing. "Ahem," he coughed, "So, Marshall... where were we?"
-
- Deathbringer Warship, off the coast of Rivertown -
"Did you get him?"
"Apologies, my lord. He refused."
"Blast. So you killed him, huh?"
"No sir... He... escaped..."
"WHAT?!"
"He-he escaped, my lord..."
"It was a rhetorical 'what', moron. Blast it! How in blazes did you mange to screw that up, you miserable little ingrate!!"
"I... uh... he was using some... unfamiliar technology..."
"Remind me to beat you with a blunt object when you return, Julian."
"Uh..."
Draven crushed the communications orb in his fist, a plume of smoke emanating from the remains of the ruined jewel. "Blast it!! I can't take it anymore!" He held his firsts to the sides of his head, his cape billowing about as the ship's crew avoided him. "Hiding and sneaking for years, building the perfect army of elemental warriors, unkillable by conventional means, and now, now!, the last pieces of the puzzle refuse to fall in place!"
He turned swiftly, pointing across the cabin towards the ship's captain. "Luitenant!"
"Actually, I'm captain, sir..."
"Shut UP!!"
The man froze at attention.
"We attack NOW!" Draven clenched his fist. "Screw waiting for airships! Screw the Crimson Capital! Follow my lead and clean up what's left. We'll overrun whatever little worthless hamlet is on the horizon there first. Next to rivers, or whatever."
"Clean up?"
"Knock it all down. Whatever I miss, at least. This RP sucks without me blowing up everything left and right, anyway."
"Yes, sir!"
A brilliant plume of crimson flame erupted from the maniacal fire mage, knocking everyone in the room on their rear. With a mad cackle, Draven dove through the window and blasted skyward off the sea-fairing warship towards the Helternian coastline. Behind him, the small fleet of warships trudged through the waters as they lumbered after their master.
Draven spread his arms wide, an orb of intense vermillion manifesting within each palm, his face contorting into a manical grin.
"Watch out little cretins, Draven's back!"
-
- Inn, Rivertown -
"So, Akran, you are going to join us now?" Marshall asked. "Well, it would be nice to have another crew member. We are going back to Fort Klawvorn."
"Ooo...Somethings coming." Said a deep voiced old man from the corner of the pub. He was eating a beef stew, and eyeing the trio.
"Excuse me sir, are you talking to us?" Marshall asked the old man.
"Something is coming I don't know what, but it's dangerous."
"How do you know?"
"An old man knows, friend." He then finished his stew and left a tip on the table and left.
----
- Fort Klawvorn -
Duilin and Valos with the entourage of Lagart, Vaughn, Hance, Zimmerman and three other random soliders arrived in the main square in Fort Klawvorn, where Repins was waiting.
"Repins." Duilin greeted. "We're about to head out. Glad you could make it, one of my captains bailed on me so it's good we have a replacement. Now we're going to be heading towards Rivertown as soon as possible. So if you have anything left to do here do it now."
-
~ ~ Fort Klawvorn ~ ~
"No sir, I have nothing to do sir!"
Repins had a straight face and immediately dropped his relaxed attitude.
"All of the equipment necessary for the mission are in that cart. I have taken a few soldiers for the transportation's sake of my own if you allow sir!"
-
- Rivertown, sea port -
"I do say, Luciferairion, that this is in fact a jolly good time we are having right now!"
"Quitely so, Beazlebubudel. Sitting in front of a body of water holding poles with worms attached to them for hours on end is so very fun and also entertaining!"
"Indeed!"
"Why, look at that friendly bird up there!"
"I do not believe that is a bird, my demonic, horned, college-educated friend, but a flying man. On fire."
"And look at the flaming spheres he holds! How very warm and inviting they are!"
"Indeed! Why that one is rocketing through the air directly towards us right now!"
"ARRRRGH!!! IT IS SO HOT MY FLESH IS MELTING FROM MY BONES!!! GRAGHAHGGHHH!!!!"
"GRAGHPHEHHHH!!! MY MONOCLE HAS LIQUIFIED AND HAS BECOME A PERMANENT FIXTURE OF MY INNER SKULL!!! GRABPHPAHAGHHH!!!!"
----
Draven began with a quick decimation of the outer port, a miserable affair of nothing but fishing vessels. Great plumes of red burst into the air as screams rang around the outskirts of the small town.
Smirking, Draven fearlessly landed on the wooden planks of a still standing pier. Flanked on each side by raging infernos, he confidently strode up the pathway towards the town. Now to see if he could finish before his army even arrived... Uprising his arm once more, another orb of flame appeared within his hand.
-
- Rivertown -
Draven launched the orb straight into the depths of the marketplace but his eyes widened in surprise as a black robed figure dashed from behind an alleyway and sent the burning sphere hurdling back. An explosion rocked the sea behind him, sending a spray of water into the air.
A figure stood in the madman's path, black robe flowing in the breeze. The chest flapped loose, revealing brilliant silver metal beneath. A shining sword stood at the ready in his hands, angled downward to deflect another blast. Ven was all business, the experienced warrior showing no emotion is his cold, determined eyes. "I thought you were dead."
Draven chuffed. "I thought you didn't matter at all."
Ven's brows furrowed a bit, but he kept his composure. Without warning, Draven pointed two fingers at the silver knight, firing an intense crimson laser beam. Ven took a quick step to the side and angled his sword horizontally, deflecting the beam with his mirror-like sword straight into the cobblestone street, the deflected energy turning the rocks into a bubling puddle.
(Chapter ends in 3 days.)
-
- Rivertown -
A loud explosion was heared throughout the town. Marshall stepped outside the inn to see what was going on.
"It looks like the town is being attacked." Marshall said, stating the obvious. He said to the other back inside. "Who feels like defending the city?" He asked.
"I have a feeling we won't be able to get a decent fight in, for about a month or something." He added.
-
- Inn, Rivertown -
"Woh, what a strange old man," said Akran as the man got up and left.
BANG!
"Argh, my head!" Akran stumbled out of the Inn, blinking in the sunlight. "What's going on? Who's attacking us? Do you think that old guy had anything to do with this?"
"Akran!" came a cry from the direction of the dock, "They're everywhere! Help!"
-
- Rivertown -
Marshall arrived where the Crimson Emperor and the Silver Knight were. He drew his Magi Pistols, he recognized the man in black and called towards him.
"I wouldn't attack here, Draven. This is a dangerous place to be attacking. You might enrage the wrong people. Not just me." Marshall warned.
-
- Rivertown -
"Tch!" Draven smirked. "You seem exactly the type I'm looking for," he said as his grin grew wide. "In fact, I have a few... tests to run, if your hamlet doesn't mind volunteering..."
Ven nodded at the newcomer, positioning his sword at the ready. But his eyes grew wide as Draven punctuated his last sentence, for beyond the smoking harbor loomed the dark masts of a multitude of warships.
"Great..."
To be continued...
(DAL returns in June!)
-
Chapter 18
- Rivertown -
"Sir counselor! Stand back; we can handle this!"
Ven's two bodyguards, lanky knights with emblems of Tjed and drawn swords rushed to either of the silver knight's sides.
"I'm not quite retired from battle yet," Ven retorted, griping his white glowing blade with both hands.
Draven seemed unamused as he rolled his eyes. With an outstretched hand, a ball of brilliant flame materialized before him. "Knights are so passé..."
Ven's eyes widened. Before he could react, the burning sphere slammed into his chest and he was sent hurdling in reverse. "Gaaahhh!!!!" The orb exploded in fiery fury as the sliver knight slammed into the nearest building, the hollowed remains collapsing upon him.
"Sir counselor!" The two knights abandoned the battle and rushed to his aid. lifting heavy stones from the pile.
Ven crawled from the wreckage, his head spinning. Suddenly he remembered why he rarely fought anymore... "Yeah... make that retired..."
-
- Rivertown -
"Alright." Marshall had his MagiPistols drawn. He had them both loaded with blue gems. "It's been a long time Draven. How have you been?" He asked rhetorically.
"I'd recommend that you to leave. The High General here is very strict on criminals. And I'm sure he'd be especially strict on you." Marshall warned.
---
- Klawvorn -
Duilin had his group all round up. He let his wife Bell know he'll be okay. However he was still puzzled where Marshall and Ein where. Perhaps they were still at Rivertown, he heard they had been drinking at the pub a little too much once they got back.
"Let's just go. I'm sick and tired of waiting!" Valos snarled, waiting in the carriage.
"Yeah, yeah. Calm down. We were just gonna go anyways. I'm sure they're at Rivertown anyways, which is where our ship is."
Valos sighed. "Finally. Who were we waiting for anyways."
"Marshall, and his friends. You remember him, don't you?"
"Marshall...oh yeah that blond guy in the robe. He looked silly in that thing."
"Yeah, he doesn't wear robes anymore. He's got some 'bad-ass' look going on now."
"Does he pull it off?"
"He looks good. But he still talks like a pompous jerk, it's actually hilarious."
The two exchanged a laugh, showing they somewhat were getting along. The rest of the team got loaded up in the carriage and then headed off to Rivertown.
-
- Rivertown -
Draven raised a brow. "Criminal? You think I'm some two-bit hooligan who read a spellbook, huh?" He clenched his fist. Some of the approaching ships upon the horizon opened fire on a trio of fishing vessels in the way, obliterating them. "Well then, we'll just have to adjust your attitude..." With that, he pointed two fingers at the rather bad-dude-looking man, sending tiny plumes of flame directly towards the barrels of his weapons.
(Ah... zero effort, no planning, insult-trading posts typed directly into the reply box... how I've missed thee!)
-
- Rivertown -
"Well maybe you shouldn't be acting like a two-bit hooligan then." Marshall retorted. He didn't seem that scared, which was surprising for him, considering whom he was confronting.
He fired his magipistols right before the fireballs hit the barrels of his guns, shooting two ice blasts which cancelled out the plumes. He grinned, and then held down the triggers to his guns, and they produced a sort of humming sound. Once he released the triggers he fired two large magic hyrdo blasts (like the attack in DA2) which gushed towards the crimson emperor.
-
- Rivertown -
Ein looked quizzically at Draven. Crimson emperor? So that's him? He readied his arbalest, but took no action - he decided to wait and see what Marshall does before taking any action of his own.
- Gros Morne Fortress, unknown location -
"...and forth shall spill the rotted minions of Kronos, spreading his wicked will onward to the rest of the world, for all to serve! Feared shall his name be once again, the very mention of which will make the weak cringe and the children cry! As the god of time he had taken his name from, forever shall his reign keep Gaian in its cold grasp!
The quill seemed to have a life of its own in my hand, writing what I presume to be a prayer to my glorious self... or maybe an anthem? The Sovereign's Will... quite profound, that. Few kingdoms have an anthem written by their own ruler, if any. Will do miracles for morale, methinks.
Just as I was beginning the final paragraph, the portal opposite of my throne shimmered, belching out my annoying sister.
-"Ah, yes, Gwen." My voice took on a venomous tone, without my noticing it. "How nice of you to interrupt my writings. I trust you have a good reason for doing so?"
-"Would I come here without a reason, Sovereign?"
-"I suppose not. Now, out with it. I have an anthem to write."
-"Yes, of course." Unlike mine, her tone was consistently ... hmm, lacking... "There are increased reports of demonic forces entering this realm, likely from Hell."
-"I see." I returned to my papers, only paying half attention to Gwen now. "Tell me, this concerns me... how? I keep you here for a simple reason - to do the things I don't feel like doing. If you come to me every time for advice, what is the point?"
Without looking up, I heard her knuckles crack a little bit. Must've struck a nerve. Oh, well - that woman needs to learn her place. We've been over this, I'm not going to go easy on her because she's my sister. I didn't want her near me back then, and I don't want her near me now. The only thing that blind bat is good for is her skill with blade, as well as tactical ability - and I am not so sure about the latter. Flora Goethe seems to be an aspiring contestant for the title of best tactician.
-"Believe it or not, Sovereign, I do not make a habit of lying right to your face when you ask me a direct question." Now I noticed a hint of strain in her voice... good, that's going to do a good job of melting that cold, calculating heart of hers. "I did not come here without a reason."
I paused for her to continue.
-"Our best summoners have also noticed a slight difference in demons as of late. The differences are subtle, but definitely there. While this was believed to be an isolated incident, the phenomenon appears to be occurring in every type of demonic summons attempted. It is, therefore, believed that there is a new devil residing on the throne of Hell.
"As you may or may not know, the previous lord of Hell, Iban, was somewhat less than cooperative in our attempts to recruit an additional demonic army for our disposal. We have yet to try it with this one."
Attempts to recruit...? And here I was thinking she did not take initiative. This, however, is stepping over the line... just a little bit...
-"Gwen," I began, with an overly exaggerated tone of feigned sincerity. "I understand that sometimes, there is need for overkill. However, please do take caution of consulting me before undertaking a task which involves summoning a mass of otherworldly creatures with the potential of overpowering the entire Sovereignty."
-"That is what I am doing now. So shall we proceed?"
-"Do it."
-
- Regiment 7 Fortress -
Nex was standing on top of the building in the centre of the fortress, where he could see all over the fortress and into the horizon beyond. The wind fluttered his robes and he stood there in silence.
He could sense that his plans were beginning the unravel, but he still had some personal matters to attend to. Duilin was still out there, and he wanted him dead. Abodahon's youngest child had caused him much grief and he was looking forward to causing him pain, much pain.
And Valos, Abodahon's eldest song was also out there, whom is a filthy traitor and must be punished. If it wasn't for Retan he likely would have killed him when he had the chance, but after the Sovereign's Hammer was fired, it's been impossible for him to use his long range sensing abilities to find him.
-
"That's it, you die
Your corpse is mine.
Your flesh, your soul
In my control.
Those who think that poetry is for the weak should be flayed and have their skin used for a poetry book cover. There is nothing better to build one's inner vein of power than by composing poetry. I picked up the piece of paper, inspecting the words written on it. Unfortunately, the paper had to share the same fate as the discarded Sovereign's Will. It just doesn't seem to come out right, I think.
But in either case, what Gwen told me was quite interesting. A new lord of Hell? And, quite possibly, a cooperative one? Perhaps... perhaps there is someone who might know more. I remembered that in the KAF, I possess a captain of the demonic kin. Being closer to the demons of hell, he could offer me some insight.
I quickly wrote down a few words on a piece of paper, rolled it up into a scroll, and sealed it with my signet ring. The throne room servant immediately realized what was expected of him, and came to pick up the scroll. I simply said:
-"Nex, captain of the Seventh Regiment."
- Regiment 7 Fortress -
-"Captain Nex! Captain Nex! I have an urgent message from the Sovereign himself!"
The carrier was clearly out of breath. He had several scrolls sticking out of his belt pouch, one of which was made of thicker, higher quality paper, and had the immediately recognizable seal of the Sovereign.
-"Here you go."
The carrier handed Nex the scroll.
Slave!
I require your presence in my throne chamber. Make your way up there as soon as possible, or else you shall know pain beyond pain! Hmm, then again, you'd like that. Or else you shall not know pain beyond pain!
I await.
-
- Regiment 7 Fortress -
Nex turned his head as the carrier made it towards him.
"How'd you get up on the roof?"
"Climbed sir."
"Quite a determined one, aren't you?" He said as he took the note from the carrier.
"It's what I'm paid for sir. Have a good day Captain Nex." He said, he held his hat on his head as he jumped off the building.
Nex ignoring the plebeian's stunt proceeded to read the note.
"Ooo..." Nex rolled up the note and tossed it aside. "This should be good..." He then jumped off the building and flew off towards Gros Morne...
-
- Rivertown -
Draven's form blurred and he rocketed forward. He weaved a figure-8 around the two blasts of hydrocity, spiraling up into the air before plummeting towards Marshall with a burning fist. He punched the ground, tearing apart the cobblestone street as the earth quaked, a burning shockwave blasting apart the windows of the surrounding buildings.
-
- Rivertown -
Marshall attempted to fully avoid the attack but as the mage's fist smashed into the ground he was pushed back and crashed on the ground and tumbled on the ground.
Dang, he couldn't take this guy on his own and he didn't have enough time to summon a useful monster to help him fight. He'd have to hope Ein or Ven would help him out.
Marshall slowly got back up and fired two more hydro blast shots at Draven.
-
- Gros Morne Fortress, undisclosed location -
"Whenever I paint, it seems, I go into a bit of a trance - it's not explainable by normal terms, but I completely phase out from what I am thinking, and the resulting work often scares me. Such is this time: a strange apparition sat on the easel before me, reminiscent of a yellow pine cone with a large green tree on top, appearing on a table with some sort of an interior in the background. I took off the slanted hat residing on my head - a trophy from a distant kingdom, I believe - a beret, it is called. I wiped the sweat off my forehead with it, and put away the palette.
Just in time, the portal behind me disturbed itself again. I looked over, seeing nought but a dark cloud of mist, and some sort of a towel? rushing out of it. The word came to my mind almost immediately: Nex.
-"Hello there, Captain of the Seventh. I trust you had an uneventful trip?"
-"Quite."
We stared at each other blankly for a few moments.
-"So I don't see any of the whips..." Nex was the first to break silence.
-"No. No, you don't."
Another pause. I eyed Nex for a few more awkward moments, then finally uttered:
-"You are a demon, are you not?"
-"Indeedee-doo."
-"Good. You know of the new ruler in Hell, am I not correct?"
-"Yes........?"
I sighed, and, for a few short moments, said nothing again. Then I continued:
-"Is it possible to make contact with him?"
-"It would require me opening a Hellgate, although after the Sovereign's Hammer was fired, it is no longer that simple."
I did not want this type of opportunity to slip away, no matter the cost.
-"I see. Start the preparations, then."
//checked this over with DM\
- Rivertown -
Ein had to admit to himself that things did not seem to be going right down there at all. He took aim at Draven's blurred form, stabilized his weapon, and shot a spear right at the Emperor's torso.
Immediately afterward, he dashed behind the inn he was near. If he was smart, Draven would be able to tell where Ein was anyway, judging by the angle of impact of the spear. If Ein was lucky, however, Draven would not be in condition to judge at all. Deciding to take no chances, he took out another spear, and with it, started charting sigils in the sand by his feet. The symbol characteristically flashed, imbuing Ein's next spear with a small, but concentrated barrier spell. Even if this one hit anywhere close to Draven, whatever of him would be caught in the resulting barrier would be trapped for as long as the barrier was active.
-
- Rivertown -
Draven saw an object rush towards him out of the corner of his eye just as he lifted his fist from the ground. He spun and snatched the spear by its shaft as flames from his explosion fizzled all around, a burning aura remaining around him. A quick glance determined the object to have come from one of the surrounding buildings, but he had no time to find the perpetrator as he was once again under attack. Continuing the spin, two more blasts of water weaved dangerously past him. He felt the blasts pierce his aura of flame on either side, not striking him but leaving momentary holes in his defense before they dissipated into steam and the aura grew back. He looked up at Marshall and sneered.
"Squirt guns, huh? Nice...."
With that he heaved his arm back and threw the spear forward like a javelin. Once it left his hand, the weapon ignited in a brilliant crimson glow, the radiant white tip surging at Marshall's heart. The attack certainly had enough force to pierce him completely, then enter the building behind him and come out the other end a few times over...
At that moment, one of the landing boats from the dark ships upon the horizon crashed into the pier. "Charge!"
-
- Rivertown -
Ein peeked back down, seeing Draven unharmed by the spear. For a human, this guy was tough - being able to catch an object moving at enough speed to pierce metal, but that is what has been said about him. Though often false, rumours often carry at least a grain of truth within them.
Or perhaps Ein's aim was off.
He pulled himself up on top of the small inn, and laid low on the other side of the roof, priming his weapon and loading it with the enchanted spear. Using the mounted scope on the arbalest, Ein aimed at the Emperor's feet this time, and pulled the trigger, while almost simultaneously pulling out another spear from behind his back with his free right hand. Considering the projectile's speed, it should reach the ground below Draven fairly quickly, trapping him in the barrier field. Again, considering the Crimson Emperor's famed power, it will likely hold him for less than three seconds - just enough time for Ein to fire off another spear, this time without fail.
Meanwhile, the spear that Draven hurled at Marshall underwent a strange transformation. Its tip, made of lead, was not designed for temperatures any higher than normal ones encountered during high-speed flight through the air. The sharp arrowhead-shaped point suddenly turned into a withering blob of murky silver liquid, chunks of it dripping off in flight. The tip was no more by the time the spear was halfway to Marshall. However, it also turned out that the tip was not solidly melted to the shaft, but more of a diamond-shaped inset. Unable to withstand the immense pressure from Draven's throw, the shaft ripped into four rods, blooming like a flower right in Marshall's face //think hollow-point bullet\. Continuing their curved flight path, two of the rods struck the ground right in front of Marshall, while the other two flew high up into the air. If this had happened a millisecond later, Marshall would have been ripped into four distinct pieces himself...
- Gros Morne Citadel -
"Leaving Nex to his own devices, hopefully in preparation for the demonic communion, I approached the chamber portal opposite of my throne. Quickly whispering the destination into the shimmering mirror, I took a step forward.
A cool breeze immediately filled my lungs, a welcome change from the heavy, stuffy air of the unventilated Citadel. I looked at the horizon, which was shining golden colours at me. Before I could begin to enjoy the natural spectacle, the beams of the distant sun became marred with the dark dots of undead wyverns heeding my call all too quickly. The creatures circled around the looming Citadel for a minute before landing in front of me, their riders quick to dismount the rotting things.
Normally, I would never come up to greet a generic patrol unit, but this time was different. The previous watch reported sightings of black ships around Helternia. Most curious, and perhaps dangerous, too - the Dark Emperor has an affinity with showing up whenever one assumes him to be feeding maggots six feet under. Naturally, I'd like to be informed about such happenings.
-"So," I decided to start off the conversation with the approaching captain. "Did you find anything, Vasburg?"
-"No, Sovereign. The ships hadnst landed when we arrived. I believe thems to be on the shore now." She was about to stop, but I guess she saw my evil glare. "...but you told us to come back as soon as we saw the ships."
-"Do I need to spell it out for you, Eris? Get back on the damn wyvern and bring me some solid intelligence. Feel free to stay as long as you need, but know that if you arrive with no information, I will... ah... drown you in blood."
-"Yes, Sovereign."
When the well of originality starts running dry, I get some really weird ideas for death threats."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Whoa..."
Marshall stood there in awe, it wasn't the first near-death experience but it was more than enough to give him a rush through his body after shaking it off.
"Al right, now let's get this started!" Marshall shouted.
Simultaneously he changed the settings on each of his guns by crossing his hands and still holding each gun. He then fired a projectile of freezing energy from one of his guns at his foe and then made a roll to his left and fired a second shot as he was near the ground, angled towards Draven's lower body.
// Aspye style! (attacking twice in one post)\
--- ---
- Helternia, Outside Rivertown -
Duilin and his group began to make their way closer towards Rivertown. Valos looking rather bored decided to start a conversation with Duilin.
"So, Duilin. I see you are still good friends with that little imp of yours, Rink, right?"
"Heheh, yeah. He's a great guy, best friend I ever had." Duilin replied.
"What about the other flyboy, Zeros'?"
"Him...well, he kinda disappeared. I was never sure what happened to him, but I'm sure he knew I could handle things now. I guess he kind of passed the torch to me or something."
"Oh, so he's out of the picture now?"
"Yes, sadly. I mean, I know I only spent a few days in total with him, but he was a great mentor towards him. He made me a great fighter and really motivated me."
"Yeah, so it seems." Valos rolled his eyes, regretting he ever started this conversation.
"But hey, I've got more loved ones now." Duilin continued.
Valos seemed mildly interested. "Oh, really? Perhaps one of the female variety?" He asked.
"Remember that servant girl, Bell who used to work in the Crimson Capital?"
"Yes, yes I do. What about her?"
"I married her."
"Haha!" Valos laughed. "We'll, I'll be damned, the ole' pretty boy finally settled down with somebody?"
"Yeah, yeah." Duilin had a boyish smirk on his face. "But yeah, I love her. She's just great. She means the world to me."
"The whole damn world eh?"
"You bet." Duilin continued smiling as they kept moving.
Valos nodded. "Well...that's...um...very sweet."
The carriage began to arrive at the outside of Rivertown. Duilin could hear sounds coming from inside the town.
"Something's not right." Duilin said.
"Oh great, more commotion." Valos groaned. "What do you suppose it is?"
"I don't know..." Duilin said, trying to hear what was going on deep inside the town. "Pull up the pace!" He called towards the carriage driver.
-
~~ Helternia, Outside Rivertown ~~
Repins was sitting in one of the carriages. He was preparing his old fashioned fire weapon, a slim looking sniper. It was black and seemed pretty old having some scratches here and there, but Repins shared some "nice" memories with it. Two more already prepared guns war hanging on his back. This wasn't all that he had, thick knives were hidden under his coat. These were maybe even closer to short swords, but short swords don't exist, there are only long daggers. These knives however were special since were made of a metal that moved upon minimal temperature change and it would give an effect close to a miniature chain saw. It wasn't even close to it in reality, but it was the best description that he could think off.
He hid his third gun on his back and wondered about this mission. He was sent with Duilin as a support soldier, but he felt special. He was one of the strongest soldiers in the military, always top scores and ratings. But he was just a human and had no special powers unlike the people above him. Repins was told that Duilin was planning on killing Nex. Nex... that sounded familiar. Yes! It was that demonish grim reaper. Repins never saw him, but did hear stories about him. He was rumored to be very strong and even more malice. Maybe Repins should try to take him? He wasn't any weakling after all...
What! What was he thinking? He was only a human unlike Duilin or some other people that were around him. He wouldn't be able to even make a scratch! Well maybe he would make a scratch, but he'd die afterwards.
Repins sighed. But he had to be of some use... maybe he could be supporting Duilin from a distance? He probably even didn't want his help.
The carriage halted. Someone yelled something. Repins jumped out quickly, prepared for any sort of conflict.
- "What happened?"
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Something struck near Draven's boot and he suddenly found himself surrounded by a barrier. (Assuming this is what you meant, Ein.)
"What?!" He sneered as the translucent glow surrounded him. It was the constrictive type-- he'd shattered many before. Throwing both hands to his sides he thrust flame against the half dome until it burst into pieces.
During this distraction however he failed to notice the incoming blasts of ice. A quick leap and twist avoided the first, but the second peirced his aura and grazed his left arm, freezing it solid. He hissed as he clutched it, the heat from his other hand melting the solid encasement. "You've asked for it now..."
----
A flurry of soldiers ran from the boat and onto the pier, marching in two orderly groups of about a dozen each. Most resembled normal humans dressed in the armor of the Crimson Empire of old. A few were dressed in black robes with long golden staffs. The mages began hand motions over the soldiers as they passed, and a great light erupted from the men. The first group began burning with crimson energy, their fierce eyes glowing a deep red as they snarled. The second group shone bright yellow, their eyes a rich gold. Glowing swords, axes, and spears brandished, they charged headlong into Rivertown's innards.
Meanwhile, two more boats crashed on either side of the first...
-
//Sort of - it wasn't that big of a barrier, it would just hold his foot, not encircle him completely. But what you got there is fine, Xorlak\
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Cursing himself for his belated reaction, Ein ducked back behind the roof and rolled off, hopping down on the ground. He didn't have enough time to aim properly at Draven, rendering his attack completely wasted.
He noticed the ships coming ashore a while ago, but now that they have landed, the situation decidedly worsened. The spear currently loaded in his arbalest was his last one, and Ein had no other weapons he could use against the advancing hordes. Even if he did, "horribly outnumbered" would be laughable by comparison to what Ein would have to face. He had only one option left...
Safely disarming his metallic contraption of a weapon, he took up his spear and began carving symbols in the side of the inn.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Something is going on inside the town." Duilin called back to Repins.
The carrage arrived inside the town, and the soliders jumped off, Vaughn and Zimmerman were two among them.
"I think the city might be under attack, sir." Vaughn stated.
"Yeah probably." Duilin replied, hopping out of the carriage. "Okay, me and Valos will look in the market place. You and Zimmerman go check the docks. Take Scooter, Edd and Ryan with you."
"Yes sir." Replied Zimmerman and Vaughn.
Duilin turned to the gunman. "Repins, I'll let you choose who you want to go with, or you can just stay here and guard the carriage with the others."
"Let's go, bro." Valos said unsheathing his sword and then heading toward the town sqaure.
"How do you know where you're going?" Duilin asked catching up with him.
"It's not the first time I've been in Rivertown, plus I wandered around here before I went to your fort." Valos answered as he continued moving.
---
Zimmerman, Vaughn and the others arrived near the port area, where they witnessed the flurry of soldiers running into the town. The group of crimson glowing warriors came towards them.
"Crap, looks like we have some tough looking invaders here." Vaughn said. "But I'm tougher. You chumps probably won't need to fight, I'm sure I'm more then good enough to take this squad all by myself."
He gave off a sporty pose as he unsheathed his sword. "Time..." He ran towards to squad lifting his sword in the air. "For..." He then leaped in the air and glided towards the group of Crimson warriors. "Act...." his sword then began to glow a bright white. "shee-ooon!!!" He then smashed his sword into the ground in the middle of the group sending a shockwave through the ground, knocking down the group of warriors.
He then flailed his sword around and then looked around at the squad. "Come on!"
-
~~ Helternia, Rivertown ~~
Repins didn't hesitate. He always admired sir Duilin, and would follow him into anything.
He quickly saluted.
- "Yes, sir! I shall follow you sir!"
He walked behind the two men. He took out one of his snipers and his sharp look moved around ready to see anything that was about to attack him.
He purposely walked behind the two, trying not to get in their way. Was he a burden or a soldier that was worth taking?
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Marshall glared back at Draven.
"Good. You're listening now." Marshall taunted. "Now fill out my next request." He put his guns together and held down the triggers and the guns began to glow an icy blue and hum slightly. "Masticate on this following projectile."
He then fired a basketball sized ball of freezing energy that zoomed towards the enraged Draven...
---
"Good choice, kid." Valos said to Repins. "Those other guys looked too incompetent for you to waste your time with."
Duilin started to lead the way. The group arrived in the market place.
"Hmm...nobody here. Maybe we should check the tavern area, I think Marshall and his friends were over there." Duilin suggested. "Come on, let's go."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Draven raised a brow, followed by his right hand. The ball of freezing energy exploded mid-way to its target, shaking the ground as the two opposing elements neutralized each other. He floated a few feet above the ground as his cape billowed in his burning aura. "Yeah... you may want to put a bit more effort into the taunts, gun-boy..." He smirked, another crimson flare appearing in his now unfrozen hand. "Or at least put some effort into the facial expression."
He held the pose for a moment as the fireball surged, but then without looking suddenly flung it to the side, where it rocketed straight for the building the two spear projectiles came from...
----
All of the soldiers hit by Vaughn's attack were blasted back and fell to the ground. But soon a chuckling emerged from the group and every single one stood back up, dusting themselves off and grinning. "He he he..." the robed mage cackled, "Get them, elementals! Get them!!" The red burning soldiers engaged the group head-on, swords and pikes flaring.
Meanwhile, more groups landed, and more mages recited incantations over the soldiers. Entire groups burned blue and green. More came that were red. More came that were yellow...
-
- Rivertown -
Ein continued charting, circle after circle, line after line... The sigil had to be perfect in all of its complexity, as the last time he messed it up, the results were not exactly pleasant. The brooding nothingness of the Borderworld immediately popped into his mind. Without rushing, he carefully retraced the lines on the wall. The process was very demanding of him, so when a breeze of air from behind the inn came about to Ein, he was very much relieved.
But not for long.
The breeze suddenly turned into roaring flames, which manifested into an enormous explosion as the main part of the fireball hit the inn. Ein was thrown back, his hands burnt by the searing heat. He landed a few meters back from the inn, into some sort of a ditch dug around it. His consciousness floated in and out for a few seconds, before finally the blue sky above Ein slowly darkened into a black abyss.
---
Faintly distinguishable dots began appearing in the distance. As the little things closed in, silhouettes of massive beating wings began to take form. When there are wyverns, however, their cries can often be heard from far away - especially from a force that large. Oddly enough, the only sound the approaching mass brought with it was that of wind whooshing through hollow bone...
-
//Sorry if I won't be able to post tomorrow, I'm having a fairly busy week\
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Duilin and Valos (and Repins) stumbled across a squad of green glowing warriors razing through the town.
Duilin drew the Iduran. "Get out of my continent!" Duilin taunted as he dashed towards the group. He lifted his sword up and enchanted it with his fire elemental magic and then slashed it through a warrior as he ran by him. The warrior was cut in half from the waist, and each halves began to burn off.
Valos shot a lightning bolt at one of the warriors, resulting in minimal damage...
---
Marshall took a deep breath. "No sense in arguing with an idiot." He muttered. He noticed that Draven chose to attack the building where Ein was, instead. He thought that now might be a good idea to start summoning something. He held his amulet and it began to glow...
-
~~ Helternia, Rivertown ~~
What were these? Anyway, they were the enemy of his country, he had to erase them!
As Duillin dashed at them Repins quickly drew his sniper gun. Jumping on his knees to gain better precision he aimed at the head of a enemy that was planning to attack his commander.
- "Foolishly foolish fool fooling its fooling foolishness!"
Headshot. The pieces of the head flew into the air leaving a bloody mess around the soldier. He ran towards an another one dashing and evading any possibles attacks that way. Having his legs under his crotch he moved them upwards, and stood on his hands making a back jump. The enemy flew in the air and Repins stood again quickly shooting five times in to the air. These bullets were heavier, and and his foe got torn apart.
He turned towards the others, and fired at those who were endangering anyone of their small group.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Draven lowered his hand as the building went up in a crimson plume. He heard commotion from the port area after the din from the explosion subsided. Blast. He wanted to see if he could take the town by himself before his troops even arrived. Oh well, the elementals needed to be tested anyway. He chucked to himself, having created an army of soldiers each immune to all forms of attack but one. Even if their one weakness was obvious, their increase in strength was well worth it. To him at least. They didn't need to know about the shortened lifespan or stupifcation of their minds...
Gun-boy over there seemed to be charging some kind of spell. This one was almost a nuisance... Draven clenched his fist and yelled, then flew back to street level and slammed it into the stone. The ground splintered at once, a crack with spewing lava opening up and tearing towards the summoner's position...
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Duilin shot a fireball at another green glowing warrior. The warrior didn't even flinch.
"What the hell?!" Duilin shouted. He fired another fireball, but it did nothing. The warrior dashed towards him and slashed his sword down at him, but he blocked the sword with 'The Iduran', and then pushed him back.
"Odd..." Duilin thought to himself.
---
Marshall then pointed his hand at the cracked lava spewing ground, and a blue ghostly mist shot from his hand and blocked the lava, and the mist formed into a shelled creature.
The lava had no effect on the shell, and as the lava seized then a squid like creature emerged from the shell, and began creeping towards Draven. The squid extended one of it's tentacles and then whipped it at the fire mage.
Marshall stepped back, but he put his hand back on his amulet and it began to glow again.
-
//I'll keep out of the main event for now\
- Unknown -
Day 2
The Darkness is coming. I can feel it. It chokes the air I breath, swallowing it up until there's nothing left. I am cold. I am all alone. I spend my time drifting in and out of a restless slumber while I lay naked on this rough prison floor.
When I sleep, I dream only nightmares. I see fire burning villages and wasting away the land turning the once green fields into black hellish rocks. It is coming. The end of everything. We have brought this upon ourselves. All of our wars and bloodshed have corrupted the soil and it will burn... I am sure of it.
I am dying. Soon, everything will cease to exist for me. Everything that I have known; everything that I will know will be as if it never happened. I feel death watching me. Waiting. Waiting until I shut my eyes so he can drain me of my life and suck away my soul. And I welcome it.
Death is the only escape from the nightmare that is approaching. It seems as if I have never have had a life. All that was me is now in these pages and once they burn there will be nothing left. Is there even life before death?
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Draven raised a brow. "Eww..."
As a slimy tentacle raced his way, he flipped backwards, stones from the near-miss' impact with the ground flying into the air. He leapt back a couple more times until he landed on the roof of a house. Two tentacles chased after him and tore through the roof as he flew over the monster's head, landing on the other side.
Well blast... He didn't have any lightning or flora spells obviously, though slimy things did tend to die when they dried out... Smirking, he placed his hands on the ground as a large ring of flame shot up from the streets in a perfect circle, surrounding the two. The temperature began to rise...
Meanwhile, the summoner was left unchecked.
The elemental soldiers increased in density as they poured in on landing boats from the ships in the distance...
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
The shellsquid began to noticeably weaken, as it began to give off a dry squeal. However it still seemed to have enough strength to continue fighting for a little longer.
It slowly moved forward, but seemed to stop before it seemed to want to. It then whipped three of it's drying tentacles.
As that was going on Marshall pointed his hand at the ground and a large amount of ghostly blue mist shot from his palm and began to take form of something large...
---
"Okay, I don't think fire magic is going to work. Neither does lightning." Duilin announced. "Valos, try some of the other elements. I'm just going to do this the old fashioned way."
Duilin swung his sword aggressively several at the elemental warrior attacking him. He blocked a couple of the hits, but Duilin was too strong for him to hold off, and he lost grip of his sword and Duilin slashed across his head, lobbing his head off.
Another began running towards him at his left. Duilin faced his attacker's direction and threw his sword at him, impaling him through the chest. He then flew towards the dead warrior and grabbed the sword and pulled it out. Just in time to block the sword of a third warrior.
He kicked that one in the chest and then slashed his sword downwards at him, cutting him through the stomach.
Meanwhile Valos continued to go through every elemental attack, but out of chance it seemed he was skipping the earth element.
"Nothing is working Duilin." He called over.
"Hey, did you try the earth element?"
"Um...no." Valos replied. He then lifted his hands above his head and summoned a boulder in his hands. He then threw it at a warrior running at him. The boulder smashed into him and both the rock and the fighter were shattered. "Owch...Well, looks like that worked..."
//I hope I got that right. Did I?\
-
~~-Helternia, Rivertown ~~
Oh great. Magic. Elemental magic. Repins was a common soldier, he knew no magic.. what was worse, after being shot at, the enemy soldiers came closer and closer. Repins fired a few more times but the when the bullets seemed to splatter his enemies apart... they just disappeared. Then he saw Duilin and Valos talking. Valos managed to kill someone with a rock! But it was a magic rock presumably, and even if Repins would throw one, it wouldn't work.
One of the soldiers jumped at Repins. He quickly rotated his rifle and used it as a stick to put in between the monster and him. The powerful teeth of the beast bit into the metal. However these blades weren't made from iron nor bronze. Repins himself didn't knew where they came from, but he knew they weren't destroyed easily. Or at all.
He fired into the nothingness, giving the gun a massive push breaking the jaw of the beast and slashing it furiously off. The beast fell on the ground and rotated a few times before it stood up unharmed. Yet it seemed that these guns had quite some firepower. Only Repins was able to withstand their firing power.
More of these creatures neared him, and Repins had no choice. He opened his his sniper gun, making the upper and the rifle open forwards, were a bullet pack was lying. With a swift and smooth motion he took out the bullet pack and hid it, while instead a brought out a bigger one. Putting it in he pulled one bullet out. It had the length of a hand and the thickness of a baby fist. He got these once from a black market magic dealer... but those were old memories. Three of these monsters jumped at him, this time they were looking to kill Repins for sure. He pushed the bullet into his rifle, closed it and made a backwards jump. The beast landed on the place where he just was and were about to jump, as they were smaller than him they were faster and their next motion would probably kill Repins for sure...
But Repins still in his jump looked at them and fired his rifle. Everything seemed to happen slowly for him. The huge bullet neared the awful creatures which had no time to notice it and smiled malicefully. Their eyes widened and their pupils became thin. Then the bullet flew next to their heads. Their smile faded and looked down. But they never got to see what the bullet really was. The bullet hit the ground and pierced into it. Doing so it immediately exploded. A blue flame and wave of energy spread itself quickly destroying everything it its path. But that wasn't the point of the attack. The tremendous amount of magic in the bullet got released and entered whatever was near. The bullet being into the ground ripped it apart firing hundreds of huge boulders full of this blue aura around. Together with the blue fire it seemed to be an explosion of rocks, which grew even wider and wider, not only killing the three beasts near Repins, but also many others not far from them. The earth that wasn't thrown around shaken and a bright flash entered the memory of anyone who was near. Repins himself jumped on one of these rocks, the magic didn't hurt people with pure intentions and he hoped the Duilin and well... maybe his friend too, were unharmed.
As the rock was blown of Repins jumped of it to see what the results were.
- "Generel Duilin! Are you alright!?"
He couldn't see him because of the thick layer of smoke.
-
-- Helternia, Rivertown ---
Duilin appeared walking throw the smoke, dusting himself off. He looked around and gave Repins a smile. "Glad you're on our side."
"Agreed." Valos said also walking through the smoke shortly after Duilin. He looked at Repins and smirked. "So, shall we continue hunting down these things?"
"Yeah, but I have a feeling that there might be more than these guys around." Duilin replied. "Let's go Repins. But next time warn me if you're going to use another one of those things."
The two fighters went off, hopefully with their gunner friend with them.
-
~~ Helternia, Rivertown ~~
Repins smiled.
- "Ahah, yes sir!"
He saluted quickly and re armed his gun. Now he was determined to finish everything off that would stood in his and his generals path.
He followed both preparing himself for the unpreparable.
- "Don't worry sir, that attack wouldn't be able to hurt you. It only damages people with impure intentions!"
Even Repins himself didn't know whether that was really to safe himself, or to test his fellows.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
The fleet of undead wyverns closed in with surprising swiftness. The abominations rained on the battlefield, shattering as they hit the earth. About 40 soldiers dropped on the ground from the disassembled wyverns.
Knowing that her arrival was no secret, Eris yelled to her soldiers:
-"Engage the enemy on sight! Stalkers, circle around them, sabotage the ships by the shore! Go! Go! Go!"
The troops rushed forward, save for the five fleeting shadows which appeared to have taken a route around the battle. Eris herself took off her modified protection amulet, and felt its back with her nimble fingers. There - a small latch clicked, releasing the purple jewel from its hold in the amulet. After eyeing the area for a few seconds, she threw the gem off to the side into a nearby ditch. Seemingly satisfied with the gem's location, she placed the amulet back on her sternum, the ornament's three gold claws digging into her skin right away. She barely even felt the pain anymore, having done this procedure many times before. With a confident look on her face, she strode forward to the heart of the battle, her gauntlet crossbow on the ready.
-
(He he he, works for me, DM.
I intended for the elemental warriors to be human, Mikado, but don't see why we can't throw some monsters into the mix as well.)
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Draven dodged the tentacles with a series of elaborate jumps, landing with a flourish. Something flew overhead and he was momentarily distracted. "The stench of death... So the Kandarinians join the fray. Interesting..."
Snapping his attention back to the shelled creature, he whipped his right palm above his head. A blaze a crimson swirled about, condensing into a fiery disc with jagged edges. Arching his arm back, he threw the spinning blade right at the creature's head, tearing through the air like a buzzsaw.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
It wasn't long before the Kandarinians realized how utterly useless their attacks were against the green Elementals. Driven half by fear and half by desperation, most of them fled from the battle and regrouped behind a hill. Having seen this, Eris just spat on the ground.
-"Damn warriors... They calls themselves Kandarinians... Wusses is what they are! I'd kill them myself..."
Her bloated arrogance was soon humbled by a dull *clunk* that her crossbow bolts produced when they came in contact with the Elemental's skin. The green humanoid turned around, and charged at Eris with a sinister scowl. That only served to double Eris' amazement - being invulnerable is one thing, but proper battle tactics should come above all else. The Elemental did appear to have eyes, so couldn't it see that Eris had the tactical advantage? How thick can this thing be?
As soon as the enchanted warrior was just in sword-swinging range of Eris, the latter leaped into the air, landing on the Elemental's shoulder. Giving it no time to realize what's going on, she drove her boot's heel at a high speed right into the back of the warrior's head. The Kandarinian captain somewhat relaxed, hearing a definite crack, and lightly hopped back down on the ground. Damn, those things were difficult! At least this one was dead.
But the Elemental didn't share that thought.
Before Eris could walk away, the humanoid was already up on its feet and charging at the captain's back. Eris made a move to turn around, but tripped: the metal heel on her boot was broken. Seconds later, she felt the coldness of the ground slam into her back. She was quick to get up and compensate for the circumstances, only to be checked by a devastating body blow from the Elemental. Her thin figure was thrown several meters forward, and the force of the attack was enough to dislocate several joints. Just before breaking her neck on a quickly approaching rock, a string of thoughts crossed her mind: it's time for a strategic retreat.
A dark purple cloud was all that remained of Eris after she quickly incited the recall spell. Her body turned into a blob of pulsating energy, rushing as if along a thin string right back to the little gem she discarded moments earlier.
After rematerialization, the first thing Eris tried to do was to breathe - a sad mistake on her part, as it turned out. Two broken ribs immediately let themselves be known, sending a wave of white pain across the captain's chest. Being an agile fighter more than a brute head-on one, she wasn't used to the agony of several broken bones, letting out something of a pained wheeze. She quickly reminded herself of the situation, and set her thoughts in order, taking short, shallow breaths. It was only then that she noticed that it wasn't just her in the ditch.
-"...Einherjar?"
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Oh?" Valos replied, to the comment that the explosion would only harm 'evil' people. "Heh...well, I guess there ya go Duilin." He smiled at his brother.
Duilin thought. "Hmmm, well, we will see about that." Suddenly he turned around and noticed more attackers. "Kandarinians!?" Duilin exclaimed in frustration. "What they hell are they doing here? Okay NOW I'm pissed off." Duilin dashed off towards the docks, leaving Valos and Repins behind.
The general had the Iduran out, glowing with fire magic. "I've had it with you people!!" He shouted.
--
Meanwhile the shellsquid Marshall summoned was spilt in half by Draven's fire blade, and the two sides dried up, leaving only a dried up pile of goo and a broken shell.
Marshall finally finished summoning his large beast. The large creature was yet, his big burly Minotaur.
"I warned you Draven. You're gonna pay now." Marshall stated.
The minotaur swung it's hammer through the air, and then roared at Draven. After the beast finished it's angry war call he then smashed his hammer down at the fire mage.
--
Duilin noticed the large minotaur from where he was, and thought he heard Marshall's voice. He then went over to investigate, slashing away at several enemy soldiers as he made his way through.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Oh dear..." Draven smirked as the hammer surged toward him. He folded his arms behind his back and leapt backwards, evading the shock wave resulting from the mighty impact with the ground. "... such a clumsy weapon. Tell me, gun-boy, do you not have any strengths of your own? Or do you rely entirely on weapons and minions?"
Draven evaded again as he brought a clenched fist forward. Pausing a moment in mid-air, he thrust it straight down, the impact with the ground resulting in a gushing spike of flame erupting from under the beast's hooves.
-
"I've heard that before." Marshall retorted. "To be honest, no not really and I don't care."
The minotaur's hooves were burnt, by the flame spike, but it didn't seem to even notice. It simply stepped forward through the fire and then smashed it's hammer on the ground, projecting a shock wave that flew towards Draven, lifting up parts of the ground with it.
"And frankly it won't matter once your dead."
Meanwhile Duilin appeared not too far away from the scene.
"Draven...so he's behind this."
He noticed Marshall was fighting him. "Think I'll see how he handles him, this might be interesting."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Charming..."
Draven danced out of the way of the impending shockwave, flipping backwards and kicking off a wall before it crumbled to dust. He landed deftly upon the hammer's shaft, and proceeded to run up the handle and the creature's arm. Rearing his foot back as it burst into flame, he aimed a fearsome kick right at the minotaur's temple...
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
The minotaur was struck, it's head flung back and the mighty beast fell to the ground. The minotaur was breathing deeply. Marshall had a worried look on his face. However the minotaur slowly got back, looking like it was totally dizzy and unaware of what was happening, when all of the sudden it thrusted its hammer at his attacker...
-
~~ Helternia, Rivertown ~~
Repins dashed after Duilin. The general was kinda on a rage here, but that would endanger him greatly. He would cover his attacks from behind! He swiftly pulled out a hand gun and pointed it at Draven. He looked at his General as he seemed to halt and watch the battle.
- "General Duilin sir! I'm sorry to intrude but shouldn't we also fight, sir?"
He still was pointing his gun at Draven, but he probably didn't notice it, for it was a small gun.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Sometime between being crushed by the Elemental and unblinkingly watching the unconscious Ein, Eris noticed that her ribs were not hurting anymore. Of course - the high recovery serum that Vandrin commissioned for all individuals lieutenant- and captain-level was taking effect.
Ein, however, did not have such an advantage. The skin on his charred hands had deep cracks, showing bits of dark red flesh. It would be sad to die in the middle of nowhere, especially for one who is, by definition, a Kandarinian Stalker - even then, how much damage could Ein possibly deal in this battle, against five other Stalkers and one captain? Thinking back to the old days at the Stalker Academy, Eris smiled and pulled out one of her crossbow bolts. She used it to prick a point on her wrist, and watched the thin streak of blood turn into crimson droplets as they disappeared in Ein's blackening wounds.
---
Ein awoke some time later, only to find that his injuries completely vanished. There was not even a trace of burns anywhere on his body. The fleeting thought that the fireball was just an unpleasant nightmare was quickly cast off as Ein noticed that his clothing was, indeed, riddled with holes with a dark outline: he definitely was burnt, but somehow recovered. But fate did not leave Ein wandering for long, as he found his fist clenching a very short bolt with an obsidian tip. The kind of bolt that would fit in a small, gauntlet-mounted crossbow.
---
Wiser with experience, Eris definitely did not want to charge into the battle head-first. This time, she watched the band off to the side, seemingly lead by some freak with wings (probably an indecisive angel) fight the Elementals. For some reason, they did not have half a problem killing the warriors. No... this won't do.
After another quick scan of the area, the captain dashed through the battle commotion. The Elementals noticed her, but were too slow, and gave up chasing her after it became clear that they would not be able to catch her. She arrived behind another building, and silently watched the fight between the earthen warriors and their opponents from a much closer distance.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Draven sneered and raised his fist upwards to meet the hammer with a resounding crack. The ground shook at the flash of crimson from his hand, and the hammer head feel to either of his sides, split in half. "Such a low-leveled beast," he yawned. "I've enough of this trifle."
His form blurred and he appeared at the side of the monster's head opposite to what he kicked, his palm extended just inches away and a menacing smirk upon his face. Crimson flame cumulated around his palm and the minotaur's noggin, his aim obviously to summon a burst of flame inside the monster's head and blow it clean off...
-
//Xorlak: how many green guys are there?\
-=Helternia, Rivertown=-
It wasn't very long until Eris figured out what all attacks against the Elementals had in common: they all had the distinctive appearance of earth magic conjurations. Naturally, this posed a bit of a problem: as a Stalker-based captain, Eris knew a million ways to kill a man with steel, but she had absolutely no talent in any sort of magic. Her squad did have a few mages, but they were Cryomancers. In the extremely unlikely event that they would know earth magic, the power of their earthen spells would be laughable, at best. Perhaps it is time for another strategic retreat?
---
Recovered from his daze, Ein took time to reflect on what had happened. The sort of power that he was blasted away by was immense. There is no way that he could stand up to it with either his now-missing arbalest, or even much of his Astral glyph magic. Draven's current musings with the already nearly dead minotaur only further drove Ein to the brink of collapsing and just waiting for the end. But of course, there is always something to be done.
With a definite look on his face, Ein dropped to the bottom of the trench and began charting a medium-sized pentagram in the earth. [13]
-
- Helternia, Outside of Rivertown -
And at the very edge of the town, an angelic figure appeared as if from nowhere, though his ship on the coast seemed to say otherwise. He folded his arms as his aura glowed a majestic light blue, almost cerulian, as if wave after wave from the sea splashed around him. He folded his arms and extended his angelic wings violently, loose feathers flying in all directions, Merely observing the nearby town. He grinned with an utmost disturbing malice, but seemingly playful, and sincere.
With a flutter of his wings, he burst into the firmamental sky, flying down and landing just before Duilin... Ben smiled.
"Guess who's back!"
//Hope that post makes up for my absence. It'll be just Aaron for a while til I get my head straight...
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
The minotaur's head exploded in a ball of fire, chunks of charred meat splattered all over the place and the mighty beast's headless corpse fell to the ground like a tree. As it smashed into the ground the earth around it shook.
Marshall stood there with a shocked and scared look on his face.
"Uh...oh..."
Meanwhile Duilin smiled and nodded at Ben. "Glad you could make it. I've got somebody I need to scare off."
Duilin then started to walk towards Draven. "Long time no see." He called over towards him. "I'd like to ask you something Lars." He then shot a cold glare at him. "What the hell are you doing here!?"
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Ben looked confused. 'Lars' he says? He thought Draven was dead, and had long since been dead, but it appeared not as the crimson figure showed his face in Rivertown. Ben's wings extended in a slight shock, but they fluttered a few times, and off he went, into the sky. He summoned all the power he could in one possible quick moment and prepared a large, white orb with it, nearly a foot in diameter. He then slashed at the orb with his hand and it followed the length of it as it drifted downwards. Before the energy could escape, he grabbed a hold of it, forming a claymore of energy.
"This ought to scare him off nice... blasted firemage."
Ben then grabbed the claymore with his second, free hand and gripped it tightly, ready to attack when the order was given.
-
(About two dozen each of green, red, yellow, and blue-aura-ed guys.)
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Draven flicked a piece of meat off his arm. "Well well well, what do we have here? It's fly-boy Jr. and..." he regarded the much too white glowing figure in the sky creating some sort of sword. "Uh, I forgot..."
He snapped his attention back towards Duilin. "Anyway, this hamlet just so happened to be in strategically useful position... and I was bored... Oh, and key components of my army needed testing." He smirked.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Wow. You know I don't even know why I keep hoping you might change." Duilin replied lightly shaking his head. "But seriously, this just crosses the line. This place is just full of innocent people..." He clenched his fist, and kept his cold glare at Draven.
"Screw this, you're not worth giving a speech to." Duilin snarled. "I'll just have to pound it into you."
Duilin then gave a mighty uppercut into the fire mage's stomach, hoping to send him flying over the houses and into the water...
-
//That's a lot... and, they can't be damaged by anything other than their element? Like, nothing? Hmm...\
-=Rivertown=-
Suddenly, an idea hit Eris. She dashed behind the inn where she was hiding, and retreated to her also-retreating army. It's so simple...
Having sighted her, the soldiers turned their heads down in shame, but Eris was so overcome by her idea that she did not even remember wanting to kill them a second ago. Finally, she stopped near one of her mages.
-"Hey, you... err..."
-"Clavonce, captain."
-"C... Cryomancer," Eris corrected herself. "Give me your M-Grid orb."
-"Yes, of course. Here you go."
As the mage reached for the communications orb, Eris jerked it out of his hand, and quickly whispered a destination into it. After several seconds, she whispered some more directions, and finally handed it back to the Cryomancer.
-"Pack your things, troops," she said with a light tone. "We're leaving."
---
The pentagram on the ditch floor continued to grow in complexity, with some curved lines and circles. Ein was too busy to even notice the arrival of another fighter to the battlefield... [2/3]
-
-- Helternia, Rivertown --
Draven flew off into the distance and crashed into the water. Duilin rubbed his fist.
"Welcome to Helternia, asshole." Duilin sneered.
He looked back at Bjendell. "Alright, we got a problem here. These glowing guys are immune to magic, I think they might only be vulnerable to the element coordinating with their glow colour. There are a lot of them, and I want them all gone. Help would be appreciated."
Meanwhile Marshall thought he'd summon some more monsters, likely magic using ones to fight the elementals. Duilin flew over towards Marshall.
"Where have you been soldier? You were supposed to be in Klawvorn over an hour ago." Duilin glared at the summoner, staring deep into his eyes.
"Sorry, sir. I got caught up in things." Marshall started to feel a rush of fear run through him as he weakly looked back at his general. For some reason he was more afraid of him then Draven. Duilin was always terrifying when he was angry. "Sorry, really, sorry." He added.
"You better be. Now start summoning some shit and get these damned glowing guys out of here!"
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Right... Damn, I only know holy magic. Wouldn't hurt to try my fist!"
So Ben flapped his wings a few times then blasted upwards back into the sky, winding up a punch as he flew after an earth elemental. Just before he made it to the elemental, he threw his punch, aiming it directly at his face. The punch sent him flipping back several feet into the air.
"Looks like that'll do it for now..."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
The water boiled violently, an orange glow bubbling from the depths. With a plume of water, Draven exploded from the ocean, flying skyward as flame wrapped his body. "Blast it!!" he bellowed with clenched fists, "how dare you!!"
He stopped some two hundred feet in the sky, glaring over the port town. With a flourish, he spread his palms wide on either side. "For that, your town dies!" Orbs of crimson light radiated from his hands and he began a relentless, continuous barrage of fireballs in Duilin's direction. Though some careened toward the general, others flow in wild erratic paths, likely to cause much damage to the residents dwelling in the random houses they were about to strike...
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"I don't think so..."
As if from no where, a savage-looking lizard man with a dorsal fin crossing down his back and up his head made slashes Across several of the crimson orbs, cutting their power down. He had a fire-enchanted katana and was slashing wildly across the orbs, missing a few but still hitting a good amount, nearly cutting one half of the damages to the city off. When the bombardment was over, he slashed his katana down to his side. It was Jacobie, which meant that Karma had to be someplace nearby... or perhapse he kept her safe, some place elsewhere for the moment. "Lars Draven, I presume... what on Gaia are you doing alive?"
Ben flew down to the ground, taking a knee and slamming his right fist into his open-palm left hand. A sort of shield began to form arouns the houses of the area. It was considerably weak, but grew as time passed. "Keep that maniac destracted for me, guys!"
(House Shielded at 10%)
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Draven threw his head back in billowing laughter. "How sweet, protecting innocents like that... Real touching. Yeah." He clenched his fists at his sides as his aura doubled in size.
"Let's make a game out of it, then," he spoke through his smirk. His hands burned red once more and he let loose another barrage, burning spheres snaking through the skies, separating and deliberately gliding towards the village dwellings...
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"God damnit!" Duilin roared as he saw Draven emerged from the water. He then gave a very enraged look as he began shooting fireballs at the town below. With furry, he surrounded himself in a golden aura of fire and lightning and flew towards the crimson emperor in the sky.
"I thought I made it clear..." Duilin charged up lightning in his hands. "I wanted you too..." Lightning then began to crackle in his hands. "PISS OFF!!" He then shot a single, but very strong lightning bolt that made a blinding flash throughout the air and made a thundering that echoed throughout the area...
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Very well. Let's play." Two Drannivolkan elite appeared on the scene and zipped around through the city, slashing orbs in half left and right, rendering their destructive power upon the city useless. Jacobie then rushed off with them and slashed up the orbs around himself, along with a few others near by.
"John, Marrik, glad you guys made it... Where's Aaron?" And behind Jacobie, a large man put a hand on his scalene shoulder, then took a few more steps forwards and unsheated a crystal blade. It was Aaron, and he didn't look to happy. He appeared to be in a half-wolf status, His back slightly haunched over and fur all about him.
"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!" The half-wolf then made a great leap into the air and made a powerful push of raw, nearly fully transparent energy at Draven. The energy zapped towards the fire mage and crackled with energy.
"Great... this could take a while." Ben continued to charge up his shield and pulsated with energy, a white aura taking hold of him and slowly pulsing.
(House Shield at 25%)
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Draven crossed his arms in front of his body as both Duilin and the wolf-man's blast struck him at the same time, a translucent red dome appearing around him as he was pushed backwards through the sky. He clenched his teeth and shook his right hand, as if something in the attack he blocked hurt more than expected.
He had let the assault drag on for too long,as more and more reinforcements kept arriving. He pointed in the general direction of the angelic figure and the feline warriors. "Kill them! KILL THEM!!"
The mob of elemental-specific soldiers ceased their random pillaging and began a focused effort on the new arrivals... He had lost some, but estimated a good 75 to be left in fighting condition. Their immunity to physical attacks, and all elements save their opposite color was tremendously useful. He was ready to call the operation a complete success.
After he leveled the town, of course.
Floating some 100 feet above a ruined wreck of a building, Draven turned to Duilin and sneered. "It isn't too late, you know. You could always join me against the Kandarinians. I could always use a good right hand..."
-
Helternia, Rivertown
"Wow, you really are a fool. Duilin, let's take this whelp down!" With a wranching motion of his neck and a snarl, Aaron leapt back into the air at a tremendous rate, but alas, wasn't high enough. His blade, however, just reached Draven's lower torso and he slashed horizontally after him.
"Blast! Jacobie, John, Marrik, hold them off! I'm getting closer..." They did as the angelic warrior told and used their main elements against elementals of opposite elements, hoping to use their elemental weakness to their advantage. Little did they know that they actually HAD to do so...
(House Shield at 35%)
-
-=Rivertown=-
//I suppose 11 days is enough for them to get here... heh\
Once again did the sky become disturbed with wyverns - and once again did no sound come from them at all. This time, however, there were only eight of them. Seven normal ones, and one much, much bigger one (or was it even a wyvern?). Considering the group's small size, they were quick to arrive to the battlefield. Worthy of note was their unorthodox landing, or, more precisely, the lack thereof. Seven of the smaller wyverns bore no riders at all, but held what looked from a distance like silver statues in their decaying claws. At their arrival, the wyverns dropped the statues down to the ground behind a hill, and flew off into the horizon. Or, at least, the seven of them did.
---
"So she told me she needed a couple Augments, and she got them! Why does everyone absolutely HAVE to throw a tantrum when I decide to leave the Citadel? It's a good thing I've personally decapitated anyone who dared to say that I cannot take care of myself, else I would still be fighting off my advisers like hounds off freshly downed dear.
Landing my glorious signature Winged Messenger, I took a second to observe the sad excuse for a battle that has occurred on this land that is, by all technicalities, mine. Pathetic, not even a single Necromancer to break up the boredom! It is an opportune time for me to arrive, then.
Before making myself known, I decided to take note of the combatants in the proverbial arena. There, over by the hamlet, stood some dolt in a white robe made of silk and, apparently, "linnen", holding a protective aura about the buildings. Almost brings a tear to my eye to see my enemies shield my own people.
Then, of course, there was Draven - that twisted mutilation of nature who would be of far more use inside my furnaces - fighting off some half-dog...thing... and another chap with wings whom I'd never seen before. Speaking of dogs, there were some furry beasts running back and forth between the main army of... what are those?
Those are not human, either? I assume them to be those Elementals that Eris roared about for a good half an hour with foam at her mouth, promising Augments to be the perfect defence. Well, I suppose we'll have to see about that.
The rest seemed to be too minor to worry about. With those thoughts in mind, I finally decided to let myself be known."
---
The earth itself shook as the lumbering wyvern-like creature thundered forward into the battle. The seven silver statues came to life, and used whatever means they had available to follow the undead beast toward the carnage, some shambling, some crouching, some pulling themselves across the ground with their long arms. But this was not the whole force.
Behind the frontline, a single phantom ambled casually in Draven's general direction, holding his hands behind his back. While there was absolutely nothing threatening about the way he moved, all life seemed to dim around him - the trees stopped swaying, the grass below his feet was quickly overcome with blight, and the ground boiled with insects trying to get out of his path - but falling dead in mid-air. Several Elementals noticed him, and charged at the ghostly man, wearing vicious grins and brandishing their weapons. They quickly learned their mistake as they stumbled over each other's feet, falling right through him, who appeared to be completely unaware of their presence.
He finally reached Draven, and smiled at him:
-"My, what do we have here? Draven, it is not good manners to get new toys and hog them without letting the other kids know. Luckily for you, I have some new toys here of my own..."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Arg! Why the hell is everyone here in first place." Duilin groaned under his breath. He shook his head at Draven. "Listen flameboy, you can't just come waltzing in here like you own the place. So don't go shooting offers at me after you smashed up part of the continent I'm currently in charge of."
Duilin drew the Iduran and pointed it at him. He thought to himself where Valos was for a second but then shook it off.
"So enough taunts and fireball/lighting-bolt charging/blocking/dodging/surviving. I can deal with the Kandies myself. Just leave..." He then lowered his facial expression even more so "Now."
//Sorry if I missed anything, I'm like uber tired right now but feel the need to post now.\
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Just before the wolf's attack connected with Draven, an elemental shot upward and in Aaron's way, taking the brunt of the slash. The human's yellow aura faded slightly has he plummeted back towards the ground and crashed, but then it restored as he stood in a rage, dashing through the air with a lightning charged sword at the ready...
Draven threw his head back in laughter. "Ha! It seems we have a bit of a three-way here." He grinned at Duilin. "Leave so early? But I have one more test to preform..." Turning towards the apparition, he said, "Yes... I'd like to see exactly what your 'toys' can do..."
He shouted at a mixed group of twenty elemental humans upon the ground, "Go!" He pointed. "Find out what those flying lizards dropped behind that hill and kill it!"
With flaming, frosting, crackling and rock...like weapons over their heads, the group charged out of the town with a thunderous roar.
-
-=Rivertown=-
As per Draven's command, Kronos' Winged Messenger immediately came under attack by two dozen Elementals. It made little effort to defend itself, however, due to its very close proximity to the Lich himself - any damage was healed almost instantly. Instead of attempting to shield itself from the stings of enchanted weapons, the horned skeletal dragon began smashing the magical army left and right. While these blows did not actually hurt the Elementals, they did make it a lot harder for them to regroup: after only a few minutes, the larger portion of the army was strewn all about the battlefield. That is where the Augments came in.
Two Elementals, a Fire one and a Water one, dashed for the nearest Augment - a disemboweled human torso with thin, polished metal sheets neatly nailed into it. The constantly wheezing creature only noticed the Elementals when the latter were a couple meters away. With a sudden, harsh gasp, it raised its head to face the attackers - right toward the Water Elemental's flying claymore.
The blade never reached its target, however. It vanished in a black portal inches away from the Augment's metal-plated head, and reappeared in front of the Fire Elemental's chest. The clashing elements cancelled each other out, and both the Fire Elemental and the Water Elemental's sword crumbled into grey dust. The Augment, making a disgusting, satisfied groan, guided its hand through the portal to close it.
The same was happening across the whole battlefield: the badly outnumbered Augments used the advantage of multiple attacking enemies to easily dispatch the Elementals one by one, while the Winged Messenger kept the army broken up into smaller, manageable groups. Those left without weapons resorted to using their fists to try and bash the Augments' heads in - but not even the fists were safe from the dark fissures appearing after the silver undeads' clawed hands slicing the air. The grey dust evenly covered the entire battlefield, and Draven's army was steadily diminishing in size.
---
-"Hmph, looks like your toys aren't living up to the expectations, eh, Draven?", I mused. "You spend all this time away in hiding, and when you come back, you do so only to disappoint me. Then again, I'm sure that you had not counted on the arrival of the Sovereign himself."
Needless to say, my very bones were shaking in fear around Draven, as he was the only one here who could potentially seriously hurt me - but I was careful not to let any sign of weakness slip by. I have, I have to put him into my own position... Damn fire mage. Fire should be banned from war practise. Fire is the arbalest to my creatures - a weapon that even a green novice could use to slay a hardened, veteran knight. But that's alright.
It is, really.
He still doesn't know about them.
And when he finds out, will he be in for a surprise..."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Draven's jaw dropped. "You... morons!! Stop it! Stop using your powers!" He clutched the sides of his head in rage. "No!!!"
Below where he floated stood one of the cloaked mages. Draven flew downward and grabbed him by the collar. "Cancel it! Cancel the spell!"
"B-but my lord... Once we cancel the effect, then--"
"Do it!! NOW!!"
The mage gulped and nodded, then removed an orb from his cloak, speaking into it. "Cancel the elementals! Cancel!"
The mage made some hand motions in the air, as did several others that were mixed in the city. The auras of the soldiers vanished, and they fell to their knees, very ordinary soldiers once more. However, they seemed sickly. Many unable to even move, they simply fell where they where and groaned.
Draven's jaw dropped again. Then it closed, becoming a scathing snarl. His head slowly turned towards the mage, who threw his body to the ground in a grovel. "My lord! I'm so sorry!! Please! I beg of you!!"
The irate Crimson Emperor whipped forward his right hand. Immediately the mage flew into the air, pulled by some unseen force. "Noooooo--!!!" His scream was cut off as his head exploded, his mangled body collapsing in a lifeless wreck.
Draven's gaze turned skyward, towards the translucent apparition. He clenched his fists at his sides as white-hot pulsing flame surged from his body. "HOW. DARE. YOOOOOU!!!" The scream of rage was lost in the thunderous roar from the fire that engulfed his body. His hair-tie came undone, and the strands poked upwards in spikes. His eyes lost their pupils, becoming bright white. His muscles bulged as the ground shook. Chunks of rock and debris rose from the ground and shattered into dust.
Then with a thunderous explosion, he blasted into the air. The force of his takeoff was great enough to shatter the three nearest buildings (and their respective barriers) and leave a crater fifteen feet in diameter. Wrapped in surging fire, he brought his right fist back and thrust it at the ghost-like sovereign's face.
-
-=Rivertown=-
//Xorlak: Kronos is standing on the ground at the moment. He can't really levitate that much anymore (that's why he arrived on an undead mount).\
"Now, using common logic, it is easy to deduct that the one thing that would encourage Draven the most at this point would be moving out of his attack's way. Therefore, I would have to "bite the arrow", as they say - so I stood still.
There would not be a problem whatsoever if all Draven did was simply charge at me like there is no tomorrow, and, like the primeval-headed brute he is, attempt to bash me to oblivion. But that cursed magic... The unnatural magical flames swirling about his entire body were the problem. To nature, my phase-shift state is just a shadow of my real self in a dimension elsewhere, but magic works in mysterious ways to circumvent this defence. If I stood in a fire, nothing would happen - but Draven's flames, those wicked magic-induced flames... Curse him!
But, alas, Fate has given me little more time to contemplate the fine details of my existence. Draven's fist passed through my body, and the rest of him followed - and, in those agonizing moments, I bathed in the searing pain flowing through me. It burnt yellow.
Burnt red.
Burnt white.
It felt like my whole life was nothing but flames in that time. All my organs felt burnt and scarred beyond recognition. For those few moments, a pained grimace slipped on my face, but thankfully, Draven could not see it as he was behind me. I quickly regained my original, half-caring expression on my face, and slowly turned around. I'm sure that the slow movement made me look majestic and important, but in truth, I simply hurt too much to move any faster.
-"I don't think you quite understand, Draven," I began. "You can not kill me. You can not even hurt me. In fact, if I were you, I would just surrender! Look at this place, and pay attention: there are half-dead people all around me, and my Winged Messenger would be more than glad to take them to a more... useful condition. At that point, once I have a sufficient amount of corpses, you might as well give up. Bones may oft be more versatile than fire, you know..."
Hoping that my speech was demoralizing enough, I silently prayed for Draven to take the bait and not use attacks with more magical force than physical... Although I made a bit of a lie when I said he cannot hurt me, the prior part of that statement was very true. Regardless, I still wouldn't want to go through that experience again."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Aaron evaded the lightning sword attack and fell to the ground, landing nd crouching, bracing himself with his free hand. He then got up and flipped into the air like a mad man, slashing wildly after the elemental that had just attacked him.
Meanwhile, Ben's house shield charge began to speed up as he increased his power with everything he had in him. He pulsated with a blue aura of energy as he poured all of it into the shielding of the Rivertown homes. "Just a... bit more..."
(House Shield at 60%)
-
(Ah! Was confused since Draven was in the air previously.)
- Helternia, Rivertown -
The elemental's power faded right before Aaron's slash connected, so the puny human was torn to ribbons and landed in a mangled heap.
Draven's dashing punch continued on for a hundred feet before he skidded to a halt. The shock wave from his attack continued onward for a few hundred more feet, tearing up the cobblestone street and sending several unoccupied merchant booths into oblivion, the burning timber clattering off the barriers that surrounded the nearby buildings.
Draven turned, still literally burning with rage. "You half-wit cretin!! Reveal yourself and fight!!" He clenched both fists and fumed, but straightened his posture as he realized screaming at his opponent would get him nowhere. "Very well! I shall kill every last one of your slaves until you do!"
The burning madman turned to the side, extending an open palm. A brilliant crimson sphere manifested before it, swelling to two feet in diameter as it pulsed with energy. His intense aura faded slightly, signifying the energy transfered into the orb. With a maniacal grin, he blasted the orb directly at the undead Winged Messanger...
-
-=Rivertown=-
"The feeling I was experiencing now could best be described as having one's soul released from a terrible burden, as I saw Draven switch his target from me to my Messenger. Good, it looks like we're halfway there. Now I just need to continue my mental assault, and he will break. Sooner or later, he will either run out of power, or just break. Or... Yes, that could be a solution also...
In an exaggerated, theatrical gesture, I smacked my face with my palm in exasperation.
-"Come on, Draven. You go for my undead servant and you call me a half-wit cretin? Are you simple, boy?"
I calmly watched as Draven's fireball turned my 15-foot-tall Winged Messenger into flaming chunks of airborne flesh and bone. A hint of sadness slipped by at the sight of my favourite creature being blown to smithereens, but that feeling vanished immediately as I reassured myself that I will make a new one as soon as I get back.
It felt incredibly difficult to levitate after all those years of shunning that ability, but I did manage to get myself about 10 feet in the air.
-"Watch, Crimson Emperor, and do not blink. Do not take your eyes off my power, so it may show you how truly weak and insignificant you are to me."
With a bit of effort, I mustered a fairly powerful arc of electricity between my hands. I slowly drove them apart, rising them further above the battlefield as I went. After waiting for another moment to pour as much energy as I could into the attack, I threw my hands downward, releasing several branches of lightning. The energy flowing from my fingertips hit the half-dead soldiers underneath, finishing them off, and arcing across the dust-covered earth to every other ex-Elemental moaning on the ground.
The moaning stopped, if only to be replaced a second later by the shuffling of the now-undead troops to their feet, gathering their fallen weapons, and all charging at Draven.
Naturally, I knew that the fire mage still had fight left in him - and enough fight to slap off this attack as nothing more than a bothersome gnat. I also knew that the enraged Draven would be very unlikely to see silvery silhouettes skulking between the rows of undead through the aura of flame around him..."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Duilin kept the Iduran held in his hand but lowered it and lightly flapped his wings as he hovered in the air not too far away from the Sovereign who was above the Crimson Emperor.
He watched them for a little while, and was rather shocked with Kronos electric attack. Although not generally afraid of it, but he was the Sovereign, so he didn't want to assume too little of him.
"Sovereign, maybe you could talk some sense into our young friend here." Duilin said in a calm tone towards Kronos, referring to Draven. "I'd really prefer it if he left, and your conflict here seems to be more-so with him then my little village here. Perhaps you could move your fight elsewhere?"
Keeping his calm expressions he enchanted the Iduran with flame, yet didn't lift his sword. He knew the Sovereign wouldn't take his suggestion seriously, if it looked like he was asking for a friendly favour.
"Although if you have a different plan, I'd be more than happy to give you my input."
---
Meanwhile Valos had been fighting off the pawns, but realized that the battle seemed to be dying down. He thought that he'd go check on Duilin and the others so he slid his sword into the sheath on his back and started to make his way towards them.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Draven rolled his eyes. "This? This is your power? Finishing off a few worthless failures and reanimating them?" He clenched his right fist, a brilliant crimson flash emanating from it, then leaving it bathed in a dull glow.
"You are nothing! Nothing to me!!" With that, he slammed his fist into the ground, creating a violent tremor and a surging shock wave that obliterated any objects that were not protected by the translucent shields. Deep cracks bore through the earth and guyers of lava spewed forth, bathing the zombies in burning orange. The lava rose like a tidal wave, spreading outwards and threatening to cover the town's buildings that surrounded the battle...
Draven slowly rose off the ground, cape and hair billowing wildly in the cyclone of fire that wrapped around him. "I shall tear your sovereignty to shreds myself!!"
-
-=Rivertown=-
"The only thing I could find the mind, will, and wish to do at that point was to smirk. Draven keeps following my directions like a marionette.
-"Tear my Sovereignty to shreds? How paradoxically cold of you, Draven. I've worked so long to build it... Then again, the thought of you taking on my entire armies alone is quite hilarious. Unfortunately for you, however, my patience has worn thin, and I do not feel like laughing."
Most of the zombies, if not all of them, were burnt to crisp. One of my Augments - the legless one - was too slow to dodge the blast, too. Oh, well. Seeing their cover completely blown, the remaining six Augments skittered with incredible speed, surprising even myself, to Draven. Within the blink of an eye, six clawed fingers soared up into the air around Draven.
Although I did not want to admit it, not to Draven, not to myself, this is my last measure of desperation. If this doesn't work, then only one thing will. But for the moment, this is my last resort.
Six ripping noises later, Draven was surrounded completely by a black orb, which was actually a series of portals put closely together. I lowered myself back down on the ground, and approached the sphere of blackness. If this fails, he might as well burn me down, too.
-"Say, Draven," I said, chuckling. "Must be a pretty sight in there, eh? Probably making you a little queasy at the stomach right about now."
Then again, who wouldn't fell queasy with six portals opened inside of him? What Draven was witnessing at the moment were projections - no, not projections - what Draven was seeing were his own organs, beating, throbbing and pulsing inside his body, visible through the exit portals all around him.
-"Come on," I said, but almost without me noticing, my voice filled with victorious rage. "Come ON, DRAVEN! DO IT! USE YOUR CUTE LITTLE FIRE BLAST NOW AND BURN YOURSELF FROM INSIDE!!!
"Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you burnt yourself so much already that your own organs have become living chunks of asbestos. Regardless, I'm sure even you can see my Augments' fingers at the ready to claw your heart from your body and feed it to your dead corpse. Trust me - they don't look it, but they can move faster than you can blink. If you as much as think suspicious thoughts, they will turn your body into an empty husk worth only of standing as a stuffed trophy in my throne room. So," I changed my tone to that of soothing false sincerity. "Why don't you cooperate?"
Taking a momentary break from Draven, I turned to that winged fellow who was now shouting something at me.
Wait....
I know this clown. He's a High General from the Gaian Federation, Duilin!
-"I see two problems with your request, Federation lackey," I shouted back. "One: you'd have to be abnormally thick not to understand that I'm going nowhere until I subdue this ........ how you say? This cretin, so don't even bother asking! And second, what do you mean: your little village? My dear errand-boy, this land has been mine since a year ago. Who are you to tell me to get off my own land? In fact, if I were you, I'd leave right about now. The clean-up crews are going to be arriving here in... about ten minutes. So unless you don't understand the concept of a "clean-up crew", I would like yourself removed from my property as fast as your legs can take you. And if this village doesn't give you peace of mind, you have my word that no harm will come to it!"
Who am I to destroy valuable real estate?"
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Duilin's calm expression lowered back to his annoyed glare. "I'll take that as a no." He then twirled the Iduran around, leaving a streak of flame as he moved the blade. "Guess Duilin's is going to have to burn things now."
He then dashed in the air, as if he were on ground, towards the necromancer and slashed his fiery blade right around his foe's waist...
-
(Gah! No time to post. Well, now I've got time I suppose...)
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Damn, hit him when it didn't hurt..." Aaron swiftly jumped out of the field of battle just before Draven's attack against the undead that roamed around, as he was in their midst. He landed serenely upon the ground near Ben. Sheathing his sword, he turned to face the angel, who was busy creating the shields that protected the city... or rather attempted to protect it.
"How d'you figure we kill these guys? There in a calibur beyond our own."
"True enough, even gods have weakness and faults. You're going to want a paladin to fight the necro. As for the flamer up there, you'll want an ice mage, or a weapon of that persuasion."
"Riiiight... So what you're saying is that we're screwd right now?"
"Basically. Well, the shield is almost up. I'm still working on it though."
(House Shield at 85%)
---
A loud buzzing noise could be heard in the distance of Rivertown. It sounded odd... and soon enough, the source of that noise was found as four small airships landed in the outskirts of the city. Lone behold, there were two ice dragons and an army of Paladins under Doriana's command. The two ice dragons? Justin and Tiberius. The army all stampeded for the city and got through the gates, to find that there were but two major enemies left...
Doriana grabbed her enchanted silver broadsword and held it in front of her, at the ready. Duilin would no doubt be glad for the reinforcements. The paladins weren't quite strong enough to take down a 'necromancer' but anything he could conjure up would be history. They all held silver weapons and knew a few select light spells. They wore the Dranniville Crusader armor; Heavy silver chainmail and an overlay of Silver plating with the double star insignia etched into the armor.
Justin and Tiberius flew up high into the air, flapping a good 50 feet or so away from Draven. They awaited Duilin's command... The army of paladins prepared their armor and weapons for an attack upon Kronos, the necromancer, as well as anything else that might get in the way.
(hope that makes up for a few days)
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
No response came from the black orb. Instead, it collapsed.
With the force of an avalanche, the black sphere collapsed to the size of a grain of dust. Winds gailed around as air sucked into the void, followed by stones and boulders of debris. A tree uprooted and twisted in the air, before squeezing into the tiny space. The billowing winds grew and grew. Hungrily, the black hole drank all matter it could grasp...
-
-=Rivertown=-
//Was the attack too cheap, Xorlak?\
"I blinked several times before... before still having no idea what has happened. This kind of procedure was preformed successfully many times prior to this, but nothing like this... has ever occurred. The physical pull of the vortex did not phase me, of course, but at that time, I couldn't see Duilin rushing up behind me. I only realized that something was wrong when a burning streak slashed through my ethereal self, drowning me in another ocean of pain. I felt my body send my arms flying in surprise, and finally, the screaming agony threw me out of my perplexed state.
Scowling, I hobbled around to face my foe... until realizing that it was too late. The amount of magic I absorbed now, combined with Draven's charge, was too much for me to sustain. Flashing memories of books read in what seemed like distant past whispered to me of mighty heroes defying their mortal wounds to complete the deciding task, but one look at my hands confirmed my fears. My extremities began covering in what seemed to be a silver web, its strands rending my skin and turning my flesh to dust. My feet... they were disintegrating, too. I fell to my knees, for the first time in thirty-five years.
-"Bitch," I hoarsely groaned, mustering all the strength I had left. "I refuse to accept this..."
And with those worlds, I felt myself being pulled from this world.
Note to self: next time you go hunting for an overpowered psychopath, bring at least two fully armed Regiments with you."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"That can't be good..." Aaron said as he saw the black hole take in all it could. He braced himself upon the stone walls of a nearby building, sheathing his sword and using two hands to grab hold of it. Hopefully, the foundation of the building would be strong enough to last... at least long enough for him to think of a plan.
"Done!" Ben exclaimed as the house shield was finished. Nothing hostile could possibly penetrate through those barriers now. But that was another matter now, for a new problem arose... they would be sucked into the black hole if he didn't think of something, and quick. He flew into the air and began to ponder, rushing to think of something to do.
"I've got a plan, and it just might work..." The angel brought both his hands together and aimed them at the black hole that engulfed everything in its wake. He began to charge energy in his hands, aiming for the black hole.
(charging, post 1 of 4)
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
Duilin chuckled.
"Wow, now I know how Draven felt when he first met me." He thought to himself.
"Wow, this is funny. I could finish you off right now. The mighty sovereign down on his knees. I hope for your sake that was I lucky strike I made." Duilin stated, still smiling.
He re-enchanted the fire in the Iduran, scorching a patch of the ground below it, leaving a vaguely diamond shaped burn mark.
"Now you're probably expecting the hero to go through one of those moral dilemmas on whether or not he should finish off the helpless villain, but the thing is I'm not that kind of guy. If I have to chance to remove an error of the world like you I take it."
He lifted up the Iduran, but then the force of the black hole began to pull him and a voice inside of him was shouting at him to seal the black hole right away before it sucked in the entire town. There wasn't going to be enough time for Bjendell to do it himself.
"Damnit..." He sheathed the Iduran, extinguishing the flame on the blade, and pointed his hands at the black hole charging energy.
(charging, post 2 of 4)
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Leave that choice to me, Duilin," General Doriana said after pointing the tip of her broadsword at Kronos. Her cape fluttered up behind her as she felt the pull of the black hole, but was far enough away from it not to be sucked in. "Time to finish this, once and for all!" She charged up a holy light spell in her blade and threw the sword directly at Kronos, flying through the air at break-neck speed, aimed right for his heart.
"Thanks, Duilin." Ben said as he continued to charge energy in his hands. It glowed a powerful shade of blue, pulsing in rythum with his heartbeat. He was exhausting himself to his dire limits as he charged up a shield to protect the city, and now this... but he would keep going, no matter what.
Aaron looked up at the two in the sky. He couldn't fly, but he offered what little help he could by charging up energy of his own and aiming it at the black hole, some 30 feet beneath Duilin and Ben. "I'm not done yet..."
Justin and Tiberius both shot blasts of ice energy into the black hole, changing the temperature around them dramatically. It was a great beam of ice that combined and shot into the hole, perhapse delaying the matter absorption, or rather consumption.
(charging, post 3 of 4)
-
//Screw you, Drannic. I had an enormous post written with Kronos running off from Duilin, I go to post it, and then I see your post. Great, now Kronos dies and I have to re-write the post. Razz\
-=Rivertown=-
"At this point, I had stopped feeling pain completely. This allowed me to perform a range of activities, as my mind was functioning a lot better without the useless feeling of pain clogging it up. First off, that gal's head was probably used as an anvil in her home town, what with that thickness of the skull and all. I suppose she was not paying attention to the multitude of physical attacks that had no effect on me. The fact that she enchanted her attack with holy word before striking almost saves the day, but I guess she missed the little detail that only fire magic - the unnatural fire magic - had any effect on me. So what do I do?
Why, I help her, of course.
I swiftly re-attuned back to this dimension, letting the sword strike my flesh instead of empty air. The holy magic resonated with my Lich nature, and I felt the web of disintegration explode within me, upon me, and around me. In only a few seconds, there was nothing left of my body, and all I saw was blackness.
I now see the error of my ways.
Yes, it has become very clear to me...
You see, dear reader, I have a bad habit of assuming that people who attack me are, in their nature, quite stupid. What I now understand is that all of them are really, sadly quite stupid. The question that defies all logic is how anyone could have missed the minor detail that I, a man with a continent-sized empire, even thought of going out into the field alone and by myself. So alright - fine - this particular group I was engaging was born with a gift of ignorance. But how, on this earth, could even THEY miss the fact that I lowered myself right next to Draven, and despite the obvious danger of being close to someone like that, I stayed there up until the very end?
I pondered these questions while arising from my long-decayed human corpse, hidden in my own dimension. Perhaps those fools could be forgiven for their apparent stupidity... After all, I am the very first Lich they have ever fought, and likely to be the very last one they will ever fight. There is only one way to kill me, and to my knowledge, I am the only one who knows this way.
My inner sanctum - the Carcer Necris - looked exactly the way it did when it popped into existence as soon as I became a Lich. A stone altar slab with my skeleton lying on it, adorned by the armour I wore in life. The metal plates of the armour were dimly lit by two ever-burning black candles on either side of the altar. The whole thing was located in a fairly simple room made entirely of stone, the walls covered in black pentagrams. Upon approaching one of these, a dark portal manifested in the stone. A gateway back to Gaian..."
-
-- Helternia, Rivertown --
With enough energy charged, Duilin blasted a beam of golden energy from his hands into the black hole, which then began to move in the opposite direction, pushing things away from it. Duilin pushed himself forward and continued pouring his energy into it, until the force was stopped and there was peace in the atmosphere once again.
"Phheww..." Duilin regained his breath. He then looked at the others. "I wouldn't be rejoicing just yet. I've got a one of those feelings."
He scanned the area and saw Valos was about to arrive. "Ahh...finally."
-
-=Rivertown=-
Kronos' "clean-up crew" - a rather large horde of Undead creatures arriving by way of wyverns - was already arriving at the horizon when the Lich was struck down. As soon as the tyrant's corpse disintegrated into dust, however, the entire Undead force fell to the earth and broke apart. The failure of the crew served as a confirmation to the Gaian Federation forces on the battlefield that Kronos was now gone - and, as such, Duilin's comment caught the attention of one of Doriana's paladins.
-"Sorry, sir," the paladin yelled amidst the cheers of Federation fighters, "but I really think that the Kandie leader is dead. As paladins, we study all various forms of Undead, including Liches. That silver web effect you've seen is the disintegration of his ether body: the very essence of a Lich. He's gone for good, sir."
Another paladin appeared to take Duilin's side.
-"You miss a fairly important fact, Francis," he spoke to the other paladin, "that before Kronos only one Lich has ever been in existance, and, while being fairly similar to Kronos in scope of power, he could not perform phase-shift."
-"I don't see how it matters," Francis retorted, "as if you've been paying attention, you would notice that his phase-shift ran out just prior to General Doriana's sword striking him. Then it's simply a matter of principle and magnitude: an Undead creature Kronos' size of any power and any kind can not withstand a direct Holy Word-imbued assault. Kronos is dead, it's over."
-"So you really do earn your pay here, Francis," the other paladin chuckled.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
//My bad. You don't have to get mad, though... Razz
"I don't think that's the last we'll be seeing of him... A lich isn't as easy to kill as you'd think. He may come back; there's a strong possibility. But we've delayed him for now, at least." Doriana turned and walked towards Duilin. "What now, high general?"
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
The black hole blipped out of existence with a sucking sound as the golden energy struck it. The cyclone of debris ceased and it rained stones and wood for a moment as the skies cleared.... the crimson skies...
All seemed peaceful at last amongst the tattered town. The burning sun shone brightly above. And it was hot.
Very hot.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Well, I'm sure he's dead." Duilin replied to the Paladin. "What I mean, I got a feeling that an army of million pissed off zombies is gonna run in here and start smashing up the place."
He then noticed the clean-up crew.
"See look I was...." He then noticed that they were in fact falling into the ocean below. "Well, how about that." Duilin stated. "Shame I didn't take the chance to get glory."
He turned to Doriana. "Thanks for the help. We were about to head out on a mission, but then all the commotion happened. I'm still worried there might be a second attack, perhaps you could leave your paladins here to guard, they seem pretty skilled and plentiful. Not that my troops are weak, they're actually really tough, I just don't have a lot of them."
Valos arrived. "Sorry I missed most of the action. I noticed Kronos was here, and another mage? Who was he?"
"It was a demonic mage." Duilin replied. "Think he was one of Nex's agents or something, although he was fighting Kronos and if Nex is allied with him, he might have been a rouge, but he's gone now."
Duilin sent a telepathic message to the rest of the group. 'Don't mention Draven was here to Valos. He might turn on us if he knows his old boss is still alive.'
"Demon mage? Shit..." Valos exclaimed. "I should have helped you then. You're only half human, therefor you'd need the assistance of more pure human such as much to help your foolish demon tactics." He paused and then added. "If you could call them tactics."
Duilin stared blankly at Valos and rolled his eyes. "Anyways. Kronos was just killed, but I'm sure the rest of the Kandarins are going to be pissed off. He's trained other necromancers so I'm sure our zombie problems aren't over."
"Alright, but we still have Nex to deal with. He may not have the power that Kronos does, but he has far superior combat abilities then him, so don't get too cocky." Valos stated. "So, who do we have?" He looks around. "That sniper seems to have run off so we're going to have to do this without him. I don't feel like waiting around for him?"
"You, me, Doriana, Ben and a few others." Duilin replied. "I think I saw Marshall and his friend Ein around. Maybe they should come along. I do want some people to stay here in case we attacked again though."
-
-=Gros Morne Citadel=-
"Another important realization dawned upon me as soon as I returned to my Citadel through the portal in Carcer Necris. My death was clearly visible to dozens of Federation soldiers, including two higher-ranking individuals. Perhaps the news of my demise could be exploited to my needs...
Naturally, this required a degree of stealth from my side. While I am convinced of the perfection of my 10 Regiments in their respective functions, I will not be so blind as to ignore the possibility of a spy, even within the Citadel itself. Thus I stayed within my chambers without letting my presence known to anyone. Of course, in order to orchestrate any kind of plan, I still needed a puppet in my place. Being the apex of all perfection that I am, I, of course, already had a person in mind.
It took Gwen some time to realize that I was waiting for her in her room. She only became aware of me as I was about to sneeze - a good ten minutes later after she entered. Sadly, I failed to produce the startling effect I usually have on her in these sorts of situations, probably because I had done this too much already.
-"Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
-"Aww, how nice of you, General," I purred. "Or, should I say, Sovereign?"
-"...Sovereign? Ah... I understand."
-"Yes, good. I will be contacting you through an undead servant."
Considering that I had enough foresight to create a very much publicized Necromantic energy storage device at the base of the Citadel, still-functioning undead creatures without me will not rouse any suspicion. As I retreated back to my chambers, I felt the non-existent hair on my back stand up from the sheer greatness of my plan. It will require some sacrifice... but the end will truly justify the means. The Gaian Federation will fall to its knees before my might, it is merely a matter of time."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
The heat seemed to dissipate with the breeze, moving outward and away from the town like an idle cloud on a lazy afternoon. Soon it was gone without a trace, and the natural temperature returned.
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"It was a pleasure," Doriana said, taking a bow and removing her helm, placing it at her side. Her paladin's cloak fluttered in the breeze as she stood, ordering several paladin officers around. They were to be on guard of this city, so she instructed them to set up a sort of base camp outside the city walls... at least until repairs were done and more houses and inns were made to accomodate the larger amount of people.
"They'll be here on guard. Perhapse they could even help with repairs...? Ah well, they can get to that themselves if they want to. In any case, I will follow you if you wish a better... 'escort' so to speak."
"Count us in, too!" Jacobie ran up to the group, along with John and Merrik. He sheathed his flame katana and took out a potion, drinking it and feeling refreshed. Two figures in the sky slowly made their way back down to the ground, a white flash illuminating the field. Justin and Tiberius stood where the large figures once were.
"We'll stay here with Ben and guard this place while you guys are out, if you're going any time soon... seems like a sound plan, eh?"
-
- Rivertown, Helternia -
"Sounds like a plan." Duilin nodded. "Let's get ready to leave now. Just board my ship. 'The Bell', parked at the docks." Duilin stated, pointing south.
Marshall emerged from a pile of rubble pushing some away from him, he dusted himself off and cleared his throat and then started to limp towards the group. "I'm okay, just a little bashed up, but I can still join you guys." He informed them, nearly running out of breath at the end of his sentences.
Duilin grinned and nodded. "Adda boy, Marshall. "Where's your friend Ein? I'd like him to come with too, since we're missing our sniper now."
The summoner looked around. "I can't see him anywhere. Where did he go?" He asked. "Ein?!" He called out loudly.
--- ---
- Kainengrad the City of the Seventh Regiment of the KAF, Terian -
Two KAF speargunners where in one of the guard towers in the walls surrounding the city where doing their regular duties, however their attention was drawn to the main gate opening up for the return of a patrol unit consisting of demon soldiers and a few Steam demons.
"Hey bud, don't you think those demons are a little creepy?" One of the speargunners asked the other.
"Not compared to our new captain. Have you met him in person, before?"
"I saw him around, but never really met him."
The trooper shook his head and exhaled. "He is one disturbed guy. I mean, yeah like I know we've got a lot of creepy people in the KAF, but this guy takes the cake. I'm talking like eating dead people, animals."
"Yuck." The other man grimaced.
"And that laugh, like he's seems to be enjoying himself all the time, but like in a creepy sort of way man. Like I was on a patrol with him leading it once, and he was fighting this HUGE lizard guy, and like occasionally Nex would stop moving and the guy would him and then he'd start laughing like he enjoyed it."
"Maybe, he knows some like magic spell where he like gets hit and is healed from it."
"No man, like he got stabbed through the chest once man, there was blood and I could tell that he was dieing."
"How'd he survive that?"
"He just pulled the sword out and then piked it right into the guys skull. He was bleeding like hell, but he just started eating the guy, and eventually he stopped bleeding. I actually, threw up more than once upon witnessing that battle."
"I think I'm gonna throw up."
-
-=The Kandarinian Sovereignty=-
The word of Kronos' demise spread like wildfire. Few lamented his passing, but many were worried. Much of the Kandarinian strength came from his Necromantic powers, so what will happen to the Sovereignty now?
Officials from the very top gave long speeches in every major outpost of the vast Kandarin-controlled space, enticing people not to worry, as the General has taken the feathered crown of Kandarin as the new Sovereign. Despite their attempts, people refused to settle. Protests and full-blown riots began popping up pretty much everywhere, as people felt themselves liberated from the Lich's oppressive rule and invigorated by the possibility of a successful revolution.
-=Rivertown=-
-"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
Marshall's yell woke Ein up, who must've either passed out from his still not completely healed battle injuries while charting the pentagram in the sand beneath him. His hand was white from clutching the crossbow bolt.
-"Coming!"
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Right... we'll follow your lead, general Duilin." Doriana said, taking a bow. She then reached for her broadsword, but remembered that she threw it at the Lich. Knowing that she didn't have a weapon, she resorted to something she didn't really want to, but would have to for the time being. Inside her armor was a katar with three sharp pointed claw-like knives. She strapped the katar over her right hand and cracked her knuckles, signaling that it was in place.
"I haven't held one of these in three years..."
-
- Helternia, Rivertown -
"Good, you're hear." Duilin said to Ein. "Okay, get aboard the ship, we're heading out."
The group rallied together and made their way towards the docks, while Ben and the others, along with the paladins stood at the town to guard. When the group arrived at the river town docks they boarded Duilin's ship and within a few minutes it set sail. It was a very fast ship, so it wouldn't take too long to get there...
-
- Open Ocean, "The Bell" -
"Hopefully, this wont take too long," Doriana said, sitting on the rail of the Bell, looking out at the water, her right hand resting on the rail as she braced her self for better balance. She certainly has changed the past three years but that was just a deal of maturity; nothing too special, or rather anything 'dramatic' so to say. She did look quite beautiful as well... for a Drow, in any case.
Jacobie paced the deck of the Bell, walking back and forth. He didn't change much; still quite articulate for a lizardman, still knowing that his place was within the battle field, where ever it took him... He cracked his neck a few times to relieve tension and strain upon it, and let a hand rest on the hilt of his fire katana. At that moment, he thought of Karmandalla, his wife. She was in Ariosis, with his son. He would survive this and come back to them, and he hoped that he would be able to be there for his children in the coming days.
John and Marrik stood at opposite sides of the ship, on lookout. Their Drannivolkan eyes were always watching everything, and they were good at spotting things in the distance. So they figured if they were at opposite sides of the ship, they'd spot anything coming their way; wheather it was hostile or not would be another matter, however.
-
- Open Ocean, The Bell -
Due to the upgrades Ein made with his runes onto the ship, it was moving much faster then Duilin expected. He was actually quite relieved when he remembered the increased speed, because they were behind schedule.
It wouldn't be too long before they got to the Dark Continent...
-
//Boo! Nobody else is posting.\
- Terian Shoreline, The Bell -
It wasn't long until the ship arrived at the dark continent. The trip was long enough for Duilin to get a good handle on the new increased speed of the ship.
"Alright, ladies we're here." The general shouted, to his squad of mostly male warriors.
The docking plank lowered from the door and a few people hopped off.
"We're going to have to walk the rest of the way. We'll leave a few commandos to guard the ship." Duilin stated. "Okay, so is everyone ready? We are going into a Kandarin fortress, there are going to be a lot of soldiers all over the place."
Valos stepped forward. "Our main objectives are to distract the guards, get inside the fortress, kill Nex and destroy the key operation buildings such as the barracks and the command post, which is were Nex is likely going to be."
Duilin continued the rest of the briefing. "We need a few brave warriors to divert the attention of the guard towers, likely in two or three groups, and we need a sniper of two, since our previous one disappeared. Perhaps somebody with a good crossbow or a gun. Maybe Marshall and Ein would like to do that. Me, Valos and maybe one more person need to sneak inside the fortress, being covered by the snipers."
-
- Terian Shoreline, "The Bell" -
"If you need an extra hand in stealth, You'll have two. I'm an illusion expert if you can recall... though it's been three years." Doriana got a better grip in her katar, and with a snap of her fingers, the blades, and even the weapon itself, disappeared. She then stabbed it into the rail of the ship, proving that the blades were still there, but merely invisible. "Have I proven my... 'point' for you?"
Jacobie stepped forth with both John and Merrik at either of his sides. He folded his arms and nodded to Duilin. "Being an A-class Lizardman with two Drannivolkan Elite, I think we can manage a distraction, sir." John and Marrik bowed and both nodded in agreement. "That should settle it. Tell us when, and we'll storm in first. That way you guys can follow up a few minutes after and take the same route after the guards leave."
After finishing his sentence, Jacobie made for a quick stretch and his grip tightened on the hilt of his fire-enchanted katana. He smiled a bit devilishly, and shrugged. "Sound good to you, High-General?"
-
-=Terian Shoreline=-
Ein shrugged.
-"I haven't seen my arbalest since after I was hit by Draven. One of his thugs must've stolen it. This leaves me with my glyphs to deal direct damage, and anything I may be able to improvise upon on the battlefield."
-
- Kainengrad, the City of the KAF's Seventh Regiment, Terian -
Smoke rose from the airship as the ramp lowered, revealing two figures marching down the incline.
"Sir, if you are upset about your zombie butler's sudden death, then I'm sure we--"
"Silence, Mikail." Vincent cut the blue-robed alchemist adept off with a wave of the hand. "I am irritated, not upset. Zombies make the best servants after all. Unlike moronic adepts."
Mikail blinked at that. "Erm, yes... anyway... about that... There are whispers among the higher ranks that our Sovereign has--"
"I know, Mikail. I am a Captain. They keep me informed about things that matter."
A few Seventh Regiment solders saluted the Fourth Regiment Captain as the duo walked from the airship docks into the heart of the city-like complex. "It has minimal impact upon our operations. Once the first Halberd Airship is complete..."
"Yes, of course sir... I know that we have come to Kainengrad to secure mineral ores for use in our grand project, but why was it necessary for you to come yourself? Surely I or one of the other adepts could have handled this task for you."
"Because Mikail, my dense alchemist-in-training, absolutely nothing goes right unless you do it yourself. Who is in charge of the Seventh Regiment, anyway?"
"Some fellow by the name of Nex, I believe. A demon of sorts."
Vincent rubbed his chin, the name sounding vaguely familiar, though he couldn't place it. "I see. We probably won't even have to see him anyway. Onward. Let's see if we can find the mines and talk to whoever is in charge there. This regiment is entirely militant. I'm sure its Captain has little interest in supply details."
-
-- Terian, Route toward Kainengrad --
The group made their way towards the fortress. Valos told them that it was close to the former location of Bandervil, which wasn't too far away from where they were. Likely it would be visible once they cross the next hill or two...
"You lost your bow?" Duilin groaned. "Great...Just great, we need a sniper though. What do we do now?"
"Ein, perhaps you could draw some glyphs on my magi pistols, to make them more sniper-esque?"
"If you could it'd make things a lot easier, Marshall would probably better better off in the back lines anyways. Never been much of a close-combat guy, like myself."
Marshall shrugged.
-
- Terian (1.75 miles from Kainengrad) -
"Hmm... we're definately getting closer." Jacobie could catch a familiar scent rising up inside him; unlife. However, he paid it no heed, as Terian was almost always like this, even before the Kandarinians enhabited the place after the Dark Empire. But it was a bit more powerful here, almost unnerving. Sure his senses have failed, as did everyone's, but it was horribly strange that he could feel this sort of presence, and of that magnitude. Still he made no sign of it bothering him, but kept a more cautious eye out.
Meanwhile, John and Marrik took up the front of the group, standing on either side of Jacobie. Their blades were drawn and ready. Their long, thin tails swayed from left to right slowly, protruding from a small hole in the back of their thick silver chain-linked ringmail. "You could say that again."
"Well, let's not waste any time. Let us know when you want us to create the distraction, general. We're at the ready, right mates?" The two Drannivolka responded with a resounding "Yes sir."
Doriana stood in the rear of the group. Her exquisit Paladin armor had shown dimly in the light. Her arms were folded, and she stretched and yawned, signaling that she was tired... or perhapse bored. "Shouldn't be too long. Better not be too long, my katar hasn't been sated with blood in three years. But whatever..."
-
-=Shore of Terian=-
-"Yeah, I can do that," Ein said. "Enchantments are my strongest suit, after all - the arbalest was merely a delivery method. My ability with it was somewhat limited, too - I had to enchant the spears in such a way that they were recoverable. But oh, the things I could do with a simple rock - something I don't need to worry about picking off the enemy's torn flesh in a million pieces..."
---
-=Kainengrad=-
A Stalker emerged from a dark valley as Vincent was passing by. The Stalker's insignia revealed him to be one of the few First Regiment Stalkers. He lightly tapped Vincent on his shoulder, causing the latter to turn around.
-"For you, Captain."
The strange courier surrendered a sealed scroll to Eldridge, and, with a light salute, vanished back into the darkness of the alley.
To Vincent Eldridge, Captain of the Fourth Regiment:
As you know, the Sovereign has been slain. His death has spurred, as expected, a series of violent rebellions across the vast Kandarinian expanse. While they appear to be coordinated, thereby signifying a leader, we do not know the whereabouts of this individual. At the same time, the protests can not be allowed to go on unchecked any longer. You are to devise a machine to end the rebellions.
Although I realize that I am giving you a carte blanche with this request, I will remind you that Kandarin still has in its possession three Nightshade Gravity Orbs. I need not remind you how powerful of a weapon a single NGO can be, three of which were used in the creation of the Hammer itself... perhaps too powerful for a goal as minor as rebel control. However, you are fully authorized in the utilization of the remaining NGOs.
Which brings me to your next most important task: Research. I want you to research the NGO itself, so that we may produce more. It is too powerful, too precious of a device to leave unresearched. I await results.
Signed, Gwenivere - Sovereign of the Kandarinian Sovereignty
-
-- Terian (1 mile from Kainengrad) --
"Excellent, Marshall can be our sniper then." Duilin said.
"What about something to increase my sight range? Like a scope or something? My pistols don't have them..." Marshall said with slight concern.
"Hmm...haven't thought of that." Duilin rubbed his chin. "Ein, do you think you can make one?" He asked. "I mean you used to hang out with Haraldur and he could turn wooden spoons into plasma rifles."
-
- Terian (0.25 miles from Kainengrad) -
"We're awful close now... something doesn't feel right." Jacobie kept both his hands on his katana, which was now unsheathed and at his front. He marched in a slow, steady pace, his eyes watching out, still cautious from what he'd sensed before. Something in his gut just didn't feel well at all. Nonetheless, he marched forwards, in step with his traveling companions at his rear and his two elites to his sides... or rather the elites that were assigned to him by Aaron.
"We should stop here and wait to initiate the plan. We're ready when you are." At that, Jacobie twirled his katana around to his right side and held it with his right hand, stretching it out to signal a stop.
Doriana caught a better grip on her katar and held it more firmly in her hand. She folded her arms and let the blades of the katar rest on her left arm. "I'm all set. Shall I cast a spell?"
-
- Kainengrad, City Streets -
"Hmmm, interesting..."
"What does it say?"
Vincent replaced the scroll in its case. "I've just been given the keys to ultimate power."
"Wha... what?" Mikail hobbled after as Vincent nonchalantly walked down the street.
"You shall see, my dear apprentice. You shall see."
-
-- Terain, Outside Kainengrad --
Duilin scanned the fortress, he could get that 'demonic presence' feeling in his gut. It's been awhile since he's dealt with his father's old gang but here they are, aiding the Kandarins now.
Valos simply stood with a cold glare at the place, with his arms cross and his long white hair blowing in the wind. "I'm ready to sneak in when you are Duilin." He stated.
"Alright..." Duilin rubbed his chin, still scanning the area. "It's going to be difficult, but if we co-operate well enough we can do this without any problems." He looked at the group. "Alright, we need the people who're going to distract them head in, if you know magic start shooting at the guard towers. Make yourself look as dangerous as possible, use big attacks and bring a lot of attention to yourself, but don't make it too obvious you're trying to distract them. The Kandies aren't as dumb as most grunts in the other legions were." He paused and took a breath. "I know it's going to be dangerous, but those guard towers seem to have a really good watch over the place so we can't get in unless their distracted."
"Marshall if you're going to be the sniper, we need you to take out the guards in the towers, to further prevent us from being noticed when we go in."
Marshall nodded. "Yes I can do that, but I am still in need a scope." He paused for a second as if remembering something
"Oh wait...how foolish of me I forgot that I brought my riffle." He took off his back pack and opened it up and took out several parts of a rifle and put them together, rather quickly. "I do hope I brought a scope." He dug through his backpack a little more and pulled out a scope "Ah ha. Excellent I do have one." He attached it onto his rifle, which surprisingly took almost as much time to put together his rifle as he seemed to have a little trouble fitting it on, but eventually it came into place.
Duilin chuckled. "Alright, that's good. Hmm, it might be a little loud." He looked at Ein. "Hey you think you know a spell that might silence his weapon or something? It's no biggie but it might help."
"Oh yeah, and Ein if you're gonna go with Duilin and Valos to fight Nex, do you want to borrow one or both of my pistols? Or are you staying here or gonna distract?" He asked his friend.
-
-=Terian, Shore=-
The boat arrived at Terian, finally, into an elongated bay. The beach consisted of nothing but jagged rocks, sticking out of the ground at a slanted angle. The shore was almost at the same level as water, letting shallow puddles form in between the rocks. Far ahead, a crest of mountains protrouded in great self-importance - but they were not the only ones there. Atop the largest, flattest mountain, the fortress-city of Kainengrad held its place.
The city lazily slouched on the horizon like an enormous ugly beast. Its architecture was nowhere near the shining crystal cities of Ariosis, nor the grandiose Tower of Heaven's Bane, nor even the strictly geometrical Gros Morne Citadel. The dark gray walls and looming watchtowers of Kainengrad screamed functionality, with two black Kandarinian banners as the only decoration.
The sky was an endless expanse of gray clouds, entirely homogeneous, with only a bleak white spot to signify Sol's location. Right in the mood with the clouds, a gust of chilling wind greeted the landing party.
-"Cheery," Ein commented. "Fits the place well, don't you think?"
He took Marshall's MagiPistols, inspected them for a few seconds, and shot one at a nearby protrouding rock. The tip of the rock unwillingly melted and rolled down into an adjacent puddle.
-"Eeeh... Seems a bit weak to shoot through Vanguard armour... which Kainengrad Vanguards are probably going to have a lot of."
After flipping the pistols around a few times, Ein handedthem back to Marshall.
-"If they were ordinary pistols, I'd take them, for the sake of enchanting them," he said. "But the pistol's projectile is already magic. Little I can do to that. As for your rifle... Hmm... let me see it."
Ein looked at the gun for a few seconds, rubbing his chin.
-"I can't get rid of the noise, but I can do something even better. I can amplify it."
He quickly scratched a glyph into the gun chassis, which spawned a white web-like pattern on the weapon's barrel.
-"Watch."
Ein picked up the gun and shot it into the air. At first, contrary to his words, no sound came out - but after about a second, a loud gunshot was heard from about three miles to the west.
-"This glyph redirects and amplifies the sound, making it come from a place completely different from where you are yourself. The sound placement is far, but random - so if you fire quickly enough, it will seem like there are several people shooting from different directions. Nothing better than that to draw the guards out for you to take down one by one."
-
-- Terian, Outside Kainengrad --
"Excellent, this will do very well." Marshall said to Ein.
"Alright, good luck everyone." Duilin said. "Marshall you stay here. Alright, let's get started. Distracters whenever you're ready raise a little hell, Marshall start shooting and the then the rest of us will sneak in. Me, Valos, Doriana and who else are going to be sneaking in?"
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse -
"There. All the minerals you ordered, Cap'n."
"Excellent." Vincent rubbed his chin. "Move them to my airship. And one more thing. Inform your Captain that I will be taking Kainengrad's NGO."
"I... beg your pardon?" The supply officer gave Vincent a blank look.
"It is a code word you needn't concern yourself with. Your Captain will know what it means and where it is located. I have authorization."
"Yes, Cap'n."
Mikail waited for the armored supply officer to leave down the hall before turning to Vincent. "NGO? Isn't that...?"
"Yes. That was what the letter was about. I now have full research and utilization authorization over all three that remain. It was no coincidence that the message was delivered here. One of the three is under heavy guard beneath this city."
-
-Terian, Kainengrad -
"Right mates... let's go!" With that, Jacobie raced out in front of the fortress, digging his katana through the hardened earth as he went across it. A sort of fissure opened up and followed the katana, closing from the back and opening in the front. He then slashed up as the fisure burst up a giant blast of rock and earth, flying towards the fortress, nearly as powerful as ship cannons.
The two Drannivolka both combined power and cast the sky apart with an air spell. It seemed as if a sort of blight in the sky took across an already blighted land. The sky darkened and almost purely pitch black clouds started to pour rain from above. As it rained, an occasional bolt of lightning hit the ground within the fortress every 2-3 seconds or so.
Doriana cast an illusion spell that hid herself from visibility, along with Duilin and Valos. The three could see eachother, however. "That will work for about half an hour. We'll want to get in there as quick as possible..."
-
-=Kainengrad - Outer Premises=-
The rocks flung by Jacobie struck the grim walls, creating shallow cracks here and there. At best, the rocks served to weaken the stone defences - it would take at least four other attacks like that to make a breach in the wall. The thunderstorm's lightnings were attracted to the tall guard towers of the city, but the towers showed no sign of damage from the electrical blasts.
-"That's some fancy skill there," Ein remarked. "Those clouds should be useful for covering our entrance."
He picked up several rocks from the ground, stashing them in a fold in his cape. Feeling his belt, his hand comfortably wrapped around a metal dagger that he acquired from a stash in the boat. That'll do for creating glyphs. With thoughts of glorious battles, he made his way to the distant gates.
[Approaching Kainengrad - 13]
-=Kainengrad - East Gate=-
Two sentries were relaxing inside one of the guard towers. One was idly toying with his bow, and the other one, a stout bearded one, was reading a book.
-"Say, Vance," one of them spoke. "What are we watching for? This is the capital of the 7th Regiment. Only an idiot would attack us, considering that we have an army of 3,000 backing us..."
-"Hurmh", the other grunted. "That idiot'd better have a big army."
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck the top of the tower, filling the guard room with thunderous noise. Both of the guards jerked to their feet, only to be knocked back down by the walls rumbling to enormous boulders striking them.
-"Sun-of-a-gun," the bearded Vance murmured. "Speak of the devil..."
Dropping his book, he dashed to a mouthpiece in one of the windows of the tower. The mouthpiece was connected to a brass horn curving downwards in a spiral, snail-like fashion, and ending in a large opening curved outward. After gathering as much air as his mighty lungs could hold, he blew into the mouthpiece.
A three-note roar as loud as a dragon penetrated the city, heard clearly even on the opposite end of Kainengrad. Guards on duty recognized the note of the east gate towers, and rushed to offer their assistance. The rest of the City Guard began to mobilize as well.
[City defences - 15]
-
-Terian, Kainengrad outside -
"Only half an hour?" Duilin said. "Hope that's enough. Let's move quickly."
Duilin and Valos then dashed their way towards the gates.
"We'll have to fly over the walls probably. That won't interfere with the invisibility, will it Doriana?"
---
-Terian, Kainengrad Command Centre -
"Cap'n Nex, sorry to disturb you but..." The supply officer came into Nex's room, where he was sitting at his desk, which was cleared off and he was cleaning it with what looked like a dark red cloth. "Umm...Cap'n Vincent was 'ere and he wanted me to tell you he's taking the NGO."
"What?" Nex looked at him and tossed the cloth into the wastebasket next to his desk.
"Is a code word I needn't concern myself with. My Cap'n will know what it means and where it's located. Vincent 'as authorization." The supply officer replied.
"I know what it is idiot. But it's my NGO, and I need more than his word that he has authorization. I've heard that Vincent is always up to betrayal and shit." Nex remembered that he actually served his now deceased masters, Abodahon and Melkoth, in the Grey Empire after betraying Draven. And Vincent would likely know all about the NGOs and judging by his past actions he needed to make sure he had authorization.
"Well, that's all 'e said."
Nex stormed through the doorway pushing the officer aside. "Get out of my way, I'm going to talk to him. Close the door behind you and make sure it doesn't hit your ass when you do, I just cleaned it."
---
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse -
Suddenly out of nowhere a large gust of wind rushed through the storehouse, startling half of the people inside. Leaves and twigs blew inside and the door swung open, following the light debris was a large black tattered rag that flew inside. The wind then started to circle around in a whirlwind in front of Vincent, with the black rag spinning around, until after a few seconds it died and the rag unfolded in a larger pile of rags, with a tall man-shaped being under them.
Nex looked down at Vincent. "Greetings Captain. I am Nex, Captain of this regiment, one of my supply officers says you have authorization to have access to my NGO. I'd like to see it, and then we can talk about giving it to you."
Nex pressed his fingers together and pushed them lightly and then clenched his hands.
"You see, I can't just simply hand over the key which unlocks the storage which contains one of the most deadly weapons know to Gaian to any captain with a naughty past that asks for it."
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse -
Vincent raised a brow slightly, but seemed generally unconcerned at the slight remark. "Of course." He flipped his trench coat open, revealing a long cylindrical tube-like weapon of shiny material. He reached into the pocket next to it and removed a scroll-case, handing it to the demon. "From the Sovereign herself." He gave Nex the separate authorization form Gwenivere included, rather than the personal letter addressed to him.
At that moment, an odd three-note horn resonated from the outside. "What was that?" Vincent demanded, looking to the distant window high above. Storm clouds had rolled in, and the clamor of thunder could be heard.
"Is that... the attack siren?" Mikail ventured, trembling and standing close to Vincent. The alchemist gave him a cold glare and he backed up a step, regaining his composure.
Soldiers began to quickly move through the storehouse, running outside. "What is going on?" Vincent demanded of Nex, looking up at him over the rims of his rectangular glasses.
-
-=Kainengrad - Inner Courtyard=-
The lightnings, while seemingly not growing worse, began to spread outward from where the storm was originally summoned. Suddenly, a split lightning strike hit Vincent's airship, igniting its wooden masts. Its crew was quick to abandon the burning husk - but the ship began to descend as the fires reached its flotation crystals. Finally, it struck the ground, perishing in a blazing inferno. The rain from the thunderclouds was quick to douse the flames, preventing the fire from consuming the rest of the city.
The many guards set up even more sentries around the East Gate, specifically, but a lighter security patrol was established throughout the rest of the city, as well. Many guards, mixed with actual soldiers of the Seventh Regiment, continued to arrive from beneath the city.
[City defenses - 25]
-=Kainengrad - Outer Premises=-
Ein accelerated as he saw the storm crawling forward. Scaling the walls with lightnings a mere ten feet away did not seem like a good idea, so it would be best to get there before the dark clouds enveloped the city entirely.
Although the bulk of the storm was confined to where the Drannivolkans spawned it to, the rest of the sky grew black as well. The tightly localized weather disturbance caused a much larger chain reaction in the atmospheric systems, it seemed - now it was impossible to fully get rid of the storm the way it was made.
[Approaching Kainengrad - 2/3]
-=Kainengrad - Supply Storehouse=-
Nex and Vincent were too busy in conversation to notice a familiar (to Vincent, anyway) shadow emerge from the human turbulence of soldiers running past. The half-masked Stalker, this time without saying anything, stuck a bulky, well-protected looking scroll into Nex's hands. The signet seal atop the scroll was Gwenivere's. Without giving the demon time to reply, the Stalker merged with the crowd and vanished as swiftly as he appeared.
To Nex, Captain of the Seventh Regiment - CONFIDENTIAL, EYES ONLY
Nex - I need you to come into contact with Gros Morne immediately. Be alone, mention this to no one, do not be seen, heard, or followed.
The Sovereign
Note: My scribe put the glyph below to immolate this message within 10 seconds of air exposure.
//Note: Since the city of Gros Morne is gone, that title now refers to the fortress. Also, the message does not mean Nex has opened it yet - he can just walk away with the scroll and open it later.\
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse -
Nex examined the scroll and read it. "Looks legitimate. However there is one problem with getting the NGO you s--"
Suddenly the siren went off and he tilted his head. He looked back at Vincent. "My, my, it seems this fortress is under attack. It's likely another group of angry lizard men from Lizaberg, we've been teasing them a lot, hehehe."
Nex leaned in closer.
"If you'd like to help out it would be appreciated, but I know your sel-- erm, busy man so I'll let you get the NGO first and choose to help out later. Although I like to keep somebody close to me around to get the NGO."
He lifted his right hand and snapped his fingers and a bulky man, only a little shorter than the tall Nex came forward, as if he was in the room the entire time. He wasn't any regular man however. He was clearly a humanoid-demon. His skin was a dull red and he was bare chested, but was tattooed with pentagrams all over his body and had what appeared to be a series of nails sticking out of his shoulder, as if they were nailed in. He had curled goat horns and leather chaps, which had a rather disturbingly fleshy colour to them.
"This my lieutenant, Heric Dephiler." Nex said. "He has the means of unlocking where we store our NGO."
Lieutenant Dephiler nodded to Vincent and spoke with a deep but calm and quiet voice. "Follow me Captain." He then headed his way into the next room.
"As for me, I'm going to deal with our little problem here." He then left the storehouse, but noticed that a note had been planted on him. "Oh my, a love letter." He said with boyish enthusiasm. He unravelled the note, and read it. "Sounds juicy." The note then disappeared. He felt a rush of excitement. "Oh my, my! Get out of my way everyone!" He shouted and then dashed back towards the command centre, after a few steps he jumped into the air and transformed into the familiar large black rag and was carried away by the speedy gust of wind..
-
- Terian, Kainengrad -
"No. Flying won't interfere with the invisibility, as far as I know... but how?" Doriana crossed her arms as she ran close behind Duilin and Valos. As she ran, her katar was outstretched to her weapon side and angled down, her body angled forwards. It was a sort of force of habit.
Meanwhile, Jacobie impaled his sword into the ground again and brought it across, running towards the city walls again. As he was just in front of the walls, he let his katana fly up and create yet another fissure, blasting up large boulders and chunks of rock flying towards the wall and smashing into it with more force than the last blow. Maybe if he repeated this two more times, he could breach a large section in the wall, or so he figured.
John and Marrick continued to support the lightning spell as the clouds above them densly thickened and more lightning blasts fell from the sky inside the fortress of Kainengrad. The spell's effectiveness was starting to get a slight bit better and the radius of effect was increasing, moving from the towers and into the fortress' main buildings.
-
- Terian, Kainengrad -
"Excellent." Duilin then jumped in the air and spread open his wings and flew into the air, flapping his wings.
Valos followed by surrounding himself in a glowing purple aura, which was still invisible to everyone, luckily.
The two flew over the walls of the fortress and landed on the ground.
"Alright, we should probably find a place to hide so we can move around more stealthy, perhaps from building to building and such." Duilin suggested, whispering to the others, just in case the spell didn't muffle any sounds.
---
Meanwhile, the Kandarinian guards in the towers were getting pecked off from what appeared to be by snipers hiding all around the place. Yet it was simply Marshall hiding in a gathering of boulders in the hills...
-
- Terian, Kainengrad -
Jacobie repeated his fissure technique again, digging his blade into the crusted earth, then slashing up and generating a fissure that spewed giant debris of earth and boulders at the walls again. He flipped his katana around to his side once again and ran back from the wall to repeat the technique one more time.
Meanwhile, Doriana had silently leapt up the wall using her assassin jumping skills. She landed on the other side softly and quietly, sneaking up on Duilin and Valos. They most likely were suprised by her as she spoke. "The spell has about 20 minutes left... but I say we should just stick to the walls of the buildings and the fortress. That would probably be our best bet to avoid contact with hostiles."
-
//Wait a second - Doriana is an assassin, right? How did she use a holy attack on Kronos earlier?\
-=Kainengrad - East Gate=-
The pounding of the boulders at the stone walls had an almost shell-shock like effect on the soldiers waiting behind the east gate. Gaven's subdivision was the only one there at the moment, consisting of some 30 soldiers. The environment did little to ease the tension of the fighters, who were not used to fighting in the rain; rain in this location was very rare. Gaven knew that his men would give it their best, but he could not help but doubt whether their best would be enough against this kind of foe. There were no cannons sighted outside the fortress-city, but something was striking the walls with enough force to the point of nearly crumbling.
And that was not even all. Gaven flinched, remembering a scene he will not forget soon: guards falling off the walls with holes in their heads, one by one. All but the last one fell without knowing what hit them - the final guard managed to yell "The - the hills! They're in the hills!" before falling dead, blood trickling from his forehead.
Gaven knew - the Kandarinian spyglasses were powerful. Despite this, no matter how hard his scouts looked through the hidden, protected openings in the walls, they could not see the mysterious gunmen anywhere in the hills. All they saw was a cloaked human and a large lizard man. As long as they had cover, Gaven decided against sending any men outside the walls.
His train of thought was interrupted by a splash behind him. Gaven's men were told to stay put - it could not have been them... and yet, there was nothing behind him. No... no, there was something... it's hard to see, but definitely there...
-"GUARDS!"
The word shot through the soldiers' ears, jerking them out of their oblivious state. 30 spear guns clicked into ready positions, all aimed at the disturbance in the rain behind the gates.
[City defenses - 35]
-=Kainengrad - Rooftops=-
The lightnings sliced the sky like jagged slashes from a serrated dagger, and struck the tallest Kainengrad buildings like stealthed arrows, thundering only after the contact with the victim. Apophis watched the spectacle from a roof, having completed his job of delivering both scrolls to their recipients. He was not in a rush to get back to Gros Morne - aside the occasional riot, everything was quiet in the Kandarinian territories. This was so much more fun...
The Stalker nearly fell off his roof when he saw three "invisible" people plop down behind the gate. What kind of mage did they have that cast invisibility spells during rain? They may be bending light around themselves, but they remain solid - and the curtain of falling water easily gave away their position as silhouettes of emptiness where raindrops were supposed to fall.
For now, he decided not to interfere. It would be good to scale the attackers' battle prowess before engaging combat... picking prey larger than he could handle was never Apophis' style.
-=Kainengrad - Outer Premises=-
-"Lu lu lu," Ein mumbled to himself. "La la la. Kandie walls be falling down. I think your method is a bit too brute there, bud. Look - the walls shattered. The only thing keeping them up still is their weight. What you're doing right now is trying to knock over a pile of sand; kind of difficult, no? Let me help out."
With those words, Ein took out a stone that he picked up earlier, and using his dagger, started etching a series of lines on the rock.
[Approaching Kainengrad - 33]
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse -
Vincent followed the lumbering demon at a distance, Mikail close by him. "I don't like this..." Vincent said under his breath. The explosions were getting more intense. And that was clearly no natural storm brewing outside.
"Me neither," Mikail whispered. He was nearly hugging Vincent again before a glare from the alchemist made him jump back a pace. "I mean, it's an awful coincidence this attack occurs when we arrive."
"Indeed... they may somehow know about the NGO and wish to take it before us... We'll leave as soon as we get it. Before the main attack force arrives. My ship can outrun any paltry toys the Federation is capable of throwing at us."
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse -
Along his belt, Dephiler had a series of keys, connected to chains, a lot of them looked very similar and many of them were in fact useless, he had this to throw people off, if anyone tried to steal his keys. He took one of the keys and attempted to open a steel door buried in the back of one of the storage rooms he lead the other too, he fidgeted with it, but realized he took out the wrong key. He over-security fooled even him sometimes. He grabbed a different key, which was the correct one and opened the door, leading too a short dimly lit hallway with a staircase at the end.
"It's a little dark down here for a little while, and really messy." The demon said, softly. "Just follow me exactly, and you won't trip over anything. Okay?"
---
- Kainengrad, East Gate -
"You know..." Valos said, not bothering to hide his voice, looking at the several spear guns pointed at them. "I think they might see us."
"Let's not give up yet." Duilin ordered.
"Well, what the fuck do we do now!?" Valos snarled. "They got us! Leave it up to some witch you barely know to make us invisible."
"Calm down." Duilin demanded, but not raising his voice. "They can only see us because of the rain, we're just nearly invisible right now...Hmm. Maybe if we find cover or move quickly enough we can avoid getting attacked, then we'll find a spot to hide."
"Fine, let's just run." Valos then began to make a quick dash through the area, Duilin rolled his eyes and then followed. They figured if they were going to shoot at them, they would still be extremely hard to hit because a) the rain makes it harder for them to see, b) they're nearly invisible and c) they're running really fast...
-
-=Kainengrad - East Gate=-
It took Gaven a second to realize that the shadows in the rain began moving. Without losing another precious moment, he yelled the order to his men:
-"Fire at will! Shoot them down, impale them!"
The air became rife with the distinct buzzing noises of spears zooming through the air. Unfortunately, the massive amounts of water made it very difficult for the Kainengrad soldiers to see, and the hoods they draped over themselves to manage the rain did not exactly help the problem of visibility. The spears struck houses, stone walls, the ground - in other words, everything but the intended targets. Gaven cursed loudly, spat on the ground, and grunted in a resigned tone:
-"Stand down. We lost them."
Now comes the next fun part: reporting the failure to his superior.
Meanwhile, the city kept pumping soldiers from its underground Regiment 7 headquarters. Heavily armed Vanguards were now occasionally seen, sporting their enormous magic mortars as well as the recently introduced gargantuan Vanguard Claymores...
[City defenses - 45]
-=Kainengrad - Rooftops=-
So they take the coward's way out, and instead of standing their ground, they run. Not exactly an honourable decision, but very logical: being skewered by 30 obsidian-tipped spears is not something Apophis would care to describe as "fun". But regardless, the city guard (and even those clowns from the Seventh) were too incompetent to capture invisible foes, and the Stalker knew that. The next logical decision came right away: it's about time a Stalker actually performed the job they are named after.
It didn't take long for Apophis to sight his prey. Their clothes were still dripping wet, betraying the wearers with droplets of water seemingly from nowhere. The Stalker kept to the roofs, creeping close to the edge - allowing him to stay hidden behind the facades and decorations while having a good vantage point to spy the intruders from. They were running in a tight street below, covered from rain by a roof-formed canopy. Guards were running right past them, unable to spot the fine details of dripping clothes through their visored helmets; however, Apophis saw. And knew.
-=Kainengrad - Outer Premises=-
At last, Ein was finished with his stone-inscribed glyph.
-"Watch," he said, turning to Jacobie. "Fun little glyph I made up while in the Stalker academy. Don't ask."
He applied the glowing stone to the largest brick in the wall that was close to him. The stone immediately fell to the ground, almost hurting Ein's hand in the process. Unaffected, Ein proceeded to wrap his arms around the brick... and pulled it out. Moreover, he even balanced the large brick on one finger, as the damaged walls behind him finally gave in due to the disappearance of a major part of the foundation. The size of the brick easily suggested that it was at least 10 tonnes in weight, yet Ein was holding it like it was a feather.
-"Hehe, it's a weight transfer glyph," Ein giggled victoriously. "Now that tiny little rock there is as heavy as this brick used to be. Conversely, the brick became as light as a pebble."
Tossing the hulking brick aside, Ein made his way through the defeated walls.
...
Several clicks later, he made his way back out as fast as he could, chased by buzzing spears.
-"Crap..."
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse -
Vincent rolled his eyes as he followed the demon. The darkness engulfed them quickly, and it was difficult to see one's hand before one's face as they descended into the depths. He expected a more elaborate display than this... It seemed more like they were retrieving some minor trinket from the back than a rare and poorly understood tool of mass destruction. He certainly would take better care of it than this. In fact, he had the perfect containment chamber in mind back at the Factory of Dark Science.
-
//Doriana was trained in the holy arts before the Gaian federation Chapter. There being a 3-year break, I thought that would be enough time... If it's God-modding, I can make some adjustments... I don't wanna pull another Haraldur.
- Terian, Kainengrad Inner Workings -
"Shit!" Doriana said as she made a break for it behind Duilin and Valos; where the spearguns were shot almost every shot was a near miss and flew right past her, while the rest were clean misses... save one. One that hit her, just barely, right in the calf of her right leg.
"GAH!!! Damn it, they hit me!" She grabbed the spear that was impaled in her leg and ripped it out, a fair amount of blood leaking from her calf. She took the spear and launched it back at a Kandarin Speargunner, stabbing right through his weapon and anihilating it completely. It rendered him useless, but that was only one of many soldiers... Afterwards, she limped after Duilin and Valos, holding on by sheer power of will.
- Terian, Kainengrad East Gate (outside) -
"One more should do it... HYAA!!!" Jacobie impaled his katana into the earth again and small bits of rubble flew up around it. He was a fair 50 feet away from the gates and the walls. Slowly he dragged the sword towards the walls, speeding up faster and faster as he went. And finally, just before he readhed the wall, he leapt into the air and backflipped, slashing his katana upwards. Gargantuous sized boulders flew up as his final fissure move blasted through the gate and its walls, now nearly crumbling them to dust. It would be a plenty bit easier, although his attack may have seemed redundant.
"More lightning, guys, and fast! I see Vanguards... lots of Vanguards..." John and Marrick complied by throwing more bolts of lightning from the sky as it began to pour rain. Each drop was nearly 1.5 centimeters in diameter, which was quite a bit of rain per drop... but the Drannivolka were getting exhausted, and fast. They still made more accurate blasts of lightning, however, according to Jacobie's will. Each bolt that managed to stray from the buildings either hit a guard, or came fairly close to one as it discharged down to the earth. Some even discharged up and zapped a guard from the ground up to the air, but most just hit the buildings as they were the quicker access point for the lightning.
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse -
After a few moments of walking, Heric stopped at the end of the room. There was the sound of keys jangling and after a few seconds he opened another door.
He stepped into the next room. "Hold on a minute while I light up the room." He snapped his fingers summoning a small plume of flame in his hand and then lit the torch next to him. The torches were all connected, via a gas line. The demon turned a small crank and the rest of the torches began to light up, eventually making the room quite clear to see.
It was a tall circular room, with a metal staircase coiling up to the top. Along the walls were individual safes built in, made of thick black iron. In the middle of the room, was a large crank which one would have to push. This mechanized the staircase to rotate around the room, allowing one to reach the specific locker they wished to open. Also in the middle was a filing cabinet, which was left open. The cabinet was clearly labelled 'STORAGE RECORDS'.
"There's at least a couple hundred lockers in this room. One of them has the NGO stored in it. However I'm not sure which one. You'll have to look through the records. Unfortunately, I can't help you with that, seeing how I only recently arrived in Gaian and I'm not familiar with human scripture. I only recently learned how to speak your language actually."
The demon gave a slight smirk and smiled. "It was likely recently stored in here, and I think the newest records are kept in the top shelf, which would narrow it down. Although Nex has had a lot of items stored in here. I think the absolute newest ones are actually written in Thanatian, but the NGO's record is likely in Terianian."
--- ---
- Kainengrad, Streets -
"Whoa, looks like they got a lucky shot." Duilin said, looking at Doriana. "Are you okay?"
"How the hell did you manage to get hit?!" Valos snarled. "Just leave the witch behind Duilin, she'll only slow us down now."
"Shut up, Valos!" Duilin went over to the drow and helped her move. "We should probably find a place to hide, then maybe get a healing potion for her if she needs it."
"But we don't have time for this!" Valos roared. "Seriously, we have to get the hell moving. Nex doesn't know we specifically are here, if he knows we are here before we confront him, we'll loose our element of surprise and blow our chance at defeating him!"
-
- Terian, Kainengrad Inner Workings -
"I'll be right behind... ugh, what's the point, I need rest." Doriana then let herself slide down the wall of a building as she sat down on the wet ground, bleeding slowly from her wound in her calf muscle. She kept bandages in her pouch to her side, so she pulled a large one out and wrapped her lower leg up with it. She tied it off and tossed the ruined shin guard from her armor aside, letting her underarmor cover the wound.
"Damn guards... Well, hopefully that will do it for a while. Does anybody know a good healing spell or just so happen to have a scroll?"
- Terian, Kainengrad Outter Workings -
Jacobie brought his katana up to his front and took a stance backwards. Lucky for him he didn't have to protect the Drannivolka too much, for they were excellent at evading, and hopefully would be able to evade the attacks of the Kandarinians that were pissed about rain and lightning. Though perhapse they would be more afraid than pissed off at the moment. He smirked at that idea and held his katana at the ready... He definately had to say something that would set the Kandarin Fortress off like a match to a campfire... but what?
"Now that I'm finished with your wall... I think I'll go for you next... Heh heh heh..." He then pointed the tip of his katana at the fortress and it began to glow red with its enchantment. It was a beacon of light in all of the darkness that surrounded the fortress, with the exception of the lightning that lit the sky. He brought the katana back to his side and held out his arm, palm up, beckoning to the guards.
"Well then, let us dance, worms."
-
-=Kainengrad - Streets=-
The infiltrators' loud words alerted several guards running past - but those ones, apparently, did not know that they were dealing with invisible foes at the moment. So they just shrugged off, and continued running to wherever it was that they were assigned to. A couple of Vanguards lumbered past, their large helmets not allowing them to hear anything anyway.
-=Kainengrad - Rooftops=-
The intruders continued to surprise Apophis more and more. At this point, he stopped blaming the mage who originally put the invisibility spell on the group for being an amateur - instead, it seemed to him, none of the people there knew how to behave while stealthed. Not noticing water dripping from their wet clothes is one thing, but speaking - especially speaking that loud? The Stalker was beginning to sincerely doubt whether his abilities were really needed to capture this group. Regardless, he continued tracking them - if not for a practical purpose, then just for sport.
-=Kainengrad - East Gate ruins=-
The Lizardman was greeted by a semi-circle of about 60 Kainengrad spear gunners, and five Vanguards with their magic mortars fully deployed. All weapons aimed at Jacobie, and the troopers still felt unsure with themselves against this large a foe. The only ones who seemed completely unfazed by the sight of the humanoid reptile were the Vanguards and a chubby, short, commanding-looking chap standing behind the lines. Indeed, the apparent leader bore a Kandarinian Battle Suit with the unmistakable winged lightning of the First Regiment. As the dust from the walls cleared, he pronounced in a highly annoying, squeaky voice:
-"ALL RIGHT, 'WORMS!' You've heard the boss; dance for him! Better yet, make HIM dance! FIRE AT WILL!"
60 obsidian-tipped spears buzzed right at Jacobie, closely followed by five glowing cylinder-shaped projectiles fired out of the Vanguards' magic mortars, each a foot long.
[City defenses - 55, fully mobilized]
-
- Terian, Kainengrad Outter Workings -
At that very moment, the lizard backflipped over the speargunners' attack. 60 spears didn't quite phase him as much as the magic mortars did, however, as he just barely evaded the strike. He landed on his left leg and cartwheeled out of the way of the magical shots fired by to voracious Vanguard. He would have no problem with petty speargunners, but the Vanguard were another matter...
"Woah, shit!" He said after another near miss with a mortar shot. The lizard then gave a quick bow and smirked to the offenders. "Am I the only one keeping the stage? The crowd begs for something different... now... DANCE!!!"
With that, he held the tip of his katana out and fired a quick, small, but continuous beam of pure heat energy. It melted at least 20 speargunner's helmets so that the armor seeped into their eyes, burning them into oblivion. They would go mad with pain before they died...
Meanwhile, John and Merrick let up on the lightning, but it still poured water from the heavens. The two Drannivolkan elites jumped to either side of Jacobie from where they were (which was far back) and brandished two ornate longswords. They both, however, didn't use them, but instead combined forces and cast a gale wind spell that forced the armies back a slight bit. The rain also helped by leveling with the gale wind and pushed them back more. It would be one hell of a battle to win with wind and rain hitting your face and pushing you back. Their mission was only to delay however, not attack and hold possition.
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse, Safe Room -
Vincent smacked his forehead. "So we have to look it up then..." he said through clenched teeth. "Very well. Thank you for your time..." he tried to say it politely, but his annoyance likely dripped through.
Mikail meanwhile stood in awe of the tall safes twisting around over head. He craned his neck back and blinked.
Vincent opened the top shelf and began to rummage through the papers. The odd mess of unintelligible symbols must have been the Thanatian language the demon spoke off. Shuffling those off, he dug through to find something legible.
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse, Safe Room -
"Sorry I can't be anymore help." Dephiler replied. "I'll be here by the doorway if you need anything." The demon crossed his arms and leaned on the wall next to the door way. He closed his eyes, looking like the most relaxed and care-free person in the world.
--- ---
- Kainengrad, Streets -
"Sorry, I don't know any healing spells. Well I do, but I can't use them unless I change form." Duilin replied. "But it's complicated why I can't."
Valos rolled his eyes, and dug into his pockets and mumbled a few things. He took out a tiny vial and handed it to the drow. "Take ONE sip of this. Your wound will heal then we can go."
Duilin sighed, but then stopped moving for a second and then looked around. He then lowered his voice. "You know we should probably keep our voices down. I just noticed we, or rather Valos, have been shouting during a stealth mission."
Valos glared and clenched his teeth at his half brother but then shook it off. "Yeah, fine. Let's get moving now. We don't have much time." Valos whispered, but still kept his harsh angry tone.
-
- Terian, Kainengrad Inner Workings -
"Right," Doriana said quietly, "thanks..." She grabbed the vial and took a slight sip. It tasted rather disgusting, but nonetheless, she swallowed and her wound began to numb. Soon enough, it was healed to the point where she could put weight on it without too much pain. She handed the vial back to Valos. "Okay... where do we go from here?"
-
//Drannic - Kandarinian soldiers generally do not wear helmets, they prefer using standard-issue Kandarinian Protection Amulets (they do have facemasks, though). However, most of the guys fighting Jacobie are guards, and those can be wearing helmets - and Vanguards have vizored helmets, too.\
-=Kainengrad - East Gate ruins=-
While the commander from the First Regiment was squealing commands at the guards, most of the latter ran as soon as they saw their jittering comrades flail their arms at the molten metal running down their skin. The Vanguards grunted indifferently, and, obeying the commanding officer's orders, fired another volley at Jacobie. Rain didn't bother them that much - a full skin of 3-cm armour protected them from just about anything, and a slitted visor let very little water inside.
Meanwhile, Ein carefully peeked into the courtyard, previously filled with soldiers, and was moderately surprised to find only five Vanguards remaining. Looks like this Jacobie lizard can pull off a trick or two, after all. But those Vanguards...
They were definitely different than the last time. Even back then, they were quite a sight, but even more so now. Their armour, still pitch-black, became even thicker than it used to be. Their helmet stayed the same, mostly, except for the addition of a V-shaped, slitted vizor to protect their faces. They seemed to enjoy the addition - each had several markings on the visor (kills?). Ein shivered when he saw the warriors' claymores - swords that were easily taller than Ein himself, with vicious fang-shaped protrusions coming out of the blade. One hit by that, and they aren't even going to bother picking up your pieces.
-
- Kainengrad, Streets -
"Let's just get to the command centre." Valos replied. He pointed at the large temple like building in the middle of the town. "Now let's go."
He then ran through the town towards the command centre and Duilin followed.
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse, Safe Room -
Had the demon left them to rummage through the papers alone, Vincent would have considered taking more than just the NGO. This was the main storehouse of the entire complex after all... But the blasted demon was annoying enough to sit there and wait after essentially telling them to find it themselves.
Things would be different if Vincent were in charge.
Hmmm...
After a great deal of shuffling, Mikail cried out when he found the correct file documenting the location of the NGO. A few turns of the crank shifted the movable stairs to the correct safe high above, and Vincent removed a metallic box shaped much like a briefcase. With his apprentice following, Vincent walked towards the doorway carrying the box in his right hand, trench coat swaying and boots echoing down the corridor.
"We have what we've come for. I bid you good day, sir."
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse, Safe Room -
Dephiler's eyes shifted at Vincent and he walked out of the room. He straightened himself off, from leaning against the wall.
Nex sent a telepathic message to him earlier saying that Vincent's motives for wanting the NGO may be questionable, despite him having authorization.
As he exited the room he turned the small wall crank, turning off the torches in the room, and he followed Vincent.
"Watch your step." He warned the captain as he followed him out. "It's dark in the next room, remember?"
-
//Thanks for the FYI. I'll be sure to check next time.
- Terian, Kainengrad Command Center -
"Right." Doriana followed the two over to the command center, her katar ready for battle at her side. She looked around, and then looked back at her self. "5 more minutes, guys. Then we'll be clear as day."
- Terian, Kainengrad East Gate (outside) -
Jacobie evaded the barrage from the Vanguard by making a barrel roll underneath the attack, then jumping swiftly away as it exploded behind him. He then leapt back to where he was before, now a smoldering miniature crater from the Vanguard attack. The lizardman smirked with intent.
"Is that the best you can do!?" As that was said, Jacobie made a great leap into the air, pointing his sword at the Vanguards and attempted the same move he pulled off on the guards, blasting a beam of pure heat at the Vanguards' thick helmets, melting the visor, seeping down and covering their visual from their helmet quite well.
-
//What kind of beam does that katana shoot? Can it melt 5 Vanguards' visors at once? I'm going to assume no for now, as there's a bit of distance between each one.\
-=Kainengrad - East Gate ruins=-
The afflicted Vanguard grunted, and tore off his softening face shield. Thankfully for him, the iron gauntlet on his hand protected him from the molten metal, and his face was too far from the visor to be affected. He gave the disappearing hunk of metal a quick glance, then threw it aside. Him, and the four other Vanguards left their mortars in place, unsheathing their man-sized claymores instead. They did not wait for the commanding officer's orders, preferring to charge at Jacobie all at once.
-
//It's a pure beam of heat, and seeing as how there's distance between each Vanguard, I'm going to guess that no, it can't melt their helmets all at once.
- Terian, Kainengrad East Gate (outside) -
Jacobie didn't flinch as the Vanguards charged him. Instead, he shifted his footing back and sheathed his katana, leaping a fair distance back and prepared a small orb of dark energy within his left palm. The orb was black and glowed with purple lightning that surrounded it, growing to nearly one foot in diameter. He pointed his palm out towards the Vanguard without a helm and blasted the orb straight for his head.
-
- Kainengrad, Supply Storehouse, Basement Corridor -
"We are quite capable of navigating dark passages, I assure you." Vincent waved as he disapeared into the darkness, the blue-robed adept following close behind. The thunderclaps had nearly ceased and it had grown quieter outside. This this only could mean the battle was over-- unlikely-- or that the initial distraction borne from the storm spell was over and the attackers were ready to move in full force. Vincent had no intention to stick around and find out. It was time to leave. Assuming they weren't totally surrounded now, at least...
-
-=Kainengrad - East Gate ruins=-
Ironically, the visor-less Vanguard was the last to notice the orb. The one that was running next to him saw the approaching projectile, and tripped his comrade. The charge zoomed over the tripped Vanguard, who got back up, completely unharmed, and continued sprinting toward Jacobie.
Meanwhile, the four other Vanguards reached the Lizard Man, and swung their claymores at the scaly chest.
-=Somewhere in South-Eastern Gaian - Gros Morne Citadel=-
The dark inverse pyramid, for the first time in many months, was not travelling anywhere. It wasn't even floating - for the first time in almost 6 years, the pyramid rested on the ground. In fact, only its very top was visible. The rest was buried in the soil, as if the enormous structure plummeted to the earth and stuck there. Dark clouds were gathering about the Citadel...
-
- Kainengrad, Command Centre Courtyard -
The courtyard of the command centre was quiet, and absent of any other people. There were several spots which seemed to have been gardens, but everything has died. There were several demonic statues in the garden areas, which seemed to be recently placed in. As the three walked through the courtyard Duilin coldly glanced at the statues as he walked by them.
The statues were of the deceased leader of the Talonscar cult and father of Duilin, Abodahon. It's been several years since he's seen his father. Duilin eventually had to walk with his head down, due to the emotions he felt from his very image. Duilin looked up to his father when he was younger, and always wanted him to be his hero. But when he was finally shown the truth that his father was pure evil, he just felt betrayed.
Valos merely rolled his eyes and sighed. "I see Nex is still worshipping his dead god." He commented. "If we had the time, I'd smash every statue in this courtyard."
They then arrived in the doorway, which was surprisingly open. Inside it was also empty of any people, they could see two wide curling stairways at the end of the hallway.
"Alright this is it." Valos stated. "We get in, find Nex and kill him, then the threat of Talonscar should be over. You ready?"
Duilin still looking at the ground finally chose to look up inside the building, suddenly it was as if his very soul was ripped from his body, and was being pulled into the building by an invisible man. At what seemed to him like light speed he was dragged through the building upstairs, while he was screaming his lungs out. Finally the movement stopped, but only for a split second until he was thrown into a tunnel of flame and fell through it for miles and miles. Then it stopped, everything stopped and time seemed to go back to normal. Duilin torn and bruised was floating in the air, with the heat to strong for even him. Then somebody came up towards him, he couldn't see him, but he knew he was there and could make out every detail in him perfectly, but he couldn't see him. He then spoke. "Hope you still remember what I taught you, boy..."
Then he was back, he gasped for air as if he'd been holding his breath for an extended period of time.
"Duilin? I said, are you ready?" Valos asked again.
Duilin wiped the sweat off his forehead and started breathing more deeply.
"What?! You're getting scared?" Valos growled.
"Oh no...I'm ready. Let's go..." Duilin replied and then started walking into the command centre. "I lead the way from here."
-
- Terian, Kainengrad East Gate (outside) -
The Lizardman gulped as four giant claymores headed down for him to smash him into pieces. At that moment, everything around him slowed down as he sent a telepathic message to Doriana. ~Please, tell Karma I couldn't make it...~ After this, he sent one to both the elites that held the storm up. ~Return... your mission is done...~
At this, time around Jacobie sped up again and he was ripped limb from scalley limb, torn to shreads and killed without mercy by the savage Vanguard brutes. His head, still intact, was miraculously able to utter one more thing before he faded on. "That... all you got...?" The two elites nodded, and raced back to the shore, taking flight back to Ariosis by use of their air magic.
The lizardman was true to his firends and his cause until the very end. His name was engraved into history, and would live on forever...
- Terian, Kainengrad Command Centre -
At that moment, the group was visible once more, and Doriana recieved the message as it was thrown into her mind. "Jacobie..." She murmured. "Guys, Jacobie is dead. Let's hurry up and make this quick."
As the group entered the command centre, Doriana looked back for a quick moment. ~Goodbye, old fool... you'll be missed...~ With that last thought, she raced forward to catch up to Duilin and Valos, steadying her pace when she caught up.
-
- Terian, Kainengrad Command Centre -
"Damnit." Duilin cursed. "I was hoping we could do this without loosing anyone. Guess I was wrong." He stopped for a moment. "It is the way of the solider. We'll have to mourn him latter because now we must continue our mission." He continued running up the staircase to the top of the building.
Valos was half expecting Duilin to sit down and start crying or do something lame and melo-dramatic like that, so he was rather pleased when he heard him say 'mourn him later'. He smirked and continued moving, along with Duilin.
-
(Forgot if it was still raining or not.)
- Kainengrad, Airship Dock -
"HOW did this happen?"
The soldier shrunk back. "L-lightning! From the sky!"
Vincent pushed him away to look at the wreck. The charred remains had crushed a building, and Kadarinian soldiers were milling around, trying to salvage survivors. Somehow a single bolt of lightning had taken down and burned his ship. If the flight crystal were intact, he'd likely be able to transmute it into something flyable. But it had EXPLODED.
This was no accident.
He clenched the metal briefcase tightly and the rain poured around. At least it was letting up. "What now, sir?" Mikail asked.
"It's personal now." Vincent unfastened the top button of his cloak and removed a small orb.
"Calling for another ship?"
"No. A fleet. Including my latest Halberd prototype. We are carpet bombing the attacking army to oblivion."
The communications orb merely fizzed, snowy clouds visible within.
"Blast. This storm is interfering. We will have to move to a higher point." Vincent looked around, then pointed. "There. The Kainengrad Command Center. That should work."
With that, the two alchemists darted through the rain towards the temple-like building.
-
- Kainengrad Command Centre, Staircase -
Continuing to head up the large spiralling staircase, Duilin could get the feeling of pure evil in his stomach. Nex was at the top of this building, not even knowing that he was about to attacked. Or what if he did? What if he was simply allowing them to make their way towards them simply to toy with them? It seems like something a demon like Nex would do...
-- --
- Kainengrad Command Centre, Courtyard -
Heric Dephiler was calmly walking through the courtyard infront of the main doorway of the command centre. He wasn't particularly going anywhere, just simple wandering through it. He was given orders from his captain not to disturb him until "the thing" happens. In the meantime Dephiler strolled through the courtyard, occasionally stopping to admire the fine statues of his saviour-esque lord, Abodahon.
Oddly enough, he never met Abodahon, but was indeed a member of the Talonscar. He was one of the guards of Iban, but despised his master, much like Abodahon was with Qor. When Nex approached him and offered him to join the Talonscar, he agreed. However fearing the wrath of Iban he went to Gaian in the first demonic division that arrived when the Talonscar joined the Sovereignty. He heard a lot about Abodahon and wished he could have met him. He prays some day he might. He's read about him in the Talonscar's scriptures and followed his ways as closely as possible.
-
- Kainengrad Command Centre, Courtyard -
"Good day, lieutenant," Vincent said as he shuffled past the bulky demon. He was in no mood to talk, let alone explain his situation, so he hurried past and slid into the doors, displaying his own Captain badge to the posted guards so they would not hassle him. Mikail followed closely behind.
-
- Kainengrad Command Centre, Staircase -
Duilin could hear the tormenting, mocking and horrific laugh of Nex echoing in his memory each step he took up the staircase. His heart skipped a beat every few steps he took and every time the top of that staircase got closer he knew it would be sooner he'd have to fight Nex. It's been so long since he's seen him, and apparently he's gotten even stronger now.
But he wasn't even thinking of backing away, the option of him just turning around and running away and hide under a rock and rot to death to avoid having to face this horrific demon didn't even cross his mind. But he was still scared.
But the fear can be good, it just gives him a rush.
---
- Kainengrad Command Centre, Courtyard -
Dephiler saw Vincent rush by him and head straight into the command centre. 'Was that allowed?' He thought. He didn't want to follow him, but he thought he'd keep an eye open and watch the building very closely for any barely noticeable occurrences from the outside.
---
- Kainengrad Command Centre, Captain's Room -
He kicked the door down, and drew his sword from the sheath on his back. Valos was ready to fight and kill. He looked around the room, Duilin was behind him, as Valos rushed ahead of him.
The robed demon stood in the middle of the room, with a large mounted M-Grid orb. A phantom image just disappeared as they laid eyes upon it. He slowly turned around.
"What? How did you get in here?" Nex sneered.
"We walked inside, how else?" Duilin retorted. He stepped toward him and unsheathed the Iduran. "We were in town and thought we'd stop by and say hi. So, hi."
The two then ran towards him with their weapons ready, together they both slashed their swords at the robed demon. Nex simply laughed, and in a split second he drew two machetes and blocked the swords.
"How cute is this, the Talonscar brothers joining up together. I have to say this is perfect timing for your arrival, my children."
Nex did a jumping split kick hitting both of them, square in the chest and sent them flying in the air and crashing into the wall.
"Let's play for a little while." Nex laughed. "I'm in such a mood to play a game." the blades on his machetes then grew double their length, he then slowly walked towards the two fighters, scratching the floor with the tips of his blades as he moved closer...
-
- Terian, Kainengrad Command Centre; Captain's Room -
"Play time's over." From the shadows of the doorway, Doriana leapt to the ground and slashed out her second katar that hid underneath her cloak. She then backed her footing up into a fighting stance, pointing both katars forwards toward Nex. She backed up a slight bit more, then launched forward, pointing both katars in the air after him. Just as she got up to him, she suddenly vanished. A loud 'poof' noise could be heard from behind the demon as she suddenly reappeared above and just behind him, slashing her watars downward upon his back.
-
- Kainengrad Command Centre, Captain's Room -
The blades of the katars dug into the demon's back, he squawked in pain but then started laughing. For a fraction of a second it seemed like he was laying back into the blades, but he pulled himself forward, and blood splashed out of the wounds and splattered on the floor, and toward Doriana. The blood that hit the ground steamed up the floor, and noticeably burnt the floor on the ground, likely the blood splattering on Doriana would burn.
"Ooo, that felt tingly. Okay your turn now." Nex then spun around and slashed his scythe at the new foe.
Meanwhile Duilin and Valos got back up, both of them charged energy into their swords, The Iduran, in Duilin's hands, began to spark with an orange and golden coloured lightning, while Valos' blade had black and violet lightning shooting around it...
-
- Terian, Kainengrad Command Centre; Captain's Room -
Doriana winced as the blood spilled lightly upon her arms burned, but she paid that little mind as she tried to parry the next attack aimed towards her. She grabbed the scythe by using a pincer-like motion with her metal katars, flipping her wrist just slightly, but more than enough to throw off Nex as the demon was pushed past her. After the successful parry, she placed both her arms upon either one and swiftly tore off the long, yellow sleeves of her assassin jumpsuit, tearing them to shreads. The burns looked quite minor, but that didn't stop the pain. She backed up into a defensive stance, awaiting the next attack.
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room -
Suddenly the heavy oaken doors burst open, revealing Vincent and Mikail, who immediately froze and dropped their jaws.
Before them sprawled an epic battle between Nex and what only could be assumed the vile assassins orchestrating the attack on Kainengrad. "Hmmmm... I believe we've taken a wrong turn..."
"Yikes!" Mikail jumped and hid behind Vincent's trench coat as a plume of flame drew near. Stray blasts of lightning tore splinters from the ceiling which rained all around. "I-isn't that the stair to the roof?" he pointed with a trembling finger to the half open door an the exact opposite side of the raging battle. The only clear way to it lay right through the middle of the fight.
Vincent nodded, then flipped open his coat. "Go... hide in a box or something."
"Y-yes, Captain!" Mikail took off in the opposite direction down the hallway they came, stumbling on the way.
Vincent removed a long metallic tube from his coat, then deftly plugged a cartridge of some sort into the slot above the holster. "Out of the way!!" he screamed as he charged head-first into the raging battle. With a pull of the trigger, liquid fire spewed forth from the flamethrower, which he waved back and forth manically in an attempt to clear a path.
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room -
"Hey what the hell are you doing!?" Valos shouted at the newcommer, backing out of the way of the spewing flames.
"Bah!!" Duilin yelped, but then backed out of the way, allowing Vincent to make his way to the stairs.
Valos took a double take on the passerby "Wait...Vincent?!"
Nex laughed manically and twirled his scythe around before disappearing it, freeing his hands. He then jumped up performing a back flip and landed onto a shelf mounted on the wall, of the fortunately tall room.
"You my friends are about to have the ride of your lifetime. If a girl-drow and two middle-aged generals won't even be able to take me down then..." He laughed again and then shot a series of red lightning bolts, at his foes, scorching the floor and various things around in the room.
With their lightning enchanted weapons, Valos and Duilin, the "middle-aged generals" blocked as many of the lightning bolts as possible that struck them. However Valos was hit right in the chest by one of them, sending a surge of electricity running through his body. As he was temporaly paralysed from the shock several more bolts were able to hit him. He shuddered harshly and then fell down onto the ground, passed out from the shock...
-
- Terian, Kainengrad Command Centre; Captain's Room -
Doriana leapt quickly out of Vincent's way as he passed on by in the midst of the fight, then looked up at Nex as he attempted to destroy the room and everybody in it, or so it seemed. She jumped in front of Valos and knelt down, picking him up and jumping out of the way just before a bolt of lightning came crashing right behind them. She took him out of the way of battle and patched him up with a quick spell that restored his fatigued body. He'd be up and about in moments. At this, she jumped back into the room and deflected a few bolts of lightning that came just before her, landing softly and serenely upon the ground near Duilin.
"If you think I'm unequipped to fight you because I'm a woman, you're in for a rude awakening." After she spoke, Doriana held her palm out and forced a large amount of pure energy from her hand. It was transparent, looking like a ripple in the air, and it ignored the bolts of red lightning that cruised on by it. It was aimed for Nex.
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room -
Nex straightened his right hand and then slapped away the projectile of translucant pure energy.
"You're going to have to do better than that." Nex sneered. He then finished shooting lightning in the air and summoned a demonic fireball in each hand which began to increase in size slowly. He jumped off the shelf and then landed on the floor.
"You know, I think my room needs some redecorating anyways. It's far too formal for my tastes." Nex commented.
With that the demon tossed the fireballs at each side of the room and began to set the room itself on fire. Due to the superior Kandarinian architecture, the building itself would not collapse from the fire, but simply the interior of the room would be burnt.
"Ho hum. Let's see how long you can last in a burning room." Nex said devilishly to his foes.
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, near Captain's Room -
Vincent ducked into the doorway and proceeded up the stairs just as the room behind was set ablaze. Huh... that was easier than he expected. Nearing the upper reaches of the complex, he removed the orb from he coat pocket to see if he could get a signal...
-
-=Unknown location=-
The dark clouds flowering above the grounded Citadel were twisting into an infernal maelstrom to an orchestra of eerie sounds filling the air. The sun was nowhere to be found now - the land around the Gros Morne fortress was illuminated by the occasional flash of lightning discharging from the spiralling vortex, and strange floating lights orbiting it. Gusts of chilling wind sent blighted leaves flying from dead trees, and the unnatural darkness was driving wildlife mad to the point of cannibalization.
The maelstrom seemed to be speeding up in its rotation, and tightening, focusing on top of the Citadel. The "will-o'-the-wisp"-like lights stabilized in their flights, becoming more orderly, patterned, but at the same time rotating faster.
Before long, the storm tightened to the point of becoming a vertical pillar with wavering lines of the wisp lights, which, unlike the vortex, continued getting closer to form a shining orb. Picking up the last of the ghostly lights, the orb descended into the Citadel.
For a second, everything went silent - the lightnings ceased, the clouds vanished, though the darkness remained. Everything was calm for just one second...
As if from its heart, a massive shockwave of blackness-streaked blue light erupted from the Citadel. Chunks of the fortress flew everywhere, each engulfed in a strange cerulean fire. Trees, rocks, anything above the ground simply ceased to be, while the ground itself boiled and cooled, in a matter of seconds, into a mirror-like blueish surface. Where the Citadel used to be, naught remained... but a lone silhouette.
The outline of a humanoid creature, towering at about 8 feet tall, turned its head up to the sky, as if measuring the place it had appeared in. Spreading its massive wings, it heavily ascended into the air and soared somewhere into the distance.
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room -
Valos' eyes slowly opened and get got back up. "Blasted demonic lightning--waaa!" He looked around the room to quickly realize that the room had been set on fire. "Fuckin' demons."
'Valos, Doriana! Get up onto the roof quickly before you guys burn.' Duilin commanded, through a telepathic message. 'I'm half demon so I can handle the heat a lot longer then you guys can. I can handle him on my own for a little while. But I'll try and lure him out of the room.'
Valos growled, he didn't want to leave the room. Then he started to feel his skin burning, as the flames began to reach closer toward him.
Nex gave out another menacing cackling laugh, and his hands began to glow a dark red.
Duilin recognized the spell he was casting from when Abodahon was teaching him demonic magic. It was the infamous 'mind affection' spell, but Duilin was never able to fully master it. He then tried his best to brace his mind as much as possible. However as the evil demon seemed to throw the glow into the air shooting a barely visible wave through the room, Duilin could feel a shudder of fear run through his body, yet he tried to fight it as much as possible. He wasn't going anywhere.
Valos on the other hand wasn't prepared and already had trauma from being in Hell. Seeing as he was in a burning room with a laughing robed demon in the room, Valos had to clench his mouth from screaming. He through the room, towards the staircase Vincent took to get upstairs, repeatedly shouting the word 'shit' as he went.
Duilin was able to fight it all off. "Nice try." Duilin chuckled and he charged more energy into The Iduran.
Duilin slashed it down at his foe, who instantly summoned his scythe and blocked it. Nex then lifted up his right foot to swing a kick at Duilin as their weapons were locked, yet Duilin expected that move and swung his foot and kicked Nex's left leg before his could make contact and tripped him onto the ground. Not wasting a fraction of the half demon stabbed his sword down right into Nex's chest.
The robed demon roared in pain, but continued his trademark laugh. "Ohhh my...You have gotten better." With that in the blink of eye he simply teleported up onto his feet and punched Duilin square into the stomach.
"Ooofff---" Duilin's stomach nearly caved in on itself, shooting a shockwave through him that dented the wall on the opposite side. He was propelled in the air for a second before sent flying through the room (keeping a tight grip on the Iduran) and crashing into the wall, which was surprisingly still stable despite being on fire. The flames started to burn him, catching his shirt on fire. Duilin howled in pain, but got back up onto his feet and ripped his shirt off and threw it aside. The now bare-chested Duilin twirled the Iduran around and glared at Nex across the room.
"Alright...Now you got me pissed."
- Kainengrad Command Center, Roof -
Valos panted and caught his breath as he reached the roof. He wasn't sure what came over him but he still had an extreme fear of going back down. He looked around the roof and saw the familiar looking man who rushed through the room earlier.
"Vincent? General Vincent?" Valos asked stepping towards him. "Didn't you get your ass killed back in the Aspye-Grey Empire war? What are you doing alive? I thought Draven would have hunted you down and chopped you into tiny pieces and cooked you up for betraying him, by now."
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Roof -
His back to Valos, Vincent turned slightly, his hand covering the orb as he put it away. It was evident he had just finished using it. His coat whipped around in the turbulent wind. Though the rain had stopped, the murky clouds above still cast the city in shadow.
"Hmmm... you look vaguely familiar, but I can't place a name..." In a heartbeat, he flipped his coat open and removed the long shotgun, pointing it at the man with a single hand as his coat flapped in the breeze. In his left hand, he still held the metallic case that concealed the NGO. "Though I don't consider myself much of a traitor. I just tend to stay on the winning side... and you, my friend, are on the wrong one."
He grinned widely, his rectangular glasses gleaming once from an unseen light. As he squeezed the trigger, the gun exploded forth a single blast of light, which careened for Valos' chest...
-
-=The Skies=-
The dark figure cut the sky like the point of a black knife. Tattered robes fluttered in the wind as massive wings kept the creature airborne, ascending and soaring downward to achieve incredible speeds. It seemed to be drifting to the right a little, weighted down by a large iron gauntlet on its right arm.
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Roof -
Quickly realizing he was being attacked Valos emited a glob of dark energy in his hand and used it to block the beam of light heading towards him.
"Well, that was very polite now was it?"
Valos pointed his finger like a gun at Vincent, with the dark energy still flowing through his hands.
"Then again who am I to criticize people for being impolite, when I'm not such a well mannered person myself?"
With that, he shot a powerful bolt of dark lightning from his hand, directed at Vincent...
----
- Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room -
The demon and the half demon clashed their weapons violently as they stormed around the burning room. Duilin's increased skill over the years was really starting to show as Nex seemed to be well matched against his foe.
"I say Duilin, you have got your father's spunk." Nex said, trying to provoke his rage even further.
Rather than loose it though, Duilin simply smirked. "Abodahon wouldn't have shit on me now, so neither do you, scum."
Duilin then gave a mighty violent slash smashing Nex's weapon from his hands. He pointed the Iduran at Nex and used it to fire a single shot of a white coloured sacred fire at his chest, knocking him to the ground on his back. With his freed left hand, he casted a ball of yellow energy which shot over Nex, creating a shield tightly around him.
Nex attempted to get up but found himself unable to move, due to the shield around him. The demon growled and began to push the shield away by increasing his aura. Duilin kept shooting energy into the shield to hold him in place, and with his right hand holding the Iduran he began to charge it with his energy at the same time.
Nex was amazed at Duilin's raw power. "This...is...making me...extremely...FRUSTRATION!!!"
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Roof -
The blast of shadow energy caught Vincent completely off guard. It swiveled around his weapon and exploded, blowing his right arm clean off. Clutching the metallic briefcase to his chest with his remaining appendage, he teetered backwards several feet as he hissed. After he regained his balance, his head slowly rose, his rectangular glasses flashing.
"Heh heh heh... nice try. But I'm afraid you're late. Far too late..." As he chuckled a shiny metalic ooze pulsed from the wound of his missing arm, forming itself into a somewhat arm-like shape. His eyes widened and he began cackling with all the fervor of a mad scientist, clutching the box more tightly to his chest. "You can't have it! It's mine! MINE!!!"
With that he leaned forward and thrust his metallic arm into the ground, an ensemble of metallic spikes surging upwards in a row towards Valos. At the same time the deep rumbling of engines resonated in the distance, a shadow piercing the horizon's clouds...
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Roof -
"Bahh!!" Valos jumped to the side high into the air and levitated himself with his magic and hovered in the air to avoid the spikes. "Gah, I'd rather not drag this out, as I need to go back downstairs soon." He mumbled.
Valos pointed his sword and Vincent and began to charge shadow energy into the blade, causing it to glow a dark violet with an eerie black shadow around it...
-
-=Kainengrad - Command Center=-
The entire building shook as if from a boulder smashing into the roof. Clouds of noxious dust swallowed everything as the shockwaves from the impact threw both Duilin and Nex sideways. There, beside the spire adorning the Command Center's roof... there, past the shattering shield, past the rising silver spikes, past the broken chunks of the building...
The outline of something huge was clearly visible even through the thick layers of airborne dust. It appeared to be a humanoid silhouette keeling over. As the dust settled, more details began to come through - a massive iron gauntlet on the right hand, a downward-horned helmet, a scarlet robe laced with bone, and a pair of enormous bat-like wings...
Bones cracked as the figure straightened out, stretched its arms, blowing the dust away, revealing a withered man's face - strangely familiar - behind the iron guards of the helmet. Almost with great effort, the man filled his lungs with air, and bellowed:
-"We am become ABODOS! The destroyer of LIFE, the bringer of DEATH!"
-
(Did this thing crash onto the roof, or though it a level or two (leaving a hole) to where Nex and Duilin are fighting?)
- Kainengrad Command Center, Roof -
Vincent's mad cackling was interrupted by an explosion of such force he was thrown off his feet and slammed into a crumbling brick wall. He clutched the briefcase to his chest as he fell, absorbing much of the impact himself. His writhing metallic right "arm" jittered around frantically until, gritting his teeth, he reshaped it into something human, complete with jacket sleeve.
His calm demeanor immediately returned. He looked at his reformed hand and flexed the fingers. Blast... he thought he had more control over himself when that happened... he would need to concentrate harder next time.
Standing, he peered through the miasmic dust... it appeared to be one of those undead conglomerations like Kronos used to make. Who made this one he did not know, but it was about blasted time.
"You there!" he shouted, trying to waft away the dust with his free hand. It was still too thick to see clearly. "That one! That is your target. Kill him now!" He commanded, pointing to Valos on the other side.
-
(It's not on the roof, it's in the room with Duilin and Nex)
- Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room -
Duilin was blown to the wall of the room, loosing his focus on the shield he was holding Nex into, allowing him to break free but only to be blown to the opposite side of the room.
Nex started laughing as he slowly recovered himself and looked at the abomination which entered the room.
Duilin got himself up onto his feet and quickly noticed what caused him to be thrown back he looked at the giant figure in the room, he could feel a cold shiver through his veins as he looked at it. He could recognize parts of it, some of the parts were disturbingly familiar. That gauntlet, it was exactly the same as his father's, exactly the same.
"What are you!?" Duilin shouted out to the beast.
-
-=Kainengrad - Command Center - Captain's room=-
The monster calling himself Abodos seemed rather unappreciative of commands - after a rage-filled roar, he smashed the wall right above Vincent with the gauntlet-protected arm. The two-metre-thick wall section broke off like a piece of flicked wafer and flew a good fifty meters before utterly demolishing a vacant tavern below. Having calmed himself thusly, Abodos swooped Vincent off his feet and brought the captain closer for inspection. The face behind the helmet appeared to be.... Kronos himself!
That being said, his face was now even paler than ever, his skin covered with scars and various pentagrams, his eyes turned to white, pupil-less orbs, and his short hair changed to long, white locks appearing from under the helmet. But the facial features, though slightly warped, definitely belonged to Kronos. Abodos proceeded to put Vincent back down, and, without turning back, mumbled:
-"Vanish, Vincent."
With that matter out of the way, Abodos turned to Duilin.
-"You.... you seem strangely familiar.... nay, it must be the --"
Suddenly, Abodos grasped his head, falling on his knees and smashing his forehead into the floor. His head jerked upwards, and he swung his left, unprotected arm, in a semicircle around him, shattering a wooden desk to pieces. Without even fully standing up, he charged at Duilin, drawing back his right arm in preparation for a devastating punch.
---
"Surprisingly, just when it happened, it wasn't as confusing as it got a few minutes later. Even now, writing so long after the first fusion, I still remember vividly the fleeting moments of clarity when, in error, I believed Abodos' body to still be fully under my control. It got me to Kainengrad fairly quick - I couldn't afford to lose Nex after seeing barbarians charge into his quarters. The landing, however... I think that's what jerked the demon's consciousness for the first time...
I recognized Vincent's voice immediately, but after landing, my thoughts no longer directly went from my head to my limbs. There was darkness between - a blanket of black cotton, letting me do only so much without interference. As such, I tried stopping the instinctive action of smashing the source of sound, but could not.
At that point... well, at that point, Abodahon's part of Abodos finally kicked in. Yes, Abodahon - he who became the King of Hell after the fall of Iban. I suppose it must get really boring down there, though - upon contacting him for a purpose as trifle as sparing a legion of demons or two, I was greeted by an offer that, literally, surprised me half to death. The mad chap wanted to fuse his physical being with mine; his excuse was that, as a demon of unfathomable power, he cannot simply pass over to the above world. Ruling Hell for eternity seemed like a dull hobby to him, so he wanted power on Gaian, too. The only way to transfer his power up here was to set up a conduit for it - which is where I came in. Using my phase-shift abilities and Nex's invocations, I successfully grafted the demon king into my own body."
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room -
Valos fell through the hole, which the beast made in the building, and lost control of his charging attack, and released prematurely and off target, blasting his dark lightning bolt into the air, shortly after loosing his grip on his sword allowing it fall on the floor in the room below. Shortly after his sword hit the ground, Valos himself followed falling on his back, a bit more than arms reach from the weapon.
Duilin stared at the creature with shocked wide eyes, yet not in fear of the oncoming attack, but still simply by it's presence. He didn't move a muscle as he stared at it.
It couldn't be who he thinks it is? He thought this too himself, as he watched the beast bring back his fist.The way he brought back his fist was exactly like how Abodahon did. And that name he called himself, 'Abodos' could this be his new form? He remembered how dismembered he was before he died, perhaps this could be a new being simply with old parts of his. He was different, defiantly different, but still disturbingly too similar to his regular self. It must be him though.
"So, just like that? You're gonna hit me? Is that anyway to greet your son, you sick bastard?" Duilin said sternly.
Abodos lowered his fist down and gave a smirk recognizable to Abodahon's. "Ahh...yes...now we are remember you. Son of Abodahon...." He then stood up, revealing his massive height. "Failure of son." He laughed evily pointing at Duilin.
Duilin clenched his fists and teeth, all those feelings of betrayal came back to him, the massive humiliation he went through by allowing himself to be controlled by him. By believing his lies. And the fact that he abandoned him the day before the rest of his family was killed right in front of him, the fact that he got a bunch of men to do it for him.
Duilin then stared at Abodos in the eyes and his aura began to burn around him, he shot a huge gust of air from his aura with blew what was left of the fire in the room out. He started to float in the air, as golden electricity began to shoot around him. The colour of his lightning aura slowly shifted to orange and then to red as he floated slightly away from Abodos.
Abodos simply continued to laugh. "FAILURE! FAIL! FAIL! FAIL-URE!!"
"Shut up!" Duilin shouted as flames started to shoot from his aura.
Abodos ignored him and continued laughing.
"I said...Shut....the fuck....UP!!!" Duilin screamed as his aura exploded, his skin seemed like it started to burn his body because of the intensity of his aura, his skin tanned to golden colour and his hair started to grey. His nails grew and pentagrams started to glow a burning orange on his body and then the glow died down leaving perfect brands on him.
"FAIL...Huh??" Abodos seemed surprised by his son's transformation.
The demonized Duilin gave an ominous roar. Although his sized increased fairly he was stilled towered over by the massive Abodos, yet Duilin didn't seem to care. He dived at the beast preparing to dig his claws into his chest...
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room -
Vincent tumbled out of the beast's grasp and sprawled upon the floor, wide-eyed. "S... sovereign...?" He scuttled to his feet, grabbing the briefcase and running over piles of rubble.
"C-captain?" Mikail poked his head from under a pile of rocks. Vincent grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him along.
"Our ride should be here any minute. We're leaving. Now."
(Chapter ends this Saturday. Will be copying the forums to the new server then.)
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room -
"Ha!" Abodos grunted as Duilin dived at him. With his gauntlet hand he back handed him as he dove at him and sent him flying back to the ground. "Try better."
Duilin made a beastly growl at the demon/lich as he jumped back up on his feet. He clenched his fists as he raised them infront of him, and began to charge his energy, sending a shockwave around the room.
Valos who was on the ground was rolled over and then woken up. "What the..." He weakly got back up and then his jaw dropped as he saw Duilin in his demon form along with Abodos. "Okay, I didn't expect this."
"You see THIS father?!" Duilin roared. "This is what you've been trying to turn me into for the past four decades." His teeth clenched for a few seconds. "But...I can control myself, not even pure evil consuming my entire can make me follow your ways."
Abodos started to step towards him and smirked.
"Go ahead, pat yourself on the back. We don't need you anymore. Now, you're just another piece of mortal scum." He then began to laugh more. "SCUM!!"
-
- Above Kainengrad -
Standing on the airship deck, Vincent watched the command center shrink as he made his retreat. Originally he planned on striking back as a test of his prototype ship, but after the appearance of that... thing that resembled the sovereign... former sovereign, he thought it best to leave the destruction of the cursed federation scum to him.
He patted the metal briefcase at his side. He had all he needed anyway... "Mikail, instruct the crew to set course for The Factory of Dark Science."
To be continued...
-
Chapter 19
- Shuba, Factory of Dark Science, Government Conspiracy Cover-Up Room -
"Are you MAD?!?!" Dr. Smizlworf banged his feeble hands on the table. "The NGO are NOT things to be trifled with! They are propulsion devices! Using them as... as a power source for this monstrosity is mad! MAD!!!!" He proceeded to pull his white hair out of his scalp.
"Dr. Smizleworf, please take a seat," Vincent replied tersely. He pointed to the gargantuan technical design scribbled upon the wall with his pointer-stick-thing. "In order to power the BRAIN and the advanced weaponry systems of the new sentient airship design, codenamed SAD, we need at least 100 times more energy output than the Soverign's Hammer primary attack laser. By spinning the three NGO around each other in a vacuum as shown, we effectively create an energy nexus--"
"MAD!!!"
Vincent sighed. "Mikail, smack him."
The cerulean robed adept got up from his seat and slapped the old man across the cheek. "OWWW!!!"
"*Ahem*... As I was saying... this I already figured out and installed onto the ship by myself. Our only obstacle is the BRAIN-unit, or rather, the crystal which with uplifts the automated machine to a slave-like sentience, fully capable of taking and performing orders on its own."
Mikail quietly shut the door behind him as voices raised again. He wasn't actually part of the meeting, only being an adept rank, and had duties to attend to elsewhere. Smoothing out his robe, he nodded to a group of initiates as they passed, then proceeded to walk down the hallway.
Everything was coming to an end now. Time was running out. Months of preparation lead to this. He had a mission. A single objective.
To assassinate Vincent Elridge.
-
- ????, one week ago -
Two powerful forces clashed. Two men, one wreathed in golden flame, the other in blue flame. Both of their auras had phoenix-like wings. They displayed an incredible mastery of combat, fighting with incredible speed, force, grace, and athleticism. The fight was mostly even. Suddenly, they backed away from each other.
The golden man spoke first. "Why are you so bent on this? It WAS your fault."
The blue man replied. "Because I hate you. You were the favorite. You were exactly what my parents wanted us to be."
"You could have been too!"
"Enough! It's... too late for me."
"...Fine, then."
The golden man raised his sword, and his aura started to flare madly. A yell, and fissures were sent through the ground, glowing with heavenly golden light. He charged forward, golden flame trailing behind him. Upon coming up to the blue-flamed man, he started to unleash a flurry of slashes. "May the divine fury of the Unconquered Sun... rend your body and soul... to absolute nothingness!" After four hits, he leapt up high into the air, his blade erupting with golden flame.
"Scathing Phoenix Tempest!!!"
He slashed down with all of his force, creating an upwards explosion of golden flame. The other man's aura had died down a bit, enough to reveal his features. He was wearing a long black trenchcoat, like some guy out of the Matrix. He had fair skin, and short brown hair. His eyes were a hateful blood red. He glared at the other man, whose aura was still burning strong.
"That was good, brother."
"It's my best attack."
"I can't beat you as you are now."
"No. You can't."
"What will you do? Kill me?"
"... No."
"That's what I thought." The flame died down all the way now. "I can't allow you to be in Creation anymore." He pulled a small black ball out of his pocket. "I cannot bear to be reminded of the weight of my sins, time and again. So be gone." With that, he threw the ball at the golden man. A black hole appeared where it landed, right at his feet.
"What the...?! Silverwater! What the hell is this?"
"I'm sending you away."
"What do you mean, away? Where to?"
"I have no idea where you're going. And I don't care. I just want you gone. Goodbye, William."
"Damnit~~!!!" The hole sucked him in, and he was gone.
- Kainengrad, Streets -
A normal-looking man wandered the streets now, and the expression on his face showed that he had no idea where he was. He had fair skin, blue eyes, and a brown... mullet. He looked around, trying to get a feel for what was currently up here.
-
~ Ariosis, Province of the Drannic Empire ~
Chaos is but a crude word one would use to define what befell Ariosis as its armies were on leave. The land was struck by a ferocious invasion of a near-by province in its empire, but long-since forgotten about until now... Dranniville. The Drannivolka, after having been conquored by Ariosis and having fought along side that empire, had now turned upon it, seeking revenge.
Lead by a fearless marauder named Captain Lucas Gracchus, the onslaught lasted but a mere seven days; it took the Drannivolka only one week to ravage the countryside of Ariosis. The lands were pilaged and all of the cities sacked and plundered; overthrown by the invasion. The legions of the emporer's finest were all but powerless to stop the Drannivolka, and were either slaughtered on sight or captured, imprisoned, and condemned to death.
The people, however, suffered a fate far worse than death. They were enslaved and put to work, and if they were too old, or too weak, they were killed. The women and children cooked and cleaned for them, and the men labored in the fields. Some select few were put to work in the mines; there, they prospected the crystal caves that were so prevalent on the mainland, mining them to the bare rock. They were then sold for a profit. As the armies of Dranniville prospered, the people of Ariosis suffered.
Some of the slaces were even sold across certain, old and forgotten slave trades. The majority of inhabitants upon the mainlands of Ariosis were changing drastically from human to Drannivolka, and more civilians started to migrate from Dranniville to the mainland; Ariosis. Some spare slaves to the government were sold to the new arrivals and put to work. Unfortunately, most humans who lived in Ariosis weren't much of the proper labor force, and that being the case, many died by overworking themselves.
The rest of Gaian was ignorant of the happenings in the Ario Empire, or rather, the Drannic Empire. Even if the federation decided to act and help the humans fight back, it wouldn't matter; not much could be done to save the humans in this state. Moral was horribly low, and they seemed to accept their fate as a sort of punishment from Gaia. Rebellion for them just wasn't an open option.
Death was now common in the once-peaceful empire, and more humans died from torture and overworking than from battle. Ariosis was in a sad status, and the old prejudices and racism that had been nearly lost forever returned in bloom. Hatred between the two races was common, and it would be weird if there wasn't any between them. Unfortunately for the humans, because of this, things took a turn for the worse...
An official Dictum/amendment was made to the Drannic Empire's constitution. It was the Edict of Purification, called by "Emporer Gracchus," and by humans, the Edict of Genocide. It was anounced earlier this day, infact...
EDICT OF PURIFICATION:
All humans that did not have a Drannivolka master were to be captured immediately and given a master, with which he could either sell to another master, the government, or put it to work. If there is any resistance what-so-ever, it is to be given to the government for a reasonable price or put down straight-away by its master. Any human that exceeded the age of fifyt years was to be put down. Those humans that are unable to work because of weakness and/or disability are to be put down straight-away.
"Rebellion... is not an option..."
-
- Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room -
Abodos continued to step toward Duilin with a sinister grin.
"Go ahead." Duilin roared back. "Do your worst. Nothing you can do can hurt me."
Abodos lifted his gantleted fist and arched in back. "We'll see."
The demon lord jumped at the even more monstrous creature before him, yet before he could make his attack, he was struck in the chest with the gantlet and forced into the wall of the building, cracking it around him and making an imprint. Before the demon lord could even retaliate he was blasted by several lightning blasts from the uncovered hand and forced through the wall. Duilin fell through and began to fall toward the ground below the tower.
Nex laughed. "Excellent, very excellent masters. The merge seems to be a complete success, am I correct?"
Abodos looked at Nex and glared, actually making Nex flinch, but the demon/lich's glare faded and he simply nodded at him.
"Yes, indeed it is."
"So...Master Abodos, is it?"
"I shall grant you worthy of speaking my name, slave. Yet very few others shall I grant the permission too."
"Very good Master Abodos." Nex bowed. "So, shall I see to it that the scum Duilin is finished?" He stepped towards the hole in the wall and summoned his scythe.
"No." Abodos lifted up his hand in front of Nex. "Wait."
-
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room ~
Everyone in the room seemed to forget that Doriana was still there. She was hiding, however... in fear. The fear of seeing Abodos was enough to make her disappear into hiding, which she did an excellent job at. Except, even as now wasn't the time to hide, she neither cared nor complained; only hid in fear. Her mind wasn't... "on right, at the moment," for want of a better phrase.
However, something that did set her off was how Duilin was pushed through a wall. Something about it made a certain something inside her click... and she was indeed set off. Her cloak vanished and she extended her claws to her sides. A sort of heavenly aura surrounded her; it wasn't quite a visible aura... but it just seemed so majesterial...
"Hey, you'd better get THE HELL away from him right now..." She stood there, tall and proud, and confident for once. Her hands tightened upon the grips of her assassin claws, ready to evade an attack at any given time and trust the claws into her opponent's flesh.
"Or else..."
-
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room ~
Nex laughed manically as he saw Doriana jump out
"Don't worry I don't think I'll have an easy time touching him while he falling to his death. But if you really want to save your friend Duilin why don't you fly down and catch him before he smashes on the ground like a rancid melon."
Nex stroked the lower part of his mask.
"Master Abodos, perhaps you'd like me to dispose of this fool?" Nex scanned the room quickly and then pointed at Valos. "And perhaps that one too?"
//Gonna wait for Ein\
-
- Kainengrad, Streets -
He looked around a little more... and then up. He could see a tower, burning. He could hear a lot of commotion. "What the hell?" Then mumbling as he started to approach it. "Figures the first town I'd find in this world..." And then all of a sudden, he saw some dude bursting through the wall of the tower... and then falling! "What the hell?!?!"
Instinctively, he took off running toward the tower. It wasn't very fast at first, but he picked up speed. He was trying to hold back, as he wasn't sure how powerful people here were, and what their attitude was toward the super-powered. He was running as fast as a normal human would. I'm not gonna make it...!
-
-=Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room=-
It was clear that while successful, the merge was still having a detrimental effect on Abodos' mind. After a severe jolt of pain, he instinctively smashed yet another wall down with his right hand, while grasping his head with his left. The pain appeared so intense that Abodos partly keeled over, the claws on his hand dredging into his skin. Shortly afterward, however, he straightened back out.
-"Nay," he growled. "Abodahon has had his turn. You will finish that one."
The clawed hand dripped blood in Duilin's direction, while Abodos himself turned his empty eyes toward Doriana.
-"This one made a hole in my old robe. I have a score to settle... personally."
Abodos, now fully turned facing Doriana, lumbered toward her with the gauntlet clenched into a fist.
-"Looks like the kitten found its claws," he jeered. "Let's see if you live long enough to provide sport."
-
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room ~
"Damn you..." At that instant, Doriana cast haste upon herself and leapt out of the building, flying down at a faster rate than Duilin. She then used a small bit of manipulative telekinesis and got under him. She then grabbed on to him and held him tightly as they both hit the ground. She took the impact of the blow, and was nearly killed upon it, coughing up blood.
"Ugh... you... alive...?" She barely managed to spit out those last words before she plopped back down in a lifeless state. Her life was at an edge; the spark that it was merely flickered as she slipped out of consciousness.
*Please don't let my sacrifice be in vain.* She sent this message into his head before she slipped out of consciouness; she was very close to death. It seemed at hand for her, and this time, she willingly embraced it.
-
==Kainengrad Command Center==
Stopping midway, Abodos looked down at the crashed people beneath.
-"I've had enough." His growl seemed uncharacteristically level this time. "There are more important places for me to be, likewise, more important things for me to do."
The demon lobbed his heavy frame off the Command Center's ruined building, and opened his wings midway to the ground. Like a bird of doom, Abodos' silhouette cut the sky as he flew wherever his chaotic thoughts guided him.
-
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room ~
"Nyahaha!" Nex jumped off the building and flew down after the two. He watched as Doriana sacrificed herself for Duilin and continued laughing, as he watched her die, from afar...
---
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Courtyard ~
He landed on the ground with great force, making a loud thud and creating a cracked dent in the ground.
"My, my how noble, even when you're on a temper tantrum your friends are there to save you." Nex mocked.
Duilin slowly got up and saw Doriana's life starting to slip away from her. He could save her, just not in this form...but he can't change on will...There's nothing he can do! He just kept getting angrier and angrier about this. He stood there, bruised up, with his fist and teeth clenched as he growled at Nex.
"Well, what are you waiting for, boyo?" Nex twirled his scythe.
Duilin made a ferocious roar as he dived at Nex, managing to tackle him onto the ground and pin him down. He dug his hands into the ghostly demon and began ripping away at his endless amounts of robes covering him as he roared in his face...
---
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Captain's Room ~
Valos dug through the rubble while Abodos flew off, luckily not noticing him. Pushing over a chuck of the wall, he found his sword, it was pretty beaten up, but the blades were still sharp enough to kill.
"Damn it all to hell, now I gotta get my ass back down into the city..." Valos groaned.
-
= Kainengrad, Streets =
He continued running, even as he saw someone come out at great speed, moving underneath the falling man to save him. He then saw some huge demon fly out of the tower. This brought him to a stop for a bit. He then continued running toward the tower, and eventually arrived close enough to see what's going on. He hid behind a building and watched.
-
- Shuba, Factory of Dark Science -
Mikail was an easy target. A low rank and unimportant in the alchemist academy.
Traversing the loud factory and subsequent upper residence areas wasn't difficult for one of his talents levels. He slipped in his room at night and killed him.
Then he stole his form.
He'd been wearing Mikail's body for months now, and it was beginning to drive him mad. He had absorbed many of his memories too-- not all, but enough so that suspicions of the switch would be minimal. Sometimes he even thought himself as the human. But he longed to dispel the transformation and return to his true form. Such magic was new to his people and his greatest fear was that the spell would be irreversible.
But still, he had a mission.
Of all the Captains, Vincent was the weakest, yet the most important. His power wasn't overbearing like the militant types, yet his diabolical contributions to the Kandarinians' war machines proved him to have played the worst role in the mad empire's reign of terror. That is why he was the target.
They made a critical error in that assessment.
Vincent, a living being of liquid metal formed into the shape of a human, was nearly indestructible.
It had taken him months to get close to the mad alchemist. Months of studying his form, and what made him tick. Vincent's condition was the result of a potion with its effect gone awry, he learned, and then an adjustment to the very alignment of his molecules. Two effects, melded in one. Two spells that needed to be undone.
"Silver Hunter, do you read? Silver Hunter, do you read?"
"I read, Gray Master." "Mikail" said into the glowing gem. It was quiet in his dark room, and he spoke at a mere whisper.
"Something has come from the netherworlds. Something far more dangerous than the target."
"I've seen it. The target spoke with it and I watched from the shadows."
"How? What is it? It's energy signature..."
"I don't know. I left with the target immediately."
"It is the result of no mere summoning, Silver Hunter. Kronos has returned, more powerful than before. Should such a force grow wise of what we are doing here..."
"Duilin was there. I saw him."
A pause from the glowing stone. "Then the Gaians are taking care of it. Abort mission."
"I can't do that! The target is on the verge of his most horrific creation yet!"
The voice on the other end sighed. "We cannot risk our race once again by getting involved. The situation has changed with Kronos back in the picture."
"No one will know. And we owe the Gaians that much."
"Silver Hunter... we can't send backup."
"I know."
-
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Courtyard ~
Nex laughed masochistically as Duilin ripped and teared away at Nex. Eventually hunks of flesh and boiling demonic blood starting to flail out of Nex. Duilin roared again at his foe.
"Stop laughing!!" Duilin commanded with rage, he sped up his thrashing at him yet slowed down considerable after a few seconds.
Nex's laughs started to calm down. "Duilin, Duilin...You just don't get it do you?"
Suddenly a firey explosion was summoned from Nex and Duilin was knocked away, and tumbled onto the ground, rolling several yards away.
"I hate to break your high spirits but not even Retan had the power to fully destroy me." Nex explained.
Duilin got back up and growled. "Why won't you die!? Why won't you EVER die!?"
"Because, Duilin, it's just not my style. I am beyond it. You see, I used to just be able to come back after dieing, but after my body was destroyed on Romme a few bits and pieces were gathered up by Pheonix and brought back to the Talonscar which was used to reform my body. And well, due to such a massive attacks and deaths my body has gone through, it built somewhat an immunity to all the damage. I heal much, much faster now, and even a little bit can make me come back. In fact I can rip myself up into dust and fly around and be able to put myself back together again. I'm some sort of a ghost, in that sense I suppose."
"That's...impossible. That's just not fair!" Duilin roared.
"Of course not, you think you would have learned that by now!?" Nex stated, with anger in his voice. "You think you would have learned life isn't supposed to be build of sunshine and dewdrops with all the shit you've been put through? Ignored by your father, witnessing your family's murder right in front of you? Enslaved, abused, tortured. Finding out the truth of your father? Loosing several of your best friends? Not even knowing how most of them died."
The demon lord, Duilin roared back. "I don't let that get me! I know what's right and wrong! I don't take that bullshit! I hate all you sadistic heartless jackasses, who just rape, torture and kill everything!"
Nex laughed.
"Shut up! Stop laughing! I'm gonna rip you up so badly now, you'll fucking regret being able to regenerate!"
Duilin dove again at Nex, yet the robed demon didn't allow him to attack him. With a swift slash of his scythe he cut across Duilin's chest and pushed him away with the blade. The cut wasn't enough to cause any lethal damage to Duilin so he simply regained balance and got himself in a fighter's stance. He wasn't gonna give up this fight, he assumed either there was a way around Nex's uber-regen power, or he's over exaggerating it.
The two circled each other, yet Duilin got sick of it and summoned two demonic bone flails, one in each hand. He threw one of them at Nex, and while he motioned to block the other, he gave a curved throw with the second and it smashed right into Nex's right side and knocked him to the ground.
"It's on now, freak." Duilin taunted.
-
~ Ariosis, Azzken Endor (capital) ~
And at the height of all the chaos was but a mere, mortal Drannivolkan General. He put himself on a level above everyone else, what he considered 'beyond anything petty'; he was in full control of everything the previous empire owned, along with a few new things he developed on his own... hatred from his subjects. And the funny thing about that was he enjoyed it, and bathed in its wake.
There he was, sitting on his throne; the ruler of a new empire. It was a palace built for a god, lavish with all kinds of exquisite furnishings and tapestries. He sat there and enjoyed the sweet taste of revenge combined with an aftermath of a fiercly deciding battle.
"How wonderful. Finally, it's all mine..."
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Courtyard ~
Doriana wasn't quite done yet, however. She was in a poor state, true, but that didn't quell the fierce life within her. It was brought to a flicker, and was close to the edge, but it still remained. She wasn't ready to give it up, however...
High up into the air, beyond the clouds, soared an angelic figure. He was illuminated by an incredibly bright light that enraptured all that beheld it. He flew down upon the scene where Doriana lay and placed a hand on her chest, sending in wave after wave of healing energy. As time slowly passed, she began to draw a more audible breath than before. And soon, her eyes twitched open. She was brought back, against all odds, by this heavenly figure.
"Welcome back, old friend." With an outstretched hand, Bjendell helped Doriana to her feet and smiled as she had the strength to stand on her own; maybe even the strength to continue the fight. The angel then summoned his holy abilities to conjure up a pure energy sword that glowed a bright white. It was a two-handed blade, six feet long, and broad from hilt to tip, narrowed and sharp at the tip and the edges.
"Good to be back," she said, getting a better grip on her claws. She decided to wait before she fought again, however, not feeling fully up to fighting again. As this entered her mind, she walked over to the near-by command center and sat down against its outter wall, letting Ben have all the fun with Duilin.
"Allow me to lend a hand!" The angel then flew beside Duilin, landing perfectly on his feet, touching the ground softly. He readied his two-handed holy energy sword. "Let's finish this fiend off once and for all, eh?"
-
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Courtyard ~
Valos made it to the courtyard and saw the commotion, as well as Doriana sitting near by. "Hmm, I'm not sure if that angel guy should be bumping into the Duilin when he's like this." Valos said to her about Bjendell. "Duilin may still have a lot of control over himself in this state, but he's overly aggressive and easy to piss off."
Valos was right. Duilin growled at Bjendell. "Get out of my way, or I'll smack you! This is my fight!"
Nex laughed as he jumped back onto his feet and then wisped through the air at Duilin pushing him away and into a near by building, smashing into the wall, cracking the entire side of the building. Nex pushed with a little more force and knocked the wall down and forced the whole building to collapse.
Valos stepped towards Bjendell. "Hey, Flyboy the second!" He said pointing at him. "Did you happen to see a giant ugly-ass demon-zombie fly out of the tower a few minutes ago?" He asked him. He then looked up into the sky. "It's probably going to be something we are going to have to worry about pretty soon. Duilin can handle Nex by himself." He then looked at the two fighting. "Despite the fact he just got his ass smashing into a building, I'm sure he'll be fine. Nex is strong, but Duilin was starting to surprise me even before he transformed."
-
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Courtyard ~
"Heh... just the same as you always were... fine then, he's your problem now." Ben then let the light blade disperse into the air, causing the overall charge in the area to be holy. It then, shortly after, returned to its normal status. Ben then turned around and saw Valos, walking over to him swiftly.
"No, I'm afraid I didn't see him... this demon creature... he's something we've got to worry about then?" Ben walked over to Doriana and helped her back to her feet, the pair standing before Valos.
"D'ya have any idea where he might be goin'?" Doriana began, "We might be able to cut him off. I don't know, though, that guy looked pretty damn strong."
"Do not worry yourself with battle right now... he doesn't look like he's coming back."
-
= Kainengrad, Near Command Center, Courtyard =
Will continued to watch the spectacle from behind some building. He was still trying to be stealthy, but his eyes were wide in astonishment. Action wasn't new to him... But this kind... it was a little different from what he was used to.
Oh crap! That building being destroyed? It's kinda really close to where he is now. He shrinks back behind his building, trying to stay hidden. He's not looking to get sucked into a conflict he knows nothing about.
-
==Kopenka, Somewhere on Terian==
Baron Gonseng is a genius.
There is a limit to how much abuse a person can take. It differs from person to person, I suppose - some may snap at the smallest thing, others can take a lot before it is too much to keep bottling inside. Some rage at the increased prices of bintmeat, while others rage at the sight of their loved ones slowly wavering in the wind, strewn from the steeples of the Baron's castle. As it is painfully obvious, there is a rather large discrepancy between what makes each person's mental braces bend and break under the pressure of boiling hot anger. And that, I therefore deducted, is what makes the Baron such a gifted individual.
He managed to cross that line for every single person in Kopenka nearly at the exact same time.
Without the Sovereign's watchdogs, at times hilariously pious in the execution of their duties, it is safe to say that no one truly liked living under Kronos' reign. The Lich, no matter how saint he made himself seem at times, was not loved. Truly, how can one love a half-decayed corpse? He littered the streets with the walking dead, making a sniff of an Albatrash dung pit seem like a wave of sanctified aroma sent by the divines. He created arbitrary laws, only to strike them down the next day - and without telling anyone. Indeed, a fellow may be imprisoned for life because of a law that is gone with the following dawn, only to serve as a momentary source of amusement for Kronos.
Yet despite all these, as a friend put it, shortcomings, Kronos was tolerable. His corpses did, in fact, made lives easier for many people who toiled in the fields or broke bones at construction sites. He edified the simple folk, granting many peasants education, as well as jobs, and, subsequently, payment to fit. As for his musings... well, he has claimed victims, but he was different - he was the only one.
When he expired, all Citadelic hell broke loose.
Every single scribe, every single guard, every single whore, every single nameless idiot who has ever stepped foot into the Citadel had scattered all across Terian. The Baron was one of those - lucky little people, bitter at their treatment by the Sovereign and mindless from the surge of personal power, went off to claim a city as their personal play-toy. They came and declared their lordship in the name of the new Sovereign, who didn't even know about three quarters of these incidents. Gwen was completely powerless; she was a General, not a politician. Now, perhaps in many other cities like Kopenka, there are people just like me - crowds just like us - brandishing pitchforks and torches, advancing toward the raving fakes' castles to wipe them off the face of this planet. Free from any oppression, free to start anew...
The crowd advanced, slowly but surely, like a thoridium caterpillar. The younger ones were scraping their pitchforks against the ground, likely in an attempt to seem threatening. I think the Baron's guards did not need any more demoralization after they saw the castle's only Vanguard ripped to pieces by the angry mob. Most of them were now holed up inside the dark building in the middle, peering out in the manner of chipmunks hiding in a rotten hollow log from a python. As the mob hit the impenetrable walls, they surged outward, burning surrounding buildings and trampling each other. It was then that the despicable Baron made an appearance.
-"Peasants of Kopenka!" His shrill voice pierced my eardrums, even from this distance. My place was behind the crowd - I would have to be twice as young as I am now to charge mindlessly at the castle. "Hear me, peasants! I think you have the wrong idea here: I am the one with the guns! I am the one to give orders! Now back off and into your homes, and maybe I will spare some of you later!"
A well-thrown torch, barely missing the short Baron's disproportionally large top-hat, answered for itself.
-"Very well!" the Baron shrieked. "You choose to die now! Guards, spears!!!"
The three-foot long spears barely made noise as they cut through the air, and, seconds later, through flesh. On another tangent, he who invented spear guns really did have the right idea in mind: they may use up unholy amounts of metal, but the spears were a truly demoniacally effective demoralization tool. The entire front row of the crowd froze in grotesque positions, impaled by the enormous projectiles. Only seconds later the second wave came, fired at a lower angle; these spears dug through the flesh of several before finally settling at their grim rest. The scene of the rebellion soon took the shape of a child's insect collection, immortalized by pins on wood.
Mass panic ensued. I myself felt the stings of unease strike my heart. How many more spears did the body guard unit have? How are we going to get through those walls? Were we truly destined to fail?
-"Coscades!" I heard a call from the side. I recognized a colleague of mine, working in the same library, calling my name. "Coscades, we have to run! I heard the Baron kept a stash of spears in his castle; there is no chance we'll succeed!"
His voice of reason worked, but not as well as a dark reminder of the situation that came to me in the form of a spear. As I dashed to turn toward Suran, all I saw was a glimpse of his face, frozen in a surprised grimace, and two streaks of metal extending to and from his head, down into the ground. My mind was quick to purge itself of any thoughts other than "run", turning me to the same animalistic state as every other participant in this rebellion.
[This post 12, reclamation: 15]
-
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Courtyard ~
Duilin slowly got up and dusted himself up and stood growling at Nex who laughed at him manically.
"Alright, boyo." Nex mocked. "Time to ride the LIGHTNING!"* He stuck out his fingers and shot a series of red lightning bolts at the demon lord.
Duilin roared in pain as the electricity ran through his body and pinned him in place.
"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Nex chanted as he pushed lightning into him. "DIE! Die!" His intensity of his speech and attack began to slow down. "Die...Die...and...Stop." He stopped his lightning and Duilin feel to the ground smoldering. He stepped toward his toasted body. "Alas..."
Then in a split second Duilin jumped up and slashed his claw of a hand at Nex's head, nearly breaking it off. The neck snapped and his head was at a 90 degree angle from where it usually is.
Nex stared at Duilin blankly for a few seconds as there was moment of no movement.
"...Ow!" Nex exclaimed. He grabbed his head and snapped it back in place. "That hurt, you jackass!"
*Modern day death-row references FTW
-
- Factory of Dark Science -
Mikail drew the runes with utmost grace. He had to hurry. But he had to take his time, as any mistake would be fatal. The tiniest flaw could kill him. Or worse-- not kill Vincent.
The chalk lines filled the floor. They covered the walls. They reached towards the ceiling. The empty hallway became a deathtrap specifically tuned to undo the workings of a single organism. A complex symphony. A weave of alchemy and magic. No one else could trigger the trap. But the lines could be smeared, so he barred the doors.
"What's going on in there? Why won't this door open?" A muffled voice sounded at the hall's entrance.
Blast... he needed more time. But he couldn't blow his cover yet! "H-hang on. There's something in the way of the door." He absolutely could not afford the guard going to get help.
He pushed the chair aside and slowly opened the door. Adept rank alchemists like himself could order the guards around... but not the guard captain that stared into his face.
"What's the matter? Why was the door barred?"
"I... uh... don't know." He threw the guard captain off by opening the door the rest of the way with a snap. "Come on in."
The grizzled Kandarinian stumbled forward a few paces, then widened his eyes as he saw the floor ahead covered with white lines. "Heeey--"
A flash of red and the man slumped, steaming hole in his back. Mikail shook his hand and dispersed the flame as he shut the door. That one would be missed shortly. He had little time left.
-
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Courtyard ~
Duilin and Nex dive at each other locking their claws and growling in each other's face. They tumbling to the ground and rolled around and smashed the small derbies away.
Valos rubbed his chin. "We should probably check on the kids outside." He looked at Bjendell. "Ben, can you go outside the city and check on Marshall and the others who are doing all the out-side shit?"
-
- Factory of Dark Science -
"Why are all the torches out?" Vincent grumbled as he pushed the door open. Below, the muffled thumps of production machines could be heard, pounding out various instruments of destruction.
"Hmmm... I'm not sure. Perhaps the maintenance crew has not been maintaining them?" Mikail shuffled behind in the darkness, allowing Vincent to move further ahead.
"Tell them to light the halls. And move more guards here. The project is too important to--"
Brilliant white lines filled the floor. Vincent froze as spindles of whiteness engulfed his legs. He stood in the center of the hallway, swirling bindings wrapping around him, each chalk line jumping to life. With great difficulty he turned, confusion in his eyes at first, then deep glaring anger. Mikail pressed his back against the wall, safely away from the mass of resonating energy as Vincent hissed. "You... trai...tor..."
-
== Kainengrad, Near Command Center, Courtyard ==
Will continues to watch Duilin and Nex for a bit, but then determines that he's not going to learn anything this way. He looks over to the tower. I should go in there. He looks back at the other people, then starts to sneak toward the tower, using the buildings as cover, to keep from being seen. He sees a door, but it's closed. Damn! He looks back toward the other people, then starts to sneak toward the door as quietly as possible, and open it just as sneakily. Unforutnately, there's no cover here. Hopefully, no one has any mind to pay any attention to the door.
-
~ Kainengrad Command Center, Courtyard ~
"I really have no idea where he was going, or where he is now." Valos replied. "And honestly, I think I'd rather just stay the hell away from it, but it'll probably find us. I think right now we should just focus on breaking this place apart and making sure Nex gets killed."
Duilin began to get the upper hand in the fight as he gripped his hand around Nex's neck and threw him through another building, and pointed his fingers at Nex shooting a demonic seeking-energy-ball at him creating a large gaseous explosion, consuming Nex entirely.
"I'm gonna enjoy killing you, over and over and over again." The demonic Duilin growled as he walked toward Nex's fatigued body...
-
- Factory of Dark Science -
Mikail slammed his hands into the ground, pouring all his energy into the spell. A swirling symphony of runes surrounded Vincent, clawing, tearing at his flesh with glowing fingers.
Vincent melted into the ground, his form taking on a shimmering metallic hue. He bubbled and hissed "...trai....tor...." before slurching into an undefined puddle. Just a metallic spot on the floor.
Mikail collapsed, totally spent. It's over. Finally over...
"... Trai...tor..."
He raised a brow... no... it could not be...!
A blade rose from the metallic goo, twisting through the air like a bending sword. Red hot pain tore through Mikail's chest. Dizzyness overtook him as he crumpled to the floor in a bloodied heap. Before him, an undefined shape rose from the floor as the metallic liquid re-congealed.
It's over... he failed... he failed...
No! The transformation spell! He worked the chant in his mind as his life bled onto the floor. Not... much... time... With a warm flash, his body glowed and he began to shrink to his original shape. Silver fur spread across his body and a bushy black-tiped tail sprouted as the wound closed up. With not a second to spare, the Velken shot straight into the air as a second blade cleaved the floor in two.
Renard touched the tender spot in his chest. The transformation back to his True Form had healed the otherwise fatal wound, but that was the only time it would work. The next one would be the end.
The floating gray fox cupped his tiny claw-hands to one side, a mass of crimson flame congealing about them. No way! Why didn't Vincent die?! Looking comical in torn robes much too large for him, he thrust his hands forward and filled the hallway with a searing blast of fire, his magic power unfettered now that he was no longer locked in human form.
Every single window shattered to infinite pieces and Renard was thrown clear out the nearest one. The hallway itself was located above the factory's automated production assembly lines, the windows opening up to look below on them. Renard flew some twenty feet downward before he could recover-hover, stopping just a foot above a dark conveyor belt with some giant hammer-thing smashing pieces of metal just down the line.
Similar production-line madness surrounded him, bits of molten metal flying about as dark machines created their weapons of war. He floated a few more feet upward and looked at the smoking cinder of the overpass above, ears perked in rapt attention.
Suddenly a silvery glob burst from the center window-hole, spinning in the air and landing on a conveyor belt which crumpled to dust with a shock and explosion. As it fell, the glob grew eight spidery blade-legs which stuck a foot into the ground with the earth-shattering landing. A sort of spider-head manifested, but it had no eyes. Still, Renard knew it saw him as it turned its head...
Hackles raised, Renard gritted his teeth. "Great..."
-
~ Kainengrad Command Centre, Courtyard ~
At this, Doriana merely shrugged. She let herself lean on the nearby building, letting herself rest. Ben then looked at Valos and shrugged, his great white wings giving a flap and soon forcing him up, in something of a slight hover.
"So... where are they, for starters?"
~ Ariosis, Plains Between Azzken Endor and the Palace of the Emperor ~
And in the midst of all the chaos and corruption, there he stood; the one man strong enough to bring the empire back to its feet; the one man who could do it alone. He marched with his pure silver mail as he did in Tjed long ago. His teal-green Federation cloak was torn at the bottem and his pauldrons were scarred with blade markings from previous skirmishes and battles. Even the skin up and down his left eye was scarred with a blade mark, the eye itself blind. His Crystal sword was at his side in its sheath, and he was ready for war once again, as he was three years ago. This time, it was a civil war, and it needed to be solved with his own hand, and his own men.
"It's too late to turn back now," he thought to himself. He pulled the blade from its sheath, The blade glowing and reflecting light from the shining sun that glinted in the sky. He tilted his head back to see his men; four royal guards that were among the best still alive.
Among the royal guard: Jason Tiberius, still alive from his battle with the half-Draken Valiko; Justinian Constantine, who's return to the mortal realm sparked disagreement among the gods; Jelscyn Lorronas Varrandel, who wants peace to return as it was during its golden days; Jacklyn Lorronas Varrandel, who feels the Drannivolkan General has taken things too far. A party of a mere Human, two Gepardis, and two Drannivolka, who seek to restore the old Ario Empire.
~ Ariosis, Azzken Endor (capital) ~
At the height of the land's only stone castle, Lucas Gracchus sat in his newly aquired throne. The spoils of his war were all too great; far beyond his expectations. But as he was ignorant of the happenings within his castle, one of the guards stormed into the room. He stood before the emporer, quickly catching his breath before bringing him news of the few that approached the city (the outter walls were about 5 miles from the castle on all 4 sides).
"Emporer Gracchus! A group approaches from the field that leads to the palace; we believe it to be Aaron Grey and the last of the royalists!" In the wake of all that was divine and luxurious, the sound of finally coaxing the emporer out of his hole that was his most precious fortress should have been music to the ears of the vile new emporer. However, it was not so pleasing as he expected it to be. He was to busy trying to coupe with rebellion to have to send more soldiers out to the fields. However, he knew full well that the barracks of the city was well beyond full capacity, so he thought it would do the land good to be rid of a few soldiers.
"Well, well, well... The poor fool finally crawls out of his hole at last. Let's put the man out of his misery; let him wash in his own blood! Send a full regiment to deal with them; I want his head mounted on my wall." The guard bowed and a quick "yes sir!" followed as he bolted out of the throne room, heading for the city barracks.
"If the foolish ex-emporer wants to die, who am I to not be so merciful as to grant his last wish...?"
-
- Factory of Dark Science -
Explosions tore the assembly lines apart. Bits of metal flew to and fro as the metal-spider-thing that was once Vincent dashed apart the machines like so much wads of paper.
Renard dashed in between the production lines, frantically weaving back and forth through thin air as he dodged the metallic blades. Soon the floor could take no more, and the very ground crumpled to dust under the spider's multiple stabs. Though the fox could fly, a stray ceiling panel smacked Renard in the head and he tumbled down towards whatever travesties awaited him in the floor below.
He landed with a soft *thud* on something wooden... an airship deck? Yes, of course-- the secret airship lab was located underground. The silver-furred fox dodged a few stray shards of metal as the ceiling rained its debris. The metallic-spider thing landed on the far side of the deck and struggled to regain its bearings-- eight shining blade-arms sprawled amongst heaps of machinery.
Renard flew backwards some thirty feet and prepared a spell, his hands crackling with crimson flame. As the giant spider stood however, much to his surprise it clunked away from him and towards the airship's control tower. Huh? What was it doing? His mouth dropped as he watched it stick its blade-legs into the ship's hull and a few more into the walls where the control room stood. They seemed to melt... merging with the ship...
Sudden realization dawned on him. This was the experimental ship! But what were they talking about in the meeting... that it needed a brain?! Renard watched in horror as the spider melted and fused into the side of the control room. The innards of the mighty airship began to rumble...
By the gods! Vincent was fusing with the airship!
Panic welled in Renard's heart. Where as he had tried to kill the Captain, all he had done was help create a horrifying monster...
No! He could stop this!
Snarling, he zipped into a hatch and began to rocket down twisting hallways, zipping and zagging at each turn. As he progressed, the ship itself became alive-- floors burst open, pipes snatched at his feet, steam erupted in his face-- all the innards of the ship tried to kill him.
Then he was there. The inner core... the NGOs...
Sighing, he extended his hands, spells swirling about. He wished he could have seen home one last time...
----
A blinding light emerged form the center of the Factory of Dark Science, rocketing skyward and parting the clouds. A deafening blast blew apart the walls, scattering the bricks and metal like droplets of mud as a massive mushroom-shaped crimson plume erupted from the edifice as it disintegrated heavenward.
----
It was bright... so bright...
Renard opened his eyes and squinted. Whiteness surrounded him. Nothing but white...
"H-huh?" His voice echoed through infinity.
He heard the shuffling of metal and turned-- there-- some towering black figure... crimson eyes, horned helm.... oh no...
"Re-Retan?!"
The figured chucked, though more benevolently than one might expect. "Heh... sorry." He removed the black-horned helm from his head, revealing the face of another Velken. "I don't do this act much anymore, anyway."
Renard watched as the Velken removed the bulky black armor, slipping out of it with ease. The black-armored chest opened and out stepped a gray fox about his size-- which was less than half the armored figure's original height. He wore a simple black cloak, extending his hand to the now wide-eyed Renard.
Renard blinked... the sliver-furred fox looked vaguely like his master, but somehow more carefree, and younger. Definitely younger. "Lord Virmir?"
"Ha ha... Yes, that is my name, but I'm different than the one you know. Now, shall we go?"
"Go where?"
"Home, of course!"
Renard looked at his hands, then the whiteness surrounding him, then the one calling himself Virmir. "Am I... dead?"
Virmir grinned. "No. Heroes never die."
Renard scratched his muzzle, then nodded. "Okay... let's go."
The End
-
~ Ariosis, Azzken Endor (capital) ~
"It's time to finish the fight..." The small group continued to march toward the capital, weapons drawn. The army of Ariosis awaited them, before the entrance to the city. But to the suprise of everyone in the field, "Emporer" Gracchus stepped ahead of his army and crossed his arms. He was rather large for a Drannivolkan, but it was still nothing to the towering Aaron Grey over him.
"So... the old ex-emporer wants to take his lands back, does he? Well, I've some news for you. I will agree to give it back..." At that point, Gracchus pulled out a brilliantly shining steel longsword. He held it out towards Aaron, who was now a mere 2 some feet away, with his crystal sword drawn.
"But only if you can take it back... HYA!" The sly Drannivolkan attempted to stab the old ex-emporer; to his dismay, he was no fighter, and lunged into nothing with his blade, falling into the grass, his blade flying out of his hands. At this moment, Aaron grabbed him around the neck and held him up a whole foot or so off the ground.
"Fine," he said as he held his other hand back, aimed at Gracchus' throat, "I'm taking it back." With that, he thrust the whole blade through Gracchus' juggular and slashed it out; blood stained the surrounding grass. As the now-deceased emporer lay in the grass, the army behind him went down to one knee.
"The fighting is over... at last..."
-
- Unknown -
Akran looked up into the sky as the life drained from his trembling body. Where was he? How was he dying? These thoughts barely entered his mind as he exhaled for the last time, never to breath again.
... ... ...
- Somewhere at Sea -
"Oh, my, GOD!" cried Martin, "A hurricane!" Martin flung himself from the ship as the Shadowshot flew up in the air never to be seen again!
... ... ...
- Up in the Clouds -
Day ?
I guess I'm dead because no one came to save me. Fuck.
Sincerely,
Elisha
... ... ...
- Cloud Palace -
Kraaz: "Oh shit. I'm dying! I guess there was a link between me and Akran and he must be dead now! Noooooooo! Goodbye cruel world!"
~ The End ~
-
- Hell -
Everything was burning, Duilin trapped in his demon form chased Abodos into the burning pits of hell. This is where it would end.
Using the techniques his father taught him, he would give him the most ironic death ever. He lifted his hands about him and gathered energy from all the death around him, and being in hell there was a lot of it. All the blood and gore started to gather up in a giant ball of bleeding energy above his head.
Abodos noticing this charged towards Duilin, and at the last moment Duilin threw the mighty Blood Bomb at Abodos, nearly point blank, there was a massive red mushroom cloud, and everywhere it started to rain blood. And there Duilin stood, back in his normal form. His rage has been settled and now he can rest.
- Gaian -
Valos, Marshall and the team smashed up what's left of Kandarin. Duilin comes back and kicks more ass. Everyone is happy.
La Fin...